Rising from the Cement Factory - I Can See Loyalty #1-760
Author: 柠檬炒辣椒
Date: 2025-10-16T19:05:27+00:00

Chapter 1: My Trusted Aides Are All Turncoats!

“Hong Kong, HSBC, Jardine Matheson, the Governor…”

“I’ve actually transmigrated to Hong Kong in 1978.”

“My name is Lin Haoran, a direct descendant of the Lin family!”

After the memories had completely merged, Lin Haoran opened his eyes.

It was a very ordinary bedroom. On the desk opposite the head of the bed sat a boxy color television. A poster for The Way of the Dragon was pasted on the wall, giving the entire room a slightly dated atmosphere.

Lin Haoran wearily climbed out of bed, walked over to the desk, and picked up a mirror.

In it, his reflection revealed a handsome face with well-defined, deep-set features. A distinguished air naturally emanated from between his brows.

However, the pallor of his face inadvertently betrayed his current weakness and exhaustion.

Putting down the mirror, Lin Haoran turned and went to the window, looking down at the surrounding area.

This was a cement factory in Yuen Long, Hong Kong—the Huafeng Cement Factory, and he was now the sole owner of all its assets.

The factory was built by the sea and was even equipped with a pier for convenient transportation.

But at this moment, there weren’t many people working in the factory.

Who would have thought that this large cement factory, covering tens of thousands of square meters, would be entangled in the succession issue of a powerful family?

Lin Haoran’s identity was the younger son of Lin Wan’an, the chairman of Wan’an Group, a Hong Kong-listed company.

At sixty-three years old, Lin Wan’an had felt his health declining in recent years and began to consider choosing a successor for the group.

Wan’an Group was a major Hong Kong-listed enterprise with a market value of over one hundred million and a very strong foundation. Its main business operations covered multiple fields, including real estate, hotels, building materials, and manufacturing, making it a comprehensive conglomerate.

The successor to such a large corporation was naturally a matter of great importance.

Lin Wan’an had two daughters and two sons.

Both daughters were already married, and with the patriarchal mindset of most wealthy tycoons in Hong Kong, the successor would naturally be chosen from between his two sons.

The elder son, Lin Haoning, was thirty-five this year and already had extensive experience in corporate management.

The second son, Lin Haoran, was twenty-four and had just graduated from London Business School a year ago.

Logically, the best choice for a successor was undoubtedly the elder son, Lin Haoning, given his rich experience in corporate management.

Although the second son was also a graduate of a prestigious university, he lacked business experience. Entrusting Wan’an Group to Lin Haoran would certainly be inappropriate.

But Lin Wan’an felt that since he had only two sons, both were his own flesh and blood. To directly make Lin Haoning his successor would be unfair to his younger son, Lin Haoran.

For his own peace of mind, he came up with a plan: he gave each of his sons a subsidiary, transferring the ownership rights directly into their hands and letting them do as they pleased.

After one year, whichever son earned more money would become the heir to Wan’an Group.

Thus, Lin Haoning received a fan factory.

And Lin Haoran was given this Huafeng Cement Factory.

Their values were roughly the same, and their monthly revenues weren’t far apart either.

In truth, Lin Wan’an already knew the outcome. It was impossible for Lin Haoran to win; this was merely for his own conscience.

As expected, two months of the year-long period had already passed. The fan factory was flourishing under Lin Haoning’s management, with orders rumored to have increased significantly.

In contrast, the Huafeng Cement Factory, which originally had stable orders and good performance, with considerable annual profits, had seen no growth since Lin Haoran took over. Instead, in just two months, it had lost many of its old clients.

To manage the cement factory well, Lin Haoran had decisively given up the luxurious environment of his large villa and chosen to live in the harsh conditions of the factory, all for the sake of its management.

Unexpectedly, the factory’s business didn’t improve; on the contrary, orders became scarcer and scarcer.

Just yesterday, an irritable Lin Haoran had taken a few men out to sea on a boat for some fishing. Who would have known that a strong wind would suddenly whip up, and a surging wave threw Lin Haoran, who hadn’t been holding on tightly, overboard.

Fortunately, the men with him were good swimmers. They managed to rescue him after a great deal of effort. Due to the shock and cold, he developed a fever and fell into a coma.

But no one knew that when he woke up, Lin Haoran’s body had a new owner.

Knock, knock, knock. A knock came from the door.

“Come in,” Lin Haoran said, finally snapping back to reality and calling out to the door.

“Young Master, I’ve brought you your medicine.”

The door opened, and a young man in his twenties entered. This was one of the trusted aides his father had assigned him, named Lin Si, tasked with assisting Lin Haoran in managing the cement factory, handling tedious matters, and protecting him.

“Young Master, I’ll put the medicine on the table. Please remember to take it later. If anything happens to you, the Old Master will not spare us,” Lin Si said fawningly.

At that moment, Lin Haoran’s attention wasn’t on Lin Si’s words at all.

Because above Lin Si’s head, a black bracket had inexplicably appeared, and within the bracket was a progress bar.

[Loyalty: 11/100]

Lin Haoran thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. He couldn’t help but rub them and look at Lin Si’s head again. The progress bar was still there.

This strange sight truly shocked Lin Haoran, but he quickly realized that this must be the special ability that came with his transmigration.

Out of a full 100 points of loyalty, Lin Si only had 11. Pitifully low. And this was supposed to be his trusted aide!

Lin Haoran stared speechlessly at the aide who had always shown him great respect, his heart filled with disbelief.

Who could have guessed that this person, who usually groveled before him and seemed impeccably loyal, was actually a traitor with hidden malicious intent!

If not for the sudden appearance of a loyalty progress bar, Lin Haoran would never have believed that this guy’s loyalty to him was only 11.

Judging by his usual performance, even a loyalty of 100 wouldn’t have seemed out of place!

“Young Master, Young Master?”

Seeing that Lin Haoran wasn’t speaking but just staring at him intently, Lin Si felt his hair stand on end. He had no choice but to muster his courage and call out twice.

“Just leave the medicine here. Go and call Lin Yi, Lin Er, and Lin San over,” Lin Haoran said faintly, finally retracting his gaze.

“Yes, Young Master, I’ll go right away.” Lin Si finally breathed a sigh of relief and left the room as quickly as he could.

The way the Young Master had just looked at him had truly terrified him.

After Lin Si left, Lin Haoran began to ponder this newfound special ability and how it might help him in the future.

He knew that this seemingly simple progress bar would surely be of immense help as he carved out a niche for himself in Hong Kong.

Someone like Lin Si, with a loyalty of only 11, was practically like a new employee who had just joined a company and had no sense of belonging yet.

But Lin Si wasn’t a new employee!

He was a trusted aide assigned to him by his father, raised by the Lin family since childhood, not some random person hired off the street!

Given his father’s doting on him, it was impossible that he would create trouble. That left only one other reason.

However, he wasn’t certain yet. That was why he wanted to see what the situation was with the other three.

About five minutes later, Lin Yi and the others arrived in Lin Haoran’s room.

“Young Master, did you need us for something?”

They were all very respectful towards him.

However, before Lin Haoran’s eyes, their loyalty progress bars had now appeared one by one.

Lin Yi: [Loyalty: 15/100]

Lin Er: [Loyalty: 9/100]

Lin San: [Loyalty: 12/100]

Before, he had harbored a sliver of wishful thinking that perhaps only Lin Si was a turncoat.

But who could have imagined that all four of his trusted aides were turncoats!

Among them, Lin Yi had the highest loyalty, but it was only 15. With such a level of loyalty, how could they dare call themselves his trusted aides?

“Lin Yi, did you all work for the Eldest Young Master before?” Lin Haoran asked suddenly.

“Young Master, the Old Master had us start working for the Eldest Young Master four years ago.”

Although Lin Yi didn’t know why this Young Master was asking, he answered truthfully.

They knew this was something they couldn’t hide. If the Young Master wanted to investigate, he could find out with a single phone call.

No wonder his predecessor had worked so hard to run this cement factory. Logically, with his education, no matter how inexperienced he was, it was impossible for the Huafeng Cement Factory to lose so many old clients in just two short months.

Now he understood exactly what was going on.

Four years ago, he was still studying in Britain. These four must have already become Lin Haoning’s loyal subordinates back then.

Moreover, anyone could see that in the competition for the inheritance, Lin Haoran’s chances of winning were incredibly low—so low as to be almost impossible.

Therefore, it was only natural for their hearts to lean towards Lin Haoning, as everyone believed his future was more promising.

If these four men were sabotaging him from within while continuously passing his information to Lin Haoning, and Lin Haoning then used his external influence to cause trouble, it would be a miracle if the cement factory’s business was doing well.

My dear older brother, what a fine scheme you’ve cooked up!

If he had competed fairly, Lin Haoran wouldn’t have minded. So what if he let him have Wan’an Group?

With his knowledge of the coming decades and the special ability from his transmigration, building a career for himself would be a piece of cake.

But since Lin Haoning had resorted to such underhanded tactics, he couldn’t be blamed for what came next.

“This inheritance of Wan’an Group—I, Lin Haoran, am determined to fight for it!”

Lin Haoran made a silent vow in his heart.

“Young Master, Young Master?”

Lin Haoran had called them over but hadn’t said anything. Lin Yi couldn’t help but speak up again.

“It’s nothing. I called you up mainly to have you accompany me on a tour of the factory. Lin Yi, you’re in charge of orders. Have they dropped again these past few days?”

Lin Haoran asked as he walked out the door.

“Yes, Young Master. Last month was still alright, but we’ve been cutting production this month. We’re constantly losing old clients, and we haven’t gained many new ones. Just yesterday, an old real estate client of ours in Kwai Chung also suddenly stopped sourcing from us and switched to a cement factory in Tuen Mun.”

Lin Yi knew exactly what was going on, but he would never reveal the truth.

Chapter 2: To Follow Until Death, with Unwavering Loyalty

Huafeng Cement Factory naturally had a stable clientele. For example, Wan’an Real Estate Company, a subsidiary of Wan’an Group, was supplied by Huafeng Cement Factory.

It was a matter of meeting your own needs, of keeping business within the family.

But at present, Wan’an Real Estate had few projects under construction, so the demand for cement was low.

If things continued like this, forget competing with his older brother Lin Haoning. When the year was up, it would be a question of whether the factory could even stay open.

At this moment, Lin Haoran came to understand the cruelty of a wealthy family.

Even between blood brothers, conflicts and schemes were unavoidable in the pursuit of interests and goals.

Needless to say, the loss of these old clients was definitely related to Lin Haoning.

After all, the position of heir to a publicly listed group was far too important.

Lin Haoning had many advantages, such as greater business experience and a wider network of connections.

But to ensure Lin Haoran had not even the slightest chance of a comeback, he had decided to be utterly ruthless.

Lin Haoran led the four men on a tour of the factory grounds.

He recalled that when he had first taken over, Huafeng Cement Factory had been bustling with activity all day long.

But now, only two months later, the number of busy employees had clearly dwindled.

As Lin Haoran absorbed the sudden influx of memories, he inspected the factory that was now completely his.

“Boss, Boss, there are two people floating about a hundred meters from our pier,” an employee came over to report.

Huafeng Cement Factory was located near Lau Fau Shan in Yuen Long, directly across from the Shekou area of Shenzhen.

In recent years, countless people had tried to illegally immigrate from over there.

Bodies were often seen floating in the waters near Huafeng Cement Factory, and the people who worked here had long grown accustomed to it.

They even had illegal immigrant workers employed at the cement factory.

Currently, Hong Kong’s policy towards illegal immigrants was the “touch-base policy.” If an illegal entrant from the north managed to reach the urban areas after sneaking into Hong Kong, they could become a legal resident; if they were intercepted by law enforcement in the frontier closed area, they would be repatriated back to the north.

Relatively speaking, the policy was rather lenient.

As Lin Haoran integrated the memories of two lifetimes, he recalled previous instances of seeing floating corpses. The standard procedure was to call the police.

“Alive or dead?” Lin Haoran asked as he walked towards the pier.

“Boss, they’re both clinging to a log, so they might be alive. It’s amazing they managed to evade the marine police patrols,” the employee replied.

Everyone knew that for illegal immigrants coming by sea, the odds were nine to one against survival. It was an extremely difficult journey.

Soon, they arrived at the cement factory’s pier.

By this time, a small crowd had already gathered.

Lin Haoran could now see the situation on the water’s surface.

A little over a hundred meters from the pier, two burly men were clinging motionlessly to a log, drifting with the current.

It was dusk, the time when the marine police were changing shifts, and not a single patrol boat was in sight.

“Lin Yi, Lin Er, take some men and go see what’s happening. If they’re dead, call the police. If they’re alive, bring them ashore,” Lin Haoran commanded directly.

Although these men’s loyalty to him was low, it didn’t stop him from putting them to work.

“Yes, Young Master.”

There was a speedboat at the pier. Lin Yi took a few men, boarded it, and quickly headed towards the two figures.

Soon, Lin Haoran saw them pull the two men onto the boat.

This meant they were likely still alive.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have bothered hauling two corpses aboard.

A few minutes later, the speedboat returned to the pier.

“Young Master, they’re alive, still breathing. But they’re unconscious from extreme exhaustion. They were holding onto the log completely by instinct. If they’d let go, they would have drowned for sure,” Lin Yi reported.

“I see. Take them to the dormitory building and find an empty room for them to rest. Let me know when they wake up,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

“Yes, Young Master.”

Lin Haoran stood at the edge of the pier, his gaze profound as he watched the sun slowly sink below the horizon. He remained silent for a long time.

Illegal immigrants dreamed of the boundless opportunities in Hong Kong, little knowing that during this era, the city was in fact a place of turmoil. Triad disputes were rampant and chaos was everywhere, making life difficult and arduous for the common person.

Of course, if they could make it over alive, there was indeed a good chance they could change their impoverished fate.

For the next two or three days, Lin Haoran barely left his room. He spent his time absorbing this world’s memories and learning about Hong Kong during this period through newspapers.

Furthermore, although his fever had broken, his body was still weak and needed more rest.

He even had Lin Si and the others bring his meals to him.

Although these turncoats were working for Lin Haoning, they wouldn’t dare to poison his food. If something like that were to happen, even without evidence, Lin Wan’an would never forgive them.

Therefore, Lin Haoran felt quite safe eating the food they brought.

However, once he had his own loyal subordinates, Lin Haoran certainly wouldn’t keep them around.

For now, with no one else to do his bidding, he had no choice but to make use of them.

“Young Master, here’s tonight’s dinner. I specially told the kitchen to go to the nearby Yuen Long Market and buy one of your favorites, from Roasted Goose King. All the best parts are here.”

Lin Si placed the food on the table, his attitude as sycophantic as ever.

“Mm, thank you for the trouble. By the way, how are those two illegal immigrants?” Lin Haoran walked to the nearby sink to wash his hands, asking casually.

“Young Master, they woke up yesterday. They looked very weak then, but they seemed quite spirited today. They’re recovering quickly,” Lin Si replied.

“Alright. Take me to see them later,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

“Yes, Young Master. When you’ve finished eating, just call for me to come in and clean up. I’ll be waiting outside.”

No matter how much he tried to curry favor, Lin Haoran already knew they were traitors. It was impossible for them to deceive him.

Lin Haoran ate quickly, finishing in about ten minutes.

Today, he could feel that his body had mostly recovered, and the feeling of weakness was gone.

“Lin Si, come in.”

“Young Master, you finished so quickly?”

“Alright, hurry up and clear this away. I need to go see those two illegal immigrants.”

“Right away, Young Master. Don’t you worry.”

Lin Si cleared the table with maximum speed and followed behind Lin Haoran out the door.

The dormitory at Huafeng Cement Factory consisted of two three-story buildings, housing all of the factory’s one hundred-plus employees.

Lin Haoran, however, lived in the factory’s office building, where the conditions were slightly better than the dormitories.

He walked into a dorm room, which contained two sets of iron bunk beds.

“It was our Young Master who gave the order to save you! Why aren’t you getting up to pay your respects? Without our Young Master, you’d both be dead in the sea.”

Before Lin Haoran had even entered the room, Lin Si had rushed in and begun berating the occupants.

The two burly men, who had been resting on their beds, scrambled to get up.

“Don’t. You haven’t fully recovered yet. Just stay in bed,” Lin Haoran said nonchalantly as he entered the room.

Only now did he get a good look at the two formidable men.

“Benefactor, saving a life is like giving a new one.” The two men had gotten up anyway and were now kneeling to pay their respects to Lin Haoran.

A man does not kneel easily, but Lin Haoran was their savior. This act of kneeling was the most sincere expression of their gratitude and reverence.

Lin Haoran tried to use his special ability to check their status, but the progress bar did not appear.

Perhaps it’s because they don’t count as my subordinates yet, he thought.

“Both of you, get up. No need for such formalities. Let’s sit and talk. Lin Si, you can leave.”

“Young Master, for your safety, I think I should stay.”

“Get out. I don’t want to say it a third time!”

“Right, right. I’ll be on my way.”

It turned out that the two were from Guangdong Province. They came from poor families and had served together in the army for a few years. After being discharged, they heard that there were vast opportunities in Hong Kong, which gave them the idea to immigrate illegally.

People’s reasons for immigrating illegally in this era were very simple. It was usually because life on the mainland was too hard, and they had to risk everything for the sake of their families and their own survival.

At this time, there were three popular routes for illegal immigration:

The west line: Entering the water from the Shekou or Mangrove Forest area, swimming across Shenzhen Bay to reach Yuen Long or Tuen Mun on the other side.

The central line: Waiting for an opportunity at night to cross the Shenzhen River near Luohu and climb over the wire fence into Hong Kong.

The east line: Climbing over Wutong Mountain from the Luohu or Huidong area to enter Hong Kong.

These two men had ultimately chosen the more difficult west line, because the border patrols there were less strict.

They were also incredibly reckless, planning to swim across relying on nothing but a single log.

They were lucky to have been discovered by the employees of Huafeng Cement Factory. Otherwise, drifting unconsciously on the sea like that, they would have died sooner or later.

“Do you have any plans for the future?” Lin Haoran asked.

The taller of the two was named Li Weiguo, aged twenty-six this year; the shorter one was Li Weidong, twenty-five.

They were from the same village and were cousins who had grown up together. Both were highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat.

“We don’t know yet. We don’t have any relatives in Hong Kong, so we can only take it one step at a time,” Li Weiguo said with a wry smile.

Their decision to immigrate to Hong Kong had been made on impulse. They had absolutely no plan or idea about their lives and future after arriving.

“In that case, why don’t you work for me for now? I happen to be short-handed,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The moment he learned they had been soldiers for several years and were skilled fighters, Lin Haoran had already had this idea.

He was practically their savior. If he took them on as subordinates, their loyalty would surely be high—far better than continuing to rely on turncoats like Lin Yi and the others.

As soon as Lin Haoran finished speaking, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong became excited.

“Boss, from this day forward, our lives belong to you. If you point east, we will never go west. We will follow you until death, with unwavering loyalty!” Li Weiguo declared in a firm voice.

“What my big brother says goes for me, too,” Li Weidong added from the side.

At that moment, Lin Haoran’s special ability activated automatically. The familiar loyalty progress bars appeared above their heads.

Li Weiguo: [Loyalty: 82/100]

Li Weidong: [Loyalty: 88/100]

Chapter 3: Young Master, You Mustn’t!

By now, Lin Haoran understood that the loyalty progress bar only appeared for those who became his subordinates.

He could see the loyalty progress bars for the employees at the cement factory, for instance.

However, because they were just regular employees, Lin Haoran had observed over the past two or three days that none of them had a loyalty score higher than fifty.

Still, the loyalty of most employees was higher than that of Lin Yi and the other three. These workers relied on Huafeng Cement Factory to support their families, so they naturally held a certain degree of loyalty to the company.

And since Lin Haoran was the owner of Huafeng Cement Factory, their loyalty to the factory was, in effect, loyalty to him.

Lin Haoran had observed dozens of employees, and not a single one had a loyalty score above 50. This was proof enough of just how rare the Li brothers’ loyalty scores of over 80 truly were.

“I wonder what kind of subordinates I’ll have if their loyalty reaches 100?” Lin Haoran mused.

Perhaps only those with 100 loyalty could be considered truly and absolutely loyal to him.

“Li Weiguo, Li Weidong, starting today, you two will be my bodyguards. As for your compensation, I’ll temporarily give you each 3,000 Hong Kong dollars a month. If you perform well, your salary will have no upper limit!” Lin Haoran stated directly.

A salary of 3,000 Hong Kong dollars was not a huge amount in Hong Kong at this time, but it wasn’t a small one either.

The average salary in Hong Kong was currently around 2,000 Hong Kong dollars.

In reality, an ordinary factory worker’s monthly salary was about 1,200 to 1,500 Hong Kong dollars. The average worker at Huafeng Cement Factory, for example, only made a little over a thousand Hong Kong dollars a month.

Even “confidants” like Lin Yi and Lin Er, who had been raised by the Lin family since childhood, only earned a few thousand Hong Kong dollars a month.

Lin Haoran didn’t know the two brothers, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, very well yet. To offer them 3,000 Hong Kong dollars a month based solely on the information from their brief chat was already very generous.

Of course, the most important factor was their loyalty of over 80. That was what Lin Haoran valued most.

This level of loyalty should be enough for Lin Haoran to trust them.

Upon hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong looked at each other, their eyes shining with excitement. They were so thrilled they were at a loss for words.

They had no idea about the cost of living in Hong Kong. All they knew was that in their hometown, even a well-off worker only made a few dozen yuan a month.

For a moment, they couldn’t even believe what 3,000 Hong Kong dollars a month meant.

“Boss, is this real? Are we brothers really getting 3,000 Hong Kong dollars a month each?” Li Weiguo asked uncertainly as his excitement gradually subsided.

“Of course. I’m not lying. And from now on, just call me Young Master,” Lin Haoran said with a smile. He already considered the two brothers his own men.

“Thank you, Young Master! We will do our utmost, be diligent in our duties, and protect you with our lives!” the Li brothers promised in unison.

“Young Master, you absolutely must not act so rashly on this! We haven’t thoroughly investigated their backgrounds yet, how can you so easily appoint them as your bodyguards? I implore the Young Master to reconsider!”

Just then, Lin Si, who had been shooed out of the room by Lin Haoran, pushed the door open and rushed in, trying to stop his decision.

“Lin Si, you have some nerve! I told you to get out, yet you dare to eavesdrop on my conversation? Who gave you the gall to be so insolent!”

Lin Haoran was angry.

Why would I trust a turncoat like you with a loyalty of 11 over them, who are over 80?

Looking back over the past two months, Lin Haoran had carefully reviewed the various behaviors of Lin Si and the others these last two days. Even without the help of his special ability, Lin Haoran had noticed something suspicious about them.

He had chosen to tolerate it only because he hadn’t yet found suitable replacements.

But that didn’t mean he had no temper.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s outburst, Lin Si instantly panicked. He knelt on the floor and said, “Young Master, I am only doing this for your own good. The Old Master instructed us to ensure your safety.”

“I make my own decisions. Lin Si, you need to remember that I am the boss. It is not your place to tell me what to do!” Lin Haoran stared down at Lin Si, his tone leaving no room for argument.

If Lin Si were loyal to him, Lin Haoran would never treat him this way.

But when dealing with the disloyal, Lin Haoran didn’t mince his words.

“Young Master, I… I… I…” The scolding left Lin Si at a loss for what to say.

In a way, Lin Si was indeed looking out for Lin Haoran’s well-being. Although he was a complete turncoat, a mole planted by Lin Haoning’s side, he was also charged with the heavy responsibility of protecting Lin Haoran.

Otherwise, if something were to happen to Lin Haoran, it wouldn’t matter if Lin Haoning ultimately became the heir to the Wan’an Group. They would be held accountable by Lin Wan’an all the same.

But Lin Haoran already knew his true colors and naturally wouldn’t give him the time of day.

He was no longer the naive Lin Haoran who had just graduated from school and knew nothing.

Having gained two highly loyal subordinates, Lin Haoran was in a good mood and paid Lin Si no more mind.

Fearing he would offend the Young Master further, Lin Si scurried out dejectedly.

He couldn’t understand why Lin Haoran’s personality had changed so drastically in the past two days, especially today, when he had been particularly short-tempered with him.

“Weiguo, Weidong, you probably haven’t seen the area outside yet, have you? You both look like you’ve recovered well. I’ll take you for a walk. We’re in Yuen Long, which is directly across from Shekou in Shenzhen. This is already Hong Kong territory,” Lin Haoran said, standing up.

“That sounds great! Thank you, Young Master. After resting these past two days, we’ve pretty much recovered,” said Li Weidong, his eyes lighting up. He had long grown tired of being cooped up in this small room.

“Young Master, Yuen Long is a border area. What if we’re discovered by those border enforcement officers? Will we be deported?” Li Weiguo, on the other hand, was much more cautious and rational.

Li Weiguo’s worries were not unfounded.

Before coming to Hong Kong, he had learned a fair bit about the border control here from others.

Li Weiguo knew that as long as they could make it to the urban area and register with the Immigration Department, they could stay in Hong Kong legally.

But until they reached the city, they were illegal immigrants—stowaways.

If they were discovered to be undocumented stowaways by law enforcement, the consequences were obvious. It would mean that all their life-risking efforts to get here had been for nothing.

“That’s right, Young Master. We don’t want to go back! We want to stay in Hong Kong forever. We heard the city center is really prosperous. We’ve never even seen what it looks like!” Li Weidong nodded repeatedly, his eyes gleaming with anticipation.

“Don’t you worry. With me here, no one will dare to question you. Besides, in a couple of days, once you’ve fully recovered, I’ll take you to the city to get your Hong Kong identity cards. That will give you official status here,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Lin Haoran had no desire to stay in this backwater of Yuen Long any longer. There was no point. Only by returning to the heart of Hong Kong could he find more opportunities for development.

Chapter 4: An Opportunity to Make Money Presents Itself

In the blink of an eye, a day passed.

The next morning, Lin Haoran woke up exceptionally early, as always.

A few days prior, he had instructed Lin Si to bring him a copy of all of Hong Kong’s major newspapers and periodicals along with his breakfast each morning.

These included the Oriental Daily News, Ta Kung Pao, Hong Kong Economic Times, Sing Tao Daily, Hong Kong Commercial Daily, and others.

He did this, naturally, to better understand the current situation in Hong Kong.

At the same time, he was also trying to find useful information within their pages.

A calendar hung conspicuously on the wall, clearly marking the date as September 5, 1978.

After finishing breakfast, Lin Haoran leaned back on the bed and started reading the Hong Kong Economic Times.

The front-page headline immediately captured his attention.

“Shipping Magnate Pao publicly declares he has acquired 15-20% of Kowloon Wharf’s shares, becoming its largest shareholder!”

The article included a detailed transcript of Shipping Magnate Pao’s public announcement, as well as background on the acquisition.

Shipping Magnate Pao stated that he had no intention of purchasing more Kowloon Wharf shares.

Seeing this news, Lin Haoran’s heart stirred. He knew about the Kowloon Wharf acquisition battle from his past life, so he was well aware that this public statement was just a smokescreen, a feint.

It was all meant to confuse his opponents and the stock market, causing Kowloon Wharf’s stock price to fall from its peak.

Otherwise, it would be difficult for Shipping Magnate Pao to continue increasing his holdings.

Originally, it was Li Ka-shing who had set his sights on Kowloon Wharf first. He had secretly acquired eighteen percent of its shares before the news eventually leaked.

As the de facto controller of Kowloon Wharf, the Jardine Matheson Group was naturally unwilling to lose control so easily. They approached Michael Sandberg, the Tai-pan of HSBC, hoping he could persuade Li Ka-shing to abandon the acquisition.

In the end, under Michael Sandberg’s mediation, Li Ka-shing did indeed give up on acquiring Kowloon Wharf.

However, with HSBC’s support, he sold all the shares he had secretly acquired to Shipping Magnate Pao. This was a gesture of goodwill to both Pao and HSBC, and it also paved the way for him to later persuade HSBC to sell him its shares in Hutchison Whampoa.

Jardine Matheson had merely swapped one opponent for a more powerful one. The gain was not worth the loss.

This was also the reason Shipping Magnate Pao was able to suddenly become Kowloon Wharf’s largest shareholder.

During this period, as news of Li Ka-shing’s secret acquisitions leaked and Jardine Matheson launched a counter-acquisition, Kowloon Wharf’s stock price had soared to a high of forty-nine Hong Kong dollars per share.

And although Shipping Magnate Pao was now the largest shareholder, he was still a long way from gaining complete control of Kowloon Wharf.

After all, Kowloon Wharf’s main shareholders were predominantly British-funded conglomerates. While their individual holdings were less than Pao’s, if they united, he would have no way of seizing control.

Lin Haoran had been wondering how to find an opportunity to make a fortune.

Now, hadn’t one just presented itself?

At this thought, Lin Haoran was thrilled.

If he could ride the wave of the Kowloon Wharf acquisition battle and make a hefty profit, he would have more than enough startup capital.

Lin Haoran knew just how crazily Kowloon Wharf’s stock price would climb in the coming months.

“To think I’d get to personally experience such a classic acquisition battle right after transmigrating. What a pity. If I had arrived a few years earlier, I might have had a shot at acquiring Kowloon Wharf myself,” Lin Haoran lamented inwardly.

If he had been transported to the 1970 timeline, he would have had plenty of time to lay his plans. He was confident he could even compete with Shipping Magnate Pao.

Unfortunately, it was already the second half of 1978. Shipping Magnate Pao was already Kowloon Wharf’s largest shareholder, while he, Lin Haoran, only controlled a single cement factory.

However, he quickly composed himself.

The most important thing for him now was to secure enough startup capital and use the Kowloon Wharf acquisition battle to claim his share of the profits.

So what if he couldn’t acquire Kowloon Wharf? At the very least, he could sit on the sidelines and watch them fight, waiting for an opportunity to profit.

Besides, he was still young. There would be plenty of opportunities in the future.

As for how to obtain this startup capital, Lin Haoran already had an idea the moment he saw the news.

No matter what, he had to seize this incredible opportunity.

Once he did, winning the competition to become the heir of Wan’an Group would be as easy as flipping his hand.

Next, Lin Haoran read through several other newspapers.

It was clear that the top story across Hong Kong today was Shipping Magnate Pao becoming Kowloon Wharf’s largest shareholder.

Every newspaper reported and analyzed the event from different angles.

After all, Kowloon Wharf was a long-established British enterprise with considerable power and market value.

For the longest time, British-funded enterprises had dominated Hong Kong. Although Chinese-funded conglomerates were gradually rising, there was still a significant gap between them and their British counterparts.

For Shipping Magnate Pao to become the largest shareholder of a powerful, long-standing British enterprise was a historic event.

Therefore, this story was a highly controversial and hot topic, and the media was naturally scrambling to report it.

After reading all the newspapers, Lin Haoran finally left his room.

The sun was scorching hot today.

Standing on the third-floor corridor, Lin Haoran looked out at the churning waters of Shenzhen Bay a few dozen meters away, his mood exceptionally bright.

Down below, the workers were busy.

Although business wasn’t as brisk as before, there were still many clients that Lin Haoning couldn’t interfere with.

So, even with the loss of many old customers, the Huafeng Cement Factory still had a fair amount of business and wouldn’t be losing money anytime soon.

He went directly from the third floor down to the second, arriving at the finance office of the Huafeng Cement Factory.

His purpose was simple: he wanted to see how much money the factory had in its accounts.

When Lin Wan’an handed the entire Huafeng Cement Factory over to Lin Haoran, he knew his son was at a competitive disadvantage, so he had specially left one million Hong Kong dollars in the company’s account.

This was something Lin Haoran’s older brother, Lin Haoning, did not know.

This showed just how much Lin Wan’an doted on his youngest son.

“Miss Lin, could you please get me a copy of the company’s financial statements?”

Upon entering the finance office, Lin Haoran spoke directly to the head of finance at Huafeng Cement Factory.

At the same time, he glanced above Miss Lin’s head.

Lin Xiya: [Loyalty: 75/100]

Lin Haoran was somewhat surprised. He hadn’t expected a finance manager to have such high loyalty to him.

This Miss Lin had also been sent by his father to assist him.

Clearly, she was far more trustworthy. At the very least, she hadn’t been compromised by Lin Haoning and was likely loyal to the company.

“Of course, boss. Please wait a moment.”

Soon, Lin Haoran was holding the financial statement for the Huafeng Cement Factory for the month of August.

With the statement in hand, the first thing Lin Haoran looked at was the company’s account balance.

He would need a sum of money to profit from the Kowloon Wharf acquisition battle. The more capital he had, the more he could earn.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s primary reason for visiting the finance office was to find out the total amount of funds he could currently mobilize.

Chapter 5: Taking on Seven or Eight at Once is Nothing

“The company account only has 1.31 million Hong Kong dollars?” Lin Haoran asked, looking up.

Of that amount, one million was the money his father had left him. That meant the cement factory had only earned him 310,000 Hong Kong dollars in the past two months.

“Yes, Boss. When Chairman Lin handed Huafeng Cement Factory over to you in early July, there was one million Hong Kong dollars in the account. That money has been in the company’s account ever since.”

“For the entire month of July, after deducting expenses, the profit was 180,000 Hong Kong dollars. Our production and sales were relatively normal that month. But last month, because many of our long-standing clients stopped buying cement from us, our revenue dropped sharply, and the profit was only 130,000 Hong Kong dollars.”

“The financial data for the first few days of September hasn’t been included, so the August financial statement shows 1.31 million Hong Kong dollars in the company account.”

The head of finance, Miss Lin, reported as she organized the documents in her hands.

A drop in profit from 180,000 to 130,000 in a single month was indeed a steep decline.

“Following the current trend, how much profit can we expect this month?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

“Based on the current situation, this month’s profit will definitely not exceed 100,000 Hong Kong dollars. It should be somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000. Boss, this can’t go on. You need to come up with a plan soon. Before you took over the company, our average monthly profit was around 200,000 Hong Kong dollars.”

Miss Lin’s face was filled with worry, but as she was only in charge of the finances, she had no authority to intervene in other matters.

Lin Haoran nodded. Of course, he knew why Huafeng Cement Factory had fallen into such a state.

It wasn’t due to his own poor management skills, but because Lin Haoning was sabotaging him behind the scenes.

Although he didn’t know how Lin Haoning had managed to drive away Huafeng Cement Factory’s old clients, he was determined to get to the bottom of it sooner or later.

His dear elder brother was truly ruthless. To eliminate any chance of him succeeding in the competition to be the heir, he had managed to drag a cement factory with an annual profit of over two million Hong Kong dollars into this state.

If things continued like this, it seemed he wouldn’t rest until he had driven Huafeng Cement Factory into the ground!

Lin Haoran now had a profound understanding of Lin Haoning’s viciousness.

“Miss Lin, please transfer 1.2 million Hong Kong dollars to my personal account as soon as possible. I have a use for it. The rest can stay in the company as reserve funds for now.”

Lin Haoran placed the financial report back on the desk and spoke to Miss Lin.

“Alright, Boss. I’ll write up an expense form. If you could please sign it.”

Miss Lin didn’t ask any further questions. After all, the company now belonged to Lin Haoran, so it was only right and proper for him to withdraw money from it.

Lin Haoran glanced at the expense form. Seeing no issues, he signed his name directly.

“I have to return to the city for a while. Miss Lin, please help me keep an eye on things here at Huafeng Cement Factory. If anything comes up, page me immediately.” Lin Haoran stood up, preparing to leave.

Lin Haoran was also aware of the background of this head of finance. She was a financial elite personally groomed by his father, Lin Wan’an.

In this era, mobile phones didn’t exist yet, but beepers were already popular among Hong Kong’s upper class. As the son of a wealthy tycoon, Lin Haoran naturally had his own beeper.

Therefore, if Miss Lin needed to contact him, he would know at once.

“Don’t worry, Boss. I’ll keep a close watch.”

After leaving the office, Lin Haoran went straight downstairs.

Once downstairs, he glanced over at the warehouse and saw Lin San directing the loading of a truck.

Lin Haoran walked over.

“Good morning, Boss.” Seeing Lin Haoran, Lin San and a few other employees greeted him one after another.

“Lin San, where are Lin Yi and the others?”

“Boss, Lin Yi and the others are in the production workshop.”

“Go and tell Lin Yi, Lin Er, and Lin Si to meet me at the dormitory building. I have something to discuss with you all.”

“Right away, Boss. Please wait a moment.”

Lin Haoran didn’t linger and headed directly to the dormitory area.

Having seen an opportunity to make money, he no longer wanted to stay here. He wanted to get back to the city as soon as possible.

Staying in a remote place like Yuen Long was a complete waste of time.

No matter what tricks Lin Haoning pulled, Huafeng Cement Factory would only lose a few tens of thousands.

But his return to the Hong Kong city center was for the sake of making big money.

Before long, he arrived outside the dormitory where the cousins, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, were staying.

Yesterday, Lin Haoran had taken the two brothers on a tour of the surrounding area, which had left them incredibly excited.

The nearby border patrol officers all knew Lin Haoran, the young master of the Lin family, so even if they saw him, they wouldn’t bother checking if he had any illegal immigrants with him.

The dormitory door was open, and to Lin Haoran’s surprise, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong were actually doing push-ups.

“418, 419, 420, 421…” Li Weiguo counted as he went.

The two performed their push-ups with a steady, synchronized rhythm. It was clear they often trained together.

“Oh, Young Master, you’re here.” Li Weidong was the first to notice Lin Haoran and stopped his training.

Li Weiguo, who was still counting, also stopped and pushed himself up from the floor.

“I’m not interrupting your workout, am I?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

From their powerful and well-defined muscles, Lin Haoran could tell that their combat skills were likely impressive.

“Not at all, Young Master. We’re just doing some exercises to help with our physical recovery,” Li Weiguo replied.

“It seems you’ve both pretty much recovered. That’s perfect. I’ll take you to the city center today. You’ll be able to get your Hong Kong identity cards, so you won’t have to worry about being checked anymore,” Lin Haoran said with satisfaction.

Since he was heading back to the city center anyway, it wouldn’t take much time to sort out their official identification.

Li Weiguo and Li Weidong’s faces lit up with excitement. They spoke almost at the same time, in unison, “Thank you, Young Master!”

At that moment, Lin Haoran was surprised to find that both Li Weiguo’s and Li Weidong’s loyalty levels had risen to varying degrees.

Li Weiguo:【Loyalty: 84/100】

Li Weidong:【Loyalty: 89/100】

Clearly, showing care and offering benefits to his subordinates was an effective way to increase their loyalty.

“By the way, you mentioned before that your fighting skills were quite good. Just how good are they?” Lin Haoran asked.

Li Weiguo unconsciously scratched his head and said with great confidence, “Young Master, even if I were attacked by five or six strong young men, I could handle them with ease.”

“Hehe, speaking of which, I’m a bit stronger than my big brother. Taking on seven or eight at once is nothing for me,” the nearby Li Weidong said, proudly puffing out his chest with a look of immense pride.

Li Weiguo didn’t object, which was a silent admission that his skills were indeed inferior to Li Weidong’s.

Were they really that strong?

Lin Haoran was a bit skeptical.

Just then, Lin Yi and the others arrived.

An idea suddenly sparked in Lin Haoran’s mind. He thought to himself, isn’t this the perfect opportunity to let Lin Yi and his men experience firsthand just how formidable these two brothers’ skills really are?

Lin Haoran was well aware of the abilities of Lin Yi and the other three.

Although these men were turncoats, it was undeniable that their fighting skills were quite impressive. They could easily handle three to five ordinary people, so their strength was not to be underestimated.

This was also why his father had them handle Lin Haoran’s security.

Chapter 6: Brilliant, Truly Brilliant

“Lin Yi, why don’t you all spar with the brothers Li Weiguo and Li Weidong? Let me see who is truly the more skilled.”

If Li Weidong and Li Weiguo’s abilities were even close to the level of Lin Yi and his men, Lin Haoran would have been more than satisfied.

That level of skill was more than enough for them to be his bodyguards.

“Young Master, if you’ll forgive my bluntness, the two of them are no match for us. It’s not that we want to bully them, but I believe I alone am more than enough to handle them both,” Lin Yi said, full of confidence.

Li Weidong was about to retort, but Li Weiguo gently tugged his sleeve, signaling him to stay quiet.

He knew they were outsiders who had been rescued, so he didn’t want to appear too arrogant or domineering in front of these men.

“Talk is cheap. I believe both Li Weiguo and Li Weidong are quite skilled. How about this: Lin Yi, you can spar with Li Weiguo first. True strength will reveal itself in a match,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

After speaking, Lin Haoran turned to Li Weiguo and asked, “Are you confident?”

“Young Master, I am confident. I will not disappoint you!” Li Weiguo said with absolute certainty.

“In that case, let the fight begin!”

Lin Haoran was also full of anticipation for them.

The two men nodded to each other and, with a tacit understanding, walked out of the dormitory building. They came to the open space in front and stood facing one another.

Lin Yi quickly got into a fighting stance. His form was agile and his footwork nimble as he lunged at Li Weiguo like a cheetah, trying to overwhelm his opponent with speed and dexterity.

However, facing Lin Yi’s fierce assault, Li Weiguo appeared exceptionally calm.

He didn’t rush to counterattack. Instead, he stood his ground as solid as a boulder, his eyes locked onto Lin Yi’s every move.

Whenever Lin Yi tried to get close, Li Weiguo would always defend with just the right amount of force and at the perfect angle, making Lin Yi’s attacks feel like punching cotton—completely ineffective.

As time went on, Lin Yi gradually discovered that his usual advantages in speed and flexibility seemed to have vanished before Li Weiguo.

Meanwhile, Li Weiguo began to exert more force. Every one of his strikes was filled with power and skill, forcing Lin Yi to retreat again and again.

Finally, during a heated exchange, Li Weiguo seized upon a tiny opening in Lin Yi’s defense.

He suddenly lunged forward, his form like a fierce tiger descending a mountain, and threw a punch toward Lin Yi’s chest.

The punch was powerful and heavy, its speed astonishing. Although Lin Yi did his utmost to defend himself, he was still sent stumbling backward by the impact, almost losing his balance.

Seizing the opportunity, Li Weiguo swiftly followed up, a barrage of punches and kicks raining down on Lin Yi like a violent storm.

Though Lin Yi kept resisting, under Li Weiguo’s tide-like assault, he was ultimately overwhelmed. In the end, a heavy punch to the abdomen sent him staggering to the ground.

“I was fortunate,” Li Weiguo said, performing a traditional martial artist’s fist-and-palm salute.

Lin Yi’s face was grim. He clutched his abdomen with one hand and used the other to slowly push himself up.

His eyes betrayed his unwillingness to accept defeat; the bout had clearly dealt a heavy blow to his pride.

“I lost.”

Lin Er, Lin San, and Lin Si, who had been watching from the side, had looks of utter disbelief on their faces.

They knew Lin Yi’s strength all too well. Among the four of them, Lin Yi had always been acknowledged as the strongest.

Yet, the scene before them was staggering.

If even Lin Yi was no match for Li Weiguo, what chance would they have?

Clap, clap, clap! Lin Haoran suddenly began to applaud, a satisfied smile spreading across his face.

“Brilliant, truly brilliant! Weiguo, your performance was impeccable, far exceeding my expectations!” he laughed heartily, giving Li Weiguo the highest praise.

Li Weiguo’s performance had left him immensely satisfied.

Originally, Lin Haoran would have been happy if Li Weiguo’s skill was merely close to that of Lin Yi and the others.

But while watching the fight, Lin Haoran had noticed that Li Weiguo hadn’t been using his full strength. In the beginning, he hadn’t initiated any attacks at all.

Li Weiguo was astute. By focusing on defense at the start of the match, he was actually giving Lin Yi some face, so his loss wouldn’t be so embarrassing.

There was no need for any more matches. Lin Haoran already knew Li Weiguo’s capabilities, and Li Weidong was supposed to be even stronger—a fact Li Weiguo had tacitly confirmed earlier.

“Lin Yi, it looks like you were injured in the match. You should rest in the dormitory for the next two days. Lin Er, Lin San, Lin Si, you three will stay and work at the factory. I have to go back to the city. Keep a close eye on the cement factory, and don’t let anything go wrong. Otherwise, I’ll hold you responsible!” Lin Haoran ordered the four men.

“Young Master, the Old Master ordered us to protect you. How can we not go with you?” Lin Er and the others said anxiously.

They were charged with ensuring Lin Haoran’s safety and passing information to the Eldest Young Master, Lin Haoning. If they were out of the Younger Young Master’s sight, how could they continue to be moles?

“You don’t need to worry about that. I’ll explain the situation to my father myself. As for my safety, I feel very secure with Li Weiguo and his brother,” Lin Haoran said directly.

Lin Er and the others tried to say more, but Lin Haoran gave them no chance. “Go back to your work. I’ll be driving back shortly. Remember my words: if anything happens to the Huafeng Cement Factory, I’ll hold you responsible!”

With that, he walked away without a backward glance.

He was going back to his room to pack a few things before driving out of Yuen Long and heading back to the city in Kowloon.

The two brothers, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, followed him without a word.

Lin Yi and the others were left standing where they were, looking at one another.

“Lin Yi, what do we do?” Lin Er asked.

“It seems our only choice is to report this to the Old Master first, in case anything happens to the Young Master. We’d be hard-pressed to escape blame. Also, Lin Er, remember to call the Eldest Young Master. Tell him in detail what the Younger Young Master has been up to these past few days so he’s aware of the situation.”

Lin Yi rubbed his aching abdomen, sighed, and spoke with resignation.

Their true purpose might not be so honorable, but caught in this situation, they had no other choice.

Since they had already chosen to serve the Eldest Young Master, they had to see it through to the end.

As for the Younger Young Master, they could only apologize. Who could blame them? His prospects just weren’t as bright as the Eldest Young Master’s!

“I suppose that’s all we can do. To be honest, the Younger Young Master has almost no chance of winning this succession battle. I really don’t understand what the Eldest Young Master is so worried about,” Lin Si said, shaking his head with a mix of helplessness and confusion.

“Isn’t that the truth? The Eldest Young Master is being far too cautious!” Lin San strongly agreed with Lin Si.

“Alright, that’s enough talk. Be careful, walls have ears. The Eldest Young Master naturally has his a grand strategy. What we need to do now is keep our mouths shut and not let the Younger Young Master find out about us. I’m going to call the Old Master now. The rest of you, get back to whatever you were doing,” Lin Yi said, cutting their discussion short.

Chapter 7: Just Ten Million? What Can That Do?

Having snuck into Hong Kong, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong had arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs, so they had nothing to pack.

They were still wearing their Huafeng Cement Factory uniforms.

Returning to his room in the office building, Lin Haoran had the two brothers wait outside while he went in to pack.

In truth, there wasn’t much to pack. He hadn’t brought many belongings with him in the first place.

After tossing a few sets of clothes into a suitcase, Lin Haoran also packed the business registration certificate for the Huafeng Cement Factory and the land certificate for the plot it stood on.

The Huafeng Cement Factory had been around for over a decade. Back then, land in Yuen Long wasn’t valuable. When Lin Wan’an built the factory, he had also taken the opportunity to buy the surrounding thirty thousand-plus square meters of land at a low price.

Now, this plot of land alone was worth over seven million Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Haoran had already devised a way to get his startup capital: he would use the Huafeng Cement Factory as collateral for a loan.

He certainly couldn’t sell the factory, as it was central to his competition with his older brother, Lin Haoning.

However, that didn’t stop Lin Haoran from using it to quickly raise the necessary startup funds, providing strong financial backing for his next move.

Once he finished packing, Lin Haoran walked right out the door.

Li Weiguo dutifully helped carry the luggage.

Lin Haoran’s car was a Mercedes-Benz W116 series sedan. As the scion of a wealthy family, the car he drove was naturally not going to be cheap.

After integrating his memories, he now had a deep understanding of Hong Kong in this era.

The route from the Huafeng Cement Factory back to Kowloon went south through Tuen Mun, then onto the Tuen Mun Road, which led straight back to the city.

As the boss, Lin Yi had always been the one to drive while he sat in the back.

But neither Li Weiguo nor Li Weidong knew how to drive, so for this trip back to the city, he would have to drive himself.

The road system of this era wasn’t as complicated as it would be in later years. Especially in remote suburbs like Yuen Long, there was only one main road, and intersections had detailed signs, so Lin Haoran wasn’t worried about getting lost.

With the luggage stowed, the brothers Li Weiguo and Li Weidong were filled with excitement and curiosity.

“Young Master, we’ve never been in a private car before. Back on the mainland, we only ever rode buses and transport trucks. These seats are so comfortable,” Li Weidong said to Lin Haoran, unable to stop himself from looking around.

“Fasten your seatbelts. I’m going to show you the world.”

“Young Master, what’s a seatbelt?”

“It’s the strap next to your seat. It keeps passengers safe.”

…

Even with the memories of two lifetimes, Lin Haoran was quite interested in driving a vintage car like this.

The car radio played some of the Cantonese pop songs currently popular in Hong Kong.

Along the way, they encountered a border patrol checkpoint, but after Lin Haoran presented his identification, they were waved through immediately.

More than two hours later, the car finally entered the Tsuen Wan suburbs, and buildings became more and more common.

Tsuen Wan was already quite developed in this era.

Especially after the completion of the Kwai Chung Container Terminal, the area had become a hot spot for investment among Hong Kong businessmen.

“Look at all those tall buildings over there.”

“It’s so prosperous.”

“That woman has no shame, her clothes are so revealing. The top half of her is almost completely exposed.”

“Brother Weiguo, I see one over here, too! Quick, look over here! It’s making my mouth water.”

Upon reaching Tsuen Wan, the sight of the bustling streets on either side left the two brothers ecstatic. They chattered nonstop, filled with curiosity and amazement at everything around them.

“This is still the suburbs,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Because Tsuen Wan had so many logistics warehouses and terminals, there was an especially high number of large trucks.

As a result, the roads became congested after entering Tsuen Wan, and the car slowed to a crawl.

“This is still the suburbs? Just how prosperous is the city center?” Li Weiguo lamented.

Seeing the traffic jam ahead, Lin Haoran simply took the next exit off the main road.

It was already one in the afternoon; it was time to find a place to eat.

After finding a random restaurant for lunch, Lin Haoran started the car again.

He first drove into Kowloon City District and took Li Weidong and Li Weiguo to an immigration office to fill out the necessary paperwork, successfully obtaining Hong Kong ID cards for them.

Ever since Li Weiguo had easily defeated Lin Yi, Lin Haoran had begun to value them more and more.

“From this day on, you are officially a part of Hong Kong. You no longer have to worry about anyone investigating your past,” Lin Haoran said with a smile as they stood outside the office.

“Thank you, Boss,” the two said, ecstatic.

He then took them to a nearby suit shop and bought them each three suits, having them change into one on the spot.

After that, he took them to a nearby salon for crew cuts.

As the saying goes, clothes make the man. After changing into suits, tying on ties, and getting new hairstyles, the two brothers’ entire demeanor changed.

With sunglasses on, they even had the air of gangster bosses.

As his, Lin Haoran’s, bodyguards, they couldn’t keep wearing Huafeng Cement Factory uniforms. That would only make him a laughingstock.

In the world of business, appearances were very important.

At that moment, Lin Haoran noticed that their Loyalty had increased again.

Li Weiguo: [Loyalty: 87/100]

Li Weidong: [Loyalty: 90/100]

Li Weiguo’s Loyalty had risen by three points.

Li Weidong’s, in particular, had only increased by one point, but his total Loyalty had now surpassed ninety.

Naturally, the higher the Loyalty, the better. At such a high level, there was basically no need to worry about them ever betraying him.

After fulfilling the brothers’ wishes, Lin Haoran wasted no time and headed directly for Admiralty Centre in Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island.

With his status as the younger son of the Wan’an Group’s chairman, getting a loan in Hong Kong was incredibly simple.

However, he wasn’t looking for a simple loan of ten or twenty million.

Major, legitimate banks like HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Hang Seng would certainly not approve a very large loan for him in order to mitigate risk.

It would be easy for Lin Haoran to get a loan from these banks, but even with the Huafeng Cement Factory as collateral, he would at most be able to borrow ten or twenty million Hong Kong dollars.

But he was not satisfied.

Just that little bit of money? What could that do?

The elevator stopped on the 17th floor of Admiralty Centre. Lin Haoran, with his two subordinates in tow, stood outside the glass door of an office.

To the left of the glass door hung a plaque that read: Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (Hong Kong).

Lin Haoran’s target for the day was this very finance company.

Currently, the Hong Kong government was actively planning to develop Hong Kong into an international financial center. To that end, it had relaxed restrictions on banking licenses in March of this year.

Over the past few months, the government had issued more than twenty banking licenses in one go.

This rapid increase in the number of banks, combined with the proliferation of other financial institutions, had intensified competition in the banking sector.

To use a term from Lin Haoran’s previous life, Hong Kong’s banking industry was currently fiercely competitive.

How competitive? So competitive that some financial institutions, despite sitting on vast cash reserves, were struggling to lend that money out effectively.

Chapter 8: I’d Like a Loan of Fifty Million

For example, the company before him, Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (Hong Kong), was facing just such a situation.

They couldn’t obtain a Hong Kong banking license, so they could only operate in Hong Kong as a finance company.

Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (Hong Kong) had a considerable background. It was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank Bumiputra Malaysia, the government bank of Malaysia, and possessed formidable financial backing.

As the young master of the Wan’an Group, Lin Haoran was a member of Hong Kong’s upper class and already had some understanding of the city’s financial environment.

What’s more, he was a graduate of the London Business School. Knowing that his future would undoubtedly be in Hong Kong, he paid particularly close attention to its financial industry.

He had previously met Yang Changdao, the general manager of Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (Hong Kong), once before, while attending a business banquet with his father, Lin Wan’an. That had been during last year’s summer break.

Pushing open the glass door, Lin Haoran walked in with his two underlings.

“Sir, do you have an appointment?” Seeing Lin Haoran’s distinguished air, the young woman at the front desk was very enthusiastic.

“Is your General Manager Yang in? If so, please let him know that Lin Haoran of the Wan’an Group is here to see him about something.”

Of course, he didn’t have an appointment; after all, Lin Haoran didn’t even know General Manager Yang’s phone number.

But with his status, he didn’t need one.

The Wan’an Group wasn’t one of Hong Kong’s top-tier corporations, but it was still well-known.

“Please wait a moment, sir. I’ll go inform General Manager Yang right away.” Upon learning Lin Haoran’s identity, the young woman didn’t dare to delay for a second and hurried off to report.

In less than a minute, the young woman returned.

Behind her was a middle-aged man in his forties.

This was the head of Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (Hong Kong), Yang Changdao.

“Young Master Lin, your visit is a great honor for our Bumiputra Malaysia Finance.”

“Uncle Yang, the last time we met was a year ago, wasn’t it? How time flies! It truly brings me joy to see you looking so hale and hearty and glowing with health. I’m sure your company’s performance has been soaring in the meantime, with business thriving and profits pouring in from every corner!”

The two men shook hands and exchanged pleasantries.

It was clear that Yang Changdao also had a rather deep impression of Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran’s use of “Uncle Yang” subtly closed the distance between them.

Indeed, upon hearing Lin Haoran call him “Uncle Yang,” Yang Changdao’s smile grew even wider.

“Young Master Lin, please, come to my office.”

Lin Haoran nodded and instructed Li Weiguo and his brother to wait for him in the lounge outside.

He then followed Yang Changdao into the office.

Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (Hong Kong) was flush with cash, renting the entire 17th floor of Admiralty Centre.

Yang Changdao’s office was especially luxurious.

“Would you like anything to drink, Young Master Lin?” Yang Changdao asked after they sat down.

“There’s no need to trouble yourself, Uncle Yang. You’re my elder, please just call me Haoran. My father told me that you are an outstanding entrepreneur and that I should get to know you better if I had the chance.”

Lin Haoran had come with an agenda, so naturally, he had to be thick-skinned.

Yang Changdao might not be a major figure himself, but Bank Bumiputra behind him had immense financial power, and Lin Haoran was in dire need of money at the moment.

Therefore, it was essential to build a closer relationship with him.

“In that case, I won’t be polite and will take the liberty of my age to call you Haoran. Now, Haoran, what brings you to see me today? I’ve never been one to beat around the bush, so let’s get straight to the point and talk business,” Yang Changdao said, not one to procrastinate, getting straight to the topic.

After all, they had only met once. Even if they were building rapport, they were still unfamiliar with each other.

“Uncle Yang, I’ve come today to discuss a business deal with your Bumiputra Malaysia Finance,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Haoran, are you here representing the Wan’an Group?” Yang Changdao’s words betrayed his anticipation and delight.

As the general manager of Bumiputra Malaysia Finance, he naturally wanted the company’s performance to improve day by day. But it was obvious that the banking industry in Hong Kong was fiercely competitive, and their company had no significant advantage against the local Hong Kong banks.

Therefore, if they could cooperate with the Wan’an Group, it would undoubtedly bring him a significant amount of business.

The industry was just too fiercely competitive. As the head of Bank Bumiputra’s Hong Kong operations, he too had to find all sorts of ways to boost performance.

He hadn’t expected business to simply walk through the door today.

“Uncle Yang, this time, I’m here on my own behalf, not representing the Wan’an Group. I’d like to take out a loan from your Bumiputra Malaysia Finance in my personal capacity.” Lin Haoran, however, shook his head and said.

The matter of the Lin brothers competing for the position of heir to the Wan’an Group had not been leaked, so Yang Changdao was naturally unaware of it.

Lin Haoran’s words instantly filled Yang Changdao with disappointment.

If it was a personal loan, the deal would be much smaller.

Still, Yang Changdao was unwilling to offend Lin Haoran. After all, he might be able to connect with the Wan’an Group through him.

With this in mind, Yang Changdao asked, “Then how much were you thinking of borrowing, Haoran?”

“I’d like to borrow fifty million Hong Kong dollars,” Lin Haoran stated a figure that even he felt was almost impossible.

He desperately needed money now; the more capital he could control, the better. As for the future, he was confident he could repay it easily.

These words stunned Yang Changdao.

He had originally thought Lin Haoran would want to borrow, at most, ten or so million Hong Kong dollars. An amount like that, he could approve even without collateral, given Lin Haoran’s status.

But fifty million Hong Kong dollars was simply impossible.

He shook his head and said directly, “Haoran, I’ll be blunt. If you were taking out a loan in the Wan’an Group’s name, I could lend you even one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. But if it’s a personal loan, I can’t possibly lend you that much.”

The Wan’an Group had a market capitalization of over one hundred million, but its asset valuation exceeded two hundred million Hong Kong dollars. It was a very high-quality listed company, severely undervalued by the stock market. Yang Changdao was aware of this.

So, if the loan were in the Wan’an Group’s name, their Bumiputra Malaysia Finance could indeed approve it.

Of course, he also knew that the Wan’an Group rarely borrowed from banks, which was one of the reasons its development wasn’t particularly fast. This was common knowledge in the industry.

If the Lin family didn’t control over 50% of the shares, the Wan’an Group would have long been secretly acquired by interested parties.

“Uncle Yang, I own a large cement factory. This factory has an annual profit of over two million Hong Kong dollars, and I am the sole proprietor. In addition, I have a plot of land in Yuen Long over thirty thousand square meters in size. All of these can be used as collateral.”

Lin Haoran took out the Huafeng Cement Factory’s business registration certificate and the land deed from his bag and handed them to Yang Changdao.

Yang Changdao took the registration certificate and the land deed and began to look them over.

Chapter 9: You’re Afraid I Won’t Be Able to Repay It, Aren’t You?

Yang Changdao was very familiar with this type of collateralized loan.

Although his finance company would certainly conduct a more thorough investigation later, a preliminary assessment of the documents’ authenticity was not an issue for him.

Besides, the funds would generally only be released after the investigation was complete.

Given Lin Haoran’s status, there was no need for him to resort to forgery.

Lin Wan’an’s reputation in the industry was excellent, which also brought Lin Haoran a certain degree of benefit.

“Haoran, I’ve looked at all these. Using the cement factory and the land deeds as collateral, you can borrow over ten million Hong Kong dollars at most. In addition, given your status as the young master of the Wan’an Group, I can use my authority to round it up to twenty million Hong Kong dollars. But you want to borrow fifty million? I can’t do it!” Yang Changdao said bluntly.

“Uncle Yang, twenty million Hong Kong dollars isn’t my goal. If I only needed to borrow twenty million, I wouldn’t have come to you. You know that with a prime client like myself, I could easily get approved for that amount from banks like HSBC or Standard Chartered Bank. Moreover, many new banks have been established in Hong Kong recently, and I’m sure they’d be more than happy to do business with a high-quality client like me. And yet, I didn’t go to any bank. I came directly to you, Uncle Yang,” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

Lin Haoran’s words, though blunt, were true and reasonable. Compared to other banks, Bumiputra Finance didn’t have a significant advantage. Why should he cooperate with them?

A bank’s vast capital, to put it bluntly, is its depositors’ money.

If these funds aren’t effectively invested or loaned out and are instead left idle within the bank, the bank will face a serious risk of loss over the long term, as the capital fails to generate its potential value.

Furthermore, when banks provide deposit services, they need to pay a certain amount of interest; this is one of the key factors in attracting depositors.

Without a reasonable return, why would anyone be willing to deposit their money in a bank?

Therefore, a major state-owned Malaysian bank like Bank Bumiputra, despite its abundant capital, still had to work hard to generate profits for itself.

Many of Bumiputra Finance Hong Kong’s clients came specifically because the company was able to offer larger loans.

If it were a powerful and established entrepreneur, Yang Changdao would naturally agree to lend more.

But Lin Haoran was too young, and he wasn’t the actual controller of the Wan’an Group. Lending too much money to Lin Haoran would surely carry a great deal of risk.

It was for this reason that Yang Changdao didn’t dare to lend him too much.

This was the way of the world; some people were of a certain kind.

While you were eyeing the interest on their loan, they had already quietly set their sights on your principal.

Having been in this line of work for so long, Yang Changdao had seen plenty of such cases, and he naturally worried he might encounter one himself.

“Haoran, how about this? As the general manager of Bumiputra Finance Hong Kong, I’ll approve a loan of thirty million Hong Kong dollars for you. Given your circumstances, this is the highest amount I can approve. You know as well as I do that Bumiputra Finance isn’t mine; I’m just a regional head. Any loan I approve has to go through a second round of approval from my superiors, and they will also conduct a risk assessment. If it doesn’t pass their assessment, it’s useless no matter how much I promise you. Don’t you agree?” Yang Changdao said after some thought, deciding to increase Lin Haoran’s limit by ten million.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to lend more; after all, the more he loaned out, the better his performance figures would be.

But he couldn’t bear the risk. If he couldn’t collect the money later on, he would be in serious trouble.

“Uncle Yang, you’re afraid I won’t have the ability to repay it when it’s due, aren’t you?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Yang Changdao remained silent. Lin Haoran’s request had put him in a difficult position.

From his expression, it was clear that Lin Haoran had hit the nail on the head.

If he were only targeting Kowloon Wharf’s shares, thirty million Hong Kong dollars would have been enough.

In fact, too much capital would make it harder to acquire the shares discreetly.

But Lin Haoran had his eyes on more than just Kowloon Wharf; he had another target in mind.

Therefore, if he could borrow another twenty million Hong Kong dollars, he would have much more room to maneuver.

“Uncle Yang, my land and factory can all be mortgaged to your company, which means over ten million of the loan is already risk-free. As for the remaining thirty-odd million, what you’re really afraid of, Uncle Yang, is that I’ll take the money and run.

“Let’s do this. I don’t want to make things difficult for you, Uncle Yang. Let’s just lay our cards on the table. The reason I’m taking out this loan is to acquire a publicly listed company. This company currently has a market capitalization of around one hundred million Hong Kong dollars and is a very high-quality enterprise that has never recorded a loss since its listing.

“I need to become a major shareholder in this company. As for which company it is, I can’t disclose that for now. However, once the acquisition is successful, I can temporarily pledge the shares to Bumiputra Finance. That way, you’ll have no risk, Uncle Yang.

“Besides, I’m still the young master of the Lin family. The Wan’an Group isn’t going anywhere. My father only has two sons. Even if I can’t repay the loan, you can still go to the Wan’an Group and collect the debt from my father. This reduces the risk even further.

“Furthermore, as long as you help me secure this loan, a five hundred thousand dollar commission will be in your hands anytime.

“I’m confident that with your position, Uncle Yang, persuading Bank Bumiputra to approve this loan is a trivial matter.

“I wonder if these terms are enough to convince you, Uncle Yang?

“Doing business always involves a certain degree of risk. To be honest, the terms I’m offering have already minimized that risk as much as possible.

“The only reason you’re hesitating is because I’m too young. But being young isn’t my fault. I’m using this money for an investment. Even if I end up losing money, it’s impossible for me to lose absolutely everything, right?

“When the time comes to repay the loan, I’ll be the one taking the loss, not Bumiputra Finance. My family’s entire business is in Hong Kong; I can’t run even if I wanted to.

“If you agree, Uncle Yang, then we have a deal.

“If even this isn’t enough to convince you, then I’ll have to find another bank or finance company.”

Lin Haoran didn’t want to waste any more time negotiating with Yang Changdao, so he laid all his cards on the table.

The listed company he mentioned was, of course, not Kowloon Wharf. Kowloon Wharf was a behemoth, far beyond his ability to control at present.

Right now, Lin Haoran simply wanted to use the Kowloon Wharf acquisition battle to obtain a sizable sum of startup capital that was truly his own.

With so many listed companies in Hong Kong, he naturally had a target in mind.

A commission of five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars was a very large sum, equivalent to one percent of the fifty-million-dollar loan.

The standard annual interest rate for banks in Hong Kong during this era was generally between 5.00% and 5.25%.

In this fiercely competitive period for the banking industry, some banks even chose to attract customers with interest rates below five percent.

Of course, Lin Haoran was not in a position to negotiate that right now, so he didn’t plan to haggle too much over the interest rate.

His most important goal right now was to secure the necessary funds as quickly as possible!

Chapter 10: I Call the Shots Here in Hong Kong

Calculated at a normal five percent interest rate, if he only took the loan for one year, he would need to repay fifty-two million five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars when the year was up.

Adding the five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollar commission, it meant that on top of the principal, he would have to pay an extra three million Hong Kong dollars.

This was no small sum.

The original Huafeng Cement Factory only brought in a net profit of around two million Hong Kong dollars a year.

But Lin Haoran didn’t care.

It was only a few million Hong Kong dollars. If he could successfully profit from Kowloon Wharf, it wouldn’t be a mere few percentage points of profit, but a return that would more than double his principal.

Lin Haoran knew when he arrived that this negotiation would not be easy.

So he came fully prepared.

Lin Haoran was confident that with the terms he proposed, Yang Changdao was bound to agree.

“Haoran, give me some time to think this over.”

As Yang Changdao spoke, he slowly drew a cigarette from its pack, then lit it in his office. Amidst the swirling smoke, he fell into deep thought.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran already knew what was happening; he understood that Yang Changdao was wavering.

“Uncle Yang, please take your time. I completely understand and am willing to wait,” Lin Haoran responded with a nod.

A long time passed. The cigarette in Yang Changdao’s hand had burned down to the filter, yet he remained lost in his thoughts, his brow furrowed, completely unaware.

It wasn’t until a searing pain shot through his fingertips that he was startled back to reality, hastily stubbing out the cigarette butt.

Yang Changdao took a deep breath, as if he had made a momentous decision. He looked directly at Lin Haoran and said with a serious and solemn expression, “I want the five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars in cash. As for the fifty million Hong Kong dollar loan you mentioned, the term can only be one year, and the annual interest must be set at five percent. We both know there are considerable risks involved, so we can’t offer any discounts on the interest.”

“That’s absolutely no problem. Once the deal is done, I can secretly deliver the five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollar commission to you, Uncle Yang. I will definitely not cause you any trouble!” A smile finally appeared on Lin Haoran’s face.

Greed was indeed one of the human weaknesses that many found hard to completely shake off. Clearly, this General Manager Yang was no exception.

He had achieved his goal.

A one-year term meant nothing to him.

What he lacked right now was start-up capital.

A year from now, he would have more funds to operate with, and he might have even become the heir to the Wan’an Group.

If he wanted to take out another loan then, let alone Bumiputra Finance, a whole host of banks and corporations would be clamoring to offer him one.

For now, he was still an unknown young man, one who could only live under the influence of his father, Lin Wan’an, in the business world.

He would use this one year to gradually establish his own influence in the business world and grow up fast.

Hong Kong in the seventies and eighties was a land of opportunity.

In a competitive business environment like a Hong Kong, it was truly difficult for an unknown to achieve anything significant.

As this loan experience demonstrated, if not for the profound influence of his father, Lin Wan’an, in the industry, coupled with his own unremitting efforts and persuasion, securing a fifty million loan would have been almost impossible.

“Right, there’s actually another favor I need to ask of you, Uncle Yang. Regarding my personal loan, I hope you won’t reveal it to my father. At least not for this one year. As for after a year, it won’t matter whether you say anything or not,” Lin Haoran said sincerely to Yang Changdao after a moment of thought.

“Why?”

From their previous conversation, he had already gained a deep sense of Lin Haoran’s extraordinary nature. He understood that this young man had great ambition and outstanding ability, and would very likely achieve remarkable things in the future. Therefore, he was willing to hear Lin Haoran’s explanation.

Lin Haoran took a deep breath and said slowly, “Uncle Yang, I know my father has high expectations for me. He doesn’t want me to grow up under his protection; he would much rather I stand on my own two feet and prove myself with my own abilities.

I’m taking this loan to raise funds to acquire a publicly listed company I’ve had my eye on for a long time. I hope to accomplish it with my own strength, to prove it to my father, and to prove it to myself.

So, I have my own development plan. A year from now, I will definitely repay the funds owed to your company. I hope you can help me keep this secret and give me a chance to prove myself.”

In reality, the reason Lin Haoran didn’t want Lin Wan’an to know was because he understood that if Lin Wan’an found out, he could forget about getting this loan.

Content to rely solely on the development of Huafeng Cement Factory? That was absolutely not Lin Haoran’s style.

Relying on just that cement factory, he could already live a very good life even without winning the inheritance of Wan’an Group.

But that kind of comfort was not what he sought. Lin Haoran yearned for higher peaks, for a more distant horizon. He harbored ambitions that refused to settle for mediocrity.

“Alright, I’ll agree to it,” Yang Changdao said indifferently.

The matter had no impact on him anyway, and he would lose nothing by helping to conceal it.

“By the way, Uncle Yang, how long will it take for the funds to be released?” Lin Haoran asked.

“About a week. After I submit the materials for review, they’ll have to conduct an investigation. A week should be about right,” Yang Changdao replied.

“Can you ensure this loan gets approved, Uncle Yang?” Although Yang Changdao had already agreed, Lin Haoran was still a little worried.

Time waits for no man; he needed to get this capital as soon as possible.

“Don’t worry. The investigation team here in Hong Kong are my people. I basically call the shots. I’ll go draft the contract first, and we can sign it in a bit.” Since he had already agreed to the deal, Yang Changdao would naturally ensure everything went smoothly.

The subsequent procedures became much smoother.

Lin Haoran submitted all the required documents to Yang Changdao. After both parties officially signed the contract, all he had to do was wait for the funds to arrive.

“Uncle Yang, that’s all for today then. I’ll go back and wait for your good news. The five hundred thousand in cash is ready anytime!” Before leaving, Lin Haoran shook hands with Yang Changdao.

“Good. I’ll notify you as soon as there’s a result,” Yang Changdao said with a nod.

He had to get busy too. Having taken on such a big deal, he had many preparations to make.

Walking out of the office, Lin Haoran finally let out a long sigh of relief. He was very satisfied with the outcome.

In the waiting room outside, the brothers Li Weiguo and Li Weidong appeared quite constrained. They sat uncomfortably on the sofa, their gazes frequently landing on the coffee table as if it were their only focal point.

The unfamiliar surroundings made both of them exceptionally cautious. They didn’t dare to make any rash moves, as if afraid to break the delicate balance brought on by the silence and the unknown.

Seeing Lin Haoran emerge, the two finally breathed a sigh of relief and immediately stood up.

Chapter 11: Employ with Trust, Not Suspicion

After leaving Admiralty Centre with the Li brothers, Weiguo and Weidong, Lin Haoran had originally planned to visit the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in Kowloon to get an update on the market.

Although the money hadn’t arrived yet, Yang Changdao’s overflowing confidence made it clear that the loan would definitely be approved.

Even if the documents he submitted didn’t technically qualify, Yang Changdao would find a way to make it happen for him.

Therefore, understanding the market trends in advance would help him plan his next steps.

But as soon as he got in the car, the motor in his beeper buzzed to life. Someone needed to reach him.

He had no choice but to get out of the car and find a nearby public phone booth to return the call.

In this era, beepers operated on analog signals. Their main function was limited to receiving call notifications, after which the user had to find a public telephone to call back. The process was indeed cumbersome and inconvenient.

However, despite the complex operation, in an age before mobile phones were commercially available, the beeper was undoubtedly a cutting-edge technological invention, marking the first leap in instant communication technology.

After calling back, Lin Haoran finally learned who was looking for him.

It was his father in this world, Lin Wan’an.

It turned out that Lin Yi had told Lin Wan’an that Lin Haoran had left Yuen Long without them. He had also embellished the story of what Lin Haoran had been up to recently. Worried something might happen to his younger son, Lin Wan’an had called him.

“Dad, I’ll come over to you. I’m in Wan Chai right now, not far from the company.”

Lin Haoran had to postpone his trip to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The Wan’an Group headquarters was in Causeway Bay, not far from Wan Chai. The distance from Admiralty Centre to the Wan’an Group Building was less than a kilometer.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran drove directly to the Wan’an Group Building.

The Wan’an Group Building was a 13-story commercial structure, and the entire building was the property of the Wan’an Group.

Although this was Lin Haoran’s first time here since his transmigration, his fused memories made everything feel very familiar.

The Wan’an Group Building was over a decade old, and Lin Haoran had often come here to play as a child.

Parking the car in an open-air spot outside the building, Lin Haoran led Li Weiguo and Li Weidong inside.

“Hello, Director Lin.”

“Good afternoon, Director Lin.”

“Looking handsome again, Director Lin.”

“Do you have a girlfriend, Director Lin?”

…

As soon as the employees saw Lin Haoran, they all came forward to greet him. Some of the more playful female staff even teased him.

Lin Haoran responded with a gentle smile and nods to each of them, showing his humility and approachability.

Following closely behind him, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong witnessed this scene, and it was a real eye-opener for them.

They had never seen anything like it and could only think that their Young Master was truly impressive now.

Although the Wan’an Group was a publicly listed company, it was effectively a family business. The Lin family’s shares exceeded fifty percent, making it impossible for outside shareholders to interfere in the group’s affairs.

After Lin Haoran came of age, he was given a nominal directorship at Wan’an Group, making him a member of the board. His older brother, Lin Haoning, held a similar position.

This was why the employees addressed Lin Haoran as Director Lin.

Relatively speaking, due to his age advantage, his brother Lin Haoning commanded far more prestige within the group than Lin Haoran did.

If it were the old Lin Haoran, no matter how hard he tried, he would have been destined to lose.

But now, he was naturally filled with confidence that he would win this competition.

The elevator stopped on the 12th floor of the Wan’an Group Building.

The Chairman’s office was located here.

“Dad, I’m here. Let me introduce you. These are the two new bodyguards I’ve hired. They’re much stronger than Lin Yi and the others,” Lin Haoran said, introducing them to his father as he walked into the Chairman’s office.

Lin Wan’an was sixty-three this year, his hair as white as snow. While that age wasn’t considered old, his health had been declining in recent years with various ailments.

Symptoms included memory loss, hearing decline, and even weakened vascular function, which sometimes led to a slow heart rate and a weak pulse.

A check-up at the hospital revealed that his heart function was gradually failing and could no longer maintain normal blood circulation.

This was why he felt his body weakening by the day; he could pass away at any time.

Therefore, he felt a great sense of urgency to select a successor for the group as soon as possible.

He had two sons, but there was only one Wan’an Group. There couldn’t be two successors.

It was like the feudal dynasties of old—there could not be two crown princes at the same time.

Lin Wan’an first asked Li Weiguo and Li Weidong to wait outside the door. Then, he gently pulled Lin Haoran aside and said earnestly, “Haoran, you must be careful. The background of these two men is unknown. How could you so easily decide to make them your personal bodyguards? Your safety is not a trivial matter. You must consider it with the utmost care.”

Lin Haoran already knew that Lin Yi and the others must have said something to Lin Wan’an behind his back.

“Dad, don’t worry. After spending the past few days with them, I have a deep understanding of their backgrounds and personalities. More importantly, I saved them at a critical moment. That debt of gratitude is enough to prove their loyalty and appreciation.

“As the ancients said: ‘Trust in those you use, and do not use those you distrust.’ I understand this principle. Besides, I’m a grown man now and have learned how to weigh pros and cons and handle matters properly. Please trust me, I’ll handle it well,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Lin Wan’an looked at Lin Haoran in astonishment, his eyes filled with disbelief.

He had never expected his younger son to answer so confidently and coherently. This was a stark contrast to the Lin Haoran of the past, who would always immediately follow his opinion.

This sudden growth and independence stirred a complex mix of emotions in Lin Wan’an’s heart—he felt immense relief mixed with a hint of pleasant surprise.

The little son he had always treasured and carefully protected had quietly grown up, learned to think for himself and solve problems, and was taking steady steps toward maturity.

“Haoran, you’ve finally grown up,” Lin Wan’an said, his eyes shining with gratification as he sighed with emotion.

From his memories, Lin Haoran already knew that this father had doted on him since childhood.

Because of this, he also held a deep sense of respect for Lin Wan’an.

“Dad, please don’t worry. I didn’t waste my four years studying abroad. To be honest, when it comes to the competition with my brother for a successor, I believe I can win!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, his tone brimming with confidence.

“Haoran, I’ve heard about the matter with the Huafeng Cement Factory. Right now, your top priority is to stabilize its performance. As for the competition, let’s put that aside for now. Don’t you worry. Even if your brother ultimately becomes the successor of Wan’an Group, I will absolutely not let you be wronged.

“I will ensure you have a stable share of equity in the group to protect your interests. Moreover, I will make proper arrangements for you with the assets outside the group, enough for you to live a carefree life and never have to worry about food or clothing,” Lin Wan’an advised him earnestly.

It was obvious that Lin Wan’an didn’t believe Lin Haoran could win this competition.

Chapter 12: The First Subordinate with Full Loyalty

Lin Haoran merely smiled at his father’s disbelief that he could win this competition, offering no further rebuttal.

There was no need to.

After chatting with Lin Wan’an in the office for a long while, Lin Haoran prepared to leave.

“Haoran, come home for the night. Your mother misses you,” Lin Wan’an said suddenly.

“Okay, Dad, I understand.” Lin Haoran nodded with a smile, then left the office with a spring in his step.

He had originally planned to stay near Central tonight. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange was over there, and staying nearby would make it easier to keep an eye on the market.

However, since his father had suggested it, he readily accepted the arrangement and decided to go home to be with his family for the evening.

After leaving the chairman’s office, Lin Haoran didn’t immediately depart from the Wan’an Group building. Instead, he took the elevator to the 6th floor.

Lin Haoran knew the location of every department in the building like the back of his hand.

The group’s Securities and Commerce Department was located on the 6th floor.

As a publicly traded company, Wan’an Group had established a Securities and Commerce Department right after its IPO. It was responsible for managing all related affairs, such as the purchase, sale, holding, and settlement of the company’s securities, as well as handling post-issuance matters like shareholder dividends and profit distribution.

He walked into the Securities and Commerce Department office, where the employees were all busy at work.

Lin Haoran went straight to the department head’s office.

The head of the Securities and Commerce Department was a man in his forties named Dai Bin.

Seeing Lin Haoran enter, Dai Bin put down his work and said with a smile, “Younger Young Master, what brings you here?”

Within Wan’an Group, entry-level employees liked to call Lin Haoran ‘Director Lin.’

The executives, however, preferred to call him ‘Younger Young Master.’

Making himself at home, Lin Haoran sat down in a chair and said to Dai Bin, “Head Dai, I’ve come to see you about a personal matter.”

“Please, go ahead, Younger Young Master. If there’s anything I can do, I’ll be happy to help,” Dai Bin replied, his curiosity piqued.

A personal matter?

Lin Wan’an had not revealed the matter of choosing a successor, so not even the management of Wan’an Group was aware of it.

Therefore, everyone in the Wan’an Group treated him quite well.

“Head Dai, I was wondering, are there any stock traders in our department who are facing family difficulties?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Family difficulties, you say? Now that you mention it, I can think of a colleague. His name is Su Zhixue. He just completed his fifth year in our department. He’s a fine young man, but unfortunately, his two-year-old son was diagnosed with a rather rare disease that requires a surgical procedure costing over one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars.

After learning the news, I even organized a fundraiser among our department colleagues, but to be honest, the donations were just a drop in the bucket compared to the massive medical expenses—far from enough.

The young man himself only makes a little over four thousand Hong Kong dollars a month, and his wife had to quit her job to take care of their sick son full-time. You can imagine the financial pressure on the family.

Even if they pinch every penny, they can’t save much in a year. Coming up with over a hundred thousand is an incredibly difficult task,” Head Dai explained in detail, letting out a sigh.

A monthly salary of over four thousand Hong Kong dollars was indeed considered quite good in a place like Hong Kong. But considering he was the sole breadwinner, after covering daily expenses and his child’s medical bills, it would be a feat to save even one or two thousand Hong Kong dollars a month.

Faced with a surgical fee of over one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, the burden on a family like his was undoubtedly immense.

As Lin Haoran listened to Head Dai recount the colleague’s situation, a glint of light flashed in his eyes.

Wasn’t this exactly the person he was looking for?

“How are Su Zhixue’s character and work performance?” Lin Haoran pressed on.

“Su Zhixue’s character is impeccable. He has an excellent reputation among his colleagues and is always conscientious and responsible at work. He used to be a cheerful and optimistic young man. It’s just that this sudden family crisis has put him under too much pressure, causing him to become quiet and much more reserved.”

Head Dai’s words were filled with sympathy and emotion regarding Su Zhixue’s plight.

“How are his stock trading skills?”

“His stock trading skills are more than adequate; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to join our group. And with five years of work under his belt, his experience is already quite rich. I was even planning on giving him a promotion soon,” Head Dai said with a smile.

“Could you please ask this Su Zhixue to come here, Head Dai? I’d like to have a word with him,” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Of course, Younger Young Master. One moment.” Head Dai agreed without asking any further questions.

Soon, Lin Haoran met the stock trader named Su Zhixue.

Su Zhixue was not yet thirty, but to Lin Haoran, he looked as if he were in his late thirties, his face etched with a hint of world-weariness.

It seemed he had indeed been through a lot recently.

“Director Lin, you were looking for me?” Su Zhixue asked, a little apprehensive.

Lin Haoran didn’t know him, but he knew Lin Haoran.

Almost no one in the entire Wan’an Group didn’t know Lin Haoran—the boss’s younger son.

“Come with me. There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

After speaking, Lin Haoran led Su Zhixue to an empty office.

After entering the room, Su Zhixue appeared restless. To him, although Lin Haoran was much younger, he was an important figure far beyond his reach.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran said softly and gently, “Don’t be nervous. Please, sit down and relax.”

“I heard your son is in urgent need of money for surgery, around one hundred thousand or so, is that right?” Lin Haoran asked, his tone filled with concern.

“Yes, Director Lin,” Su Zhixue replied uneasily. “The attending physician said surgery is necessary to control his condition, and the total cost will be one hundred and eighty thousand Hong Kong dollars. The sooner the surgery is performed, the better the recovery. I’m currently doing my best to raise the funds, hoping to get my son treated as soon as possible.”

Although he was puzzled as to why Lin Haoran would suddenly bring this up, Su Zhixue tried his best to remain calm and answer truthfully.

“How much are you short?”

“After trying every way to raise money, I’m still short by over one hundred and twenty thousand.”

As he spoke of this, a look of despair was plain on Su Zhixue’s face.

Lin Haoran smiled and said to Su Zhixue in a sincere tone, “I can lend you the money for your son’s surgery. But on one condition: you’ll need to work for me privately. I will pay you a monthly salary of five thousand Hong Kong dollars, with weekends off. If you perform well, there will be room for advancement.

Once you’ve fully repaid the loan, you’ll be free, with no further obligations. As for the group, you don’t need to worry. I will speak with my father to ensure your position here is held for you. If you ever want to come back and continue working here after repaying the debt, you can do so at any time.”

Lin Haoran’s words were like warm sunlight piercing through the clouds, illuminating the gloom in Su Zhixue’s heart.

He was so moved he could barely contain himself. Tears of gratitude welled up in his eyes, and he finally lost control and knelt on the floor, his voice trembling as he spoke, “Director Lin, I can never repay your immense kindness. As long as you’re willing to lend me the surgery fee and give me a chance to save my son, I am willing to work for you for the rest of my life. Even if it’s the hardest, most tiring work, I will never back down!”

For a grown man to shed tears for the sake of saving his son was not laughable; on the contrary, it was worthy of respect.

From this alone, Lin Haoran was convinced that Su Zhixue was a man of good character.

The moment Su Zhixue agreed to work for Lin Haoran, his loyalty progress bar appeared.

Su Zhixue: [Loyalty: 100/100]

Chapter 13: A Heartwarming Scene

Next, Lin Haoran planned to make his move in the stock market, but his actions had to be silent to prevent anyone from prying into his meticulous arrangements and strategies.

He understood the importance of secrecy and had long decided to advance his investment plans quietly, without drawing any attention.

Therefore, finding a stock trader with extremely high loyalty became Lin Haoran’s most pressing need.

After studying his special ability for some time, he had come to a profound realization: the most effective way to boost loyalty was to be generous to his subordinates and inspire a sense of gratitude within them.

The ancients said it best: repay a drop of kindness with a gushing spring!

Especially when encountering someone like Su Zhixue, who was facing a predicament he could not overcome on his own, Lin Haoran’s timely appearance and assistance would undoubtedly strike a deep chord within him.

At such a critical moment, as long as Su Zhixue’s character was reliable, Lin Haoran could easily use this act of kindness to deepen their relationship and significantly increase his loyalty.

On his way to the Wan’an Group building, Lin Haoran had already planned to find a loyal subordinate here.

With his special ability to see loyalty meters, if Su Zhixue’s loyalty remained low despite his generosity, he would naturally give up on him and choose someone else.

However, he never expected it to reach 100% loyalty directly.

This truly astounded Lin Haoran, and was completely beyond his expectations.

Originally, he would have been satisfied with a loyalty of eighty or ninety percent.

But regardless, this was good news for him, wasn’t it?

A loyalty of 100% meant he would never be betrayed.

Now, he wouldn’t have to worry about his upcoming moves in the stock market being leaked.

“Alright, you get ready. Don’t worry too much about things at Wan’an Group; I’ll go upstairs and talk to my father about it later. Starting tomorrow, you’ll officially work for me. You don’t need to come to the company at eight-thirty tomorrow morning. Go directly to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and wait for me,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, patting Su Zhixue on the shoulder.

It was just a low-level employee from one department. As his father, Lin Wan’an would naturally not refuse such a request. It was a trivial matter.

After leaving the Securities and Commerce Department, Lin Haoran went to the Chairman’s office once more.

He brought the matter up with his father, who, as expected, agreed without a second thought and even made a direct call to Head Dai of the Securities and Commerce Department.

“Haoran, what are your plans for a stock trader? The Hong Kong stock market is treacherous and unpredictable, not child’s play. The risks involved are not to be underestimated.”

Although he had already given his consent, Lin Wan’an couldn’t hide his curiosity and asked his son with concern.

“Dad, you know I majored in Business Management at the University of London. Now that I’m back working in Hong Kong, it’s inevitable that I’ll have to deal with the stock market in the future. So, I want to get a feel for the Hong Kong market in advance. With the help of a stock trader like him, I can grasp market dynamics more quickly and be fully prepared for future business decisions.”

Lin Haoran skillfully evaded a direct answer, responding to his father’s inquiry with a vague but reasonable explanation.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s reply, Lin Wan’an didn’t press the issue further.

“I’m getting ready to leave. Why don’t you ride home with me?” Lin Wan’an asked, looking at Lin Haoran.

“No, thanks, Dad. I have some things to take care of tomorrow morning, so I plan to drive back myself tonight. It’ll be more convenient,” Lin Haoran politely declined his father’s offer.

“Alright, then. You should get some rest early too. Your mother nags me every day, worried that you’re too busy with work and not taking care of your health,” Lin Wan’an nodded lightly, his eyes full of affection for his son.

After merging the memories of two lifetimes, Lin Haoran had long been deeply aware that his parents in this life doted on him. His mother’s meticulous care, in particular, made him feel incredibly warm.

Even his two older sisters, who were already married, cared for him deeply, their affection undiminished.

Being in a family so filled with love, his heart was full of gratitude and happiness.

Unfortunately, the actions of his older brother had destroyed the harmony of this family. His covert schemes made Lin Haoran aware that this family was not as harmonious as it appeared on the surface.

He was the one rotten apple that spoiled the whole bunch.

The Lin family villa was near Deep Water Bay. Nestled between mountains and the sea, the area boasted beautiful scenery and a unique natural environment. Adjacent to Repulse Bay, it was one of Hong Kong’s most prestigious residential areas for the wealthy.

Tycoons like Shipping Magnate Pao and Li Ka-shing resided in this very villa district.

In the evening, after leaving the Wan’an Group Building, Lin Haoran first arranged for the brothers Li Weiguo and Li Weidong to stay at a hotel near Causeway Bay before driving home alone.

Upon returning to the Lin family villa, Lin Haoran noticed his father’s car was already in its parking spot. Without giving it much thought, he parked his Mercedes next to his father’s Rolls-Royce.

Just as he got out of the car, a sharp-eyed servant approached him with a smile and greeted him respectfully, “Younger Young Master, you’re back. Dinner is ready. The Old Master and Madam are waiting for you.”

Lin Haoran nodded and walked into the villa’s spacious and bright hall. Sure enough, just as the servant had said, his parents were already seated at the elegantly decorated dining table. The table was laden with a feast of colorful, aromatic, and delicious dishes, clearly prepared especially for his return.

Witnessing this scene, a warm current flowed through Lin Haoran’s heart. He quickened his pace toward the table to share this heartwarming family moment with his parents.

“Haoran, come and sit down quickly. The kitchen is still preparing a few more exquisite side dishes. Mother will go get you a bowl of rice,” Mrs. Lin’s face lit up with a joyful smile the moment she saw Lin Haoran walk in.

Compared to his father, whose health was declining, Mrs. Lin, though also in her sixties, appeared much more robust and healthy.

In his memory, his mother was a kind person who loved to laugh.

However, as the years went by, Lin Haoran’s two older sisters married one after another, and his elder brother, Lin Haoning, moved out of the villa with his family to start his own life.

This series of changes gradually silenced the once-lively villa, which used to be filled with laughter.

Although his mother remained strong, the cheerful smile that used to grace her lips seemed to appear less often, replaced by a faint loneliness and a longing for the family reunions of the past.

“Mother, from now on, I’ll come back to spend more time with you whenever I’m free,” Lin Haoran said with a gentle smile as he walked to his mother’s side and softly took her hand, his eyes full of tenderness.

“And Dad, your health isn’t what it used to be. You really shouldn’t overwork yourself. The company has professional managers, and they’ll handle things perfectly. You should rest more and take care of yourself, not meddle in every single matter.”

While gently holding his mother’s hand, Lin Haoran turned to his father, who was sitting nearby, his eyes filled with concern and sincerity.

“Alright, Haoran, I’ll listen to you. I’ll take care of my body,” a flicker of gratification and emotion crossed his father’s eyes as he gently patted Lin Haoran’s shoulder.

“My son has really grown up,” his mother said, crying tears of joy.

Chapter 14: Lin Haoran’s Acquisition Target

Companionship is always fleeting.

The next morning, after having breakfast with his parents, Lin Haoran left the Lin family villa and drove alone to Causeway Bay.

In Causeway Bay, Lin Haoran picked up the two brothers, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, before heading to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in Central.

It’s worth mentioning that in the 1970s, Hong Kong’s stock market was quite complex and somewhat chaotic. The Far East Exchange, the Kam Ngan Stock Exchange, the Kowloon Stock Exchange, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange formed a four-way rivalry, each occupying its own territory.

Among these four, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was one of the oldest and, at the time, the most powerful. It became the preferred choice for many British-funded enterprises to go public, providing them with a crucial platform for financing and market opportunities.

All of Lin Haoran’s target companies were listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

At 8:30 a.m., Lin Haoran arrived outside the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and saw Su Zhixue waiting for him.

Su Zhixue had actually arrived at eight. The moment he got home yesterday, he couldn’t contain his excitement and immediately told his wife the good news about the medical fees being covered.

Hearing this, his wife was overcome with joy, even shedding tears of excitement. She firmly reminded Su Zhixue to do everything for Lin Haoran with the utmost dedication.

To their family, Lin Haoran, by lending them the money for the medical expenses, was their savior.

“Chairman Lin, you’re here.” Seeing Lin Haoran, Su Zhixue greeted him with a mix of nervousness and anticipation.

“Yes. Just call me President Lin from now on.”

“President Lin, what do you need me to do?”

“Come with me first. I’ll arrange to give you the money you urgently need after work this afternoon.”

“Okay, President Lin. Thank you so much.”

Lin Haoran didn’t rush into the exchange. Instead, he went to a commercial building next to it.

This commercial building specialized in leasing small offices, with each floor divided into many small units.

“What are the rates for renting an office?” Lin Haoran asked the staff in the leasing office.

“Boss, we have offices from one hundred to two thousand square feet. The price is based on the square footage…”

In the end, Lin Haoran rented a small, two-hundred-square-foot office, which was less than twenty square meters.

He had no intention of renting a large space; it was unnecessary. This small office was enough.

As for the all-important landline, the office already had one that was just disconnected. He only needed to reactivate the service to use it.

The office came with basic chairs and desks, so there was no need to purchase anything else.

“Zhixue, you’ll be working in this office from now on. Your responsibilities are very clear. As my personal stock trader, your daily work will revolve around gathering stock market information, analyzing data, and executing trades. Simply put, I’ll tell you what stocks to buy, when to buy, and when to sell. You just need to execute my instructions precisely,” Lin Haoran said to Su Zhixue, his gaze steady as he sat in an office chair.

“Understood, President Lin.”

Hearing this, a weight lifted from Su Zhixue’s shoulders, and a look of relief washed over his face. This work was familiar to him; he had ample experience and was confident he could handle it well.

“There’s another important matter. Everything you do here must be kept strictly confidential. You cannot reveal it to anyone, not even the person closest to you—your wife—or my father. Not a single word,” President Lin said, his tone serious and leaving no room for argument.

This was the most crucial point. He didn’t want news of his covert stock acquisitions to be leaked.

“Rest assured, President Lin. I will not leak any information. It’s a rule in our industry. If we casually leak information, it’s very difficult for us to survive in this business,” Su Zhixue guaranteed.

Of course, Lin Haoran believed he could do it. After all, his Loyalty was at one hundred percent. If he couldn’t even trust him, Lin Haoran wouldn’t know who to trust.

“Alright, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange should be opening soon. Let’s head out.” After handing him the office key, Lin Haoran stood up and walked out.

It was now 9:30 a.m., and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s trading hours were from 9:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

After leaving the commercial building, the group headed straight for the trading floor of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The fifty-million-Hong-Kong-dollar loan hadn’t been approved yet, so he wasn’t in a hurry to make large-scale trades.

The primary task now was to understand the Hong Kong stock market and his targets within it.

Lin Haoran currently had nearly two million Hong Kong dollars in disposable funds. In addition to the one point two million Hong Kong dollars transferred from the Huafeng Cement Factory’s finances, he also had several hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars in his own personal savings account.

Two million Hong Kong dollars was a considerable sum. If a good opportunity arose, it could be used to tide him over until the loan came through.

Lin Haoran led Su Zhixue into the trading floor. It wasn’t very crowded at this time; the number of individual investors wasn’t much greater than the number of traders in their uniform red vests.

The existence of Hong Kong’s four major stock exchanges undoubtedly dispersed the foot traffic here.

Furthermore, major clients preferred to maintain a low profile and efficiency. They usually didn’t appear in person, instead directing their trades remotely by phone, controlling the entire board with ease.

After a lap around the trading floor, Lin Haoran lost interest.

Large transactions didn’t need to be conducted on the trading floor anyway.

Subsequently, Lin Haoran quickly and discreetly registered several stock accounts in his own name. The establishment of these accounts would facilitate his personal investment activities in the stock market.

Once that was taken care of, Lin Haoran and Su Zhixue left the trading floor and returned to the newly rented office.

“Zhixue, I need you to start by gathering stock market information on Kowloon Wharf and Green Island Cement. It’s for my use. I need particularly detailed information on Green Island Cement,” Lin Haoran instructed directly upon returning to the office.

That’s right. Besides Kowloon Wharf, his other target was Green Island Cement.

As he recalled, Li Ka-shing had started acquiring Green Island Cement after giving up on Kowloon Wharf. It should have been in 1978—this very year. He wasn’t yet sure if Li Ka-shing had already initiated his acquisition plan for Green Island Cement.

If the acquisition hadn’t begun, then this was an opportunity he couldn’t afford to miss.

Lin Haoran was quite certain that Li Ka-shing hadn’t made a move on Green Island Cement yet, as it hadn’t been long since Cheung Kong Holdings had just abandoned its bid for Kowloon Wharf.

For him at this stage, Green Island Cement was the perfect investment target.

Buying Kowloon Wharf shares was merely to profit from the rising stock price. With his current capabilities, he was not yet in a position to acquire a behemoth like Kowloon Wharf, which had a market capitalization in the billions of Hong Kong dollars.

But when it came to buying Green Island Cement shares, his goal was to acquire the company itself.

Like Huafeng Cement Factory, this company’s main business was the production and sale of cement.

The difference was that Green Island Cement was the oldest and largest cement factory in Hong Kong.

Since he had to compete with his elder brother for the inheritance of Wan’an Group, if he could take over Hong Kong’s largest cement factory and become the controlling shareholder of this listed company, he’d like to see what his brother, Lin Haoning, would have to compete with him.

Besides, the competition was secondary. The land held by Green Island Cement was what he valued most.

As far as Lin Haoran knew, Green Island Cement not only had a strong business foundation but also seemed to hold a significant amount of urban coastal land, which was precisely why Li Ka-shing had targeted it later on.

The largest source of income for Wan’an Group was real estate, meaning Wan’an Group’s primary business was property development.

If he took control of Green Island Cement, then after he became the heir to Wan’an Group, Wan’an Group could collaborate with Green Island Cement to jointly develop real estate.

Chapter 15: The Investigation’s Unexpected Results

As a professional, Su Zhixue naturally knew the process of obtaining stock information inside and out.

Soon, he was busily making calls in the office.

Lin Haoran was in no hurry. He picked up a newspaper and started to read.

He had bought the paper at a roadside newsstand on his way back. It was the Hong Kong Economic Times.

As expected, the paper had a report on Kowloon Wharf.

Just as he’d thought, after Shipping Magnate Pao announced to the public that he had no intention of purchasing more Kowloon Wharf shares, the stock price immediately fell from its high of 49 Hong Kong dollars, and the trading volume plummeted as well.

Shipping Magnate Pao had acquired his shares from Li Ka-shing directly, not by buying them on the stock market, so the public naturally believed him.

Consequently, with no easy profits to be made and the speculators gone, the stock price was bound to plummet.

According to the article, Kowloon Wharf’s closing price yesterday had already dropped to 38 Hong Kong dollars per share, a very significant decline, but the trading volume was low.

In the current market, sell orders had increased significantly. Many of them came from retail investors who had listed their shares in a hurry due to delayed information or misinterpreting market signals. In market fluctuations, they often became “leeks” to be harvested.

The average investor’s tendency to chase highs and buy in, while born from a desire for profit, often overlooks the complexity and risks lurking behind the market.

This behavioral pattern leads them to buy in at market peaks, and when the tide turns, they can hardly escape the fate of being “harvested” by market makers or other market forces.

Lin Haoran looked at the stock price and furrowed his brow.

38 Hong Kong dollars per share was still far from the lowest price.

However, the fifty million Hong Kong dollar loan hadn’t arrived yet, so there was no rush to enter the market for Kowloon Wharf.

Since transmigrating, he’d been pleasantly surprised to discover that not only had he gained a special ability to perceive Loyalty, but his memory had also miraculously improved, granting him the extraordinary ability of a photographic memory.

Articles he had read and materials he had flipped through in his past life now reappeared in his mind with perfect clarity, as if he had just seen them yesterday.

He had paid attention to articles about a famous company like Kowloon Wharf in his previous life.

This was why he had formulated a plan after seeing the news about Kowloon Wharf.

As he recalled, not long after Shipping Magnate Pao’s announcement, Kowloon Wharf’s stock price had fallen sharply, hitting a low of 21 Hong Kong dollars per share.

So, the Kowloon Wharf stock had not yet hit rock bottom.

His current strategy for Kowloon Wharf was to remain calm and observe, focusing mainly on its price fluctuations.

He understood that in the stock market, timing was often more important than selection.

Therefore, he was not in a hurry to act, instead patiently waiting for the price to fall to a level he considered reasonable or undervalued.

To maximize his profit from this investment, he had to control his costs at the time of purchase—that is, to lower his average acquisition price as much as possible.

To do this, he planned to gradually build his position when market sentiment was pessimistic and the stock price was under pressure, using the market’s volatility to reduce his holding cost.

Putting down the newspaper, Lin Haoran sat in his chair and waited for Su Zhixue’s investigation results.

After a few more minutes, Su Zhixue finally put down the telephone receiver.

His notebook in front of him was filled with text and data.

“President Lin, I’ve found the information you needed,” Su Zhixue said, looking up at Lin Haoran.

“Good. Give me your report. I’m listening,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

“First, Kowloon Wharf. The stock has been very volatile recently. It previously rose to a high of 49 Hong Kong dollars per share and is currently in a downtrend. Yesterday’s closing price was 38.56 Hong Kong dollars per share, a 23% drop from the previous day. After the market opened today, the price quickly fell again. The latest news I received is that the most recent transaction price is 34.23 Hong Kong dollars per share, and the trading volume is not very high.

“Regarding Green Island Cement, I’ve followed this stock for a long time, so I’m quite familiar with it. Its price has been relatively stable for a long time. The current controlling shareholder is British, and the largest shareholder holds 12.6% of the stock. Based on its current price, the company’s total market capitalization is around 238 million Hong Kong dollars. Compared to the same period last year, the price increase is not significant.

“However, I previously found some information indicating that Green Island Cement not only has a strong business foundation but also owns eight hundred thousand square feet of waterfront land in Hung Hom, Kowloon. Based on current land prices, this plot is worth at least five hundred million Hong Kong dollars. And that doesn’t even include the valuation of their complete industrial chain. It’s safe to say Green Island Cement’s stock is severely undervalued.

“There’s a significant gap between Green Island Cement’s stock price and its actual value. This could be due to the market’s lack of awareness about the company, conservative investor estimates of its future prospects, or other market factors.

“Currently, there are quite a few sell orders for Green Island Cement on the stock market, but the asking prices are stable. The price hasn’t collapsed despite the number of sell orders.

“The latest transaction price for Green Island Cement was 4.76 Hong Kong dollars per share…”

Su Zhixue gave Lin Haoran a detailed report of the information he knew and what he had found in his investigation.

A market cap of over two hundred million Hong Kong dollars?

This was somewhat unexpected for Lin Haoran. He had thought Green Island Cement was just a cement factory; a market cap of one hundred million would have been impressive. He never imagined it would exceed two hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

In his past life, the story of Li Ka-shing’s acquisition of Green Island Cement was only mentioned in passing in related materials. It was never elaborated upon, and there were no detailed records of the acquisition process.

In contrast, the merger and acquisition histories of large, influential corporations like Kowloon Wharf, Hutchison Whampoa, and the Hongkong Electric Group were meticulously documented, with every step clearly recorded.

This was only logical. After all, compared to industry giants like Kowloon Wharf and Hutchison Whampoa, Green Island Cement couldn’t hold a candle in terms of scale and influence.

Still, considering Green Island Cement owned such a large piece of land in a central area like Hung Hom, a market cap of over two hundred million Hong Kong dollars was a real bargain.

No wonder Li Ka-shing would later set his sights on this company.

The British-funded enterprises of this era were indeed ripe for acquisition.

Take Kowloon Wharf, which was currently causing a stir in the stock market. Based on its actual valuation, its market cap could reach four to five billion Hong Kong dollars, making it an absolute behemoth of a company.

Yet, from the end of last year to the beginning of this year, Kowloon Wharf’s stock had languished between 13 and 14 Hong Kong dollars per share. With about one hundred million total shares, its market cap fluctuated around just 1.4 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Therefore, this phenomenon—where a company’s stock market capitalization was far below its actual value, resulting in severe undervaluation—was not uncommon in Hong Kong, especially among enterprises controlled by British-funded conglomerates.

This was why British-funded enterprises would later be constantly targeted, nibbled away, and eventually swallowed up by Chinese-funded conglomerates.

“Go to the stock exchange and get me the stock transaction records for Green Island Cement for the last six months. I’ll wait for you here.” Lin Haoran didn’t rush Su Zhixue into action but gave another instruction.

“Yes, President Lin. I’ll go right away. Please wait a moment.” After acknowledging the order, Su Zhixue quickly left.

About ten minutes later, Su Zhixue returned.

In his hand were several A4 pages stapled together, covered in data.

“President Lin, this is the daily trading data for Green Island Cement for the last six months. I got it through a contact I know at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.” Su Zhixue handed the A4 papers to Lin Haoran.

Chapter 16: Making a Move

The reason Lin Haoran had asked Su Zhixue to get the last six months of stock transaction records for Green Island Cement was to see if Li Ka-shing had made a move on the company yet.

Due to his lack of knowledge about Green Island Cement in his past life, he didn’t know the exact date Li Ka-shing began to take action. Therefore, these transaction records became the key basis for him to assess the current situation and understand market dynamics.

However, he knew that Li Ka-shing had likely started his covert move on Green Island Cement in late 1978. That year, he had acquired almost twenty-five percent of the company’s stock with incredible speed, becoming a major shareholder and receiving an invitation from the board to become a company director.

If trading of Green Island Cement stock had suddenly seen an abnormal increase, it would undoubtedly mean Li Ka-shing had begun to act. As far as Lin Haoran knew, Li Ka-shing’s secret acquisition had gone very smoothly, with no other forces standing in his way.

Although Li Ka-shing had lost the possibility of acquiring Kowloon Wharf, he had made a hefty profit of nearly sixty million Hong Kong dollars by selling his shares to Shipping Magnate Pao.

Therefore, Li Ka-shing’s cash flow was currently very strong.

He took the stock transaction records and quickly scanned the data.

His primary focus was the daily trading volume.

Soon, he finished reviewing the records.

Afterward, Lin Haoran breathed a sigh of relief.

Judging from the data, Li Ka-shing hadn’t made a move on Green Island Cement yet, as the daily trading volume was not particularly high.

With this, he could rest easy.

However, Lin Haoran also knew that he had to act fast, as it was already September.

It would be best to become Green Island Cement’s largest shareholder before Li Ka-shing made his move, making it difficult for him to acquire shares on the stock market.

As for the potential issue of insufficient funds, Lin Haoran wasn’t considering it for the time being.

Once the fifty million Hong Kong dollars arrived, he wouldn’t worry about running out of money, at least not until that amount was spent.

What if there wasn’t enough capital for the Kowloon Wharf deal after that? He would naturally find a way to raise more funds when the time came.

Putting down the transaction records, Lin Haoran looked at Su Zhixue, who was sitting beside him.

“Boss, please give me my orders,” Su Zhixue said, understanding that an assignment was coming.

“If I were to ask you to secretly acquire Green Island Cement’s stock, without letting anyone find out and without driving the price up too much—keeping it stable at its current level—would that be difficult for you?” Lin Haoran asked.

“President Lin, rest assured, a task like this is not difficult for me at all. In fact, it’s what I specialize in,” Su Zhixue replied, a confident look on his face.

“Good. Starting immediately, I need you to devote all your efforts to acquiring as much Green Island Cement stock as possible, with no upper limit. But you must ensure the entire process is conducted in secret, so the outside world doesn’t notice our actions. At the same time, the price must remain stable during the acquisition to avoid market fluctuations, and the acquisition pace must be efficient. Are you confident you can complete this task?” Lin Haoran continued, his tone serious and intent.

“I am!”

“I’ve linked my stock trading account to my bank card. Currently, there’s a little over one million Hong Kong dollars in the account as starting capital. Once these funds are used up, I’ll add more as soon as possible. My goal is to become the number one shareholder of Green Island Cement, and I hope to achieve this quickly, preferably within a month.

“I understand that other business owners have shown a strong interest in this stock, and they might take action in the next month or two. Therefore, we must race against time to acquire as many shares as we can before they do. This is a difficult task, but I have faith in your abilities. I hope you’ll give it your all and live up to my trust!” Lin Haoran instructed sternly.

“President Lin, regarding Green Island Cement’s stock, I’ve always firmly believed in its immense potential. I once presented my views to my former company, but unfortunately, when the message reached the Chairman of the Board, it didn’t receive enough attention and was never pursued further.

“This caused me to halt my in-depth research on the company. Now, seeing how highly you regard this stock, President Lin, I feel greatly invigorated.

“Please rest assured, President Lin. I will use all my resources and work with all my might to serve you and ensure our goal is successfully achieved!” Su Zhixue was full of confidence. He never expected that his boss would have his eye on the same stock—he had found a kindred spirit!

“Your tasks don’t stop there. Later, when Kowloon Wharf’s stock price falls to a certain level, I’ll have you make a move there as well. At that point, you might have to handle two stocks simultaneously,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Considering the current situation, he really should hire one or two more stock traders, and a team would be even better. But if their loyalty was low, his plans could be leaked. Whether the news reached Lin Wan’an’s ears or was spread to the public, it would significantly impact his subsequent actions. Lin Haoran didn’t want to take that risk, so for now, he could only have Su Zhixue handle it alone.

Besides, from the looks of it, it would still be some time before Kowloon Wharf’s stock price hit the low he remembered. At the very least, it probably wouldn’t bottom out before the fifty million Hong Kong dollars arrived.

Therefore, for the time being, Su Zhixue only needed to deal with the Green Island Cement stock.

As for Kowloon Wharf, Lin Haoran would also be paying close attention; he wasn’t just going to sit back and do nothing.

“Handling two stocks at once will be a bit of pressure for me, but I will do my absolute best for you, President Lin, and achieve the goals you’ve set!” Lin Haoran was his benefactor, so Su Zhixue had already decided to help his boss to the best of his ability.

“Alright, that’s enough talk for now. You can get to work,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Yes, Boss!” Receiving his orders, Su Zhixue immediately got busy.

Lin Haoran was taking a gamble.

He was betting that Li Ka-shing wouldn’t make a move on Green Island Cement within the next one or two months.

He was betting that Li Ka-shing would only act at the end of the year.

If he won the bet, he would have the chance to control the largest cement company in Hong Kong.

If he lost the bet, he could still sell his shares to Li Ka-shing and profit from the price difference.

Win or lose, he wouldn’t come out at a loss!

And so, he had set his sights on Green Island Cement.

Watching Su Zhixue’s busy figure, Lin Haoran stayed in the office for a few more minutes before leaving.

He had things to do as well.

For instance, monitoring the stock market activity for Kowloon Wharf.

At this moment, he felt that what he lacked most was perhaps a team to gather intelligence, analyze information and data, and conduct research for him.

If only he had a think tank that could investigate any piece of business intelligence for him.

Perhaps then, he could use that intelligence to understand what Cheung Kong Holdings was up to.

Unfortunately, he was still too weak and lacked the ability to form his own think tank.

Chapter 17: The First Day’s Results

The Wan’an Group did have a think tank, but it served his father, Lin Wan’an.

Lin Haoran could borrow them, but he knew that as soon as he tasked them with anything, they would immediately report everything to his father, Lin Wan’an.

That wasn’t what Lin Haoran wanted to see.

So, for now, he had to handle intelligence gathering himself. He would just investigate as much as he could.

In any case, his requirements weren’t too high. His focus was very specific, currently revolving around the two stocks: Green Island Cement and Kowloon Wharf.

Throughout the day, Su Zhixue was busy quietly acquiring Green Island Cement stock.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran shuttled between the stock exchange trading floor and the Wan’an Group Building.

Although he couldn’t use the Wan’an Group’s personnel for the time being, he could rely on its data to learn more details about Green Island Cement and Kowloon Wharf. These were available resources that shouldn’t be wasted.

Soon, it was four in the afternoon, which was also the closing time for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

When the closing bell rang, Lin Haoran left the trading floor.

He needed to return to his office to see how Su Zhixue had fared on his first day.

Back in the office, he saw Su Zhixue pressing a calculator with his left hand and writing something with a pen in his right.

Hearing the door open, Su Zhixue looked up and said, “President Lin, please wait a moment while I tally the data.”

Lin Haoran nodded, not in a hurry.

After a little while, Su Zhixue stopped his work.

“President Lin, hello! I’m here to report on today’s trading summary. Today, my main strategy was to use an exploratory buying approach by controlling several stock accounts, focusing on capturing trading opportunities at or below 4.9 Hong Kong dollars. By making purchases in batches and intermittently, I successfully acquired a total of 106,700 shares of the stock, costing a total of approximately 510,000 Hong Kong dollars.

Because I adopted a dispersed trading method, I effectively avoided any significant market fluctuations, maintaining market stability.

Tomorrow, I will continue to assess and try to probe the stock’s price ceiling. Combining this with my personal market experience, I will formulate a more precise operational plan and also speed up the acquisition rate.

My goal for tomorrow is to spend all the remaining funds in your account, President Lin, converting it all into Green Island Cement stock. Please rest assured, I will continuously monitor market dynamics and flexibly adjust my strategy to ensure every step meets your requirements.

Here are the records of every transaction. Please take a look.”

As Su Zhixue reported his results to Lin Haoran, he handed over the notebook in his hand.

Lin Haoran nodded and took the notebook.

Judging from the trading data, not many shares were acquired today, as it was mainly an exploratory effort.

However, Lin Haoran could see that Su Zhixue had demonstrated extreme caution and strategic acumen in his acquisitions.

He traded in small, separate batches, avoiding a direct impact on the market. It was as if the 500,000 Hong Kong dollars had been a small pebble dropped into the stock market, barely causing any noticeable ripples.

This method not only reflected Su Zhixue’s deep understanding of the stock market but also showcased his stability and composure as a professional investor.

He had made the right choice in hiring this subordinate.

However, Lin Haoran realized that he was now facing a very critical issue: a lack of funds.

According to Yang Changdao, the funds from Bumiputra Finance would normally take about a week to arrive.

But today was only the second day, meaning he might have to wait another five days for the fifty million Hong Kong dollar loan to be deposited.

And he had only injected one and a half million Hong Kong dollars into the stock account.

This meant that, based on what Su Zhixue said, it was highly likely the remaining one million Hong Kong dollars would be spent by tomorrow.

It was a pity the documents for the Huafeng Cement Factory were currently mortgaged with Bumiputra Finance; otherwise, Lin Haoran would have considered getting a second mortgage.

Fortunately, today was already Thursday, and the weekend was just one day away. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange would be closed on the weekend, so it wouldn’t affect him much.

If Bumiputra Finance could get the funds to him by next Monday, there would be no impact at all.

But Yang Changdao had said it would take a week, which meant the earliest would be next Tuesday.

It seemed he would have to call Yang Changdao tonight and urge him.

Lin Haoran was unwilling to wait, because he knew time waited for no one.

He wasn’t in a hurry with Kowloon Wharf, because it would take time for its stock price to fall to the bottom price he knew of—a process that would take at least two to three weeks, or even longer.

But he had to acquire Green Island Cement’s stock as soon as possible.

Otherwise, Cheung Kong Holdings Group could suddenly intervene at any time.

Compared to Cheung Kong Holdings Group, his funds were nothing. So, if they got involved while his holdings in Green Island Cement were still small, his operation would be a failure.

Green Island Cement was a high-quality enterprise that could develop well in conjunction with the Wan’an Group in the future, so he was unwilling to give it up just like that.

For now, he couldn’t acquire behemoths like Kowloon Wharf or Hutchison Whampoa.

But he still had a very good chance with Green Island Cement.

As long as he made a profit from Kowloon Wharf, he would have the money to repay the loan when it was due. By then, he would also be left with a major shareholder’s stake in Green Island Cement.

Therefore, he had to find a way to get another sum of money now.

Lin Haoran didn’t want the Green Island Cement project to fail. After all, it was the first project he had put into action since he transmigrated.

Green Island Cement was crucial to his future plans and couldn’t be missed.

If he couldn’t even handle Green Island Cement, how could he face behemoths like Hutchison Whampoa and Jardine Matheson in the future!

“Zhixue, you’ve worked hard today. Write me an IOU, and I’ll go with you to get two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars for you later,” Lin Haoran said to Su Zhixue with a smile.

He knew Su Zhixue must have been waiting for this for a long time.

After depositing one and a half million Hong Kong dollars into the stock account, he now only had a little over three hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars left on hand.

This amount wouldn’t affect the big picture.

Therefore, lending two hundred thousand to Su Zhixue would have no impact whatsoever.

“Boss, I’ve already raised several tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars. If you could just lend me one hundred and thirty thousand, that would be enough,” Su Zhixue said, waving his hands repeatedly when he heard Lin Haoran mention two hundred thousand.

“Don’t worry, I won’t charge you interest, so it won’t be an extra burden. I know some of the money you’ve raised was borrowed from others. You have to pay them back sooner or later, so you should return their money first. Besides, you need to live.

“Stick with me. As long as you do a good job, I’ll have you earning two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars soon enough. I never mistreat my loyal subordinates. How much you earn next depends on your performance. If you do well, I’ll give you a bonus on top of your five thousand Hong Kong dollars a month.

“So just borrow the two hundred thousand for now. Work hard, and life will get better and better. You have to believe that besides the darkness in this world, there is also light!” Lin Haoran patted Su Zhixue’s shoulder, giving him no chance to refuse.

Su Zhixue was deeply moved. His eyes reddened slightly as he said in a low but firm voice, “President Lin, please rest assured. I will give it my all and will not fail to live up to your expectations and trust!”

At that moment, if the maximum loyalty wasn’t one hundred percent, his gauge would have probably gone up.

Half an hour later, Su Zhixue had the two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars he needed.

Chapter 18: Smoother Than Imagined

After saying goodbye to Su Zhixue, Lin Haoran returned to his office.

He glanced at his watch. It was only five in the afternoon, still early. Yang Changdao was sure to be at his company at this hour.

Sure enough, when he called Yang Changdao’s office, the other man picked up after just a few moments.

“Uncle Yang, it’s Lin Haoran.” Lin Haoran stated his identity as soon as the call connected.

“Ah, Haoran. What can I do for you?” Hearing Lin Haoran’s voice, Yang Changdao asked curiously.

“I wanted to check on the progress of the loan,” Lin Haoran asked directly.

“Haoran, you can’t rush this. I just finished organizing the documents today and haven’t submitted them yet. According to the normal procedure, after I submit the paperwork, Bank Bumiputra’s headquarters will send their Hong Kong investigation team to look into your situation. Once the investigation results are out, the headquarters will review them. If it’s approved, they’ll disburse the funds. All of this takes time. Normally, the funds will arrive between next Tuesday and Wednesday.”

“Uncle Yang, to be honest, I need the money urgently to buy shares in that listed company. Is there any way to speed up the disbursement?” Lin Haoran pressed.

Yang Changdao mulled it over for a moment before replying, “Speeding up the disbursement is indeed a bit difficult, especially for a loan of fifty million Hong Kong dollars. The head office will naturally pay close attention.

However, given your situation, I do have a suggestion. I can forge a letter of guarantee from Mr. Lin Wan’an. The investigation team is full of my people, so I can ensure they’ll handle it properly and won’t actually bother Mr. Lin Wan’an.

But you must remember, if this guarantee were to leak, you need to ensure Mr. Lin Wan’an acknowledges its validity. This is crucial for the process to go smoothly; otherwise, it would be bad for both of us.

With a guarantee in Mr. Lin Wan’an’s name, I’ll mark it as an urgent request. Once the internal review is complete, the bank manager might be able to use his special approval authority to move the disbursement date up significantly. If everything goes well, we might be able to get the funds as early as this weekend.”

“Will your head office, Bank Bumiputra, call my father to investigate? I don’t want him to actually find out about this,” Lin Haoran voiced his concern to Yang Changdao.

“You don’t have to worry about that, Haoran. The head office doesn’t really understand the specifics of the situation here in Hong Kong; they don’t meddle in local affairs. All investigation work is handed over to a professional team dispatched by the head office, and the head of that team and I are as close as brothers. We have a deep bond and have each other’s backs. I don’t mind telling you, I have to split that five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollar commission with him. So, your concerns are completely unnecessary. We’ll handle everything perfectly!” Yang Changdao said with utter confidence.

From Yang Changdao’s words, Lin Haoran could tell that for the “commission” of five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, Yang Changdao was truly going all out, using every resource and pulling every string to expedite the loan approval.

However, Lin Haoran also keenly sensed that Yang Changdao’s unscrupulous, profit-driven methods would likely be his own undoing in the long run.

After this deal, he had no intention of getting too involved with Yang Changdao again.

Hong Kong was a fertile ground for finance, with numerous banking-related enterprises. Especially after the Hong Kong government issued more licenses, even more international financial firms would enter the market. As he gradually made a name for himself in the business world, he would naturally have more legitimate and reliable channels for future financial needs like loans.

Keeping a clear head and choosing partners carefully was the path Lin Haoran had to walk in the future.

For now, this was a matter of necessity. Besides Bumiputra Finance, it was impossible for him to get a fifty million Hong Kong dollar loan approved anywhere else.

In a way, Lin Haoran’s move was a clever exploitation of Yang Changdao’s greed.

He had already calculated the potential future variables.

Even if Yang Changdao was exposed for some reason, Lin Haoran wasn’t overly worried.

He knew he was merely following the normal loan procedure; everything else was being handled by Yang Changdao and had nothing to do with him.

He planned to pay the five hundred thousand dollar commission he had proposed in cash, which would leave no evidence.

As long as he repaid the loan on time in a year, everything would be fine.

As for whether his father would find out, Lin Haoran had already considered it.

In his view, people like Yang Changdao would never volunteer such information, meaning he wouldn’t have to worry for at least a year.

By the time the truth came out, he would have already established a firm foothold in the business world and achieved considerable success.

By then, he would have the strength and confidence to face any challenge, including questions or doubts from his father.

Besides, his father had always doted on him. He might have even inherited the Chairman’s position at Wan’an Group by that point.

Therefore, he was rather unconcerned about it.

“In that case, I’ll have to trouble you with this, Uncle Yang. I’ll be waiting for your good news.” Lin Haoran hung up, satisfied.

Things were going much smoother than he’d imagined. He had only been trying his luck.

Leaving the office, Lin Haoran took the two brothers, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, and prepared to head straight back to the Deep Water Bay villa.

After his memories merged, he had completely accepted everything about this world, including family and friendship.

So, while he wasn’t yet busy, he decided he should go back and spend more time with his parents whenever he had the chance.

The previous night, Lin Haoran had already asked his father if he could bring the Li brothers back to stay. There was room for them on the first floor of the Lin family villa anyway.

Otherwise, he couldn’t just keep them in a hotel forever.

How could they protect him like that?

In this chaotic society, even a rich man’s son like him could easily become a target for unscrupulous individuals. Kidnappings were all too common, and one had to be on guard.

With Li Weiguo and Li Weidong by his side, he would be much safer.

The car left Central and headed for Deep Water Bay, passing through a stretch of winding mountain roads along the way.

In this era, the Aberdeen Tunnel was not yet complete, so the road to Deep Water Bay was still inconvenient, with no direct express route.

Because of this, Deep Water Bay had managed to retain a rare and precious tranquility and seclusion. It was like an isolated pearl, far from the hustle and bustle of the city, exceptionally serene. It was this unique charm that attracted the favor of many tycoons, making it their ideal sanctuary.

“Weiguo, Weidong, do you know how to drive a car?” Lin Haoran asked as he drove on the way back.

“Young Master, I’ve never even touched a steering wheel, but my big brother has driven a tractor, so he should have some of the basics,” Li Weidong answered quickly.

“How about this: tomorrow, I’ll find a place for you to practice. Take some time to practice driving and get your licenses,” Lin Haoran said directly.

It always felt a bit backward and unnatural for the boss to be driving his own bodyguards.

Chapter 19: Are You Really Not Going to Handle Things Over There?

In the blink of an eye, another day passed.

Today was Friday, September 7th, 1978.

That morning, Lin Haoran left the house early as usual.

Upon ariving near Central, he immediately enrolled the brothers Li Weiguo and Li Weidong in a driving school, then left them there to learn how to drive.

Recalling all the hardships and tedious procedures of getting his own driver’s license in his past life, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a wave of emotion.

Compared to the complexity and difficulty of that time, the process of obtaining a license in this era was clearly much simpler and more direct.

The driving school staff told him that as long as the students studied diligently and followed the required training and examination procedures, they could get their licenses in as little as ten days.

After taking care of matters for Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, Lin Haoran drove back to his office building alone.

Su Zhixue had also arrived on time for work.

With the previous day’s experience trading Green Island Cement stock, Su Zhixue’s work was noticeably more relaxed today.

He worked even more diligently for Lin Haoran, especially now that he no longer had to worry about his son’s treatment costs.

Lin Haoran didn’t need to worry too much about Green Island Cement; his attention was more focused on the Kowloon Wharf stock.

After two days of steep declines, Kowloon Wharf’s fall had clearly started to stabilize.

Although it was still dropping, it wasn’t a nosedive. Instead, amid the decline, there were occasional buy orders, causing Kowloon Wharf’s share price to rise slightly again.

Soon, it was four o’clock in the afternoon.

The closing bell of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange rang from the hall nearby, audible even in Lin Haoran’s office.

The stock market’s trading hours for the day had ended.

Lin Haoran, who had been paying close attention to Kowloon Wharf, knew that its closing price today had settled at 29.97 Hong Kong dollars per share.

It had dropped compared to yesterday, but not by much.

Naturally, he had no plans to buy in yet. After all, the fifty million Hong Kong dollars hadn’t arrived.

But he wasn’t worried, because Lin Haoran knew that Kowloon Wharf’s stock price still had some room to fall.

“President Lin, here is my trading summary for today: I successfully acquired a total of 201,200 shares of Green Island Cement, at an average transaction price of 4.78 Hong Kong dollars per share, for a total expenditure of approximately 960,000 Hong Kong dollars.

As of now, our total holdings in Green Island Cement have reached 307,900 shares, which is about 0.6 percent of the company’s total share capital.

During today’s operations, given the funds available in the stock account, I was unable to accelerate the acquisition speed further. If you wish to speed up the process in future trading days, President Lin, I am ready to adjust my strategy at any time, but only on the condition that there are sufficient funds in the account to support such an operation. Please arrange for the transfer of funds as you see fit, so we can respond flexibly to market changes,” Su Zhixue reported immediately after tallying up the day’s results.

Lin Haoran nodded, quite satisfied with the day’s performance.

Only 0.6 percent, not even one percent. Our work is far from over, and we must press on!

He knew in his heart that this was mainly due to the current lack of funds, which made Su Zhixue unable to speed up acquisitions even if he wanted to.

Once the funds were sufficient, the pace of acquisition could be increased.

Su Zhixue had spent nearly all the money in the account.

If not for the lack of funds, he could have actually acquired shares faster today.

“You don’t need to worry about the funds. I’ll make sure everything is ready before the next business day. By then, the account will be more than well-funded. You can go all out to acquire Green Island Cement shares as quickly as possible without alerting the market. I urgently need us to control more of the company’s shares and become their major shareholder as soon as possible!” Lin Haoran said in a serious tone.

Since Yang Changdao was certain the funds would arrive by the weekend, there shouldn’t be any problems.

In that case, Monday’s trading would naturally not be delayed.

“Understood, President Lin!” Su Zhixue said with a nod.

“Since the medical fees have been covered, you should take advantage of this weekend to arrange your son’s surgery as soon as possible. I know his condition shouldn’t be delayed. The sooner the treatment, the lower the risk, and the sooner your family can be at ease. I believe that after this surgery, your son will recover quickly! Keep it up. Your family will get through this difficult time,” Lin Haoran said with concern and encouragement.

“Thank you for your concern, President Lin.” At the mention of this topic, Su Zhixue’s eyes reddened slightly, and his voice choked with emotion.

This debt of gratitude was far beyond what words could express. The only way he could repay Lin Haoran’s expectations and kindness was to work even harder.

For now, Lin Haoran didn’t have much work to do, as it was mainly centered around the two stocks, Green Island Cement and Kowloon Wharf.

So, after the stock market closed, he simply let Su Zhixue go home.

As for himself, he took the brothers Li Weidong and Li Weiguo to the Wan’an Group.

Over the past few days, the two brothers had gradually adapted to life in Hong Kong and had thoroughly integrated into society.

Lin Haoran also noticed that Li Weiguo’s loyalty had, at some point, surpassed 90 and reached 92.

Li Weidong’s loyalty had reached as high as 96, not far from a full 100.

This was to be expected. After all, Lin Haoran was not only their savior but had also given them a good life. It would be strange if their loyalty didn’t increase.

Arriving at the Wan’an Group Building, Lin Haoran went straight to the Chairman’s office.

“You brat, are you really not going to handle things over at the Huafeng Cement Factory?”

Seeing his son, Lin Wan’an’s eyes held a hint of inquiry and curiosity, as he mistakenly thought Lin Haoran had completely given up on the competition.

“The original factory manager is handling things at the Huafeng Cement Factory, so there’s not much for me to manage. They were doing a good job before. The factory’s performance only declined recently because their old clients were constantly being poached. I don’t need to interfere too much. I have my own ideas.

Besides, Dad, there’s something I want to tell you. I don’t need Lin Yi, Lin Er, Lin San, and Lin Si working for me anymore. Please assign them to other posts,” Lin Haoran said directly.

Lin Wan’an frowned upon hearing this. He misunderstood and thought Lin Haoran was dissatisfied with the four men’s performance, blaming them for the poor management of the Huafeng Cement Factory.

He said in a patient tone, “Haoran, these four men each have their own strengths. Perhaps you haven’t fully discovered their potential yet. Why not give them some more time and a chance?”

Lin Haoran shook his head gently and explained, “Dad, you’ve misunderstood. It’s not that they’re incapable. They worked quite well for my older brother before. I’ve thought it over and decided it’s better for everyone if they return to their original posts. I have my own development plans, and I don’t need them to be part of them for now.”

Lin Haoran didn’t want to explain too much at the moment, as he had no proof.

In the future, once he had established himself, finding evidence would be as easy as flipping his hand.

Rather than letting them stay and cause trouble, it was better to send them all back to Lin Haoning.

Seeing Lin Haoran’s firm attitude and the confidence and planning his words conveyed, Lin Wan’an no longer insisted. He nodded and said, “Since you already have a plan, I’ll respect your decision. I’ll call them later and have them withdraw from the Huafeng Cement Factory.”

Chapter 20: You’re Not Getting Any Younger, It’s Time You Got Married

In the evening, Lin Haoran leisurely stepped back across the threshold of the Lin family villa.

At present, his workload was light. He only needed to keep an eye on two stocks, Kowloon Wharf and Green Island Cement, so there was no urgent reason to find another place.

As for Huafeng Cement Factory, Lin Haoran didn’t want to bother with it for the time being.

Once he acquired Green Island Cement, Huafeng Cement Factory would be nothing in comparison.

Besides, living in this spacious and elegant villa, enjoying an unprecedented level of comfort and tranquility, was an indescribable pleasure.

The luxury and freedom he had dreamed of countless times but never experienced in his past life were now within his grasp.

In such an environment, how could he easily give up this rare comfort and throw himself into the crowded and noisy high-rise buildings?

Clearly, choosing to remain in the villa and enjoy this hard-won peace and luxury was the wisest decision.

After dinner, Lin Haoran had a rare moment with his mother, watching television in the first-floor living room and chatting about his childhood antics.

His father had a business dinner to attend tonight, lending the home a more peaceful atmosphere.

“Haoran, you’ve reached the age to start a family and settle down. It’s time to think about finding a wife. At your age, your older brother was already engaged to your sister-in-law. I heard that the third daughter of the Guo family has just returned from studying in the UK. She’s both talented and accomplished. I think you two could find an opportunity to get to know each other. You might just hit it off,” the Lin mother said earnestly.

As Lin Wan’an’s wife, the Lin mother was naturally part of the high-society circle, surrounded by other distinguished, wealthy wives. The people she knew were almost all rich and powerful.

“Well, that topic changed fast. In the blink of an eye, I’m being pressured to get married,” Lin Haoran grumbled to himself. Just a moment ago, he had been basking in the pleasure of his comfortable life in the grand villa, but now he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

He looked at his mother’s expectant gaze, feeling both warmth and a sense of helplessness. For a split second, he even had the urge to flee the scene.

Deep down, however, Lin Haoran was resistant to the idea of marriage. After all, he was only twenty-four and still young.

He knew that with his current status and position, finding a wife wouldn’t be difficult—it would be exceedingly easy, in fact.

But to him, marriage meant giving up the entire forest for a single tree, a choice he was absolutely unwilling to make.

From what his mother said, this third daughter of the Guo family must also be the child of a wealthy and influential family. The power behind her might even be greater than that of the Lin family.

If he married a woman like that, what if she turned out to be too domineering, threatening him with her family’s influence at every turn? That would be unbearable.

At that moment, images of famous actresses from his past life flashed through Lin Haoran’s mind: Irene Wan’s gentleness, Rosamund Kwan’s intelligence, Cherie Chung’s glamour, Vivian Chow’s purity…

Since fate had been so strange as to let him travel to this time and place full of opportunities and challenges, wouldn’t it be a waste of this rare chance if he didn’t get to interact with these well-known stars from his previous life? It would make this whole transmigration journey utterly dull.

He enjoyed a life of freedom and spontaneity, unwilling to be shackled by marriage, and even less willing to miss out on future possibilities because of a momentary impulse.

Therefore, despite his mother’s urging, he remained calm and rational, secretly calculating how to skillfully handle the situation.

Soon, Lin Haoran had his excuse ready.

With a gentle smile, he looked at his mother and said slowly, “Mother, you know me best. I’ve always been someone with a plan for my life. I’m still young, and this is the prime time for me to go all out in my career and broaden my horizons. I really don’t want to step into the confines of marriage too early and let responsibilities and constraints hold me back.

“Please trust me. I know my own direction and when to take the right step. If you’re truly eager to enjoy the happiness of family life, isn’t Older Brother’s precious son right there? you can invite him over more often to share in the warm moments between a grandmother and her grandson.

“As for me, Mother, you really don’t need to worry. With my qualities, if I actually wanted to get married, I bet the line of girls would stretch all the way from Mong Kok to Tsim Sha Tsui.”

“I know your personality and character, and I know what’s going on between you and your older brother right now. Both of you came from my womb; you’re both dear to my heart. Your older brother, being much older than you, has already accumulated extensive connections and experience in Hong Kong’s business world. I don’t need to worry about him at all.

“However, it’s precisely because I’m not worried about your brother that I’m more concerned about you. You’ve just returned from the UK, just stepped out of school into society. I worry about you struggling on your own, I’m afraid you’ll face setbacks. If you could marry into the Guo family, it would undoubtedly provide a great deal of support for your future and help you avoid many detours. Mother’s painstaking efforts are all for your own good!” the Lin mother said earnestly.

To her, her eldest son and two daughters were already married. Now, only her youngest son remained single, and she naturally hoped Lin Haoran would find a good wife as soon as possible.

How could Lin Haoran not understand the deep meaning behind his mother’s words?

He smiled faintly and said to his mother, “Mother, please rest assured. I am very aware of my own capabilities and potential. I don’t need to rely on anyone’s help, including a future partner. I believe that with my own efforts and talent, I can certainly make a name for myself in the business world.”

Seeing that she couldn’t persuade Lin Haoran, his mother had to drop the subject for the time being.

It wasn’t until after nine in the evening that the Lin father stepped through the door, a heavy scent of alcohol clinging to him.

Lin Haoran frowned slightly at the sight. “Dad, why did you drink so much again? You’re well aware of your own health. Aren’t you just overdrawing on your well-being by being so careless?”

After the fusion of his memories, he had developed deep feelings for his parents. Therefore, when he saw his father drinking excessively for business, an indescribable sense of worry and heartache welled up inside him.

Hearing this, the Lin father felt a twinge of guilt, but also a hint of gratification. He understood his son’s concern.

He explained gently, “I was discussing a partnership with Chairman Guo of the Kerry Group today. The atmosphere was quite amicable. If we can really make this collaboration happen, it will undoubtedly be great news for the Wan’an Group. I couldn’t help but have a few more drinks with him to deepen our relationship.” As he spoke, his eyes revealed a sense of anticipation and confidence for the future.

Kerry Group?

Hearing the name of this company, Lin Haoran knew who he was talking about.

If it were another company, no one might have heard of it.

But when it came to the Shangri-La Hotel, perhaps everyone would recognize the name.

The Shangri-La Hotel was founded by the boss of the Kerry Group.

He was one of the top tycoons in the Chinese community.

No wonder his father placed such importance on it.

However, seeing his father frequently tied up with social engagements, Lin Haoran secretly resolved that he must have his father hand over the group to him as soon as possible, allowing him to lay down his burdens and enjoy the retirement he deserved.

After all, for a father whose health was declining day by day, being constantly immersed in the burdensome social obligations of the business world was like adding fuel to the fire.

Chapter 21: Uncle Pao, How About a Little Test?

On September ninth, Hong Kong was still embraced by a warm, humid air, the perfect season for a refreshing swim in the turquoise waters.

The Deep Water Bay villa district, a secluded paradise, boasted an untouched, pristine natural beach.

This precious stretch of sea, like a hidden realm, was not open to the public but was instead the exclusive, private playground of the villa district’s esteemed residents.

Here, privilege was not just a symbol of status; it meant having sole enjoyment of the tranquility and beauty bestowed by nature.

Residents could take a leisurely stroll on the soft sand at dawn or dusk, or dive into the clear water, fully enjoying the cool and invigorating sea.

Such a life was undoubtedly a unique happiness and comfort reserved for the privileged class.

Just then, Lin Haoran had leisurely emerged from the azure sea, his skin still carrying the salty, cool scent of the ocean.

He casually put on his sunglasses and reclined comfortably on a beach chair, letting the gentle sea breeze cool his skin. A smile of contentment and relaxation graced his face.

The Lin family’s young Filipina-Chinese maid, a woman of graceful stature, gently handed an ice-cold Coke to Lin Haoran, who was immersed in the tranquility.

He took the Coke and popped the cap. With a light fizz, a stream of cold carbonation rushed into his mouth, bringing an indescribable feeling of refreshment and comfort, as if the summer heat had been swept away by this single cool blast.

Nearby, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong were clearly captivated by this unprecedented experience of luxury.

They had probably never imagined they would have the chance to be on such a private and beautiful beach, enjoying the leisurely time that only the privileged class could afford.

With no urgent work matters at hand, Lin Haoran chose to stay and relax in the Deep Water Bay villa district, savoring the rare peace and quiet.

As for Huafeng Cement Factory, he had decided to take a hands-off approach for the time being, confident that the existing management team could maintain stability without his excessive involvement.

Lin Yi and the other three had already been transferred from Huafeng Cement Factory, as per his father’s arrangements.

Lin Haoran paid little attention to their subsequent assignments. They were nothing more than turncoats loyal to Lin Haoning, not worth any more of his time or mental energy.

In the morning, Lin Haoran had already called Yang Changdao at Bumiputra Finance.

The feedback from their end was that the expedited approval was in progress. Barring any unforeseen issues, the funds would arrive tomorrow.

Lin Haoran was naturally relieved to hear the news.

Once the fifty million Hong Kong dollars arrived, he could finally make his move.

He would even dare to compete against Li Ka-shing!

As Lin Haoran was enjoying the sea breeze with his eyes closed, an old man appeared beside him at some point.

“Young man, which family are you from? You look a bit familiar.” A cheerful and friendly voice reached Lin Haoran’s ears.

Lin Haoran slowly opened his eyes, slightly startled by the sight before him.

只见一位身着朴素沙滩裤的老者正微笑着站在自己身旁,那熟悉的面容瞬间唤起了他的记忆——这正是大名鼎鼎的船王包裕刚!

Behind Shipping Magnate Pao stood a bodyguard with a serious expression and sunglasses, adding an air of extraordinariness to the business titan.

“Hello, Uncle Pao. I am Lin Wan’an’s youngest son, Lin Haoran,” Lin Haoran said, standing up to greet him.

He knew Pao Yue-kong was not only a legend in the business world but also a respected elder, so his attitude was extremely humble and polite..

Hearing this, Pao Yue-kong’s face broke into a warm smile. He replied kindly, “Oh, so you’re one of the Lin family’s boys. No wonder you looked so familiar.”

Although there weren’t many residents in the Deep Water Bay villa district, every household was either rich or noble. While they didn’t socialize often, they were neighbors who were bound to run into each other.

As the head of Wan’an Group, Lin Wan’an, while not on the same level as a figure like Pao Yue-kong, was no nobody. Thus, Pao Yue-kong was quite familiar with him.

The Lin family had made their fortune very early on, settling in the Deep Water Bay villa district over a decade ago.

Pao Yue-kong also lay down on a nearby beach chair, enjoying the sea breeze and starting a conversation with Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran had never expected that he would run into a famous business tycoon like Shipping Magnate Pao just by going for a swim at the beach.

“Haoran, from the looks of it, you must still be pursuing your studies?” Shipping Magnate Pao asked with a smile.

“Uncle Pao, you’re too kind. I actually just graduated from the London Business School and returned to Hong Kong two months ago,” Lin Haoran replied, shaking his head with a smile.

“Oh? A top student from the London Business School, eh? Then how about Uncle Pao gives you a little test?” Shipping Magnate Pao asked, his interest piqued.

“Uncle Pao, please, feel free to ask.” Lin Haoran answered confidently.

“I’m sure you know about me becoming a major shareholder of Kowloon Wharf. Why do you think I decided to acquire their shares?” Shipping Magnate Pao’s interest grew even stronger.

“Uncle Pao, you started in the shipping industry and are now the world-famous ‘World Shipping Magnate’. The reason you would interfere in a land-based business and target an old British firm like Kowloon Wharf, I surmise, is because you foresee a downturn in the future of the shipping industry. Therefore, you are shifting your investment strategy from the sea to the land,” Lin Haoran answered simply.

“And why do you hold such a pessimistic view of the shipping industry’s future?” Shipping Magnate Pao asked, his curiosity growing.

“Coming from a business family, I’ve been intensely curious about and passionate for the world of commerce since I was a child. This fascination naturally led me to follow business dynamics, market trends, and the major shifts within various industries.

“I’ve previously conducted an in-depth analysis of the current global economy. In recent years, it has been languishing in the shadow of recession, or its recovery has been sluggish. This situation has directly suppressed the prosperity of international trade, thereby weakening the fundamental demand for shipping services.

“Uncle Pao, do you remember the 1973 world oil crisis? Right now, the Persian region is experiencing the turmoil of the Islamic Revolution. Since August, nationwide strikes and demonstrations have brought the country to a near-standstill. As a key oil-exporting nation, if the internal conflicts in Persia escalate into a civil war, it could very well lead to a disruption in oil exports, which is tantamount to planting the seed of a second oil crisis.

“Once an oil crisis reoccurs, oil prices are bound to skyrocket, and the global economy will come under immense pressure, falling into an even deeper recession. This will not only indirectly drive up the operating costs of the shipping industry but also further squeeze the profit margins of shipping companies, making their operations even more difficult.

“Furthermore, looking back at the golden age of shipping in the sixties, a massive influx of blind capital led to a severe over-construction of ships. To this day, this excess capacity is difficult to utilize effectively in a market with weak demand, creating a serious imbalance between supply and demand.

“This imbalance has directly intensified competition in the freight market to a white-hot level. To capture market share, shipping companies are forced to engage in price wars, which is like pouring salt on a wound, further worsening the industry’s business environment.

“Taking all these factors into account, I cautiously predict that the world shipping industry is about to enter a long period of depression,” Lin Haoran said, his tone calm yet filled with insight.

“Haoran, your insights are truly unique and profound. I never imagined someone so young could possess such a broad perspective and sharp perception. Lin Wan’an has truly raised a fine son. Your future is limitless!” Shipping Magnate Pao exclaimed in admiration, his eyes filled with appreciation for Lin Haoran.

Just then, an assistant hurried over to Shipping Magnate Pao’s side and reported in a low voice, “President Pao, there’s an urgent call for you at home. Please take it as soon as possible.”

Hearing this, Shipping Magnate Pao showed a look of helplessness and said to Lin Haoran with a wry smile, “Ah, I was hoping to steal a rare moment of leisure and enjoy the sea breeze, but it seems I can’t find any peace. Haoran, I have to go now. When you have time, you are welcome to visit my home. We can have a good chat.”

Although their conversation had been brief, Lin Haoran’s unique insights and composed demeanor had already left a deep impression on Shipping Magnate Pao.

“Take care, Uncle Pao.” Lin Haoran stood up to see him off.

“Young Master, who was that old man? He seemed pretty impressive,” Li Weiguo couldn’t help but ask after Shipping Magnate Pao was out of earshot.

“Him? He’s the world-famous Shipping Magnate,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Chapter 22: Became a Major Shareholder

On Sunday, Lin Haoran finally received the good news he had been eagerly awaiting.

The fifty million Hong Kong dollars had arrived!

Seeing the string of numbers in his bank account, Lin Haoran was ecstatic. The joy surging in his heart felt as if it would burst from his chest.

He had never imagined that he would possess such an enormous sum of money, even if it was borrowed.

Now that the funds were in, Lin Haoran kept his word. He immediately withdrew five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars in cash from the bank and placed the money into a briefcase.

In addition, he successfully transferred ten million Hong Kong dollars from his main account to the linked account specifically designated for stock investments.

A short while later, he arrived at a private room in a restaurant with the five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars.

This was the place he had arranged to meet Yang Changdao.

“Uncle Yang, please take a look. The full five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars is here.” Lin Haoran smiled, gently handing the briefcase to Yang Changdao.

“Haha, Haoran, I’ve always trusted your word. There’s no need to count it.” Yang Changdao took the briefcase, unzipped it to glance inside, and his face instantly bloomed with a satisfied smile.

“Uncle Yang, I still have some personal matters to attend to, so I’m afraid I can’t stay long.” Lin Haoran’s tone held a hint of apology, clearly showing he didn’t want to get too involved in personal dealings with Yang Changdao.

“Oh? Is that so? Haoran, I specifically ordered a fine meal, hoping we could have lunch together and have a good chat,” Yang Changdao said with a touch of regret.

“Thank you very much for your kind hospitality, but it’s really inconvenient. My father is already waiting for me. I specifically took the time to come and deliver the money. Now that it’s done, I won’t disturb you any longer. Please enjoy your lunch.” Lin Haoran politely but firmly declined the invitation.

“In that case, I won’t insist. Take care on your way, nephew. I won’t see you out.” Yang Changdao nodded in understanding, not minding Lin Haoran’s attitude. After all, their relationship was primarily based on mutual interests.

And so, this brief meeting between the two concluded in a manner that was both polite and slightly detached.

In this transaction, both parties tacitly pursued the maximization of their own interests.

Leaving the inconspicuous restaurant, Lin Haoran felt exceptionally lighthearted. He walked with a brisk pace and, in just a few steps, reached the Mercedes-Benz parked by the roadside.

The car door opened at his approach. He settled into the driver’s seat, then started the engine. The Mercedes-Benz slowly pulled away, merging into the bustling city traffic.

In the blink of an eye, Monday arrived. The stock market’s opening bell rang once again, heralding the start of a new round of trading.

Lin Haoran was full of vigor, brimming with confidence as he faced what he considered his battlefield.

“Zhixue, the funds in the stock account are more than sufficient. Starting today, you can fully unleash your professional abilities and showcase your talent without any worries. Go for it! I believe you can seize every opportunity!” Lin Haoran patted Su Zhixue on the shoulder and encouraged him before he officially started his work.

“Rest assured, President Lin. I will give it my all!” Su Zhixue said solemnly.

Before work, Lin Haoran had learned some gratifying news from Su Zhixue: over the weekend, Su Zhixue had successfully scheduled surgery for his son. The operation was set for this Saturday and was assessed to be extremely low-risk. In fact, the sooner it was performed, the better it would be for the child’s recovery.

This wonderful news undoubtedly lifted a great weight from Su Zhixue’s shoulders, allowing him to throw himself into the new work week with even greater passion.

With his son’s condition properly arranged for, it was no longer a constant source of worry for Su Zhixue. Consequently, Lin Haoran could feel the sense of ease and joy radiating from him.

While Su Zhixue was tensely but methodically acquiring Green Island Cement shares, Lin Haoran wasn’t idle either. He continued to monitor Kowloon Wharf’s stock price.

In a flash, it was time for the market to close again.

As expected, armed with the experience gained from the previous two days of preliminary trading and the current ample funding, Su Zhixue’s operations in the stock market were much more adept, and his speed of acquiring shares had increased significantly.

Faced with the heightened volatility in the overall market today, he demonstrated keen insight and decisive judgment, appropriately increasing the intensity of his trades.

That day, Lin Haoran’s stock account saw an addition of five hundred forty-eight thousand two hundred shares of Green Island Cement, with a total expenditure of two million six hundred sixty thousand Hong Kong dollars. Although the transaction price per share was slightly higher than before, it had little impact on the overall strategy.

At the same time, as the trading volume for many other stocks on the market also increased, the rise in Green Island Cement’s trading volume did not attract undue market attention, allowing it to remain relatively low-profile and stable.

It was a day of remarkable success.

Adding to the three hundred seven thousand, nine hundred shares he already owned, Lin Haoran’s holdings in Green Island Cement had now reached eight hundred fifty-six thousand, one hundred shares.

And Green Island Cement’s total number of issued shares was only fifty million.

Lin Haoran’s primary goal was to first secretly become Green Island Cement’s major shareholder.

After that, he would decide how many more Green Island Cement shares to acquire based on the actual situation.

For the next ten-plus days, Lin Haoran and Su Zhixue divided the labor.

Lin Haoran was mainly responsible for observing the situation with Kowloon Wharf.

Su Zhixue was responsible for acquiring Green Island Cement shares.

In the blink of an eye, it was September 29th.

In one more day, it would be the weekend again.

When the bell rang from the trading hall next door, both men in the office knew that the day’s trading had ended.

As usual, Su Zhixue began to tally the day’s trades after the market closed.

“Boss, I have some exciting news to report! Through our persistent efforts, you have successfully become the number one major shareholder of Green Island Cement! Our current holdings have reached 12.9 percent, officially surpassing the previous largest shareholder. What’s more, during this recent period of intense and efficient operation, we have also cumulatively purchased three hundred eighty-seven thousand, nine hundred shares of Kowloon Wharf, with the average transaction price locked in at 23.05 Hong Kong dollars,” Su Zhixue reported excitedly, putting down his pen.

Since the previous week, Lin Haoran had keenly sensed that Kowloon Wharf’s stock had hit its bottom and was unlikely to fall much further. he deduced that forces like Jardine Matheson and Shipping Magnate Pao were already quietly accumulating shares.

In view of this, when Kowloon Wharf’s stock price fluctuated around twenty-one Hong Kong dollars, Lin Haoran showed extraordinary decisiveness and immediately instructed Su Zhixue to act, seizing this rare buying opportunity.

The following week, a new telephone was installed in the office. Lin Haoran personally joined the fray, acting as Su Zhixue’s capable assistant. The two fought side by side.

Given that Su Zhixue now had to manage the acquisition of two different stocks simultaneously, Lin Haoran’s involvement was undoubtedly a powerful boost, ensuring their operations were more efficient and smooth. With such close cooperation, their work progressed in an orderly and highly effective manner.

For the past month, they had observed Green Island Cement’s trading activity every day. Judging by the trading volume, as of today, Li Ka-shing had yet to make a move on Green Island Cement, which had presented Lin Haoran with a massive opportunity.

Now, he had finally become the largest shareholder. It hadn’t been easy!

Previously, Green Island Cement’s major British shareholder had only held 12.6 percent of the stock. That Lin Haoran now held 12.9 percent was indeed worthy of celebration.

“Zhixue, you’ve worked hard! This month, aside from your well-deserved salary of five thousand Hong Kong dollars, I’ve decided to give you an additional five thousand Hong Kong dollars as a bonus to recognize your diligence and outstanding performance. Keep up the good work. I believe your efforts will lead to even greater achievements, and I will be sure to prepare an even more generous reward for you in the future!” Lin Haoran said with a satisfied smile.

In the future, after profiting from Kowloon Wharf, Lin Haoran would certainly reward Su Zhixue with another substantial bonus, but of course, that was a matter for later.

“Boss, thank you very much for your recognition and encouragement. This means a great deal to me.” Su Zhixue’s face was flushed with excitement, but he quickly regained some of his composure. “So, regarding the Green Island Cement shares, should we continue to acquire more?”

Lin Haoran smiled faintly and said, “Of course, we’ll continue. The current 12.9 percent is a good figure, but it’s far from enough. My goal is to gain even more controlling power!” His words were firm and unhesitating.

Chapter 23: Devising a New Plan

Lin Haoran reviewed the stocks he currently held and estimated his cash flow over the past month.

In this month, he had not only invested his personal 1.5 million Hong Kong dollars into the stock market but had also raised fifty million Hong Kong dollars through a loan.

After taking out five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars for the commission, the remaining 49.5 million had been fully deposited into the bank account linked to his stock account.

Therefore, his total investment in the stock market was actually fifty-one million Hong Kong dollars.

To be specific, he had successfully purchased 6.45 million shares of Green Island Cement over the past month. With the average share price rising to 4.96 Hong Kong dollars, this part of the investment had cost him about 31.99 million Hong Kong dollars.

As for Kowloon Wharf’s stock, although he had only started acquiring shares five days ago, he had already bought 387,900 shares at an average cost of 23.05 Hong Kong dollars per share, totaling a spend of about 8.94 million Hong Kong dollars.

Adding the investment amounts for these two stocks, his total expenditure to date reached approximately 40.93 million Hong Kong dollars.

This meant that Lin Haoran currently had about 10.07 million Hong Kong dollars of remaining funds available.

A mere ten million Hong Kong dollars was clearly not enough for his ambitious plans.

After all, his investment blueprint wasn’t limited to just increasing his stake in Green Island Cement; he also aimed to control more of Kowloon Wharf’s shares.

Considering that he would later need to rely on trading Kowloon Wharf shares to earn enough profit to repay that massive loan, his current funds seemed stretched thin.

Therefore, how to efficiently use every penny was a problem Lin Haoran had to carefully consider next.

How could he raise another sum of money?

Lin Haoran quickly had an idea.

His gaze focused on the Green Island Cement shares in his possession.

He recalled his previous agreement with Yang Changdao, in which he promised to mortgage about twenty million Hong Kong dollars’ worth of shares to Bumiputra Finance after acquiring a sufficient quantity.

However, that agreement had a six-month deadline, which meant he still had ample time to maneuver.

Given that the six-month deadline was still a long way off, Lin Haoran was in no hurry to immediately mortgage his shares to Bumiputra Finance.

Instead, he saw an opportunity to use these shares as leverage to increase his loan amount, thereby acquiring even more stock.

According to the original owner’s knowledge of the Hong Kong stock market, the market of this era didn’t have the kind of leveraged financing seen in later years, where one could borrow against their stock holdings directly within the market.

That model would likely only appear in the late 1980s.

Since the market itself didn’t offer direct leveraged investment opportunities, Lin Haoran decided to create his own leverage effect.

He planned to use his shares as collateral to raise funds from financial institutions or private investors, obtaining more capital to expand the scale of his stock investments.

In this way, he could indirectly achieve the effect of leveraged investing—using a smaller amount of his own capital to control a much larger asset base.

For others, such a strategy would be accompanied by a certain degree of risk.

But for Lin Haoran, who knew the history of the Kowloon Wharf takeover battle, there was no risk at all.

In a market as vast as Kowloon Wharf’s, the tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars he was about to invest were but a drop in the ocean, incapable of shaking its stable market position or the overall trend.

Therefore, he decided not to rush to fulfill his agreement with Bumiputra Finance. Instead, he would use the intervening time to capitalize on stock price fluctuations and potential growth, maximizing his available resources to lay a solid foundation for his future market plays.

Since his Kowloon Wharf shares would be sold in the coming months depending on the situation, they were clearly unsuitable as collateral for a loan.

Based on this reality, Lin Haoran could only use his Green Island Cement shares as collateral.

Currently, the market value of his Green Island Cement shares already exceeded thirty million Hong Kong dollars. With such high-quality shares as security, he estimated he could easily obtain a loan of over thirty million Hong Kong dollars from a financial institution.

Once this strategy was set, Lin Haoran’s worries vanished.

He planned to advance his investment plans for both Kowloon Wharf and Green Island Cement simultaneously, letting them complement each other to promote the growth of his wealth.

Lin Haoran was very confident that through careful planning and sound execution, he could achieve ideal returns on both stocks.

Putting down his notebook, Lin Haoran noticed that Su Zhixue had not yet left. He said gently, “Zhixue, you should head home. Your son is at a critical stage of his recovery. Having one more person at home to look after him will help him recover faster. Go back early. It’ll be better for both of you to be with him.”

He remembered that Su Zhixue’s son had undergone a very successful surgery two weeks ago and had just begun the meticulous journey of rehabilitation.

Because of this, Lin Haoran had been very understanding during this period, deliberately urging him to leave right after the market closed at four o’clock every afternoon so he could devote his full attention to his family.

In any case, since he hadn’t formally established a company or set up strict corporate rules, there was no need to be overly rigid or inflexible with his management.

“President Lin, I’ll be heading home then. Thank you,” Su Zhixue said gratefully as he took his leave.

After Su Zhixue left, Lin Haoran began to ponder in his office.

To get a loan using his Green Island Cement shares, he obviously couldn’t go through Bumiputra Finance.

So, which bank or financial institution should he approach?

Without a doubt, the largest financial institution in all of Hong Kong was HSBC.

To establish a foothold in Hong Kong, building a good relationship with them was essential.

Moreover, obtaining a loan from HSBC would be more convenient, as they possessed stronger collaborative resources.

Of course, their lending rules would be more stringent and comprehensive. The model used by Bumiputra Finance—lending out fifty million Hong Kong dollars against collateral worth just over ten million—would be impossible at HSBC.

Furthermore, there was another factor to consider: the stock Lin Haoran was currently focused on, Green Island Cement, was also a British-owned company.

If he went directly to HSBC to apply for a loan to increase his stake in Green Island Cement, his move to become a major shareholder could potentially be leaked, leading to unnecessary risks.

At present, Lin Haoran had no intention of publicizing the fact that he had become a major shareholder of Green Island Cement. He chose to maintain a low profile to avoid attracting excessive market attention and unnecessary volatility. Such a strategy would help him advance his investment plan more steadily, allowing him to make an announcement at a more opportune time in the future.

However, if he could negotiate directly with HSBC’s top management, especially the Taipan Michael Sandberg, perhaps he wouldn’t need to worry so much.

Top executives of Michael Sandberg’s caliber usually strictly adhered to business confidentiality. For a company of Green Island Cement’s modest size, it was unlikely they would compromise their professional ethics and reputation over such news.

The only uncertainty was whether a thirty million Hong Kong dollar loan would be enough to attract Michael Sandberg’s attention.

Chapter 24: Hang Seng Bank

Even though Lin Haoran was Lin Wan’an’s son, Lin Wan’an’s own standing in the business world was likely not enough to attract the special attention of a major figure like Michael Sandberg, let alone Lin Haoran himself.

Therefore, it would be quite difficult for Lin Haoran to arrange a direct meeting with Michael Sandberg.

If he were to show up unannounced, he would likely be turned away.

Were he to present the Green Island Cement shares he owned, he would certainly be granted an audience with Sandberg.

However, this would also indirectly reveal his status as a major shareholder of Green Island Cement to others.

At this moment, Lin Haoran fully understood that in the world of business, personal influence and status were just as crucial.

Pao Yue-kong’s name flashed through Lin Haoran’s mind.

He realized that perhaps through this well-connected shipping magnate, he might get a chance to meet with Michael Sandberg.

After all, Pao Yue-kong had a rather good impression of him and had even cordially invited him to his home, which demonstrated the solid foundation of their relationship.

However, after turning the idea over in his mind for a moment, he dismissed it.

The reason was simple: he was currently keeping a close watch on Kowloon Wharf, trying to profit from its situation.

In a way, this could be seen as indirectly “sucking the blood” from Shipping Magnate Pao’s interests.

Under such circumstances, asking Pao Yue-kong to arrange a meeting with Michael Sandberg would undoubtedly add a complicated layer of personal obligation.

Lin Haoran was well aware that personal favors in the business world often came with an exchange of benefits, and what he sought at the moment was a more pure and direct business cooperation.

Therefore, after careful consideration, he decided to abandon the idea of using Pao Yue-kong as an intermediary and instead look for other, more suitable ways to achieve his goal.

After some deep thought, Lin Haoran soon felt at ease.

He realized that with the Green Island Cement shares as collateral, securing a loan would not be difficult. He didn’t have to rely solely on HSBC.

Since other options could achieve the same end, why get so hung up on this one?

Building a good relationship with HSBC would help him establish a better foothold in Hong Kong and could even be beneficial for his future acquisitions of certain British-owned companies, but there was no rush.

Right now, Lin Haoran’s heart was filled with confidence and high hopes for the future.

He believed that as long as he continued to work hard and accumulate experience and strength in Hong Kong, he would one day carve out his own domain in this fertile commercial land and build his own influence.

By then, meeting with anyone to discuss cooperation would become effortless, no longer a distant dream.

Therefore, Lin Haoran decided to set aside his worries and focus on the task at hand.

Since a British-owned bank was not suitable for this loan at the moment, Lin Haoran turned his attention to the Chinese-owned banks.

Soon, an idea took shape.

He decided to approach Hang Seng Bank, a formidable leader among Chinese-owned banks.

Although Hang Seng Bank had faced a severe challenge during the wave of bank runs in 1965 and was ultimately acquired by HSBC, its core management, especially the position of Chairman of the Board, had always been firmly held by its founder, Mr. Ho Sin Hang.

Meeting with Mr. Michael Sandberg directly might be difficult for now, but Lin Haoran suspected that he might be able to achieve his goal indirectly through Mr. Ho Sin Hang.

The reason was that the Wan’an Group, founded by his father Lin Wan’an, had always maintained a good cooperative relationship with Hang Seng Bank.

The Wan’an Group’s financial operations ran smoothly thanks to this solid banking platform.

Relying on his status as the young master of the Wan’an Group, Lin Haoran believed that, for various reasons, Mr. Ho Sin Hang would consider the Lin family’s deep friendship and the importance of the Wan’an Group to Hang Seng Bank, and grant him a meeting.

After all, in the business world, personal connections and interests are often intertwined, jointly driving the wheels of cooperation and development ever forward.

Once he had a clear plan, Lin Haoran first gathered the Green Island Cement stock certificates and then decisively left his office.

It was just past four in the afternoon, still early, a perfect time to make a trip to Hang Seng Bank.

Getting into the car, he sat in the front passenger seat and said to Li Weiguo, who had taken the driver’s seat, “Weiguo, we’re going to 163-165 Queen’s Road Central. I’ll give you directions, you drive.”

Li Weiguo and Li Weidong had just passed their driving tests not long ago, a little over a week back. Lin Haoran had already witnessed Li Weiguo’s driving skills and was quite impressed.

Therefore, he entrusted the wheel to Li Weiguo with confidence, believing he was up to the task.

As for Li Weidong, he always gave off an air of simple-mindedness and innocence.

In Lin Haoran’s mind, for a task like driving, which required a high degree of concentration and precise control, he preferred to rely on the more skilled Li Weiguo.

Thus, until Li Weidong’s driving skills became proficient enough, Lin Haoran was determined not to let him drive. After all, safety always came first.

“Okay, Young Master,” Li Weiguo responded, starting the car and fixing his gaze intently on the road ahead.

He knew that although he had been in Hong Kong for nearly a month, he was still not familiar enough with the city’s street layout.

But the Young Master was like a living navigator, capable of giving precise directions.

From memory, Lin Haoran had, of course, been to the Hang Seng Bank headquarters before, and quite a few times at that, always accompanying his father, Lin Wan’an.

Under Lin Haoran’s precise directions, the car moved quickly and smoothly through the streets, and after a few minutes, it came to a steady stop in front of the Hang Seng Bank headquarters building.

As a renowned financial institution, Hang Seng Bank’s headquarters was naturally located in the bustling Central district, a hub for numerous Hong Kong and international financial institutions.

Lin Haoran and Li Weiguo got out of the car. Before them stood a seemingly modest five-story building.

Although its height was inconspicuous in a part of Central dominated by towering skyscrapers, even appearing somewhat low-key, it was the famous headquarters of Hang Seng Bank.

Entering the lobby, Lin Haoran told the Li brothers, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, to wait for him in the lounge, while he went directly to find the lobby manager.

Lin Haoran had visited the Hang Seng Bank headquarters many times, so a lot of the management here knew him.

“Manager Zhang, hello!” Lin Haoran’s sharp eyes quickly spotted the busy Manager Zhang in the crowd, and he greeted him warmly.

“Ah, Young Master Lin, it’s been a while! How have you been? What wind blew you in today? What can I do for you?” Manager Zhang paused his work and replied with a broad smile, clearly surprised by Lin Haoran’s visit.

“I’m here to see Chairman Ho about something. Is he in the company right now?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Young Master Lin, are you here to discuss important business with Chairman Ho? Please allow me to confirm if he is in the office and available to see you,” Manager Zhang responded politely.

“Alright, I’ll trouble you then, Manager Zhang,” Lin Haoran said with a smiling nod of thanks.

A few minutes later, Manager Zhang returned quickly, announcing with a smile, “Young Master Lin, I’ve confirmed it. Chairman Ho is in his office right now and has specifically asked me to show you up. Please, follow me.”

Chapter 25: A Pleasure Doing Business

Following Manager Zhang, Lin Haoran soon arrived at the Chairman of the Board’s office of Hang Seng Bank on the third floor.

He stepped into the room, and his gaze immediately fell upon Chairman Ho Sin Hang, who sat behind his desk looking solemn yet kind.

“Uncle He, hello! I apologize for the sudden visit and for disturbing you. I hope you’ll forgive the intrusion,” Lin Haoran said with the deference of a junior.

This “Uncle He” was not only a titan of the industry but also an old friend of his father’s. In the past, whenever he came here with his father, he had always addressed him as “Uncle He,” so they had some rapport.

At seventy-nine years of age, the years had carved deep lines into Ho Sin Hang’s face, and his head of silver hair shone particularly brightly under the lights.

However, Lin Haoran knew in his heart that this seemingly elderly man actually possessed a vitality and wisdom that surpassed ordinary people.

According to his knowledge from his past life, Mr. Ho Sin Hang would continue to lead Hang Seng Bank until the grand old age of ninety-seven, only then passing away peacefully.

“Ah, Young Lin, did you come looking for me specifically because you need help with something?” Ho Sin Hang asked curiously with a warm smile after Lin Haoran sat down.

He had just finished a hectic meeting and was about to take a short break when Manager Zhang from the main lobby had rushed in to report that Lin Haoran was requesting to see him.

At first, he thought he had misheard. After all, as far as he knew, this young junior had just recently graduated. What business could he have with an old man of the banking world like himself?

But after Manager Zhang confirmed it again, his doubts were dispelled, replaced by a great sense of curiosity and anticipation.

“Uncle He, I’d like to discuss a business proposal with you,” Lin Haoran said seriously.

“Oh? What kind of proposal would bring you to me?” Ho Sin Hang was slightly surprised, the corners of his mouth lifting as he thought Lin Haoran was joking.

“Uncle He, there’s something I need your help with, and it’s extremely important to me. I hope you can keep our conversation today, including the proposal I am about to make, strictly confidential—even from my father, Lin Wan’an. Uncle He, can you promise me this?” Lin Haoran looked at Ho Sin Hang with a grave expression.

He knew this was no small request, as it was crucial to the smooth execution of his carefully laid plans. Therefore, he desperately needed Ho Sin Hang’s promise as a guarantee to ensure the absolute secrecy of their conversation.

After all, if this matter were to be leaked, especially to his father, Lin Wan’an, it would likely cause a series of unnecessary interferences and misunderstandings, which in turn would have an incalculable impact on his subsequent plans. And so, Lin Haoran looked at Ho Sin Hang, full of anticipation, awaiting his answer.

Until he had secured sufficient gains from Kowloon Wharf, Lin Haoran had no intention of revealing to his father, Lin Wan’an, that he already controlled a massive sum of money.

Seeing Lin Haoran make such a serious request, a flicker of curiosity flashed in Ho Sin Hang’s eyes.

He smiled faintly, his tone betraying a hint of curiosity. “Young Lin, since you’re being so serious, I’ll promise you. I will keep our conversation today under wraps and won’t breathe a word of it, not even to your father, Lin Wan’an. Now, you can speak freely. I’m very curious as to what important matter you have to discuss with me.”

Seeing Ho Sin Hang say this, Lin Haoran felt relieved.

He directly took out the Green Island Cement stock certificates. These documents represented twelve percent of Green Island Cement’s shares.

“Uncle He, I want to use these six million shares of Green Island Cement stock as collateral to take out a loan of thirty million Hong Kong dollars from Hang Seng Bank,” Lin Haoran stated solemnly.

“How did you manage to amass such a huge number of Green Island Cement shares?” Ho Sin Hang asked, looking at the stock certificates in his hand, his voice filled with disbelief and profound shock.

He knew very well that the market value of these six million shares of Green Island Cement stock was more than enough to serve as solid backing for a thirty-million-Hong-Kong-dollar loan.

However, what puzzled him was that Hang Seng Bank had a close partnership with the Wan’an Group and was intimately familiar with their financial situation.

Given this, how on earth had Lin Haoran quietly amassed such a huge amount of stock?

Thirty million Hong Kong dollars. The figure weighed heavily on his mind. Even a financial magnate like himself had to admit it was an astonishing sum.

He understood that even the most renowned tycoons in Hong Kong would not find it easy to produce such an amount of capital.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s move had undoubtedly sent ripples through Ho Sin Hang’s heart, filling him with curiosity and a desperate desire to uncover the secret behind it all.

However, Lin Haoran, of course, had no intention of explaining the details.

“Uncle He, as for the source of the shares, that’s my little secret. I’m afraid I can’t share it with you right now, but I believe there will be an opportunity for you to find out in the future. As for this loan, I assume there won’t be any major issues?” Lin Haoran asked confidently with a smile.

Hearing this, Ho Sin Hang nodded slightly in understanding. “Of course, there’s no problem, Nephew Lin. If you’re willing to use these twelve percent of shares as collateral, I can approve a thirty-million-Hong-Kong-dollar loan for you immediately. However, I’d like to know, how long do you plan to take out the loan for?”

At this moment, an even more cordial smile spread across Ho Sin Hang’s face, and his form of address for Lin Haoran had quietly changed from “Young Lin” to “Nephew Lin.” This subtle shift revealed his approval and the high regard in which he now held Lin Haoran.

“I plan to borrow for two years, Uncle He. I hope to be able to repay it in a single lump sum after two years. Do you think that arrangement is feasible? Also, regarding the interest rate, I wonder what kind of discount you might be able to offer?” Lin Haoran stated his needs sincerely.

Ho Sin Hang pondered for a moment, a thoughtful glint in his eyes.

In the financial industry, large corporations often enjoy more favorable interest rates. Therefore, after weighing his relationship with Lin Haoran and the unique nature of this loan, he offered a rather attractive condition.

“Nephew Lin, since we know each other, I certainly won’t let you get the short end of the stick. For this thirty-million-Hong-Kong-dollar loan with a two-year term, I propose an annual interest rate of five percent. Over two years, that comes to a total of ten percent interest, meaning you will need to repay thirty-three million Hong Kong dollars upon maturity. These terms are quite favorable in the industry. What do you think, nephew?” Ho Sin Hang’s words were full of sincerity, confident that these terms sufficiently displayed his trust and support for Lin Haoran.

It’s the same as Bumiputra Finance’s rate, which is acceptable. After all, Hang Seng Bank is a proper bank, so getting this rate is already quite good.

“No problem, let’s sign the contract with these terms. I hope the funds can be made available as soon as possible, preferably transferred into my account today,” Lin Haoran agreed readily, very satisfied with the loan conditions, which matched the interest rate from Bumiputra Finance but had a longer term.

He was confident that repaying these thirty-three million Hong Kong dollars within two years would be a piece of cake for him.

The reason he wanted a two-year loan was so that he wouldn’t be under too much pressure when the loan from Bumiputra Finance came due.

“Nephew Lin, since you’re so straightforward, I won’t delay things either. I can give special approval for this loan to ensure the funds are in your account by the end of today. I’ll have someone start preparing the contract right now.” Ho Sin Hang’s smile was filled with satisfaction and admiration.

“Uncle He, a pleasure doing business with you!”

“A pleasure doing business!”

Chapter 26: Dad, You Actually Invested in a Movie?

Lin Haoran’s loan experience this time was undoubtedly much smoother compared to his previous encounter at Bumiputra Finance.

Not only did he come with collateral of equal value this time, but he also demonstrated thorough consideration and meticulous preparation for the loan, leaving Ho Sin Hang with virtually no flaws to find in his risk assessment.

As a result, the entire loan process went exceptionally smoothly, and the funds were transferred far more quickly than Lin Haoran had expected.

Just before leaving, Lin Haoran once again requested that Ho Sin Hang maintain confidentiality. His tone was sincere and firm as he expressed his hope that Ho Sin Hang would keep this a strict secret, especially from his father, Lin Wan’an.

After hearing this, Ho Sin Hang gave his solemn promise, stating that he fully understood and respected Lin Haoran’s wishes and would absolutely not leak news of this transaction to anyone, including Lin Wan’an.

The mutual understanding and trust between the two deepened at that moment.

Settling into the Mercedes, Lin Haoran casually instructed Li Weiguo to drive to the Deep Water Bay villa district, already eager to return to his quiet and comfortable home and enjoy the upcoming pleasant weekend.

As his driver, Li Weiguo was already intimately familiar with the route to Deep Water Bay. Without needing further instruction, he held the steering wheel steady, and the car moved smoothly and swiftly through the city’s arteries.

Along the way, Lin Haoran’s attention wasn’t captured by the scenery outside the window; his mind was deeply immersed in planning his financial maneuvers.

His current operational capital of ten million seventy thousand Hong Kong dollars, after the injection of the new thirty million Hong Kong dollars loan, had climbed to a total of forty million seventy thousand Hong Kong dollars. This undoubtedly provided a solid foundation for his subsequent investment plans.

He thought to himself that with over forty million Hong Kong dollars, he had enough capital to support his ambition of investing in two stocks simultaneously.

For his play on Kowloon Wharf in particular, on top of the eight-million-plus Hong Kong dollars he had already invested, he planned to keep the total investment within the thirty-million-plus range.

He was well aware that with market fluctuations, especially the involvement of giants like Shipping Magnate Pao, Jardine Matheson, and Hongkong Land, Kowloon Wharf’s stock price was bound to rise.

Therefore, he had already set a cap on his investment to avoid the risks of blindly chasing a rising price.

In his view, securing over thirty million Hong Kong dollars’ worth of low-priced Kowloon Wharf stock in this capital game would already be a remarkable achievement.

His longer-term consideration was to use these funds to double his return on the Kowloon Wharf investment.

If he succeeded, he could easily handle the repayment pressure when the Bumiputra Finance loan came due in a year, and perhaps even make arrangements ahead of time to further optimize his capital structure.

As for the remaining funds, Lin Haoran already had a clear destination in mind—to increase his investment in Green Island Cement.

The 12.9% stake he currently held was not enough to control the company’s fate.

The potential entry of Cheung Kong Holdings at any moment added to his sense of urgency.

To seize the initiative in the coming competition, he had to further increase his shareholding to ensure he controlled more of Green Island Cement’s stock.

Thus, he had earmarked the remaining capital for additional investment in Green Island Cement, vowing to carve out a larger slice of the pie in this capital feast of Chinese-owned enterprises acquiring British-owned companies.

Arriving back home, Lin Haoran was surprised to find that his father, Lin Wan’an, was back early today.

“Dad, why are you back so early today?” Lin Haoran asked, a curious look on his face.

On a typical day, if Lin Wan’an didn’t have business engagements, he would usually walk through the door around seven in the evening.

And if he did have an engagement, it might be after nine or even ten at night before he was seen.

But right now, the clock on the wall had just struck half-past five in the afternoon, an exceptionally rare time for Lin Wan’an to be home.

This abnormality naturally made Lin Haoran both surprised and curious, and his mind began to race with speculation.

“I have to attend a movie celebration party tonight. It starts at seven. I was just about to come home and change into something more suitable. Haoran, why don’t you come along? Meeting more friends in the business world will always be beneficial for your future,” Lin Wan’an replied gently.

“A movie celebration party? Dad, you actually invested in a movie?” Lin Haoran asked back in surprise, clearly not having expected this.

“Haha, it was just for fun. I invested two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars personally for a small thirty percent stake. It’s been exactly a month since the movie was released, and the box office has already surpassed two point five million Hong Kong dollars. It didn’t make much; it was mainly to support some old friends and have a bit of fun for myself,” Lin Wan’an explained with a smile, his words revealing his deep affection for his old friends and a casual attitude toward the movie investment.

Lin Wan’an was indeed telling the truth; his description of the profit situation was quite realistic.

A box office of two point five million Hong Kong dollars might not seem like much, but it was quite good for this era.

But according to industry practice, 15% went to entertainment tax, and the cinema circuits took 47%, leaving investors with typically less than 40% of the box office revenue. Even at a full 40%, the actual take would only be around one million Hong Kong dollars.

And Lin Wan’an’s personal share, calculated at his 30% stake, would only amount to about three hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars of that.

An investment of two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars yielding a profit of one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars might seem like a considerable profit margin on the surface. However, given the relatively small box office base, such earnings were clearly not enough to support the dream of “getting rich overnight” when faced with the enormous costs of film production and operation.

Low-budget films could indeed, with unique word-of-mouth and a spark of creativity, potentially break through numerous obstacles to achieve better-than-expected box office success.

However, behind such success stories lay countless works that faded into obscurity for various reasons, struggling in the torrent of the market and ultimately failing to escape the fate of financial loss.

Most critically, the relatively limited scale of the Hong Kong film market severely constrained the profit potential of film projects.

For instance, this year’s annual box office champion in Hong Kong had a total gross of just over seven million Hong Kong dollars. For those hoping to realize their dreams of wealth through movies, this was undoubtedly a harsh reality to face.

As for industry giants like Shaw Brothers Studio and Golden Harvest, despite their formidable strength and abundant resources, their annual profits were often limited in the fiercely competitive film market.

Therefore, since his rebirth into this world, Lin Haoran had understood this well and never intended to pour too much of his energy into the turbulent waters of the entertainment industry.

In his eyes, the unpredictable stock market, the steady appreciation of real estate, the prosperity of import-export trade, and the solid foundation of manufacturing were his royal roads to the pinnacle of wealth.

As for making movies? That was merely a casual dalliance in his spare time, a series of magnificent interludes that might bring a moment’s applause and cheers but could not bear the weight of his pursuit of a grand blueprint for a business empire.

“Alright, Dad. I’ll go change into something suitable, and I’ll go with you shortly. This celebration party sounds quite interesting, I’d like to see what it’s about,” Lin Haoran replied, his interest in the event now piqued.

Chapter 27: Your Sunflower Seed Shell Fell on My Shoe

“Haoran, when you go to the banquet with your dad, you must remember to keep an eye on him. Don’t let him drink too much. He’s not as strong as he used to be, and drinking is bad for his health. We have to be careful.” Lin mother gently straightened Lin father’s collar while meticulously instructing Lin Haoran, who was sitting on the sofa nearby.

“Don’t worry, mother. I’ll watch Dad closely and won’t let him drink too much,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

He had changed into a more exquisite, well-fitted suit, and in an instant, he seemed to have transformed from a callow youth into a dashing and talented young man, exuding an air of mature and steady charm.

His already handsome face, set off by the suit, looked even more strikingly heroic, making it difficult for anyone to look away.

Lin Wan’an didn’t say anything to refute her; he understood his wife’s words came from a place of deep care and love for him.

After returning from a social engagement a few nights prior, Lin Wan’an’s blood pressure had suddenly spiked, forcing him to go to the hospital again. The persistent headaches made him miserable, and though he had sought medical help many times before, the relief was always temporary and never a complete cure.

However, some social obligations in life were unavoidable for Lin Wan’an. Despite his personal reluctance, he had to attend for various reasons.

Lin Haoran knew of his father’s hard work and difficulties. Therefore, his current priority was to give it his all and strive to become the successor of the Wan’an Group as soon as possible, so that his father could step down from his position as Chairman of the Board and enjoy a peaceful and comfortable retirement.

In his memory, ever since his Older Brother, Lin Haoning, had gotten married and started his own family, he had moved out of the house long ago.

Thus, whenever there was a social function to attend, as long as Lin Haoran was at home, Lin Wan’an was always happy to bring him along.

This arrangement not only deepened the bond between father and son but also exposed Lin Haoran to various facets of society at an earlier age.

As he followed his father, Lin Wan’an, into the back seat of the Rolls-Royce, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel that the comfort this car provided far surpassed that of his own Mercedes. No wonder it was the favorite of so many wealthy people.

Before leaving, Lin Haoran specifically told the two brothers, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, to remain at the villa and not follow them. His father’s driver also served as a bodyguard and was exceptionally skilled. The abilities he had demonstrated on numerous occasions gave Lin Haoran great confidence, enough to ensure the safety of both him and his father.

“Dad, where are we heading this time?” Lin Haoran asked, turning his head curiously toward his father from the spacious and comfortable back seat of the Rolls-Royce.

“We’re going to the Joyful Abundance Restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. The restaurant has an elegant atmosphere and delicious food, and it’s quite famous in the Tsim Sha Tsui area. You’ve been there before, you should remember it,” his father replied with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded. His memories confirmed that he had indeed accompanied his father to this restaurant for business dinners many times.

Along the way, Lin Haoran gradually learned that none of the shareholders behind the film project his father had invested in were actually from the industry. They seemed to be participating in this trivial investment with a relaxed, game-like mentality.

The car slowly drove out of the quiet villa district of Deep Water Bay, then wound its way up the twisting mountain road. After passing through a lush forest, it arrived at the bustling streets.

The vehicle weaved through the traffic for about half an hour before finally coming to a steady stop in front of the Joyful Abundance Restaurant.

They walked into the restaurant and entered the large, pre-booked hall.

The hall had been completely transformed. A striking banner celebrating the movie’s success was hung high overhead, indicating that tonight was to be a unique celebratory feast.

Fresh flowers and balloons were arranged in every corner.

At this moment, many people had already arrived in the restaurant hall where the celebration was to be held.

However, Lin Haoran recognized almost no one.

“President Lin, you’re finally here! We’ve been waiting for you!”

“Old Lin, this way, please. Let’s take this rare opportunity to discuss our collaboration in depth.”

…

As Lin Wan’an entered, the gazes of everyone in the hall focused on him. Although he wasn’t a business magnate, in the fertile commercial landscape of Hong Kong, the name Lin Wan’an still rang loud and clear, commanding a significant degree of fame and influence.

Evidently, many of the people present felt themselves to be somewhat inferior to Lin Wan’an in terms of both social standing and financial power. His arrival undoubtedly added a certain weight and anticipation to the gathering.

“President Yang, President Zheng, President Li, it’s been a while. How has everyone been?” Lin Wan’an smiled as he shook hands with each of them. His calm and ease showed he was well-accustomed to this kind of business entertainment.

“I’d like to take this opportunity to formally introduce my son, Lin Haoran. Haoran, come and say hello to your uncles.” As he spoke, Lin Wan’an led Lin Haoran forward, allowing his son to be seen by the business seniors.

“Hello, Uncle Yang, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. Hello, Uncle Zheng, a pleasure. Hello, Uncle Li, thank you for your care…” Lin Haoran greeted each of them in turn. He was full of humility and politeness, and though it was a formality, he carried it off with grace and poise.

These businessmen, despite their own achievements in their respective fields, were clearly of a slightly lower standing compared to Lin Wan’an.

Therefore, for Lin Haoran, a deep conversation with them was perhaps not a priority. After the greetings, he stood quietly beside his father without another word.

But this was how many young people behaved. After all, with such a large age gap, there was bound to be a generation gap in communication.

Lin Haoran had absolutely no interest in the topics they were discussing, so he decided to leave and find some desserts and snacks to relieve his boredom.

“Dad, I’m going to see what good desserts they have over there. You all continue chatting.” He politely informed his father before gracefully slipping away from the conversing group.

From his memory, among the many stars of the seventies were future superstars like Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Chow Yun-fat, but it was clear none of them were here.

This hodgepodge of people, who weren’t even really part of the film industry, had managed to co-finance a movie that not only didn’t lose money but actually earned a decent profit. It was something of a miracle.

The investment wasn’t particularly high, so naturally, they hadn’t invited any major celebrities.

He had come full of anticipation, hoping to run into a few familiar stars, but after searching around, he couldn’t help but feel a tinge of boredom.

So, he simply walked over to a table laden with snacks, sat down, and began to leisurely crack open sunflower seeds to pass the time.

“Hey, your sunflower seed shell fell on my shoe.” Just then, a crisp and pleasant female voice interrupted his thoughts.

Lin Haoran immediately realized his carelessness and quickly checked the shells in his hand. He had actually been carefully placing them on the edge of the table, waiting for a server to clear them away.

Evidently, a moment of inattention had caused a few shells to slip off, just as a young girl happened to walk by.

He quickly looked up, his face full of apology. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t notice. It was completely unintentional.”

As their eyes met, Lin Haoran froze. The girl before him was someone he never expected to see—the future superstar Rosamund Kwan, now in the bloom of her youth, as beautiful as a newly opened flower. It was a stunning sight.

“If ‘sorry’ could solve everything, what would we need the police for?” Rosamund Kwan’s words were laced with a playful and刁蛮 tone.

It was completely unexpected. Lin Haoran was surprised that at this age, her personality was so forthright.

Chapter 28: Appearance is Righteousness

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but chuckle. “So, does that mean I have to buy you a new pair of shoes to make it up to you? Go on, what kind do you want?”

He marveled to himself. To think that the first future star he’d meet in this new world would be the incredibly lively and charming Rosamund Kwan.

A sly smile played on Rosamund Kwan’s lips. “Since you’re being so sincere,” she said softly, “you can buy me a pair of Roger Viviers. I never specified it was for this pair, though.”

She was being deliberately playful. Her mischievous eyes sparkled with a desire for the designer shoes, yet they couldn’t hide her underlying innocence.

This only confirmed Lin Haoran’s impression: the future superstar was not just beautiful, but had a uniquely captivating personality as well.

“Of course. It’s just a pair of Roger Viviers. I’ll get them for you,” Lin Haoran said with an easy smile, his eyes radiating confidence.

“Oh, you’re not just saying that, are you? Roger Vivier shoes are quite expensive,” Rosamund Kwan said, half-doubting him. She had only been joking.

“Do you know who my dad is? See that man over there with the white hair? That’s my father, the Chairman of the Board of Wan’an Group. You’ve probably heard of it, right?” Lin Haoran pointed nearby, his smile growing even brighter.

“So you’re the Young Master of the Lin family. No wonder you have such an extraordinary air about you. Are you… really going to buy me a pair of Roger Viviers?” Rosamund Kwan’s voice held a hint of uncertainty, but her eyes shone with anticipation.

She knew that at such a distinguished and formal gathering, status and identity were serious matters. No one would joke about them lightly.

Although Rosamund Kwan’s family wasn’t vastly wealthy, her father, Kwan Shan, was a well-known actor in Hong Kong. His career brought the family a stable income and a good social standing, so their living conditions were quite privileged.

Because she occasionally accompanied her father to various social events, Rosamund Kwan was not only worldly but had also developed a deep knowledge of various luxury brands. She could talk about high-end brands like Roger Vivier as if she were an expert.

In the bloom of her youth, Rosamund Kwan, like many girls her age, harbored a yearning for beautiful things.

At this age full of dreams, it was inevitable that she would long for brand-name products representing quality and fashion. This was both a sentiment unique to youth and a natural human desire for beautiful things.

“I, Lin Haoran, always keep my word. I never make empty promises. A pair of shoes like Roger Vivier, a mere few thousand Hong Kong dollars, is nothing more than a drop in the bucket to me, not even worth mentioning.” A faint smile played on Lin Haoran’s lips. His every gesture exuded the casual and unrestrained air of a wealthy scion, like a playboy who treated life as a game.

“Then… how do I contact you?” Rosamund Kwan secretly glanced around. After confirming no one was watching, she asked in a low whisper, her voice tinged with nervousness and anticipation.

Lin Haoran smiled and handed her a business card with his beeper number on it. “Here’s my contact info. Page me whenever you’re free. I’ll get back to you as soon as I see it.”

As his gaze fell upon Rosamund Kwan, Lin Haoran was secretly delighted.

The girl before him had not yet stepped into the chaotic world of showbiz; she still possessed a rare and precious innocence. This stirred in him a desire to protect and cherish her. Since I’ve transmigrated into this era and met Rosamund Kwan at this age, he thought, wouldn’t it be a waste not to make her mine?

For Lin Haoran, with his current exceptional background and confident charm, winning Rosamund Kwan’s favor was indeed not a difficult task.

Seventeen and in the prime of youth—that was the perfect way to describe the Rosamund Kwan before him.

Rosamund Kwan took the business card, a flash of surprise and shyness in her eyes. She quickly and carefully tucked it into her pocket, as if afraid someone might see.

After doing so, she let out a soft breath, her tense nerves finally relaxing. A relieved smile appeared on her face.

Her first impression of the handsome and dapper young man before her was quite profound. This must be what they call “appearance is righteousness.”

As a teenager, a yearning for romance was quietly budding in her heart, and Lin Haoran’s handsome appearance struck the softest chord within her.

What made Rosamund Kwan’s heart flutter even more was that Lin Haoran was not only exceptionally handsome but also came from a prominent and wealthy family.

To a girl her age, such a combination was undoubtedly incredibly attractive.

She couldn’t help but fantasize about the possibilities between them, longing for a deeper connection. She even began to silently plan how she could build a closer relationship with him.

Of course, Rosamund Kwan also understood that her thoughts might be somewhat shallow and impulsive, but she simply couldn’t resist that powerful attraction.

And so, she decided to bravely take the first step and try to get closer to this man who had captured her heart.

The two of them sat there, chatting and munching on sunflower seeds.

It turned out that Rosamund Kwan’s father, Kwan Shan, was one of the actors in this film—and one of the few famous Hong Kong actors in the cast.

Following Rosamund Kwan’s pointed finger, Lin Haoran identified her father. At that moment, Kwan Shan was chatting with Lin Wan’an and others, completely unaware that his own daughter was deep in a pleasant conversation with the young man right next to him, and was on the verge of being ‘spirited away’ by this dashing gentleman.

Before long, the banquet was about to begin.

Rosamund Kwan grew anxious, afraid her father would notice her talking so familiarly with a strange young man, so she hurriedly bid Lin Haoran farewell.

“I’ll contact you soon! Make sure I can reach you. Wait for my message!” Rosamund Kwan urged expectantly as she was leaving.

“Definitely. Don’t worry,” Lin Haoran replied with a gentle smile, knowing he had already left an indelible mark on Rosamund Kwan’s heart.

After Rosamund Kwan returned to her father’s side, Lin Haoran naturally went back to Lin Wan’an.

This supposed celebration banquet, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, was more like a meticulously planned networking event. Of the actors present, aside from the few famous ones like Kwan Shan who could truly command attention, the rest were mostly just playing supporting roles. It seemed they had gathered just for the free meal, to go through the motions and be done with it.

At the banquet, these old business friends of Lin Wan’an all raised their glasses to toast him. However, Lin Haoran skillfully deflected every toast, one by one, using the excuse of being considerate of his father’s health.

His words were sincere and his attitude firm. He managed to express concern for his father’s health without being impolite, thus preserving the atmosphere of the event.

Everyone present was well aware of the Lin family’s prestige and status, so naturally, no one dared to show the slightest displeasure. There were certainly no rash remarks like “If you don’t drink, you’re disrespecting me.” The entire scene remained harmonious and respectful.

On the way home, Lin Wan’an was filled with gratification and praised Lin Haoran, “Haoran, you’ve really matured a lot. In the past, you might not have been able to handle a situation like that so thoughtfully.”

“Dad, it’s all thanks to your careful guidance,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile, his words filled with respect.

The Rolls-Royce drove smoothly through the night. The interior was warm and comfortable, and time quietly slipped by until it was half past nine in the evening.

Finally, the car came to a steady stop in the parking space at the Lin family villa.

Chapter 29: Facing the Sea, with Spring Blossoms

After returning home, Lin Haoran washed up and went straight to his bedroom, falling into a deep sleep early.

Having lived in this world for nearly a month, he had already assimilated into his new identity, and the initial unfamiliarity and unease had quietly faded.

The next day, it was past nine in the morning when he finally emerged from his bedroom with a hint of laziness, yawning as he walked out, his face full of anticipation for the new day.

The Lin family villa was exquisitely designed, with four imposing floors above ground and a quiet, deep basement level.

Lin Haoran’s residence was on the top floor of this mansion, a loft space full of character.

Since his parents preferred the warmth and convenience of the second floor, and his Older Brother, Lin Haoning, had originally occupied a section of the third, Lin Haoran, as the youngest member of the family, naturally settled on the fourth floor.

It was worth mentioning that although Lin Haoran’s two older sisters had long since been married, their rooms were still meticulously preserved on the second floor, as if ready to welcome them back for a short stay at any time.

Though his Older Brother Lin Haoning had moved out, his room was also kept as it was, and Lin Haoran had no intention of staying in his siblings’ rooms.

As for Lin Haoran, he did not mind the height of the floor in the slightest; on the contrary, he was particularly fond of it.

The reason was simple: the fourth floor connected to a spacious and bright terrace.

The terrace was uniquely situated, facing the vast, boundless sea, offering an open and pleasant view.

Not only was it decorated with vibrant life, filled with over a dozen pots of colorful flowers and plants, but it was also specially furnished with a comfortable deck chair and a delicate sun umbrella beside it.

Lin Haoran was deeply fond of this terrace. It had become his private sanctuary. Apart from the Filipino maids who occasionally came up to clean, practically no one would come up to disturb him.

Whenever he wanted to escape the hustle and bustle and find a moment of tranquility, he would come to the terrace and lie leisurely in the deck chair.

Closing his eyes, he would let the sea breeze gently caress his cheeks, carrying the salty scent of the sea and the fresh fragrance of the distant flowers. He felt as if he could feel the ocean’s breath, becoming one with nature.

In his past life, many people had dreamed of the beautiful life of “facing the sea, with spring blossoms.” But Lin Haoran, in this world, had unexpectedly realized this dream.

While enjoying breakfast in the first-floor dining room, his mother gently told him, “If you don’t have anything important this morning, don’t be in a rush to go out. Your second sister will be coming over with your nephew later.”

Lin Haoran smiled and nodded in agreement. With nothing else on his mind, he could leisurely wait at home for his second sister’s arrival.

After breakfast, Lin Haoran walked into the villa’s backyard. The brothers Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, along with his father’s personal bodyguard, Old Zhang, were in the middle of their morning training, drenched in sweat.

As a senior, Old Zhang would occasionally impart some of his experience to the two brothers.

Sunlight dappled through the leaves, casting mottled shadows on their resolute figures, making them appear exceptionally vivid.

In Lin Haoran’s memory, whenever it was the weekend and his father wasn’t tied up with special matters, he would always choose to stay home and spend warm moments with his mother.

Old Zhang, the loyal bodyguard, had silently protected his father for over a decade. His presence had long since become an indispensable part of the Lin family. The passage of time had not dulled his alertness or skill; instead, it had added a certain calm and composure.

The Lin family villa was specially equipped with a variety of exercise equipment to ensure the bodyguards could maintain peak physical condition to handle any potential situation.

Since being chosen as Lin Haoran’s bodyguards, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong had also been training diligently every day.

“Morning, Young Master.”

“Good morning, Young Master!”

Seeing Lin Haoran, the three men who were training all stopped what they were doing and greeted him.

“Yeah, morning to you all, too. Carry on, don’t mind me,” Lin Haoran greeted them with a cheerful smile, then began his own workout.

His movements were not as professional or high-intensity as the three bodyguards, but they were relaxed and natural.

“Younger Young Master, the Second Miss has returned. The madam sent me to call for you,” a servant reported, hurrying over while Lin Haoran was absorbed in his exercise.

Hearing this, he immediately stopped what he was doing and replied with a smile, “Alright, I’ll be right there.”

Upon entering the main hall, sounds of joyful laughter already filled the entire space, brimming with warmth and delight.

“Uncle!” A sturdy-looking little boy suddenly darted out from the crowd, running excitedly toward Lin Haoran.

At the sight, an even brighter smile bloomed on Lin Haoran’s face. He strode forward, scooped the little boy high into his arms, spun him around, and laughed, “Well now, my little nephew, it’s only been a short while, and you’ve gotten much sturdier!”

At the same time, Lin Haoran turned his head, his gentle gaze falling upon the elegant lady seated on the sofa.

She was in her early thirties with gentle features and a gracefully rounded figure. It was his long-unseen second sister, Lin Yiyi.

“Second Sister, long time no see.” Lin Haoran held his little nephew, a warm smile gracing his lips as he greeted Lin Yiyi with deep affection in his eyes.

“You rascal, I heard from mother that you’ve been back from England for three months and haven’t come to see me even once. How heartless. It seems I’ve doted on you for all these years for nothing,” Lin Yiyi said with a feigned smile of annoyance, but her bright eyes were filled with nothing but fondness and love for her younger brother.

Deep in Lin Haoran’s memories, his second and third sisters had always doted on him. As a child born later in the family, he had practically grown up under their meticulous care.

As for his Older Brother, Lin Wan’an, in Lin Haoran’s memory, he had originally been a very caring brother as well. However, ever since he had gotten married, his personality seemed to have undergone a subtle change overnight. The former intimacy and care gradually faded, and he had even become somewhat distant.

Carrying his little nephew, Lin Haoran walked over to them and sat on the sofa, listening to them chat about family matters.

Marital alliances among wealthy families traditionally required that the families be well-matched in social standing, and his second sister had naturally followed this custom, marrying into the prominent Zhu family of Hong Kong several years ago in a grand wedding.

The Zhu family, the power behind the Heng Guang Real Estate Group, was even more formidable than the Lin family. The Heng Guang Real Estate Group they controlled had a market value exceeding three hundred million Hong Kong dollars and held considerable influence in the business world.

Around noon, after the meal was finished, his second sister chose to stay on the first floor to chat warmly with their father and mother about her family matters, while Lin Haoran took his five-year-old nephew up to the fourth-floor terrace to play.

After a long while, his second sister came up from downstairs and said gently to her son, “Darling, go downstairs and chat with Grandpa and Grandma for a bit. Mummy needs to talk to your uncle about something.”

“Second Sister, did you want to talk to me about something in particular?”

After his little nephew was led downstairs by a servant, Lin Haoran brought two comfortable chairs out from the room. The two of them sat side by side on the terrace, gazing at the sparkling sea in the distance. The sea breeze blew gently, bringing with it a cool and tranquil air.

Chapter 30: A Three-Million-Hong-Kong-Dollar Check

“Haoran, how long has it been since we sat shoulder to shoulder like this, chatting and peacefully watching this vast sea?” Second Sister asked, turning her head slightly, her gaze filled with a trace of nostalgia and sentiment.

“Let me think… Hmm, it must have been seven or eight years,” Lin Haoran replied affirmatively after a moment of reflection.

His gaze drifted into the distance, as if traveling back to those carefree days when they enjoyed the seascape together.

He could indeed recall many such scenes in his memory: by the sea at sunset, his and his two sisters’ shadows stretching long, the sea breeze gently blowing, carrying the salty taste of the ocean, along with their innocent laughter and heartfelt talks.

However, that was all a long, long time ago. Mentioning it again now, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of nostalgia.

“Yes, seven or eight years have passed in the blink of an eye. I’ve gone from a young girl to someone’s wife and mother, but the one thing that hasn’t changed is the deep bond between us siblings, right?” Second Sister was also filled with emotion.

“Of course, Second Sister. I know you’ve always doted on me the most,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“Haoran, I know you’re currently facing the challenge of competing with Older Brother for the inheritance of Wan’an Group. Older Brother’s deep experience puts you at a disadvantage.

“I heard from mother when she called that the revenue of your cement factory has been declining. But what I want to stress is, even though I can’t help you with much, you mustn’t become pessimistic, no matter how the competition turns out.

“Your youth might seem like a disadvantage right now, making you appear inexperienced. However, that very youth is also your most precious asset, because it signifies infinite possibilities and a future.

“Remember, even if you fail, it’s just one attempt on the road to success. It won’t define you. Even if you fail, I will do everything in my power to help you start your own business.”

Lin Haoran finally understood the true reason for his sister’s visit.

Perhaps his behavior—ignoring the affairs of the Huafeng Cement Factory after returning to Hong Kong—had been interpreted by their mother as a form of pessimistic escapism after realizing he had no hope of competing for the Wan’an Group inheritance.

And this worry and speculation had then been inadvertently passed from their mother to his second sister, ultimately tugging at her heartstrings.

In his memory, from childhood to adulthood, his second sister had always been the one who loved him and understood him the most.

Therefore, she had returned to her parents’ home without hesitation, just to see her dear brother with her own eyes, clear up her doubts, and offer him encouragement and support.

If it had been the former Lin Haoran, he might have opened his heart to his sister’s gentle words and poured out his frustrations.

But the Lin Haoran of today was not the same as before. He had undergone a transformation; he was no longer the old Lin Haoran.

He was naturally grateful for his sister’s concern and comfort, but he didn’t plan on saying too much.

He knew his own affairs best.

Therefore, while his Second Sister’s words were heartwarming, he didn’t dwell on them.

“Second Sister, you can rest assured. I have never lost faith in the future!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Seeing this, a flash of surprise crossed Second Sister’s eyes. She keenly sensed that the confidence Lin Haoran displayed wasn’t just an act to comfort her, but a genuine self-assurance that came from deep within.

“I’m so relieved to see you have this mindset. Here, take this money. But remember, you must keep it a secret. Don’t let anyone know, including Dad, mother, and your brother-in-law.” After speaking, Second Sister slowly took a check from an inner pocket and gently handed it to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran took the check, and his eyes were immediately drawn to the number written on it. It was a check for three million Hong Kong dollars!

The number struck him like a clap of thunder, sending ripples through his heart.

He looked up at his sister, his eyes filled with both surprise and gratitude. At that moment, he felt the depth of her affection for him more profoundly than ever.

Despite holding a fortune of eighty million in his hands now, it was all borrowed.

Three million Hong Kong dollars was a considerable sum of money in this era.

“Second Sister, where did you get this money? I can’t take it. Besides, I’m not short on money. Please, take it back!” Lin Haoran couldn’t help but thrust the check back into her hand, his expression serious.

“Haoran, this is actually a bit of my personal savings from before I was married. Back then, I had a pretty good eye for investment and bought two villas. Over the years, their value has doubled or tripled. I know you’re in need of money right now, so I secretly decided to sell them. I’ve never told your brother-in-law about any of this, so you can take it without worry. Although I can’t solve all your problems directly, I wanted to do my part for your future, hoping you’ll achieve great things.” With that, Second Sister gently but firmly pushed the check back into Lin Haoran’s hand.

Seeing his sister’s determined expression, Lin Haoran’s heart was deeply moved.

He felt incredibly fortunate to have such a selfless and caring sister.

In his previous life, he had never experienced this kind of sibling bond. He never expected to have such a real and heartfelt experience after transmigrating.

In the end, Lin Haoran stopped refusing and solemnly accepted the three-million-Hong-Kong-dollar check with both hands.

He knew it wasn’t just a check; it was a symbol of his sister’s profound care for him.

If he refused, he would be letting down her kind intentions and would surely make her sad.

Besides, he knew that his sister lived very happily with the Zhu family. Her husband doted on her, and as a wealthy family, the Zhu family had no financial worries.

“Second Sister, I will never forget your kindness. I will work hard to build a successful career in the future and live up to your expectations!” Lin Haoran said with a brilliant smile.

“Haoran, I’ve never worried about Older Brother. It’s you I’m concerned about. My greatest wish is to see you succeed and live the life you want. As long as you’re well, I’ll be content,” Second Sister said gently, her eyes on Lin Haoran.

The azure waters of Deep Water Bay shimmered, reflecting the deep blue of the sky in the distance, creating a serene and profound atmosphere.

A cool sea breeze drifted by, not only carrying away the summer heat but also caressing the two siblings, as if purifying their very souls.

Even the closest of relatives could become fragile in the face of sufficient self-interest, just like his own older brother.

He would naturally treat well those who were good to him, and he was well aware of those who were not.

Chapter 31: Lin Haoning’s Worries

Kowloon Tong, situated in the northern corner of the Kowloon City District, is an area renowned for its low-rise bungalows and well-arranged villa clusters. Shaded by verdant trees, its paths are gently blanketed in lush greenery, creating a tranquil and elegant atmosphere reminiscent of the suburbs, far from the city’s clamor.

It is not only an oasis within the city but also a favored place of residence for many of Hong Kong’s ordinarily wealthy families.

Deep within this villa district stood an elegantly designed and luxuriously decorated villa, the residence of the Lin family’s Eldest Young Master, Lin Haoning.

At this moment, inside the villa, Lin Haoning was holding a telephone receiver, his expression focused as he spoke.

“Good, you did very well. I’ll mark this down as a great contribution. I’ve seen all your efforts and kept them in mind. In the future, you will certainly not be treated unfairly…” After ending the call, Lin Haoning gently set down the phone, but the expression on his face gradually darkened. A faint shadow of gloom quietly crept over his brow, as if the news from the other end of the line was not entirely to his liking.

“Husband, what’s wrong?” Cao Shaoling keenly noticed the fleeting gloom on her husband Lin Haoning’s face. She sat beside him and asked in a soft, gentle voice.

As the eldest granddaughter of the Cao family—a renowned billionaire family in Hong Kong—Cao Shaoling’s family background was comparable to the Lin family’s. Both families possessed substantial economic power and extensive influence. The Cao family’s main business was focused on the building materials sector, covering several key industries such as steel, timber, glass, and paint, showcasing a strong industrial foundation and market competitiveness.

The marriage between the Lin and Cao families was undoubtedly a strategic alliance of two powerhouses. It aimed to achieve even more significant success for both enterprises in their respective fields and the broader market through resource integration and the complementing of their strengths, thereby realizing a dual leap in family power and influence.

In the years since she married into the Lin family, Cao Shaoling, as a crucial link between the two families, had facilitated deep cooperation that had indeed allowed both families to achieve significant progress and development in their respective domains.

This kind of marital alliance and cooperation between powerful families was considered a common and natural phenomenon in a business-centric place like Hong Kong, promoting resource sharing and complementing advantages between families.

It not only strengthened the close ties between the families but also provided firm support for the continued prosperity and expansion of their businesses.

Therefore, in Hong Kong society, such marriages and collaborations were often seen as a win-win situation, earning widespread recognition and respect.

Not long after their wedding, Lin Haoning decided to move out of the Lin family villa with Cao Shaoling, choosing to establish their own home and start a new life together.

Although he moved out, Lin Haoning had always worked under the careful guidance of his father, Lin Wan’an, for the past several years. While he had accumulated a wealth of experience, he mostly played a supportive role and was unable to fully demonstrate his own capabilities. At the same time, he had not been able to effectively integrate the resources of Cao Shaoling’s family into his own career.

It wasn’t until recently, when his father, Lin Wan’an, began to formally consider the matter of a successor, that this change provided Lin Haoning with an unprecedented opportunity for independent development.

He firmly grasped this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Not only did he pour all his efforts into showcasing his outstanding talent and profound potential in the business world, but he also cleverly and precisely leveraged the Cao family’s background and resources for support.

This strategy enabled the Wanfeng Fan Factory to achieve a monumental leap in development in just two or three months, with soaring performance and an extremely enthusiastic market response. The progress was remarkably striking.

Even more cunningly, Lin Haoning used the Cao family’s power to lay a hidden trap in the business world, implementing precise and covert pressure against his brother’s Huafeng Cement Factory. He gradually weakened its market competitiveness, causing it to continuously lose clients and its market share to be severely eroded.

The Cao family itself was a supplier of building materials and had dealings with countless real estate bosses. A word from him could naturally persuade many small-time real estate bosses to abandon Huafeng Cement Factory’s cement and switch to other brands.

This series of maneuvers not only demonstrated Lin Haoning’s far-sightedness and ruthless methods in business struggles but also signaled that he had taken the lead in the competition to be the family’s heir.

Lin Haoning’s decision to marry Cao Shaoling had undoubtedly been a well-thought-out one. A significant consideration was the powerful force the Cao family represented. This power was not only reflected in their substantial strength as a building materials supplier but also in their extensive industry influence, abundant resources, and deep family foundation.

“I just got a call from a servant at Dad’s villa. They said Second Sister went back and had a long talk with Haoran on the rooftop terrace. The two of them have been extremely close since they were children. It’s highly likely she will fully support Haoran. Add to that the rich resources of the Zhu family behind her, and also Third Sister’s equally deep bond with Haoran… if both of my sisters side with Lin Haoran, then his future development is truly something we cannot take lightly.” Lin Haoning’s tone was laced with clear anxiety.

“Your brother, Lin Haoran, hasn’t he given up on competing with us?” Cao Shaoling’s brows furrowed upon hearing this.

“Whether it’s Second Sister or Third Sister, they each married into powerful families, and the influence behind them cannot be ignored. If they both choose to stand with Haoran, he will undoubtedly gain a powerful advantage in this battle for succession.” As he spoke, Lin Haoning slowly sat down on the sofa, crossed his legs, and frowned, lost in deep thought about the future of the family.

He knew in his heart that his personality had subtly changed since marrying Cao Shaoling, and this change also seemed to have imperceptibly created a distance between him and his second and third sisters.

Wealth and power—he could refuse neither.

As the eldest son of the Lin family, he felt that he alone was the most qualified to inherit the Wan’an Group.

The once-close and intimate family ties had now gradually become distant and indifferent, which made him feel a trace of helplessness and melancholy.

However, in this game of family power, everyone was fighting for their own interests and positions. He could only continue to move forward, seeking his own footing in this complex situation.

The continuous loss of old clients at Huafeng Cement Factory was, naturally, due to his covert pressure.

Previously, all of Lin Haoran’s various changes at the Huafeng Cement Factory had quietly reached Lin Haoning’s ears through spies like Lin Yi.

Of course, one thing had been concealed.

When Lin Yi reported to Lin Haoning, he cleverly concealed the fact that he had been defeated in his sparring match with Li Weiguo, claiming instead that they had fought to a draw.

Lin Yi knew very well that if the Eldest Young Master found out he had lost to a random stowaway they had rescued, his own status in Lin Haoning’s eyes would likely plummet. Out of this concern, he chose to withhold the information about his defeat.

Chapter 32: A Great Gift for You

Lin Yi and his three men were suddenly recalled from the Huafeng Cement Factory by their father and reassigned to Lin Haoning’s side.

At first, Lin Haoning simply thought this was his father’s angry reaction to Lin Haoran neglecting the Huafeng Cement Factory—a way to pressure his brother while strengthening his own position.

However, as events unfolded, Lin Haoning began to realize that a more complex scheme might be at play.

“It seems my brother is dead set on continuing this fight for the inheritance!” Lin Haoning’s tone was a mixture of resignation and resolve. “I had hoped he would see reason and withdraw from this pointless competition. As his older brother, I would have naturally ensured he lived a life of wealth and ease. But if Haoran insists on fighting me, using every trick in the book to claim the position of heir, then I’ll have no choice but to treat this as business and relentlessly constrict his space in the marketplace.” His words held both a regard for their kinship and a cold recognition of the realities of family business.

“Husband, I’ve been thinking,” Cao Shaoling proposed. “What if I go home and ask Dad to use his influence in the industry to completely drive Huafeng Cement Factory out of the market? That way, no matter what Haoran tries, he’ll be powerless to turn things around.”

“Absolutely not. News of that would reach my father in no time. Our move would be too obvious and cause unnecessary trouble. Our current strategy of gradually weakening Huafeng’s market position and shrinking its profit margins is already putting enough pressure on Haoran. There’s no need to be so ruthless. If my father found out, he would be absolutely furious, which would only give Haoran an opportunity to use it against us and put us at a disadvantage,” Lin Haoning said, shaking his head decisively in opposition.

“The biggest headache right now is not knowing whether Second Sister and Third Sister are secretly helping Haoran. If they’re truly on his side, he’ll have the backing of two powerful, prominent families. In comparison, we only have the Cao family on our side, which makes the situation quite dire. Although we certainly have the lead now, the future is full of uncertainties. This contest for the inheritance has only been going on for three months, and there’s still a long road ahead. We can’t guarantee a one-hundred-percent victory.” Cao Shaoling’s voice was laced with worry and frustration. She was keenly aware that after marrying into the Lin family, her future and happiness were directly tied to her husband becoming the heir.

“Perhaps we should go see Old Master Cao and discuss this,” Lin Haoning suggested after a moment of thought. “Let’s see if he has any brilliant ideas to help us navigate this complex situation.” He had been full of confidence about the competition for inheritance, but the possibility of his sisters siding with Haoran had shaken him.

“Alright, Husband. Let’s go now. I haven’t been back to my parents’ home in over a week,” Cao Shaoling’s eyes lit up, and she agreed without a moment’s hesitation.

A dozen or so minutes later, the private car Lin Haoning was driving slowly entered Hong Kong’s famous Kadoorie Hill villa district, a symbol of the city’s rich and powerful, and the location of the Cao family estate.

The Cao family mansion was magnificent, occupying several hundred square meters of priceless land within the district, a testament to the family’s prominence and prestige.

Lin Haoning had chosen to live in the Kowloon Tong villa district precisely because of its proximity to Kadoorie Hill, which allowed him to maintain close contact with the Cao family.

Within the Cao family villa, all was quiet and serene.

In the backyard, seated in a wicker chair, Old Master Cao was leisurely flipping through a book, savoring the rare moment of peace.

With a patter of light footsteps, Cao Shaoling darted into the backyard like a cheerful bird, exclaiming, “Grandpa, your darling granddaughter is back to see you!”

“Shaoling, Haoning, you’re here?” Old Master Cao looked up from his book and said with a smile.

He set the book down, his gaze full of affection and delight. He had always doted on his eldest granddaughter.

“Grandfather,” Lin Haoning greeted him respectfully.

“Haoning, you came all this way today, so you must have something to discuss, right?” the Old Master said, looking at him with a knowing smile, his eyes revealing the wisdom of one who has seen it all.

He knew that Lin Haoning did not visit often, except for holidays or important family matters.

“You’re as sharp as ever, Grandfather.” Lin Haoning smiled faintly, then his expression turned serious as he began to explain the difficulties he was facing in detail.

He spoke frankly about the complexities of the Lin family’s competition for the inheritance, as well as his own concerns and plans for the future.

As the Cao family’s son-in-law, every move Lin Haoning made was of great concern to them.

Naturally, the Old Master hoped that he would secure his position in the Lin family and become the heir. Not only would this solidify the marriage alliance between their two families, but it would also bring greater benefits and glory to the Cao family.

“Haoning, is the core of this competition of yours based on the success of your respective businesses? For instance, you’re dedicated to the development of the Wanfeng Fan Factory, while your brother is focused on the growth of the Huafeng Cement Factory?” the Old Master asked slowly, his gaze profound.

Lin Haoning nodded in response. “That’s exactly right.”

The Old Master smiled faintly and continued, “In that case, you should concentrate your efforts on ensuring the Wanfeng Fan Factory’s dominant position. If you can keep a close eye on the Huafeng Cement Factory and prevent it from expanding too quickly, you will seize the initiative in this competition. Furthermore, I know you’re worried about other forces within your family, especially your two sisters, possibly siding with your brother. But Haoning, you needn’t worry too much. Grandpa has a great gift for you.”

At this, a cunning glint flashed in the Old Master’s eyes. “I have an old friend who has been doing business in the Middle East for many years. He primarily handles the sale of light industrial products from Hong Kong in the Middle Eastern market. As you know, the Middle East is sweltering, and the demand for fans is enormous. I can act as a go-between and have my old friend give your Wanfeng Fan Factory priority. That way, your fan sales will surely skyrocket. But there’s one condition: you must maintain strict quality control. I can’t have my reputation damaged over quality issues.”

Upon hearing this, both Lin Haoning and Cao Shaoling’s eyes lit up with excitement. Cao Shaoling couldn’t help but ask, “Grandpa, that really is a great gift! You dote on Haoning so much.”

The Old Master chuckled and shook his head, his eyes full of affection. “Of course I want you both to do well, but the marketplace is a battlefield. Only the strong can remain undefeated. Haoning, you must cherish this opportunity and not disappoint your grandpa.”

Chapter 33: An Unsatisfactory Harvest

Lin Haoran’s second older sister, along with her lively and adorable little nephew, spent a warm and fulfilling weekend at the Lin family home. It wasn’t until the crack of dawn on Monday that she reluctantly bid farewell to her family at her parents’ home and began her journey back.

At the same time, Lin Haoran was also up early, resolutely preparing to throw himself wholeheartedly into the challenges of the new day. He was completely unaware of his Older Brother’s thoughts or the grand gift he had received.

Even if he had known, he wouldn’t have cared in the slightest. His sights were already set far beyond such minor dealings.

In terms of his finances, Lin Haoran was currently quite comfortable.

That was why for the time being, he had chosen to hold on to the three-million-dollar check from his second sister without using it.

Thanks to the thirty-million-dollar loan he had successfully secured from Hang Seng Bank, combined with the over ten million in savings he already had in his stock-linked account, Lin Haoran’s current financial situation was quite comfortable. He felt no pressing financial strain.

This solid financial foundation undoubtedly provided him with firm backing for his upcoming stock acquisitions.

“President Lin, good morning!” It was Su Zhixue’s voice. When Lin Haoran stepped into the office, it seemed Su Zhixue had already been there for some time, looking exceptionally dedicated.

“Good morning! Zhixue, you seem to be in high spirits. You must have had a very pleasant and relaxing weekend,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“My son’s recovery has been quite rapid recently, and his spirits are completely back to how they were before he got sick. So, I took the opportunity this weekend to take my wife and son to Lamma Island for a wonderful little vacation.” Su Zhixue’s voice was brimming with happiness and gratitude.

He knew that all this peace and hope stemmed from President Lin’s timely assistance.

If not for President Lin’s generous help, he might still be trapped in the struggle of raising the exorbitant surgical fees for his son, consumed by worry every day.

It was this act of kindness that had allowed brilliant sunshine to break through the gloom in Su Zhixue’s life.

Therefore, whenever life revealed such a warm and harmonious side, his deep gratitude and respect for Lin Haoran only grew stronger.

“Alright, let’s get ready. We need to step it up with Kowloon Wharf. Besides us, quite a few financial magnates have already entered the game,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, glancing at his watch.

With Jardine Matheson’s Hongkong Land forming a consortium to enter the fray, and Pao Yue-kong following suit, the rise in Kowloon Wharf’s stock price had begun to accelerate.

Currently, the average price of the Kowloon Wharf shares he held was only 23.05 Hong Kong dollars per share. This was thanks to his keen insight, which had led him to buy in large quantities when the stock was at its lowest point, effectively lowering his overall average cost.

However, it was worth noting that at the market close last Friday, Kowloon Wharf’s trading price had already climbed to 25.03 Hong Kong dollars, showing strong upward momentum.

As the major financial groups accelerated their strategies and actively acquired shares, Lin Haoran was keenly aware that the price of Kowloon Wharf stock was bound to continue climbing. This meant that the cost of acquiring more shares would inevitably rise as well.

He had long been clear-eyed about this and was fully prepared for it.

“Yes, President Lin. Rest assured, I will face today’s challenges in peak condition!” Su Zhixue replied, his eyes shining with confidence.

When the melodious bell of the nearby stock exchange rang, signaling the official start of the trading day, Su Zhixue immediately threw himself into his intense yet orderly work without a moment’s hesitation.

Lin Haoran didn’t slack off either. He used this time to constantly learn, gradually accumulating a wealth of knowledge and skills in stock trading.

At many critical moments, he was able to use his professional abilities to provide strong support and assistance to Su Zhixue’s operations. The two of them worked hand-in-hand, advancing steadily through the tides of the stock market.

The acquisition of Green Island Cement shares was still progressing quite smoothly, just as unhindered as on previous days.

On the Kowloon Wharf front, however, the situation had quietly changed.

Su Zhixue and Lin Haoran keenly sensed that with the emergence of numerous competitors, their pace of acquiring shares had slowed noticeably, and the challenges they faced were growing more severe by the day.

Each transaction required greater caution to ensure they could secure a foothold amidst the fierce competition.

Finally, the closing bell from the stock exchange next door rang out, announcing the official end of the day’s trading.

As usual, Su Zhixue began to calculate the day’s gains after the market closed.

Lin Haoran, on the other hand, waited quietly. His brow was furrowed; he was clearly not satisfied with the day’s trading.

Although the final detailed results had not yet been calculated, Lin Haoran already knew that their acquisition speed for Kowloon Wharf today was much slower than usual.

He knew that from now on, the price of Kowloon Wharf shares would only get higher and higher.

Therefore, this meant his subsequent acquisition costs would continue to rise.

The higher the cost, the lower his future profits from the Kowloon Wharf stock would be.

This was unacceptable!

Soon, Su Zhixue had tallied up the day’s results.

“Boss, I’ll report today’s results. For Green Island Cement, we acquired a total of 488,000 shares at an average price of about 5.12 Hong Kong dollars per share, for a total expenditure of approximately 2.5 million Hong Kong dollars.

“As for Kowloon Wharf, because the competition for low-priced sell orders was extremely fierce today, we made several attempts to buy but were unsuccessful, as others beat us to it. In the end, we only managed to acquire 59,100 shares, at an average price of 25.27 Hong Kong dollars per share, for a total expenditure of about 1.49 million Hong Kong dollars.

“So, our total expenditure for today was approximately four million Hong Kong dollars,” Su Zhixue reported.

Lin Haoran nodded, having already prepared himself for this.

He would have liked to sweep up all the sell orders on the market below thirty Hong Kong dollars per share, but their previous analyses showed that the number of shares listed below that price range each day was at most two to three hundred thousand, and sometimes as few as just over a hundred thousand.

Adopting such an aggressive approach would have serious consequences, as it would directly cause a sharp rise in the stock price.

His goal was to hold at least over a million shares of Kowloon Wharf, and he was still a long way from that target.

Therefore, with a limited number of sell orders on the market, he could only adopt a strategy of slow and steady acquisition.

However, the intensity of their competitors’ acquisitions was now gradually increasing, which was indeed a significant problem.

Fortunately, these competitors didn’t seem willing to drive up the stock price prematurely, so their acquisition pace was relatively slow.

This also gave Lin Haoran’s side an opportunity to continue acquiring shares.

The only solution now was to wait until he had acquired a sufficient number of shares, and then sweep up all the stock within a certain price range in one go.

This would require him to have about one million shares of Kowloon Wharf in his possession first.

But currently, even including the shares acquired today, Lin Haoran only held 447,000 shares of Kowloon Wharf—still a considerable distance from his goal of one million.

Chapter 34: Assembling a Trading Team

“Tell me, how can we speed up the acquisition of Kowloon Wharf’s shares?” Lin Haoran asked.

“President Lin, the simplest way is to hire more traders. We have too few people right now, making it difficult to compete with the trading teams of some financial groups. Fortunately, from the looks of it, these teams are being cautious to prevent the stock price from rising too quickly. That’s the only reason we’ve been able to acquire some shares,” Su Zhixue offered his advice.

Lin Haoran had indeed considered expanding his team, especially by hiring traders like Su Zhixue who were facing difficulties.

However, despite his frequent visits to Wan’an Group during this period, he hadn’t encountered any other talented individuals in dire financial straits like Su Zhixue. Thus, even if he invited others to join, he couldn’t guarantee their loyalty.

As a result, Lin Haoran had temporarily shelved the idea.

But now, it seemed that assembling a trading team and increasing the number of traders had become a necessary step.

Otherwise, if the progress in acquiring Kowloon Wharf shares was too slow, the final cost would be excessively high, which would be a self-defeating outcome.

Furthermore, he was facing another potential crisis that could erupt at any moment: Green Island Cement could be targeted by Li Ka-shing’s side at any time.

Although he already controlled nearly 13.9% of Green Island Cement’s stock, if Li Ka-shing’s team began their acquisition, their strength would likely allow them to quickly surpass Lin Haoran’s holdings.

After all, Cheung Kong Holdings Group had become extremely cash-rich after selling its Kowloon Wharf shares to Shipping Magnate Pao, and Lin Haoran simply couldn’t compete with them in terms of financial power.

It was important to remember that the stock market wasn’t the only channel for acquiring shares.

With Li Ka-shing’s connections and resources, he could very well persuade some of Green Island Cement’s shareholders to sell their shares directly to him, which would drastically accelerate his acquisition speed.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had to secure a certain number of shares as soon as possible and publicly announce to Green Island Cement that he had become a major shareholder.

This might lead to an invitation to join Green Island Cement’s Board of Directors. Such news would undoubtedly reach Li Ka-shing quickly, and perhaps they would abandon their plans to acquire Green Island Cement because of it.

Even if Li Ka-shing still had his sights set on Green Island Cement, as a director, Lin Haoran would have more ways to adapt to the situation and ultimately force Li Ka-shing to give up on the company.

Moreover, as he neared his target number of shares, Lin Haoran planned to find a way to drive up Green Island Cement’s stock price.

This way, even if Li Ka-shing wanted to acquire shares from the stock market, it would cost him more time and money.

As long as Lin Haoran could secure sufficient funds from the Kowloon Wharf deal, he could continue to acquire shares of Green Island Cement and achieve his goal of truly controlling the company.

What Lin Haoran lacked now was time!

Besides, most traders strictly adhered to professional ethics. They signed confidentiality agreements before starting their jobs and, under normal circumstances, would not casually leak company secrets.

Therefore, after hearing Su Zhixue’s suggestion, Lin Haoran considered it for a moment and decided to form a team of several people to accelerate the stock acquisition process.

“Zhixue, since you’re in this line of work, I assume you studied finance in university, right?” Lin Haoran began to chat with Su Zhixue.

“You’re right, President Lin. I graduated from the finance department of Hong Kong University,” Su Zhixue answered truthfully.

Although Hong Kong University had not yet become an internationally renowned institution in this era, its finance program was growing stronger and gaining more industry recognition along with the booming development of Hong Kong’s financial sector.

“I want to assemble a trading team, and I want you to be the team leader. For now, we’ll aim for about five people. Do you have any trustworthy friends you could recommend?” Lin Haoran stated his purpose directly.

He believed that with Su Zhixue’s 100% loyalty, anyone he recommended would surely be reliable in both character and ability.

Furthermore, after they were recommended, he could use his special ability to check their loyalty and judge what kind of people they were.

He had been far too timid before.

Upon hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Su Zhixue’s eyes lit up. He said directly, “President Lin, I know many people in this industry, and a large portion of my classmates are in this line of work. I’m on good terms with several of them. When I was raising money for the surgery, I borrowed mostly from them. I can absolutely guarantee their personal integrity. Recruiting four people won’t be difficult for me. As long as the salary you offer is a little higher than what their current companies are paying, they should be willing to switch jobs.”

“Are there any who can start immediately? It takes some time to resign, doesn’t it?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

“President Lin, with the rapid development of Hong Kong’s financial industry, especially after the ‘shark fin soup with rice’ bull market, there’s no shortage of financial talent in Hong Kong. I have a friend who happens to be unemployed right now. He left his previous company over a month ago and is currently looking for a job. His trading skills are definitely at a professional level. As for the others, if they were to resign, they would generally need a week for the handover,” Su Zhixue replied cautiously.

“Alright, then you can notify them tonight to come for an interview tomorrow. I’ll offer a base salary of four thousand Hong Kong dollars per person, with bonuses depending on their performance!” Lin Haoran said directly.

A base salary of four thousand Hong Kong dollars was already quite good in this industry. In reality, a trader’s income relied more heavily on bonuses and commissions.

Take Su Zhixue, for example. At Wan’an Group, his base salary had only been two thousand five hundred Hong Kong dollars. It was only with bonuses and commissions that his monthly income barely reached over four thousand Hong Kong dollars.

“Okay, President Lin. I’ll notify them tonight. However, apart from my unemployed friend, the other three will only be able to come for an interview during their lunch break. Their current workplaces are all nearby, so it won’t be difficult for them to come over,” Su Zhixue replied.

“Okay, I’ll have to trouble you tonight then. Work hard, and you’ll be the head of this team from now on. As long as you perform well working for me, you won’t ever have to worry about bonuses and commissions. You can head back and rest for the day!” Lin Haoran said to Su Zhixue with a smile.

Watching Su Zhixue’s departing figure, Lin Haoran sat in his chair and began to contemplate his next steps.

Once he had recruited suitable people, the speed of stock acquisition would surely increase significantly.

At that point, he wouldn’t have to worry too much about Kowloon Wharf.

After all, his goal wasn’t that large—just over one million shares.

And the total number of Kowloon Wharf shares was just over one hundred million.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s target was indeed insignificant relative to the entire company’s stock.

His biggest worry was still the situation with Green Island Cement.

Even though he had already become a major shareholder in Green Island Cement, he still couldn’t be completely certain of success.

Since he couldn’t obtain any intelligence from Cheung Kong Holdings Group, he could only rely on luck to deal with the unfolding situation.

After pondering in his office for a long time, Lin Haoran finally decided to leave.

He knew that overthinking was useless now. Only by continuing to lay out his plans could he prepare for the challenges ahead.

Chapter 35: Four More Subordinates

That evening at home, Lin Haoran received a call from Su Zhixue.

Su Zhixue had invited four of his peers to consider a new job offer with generous compensation far exceeding their current roles.

Upon hearing the news, all four readily agreed to an interview.

After all, people work for a living, so why cling to an old job when a better opportunity comes along?

So, the next morning, Lin Haoran made a point of arriving at the office half an hour earlier than usual.

When he got there, Su Zhixue had already arrived. Not only that, but a man of a similar age was standing beside him.

This must be the unemployed colleague he had mentioned.

“President Lin, allow me to introduce you. This is my friend, Dai Shi,” Su Zhixue said enthusiastically as soon as Lin Haoran walked into the office.

“Hello, President Lin! I’m Dai Shi. It’s a great honor to have the opportunity to meet you.” Dai Shi politely extended his hand with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded and replied, “Hello, Mr. Dai. Zhixue has told me a bit about your situation. Since you’re here, let’s get straight to business and begin the interview.”

Lin Haoran himself was a business school graduate, and having personally assisted Su Zhixue with trading during this period, he had naturally learned a great deal about stock trading. Therefore, the interview questions he asked were mostly technical.

As for assessing personal integrity, Lin Haoran believed that was something concluded through long-term observation in work and life, not something that could be revealed through a simple Q&A.

Besides, once Dai Shi became his employee, he would be able to see his Loyalty score. If it was too low, he naturally wouldn’t use him.

Therefore, he didn’t waste too much time on that aspect.

After the interview, Lin Haoran gave high praise to Mr. Dai’s performance.

Similar to Su Zhixue, Dai Shi also had five years of practical trading experience, which was undoubtedly a wealth of experience in the trading field.

In modern-day Hong Kong, with the rapid development of the financial industry, there was certainly no shortage of financial talent.

“Mr. Dai, I’m generally satisfied with your qualifications. Zhixue should have already told you about the compensation I’m offering. If that’s the case, let’s sign the contract now. You can start today!” Lin Haoran said decisively.

“Great, President Lin! I’m looking forward to the new job!” Dai Shi said with a smile.

Next, Lin Haoran took out a pre-prepared contract and a confidentiality agreement and handed them to Dai Shi.

After reviewing them, Dai Shi felt there were no issues and signed his name on both documents.

At that moment, Lin Haoran could see Dai Shi’s Loyalty.

Dai Shi: [Loyalty: 71/100]

Seeing the loyalty score, Lin Haoran breathed a sigh of relief.

He didn’t want to dismiss someone right after signing a contract, and now he felt at ease.

For a new employee to have a loyalty score over 70 was already beyond his expectations.

Based on his in-depth study of Loyalty during this time, Lin Haoran had come to understand that 50 was the passing line. A score above 60 was already rare, and Dai Shi’s performance exceeded that standard.

Lin Haoran believed that Dai Shi’s loyalty would increase over time, so he could be entrusted with important responsibilities.

“Congratulations, Mr. Dai, on officially joining our family. Zhixue will now explain the details of your work. The market opens in just over ten minutes, so it’s a good chance for you to get a preliminary understanding of our main business,” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he shook Dai Shi’s hand.

“President Lin, you’re too kind. From now on, please just call me Dai Shi or Ah Shi. I’m deeply honored to have earned your appreciation and employment. I will certainly do my utmost to live up to your expectations and contribute all my efforts to the company!” Dai Shi replied solemnly.

Over the next ten-plus minutes, as Su Zhixue explained in detail, Dai Shi gradually formed a clear picture of his new position.

He was surprised to find that he seemed to have joined an exceptionally powerful team, backed by an extraordinary Boss.

Dai Shi was especially astounded when he learned that the company could mobilize tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars for trading within a single month.

Such a scale of capital was not something an ordinary individual boss could easily manage; only large corporations or major financial groups could come up with that kind of money.

He realized he hadn’t just gotten a valuable job opportunity; he was standing on a platform that would allow him to truly showcase his abilities.

Dai Shi silently congratulated himself on his good fortune in joining this team.

He knew that such an opportunity was rare and must be cherished. He had to throw himself into his work with all his might to prove worthy of this precious trust and expectation.

As this thought emerged, Lin Haoran was surprised to see that Dai Shi’s Loyalty had changed again.

Dai Shi: [Loyalty: 75/100]

As the bell chimed in the hall of the adjacent stock exchange, it signaled the official start of today’s stock market trading.

Another telephone had been added to the office.

Unsurprisingly, with the addition of a professional trader, the speed of stock accumulation today was much faster than yesterday.

Previously, although Lin Haoran had personally pitched in to help, he was not a professional, after all.

The addition of Dai Shi was like injecting a professional and efficient force into the team.

His professional knowledge was in no way inferior to Su Zhixue’s. With the two of them working together, the entire accumulation process became exceptionally smooth and efficient.

During the lunch break when the market was closed, Su Zhixue’s other three colleagues also arrived for their interviews.

The interview process was similar to Dai Shi’s.

They were all peers of about the same age, so their experience was naturally up to par. Lin Haoran was initially satisfied with all of them.

After they all signed their contracts, Lin Haoran saw their Loyalty scores.

Han Zihang: [Loyalty: 62/100]

Shi Zhensheng: [Loyalty: 61/100]

Qi Fen: [Loyalty: 62/100]

The loyalty scores of these three were a dozen or so points lower than Dai Shi’s.

This was perhaps related to Dai Shi’s recent unemployment, making him more eager for a new job.

The other three colleagues were still employed at their current positions, so their sense of urgency for a new opportunity was likely not as strong as Dai Shi’s. It was perfectly understandable that this psychological difference would be reflected in their loyalty scores.

Overall, Lin Haoran was satisfied with the loyalty of all three.

“Gentlemen, I look forward to you completing your resignation procedures and joining our family as soon as possible.” After the contracts were signed, Lin Haoran shook hands with each of them.

According to them, they would handle their resignations within the week and could start working here next week.

With six people in the office at once, Lin Haoran already noticed a rather serious problem: the office was too small.

Originally, when it was just Lin Haoran and Su Zhixue, it felt quite spacious.

But with four new people, there wasn’t enough room.

“Looks like it’s time to move!” Lin Haoran mused.

He had already decided that after the stock market closed in the afternoon, he would go find a new office.

Superman Li is about to enter the stage.

Chapter 36: It’s Time to Formally Incorporate the Team

At four o’clock in the afternoon sharp, the iconic bell rang out melodiously once again from the trading floor next door, signaling another key moment in the trading day.

Lin Haoran stretched his arms out comfortably, a satisfied smile spreading across his face as he thought about the day’s achievements.

Although Su Zhixue had yet to compile and present the detailed statistics, Lin Haoran, having witnessed the entire process, already had a clear assessment in his mind—today’s results were a significant leap forward compared to yesterday’s.

Especially in the battle for Kowloon Wharf’s low-priced shares, their operations had been exceptionally smooth. It was as if they were helmsmen on the waves, precisely and forcefully seizing every buying opportunity.

He recalled how yesterday, when faced with sell orders that seemed within easy reach, their competitors had snatched them up the moment they targeted them and prepared to act. The frustration and helplessness of it still lingered.

But today, that feeling of suppression and frustration had greatly diminished, replaced by a sense of satisfaction and relief.

This change was undoubtedly due to the expansion of the team’s size and strength.

Lin Haoran understood that the new members were like a fresh infusion of blood, revitalizing every cell of the team.

What pleased him even more was that Dai Shi’s trading abilities were on par with Su Zhixue’s.

With two expert traders working side by side, they not only complemented each other strategically but also formed a powerful synergy in execution, pushing the entire trading team toward higher goals.

This rapport and strength were undoubtedly the cornerstones of their excellent performance today.

At this moment, a hint of regret surfaced in Lin Haoran’s heart. He wondered to himself why he hadn’t foreseen the need and acted sooner to expand the team.

Unfortunately, he had been too cautious before, afraid that his plans would be leaked.

If he had decisively hired more people a month ago, today’s results would have been even more brilliant, their achievements far exceeding what they had now.

However, he was also well aware that there were no ‘what ifs’ in life, nor was there any medicine for regret.

This regret, though it rippled through his heart like a gentle breeze across a lake, also made him cherish the current results and his team’s efforts even more.

He also realized that it was these repeated challenges and reflections that pushed them to constantly move forward, striving for higher goals.

So, Lin Haoran quickly adjusted his mindset, transforming this regret into a driving force for progress.

“President Lin, I’ve just finished compiling the data and would like to give you a detailed report. For Green Island Cement, we successfully accumulated 648,000 shares at an average price of about 5.16 Hong Kong dollars per share, for a total expenditure of approximately 3.34 million Hong Kong dollars. This result, compared to yesterday, shows our steady progress with this stock.

As for Kowloon Wharf, the accumulation process was particularly smooth today. We ended up acquiring 135,000 shares at an average price of 25.29 Hong Kong dollars per share, spending a total of about 3.41 million Hong Kong dollars. It’s especially worth noting that our accumulation volume for Kowloon Wharf today was more than double yesterday’s. A result like this is truly encouraging.”

Su Zhixue had organized the day’s data and was reporting it in a clear and logical manner.

A satisfied smile appeared on Lin Haoran’s face as he listened.

He knew that while the slight increase in Green Island Cement was a good sign, the significant accumulation of Kowloon Wharf shares was the biggest highlight of the day.

This not only reflected the accuracy of the team’s strategy but also proved that adding new members had significantly improved their execution and market acuity.

“Excellent. Zhixue, Dai Shi, everyone performed exceptionally well today. Also, I need to mention something. This temporary office is clearly running out of space. When the other three members arrive, it will obviously be too crowded. To meet our team’s development needs, I will start looking for a more spacious office as soon as possible.

Today, you two can leave early. But starting tomorrow, we need to gradually formalize our operations and follow a normal company schedule—that is, nine in the morning to six in the evening. Does anyone have any objections to this arrangement?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He had already decided internally that it was time to formally incorporate the team; the plan to register a company was now on the agenda.

“President Lin, not a problem at all!” Su Zhixue replied earnestly. “For the past month, you’ve been considerate of my family situation, letting me leave early every day to take care of my son. I’m deeply grateful for that. He has recovered well now, and I can work the regular hours and support the team’s new schedule. Thank you so much for your understanding.”

Dai Shi also smiled and agreed, “That’s right, President Lin. The arrangement is very reasonable. We have no problem with it at all. It’s perfectly normal.”

“Good, as long as there are no objections. You two can head home early, then,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

After Su Zhixue and Dai Shi left, Lin Haoran sat quietly at his desk, clutching the latest data report Su Zhixue had given him.

These figures, combined with the previously accumulated records, clearly showed an incredible number—as of today, he had invested a staggering 51.67 million Hong Kong dollars into the stock market.

At this point, his account balance had quietly slipped below the thirty million Hong Kong dollar mark.

Despite this, Lin Haoran didn’t feel anxious or uneasy.

On the contrary, his eyes gleamed with satisfaction and anticipation.

Because driven by these funds, they had successfully accumulated 7,586,000 shares of Green Island Cement and 582,000 shares of Kowloon Wharf.

Such a holding not only demonstrated his team’s sharp market insight and execution but also heralded potentially rich returns in the future.

After placing the data report back in his desk drawer, Lin Haoran stood up and left the office, a new plan already forming in his mind.

Today, instead of leaving the bustling Central district directly, he took his two bodyguards, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, and strolled to a nearby real estate agency with a large storefront that specialized in secondhand properties.

His purpose was clear and direct—to find a suitable office space. This time, however, he was planning to buy, not rent.

As a transmigrator with a ‘prophetic’ perspective, Lin Haoran knew the future trends of Hong Kong’s real estate market like the back of his hand.

He knew very well that although the market might face fluctuations or even a crash, like the one in 1983, Hong Kong’s real estate market would always recover quickly and experience even more vigorous growth.

This ability to see into the future made him understand that, in the long run, investing in real estate was all benefit and no harm.

If not for his limited funds at present, he would have even considered buying an entire office building to serve as his own.

Of course, that was something that would happen sooner or later.

Lin Haoran believed that before long, he would own a commercial building that was entirely his.

Chapter 37: A Competitor Appears

Inside the real estate agency, Lin Haoran began by clearly outlining his specific requirements to the agent. In response, the agent meticulously selected several properties for his consideration.

This agency, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hongkong Land Group, leveraged its parent company’s immense resources and stellar reputation. Every sales agreement came with a promise: all recommended properties had undergone rigorous screening and verification to ensure they were free of any potential risks, including but not limited to mortgages or other encumbrances.

Should any discrepancy with this promise be discovered, the company would take full responsibility until the issue was completely resolved.

Naturally, this put Lin Haoran at ease.

Given his current financial situation and practical needs, Lin Haoran focused his search on properties priced under one million Hong Kong dollars.

He knew he might not find an exceptionally spacious office in this price range, but he was open-minded, considering it a pragmatic choice for his current stage.

He figured that once his financial situation improved, it wouldn’t be too late to upgrade to a larger office.

After some careful browsing and comparison, Lin Haoran quickly zeroed in on a target.

It was a property located in a bustling commercial building near the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The building, named Hang Fung Building, was an imposing twenty-one-story high-rise, and the office for sale occupied a prime spot on the 19th floor. Not only did it offer an expansive view, but it was also adjacent to the picturesque Victoria Harbour.

In the Central district, where every inch of land is worth a fortune, many commercial buildings are owned outright by large conglomerates, and individual units are rarely sold.

However, there are always exceptions. The building Lin Haoran was now looking at, for instance, had once been the sole property of a well-known British-owned company.

The stock market crash of 1973 dealt a severe blow to this company. To save itself and restructure, it was forced to reluctantly sell off half the floors of its landmark building, dividing them into multiple independent units.

The office Lin Haoran had his eye on was relatively compact, at approximately 1,620 square feet (about 150 square meters), but its layout was rational and efficient.

Considering its prime location, convenient transportation, and the charming sea view from its windows, the owner’s asking price of one million Hong Kong dollars seemed quite reasonable and attractive.

Since it was still early, Lin Haoran decided to strike while the iron was hot and had the agent take him for an on-site viewing immediately.

The moment he stepped inside, he was impressed by its exquisite layout and new renovations. The overall environment far exceeded his expectations; it was practically move-in ready, requiring almost no modifications. For someone who valued efficiency, this was a tremendous boon.

Lin Haoran was a decisive man. Satisfied with what he saw, he immediately instructed the agent to arrange a meeting with the owner.

Soon after, a middle-aged Chinese owner arrived as scheduled. He revealed that his family was planning to immigrate to Canada, which was why he was reluctantly putting the property—which served as both an office and a residence—on the market.

The negotiation between the two parties went exceptionally smoothly. Based on a mutual recognition of the property’s value, coupled with their frankness and respect for each other, they finalized a deal at 950,000 Hong Kong dollars.

The owner was straightforward, and so was he. With time to spare, the agent led them to complete the transfer of ownership before closing time at six o’clock.

As the last signature was penned, Lin Haoran finally owned his first piece of property in the bustling heart of Central.

Once everything was settled, Lin Haoran brought Li Weiguo and Li Weidong back to the property, which was now his.

The unit had likely been rented out to a small business before. They had cleverly utilized the space to create a fully functional office area, complete with a general manager’s office, a finance office, and a department office.

The main hall area had been skillfully divided into multiple cubicles to meet the needs of different teams.

This office could easily accommodate fifteen to twenty people without any issues.

For Lin Haoran, the office was indeed very practical; he could even move in right away.

He was particularly pleased with the design of the main office. Within its roughly 30-square-meter space, the living and working areas were cleverly separated, so Lin Haoran could even stay there overnight.

Walking through the spacious main hall, Lin Haoran’s gaze was involuntarily drawn to the massive floor-to-ceiling window.

Outside, a breathtakingly beautiful scene unfolded—the glittering waters of Victoria Harbour stretched out before him, and on the opposite shore, the silhouette of the Kowloon Peninsula was sharply defined in the afterglow of sunset, like a captivating painting.

And right next to Lin Haoran’s building stood a commercial tower of over twenty stories—the headquarters of the Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

At that very moment, in a conference room at the Cheung Kong Holdings headquarters, Li Ka-shing sat at the head of the table, deep in a crucial strategy meeting with the members of his think tank.

“Hong Kong is filled with British-owned listed companies, as numerous as stars in the sky, and many are of high quality. We have ample capital right now. Though we missed the opportunity with Kowloon Wharf, a new battlefield awaits. Hutchison Whampoa is our next major target, but the time isn’t yet right. Mr. Wu, in the meantime, have you identified any other potential stocks, any targets worth pursuing?”

Li Ka-shing asked the head of his think tank with his characteristic refined demeanor.

Cheung Kong Holdings’ bid to acquire Kowloon Wharf had fallen through at the last minute, and many felt it was a pity. However, Li Ka-shing had his own calculations. His actions had allowed him to avoid a direct confrontation with Jardine Matheson while also currying favor with HSBC and Pao Yue-kong, paving the way for Cheung Kong Holdings’ future growth. It was a case of “killing three birds with one stone.”

Upon hearing this, Mr. Wu quickly collected his thoughts and replied calmly, “President Li, after days of in-depth research and analysis, our team has unanimously concluded that Green Island Cement, located in the Hung Hom area of Kowloon, is currently an extremely attractive acquisition target.

Its stock price is currently stable at around five Hong Kong dollars per share, with a total market capitalization of a mere 250 million Hong Kong dollars, which seems significantly undervalued. It is worth noting that although its trading volume has increased in recent months and the stock price has risen, we have been unable to determine the reason for the increased volume. However, our research indicates that this masks the truth of its undervaluation by the market.

Green Island Cement not only has a solid business foundation but also holds 800,000 square feet of prime coastal land in Hung Hom, Kowloon. The value of this land far exceeds what is reflected in its current market cap.

Therefore, we firmly believe that if we can successfully acquire Green Island Cement and, in turn, gain the development rights to the Hung Hom land plot, it will have an immeasurably positive impact on the future of the Cheung Kong Holdings Group. Here is our detailed research report. Please review it, President Li.”

With that, Mr. Wu respectfully handed a hefty report to Li Ka-shing with both hands.

Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Green Island Cement shares had been extremely discreet, so not even Li Ka-shing’s think tank had discovered that someone was already secretly targeting the company.

Li Ka-shing nodded slightly, took the report, and began to read it carefully right there in the conference room.

His expression changed continuously as he delved deeper into the report, his brow furrowing at times as if pondering critical issues, and at other times, a satisfied smile appearing on his face, clearly appreciating certain points in the report.

“Good. This will be our next target!” After a long while, Li Ka-shing declared, making his decision with firm resolution.

Chapter 38: This Game Has Become Interesting

In the blink of an eye, time flew by, and October 6th quietly arrived. Three days had passed since he bought the office.

The office had already been moved to the new location. Clearly, the better working environment also put them in a better mood.

After relocating the office, Lin Haoran simply decided to make it his permanent residence, no longer returning to the villa in Deep Water Bay.

Although he had grown accustomed to the tranquility of Deep Water Bay, occasionally enjoying the dazzling prosperity of Victoria Harbour’s waterfront felt like a refreshing change of pace, and was quite pleasant.

In addition, he had registered a company name: Global Investment Co., Ltd.

Two days ago, his third sister found out he was in Central and came to find him personally, insisting on giving him a check for two million.

Lin Haoran accepted the two-million-dollar check from his third sister. Although the amount was slightly less than what his second sister had given him, he knew that every cent carried his third sister’s deep care and expectations for him.

His heart was full of gratitude, yet tinged with a hint of helplessness. He could only silently accept this heavy debt of kindness and etch it into his memory.

The stock market fluctuated like the tides of the sea, but amidst this unpredictable market, Lin Haoran and his team appeared exceptionally steady.

Especially since Dai Shi’s arrival, the team’s collaborative efficiency and decision-making capabilities had improved significantly.

Whenever the melodious closing bell of the stock market rang, it not only marked the end of a trading day but also bore witness to every bit of progress and achievement Lin Haoran’s team had made.

However, at this moment, Lin Haoran’s mood was unusually solemn.

When the market closed on Wednesday, he had keenly sensed a quiet rise in the trading volume of Qingzhou Cement’s stock. At first, he thought it was just a normal market fluctuation, as such phenomena were common.

However, after three consecutive days of careful observation and analysis, it was crystal clear to him that another wise mind had also set their sights on the prize that was Qingzhou Cement, and that person was, in all likelihood, the business magnate Li Jiacheng.

Even Su Zhixue and Dai Shi, two seasoned traders with years of experience slugging it out in the stock market, came to the same conclusion after an in-depth discussion—someone indeed shared their ambition for Qingzhou Cement.

Fortunately, thanks to Lin Haoran’s meticulous planning and active stock accumulation of low-priced Qingzhou Cement shares over the past month, the number of cheap shares available on the market for a sell-off had greatly diminished. This had undoubtedly built a solid line of defense for Lin Haoran’s side, giving him a better chance of winning this invisible battle.

For the past two days, Lin Haoran had been closely monitoring the other party’s movements. He could acutely sense that despite their substantial financial strength, they were rather restrained in their speed of accumulating Qingzhou Cement stock. It seemed they were in a probing, accumulative phase, or perhaps they were deliberately avoiding pushing the stock price up too quickly.

This was perfectly in line with the Li Jiacheng team’s consistently prudent style. They excelled at laying out their plans in the shadows, accumulating stocks over a long period and in a low-key manner to ensure the smooth execution of their acquisition plans.

Taking the acquisition of Kowloon Wharf shares as an example, Li Jiacheng’s team demonstrated their profound patience and strategy. They quietly accumulated nearly twenty percent of the stock and were only discovered by Jardine Matheson at the last moment. This was proof enough of their experience and caution in the stock market. One couldn’t help but marvel at their shrewd and calculating nature; their astoundingly stealthy methods were a sight to behold.

In his previous life’s memory, Li Jiacheng had, in a very short time, used his sharp market insight to rapidly acquire a twenty-five percent stake in Qingzhou Cement, a company that hadn’t received much attention at the time.

However, in this parallel world, the situation was vastly different.

Clearly, Li Jiacheng would find it difficult to repeat such a feat this year, for one simple reason—Lin Haoran had already started making his moves over a month in advance, quietly amassing a considerable number of Qingzhou Cement shares.

This meant that it was now almost impossible for Li Jiacheng to acquire a large number of Qingzhou Cement shares quickly and quietly through the secondary market.

Unless they were willing to resort to extreme measures, buying up shares at high prices regardless of the cost, but that would clearly go against Li Jiacheng’s consistently prudent and calculating investment principles.

Therefore, this change had imperceptibly created a favorable opportunity for Lin Haoran.

On the surface, it seemed that Li Jiacheng was scheming in the dark, thinking that no one knew of their actions.

But in reality, Lin Haoran, with his knowledge of Li Jiacheng’s past deeds and his own decisive actions, had already quietly seized the advantage, putting Li Jiacheng on the back foot without him even realizing it.

In this stock market contest, Lin Haoran was the one who truly held the initiative.

Faced with the reality of Li Jiacheng’s entry, Lin Haoran sat in his office, his brow furrowed in deep thought.

He knew that his opponent was too powerful—so powerful that even if his father stepped in, he would have no chance of winning. He had to proceed with caution.

To get a clearer grasp of the situation, Lin Haoran turned to review the data report that Su Zhixue had just submitted.

The report detailed their holdings of Qingzhou Cement stock: as of now, their total shareholding had reached 8,654,000 shares, which accounted for 17.3% of Qingzhou Cement’s total stock. To acquire these shares, they had invested a staggering forty-three million, nine hundred sixty thousand Hong Kong dollars, with an average cost per share of about 5.08 Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Haoran calculated silently. If not for the recent intervention of a third party, which had made accumulating Qingzhou Cement shares more difficult, they could have easily surpassed an 18% stake.

But now, the situation had become complicated, and he had to readjust his strategy.

“Since Li Jiacheng has entered the game, it’s become much more interesting,” Lin Haoran muttered to himself.

He began to think about how to break through in this stock market game, not only to maximize his own interests but also to avoid being outmaneuvered by his powerful opponent, Li Jiacheng.

The trading of another stock, Kowloon Wharf, was progressing exceptionally smoothly. The company had currently successfully acquired nine hundred fifty-seven thousand shares, with a total investment of twenty-five million, seventy thousand Hong Kong dollars. Thanks to the benefits of accumulating at a low price earlier on, the average cost per share was only around 26.2 Hong Kong dollars, which was still acceptable.

However, behind this success lay considerable financial pressure.

According to statistics, in just over a month, Lin Haoran’s total investment in the stock market had reached sixty-nine million, thirty thousand Hong Kong dollars, and this did not include the team’s other expenses.

Of his original eighty-one million Hong Kong dollars in capital, nine hundred fifty thousand had been used to purchase the office. Coupled with the massive investment in the stock market, his account balance had plummeted to eleven million, twenty thousand Hong Kong dollars.

Fortunately, Lin Haoran had also received a generous gift of five million Hong Kong dollars from his two sisters, increasing his available funds to about sixteen million Hong Kong dollars.

Although this figure sounded quite substantial, in the current complex stock market environment, especially in the battle for control of Qingzhou Cement, these funds were still stretched thin.

What was even more critical was that Lin Haoran knew there was an even more powerful opponent lurking in the shadows, which forced him to be more cautious in planning the use of every single dollar.

Even if he invested all his available funds into Qingzhou Cement stock, it wouldn’t guarantee a surefire victory, as his opponent’s strength and strategy were not to be underestimated.

Faced with this dilemma, Lin Haoran had to re-examine his strategy, looking for a more efficient and risk-controlled way to enhance his influence over Qingzhou Cement while ensuring that his overall interests in the stock market were not compromised.

After a long period of deep thought, Lin Haoran finally made up his mind.

Chapter 39: Mobilizing All Available Capital

Under the current circumstances, the most direct and effective strategy to make a breakthrough in the stock market, especially in the fight for control of Green Island Cement, was to accelerate the rise of Kowloon Wharf’s stock price.

At present, Lin Haoran had sixteen million Hong Kong dollars on hand. In terms of scale, this sum was neither colossal nor insignificant.

Even if he were to use the entire amount to purchase Green Island Cement stock, the direct effect would be limited. At most, he could acquire a little over three million shares.

Admittedly, this would boost Lin Haoran’s holdings in Green Island Cement past the important 20% threshold. However, when faced with a potential competitor like Cheung Kong Holdings, should they be determined to win, Lin Haoran’s twenty-something percent stake would be insufficient and could hardly form a decisive advantage.

In a war of attrition, his opponent would have the clear upper hand, relying on their more substantial capital and strategic positioning.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had to adjust his strategy to one of a swift and decisive battle. He needed to act with precision and strategy in a short period, leaving Li Jiacheng with no time to set up his own plans and compelling him to abandon the acquisition of Green Island Cement.

On another front, Lin Haoran was also actively seeking to bolster his own financial strength.

Raising capital through Kowloon Wharf was undoubtedly a significant source of help.

He knew that while selling his shares at the current market price would yield a handsome profit, it was far from his target.

Given that Shipping Magnate Pao and the Jardine Matheson Group had already quietly entered the market and begun accumulating low-priced Kowloon Wharf stock, Lin Haoran astutely sensed an opportunity to drive up the share price.

Based on past market trends, Kowloon Wharf’s stock price was poised for significant growth in the next six months. It was expected to break the sixty Hong Kong dollar mark per share by March of next year and could even reach a high of one hundred Hong Kong dollars by 1980.

However, Lin Haoran had no intention of passively waiting for this natural process to unfold.

He planned to take the initiative, using the clandestine maneuvers of Shipping Magnate Pao and Jardine Matheson to cleverly push them into the spotlight, transforming this acquisition battle from one of undercurrents to an open confrontation.

Tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars were a drop in the bucket for the massive Kowloon Wharf Group, but their influence could not be underestimated. It was enough to act as a lever to pry up the price of Kowloon Wharf’s stock.

In doing so, not only could he accelerate the stock’s appreciation, but he could also seize the initiative at the negotiating table, liquidating his assets on more favorable terms and rapidly enhancing his financial strength.

At the same time, Lin Haoran was well aware of the deep friendship between Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng, which made him see the possibility of indirectly influencing Li Jiacheng’s decision through Pao Yue-kong.

He mused that he might be able to skillfully leverage this relationship, turning Pao Yue-kong into an ally who could persuade Li Jiacheng to give up on Green Island Cement.

After all, although Green Island Cement held a place in Hong Kong’s business world, it was not among the top-tier British-owned companies. Li Jiacheng might, for various reasons, be willing to grant Pao Yue-kong another favor and drop his pursuit of Green Island Cement.

However, to get Pao Yue-kong to willingly do this for him, Lin Haoran had to make Pao Yue-kong feel that he owed him a favor.

After all, in the world of business, the exchange of favors could often sway decisions that seemed impossible.

Therefore, Lin Haoran needed to plan meticulously, creating an opportunity for Pao Yue-kong to help him in a way that would be difficult to refuse. This would ensure that Pao Yue-kong would be willing to repay that favor in the future by helping to persuade Li Jiacheng to give up his ambition for Green Island Cement.

After deep contemplation, Lin Haoran’s mind gradually settled. Even when facing a powerful opponent like Li Jiacheng, he no longer felt overly nervous or uneasy. Instead, a sense of excitement began to build.

Placing the Green Island Cement stock certificates into his briefcase, Lin Haoran walked out of his office. He planned to make another trip to Hang Seng Bank.

Su Zhixue and Dai Shi were engrossed in their respective tasks. The vast space—an office of over one hundred square meters—was occupied by just the two of them at the moment, making it feel particularly spacious and somewhat tranquil.

The brothers Li Weiguo and Li Weidong sat side-by-side on chairs near the office entrance, each tightly gripping a bodyguard manual, completely absorbed in their reading as if immersed in every detail and essential point of their profession.

Their expressions were focused, and they occasionally exchanged opinions in low voices. It was clear they were taking their duty to protect their boss very seriously.

However, this tranquility was about to be broken. Starting next Monday, three new traders would arrive, injecting new vitality into the team.

Additionally, Lin Haoran planned to hire a receptionist to maintain the office’s cleanliness and handle daily reception duties, such as cleaning, serving tea, and other miscellaneous tasks. Although a basic position, it was indispensable for the company’s daily operations and a suitable candidate would be relatively easy to find.

Although the stock market had closed for the day, Su Zhixue and Dai Shi’s work had not stopped.

In the securities industry, trading skills alone were far from enough; one also needed profound analytical abilities and keen market insight.

Therefore, even on days when the market was silent, they had to be hard at work collecting market information and analyzing stock trends to fully prepare for the upcoming trading season.

Otherwise, Lin Haoran would not have needed them to stay until six o’clock.

Just before leaving the office, Lin Haoran turned to Su Zhixue and Dai Shi and said, “Zhixue, Ah Shi, I’m heading out to take care of something. I’m not sure when I’ll be back. If I’m not here by six, don’t wait for me. Just head home.”

“Alright, Boss,” Su Zhixue and Dai Shi replied almost in unison.

Having Shipping Magnate Pao persuade Li Jiacheng to abandon the plan to acquire Green Island Cement was just one part of Lin Haoran’s many preparations, and he was not entirely confident in this strategy’s success.

Therefore, Lin Haoran decided on a two-pronged approach, simultaneously mobilizing all available financial resources to increase his odds of winning the competition.

He understood that against a formidable opponent like Li Jiacheng, every single advantage was crucial.

Just like his last successful operation, he planned to replicate the strategy. Although his current holdings of Green Island Cement stock were limited, he had already resolved to take out another loan for over ten million Hong Kong dollars to increase his floating stock.

In Lin Haoran’s view, when facing fierce business competition, more capital meant a greater chance of victory.

He firmly believed that with these two preparations, he would be able to secure an advantageous position in the battle for Green Island Cement and ultimately achieve his goal.

Watching Lin Haoran walk out of the office, the brothers Li Weiguo and Li Weidong quickly and tacitly put away their bodyguard manuals and followed closely behind their boss.

Both the Hang Fung Building and the Hang Seng Bank headquarters were located in Central, and the distance between them was not great.

A dozen or so minutes later, Lin Haoran once again appeared in the Chairman of the Board’s office at the Hang Seng Bank headquarters.

Chapter 40: One Hundred Million in Debt, The Pressure is Immense

“Nephew, what a rare pleasure. To what do I owe this visit so soon after the last?” Ho Sin Hang asked gently, speaking with the tone of an elder.

Lin Haoran sat down calmly and responded with a smile, “Uncle He, my purpose for visiting this time is the same as the last: I’ve come to ask you for a loan.”

Hearing this, Ho Sin Hang’s eyebrows rose slightly. He spoke half-jokingly, half-seriously, “Oh? Don’t tell me you plan to use stocks as collateral again this time?”

Lin Haoran laughed heartily. “Uncle He, you’ve read my mind! That’s right, I do intend to use stocks as collateral for a loan.”

With that, he very directly took the stock certificates for two point five million shares of Green Island Cement from his briefcase and handed them to Ho Sin Hang.

“Uncle He, I’d like to use these shares as collateral to borrow another fifteen million Hong Kong dollars from Hang Seng Bank. What do you think?” Lin Haoran continued.

Although two point five million shares were not quite worth fifteen million Hong Kong dollars at the current stock price, it was close. Given Lin Haoran’s background, he could still secure a loan for the difference.

Ho Sin Hang took the stock certificates, his eyes moving across the papers as his brow gradually furrowed.

He set the certificates down and said to Lin Haoran in a serious tone, “Nephew, out of respect for my many years of friendship with your father, I can consider granting you a loan of fifteen million Hong Kong dollars with these shares as collateral. But as your elder, I have a responsibility to remind you that the stock market is treacherous and unpredictable, rife with risk. You must invest with caution.

“I suspect you used your previous loan to purchase more Green Island Cement shares, which is how you acquired these. This kind of chain investment strategy is even riskier. While Green Island Cement has some potential, it doesn’t have much market attention right now, and it won’t be easy to make it rise sharply in the short term. When the repayment deadline arrives, you’ll be forced to sell these shares to raise funds. A massive sell-off could easily trigger extreme price volatility, or even a total collapse.

“Therefore, Uncle He sincerely hopes you will think this over calmly and not act rashly. Investing is not a child’s game; every step requires careful consideration. I hope you will reconsider this decision to avoid unnecessary losses.”

Ho Sin Hang and Lin Haoran’s father, Lin Wan’an, had been friends for many years, and their bond was deep. He naturally couldn’t stand by and watch his friend’s son walk toward a potentially disastrous path.

Although he had a thousand words of dissuasion on the tip of his tongue, he remembered his promise to Lin Haoran not to tell Lin Wan’an about the loan. He could only suppress the impulse and refrained from immediately calling Lin Wan’an.

“Thank you for your concern, Uncle He, but I have my own considerations and plans for all of this. In any case, Hang Seng Bank won’t lose out, will it?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Ho Sin Hang sighed, his eyes filled with complex emotions. “Nephew, I understand you have your own ideas and plans, but I must remind you to be prudent with every decision. I’m not questioning your ability, I just hope you can fully assess the risks and ensure everything is within your control.”

“Uncle He, please rest assured. With this application for a fifteen million Hong Kong dollar loan, I absolutely will not fall into a vicious cycle of borrowing. I understand the importance of credit and responsibility, and I understand your concerns.

“In truth, even if Hang Seng Bank doesn’t approve this loan, there are other financial institutions on the market willing to support me. But considering the deep friendship between our families, as well as Hang Seng Bank’s professionalism and stability, I still hope to obtain the funds from you,” Lin Haoran explained sincerely.

Hearing this, Ho Sin Hang nodded gently, his expression softening considerably.

He sighed and said, “Nephew, since you’ve put it that way, I won’t say any more. I’ve given you all the advice I can; the final investment decision is up to you. Remember, whether you profit or lose, it’s all part of life’s journey. You must learn from your experiences. I’ll approve this loan for you. I hope you’ll make good use of it and achieve your goals.”

“Uncle He, thank you very much for your trust and support. It’s been a pleasure working with you again, just like last time. I hope you can continue to keep this a secret and not tell my father. I’m asking a favor of you,” Lin Haoran said earnestly.

Ho Sin Hang nodded. “Don’t you worry, nephew. Since I promised you before, I will certainly keep my word. I will keep this from your father. However, you must also remember to think through every decision you make and ensure every step you take is a steady one.”

Compared to the last time, the process was much faster and more efficient.

Since all the conditions followed the previous loan agreement, Ho Sin Hang, as the Chairman of the Board of Hang Seng Bank, had the authority to expedite the approval. Thus, the fifteen million Hong Kong dollar loan was processed quickly.

The two parties swiftly signed the contract, after which Ho Sin Hang directly instructed the finance department to transfer the funds to Lin Haoran’s account. All the procedures were simple and clear.

With the loan successfully secured, a great weight was lifted from Lin Haoran’s mind. He expressed his sincere gratitude to Ho Sin Hang and then left the Hang Seng Bank headquarters in high spirits, ready to dive into the next phase of his plan.

With the arrival of the fifteen million Hong Kong dollars, the available capital in Lin Haoran’s hands quickly grew to over thirty-one million Hong Kong dollars, injecting tremendous momentum into his investment plans.

However, this gain came at a heavy price—his current total debt had climbed to ninety-five million Hong Kong dollars. Including interest, he was now over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars in debt.

Faced with a colossal debt of one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, an unprecedented pressure welled up in Lin Haoran’s heart, as if a great mountain was weighing on his shoulders.

Yet, he was not crushed by this pressure. Instead, he drew motivation from it.

After all, this was all within his meticulously crafted blueprint, a necessary challenge he had to endure to achieve a much larger goal.

If word of this got out, some would inevitably see Lin Haoran as a crazed gambler.

After all, starting with only the Huafeng Cement Factory, valued at just over ten million Hong Kong dollars, he had managed to accumulate nearly one hundred million in debt through leveraged loans in just over a month.

In the eyes of many, such an act was undoubtedly reckless to the extreme, verging on madness.

After leaving the Hang Seng Bank headquarters, Lin Haoran did not return directly to his company. Instead, he drove to a nearby HSBC branch.

His purpose was to cash the five million Hong Kong dollar checks given to him by his Second and Third Sisters and deposit the entire sum into his stock-linked bank account.

At HSBC, Lin Haoran was warmly received by a senior manager.

The entire process of cashing the checks and making the deposit went exceptionally smoothly. Thanks to the manager’s professionalism and efficiency, he completed all the paperwork in just half an hour.

Chapter 41: A Collective Rise in Loyalty

Faced with the urgent situation, Lin Haoran even spent the weekend in Central, not once considering a return to the comfort of the Lin family villa.

This office was like a space tailor-made for him, where work and life merged into one.

The front half was spacious and bright, serving as an efficient office area. It was fully equipped with a desk, bookshelves, and other office furniture, all reasonably laid out to ensure a smooth and comfortable work environment.

The cleverly designed back half, however, was a cozy and private resting area. A well-appointed bedroom occupied this corner; though only a little over ten square meters, it was warm and elegant.

In the bedroom was a soft and comfortable Simmons mattress that Lin Haoran had recently selected himself.

Adjacent to the large bed was a small but fully functional bathroom that met all his daily needs.

The most refreshing part was that by simply pulling back the curtains, a magnificent and breathtaking view of both sides of Victoria Harbour would come into sight. It was as if the scenery outside was cheering on this diligent striver.

The office and bedroom were cleverly separated by a wall, ensuring both focus and privacy for work while allowing for a quick switch to a relaxed state when needed.

Lin Haoran had, of course, also arranged proper accommodation for the two brothers, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong—the department office next door.

This office was not currently in use, so he simply had someone buy a metal bunk bed. When Lin Haoran stayed at the company, the two of them would stay in this room.

Over the weekend, while keeping a close eye on current events in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran did not neglect the details of his company’s operations.

He personally went through the human resources market to carefully select and hire a new female employee for the front desk.

This new member’s name was Zhao Lin. She was only twenty-three years old and had just graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a degree in human resources.

Although Zhao Lin was not a peerless beauty, her gentle and pleasant temperament, along with her dignified and graceful demeanor, made her more than qualified for the important role of the company’s receptionist, serving as a bright window to the company’s public image.

Lin Haoran was quite satisfied with Zhao Lin’s performance. On behalf of Universal Investment Company, he had formally signed an employment contract with her and arranged for her to start work the following Monday.

As the weekend quietly passed, another workday full of challenges and opportunities arrived.

Today was October 9th, a Monday.

When Lin Haoran and his two bodyguards finished breakfast and stepped into the office, the time had already crept past eight fifty in the morning.

At this moment, every corner of the company was brimming with vitality. All employees, both new and old, were in place.

Today, Universal Investment Company was vastly different from before, appearing exceptionally lively.

At this time last week, apart from Lin Haoran and his personal bodyguards, only his two colleagues, Su Zhixue and Dai Shi, were present. The entire office had felt empty and quiet.

But today, with the addition of new members, the place had been revitalized.

The front desk had a new addition: the gentle and pleasant Zhao Lin, whose arrival added a splash of bright color to the reception area.

And the trading team had welcomed three new members: Han Zihang, Shi Zhensheng, and Qi Fen. Their joining undoubtedly injected new vitality into the company’s business operations.

“Good morning, President Lin!”

“Morning, President Lin!”

…

As Lin Haoran walked in, a chorus of greetings rose and fell throughout the office, with everyone sincerely welcoming him.

“Good morning, everyone!” Lin Haoran greeted them all warmly with a smile.

Then, he cleared his throat and continued, “Since everyone is here, I’ll briefly go over a few things. First, I want to introduce our company’s new member, Zhao Lin from the front desk. Zhao Lin will be responsible for receiving guests, handling daily administrative tasks, and procuring company supplies. Considering the front desk workload is relatively light for now, you will also be temporarily in charge of maintaining the office’s daily cleanliness. I discussed all of this with you in detail during the interview. Zhao Lin, do you have any issues with that?”

Zhao Lin smiled and nodded, replying confidently and calmly, “No problem. I will do my best in every task.”

“Very good. Zhao Lin, you can head to the front desk for now. I’ll notify you of any subsequent work arrangements in due course.” Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction, then turned his gaze to Su Zhixue and the others. “Additionally, our trading team has expanded today with the addition of three experienced new members. The stock market opens in half an hour. I think we should use this time to hold a brief meeting so the new employees can understand what we do and our main work plan moving forward.”

After speaking, Lin Haoran led everyone toward the conference room.

This conference room was actually a converted finance office. While not particularly large, it could accommodate a six-person meeting without any problem.

Since Lin Haoran founded Universal Investment Company, he had not yet established a dedicated finance position because the company’s trading processes were relatively simple and transparent.

He personally managed the company’s financial situation, ensuring every transaction was clear and correct.

Of course, as the company’s business expanded and became more complex, Lin Haoran already had long-term plans. When the need arose in the future, he would consider adding a finance position to further standardize and perfect the company’s financial management system.

The trading team, including him, the Boss, consisted of just six people.

“Zhixue, why don’t you start by giving everyone a detailed introduction to our previous work,” Lin Haoran said gently to Su Zhixue while sitting at the head of the conference table.

“Yes, President Lin.” Su Zhixue acknowledged and stood up, then began his organized introduction.

Before this, for confidentiality reasons, the specifics of the team’s work had not been disclosed to the three new members who had yet to officially start. But now that they had joined, it was time to share this important information.

Su Zhixue gave a detailed account of every key step and achievement in the team’s past, ensuring every member could gain a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the team’s history and current situation.

After Su Zhixue’s detailed explanation, the three new members—Han Zihang, Shi Zhensheng, and Qi Fen—gained a much clearer understanding of the work they were about to undertake and the company’s strength.

An increasingly bright light flickered in their eyes, and their inner excitement and relief were hard to put into words.

They recalled their initial interviews in that somewhat cramped little office, where they had held some reservations and doubts about the job. But now, all their worries had vanished.

The spacious, bright new office and its prime location not only lifted their spirits but also invisibly strengthened their confidence in and sense of belonging to the company.

Moreover, the trading volumes of tens of millions that Su Zhixue mentioned made them deeply realize this investment company’s extraordinary strength and vast prospects.

At that moment, Lin Haoran noticed that the Loyalty of all three had unknowingly increased to varying degrees.

Han Zihang: [Loyalty: 72/100]

Shi Zhensheng: [Loyalty: 70/100]

Qi Fen: [Loyalty: 71/100]

Chapter 42: Fishing in Troubled Waters

Seeing that his team members’ loyalty had all steadily risen to over 70, Lin Haoran’s heart surged with an unprecedented sense of satisfaction and relief.

He knew very well that this level of loyalty meant that unless he took the initiative to terminate their contracts, they would never betray him.

Looking to the future with great confidence, Lin Haoran was full of anticipation and self-assurance regarding his upcoming strategic deployments.

“Since Zhixue has already given a detailed report on our current work situation, I will now outline this week’s specific tasks for everyone.”

His gaze swept across the five people present as he continued, “This week, our work will undergo a major change. Ah Shi, after last week’s trading, I believe you now have a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of all our operations.

Therefore, I have decided to entrust you with full responsibility for this week’s stock accumulation of Green Island Cement. This is both a recognition of your abilities and a testament to my trust in your sense of responsibility.

The rest of you will follow Zhixue’s lead and concentrate all your firepower on operating around Kowloon Wharf’s stock. In other words, Kowloon Wharf will be the top priority of our work from now on.

As for when to increase our investment and when to stop, I will give clear instructions in a timely manner based on market dynamics and our strategic needs. Please rest assured, I will personally oversee the entire process to ensure every step is precise and flawless.”

After saying this, Lin Haoran paused slightly, observing everyone’s reaction.

He was now shouldering a debt of one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, and every decision he made concerned his future. Thus, he had to give it his all, not daring to slack off in the slightest.

In his mind, this opportunity to operate on Kowloon Wharf’s stock was like a crucial battle. He had to ride the momentum and make a huge profit. Otherwise, if he missed it, he might never encounter such a golden opportunity again. It could even affect his plans for a potential stock like Green Island Cement.

Of course, Lin Haoran also dreamed of a day when he could hire a top-tier business manager, allowing him to relax a bit and be a more hands-off boss.

But reason told him that now was not the time.

The company was at a critical stage of development, and he needed to personally oversee every step, allowing for no carelessness or negligence.

“The revolution has not yet succeeded; comrades must still strive!” Lin Haoran silently reminded himself.

“Does everyone understand?” Lin Haoran’s gaze swept over each person as he confirmed once more.

“Understood!” they all replied in unison.

“Very good. Zhixue, as the soul of the team, the upcoming work is now your full responsibility. Especially regarding the acquisition of Kowloon Wharf, we need to increase our efforts today. There’s no need to fear the prying eyes of our competitors; we must advance with lightning speed.”

Lin Haoran looked up at the clock on the wall. The time was quietly approaching nine-thirty in the morning; the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was about to usher in a new day of trading fervor.

“Don’t worry, President Lin. I know what to do,” Su Zhixue responded confidently. After working closely with Lin Haoran for some time, he knew he only needed to firmly execute his boss’s decisions without questioning the strategic considerations behind them too much.

As the company expanded and new blood was injected, Lin Haoran, a boss without a formal background in finance, had successfully transformed into a strategic commander.

He no longer needed to participate directly in daily stock trading operations due to a lack of manpower. Instead, he devoted more energy to analyzing market dynamics and formulating strategic decisions.

As the bell chimed at precisely nine-thirty, the hustle and vitality of the stock market were instantly activated, officially raising the curtain on a new day of trading.

As for Li Jiacheng’s camp, given their consistently cautious style, they were unlikely to take any overly aggressive actions in the short term.

However, Lin Haoran knew that allowing Li Jiacheng’s team to completely dominate Green Island Cement’s market trend was by no means the best policy.

To this end, he made a clever move, deciding to deploy Dai Shi as a flexible pawn to intervene in the battle at the opportune moment.

Dai Shi’s task was not to accumulate a large number of Green Island Cement shares, as that was not the primary goal at present.

Lin Haoran’s strategy was more far-reaching. He hoped to use Dai Shi’s trading techniques to create a series of smokescreens and illusions, making it difficult for Li Jiacheng’s team to grasp his true intentions and movements.

This way, he could not only effectively interfere with Li Jiacheng’s plans but also weaken his market influence to some extent.

In short, Lin Haoran wasn’t seeking an immediate victory. Instead, through Dai Shi’s skillful maneuvering, he wanted to plunge Li Jiacheng’s team into a fog, buying time and space for his larger, subsequent arrangements.

Today, the number of sell orders for Green Island Cement was significantly lower than last week, perhaps because two teams were secretly accumulating shares.

And for Lin Haoran, fewer sell orders was actually good news, as it meant it would be more difficult for Li Jiacheng’s team to acquire shares from the market.

Soon, he shifted his attention to the Kowloon Wharf stock.

Recently, trading in Kowloon Wharf had been exceptionally active, with trading volume climbing steadily, undoubtedly becoming a focal point for some investors.

In the previous trading week, Kowloon Wharf’s closing price had settled at 27.69 Hong Kong dollars per share.

But as soon as the market opened today, its stock price shot up like a runaway horse, quickly climbing to 27.92 Hong Kong dollars, with extremely heated trading.

Although the market environment had become more complex, the team now had four people dedicated to trading this stock. This made Su Zhixue’s command and coordination more efficient and greatly increased their success rate in capturing opportunities to buy at low prices.

By the midday market close, from nine-thirty in the morning to twelve o’clock, in just two and a half hours, Su Zhixue and his team had managed to purchase 156,000 shares of Kowloon Wharf. The volume was so enormous that it even surpassed the total amount typically accumulated in a full day.

Such a swift offensive undoubtedly dropped a bombshell on the market.

However, this action also had an obvious side effect—under their aggressive buying, Kowloon Wharf’s stock price was pushed up to about 29 Hong Kong dollars per share, a level of increase rarely seen in the past.

But Lin Haoran seemed quite sanguine about this. He was no longer overly concerned with whether Kowloon Wharf’s stock price could be kept low.

Currently, including this morning’s gains, his personal holdings of Kowloon Wharf stock had soared to 1.113 million shares. This figure meant that his stake in Kowloon Wharf had now exceeded 1% of the company’s total share capital.

This milestone achievement laid a solid foundation for his subsequent operations.

Lunch consisted of boxed meals that Lin Haoran had Zhao Lin go out and buy.

After eating, he immediately summoned Su Zhixue, and the two of them entered Lin Haoran’s private office together.

“Zhixue, I authorize you to use funds within a limit of twenty million Hong Kong dollars to do everything in your power to push up Kowloon Wharf’s stock price. Our goal is to raise the price to over forty Hong Kong dollars if possible, but in practice, we need to keep our acquisition price under 35 Hong Kong dollars per share. All we need to do is act as a catalyst. Can you do that?” Lin Haoran asked seriously.

He understood that if such a strategy succeeded, it would not only effectively raise Kowloon Wharf’s stock price but also control costs to some extent, avoiding the risks associated with overly high purchase prices.

More importantly, he intended to use this opportunity to completely roil the market, making it difficult for his competitors to figure out his true intentions, thereby creating favorable conditions for him to “fish in troubled waters” later on.

Chapter 43: Reactions from All Sides

“President Lin, this is actually a very direct and effective strategy. Based on our current strength and the market environment, it won’t be difficult to drive up Kowloon Wharf’s stock price.

“The key is that several financial groups are already positioning themselves in the market, waiting for an opportunity.

“If we go all out and accumulate a large number of shares, these groups will likely misjudge the situation, thinking a more powerful competitor has entered the fray. They will certainly not sit back and watch a rival easily take control of the market.

“In that case, to protect their own interests, they will be forced to join the chase, just as you farsightedly predicted, President Lin.

“Our actions only need to serve as a catalyst to trigger a chain reaction. Subsequent developments will naturally evolve in a direction favorable to us.

“Therefore, I feel that the conditions you’ve proposed, President Lin, are not too difficult to achieve. If you decide to adopt this operational strategy, then let us show our prowess on the battlefield this afternoon and prove it all with our actions!

“I have full confidence in our team and our plan,” Su Zhixue responded, full of passion.

“Good. Zhixue, the heavy responsibility for this afternoon rests on your team’s shoulders. You must give it your all. Don’t disappoint me!” Lin Haoran said in a tone that brooked no argument.

He deeply understood the importance of this trading operation; failure was not an option.

His available funds were already stretched thin. This battle was, in a way, Lin Haoran’s last stand. He not only had to push Kowloon Wharf’s stock price to a new high but also skillfully use market sentiment to draw the two giants, Jardine Matheson and Shipping Magnate Pao, into the game, making them fight each other under his manipulation.

Feeling the weight of Lin Haoran’s trust, Su Zhixue straightened his back and replied resolutely, “President Lin, rest assured, we will do our utmost to live up to your expectations. This afternoon, let our actions do the talking!”

While Lin Haoran was meticulously laying out the afternoon’s trading strategy for Su Zhixue, the atmosphere inside the headquarters of the World-Wide Shipping Group, located in Central’s Prince’s Building, was so heavy it felt as if the air had frozen.

The moment the morning stock market session closed, Shipping Magnate Pao’s son-in-law, Mr. Wu, had impatiently made an overseas call to connect with Shipping Magnate Pao, who was attending a conference in Singapore.

He reported every subtle fluctuation in Kowloon Wharf’s stock from the morning, word for word, in exhaustive detail.

Upon learning of this series of events, Shipping Magnate Pao immediately made a major decision, resolutely canceling the friendly golf match he had scheduled for the afternoon with a certain leader.

“I will personally oversee things this afternoon and stay by the phone. You must also monitor the stock market closely. Report any movement to me at the first possible moment,” Shipping Magnate Pao quickly issued clear instructions to his son-in-law.

For the Pao family, acquiring Kowloon Wharf was a crucial strategic move, its importance allowing no room for negligence.

Although they were currently the largest shareholder of Kowloon Wharf, this position did not grant them controlling rights, leaving them rather powerless.

To achieve complete control over Kowloon Wharf, the Pao family understood they had to further increase their shareholding to enhance their influence and decision-making power.

However, they cleverly announced publicly that they had no plans for further acquisitions. This was, in fact, a move to conceal their true intentions and avoid causing unnecessary market volatility or alerting their competitors.

In truth, the Pao family had long regarded Kowloon Wharf as a key part of their “abandoning the ships to come ashore” strategy, a way to avoid even greater losses from the impending major shipping depression.

Originally, Shipping Magnate Pao thought he could gradually and secretly accumulate Kowloon Wharf’s stock, a process that could have gone on smoothly for at least a year and a half.

However, to his surprise, just over a month after he announced his intentions, Kowloon Wharf’s stock market was in an uproar again, as if it had returned to its previous frenzy.

In Shipping Magnate Pao’s view, it was clear that Jardine Matheson Group was feeling the immense pressure from the Pao family. They had developed an unprecedented sense of urgency regarding the ownership of Kowloon Wharf. To defend their interests in the company and prevent a loss of control, Jardine Matheson Group had no choice but to react swiftly and launch a plan to increase their own shareholding.

This sudden turn of events marked the premature end of Shipping Magnate Pao’s hope of a covert stock accumulation strategy.

The struggle for control of Kowloon Wharf between the two parties had officially reached a fever pitch.

At the same time, Bao Fuda, the Executive Director and General Manager of Hongkong Land, moved quickly. He urgently contacted Newbigging, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson Group, to report in detail on the abnormal fluctuations in Kowloon Wharf’s stock during the morning session.

Bao Fuda was deeply worried. His analysis suggested that this sudden, strong reaction in the Kowloon Wharf stock market was very likely a clear signal that Shipping Magnate Pao could no longer hold back and had begun to acquire Kowloon Wharf shares on a massive scale.

How can this be? Bao Fuda exclaimed inwardly, realizing the urgency and severity of the situation.

After listening to Bao Fuda’s detailed report, Newbigging also felt the gravity of the problem.

He immediately realized that this was not just about control over Kowloon Wharf; it directly impacted the interests and strategic layout of the Jardine Matheson Group.

“Mr. Bao Fuda, I am on my way to the Hongkong Land headquarters immediately!” Newbigging’s words carried an air of unshakeable resolve.

As the Taipan of Jardine Matheson Group and also the Taipan of Hongkong Land, he knew that at this critical juncture, every decision made by Hongkong Land was closely linked to Jardine’s future.

Therefore, he had to be there in person to quickly formulate a counter-strategy and ensure that Jardine Matheson Group’s advantageous position in the battle for Kowloon Wharf remained unshaken.

The headquarters of Jardine Matheson Group and Hongkong Land were not far from each other. In less than ten minutes, Newbigging arrived in a hurry and met with Bao Fuda.

The two men skipped the pleasantries and got straight to the point.

Bao Fuda appeared particularly efficient. He quickly pulled out the morning’s trading data for Kowloon Wharf stock from a folder and handed it to Newbigging.

Newbigging took the data and reviewed it with a focused expression.

Every set of numbers frayed his nerves, giving him a clearer understanding of the market’s dynamics.

He knew very well that hidden behind these numbers was a fierce capital contest, and control of Kowloon Wharf was the focal point of this battle.

As he delved deeper into the data, Newbigging’s brow gradually furrowed. He realized that Shipping Magnate Pao’s moves were much faster and more aggressive than he had anticipated.

Faced with such a situation, he had to make decisions quickly and adjust Jardine Matheson Group’s response strategy to ensure they held a favorable position in this struggle.

“Are the group’s funds tight?” Newbigging asked.

“Taipan, we at Hongkong Land currently have over two hundred million Hong Kong dollars in available funds. But in a competition against Pao Yue-kong, that’s clearly not enough. If this really turns into an intense competition, that money will be gone in no time,” Bao Fuda said with a wry smile.

Chapter 44: Something’s Not Right with This Stock Market

“We must make every cent on our books work to its maximum effect. If Hongkong Land loses Kowloon Wharf, it will be an immeasurable blow to the entire group.

“However, Hongkong Land need not worry too much. The Jardine Matheson Group will fully support you. The Kowloon Wharf shares held by Jardine Securities will be transferred to Hongkong Land’s name at the most opportune moment to strengthen our shareholding ratio.

“If the situation requires, Hongkong Land can even consider selling prime properties like the Golden Gate Tower to rapidly raise more cash flow,” Newbigging said decisively, looking at Bao Fuda.

Within Hongkong Land, Newbigging’s word was law. Even as the general manager, Bao Fuda understood that he had to follow the Taipan’s strategic guidance at critical moments.

“Taipan, I completely understand and agree with your decision. The importance of Kowloon Wharf to Hongkong Land is self-evident. I will personally supervise the development of the situation to ensure we don’t let Mr. Pao Yue-kong succeed easily,” Bao Fuda said solemnly, knowing the immense responsibility on his shoulders.

“Very good, Mr. Bao Fuda. I will stay here this afternoon to personally monitor the market dynamics. We must not only defend but also counter-attack. Let’s see just what tricks this Mr. Pao can pull,” Newbigging said. A shadow flickered in his eyes, but it was overshadowed by a calm confidence for the impending capital showdown.

Faced with other competitors, Newbigging and Bao Fuda might have maintained a certain degree of composure. After all, the combined strength of the Jardine Matheson Group and Hongkong Land had few rivals in Hong Kong’s business world.

This time, however, they were up against the world-renowned number one shipping magnate, whose power and influence were anything but trivial.

What made the situation even more difficult was the shipping magnate’s close relationship with HSBC. As a titan in the financial world, HSBC’s support for him was undoubtedly firm and powerful.

This meant that in the coming competition, they would not only be contending with the shipping magnate himself but also the formidable financial backing behind him.

Therefore, both Newbigging and Bao Fuda knew there was no room for pride or arrogance in this contest.

They had to act with caution and plan meticulously to handle all possible challenges and variables.

Only then could they fight for the greatest benefit and chance of victory for the Jardine Matheson Group and Hongkong Land in this intense capital showdown.

Aside from the Pao family and the Jardine conglomerate, there was another force that could not be ignored, and its reaction was just as fierce. This force was the vast community of retail investors in Hong Kong—the common shareholders.

Since Mr. Pao Yue-kong’s last public statement declaring no intention to increase his stake in Kowloon Wharf, numerous retail investors misinterpreted this information, believing the market trend had shifted. They rushed to sell the Kowloon Wharf shares they had bought at high prices, causing the stock to plummet from its peak.

This scene was yet another brutal confirmation of the “herd mentality” in the stock market.

Retail investors, often vividly described as “leeks,” tend to chase market hotspots and high prices, hoping to get a piece of the pie at the crest of the wave.

However, when Kowloon Wharf’s stock price began to show signs of a rebound after a period of quiet and then continued to rise, only a few sharp retail investors sensed a potential turnaround. Most, haunted by their previous losses, were fearful of falling into another trap for “reaping the leeks” and hesitated to act.

But this morning, the trading volume of Kowloon Wharf stock suddenly surged, and its price skyrocketed along with it. This momentum completely ignited the enthusiasm of the retail investors.

Faced with this sudden opportunity, they could no longer contain their impulses. They eagerly rolled up their sleeves, preparing to flood the market, desperate to be the first to get a delicious taste of this feast.

This scene was undoubtedly a vivid portrayal of the interplay between greed and fear in human nature.

In addition, numerous major market players who profited from a buy-low, sell-high strategy also turned their attention to Kowloon Wharf stock.

These major players wielded enormous capital, acted with agility, and were less susceptible to market sentiment. At times, they could even influence the trajectory of an individual stock single-handedly.

Faced with the sudden explosion in Kowloon Wharf’s trading volume, these experienced players were naturally not as bewildered as the average retail investor.

They shrewdly sensed that this could conceal deeper market dynamics, such as the imminent start of a fierce acquisition battle.

Such speculation was not unfounded; it was based on an in-depth analysis of market trends, the company’s fundamentals, and capital flows.

Therefore, for these major players, this unusual activity in Kowloon Wharf stock was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

They too began to actively prepare, adjusting their positions to flex their muscles and seek handsome profits in the coming capital feast.

At this moment, Lin Haoran was completely unperturbed. He was unaware that their morning operation in the stock market—merely a small trial run, not yet a full-blown effort to push up Kowloon Wharf’s stock price—had already stirred up such huge ripples in society, attracting the close attention and reaction of so many powerful groups.

Had Lin Haoran known all this, he would have been delighted, as this was precisely the situation he had hoped for.

In his view, the market’s enthusiastic response not only validated the effectiveness of their strategy but also paved the way for their subsequent actions.

He knew that in this smokeless war, every step was crucial. The reactions from these various forces had undoubtedly bought them more time and space to lay out an even grander chess game.

At exactly one o’clock in the afternoon, just as the stock market’s lunch break ended, Su Zhixue’s team shot into action like an arrow loosed from a bow.

He had received clear authorization from his boss. The first step of the plan was to completely sweep up all shares on the market priced below 30 Hong Kong dollars.

Based on the sell orders at the market close that morning, the estimated total number of shares in this price range was over sixty thousand.

Based on past experience, Su Zhixue’s decisive action would usually catch competitors off guard, giving him the chance to accumulate a large amount of this low-priced floating stock.

However, to his surprise, despite the team’s full effort, they only managed to acquire twenty-six thousand shares, far short of their target.

What astonished Su Zhixue even more was that as they operated, the stock price climbed rapidly, breaking straight through the 30 Hong Kong dollar mark and soaring to 31 Hong Kong dollars.

Faced with this sudden market shift, Su Zhixue’s brow furrowed. He realized, “President Lin, something’s not right with this market. The trading volume is beyond our imagination, and the market’s reaction is far more intense than we anticipated. We haven’t even gone all out yet, but the market has started to surge dramatically on its own.”

“Immediately! Right now! Buy up all sell orders under 35 Hong Kong dollars!” Lin Haoran commanded swiftly.

Chapter 45: Let the Storm Rage Even Fiercer

At a time like this, any hesitation would be fatal, as it would directly lead to them facing more expensive stock costs.

Compared to the price Kowloon Wharf’s stock would later soar to, 35 Hong Kong dollars was indeed quite low.

Since they still had a certain amount of capital on hand, they should not hesitate to make full use of these resources. They had to invest as much as they could to seize this rare investment opportunity.

At the same time, it would further intensify the stock market’s volatility and make these already muddy waters even murkier!

Furthermore, their sudden, drastic hike in the stock price would undoubtedly provoke a strong reaction in the market, drawing widespread attention and heated discussion.

As expected, upon receiving Lin Haoran’s clear instructions, Su Zhixue and his team acted swiftly. They launched a comprehensive and rapid acquisition of all Kowloon Wharf shares on the market priced below 35 Hong Kong dollars, leaving none behind.

The market had already been stunned when the stock price shot straight to 31 Hong Kong dollars at the opening bell. However, what was even more dumbfounding was that in the following ten minutes, the trading volume once again saw explosive growth. The sheer momentum was breathtaking.

The team led by Su Zhixue was completely focused, executing the trades with intense concentration.

Meanwhile, as the team’s boss, Lin Haoran appeared outwardly calm and composed, but he couldn’t help but feel a flicker of nervousness inside.

He knew that although he had a meticulous plan and absolute confidence in his ability to push the Kowloon Wharf competition to a white-hot stage, true victory had not yet been won.

“Boss, I’m here to report on the recent trades! We just directly purchased 339,000 shares of Kowloon Wharf stock. The market response was overwhelming, and the number of sell orders in the 31 to 35 Hong Kong dollar range far exceeded our estimates. Although we missed out on a small portion, the vast majority have been successfully brought under our banner. I’ve carefully calculated it, and the average transaction price for this batch of shares was only 32.73 Hong Kong dollars per share, far below our expected price. It’s an unexpectedly great victory!” Su Zhixue’s voice was filled with an unconcealable excitement.

In just over ten minutes, they had spent more than ten million Hong Kong dollars—a staggering total of 11.09 million Hong Kong dollars. Even for the experienced Su Zhixue, the speed and scale of such a transaction were unprecedented in his operations over the past month.

As for the three newcomers, including Han Zihang, who were only on their first day at their new jobs, they were too excited for words.

They had never imagined that their start at a new company would be so breathtaking—participating directly in such a massive transaction.

This would undoubtedly become an extremely precious and unforgettable lesson in their careers, accumulating a wealth of experience and valuable assets for their future growth.

“339,000 shares? That certainly exceeded my expectations,” Lin Haoran murmured to himself, slightly surprised.

Originally, he had thought that acquiring an additional hundred thousand or so shares would have been a pretty good result.

After all, when they had previously tried to acquire shares below 30 Hong Kong dollars, there had only been about sixty thousand shares available at that price range on the market, which made him realize how cautious and conservative the market was.

“It seems many investors are holding onto their cash and watching from the sidelines. They all seem to be waiting for a higher price before they’re willing to sell,” Lin Haoran analyzed. “And that, as it happens, has provided us with an opportunity.”

He continued to muse, “If I had adopted a step-by-step strategy of slow acquisition, those hesitant investors would likely have withdrawn their orders and posted higher prices due to market sentiment. But this sudden and powerful strike of mine shattered their hesitation, leaving them no chance to even adjust their strategies.”

All in all, this was a good thing.

“Boss, what should be our next move?” Su Zhixue asked at the opportune moment.

Lin Haoran pondered for a moment before replying, “For now, stop all further purchases. Switch to closely monitoring the stock’s fluctuations.”

Looking back on the day’s trading, it had indeed been quite aggressive.

In the two and a half hours of the morning session, they had swiftly secured 156,000 shares of Kowloon Wharf stock.

Shortly after the afternoon session began, they quickly added another 26,000 shares to their holdings.

And that final, swift strike brought in a direct haul of 339,000 shares, bringing their total purchases for the day to a massive 521,000 shares of Kowloon Wharf stock.

From this point on, if Kowloon Wharf’s stock price could continue to rise as expected, then chasing it with more purchases would be redundant.

The potential profit margin on high-priced stocks was already quite limited. Continuing to increase their holdings would not contribute much to their overall returns later on, as the main profits would come from the shares purchased earlier at lower prices.

If the market could sustain its upward trend on its own without his further intervention, there was no need to continue increasing their position.

At this moment, staying calm and observing the changes would be the wiser choice.

Sure enough, Lin Haoran’s strategy was like a depth charge dropped into the stock market, instantly setting off monstrous waves in Kowloon Wharf’s stock and pushing it to the brink of boiling over.

On the side of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, the sight of Kowloon Wharf’s stock price suddenly rocketing to the high of 35 Hong Kong dollars sent them into a panic. Their previous wait-and-see attitude vanished completely, and they immediately mobilized enormous funds to enter the market in an emergency attempt to stabilize their position.

Meanwhile, the Pao family felt an unprecedented level of pressure and challenge. Shipping Magnate Pao decisively issued a command: to begin acquiring Kowloon Wharf stock at all costs.

Both sides were keenly aware that their respective shareholdings were nearly identical. This contest had entered a white-hot stage, where the slightest lapse could lead to a total loss, allowing their opponent to seize the initiative and force them onto the back foot.

As the two powerful conglomerates shifted from their slow, covert accumulation to a formal, large-scale entry into the market, some of Hong Kong’s major players shrewdly sensed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and eagerly geared up for a major play.

At the same time, the retail investors and shareholders in the market were also infected by this frenzy, hoping to get a piece of the pie from this red-hot stock, dreaming of getting rich overnight.

As the closing bell of the stock market rang out solemnly, the price of Kowloon Wharf’s stock had already soared to a jaw-dropping 40.8 Hong Kong dollars per share.

Recalling that at the market open today, Kowloon Wharf’s stock price had been hovering at just over 27 Hong Kong dollars, the day’s increase hadn’t quite doubled, but its ferocious momentum was enough to stun everyone. To call it “unbelievable” was no exaggeration.

At this moment, a wave of ease and relief washed over Lin Haoran’s heart.

For him, the explosive rise of Kowloon Wharf’s stock was not just a leap in numbers but also a major victory for his strategic maneuvering, indicating that his subsequent plans would have even more solid support.

By now, the trajectory of Kowloon Wharf’s stock had completely exceeded Lin Haoran’s direct control. His initial push had acted as a catalyst, stirring up massive waves in the market and achieving the best-case-scenario he had hoped for.

Lin Haoran stood to the side, his gaze profound as he watched Su Zhixue busily calculating the day’s bountiful spoils. He was in an exceptionally good mood.

Chapter 46: The Official Declaration of War Between Shipping Magnate Pao and Jardine Matheson

Inside the office, only Lin Haoran and Su Zhixue were present.

At that moment, Su Zhixue respectfully handed a meticulously compiled data report to Lin Haoran.

“Starting tomorrow, we need to keep a close eye on the movement of Kowloon Wharf’s stock,” Lin Haoran said, taking the report without immediately looking at it. “If its price continues to rise, we’ll maintain our current position and won’t interfere too much. But if the price drops again, I’ll have new plans and arrangements.”

After a brief pause, Lin Haoran continued, “Furthermore, we cannot relax our monitoring of Qingzhou Cement’s stock. I aim to bring Qingzhou Cement under our control, and this is crucial.”

Hearing this, Su Zhixue immediately nodded in response. “Understood, President Lin. I’ll make the arrangements at once to ensure our information gathering on both Kowloon Wharf and Qingzhou Cement stocks is foolproof. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go attend to other matters.”

“Alright.”

Watching Su Zhixue close the office door, Lin Haoran finally turned his attention to the data report.

He was already aware of the situation with Kowloon Wharf’s stock. He had accumulated a total of 521,000 shares throughout the day. The accumulation had stopped later in the day, otherwise, he could have acquired even more.

Influenced by the higher-priced shares later on, the average purchase price for the day had broken through 30 Hong Kong dollars, reaching 30.27 Hong Kong dollars per share, for a total expenditure of 15.77 million Hong Kong dollars.

At this point, the total number of Kowloon Wharf shares Lin Haoran held had reached 1,478,000. Due to his earlier low-priced acquisitions, his overall average price was dragged down to 27.7 Hong Kong dollars per share.

In other words, he had spent a total of 40.94 million Hong Kong dollars on Kowloon Wharf stock.

His original plan had been to spend just over thirty million Hong Kong dollars on Kowloon Wharf, so exceeding forty million was already beyond his expectations.

Based on today’s closing price of 40.8 Hong Kong dollars, his 1,478,000 shares were now worth 60.3 million Hong Kong dollars, a direct net profit of twenty million.

Of course, he was not satisfied with this price.

A mere twenty million Hong Kong dollars? What could that do?

In the current situation with Kowloon Wharf, doubling his investment didn’t seem difficult.

Why not go all in and let this prized steed run even further?

With the next move for Kowloon Wharf now obvious, Lin Haoran’s gaze quietly shifted to Qingzhou Cement.

Due to his recent aggressive accumulation of its shares, the number of outstanding shares on the market had clearly decreased, and the volume of sell orders had dropped significantly.

Today, under Dai Shi’s precise operations, Lin Haoran had successfully acquired 382,000 shares of Qingzhou Cement at an average transaction price of 5.19 Hong Kong dollars per share, costing a total of about 1.98 million Hong Kong dollars.

With this, Lin Haoran’s holdings in Qingzhou Cement had reached 9,036,000 shares. Barring any surprises, in another two or three days, his holdings would reach ten million shares, equivalent to a stake of about 20%.

In contrast, the market’s performance today showed that the total trading volume for Qingzhou Cement was only 929,000 shares. Since Li Jiacheng’s intervention last week, the average daily trading volume had been stable at over 1.2 million shares. This meant the trading volume was starting to decrease.

This phenomenon perfectly suited Lin Haoran’s strategic intentions—he didn’t want Li Jiacheng’s team to rapidly accumulate a large number of Qingzhou Cement shares from the secondary market in a short time.

This arrangement both maintained a delicate balance in the market and bought Lin Haoran more room to maneuver and a greater strategic advantage.

Finally, Lin Haoran took stock of his available funds.

Originally, by taking out another loan, his available capital had expanded to over 31 million Hong Kong dollars.

However, after spending 17.75 million Hong Kong dollars on the two stocks today, his remaining available funds had shrunk to approximately 14 million Hong Kong dollars.

He likely wouldn’t be buying any more Kowloon Wharf shares, which meant these funds would probably all be spent on Qingzhou Cement.

This would allow him to continue contending with Li Jiacheng’s team.

At the current share price, this capital could still purchase over two million more shares of Qingzhou Cement for Lin Haoran.

Just as Lin Haoran was busily planning his next strategic move, a bombshell hit. The astonishing trading volume and single-day price surge of Kowloon Wharf stock instantly swept through the entire Hong Kong business community, causing widespread shock.

Keen-scented reporters and media outlets quickly mobilized, their cameras and microphones all turning towards two industry titans: the helmsman of World-Wide Shipping Group, Pao Yue-kong, and the leader of Jardine Matheson, Newbigging.

After all, everyone knew that while Pao Yue-kong was the major shareholder of Kowloon Wharf, its actual controller was Jardine’s subsidiary, Hongkong Land.

It was obvious to anyone that the commotion in the stock market had to be the work of these two giants.

Lin Haoran’s actions had completely misled the two tycoons, and everyone else as well.

However, Pao Yue-kong was in Singapore at the time and was naturally unable to respond to the Hong Kong media’s intense interest.

As for Mr. Wu, Shipping Magnate Pao’s son-in-law who was directly in charge of the Kowloon Wharf acquisition case for World-Wide Shipping Group, he was in Hong Kong at the group’s headquarters but remained silent, refusing to make any comment without explicit instructions from Pao Yue-kong.

Faced with this impasse, the reporters were not discouraged. They shifted their focus, swarming the headquarters of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, eager for more information.

Unexpectedly, Newbigging displayed an extraordinary openness, readily accepting interviews from numerous media outlets.

Surrounded by a storm of camera flashes and recording devices, he spoke eloquently, his core message concise and to the point: Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land would not give up their controlling stake in Kowloon Wharf. Even if their opponent was formidable, they would do everything in their power to compete!

In Newbigging’s eyes, the frantic accumulation of Kowloon Wharf stock today must have been the work of Pao Yue-kong’s team. It was undoubtedly a clear signal to the public that their target was control of Kowloon Wharf.

Faced with such a direct challenge, he felt that no more words were needed. The only proper course of action was to meet it head-on!

This tense situation, like a wildfire, rapidly spread through TVB, Hong Kong Radio, and other major media outlets, reaching every corner and attracting widespread public attention.

The battle for Kowloon Wharf was like a ticking time bomb, plunging the entire Hong Kong business world into an unprecedentedly tense atmosphere. A great battle was imminent!

Sensing the urgency of the situation, Shipping Magnate Pao made a decisive move. He abandoned his trip in Singapore and took a flight back to Hong Kong overnight.

Upon arriving in Hong Kong, he didn’t rest for a moment. The following morning, he held an emergency press conference at the headquarters of World-Wide Shipping Group.

Standing on the stage, facing the dense crowd of reporters and media below, Shipping Magnate Pao’s heart was filled with mixed emotions.

Originally, he had meticulously planned a quiet campaign, intending to let the market cool down naturally while he gradually and silently increased his holdings of Kowloon Wharf stock.

But who could have known that Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land would suddenly go crazy and drive the stock price right up?

In Shipping Magnate Pao’s view, the sharp rise in Kowloon Wharf’s stock price and the surge in trading volume today were definitely Jardine’s doing.

The reason was simple. The Pao family could not yet control Kowloon Wharf. By pushing the stock price up at this time, Jardine would ensure that if the Paos wanted to take over Kowloon Wharf, they would have to pay a very high price.

An overt scheme. This was a truly overt scheme!

Chapter 47: Business is a Game of Chess

Faced with such a situation, would Pao Yue-kong back down so easily?

Of course not!

As the major shareholder of Kowloon Wharf, he was resolute, determined to ride this powerful momentum.

As long as he could solidify his position as the major shareholder and continue to increase his holdings in Kowloon Wharf, the advantages held by Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land would eventually fade. When that time came, control would naturally shift into his hands!

“Friends from the media, thank you all for taking the time to be here. I trust that everyone present has some idea of why we’ve gathered today. Here, I will officially respond to the public: As the major shareholder of Kowloon Wharf, I will state my desire frankly—I do indeed hope to successfully acquire Kowloon Wharf. Since Mr. Newbigging of the Jardine Matheson Group has openly declared war, I, Pao, am not one to shrink from a challenge. I gladly accept this coming competition and am fully prepared! I invite you all to witness this contest in the world of business with me!” Pao Yue-kong declared, his words ringing with bravado as he faced dozens of reporters.

Pao Yue-kong understood very well that any further denial was pointless.

So, after decisively announcing his intentions to the public, he immediately began to make a series of meticulous arrangements within his company.

Shortly after, he rushed to the HSBC headquarters to meet personally with the HSBC Tai-pan, Michael Sandberg, to discuss their grand strategy.

Pao Yue-kong knew in his heart that it would be exceedingly difficult to win this fierce battle with the strength of the Pao family alone.

But if he could secure the full support of HSBC, his confidence would soar, and he would have the certainty he needed to conquer Kowloon Wharf.

This meeting was, for him, a crucial move.

In the corporate tempests of another timeline, Pao Yue-kong, with extraordinary courage and strategy, had resolutely invested over three billion Hong Kong dollars in this battle, ultimately succeeding in seizing control of Kowloon Wharf.

Behind this monumental achievement, the staunch support of HSBC was undoubtedly an indispensable key factor.

If not for the powerful financial backing provided by HSBC, even he, hailed as the “World Shipping Magnate,” would have found it difficult to mobilize such an enormous amount of cash in a short period to complete this glorious chapter in business history.

That day, through extensive reports from various news media, Lin Haoran keenly perceived the intense clash between Jardine’s Tai-pan, Newbigging, and Pao Yue-kong over the control of Kowloon Wharf.

Watching this corporate war transition from an undercurrent to an open confrontation, Lin Haoran felt an indescribable surge of excitement.

In his view, the more white-hot the conflict between the two sides became, the more opportunities and benefits it created for him, the “chess player” fanning the flames from behind the scenes.

As for whether his subtle role in this contest would be detected by either party, Lin Haoran was not overly concerned at the moment.

He knew very well that the loyalty of the traders he had carefully selected was consistently above a reassuring 70%. Such a high level of loyalty was enough to ensure they would not betray him easily, let alone leak his plans to the outside world.

Regarding the possibility of the plot being exposed in the future, Lin Haoran appeared quite philosophical.

He believed that, given enough time, he was certain to steadily climb to a conspicuous height on the vast stage of the business world.

By then, whether facing a business tycoon like Pao Yue-kong or an old-guard power like Jardine Matheson, he would possess sufficient strength and confidence to have no more fear.

Besides, the business world was inherently fiercely competitive; a behind-the-scenes struggle between Pao Yue-kong and Jardine’s Tai-pan Newbigging was the norm.

All Lin Haoran had done was bring this competition out into the open ahead of schedule, making the situation’s development more apparent.

From a certain perspective, he had merely accelerated the process, not changed its fundamental nature.

Therefore, as far as Lin Haoran was concerned, it was no big deal.

In this white-hot corporate competition, what Lin Haoran valued most was profiting from it and using it to earn the first true pot of gold of his career.

Such an opportunity was a rare find. Not only could it allow him to quickly accumulate considerable wealth, but it would also lay a solid foundation for his future in the business world.

That Tuesday morning, Hong Kong’s media world seemed to have been set ablaze; it was a scene of extraordinary excitement.

The Kowloon Wharf incident swept through the entire press like a powerful whirlwind, bringing it an unprecedented level of attention and heat.

Major newspapers all focused on this business drama, vying to publish in-depth analyses, inside scoops, and market predictions about Kowloon Wharf, all trying to get a piece of the pie in this information feast.

Interestingly, the media quickly discovered a pattern: the more in-depth and detailed their reporting on Kowloon Wharf, the hotter their newspaper sales became.

This discovery was like a shot of adrenaline, spurring the major press companies to throw themselves even more whole-heartedly into this reporting war.

To attract eyeballs and boost sales, some papers even resorted to exaggeration and fabricating rumors, all to stand out in the fierce competition that lay ahead.

This wave of excitement quickly spread to the stock market, and Kowloon Wharf’s stock became the hot topic of conversation for all Hong Kong investors overnight.

From ordinary citizens on the street corners to elites in the financial world, everyone jumped into this stock market frenzy, trying to seize a sliver of opportunity in this business game to realize their dreams of wealth.

Lin Haoran, who had been keeping a close eye on Kowloon Wharf’s developments, was now absolutely certain in his heart.

He foresaw that when the bell rang on Tuesday, the Kowloon Wharf stock was bound to experience an unprecedented speculative frenzy, with its price shooting up to the sky.

Even without the direct involvement of Pao Yue-kong and Jardine Matheson, the ordinary investors with their sharp instincts and the powerful market makers alone would be enough to snap up all the Kowloon Wharf stock, driving its price ever higher.

What’s more, Lin Haoran knew that Pao Yue-kong and Jardine Matheson would not just sit back and watch.

Currently, their investment in Kowloon Wharf was still in its initial stages, and their capital reserves were still abundant.

Under these circumstances, neither side could tolerate the other accumulating a large number of shares on their own and gaining a significant advantage.

Therefore, they would certainly join the fray to ensure they did not fall behind in this business game.

This outcome would naturally lead to a further increase in Kowloon Wharf’s stock price.

Looking at the news in the paper, Lin Haoran was deep in thought, carefully weighing at what price he should sell his Kowloon Wharf stock and when he should secretly contact Pao Yue-kong.

He was well aware that the 1,478,000 Kowloon Wharf shares he held, though only 1.4% of its 105 million total issued shares, could often play a pivotal role at critical moments in the ever-changing stock market.

As Kowloon Wharf’s stock continued to rise, the floating stock in his possession would become even more precious.

His primary consideration was how to strategically position himself in this business game to ensure he could maximize his returns.

At the same time, he was also calculating how to skillfully use his 1.4% stake to reach some kind of understanding or deal with Pao Yue-kong when necessary, thereby securing a more advantageous position in this business contest.

Business is a game of chess, and every move must be made with care.

Chapter 48: The Market Value of Kowloon Wharf Shares Exceeds One Hundred Million

In the following days, just as the market had widely anticipated, Kowloon Wharf’s stock became the hottest topic on the Hong Kong stock exchange. Its wild trajectory far surpassed most people’s imaginations.

Lin Haoran’s team, despite closely monitoring every fluctuation in Kowloon Wharf’s stock price and trading volume, did not rashly enter the fierce fray.

The reason was simple: they only had a little over ten million Hong Kong dollars left. In the grand feast of capital that was the Kowloon Wharf battle, this amount was a mere drop in the bucket, incapable of making any real waves.

Kowloon Wharf’s stock was no longer what it used to be. With a daily trading volume exceeding one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, Lin Haoran no longer even had the means to stir up trouble.

It was better to save the money to continue acquiring Qingzhou Cement shares.

On Tuesday, market enthusiasm was at an all-time high, and Kowloon Wharf’s stock performance was particularly eye-catching. Its price per share shot up from 40.8 Hong Kong dollars at the opening bell, hitting a staggering peak of 56.9 Hong Kong dollars. By the market’s close, the final transaction was firmly settled at 56.2 Hong Kong dollars per share. The market’s fervor and volatility drove all investors into a frenzy.

On Wednesday, although the rate of increase slowed, Kowloon Wharf’s stock maintained its strong momentum, with its price once climbing to a high of 61.2 Hong Kong dollars per share.

By Thursday, however, a subtle shift occurred in market sentiment. Some more rational investors felt the price was already too high. Fearing a major drop later on, many chose to sell off their holdings. As a result, after touching a high of 62.9 Hong Kong dollars per share, Kowloon Wharf’s stock price pulled back slightly, closing at 60.3 Hong Kong dollars per share. This adjustment seemed to signal a gradual return to rationality in the market, and both the Pao family and the Jardine faction seized the opportunity to snap up a significant number of shares.

On Friday, the market was once again ignited by rumors. Kowloon Wharf’s stock experienced a new surge, jumping from around 60 Hong Kong dollars. At its peak, it even broke through the 72 Hong Kong dollars per share mark. When the market closed, the final transaction was priced at 70.8 Hong Kong dollars, capping off a week of frantic activity.

Throughout this tumultuous period in the stock market, Lin Haoran, though not a direct participant, was a spectator who witnessed the thrilling saga of Kowloon Wharf’s stock and the intense capital battle between the Pao family and the Jardine faction.

The intensity of this corporate war not only gave him a profound understanding of the stock market’s rapid changes and unpredictability, but also showed him the brutal competition, strategic games, and conflicts of interest in the business world.

Watching the stock price continue to climb, Lin Haoran’s mood grew increasingly cheerful.

If he sold the shares he held today, he could instantly cash out for one hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

His total investment in Kowloon Wharf was a mere forty million Hong Kong dollars; now, his profits had far exceeded expectations, doubling his investment.

Originally, on Friday, during the most intense period, Lin Haoran had hesitated, wondering if he should sell all his shares.

After all, once the deal was done, a massive fortune would be securely in his hands, giving him more leverage in his business war with Li Jiacheng.

But on second thought, he realized that even with one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, he might not be able to buy many Qingzhou Cement shares. Li Jiacheng was already in the game, and his opponent had far more capital. Lin Haoran’s team was simply no match for Li Jiacheng’s.

If there were enough shares for sale on the market, he wouldn’t be afraid; he could just use a large sum to buy up 51% of Qingzhou Cement’s stock, and there would be nothing Li Jiacheng could do, no matter how formidable he was.

But the problem was that there weren’t many Qingzhou Cement shares listed for sale on the stock market.

So, it was better to wait for an opportunity where he could both sell his Kowloon Wharf shares at a high price and have Shipping Magnate Pao owe him a favor.

Once Shipping Magnate Pao could dissuade Li Jiacheng from coveting Qingzhou Cement, Lin Haoran would be able to take control of it with ease.

Judging by the fierce struggle between the Pao family and the Jardine Group, the competition was unlikely to be decided in the short term. Both sides were determined to acquire as many Kowloon Wharf shares as possible, so a prolonged battle was inevitable.

The reason was that the ownership of Kowloon Wharf’s stock was extremely dispersed, and the company’s total market capitalization was enormous. Accumulating enough shares in a short period was as difficult as climbing a treacherous peak—extremely arduous.

Both sides needed patience and strategy, gradually approaching their goals through long-term planning and struggle.

Therefore, Lin Haoran wasn’t worried that Kowloon Wharf’s stock would plummet again anytime soon. Based on the information he had gathered, it was virtually impossible in the short term.

As for Qingzhou Cement.

During the trading sessions from Tuesday to Friday, Lin Haoran keenly observed that because both sides were relatively restrained in their stock accumulation, the stock price of Qingzhou Cement did not rise significantly, instead hovering steadily between 5 and 5.2 Hong Kong dollars per share.

Against the backdrop of both parties’ cautious operations, this stagnation in price directly led to a gradual decrease in the number of shares listed for sale by retail investors, as there was insufficient momentum to drive an increase in trading volume.

Take today, Friday, for example. The total trading volume for the entire day barely reached about 700,000 shares, a particularly low figure compared to previous days.

Looking back at the past four days, from Tuesday to Friday, Lin Haoran’s team, despite their tireless efforts, had only managed to purchase 1,068,000 shares at an average price of 5.11 Hong Kong dollars per share.

Before Li Jiacheng had entered the market, such a result could have likely been achieved in less than two days.

In contrast, Lin Haoran inferred from market trends and public information that Li Jiacheng’s team had likely accumulated over one point five million shares of Qingzhou Cement in those four days, showcasing their formidable financial strength and team capability.

Of course, given the current market conditions, it would certainly take Li Jiacheng several months to surpass the number of shares Lin Haoran controlled by relying solely on market accumulation.

After all, if they didn’t raise their bid price to accumulate Qingzhou Cement shares, the number of listed shares on the market would only continue to dwindle, and they wouldn’t be able to buy them even if they wanted to.

The only question was when Li Jiacheng would decide to raise the price to accelerate his acquisition.

However, judging from Li Jiacheng’s past actions, he usually wouldn’t reveal his target before accumulating a sufficient stake.

If Li Jiacheng stuck to this strategy, Lin Haoran would still have ample time.

The only fear was that Li Jiacheng might secretly acquire shares from some major shareholders, allowing him to overtake Lin Haoran on the inside track.

At this point, combining his recent activities with his operations over the past month, Lin Haoran had cumulatively acquired a staggering 10,104,000 shares of Qingzhou Cement. This number was not only a testament to his investment strategy and execution but also marked the moment Lin Haoran’s stake in Qingzhou Cement had officially broken the crucial 20% threshold.

This was undoubtedly a milestone worth celebrating, representing that he had already secured a significant position in this stock market game.

If he were to break this news to Qingzhou Cement’s Board of Directors, they would surely invite him to become a board member.

However, for now, Lin Haoran was not yet ready to make this information public.

Chapter 49: The Shipping Magnate’s New Strategic Deployment

On Friday evening, in the Prince’s Building in Central, the lights in the Chairman’s office at the headquarters of the World-Wide Shipping Group were still blazing. The atmosphere was heavy.

Pao Yue-kong sat by the tea table, his brows knitted in a deep frown. He held a teacup lightly in his hand, but the fragrant steam curling upwards did little to mask his inner anxiety.

Opposite him, his son-in-law, Wu Guangzheng, was equally grim-faced, his posture betraying a degree of impatience.

“Father-in-law, the situation is extremely difficult right now. Although we have the full support of HSBC, which has stabilized our capital chain and even allows us to raise substantial funds for emergencies, we are facing the formidable Jardine faction. The competition between us has become white-hot, and the outcome is hard to predict.

“While our funds are still adequate for now, they will be depleted quickly if this continues. I’m afraid it won’t be enough to guarantee our victory in this battle for controlling shares.” Wu Guangzheng’s tone was filled with worry.

“Guangzheng, starting tomorrow, you will serve as the Chairman of the Board for Longfone International Company,” Pao Yue-kong said slowly after a long moment of contemplation.

His tightly furrowed brow gradually relaxed. Clearly, he had a new idea for their next move.

“Father-in-law, why is that?” Wu Guangzheng asked, puzzled.

From Wu Guangzheng’s perspective, this was the most critical moment in the fight for Kowloon Wharf. As one of the key figures, how could he leave World-Wide Shipping Group at a time like this to join Longfone International, a company that was, for all intents and purposes, a mere shell to them?

Longfone International, an old enterprise with a history of more than sixty years, had once focused on securities investment and loans. After changing hands several times, it eventually fell under Pao Yue-kong’s control, becoming an important chess piece in the Pao family’s business empire.

It was not only an effective tool for Pao Yue-kong to raise funds and support his shipping companies but also the invisible force behind the expansion of the World-Wide Shipping Group.

It could be said that Longfone International deserved significant credit for the World-Wide Shipping Group’s development to its present state.

“Guangzheng, I have a new strategic plan. I intend to use Longfone International to raise capital by issuing new shares, deferred stock, and other means. We will then use that capital to buy back all the Kowloon Wharf shares we currently own at a high price. This way, we can raise a large amount of funds again. We should avoid taking loans from HSBC if we can help it; we haven’t reached that point yet. This will lighten our personal financial burden and preserve our strength to contend with Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land to the very end. We can advance to attack or retreat to defend!” Pao Yue-kong said with great solemnity.

Shipping Magnate Pao understood that Longfone International’s status as a publicly listed company was like a sturdy line of defense. Even if they suffered a setback in this commercial war, it could effectively cushion the blow and protect the family’s wealth from a fatal strike.

Transferring the Kowloon Wharf shares to Longfone International’s name was a brilliant move he had arrived at after careful consideration. It preserved their capacity to counterattack while ensuring the long-term stability of the family enterprise.

Therefore, selling the shares to Longfone International was indeed a strategy that allowed them to attack or defend.

Having navigated the seas of commerce for many years, every step Pao Yue-kong took revealed his profound business wisdom and extraordinary courage.

He would never allow himself and his family to be backed into a corner from which there was no escape. Instead, he sought to achieve the greatest benefits and long-term victory at the lowest possible cost.

After hearing Pao Yue-kong’s words, Wu Guangzheng instantly understood his father-in-law’s intentions.

As Pao Yue-kong’s son-in-law, Wu Guangzheng was also a business prodigy, currently lacking only in experience.

“Alright, Father-in-law, I understand. Starting tomorrow, I will officially take up my post at Longfone International and personally spearhead the plan to acquire all of our Kowloon Wharf shares,” Wu Guangzheng replied swiftly.

“Excellent. In the future, the stock accumulation of Kowloon Wharf will no longer be conducted directly by the Pao family but through Longfone International. Furthermore, this matter is of great importance. I will personally communicate with Mr. Michael Sandberg and Mr. Li Jiacheng. Their support is crucial to the success of our plan,” Pao Yue-kong continued.

There was no need to elaborate on Mr. Michael Sandberg. As the Taipan of HSBC and a core figure at the bank, his attitude was of paramount significance to Pao Yue-kong’s plans.

Without Mr. Sandberg’s full support, Longfone International alone would likely struggle to gain widespread market recognition and trust in a short period.

However, once they secured Mr. Sandberg’s support, the situation would be vastly different.

If Mr. Sandberg, on behalf of HSBC, were to subscribe to a portion of Longfone International’s new shares, it would not only be a tremendous affirmation of Longfone’s strength and credibility but would also significantly enhance its influence and appeal in the capital market, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent acquisition activities.

As for Li Jiacheng, Pao Yue-kong valued his ability in stock market trading.

Li Jiacheng’s trading team was largely responsible for his rapid development over the years.

With Li Jiacheng’s support, a portion of Longfone International’s new shares could also be underwritten through Li’s team.

Li Jiacheng and Pao Yue-kong had known each other for many years and had an excellent relationship. They had long since become very amicable business partners.

“Father-in-law, concerning our current predicament, I have a proposal. Although it may be costly to implement, it could quickly widen the gap between our holdings of Kowloon Wharf stock and those of Hongkong Land, thereby solidifying our leading position in the market,” Wu Guangzheng said suddenly.

“Oh? Guangzheng, explain your idea in detail,” Pao Yue-kong said, his eyes lighting up. He was clearly intrigued by the proposal.

“Over the past week, I’ve observed that in addition to us and the Jardine faction continuously vying for Kowloon Wharf stock, a group of well-funded major players has also quietly entered the market. They had already accumulated a large number of shares when the price was still around thirty to forty Hong Kong dollars.

“The fact that we were able to acquire such a large number of shares on Thursday was in no small part due to these major players selling off. As news of our competition with the Jardine faction spreads, this kind of situation is unavoidable and was to be expected. I speculate that there are still many major players in the market holding large quantities of Kowloon Wharf stock, waiting for the right opportunity.

“If we can manage to persuade these major players to transfer their shares to us, we can significantly widen our lead over our rivals without alerting the Jardine faction.” Wu Guangzheng articulated his strategy with perfect clarity.

After listening to his son-in-law, a look of approval appeared on Pao Yue-kong’s face.

This was indeed a good method.

Although the cost would be substantial, such was the nature of gambles on the stock market—they often required enormous investment.

Moreover, having come this far, there was no turning back.

To stop now would only result in even greater losses.

“This method is feasible. I will personally contact these people in secret. As for you, Guangzheng, you need to take over the management of Longfone International as soon as possible. There will be more tough battles to fight next week!” Pao Yue-kong said solemnly.

Hong Kong wasn’t small, but it certainly wasn’t large either.

Having dominated the Hong Kong business scene for many years, Pao Yue-kong naturally knew the entire landscape like the back of his hand. He was well aware of all the famous stock market players in Hong Kong, and his relationship with some of them was quite good. Many of them would surely grant him this favor.

Furthermore, there were the stock traders in their iconic red jackets at the stock exchange. They possessed a wealth of industry resources and personal networks. Although they were under strict regulations and could not directly disclose client information, Shipping Magnate Pao could skillfully leverage these relationships to indirectly convey his intention for a private stock acquisition to certain key clients, thereby carrying out his commercial strategy.

Chapter 50: She Came Willingly, How Could I Possibly Refuse?

Lin Haoran was completely unaware of Shipping Magnate Pao’s plans.

Today, he was in an exceptionally good mood.

After all, the surge in Kowloon Wharf’s stock price had exceeded his expectations, far surpassing his initial projections.

This rise meant he stood to gain enormous profits from this stock market game.

After his employees left work one by one, Lin Haoran remained alone in the office, gazing at the splendid, magnificent sunset outside his window.

He had been rather busy lately, but the rewards were immense, making it all worthwhile.

He had nothing pressing to do this weekend, so he planned to return to the Lin family villa for two nights, treating it as a seaside vacation.

However, just as he was composing himself and preparing to leave, the beeper he carried on his waist began to vibrate incessantly at an inopportune moment, interrupting his train of thought.

Clearly, someone was trying to contact him.

Remembering he was still in the office, he quickly walked over to a nearby telephone and immediately dialed the number back.

After all, anyone who knew his beeper number had to have some connection to him.

When the call connected, Lin Haoran spoke politely and directly, “Hello, this is Lin Haoran.”

On the other end of the line came a lively and slightly mischievous voice: “Young Master Lin, do you remember me? It’s Rosamund Kwan!”

Hearing this, the corners of Lin Haoran’s mouth curled up involuntarily. “Of course, I remember. I still owe you a pair of Roger Vivier shoes, how could I forget?”

The scene from the film’s celebration party was still vivid in his mind. He had given Rosamund Kwan his business card, expecting her to contact him soon, but he hadn’t heard from her since. The matter had gradually faded from his daily thoughts.

“So you actually remember me. How rare.” Rosamund Kwan’s words carried a playful tone, making Lin Haoran laugh out loud.

The conversation instantly closed the distance between them, as if they were back at the celebration party where they had first met.

“What’s this? You finally have time to call me?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“You have no idea! I’ve wanted to contact you for a while, but my Dad has been coming home every day lately, so I haven’t had a chance to go out. The good news is, he’s going to Malaysia this weekend to film a movie. He said he’ll be gone for a week. He just left Hong Kong on a plane this afternoon, so I called you right away,” Rosamund Kwan said, complaining and sounding happy at the same time.

“Haha, so are you in a hurry for me to make good on my promise of Roger Vivier shoes?” Lin Haoran teased.

“Hmph, a real man keeps his promises! You promised me yourself, don’t even think about backing out!” Rosamund Kwan’s voice had a hint of a coquettish pout.

“Don’t worry, I always keep my word. I can buy them for you whenever you want,” Lin Haoran said with a laugh.

“That’s great! Since you’re free now, how about right now? I haven’t had dinner yet. So, how about this: you buy me the shoes, and I’ll treat you to dinner. What do you think?” Rosamund Kwan proposed.

“Great idea! Coincidentally, I haven’t had dinner either. Where are you now? I’ll come and get you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“I’ll wait for you at the entrance of Wang Tak Garden in Kowloon Bay. How long will it take you to get here?” Rosamund Kwan asked, her voice full of anticipation.

“I’m in Central right now, so it should take about twenty minutes. Although Central isn’t far from Kowloon Bay, it’s rush hour now, so the Cross-Harbour Tunnel might have some traffic. I’ll be as fast as I can,” Lin Haoran replied.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran called for his two bodyguards, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, and left the office with them.

The group drove to Kowloon Bay. About twenty minutes later, the Mercedes-Benz came to a smooth stop in a quiet spot outside the entrance to Wang Tak Garden.

Through the car window, Lin Haoran immediately spotted Rosamund Kwan. She was wearing a long white dress that swayed gently in the breeze. She looked a little bored, but it couldn’t hide her elegant and beautiful aura.

Her outfit was clearly carefully chosen. Unlike the gentle and formal attire from their last meeting, Rosamund Kwan looked stunning today.

Gazing at her, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a stir in his heart.

As a famous and beautiful star he was very familiar with in his past life, Rosamund Kwan stirred in him a desire for a romantic conquest, mixed with a sense of appreciation and longing for all things beautiful.

After all, a figure who had been untouchable in his past life was now within his reach in this world. How could he possibly let such an opportunity slip by?

He gently rolled down the window and gave a loud whistle in her direction. Instantly, Rosamund Kwan’s gaze was caught by this casual, playful gesture. A flash of surprise appeared in her eyes, and she quickened her pace toward him.

“Get in, beautiful lady,” Lin Haoran invited with a smile.

“Thank you,” Rosamund Kwan replied softly, opening the rear door with a hint of shyness and elegantly getting in.

The door closed slowly, and a subtle, slightly tense atmosphere instantly filled the car.

They were neither complete strangers nor intimately close. Their pleasant conversation last time seemed to have built a delicate bridge for this meeting.

Awkwardness and anticipation mingled in the air, stirring the heart.

“So, where are we going now? I’m looking forward to this ‘grand meal’ you mentioned. Don’t let me down,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, noticing she was a bit nervous.

“Let’s go to Mong Kok. My parents used to take me there often when I was a child. Later, my mom took my younger brother to live in America, and my dad was busy with work, so we went less often. I heard the night market there is even livelier now. I’ve always wanted to go and relive some old memories,” Rosamund Kwan said, trying to calm the fluttering in her heart.

Sitting in Lin Haoran’s car, Rosamund Kwan couldn’t help but marvel at her own courage.

Although they had only met twice, her impression of Lin Haoran was exceptionally high.

To her, Lin Haoran was not just a suave gentleman, but also a charming man from a wealthy family, making his appeal hard to resist.

“To Mong Kok it is!” Lin Haoran readily agreed.

Li Weiguo, acting as the driver, quickly and skillfully started the engine, and the car drove steadily toward Mong Kok.

Mong Kok, the city that never sleeps, truly lived up to its name.

When Lin Haoran and Rosamund Kwan arrived, though the night was already deep, the bustling atmosphere had not diminished in the slightest.

The streets were crowded with people, bustling with excitement, as if every inch of air was filled with vitality and life.

What was most eye-catching were the colorful, dazzling neon signs.

Like brilliant stars, they dotted the Mong Kok night sky, decorating the nearby streets and making the night look fantastical and dreamlike.

Lin Haoran and Rosamund Kwan strolled among them, soaking in the unique urban charm, and the distance between them quietly closed without them even realizing it.

As dinner concluded, they walked out of the restaurant and into the cool night air.

In one such casual moment, as if guided by an invisible force, Rosamund Kwan’s small hand quietly found Lin Haoran’s large, warm one, their fingers intertwining.

At that moment, Rosamund Kwan’s heart couldn’t help but beat faster, and a blush crept onto her cheeks.

As for Lin Haoran, he just smiled faintly. She had come to him willingly, so how could he possibly refuse?

Chapter 51: Starlight and City Lights Intertwine

After about fifteen minutes of shopping on the bustling streets of Mong Kok, Lin Haoran kept his promise and bought Rosamund Kwan a pair of Roger Vivier shoes she had always dreamed of.

Neither of them was a well-known figure, so they strolled hand in hand like any ordinary young couple, drawing no attention from anyone else.

The two brothers, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, followed dutifully behind Lin Haoran, on guard against any potential incidents.

Afterwards, their stroll took them through Fa Yuen Street, Ladies’ Market, and Sai Yeung Choi Street.

Before they knew it, it was already eight o’clock in the evening.

“Any other plans, beautiful lady?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile as they reached the end of Sai Yeung Choi Street, near where the car was parked.

“Haoran, I want to see the night view of Victoria Harbour!” Rosamund Kwan said, looking at Lin Haoran with eyes full of anticipation.

Unconsciously, the way she addressed Lin Haoran had also changed.

At that moment, Rosamund Kwan felt incredibly happy.

She felt that tonight was the happiest day of her seventeen years.

Without realizing it, Rosamund Kwan found that she had developed an indescribable affection for Lin Haoran.

The night view of Victoria Harbour?

Lin Haoran smiled faintly and said, “Alright, I’ll take you to a perfect spot to see the night view of Victoria Harbour.”

They got into the car, and Lin Haoran told Li Weiguo to drive back to the Hang Fung Building.

Sitting in the slowly moving car, Rosamund Kwan’s small hand involuntarily took Lin Haoran’s left hand again. They sat pressed closely together, almost able to feel each other’s warmth.

Lin Haoran took a light sniff, breathing in the fresh and captivating fragrance that emanated from her, quietly filling the small space.

Rosamund Kwan’s heart began to beat like a drum. She was actually surprised herself, wondering why she felt such a strong sense of intimacy with a man she had only met twice, even making such a bold move.

This sudden surge of emotion left her feeling both shy and filled with a sweet sense of unease.

As the car traveled through the deep expanse of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, Lin Haoran used the soft interior light to gently trace delicate circles in Rosamund Kwan’s palm.

The gentle touch was like a breeze skimming across the surface of a lake, instantly sending delicate ripples through Rosamund Kwan’s heart. She felt an indescribable flutter and almost couldn’t stop herself from crying out.

However, her reason reined her in.

She realized the two bodyguards were still sitting in the front seats. In this situation, the slightest carelessness could shatter this delicate balance and lead to her own embarrassment.

So, she bit her lip, forcing down the joy and surprise that was about to bubble up, while a blush quietly spread across her cheeks.

Lin Haoran naturally noticed Rosamund Kwan’s subtle change. He smiled to himself, understanding that before him, she was now like an unguarded lamb, both innocent and alluring.

He certainly wasn’t going to let such a rare opportunity slip by.

The car returned smoothly to the Hang Fung Building and parked in the garage.

“Weiguo, Weidong, once you’ve escorted us to the company entrance, you two don’t need to come in. Stay at the Tai Wah Hotel next door tonight. I’ll come find you tomorrow.” After Rosamund Kwan got out and closed the door, Lin Haoran, still in the car, spoke softly to the two men.

The Hang Fung Building had numerous security guards, with patrols on almost every floor, making it very safe.

“Yes, Boss.” The two were no fools; they naturally understood it wasn’t a good time to disturb their boss tonight.

Only then did Lin Haoran open his door and get out of the car.

“Haoran, where are we going?” Rosamund Kwan asked, a flicker of curiosity and confusion in her eyes as she looked at the spacious underground garage.

Before entering the garage, she had already glimpsed through the car window that they were in a towering skyscraper.

“Didn’t you want to see the brilliant night view of Victoria Harbour? I’m taking you up to a high floor of the building to admire its splendor from above,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Hearing this, Rosamund Kwan’s eyes lit up instantly. She was full of anticipation, eager to see the legendary night view of Victoria Harbour.

The elevator stopped on the 19th floor. The two brothers, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, watched their boss open the office door and then close it behind him before they left with peace of mind.

Entering the office, Rosamund Kwan glanced at the furnishings and knew it was a company.

However, her gaze was quickly drawn to the massive floor-to-ceiling window at the far end, and she couldn’t help but quicken her pace.

That window was like a giant jewel set into the wall, presenting the prosperity and magnificence of the outside world without reservation.

Through it, the stunning night view of both sides of Victoria Harbour was on full display. The twinkling lights and glittering water were like a breathtaking scroll painting slowly unfurling.

“Wow, it’s so beautiful! I never thought that looking down on Hong Kong from such a height could be such a stunning visual feast.” Rosamund Kwan was mesmerized by the night view before her.

Lin Haoran slowly walked to her side, a gentle smile playing on his lips. He too was captivated by the magnificent vista, gazing down at the refreshing and delightful scenery.

“Haoran, thank you so much,” Rosamund Kwan said, suddenly turning to Lin Haoran after a moment of silence.

“Silly girl, is there any need for thanks between us?” Lin Haoran responded with a light laugh.

At this moment, the stunning nightscape around them seemed to become a mere backdrop, enveloping the two in a romantic and delicate atmosphere.

The starlight and the city lights intertwined, adding a dreamlike quality to the scene.

Their gazes met inadvertently, and it was as if the entire world stood still.

Then, an irresistible force drew them together. They moved closer involuntarily until their lips touched gently, beginning a deep and lingering kiss.

The kiss was long and profound, as if it transcended the boundaries of time.

It wasn’t until Rosamund Kwan felt slightly breathless that she reluctantly parted her lips, but the emotion in her eyes still lingered.

“How embarrassing…” Rosamund Kwan’s cheeks flushed, and she shyly buried her head deep in Lin Haoran’s chest, as if to hide from her own fluttering heart and his gaze.

She was slightly annoyed with herself. Her impulsive and bold action just a moment ago made her feel incredibly ashamed now, and she wondered what Haoran would think of her.

However, how could Lin Haoran let such a rare opportunity pass?

A wicked smile played on his lips. He gently wrapped his arm around Rosamund Kwan’s waist and, to her gasp of surprise, smoothly swept her up into his arms, striding steadily toward the general manager’s office.

He passed through his personal office, went straight into the more private inner room, and gently placed Rosamund Kwan on the soft, large bed.

Rosamund Kwan seemed to realize what was happening but didn’t resist. Though her heart was in a flutter, there was also a sliver of inexplicable anticipation.

She closed her eyes tightly, her long eyelashes trembling slightly, as if she had become a flower quietly waiting to be plucked, awaiting every bit of tenderness and care Lin Haoran would give her.

Chapter 52: World-Wide Shipping Group Comes Knocking

On the spacious bed, dots of red adorned the pristine white sheets.

Rosamund Kwan snuggled in Lin Haoran’s embrace, her face alight with a smile of contentment and happiness. She felt a sense of security and warmth she had never known before.

Once upon a time, her parents’ divorce had cast a gloomy shadow over her heart, making her feel lonely and unloved as she grew up.

Now, it was as if she had found the safe harbor of her life.

For Lin Haoran, this weekend had been exceptionally comfortable.

With a stunning beauty like Rosamund Kwan by his side, her gentleness and attentiveness made him feel as if he were in a haven of tenderness. All his fatigue and stress melted away in that sweetness.

However, as the first rays of Monday morning sunlight crept into the room, Lin Haoran knew it was time to get back to business, and Rosamund Kwan had to go to school.

Since it was still early, Lin Haoran first dropped Rosamund Kwan off at the school gate before heading back to the company.

At nine in the morning, all the employees were back at their workstations.

After a weekend of rest, everyone was in high spirits.

They felt a sincere admiration for their boss. Last week’s results had been nothing short of brilliant, and none of them dared to take credit for it.

They knew that although they were the traders, they were really just following the boss’s orders.

When the boss told them to buy, they bought.

When the boss told them to stop buying, they stopped.

It could be said that the work they did was something most traders could do.

Therefore, Su Zhixue and the others understood that they hadn’t contributed much to the battle for Kowloon Wharf.

They were self-aware enough to know their place.

However, Lin Haoran had already promised them that he would give each of them a bonus equivalent to three times their salary this month as an incentive.

He understood that in the business world, reasonable rewards were key to motivating a team and ensuring loyalty.

After all, without tangible returns, he could hardly expect others to wholeheartedly generate profits for him and strictly keep his secrets.

“Today, our strategic focus remains on Qingzhou Cement. As for Kowloon Wharf’s movements, Dai Shi will be solely responsible for monitoring it. Any sudden developments must be reported immediately. The rest of you, please devote all your energy to the Qingzhou Cement stock. We need to aggressively accumulate more shares without driving up the stock price. As for the timing of buying and selling Kowloon Wharf, I will give the instructions personally at the critical moment.” After the workday began, Lin Haoran held a brief and efficient meeting as usual.

In his view, as long as Kowloon Wharf’s current stock price remained stable, there was no need for much intervention. He planned to find the best way to approach Pao Yue-kong this week, aiming to take a more passive stance and entice him to make the first move with a buyout offer.

As for Qingzhou Cement, the goal was to fight for a larger share, rather than letting Li Jiacheng’s team lead in daily trading volume.

The more than eight million Hong Kong dollars in liquid capital he had on hand was enough to support their operations in the current Qingzhou Cement market for over a week.

As long as he successfully sold off some of his Kowloon Wharf stock within the week, he could recoup his funds, providing ample ammunition for his next moves.

Not long after the meeting ended, Lin Haoran returned to his office.

The receptionist, Zhao Lin, quickly came over to brew him a pot of tea and pour it into his thermos.

Zhao Lin: [Loyalty: 80/100]

This was Zhao Lin’s current loyalty level. The reason it was so high was that when she had first joined the company, she had privately asked Lin Haoran for a two-month salary advance. She said her family was facing financial difficulties and she wanted to improve their living conditions as soon as possible.

Lin Haoran had advanced her the money without hesitation.

In Lin Haoran’s eyes, this small financial assistance was not only direct help for Zhao Lin’s personal predicament but also a test of her humanity and loyalty.

He knew very well that in the face of money, a person’s choices often provided the truest reflection of their character and sense of responsibility.

If Zhao Lin had chosen to flee or betray his trust, then the small investment would have been enough to reveal her true nature.

Unexpectedly, not only did she not disappoint Lin Haoran’s expectations, but she also threw herself into her work with even greater enthusiasm and efficiency, proving her worth through her actions.

At the same time, Zhao Lin’s loyalty had jumped from 70, when she first signed her contract, directly to 80.

Through these small incidents, Lin Haoran was gradually mastering how to use this loyalty system.

Not long after Zhao Lin left, there was another knock on the office door.

“Come in.”

“Boss, I have an urgent matter to report. Just a few minutes ago, I received a call from a manager at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. He mentioned that a representative from the World-Wide Shipping Group is interested in using them as an intermediary to connect with major players like us who are frequently trading Kowloon Wharf stock. They want to ask if we’re willing to participate in some kind of cooperation or dialogue. They promised that if we’re interested, they’ll act as a bridge to facilitate communication. If not, they will maintain confidentiality, decline on our behalf, and ensure our information isn’t leaked to the World-Wide Shipping Group.”

Su Zhixue strode into the office, reporting to Lin Haoran in a rapid, urgent tone.

These stock traders played an indispensable role in facilitating remote stock transactions. In an era before computerized trading, their existence greatly streamlined market operations.

Although these traders didn’t know exactly how many Kowloon Wharf shares Lin Haoran’s team held, they understood from their active presence in the market that they were a force to be reckoned with.

Lin Haoran was now part of the financial industry and quickly figured this out.

He was inwardly shocked. Pao Yue-kong was actually turning his attention to these market makers. This was definitely a meticulously planned chess game.

Lin Haoran wasn’t worried that the stock exchange traders would actually leak their information, because if they did, it would constitute an illegal act of abusing their positions. They would not only face fines but also jail time.

“Pao Yue-kong, what an impressive move!” Lin Haoran couldn’t help but marvel, gaining a deeper appreciation for Pao Yue-kong’s strategic capabilities.

Secretly accumulating shares from market makers on such a large scale would undoubtedly allow him to rapidly build a substantial lead over Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land.

Recalling the historical fact that the Pao family ultimately succeeded in acquiring Kowloon Wharf, he realized that in addition to the support from HSBC, the Pao family’s own strength was not to be underestimated.

It seemed that the Pao family’s victory over Jardine Matheson was no accident, but the inevitable result of a combination of strength and strategy.

Good news, this was truly good news!

Originally, Lin Haoran had been pondering how to subtly get Pao Yue-kong’s side to proactively seek him out to buy his Kowloon Wharf shares, so he could seize the initiative and gain the upper hand in the coming contest.

He understood that once he became the party the other side actively sought out, he would have a greater say and more bargaining chips at the negotiating table.

He never expected the opportunity to arrive so quickly, saving him a great deal of trouble and planning.

Chapter 53: Tell Them to Have Mr. Pao Come and Negotiate in Person!

“I’m already aware of this,” Lin Haoran said to Su Zhixue with a smile. “Let me think it over carefully before you get back to them.”

He had no intention of responding hastily the moment they made their move. He believed they were the ones who should be anxious, not him.

“Understood, President Lin. I’ll get back to my other duties, then,” Su Zhixue agreed with a nod before leaving the office.

At that point, it was less than ten minutes until the market opened, and Su Zhixue needed to prepare for the day’s trading.

Lin Haoran had been noticeably more relaxed ever since he halted the accumulation of Kowloon Wharf shares.

Now, he could spend most of his time in his office leisurely reading, enjoying the rare moment of peace. Su Zhixue would come in periodically to update him on the market’s situation.

If anything urgent came up, his staff would inform him immediately, ensuring he could respond swiftly.

In the market today, following two days of intense media hype and speculation over the weekend, Kowloon Wharf stock remained the center of attention.

At the opening bell, Kowloon Wharf’s share price held steady at 71 Hong Kong dollars per share.

Subsequently, driven by active trading from some investors and fueled by media hype, the intense bidding war between the Pao family’s team and the Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land team caused the share price to soar. It touched nearly 79 Hong Kong dollars before the midday market close, with trading volume remaining high and an exceptionally lively market atmosphere.

However, this excessive market exuberance also led to chaos. Countless retail investors, seemingly driven by the frenzy, began chasing highs. This behavior, in turn, created significant difficulties for Shipping Magnate Pao’s group and the Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land team as they tried to accumulate more shares.

The market widely anticipated that Kowloon Wharf’s price would break the 80 Hong Kong dollar barrier today, but unfortunately, this expectation did not hold.

In the afternoon, as the momentum behind high-priced buy orders waned, Shipping Magnate Pao’s group and Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land seemed to reach a tacit agreement. They both stopped accumulating shares listed above 75 Hong Kong dollars. The effect on the stock price was immediate, causing it to fall back and stabilize around 75 Hong Kong dollars, much to the disappointment of many investors.

When Kowloon Wharf’s share price surged to a high of 79 Hong Kong dollars, the thought of selling a portion of his stock to cash in did cross Lin Haoran’s mind.

However, he quickly made a rational calculation and realized that even if he sold a small portion at 79 Hong Kong dollars, the increase in profit compared to selling at 70 Hong Kong dollars wouldn’t be significant.

More importantly, holding onto his 1.4% stake was crucial for maintaining a position of strength in future negotiations.

Therefore, Lin Haoran ultimately decided against the short-term gain and chose to hold his shares.

Throughout the day, trading for Kowloon Wharf stock remained as lively and active as it had been the previous week, commanding everyone’s attention.

In contrast, Qingzhou Cement stock was exceptionally quiet. With both major teams taking a cautious approach, its price barely fluctuated, remaining stable at the previous week’s level.

The trading volume for Qingzhou Cement today, along with the number of standing orders, was not much different from last Friday. It was clear the market hadn’t realized that two major financial conglomerates were busy accumulating its shares.

Notably, Su Zhixue’s team performed quite well in trading Qingzhou Cement today.

Through the combined efforts of the four team members, they successfully accumulated 386,000 shares of Qingzhou Cement, which accounted for roughly half of the stock’s total trading volume for the day.

This implied that, barring the intervention of other retail investors, the battle between Lin Haoran’s team and Li Jiacheng’s team over Qingzhou Cement shares was almost evenly matched, creating a delicate equilibrium.

This was good, as it further slowed Li Jiacheng’s rate of accumulation.

However, based on the day’s trading activity, a suspicion formed in Lin Haoran’s mind: perhaps Li Jiacheng hadn’t yet dedicated significant manpower to trading Qingzhou Cement stock.

Otherwise, given the strength and experience of Li Jiacheng’s team, it would have been difficult for Su Zhixue’s team to secure half of the trading volume so quickly.

This speculation made Lin Haoran realize that Li Jiacheng’s designs on Qingzhou Cement might not be as tight or aggressive as the Li Jiacheng he knew from another world, which certainly gave him useful information for adjusting his future strategy.

Lin Haoran speculated that perhaps it was because he had begun meticulously laying his groundwork over a month earlier, successfully absorbing a large number of Qingzhou Cement shares from retail investors, that the stock’s publicly traded shares had gradually dwindled, causing the number of listing orders to drop.

Faced with this change, Li Jiacheng’s team might have realized that it was now virtually impossible for them to increase their shareholding quickly without driving up the cost. They were left with no choice but to engage in a long-term battle of attrition.

Consequently, Li Jiacheng’s team had likely made a strategic adjustment, temporarily reducing their manpower commitment to Qingzhou Cement to focus on other stocks.

Lin Haoran knew that while these speculations were plausible, they were ultimately just hypotheses based on the information at hand.

As an industry titan, the considerations behind Li Jiacheng’s decisions were often complex and unpredictable, far beyond what an ordinary person could easily fathom.

Therefore, he understood the only thing he could do was remain vigilant and continue to monitor market dynamics closely, ready to adjust his strategy at a moment’s notice to handle any eventuality.

At the same time, Lin Haoran resolved to settle the Kowloon Wharf stock issue within the week. He hoped to leverage Shipping Magnate Pao’s influence to convince Li Jiacheng to abandon his obsession with Qingzhou Cement shares. That way, he could eliminate this lingering concern once and for all.

After the market closed, he was reviewing the trading data Su Zhixue had just brought him, as was his routine. Time slipped by, and around four-thirty, Su Zhixue entered his office again, a look of urgency on his face.

“President Lin, the head of the brokerage team called again to press for an answer since we haven’t responded. They said they are very eager for our decision and mentioned that the Pao family is open on the selling price and willing to negotiate further,” Su Zhixue reported, his words quick and concise.

Upon hearing this, a satisfied smile played on Lin Haoran’s lips.

These repeated calls clearly revealed the Pao family’s anxiety and eagerness. They evidently saw Lin Haoran and his team as a rare “big fish” they were not about to let get away.

“Excellent. The Pao family’s sense of urgency is perfectly timed,” Lin Haoran said softly, a shrewd glint in his eyes. “Reply to their representative. Tell them to give you the Pao family’s contact information. Then you call them and tell them to have Mr. Pao Yue-kong come and negotiate in person!”

At this point, Lin Haoran realized there was no longer any need for delay. It was time to resolve the issues with Kowloon Wharf and Qingzhou Cement in one fell swoop and clear the obstacles in his path.

Su Zhixue nodded quickly in acknowledgment and immediately left the office to carry out Lin Haoran’s instructions.

Chapter 54: What a Coincidence, We Meet Again

In Pao Yue-kong’s office at the Prince’s Building, the headquarters of the World-Wide Shipping Group.

Pao Yue-kong furrowed his brow upon hearing his subordinate’s report, but a smile soon returned to his face.

The previous weekend, he had leveraged his extensive network to skillfully negotiate with numerous renowned market makers. Not only had he earned their respect, but he had also successfully accumulated a large number of Kowloon Wharf shares.

Many of these major players, swayed by his prestige and an offer slightly above the market price, chose to sell their holdings, granting Pao Yue-kong an early victory in his acquisition plan.

After dealing with these well-known stock market players, Shipping Magnate Pao turned his attention to the unknown ones.

Pao Yue-kong knew these players were as elusive as ghosts; even his group’s powerful intelligence system couldn’t uncover their true identities.

Therefore, the only way to contact them was through the head of traders at the stock exchange.

But Pao Yue-kong was also well aware that this path would not be easy.

While the traders held a wealth of information, professional ethics or their own interests meant they might not be willing to disclose it easily.

For this reason, he had specially entrusted Mr. Michael Sandberg of HSBC to personally handle the matter, to maximize the chances of success.

As the top figure in Hong Kong’s financial industry, Michael Sandberg’s influence was immense. Even the four major stock exchanges had to show him deference.

After private negotiations, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange agreed in principle to help them contact the mysterious major players in Kowloon Wharf, but they would not reveal any information about those parties to Michael Sandberg or Pao Yue-kong.

Everyone knew that doing so would be illegal.

Therefore, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange would only act as a bridge, relaying messages without leaking any information to the Pao family.

If the other party agreed, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange would do Mr. Sandberg a favor and allow them to contact each other directly. How they negotiated from that point on was no longer the exchange’s business.

Furthermore, Jardine Matheson could not find out about this, or the exchange would risk offending them. Everything had to be done in secret.

If not for Michael Sandberg’s intervention, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange would never have taken such a risk for Pao Yue-kong alone.

Over the past two days, he secretly arranged for the head of traders to contact some of the more powerful mysterious players, seeking to reach an agreement with them.

Although the head of traders couldn’t reveal any intelligence data to Pao Yue-kong, he used the information he had to identify the major players.

And so, they contacted Universal Investment Company.

The key player suspected of controlling the Kowloon Wharf stock market finally relented, agreeing to formal talks with the Pao family, but on the condition that Pao Yue-kong himself must be the one to negotiate.

For Pao Yue-kong, this was undoubtedly fantastic and unexpected news.

“Reply to them immediately. Tell them I will come in person and ask them to confirm a specific time and place,” Pao Yue-kong ordered his subordinate without hesitation.

Although he didn’t know how many Kowloon Wharf shares the other party held, judging from the attitude of the head trader at the stock exchange, it had to be a significant amount.

If he could secure the Kowloon Wharf shares in their possession, it would put him even further ahead of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land.

Therefore, meeting with them and persuading them to sell their shares to the Pao family was critically important.

As for the stock accumulation on the open market, he would continue to compete with Jardine Matheson.

With this two-pronged approach, his chances of winning were even greater.

With the capital raised from Longfone International’s new stock issuance, plus the support from HSBC, Pao Yue-kong had little to worry about in terms of funding.

“Yes, I’ll arrange it at once!” His subordinate responded and moved quickly, leaving Pao Yue-kong’s office to relay the message.

This morning, Pao Yue-kong’s son-in-law, Wu Guangzheng, had officially taken up the position of Chairman of the Board at Longfone International and was busy adjusting to his new role and handling various affairs.

Therefore, Pao Yue-kong was personally overseeing matters related to Kowloon Wharf for the time being, ensuring every step proceeded smoothly according to plan.

Meanwhile, at the Universal Investment Company in Hang Fung Building, Su Zhixue entered Lin Haoran’s office again, bringing an affirmative response from the Pao family.

“President Lin, the Pao family has responded. Mr. Pao Yue-kong has clearly stated his willingness to come and negotiate in person and has asked about our meeting arrangements,” Su Zhixue reported.

After listening, Lin Haoran thought for a moment before making a decisive call: “Excellent. Set the meeting place here at our company. The time will be eight o’clock tonight.”

“Understood, President Lin.” Su Zhixue took his leave.

Everything was proceeding very smoothly. Now it all depended on whether he could make Pao Yue-kong compromise tonight.

After Su Zhixue and the others left work at their usual six o’clock, Lin Haoran took the two brothers, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, out for a big meal, not returning until a little past seven in the evening.

As eight o’clock approached, Lin Haoran prepared the tea-making set in his office.

He was very curious to see what Pao Yue-kong’s reaction would be when he saw him.

At the same time, Pao Yue-kong arrived at Hang Fung Building with a bodyguard.

Hang Fung Building was only a few hundred meters from Prince’s Building, a short walk away.

So, Pao Yue-kong arrived as scheduled.

The elevator reached the 19th floor. After stepping out, Pao Yue-kong quickly found his destination for the day—Universal Investment Company.

The company was completely unfamiliar to Pao Yue-kong; he had never heard of it before.

He had even done some research and found that the company had only been registered recently.

Therefore, he mistakenly assumed that Universal Investment Company had only entered the scene after the Kowloon Wharf stock surged.

And as Pao Yue-kong arrived at the entrance of Universal Investment Company, Lin Haoran had already come out of his office to greet him.

He smiled as he approached Pao Yue-kong. “Uncle Pao, what a coincidence. We meet again.”

“Haoran? What are you doing here?” Pao Yue-kong looked astonished, clearly not expecting to run into him here.

Their brief conversation last time had left a deep impression on him. He had even cordially invited Lin Haoran to his home, but they hadn’t seen each other since.

At this moment, something clicked in Pao Yue-kong’s mind. He suddenly remembered Lin Haoran’s identity—the young master of the Wan’an Group, Lin Wan’an’s son.

Although in his eyes, Lin Wan’an was merely an ordinary billionaire, and there was still a considerable gap between their statuses, they both lived in Deep Water Bay and were at least nodding acquaintances.

As his gaze swept over the Universal Investment Company sign, ripples of thought spread through Pao Yue-kong’s mind.

Lin Haoran’s appearance made him speculate about the company’s background.

Could it be that Lin Wan’an was really the one behind Universal Investment Company?

Once the thought took root, it grew like a weed, and the possibility seemed increasingly likely.

However, he was immediately beset by doubt.

He knew very well that the Wan’an Group was not particularly strong. How could it have such vast capital to get involved in the battle for Kowloon Wharf shares?

This question swirled in his mind, making him all the more curious about Universal Investment Company.

Chapter 55: Name Your Price

“Uncle Pao, please come in. The hallway isn’t the best place to talk.” Lin Haoran didn’t respond to Pao Yue-kong’s words directly, but instead politely extended an arm in a gesture of invitation, motioning for Pao Yue-kong to enter his office to speak in private.

Pao Yue-kong smiled and nodded. With a hint of curiosity in his step, he walked and asked, “Your father must be in the office right now, isn’t he?”

Hearing this, a gentle smile touched the corners of Lin Haoran’s mouth. “Actually, he’s not, Uncle Pao. Right now, besides my bodyguard waiting outside the door, I’m the only one here handling some business.”

“You’re the only one here?” Pao Yue-kong’s voice carried a trace of surprise, and his steps slowed involuntarily as if he found this information unexpected.

But he quickly adjusted his emotions, nodded in understanding, and continued to follow Lin Haoran into his private office.

After the two were seated, Lin Haoran skillfully began to brew tea, and its fragrance soon filled the office.

He carefully poured a cup for Pao Yue-kong and himself before finally turning his gaze to his guest.

“Uncle Pao, regarding your earlier question, I’d like to be direct with you. Universal Investment Company is actually a business I founded myself. It has no direct connection to my father, Mr. Lin Wan’an. In fact, he still doesn’t even know I’ve established this company,” Lin Haoran explained with a frank smile.

At this moment, Lin Haoran displayed a confidence and composure that belied his age.

He sat opposite Pao Yue-kong, facing the renowned World Shipping Magnate, with not a hint of fear or nervousness in his eyes. Instead, he projected an attitude of conversing as an equal.

Aside from his respect for his elder, it was as if the difference in their status had vanished, leaving only pure dialogue and exchange.

Seeing this, Pao Yue-kong paused with his teacup in hand, a flash of surprise and shock in his eyes.

He gently placed the cup back on the coffee table, his expression full of disbelief. He asked, slightly astonished, “You’re saying you founded this company entirely on your own, and your father knows nothing about it?”

His words betrayed a deep shock. After all, in his view, a major player in the stock market capable of attracting so much attention from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange had to have powerful capital and a complex network behind them. He had originally assumed that the person in control of all this would be a business tycoon like Lin Wan’an.

“That’s right, Uncle Pao,” Lin Haoran replied firmly once more, his gaze unwavering, filled only with confidence and honesty. “This company is my personal enterprise. From its founding to its operations, I’ve handled everything myself. My father truly had no part in it, nor does he know I’ve started such a company.”

Hearing this, a complex mix of emotions welled up in Pao Yue-kong’s heart.

He was both surprised by Lin Haoran’s independence and boldness, and he began to re-evaluate the young man’s capabilities.

After all, to single-handedly control a company that was being watched by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was no simple feat.

“Haoran, I’d like to ask, exactly how many shares of Kowloon Wharf does your Universal Investment Company hold? Can you give me the bottom line?” At this point, Pao Yue-kong could no longer hold back the question.

The very reason he had come here in person was for the Kowloon Wharf shares held by Universal Investment Company.

“Of course, that’s not a problem, Uncle Pao. I currently hold over 1.47 million shares of Kowloon Wharf stock, which accounts for about 1.4% of its total issued shares.” Lin Haoran made no attempt to hide anything and gave him the exact number.

After all, there was no need to be secretive about these things.

Only by letting an industry titan like Pao Yue-kong understand his strength and influence could they further solidify their cooperative relationship.

“What? You actually hold over 1.47 million shares of Kowloon Wharf?!” Upon hearing this, Pao Yue-kong shot up from his seat, his tone laced with disbelief.

Over 1.47 million shares, accounting for about 1.4% of Kowloon Wharf’s total issued stock—in normal times, that would be enough for an invitation to join the Kowloon Wharf Board of Directors.

He knew very well that in the current fierce battle over Kowloon Wharf’s stock, even an industry giant like him could only manage to accumulate two to three hundred thousand shares with great difficulty, despite pouring in ten to twenty million Hong Kong dollars daily.

Although Kowloon Wharf’s stock was extremely active, with daily trading volumes easily exceeding one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, Pao Yue-kong understood that the ten to twenty million his team could spend on stock accumulation was already a considerable sum.

Behind this was a contest between numerous forces.

Besides their own desire for Kowloon Wharf stock, there were formidable opponents like Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, market makers adept at seizing opportunities to profit from price differences, and countless retail investors, each of whose transactions affected the market’s delicate balance.

Simply put, there were too many competitors.

Therefore, Pao Yue-kong’s shock and earnestness were understandable when Lin Haoran revealed that Universal Investment Company held over 1.47 million shares of Kowloon Wharf stock, representing a 1.4% market share.

Over the weekend, he had exhausted his efforts, maneuvering with several of Hong Kong’s major players, to painstakingly gather nearly two million shares of Kowloon Wharf stock.

And now, Lin Haoran had nonchalantly told him that Universal Investment Company alone controlled over 1.47 million shares, 1.4% of the total, which undoubtedly came as a massive shock.

He realized that this young neighbor of his was not as simple as he appeared on the surface.

“Of course. These are the stock certificates we hold for Kowloon Wharf.” Lin Haoran was very forthright, directly taking out the Kowloon Wharf stock he owned.

Looking at the stock certificates before him, Pao Yue-kong was finally convinced.

In his mind, ever since Kowloon Wharf had become the market’s focus, its stock price had soared, leaping from thirty or forty Hong Kong dollars to over seventy, approaching the high of eighty Hong Kong dollars per share.

Even calculating the 1.47 million-plus shares Lin Haoran held at an average price of fifty Hong Kong dollars per share, the capital invested would amount to a staggering sum of over seventy million Hong Kong dollars.

This enormous figure represented real cash flow, not just assets on a balance sheet, and its significance was self-evident.

Although Pao Yue-kong was curious as to how Lin Haoran had raised such a vast amount of capital, he knew some questions were better left unasked. So, he changed the subject and said sincerely, “Haoran, we both know very well that I came here specifically for the Kowloon Wharf stock. Name your price. As long as it’s reasonable, I’m willing to buy all of these shares.”

At this moment, Pao Yue-kong was certain in his heart, completely confident he could successfully acquire these shares.

After all, while they weren’t the closest of friends, they were acquaintances with a certain foundation of trust.

As long as the price he offered was slightly higher than the market price, he was sure Haoran would agree to sell him the shares. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have agreed to this meeting in the first place.

So, Pao Yue-kong looked at Lin Haoran with an expectant gaze, waiting to see what price he would name.

As long as Lin Haoran wasn’t too greedy and didn’t name an exorbitant price, he would readily agree.

Pao Yue-kong didn’t even plan to haggle much.

Chapter 56: Who Exactly Is That Competitor?

“Uncle Pao, let’s get straight to the point. I know you’re interested in this block of Kowloon Wharf shares, and a deal would be a win-win for both of us. I don’t need you to pay a price higher than the market’s. However, I have my own condition. If you could lend me a hand, Uncle Pao, I believe our cooperation will proceed much more smoothly,” Lin Haoran said sincerely.

He knew very well that if he didn’t have this request, there would be no need to arrange this special meeting and waste both their time.

Hearing this, a flicker of understanding crossed Pao Yue-kong’s face. He had already sensed that Lin Haoran’s invitation wasn’t a coincidence and that there must be a purpose behind it. As he expected.

“Haoran, feel free to tell me what’s on your mind. As long as it’s within my power, I will certainly do my utmost to help,” Pao Yue-kong said with a sincere tone.

Pao Yue-kong understood the situation perfectly. Since Lin Haoran was waiting for him with a clear objective, he had little choice but to do his best to help. Otherwise, this deal would likely fall through.

Their so-called friendship was rather flimsy at this moment. Although they were technically neighbors, their past interactions had been few and far between. Two meetings were hardly enough to build a deep personal bond.

Pao Yue-kong understood that in the world of business, everything was built on a foundation of mutual interest.

“Uncle Pao, have you heard of a company called Qingzhou Cement?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Qingzhou Cement? I have a vague impression. Its market capitalization isn’t low, but I don’t know much about the company, other than it being Hong Kong’s largest cement producer.” Pao Yue-kong wasn’t very familiar with it.

After all, his World-Wide Shipping Group’s primary business was in the shipping industry, while Qingzhou Cement dealt more with major property developers. So, it was quite impressive that Pao Yue-kong had any impression of it at all.

One had to understand that there were hundreds of listed companies in Hong Kong at the time. If it weren’t for Qingzhou Cement’s decent market capitalization as a listed enterprise worth two to three hundred million Hong Kong dollars, he, Pao Yue-kong, might not have even remembered it.

“To be honest, Uncle Pao, I’m currently the largest shareholder in Qingzhou Cement, holding over twenty percent of the company’s shares. I’ve just been keeping a low profile and haven’t announced it publicly,” Lin Haoran explained candidly.

“My plan is to gradually gain control of Qingzhou Cement. However, I’ve recently noticed a powerful business tycoon quietly increasing their holdings in the company. Although their current stake isn’t yet a threat, the power behind them puts me under a lot of pressure. I’m afraid my chances of winning this fight alone are slim. Therefore, I’m asking you, Uncle Pao, to intervene and help me persuade this company to drop its acquisition ambitions.”

“You actually hold over twenty percent of Qingzhou Cement’s shares?” Pao Yue-kong couldn’t help but feel deeply shocked upon hearing this.

He quickly calculated in his head. Based on Qingzhou Cement’s current market capitalization of about two hundred and fifty million Hong Kong dollars, that twenty percent stake was already worth fifty million Hong Kong dollars—an unimaginably large sum.

Recalling his earlier astonishment at Lin Haoran possessing over 1.47 million shares of Kowloon Wharf, Pao Yue-kong now realized that this young man’s strength was far greater than it appeared on the surface.

It was as if he had an endless supply of cards up his sleeve. Just when Pao Yue-kong thought he had figured him out, he would always reveal more strength.

Lin Haoran, oh, Lin Haoran, you’re becoming more and more inscrutable, Pao Yue-kong lamented inwardly, feeling as though he knew Lin Haoran less and less.

Based on his shares in these two companies alone, Lin Haoran’s financial power was definitely greater than that of his father, Lin Wan’an.

The young man before him not only possessed a sharp business acumen but also unfathomable strategies and strength.

During his last private conversation with Lin Haoran, Pao Yue-kong had already keenly sensed that this young man was extraordinary.

And now, upon learning that Lin Haoran’s hidden strength far exceeded his imagination, an indescribable shock surged through him.

What moved him even more was that all these achievements belonged to such a young and outstanding individual. The future was undoubtedly filled with infinite possibilities for Lin Haoran.

Pao Yue-kong couldn’t help but take a liking to such a young man. He understood that in the business world, dealing with a partner with such potential and intelligence would be very beneficial for the Pao family’s future.

He had always believed that one more friend meant one more path. His ability to ride the waves of the business world to this day was inseparable from the friends who had supported him at critical moments.

From HSBC Group’s former Taipan, Saunders, and the current Taipan, Michael Sandberg, to Cheung Kong Holdings Group’s Chairman, Li Jiacheng, each one was a valuable business ally. Their help and support were an indispensable force on his road to success.

Now, Lin Haoran’s importance in Pao Yue-kong’s mind had grown even heavier. It was as if he were witnessing the quiet rise of a new business legend.

He was full of anticipation for his future cooperation and dealings with Lin Haoran.

He had no idea that this was, in fact, the full extent of the strength Lin Haoran could display, and that behind it all was a hidden debt burden of up to one hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

“Of course, Uncle Pao, you can have a look. These are some of the Qingzhou Cement stock certificates I hold.” Lin Haoran took out the certificates he had prepared in advance and offered them to Pao Yue-kong.

Since a portion of them were mortgaged at Hang Seng Bank, he naturally couldn’t produce all the Qingzhou Cement stock certificates. All he had for those was the mortgage proof, which wasn’t appropriate to show.

If he wanted Pao Yue-kong’s help, he had to reveal some of his cards. Otherwise, why would the other party believe he was Qingzhou Cement’s major shareholder? It would be awkward if it turned out to be a huge misunderstanding.

Pao Yue-kong didn’t reach out to take the stock certificates Lin Haoran offered. His gaze simply swept over them, and that was enough to convince him that Lin Haoran was telling the truth.

“Haoran, you can put those away,” Pao Yue-kong said with a smile, his tone full of trust in Lin Haoran. “What I want to know now is, who exactly is this competitor you mentioned?”

He knew that persuading a company to abandon an acquisition plan would inevitably cost him a favor.

But considering the Pao family’s urgent need for the Kowloon Wharf shares, as well as his personal admiration and high regard for the talented young Lin Haoran, Pao Yue-kong had already resolved to help with all his might.

Pao Yue-kong believed that in the complex and ever-changing business world of Hong Kong, with the connections and reputation he had built over many years, most people would still give him some face.

“As far as I know, this competitor is none other than the Chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings Group, Mr. Li Jiacheng,” Lin Haoran said bluntly.

“Mr. Li Jiacheng?” Hearing this, Pao Yue-kong’s brows furrowed slightly as he began to deliberate inwardly.

He and Li Jiacheng were not only business partners but also close personal friends.

Not long ago, he had intervened to persuade Li Jiacheng to give up his acquisition of Kowloon Wharf, and he already owed the man a huge favor for that.

Now, Lin Haoran wanted him to step in again and persuade Li Jiacheng to give up his acquisition of Qingzhou Cement. This truly put him in a difficult position.

He understood that in the world of business, a debt of favor was often harder to repay than a monetary one.

“Ah, Haoran, you’ve really given me a difficult problem,” Pao Yue-kong sighed, candidly expressing his predicament. “My friendship with Mr. Li Jiacheng runs deep. I already owe him a favor over the Kowloon Wharf matter. To ask him now to give up on Qingzhou Cement… I’m afraid that wouldn’t be very appropriate.”

Chapter 57: One More Debt of Favor Won’t Hurt

“Uncle Pao, I understand my proposal may put you in a difficult position, but please allow me to speak frankly. Although I am the major shareholder of Qingzhou Cement, I am well aware that facing a business magnate like Mr. Li, it would be incredibly difficult to take full control on my own.

“The Kowloon Wharf shares are, needless to say, of utmost importance to you, Uncle Pao. My actions might seem opportunistic to you and others. But please believe me, business is business. This is merely part of a market strategy aimed at a win-win outcome, not a simple threat.

“The essence of a transaction is that both parties receive the benefits they deserve. If I were to contact Jardine Matheson, I could also sell at a very good price, and perhaps even gain their support, which would make my path to controlling Qingzhou Cement much easier. But I have not contacted Jardine Matheson & Co., because you, Uncle Pao, and I are both people of Chinese-owned enterprises.

“From the moment you started targeting Kowloon Wharf, Uncle Pao, I could see that although the British-funded conglomerates in Hong Kong are still very powerful, I’ve always believed that the rise of Chinese-owned enterprises in Hong Kong and even globally is an inevitable trend. We Chinese entrepreneurs should work hand-in-hand to resist the impact of foreign capital and strengthen our own forces.

“Therefore, I have never considered selling my Kowloon Wharf shares to Jardine Matheson & Co. As my elder, Uncle Pao, I am even more hopeful that you will successfully take over Kowloon Wharf and accomplish this great feat.

“The day you completely defeat Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, Uncle Pao, will be the day, I believe, that Chinese-owned enterprises rise in Hong Kong, and British-owned companies decline!

“I’ve always believed that Chinese-owned enterprises shouldn’t engage in excessive infighting. The many British-owned companies in Hong Kong can all be our acquisition targets. Not just Kowloon Wharf, but also Jardine Matheson, Wheelock, Hutchison & Co., and Swire & Co.—the Four Big Hongs of Hong Kong—can all become acquisition targets for our Chinese-owned enterprises. Through these acquisitions, we can continuously strengthen our enterprises. This could be called a grand feast for us.

“I am well aware that the gap in strength between myself and Mr. Li Jiacheng is immense. However, I set my sights on Qingzhou Cement first, and it has already become a crucial part of my future development plans. Moreover, I am already the major shareholder of Qingzhou Cement.

“Once I sell my Kowloon Wharf shares, to be honest, I will have very substantial capital. Even if it’s not comparable to Cheung Kong Holdings Group, using these funds to gain complete control of Qingzhou Cement before Cheung Kong Holdings Group does shouldn’t be a major problem. I simply don’t wish to go head-to-head with Mr. Li Jiacheng in the stock market like you are with Jardine Matheson, Mr. Pao. That would only lead to a mutually destructive outcome.

“Finally, I want to emphasize that my respect and gratitude for you, Uncle Pao, have never changed. Your wisdom and courage have always been an example for me to learn from. I sincerely hope that we can advance hand-in-hand and contribute our strength to the glorious future of Chinese-owned enterprises.

“As for the Kowloon Wharf shares, I am willing to facilitate the transaction at an opportune time and on terms acceptable to both sides. Before that, I ask for your forbearance, Uncle Pao, and hope you understand my position and considerations.”

Facing the business magnate Pao Yue-kong, Lin Haoran showed great patience and sincerity. His words were both a statement of his own position and something that deeply moved Pao Yue-kong.

Pao Yue-kong listened quietly without immediately stating his position. Instead, he picked up his teacup, took a small sip, his eyes revealing deep contemplation.

Lin Haoran’s words had undoubtedly sent ripples through his heart. He naturally understood these principles, but hearing them from Lin Haoran’s mouth, he felt both surprised and a sense that the future of Chinese-owned enterprises had found a successor.

He was very clear that on the land of Hong Kong, the shadow of British-owned companies had long loomed over Chinese-owned enterprises. Although the latter had made significant progress in recent years, the gap was still too large to be ignored.

The acquisition battle for Kowloon Wharf was a vivid illustration of this reality. If not for the powerful support of HSBC, a giant British-owned institution, his contest with Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land might have been settled long ago, with the Pao family having very little chance of winning.

As a forward-thinking business leader, Pao Yue-kong also clearly recognized that the rise of Chinese-owned enterprises in Hong Kong was an inevitable historical trend, provided that these enterprises were sufficiently united.

Lin Haoran’s words had touched upon this deep-seated belief within him, prompting him to think more deeply about how to promote cooperation and win-win outcomes among Chinese-owned enterprises.

“Haoran, what you’ve said makes a lot of sense. Alright, I promise I will try to persuade Mr. Li Jiacheng to give up on the acquisition of Qingzhou Cement. However, I can’t guarantee that Mr. Li Jiacheng will agree. Whatever the final outcome, I hope that you, Haoran, will not sell your shares to Jardine Matheson or Hongkong Land,” Pao Yue-kong said solemnly.

He very much wanted the Kowloon Wharf shares in Lin Haoran’s possession.

Moreover, he also wanted to help this young man, Lin Haoran.

From their two brief encounters, Pao Yue-kong already understood that Lin Haoran’s future achievements would be no less than his own.

A young man as talented and ambitious as him was truly a rare find in the business world today.

“Please rest assured, Uncle Pao!” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

A smile also appeared on his face.

Because Lin Haoran understood that Pao Yue-kong would definitely be able to persuade Li Jiacheng this time.

Lin Haoran mused to himself that given the friendship between Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng, and Li Ka-shing’s respect for Pao Yue-kong, he was unlikely to reject Pao Yue-kong’s proposal over a company like Qingzhou Cement.

Besides, they hadn’t made any significant, substantive progress on the Qingzhou Cement acquisition yet. For Li Ka-shing, giving up this opportunity was perhaps not an unacceptable decision.

“No time like the present. May I borrow your company’s telephone? It’s still early. I’ll see if Mr. Li Jiacheng is free now. If he is, I’ll speak with him privately tonight.” Pao Yue-kong looked at the time; it was only about half-past eight.

“Please, go ahead, Uncle Pao. Of course, it’s no problem.” Lin Haoran replied with a smile, a flash of understanding in his eyes.

He knew how much Pao Yue-kong valued the Kowloon Wharf shares and the commercial strategy they represented.

Pao Yue-kong’s eagerness to contact Li Jiacheng was obviously driven by the hope of reaching some consensus as soon as possible, thereby ensuring he could smoothly acquire the more than one point four seven million Kowloon Wharf shares from his hands.

For Lin Haoran, he also hoped this matter would be resolved properly and as soon as possible.

Watching Pao Yue-kong step aside to make the call, Lin Haoran remained seated at the coffee table, leisurely sipping his tea.

Before long, Pao Yue-kong put down the receiver.

“I just got in touch with Mr. Li Jiacheng. He’s at home right now. Coincidentally, my home isn’t far from his. I’ll go back to Deep Water Bay and have a detailed talk with him. Wait for my good news,” Pao Yue-kong said with a smile.

Since he had already agreed to help Lin Haoran, he decided to swallow his pride and go see Li Jiacheng. After all, owing one favor was the same as owing two; one more debt of favor wouldn’t hurt.

For him, the primary task at hand was to secure an advantageous position in the escalating acquisition battle for Kowloon Wharf as quickly as possible, to ensure he could gain the upper hand in this business contest.

Chapter 58: Superman Li’s Worries

Pao Yue-kong left in a hurry. After all, the drive back from Central would take him twenty to thirty minutes.

After Pao Yue-kong departed, Lin Haoran first took a shower, then reclined on the sofa with a book, waiting for news.

Before leaving, Pao Yue-kong had told him he would call with the results tonight, success or failure.

He might have to wait two or three hours for the news, so all he could do was wait quietly.

Though he had great faith in Pao Yue-kong’s abilities, everything was merely speculation until a successful outcome was confirmed.

Only when he received Li Jiacheng’s reply could he truly feel at ease.

Regardless, he was unwilling to compete with Li Jiacheng over Green Island Cement the way Pao Yue-kong had competed with Jardine Matheson.

His foundations were still shallow, and he couldn’t afford such a draining struggle.

Meanwhile, Pao Yue-kong had already driven back to his home in Deep Water Bay. Without taking even a moment’s rest, he walked directly over to the Li family villa.

The two villas were not far apart—so close that the silhouette of Li Jiacheng’s residence was clearly visible from the balcony of Pao Yue-kong’s home. This proximity seemed to add a layer of convenience and tacit understanding to their frequent interactions.

“Brother Pao, this late-night visit is quite the pleasant surprise. You must have something urgent to discuss,” Li Jiacheng, who had been waiting outside the villa’s entrance, said with a sincere smile as he hurried forward to greet the approaching Pao Yue-kong.

In this era of constant change, Pao Yue-kong was undoubtedly a leading figure in Hong Kong’s Chinese business community, his prestige and achievements commanding deep respect.

Li Jiacheng’s feelings toward him were a mix of professional reverence and a deep, personal friendship.

“Brother Li, it’s presumptuous of me to visit so late, but there is indeed an urgent matter I must discuss with you,” Pao Yue-kong said with a slight nod, his tone a blend of apology and sincerity. “I know how busy you are, and I truly wouldn’t have disturbed you if it weren’t absolutely necessary.”

As he spoke, Pao Yue-kong couldn’t help but think that his purpose here was putting Li Jiacheng in a difficult position.

But for the sake of the bigger picture, he had to swallow his pride and see this through.

After all, in the turbulent seas of business, a little persistence and courage could often lead to an unexpected breakthrough.

“Come, let’s talk in the study,” Li Jiacheng said with a smile.

The two men visited each other often and were familiar with each other’s homes, so there was no need for formalities.

In a moment, they had entered Li Jiacheng’s book-lined study.

Just as Li Jiacheng was about to get the tea set, Pao Yue-kong gently waved his hand and said with a chuckle, “No need for tea tonight. I’d rather not be tossing and turning in the middle of the night.”

Hearing this, Li Jiacheng paused, a flicker of curiosity in his eyes. He asked warmly, “Brother Pao, what on earth is so important that you had to come discuss it so late at night?”

“Brother Li, have you recently been planning to acquire the Green Island Cement Company in secret?” Pao Yue-kong asked, his tone cautious as he sought to confirm the information.

After all, Li Jiacheng had always been meticulous in his dealings. The leak of this information made Pao Yue-kong suspicious, especially about how Lin Haoran had found out. He wondered if there had been a misunderstanding or miscommunication.

Pao Yue-kong’s question made Li Jiacheng look up abruptly, his eyes filled with shock and confusion.

He looked straight at Pao Yue-kong and said, “Brother Pao, how did you find out about this? It’s true that we’ve been secretly preparing this plan, but the company has maintained strict confidentiality and hasn’t breathed a word to the public. Although things haven’t progressed as smoothly as expected, this is undoubtedly a vital part of our Cheung Kong Holdings Group’s strategic blueprint.”

A hint of bewilderment and concern crept into Li Jiacheng’s voice. All his plans were executed with extreme caution, and only the most trusted members of the group were involved.

He began to mentally review every detail, trying to pinpoint a potential source of the leak, but after much thought, he still couldn’t identify any individual who might be responsible.

“Have you been quietly trying to accumulate Green Island Cement’s shares on the stock market, but with little success?” Pao Yue-kong continued, not directly answering Li Jiacheng’s question but instead elaborating on his reason for coming.

“That’s right,” Li Jiacheng nodded, a touch of frustration in his voice. “There are very few shares for sale on the market, but the buy orders keep flooding in, making it difficult for us to effectively increase our shareholding. I’ve been monitoring the situation and was planning to change tactics soon and approach Green Island Cement’s shareholders directly.”

“Brother Li, I’ve come tonight to ask you for a favor—to ask you to consider abandoning your plans to acquire Green Island Cement. I know this is a difficult request, and if you agree, I can compensate you in other ways.”

“Furthermore, I’m aware that although you have substantial financial strength, acquiring Green Island Cement is now virtually impossible. Someone else began to make their move on the company long before you did.”

“They currently hold a considerable number of shares and have already secretly become Green Island Cement’s largest shareholder. This is why you’ve been unable to acquire many shares from the stock market. More importantly, this player behind the scenes also possesses formidable financial power.”

“It’s as if he knows your every move. If you insist on getting involved, I’m afraid it will only trigger a fierce battle for control, and the most likely result is a mutually destructive outcome for both sides,” Pao Yue-kong said gravely.

Hearing this, Li Jiacheng’s expression instantly turned serious, an unmistakable shock flashing in his eyes.

He muttered in disbelief, “So someone has already beaten me to it and secured the upper hand.”

In that moment, Li Jiacheng had a sudden realization. The obstacles they had encountered on the stock market were not due to simple market fluctuations but were the result of a more complex and powerful force manipulating things from behind the scenes.

“How did he find out about our strategic plans?” The question weighed on his mind like a great stone, becoming the most urgent mystery he needed to solve.

A chill ran down Li Jiacheng’s spine. His greatest fear was that there was a traitor within his team.

It was not just a breach of trust but also a massive threat to his future plans.

He understood that if any of his secret plans were leaked, they would be reduced to nothing, becoming a laughingstock for his rivals.

Therefore, Li Jiacheng resolved to get to the bottom of this and find out how his action plan had been exposed.

He couldn’t ignore this uncertainty and the feeling of potential betrayal.

“On that point, I truly have no idea,” Pao Yue-kong replied, a hint of helplessness in his voice. “But if you really want an answer, Brother Li, I can try to arrange a meeting for you two. You can ask him directly then. Coincidentally, he’s actually a neighbor of ours.” As he said this, a wry smile touched the corner of Pao Yue-kong’s lips.

Both of them held significant standing in Hong Kong’s business world; even when facing the massive British-owned companies, they could handle themselves with skill and ease.

Yet this young man named Lin Haoran had, in a way that defied all their expectations, repeatedly left them in a state of shock.

Chapter 59: A Note on Going Premium

I suddenly received a notice from my editor that the book will be going premium at midnight tonight, so I’d like to start by asking for your first-day subscriptions!

As a new author, I know I still have many shortcomings. I’ve learned a lot along the way, and I’m grateful for everyone’s tolerance and companionship up to this point.

I won’t say much else. When it goes premium at midnight tonight, I will release five chapters at once. If the first-day subscriptions break five hundred, I will release an additional chapter that day to show my gratitude.

Future update plan: A guaranteed six thousand words daily, possibly reaching ten thousand when the plot is flowing smoothly. Good results are a source of motivation, and they will definitely inspire more creative passion.

Perhaps business fiction is a rather niche genre. The growth in my collection count has always been slow, having just broken three thousand. As a newcomer, I don’t have the kind of fanbase that established authors do, and I didn’t get a trial recommendation feature until the book reached one hundred thousand words, which is a real shame.

However, the number of consistent readers has been rising steadily. Furthermore, I just received a site message today that we’ve successfully skipped the second round and advanced to the third round of recommendations. I want to thank everyone again for all your support along the way.

I’ve been thinking about setting up a reader group where everyone can freely discuss the plot and other things. However, I’m worried about a lack of response, which would be a bit awkward. So, I’ll have to shelve this plan for now and maybe create one when the book does better. If anyone is interested in joining, feel free to leave a message in the comment section. We can still shoot the breeze and play a few rounds of Honor of Kings or something.

Those of you who have followed the story this far are all loyal fans. First-day subscriptions are very important, so please, I’m asking for your support, your support, your support~

Lastly, I’d like to ask for your monthly passes. As for tips, that’s up to you, but large tips will definitely be met with bonus chapters~

…

Going premium at 12 AM tonight. Please give me your support~

Chapter 60: What’s the Harm in Meeting?

“Our neighbor, which means he also lives in Deep Water Bay?” Li Jiacheng quickly ran through the possibilities in his mind.

Deep Water Bay, a high-end residential area, had few residents—only a few dozen households—but all of them were prominent figures in Hong Kong’s business world. He was confident he knew most of them.

However, after careful thought, he still couldn’t immediately place the neighbor Pao Yue-kong was describing who fit the specific criteria.

“Brother Li, you’ll know when you meet him. You would never guess!” Pao Yue-kong said with a mysterious smile.

Recalling his own surprise when he first learned of the matter, Pao Yue-kong couldn’t help but smile faintly. The memory of that sudden shock was still fresh.

“Brother Pao, I can agree to drop the acquisition plan for Green Island Cement. But right now, my biggest question is how the information was leaked. To solve this mystery, please arrange a meeting with that neighbor for me as soon as possible,” Li Jiacheng finally replied after careful consideration.

He had ultimately decided to abandon the acquisition of Green Island Cement, a decision backed by multiple well-thought-out considerations.

The primary reason was to maintain his friendly relationship with Pao Yue-kong and to give him the proper respect and face.

After all, his ability to successfully take over Hutchison Whampoa in the future would largely depend on Pao Yue-kong’s staunch support and cooperation.

Secondly, Pao Yue-kong’s clear stance made him realize that the chances of successfully acquiring Green Island Cement were minimal.

Li Jiacheng knew Pao Yue-kong’s character well; such a judgment wouldn’t have been made lightly. It must have been based on in-depth analysis and factual evidence. Therefore, continuing to waste time and energy on this matter seemed neither wise nor cost-effective.

Furthermore, looking at their current holdings, Cheung Kong Holdings Group’s stake in Green Island Cement was not high. They had only been making tentative purchases since entering the market. Even if they chose to pull out, the impact on the company’s overall strategy and financial situation would be negligible. Such a decision was undoubtedly rational.

Most critically, he was extremely concerned about the source of the leak.

How the other party had learned of Cheung Kong Holdings’ interest in Green Island Cement was a mystery that weighed on his mind like a giant stone, and he couldn’t let it go.

Only by uncovering the truth would he be able to sleep peacefully at night; otherwise, he probably wouldn’t be able to sleep at all.

Finally, he was unwilling to pour precious resources into a company with such slim acquisition prospects.

On the fertile business landscape of Hong Kong, there were numerous high-quality British-owned companies. He was both capable and willing to explore more promising investment opportunities rather than being confined to a single corner.

The chessboard of business is always full of variables, demanding flexibility and profound insight.

It was this wisdom—this refusal to be bound by fixed patterns and the courage to adjust his strategy—that had made Li Jiacheng who he was today.

Were it not for this, he might not have been able to ride the waves of the business world to achieve such brilliant success.

When he learned that Li Jiacheng had decided to drop the acquisition of Green Island Cement, Pao Yue-kong felt a wave of relief and ease wash over him.

He had achieved his goal for this meeting. It had not been a wasted trip.

For Pao Yue-kong, this decision also meant he was about to receive more than one million four hundred and seventy thousand shares of Kowloon Wharf from Lin Haoran. This would undoubtedly strengthen his position immensely, once again shifting the competitive landscape with the Jardine Matheson Group in his favor and further widening the gap.

At this thought, a satisfied smile blossomed on Pao Yue-kong’s face—a smile born from the anticipation of future success and victory, as well as from his appreciation and gratitude for Li Jiacheng’s wise choice.

“Brother Li, please rest assured. I will call him as soon as I get home and be sure to arrange a suitable meeting time for you. His company is in Central, just a stone’s throw from your headquarters. How about tomorrow afternoon or evening? Which time would be more convenient for you?” Pao Yue-kong said, his face alight with joy and his words brimming with cheer.

“In that case, let’s tentatively set it for tomorrow afternoon,” Li Jiacheng replied briskly after a moment’s thought.

“Very well, Brother Li. I’ll go back and call him right away, and I’ll get back to you as soon as it’s confirmed. I won’t disturb your rest any longer. My apologies for the intrusion tonight. I look forward to speaking with you again soon,” Pao Yue-kong said with a smile as he stood up to take his leave.

By now, the night was deep, and the clock hands were pointing quietly to ten o’clock.

With a light heart and a sense of anticipation, Pao Yue-kong began his journey home.

Upon returning, he barely had time to greet his wife. With the important matter still on his mind, he hurried into his study, lightly tapped the buttons on the phone, and dialed the number Lin Haoran had given him.

Hearing the phone ring, Lin Haoran put down his book and walked briskly over to it.

“Haoran, I have good news for you. I’ve successfully persuaded Mr. Li Jiacheng to drop the acquisition of Green Island Cement,” a cheerful voice came through the receiver into Lin Haoran’s ear.

“Uncle Pao, thank you so much! To show my gratitude, I will sell you all the Kowloon Wharf shares I own!” Hearing Pao Yue-kong’s response, the great weight in Lin Haoran’s heart was finally lifted.

Although deep down he had always had faith in Pao Yue-kong’s abilities, knowing that with him personally handling it, the matter would surely be resolved.

But until that confirmation arrived, a lingering anxiety had followed him like a shadow, making it impossible to fully relax.

Now, with Pao Yue-kong’s confirmation, Lin Haoran could finally put his mind completely at ease.

Without competition from Li Jiacheng, control over Green Island Cement seemed to be within his grasp. With a little more time, he could easily secure it.

“However, there is one thing I need you to agree to. Mr. Li Jiacheng wishes to meet you in person. He has something he wants to ask you,” Pao Yue-kong continued.

“Uncle Pao, can you tell me what it is about?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Mr. Li Jiacheng wants to know how you knew their Cheung Kong Holdings Group would target Green Island Cement,” Pao Yue-kong said frankly.

“Alright, Uncle Pao, thank you for letting me know. I agree to meet with Mr. Li. When would he like to meet?” Like Pao Yue-kong, Lin Haoran was also in a very cheerful mood.

“Tomorrow afternoon,” Pao Yue-kong replied.

“Then let’s make it five o’clock tomorrow afternoon. We can meet at the Juquande Teahouse downstairs,” Lin Haoran said after a moment of thought.

At that time, the stock market would have already closed for the day, so he would be free.

“Good. I’ll inform Mr. Li Jiacheng shortly. By the way, Haoran, about those shares you have—how about we complete the transaction tomorrow morning? As for the acquisition price, we’ll use today’s final closing price. Is that a problem for you?” Pao Yue-kong continued.

“No problem at all. Let’s trade at that price!” Lin Haoran readily agreed.

To him, since Li Jiacheng was dropping the bid for Green Island Cement, what was the harm in meeting the man?

As for the Kowloon Wharf shares, he was already very satisfied with the current price of over seventy Hong Kong dollars per share. Moreover, Pao Yue-kong had solved a difficult problem for him, so he certainly wasn’t going to raise the price.

Chapter 61: A Huge Profit of Seventy Million!

After receiving Pao Yue-kong’s message, a weight was finally lifted from Lin Haoran’s shoulders, and he went to rest with a peaceful mind.

Time flew by, and the night passed in a flash.

In the morning, not long after Lin Haoran had returned from breakfast with his two bodyguards, Pao Yue-kong unexpectedly paid another visit.

It was just a little after eight in the morning.

“Uncle Pao, what brings you here so early?” Lin Haoran asked, quite surprised.

“Haoran, I’m just eager to complete the Kowloon Wharf stock transaction with you!” Pao Yue-kong said with a calm smile, showing no trace of awkwardness.

To prevent any unexpected surges in Kowloon Wharf’s stock price after the market opened, Pao Yue-kong had decided to bring his people over to close the deal with Lin Haoran before the market opened. He wanted to secure the more than 1.47 million shares of Kowloon Wharf stock for himself as soon as possible, to avoid any surprises.

“Uncle Pao, you can rest assured. When I, Lin Haoran, make a promise, I never break it. But since you’re in such a hurry, Uncle Pao, I’ll transfer the shares to you right now,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

As for the price, they had already agreed on it the previous night. They had decided to use yesterday’s closing stock price as the transaction price, so there was no need for further negotiation.

Lin Haoran currently held a total of 1,478,000 shares of Kowloon Wharf stock, and yesterday’s final closing price was pegged at 75.53 Hong Kong dollars per share.

Based on this price, Lin Haoran’s transaction would yield a staggering 111.63 million Hong Kong dollars—that’s over one hundred and eleven million Hong Kong dollars!

Looking back at his initial investment, Lin Haoran had only spent 40.94 million Hong Kong dollars on Kowloon Wharf stock, which meant his total net profit from this single transaction reached a jaw-dropping 70.69 million Hong Kong dollars.

Even after accounting for taxes, fees, and other expenses, Lin Haoran could still count on a net profit of over seventy million Hong Kong dollars.

In just over a month, he had used forty million in capital to achieve such astonishing wealth growth. Even Lin Haoran himself marveled at this extraordinary return on investment—it was simply incredible.

As of today, before the stock market opened, and including the roughly seven million Hong Kong dollars he had remaining, his total available funds had reached a massive one hundred and eighteen million Hong Kong dollars.

His initial investment, apart from his own capital of over one million Hong Kong dollars and the five million he later received from his two older sisters, was mostly raised through loans. Thus, he was carrying a debt of one hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

However, as of today, he held firm control over more than one hundred million Hong Kong dollars in cash flow.

This meant he was fully capable of paying off this enormous debt immediately!

Even more excitingly, after clearing his debts, he would still have over eighteen million Hong Kong dollars in reserve.

Furthermore, he still held 10,490,000 shares of Green Island Cement!

Even at a conservative valuation of five Hong Kong dollars per share, these stocks were worth over fifty million Hong Kong dollars, adding another significant stroke to his financial landscape.

Lin Haoran couldn’t help but sigh with emotion. The speed at which money flowed and appreciated in the capital market was truly beyond imagination!

Of course, he was also keenly aware that while his current funds were an astronomical sum to the average person, they were merely a drop in the ocean to the top financial conglomerates in Hong Kong.

Therefore, he did not plan to rush into repaying his debts. Instead, he intended to use these funds as leverage to continue making waves in the capital market and earn even greater wealth.

After all, he had already secured his first pot of gold, but the real challenge was just beginning.

The debt of over fifty million Hong Kong dollars to Bumiputra Finance still had more than ten months before it was due, providing him with an ample buffer.

As for the debt of over forty-five million Hong Kong dollars to Hang Seng Bank, its repayment term was nearly two years, giving Lin Haoran even more flexibility in his financial operations.

No rush, not at all!

After signing the stock transfer agreement, Pao Yue-kong’s face finally showed a look of relief.

He stood up and said to Lin Haoran with a smile, “Haoran, rest assured, I will immediately arrange for the finance department to transfer the funds to you as soon as possible. I guarantee the money will be safely in your account before noon.”

“Of course, I trust in your character, Uncle Pao!” Lin Haoran wasn’t worried. Even without a guarantor, he wasn’t flustered at all. With the contract in hand, and considering Pao Yue-kong’s reputation, it was impossible that he would tarnish his name just to delay a payment of over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Not long after Pao Yue-kong and his group left, the employees began to arrive at the company for work.

At nine in the morning sharp, Lin Haoran held a brief meeting as usual.

“Everyone, I have an important decision to announce. From this moment on, we will focus all our energy on the Green Island Cement stock operations. We can moderately push up its stock price to stimulate trading activity, but it must be kept below six Hong Kong dollars per share. I want you to significantly speed up the rate of our stock accumulation for Green Island Cement. Zhixue, you will take charge of the trading operations. As for Kowloon Wharf, from today onward, we no longer need to pay it much attention!” Lin Haoran said in a solemn tone, his gaze serious as he addressed Su Zhixue, Dai Shi, and the other three.

At this moment, he was full of confidence and financially strong. Furthermore, with Li Jiacheng having already made it clear that he was abandoning his bid for Green Island Cement, acquiring the company was now as easy as taking something from his own pocket. Therefore, they had to speed up their actions.

“Understood, President Lin!” the five of them replied in unison.

They didn’t need to ask why they were reducing their focus on Kowloon Wharf. They understood that in this game of chess, every move was meticulously planned by the decision-maker, Lin Haoran. All they had to do was faithfully execute his orders and play their parts.

“Alright, everyone get back to your work,” Lin Haoran said with a gentle wave of his hand, signaling them to return to their posts. Then, his gaze shifted to Su Zhixue. “Zhixue, please come to my office with me,” he said softly.

“Yes, President Lin!” Su Zhixue responded.

Sitting in his chair, Lin Haoran looked at Su Zhixue, who was standing in front of his desk.

“Zhixue, how is your son’s recovery going?”

“President Lin, thank you for asking. I took him for a check-up last Saturday, and there are no more issues. All he needs now is proper nutrition to help him regain his weight.” Seeing his boss show such concern for his son, Su Zhixue was deeply moved, a warm feeling spreading through his heart.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran smiled with satisfaction. “That’s good. I’m very happy to hear that. Zhixue, after this period of careful observation and testing, I’ve come to deeply appreciate your outstanding ability and sense of responsibility. Therefore, I’ve decided to appoint you as the Deputy General Manager of Universal Investment Company. Your base salary will be doubled. I hope you won’t let down my expectations.”

Su Zhixue’s loyalty was at one hundred percent. Such a rare and valuable quality would be a huge waste if not cultivated and put to use in a management role.

The company was still in its growth phase. Although it was small, this was the perfect time for him to start adapting to and taking on a management position.

Chapter 62: Alerting HSBC’s Tai-pan, Michael Sandberg

Under Su Zhixue’s leadership, the team had achieved remarkable success lately, completing every task exceptionally well.

Therefore, his opportunity for a promotion and a raise was not only well-deserved but also the best affirmation of his hard work.

“Thank you, President Lin. Your trust and support are what drive me forward. I will never let you down!” Su Zhixue couldn’t hide his excitement, his gratitude for Lin Haoran overflowing.

Thinking back to over a month ago, Su Zhixue had been just an ordinary trader at Wan’an Group, almost crushed by the weight of life’s pressures.

He had felt especially powerless when his son fell seriously ill, facing exorbitant surgery fees.

However, Lin Haoran’s timely appearance had been like a light in the darkness. He not only helped his son undergo surgery successfully but also turned his life around, gradually setting it back on the right track.

At the current rate, Su Zhixue was confident that he could pay back the two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollar loan Lin Haoran had generously given him within the next year.

This kindness was etched in his heart, fueling his determination to work hard.

“Keep up the good work. I believe you can do even better!” Lin Haoran patted Su Zhixue’s shoulder lightly, saying no more.

A little after ten in the morning, Lin Haoran received another call from Pao Yue-kong.

On the phone, Pao Yue-kong informed him that the payment for the Kowloon Wharf shares had been transferred to his HSBC account and was available for him to check at any time.

A sum of over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars was no small amount.

Upon hearing the news, even Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement.

If Pao Yue-kong said the money had arrived, it certainly had. Still, he planned to go out and check at noon. After all, the Hang Fung Building wasn’t far from the nearby HSBC, which also happened to be its main branch.

With the trading team going all out on the stock accumulation of Green Island Cement, and with Li Ka-shing’s side having promised Pao Yue-kong they would abandon their acquisition plan for the company, their team’s accumulation speed had, as expected, increased significantly.

Under Su Zhixue’s meticulous planning and leadership, the Green Island Cement stock market seemed to have been instantly energized. The number of pending orders surged, and market activity rose remarkably.

Without the interference from Li Jiacheng’s team, their trading had become much smoother.

At this rate, today’s operations in Green Island Cement shares would undoubtedly yield a substantial volume.

Although the Kowloon Wharf stock was no longer connected to Lin Haoran as of today, he still paid some attention to it.

The Kowloon Wharf stock market remained bustling with frequent trades that morning.

However, because the market generally expected that neither Pao Yue-kong nor Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land intended to push the stock price above seventy-five Hong Kong dollars, but rather maintain it around that level, the price hovered steadily in the low seventies.

Sell orders continued to pour in. For many ordinary investors who had originally held Kowloon Wharf shares, a price of over seventy Hong Kong dollars per share was already prohibitively high.

With no signs of further increases, many decided to cash in their profits, selling off the shares they held.

In the blink of an eye, the morning trading session came to a close.

In the afternoon, Lin Haoran had a quick meal at the office before leaving the building with two bodyguards, heading for the HSBC Main Building, also located in the bustling district of Central.

Standing at the base of the HSBC Main Building, Lin Haoran looked up at the historic, albeit understated, structure.

Construction of the building began in October 1935. With thirteen floors and a total height of seventy meters, it was the third-generation landmark for HSBC’s headquarters. While not obtrusive among the towering skyscrapers of Central, it possessed a dignified and solemn air of its own.

Despite its unassuming appearance, the HSBC Main Building’s status in the financial world was unshakeable. It was not only the leader of Hong Kong’s financial sector but also the embodiment of the dreams and glory of countless finance professionals.

In front of the building stood two majestic bronze lions. They were more than just decorations; they symbolized HSBC’s role as a guardian of wealth and its steady advance, hailed as the “treasures that guard the bank.”

Lin Haoran walked straight into the bank lobby. It was probably lunchtime, as there were not many customers, and only two teller windows were open.

“Could you please check my account balance for me?” He approached an empty window, sliding his gold bank card through the slot with a smile.

The history of bank cards in Hong Kong could be traced back to the 1970s, a time when the city was rising as a financial hub in Asia.

As the leader of Hong Kong’s financial industry, HSBC had naturally popularized bank cards among its high-end clients.

Upon seeing the gold bank card, a flash of respect appeared in the female teller’s eyes, and her attitude immediately became more humble and respectful. “Of course, Mr. Please wait a moment.”

A few minutes later, the female teller smiled apologetically at Lin Haoran and said, “I’m very sorry, sir, but I’m unable to check your account balance due to my access limitations. But please rest assured, I have already arranged for a senior client manager to assist you.”

“Hmm, no rush,” Lin Haoran replied, maintaining his gentle smile, appearing perfectly composed.

Soon, a capable-looking middle-aged woman in a pantsuit walked briskly over to Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Lin, hello! I am Huang Yulan, a senior client manager at HSBC. It is my pleasure to be of service to you. Please, follow me. We can speak in the VIP office.”

Entering the elegantly decorated VIP area on the first floor, Huang Yulan’s service was even more attentive and meticulous than that of the regular teller.

Her words were gentle and her mannerisms proper, making Lin Haoran feel an unprecedented sense of comfort and respect.

Finally, Lin Haoran was able to check his balance. Pao Yue-kong’s sum of over one hundred and ten million Hong Kong dollars had indeed arrived.

With the funds confirmed, Lin Haoran felt at ease.

Just as Lin Haoran and his bodyguards were preparing to leave the bank, the senior client manager, Huang Yulan, rushed out of her office after ending an urgent phone call, catching up to him in just a few quick strides.

“Mr. Lin, please wait a moment.” Her voice was urgent yet polite.

Lin Haoran stopped and turned, a hint of curiosity on his face. “Manager Huang, is there something else I can help you with?”

“It’s like this, Mr. Lin. Mr. Michael Sandberg, the Tai-pan of HSBC, would like to have the opportunity to meet with you. I was wondering if you might have the time?”

She explained that she had just received a direct instruction from Mr. Sandberg and had come specifically to invite Lin Haoran.

This sudden invitation clearly took Lin Haoran by surprise.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg?” Lin Haoran repeated the name softly, his heart stirring.

He quickly realized that his recent transaction had undoubtedly been reported up the chain. To a financial institution, an account with a deposit of over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars made him a top-tier client. Moreover, the funds came from a giant of Hong Kong’s business world, Mr. Pao Yue-kong, making the source legitimate.

Thinking this, everything became clear to Lin Haoran.

As the Tai-pan of HSBC, Mr. Michael Sandberg would naturally be curious about and place great importance on a client with such enormous funds and a profound background. He would also want to establish a relationship.

Therefore, the invitation to meet seemed perfectly reasonable.

Chapter 63: This Young Man is No Simple Character!

“Of course, I’d be delighted to meet with Mr. Sandberg,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

In a bustling place like Hong Kong, Michael Sandberg was undoubtedly an influential figure who could not be easily offended.

As the helmsman of the financial behemoth that was the HSBC Group, he not only controlled a vast economic artery, but his influence was so profound that even the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Murray MacLehose, treated him with great respect and courtesy.

If Lin Haoran wanted to establish himself in Hong Kong, he naturally couldn’t afford to offend him.

At the very least, although the current Lin Haoran had already amassed some assets, he didn’t yet have the power to offend such a tycoon.

In the future, when Lin Haoran’s power grew and he began to make moves against the great British-funded conglomerates, he would also need HSBC’s support.

Otherwise, even if his financial resources were abundant and far surpassed those of the British-funded conglomerates, trying to easily acquire these deeply-rooted British corporations without HSBC’s support would be nothing short of a fool’s dream.

To think that money alone could sweep away everything?

That would be far too naive.

As long as the foreign firms had the support of the Hong Kong British government, a simple shift in policy direction would be enough to turn his acquisition plans into dust.

However, once he secured the support of a powerful backer like HSBC, the situation would be entirely different.

Look at the classic cases from Lin Haoran’s memories of his past life: why was Pao Yue-kong able to successfully take control of Kowloon Wharf? And how did Li Jiacheng so easily bring Hutchison Whampoa under his banner?

Wasn’t it all because they had the behemoth HSBC backing them!

Behind it all, the immense influence and power of HSBC were unmistakable.

It was precisely with HSBC’s staunch support that they were able to ride the wind and cleave the waves in the sea of commerce to build their empires.

Therefore, Lin Haoran very much hoped to gain HSBC’s support, which would allow him to establish himself more smoothly in Hong Kong.

Mr. Sandberg’s invitation this time undoubtedly provided him with a valuable opportunity to build a relationship and deepen cooperation with HSBC.

Under Manager Huang’s attentive guidance, the two took an elevator and quickly arrived at the seventh floor of the building.

As for the brothers Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, they remained in the lobby’s waiting area.

Inside the HSBC headquarters building, there was naturally no need to worry about his safety.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Sandberg is in here.” After exiting the elevator, Manager Huang pointed to an office door ahead and said.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly and followed her.

“Taipan, I’ve brought Mr. Lin,” Manager Huang said to the person inside as she knocked on the door.

“Come in!” A gentle yet firm voice came from within the office.

Manager Huang first opened the door for Lin Haoran, then bowed slightly and respectfully withdrew.

Within the HSBC Group, Michael Sandberg’s influence was immense. Mid-level cadres like Manager Huang were naturally exceedingly respectful toward him.

Lin Haoran walked into the office. Mr. Sandberg, who had been seated, had already stood up to greet him.

Seeing how young Lin Haoran was, he was visibly stunned for a moment, but quickly broke into a warm smile.

“Mr. Lin, I didn’t expect you to be so young. It’s truly a surprise!” Michael Sandberg said with a smile as he shook Lin Haoran’s hand.

Over fifty years old, Michael Sandberg showed no signs of age. On the contrary, he had a healthy glow and was hale and hearty.

As the head of the HSBC Group, Sandberg naturally exuded a formidable aura of authority. His presence was powerful and steady.

Yet, in the face of such a man, Lin Haoran showed no signs of nervousness. Instead, he maintained a calm and unhurried demeanor, displaying his composure and confidence.

“Mr. Sandberg, a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for having me,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, offering a polite greeting.

“Mr. Lin, please have a seat over here,” Michael Sandberg said, gesturing toward a comfortable sofa in the office.

Lin Haoran gladly accepted and walked to the sofa with Sandberg. The two sat facing each other in a harmonious atmosphere.

“Mr. Lin, are you from Southeast Asia? I don’t believe I’ve heard of you in Hong Kong,” Sandberg asked curiously after they sat down.

At this moment, he was actually even more surprised on the inside, because Lin Haoran was simply too young.

To have control over such a massive sum of money at this age, he figured it must have been given to him by family elders. A powerful family must be standing behind him.

He knew that with Hong Kong’s booming economy, many wealthy Chinese from Southeast Asia chose to invest and start businesses here.

HSBC was known for its powerful intelligence network, but without a special reason, Sandberg wouldn’t casually expend resources to investigate a single individual. Thus, it was normal that he didn’t know about Lin Haoran’s situation.

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran shook his head lightly and said with a smile, “No, Mr. Sandberg, I’m actually a Hong Kong native, born and raised. You might have heard of my father’s name; he is Lin Wan’an, the Chairman of the Wan’an Group.”

“Lin Wan’an?” Mr. Sandberg pondered for a moment before the name finally surfaced in his memory.

To be sure, although the Lin family had entered the ranks of the wealthy, in the eyes of top-tier conglomerates, a minor wealthy family like the Lins was still on the periphery. Sandberg had not had much interaction with him, so his knowledge was not deep.

Michael Sandberg frowned slightly, his tone carrying a hint of inquiry. “As far as I know, the Wan’an Group isn’t particularly large in scale. So, Mr. Lin, you…?”

Considering the Wan’an Group’s current financial situation, it would clearly be difficult to raise such a massive amount of capital easily, unless it was through a bank loan.

However, since the funds were transferred directly from Mr. Pao Yue-kong, it was obviously not from a bank loan but from some kind of deal reached with Pao Yue-kong.

Although Hang Seng Bank was now under the HSBC umbrella, the two still maintained relative independence in their business operations.

Therefore, unless there was a specific reason or need, Ho Sin Hang, as the manager of Hang Seng Bank, was unlikely to specifically report Lin Haoran’s two loans—a matter of Hang Seng Bank’s business—to Mr. Sandberg.

Lin Haoran understood the unspoken question, realizing Sandberg was asking how he came to possess a sum exceeding one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. He explained with a smile, “Mr. Sandberg, my wealth was accumulated bit by bit through my own efforts and is not directly related to my family background. Of course, in the process of starting my own ventures, I did leverage some of my father’s connections, but he isn’t fully aware of my specific financial situation.”

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Sandberg showed no change in expression, but inwardly he was utterly shocked.

There were many tycoons in Hong Kong worth hundreds of millions, but the vast majority had built their fortunes through years, or even decades, of hard work.

But the young man before him looked to be under twenty-five. At such an age, he should have just graduated not long ago. To have already built a fortune in the hundreds of millions at such a young age?

Sandberg didn’t know that Lin Haoran also held a significant number of Green Island Cement shares, enough to make him a major shareholder. Otherwise, he would have been even more shocked.

A sum of over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars was not a huge deal to Sandberg; what surprised him was Lin Haoran’s youth.

This young man before me is no simple character!

Chapter 64: Michael Sandberg’s Approval

Faced with the young talent before him, Mr. Michael Sandberg couldn’t help but feel a surge of profound interest.

To have accumulated such immense wealth at such a young age was undeniable proof that he was an outstanding business prodigy.

And he, Michael Sandberg, most enjoyed dealing with these talented Chinese business geniuses.

After all, HSBC was based in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong’s population was predominantly Chinese.

In recent years, although some British-owned companies had shown anxiety about Hong Kong’s future and were formulating plans to withdraw and return to their homeland, HSBC had remained steadfast.

The reason was that its core business was inextricably linked to Hong Kong’s economic lifeline; withdrawal was simply not an option. It was clear that HSBC was already destined to be tied to Hong Kong.

Although HSBC was now also seeking to expand globally, that was not something that could be achieved overnight.

Therefore, Michael Sandberg, as the HSBC Tai-pan, as well as his predecessor Saunders, had come to the idea of cultivating Chinese allies in Hong Kong.

Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng were both Chinese entrepreneurs he held in high regard.

Pao Yue-kong, hailed as the World Shipping Magnate, could not have achieved his glorious success without the support and nurturing of HSBC.

One might say that HSBC was the solid backing for Pao Yue-kong’s soaring career. Without HSBC’s help, the legend of today’s Shipping Magnate Pao would hardly exist.

As for Li Jiacheng, although his current standing was still somewhat short of Pao Yue-kong’s, Mr. Michael Sandberg firmly believed that with the right stage and opportunities, Li Ka-shing’s future achievements would be limitless. His potential was in no way inferior to Pao Yue-kong’s.

At that moment, Mr. Michael Sandberg’s gaze focused once more on the young talent, Lin Haoran.

What Michael Sandberg admired most about Lin Haoran was his maturity and boldness, which far surpassed his years.

The ability to build an enterprise at such a tender age, without relying on family and solely through his own efforts, was in itself a testament to rare courage and capability.

If everything was truly as Lin Haoran presented it, Michael Sandberg was convinced that the young man not only possessed extraordinary daring but also had the exceptional ability required to achieve even grander goals. Though he was unknown for now, his future accomplishments would surely be significant.

However, Michael Sandberg knew well that it was difficult to fully judge a person’s capability and potential based on their words alone.

Thus, with a gentle yet wise smile, he posed a rather profound question to Lin Haoran: “Mr. Lin, why don’t we delve deeper into the current state of Hong Kong’s business world? Regarding the fierce competition between Hongkong Land and Mr. Pao Yue-kong over Kowloon Wharf, what are your thoughts? Who do you think will ultimately emerge victorious?”

Although Lin Haoran grumbled to himself that these business tycoons always seemed to love testing others’ wisdom and insight with questions—first Pao Yue-kong, and now Michael Sandberg—he also quickly realized that this was an excellent opportunity to showcase his own views and abilities.

So, he gathered his thoughts, preparing to leave a deep impression on Michael Sandberg with a thorough and insightful analysis.

“Currently, the state of the battle for Kowloon Wharf remains unclear. Both Mr. Pao Yue-kong and Jardine Matheson & Co. have poured vast sums of money into the fight, striving to control this important asset.

However, I am more inclined to believe that the ultimate victor will be Mr. Pao Yue-kong, based on several key considerations. Please allow me to elaborate, Mr. Michael Sandberg:

Firstly, Mr. Pao Yue-kong possesses formidable financial strength and has established deep cooperative relationships with many of Hong Kong’s financial institutions, especially HSBC. This close relationship ensures that he can secure immense financial support at critical moments, providing a solid foundation for his acquisition efforts.

Secondly, Mr. Pao Yue-kong has successfully acquired the Kowloon Wharf shares held by Mr. Li Jiacheng, becoming the company’s largest shareholder in one fell swoop. This strategic move not only solidified his position but also gave him a significant inherent advantage, placing him in a favorable spot for the rest of the competition.

Furthermore, Jardine Matheson & Co. has been focused on expanding into overseas markets in recent years, while Hongkong Land is also heavily invested in constructing commercial buildings in Central. Both of these ventures have consumed substantial capital. In comparison, Jardine Matheson’s liquidity is likely tighter at this stage, making it difficult for them to sustain high-intensity investment in the battle for Kowloon Wharf.

Additionally, if Mr. Pao Yue-kong decides to adopt an aggressive strategy and acquire Kowloon Wharf shares at a price far above the market rate, Jardine Matheson may struggle to keep up due to financial pressure. This disparity in financial strength will directly impact the competitive dynamic between them.

Finally, Jardine Matheson’s recent overseas expansion might betray a certain anxiety about the future of the Hong Kong market. This mindset could affect their determination and strategic execution in the competition for Kowloon Wharf.

In contrast, Mr. Pao Yue-kong has demonstrated greater determination and boldness. He is more likely to make the right decisions at critical moments and thus win this competition.

Therefore, if Jardine Matheson makes even a slight strategic error, they could lose the entire game.”

Lin Haoran laid out his analysis clearly, cautiously, and confidently.

After listening to Lin Haoran’s in-depth breakdown, Mr. Michael Sandberg couldn’t help but applaud. “Mr. Lin, your analysis is truly incisive,” he praised. “Many of your insights coincide with my own. I believe that with the support of HSBC, Mr. Pao Yue-kong will certainly have the last laugh in the battle for Kowloon Wharf.”

At this moment, Michael Sandberg’s perception of Lin Haoran rose to another level.

Such unique business insight and sharp analytical skills were far beyond the reach of an ordinary person.

He recalled his conversations on this topic with numerous Hong Kong business tycoons. Most of them held a different view, believing it would be difficult for Pao Yue-kong to challenge Jardine Matheson’s entrenched position in Kowloon Wharf.

This was largely because the long-standing, powerful influence of the British-owned foreign firms was deeply ingrained in people’s minds.

Yet, Lin Haoran had based his argument on facts, tied it together with logic, and bravely put forward a different perspective.

He had pointed to factors like Pao Yue-kong’s financial advantage, his position as a major shareholder, Jardine Matheson’s diverted capital, and the subtle shift in their mentality. His analysis was particularly pertinent and farsighted.

What impressed Michael Sandberg even more was that Lin Haoran was not bound by conventional wisdom. He dared to challenge the established view and present his own perspective.

In the Hong Kong business world of that era, there was no precedent for a Chinese-owned enterprise successfully acquiring a top-tier British-owned company, yet Lin Haoran seemed to have foreseen this possibility.

This forward-thinking vision and courage undoubtedly made Michael Sandberg see Lin Haoran in a completely new light.

At this moment, Michael Sandberg was filled with immense approval of and high expectations for Lin Haoran’s abilities.

He believed this young man’s future achievements would be no less than those of business tycoons like Pao Yue-kong, and might even surpass them.

What had originally been a meeting invitation extended on a whim had unexpectedly led him to encounter such a brilliant young talent with such unique insights. Michael Sandberg couldn’t help but reflect inwardly that this meeting had been incredibly fruitful and well worth his time.

Chapter 65: It’s Time to Take Control of Green Island Cement

The two continued to chat for a short while longer before Lin Haoran, realizing he shouldn’t overstay his welcome, politely excused himself, saying he had other matters to attend to.

He understood that as the HSBC Tai-pan, Mr. Michael Sandberg’s time was precious, and it would be improper to impose for too long.

Besides, he truly needed to get back to his company. By this time, Su Zhixue and the others would already be deep into the afternoon trading session.

This trip out was originally just to check if the funds had arrived.

He hadn’t expected to be invited here by Michael Sandberg.

He believed this meeting had left a positive and profound impression on Michael Sandberg, paving the way for future communication and collaboration.

“Mr. Lin, this has been a very pleasant conversation. I look forward to the possibility of us working together in the future.” Michael Sandberg stood up, his action conveying the importance he placed on Lin Haoran and his anticipation of future cooperation.

“Likewise, I am also very much looking forward to the opportunity to cooperate with HSBC,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Walking out of the HSBC headquarters, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but let out a long sigh of relief, as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

In the presence of a financial titan like Michael Sandberg, even though he had appeared composed, it was impossible not to feel an invisible pressure.

After all, Michael Sandberg was known as the financial emperor of Hong Kong, and HSBC, the bank under his command, controlled the very arteries of Hong Kong’s financial world.

However, recalling their meeting, a sense of gratification welled up in Lin Haoran’s heart.

He had keenly perceived a hint of acknowledgment and appreciation in Michael Sandberg’s words and actions, which meant their conversation had left a good impression on him.

This way, if he needed to seek Michael Sandberg’s help or collaboration in the future, it would likely be much smoother, undoubtedly adding a new source of support for his business development.

Returning to Universal Investment Company with his two bodyguards, it was already almost two in the afternoon. Su Zhixue was already leading the other traders, diligently conducting their trading operations.

After his promotion and raise, Su Zhixue was more motivated than ever.

Lin Haoran watched silently from the side for a while, noticing that in the afternoon, the team’s efficiency in stock accumulation remained astonishingly fast.

This change was undoubtedly closely related to Li Jiacheng’s withdrawal.

Without the pressure and interference from their former competitor, the Universal Investment Company team seemed to have broken free of its shackles, able to strategize more freely in the market and accumulate quality stocks.

Indeed, without the strong rival Li Jiacheng eyeing their every move, the team led by Su Zhixue could focus more on their own strategies and judgment, daring to go all-in to pursue greater market returns.

Therefore, the accelerated rate of accumulation was not just seizing a market opportunity but also a reflection of the team’s strength and confidence.

Just over ten minutes past four in the afternoon, Lin Haoran once again took the day’s trading report from Su Zhixue.

Upon careful review, he was surprised to find that Su Zhixue’s team had successfully accumulated a stunning 969,000 shares of Green Island Cement stock that day.

The number left Lin Haoran stunned for a moment, but he quickly realized it was entirely reasonable.

This was likely their most glorious day since they began trading Green Island Cement stock.

However, they had also pushed Green Island Cement’s stock price up to 5.36 Hong Kong dollars per share.

The intensified accumulation at a higher price undoubtedly brought more sell orders to the market. With Li Jiacheng’s team out of the picture today, it was Su Zhixue’s team whose buy orders snapped up the vast majority of the shares.

At this point, the total number of Green Island Cement shares controlled by Lin Haoran had reached 11,459,000.

Of course, acquiring today’s new shares had cost him over five million Hong Kong dollars.

However, Lin Haoran now had ample funds and felt no pressure from this expense.

With his stake in Green Island Cement now approaching the critical 23% threshold, Lin Haoran fell into deep thought in his office, contemplating when to initiate contact with the Green Island Cement Company.

After planning for so long, it was time to take control of Green Island Cement, Hong Kong’s largest cement producer, as soon as possible.

Lin Haoran understood that in this battle for control, possessing the right information was crucial.

From what Lin Haoran had gathered through various channels, Green Island Cement’s current shareholder structure did not include any particularly powerful rivals.

This agreed without prior consultation with what he knew from another parallel world, where Li Jiacheng had easily acquired Green Island Cement.

And in this world, Li Jiacheng had already chosen to give up, which undoubtedly presented Lin Haoran with a golden opportunity.

However, while a nearly 23% stake was substantial, it was still not enough to guarantee him absolute authority in Green Island Cement. Therefore, he needed to continue the stock accumulation.

Lin Haoran knew that if he stopped accumulating shares at just 23%, his dream of taking control could be shattered if several other shareholders banded together to oppose him.

Furthermore, although Li Jiacheng had abandoned his acquisition attempt, what if another well-funded conglomerate appeared and tried to take over Green Island Cement?

A 23% stake was not safe at all!

Therefore, he had already decided that he had to increase his shareholding to at least 30%. Only then would he be in a position to truly take control of Green Island Cement.

After taking control, he planned to continue accumulating shares slowly. Only by holding over 50% could he achieve absolute control.

However, there was no rush for that. Once he was in charge of Green Island Cement, it shouldn’t be too difficult to gradually increase his stake to over 50%.

Judging by the team’s accumulation speed today, Lin Haoran was confident he could reach the 30% target in the short term.

He believed that as long as they maintained their current momentum, crossing the 30% threshold was just around the corner.

As for Li Jiacheng, Lin Haoran was still unsure exactly how many shares Li Jiacheng’s team had accumulated during this period.

He was already calculating internally that if the opportunity arose, he intended to buy out all the Green Island Cement shares held by Li Jiacheng’s team.

This would significantly shorten the time it took for him to control Green Island Cement, giving him a head start on future strategic planning.

He glanced at his watch; it was already 4:40 PM.

According to his agreement with Li Jiacheng, the two were scheduled to meet at five o’clock in the afternoon at the Juquande Teahouse downstairs.

Realizing the time was approaching, Lin Haoran straightened his clothes, took his bodyguards, and left the company office.

The group walked out of the company entrance, took the elevator straight down, and got off on the second floor.

The lower floors of Hang Fung Building were bustling with activity, lined with all sorts of shops—from convenient corner stores to traditional teahouses and real estate agencies offering various services. It all added a touch of lively, everyday atmosphere to the building.

That morning, he had already called the Juquande Teahouse to reserve a private room.

After all, Li Jiacheng giving up on the acquisition of Green Island Cement had made his own takeover much smoother, which was good news for him.

Therefore, treating Li Jiacheng to a meal was the proper thing to do.

In the private room, Lin Haoran sipped his tea while waiting for Li Jiacheng to arrive.

He had already instructed the cashier at the teahouse to bring a Mr. Li Jiacheng to his private room upon arrival.

Chapter 66: He Has Abundant Financial Strength?

Not long after Lin Haoran had started leisurely sipping his tea, a crisp knock on the door broke the room’s tranquility.

Immediately after, the smiling young lady from the cashier’s desk led Li Jiacheng into the room.

The moment Li Jiacheng stepped into the private room, his gaze met Lin Haoran’s, and he couldn’t help but be taken aback. He wondered to himself, Could the cashier have brought me to the wrong room?

He subconsciously started to turn and leave, so as not to disturb the young man who appeared to be enjoying his tea.

However, just as Li Jiacheng was about to move, Lin Haoran’s gentle and magnetic voice spoke up: “Mr. Li, please come in and have a seat.”

As he spoke, a sincere smile spread across his face, and he extended a hand toward Li Jiacheng.

At that moment, Li Jiacheng had a sudden realization. The person he had an appointment with today was none other than this extraordinary young man before him.

This year, Li Jiacheng was exactly fifty years old and appeared exceptionally composed. He wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses, which added a scholarly air to his appearance. Dressed in a well-tailored suit, his every move exuded a gentle and refined temperament, giving off a scholarly impression at first glance.

After the young lady from the front desk politely exited the private room and gently closed the door, Li Jiacheng could no longer contain his curiosity and asked, “Sir, you look quite familiar. May I ask your name? Could you be the major shareholder of Green Island Cement that Mr. Pao Yue-kong mentioned?”

He thought back carefully, certain that he must have met Lin Haoran before. Coupled with the fact that Mr. Pao Yue-kong had previously mentioned the other party was a neighbor in their area, this made Li Jiacheng even more convinced that his memory wasn’t mistaken.

It was just that because Lin Haoran was so young, they had never had any direct interactions, so it was perfectly normal that he didn’t know him.

Although Deep Water Bay didn’t have many residents, the ones Li Jiacheng was familiar with were mostly the heads of prominent families.

As for someone from the younger generation like Lin Haoran, he naturally categorized him as a “junior” in his mind. Since they had never associated closely, it was understandable that they didn’t know each other.

“That’s right. I am Lin Haoran, the current major shareholder of Green Island Cement. My father is Lin Wan’an, whom I believe Mr. Li has likely heard of. It’s a great honor to meet you, Mr. Li.” Lin Haoran introduced himself with a smile, his tone humble.

“Lin Wan’an? You’re Lin Wan’an’s son?” Upon hearing this, Li Jiacheng was flooded with a sense of disbelief.

Compared to Pao Yue-kong, he knew much more about Lin Wan’an.

After all, although there was a significant size difference between Wan’an Group and Cheung Kong Holdings, both were deeply involved in the real estate industry. As members of the Hong Kong Real Estate Association, they frequently crossed paths within the industry, so there were naturally plenty of opportunities to know about each other.

The Hong Kong real estate market was booming. Although they were all in the same industry, they couldn’t exactly be considered competitors.

As neighbors in the Deep Water Bay villa area, Li Jiacheng had even once advised Lin Wan’an that in a fast-paced industry like real estate, using appropriate financial leverage—that is, taking on a certain amount of debt—was an unavoidable and sometimes even necessary strategy to accelerate business growth.

However, Lin Wan’an clearly held a different view and did not take Li Jiacheng’s advice.

“Lin Wan’an’s son… He has abundant financial strength?” Li Jiacheng muttered to himself, a look of confusion on his face.

Clearly, Li Jiacheng was not convinced.

He found it difficult to connect this seemingly young junior, Lin Haoran, with the identity of someone who could control vast amounts of capital and become the major shareholder of Green Island Cement.

“Could Brother Pao have been deceived by this young man?” The thought flashed through Li Jiacheng’s mind, but he quickly dismissed it.

“No, given Brother Pao’s shrewdness and caution, he would never be so easily deceived by a young man.”

At this moment, Li Jiacheng’s mind felt as if it were shrouded in a thick fog, his thoughts in disarray.

He tried to sort out his thoughts, only to find that the more he tried to understand, the more confused he became.

The immense contrast between Lin Haoran’s identity and his strength left him feeling more perplexed and baffled than ever before.

Observing the change in Li Jiacheng’s expression, Lin Haoran already had a good idea of what was going on.

He understood that Li Jiacheng’s current doubt and mistrust were identical to Pao Yue-kong’s initial reaction upon meeting him. Both found it incredible that someone so young could possess such enormous wealth.

This reaction was not hard to understand.

In the eyes of most people, even if Lin Haoran, as Lin Wan’an’s son, had inherited a portion of the family fortune, it would be difficult for him to single-handedly support such a massive capital operation.

This was especially true for someone like Li Jiacheng, who understood the difference in strength between Wan’an Group and Green Island Cement; he found it even harder to equate the two.

Although Wan’an Group had a certain standing in the industry, its overall strength still paled in comparison to Green Island Cement.

A smaller entity taking on a larger one wasn’t impossible, but during this period, Li Jiacheng hadn’t heard of any large-scale fundraising activities by Wan’an Group, let alone that Lin Wan’an could persuade a heavyweight like Pao Yue-kong to help.

All of this left Li Jiacheng extremely puzzled.

He couldn’t comprehend how a seemingly ordinary young man could accumulate such immense wealth in a short period and successfully become the major shareholder of Green Island Cement.

What Li Jiacheng found even more incredible was that Lin Haoran not only possessed such enormous wealth on his own, but had also successfully invited a business tycoon like Pao Yue-kong to act as an intermediary, at the cost of a favor, to persuade him to give up his acquisition plan for Green Island Cement.

A debt of favor from Pao Yue-kong was extremely valuable.

All of it felt like an illusion in the mist—both real and surreal, making it difficult to grasp.

Li Jiacheng knew that Pao Yue-kong’s position in the business world was pivotal. Every decision he made was carefully considered, and he would never be easily influenced by others.

And now, Lin Haoran had been able, all by himself, to influence and change Pao Yue-kong’s decision. The power and wisdom hidden behind this forced Li Jiacheng to re-evaluate this young man.

“Mr. Lin, I’m very curious. How did you persuade Brother Pao to act as an intermediary for you?” Li Jiacheng asked the question he was most eager to know the answer to.

“It’s simple. I had something he desperately needed. I made a deal with him, on the condition that Uncle Pao would act as my intermediary with you, Mr. Li,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

None of this was a secret. If Li Jiacheng wanted to find out, he could do so easily.

“Something Brother Pao desperately needs… Kowloon Wharf shares?” The thought immediately struck Li Jiacheng.

After all, Pao Yue-kong had just traded a huge block of shares with him—Kowloon Wharf shares, no less. And by now, everyone in Hong Kong knew that what Pao Yue-kong needed most were Kowloon Wharf shares.

“That’s right. Your wisdom is admirable, Mr. Li. I recently completed an important transaction with Uncle Pao, selling him all the Kowloon Wharf shares I held. In return, Uncle Pao needed to persuade you, Mr. Li, to abandon your acquisition plan for Green Island Cement.

“Although I was already confident, nearly certain of securing a controlling stake in Green Island Cement, I still believed that avoiding your unnecessary involvement, Mr. Li, was the best way to protect both our interests and prevent a mutually destructive outcome.

“Considering Mr. Pao’s status and influence in the industry, he was undoubtedly the best person to effectively persuade you to change your mind,” Lin Haoran explained.

Chapter 67: Plausible Nonsense

At this moment, Li Jiacheng finally understood why Pao Yue-kong had given such a high evaluation of Lin Haoran’s formidable financial strength.

For the Kowloon Wharf shares to be favored by a business magnate like Pao Yue-kong, the quantity must be considerable.

Given that the current price of Kowloon Wharf’s stock had soared to over seventy Hong Kong dollars per share, even a million shares would be worth more than seventy million Hong Kong dollars.

And considering the scale of the deal between Lin Haoran and Pao Yue-kong, it was clearly far more than that, likely far exceeding one million shares.

Therefore, Li Jiacheng deduced that the cash flow Lin Haoran currently controlled was at least a hundred million Hong Kong dollars, and possibly even far exceeded his estimate.

This young man’s financial power was far more astonishing than it appeared on the surface.

Possessing such a vast amount of capital, coupled with the fact that Lin Haoran had already made his move early and held a considerable number of Green Island Cement shares, everything started to make sense.

Li Jiacheng was now secretly thankful that Pao Yue-kong had been willing to act as an intermediary; otherwise, he would likely have been embroiled in a fierce takeover battle with Lin Haoran.

From the current situation, Lin Haoran not only had ample funds but also controlled a large number of shares, clearly giving him a greater chance of winning the takeover battle.

And although Li Jiacheng was formidable himself, he had entered the game too late and would find it difficult to close the gap in a short amount of time.

While he could try to acquire shares from other shareholders, there was no guarantee he could completely take over Green Island Cement. He rarely engaged in ventures he wasn’t certain about.

Although Li Jiacheng felt it was a pity to miss out on a promising stock like Green Island Cement, he also knew that there were many British-owned companies in Hong Kong, and opportunities were still plentiful.

He had not pinned all his hopes on a single target, instead maintaining a flexible and versatile investment strategy.

Therefore, despite his regret, he hadn’t lost much on Green Island Cement and would still have opportunities to make his mark on other projects in the future.

Li Jiacheng’s brilliant success today was largely due to the cautious attitude he had always maintained.

This caution was not only the cornerstone of his business success but also the key to him avoiding risks and advancing steadily.

Li Jiacheng was well aware of the ups and downs of the business world and never ventured lightly into areas where he was not confident.

In his business philosophy, there was an ironclad rule: “Never do business at a loss.”

Since the 1950s, he had followed this principle, ensuring his company turned a profit every year without ever suffering a loss.

The secret behind this was his deep consideration and thorough preparation for every business decision.

In major operations such as acquiring American or British-owned companies, Li Jiacheng demonstrated extraordinary patience and strategy.

He was never hasty. Instead, he would choose to gradually accumulate enough shares in secret or engage in deep communication and negotiation with the other party’s major shareholders. Only when all conditions were ripe would he act decisively, striking in a single blow to successfully achieve his acquisition goal.

This steady, cautious approach not only allowed Li Jiacheng to avoid unnecessary risks but also earned him the reputation of a “prudent sage” in the business world.

“Mr. Lin, I invited you to meet today, and I’m sure you’re already aware of my intentions. What I most urgently want to know is how you found out that our Cheung Kong Holdings Group was secretly planning to acquire the Green Island Cement Company?” Li Jiacheng’s tone was both sincere and direct.

This was his main purpose for coming today.

He understood that on the battlefield of business, control of information often determines victory or defeat.

Although he was curious about how Lin Haoran had built his career step by step, Li Jiacheng chose to restrain himself, not allowing this curiosity to distract from the current focus of the conversation.

He understood that everyone has their own journey and secrets, and some stories are not meant to be easily uncovered by outsiders. Respect and boundaries were equally important.

Last night, Li Jiacheng had tossed and turned until late, his mind replaying various possibilities, trying to solve the mystery of how the other party had learned of their secret acquisition of Green Island Cement stock.

This doubt weighed on his heart like a great stone. It wasn’t until today’s meeting that he finally had the chance to confront this puzzle, hoping to find an answer.

“Mr. Li, you may find this hard to believe, but when the trading volume of Green Island Cement’s stock suddenly soared over just two or three days, I keenly sensed that another person of great financial means had, like me, set their sights on the Green Island Cement Company.

Afterward, I conducted in-depth research on recent business merger and acquisition cases. Through detailed comparative analysis, I eliminated potential competitors one by one. Ultimately, my focus landed on you, Mr. Li Jiacheng!

Green Island Cement has a long history, but for a long time, it hasn’t received widespread attention.

In the eyes of British-owned companies, it might not be that dazzling, and few have expressed any intention of acquiring it.

Therefore, I surmised that this move was more likely the work of one of our Chinese-owned enterprises.

Furthermore, using the process of elimination, I found that in your past acquisitions, Mr. Li Jiacheng—such as the takeover of the Everhigh Company and the quiet accumulation of Kowloon Wharf stock—you have demonstrated a clear strategy: targeting companies whose market value is far below their actual worth, with most of these being foreign-owned.

On top of that, you, Mr. Li, just sold your Kowloon Wharf shares to Uncle Pao, leaving you with a large amount of cash. At a time like this, you would definitely be looking for other suitable targets to acquire.

As for Green Island Cement’s situation, you, Mr. Li, naturally know it better than I do.

It not only has a solid business foundation but also possesses a prime 800,000-square-foot piece of coastal land in Hung Hom, Kowloon. Based on current land prices, its value is well over 500 million Hong Kong dollars, and that’s not even counting the potential added value from its complete industrial chain.

Clearly, Green Island Cement’s stock price is severely undervalued.

Based on all these factors, I was convinced that the person most likely to be interested in Green Island Cement and take action was you, Mr. Li Jiacheng.

Of course, my judgment wasn’t absolute, so sending Uncle Pao as an intermediary was, in fact, a probe. I never expected that this probe would actually solve the mystery and confirm my suspicions—that the person who suddenly moved on Green Island Cement was indeed you, Mr. Li!” Lin Haoran explained with sincerity and confidence.

What Lin Haoran was actually relying on was his deep memory of how this piece of history unfolded in his past life, but of course, he couldn’t just come out and tell him about his ability to foresee the future.

So, he could only start spouting plausible nonsense, cleverly weaving together a series of seemingly well-reasoned deductions, hoping to resonate with Li Jiacheng.

As for whether the other party believed him, that was entirely up to Li Jiacheng’s own judgment.

After listening to Lin Haoran’s clear and insightful analysis, Li Jiacheng couldn’t help but nod slightly. The heavy worry in his heart seemed to have been swept away by a cool breeze, lightening considerably.

Moreover, now that he knew who Lin Haoran was, he was already convinced that his own trusted men could never have been bribed by him.

Lin Haoran wasn’t his subordinate or relative, so to keep pressing him would be impolite. Therefore, Li Jiacheng didn’t pursue the matter further.

Chapter 68: Eyeing the Shares in Li Jiacheng’s Hands

“Mr. Lin, please feel free to visit my home when you have a moment. As neighbors, it’s important for us to get to know each other better.”

Although Lin Haoran was still young, after their conversation, Li Jiacheng didn’t look down on him in the slightest. On the contrary, he was taking him more and more seriously and was now intent on befriending him.

That’s how the world works. Strong abilities always command respect.

“I’m honored by your kind invitation, Mr. Li,” Lin Haoran replied politely.

As one exquisite dish after another was served, the two enjoyed their meal while their conversation naturally shifted to business insights and discussions.

Lin Haoran’s unique insights, sharp business acumen, and precise grasp of industry trends made Li Jiacheng see him in a new light.

“By the way, Mr. Li, how many shares of Green Island Cement do you happen to hold? I would like to acquire them. To show my sincerity, I’m willing to purchase them at six Hong Kong dollars per share, ensuring this transaction won’t cause you any loss. What are your thoughts on this, Mr. Li?” Lin Haoran changed the subject, revealing his purpose.

Although Li Jiacheng had previously stated he was abandoning his plans to acquire Green Island Cement, Lin Haoran knew that as long as those shares remained in Li Jiacheng’s hands, there would always be a degree of uncertainty.

Therefore, he hoped this proposal would not only increase his own control over Green Island Cement but also further extinguish any lingering ambitions Li Jiacheng might have for the stock, giving himself peace of mind.

Li Jiacheng’s average acquisition price should have been just over five Hong Kong dollars. Offering six Hong Kong dollars per share was a very sincere gesture from Lin Haoran.

Paying a premium was a given; otherwise, why would anyone sell to you? That was the reality.

Even in his deal with Pao Yue-kong, Li Jiacheng had made sixty million Hong Kong dollars. Friendship was friendship, and business was business—the two were separate matters.

To Lin Haoran’s surprise, Li Jiacheng agreed to his request without the slightest hesitation.

“I currently hold approximately 3.91 million shares of Green Island Cement. If you need them, Mr. Lin, I would be more than happy to transfer them to you!” Li Jiacheng said with a smile.

For him, ever since he lost the opportunity to acquire Green Island Cement, these shares had lost their former luster.

Selling at six Hong Kong dollars per share would not only allow him to easily make a considerable profit—even if the amount was just a drop in the bucket for him—but the deal was still undoubtedly a good one.

Moreover, he had taken a liking to and was intrigued by this talented young man, Lin Haoran.

He believed Lin Haoran not only had a unique way of thinking but also possessed limitless potential and was destined for great things.

So, why not go with the flow and grant the young man this favor?

After all, if even Mr. Pao Yue-kong held this young man in such high regard, what reason did he, Li Jiacheng, have to look down on him?

The Li Jiacheng of today, though not yet as illustrious as he would later become, already harbored extraordinary ambitions.

On his journey through the business world, Pao Yue-kong, the renowned World Shipping Magnate and a man widely acknowledged as the richest Chinese person in the world, was undoubtedly a peak he had to look up to—a formidable obstacle to overcome.

Had he not eventually, with the support of Pao Yue-kong and Michael Sandberg, managed to acquire the business tycoon Hutchison Whampoa—a feat akin to an ant swallowing an elephant—it would have been nearly impossible for him to surpass Pao Yue-kong and become the new richest Chinese person in the future.

Hearing Li Jiacheng’s announcement, Lin Haoran felt a surge of surprise, yet it was mixed with a sense of calm, as if he had anticipated it all along.

After each trading day, the trading team from Universe Group, led by Su Zhixue, would conduct a detailed analysis based on the day’s trading volume and market dynamics, not only accurately calculating the number of shares their own team had accumulated but also striving to estimate the approximate share their opponent had acquired.

Based on the meticulous forecast report prepared by the Universe Group’s trading team, the number of shares held by Li Jiacheng’s team was estimated to be around four million.

And now, when Li Jiacheng officially announced his holdings, the number almost perfectly aligned with Su Zhixue’s estimate, fully validating the accuracy of their analysis.

Of course, the stock market is an open, complex, and ever-changing platform. Besides their team and Li Jiacheng’s, it was perfectly normal for other retail investors or small investors to occasionally get involved.

Therefore, although the estimate from Su Zhixue and his team demonstrated a high level of professional skill, it was ultimately a reasonable projection based on available information and could not be one hundred percent precise.

Being so close to the actual number was proof enough of their outstanding analytical abilities and excellent teamwork.

At this moment, Lin Haoran was extremely satisfied with his trading team.

Over 3.91 million shares… that already represented 7.8% of Green Island Cement’s stock.

Lin Haoran celebrated silently. He knew that if he had given Li Jiacheng more time, even though their stock accumulation in the market had slowed and he had a significant lead, Li Jiacheng could have easily surpassed his holdings by approaching other Green Island Cement shareholders directly.

It was this potential threat that had forced Lin Haoran to expedite his handling of the Kowloon Wharf shares. He understood that any hesitation could have left the ultimate ownership of Green Island Cement uncertain and full of variables.

What a stroke of luck. A true stroke of luck.

“Mr. Li, thank you so much. If it’s convenient, I would like to visit your company tomorrow to complete this important transaction. What do you think?” Inwardly, Lin Haoran was beyond excited, but his expression remained exceptionally calm, showing no trace of urgency or panic.

He was mentally calculating that once he successfully acquired Li Jiacheng’s stake in Green Island Cement, his shareholding percentage would officially surpass the thirty percent mark.

This figure not only meant he was one step closer to taking control of Green Island Cement Company and becoming the true helmsman of Hong Kong’s largest cement producer, but it also signified a quantum leap in his business strength, officially surpassing the Wan’an Group founded by his father, Lin Wan’an.

At this thought, an indescribable wave of excitement and pride washed over Lin Haoran.

Green Island Cement, a behemoth with a market capitalization more than double that of Wan’an Group, was about to become a major asset in his hands. His journey to building a business empire would begin with this very company.

“Of course, Mr. Lin. I will be waiting for you at my office tomorrow. This has been a most enjoyable meal. I look forward to hosting you properly next time,” Li Jiacheng said with a smile.

“Mr. Li, it is a great honor to meet a business tycoon like you. I am sincerely grateful for your willingness to transfer your Green Island Cement shares, giving me the opportunity to secure a more stable control over the company,” Lin Haoran said earnestly.

He understood that on the stage of the business world, a place filled with both competition and cooperation, his own strength and influence were still insufficient. Therefore, he had to act with caution and avoid offending heavyweights like Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng.

To act with immense arrogance and offend countless people before you’ve even risen to prominence is to forfeit any chance of rising at all. That would be the act of a fool.

He had to show respect to these business seniors. When his financial power and influence were on par with or even surpassed theirs, then he could cross his legs in front of them without any issue.

As it stood, he had managed to secure the greatest benefit without offending these tycoons. This had undoubtedly laid a solid foundation for his future development. For him, it was truly a perfect start.

Chapter 69: Horizons Broadened

Li Jiacheng was a very busy man and couldn’t chat with Lin Haoran for too long. After they had a frank exchange and cleared the air, he politely bid Lin Haoran farewell and departed.

For both parties, this meeting was a win-win.

Lin Haoran not only secured Li Jiacheng’s definite promise to cease his acquisition of Green Island Cement but also successfully reached an agreement to purchase Li Jiacheng’s shares. This move significantly strengthened his control over Green Island Cement, bringing his holdings to a satisfactory level.

For Li Jiacheng, the meeting not only completely relieved him of his worries but also allowed him to smoothly cash out his depreciating Green Island Cement shares at a reasonable price, thereby optimizing his asset allocation.

After Li Jiacheng left, Lin Haoran returned to the company with his bodyguards.

It was just after six in the evening. The setting sun’s brilliant rays pierced through the clouds, spilling onto the office’s floor-to-ceiling windows and casting a series of bizarre yet beautiful patterns of light.

Lin Haoran sat on the sofa, reflecting on his experiences over the past month or so.

From initially being single-mindedly focused on winning the inheritance war, now, as his power in the business world grew and his wealth accumulated, he seemed to be looking down on Wan’an Group, a listed company with a market capitalization of over one hundred million.

The inheritance competition had transformed from hard mode to easy mode for him.

His horizons had also broadened with his growing strength.

In this past month, he had not only met the three major Hong Kong business tycoons—Pao Yue-kong, Michael Sandberg, and Li Jiacheng—but had also left a deep impression on them.

This was all unimaginable to him just over a month ago.

After all, when he had first transmigrated to this world a little over a month ago, his identity was merely that of a young man who had recently graduated.

In just over a month, he had gone from controlling a single cement factory to being on the verge of controlling a listed company with a market capitalization of over two hundred million Hong Kong dollars and an actual valuation exceeding five hundred million, all while holding tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars in cash. It was simply incredible.

Currently, he held eleven million, four hundred fifty-nine thousand shares of Green Island Cement, and Li Jiacheng had already agreed to sell him the more than three million, nine hundred ten thousand shares he controlled.

This meant that once the transaction was completed tomorrow, his holdings in Green Island Cement would jump to over fifteen million, three hundred seventy thousand shares, accounting for approximately 30.7% of the company’s total stock.

This level of shareholding would most likely allow him to formally take control of Green Island Cement Company, but it wasn’t a sure thing yet.

According to the detailed information he had recently gathered, the current Chairman of the Board of Directors of Green Island Cement Company was a British man who personally held 12.6% of the company’s shares.

Furthermore, among the publicly disclosed shareholders, besides the chairman, there were five other British shareholders who collectively held nearly 16.2% of the shares.

If these British shareholders were to stand united, their combined holdings would reach a formidable 28.8%.

At the same time, the list also included three Chinese shareholders. Although their individual holdings were relatively small, their combined shares amounted to about 7.9%.

This meant that the currently known public shareholder group, including the aforementioned British and Chinese shareholders, controlled a total of about 36.7% of Green Island Cement Company’s shares.

In his previous life, Lin Haoran had read a brief article about Li Jiacheng’s acquisition of Green Island Cement. It mentioned that Li Jiacheng only formally took control of the Board of Directors after securing 40% of the company’s shares.

This suggested that Li Jiacheng, aware of the 36.7% held by existing shareholders, had cautiously and covertly accumulated his stake to 40% before making his move on the Board of Directors.

With the capital he now commanded, it wouldn’t take long for him to acquire more shares on the stock market and surpass the holdings of these other shareholders.

He also understood that none of these shareholders were particularly powerful tycoons.

This was why, in the other world, Li Jiacheng had so easily taken control of Green Island Cement without any struggle for control—there was simply no opponent capable of putting up a fight.

Perhaps he could join the Green Island Cement Board of Directors first. As for becoming the chairman, there was no rush. At this point, Green Island Cement was practically in the bag.

The reason for joining the board first was to familiarize himself with the situation there and to interact with the other shareholders.

In the future, once he had enough shares, it would be easier to take full control of the company.

With this in mind, Lin Haoran made his decision.

After the transaction with Li Jiacheng went through smoothly tomorrow, he would pay a visit to Green Island Cement Company.

It was time for this company, which he had been plotting to acquire for so long, to bear his mark.

Just as Lin Haoran was lost in deep thought, the phone in his personal office suddenly rang, interrupting his train of thought.

He quickly stood up from the sofa, walked steadily to the phone, and picked up the receiver.

“Hello, this is Lin Haoran,” he said, stating his name directly.

“Brother Haoran, it’s me, Rosamund. Are you free right now?” Rosamund Kwan’s sweet voice came from the other end.

“I am. I’m at the company. What’s up?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Brother Haoran, my dad is coming back from Malaysia tomorrow afternoon. I don’t know when he’ll go on a business trip again, so I wanted to see you before he gets back,” Rosamund Kwan said, her words tumbling out.

Having just tasted the forbidden fruit, she couldn’t bear to be apart from her lover for even one night.

“Alright. Where are you? I’ll have someone pick you up,” Lin Haoran said with a chuckle.

“Brother Haoran, I’m at the corner store downstairs from the Hang Fung Building. Since you’re upstairs, I’ll just come up to find you,” Rosamund Kwan said in a delicate voice.

“Okay, I’ll be waiting,” Lin Haoran said before hanging up.

He hadn’t expected Rosamund Kwan to come all the way from Kowloon to Central to find him on her own.

Ten minutes later, Lin Haoran indeed saw Rosamund Kwan at the company’s entrance.

“Young Master, we’ll be heading out now,” the two Li Weiguo brothers said tactfully to Lin Haoran.

“Alright, you can go. Same as usual tonight, you can rest at the hotel across the street,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile, his tone relaxed and casual.

Hearing this, Rosamund Kwan couldn’t help but blush.

After the two men left, Lin Haoran closed the company door and looked at Rosamund Kwan carefully, asking, “Have you had dinner?”

“Mhm, I have. I had a quick bite at a small eatery in Hung Hom before I came,” Rosamund Kwan answered, a hint of shyness and sweetness hidden in her voice.

With the departure of the Li Weiguo brothers, she seemed to relax from a subtle tension, rediscovering the natural and intimate ease she felt when she was alone with Lin Haoran.

Rosamund Kwan’s arrival undoubtedly added a bright spot to Lin Haoran’s evening, making his night particularly splendid.

To have such a relaxing and enjoyable time amidst his intense work was indeed a rare and pleasant affair for Lin Haoran.

As night fell, the affection between them naturally deepened. A period of intimate, lingering tenderness became an indispensable part of the evening.

In the bloom of her youth, Rosamund Kwan’s heart was filled with longing and yearning for love; she was completely love-struck.

But reality was often not as one wished. Although Lin Haoran had feelings for Rosamund Kwan, they were mixed with more complex factors.

Part of the reason he had approached her was due to the great star’s fame in his previous life, which added an element of romantic conquest and a pursuit of novelty to his feelings.

Therefore, he could certainly not devote his heart and mind to her as she might have hoped.

After all, he’d gone to the trouble of transmigrating to this world. How could he be satisfied with just Rosamund Kwan?

At the very least, he needed enough for a game of mahjong. Lin Haoran’s standards weren’t high, after all.

Chapter 70: Not Just Anyone Can See Him

The next morning, Lin Haoran first dropped Rosamund Kwan off near her home, then had a leisurely breakfast nearby. Seeing that it was about time, he headed directly to the headquarters of Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

As for his own company, with Su Zhixue, the Deputy General Manager, present, he could basically handle any non-critical matters.

The headquarters of Cheung Kong Holdings Group was located in the Chinese Building.

This skyscraper had just been completed by Cheung Kong Holdings Group this year, and the company’s headquarters had promptly relocated here from the Cheung Kong Building on King’s Road.

So, Cheung Kong Holdings Group had actually only been in this new headquarters for a few months.

Li Jiacheng was very surprised that Lin Haoran had come over so early.

The transaction process was very smooth. After all, Cheung Kong Holdings Group was essentially run by Li Jiacheng’s word. If he said to sell the Green Island Cement Company shares, naturally no one would object.

Besides, buying at a little over five dollars and selling at six was a profit no matter how you looked at it.

In the end, Cheung Kong Holdings successfully sold its 3.915 million shares of Green Island Cement Company stock to Lin Haoran.

In return, Lin Haoran paid 23.49 million Hong Kong dollars.

With that, his available capital dropped from over 110 million Hong Kong dollars to around ninety million Hong Kong dollars.

However, his holdings in Green Island Cement Company increased to 15.374 million shares, a 30.7% stake.

After the transaction was complete, Lin Haoran returned to his company. Seeing that everything was in order, with the traders conducting their business in an orderly fashion under Su Zhixue’s supervision, he was relieved.

By now, the activity in Green Island Cement’s stock was obvious. With such frequent trading over the past month or so, their Board of Directors must have been well aware. Yet, there had been no reaction from the Green Island Cement board, which showed that the Chairman of the Board of Green Island Cement truly had no intention of increasing his shareholding.

Sitting in his office, Lin Haoran placed a call to Harrier Centurion, the Chairman of the Board of Green Island Cement.

He had long since obtained the chairman’s contact information while researching the company.

“Hello, this is Green Island Cement Company. Harrier speaking.” On the other end of the line, the voice sounded like that of an elderly man.

Indeed, the current Harrier Centurion was already sixty-five years old this year.

“Mr. Harrier, hello. This is Lin Haoran from Universal Investment Company,” Lin Haoran introduced himself.

“Universal Investment Company? Lin Haoran?” The person on the other end was clearly taken aback, unable to place the name.

“The stock market for Green Island Cement has seen quite a bit of commotion over the past month. I’m sure Mr. Harrier is well aware. The person who caused all this commotion is none other than myself. I have now become a major shareholder of Green Island Cement, so I wanted to have a chat with you, Mr. Harrier,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

At this point, he was no longer worried about his stock accumulation efforts being exposed; otherwise, he wouldn’t have had Su Zhixue and the others ramp up their acquisition of shares.

To Lin Haoran’s surprise, the other end of the line was unusually calm. “Mr. Lin, I’ll be waiting for you in my office at the Green Island Cement Company headquarters!”

“Excellent. See you in a bit!”

“OK!”

With Su Zhixue holding down the fort at Universal Investment Company, he had nothing to worry about. So, he left the company once again.

“Young Master, where are we going?” Li Weiguo asked from the driver’s seat, looking back.

“To Hung Hom. I’ll give you directions when we get there,” Lin Haoran said directly.

He was headed to the headquarters of Green Island Cement.

The Green Island Cement headquarters was in Hung Hom, practically next to the Whampoa Dockyard and the China Light & Power Hok Yuen Power Station.

Back when Green Island Cement moved from Macau to Hong Kong, it had collaborated with the Whampoa Dockyard on land reclamation to finally build the current Green Island Cement factory.

However, in the nineteen-sixties, due to the significant dust pollution from the cement factory and its impact on the city, a portion of the factory buildings was demolished.

The land from these demolished buildings was directly redeveloped into three buildings: the Green Castle Building, the Qingdao Building, and the Green Island Building.

Lin Haoran’s destination this time was the Green Island Building, the head office of the Green Island Cement Company.

About twenty minutes later, the Mercedes-Benz pulled up smoothly in front of the Green Island Building.

“Hello, miss. I’d like to see your company’s Mr. Chairman. Could you please inform him for me?” Lin Haoran said directly to the blonde Western woman sitting at the front desk on the ground floor of the Green Island Building.

Green Island Cement was a British-owned company. The lower-level employees were all Chinese, but Lin Haoran noticed that the staff in this office building were predominantly Western faces, with very few Chinese.

Seeing this, he decided that after he took control of Green Island Cement, he would replace them with a batch of loyal Chinese employees. As for these Westerners, if they were competent enough, he could naturally keep them. Otherwise, they shouldn’t blame him for a major shake-up.

After all, once he became the actual controller of Green Island Cement, the company would naturally do as he said, not as these Westerners said.

“Do you have an appointment, sir? If not, I’m afraid our Mr. Chairman is not someone you can just meet,” the blonde Western receptionist said, her tone rather dismissive. Seeing how young Lin Haoran was, she looked down on him.

Green Island Cement was Hong Kong’s largest cement production and sales company, so many property developers collaborated with them, and real estate tycoons often came to see their chairman.

But the vast majority of them were older, at least in their forties or fifties.

A young Chinese man in his twenties like Lin Haoran, in her eyes, couldn’t possibly be an important figure with any real authority. What right did he have to see their chairman?

Lin Haoran frowned. This kind of person could get a job as a company receptionist?

This was simply tarnishing the image of the Green Island Cement Company.

The front desk, as the primary face of a company, has a clear and important responsibility: to receive every visitor in a friendly and professional manner.

However, the Western woman before him not only failed to show the proper warmth and respect, but she also gave off an air of superiority, which was completely contrary to the core principles of a receptionist.

“I have already arranged it with your chairman. You’ll know if you call him. Just tell him that Lin Haoran has arrived,” Lin Haoran said patiently, not wanting to argue with her.

In any case, once he became the company’s helmsman, this receptionist could forget about continuing to work here.

Although she was still skeptical about whether Lin Haoran really had an appointment with the Boss, she eventually called the chairman’s office.

“Is Mr. Lin here? Good, I understand. Bring him up to my office… No, wait, I’ll come down to welcome him. Miss Sally, please entertain Mr. Lin for me for a moment. I’ll be right down.” On the other end, the chairman’s voice carried a hint of urgency.

Hearing this, the receptionist froze, her face a mask of disbelief.

She had never seen the chairman place so much importance on a visitor. It was easy to sense the special attention from the phone call.

In that case, given how poorly she had just treated him, didn’t that mean…

At this moment, the receptionist began to panic.

Chapter 71: The Unseen Contest

Lin Haoran paid little mind to the receptionist’s inner turmoil.

As far as he was concerned, he had no interest in getting into a conflict or some face-slapping drama with someone like her just for a cheap thrill.

Soon, Lin Haoran saw an elderly British man step out of the elevator.

“Hello, Mr. Lin. I am Harrier Centurion, Chairman of the Board of the Green Island Cement Company. Welcome to Green Island Cement.” Compared to the receptionist, this old man, the Chairman of the Board Harrier Centurion, seemed much more humble.

However, Lin Haoran understood that in the world of business, age was often proportional to experience, and those who had weathered many storms were “wily old foxes” who had mastered the arts of strategy and human nature.

Therefore, he remained highly vigilant towards an opponent like Harrier Centurion.

Lin Haoran knew that one could not judge a person’s abilities or intentions based on their appearance or first impressions alone, especially someone like Harrier, who appeared steady but was in fact deeply calculating and had held power at Green Island Cement for over a decade.

Lin Haoran shook his hand and smiled. “A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Harrier. I look forward to working with you.”

“Mr. Lin, let’s talk in my office.”

“Alright.”

The two took the elevator to the fifth floor of the building.

“Would you like anything to drink, Mr. Lin?” Harrier Centurion asked after they sat down on the sofa.

“No, thank you,” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

“I’m quite curious, Mr. Lin. Why are you interested in Green Island Cement?” Harrier Centurion asked, looking at Lin Haoran.

“I am very optimistic about Hong Kong’s real estate industry, and cement is the most indispensable material for it. I’ve looked at Green Island Cement’s performance these past few years. While the annual profits aren’t particularly high, its future is definitely very promising. Therefore, holding shares in Green Island Cement is a surefire investment for the future,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

For the time being, he didn’t intend to reveal his true intentions for Green Island Cement.

Because Lin Haoran had a question in his mind.

He had thoroughly studied the annual financial statements published by Green Island Cement. For such a seemingly large company, its annual profit was a mere four million-plus Hong Kong dollars, a figure that greatly surprised him.

If Lin Haoran himself hadn’t been involved in the building materials industry, he might not have found this so suspicious.

However, he currently owned the Huafeng Cement Factory and was very clear about the profit potential of the industry.

His Huafeng Cement Factory was just a medium-sized plant. Even though its scale was far smaller than Green Island Cement’s, it had brought in a stable income of one to two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars per month before being targeted.

In comparison, Green Island Cement’s production scale was several times that of Huafeng, its client base in Hong Kong was second to none, and the Green Island Cement brand was already a household name. Yet, its annual profit was so trivial. How could this not raise suspicion?

When Lin Haoran first looked through those financial statements, his initial reaction was disbelief, especially regarding the expenditure items, which seemed exceptionally peculiar.

He had learned that Green Island Cement’s advantages were not limited to its well-established production and sales systems. It also owned three commercial buildings in Hung Hom, Kowloon. Aside from the Green Island Building, which was for its own use, the other two generated rental income of one to two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars per month, which should theoretically have brought considerable extra profit to the company.

However, these factors that should have been profit drivers were not properly reflected in the financial statements, which further deepened his doubts about the authenticity of Green Island Cement’s financial situation.

It was precisely because Green Island Cement’s annual profits had remained at a low level in recent years that its stock price had been languishing in a relatively low range.

Lin Haoran had a theory.

“Mr. Lin, how many shares of Green Island Cement do you currently hold, and what is your specific purpose for holding them?” Harrier Centurion asked directly and urgently, raising the question that concerned him most.

After all, this question directly touched upon his personal interests and strategic plans.

Harrier Centurion was not completely in the dark. In fact, he had started paying attention to the movements in Green Island Cement’s stock a month ago.

Unfortunately, he was powerless to do anything about it.

Therefore, he was now even more desperate to understand Lin Haoran’s shareholdings and intentions to inform his next move. Perhaps he could find a sliver of an opportunity to protect and expand his own interests.

Harrier Centurion hailed from a declining British aristocratic family. More than a decade ago, he had traveled to Hong Kong with his family’s last hopes and resources. Through certain tactics and with the help of friends, he finally managed to gain a controlling stake in Green Island Cement.

However, the stability of this controlling stake was actually built upon paying hefty “appeasement fees” to the other British shareholders each year to maintain his position as Chairman of the Board.

Under the cover of his chairmanship, Harrier had secretly siphoned off almost all of the company’s profits, leaving only a fraction to be made public. Through this, he had amassed an enormous fortune from Green Island Cement over the years.

However, this wealth flowed away like water, ultimately pouring into his large and burdensome family back in Britain.

The family had over a hundred members, and their long-accustomed lavish lifestyle resulted in enormous annual expenses. Even with the considerable funds earned from Green Island Cement each year, he felt the pressure.

When the ripples in the stock market touched a raw nerve, Harrier immediately realized that Green Island Cement might have become the target of some covetous power.

Although alarm bells were ringing in his head, he knew all too well that with his financial resources and the current situation, he could not handle the potential crisis alone.

This helplessness and pressure made him sigh inwardly. Protecting this hard-won controlling stake was far more difficult than he had imagined.

If Harrier Centurion had kept the profits he’d made from Green Island Cement over the years, he would have possessed considerable financial power—assets of at least tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

However, reality was cruel. Most of his earnings over the years had been used to support his large family, and now, little was left.

Facing an unknown competitor in the stock market, he realized he was likely no longer capable of engaging in a fierce capital contest.

Although he had considered using his position as Chairman of Green Island Cement to secure a loan and raise funds to compete with this unknown rival, he gave up the idea after careful consideration.

He understood that while a loan could provide a temporary solution, the subsequent high interest and repayment pressure would likely worsen his already fragile financial situation.

More importantly, he was uncertain about the outcome of this contest. If he failed, the consequences would be unthinkable.

In the end, he abandoned the thought.

Harrier Centurion’s final decision to give up on increasing his shareholding in Green Island Cement was backed by several more well-considered reasons.

First, through meticulous observation and analysis, he keenly sensed that his opponent had powerful financial backing. Even if he chose to increase his holdings with a loan, he might not gain the upper hand in this capital game. This clear self-awareness led him to decide against taking a blind risk.

Second, considering the profound impact that increasing his shareholding with a loan would have on his financial arrangements for years to come, he, as the family’s economic pillar, understood that he could not neglect his financial support for the family for long.

Once a large amount of capital was invested in the stock market, he would be unable to meet his family members’ needs for several years, nor could he continue to maintain the family’s honor as “aristocrats.”

Furthermore, time waits for no man. Harrier Centurion had entered the twilight of his life. Compared to those young, spirited, and passionate businessmen, he cherished the stability and tranquility of the present much more.

During his years at Green Island Cement, though he had achieved some success, he had lost the reckless drive and courage of his youth.

Lastly, and what worried him most, was the risk of failure.

If he were to lose this stock market battle, not only could he lose his entire investment, but he would also face the dilemma of his Green Island Cement shares depreciating significantly.

At that point, if he wanted to sell those shares, he would probably have to do so at an extremely low price—an outcome he could not accept.

So, in the end, he abandoned the idea of increasing his shareholding and chose to observe from the sidelines.

His greatest hope was that this unknown opponent was merely a “market maker” intending to cash out in the short term, not a powerful competitor truly aiming to seize control of Green Island Cement.

When Harrier Centurion learned that the person targeting Green Island Cement’s shares was, of all people, a young man, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Compared to the old foxes of the business world, Lin Haoran seemed so young, which lowered Harrier’s guard to some extent.

He knew that against those seasoned veterans, he would likely be unable to hold his own, and control of Green Island Cement might truly fall into someone else’s hands.

But Lin Haoran’s youth gave him a glimmer of hope—a chance that he might be able to hold on to his controlling stake.

In Harrier’s eyes, youth often meant impulsiveness and inexperience, and these were precisely the weaknesses he could exploit.

He began to think about how to use his experience, connections, and in-depth knowledge of Green Island Cement to counter this young opponent’s challenge.

A surge of confidence welled up in Harrier Centurion. He believed that with his many years of experience navigating the business world, he could easily handle a fledgling newcomer like Lin Haoran.

In his view, such an opponent was just a fledgling that hadn’t even grown its feathers yet. The idea of shaking his position was simply preposterous.

This confidence reinvigorated him, but Harrier also knew that blind confidence was not a good strategy.

Therefore, he wanted to find out exactly how many of the company’s shares Lin Haoran controlled and what his ultimate goal was.

The members of the company’s Board of Directors had all been bought off by him long ago and basically did his bidding.

So, Harrier Centurion believed that as long as the young man before him didn’t hold as many shares as he feared, his position as Chairman of the Board was still secure.

Looking at the young man before him, Harrier Centurion awaited his answer.

Chapter 72: Youth is the Best Disguise

Lin Haoran’s stock investment strategy had always been exceptionally cautious. He accumulated shares in Green Island Cement through multiple accounts to ensure his holdings could not be easily investigated by outsiders.

Unless he revealed it himself, it would be nearly impossible for others to accurately determine the number of Green Island Cement shares he actually held.

Faced with Harrier Centurion’s probing question, Lin Haoran didn’t need to think for long before answering directly, “Mr. Harrier, I currently hold 13.7% of Green Island Cement’s stock. With my funds, I can secure up to 15%.

“As for my objective, I’m still young and have no intention of competing with you for the position of Chairman of the Board for the time being. However, I hope to become the Vice Chairman of the Board of Green Island Cement to gain more business experience. Given my current status as the largest shareholder, there shouldn’t be any issue with me assuming this position, right?”

After speaking, he handed a copy of the stock certificates for his 13.7% stake to Harrier Centurion to add weight to his words.

At Hang Seng Bank, he had mortgaged a total of 17% of Green Island Cement’s shares for two separate loans, so the 13.7% was indeed all he could produce at the moment.

Of course, if necessary, he could have temporarily borrowed the stock certificates back from Hang Seng Bank, but there was no need.

For now, he had no intention of taking direct control of Green Island Cement; his first step was merely to join its Board of Directors.

Harrier Centurion had been with Green Island Cement for over a decade and was deeply entrenched.

If Lin Haoran were to take control, he would have to completely eradicate Harrier Centurion’s influence and power base, not allow him to remain as the company’s second-largest shareholder.

It was better to drive away an unpredictable wily old fox like him. Keeping him around would only plant more uncertain risks for Green Island Cement’s future.

“13.7%? As far as I know, trading of Green Island Cement’s stock has been unusually active recently. The trading volume in the past month or so has far exceeded 30%,” Harrier Centurion continued in a probing tone.

His words revealed a keen insight into market dynamics; he was clearly well-aware of the recent sharp fluctuations in Green Island Cement’s stock.

“Mr. Harrier, about a dozen days ago, another group suddenly began competing to accumulate Green Island Cement’s stock, causing the share price to rise continuously. It’s gone up quite a bit from its original price of less than five Hong Kong dollars per share. I thought it was you increasing your shareholding. What? It wasn’t you?” Lin Haoran said, feigning surprise.

A dozen or so days ago was precisely when Li Jiacheng’s team had started accumulating Green Island Cement stock. From that point on, the trading volume had indeed surged.

Harrier Centurion was naturally very aware of this fact.

“Someone else is targeting Green Island Cement?” Harrier Centurion was taken aback.

To further dispel Harrier Centurion’s suspicions, Lin Haoran continued, “Mr. Harrier, perhaps you are not yet aware of my identity. I am the younger son of Lin Wan’an of the Wan’an Group.”

Hearing this, Harrier Centurion did indeed dismiss his suspicions about Lin Haoran, but another one quickly took its place.

He was familiar with the Wan’an Group. Although the company was primarily focused on real estate, its listed market value was less than that of Green Island Cement.

Before Lin Wan’an founded the Huafeng Cement Factory, the Wan’an Group was actually one of Green Island Cement’s clients.

After all, as the largest cement producer in Hong Kong, it was a natural supplier for many real estate developers.

The two had been partners in the past, so Harrier Centurion knew a fair amount about the Wan’an Group.

It was precisely because of this knowledge that another thought occurred to him: Lin Haoran must be buying Green Island Cement shares under Lin Wan’an’s orders.

Otherwise, how could someone as young as Lin Haoran possibly come up with such a large sum of money to accumulate Green Island Cement stock?

The stock certificates for 13.7% were right in front of him—that was a fact. And according to Lin Haoran, he could accumulate up to 15%. Even at five Hong Kong dollars per share, that was worth 37.5 million Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Wan’an should be able to raise that kind of money if he wanted to.

In other words, the real person behind the shares Lin Haoran held was very likely Lin Wan’an.

At that moment, the other party accumulating shares, which Lin Haoran had mentioned, was no longer Harrier Centurion’s main concern.

Compared to Lin Wan’an, he would much rather the actual shareholder be a young man like Lin Haoran.

If Lin Wan’an had designs on Green Island Cement, it would be extremely dangerous.

“Mr. Lin, why didn’t your father come himself? Why did he send you?” Harrier Centurion asked.

“My father? These are shares I accumulated secretly myself. This is my own private property. Why would my father need to be here?” Lin Haoran said with a smile, understanding Harrier Centurion’s concern.

“Your own private property? Impossible! With the Wan’an Group’s resources, raising tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars is no problem. But you? How is that possible?” Harrier Centurion said, refusing to believe him.

“Mr. Harrier, if you investigate the Wan’an Group’s recent situation, you will find that it is currently raising funds to develop a real estate project in North Point and simply can’t spare the resources for anything else. Moreover, it’s widely known that my father has never liked taking out bank loans.

“What you may not know, Mr. Harrier, is that I just graduated from London Business School a little over three months ago. In June, Argentina hosted the World Cup. During the tournament, I unexpectedly won several bets, which brought me a fortune of several million British pounds.

“After returning to Hong Kong, I didn’t plan on telling my father about this. Instead, I began researching companies here and discovered Green Island Cement has excellent potential. That’s when I decided to buy into the company and become a shareholder.

“This is all my own money. Although Lin Wan’an is my father, our finances are separate, especially when it comes to tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars. That’s no small sum.”

Dispelling Harrier Centurion’s concerns was no challenge for Lin Haoran.

In this era, the betting industry in the UK was more mature than in America. Winning a few million pounds on the World Cup was entirely plausible, and a few million pounds converted to tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

Furthermore, it was a fact that the Wan’an Group was currently focused on raising funds for the North Point project, something that could be easily verified with a little effort.

With this, Harrier Centurion began to believe Lin Haoran’s story.

He would investigate it later, but if it was true, he could rest easy about Lin Haoran.

If Lin Haoran had won millions of pounds by a stroke of luck, at his age, he would certainly not have the resources to continue increasing his stake in Green Island Cement.

After all, making money wasn’t that easy.

And even if he truly accumulated 15% of the shares, Harrier Centurion wasn’t the least bit concerned. Of course, if those shares ended up in Lin Wan’an’s hands, he would be more worried.

Now, his attention shifted to the other potential threat.

The discovery that another party was, like Lin Haoran, accumulating large quantities of Green Island Cement stock on the market left him deeply concerned. He would have to be more vigilant to prevent any unexpected developments.

“Why is it that Green Island Cement’s stock has been ignored for so long, and now suddenly two forces are interested?” Harrier Centurion muttered to himself, though he didn’t say it out loud.

“Mr. Lin, in principle, I approve of you becoming the Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement. However, this will require a vote by the Board of Directors, as it would mean the current Vice Chairman would have to step down. But please rest assured, Mr. Lin, you will have my vote of support. I most enjoy dealing with talented young men like yourself!” Harrier Centurion said solemnly.

At this moment, he had temporarily set aside his worries about Lin Haoran, but he was somewhat concerned about the other potential threat.

Therefore, he decided to win Lin Haoran over.

Once he brought this young man into his camp, combined with the support of the other shareholders in the company, he would no longer have to worry about this unknown force.

“In that case, I am even more relieved. With Mr. Harrier’s staunch support, I am confident I can successfully become the Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement,” Lin Haoran said, his face beaming with an excited smile.

Harrier Centurion looked at Lin Haoran’s young and energetic face and thought to himself, “He really is young. The mere position of Vice Chairman is enough to satisfy him so completely.”

Lin Haoran’s reaction pleased Harrier Centurion greatly, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

If Lin Haoran stayed like this, he would pose little threat to his position.

So what if his shareholding was slightly larger? With the support of the other British shareholders, Lin Haoran’s slight advantage posed no threat to his standing at all.

Even if Lin Wan’an himself were in control, and Harrier would be more concerned, he was not without recourse. On the contrary, this was his home turf; the advantage was his!

After all, he felt his foundations in Green Island Cement were deep and not easily shaken.

Watching Harrier Centurion’s expression, Lin Haoran knew that his initial plan to enter Green Island Cement’s Board of Directors had basically succeeded.

Lin Haoran’s age was his best disguise, easily making people let down their guard and winning their trust.

First, he would join the Board of Directors, gradually learn about the company, secretly investigate Green Island Cement’s profits over the years, and at the same time, continue to accumulate its shares covertly. Once his stake reached 40%, Harrier Centurion would no longer be a threat to him, and taking over Green Island Cement would be a matter of course.

“Mr. Harrier, when will the board meeting be held?” Lin Haoran asked, his voice filled with impatience.

Seeing Lin Haoran’s behavior, Harrier Centurion felt even more reassured.

“A board meeting requires at least one day’s notice to give the board members enough time to prepare. Please rest assured, Mr. Lin. I will call all the board members later this evening. We can hold the board meeting as early as tomorrow!” Harrier Centurion said with a smile.

“In that case, I will have to trouble you, Mr. Harrier,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

“Of course. Once the time is set, I will give you a call, Mr. Lin,” Harrier Centurion continued.

Chapter 73: The Next Two Big Money-Making Plans

The two men each had their own agenda, scheming against the other.

For Harrier Centurion, giving Lin Haoran the title of Vice Chairman of the Board was merely an expedient measure. He was already plotting how to gradually strip him of his actual power and ultimately turn him into a mere figurehead. Want to learn the true art of business from me? I’m afraid you’ll end up with nothing but false hope.

For Lin Haoran, however, infiltrating the upper echelons of Green Island Cement was the crucial first step.

“Mr. Harrier, may I have a tour of the company?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Of course. Mr. Lin, you are now a major shareholder of Green Island Cement. Although you don’t hold a position just yet, you are one of the company’s bosses. It is your right to tour the company. However, I do have some urgent matters to attend to, so I’m afraid I cannot accompany you personally. But rest assured, I will arrange for a colleague familiar with the company to give you a comprehensive tour of our enterprise.” Harrier Centurion’s response was both proper and seemingly thoughtful.

“I’ll have to trouble you then, Mr. Harrier,” Lin Haoran replied gently.

A dozen or so minutes later, a capable-looking Western man in his thirties walked into Harrier Centurion’s office. The composure and competence in his eyes made it easy to guess that he was one of Harrier’s trusted aides.

“Mr. Lin, please allow me to show you around,” he said, politely extending a hand to gesture for Lin Haoran to follow.

“Thank you very much. I’ll be in your care,” Lin Haoran responded with a nod. The two then left the chairman’s office, one after the other, and took the elevator out of the Green Island Building.

The scale of Green Island Cement’s headquarters was massive, leaving a deep impression on Lin Haoran.

In addition to three commercial buildings over ten stories high, the headquarters also included sprawling production facilities, well-organized warehouses, and a bustling pier.

Accompanied by the Western employee, Lin Haoran moved through the various areas. The man’s explanations were both professional and detailed, covering everything from the company’s history and primary business to its production processes and market layout.

Lin Haoran also learned that besides this headquarters complex, Green Island Cement had established a cement packaging and storage warehouse in Kennedy Town in the Western District of Hong Kong Island, completely concealed within a large building.

This detailed explanation gave Lin Haoran a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of the Green Island Cement Company in a short amount of time.

As the largest cement producer in Hong Kong, Green Island Cement was undoubtedly the leader in the industry.

With the booming development of Hong Kong’s real estate industry, the demand for cement, a core material for infrastructure, had surged. Green Island Cement’s annual production scale had climbed year after year, reaching an impressive level.

In terms of market scale, Green Island Cement was a behemoth compared to Huafeng Cement Factory; its market share and influence were more than ten times greater.

With a scale like that, were its profits really only double those of Huafeng Cement Factory?

Lin Haoran was the first to disbelieve it.

After all, in the cement industry, production scale was closely linked to key factors like bargaining power, cost control, and market share.

With such a vast production scale, Green Island Cement should theoretically be able to secure a more advantageous position in the market, thereby achieving higher profit margins.

Furthermore, Green Island Cement enjoyed a prime geographical location in the heart of the city, which provided it with unparalleled transportation convenience.

Whether by land or sea, it could quickly and efficiently cover the entire Hong Kong region, significantly reducing logistics costs.

This cost advantage was bound to be another major contributor to Green Island Cement’s profitability.

Clearly, there was a secret hidden here that Lin Haoran was not yet privy to, and the key to it all obviously lay with the current Chairman of the Board, Harrier Centurion.

Of course, the truth should come to light soon enough.

As of today, he already controlled 30.7% of Green Island Cement’s stock. Give him another half a month at most, and his holdings would reach 40%. At that point, he could openly take control of Green Island Cement and become its true helmsman.

And if he managed to dig up any dirt on Harrier Centurion, he could still chase him away even if Harrier held on to his shares.

Faced with potential legal sanctions or voluntarily leaving Green Island Cement, it was a choice any sensible person would make wisely.

The clamor of the stock market had quieted with the closing bell. Under Su Zhixue’s precise command, the Universe Group’s trading team had reaped another bountiful harvest today, achieving outstanding results.

As night fell, Lin Haoran sat on the sofa in his living room, his deep eyes glittering with plans for the future.

He mused that once he successfully controlled Green Island Cement, it would only be the beginning of his journey. A much bigger blueprint was waiting for him to paint.

Merely owning Green Island Cement was far from the end for Lin Haoran; it was the starting point of a new campaign.

He understood that in the late 1970s, an era brimming with opportunities, there were many ways to make money. But only with substantial capital as a backstop could he support his ambitions of rapid expansion. Otherwise, all his grand designs would be nothing but castles in the air.

Therefore, how to further accumulate wealth had become his most pressing issue.

Lin Haoran had already quietly sketched out several blueprints in his mind, each path pointing toward rapid wealth growth.

Among them, a seemingly direct and tempting way to make money was to profit from the potential surge in gold prices, but Lin Haoran knew very well that the time was not yet ripe.

According to his memories and information from his previous life, between 1978 and 1979, a series of international events such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the Iran hostage crisis would lead to an escalation of global geopolitical tensions. Coupled with a global economic recession and widespread high inflation in Western countries, especially the hyperinflation in America, these factors would collectively push gold prices into a new period of soaring growth.

What was particularly striking was that in the short seven or eight months from May 1979 to January 1980, the price of gold, like a runaway horse, would skyrocket from 250 US dollars per ounce to an astonishing 850 US dollars, an increase of 340%.

In comparison, profits in traditional business sectors could rarely achieve such astounding speeds. Many large corporations would be fortunate just to avoid losses, let alone realize returns several times their investment.

Faced with such a golden opportunity, Lin Haoran naturally did not want to miss out, but he also remained calm and patient.

The current date was October 1978, still several months away from May 1979, when gold prices would truly explode.

He knew that although the price of gold had been on an upward trend for several years, the current rate of increase was relatively modest. Between October 1978 and May 1979, the price of gold would only slowly climb from around 210 US dollars per ounce to about 250 US dollars. Such a small gain was clearly not worth him tying up his funds for seven months in advance; the profit was not proportional to the time cost.

Therefore, Lin Haoran decided to bide his time and not rush into the market.

Lin Haoran’s core objective was to maximize the value of the capital in his hands, because in the world of business, timing was just as important as strategy.

For instance, he had keenly seized the window of opportunity before Li Jiacheng made a move on Green Island Cement, positioning himself in advance to soon take control of the company, successfully causing Li Jiacheng to give up on it.

This decision demonstrated his foresight and decisiveness. If he had failed to act in advance and instead invested his funds directly in the gold market, although he would have made a handsome profit in the future, he would have directly missed the opportunity to acquire a valuable asset like Green Island Cement.

Lin Haoran’s current strength was still insufficient. He was powerless against the top-tier British-owned companies, but taking down a company like Green Island Cement was still a very good move.

In Lin Haoran’s view, behind every international crisis lay a huge business opportunity.

These crisis events were like lightning in a storm, providing astute individuals with unprecedented chances to make money. The key was whether one could prepare before the storm arrived and act decisively the moment the lightning flashed.

Buy low, sell high—this seemingly simple four-word mantra actually held the secret to the success of countless top tycoons.

Almost every one of these top magnates had a celebrated history of accurately buying at the bottom.

Lin Haoran understood this principle. He knew that by simply doing business honestly, one could achieve a degree of success, but to join the ranks of the top tycoons, one had to possess an extraordinary vision, decisive decision-making, and a precise grasp of market trends. Seizing every opportunity to buy at the bottom would make his path of development much smoother.

Currently, besides keeping a close eye on the potential opportunity in the gold market, Lin Haoran was also formulating a strategy to make some quick money: taking full advantage of the impending Second World Oil Crisis.

Once he successfully resolved the matter with Green Island Cement, Lin Haoran intended to immediately implement his next plan, as he knew he did not have much time.

According to the information he recalled from his past life, the Second World Oil Crisis was imminent. Crude oil prices would soar with the outbreak of the civil war in Iran.

This key turning point was expected to manifest at the end of the year, around December.

Before that, the price of crude oil was relatively stable, remaining below 13 US dollars per barrel.

Based on this judgment, Lin Haoran decided to shift his focus to positioning himself in the oil market as soon as he had stabilized the situation at Green Island Cement.

As he was thinking, the office telephone rang.

As expected, the call was from Harrier Centurion, the current Chairman of the Board of Green Island Cement.

He said that he had already notified all of Green Island Cement’s major shareholders, including the five other British individuals and three Hong Kong Chinese.

These people all happened to be in Hong Kong, so holding a Board of Directors meeting tomorrow would be no problem at all.

The time for the board meeting had also been set: ten o’clock sharp tomorrow morning.

“Mr. Lin, the board meeting is very important. The time is set, so please do not be late,” Harrier Centurion specially reminded Lin Haoran at the end.

“Mr. Harrier, rest assured, I will attend the meeting on time!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Chapter 74: Officially Appointed as Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement

The next morning, as Su Zhixue and other employees began to arrive at their posts, Lin Haoran left Hang Fung Building with two bodyguards and headed directly to the Green Island Cement Company in Hung Hom.

Starting from Central and heading to Hung Hom, the journey wasn’t long. They passed by the bustling districts of Wan Chai and Causeway Bay, then took the express lane through the Cross-Harbour Tunnel. The car easily exited the main road and soon arrived at the headquarters of the Green Island Cement Company.

It was still early, only nine-thirty in the morning, and their scheduled board meeting was at ten o’clock.

Upon entering the Green Island Building, the Western receptionist’s attitude towards Lin Haoran was completely different. Last night’s news had made her realize that this gentleman was actually one of the company’s major shareholders.

Recalling her inappropriate words and actions from the previous day, she couldn’t help but feel a surge of remorse, finding it almost unbelievable that she had been so rash as to offend a key figure in the company.

This sudden realization left her feeling both embarrassed and regretful, as if she had just woken up from a crazy dream.

Lin Haoran, of course, paid no mind to the receptionist’s thoughts. He didn’t linger in the lobby but went straight into the elevator with his two bodyguards, heading directly to the floor of Harrier Centurion’s office.

When he arrived, he had his bodyguards wait outside in the corridor while he entered the room alone, greeting Harrier with a smile: “Mr. Harrier, good morning.”

Harrier looked up and replied with a broad smile, “Mr. Lin, good morning! It’s exactly nine thirty-five. You’re quite early. It seems you’re eager to take on the role of Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement, aren’t you?”

His tone carried a hint of lighthearted teasing.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran’s face seemed to radiate confidence and anticipation. “Indeed, Mr. Harrier. I’m ready to embrace this new role. I’ll be counting on your guidance in the future. I believe that through our joint efforts, Green Island Cement will surely see an even more brilliant tomorrow!”

Harrier Centurion could act, and so could he, Lin Haoran.

Soon, the members of the Board of Directors began to arrive at the company.

The entire Green Island Cement Company had a total of thirteen board members.

Among them were Harrier Centurion, five other British shareholders, and three Chinese shareholders, all of whom were members of the board.

In addition, there were four board members who were not Green Island Cement shareholders, but rather senior managers of the company.

The general manager of Green Island Cement, for instance, was one of the board members. Not only that, he was also the Vice Chairman of the Board of Green Island Cement. However, he held no shares in the company and was a senior executive recruited from outside.

As each board member arrived, Harrier Centurion would enthusiastically introduce them to Lin Haoran.

Thus, before the meeting even began, Lin Haoran had already met all the members of the board.

And while everyone was shocked that the company’s new shareholder was so young, what shocked them most was that not only was this young man the youngest person present, he also held the most shares!

“Alright, it’s about time. Let’s go to the conference room and start the board meeting,” Harrier Centurion, as the Chairman of the Board, said directly, seeing that the time had come.

The conference room was adjacent to the chairman’s office. Everyone left the office and arrived at a conference room after just a few steps.

The room was not spacious, but its layout was compact and elegant, with a long, oval table in the center surrounded by comfortable chairs.

It was more than enough to accommodate the original thirteen board members, plus the newly added Lin Haoran and a dedicated meeting assistant, the space being just right.

As a publicly listed company, transparency is extremely important.

Any major corporate matter, whether a strategic adjustment or a change in senior personnel, must follow strict information disclosure procedures and be announced to the public in a timely and accurate manner.

Therefore, if Lin Haoran successfully assumed the position of Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement, this important decision would have to be made public within the stipulated time.

After all, every shareholder, regardless of the size of their holdings, is an indispensable part of the company. They have the right to be informed about and participate in company affairs, which is one of the fundamental principles of corporate governance for a listed company.

“I believe everyone already knows what this board meeting is about. I’ll repeat it again: Mr. Lin Haoran has acquired 13.7% of Green Island Cement’s shares through market stock accumulation, officially becoming a major shareholder of the company. Based on this situation, as Chairman of the Board of Green Island Cement, I hereby approve Mr. Lin Haoran becoming a member of the Board of Directors!

Furthermore, there is another important matter today that requires a vote: Mr. Lin Haoran wishes to become the Vice Chairman of the Board. Although Mr. Lin is still quite young, the shares he holds are of considerable weight in Green Island Cement. His ambition is, therefore, quite understandable.

However, we face a dilemma. The position of Vice Chairman of the Board is currently held by our general manager, Mr. Ziegler. If Mr. Lin Haoran is to assume the role of Vice Chairman, then Mr. Ziegler will have to step down from that position.

Alright, I have explained the situation once more. Let us now begin the vote. Please raise your hand if you are in favor. There is no need to raise your hand if you are not.”

As the Chairman of the Board of Green Island Cement, Harrier Centurion sat in the chairman’s seat and began to preside over the day’s board meeting.

There was no option to abstain in today’s vote. After all, not supporting was the same as opposing. Even if abstention were an option, it would be equivalent to withholding support from Lin Haoran, no different from an opposing vote.

Harrier Centurion had already made up his mind back when Lin Haoran first proposed becoming Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement.

So what if he gave the Vice Chairman position to Lin Haoran? All the power was in his hands. An empty title of Vice Chairman was useless.

Being so young, his business experience must be limited. He would never discover his secret, and Harrier could continue living his extravagant life.

As the company’s second-in-command, and the de facto head of business operations and management, General Manager Ziegler undoubtedly held immense power within the company.

But what no one knew was that Mr. Ziegler was actually Harrier Centurion’s man.

Not only that, but even Green Island Cement’s chief financial officer was also one of Harrier Centurion’s people.

These two men were, in fact, pieces he had gradually put into place over the years, eventually becoming key figures in the company.

On the surface, they were both management elites recruited by Green Island Cement from the outside, but in reality, they were nothing more than Harrier Centurion’s confidants.

It was precisely because both the general manager and the CFO were his people that he could so easily embezzle company profits every year, bleeding Green Island Cement dry by methods such as falsifying accounts.

The end result was that the vast majority of the funds went into his own pocket. As for the ordinary shareholders, it was nearly impossible for them to get any significant dividends. A few of the board’s shareholders, however, had been secretly bought off by him and got to wet their beaks. For them, since their own shareholdings weren’t that large, being able to pocket a substantial extra income naturally led them to support Harrier Centurion.

It was because he could leverage his 12.6% stake to siphon off nearly 80% of Green Island Cement’s profits into his own pocket that Harrier Centurion felt so comfortable in his position as chairman.

The company’s superficial profits were low, shareholders’ dividends were low, and the stock no longer attracted attention, gradually creating a vicious cycle.

This cycle allowed him to easily control Green Island Cement with just a 12.6% stake, a position he had held for over a decade.

But who would have known that this young man, Lin Haoran, would inexplicably become the company’s major shareholder.

Not only that, there might also be an unknown potential threat in the stock market.

This had left Harrier Centurion in a very foul mood for the past two days.

This heavy feeling made it the most oppressive day of his more than a decade-long career as chairman of Green Island Cement.

As soon as Harrier Centurion finished speaking, all the board members looked at each other, gauging everyone else’s decision.

To them, Lin Haoran was too young. Under normal circumstances, someone so young was certainly not suited for the position of Vice Chairman of the Board.

Normally, they would definitely vote against him.

But Lin Haoran was also Green Island Cement’s largest shareholder. To possess such wealth at such a young age meant his future was boundless. Voting against him today would be tantamount to offending him.

So, most of the shareholders were conflicted.

However, Harrier Centurion took the lead and was the first to cast a vote in favor.

He had long ago decided to win over Lin Haoran while secretly stripping him of any real power. Even as Vice Chairman, he would only hold a nominal, powerless position.

Naturally, everyone’s eyes were on Harrier Centurion. Seeing him vote in favor, quite a few board members followed suit.

In the end, to Lin Haoran’s surprise, all the shareholder members voted in favor, while the four non-shareholder board members all voted against.

Adding in the fact that Lin Haoran was now a board member and also had a vote, his vote brought the final tally to ten against four. Lin Haoran was successfully elected Vice Chairman of the Board of Green Island Cement.

As for Lin Haoran’s election, the former Vice Chairman, Ziegler, appeared extremely calm.

After all, Harrier Centurion had already briefed him last night. He already knew the outcome and knew that Harrier would support the new major shareholder in becoming Vice Chairman.

“Congratulations, Mr. Lin, on officially becoming the Vice Chairman of the Board of Green Island Cement!” Harrier Centurion said with a smile, leading the applause.

As Harrier Centurion began to clap, the entire room erupted in enthusiastic applause.

From this, Lin Haoran could see that Harrier Centurion’s influence in the Green Island Cement Company was indeed immense.

It seemed that the shareholders essentially followed him blindly, without much thought of their own.

Lin Haoran finally understood. No wonder Harrier Centurion had been able to sit so securely in his position for over a decade.

It seems that after I take over Green Island Cement, I’ll have to get rid of Harrier Centurion as quickly as possible.

Chapter 75: Identity Revealed

As Lin Haoran was elected Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement, the news was quickly announced by the Green Island Cement Company.

The next day, the Hong Kong Commercial Daily published the news of Green Island Cement’s new Vice Chairman.

However, the news didn’t attract much attention.

Admittedly, as a long-standing British-owned company, Green Island Cement held a place in the industry. But compared to resounding British-owned giants like Jardine Matheson, Hutchison, and Hongkong Land, its market influence and reputation still paled in comparison and couldn’t be mentioned in the same breath.

Wan’an Group, Chairman’s Office.

As usual, after finishing his work, Lin Wan’an picked up a copy of the Hong Kong Commercial Daily to read.

This was a habit he had maintained for many years. By reading the newspaper, he kept abreast of the latest trends and indicators in the business world.

This keen grasp of information was undoubtedly one of the reasons for his entrepreneurial success.

Besides the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, he also read other mainstream Hong Kong publications like the Oriental Daily News and Sing Tao Daily, which were among his favorites.

“Green Island Cement Company’s Announcement Regarding the Re-election of the Vice Chairman.”

When this relatively low-key news item caught his eye, Lin Wan’an surprisingly found himself quite interested and began to read it carefully.

After all, Green Island Cement Company had been his business partner in the past.

But their partnership had ended after he founded his own Huafeng Cement Factory.

The announcement clearly stated: “Mr. Ziegler has officially stepped down from his position as Vice Chairman of the Board of Green Island Cement Company, while his position as general manager remains unchanged.”

It followed with, “Mr. Lin Haoran has officially joined the Board of Directors of Green Island Cement Company and is honored to assume the position of Vice Chairman of the Board.”

The biography of Lin Haoran below it was described rather vaguely.

Reading this, Lin Wan’an was somewhat stunned.

“Lin Haoran, isn’t that my son? How could he possibly be the Vice Chairman of the Board of Green Island Cement?”

Although the biography was vague, Lin Wan’an was certain it was his son.

He repeatedly checked every detail in the biography: age 24, a graduate of London Business School, plus that familiar name—it all matched his son, Lin Haoran, perfectly.

But how could his own son have the ability to be the Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement?

At this moment, Lin Wan’an’s feelings were indescribably complex. Everything was beyond his imagination.

Although he hoped his son would be more successful than him in the future, this was far too sudden.

He knew that Green Island Cement’s assets were stronger than their Wan’an Group.

His own son had inexplicably become the second-in-command of a company stronger than his own?

Although it was only Vice Chairman, Lin Wan’an knew the significance of the position.

At this moment, his heart was filled with doubt and urgency. More than anything, he wanted to ask his son in person if all this was true.

As the chairman of a publicly listed company who had weathered many storms in the business world for years, Lin Wan’an was usually able to maintain his inner calm and analyze even the biggest problems rationally.

But now, facing the name in the newspaper that was almost certainly his son’s, he could no longer remain calm.

This sudden news was like a giant boulder tossed into the calm lake of his heart, creating ripples upon ripples.

He was both shocked and baffled by his son’s “meteoric rise” and worried if there were unknown secrets or challenges hidden behind it.

At this moment, Lin Wan’an was a mess of emotions, desperate to get in touch with his son and unravel this mystery.

He quickly regulated his breathing to calm himself down, then unhesitatingly dialed Lin Haoran’s beeper number.

In an era when communication was not yet so advanced, beepers were considered the most cutting-edge mobile communication tools.

Since he didn’t know where Lin Haoran was and the lad hadn’t been home for some time, this was the only way Lin Wan’an could try to contact him.

Green Island Cement Company. In Lin Haoran’s new office, he was sitting at his desk, gazing out the window at the bustling factory area in the distance.

Today was his second day as Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement, so he had come here specifically.

He hardly needed to worry about Universal Investment Company anymore; Su Zhixue could manage it well enough.

In truth, with only a few employees, there wasn’t much to manage. Besides, he didn’t have any major investment targets at the moment.

Harrier Centurion had given him enough face to place his office next to the chairman’s.

His office was on the eighth floor of the building. From the window, he had a commanding view of the entire Green Island Cement factory. He could even see Causeway Bay, Wan Chai, and Central on Hong Kong Island across Victoria Harbour quite clearly. The view from this building was truly expansive.

The office contained nothing but an office chair, a desk with a telephone on it, and a bookcase behind the chair.

Lin Haoran wanted to go to the finance department to get some financial documents from the chief financial officer, but the Westerner CFO refused, stating that he did not have the authorization of Mr. Chairman.

He could only look at the publicly available financial statements, but these reports had been prepared so flawlessly that Lin Haoran couldn’t find any issues at all.

Suddenly, the beeper let out a series of urgent beeps, pulling Lin Haoran’s thoughts back from the financial statements. He picked up the beeper, glanced at the displayed number, and pressed the call-back button.

“Haoran, where are you?” On the other end of the line came the familiar, yet slightly urgent, voice of his father, Lin Wan’an.

Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback, then replied, “I’m in Kowloon, Dad. Is there something you need?”

“Oh, it’s nothing major,” Lin Wan’an’s voice held a trace of imperceptible hesitation. “It’s just… are you free tonight? Can you come home? There’s something I want to ask you.”

“Alright, I’ll come home tonight,” Lin Haoran thought for a moment and decided to agree.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran’s mind rippled with thoughts. He could roughly guess the reason for his father’s call.

Perhaps Lin Wan’an had already discovered some of his secrets. After all, in this circle, secrets don’t stay secret for long.

However, Lin Haoran had long been prepared for this.

From the day he decided to walk this unconventional path, he had anticipated that a day like this would come.

Whether it was his dealings with business seniors like Pao Yue-kong, Li Jiacheng, Michael Sandberg, and Ho Sin Hang, or the recent news announcement of his appointment as Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement, any of these could have been clues for his father to discover his secrets.

It seemed it was time to confess some of what had already been exposed to his father and reveal some of his own strength.

Previously, he hadn’t told his father because he was worried he would find out about his loans.

Now that he had become the Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement and was preparing to take direct control of the company, he no longer had to worry even if his father found out.

The Lin Haoran of today possessed the strength and confidence to be independent.

His growth and change were now obvious, and even his father, Lin Wan’an, could no longer interfere with his decisions as easily as in the past.

Of course, he didn’t intend to reveal all his cards. After all, in this complex and ever-changing business world, maintaining a certain degree of mystery and caution was crucial.

After failing to find a suitable entry point at Green Island Cement Company for the time being, Lin Haoran decisively chose to leave the company and stop wasting his time.

Today, October twentieth, was another Friday.

Not long after he returned to Universal Investment Company, the stock market closed.

Over the past three days, from the eighteenth to the twentieth, Universal Investment Company, under the leadership of Su Zhixue, had once again demonstrated the team’s trading capabilities and strong execution.

They had successfully increased their holding of Green Island Cement stock by 2.486 million shares, with the average cost controlled at 5.43 Hong Kong dollars per share.

This achievement was thanks to Li Jiacheng’s team no longer interfering, as well as Universal Investment Company’s own significantly improved control.

More notably, including the Green Island Cement shares acquired from Li Jiacheng, the total number of shares Lin Haoran now controlled had reached a staggering 17.86 million.

This meant his shareholding percentage had climbed to 35.7 percent, bringing him one step closer to the critical threshold for boldly taking control of Green Island Cement Company.

At this rate of growth, Lin Haoran was confident he could increase his stake to over 40 percent in the coming week.

Once he reached that level, he would become the undisputed controlling shareholder of Green Island Cement, and his influence would far surpass that of all other shareholders on the Board of Directors.

At that time, even if all the other shareholders united against him, they would find it difficult to shake his position.

“Everyone has worked hard this week. Thank you all for your diligent efforts. Have a great weekend!” As the clock struck six in the afternoon, a relaxed, after-work atmosphere filled Universal Investment Company.

Lin Haoran stood at his office door, smiling and nodding to each employee who passed by.

“Goodbye, Mr. Lin!” employee after employee actively bid him farewell.

When the last employee had left the office, Lin Haoran slowly turned and walked out of the Hang Fung Building with his two bodyguards.

“Weiguo, back to the Deep Water Bay villa,” Lin Haoran said, seated in the car.

“Yes, Boss,” Li Weiguo expertly started the car and smoothly merged into the flow of traffic.

More than twenty minutes later, the car arrived smoothly back at the villa in Deep Water Bay.

Getting out of the car and standing outside the open-air garage, Lin Haoran looked up at the exquisite villa.

Come to think of it, he hadn’t been back here since Li Jiacheng’s team started targeting Green Island Cement.

Unconsciously, half a month had already passed.

“Haoran, you’re back.” Hearing the car, Lin mother had already hurried out of the villa. Seeing it was Lin Haoran, she was overjoyed.

“Yes, Mother. I came back to see you,” Lin Haoran walked over, took his mother’s hand, and said with a smile.

Chapter 76: Rebuttal

Perhaps due to a busy workday, Lin Wan’an didn’t get home until around seven in the evening.

After returning, he didn’t question Lin Haoran immediately. Instead, he waited until after he had dinner with his wife and children before calling Lin Haoran into the study.

“Dad.” After entering the study, Lin Haoran casually found a place to sit down.

“Haoran, are you hiding a secret from your dad?” Lin Wan’an looked directly at Lin Haoran.

“Dad, what do you know?” Lin Haoran was very curious.

Lin Wan’an picked up a copy of the Hong Kong Commercial Daily and handed it to Lin Haoran.

When Lin Haoran saw the announcement in the newspaper, it all clicked. He finally understood where Lin Wan’an had gotten his information.

Previously, Lin Haoran had secretly wondered if his father had found out during a chance encounter with Pao Yue-kong or Li Jiacheng, learning about it through their idle chatter.

After all, they all lived in Deep Water Bay, so it was perfectly normal for neighbors to bump into each other occasionally.

“That’s right, Dad. The person mentioned in this newspaper is me,” Lin Haoran admitted frankly, a hint of relief in his voice.

Hearing his son admit it himself, a weight was finally lifted from Lin Wan’an’s heart.

For him, regardless of how his son had become a major shareholder of Green Island Cement, it was ultimately good news worthy of celebration.

“So, can you tell your dad in detail now? How much have you been hiding from me? How on earth did you come to own 13.7% of Green Island Cement’s shares?” Lin Wan’an asked again, his tone a mix of inquiry and anticipation. He wanted to learn more about his son’s dealings and experiences.

“Dad, I became very interested in the stock market while I was in university. After returning to Hong Kong, while managing the Huafeng Cement Factory, I specifically researched Hong Kong’s listed companies.

“Through my research, I discovered that Green Island Cement’s stock price was severely undervalued, far from its actual worth. What tempted me the most was the huge plot of land Green Island Cement owned in Hung Hom.

“Given Hong Kong’s development pace, it’s only a matter of time before cement factories are moved out of the city center. If that land were to be fully developed into commercial buildings, its value could multiply many times over.

“What excited me even more was that Green Island Cement’s largest shareholder only held 12.6% of the shares, which was worth no more than thirty million Hong Kong dollars at market value.

“I realized this was an excellent opportunity. By secretly acquiring shares, I might be able to gain a controlling stake in the company.

“So I was tempted. But to acquire Green Island Cement, the most important thing was money!

“Taking out a loan was the easiest way to get money, but loans have to be repaid. Even after acquiring the shares of Green Island Cement, there was no guarantee I’d have the money to pay back the loan when it was due. So I thought again about how I could quickly earn my first pot of gold after getting the loan.

“At that time, Kowloon Wharf’s stock price had hit rock bottom. I astutely sensed the deeper meaning behind Mr. Pao Yue-kong’s acquisition of Mr. Li Jiacheng’s shares—he was aiming for a controlling stake in Kowloon Wharf.

“I concluded that a fierce battle over Kowloon Wharf’s stock was inevitable between Mr. Pao Yue-kong and Jardine Matheson.

“So, I decisively chose to use the Huafeng Cement Factory as collateral to secretly purchase a large number of Kowloon Wharf shares at a low price.

“I originally wanted to discuss this with you, Dad, but I know your personality. You don’t like to run a business by taking out loans. If I had told you, you would have strongly opposed it, so in the end, I chose to hide it from you.

“Just as I predicted, Kowloon Wharf’s stock price subsequently soared. I successfully sold my shares at a high of over seventy Hong Kong dollars, making a handsome profit.

“Then I immediately took the first pot of gold I had earned and continued my covert stock accumulation of Green Island Cement. And just like that, I became Green Island Cement’s major shareholder.

“Of course, although I’m now a major shareholder, the Chairman of the Board of Green Island Cement, Mr. Harrier Centurion, is deeply entrenched in the company. Even as a major shareholder, I can’t dislodge him. So, in the end, using my status as a major shareholder, I became the Vice Chairman of the Board of Green Island Cement.”

Lin Haoran told his father a half-true account of his experience, showcasing both his business insight and decisiveness, while also revealing some strategic considerations.

Of course, he wasn’t going to lay all his cards on the table. That was a secret he’d rather keep to himself.

As Lin Haoran spoke, Lin Wan’an’s brows furrowed tighter and tighter, his eyes filled with worry over his son’s risky actions.

“Haoran, what you did was indeed too risky. But since what’s done is done, I won’t blame you any further.

“For you to have achieved so much at your age, as your father, I am proud of you.

“I just hope that from now on, you will act more cautiously and never venture down the path of borrowing so easily.

“In all my years of running the Wan’an Group, I have always adhered to the principle of steady development, taking it one step at a time. This has kept our group’s debt ratio the lowest among Hong Kong’s many real estate companies.

“This financial health gives us more resilience and room to maneuver when facing a potential real estate crisis.

“Remember, being steady is the path to longevity. Don’t overlook potential risks for the sake of short-term gains.”

Lin Wan’an tried to impart his own business philosophy to his son, hoping he would learn from it and have a more stable and successful future.

However, Lin Haoran naturally did not agree with Lin Wan’an’s philosophy.

To him, his father’s business philosophy was far too conservative, which was the very reason for the Wan’an Group’s slow development over the years.

However, deep down, Lin Haoran held a completely different view of Lin Wan’an’s business philosophy.

To him, his father’s steady yet somewhat conservative approach was precisely the reason the Wan’an Group had failed to grow rapidly for so long.

“Dad, I remember that Mr. Li Jiacheng entered the real estate industry at almost the same time as you, right?” Lin Haoran retorted.

Hearing this, Lin Wan’an’s gaze fell slightly as he was lost in memories of the past. He slowly nodded. “That’s true. Mr. Li Jiacheng and I entered the construction and real estate sector around the same time.”

Lin Haoran got up and poured a glass of drinking water for his father and himself before sitting down to continue.

“Look at Mr. Li Jiacheng’s Cheung Kong Holdings Group. It has now become the flagship of Hong Kong’s Chinese-owned property firms, its reputation plain for all to see.

“In contrast, our Wan’an Group, despite its solid foundation and minimal debt, can only be considered an upper-mid-tier company in Hong Kong’s fiercely competitive market. The gap between us and the top giants is self-evident.

“Examples like this are everywhere in the business world, too numerous to count.

“I don’t mean to belittle your efforts or achievements, but the facts are right in front of us, and we have to face them.

“Setting aside the success models of British-owned companies for a moment, just look at the giants among the Chinese-owned property firms: the Fok family, Sun Hung Kai Properties, New World Development Group, Henderson Land Development Company… which one of them didn’t propel their growth by actively seeking external collaborations and flexibly utilizing various resources?

“The splendor they enjoy today is inseparable from their skill in leveraging external forces.

“During my studies in the UK, I read extensively on business management—wisdom accumulated across time and space.

“It taught me one thing: on the path of business, the courage to break through and the willingness to take risks are essential for achieving greatness.

“If one clings to old ways, I’m afraid one’s achievements will ultimately be limited. Isn’t business, in essence, a relentless race of competition and transcendence?”

Now, after achieving a series of successes, Lin Haoran was filled with confidence and had the courage to rebut Lin Wan’an.

Originally, he had planned to outwardly agree with his father’s views while continuing to act according to his own plans in private.

However, during this in-depth conversation with Lin Wan’an, his thoughts quietly began to change.

Lin Haoran understood that after taking control of Green Island Cement, the next focus would be on how to effectively develop the limitless potential of the land in Hung Hom.

And relocating the cement factory was an essential first step.

In the past two days at the company, he had learned that although Green Island Cement had built three commercial building projects—the Green Island Building, Qingdao Building, and Green Castle Building—in the 1960s, those were all outsourced to professional construction teams. The company itself had no experience in real estate development.

To maximize the value of the Hung Hom land, Lin Haoran believed it was necessary to cooperate with a company that had extensive experience in real estate development.

And the Wan’an Group was clearly a good candidate. After all, why let profits flow to outsiders?

This notion grew clearer in his mind, even sparking an even bolder idea—to have his father retire as soon as possible so he could take the helm himself, leading the Wan’an Group and Green Island Cement to forge a new future together.

Once this idea took root in his mind, it spread like wildfire and could not be contained.

As for the family’s succession contest, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, it had become as insignificant as child’s play.

He was no longer willing to waste time waiting for that nebulous one-year deadline, because with his current achievements and strength, his older brother, Lin Haoning, could no longer hope to catch up.

Faced with his son’s blunt words, Lin Wan’an felt a stir in his heart but found it difficult to get truly angry.

He knew very well that although his son’s words were harsh, they held a measure of truth.

For years, he had been reflecting on the gap between himself and the industry giants, wondering why, despite his diligent management of the Wan’an Group, he still struggled to close the distance with those leading companies. In fact, the gap had only grown wider.

The desire to reach the pinnacle of the business world had never died in Lin Wan’an’s heart.

He too dreamed of one day standing at the top of the industry, looking down on all others.

However, the caution and conservatism in his character had always led him to choose a relatively stable path, even if it meant giving up on some potential risks and opportunities.

At this moment, looking at his confident and ambitious son, Lin Wan’an felt a mix of emotions.

He was proud of his son’s growth, yet he also felt an unprecedented sense of confusion and contemplation about his own future.

“Dad, the reason I haven’t paid much attention to the Huafeng Cement Factory is because I never intended to waste too much time there. With my current achievements, never mind giving my older brother one year, even if you gave him twice that time, he’d have a hard time surpassing me. My goal is already very clear: I will take over Green Island Cement and gain complete control of this major British-owned company!” Lin Haoran continued before his father could reply.

Hearing this, Lin Wan’an was both pleased and worried.

He sighed softly and said earnestly, “Haoran, your ambitions are lofty, and as your father, I am truly happy for you. But the situation at Green Island Cement is far more complicated than you imagine.

“Even with your talent, controlling this company will be no easy feat. Although Harrier Centurion doesn’t have many shares, his influence in Green Island Cement is deeply rooted. His influence over the other shareholders is not something you can easily shake.

“Even if I and the Wan’an Group behind me give you our full support, it will be very difficult for you to win this fight. You are still too young.” Lin Wan’an sighed and shook his head, holding out little hope for the matter.

To him, Lin Haoran’s goal was too difficult to achieve.

Lin Haoran’s current accomplishments had already surprised him greatly. Taking control of Green Island Cement Company? Even he, Lin Wan’an, wouldn’t dare to dream of it.

Chapter 77: Evergo Corporation?

“Dad, you’ve always been cautious and steady your entire life. While you may not have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the business tycoons, your achievements are already admired by countless people. Now, your health is deteriorating. As your son, I don’t want to see you continue like this. You should retire from the business world and focus on your health. Since you don’t dare to take risks in business, how about making a bet with your son? You can consider it a new kind of venture.” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Oh? What kind of bet?” Lin Wan’an was instantly intrigued, and he was also deeply comforted by his son’s concern.

“If I can successfully acquire a controlling stake in Green Island Cement and become its chairman within the next two months, I hope you’ll wager the controlling stake of Wan’an Group and hand it over to me. On the other hand, if I fail to achieve this goal, I’m willing to give up my position as vice-chairman of Green Island Cement, and I will also entrust the management of my 13.7% stake to you,” Lin Haoran declared with full confidence.

“Haoran, where does this confidence come from?” Lin Wan’an was taken aback, completely astonished.

“Dad, I have my own plans and preparations. Now, it’s just a matter of whether you’re willing to take this bet with me,” Lin Haoran said, a slight smile playing on his lips.

Lin Wan’an fell into deep thought.

He knew his health was declining by the day, and the issue of choosing a successor was pressing. He had originally thought his eldest son had the highest chance of winning and his younger son had almost no hope, but now it seemed the outcome was the complete opposite.

This meant that the heir was essentially Lin Haoran. He would not go back on his word; otherwise, he would have failed as a father.

After careful consideration, Lin Wan’an finally spoke: “Haoran, since you are so confident, what’s the harm in making this bet with you? If I win, all this will be yours after I’m gone anyway. But if I lose, it will prove that you have truly surpassed me and possess even more exceptional business talent. I will willingly hand over Wan’an Group to you. Alright, I agree!”

He had thought it through. If Haoran could win this bet, it would mean he would become the helmsman of Green Island Cement in just two short months. This achievement would not only surpass his own position as chairman of Wan’an Group but also demonstrate Haoran’s extraordinary business acumen and leadership.

It would mean that Haoran already possessed the ability to inherit and lead Wan’an Group to new heights. He could rest assured entrusting the group to him.

“Dad, it’s a deal. You can’t go back on your word!” Lin Haoran beamed, a cunning glint in his eyes.

He had only proposed the bet on a whim, never expecting his father to agree so readily. It had certainly taken him by surprise.

In Lin Haoran’s mind, the controlling stake in Green Island Cement was already in the bag.

He naturally understood the weight of the shares in his possession and knew even better that in the world of business, strength was the ultimate deciding factor.

Although Harrier Centurion had deep roots in Green Island Cement, in the face of an absolute disparity in power, all the so-called scheming and networking would become utterly fragile.

“Haoran, don’t worry. I’m a man of my word. I will never go back on it,” Lin Wan’an said, looking at his son’s confident expression with a mix of comfort and slight worry.

The marketplace was a battlefield, where every step required caution. But he also hoped that since his son had this level of confidence and determination, he would surely be able to carve out a world for himself.

What father doesn’t wish for his son’s success, hoping their child will surpass them and achieve an even more glorious career?

Moreover, he himself had reached the age of fifty, while Haoran was in his prime. His twenties were the golden years for chasing dreams.

Seeing his younger son possess such capability and courage, he felt a sense of relief.

Perhaps Haoran would walk a path completely different from his own, and one day, he might truly stand at the pinnacle of Hong Kong’s business world!

Lin Wan’an had wanted to press for more details, but Lin Haoran didn’t humor him. There were some things he didn’t intend to explain too clearly.

So, before long, Lin Haoran went downstairs to the main hall and started watching television with his mother.

He only came back once every half a month or so; it was time he spent some quality time with his parents.

“Haoran, are you free tomorrow?” his mother asked, her eyes full of expectation.

“What is it, mother? Is there something you need?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“If you’re free, I’d like you to accompany me to Aberdeen tomorrow. It’s been a long time since you’ve seen your maternal grandfather,” his mother replied.

“Alright, mother, I’ll go with you.” Hearing this, Lin Haoran agreed without the slightest hesitation.

From what he could recall, although his maternal grandfather’s family wasn’t wealthy, they had always treated him very well.

His grandfather’s home was in Aberdeen, which wasn’t far from Deep Water Bay. In fact, the easternmost part of Aberdeen bordered Deep Water Bay.

“Then it’s settled. I’ll call your grandfather right now and tell him we’ll be over tomorrow morning.” A wide smile instantly spread across his mother’s face when she heard him agree.

In the blink of an eye, the night passed quietly.

As Hong Kong entered October, the air still carried a touch of warmth but had lost the oppressive heat of midsummer.

At nine in the morning, under the gentle sunlight, Lin Haoran was pulled out the door by his eager mother right after finishing a hearty breakfast.

It was obvious that his mother’s desire to return to her parents’ home was written all over her face, a mix of urgency and joy.

The Mercedes-Benz slowly drove out of the Lin family villa, heading west.

Li Weiguo had never been to Aberdeen, but there was only one direct road from Deep Water Bay, so there was no need for directions. However, the road was not wide and had many turns, so despite the short distance, they couldn’t drive fast.

About ten minutes later, the Mercedes-Benz entered the area of his maternal grandfather’s village.

Though just a stone’s throw from the affluent district of Deep Water Bay and sharing the same southern sea view of Hong Kong Island, the scenery here was vastly different, like two parallel worlds.

The Deep Water Bay and Repulse Bay areas were lined with luxurious mansions, showcasing opulence and prestige.

But turning towards Aberdeen, a different scene unfolded: warehouses and factories dotted the landscape, docks bustled with activity, and small workshops and fishing villages weaved a simple yet vibrant tapestry of life.

The stark environmental contrast within such a short distance was truly remarkable.

Lin Haoran’s maternal grandfather’s home was located in Wong Chuk Hang Village, a very ordinary small village in Aberdeen.

It was worth noting that just beside the village, the world-renowned Hong Kong Ocean Park had officially opened in January of last year. It not only became a popular attraction for tourists but also created an invisible boundary between Aberdeen and Deep Water Bay, separating them into two distinctly different worlds.

After Lin father had found success in his career, he had a grand five-story building constructed in the village specifically for Lin Haoran’s maternal grandfather.

With the booming industrial development in the Aberdeen area, his grandfather’s family lived a very comfortable life on the rental income from these properties, free from financial worries.

Although his maternal grandfather was over eighty, he was hale and hearty, with a steady gait, showing no signs of old age. It was easy to believe he could live healthily to be ninety or even a hundred.

After lunch, Lin Haoran chatted with his grandfather for a while before heading downstairs out of boredom.

He saw his younger maternal uncle holding a briefcase, looking as if he were in a hurry.

Intrigued, Lin Haoran walked over and asked, “Younger Uncle, where are you headed?”

His younger maternal uncle turned around and replied with a smile, “Oh, Haoran, I’m just about to go collect rent. A few tenants in the village are due to pay for this month.”

As a member of the village and with a prominent and wealthy son-in-law like Lin Wan’an as his backer, his maternal grandfather’s family naturally enjoyed excellent living conditions.

They had the foresight to purchase a large amount of land in the village over a decade ago, and these plots had now become the family’s “cash cow”.

Some of the land was carefully planned and leased to businesses needing warehouses, while other plots were rented out to startups for small workshops.

Collecting rent?

Lin Haoran was a bit puzzled. He asked curiously, “Uncle, isn’t today the 21st? Why are you collecting rent now? Generally, isn’t rent paid at the beginning of the month?”

His younger maternal uncle chuckled and explained, “Oh, Haoran, you might not know. While most tenants pay at the beginning of the month, there are special cases. For example, some tenants’ billing cycles are mid-month or end-of-month, and others might slightly adjust their payment time based on their business’s cash flow. I always collect in advance anyway, so I’m not worried about late payments. Today, I’m just going to collect from the tenants whose payments are about due.”

Lin Haoran nodded in understanding, a flicker of interest in his eyes. “Younger Uncle, I’m getting bored just sitting around here, and my mother is going to be chatting with Grandpa for a while longer. How about I go with you to collect rent? Just for the experience!”

“Haha, sure, Haoran! Hop on my motorcycle, and let’s go together!” his younger maternal uncle laughed heartily.

Although his uncle was over fifty, he still had the energy of a young man. For well-off villagers like them, a motorcycle was still the preferred choice for convenient travel.

However, Lin Haoran shook his head, pointed to his Mercedes-Benz parked nearby, and suggested, “Younger Uncle, let’s not take the motorcycle. You can ride in my car; it’s more comfortable.”

His younger maternal uncle laughed loudly and didn’t refuse. “Alright then, I’ll ride on your coattails, Haoran, and enjoy your luxury car.”

With that, he happily accepted Lin Haoran’s invitation.

Most of the tenants were located on the outskirts of Wong Chuk Hang Village. Although it was only a few hundred meters from his grandfather’s house, the sun was scorching, and walking would have been a hassle.

His grandfather’s properties were cleverly connected in one area, making the task of collecting rent exceptionally convenient.

Following his uncle’s lead, they first entered a small workshop that specialized in making gloves.

A short while later, his younger maternal uncle emerged from the workshop with a beaming face. Clearly, this rent collection had gone very smoothly.

Lin Haoran followed closely behind, finding the experience quite novel and interesting.

Afterward, the group passed through a narrow alley next to the workshop, full of the sights and sounds of daily life. The four of them—his younger maternal uncle, Lin Haoran, Li Weiguo, and Li Weidong—arrived at the next small workshop behind the first one.

Just as Lin Haoran was about to follow his uncle inside, he was suddenly captivated by the workshop’s sign and involuntarily stopped in his tracks.

“Evergo Corporation?”

He read the name aloud. It seemed to strike a chord deep within his memory, feeling exceptionally familiar.

Chapter 78: Recruiting a Future Tycoon as a Subordinate

Amigo Company. Wasn’t this the famous Amigo Group of the future?

He never expected to encounter this company, founded by the great tycoon Liu, in such a remote corner of Hong Kong.

What surprised him even more was that this company was actually one of his maternal grandfather’s tenants.

To confirm his suspicion, Lin Haoran couldn’t contain his curiosity and quickly walked into the small workshop.

Although the interior of the workshop was not large, it was well-organized. His younger maternal uncle was speaking with a young man in a small office.

During their conversation, the young man took out a pre-prepared rent payment from a drawer and politely handed it to his uncle.

The younger maternal uncle took the money, counted it carefully, and after confirming the amount was correct, he nodded in satisfaction and placed the cash securely in his bag.

This young man had a square, resolute face. His eyes glinted with intelligence, and between his two thick eyebrows, a mole that signified wealth was clearly visible, adding to his extraordinary air.

Initially, Lin Haoran’s guess was based solely on the name and the situation. But now, upon seeing the man in person, his speculation instantly turned into solid confirmation.

That’s right, the man before him was none other than Liu Luanxiong, the future super-tycoon who would command the business world and be worth hundreds of billions.

Decades from now, his name would echo throughout Hong Kong and even the global business community as a prominent figure at the top of the rich lists.

At this moment, however, he was just the young boss of a small, remote workshop, personally handing the rent to his uncle. The scene made Lin Haoran feel a surge of emotion and surprise.

Fate was truly a curious thing. Who could have imagined that this seemingly ordinary young man would one day achieve such magnificent success?

Lin Haoran glanced around. Although the workshop had limited space, it cleverly accommodated several dozen employees, making it feel both compact and full of energy.

The main production line centered on assembling ceiling fans, with rows of unfinished fan components laid out neatly.

Besides ceiling fans, he also noticed a variety of other products piled in a corner, such as light fixtures, heaters, and insect killers, showcasing the small workshop’s diverse production capabilities.

The employees were all at their respective stations, from polishing and assembling parts to the final quality inspection. Every step seemed well-organized, like a small but efficient assembly line operating quietly.

To be able to organize the production process so efficiently in such a simple and crowded environment, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but admire it silently.

Lin Haoran had a deep impression of the famous Liu Luanxiong from his past life.

According to his memories, Liu Luanxiong had indeed started in the ceiling fan industry, unbelievably amassing a fortune of over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars in just two to three years.

At this moment, Liu Luanxiong was only twenty-seven years old and had yet to display the domineering and commanding presence he would have in the business world later on, which made him seem much more approachable.

An idea suddenly sparked in Lin Haoran’s mind. Why not leverage Liu Luanxiong’s potential and foresight to make money for himself?

He was well aware that from 1978 to 1980, the fan industry was a bestseller in America.

This coincided with the global oil crisis. As oil prices skyrocketed, economic growth came under immense pressure, and countries around the world, especially developed nations, began a wave of energy conservation.

In this context, fans, being relatively energy-efficient appliances compared to power-hungry air conditioners, were naturally in high demand.

Although he knew the fan industry would be extremely profitable in these two years, he had no experience in the field, so he had never considered entering it.

But now, he learned that Liu Luanxiong was in the early stages of his business. All signs pointed to the likelihood that Liu Luanxiong was facing a shortage of funds; otherwise, he wouldn’t have chosen to start a business with a friend in such a rudimentary workshop.

This observation gave him an idea. Perhaps he could find an opportunity to cooperate with Liu Luanxiong. Liu’s keen insight into market trends and his knowledge of the fan industry were indispensable keys to entrepreneurial success.

And as it happened, he had relatively abundant capital to back him up.

“Haoran, let’s go. On to the next one.”

After collecting the rent, his younger maternal uncle had no intention of lingering, as there were other tenants from whom he needed to collect rent.

“Uncle, you go on ahead. I’d like to walk around here for a bit,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, waving his hand at his uncle.

“Alright then, I’ll be on my way.” Seeing that his nephew seemed interested in the humble little workshop, his uncle didn’t say much and left on his own.

Just as Liu Luanxiong was about to leave and get back to work, Lin Haoran’s voice suddenly called out to him.

“Mr. Liu, please wait a moment.”

Hearing this, Liu Luanxiong turned around in confusion, looked at Lin Haoran, and asked, “May I help you?”

Although Liu Luanxiong didn’t know Lin Haoran’s identity, he had just heard him call the landlord “Uncle,” so he assumed Lin Haoran must be the landlord’s nephew.

“Shall we talk in your office?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Fine, but make it quick. I have to get back to work. If there’s a person missing on the assembly line, the speed will slow down a lot.” Although he wasn’t sure what Lin Haoran wanted to talk about, Liu Luanxiong still agreed.

After all, this was the landlord’s nephew; he couldn’t afford to offend him.

“Aren’t you the boss of this factory? Why do you need to help out on the production line yourself?” Lin Haoran asked curiously, looking a bit surprised.

“It’s mainly to save on labor costs. Labor in Hong Kong isn’t cheap these days, and we’ve had a high volume of orders recently, so I really have to pitch in. I started this factory with a friend. It’s not just me; he’s busy on the assembly line too. See over there? The one with the glasses is my friend,” Liu Luanxiong explained as he led Lin Haoran towards the office, pointing towards the production line.

Lin Haoran nodded upon hearing this and decided not to dwell on the issue.

The office, though small at only about ten square meters, was cleverly separated from the noisy factory floor by simple tin sheets, creating a relatively quiet space.

“Please, have a seat. May I ask your name, sir?” Liu Luanxiong politely pulled out a chair, gesturing for Lin Haoran to sit down, and asked casually.

Lin Haoran smiled, extended his hand, and introduced himself, “Let me introduce myself. My surname is Lin, my name is Lin Haoran. I am the son of Lin Wan’an, Chairman of the Wan’an Group, and I am also currently the Vice Chairman of the Green Island Cement Company.”

Seeing Lin Haoran extend his right hand, Liu Luanxiong subconsciously wiped his own hand on his shirt first as a sign of respect before shaking Lin Haoran’s hand firmly.

However, as Lin Haoran’s words registered, an expression of disbelief instantly appeared on Liu Luanxiong’s face. He stared at Lin Haoran, momentarily stunned.

“The Vice Chairman of the Green Island Cement Company?” Liu Luanxiong repeated, his tone filled with unconcealed amazement.

In Hong Kong, the name Green Island Cement Company was legendary. As the largest cement producer in Hong Kong, it supplied the majority of the city’s cement. From the construction of ordinary family homes to the development of large-scale real estate projects, nothing could be done without Green Island Cement’s products.

Liu Luanxiong was naturally well aware of the company’s fame.

As for being the son of the Wan’an Group’s Chairman, while it was a bit surprising, it was also within reason.

After all, as a tenant here, he had long heard about the connection between the landlord and the Wan’an Group, so it wasn’t strange that the landlord’s nephew was a member of the Lin family.

What truly shocked him was that Lin Haoran was also the Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement.

“In fact, I only just took over as Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement recently. The news was reported in yesterday’s Hong Kong Commercial Daily. If you have any doubts, Mr. Liu, feel free to look up that newspaper. You’ll be able to verify it easily enough,” Lin Haoran explained with a smile, his tone calm and confident.

At this moment, Liu Luanxiong’s attitude towards Lin Haoran had visibly changed.

Previously, he might have seen Lin Haoran merely as a young man slightly younger than himself, but now, his eyes held a newfound respect that he couldn’t hide.

After all, Lin Haoran’s current status was the Vice Chairman of a renowned publicly listed company, while he was just a small boss running a small workshop.

This disparity in status forced Liu Luanxiong to re-evaluate the young man before him.

“Mr. Lin, you are truly young and accomplished. I’m very impressed,” Liu Luanxiong praised him sincerely.

At that moment, he keenly felt the gap between himself and Lin Haoran, which further fueled his determination to work hard and close that gap.

“I wonder, Mr. Lin, what specific matter did you want to discuss with me?” Liu Luanxiong’s voice was steady and firm.

The Liu family was wealthy, and he had seen his share of the world, so he wasn’t nervous because of Lin Haoran’s status. After all, there was no direct business relationship or deep personal connection between them.

Hearing this, a smile touched the corners of Lin Haoran’s lips. He asked directly and sincerely, “Mr. Liu, are you interested in expanding your production scale?”

A glint of light flashed in Liu Luanxiong’s eyes. He answered without hesitation, “Of course! I’ve always wanted to expand production and increase efficiency. But the reality is, I don’t have enough capital to act immediately. However, I believe that if you give me enough time, I can definitely save up the money. When that happens, I’ll move out of here, buy a piece of land in a proper industrial park, and build my own big factory!”

“I’ve noticed that although your factory’s environment is relatively simple, your employees are exceptionally efficient and orderly. This is enough to prove your profound knowledge and unique insights into the fan industry, Mr. Liu. Coincidentally, I’m also interested in entering this field. After seeing your factory’s potential, an idea came to me.”

Lin Haoran’s tone was gentle yet full of sincerity as he said, “I’d like to propose investing in your company to provide sufficient funds for its development. This way, we can rapidly expand Amigo’s scale together and seize the golden opportunity in the fan industry. I wonder if you would be willing, Mr. Liu?”

From his memories of his past life, Lin Haoran knew that Liu Luanxiong had started with an inconspicuous small workshop and, with his outstanding business talent, accumulated a fortune of over one hundred million in just two to three years—and that was after sharing the profits with his business partner.

This was ample proof of the astonishing profit margins and immense growth potential of the fan industry during those two to three years.

Now, Lin Haoran was fortunate enough to meet Liu Luanxiong before he had achieved his great success, which was undoubtedly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Liu Luanxiong was a genius in the field of business, possessing sharp market insight and extraordinary commercial wisdom.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had already made up his mind. He would use this advantage to join forces with Liu Luanxiong, rapidly expand the scale of the Amigo Company, and thus secure a place in the opportunity-filled fan market.

Perhaps in two years, it could earn him a few hundred million!

Small investment, big returns—that was the kind of thing Lin Haoran loved to do.

Upon hearing this, although Liu Luanxiong was inwardly delighted, his rational mind quickly made him frown.

He understood that such a decision was not to be taken lightly. It involved not only his personal interests but also those of his partner and the future of the entire company.

“Mr. Lin, your proposal is indeed very attractive, but this matter is extremely important to me.” Liu Luanxiong’s voice became solemn. “I need to discuss it carefully with my partner. After all, it concerns the long-term development of our company. Please give me some time, and I will give you a reply as soon as possible.”

“Of course, Mr. Liu. You can take your time to consider it. There’s no rush.” Lin Haoran smiled and handed him an exquisite business card. “This is my contact information. If you have any further thoughts on the partnership or any questions, you can contact me at any time. I believe time will prove that our partnership will be a win-win.”

Lin Haoran had just observed the change in Liu Luanxiong’s expression. From the initial joy on his face, he could sense his desire to partner with an investor with financial strength like himself.

After all, for any entrepreneur just starting out, obtaining external financial support meant being able to advance their business more quickly and achieve greater goals.

But he also understood that the company did not belong to Liu Luanxiong alone, so it was only natural that he needed to discuss it with his partner before making a decision.

Chapter 79: It’s Hard Not to Get Rich

Stepping out of the Amigo workshop, he happened upon his younger maternal uncle, who had just finished collecting rent and was beaming with pleasure.

“Haoran, let’s go. The sun is scorching. Wouldn’t it be nice to turn on the fan at home?” his uncle said with a touch of banter and a mischievous smile.

Lin Haoran readily agreed. He led the others back to the Mercedes-Benz, started the engine, and drove slowly toward his maternal grandfather’s house.

This trip had originally been nothing more than a casual stroll in his free time. He had never expected to inadvertently run into Liu Luanxiong before his meteoric rise; even he was surprised.

After arriving at his grandfather’s house, Lin Haoran gathered with his grandfather’s family, chatting and laughing. Time seemed to slow down at that moment.

It wasn’t until three in the afternoon, when the sun was no longer so fierce, that he and his mother said their goodbyes and drove back home to Deep Water Bay.

The two homes weren’t far apart, so Lin’s mother often went back to her parents’ home. She had brought Lin Haoran along this time specifically to help her son grow closer to her side of the family.

That evening, Lin Haoran received a call from Liu Luanxiong.

Over the phone, Liu Luanxiong’s voice was sincere and expectant. He told Lin Haoran that although his business partner wasn’t very interested in the financing project, he personally was extremely keen on it and hoped to find a suitable time to discuss it in depth with him.

After some discussion, the two finally set a meeting time for the following Monday at eight in the evening. The location was set on the 19th floor of the Hang Fung Building, a landmark in Central, which was the very floor where Universal Investment Company’s office was located.

There was a reason for choosing Monday. As Liu Luanxiong explained, the company’s workload happened to be in a relatively light period. One batch of goods had been successfully shipped out, while the raw materials for the next batch had not yet arrived, freeing up valuable time to focus on the meeting with Lin Haoran.

In contrast, his team was usually immersed in a fast-paced work schedule, often working more than ten hours a day, making it nearly impossible to break away for additional business negotiations.

After spending two days at home, Lin Haoran returned to Universal Investment Company in Central.

On Monday morning, Lin Haoran went to the Green Island Cement Company again.

He had already made up his mind: if he really couldn’t find any evidence of Harrier Centurion embezzling company funds, he would wait until he controlled forty percent of the shares, then directly convene a board meeting and force his way into power.

At that time, he would dismiss the chief financial officer and then find some clues from there. To completely drive Harrier Centurion out, he needed criminal evidence against him.

Otherwise, with the 12.6% of shares Harrier Centurion owned, Lin Haoran would be powerless if he wanted to cling to his seat on the Green Island Cement Board of Directors.

As for how to handle the company’s finances after dismissing the chief financial officer, Lin Haoran already had a plan.

Over the weekend, he had laid his cards on the table with his father, Lin Wan’an. In other words, Lin Wan’an now knew what he was doing at Green Island Cement.

When the time came, it would certainly be no problem to transfer some financial staff from the Wan’an Group over to Green Island Cement.

After all, although the Wan’an Group was a publicly listed company, Lin Wan’an controlled over fifty percent of its shares, giving him an absolute controlling stake.

With Lin Wan’an’s cautious personality, he naturally wouldn’t leave any opportunity for someone to secretly attempt a takeover of the Wan’an Group.

Returning to the Vice Chairman’s office at Green Island Cement, Lin Haoran still had no leads for his investigation. After all, he had just joined the company and had no confidants here, which made it inconvenient to get things done.

Since he couldn’t get any key information from the finance department, he decided to pay a visit to the personnel department.

From the personnel department, Lin Haoran obtained the files of Green Island Cement Company’s mid-to-high-level management, ostensibly to familiarize himself with the company’s senior staff.

Li Weidong carried a stack of files and followed Lin Haoran back to the Vice Chairman’s office.

Lin Haoran gave them a quick look. These mid-to-high-level managers were basically all Westerners. Aside from a few Chinese individuals in middle management, there were none in the upper echelons.

But he could understand. This was a British-owned company, after all, so it was only natural that the senior management would be predominantly Westerners.

Just as he planned, once he took over Green Island Cement, it would transform from a British-owned company into a Chinese-owned enterprise. At that point, he intended to gradually replace the management team with Chinese staff.

Lin Haoran focused his reading on all the senior executives of the company.

“Deputy General Manager Burton, Australian, joined Green Island Cement in 1976, responsible for the sales and after-sales departments.”

The Deputy General Manager couldn’t even get on the Board of Directors?

Lin Haoran noticed this issue.

He knew Green Island Cement had four non-shareholder board members. Besides the general manager, Mr. Ziegler, the other three were directors of important departments: the chief financial officer, the marketing director, and the public relations director.

Previously, he wasn’t familiar with the company’s senior management. When he attended the board meeting, he had thought the company didn’t have a deputy general manager. It turned out they did; this deputy just hadn’t made it onto the board.

Could it be that he was being sidelined?

It was very likely.

Because Lin Haoran knew that while a deputy general manager was definitely senior management, the inability to join Green Island Cement’s board indicated he was not part of the core senior management.

Perhaps he could start his investigation with Burton.

Lin Haoran had an idea.

Putting down Burton’s file, Lin Haoran picked up the files of the few Chinese middle managers and looked through them again, then pulled out the resume of the one with the most seniority.

“Liu Zhenxing, 48 years old, 25 years of service at Green Island Cement. He has been working here since graduating from university, starting as an engineer. He is currently a supervisor in the quality department.”

He’s the one.

Lin Haoran had another target.

Since he had no leads, he might as well have a good chat with these Green Island Cement old-timers. They surely knew a lot about the company.

Harrier Centurion probably wouldn’t have gone so far as to buy off these middle managers to be his confidants, as there was no need.

After jotting down the contact numbers for Liu Zhenxing and Burton, Lin Haoran had the files returned to the personnel department.

For him, the goal was achieved, and these files were no longer needed for the time being.

The Green Island Cement matter could be handled slowly.

In the afternoon, Lin Haoran left the Green Island Cement Company.

He had to discuss the collaboration with Liu Luanxiong tonight, so the affairs at Green Island Cement were not urgent for now.

Back at Universal Investment Company, Lin Haoran checked the day’s trading situation.

The pace of stock accumulation today wasn’t as fast as last Friday, but it wasn’t much slower either. His holdings of Green Island Cement stock had increased by another 867,000 shares.

Evening arrived quickly.

Around 7:50 PM, Liu Luanxiong appeared on the 19th floor of the Hang Fung Building in a hurry.

He soon found his destination for the day: Universal Investment Company.

Accustomed to working in a factory, Liu Luanxiong was suddenly struck with envy upon arriving in such a high-end place filled with top talent.

“I wonder when I’ll be able to have my own office in a location like this,” Liu Luanxiong thought to himself.

Over the weekend, he had taken the time to find a copy of Friday’s Hong Kong Commercial Daily.

Sure enough, it contained the announcement of Lin Haoran’s appointment as Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement.

After confirming this information, Liu Luanxiong was even more eager to secure a partnership with Lin Haoran.

Although his family was very wealthy, they had not provided him with any financial assistance—not even his father.

So, right now, Liu Luanxiong was truly short on cash!

Even the vast majority of his start-up capital was borrowed.

“Mr. Liu, come and have a seat,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, pointing to the sofa by the floor-to-ceiling window as he saw Liu Luanxiong arrive.

This area had become a lounge for the company. During their breaks, employees could sit here and, through the large window, overlook more than half of Hong Kong’s city center.

Liu Luanxiong observed the environment, especially the night view of Victoria Harbour outside the window, and felt even more envious.

Today, Liu Luanxiong had specifically changed into a suit before coming, showing the importance he placed on this matter.

“Hello, Mr. Lin,” Liu Luanxiong said, appearing very composed.

“Mr. Liu, has your friend had a change of heart?” Lin Haoran asked, sitting opposite Liu Luanxiong.

“Mr. Lin, I’ve discussed this with my friend multiple times over the past weekend. He believes that bringing in another shareholder would indirectly divide the profits. Furthermore, a substantial capital injection would greatly dilute our equity, so he has been consistently opposed. I couldn’t persuade him,” Liu Luanxiong said with a sense of helplessness.

Lin Haoran nodded. He valued Liu Luanxiong, not his partner. As long as Liu Luanxiong agreed, that was enough.

The fact that Liu had come to negotiate tonight despite his partner’s strenuous objections showed that he was more inclined to cooperate with Lin Haoran.

“The partnership isn’t urgent. Let’s chat about other things first. Mr. Liu, what do you think of the current market prospects for fans?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“To be honest, Mr. Lin, my family’s business essentially started with fan manufacturing. The Yau Luen Yick Kee Fan Factory that my father currently runs is one of the top fan manufacturers in Hong Kong, with recent annual revenues reaching over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, so I am very familiar with the fan industry.

“After I returned from studying in Canada, I worked in the family business for four years. I have many ideas about this industry, but in the family, I’m just a junior with no right to speak. Every suggestion I make is never approved by the elders.

“This is why I left the family business to strike out on my own and founded Amigo Company.

“Everyone knows the weather in the Middle East is hot, creating high demand for electric fans, so sales are never a problem. Because of this, nearly all fan factories in Hong Kong, and even in Japan, mainly sell to countries in the Middle East.

“But this also has a clear disadvantage: the competition is too fierce, which leads to very low profit margins and very limited potential for growth. Take my family’s business, Yau Luen Yick Kee Fan Factory, for example. Its annual sales can exceed one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, but the final profit is only about ten million Hong Kong dollars.

“I studied in Canada for four years and I know the North American market has vast potential, especially the American market. Very few fan merchants push their products there. It’s precisely in these places that everyone avoids that you can often find unexpected gold mines.

“My father disagreed with my philosophy, so we had a big argument, and I ended up leaving the family business. Because of that, I didn’t get any help from my father.

“I founded Amigo Company at the beginning of this year. In less than a year, I have already proven my idea. I have more orders than I can handle. If it weren’t for the lack of funding, I would have already been accepting many more orders in large batches.

“If Mr. Lin wants to partner with me to invest in the fan industry, you must agree with my philosophy. Otherwise, even though I’m short on money right now, our collaboration probably won’t work out.”

Liu Luanxiong spoke about his unique insights into the fan market.

Lin Haoran nodded. He certainly knew how profitable the fan industry in North America would be over the next two to three years; otherwise, he wouldn’t have had any intention of partnering with Liu Luanxiong.

He himself knew nothing about the fan industry, whereas Liu Luanxiong could be considered an expert in this field.

He had the money, and Liu Luanxiong had the experience and a keen market insight into the fan industry. With the two of them cooperating, it would be hard not to get rich.

Chapter 80: Small Investment, Big Return

“Mr. Liu, I very much agree with your insight. The common perception is that North America, especially Canada and America, has a high adoption rate of air conditioning due to its advanced development, so the demand for fans is low. But in my opinion, the situation may not be so simple. You must have personally experienced the world oil crisis of 1973. The memory of those days must still be fresh, right?” Lin Haoran asked Liu Luanxiong with a smile.

Liu Luanxiong nodded slightly and said with a sigh, “Indeed. I was studying in Canada at the time, and that oil crisis left an indelible impression on me. It changed a great many things.”

“And now, with the domestic situation in Iran being so turbulent and the shadow of civil war looming, if an all-out war were to truly break out, I’m afraid the oil crisis would repeat itself. Add to that the steady growth of your Amigo Company’s orders from North America over the past six months, and this undoubtedly signifies that the fan market has enormous potential there.

“Furthermore, with the threat of a potential oil crisis, energy shortages will become a reality, and the demand for energy-saving products, especially fans, is bound to rise sharply. Under such circumstances, a small workshop-style business model might struggle to quickly capture and satisfy the massive market demand, limiting the potential for profit,” Lin Haoran offered his own thoughts.

In reality, a small portion of the international community was already worried about this. It was just that Iran’s current oil supply to foreign countries had not decreased, so a crisis had not yet erupted. Even those who were worried were merely speculating.

But who could know if this highly probable second oil crisis would actually befall the world in the future?

Lin Haoran, however, knew. And he was absolutely certain, since he had come from the future.

“Mr. Lin, I never expected we’d agree without prior consultation. What an honor!” Liu Luanxiong’s eyes lit up upon hearing Lin Haoran’s analysis.

This was not just an acknowledgment of Lin Haoran’s personal insight; it meant that the two of them had reached a high degree of consensus on their judgment of the North American market’s future.

“Mr. Liu, I’d like to propose a personal idea. The consumer base in the North American market, particularly in Canada and America, is relatively more affluent, and they have higher standards for their quality of life.

“Therefore, even if the demand for fans is huge, consumers will tend to choose products that are both practical and have a sense of design.

“I believe that if we can innovate the appearance of the fans, breaking the shackles of traditional design—for instance, by incorporating retro-style design elements to create fans with a classic charm—such products would very likely shine in the market and be enthusiastically sought after by consumers,” Lin Haoran continued.

In fact, this was precisely what Liu Luanxiong would do later, which allowed him to accumulate a fortune of over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars in just two years. Lin Haoran mentioned it specifically to make Liu Luanxiong feel even more strongly that their ideas were aligned.

Just as Lin Haoran had thought, upon hearing this, an indescribable excitement surged within Liu Luanxiong.

These ideas actually coincided with his personal tastes; he had always been a devotee of retro sentiment.

Back when he was at his family’s fan factory, he had countless times envisioned integrating retro elements into fan designs. Unfortunately, neither his father nor any of the other elders supported his approach.

After striking out on his own, he was still in debt. Hampered by the factory’s current stage of development and market risk considerations, he had never dared to attempt it.

Although the factory was making steady progress, it had not yet reached a point where it could support his comprehensive design reforms.

But in his heart, he had already made plans. Once the factory was a bit larger, he intended to apply his retro tastes to the exterior design of his fan products. This might set them apart from other fans on the market, thereby making them more competitive.

“Mr. Lin, your idea is absolutely brilliant. I completely agree with your vision!” Liu Luanxiong’s desire to cooperate with Lin Haoran grew even stronger.

Ever since disagreeing with his father and resolving to start his own business, he had harbored a firm conviction to prove himself. He vowed to make a name for himself in the business world and use his actual achievements to show his family that his choice was the right one.

However, time flies like an arrow, and more than half a year had passed in the blink of an eye.

Although the factory’s order volume continued to grow and its performance was gratifying—so much so that they were almost too busy to cope—Liu Luanxiong still felt a trace of anxiety in his heart.

This pace of development, in his view, seemed far from meeting his expectations.

The initial capital he and his friend had used to start the business was all borrowed. They had only recently paid off their debts and were now basically starting from scratch.

He understood that to truly realize the grand blueprint in his mind, expanding production scale and enhancing market competitiveness was the only way forward.

But given the current situation, how long would it take to expand the production scale?

He actually had more orders than he could handle, but Amigo’s scale was what it was. They had started too small, and expansion was not something that could be done overnight.

Therefore, when faced with orders he had to give up due to a lack of funds, Liu Luanxiong could only wring his hands and sigh in frustration. Though he was extremely reluctant, he was helpless.

After all, the reality of his financial predicament was right in front of him, forcing him to compromise.

As for his father, he was still stewing in his dissatisfaction with Liu’s choice. Although half a year had passed, the two were still in a cold war, and he only occasionally contacted his mother.

While bowing his head and asking his father for help might temporarily alleviate the financial pressure, Liu Luanxiong’s pride and self-respect prevented him from taking that step.

He had sworn to carve out a niche for himself through his own efforts, and this persistence made him reject any thought of relying on his family.

Lin Haoran’s appearance was like a beam of light, piercing through the haze before Liu Luanxiong’s eyes.

The fact that their philosophies aligned gave Liu Luanxiong confidence in a potential partnership.

Liu Luanxiong understood that this was not just a simple business partner, but a precious opportunity for him to realize his dreams and accelerate his development.

Therefore, he had already decided to seize this opportunity tightly this time. It would definitely allow him to grow at a much faster rate.

In his heart, this would be a major turning point in his career path, enabling him to rise more quickly and prove his strength and value to his family.

As for his friend, since their philosophies didn’t align, they could only part ways.

He had made his decision. He was very grateful to his current partner for stepping up to start the business with him when he needed it most, but since his friend didn’t know how to be flexible, there was nothing he could do. Liu Luanxiong was more inclined to follow his own inner thoughts, which was to speed up development.

“It seems we’re having a pleasant conversation. In that case, Mr. Liu, how do you propose I cooperate with you?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, regarding our cooperation, after careful consideration, I believe there are two possible plans. The first is for you to directly acquire the shares of my partner, Mr. Liang Yingwei. The second is for me to transfer my shares in Amigo Company to Mr. Liang, after which we can form a new company.

“Currently, the equity structure of Amigo Company is a 50-50 split between myself and Mr. Liang Yingwei. Mr. Lin, what are your thoughts on these two options?” Liu Luanxiong smiled and posed the question to Lin Haoran.

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran pondered for a moment before asking, “If I choose to acquire Mr. Liang’s shares, how much capital would I need to prepare?”

“Two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, I think. If you offer two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, I believe my friend will agree,” Liu Luanxiong said after some thought.

When they first founded Amigo Company, their initial investment was indeed relatively limited, and the company’s current scale was still in its growth phase. If assessed by its actual value, one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars might have been enough to cover that half of the equity.

However, Liu Luanxiong knew very well that if he merely proposed such a price, his friend Liang Yingwei might not accept it easily. After all, it would ignore Liang Yingwei’s hard work during the startup process and his support for him.

But if the price was doubled, Liang Yingwei would definitely agree. This way, he could also repay the kindness Liang Yingwei showed by supporting his venture.

“Two hundred thousand? Alright, I can put up that amount. I’ll buy Mr. Liang’s shares in Amigo Company for two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars. But to expand Amigo’s production scale, how much more capital do you think I’ll need to invest? And after I invest this money, how will our equity be calculated?” Lin Haoran fired off another series of questions.

After all, if he was going to continue investing money, the equity structure couldn’t just remain unchanged. He wasn’t a great philanthropist.

After hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Liu Luanxiong thought for a moment, then said sincerely, “Mr. Lin, to expand Amigo Company’s production scale right now, the main focus will be on moving to a larger factory and expanding our workforce.

“I believe that an investment of one to two million Hong Kong dollars would be sufficient to meet the current expansion needs, and we can expect a more than tenfold increase in order volume.

“Moreover, as market feedback becomes more positive, we can flexibly adjust our strategy and further expand production moderately.

“Regarding the post-financing equity structure, I have an audacious request. If possible, I hope to receive half of your investment capital in the form of a loan to me.

“This way, we can ensure the company gets the necessary financial support while also maintaining a certain balance in our equity structure.

“At the same time, I promise to save up and repay this loan to you as soon as possible, ensuring our partnership is built on mutual trust and a win-win foundation.”

Liu Luanxiong’s words expressed his confidence in the company’s future development, showed his respect for his partner’s interests, and also proposed his own solution, which would be enough to maintain an equal partnership between them.

He naturally didn’t want his own shares to be diluted; otherwise, his partnership with Lin Haoran wouldn’t have much meaning.

Originally, Liu Luanxiong thought Lin Haoran would refuse. After all, when it came to personal gain, many people were insatiable.

What’s more, if he failed to repay the loan, the other party would be taking a huge risk.

To Liu Luanxiong’s surprise, Lin Haoran readily agreed.

“Alright, I agree to your terms!” Lin Haoran replied promptly without the slightest hesitation.

For him, an investment of 2.2 million was far below his expectations. In fact, this sum was pocket change to him.

He secretly mused that if such an amount of capital could be turned into a profit of several hundred million Hong Kong dollars within two years, then this investment was undoubtedly extremely worthwhile—a small investment for a big return.

Even if the final profit didn’t reach several hundred million, a profit of over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars was a sure thing.

After all, Lin Haoran had heard about Liu Luanxiong’s entrepreneurial journey and path to success in his previous life, and he was very confident about it.

“Mr. Lin, then our partnership is settled. I’ll go back tonight and discuss this matter with my friend, Mr. Liang, overnight. He will definitely agree to sell his shares for two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars. After I’ve spoken with him, we can sign the contract directly with you tomorrow!”

Liu Luanxiong seemed exceptionally eager at this moment. He desperately wanted to settle the matter so that Amigo could quickly enter the fast lane of high-speed development.

The current state of slow and exhausting development was already unbearable for him. He longed to see the company revitalized with new life and vigor.

Chapter 81: Clearing Obstacles

After their discussion reached a satisfactory conclusion, Liu Luanxiong departed in a hurry.

Tonight’s meeting had been exceedingly agreeable for both parties, a truly happy outcome for everyone involved.

About two hours after Liu Luanxiong left Hang Fung Building, Lin Haoran received a call from him.

On the other end of the line, Liu Luanxiong excitedly informed Lin Haoran that his partner, Mr. Liang Yingwei, had gladly agreed to transfer his fifty percent stake in Amigo Company to him for two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars.

In response, Lin Haoran told them to come directly to the Green Island Building, where Green Island Cement was located, tomorrow morning to sign the contract together.

As for the funds, he would go to the bank with them to handle all the transfer matters personally.

The night passed quickly. At nine in the morning, after the employees of Universal Investment Company had arrived for work, Lin Haoran left the company with the brothers Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, heading for the Green Island Cement Company in Hung Hom, Kowloon.

Upon arriving at Green Island Cement Company, he was still the Vice Chairman in name only.

The company’s mid-to-high-level management were outwardly deferential, their words filled with respect, but Lin Haoran keenly sensed that beneath this deference lay a dismissiveness and disregard for his actual position.

Lin Haoran remained unperturbed by all this. He paid no mind to the superficial displays of reverence or the cold indifference that lay beneath.

The news of him becoming Vice Chairman had long since spread throughout Green Island Cement Company. Even the lowest-level employees, such as the kiln operators, coal mill operators, and crusher operators, had heard of Lin Haoran.

Relatively speaking, the respect from the ordinary employees was far more genuine.

As he passed the front desk on the first floor of Green Island Building, Lin Haoran made a point to inform the receptionist that two people would be arriving to see him.

The receptionist on duty today was not the same Western lady from the other day. Though she was also a Westerner, her attitude toward Lin Haoran was noticeably more friendly and respectful.

After all, from their seemingly humble position at the front desk, they understood they were at the bottom of the company’s hierarchy. Even if Lin Haoran’s current power seemed limited, he was still the Vice Chairman—an important figure they absolutely could not afford to offend.

After returning to his office, Lin Haoran waited quietly for Liu Luanxiong and his partner to arrive.

In the chairman’s office, Harrier Centurion was discussing matters with Green Island Cement’s general manager, Mr. Ziegler.

“Mr. Ziegler, has Mr. Lin approached you at all these past few days?” Harrier Centurion asked.

Harrier Centurion had been on a business trip to Macau for the past few days and had only just returned this morning. Macau was not only where Green Island Cement had its start, but it was now also one of its key markets; Green Island Cement was responsible for nearly all of the cement supply there.

“Mr. Harrier, he has not. From what I understand, he seldom even visits the factory grounds. He basically just stays in his office when he comes in. Apart from requesting employee files from the Human Resources department, he hasn’t made any other moves,” Mr. Ziegler said, shaking his head.

“That’s strange. I originally thought he would try to interfere with our management, or at least attempt to secure some substantive power. But from the looks of it, he hasn’t taken any such action. Isn’t he keen on vying for control? Is he really content to be nothing more than a Vice Chairman with an empty title?” Harrier Centurion was full of doubt.

He also knew that Lin Haoran had been to the finance department to request some sensitive financial documents, but of course, there was no way he would be given them. The chief financial officer was his man and would naturally refuse him.

More importantly, most of the core data held by the finance department had been meticulously fabricated and adjusted. On the surface, it appeared flawless, but it concealed a great deal of manipulation.

For an experienced accountant, these alterations would not be difficult to spot.

Therefore, Harrier Centurion had long resolved to never let Lin Haoran get involved in any of the finance department’s affairs, lest he uncover the truth behind the company’s financials and cause unnecessary trouble.

“If Lin Haoran had really insisted on having power, I might have eventually considered granting him some authority,” Harrier Centurion mused. “After all, I’ve noticed a potential competitor gathering strength in the stock market, and securing Lin Haoran’s support at the right time would be crucial for us. But unexpectedly, he has never once mentioned the matter of power to me. That truly caught me by surprise.”

Hearing this, a smile touched the corners of Mr. Ziegler’s lips. “Mr. Harrier, isn’t this exactly what we hoped for? With Mr. Lin not intervening in management, nothing has really changed for any of us. The company just has one more shareholder.”

He was not at all bothered by the loss of his Vice Chairman position.

In fact, Ziegler understood that his role as general manager was the true operational core of the company. The chairman typically only appeared for major decisions; the daily management affairs were entirely his responsibility.

Moreover, he was a piece carefully placed on the board by Harrier Centurion himself, so he naturally executed strategies that benefited Harrier with single-minded devotion. He had long since become indifferent to personal gains or losses in position.

“Mm, since there’s no movement from Mr. Lin’s side, we don’t need to pay it too much mind. However, I want you to keep an eye on him. If he makes any moves within the company, report them to me immediately,” Harrier Centurion said sternly.

After all, the other man’s stake in the company was larger than his. Although it wasn’t by much, and he believed Lin Haoran couldn’t upend everything with that small advantage, Lin was still a major shareholder, and he needed to be watched.

Mr. Ziegler nodded seriously and replied, “Yes, Mr. Harrier, I understand. I will keep a close watch on Mr. Lin’s activities and report to you immediately at the slightest sign of anything unusual.”

Harrier Centurion nodded in satisfaction, then waved his hand, signaling that Ziegler could leave and return to his work. “Alright, you may go.”

Next door, in Lin Haoran’s office, Liu Luanxiong and Liang Yingwei had now arrived.

He was oblivious to what had just transpired in Harrier Centurion’s office, as the soundproofing was excellent; not a sound could be heard, even from the adjacent room.

By now, Liu Luanxiong had completely confirmed that Lin Haoran was indeed the Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement.

With such a powerful backer, he was even more convinced that Amigo Company could develop much faster.

Comparing himself to the man before him, Liu Luanxiong was overcome with emotion.

Lin Haoran was so young yet already so accomplished. His boldness and ability made Liu feel inadequate.

Liu Luanxiong knew that with Lin Haoran’s support and help, Amigo Company was destined for more rapid growth, and he himself would ride this favorable wind to achieve his own grander ambitions and dreams.

However, Liang Yingwei, the Amigo Company partner who had come with him, had a completely different take.

He felt that if a tycoon with Lin Haoran’s immense financial power joined Amigo Company, he would be lucky to get even the scraps, let alone make a profit, if he stayed on as a partner.

Therefore, for him, perhaps exiting Amigo Company was the best choice.

With two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, he could still start a new business, and this time with a better foundation.

Lin Haoran didn’t know what either of them was thinking, but their thoughts were of little concern to him.

“Mr. Lin, hello! This is my business partner, Mr. Liang Yingwei,” Liu Luanxiong introduced him enthusiastically as soon as he entered.

“Mr. Liang, a pleasure to meet you.” Lin Haoran smiled and extended his hand.

“Mr. Lin, hello.” Liang Yingwei responded, shaking Lin Haoran’s hand lightly.

However, he couldn’t hide a trace of nervousness and apprehension in his eyes.

Compared to Liu Luanxiong’s composure, Liang Yingwei’s background and experience made him feel somewhat out of his depth when facing a business magnate who was already a senior executive of a publicly listed company.

“Have you made your decision, Mr. Liang?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Liang Yingwei nodded, his eyes firm. “Mr. Lin, I’ve thought it over carefully. I have decided to transfer my entire stake in Amigo Company to you for the price of two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars. From this day forward, everything concerning Amigo Company will have nothing to do with me.”

His words were laced with anticipation, clearly eager to complete the transaction.

“Very good. Since you’ve made up your mind, let’s sign the contract,” Lin Haoran said, taking a pre-prepared share transfer agreement from his drawer. He handed both copies to Liang Yingwei.

“I’ve stipulated in the contract that the funds will be transferred to your account within the day. If you do not receive payment by the end of the day, this contract will automatically become void. You have nothing to worry about.”

Liang Yingwei took the contract, reviewed it carefully several times, and after confirming there were no issues, signed his name in the designated space.

Lin Haoran then signed his name on the contract as well, and with that, the share transfer agreement officially took effect.

“Ah Xiong, and Mr. Lin, since the contract has been signed, I won’t disturb you two any longer. I’ll be on my way,” Liang Yingwei said, holding the contract with a satisfied smile beaming across his face.

To him, two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars was undoubtedly a considerable fortune, and his joy was plain to see.

“Take care, Mr. Liang. I hope your future business ventures are just as successful,” Lin Haoran replied politely.

Lin Haoran was inwardly pleased with Liang Yingwei’s departure. In his long-term plans, Liang Yingwei’s role was somewhat redundant.

He had always believed that maintaining Amigo Company with only two shareholders was the ideal situation.

That way, as the company grew and strengthened, the returns he could gain would be more concentrated and substantial.

Just imagine, if Amigo Company were to reach a moment of glory in the future, but the number of shareholders had increased to three, all holding equal shares, his expected returns would undoubtedly be further diluted.

Such an outcome was something Lin Haoran was clearly unwilling to see.

Therefore, when he proposed two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars for the deal and Liang Yingwei agreed to exit and transfer his shares without hesitation, Lin Haoran was actually secretly relieved.

This decision not only saved him from having to play the “bad guy” but also ensured the company’s shareholding structure could continue to develop according to his vision.

Even if Liang Yingwei had agreed to accept financing, Lin Haoran would have found various reasonable ways to have him exit before Amigo Company truly took off.

But now, none of that was necessary. Liang Yingwei’s voluntary departure had undoubtedly cleared a potential obstacle for Amigo’s future development.

Once Liang Yingwei’s figure had disappeared through the doorway, Lin Haoran turned and picked up another contract from his desk.

This was the agreement he and Liu Luanxiong had discussed in depth and reached a consensus on the previous night.

The two men reviewed it carefully once more, and after confirming that all clauses were in line with their wishes and free of errors, Liu Luanxiong solemnly signed his name on the contract.

In addition, Liu Luanxiong wrote out a loan agreement for Lin Haoran—a loan agreement for one million Hong Kong dollars.

“Mr. Liu, a pleasure doing business with you!”

“Mr. Lin, a pleasure doing business with you!”

Their hands clasped together, and satisfied smiles appeared on both their faces.

Chapter 82: The Entry Point

“Mr. Liu, is the factory not operating today?” Lin Haoran asked after sitting down.

By now, he was one of the bosses of Amigo Company, so he naturally had the right to ask.

“Mr. Lin, please just call me Ah Xiong from now on. The factory is still running as normal today because our new batch of materials has arrived. We have experienced team leaders managing things on-site, so even if I’m not there temporarily, everything can proceed smoothly.

The old factory can barely keep up with the orders I have on hand. In reality, I could take on more if I wanted to, but if we accept an order and can’t complete it on time, we have to pay a penalty. That’s why I only take on as many orders as we can handle,” Liu Luanxiong replied.

Lin Haoran nodded with a smile. “Ah Xiong, since I’m calling you that, you should just call me Haoran. We’re partners fighting side-by-side now, and we’re both young, so let’s not be too formal. All this ‘you’ and ‘sir’ makes things feel distant.

Our deep conversation last night left a strong impression on me. Although you’re still in the early stages, I firmly believe you have a great future ahead of you. Keep up the good work!

As you know, being the Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement and running an investment firm makes my time quite precious, so it’s difficult for me to oversee Amigo’s day-to-day operations comprehensively.

Therefore, I’ve decided to entrust the full responsibility of Amigo’s daily management to you. What I can provide is a solid financial backing and extensive network resources.

The company is well-funded now, which makes it the perfect time for us to expand. As the general manager, your core task is to steer the company’s development and make strategic decisions, rather than getting bogged down in the minutiae of the production line.

As for finances, I will arrange for an experienced Head of Finance to join us. They will be solely responsible for financial management and oversight to ensure the company’s finances are transparent and its capital secure. What do you think of this arrangement?”

They had already agreed the previous night that in the new Amigo Company, Liu Luanxiong would be the general manager and Lin Haoran would be the Supervisor.

“No problem, Haoran. Rest assured, you can leave it to me. I’m certain that this investment will be one of the wisest decisions you’ve ever made. I am confident I can bring you a handsome return—perhaps even ten or a hundred times its value!” Liu Luanxiong promised, full of confidence.

A friendly “Ah Xiong” and a casual “Haoran” had inadvertently brought the two closer.

Although Lin Haoran was three years younger than Liu Luanxiong, his outstanding status and rich accomplishments in the business world had already earned Liu Luanxiong’s respect.

Liu Luanxiong understood that as the Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement, Lin Haoran was a shining star in the business world, while he himself was merely a budding entrepreneur.

The gap in their status and experience kept Liu Luanxiong humble in Lin Haoran’s presence, willing to learn with an open mind.

However, Liu Luanxiong had a fiercely competitive streak. He firmly believed that with his own hard work and talent, he would one day make a dazzling mark in the business world, with achievements no less brilliant than Lin Haoran’s.

After signing the contract, Lin Haoran was very direct. He immediately took Liu Luanxiong from the Green Island Cement Company to a nearby HSBC branch and quickly completed two important fund transfers.

One was the payment to Liang Yingwei for his share transfer, and the other was the two million Hong Kong dollar investment Lin Haoran was injecting into Amigo Company.

These two million Hong Kong dollars would be transferred directly into Amigo’s corporate account for dedicated use.

Amigo Company had been small before, so its financial management was relatively simple, with Liu Luanxiong personally managing the funds and Liang Yingwei providing oversight.

However, with the injection of Lin Haoran’s two million Hong Kong dollars, the company’s scale was about to take a quantum leap, and the old financial management model was clearly no longer adequate.

Lin Haoran already had a plan for the finance personnel.

He didn’t intend to go through the tedious recruitment process of the labor market. Instead, he was prepared to utilize the human resources of the Wan’an Group.

Wan’an Group had its own professional finance team, which was quite large, with dozens of employees in the finance department alone.

Lin Haoran planned to directly transfer a professional accountant from Wan’an Group’s team. As long as their loyalty was high, Lin Haoran could comfortably entrust them with the important task of supervising Amigo’s finances, ensuring the company’s financial stability and transparency.

As Amigo Company grew larger in the future, the staff in its various departments would naturally expand, but Lin Haoran wouldn’t need to worry about these subsequent matters.

Once the funding was settled, Lin Haoran also made a special call to his old man, the purpose of which was naturally to find a location for Amigo Company’s new factory.

After all, he had already revealed some of his cards to Lin father, and it would be a waste not to use his father’s network of contacts.

To expand Amigo quickly, it was obviously not suitable to buy land and build from scratch at this stage, nor was it necessary to waste funds on that now. The best way was to directly rent a large, ready-made factory, install the assembly lines, and hire enough employees. Simple as that.

Once the company had more ample funds, purchasing land to build its own larger factory, or even an entire industrial park, would be a natural progression.

Currently, Hong Kong was full of warehouses and factory buildings available for rent, so the market supply was plentiful.

Coupled with the effects of the wave of illegal immigration, Hong Kong’s blue-collar labor market was exceptionally active, making it very easy for factories to recruit workers.

Moreover, most of these illegal immigrants were extremely hardworking and resilient, making them very popular in many factories.

From his father, Lin Haoran learned that there was an industrial park in Kwun Tong that was perfect for him. The factory buildings there were all newly constructed, and the contractor was none other than Wan’an Group’s construction team. The units were currently up for lease, and because they were new buildings with low occupancy, there were even discounts for early tenants.

Thus, Lin Haoran drove Liu Luanxiong to Kwun Tong, to the newly developed industrial park his father had mentioned.

After looking at it, both were very satisfied, especially with the rental discount. The first batch of tenants would get half a year free for a one-year lease.

Right now, these high-rise factory buildings, which were rented out by floor or by area to manufacturing entrepreneurs, were very popular in Hong Kong.

In the end, they chose to rent an entire floor, an area of over two thousand square meters.

This space was more than ten times larger than their original factory in Aberdeen, and the environment was much better, surrounded by proper large and medium-sized factories with all the necessary supporting facilities.

After deciding to rent the factory, Lin Haoran wasted no time and took Liu Luanxiong directly to the Wan’an Group.

At the Wan’an Group, he requested to borrow a member of the finance staff from his father.

Without a second thought, his father agreed.

Lin father was now very supportive of Lin Haoran’s career development.

Later, after a selection process, he chose a female finance employee in her thirties.

With a salary increase of one thousand Hong Kong dollars, she agreed to move to Amigo Company.

After she became an employee of Amigo Company, Lin Haoran was also able to see her loyalty rating.

Li Meihui: [Loyalty: 71/100]

This level of loyalty was sufficient. Under normal circumstances, she would not betray him.

If she were to act disloyally, her loyalty rating would surely drop, and he would be able to judge her actions based on the progress bar.

With Lin Haoran’s help, the pace of Amigo Company’s expansion was countless times faster.

In a single day, he had sorted out the factory and the finance personnel.

“Ah Xiong, I’ll leave Amigo Company’s affairs to you from here on out. The factory needs some simple renovations, like putting up partition walls for offices, warehouses, assembly, and testing areas. I’ll have a word with Wan’an Group’s construction engineering department. You can call them, and they’ll send people over. A small project like that can be done in a day. Also, get the hiring done as soon as possible. We have enough funds now. Try to get the old factory moved over within a week!”

That evening, after settling these matters, Lin Haoran and Liu Luanxiong had a good meal at a restaurant near Wan Chai, celebrating the birth of the new Amigo Company.

Throughout the meal, the two chatted and laughed in a harmonious atmosphere.

“Alright, leave the rest to me. Haoran, I’m truly fortunate to have a partner like you. Otherwise, getting all this done would have probably taken me half a month,” Liu Luanxiong said with a sigh.

His words spoke to the immense advantage of having connections, resources, and capital in the business world.

Although Liu Luanxiong himself came from a respectable background, he had to admit that when it came to leveraging resources and improving efficiency, there was a considerable gap between him and Lin Haoran.

Both came from wealthy families, yet their development trajectories were vastly different due to their individual abilities and opportunities.

After parting ways with Liu Luanxiong, Lin Haoran returned to his office.

By this time, the company’s employees had long since gone home.

However, in Lin Haoran’s office, Su Zhixue had already placed the day’s work report on his desk.

Lin Haoran picked up the report and gave it a quick look.

Today, the progress of the stock accumulation of Green Island Cement had slowed down again compared to the previous day, the reason being that there were fewer and fewer sell orders.

Even so, over the course of the day, the team at Universal Investment Company had secured another 716,000 shares, bringing their total holdings to 19,443,000 shares.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran knew that by tomorrow, he would hold over 40 percent of Green Island Cement’s stock. The company was not going to slip through his fingers.

At this very moment, Harrier Centurion was still completely in the dark.

Looking at the report in his hand, Lin Haoran muttered, “Perhaps I can formally take control of Green Island Cement within this week.”

He very much hoped that on the day he took over, he could successfully drive Harrier Centurion out of the Green Island Cement Company.

Tonight, he would start investigating the situation at Green Island Cement. Were there financial problems in the company? Even if there was no proof, the senior executives likely had their suspicions.

Most of the top executives were Harrier Centurion’s people, but there was a very high probability that the Deputy General Manager was not loyal to him.

Lin Haoran guessed that this Deputy General Manager, Burton, was probably kept on because of his strong work ability.

Verifying this was actually quite simple. He just needed to talk to some of the middle managers.

Although these middle managers had little access to the company’s core, they should have a good understanding of the situation with the senior executives.

Therefore, he had already found his entry point: the supervisor of the quality department, Liu Zhenxing.

For a Chinese person to hold a middle management position at Green Island Cement, their competence was beyond question.

And having worked at the company for so many years, his knowledge of Green Island Cement might exceed what Lin Haoran imagined.

Yesterday, while looking at the employee files, he had already written down Liu Zhenxing’s and Burton’s contact information.

At this moment, estimating that Liu Zhenxing should have finished work and returned home, Lin Haoran decided to give him a call, thinking he should be able to reach him without issue.

“Hello, who is this?” a gentle female voice answered from the other end of the line, clearly Liu Zhenxing’s wife.

“Hello, I’m looking for Mr. Liu Zhenxing. Is he home?” Lin Haoran asked politely.

“Oh, Husband, there’s a phone call for you,” the woman’s voice immediately relayed to Liu Zhenxing.

Soon, Liu Zhenxing’s familiar voice came through the phone: “Hello, this is Liu Zhenxing. May I ask who’s calling?” His voice carried a hint of curiosity.

“Hello, Supervisor Liu. This is Lin Haoran. You should know who I am,” Lin Haoran introduced himself directly.

“Lin Haoran? Ah, it’s Director Lin! Director Lin, are you calling because you have instructions for me?” Liu Zhenxing reacted quickly, his tone revealing considerable surprise.

As a middle manager at the company, he had seen the Vice Chairman on the first day Lin Haoran inspected the company. He was a young man and, most importantly, he was Chinese, just like him.

Green Island Cement was a British-owned company, and it was practically impossible for a Chinese person to make a name for themselves there. Middle management was basically the ceiling.

But unexpectedly, a Chinese person had not only become the Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement but had also become a major shareholder. At the time, Liu Zhenxing and a few of his Chinese colleagues had been stunned, finding the whole thing incredibly, almost unbelievably, surreal.

Initially, Liu Zhenxing hadn’t connected this matter too much with himself. He believed that the core power of Green Island Cement was still firmly in the hands of the chairman, Harrier Centurion, and that even this newly appointed Chinese Vice Chairman, Lin Haoran, might just be a figurehead.

Of course, as one of the few Chinese members of management at Green Island Cement, Liu Zhenxing also hoped that one day the company could transform from a British-owned company into a Chinese-owned enterprise.

Chinese people had always been overlooked in British-owned companies, so their room for advancement was limited.

But if Green Island Cement became a Chinese-owned enterprise, that would be a different story. It would mean that he might have a chance for further advancement within the company.

He never expected that this very man would contact him personally.

At this moment, Liu Zhenxing’s mind was filled with questions, wondering what the Vice Chairman wanted with him.

“Supervisor Liu, are you free right now? If so, there are some things I’d like to discuss with you in person,” Lin Haoran asked politely.

“I am, Director Lin. May I ask what you’d like to know about?” Liu Zhenxing asked curiously.

“In that case, I think some things are better discussed face-to-face. Would it be convenient for you to come to Central? We can talk privately there. I can send a car to pick you up,” Lin Haoran suggested.

“Yes, that’s fine. I’ve just finished dinner. How about this, Director Lin, I’ll go to Central myself. There’s no need for you to send someone to pick me up,” Liu Zhenxing agreed decisively.

Even if Lin Haoran was just a figurehead Vice Chairman, Liu Zhenxing was still willing to build a good relationship with him. After all, he rarely had the opportunity to interact with people of this level. Who knew if there might be an unexpected surprise in store?

“Alright, thank you for the trouble, Supervisor Liu. Come directly to Universal Investment Company on the 19th floor of the Hang Fung Building in Central. I’ll wait for you here,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Chapter 83: Inside Information

It was still early, though night had just begun to fall.

Of course, Lin Haoran wasn’t one to call upon someone without purpose. If Liu Zhenxing truly possessed outstanding abilities, he would certainly give the man the promotion and opportunities he deserved; otherwise, it would be a waste of talent.

As a mid-level manager at Green Island Cement, Liu Zhenxing was well-compensated, owning both a car and an apartment in the heart of Hong Kong.

Twenty minutes later, Lin Haoran met Liu Zhenxing in person at the Universal Investment Company.

Liu Zhenxing, a man nearing fifty, wore a pair of classic black-framed glasses and a formal suit, appearing both professional and poised.

For a first meeting, Liu Zhenxing was remarkably calm and composed, showing no hint of nervousness.

“Manager Liu, thank you for taking the time to come here tonight. It must have been an imposition. Please, have a seat.” Lin Haoran smiled, gesturing warmly towards the nearby sofa.

“Not at all, Director Lin, you’re too kind. It’s an honor to have this opportunity to speak with you.” After sitting down, Liu Zhenxing asked with an even more respectful demeanor, “May I ask what important matter Director Lin wished to discuss with me?”

“I was looking over your personnel file, Mr. Liu, and I noticed you’ve been with Green Island Cement Company for over twenty years, is that right?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“That’s correct. I joined Green Island Cement right after returning from my studies in America. In a flash, twenty-five years have passed.

“Initially, I was drawn by the excellent compensation for the junior engineer position. However, after truly settling in, I discovered that the career path for a Chinese person in a British-owned company is not a smooth one.

“I considered changing jobs, but when I thought about the seniority and connections I had built up over the years, as well as the uncertainties of the outside world, I ultimately chose to stay.

“And just like that, many years have gone by,” Liu Zhenxing said with a touch of wistfulness in his voice.

“In that case, you must be very familiar with Green Island Cement’s situation, correct?” Lin Haoran continued.

“I’m quite familiar with all the publicly available information about the company. I’d say my tenure is longer than over ninety percent of the mid-to-senior level employees.

“As for some of the internal secrets at the executive level, I’ve naturally picked up a thing or two from casual workplace conversations, but those are often mixed with a great deal of speculation and falsehoods, serving merely as fodder for idle gossip,” Liu Zhenxing answered honestly.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly in understanding.

“Could you share your opinion of Green Island Cement’s Deputy General Manager, Mr. Burton?” Lin Haoran asked with a gentle smile.

“Mr. Burton is a highly respected senior executive in my eyes. Privately, many colleagues have gossiped that Mr. Burton’s leadership skills are so strong they even surpass those of our general manager, Mr. Ziegler.

“Though he has been with us for less than three years, he has used his exceptional abilities to personally open up several new markets for Green Island Cement. The market on Luzon Island, in particular, has responded enthusiastically to our company’s cement products, and it has now become our most important export base.

“Under Mr. Burton’s leadership, the company’s performance has soared over the past two or three years, with a growth rate exceeding sixty percent. Because of this, many people within the company hold him in high regard.” As Liu Zhenxing spoke of Burton, Lin Haoran could sense that his admiration was genuine.

“There’s something I don’t quite understand,” Lin Haoran said, his brow slightly furrowed with curiosity. “If Green Island Cement’s performance has grown so significantly over the past three years, why haven’t our annual profits seen a corresponding major increase? In fact, they seem rather meager.”

“Director Lin, I have indeed heard some whispers about this issue, but please allow me to stress that these are all unconfirmed rumors without any solid evidence to support them, so I must ask that you don’t repeat them,” Liu Zhenxing said, his expression turning serious as he lowered his voice.

“Of course, I understand. You have my word. I will not disclose any unverified information,” Lin Haoran promised solemnly. At the same time, a strong sense of curiosity welled up within him, eager to hear what truths Liu Zhenxing might reveal.

“In our company’s annual financial reports, the stated profit always hovers around several million Hong Kong dollars. Meanwhile, among the expenditure items, there’s one for overseas investment, which has been quite substantial year after year. In recent years, it has even soared to over ten million Hong Kong dollars, but the result of every investment has been a severe loss.

“I’ve worked at Green Island Cement for so many years, so I couldn’t be clearer on this point. This situation has been going on quietly for more than a decade.

“Privately, I’ve heard rumors that these so-called investments might actually just be a powerful figure on the Board of Directors using their authority to secretly embezzle these funds…” As Liu Zhenxing reached this point, his voice instinctively dropped much lower.

Lin Haoran’s brow furrowed tightly. This had been going on for over a decade?

If that was the case, he was almost certain.

Rumors didn’t start from nothing. There was definitely something shady going on here.

How could they possibly continue to invest year after year if they suffered losses for more than a decade straight?

“And the other shareholders don’t do anything about it?” Lin Haoran asked.

Hearing this, a bitter smile appeared on Liu Zhenxing’s face. “Director Lin, you may not be aware, but I’ve heard that the relationships among the members of the Board of Directors are incredibly complex; they are often a community of shared interests. In such an environment, who would really go and investigate the truth behind these investment losses? After all, once you pull back that veil of secrecy, it could implicate even more unknown secrets.”

Although Liu Zhenxing had clearly stated that these were just speculations based on rumors, Lin Haoran had already concluded in his mind that much of it was likely true.

He mused to himself that Harrier Centurion held 12.6% of the company’s shares, yet was secretly siphoning off more than half of the company’s profits each year. It was a temptation that almost anyone would find difficult to resist.

“To be able to do this so brazenly for over ten years, Harrier Centurion must be uncommonly resourceful and capable,” Lin Haoran thought, a hint of admiration creeping in. If this was true, it seemed that investigating and finding evidence against him would be much simpler.

Following this, Lin Haoran and Liu Zhenxing’s conversation deepened. Through Liu Zhenxing’s detailed accounts, various aspects of the company unfolded before him like a series of scrolls.

That night’s discussion elevated his understanding of Green Island Cement to a whole new level, providing him with more information than all his previous efforts combined.

As the conversation continued, Lin Haoran became increasingly aware of Liu Zhenxing’s remarkable qualities.

He not only possessed solid professional knowledge and an intimate understanding of Green Island Cement’s operations but also demonstrated keen insight and profound judgment.

Such a talented individual was undoubtedly a rare gem within the company, fully deserving of a promotion to a higher level of management.

Chapter 84: The Goal is Finally Reached

However, before Lin Haoran got involved with Green Island Cement, it was fundamentally impossible for Liu Zhenxing to advance any further, given the company’s background as a British-owned enterprise.

In that kind of environment, no matter how capable someone was, it was often difficult to cross the boundaries of race or nationality to gain the recognition and promotion they deserved.

Thinking of this, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a twinge of regret for the more than twenty years Liu Zhenxing had spent there.

“Manager Liu, I’ve learned so much tonight. Your insights have given me a much deeper understanding of Green Island Cement. It’s getting late, and I don’t want to keep you any longer, or your wife will start scolding me!” Lin Haoran stood up with a smile, ending the deep conversation that had lasted over an hour with a lighthearted joke.

He had indeed gained a great deal from their conversation; certain key pieces of information had provided him with valuable insights.

And Liu Zhenxing’s humility and professionalism had left a deep impression on him.

“Chairman Lin, you’re too kind. It’s what I should do,” Liu Zhenxing quickly replied, his face beaming with a sincere smile.

“Alright, Manager Liu, I won’t see you all the way out. Take care.” Lin Haoran personally escorted Liu Zhenxing to the ground floor of the Hang Fung Building and watched him leave.

As he watched Liu Zhenxing’s retreating figure, Lin Haoran pondered to himself.

He did not immediately reveal his future plans for Liu Zhenxing, deciding instead to let things unfold naturally for now.

Perhaps, in the near future, he would give Liu Zhenxing an unexpected surprise as recognition and reward for his talent and hard work. And that time would not be long in coming.

Returning to his bedroom, Lin Haoran got a good night’s rest.

After his chat with Liu Zhenxing, Lin Haoran no longer planned to continue his investigation, as there was little need for it.

He also temporarily shelved his plan to meet with the Deputy General Manager, Burton.

At present, all clues seemed to point to the finance department of the Green Island Cement Company, where the most crucial evidence might be hidden.

Yet, no matter what methods he tried now, it would be impossible to obtain the relevant documents from the finance director.

Perhaps the only thing he could do was a forced takeover!

He planned to discuss this matter with Lin Wan’an.

As a veteran of the business world, Lin Wan’an’s vast experience and unique insights would undoubtedly be a valuable asset to Lin Haoran.

He could feel that his father genuinely had his best interests at heart.

The next morning, Lin Haoran did not go to the Green Island Cement Company.

After Su Zhixue and the others arrived at work, Lin Haoran stressed to them that they absolutely had to accumulate over six hundred thousand shares of Green Island Cement stock today, because he currently held nineteen million, four hundred and forty-three thousand shares.

As long as they could successfully acquire approximately six hundred thousand more shares of Green Island Cement today, Lin Haoran’s holdings would officially break the twenty million share mark. This signified that he had firmly secured over forty percent of the company’s equity—a critically important achievement.

At that point, even if he faced the united opposition of all shareholders at a Board of Directors meeting, his position would be unassailable, and no one would be able to challenge him.

And for Su Zhixue and his team members, completing the task of acquiring these six hundred thousand shares should not be difficult.

Although Lin Haoran had previously set a purchase limit of no more than six Hong Kong dollars per share, the current stock price of Green Island Cement was still stable at around 5.5 Hong Kong dollars, showing no significant increase. It was clear that Su Zhixue and his team had specifically saved him a considerable amount of money.

Before the market closed at twelve noon, Su Zhixue’s team had already swiftly purchased four hundred and twenty thousand shares for Lin Haoran.

After the market opened in the afternoon, the team redoubled their efforts, continuing the stock accumulation. By two-thirty in the afternoon, the total number of shares acquired for the day had finally surpassed six hundred thousand.

“Boss, should we continue buying?” Su Zhixue asked after finishing his report.

“We’ll stop the accumulation for now,” Lin Haoran said decisively after a moment of careful thought.

At the moment, he had other uses for his funds, so reaching this number of Green Island Cement shares was sufficient for the time being.

Once he had earned enough capital through other channels, he would find a way to take Green Island Cement private.

But there was no rush for that.

“Do we have any new assignments then?” Su Zhixue asked.

Lin Haoran smiled slightly and replied, “There are no other tasks on the stock market for now. As the company’s Deputy General Manager, the daily work arrangements for the staff are up to you. But don’t let your guard down. In a while, I will have some important new tasks that will require your team’s execution.”

Upon hearing this, Su Zhixue immediately indicated his understanding and replied respectfully, “Alright, President Lin, I understand. I’ll go prepare a report now and bring it to you shortly.” With that, he turned to leave.

Just as Su Zhixue was about to walk out of the office, Lin Haoran added, “Remember to create a summary report, especially on the stock accumulation of Green Island Cement during this period. This acquisition campaign can come to a close for now.”

“Of course, President Lin. I’ll get it done as soon as possible,” Su Zhixue replied, then exited Lin Haoran’s office.

A short while later, Su Zhixue returned to the office with the prepared report in hand and respectfully presented it to Lin Haoran.

Reviewing the detailed data on the report, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. His tense nerves finally relaxed.

Today was October 25th.

As of today, he had acquired twenty million and fifty thousand shares of Green Island Cement, accounting for 40.1% of the total stock.

For this, he had spent a total of one hundred and four million, eight hundred and sixty thousand Hong Kong dollars on the stock, at an average price of 5.23 Hong Kong dollars per share.

At this moment, Lin Haoran began to meticulously calculate his financial situation.

Through three meticulously planned loans, he had successfully raised ninety-five million Hong Kong dollars. Adding his initial capital of one million Hong Kong dollars, the five million Hong Kong dollars generously provided by his two sisters, and the substantial seventy million Hong Kong dollar return from the Kowloon Wharf project, his total disposable funds amounted to one hundred and seventy-one million Hong Kong dollars, not counting the smaller change.

On the expenditure side, he meticulously tallied up the various costs: the purchase of Green Island Cement stock consumed one hundred and four million, eight hundred and sixty thousand Hong Kong dollars; the acquisition of the new office cost nine hundred and fifty thousand Hong Kong dollars; and there was the two million, two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollar investment in Evergo. All together, these expenses amounted to approximately one hundred and eight million Hong Kong dollars.

After some careful calculation, Lin Haoran concluded that his remaining available funds were around sixty-three million Hong Kong dollars.

Although this sum might be slightly insufficient for the plans he was laying out for the upcoming oil crisis, it was by no means a small amount.

Gazing at the detailed data on Green Island Cement in his hands, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a surge of emotion.

Making money was fast, but spending it was just as fast!

After putting the report away, Lin Haoran offered a few words of encouragement to the company’s employees, then left with his two bodyguards.

He didn’t need to worry about Evergo, so he had no plans to see Liu Luanxiong.

He was preparing to make a trip to the Wan’an Group to see his father, Lin Wan’an.

Chapter 85: Making History

Inside the Wan’an Group headquarters, in Lin Wan’an’s office.

Seeing Lin Haoran arrive, Lin Wan’an was a little surprised.

He had rarely seen his son come over this month.

“What’s the matter? Have you run into any trouble as Vice Chairman at Green Island Cement?” Lin Wan’an asked with a smile.

“Dad, I did come over this time to ask for your advice on a few things, and it’s related to Green Island Cement,” Lin Haoran said honestly.

Since he was preparing to take control of Green Island Cement Company, it was time to reveal more about his affairs there to Lin Wan’an.

“Go ahead and tell me. I’ve been in business for many years and have quite a bit of experience with the commercial world. I’m sure I can give you some sound advice,” Lin Wan’an said seriously.

“Dad, there’s something I want to tell you. I’m planning to take control of Green Island Cement in the next couple of days, but I lack experience, so there are some things I can only ask you about. Also, I’d like your help in taking control, since I’m on my own and not strong enough!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Are you crazy? How is that possible? Even if you’re a major shareholder in Green Island Cement now, your small stake is nowhere near enough to oust Harrier Centurion. His control over the company isn’t as simple as you think. I’ve dealt with Harrier Centurion many times; he’s not as simple as you imagine!” Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Lin Wan’an felt he was oversimplifying things.

“Dad, what if the shares I control exceed one-third, or even more?”

“One-third… that might be possible. I’ve heard there are a few Chinese shareholders in Green Island Cement. If you could win their support, you might have a chance to oust Harrier Centurion and become the relative controlling shareholder of Green Island Cement. But how could you possibly control so many shares?” Lin Wan’an was skeptical.

Just a few days ago, he had read in the newspaper that his son controlled 13.7% of Green Island Cement’s shares, making him a major shareholder and officially appointing him as Vice Chairman.

It had only been a few days.

How could this be possible?

“Haoran, you haven’t gone mad with the idea of becoming Green Island Cement’s chairman, have you?” Lin Wan’an walked over to Lin Haoran, studying him carefully to see if anything was amiss.

“Dad, I’m not crazy. To tell you the truth, I now control 40% of Green Island Cement’s shares. Even if you add up the shares of all the members of the Board of Directors, they still don’t have as much as I do. I was just acting in secret before and didn’t tell anyone, only revealing publicly that I owned 13.7%.

Remember that bet we made? I actually controlled over 30% of the shares even then. That’s why I was so confident about betting with you, Dad. Because Green Island Cement was basically already in the palm of my hand.

Over the past few days, I’ve accelerated my stock accumulation of Green Island Cement, and today it broke 40%. This stake is enough to force my way into power. I didn’t bring the stock certificates with me this time, so I can’t prove it to you, but everything I’m saying is the truth. There’s no reason to lie to you,” Lin Haoran said.

Seeing Lin Haoran’s serious expression, which didn’t look like he was joking, Lin Wan’an calmed down. “Haoran, tell me, where did you get so much money? 40% of Green Island Cement’s stock is worth over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. That’s almost enough to buy another Wan’an Group.”

This was beyond Lin Wan’an’s imagination.

If it were just 13.7% of the shares, Lin Wan’an could understand. Lin Haoran had told him before that the funds were earned from the Kowloon Wharf deal, but how could he have earned that much? Over one hundred million in capital.

But 40% of Green Island Cement’s shares—it was too outrageous. Even he, Lin Wan’an, couldn’t do it.

Unless he mortgaged the Wan’an Group to get a bank loan. That way he could indeed raise the funds, but he wasn’t that foolish.

Therefore, he was now incredibly curious as to how Lin Haoran had obtained such a vast sum of money to control so many shares.

“Dad, I did indeed sell my Kowloon Wharf shares for over one hundred and ten million Hong Kong dollars. I told you before that I made several times my initial investment on Kowloon Wharf. This deal was made with Mr. Pao Yue-kong. I brought the transaction contract with me.” After speaking, Lin Haoran took the share transfer agreement he had previously signed with Pao Yue-kong out of his bag and handed it to Lin Wan’an.

1,478,000 shares of Kowloon Wharf stock, at 75.53 Hong Kong dollars per share, for a total transaction amount of 111.63 million Hong Kong dollars!

Below were the signatures of both Lin Haoran and Pao Yue-kong.

Seeing this, Lin Wan’an was convinced.

With this amount of capital, if one secretly accumulated Green Island Cement shares, it would indeed be enough to control over 40% of the shares.

In fact, this was the case. Lin Haoran had acquired 20.05 million shares of Green Island Cement, spending a total of 104.86 million Hong Kong dollars.

The only thing he concealed was the source of his funds. Lin Haoran certainly had no intention of going into detail about that with Lin Wan’an.

After all, he still owed one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, and there was no need to tell his father that.

Of course, he still had 63 million Hong Kong dollars in available funds, so his debt ratio was actually not high; it could even be considered very low.

“Good, very good! My son has really made something of himself, even more successful than his old dad!” Lin Wan’an was filled with relief and satisfaction. This had truly exceeded his imagination, but the outcome was a happy one.

This contract couldn’t be fake. He could tell whether Pao Yue-kong’s personal signature and seal on it were genuine. This meant his son had truly earned over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars from the Kowloon Wharf shares.

No matter how capable his son was, he was still his son. How could this not make him happy?

“Dad, this is why I was so confident about the bet. Don’t blame me for setting a trap for you!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Haoran, you’ve made new history! You’ve really brought honor to our Lin family. Why would I blame you? Did you know that before this, there has never been a record of a Chinese-owned enterprise taking control of a British-owned publicly listed company? Even Mr. Li Jiacheng of Cheung Kong Holdings Group had only acquired an American-owned listed company before. British-owned companies are rarely acquired by Chinese, let alone a publicly listed British-owned company!” At this moment, Lin Wan’an was truly happy. How could he not be, seeing his son accomplish such a great feat?

His son was more capable than him. In just two or three months, he had achieved what had taken him a lifetime of hard work to build.

His mood was indeed a bit bittersweet, but it was mostly filled with relief and happiness, because this was his son, not someone else.

A listed British-owned company! This definitely made history in Hong Kong’s business world. Although Green Island Cement couldn’t compare to giants like Kowloon Wharf, Hutchison & Co., Swire & Co., or Jardine Matheson & Co., it was still a listed company with a market capitalization of over two hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

But now, his son had quietly gained control of 40% of Green Island Cement’s shares. This would allow him to easily take over the company and become its true master.

At this moment, Lin Wan’an could almost see the Lin family, relying on Lin Haoran’s business talent, gradually ascending to the ranks of Hong Kong’s top elite families in the near future.

“I just wonder if I’ll live to see that day.” Thinking of his health, Lin Wan’an couldn’t help but sigh again.

He knew his own situation. He had been to several famous hospitals, and the doctors all advised him to rest well for a chance to recover; otherwise, he wouldn’t live long if he continued like this.

This was also why he wanted to hand over the family business to the next generation as soon as possible.

Now, seeing Lin Haoran’s capability, he already considered his son his heir.

“Dad, besides asking for your help to take control of Green Island Cement, there’s something else I need to tell you. Through my investigation, Green Island Cement is much more complicated than I imagined. This is also why I never revealed that I controlled so many of its shares.”

As Lin Haoran spoke, he detailed everything he had learned about Green Island Cement during this time, as well as the rumors he had heard from Liu Zhenxing the previous night, relaying it all to Lin Wan’an.

After listening, Lin Wan’an didn’t answer immediately but frowned in thought.

After a long while, he finally said, “For Harrier Centurion to have controlled Green Island Cement for over a decade, his methods must be formidable. These rumors are likely not baseless. It won’t be difficult to find the problems, but the prerequisite is that you must control Green Island Cement’s finance department.

However, there is a way. We can directly call a Board of Directors meeting to dismiss Chairman Harrier Centurion and the chief financial officer. As for the finances, I can have our Wan’an Group’s chief financial officer temporarily go over there. Once we control the records in the finance department, we’ll naturally be able to uncover some problems quickly.

If Harrier Centurion knows what’s good for him, he’ll obediently withdraw from Green Island Cement. Otherwise, you can report him to the Securities and Futures Commission. If the investigation turns up evidence proving that Harrier Centurion broke the law, he’ll not only face fines but also jail time. Without that old-timer Harrier Centurion, you’ll be able to easily take control of the company after you’ve taken over.”

Lin Haoran nodded and said, “Dad, I had the same considerations, which is why I came to you. I want to take control of Green Island Cement as soon as possible because I have other plans soon and don’t have much time to waste on it.

But if I try to convene a Board of Directors meeting as the current major shareholder, they might be able to delay it for ten days or half a month. I’m not Harrier Centurion, after all; I can’t gather everyone for a board meeting in a single day. So I wanted to see if you have any way to make this board meeting happen sooner.”

Actually, Lin Haoran could have waited until he returned to Hong Kong after handling his other affairs, but he already knew about Harrier Centurion’s actions infringing on the company’s interests. He was naturally unwilling to see the company, which was now effectively his, continue down this path.

Therefore, he had to convene the board meeting as soon as possible, oust the man, and preferably, drive him out of the Green Island Cement Company for good.

Chapter 86: Setting Fire to the Finance Office

“In that case, convene an emergency meeting of the Board of Directors in your capacity as a Major shareholder of Green Island Cement Company. Contact all the shareholder members shortly. As for the non-shareholder Directors, there’s no need to contact them; they’ll usually be at the company anyway.

“Be direct with these shareholders. Tell them you intend to become the Chairman of Green Island Cement. Unless they aren’t in Hong Kong, they won’t refuse to attend tomorrow’s meeting, even if they have shady dealings with Harrier Centurion. After all, there’s no need for them to offend you when you’re already set to become the new Chairman.

“However, we must be wary of any preparations Harrier Centurion might make. Of course, with your current 40% stake, you essentially have a controlling interest in Green Island Cement. Whatever he does will be useless.

“Tomorrow, I’ll bring some people with me to the board meeting.”

Lin Wan’an carefully laid out his thoughts.

“Great. With you there to hold down the fort, Dad, I won’t have to worry about any resistance from Harrier Centurion. I’ll make the calls right now,” Lin Haoran said, brimming with confidence.

He had exchanged contact information with all the shareholders during the last board meeting.

Therefore, contacting them wouldn’t be difficult.

It was just past five in the afternoon, still early.

Most of these shareholders held no position in Green Island Cement Company; they either had their own businesses or were already retired and enjoying life.

Lin Haoran called them one by one. If the call connected, he would discuss the board meeting. If it didn’t, he would set it aside to try again later.

After more than half an hour, he had successfully contacted seven of the eight shareholders—five British and two Chinese.

Every shareholder was shocked by his straightforward call.

Forty percent! That was an incredibly high stake.

Although each of them had questionable dealings with Harrier Centurion, they knew that in the face of someone who had a solid grip on the controlling stake, resistance was futile, even if they banded together. Thus, they all chose to avoid offending Lin Haoran and promised to attend the meeting on time tomorrow.

One Chinese shareholder remained, who was temporarily unreachable.

Besides the shareholders, Lin Haoran also contacted one other person: Burton, the current Deputy General Manager of Green Island Cement.

In his view, since Burton had earned the respect of the mid-level management and was ostracized by Harrier Centurion and his cohort, he must be genuinely capable.

Once he took over Green Island Cement, the current general manager, Ziegler, would certainly be fired. He couldn’t possibly keep the former Chairman’s confidant around. Burton was clearly a good fit to temporarily replace Ziegler.

As for the future, if Burton’s abilities earned Lin Haoran’s approval, he could certainly stay on.

So, Lin Haoran spoke with Burton for a good ten minutes.

About ten minutes after he hung up with Burton, the last shareholder he hadn’t been able to reach called him back.

Lin Haoran once again informed him about the board meeting and told him that he now held a 40% stake.

As expected, since even the Westerner shareholders had agreed, this Chinese shareholder naturally agreed as well.

After contacting all the shareholders, Lin Haoran breathed a sigh of relief.

He did not contact Harrier Centurion or the other four non-shareholder board members.

Just a moment ago, he had confirmed their schedules with the personnel department. None of the five had any travel plans for tomorrow.

Since they would all be at the company, they couldn’t refuse to attend.

To put it bluntly, in a situation like this, they could delay but not escape. It wouldn’t change a thing.

“Dad, I’ve contacted everyone I needed to. We can hold the board meeting tomorrow morning.” Putting down the phone, Lin Haoran said to Lin Wan’an with a smile.

“Good. Then I should get ready as well.” Lin Wan’an was also very excited.

Taking control of Green Island Cement Company!

Though he was the Chairman of the Wan’an Group, he had never imagined that his Lin family could one day control Green Island Cement. It was simply incredible.

So what if it was Lin Haoran becoming the Chairman of Green Island Cement and not him?

To him, Lin Haoran was his son, so this was his family’s triumph.

Since he was going to help Lin Haoran secure his position, he naturally had to make many preparations in advance.

Tomorrow, he would bring the group’s chief financial officer, legal counsel, and others. That way, no matter what tricks Harrier Centurion tried to pull, he would not be flustered.

These were things that had to be arranged beforehand.

In the face of a true 40% stake, Harrier Centurion was basically powerless to resist.

Although Lin Haoran didn’t contact Harrier Centurion, the news quickly reached his ears.

…

Meanwhile, in the Chairman’s office at Green Island Cement, Harrier Centurion had gathered with Ziegler and his other confidants.

The news had come as a complete shock to Harrier Centurion.

Weren’t they talking about 13.7% of the shares, with a maximum of 15% from stock accumulation?

And now you’re telling me you control 40% of Green Island Cement’s shares?

Harrier Centurion’s heart was in turmoil. He knew he had been deceived by Lin Haoran.

At the same time, he couldn’t understand where Lin Haoran had found such a large sum of money to buy so many shares.

After all, the Wan’an Group’s strength was what it was. He had secretly investigated the Wan’an Group’s situation over the past few days, and it was indeed as Lin Haoran had said: the Wan’an Group was concentrating its resources on a real estate project in North Point and had no spare capacity to acquire a company stronger than itself.

It was because all the signs indicated that Lin Haoran shouldn’t have the strength to continue acquiring Green Island Cement shares.

But now, the man was claiming to hold 40% of the shares and was about to become the Chairman. This… this… this…

When Harrier Centurion first heard the news from a fellow British shareholder, his initial reaction was that the man was joking.

But after several more shareholders called him, he knew it might very well be true.

“Mr. Ziegler, what do you think we should do now? If I step down, you’ll surely be out as well,” Harrier Centurion lamented with a sigh.

“Mr. Harrier, let’s not be so pessimistic just yet. What if it’s fake? Forty percent of the shares, how is that possible?” It wasn’t just Harrier Centurion who didn’t believe it; Ziegler didn’t either.

“I wish it were fake, but all the signs indicate that it’s highly likely to be true. I’ve looked into it; the trading of Green Island Cement stock over the past two months has been extremely abnormal, far more active than before.

“I’ve calculated that the trading volume in these two months, minus the volume from previous quiet periods, still exceeds twenty-five million shares. It’s not impossible for him to have acquired twenty million shares.

“Last time, he told me that besides him, there was a secret force in the market accumulating Green Island Cement’s stock. I was very suspicious then.

“Now it seems that was just a lie to deceive me. What other force? It was clearly him all along.” As Harrier Centurion spoke, his despondency grew.

To think that after a lifetime of being shrewd, he was now being played by a young man.

His time as the Chairman of Green Island Cement was coming to an end.

Forty percent. A stake he was completely powerless against.

“Mr. Harrier, since we can’t change the facts, we can only protect our secrets. I suggest we destroy all the falsified financial records! That way, even if they investigate, they won’t find anything. Otherwise, we’re in real danger. To put it bluntly, the fake accounts we created can only fool laymen. Anyone with even a little financial knowledge can see that something is wrong,” Ziegler said with a frown.

They knew very well what they had done over the years.

As confidants brought in by Harrier Centurion one by one, the four of them had gained no small amount of illicit benefits over the years.

“It’s not that I don’t know the best course of action is to destroy all the falsified financial records. But once they’re gone, we’d have to produce the old financial statements and ledgers to fill the gaps. How could we possibly explain that?” Harrier Centurion said with a bitter smile.

“Let me make a suggestion. If we’re going to do this, let’s be ruthless. If the finance office has an ‘accident,’ it’d be perfectly normal for reports and ledgers to go missing. So, I think a fire in the finance office tonight would be a rather good thing.

“Mr. Harrier, as the former Chairman and the company’s second-largest shareholder, with the support of so many other shareholders, he won’t be able to do anything if you continue to serve as the Vice Chairman. As long as you remain in a key position, with your influence and control within the company, you can still wield considerable power. There’s a high probability you could continue to control Green Island Cement from behind the scenes.

“So what if he becomes the Chairman? We can still sideline him and run the company. Don’t forget, Green Island Cement is a British-owned company, and the vast majority of mid-to-high-level employees are British. If anything happens, he, the Chairman, will be the one to take the blame!” the chief financial officer proposed insidiously.

If all those ledgers were burned, the evidence against them would naturally disappear.

As the chief financial officer continued to speak, the eyes of both Harrier Centurion and Ziegler grew brighter and brighter.

“Let’s do it. How do we make the finance office catch fire?” Harrier Centurion asked.

“I’ll take care of the arrangements. One of the company’s electricians is a relative of mine. I’ll arrange for him to go up and ‘repair’ a socket in the finance office later. He’ll leave a hidden flaw. It won’t be difficult for a fire to start tonight!” Ziegler said decisively.

“Good. Mr. Ziegler, I’m leaving this to you. It must be done properly. We don’t have much time left!” Harrier Centurion said gravely.

“Don’t worry, Harrier Centurion. I will handle everything. I won’t let you have any trouble!” Ziegler said with complete confidence.

“Alright, let’s proceed with that,” Harrier Centurion said with a nod.

He had great faith in Ziegler.

Chapter 87: This is Insane!

In the Deputy General Manager’s office at the Green Island Building.

Burton put down the phone, his brow furrowed.

“It looks like a major shake-up is coming to the Green Island Cement Company!” Burton mused with some emotion.

He had been with Green Island Cement for nearly three years. It was actually a pretty good job—the benefits and salary were excellent—but he had never been able to break into the core upper management.

He knew why, of course. After all, he wasn’t one of the Chairman’s confidants, just an externally hired executive.

Regardless, this was definitely a good thing for him.

Because when Lin Haoran had called, he had told him he planned to have him take over Ziegler’s position and become the new general manager of Green Island Cement.

To be promoted from a deputy to the general manager, second in command to only one person… this was truly an unexpected blessing.

In the past two or three years, he had long since figured out the situation within the company’s upper echelon and was aware of their shady dealings behind the scenes.

However, as a mere Deputy General Manager, he couldn’t change anything, nor did he want to get involved.

But now that he had the chance to be promoted to general manager, he was full of drive.

“Knowing the way Mr. Ziegler and the chief financial officer do things, they’ll definitely try to destroy the ledgers in the finance office,” Burton muttered to himself. “Perhaps, if I can stop this, it would be a great credit to my name with the incoming Mr. Chairman. Then my promotion would be a matter of course. Otherwise, I wouldn’t feel secure in the position!”

Lin Haoran had already told him everything, so Burton knew full well that by the time he found out, Chairman Harrier Centurion must have already known as well.

He made a point to glance into the adjacent offices: the general manager’s office, the finance office, the marketing department, and the public relations department.

Sure enough, general manager Ziegler and the three directors were not in their respective offices.

Unsurprisingly, they were probably gathered in the Chairman’s office to discuss the matter.

Although Burton didn’t yet know how they would destroy the financial ledgers, he had already decided to keep a close watch on the finance office today.

As someone who had been in the professional world for many years, he knew very well that there is no reward without effort.

The general manager’s office, the Deputy General Manager’s office, and the various department offices were all on this floor. Moreover, the finance office was diagonally across from his own, so he could observe the general situation inside through his window.

After returning to his office, Burton called his wife. “Darling, I have to work late tonight. I might be very late coming home, so don’t wait up for me for dinner.”

After the call, Burton went about his work, occasionally glancing through the window to keep an eye on the finance department office across the way.

About half an hour later, the chief financial officer returned.

Not long after, a company employee in an electrician’s uniform entered Burton’s line of sight.

An electrician?

Burton watched as the man entered the finance office and began to “repair” something.

Through the glass window and from a diagonal angle, he couldn’t see very clearly.

But that wasn’t a problem for him.

Burton took his mug, left his office, and walked toward the water heater at the end of the hall.

As he passed the finance office, he casually glanced inside and saw the electrician unscrewing a power socket.

And right next to that socket was a large pile of account ledgers.

Burton didn’t linger. After filling his mug with hot water for his instant coffee, he returned to his office.

He already had a suspicion.

Having been at the company for two or three years, he was already very familiar with how things worked here.

That electrician seemed to have a close relationship with general manager Ziegler; he had seen the two of them chatting together on multiple occasions before.

Time ticked by.

In the evening, he called the cafeteria and had a boxed meal sent up.

Soon, the mid-to-high-level management on the entire floor began to leave for the day, one after another.

Of course, the Green Island Cement Company produced cement twenty-four hours a day, so many employees were still working, even at night.

However, the senior management rarely stayed late. The only exceptions were a few mid-level managers responsible for the night shift, but they were from the production department and their offices weren’t on this floor.

The chief financial officer also left his office early. After all, he had to avoid suspicion.

Before long, the entire floor grew quiet.

No one noticed that Burton, the Deputy General Manager, had not yet left the company, because his office door had been closed the whole time.

After all the office staff on the floor had left, Burton made a special trip to the tool shed to grab a sledgehammer—the kind that could break down a door.

Because he had already guessed what Harrier Centurion was planning.

The minutes and seconds ticked away.

Burton waited patiently, reading a book in his office while intermittently keeping an eye on the finance office across the way.

He was prepared to stay all night.

If he could save these ledgers for Lin Haoran, the credit would be immense.

Just past eleven o’clock at night, there was finally movement from the finance office. Within the previously dark room, something flashed—it looked like sparks.

This was followed by a “pop.” The sound wasn’t loud, but Burton heard it.

A short circuit.

Although he wasn’t sure exactly how the electrician had done it, he had guessed what was going to happen the moment he saw him dismantling the power socket.

Everything was going as he expected.

He quickly grabbed his walkie-talkie and called for the nearby security patrol.

A moment later, a guard patrolling the floors responded, saying he would be there within a minute.

Burton didn’t wait. He stepped out with his door-breaking tool, went to the finance office, and laid into the wooden door with the sledgehammer.

Under the assault of the sledgehammer, the wooden door was quickly battered beyond recognition.

Inside, the fire was already starting to grow.

Just then, two security guards rushed up.

“Quick, break down the door and put out the fire!” Burton commanded.

A harrowing firefighting effort, thanks to Burton’s advance preparation, was completed successfully.

Although a small portion of the ledgers in the finance office had burned, the majority were undamaged and had been fortunately preserved.

“Secure the scene,” Burton ordered.

After giving the command, he returned to his office to call Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran had given Burton his contact number during their call that afternoon.

At this hour, Lin Haoran was already asleep, but the telephone was in the office next to his room, and its ringing quickly woke him.

“Hello, this is Lin Haoran…”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran was now wide awake.

“I can’t believe they’d do something like this!” he exclaimed.

These people were insane.

To actually start a fire just to destroy evidence.

A single mistake, and the entire building could have burned down.

He had already instructed Burton to first have people move the ledgers to his own office and then lock the door securely.

Furthermore, he was to post additional security patrols outside for the night.

Chapter 88: Impossible, I’ll Lose Too Much!

Harrier Centurion had been monitoring the company’s affairs all night. Naturally, he was the first to hear the news that the fire had been extinguished.

After all, with his level of control over Green Island Cement, he naturally had people reporting to him.

“That Burton, how dare he ruin my plans!” Realizing that events had spiraled beyond his control, Harrier Centurion was powerless.

He had never expected such an unexpected turn in what he thought was a well-laid plan.

And the one who had foiled him wasn’t his opponent, Lin Haoran, but Burton, the company’s Deputy General Manager.

At this point, there was nothing he could do.

“It seems my only option is to try and settle this privately with the new Major shareholder,” Harrier Centurion sighed heavily.

He understood that once the Securities and Futures Commission fully investigated his activities, he would not only face astronomical fines but also likely end up in prison, stripped of his freedom.

“Flee back to my family home in Britain?” The thought flashed through his mind but was immediately dismissed.

The close cooperation between the Hong Kong and British police was an open secret, making any fantasy of evading justice utterly unrealistic.

“Escape to another country?” he mused, but that wasn’t a long-term solution either.

His family’s generations of accumulated honor and status were deeply rooted in Britain. To abandon his noble title would be like tearing out a part of his soul—something he could never accept.

Harrier Centurion was now in an unprecedented predicament.

He had to find a way out that would save himself without bringing shame upon his family.

…

In the blink of an eye, the night passed.

The next morning, Lin Haoran woke up very early.

At eight o’clock in the morning, he arrived at the Green Island Cement Company with two bodyguards.

To Lin Haoran’s surprise, Burton had actually spent the entire night at the company.

“Mr. Burton, you’ve worked hard!” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he shook his hand.

Burton’s actions the previous night had indeed benefited him greatly.

At the very least, completely ousting Harrier Centurion from Green Island Cement would no longer be a problem.

“President Lin, it was my duty,” Burton replied humbly.

Regardless, Lin Haoran now owed him a favor.

“Mr. Burton, go and get some rest for now. I’ll handle things here. I’ll see you at the Board of Directors meeting at ten o’clock. Please be on time,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, patting the shoulder of the man who was over forty.

“Understood, Mr. Chairman. I will be there on time.” Despite being awake all night, Burton felt full of energy.

Walking into the former finance office, he could still see blackened scorch marks on the walls, though only a small section had been burned.

The ledgers had all been moved to the Deputy General Manager’s office. Lin Haoran did a quick inspection and found that, aside from a few burned ledgers, there was essentially no major loss.

The ledgers accumulated over the past decade were as vast as an ocean. The loss of a few basic ledgers, especially those already known to be fraudulent, was but a ripple in the company’s overall operations.

Lin Haoran casually flipped through a ledger. Seeing nothing unusual on the surface, he didn’t delve deeper.

This kind of professional auditing was best left to the experts.

Soon, his father, Lin Wan’an, would arrive with a team of financial professionals to help him. They would handle it then.

Lin Haoran’s gaze inadvertently fell upon the chief financial officer, whose face was particularly grim. He was clearly dejected by the failure of last night’s plan.

It had been his idea, but it had ended in failure.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Chairman would like to invite you to his office for a chat.” The chief financial officer finally approached him.

They had also been up all night and had arrived early, but it was useless.

Burton had worked at the company for a long time and had his own confidants.

Therefore, these men didn’t dare to act recklessly. Otherwise, Burton could call the police at any time, escalating the situation and summoning Lin Haoran ahead of schedule.

With Lin Haoran as his backer, Burton wasn’t afraid of Harrier Centurion and his confidants.

“There’s no rush. I’ll go see him myself later,” Lin Haoran directly refused.

He was waiting—waiting for his father, Lin Wan’an, to arrive.

Although Lin Haoran wasn’t afraid of Harrier Centurion, he was still too young. If he spoke with Harrier privately, who knew if he’d be tricked by such an old-timer?

It was better to have his father present for support before having that conversation.

Around nine-twenty in the morning, Lin father finally arrived.

Lin Wan’an brought over a dozen people from the Wan’an Group.

This dozen-strong group included both a financial team and a legal team.

With their assistance, it would be much easier for Lin Haoran to take control of the Green Island Cement Company.

“Dad, let’s go. We’ll go see the Chairman first.” Once Lin Wan’an arrived, Lin Haoran led him straight to the Chairman’s office.

They decided to put the matter of investigating the financial ledgers on hold for now to deal with more pressing issues.

In the Green Island Cement Chairman’s office, Lin Haoran and Lin Wan’an walked in together.

The moment they stepped into the Chairman’s office, the atmosphere instantly became tense.

Harrier Centurion’s gaze froze the instant he saw Lin Wan’an. He whispered in disbelief, “Lin Wan’an, so you were the one behind all of this!”

The two had known each other for years, their past collaborations and negotiations still vivid in his mind, but at this moment, Harrier felt an unprecedented sense of alienation and fury.

Lin Wan’an didn’t offer any explanation, as there was no need.

“Mr. Harrier, the chief financial officer told me you were looking for me. What did you wish to discuss?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Harrier Centurion gave a bitter smile and replied, “Mr. Lin, business is a place for harmony and prosperity. There’s really no need for us to be so hostile. I invited you here in the hopes of peacefully resolving the issue between us.”

“Between us? Mr. Harrier, I thought we got along quite harmoniously. There shouldn’t be anything to discuss. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, Mr. Harrier, there will be a Board of Directors meeting in the conference room at ten o’clock. I hope you’ll remember to attend, Mr. Chairman,” Lin Haoran said.

Hearing this, Harrier Centurion looked slightly nervous. He continued, “Mr. Lin, I am willing to voluntarily give up my position as Chairman of Green Island Cement. I only ask that the matter of the finance office be treated as a minor issue.”

Lin Haoran shook his head gently. “Mr. Harrier, as for the position of Chairman, we will naturally compete for it fairly according to the rules and regulations. As for the matter of the financial ledgers, we can discuss that later.”

“Mr. Lin, let’s be frank. What are your terms for agreeing not to look too deeply into the company’s past finances? You came here, so surely not everything is off the table?” Harrier Centurion was close to losing his composure.

In front of this young man, he felt as if his decades of business experience had all been for naught.

Lin Haoran smiled faintly. “Mr. Harrier, of course we can talk. As long as you can meet my conditions, I can naturally let bygones be bygones. After all, digging deeper doesn’t really benefit me much personally. I am more concerned with the future of the company and my own interests.”

In reality, delving into Mr. Harrier Centurion’s past held little tangible benefit for Lin Haoran personally.

Help Green Island Cement recover the money Harrier Centurion had secretly embezzled?

Impossible. He shouldn’t even think about it. Judging by Harrier Centurion’s inaction regarding the Green Island Cement stock, the old man probably didn’t have much cash on hand. Even if he used his shares to cover the deficit, it would likely only cover a portion. It was hard to say how much would be left after paying the fines, so why bother with the trouble?

Besides, he hadn’t been a shareholder of Green Island Cement in the past. How could he possibly investigate so many of the company’s past affairs?

Therefore, focusing too much energy on digging up these old accounts was undoubtedly a waste of time and resources.

Since that was the case, he might as well seize the opportunity to gain some practical benefits for himself!

“Please state your terms, Mr. Lin,” Harrier Centurion said, his tone carrying a trace of helplessness and compromise.

Lin Haoran began to speak slowly, clearly listing his conditions: “First, I want you, Mr. Harrier, to voluntarily and completely withdraw from the Green Island Cement Board of Directors.

“Second, you must sell all the Green Island Cement shares you hold and promise never to interfere in its operations in any form in the future.

“Third, the general manager Ziegler, the chief financial officer, the marketing director, and the public relations director—these four key figures must resign voluntarily to ensure a smooth transition in the company’s management.

“Finally, we want you to officially announce your decision at a press conference to protect the company’s image and my personal interests.”

At this point, Lin Haoran turned to Lin Wan’an beside him and asked for his opinion, “Dad, what do you think of these conditions? Is there anything else to add?”

“I do have one suggestion. Mr. Harrier Centurion’s shares should be sold to our Wan’an Group. I think a price of 4 Hong Kong dollars per share would be very reasonable,” Lin Wan’an said with a smile.

“Dad, that’s an excellent idea. I fully support it.” Lin Haoran’s eyes lit up upon hearing this, and he immediately expressed his agreement.

He needed all the capital he currently had on hand, so he hadn’t planned to increase his shareholding in Green Island Cement for the time being.

But the Wan’an Group was a different story.

The Wan’an Group would also be his company in the future. Having the Wan’an Group become a shareholder in Green Island Cement wasn’t much different from holding the shares himself.

Moreover, once the Wan’an Group successfully acquired Harrier Centurion’s 12.6% stake, it would mean that their Lin family would hold over 50% of Green Island Cement’s shares. This would give them absolute control. No matter how much capital others had, it would be impossible for them to meddle in Green Island Cement’s affairs without Lin Haoran’s approval.

“Impossible! At 4 Hong Kong dollars per share, I’ll lose too much!”

When Harrier Centurion heard Lin Haoran’s conditions, his expression soured, but he didn’t interrupt.

But when Lin Wan’an said his piece, he became frantic.

He would have accepted 5 Hong Kong dollars per share, but 4 Hong Kong dollars per share meant he would lose 1 Hong Kong dollar on every single share. This was unacceptable to him.

He currently owned 6.3 million shares of Green Island Cement. Losing 1 Hong Kong dollar per share meant losing 6.3 million Hong Kong dollars. It was like a death sentence.

Chapter 89: Forceful Takeover of Green Island Cement

Harrier Centurion felt a storm of emotions. He understood that his era of using Green Island Cement as a personal ATM was gone for good. Once he sold his shares, they would become mere money, never to be recovered.

“Mr. Harrier, you don’t have to sell. A transaction is a matter of mutual consent. Since you feel you can’t meet my terms, there’s nothing more for us to discuss. Rest assured, I will handle things by the book, and so will the Securities and Futures Commission. Dad, let’s go. The Board of Directors meeting is about to start.” Lin Haoran glanced at his watch. It was already 9:40 in the morning.

With that, Lin Haoran and Lin Wan’an exchanged a knowing look and turned to leave.

The move was a subtle yet powerful threat to Harrier Centurion, implying that if he didn’t accept the terms, he would face even more unfavorable consequences.

Lin Haoran also understood the importance of moderation in negotiations; he didn’t want to push the other party into a corner.

The offer of 4 Hong Kong dollars per share he had left on the table not only demonstrated his resolve but also gave Harrier Centurion a little room to maneuver.

Just as he had predicted, right as they were about to step out of the office, Harrier Centurion’s voice came from behind, tinged with helplessness and compromise. “Mr. Lin, I agree.”

The words seemed to drain all the strength from his body, making him look even older. His former dominance and confidence were gone, replaced by a deep sense of defeat and frustration.

Lin Haoran and Lin Wan’an exchanged a smile and turned back, their eyes gleaming with victory.

They knew they had won this contest.

“Mr. Harrier, you’re right. At your age and with your experience, it’s time to enjoy a quiet retirement in Britain. Rest assured, I, Lin Haoran, have always upheld the traditional virtue of respecting the old and loving the young. I won’t easily dig into your past. As the new Chairman of Green Island Cement, I will take measures to properly seal the past financial records to ensure a smooth transition for everyone,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Then it’s settled. I will persuade Ziegler and the others to resign as well to show my sincerity. I promise to do my utmost to fulfill everything I’ve agreed to.”

Harrier Centurion had no heart for further maneuvering. All he wanted now was a peaceful transition at Green Island Cement, after which he could return to Britain as soon as possible.

Even at 4 Hong Kong dollars per share, his Green Island Cement stock would still fetch a considerable sum, enough for him to have start-up capital for a new business back home.

Perhaps he could even look for some easily controllable and profitable public companies in Britain. He could then simply repeat the same tactics he used in Hong Kong.

That way, his family’s future expenses would still be secure.

“Good, Mr. Harrier. I’ll be waiting for you in the meeting room,” Lin Haoran said, then left the office with Lin Wan’an.

By now, the other shareholders had begun to arrive.

They had already heard from the employees’ chatter about the fire in the finance office the previous night.

These shareholders all had murky connections with Harrier Centurion and received certain benefits from him every year, so they had a rough idea of what was happening but remained silent.

Lin Haoran greeted them with a smile. Their presence was, in itself, a show of respect toward him.

Once he had more money later, he would acquire their shares in Green Island Cement and fully privatize the company.

But not now. There was no rush.

Shortly after Lin Haoran and his father left the chairman’s office, he saw Ziegler and the others walk in.

Ten o’clock in the morning, in the boardroom.

The meeting room was already full.

Besides Lin Haoran and the other directors, Lin Wan’an was also present. In addition, the company’s Deputy General Manager, Burton, was there, seated next to Lin Haoran.

“This meeting is a very important one for Green Island Cement Company. I’m sure you all know what it’s about. That’s right, I am formally announcing that I, Lin Haoran, now control 40% of the shares in Green Island Cement Company.”

“The company has already verified my shares, so there’s no need to dwell on that. I now formally propose to become the Chairman of Green Island Cement Company. Those in favor may raise their hands; those opposed may abstain.”

“Of course, considering the percentage of shares I hold, I don’t care even if all of you object. So, Mr. Harrier, as the current Chairman of Green Island Cement Company, please begin the meeting!” Lin Haoran announced directly once everyone was present.

He knew that these shareholders had varying degrees of connection to Harrier Centurion, so he didn’t bother with pleasantries.

Harrier Centurion stood up from his seat and looked at all the members of the Board of Directors, his heart filled with a mixture of emotions.

“Everyone, I have an announcement to make. I, Harrier Centurion, will be resigning from my positions as Director and Chairman of the Board of Green Island Cement Company. Effective immediately, I will no longer hold any position related to the company. At the same time, I propose that Mr. Lin Haoran take over my position as Chairman of the Board. Here is my letter of resignation.”

Harrier Centurion had no intention of following any further procedures; he bluntly announced the outcome.

However, everyone had already anticipated this result, so no one was surprised.

The most surprised person was the assistant recording the minutes of the board meeting. She stared at the scene, almost completely stunned.

A major shake-up was happening in Green Island Cement’s top management.

The next scene left the young assistant even more astonished.

“I, Ziegler, will be resigning from my positions as general manager and Director of Green Island Cement Company. Effective immediately, I will no longer hold any position related to the company. Here is my letter of resignation.” After Harrier Centurion finished, Ziegler also stood up and announced his decision.

Following him, the original Marketing Director, Public Relations Director, and Finance Director all announced their resignations in the meeting room, one by one.

When Harrier Centurion had initially resigned, the other shareholders hadn’t found it strange.

But seeing what followed, even they were stunned.

What was going on? Wasn’t this just about Harrier Centurion? Why were the top executives resigning one after another?

These men were Harrier Centurion’s most capable aides in controlling Green Island Cement.

Everyone looked at Lin Haoran, who remained perfectly calm, as if he had anticipated this all along.

At this point, how could they not understand? This was Lin Haoran’s doing.

“Alright. In that case, I won’t drag things out with complicated meeting procedures either. Let’s keep it simple. As the new Chairman of the Board, I formally approve the resignations of Harrier Centurion, Ziegler, and the other three. At the same time, I officially announce that the former Deputy General Manager, Mr. Burton, will formally take over Mr. Ziegler’s position as general manager. As for the three important senior positions of Marketing Director, Public Relations Director, and Finance Director, they will be temporarily filled by the deputy directors of each respective department.”

“Everyone, are there any other questions?” Lin Haoran finished, his gaze sweeping across the room.

All the shareholders remained silent, which was taken as tacit approval. Then, a wave of enthusiastic applause erupted in the room as the shareholders congratulated him, the newly appointed chairman.

“Thank you for your applause. Since there are no objections, let’s conclude this meeting. I won’t waste any more of your time. Meeting adjourned,” Lin Haoran declared directly after the applause died down.

He had many things to deal with next, so there was no need to waste time in the meeting room.

After the meeting, the shareholders swarmed forward to exchange pleasantries with Lin Haoran, congratulating both him and Lin Wan’an.

A major shake-up had occurred at Green Island Cement, and Lin Haoran was the new Chairman. There was naturally no need for them to maintain close ties with Harrier Centurion anymore.

Their only regret now was that they could no longer receive benefits from Harrier Centurion.

“Mr. Burton, from today onwards, the management of Green Island Cement is in your hands. Don’t disappoint me. You were stuck at the company all night, why don’t you go home and get some rest?” Lin Haoran said to Burton, the new general manager.

“Mr. Chairman, I’m full of energy right now, I don’t need to rest. Although I stayed at the company last night, I did get some sleep. I’ll go and handle the handover with Mr. Ziegler now.” Burton’s face was alight with joy, showing no trace of fatigue.

“Alright, you can arrange it yourself. In short, the position of general manager is yours for now. But if you don’t perform well, I will still replace you. So, whether you can hold onto this position depends on your performance!”

Lin Haoran didn’t mince his words. He already considered Green Island Cement his private enterprise. Although it wasn’t privatized yet, that step would be taken in the near future.

“Rest assured, Mr. Chairman, I am very confident that I can manage Green Island Cement Company well. I will take my leave now.” After speaking, Burton hurried off to handle the handover with Ziegler.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran led his father, Lin Wan’an, back to the chairman’s office.

“Dad, does Wan’an Group have enough funds to buy Harrier Centurion’s shares?” Lin Haoran asked as they walked.

“Currently, Wan’an Group is raising funds to focus all its efforts on a major real estate project in North Point, which is expected to be completed in two years. Once it’s done, we expect to make a profit of over thirty million Hong Kong dollars from that project. So, without taking out a loan, Wan’an Group can’t produce this amount of cash right now.”

“But just because Wan’an Group can’t, doesn’t mean your Dad can’t. Over the years, I’ve made quite a bit of money through Wan’an Group. 4 Hong Kong dollars per share for Green Island Cement stock is an incredible bargain. If an offer like this were on the open market, people would be fighting over it. With such a great opportunity, of course I have to seize it. Even if I didn’t have the money, I’d scrape it together to make it happen. Good opportunities don’t come around every day!” Lin Wan’an said with a smile.

Chapter 90: Press Conference

As Wan’an Group was a publicly listed company, even though Lin Wan’an held over fifty percent of the shares, he couldn’t just pour all his personal money into the company. After all, he had taken Wan’an Group public to help himself make more money.

When it came to financial management, Lin Wan’an always adhered to the principle of keeping his public and private affairs separate, ensuring a clear boundary between corporate operations and his personal finances.

A 12.6% stake in Green Island Cement was equivalent to 6.3 million shares. At four Hong Kong dollars per share, the total cost was only twenty-five million two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars. Lin Wan’an could naturally afford this amount without much difficulty.

He had earned a great deal from Wan’an Group over the years.

For example, both Huafeng Cement Factory and Wanfeng Fan Factory were businesses he had started with his private funds over the years; they were not subsidiaries of Wan’an Group.

Therefore, Lin Wan’an could directly give these two factories to his two sons.

The two chatted as they walked, soon returning to the chairman’s office.

This time, they brought the legal counsel with them.

The chief financial officer and other staff Lin Wan’an had brought from Wan’an Group had already gone to the Finance Office to sort through the accounts. Even if past accounts were not going to be investigated, the current ones had to be clarified.

When they entered the chairman’s office, Harrier Centurion was already waiting for them.

“Mr. Harrier, I believe it’s time for us to handle the share transfer,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Of course. I will deal with everything here as quickly as possible. I don’t plan on staying in this city of Hong Kong any longer,” Harrier Centurion replied, having no intention of dragging things out.

“Mr. He, please draw up a share transfer agreement…” Lin Wan’an said to the head of the legal counsel he had brought.

“Yes, Director Lin,” the legal counsel responded with a nod.

Five minutes later, a share transfer agreement was drafted. After both parties confirmed there were no issues, two copies were made, and both sides decisively signed the contract.

“Mr. Harrier, I will transfer the funds for the shares to your account within the day. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you,” Lin Wan’an said with a smile, shaking Harrier Centurion’s hand.

This time, he had truly gotten a tremendous bargain, becoming Green Island Cement Company’s second-largest shareholder at a price far below the market rate.

He owed all of this to his son.

With the matter of the shares settled.

“Mr. Harrier, when do you plan to hold the press conference?” Lin Haoran asked.

An earthquake-level shake-up had occurred within Green Island Cement Company today. In such situations, a press conference was generally required.

Although Green Island Cement Company wasn’t a top-tier corporation, it was still a well-known publicly listed company that everyone in Hong Kong knew.

“Let’s hold it at two o’clock this afternoon. Have the Public Relations Department contact some of Hong Kong’s mainstream media outlets to attend. It won’t take long,” Harrier Centurion said, wanting only to get things over with as soon as possible.

Hong Kong’s city center wasn’t very large. Whenever something major happened, the media reporters could arrive quickly, so holding it at two in the afternoon was perfectly fine.

“Alright, then. We’ll see you at two, Mr. Harrier,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

After settling things with Harrier Centurion, Lin Haoran went to find the head of the Public Relations Department and asked them to immediately contact Hong Kong’s mainstream media to announce that Green Island Cement would be holding a press conference.

“Haoran, I need to go transfer the money to Mr. Harrier and head back to the group to handle things there, so I’ll be leaving first. The situation here is mostly resolved. The Wan’an Group finance team will stay at Green Island Cement Company temporarily to help you sort out the finances. If you run into anything you don’t know how to handle, just contact me, and I’ll figure something out for you,” Lin Wan’an said, not planning to stay any longer.

“Dad, aren’t you going to attend the press conference this afternoon?” Lin Haoran asked.

Now that the contract was signed, Lin Wan’an was Green Island Cement’s second-largest shareholder and was naturally qualified to attend the press conference.

“I won’t. If there’s anything you don’t understand about Green Island Cement, just ask me. This is the empire you’ve conquered through your own strength. Your dad, well, I won’t get too involved, lest people think I’m snatching my son’s company. I’ve been watching your performance these past few days. You’re not at all like a recent graduate. You’re steady in your work and can completely hold your own. A person like you is more than capable of managing a listed company. Alright, I’ll be off now,” Lin Wan’an said with a wave, then left with his legal team.

From the moment his son had hidden his acquisition of Green Island Cement from him, Lin Wan’an knew that his son already had his own ideas.

Therefore, he had no intention of interfering in Green Island Cement’s affairs.

He was already considering handing Wan’an Group over to Lin Haoran, so he certainly wouldn’t be vying for the helm here.

In a flash, it was two o’clock in the afternoon.

A press conference was about to be held in the employee training room on the fifth floor of the Green Island Building.

This room was normally used for employee training and could easily accommodate several hundred people if necessary. So, despite the large number of reporters who had arrived with their cameras, microphones, and other equipment, there was more than enough space for them.

On the dais, the venue had been specially arranged for the press conference.

Behind the dais, a banner with large red letters in both Chinese and English read: “Green Island Cement Company Press Conference.”

At this moment, three people were seated on the dais: the former chairman, Harrier Centurion; the current chairman, Lin Haoran; and the current general manager, Mr. Burton.

The employee training room of the Green Island Building was now filled with reporters from dozens of well-known media outlets in Hong Kong.

Prominent Hong Kong media such as TVB, Rediffusion Television, the Oriental Daily News, Ta Kung Pao, the Hong Kong Economic Times, the Sing Tao Daily, and the Hong Kong Commercial Daily were all present.

Right now, these reporters had no idea what had happened at Green Island Cement; they only knew that something very significant seemed to have occurred.

Everyone was whispering amongst themselves below the dais. What particularly caught their attention was the young man seated there.

As a major British-owned company, Green Island Cement Company naturally received a great deal of their attention, which was why these media companies had all sent reporters after receiving the invitation to the press conference.

They speculated that this Green Island Cement press conference might have something to do with this young man.

Lin Haoran had not yet made any real public appearances in Hong Kong, so none of the media personnel recognized him.

At this moment, everyone was guessing Lin Haoran’s identity.

A young Chinese man appearing at a press conference for a British-owned company.

Such a scene inevitably fueled all sorts of speculation.

Most importantly, this young man was seated in the center of the dais.

And the man they were familiar with, Green Island Cement’s Chairman, Mr. Harrier Centurion, was only sitting on the left.

As for the person on the right, some reporters recognized him as Mr. Burton, the Deputy General Manager of Green Island Cement.

Everyone waited, anticipating what major announcement Green Island Cement Company was about to make.

Chapter 91: How… How… How Can This Be?

“Mr. Harrier, please, you go first,” Lin Haoran said, pushing the microphone in front of Harrier Centurion.

For Green Island Cement Company, this was the end of an era.

Since that was the case, it was only fitting that Harrier Centurion personally bring this era to a close.

Harrier Centurion nodded, his expression mournful. “Everyone, please be quiet.”

Instantly, the murmuring in the room ceased.

“I have an announcement to make. I have officially resigned from the Green Island Cement Company and will no longer hold any position here. Taking my place is Mr. Lin Haoran. I have been the Chairman of Green Island Cement Company for sixteen years, and I have deep feelings for this company. Even though I am stepping down, I wish the company an ever-brighter future.” After speaking, Harrier Centurion bowed to the crowd and sat down.

Although there were other reasons for his resignation, he would certainly not air his shame at a press conference.

After Harrier Centurion finished, the reporters, who had fallen silent, erupted into a clamor once more.

Many couldn’t help but cry out in surprise.

They never imagined that Green Island Cement Company would truly see a major shake-up.

The Chairman of a British-owned company had been replaced by an unfamiliar young Chinese man.

This was an absolute first in Hong Kong’s history.

While others might not have known Lin Haoran, there was one group who had heard his name: reporters from the Hong Kong Commercial Daily.

Previously, Lin Haoran’s appointment as Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement Company had been announced through the Hong Kong Commercial Daily.

That announcement, however, hadn’t attracted much attention.

Who would have thought that after just a few days, he would be promoted from Vice Chairman to Chairman?

Everyone understood what a Chairman was—the true number one, the real big boss of a company.

At this moment, all eyes turned to the young man seated in the center of the dais.

Without any need for an introduction, this had to be Lin Haoran.

After all, he was the only Chinese person among the three of them.

“Hello everyone, I am Lin Haoran, the new Chairman of Green Island Cement Company. I also have another piece of news for you all: I have already achieved a controlling stake in Green Island Cement, and my shareholding now exceeds fifty percent.

“Green Island Cement Company is a well-established enterprise with over ninety years of history. It is my honor to become its leader. Additionally, the company’s former Deputy General Manager, Mr. Burton, has been officially promoted to the position of general manager. I look forward to leading Green Island Cement Company to an even more glorious tomorrow with Mr. Burton. Thank you.” Lin Haoran didn’t plan to say much, concluding his remarks in just a few sentences.

Including the 12.6% stake held by Lin Wan’an, their total did indeed exceed 50%, so he wasn’t wrong.

His words sent a shockwave through the entire room.

All the reporters felt as if they had misheard. Not only was he the new Chairman, but he also had absolute control over Green Island Cement.

Under an absolute control model, other small and medium shareholders effectively lost their voting rights, having neither the power nor the inclination to supervise.

In short, from now on, Lin Haoran would call all the shots at Green Island Cement. The opposition of other shareholders would be futile.

“Mr. Lin, I’d like to ask how you managed to acquire Green Island Cement Company?”

“Mr. Lin, could you tell us about your background?”

“Mr. Lin, what are your future plans for Green Island Cement Company’s development?”

“Mr. Lin, as the first Chinese person to acquire a British-owned listed company, what are your thoughts on this?”

…

The moment Lin Haoran finished speaking, the floor was flooded with questions.

The surprise and excitement in the room were a clear indication of just how shocking this event was for everyone present.

Without a doubt, once this story was reported, it would capture the attention and stir discussion all across Hong Kong.

The press conference lasted for over an hour. If Lin Haoran hadn’t been keen to leave, the reporters would have kept asking questions indefinitely.

Only after Lin Haoran left the press conference did the media reporters finally come to their senses. They hastily departed from Green Island Cement Company, eager to return to their offices and submit their stories.

This news was bound to stun all of Hong Kong. If their articles weren’t written compellingly, they wouldn’t capture the public’s attention.

TVB and Rediffusion Television, with their inherent advantages, could report the news the fastest.

If all went as expected, the news of Green Island Cement’s change in ownership would be the top story on both television networks’ evening news programs.

This had set a precedent in Hong Kong for a Chinese person acquiring a British-owned listed company.

Previously, Li Jiacheng had acquired a foreign-owned enterprise in Hong Kong back in 1977, the Everhigh Company, but it was just an American-owned company.

In Hong Kong, British-owned companies were the most powerful entities in the business world. In the past, they would only ever sell to other British-funded conglomerates.

Therefore, even though Green Island Cement Company’s market capitalization wasn’t among the top tier in Hong Kong—at most a large listed company—Lin Haoran had nevertheless set a new precedent.

A Chinese-funded conglomerate had successfully acquired a British-owned listed company for the first time.

In the evening, during TVB’s “The 6:30 News Report,” the anchor dedicated a significant segment to the events at Green Island Cement Company.

Hong Kong’s other television station, Rediffusion Television, also provided a detailed report on the change of Chairman at Green Island Cement during its evening news.

Furthermore, Hong Kong Radio broadcast the news as well.

After these two television stations and one radio station reported the story, Lin Haoran instantly became a hot topic in Hong Kong, with the news spreading rapidly and becoming the subject of conversation in streets and homes everywhere.

Hong Kong wasn’t large; in fact, it was quite small.

By that evening, almost over ninety percent of Hong Kong’s population knew about the event.

HSBC Group headquarters, the Taipan’s office.

Although Michael Sandberg had no time to watch television or listen to the radio, his subordinates had already reported the matter to him.

“I was right about him. When I first met and spoke with him, I knew he was extraordinary. I never thought he would acquire Green Island Cement Company so quietly. A young man like this is destined to become a top figure in Hong Kong’s business world. He is worth cultivating a deep relationship with.” Looking at the files his subordinate had handed him, Michael Sandberg fell into deep thought.

He was not opposed to Chinese people acquiring British-owned companies. If it was beneficial to the HSBC Group, he might even facilitate it.

Take the Kowloon Wharf takeover battle, for instance. Both Pao Yue-kong and Newbigging were directors of the HSBC Group, yet he chose to help Pao Yue-kong and not Newbigging. This was because he believed that Pao Yue-kong’s acquisition of Kowloon Wharf would bring greater benefits to the HSBC Group, so he had sided with him without hesitation.

Although Green Island Cement Company wasn’t a major corporation in Michael Sandberg’s eyes, the significance behind the acquisition was extraordinary. Most importantly, Lin Haoran was young, and youth represented limitless possibilities.

Chinese Building, Li Jiacheng’s office.

Looking at the report from his subordinate, Li Jiacheng felt a wave of emotion.

Their Cheung Kong Holdings had also had its eye on Green Island Cement Company, but in the end, they had to concede to Lin Haoran, missing out on this prime British-owned enterprise.

Now, seeing that Lin Haoran had not only become the Chairman of Green Island Cement but also controlled over fifty percent of its shares, his heart was filled with mixed feelings.

There was regret, pity, and envy…

Deep Water Bay, the Pao family villa. Pao Yue-kong had a rare early day off and was home to rest.

The acquisition of Kowloon Wharf had been progressing smoothly recently. Although the competition with Hongkong Land was ongoing, everyone knew the final showdown had not yet arrived, so both sides were quietly building up their strength.

Kowloon Wharf was different from Green Island Cement. It was a top-tier Hong Kong enterprise with a market capitalization of several billion Hong Kong dollars, and the capital involved in the transaction was immense. It was impossible to determine a winner overnight; the takeover battle would likely continue for at least a year or a year and a half.

After returning home, the kitchen was still preparing dinner, so Pao Yue-kong sat with his wife in the living room to watch television.

“The former Chairman of Green Island Cement Company, Mr. Harrier Centurion, has officially stepped down. The new Chairman is Chinese entrepreneur Mr. Lin Haoran. Here are the detailed reports…”

At that moment, a look of shock appeared on Pao Yue-kong’s face.

When he was trading Kowloon Wharf shares with Lin Haoran, he had already learned that Lin Haoran’s acquisition target was Green Island Cement. He had even called in a favor to get Li Jiacheng to give up on acquiring the company.

How much time had passed since then?

In less than a month, he had taken down Green Island Cement Company?

That speed was too fast, impossibly fast. And the news report even stated that the Lin family now controlled over fifty percent of Green Island Cement’s shares.

At this moment, besides shock, Pao Yue-kong felt a strong sense of envy.

That’s right, he was actually envious of a young man in his twenties.

The young man had definitively captured a British-owned enterprise, while he himself, despite his confidence in acquiring Kowloon Wharf, wouldn’t know the outcome until the very last moment.

“This fellow is even more formidable than I imagined,” Pao Yue-kong couldn’t help but sigh.

“Yue-kong, do you know this young man?” Mrs. Pao asked with great interest from the side.

Although Mrs. Pao wasn’t involved in business matters, she had picked up a thing or two over the years.

“I do. I’ve even done business with him. He’s one of our neighbors, actually—Lin Wan’an’s younger son,” Pao Yue-kong explained.

“Oh, Mrs. Lin’s son,” Mrs. Pao said, enlightened.

Kowloon Tong villa district, Lin Haoning’s home.

“Husband, something terrible has happened! Come and see, quick!” Cao Shaoling shouted from the living room.

“What is it, dear? I’m busy studying feedback from our Middle East clients on our products,” Lin Haoning replied with frustration as he walked out of the study, displeased with his wife’s shouting.

“Forget about your research for a moment, hurry up and look at this!” Cao Shaoling said, pointing at the television.

On the screen, a detailed report was being broadcast about the events at Green Island Cement Company.

On the press conference dais, Lin Haoran, dressed in a suit and tie, was confidently answering reporters’ questions, looking full of verve.

“This… this… how can this be…”

Chapter 92: I Want to Be the God of Buying at the Bottom

“Husband, what on earth is going on?” Cao Shaoling’s voice trembled slightly.

Because she had been following the news ahead of time, she had a more comprehensive understanding of this story, and her heart was filled with mixed emotions.

“I’m fucking clueless too!” Lin Haoning’s reply was tinged with anger and helplessness. His expression was as wretched as clothes drenched by a sudden storm.

He never would have imagined that his own younger brother would suddenly become the Chairman of Green Island Cement Company. This was a heavy blow to his carefully laid competitive plans.

“Haoran is the helmsman of Green Island Cement? This competition… how can it even continue?” Lin Haoning’s heart filled with bitterness and unwillingness.

Originally, he had thought that with the Cao family’s support, he was not far from the heir’s throne. But now, this sudden turn of events seemed to have turned all his efforts into nothing.

Recalling his previous schemes, Lin Haoning’s heart was filled with even more complex emotions.

He had thought that Wanfeng Fan Factory’s soaring performance due to the Middle East orders was a major bargaining chip for him in this family contest.

But now, compared to the market value of Green Island Cement, the success of Wanfeng Fan Factory seemed so insignificant.

Lin Haoran’s net worth had even surpassed that of his own father, Lin Wan’an. How could he even talk about competing anymore?

Seeing his state, Cao Shaoling tried to calm herself down, understanding that panicking now would be useless.

“Haoning, we need to analyze this calmly. How could Lin Haoran raise such a huge sum of money to acquire Green Island Cement? Even if your father and my Cao family joined forces, it would be difficult to achieve. Call Dad quickly, maybe he can give us some clues.”

Ten minutes later, Lin Haoning got the answer from his father. Lin Haoran had accomplished all of this on his own. Even Lin Wan’an had only learned the truth in recent days.

After hanging up, Lin Haoning fell into deep thought. His father’s words were like a heavy hammer, striking his heart again and again.

Faced with such a monstrously talented younger brother, he suddenly felt that all his efforts were so small and feeble.

“Maybe… I really should give up.” An unprecedented sense of defeat welled up in Lin Haoning’s heart.

He knew that even with the full support of the Cao family, he couldn’t compete with his younger brother, Lin Haoran.

In this family power game, it seemed he had been eliminated early.

…

After the press conference, Lin Haoran and Harrier Centurion completed the work handover, bringing things to a proper conclusion.

After settling matters at Green Island Cement, Harrier Centurion couldn’t wait to leave the company. He no longer wanted to stay in this place.

The next thing he had to do was to dispose of all his assets in Hong Kong as quickly as possible.

For this once-prosperous city, Harrier no longer felt any attachment. Every brick and tile seemed to have lost its former appeal.

As for Ziegler and the other three, they naturally followed him back to Britain. He had brought them here in the first place.

Green Island Cement’s daily production operated on a two-shift system. The shift change times were at seven in the morning and seven in the evening.

However, at seven o’clock this evening, none of the company’s junior and mid-level management changed shifts.

At this moment, they were all gathered in a large conference room in the Green Island Building.

Every manager in Green Island Cement Company, from the general manager down to the team leaders and captains, was now seated in the conference room.

Lin Haoran sat in the main seat of the conference room, looking at the managers on his left and right, filled with emotion.

“Mr. Chairman, 12 senior managers, 48 mid-level managers, and 186 junior managers are all present. No one is absent.” Burton respectfully placed a list on Lin Haoran’s desk.

Lin Haoran nodded, casually flipped through it, and then put the list down.

Of the 12 senior executives, 11 were Westerners and only one was a Chinese person. And this Chinese executive had just been promoted by Lin Haoran today.

This Chinese senior executive was none other than Liu Zhenxing, who had previously provided Lin Haoran with a lot of useful information.

Liu Zhenxing was originally a supervisor in the quality department. After Lin Haoran took office, he promoted him directly to Director of the Quality Department.

As for the original Director of the Quality Department, he was demoted to Deputy Director.

Among the 48 mid-level managers, 41 were Westerners, and only 7 were local Hong Kong Chinese.

From this, one could see how difficult it was for Hong Kong Chinese to get ahead in a British-owned company—it was as hard as climbing to heaven.

Lin Haoran had specifically visited several junior and mid-level employees, and they all had good evaluations of these 7 Hong Kong Chinese mid-level managers.

These people, who were able to rise to mid-level leadership in Green Island Cement Company, definitely had the ability to become senior executives.

As for the junior managers, Westerners also accounted for half of them.

Lin Haoran called this meeting mainly to let these people know that from now on, he called the shots at Green Island Cement. He was the boss.

In addition, he also took this opportunity to get to know the management team of Green Island Cement.

After the meeting, Lin Haoran asked Burton to stay behind.

“Mr. Burton, you’ve worked hard today,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Not at all, it’s my duty. To be promoted to general manager of Green Island Cement by you, Boss, is a great honor. I’m full of motivation,” Burton replied sincerely.

“Through tonight’s management meeting, I’ve gained a clearer understanding of Green Island Cement’s management structure. I’ve noticed a problem that cannot be ignored. Hong Kong is, after all, a predominantly Chinese city, and many of our clients are Chinese-owned real estate developers. However, our management is almost entirely British. Mr. Burton, do you understand what I mean?” Lin Haoran looked at Burton and asked.

Burton understood the unspoken question and replied with a smile, “Boss, I understand what you mean. Indeed, there is no shortage of outstanding management talent among the local Chinese. I will actively identify and promote them to balance the composition of our management team.”

“Very good, Mr. Burton. What we need is a diverse and highly effective management team. Those capable senior executives should naturally be retained, but for those who lack ability yet occupy key positions, we need to make adjustments. My expectation is that Chinese and Western senior and mid-level leaders will each hold half the positions. Hong Kong’s business environment is prosperous and brimming with talent. If we can’t meet our needs internally, we might as well recruit from the outside. Do you understand what I mean?” Lin Haoran elaborated.

“Completely understand, Boss,” Burton nodded in agreement.

“It looks like you didn’t sleep well last night, and you’ve been busy all day today. Go home and get some rest. Starting tomorrow, the company will have many things that require your effort and dedication.” Lin Haoran patted Burton’s shoulder caringly and gestured for him to leave.

Watching Burton’s departing figure, Lin Haoran sat alone in the main seat, lost in thought.

The matter of Green Island Cement Company was perfectly resolved.

He wasn’t in a hurry with the next phase of his plans for Green Island Cement because the company was completely under his control now. He no longer had to worry about anyone snatching it away.

Therefore, the next thing he had to do was earn money!

He still had 63 million Hong Kong dollars available, but this amount of money was too little for him.

A single Green Island Cement Company was far from enough to satisfy him.

He had no intention of developing the company slowly.

The simplest and fastest way was to acquire more high-quality companies through mergers and acquisitions.

In his previous life, why was Li Jiacheng able to be the richest Chinese person for so many years?

Wasn’t it because, in the course of his development, he constantly bought high-quality companies at their lowest point, allowing his business empire to double again and again?

Looking back at the legendary path of Li Jiacheng from his previous life, he was simply a god of buying at the bottom.

From buying land at low prices in 1967, to buying real estate at the bottom of the market in 1972, to buying Everhigh Company at its bottom in 1977, buying Kowloon Wharf stocks at their low and selling them to Pao Yue-kong in 1978, to acquiring Green Island Cement, to acquiring Hutchison Whampoa in 1979 and performing the mythic feat of an ant swallowing an elephant, and then to acquiring the telecom company Orange for 8.4 billion Hong Kong dollars in 1993 and selling “Orange” for over one hundred billion in 1999, followed by later investments in tech stocks like Facebook, earning profits of over a hundred times, and so on.

All these achievements told Lin Haoran one thing: if you want to surpass others, accumulate wealth at a faster pace, and stand at the very top of the business world, it’s impossible to do so by just running a business conventionally.

If Li Jiacheng had just conventionally run his plastics factory, he would have at most become a wealthy man with modest assets.

If Li Jiacheng had just conventionally run Cheung Kong Holdings Group, which was primarily focused on real estate, he would have only ended up as a first-rate tycoon in Hong Kong.

To become a top-tier tycoon, one must possess a keen market sense, a spirit of daring to take risks, and precise investment vision, constantly searching for and seizing “buying at the bottom” opportunities in the market.

Therefore, what Lin Haoran had to do was to be a god of buying at the bottom, just like Li Jiacheng!

Of course, the acquired companies must also be managed well, or else the assets would eventually be squandered.

In the eyes of others, buying at the bottom was extremely difficult. It required far-sighted vision; otherwise, forget buying at the bottom, you’d be lucky not to lose your principal.

But Lin Haoran was different. He possessed prescient memories from decades in the future.

Even if what he remembered was just a rough outline, it was more than enough.

Take the Kowloon Wharf takeover battle, for example. If he hadn’t known about it and had seen in the newspapers that Pao Yue-kong had no intention of continuing to acquire more Kowloon Wharf shares, he would have certainly believed it.

After all, any normal person would think that after spending so much money to acquire Li Jiacheng’s Kowloon Wharf shares, Pao Yue-kong must be short on funds. It would be normal for him to stop acquiring more shares.

But precisely because Lin Haoran had transmigrated from the future, he knew that Pao Yue-kong not only had ample funds but had also long been determined to abandon the ships to come ashore. So he acted decisively.

Although he was too weak to participate in the Kowloon Wharf acquisition battle, he had no problem taking advantage of the gap during the struggle between Pao Yue-kong and the Jardine faction to get a piece of the pie.

Just that piece of the pie earned him seventy million Hong Kong dollars.

Therefore, this business of buying at the bottom must continue.

Who knows, maybe if he keeps buying at the bottom, one day he’ll become the richest man in the world.

Of course, at present, he was too far from being the richest man in the world.

The road was long, and it would take a long time to reach the destination.

But he didn’t lack time. He was only twenty-four years old and had plenty of time…

Chapter 93: Creating a Trading Opportunity

Lin Haoran now had a rough plan in mind for how to capitalize on the upcoming Second World Oil Crisis and turn a profit.

Based on his memories from his past life, he knew that the oil market would maintain relatively stable prices until December. However, with the outbreak of the civil war in Iran, global oil production would plummet, triggering a surge in oil prices.

It was now the end of October, with only a few days left until November.

Time was tight, and the window for Lin Haoran to prepare was rapidly closing.

He had been busy all day, and it was time to go back and rest. The remaining issues could wait until tomorrow.

Thus, Lin Haoran, along with Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, returned directly to the Hang Fung Building.

After a good night’s rest, he didn’t go to the Green Island Cement Company the next morning but instead stayed at the Universal Investment Company.

At nine in the morning, Su Zhixue, Dai Shi, Zhao Lin, and the others arrived at the company one by one.

They were all naturally aware that Lin Haoran had become the Chairman of Green Island Cement Company.

Upon seeing their Boss, they all approached to offer their congratulations.

Once everyone had arrived, Lin Haoran called the entire trading team into the conference room.

“As you all know, I have become the Chairman of Green Island Cement Company. This achievement would not have been possible without your staunch support and hard work. Therefore, I’ve decided to give you all a special reward this month to show my appreciation.

Dai Shi, Han Zihang, Shi Zhensheng, and Qi Fen, you will each receive a bonus of fifty thousand Hong Kong dollars. As the leader of our team, Su Zhixue will receive an exclusive reward of one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars. This bonus will be paid out along with this month’s salary!” Lin Haoran announced with a smile.

Although these excellent traders were only following orders, it was their professionalism and effort that had allowed him to smoothly gain a controlling stake in Green Island Cement.

They deserved credit for this achievement.

Therefore, this reward was well-deserved.

As soon as he finished speaking, the conference room erupted in excitement, their five faces beaming with irrepressible joy and excitement.

For them, this unexpected bonus was a huge surprise, far exceeding the expected returns of their daily work.

In other investment firms, such a large bonus was a rarity, yet here, it was awarded for the success of a single project.

For many of them, fifty thousand Hong Kong dollars was equivalent to their entire income from a full year of hard work.

And now, it was just an extra reward for one project. This contrast made them deeply appreciate the benefits of working for Universe Group.

Lin Haoran noticed that their loyalty levels had all increased to varying degrees.

Previously, Dai Shi’s loyalty was at 75, while the other three were between 70 and 72.

Now, all of their loyalty levels had broken past 80.

Dai Shi: [Loyalty: 84/100]

Han Zihang: [Loyalty: 82/100]

Shi Zhensheng: [Loyalty: 81/100]

Qi Fen: [Loyalty: 82/100]

Reasonable rewards truly did help increase loyalty!

As for Su Zhixue, his loyalty was already maxed out, so it naturally couldn’t increase any further.

“Thank you, President Lin!” the five of them said almost in unison, their gratitude overflowing.

Lin Haoran smiled in response. “This is all a reward for your hard work. Stick with me, and I guarantee your wallets will only get fatter. The opportunities in the future are countless.”

“President Lin, we will not let you down. We’ll work hard!” the team members declared, their morale soaring.

“Excellent. I have full confidence in you,” Lin Haoran said with a satisfied nod before turning to Su Zhixue. “Zhixue, come to my office. There are a few things I need to discuss with you privately.”

“Of course, President Lin,” Su Zhixue replied, standing up and following Lin Haoran out of the conference room and into his office.

After they both sat down, Lin Haoran looked at Su Zhixue with a keen gaze and asked, “Zhixue, you’ve been deeply involved in the finance industry for many years. You must have a thorough grasp of global financial market dynamics, right?”

Su Zhixue nodded slightly, thought for a moment, and replied, “Yes, President Lin. Although I primarily work in Hong Kong, I always keep a close watch on the major global financial markets. It’s a fundamental part of being a finance professional. Only by keeping up with the times can we establish a foothold in this ever-changing industry.”

Lin Haoran nodded, then changed the subject. “In that case, how much do you know about crude oil futures trading?”

Hearing this, Su Zhixue’s brow furrowed slightly as he seemed to recall the relevant information. “Crude oil futures… As far as I know, there isn’t an official crude oil futures market anywhere in the world yet.

After the 1973 world oil crisis, many futures markets began considering the creation of oil-related futures products, but to this day, top exchanges like the London Commodity Exchange and the New York Commodity Exchange have yet to launch crude oil futures.

As for other less-known exchanges, it goes without saying that they haven’t ventured into this area either.”

“No crude oil futures yet? This complicates things,” Lin Haoran murmured to himself, his brow creasing.

Indeed, in this era, crude oil futures did not exist yet.

Not just crude oil futures, but there wasn’t a single futures product related to petroleum.

According to the history of oil futures, it wasn’t until 1983 that the New York Mercantile Exchange introduced crude oil futures trading.

In November 1978, which was next month, the New York Mercantile Exchange would issue its first energy-related futures contract—heating oil. However, since it was a new and very limited product, the trading volume wouldn’t be large. It would be impossible to make big money from this particular futures contract.

Lin Haoran’s fingers tapped a steady rhythm on his desk as he thought.

Without crude oil futures, he couldn’t just buy and hoard crude oil, could he?

Buying and hoarding crude oil to resell after the crisis was one way, but it wasn’t a good one.

First, time was tight, leaving no room for adequate preparation.

Second, he lacked the facilities and channels to store crude oil, which was a huge obstacle for someone who had no involvement in the petroleum industry.

It seems we’ll have to find another way, Lin Haoran thought to himself, deciding to temporarily set aside the idea of directly hoarding oil and instead ponder other strategies to indirectly profit from the oil crisis.

Lin Haoran sat in his office chair, his brow tightly knitted, his mind racing with endless thoughts.

The financial environment of this era always seemed to be filled with limitations and challenges, forcing him to find innovative breakthroughs time and again.

Last time, he had wanted to use stock market leverage to avoid the hassle of repeatedly applying for loans.

Unfortunately, the stock exchanges of this era had not yet introduced leveraged trading. This forced him to design his own complex financing strategy, raising huge sums through a cycle of loans, which was how he had been able to make his big moves on Green Island Cement and Kowloon Wharf stocks and reap handsome rewards.

“Since crude oil futures don’t exist yet, could I create a trading opportunity that functions like them?”

Lin Haoran sat in his office chair, frowning as he fell deep into thought.

Chapter 94: An Opportunity

“President Lin, if you don’t have any other instructions, I won’t disturb you any further. I’ll be taking my leave now,” Su Zhixue said softly, observing his boss Lin Haoran’s silent and occasionally furrowed brow.

Lin Haoran gave a slight wave, signaling for Su Zhixue to leave.

After Su Zhixue quietly closed the door behind him, Lin Haoran was left alone to sink deeper into thought.

“The path of oil futures is a no-go, and directly stockpiling crude oil clearly won’t work either. This is indeed tricky,” Lin Haoran muttered to himself, trying to figure out a way out of his current predicament.

Just as he was knitting his brows, nearly getting lost in an unsolvable cycle of thought, the shrill ring of the telephone shattered the office’s tranquility, yanking his mind back from its heavy concerns.

He quickly composed himself and picked up the phone on his desk.

“Hello, this is Lin Haoran.” Though curious about the caller’s identity, Lin Haoran remained polite and introduced himself first.

“Haoran, it’s me, Pao Yue-kong. That was quite a move you made yesterday, acquiring Green Island Cement Company so quietly. The whole of Hong Kong was shaken by it!” Shipping Magnate Pao’s hearty laughter came through the phone, much to Lin Haoran’s surprise.

“Uncle Pao, I truly didn’t expect your call. Thank you for the praise, but compared to the Kowloon Wharf you’re about to acquire, my Green Island Cement is truly insignificant,” Lin Haoran replied humbly.

“No matter how you look at it, it’s still a British-funded, publicly listed company. Your achievement is a great encouragement to us Chinese entrepreneurs; it’s incredibly significant!” Pao Yue-kong continued to laugh.

“Uncle Pao, I’ve been looking for a chance to thank you in person for your support and help. Are you free tonight, by any chance? I’d like to visit you at your home,” Lin Haoran said, seizing the opportunity to request a visit.

The first time they had spoken, Pao Yue-kong had invited him to his home, but Lin Haoran hadn’t gone yet.

Now was the time to pay a personal visit.

After receiving Pao Yue-kong’s call, a thought flashed through Lin Haoran’s mind.

When Pao Yue-kong called, Lin Haoran suddenly remembered that Pao Yue-kong’s World-Wide Shipping Group specialized in ocean freight, and a significant part of its business involved the transportation of crude oil.

Perhaps he could find the answer to creating crude oil trading opportunities from Pao Yue-kong. This was an excellent opportunity.

“Of course I’m free, nephew Haoran. I’ve been looking forward to you visiting my home for a long time. Don’t worry about dinner tonight; come eat at my place. I’ll have the kitchen prepare authentic Zhejiang cuisine for you,” Pao Yue-kong said with a laugh.

Pao Yue-kong was a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang, and usually ate food from his hometown.

Lin Haoran was surprised by how hospitable the Shipping Magnate was.

Although acquiring Green Island Cement was an impressive feat, it probably wasn’t enough to truly impress someone like Pao Yue-kong. To top tycoons like him, Green Island Cement Company was merely a publicly listed company of a modest size.

Of course, since Pao Yue-kong was being so hospitable, Lin Haoran would not decline his kindness.

“Alright, Uncle Pao. I’ll be there at seven this evening, sharp. I hope it won’t be an inconvenience,” Lin Haoran said.

“No problem. I’ll be waiting for you at seven. Don’t stand me up now,” Pao Yue-kong laughed heartily.

“Rest assured, Uncle Pao. I, Lin Haoran, am a man of my word. I won’t keep you waiting,” Lin Haoran replied earnestly.

“Excellent, then it’s settled. I have a few things to attend to, so I can’t talk any longer. I look forward to seeing you tonight. Goodbye,” Pao Yue-kong said with a laugh.

“Goodbye.”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran found himself looking forward to the visit that evening.

As a world-renowned shipping magnate, Pao Yue-kong’s empire spanned the globe. He was particularly influential in Middle Eastern oil transport, and his deep ties with various countries in the region went without saying. Perhaps he could truly glean some useful information from Pao Yue-kong.

To Lin Haoran’s surprise, not long after he hung up with Pao Yue-kong, the phone rang again. This time, it was a congratulatory call from Li Jiacheng.

Like Pao Yue-kong, Li Jiacheng offered his sincere congratulations for the successful acquisition of Green Island Cement, his words conveying recognition of Lin Haoran’s abilities and anticipation for future collaboration.

Afterward, he received several more calls, including from his younger maternal uncle, Yang Changdao, and Liu Luanxiong.

Liu Luanxiong excitedly informed Lin Haoran over the phone that Evergo’s new factory in Kwun Tong had completed its basic renovations. They were now installing the assembly line equipment, a process expected to take another two days. Once finished, they could relocate from the old site in Aberdeen.

As for recruitment, he revealed that they had already hired two hundred employees and planned to adjust the workforce flexibly according to future order growth.

“Haoran, I’m planning a simple opening ceremony at the new Kwun Tong factory at nine in the morning, the day after tomorrow. Will you be able to make it?” Liu Luanxiong asked cautiously at the end of the call.

Even though they were partners, he couldn’t help but feel a little pressure when speaking to Lin Haoran, who was now the Chairman of a publicly listed company.

“The morning after next? No problem, I’ll be there on time,” Lin Haoran agreed readily, already making a mental note of the arrangement.

He should still be in Hong Kong the day after tomorrow, but he wasn’t sure about the days following that.

Around noon, Lin Haoran headed to the Green Island Cement factory.

Despite the change in leadership, the company’s daily operations continued in an orderly fashion. Employees performed their duties, and the work rhythm remained unchanged.

Lin Haoran deliberately conducted another thorough inspection, during which he ran into Burton, who was busy overseeing work on the factory grounds.

After being appointed general manager of Green Island Cement Company, Burton seemed invigorated. He threw himself into his work with passion, hoping to demonstrate his capabilities to the new Chairman, Lin Haoran, through concrete actions.

Burton understood that the most direct way to prove himself was by improving the company’s performance, boosting production efficiency, and enhancing employee morale, all to ensure a steady increase in profits.

After the inspection, Lin Haoran returned to Green Island Building and headed first to the Finance Department office.

The fire-scorched areas of the office had already been repainted white, and the Finance Department staff were working as usual.

The company’s new chief financial officer was the former Deputy Director, also a British man.

Lin Haoran checked his Loyalty score: 65. It wasn’t high, but it was acceptable. He would suffice for the time being.

However, once things settled down, Lin Haoran fully intended to replace him.

It was better to have someone with high Loyalty in such a crucial position.

Since officially becoming Chairman of Green Island Cement Company the previous day, he could finally see the Loyalty scores of its employees.

During the meeting last night, Lin Haoran had noticed something: the Loyalty of the foreign managers was generally low, mostly ranging between 50 and 65, with only a few breaking the 70-point mark.

In contrast, the Chinese management demonstrated much higher Loyalty. Thanks to Lin Haoran’s promotion, Liu Zhenxing’s Loyalty had soared to 89, while the other Chinese mid-level managers generally registered between 75 and 85.

Among the junior management, there were quite a few employees with deep emotional ties to Green Island Cement. Most of them had Loyalty scores above seventy, and a few even surpassed eighty.

The new general manager, Burton, was a notable exception. Perhaps out of gratitude for Lin Haoran’s trust and promotion, he had firmly thrown in his lot with him. His Loyalty score was a high 85, the highest among all the Westerner managers.

This was a major reason why Lin Haoran had unhesitatingly promoted him to the general manager position.

That was not a low Loyalty score at all.

Though called Loyalty, it was really a reflection of their personal endorsement of Green Island Cement—a sense of belonging.

The higher the Loyalty, the stronger their sense of belonging to the company.

And now that Lin Haoran was the company’s Boss, the employees’ loyalty to the company was, by extension, loyalty to him.

Since the smooth handover with Harrier Centurion, the former Chairman had never again set foot in the Green Island Cement Company.

As such, the Chairman’s office was now completely Lin Haoran’s domain.

Compared to his old office as Vice Chairman, this one was far more spacious and lavishly decorated, completely free of its former simplicity and cramped feeling.

Lin Haoran had Burton replace the executive chair with a brand-new one to remove any trace of his predecessor.

After all, the issue of Westerners’ body odor made him want nothing to do with the old chair.

Now, sitting in the spacious, comfortable chair, his gaze was involuntarily drawn to the floor-to-ceiling window beside him.

The window, made of highly transparent glass, offered a panoramic view of the entire Green Island Cement factory and the distant Victoria Harbour.

Compared to the narrow, ordinary sliding window in the adjacent Vice Chairman’s office, the view here was far more expansive, making it feel as if one had entered a whole new world.

Looking at the luxurious furnishings, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but marvel; Harrier Centurion certainly knew how to enjoy life.

The desk was piled high with important documents and files related to Green Island Cement. Some had been left by Harrier Centurion, while others were new proposals from Burton awaiting approval.

These documents pertained to the company’s major projects and key decisions, many of which required his personal review and signature as Chairman.

After more than an hour of meticulous review, Lin Haoran finally completed the task at hand. He stretched involuntarily, feeling the tension in his neck and shoulders ease.

In that moment, he truly understood that being a Chairman was no easy task.

As a large, publicly listed company, Green Island Cement’s operational management was far more complex and tedious than he had imagined.

Although Burton and the other senior executives handled the bulk of the work, there were still many important matters that required his personal attention.

It seemed he would need to recruit more talented and highly loyal senior executives as soon as possible.

Chapter 95: Visiting Shipping Magnate Pao

Lin Haoran stayed at the Green Island Cement Company until six in the evening before leaving with Li Weiguo and Li Weidong.

He didn’t plan on staying at the Universal Investment Company in the Hang Fung Building tonight. Instead, he had Li Weiguo drive him back to the Deep Water Bay villa area.

He had already scheduled a visit to Pao Yue-kong’s home and couldn’t miss it.

Before heading back, he made a special stop at a famous local tea shop to select a beautifully packaged box of West Lake Longjing tea.

He had learned that Pao Yue-kong neither drank nor smoked.

In that case, tea from Zhejiang province was the only suitable gift.

After all, the exchange of gifts is a traditional Chinese virtue. Bringing a thoughtful present when visiting someone shows respect and consideration.

After the car slowly entered the Deep Water Bay villa area, Lin Haoran didn’t go directly to Pao Yue-kong’s residence but returned to the Lin family villa first.

Their homes were only just over two hundred meters apart, a short walk away. It was still too early to go over.

“Haoran, you’re back! Why didn’t you say anything? I’ll go to the kitchen and add a few more dishes.” Lin’s mother was full of smiles and joy upon seeing her son.

Lin Haoran becoming the chairman of a listed company made his mother incredibly proud.

Now, she held her head high in her social circles, not only because her husband was the chairman of a well-known listed group, but also because her son had also become the chairman of a listed company.

From the news, Lin’s mother had learned even more exciting details—her son’s chairmanship was far from ordinary.

He had broken the historical precedent of a Chinese person never having acquired a British-funded listed company. How could such an achievement not make her heart swell with pride?

“Mother, you don’t need to save any food for me. I’m visiting Mr. Pao Yue-kong’s home in a little while. I’ve already arranged it; he invited me to have dinner with him,” Lin Haoran said, waving his hand to indicate that she didn’t need to add extra dishes for him.

Hearing this, his mother nodded and said, “Alright. Visiting Mr. Pao’s home is no small matter. Have you prepared a gift? You mustn’t be impolite.”

Lin’s mother naturally knew of Pao Yue-kong and his status, so she understood that her son’s meeting with him must be about something important.

“Don’t worry, mother. I’ve already prepared it,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The clock hand quietly pointed to 6:45 PM. Lin Haoran glanced at his watch one last time, then stepped out of the house with his two bodyguards, carrying the prepared West Lake Longjing tea.

Although the Lin and Pao family homes were very close, darkness was gradually falling. For safety, it was better to bring his bodyguards.

He recalled hearing in his past life that Li Jiacheng’s son had been kidnapped by Zhang Ziqiang’s gang just as he was returning to Deep Water Bay, ultimately getting extorted for two billion Hong Kong dollars.

This showed that even in a renowned wealthy district, safety was not guaranteed. It was better to have bodyguards.

Shortly after Lin Haoran left, Lin Wan’an walked through the door.

Seeing his son’s Mercedes-Benz parked quietly in its space, he quickened his pace into the house, but his son was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Haoran? I clearly saw his car in the parking space,” Lin Wan’an asked his wife, confused.

“He did come back, but he left again right away. He said he has an appointment with Mr. Pao Yue-kong and went to visit him. Haoran said Mr. Pao also invited him to dinner at their house tonight,” Lin’s mother explained.

“Oh? He has an appointment with Mr. Pao Yue-kong?” Lin Wan’an repeated softly, a mix of complex emotions welling up inside him.

He understood Pao Yue-kong’s lofty status in Hong Kong and among the global Chinese community. As the recognized richest Chinese person and the World Shipping Magnate, his influence was global, earning him titles like “Ruler of the Seas” and “King of the Seas” from authoritative magazines like Fortune and Newsweek.

In comparison, although he was a wealthy man in his own right, the gap between him and Pao Yue-kong was obvious.

Lin Wan’an had been Pao Yue-kong’s neighbor for over a decade, yet their relationship was limited to nodding acquaintances; they had never had any deep interactions.

Furthermore, his Wan’an Group had no business dealings with Pao Yue-kong’s World-Wide Shipping Group.

And now, his own son had received a personal invitation from Pao Yue-kong to visit and have dinner.

Being invited by Pao Yue-kong clearly meant that this tycoon held his son in high regard.

He was filled with emotion, feeling a surge of pride, as if seeing the family’s future burning brightly with the rise of the younger generation. A sense of magnificent ambition surged within him, the feeling that the new generation would inevitably surpass the old.

The two-hundred-meter distance was an easy walk for Lin Haoran and his bodyguards. They arrived at the gate of the Pao family villa in less than three minutes. A servant quickly announced them, and soon, Pao Yue-kong came out to greet them personally.

“Uncle Pao, this is a small token of my appreciation. The gift is small, but the sentiment is great,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, handing over the carefully prepared box of Longjing tea.

“Nephew Haoran, you’re too kind. Just coming over is enough, no need for gifts. We’re neighbors, you should visit often,” Pao Yue-kong said, though his face was full of joy as he happily accepted the tea.

“Oh? How did you know I like to drink Longjing tea?” Pao Yue-kong asked with surprise, looking down at the gift box.

“I heard that Uncle Pao isn’t particularly interested in alcohol or tobacco. I felt it wouldn’t be right to come empty-handed on my first visit, so I thought of tea. Knowing that you are from Zhejiang, I thought you might have a preference for Longjing tea. I took a chance, and I’m surprised I guessed correctly,” Lin Haoran explained, his smile tinged with a bit of surprise.

“Haha, you’re a thoughtful young man, and you guessed right. I do love Longjing. Come, let’s not stand at the door. Dinner is ready. We can eat and talk. These two young friends should come in as well.” As he spoke, Pao Yue-kong’s gaze shifted to Li Weiguo and Li Weidong behind Lin Haoran.

Li Weiguo and Li Weidong exchanged a look, then turned to Lin Haoran.

“Come on, Uncle Pao invited you. Let’s go in and eat together,” Lin Haoran said to the two brothers with a smile.

And so, the four of them entered the Pao residence together.

The atmosphere in the Pao home was similar to the Lin’s, quiet and serene.

Entering the dining room, they saw Mrs. Pao sitting alone at the table. Her four daughters and their husbands were not present, having evidently moved into their own homes after getting married.

“Hello, Auntie. I’m Lin Haoran,” Lin Haoran introduced himself politely to Mrs. Pao as soon as he entered, his demeanor impeccable.

Pao Yue-kong was around the same age as Lin Wan’an, so addressing them as Uncle and Auntie felt completely natural to Lin Haoran.

“Haoran, please, have a seat. I hope these dishes are to your liking,” Mrs. Pao said with a gentle smile, showing her gracious nature.

The table was already laden with a variety of steaming, mouth-watering dishes.

“Just looking at them makes me hungry. I’ve never had Zhejiang cuisine before. This will be a real treat,” Lin Haoran praised sincerely.

…

A little over half an hour later, Pao Yue-kong and Lin Haoran moved to the study to chat over tea.

Seeing Pao Yue-kong about to brew the tea, Lin Haoran quickly stood up and said, “Uncle Pao, you’re an elder. Please, allow me to prepare the tea.”

With that, he skillfully brewed the West Lake Longjing tea, its fragrant aroma filling the room.

They each picked up their cups, took a sip, and the conversation began to flow naturally.

“Haoran, I’m very curious. Why the sudden interest in acquiring Green Island Cement Company? As far as I know, your father’s Wan’an Group is mainly involved in the real estate industry,” Pao Yue-kong asked, a curious glint in his eye.

Lin Haoran smiled slightly and explained, “Uncle Pao, the Kowloon Wharf company you’re looking to acquire is currently famous in Hong Kong for its properties and commercial real estate. From leasing commercial buildings to the construction of Harbour City, its deep roots in the real estate sector are clear.

But Kowloon Wharf’s main business wasn’t always real estate. It started primarily with port and transshipment operations. This just goes to show that Hong Kong’s real estate industry is in a golden age of booming development.

And cement, as an indispensable material for real estate and all kinds of infrastructure, is obviously vital.

The reason I’m interested in Green Island Cement Company is not just for its stable source of profit, but also for the priceless, high-quality plot of land the company owns in Hung Hom.

In the long run, I can move the cement production line to a more suitable suburban area and use this valuable land to develop higher-end commercial buildings, thereby achieving optimal resource allocation.”

After listening, Pao Yue-kong nodded slightly, a flicker of approval in his eyes.

The two continued their in-depth discussion in a warm and harmonious atmosphere, exploring the future trends and opportunities in Hong Kong.

Although Lin Haoran wasn’t an expert on the topics Pao Yue-kong brought up, he was able to quickly grasp the key points and answer with ease, thanks to the knowledge he had accumulated in his previous life’s information-rich era.

During their conversation, Lin Haoran displayed such broad knowledge and unique insights that Pao Yue-kong couldn’t help but see him in a new light.

As their talk deepened, Pao Yue-kong’s admiration for the young man grew.

It was truly rare for someone so young to possess such extraordinary vision and accomplishments.

He thought to himself that this young man’s future would be limitless; perhaps his achievements would even surpass his own.

As they chatted, the atmosphere became more and more congenial. Lin Haoran felt the time was right and gently posed his own question.

“Uncle Pao, you have been deeply involved in the business world for many years and have a wealth of experience. I have a few questions and was hoping for your valuable opinion,” Lin Haoran said with a sincere smile.

“Oh? What kind of problem has caught your attention so much?” Pao Yue-kong asked, showing some interest.

“Recently, I’ve noticed large-scale demonstrations against the current regime in the Middle East, particularly in the Pahlavi dynasty, and the situation seems to be spiraling out of control.

Considering the Pahlavi dynasty’s important role in the global oil supply, I’m curious if this situation were to continue to deteriorate, could it trigger a new oil crisis?

After all, any disturbance in the oil market touches a sensitive nerve in the global economy,” Lin Haoran stated his question clearly and logically.

Chapter 96: Objective Achieved, It’s Settled

Upon hearing this, Pao Yue-kong pondered for a moment before replying, “An oil crisis? To be honest, I can’t be sure. After all, the Pahlavi dynasty’s oil supply is still normal, and global crude oil prices are relatively stable.

“Besides, the Pahlavi dynasty has America’s support. I imagine those revolutionaries won’t be able to overthrow the dynasty in the end, so an oil crisis is unlikely to happen.”

This was the view of the vast majority. In their eyes, how could the Pahlavi dynasty possibly lose with a military ally as powerful as America?

But what many didn’t know was that while America was an ally of the Pahlavi dynasty on the surface—one of its allies in containing the Soviet Union—it was secretly planning and supporting the dynasty’s overthrow. This was because the Pahlavi dynasty had been continuously pushing for higher oil prices, which had caused severe economic losses for America.

Lin Haoran knew these secrets well, thanks to the memories of his past life.

But in this era, America would naturally not publicize these clandestine plans and actions, keeping them a secret known only to a select few.

This was precisely the issue Lin Haoran was most eager to discuss. “Uncle Pao, let’s imagine a scenario. If the Pahlavi dynasty were truly overthrown in the future, triggering an oil crisis similar to the one in 1973, and crude oil prices soared several times over, and I happened to have a considerable sum of money on hand, I would want to position myself to profit before prices skyrocket.

“The problem is, time would be tight, and I couldn’t do it by directly hoarding crude oil. In a situation like that, how do you think I could operate to get a piece of the pie in the coming oil crisis?”

Pao Yue-kong smiled faintly at his words and answered, “There are always ways, and it’s actually not that complicated. Since there are many oil-producing countries, you could choose a reputable and reliable one as a partner, pay them in advance to purchase crude oil, but not take physical delivery right away. Instead, you’d have them store it for you temporarily.

“When the oil crisis truly erupts and crude oil prices soar, you could then resell the oil to petrochemical companies in urgent need. That would achieve your goal.

“However, Haoran, I must remind you, while such an operation seems tempting, the risks are not to be underestimated.

“Do you really think another oil crisis will break out? In my opinion, the probability is not very high.

“Moreover, if the crisis doesn’t happen as you predict, while you won’t lose all the capital you invested upfront, you will suffer losses due to the time cost and the discounted price on resale.

“After all, you don’t run a petrochemical company, so holding on to crude oil long-term has no practical meaning for you.”

In Pao Yue-kong’s view, the probability of an oil crisis was just too low.

As an elder, Pao Yue-kong felt it was his responsibility to guide and persuade this promising junior, Lin Haoran.

After a few pleasant conversations, his fondness for Lin Haoran had grown daily, and he thus had high hopes for his future. The Chinese-owned enterprises were weak and fragmented; to stand against the powerful British-owned companies, more outstanding Chinese entrepreneurs needed to rise.

Faced with Pao Yue-kong’s sincere advice, Lin Haoran offered a warm smile, his mind already made up.

He was, of course, well aware of the inevitability of the Second World Oil Crisis. It was the wheel of history, not something an individual could easily turn back.

Therefore, while he was grateful for Pao Yue-kong’s concern, he didn’t take it to heart too much.

Pao Yue-kong’s suggestion was, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, a truly clever strategy.

By signing a contract and paying in advance to lock in a future supply of crude oil, it was essentially a non-traditional form of an “oil futures” transaction, only it bypassed the complexity and uncertainty of the futures market, dealing directly with the supplier, making it more direct and efficient.

However, choosing a trading partner became a difficult problem for Lin Haoran.

He understood that this decision was critical to the success of the entire plan and must be made with extreme caution.

Thus, he once again sought Pao Yue-kong’s guidance. “Uncle Pao, I understand the risks involved, but I’ve decided to give it a try. I can fully bear these risks. In your opinion, if I were to choose a country for this transaction, which would be the most suitable?”

Seeing this, Pao Yue-kong understood Lin Haoran’s resolve.

He didn’t persist in trying to dissuade him, as respecting an individual’s choices was the proper conduct for an elder.

Besides, Pao Yue-kong felt that since Lin Haoran was so confident about this matter, letting him learn through practice, even if it meant experiencing some setbacks, was a part of growth.

After all, in the ever-changing world of business, even those titans who could command the winds and clouds had mostly learned from their failures, taking one step at a time toward success.

A smooth journey, for a true entrepreneur, was often a rare and precious thing.

He simply offered a gentle reminder from the perspective of someone who had been there before. “Haoran, choosing a trading partner is like choosing a close friend. Their reputation, strength, and stability are all crucial factors to consider.

“My World-Wide Shipping Group has a deep foundation of cooperation with many countries in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia. As a key transport partner for many crude oil-producing nations, I am quite familiar with the market there.

“If you truly intend to go through with this transaction, I highly recommend you consider Saudi Arabia first.

“Not only are their crude oil reserves abundant, but their trading reputation is also excellent. They value their name in transactions both large and small and will not easily tarnish it.

“Furthermore, I have a good relationship with Saudi Aramco. If you’re serious about this, I can help connect you.”

Lin Haoran’s eyes flashed with a hint of surprise. He thought to himself that visiting Pao Yue-kong was indeed a wise move.

Although it meant owing Pao Yue-kong a favor, he didn’t mind.

In his view, the exchange of favors was a normal part of business. In the future, as long as his own enterprise grew strong, deepening his cooperation with the Pao family would be the best way to repay it.

Currently, he was in the early stages of his entrepreneurship, and capital was his scarcest resource. Therefore, he had to seize every possible opportunity to accumulate wealth.

In an era full of opportunities, rapidly accumulating capital to lay a solid foundation for his company’s long-term development was his top priority.

“In that case, I will have to trouble you, Uncle Pao, to connect me with Saudi Aramco,” Lin Haoran said sincerely.

At a time like this, personal connections were particularly precious.

“It’s a small matter. I’ll call the person in charge at Saudi Aramco right now to inquire. But, Haoran, how much crude oil do you plan to purchase?” Pao Yue-kong asked with a smile.

“About two to three hundred million Hong Kong dollars,” Lin Haoran said after a moment of thought.

The 63 million Hong Kong dollars he had on hand was not a small sum, but it was clearly stretched thin for an oil investment and couldn’t satisfy his ambitions.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had already secretly planned to use a loan to fill the funding gap.

With the large number of Green Island Cement shares he held and his status as the company’s Chairman, he was confident he could easily gain the favor of banks or financial institutions to raise sufficient loan capital.

“After acquiring Green Island Cement, you can still quickly mobilize two to three hundred million Hong Kong dollars?” Pao Yue-kong’s voice was filled with incredible surprise. He was both curious and impressed by Lin Haoran’s ability to manage his funds, but out of respect, he didn’t probe for details.

Two to three hundred million Hong Kong dollars was no small sum.

Lin Haoran responded with a smile, “Uncle Pao, capital is the key to business operations. Without sufficient support, I couldn’t have successfully completed the acquisition of Green Island Cement.”

Pao Yue-kong nodded in agreement, then said, “In that case, I will contact Saudi Aramco for you as soon as possible and notify you as soon as there’s any progress.”

The night had grown late, and their conversation was drawing to a close.

Before leaving, on account of Pao Yue-kong’s help, Lin Haoran still didn’t forget to offer his own suggestion. “Uncle Pao, if you’re interested in increasing your returns, this oil investment opportunity is really not to be missed.

“Although there’s a certain amount of risk, I believe the risk-to-reward ratio is quite enticing.

“Even if the oil crisis doesn’t erupt, our losses would be nothing more than some transaction fees; but if the crisis does come, the returns could multiply.

“So I feel that this is a risk worth taking.”

However, after hearing this, Pao Yue-kong maintained his cautious attitude. “Haoran, thank you for the suggestion, but my funds are currently concentrated on the competition for Kowloon Wharf. I really don’t have any spare capital to take this risk. Still, I’m very grateful for your reminder and concern.”

Clearly, Pao Yue-kong had unhesitatingly rejected the suggestion.

Chapter 97: Raising More Funds

Lin Haoran was in high spirits after leaving Pao Yue-kong’s home.

This visit had been more than worthwhile.

Not only had he found a way to invest, but he could also leverage Pao Yue-kong’s connections to ensure the investment went smoothly.

Before bidding farewell to Pao Yue-kong, he had given him the phone number of the Lin family villa so that he could be contacted with any news from Saudi Aramco.

Back at home, Lin Haoran chatted with his father, Lin Wan’an, in the living room, waiting for Pao Yue-kong’s call.

He hadn’t told Lin Wan’an about his plan to invest in crude oil.

Even Pao Yue-kong found it too risky and was unwilling to take the chance, let alone someone as cautious as Lin Wan’an.

It would be impossible to get Lin Wan’an to invest alongside him.

In fact, telling him might just earn him a lecture.

About half an hour later, the phone finally rang.

Lin Haoran, who was sitting next to the phone, answered it immediately.

As expected, it was Pao Yue-kong.

“Yes, yes, I understand. Uncle Pao, thank you so much for your trouble. I truly appreciate it. I’ve written down the phone number. You should get some rest too. I won’t keep you any longer. Goodbye.” Lin Haoran hung up the phone, gently setting it down and letting out a long sigh of relief.

He held a piece of paper with a string of numbers written on it.

At that moment, Lin Wan’an looked at Lin Haoran with curiosity.

Lin Haoran knew what his father was thinking and explained with a smile, “Dad, I’m working on a business partnership. Uncle Pao helped me make the connection. As for the details, they’re a secret for now. Just wait for my good news, and I’ll give you a surprise.”

“You’re always so mysterious, you brat, keeping secrets even from your own father,” Lin Wan’an feigned annoyance but didn’t press further.

“Dad, it’s getting late. I’m going upstairs to rest. You and mother should get some sleep too. Goodnight.” Lin Haoran waved to his father and went upstairs with a light spring in his step, returning to his room.

Pao Yue-kong had just called to inform him that he had contacted the president of Saudi Aramco. Out of respect for Pao Yue-kong, the president had agreed to the deal, but Lin Haoran would have to go to Saudi Arabia himself to negotiate and sign the contract with Saudi Aramco.

After all, a deal worth two to three hundred million Hong Kong dollars was just a small order in the eyes of Saudi Aramco.

In 1978, Saudi Aramco’s crude oil production had already exceeded four hundred million tons.

What did four hundred million tons mean?

At the time, the international price of crude oil was around thirteen US dollars per barrel.

Four hundred million tons of crude oil was nearly three billion barrels.

This meant that Saudi Aramco’s crude oil sales for the year could reach over thirty-nine billion US dollars.

Currently, the exchange rate between the Hong Kong dollar and the US dollar was about 5 to 1.

So, Saudi Aramco’s annual crude oil production and sales revenue could reach two hundred billion Hong Kong dollars, or even more.

Moreover, Saudi Aramco’s business wasn’t limited to oil extraction; it also controlled four oil companies in America.

Therefore, his order of two to three hundred million Hong Kong dollars was truly not a big deal. The fact that the president of Saudi Aramco would meet him personally was a testament to the favor shown to Pao Yue-kong, the World Shipping Magnate.

Of course, the two to three hundred million Hong Kong dollars was just his own estimate. Lin Haoran didn’t know yet how much he could borrow.

He decided to get a good night’s sleep and figure out who to borrow from tomorrow.

The next morning, Lin Haoran and his father, Lin Wan’an, left the house together, each in their own car, and drove out of the Deep Water Bay villa district.

He didn’t go directly to the Green Island Cement Company.

Now that the crude oil purchase was lined up, the next step was to raise the funds.

He currently had sixty-three million Hong Kong dollars in available funds, but that was far too little for him. Even if the price of oil doubled, it wouldn’t amount to much.

Therefore, the more principal he had for this investment, the better.

Sitting in the office of Universal Investment Company, Lin Haoran looked through the information on financial companies.

HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank, American Express, BNP Paribas, Bank of East Asia, Wing Lung Bank, Wing Hang Bank, and so on—foreign and Chinese-owned banks were scattered all over Hong Kong.

In addition, there were numerous financial companies operating under the guise of finance companies, such as Bumiputra Finance, Kowloon Finance, Asia-Pacific Finance, and so on.

There were hundreds of such banks and finance companies in all of Hong Kong.

These were all potential sources for short-term loans, which showed just how fierce the financial competition in Hong Kong was.

He decided against approaching Hang Seng Bank. These banks were too formal and would generally only lend an amount equal to the value of the collateral. Therefore, a finance company was the best choice.

Compared to the strict review process of formal banks, finance companies were much more lenient and willing to lend larger sums. For instance, he had managed to secure a loan of fifty million Hong Kong dollars from Bumiputra Finance using the Huafeng Cement Factory as collateral.

“Perhaps I should approach Bumiputra Finance again?”

He knew that Bumiputra Finance would get into trouble sooner or later—with that kind of leadership, it was inevitable. That was why he was reluctant to get too involved with them.

However, of all the finance companies, he was most familiar with Bumiputra. Besides, the company was not expected to run into trouble for another few years. It was only 1978 now. Perhaps he really could talk to Yang Changdao again.

The previous morning, Yang Changdao had called to congratulate him, but they had only exchanged a few pleasantries.

So, Lin Haoran decided to give Yang Changdao another call.

“Uncle Yang, are you free? There’s something I’d like to talk to you about. What, you’ll come to my office? Great, I’m on the 19th floor of the Hang Fung Building. Just come straight up.” Putting down the phone, Lin Haoran was pleasantly surprised.

He had originally intended to visit Yang Changdao at Bumiputra Finance, but before he could even suggest it, Yang Changdao offered to come to him instead.

It seemed his rise in status had made Yang Changdao see him in a new light.

Clearly, Yang Changdao had previously regarded him as a junior.

But now, Lin Haoran’s status was different. He was the Chairman of a large, publicly listed company, his position in the business world even higher than his father’s.

Just over ten minutes later, Yang Changdao appeared outside Universal Investment Company, arriving with remarkable speed.

Bumiputra Finance was in Central, as was Hang Fung Building. The distance between the two wasn’t far, but for Yang Changdao to arrive in just over ten minutes showed how much importance he now placed on Lin Haoran.

“Uncle Yang, let’s talk in my office.” Lin Haoran smiled and shook his hand before leading him into the office.

Yang Changdao was feeling a mix of emotions. Less than two months ago, he had done a loan deal with Lin Haoran. Now, the young man had become the Chairman of a British-funded, publicly listed company.

Today’s newspapers were still filled with articles analyzing Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Green Island Cement Company.

It was fair to say that through the acquisition of Green Island Cement Company alone, Lin Haoran had made himself known to almost everyone in Hong Kong.

“Haoran, I wonder what you’ve called me here for today?” Yang Changdao asked curiously after sitting down.

His attitude towards Lin Haoran could no longer be the same as before.

“Uncle Yang, I’m planning to make an investment and I have a funding gap. If I were to use my position as Chairman of Green Island Cement and my shares in the company as collateral, how much could I borrow from Bumiputra Finance?” Lin Haoran asked directly.

Yang Changdao’s eyes lit up. A big deal had come his way.

To him, the current Lin Haoran was worth far more.

“Haoran, how many shares are you willing to pledge as collateral?” Yang Changdao asked.

In fact, the previous fifty-million-Hong-Kong-dollar loan had required collateral of equal value in shares in addition to the Huafeng Cement Factory. But since Lin Haoran didn’t bring it up, Yang Changdao didn’t either.

There was no need to dwell on it anymore. Lin Haoran’s status today was different from before.

With his title as Chairman of Green Island Cement Company alone, he could easily borrow tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars without any collateral.

“I’m thinking of pledging ten million shares as collateral,” Lin Haoran said after some thought.

He actually held 11.55 million shares of Green Island Cement, with another 8.5 million shares currently mortgaged to Hang Seng Bank.

There wasn’t much difference between ten million and 11.55 million shares, so he just said ten million.

“Ten million shares? Based on the market, we could lend you fifty million Hong Kong dollars without any conditions. With the added weight of your chairmanship, I can approve a loan of one hundred million Hong Kong dollars for you, Haoran,” Yang Changdao said after considering it.

However, Lin Haoran was not satisfied. He shook his head and said, “Uncle Yang, I need a rather large amount of capital. With the amount you’re offering, I could probably get the same from HSBC. To be honest, I’m even on friendly terms with Mr. Michael Sandberg. It’s just that their procedures are too troublesome. Besides, my target is bigger. One hundred million Hong Kong dollars isn’t enough, which is why I’ve come to you again, Uncle Yang.”

He knew that Yang Changdao must have ways to help him secure a larger loan.

He recalled from his past life a company called Carrian Group. The boss of that company had initially bought a piece of land in Yuen Long for 18.5 million Hong Kong dollars and then immediately mortgaged it to Bumiputra Finance for a loan of sixty million Hong Kong dollars.

This showed that they definitely had their methods.

“Haoran, how much do you want to borrow?” Yang Changdao asked cautiously.

“I want to borrow three hundred million Hong Kong dollars, also for a one-year term,” Lin Haoran said, making a bold request.

Upon hearing this, Yang Changdao immediately shook his head. “Haoran, it’s not that I don’t want to lend it to you, but that amount is too exaggerated. It far exceeds the value of the shares you’re putting up as collateral.”

Although he wanted to do big business, he also understood the importance of risk.

“Uncle Yang, I am the controlling shareholder of Green Island Cement Company. This status is worth more than the share price can reflect. Furthermore, the actual value of Green Island Cement Company is much higher than its stock price. The company is worth at least five hundred million, and the piece of land in Hung Hom alone is incredibly valuable. My request for a three-hundred-million-dollar loan isn’t an exaggeration at all. You can have someone appraise it,” Lin Haoran said.

Lin Haoran wasn’t wrong. The plot of land owned by Green Island Cement was indeed worth several hundred million.

However, that was contingent on rezoning the land from industrial to commercial use, something Lin Haoran definitely planned to do in the future, which would require paying a hefty fee to the government.

“Haoran, there’s no need for an appraisal. We’ve already gathered information on Green Island Cement. Given your current status, there’s no way I can approve three hundred million. But I’m confident I can get you two hundred million Hong Kong dollars,” Yang Changdao said after some thought.

“Two hundred million Hong Kong dollars?” Lin Haoran frowned.

This was within his expected range, but he still hoped to borrow more.

So, Lin Haoran said, “Uncle Yang, to be honest with you, the project I’m preparing to invest in requires three hundred million Hong Kong dollars. I have sixty million in available funds. How about this: Bumiputra Finance lends me two hundred and forty million Hong Kong dollars so I can reach three hundred million. The loan term will still be one year.

“In any case, both Green Island Cement and Wan’an Group are right here in Hong Kong; they’re not going anywhere. I believe you can help me sort this out, Uncle Yang. As for the finder’s fee, we’ll follow the usual practice. Once it’s done, five hundred thousand in cash as a token of my gratitude.”

It was only an extra forty million Hong Kong dollars. Lin Haoran believed he wouldn’t refuse.

“Haoran, let me think about it. I need to go back and discuss it with some people. I’ll call you with the result as soon as I have it,” Yang Changdao said.

Chapter 98: Time to Buy a Villa for Myself

Yang Changdao hurried back, clearly to discuss the matter with the head of Bumiputra Finance’s investigation team in Hong Kong.

Since he hadn’t immediately said no, there was obviously a chance.

That being the case, all Lin Haoran had to do was wait.

Not long after Yang Changdao left, Lin Haoran went to the Green Island Cement Company.

The other party had his beeper number and could contact him anytime once there was a result.

Back in the Chairman’s office at Green Island Cement, Lin Haoran saw that there were no documents needing his approval today.

After approving a pile of documents the day before, he had already increased Burton’s decision-making authority. Only a few important decisions would require him to personally preside over them.

After all, he believed in the principle: Trust in those you use, and do not use those you distrust.

Moreover, Burton had just taken office as the general manager of Green Island Cement Company. It was the perfect time for him to prove himself, and under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t do anything to harm the company’s interests.

Furthermore, what put Lin Haoran at ease was Burton’s sufficiently high Loyalty.

If his Loyalty were low, Lin Haoran certainly wouldn’t have delegated so much power.

“Knock, knock, knock.” A timely knock on the door from outside interrupted Lin Haoran’s thoughts.

“Come in,” he responded in a steady voice.

As the office door was gently turned open, Burton, the general manager of Green Island Cement Company, stepped inside. He held a document in his hand, looking both professional and confident.

“Mr. Chairman, after careful consideration, I have formulated a development plan that I believe is crucial for the company’s future. I’ve come specifically to request your review and approval,” Burton said respectfully, handing the document to Lin Haoran.

“Oh?” Lin Haoran took the document and began to read it with curiosity.

He had already increased Burton’s decision-making authority, so the fact that Burton still sought his review indicated the matter was quite important.

“Three years ago, leveraging the network I built on Luzon Island, I successfully opened up the cement market there for Green Island Cement Company.

“Today, we have become the fifth-largest cement seller on the island.

“During this time, I repeatedly suggested to Mr. Harrier Centurion that given the continuous growth in sales, it was too costly to keep shipping cement from Hong Kong to Luzon Island. In the long run, a more rational strategy would be to acquire or build a cement plant locally to achieve localized production.

“This would not only accelerate sales growth but also significantly cut transportation costs. Unfortunately, these proposals were never adopted.

“I firmly believe this localization strategy is extremely forward-thinking.

“The Philippines is densely populated with enormous market potential. Although we are currently fifth in sales, there is still vast room for improvement.

“If we can become one of the top three cement suppliers on Luzon Island, or even in the entire Philippines, the annual profit would be substantial.

“The Philippines is just our starting point. In the future, I hope to spread Green Island Cement’s footprint across Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and even Australia!”

While Lin Haoran was focused on reviewing the document, Burton passionately articulated his strategic vision.

Burton understood the importance of such a major decision, which was why he had come to seek the Chairman’s support.

After reading the document, Lin Haoran signed his name without hesitation and said directly, “This is an excellent plan. You have my full support. Go for it!”

After acquiring Green Island Cement, he had long planned for its development. The company had to expand beyond Hong Kong and embrace a broader market.

Relying solely on the local population of a few million was not enough to support the company’s long-term aspirations.

Now, the development plan Burton proposed happened to align perfectly with Lin Haoran’s own strategic vision, so he gave it his full support without a second thought.

Faced with such a decisive decision from Lin Haoran, Burton was first a little surprised, then overwhelmed with excitement.

He clutched the document in his hand, his confidence soaring. “Thank you for your trust, Mr. Chairman. I promise that within two years, Green Island Cement’s sales in the Philippines will rank among the top three!”

Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction, his gaze filled with expectation and encouragement for Burton. “Expanding into overseas markets is a crucial strategic direction for our company’s future. Your efforts will be the key to our success. Work hard. I believe you won’t let me down!”

Having received Lin Haoran’s affirmation and support, Burton’s confidence grew even stronger. He gave a respectful bow and left Lin Haoran’s office, filled with passion.

Before stepping into the office, Burton had been anxious, worried that Lin Haoran would be like the former chairman, Mr. Harrier Centurion, and adopt a conservative stance or even reject his bold proposal.

However, to his surprise, the new Chairman not only understood his vision but also gave him his full support and encouragement.

This trust instantly lifted a great weight from Burton’s heart. He felt deeply that he had found a partner with whom he could fight side-by-side and forge a new future together.

Carrying this excitement and gratitude, Burton left Lin Haoran’s office with renewed confidence, already picturing a grand blueprint of Green Island Cement’s success in overseas markets.

With such an open-minded and visionary boss backing him, he could go all out without any lingering concerns and pursue those dreams that once seemed so distant.

After Burton left, Lin Haoran slowly walked to the floor-to-ceiling glass window, gazing at the factory area outside, which, though busy, was gradually becoming cramped.

He understood that in a tiny place like Hong Kong, Green Island Cement’s room for growth was increasingly limited. To achieve a greater leap, they had to bravely step out and seek new opportunities and challenges in a wider world.

At that moment, the sky over Hong Kong was overcast. The brief morning shower seemed not to have completely dissipated, draping the city in a hazy veil.

However, in Lin Haoran’s heart, this gloom did not affect his mood or his vision.

On the contrary, it felt more like an omen, heralding the journey through wind and rain to come, and the magnificent sight of a rainbow after the storm.

Just then, the sharp ringing of his beeper interrupted his thoughts.

Lin Haoran decisively returned to his office chair and made a call to the number.

As expected, the person on the other end was Yang Changdao from Bumiputra Finance.

“Haoran, it’s me, Yang Changdao.” The voice of Yang Changdao from Bumiputra Finance came through the phone, direct and capable.

“I’ve had a in-depth discussion with the head of our investigation team, and I’ve also reported to headquarters and tested their attitude. Regarding the 240 million Hong Kong dollar loan, it looks like there won’t be a problem. If it’s convenient for you, you can bring the relevant documents to our company now, and we can get the contract signed as soon as possible.”

“Great, I’ll be right over. I’m at the Green Island Cement Company right now. Give me half an hour,” Lin Haoran said decisively.

After hanging up, a faint smile played on Lin Haoran’s lips.

He had long expected that with Yang Changdao’s capabilities, this loan wouldn’t face any major obstacles.

With two bodyguards in tow, Lin Haoran first made a trip back to Universal Investment Company to prepare the necessary documents, then headed directly to Bumiputra Finance.

An hour later, Lin Haoran and Yang Changdao both rose from their seats and shook hands, signifying that they had finalized the contract signing.

“Uncle Yang, regarding this loan, I hope the funds can be disbursed as soon as possible. To me, time is money, and I need to start laying the groundwork for my next steps quickly,” Lin Haoran said earnestly.

“Don’t worry, Haoran. I’ll apply to headquarters to expedite the approval, just like last time. The disbursement shouldn’t be a problem barring any unforeseen issues. As for the timing, I’ll push headquarters to release the funds within three days!” Yang Changdao said with a smile.

“Alright, thank you for your trouble. Once the funds arrive, I’ll have the five hundred thousand in cash for the commission ready. Please rest assured, Uncle Yang!” Lin Haoran continued.

“Haoran, I have complete faith in your character. This isn’t our first time working together; we’ve already built a deep foundation of trust,” Yang Changdao laughed heartily, patting Lin Haoran on the shoulder.

“Then I won’t disturb you any longer. Please get back to your work, Uncle Yang,” Lin Haoran said, preparing to leave.

“Alright, take care, Haoran. Be safe on the road. Come by for tea whenever you’re free, we should chat more often,” Yang Changdao personally saw Lin Haoran to the door.

After leaving Bumiputra Finance, Lin Haoran returned to Hang Fung Building.

As night fell, his office received an unexpected guest—Rosamund Kwan.

Her arrival was tinged with shyness.

This girl, ever since her first taste of the forbidden fruit, had found herself missing Lin Haoran more and more each day.

She was especially thrilled when she learned he had become the Chairman of Green Island Cement, and she wished she could run to his side immediately.

Unfortunately, her father was often at home, which meant she didn’t dare sneak out to spend the night.

Tonight, she learned that her father was traveling to Macau and would be away from Hong Kong for two days. This sudden freedom filled her with excitement, and she rushed to Lin Haoran’s side almost impatiently.

Lin Haoran, too, was at a virile age. With Rosamund Kwan presenting herself to him, he naturally didn’t hold back.

The next morning, sunlight slipped through the gaps in the curtains, casting a warm glow on Lin Haoran and Rosamund Kwan.

Lin Haoran woke up feeling refreshed, Rosamund Kwan still sleeping alluringly beside him.

As he looked at the beautiful woman, still lost in her dreams, a thought quietly emerged: “After I profit from this oil crisis, it’ll be time to buy myself a villa.”

He leaned back gently against the headboard, his right hand unconsciously caressing Rosamund Kwan’s silky-smooth skin as he mulled over his future plans.

Although his office in Hang Fung Building was spacious, it was inconvenient as a private residence. Especially when Rosamund Kwan visited, he had to arrange for his bodyguards to find lodging elsewhere to ensure they had enough a private space.

It was too much trouble.

If he had his own villa, it wouldn’t be so complicated, and there would be plenty of private space.

He glanced at the time; it was already seven-thirty in the morning.

So, he gently woke the still-slumbering Rosamund Kwan.

“I have to go to Kwun Tong this morning to handle some work matters. I’ll drop you off on the way,” Lin Haoran said to her.

“Mm,” Rosamund Kwan nodded obediently and let out a yawn, clearly exhausted from the previous night.

Chapter 99: The New Factory in Kwun Tong

After dropping Rosamund Kwan off safely at the entrance of her residential complex, Lin Haoran didn’t linger for a moment, driving straight to the new factory for Evergo.

It was already October 29th, six days since he had acquired this new factory.

He hadn’t been here in the interim, so he wasn’t sure what it looked like now.

By the time he arrived at the new factory, it was already eight-thirty in the morning, leaving only half an hour until the opening ceremony Liu Luanxiong had scheduled for nine o’clock.

As soon as he entered the factory area, he quickly spotted the figure of Liu Luanxiong, busily directing employees.

Liu Luanxiong’s face was beaming with an unconcealable joy; he was clearly full of confidence and anticipation for this move.

After all, to go from being the helmsman of a small workshop to the owner of a factory with over two thousand square meters of space was a massive transformation.

Admittedly, this leap came with a debt of one million Hong Kong dollars, but Liu Luanxiong seemed completely unconcerned about it.

With the current volume of orders pouring into the factory, he was confident that he could easily clear this debt within a few months.

A million Hong Kong dollars was nothing, just a drop in the bucket.

Noticing Lin Haoran’s arrival, Liu Luanxiong immediately went over to greet him warmly.

“Xiong, this new factory looks brand new. You’ve gotten it looking so professional in just a few days,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Our ceiling fan assembly process is relatively simple, so setting up the assembly lines was very efficient. I already did a trial run yesterday, and everything went smoothly. After moving here, both our production efficiency and logistics will see a quantum leap. When our distributors in America heard we were expanding, they immediately increased their orders—ten times the original amount! Moreover, I’ve already asked my friends in America and Canada to negotiate more partnership opportunities. Once production stabilizes here, we might even consider further expansion,” Liu Luanxiong explained excitedly.

Lin Haoran knew very well that the ceiling fan craze in the Americas would only last for another two or three years before the market became saturated and things cooled down. Therefore, they had to seize this golden opportunity and go all out to make a profit.

“Exactly. We need to actively take orders and speed up production. This is the perfect time for us to seize the initiative while our competitors aren’t yet paying full attention to the North American market. Also, once the factory’s operations are stable, your antique-style ceiling fan design project should be put on the agenda,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, looking around the busy factory.

At that moment, the factory employees were busily preparing various production materials. The number of staff had grown to over two hundred, several times larger than the previous small workshop.

Inside the factory, five brand-new assembly lines were already in operation, and the warehouse next to them was stacked high with ample raw materials. All of this showed that Liu Luanxiong was fully prepared.

“Haoran, my thoughts are perfectly aligned with yours. I can’t wait for our Evergo to take off!” Liu Luanxiong said with a determined tone.

Seeing that Lin Haoran was now the Chairman of a publicly listed company, Liu Luanxiong couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy. However, he also understood that success took time and effort and couldn’t be rushed.

Liu Luanxiong was full of confidence regarding the North American market. His four years studying in Canada had given him a deep understanding of the local culture and market, and he had made many well-connected friends and classmates. This valuable network was a great asset, making it much easier for him to expand his business there.

“Everyone, please come over and line up! Allow me to make a grand introduction. This is our company’s President Lin. Like me, he is also one of the bosses of Amigo Company,” Liu Luanxiong called out enthusiastically to all the employees, deliberately bringing Lin Haoran before the crowd.

Even though Lin Haoran had been frequently featured in the newspapers recently for his successful acquisition of Green Island Cement, most employees only knew his name. They might have only glanced at his newspaper photo and failed to make a strong connection with the Lin Haoran standing before them.

Therefore, the crowd didn’t immediately realize that this low-key, humble leader was the very same Chairman of Green Island Cement who had been making waves in the business world.

“Hello, everyone. It’s a pleasure to work with all of you. Amigo Company has extremely bright prospects. As long as we all work together with dedication, the future will be full of infinite possibilities. Let’s join hands and create a brilliant future together!” Lin Haoran gave a brief, inspiring speech.

Instantly, the more than two hundred employees present burst into loud and sustained applause.

And just like that, everyone had now met their boss, Lin Haoran.

At that moment, outside the factory entrance, firecrackers were laid out neatly. Liu Luanxiong had also specially invited a lion dance troupe to add to the festivities, creating an incredibly lively atmosphere.

“Everyone, please come downstairs and assemble quickly!” As Liu Luanxiong shouted, the time quietly approached nine in the morning.

He and Lin Haoran walked out of the factory building side by side, stepping into the festive atmosphere.

The industrial park was newly built, so tenants were still sparse.

The industrial building where Evergo was located stood six stories tall, but currently, only two tenants had moved in.

One of them was on the fifth floor, probably because the rent was cheaper.

Evergo, on the other hand, occupied the entire second floor.

“I’ve already spoken with the park’s manager. They’ve agreed to prioritize renting out other buildings first. When we have more capital, we can gradually take over the first and third floors. That way, our Evergo factory will be more complete and have more than enough space,” Liu Luanxiong explained his long-term plans to Lin Haoran confidently as they walked downstairs.

“That’s a good plan,” Lin Haoran agreed.

It wasn’t that Amigo Company lacked the money to rent all three floors at once; there was simply no urgent need for it at the moment.

The occupancy rate in the industrial park was currently less than twenty percent, so there was no rush.

Although this move wasn’t a grand affair with numerous invited guests, it was still a significant milestone for Evergo.

The manager of the industrial park came in person to offer congratulations. At the same time, some of the material suppliers who did business with Evergo also sent exquisite flower baskets to show their support and well wishes.

As the sound of firecrackers crackled, Liu Luanxiong and Lin Haoran jointly announced the official start of the opening ceremony.

Outside the building’s entrance, a festive red temporary stage was particularly eye-catching. A large banner hanging above it prominently read, “Grand Opening for Evergo’s New Factory,” adding to the celebratory atmosphere of this special day.

As waves of enthusiastic applause echoed through the air and camera shutters clicked incessantly, this momentous occasion was captured as an eternal memory.

The opening ceremony came to a successful conclusion in a festive and harmonious atmosphere.

“Alright, thank you for your hard work, everyone! Now let’s all head upstairs and officially get to work!” Liu Luanxiong shouted to the crowd, his face wreathed in smiles.

Chapter 100: Arrival in Saudi Arabia

With Liu Luanxiong, a prodigy of the business world, managing Evergo, and the financial supervisor he had sent over, Lin Haoran basically didn’t need to worry too much. All he had to do was wait to reap the rewards.

After returning to the Hang Fung Building from Evergo’s Kwun Tong factory, Lin Haoran began researching Saudi Aramco.

Barring any surprises, the two hundred and forty million Hong Kong dollar loan should arrive before the 31st. By then, he would have the funds to contact Saudi Aramco.

Saudi Aramco’s headquarters was located in an inconspicuous little city in Saudi Arabia—Dhahran.

Since there were no direct flights between Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia, for his trip to Dhahran, Lin Haoran had to first fly from Hong Kong to Cairo, the capital of Egypt. From Cairo, he would fly to Doha, the capital of Qatar, and then take a ship from Doha to Dammam in Saudi Arabia; the distance between the two wasn’t too far.

And Dhahran, the headquarters of Saudi Aramco, was right next to Dammam, Saudi Arabia’s third-largest city.

The journey was a bit complicated, but Lin Haoran didn’t mind for the sake of making money.

He could have gone directly to Doha and contacted a local oil company in Qatar, as Qatar was also a major oil-producing nation. However, his priority was stability.

Since he already had a connection to Saudi Aramco through Pao Yue-kong, he decided not to complicate things. If something went wrong, his three hundred million Hong Kong dollars would be gone, and it would be too late for tears.

It was almost certain the loan from Bumiputra Finance would come through, but to be absolutely sure, Lin Haoran didn’t depart early. He planned to wait until the funds arrived before leaving.

Otherwise, if he arrived in the Middle East only to be told by Yang Changdao that the loan hadn’t been approved, wouldn’t his trip have been for nothing?

He had a month left. It wasn’t a long time, but it was enough.

For the next two days, with nothing much to do, Lin Haoran basically lived a life that shuttled between two points.

He was either at the Hang Fung Building or at the Green Island Cement Company.

In the blink of an eye, the morning of October 31st arrived.

The ringing of the telephone woke him. Lin Haoran glanced at the time and was surprised to see it was already nine o’clock in the morning.

“Hello, this is Lin Haoran. What? The money has arrived? Great, great, thank you so much, Uncle Yang. I’ll get the five hundred thousand in cash ready for you. Let’s meet at the usual place at ten a.m.” After hanging up, Lin Haoran was wide awake.

The call was from Yang Changdao, who informed him that the two hundred and forty million Hong Kong dollars had been deposited.

After hastily washing up and changing his clothes, Lin Haoran left with his bodyguards.

Upon arriving at HSBC, he was received by the same Senior Client Manager, Huang Yulan.

With dedicated staff to assist him, everything was handled quickly.

In less than half an hour, he not only confirmed the funds in his account and converted three hundred million Hong Kong dollars into sixty million US dollars, but also withdrew five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars in cash.

He converted the Hong Kong dollars to US dollars for transactional convenience.

After all, in the Middle East, especially in countries like Saudi Arabia that had good relations with America, large contracts were basically settled in US dollars.

After settling these matters, Lin Haoran once again carried the cash to the restaurant where he had met Yang Changdao before.

It was the same private room. After handing the case to Yang Changdao and exchanging a few pleasantries, he left directly.

After this, he probably wouldn’t have much more to do with Bumiputra Finance.

With two loans, Lin Haoran now owed Bumiputra Finance three hundred and fifty million Hong Kong dollars, and that was without even counting the interest.

The amount was already very large.

Moreover, he was confident that he would acquire sufficient funds through the upcoming oil crisis.

In the future, if he needed even larger loans, it would be better to go through HSBC.

With all that sorted, Lin Haoran first called the airport to inquire about tickets from Hong Kong to Cairo.

As it happened, there was an international flight from Hong Kong to Cairo at 9:28 tomorrow morning, November 1st.

So, he decisively booked four tickets.

Besides himself and the two brothers, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, he also needed to find an Arabic translator to accompany him on this trip to the Middle East.

Although his English was good, the Middle East consisted mostly of Arab countries where Arabic was the common language. Having an Arabic translator would certainly make things much more convenient.

Hiring an Arabic-speaking translator was a simple matter.

Hong Kong itself was an international financial hub, gathering talent from all over the world. With his connections, it wouldn’t be difficult to find such a translator.

That very afternoon, he found a suitable candidate.

The translator was a Saudi man, a 24-year-old international student who had just graduated from Hong Kong University and had stayed in Hong Kong to work as an Arabic translator.

All preparations were complete; all that was left was to depart.

He didn’t plan to stay in Saudi Arabia for long on this trip, but he had already informed both Su Zhixue, the head of Universal Investment Company, and Burton, the general manager of Green Island Cement Company, that he would be going abroad for a while.

For Green Island Cement Company in particular, Lin Haoran instructed Burton that if anything came up that he couldn’t handle, he could discuss it with Lin Wan’an, the Chairman of the Wan’an Group, or wait for him to return to deal with it.

In the evening, Lin Haoran made a special trip back to the Lin family villa.

“Dad, mother, I’m planning to leave Hong Kong for a while,” Lin Haoran said to his parents that night as they sat on the sofa watching television together.

“Which country are you going to? Didn’t you just acquire Green Island Cement Company? Do you have the time?” Lin Wan’an asked in surprise.

“I’m going to Egypt to relax. I’ve been so tired from work lately,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Haoran, be careful when you’re out there,” his mother said with concern.

Neither of them objected. Traveling to another country was nothing to be surprised about; after all, Lin Haoran had just spent four years studying in Britain.

“You’re a grown man now, I can’t manage you that much. In short, your safety is the most important thing when you’re abroad,” Lin Wan’an reminded him.

“Don’t worry, Dad, mother. Not only am I bringing the Li brothers, Weiguo and Weidong, but I’ve also hired an Arabic translator. There will be absolutely no problem,” Lin Haoran said with a laugh.

…

In the blink of an eye, a night passed.

At eight o’clock the next morning, Lin Haoran hastily left the house with his two bodyguards, first picking up the translator in Tsim Sha Tsui before heading to the airport together.

The translator’s name was Kanu. According to him, his family was from Jeddah, the second-largest city in Saudi Arabia, and they were relatively wealthy. After studying in Hong Kong, he fell in love with the freedom here and stayed to work as a translator.

The work was flexible, and the pay was good, which suited him perfectly.

At 9:28 a.m., a plane took off from Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport and soared into the sky.

Leaving Hong Kong for the first time since being transported to this era, Lin Haoran felt quite excited.

There weren’t many passengers heading to Cairo. Lin Haoran noticed that the entire plane was only about half full.

He wasn’t short on money now, so he directly bought four first-class tickets. The journey was long, and in first class, the seats could be adjusted or even laid flat. They were spacious and countless times more comfortable than economy class.

It was the first time Li Weiguo and Li Weidong had ever been on a plane, and they were filled with a sense of novelty.

For them, this trip was a real eye-opener.

During their time as Lin Haoran’s bodyguards, he had always treated them very well, so their loyalty to him had already risen above 95.

Seventeen hours later, Lin Haoran and his group arrived in Cairo, the capital of Egypt.

After resting in Cairo for a night, they set off again, traveling from Cairo International Airport to Doha, the capital of Qatar.

After another flight of more than three hours, Lin Haoran and his group arrived in the small, oil-rich country of Qatar.

Without staying for long, and with the help of their translator Kanu, they soon boarded a passenger ship from Doha to Dammam.

Finally, on the afternoon of November 3rd, Lin Haoran and his party arrived in the small Saudi city of Dhahran.

Lin Haoran knew very well that the most important thing right now was to settle the matter of purchasing crude oil as soon as possible.

He had been keeping an eye on international oil prices. The latest price today was 12.87 US dollars per barrel. Prices had risen slightly throughout October and early November, but the increase was not significant.

But Lin Haoran knew that starting in December, when Iran stopped supplying crude oil to the outside world, it would cause an international shortage, and prices would skyrocket.

This was why he had traveled through two countries without stopping to sightsee.

He could play as much as he wanted on the way back, but for now, he had to complete his mission as quickly as possible. That was his purpose for coming here.

Although Dhahran was a small city, because of Saudi Aramco’s presence, many people came here on business, and the hotel industry was quite good.

With Kanu’s help, they checked into a hotel very close to the Saudi Aramco headquarters.

The guests at this hotel were almost all people who had business with Saudi Aramco.

“Kanu, it’s been a long journey. You can take it easy for the next two days,” Lin Haoran said to Kanu before they went to their respective rooms after checking in.

There was no need for a translator at the Saudi Aramco headquarters. Basically, anyone working there could understand English, so there would be no barrier to communication.

“Okay, Mr. Lin,” Kanu said with a nod.

He was also surprised to be back in his home country.

However, Lin Haoran had already asked him, and he had no plans to visit his family during the trip.

After walking into his room and closing the door, Lin Haoran used the hotel phone to dial a number.

This number was the office contact number for the President of Saudi Aramco, which Pao Yue-kong had given him.

“Hello, Mr. Ahmed Zaki Yamani. My name is Lin Haoran. Mr. Pao Yue-kong contacted you about me earlier… Yes, yes, that’s right. I’ve arrived here at the Saudi Aramco headquarters and am currently staying at a hotel. When would you be free? I’d like to meet with you to discuss purchasing petroleum… Tomorrow at ten in the morning? That’s no problem, I’ll be there on time. Great, great. Well, I won’t disturb you any longer.”

Hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. This deal should be in the bag.

Chapter 101: A Pleasure Doing Business

Lin Haoran had a rough understanding of Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the current head of Saudi Aramco.

He wasn’t just the man in charge of this corporate juggernaut; he was also Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.

Under his leadership, Saudi Aramco was transformed from a private enterprise into a state-owned company.

This was a man of great importance.

However, Lin Haoran wasn’t the least bit nervous. He was here to do business, nothing more.

Even if the deal fell through, he could always partner with oil producers from other countries.

An order of sixty million dollars wasn’t massive, especially since he wasn’t a long-term partner, but it was by no means small.

In business, no one owed anyone anything; it was all about fair trade.

That evening, Lin Haoran retired early, spending an utterly ordinary night in the unfamiliar country of Saudi Arabia.

He was up early the next morning.

The hotel wasn’t tall, only a dozen or so stories, but Lin Haoran’s room was on the twelfth floor. From this height, he had a clear view of a massive oil field in the distance, as well as his destination: the Saudi Aramco headquarters.

Near the headquarters, he could also see numerous oil storage tanks.

Looking at the vast array of storage tanks, a thought struck Lin Haoran. Could these tanks be rented?

After buying the crude oil, he certainly couldn’t take immediate delivery; after all, he had nowhere to put it.

Seeing those storage tanks gave Lin Haoran a budding idea.

Besides, he would have to wait for the oil crisis to break out to get a satisfactory price, which would take at least half a year.

From the end of 1978 to early March 1979, Iran would halt its oil exports, causing price volatility and supply shortages.

The sudden drop in crude oil supply on the world market would trigger a frenzy of panic buying, sending prices skyrocketing.

Once this deal was signed, the price of crude oil would more than double within six months. By 1980, it would climb to over thirty, even approaching forty dollars a barrel.

However, Lin Haoran certainly couldn’t wait that long. Instead of such a lengthy wait, he would rather exit early and put the capital to use elsewhere.

After all, making money wasn’t solely dependent on the oil crisis.

He had already decided: in June or July of next year, he would enter the gold market.

Compared to the rise in oil prices, gold would soar even higher, and in a shorter amount of time!

When it came to crude oil, doubling his investment would be good enough.

After all, for Lin Haoran, time was money. He wasn’t satisfied with spending a year and a half in the crude oil market just to double or triple his investment.

If anyone else heard this, they would surely say, “Listen to him! Does he even sound human?”

After all, doubling an investment, especially one worth hundreds of millions, was no simple feat.

This was particularly true for larger corporations, where generating profits became increasingly difficult. For companies like Jardine Matheson, HSBC, and Kowloon Wharf, maintaining an annual profit of over ten percent was already quite impressive. A great many companies were operating at a loss.

It couldn’t be helped. As a company grew, its operations expanded, subsidiaries multiplied, and diversification began. Losses were inevitable, and often, the speed of making money couldn’t keep up with the speed of losing it.

For breakfast, Lin Haoran had a very local meal at the hotel: flatbread and sandwiches, accompanied by dates and camel milk.

When the time was right, he left the hotel with his bodyguards, hailed a taxi waiting for customers at the entrance, and headed for the Saudi Aramco headquarters.

A few minutes later, he and his two bodyguards arrived at the headquarters of the famous oil company.

Because he had an appointment, Lin Haoran was smoothly led by a staff member into an office.

“You’re Lin Haoran? Oh, my apologies, Mr. Pao didn’t mention you were so young. Please, have a seat.” Upon seeing Lin Haoran, the powerful figure who dominated Saudi Aramco asked in surprise, though he didn’t look down on him for it.

“Hello, Mr. Yamani. Mr. Pao is one of my elders. He learned that I wanted to purchase oil, and since he has a good relationship with you, he introduced me,” Lin Haoran said politely.

He knew that the man before him was no simple character; he could remain perfectly composed even when facing pressure from the White House in America.

“Indeed, Mr. Pao is a friend of mine. Saudi Aramco and his World-Wide Shipping Group are excellent partners,” Ahmed Zaki Yamani acknowledged wholeheartedly.

Otherwise, given his status, he would never have received Lin Haoran personally. Matters of business could be handled by his subordinates.

“Mr. Yamani, I know your time is valuable, so I won’t waste much of it. Let’s get straight to the point. I’m sure you’re well aware of my purpose for coming here. That’s right, I’ve prepared sixty million dollars this time, and I’d like to order a batch of crude oil from your company,” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Sixty million dollars is no small sum. Mr. Lin, are you in the petrochemical industry?” Ahmed Zaki Yamani asked curiously.

“I’m not. As for the crude oil I’m ordering, I have my own plans. The funds are ready,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He didn’t bring up topics like the oil crisis in front of Ahmed Zaki Yamani; that would be like showing off one’s insignificant skill before an expert, and it was unnecessary.

He had come purely for this transaction, and there was no need to explain his motives for buying crude oil to the other party.

“That’s certainly not a problem. Sixty million dollars, at the current market price of $12.87 per barrel, can buy about 4.662 million barrels. Since you were introduced by Mr. Pao, I’ll give you a discount. How about $12.50 per barrel, which comes out to 4.8 million barrels of crude oil?”

Ahmed Zaki Yamani crunched the numbers on a calculator and then made his offer to Lin Haoran.

“Of course, no problem. But, Mr. Yamani, I have one more question. After I sign the contract with your company, I can make the payment at any time. I was wondering when I can take delivery of the crude oil?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Saudi Aramco is a major global producer of crude oil. We always maintain a certain level of reserves. Normally, shipments are processed in the order they are received. However, I have a good relationship with Mr. Pao. As a favor to him, if you wish to take delivery, Mr. Lin, I can give you priority. You just need to bring your oil tankers to the port of Dammam,” Ahmed Zaki Yamani said with a smile.

From Ahmed Zaki Yamani’s words, Lin Haoran once again felt the extent of Pao Yue-kong’s influence in the business world.

But it wasn’t surprising. It was said that Pao Yue-kong’s reception room had a photo wall covered with pictures of him with various international dignitaries, including presidents, prime ministers, and kings from Europe and America. This alone was a testament to his immense influence.

“Thank you so much. I’d like to ask something else. Are Saudi Aramco’s storage tanks available for rent?” Lin Haoran continued.

“Rent our storage tanks? We don’t offer that service. What do you mean, Mr. Lin?” Ahmed Zaki Yamani asked, puzzled.

“After I purchase this batch of crude oil from your company, I don’t plan to ship it back immediately. I would like to store it temporarily with your company, probably until around June of next year. That’s why I wanted to ask if your company’s storage tanks could be rented,” Lin Haoran explained his idea.

“Mr. Lin, since you don’t intend to take delivery for a while, why not wait to buy it from us when you actually need it?” Ahmed Zaki Yamani was even more confused.

“To be frank, Mr. Yamani, the price of crude oil changes daily. I’m afraid the price in June of next year might be quite different from the current price, so I decided to purchase it in advance,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Ahmed Zaki Yamani already had his suspicions and understood Lin Haoran’s objective.

However, he didn’t dwell on the matter. After all, even he couldn’t have predicted the imminent fall of the Pahlavi dynasty.

Business was business. Saudi Aramco sold oil, and if a buyer had a request, they weren’t incapable of providing for it.

“Mr. Lin, our company can store it for you free of charge until June of next year. You can take delivery of the crude oil at any time during this period without any extra cost. All of this can be specified in the contract. However, if you exceed this time frame, we will have to charge a fee,” Ahmed Zaki Yamani said seriously.

“That’s truly wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Yamani,” Lin Haoran said, a smile spreading across his face.

He hadn’t expected Pao Yue-kong’s influence to be this great.

“Alright, I’ll have someone draw up the contract now. Please wait here for a moment, Mr. Lin.”

After speaking, Ahmed Zaki Yamani picked up the phone on his desk and made a call. He spoke in Arabic, which Lin Haoran couldn’t understand.

But he figured Yamani was relaying the details of their deal so a subordinate could draft the contract.

About ten minutes later, a middle-aged man walked in, holding two copies of a contract.

“Mr. Lin, please take a look at the contract and see if there are any issues. Feel free to point them out,” Ahmed Zaki Yamani said.

Lin Haoran nodded and began to read the contract.

It was in English, so he had no trouble reading it at all.

$12.50 per barrel, 4.8 million barrels, for a total price of $60 million, with storage provided until June 30, 1979—all the conditions were written in.

“Mr. Yamani, the contract is perfectly fine,” Lin Haoran said with a smile after finishing.

This transaction had been much simpler than he had imagined.

Indeed, with a connection like Mr. Pao Yue-kong, many things became much smoother.

“No problem, then let’s sign it. I have other matters to attend to shortly, so I won’t take up any more of your time, Mr. Lin. May I ask when you expect to complete the payment?”

As he spoke, Ahmed Zaki Yamani swiftly signed his name on the contract, expertly stamped it with the company seal, and then turned to Lin Haoran to ask.

“Rest assured, Mr. Yamani, I will transfer the full amount to your company’s account by tomorrow,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile, signing his own name on the contract as well.

He knew that the nearest HSBC office was in Doha, Qatar, and he could make the transfer there.

“In that case, Mr. Lin, it’s a pleasure doing business with you!” Ahmed Zaki Yamani stood up and extended his right hand.

“A pleasure doing business with you!”

Chapter 102: Diversified Development

With the contract settled, Lin Haoran could finally relax.

This trip had been much simpler and smoother than he had imagined.

The next morning, they took a passenger ferry back to Doha once again.

In Doha, he successfully handled the bank transfer.

Afterward, Lin Haoran took the three of them on a tour across the Middle East, visiting places like Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.

In his previous life, he would have never had the means to do this.

As long as they avoided chaotic countries like Iran and Lebanon, there were generally no problems.

Even Iraq was remarkably peaceful this year, undisturbed by war.

In the 1970s, Iraq, buoyed by its abundant oil and natural gas resources, experienced rapid economic growth. Its people lived prosperous lives, and the country’s affluence was astonishing, fully on par with developed nations.

However, Lin Haoran knew that in two years, the Iran-Iraq War would begin, and Iraq would no longer be a peaceful place.

During his travels, he made regular international calls to communicate with Burton, Lin Wan’an, and the others.

After spending a full week in Iraq, Lin Haoran and his group flew from Baghdad International Airport, returning once more to Cairo, Egypt.

Although Egypt appeared peaceful during this period, riots would break out from time to time.

This was because just last year, Egypt had become the first Arab nation to recognize Israel. This move transformed the Egyptian government from a leader of the Arab world into a near-traitor in their eyes. There were also many extremists within the country who frequently incited riots.

Therefore, even though Lin Haoran was quite interested in this nation, one of the world’s four ancient civilizations, he did not stay long in Egypt for safety reasons. He quickly departed from Cairo International Airport, with Hong Kong as his final destination.

At 3:30 PM on November 20th, a plane slowly landed at Kai Tak International Airport.

Lin Haoran, Li Weiguo, and the others walked out of the cabin. Looking at the familiar scenery of Victoria Harbour in the distance, he couldn’t help but smile.

He hadn’t expected this trip to last so long.

He had already paid the translator, so after disembarking, Lin Haoran parted ways with him.

The Green Island Cement Company was not far from the airport. Since he was back in Hong Kong, he decided to drop by and take a look.

When he arrived at the Green Island Cement Company, not much had changed. The factory was still in a state of busy operation.

Not long after he returned to his office, Burton, having received the news, came over with a stack of documents in his hand.

“Boss, these are the documents for the cement factory we purchased on Luzon Island. I’ve personally inspected it. The facilities there are complete. With a few changes to the process and equipment, we can start production,” Burton said respectfully, placing the documents on Lin Haoran’s desk.

A week ago, when Lin Haoran had called Burton, Burton had reported that he had acquired a nearly bankrupt cement factory near Manila on Luzon Island for a total of 2.38 million Hong Kong dollars.

The scale of this factory was much larger than the Huafeng Cement Factory. Once it was fully operational, its production capacity would be more than enough to handle the orders from Luzon Island.

Land in the suburbs of Manila was much cheaper than in Hong Kong. Furthermore, the factory’s original owner had no intention of continuing the business and just wanted to get rid of the trouble as quickly as possible, so he ended up selling it to the Green Island Cement Company at a loss.

Before Harrier Centurion left his post, the company still had over eight million Hong Kong dollars in available funds.

It was a good thing Lin Haoran had acted decisively, not even giving Harrier Centurion time to react. Otherwise, Harrier Centurion would have undoubtedly found a way to siphon off most of that eight million.

Lin Haoran opened the file, which contained detailed information about the cement factory, complete with many photographs.

“This cement factory went out of business because of poor quality, right? The reason our Green Island Cement can dominate Hong Kong and Macau is most importantly because our quality is good enough. So, even though we’ve taken over this factory, we must ensure our quality standards are met before we start production. The Green Island Cement brand has been around for nearly a hundred years. I don’t want to be the one to ruin the brand’s reputation after I’ve taken over!” Lin Haoran said as he flipped through the documents.

“I understand, Boss. I will be sure to focus on quality!” Burton said solemnly.

“Speaking of which, there’s a Huafeng Cement Factory in Yuen Long. Do you know about it?” Lin Haoran put down the documents and looked up.

“I heard about that cement factory after I joined Green Island Cement, but I don’t know much about it. I heard the Huafeng Cement Factory site is quite large, but its production capacity isn’t great, and the cement quality is slightly worse than ours. It doesn’t have many customers, so it poses no threat to our Green Island Cement Company at all.

Boss, our Hung Hom factory’s production has actually reached a bottleneck. With the booming real estate industry, market demand is growing, especially after we expanded into overseas markets. Even with 24-hour non-stop production, our output is still a bit insufficient. Do you think we could acquire the Huafeng Cement Factory?” As Burton spoke, his eyes lit up.

“That factory is mine,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Ah, Boss, the Huafeng Cement Factory is yours?” Burton was a little surprised.

“Yes, the factory originally belonged to my father, Lin Wan’an, and he later gave it to me. I just haven’t managed it much,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

Indeed, he really hadn’t managed it much. Since he traveled to this world, he had left the Huafeng Cement Factory early on and hadn’t paid much attention to its current situation.

After all, he wasn’t particularly interested in something that only earned him eighty or a hundred thousand a month.

Not only that, but the various permits for the Huafeng Cement Factory were still mortgaged by him at Bumiputra Finance.

“In that case, Boss, why not have Green Island Cement buy the Huafeng Cement Factory?” Burton’s eyes brightened. If it was the boss’s private enterprise, things would be much simpler.

“Not yet. Let’s wait until the middle of next year. I’ll merge the Huafeng Cement Factory into the Green Island Cement Company then.” Since the Huafeng Cement Factory was currently used as collateral, he couldn’t merge it even if he wanted to.

This was a strategy he had planned long ago.

The Green Island Cement factory would have to be relocated sooner or later. With the Huafeng Cement Factory as a backup, the relocation would be worry-free.

Although the Huafeng Cement Factory owned a plot of land over thirty thousand square meters, less than half of it was actually utilized, meaning there was still a lot of room for production to grow.

Furthermore, once the production process was changed, not only would the cement quality improve, but the production speed would also increase.

After all, Green Island Cement’s near-century of accumulated experience was something the Huafeng Cement Factory couldn’t compare to.

Burton nodded. Next year was fine. Green Island Cement wasn’t in a desperate hurry for a branch factory at the moment.

Once the factory in Manila began production, the pressure on the Hung Hom factory would be greatly reduced.

Therefore, the acquisition of the Huafeng Cement Factory was not urgent.

“There is one other matter to report to you,” Burton said, handing another document to Lin Haoran.

It was a file on commercial rent collection.

Here at the Green Island Cement Company headquarters, besides the factory area, there were three commercial buildings.

In front of the buildings was the bustling cement factory.

Behind them, however, was the prosperous commercial district of Hung Hom.

Although Hung Hom had an excellent geographical advantage due to the airport, its commercial development had once lagged far behind places like Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok.

However, with the surge in Hong Kong’s population in recent years, the commercial atmosphere in Hung Hom had gradually intensified.

Moreover, while the Green Island Cement Company was said to be in Hung Hom, it was actually adjacent to Tsim Sha Tsui, and the distance to Tsim Sha Tsui was much shorter than the distance to Kai Tak Airport.

Because of this, the occupancy rates of Green Island Cement’s other two buildings, Qingdao Building and Green Castle Building, were quite decent. For the past few years, these two buildings had been generating over two million Hong Kong dollars in rental income for the Green Island Cement Company annually.

Lin Haoran reviewed the document carefully. His brow furrowed slightly, and he looked up. “Is there a problem here? It looks fine to me.”

“Boss, of course there’s a problem. A twenty or thirty-story building in Tsim Sha Tsui can sell for several hundred million Hong Kong dollars. While our Qingdao and Green Castle Buildings are only a dozen or so floors high, their true value is still immeasurable.

For one building to generate only a little over a million Hong Kong dollars in profit a year is, in my opinion, too low. Although rents around Hung Hom are about this price, and our rates aren’t cheaper than the surrounding area, I hope they can create more value. So, I’ve come up with an idea. This is my other development plan. Please have a look, Boss.”

With that, Burton handed Lin Haoran another file.

“‘Commercial Redevelopment Plan for the Lower Floors of the Green Island, Qingdao, and Green Castle Buildings?’” Lin Haoran looked in surprise at the proposal Burton had given him.

“That’s right, Boss. I believe that as times change and Green Island Cement continues to grow, we should start exploring the path of diversified development. The rental of these two buildings is, in fact, a form of diversified development, just a relatively simple property management business.

Across from our three buildings, many businesses have sprung up. On On Wan Road next to us, they’ve even established a pedestrian street. The commercial atmosphere in our area is actually quite strong.

Since Hung Hom’s commercial sector is developing, why don’t we go with the flow and convert the lower floors of our three buildings into a commercial model? Just like the street-level shops in other commercial buildings, a twenty or thirty-square-meter space can rent for several thousand Hong Kong dollars a month. But we’re renting out office spaces of one or two hundred square meters for only a few thousand a month. The difference is too great.

Currently, the first floors of the Green Castle and Qingdao Buildings are simply rented out as food and beverage stalls. The second and third floors have very low occupancy, as few people like to work on lower floors, and the bottom three floors of the Green Island Building are barely utilized.

So, why don’t we renovate these three buildings, construct connecting corridors between them, and change them into a commercial model similar to Ladies’ Market? The total area of the bottom three floors of our three buildings is over one hundred thousand square feet. This would be enough for us to partition out many shops. Once we succeed in attracting investment, our rental income could increase several times over!” Burton explained his idea.

Chapter 103: The Sole Heir!

“What is the estimated investment? Have you calculated it?” Lin Haoran asked.

“It’s just a renovation of the existing facilities, so it won’t cost much. The estimate is around five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars,” Burton replied.

Lin Haoran nodded and said, “I support your desire for diversified development. Consider this a chance for you to test the waters. I don’t know how confident you are about its success, but an investment of a few hundred thousand is a loss we can afford!”

A general manager who was serious about earning more profits for the company was exactly what he needed.

After leaving the Green Island Cement Company, Lin Haoran didn’t go to the Hang Fung Building. Instead, he had Li Weiguo drive him directly to the Deep Water Bay villa district.

The journey back from Cairo, including the layover, had involved a full twenty hours on a plane. It was time to go home and get some proper rest.

Life at the Lin family villa, with people to wait on him, was certainly more comfortable than staying at the company.

Forty minutes later, the Mercedes-Benz slowly pulled into a parking spot at the Lin family villa.

“Haoran, you’re finally back.” Lin mother was overjoyed to see Lin Haoran.

“Mother,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, greeting her.

“By the way, Haoran, I have something to tell you. Your older brother is coming back tonight.”

Older Brother, Lin Haoning?

Lin Haoran frowned.

Ever since he had crossed over into this world, he had never held a favorable impression of this older brother. The act of planting a mole by his side to secretly cause trouble was enough to earn his displeasure.

However, Lin Haoran no longer saw him as a rival. The previous desire to deal with him had gradually subsided as his own status rose.

After all, as his assets grew, so did his perspective.

Especially after acquiring the Green Island Cement Company, he had already established a certain standing in Hong Kong’s business world.

Although he was far from being a top tycoon, he was no longer an ordinary businessman but the Chairman of a publicly listed company.

“I’m going up to rest first. I’m tired after flying all day.” Without much more small talk with his mother, Lin Haoran headed straight for his loft room.

After more than half a month, his loft room was just as he had left it. The room remained remarkably tidy and clean, without a speck of dust. A faint, fresh scent filled the air, making one unconsciously slow their breathing for fear of disturbing the tranquility.

On the terrace, sunlight dappled through the clouds, scattering across the meticulously cared-for plants. The vibrant green leaves seemed even more full of life, as if each one was telling a story of resilience and hope.

A gentle breeze swept by, carrying the refreshing fragrance of flowers and grass, which was enough to soothe the soul. All worries seemed to drift away with the soft wind.

Lin Haoran lay on a deck chair on the terrace, enjoying the sea breeze. It was exceptionally comfortable.

In the north, November might mean preparations for heavy snow.

But in Hong Kong, the weather in November was incredibly pleasant.

For instance, the daytime temperature in Hong Kong today could reach twenty-five or twenty-six degrees Celsius.

Lying there, Lin Haoran fell asleep without realizing it.

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but he was awakened by a pleasant call with a slightly foreign accent. It was the family’s cute, smiling Filipino maid of Chinese descent who had woken her up.

“Younger Young Master, the Old Master and Madam are waiting for you to join them for dinner,” the maid’s voice was soft and gentle.

“Mm, alright, I know.” Lin Haoran yawned, got up to wash his face, and then went downstairs.

When he entered the dining room, Lin Haoran’s eyes immediately fell on a man who was both a stranger and deeply familiar.

He was a stranger because Lin Haoran had never met him since crossing over.

He was familiar because of the deep impression of him in his memories.

That’s right, this was his biological older brother, Lin Haoning.

“Haoran, come and eat,” the other man said, taking the initiative while Lin Haoran was still wondering how to address him.

Lin Haoran nodded, and after sitting down, he smiled and asked, “Did sister-in-law not come back?”

“Your sister-in-law took Jianbin back to her parents’ home, so I came back alone,” Lin Haoning explained.

Lin Jianbin was Lin Haoran’s nephew, Lin Haoning’s son.

“Come, come, let’s eat,” Lin mother said with a broad smile, beckoning everyone to start the meal.

Although the entire family wasn’t gathered, having her two sons and her husband at the table was enough to make her feel very content and happy.

“Let’s begin. No talking at the table,” Lin Wan’an said from the side.

The meal ended in a strange atmosphere.

“Dad, Haoran, let’s go to the study. I have something I want to talk to you about,” Lin Haoning suggested after dinner.

Although Lin Haoran found it odd, he didn’t say much and followed the two of them into the study on the first floor.

After closing the study door, Lin Wan’an sat down in his chair and said with a sigh, “It’s been a long time since the three of us have sat down for a chat, hasn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s been many years,” Lin Haoning said with a nod.

Lin Haoran smiled and said, “Older Brother, if you have something to say, just say it. There’s no need to be indirect.”

Hearing this, Lin Haoning looked at Lin Haoran with a complicated expression and said slowly, “Haoran, seeing you become the Chairman of Green Island Cement, I understand now that I can’t catch up to you in just over half a year. Therefore, I’ve already formally told Dad that I am willing to give up my position as the heir. Also, regarding the loss of clients at Huafeng Cement Factory over the past few months, I must admit it was related to my actions. I used the Cao family’s network to try and steer some clients to buy cement elsewhere, hoping to gain an advantage in our business competition. However, the business world is far more complex and volatile than I imagined. I thought I had a sure victory, but I never expected that I would be the one to end up as the clown in this contest.”

As he spoke, a bitter smile appeared on Lin Haoning’s face, and a hint of loneliness and self-reflection flickered in his eyes.

Lin Haoran’s face showed a flicker of surprise upon hearing this.

He had long suspected that Lin Haoning was involved in the troubles at Huafeng Cement Factory, thanks to his keen insight from the Loyalty system, but for his brother to admit it so frankly was unexpected.

He looked up at his father, Lin Wan’an, who had a calm expression, as if he had known everything all along and had simply chosen to remain silent and not interfere.

“Haoran,” Lin Wan’an’s voice was steady and powerful, breaking Lin Haoran’s train of thought. “This is also to tell you that the battlefield of business is far more complex and unpredictable than we can imagine. I have been paying attention to the situation between you and your older brother. I receive regular reports on everything, from the fluctuations at Huafeng Cement Factory to the progress at Wanfeng Fan Factory. The reason I never intervened was because I wanted you to personally experience the ups and downs of the market, to learn to grow through challenges, and to grasp the true wisdom of business through competition.”

At this point, an unreadable depth appeared in Lin Wan’an’s eyes. He continued, “In business, there are no permanent winners and no absolute losers. More importantly, Haoran, you have shown extraordinary vision and courage. You didn’t confine yourself to the small world of Huafeng Cement Factory but leaped directly to a bigger stage, acquiring Hong Kong’s largest cement company. This is not just a commercial success; it’s a testament to your personal growth and wisdom, which has completely exceeded my expectations.”

Then, Lin Wan’an’s gaze shifted to Lin Haoning, his tone a mix of reproach and encouragement. “Haoning, this incident has undoubtedly been a profound lesson for you. It has taught you to never underestimate any opponent and not to be blinded by your own confidence. You thought you had an absolute advantage, but you never realized that the real contest often takes place where you can’t see, and your opponent may have already reached a height you can’t fathom. But remember, failure isn’t fearsome. What’s fearsome is losing the courage and determination to fight again. I hope you can learn from this experience and be more cautious and humble in the business world in the future.”

At that moment, understanding dawned on Lin Haoran.

He realized he should have foreseen this. His father, Lin Wan’an, had always maintained a comprehensive grasp of the competition between them.

After all, both Huafeng Cement Factory and Wanfeng Fan Factory were originally his father’s businesses. The employees there would naturally maintain a high degree of loyalty to Lin Wan’an, reporting any significant developments to him immediately.

His father had chosen to wait and see how things develop from the sidelines from start to finish, never intending to interfere in the slightest. It was clear now that he wanted to leave a deep impression on Lin Haoran, a newcomer to the business world fresh out of society.

However, not even Lin Wan’an himself could have predicted that Lin Haoran would achieve such a brilliant success.

He had not only successfully established a foothold in the business world but had also leaped over numerous obstacles to bring Green Island Cement Company, a company with a market value far exceeding that of Wan’an Group, under his control.

This feat was undoubtedly the best proof of Lin Haoran’s business acumen and courage.

Seeing that Lin Haoran remained calm, his face showing little emotion, Lin Wan’an spoke slowly, “Haoran, I didn’t set up this competition between you two blindly. I had already anticipated your older brother’s little schemes. Having navigated the Hong Kong business world for many years, I’ve seen too many cruel stories of family feuds and sibling rivalries. But you two are different. You are my only two sons, and everything I have will be yours sooner or later. Originally, our Chinese tradition is for the eldest son to inherit the family business. I was indeed inclined to have your brother as the heir because he has his strengths, and I knew that while he would compete, he would not truly stoop to fratricide. So, the original intent of this competition was never for you to win. It was actually to have you learn and grow in the process, to lay a foundation for the future. Even though you wouldn’t manage Wan’an Group, you would still inherit a considerable fortune from me and have a bright future ahead. However, your performance has far surpassed my expectations, leaving me deeply surprised and gratified. Having such an outstanding and composed son like you is my greatest honor and pride! Since the competition for the heir has been settled, I will naturally respect the outcome. Therefore, Haoran, from this day forward, you will officially be the sole heir of Wan’an Group.”

Chapter 104: Dividing the Family Property

The matter of the heir had been a foregone conclusion, the dust settling the moment Lin Haoran officially became the Chairman of the Green Island Cement Company. There was no more suspense to be had.

However, with more than half a year still left in the one-year period, he hadn’t expected his Older Brother to take the initiative and concede ahead of schedule.

As Lin Wan’an finished speaking, the study fell silent.

Lin Haoran himself, faced with this sudden confirmation of his inheritance, did not show excessive joy. His expression remained as peaceful as ever; after all, ever since he had transmigrated, the identity of the heir was a destiny he could not escape.

In contrast, Lin Haoning could not hide the look of disappointment on his face. The regret and unwillingness of failing to achieve his goal were clearly written in every subtle expression.

Seeing this, Lin Wan’an broke the silence at the right moment. In the tone of a loving father, he said, “Since the three of us, father and sons, are gathered here today, and the competition for the inheritance has come to an early close, I’ll take this opportunity to reorganize and distribute the family’s business and wealth. This is to ensure that our family’s future can continue to develop in a more harmonious and stable manner.”

Dividing the family property?

At this, Lin Haoran and Lin Haoning simultaneously focused their gazes on Lin Wan’an. Clearly, this sudden proposal to divide the assets had exceeded their expectations.

However, neither of them showed any sign of opposition.

This was especially true for Lin Haoran. Since he had accepted this identity, he had accepted everything that came with his predecessor’s life, and he naturally hoped his father could rest and take care of his health.

Otherwise, if he continued to manage the Wan’an Group day and night, frequently attending social engagements, his body would completely collapse within two or three years.

If he retired now, his health might gradually recover with proper care.

“Dad, please go ahead with your arrangements,” Lin Haoning was the first to state his position. “Whatever your decision, I will accept it unconditionally, without any complaints.”

Following him, Lin Haoran also said with a smile, “Dad, I support your decision to retire early from the Wan’an Group. Please rest assured, I will do everything in my power to lead the Wan’an Group to a more brilliant future and will absolutely not disappoint your expectations.”

“Regarding the division of the family assets, I have long contemplated it and have formulated a detailed plan. First, let me explain the current state of our Lin family’s assets.

“At Wan’an Group, I hold 49.99% of the shares. In addition, your mother owns 10% of the group’s shares.

“Besides these, of the wealth accumulated from managing Wan’an Group over the years, we have used a portion to invest in the Wanfeng Fan Factory and the Huafeng Cement Factory; another portion was invested in the Fengxiang Commercial Building in Sheung Wan for rental income; and there is also the Wanhe Hotel in Yau Ma Tei, a partnership in which we hold a 50% stake.

“Furthermore, I personally hold a plot of land of more than 50,000 square feet near Tsim Sha Tsui and Kwun Tong-Lam Tin. All these properties are separate from the Wan’an Group’s assets.

“Last month, I also acquired the 12.6% stake from the former chairman of Green Island Cement Company.

“As for liquid capital, I have more than thirty-eight million Hong Kong dollars in cash on hand. Of course, there are some minor investments, but I won’t go into detail about them here.

“I have already arranged the division of the Huafeng Cement Factory and the Wanfeng Fan Factory for you both, so I will not repeat that today.

“Now, I will specify your allocations: Haoning, you will receive the 10% of Wan’an Group shares under your mother’s name, the Fengxiang Commercial Building in Sham Shui Po, the Wanhe Hotel shares in Yau Ma Tei, the plot of land in Kwun Tong-Lam Tin, and twenty million Hong Kong dollars in cash.

“And Haoran, you will inherit the 49.99% stake in Wan’an Group, the 12.6% stake in Green Island Cement, and ten million Hong Kong dollars in cash.

“As for your mother and me, we will keep the remaining eight million-plus Hong Kong dollars for our retirement. Along with some small investments and this villa, it will be enough for us to live out our later years in peace. You need not worry too much about that.

“The above is my plan for dividing the assets. Do you have any opinions or suggestions?” After speaking, Lin Wan’an looked gently at his two sons.

“Dad, I completely agree with your arrangements,” Lin Haoning replied with a solemn expression.

“Dad, I have no objections either. This distribution is very reasonable,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, inwardly astonished.

He had never expected Lin Wan’an to have accumulated such an immense personal fortune. Its scale was massive enough to be comparable to, if not greater than, the market value of the Wan’an Group.

He quickly understood the reason: a clear separation between public and private affairs, along with prudence, had always been Lin Wan’an’s style.

As the Chairman of the Wan’an Group, Lin Wan’an naturally understood that once the company went public, it no longer belonged to him personally but was jointly owned by numerous shareholders.

Therefore, he had always strictly separated his personal interests from the company’s.

Relying on the Wan’an Group’s steady development over many years, it was only natural that he had accumulated a substantial fortune.

For Lin Haoning, although he did not gain control of the Wan’an Group, the value of the assets he received was not to be underestimated, which was a testament to Lin Wan’an’s fairness and impartiality in the distribution.

Not to mention anything else, the Fengxiang Commercial Building in Sham Shui Po alone had a market value of over thirty million Hong Kong dollars, a clear indicator of its significant worth.

Such an arrangement was evidently the result of deep deliberation on Lin Wan’an’s part as a father.

Of course, as the heir to the Wan’an Group, Lin Haoran naturally had many advantages.

Lin Haoran raised no objection to his father’s decision to allocate 10% of the group’s shares to his Older Brother, Lin Haoning.

After all, although Lin Haoning had lost the right to lead, he was still a family member, and the legitimate eldest son at that. It was only right that he received some shares.

Moreover, with Lin Haoran holding 49.9% of the shares, Lin Haoning could not threaten his controlling stake. At most, Lin Haoning could only become a Director on the Board of Directors with a title but no real power.

Furthermore, his father had also given all the Green Island Cement Company shares bought from Harrier Centurion to Lin Haoran, which was a very thoughtful consideration.

After all, Green Island Cement had nothing to do with Lin Haoning in the first place. Giving these shares to Lin Haoran would allow him to immediately begin the process of privatizing Green Island Cement.

It was evident that Lin Wan’an had already considered this when he decided to use his personal funds to buy the Green Island Cement shares.

This was to allow Lin Haoran to firmly grasp Green Island Cement. If he was unwilling, no one else could even think of an acquisition.

However, given the current limitations of his financial situation, Lin Haoran’s plan to privatize Green Island Cement could only be temporarily shelved, awaiting the opportune moment.

“Since neither of you has any objections, it’s settled. Haoran, starting tomorrow, you will follow me and learn to manage the company. Only when you can hold your own can I confidently hand over the Wan’an Group to you. This group is my life’s work. I don’t ask for it to reach any spectacular heights; I will be satisfied if you can just allow it to continue developing steadily!” Lin Wan’an said to Lin Haoran, his voice full of expectation.

“Dad, please rest assured. I will certainly give it my all and live up to your trust!” Lin Haoran replied solemnly.

“Haoning, I have always had full confidence in you. Your business talent is already evident, and you have more business experience than Haoran. With the support of the Cao family, I believe that even without inheriting the Wan’an Group, you can create a business empire of your own. The path ahead is yours to forge. I look forward to you carving out a unique commercial path!” Lin Wan’an turned to Lin Haoning and said earnestly.

“Yes, Dad. I will remember your teachings and strive not to disappoint your expectations!” Lin Haoning clenched his fists and responded with determination.

With that, the family meeting to divide the assets came to a close.

“Older Brother, if you’re willing to take my advice, you might want to look towards the North American market for the expansion of the Wanfeng Fan Factory. The market potential there is by no means inferior to the Middle East; it might even be vaster,” Lin Haoran said suddenly, just as Lin Haoning was about to leave the Lin family villa and head home.

The North American market was so large that Evergo couldn’t possibly consume it all.

If Lin Haoning was willing to trust him, he didn’t mind his Older Brother earning a fortune from it.

Upon hearing this, a trace of surprise flashed across Lin Haoning’s face, which then turned to deep thought. Finally, he smiled at Lin Haoran and said, “Haoran, I will seriously consider your suggestion. Thank you, brother.”

With that, Lin Haoning bid his parents farewell and hastily drove away from the Deep Water Bay villa, clearly heading home to discuss his future plans with his wife.

Although it was a great regret not to have inherited the Wan’an Group, with the assets his father Lin Wan’an had given him and his own abilities, Lin Haoning was confident he could carve out a world for himself in the sea of commerce.

As for Lin Haoran, he chose to stay at the villa to continue discussing the Wan’an Group’s situation and future plans in-depth with his father, Lin Wan’an.

After all, from this day forward, the Wan’an Group was his enterprise.

From Lin Wan’an, Lin Haoran now had a deeper understanding of the Wan’an Group.

Although the Wan’an Group’s total market capitalization was currently hovering around only one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, which seemed unremarkable, in reality, the value of the assets held by the group, if estimated at market price, would be no less than two hundred and fifty million Hong Kong dollars.

Behind this was the solid foundation accumulated by the Wan’an Group through years of steady management.

Lin Wan’an had always adhered to a conservative development strategy, which made the Wan’an Group appear relatively low-key in the stock market, lacking high-profile exposure.

Consequently, it did not attract much outside attention, and its trading volume was correspondingly low, which to some extent led to its undervalued stock price.

This was also the reason why the Wan’an Group’s stock price had never been high.

However, this was precisely a manifestation of the Wan’an Group’s stability and strength. It was like a lion poised to strike, quietly waiting for the right moment to make its grand move in the world of business.

The more Lin Haoran learned about the Wan’an Group, the more confident he became in the company’s future.

He had known before that the Wan’an Group’s debt ratio was very low.

But it was only now, from his father, that he learned the Wan’an Group had no debt at all!

In the ever-changing and risky real estate industry, such a financial situation was truly rare.

It was a pity that his father’s years of management had been too conservative. Otherwise, with the Wan’an Group’s foundation, it would have long since developed into one of Hong Kong’s real estate giants.

Chapter 105: Signs of the Oil Crisis

Lin Wan’an was a man of decisive action. Over the next few days, he swiftly completed the detailed division of assets between his two sons, Lin Haoran and Lin Haoning.

Lin Haoran, for his part, placed his 12.6% stake in the Green Island Cement Company under the name of the Universal Investment Company.

At the same time, Lin Haoran began to shadow Lin Wan’an daily, delving deep into the essence of corporate management.

Although a staggering 49.99% of Wan’an Group’s shares were now officially in his name, he was in no hurry to take the helm. Instead, he chose to start steadily from the position of Vice Chairman of the Wan’an Group.

Lin Wan’an understood the importance of grooming a successor. He was patiently waiting for Lin Haoran to meet his standards in every respect, at which point Lin Haoran would naturally take on the heavy responsibility of the group’s Chairman.

For Lin Haoran, the job title was merely an external label. He placed far more value on the precious knowledge of corporate management and the practical experience he was absorbing from Lin Wan’an.

Lin Haoran benefited immensely from the wisdom Lin Wan’an displayed in business planning and decision-making, all guided by his cautious yet profound commercial insight.

In particular, the vivid case studies of market competition and Lin Wan’an’s own rich experiences were like living textbooks, allowing Lin Haoran to feel as though he were traveling through time to witness firsthand the critical moments that determined a company’s fate.

Through Lin Wan’an’s careful guidance, Lin Haoran learned many practical skills that were hard to find in books.

Of course, Lin Haoran did not devote all his time to Wan’an Group. After all, besides Wan’an Group, he also had the even more formidable Green Island Cement Company, a publicly listed enterprise, as well as the Universal Investment Company with its handful of employees.

For ease of management, Lin Haoran had already moved the Universal Investment Company’s office to the Wan’an Group Building.

The Wan’an Group Building was located in Causeway Bay, not far from Central. Although the commercial atmosphere was slightly less intense than in Central, the difference was negligible.

The building stood thirteen stories tall, and its office space was already more than the group needed; so much so that over half of the Wan’an Group Building’s office area was leased out to external parties.

Therefore, Universal Investment Company simply set up an office there. This way, Lin Haoran no longer had to constantly run between three different locations; he would either be at the Wan’an Group Building or at the Green Island Cement Company.

As for the old office in Central’s Hang Fung Building, Lin Haoran had arranged for Wan’an Group’s construction team to renovate it, transforming the office space into a refined residence with three bedrooms, two living areas, and a tearoom.

The purchase of this property had cost less than one million Hong Kong dollars, so leaving it idle wouldn’t feel like a waste.

Moreover, after the family assets were divided, he had no intention of frequently returning to the villa in Deep Water Bay. This new place could serve as a good transitional residence. When his funds were more ample in the future, he would buy a villa directly on the Mid-Levels of Victoria Peak, near the Central district.

After receiving ten million Hong Kong dollars in cash from Lin Wan’an, Lin Haoran’s financial situation improved significantly, and his funds became much more plentiful.

Previously, ignoring petty cash, he had only about three million Hong Kong dollars left in his account.

This amount was quite tight for daily operations and emergencies, making it impossible to undertake any major ventures. It was better than nothing, but only just.

After his father transferred the money to him, Lin Haoran’s available capital instantly jumped to thirteen million Hong Kong dollars, a change that directly alleviated his financial pressure.

Although this sum wasn’t enormous, it was at least enough to ensure that the few traders at Universal Investment Company wouldn’t be sitting idle.

After Lin Haoran took over as Chairman of Green Island Cement Company, its stock did experience a brief boom, with the price soaring to a high of over six Hong Kong dollars per share.

However, this surge was primarily driven by the blind optimism and herd mentality of retail investors, lacking any substantive support.

As Green Island Cement gradually came under Lin Haoran’s complete control, major players and market makers in the market naturally lost interest in the stock.

They understood very well that with a single major shareholder in control, the possibility of a hostile takeover by other shareholders was eliminated, making a dramatic surge in stock price virtually impossible.

Furthermore, aside from his involvement in the Green Island Cement acquisition, Lin Haoran had no other achievements in the business world, so he had not yet won the trust of the stock market investors.

More critically, Lin Haoran’s youth became a point of contention regarding his management abilities.

Although he had earned a great deal of admiration and attention as the first Chinese-owned enterprise entrepreneur to successfully acquire a British-funded, publicly listed company, with newspapers reporting on it extensively for days, people remained reserved about his ability to effectively steer a large corporation like Green Island Cement.

This sense of mistrust spread through the market, shaking investor confidence.

Thus, when the market began to cool down, the impulsive investors who had rushed in soon discovered that they could hardly find buyers for their Green Island Cement shares.

At the same time, unfavorable news about Lin Haoran and Green Island Cement continued to circulate in the market, further exacerbating investor panic.

In the end, unable to bear the psychological pressure and financial losses, many retail investors chose to sell their Green Island Cement shares at a loss.

And so, after more than a month of fluctuation, Green Island Cement’s stock price had slid from its peak of over six Hong Kong dollars to its current level of around 4.1 Hong Kong dollars—a figure even lower than when Harrier Centurion was at the helm.

After all, Harrier Centurion had managed Green Island Cement Company for over a decade. Although his investment strategies were often baffling and frequently resulted in losses, he had at least managed to maintain a certain level of dividends to stabilize shareholder confidence.

However, after Lin Haoran took over, the future of Green Island Cement Company appeared to be shrouded in a cloud of uncertainty to outsiders.

The market widely feared that continuing to hold the company’s stock would not only mean no hope of dividends, but whether the downward trend in losses could even be stopped had become a pressing question.

However, the fall in Green Island Cement’s stock price was undoubtedly good news for Lin Haoran.

After all, he intended to privatize Green Island Cement Company.

Once it was privatized, Lin Haoran would begin relocating the Green Island Cement factory and apply to the government to rezone the original plot from industrial land to commercial land, completely separating the land from the cement plant.

By doing so, he would possess a piece of land with a market value exceeding five hundred million Hong Kong dollars, and in an excellent location.

Therefore, the lower the cost of privatizing Green Island Cement Company, the more he stood to gain for free.

Being able to accumulate Green Island Cement shares at a low price before announcing the privatization was naturally a very good thing for him.

After the privatization was announced, he would have to make a formal offer to acquire the shares from others, and the stock price could become unstable.

But before the announcement, the share price could at least be controlled within an extremely low range.

Acquiring shares at around four Hong Kong dollars per share was a fantastic bargain!

Thus, after successfully raising ten million Hong Kong dollars in cash from Lin Wan’an, Lin Haoran swiftly deployed the team at Universal Investment Company to continuously increase their shareholding in Green Island Cement.

His strategy was clear: the stock price had to be maintained in the low range of around 4.1 Hong Kong dollars to ensure it wasn’t driven up.

Therefore, the operational rhythm of Universal Investment Company was neither hasty for quick gains nor discouraged by the sluggish market.

Even on days with light trading, when they could only accumulate ten or twenty thousand shares with a total transaction value of less than one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, they remained patient and proceeded steadily.

Lin Haoran adopted a management style of high trust and flexibility with his team. He set no rigid targets, instead encouraging team members to adjust their strategies freely according to market conditions.

With Su Zhixue, a manager who was one hundred percent loyal and highly experienced in trading, at the helm, the team could grasp the nuances precisely and execute the established strategy effectively. Thus, Lin Haoran had complete confidence in his team.

In the blink of an eye, the calendar had quietly turned to December.

Lin Haoran kept a constant watch on the situation in distant Iran. His first task each day was to gather reports from all major news media outlets, meticulously studying the shifting international landscape.

Since the beginning of the year, Iran’s Pahlavi dynasty had been mired in the whirlpool of revolution. The turmoil had been going on for a long time, becoming a focal point of global attention.

However, despite frequent mentions in international news, any substantive progress in the situation always seemed far off.

Although reports mentioned large-scale strikes within Iran, surprisingly, crude oil production and exports were not significantly affected, and oil prices remained relatively stable without major fluctuations.

Just the day before, Lin Haoran had noted that the price of crude oil had risen slightly to 13.12 US dollars per barrel, a figure not far from the price when he had made his purchase, causing a slight ripple in his heart.

“In a flash, it’s already December 3rd. This oil price… when on earth will it start to soar?” In the early morning, Lin Haoran stood by the window, gazing at the rising sun, pondering to himself.

Afterward, he went into the bathroom and completed his daily morning routine.

Soon, the Filipino maid, following his instructions, delivered a hot breakfast and the latest stack of newspapers to his living room.

While savoring the rich aroma of his breakfast, Lin Haoran began to flip through the international news section.

“On December 2nd, during the Islamic month of Muharram, an unprecedentedly large-scale gathering shocked the world—over two million people converged on Tehran’s Freedom Square, their unified call to oust the Shah echoing through the sky. The demonstration was so immense that it nearly brought the entire city of Tehran to a temporary standstill.”

As he read this report in the international news section of the Oriental Daily News, a glint of light flashed in Lin Haoran’s eyes. He put down his utensils and read with greater focus, as if he could witness that historic moment through the text itself.

At that moment, a strong premonition arose in Lin Haoran’s heart—the oil crisis was probably just around the corner.

According to his general understanding of this period of history from his previous life, the nationwide general strike of Iran’s Pahlavi dynasty began in the capital, Tehran, and then spread like wildfire across the country, causing a complete shutdown of all industries. Naturally, crude oil production could not escape this fate.

Once Iran stopped exporting crude oil, the supply-demand balance of the international crude oil market would be completely shattered. A situation of demand far outstripping supply would rapidly form, driving crude oil prices to skyrocket.

Lin Haoran knew very well that this chain reaction was only a matter of time, and that time would not be long.

He began to look forward to the coming change.

Finally, he no longer had to agonize over why the oil crisis hadn’t erupted yet.

For others, the arrival of the oil crisis was a disaster.

But for him, this disaster in the eyes of others was nothing less than an opportunity for him to rise!

Chapter 106: So Many?

Over the next few days, as reports from major news outlets spread, more and more people began to pay attention to the situation in the Middle East.

[The Pahlavi dynasty is facing an unprecedented nationwide strike, bringing the state machinery to a near standstill and plunging social life into chaos.]

[Millions of anti-Shah demonstrators, estimated to number between six and nine million, have taken to the streets across the country, creating a massive wave of protests. According to expert analysis, “Even accounting for exaggeration, the scale of these demonstrations is still the largest in history, signaling a surge in public sentiment and profound dissatisfaction with the current situation.”]

[Hit hard by the massive strikes, the Pahlavi dynasty has been forced to completely halt all crude oil exports, with no clear timeline for resumption. Analysts are widely concerned that a prolonged interruption of Iranian crude oil exports could very well trigger a new global oil crisis, with far-reaching consequences for the world economy.]

[According to precise estimates from experts, the Pahlavi dynasty’s suspension of oil exports will lead to a daily shortfall in the global oil market equivalent to one-tenth of the world’s total consumption—a staggering figure that portends severe challenges for the global energy market.]

[The outbreak of the “Islamic Revolution” within the Pahlavi dynasty has further exacerbated tensions in the oil supply, plunging the global oil market into an unprecedented predicament. Nations worldwide are now scrambling to find alternative energy sources or bolster their energy reserves.]

[In its latest report, America’s Rockefeller Foundation has warned: “The world is about to enter a new era of prolonged oil tension and even severe shortages.” This assertion quickly triggered a chain reaction in the market, with investor expectations of rising oil prices soaring and volatility in the energy market intensifying.]

[Under the profound impact of the Pahlavi dynasty’s complete halt of oil supplies, the international crude oil market has seen significant price fluctuations. The latest data shows that international crude oil prices have climbed to a new high of fifteen dollars per barrel. Analysts widely predict that if the situation in Iran remains turbulent, international crude oil prices are poised to soar even higher, creating major uncertainty for the global economy.]

[Major oil companies have begun stockpiling crude oil in anticipation of the crisis, leading to a frantic rush to buy crude from oil-exporting nations and further driving up demand.]

…

For many, the oil crisis from five years ago was still a vivid memory, one that had sparked unprecedented panic and unease.

This time, the early warning signs not only plunged the industrial and financial sectors, and even ordinary households, into an unparalleled state of tension, but also signaled the impending arrival of a storm that could potentially upend the entire global economic landscape.

Lin Haoran watched every subtle fluctuation in the Iranian situation daily.

His every prediction proved to be as accurate as prophecy. The teetering Pahlavi dynasty was gradually raising the curtain on a global energy crisis, an event so far-reaching it threatened to reshape the world’s energy map and trigger chain reactions that would ripple into every corner of the globe.

This tense atmosphere swiftly crossed the oceans and swept over the bustling shores of Hong Kong.

On every street corner, people were discussing the situation, their worries about the future of the economy hanging over them like a dark cloud that refused to disperse.

Although oil prices had yet to fluctuate drastically, the powerful undercurrent could not be ignored.

The daily changes in oil prices were like a ticking time bomb, ready to detonate the global economy’s fragile nerves at any moment.

This volatility was especially pronounced with the clandestine fanning of the flames by American financial magnates.

The price trend in the crude oil market continued its upward climb. Every minor increase tugged at the sensitive nerves of the global economy, signaling that a spike in oil prices was no longer a distant prophecy but an imminent threat.

Three days ago, Lin Haoran had made a decisive move, instructing his trading team to halt their accumulation of Green Island Cement Company stock.

His action, while seemingly conservative, was in fact a display of profound foresight.

Lin Haoran knew that this particular oil crisis would not have a significant impact on global stock markets, and its effect on Hong Kong’s market would be similarly limited.

However, there would undoubtedly be an initial impact. After all, the 1973 oil crisis had plunged the stock market into a prolonged bear market.

Following the Universe Group team’s decisive halt of its stock accumulation operations for Green Island Cement, the market’s reaction was swift and clear.

The trading volume for Green Island Cement’s stock plummeted. At its lowest, the daily volume dropped to less than a thousand lots, making the market exceptionally sluggish.

This was not an isolated case but a microcosm of the overall downward trend in the Hong Kong stock market.

Numerous stocks faced selling pressure, with trading volumes declining across the board, creating a tense and stifling market atmosphere.

Against this backdrop, Green Island Cement’s stock price could not escape the downturn.

Pending sell orders were abundant, yet buy orders were scarce. This severe supply-demand imbalance caused the stock price to continuously fall.

Starting from a high of 4.1 Hong Kong dollars per share, the price gradually slid to 3.9, then 3.8, and so on… until it finally stabilized around 3.5 Hong Kong dollars per share. The magnitude of the drop was staggering.

During this process, Green Island Cement’s total market capitalization also shrank significantly, plummeting from a peak of three hundred million to a low of less than two hundred million Hong Kong dollars. At its lowest point, it even neared one hundred and seventy million Hong Kong dollars, dealing a severe blow to market confidence.

In the chairman’s office of the Wan’an Group, Lin Haoran sat beside his father, Lin Wan’an.

Lin Wan’an was holding a copy of The Wall Street Journal Asia Edition, his gaze fixed on the headline, his brow slightly furrowed in concentration.

[On December 10th and 11th, more than 10% of the Pahlavi dynasty’s entire population participated in anti-Shah protests.]

The headline was a truly stunning piece of news.

A revolution involving one percent of a nation’s population was already a rare event. The French Revolution of 1789, the Russian October Revolution of 1917, and the Romanian Revolution of 1989 might have involved more than one percent of their respective populations. However, for the nationwide protests in the Pahlavi dynasty to involve over ten percent was a figure that was simply hard to believe.

Yet, numerous major international media outlets had confirmed the news. It was true, absolutely true.

“Haoran, your prediction was spot on. It looks like the oil crisis is really coming!” Lin Wan’an said, putting down the newspaper with a wave of emotion.

More than three months ago, after returning to downtown Hong Kong from the suburbs of Yuen Long, Lin Haoran had specifically warned Lin Wan’an that an oil crisis could erupt at any time and told him to be prepared.

In truth, however, there wasn’t much to prepare for. For now, the oil crisis wouldn’t have a major impact on Hong Kong’s economy.

“I’ve been closely monitoring the situation over there since the beginning of the year. For a revolution like this to last so long is no coincidence. I have a feeling the Pahlavi dynasty’s foundations have been shaken, and it will likely fall within the next month. After the new government comes to power, it will take them at least several months to restore order and rebuild. During this period, the instability in the oil market will persist, and its impact should not be underestimated,” Lin Haoran stated his view calmly.

“Haoran, tomorrow I’m taking you to meet someone important,” Lin Wan’an said, abruptly changing the subject with a mysterious glint in his eye.

Lately, Lin Wan’an’s satisfaction with Lin Haoran was plain to see.

Not only did his son possess extraordinary business acumen, but he could also see opportunities in complex situations and offer unique insights that even Lin Wan’an himself felt humbled by.

Thinking of this, Lin Wan’an was filled with confidence for the Wan’an Group’s future, as if he could already see Lin Haoran leading the group to new heights of glory.

“Dad, who are you taking me to see? Why so secretive?” Lin Haoran’s curiosity was piqued.

“Haha, don’t be so anxious. You’ll find out when we get there,” Lin Wan’an laughed heartily, deliberately keeping him in suspense.

Lin Haoran smiled slightly. Although curious, he didn’t press the matter.

After all, he had already met several of the top titans in Hong Kong’s business world, from Michael Sandberg, the leader of a British-owned enterprise, to Chinese business magnates like Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng. Every one of them was a top figure in the industry.

Who else could truly surprise him now?

Just then, a crisp knock sounded at the door.

“Come in,” Lin Haoran said.

The person who entered was not an employee of the Wan’an Group, but Su Zhixue, the current head of Universal Investment Company.

As Su Zhixue crossed the threshold, his eyes swept over Lin Wan’an, revealing a hint of hesitation and contemplation.

He gathered his thoughts for a moment before speaking, “Chairman Lin, President Lin, I…”

“Just say what’s on your mind,” Lin Haoran said directly.

Universal Investment Company was currently handling the stock accumulation project for Green Island Cement Company, and there was no need to hide anything about it from Lin Wan’an.

Su Zhixue nodded, then pulled a carefully prepared document from his briefcase and handed it to Lin Haoran. “President Lin, as per your instructions, our team has been closely monitoring the movements of Green Island Cement’s stock. This morning, I went to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and obtained the latest data on the pending sell orders for Green Island Cement. Please take a look. I’ve marked the key information in red.”

“Between 3.4 and 4 Hong Kong dollars per share, there are pending sell orders for as many as 6.973 million shares!” Lin Haoran exclaimed, a look of surprise crossing his face as his eyes fell upon the figure while flipping through the document. He muttered to himself, “So many?”

He quickly calculated in his head. He already held 40.1% of Green Island Cement’s stock. Adding the 12.6% stake his father, Lin Wan’an, had transferred to him, plus the approximately one million shares (about 2% of the company’s total shares) recently acquired by Universal Investment Company, his current controlling stake in Green Island Cement was as high as 54.7%.

Furthermore, the other eight directors on the board collectively held about 24.1% of the shares. By this calculation, the members of the Board of Directors controlled a total of 78.8% of Green Island Cement.

In other words, excluding the shares held by the board members, the portion of Green Island Cement stock circulating on the market in the hands of small shareholders amounted to a mere 21.2%.

This sudden appearance of 6.973 million shares in pending sell orders on the market, equivalent to nearly 14% of the company’s shares, was enough to shock Lin Haoran.

However, for him, wasn’t this good news?

If he seized this opportunity to acquire those shares, he could save a considerable amount of money.

Lin Haoran knew that this oil crisis wouldn’t ultimately have a major impact on the Hong Kong stock market, and trading would soon become active again.

When that happened, it would be unlikely to find so many shares available at such a low price.

Chapter 107: Visiting an Important Person

Although Lin Haoran wanted to snap up all these shares directly, he was facing an awkward situation.

He simply didn’t have enough available capital.

Originally, he had thirteen million Hong Kong dollars in liquid funds. However, he had recently succeeded in purchasing about one million shares of Green Island Cement, an operation that consumed nearly 4.1 million Hong Kong dollars, causing his capital pool to shrink rapidly.

After this move, Lin Haoran’s available funds had dwindled to less than nine million Hong Kong dollars.

Looking at the stock market, on the other hand, there were nearly seven million shares in pending sell orders. It was estimated that acquiring all of them would require at least twenty-six million Hong Kong dollars.

There was a significant gap between this figure and the capital he had on hand.

Considering his current financial situation, Lin Haoran calculated that using his less than nine million Hong Kong dollars to buy a portion of the shares was feasible, but it would only cover about one-third of the total pending orders on the market.

Once this portion of shares was quickly sold, the sellers of the remaining two-thirds might become alarmed and choose to raise their prices or withdraw their sell orders altogether. This would undoubtedly increase the difficulty and cost of subsequent acquisitions.

Based on this analysis, Lin Haoran believed that a more conservative strategy was prudent for now.

He decided to hold his ground for the time being and wait and see how things develop, hoping to make a decision at the optimal moment.

So, he turned to Su Zhixue and said calmly, “I understand, Zhixue. You can get back to your work. Continue to closely monitor the stock market’s activity. I’ll notify you immediately if I have any new ideas or plans.”

“Yes, President Lin, Director Lin. I’ll take my leave then. I’ll report to you as soon as there are any developments.” Upon hearing this, Su Zhixue respectfully exited the office to continue his task of monitoring the market.

Over the past few months, the Huafeng Cement Factory had provided him with over three hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars.

However, this sum had already been withdrawn and fully used for the daily operating expenses of the Universal Investment Company, such as employee salaries, office expenses, market research, and other necessary expenditures.

Therefore, from a practical standpoint, the Huafeng Cement Factory could not offer any direct financial assistance for Lin Haoran’s further actions in the stock market. For the capital shortage he was currently facing, the profits generated from there were but a drop in the bucket, unable to provide any substantial help.

At this moment, Lin Wan’an’s gaze had also fallen upon the document in Lin Haoran’s hands, which contained data on Green Island Cement’s stock.

As a father, he had long understood his son’s objective—to completely privatize the long-established British-owned company, Green Island Cement.

Lin Wan’an naturally gave his wholehearted support to this ambition. Having dealt with Green Island Cement for many years, he understood the immense potential and value it held, especially the piece of seaside land in Hung Hom. Once privatized, its value would be immeasurable.

“Haoran, look at this volume of pending orders, and this asking price. It’s a truly rare opportunity! It would be a real shame not to seize it,” Lin Wan’an said with a sigh as he took the document and carefully examined the data.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran gave a wry smile and replied, “Yes, the opportunity is certainly tempting, but reality is harsh. My current financial situation is simply insufficient to support such a large-scale acquisition.”

His words revealed a sense of helplessness and regret. Clearly, while the opportunity before him was great, it was a star currently beyond his reach.

As for taking the old path of getting a loan, that method was certainly possible, but he was already personally carrying over three hundred million Hong Kong dollars in debt. Taking on another loan would probably just make the snowball of debt even bigger, so he had no such plans for the time being.

“Haoran, how much capital can you mobilize right now?” Lin Wan’an asked curiously.

“About eight million and change, close to nine million Hong Kong dollars,” Lin Haoran answered truthfully, a hint of helplessness in his tone.

A smile flickered in Lin Wan’an’s eyes. He clapped Lin Haoran on the shoulder and said with confidence, “Haoran, that’s not hard to solve.”

“We can use the Wan’an Group’s name to purchase these shares first. Once you have enough capital, we can transfer them internally at a suitable price. Don’t worry, although the Wan’an Group’s main funds are tied up in the North Point real estate project, we can still come up with over ten million Hong Kong dollars to support your plan.”

He paused, then added, “As a company in which our Lin family has an absolute controlling stake, the Wan’an Group is more like our family business, even though it’s publicly listed. Our word is absolute in the group. The opinions of other small shareholders won’t have any substantial impact on our decisions. So, just go ahead and do whatever you want.”

“Huh? Dad, your suggestion is a real eye-opener!” Lin Haoran’s eyes lit up instantly, his face filled with excitement.

Indeed, he was still a bit green in the business world. Although he had become a major shareholder of the Wan’an Group, he had never tried such a maneuver, so the idea hadn’t occurred to him.

He understood that this was not just a good solution to his funding problem, but also a once-in-a-lifetime investment opportunity.

Although the shadow of the oil crisis loomed, its impact on the stock market didn’t seem as severe as expected. Once people realized this, the stock prices across the entire Hong Kong market would very likely rebound quickly.

When that happened, and the investors, who were part of the Hong Kong stock market, realized it was a false alarm, there might not be so many pending sell orders for Green Island Cement.

Yes, a rebound was perhaps only a matter of time, but the key was the sheer number of low-priced pending orders right now. If he missed this, he might never find such an opportunity again.

“Alright, Dad, I’ll arrange it right away. Could you first communicate with Head Dai Bin of the group’s Securities and Commerce Department and have him prepare for the operation? I’ll also notify Su Zhixue immediately and have him and his team discuss how to cooperate with Head Dai Bin’s side. We’ll work on it from both ends to ensure we can snap up all these pending orders quickly and efficiently,” Lin Haoran said, beaming with confidence.

Lin Wan’an nodded in agreement. “Mm, I’ll go talk to Dai Bin about this now. Go for it, Haoran. Dad supports you all the way.”

Soon, their meticulous plan was met with an active response and execution from Su Zhixue and Dai Bin.

The two parties cooperated closely, carefully dividing and mapping out their approach to the Green Island Cement shares on the market.

To ensure the operation was both efficient and discreet, they carefully planned the sequence and pace of their fund deployment: first, Su Zhixue and his team would use their existing account funds to buy with full force. Once their funds were depleted, the Wan’an Group would seamlessly step in, directly injecting capital to absorb the remaining shares.

As it was, there was already a lack of active buyers in the Green Island Cement market. Their joint action was like a hungry wolf pouncing on its prey, swiftly and effectively devouring every share available.

This series of operations was so precise and efficient that the investors who had placed the sell orders were caught off guard. Before they could react to the subtle changes in stock price, their shares had been quietly bought up.

As the plan proceeded smoothly, Lin Haoran’s controlling stake in Green Island Cement steadily increased, bringing him one step closer to his goal of completely privatizing the British-owned company.

After careful planning and execution, Lin Haoran successfully increased his shareholding in Green Island Cement by 1.91 million shares on the market, causing his and the Universal Investment Company’s combined stake to soar to 58.2%, making him the undisputed absolute controlling shareholder of the Green Island Cement Company.

At the same time, the Wan’an Group, through its operations, had acquired an additional 10.2% of Green Island Cement’s shares, indirectly helping Lin Haoran accumulate this portion of stock ahead of schedule.

At this point, the ownership structure of Green Island Cement had fundamentally changed. Its actual operational status was not much different from a private enterprise, and Lin Haoran’s control over the company had reached an unprecedented level.

However, although Lin Haoran had achieved a brilliant victory in the stock market, his cash flow had become extremely tight as a result.

Nearly all of his available funds had been poured into the stock market, making it temporarily impossible for him to directly announce the privatization of the company.

This, however, did not discourage Lin Haoran. On the contrary, he was full of confidence about his future plans.

Lin Haoran had his own plans for the remaining shareholders of Green Island Cement.

Now that the company was controlled by a young man in his early twenties like himself, these shareholders had likely already been thinking about exiting.

After all, no one wanted to be tied long-term to a ship that couldn’t offer sufficient growth potential.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was confident that as long as he gave these shareholders a reasonable opportunity to sell, they would undoubtedly choose to cash out without hesitation.

None of these shareholders of the Green Island Cement Company, having navigated the business world for many years, were foolish.

For them, seizing the opportunity to exit was the wise move.

Despite the temporary shortage of funds, Lin Haoran appeared calm and unhurried.

In his view, the situation with Green Island Cement was now largely stable. All that remained was to wait for oil prices to continue rising.

In the coming months, international oil prices would keep climbing due to supply shortages, and many oil companies would even face the embarrassing predicament of having no oil to buy.

At that time, he wouldn’t have to worry about selling the crude oil he had stockpiled.

If he were to release the news, people would surely come knocking on his door.

In the blink of an eye, a new day dawned.

In the morning, Lin Haoran first went to the Green Island Cement Company to handle some work matters.

The current general manager of Green Island Cement, Burton, was indeed a very talented manager.

Lin Wan’an had once harbored doubts about Burton’s abilities and had specifically taken the time to visit Green Island Cement for an in-depth inspection.

The results of the inspection were gratifying. Under Burton’s meticulous management, the entire company was orderly and vibrant.

Moreover, Burton had good connections in the Philippines. After becoming general manager, he no longer held back and once again brought many high-quality clients to the company.

By noon, Lin Haoran had returned to the Wan’an Group to continue learning about company management from his father.

Every day, he felt he was making great progress.

Of course, Lin Haoran had a clear plan in mind. He did not intend to completely replicate his father’s hands-on management style.

He understood that while such an approach demonstrated a high degree of responsibility and dedication, in the long run, it could not only be physically and mentally exhausting for an individual but also potentially affect the company’s overall operational efficiency.

Therefore, he was more inclined to learn from and adopt advanced Western management concepts, emphasizing teamwork and professional management.

Lin Haoran believed that a successful entrepreneur should learn to let go at the right time and entrust the company’s daily operations to managers with professional skills and ethics.

Just like with the Green Island Cement Company, he now boldly entrusted most of the company’s affairs, big and small, to Burton’s management.

In the future, after his father, Lin Wan’an, fully retired, Lin Haoran planned to find a suitable management professional for the Wan’an Group.

As for himself, he only needed to control the big picture. That would be enough!

“It’s getting late, Haoran. We should get going. I’ve already scheduled the visit,” Lin Wan’an said softly to Lin Haoran as it approached six o’clock in the evening.

Yesterday, Lin Wan’an had told Lin Haoran about today’s arrangements, saying he would take him to meet an important person.

Although this air of mystery had made Lin Haoran a little curious, he had remained calm and hadn’t pressed for details.

Hearing his father’s reminder, Lin Haoran quickly stood up from his chair, an excited smile on his face, and responded to Lin Wan’an, “Alright, Dad! I’m ready.”

“Dad, where are we headed?” Lin Haoran couldn’t help but ask as they reached the underground parking garage of the Wan’an Group Building.

“We’re going to the Barker Road Villa Area,” Lin Wan’an said with a smile.

The Barker Road Villa Area, much like the Deep Water Bay Villa Area, was home to none other than the rich and powerful.

Chapter 108: A Collaborative Project with the Richest Man in Southeast Asia

Causeway Bay was not far from the Barker Road Villa Area. In fact, the Barker Road Villa Area was located right behind Central, near the Mid-Levels of Victoria Peak Park.

Barker Road was a two-lane, two-way street that prohibited buses and minibuses. The residences along the road did not have their main gates on the roadside; instead, they were connected by elevated ramps. There were security guards at the intersections, and signs on the iron gates read, “Private Property, Beware of Dog,” signifying a highly private and purely upscale residential area.

Looking south toward the mountain, one could see the Lion’s Pavilion on Victoria Peak. Gazing north, one could get a distant view of Victoria Harbour and the shores of Central and Tsim Sha Tsui.

Compared to the Deep Water Bay Villa Area, Lin Haoran preferred the environment here.

Its privacy and security were a significant improvement over Deep Water Bay.

Lin Haoran followed his father’s car, sitting with him in the back seat.

Li Weidong sat in the front passenger seat. As for Li Weiguo, he had already driven the Mercedes-Benz back to the villa in Deep Water Bay.

The Rolls-Royce glided in smoothly, finally coming to a steady halt in an exclusive parking space in front of a luxurious villa.

The car door opened gently, and as Lin Haoran stepped out, his eyes were involuntarily drawn to the villa’s magnificent presence.

Every detail of the villa, from its footprint to its lavish decorations, screamed of extraordinariness. It was evenly matched with the Pao Yue-kong residence he had previously visited.

Before long, a middle-aged man in a custom-tailored suit approached with a warm smile.

His eyes shone with sincerity and enthusiasm, as if he had long been anticipating this moment.

“Mr. Lin, welcome to my home,” the middle-aged man said, extending his right hand to Lin Wan’an in a refined manner.

Lin Wan’an’s smile never faltered as he quickly shook the man’s hand. “Chairman Guo, the honor is all mine. At the same time, allow me to introduce my beloved son, Lin Haoran.”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran already had a good idea of the situation.

Although he didn’t immediately recognize who the middle-aged man was, he recalled his father mentioning that Wan’an Group was in deep talks with Chairman Guo, the helmsman of Kerry Group. He couldn’t help but speculate that the man before him was likely the renowned richest man in Malaysia, Mr. Guo Henian.

Thus, Lin Haoran bowed slightly to Mr. Guo Henian, expressing his respect as a junior.

This man was another Chinese business tycoon, his status no less than Pao Yue-kong’s.

“Uncle Guo, a pleasure to meet you. I’m Lin Haoran,” he said with a smile, extending his hand and introducing himself before the other could speak.

“Ah, Haoran. I’ve heard about you—the young Chairman of Green Island Cement Company. Truly a remarkable young man! You bring great honor to us Chinese entrepreneurs! To achieve so much at your age is truly impressive, it makes one see you in a new light.

Your father also told me that you earned all of this through your own hard work and talent, with almost no help from him. That’s truly extraordinary.

Back when I was your age, I was just getting started.” Chairman Guo showed great enthusiasm and admiration for Lin Haoran.

“You flatter me, Uncle Guo. It was mostly just good luck,” Lin Haoran replied with continued humility.

Standing to the side, Lin Wan’an watched his son’s exchange with Chairman Guo, his heart swelling with pride and satisfaction. The smile on his face was like a warm spring breeze, never fading.

“Alright, let’s not stand around outside. It’s getting late, let’s go inside to talk,” Chairman Guo suggested with a smile. The three of them then entered the luxurious villa together.

“I’ve prepared dinner for you. We can have a detailed discussion after we eat together,” Guo Henian said with a smile.

“It is our honor to have the opportunity to enjoy a family dinner at your residence, Chairman Guo. This meal will certainly be a unique experience,” Lin Wan’an replied with a hearty laugh, his voice filled with sincerity and anticipation.

Although Lin Wan’an’s position in the business world might not be as prominent as Guo Henian’s, decades of navigating the commercial seas had made him knowledgeable and composed in any situation.

Moreover, the Lin family now had not only the publicly listed Wan’an Group but also the even more powerful Green Island Cement Company. The two combined were a force to be reckoned with.

Therefore, Lin Wan’an’s words and actions displayed both humility and confidence, showcasing the demeanor of a seasoned entrepreneur.

Stepping into the spacious and bright first-floor hall of the villa, Lin Haoran immediately felt the serene atmosphere. A gentle-looking middle-aged woman and a young lady with an outstanding demeanor were waiting quietly. The young lady carried herself with the air of a well-bred woman from a prominent family.

The young lady was about his age and had a beautiful face. Her grace and charm were certainly on par with the movie stars on screen, and she immediately won Lin Haoran’s favor, making him instinctively take a second look.

“Haoran, come, let me introduce you,” Guo Henian said, coming forward enthusiastically. “This is my wife, Mrs. He. And this is my niece, Guo Xiaohan. She’s just returned from studying abroad, and I’ve asked her to come to Hong Kong to learn about business management from me. You young people should have a lot in common.”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran nodded to himself. No wonder he felt this young lady was different at first sight. She was a treasured young lady of the Guo family and had just returned from overseas.

He immediately smiled politely. “Miss Guo, I’ve long heard of your name. Meeting you today, I can see your reputation is well-deserved.”

“You’re too kind, Mr. Lin. It’s a pleasure to meet you too,” Guo Xiaohan replied in her clear and pleasant voice, a warm smile on her face.

As for Mrs. He’s identity, fragments of information quickly flashed through Lin Haoran’s mind, gradually forming a clear picture.

If he remembered correctly, she was likely Guo Henian’s second wife.

In his past life, he had followed the news about the new chairwoman of Shangri-La Hotel. That equally dazzling female chairperson in the business world came from Guo Henian’s second family, and her mother’s surname also happened to be He.

“Chairman Guo, Mrs. Guo, Miss Guo, thank you for your warm hospitality,” Lin Wan’an expressed his gratitude once again.

The Guo family was a very large and relatively united clan. They had established Guo Brothers Company as a joint venture, which was the biggest reason for their current success.

Among Guo Henian’s siblings, several held pivotal positions in the family business. And although Guo Xiaohan was only Guo Henian’s niece, the fact that she could closely follow her uncle to learn the essence of business management demonstrated that her status within the family was not to be underestimated.

At dinner, a table of exquisite dishes brought everyone closer.

During the meal, through casual conversation, Lin Haoran confirmed that the middle-aged man before him was indeed the renowned richest man in Malaysia, Guo Henian, and he gained a deeper understanding of him.

The foresight revealed in Guo Henian’s words and his optimism about the Hong Kong market filled Lin Haoran with admiration. He was truly a tycoon worthy of being the richest man.

While the British-funded conglomerates were deeply worried about Hong Kong’s future and were scrambling to withdraw, Guo Henian was doing the exact opposite.

Since the early 1970s, Guo Henian had been paying close attention to the Hong Kong market, actively establishing his presence and promoting industrial growth here.

He even intended to make Hong Kong his permanent residence, which showed his deep affection and long-term plans for the city.

A few years ago, Guo Henian founded Kerry Trading Company in Hong Kong, focusing on the futures market, showcasing his keen business acumen and extraordinary courage.

Subsequently, through carefully planned cooperation, he successfully won the bid for a plot of land created by reclamation in East Tsim Sha Tsui, and this plot was not far from the Green Island Cement Company.

After dinner, Guo Henian led Lin Wan’an and Lin Haoran into a reception room. Guo Xiaohan followed them in and took the initiative to prepare and serve them tea.

“Chairman Guo, regarding the construction contract for the Shangri-La Hotel tower project, how are your considerations progressing?” Lin Wan’an asked directly but politely after taking a sip of fine tea.

Lin Wan’an had already discussed this matter in detail with Lin Haoran a few days ago, so it was not new to him.

Under Wan’an Group, there was an industry-renowned Wan’an Construction Engineering Company. This company boasted a top-tier construction team, and it was with this professional force that Wan’an Group had secured a firm foothold in Hong Kong’s real estate market, complementing its primary real estate business.

In recent years, Mr. Guo Henian had been making frequent moves in the Hong Kong market. His successful bid for that remarkable waterfront plot in East Tsim Sha Tsui was undoubtedly a major event in the industry.

With the land secured, the development blueprint naturally followed.

Chairman Guo had decided to build the world’s second Shangri-La Hotel on this site and, using this as a starting point, establish Hong Kong as the strategic headquarters for his hotel business, determined to carve out a new world in the hospitality industry.

Lin Wan’an had already discussed the possibility of cooperation with Guo Henian twice, hoping that the two sides could work together for mutual development.

However, Guo Henian’s attitude had remained ambiguous, and he had not yet confirmed whether he would entrust this project to Wan’an Construction Engineering Company.

As early as 1971, the Guo Brothers Group had successfully established its first luxury hotel in Singapore—the Shangri-La Hotel.

The hotel quickly won the favor of tourists and soon became one of the most prestigious luxury hotels in Singapore.

After that, Guo Henian did not rush to expand the Shangri-La brand. Instead, he chose to focus on meticulously operating this flagship hotel, ensuring that its quality and service remained consistent.

It wasn’t until he successfully won the bid for the prime plot in East Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong that he conceived the grand plan to build a second Shangri-La Hotel in the city.

However, Guo Henian’s main business foundations were firmly in Malaysia and Singapore. Hong Kong was, without a doubt, a new market full of both opportunities and challenges for him.

Although the Guo family had some achievements in real estate development, their property business in Hong Kong was still in its nascent stages.

To dispatch a construction team from Singapore or Malaysia would undoubtedly increase costs significantly.

Chapter 109: Budding Affection

Therefore, to move forward with the construction of the Shangri-La Hotel tower efficiently and economically, partnering with a strong local construction company became Guo Henian’s preferred strategy.

With its professional construction team and extensive project experience, Wan’an Construction Engineering Company became one of the potential partners in Chairman Guo’s mind.

However, despite Lin Wan’an’s proactive efforts to seek a partnership, which had brought Wan’an Construction Engineering Company to Guo Henian’s attention, he had originally been more inclined to choose a larger-scale engineering and construction firm as his partner.

In Guo Henian’s considerations, Wan’an Construction Engineering Company was seen more as a backup plan, or a “spare tire,” to be considered only if his first choice for a partnership fell through.

But a major event that followed completely changed Guo Henian’s perspective.

Lin Wan’an’s youngest son, Lin Haoran, relying on his extraordinary business acumen, had suddenly completed a spectacular feat: the first-ever acquisition of a British-funded, publicly listed company by a Chinese-owned enterprise in the history of Hong Kong!

This news sent shockwaves through Hong Kong’s entire business community and made Guo Henian see Wan’an Construction Engineering Company and the Lin family behind it in a new light.

It was because of this change that Guo Henian specially invited the Lin father and son to a family dinner tonight. This was not only a recognition of Lin Haoran’s personal achievement but also a re-evaluation of and new expectation for the strength and potential of Wan’an Construction Engineering Company.

Tonight’s dinner would undoubtedly become a significant opportunity for both parties to deepen their cooperation and plan for future development together.

“Mr. Lin, there’s no need to rush. It’s a rare opportunity for us to gather like this; why don’t we chat a little longer?” Guo Henian suggested with a smile.

Lin Wan’an understood the unspoken question and gracefully dropped the previous topic.

Since the other party had taken the initiative to invite them over, it meant there was a high probability their partnership would come to fruition.

For the Shangri-La Hotel tower project, even if the partnership was successful, the direct profit for Wan’an Construction Engineering Company as the contractor would only be just over ten million Hong Kong dollars, and it would take at least three years to complete. On the surface, the deal seemed average.

However, Lin Wan’an’s vision extended far beyond that.

What he truly valued was the long-term bridge of cooperation with the Guo family from Southeast Asia that this project would build.

Lin Wan’an knew that the success of an initial collaboration was often the starting point for many more opportunities to follow.

The Guo family, a clan with deep roots and immense power in the Southeast Asian business world, was now actively expanding its influence in Hong Kong. For the Lin family and the Wan’an Group, this was undoubtedly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

If they could forge a close bond with the Guo family through this opportunity, it would not only bring immediate project revenue to the Wan’an Group but also pave a fast track for the group’s future development, helping it accelerate its growth and reach new heights.

The market in Southeast Asia was far larger than the small market of Hong Kong. If the Wan’an Group could seize this chance to expand its business into Southeast Asia, having the Guo family as a partner would undoubtedly make its development in the countries there much smoother.

Therefore, Lin Wan’an spared no effort in seeking cooperation with the Guo family. His initial intention was to find a solid and powerful ally for the Wan’an Group.

With such backing, the future heir of the Wan’an Group, Lin Haoran, would find it much easier to manage the enterprise, and his path in business would be much smoother.

Lin Wan’an’s planning was a testament to his thoughtful and profound consideration!

Following that, the conversation between Guo Henian and Lin Wan’an naturally shifted to the business world, focusing particularly on the current situation and future trends in the commercial hotbed of Hong Kong.

The two exchanged views freely, delving into a deep analysis of the ins and outs of the business circles in Hong Kong and even Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan, members of the younger generation, maintained a humble attitude. They rarely interrupted their elders’ conversation, simply sitting quietly to the side, listening intently to every word and sentence.

They naturally knew that the two men before them were seasoned veterans of the business world, and their insights and experiences were valuable treasures not to be missed.

As they chatted, their conversation naturally turned to the most prominent topic on the current international stage: the oil crisis.

Guo Henian suddenly turned to Lin Haoran and said, “Haoran, although you are a junior, you’re already the Chairman of the Green Island Cement Company. To be able to take over this business from the British, your ability is unquestionable. Do you have any unique insights on this oil crisis?”

Lin Haoran was slightly surprised by the question. He had attended the gathering merely as a junior, planning to listen more and speak less, and hadn’t expected to be asked directly about the matter.

However, he quickly adjusted his mindset and responded with sincerity, “Uncle Guo, you flatter me. I have indeed been following the oil crisis and have given it some thought, but compared to your profound experience and unique insights, my views may still seem immature.

“Since you’ve asked, Uncle Guo, I’ll be bold and share a few humble opinions. The current oil crisis is still in its nascent stage, and its global impact is still manageable. However, Iran’s continued suspension of crude oil exports will undoubtedly exacerbate the strain on global crude oil supply, which in turn will push oil prices to continue climbing.

“The surge in oil prices will certainly have a profound and severe impact on the global economy. The first world oil crisis has already sounded an alarm for us. If this crisis persists for a long time, it will lead oil-importing countries to face severe balance of payment deficits, economic recessions, and rising unemployment, which will worsen international trade conditions and could even trigger an international debt crisis.

“Whether it’s the economically developed Western nations or the oil-scarce developing countries, none will be spared from major shocks, and all will pay a heavy price for the oil crisis.

“The impact will be tremendous. International energy and raw material prices will soar, while prices for agricultural and industrial products will fall. As a result, countries will face increased production costs, relative capital shortages, rising prices, severe inflation, and significantly higher unemployment rates. This will have a negative impact on the economies of all nations, especially dealing a direct and massive blow to countries highly dependent on oil consumption and imports, deepening the global economic recession.

“As businessmen, we must also prepare to face the crisis brought on by the oil crisis. The crisis has only just begun, so we still have time to prepare. Sometimes, a crisis is also an opportunity. I believe Uncle Guo has surely already made his own preparations.”

“Excellent! Haoran is truly the talented young man who could snatch Green Island Cement from the British. Your insights indeed surpass the thinking of many of your peers,” Guo Henian said with a laugh as he applauded.

Although what Lin Haoran discussed might have seemed somewhat superficial and not quite at the core of the issue in the eyes of business tycoons, his words nevertheless revealed his sharp observational skills and clear communication abilities—a testament to his personal capabilities.

Originally, Guo Xiaohan had been sitting quietly to the side, listening to their conversation and occasionally refilling everyone’s teacups.

As Lin Haoran spoke with confidence and eloquence, her gaze inadvertently fell upon his face. Held by a look of focus and admiration, she seemed frozen in time, her eyes lingering there for a long while.

It was only when she realized her own lapse in composure that she hastily averted her gaze and lowered her head, trying to hide her reddening cheeks with her hair.

A few strands of hair rested gently against her cheek, further highlighting the delicate fairness of her skin.

Guo Xiaohan was naturally full of admiration for her elders’ profound insights, but she also found that normal.

However, the talent and wisdom displayed by Lin Haoran, someone of her own age, was what truly shocked and captivated her.

At an age where she had just stepped into society, full of curiosity and aspirations, Lin Haoran had undoubtedly left a deep impression on her.

Lin Haoran, absorbed in his own thoughts, did not notice Guo Xiaohan’s subtle change in emotion.

However, Guo Henian, sitting next to Guo Xiaohan, keenly caught his niece’s small gesture. A knowing smile touched the corners of his lips.

As an experienced man, he naturally understood his niece’s budding, innocent affection.

In Southeast Asia, the marriages of the children of major wealthy families were often not just about two individuals but more about alliances and exchanges of interests between families.

But Guo Henian knew full well that this talented young man from the Lin family, Lin Haoran, was not only brilliant but also showed extraordinary potential and foresight.

During this time, Guo Henian had heard some of the inside stories about the acquisition of the Green Island Cement Company.

Lin Haoran had managed to take over the listed company through his own planning, without relying on his father’s generation.

From this event, he became even more convinced of Lin Haoran’s extraordinary abilities.

Lin Haoran’s performance in the acquisition, as well as his words and demeanor just now, all revealed a maturity and wisdom beyond his years. Such a talented young man was a rare find.

Guo Henian also understood that the continuous growth and expansion of the Guo family were inseparable from their extensive and deep network of connections.

Therefore, he secretly calculated that perhaps in the near future, when he returned to Southeast Asia, he could take this opportunity to have an in-depth discussion with his elder brother to explore the feasibility of a marriage alliance between their two families.

As they talked, the time unknowingly slipped past nine o’clock in the evening.

Guo Henian glanced at the watch on his wrist and then laughed heartily, “Mr. Lin, and Haoran, our conversation tonight has been truly invigorating. It has filled me with confidence about our future cooperation.

“Therefore, I have officially decided to entrust the important Shangri-La Hotel tower project to Wan’an Construction Engineering Company. I look forward to us working together to create brilliance. To a pleasant partnership!”

Upon hearing this, a satisfied smile blossomed on Lin Wan’an’s face. This was one of the main goals of his visit.

Furthermore, he had hoped to use this opportunity to have his family’s heir, Lin Haoran, get to know a business magnate like Guo Henian. It now seemed both goals had been successfully achieved.

“Excellent. Then we won’t disturb your rest any longer, Chairman Guo. We are deeply honored to cooperate with the Guo Brothers Group. Please rest assured, Wan’an Construction Engineering Company has a top-tier construction team and extensive project experience. We will spare no effort to ensure the project’s complete success and will not let you down!”

Lin Wan’an stood up and shook Guo Henian’s hand sincerely, his words filled with confidence.

He thought to himself that with such a pleasant start to their cooperation, there would surely be more opportunities to work together in the future.

“Very well, Mr. Lin. I will personally visit your company with my team tomorrow morning to sign the cooperation agreement. I have long heard of the Wan’an Group’s reputation and professionalism, and I believe this partnership will satisfy everyone,” Guo Henian nodded in agreement, his tone exuding confidence in their collaboration.

“Chairman Guo, Miss Guo, goodbye,” Lin Haoran said politely, shaking their hands one by one.

When his fingertips gently brushed against Guo Xiaohan’s delicate hand, a subtle sensation flickered through him, but he quickly returned to his natural composure and politely completed the farewell.

Chapter 110: A Super Order

Leaving the Barker Road Villa Area, Lin Haoran sat beside his father in the spacious back seat of the car.

“Haoran, I now completely understand the deeper meaning behind Guo Henian’s invitation for both of us. He wanted to personally verify if you possess genuine talent and ability, to decide whether to cooperate with us.

And now, it seems that thanks to your excellent performance tonight, you’ve won his approval and secured this partnership.” Lin Wan’an’s face was wreathed in smiles, his eyes twinkling with approbation.

“Dad, building a good relationship with the Guo family certainly has more pros than cons, but my considerations aren’t limited to their current status in Hong Kong.

In my opinion, the Guo family are outsiders in Hong Kong. Their influence here can’t be compared to Hong Kong business tycoons like Mr. Pao Yue-kong or Mr. Michael Sandberg.

However, what I value more is their extensive and deep network of connections in Southeast Asia. If we can ride this tailwind and become close partners with the Guo family, it will undoubtedly lay a solid foundation for our future expansion into the Southeast Asian market.

It’s not just for Wan’an Group; even for Green Island Cement Company’s active development in the Philippine market, and its future expansion plans for Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia, having the Guo family’s support will make things much smoother and more efficient.” Lin Haoran analyzed seriously, his words revealing a profound strategic vision.

For him, both Wan’an Group and Green Island Cement Company had to expand beyond Hong Kong. Their journey was the entire world; they had to step beyond the familiar grounds of Hong Kong.

Though the Hong Kong market was prosperous, it could hardly satisfy his ever-growing ambitions.

Lin Haoran’s gaze had long since pierced through geographical boundaries, fixed upon the vaster global stage.

In his heart, the world was the true stage for showcasing his talent and realizing his dreams.

And the Southeast Asian market, with its unique geographical location, abundant resources, and massive consumer base, naturally became his first choice for stepping out of Hong Kong and marching onto the world stage—the first crucial piece in launching his global conquest.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was very much in favor of establishing a good relationship with the Guo family, even becoming close partners.

The opportunity to collaborate on the Shangri-La Hotel tower project had undoubtedly built a solid bridge between the Lin and Guo families. A smooth and successful cooperation on this project would lay a stable foundation for deepening their partnership.

Although Lin Haoran hadn’t been in this world for long, he had already come into contact with business tycoons like Pao Yue-kong, Michael Sandberg, Li Jiacheng, and Guo Henian.

This was, in fact, a process of building his own network of connections.

He knew very well that it was a naive fantasy to think one could navigate the business world alone and unimpeded.

In the tumultuous sea of commerce, building and maintaining a strong network of connections was the key to success.

Upon returning home, Lin Haoran went to bed early.

The next morning, he returned to Wan’an Group with his father, full of energy.

Before long, Guo Henian and Guo Xiaohan arrived at Wan’an Group with their professional team. After friendly negotiations, the two parties smoothly signed an important cooperation agreement.

With the partnership settled, Wan’an Group’s construction team would work closely with Kerry Group on the subsequent coordination.

Just as Lin Haoran was preparing to head to Green Island Cement Company, he received an unexpected call from Liu Luanxiong, whose voice came through the receiver tinged with unconcealed excitement.

“Haoran, I have great news! We just landed a super big order. The client is in a real hurry and has already paid the thirty percent deposit.

For the remaining balance, we’ll get paid for each batch we deliver, but we have to complete all production within a month,” Liu Luanxiong said excitedly on the other end.

“A big order? How big?” Lin Haoran’s voice was full of curiosity.

“Over seven million US dollars! That’s more than thirty, almost forty million Hong Kong dollars! If we pull this off, our profit will be at least twenty to thirty percent!” Liu Luanxiong’s tone was brimming with anticipation and excitement.

This was the unique advantage of taking orders from North America. The market was relatively untapped, with less competition, which naturally led to higher profit margins.

In contrast, although the order volume in the Middle East market was also considerable, it was a place where competitors flocked, and the competition was fierce.

Price wars among peers were escalating, causing distributors to constantly push down procurement prices, ultimately leading to profit margins dropping below ten percent. It was a lot of hard work for very little profit.

“Oh? That really is a big order. I was just about to head over anyway,” Lin Haoran said, equally surprised.

Securing this order of over thirty million Hong Kong dollars would undoubtedly lay a solid foundation for Evergo Company’s future development. This was definitely an exciting start!

Thinking of this, Lin Haoran immediately called for the brothers, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, and the three of them drove to the Evergo factory in Kwun Tong.

Half an hour later, Lin Haoran arrived at the Evergo factory, which was a hive of activity.

In just over a month, the number of employees at the Evergo factory had surpassed one thousand, and everyone was working in a tense but orderly manner.

However, as the volume of orders continued to climb, the current production scale was clearly stretched to its limits and was struggling to meet the growing demand.

“Hello, President Lin!”

“Good afternoon, President Lin!”

…

As he walked, many long-time employees recognized Lin Haoran, the boss of the company.

Lin Haoran smiled and greeted each of the employees who said hello.

“Is that President Lin? He’s so young, even younger than President Liu.” A new employee said. Though he had heard of Lin Haoran, it was his first time seeing him in person.

After attending the opening ceremony on the day the factory moved, Lin Haoran had been in Saudi Arabia for over half a month. Since returning, he hadn’t visited the factory, so it had been over a month. Naturally, these new employees didn’t recognize their boss.

“Yeah. I heard that President Lin isn’t just one of our factory’s bosses, but also the Chairman of a listed company. He’s really amazing. We’re all young, but he’s already a big boss, while I’m just here screwing in screws day and night,” an older employee next to him said, his eyes filled with envy.

“It’s not so bad. We know where we come from. The pay and benefits at the Evergo factory are already very good. They even provide food and lodging. I’m quite content, anyway.”

“That’s true. Let’s stop talking and go move the materials. If our group is slow again today, we’ll be last, and our bonus will be the lowest again.”

“Coming, coming.”

…

When Lin Haoran stepped into the general manager’s office, Liu Luanxiong was engrossed in a phone call, negotiating intensely in English with a distributor.

Seeing Lin Haoran arrive, Liu Luanxiong pointed to the phone in his hand, signaling for him to wait a moment.

A few minutes later, the call ended, and Liu Luanxiong put down the receiver, his face beaming with an uplifting smile.

“I just had a very smooth talk with an important distributor in Australia. It looks like we’ll be adding another major client soon.” His words were full of expectation and confidence for the future.

Although Liu Luanxiong was primarily responsible for the factory’s daily operations and client relations, he had no complaints about sharing the company’s shares with Lin Haoran.

He knew very well that without Lin Haoran’s financial support and foresight, the factory could not have achieved such rapid development in such a short time. It might have remained a small workshop, forced to turn away large orders.

Liu Luanxiong remembered those difficult days vividly and had long since grown tired of those constraints and that helplessness.

And now, with the factory’s ever-expanding scale, he felt an unprecedented sense of ease and pride, no longer having to worry about being unable to take on more orders.

All these changes were thanks to Lin Haoran’s contributions.

Lin Haoran pulled over a chair and sat down, his gaze filled with curiosity as he asked, “What are the specific details of that big order?”

Still somewhat excited, Liu Luanxiong replied, “The source of this order is actually an old client of our Evergo, a distributor from Los Angeles, California. We’ve had a stable partnership since March of this year.

This distributor’s range is very large, covering both North and South America. Even in winter, countries near the equator have a high demand for electric fans.

Although our order volume was small at first, he has always trusted us because of our excellent quality control and unique designs. Since the factory moved here, our production capacity has increased significantly, and this client has correspondingly increased his order volume.

Last month, in particular, I tried redesigning the appearance of our ceiling fans with an antique style, and to my surprise, they became a big hit as soon as they were launched. That client decisively ordered one hundred units for a trial run, and they sold out almost immediately.

Recently, the oil crisis in the Middle East has caused a global chain reaction. Oil prices have soared in many countries, and governments have begun to vigorously promote energy-saving lifestyles, causing the market demand for fans to surge.

This distributor from Los Angeles keenly spotted this business opportunity and decided to go all in, giving us this massive order. It includes one-third antique-style ceiling fans, one-third traditional-style ceiling fans, and one-third stand fans.

In addition to that, over the past year, our Evergo Company has developed five other distributor clients in North America. The Australian distributor I was just talking to is a new one. It’s the family business of a former classmate of mine from Canada. After my repeated recommendations, they became interested in our products and have just placed an initial small order of two hundred fans to test the waters.

If everything goes smoothly, he will also substantially increase his order volume. So, all in all, we already have seven stable collaborating distributors.

As long as the sales performance of these seven distributors continues to be good, our order volume will only keep climbing, and we’ll no longer have to worry about a lack of orders.

Of course, I won’t stop here. I will continue to work hard to expand the market, striving to have Evergo’s fans spread throughout North America, and even the newly developed Australian market, so that more people can enjoy the coolness and comfort of our products.”

As he spoke, Liu Luanxiong’s face was filled with pride and anticipation.

Because he knew that as long as he stuck to the current business strategy and continued to optimize it, the Evergo Company he was helming would one day surpass his family’s business—Yau Luen Yick Kee Fan Factory.

This thought was like an inexhaustible source of motivation, driving Liu Luanxiong forward with passion.

The thought of proving the family’s conservative elders wrong—of making those elders who had doubted him, including his own father, see him in a new light—made an infinite fighting spirit surge in Liu Luanxiong’s heart.

Chapter 111: Going for Broke

During his four years of diligent work at the Yau Luen Yick Kee Fan Factory, Liu Luanxiong gradually realized that the principles upheld by the elders, who were excessively bound by traditional ideas, could no longer satisfy his inner craving for innovation and change.

Although fraught with challenges, that experience had also tempered his will, making him even more certain of his direction.

“Xiong, my decision to invest in you back then was truly inspired. Your performance has far exceeded my expectations!” Lin Haoran praised sincerely, his appreciation for Liu Luanxiong’s abilities growing stronger.

After leaving the small workshop that had constrained him for years, Liu Luanxiong was like a fish leaping into the vast ocean. Free from financial worries, he could finally stretch his wings, and every decision he made was handled with masterful ease. His career began to flourish.

Faced with Lin Haoran’s praise, Liu Luanxiong couldn’t help but reveal a humble yet confident smile. The sense of satisfaction radiating from within was the best testament to his own relentless efforts.

“Miss Li, could you please provide me with last month’s financial report for review,” Lin Haoran said, turning to the Head of Finance, Li Meihui.

Li Meihui’s loyalty had not diminished in the slightest; on the contrary, it had increased by two points under the test of time, which made Lin Haoran trust her all the more.

He knew that since Li Meihui’s loyalty remained strong, she would never do anything to harm the company’s interests for the sake of any external temptation. The hypothetical scenario of Liu Luanxiong secretly persuading her to alter financial data was, in Lin Haoran’s view, an impossibility.

It was this absolute trust that allowed Lin Haoran to entrust the heavy responsibility of financial oversight to Li Meihui without any lingering concerns.

“President Lin, I’ll get it for you right away!” Li Meihui responded swiftly. She precisely retrieved a file from her neat and orderly desk and respectfully presented it with both hands, every detail betraying her professionalism and dedication.

“The company actually made a profit of three million six hundred and eighty thousand Hong Kong dollars last month?” Lin Haoran’s eyes widened with a hint of surprise as he scanned the figures on the financial report.

He recalled that it had only been a little over a month since they moved from the small workshop in Aberdeen on October 29th.

The report in his hands was Amigo Company’s financial statement for November.

He hadn’t expected to earn over three million Hong Kong dollars in their very first full month of operation.

The actual capital Lin Haoran had invested in Amigo Company, not counting the one million Hong Kong dollar loan to Liu Luanxiong, was only one million two hundred thousand US dollars.

In other words, he had already made his investment back in just one month.

It was no wonder that in his previous life, Liu Luanxiong had started with just tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars and earned over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars in a little more than two years. The profits were simply staggering.

And a good portion of that time had been spent with his development constrained in that small workshop; otherwise, his earnings would have far exceeded one hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

No, that wasn’t quite right. In terms of gross profit, the fan manufacturing industry wasn’t outrageously lucrative. It was just that the sheer volume of orders was immense. Small profits accumulated into a large sum, so the money earned naturally became substantial.

And in this world, because Lin Haoran had intervened early, Liu Luanxiong was well-prepared before the oil crisis. If nothing unexpected happened, he would earn even more in two or three years in this lifetime.

Of course, by extension, if he earned more, Lin Haoran, as one of the bosses, would also earn more.

“Haoran, regarding last month’s profits, I was thinking we shouldn’t pay out dividends just yet. I’ve just received a massive order, and our current factory scale is clearly insufficient to meet production demands.

Therefore, I plan to rent the first and third floors as well and speed up the recruitment process. The plan is to add one thousand new employees within a week. That will bring our total number of frontline workers past the two-thousand mark, which should be enough to handle this sudden market opportunity. Haoran, what do you think of this plan?” Liu Luanxiong explained his ideas with great passion.

“I fully support your decision, Xiong. The market changes brought on by this oil crisis won’t subside anytime soon. This is the perfect opportunity for us to expand our production capacity and seize the initiative.

You don’t have to be in a hurry to repay that one million Hong Kong dollar loan. The most important thing right now is to use this window of opportunity to deeply cultivate the North American market and fight for a larger market share.” He was in full agreement with Liu Luanxiong’s proposal.

“Haha, Haoran, we’re really on the same wavelength! I was worried you might have a different opinion, but it seems we’re in complete agreement. Having a partner like you is my greatest fortune!” Liu Luanxiong’s laughter was hearty, his approval and gratitude toward Lin Haoran evident.

At this moment, he felt increasingly fortunate to have such an outstanding partner in Lin Haoran.

Recalling his experience back at the small workshop in Aberdeen, he had another partner then, but disagreements between them were the norm. Frequent conflicts in decision-making led to slow progress for the company and many missed opportunities.

Now, with Lin Haoran as his partner, the situation was completely different.

Most importantly, not only had his own shares not decreased with the change in partnership, but because of Lin Haoran’s involvement, his decision-making authority was even more respected and utilized.

He was in charge of most of the company’s affairs, while Lin Haoran, with his extraordinary grasp of the bigger picture, provided firm support at critical moments but never interfered in daily operations.

This tacit understanding and trust gave him a profound sense of what a true “perfect partner” was.

Lin Haoran was not only an exceptionally capable partner but also a wise man who knew how to delegate and listen.

Now, with the profits earned last month, they could confidently expand their production scale without needing shareholders to inject more money into the company.

“Xiong, given our considerable profits last month, we can expand our production scale without any worries and without relying on additional investments from shareholders. I propose that we also hold off on dividends for the next two months.

You’re probably not in urgent need of money right now, are you? I predict this oil crisis will last for at least a year or two, and during this time, fan products will continue to sell like hotcakes.

So, go all out and expand. Keep taking on more orders and increasing our production capacity. I look forward to the day you can proudly tell me, ‘Haoran, our Amigo Company has become the leader in Hong Kong’s fan manufacturing industry!’”

Lin Haoran continued, and by the end, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

According to Lin Haoran’s memories from his past life, the Second World Oil Crisis had indeed lasted for more than two years.

In that timeline, it was this prolonged crisis period that allowed Liu Luanxiong to quietly accumulate his first significant earnings, laying a solid foundation for his future business empire.

Now, Lin Haoran had seized this historical opportunity, letting Liu Luanxiong work for him for free and earn him a great fortune.

Once the fan market gradually reached saturation, Lin Haoran already had his next move planned.

He planned to strike while the iron was hot and take Amigo Company public, using the power of the capital market to further solidify the company’s market position.

Afterward, he would skillfully position himself, find the right time to sell his stock, and ruthlessly harvest a wave of profits, achieving another leap in wealth. Perfect!

“That’s right. Aside from necessary business negotiations and supply chain collaborations, I barely leave the factory these days. Personal spending isn’t my top priority at this stage; I’m more focused on how to seize market opportunities.

Although the duration of the oil crisis is uncertain, just as you said, even without this crisis, the demand in the North American fan market has been showing steady growth—just not as explosive as it is now. Therefore, expanding our production scale is our inevitable choice.

Haoran, since you’ve given me such confidence and support, I’m going to go for broke. I’ll take any order that comes our way, whether it’s from North America, South America, or Europe. We will give every market our all.

I believe that as long as our products and services can win the trust of our customers, Amigo Company becoming the leading fan manufacturer in all of Hong Kong, and even the world, is an attainable goal!” The more Liu Luanxiong spoke, the more excited he became, his eyes shimmering with boundless hope for the future.

His experience over the past half-year at the small workshop had taught him that small-scale operations would never amount to anything significant. The dramatic changes now made him realize just how astonishingly fast wealth could grow when production capacity matched market demand.

He was no longer content with the slow accumulation of the past; he wanted to use this opportunity to achieve a great leap forward in development.

Liu Luanxiong had already decided not to venture into the Middle East market. Even without that region, the potential of the global fan market was still enormous. Developed regions like Europe and America, in particular, had strong consumer purchasing power, providing a vast sales space and considerable profit margins for fan products.

Against this backdrop, he naturally preferred to sell his products to these high-end markets rather than compromise on price in the Middle East.

“In that case, I propose we establish a dedicated market development department. You’re certainly an old hand when it comes to the North American market, but the world is a big place, and the business opportunities in other regions should not be underestimated.

No matter how energetic you are, you can’t attend to every single detail. It would be better to delegate this part of the work to a professional team. We can use a portion of our profits as an incentive for them to develop those areas that you and I are not familiar with.

This way, our operational efficiency will improve significantly, and our order volume will naturally surge as our market coverage expands,” Lin Haoran advised.

“You’re right, Haoran. I hadn’t realized that problem before. Setting up a marketing department and letting professionals do professional work will allow me to focus more on production and supply chain management. I’ll get started on the preparations as soon as possible and try to establish this department,” Liu Luanxiong nodded in agreement.

At this moment, Liu Luanxiong deeply understood the importance of teamwork.

He had already realized that as the company’s scale grew, an individual’s power was ultimately limited.

Only by relying on the strength of a team could they achieve long-term development.

And Lin Haoran’s simple suggestion had undoubtedly pointed the way for the company’s future.

His mindset on business management could no longer be the same as when he was running a small workshop.

Chapter 112: The Ancients Judged a Horse by its Bones, Not its Hide

“Aside from the Marketing Department, which is already well-established, all other departments urgently need to be built or further improved. I’ve just gotten a general understanding of the company’s current situation. We have over a thousand employees, but only a dozen or so mid-level managers and just a few dozen in junior management. Such a management structure is clearly unable to support the company’s long-term development.

Therefore, I propose we bring in a capable Deputy General Manager to share your daily workload.

At the same time, we should quickly refine the structure of departments such as production, quality control, marketing, R&D, procurement, and human resources. We need to ensure that every key area has a dedicated professional team, which will promote the comprehensive optimization and upgrade of our corporate structure.

Evergo is not what it used to be; it’s no longer a small startup team of a few dozen people. In the short term, we might be able to maintain stability through flexibility, but in the long run, if our management system isn’t sound, any minor oversight could trigger a chain reaction and disrupt the company’s entire operation.

This is a point we must consider deeply. We need to plan ahead to ensure the company can move forward steadily and continue to grow,” Lin Haoran continued to emphasize.

Perhaps because it had only been a little over a month since the transition from a small workshop to a large factory, he hadn’t had time to adapt to many things. He often still preferred to handle matters, big and small, himself.

“Haoran, your words are a true wake-up call for me. I’ll work on perfecting the management framework as soon as possible. Some clients in America have been asking me to go over for discussions, but how could I possibly get away? If the management structure is in place and they can help me run the company, I won’t have to worry at all, even if I’m gone for a week or two!” Liu Luanxiong seemed to have an epiphany.

In his previous four years at the family business, it was more like a closed circle, with all senior positions held by family members.

When Evergo was founded, to save costs, he and his partner took on multiple roles in their small workshop, including working on the assembly line themselves.

After moving from Aberdeen to Kwun Tong, the company gradually expanded, and the ranks of junior and mid-level management began to fill out. However, he had indeed neglected the development of senior management talent.

Currently, the marketing and quality control departments were not yet operating independently. He still personally oversaw key functions like procurement and recruitment. He was lucky to have the assistance of a financial expert like Li Meihui in managing human resources; otherwise, he would have been stretched impossibly thin.

Even more surprisingly, the exterior design of the company’s products was all his own work, meaning he was, in effect, playing the core role in the company’s R&D.

The root of Liu Luanxiong’s current situation was the company’s explosive growth—leaping from a small workshop of a few dozen people to a large factory with over a thousand in such a short time that he had almost no time to adapt and adjust.

“As one of the company’s bosses, I can’t just sit back and do nothing. Considering Wan’an Group has professional talent-sourcing resources, why don’t I take the lead in handling recruitment? Of course, you’ll still have to conduct the final interviews. After all, you’re the absolute expert in the fan industry and know best what kind of talent we need. I won’t interfere too much,” Lin Haoran proposed after some thought.

Hong Kong was home to many professional headhunting firms that specialized in precisely sourcing high-level talent for companies.

All one had to do was state their needs, and the headhunting firm would efficiently screen for suitable candidates.

Although it required paying a commission, this method would undoubtedly save the company a great deal of time and energy when recruiting senior management.

As for hiring junior staff, that was much simpler.

They could establish a partnership with a reputable HR company. As long as the pay wasn’t too low and the requirements weren’t too high, they could easily acquire the necessary number of ordinary employees through these agencies, ensuring the company’s basic staffing needs were met in a timely manner.

It was better to let Liu Luanxiong focus on the core work of factory management rather than spending his valuable time on the minutiae of recruitment.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran could use his own network of resources to bring in the right people for the company without having to run around himself.

“That arrangement suits me perfectly. After you do the initial screening through the recruitment firm, I’ll conduct in-depth interviews to ensure every candidate meets our high standards. As long as I think they’re a good fit, they’ll pass immediately,” Liu Luanxiong said, nodding in agreement.

Lin Haoran didn’t delay. He immediately called the Human Resources Department at Wan’an Group and quickly got the contact information for the headhunting firm the group worked with.

After jotting down the number, he contacted the firm right away.

When Lin Haoran identified himself as the Vice Chairman of Wan’an Group, the headhunting firm immediately promised to dispatch a specialist to Kwun Tong to meet with Evergo face-to-face and gain a deeper understanding of their specific talent needs.

Lin Haoran handled this series of actions as smoothly as flowing water, without the slightest hesitation.

The headhunting firm even proactively offered to come to them, which greatly increased efficiency.

In contrast, if Liu Luanxiong had been in charge of this, he probably would have had to spend considerable effort first selecting a suitable headhunting firm and then personally arranging a visit, wasting a lot of time in the process.

This was the advantage of having the right resources—it not only avoided unnecessary detours but also saved time and effort.

When Lin Haoran gently hung up the phone, his calm and collected demeanor once again made Liu Luanxiong look on with envy at his extensive connections.

Both were talented young men, but when Liu Luanxiong handled matters, he often had to go through a great deal of trouble, costing him time and energy.

Lin Haoran, on the other hand, seemed to be able to resolve any challenge with a single phone call. That effortless skill was exactly how Liu Luanxiong imagined an ideal boss should be.

Liu Luanxiong couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh, his heart filled with a mixture of feelings.

Lin Haoran keenly sensed the shift in Liu Luanxiong’s mood. He smiled and patted him on the shoulder, saying earnestly, “Xiong, don’t be in a hurry. Our common goal is to help Evergo grow strong, and one day, become a publicly listed company that captures the industry’s attention.

By then, the resources and influence you desire will naturally follow, and there will be many things you won’t have to handle personally.

As a leader, the true art lies in how to use people and how to use the right people.

As Ouyang Xiu said, ‘The ancients judged a horse by its bones, not its hide; a thin horse may be thin, but its frame is remarkable.’ We’re looking for inherent ability and potential, not superficial glamour.

In this process, learning to identify and utilize talent will be our most valuable asset. Recruiting and cultivating the right people is far more important than blindly expanding the team.

Although this path isn’t easy, it’s precisely its difficulty that will highlight the extraordinary value of every member of our team.”

In front of Liu Luanxiong, a future business tycoon, Lin Haoran played the part of a wise older brother schooling his junior, putting on quite a show and earning an admiring gaze from Liu Luanxiong.

At these words, Liu Luanxiong’s confidence instantly surged, and his initial envy quietly transformed into motivation to move forward.

As Evergo’s orders continued to climb, the company’s cash flow became increasingly abundant, filling him with unprecedented confidence and hope for the future.

Looking back on his entrepreneurial journey since leaving the family business to set up on his own, Liu Luanxiong was more certain than ever that his decision to leave his family’s company and start his own business was absolutely correct.

Under his careful management, Evergo was advancing steadily, showing vigorous momentum.

Judging by its current growth, it wouldn’t be long before Evergo surpassed his family’s business, Yau Luen Yick Kee Fan Factory, to become a leader in the fan manufacturing industry.

And Liu Luanxiong’s heart was filled with grand ambitions for the future.

Just as Lin Haoran had said, taking Evergo public and realizing the dream of a stock market listing—a goal that once seemed distant—no longer felt out of reach.

“The headhunting consultant should arrive soon. When they do, just explain our recruitment needs in detail, and they will professionally handle the rest. In the future, if the company runs into any difficult issues, feel free to call me anytime. I’ll do everything in my power to help and reduce your burden and effort. After all, I have a stake in this company too,” Lin Haoran said, glancing at his watch before standing up to leave.

He had originally planned to go directly to Green Island Cement Company after finishing his business at Wan’an Group to handle some work that required his approval.

However, he hadn’t expected to receive a call from Liu Luanxiong just as he was about to leave, forcing him to change his destination.

Now that the key issues were resolved and he had a deeper understanding of Evergo’s situation, Lin Haoran felt it was time for him to go.

Moreover, Liu Luanxiong was about to dive into a heavy workload. Not only was he responsible for recruiting senior talent, but he also had to arrange the lease for the first and third floors of the building, and work closely with an HR company to recruit more junior staff.

Faced with so many tasks, Lin Haoran felt that staying would only get in the way. It was better to leave the stage to Liu Luanxiong so he could focus on handling these matters.

“Haoran, don’t worry. I’ll take care of everything here. You can focus on your own business!” Liu Luanxiong said, patting his chest confidently in understanding.

He knew that his partner was not only the Chairman of Green Island Cement Company but also the heir to Wan’an Group, controlling the vast resources of two publicly listed companies. His schedule was naturally packed.

In comparison, their Evergo was still in its growth phase; the difference between them was obvious.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, gave Liu Luanxiong a casual wave, and then left the factory with his bodyguard, driving toward Green Island Cement Company in Hung Hom.

Green Island Cement Company was not far from the factory they had just left; it was even closer than the distance from Central to Hung Hom.

This made it very convenient for him to travel between the two places. Coupled with the uncongested roads, Lin Haoran’s private car pulled up smoothly in front of the Green Island Building just over ten minutes later.

Chapter 113: Targeted by the British Shareholders

Hong Kong, Mong Kok, the Kadoorie Hill villa area.

The buildings on Kadoorie Hill were predominantly luxury mansions. To its west lay the Diocesan Boys’ School, while at the southeastern foot of the hill was the headquarters of China Light and Power, founded by the Kadoorie family.

The streets of Kadoorie Hill, lined with lush, green trees, were exceptionally quiet and full of charm.

This place held over half a century of memories and stories, with every corner exuding a rich historical atmosphere. Its residents were mostly British expatriates and their descendants.

Among them, Harrier Centurion, the former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Green Island Cement Company, lived in one of the villas in the Kadoorie Hill area.

At this moment, several men with Western faces had gathered in the backyard of Harrier Centurion’s villa.

If Lin Haoran happened to be here, he would have been astonished to find all five of Green Island Cement Company’s British shareholders—men who were rarely seen together—all gathered in Harrier Centurion’s backyard.

Ever since Lin Haoran took over as Chairman of Green Island Cement Company, these British shareholders had been meeting frequently to discuss the situation.

The more they discussed, the more pessimistic they became about this young Chinese person taking the helm of Green Island Cement Company.

What they found most unbearable was that after Lin Haoran’s appointment, the company’s stock had risen for a few days before plummeting. It had continued to fall, at one point dropping to a low of 3.4 Hong Kong dollars per share.

The sharp drop in Green Island Cement Company’s stock price was making their hearts bleed.

Invisibly, this made them want to escape the sinking ship that was Green Island Cement Company as soon as possible. But it was clear that they were unwilling to sell at the current share price!

If they held onto the stock, they felt there was no hope for the future of Green Island Cement. They simply did not believe that a young man in his twenties could manage the company well.

Previously, when Green Island Cement Company was managed by Harrier Centurion, they at least received some dividends each year. In addition, Harrier Centurion would secretly give each of them kickbacks.

Between the dividends and the extra payments, holding onto their shares in Green Island Cement Company had been quite comfortable.

But now, the controlling shareholder of Green Island Cement Company had changed, and to a young Chinese man at that. How could they possibly trust Lin Haoran’s management abilities?

They later learned that throughout November, Lin Haoran had barely set foot in the Green Island Cement Company office. In other words, after gaining control, he couldn’t be bothered to manage it.

Faced with such a controlling shareholder, their confidence waned even further.

Thus, the five of them often gathered to discuss how to handle the situation.

They eventually reached a unanimous decision: sell their shares in Green Island Cement Company as soon as possible. Otherwise, when the company’s annual report was released, it would most likely reveal a Green Island Cement Company suffering from severe losses.

If that happened, not only would their shares fail to yield dividends, but they would also become increasingly worthless!

However, they couldn’t just sell at the current market price.

So, after some discussion, they decided to seek out Harrier Centurion, the old leader of Green Island Cement Company, hoping he could offer them a solution.

After understanding the needs of his former colleagues, Harrier Centurion said with a wry smile, “Gentlemen, I no longer have any ties to Green Island Cement Company. I won’t hide it from you—I’m in the process of selling all my assets in Hong Kong.

“What can be sold is already on consignment. Even this villa we are standing in has been listed with Hongkong Land Property Company’s second-hand property department. I could be saying goodbye to Hong Kong for good by the end of this month and returning to my hometown. It’s no use coming to me!”

In reality, Harrier Centurion truly wanted nothing more to do with matters related to Green Island Cement Company. He knew that Lin Haoran had leverage over him, and now he just wanted to stay as far away from Lin Haoran as possible, never wanting to see him again.

“Mr. Harrier, for the sake of us all being British, please just help us think of something. You are a senior in the business world, and your ventures have always been larger than ours. You must have a way.”

“That’s right. We wouldn’t have come to you together if we weren’t completely out of options.”

“We’ve worked together for so many years; we can be considered old friends. For the sake of our friendship, please help us!”

…

The five Green Island Cement shareholders spoke one after another. They knew Harrier Centurion’s cunning nature and were certain he would have a solution.

Harrier Centurion watched this scene with a bitter smile. He really didn’t want to get involved, but having these men constantly pestering him was not a solution either.

In fact, these shareholders had been calling him nonstop for days, but he had always just said he couldn’t help.

He never expected that they would band together and visit him in person today.

Given their many years of association, he couldn’t just turn them away at the door, which led to the scene in his backyard.

“It’s not that there’s no way, but I need you to agree to a condition. If you agree and swear with your hands on the Bible that you will never tell anyone about what is discussed today, I can tell you my method!” Left with no other choice, Harrier Centurion could only say this.

Most British people were Christians, and the Bible held great power among them. Nothing could compel them to keep an oath more than swearing on the Bible.

The five men looked at each other, as if communicating with their eyes.

They were truly reluctant to do this; after all, for them, this was no laughing matter.

“If you don’t agree, then I’m afraid I can’t say much more. This matter has little to do with me anyway. To be honest, I don’t want this trouble. All I want now is to leave Hong Kong as soon as possible and return to my hometown to enjoy my retirement!” Harrier Centurion said frankly.

At this point, one of the shareholders spoke up, “Mr. Harrier, I am willing to take the oath!”

With the first, a second and a third soon followed.

In the end, all five agreed to Harrier Centurion’s condition.

After all, for them, it just meant they couldn’t tell others that the idea came from Harrier Centurion, which wasn’t a difficult promise to keep.

So, Harrier Centurion retrieved a Bible from his house and had them swear the oath one by one.

Only after everyone had sworn did Harrier Centurion feel at ease.

“Your goal is simply to ensure Green Island Cement’s stock price isn’t too low so you can offload your shares. My method is actually quite simple. When Lin Haoran took over as Chairman of Green Island Cement Company, he personally held 40.1% of the company’s shares. Subsequently, his father, Lin Wan’an, purchased another 12.6% from me.

“This means that the Lin family’s actual control of Green Island Cement shares has already surpassed the fifty percent threshold. According to the crucial ‘fair treatment of all shareholders’ principle in the Takeovers and Mergers Code, once a party’s shareholding exceeds fifty percent, there is a legal basis for a full privatization and acquisition of the company.

“Right now, if you can unite and file a formal complaint with the Hong Kong Securities Commission, I believe that given the impartial stance of Mr. Myles, the Hong Kong Commissioner for Securities and Chairman of the Committee on Takeovers and Mergers, he will certainly see that justice is done for you.

“At that point, even if Mr. Lin Haoran has no intention of privatizing Green Island Cement, the situation will compel him to consider it.

“And once Mr. Lin Haoran takes the initiative to negotiate the sale of shares with you, the room for price negotiation will naturally open up, which would be a more favorable situation for everyone,” Harrier Centurion said with a smile.

Publicly listed companies have clear takeover trigger points. Once any individual or entity holds over fifty percent of its shares, it triggers a mandatory general offer. This is to adhere to the core principle of “fairness to all shareholders” in the Takeovers and Mergers Code. Any action that disregards this rule may face public censure or even more severe legal consequences.

In reality, Harrier Centurion’s plan was subtle and strategic.

Considering the colonial government’s special attitude towards British capital, Harrier Centurion was well aware that these institutions would inevitably be biased towards the British in handling such disputes.

Therefore, when the shareholders united to protest to the Hong Kong Securities Commission, they were very likely to receive some form of official response or attention.

The most probable outcome was that under the supervision and pressure of the Hong Kong Securities Commission, Lin Haoran would be forced to announce a privatization bid for Green Island Cement.

This move would certainly help the company’s stock price recover, at least pulling it out of its current slump.

As for violating the “fair treatment of all shareholders” principle in the Takeovers and Mergers Code, the consequences could be mild or severe, but they were often not to be trifled with.

To avoid a stealth takeover and maintain their status as a listed company, many family-owned businesses choose to distribute their shares among several people rather than concentrating them in one person’s hands. This allows them to secure control while reducing the risk of triggering a mandatory general offer.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, while such violations occasionally occurred, most went unnoticed or did not lead to any real action.

Take Wan’an Group, for example. Lin Wan’an personally controlled 49.99% of the shares, while Lin mother held another ten percent. Combined, they certainly exceeded the fifty percent control threshold.

From the narrow perspective of individual shareholding, Lin Wan’an had not directly hit the trigger point for a general offer. Coupled with the fact that no one had taken any special action against Wan’an Group, this shareholding structure would not cause any problems as long as no one pursued the matter.

However, what Harrier Centurion and these shareholders didn’t know was that Lin Haoran already intended to fully privatize Green Island Cement.

This meant that even if they tried to use the Takeovers and Mergers Code to pressure Lin Haoran, it would ultimately be in vain, as his privatization plan was already in motion.

They planned to use pressure to force Lin Haoran to announce the privatization of Green Island Cement, hoping to boost the stock price and increase the value of their assets.

However, the ultimate success of this strategy depended entirely on how Lin Haoran would respond.

In their view, whether it was the young and impetuous Lin Haoran or the ever-cautious Lin Wan’an, neither would likely find an effective counter-strategy quickly when faced with such a predicament.

But it was this very uncertainty that gave them a sliver of optimism about the final outcome. They believed that with the right amount of pressure, a rise in Green Island Cement Company’s stock price was a near certainty. The appreciation of their assets would naturally follow, and then they wouldn’t have to sell their Green Island Cement shares at a loss.

Chapter 114: Blow This Thing Wide Open!

After getting their solution from Harrier Centurion, the five Green Island Cement shareholders left in a hurry, heading to one of the shareholder’s homes to continue their discussion.

“I don’t think a joint complaint is enough. We should blow this thing wide open and let all of Hong Kong know about it. That will force the Hong Kong Securities Commission to take it seriously!”

“Henry, that’s a great idea. I happen to know a reporter at the Oriental Daily News. I’ll contact them later.”

“I know a reporter at the Hong Kong Securities News. Count me in.”

“The editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post is a friend of mine. I’ll handle things on that end.”

“We’re British. The Securities Commission will definitely side with us. We’re in the right here!”

“Alright, first, we’ll draft a joint complaint letter. We’ll all sign it, and I’ll be responsible for delivering it to the Hong Kong Securities Commission!”

That same day, a jointly submitted letter was placed on the desk of Miles, the Hong Kong Commissioner for Securities and Chairman of the Committee on Takeovers and Mergers.

After reading the letter, although he didn’t give it much importance, he immediately sent someone to investigate the matter. After all, the complaint came from British citizens.

The issue wasn’t difficult to investigate; the information was publicly available. Lin Haoran had previously told the media that their stake exceeded fifty percent.

Thus, the Hong Kong Securities Commission held a meeting regarding the Lin family’s possession of over fifty percent of Green Island Cement Company’s shares.

At the end of the meeting, the Hong Kong Securities Commission unanimously concluded that since the Lin family controlled over fifty percent of Green Island Cement Company’s shares, they had triggered the mandatory general offer obligation and were therefore required to make a full takeover bid for the company.

Furthermore, the Lin family had failed to consult the committee before increasing their controlling stake past the fifty percent threshold, a violation of the “fair treatment for all shareholders” principle in the takeover and merger code. They were therefore required to make an offer to all Green Island Cement Company shareholders at the stock’s highest price over the past six months.

This resolution was clearly biased in favor of the British shareholders.

The next day, Burton, the general manager of Green Island Cement Company, received a formal letter from the Hong Kong Securities Commission.

At the same time, a few Hong Kong newspapers secretly received leaks from these very Green Island Cement shareholders.

Reporters from the Oriental Daily News, the Hong Kong Securities News, and other media outlets swarmed the entrance of the Hong Kong Securities Commission, waiting for an interview.

Faced with the reporters, Miles was initially confused, but once he understood their purpose, he agreed to an interview.

“Regarding the Green Island Cement Company matter, we have completed our investigation and have held an internal meeting. Since you wish to report on this, I will now make a public statement on behalf of the Securities Commission.

According to our investigation, Mr. Lin Haoran and his family do indeed hold a stake exceeding fifty percent. Following discussions in our meeting, we have already sent a letter to Green Island Cement Company, recommending that Mr. Lin Haoran and his family make a takeover offer to all the company’s major shareholders at the stock’s highest price over the past six months!” Miles explained eloquently to the reporters.

The journalists were immediately energized. News like this was guaranteed to capture public attention and spark heated debate.

After interviewing Miles, the reporters rushed to Green Island Cement Company, hoping to get a comment from its Chairman, Mr. Lin Haoran.

To their disappointment, Lin Haoran was not at the company. Left with no choice, they could only interview the general manager, Burton.

By then, Burton had already read the letter from the Hong Kong Securities Commission and had informed his boss, Lin Haoran, of the situation.

Facing the reporters, Burton simply said, “We have just received the letter from the Hong Kong Securities Commission and haven’t had time to address it yet. We will issue a public announcement later,” and dismissed them.

A matter of this magnitude was naturally for the Chairman, Lin Haoran, to decide. As the general manager, he had no authority to respond on his own.

In Causeway Bay, at the Wan’an Group Chairman’s office.

After receiving Burton’s call, Lin Haoran didn’t rush over to Green Island Cement Company. Instead, he had Burton fax him a copy of the letter.

“Dad, how should we handle this?” Lin Haoran asked, handing the document to Lin Wan’an.

He hadn’t expected those British board members at Green Island Cement to pull a move like this.

There was no problem with privatizing Green Island Cement Company; he had planned to do so eventually.

The issue was the Hong Kong Securities Commission’s demand that he acquire the shares from all shareholders at the highest trading price over the last six months. He definitely would not accept that.

When he became the Chairman of Green Island Cement Company, its stock price had once soared to six Hong Kong dollars per share. Now, it had fallen to just over three.

He was certainly unwilling to accept such a massive price difference.

Although their actual controlling stake in Green Island Cement had already reached 68.4 percent, with only 31.6 percent of shares remaining in others’ hands, the cost difference between acquiring shares at over three dollars versus six dollars was substantial.

If he were to acquire the remaining Green Island Cement shares at an average price of four Hong Kong dollars per share, he would only need to spend about another sixty-three million Hong Kong dollars to fully privatize the company.

But if he had to buy them at six Hong Kong dollars per share, the cost would be nearly ninety-five million Hong Kong dollars.

That was a difference of over thirty million Hong Kong dollars in cost, and Lin Haoran had no intention of being a sucker.

Never mind that he didn’t have the money now; even if he did, Lin Haoran wouldn’t do it.

Why pay a high price when you can acquire it for cheap?

“Haoran, let me think. Nothing like this has ever happened to the Wan’an Group. Plus, Green Island Cement is the first British-owned company to be acquired by a Chinese-owned enterprise, so this is unprecedented. Besides you, there are still several British shareholders. The people at the Hong Kong Securities Commission are all British; they will certainly favor their fellow countrymen and British capital,” Lin Wan’an said, his eyes on the letter as he sank into thought.

“Dad, I want to ask, do we have to follow the recommendation of the Committee on Takeovers and Mergers?” Lin Haoran asked in return.

He didn’t even have the money. They couldn’t force him to buy, could they? Where would the money come from?

“Not necessarily. The current takeover code specifies that a fifty percent stake triggers a mandatory general offer obligation, but it doesn’t stipulate a specific acquisition price. The Hong Kong Securities Commission’s demand that you buy at the highest price in the last six months is simply them being biased towards the Westerners.

There’s not much to be done about it. After all, the Westerners are in charge here. And we can’t afford to offend the Hong Kong Securities Commission too much. Otherwise, they’ll always find ways to make things difficult for you, like holding up your approval processes, banning you from land auctions, and so on. It would cause you a lot of trouble in your future business dealings in Hong Kong,” Lin Wan’an said with a sigh.

In another world, during Pao Yue-kong’s Kowloon Wharf acquisition battle, Pao Yue-kong had faced pressure from the Hong Kong Securities Commission. As the battle for Kowloon Wharf was drawing to a close and Pao Yue-kong had successfully wrested control from Hongkong Land, the Hong Kong Securities Commission tried to force him to make another offer to the other Kowloon Wharf shareholders at 105 Hong Kong dollars per share.

However, Pao Yue-kong flatly rejected the commission’s proposal.

That was because Pao Yue-kong had the backing of a major British-owned institution, HSBC. Even when facing pressure from the Hong Kong Securities Commission, he was not the least bit afraid.

And sure enough, with the support of HSBC and the HSBC Group’s financial consortium, the matter was eventually dropped.

But Lin Haoran didn’t have Pao Yue-kong’s background. Right now, he certainly couldn’t find anyone to back him.

Of course, there was a big difference between Kowloon Wharf and Green Island Cement Company. The former was a contest between two major conglomerates, while the latter was small fry. The Hong Kong Securities Commission wouldn’t pay it too much mind.

“So, what you’re saying is, in handling this, we have to give the Hong Kong Securities Commission enough face, right?” Lin Haoran summarized.

“Correct!” Lin Wan’an nodded.

In the short term, Lin Haoran truly had no intention of privatizing Green Island Cement Company. The biggest hurdle was his current lack of funds.

To get the money he needed, he would have to wait a few months.

Although oil prices were rising every day, surging constantly, it would take until around June of next year for them to more than double.

Therefore, what he needed to do now was learn corporate management at the Wan’an Group while managing Green Island Cement Company.

Lack of capital made every move feel constrained.

In truth, not even Lin Wan’an had expected the Hong Kong Securities Commission to pay attention to the Green Island Cement affair. If he had, he would have stopped Lin Haoran from continuing to buy up shares back then.

“Perhaps I should pay a visit to the Hong Kong Securities Commission,” Lin Haoran said.

It was clear that his father, Lin Wan’an, didn’t have a good solution at the moment. In that case, he could only take it one step at a time.

He certainly couldn’t afford to offend a government department. Someone must have reported it. It was easy to guess who—the stock price of Green Island Cement Company had fallen so sharply recently, harming the interests of those shareholders.

If he wasn’t mistaken, it had to be the work of those shareholders. Otherwise, the Governor’s Office was unlikely to bother with a company of Green Island Cement’s modest scale.

Those few British shareholders were clearly difficult to deal with. Although Lin Haoran hadn’t had any contact with them recently, it didn’t mean they wouldn’t stir up trouble behind the scenes.

Sure enough, chasing off Harrier Centurion wasn’t enough. The other shareholders couldn’t be allowed to stay either!

Since it had come to this, he would go to the Securities and Futures Commission to sound things out. As long as he could meet their minimum requirements with a reasonable argument, he wouldn’t offend the government.

“That’s the only way. They’ve already sent the letter; we can’t just ignore it,” Lin Wan’an said with a wry smile.

At that moment, neither father nor son knew that the matter had already been leaked to the media. In another day, all of Hong Kong would know about it.

Thus, Lin Haoran decided not to go to Green Island Cement Company for now. Instead, he prepared to head to the Hong Kong Securities Commission to speak with its leadership.

At a little past five in the afternoon, Lin Haoran appeared in the office building of the Hong Kong Securities Commission.

Chapter 115: Wardley

He was no longer a minor figure now, but the chairman of a Hong Kong-listed company. Therefore, after an introduction by a staff member, Lin Haoran met with the Chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission, Miles.

Like other high-ranking officials in the colonial government, Mr. Myles, the Chairman of the SFC, was also British.

In this era of Hong Kong, the Governor and other senior officials were almost all appointed by Britain. High-ranking Chinese officials were extremely rare, and senior management positions were nearly monopolized by the British.

“Mr. Myles, good day. I’m very sorry to disturb you at this time, but I have received an official letter from the Securities and Futures Commission regarding the privatization process of the Green Island Cement Company. In general, I support this.

However, after careful study, I find myself in a difficult predicament and must personally consult you.” Lin Haoran began politely and directly as they both took their seats.

“Mr. Myles, my questions are mainly about the financial arrangements. I understand and agree in principle with the SFC’s requirements. But the reality is that to gain control of Green Island Cement Company, I used a large amount of loan financing. This directly resulted in nearly half of the company’s shares being acquired through debt.

Right now, not only have I used up all my funds to increase my shareholding, but I am also burdened with heavy loans from Hang Seng Bank, with the shares of Green Island Cement Company as collateral.

Here are the detailed loan contracts from Hang Seng Bank. If you need to verify their authenticity, I believe you can do so easily.”

“Under these conditions, I feel it is my responsibility to proceed with the privatization as instructed by the SFC. But facing the current financial predicament, I feel willing but unable to comply with the regulations.

Therefore, I sincerely hope you can give me some advice or guidance to help me find a viable solution that can both satisfy the SFC’s requirements and properly resolve my current financial difficulties,” Lin Haoran honestly expressed his dilemma and hopes.

Miles took the Hang Seng Bank contracts from Lin Haoran and reviewed them carefully, confirming their authenticity. Both contracts clearly stated that shares of Green Island Cement Company were used as collateral for the loans.

After finishing his review, his expression showed little emotion.

For him, handling this matter concerning Green Island Cement Company was merely part of his official duties.

Those British shareholders in the background were nothing special in his eyes, not enough to warrant much of his attention.

In his list of priorities, heavyweight institutions like HSBC and Jardine Matheson & Co. were the ones that deserved his full focus.

As for Green Island Cement Company, it was clearly not within his scope of primary concern.

Despite this, Miles maintained a professional attitude and said to Lin Haoran, “Mr. Lin, I fully understand your current predicament. Regarding this situation, I can personally offer you two suggestions for your consideration.

First, you can try to raise funds and continue with the privatization of Green Island Cement Company. In this process, you can negotiate with other shareholders to set a reasonable acquisition timeframe and price.

Please note, the acquisition price proposed in the SFC’s letter is only a recommendation, not a mandatory requirement. If you believe the price is inappropriate, you have every right to negotiate with the shareholders and reach a mutually acceptable solution.

Second, another relatively simple option is to consider selling some of your shares to reduce your stake to below 50%, thus avoiding triggering the full takeover clause of the Hong Kong Takeovers and Mergers Code.

However, if you decide to take this route, I suggest you act as soon as possible to avoid causing unnecessary trouble for the SFC.

Mr. Lin, these are just my personal suggestions, and I hope they can help with your decision. Do you have any other questions or need further discussion? If not, then this concludes our conversation.

I have other work to attend to and need to leave. If you have any questions or require further consultation in the future, please call my work phone during office hours. Here is my business card, please take it.”

With that, Miles handed a business card to Lin Haoran. His words and actions betrayed an eagerness to end the conversation, possibly because he genuinely had other urgent matters to attend to.

Moreover, perhaps after seeing Lin Haoran’s loan contracts and realizing that Lin Haoran was now out of money, he knew it would be difficult to use him to benefit his British compatriots, so he might as well be direct and point out the key issues.

Lin Haoran accepted the card and smiled at Miles. “Alright, Mr. Myles, thank you very much for your clarification today. It has been very helpful. In that case, I won’t disturb your work any longer. Goodbye.”

After saying this, he politely put the card away and left the Securities and Futures Commission building in a light and cheerful mood.

For Lin Haoran, today’s brief meeting was undoubtedly a turning point. The questions in his mind had been answered, and more importantly, he saw a new path to solving the problem.

At this moment, his mood was like the clouds parting to reveal the sun, a light at the end of the tunnel.

The Takeover and Merger Code issue that had been giving him a headache now seemed to have a solution.

The code itself did not mandate a specific acquisition price, which meant he had the right to reject the SFC’s suggestion, as long as he could properly handle his relationship with the shareholders.

His father, Lin Wan’an’s, way of thinking was ultimately too conservative, afraid of offending the SFC.

But from Mr. Myles’s tone just now, Lin Haoran could sense that he was not very concerned about the matter, let alone the possibility of Lin Haoran offending them.

Although the privatization plan had been moved up, Lin Haoran didn’t feel too anxious.

The privatization of Green Island Cement was something he had planned all along; it was just a matter of when.

Since he was now forced to privatize Green Island Cement ahead of schedule, moving forward with it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

As for the issue of funds, Lin Haoran already had a plan.

When capital was insufficient, taking out loans was perhaps the most direct and effective solution.

Although this would once again increase his financial burden, as long as the privatization could be completed smoothly, these temporary difficulties would become insignificant.

Thinking of this, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but quicken his pace, his heart full of expectation and confidence for the future.

He didn’t need to consider the funding just yet; it hadn’t reached that stage. When he really needed the money, he would naturally raise it, on the condition that he wouldn’t be a sucker.

After leaving the SFC office building, Lin Haoran went straight to the Green Island Cement Company.

“Boss, how should we respond to this? More than an hour ago, reporters from several newspapers came to our company for an interview. They’re hoping for a response from you,” Burton asked as soon as he heard Lin Haoran arrive at the office.

“Newspaper reporters came here for an interview? How did they find out about this?” Lin Haoran asked in surprise.

“I don’t know. We only received the letter from the SFC two hours ago, and they arrived right after. That’s what makes me curious too. How did they find out so quickly?” Burton was baffled.

“Mr. Burton, how much do you know about the other members of the company’s Board of Directors?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Not a lot. In the past, these shareholders would basically only come to the company for board meetings. However, two of the directors recently came to talk to me, trying to find out what your plans were for Green Island Cement Company. At the time, considering you weren’t in Hong Kong, I told them you had no plans for the company yet,” Burton replied.

Lin Haoran nodded. He was now certain that these people had brought in the reporters to blow the matter up.

It was clear these shareholders no longer wanted to hold shares in Green Island Cement Company. But finding a buyer now was impossible. The stock of a listed company with an absolute controlling stake wouldn’t interest many investors, especially when that controlling shareholder was a young man who seemed to have no business experience.

By blowing this matter up, the citizens of Hong Kong would know about it, and he would have no choice but to privatize Green Island Cement.

“Mr. Burton, do you have any suggestions on this matter?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Boss, after receiving the letter from the SFC, I specifically looked into the ‘Hong Kong Takeover Code.’ If you don’t plan to privatize Green Island Cement, it’s best to keep your shareholding under 49.99% and not exceed the 50% threshold. Otherwise, you will certainly have to privatize Green Island Cement Company.

If you are indeed willing to privatize Green Island Cement Company, I personally think this might be an opportunity to do so completely. The ‘Hong Kong Takeover Code’ doesn’t require you to make an offer to all shareholders at the company’s highest stock price over the last six months. This means you can actually reject the SFC’s suggestion and directly announce your intention to privatize Green Island Cement Company.

I understand that the market is not very optimistic about your control of Green Island Cement Company, so most retail investors are currently bearish on the company’s future. This is why the stock price previously dropped to just over three dollars. Therefore, I suggest you set an acquisition price that is neither too low nor too high. This way, the retail investors won’t have major objections, and the acquisition will proceed smoothly.

As for the shareholders on the Board of Directors, I suggest you call a board meeting to negotiate the acquisition price with them. Once everyone agrees on a price, the matter will be resolved.

I recommend you entrust the privatization work to Wardley. They are professionals in corporate acquisitions and privatizations. They have a more professional team and a stronger background. If you hand this matter over to them, you can rest easy.”

Burton’s advice not only echoed the thoughts of SFC Chairman Miles but also further detailed the operational strategy and feasible solutions, providing Lin Haoran with more comprehensive and specific guidance.

“Wardley?” Lin Haoran repeated, puzzled.

“Boss, Wardley is a wholly-owned subsidiary of HSBC, but it operates completely independently. The company specializes in diversified financial services such as securities underwriting, corporate advisory, corporate management, mergers and acquisitions, financial investment, and medium-to-long-term loans.

With a powerful entity like the HSBC Group backing them, Wardley’s influence in the industry is not to be underestimated. They are adept at handling all kinds of complex transactions. For instance, in the ongoing Kowloon Wharf acquisition battle, Mr. Pao Yue-kong chose them as his financial advisor precisely because of their professional capabilities,” Burton explained patiently.

After listening, Lin Haoran’s frown relaxed, and a look of realization dawned on his face. “I see, I understand now. In that case, let’s entrust the privatization of Green Island Cement entirely to Wardley.

As for the official company announcement, let’s hold off for now. I want to see the market’s reaction and the media reports first. Tomorrow’s news should be quite lively. Let them talk for a bit!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Chapter 116: Cooling Down the Market

Completely unconcerned by the incident, Lin Haoran’s mood gradually brightened.

The next morning, shortly after he awoke, a servant brought him breakfast along with several newspapers.

Sure enough, a few prominent newspapers, including the Oriental Daily News, the South China Morning Post, and the Hong Kong Securities News, had all published major stories about Green Island Cement Company.

The reports focused on an interview with Miles, the chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission, in which he publicly stated that he had sent a letter to Green Island Cement Company, advising Mr. Lin Haoran to acquire shares from stockholders at the highest trading price of the past six months, thereby advancing the company’s privatization process.

This news was bound to attract the close attention of the broad investing public.

The reports detailed Green Island Cement Company’s stock price trend over the last six months. The price had reached a high of HK$6 per share, while yesterday afternoon’s closing price was HK$3.86 per share. This stark contrast presented a clear money-making opportunity to investors.

Evidently, the media was deliberately hyping up the matter in hopes of stirring wider public interest and discussion.

Reading this, a spark of inspiration lit up in Lin Haoran’s mind, and a clever plan began to form.

Since you’re all so generously helping me pump up Green Island Cement’s stock price for free, I can’t possibly refuse such ‘kindness.’ Don’t blame me for taking this opportunity to make a little money.

What did he lack most right now? Capital!

At the same time, he would also take this chance to completely extinguish any thoughts of speculating on Green Island Cement’s stock.

At nine in the morning, Lin Haoran hurried to Universal Investment Company.

“Alright, guys, time to get to work!” Just before the market opened, Lin Haoran gathered Su Zhixue and the others for a short meeting.

The content of the meeting was simple: today, Green Island Cement’s stock would definitely surge. Once it reached a certain point, they would sell!

At that moment, Green Island Cement’s stock price was not even HK$4 per share, which naturally gave many investors ideas.

However, there weren’t actually many shares left on the secondary market for Green Island Cement.

Lin Haoran and Wan’an Group held a combined 68.4% of the shares, while another eight shareholders owned 24.1%. In other words, the members of the Board of Directors controlled 92.5% of the shares.

The remaining shares, a mere 7.5% of the company’s total capital, were scattered among the general public of retail investors. Based on the company’s total capital of fifty million shares, the total number of shares in the hands of these retail investors was only 3.75 million.

As major media outlets in Hong Kong, these newspapers wielded considerable influence. Consequently, news of Green Island Cement Company’s impending privatization spread rapidly throughout the city, sparking widespread market discussion.

Many sharp investors realized that if they could buy Green Island Cement shares at a price below market expectations and then sell them when Lin Haoran acquired them at HK$6 per share, the profit margin would be quite substantial.

As market enthusiasm ignited, the sell orders that had been listed for Green Island Cement were quickly swept away after the market opened.

Driven by a flood of buy orders, the stock price climbed steadily, only beginning to stabilize as it approached HK$5 per share.

However, despite the significant price increase, the actual trading volume was relatively limited. This was mainly because most of the executed orders came from retail investors who hadn’t managed to cancel their sell orders in time.

Ten minutes after the market opened, the trading volume for such a highly watched stock was a mere two hundred thousand-plus shares. This phenomenon surprised and worried many major players and retail investors.

Many major players and retail investors grew anxious. Why were there so few sell orders? With such high interest, it would be a shame not to make a move.

At this point, Lin Haoran’s team from Universe Group entered the fray.

They began to continuously release sell orders for Green Island Cement stock onto the market, all priced at HK$5 per share. For investors, if they could ultimately sell at HK$6 per share, this still represented a 20% profit—a not-insignificant return for a short-term trade.

The market’s reaction was exceptionally enthusiastic. Almost every time the Universe Group team posted an order, it was instantly snapped up.

Behind this frenzy was not only the widespread dissemination of information by the mainstream newspapers, which quickly covered all of Hong Kong, but also word-of-mouth among investors, ensuring the news was pervasive and deeply ingrained.

Additionally, some novice major players, with more money than sense, also sniffed out the “business opportunity” and joined the feast, hoping to get a piece of the pie.

With multiple factors at play, trading volume surged dramatically, and the market atmosphere became unprecedentedly active.

Over the course of the morning trading session, the Universe Group team successfully sold off as many as 11.86 million shares of Green Island Cement stock.

After deducting relevant fees, the team’s accounts received a net total of HK$59 million.

As for Lin Haoran personally, he originally held approximately 34.2 million shares of Green Island Cement through Wan’an Group.

After this operation, he had swiftly offloaded 11.86 million shares, reducing his remaining holdings to 22.34 million shares. This still constituted a solid 44.68% of the company’s equity, allowing him to maintain firm control over Green Island Cement—a stake large enough to fend off any external forces coveting the company.

Of course, Lin Haoran had no intention of giving up on privatizing Green Island Cement. In fact, he planned to use this opportunity to see the privatization through to the end.

But before that, being able to fleece this wave of people trying to profit off him would at least make him feel good.

Lin Haoran’s idea was born from those very newspaper reports.

He had keenly sensed the subtle sentiments and movements within the market and decided to do the opposite, using the market’s greed and fear to turn those “clever people” trying to manipulate the situation into pawns in his own game.

The prices of the shares Lin Haoran had acquired later on were not high. The last batch, in particular, had an average price of just over HK$3 per share, and in that transaction alone, he had secured nearly seven million shares.

The unit price for the shares acquired from Li Jiacheng had been higher, but that had been a necessary move to extinguish Li Jiacheng’s designs on Green Island Cement Company.

Therefore, not only did he not lose money in this operation, he actually made a tidy profit.

In a high-rise tower near Tsim Sha Tsui, five British shareholders had gathered. Seeing the news reports and the stock price reaction, they were ecstatic. Their plan had succeeded. Lin Haoran was going to privatize Green Island Cement Company, which meant they could not only sell their shares but also get at least HK$6 for them.

“Haha, it looks like our strategy paid off!” one shareholder exclaimed, slapping the table with a laugh. “Under these circumstances, Lin Haoran will have no choice but to convene a board meeting and ask to acquire our Green Island Cement shares. When that happens, everyone must hold the line. We absolutely cannot compromise on the price—at least HK$6 per share, or we refuse to sell!”

“That’s right, we can’t budge on the price!” another shareholder chimed in, his eyes gleaming with satisfaction. “HK$6 a share—I’m quite happy with that price. We need to let Lin Haoran know that our shares aren’t so easily obtained.”

As he finished speaking, the room erupted in cheerful laughter.

The laughter was filled with both the joy of imminent profits and a confident sense of control over the future situation.

…

Wan’an Group Building, Universal Investment Company office.

“Boss, are we going to continue selling shares this afternoon?” Su Zhixue asked after reporting on the morning’s situation.

“Stop the trading for now. I have other plans. If I need you to resume, I’ll call you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Maintaining their current shareholding was about right. If they sold any more, they might attract unwanted attention to Green Island Cement Company.

At the same time, he called Burton at Green Island Cement Company and told him to arrange a press conference in an hour.

The news surrounding Green Island Cement Company was a hot topic, and many reporters had already been hoping to interview Lin Haoran. Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t find him, whether they went to Green Island Cement Company or Wan’an Group.

Now, hearing that Lin Haoran was holding a press conference, they were naturally thrilled. In less than an hour, dozens of reporters had gathered at Green Island Cement Building.

At ten past one in the afternoon, Lin Haoran sat on the dais, looking at the reporters below with a hint of emotion.

The last time he held a press conference was when he became the Chairman of Green Island Cement Company. There had been even more reporters then.

Still, the turnout now wasn’t bad either, especially since the company hadn’t extended many invitations; a lot of the reporters had come on their own initiative.

“Over the past two days, there has been a great deal of commotion regarding Green Island Cement Company. As the Chairman of Green Island Cement, I prefer to keep a low profile, but since everyone is so curious, I will offer an explanation here.

“Yes, it’s true. Yesterday, we did indeed receive a letter from the Securities and Futures Commission. Because the shares I control, directly or indirectly, exceeded the fifty percent trigger point, the SFC requested that I make a general offer for Green Island Cement Company, thereby delisting and privatizing it.

“Unfortunately, however, due to my own lack of personal funds, I knew I simply didn’t have the money to continue acquiring Green Island Cement’s stock. Therefore, I made a special visit to the SFC’s chairman, Mr. Myles, to ask for his advice.

“Mr. Myles told me that the only way to avoid privatizing Green Island Cement Company was to reduce my shareholding.

“After returning from my meeting with Mr. Myles, I made a difficult decision, which was to reduce my shareholding to below fifty percent, thereby removing myself from the privatization trigger point.

“This morning, we successfully sold a portion of our shares. It wasn’t until today that I realized just how enthusiastic everyone is about Green Island Cement’s stock. What does this show? It shows that everyone is very satisfied with me at the helm of Green Island Cement. While I’m deeply proud of this, I also feel immense pressure.

“I am very grateful to the many investors for allowing us to successfully lower our shareholding. From today’s trading activity, it’s clear that everyone is full of confidence in Green Island Cement Company’s future. This proves that I have been a very successful Chairman.

“Since that’s the case, I feel that Green Island Cement should not be delisted. Therefore, I have decided to maintain the company’s listed status. Moving forward, I will use the company’s profits for various investments, striving to create greater value for our shareholders. Please trust in my vision. I believe the future of Green Island Cement Company will absolutely not disappoint you. That is all I have to say today. Goodbye.”

Having said his piece, Lin Haoran hurriedly left the stage, giving the reporters no time at all to ask questions.

Chapter 117: What Happened to the Privatization? You Made Us the Bag Holders?

Seeing this, Burton naturally directed everyone to evacuate the scene.

At that moment, the reporters were all dumbfounded.

Wasn’t this supposed to be about the privatization of Green Island Cement Company?

How did it turn into this?

His stake had been reduced to below fifty percent, so how could there be any talk of privatization?

Besides, Lin Haoran had stated clearly that he had no money; even if he wanted to privatize the company, he couldn’t.

This was big. This was huge trouble. The retail investors in the stock market had made a massive blunder. The man had no intention of privatizing the company at all.

If that was the case, where was their dream of six Hong Kong dollars per share?

As the reporters left, the news spread like wildfire. In less than half an hour, nearly every investor in the stock exchange, and indeed all of Hong Kong, had heard about it.

In a building in Tsim Sha Tsui, the handful of British shareholders also learned of the matter.

The three Chinese shareholders received the news as well.

They were stunned, completely and utterly stunned.

What happened to the promised privatization?

Furthermore, as Lin Haoran’s full statement was circulated by interested parties, people learned even more details.

Instantly, many retail investors began to curse.

They had only wanted to make a twenty percent profit, and now they were trapped like this?

“We have great confidence in Green Island Cement Company?”

“You’ve been a very successful Chairman?”

“And you’re going to continue investing the company’s profits? Aren’t Green Island’s losses big enough for you?”

“What the hell? He’s purely treating us like bag holders. Damn it.”

“Who the hell bought Green Island Cement stock because you’re the chairman? I just wanted to make that one-dollar price difference. Is that so difficult?”

…

However, no matter what they said, it was useless. It was their own fault for being too greedy.

The once-lively stock market suddenly began to crash.

4.9 Hong Kong dollars, 4.7 Hong Kong dollars, 4.5 Hong Kong dollars, 4 Hong Kong dollars…

The stock price soon fell below four Hong Kong dollars.

And it didn’t stop there; it continued to drop.

3.9 Hong Kong dollars, 3.8 Hong Kong dollars, 3.7 Hong Kong dollars…

No one could have imagined that less than half an hour after the news broke, the latest transaction price would once again fall below 3.5 Hong Kong dollars.

At that moment, Lin Haoran was also monitoring the activity in the stock market.

Seeing the price drop, he immediately called Su Zhixue and instructed his team to start accumulating shares. The target was 2.65 million shares, and they were to keep the cost as low as possible, not exceeding four Hong Kong dollars per share!

Behind this decision, naturally, lay Lin Haoran’s careful deliberation.

As it turned out, after the previous share sale, his stake in Green Island Cement had shrunk to 44.68%.

Through this additional purchase of 2.65 million shares, his shareholding was projected to rebound to approximately 49.9%. This clever maneuver not only skillfully avoided the trigger point for privatization but also reserved ample flexibility and room for subsequent strategic operations.

Before four o’clock in the afternoon, Lin Haoran returned to Universal Investment Company.

“President Lin, I’m here to report that the task you assigned has been successfully completed. We have acquired 2.65 million shares for a total of 9.75 million Hong Kong dollars, with the average cost per share controlled at around 3.68 Hong Kong dollars,” Su Zhixue reported to Lin Haoran.

“Very good. Your efficiency and precision have exceeded my expectations,” Lin Haoran said, his eyes showing a look of approval.

Money, after all, should be saved whenever possible.

With this, his control over Green Island Cement’s shares once again returned to the critical point of 49.9%.

Privatizing the company could happen at any time.

Lin Haoran knew that he would offend many retail investors this time, and they were probably cursing him in their hearts.

However, he didn’t care at all. After all, these people had intended to profit off him from the very beginning.

Since that was the case, why should he be polite?

He would soon buy back the Green Island Cement shares he had sold today.

By then, the cost would still be very low, much lower than the five Hong Kong dollars per share he had sold them for. This meant he had effectively earned a significant price difference.

As long as the overall price difference was one Hong Kong dollar, he had essentially made over ten million Hong Kong dollars in this back-and-forth transaction.

This money was much easier to make, and what’s more, others had forced him to make it. He originally had no such intention.

Privatizing Green Island Cement was also imperative.

Lin Haoran knew that no one was yet clear about the current financial situation of Green Island Cement Company, so naturally, they had no confidence in Green Island Cement under his control.

But once they discovered in the future that the company’s financial situation was not just better than before, but much, much better, the stock would surely soar.

Although he could use Green Island Cement’s profits for investments, the eight shareholders would eventually see the company’s true situation. At that point, they might not be willing to sell and choose to hold onto their shares instead. This was not what Lin Haoran wanted to see.

Therefore, this period when everyone distrusted him was the most opportune time for privatization.

However, he had to find the right moment.

This time, he chose to first get his hands on the shares of those eight shareholders before dealing with the stock on the market.

And the shares he had just sold today were just enough to acquire the shares held by those eight shareholders.

So, Lin Haoran was considering how to make these eight shareholders contact him proactively.

After causing such a scene, they must be eager to sell their shares in Green Island Cement Company; they just wanted a good price for them.

However, Lin Haoran would certainly not let them have their way.

Inside a commercial building in Tsim Sha Tsui, the five British shareholders were once again gathered, the atmosphere heavy.

“Gentlemen, given the current situation, how should we respond?” one of them asked, breaking the silence.

“Sigh, I really regret not selling during that wave this morning. We could have gotten five Hong Kong dollars per share back then,” another shareholder said, filled with remorse.

“Indeed. Who could have thought Lin Haoran would pull a move like this? Now there are millions of shares for sale piled up on the market. It’ll be even harder for us to get out,” the third person lamented, his eyes full of helplessness.

“Why don’t we summon the remaining three Chinese shareholders as well? They also hold shares and must be worrying about how to offload them right now. After all, it was the five of us who set this up. If it had actually succeeded, they would have reaped the benefits without doing anything. That’s truly unfair,” one proposed, his tone laced with a hint of dissatisfaction and unwillingness.

“That’s a valid point. There are many resourceful individuals among the Chinese. Perhaps they can provide new ideas or solutions,” another person nodded in agreement, a glimmer of anticipation in his eyes.

“Then it’s settled. I’ll be responsible for contacting them. I still have their contact information, so I should be able to gather them here quickly,” said the shareholder who had proposed the idea, moving swiftly to act.

…

An hour later, all eight of them were gathered in the room.

When the three Chinese shareholders learned that the five of them were behind the events of the past two days, they were utterly astonished.

Originally, they too had considered whether to sell when the stock price rose to five Hong Kong dollars in the morning, especially since the trading volume was so high.

But the thought of making even more when Lin Haoran acquired their shares made them give up on selling. Both the five Britons and the three Chinese had had the same idea.

Who would have known that the outcome would be completely different from what they had imagined?

They never expected Lin Haoran to be so decisive, selling off a large volume of stock and causing their plan to fail.

“Henry was right. We are all in the same boat now. We should share any solutions we have openly,” a British shareholder said earnestly, his gaze sweeping over the group.

In truth, the five of them had already racked their brains, trying all sorts of plans, but none had led to a satisfactory way out.

Thus, they were forced to pin their hopes on the three Chinese shareholders who were about to join the discussion, hoping to gain new insight from them.

Just then, a Chinese shareholder spoke up, his words tinged with analysis and helplessness, “Considering Lin Haoran’s large-scale sell-off today, with Green Island Cement’s trading volume surging to over ten million shares, I’m almost certain that the vast majority of those sell orders came from him.

“This means that Lin Haoran has cashed out at least ten million shares and has ample funds on hand, at least fifty to sixty million Hong Kong dollars.

“The shares held by all of us combined amount to only about twelve million shares. From a financial perspective, Lin Haoran is perfectly capable of acquiring our shares. The key is how we can persuade him to buy them.”

He paused here, looked around, and continued, “At this point, we can no longer hope to sell to Lin Haoran at a high price. The immediate priority is to offload these shares as soon as possible at a reasonable price to cut our losses. Therefore, we need to pool our wisdom and find a plan that will both make him willing to take them off our hands and allow us to cash out quickly.”

As soon as he said this, the atmosphere in the meeting room grew even more solemn and urgent. Everyone began to seriously ponder this realistic and thorny problem.

“Indeed, Lin Haoran sold off a large number of shares today, and the price was maintained at five Hong Kong dollars per share. He undoubtedly has enormous cash flow,” one shareholder spoke first.

“But the key is how to induce him to acquire our shares. It seems he currently has no intention of privatizing Green Island Cement, otherwise, he wouldn’t have sold off so many shares. Even so, with the shares he now holds, he still firmly controls the company. The eight of us combined have negligible influence on the Board of Directors,” another shareholder chimed in, his brow furrowed.

“He must have had the idea of privatization before, or he wouldn’t have secretly accumulated so many shares. It’s just that this incident caused him to give up on privatizing the company. Perhaps we can take the initiative and have a direct conversation with him,” a relatively older director suggested.

“I agree. Let’s just directly call a board meeting and put all the issues on the table. There’s strength in numbers. Maybe we can persuade him to give us a reasonable price,” another director chimed in.

“Young people are always so ambitious, thinking they can run the company perfectly and unwilling to share profits with shareholders. That’s why they get ideas about privatization. Perhaps we can cleverly guide him to see this as a win-win choice,” someone said, half-joking, in an attempt to ease the tense atmosphere.

“Ever since this guy became the Chairman of Green Island Cement Company, he has rarely even visited the company. With a Chairman like that, I don’t believe he’ll accomplish anything for the company in the future. I heard he said at the press conference that he plans to use the company’s profits for investments. It’s completely meaningless for us to continue holding the company’s stock. The sooner we sell, the sooner we can rest easy.”

“In that case, let’s decide on this. I’ll be responsible for contacting Lin Haoran and arranging a board meeting. At that time, everyone on the board can persuade Lin Haoran to buy our shares,” a shareholder who seemed to hold considerable authority concluded, making the final decision.

Chapter 118: Fellow Countrymen are Meant to be Sold Out

“A shareholders’ meeting?” Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback when he received a call from a shareholder, a hint of surprise on his face.

He hadn’t expected that while he was deep in thought considering his next move, they would beat him to the punch and propose the meeting themselves.

What surprised him even more was that the shareholder revealed during the call that the other seven shareholders had already reached a consensus, so there was no need to notify them one by one.

“Alright. Since everyone is in agreement, let’s hold a shareholders’ meeting. As for the time, how about ten o’clock tomorrow morning? That should give everyone enough time to prepare,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, that time works perfectly for us. We have no problem with it!” the other party replied.

“Then it’s settled. I look forward to the meeting tomorrow. Goodbye!” Lin Haoran said before hanging up the phone.

Sitting in his spacious, bright office, Lin Haoran fell into deep thought.

His gaze passed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, seeming to pierce the city’s hustle and bustle and reach the questions deep within his heart.

Were they seeking him out to inquire about Green Island Cement Company’s future development plans, or did they have ulterior motives, perhaps hoping he would take all their shares off their hands?

These intentions were like shadows in a fog. Lin Haoran didn’t rush to find an answer; he knew the time wasn’t right, and all speculation was pointless.

Just as a thousand thoughts raced through his mind, a knock on the door interrupted his contemplation.

“Boss, there are reporters here who want to interview you,” his female assistant’s voice sounded from outside the door, tinged with urgency.

Lin Haoran sighed softly. These reporters truly had a keen sense of smell and were incredibly resourceful.

After coming up empty at Green Island Cement Company, they had set their sights directly on the Wan’an Group Building.

A look of resignation crossed Lin Haoran’s face, but he quickly composed himself. Unwilling to antagonize the media, he asked gently, “Which media outlets are they from?”

“Reporters from the Oriental Daily News and TVB Television,” his subordinate replied.

Lin Haoran nodded. “Show them in.”

The Oriental Daily News was currently Hong Kong’s best-selling newspaper, while TVB was one of its two major television stations.

Originally, Hong Kong had three television stations: TVB, Rediffusion Television, and Commercial Television.

However, Commercial Television had gone out of business a few months ago, in August, an event that occurred before Lin Haoran had transmigrated.

These media outlets would do anything for viewership. If he offended them, they might start smearing his name relentlessly, so it was best to grant the interview.

Soon, three people walked in: a reporter from the Oriental Daily News, and a reporter and a cameraman from TVB.

“Mr. Lin, thank you for giving us this interview,” the TVB reporter, a man in his thirties who seemed to be the leader, said excitedly as soon as he entered.

They hadn’t expected to actually secure the interview. Moreover, with only the two of them present, it meant they could get an exclusive scoop.

An exclusive scoop garnered far more attention than news everyone already knew.

Lin Haoran smiled in response. “Don’t mention it. I just finished up some work. However, I have other things to attend to shortly, so let’s get straight to the point. I can give you a few minutes for questions.”

“Mr. Lin, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Huang Weiming, a reporter from TVB. I’d like to ask about the rumors circulating that this was a scheme you orchestrated, causing the stock to soar and then plummet. Do you have any explanation for this?” the reporter asked, holding out his microphone.

Lin Haoran shook his head gently, a look of helplessness on his face. “You’ve truly wronged me. When I received the notice from the Securities and Futures Commission, I was just as surprised as anyone else.

In fact, I haven’t considered privatizing Green Island Cement Company at all recently. As everyone knows, my father’s Wan’an Group is still significantly smaller than Green Island Cement. It was already a feat for me to acquire a controlling stake.

As for the source of this incident, I suspect someone deliberately reported me. To this day, I don’t even know who the informant is, which I find very troubling.

If you really want to dig deeper, perhaps you could try contacting the chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission, Mr. Myles. After all, the news originally came from them.”

He knew that many retail investors were probably cursing his name. Although he didn’t care about these ordinary shareholders, being cursed at was never pleasant. Since the reporters had brought it up, it was a perfect opportunity to clear his name.

He had long suspected that the other shareholders were behind it. Since that was the case, he wouldn’t be polite—he would let them take the blame.

“Then, Mr. Lin, have you considered privatizing Green Island Cement Company in the future?” the reporter from the Oriental Daily News immediately followed up with another question.

Lin Haoran smiled faintly, a hint of resignation in his eyes. “I have indeed had such thoughts, but reality is harsh. To privatize Green Island Cement, I would need at least another one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. For me, that’s an unattainable goal at the moment. I have no idea when I’ll be able to accumulate such a vast sum of money.”

The reporter’s questions grew sharper. “Did you sell a large number of shares at five Hong Kong dollars per share with the intention of profiting from retail investors?”

“That question leaves me at a loss for words. First, let me clarify something. My cost of acquiring Green Island Cement shares was far from a simple five Hong Kong dollars per share. To prove it, I can show you one of my acquisition agreements directly.”

With that, Lin Haoran stood up, walked over to a locked cabinet, and took out a share transfer agreement with Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

He handed the agreement to the reporters. It clearly stated that Cheung Kong Holdings had transferred 3.915 million shares of Green Island Cement to Lin Haoran at a price of six Hong Kong dollars per share, for a total of 23.49 million Hong Kong dollars.

“This is just one of the contracts from my acquisition process. My average holding cost is well above five Hong Kong dollars per share. Although I sold shares yesterday at five Hong Kong dollars each, I actually took a loss on that portion of the transaction.

In the secondary market, there are numerous pending orders for Green Island Cement, many with prices even below four Hong Kong dollars. If I were truly acting deliberately, I could have easily bought back these shares at a low price to make a profit on the price difference.

But the fact is, those pending orders are still there, which proves I haven’t done so. The reason is simple: I don’t currently have the financial strength to privatize the company,” Lin Haoran said, his voice laced with frustration.

Of course, his costs weren’t actually that high. After driving the stock price down later, his average cost had already fallen below five Hong Kong dollars. But he wasn’t about to tell the reporters the truth.

“Mr. Lin, may we photograph this agreement as part of our report?” a reporter requested.

“Of course. Go ahead,” Lin Haoran said nonchalantly.

When Li Jiacheng had made the deal with him, he had mentioned that the transaction would be reflected in the company’s published financial statements. Since that was the case, there was no harm in revealing it now; Lin Haoran was just announcing it earlier than Li Jiacheng would have.

After they finished taking pictures, Lin Haoran decided to end the interview. He had said everything he needed to say. Besides, these reporters clearly enjoyed asking difficult questions. Who knew what kind of trap they would set for him next?

So, Lin Haoran deliberately glanced at his watch and said, “I’m very sorry, but I have to get back to work. Let’s end the interview here for today.” With that, he quickly took the agreement, put it back in the locked cabinet, and gestured for them to leave.

The two media outlets wanted to continue the interview, but Lin Haoran gave them no such opportunity.

He left the Wan’an Group Building directly and had his driver, Li Weiguo, take him back to his villa in Deep Water Bay early.

The division of family assets was equivalent to splitting the family.

But since he wasn’t married yet, it was perfectly natural for him to live with his parents.

Seeing that they couldn’t interview Lin Haoran any further, the reporters from TVB and the Oriental Daily News turned their attention to the Chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission, Miles.

The reporter from the Oriental Daily News actually knew who had reported the matter to the SFC—it was one of Green Island Cement’s shareholders.

However, he knew the shareholder would never admit to it. But if they could get confirmation from Miles, it would prove the story’s authenticity.

So, the reporters from both outlets changed venues. Since there was still some time before government offices closed for the day, they planned to go interview Miles sooner rather than later.

At the Securities and Futures Commission building, Miles once again received a request for an interview from reporters.

This time, he again agreed to the interview.

For high-ranking officials like him, making a public appearance was a normal part of the job.

“Mr. Myles, is it true that the reason you sent Mr. Lin Haoran a letter requesting him to take over Green Island Cement Company was because you received a complaint?” a reporter asked.

“That’s correct. We received a joint complaint, which prompted us to look into the matter. Afterward, we held an internal meeting at the SFC and then sent the letter to Green Island Cement Company,” Miles responded openly.

“In that case, could you please tell us who filed the complaint?” the reporter from the Oriental Daily News asked, looking at Mr. Myles expectantly.

Miles was silent for a long while. He had initially intended to refuse, as the individuals in question were his fellow countrymen from Britain.

However, he was aware of today’s events. The situation had blown up, and its source was his own Securities and Futures Commission. As the highest-ranking official there, even if he wasn’t paying attention, someone would have reported it to him.

Therefore, after some thought, Miles decided it would be better to disclose the information. Otherwise, the SFC would have to take the blame.

So, Miles picked up the joint complaint letter from his desk, glanced at it again, and said, “As far as I know, these five individuals are all shareholders of Green Island Cement Company. Perhaps they felt that Mr. Lin Haoran’s large shareholding allowed him to have the final say in the company, which was clearly unfair to them as shareholders.

As for the real reason, I’m not certain. Our investigation did indeed find that Mr. Lin Haoran had violated the spirit of ‘fairness to all shareholders’ under the Takeover and Merger Code. Following normal procedure, the SFC naturally had to send Mr. Lin Haoran a letter urging him to either privatize the company or reduce his stake.”

Having gotten the inside story, the two media companies were ecstatic.

“Mr. Myles, may we write down their names?” a reporter pressed.

“Of course,” Miles said, showing them the complaint letter.

By doing this, the SFC naturally passed the buck.

As for his fellow countrymen, they were meant to be sold out.

After photographing the complaint letter, both media outlets were thrilled. The information they had obtained would surely become the talk of the town.

After all, quite a number of people had fallen into the trap in today’s stock market.

Chapter 119: A Prime Opportunity to Fleece the Flock

The global stock market had been turbulent recently, shaken by fluctuations in oil prices. Trading volume had declined significantly as investors adopted a widely cautious attitude, hesitant to make any moves.

However, when an investment opportunity touted as a “sure thing” quietly emerged, people’s vigilance evaporated in an instant, and they dived in without a second thought.

No one expected this seemingly foolproof opportunity to be a massive trap.

The reporters from TVB and the Oriental Daily News left the Securities and Futures Commission building in high spirits, armed with all the information they needed.

That evening, TVB capitalized on the buzz, quickly editing the footage and broadcasting it on the news.

Although the segment was short, its content was concise, covering all the key points.

It included, for instance, a detailed interview with Lin Haoran, as well as one with Miles, the chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission.

Now, everyone finally knew who was behind this whole fiasco.

In an instant, the names of the five British men were thrust into the spotlight, becoming the target of public condemnation. Their actions had ignited widespread anger and resentment.

“Go eat shit, you damn foreigners!”

“This bunch of foreign bastards can go to hell!”

“Foreign devils, I’ll tear you to pieces!”

“Drop dead, you sons of bitches! If I ever see them, I swear I’ll break their legs!”

…

Angry curses echoed from every corner of Hong Kong.

The next morning, with the publication of the Oriental Daily News, stockholders were able to get the most detailed breakdown of the incident.

Compared to the fleeting nature of television news, the advantage of a newspaper was its detailed content and accompanying photos, which could be reviewed repeatedly.

Lin Haoran’s share transfer agreement was printed in plain sight, clearly revealing the high cost of his acquisition and the reluctant nature of his share sale. The combination of pictures and text was utterly convincing.

At the same time, the whistleblower letter disclosed by the SFC chairman was also published, completely exposing the true masterminds behind the turmoil and giving the public a clearer understanding of the whole affair.

Everyone now understood that they had misjudged Lin Haoran; he was not to blame for this at all.

It was all because of those damned foreigners.

Discussions filled the streets and alleys of Hong Kong.

The stock exchange, in particular, was abuzz with chatter from the many investors who had fallen into the trap.

However, talking was useless. After all, they couldn’t possibly confront those Westerners—the consequences were more than they could bear.

At this moment, both Lin Haoran and SFC Chairman Miles breathed a sigh of relief. Neither of them wanted to be the target of public outrage.

Furthermore, Lin Haoran’s initiative to reduce his shareholding ratio left the SFC with no reason to continue pressuring him.

After the stock exchange opened, the number of pending sell orders for Green Island Cement Company shares did not decrease; instead, they continued to multiply.

As for trading volume, there was next to none.

Wealthy individuals and consortiums had no interest in a company that was already controlled by someone else. They couldn’t vie for a controlling stake even if they entered the market, so why bother getting involved?

Besides, with the oil crisis in its early stages, everyone believed a bear market was on the horizon, making it even less likely for them to enter the market with large amounts of capital.

Retail investors with more modest funds were even more terrified of buying, especially with so many rumors circulating.

Most of these rumors painted a bleak future for Green Island Cement Company.

Buying shares in a company with such a poor outlook was tantamount to financial suicide.

Thus, Green Island Cement’s stock was now in a very awkward position.

Lin Haoran had already instructed Su Zhixue to keep a close watch on Green Island Cement’s stock. If there were any large buy-ins, he was to be reported to immediately.

He now controlled 49.9% of Green Island Cement’s shares, so he wasn’t worried about his controlling stake being snatched away.

However, he still needed to pay attention if a large number of shares were being accumulated.

At ten in the morning, Lin Haoran appeared in the Green Island Cement Company’s conference room.

Besides him, there were five Westerner shareholders and three Chinese shareholders in the room.

At this moment, all eyes were on Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Henry, I’m very curious as to why you reported me. I was perfectly happy holding these shares, but because of your complaint, I was forced to reduce my holdings and even took the blame from the stockholders.

“If I hadn’t chanced upon the interview with Mr. Myles in the Oriental Daily News, I would still be in the dark, unaware that the whistleblowers were you gentlemen. I don’t believe I have any grievances with any of you, so this move is truly difficult to understand.” Lin Haoran went on the offensive before anyone else could speak.

As he spoke, Lin Haoran held up a copy of the Oriental Daily News. The paper displayed a photo of the whistleblower letter, which clearly bore the joint signatures of the five British shareholders.

The five British shareholders looked at each other, seemingly searching for a suitable explanation.

But obviously, this was not an easy thing to explain.

Just as Lin Haoran had said, he had no history of conflict with these shareholders. Their actions were, without a doubt, an unprovoked attack.

Most importantly, they hadn’t discussed the matter with Lin Haoran at all.

As for the three Chinese shareholders, they secretly breathed a sigh of relief. They were glad they hadn’t participated. They had only found out about this because the five British men had approached them first.

“Mr. Lin, please allow us to express our apologies. We took this action with the initial intention of promoting the privatization of Green Island Cement Company.

“Given that you hold a large number of company shares, we mistakenly believed you shared this goal. We had hoped that this action would prompt you to consider acquiring our shares to achieve our mutual objective.”

Finally, it was Mr. Henry who stood up and tried to explain their motives.

However, such an explanation seemed weak and unconvincing.

But Lin Haoran had never intended to dwell on this issue anyway. He had only brought it up to put them on the back foot.

“Alright, I won’t bring this up again. Mr. Henry, and all my colleagues present, I wonder, why did you call me to convene this meeting today?” Lin Haoran asked bluntly.

“Mr. Lin, I read in the newspaper that you intend to privatize Green Island Cement in the future. That’s perfect. If you’re willing, we can sell all the shares we hold to you,” a Chinese shareholder said.

“Mr. Lin, if you can successfully achieve this goal, you will not only make history as the first Chinese entrepreneur to privatize a British-funded, publicly listed company, but you will also leave an indelible mark on Hong Kong’s business world and make a great name for yourself,” another Chinese shareholder added with a smile.

Mr. Henry followed up, expressing his full support for Lin Haoran. “After discussion, we have unanimously agreed that if Mr. Lin has this intention, we will support you without reservation. Every shareholder present here will be your staunchest backer.”

“That’s right. With the stock price so low, this is truly the best time to privatize the company. If we miss this opportunity, the cost of privatizing Green Island Cement in the future could be much higher,” another British shareholder chimed in.

“Controlling 100% of the shares means you will have the rights to all company dividends, with no need to share profits with other shareholders. Given Green Island Cement’s potential and future prospects, this is undoubtedly an extremely worthwhile investment. The benefits of privatization will be numerous and immeasurable,” said a Chinese shareholder sitting at the end of the table, his words tempting.

…

The eight shareholders took turns, launching a coordinated offensive against Lin Haoran. It was as if they were concocting a potent potion designed to make him unable to resist.

Under this wave of persuasion, Lin Haoran finally understood. The true purpose of this meeting wasn’t to discuss the company’s future plans, but for these shareholders to eagerly offload their shares onto him.

This suited him perfectly, as he had been scheming for a way to acquire their shares at a lower price.

Now, these shareholders were delivering themselves to his doorstep. It was a godsend!

“Heaven is truly on my side!” Lin Haoran thought to himself. “These shareholders look desperate to get out. Since that’s the case, why don’t I take this opportunity to fleece this flock of suckers?”

“Gentlemen, you must have all seen the news. I’ve already told the reporters the truth—I don’t currently have the financial strength to privatize Green Island Cement Company. Privatizing the company means I would have to come up with over one hundred million dollars.

“So, I think I’ll just stick to being the controlling shareholder. I believe that with my business acumen, I can make Green Island Cement a very profitable company in the future. When I’ve saved up enough capital, I’ll consider privatizing the company then,” Lin Haoran said, feigning helplessness.

Of course, he wasn’t going to agree so easily.

“But if Green Island Cement’s annual profits become high in the future, the share price will soar, making it very difficult for you to privatize the company then. Don’t you have a sum of capital on hand? You could easily buy out the shares of every shareholder here.

“Once you’ve secured our shares, you’ll have to announce the start of the privatization process, but without us shareholders standing in your way, the process will be significantly easier.

“What’s more, after buying our shares, acquiring the shares on the market won’t be a problem either. You could take out a loan. With your capabilities, Mr. Lin, and Green Island Cement’s potential, I’m confident you could repay that loan quickly with the company’s profits!” Henry continued his enticing pitch.

“That sounds like a good proposal,” Lin Haoran nodded slightly, as if he was genuinely moved.

He glanced around at the shareholders present. A faint smile touched each of their faces; they were clearly pleased with his reaction.

“So, what’s your desired selling price for the shares?” Lin Haoran tossed the question back to them, though he already had a number in his mind.

Everyone looked at each other, smiles on their faces. If he was taking the bait, the rest would be easy.

Henry smiled and said, “Mr. Lin, we’ve already discussed this among ourselves and believe that five Hong Kong dollars per share is a fair and reasonable price. The shareholders present here hold a combined total of 24.1% of the shares, and we are all willing to transfer them to you at this price.”

Inwardly, they had hoped to sell for six Hong Kong dollars per share, or even higher, but they were rational enough to know that such an expectation was unrealistic in the current market.

Therefore, after some deliberation, they felt that closing a deal at five Hong Kong dollars per share was already an excellent outcome.

After all, as shareholders of Green Island Cement, their initial cost of investment hadn’t been high. Cashing out at this price would mean a considerable profit for them.

However, Lin Haoran had no intention of letting them have their way. This flock was his to fleece.

Chapter 120: The Terms of the Deal

“I’m sorry, but I’m not at all interested in your proposal. For me, five Hong Kong dollars is far beyond what I’m willing to pay. Before coming to the company, I was already aware that there are a large number of pending orders for Green Island Cement shares on the stock market right now. Many are below four Hong Kong dollars, some even as low as 3.5 or 3.4. If I wanted to buy, I think I’d purchase those shares first. There’s no need for me to buy from you!” Lin Haoran stated bluntly.

The stock was trading for just over three dollars on the market, so on what grounds were they asking for five?

Faced with Lin Haoran’s direct rebuttal, the shareholders did not appear overly angry. They had already anticipated that the price negotiation would not be smooth sailing.

“In that case, Mr. Lin, what price do you believe would be reasonable?” Henry asked on behalf of the shareholders, preparing to adjust their strategy based on Lin Haoran’s response.

“Right now on the stock market, there are over a million shares of Green Island Cement with pending orders at just 3.5 Hong Kong dollars, and they’re sitting untouched.

“Given this market environment, I propose to acquire your shares at 3.5 Hong Kong dollars per share. That price is more than appropriate.

“Now, don’t be so quick to get angry. Considering how sluggish the secondary market is, I’m sure you’ll find it difficult to find any other buyer besides me.

“Of course, if you feel this price is unsuitable, we can always maintain the status quo and continue working together as company colleagues to promote the development of Green Island Cement.” Lin Haoran’s words made it seem as if he had no interest at all in the privatization plan.

He then changed the subject, beginning to paint a grand picture for the company: “I am full of confidence in the future of Green Island Cement. The market response to our cement products has been enthusiastic, and demand exceeds supply.

“Therefore, I plan to invest twenty to thirty million Hong Kong dollars over the next three years to build more cement plants. Imagine, from the New Territories to Yuen Long, then to Tuen Mun and Hong Kong Island, our cement plants will be everywhere.

“This will not only greatly increase our production capacity and market share but also bring unprecedented profit growth to the company. I’ve already asked General Manager Burton to start preparing a detailed investment proposal. Once it’s complete, I will share this exciting plan with all of you.”

Such a ridiculously naive investment plan was sure to make them sick.

The key was that Lin Haoran’s controlling influence over Green Island Cement was not to be underestimated. If he truly adopted such an aggressive strategy, the other shareholders would likely be unable to effectively counter him; they would be powerless.

Lin Haoran’s thinking was simple: he would make things so unbearable for them that he would see if they were still willing to cling to the title of Green Island Cement shareholder!

As soon as he said this, everyone was stunned, looking at each other in dismay.

They guessed that Lin Haoran was probably trying to intimidate them. No matter how foolish he was, he couldn’t possibly keep building more and more cement plants. After all, everyone knew the market could become saturated. Even if he had that idea, Burton, the general manager, would talk him out of it.

But Lin Haoran’s words still sent a chill down their spines, prompting them to speed up their consideration of selling their shares. After all, the risk of dancing with a controlling shareholder who might use the company’s future as a bargaining chip was too high.

Furthermore, what Lin Haoran said was true. In the secondary market, the number of pending orders for Green Island Cement shares below four Hong Kong dollars was massive, accounting for almost half of the floating stock.

However, despite this, the shareholders were clearly unwilling to easily accept a low price of 3.5 Hong Kong dollars per share. The game between the two sides had evidently just begun.

“Mr. Lin, we truly find the price you’ve proposed unacceptable. Why don’t we both take a step back? Let’s use 4.5 Hong Kong dollars per share as the basis for the transaction. This is already a very sincere price, even lower than your average acquisition cost earlier. We believe this is a win-win solution,” Henry earnestly proposed a compromise.

“In that case, let’s set aside the discussion of privatization for now. Personally, I’m not keen on moving forward with privatization immediately. Now that I have become the Chairman of Green Island Cement, my priority should be to optimize its management rather than rushing to change its ownership structure. I believe that steady development is the key.

“Speaking of development, I have quite a few ideas for the future of Green Island Cement, and I believe these plans will ignite everyone’s passion. Although I’ve spent little time at the company recently, I’ve already formulated several grand development plans for Green Island Cement. Give me some time, and I vow to build Green Island Cement into a benchmark enterprise in Hong Kong and even the entire industry!” Lin Haoran passionately described the company’s future.

Clearly, his meaning was plain: he had no interest whatsoever in the price of 4.5 Hong Kong dollars per share.

At this moment, another British shareholder interjected, “Mr. Henry, I think four Hong Kong dollars per share is more reasonable. The market situation is what it is; we have to be realistic.”

“That’s right. Although giving up 0.5 Hong Kong dollars will mean a bit of a loss for us, in the long run, a smooth exit is what matters most.”

“I agree with Mr. Henry’s proposal. 4.5 Hong Kong dollars is the biggest concession we can make.”

“True, it’s obvious Mr. Lin isn’t interested in 4.5. It’s pointless for us to insist. Our goal today is clear: to reach a deal that is acceptable to both sides.”

In the conference room, the shareholders voiced their opinions one after another, and the atmosphere gradually became delicate and tense.

Lin Haoran watched this scene with cold detachment, clearly sensing that a rift had begun to form within their group.

He remained impassive, waiting to see how things would unfold.

“Mr. Lin, we need a moment to talk amongst ourselves. Could you give us ten minutes?” Henry, being the largest shareholder among them, politely requested of Lin Haoran.

“Of course. Be my guest,” Lin Haoran replied calmly, a sense of confidence growing within him.

He already knew that these shareholders’ desire to sell their Green Island Cement shares was quite strong. As long as the price was right, closing the deal was just a matter of time.

With that, he rose and left the conference room, walked down the corridor, and returned to his own office.

Through the large glass window, he looked down at the bustling scene of the factory below.

Although the newly acquired and renovated cement plant on Luzon Island had effectively eased the supply pressure on the Hung Hom plant for the Philippines market, the Hung Hom plant still shouldered the heavy responsibility of supplying cement to Hong Kong and Macau, with consistently high daily demand.

This showed just how profitable the infrastructure industry was.

Ten minutes later, Lin Haoran walked back into the conference room with an unhurried Demeanor.

Everyone was now silent. It was clear they had finished their discussion and reached a consensus.

“Mr. Lin, we’ve discussed it, and we agree to the price of four Hong Kong dollars per share!” Henry announced on behalf of everyone.

“Ah, Mr. Henry, I believe you’ve misunderstood. I never said I would acquire your shares at four Hong Kong dollars per share, did I?” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

Indeed, from start to finish, he had never said he wanted to buy them out at four dollars. It was they who had assumed he had accepted that price.

In truth, he did accept the price. Proposing 3.5 Hong Kong dollars was merely a tactic to bargain more effectively. Four dollars was actually his ideal price point; it was already a great deal. However, he had other conditions.

A price of four dollars per share was enough to make these people bleed from their losses. Yesterday, they wouldn’t sell at five dollars, and now they were proactively offering four.

Back then, the former chairman, Harrier Centurion, had no choice but to sell his shares at that price to protect the secrets of the finance department.

Now, these people had dared to report him privately. This was Lin Haoran’s way of retaliating.

“If I can’t even get four Hong Kong dollars, I might as well hold on to my position as a shareholder. As much as I want out, I do have my limits.”

“Exactly. A price of four Hong Kong dollars is more than sincere enough.”

They hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to be so difficult.

They had originally thought he was just an arrogant young man, and that if they all took turns persuading him, he would surely agree to the deal.

They never expected him to toy with them like this, remaining completely unyielding no matter what they said.

Just as the atmosphere was about to reach a stalemate, Lin Haoran changed his tune. “However, the price of four Hong Kong dollars per share is not entirely out of the question. I do have sufficient funds to acquire all the shares held by everyone present.

“But before that, I have one condition. As long as you all agree to it, I will certainly purchase all of your shares at four Hong Kong dollars per share.”

At these words, a glimmer of hope was rekindled in the shareholders’ eyes, and they all turned their gazes to Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Lin, please speak freely. What is your condition? As long as it is within our power, we will certainly cooperate fully,” Mr. Henry was the first to declare. The other shareholders nodded in agreement, waiting for Lin Haoran to continue.

“My condition is actually quite simple. You should all be aware that in previous media interviews, I have clearly stated that I do not currently possess the capability to privatize the Green Island Cement Company.

“Therefore, if I were to suddenly acquire all your shares at this moment and initiate the delisting and privatization process, it would undoubtedly attract public scrutiny. It could even be misinterpreted as stock market manipulation, exposing me to the legal risks of fraudulent trading, a situation I absolutely wish to avoid,” Lin Haoran frankly explained his concerns and his condition.

He further elaborated, “This whole situation on the stock market wasn’t my doing to begin with; it was a chain reaction triggered by the report letters from you five shareholders. Although I wasn’t involved, I have publicly stated that due to financial constraints, I am not considering privatization for the time being. If I act now, it would clearly contradict my previous statements, giving the regulators something to hold over me.

“So, my condition is this: you all must assist me in resolving this potential public relations and legal dilemma. As long as you help me solve this problem, allowing for a smooth transfer of shares while avoiding any unnecessary misunderstandings or accusations against me and the company from the outside world, then I am not against moving forward with the company’s privatization ahead of schedule.”

Lin Haoran’s condition was simple: if they helped him resolve this matter so he could complete the transaction with peace of mind, then their deal was done.

“Mr. Lin, I didn’t realize you were so cautious. We were not thorough enough in our considerations. This could indeed cause you trouble. But please rest assured, we can help you resolve this matter,” Henry stated directly.

The issue was indeed easy to solve, but it couldn’t be resolved by Lin Haoran. It had to be handled collectively by these shareholders.

As long as there was evidence to prove that Lin Haoran’s sudden change of heart about privatization was entirely an accident caused by external factors, it would be impossible to claim that he was manipulating the market.

Chapter 121: The Controversy Comes to an End

Just as expected, after the shareholder meeting, Henry and the other seven shareholders immediately got busy with Lin Haoran’s matter.

First, they went together to see Miles, the Chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission, and jointly wrote a letter explaining the situation.

Then, the five British shareholders took even more drastic action. They directly contacted several influential media reporters, readily accepted an interview, and stated that they had reported Lin Haoran solely to compel him to consider privatizing the company.

According to them, after internal discussions, Lin Haoran had finally become interested in privatization.

In order to sell their shares, these five British shareholders showed no concern for the potential damage to their reputation.

They believed that the vast majority of those who would be hurt were Chinese shareholders, and their status as British citizens seemed to make them feel superior.

Moreover, their report was indeed well-founded, as Lin Haoran’s actual stake at the time had exceeded fifty percent by a considerable margin.

For this reason, even if they publicly admitted to reporting him as a means of coercion, the law could do nothing to them.

Originally, after interviewing Miles, these reporters had planned to contact the five British shareholders for an interview, as they were the ones who had started the whole affair.

However, their previous attempts had gone unanswered.

They never expected that this time, the five shareholders would take the initiative to grant a joint interview.

The matter began to ferment once again, sparking heated discussions among the public.

At home, Lin Haoran read the articles in the newspapers and was quite satisfied.

As expected, these Westerners were truly effective. When they said they would help him solve the problem, they took action immediately.

“Haoran, your concerns were well-founded. A single misstep could have led to the Securities and Futures Commission ruling that you were manipulating the stock market. In a serious case, you could have even gone to jail. But with them coming forward to explain the situation, they’ve completely cleared your name. This whole affair has had nothing to do with you from start to finish. You’ve handled this very cautiously. I feel at ease handing the Wan’an Group over to you!”

Lin Wan’an was having breakfast with his son. Reading the newspaper, he couldn’t help but shower Lin Haoran with praise.

“In the end, it was all an accident. I never expected these people would report me,” Lin Haoran said with a sigh.

Although Green Island Cement Company had a market capitalization of over two hundred million, it was not particularly prominent among British-owned companies and couldn’t compare to top-tier British-owned foreign firms like Jardine Matheson & Co., Swire & Co., or Wheelock. As a result, it rarely received much attention.

If it weren’t for the shareholders’ report this time, the Securities and Futures Commission probably would not have bothered with the matter at all.

The securities laws of this era were still underdeveloped; otherwise, a small place like Hong Kong wouldn’t have four stock exchanges operating simultaneously.

The privatization trigger point in the Takeover and Merger Code was often just for show.

Many listed family businesses, in order to prevent their companies from being forcibly acquired by other large conglomerates, secretly held stakes of over fifty percent. This was not uncommon.

Before the mid-1970s, Hong Kong’s securities and commodities markets were even in an unregulated state.

It was only after the stock market crash of 1973-1974 that the government began to intervene and subsequently enacted the core legislation to regulate the securities and futures industries.

However, as it had not been long, the current laws were still very imperfect, with many regulations having been hastily adopted from Western securities laws.

“Haoran, are you really planning to privatize Green Island Cement Company?” Lin Wan’an asked, still finding it hard to believe.

He was already very surprised that his son could become the controlling shareholder of Green Island Cement Company.

Later, when his son continued to increase his shareholding to over fifty percent, Lin Wan’an had only assumed it was to prevent others from targeting Green Island Cement again.

He had learned that Green Island Cement Company had previously been targeted by the Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

Even Lin Wan’an found it somewhat incredible that his son had successfully won the controlling stake in Green Island Cement Company from a major Chinese-owned enterprise like Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

“Of course. If the opportunity arises, I will definitely privatize Green Island Cement Company. Look at Uncle Guo of the Kerry Group. To bid for those few plots of land in Tsim Sha Tsui East, he had to join forces with other companies and spent a considerable sum.

“You can imagine how high the land prices are over there! And the location of Green Island Cement Company is not far from the plots they acquired. So, this piece of land is also extremely valuable.

“Although it’s industrial land, in such a core location, it has long since become unsuitable for industrial use. It really affects Hong Kong’s cityscape.

“On top of that, Green Island Cement Company often receives complaints from the public, so relocating the cement plant is imminent. As long as I pay the land premium difference to the government and apply to have it rezoned as commercial land, they’ll be more than happy to approve it!” Lin Haoran explained with a smile.

“If you truly have the ability, I will naturally support you. It’s a good thing. But if you lack the funds, don’t force it. Loans can solve short-term financial problems, but when it’s time for repayment, if you don’t have enough money, everything will come to nothing,” Lin Wan’an said, his cautious nature showing through.

“Don’t worry, Dad. I only do things I’m confident about,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, not explaining further on the matter.

There were still many things he was keeping from Lin Wan’an.

When the time came for Lin Wan’an to know these things, he would find out naturally.

Because some things were just too difficult for him to explain.

If Lin Wan’an found out that Lin Haoran had directly borrowed over three hundred million from Bumiputra Finance, he would probably regret giving him the inheritance of the Wan’an Group.

Beep… beep… beep… A beeping sound came from Lin Haoran’s pager.

“Dad, I’m going to make a call,” Lin Haoran said to Lin Wan’an, putting down the newspaper.

“Mm, go ahead,” Lin Wan’an waved his hand and continued reading his news.

The call was from Burton, the general manager of Green Island Cement Company.

“Boss, a lot of reporters have shown up at our company. They all want to interview you and refuse to leave, no matter what we say,” Burton’s tone was clearly helpless.

Lin Haoran naturally guessed why these reporters were looking for him; today’s papers were all reporting on the five British men’s statement.

“Tell them I’ll be there in half an hour!” Lin Haoran replied.

After hanging up and saying goodbye to his parents, Lin Haoran hurriedly took a car to Hung Hom.

This was exactly what he wanted. He needed to use this interview with the reporters to respond to the matter once more.

Half an hour later, the car pulled into the dedicated parking space at the Green Island Building as scheduled.

Lin Haoran’s arrival quickly caught the attention of the reporters who had been waiting for a long time.

Instantly, dozens of people swarmed around Lin Haoran, all vying to interview him.

“Everyone, what is it you want to know from me?” he asked, deciding to simply hold the interview on the spot.

However, there were too many people, and everyone was raising their hands, clamoring to ask questions. It was a chaotic scene.

Lin Haoran then said, “I’ll point to someone, and that person can ask a question. I can’t answer anyone if you’re all like this.”

At that, the scene gradually quieted down.

Lin Haoran first pointed to a reporter from the Oriental Daily News.

“Mr. Lin, I’d like to ask, are you really planning to privatize Green Island Cement Company?” the reporter immediately asked the key question, the one most of the reporters wanted to know the answer to.

“I had no such plans for the near future. But yesterday, all the shareholders on the Board of Directors of Green Island Cement Company invited me for a discussion, hoping that I would acquire their shares at an extremely low price.

“The share price they offered was indeed attractive to me. If I have the opportunity, I think I will take these shares, because they are being very sincere with the price they’ve offered to sell, so much so that it makes me feel the urge to acquire their shares at any cost.

“However, I have already publicly stated that I have no intention of privatizing the company for the time being. If I were to acquire them now, it would mean my stake would once again exceed fifty percent, and I would be under suspicion of manipulating the stock market.

“Therefore, to avoid suspicion, if the Securities and Futures Commission does not agree to my delisting and privatizing Green Island Cement Company, I will not take this step. I ask all shareholders to believe that my previous sale of some shares was done entirely out of necessity!” Lin Haoran answered directly.

He deliberately put the ball in the Securities and Futures Commission’s court. With the matter now blown up to this extent, the commission would definitely have to respond. If the SFC indicated that there were no problems with the privatization process, he could naturally proceed to the next step.

“A question from a Ming Pao reporter: Mr. Lin, what are your thoughts on the British shareholders’ act of reporting you?”

“I have nothing much to say about that. After all, they caught me on a technicality. I personally prefer to keep a low profile.”

“A question from a Sing Tao Daily reporter: Mr. Lin, if you intend to privatize, what will be your source of funding?”

“I certainly don’t have that much money. If the opportunity really presents itself, I can only take the path of securing a loan.”

After answering a few more questions, Lin Haoran left under the protection of his bodyguards, bringing the interview to a swift end.

The reporters had gotten the news they most wanted, so they didn’t try to detain him.

Afterward, the swarm of reporters shifted their location once again, heading to the Securities and Futures Commission’s office building, wanting to interview Miles.

Upon learning of the situation, Miles did not rush to answer.

Although he was the Chairman of the Securities and Futures Commission, such matters required a formal meeting to be decided, not something he could decide on his own.

Thus, Miles directly told the reporters, “We need to hold a deliberative meeting. After the meeting, our Securities Commission will issue a public announcement in response.”

Two hours later, the Hong Kong Office of the Commissioner for Securities and Commodities Trading issued a public notice, responding to the matter: “Mr. Lin Haoran may, under legal and compliant circumstances, proceed with the decision to privatize Green Island Cement Company. To be responsible to all shareholders, the offer price for this privatization must not be less than 4 Hong Kong dollars per share!”

The Securities and Futures Commission’s decision effectively brought the controversy to a final resolution.

Chapter 122: Cooperation with HSBC

The acquisition condition of no less than 4 Hong Kong dollars per share was, for Lin Haoran, actually a relatively favorable situation.

Although there were some pending orders on the market for shares below 4 Hong Kong dollars, the total volume of these orders was limited, only three to four million shares, and the average unit price hovered around 3.7 to 3.8 Hong Kong dollars.

As for pending orders below 3.5 Hong Kong dollars, they were even rarer, totaling just over one million shares.

Therefore, for Lin Haoran, this slight price difference wouldn’t result in excessive additional expenses. On the contrary, it would allow him to effectively advance his plan to privatize the company at a stable price of 4 Hong Kong dollars.

Currently, he personally held about 49.9% of Green Island Cement’s shares. Combined with the 24.1% stake held by the eight shareholders he planned to buy out, his shareholding would jump to 74% upon completion of the acquisition, giving him an absolute controlling advantage.

The remaining 26% of the shares on the market, approximately 13 million shares, would no longer be a major obstacle to his privatization of the company.

As this decision was finalized, the controversies and disagreements dissipated.

The next morning, Lin Haoran went to the Green Island Cement Company and formally announced that he had reached a deal with all the major shareholders of Green Island Cement. He would acquire a total of 12.05 million shares of Green Island Cement from eight shareholders at a price of 4 Hong Kong dollars per share, involving a total amount of 48.2 million Hong Kong dollars.

At the same time, Lin Haoran decided to privatize Green Island Cement by buying back shares at 4 Hong Kong dollars per share. Furthermore, Green Island Cement was formally preparing to delist and had already applied to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to suspend trading of its stock.

Once the application was approved, shareholders would no longer be able to trade their shares on the secondary market.

Shortly after this news was announced, the numerous pending orders below 4 Hong Kong dollars on the stock market instantly vanished without a trace.

Previously, he had sold 11.86 million shares of Green Island Cement, ultimately earning over 59 million Hong Kong dollars.

This time, he bought back 12.05 million shares, even more than he had sold before, but the final cost was only 48.2 million Hong Kong dollars.

Before that transaction, his available funds had been almost completely depleted.

But after this buy and sell, not only did his shareholding increase, rising from the original 68.4% to the current 74%,
but he also still had one million Hong Kong dollars in available funds left.

The unexpected complaint letter from the five British shareholders had actually brought him significant benefits.

Although he was forced to initiate the privatization of Green Island Cement ahead of schedule, the remaining 13 million shares on the market, calculated at 4 Hong Kong dollars per share, would only require 52 million Hong Kong dollars.

Although he was currently short on funds, with only about 1 million Hong Kong dollars left, he clearly couldn’t come up with 52 million Hong Kong dollars. However, he had already decided to entrust the heavy task of privatization to Wardley, a subsidiary of HSBC, a move that would greatly alleviate his financial and operational pressure.

As a wholly-owned subsidiary of HSBC, Wardley possessed extensive experience in financial services, covering areas such as securities underwriting, corporate advisory, mergers and acquisitions, financial investment, and medium-to-long-term loans.

Through Wardley’s professional operations, Lin Haoran would only need to pay a certain service fee to easily resolve the issues of acquisition funds and loans, making the path to privatization smooth and unobstructed.

Privatizing a publicly listed company is a complex and sophisticated financial maneuver. It involves major shareholders buying out smaller ones to take the company private and delist it from the stock exchange.

This process requires making a general offer to all public shareholders or negotiating share transfer agreements with key shareholders, while simultaneously applying to halt the trading of the company’s stock on the exchange.

Faced with the thirteen million Green Island Cement shares held by scattered retail investors, it would undoubtedly be a time-consuming and labor-intensive undertaking if handled solely by Lin Haoran’s Universal Investment Company. After all, while Universal Investment and its core members like Su Zhixue were skilled at operating in the secondary market, they were somewhat out of their depth when it came to a highly specialized task like privatization. Therefore, entrusting this matter to a professional institution like Wardley was undoubtedly a wise move, ensuring the privatization process would be efficient and smooth.

Thus, professional matters should be left to professionals, and Wardley was exactly that kind of professional company. Entrusting it to them was the most suitable choice.

At three o’clock in the afternoon, Lin Haoran arrived at the HSBC headquarters to visit Mr. Michael Sandberg, the Taipan of HSBC.

Compared to their last meeting, Lin Haoran clearly felt that Sandberg’s attitude towards him had changed significantly; he was much more enthusiastic.

“Mr. Lin, you’ve been quite the star of the Hong Kong business world recently, making quite a stir,” Mr. Michael Sandberg said with a smile as he shook Lin Haoran’s hand, his words tinged with a bit of teasing.

Lin Haoran shook his head lightly and replied with a wry smile, “Not at all. I had no intention of being high-profile, but circumstances have a way of playing tricks on people. There are always those who don’t want to see me at peace.”

The two sat down in Sandberg’s spacious and bright office, and an assistant promptly served them warm coffee.

Mr. Michael Sandberg got straight to the point: “Mr. Lin, you must be here to discuss important matters.”

Lin Haoran nodded and said bluntly, “Indeed. I understand that HSBC’s subsidiary, Wardley, is particularly professional in the field of financial services, especially in securities underwriting, corporate advisory, and mergers and acquisitions. As I have already announced the privatization of Green Island Cement, I hope to entrust this important task to Wardley.”

Hearing that it was about business, Mr. Michael Sandberg became even more enthusiastic. Although the profit wouldn’t be substantial, it was still another piece of business.

At the same time, it was also an opportunity for HSBC to deepen its cooperation with this young businessman, Lin Haoran.

The events of the past two to three months had already convinced Mr. Michael Sandberg that Lin Haoran’s future held limitless possibilities.

HSBC’s ultimate goal was to make money, and cooperating with a promising young man like Lin Haoran would clearly help HSBC accelerate that. The more partners like him, the better.

“Our Wardley is the most professional in services like securities underwriting, corporate advisory, corporate management, and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Lin truly has a discerning eye. Wardley will certainly live up to your trust,” Mr. Michael Sandberg said with a smile.

“Also, Mr. Sandberg, you are probably aware that I bought a shipment of oil, which cost me 60 million US dollars. As a result, I currently can’t come up with the funds to acquire the shares, so the capital for privatizing Green Island Cement will have to be financed through a loan,” Lin Haoran continued.

The 60 million US dollars had been transferred through HSBC, and the destination of the transfer was the famous oil company, Saudi Aramco.

For such a large transfer of funds, Lin Haoran didn’t believe that Sandberg, as the Taipan of HSBC, wouldn’t be paying attention.

All that talk about banks having sufficient confidentiality and privacy was, in Lin Haoran’s view, just something they said publicly.

Just like last time, he had merely checked if the funds had arrived in his account, and in the blink of an eye, Sandberg found out about it and directly invited him for a meeting.

It was conceivable that for any major transactions at HSBC, the staff would surely report them to the bank’s leadership promptly.

There was no way around it. When you put your money in a bank, it was inevitable that your transaction records would be known to the bank’s insiders.

“Congratulations, Mr. Lin. The price of oil just rose to 19.65 US dollars per barrel today. I estimate that in a few more days, it might break through 20 US dollars per barrel. You’ve made another huge profit!” At this, Mr. Michael Sandberg began to truly admire Lin Haoran’s boldness.

Back in November, who could have imagined that the oil crisis would actually happen?

And even if one guessed that an oil crisis would occur, no one knew how long Iran would halt its oil supplies to the outside world.

From the beginning of December to the end of December, not only had Iran’s oil supply not returned to normal, but its civil war had also intensified.

“I’ve been following the situation in Iran for nearly a year. Combining that with the circumstances of the 1973 oil crisis, I only made the decision to go into this deal a month before the crisis hit. I suppose you could say I was lucky,” Lin Haoran said with a laugh.

“I’ve heard that due to the rush for oil, many oil companies can’t even buy any. Your oil should be easy to sell at a time like this, Mr. Lin. You’ve made a lot already. Do you believe the price will continue to rise?” Mr. Michael Sandberg asked curiously.

“Once an oil crisis starts, it’s impossible for it to stop in a short period. Even if Iran resumes its oil supply, the oil tycoons who have enjoyed the substantial profits from the price hikes won’t just let the prices stop rising.

Mr. Sandberg, you must remember the first oil crisis. The price of crude oil shot up from the original 2.7 US dollars per barrel to a high of 13 US dollars per barrel. Later, after the crisis ended, the price never fell below 10 US dollars per barrel again.

Once prices go up, how could the oil companies easily go back to the original price? The current price has risen from around 13 US dollars in November to 19.65 US dollars per barrel, which isn’t even a twofold increase. These oil companies won’t just let the price stop rising like this,” Lin Haoran analyzed simply.

Mr. Michael Sandberg couldn’t help but applaud. “A truly thorough analysis, Mr. Lin. No wonder you’re able to make this kind of money!”

“Just good luck,” Lin Haoran said, remaining modest.

“The privatization and the loan—you can leave all these matters to us. Please rest assured, Mr. Lin, we are the most professional, and our fees are fair. I’ll call the head of Wardley over right now to discuss the details with you,” Mr. Michael Sandberg said with a smile.

Privatization and a loan. That was already two deals.

For HSBC, this kind of business wasn’t massive, but it wasn’t small either. In the case of the Kowloon Wharf acquisition war, Pao Yue-kong had entrusted the role of financial advisor to Wardley, which also involved borrowing a significant amount of funds from HSBC. Naturally, Wardley stood to earn a lot from it.

But an acquisition battle of that scale might not even happen once in several years in Hong Kong.

That afternoon, Lin Haoran reached an agreement with the general manager of Wardley, and the two parties signed a cooperation agreement with Mr. Michael Sandberg as a witness.

First, the privatization of Green Island Cement would be fully entrusted to Wardley. After Green Island Cement was delisted, shareholders would no longer be able to trade on the stock exchange and could only sell their shares through Wardley.

Second, HSBC would issue a loan of fifty million Hong Kong dollars to Lin Haoran.

It was worth noting that this loan from HSBC to Lin Haoran required no collateral, making it a credit loan.

In Mr. Michael Sandberg’s view, Lin Haoran’s current net worth was far greater than fifty million Hong Kong dollars.

From this, it was clear that Lin Haoran, this newly-risen star of the business world, already held a significant position in Mr. Michael Sandberg’s mind.

Chapter 123: Coming Into His Own, Taking Full Control

After Lin Haoran announced the privatization of the Green Island Cement Company, the news remained a hot topic for several days before its popularity gradually faded.

By January, not many people were paying attention to the Green Island Cement matter anymore.

Seeing this, media reporters naturally reduced their articles on the Green Island Cement Company until there were none at all.

This was perfectly normal. Forget about a medium-sized enterprise like Green Island Cement; even the ongoing battle for Kowloon Wharf didn’t garner daily attention, only becoming a subject of heated discussion at critical moments.

After handing over the privatization work to Wardley, the progress was, as expected, extremely smooth.

In just one week, the number of shareholders who went to Wardley to sell their shares reached the thousands.

The stocks held by these individuals amounted to over eight million shares of Green Island Cement.

However, as time went on, the number of shares Wardley acquired began to dwindle.

This couldn’t be helped. After all, not everyone was willing to sell their shares for four Hong Kong dollars apiece.

At the same time, privatization itself is a lengthy process that is difficult to complete in a short period.

Moreover, it wasn’t necessary to acquire one hundred percent of the shares for the privatization to be successful.

Indeed, requiring one hundred percent share acceptance to complete a privatization is practically impossible in reality, as there will always be some shareholders unwilling to sell for various reasons, or special circumstances like lost stock certificates.

However, this did not mean that privatization was unachievable.

According to Hong Kong’s “Code on Takeovers and Mergers,” the offeror (usually a major shareholder or the management team wanting to privatize the company) needs to obtain valid acceptance from a sufficient number of disinterested shares, a threshold typically set at over ninety percent.

Once this threshold is reached, the offeror can exercise the right of compulsory acquisition (the “squeeze-out” right) to forcibly purchase the shares of the remaining minority shareholders who did not accept the offer, thereby achieving privatization.

For those shareholders who were unwilling to sell under any circumstances, they could choose to sell at any time in the future, but they would have to follow the post-privatization procedures.

In Lin Haoran’s current situation, he already held enough shares to exercise his compulsory acquisition rights.

But he was in no hurry to take this step for two reasons: one, a portion of his shares was still held by the Wan’an Group, and he planned to redeem them in the future without rushing to use the loan. Since the Wan’an Group was also his, the shares it held weren’t going anywhere.

Second, the Green Island Cement Company’s current operations were already no different from being privatized. The board of directors had been dissolved, and Lin Haoran had effectively seized absolute control of the company, making him no different from a sole proprietor. Furthermore, since the company was delisted, it no longer needed to issue public business announcements, such as financial statements.

Since that was the case, he might as well let Wardley handle the work.

During this period, Lin Haoran’s life was busy and fulfilling.

He was not only learning corporate management from his father, Lin Wan’an, at the Wan’an Group, gaining a deep understanding of the essence of company operations;

He also frequently visited the Green Island Cement Company to personally inspect and understand the latest developments, participating in and approving major corporate decisions to ensure the company’s steady progress.

At the same time, he did not forget to keep an eye on Wardley’s progress with the privatization.

In addition, Lin Haoran would make time to visit the Amigo Company in Kwun Tong to understand its operational status and provide necessary support and assistance to the team.

During his leisure time on weekends, if Rosamund Kwan’s father, Kwan Shan, happened to be away on business, leaving Rosamund Kwan alone in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran would have the opportunity to spend wonderful moments with her, enjoying rare and joyous times.

It was worth mentioning that his father, Lin Wan’an, had entered a state of semi-retirement, gradually handing over the reins of the group’s management to Lin Haoran.

Lin Wan’an now only needed to spend half a day at the company, sometimes even providing guidance remotely from home, allowing his son to adapt to helming the Wan’an Group at a faster pace.

After these few months of nurturing, he knew that his son Lin Haoran was already capable of holding his own, so he could soon entrust him with the heavy responsibility of the group with peace of mind.

While taking on this great responsibility, Lin Haoran also kept a close watch on the dynamics of the international market.

He paid particular attention to the changes in international oil prices, carefully reading the latest oil price information in the newspapers every day.

19.86 dollars per barrel, 19.91 dollars per barrel, 19.97 dollars per barrel, 19.94 dollars per barrel, 19.99 dollars per barrel, 20.03 dollars per barrel…

The price of oil continued to climb. Although there were occasional fluctuations, the overall trend was upward.

Entering January, the decline of the Pahlavi dynasty had become a foregone conclusion. Its Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, had all but lost his grip on Iran.

On January 16, 1979, sensational news spread across the world: the Shah and his queen had fled Iran. This act immediately triggered jubilant celebrations among the domestic populace. Symbols of the Pahlavi dynasty were destroyed one by one within hours, and the political landscape of Iran was rewritten in an instant.

However, just as everyone was expecting Iran to quickly resume oil supplies to the outside world after the change in government, it did not happen.

The new government faced the daunting task of consolidating its power and taking control of the vast country, which would take time.

Therefore, despite the change in regime, Iran’s oil exports remained at a standstill, undoubtedly intensifying the tense atmosphere in the international oil market.

Oil prices continued to rise as a result, climbing from 20.78 dollars per barrel at the beginning of January to 21.31 dollars per barrel, and even higher, by the end of the month.

Those who had hoped that oil prices would fall were likely to be disappointed.

Relying on his memories from his past life, Lin Haoran knew very well that even if Iran resumed oil exports after March, it would be extremely difficult for oil prices to return to their previous levels.

By this time, the oil giants had already tasted the sweet profits of high oil prices. They would not easily give up this benefit and might even work together to push prices higher.

Therefore, Lin Haoran judged that the future trend of oil prices would be a continuous rise, and the rate of increase might be even more rapid.

This was, of course, a good thing for him. Holding a considerable amount of oil, the higher the price, the better.

The outbreak of the oil crisis had a relatively moderate impact on Hong Kong’s economy in the short term.

After more than a month of careful observation, Hong Kong’s shareholders discovered that this oil crisis was different from the one in 1973, and its impact on the stock market seemed limited.

Many stocks, after experiencing a short-term decline in trading volume and price, quickly showed signs of a rebound, revitalizing the Hong Kong stock market and restoring its former bustling atmosphere.

The festive atmosphere of the Lunar New Year gradually faded as time quietly slipped into February.

On February 15th, the Wan’an Group officially released an important announcement, declaring a major adjustment in the group’s internal positions.

Effective immediately, Mr. Lin Wan’an would step down from his position as Chairman of the Board of the Wan’an Group, to be succeeded by his son, Lin Haoran. Mr. Lin Wan’an would retain the title of Honorary Chairman of the Board.

This change signified that Mr. Lin Wan’an was formally handing over the Wan’an Group, the fruit of his life’s work, into Lin Haoran’s hands.

At this moment, Lin Haoran had truly become the boss of two large enterprises, with an even greater weight of responsibility on his shoulders.

After the Wan’an Group’s board meeting successfully concluded, Mr. Lin Wan’an’s heart was filled with emotion.

From now on, he could enjoy his retirement with greater peace of mind, entrusting the future of the enterprise entirely to Lin Haoran, who had passed his tests and could now hold his own.

For Lin Wan’an, this was undoubtedly a high degree of recognition and trust in his son’s abilities.

“Haoran, from now on, the Wan’an Group is in your hands. This is the business I’ve poured my entire life into. I hope you can lead it to an even more glorious future.” Back in the Chairman’s office, filled with memories, Lin Wan’an’s eyes were full of reluctance and expectation.

“Dad, please don’t worry. I will do my absolute best to take the Wan’an Group to the next level and live up to your high hopes!” Lin Haoran responded with determination.

For him, managing the Wan’an Group was not a difficult task.

Although the group was not one of the top players in Hong Kong’s real estate industry, its solid foundation was incomparable.

It was unburdened by debt, a unique situation perhaps in the entire Hong Kong property sector.

“I’ve seen your performance over these past few months. That’s why I feel at ease handing over full management of the group to you.” Lin Wan’an gazed at every corner of the office, his heart filled with mixed emotions. “After being busy for most of my life, suddenly shedding the burden of being Chairman… I’m really not used to it.”

“Dad, if you get bored at home in the future, just come over for a visit. It is only right and proper for a son to inherit his father’s business. When I encounter difficult problems, I will still come to you for advice. Your business wisdom is a model I will learn from forever!” Lin Haoran said with a reassuring smile.

“Yes, although I’m old, I’m not yet immobile. I can come back whenever I want. It’s just that when people get old, they sometimes get a bit nostalgic,” Lin Wan’an was also amused by his son’s considerate words.

Over the past few months, under his father Lin Wan’an’s careful guidance, Lin Haoran had not only delved deep into the essence of corporate management but had also gradually established close connections with the mid-to-high-level management of the Wan’an Group, gaining a comprehensive understanding of their abilities.

Now, with full power in his hands and the position of Chairman completely entrusted to him, he suddenly discovered that he could finally see the loyalty of the Wan’an Group’s employees.

The senior management of the Wan’an Group were generally people who had struggled alongside Lin Wan’an for many years, so Lin Haoran found that the loyalty of the entire senior management team was surprisingly high.

For example, the general manager of the Wan’an Group, Yang Mingyi, had a loyalty rating as high as 91.

This level of loyalty was ridiculously high.

Lin Haoran had once looked at Yang Mingyi’s resume.

Yang Mingyi, 49 years old this year, held a master’s degree from Harvard Business School in America. He had been with the Wan’an Group for eighteen years, starting as an Accounting Supervisor and eventually being promoted to Group General Manager by Lin Wan’an five years ago.

Although Lin Haoran didn’t know all the reasons for Yang Mingyi’s immense loyalty, he believed that it was rooted in the deep friendship and shared history of struggle between Lin Wan’an and Yang Mingyi.

Whether it was Lin Wan’an’s gratitude-inspiring recognition of Yang Mingyi’s talent or the rapport and trust they had built while working together, it was enough to make Yang Mingyi utterly loyal to the Wan’an Group.

Lin Haoran didn’t try to find out the story between them because there was no need.

He only needed to know one thing: this Yang Mingyi was worthy of his trust!

After Lin Wan’an went back, Lin Haoran summoned Yang Mingyi to his office.

“Boss, did you need me for something?” Yang Mingyi asked respectfully after entering.

By now, there wasn’t a single member of Wan’an Group’s senior management who wasn’t impressed with Lin Haoran. The reason was simple: Lin Haoran had not only acquired the British-owned company Green Island Cement, but he had also completely privatized it.

It wasn’t just the senior management of the Wan’an Group; many people throughout Hong Kong admired Lin Haoran.

Moreover, the senior management of the Wan’an Group all knew that in the matter of acquiring Green Island Cement, even the old Chairman Lin Wan’an was unaware at the beginning. When he found out later, he merely provided auxiliary assistance. This meant that Lin Haoran had seized the chairmanship of Green Island Cement Company on his own strength.

“General Manager Yang, please have a seat. Don’t stand,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Yang Mingyi nodded and sat down across from Lin Haoran.

“General Manager Yang, I feel that the Wan’an Group’s previous pace of development has been too slow. Do you have any unique insights or suggestions on how to accelerate the group’s development?” Lin Haoran immediately posed a question.

Chapter 124: The Opportunity to Rise Before the Real Estate Crisis

“Boss, if you want rapid development, it’s actually quite simple. The main problem with our Wan’an Group is insufficient capital, which has, to a certain extent, limited our pace of expansion.

Let me give you an example. In March 1975, Wan’an Group competed with several other real estate companies for a plot of land in Wan Chai.

At that time, we were determined to win the bid for that plot because everyone saw its value.

To that end, we even raised fifty million Hong Kong dollars. Thirty million was the company’s cash, and the remaining twenty million was advanced by your father. We didn’t borrow a single cent from the bank.

In the end, the final sale price for this plot was seventy-six million Hong Kong dollars, far exceeding the fifty million we had raised.

If Wan’an Group had been more decisive back then, we could have won the bid first and then secured a loan from the bank to continue competing.

Unfortunately, we chose to give up.

The developer who acquired that plot, by virtue of that land alone, earned a profit of well over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars last year, as property prices had risen significantly since 1975. Their return on investment was more than double.

This is just one example. Since I joined Wan’an Group, I’ve seen far too many of these regrettable missed opportunities. This is also why our group has developed so slowly.

Of course, such a cautious investment style isn’t without its benefits. Let me give you a more recent example. In 1974, affected by the oil crisis, Hong Kong’s real estate industry took a hit. Land prices fell by forty percent, and property prices dropped by thirty to forty percent.

During that period, many heavily indebted real estate companies in Hong Kong, which had expanded aggressively, went bankrupt or were acquired one after another due to their capital chains breaking.

Because Wan’an Group had zero debt, our profits also plummeted during that time, but we faced no risk of bankruptcy and suffered virtually no losses. We just earned much less money for those two years, so we were able to get through it safely.

So, Boss, if you’re talking about rapid development, the simplest way is to borrow from the banks to expand our capital strength. Only with a large enough capital base will we have more opportunities for growth.

However, expansion often comes with certain risks. For instance, we are in the midst of another oil crisis right now. Although it doesn’t seem to be affecting the real estate industry for the time being, no one knows if another property crisis will occur.

So, it’s all up to you how to decide, Boss.” Yang Mingyi stated his thoughts directly.

Lin Haoran nodded. The current state of Wan’an Group was exactly as Yang Mingyi had described.

For example, most of the group’s funds were currently tied up in the North Point project. On top of that, they had previously spent nearly twenty million Hong Kong dollars to purchase five point one million shares of Green Island Cement.

Now, the entire group’s available capital was a pitiful few million Hong Kong dollars. For a conglomerate, it was very difficult to undertake any significant ventures with such a small amount of money.

But in reality, Wan’an Group could leverage its assets to secure bank loans and develop more projects. It could easily develop two, three, or even more real estate projects simultaneously.

Instead, the group’s investment capacity would be completely drained after a large sum was committed to a single project, and they would have to wait until that project yielded returns.

This showed that while steady development could significantly reduce corporate risk, it also wasted many opportunities for growth.

As for the real estate crisis, if nothing unexpected happened, another very severe property crisis would erupt in Hong Kong in three years, in 1982, particularly after a certain lady took a tumble on the steps of the Great Hall.

That crisis would cause Hong Kong property prices at the end of 1982 to fall by sixty percent from their 1981 peak. By 1983, the market would collapse completely, with a massive impact.

However, there were still three years until then, which was enough time for Wan’an Group to grow rapidly.

Moreover, while a real estate crisis was a disaster for others, for Lin Haoran, it was a golden opportunity.

If he played his cards right, he could use this crisis to ascend to the top tier of Hong Kong’s real estate industry. The prerequisite was that he had to help Wan’an Group accumulate enough capital within these three years.

And now, he was going to help Wan’an Group rise step by step, instead of continuing its slow and steady development of the past. That wasn’t Lin Haoran’s style.

“General Manager Yang, are there any good real estate investment projects at the moment?” Lin Haoran asked, leaning back in his chair.

“As far as I know, the Hong Kong government will be auctioning off several more plots of land in a few days. If you’re interested, Boss, I can call the auction house and have them fax over the information on the auction items. You might be able to find something suitable then,” Yang Mingyi suggested.

Yang Mingyi had guessed Lin Haoran’s intentions. Perhaps this new boss was going to take the path of leveraging loans.

He was happy to see such a decision. After all, it was the only way for Wan’an Group to develop rapidly. If they continued with their old business philosophy, the gap between Wan’an Group and other real estate developers would only widen.

As the general manager of Wan’an Group, having worked there for nearly twenty years, he had a very deep affection for the company.

However, the direction of the group’s development was up to the boss, not a mere employee like him.

Lin Haoran nodded and said, “Alright, please arrange it.”

A dozen minutes later, Lin Haoran held a document detailing the land auction.

This time, the Hong Kong government wasn’t putting many plots up for auction—only four, located in Kowloon Tong, Kwai Chung, Chai Wan, and a land reclamation project west of Yau Ma Tei.

After reading the descriptions of the four plots, Lin Haoran immediately eliminated the land reclamation project west of Yau Ma Tei.

The bidding price for a reclamation project wouldn’t be too high, and the location in Yau Ma Tei was also excellent, so the profits would certainly be substantial.

But after winning the bid, he would have to spend his own money on land reclamation, and only after that was completed could he proceed with development. The cycle was too long. If Lin Haoran had a massive amount of capital right now, he might consider it, but he didn’t.

So, Lin Haoran turned his attention to the three locations: Kowloon Tong, Kwai Chung, and Chai Wan.

Chai Wan was suitable for developing industrial buildings, while Kowloon Tong was fit for low-density residences. After some thought, Lin Haoran felt that the plot in Kwai Chung had a greater development advantage.

The advantages of Kwai Chung were obvious. Ever since the cargo terminal was developed there in the 1960s, the area had seen increasing foot traffic. Additionally, Kwai Chung was also one of Hong Kong’s well-known industrial development zones.

Therefore, the working population in Kwai Chung was very large. As it stood, residential properties in the Kwai Chung area sold very well, with a huge number of people in genuine need of housing.

For many ordinary citizens, property prices in the city center were still too expensive.

Kwai Chung, being adjacent to the Kowloon city center but with more affordable property prices, was the perfect target for many middle-class residents.

It could be said that if Wan’an Group acquired the plot in Kwai Chung, they would have no trouble selling the commercial housing units once they were built.

Although its location was considerably worse than the North Point project’s, the unit price of the land would also be much lower.

The starting bid for the Kwai Chung plot was ten million Hong Kong dollars.

“General Manager Yang, if we want to bid for this plot in Kwai Chung, roughly how much would it take to acquire it?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Based on past experience, the final sale price is often around double the starting bid, but it’s uncertain. It depends on how many developers are bidding and how strong they are,” Yang Mingyi replied.

Double? That meant twenty million Hong Kong dollars. Acquiring this plot, which was twice the size of the one in North Point, for that price was indeed a good deal.

Although the property prices would certainly not be as high as in North Point, its advantages were also clear—it could support a larger volume, and the profit margin would be quite similar.

“If we acquire this plot, how high could the profit be?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

“Given the scale of this plot, we could complete construction in three to four years. As for the profit, it depends on whether we wait until it’s built to sell, or if we start selling off-plan as soon as we acquire the land and have the design blueprints. The price difference between the two is very large.

“Furthermore, the land cost is only a part of the total development cost, accounting for about forty to sixty percent. This means that subsequent construction costs will be about the same again. If the sale price of the land is twenty million Hong Kong dollars, then the final development cost for this plot will be around forty to fifty million Hong Kong dollars.

“Selling pre-sale properties allows for a quicker recovery of costs, but because the prices need to be discounted to be attractive, the profit margin might be around thirty percent. It amounts to just earning a modest sum for our efforts. So with a total investment of forty to fifty million Hong Kong dollars, our profit might be just over ten million.

“On the other hand, if we plan to sell after completion, there are many uncertainties. We don’t know if Hong Kong’s property prices will have risen by the time it’s built in two or three years, or if a property crisis will occur in the meantime. If we calculate based on the growth rate from last year to this year, in three years, our profit could easily be double our initial investment.

“So, because we are currently in an oil crisis, I can’t predict the future situation. If you want to be conservative, the best method is to acquire the land, immediately commission the designs, start advertising, and sell the properties pre-sale to recover the cost as quickly as possible. This way, there’s no possibility of us making a loss.

“However, if a property crisis breaks out within one or two years and property prices fall severely, and since our capital would be from a loan that needs to be repaid with interest, our project might not only fail to make money but could even incur a loss.” Yang Mingyi laid out several possibilities, giving Lin Haoran, the boss, a more direct and comprehensive understanding of the matter.

Lin Haoran nodded. He had already made a decision.

According to his knowledge of Hong Kong’s real estate crisis history, the crisis would peak between the second half of 1982 and 1983, with signs of a downturn beginning to appear in the second half of 1981. It was now February 1979, which meant there were only two and a half years left before the property market showed signs of decline.

The time was short, so short that a residential complex might not even be fully developed before the crisis hit.

However, who said you had to build houses to make money in the real estate industry?

Since property prices were going to skyrocket over the next two years, land prices would naturally soar as well, and the growth multiple for land prices would only be higher than that for housing.

In that case, simply hoarding land would be enough. Perhaps in two years, he could double his money just by selling the land.

As for selling off-plan just to earn a meager fee for his troubles?

Lin Haoran had no interest in that. Although it could recover costs quickly, the profit was too low.

Chapter 125: Another 130 Million Loan!

In reality, Lin Haoran’s judgment was quite accurate.

Had he been able to delve into the detailed history of Hong Kong real estate, particularly during the golden years of the property industry from 1978 to 1981, he would have been astonished by the insane surge in the market.

Starting in 1978, Hong Kong’s real estate market was like a runaway horse, galloping along a path that deviated far from any normal growth trajectory.

Take East Tsim Sha Tsui, for example. In just three years, from the beginning of 1978 to mid-1981, land prices soared by a staggering six to seven times, while property prices followed closely behind, rising by more than threefold.

This kind of growth not only attracted a mad rush of local capital but also drew in a massive influx of international capital from places like Southeast Asia. These investors continuously bought up plots of land in Hong Kong to construct buildings, further fueling the heat of Hong Kong’s property market and creating an unprecedented investment craze.

Therefore, relatively speaking, the profits from directly investing in land were higher!

By now, it was February 1979. A year had passed since the beginning of 1978, and while the legendary sixfold surge in land prices was unlikely to happen again, it was still highly probable that buying a plot of land now and holding it until 1981 before selling could yield a threefold return.

Of course, Lin Haoran was certainly not aware of these specific details. He was acting on a general understanding of this period of Hong Kong’s history that he had pieced together from the internet in his previous life. He knew that a real estate crisis would erupt in Hong Kong in 1982, and before such a crisis, there was always a period of excessive speculation—prices would go crazy, ultimately leading to a property bubble.

Therefore, based on the limited knowledge he had, Lin Haoran could already determine that land prices would definitely skyrocket along with property prices over the next two years.

Take the auction rival Yang Mingyi had mentioned, who competed four years ago. Last year, that person had doubled their profit from the property developed on that plot of land.

But if they had held onto the completed building and sold it this year instead of last year, they could have at least doubled their profit again. And if they sold it next year, doubling it again on top of this year’s value would be no problem at all.

“Alright, then get ready. Tell them that our Wan’an Group will also be participating in this auction. I’m going to HSBC,” Lin Haoran said decisively.

That’s right, he was going to borrow money again. This time, however, not in his own name, but in the name of Wan’an Group.

He could obviously borrow more from Bumiputra Finance, but Lin Haoran had no intention of doing so. He had already taken out a personal loan of over three hundred million Hong Kong dollars from them.

If he were to take out another loan in Wan’an Group’s name, his dealings with Bumiputra Finance would become far too entangled.

For his own safety, he decided to put the option of Bumiputra Finance aside for now.

With his current status, he could easily secure a loan for something like money from anywhere.

From what he understood, bank lending rates had risen along with the property market, but compared to the growth of the real estate industry over the next two years, that bit of interest was practically nothing.

Half an hour later, Lin Haoran appeared in Michael Sandberg’s office once again.

After visiting twice, he was already quite familiar with the place.

“Mr. Lin, what brings you here today?” Michael Sandberg said with a smile.

He had actually just returned from some business outside and happened to have nothing urgent on his plate, so he met with Lin Haoran.

“I’ve come to discuss business with HSBC again,” Lin Haoran said with a grin.

“Oh? What kind of business?” Michael Sandberg asked in surprise.

“The partner this time is not me, but Wan’an Group. If Wan’an Group wanted to take out a loan from HSBC, what kind of credit limit could you offer?” Lin Haoran asked directly.

“Wan’an Group, you say? It depends on whether you want a secured or unsecured loan. For a secured loan, the amount would be determined by the collateral. As for an unsecured loan, I can approve a credit line of fifty million Hong Kong dollars for you right away,” Michael Sandberg answered immediately, without any hesitation.

Previously, Michael Sandberg had been unfamiliar with Wan’an Group, merely knowing it existed as a publicly listed company.

But after getting to know Lin Haoran, he had specifically investigated Lin Haoran’s background and, in the process, had gained a very detailed understanding of the group.

Because of this, Michael Sandberg knew that Wan’an Group was a high-quality enterprise whose stock market valuation was far below its actual worth.

He loved lending to quality enterprises because the risk was low.

“If I were to use the Wan’an Group Building’s property deed as collateral, how much could I borrow?” Lin Haoran asked.

The market value of the Wan’an Group Building alone was over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars by current market estimates, which was equivalent to the entire stock market capitalization of Wan’an Group.

It was easy to imagine just how low Wan’an Group’s market cap was.

However, aside from this building, the only other major property the Wan’an Group held was the plot of land currently under development in North Point.

Even so, the value of the properties it held was two hundred million.

In the past, Lin Wan’an would take a portion of the annual profits as a dividend. In his view, a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush; money on the company’s books would always belong to the company, but money in his own pocket was truly his.

Therefore, Wan’an Group’s inability to grow rapidly was not only due to its no-loan policy but also related to Lin Wan’an siphoning profits from the group every year.

Of course, looking out for one’s own interests was normal. It was precisely because Lin Wan’an continuously drew from the group’s profits that he had enriched himself, which was how he had amassed such a large fortune to be divided between the two brothers, Lin Haoran and Lin Haoning.

“With the Wan’an Group Building’s property deed, I can approve a loan of up to eighty percent of its market value. As for how much the Wan’an Group Building is actually worth, that will need to be determined by our appraisers,” Michael Sandberg said cautiously.

Eighty percent?

Lin Haoran nodded. That was good enough.

By his own estimation, eighty percent of the market value would get him a loan of at least one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. The exact amount would only be known after HSBC’s professional appraisers made their assessment.

“Alright, then I’ll have to trouble HSBC to handle the appraisal. I plan to use the Wan’an Group Building’s property deed as collateral, but I hope HSBC can be quick about it. Wan’an Group needs the funds soon,” Lin Haoran said directly.

He did not mention his plan to bid on the plot of land.

“Rest assured, Mr. Lin. The appraisal results will be out today at the earliest. As for the loan process, I can put you on the fast track,” Michael Sandberg said with a smile.

“Thank you, Mr. Michael Sandberg. In that case, I won’t disturb you any longer,” Lin Haoran said, rising to his feet.

He had stated the purpose of his visit, so there was no need to stay.

“Very well, Mr. Lin, take care. I will call you with the results tonight at the latest,” Michael Sandberg said, escorting Lin Haoran to the office door.

Business was business, and when it came to business, everything was handled accordingly.

After returning to the Wan’an Group Building, Lin Haoran began discussing the group’s future development with Yang Mingyi.

It was not until around six in the evening that he finally received a call from Michael Sandberg himself.

“Mr. Lin, after a thorough analysis and professional appraisal by our bank’s team, taking into account multiple factors such as the Wan’an Group Building’s prime location, its actual built-up area, and market trends, we have determined the building’s current market value to be approximately 165 million Hong Kong dollars.

“Based on this, and in accordance with our bank’s policy of lending up to eighty percent, Wan’an Group is eligible for a loan of approximately 132 million Hong Kong dollars,” Michael Sandberg conveyed the information clearly and directly over the phone.

Hearing Michael Sandberg’s words, Lin Haoran was a little surprised. They could borrow that much?

He had originally thought he would be satisfied with one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. Since he could borrow more, he certainly wouldn’t be shy.

However, when he thought about how property prices had been rising since last year, he realized it made sense. A building that might have been worth just over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars in the middle of last year could easily be worth 165 million now. It was simply the market at work.

“Great. Thank you, Mr. Michael Sandberg. I’ll bring Wan’an Group’s lawyer, the property deed, and other documents to HSBC tomorrow morning to sign the contract,” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Excellent, Mr. Lin. I will be waiting at the company to welcome you personally!” Michael Sandberg’s cheerful laughter came through the phone line.

This was big business.

From this loan, HSBC stood to earn a considerable amount of interest.

The next morning, Lin Haoran led Wan’an Group’s core team, including general manager Yang Mingyi, and carrying the complete property deed for the group’s building, arrived at HSBC on time to discuss the details of the loan cooperation.

Since Mr. Michael Sandberg and Lin Haoran had already discussed the main terms in depth and all the necessary documents were fully prepared, the signing and approval process for the loan contract went very smoothly.

In less than two hours, both parties had satisfactorily completed all the procedures.

The final loan amount was set at 130 million Hong Kong dollars for a term of three years, with the principal and interest to be repaid in a lump sum upon maturity, at which time the property deed would be redeemed.

They also agreed that if the loan were repaid early, the interest would be reduced according to the actual lending period. This clause was also written into the contract.

This was a condition Lin Haoran had requested, as he had no intention of actually borrowing for three years. At most, he would sell off the properties he held by mid-1981.

By the second half of 1981, property prices would likely already be showing signs of decline, and it would be difficult to sell at that point.

So, the most opportune time to sell was in the first half or the middle of 1981, when the property market was at its hottest.

With these 130 million Hong Kong dollars, Lin Haoran believed he could buy several quality plots of land.

Hoarding land was his investment goal this time. Under normal circumstances, doubling or tripling his investment in two years would be no problem at all.

As for buying land to build houses? He was too pressed for time now; he didn’t have that much time to waste.

Lin Haoran did not intend to use Wan’an Group’s funds for short-term investments like oil and gold, as he did with his own personal funds.

After all, he had no intention of publicizing the details of his own short-term investments. If he used the group’s funds, as a publicly listed company, he would have to disclose the relevant matters in the financial statements.

With his own funds, however, he could do as he pleased, investing however he wished, naturally hoping to earn as much as possible.

Therefore, he did not plan to follow the same investment path for Wan’an Group’s funds and his own personal capital.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, a pleasure doing business with you!” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he shook hands with him.

“Likewise, I wish your investment every success!” Michael Sandberg replied with a smile.

For HSBC, this loan was undoubtedly a stable and low-risk choice. With the Wan’an Group Building as collateral, the bank’s funds were secure.

HSBC was naturally happy to see such a surefire profitable deal and was willing to provide Wan’an Group with comprehensive support and assistance.

Chapter 126: The Value of the Oil Has Doubled

Three days later, at a government land auction, Lin Haoran attended with Yang Mingyi.

This particular auction did not attract many real estate companies—only thirteen showed up.

At this auction, Lin Haoran, representing the Wan’an Group, ultimately won two plots of land.

The first was the government plot in Kwai Chung, which cost 18.6 million Hong Kong dollars.

The second was the government plot in Kowloon Tong, which cost 10.9 million Hong Kong dollars.

He had originally wanted to acquire the industrial land in Chai Wan as well, but it was clear that another real estate company was determined to win it, and the bidding far exceeded the market price.

In the end, following Yang Mingyi’s advice, Lin Haoran did not continue to bid.

Otherwise, he would have taken three of the four plots.

As for the seabed plot in Yau Ma Tei that required land reclamation, Lin Haoran hadn’t even considered it, as the bidding terms required the reclamation work to begin as soon as possible after purchase.

However, this was the plot that saw the fiercest competition. Nearly ten real estate companies placed bids, and it was obvious that many had come specifically for this piece of land.

After all, Yau Ma Tei was in the heart of Kowloon. Compared to suburban plots, it was far more valuable, especially since it was a coastal plot.

Ultimately, this plot was won by a team formed by a consortium of three companies.

After securing a loan of 130 million Hong Kong dollars from HSBC, Lin Haoran had informed Yang Mingyi of his plan to hoard land.

Therefore, the general manager of Wan’an Group was now fully aware of his new boss’s development philosophy.

To Lin Haoran’s surprise, Yang Mingyi was extremely supportive of his plan.

Buying land didn’t necessarily mean starting construction right away.

In Hong Kong, many real estate tycoons would acquire numerous plots of land and simply let them sit undeveloped. Years or even decades later, the value of the land would have multiplied several times over.

Of course, only financially powerful real estate giants like Henderson Land Development, Cheung Kong Holdings, New World Development, and Sun Hung Kai Properties could afford such a strategy.

Once a plot of land was bought, holding it without developing it meant that capital would be tied up indefinitely.

The rapid rise in Hong Kong’s property prices was, to a large extent, related to the practice of many developers hoarding land instead of developing it.

After securing the two plots of land, Lin Haoran did not stop there.

The two plots had cost less than thirty million Hong Kong dollars combined.

He certainly wasn’t going to let the remaining one hundred million-plus Hong Kong dollars sit idle in a bank account.

Government land auctions were not the only source of land; there were also numerous owners on the secondary market looking to sell.

Thus, with Yang Mingyi’s assistance, Lin Haoran managed to spend the entire loan amount in just one week.

The plots purchased from the secondary market were slightly more expensive than those from government auctions, but not by much, and the prices were still acceptable.

With that, Wan’an Group’s property portfolio expanded to include over a dozen new plots of land of various sizes.

These plots were scattered all across Hong Kong—in places like North Point, Sheung Wan, Kwun Tong, Chai Wan, Kwai Chung, Kowloon Tong, Shek Kip Mei, and Causeway Bay—consisting mainly of plots in the city center and its suburbs.

As for land in more remote areas like the New Territories, Tuen Mun, and Yuen Long, Lin Haoran had no interest for the time being, despite the cheaper prices and the large number of plots available for sale.

This was because he needed to be able to sell these plots off quickly when the time came, and land in urban and suburban areas was clearly more sought after.

In the blink of an eye, the calendar turned to March.

In Iran, after a transitional period of nearly two months, the new provisional government finally resumed supplying oil to the international market.

However, the oil crisis did not end because of this.

Before the crisis erupted, Iran had supplied over six million barrels of oil daily.

Now that supply had resumed, the daily output was only just over one million barrels.

This small increase did nothing to improve the global supply-and-demand imbalance.

Furthermore, the top-tier capitalists who controlled oil prices had no intention of letting them fall.

Therefore, international oil prices did not stop rising with Iran’s resumption of supply; in fact, the rate of increase accelerated.

By mid-March, the international price of crude oil had risen to over twenty-four US dollars per barrel.

Lin Haoran’s cost, however, was merely 12.5 US dollars per barrel.

In other words, in just over four months, the value of Lin Haoran’s crude oil had nearly doubled.

Only a few people, such as Pao Yue-kong and Michael Sandberg, knew about this. Not even his father, Lin Wan’an, was aware.

However, Lin Haoran was in no hurry to sell. Since there was no immediate need to enter the gold futures market, he might as well wait for the oil price to climb higher.

He would only be satisfied when the value had more than doubled.

As for waiting until it reached over thirty US dollars per barrel? That would take until at least next year, and Lin Haoran had no intention of wasting so much time on oil when he could earn more by moving his capital to the gold market.

It wasn’t long before Lin Wan’an learned about his son taking out a loan to hoard land.

Surprisingly, he did not interfere much.

Lin Wan’an was well aware that his own past investment strategies had been overly cautious.

Land was a quality asset; even if its price fell, it wouldn’t fall by too much.

Any potential losses should be limited.

If his son lost money, it would be a lesson learned. If he made money, it would prove that his son had more investment courage than he did.

For this reason, Lin Wan’an did not try to dissuade Lin Haoran this time.

Since officially stepping down as Chairman of Wan’an Group, Lin Wan’an had fully embraced retirement. He lived a leisurely life, not even visiting the company once a week.

Clearly, he was satisfied with the group’s steady development.

Lin Haoran even hired a private physician to specifically look after Lin Wan’an’s health.

Meanwhile, at Green Island Cement, after two more months of acquisitions, Wardley had purchased another three million-plus shares.

Originally, there were about thirteen million shares in the hands of the public shareholders. After the initial acquisition of over eight million shares and the subsequent purchase of over three million, only a little over one million shares remained outside of Lin Haoran’s control.

At this point, Lin Haoran effectively controlled over ninety-seven percent of the shares. Basically, the privatization could be declared a success.

However, to Lin Haoran, there was little difference whether Green Island Cement was privatized or not at this moment.

Therefore, he was in no hurry to buy back Green Island Cement’s shares from Wan’an Group.

Since Burton had taken the helm of Green Island Cement Company, he had continuously expanded into overseas markets, and the company’s profits had steadily increased.

In January, Green Island Cement’s profit reached over three million Hong Kong dollars.

By February, the company’s profit had soared to a staggering four million-plus Hong Kong dollars, with overseas markets accounting for half of that amount.

It was safe to say that Green Island Cement’s overseas expansion strategy was a resounding success.

In just two months, the company’s cement sales in the Philippines jumped from fifth to third place.

With nearly a century of history, the quality of cement produced by Green Island Cement Company was clearly superior to other locally produced cement in the Philippines.

As a result, Green Island Cement’s branch office in Manila was attracting more and more customers.

At the same time, Burton was hard at work preparing to enter the Singaporean and Malaysian markets, full of drive for the company’s expansion.

Lin Haoran, naturally, was very supportive.

Burton had nearly twenty years of corporate management experience, and he possessed a considerable network, especially in Southeast Asia. Under his leadership, Green Island Cement’s development had accelerated significantly, moving from the slow lane to the fast lane.

Perhaps out of gratitude for Lin Haoran’s immense trust in him, Burton’s Loyalty to Lin Haoran had also risen slightly, from eighty-five to eighty-nine.

Furthermore, within the mid-level and senior management of Green Island Cement Company, Chinese managers now accounted for more than half of the positions. Some of the less capable Westerners were either fired or voluntarily accepted demotions.

Although this involved paying out a considerable amount in severance, replacing these low-loyalty, average-ability Westerners with high-ability, high-loyalty Chinese managers had completely refreshed the company’s image.

Anyone with a Loyalty score below seventy was not permitted to be in a management position. Lin Haoran would regularly hold management meetings, secretly taking note of any disloyal managers, and then have Burton replace them directly.

Otherwise, no matter how strong their management skills were, they would sooner or later find ways to leverage their positions to harm the company’s interests.

Seeing that Green Island Cement’s available funds had reached over fifteen million Hong Kong dollars, Lin Haoran didn’t let the money sit idle in the bank. He had Burton use thirteen million Hong Kong dollars of it a buy two plots of land in Kwun Tong, leaving the remaining two million-plus as the company’s reserve funds.

March passed in a flash, and April arrived.

International oil prices climbed higher and higher, finally breaking twenty-five US dollars per barrel at the start of April.

Moreover, everyone noticed that its rate of increase was accelerating.

At this point, the value of the crude oil in Lin Haoran’s hands had officially doubled.

If he were to find a buyer and sell it now, he could instantly receive 120 million US dollars.

And it would be incredibly easy to sell.

According to news reports, many petrochemical refineries were facing severe shortages. In various oil-producing countries, one had to stand in line just to buy a sufficient supply of oil.

This queue could last anywhere from half a month to a full month, by which time the price of oil would have risen another dollar or two, increasing costs even further.

During this time, the exchange rate for the US dollar against the Hong Kong dollar had risen slightly, from one US dollar for five Hong Kong dollars to about one US dollar for 5.3 Hong Kong dollars.

This meant the oil he had purchased was now worth 636 million Hong Kong dollars.

Back in February, Pao Yue-kong had called Lin Haoran twice to ask if he was planning to sell the crude oil. If he was considering it, there were petrochemical companies willing to purchase it at a price slightly higher than the international market rate.

As the largest long-distance shipping fleet enterprise in the world, Pao Yue-kong’s World-Wide Shipping Group naturally had partnerships with various petrochemical plants. It was normal for them to turn to him for help.

Thus, many had hoped to purchase crude oil through his connections, which made Pao Yue-kong think of Lin Haoran.

However, Lin Haoran still held onto the crude oil.

It still wasn’t the right time.

In March, Pao Yue-kong called again for the same reason.

This time, however, Lin Haoran told him directly that he would only decide whether to sell the crude oil in early June. If any companies were interested then, they could contact him.

After that, Pao Yue-kong did not press the issue any further.

Chapter 127: Hoarding Land, Will He Succeed as He Wishes?

According to the current market trends, if everything goes smoothly without any major unexpected disruptions, the international price of crude oil is expected to reach the range of 27 to 28 US dollars per barrel between late May and early June.

At that time, Lin Haoran could seize the opportunity and decisively sell to realize his expected profits.

After completing this round of operations in the oil market, he would take his accumulated, substantial funds and flexibly adjust his investment strategy, shifting his focus to the gold futures market.

In Central, inside the Prince’s Building, at the offices of the World-Wide Shipping Group, Pao Yue-kong had just finished a long-distance call. The voice on the other end was from Japan.

After the call ended, a look of undisguised helplessness reappeared on his face.

As a shipping industry magnate, the world’s largest ‘Ship King,’ Pao Yue-kong’s business empire spanned six continents, with a client network covering the globe. This made him a bridge for many people seeking help and cooperation.

Especially given the strong relationships he had established with several oil-exporting countries, many buyers who were eager to purchase oil but struggled to get priority access turned their sights to him, hoping to achieve their goals through his connections.

Initially, for the first few requests, Pao Yue-kong could still do his best to negotiate, using his personal connections to secure early purchasing rights for them.

However, as such requests surged over the past month, reaching more than a dozen, even he felt overwhelmed.

After all, even the greatest favor has its limits and cannot satisfy everyone’s needs indefinitely.

Thus, after managing to secure what two of his clients needed, Pao Yue-kong had to make the difficult decision to graciously decline all subsequent similar requests.

He understood that this kind of help, which was beyond his capabilities, was not only unsustainable but could also damage his long-term relationships with his partners.

Therefore, despite his inner helplessness, he chose to stick to his principles and no longer involve himself in such a thankless task.

Previously, it was precisely by leveraging Pao Yue-kong’s extensive network that Lin Haoran had successfully purchased a large amount of crude oil from Saudi Aramco before the market crisis began to emerge.

Pao Yue-kong was well aware of this and understood that Lin Haoran held a considerable reserve of crude oil.

Given this situation, Pao Yue-kong had initially called Lin Haoran to ask if he was interested in selling his crude oil.

However, after learning that Lin Haoran planned to make a decision in early June, Pao Yue-kong respected his choice and did not bring it up again.

He understood that every investor has their own unique market insights and plans, and investment decisions are often based on complex analysis and personal judgment.

Therefore, even with his significant standing in the business world, Pao Yue-kong knew he had no right to interfere with or change another person’s investment strategy.

Since December, Pao Yue-kong had been closely monitoring the dynamics of the international crude oil market, especially the price fluctuations.

He had originally expected the oil price to rise for a period before returning to its normal level. But unexpectedly, not only did the price not fall, but it also showed astonishing resilience, continuing to climb with increasing momentum, soaring from just over 12 US dollars per barrel to more than 25 US dollars today.

This trend made Pao Yue-kong feel a sense of lament, even a hint of regret, every time he checked the oil price.

Recalling six months ago, when Lin Haoran had enthusiastically consulted him about investing in crude oil, Pao Yue-kong had been inwardly skeptical.

In his view, Lin Haoran’s idea, though bold, was overly simplistic and overlooked the complex, volatile factors and potential high risks of the crude oil market.

However, the current trend of oil prices forced him to re-evaluate his own judgment and gave him a new appreciation for Lin Haoran’s investment insight and courage.

He clearly remembered Lin Haoran’s words, full of confidence and passion, as he left the Pao residence, still ringing in his ears: “Uncle Pao, if you’re interested in increasing your returns, this opportunity in oil investment is truly not to be missed. Although there are certain risks, I believe the risk-to-reward ratio is quite attractive.

Even if the oil crisis doesn’t happen, our losses would be limited to some transaction fees; but if the crisis does come, the returns could multiply. So I think this risk is worth taking.”

Every time the oil price reached a new high, Lin Haoran’s words seemed to echo in his mind once again.

In just six short months, the oil price had doubled!

He had missed out on such a hugely profitable venture.

In normal times, a project that could double its value in six months was a rare sight.

This made him feel a pang of regret for his past decision.

Most importantly, judging by the current oil market, a twofold increase was far from the end of the price surge.

This couldn’t help but make Pao Yue-kong recall the oil crisis from five or six years ago.

From 2.95 US dollars a barrel in January 1973, it surged to over 13 US dollars per barrel by 1974—a full fourfold increase!

And after that, the price of crude oil never returned to its pre-1973 levels, remaining above 10 US dollars per barrel.

So, could it rise fourfold this time, just like the first oil crisis?

Pao Yue-kong didn’t know the answer to that question.

But he knew that as the oil price continued to rise like this, at least a twofold increase was completely certain.

Therefore, the higher the oil price climbed, the more Pao Yue-kong felt he had missed out.

He had always been in the shipping business, and although the scale was vast, the profit margins were actually quite low.

Coupled with too many competitors and an oversaturated market, the entire shipping industry had become fiercely competitive.

In Pao Yue-kong’s view, a downturn in the shipping industry was inevitable.

That was why he had the idea of shifting his investment focus from the sea to the land.

And Kowloon Wharf was the first step in his strategy of ‘abandoning the ships to come ashore.’

Regarding the oil crisis, he had more than a few regrets.

Currently, he was engaged in a war of attrition with Jardine Matheson & Co. in the takeover battle for Kowloon Wharf, and he had no idea when a victor would be decided.

So, investing in oil could only be a matter of regret, as he didn’t dare to divert funds to invest elsewhere.

Until he secured Kowloon Wharf, his capital was tied up.

From their brief conversation at their first meeting, to the bloodless acquisition of Green Island Cement, to hoarding oil, to privatizing the Green Island Cement Company…

Every move Lin Haoran made had greatly surprised Pao Yue-kong.

Was this something a young man could accomplish? It was simply incredible.

Lin Haoran was definitely no ordinary person. His future was destined to capture the world’s attention.

So, he had been paying more and more attention to Lin Haoran’s activities.

However, ever since the five Britons reported Lin Haoran for forcing them to privatize the company, the young man seemed to have started keeping a low profile. His actions had become mysterious, and there were rarely any news reports about him afterward.

Thus, Pao Yue-kong finally couldn’t resist using his intelligence resources to investigate Lin Haoran’s recent activities.

Sitting in his office, Pao Yue-kong looked at the document in his hand.

This was the file his subordinates had compiled for him.

“Is his next plan to hoard land?” Pao Yue-kong frowned as he looked at the file before him.

With Pao Yue-kong’s current status in the business world, he naturally had access to very powerful sources of intelligence.

Although Lin Haoran had been keeping a low profile recently, it was still easy for some people to find out what he was up to if they wanted to.

The information in the file surprised Pao Yue-kong.

He hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to have successively purchased multiple plots of land.

Buying land so frequently was clearly not for immediate development—otherwise, the Wan’an Group’s construction team would be completely overwhelmed. The ultimate goal, then, was obvious: hoarding land!

Pao Yue-kong was also optimistic about the real estate industry; otherwise, he wouldn’t have set his sights on Kowloon Wharf.

However, with Lin Haoran’s current financial strength, hoarding land was clearly not suitable. After all, the Wan’an Group’s recent funds were all from loans that needed to be repaid upon maturity.

Unless he was planning for the short term—buying land and selling it off quickly, perhaps in half a year, or maybe one or two years.

As for holding it long-term, it was simply beyond what Lin Haoran’s financial capacity could handle.

“This young man has shown extraordinary foresight before. Every move he’s made has been astonishing. But this time, with hoarding land, will he be able to achieve great success as he wishes?” Pao Yue-kong was suddenly curious.

As a tycoon in Hong Kong’s business world, he was naturally aware that since last year, and especially this year, property prices in Hong Kong had suddenly skyrocketed, as if they had lost all reason.

Pao Yue-kong could see that the current wave of property speculation in Hong Kong was continuously pushing up land and property prices, gradually detaching them from the actual affordability of Hong Kong’s citizens.

When consumers’ wage growth falls far behind the rise in property prices, a decline in prices is inevitable, and there is even a high probability of a catastrophic real estate crisis.

Therefore, he held a cautious attitude toward the current Hong Kong property market.

Although Pao Yue-kong was not in the real estate industry, he had many good friends in the business world who were real estate tycoons, such as Li Jiacheng.

He had discussed this topic with Li Jiacheng before.

Even Li Jiacheng believed that a real estate crisis would emerge in the near future, because the current rate of increase in property prices was simply too absurd—so absurd it had become detached from reality.

Of course, for people like Li Jiacheng, this was actually good news.

He himself had built his wealth by gradually hoarding land and properties, so whether property prices plummeted or not, it was acceptable to him.

If they soared, the value of the land and buildings they held would be even higher.

If they plummeted, they would use the opportunity to acquire low-priced land and properties on a massive scale, waiting for the real estate industry to take off again, at which point the value of their property holdings would soar once more.

This was the advantage of having strong cash flow.

It was because of these conversations with Li Jiacheng that Pao Yue-kong also became deeply convinced that Hong Kong’s real estate industry would shrink in the future.

That’s why Pao Yue-kong was all the more curious: would Lin Haoran’s latest move replicate his previous successes?

Chapter 128: Harvest Season, Japanese Buyers!

Time flew by. April passed, and so did May.

When June arrived, Lin Haoran felt that it was a season of harvest.

Just as he had anticipated, oil prices had continued to rise at a very fast pace throughout April and May.

On the morning of June 1st, after Lin Haoran got up and washed, he picked up the newspaper his Filipino maid had prepared for him and began to read.

The first thing he looked at was the latest international crude oil price: 27.86 dollars per barrel.

This was a price within his estimated range. Although it wasn’t a surprise, Lin Haoran was in an excellent mood.

His cost for the oil was a mere 12.5 dollars per barrel!

According to the contract he signed with Saudi Aramco, his crude oil could only be stored for free until the end of June.

He had no intention of continuing to hoard it. Even if the price rose to thirty dollars, the difference compared to 27.86 dollars per barrel wasn’t that significant, and relatively speaking, it would take too much time.

Therefore, Lin Haoran decided it was time to cash out.

While looking at the oil prices, he also paid attention to another piece of news: the international price of gold.

From late May onwards, the rise in gold prices had begun to accelerate slightly.

During April, the price of gold had shown slight signs of falling, but by May, the quoted price had shot up from around 240 dollars per ounce to break past 250 dollars per ounce.

Today, June 1st, the latest quote had already reached 251.3 dollars per ounce.

He needed to enter the gold futures market as soon as possible.

Over the next six or seven months, gold would skyrocket at an incredibly dramatic pace.

This surge would be so rapid that even America wouldn’t be able to tolerate it. To bolster the weak dollar and maintain its global standing, the US would have no choice but to intervene and suppress the price, which would ultimately cause gold to enter a period of steep decline.

After breakfast, Lin Haoran returned to his chairman’s office at Wan’an Group.

To outsiders, Wan’an Group now seemed much the same as it had in Lin Wan’an’s era. The group was currently responsible for only two major projects: the commercial building project in North Point and the construction of the Shangri-La Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui.

In reality, only the senior management of Wan’an Group knew that the company had made several major financial moves over the past two or three months.

Moreover, judging by the increasingly hot real estate market, all their previous decisions had been correct.

Decisions regarding Wan’an Group’s loans and investments only needed to be disclosed in the annual financial report; unlike changes in senior management, they did not require immediate public announcement.

Therefore, very few people knew about these decisions.

Since 1978, buoyed by low interest rates and soaring property prices, most listed real estate companies had seen their stock prices surge.

Industry giants like Hongkong Land, Henderson Land Development, Cheung Kong Holdings, New World Development, and Sun Hung Kai Properties had seen their stock prices soar by more than fifty percent in just over a year.

But Wan’an Group was an anomaly among these listed real estate companies. Its slow development pace meant its share price still hadn’t seen much of an increase.

From last year to this year, the increase was not even ten percent, and its stock’s trading volume was consistently low.

If it were any other boss, they would probably be eager for the stock they controlled to skyrocket, as it would represent a surge in their own net worth.

But Lin Haoran had no such thoughts. To him, net worth on the stock market was all illusory, holding little real meaning.

Therefore, he had no interest in pushing up Wan’an Group’s stock price.

With a little speculation, he could have easily pushed Wan’an Group’s market capitalization past 200 million Hong Kong dollars and even higher, following the general trend of the entire real estate market.

But as it stood, Wan’an Group’s total market cap was less than 170 million Hong Kong dollars.

Before Lin Haoran took over, Wan’an Group’s total market cap had actually reached 180 million Hong Kong dollars.

However, after he assumed the chairmanship, due to the previous incident with the Green Island Cement Company, many shareholders held an attitude of mistrust toward this young helmsman.

Thus, even as the entire property sector was on the rise, Wan’an Group acted as a bizarre outlier, falling from its peak of 180 million Hong Kong dollars to its current total market cap of less than 170 million.

If all went as planned, once Wan’an Group sold off its various properties in the future, the group’s available funds would reach hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

As for exactly how many hundreds of millions, he would only know after the intended properties were sold.

Once next year’s annual financial report was released, Wan’an Group’s stock price would probably go through the roof.

Because of this, Lin Haoran even had plans to privatize Wan’an Group.

Once the group was privatized, all that money would be his, not everyone’s.

The current value of Wan’an Group’s shares in the hands of the public was less than one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. At the cost of less than a hundred million, he could increase his own available funds by several hundred million. That was a much easier way to make money.

Others needed to rely on financing to grow their companies, but Lin Haoran didn’t.

He had a certain understanding of future economic trends. As long as he seized a few key money-making opportunities, he would have nothing to worry about.

Sitting in the chairman’s office of Wan’an Group, Lin Haoran first approved two business proposals submitted by Yang Mingyi before setting aside his work to think about how to sell the crude oil he had on hand.

The simplest way was to proactively contact Pao Yue-kong, who surely had clients in urgent need of oil.

However, before Lin Haoran could make the call, Pao Yue-kong took the initiative and called him again.

“Haoran, I remember you said you were planning to sell that batch of oil in early June, right?” Pao Yue-kong asked directly.

“That’s right, Uncle Pao. I was just thinking about it,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“You’re not going to wait? I think the oil price will keep rising,” Pao Yue-kong asked with curiosity.

“It will definitely keep rising, but I don’t know how high it will go. I’m already very satisfied with the current profit. A person can’t let greed take over, after all,” Lin Haoran explained.

Of course, he wasn’t going to tell the truth. He also planned to handle his upcoming gold investments discreetly.

In Hong Kong, it would likely be difficult to hide his investments from certain people.

But he didn’t plan to invest in gold in Hong Kong; the market here wasn’t large enough to handle such a large amount of capital.

“What a coincidence. I have a few petrochemical companies over in Japan. If you’re willing to sell, how about I have them contact you?” Pao Yue-kong said.

Evidently, these Japanese clients were major customers of the World-Wide Shipping Group; otherwise, Pao Yue-kong wouldn’t be so concerned about them.

“Of course, I’ll have to trouble you then, Uncle Pao,” Lin Haoran said with a grin.

Japanese customers, huh?

Lin Haoran had already made up his mind.

He would have to raise the price a little. He was happiest when making a profit off the Japanese.

He knew that Japan was a major oil consumer, but its own oil reserves were limited. Its locally extractable oil resources could only meet a very small fraction of the country’s needs, with the vast majority dependent on overseas imports.

Therefore, Japan was extremely dependent on oil, and this high reliance on imported oil posed a huge risk to its energy security.

Just like this time, they had to tighten their belts when it came to domestic oil consumption.

To cope with this risk, Japan had begun to establish strategic petroleum reserves, so their demand for oil was extremely high.

But now, they not only had to wait in line to buy from oil-exporting countries, but even when it was their turn, the sales were limited.

So the current situation was that you couldn’t buy enough oil even if you had the money.

As a result, the price of oil naturally kept climbing.

Not long after he hung up, Lin Haoran received a call from an unfamiliar number.

The call was from someone speaking in Chinese that was not quite standard.

“Mr. Lin, I was introduced by Mr. Pao Yue-kong. I heard that you have a large amount of oil on hand. I represent three Japanese petrochemical companies, and we hope to purchase this batch of crude oil from you,” the person on the other end said very respectfully.

“Of course, you can. But I’ll have to see what price you’re offering,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, may I ask how much oil you have in total?” the man asked.

“4.8 million barrels!” Lin Haoran answered directly.

This was an enormous amount, so upon hearing Lin Haoran’s words, the man was instantly overjoyed.

“Mr. Lin, we have an office in Hong Kong. We can send someone over to discuss the details with you. How does that sound?” The man didn’t rush to quote a price, suggesting this instead.

“Good. I’ll be in my office at the Wan’an Group Building. You’re welcome anytime,” Lin Haoran responded.

If it were buyers from other countries, Lin Haoran might not have known how best to negotiate the price. But with buyers from Japan, he felt that negotiating would be much simpler.

The fact that Pao Yue-kong had called him multiple times, and always about Japanese clients, made it obvious that their demand for oil was immense.

While he couldn’t completely fleece them, there was no problem with skinning them a little.

Half an hour later, three Japanese men arrived at Lin Haoran’s office.

Each of the three men represented his respective company.

“Please, have a seat,” Lin Haoran said with a smile. These men were here to deliver money to him.

“Mr. Lin, would it be possible for you to show us proof that you have the oil in storage?” one of them asked impatiently, just as he sat down.

“Of course, no problem,” Lin Haoran said, taking out the oil purchase contract.

There was no need to hide these things. After all, everyone knew what the oil price was back in November.

“Mr. Lin, you are truly a great investor,” one of the Japanese men exclaimed upon seeing the 12.5-dollar unit price Lin Haoran had paid.

“Alright, I know why you’re here. If you want to buy, then let’s talk about your sincerity. I should mention beforehand that many people want to buy my oil. Everyone knows the current market situation. My 4.8 million barrels can be dispatched at any time.

“They are currently stored in Saudi Aramco’s tanks. These are my advantages. If you don’t show some sincerity, then I’m afraid our cooperation won’t be possible.” Lin Haoran gave them a preemptive warning.

Chapter 129: 742 Million Hong Kong Dollars in Hand

The three men from Japan had clearly come prepared.

As soon as Lin Haoran finished speaking, the eldest of them spoke slowly in slightly stiff Cantonese, “Mr. Lin, we come with the utmost sincerity. We are willing to take your entire oil inventory off your hands at a price of twenty-eight US dollars per barrel.

“Currently, the international benchmark price for oil is twenty-seven dollars and eighty-six cents per barrel. Our offer is higher than the international benchmark, which demonstrates our sincerity.”

“Twenty-eight dollars a barrel?” Lin Haoran shook his head gently, a look of disapproval on his face. “This price, to me, isn’t attractive enough. A premium of a mere fourteen cents is practically negligible. Compared to the current fluctuations in the international market, there’s no substantial difference.”

He continued, “Gentlemen, allow me to be blunt. I don’t feel your sincerity. If this is the only price you’re offering, I’m afraid we won’t be able to move forward.

“As you all know, the oil market is volatile, with prices changing daily. There have already been several increases this month, and the price might even approach the thirty-dollar mark. If I wait a little longer, my oil could bring a more considerable return by the end of the month.

“In fact, several major petrochemical giants have recently extended offers to me, but I’ve held back, waiting for a better opportunity. However, since you are friends of Mr. Pao Yue-kong, I’ve made time for you out of respect for him and agreed to give you a chance to discuss the details. But your current offer is clearly not up to my expectations.”

At these words, the three Japanese men exchanged glances.

The eldest man, who was evidently quite fluent in Cantonese, carefully translated Lin Haoran’s words for his two colleagues. The three of them then conferred in low voices in Japanese.

After a moment, the elder Japanese man turned back to Lin Haoran and asked politely, “Mr. Lin, could you tell us what your ideal price is?”

“Thirty US dollars per barrel,” Lin Haoran said, making an audacious opening offer.

He knew this price would certainly not be accepted, but it would give him more initiative in the subsequent negotiations.

Had it been a petrochemical company from any other country, they would have probably walked out in disgust without further discussion upon hearing such a price. But Japan was different. Their domestic situation compelled them to seek more oil.

As expected, the elder Japanese man immediately rejected the price.

He responded sincerely, “Mr. Lin, the oil market is indeed volatile, but as you said, its rises and falls are difficult to predict. Reaching thirty dollars a barrel might take a very long time, or it might never happen at all.

“We are willing to show our sincerity and propose a more realistic plan. On top of the international oil price, we will add an extra dollar per barrel, making it twenty-eight dollars and eighty-six cents per barrel. This is the biggest concession we can make, and we hope for your understanding and support.”

An extra dollar on top of the international price meant twenty-eight dollars and eighty-six cents per barrel.

Were they that easy to negotiate with?

Lin Haoran was momentarily stunned. He had anticipated a drawn-out negotiation, one that would last at least an hour or two, if not longer, before a conclusion was reached.

However, their swift offer to add a dollar per barrel to the international price made him realize just how desperately they needed this oil.

And his own ideal price was, in fact, around that figure.

Lin Haoran knew very well that even if they were desperate, they wouldn’t let the price soar to an unreasonable level.

Japan was in the midst of building its strategic petroleum reserves. Due to its heavy reliance on imports, the domestic oil supply was tight, and gas stations frequently ran out of fuel, which had become a serious constraint on the country’s economic development.

Therefore, the more oil they could get, the better, but it certainly didn’t mean they would purchase it blindly at a high price.

Lin Haoran didn’t have what it took to treat them like suckers.

So, after some consideration, Lin Haoran straightforwardly proposed his own plan: “Alright, since we’re all being direct, I won’t beat around the bush either.

“I am willing to sell the four point eight million barrels of crude oil I have on hand for a total price of one hundred forty million US dollars. Compared to twenty-eight dollars and eighty-six cents per barrel, this total price isn’t much higher. If your side can accept it, then we have a deal immediately!”

Calculated at twenty-eight dollars and eighty-six cents per barrel, the total value of the crude oil was about one hundred thirty-eight point five million US dollars. The one hundred forty million dollars Lin Haoran was proposing was only one point five million dollars higher, an offer that showcased his negotiation strategy while still leaving room for agreement.

Hearing this, the elder Japanese man thought for a moment before politely requesting, “Mr. Lin, may we borrow your telephone? We need to report this important matter to our company’s headquarters immediately.”

“Of course, please feel free,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Judging from their reaction, the deal seemed to be all but settled, awaiting only final confirmation and signatures.

Evidently, the authorization their company had given them was to purchase the oil at a maximum of one dollar per barrel above the international price.

Lin Haoran’s high initial offer had forced them to show their hand early—this internally-agreed-upon maximum bid.

For any higher offer, they clearly needed further instructions and approval from their headquarters.

One hundred forty million US dollars, at the current exchange rate, converted to seven hundred forty-two million Hong Kong dollars.

His original investment had only been three hundred million Hong Kong dollars. He had more than doubled his money!

From November last year to June this year, in just over half a year, Lin Haoran was very satisfied with such a return on investment.

Lin Haoran sat quietly on the sofa, waiting for them to finish their call and report to their superiors.

After about twenty minutes, they seemed to have reached a decision and finally put down the phone.

“Mr. Lin, we have finished reporting to our superiors. After discussion, they have decided to agree to your request. However, we need this shipment very quickly. How about we sign the contract right now?” the eldest Japanese man said.

The negotiation had gone so smoothly it almost surprised Lin Haoran.

The whole process took less than an hour before they had settled on a price.

“Of course, I’d be happy to complete the transaction as soon as possible. However, I have a few necessary conditions that need to be made clear.

“First, we must follow the principle of payment before delivery to protect the interests of both parties. Second, the transaction amount must be settled in US dollars and wired directly into my designated Citibank account.

“Finally, since this is our first time doing business together, I need you to find a guarantor trusted by both parties. I propose Mr. Pao Yue-kong for this role to ensure the transparency and security of the transaction,” Lin Haoran continued.

Lin Haoran had no intention of handing over the goods until he received the money.

Since these men were introduced by Pao Yue-kong, it was obvious that the task of transporting the oil would be given to him. They were all large corporations, and signing a normal transaction contract should have been trustworthy enough.

However, Lin Haoran wanted the money as soon as possible. He needed to lay the groundwork for his next money-making plan, and the longer the funds were delayed, the less he would earn from his next venture.

As for why he wanted the money transferred to a Citibank account instead of HSBC, it was because he planned to trade gold futures in America next.

The headquarters of Citibank in Hong Kong was, of course, in America, and throughout the United States, Citibank was a formidable force.

Although HSBC was a powerhouse in Hong Kong, on a global scale, the HSBC of this era was, at best, a medium-sized bank.

Citibank was different. It was already one of the top international banks and had embarked on the path of internationalization many years ago.

For instance, Citibank in Hong Kong was established back in 1902. Therefore, handling transactions through Citibank was clearly more convenient than through a local bank like HSBC.

“Mr. Lin, the conditions you’ve proposed are no problem at all,” the elder Japanese man replied readily.

In his view, Lin Haoran’s requests were reasonable, protecting the interests of both parties without adding any extra burden on them.

The addition of Mr. Pao Yue-kong as a guarantor, in particular, filled them with confidence about this cooperation.

For many years, they had maintained a close and pleasant cooperative relationship with the World-Wide Shipping Group and held Mr. Pao Yue-kong’s business reputation and personal charisma in high regard.

Therefore, they had also been planning to ask Mr. Pao Yue-kong to witness this transaction.

With everything settled, there was not much left for Lin Haoran to do. They would handle the rest.

At noon, the men returned to the Wan’an Group Building.

Accompanying them was the magnate Pao Yue-kong himself, as well as some unfamiliar faces.

After introductions, it turned out these people were the legal counsel invited by their company, responsible for the contract signing.

“Haoran, you’ve made an absolute killing this time!” Pao Yue-kong said with emotion upon seeing Lin Haoran.

Having been invited by the Japanese to act as the transaction guarantor, he was already aware of the deal between Lin Haoran and them.

They were old clients of the World-Wide Shipping Group, and major ones at that, so Pao Yue-kong found it difficult to refuse such a request to be a guarantor.

At the same time, he had a certain understanding of both parties to the transaction, which was another reason he agreed to act as the middleman.

One hundred forty million US dollars—over seven hundred million Hong Kong dollars. Such a massive sum of money made even Pao Yue-kong green with envy.

This was cash, not some ephemeral stock market valuation.

“Uncle Pao, I was just a little lucky,” Lin Haoran said humbly.

Everyone knew, of course, that it was not as simple as just being lucky.

Investing sixty million US dollars was a matter of courage.

Last year, many people had already speculated that another global oil crisis might occur, but would any of them dare to invest such a large sum of money in oil?

Pao Yue-kong was certain that no one else would have. Not even he himself would have dared.

But Lin Haoran had the audacity to do so.

Therefore, the money he earned was entirely due to his own capabilities.

Since everyone had arrived, they proceeded directly to the contract signing process.

Lin Haoran summoned the head of the Wan’an Group’s legal department and had him draft a contract with the Japanese legal team.

Once the contract was drafted, Lin Haoran, the representative from the Japanese side, and Pao Yue-kong all reviewed it carefully. With no issues on any side, the two parties formally signed the contract.

“Mr. Lin, we can transfer the money to you today. Once it arrives, you can hand over the oil purchase contract from Saudi Aramco Company to Mr. Pao Yue-kong so they can go to Saudi Arabia to pick up the oil. How does that sound?” the elder Japanese man asked, already impatient after signing the contract.

“Alright. You’re being forthright, so I’ll be forthright too!” Lin Haoran agreed.

In any case, he only had two things left to do: receive the money and give Pao Yue-kong the contract he had previously signed with Saudi Aramco Company.

With that contract, the World-Wide Shipping Group could naturally go to Saudi Arabia and collect that batch of oil.

He didn’t have to worry about anything else. Pao Yue-kong had a long-standing working relationship with Saudi Aramco Company and naturally had their own procedures for taking delivery.

These three petrochemical companies were Japan’s top energy enterprises, and there were Citibank branches in Japan as well—branches that were much larger than the one in Hong Kong.

So, after handling these matters, Lin Haoran and the Japanese men went to Citibank Hong Kong.

When they stated their purpose, the matter alerted the president of Citibank (Hong Kong), who personally handled the transaction for them.

Citibank (Hong Kong) liaised with Citibank (Japan), and the massive sum of one hundred forty million US dollars was transferred in less than half an hour.

In the process, Lin Haoran was also issued Citibank’s most exclusive VIP Black Gold Card. With this card, he could enjoy the best service at any Citibank branch worldwide.

Once the money was in his account, Lin Haoran handed the contract over to Pao Yue-kong. After that, his involvement in the matter was over.

With his pockets now full, Lin Haoran’s mood was exceptionally good.

This was the largest sum of money he had earned since he had transmigrated.

From the Kowloon Wharf shares, he had only made a few tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

But this time, after deducting the three hundred million Hong Kong dollar loan principal and some interest, he had made a net profit of over four hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

With this capital, he could now make his move in the upcoming gold futures market.

Next, it was time for a trip to America.

Chapter 130: Evergo Company’s Frantic Expansion

With a huge sum of money in hand, Lin Haoran was full of confidence.

Judging from the international gold prices over the past few days, it was clear that the rate of increase was accelerating. The later one entered the market, the higher the base price of gold would be.

Therefore, what he needed to do was go to America as soon as possible and settle the gold futures business first.

The date for his trip to America was set. He would depart from Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport at 9:38 AM on June 3rd, with New York as his destination.

Accompanying him, besides two bodyguards, was Su Zhixue.

Su Zhixue was familiar with all investment operations, so bringing him along would make things much more convenient.

On the morning of June 2nd, Lin Haoran first handled matters for Wan’an Group and Green Island Cement Company. In the afternoon, he made a trip to Evergo Company, a place he rarely visited.

Since landing that major deal last year, Evergo’s fan orders had actually been quite average, especially as winter and spring had set in.

Despite this, the company still made a profit of four to five million Hong Kong dollars each month.

This was because many of the distributors in America didn’t just sell in the American market; they also expanded their reach to Central and South America.

These regions were close to the equator, so it never got cold even in autumn and winter, meaning there was a constant demand for fans.

Even in America and Canada, there was still some market demand during winter and spring. For some new or renovated buildings, although the temperature didn’t yet require fans, people would install ceiling fans in advance.

But starting from the end of April, Evergo Company’s orders surged again.

Although Lin Haoran didn’t yet know how much money they had made last month, he knew that Evergo had been almost overwhelmed with work, forcing them to continue expanding the factory area and constantly hiring more frontline workers.

After leaving Green Island Cement Company, Lin Haoran headed straight for Kwun Tong.

Half an hour later, he arrived at Evergo Company’s factory.

It was worth mentioning that at the beginning of last month, due to the surge in orders, Liu Luanxiong had decided to lease an entire industrial building.

He had specifically called Lin Haoran about it, and for such a small matter, Lin Haoran had naturally agreed without hesitation.

After all, with the arrival of summer, order volumes would skyrocket. For the next two years, this summer and the next would likely be the most profitable period for the fan industry.

Originally, there had been a tenant on the fourth floor, but due to poor business, they had hastily moved out at the end of December of last year. It was said that because they broke the lease, they didn’t even get their deposit back.

That’s how business was. Not everyone could make a profit; there would always be some who lost money.

Moreover, the number of people who lost money was always greater than those who profited.

People often only notice the glamorous successes and overlook the failures.

So, it worked out perfectly for Evergo Company to lease the entire building directly.

Furthermore, the industrial park offered a significant discount on the price.

After more than half a year, the occupancy rate of the entire industrial park had only increased from around twenty percent to about thirty percent. It could be said that the occupancy rate of this industrial park was not high.

With Evergo Company leasing an entire building, the owner of the industrial park naturally gave them a big discount. The competition for leasing industrial buildings in Hong Kong was quite fierce at the moment.

The last time Lin Haoran had visited Evergo Company was in mid-May, more than ten days ago.

He noticed that the number of employees had clearly increased again.

Going up from the first to the second floor, he saw a flurry of busy figures everywhere.

On the third floor, he passed through a warehouse and a staff lounge area and arrived at Evergo’s new office space.

Initially, Evergo’s office had been on the second floor and wasn’t very large.

But as Evergo began to expand its middle and senior management, the office space also needed to grow.

Departments like Quality Control, Marketing, R&D, Accounting, Procurement, and Human Resources had all been established early in the year. The company’s various departments were more specialized, with everyone performing their own duties, making the company’s execution faster and more efficient.

Therefore, when they later leased the first and third floors, they directly converted a part of the third floor into a new office area.

Walking into the executive office area, he saw several department directors busy at work, including chief financial officer Li Meihui.

“Good day, President Lin.”

A series of greetings reached Lin Haoran’s ears.

Lin Haoran smiled and responded to each of them.

“Director Li, where is President Liu?” Lin Haoran noticed that Liu Luanxiong was not in the general manager’s office.

“President Liu went to Kwai Chung this morning. We have a shipment heading to America today. He was worried, so he’s supervising the whole process. Based on his usual schedule, he should be back soon,” Li Meihui replied.

Lin Haoran nodded and said, “Let me see last month’s financial report.”

With that, he walked directly into the meeting room and sat down on the sofa.

Before long, Li Meihui brought Lin Haoran Evergo’s financial report from the previous month.

Looking at the figures on the financial report, even though Lin Haoran had already guessed they would be good, he couldn’t help but be astonished when he saw the actual numbers.

Last month, the total order value reached 11.09 million US dollars, with a profit of 3.4389 million US dollars.

In other words, last month’s profit was as high as 18.22 million Hong Kong dollars.

And this was in just one month.

Moreover, to reduce risk, all of Evergo’s current orders required distributors to pay a deposit upfront, with the remainder due upon delivery.

This meant no outstanding payments!

But thinking back to the news Lin Haoran had read in his previous life, Evergo had started as a small workshop and, in less than three years, had accumulated over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars in profit for Liu Luanxiong.

Liu Luanxiong only owned half of it and still made one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. And for a long time, Evergo had been just a small, modest workshop that didn’t earn much.

So, the real money-making period was only about two years, and after subtracting the time in winter when orders dropped significantly, it was natural to earn ten or twenty million a month during the peak summer season. In fact, it was certain that this wasn’t even its peak yet.

Compared to orders from other markets, clients from the Americas were indeed much more straightforward.

The oil crisis had been going on for a long time. The continuously rising oil prices had turned the government’s slogan of energy conservation into a proactive effort by the public.

After May, temperatures in America began to rise steadily, and fans became a necessity for many people.

If they could get such high order volumes in May, then the orders for June would likely be even more outrageous.

After sitting in the meeting room for about half an hour, Lin Haoran saw a hurried Liu Luanxiong return.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, Liu Luanxiong said with some surprise, “Haoran, what brings you here today? You’re free?”

“I’m preparing to go to America, so I came by to check on things before I leave,” Lin Haoran explained.

Liu Luanxiong nodded, sat down on the sofa opposite Lin Haoran, and said, “There’s a shipment heading to Los Angeles, America today. It’s all been loaded onto the ship. That’s what I was out for. The distributors in America and Canada are all rushing their orders. I keep increasing our production capacity, but I still can’t meet their demands. It’s so difficult.”

At this moment, although Liu Luanxiong was complaining, the expression on his face showed that he was thoroughly enjoying it.

“You’ve worked hard!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“It’s not hard at all. Ever since I took your advice and built a more complete management team for the company, our salary expenses have increased, but our execution, productivity, and so on have all become faster and better. Most importantly, it’s lightened my burden a lot. I don’t have to personally oversee everything anymore. It’s much more relaxed,” Liu Luanxiong explained.

“How are the orders for this month? I saw that last month’s performance was excellent,” Lin Haoran asked with a smile, waving the monthly report in his hand.

“This month’s orders are already scheduled to the end of the month. Even though we’ve leased six floors and greatly increased our productivity, there are still some orders we can’t fulfill. You know we established a Marketing Department, right? Unexpectedly, the European market started to take off last month.

“European orders accounted for a full twenty percent of the total in May. This month, their orders have increased to thirty percent. I’m currently considering expanding our production capacity again. I plan to lease the industrial building next door. If we accept all the orders, our profit this month could very well double compared to last month!” Liu Luanxiong was full of excitement as he said this.

In just over half a year, Evergo Company’s development speed had been absolutely insane.

Last year, Evergo was just a small workshop with fewer than one hundred employees.

But in just a few months, Evergo’s monthly profit was in the tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars, and its workforce was close to five thousand people. This was already considered an upper-middle level in Hong Kong’s entire manufacturing industry.

And if they leased the industrial building next door and doubled their size again, their workforce would exceed ten thousand. In Hong Kong, manufacturing enterprises with over ten thousand employees were few and far between.

“Then lease it. There’s no need to overthink it. The massive increase in our orders is closely related to the oil crisis, but this crisis will eventually stabilize, and the fan market will become saturated one day.

“While the market isn’t saturated, we should grab as much market share as we can. Don’t be polite about it, or others will snatch it away,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Manufacturing in Hong Kong was primarily based on piece-rate and time-rate wages.

Evergo’s frontline workers were paid based on a comprehensive piece-rate system. With an almost endless stream of orders, the employees’ wages were naturally very good.

But in winter, when the order volume decreased, their wages would also drop. Some dissatisfied employees would voluntarily resign, so hiring more frontline workers wouldn’t put too much pressure on the company.

“You’re right. Okay, I’ll go find the owner of the industrial park today and discuss leasing the building next door. That way, our usable area will double again. By the middle of the month at the latest, we can double our production capacity and take on a large number of orders,” Liu Luanxiong said with certainty.

“Xiong, while the order volume increases, you must also pay attention to quality. A major reason our products sell so well in the Americas is because of their good quality. If a major quality incident occurs, the impact on us will be huge,” Lin Haoran reminded him.

“Don’t worry. The Quality Department has always been one of our most important departments at Evergo. We have a strict quality inspection process. If a product fails inspection, it’s sent back for rework and won’t be released to the market until it passes,” Liu Luanxiong said, full of confidence on this point.

Chapter 131: The Futures Brokerage Firm

On the morning of June 3rd, Lin Haoran appeared at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport with Su Zhixue, Li Weiguo, and Li Weidong.

He had already had his subordinates book their tickets the day before, and they were all for first class.

With his current net worth, there was naturally no need to skimp on such an expense.

In the future, he even planned on getting himself a private jet.

However, this was not an urgent matter. Besides, he rarely left Hong Kong these days, as his focus in the early stages was primarily on development there.

Later on, once his businesses went global and his operations expanded worldwide, he would likely need to fly frequently. Having his own private jet then would make traveling anywhere convenient.

Li Weiguo and Li Weidong had previously accompanied Lin Haoran to several countries in the Middle East, so flying was no longer a novelty to them, and they appeared very calm.

Following a boss like Lin Haoran, their horizons had broadened, and they were no longer the two clueless young men who had just snuck into the city.

Sitting in the spacious and comfortable first-class cabin, Lin Haoran picked up a magazine provided for passengers and began to read.

At 9:38 AM, the plane slowly left the gate, accelerated down the runway, and then soared into the sky.

Perhaps due to the global economic downturn caused by the oil crisis, the flight was only about two-thirds full, which was why Lin Haoran had been able to buy tickets just one day in advance.

After one refueling stop midway, the flight took a full 23 hours before landing smoothly at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Since it was summer, New York was on Daylight Saving Time, making it 12 hours behind Hong Kong.

Therefore, despite the 23-hour journey, it was still June 3rd when they arrived.

The time in New York was just after 8 PM on June 3rd.

At the airport taxi stand, Lin Haoran and the others got into a cab.

“To Wall Street,” Lin Haoran stated their destination immediately after getting in.

“Alright, gentlemen, sit tight, here we go!”

The driver was clearly a man with a sense of humor, chattering like a magpie about the sights of New York throughout the trip.

After a full hour, the taxi finally stopped in an area surrounded by skyscrapers.

This was the famous Wall Street.

“Keep the change. The rest is your tip,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, handing a dollar bill to the driver.

Not far away, after getting out of the car, Lin Haoran noticed the famous bronze bull at a Wall Street intersection.

“For your own safety, gentlemen, you should find a place to stay as soon as possible. New York isn’t very safe at night!” Perhaps out of consideration for the generous tip, the driver made sure to offer a word of caution before leaving.

“Thank you for the warning. Goodbye!” Lin Haoran smiled and waved goodbye to the driver.

He certainly had no intention of lingering on the street for too long. After all, behind all the glitz and glamour lies either hardship or filth, and even Lin Haoran had heard about the chaos of New York in this era.

The occasional police officer or a siren-wailing police car still didn’t make Lin Haoran feel any sense of security.

Of course, Hong Kong wasn’t much better, with Triad gangsters everywhere.

It was just that those gangs didn’t dare to provoke the wealthy.

He was insulated from the chaos at the bottom.

The area around Wall Street was lined with hotels.

So, after the taxi left, Lin Haoran led Su Zhixue and the others to a well-known Hilton Hotel nearby, and they quickly completed the check-in process.

“Everyone, get some good rest,” Lin Haoran said with a smile to the other three before closing his door.

In truth, it was the first time in America for Su Zhixue, Li Weiguo, and Li Weidong, so they were all filled with a sense of novelty.

The surrounding skyscrapers were even more exaggerated and densely packed than those in Hong Kong’s Central.

It was a real eye-opener for them.

Lin Haoran, on the other hand, had a faint memory of the place. It was a scene from his past self’s memories, from a vacation trip to New York he had taken with classmates during his sophomore year at London Business School. They had also visited Times Square and toured Wall Street.

The hotel was in a skyscraper over thirty stories high, and their rooms were on the twenty-fifth floor.

After locking the door and putting away his suitcase, Lin Haoran stretched and walked out onto the balcony.

The room was in an excellent location. From the balcony, he could overlook the entirety of Wall Street and the nearby skyscrapers.

The street actually called “Wall Street” was quite short and narrow, flanked on both sides by towering buildings that housed numerous well-known investment banks and financial institutions.

Through the dim lighting, Lin Haoran could even see a group of thugs fighting on a street below. Some wielded baseball bats, others chairs they had grabbed from somewhere. The brawl was so spectacular that Lin Haoran couldn’t help but stand on his balcony and enjoy the show.

Someone was beaten until their head was bleeding and they collapsed to the ground. A short while later, a police car arrived, and the thugs scattered in all directions, leaving only the injured black man who was too weak to get up.

With the show over, Lin Haoran closed the windows, and the noise from outside was immediately silenced. The soundproofing was excellent.

After a quick wash, he lay down on the large bed and soon fell asleep.

The next morning, at just past seven, Lin Haoran was awakened by the sound of the doorbell.

As a luxury hotel, the service was naturally excellent.

When checking in the previous night, Lin Haoran had specifically requested that breakfast and several major newspapers be delivered to them at 7:30 AM.

It also served as an indirect wake-up call.

After confirming through the peephole that it was a female attendant, Lin Haoran opened the door.

“Sir, your breakfast and newspapers have arrived,” the attendant said with a smile, pushing a food cart.

“Mm, please put them on the table. Thank you,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

After the attendant left with the cart, Lin Haoran closed the door and went to wash up.

He pulled back the curtains, and the bright morning sun instantly flooded in, illuminating the entire room.

The sunlight at past seven wasn’t too harsh, but from over twenty floors up, it streamed in easily.

Lin Haoran had already set his watch to New York time the previous night.

Even here, Lin Haoran maintained his habit of eating breakfast while reading the newspaper in the morning.

The Wall Street Journal reported on international oil prices, futures prices, and more. But he was no longer paying attention to oil prices. The oil had been sold, so why bother?

What he was focused on, naturally, was the price of gold.

The newspaper reported the latest international gold price had reached $252.5 per ounce, an increase of $1.2 per ounce from before, which wasn’t a significant rise.

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was 8:30 AM.

From his balcony, Lin Haoran could see the suited elites of Wall Street beginning to appear on the street below.

Today was June 4th, a Monday, and 9:00 AM was the opening time for the New York Commodity Exchange.

Lin Haoran first led Su Zhixue and the others on a stroll down Wall Street.

Although the morning sun was very bright, it was blocked by the tall buildings on both sides, giving the entire street a shadowy feel.

However, Wall Street was extremely bustling in the morning, teeming with people. Apart from tourists, most were office workers who worked nearby.

Lin Haoran led the three of them to the front of the famous New York Stock Exchange.

However, his destination this time wasn’t the New York Stock Exchange, but the New York Commodity Exchange next to it, which was the world’s largest physical commodity futures exchange.

Entering the New York Commodity Exchange, he saw a scene of frenetic activity. People were on the phone, making trades, and the surrounding walls were covered with giant LED screens displaying the real-time prices of various futures.

At the New York Commodity Exchange, anything could be traded: gold, silver, cocoa powder, sugar, and even agricultural products like soybeans and wheat.

Although New York, London, and Hong Kong were considered the three great financial centers, the New York Commodity Exchange alone showed Lin Haoran the gap between Hong Kong and New York’s financial industries.

Lin Haoran was in no hurry to trade. He had come in merely to get a feel for the place.

And also to witness the spectacle.

“Boss, if you want to buy gold futures, we’d best find a larger futures brokerage firm to handle it. The brokerage firm will connect with the operators on the New York Commodity Exchange floor, and the operators will then pass the futures orders to the traders. It’s very difficult for us to operate on our own,” Su Zhixue reminded him from the side.

Although Su Zhixue had never been to New York, as a professional in the financial industry, he naturally understood how futures trading worked.

Lin Haoran nodded. He had no intention of doing it himself. He had over one hundred million US dollars at his disposal—a sum that was absolutely massive in this era. To have his own people handle it? He’d have to be out of his mind to even consider it.

“Then which futures brokerage firm do you think we should use as our agent?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Chase—these are all renowned giants in the American financial industry. These institutions are outstanding in securities, futures, bonds, foreign exchange, and more. As for which one to choose, it’s best if you decide, Boss. They’re all quite similar, really,” Su Zhixue replied after some thought.

Hearing Su Zhixue’s words, he had already made up his mind.

The 140 million US dollars in his hands was deposited with Citibank. As one of America’s financial titans, futures trading was naturally one of Citibank’s core businesses.

“Let’s go. To Citibank headquarters!” Lin Haoran said directly.

Chapter 132: Leveraged Gold Futures Trading

“Boss, as far as I know, the Citibank headquarters isn’t on Wall Street. It’s on Lexington Avenue, about seven kilometers from here,” Su Zhixue said.

“Then we’ll have to take a taxi. Haven’t you been to New York before? How did you know the Citibank headquarters isn’t on Wall Street?” Lin Haoran asked curiously as they walked.

“Because last year, an event at the Citibank headquarters made news all over the world. The major news outlets in Hong Kong also covered it. If you weren’t paying attention at the time, it would be hard for me to explain now. But once you see the building, it will be much easier to understand,” Su Zhixue replied with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded and didn’t ask any more questions. He hailed a taxi, and they headed directly for the Citibank headquarters.

At this time of day, downtown New York was indeed congested. The short seven-kilometer journey took them nearly half an hour.

After getting out of the car, Lin Haoran finally saw the magnificent structure.

The Citigroup Center was one of New York City’s most magnificent skyscrapers, piercing the city skyline with its 279-meter height and distinctive 45-degree roof.

What surprised Lin Haoran the most was that the base of the tower was supported by four massive pillars rather than a conventional building structure.

The building rested on four 35-meter columns, with each column positioned at the center of each of the building’s faces.

“Boss, you see, the building is supported by these four pillars. It was because of this design that it went through a harrowing event last year.

“On August 30th last year, the American meteorological department suddenly issued an alert. Hurricane Ella, the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the Canadian Atlantic, had formed south of Bermuda. A day later, its wind speed had increased to 205 kilometers per hour, and it was barreling toward New York.

“Just then, the building’s designer, William LeMessurier, discovered a terrifying calculation. The building had a design flaw. If the hurricane’s winds exceeded 133 kilometers per hour, the bolts on this super-skyscraper, supported only by four massive columns, would shear, and the building could suffer devastating damage.

“With Hurricane Ella forming so suddenly, its wind speeds quickly surpassed 220 kilometers per hour, far exceeding the building’s wind resistance. When this news broke, it caused a massive panic. Citibank even notified the police and the Red Cross about the potential collapse and went on high alert.

“However, just as everyone was watching, an unexpected turn of events occurred. When it was just 85 kilometers from the New York coastline, Hurricane Ella veered northeast, heading straight for the Canadian Atlantic. New York City had escaped disaster.” Su Zhixue said, looking up at the magnificent skyscraper as he recounted the story.

Although this was his first time seeing the building in person, the newspapers and television news had covered the incident extensively last year, with clear photos and videos, so it had left a very deep impression on him.

At that time, Lin Haoran had not yet transmigrated, and his predecessor was still at the cement factory in Yuen Long, trying to figure out how to grow the business, so he was unaware of the event.

“That’s certainly an interesting story. Let’s go. We’ll take a look inside this legendary building,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The four of them stepped into an elevator. With the Citibank Black Gold Card Lin Haoran was carrying, they had almost unhindered access. The security guard didn’t stop them from entering the elevator; instead, after letting them pass, he quickly used his walkie-talkie to inform his supervisor.

A Citibank Black Gold Card represented a client with assets exceeding one hundred million US dollars. Very few had been issued worldwide. It was a symbol of Citibank’s most esteemed clientele, and the security guards naturally knew who not to stop.

When the elevator arrived at the building’s reception lobby, a staff member in a suit and tie was already waiting at the elevator doors.

“Sir, what can I help you with today?” The nameplate on the middle-aged man’s chest read “Senior Manager.” He was clearly tasked with receiving distinguished guests.

“I’d like to conduct a futures trade involving over one hundred million US dollars, and I want your company to handle it,” Lin Haoran stated his purpose directly.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, the middle-aged man immediately knew this was beyond his purview.

So, the man said, “Sir, please wait in the lounge area for a moment. I will report this to my superiors immediately.”

He didn’t think Lin Haoran was bluffing, because a client holding a Citibank Black Gold Card had that kind of financial power.

Lin Haoran nodded and led his three companions to a nearby seating area. A young woman quickly approached to ask what they would like to drink.

They had barely sat down when, just a few minutes later, the middle-aged man returned.

“Sir, I have reported to my superiors. Our company’s Senior Vice President, John Reed, will personally receive you. I will take you to his office now,” the middle-aged man said respectfully.

“Yes, thank you for the trouble,” Lin Haoran replied with a nod.

After all, this was a massive sum. He didn’t want to make a deal with just anyone. Citibank held a significant position in Hong Kong’s financial industry, and its influence in America and worldwide was even more substantial. If he could use this opportunity to build a good relationship with Citibank’s senior management, it would be a good thing.

Lin Haoran then took Su Zhixue and followed the senior manager into another elevator.

As for Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, they remained in the lounge to wait.

Here, there was no need to worry about personal safety. Citibank’s reputation was solid.

If they really wanted to do something to you, ten or even a hundred bodyguards would be useless.

Soon, the elevator reached the 55th floor, which housed the core offices of Citibank’s senior executives.

After exiting the elevator and walking down a long corridor, the senior manager led them to an office door.

Knock, knock, knock.

The door opened, and a middle-aged man of about forty appeared before Lin Haoran.

“Hello, sir. Please come in.” John Reed made a welcoming gesture, a gentle smile on his face.

Initially, the name John Reed didn’t mean much to Lin Haoran. After all, there were many people named John Reed; it was a common name.

But upon seeing him in person, a sense of familiarity washed over him.

Wasn’t this the future Chairman and CEO of Citigroup?

The reason Lin Haoran recognized him was that he had casually learned about Citibank’s history in his past life.

The memory wasn’t very sharp, but upon seeing the real John Reed, it seemed to reawaken.

John Reed was an outstanding banker. Under his leadership, Citibank became the largest commercial bank in the world.

And his resume was equally brilliant.

In 1965, John Reed joined what was then First National City Bank. Three years later, he was promoted to department vice president.

In 1969, at the age of thirty, John Reed became the youngest senior vice president in the company’s history.

From 1984 until his resignation in 2000, Reed served as Chairman and CEO of Citigroup, as well as Chairman and CEO of its main subsidiary, Citibank.

He worked at Citigroup for thirty-five years, holding the top position for sixteen of them.

In other words, the middle-aged man standing before him would become the big boss of Citibank in just a few years, much like Michael Sandberg at HSBC, but with a much higher status.

He never expected to be received by this future titan of the financial industry. Of course, his current position as Senior Vice President was already quite high.

To be able to take over the top position in just a few years, he was clearly at a level that was second in command to only one person.

“Let me introduce myself. I’m John Reed, Senior Vice President of Citibank. And your name is, sir? It’s rare to see such a young billionaire,” John Reed said with a smile as he shook Lin Haoran’s hand.

“My name is Lin Haoran, from Hong Kong. I’m currently the Chairman of two publicly listed companies in Hong Kong. I’ve come today to entrust your company with a futures trade. Citibank is a very well-known bank in Hong Kong, and I have great confidence in its business capabilities,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Please have a seat, Mr. Lin. Can I get you anything to drink?”

“No, thank you.” Lin Haoran waved his hand.

“Hong Kong. I’ve been there a few times on business. Citibank has a very long history in Hong Kong. If I remember correctly, we first began operations in Hong Kong in 1902, so it is a very important market for us. Thank you very much, Mr. Lin, for choosing Citibank as your partner. May I ask what kind of futures trade you wish to entrust us with?” John Reed asked.

“If I entrust Citibank with this transaction, would it be possible to trade using leverage?” Lin Haoran inquired.

“Of course. We can offer five to ten times leverage. Leveraged trading requires you to deposit a certain percentage of the total as a margin, which serves as collateral for the trade,” John Reed explained.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran’s eyes instantly lit up. He was very confident about the future rise in gold prices.

Leveraged investing wasn’t possible on the Hong Kong stock market, but it was already available here for futures. As expected of the world’s number one financial center.

This way, he could keep a portion of his funds free for other uses.

“I plan to invest in gold futures. As you probably know, Mr. Reed, gold is on an excellent upward trend at the moment, and I’m very confident in the future of the gold market. So, I would like to invest a sum of money into the gold futures market. However, I have a concern and a question: how large of a sum would impact the gold futures market in the short term?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

“Mr. Lin, the gold futures market is a market with an enormous trading volume. Especially since 1976, the price of gold has been rising steadily. This May, the price began to accelerate significantly, and the trading volume has increased dramatically.

“Our experts even speculate that the global gold market trading volume will exceed ten trillion ounces this year. Just on the New York Commodity Exchange alone, there are now as many as 6.5 million gold futures transactions every month. The scale of this market is immense.

“As for how much capital would impact the gold market, I personally believe that for any amount under five hundred million US dollars, if handled by us, it would not cause a significant impact. Any more than that might have a certain effect on the market,” John Reed analyzed for Lin Haoran.

Chapter 133: The 500 Million US Dollar Futures Contract

“However, Mr. Lin, the risks associated with futures leverage are extremely high. Are you certain you wish to proceed with such a large futures trade?” John Reed continued before Lin Haoran could reply.

Although John Reed didn’t know exactly how much the wealthy tycoon from Hong Kong planned to invest in gold futures, he had astutely sensed the man’s considerable ambition from his casual question about “how much capital it would take to move the gold futures market.”

Such a person was either a naive amateur who knew nothing about the market or a wise and powerful expert well-versed in the art of investment.

And considering Lin Haoran had amassed a fortune of hundreds of millions at such a young age, if it wasn’t inherited, then it must have been accumulated through his own extraordinary investment acumen and audacity.

Even John Reed himself clearly foresaw that the gold market would continue its upward trend in the short term. The possibility of a major crash was minimal, barring some unforeseen external shock potent enough to disrupt gold’s upward trajectory.

As for how high gold could climb, he couldn’t predict with any accuracy, and he believed no one else in the market could give a definitive answer either.

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran smiled and replied, “Indeed, Mr. Reed. I have full confidence in the future of the gold market and have no fear of a sudden plunge. Since Citibank can provide up to tenfold leverage, I plan to invest fifty million US dollars as margin. I hope your firm can assist me in purchasing gold futures equivalent to five hundred million US dollars. May I ask if there are any operational obstacles or issues on your end?”

Since tenfold leverage was available, he naturally had no intention of investing all his principal. After all, he still needed to continue his capital operations in Hong Kong.

It was a very uncomfortable feeling to be short on cash.

Of the 140 million US dollars he had on hand, if he could execute this entire operation with just fifty million US dollars, he would have ninety million US dollars left over. That sum would allow him to do a great many things in Hong Kong.

Leveraged funds in futures trading are, in essence, a financing service provided by the futures company, conceptually similar to a loan.

Apart from the initial ten percent margin, the remaining leveraged capital is effectively borrowed from the futures brokerage firm, which naturally comes with interest costs.

However, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, this interest was utterly insignificant compared to the handsome profits to be made from the rising price of gold.

Lin Haoran was very clear about the future trajectory of the gold market, and he was supremely confident.

The rise in gold prices was an inevitable trend. In this globalized market, Lin Haoran’s personal investment of five hundred million US dollars was not enough to shake the overall direction of the entire gold market.

The surge in gold prices was driven by a confluence of profound and complex factors.

First, high inflation was a major driver.

This year, the inflation rate in America had soared to 13.3 percent, a new high since World War II. Such a high rate of inflation made gold’s status as a safe-haven asset all the more prominent, attracting a large number of investors seeking to preserve their assets to flood into the gold market.

Second, escalating geopolitical tensions also added fuel to the fire of rising gold prices.

Events such as the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan and the Iran hostage crisis not only triggered worldwide security concerns but also intensified market risk aversion, prompting investors to shift their capital to relatively safe assets like gold.

Furthermore, the devaluation of the US dollar was another factor that could not be ignored.

Since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, the fixed exchange rate between the US dollar and gold was broken, and the over-issuance of the dollar led to a sharp decline in its purchasing power against gold.

This year, the dollar had depreciated against gold by a staggering 98.6 percent, which directly fueled the rise in gold prices.

In addition, the actions of numerous central banks, which began purchasing large quantities of gold this year to increase their foreign reserves, further propelled the prosperity of the gold market.

These purchases not only increased the demand for gold but also boosted market confidence in its future performance.

In summary, the rise in gold prices was the result of multiple factors working in concert.

Faced with these macroeconomic factors, Lin Haoran’s investment of five hundred million US dollars, while substantial, was insignificant within the context of the entire gold market.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was naturally determined to seize the bountiful returns offered by this golden opportunity in the market.

“Of course, Mr. Lin, please rest assured. As a leading financial institution in the industry, Citibank is fully capable of handling your investment. Your possession of our Black Gold Card is in itself a recognition of your financial strength and investment insight. We are greatly honored to serve you.

“However, before we proceed, I must clearly inform you of the leverage effect in futures trading. Tenfold leverage means both profits and losses will be magnified accordingly.

If the gold market moves unfavorably, causing the margin in your account to be insufficient to maintain your positions, we may be forced to liquidate them to protect the interests of both parties.

Furthermore, in extreme market conditions, such as consecutive limit-down days, if we are unable to close your positions in time, your principal could suffer significant losses, potentially even exceeding your initial investment. Although such a situation is rare, we are still required to fully disclose the risks to you.

However, please be assured, Mr. Lin, that Citibank possesses the highest level of professionalism and extensive risk management experience in the field of futures trading. We will closely monitor market dynamics and communicate with you in a timely manner to ensure the security of your investment,” John Reed said, his words both professional and sincere.

After listening, Lin Haoran simply let out a hearty laugh. “Haha, Mr. Reed, I’m well aware of all these risks. I’ll accept it even if I lose everything. After all, investments come with risks, and one must be cautious when entering the market. But right now is a golden period for rising gold prices. I firmly believe it’s still far from the peak. How could the price of gold possibly fall? That is the source of my confidence!”

“Very well. I will now briefly explain our trading process. First, you will need to open a trading account with the New York Commodity Exchange. Then, we will sign a gold futures trading contract with a clearly defined term, and you may choose to grant us full discretionary authority to operate on your behalf.

“Before trading begins, Mr. Lin, you will need to ensure there is sufficient margin in the account to cover potential trading risks. Thereafter, within the period stipulated in the contract, you will have complete control to decide the quantity of gold futures to buy or sell, as well as when to close your positions. The decision-making power rests entirely in your hands.

“Of course, to ensure the smooth execution of your trades, our firm’s professional brokers will follow the process from start to finish, providing market analysis and professional advice at critical moments for your reference. Our goal is to help you make more informed investment decisions,” John Reed explained in a clear and organized manner.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran turned to look at Su Zhixue with a questioning gaze.

Su Zhixue nodded slightly, indicating his agreement and approval of what John Reed had said.

John Reed then picked up the phone and dialed a number in Hong Kong, clearly to verify Lin Haoran’s background information.

After a series of confirmations, he gained a more comprehensive understanding of Lin Haoran’s financial strength and investment experience, and his doubts dissipated.

After all, this was his first meeting with Lin Haoran, so it was only natural to get to know the other party. The bank also had to consider the risks of the partnership.

Lin Haoran was quite a celebrity in Hong Kong and had 140 million US dollars deposited in Citibank there. The source of these funds was also legitimate, having been paid by a Japanese petrochemical company.

Additionally, Lin Haoran controlled two listed companies, whose market capitalizations totaled over sixty to seventy million US dollars.

All of this demonstrated Lin Haoran’s financial prowess.

Citibank loved nothing more than to cooperate with such well-funded businessmen.

Thus, with Citibank’s assistance, Lin Haoran first created an account with the New York Commodity Exchange in his personal capacity. He then signed a contract with Citibank before transferring the fifty million US dollar margin to the designated account.

The futures brokerage transaction was now complete.

At the current price of approximately 253 US dollars per ounce, Lin Haoran’s five hundred million US dollars could purchase 1.9763 million ounces of gold.

An order of such a massive scale would be too much for an ordinary futures brokerage firm to handle.

But Citibank was no ordinary financial enterprise; it was a giant in the financial world. It could, of course, easily absorb this order.

As for how to execute it, Lin Haoran didn’t need to worry. He just had to convey his decisions to them, and Citibank would take care of the rest.

It took over three hours before the transaction, involving five hundred million US dollars, was finally completed.

“Mr. Lin, it’s a pleasure doing business with you. As you are from Hong Kong, you certainly won’t be staying in America for long. If you need anything, you can contact us directly, or you can contact our branch in Hong Kong. They will provide you with the best service,” John Reed said with a smile, having overseen the entire process. He shook Lin Haoran’s hand after the deal was sealed.

“The pleasure is all mine, Mr. Reed. It was great to meet you. I hope we’ll have many more opportunities to cooperate in the future,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

The man before him would become the head of Citibank in five years, a position of immense power and influence.

Therefore, establishing a good relationship with him was undoubtedly paving a wider road for his own future.

At noon, Lin Haoran, along with Su Zhixue and the others, left the Citibank headquarters building.

His purpose for coming to America had been achieved.

In reality, while Hong Kong did have a futures market, its scale was much smaller compared to the New York Commodity Exchange.

For Lin Haoran, conducting a large-volume transaction like this in the Hong Kong futures market would have been like trying to make a large-scale procurement from a street vendor—it clearly couldn’t meet his needs.

Therefore, he had chosen to come directly to the New York Commodity Exchange. Here, even an investment of five hundred million US dollars wouldn’t have a major impact on the market. This was the ideal place to realize his investment plan.

Although he had settled his business here, Lin Haoran was in no hurry to return to Hong Kong.

He had never been to America in his previous life. Now that he had the rare opportunity to visit, how could he just leave immediately?

Back in Hong Kong, there were no major issues that required his immediate attention. Both Green Island Cement Company and Wan’an Group were in the hands of professional managers with more experience than him, so he didn’t need to worry too much.

So, while he was still in America, he decided he might as well have some fun before heading back.

Chapter 134: Coveting Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land

For this occasion, Lin Haoran rented a car from a rental agency in downtown New York. Over the next few days, he and his companions had a great time exploring New York City and its surrounding areas.

Traces of Lin Haoran and his group could be found at Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, New York’s Chinatown, and more.

America’s enormous market was incredibly tempting, and he would sooner or later make large-scale investments here to rake in huge sums of money, but the time was not yet right.

Although the capital he had on hand was substantial, it was better spent in Hong Kong, where he could increase his influence in the business world. That was his current priority.

Once he harvested enough capital from the gold market, he would be able to invest in the business world without restraint.

For now, it was best to focus on stable development. Even in Hong Kong, he was not at the top tier. His position on his own home turf was not even secure, so why rush to invest everywhere else?

During his days in New York, although he was there mainly to relax, he still kept an occasional eye on international gold prices. A morning newspaper was all it took to see the daily fluctuations, so it was no trouble at all.

After he bought 1,976,300 ounces of gold futures, the price indeed continued to rise every day, climbing one to two dollars per ounce on a slow day, and three to five dollars on a good one.

Barring any surprises, January 1980 would be the peak for gold prices. As America cracked down on gold, the price would begin to plummet.

Therefore, he had already made up his mind to hold onto the gold only until January, at which point he would look for an opportunity to sell.

In the first two trading days of 1980, the price of gold would hit 634 dollars. After U.S. Treasury Secretary Miller announced that the Treasury would stop selling gold, the price would soar by 30 dollars to 715 dollars in less than thirty minutes, eventually setting a historical high of 850 dollars on January 21st.

Lin Haoran knew he couldn’t sell at the absolute peak, as that price wouldn’t last long. However, he would be more than satisfied if he could sell his gold holdings for over seven hundred dollars an ounce.

One shouldn’t be too greedy, after all.

Even selling at around 750 dollars per ounce would net him a profit of up to three times his investment in this gold boom.

It was currently June, which meant he only needed to wait half a year for his next harvest season. And this time, the harvest would be larger than ever before—much, much larger!

It wasn’t until the morning of June 9th that Lin Haoran and his group reappeared at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Two days later, their flight landed smoothly at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport. Lin Haoran immediately returned to the villa in Deep Water Bay.

He had not yet purchased his own villa. Although he had his own residence in the Hang Fung Building, a villa was obviously more comfortable.

Moreover, the Deep Water Bay villa had servants to attend to him, and he also wanted to see his parents. Returning there was naturally the most suitable choice.

Lin Haoran noticed that his father’s complexion had improved significantly after retiring from the Wan’an Group for some time. With fewer social obligations and less strenuous work, coupled with following the doctor’s dietary advice, there was a real chance his health could fully recover.

“Haoran, did you really go to America just for a vacation?” Lin Wan’an asked, a hint of disbelief in his voice upon seeing his son return.

Although he no longer needed to worry much about the Wan’an Group, for his son to go on a trip so soon after inheriting the company? He found it a bit hard to believe.

However, the fact that Lin Haoran had made several hundred million from crude oil had not been made public, known only to a select few. Thus, Lin Wan’an was naturally unaware of it.

Otherwise, he would have surely guessed that his son went to America to invest in something.

Looking at Lin Haoran’s track record, his strategy was primarily based on short-term investments for massive gains. His objective in every investment was simple, making his moves rather easy to predict.

“Yes, Dad. I made a special trip to New York just to have fun. I even took a lot of pictures. Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Chinatown… Hold on, Dad, I’ll get the photos for you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

With that, he took a stack of photos from his backpack and handed them to Lin Wan’an.

Hearing this, Lin’s mother also came over to look at the pictures.

Sitting on the sofa, Lin Haoran recounted the interesting things that happened during his time in America.

Nothing had changed at home, but with his father resting and recuperating, his mother’s smiles had clearly become more frequent.

…

After resting at home for two more days to adjust to the time difference, Lin Haoran finally went to the office.

He hadn’t been to Green Island Cement Company or Wan’an Group for ten days, but not much had changed at either company. With two highly capable executives maintaining operations, his short absence had no impact whatsoever.

Besides, while in America, he had called Burton and Yang Mingyi every day or two to see if they had encountered any issues they couldn’t resolve on their own.

Sitting in his office at Green Island Cement Company, Lin Haoran contemplated his next plan.

He currently had ninety million US dollars on hand, which converted to around 477 million Hong Kong dollars—an absolutely enormous sum.

Should he reinvest it in the real estate industry? Buy plots of land to profit from the price difference before the market peaked?

It was a good idea, and the most time- and effort-efficient one at that. It was currently June 1979, and by 1981, he could easily make a profit of two to three times.

However, it would take too much time.

For others, earning two to three times their investment in just one or two years was an exorbitant profit.

But Lin Haoran didn’t see it that way.

Less than a year had passed since he had traveled back in time to this era, yet his assets had already multiplied dozens of times over. He was not satisfied with spending nearly two years just to make a two- or three-fold return.

Instead of chasing that profit, it would be better to do something more substantial.

Attempt to acquire Hutchison Whampoa? With the funds he had, he couldn’t possibly pry loose this British-owned giant.

Most importantly, Lin Haoran knew that the reason Li Jiacheng had given up on acquiring Kowloon Wharf back then was because Pao Yue-kong had promised to fully support his acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa. In addition to that, Michael Sandberg had also promised to sell it to him when the time was right.

He had arrived in this era too late. If he had been given two more years, Lin Haoran would have done whatever it took to seize Kowloon Wharf, and even Hutchison Whampoa.

But now, it was clear that they had already decided on Hutchison Whampoa’s next owner.

Therefore, Lin Haoran knew his chances of successfully acquiring Hutchison Whampoa were slim.

The major shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa Group was HSBC. The bank could sell it to whomever it pleased. Could he make Michael Sandberg go back on his previous commitment?

Lin Haoran didn’t have that much face right now.

However, just because Hutchison Whampoa Group wasn’t a suitable target, it didn’t mean other British-owned foreign firms were off-limits. Hutchison Whampoa wasn’t the only blue-chip stock in Hong Kong.

In fact, the vast majority of British-owned companies held massive amounts of land and properties—companies like Wheelock, Hongkong Land, Swire & Co., Hongkong Electric Group, and even Jardine Matheson & Co.

Lin Haoran also knew that in a few years, Hongkong Land would face a major financial crisis. To survive, it would be forced to sell off various assets, and its stock would plummet. That might be his opportunity.

By 1980, to guard against covetous Chinese-funded conglomerates and to prevent a repeat of the Kowloon Wharf incident, Jardine Matheson’s chairman, Newbigging, would come up with a plan to secure their controlling stake in Hongkong Land.

He devised a cross-shareholding scheme between Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, with the ultimate goal being for Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land Group to each hold 40% of the other’s shares.

But when the Hong Kong property market collapsed, this mutual control became a heavy burden on the Jardine-Land group.

That would be the perfect time for Lin Haoran to take control of Hongkong Land, and by extension, indirectly control Jardine Matheson.

The probability of success was small, but there was a fallback. With the wealth he would possess in half a year, even if he couldn’t take down Jardine Matheson, he could definitely acquire Hongkong Land.

As for whether HSBC or even the Hong Kong British government would intervene to stop his acquisition, that was highly possible, but he believed he would have ways to deal with it by then.

Right now, his influence in the business world was still too low, and his options for handling such special situations were too few.

In fact, to Lin Haoran, Hongkong Land’s value was far greater than Jardine Matheson’s.

Even if he failed and only managed to acquire Hongkong Land, he would be very satisfied.

Of course, at present, he lacked the strength. His capital was too limited, and his connections were too few. An ant swallowing an elephant was not very realistic.

Only after securing a massive sum of money from the gold market would he have the capital to covet Hongkong Land Group, and perhaps even Jardine Matheson & Co.

Picking up the latest newspaper his assistant had prepared for him, Lin Haoran leaned back in his executive chair and began to read.

“Yesterday, the Hong Kong stock market continued its surge. Stock market experts predict that Hong Kong is welcoming another major bull market. The top gainer was Hongkong Electric Group, with a rise of 3.72%, bringing its total market capitalization to over 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars.”

It was a copy of the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, and the headline featured a report on the previous day’s stock market performance.

During this oil crisis, the performance of global stock markets was completely different from the crisis in 1973.

Although the economy was also experiencing “stagflation,” the American stock market did not fall sharply. In fact, it rose.

In the two years from 1979 to 1980, the S&P 500 index in the US stock market saw a cumulative increase of 41%, clearly indicating a bull market trend.

The stock markets of other major countries and regions around the world also mostly saw gains. Among them, the Hong Kong stock market had the largest increase, with the Hang Seng Index accumulating a staggering 197% gain over two years—a full-blown bull market.

Lin Haoran’s timing in taking over Green Island Cement Company just before the arrival of the Hong Kong bull market was a stroke of incredible luck.

Otherwise, if he had waited until now to acquire Green Island Cement Company, the cost of acquisition would have likely doubled. Furthermore, with the surge in stock market trading volume, there would be more small shareholders, making it even more difficult for him to acquire the company so easily.

At that moment, Lin Haoran’s attention was captured by a company reported in the newspaper.

Hongkong Electric Group?

Wasn’t this the company that Li Jiacheng would acquire a few years later?

Chapter 135: This is a Golden Goose that Lays Golden Eggs

In Lin Haoran’s previous life, Li Jiacheng’s acquisition of Hongkong Electric was a classic case study. Anyone who had followed Li Jiacheng’s rise was familiar with this chapter of his M&A history.

Compared to Green Island Cement, the Hongkong Electric Group was obviously far more valuable.

The Hongkong Electric Group was a British-owned public utility company in Hong Kong. Founded in 1889, it had a ninety-year history, during which the group had accumulated a vast portfolio of land.

These plots of land were not just scattered across Hong Kong Island; many were even located on the Kowloon Peninsula.

Examples included the former site of the power station on Electric Road in North Point, Inland Lot 8200 on Jardine’s Lookout, and even plots in Tsuen Wan.

Many of these plots were once in the suburbs of Hong Kong, but with the expansion and development of the urban area, they were now within the city limits, and their value had long since skyrocketed.

Right now, if Lin Haoran wanted to take over the Hongkong Electric Group, he had many advantages.

First, the Hongkong Electric Group’s real estate business had only just begun. Although it was developing rapidly, its profits were not yet high, and its market capitalization was still relatively low.

Second, the Hongkong Electric Group had not yet partnered with Cheung Kong Holdings Group to develop the former power station site on Electric Road in North Point, so it had not yet caught Li Jiacheng’s eye. Once that partnership began, it was obvious Li Jiacheng would start eyeing the group.

Third, a failure in the competition for Kowloon Wharf would leave Hongkong Land and Jardine Matheson & Co. with abundant capital, fueling Hongkong Land’s ambitions for expansion. At that point, the Hongkong Electric Group would become their target. They would first take over the Hongkong Telephone Company, then attempt a stealth acquisition of the Hongkong Electric Group. In the end, if it weren’t for the severe losses Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land incurred from over-expansion, forcing them to sell their controlling shares in the Hongkong Electric Group to Li Jiacheng, the group would have actually fallen under Hongkong Land’s control.

Fourth, the Hongkong Electric Group was a high-quality utility stock with stable income. In two or three years, its market capitalization would reach 5.5 billion Hong Kong dollars. Not only would there be numerous competitors by then, but the cost of acquisition would also be very high. Currently, the market capitalization of the Hongkong Electric Group was only 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Fifth, as a publicly listed company, the Hongkong Electric Group had never had a major family shareholder, meaning an acquisition would not be easily blocked.

…

Clearly, this was an excellent time to acquire the group.

The Hongkong Electric Group was undoubtedly a top-tier enterprise in Hong Kong. Its business was not limited to its core operation of selling electricity; it also included real estate development and management, technical services, retail, advertising, finance, and other ventures. It owned subsidiaries such as the Hongkong Electric Company, Associated Engineering Company, Cavendish Development Group, Cavendish Property Company, Fortress Electrical Company, and Capital Finance Company. It had long achieved diversified development and was far more than just a power company. Its strength was not to be underestimated, second only to a few giants like the HSBC Group, Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, Hutchison Whampoa, and Swire & Co.

Putting everything else aside, the two plots of land at the former power station site on Electric Road in North Point and Inland Lot 8200 on Jardine’s Lookout alone were currently worth over one billion Hong Kong dollars. By next year, these two plots could sell for more than two billion Hong Kong dollars.

Most importantly, the Hongkong Electric Group was a company with stable profits. With its electricity business, it was almost immune to losses. Unlike companies like Hutchison Whampoa or Hongkong Land, which were easily affected by downturns in the real estate industry, the Hongkong Electric Group would rarely face such a situation.

Taking over the Hongkong Electric Group was like acquiring a golden goose that lays golden eggs.

Right now, the funds he had on hand were certainly not enough to take over the Hongkong Electric Group, and he had other uses for his capital.

However, he could start moving on the Hongkong Electric Group in secret. While the stock price was still low, he could begin accumulating a portion of the shares. In the future, when he had sufficient funds, he could then make a strong move to seize the controlling stake. The timing was perfect.

The Hongkong Electric Group’s current total market capitalization was still at 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars, but Lin Haoran knew that in another year, it would likely reach two to three billion Hong Kong dollars. Two years later, it would reach four to five billion.

Therefore, making a move on the Hongkong Electric Group now would be profitable no matter what.

To put it bluntly, even if he failed to take over the company, he could still make a profit of one or two times his investment with the shares he acquired in advance. There was no way he could lose.

With this in mind, Lin Haoran no longer felt the need to stay in the Green Island Cement office.

There were no urgent matters that required his decision here for the time being. Burton was managing the company in an orderly fashion, and the overseas cement business was continuously expanding, which pleased him greatly.

Originally, constrained by the small size of the Hong Kong market, Green Island Cement Company’s monthly profit was only about one to two million Hong Kong dollars. Since last year, as the real estate market in Hong Kong boomed with construction sites everywhere, the monthly profit had risen to two to three million, meaning an annual profit of twenty to thirty million Hong Kong dollars.

This profit was not low, but Lin Haoran was not entirely satisfied.

Now, with Burton’s push to develop overseas markets, profits had started to increase substantially. Starting from the last two months, the overseas market share had completely surpassed the Hong Kong market share and was still expanding.

Just last month, in a single month, Green Island Cement Company’s profit had reached over five million Hong Kong dollars. And as the market expanded, this profit was also rising in a straight line.

In the future, after entering markets like Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, it would be a simple matter for the monthly profit from the cement business alone to exceed ten million Hong Kong dollars, or even more.

Compared to Hong Kong’s population of less than five million, countries like Malaysia and Thailand had populations in the tens of millions. Many of their cities had populations much larger than Hong Kong’s, so the demand for cement was clearly much greater than in the single city of Hong Kong.

As long as Green Island Cement Company maintained its high quality, its reputation overseas would only grow, and its market share would naturally increase.

Taking the elevator down, he saw that the once separate areas between the Green Island Building, Qingdao Building, and Green Castle Building had now been connected by a passageway.

This was the commercial street that Burton had set up.

From proposing the idea to leasing out the spaces, only two months had passed.

And now, two-thirds of the shops inside had already been rented out.

Green Island Cement Company was in a prime location, surrounded by a large number of office workers. With just a simple renovation, it had unexpectedly attracted many tenants, quickly forming a small business district.

Its popularity was quite good, too. In the future, as its popularity grew, this simple renovation would generate a profit of several hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars per month for Green Island Cement Company. The renovation costs were recouped in just one month.

This just went to show that many companies were not incapable of making money; rather, those in power did not know how to utilize the company’s resources to generate profit, letting many assets go to waste.

Inside the cement factory, it was still as busy as ever.

The real estate boom had caused cement sales in Hong Kong to surge. Even though the market share on Luzon Island no longer required production from here, the demand for cement had not decreased.

Half an hour later, Lin Haoran was in the chairman’s office of the Wan’an Group Building.

He made a phone call, asking Su Zhixue to come to his office.

The employees of Universal Investment Company had not had much to do these past few months, so Lin Haoran had temporarily merged them into the Securities and Commerce Department of Su’s Group. This allowed them to learn while also keeping their professional skills sharp.

Now, it was time for them to get back to Universal Investment Company’s business.

It wasn’t long before Su Zhixue arrived at Lin Haoran’s office.

“Boss, what can I do for you?” Su Zhixue asked respectfully.

“I have two tasks for you now. One is to acquire shares of the Wan’an Group, and the other is to acquire shares of the Hongkong Electric Group.

“For the Wan’an Group, my goal is simple: to privatize it. So, you can go ahead and acquire shares, but of course, don’t drive up the price.

“For the Hongkong Electric Group, acquire as many shares as you can without raising the stock price. There’s no limit. My only requirement is that our actions must not be discovered by anyone else!” Lin Haoran said solemnly.

Wan’an Group was different from Green Island Cement Company. Even if he continuously acquired its shares, no one would make a fuss. After all, Wan’an Group was essentially a publicly listed family business—a family enterprise sailing under the flag of a public company.

Even if it was discovered that he was continuously acquiring Wan’an Group’s shares, he could simply announce his intention to privatize the company.

In contrast, Green Island Cement Company was a British-owned company with many shareholders. If his actions had infringed upon the interests of other shareholders, he would have undoubtedly been reported, just like what happened with those five British shareholders.

Currently, he held ninety million US dollars, equivalent to 477 million Hong Kong dollars. He could also mobilize some funds from Green Island Cement Company and Wan’an Group at any time, which meant his available capital was at least 500 million Hong Kong dollars.

Moreover, Green Island Cement Company’s profitability was growing stronger, so his available funds would only increase in the coming months.

With such a large sum of money, under normal trading conditions, it might take Universal Investment Company half a year to spend it all.

However, there were two loans within this sum that he needed to repay this year: the first loan of fifty million Hong Kong dollars plus interest from Bumiputra Finance, and another loan of forty-five million Hong Kong dollars from Hang Seng Bank. These two loans required him to set aside one hundred million in funds.

As for the second loan of 240 million Hong Kong dollars from Bumiputra Finance, Lin Haoran planned to discuss with Yang Changdao about extending the repayment period by a few months.

After all, if he used all his funds for repayment, he wouldn’t have much money left for other uses.

Compared to the small amount of interest, Lin Haoran felt it was more appropriate to use the money for investment.

Once the funds from his gold investment returned, what was a loan of 240 million Hong Kong dollars?

Given Lin Haoran’s current standing, extending the repayment period by a few months wouldn’t be a problem. For Bumiputra Finance, it was actually good news, as they could earn a few more months of interest.

As long as it was discussed in advance, there would be no issue.

When Lin Haoran went to Bumiputra Finance to repay the first loan, he could settle the extension for the second loan at the same time.

“Boss, you plan to acquire the Hongkong Electric Group?” Su Zhixue asked in surprise.

After all, the Hongkong Electric Group was a behemoth.

“Yes. Don’t tell anyone about this. If the traders ask, just say it’s an investment, and tell them not to tell anyone either,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

“Rest assured, Boss. I know what to do!” Su Zhixue said before respectfully exiting the office.

Lin Haoran certainly had great trust in Su Zhixue. After all, he was his only subordinate with 100% loyalty.

Chapter 136: Lin Haoning’s Straightforwardness

After arranging for Su Zhixue and his team to handle the trading, Lin Haoran went to Citibank and exchanged forty million US dollars for Hong Kong dollars, which came out to about 212 million Hong Kong dollars. He then transferred the funds to his HSBC bank account.

His Hong Kong Stock Exchange account was linked to an HSBC account, and all transactions were processed through it.

With this capital, Universal Investment Company had more than enough funds for Su Zhixue to trade with for a very long time.

Checking the time, he saw it was already past three in the afternoon. Lin Haoran decided to simply head home to the Deep Water Bay villa.

“Well now, Haoran, why are you home so early today? Usually, we don’t see a trace of you until six or seven in the evening.” Seeing Lin Haoran’s early return, Lin Wan’an, who was watering the flowers in the courtyard, immediately showed his surprise.

Although such daily chores were usually handled by the servants, Lin Wan’an had grown to love the simple pleasure of doing it himself since retiring from Wan’an Group. It was both a way to stay active and enjoy a moment of tranquility—a part of his new, relaxed lifestyle.

“Dad, there wasn’t much to do at the company today, so I came back early. Actually, I came back because I need your help with something,” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he walked over, taking the watering can from his father and continuing to water the plants.

“You silly boy, why be so formal with me? Just tell me what’s on your mind. Don’t beat around the bush,” Lin Wan’an said with feigned admonishment, but his eyes were full of affection.

“Dad, I wanted to discuss something with you. I plan to buy the ten percent stake in Wan’an Group that Older Brother holds,” Lin Haoran said, getting straight to the point.

“Oh? That stake doesn’t affect your actual control over Wan’an. Why the sudden decision to buy it?” Lin Wan’an asked, a curious look on his face.

As far as Lin Wan’an was concerned, both Lin Haoning and Lin Haoran were his sons. It made no difference to him which one held the shares in Wan’an Group.

“Dad, my plan is to completely privatize Wan’an Group. The benefits of being a publicly listed company are limited, and I find it more of a constraint than anything. It would be better to just privatize it, which would give me more freedom to plan the group’s development.

Of course, besides Older Brother’s shares, I was also hoping you could talk to the other shareholders on the board and see if we can acquire their shares as well,” Lin Haoran explained earnestly.

Within Wan’an Group, besides the Lin family who held absolute influence as the major shareholder, there were a few other shareholders with significant holdings.

However, lacking any real say in the company, they often chose not to participate directly in the group’s affairs, attending Board of Directors meetings as a mere formality.

It could be said that Wan’an Group was effectively run under the Lin family’s absolute control.

Given Wan’an Group’s current financial stability, there was no need for external financing, rendering its status as a listed company unnecessary. There was no longer a need for others to share in the risks.

Moreover, Lin Haoran was full of confidence about the group’s future development.

While Wan’an Group currently faced no risk of a hostile takeover, as a publicly listed company, it was required to regularly disclose business information, which increased the risk of leaking sensitive corporate secrets.

Especially with the value of the group’s assets, such as properties and plots of land, continually climbing, Lin Haoran preferred to maximize his own benefits through privatization rather than letting minor shareholders share in the appreciating profits.

Therefore, for Lin Haoran, Wan’an Group’s continued status as a listed company was not only unhelpful but could potentially become a burden hindering the group’s growth.

Currently, Wan’an Group’s market capitalization was relatively low, at only about 170 million Hong Kong dollars.

And Lin Haoran already held 49.99% of the shares. Based on the current stock price, he would only need about eighty-five million Hong Kong dollars to acquire the remaining shares and achieve a complete privatization of Wan’an Group.

But the true value of Wan’an Group was far more than its total market capitalization of 170 million. He still held the prime plots of land previously purchased for 130 million Hong Kong dollars, as well as the commercial building in North Point that was nearing completion.

By early 1981, the value of these assets would have surged dramatically: the total value of those dozen or so plots of land was expected to reach over 300 million or even 400 million Hong Kong dollars, and the appreciation potential of the commercial building under construction in North Point was equally immense, easily reaching 200 million Hong Kong dollars.

Furthermore, the Wan’an Group Building was a treasure in itself.

Located in a prime area of Causeway Bay, while slightly less prestigious than Central and not particularly tall, it possessed extremely high commercial value.

If the Wan’an Group Building were to be sold then, its value could very well break the 400 million Hong Kong dollar mark.

At that time, if all of Wan’an Group’s sellable properties were liquidated, their total value could easily surpass the one billion Hong Kong dollar mark by early 1981.

In recent years, the frenzied rise of Hong Kong’s real estate market was no empty boast; its prosperity was plain for all to see.

Even after repaying the 130 million Hong Kong dollar loan from HSBC plus interest, he would still have over 800 million Hong Kong dollars left.

When the Hong Kong property market crashed in 1982, he could buy the building back at a low price. With this one sale and repurchase, he could easily pocket a few hundred million for nothing.

This was a much faster way to make money than painstakingly running a business.

“Privatize Wan’an Group? Good, you have my full support. I’ll contact those other shareholders right now. But what about your older brother? Aren’t you going to talk to him personally?” Lin Wan’an asked with a smile.

For Lin Wan’an, privatizing the group was no big deal.

The initial decision to take Wan’an Group public was not only to raise funds for early development but, more importantly, to share the risks with shareholders, thereby reducing the group’s risk to himself.

Having lived through multiple real estate crises, he understood the importance of caution and was unwilling to bear all the risks alone.

Now, Wan’an Group no longer needed external financing, and his son’s management philosophy was vastly different from his own.

So, Lin Wan’an was open-minded about it. He had no intention of interfering and was willing to let his son manage and develop the group in his own way.

Therefore, he gave his full support and understanding for the decision to privatize.

“Okay, Dad, it’s better if you contact Older Brother. Also, if the other shareholders try to take advantage and raise their prices, just tell them I’ve already applied for a 130 million loan using the Wan’an Group Building as collateral. I believe they’ll weigh the pros and cons and make a wise choice,” Lin Haoran said with a firm shake of his head.

The loan had not yet been announced, and even the group’s shareholders were unaware of it. Otherwise, they would certainly have had objections.

If the decision for the loan had been made by Lin Wan’an, there naturally wouldn’t have been a problem. But now that the group was helmed by a young man like Lin Haoran, it was clear these shareholders wouldn’t trust him, even if they were powerless to stop him.

Lin Wan’an nodded silently upon hearing this, sighing inwardly.

Ever since Lin Haoning got married and moved out, the relationship between the two brothers had indeed grown more distant than before.

However, he also understood that every child has their own choices and path in life.

About an hour later, Lin Wan’an finished his calls with the various shareholders and returned to the living room.

“Haoran, good news. The other shareholders have all agreed to sell their shares to you. However, two of them are insisting on a price ten percent higher than the market value before they’ll let go. Also, Haoning said he’ll come over tonight. You can discuss the details with him then,” Lin Wan’an reported.

“Dad, let’s just do as they ask. I hope to complete the privatization of Wan’an Group as soon as possible to make the group’s development more stable,” Lin Haoran said without hesitation.

These shareholders didn’t actually hold many shares. As far as Lin Haoran knew, the six board members combined held only about sixteen percent. A ten percent premium for two of them would only cost him a few hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars more. There was no need to haggle over such a small amount.

“Alright, I understand. As for Wan’an Group, just do what you think is best. I’m playing more of an advisory role now, Dad will give you suggestions, but I’ll never interfere with your decisions,” Lin Wan’an said with a smile, expressing his trust and support for his son.

Witnessing how Lin Haoran had, in just a few short months, achieved more in the business world than he, an “old hand” who had navigated the commercial seas for decades, had—not only successfully taking over a British-owned company but also smoothly privatizing it—Lin Wan’an couldn’t help but feel a wave of emotion. He was gradually losing his former passion for business matters.

The contrast was indeed humbling, enough to make one feel that “the young are to be regarded with respect,” and it even felt a bit like a “blow” to his ego. But on second thought, this outstanding young man was his own son, and Lin Wan’an’s heart filled with an indescribable sense of pride and gratification.

At a little past six in the evening, Lin Haoning arrived as promised.

As usual, he came alone.

As for Lin Haoran’s sister-in-law and nephew, he had only seen them twice since he had transmigrated here.

Once was on Lunar New Year’s Eve, and the other was on his father Lin Wan’an’s birthday.

Before dinner, everyone tacitly avoided the topic of selling the shares, with the Lin mother leading the idle chatter.

After dinner, the three men gathered in the study, and the atmosphere became slightly more formal.

“Haoran, about the Wan’an Group shares, if you’re interested, I can transfer them to you at the market price anytime,” Lin Haoning’s words broke the silence.

His straightforwardness took Lin Haoran by surprise, and a flash of astonishment crossed his eyes.

Before Lin Haoran could speak, Lin Haoning continued, “Thank you for your advice last time. You made me look into the North American market, and I found that it’s just as you said, much better than the Middle East.

In the Middle East, you work yourself to the bone for meager profits. But in North America, the order volume is just as good, and most importantly, the profit margins are much higher than in the Middle East. I’ve already reached agreements with several North American distributors.”

Lin Haoning’s face beamed with gratitude, and his gaze toward Lin Haoran held a newfound sincerity and admiration.

He had lost the competition for the inheritance of Wan’an Group, but he hadn’t lost much; he had still received a considerable amount of assets from his father.

And now, he could focus wholeheartedly on running his Wanfeng Fan Factory.

“I merely offered a casual suggestion. It’s to your credit that you took it seriously. If you hadn’t, you wouldn’t be enjoying this success,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

In the study, the conversation between the two brothers seemed to make all past competition and estrangement vanish into thin air.

Chapter 137: Hoping the Takeover Battle Doesn’t End Too Soon

Haoran’s casual suggestion earlier was something Lin Haoning hadn’t paid much mind to at first. But when he recalled his younger brother’s performance during the competition for succession, he decided to try using his connections to negotiate a partnership with a distributor in the North American market. To his surprise, he discovered that not only was the order volume significant, but the profits were several times higher.

After that, he began shifting his focus to the North American market. The profits from the Middle Eastern market, by contrast, now seemed rather insignificant to him.

Although he didn’t drop his Middle Eastern orders outright, he only maintained his existing clients and stopped expanding.

Of course, this wasn’t something to be widely publicized. Making a fortune quietly was the way to go.

Besides, even if he did talk about it, few would likely believe him.

Just like Liu Luanxiong’s family, who absolutely refused to believe there was a bigger fan market than the one in the Middle East.

Currently, the North American orders for Lin Haoning’s Wanfeng Fan Factory certainly couldn’t compare to those of Amigo Company, but even so, his profits had increased considerably.

Originally, through his wife’s family connections, he had secured many orders in the Middle East, and his monthly profit had risen to over a million. He was already quite satisfied with that.

But unexpectedly, after taking on orders from North America, his profits doubled without a significant increase in order volume.

Moreover, as long as he continued to develop the North American market, his profits would only grow.

Lin Haoran had a sudden realization. No wonder.

Lin Haoran didn’t regret telling Lin Haoning about the North American market.

The North American market was huge. The share that Amigo Company could capture was just a small fraction of it.

It didn’t matter who took the rest. Lin Haoning was, at least nominally, his older brother. Their assets had already been divided, so there were no disputes between them.

Besides, the North American market would be saturated by 1981 at the latest. In other words, the time to make big money there was running out.

Even when people gradually discovered that the European and American markets were quite good, it would already be too late.

“Alright, since Older Brother is being so straightforward, let’s finalize this deal tomorrow,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Haoran, how did you know the fan market in North America would be better?” Lin Wan’an asked in surprise.

Lin Wan’an was very familiar with the fan market. After all, he had founded Wanfeng Fan Factory himself, and it had been several years before he handed it over to his eldest son to manage just last year.

“When there were signs of the oil crisis, I guessed that the fan market in North America would see a massive surge. When the weather gets hot, many people would definitely not use air conditioning wantonly in order to save electricity.

“Fans became the best substitute for saving electricity, so I invested in a fan company right away. Now, that company’s main business is in the North American region.

“Of course, it’s best we make our fortune quietly with this. We absolutely must not let this get out. No matter how big a market is, if too many competitors enter, it will become fiercely competitive.

“Just like the Middle Eastern market. The demand for fans there has always been very high, but there are too many competitors. Everyone engages in price wars, so the profits are naturally low.” Lin Haoran didn’t hide anything.

Amigo’s current order volume and profits are inseparable from Liu Luanxiong’s personal abilities, his understanding of the fan industry, and his connections in North America. Many of these things are not replicable.

Even if Lin Haoning entered the North American market, it would already be impressive for him to capture a small portion of it.

Take Mr. Liang Yingwei, Liu Luanxiong’s former partner. After selling his 50% stake in Amigo Company to Lin Haoran for two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, he also used his prior knowledge of the fan industry. According to Liu Luanxiong, he has opened a small processing plant slightly larger than a small workshop.

However, after more than half a year, his business is still just a small-scale operation. Just knowing the North American market is good doesn’t mean he can make a name for himself there.

Amigo’s success was largely due to Liu Luanxiong.

Back then, the sales channels were all single-handedly established by Liu Luanxiong. Mr. Liang Yingwei was clearly not familiar with developing sales channels, so even after setting up his own business with two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, it would be difficult for him to achieve much.

The fact that Lin Haoning was able to secure some orders from America so quickly was obviously due to his connections, not his personal abilities.

As for whose connections, it was clearly his wife’s family.

“Haoran, which fan company did you invest in?” Not only was Lin Wan’an curious, but Lin Haoning also became curious.

Although it had been over half a year since he invested in Amigo Company, Lin Haoran had never spoken of it to anyone, so even his father didn’t know about it.

“Amigo Company in Kwun Tong,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

There was nothing to hide about it. Anyone who was interested could easily find out.

As for the orders, Liu Luanxiong handled all the ones from North America himself. He understood that this matter shouldn’t be publicized, so besides the finance department, no one in the company knew just how high the profits from the North American orders were.

Amigo’s order volume wasn’t actually the largest in Hong Kong. It was just that their profit margins were high. Amigo might only need an order of twenty or thirty thousand fans to make as much profit as others did with an order of one hundred thousand units in the Middle East.

“Amigo Company?” When Lin Haoning repeated the name, his voice couldn’t help but rise several notches.

“Is Amigo Company very famous?” Lin Wan’an looked toward Lin Haoning.

Ever since he handed Wanfeng Fan Factory over to Lin Haoning, he had stopped paying attention to the industry.

“Dad, you don’t know. Amigo Fan Company is now one of the fastest-growing enterprises in Hong Kong’s fan industry. It used to be just a small workshop, but in just half a year, it has become a top-tier fan manufacturing enterprise, far stronger than Wanfeng Fan Factory.

“I heard the company received an injection of external capital and also secured a large number of orders, which is how it developed so quickly. I never expected that the person who invested was Haoran,” Lin Haoning said, somewhat shocked.

“Oh? Is that so? Haoran, it seems I shouldn’t have given you Huafeng Cement Factory to manage back then. I should have given you Wanfeng Fan Factory instead. If I had, who knows how many times stronger Wanfeng Fan Factory would be by now,” Lin Wan’an said with emotion.

However, that wasn’t what Lin Haoran was thinking. If he hadn’t met Liu Luanxiong, he would have never even considered investing in the fan industry.

After all, so many industries were set to develop in Hong Kong; he couldn’t possibly invest in all of them.

Besides, if he had tried to develop it himself, it certainly wouldn’t have been as easy as investing money in Liu Luanxiong and letting him handle it.

He knew nothing about the fan industry, only that the North American market was good. He might have ended up like Mr. Liang Yingwei, just running a small-scale operation, which would have been completely useless.

“Dad, you can’t put it like that. If Haoran had taken over Wanfeng Fan Factory and dedicated himself to developing the fan business, wouldn’t he have missed the chance to acquire Green Island Cement Company? It was precisely because he was managing Huafeng Cement Factory that he got the idea to acquire Green Island Cement Company!” Lin Haoning said with a laugh.

“That’s true. Compared to the money earned in the fan industry, taking over Green Island Cement Company is far more impressive. Your dad is getting old and muddled,” Lin Wan’an shook his head and laughed at himself.

“Older Brother, it’s settled then. I’ll wait for you at the Wan’an Group Building tomorrow morning.” Lin Haoran couldn’t stand the praise from his family and decided to end the conversation.

“Okay, I’ll bring the Wan’an Group stock certificates over tomorrow. Dad, Haoran, it’s getting late. Since everything is settled, I’ll be heading back now,” Lin Haoning said, glancing at the wall clock.

“Alright, be careful driving. Watch out on the road,” Lin Wan’an reminded him.

“Don’t worry, Dad, I know.” Lin Haoning waved, said his goodbyes to the two of them, and left the study.

Only Lin Wan’an and Lin Haoran, father and son, remained in the study.

“Haoran, I truly find it harder and harder to understand you. I thought I already knew the extent of your talent, but you continue to surprise me more and more. I think the thing I, Lin Wan’an, am most proud of in this life is perhaps having a son with such a gift for business!” Lin Wan’an said emotionally, his words filled with gratification.

If he knew everything about Lin Haoran, he would be even more astonished. As it was, there were already quite a few things Lin Haoran was hiding from him.

For instance, the investments in oil and gold—those were the real big earners.

“Dad, I did spend four years at London Business School. Those four years weren’t spent for nothing,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

After chatting with Lin Wan’an in the study for a long time, Lin Haoran finally left and returned to his bedroom.

Night deepened. The world grew quiet, with only the sound of waves lapping intermittently in the distance.

…

The next morning, Lin Haoran was at home as usual, leisurely eating breakfast and reading the newspaper.

As expected, the price of gold had risen again. In just one day, it had actually gone up by 5.30 US dollars.

Lin Haoran wasn’t surprised by this. After all, in half a year, it had soared from a low of 250 US dollars to a high of 850 US dollars, which was an average increase of three to four US dollars per day.

For him, as long as gold didn’t fall, it was fine. Even if it did dip, it would only be a slight, temporary drop, and it would rise back up the next day.

The business section of the paper was still focused on the bull market, where the prices of many stocks had begun to surge.

Lin Haoran also noticed that Kowloon Wharf’s stock had closed at 87.9 Hong Kong dollars per share yesterday. It was clear the takeover battle between Pao Yue-kong and Hongkong Land was growing more intense.

However, Lin Haoran didn’t regret selling his Kowloon Wharf shares early.

If he hadn’t sold the Kowloon Wharf stock early and secured his first real pot of gold, he wouldn’t have been able to take over Green Island Cement.

Besides, the price he sold at was already over seventy dollars per share, which wasn’t a huge difference from the current price of over eighty dollars per share.

Lin Haoran even knew that this competition would ultimately end with Kowloon Wharf’s stock price at 105 Hong Kong dollars per share. Pao Yue-kong would emerge victorious, while Hongkong Land would profit by selling at a high price.

In a way, there were no real losers in this contest.

Pao Yue-kong won the controlling stake in Kowloon Wharf, and Hongkong Land won a massive amount of capital.

Lin Haoran just hoped their takeover battle wouldn’t end too soon, thereby keeping Hongkong Land tied down.

Because he knew that once Hongkong Land lost the competition, they would use the enormous funds they acquired to start investing everywhere.

And Hongkong Electric Group would be one of Hongkong Land’s targets.

Chapter 138: Buying a Villa

Around nine in the morning, Lin Haoran arrived at the Wan’an Group Building.

Before long, Lin Haoning also arrived, and he came alone, without anyone accompanying him.

The employees of Wan’an Group were somewhat surprised to see the new Chairman’s older brother, once the most likely successor to the group. What was he doing here?

In fact, when Lin Haoran took over as Chairman of Wan’an Group, everyone had already understood that the two brothers must have competed for the position. The result was obviously that Lin Haoran had succeeded.

In the Chairman’s office, Lin Haoran stood up and said with a smile, “Older Brother, have a seat.”

Lin Haoning nodded and looked around the Chairman’s office, feeling a great deal of emotion.

All the items and furnishings here were not much different from before.

However, none of this had anything to do with him anymore. His energy was now focused on Wanfeng Fan Factory.

A monthly profit of several million Hong Kong dollars had shown him the promise of growth.

He believed that as long as he worked hard, his own business would not be lacking in the future.

Therefore, Lin Haoning was quite grateful to his younger brother standing before him.

If Lin Haoran hadn’t told him about the fan market in America, he would still be stubbornly focused on the Middle East market.

“Haoran, these are the stock certificates for Wan’an Group. I’ve brought them all for you,” Lin Haoning said, directly handing the stock certificates to Lin Haoran.

“Okay. I’ve already had our legal counsel draft the contract. Take a look and see if there are any issues. If not, let’s sign it,” Lin Haoran said simply, taking out two copies of the contract and handing one to Lin Haoning.

Lin Haoning gave it a quick glance and directly signed his name.

This was a transaction, and a transaction involving over ten million Hong Kong dollars at that. It certainly had to follow proper procedures, even for blood brothers.

“Older Brother, I’ll arrange for the funds to be transferred to you later,” Lin Haoran said as he signed.

“Alright. If there’s nothing else, I’ll head back. I’m busy at the fan factory, so I won’t stay long.” Lin Haoning didn’t intend to linger. After selling his shares to Lin Haoran, this place no longer had any connection to him.

“Okay, take care, Older Brother. Come for tea when you have time,” Lin Haoran said politely, not pressing him to stay.

Although they were brothers, Lin Haoran didn’t really know what to talk about with Lin Haoning.

After settling the matter of Lin Haoning’s shares, Lin Haoran made a trip to Universal Investment Company’s office.

Under Su Zhixue’s supervision, the trading team at Universal Investment Company was already systematically accumulating shares of Wan’an Group and Hongkong Electric Group.

The shares of Wan’an Group were easy to accumulate because there were more sell orders than buy orders.

However, accumulating shares of Hongkong Electric Group was clearly much more difficult.

Although Hongkong Electric Group was a publicly listed company without a major family shareholder, its stock was traded very frequently due to its stable annual dividends and impressive performance.

On the stock market, there were plenty of both buy orders and sell orders for Hongkong Electric Group, and its daily trading volume was consistently high.

Especially when the Hong Kong stock market entered a bull market, the trading volume for Hongkong Electric Group’s stock, like other high-quality Hong Kong stocks, increased significantly.

However, the high trading volume had an advantage: it made it harder for others to notice their covert accumulation of shares.

This was unlike Wan’an Group, where a sudden and obvious increase in buy orders would easily alert people that someone was buying up large quantities of its stock.

Of course, as long as Su Zhixue and his team didn’t drive up the stock price, there was nothing those who wanted to speculate on Wan’an Group’s stock could do.

After acquiring Lin Haoning’s 10% stake and the roughly 16% stake from the six other shareholders, he would hold 76% of the company, even without buying any shares from the stock market.

With another round of accumulation from the market, breaking the 90% threshold wouldn’t be difficult. At that point, he could directly declare the privatization a success. In fact, Lin Haoran could apply to delist Wan’an Group now, but he planned to accumulate more shares from the market first. There was no rush.

Judging from the stock market activity during this period, it was clear that people were not optimistic about him taking over Wan’an Group. Even as the broader market trended upward, no one was speculating on this stock.

The absurdly steep fall of Green Island Cement Company’s stock price was a clear indicator that people truly lacked confidence in the young Lin Haoran.

The main reason was that Lin Haoran’s investments had always been too mysterious. Although he had suddenly acquired Green Island Cement, many believed it was just a stroke of luck and the result of Lin Wan’an’s backing.

As for Lin Haoran’s subsequent investments in oil and gold, very few people knew about them. In particular, apart from the senior executives at Citibank, no one knew about his gold investment.

Lin Haoran didn’t stay long at Universal Investment Company’s office before leaving.

It was because shareholders had come to see him.

Lin Wan’an had specifically arranged for the four shareholders who had agreed to sell their shares at market price to come first and sign the share transfer agreement with Lin Haoran.

As for the other two shareholders, who had demanded a 10% premium over the market price, Lin Wan’an had scheduled them for another time.

The transaction went smoothly. There wasn’t much to negotiate. They signed the contract, handed the stock certificates to Lin Haoran, and Lin Haoran gave them the money. That was it.

After closing the deal with four shareholders in the morning and two more in the afternoon, Lin Haoran successfully acquired the shares of all the board members.

Thus, in just one day, not counting the shares accumulated from the stock market, Lin Haoran’s holdings in Wan’an Group increased by 26%, though it cost him forty-five million Hong Kong dollars.

On the stock market, Universal Investment Company also had a fruitful day.

The acquisition of Hongkong Electric Group was not something that could be completed in the short term, and he currently lacked the resources to do so.

For now, the task regarding Hongkong Electric was to buy as many shares as possible while the price was still low and without being discovered. The time to take direct control of Hongkong Electric would come after he secured enormous funds from the gold market.

As for the privatization of Wan’an Group, that was obviously much simpler, even simpler than that of Green Island Cement Company. So, Lin Haoran didn’t need to worry too much. He could leave the rest to Universal Investment Company, with Wardley handling the final steps.

The privatization of Wan’an Group didn’t require any bank loans, so having Wardley finalize the process wouldn’t be very expensive.

Over the next period, Lin Haoran’s daily focus was on several key matters.

First, the rise and fall of international gold prices.

Second, the progress of stock accumulation for Wan’an Group and Hongkong Electric Group.

Third, handling the approval of important decisions for both Wan’an Group and Green Island Cement Company.

On weekends, whenever Kwan Shan was out of Hong Kong, Rosamund Kwan would take the initiative to see him. On those occasions, he would stay at his apartment in the Hang Fung Building.

However, Lin Haoran also felt it was time to buy a villa that was completely his own.

It wasn’t very convenient to always go back to the villa in Deep Water Bay. It was far and not very safe at night.

It wasn’t as if he lacked the money now, and visiting his parents occasionally was enough.

Besides, real estate prices in Hong Kong weren’t actually that high yet.

The major property bubble two years from now would only cause Hong Kong real estate to plummet by about 60% from its peak price.

And current Hong Kong property prices were still a far cry from the peak prices of 1981.

So, buying property now was a very smart move.

This was also why he had Wan’an Group take out loans to buy plots of land.

Most importantly, for the current Lin Haoran, a villa in Hong Kong was truly not expensive.

Right now in Hong Kong, a villa in a poor or remote location could be bought for just several hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars.

A villa in a slightly better location, like Repulse Bay or Deep Water Bay, could be had for just over two million.

As for villas on the Clear Water Bay Peninsula, one could be bought for a little over one million.

However, Lin Haoran had no intention of buying any of these. He was more interested in buying a villa in the Mid-Levels or on Victoria Peak, near Central.

Since many influential Westerners resided there, it was one of the safest areas in all of Hong Kong.

A few million Hong Kong dollars would barely make a dent in the hundreds of millions he currently controlled.

With the idea in mind, Lin Haoran immediately put it into action.

Leaving the Wan’an Group Building, Lin Haoran had Li Weiguo drive him to a branch of Hongkong Land’s pre-owned property agency near Central.

Whether it was the Mid-Levels or The Peak, new developments were rare, so buying a house in either of these areas meant choosing a pre-owned one.

However, Lin Haoran didn’t mind. He could just buy it and have it renovated. His Wan’an Group had a professional renovation team, so if he wasn’t satisfied with the layout, he could change it however he wanted.

As Hong Kong’s largest and most established real estate company, Hongkong Land’s pre-owned property business was a significant part of their operations. They had a reliable reputation and a large inventory of listings.

This particular branch was quite large, over two hundred square meters, and located in the bustling core of Central. In a place where every inch of land was precious, the rent here was certainly not cheap.

“Good day, sir. I’m the sales manager here, Hu Yuhang. May I ask for your surname, sir? Are you here to sell or buy a property?” As he walked into the store, a salesperson immediately approached him with great enthusiasm.

With two bodyguards following him, Lin Haoran clearly wasn’t an ordinary person.

“My surname is Lin. I’m here to buy a property. Is there a quieter place we can talk?” Lin Haoran glanced around the main hall, where several other clients were talking with salespeople.

“Yes, yes, of course. Mr. Lin, I’ll take you to our negotiation room.” The salesperson was clearly sharp.

Soon, Lin Haoran was led into a negotiation room, where an employee enthusiastically served hot tea to all three of them.

“Bring me the information you have on properties in the Mid-Levels and on The Peak. I’ll look through them first and ask if I have any questions,” Lin Haoran said directly.

Hearing this, the sales manager was instantly thrilled. A big client had arrived.

“Please wait a moment, Mr. Lin. I’ll go prepare the materials for you right away.” After speaking, the sales manager walked briskly out of the room, gently closing the door behind him.

A short while later, the sales manager returned, carrying a stack of documents.

“Mr. Lin, here is all the information on the villas on The Peak and in the Mid-Levels that Hongkong Land is handling. You can take your time looking through them. Please feel free to ask me if you have any questions,” the sales manager said enthusiastically, placing the documents in front of Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran nodded and began to look through them on his own.

Chapter 139: The Grand Villa on Severn Road

To Lin Haoran’s surprise, there were quite a few listings for villas in Mid-Levels and on The Peak—more than a dozen in total.

After all, villas in these two districts were considered scarce resources in Hong Kong. There weren’t many of them to begin with, yet here he was, with information on over a dozen properties laid out before him.

If he didn’t have other plans for his capital, Lin Haoran would have been tempted to buy all of them.

The majority of the listings were for Mid-Levels, with eleven properties available. For The Peak, there were only three.

Perhaps sensing Lin Haoran’s skepticism, the sales agent explained with a smile, “Since the mid-1970s, quite a few Westerners have chosen to leave Hong Kong and return to Britain to develop their careers. As a result, many villas in Mid-Levels and on The Peak have been put up for sale.

Some are priced too high and have been on the market for a year or two without a buyer. Although the real estate market is doing well right now, most speculation is focused on ordinary residential units and commercial buildings. For most people, the pool of potential buyers for villas is small, especially for expensive properties like those in Mid-Levels and on The Peak. The number of interested clients is relatively few.”

Lin Haoran nodded, understanding immediately.

Looking at the brochures, the prices for the Mid-Levels villas were mostly between two and three million Hong Kong dollars, varying based on size and location.

As for the three villas on The Peak, two were priced above four million, and the remaining one was as high as five million Hong Kong dollars.

Prices like these were indeed difficult for finding a buyer.

Although skyscrapers were sold for billions, they were actually worth that much at the time, as a significant amount could be recouped annually from collecting rent.

But villas were different. While they could be rented out, clients who could afford to rent a villa likely had the capital to buy one themselves. The pool of potential tenants was too small.

In comparison, the villas in Deep Water Bay and Repulse Bay offered much better value for money.

Lin Haoran knew the market for villas in Deep Water Bay and Repulse Bay; you could generally buy one for around two million Hong Kong dollars.

Yet the price for a villa on The Peak was double that!

Moreover, many prominent Chinese business tycoons lived in Deep Water Bay. For some, living there was no worse than living on The Peak.

However, Lin Haoran hadn’t considered the villas in Deep Water Bay or Repulse Bay before coming here.

The reason was simple: security.

Although the Deep Water Bay villa district seemed secure, Lin Haoran knew that kidnappings could happen there, and not far from one’s own doorstep.

Such an incident was highly unlikely to occur on The Peak.

The heads of Western conglomerates, even the Governor himself, and Hong Kong’s top British business and political figures all resided in the Mid-Levels and The Peak districts.

Consequently, security in this area was the best. Every intersection was heavily guarded. Anyone who wasn’t a resident or an invited guest simply couldn’t get in.

Therefore, when Lin Haoran decided to buy a villa, he had already set his sights on this area.

Besides, his parents lived in the Deep Water Bay villa district. If he wanted to live there, he could do so anytime. Why buy another property there?

After reviewing the villas in Mid-Levels, Lin Haoran turned his attention to The Peak.

In Hong Kong, the villa district on Victoria Peak was the absolute pinnacle of luxury real estate. In 1904, the British Hong Kong government had even passed a law prohibiting Chinese people from living on The Peak, a law that was only repealed in 1947.

Thus, only the rich and powerful could live on The Peak; one’s neighbors were all tycoons.

The Mid-Levels district had the advantage of being closer to bustling areas like Central and Wan Chai.

However, the disadvantages of Mid-Levels were also obvious. Being close to the city center meant you could hear car horns, and the views weren’t as expansive.

The Peak, on the other hand, clearly had more benefits: it was quieter, safer, and offered more open vistas.

Besides, it was only a few more pushes on the accelerator to get to busy areas like Central.

So, after seeing the prices for villas on The Peak, Lin Haoran decided to view those properties first.

There were three listings on The Peak. If he wasn’t satisfied with any of them, he would then go look at the ones in Mid-Levels.

In any case, he had plenty of options.

“Can I view these three properties anytime? I’d like to take a look,” Lin Haoran asked, pointing to the files for the three villas on The Peak.

“Of course. The owners of all three villas are British. The reason they’re selling these properties is that they’ve returned to Britain to develop their careers. They’ve entrusted us at Hongkong Land to sell their Hong Kong properties. We have the keys. If you’d like to view them, Mr. Lin, we can go anytime.

However, before the viewing, we need to verify your eligibility. Please don’t be offended, Mr. Lin, this is a company policy to ensure we don’t waste each other’s time,” the agent added, even more delighted.

Asset verification. Lin Haoran could understand that.

In his past life, he had heard that some real estate developments required proof of funds before a viewing, primarily to screen out unqualified clients and avoid wasting time.

But of course, this wasn’t a problem for him.

Previously, becoming the Chairman of Green Island Cement Company and the privatization affair had given Lin Haoran some public exposure in Hong Kong.

But that didn’t mean everyone in Hong Kong recognized him. In fact, if he walked down the street, not many people would be able to identify him.

This was because Lin Haoran’s media exposure was still limited; he hadn’t made a deep enough impression on the general public.

Therefore, the sales agent before him had no idea that the man sitting next to him was the chairman of two publicly listed companies.

Right now, the agent probably thought Lin Haoran was, at most, just a rich scion.

“Alright, you need to verify my assets, right? Wait a moment. Weiguo, go to the car and get my HSBC card from the storage compartment in the back seat,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Yes, Young Master. I’ll go right away,” Li Weiguo responded, quickly heading out the door.

Before long, Li Weiguo returned with a platinum-colored card.

“Boss, here is the card you wanted,” Li Weiguo said, respectfully handing the bank card to Lin Haoran.

After taking the bank card, Lin Haoran smiled. “Does this card represent sufficient qualification?”

The HSBC Platinum Card was a symbol of having deposited over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. Not many clients in all of Hong Kong possessed such a card.

“Mr. Lin, this is more than enough qualification. I’ll go report to the manager and get the keys right away. We can go view the properties immediately,” the sales agent said, becoming even more respectful upon seeing the card.

HSBC was the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry. Anyone working as a real estate agent for Hongkong Land in Central dealt with wealthy clients and obviously had a discerning eye. He recognized the meaning behind the card at a glance.

A short while later, the agent returned with a middle-aged Westerner wearing glasses.

“Mr. Lin, this is our manager, Mr. Smith. He and I will be taking you to see the three properties,” the agent introduced.

Clearly, their treatment of major clients was different; even the manager had come out personally.

“Hello, Mr. Lin. I have the keys. So as not to waste your time, let’s go see the three properties now,” even this Westerner was quite respectful toward Lin Haoran.

And, to Lin Haoran’s surprise, this Westerner named Smith spoke Cantonese with a perfect Hong Kong accent. If not for his Western features, Lin Haoran might have mistaken him for a local Chinese person, born and raised in Hong Kong.

However, there were quite a few Westerners born in Hong Kong. If they grew up in a Cantonese-speaking environment, it was perfectly normal for them to speak it fluently.

Lin Haoran wasn’t surprised by the Western manager’s respectful demeanor.

That’s how the service industry worked. If you put on an arrogant, scowling face, who would want to do business with you?

“Alright, let’s head out now,” Lin Haoran nodded.

The three villas weren’t in the same location, but they weren’t far apart.

One was on Pollock’s Path, one on Barker Road, and one on Severn Road.

The manager first took Lin Haoran to see the villa on Barker Road.

Lin Haoran had been to Barker Road once before.

His father, Lin Wan’an, had brought him there to visit Guo Henian’s residence.

However, Barker Road was a very long mountain road, and the villa they were viewing was not close to Guo Henian’s house.

After seeing the villa on Barker Road, Lin Haoran went on to view the ones on Pollock’s Path and Severn Road.

They spent over an hour looking at the three villas.

Finally, they sat down in the living room of the Severn Road villa.

By now, Lin Haoran had already made his decision.

Of the three, the most expensive was the one on Pollock’s Path, with an asking price of five million.

However, Lin Haoran found that it wasn’t the best one. In terms of size and view, it was actually the worst of the three.

After inquiring, Lin Haoran learned that the villa was so expensive because the owner was unwilling to lower the price, which was why it had been on the market for a year.

Naturally, Lin Haoran immediately eliminated it from consideration.

Of the other two, the one on Barker Road was cheaper, at only four million Hong Kong dollars, but it was slightly smaller than the Severn Road villa, and due to its lower elevation, the view wasn’t as good.

The Severn Road villa where they currently were had an asking price of 4.5 million Hong Kong dollars. It occupied an area of over 6,500 square feet, came with three private parking spaces and a private swimming pool. From its commanding height, one could overlook the entire Central district and Victoria Harbour, and even see the urban areas of the Kowloon Peninsula across the water clearly.

Moreover, the villa was only about ten years old. Although the layout was average, Lin Haoran could have the construction team from Wan’an Group renovate it, so that was a minor issue.

Just now, the manager had explained the identity of the villa’s owner in detail. It belonged to the chairman of a British-owned conglomerate in Hong Kong, but he had sold his shares and left Hong Kong six months ago.

“Mr. Smith, after seeing these three villas, I’ve made up my mind,” Lin Haoran said with a smile. “At present, I prefer this villa we’re in now. If the original owner is willing to sell it for four million Hong Kong dollars, I can buy it directly. I won’t need to go through any loan process; I’ll pay the full amount in one lump sum.”

Although he didn’t care about the five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, it was always best to save money if possible.

In another thirty years, this location would be worth at least one or two billion Hong Kong dollars.

But this was still 1979, not even 1980 yet. Four million Hong Kong dollars was not a small sum.

“Mr. Lin, I need to call and discuss this with the owner. Give me half a day at most, and I will give you an answer,” Mr. Smith said solemnly.

“Alright, I’ll leave it to you,” Lin Haoran smiled.

That evening, Lin Haoran received a call from the manager. The owner had agreed to the deal.

Chapter 140: A Sharp Drop in Loyalty

Once the matter of the villa was settled, Lin Haoran didn’t have to do much else. Hongkong Land would handle all the paperwork for him.

The next day, after paying the four million principal, along with tens of thousands in brokerage fees and deed tax, the villa was officially transferred to Lin Haoran’s name.

For the real estate agency, this was perhaps the fastest and smoothest transaction they had ever handled.

After the transfer, Lin Haoran brought the best housing designer from Wan’an Group to the villa and had them redesign it according to his ideas.

Once the design met his satisfaction, a construction team would be brought in to renovate the villa.

The villa didn’t require major alterations, just a slight change to the overall layout, but the interior design style also needed a transformation. Therefore, it would take at least two months to complete the work.

For Lin Haoran, two months was acceptable; it wasn’t too long.

After making arrangements for the villa, he no longer needed to worry about it.

Time quickly moved into July.

Things were relatively quiet at Wan’an Group. Aside from the two major projects—the North Point commercial building and the Shangri-La Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui—it was only taking on some minor works, so there wasn’t much worthy of note.

In truth, the group owned numerous plots of land. If Wan’an Group wanted to develop them, there would be plenty of work to do. However, Lin Haoran had no intention of doing so, as it was unnecessary.

He had hoarded these plots of land with the intention of selling them directly in early 1981, so there was no need to develop them.

On the other hand, Green Island Cement Company’s performance was improving month by month.

For instance, Hong Kong’s cement supply in June had surprisingly risen by a full twenty percent compared to May, and it was clear that demand for cement was still climbing in July.

As for the overseas cement supply, it had jumped by a full forty percent in just one month.

However, the two markets were different.

The market share in Hong Kong was essentially the same, without many new clients being developed. The increase was mainly due to a rise in demand from existing customers.

Previously, a medium-sized real estate company might have only been developing two projects at a time; now, it was four. How could the demand for cement not increase?

The overseas market was different. It wasn’t that the demand from old customers had increased; it was purely because they were constantly opening up new markets and acquiring new customers, thereby increasing the supply volume.

This showed just how terrifying the current development of Hong Kong’s real estate industry was—construction sites were everywhere, a sign of overdevelopment.

However, Lin Haoran wasn’t concerned about this. The more prosperous Hong Kong’s real estate sector became, the better it was for Green Island Cement.

When demand went up, profits naturally followed.

Even if a real estate crisis two years later caused a sharp drop in Hong Kong’s cement demand, Lin Haoran wouldn’t have to worry about Green Island Cement.

After all, they had already successfully opened up overseas markets, which now surpassed Hong Kong’s market share. In the future, as the overseas business continued to grow, the share held by the Hong Kong market would become less important.

When the time came, even a significant reduction in Hong Kong’s cement supply wouldn’t have too great an impact on the Green Island Cement Company.

Furthermore, Hong Kong’s real estate crisis wouldn’t last long. After a downturn of just over two years, it would welcome a new round of growth.

And this time, the growth would last for a very, very long time.

July 8th marked the beginning of a new week.

In the morning, Lin Haoran did not go to the Wan’an Group Building first. Instead, he went to the Green Island Cement Company.

He planned to handle some major decisions at Green Island Cement Company that required his approval before making a trip to the Amigo Company in Kwun Tong.

Since May, the rate at which Amigo Company’s orders were surging was simply terrifying.

With the arrival of summer in the United States, Canada, and even Europe, the demand for fans had increased dramatically. In particular, the antique-style ceiling fans produced by Amigo Company had become the best-selling ceiling fan product. Every time distributors placed an order, they would sell out of stock in no time.

As a result, distributors in the United States were now practically begging to place orders with Amigo Company, cash in hand.

Evergo’s June orders had more than doubled compared to May.

And judging from the order volume in early July, it was entirely possible for them to double again on top of June’s figures.

Although Lin Haoran didn’t frequent the Amigo Company, Liu Luanxiong reported to him regularly about the company’s affairs.

Occasionally, Liu Luanxiong would also turn to Lin Haoran for help with matters he couldn’t handle himself due to a lack of connections.

Therefore, even though it seemed like Lin Haoran did nothing at Amigo Company, he was, in fact, contributing.

By nine o’clock in the morning, Lin Haoran was already in his office at the Green Island Building.

“Build a new Green Island Cement plant in Johor, Malaysia, with an estimated required capital of one million to one point five million, to cope with the rapidly growing demand from Malaysia and Singapore?” This was the proposal Burton had submitted.

The proposal also mentioned that the Green Island Cement branch factory in Manila, Luzon Island, was no longer sufficient. Coupled with the long distances and high transportation costs to places like Singapore and Malaysia, building a new factory had become an urgent necessity.

Lin Haoran decisively signed his name.

With performance on a continuous rise, it was natural to support the addition of branch factories.

If performance weren’t improving, building a branch factory would be a complete waste.

Not long after he signed the approval, Burton knocked and entered.

Lin Haoran casually handed the approved proposal to Burton.

“Boss, we have a senior management meeting in twenty minutes. Would you like to attend?” Burton asked as he took the document.

“A senior management meeting? Alright, I’ll go and listen in,” Lin Haoran nodded in agreement.

He had attended this type of meeting several times before. Each time, he mostly listened and rarely offered his own opinions.

Lin Haoran knew that he was no genius when it came to corporate management. In fact, his understanding of the cement industry was partial at best.

Therefore, he had no intention of interfering too much with the company’s management, lest he make things worse.

He would approve most of the major corporate decision proposals submitted by people like Burton. If he disagreed with the concept, he would consult his father, Lin Wan’an, before making a final decision.

Although Lin Wan’an was old-fashioned and overly cautious, he was very experienced.

An elder in the family is a treasure, after all. His advice was valuable, and it wasn’t as if he was asking his father to make the decision for him.

Twenty minutes later, Lin Haoran and Burton appeared in the company’s conference room.

By now, over twenty people had already gathered in the room.

These individuals were all the senior managers of the Green Island Cement Company.

Seeing that the Boss was attending the meeting this time, all the senior managers greeted him one by one with utmost respect.

Lin Haoran responded with a smile.

He was very satisfied with the current mid-to-high-level management structure of the Green Island Cement Company.

For instance, among the senior management, nearly half were new faces recruited through external headhunting firms, and there was absolutely no question about their capabilities.

In addition, a small portion had been promoted from mid-level management.

Currently, the entire senior management team consisted of twenty-six people. The number of Chinese faces had reached fifteen, while only eleven Western faces remained.

Chinese senior managers now comprehensively outnumbered the Westerners.

Of course, what Lin Haoran valued more was their talent. As long as a Westerner was talented, he would keep them.

As he glanced around, he noted that almost everyone’s loyalty was above seventy-five, with several even reaching the high eighties.

However, the loyalty of one Westerner suddenly caught Lin Haoran’s eye, standing out conspicuously.

If the loyalty was in the seventies or eighties, Lin Haoran wouldn’t have paid it much mind.

But this man’s loyalty was only in the thirties?

Lin Haoran thought he was seeing things.

Looking again, he confirmed that his eyes had not deceived him. The chief financial officer’s loyalty was truly only thirty-four, far below the acceptable threshold.

Lin Haoran had a clear memory of this Westerner.

He was originally the Deputy Director of finance at Green Island Cement Company. After the former chief financial officer was forced to resign, he temporarily took over the director’s duties.

Later, Lin Haoran had noticed that his loyalty had even increased to a certain extent. Coupled with a shortage of financial elites at the time, he hadn’t fired him.

But the last time Lin Haoran saw him, his loyalty had clearly been seventy-five. This time, however, it was only thirty-four?

There was something wrong with this chief financial officer, definitely something wrong.

He had long known that loyalty could rise and fall; it wasn’t fixed.

An increase in loyalty was naturally because the person felt a stronger sense of belonging to the company, or had become more loyal to him as the Boss.

But a decrease in loyalty clearly meant that the person must have done something detrimental to the company, or perhaps had even betrayed it.

Previously, Lin Haoran had looked into this chief financial officer’s qualifications. They were indeed impressive; both his academic background and work experience proved he was a genuinely talented individual in the financial field.

Although he had always been a deputy before, it was because the former Chairman’s right-hand man had occupied the position of chief financial officer, preventing his promotion.

Now, with the changes at Green Island Cement Company, he had become the chief financial officer, and his loyalty had gradually risen from the sixties to seventy-five.

Originally, Lin Haoran had thought that with this chief financial officer in charge of Green Island Cement Company’s finances, there shouldn’t be any problems in the short term.

The last time Lin Haoran had met him was about a week ago.

Unexpectedly, after just one week, his loyalty had plummeted by more than half.

It seemed the chance he had wanted to give him to continue in his role could no longer be given.

It was time for Green Island Cement Company to get a new chief financial officer.

This position was far too important for a company.

Just like the former Chairman—if it hadn’t been for the assistance of the chief financial officer, it would have been impossible for him to embezzle company funds.

As the senior management meeting was underway, Lin Haoran was already pondering who would take over the position of chief financial officer.

After an unknown amount of time, Lin Haoran’s eyes lit up. He had thought of the best replacement for the chief financial officer.

Chapter 141: Evergo Earns Nearly One Hundred Million Hong Kong Dollars

Clearly, for the chief financial officer’s Loyalty to suddenly plummet this low, something had to be wrong.

A simple investigation would surely expose him.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had already decided to have someone look into it after this meeting concluded.

The meeting was not long; it was merely to cover some recent priorities, matters each department needed to be aware of, and progress reports from each director.

After only about half an hour, the senior executive meeting came to an end.

“Mr. Burton, come to my office,” Lin Haoran said to Burton before leaving the conference room.

“Yes, Boss,” Burton replied.

The two left the conference room one after the other and returned to Lin Haoran’s office.

“Mr. Burton, have you noticed any issues with the company’s expenditures recently?” Lin Haoran asked directly.

“Expenditures? Boss, I’ve approved basically all of them, and I haven’t seen any problems. If there were any, I would have reported them to you long ago,” Burton answered, looking somewhat puzzled.

“Then have you noticed any strange behavior from the chief financial officer, Mr. Ma Ka?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

Judging by Burton’s Loyalty, there was absolutely nothing wrong with him. His Loyalty had been stable at 89 for several months.

Among his many subordinates, this score was considered quite high.

This “Loyalty” special ability that came with his transmigration was not particularly useful most of the time, but on certain occasions, it proved invaluable.

“Boss, I’ve reviewed the Finance Department’s monthly financial reports, and I haven’t found any problems. As for Mr. Ma Ka, I haven’t noticed him doing anything unusual. However, I have heard a rumor that he’s planning to buy a house in Tsim Sha Tsui and has been frequently looking at properties. But that’s his personal affair, and I have no right to interfere,” Burton answered truthfully.

Lin Haoran nodded, becoming even more certain that there was something wrong with this chief financial officer.

Although it wasn’t strange for a senior executive like a CFO to afford property in a location like Tsim Sha Tsui, the timing was too coincidental. His Loyalty had just dropped, and now he was planning to buy a house. There was definitely a connection.

At the very least, his special ability had never been wrong so far; he had great faith in this golden finger. For the Loyalty score to drop so much so suddenly, something must be amiss.

Lin Haoran had done nothing to make Ma Ka resent him. He had barely even spoken to the man. It was obviously not a case of the Loyalty dropping because he had offended him.

That left only one possibility: Ma Ka had done something disloyal to Green Island Cement Company.

“Don’t tell anyone what I just asked you. Act as if this never happened, understand?” Lin Haoran said sternly.

“Rest assured, Boss,” Burton said with a nod.

“Alright, that’s all. You can get back to your work. Oh, and have the chief financial officer bring this year’s ledgers to my office. I want to look through them,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

It was perfectly normal for the Chairman to review the financial ledgers.

“Yes, Boss. I’ll get to it, then.” Although he found the boss’s questions a bit strange, Burton didn’t press the matter.

At the same time, he wondered to himself, “Could it be that the chief financial officer has done something that the boss discovered?”

But no matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t recall anything wrong with Mr. Ma Ka.

Of course, Burton knew he wasn’t an expert in finance. If there was a minor loophole in the accounts, it would indeed be difficult for him to spot.

Without dwelling on it further, Burton quickly left Lin Haoran’s office.

A dozen or so minutes later, the chief financial officer, Ma Ka, arrived at Lin Haoran’s office carrying a thick stack of ledgers.

“Mr. Chairman, the ledgers you requested are all here,” Ma Ka said, placing the books on the desk with a respectful expression.

His actions betrayed no sign of nervousness.

“Thank you, Mr. Ma Ka,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“It’s my duty. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be on my way. Please feel free to call me anytime if you have any questions, Mr. Lin.” With that, Ma Ka excused himself and left the office.

Watching the chief financial officer depart, Lin Haoran turned his gaze back to the ledgers on his desk.

Of course, he wasn’t going to check them himself. His knowledge of finance was half-baked at best; he certainly wouldn’t be able to find anything.

However, he could call the chief financial officer from Wan’an Group and have him bring two people over to conduct an audit.

The finance department at Wan’an Group wasn’t particularly busy at the moment. Aside from the beginning and end of the month, their workload was generally light.

He made a call, and they replied promptly, saying they would arrive within the hour.

Although Wan’an Group was still a publicly listed company, its senior executives essentially followed the Chairman’s orders without question. Even if they were asked to do work unrelated to Wan’an Group, they wouldn’t defy the Chairman’s wishes—unless they no longer wanted to work for the group, that is.

Besides, a small matter like auditing accounts was not difficult for these professionals.

About forty minutes later, Wan’an Group’s chief financial officer appeared in Lin Haoran’s office.

This wasn’t their first visit; they had last come on the day Lin Haoran took over Green Island Cement Company.

In the blink of an eye, more than eight months had passed since then.

“Help me check if there are any problems with these accounts. I’m heading out and will be back in about two hours. If you finish early, you can page me on my beeper,” Lin Haoran said to the three arrivals, pointing at the ledgers on the desk.

“Don’t worry, Boss. We’ll examine the accounts carefully and contact you immediately if we find anything,” the CFO of Wan’an Group said with a smile.

Meanwhile, in the Finance Department office on another floor, Ma Ka was still pondering why the boss had suddenly decided to check the accounts on a whim.

But then he remembered how covertly he had handled his affairs; even a professional audit would fail to uncover any issues. Convinced he couldn’t be caught, he set his mind at ease.

Lin Haoran left Green Island Cement Company with his bodyguards. While the finance team from Wan’an Group was conducting the audit, he couldn’t just wait around.

So, he decided to make a trip to Amigo Company.

As for who would take over as the new chief financial officer of Green Island Cement Company, there was no rush. He already had someone in mind. For now, the priority was to find out exactly what the current CFO, Ma Ka, had done to harm the company’s interests.

By now, the development of Amigo Company had long surpassed all imagination.

Even Liu Luanxiong, the company’s general manager, was stunned by the scale of Evergo’s development.

These days, Liu Luanxiong was incredibly grateful for his decision to accept Lin Haoran’s investment.

In his view, if he hadn’t accepted Lin Haoran’s investment back then, Amigo Company might still be a small workshop today.

In reality, he was overthinking it. Even without Lin Haoran’s investment, Amigo Company would have developed very quickly.

However, compared to Amigo Company today, there would certainly have been a gap, as its starting point would have been different.

The drive from Green Island Cement Company to Amigo Company took only about twenty minutes, bringing him to the industrial park in Kwun Tong.

The car parked at the base of the industrial building. Lin Haoran surveyed the six-story structure before him, which now bore the five large, glittering golden words: Amigo Company.

The adjacent industrial building was also adorned with the same five golden words.

To cope with the ever-increasing volume of orders, Amigo Company had once again doubled its factory space, renting the industrial building next door as well.

The number of employees had also nearly doubled without anyone noticing. In Hong Kong’s entire manufacturing industry, it could now be considered a behemoth of a manufacturing enterprise.

It could be said that 80% of the employees in the entire industrial park now belonged to Amigo Company; the other tenants accounted for very few.

And yet, in November of last year, Amigo Company had only been renting a single floor, with just over two hundred employees.

The scale of change in just eight short months was immense.

The owner of the industrial park had witnessed these changes firsthand. However, he had known since the company’s opening that one of the bosses of Amigo Company was Lin Haoran, the Chairman of Green Island Cement Company. In the park owner’s view, the reason Amigo Company was developing so quickly was definitely because of Lin Haoran, not Liu Luanxiong.

The chairman of two publicly listed companies setting up such a large-scale manufacturing enterprise—wasn’t that perfectly normal?

Walking up to the first rented industrial building, Lin Haoran went directly to the office on the third floor.

As he passed the production areas on the first and second floors, it was clear that everyone was extremely busy.

Inside the general manager’s office on the third floor, Liu Luanxiong was clacking away on a calculator.

Seeing Lin Haoran arrive, he continued his calculations and said, “Haoran, wait a moment. I’m calculating the upcoming order volume and planning daily production targets. I’ll be done in a minute.”

Lin Haoran nodded and didn’t disturb him. He went to the sofa in the negotiation room, made himself some tea, and poured a cup to drink.

Not long after, Liu Luanxiong came over.

Liu Luanxiong sat down opposite Lin Haoran, who poured him a cup of tea as well.

“You’ve worked hard. I can see you’ve lost some weight,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“This is nothing. Seeing the money flow into the company’s account every month fills me with energy. By the way, I have good news for you. Based on the current exchange rate, the funds in our company account are about to exceed one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. We currently have more than ninety-seven million Hong Kong dollars, and once we receive one more payment, we’ll definitely cross that mark. And tomorrow, a distributor from Toronto will be wiring over a payment!” When it came to money, Liu Luanxiong’s face lit up with excitement.

One hundred million Hong Kong dollars. This might just be a number, but even Liu Luanxiong, who grew up in a wealthy family, couldn’t contain his excitement.

Who could have imagined that a year and a half ago, when he had just founded Amigo Company, he couldn’t even scrape together a few tens of thousands of dollars? He had even borrowed the tens of thousands needed for his startup from friends.

In just a year and a half, the Amigo Company he founded had already made profits as high as one hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Evergo had been expanding continuously during this period, and they hadn’t even distributed any dividends from the profits earned.

Lin Haoran was, of course, aware of the funds in Amigo Company’s account; he visited every so often.

Lin Haoran took a sip of tea, frowned, and said, “Let’s take out a portion of the funds and distribute it. It’s a waste to just leave it in the company’s account.”

Half of the funds in Amigo Company’s account had been earned between May and June, which showed just how insane the fan market had been this summer.

And for the upcoming months of July, August, September, and even October, the order volume would undoubtedly remain frenzied.

They needed to seize the summer and autumn seasons to make a huge profit.

Once winter arrived, orders would drop off significantly, and they would have to wait until after April of next year for the volume to explode again.

And after 1981, Lin Haoran knew that the fan market in North America would begin to saturate. For him, the industry would already be on the decline by then, and Evergo would become less important.

“Alright, it’s about time we distributed the money. But Haoran, I have a suggestion. Why don’t we first buy a piece of industrial land in Kwun Tong to build our own industrial park? Ten million Hong Kong dollars would be enough to buy a sizable plot of land, enough to build an industrial park as large as the one we’re in now,” Liu Luanxiong said.

At this moment, he was full of hope for the future. Today’s Amigo Company had already surpassed the family business founded by his father, and its profits were far greater.

He believed that if Amigo Company continued to develop, it would one day become the top manufacturing company in all of Hong Kong.

“Okay, I agree. Also, Xiong, let me give you a heads-up. With such a large sum of money suddenly in your hands, you probably don’t know what to do with it. Let me give you some advice: you can use it to buy houses and land. The property prices are rising fast right now, so you won’t lose money,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

This time, they would each receive a dividend of several tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars. It would indeed be a waste to just let that money sit in the bank.

It was only July 1979, still in the midst of Hong Kong’s wild real estate market boom. Even if property prices were to plummet two years later, they wouldn’t fall back to current levels.

So, this tip was also his way of thanking Liu Luanxiong for helping him earn so much money.

“Haoran, if you hadn’t brought it up, I really wouldn’t have thought about how to spend this money. I was just planning to deposit it in the bank. Alright, I’ll take your advice—buy houses and land,” Liu Luanxiong said with a hearty laugh.

Right now, he was dedicating all his heart and soul to Amigo Company, with no capacity to consider other matters.

Chapter 142: Conclusive Evidence

With one hundred million Hong Kong dollars in capital, even after taking out ten million to buy a plot of land for the company and another ten million for reserve funds, eighty million Hong Kong dollars would still be left.

This meant that the two of them could each split a dividend of forty million Hong Kong dollars.

Forty million—that was no small sum, even for Lin Haoran.

Moreover, with the explosion in order volume this month, July’s profits were sure to be even higher.

From Lin Haoran’s perspective, letting this much money sit in the company’s account for an extended period was indeed a waste.

The company’s major expenses were the procurement of production materials, employee wages, and transportation costs. Rent and other miscellaneous expenditures were trivial sums for the current Amigo Company.

As for transportation costs, those had already been passed on to the distributors, which was a major reason why the profit margin on exports to America had increased significantly.

Regarding production materials, given Amigo Company’s current scale of production, many manufacturers in Hong Kong were willing to supply goods first and collect payment later.

Therefore, the operational cost pressure on Amigo Company was not as high as one might imagine.

As Amigo Company’s production volume grew, it gained negotiating power in material procurement, which led to a small reduction in costs and a further increase in profits.

After chatting with Liu Luanxiong for a while, he hurried off to handle other matters.

Although the company had recently added many mid-to-high-level managers, greatly reducing Liu Luanxiong’s workload to the point where being away for a few days wouldn’t be an issue, the company was also expanding too quickly. There were many things he still didn’t feel comfortable entrusting entirely to his subordinates, so he often had to keep a close eye on them.

Lin Haoran first went to the finance department to get an update on the recent situation. Then, he toured the various floors of the building. After his tour, he went across the street to inspect the newly rented industrial building.

Every floor in both buildings was currently in the busiest state of operation. June through September were definitely the months with the highest demand for fans, especially July and August.

By the time he finished his inspection, nearly two hours had passed.

There was still no call from Green Island Cement Company, which evidently meant they hadn’t finished auditing the books.

However, Lin Haoran had no intention of staying at Amigo Company any longer. There was nothing he could do to help here; he had only come to check on the situation and arrange for Amigo Company to issue a dividend.

Thus, he took the Li brothers, Weiguo and Weidong, and headed back toward Green Island Cement Company.

Half an hour later, Lin Haoran was back in the Chairman’s office at Green Island Cement.

“Boss, the three of us have gone through these account books twice and haven’t found any problems. If we had to pinpoint the most suspicious area, I’d say there’s a question about Green Island Cement Company’s salary expenditures. Comparing the payrolls from the last six months, I feel there’s a significant discrepancy last month. However, we don’t have Green Island Cement Company’s personnel list, so we don’t know if there were major changes in staff. Therefore, we can’t be certain,” the chief financial officer of Wan’an Group reported in detail upon seeing Lin Haoran’s return.

Lin Haoran nodded and said, “Wait a moment. I’ll have the Director of the Human Resources Department bring up the company’s employee records for the past few months.”

With that, he made a call to the Human Resources Department office.

The position of Director of Human Resources was currently held by a Chinese person who had been newly hired a few months ago. His loyalty was quite high, so there was no chance of him colluding with this chief financial officer.

About ten minutes later, the Director of Human Resources arrived with the files.

“Boss, here are all the personnel changes for the last few months. It details when everyone was hired and when they resigned, and it even includes their monthly working hours,” the Director of Human Resources explained respectfully as he handed the files to Lin Haoran.

“Good, thank you for your hard work. You can go back for now. I’ll call you if I have any questions,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

The chief financial officer, Ma Ka, was definitely a problem. If he wasn’t falsifying internal accounts, he was taking bribes from external parties.

There weren’t many opportunities for external bribes, so Lin Haoran was more inclined to believe he was cooking the books internally.

With the personnel records in hand, the three men began their comparison again.

“Boss, there really is a problem. I’ve found that last month, compared to May, the salary of every lower-level employee at Green Island Cement Company was slightly higher—some by a few dozen dollars, others by over a hundred.

“And the total number of people on the payroll is wrong. In June, Green Island Cement Company’s Hong Kong factory should have paid 1,236 people, but in reality, 1,298 were paid.

“Among them, 62 people had actually resigned in or before May and shouldn’t have received a salary in June. But our payroll expenses for that month include their wages. A preliminary calculation puts the discrepancy at around 360,000 Hong Kong dollars.” After half an hour, the three of them had nearly finished cross-referencing the documents.

An expenditure of 360,000 Hong Kong dollars was obviously not very conspicuous for Green Island Cement Company, whose various monthly expenses exceeded ten million Hong Kong dollars.

This chief financial officer was clearly planning to get away with it by embezzling a relatively small amount.

“Go over the calculations again, carefully!” Lin Haoran ordered sternly.

He couldn’t jump to conclusions on this matter; he needed absolute certainty.

Over three hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars was a small sum to Lin Haoran, but for an ordinary person, it was by no means a small amount of money.

He would absolutely not tolerate such a parasite in his company.

Embezzling over three hundred thousand a month, if he kept this up, he could steal several million Hong Kong dollars in a year.

In the long run, he would be sucking Lin Haoran dry.

This was indeed no small matter.

Lin Haoran didn’t know why this chief financial officer had been so bold, but since he had done it, he would have to face the punishment he deserved.

If Lin Haoran hadn’t identified him as a problem through his loyalty rating, this might have gone undiscovered for a long time.

After all, Ma Ka was Green Island Cement Company’s chief financial officer. He was in charge of the company’s finances and possessed a wealth of financial knowledge; this was his area of expertise.

However, to ensure the calculations were correct, Lin Haoran had them check everything one more time.

With their previous line of inquiry as a guide, their verification speed was much faster this time.

Working together, it took them just over ten more minutes to calculate the result again.

“Boss, we’ve re-verified and can confirm it’s correct. There is indeed a discrepancy of over three hundred and sixty thousand. It’s clear that there was a problem with the June salary expenditure. We checked May’s and found no issues,” the Wan’an Group chief financial officer said, handing the calculated results to Lin Haoran.

The benefits package at a British-owned company was considered very good in Hong Kong, and payday always came earlier than at Chinese-owned enterprises.

For example, Green Island Cement Company paid its monthly salaries on the fifth of the following month.

In contrast, many sweatshop-like factories would love nothing more than to delay payroll until the end of the next month.

Moreover, because the banking system was not yet advanced in this era, salaries were basically paid in cash.

This created a great deal of room for manipulation.

Lin Haoran nodded. No wonder this chief financial officer was suddenly thinking of buying a house in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Getting his hands on over three hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars at once was certainly enough for him to buy a flat in Tsim Sha Tsui.

It was also no wonder Burton had no idea about this. Without meticulously comparing the payroll with the employee work-hour lists, no one would have discovered it.

After all, with over ten million Hong Kong dollars in various monthly expenses—such as raw material costs, market expansion fees, transportation fees, salaries, Filipino maids, etc.—making up the company’s total operating costs, a discrepancy of over three hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars was hardly noticeable.

It was perfectly normal for the company’s monthly expenditures to fluctuate.

“Thank you for your hard work today. I’ll have you reimbursed for your travel expenses as a bonus,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

As far as Lin Haoran was concerned, both companies were currently undergoing privatization. They were both his companies, and he could run them however he pleased.

“Thank you, Boss. We’ll head back then.” The three men left Green Island Cement Company and returned to Wan’an Group.

Lin Haoran leaned back in his chair, looking at the data before him.

Now that it was confirmed that this chief financial officer, Mr. Ma Ka, was indeed a problem, it was a matter of handling it as it should be handled.

Of course, this was not something he needed to deal with personally.

He called Burton directly and asked him to come to the office.

Before long, Burton arrived at Lin Haoran’s office.

“Boss, you wanted to see me?” Burton asked, puzzled by the ledgers and documents on the desk.

Lin Haoran repeated what had just transpired for Burton.

After hearing the explanation, Burton understood the gravity of the situation.

With specific data, it was actually very easy to cross-reference. The salaries for dozens of non-existent employees could be verified with a simple comparison.

Payroll padding—this was no small matter.

Burton grew even more astonished by his boss.

Even he had been unaware of this. How did the Boss know that the chief financial officer, Mr. Ma Ka, was a problem?

All signs since Lin Haoran’s arrival today indicated that he had come specifically for the chief financial officer, as if he had known all along that something was wrong.

However, despite his shock, Burton knew it was not his place to ask such questions.

“Boss, leave this to me. I will handle it properly for you. I will report the outcome to you tomorrow,” Burton said respectfully.

“Good. I’ll leave this to you. I trust you won’t disappoint me. In addition, the chief financial officer position will remain vacant for now. The Deputy Director will temporarily be in charge of the company’s financial affairs. I will be responsible for finding a new chief financial officer,” Lin Haoran continued.

The position of chief financial officer was too important.

He already had someone in mind for the new CFO, but he wasn’t sure if he could successfully recruit them.

After Lin Haoran left, Burton set his own plan into motion.

Embezzlement, misappropriation of public funds, and falsifying accounts were intolerable offenses anywhere.

For embezzling over three hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, not only would the funds have to be recovered, but the perpetrator would also have to face several years in prison.

However, this was all something the chief financial officer had brought upon himself.

That very day, Burton collected all the evidence and directly reported it to the police.

With the evidence being conclusive, Ma Ka was taken away by the police.

Next, the company’s lost funds would be recovered from Ma Ka.

That evening, Lin Haoran received a call from Burton, who reported on how the matter had been handled and the most likely punishment Ma Ka would face.

Lin Haoran was very satisfied with Burton’s efficiency.

However, he now had a more important task at hand: finding Ma Ka’s successor.

Chapter 143: Poaching Top-Tier Talent

In Hong Kong, a city where prosperity and undercurrents coexisted, there was a marginalized, grey industry that specialized in gathering and providing basic-level intelligence.

Lin Haoran had learned of it through his father.

The lower rungs of Hong Kong society were woven from a complex web of underworld networks. Like the city’s capillaries, these organizations silently held a vast and fragmented collection of basic data and information sources.

Although they couldn’t touch highly confidential or complex intelligence, they possessed astonishing efficiency and accuracy when it came to fundamental tasks like locating individuals.

Lin Haoran needed to find someone, and this grey industry was more than capable of providing the information he required.

However, if he wanted to investigate more complex intelligence, it was clear that relying on these grey industries would be difficult.

For that, he would have to build his own intelligence department. Top-tier powers rarely shared their intelligence resources with others unless the benefits were substantial enough.

Of course, even if Lin Haoran started building an intelligence department right now, it wouldn’t be of any help in this current matter.

Constructing a formidable intelligence agency was not something that could be accomplished overnight; it required time, resources, and careful planning.

To truly have eyes and ears all over Hong Kong, ensuring that no corner of the city escaped his notice, would be an incredibly costly endeavor.

Besides, building his own intelligence agency was a matter for the future. Lin Haoran was not in a hurry about it right now.

Lin Haoran’s current target was none other than the man who would later become renowned in Hong Kong as the “Working Emperor”—Fok Kin-ning.

This legendary figure’s life was like a magnificent corporate epic, making him one of the most elite professional managers in the Chinese-speaking world.

Based on Lin Haoran’s knowledge of Fok Kin-ning from his previous life, he had just recently returned from his studies in the United States and had likely not yet joined the Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

Now was the perfect time to intercept him.

After all, in Lin Haoran’s past life, Fok Kin-ning had already proven his own abilities over the course of his entire career.

This was a talent well worth recruiting.

If Lin Haoran didn’t interfere in his life, this future Working Emperor would join the Cheung Kong Holdings Group and become Cheung Kong’s accounting supervisor.

Afterward, he would quickly become one of Li Jiacheng’s key subordinates, even his most trusted and capable right-hand man. It would be no exaggeration to call him Li Jiacheng’s strategist, like Zhuge Liang to Liu Bei!

It would be a real shame not to snatch up such an outstanding future legendary business aide before he joined Cheung Kong Holdings Group and was recognized by Li Jiacheng.

Lin Haoran didn’t know much about Fok Kin-ning, only that he was from Hong Kong, went to study in the United States after graduating from Hong Kong University, and had returned directly to Hong Kong after graduating from his American university. He was twenty-seven years old this year.

Finding him among Hong Kong’s nearly five million people with only this information might seem difficult, but in reality, it wasn’t difficult at all for these professional intelligence organizations.

This was because the little information Lin Haoran provided already expanded into much more.

For instance, being able to study in the United States meant his family’s financial situation was certainly very good.

This point alone could eliminate over 80% of families in Hong Kong.

Furthermore, the most crucial piece of information was that he had graduated from Hong Kong University, and the year was confirmed. This made it even simpler.

In the 1970s, the number of students in each graduating class at Hong Kong University wasn’t large. Conducting a simple investigation into a student’s basic information was not difficult. By bribing someone in the records management office, one could easily obtain a student’s personal file.

Therefore, in just two days, Lin Haoran obtained the information he needed, and it cost him twenty thousand Hong Kong dollars to get it.

However, to Lin Haoran, this twenty thousand Hong Kong dollars was money well spent.

And over these two days, the matter with the Green Island Cement Company was also settled.

Ma Ka, the former chief financial officer of Green Island Cement, would be tried in court on a later date. The funds he embezzled had already been recovered through normal procedures.

According to Burton, Ma Ka would be sentenced to at least seven years this time. His life was basically ruined.

As for the Amigo Company, the dividend had arrived a day earlier.

Just as he had thought, after discussion with Liu Luanxiong, they decided to distribute eighty million Hong Kong dollars as a dividend, with each of them receiving forty million.

In addition, Liu Luanxiong also returned the one million Hong Kong dollars he had borrowed from Lin Haoran.

With this, Lin Haoran’s available funds increased by another forty-one million Hong Kong dollars.

At the end of last year, Lin Haoran had invested a total of one point two million Hong Kong dollars in the Amigo Company.

After more than half a year, his return had already reached a staggering forty million Hong Kong dollars.

Moreover, the dividends to come would only get larger.

It could be said that it would be no problem at all for this business to earn him a hundredfold return in a single year.

On the morning of July 10th, Lin Haoran, along with the two brothers Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, arrived at a residential complex in Yau Ma Tei.

This residential complex was clearly the kind that only relatively wealthy families could afford. Although it wasn’t a villa-style environment, it was quiet and comfortable.

However, there was no property management, and no security guards stopped them to ask questions, which allowed him to find Fok Kin-ning’s home with ease.

According to the information he had obtained, Fok Kin-ning had just returned from the United States half a month ago and was currently unemployed at home.

Lin Haoran came to a door with the number 301 and knocked.

A moment later, the door opened.

The person who opened the door was an auntie around fifty years old. Seeing Lin Haoran and the two brothers, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, following behind him, a look of confusion immediately appeared on her face.

“Who are you looking for?” the auntie asked directly.

“Hello, Auntie. Is this Fok Kin-ning’s home? I’m his friend, here to see him about something,” Lin Haoran asked politely, his tone very gentle.

Peeking through the crack in the door, he could see a piano and a large living room. It was evident that this family was quite well-off. While not at the level of the super-rich, they were at least in the affluent class.

Seeing that Lin Haoran didn’t look like a bad person, the auntie seemed to relax.

“Wait a moment, Kin-ning is reading in his room. I’ll go get him,” the auntie replied, but instead of inviting Lin Haoran and his companions inside, she closed the door.

After all, although Lin Haoran looked kind and not like a bad person, he had two muscular men following him.

Soon, a young man walked out. It was indeed the Fok Kin-ning from Lin Haoran’s memory, though this was a younger version.

“And you are? Do we know each other?” Having heard in his room that a friend was here to see him, Fok Kin-ning came out, only to find he didn’t recognize the person.

“Let me introduce myself. I am Lin Haoran, Chairman of the Green Island Cement Company. Here is my business card. I’m very sorry for the unannounced visit,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, handing a business card to Fok Kin-ning.

“The Chairman of Green Island Cement Company… Oh, I remember now! That’s the pride of us Hong Kong people, the first Chinese person to acquire a British-funded, publicly listed company. It was reported in the newspapers and on television half a year ago. That young Chairman does look like him.”

Before Fok Kin-ning could speak, the auntie chimed in.

Originally, upon hearing her son say he didn’t know Lin Haoran and the others, the auntie was about to shoo them away. But after hearing what Lin Haoran said, she adjusted her glasses, studying Lin Haoran carefully as she spoke.

After receiving his mother’s confirmation, Fok Kin-ning’s attitude changed. “Mr. Lin, may I ask what business you have with me?”

Fok Kin-ning had just returned from the United States, so he naturally didn’t know about the recent events at the Green Island Cement Company, but he still recognized the company itself.

In Hong Kong, Green Island Cement was a household name, one of the most common brands. After all, building houses almost always required Green Island Cement’s cement. The ninety-year-old brand was already deeply ingrained in the hearts of the people of Hong Kong.

“I do have something I’d like to discuss with you,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

“Mr. Lin, please come in and have a seat. We can talk in the living room,” Fok Kin-ning said, making an inviting gesture for Lin Haoran to enter.

“Thank you for having me,” Lin Haoran said with a smile and walked into the house.

“Please, have a seat. I’ll go make some tea for you,” the auntie said, pointing to the sofa as she prepared to head to the kitchen.

“Please don’t trouble yourself, Auntie. I’m just here to chat with Mr. Fok for a few minutes. I have other things to do later, so I won’t disturb you for long,” Lin Haoran quickly stopped her.

With a look of bewilderment, Fok Kin-ning sat down on the sofa with Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Lin, why don’t you tell me the purpose of your visit,” Fok Kin-ning asked directly.

“Then I’ll be direct. Mr. Fok, I would like to invite you to join Green Island Cement Company as our chief financial officer,” Lin Haoran stated plainly.

With Fok Kin-ning’s talent, he was actually more suited to be a chief accounting officer. However, Green Island Cement didn’t have a separate Accounting Department; all accounting functions fell under the Finance Department. Thus, Lin Haoran intended for him to directly assume the role of chief financial officer.

To Lin Haoran, this was merely a training post for Fok Kin-ning. In the future, Lin Haoran would give him a much bigger position. It was only a matter of time before he would be managing an entire group as its general manager.

Green Island Cement’s business was simple; it wasn’t a diversified enterprise. Therefore, starting his training in a company with such straightforward operations would be an opportunity for Fok Kin-ning to grow quickly.

Beside them, Fok’s mother was already overcome with pleasant surprise. She never expected the Chairman of Green Island Cement Company to personally come to their home and invite her son to join his company, and for such an important position no less.

It had been half a month since Fok Kin-ning returned, and he had told her he wasn’t sure which company would be good to work for.

“Mr. Lin, I wonder how you came to know of me? I’m just a student who has recently returned from studying abroad. Isn’t your decision a bit hasty?” However, Fok Kin-ning didn’t feel surprised, but rather asked with curiosity.

“Mr. Fok, it was through an introduction. The former chief financial officer of Green Island Cement Company is no longer in his position for certain reasons, so the post became vacant. Coincidentally, I heard about your current situation and your educational background.

I heard that you not only have an accountant’s certificate from the United States but are also a talented negotiator and debater. I feel you are perfectly suited for the position of chief financial officer at Green Island Cement Company, which is why I decided to invite you to join us.

As for who that person is, I can only say he is a good friend of yours. He asked me not to tell you his name. He said your talents are more than capable of handling the position of chief financial officer, which is why he recommended you. I trust his judgment!” Lin Haoran said vaguely, effectively cutting off any further questions from Fok Kin-ning.

After all, he couldn’t very well say that he knew Fok Kin-ning from his previous life.

Chapter 144: Joining Green Island Cement Company

“Kin-ning, this is a wonderful opportunity, and your field of study is a perfect fit for this position. Hurry up and thank Mr. Lin.” While Fok Kin-ning was still wondering why Lin Haoran would seek out an unknown like him, his mother, Fok’s mother, had already impatiently accepted on his behalf.

After all, this was a rare opportunity.

In Fok’s mother’s eyes, her son had just returned from studying abroad and had practically no work experience. He would be lucky to land a regular accountant position at a large corporation.

However, at that moment, Fok Kin-ning’s heart was filled with conflict.

A couple of days ago, a classmate and close friend from Hong Kong University had recommended him for a position at a real estate company—Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

This friend held an important role at Cheung Kong Holdings. Knowing that Fok Kin-ning had just returned from the United States and was looking for a job, he planned to recommend him to join the company.

There was currently an opening for an Accounting Supervisor at Cheung Kong Holdings Group, and he could try out for it.

Fok Kin-ning was quite confident about it. He felt that with his abilities, he was more than qualified for the Accounting Supervisor position.

However, he was still considering it. Plus, he had only recently returned from the United States, so he hadn’t immediately accepted the offer.

But in his heart, he had already decided to join Cheung Kong Holdings Group after a while.

Cheung Kong Holdings Group was a top-tier real estate company, one of Hong Kong’s “Big Five” in property development. A larger company meant more opportunities to showcase his talents and greater potential for future development.

Unexpectedly, another publicly listed company had come to him with an offer, and the one extending the invitation was the company’s Chairman.

Under normal circumstances, if the two companies were of similar size, he would definitely choose Green Island Cement Company.

After all, the Chairman had come to invite him in person. The sincerity was palpable, indicating that this Boss valued him highly.

However, in terms of market capitalization, Green Island Cement Company was significantly smaller than Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

Although he could directly serve as the chief financial officer of Green Island Cement Company, a position higher than Accounting Supervisor, Fok Kin-ning believed that Green Island Cement’s potential was lower than that of Cheung Kong Holdings.

In Hong Kong, the real estate industry had far more prospects than the infrastructure industry.

Take Green Island Cement Company, for example. It was already one of Hong Kong’s leading infrastructure companies, yet its market capitalization was merely two hundred to three hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

In contrast, there were many real estate companies with market caps exceeding that of Green Island Cement, and many of them were rising stars.

“Mr. Lin, thank you so much for coming in person to invite me. I am deeply honored, but with my current qualifications, I don’t think I’m capable of handling the position of chief financial officer, am I?” In a state of indecision, Fok Kin-ning tossed the question back to Lin Haoran.

“No, I have great faith in my friend’s recommendation. If he thinks you are capable, then you must be. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have come to invite you personally. I am always willing to give talented people opportunities to grow.

“Furthermore, if your abilities truly satisfy me in the future, I will transfer you to another publicly listed company to take on an even higher position.

“Oh, and I can let you in on something. I am currently in the process of secretly acquiring a large publicly listed company. If all goes as planned, it won’t escape my grasp. It’s a diversified enterprise, much larger in scale than Green Island Cement Company.

“I have high hopes for your future. If you agree to join Green Island Cement, I guarantee that I will provide you with a much larger platform to develop your career, one big enough for you to fully utilize your talents. In my view, Green Island Cement is just a temporary stepping stone.

“I am currently the Chairman of two publicly listed companies, Green Island Cement Company and Wan’an Group. Mr. Fok, you’ve just returned from the United States, so you may not be familiar with my situation. I am currently in the process of privatizing and delisting both of these companies.

“From this, you can see that I am not short on money. The platform I can offer will be immense—so immense that I will be in dire need of talent. If I’m willing to give you a chance, why should you worry about whether you can handle it?”

Lin Haoran’s words instantly stirred Fok Kin-ning’s once-hesitant heart.

Indeed, Cheung Kong Holdings Group was a much larger platform than Green Island Cement, but the most he could be there was an Accounting Supervisor. There was no telling when he might get promoted to a higher position.

Here at Green Island Cement, he was being offered a higher position right from the start. For him, wasn’t this a chance for a higher starting point?

Although Fok Kin-ning didn’t know which company Lin Haoran was acquiring, it was clear that Lin wouldn’t bother deceiving a nobody like him.

However, he did not agree immediately. Instead, he replied cautiously, “Mr. Lin, please give me some time to consider. This is all a bit sudden. I’ll give you an answer this afternoon, how about that?”

“Alright, I won’t disturb you then. Take your time to think it over. If you join us, I believe you won’t regret this decision in the future!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

With that, he smiled and bid farewell to Fok Kin-ning and his mother.

After leaving the Fok family, he had to return to Green Island Cement Company.

Job hunting and talent recruitment were inherently a two-way street. It required mutual agreement and couldn’t be forced, nor was there any need to.

However, Lin Haoran was already very confident that Fok Kin-ning would accept.

Even if Fok Kin-ning was hesitant for some reason and didn’t agree on the spot, his mother would likely persuade him. This was evident from her earlier behavior.

Lin Haoran was determined to secure this great talent.

After Lin Haoran left, Fok’s mother asked strangely, “Kin-ning, why didn’t you just agree? This is such a great opportunity, and he came to visit in person, which shows his sincerity.”

“Mother, I have my own thoughts. By the way, mother, tell me about this Green Island Cement Company. I just got back from the United States, so I don’t know what’s been happening. Wasn’t it a British-owned company? How did its Chairman suddenly become a young Chinese person?” Fok Kin-ning asked in return.

“This story starts last November. It caused quite a stir back then, and everyone in Hong Kong was talking about it. Wait, the newspapers your dad collected should have reports on it. I’ll go find them for you.” After speaking, Fok’s mother went straight into Fok’s father’s study.

After a long while, she emerged from the study with several newspapers in her hand and gave them to Fok Kin-ning.

Fok’s father had left for work early in the morning; otherwise, he would have found them in no time.

Taking the newspapers, Fok Kin-ning began to read them carefully.

At the time, the change of ownership at Green Island Cement Company had been widely reported by the Hong Kong media for several days.

After all, it had set a new record—a Chinese person acquiring a British-funded, publicly listed company. The news had been off the charts.

As Fok Kin-ning meticulously read through the articles in the newspapers, he gradually began to understand Lin Haoran.

But the more he learned, the more mysterious Lin Haoran seemed to become.

The acquisition of Green Island Cement had been too sudden. Lin Haoran, a newcomer to the business world, seemed to have appeared out of thin air, and in his very first battle, he had swiftly taken control of the long-established British-owned company.

Moreover, in the process, he had even managed to get Li Jiacheng to sell him the Green Island Cement Company shares he had acquired.

All this information had been reported in the news at the time.

“This is someone even Cheung Kong Holdings Group had to yield to. What is his background? It can’t be as simple as just having Wan’an Group behind him!” Fok Kin-ning muttered to himself.

After reading the newspapers, Fok Kin-ning did not jump to a conclusion. Instead, he contacted his friend, hoping to learn more about Lin Haoran from him.

Fok Kin-ning’s family was well-off in Hong Kong, and most of his friends came from good backgrounds as well. Having studied at Hong Kong University, he also had a decent network in the city.

So, he quickly learned more about Lin Haoran.

The information he gathered from his friends only served to confirm Lin Haoran’s extraordinary nature.

He had skillfully exploited the shareholders’ distrust of a young controlling owner to drive down the stock price, then proceeded to privatize Green Island Cement Company. This was clearly a calculated move.

The total market value of Green Island Cement Company had once plummeted to less than two hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

But the industrial land in Hung Hom alone could be sold for several hundred million!

Fok Kin-ning thought of even more.

And what he thought of only highlighted Lin Haoran’s remarkable abilities, proving he was not as simple as he appeared on the surface.

Perhaps, working with him wouldn’t be any worse than going to Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

Most importantly, he was shown enough respect. The Chairman of two publicly listed companies was willing to set aside his pride to personally invite an unknown like him to join his company. This was something many bosses couldn’t do.

This kind of treatment, this feeling of being respected, naturally delighted Fok Kin-ning.

In contrast, the offer from Cheung Kong Holdings was merely an invitation from a friend, which meant it was just a recommendation. Everything there was uncertain.

Moreover, in terms of both salary and status, the chief financial officer position was clearly much higher than that of an Accounting Supervisor.

An Accounting Supervisor was just a mid-level management position, whereas a chief financial officer fell into the category of a senior executive.

Even if, in the future, he found that working at Green Island Cement wasn’t as good as it seemed and that the development opportunities provided by Lin Haoran couldn’t satisfy him, he could always resign. It was just a job, not a life sentence. If he wasn’t satisfied, he could leave and find another job at any time!

On the other hand, joining Cheung Kong Holdings Group was fraught with uncertainties. Although Cheung Kong Holdings was a bigger platform, who could guarantee that he would win Li Jiacheng’s favor?

At that moment, a great many thoughts crossed Fok Kin-ning’s mind.

After careful consideration and learning more about Lin Haoran, Fok Kin-ning gradually came to a decision.

He would accept Lin Haoran’s offer and join Green Island Cement Company!

He was still very confident in his abilities.

Although he had studied in the United States for four years, he had also frequently worked part-time at accounting firms, so he had sufficient work experience.

Thus, around noon, Fok Kin-ning dialed the Beeper number Lin Haoran had left him.

After Lin Haoran called back, Fok Kin-ning said solemnly over the phone, “Mr. Lin, I have thought it over carefully and have decided to accept your invitation to join Green Island Cement Company!”

“Excellent, Mr. Fok! You didn’t disappoint me. There’s no time like the present. I’ll be waiting for you in my office at Green Island Cement Company at three this afternoon!” Lin Haoran replied, his voice filled with pleasure.

Fok Kin-ning’s acceptance meant that he had successfully poached this great talent from under Cheung Kong Holdings Group’s nose.

Fok Kin-ning had a valuable trait: loyalty to his company.

In the world of Lin Haoran’s past life, after Fok Kin-ning joined Cheung Kong Holdings Group, he did leave for a while to start his own business. However, he soon discovered that entrepreneurship was far from simple and that it was better to work for a large platform.

So he returned to Cheung Kong Holdings Group and stayed there for the rest of his life.

Who wouldn’t want a subordinate who was both loyal and talented? Lin Haoran was no exception!

Chapter 145: A Rumor about the Hongkong Electric Group

At three in the afternoon, Lin Haoran met Fok Kin-ning in the chairman’s office of the Green Island Cement Company.

Fok Kin-ning was dressed very formally in a suit and tie.

Besides Lin Haoran and Fok Kin-ning, Burton, the general manager, was also in the office.

“Mr. Fok, let me introduce you. This is the general manager of our Green Island Cement Company, Mr. Burton. He is an exceptionally talented corporate manager, and you can learn a thing or two about management from him,” Lin Haoran said, introducing Burton to Fok Kin-ning.

As for Burton, Lin Haoran had already filled him in on Fok Kin-ning’s situation after receiving Fok’s call, so there was no need for a lengthy introduction.

After Burton and Fok Kin-ning greeted each other, Burton began to brief him on the current state of the Green Island Cement Company.

Fok Kin-ning was very surprised to learn that Green Island Cement had already begun to internationalize and was achieving decent results, having successively captured parts of the market in the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia.

He had known the Green Island Cement brand his whole life, but he also knew that it had really only ever dominated the markets in Hong Kong and Macau. Places like the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore all had their own cement brands, and he had never heard any news of Green Island Cement entering the Southeast Asian market.

He had never expected Green Island Cement to be developing so well now.

At that moment, he realized that Green Island Cement was not as simple as it appeared on the surface.

With an annual profit of tens of millions, its previous market capitalization was only just over two hundred million Hong Kong dollars?

It was completely undervalued!

Looking at other listed companies with annual profits in the tens of millions, which one didn’t have a market cap of at least four or five hundred million? Some were even more ridiculously valued.

Seeing the surprised look on Fok Kin-ning’s face upon learning of the company’s profits, Burton explained with a smile, “In previous years, Green Island Cement’s annual profit was only about ten-something million Hong Kong dollars. It was only after our Boss became the Chairman that the profits became so high.”

He naturally wouldn’t explain that the former chairmen of previous years had taken the company’s profits and used them for “investments,” which resulted in low profits.

There was no need for an explanation.

Afterward, Fok Kin-ning shared some of his own insights with Burton, quickly earning his approval.

This young man before him really had what it took.

Fok Kin-ning knew, of course, that although he had been personally invited by the Chairman of Green Island Cement to be the chief financial officer, if he wanted to have a successful career here, he would eventually lose face and have to leave if he didn’t have the requisite ability.

Therefore, it was essential to show his skills and gain the other party’s recognition.

Seeing that Fok Kin-ning did not disappoint him and had earned Burton’s approval so quickly, Lin Haoran was also very satisfied.

While Burton and Fok Kin-ning were discussing company matters, Lin Haoran called the Human Resources Department and asked them to draft two copies of the employment contract and bring them up.

As for salary, everything would follow the precedent set by the previous chief financial officer.

Regarding the fact that Fok Kin-ning did not yet have the ability to manage the entire Finance Department, Lin Haoran had already discussed it with him.

For the next month, Fok Kin-ning would have time to adapt to his new position. During this period, he would follow the current Deputy Director of finance to learn and gradually integrate into the department.

Only after a month would he take complete control over the entire Finance Department.

After Fok Kin-ning signed the employment contract with Green Island Cement Company, Lin Haoran was surprised to find that his Loyalty had instantly reached 85.

Although this wasn’t the highest among his many employees, it was definitely in the upper range of loyalty scores.

Moreover, they had only met twice. To have this level of loyalty was enough to prove that Fok Kin-ning was serious about his professional attitude.

Once Fok Kin-ning had successfully joined Green Island Cement, Lin Haoran handed the matter over to Burton, telling him to do his best to cultivate the young man.

Lin Haoran knew that although the future Fok Kin-ning would certainly be a great talent, he was only twenty-seven right now and still needed a period of growth.

For the time being, Green Island Cement would be a small platform for his growth.

With another future general under his command, Lin Haoran’s mood improved even more.

However, he also knew that it would take at least two or three years for Fok Kin-ning to mature. Although he was talented now, he was ultimately too young and lacked sufficient corporate management experience.

In the blink of an eye, another week passed, and it was July 17th.

During this time, developments in Hong Kong were all proceeding normally, with nothing that required his attention.

As for the price of gold, it was rising continuously every day, just as he had expected.

A month had passed since his return from the United States.

In that month, the price had fallen on only three days, and the drops were extremely small, followed by a sharp rise the next day.

In just one month, the price of gold had risen from 250 US dollars per ounce to 320 US dollars per ounce.

However, Lin Haoran knew that this rate of increase was still considered slow. By the end of the year, everyone would see just how crazy the surge in gold prices would be.

Citibank in the United States also contacted him periodically to offer advice. The broker handling his account even suggested that he secure his profits, as he had already made quite a bit.

But Lin Haoran naturally ignored his advice completely, since he knew just how viciously the price of gold would rise.

In fact, he was very confident about the rise in gold prices until January of next year, so there was no need to worry about it at all.

Since the Severn Road villa was still under renovation, Lin Haoran could only stay at the Deep Water Bay villa for the time being.

As for the apartment in the Hang Fung Building, he would only go there to live occasionally when engaging in adult activities with Rosamund Kwan. He rarely stayed there otherwise.

At ten in the morning, after leaving the Deep Water Bay villa, Lin Haoran had Li Weiguo drive directly to the Wan’an Group Building.

Currently, neither Wan’an Group nor Green Island Cement required too much of his attention.

Unlike his father Lin Wan’an’s management style, who would personally handle all affairs of the group, big and small, Lin Haoran delegated more matters to the general manager, Yang Mingyi.

At Green Island Cement, he had a capable right-hand man in Burton, so he didn’t need to worry much at all.

As for Amigo Company, he simply had to wait for the dividends. He had great faith in Liu Luanxiong’s management abilities.

The path of this future business tycoon’s rise in his previous life was as if he had a cheat code, smooth sailing all the way.

Since Lin Haoran was riding on the ship of his rise, using him to make money for himself, why would he need to worry about anything?

After arriving at the Wan’an Group Building, he went directly to the office of Universal Investment Company. Around nine in the morning, Lin Haoran had received a call from Su Zhixue, who told him he had a piece of information that might be useful.

“Boss,” everyone in the office greeted him as he walked in.

Lin Haoran nodded, called Su Zhixue over, and they went into Su Zhixue’s general manager office.

“What’s the situation with the Hongkong Electric Group?” Lin Haoran asked.

It had already been a month since he instructed Universal Investment Company to secretly accumulate shares of the Hongkong Electric Group.

Lin Haoran would come over periodically to check on the progress.

“The Hongkong Electric Group’s stock performance has been decent, and the trading volume is quite good, but it’s slightly inferior compared to the stocks of real estate companies.

“After this period of stock accumulation, as of yesterday, we hold a total of 47.9 million shares of Hongkong Electric Group, with a total expenditure of 115.53 million Hong Kong dollars, for an average price of around 2.412 Hong Kong dollars per share.

“The Hongkong Electric Group has a total of 630 million shares issued, so its price per share is not considered high. Currently, the market price is maintained between 2.4 and 2.5 Hong Kong dollars per share, which is a slight increase from when we first started accumulating their shares.

“To avoid causing too much of a stir in the market, we have not been accumulating aggressively. Instead, we have used cautious methods. Although the pace has been slower, no one has noticed our actions so far, so the stock price of Hongkong Electric has not been driven up excessively!” Su Zhixue reported the current situation in detail.

As for the stock accumulation of Wan’an Group, there was no need to report on it. They already controlled over ninety percent of the shares and had applied to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for delisting. Universal Investment Company had stopped its accumulation work for Wan’an Group, and the finishing touches had been handed over to Wardley, a subsidiary of HSBC.

Lin Haoran nodded. Accumulating nearly fifty million shares in a month, and under cautious trading at that, was a very good result.

Based on the total of 630 million shares, he had secretly acquired 7.6% of the Hongkong Electric Group’s stock.

According to the shareholder information currently published by Hongkong Electric, he had already surpassed the original second-largest shareholder and secretly become the new number two.

As for the largest shareholder, he was close to surpassing them as well. The largest shareholder of Hongkong Electric only controlled 8.4% of the shares, which Lin Haoran had already learned.

This meant that if Universal Investment Company was given a few more days, he would, barring any surprises, surpass the current public-facing major shareholder of Hongkong Electric and become the largest shareholder in the truest sense.

The ability of Universal Investment Company to accumulate 7.6% of Hongkong Electric’s shares in just one month was also largely due to the current bull market.

It was precisely because of the surge in trading volume that their accumulation process was very smooth. Under the cover of numerous retail investors, their performance each trading day was brilliant.

“Right, you called and said you had some news I might be interested in. What is it?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Boss, it’s like this. We’ve collected a piece of grapevine news. It’s said that the second-largest shareholder of Hongkong Electric, a Mr. Percy, intends to sell his shares to take advantage of the current excellent Hong Kong stock market. This matter has already begun to spread within a small circle.

“I learned about this from a Westerner trader at the stock exchange whom I’m in regular contact with. However, I heard that this shareholder wants to sell at a ten percent premium to the market price, so currently, none of the British-funded entities are interested in his shares. After all, in their view, it’s better to just accumulate shares on the stock market.

“Since the British generally prefer to sell their shares to other British-funded conglomerates and rarely sell to Chinese people, I can’t guarantee the authenticity of this news. You’ll need to verify whether the information is true through your higher-level contacts, Boss,” Su Zhixue reported quickly.

Gathering intelligence on their targets was one of their daily objectives; otherwise, trading blindly was a major taboo for an investment company.

When Lin Haoran heard this, he knew it was good news.

Although he didn’t yet have the strength to take control of Hongkong Electric, taking this opportunity to increase his stake in the company would be very beneficial for his subsequent operations.

Once he had sufficient funds, he could seize even more shares of Hongkong Electric in one fell swoop and thereby gain a controlling stake.

“Good, it’s good that you’ve kept an eye on this. As for whether it’s true, I’ll take care of the investigation. Thanks for your hard work. You can get back to it,” Lin Haoran said to Su Zhixue with a smile.

It was thanks to Su Zhixue paying attention to these rumors; otherwise, it would have been a great regret if he had missed this opportunity.

Regardless of whether it was true or false, he had to investigate. If it was true, he would do his best to acquire those shares.

Westerners had always been reluctant to engage in equity transactions with Chinese people. These British men always felt they were superior and disdained cooperating with Chinese-funded conglomerates.

But now, times had changed. The decline of British-funded conglomerates and the rise of Chinese-funded ones was an unalterable fact.

At present, it was unlikely that any major powers were paying attention to Hongkong Electric.

Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land had only targeted Hongkong Electric after their failure with Kowloon Wharf.

But right now, Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land were still going back and forth with Pao Yue-kong. Even if they were interested in Hongkong Electric, they wouldn’t have the energy to fight a war on two fronts.

Chapter 146: Percy’s Condition

With Lin Haoran’s current status, it wasn’t difficult to obtain the contact information for this shareholder of the Hongkong Electric Group.

As for asking others to verify the truth of the rumor? There was no need. He could just ask the shareholder himself.

Soon, Lin Haoran had the contact details for the second-largest shareholder of the Hongkong Electric Group.

He also learned that this Westerner, named Percy, did not belong to any of the British-funded conglomerates but held the shares entirely as an individual.

Such an individual was, relatively speaking, much easier to negotiate with than a large conglomerate.

According to the information he gathered, although Percy was in Hong Kong, he hadn’t actually been here for very long. He had arrived from Scotland five years ago and, taking advantage of a stock market crash, had become the Hongkong Electric Group’s second-largest shareholder and a member of the Board of Directors at a relatively low cost.

Besides being a shareholder and board member of the Hongkong Electric Group, his main business was running a hotel in Causeway Bay.

It could be said that this Scotsman had reaped the benefits of the era, and it was quite normal for him to choose to leave now, cashing in on the surging stock market.

After all, many British people were already very pessimistic about Hong Kong’s future. Due to political reasons, the city’s future was shrouded in mist, and no one knew what it would hold. Staying felt like a gamble.

Even local British-owned companies whose core businesses were in Hong Kong, such as Jardine Matheson and HSBC, were constantly seeking overseas expansion and moving their assets abroad, which showed that even they lacked confidence in Hong Kong’s future.

However, this Briton clearly hadn’t guessed that the current rise in Hong Kong’s stock market was merely a slight increase. The next two years would see a truly explosive surge.

Of course, besides a transmigrator like Lin Haoran, no one else could possibly have guessed that.

In the chairman’s office of the Wan’an Group, Lin Haoran directly contacted Mr. Percy.

The call went through quickly, and an authentic Scottish accent came from the other end.

“Hello, Mr. Percy. I am Lin Haoran, the Chairman of Wan’an Group. I was wondering if you are free at the moment? I’d like to pay you a visit,” Lin Haoran stated his purpose directly.

Causeway Bay wasn’t large. Although Wan’an Group wasn’t a household name, it was still located in Causeway Bay, as was the hotel Percy operated. It seemed they were fated to cross paths.

“Mr. Lin from Wan’an Group? Alright, I’ll be waiting for you at the Lisa Hotel.” Percy did not refuse the meeting, though he was somewhat puzzled as to why a Chinese boss would seek him out, as they had never had any dealings before.

However, considering Lin Haoran was not an insignificant figure, a meeting wouldn’t take up much of his time.

After setting the appointment, Lin Haoran left the Wan’an Group Building and took a car to the Lisa Hotel, just a few hundred meters away.

The hotel was fifteen stories high, with the entire building dedicated to the hotel business. He wondered if the property was rented or owned.

If he owned the property, this shareholder’s financial strength was truly considerable. The value of his Hongkong Electric Group shares alone exceeded one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. Adding this building to the equation, its valuation was likely even higher than the Wan’an Group Building, probably worth nearly two hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Approaching the hotel’s front desk, Lin Haoran stated his purpose to the receptionist. It was clear that Percy had already informed her, as Lin Haoran was quickly led to an office on the 12th floor.

“Hello, Mr. Percy.” The brothers Li Weiguo and Li Weidong waited outside the office. Lin Haoran entered by himself and shook hands with the middle-aged Westerner before him, smiling as he greeted him.

“Mr. Lin, may I ask your purpose for visiting?” After exchanging greetings, the two sat on the sofa, and Percy asked directly.

Since they were not acquainted, there was no need for pleasantries.

“Mr. Percy, I’ll be direct. I heard that you intend to sell your shares in the Hongkong Electric Group. Is that true?” Lin Haoran revealed his objective with a smile.

“Indeed, I do have that intention. Where did you hear that from, Mr. Lin?” Percy’s eyes lit up as he asked with curiosity.

Percy had actually already inquired with several of his British friends, and had private discussions with the various shareholders of the Hongkong Electric Group. He had also consulted with some British tycoons he wasn’t familiar with, but unfortunately, no one was interested in the shares, mainly because he was asking for a ten percent premium. This had caused some potential buyers who were initially interested to abandon the idea.

If he were to sell at the market price, it would certainly be easy to offload the shares, but Percy wasn’t satisfied with that.

Besides, if it was just a matter of trading at the market price, why would he bother going around looking for someone to take them off his hands? He could just sell them on the secondary market.

As long as he sold them off slowly, given the current trading volume of the Hongkong Electric Group, he could sell them all within a month.

However, no one knew what the stock price would be a month from now or if it would fall. The timeline was a bit long, so unless he had no other choice, he wouldn’t take that route.

What was worse, some British shareholders or British-funded entities even hoped he would sell at a lower price, a proposition Percy would naturally not agree to.

Therefore, finding a suitable buyer was the best-case scenario.

Originally, he would have prioritized selling to a fellow Briton, but it was clear that no one was taking the offer.

As for Chinese bosses, he had considered them, but he hadn’t taken the initiative to contact any.

He had acquired the Hongkong Electric Group shares in 1974. Five years had passed, and the stock price had already risen severalfold. For him, this investment had been very satisfactory.

“I heard it from a friend, so I came specially to confirm it with you, Mr. Percy,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

From the delight Percy had just shown, Lin Haoran knew this deal was likely to happen.

As expected, Percy said directly, “If you’d like to buy, Mr. Lin, I am willing to sell. I currently hold forty-four million shares of the Hongkong Electric Group, which is about 6.98% of the company. As long as you offer one hundred and thirty million Hong Kong dollars, I will sell all my shares to you.”

Hearing Percy’s words, Lin Haoran’s brows furrowed.

He had told others he was selling at a ten percent premium, but to him, it had become over twenty percent?

Wasn’t this an attempt to treat him like a sucker? No wonder he looked so pleased earlier.

However, he showed no dissatisfaction. After all, deals like this were meant to be negotiated.

Besides, forty-four million shares were exactly what he needed.

Once he acquired these shares, he would become the largest shareholder of the Hongkong Electric Group, far surpassing the original largest shareholder, with his stake reaching about 14.6% of the company’s total shares.

Although this was still a long way from his goal of taking control of the Hongkong Electric Group, it would give him a solid enough foundation.

Moreover, he still had funds on hand and could have Universal Investment Company continue its stock accumulation.

“Mr. Percy, the price you’re asking is too high. It far exceeds what I had in mind. I came because I heard you were seeking a price ten percent above the market value, and I happen to have the funds to buy these shares.

“To be frank with you, I had originally planned to buy from the stock market, but acquiring so many shares that way would take some time, and it’s unclear whether the future stock price will rise or fall, which is why I took the initiative to contact you.

“To show my sincerity, I was even prepared not to haggle with you, but I didn’t expect you to raise the price further. In that case, it’s a pity this deal couldn’t be made. We have an old saying in China: ‘Even if the business deal fails, the goodwill remains.’ Although we couldn’t reach an agreement, if you reconsider in the next couple of days, Mr. Percy, you can find me anytime. After that, I might consider buying another company’s stock. After all, Hongkong Electric isn’t the only stock in Hong Kong.” Lin Haoran wore a look of regret.

From Percy’s earlier expression, it was evident that he had contacted many potential buyers without success. Therefore, Lin Haoran was certain that he would eventually sell.

A ten percent difference meant a loss of over ten million Hong Kong dollars. Lin Haoran would save what he could and had no intention of being a sucker.

Sure enough, upon hearing this, Percy immediately regretted his attempt to take advantage of the situation. It was clearly unnecessary. One person wanted to buy, the other wanted to sell; he should have just sold it directly instead of creating complications.

He suddenly broke into a smile and said, “Mr. Lin is indeed a straightforward person. Since you are so direct, it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to haggle over the price. Let’s speak frankly. How about we base the price on yesterday’s closing price, plus a ten percent premium?”

“Excellent, Mr. Percy. Deal!” Lin Haoran replied immediately.

And just like that, the deal was struck in a few sentences.

Currently, the Hongkong Electric Group had no dominant shareholder. Even the largest shareholder held less than ten percent of the shares, and the company’s senior management operated under a board system, with key executives hired externally. The entire company was essentially managed by these hired executives.

Therefore, now was the best time to acquire the Hongkong Electric Group, before it was noticed by any tycoons.

Once he had sufficient funds, he could acquire this behemoth in one fell swoop.

But if he waited a year or two, someone else would set their sights on the Hongkong Electric Group, and taking it down then would not be so easy.

In his previous life, why did Hutchison Whampoa acquire the Hongkong Electric Group? Because its profits were high enough.

Several years after being acquired by Li Jiacheng, Hutchison Whampoa had amassed a large amount of capital. If these funds weren’t invested, they would just sit in a bank.

And for Li Jiacheng, the interest from the bank was too low.

But if that money were used to acquire the Hongkong Electric Group, the annual returns would be far greater than leaving it in a bank. Moreover, it would give him indirect control over another major British-owned firm, killing two birds with one stone.

To acquire the 34.6% stake in the Hongkong Electric Group held by Hongkong Land, Hutchison Whampoa ultimately spent a staggering 2.9 billion Hong Kong dollars in cash, finally becoming the controlling shareholder.

This showed just how high-quality an enterprise the Hongkong Electric Group was.

A few years later, the Hongkong Electric Group’s market capitalization would also be absurdly high. Based on Li Jiacheng’s acquisition price, its market value was over eight billion Hong Kong dollars.

Right now, the Hongkong Electric Group’s total market capitalization was only one point five billion. Taking it over would require a stake of around thirty-odd percent. If he could do it before its market value reached two billion Hong Kong dollars, Lin Haoran’s total investment would only be five to six hundred million Hong Kong dollars. To completely control this major British-owned firm, which was second only to the Four Big Hongs, was an absolute bargain.

After settling the terms, the conversation between the two became much more amicable.

However, Percy had one condition: he wanted the share transfer agreement to be signed in the presence of the Hongkong Electric Group’s Board of Directors.

If a Briton didn’t prioritize selling a company or shares to their own people, they could easily be ostracized.

But Percy had already asked all his British compatriots, and any fellow countrymen who were interested in buying wanted him to sell at a low price.

Now, it wasn’t that he didn’t want to sell to them; it was that they were unwilling to pay his price. He couldn’t be blamed for selling to Lin Haoran, a Chinese person.

Lin Haoran agreed to this condition without hesitation.

He knew that no one would believe he had the capability to acquire the Hongkong Electric Group. At most, they would just see him as a shareholder investing in the company’s potential.

Although he had already acquired the Green Island Cement Company, Green Island Cement and the Hongkong Electric Group were on completely different levels.

In the eyes of many, ten Green Island Cement Companies might only equal one Hongkong Electric Group. Therefore, acquiring Green Island Cement did not mean Lin Haoran had the strength to acquire Hongkong Electric.

And for Lin Haoran, openly becoming the second-largest shareholder while secretly continuing to accumulate shares was actually an excellent cover.

Most importantly, there was another advantage to publicly becoming a shareholder and even a board member of the Hongkong Electric Group: in the future, if any other shareholders decided to sell their shares, he would be the first to know, rather than having to rely on grapevine news.

However, to prevent Percy from changing his mind, although the share transfer agreement had not yet been signed, they did sign a transaction agreement.

This agreement stipulated that Lin Haoran would acquire Percy’s forty-four million shares of the Hongkong Electric Group for one hundred and nineteen million Hong Kong dollars. In case of default, a penalty of twenty percent of the total transaction amount would be paid as compensation.

Similarly, Percy was required to sell his forty-four million shares to Lin Haoran for one hundred and nineteen million Hong Kong dollars; otherwise, he would also have to pay a penalty of twenty percent of the total transaction value.

In other words, the deal was effectively sealed; it just needed to be formally signed at the Hongkong Electric Group’s headquarters.

Chapter 147: Gaining Another Identity Again

Yesterday, the final closing price for Hongkong Electric Group shares was 2.46 Hong Kong dollars per share. With a 10% premium on top of that, the final agreed-upon transaction price was exactly 119 million Hong Kong dollars.

After coming to an agreement, the two parties arranged to sign the share transfer contract at the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters at ten o’clock the next morning.

The remaining matters would naturally be handled by Percy. Lin Haoran only needed to go to the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters the following morning.

Holding the signed agreement, Lin Haoran left the hotel and returned to his office in the Wan’an Group Building.

Then, he began to calculate his available funds.

Although Green Island Cement Company had accumulated a considerable amount of liquid capital over the past six months, Lin Haoran hadn’t touched any of it, instead having Burton use it all to purchase plots of land.

The situation with Wan’an Group was the same. Not only had he not drawn any profits from the group, but he had even had the group take out loans to buy land for investment.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s available funds were actually the ninety million US dollars left over from selling oil—equivalent to 477 million Hong Kong dollars—plus the forty million Hong Kong dollars in dividends he had just received from Amigo Company.

However, his expenditures had not been small since returning from the United States.

He had spent forty-five million Hong Kong dollars acquiring the shares of six Wan’an Group shareholders and those of his older brother, Lin Haoning.

On the Universal Investment Company side, accumulating Wan’an Group shares to meet the privatization threshold had also cost 23.8 million Hong Kong dollars.

The other major expense was the accumulation of Hongkong Electric Group shares, where he acquired a total of 47.9 million shares at a cost of 115.53 million Hong Kong dollars.

After tallying up all these incomes and expenditures, Lin Haoran found that he had 332.67 million Hong Kong dollars remaining in available funds.

Over three hundred million Hong Kong dollars in liquid capital wasn’t bad.

However, tomorrow he would have to spend another 119 million Hong Kong dollars to purchase Percy’s forty-four million shares of Hongkong Electric Group.

So, after this transaction, he would only have a little over 210 million Hong Kong dollars left.

Money certainly didn’t last long. He could only hope that the profits from his gold investments would come through smoothly, which would give him much more breathing room.

After a short while at the office, Lin Haoran went home to rest.

The next day, shortly after nine in the morning, Lin Haoran did not go to the Wan’an Group Building first. Instead, he went directly to the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters on Kennedy Road.

Hongkong Electric Group’s headquarters was located on Kennedy Road in the Central and Western District of Hong Kong Island, an address that had remained unchanged since the company’s inception.

Although it was in Wan Chai, just a hundred meters away from the bustling districts of Central and Wan Chai, it was situated on a hillside.

After explaining his purpose to the Westerner at the front desk, the receptionist showed no surprise. Instead, they respectfully led Lin Haoran to the elevator, clearly having been notified in advance.

Led by the beautiful Western receptionist, Lin Haoran finally arrived at a meeting room.

It was now around nine-fifty in the morning, so he was right on time.

Looking inside, Lin Haoran immediately spotted the slightly balding Percy and the famous chairman of Hongkong Electric Group.

Although Hongkong Electric Group was a British-owned company with many major shareholders being British, the chairman of this behemoth of a foreign firm was actually a Chinese person: Mr. Chen Shoulin.

Under Mr. Chen’s leadership, Hongkong Electric Group had begun to diversify, moving away from its structure as a simple electricity provider. This had led to year-on-year profit growth, and it could be said that he was an outstanding professional manager.

Fifteen people were gathered in the meeting room, some of whom were members of Hongkong Electric Group’s Board of Directors.

To Lin Haoran’s surprise, besides Chen Shoulin, there were three other Chinese faces in Hongkong Electric Group’s senior management team.

Of the fifteen people present, aside from the four Chinese individuals, the rest were all Westerners.

This was much better than Green Island Cement Company had been before.

Before Lin Haoran took over, there hadn’t been a single Chinese person in Green Island Cement’s senior management; the entire management team had been very exclusionary towards Chinese people.

But Hongkong Electric Group, a company many times larger than Green Island Cement, was able to accommodate Chinese people, which was an eye-opener for Lin Haoran.

But on second thought, it was understandable. Hongkong Electric Group was not only a publicly listed company but also one that had never had a family-based major shareholder. Its senior management was primarily externally hired, so it was naturally much more open-minded in this regard.

Of course, judging by the number of Westerners, Hongkong Electric Group’s Board of Directors was still dominated by them. After all, it was a company founded by the British, which was also understandable.

However, this also showed that Chen Shoulin, a professional manager in his fifties, was able to serve as the chairman of Hongkong Electric Group and earn the recognition and trust of so many Westerners, which was a testament to his management skills.

“Mr. Lin, so young and promising!” Chen Shoulin said enthusiastically, shaking Lin Haoran’s hand in greeting.

“Hello, Mr. Chen,” Lin Haoran replied with a slight smile.

Soon, he learned the identities of the people present.

Among the more than a dozen people, there were only four actual shareholders, all of them Westerners. The rest were senior executives of Hongkong Electric Group who either held no shares or very few. These individuals were essentially the company’s professional managers, including Chairman Mr. Chen Shoulin.

Of course, Hongkong Electric Group had more than just these four shareholders on paper; it’s just that it was impossible for too many to attend.

This was because most of Hongkong Electric Group’s shareholders were merely holding investors; even members of the Board of Directors didn’t frequent the headquarters.

Percy had called them over simply to act as witnesses.

“Mr. Lin, I have already prepared all the necessary materials for our transaction—the contract, stock certificates, and so on. Also, once the shares are transferred to you, my nominal position as a Director of Hongkong Electric Group will also be transferred to you,” Percy said with a smile.

The thought of how smoothly the deal had gone made the smile on Percy’s face grow even wider.

Over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars! When he came to Hong Kong a few years ago, the capital he had brought with him was less than half that amount.

Not only that, he had also used the dividends from Hongkong Electric Group to establish a hotel in Hong Kong. Although the rent for an entire building wasn’t cheap, business was good.

Once this deal was complete, he could leave Hong Kong at any time and return to Scotland whenever he pleased.

He no longer needed to worry too much about Hong Kong’s future.

What Percy didn’t know, however, was that the longer he stayed, the more he would regret this.

Because he would watch Hongkong Electric Group’s market value skyrocket from over a billion Hong Kong dollars, multiplying several times over in a few years.

In other words, if he had chosen to hold on to his shares, they would be worth four to five hundred million Hong Kong dollars in a few years.

But by then, regret would be useless.

Returning to the scene in the Hongkong Electric Group meeting room, both parties had already agreed on the terms and signed a transaction agreement, so there was no need for further negotiation.

Thus, with many members of the Hongkong Electric Group’s Board of Directors as witnesses, Lin Haoran and Percy successfully completed the transaction.

After it was done, Lin Haoran didn’t delay and went directly to the bank with Percy to handle the fund transfer.

Once the transfer was settled, Lin Haoran breathed a sigh of relief. The deal was finally complete.

Although he had paid out 119 million Hong Kong dollars, he had successfully obtained forty-four million shares of Hongkong Electric Group in return.

Adding the 47.9 million shares previously acquired by Universal Investment Company, Lin Haoran now secretly controlled 91.9 million shares of Hongkong Electric Group, accounting for approximately 14.59% of the total shares.

This meant that, on the surface, he had merely become Hongkong Electric Group’s second-largest shareholder, holding about 6.98% of the company’s shares.

But secretly, he had officially become Hongkong Electric Group’s largest shareholder, possessing 14.59% of the shares.

Suddenly, Lin Haoran felt that becoming the largest shareholder had been a little too easy.

But regardless, it was a good thing.

At least, Hongkong Electric Group hadn’t yet attracted the attention of any major powers.

But if he had waited another two years, not only Hongkong Land, but also powers like Cheung Kong Holdings Group and the Carrian Group would be eyeing Hongkong Electric Group covetously. It would have been much more difficult to acquire so many shares so easily then.

After acquiring Percy’s shares, Lin Haoran made a point of returning to the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters to inspect the company.

Perhaps because Lin Haoran was the first Chinese shareholder to hold a significant stake in Hongkong Electric Group, Chairman Chen was particularly enthusiastic, personally guiding him on a tour of the group’s various departments.

Along the way, Chen Shoulin also outlined his management philosophy and future development plans for Hongkong Electric Group.

From his plans, Lin Haoran could tell that Chen Shoulin had a very good vision for future development. For instance, he planned to partner with other real estate companies to develop properties on the former sites of the North Point Electric Road power plant, Inland Lot 8200 on Jardine’s Lookout, the old Chai Wan substation, and various other plots in Sheung Wan, Tsuen Wan, and Fortress Hill. This was intended to enhance Hongkong Electric Group’s strength in the real estate sector and, at the same time, boost the group’s profitability.

Relying solely on selling electricity provided a stable income, but its potential for growth was limited.

No matter who was the helmsman of the group, they would hope to break through this bottleneck and strengthen the group’s profitability. Chen Shoulin was clearly no exception.

If Lin Haoran hadn’t intervened in Hongkong Electric Group’s affairs, then by the end of next year, the company would have, as expected, joined forces with the Wheelock Group, one of the Four Big Hongs, and Li Jiacheng’s Cheung Kong Holdings Group to form a company called International City Holdings.

And the purpose of forming this International City Holdings was to develop the numerous plots of land owned by Hongkong Electric Group.

However, now that Lin Haoran was a director of Hongkong Electric Group and planning to secure a controlling stake after reaping massive profits from the gold market, he would naturally not let the company go down that path.

Keep business within the family. Even if development were to happen, he would have Wan’an Group do it.

This way, Wan’an Group’s strength would also be greatly enhanced.

If Wan’an Group truly lacked the capability, he could always just take control of another real estate company.

At the end of 1982, affected by the real estate crisis, many property companies, including some capable developers, would surely go bankrupt or undergo restructuring due to broken capital chains.

At that time, Wan’an Group could merge with an acquired real estate company, and its property development capabilities would naturally soar.

So, this was actually an easy problem to solve.

And so, known only to a select few, Lin Haoran had gained another special identity—a major shareholder of Hongkong Electric Group.

He didn’t plan to publicize this identity for the time being, to avoid attracting the attention of certain interested parties, such as Li Jiacheng.

Besides, the appointment of a director with no real power didn’t require a special public announcement.

Chapter 148: Returning to Huafeng Cement Factory

After becoming a Member of the Board of Directors of the Hongkong Electric Group, the matter quickly died down and didn’t cause much of a stir.

In fact, without a thorough investigation, almost no one knew that Lin Haoran, the Chairman of Green Island Cement Company, had already become a shareholder of the Hongkong Electric Group.

In the blink of an eye, it was September.

In September, Hong Kong’s climate was still hot and the sun was fierce. Daytime temperatures generally hovered around thirty-something degrees Celsius, and even the sea breeze was warm.

It wasn’t until after nine in the morning that Lin Haoran got out of bed.

As he walked out of his room, he found that, unlike other places in Hong Kong, his residence wasn’t particularly hot.

This wasn’t the Deep Water Bay villa district, but the Severn Road villa district.

In mid-August, the private villa he had purchased for four million Hong Kong dollars was finally renovated.

The renovation, done by his own team, used genuine materials, so there were no issues with formaldehyde.

However, Lin Haoran didn’t move in until the end of August.

After the renovation, the entire exterior style of the Lin family villa on Severn Road had changed, becoming more modern and futuristic.

The interior, however, was not overly luxurious but was dominated by a minimalist style. For Lin Haoran, as long as it looked good, it was enough.

After moving in, Lin Haoran also hired two young Chinese-Filipino maids to handle daily cleaning tasks like sweeping rooms, cleaning bathrooms, wiping windows, and mopping floors, keeping the villa’s environment neat and tidy.

In addition, he hired a couple with excellent culinary skills, whose daily job was to buy groceries and cook.

Lin Haoran had very high standards when hiring these people. If their loyalty wasn’t up to par, they were replaced immediately.

So, in the large villa, including Lin Haoran, Li Weidong, and Li Weiguo, there were a total of seven people, so it didn’t feel deserted.

Having lived here for more than ten days, Lin Haoran felt that the temperature here seemed to be a few degrees lower than down the mountain. Even in the sweltering heat, it wasn’t as hot here.

In the Deep Water Bay villa district, he would wake up every morning to a sea view, and nothing but a sea view.

But at the Severn Road villa, he had not only a sea view but also city, night, and mountain views.

Furthermore, on Severn Road outside, police cars would occasionally drive by. To avoid disturbing the residents along the way, these police cars wouldn’t sound their sirens. It could be said that the sense of security was off the charts.

Spending four million Hong Kong dollars to live here was definitely worth it.

After getting up, Lin Haoran read the newspaper while eating a fried breadstick from a nearby plate.

Reading the newspaper in the morning was a habit he had long since developed.

The first thing he looked at was the price of gold.

The price of gold had now risen from 320 dollars per ounce two months ago to 390 dollars per ounce, meaning it was about to break the 400-dollar mark.

The increase over the past two months might not seem fast, but Lin Haoran knew that the pace would pick up dramatically after November.

Events like the Iran hostage crisis in November and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December would further accelerate the rise in gold prices.

Coupled with the harm caused by inflation around the world, the rise in gold was inevitable.

So, he didn’t need to worry too much about the price of gold right now.

Besides, even if he were to sell his gold futures now, he would have already made a considerable profit.

He had bought them at only 253 dollars per ounce. In just three months, the price had risen by more than one hundred dollars per ounce.

But naturally, he wouldn’t be satisfied. Why make small money when there was more to be earned?

Once this opportunity was missed, it would be gone for good.

After moving here, Lin Haoran discovered another advantage of living in this location. The drive to either the Wan’an Group Building or the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters took only about ten minutes, which was much more convenient than the thirty-minute-plus trips from the Deep Water Bay villa.

After finishing breakfast and reading the newspaper, Lin Haoran left with the two brothers, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo.

He didn’t go to the Wan’an Group Building, but instead made a trip to the headquarters of Bumiputra Finance.

The term for the first fifty-million-Hong-Kong-dollar loan he had taken from Bumiputra Finance last year was up.

This time, not only was he going to repay the loan and redeem the title to Huafeng Cement Factory, but he was also going to discuss an extension for the 240-million-Hong-Kong-dollar loan he had with them.

The 240-million-Hong-Kong-dollar loan was taken out to purchase petroleum and was signed in early November of last year, so this loan was also approaching its maturity date.

Lin Haoran planned to extend the repayment date by three months, meaning he would repay the money in early February of next year.

By January, the funds from his gold futures should be available, and he wouldn’t be short on cash then. Repaying this loan would be a breeze.

As for raising the money to pay it off when the loan was due in November, he could do it, but there was no need. The interest might be high for others, but for Lin Haoran, it wasn’t much.

The distance from the Severn Road villa to Central was not far, but the mountain roads were a bit winding, requiring a number of detours. Nearly twenty minutes later, Lin Haoran appeared in the offices of Bumiputra Finance.

“Uncle Yang, you’re glowing with health. It seems like you’ve been doing well for yourself lately, haven’t you?” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he walked into the office.

At that moment, Yang Changdao was indeed beaming, and not only that, but his potbelly had also grown larger. It was clear he had profited handsomely over the past year.

At the same time, Lin Haoran knew that he must have already had multiple collaborations with another major client, the Carrian Group, from which he surely gained considerable benefits.

If things went as expected, Bumiputra Finance would be affected by the Carrian Group in 1983 and collapse then. But right now, it was still 1979.

“Not at all, not at all. Compared to Nephew Lin, what little I have is nothing. You’re now not only the Chairman of Wan’an Group but also the Chairman of Green Island Cement Company. That’s far more impressive than my position as the general manager of Bumiputra Finance,” Yang Changdao laughed heartily.

“Uncle Yang, you should know the purpose of my visit. I’ve already transferred the principal and interest for the first loan to your company’s account. Here is the proof of transfer. I’m also here to redeem the title to my Huafeng Cement Factory. There shouldn’t be any problem with that, right?” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Of course not. I’ll process the repayment procedures for you right away!” Yang Changdao said with a smile.

In Yang Changdao’s view, doing business with Lin Haoran was the most reassuring. After all, Lin Haoran was now the boss of two companies and had the ability to privatize them both. Such clients were the most sought-after by financial companies. Dealing with someone who had turned two listed companies into private enterprises meant that any loan business was absolutely safe and secure.

After completing the procedures, Lin Haoran smoothly retrieved the title, land deed, and other documents for Huafeng Cement Factory that had been mortgaged at Bumiputra Finance.

After a year of property value growth, the plot of land belonging to Huafeng Cement Factory was already worth a considerable amount, with a market value of at least twenty to thirty million Hong Kong dollars.

“Nephew Lin, I was wondering if you’re in need of more funds? You can come to me for a loan anytime. Although you still have a 240-million-Hong-Kong-dollar loan outstanding, if you want to borrow more, I can definitely approve another one or two hundred million Hong Kong dollars for you, no problem at all!” After finalizing the repayment process, Yang Changdao’s smile grew even wider.

Evidently, he wanted to continue doing business with Lin Haoran.

“Uncle Yang, I don’t need another loan. However, I do have something to discuss with you. Since my current funds are all tied up in investments, and my 240-million-Hong-Kong-dollar loan is due in November, I’d like to discuss a repayment extension with you. It doesn’t need to be long, just three months will be enough. By then, my funds will be available. Of course, I will pay the interest generated during the extension period. Is this request difficult to arrange?” Lin Haoran then brought up his other need.

“A three-month repayment extension? Of course, that’s no problem at all. It’s not difficult. Wait a moment, I’ll have the finance department draw up a new contract. I’ll handle things on the headquarters’ end. Nephew Lin, you can rest assured!” To Lin Haoran’s surprise, Yang Changdao agreed without the slightest hesitation.

After all, with the ability to privatize two listed companies, there was no fear of Lin Haoran skipping town.

Besides, Lin Haoran still had a portion of his Green Island Cement Company shares mortgaged with them.

Half an hour later, Lin Haoran had signed a new loan extension contract with Bumiputra Finance.

As for the subsequent matters, he naturally didn’t need to handle them; Yang Changdao would take care of everything for him.

Looking at these documents for Huafeng Cement Factory again after a year, Lin Haoran felt a little emotional.

A year ago, aside from owning Huafeng Cement Factory, he was practically starting from scratch.

But a year later, he was the boss of two large companies, holding hundreds of millions in funds, and had even become the largest shareholder of the Hongkong Electric Group.

It was time to merge Huafeng Cement Factory with Green Island Cement Company.

He had this idea back when he was acquiring Green Island Cement Company.

At that time, Green Island Cement Company had not yet been privatized, so the idea was to use Green Island Cement Company to acquire Huafeng Cement Factory, which would allow him to cash out through Green Island Cement Company.

However, there was no longer a need to do that, as he had already privatized Green Island Cement Company. Both were his private assets.

At this point, having Green Island Cement Company acquire Huafeng Cement Factory would be a redundant move.

After leaving Bumiputra Finance, Lin Haoran had Li Weiguo drive him first to Green Island Cement Company.

Hung Hom, Green Island Cement Company, the general manager’s office.

“Boss, what brings you here?” Burton asked, somewhat surprised.

In the past, Lin Haoran would always summon him to the Chairman’s office. For Lin Haoran to come to Burton’s office today, how could he not be surprised?

“I’m planning to take care of something with you. Take a look at these.” Lin Haoran smiled and handed over the documents, including the title and land deed for Huafeng Cement Factory.

“Huafeng Cement Factory? Boss, what do you mean?” Burton didn’t understand what Lin Haoran was getting at.

“I plan to merge Huafeng Cement Factory and Green Island Cement Company. This will also increase cement production in Hong Kong. I’ll leave this matter to you. Since I have some free time today, let’s go to Huafeng Cement Factory. By the way, call Fok Kin-ning and have him come with us,” Lin Haoran said directly.

The reason for bringing Fok Kin-ning along was, naturally, to let him learn more and grow faster.

If all went according to plan, he would take over the Hongkong Electric Group next year.

Although Green Island Cement Company was not a small company, for Fok Kin-ning, this platform was simply too small.

Only by moving to a larger platform could he learn faster.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had long decided that after taking over the Hongkong Electric Group, he would transfer Fok Kin-ning over there.

Of course, transferring him to the Hongkong Electric Group wasn’t to make him the head of the group right away. The current Fok Kin-ning did not yet have that capability.

When the time came, Lin Haoran would have Fok Kin-ning start there as a junior executive.

The Hongkong Electric Group was a diversified enterprise with numerous businesses under its umbrella, offering much more to learn.

In this way, Fok Kin-ning’s growth would be much faster.

Once he had matured, he could either become the head of the Hongkong Electric Group or be transferred to another platform.

He recalled that in another world, Fok Kin-ning had served as the Chairman of the Board of the Hongkong Electric Group for a full eleven years.

So, if he were to manage the Hongkong Electric Group in the future, it would be a return to the normal path, so to speak.

The only difference was that the boss had changed; it was originally Li Jiacheng, but now it was Lin Haoran.

Moreover, the timeline had been moved up.

However, these were not issues. As long as Fok Kin-ning had the ability, it wouldn’t be a problem for him to become the head of a group at any time.

Before long, Fok Kin-ning was called over by Burton.

“Let’s go, let’s head out together,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The distance from Hung Hom to Yuen Long was not far, but the roads were not in good condition.

Nearly two hours later, Lin Haoran and the others finally arrived at the Huafeng Cement Factory in Yuen Long.

Chapter 149: Merging the Two Cement Factories, A Plan for Diversified Development

“Boss, this place is exactly the same as it was a year ago. Nothing’s changed at all!” Li Weiguo said emotionally as he looked at the factory before them.

A year ago, they had swum over from Shekou in Shenzhen on the opposite shore. If the Boss hadn’t sent someone to rescue them, they would probably be dead.

So now, as Li Weiguo and Li Weidong looked at this place and the turbid sea beyond, they couldn’t help but feel a little sentimental.

“Yeah, this is the first place we set foot in Hong Kong,” Li Weidong said, also looking around excitedly.

Although they had only stayed at the Huafeng Cement Factory for two or three days, they remembered everything about it as if it were yesterday.

It was by coming here that their destinies had been changed.

In fact, it wasn’t just the Li brothers who were sentimental; Lin Haoran was as well.

Because when he had first opened his eyes in this world, he had also been inside the Huafeng Cement Factory.

Burton and Fok Kin-ning were also taking in the sight of the cement factory.

Compared to the Green Island Cement factory, this one was clearly much smaller in scale, but the plot of land was not small at all. Many areas appeared quite empty.

“Boss,” Factory Manager Xiao walked briskly out of the factory’s production area and greeted Lin Haoran.

“Manager Xiao, you’ve worked hard this past year,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Boss, it’s what I should do,” Factory Manager Xiao replied quickly.

“This is Mr. Burton, the general manager of Green Island Cement Company, and this is Mr. Fok Kin-ning, the chief financial officer of Green Island Cement. Please show them around our factory and tell them about the situation here,” Lin Haoran said, pointing to Burton and Fok Kin-ning as he introduced them to Manager Xiao.

“Yes, Boss. Hello, Mr. Burton. Hello, Mr. Fok. I’ll show you around our Huafeng Cement Factory right away.” Manager Xiao made a welcoming gesture.

Lin Haoran, however, did not go with them.

Before leaving last year, Lin Haoran had already walked through the entire factory area many times and was very familiar with it.

He strolled through the Huafeng Cement Factory and soon arrived at the office building.

The room he used to live in was on the upper floor of this unadorned building.

Returning to the room he once occupied, he found the furnishings were still the same as a year ago.

The only difference, perhaps, was the increased dust on the floor and the cobwebs in some corners.

He walked out of the room and gazed down at the not-so-busy factory area and the somewhat turbid sea outside.

This area was on the east bank of the Pearl River Delta. The seawater on the east bank was actually much clearer than that on the west bank, but Lin Haoran was used to the clear waters of Deep Water Bay, so the sea here naturally seemed incredibly murky.

“Boss, we swam over from the other side. I wonder how our family is doing,” said Li Weiguo, looking at the faint shadow of land barely visible on the opposite shore.

“When there’s a chance in the future, I’ll let you go back for a visit,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Can we really go back? We snuck over here illegally. The police on the mainland have probably got a record of us,” Li Weiguo said, stunned for a moment before shaking his head.

“You can. Trust me. I’ll be investing over there in the future, and I’ll take you with me then,” Lin Haoran said with a laugh.

Speaking of which, construction on the Shekou Industrial Park on the other side should have already started. Although he couldn’t see clearly, Lin Haoran could faintly make out many workers bustling about on the construction sites in Shekou.

The year 1979 was, in a sense, the founding year of Shenzhen.

In the future, he would definitely invest over there.

Labor costs in Hong Kong were getting higher and higher, as was the price of land.

Investing in the mainland would not only save a great deal of money but also contribute to its development. It was a win-win situation.

Moreover, any transmigrator would know how astonishingly fast Shenzhen would develop in the future.

Unless one were a fool, they would seize such a golden opportunity.

However, there was no rush. For the next few years, Shenzhen would mostly be in an experimental stage of development. There would be plenty of opportunities.

What he needed to do now was to manage his operations in Hong Kong well first. After all, this was his home turf for the future.

After a long while, Lin Haoran saw from the upstairs corridor that Manager Xiao had finished showing Burton and Fok Kin-ning around the production area below.

So, he led Li Weiguo and Li Weidong downstairs.

“Now that you’ve toured the production workshop, what are your thoughts?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile when they met.

“Boss, the production facilities here are very complete, and the area is large enough. Most importantly, it even has its own transport pier. The only thing is that the technology is a bit outdated. If we make improvements, this place could completely take over the production tasks of our Green Island Cement factory. Although it’s a bit far from the city, that’s not a problem. The expressway from Yuen Long to the city is currently under construction, and it will shorten the travel time by at least an hour in the future,” Burton said, pleasantly surprised.

“Mr. Burton, my intention in merging Huafeng Cement Factory into Green Island Cement Company is precisely that. The plot of land where the Green Island Cement headquarters is located is too wasteful to be used as a factory. It would be better to use it for real estate development.

“And this place can clearly replace its production capacity. Of course, we could also build another cement factory in a suburban area, like Sai Kung or Sha Tin. That way, the output of the two factories would be enough to meet the cement demand for both Hong Kong and Macau,” Lin Haoran said, smiling as he revealed his purpose.

As for the market in Southeast Asia, it no longer needed supply from Hong Kong. The distance was too great and transportation costs too high; it was better to achieve local production.

At this moment, Manager Xiao, who was standing to the side, was utterly confused by the conversation between Burton and Lin Haoran.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran explained to him, “Manager Xiao, the sales volume of our Huafeng Cement Factory is too low; it’s just small-scale operations. So, I’m directly merging Huafeng Cement Factory with Green Island Cement Company. This place will become a branch factory of Green Island Cement Company. You should get ready.”

The Green Island Cement Company’s branch factory in Hung Hom definitely wouldn’t be relocated so quickly. The move would probably happen in a year or two.

Therefore, this place would serve as a branch factory for now, which would also give them time to carry out renovations.

“Yes, Boss. I will cooperate with Green Island Cement Company,” Manager Xiao nodded in agreement.

He believed that even if the Huafeng Cement Factory was gone, he would be reassigned. It wasn’t as if he would lose his job just because the factory was no more.

Although the current Huafeng Cement Factory covered a large area, its production workshop was small, making it at best a small factory.

Ever since Lin Haoning had stopped targeting them, Huafeng Cement Factory’s cement sales had indeed increased, but profits had only risen back to a little over one hundred thousand a month. Lin Haoran had long since stopped caring about such a small amount of money.

Rather than letting it continue with its small-scale operations, it would be better to move the entire Green Island Cement factory over in the future.

Keeping a heavily polluting factory like a cement plant in the city center, and on the coastline of the core Victoria Harbour area no less, was clearly inappropriate.

“Starting today, Huafeng Cement Factory will be officially merged into Green Island Cement Company. Mr. Burton, I’m entrusting this matter to you. Manager Xiao will cooperate with you!” Lin Haoran also said to Burton.

Burton naturally nodded happily. After all, this meant that Green Island Cement Company’s strength had grown even stronger.

At one in the afternoon, the group had a simple lunch in the Huafeng Cement Factory’s cafeteria, where the cook stir-fried a few small dishes for them.

Afterward, Burton and Fok Kin-ning delved deeper into understanding the Huafeng Cement Factory to make thorough preparations for the merger with Green Island Cement Company.

It was past three in the afternoon when Lin Haoran called them over.

“It’s getting late, let’s head back for now. I’ll leave the merger matters for you to handle. There’ll be plenty of time in the future,” Lin Haoran said to Burton.

Burton nodded in agreement. And so, the group got back into the car and headed directly for downtown Hong Kong.

“Boss, I plan to start renovating the production workshop at Huafeng Cement Factory this month. Once the renovations are complete, we can start moving some orders over here for production. This will ease the backlog of orders in the city.

“Our Green Island Cement factory is currently running on a two-shift system. Once this place is renovated, we can send half our staff over here and have both sides operate on a single day-shift system. This way, complaints against our Hung Hom factory will be reduced.

“Once the Yuen Long plant has fully adapted to large-scale production, we can gradually transfer all cement production here. As for the headquarters in Hung Hom, I plan to pursue diversified development for Green Island Cement Company. For example, real estate, finance, property management, the hotel industry, and so on are all areas we can expand into. We have the land, the capital, and a prime location, so I hope to receive your support, Boss,” Burton said from the back seat on the way back, outlining his plans.

The Hung Hom cement factory was one of the most complained-about enterprises. Since the 1960s, as the city center expanded, the factory’s location had become a core area surrounded by a large population, making it an easy target for complaints.

An increase in complaints would also lead to being summoned for talks by the government.

For this reason, back in the sixties, Green Island Cement Company had dismantled a part of the factory to build the Green Island, Tsingtao, and Tsing Po commercial buildings, which served to separate the factory from the bustling commercial and residential areas to its northwest, reducing the noise and dust from the cement production.

Although there were improvements, it was still impossible to avoid complaints.

Therefore, it was best to move the factory to the suburbs.

“Alright, I support your proposal. But you can’t develop blindly. Green Island Cement Company’s monthly profits are increasing, which is a good thing, but I don’t want you to lose all our capital through reckless development. As you expand, you must not seek growth blindly!” Lin Haoran agreed, but didn’t forget to add a word of caution.

Producing cement in the heart of the city was indeed far too wasteful.

A year ago, this plot of land in Hung Hom was worth four to five hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Today, a year later, the value of this plot has at least doubled, easily worth over one billion.

By next year, its value might even double again, or more.

Over the past two or three years, the growth of Hong Kong’s property market had been just that absurd.

Otherwise, why would Hong Kong’s stock market be so explosive!

British-owned companies with large property and land holdings, like Hongkong Electric Group, Kowloon Wharf, and Hutchison Whampoa, would naturally benefit from the real estate boom, with each becoming a top-tier listed company with a market capitalization of over several billion.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s decisive move to acquire Green Island Cement Company from the very beginning was extremely wise.

The cement factory itself was insignificant; the plot of land was what Lin Haoran truly coveted.

For Green Island Cement Company, Lin Haoran had only invested around two hundred million Hong Kong dollars to acquire an entity now worth at least one billion. What a bargain that was.

Basically, any British-owned company in Hong Kong that Li Jiacheng had his eye on was a good company.

So, Lin Haoran had been the swift-footed who arrives first. Not only had he taken Green Island Cement Company, but now he was preparing to take Hongkong Electric Group.

Of course, Lin Haoran was clearly not satisfied with just two British-owned companies, Green Island Cement and Hongkong Electric Group.

There were many British-owned companies in Hong Kong. Due to their long histories, many of them owned vast plots of land in prime locations. Acquiring them would lead to untold profits in the future, even without any further development.

Chapter 150: Spending Money Like Water, Broke Again

After handing Huafeng Cement Factory over to Green Island Cement Company, Burton acted very quickly.

The very next day, he personally led a group of management personnel from Green Island Cement Company to take over Huafeng Cement Factory.

Factory Manager Xiao of Huafeng Cement Factory was also officially integrated into Green Island Cement Company’s management, becoming a mid-level manager.

Huafeng Cement Factory was a small plant to begin with, while Green Island Cement Company was a large one. Transferring from the position of a factory manager at a small plant to a mid-level management role at a large company wasn’t considered a demotion. For Factory Manager Xiao, it actually meant greater prospects for the future.

On the third day after returning from Yuen Long, Su Zhixue called Lin Haoran with some awkward news: “Boss, the stock account is out of money.”

No money meant that they could no longer continue the stock accumulation of Hongkong Electric Group.

Lin Haoran frowned. Did he have to get another bank loan?

Because he didn’t have much cash on hand either.

Back in July, after acquiring the forty-four million shares from that Hongkong Electric Group shareholder, he was left with only about 210 million Hong Kong dollars.

By August, Lin Haoran’s Green Island Cement Company and Wan’an Group had been completely privatized, so he had to settle another 85 million Hong Kong dollars in fees with Wardley. These fees included the funds used to acquire nearly 24% of Green Island Cement’s shares and nearly 10% of Wan’an Group’s shares, with a small portion being interest and privatization service fees paid by Lin Haoran to Wardley.

At that point, the two listed companies were successfully and thoroughly privatized. Although a small number of shares could not be recovered during the compulsory buyback period, it was of little consequence. If those minor shareholders refused to sell, they wouldn’t receive any dividends, and if they ever decided to sell, they would only get the final buyback price.

In other words, if these few shareholders held on, they couldn’t expect the stock to appreciate; it would be nothing more than a worthless piece of paper in their hands.

And three days ago, Lin Haoran had settled a 52.5 million Hong Kong dollar loan and its interest with Bumiputra Finance. As a result, his available funds had dwindled to just over seventy million Hong Kong dollars.

But over the past two months, that seventy-odd million Hong Kong dollars had been almost completely spent by Universal Investment Company on acquiring Hongkong Electric Group’s stock.

“How many shares of Hongkong Electric Group do we hold now?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Boss, we currently hold 118.8 million shares of Hongkong Electric Group, which is about 18.86% of the company’s total shares. The stock price has been rising continuously these past few months, so we haven’t dared to accumulate shares too quickly. Right now, the price has already risen to 2.85 Hong Kong dollars per share,” Su Zhixue replied.

“Alright, I understand. I’ll take care of the funding issue. I’ll let you know when the money is deposited,” Lin Haoran said directly.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran sighed with emotion. Money was still never enough!

Fortunately, the loan from Hang Seng Bank had a two-year repayment term. If he had signed a one-year term, he would have had to start repaying it soon.

He had to continue acquiring shares in Hongkong Electric Group. Otherwise, the stock price would only get higher, and the later he bought, the higher the cost would be.

For instance, two months ago, the price was between 2.4 and 2.5 Hong Kong dollars per share, but now it was 2.85. He estimated it would rise above 3 Hong Kong dollars per share in less than a month.

Most importantly, Lin Haoran knew that the more shares he acquired now, the larger his stake would be, which would make it easier to take over Hongkong Electric Group in one fell swoop later on.

Besides, although the increase didn’t seem too fast right now, Lin Haoran knew the stock price would surge even more aggressively starting next year.

The stock’s appreciation would be terrifying right up until the property market crash of 1982.

It was only 1979 now, merely the beginning of the Bull market.

In other words, the continuous rise in Hongkong Electric Group’s stock wasn’t driven by Universal Investment Company’s acquisitions but by the overall market environment.

It wasn’t just Hongkong Electric Group’s shares that were rising; the vast majority of stocks on the Hong Kong market were climbing.

After all, it was a major bull market.

In Lin Haoran’s current situation, raising money wasn’t difficult. He would be a welcome customer at any bank, and finance companies would be desperate for him to borrow from them.

Furthermore, Wan’an Group and Green Island Cement Company currently owned quite a few plots of land and properties under their names. He could liquidate any portion of these assets.

However, his main expenditure right now was acquiring Hongkong Electric Group stock. As for the land and properties, their value had only risen a little, and he wasn’t satisfied with that.

The main issue was that Universal Investment Company couldn’t acquire shares too quickly. If they bought too many at once and let shareholders know that a major investor was targeting Hongkong Electric Group, it could easily cause the stock price to surge excessively.

If his reckless buying caused the stock price to double or even more before he had sufficient funds to take over the company, he would be beyond frustrated.

At least the current rate of increase was still acceptable to him. If he could hold out for another three months, he would have enough capital to acquire Hongkong Electric Group.

This was why Universal Investment Company had only spent over seventy million Hong Kong dollars to acquire over twenty million shares of Hongkong Electric Group in two months.

Being out of money was an easy problem to solve. He could just get it from Evergo.

In early July, Amigo Company had paid out 80 million Hong Kong dollars in dividends, and it was now mid-September.

Since then, Evergo had not paid out any more dividends.

After the dividend payout, Amigo Company had earned a profit of over fifty million Hong Kong dollars in July, making it the most profitable month since Evergo’s inception.

Then, in August, that record was broken again, with a profit of a full sixty million-plus Hong Kong dollars.

This profit was double what it was in May.

With the American and European markets in full bloom, Amigo Company had been making an insane amount of money in the past two months.

Now, halfway through September, although it couldn’t compare to August, the number of orders had only decreased slightly.

Barring any surprises, the order volume for September should be about the same as July’s.

If such insane profits were exposed, it would absolutely shock all of Hong Kong.

However, Liu Luanxiong certainly wouldn’t let this information leak, nor would the other fan manufacturers involved in the North American market. Everyone knew not to attract too many manufacturers to North America, or else how would they make money?

The fan factory bosses who operated in the North American market were well aware of what had happened in the Middle East market.

As for why orders had surged so dramatically, it all came down to oil.

This month, the international price of oil had broken 40 US dollars per barrel.

Oil prices all over the world had gone crazy.

It had risen from just over 12 US dollars a barrel to 40 US dollars a barrel in less than a year. What an incredible increase!

In early June, Lin Haoran had sold his crude oil, earning 140 million US dollars, which converted to 742 million Hong Kong dollars.

If he had held onto his crude oil until now, it would be worth 192 million US dollars, which would be about 1.02 billion Hong Kong dollars.

In just over three months, Lin Haoran had missed out on earning nearly three hundred million.

However, he didn’t regret it.

Because the capital he had freed up early had allowed him to make a killing in gold futures.

In addition, he had used that money to secretly become a Major shareholder in Hongkong Electric Group, and now he controlled nearly 20% of the shares.

Beyond that, the funds had also been used for many other things.

So, selling the crude oil early had been worth it.

In everything one does, there are gains and losses. As long as he felt it was a good trade, that was enough.

The insane rise in oil prices naturally created a chain reaction, pushing many industries into difficulty and causing the global economy to become increasingly sluggish.

With a sluggish economy, national incomes naturally shrank significantly, and the developed countries in Europe and America were no exception.

In particular, unemployment rates in these developed nations soared because of the oil crisis.

Not only that, but commodity prices also kept rising, and inflation grew more and more severe.

This, of course, led to a continuous decline in people’s overall income.

Therefore, spurred by national calls for frugality and people’s own efforts to cut spending, many struggling families couldn’t bring themselves to use their air conditioners, despite the hot summer weather this year.

According to surveys by news agencies, air conditioner sales this year had plummeted compared to last year. Many AC manufacturers had anticipated good sales and had stocked up in the spring, but when summer arrived, sales were mediocre, causing significant losses for many of them.

People couldn’t stand the heat without running the AC, so electric fans became everyone’s first choice.

Although fans weren’t as cool as air conditioners, they made the heat bearable. Most importantly, a fan didn’t use much electricity in a day and was cheap. Compared to an air conditioner, it was much more cost-effective.

This was the reason why the fan market had been so crazy since the beginning of this summer.

At the end of July, the production capacity of the two industrial buildings was no longer sufficient to keep up with order volume. After discussing it with Lin Haoran, Liu Luanxiong even rented another industrial building.

The production lines in the three industrial buildings ran day and night, finally managing to meet the production demand from the orders.

Compared to the small cost of rent, the absolute priority was to take on a massive number of orders while they were surging.

After all, money-making opportunities like this didn’t come around every day.

And so, Lin Haoran came to the Evergo factory in Kwun Tong again.

Inside the factory, it was a scene of bustling activity.

In recent months, Lin Haoran had been visiting more frequently.

Although not every day, he basically managed to come once or twice a week.

He would come more diligently whenever Liu Luanxiong needed to travel to Europe or America for business.

Although he knew nothing about managing a fan company, his presence was enough to keep things in order.

Arriving at the Amigo Company offices, Lin Haoran didn’t rush to find Liu Luanxiong, who was surely busy in one of the production workshops at this moment.

The person he wanted to see first was Amigo Company’s chief financial officer, Li Meihui.

He checked her Loyalty. No issues. This meant she was trustworthy.

After the incident with the embezzling chief financial officer at Green Island Cement, Lin Haoran had come to trust this Golden finger of his even more.

Normally, the Loyalty function wasn’t very useful, but at critical moments, it allowed him to discern the loyalty of his employees, and that was when its value truly shone.

“Director Li, how much cash does the company have on its books?” Lin Haoran asked as soon as he walked into the Finance Office.

“President Lin, the accounts currently hold 136.52 million Hong Kong dollars. There’s also an outstanding payment of 13.92 million Hong Kong dollars for goods, which will be credited directly to our account after the shipment arrives in three days,” Li Meihui reported directly.

Lin Haoran nodded, not surprised.

He had been visiting frequently over the past two-plus months and was already aware of Amigo Company’s financial situation.

Having confirmed the exact figures, Lin Haoran knew what to do.

He then left the Finance Office and went to the negotiation room to wait for Liu Luanxiong while drinking tea.

About half an hour later, Liu Luanxiong, having been told of Lin Haoran’s arrival, finally returned to the office.

“Haoran, you were waiting for me? Is something up?” Liu Luanxiong asked curiously as he walked in and saw Lin Haoran leisurely sipping tea.

Liu Luanxiong was covered in the sour smell of sweat.

“Yes, Xiong. There’s something I want to discuss with you,” Lin Haoran said after pouring Liu Luanxiong a cup of tea.

“Haoran, just say what’s on your mind,” Liu Luanxiong said casually after taking a sip of the hot tea.

Now, as his personal net worth soared, so too did his confidence.

“The company has over one hundred and thirty million Hong Kong dollars in its accounts. Leaving such a large sum sitting there is a waste. We might as well pay it out as a dividend,” Lin Haoran stated his purpose directly.

With this amount, they could each get over sixty million Hong Kong dollars, which would keep Universal Investment Company going for a while longer.

Once that money was nearly spent, he could naturally get another dividend from here.

One more dividend after that would be enough to last until it was time to cash in on the gold futures.

“Sure, I agree with a dividend. Haoran, if you hadn’t brought it up, I was going to suggest it myself. I really have you to thank for last time, for reminding me to hoard plots of land. I used that forty million Hong Kong dollars to do just that.

Guess how much those plots are worth now? A real estate company boss approached me, wanting to buy the land I’m holding. He offered fifty million Hong Kong dollars straight up.

It’s only been two and a half months, and it’s already gone up by ten million! I never expected it. I didn’t have to do anything but wait for it to appreciate. It’s the easiest money I’ve ever made.

But you once told me that real estate would continue to soar, so I flatly refused his offer. I’m thinking it’s a better deal to keep taking dividends to buy more land. This kind of appreciation is way more profitable than putting money in the bank for that pittance of interest!” Liu Luanxiong agreed to the idea without a second thought.

Chapter 151: Preparing for Winter in Advance

At Amigo Company, the peak order season had already passed, so there was no need to continue expanding production. Maintaining the current scale was sufficient.

In fact, in another two months, fan orders would enter the off-season, which would last for four to five months.

It wouldn’t be until April of next year that fan orders would start picking up again.

Moreover, if nothing unexpected happened, these days of exorbitant profits wouldn’t last long. Next year might be the final wave.

By 1981, the fan market in North America would already be saturated.

A saturated market meant a significant drop in demand. In turn, order volumes would plummet, and there wouldn’t be much money left to be made.

In other words, the North American fan market’s golden age would only last for a short two years. Even so, Lin Haoran was already very satisfied.

As for the European market, Lin Haoran wasn’t certain. The Liu Luanxiong he knew in his previous life had, from what he recalled, focused only on the North American market.

As a result, in this world, under Lin Haoran’s influence, Amigo Company had eventually entered the European market and was starting to thrive there as well.

Of course, regardless of the European market, Lin Haoran was already planning to lead Amigo Company to go public next autumn. Then he would find a bag holder and make another huge profit right before the market’s last moment of glory.

He wouldn’t be satisfied with just earning two or three hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Of course, this was a plan for the future. For now, it was just an idea that had formed in Lin Haoran’s mind ahead of time.

The company had bought a plot of land in Kwun Tong last time, but they weren’t in a hurry to build on it. Now that they owned the land, they could build whenever they wanted.

With the current volume of orders, Liu Luanxiong couldn’t spare the attention for so many things. He planned to wait until winter, when fan orders decreased and company affairs slowed down, to begin constructing a new factory complex and headquarters, exclusively for Amigo Company, on the new plot of land.

“Then it’s settled!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Okay, I’ll bring this up with Director Li later. A few million Hong Kong dollars should be enough for the company’s reserve funds. Let’s distribute the remaining one hundred thirty million. It’s a shame that a payment of over ten million Hong Kong dollars won’t arrive for a few more days, or we could have divided even more,” Liu Luanxiong said with some regret.

After this dividend, both of them would have earned over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars each from Amigo Company.

This could also be considered a result of Lin Haoran’s influence.

If he hadn’t interfered with Liu Luanxiong’s development, Liu Luanxiong would have had to wait until next year to earn his first one hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Now, because Lin Haoran had expanded Amigo Company’s production scale ahead of schedule, their capacity to take orders had greatly increased. Not only that, but they had also entered the European market, which was just like the North American market, causing him to make money more than twice as fast.

Therefore, although Lin Haoran was using Liu Luanxiong to make money, Liu Luanxiong had also benefited from Lin Haoran’s foresight, allowing him to earn much more for himself.

“By the way, Xiong, Amigo Company’s current business is mainly producing fans, including ceiling fans, stand fans, and so on. During the summer, we naturally don’t need to consider anything else, but in the winter, fan orders drop significantly.

“Right now, we’re renting three factory buildings and have so many employees. It wouldn’t be a good solution to lay most of them off, and leaving the factory buildings empty is a waste of resources.

“So, I suggest that when order volumes start to fall in autumn, the Evergo factory should consider producing items that are in high demand in Europe and North America during the winter. For example, electric blankets. Electric blankets don’t consume much electricity, so they’re sure to be popular.

“There are other popular products too. You can do some research in advance and see what products they need most during winter, especially with the oil crisis. If we prepare ahead of time, we can start mass production when the season arrives, filling the gap left by the drop in fan orders.

“This way, not only can we retain our skilled workers, but we can also increase Amigo Company’s profits, which means we’ll naturally make more money,” Lin Haoran told Liu Luanxiong about an idea he’d had before coming over.

Come winter, a two-story production workshop would be more than enough for the few off-season orders, let alone the factory space in three industrial buildings.

The basic principle of a product like an electric blanket is simply using an electric heating element to warm up the blanket and provide heat.

The technical barrier for this kind of product is low, the process is relatively simple, the barrier to entry for production is not high, and the manufacturing costs are also low. Even an ordinary small workshop could produce them.

Electric blankets can cause fires because many unscrupulous manufacturers cut corners during production. As long as Evergo doesn’t become one of those factories and ensures quality, Europe and North America will also be huge markets.

Besides, Amigo Company now has many distributors in Europe and North America. It’s unlikely they only sell fans. These are excellent channels, and since the cooperation is going so well, they would be happy to place orders if we pitched them Amigo Company’s new products.

Of course, the electric blanket was just an example he gave. What product Evergo would produce would depend on market research.

“Haoran, that’s a brilliant idea! I was just wondering how to handle the factory buildings and all the employees after winter. Your idea solves both of those problems for our company.

“Orders will definitely start to fall next month, and by November, the drop will be even steeper. Your idea came at the perfect time. Over the next two months, I’ll start asking our distributors in Europe and North America for some suggestions. They definitely know the local market better. Then, based on their advice, I’ll start making preparations.” After hearing Lin Haoran’s suggestion, Liu Luanxiong’s eyes lit up, and he immediately agreed wholeheartedly with the idea.

Evergo’s current production lines were all simple. Even if they switched to other products with low technical requirements, they wouldn’t need to modify the lines much.

He didn’t talk with Liu Luanxiong at the company for long before Liu Luanxiong got busy again.

For Liu Luanxiong, now was the best time to make money, and not a moment could be wasted.

The reason Amigo Company’s products had such a stable base of repeat customers was because of their high quality. Therefore, quality control was of the utmost importance, and Liu Luanxiong had always been very strict about it.

Lin Haoran didn’t stay at the company for long either. After drinking some more tea by himself, he left Kwun Tong with the two brothers, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong.

Having received the Boss’s signature, chief financial officer Li Meihui transferred the funds to the two bosses that same afternoon.

This time, the company directly paid out one hundred thirty million Hong Kong dollars in dividends. In the end, Lin Haoran and Liu Luanxiong each received sixty-five million Hong Kong dollars.

The first time, they had divided forty million Hong Kong dollars. The second time, sixty-five million.

Unwittingly, in less than a year since investing in this company, Lin Haoran had already profited one hundred five million Hong Kong dollars.

And his investment had only been 1.2 million Hong Kong dollars. This was nearly a hundredfold return.

Exorbitant profit, this was truly an exorbitant profit!

Of course, he also knew that the ceiling for this industry wasn’t high. An investment of one million earning one hundred million didn’t mean an investment of one hundred million could earn ten billion. That was simply impossible.

The sixty-five million Hong Kong dollars that arrived in his account would allow Universal Investment Company to continue its operations for a while longer.

When that money ran out, he would just have to find a way to raise more.

Lin Haoran did a rough calculation. He currently held about 18.86% of Hongkong Electric Group’s shares. When Universal Investment Company finished spending this sixty-five million Hong Kong dollars, calculating at three Hong Kong dollars per share, his stake would increase to over 22%.

A 22% stake was quite substantial, but he was definitely not satisfied.

Hongkong Electric Group was a juicy piece of meat, one that could easily attract the attention of other tycoons.

Therefore, the higher his shareholding percentage, the safer he would be.

Returning to Green Island Cement Company, Lin Haoran called Su Zhixue to inform him that the account had been replenished and they could resume trading tomorrow.

After finishing the call, he approved two important proposals in his office, then took the documents downstairs to the general manager’s office.

Burton wasn’t in, so Lin Haoran placed the proposals directly into a drawer, walked out of the general manager’s office, and closed the door behind him.

After receiving Lin Haoran’s support for diversified development, Burton was clearly much busier. Who knew where he had run off to do research this time.

Passing by the Finance Department office, Lin Haoran noticed Fok Kin-ning inside, head down and writing something, so he walked in.

The Finance Office wasn’t small; the chief financial officer had a small, separate cubicle office.

“Boss, you’re here.” Hearing footsteps, Fok Kin-ning finally looked up and saw that the visitor was his Boss.

“Kin-ning, you’ve been with the company for almost three months now. How do you feel?” Lin Haoran casually pulled over a chair, sat down, and asked with a smile, crossing his legs.

A month after joining Green Island Cement Company, Fok Kin-ning passed the general manager Burton’s assessment and officially took over as chief financial officer.

By now, he had been in the official position for over a month.

“I feel great. Mr. Burton is a very good person and is willing to teach me everything. I can now not only handle all matters in the Finance Department but am also learning about corporate management experience. This time at the company has been very fulfilling. Thank you so much, Boss, for personally giving me this opportunity,” Fok Kin-ning said respectfully.

The reason Burton was teaching him was, naturally, because of Lin Haoran’s instructions. Otherwise, Burton wouldn’t have looked after Fok Kin-ning so well.

“Mm, it’s good that you’re doing well. Keep up the good work. Green Island Cement Company is just a temporary platform for you right now, mainly for you to learn and grow as quickly as possible. If you satisfy me, it won’t be long before you’re transferred to a bigger platform. Of course, I’ll keep which company that is a secret for now. You’ll probably find out in a few months,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Regarding the secret acquisition of Hongkong Electric Group, Lin Haoran hadn’t told anyone. Only he and the few traders at Universal Investment Company knew about it.

Even those traders only thought Lin Haoran was accumulating Hongkong Electric Group’s shares as an investment; they never imagined his goal was to acquire the company.

Only Su Zhixue, his subordinate with 100% Loyalty, knew more.

“By the way, Boss, I’ve always been curious. When you came to my home before, you told me you found me through a friend’s recommendation. I’d really like to know who this friend is,” Fok Kin-ning changed the subject, asking about this matter again.

This non-existent friend, of course, did not exist, so Lin Haoran was destined not to be able to satisfy Fok Kin-ning’s curiosity.

“I promised him I wouldn’t tell you who he is, and I definitely can’t go back on my word. Don’t make things difficult for me,” Lin Haoran said with a light laugh.

Chapter 152: International Gold Prices Soar Continuously

For the past few months, Lin Haoran’s funds had been primarily used for the stock accumulation of Hongkong Electric Group, increasing his stake in the company. As a result, he had no other development plans for the last two or three months.

In the blink of an eye, September and then October passed.

During these two months, the price of gold climbed steadily, just as Lin Haoran had anticipated.

By early November, the price of gold had already risen to over four hundred US dollars per ounce.

At this point, his gold futures had increased by two hundred US dollars per ounce.

However, Lin Haoran was naturally not satisfied and continued to wait patiently.

Because he had always trusted his management teams when it came to corporate administration, his personal workload was light. Though he owned numerous businesses, he was quite at leisure.

At Green Island Cement Company, profits had been increasing month after month, with October’s profit directly breaking ten million Hong Kong dollars.

Under Burton’s leadership, Green Island Cement smoothly merged with Huafeng Cement Factory.

After the merger, Huafeng Cement Factory became a part of history, its facilities becoming the Yuen Long branch of Green Island Cement Company.

After over a month of renovations, the Yuen Long branch finally met the quality standards of Green Island Cement and officially began producing cement under the Green Island brand.

Following this, Burton started arranging for employee relocation, first moving a portion of the staff to work at the Yuen Long branch.

The employees of Green Island Cement Company were relatively well-treated. Even when suddenly forced to move from the city center to the distant suburbs for work, very few were willing to resign.

As a result, the Green Island Cement Company site in Hung Hom became much quieter.

With fewer employees, the production volume of the workshops also decreased, and there was no longer a need for night shifts.

Although a diversification plan was in place, the current priority was to completely move the cement production operations out of the urban area. Only then could they pursue diversified development in the future.

In these few months, Green Island Cement Company had generated over twenty million Hong Kong dollars in profit. While it was far from comparable to the profits of Evergo Company, it was still quite impressive.

Ultimately, the reason Green Island Cement Company was so valuable was because of its plot of land in Hung Hom.

If it hadn’t been for the expansion into the Southeast Asia market, which was proving successful, it would not have been able to achieve a monthly profit of over ten million Hong Kong dollars.

Originally, Burton wanted to use this money to purchase land, but after careful consideration, Lin Haoran decided to first take out twenty million Hong Kong dollars for another purpose: to continue Universal Investment Company’s accumulation of Hongkong Electric Group shares.

In Lin Haoran’s view, the top priority was to acquire Hongkong Electric Group. The small matter of making money by buying land could be put aside for now.

Green Island Cement Company had become a private enterprise, Lin Haoran’s personal asset. Burton had no reason to stop him from using the money for investments elsewhere.

In addition to the twenty million Hong Kong dollars from Green Island Cement Company, Lin Haoran received another dividend of thirty-five million Hong Kong dollars from Evergo Company in early November.

As Evergo Company entered October, fan orders had indeed dropped significantly. The total orders for October were even lower than in September, and a far cry from the peak in July and August.

However, both Liu Luanxiong and Lin Haoran knew that orders would be even lower in November.

So they had prepared in advance. After consulting with several fan distributors in Europe and the United States about their needs, Liu Luanxiong ultimately decided to produce two new products for the autumn and winter seasons: electric blankets and water-filled electric hot water bottles. Moreover, several distributors had already decided to place trial orders with him.

After all, Evergo brand fans had already won their approval, and they believed that the quality of Evergo Company’s products was reliable.

Both electric blankets and electric hot water bottles were products with very low technological requirements. So, as fan orders gradually decreased and factory space became available, they acquired the necessary production technology and suppliers for raw materials.

Compared to fans, the profit margins for electric blankets and electric hot water bottles were no lower, and once winter truly arrived, the demand would be just as immense.

Thus, these two products would help Evergo Company safely weather the cold winter.

A few days ago, when Lin Haoran went to Evergo Company to propose the dividend distribution, he also took the opportunity to tour the production lines for the electric blankets and electric hot water bottles.

Although Liu Luanxiong was not familiar with the electric blanket and hot water bottle industries, many manufacturing principles were interconnected. As these two products were not technologically complex, they were easily integrated into Evergo Company’s production lines.

In November, some regions in Europe and North America had already entered the cold season. In Canada, for example, which is close to the Arctic Circle, the demand for both products was very high.

Therefore, after deciding to manufacture these two products in October, Evergo Company had already secured a certain number of orders.

Come November, the order volume increased again. For now, it was hard to predict how much profit they would generate for Evergo Company, but as long as the distributors’ sales were good, Evergo Company’s orders would naturally increase.

In September, Lin Haoran had received sixty-five million Hong Kong dollars from Evergo Company. In November, he received another thirty-five million. Adding the twenty million from Green Island Cement Company, he had managed to gather one hundred twenty million Hong Kong dollars in three months.

This sum of money would be enough to sustain Universal Investment Company until he sold his gold futures.

On November 4th, the Iran hostage crisis shocked the world.

The first thing to be affected was the international price of gold.

Subsequently, the price of gold continued to skyrocket, soon breaking the five hundred US dollar per ounce mark and continuing to climb.

At this moment, the profit Lin Haoran had gained from his gold futures had officially doubled.

But this was far from the ceiling for gold prices.

In December, another world-shaking event occurred: the Soviet Union officially invaded Afghanistan.

Influenced by this, gold experienced another massive surge.

The global gold market seemed to have gone mad. Despite poor economic conditions around the world, vast sums of money were pouring into gold.

The series of wars made it seem as if the entire world was no longer peaceful, leading people to believe that hoarding gold was the best way to manage their finances.

Consequently, gold was being stockpiled by central banks, the wealthy, and even many ordinary citizens.

Apart from Su Zhixue, only a few senior executives at Citibank knew about Lin Haoran’s massive position in gold futures.

These included Citibank’s current Senior Vice President, John Reed, and Citibank’s Chairman, Mr. Walter Wriston.

Over the past few months, Lin Haoran had received several personal calls from John Reed.

After his gold futures had doubled, even Citibank’s Chairman, Mr. Walter Wriston, personally called him.

The reason was simple: the amount of capital Lin Haoran now controlled had drawn the serious attention of Citibank’s head.

Five hundred million US dollars in gold futures, doubled—that was one billion US dollars!

With such a colossal sum of money, it wasn’t just Citibank; other major US financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Merrill Lynch, and Goldman Sachs would all pay close attention to the person behind this capital.

It was clear that Lin Haoran was now under the close watch of Citibank’s Chairman, Mr. Walter Wriston.

On the phone, Walter Wriston expressed that, on behalf of Citibank, he hoped for greater cooperation with Lin Haoran, wishing for the two parties to become close partners.

Lin Haoran naturally agreed wholeheartedly.

Citibank was one of the largest financial groups in the United States. Building a good relationship with them would obviously be advantageous for his development in the international business world, as well as for his future entry into the US market.

Lin Haoran was certainly not going to be satisfied with just the small market of Hong Kong.

Furthermore, a massive financial group like Citibank had a certain amount of say even in the US Congress. If he could gain their esteem, they might be able to provide some unexpected help in the future.

Walter Wriston had been at the helm of Citibank since 1967, a tenure of twelve years. During his time, he had significantly elevated Citibank’s international status and brand value, making it a focal point not only for the American banking industry but often for global attention as well.

Although John Reed would succeed Walter Wriston in five years, for now, the person in charge at Citibank was still Walter Wriston. Being on good terms with both men meant establishing good relationships with both the current and future leaders of Citibank.

“Mr. Lin, your gold futures have already more than doubled in profit. Are you still not planning to sell?” Citibank’s Senior Vice President, John Reed, was both shocked and curious about Lin Haoran’s calm persistence in holding onto these gold futures.

Could this Mr. Lin be an insatiably greedy person?

But based on their interactions over this period, it didn’t seem so. Instead, he seemed full of confidence in the gold market, not at all worried that the price would plummet after such a massive surge.

Today was December 28, 1979. In just a few more days, it would officially be 1980.

“Mr. Reed, I’m actually very satisfied with the current international gold price. I’m planning another trip to New York tomorrow, and I will make arrangements for my gold futures then,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

John Reed had actually asked this question three or four times, but each time, Lin Haoran’s answer had been: “There’s no hurry. I have great confidence in the gold market.”

Even John Reed hadn’t expected Lin Haoran’s answer this time to be so completely different from before.

“Yes, my advice would be to sell. Half a year ago when you partnered with us, I never imagined your gold futures contracts could double in profit. No, it’s more than double now. The latest gold price has broken six hundred US dollars per ounce!” John Reed replied with a touch of emotion.

Lin Haoran just smiled at John Reed’s words and didn’t continue on that topic.

He was not satisfied with six hundred US dollars per ounce.

Although it had just broken the six hundred dollar mark, Lin Haoran knew that in the next ten days, the price of gold would experience a truly super surge!

From over six hundred US dollars per ounce to a peak of eight hundred fifty US dollars per ounce, in just a matter of days.

Before, although the rise was considered fast, an increase of one hundred US dollars per ounce would take at least one or two months.

But this time, a rise of over two hundred US dollars per ounce would take only a few days.

Such an exaggerated increase was so preposterous that if Lin Haoran weren’t a transmigrator, he wouldn’t believe it was real.

It was simply outrageous.

Lin Haoran knew he couldn’t time the sale perfectly at the eight hundred fifty US dollar peak. The international price of gold changes in real-time, with an opening price, a mid price, and a closing price.

His position in gold futures was no small amount; cashing it out would likely have some impact on the price of gold.

But as long as he could sell for over seven hundred US dollars per ounce, he would be very satisfied.

Chapter 153: Return to New York, a Meeting with the Chairman of Citibank

Lin Haoran had already booked a flight to New York for the morning of December 29th.

The price of gold was expected to peak in January 1980.

So, anytime in January, as long as the price was right, he could sell.

Traveling from Hong Kong to New York, due to the time difference, Hong Kong was a full thirteen hours ahead of New York during winter.

Therefore, although he bought a ticket for the morning of the 29th, after arriving in New York, the date would still be December 29th.

Once there, he could close out and liquidate his gold futures contracts at any time based on market movements.

These operations would naturally be handled by Citibank. As futures were one of their main businesses, they were undoubtedly experts.

At 8:28 AM on December 29th, Lin Haoran, along with Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, appeared once again at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport.

This time, he didn’t bring Su Zhixue, as there was no need.

Lin Haoran had been waiting for this day for half a year, and now the season of harvest had finally arrived once more.

The plane took off smoothly from Kai Tak International Airport.

By just after eight o’clock on the evening of December 29th, New York time, Lin Haoran had safely arrived in downtown New York.

This time, he didn’t book a hotel on Wall Street, choosing instead to stay near Citibank’s headquarters.

He had already entrusted Citibank to handle the futures contracts, so there was no need for him to go to the New York Mercantile Exchange to watch the prices.

For an entity like Citibank, which sat at the apex of the financial industry’s pyramid, they knew the real-time price of gold just as quickly as the exchange did.

After resting at the hotel for a night, at around nine o’clock the next morning, after finishing the hotel’s buffet breakfast, Lin Haoran called John Reed, the Vice President of Citibank, to inform him that he was in New York.

Today was Sunday, not a trading day for the futures exchange, so he didn’t need to pay attention to gold prices.

“Mr. Lin, where are you? Shall I send someone to pick you up?” John Reed was very polite to Lin Haoran.

John Reed was still just a Vice President, and this major contract with Lin Haoran had been signed with him as a witness, so the two had already established a good relationship.

“Mr. Reed, there’s no need. I’m at the Marriott Hotel right next to the Citibank headquarters building. I’ll head down and come over now,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Lin Haoran understood the change in John Reed’s address to him, which had become increasingly polite and respectful.

After all, based on the current value of the futures contracts, he controlled assets worth over a billion US dollars.

In this era, this was undoubtedly a staggering sum of money, enough to command the serious attention of any financial institution.

With his two bodyguards, Lin Haoran walked directly to the adjacent Citibank building.

Even though it was his second visit, this skyscraper was still a breathtaking sight.

Four towering pillars firmly supported this architectural marvel that stood over two hundred meters tall, making one marvel at human ingenuity and power.

Just as he entered the building’s lobby, Lin Haoran was surprised to find John Reed waiting to greet him.

“Hello, Mr. Lin. Welcome back to Citibank,” John Reed said, his face wreathed in smiles.

“Hello, Mr. Reed. I’m deeply honored that you would come to welcome me personally.” He naturally reciprocated the respect shown to him.

Although John Reed wasn’t the head of Citibank yet, he was at least one of its key senior executives.

“Mr. Lin, our Chairman, Mr. Walter Wriston, is already waiting for you in his office. Allow me to take you up,” John Reed said directly, without much small talk in the lobby.

Lin Haoran nodded and followed John Reed into the elevator once again.

As for his two bodyguards, they would wait for him in the lobby’s lounge area.

A few minutes later, the elevator doors slowly opened. The two men stepped out and walked straight to an office.

John Reed knocked lightly on the door, and a steady, powerful voice responded from within: “Come in.”

Opening the door, Lin Haoran finally saw the legendary figure of Citibank, its Chairman, Mr. Walter Wriston.

The office was luxurious yet tasteful, and at over one hundred square meters, it was spacious enough to make one feel instantly at ease.

The massive floor-to-ceiling window was like a picture frame, offering a stunning panoramic view of half of New York City.

For Lin Haoran, this was his first face-to-face meeting with this titan of the financial world.

He couldn’t help but feel a wave of emotion as he recalled his last visit, when he hadn’t yet earned the right to speak directly with such a tycoon.

Now, times had changed. His investment had snowballed, growing several, even ten times over. This financial strength gave him the confidence and composure to face the global financial giant before him.

“Mr. Walter, hello! I have long heard of your great name. It’s a great honor to finally meet you in person!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, sizing up Citibank’s helmsman.

Although Mr. Walter Wriston was over sixty and his hair was slightly thinning, it did nothing to diminish his charisma and presence.

As one of the most outstanding bankers of his era, his wisdom and foresight were renowned in the industry. Many of his complex theories had become classics, followed by the world.

At this moment, Mr. Walter Wriston had already risen from his seat and was warmly walking toward Lin Haoran. They shook hands cordially.

“Mr. Lin, you are much younger than I imagined. It’s truly astonishing. Who would have thought that at your age, you would already be among the ranks of the super-rich with a net worth of over a billion US dollars? You are truly young and promising, utterly admirable!” Mr. Walter Wriston’s words were filled with praise and admiration for Lin Haoran.

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran quickly responded with humility, “You’re too kind, Mr. Walter. It was mostly due to good fortune. When I first invested in gold, although I was confident in my market judgment, even I didn’t anticipate the price would surge so dramatically. The global events of November and December, in particular, far exceeded my expectations.”

“Luck is often a reflection of strength, Mr. Lin. You needn’t be so modest,” Mr. Walter Wriston said with a smile, gesturing. “Come, please have a seat on the sofa. Let’s have a good chat.”

Lin Haoran nodded.

The three of them moved to the sofa area, where Lin Haoran sat across from the two Citibank executives.

“After you sell this batch of gold futures, I wonder what your plans are, Mr. Lin. Citibank is an excellent financial firm for wealth management and investment. You could certainly cooperate with us long-term. In the future, you can continue to work with Citibank in all financial matters,” Walter Wriston said with a smile.

A client holding over a billion dollars in cash was simply too tempting.

Just as Lin Haoran wanted to build a good relationship with Citibank, Citibank was equally eager to retain this mega-client.

For both parties, the other held tangible value.

Take this very transaction with Lin Haoran, for example. Once the futures were closed, Lin Haoran would naturally get the lion’s share, but as the brokerage firm, Citibank would also earn a substantial profit.

In other words, Lin Haoran would eat the meat, and they would get to drink the soup.

“I plan to use it mainly for investments. As you may know, Mr. Walter, I’m from Hong Kong, so I will most likely be investing in companies there. I hope to acquire a few quality enterprises that will be beneficial to my future development.

“In addition, I also intend to invest in some promising companies here in the United States. My collaboration with Citibank this time has been very satisfactory, so I am willing to establish a long-term partnership with you,” Lin Haoran stated his position as well.

There were only a handful of international financial giants, and Lin Haoran couldn’t build good relations with all of them. But since he had chosen Citibank for his first collaboration, it was natural to maintain that relationship.

Cooperation was primarily based on mutual interest. Lin Haoran valued the power and connections behind Citibank, and similarly, Citibank saw value in him worth exploring.

“The price of gold has already risen to a very high level. I wonder when you plan to close the position, Mr. Lin?” The one who asked this question was Vice President John Reed.

“On the upcoming trading days, I will decide when to close the position based on the price of gold. By the way, Mr. Reed, with a gold futures position as large as mine, what impact would closing it all at once have on the gold market price?” Lin Haoran asked in return.

Previously, when he was buying, John Reed had advised him not to exceed five hundred million dollars. It was clear that the value of his current gold futures far surpassed that amount.

“The futures contract you hold, Mr. Lin, is already considered an exceptionally large one. Closing out such a large position all at once would cause a significant short-term change in the supply or demand for that futures contract in the market.

“If you choose to sell and close out the entire position at once, it will increase the market’s supply, which could theoretically put downward pressure on the futures price.

“However, this impact is not absolute, as the price is also affected by many other factors.

“A large one-time closing action tends to attract the attention of market participants and may trigger a series of market reactions. If the market generally interprets this as a sign of the investor’s pessimism about the market’s prospects, it could trigger more selling, further exacerbating a price drop.

“Conversely, if the market believes the action is for technical adjustments or fund management purposes, the impact on the price might be relatively small.

“At the same time, it’s also related to a very important factor: market liquidity!

“In a market with sufficient liquidity, a large one-time closing can be easily absorbed by the market, and the impact on the price is relatively minor. In a market with poor liquidity, it could cause significant price volatility.

“As for the gold futures you hold, Mr. Lin, the market liquidity is currently immense. Compared to six months ago, the trading volume for gold has increased by several multiples. Every day, a vast number of investors are buying gold futures.

“So, based on my overall assessment of the current gold market trading conditions, although your futures contract is large, closing it all at once will not have too great an impact. If the price is right, I would advise you to close it directly. We will provide the best execution services to ensure you don’t suffer any losses. After all, any loss on your part means a loss for Citibank as well!” John Reed explained in detail.

After listening to him, Lin Haoran understood.

If there was no major impact, that was for the best.

But thinking about the current gold market frenzy, he got it. With so many investors pouring in, his billion-dollar-plus worth of gold would be quickly absorbed. How could it have that much of an impact?

Following this, Lin Haoran chatted with the two Citibank executives for another half an hour before John Reed took him to meet his futures brokerage team.

Given the large-value gold futures contract Lin Haoran now controlled, it was clear that he would require at least a team to service him.

After familiarizing himself with the brokerage team, Lin Haoran left the Citibank headquarters building.

His plan was to go nowhere until the futures were closed. He would either stay at the hotel or at the Citibank headquarters.

In the blink of an eye, a day passed, bringing them to the last day of 1979, December 31st!

Today was Monday, and the New York Mercantile Exchange was open.

At nine in the morning, Lin Haoran eagerly made his way to the Citibank headquarters building and into the office of the brokerage team handling his futures.

Last Friday, the international price of gold had already risen to over six hundred dollars per ounce.

If things continued this way, it would undoubtedly set a new record.

Over six hundred dollars an ounce was still far from the peak.

He just wondered, how high could the price of gold climb today?

Chapter 154: A Massive Windfall, Raking in 5.7 Billion!

In the brokerage team’s office, everyone was actually quite idle.

This was because Lin Haoran’s gold futures contract had not yet started the closing process.

Citibank clearly had people inside the New York Commodity Exchange.

Although the price of gold futures fluctuated every moment, they could get real-time updates on the price movements from the Citibank headquarters building several kilometers away.

At 9:30 AM, the opening price for gold futures was $632.96 per ounce.

As soon as the market opened, the price of gold futures began to shoot up.

By 4:00 PM, the final closing price for gold futures was fixed at $675.62 per ounce.

Besides monitoring the price changes, Lin Haoran’s team also watched the influx of capital. All this data was recorded to serve as a reference for when he would make his move later.

Today’s significant rise was entirely caused by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan on the 27th.

After brewing over the weekend, the incident had already become a hot topic of global discussion.

Before a war or conflict breaks out, the price of gold typically trends upward.

This is because the impending war incites panic, and as a safe-haven asset, gold becomes favored by investors.

Coupled with various factors like the Iran hostage crisis last month and the second oil crisis pushing inflation to its peak, gold experienced an explosive surge. In a single day, it had risen by $42.66 per ounce.

As the market was about to close, the head of the brokerage team wondered why Lin Haoran still had no intention of selling.

A big rise, of course, was due to continuous buying, which pushed the price higher and higher.

But such a large increase in one go also carried risks; it was very possible for the price to drop on the next trading day.

However, Lin Haoran was exceptionally calm.

The price of gold dropping? It wasn’t time yet.

It was only just over six hundred dollars per ounce, a far cry from the final peak of eight hundred and fifty dollars.

In his view, he would only consider selling when the price reached over seven hundred, or even eight hundred dollars per ounce.

After the market closed, Lin Haoran returned to the hotel.

He didn’t know the exact day of the highest peak, only that the price of gold would skyrocket in January, reaching a maximum of $850 per ounce, after which it would begin to fall.

He also didn’t plan to close his position at the absolute peak. After all, it was a futures contract worth over a billion dollars. If his plan caused the price to slide too much, resulting in a low final transaction price, the loss would outweigh the gain.

He couldn’t fully control the timing for eight hundred and fifty dollars per ounce.

Therefore, he would be very satisfied if he could sell at eight hundred dollars per ounce.

December 31st passed in a flash, and the calendar officially turned to January 1st, 1980.

On New Year’s Day, exchanges around the world were closed, so Lin Haoran didn’t need to pay attention to the gold market.

On this day, Lin Haoran specifically took the Li brothers, Weidong and Weiguo, to New York’s Chinatown.

Everything there felt incredibly familiar to them, as if they were walking the streets of Hong Kong, giving them a greater sense of affinity.

It wasn’t until they had a very authentic Cantonese dinner at a famous Cantonese restaurant in Chinatown that evening that Lin Haoran left with his two bodyguards and returned to the Marriott Hotel next to the Citibank headquarters.

The hotel was extremely luxurious, and Lin Haoran was staying directly in a three-bedroom, two-living-room presidential suite. Although it was a temporary residence, it was quite comfortable.

After New Year’s Day, on January 2nd, the price of gold futures continued to rise. From the previous trading day’s closing price of $675.62 per ounce, it peaked at $689.69 per ounce. Although it pulled back slightly at the close, it still reached $686.77 per ounce.

Lin Haoran remained as steady as a rock, not in a hurry to close his position.

Time quickly moved to January 3rd. The price of gold futures continued its upward trend, breaking the seven-hundred-dollar-per-ounce mark today. Although the increase was not as high as the previous day, the closing price still reached $703.36 per ounce.

On January 4th, the closing price fell back to $692.42 per ounce.

At this point, even John Reed grew anxious, advising Lin Haoran to secure his profits.

After all, a sudden pullback made some people quite nervous.

However, Lin Haoran had no intention of selling just yet. Knowing history, he understood perfectly well that this was just an ordinary price correction; it would definitely rise again on the next trading day.

After all, it was still far from the peak of $850 per ounce that he remembered.

Sure enough, on January 5th, the price of gold futures broke the $700 per ounce mark again, reaching a high of $721.13 per ounce, with a closing price of $719.98 per ounce.

On January 6th, gold futures continued to rise, closing at $721.46 per ounce. The increase was not obvious, remaining basically level with the previous day.

January 7th, closing price: $726.96 per ounce.

January 8th, closing price: $731.63 per ounce.

January 9th, closing price: $733.44 per ounce.

…

By January 18th, the closing price of gold futures had astonishingly reached $783.69 per ounce, on the verge of breaking through $800 per ounce.

By this time, even Citibank’s Chairman, Mr. Walter Wriston, was filled with admiration for Lin Haoran.

They had all witnessed Lin Haoran’s performance during this period.

He was simply too calm, too confident.

This was a transaction involving over a billion dollars. Even they would find it difficult to remain so composed, yet Lin Haoran appeared as steady as a rock, showing no signs of nervousness at all.

If Lin Haoran had followed their advice when he first arrived in New York for the second time and chosen to close his position at over six hundred dollars per ounce, he would have earned at least two hundred million dollars less.

But Lin Haoran wasn’t worried in the slightest that the price of gold would plummet. Instead, he calmly waited for it to continue rising. All of this, it could be said, was due to Lin Haoran’s own efforts; Citibank, on the other hand, had not provided any useful advice.

The recent surge in gold prices had led everyone to believe that the price might break through $1,000 per ounce.

However, just as everyone thought the price of gold could continue to soar, perhaps even past the one-thousand-dollar mark, Lin Haoran was already planning to close his position.

Because the current price was not far from the peak.

So, he decided to have Citibank’s futures traders close the position for him on the next business day.

The upcoming 19th and 20th were the weekend, when the futures exchange was closed.

Therefore, the next trading day would be the 21st.

Lin Haoran spent the weekend with a mix of nervousness and complex emotions.

He knew that the time for harvest was approaching.

He just didn’t know how big the return would be this time.

He had been in the United States for nearly twenty days. During this time, Lin Haoran would call Hong Kong every two or three days to report his safety.

Although he was far away in the United States, he had a firm grasp on the situations at Green Island Cement Company and Wan’an Group.

In addition, over the weekend, relevant US departments released several figures.

The US ISM Manufacturing PMI index dropped from 51.3 to 29.4, and the unemployment rate rose from 5.7% to 7.5%…

These figures showed everyone just how grim the current economy was.

But for people in the financial industry, they saw an opportunity to make money.

On the next business day, the price of gold would surely surge!

Even John Reed personally visited him at the hotel on the 20th to tell him how much impact these indices would have on the gold market.

Everyone knew that on January 21st, the increase in the price of gold would be no less than that of December 28th and 31st of last year.

Everyone believed that with so many factors affecting the price of gold converging, it wouldn’t take many days for it to rise above one thousand dollars per ounce. This included the experts at Citibank.

However, Lin Haoran told John Reed about his plans.

“Mr. Reed, I think it’s time for me to start closing my position. Back in Hong Kong, a company I have my eye on is currently being coveted by others. While I would love for my gold futures to continue rising, for the sake of my future business arrangements, I’ve decided to sell my gold futures tomorrow.

“We have an old saying in China: one should not be insatiably greedy. I’m already very satisfied with what I have. Although I was initially very confident in the future of gold, which is why I dared to bet so big and take on a ten-times leveraged gold futures contract worth up to five hundred million dollars.

“But I never expected it to rise so dramatically in the following six months. So, this has completely exceeded my expectations. I am more than content. At this point, it’s just a matter of earning a little more or a little less; the difference isn’t that great!”

Lin Haoran certainly couldn’t tell him his real thoughts, but it was easy to come up with a plausible excuse.

The reason he gave was also convincing enough that no one would think he could actually predict the high point of the gold price. They would just think he was lucky to sell right before the peak.

As expected, John Reed didn’t try to stop Lin Haoran’s plan.

For them, while they could offer advice, the futures ultimately didn’t belong to them. They were merely a futures brokerage.

“Yes, even selling at eight hundred dollars per ounce is already beyond imagination. Mr. Lin, I support your choice to close your position at this time. I have been in the financial industry for many years, and in that time I’ve seen all sorts of financial geniuses in stocks, futures, bonds, foreign exchange, and so on, ultimately go bankrupt due to insatiable greed.

“It’s a perfectly normal thing for people to jump off buildings on Wall Street almost every year. For Mr. Lin to be able to decisively choose to close his position and sell when there is such good news for gold actually shows that you, Mr. Lin, are not swayed by your current success. You truly don’t seem like someone of your age!” John Reed found himself admiring this young man more and more.

After chatting with John Reed for a short while, he took his leave.

In the blink of an eye, it was January 21st, a Monday.

At nine o’clock in the morning, Lin Haoran arrived punctually at the trading team’s office.

Before the New York Commodity Exchange opened, Lin Haoran briefly explained his decision to everyone: they would close the position today.

They would make their move once the price of gold broke through $800 per ounce.

Telling them in advance was to give them enough time to prepare mentally.

After all, for such a large gold futures position, ample preparation was certainly necessary.

After learning of Lin Haoran’s plan, the team members also became serious.

As it neared 9:30 AM, when the New York Commodity Exchange was about to open, even John Reed arrived at the office.

Sure enough, as soon as the market opened, investors, who had been fermenting their excitement over the weekend, went crazy.

In everyone’s eyes, it was a certainty that gold futures would rise to $1,000 per ounce. At just over seven hundred dollars per ounce, there was still a lot of profit to be made by buying now.

Thus, the price of gold futures shot up as soon as the market opened. In just ten minutes, it broke through eight hundred dollars per ounce.

Lin Haoran was also closely monitoring the price changes.

The moment the price broke through eight hundred dollars per ounce, Lin Haoran decisively gave the order to start closing the position!

1,976,300 ounces of gold futures were dumped directly into the futures market.

At this moment, countless investors were already in a frenzy. Even such a massive futures contract being thrown into the market was quickly absorbed.

Moreover, the futures price continued to rise during this process, though the increase was not as dramatic as in the first ten minutes.

But it was clear that there were far more buyers than sellers. With high demand, the price naturally continued to rise.

Within just half an hour, all 1,976,300 ounces of gold futures held by Lin Haoran were completely sold off, with none remaining!

At the same time, the price of gold had soared to a high of $842.76 per ounce.

However, behind this astonishing rise, the market’s upward momentum was already showing signs of fatigue, as if it was losing steam.

With the successful conclusion of the trades, everyone in the room let out a collective sigh of relief, including Lin Haoran, of course.

As for whether the market was showing signs of fatigue, it no longer had much to do with them.

Subsequently, Lin Haoran, John Reed, and the others all applauded in celebration. This tense and fierce financial battle had finally come to an end.

An air of relief and ease after a victory filled the room.

The end of this battle was unexpectedly smooth, with almost no obstacles encountered along the way.

When their trades had concluded and the futures price had climbed to nearly eight hundred and fifty dollars per ounce, Lin Haoran already sensed it. He had known all along that the highest point of the 1980 gold surge was eight hundred and fifty dollars per ounce, and the day it would be reached was very likely today.

For him, this was purely a pleasant surprise, the result of a complete fluke.

Since it was the peak, it would naturally start to fall afterward. This meant that over eight hundred dollars per ounce was the pinnacle; it was impossible for it to rise any further.

Therefore, his trade this time could be described as a resounding victory.

The brokerage team was already calculating the final numbers.

As for the settlement of funds, it would take one to two business days for the money to reach the futures company. At that point, he would settle with Citibank, with everything handled according to the contract.

While they were calculating, Lin Haoran continued to watch the gold price.

John Reed did the same. they all wanted to see just how high the price of gold could go today.

However, to the surprise of John Reed and the others, after rising to eight hundred and fifty dollars per ounce, the price of gold stopped increasing.

This was because the speed of the rise had already started to wane.

Not only did it stop rising, but the price of gold also began to fall continuously in the short term.

When the futures market closed, the price of gold futures had ultimately dropped to $799.96 per ounce. Not only was this a full $50 per ounce less than its peak of $850, but it had even fallen below the $800 mark.

Seeing this, even John Reed was stunned.

The expected surge had indeed occurred, but wasn’t it a bit too short-lived?

It couldn’t even sustain itself for a single day before losing its upward momentum?

What happened to a straight shot to one thousand dollars per ounce?

At that moment, the way he looked at Lin Haoran changed. This guy’s luck was just too good, wasn’t it?

“Mr. Lin, I have to say, your luck is truly incredible!” John Reed said with emotion.

“Mr. Reed, it was just a fluke. I also think I got lucky. Although it has fallen by the close, who knows, it might rise again tomorrow. These things are uncertain. But no matter what, I am very satisfied with today’s results,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Although it was not yet clear exactly how much money he had made, all his gold was sold above $800 per ounce, meaning the average price was above $800 per ounce.

And he had a total of 1,976,300 ounces!

Even if calculated at the lowest price of $800 per ounce, without deducting commissions and other miscellaneous fees, he had sold a total of $1.581 billion!

Terrifying, wasn’t it!

And he had only invested fifty million dollars to achieve this!

In other words, in just over half a month, based on the initial investment and subtracting the leveraged capital of 450 million, his return was over twenty times!

Furthermore, this was just a calculation based on the minimum figure. In reality, he had earned a bit more than this. He would only know the exact amount after the team finished their calculations.

At this time, upon hearing the news, Citibank’s Chairman, Mr. Walter Wriston, also hurried down from his office to the one where Lin Haoran and the others were.

“Mr. Lin, congratulations!” Mr. Walter Wriston said solemnly.

“Mr. Walter, the joy is mutual!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

On this deal with Lin Haoran, Citibank had earned a significant amount just from the interest on the leveraged funds.

Besides the interest, there was also the futures commission. For such a massive transaction, the commission was naturally substantial.

Next, Lin Haoran, Mr. Walter Wriston, and Mr. John Reed sat and chatted in the office.

They were all actually waiting for the final calculations, wanting to know just how much had been earned in the end!

After more than half an hour of calculations, the final results were out.

The 1,976,300 ounces of gold futures were ultimately sold at an average price of $826.88 per ounce.

This meant the total transaction value was $1.634 billion!

The trading unit for gold futures on the New York Commodity Exchange is 100 ounces per lot, and the commission per lot is $10. In the end, the fees he paid to the New York Commodity Exchange were only about $200,000, which was a drop in the bucket compared to Lin Haoran’s $1.6 billion.

Aside from the New York Commodity Exchange’s trading fees, the largest expense was on Citibank’s side.

This time, 90% of his capital was leveraged funds, meaning Citibank had fronted the money.

This advance naturally came with interest, and the interest rate was not low. It was calculated on an annual basis, and the principal amount of the advanced funds also needed to be repaid to Citibank.

His post-leverage capital was $500 million, meaning $450 million was advanced from Citibank. The contract signed with Citibank had stated that the interest on this $450 million would be calculated at 6%. The leveraged capital plus interest amounted to a deduction of $477 million.

In addition, there was another fee: the broker’s trading commission.

The trading commission agreed upon in the contract was 0.5% of the transaction value, which was 0.5% of $1.634 billion, resulting in a final commission payment of $8.17 million.

Ignoring the negligible trading fees from the New York Commodity Exchange, Lin Haoran’s final profit was calculated in detail by the on-site professionals.

First, the total revenue of $1.634 billion was reduced by the $450 million in advanced funds required for the leveraged trading. Then, the $27 million in interest incurred from the loan and the $8.17 million in commissions from the transaction were deducted.

After this series of calculations, the final amount Lin Haoran received was still a staggering sum of approximately $1,148,800,000.

During this period, the exchange rate between the Hong Kong dollar and the US dollar had risen slightly, now back to the previous rate of 5 to 1.

This meant that if this $1,148,800,000 were converted into Hong Kong dollars, it would be equivalent to HK$5,744,000,000!

Over 5.7 billion Hong Kong dollars! Lin Haoran had truly hit the jackpot this time.

An investment of fifty million US dollars, or about 250 million Hong Kong dollars, had ultimately yielded a profit of over 5.7 billion Hong Kong dollars.

This was an absolutely terrifying number. Even decades in the future, this sum would be a huge fortune, let alone now at the very beginning of the 1980s!

Meanwhile, Citibank also reaped substantial rewards from this transaction, with its profits reaching over thirty-five million US dollars. This was a win-win situation for both Lin Haoran and Citibank.

For Citibank, bringing in a net profit of over thirty million dollars from a single transaction was a rare achievement, a major success in its business operations.

Although Citibank was a giant in the global financial world, with a capital scale so vast that even a leader in Hong Kong’s banking industry like HSBC seemed tiny in comparison, its annual net profit growth rate was not astronomical.

This was because most of the bank’s internal funds came from depositor savings, and the bank had to pay corresponding interest to these depositors.

Furthermore, Citibank’s annual investments had a certain loss rate; it was impossible for all of them to be profitable. It was normal for losses from some investment projects to exceed the profits from others.

Although Citibank’s main business was banking, over the years it had used its vast capital to enter major industries such as munitions, oil, chemicals, and trade, ultimately gaining control over a large number of enterprises.

When the market was good, these invested enterprises would naturally make huge profits.

But in poor market conditions, these companies were prone to losses, which would drag down Citibank’s profits.

And now, during the oil crisis, although a few industries were making a killing, the vast majority were suffering severe losses; otherwise, an economic crisis would not have occurred.

Therefore, after deducting various operating costs, the bank’s net profit was often relatively limited.

However, the more than thirty million dollars in profit that this transaction brought to Citibank was definitely considered an extraordinarily large single-transaction profit for the bank.

“Mr. Lin, it was a pleasure working with you. We will transfer the funds to your Citibank account as soon as possible. They should arrive by tomorrow afternoon at the earliest!” Citibank’s Chairman, Mr. Walter Wriston, personally walked over to Lin Haoran, shook his hand, and smiled.

“Mr. Walter, I am very satisfied with our cooperation this time. Thank you for the help Citibank has provided. May we become long-term partners!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“Of course, we are long-term partners now, are we not?” Mr. Walter Wriston laughed heartily.

The conversation was very pleasant, as both parties had made a lot of money.

In the evening, perhaps to get closer to Lin Haoran, Citibank held a celebratory banquet for him at one of their high-end restaurants.

Not many people came, as neither side wanted to publicize the event. Only those who participated in this financial battle attended: the members of the brokerage team responsible for Lin Haoran’s futures, Mr. John Reed, Mr. Walter Wriston, Lin Haoran, his two bodyguards, and a few other Citibank senior executives whom Lin Haoran was meeting for the first time.

For Citibank, having earned over thirty-five million dollars from Lin Haoran, hosting a celebratory banquet for him was well worth it!

“When is Mr. Lin planning to return to Hong Kong?” John Reed asked during the banquet.

“I plan to stay in New York for a few more days after the funds arrive, and then I’ll head back. I’ve been in the United States for quite some time now, and there are many matters waiting for me to handle back in Hong Kong,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

He didn’t give a specific date for his return, as there was no need.

After the celebratory banquet, Lin Haoran returned to the Marriott Hotel.

The next morning, since Lin Haoran’s gold futures position had been closed, there was naturally no need to go to the Citibank headquarters.

After lunch, Lin Haoran made a special trip to the Citibank headquarters building again.

The price of gold futures today, just as he had expected, did not rise back to yesterday’s peak. It didn’t even break through $800 per ounce. Instead, it fell quite a bit. Ultimately, the closing price on January 22nd was set at $781.86 per ounce.

Seeing this price, John Reed admired Lin Haoran’s good luck even more.

To have withdrawn right around the peak—his luck was simply off the charts.

By around four o’clock in the afternoon, Lin Haoran finally received some good news. The New York Commodity Exchange had finally completed its settlement, and the funds had been transferred to the account of Citibank’s futures brokerage department, which would then be further settled by Citibank.

After the settlement, Lin Haoran’s Citibank account received a sum of over $1,148,800,000.

The huge sum had finally arrived!

Chapter 155: Investing in Apple Inc.

Once the funds arrived, Lin Haoran immediately converted one hundred million US dollars into Hong Kong dollars, which he then transferred to the HSBC account linked to his stock trading operations. A sum of just over five hundred million Hong Kong dollars was more than enough for Universal Investment Company to acquire a massive amount of Hongkong Electric Group shares.

Afterward, he called Su Zhixue. “Zhixue, the company’s accounts are now well-funded. You can speed up the stock accumulation, but try not to drive the price up too high!”

Although Lin Haoran was flush with cash, he had no intention of unnecessarily inflating his acquisition cost for Hongkong Electric Group.

“Understood, Boss. I know what to do. One more thing, Boss, what’s our target for the number of shares?” Su Zhixue asked.

“Anything up to 49.9% is fine. You can play it by ear, just don’t go over 50%,” Lin Haoran said directly.

With a 49.9% stake, he would have little to worry about anyone snatching Hongkong Electric Group from him.

Earlier in the month, the bank account dedicated to accumulating shares had run dry.

However, by then, Lin Haoran’s stake in Hongkong Electric Group had already increased to about 24.5%.

The accumulation of shares had been temporarily halted.

Now that there were sufficient funds, the acquisition of Hongkong Electric Group was naturally set to resume.

From the time he first set his sights on the company until now, Lin Haoran had spent approximately 430 million Hong Kong dollars on Hongkong Electric Group, ultimately securing a 24.5% stake.

Initially, Hongkong Electric Group’s stock was only around 2.4 Hong Kong dollars per share, but after such a long period of appreciation, it had already climbed to 3.2 Hong Kong dollars, and this was in a span of just seven months.

The increase was rapid, but it was unavoidable. Most stocks in Hong Kong were on the rise, not just Hongkong Electric Group.

Even if Universal Investment Company hadn’t been accumulating its shares, Hongkong Electric Group’s stock price would have continued to climb.

Even so, Hongkong Electric Group was still an incredible bargain.

Although its market capitalization had soared to two billion Hong Kong dollars, its current market cap was still very low compared to its true value.

However, since a lack of funds was no longer an obstacle, Lin Haoran intended to resolve the matter with Hongkong Electric Group as quickly as possible. Before other tycoons took notice, he needed to get it done.

A mere 24.5% stake was not yet enough to put his mind completely at ease.

After giving his instructions to Su Zhixue, Lin Haoran felt relieved.

With the money in hand, he could return to Hong Kong at any time.

But before he went back, there was one more thing he needed to do.

Lin Haoran was going to Silicon Valley.

During this period, he had been visiting the Citibank headquarters nearly every day, and in one of his conversations, he had caught wind of some news.

The computer manufacturer Apple Inc. was currently seeking financing.

The development of Apple’s Apple III series was nearing completion.

However, the R&D for this new product had consumed a vast amount of capital.

Now, the company was clearly short on funds.

Therefore, Apple was offering a portion of its shares in the hope of raising capital to prepare for the continued development and subsequent promotion of this new product.

Citibank was one of the investment firms from which they hoped to secure financing.

John Reed had been the one to reveal this to him, as Citibank was not particularly interested in financing Apple.

However, while Citibank’s interest was low, Lin Haoran’s was extremely high.

Because he knew just how incredible Apple’s future would be.

And right now, the investment required was minimal for what would surely be a bountiful return in the future.

Based on his knowledge of Apple from his past life, the company would go public in December of this year.

Clearly, the Apple III was a product designed to pave the way for their public offering, making its importance to the company self-evident.

Lin Haoran also knew that the Apple III was, in fact, a failed product.

The Apple III lacked a built-in clock/calendar function and an internal fan, among other issues, which led to its failure and ultimately forced the development of a replacement product, the Apple III Plus.

However, none of this was of great concern to Lin Haoran.

He had no intention of meddling with Apple’s product development. He knew that if he said too much, he might steer Apple onto a different trajectory, and no one knew what the future would hold then.

Rather than take that risk, it was better not to interfere in Apple’s affairs. Simply holding shares was enough!

As long as he held onto Apple’s stock, its market capitalization would surpass one hundred billion US dollars in over twenty years. Thirty to forty years into the future, its total market cap could even exceed two trillion US dollars.

Such a high-quality enterprise, still private and seeking financing—it was a golden opportunity he naturally had to seize.

So, upon learning of this and hearing that Citibank wasn’t very interested, he had unhesitatingly asked the bank to contact Apple on his behalf.

For them, it was a simple favor. Lin Haoran was now a major client of Citibank, so John Reed had agreed with great enthusiasm.

He had no further business to attend to in New York for the time being.

Thus, on January 23rd, after specifically bidding farewell to Citibank’s Chairman, Mr. Walter Wriston, and Senior Vice President, Mr. John Reed, Lin Haoran left New York with Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, flying from New York to San Francisco.

Apple’s headquarters was in Cupertino, a city in the Silicon Valley area south of San Francisco, not far from San Francisco International Airport.

Seven hours later, the plane landed smoothly at San Francisco International Airport.

By the time they deplaned, it was already evening.

Lin Haoran was in no hurry to go to Apple.

Citibank had already arranged a meeting time for him: 10 AM on January 24th, so there was no rush.

After leaving San Francisco International Airport, Lin Haoran took a taxi with his two bodyguards to a luxury hotel next to San Francisco’s Chinatown and checked in.

Once they had settled their luggage, they went into San Francisco’s Chinatown and found an authentic Sichuan restaurant for dinner.

During his twenty-odd days in New York, he had eaten Western food most of the time, only occasionally visiting a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. He was long tired of Western cuisine.

For Lin Haoran, Chinese food was still the best—rich and delicious, whereas Western food was too monotonous.

San Francisco’s Chinatown is the largest in the Western United States, comparable to New York’s Chinatown. The area is centered around the intersection of Grant Avenue and California Street, forming a district bounded by Bush Street, Powell Street, Broadway, and Kearny Street.

Approximately one hundred thousand overseas Chinese lived here. The language written and heard was Chinese, and the sights were all in the traditional Chinese style, making it feel like a small China.

Consequently, walking in such places always gave Lin Haoran a sense of great familiarity.

After strolling through San Francisco’s Chinatown for over an hour, Lin Haoran returned to the hotel with his bodyguards to rest.

At eight o’clock the next morning, he went out again, hailing a taxi outside the hotel to head to Apple in Cupertino.

The morning traffic in San Francisco was a bit congested, perhaps due to the rush hour, and it took them a full hour and a half to reach Apple’s offices.

20863 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Building 3, Suite C, Cupertino, California. This was the location of Apple Inc.’s headquarters.

The office building was not particularly large, but compared to their startup days, they clearly had many more employees now.

The entire building was filled with busy figures.

Apple’s success to date was attributable to the triumph of the Apple II, which was also the source of their confidence in going public.

And the Apple III, currently in development, was their hope for increasing their market value.

Therefore, the Apple III was extremely important to the entire company; otherwise, they wouldn’t have chosen to seek more financing to develop a better version of it.

After stating his purpose, Lin Haoran was quickly shown to an office.

There, he met the renowned Steve Jobs.

Of course, the Steve Jobs of today was the younger version, who looked somewhat different from the Jobs he remembered.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, Jobs was startled and couldn’t help but say, “I didn’t expect the investor introduced by Citibank to be so young!”

“Mr. Jobs, aren’t you just as young? Right, let me introduce myself. My name is Lin Haoran, from Hong Kong. I’m a partner of Citibank,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Indeed, Steve Jobs was only twenty-five years old this year.

And Lin Haoran was also twenty-five, though he would turn twenty-six after his birthday this year.

So, their ages were quite similar.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Jobs smiled as well.

Since they were both young, it would be easier to get along.

In recent years, Jobs had suffered quite a bit due to his youth; many people distrusted him and his team because they were so young.

“Mr. Lin, to help you get a deeper understanding of our company, let me first give you a tour of our departments and tell you about our current situation,” Jobs said after shaking Lin Haoran’s hand.

“Thank you for the trouble, Mr. Jobs,” Lin Haoran nodded. He was also curious about the Apple of this era.

Subsequently, for the better part of an hour, Jobs took Lin Haoran on a tour of the various departments, constantly explaining the accolades they had received and some of their future plans.

The office building wasn’t large, so most of the time was spent lingering in one spot while Jobs explained and Lin Haoran listened.

“Mr. Lin, let’s go to the conference room to talk,” Jobs said, rising with a smile.

“Of course,” Lin Haoran replied with a nod.

Soon, Jobs led Lin Haoran to a conference room that was only about twenty-something square meters.

In addition to Steve Jobs, four other people were present: Steve Wozniak, Michael Scott, Mike Markkula, and Rod Holt.

These five men essentially comprised the most important figures at Apple at the time.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were the original founders of Apple.

Mike Markkula was an early investor who had invested two hundred fifty thousand US dollars in Apple in its first year, laying the foundation for the company’s rapid expansion.

Rod Holt was a crucial engineer in the development of the Apple II and also held Apple stock.

As for Michael Scott, he was Apple’s first CEO.

Since both Jobs and Wozniak lacked management experience, Mike Markkula had persuaded Michael Scott to join Apple in 1977 as the company’s first chief executive officer.

Inside the office, the six men sat at the conference table. The gazes of the five key figures from Apple were all focused on Lin Haoran.

Citibank had already informed him that Apple was offering a 10% stake in exchange for ten million US dollars in financing.

Lin Haoran had no problem with these terms and had no intention of haggling.

He recalled that when Apple went public at the end of this year, its market capitalization would reach 1.8 billion US dollars, creating four billionaires and over forty millionaires overnight.

And now, he could get a 10% stake for just ten million US dollars. It was an incredible deal.

Of course, he knew that the equity would certainly be diluted to some extent after the IPO, and subsequent dilutions would reduce his stake even further, but Lin Haoran didn’t care at all.

If his stake got diluted, he would just find a way to accumulate more shares.

If he could maintain a 10% stake, he imagined, when Apple’s market cap broke two trillion US dollars, his 10% stake alone would be worth more than two hundred billion!

With the enormous wealth he currently possessed, ten million US dollars would barely make a dent.

A small investment with a considerable return—this was his favorite kind of deal.

He hadn’t considered seeking a larger stake, as that could easily alter Apple’s developmental trajectory.

10% was not too much, nor too little. It was just right—it wouldn’t affect Apple’s operations or lead to too many changes.

Being a hands-off investor was more than enough.

“Mr. Lin, after touring our company, do you have any more questions? What are your thoughts on investing in us?” Jobs was the first to speak.

Jobs held the most shares among them, meaning that Jobs was Apple’s major shareholder.

In Apple’s second year of operation, another founder, Ronald Gerald Wayne, chose to leave the company. Jobs ultimately bought Ronald Gerald Wayne’s 10% stake for eight hundred US dollars.

Later, the equity structure had constantly changed due to financing from others and the addition of key employees.

Last year, in pursuit of a technological breakthrough, Apple had already held a financing round, securing sixteen investors at once.

None of these sixteen investors held a large stake, so the amount of capital raised wasn’t substantial. Within a few months, the funds were nearly depleted.

That was why they had decided on another round of financing, this time a big one: 10% for a target of ten million US dollars!

To this day, Jobs was still the major shareholder, with Mike Markkula as the second-largest shareholder, and Steve Wozniak as the third.

“Gentlemen, when I decided to come here, I had already agreed to this financing round. Therefore, I agree to invest ten million US dollars in Apple Inc.!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The moment his words fell, Jobs and the others instantly broke into excited smiles.

Ten million US dollars, secured!

For Apple Inc., this ten-million-dollar injection of capital was of utmost importance.

Chapter 156: A Competitor for the Acquisition of Hongkong Electric Group Appears

There wasn’t much to negotiate with Apple Inc. Both parties were mutually interested in the financing deal from the start.

Therefore, they didn’t talk for long before they began drafting the contract. The collaboration went exceptionally smoothly.

After the contract was signed, Lin Haoran promptly transferred ten million US dollars into Apple Inc.’s account.

And just like that, he officially became a shareholder of Apple Inc.

With that, his business in the United States was more or less concluded.

Jobs was extremely curious about this young Chinese man, Lin Haoran, who was so young yet had become a key partner of Citibank.

He knew that the person who had personally contacted them was a Senior Vice President from Citibank.

In recent years, Apple Inc. had become a rising star in Silicon Valley, attracting the attention of many investors, yet they still hadn’t managed to win Citibank’s favor.

However, the young man standing before them was someone even the top executives at Citibank had to take seriously.

Thus, in the eyes of the senior management at Apple Inc., Lin Haoran seemed particularly mysterious.

However, Lin Haoran did not reveal much, merely telling them that he was an entrepreneur from Hong Kong who had several significant collaborations with Citibank.

As for the fact that this collaboration was due to gold futures, he naturally wouldn’t mention it.

Owning ten percent of Apple Inc.’s shares made him one of the company’s bosses. Lin Haoran made a point of staying at Apple until the afternoon, chatting extensively with Jobs and the others.

Although he had long decided not to interfere with Apple Inc.’s operations, during their conversation, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but share his “vision” for the future trends of computer development with Jobs and his team.

Everyone was shocked that a Chinese person from Hong Kong could have so many ideas about computers.

Jobs even wanted to invite Lin Haoran to join the company’s senior management, believing him to be a visionary designer whose involvement would be a tremendous help to Apple’s development. However, Lin Haoran decisively refused.

What a joke. Why would he join Apple’s management? He had plenty of his own business to attend to.

As for Apple, he planned to just sit back and reap the rewards, letting it develop on its own.

It might be a long time, but what did that matter?

He was only in his mid-twenties now; even in thirty years, he would only be in his fifties.

So, even without him, as long as Apple followed its normal historical trajectory, it would sooner or later become a titan of the tech industry.

If he stepped in to try and force its growth, he would certainly alter the company’s destiny. If it developed for the better, that would be fine, but if it took a turn for the worse, he would have done more harm than good.

After all, he only knew the general direction of computer development; his knowledge of the industry was limited.

It was already past four in the afternoon when he left Apple Inc.

Silicon Valley was home to many famous companies, such as HP, Intel, and Fairchild Semiconductor.

However, compared to the 1990s, more than a decade away, Silicon Valley had clearly not yet entered its golden era.

Lin Haoran had no intention of touring these companies, so he hailed a taxi and returned directly to the luxury hotel near San Francisco’s Chinatown.

He was in no hurry to return to Hong Kong. Having come all the way to California, it would be too much of a waste to leave so hastily.

So, Lin Haoran stayed in San Francisco for another three days.

During those three days, he rented a car and visited San Francisco and its surrounding famous attractions, leaving his footprints at places like the Golden Gate Bridge, the San Francisco Museum of Art, Fisherman’s Wharf, and Lombard Street.

The three days passed quickly and pleasantly.

He had originally considered flying to Los Angeles, California’s largest city, a few hundred kilometers away. It was home to the famous Hollywood, where he might have had a chance to meet some famous actresses of the era.

However, a piece of news forced him to return to Hong Kong ahead of schedule.

It was related to Kowloon Wharf.

Ever since he sold his shares in Kowloon Wharf, Lin Haoran hadn’t paid much attention to the stock.

However, while he wasn’t watching, the competition between the Jardine faction and Pao Yue-kong had continued unabated.

Perhaps influenced by Lin Haoran’s intervention in the Kowloon Wharf affair, Pao Yue-kong had accelerated his acquisition of Kowloon Wharf shares.

As a result, the “thunderous strike” to seize Kowloon Wharf, which was supposed to happen in June 1980, occurred ahead of schedule.

In early January, Pao Yue-kong announced he was spending 2.1 billion, under his and his family’s name, to offer 105 Hong Kong dollars per share to purchase an additional twenty million shares of Kowloon Wharf stock. The entire transaction was entrusted to Wardley.

In the end, Pao Yue-kong successfully increased his and his family’s holdings in Kowloon Wharf to 49%, formally securing a controlling stake.

Of the twenty million shares purchased, more than half were actually sold secretly by Hongkong Land.

Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land knew that the moment Pao Yue-kong announced the offer of 105 Hong Kong dollars per share, they had already lost the war.

105 Hong Kong dollars per share! This effectively raised Kowloon Wharf’s market capitalization to over ten billion Hong Kong dollars. It was an attempt to seize control at any cost.

Under these circumstances, Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land naturally chose to withdraw from the competition to maximize their own profits.

It was simple: they secretly had people continuously sell off the Kowloon Wharf shares held by Hongkong Land to Wardley, ultimately selling over ten million shares and recovering more than one billion Hong Kong dollars in capital.

It could be said that although Hongkong Land lost the battle for Kowloon Wharf, they didn’t really lose, because they had made a huge profit.

When the news broke, all of Hong Kong was in an uproar.

Compared to Lin Haoran’s earlier acquisition of Green Island Cement Company, Pao Yue-kong’s successful acquisition of Kowloon Wharf was on another level of impressive. The difference in market capitalization between the two companies was immense.

The matter caused a sensation in Hong Kong and only began to die down after nearly half a month.

Lin Haoran actually knew about it when Pao Yue-kong successfully acquired Kowloon Wharf. He was in regular contact with Hong Kong, and his subordinates would report any significant events to him.

However, at the time, he was intently focused on gold prices and didn’t pay much attention to Pao Yue-kong’s acquisition.

After all, Kowloon Wharf had nothing to do with him anymore.

Moreover, after Lin Haoran left New York, the Kowloon Wharf affair in Hong Kong had gradually quieted down.

But what Lin Haoran hadn’t expected was that the massive funds Hongkong Land obtained from the Kowloon Wharf acquisition battle would lead them to set their sights on Hongkong Electric Group.

This wasn’t public knowledge; it was Lin Haoran’s own deduction.

On the evening of January 25th, Su Zhixue called Lin Haoran. According to him, the trading volume of Hongkong Electric Group’s stock over the past two days had more than doubled compared to usual, which had also accelerated the rise of its share price.

Su Zhixue had been in charge of stock accumulation for Hongkong Electric Group during this period, so he was very familiar with its daily trading volume and other data. The sudden change made him realize that another major player had entered the market.

He immediately contacted Lin Haoran.

After arriving in San Francisco, Lin Haoran had given him the contact information for his hotel.

After learning about the situation with Hongkong Electric Group and connecting it with the recent events concerning Kowloon Wharf, Lin Haoran guessed that Hongkong Land was behind this new player.

Right now, after selling its Kowloon Wharf shares, Hongkong Land was flush with cash and confidence, looking for a major British-owned firm to acquire to compensate for the loss of Kowloon Wharf.

And so, Hongkong Electric Group became their target.

While instructing Su Zhixue to intensify their stock accumulation efforts for Hongkong Electric Group, Lin Haoran decisively abandoned his plan to go to Los Angeles and directly bought a ticket from San Francisco to Hong Kong.

As one of the major cities for Chinese immigrants in the United States, San Francisco had long established direct flights to Hong Kong.

On the afternoon of January 27th, Lin Haoran, along with Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, returned smoothly to Hong Kong.

This trip to the United States had lasted a full month.

Upon his return, he didn’t go to see his parents first but went straight to the Wan’an Group Building.

Arriving at the Wan’an Group Building, Lin Haoran headed directly for the Universal Investment Company office.

At this moment, all he wanted to know was the current situation with Hongkong Electric Group.

Hongkong Land had just obtained over one billion Hong Kong dollars from Pao Yue-kong alone.

If they used this capital to aggressively accumulate shares in Hongkong Electric Group, it would pose a certain threat to Lin Haoran.

Therefore, he had to stop Hongkong Land’s actions.

Stopping them was actually quite simple: he needed to acquire more shares of Hongkong Electric Group as quickly as possible, bringing his stake to over 40%.

Of course, Lin Haoran’s ultimate goal was to hold 49.9% of the shares, which would make him immune to any competition.

Today was Sunday, and the four major stock exchanges in Hong Kong were closed.

However, knowing that his boss would be back this afternoon, Su Zhixue had made a special trip to the office to wait for him.

“What’s the situation?” Lin Haoran asked as soon as he entered the office.

Reporting too much information over the phone was troublesome, so he had rushed back to get a more detailed understanding of the situation.

“Boss, here’s a report on our accumulation efforts and the changes in Hongkong Electric Group during this period. I’ve marked everything,” Su Zhixue said, handing a data sheet to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran nodded, took the report, and began to study it carefully.

He had transferred over five hundred million Hong Kong dollars to the securities trading bank account on the afternoon of the 22nd, New York time. So, the Universal Investment Company team had resumed trading on the 23rd. Until Friday the 25th, they had only been trading for three days last week.

In three days, they had spent over thirty-five million Hong Kong dollars to acquire nearly ten million shares of Hongkong Electric Group stock.

This was many times faster than when they were short on funds.

However, ten million shares only increased Lin Haoran’s stake by about 1.588%. He already controlled approximately 24.5% of the shares, so even with these ten million shares, he was still a significant distance from the 30% mark, let alone his goal of over 40% or even 49.9%.

“Based on the fluctuations these past few days, can you estimate how many shares of Hongkong Electric Group the other party currently holds?” Lin Haoran asked, putting down the report and looking up.

“Boss, I estimate that they’ve accumulated about thirteen million shares in these few days, which is quite a bit faster than us. And their accumulation speed on the third day was faster than the previous two. It’s clear they intend to step up their efforts,” Su Zhixue replied. Although he didn’t know who the other party was, he could make a rough guess about their competitor’s situation based on past trading patterns.

Lin Haoran nodded.

He had already guessed their opponent was Hongkong Land. Now that he knew, there was no need to panic. With so many shares of Hongkong Electric Group already in his possession and over 1.1 billion US dollars in capital, he wasn’t worried that Hongkong Land could prevent him from taking control.

However, Hongkong Land’s intervention had a major downside: it would cause Hongkong Electric Group’s share price to rise even faster.

Therefore, securing control of Hongkong Electric Group in the shortest possible time was now imperative.

Chapter 157: Taking the Initiative, A Personal Visit

To increase his shareholding in the Hongkong Electric Group, besides accumulating shares from the stock market, there was another way.

That was to acquire them from other shareholders.

The only question was whether anyone intended to sell.

This matter had to be kept under wraps, or others would discover his intentions.

Until he had secured enough power to take control of the Hongkong Electric Group, Lin Haoran had no intention of making his plans public.

He glanced at the time. It was still early, only around five in the afternoon.

So, Lin Haoran decided to pay a visit to the Hongkong Electric Group.

It was the weekend, and many senior executives were not at work, but the Chairman, Mr. Chen Shoulin, was in the office.

Lin Haoran’s objective, however, was not to see him.

His desire to take control of the Hongkong Electric Group was, in effect, to wrest power from Mr. Chen Shoulin.

“Mr. Lin, long time no see. The last time you came to the Hongkong Electric Group was over a month ago, wasn’t it?” In the Chairman’s office, Mr. Chen Shoulin greeted Lin Haoran with a smile.

Lin Haoran had not told him about his trip to the United States, so Chen Shoulin simply assumed he hadn’t been interested in visiting the company recently.

After all, Lin Haoran was just a Director who didn’t involve himself in management. His presence or absence made little difference.

“Indeed, it’s been a while. So, I thought I’d come by and have a look around today,” Lin Haoran said with a hearty laugh.

“Mr. Lin, I still have work to finish, so I won’t keep you. If you need anything, you can find me anytime,” Chen Shoulin said, preparing to return to his work.

“Mr. Chen, there is actually something I need your help with. I’m a Member of the Board of Directors of the Hongkong Electric Group now, but I’m not very familiar with the other shareholders. I was wondering if you had any information on them that I could look at. It would be quite embarrassing if I couldn’t even recognize them at our next meeting, wouldn’t it?” Lin Haoran said with a smile to Chen Shoulin, who was about to bury his head in his work.

“The shareholder list? I do have that here. Wait a moment, I’ll get it for you.” Suspecting nothing, Chen Shoulin retrieved a folder from the bookshelf behind him and handed it to Lin Haoran. He then explained, “This file contains information on all our senior management and publicly listed shareholders, including yours, Mr. Lin. It contains quite detailed information.”

“Thank you!” Lin Haoran took the folder and nodded in gratitude.

He then left the Chairman’s office and went to an adjacent negotiation room, where he sat on the sofa and began to read.

There were over thirty profiles in the file, including more than twenty shareholders and a dozen senior executives of the Hongkong Electric Group.

The information on these twenty-odd shareholders was what Lin Haoran needed.

He first gave it a quick scan.

He soon found his own profile.

The information was neither sparse nor extensive. His contact details, address, and the companies he now controlled—Green Island Cement Company and Wan’an Group—were all recorded. Universal Investment Company, however, was not mentioned.

It was clear that while the information was substantial, it was all public knowledge and mostly details that Lin Haoran had provided himself.

This meant the information on the other shareholders was likely the same—provided by the shareholders themselves.

He flipped back to the second page.

This page contained the profile of Mr. Caesar Bridges, currently the public “Largest shareholder of the Hongkong Electric Group.”

As for Lin Haoran, the number of shares he had publicly declared was only the forty-four million shares he had previously purchased from the former Second-largest shareholder, Mr. Percy.

In other words, on paper, he only controlled about 6.98% of the Hongkong Electric Group’s shares.

No one knew that his actual stake in the company had long exceeded twenty percent.

Lin Haoran studied the page before him carefully.

The public “Largest shareholder” of the Hongkong Electric Group was Caesar Bridges, who held fifty-two million nine hundred twenty thousand shares, accounting for about 8.4% of the total shares.

Caesar Bridges was also British and had just turned sixty. In all his past visits to the Hongkong Electric Group, Lin Haoran had only seen him once.

The file indicated that besides being a shareholder in the company, Caesar Bridges also ran a plastics manufacturing company in Hong Kong.

At this, Lin Haoran was somewhat surprised. Times were tough for plastics manufacturing companies these days.

The oil crisis had caused severe losses in many industries, including plastics production.

Plastics are high-molecular organic compounds formed by the polymerization of low-molecular organic compounds under certain conditions.

These low-molecular compounds are usually artificial resins refined and synthesized from the cracked products of petroleum, natural gas, or coal.

Petroleum is one of the main raw materials for making plastic; about sixty percent of all plastics are made from petroleum-based raw materials.

Because of this, the oil crisis had caused costs in the plastics manufacturing industry to rise continuously while profits plummeted. Plastic factories were definitely not having an easy time.

Hong Kong’s manufacturing industry was very developed during this period, but since last year, the export volume of plastics companies in Hong Kong had begun to decline sharply. It was evident that these companies were heavily affected by the oil crisis.

However, for Mr. Caesar Bridges to have no intention of selling his Hongkong Electric Group shares even during such a difficult time for the plastics industry suggested he was a man of some means.

Lin Haoran’s original intention in joining the Board of Directors was to find out through the board which shareholders might be interested in selling. He had met many of them but had never heard any related news.

His purpose in coming to the Hongkong Electric Group this time was simple: to take the initiative and try to acquire some shares from these shareholders, so he could meet the conditions for taking control of the company as soon as possible.

And the public largest shareholder, Caesar Bridges, was clearly his most suitable target.

After all, Caesar Bridges held 8.4% of the shares. If Lin Haoran could acquire these, his total shareholding would reach about 34.5% of the Hongkong Electric Group’s total shares.

After his brief review of the file, he had a clear idea of how many shares he needed to take control of the company.

Basically, if he controlled 35% of the shares, he could take control.

Originally, the twenty-plus publicly recorded shareholders of the Hongkong Electric Group collectively held nearly 48% of the shares.

The 6.98% stake held by the second-largest shareholder was already his.

If he could also acquire the 8.4% stake from the largest shareholder, the British shareholders would be left with only about 32% of the shares.

Once he controlled 35%, even if all the British shareholders combined their stakes, they would not have more equity than him. Taking control of the Hongkong Electric Group would then be a matter of course.

In addition, he would have Universal Investment Company continue to accumulate shares on the stock market.

At that point, even if Hongkong Land was interested in acquiring the Hongkong Electric Group, it would be futile.

Seeing that an acquisition was impossible, Hongkong Land would naturally have to withdraw and set its sights on other major British-owned firms.

This was the plan Lin Haoran had conceived as soon as he learned of the situation.

It was also the fastest way for him to gain control of the Hongkong Electric Group.

If he tried to accumulate everything from the secondary market, he would face not only a constantly rising stock price but also a lengthy wait.

Acquiring so many shares was not something that could be done in a day or two.

Most importantly, just as he could approach these shareholders to buy their shares, so could Hongkong Land!

If Hongkong Land also contacted these shareholders secretly, Lin Haoran’s initial lead would vanish.

After all, although Lin Haoran now had substantial financial backing, the Hongkong Electric Group was ultimately a British-owned company. Its major shareholders were mostly British, and Hongkong Land was better positioned to persuade them.

Therefore, his thinking was to strike first; hesitation would only lead to disaster.

His financial resources were now definitely stronger than Hongkong Land’s; it was impossible for them to come up with that much capital.

However, Lin Haoran’s connections, resources, and influence could not compare to Hongkong Land’s. After all, Hongkong Land was not alone; they even had the backing of Jardine Matheson & Co.

It wouldn’t be difficult for them to acquire the shares of these British shareholders quickly.

If they succeeded, Hongkong Land’s stake would directly surpass Lin Haoran’s, and he would have no choice but to give up on the Hongkong Electric Group.

Although this was all speculation, to be safe, Lin Haoran had to convince Caesar Bridges as soon as possible.

As long as he could persuade Caesar Bridges to sell his shares, Lin Haoran would no longer have to worry about Hongkong Land’s designs on the company.

The file contained Caesar Bridges’ telephone number and home address.

Seeing the address, Lin Haoran was quite surprised. He hadn’t expected Caesar Bridges to also live on Severn Road, which meant that Caesar Bridges was his neighbor.

He would have never known this if he hadn’t seen this file.

After jotting down the information and details of some key shareholders in the small notebook he carried, Lin Haoran returned the folder to Chen Shoulin.

Then, from an adjacent office, he made a call to this “Largest shareholder,” Caesar Bridges.

As it happened, Caesar Bridges was at home.

When he learned that Lin Haoran, the Hongkong Electric Group’s “Second-largest shareholder,” wanted to visit him, Caesar Bridges did not refuse. Although he didn’t know Lin Haoran’s purpose, they were both major shareholders of the company. It was impossible to refuse a simple visit.

And so, Lin Haoran left the Hongkong Electric Group.

It took less than ten minutes to get from the Hongkong Electric Group to Severn Road. After another few minutes of slow driving, he saw the house number of Caesar Bridges’ villa.

Lin Haoran estimated that Caesar Bridges’ villa was only a little over three hundred meters away from his own.

He parked in a spot outside the villa, and the sound of the car had already alerted its owner.

The person who came out to greet him was none other than Caesar Bridges, whom Lin Haoran had met once before.

“Mr. Bridges, hello. Please forgive my intrusion,” Lin Haoran said with a smile as they shook hands.

“Not at all. We are both Members of the Board of Directors of the Hongkong Electric Group, colleagues in a way. I warmly welcome you, Mr. Lin. Please, come in,” Caesar Bridges said politely.

Caesar Bridges’ villa was not large; it looked to be about half the size of Lin Haoran’s.

Walking into the living room on the ground floor, Lin Haoran observed the interior decor. It didn’t look like a family home. He noticed a maid cleaning in the backyard, but otherwise, the villa was very quiet.

“Mr. Bridges, does your family not live in Hong Kong?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“My family is all back home in Britain. Only my wife and I live here,” Caesar Bridges said with a smile, not going into too much detail, perhaps because he was not yet familiar with Lin Haoran.

Moreover, to Caesar Bridges, Lin Haoran was too young. He himself was over sixty, and the age difference between them was too large, creating a natural generation gap.

Lin Haoran nodded and didn’t press the matter further.

“Mr. Lin, you must have come for a reason?” Caesar Bridges didn’t intend to engage in much small talk and got straight to the point.

“I did indeed come to see you about something specific, Mr. Bridges. I was wondering, do you have any plans to return to Britain to pursue your career?” Lin Haoran asked in a roundabout way.

“Of course. My family is in Britain, and I’m old now, so I’ve certainly had that thought. But my business interests are here in Hong Kong, so I can’t just move back easily.”

Lin Haoran nodded. As expected, many of the British living in Hong Kong were planning to return to Britain.

He had asked this question for a reason.

If Caesar Bridges was planning to return to Britain, it would obviously be much easier to persuade him to sell his shares in the Hongkong Electric Group.

If he had no such intention, convincing him to sell would certainly come at a great cost, which wouldn’t be worthwhile.

This was why Lin Haoran hadn’t immediately stated his purpose.

Now, knowing that the man intended to return, coupled with his age and the fact that his family was back home, Lin Haoran knew it was time to reveal the purpose of his visit.

“Mr. Bridges, have you considered selling your shares in the Hongkong Electric Group?” Lin Haoran asked directly, finally stating his reason for coming.

Chapter 158: A Close Call: The Deal Was Barely Done When Hongkong Land Came Knocking

Hearing Lin Haoran’s question, Caesar Bridges’ face immediately filled with surprise.

“Mr. Lin, do you mean you want to buy the Hongkong Electric Group shares I’m holding?” he asked, his tone tinged with disbelief.

After all, he held fifty-two million nine hundred and twenty thousand shares of the Hongkong Electric Group.

Based on Hongkong Electric Group’s current stock price of 3.6 Hong Kong dollars per share, his holdings were worth one hundred and ninety million Hong Kong dollars.

One hundred and ninety million Hong Kong dollars—this was no small sum.

Originally, when the oil crisis first hit, Caesar Bridges had thought about quickly selling his shares and leaving Hong Kong to return to Britain.

Unexpectedly, however, the stock market wasn’t dragged into a bear market by the oil crisis. Instead, the overall market environment had been improving steadily.

So, Caesar Bridges had continued to hold on to his Hongkong Electric Group shares.

At first, when the group’s second-largest shareholder, his good friend Percy, successfully sold his shares, he had even been a little envious.

However, as the market value of Hongkong Electric Group continued to climb, he was no longer envious of Percy. On the contrary, he felt very fortunate that he hadn’t managed to sell his shares when the oil crisis had just erupted.

Just as Percy would often come to him and lament how much he regretted selling his Hongkong Electric Group shares back then.

Now, the price had risen by nearly one Hong Kong dollar per share compared to before. Calculated against his holdings, his own net worth had surged by more than fifty million Hong Kong dollars.

Without having to do a thing, his net worth just kept soaring. Anyone would be happy about that.

“Yes, that’s right. Mr. Bridges, you should know that I’m the boss of the Green Island Cement Company. I used the company to secure a loan precisely for the purpose of continuing to purchase shares in Hongkong Electric Group.

If I can acquire Mr. Bridges’ shares, I will become the largest shareholder of Hongkong Electric Group. The largest shareholder of Hongkong Electric Group—that title will undoubtedly boost my influence significantly in Hong Kong’s business circles!

So, I was wondering if Mr. Bridges has any intention of selling his stake in Hongkong Electric Group. If you do, perhaps I can help you with that. If not, then I can only approach Mr. Carlo.” Lin Haoran spoke with a yearning smile on his face, as if he were a young man driven by vanity.

In the treacherous currents of business, distinguishing truth from fiction is a challenge. Those who are too naive rarely amass great fortunes.

Mr. Carlo was the current third-largest shareholder of the Hongkong Electric Group.

Lin Haoran mentioned him because, after considering Caesar’s current situation, he felt that Caesar was likely leaning toward selling. Mentioning Mr. Carlo was also a way to put some pressure on him.

“Mr. Lin, your request is too sudden. I’m not mentally prepared for this. Let me think about it!” Caesar Bridges did not rush to say whether he would sell or not.

“Of course, Mr. Bridges. Please take your time. There’s no hurry,” Lin Haoran said with a nod and a smile.

Not rejecting it outright meant there was a high probability.

Caesar Bridges sat on the sofa and began to ponder.

He hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to approach him directly.

Caesar Bridges naturally had no idea when Hong Kong’s stock market would crash.

Therefore, he didn’t know how much more growth potential Hongkong Electric Group’s stock had.

Currently, trading volume on the market was very high. If he wanted to sell, he could easily unload his shares on the secondary market.

However, it was obvious that if Lin Haoran was buying from him directly, he certainly wouldn’t be satisfied with selling at the market price.

But perhaps this was also the best opportunity to sell.

He was already the largest shareholder of Hongkong Electric Group, holding over fifty million shares. Normally, if he wanted to sell his shares to other shareholders, they would have no interest, and very few would have the financial capacity to buy them.

So, under normal circumstances, if Caesar Bridges wanted to sell his shares, his only options were to either sell on the secondary market or find outside investors.

He had never imagined that Lin Haoran could once again come up with a huge sum of money to buy even more shares.

But when he thought about how Lin Haoran had mortgaged the Green Island Cement Company just for a bit of vanity, Caesar no longer found it surprising.

He’s still young, after all.

After what felt like a long time, Lin Haoran, who was lost in thought, heard Caesar Bridges’ question: “Mr. Lin, if you want to buy my shares, how much can you offer?”

Caesar Bridges had thought it through. Why overthink it? If the other party’s price was unsatisfactory, he could just refuse.

If the price was decent, he could even negotiate for a price he was happy with.

No matter how much Hongkong Electric Group’s stock rose, it probably wouldn’t be by too much more. Over the past year, it had already surged by more than seventy percent.

“Mr. Bridges, I am willing to pay two hundred million Hong Kong dollars for your fifty-two million nine hundred and twenty thousand shares of Hongkong Electric Group,” Lin Haoran stated directly.

Based on Friday’s closing price, Caesar Bridges’ holdings were worth about one hundred and ninety million Hong Kong dollars. In other words, he was offering an extra ten million Hong Kong dollars, which was a decent show of sincerity.

However, Lin Haoran also estimated that this deal would not be so easily reached.

After all, Caesar Bridges’ current situation was completely different from Percy’s situation more than half a year ago.

As expected, Caesar Bridges shook his head and said, “Mr. Lin, I only need to wait a little longer, and the Hongkong Electric Group shares will rise to that price. I can also sell my shares on the stock market at any time. Your offer isn’t sincere enough!”

“Mr. Bridges, what is your intended price? You can just say it. Business is all about negotiation,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, not getting angry at Caesar’s dissatisfaction.

It was only human nature to want to secure more benefits for oneself.

Of course, if Caesar Bridges made an exorbitant demand, he wouldn’t agree either.

Caesar Bridges hesitated for a moment before finally saying what was on his mind: “Two hundred and fifty million Hong Kong dollars. As long as Mr. Lin offers two hundred and fifty million Hong Kong dollars, I will sell my shares to you immediately!”

Caesar Bridges was indeed making an exorbitant demand. This price was equivalent to 4.72 Hong Kong dollars per share for Hongkong Electric Group, which was far too much compared to the current price of around 3.5 Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Haoran shook his head directly and said, “Mr. Bridges, to be honest, your price has truly shocked me. Hongkong Electric Group is not worth that much, and it’s not certain it will rise that high in the future. Moreover, the funds from my loan are not that substantial.

I’m a straightforward person. The final closing price on the last trading day was 3.5 Hong Kong dollars per share. I will offer you 4 Hong Kong dollars per share directly. If you agree, we can sign the contract immediately, and I will transfer the funds to your account. The money can be in your account today.

If you don’t agree, then it’s a pity this deal cannot be made. I can only contact Mr. Carlo and discuss it with him. I believe he will be interested. If I acquire his shares, I will still become the largest shareholder of Hongkong Electric Group!”

At 4 Hong Kong dollars per share, Lin Haoran’s sincerity was indeed more than sufficient.

It all depended on whether Caesar Bridges was willing to sell.

If he wasn’t, Lin Haoran would have to find other shareholders.

He had already noted down the information of several shareholders in his notebook.

At 4 Hong Kong dollars per share, someone would eventually agree to make a deal with him.

Lin Haoran already knew that Caesar Bridges wouldn’t agree easily, but his exorbitant demand was truly unexpected.

It was an outrageous opening bid.

He wasn’t in such a dire situation yet.

Hongkong Land Group controlled at most 2% of Hongkong Electric Group’s shares. It would surely take them some time to acquire shares from these shareholders.

“Four Hong Kong dollars per share!” Caesar Bridges fell silent for a moment.

At this price, he would receive 211,680,000 Hong Kong dollars, over ten million more than Lin Haoran’s initial offer of 200 million. It was indeed a very sincere offer.

Judging from the stock’s recent rate of increase, it would take at least one or two months for the price to rise from the current 3.5 Hong Kong dollars to 4 Hong Kong dollars per share.

So, should he sell?

Caesar Bridges didn’t know if the stock price would continue to rise for another month or two.

He had been paying attention to international gold prices recently and noticed that after hitting a peak, the price of gold was now continuously falling, and it was a sharp drop, from a high of 850 US dollars per ounce down to just over 600 US dollars per ounce.

So, would Hong Kong’s stock market follow a similar trend?

This was a point of concern for Caesar Bridges.

If the stock market were to be affected by the price of gold and follow a similar trajectory, the share price of Hongkong Electric Group would inevitably start to drop. If it fell back to its previous price of just over two dollars, he would certainly regret not agreeing to this deal.

Therefore, after some thought, Caesar Bridges ultimately chose to accept the deal.

He probably wouldn’t find anyone else who would offer this price!

“Mr. Lin, I agree. We have a deal at 4 Hong Kong dollars per share!” Caesar Bridges replied solemnly.

At this moment, he was already planning in his mind to sell his plastics company as well after selling the Hongkong Electric Group shares.

This plastics company had cost him over two million Hong Kong dollars in losses in the past year. Although the loss wasn’t huge and was still acceptable, letting it continue to lose money was not a solution. It would be better to cash out and walk away as soon as possible.

“Mr. Bridges is truly a straightforward person. Let’s prepare the contract then,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The deal was finally done.

The matter of the contract was quite simple.

Lin Haoran called the legal counsel on duty at Wan’an Group and had him draft a contract according to his specifications.

Then, the drafted contract was sent via fax machine to the fax machine in Caesar Bridges’ villa.

After reviewing the contract, both parties felt there were no issues. They each signed their names on the two copies of the contract and affixed their fingerprints.

The contract stipulated that once signed, if either party wanted to breach the agreement during the handover process, they would have to pay a penalty of 20% of the transaction value!

After both parties signed, each kept one copy of the contract.

“Mr. Bridges, a pleasure doing business with you!” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he shook Caesar Bridges’ hand.

“A pleasure, Mr. Lin. As soon as the funds arrive, I will hand over the stock certificates to you immediately.” Caesar Bridges was also in an excellent mood.

After all, he knew that his friend Percy had sold his shares to Lin Haoran for only about 2.7 Hong Kong dollars per share. His own selling price had reached 4 Hong Kong dollars per share.

Compared to Lin Haoran’s deal with Percy, he was making far more now.

“Excellent. I will go to the bank with you. I will transfer the funds to your account in your presence, and you can check your account balance right away,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Then I’ll go get my bank card and the stock certificates. I am very satisfied with this transaction!” Just as Caesar Bridges finished speaking and was about to head into his study, the telephone suddenly rang.

So, Caesar Bridges could only answer the phone first.

“Hello, this is Caesar Bridges… Mr. Bao Fuda from Hongkong Land Group? Is there something I can help you with? … I’m very sorry, but I am no longer a shareholder of Hongkong Electric Group. I’ve already sold my shares. Yes, yes, I’m truly sorry.” After hanging up, Caesar Bridges was still a bit dazed.

Hongkong Land Group wanted to buy his Hongkong Electric Group shares?

What was going on?

Since when had his Hongkong Electric Group shares become so sought after?

At this moment, the sixty-something-year-old Caesar Bridges was truly in a state of bewilderment.

Not far away, Lin Haoran had also overheard Caesar Bridges’ conversation. The words “Hongkong Land Group,” “Bao Fuda,” and “shares” all reached his ears.

Caesar Bridges hadn’t been speaking softly on the phone just now, and Lin Haoran, sitting on the sofa, had heard everything very clearly.

Hongkong Land Group has already started making their move?

At this moment, Lin Haoran felt extremely fortunate.

Thankfully, he had gone to find Caesar Bridges to buy the shares immediately after returning to Hong Kong today.

Otherwise, he might have missed out on Caesar Bridges’ shares.

Now that he had secured Caesar Bridges’ stake in Hongkong Electric Group, his confidence soared!

Hongkong Land Group? They couldn’t beat him anymore.

Now, with the 8.4% stake from Caesar Bridges, his holdings in Hongkong Electric Group officially reached about 34.5%. With just a little more stock accumulation on the secondary market, he could soon break 35% or even more. What could Hongkong Land Group possibly use to fight him for control of Hongkong Electric Group?

In contrast to Lin Haoran’s relief, Caesar Bridges was now regretting having agreed to the deal so quickly.

If he had waited a little longer, before the contract was signed, he might have been able to leverage the fact that both Lin Haoran and Hongkong Land Group wanted his shares, holding out for a better price and making the final transaction value even higher.

Unfortunately, it was too late for all that now. There was no point in saying anything more.

Four Hong Kong dollars per share was already high. He had already signed a contract, and the penalty for breaching it was a staggering 20%.

This meant that unless Hongkong Land Group offered a price of 4.8 Hong Kong dollars per share, there was no point in even talking to them.

But 4.8 Hong Kong dollars per share—would Hongkong Land Group agree to that?

Even a fool knew that was impossible!

Because of this, Caesar Bridges could only regretfully inform Bao Fuda that he was no longer a shareholder of Hongkong Electric Group.

Chapter 159: Preparing for a Showdown

Because the contract had been signed, the subsequent transaction went very smoothly and successfully.

As high-level VIP members of HSBC, the bank staff stayed behind even as they were preparing to close for the day to handle the transfer for Lin Haoran first.

Thus, at six in the evening, Lin Haoran had successfully acquired Caesar Bridges’ 52.92 million shares of the Hongkong Electric Group.

With this, Lin Haoran’s holdings in the Hongkong Electric Group had reached 217.25 million shares, accounting for 34.5% of the group’s total shares.

In other words, he now had the qualifications to take control of the Hongkong Electric Group.

To make the Hongkong Land Group abandon any thought of acquiring Hongkong Electric, Lin Haoran decided to begin the takeover process the very next day.

With the Hongkong Land Group watching covetously from the sidelines, the situation was ultimately a little insecure.

After bidding farewell to Caesar Bridges, Lin Haoran did not return to the Hongkong Electric Group, nor did he go back to his villa on Severn Road. Instead, he had Li Weiguo drive him back toward Deep Water Bay.

He had been in the United States for a whole month; it was time to go home and see his parents.

A little over half an hour later, the Mercedes-Benz pulled into a private parking spot at the Lin family villa.

Hearing the sound of the engine, Lin mother had already come out of the house.

“Haoran, you’re finally back,” Lin mother said, taking Lin Haoran’s hand with a smile filling her face.

“Mother, look, I brought you gifts from the United States.” Lin Haoran took several bags out of the trunk, all filled with presents he had bought in America.

He had bought some health supplements and skincare products for his mother, and two Louis Vuitton belts and a Rolex watch for his father.

These things could also be bought in Hong Kong.

However, it wouldn’t be right to come back from a trip without bringing some gifts.

The gift is small, but the sentiment is great; it was a small gesture of filial piety.

“Good, good, I like everything Haoran bought for me!” Lin mother happily accepted the gifts Lin Haoran handed her.

“Dad, this is yours.” Just then, Lin father also came out of the house, and Lin Haoran smiled as he handed him his gift.

Lin father was now clearly in much better health; even his complexion was ruddy.

“How thoughtful of you.” Lin Wan’an nodded in satisfaction.

That evening, the three of them enjoyed a warm dinner together.

After the meal, Lin Haoran sat on the sofa with his parents, watching television together.

Lin Haoran shared some interesting experiences from his trip to the United States, though he selectively omitted the specific details of his gold futures trading.

“By the way, Dad, I have something to tell you. I plan to take control of the Hongkong Electric Group,” Lin Haoran said suddenly with a smile to Lin Wan’an as their conversation wound down.

His father would find out about this sooner or later, so it was better to tell him now. Otherwise, after Lin Haoran took over, his father might feel that his own son was hiding such a major event from him.

“Haoran, are you talking nonsense?” Lin father couldn’t help but touch Lin Haoran’s forehead, almost thinking he had a fever and was delirious.

Hongkong Electric Group! That was a major British-owned enterprise in Hong Kong. Currently, Hongkong Electric’s market capitalization exceeded 2.2 billion Hong Kong dollars; it was an absolute behemoth.

Although he knew his son was capable, no matter how capable he was, acquiring Hongkong Electric Group seemed impossible.

Lin mother listened quietly to the conversation between father and son. She never interfered in business matters; she had always felt that her duty in life was to support her husband and raise her children, and that was enough.

“Dad, I’m not lying to you. I started planning my move on Hongkong Electric a long time ago. In my view, Hongkong Electric owns many premium plots of land, and its true value is far higher than its market capitalization on the stock market. So, whenever I had money, I would accumulate shares in the company.

The fan enterprise I invested in has already paid me nearly two hundred million Hong Kong dollars in dividends. Besides that, my trip to the United States this time wasn’t purely for leisure; it had a purpose. You must know that from last month to this month, international gold prices have been soaring. I made a lot of money in gold futures.

I invested all that money into Hongkong Electric. I successively bought the shares held by the largest and second-largest shareholders of the group. Coupled with the shares I’ve been continuously accumulating on the secondary market, I now have enough to take control of Hongkong Electric,” Lin Haoran explained to his father with a mix of truth and fiction.

Although Lin father found it hard to accept his son’s astonishingly fast rate of earning money, it was still good news for him.

He suddenly felt that his entire life of hard work was less effective than his son’s few months of strategic planning. Instantly, he lost even more interest in the Wan’an Group.

Though he had already stepped back from Wan’an Group, during the month Lin Haoran was in the United States, Lin Wan’an couldn’t rest easy with the group not being closely monitored by his son. After all, the company was his life’s work, so he often went over to the Wan’an Group.

Now, hearing Lin Haoran say he was preparing to take control of Hongkong Electric, his regard for Wan’an Group dropped significantly.

Compared to Hongkong Electric, what did Wan’an Group amount to?

First, it was Green Island Cement Company, and now it was Hongkong Electric Group. Lin Haoran had done one shocking thing after another.

“How many shares of Hongkong Electric do you have now?” Lin father asked solemnly.

“Almost 35%,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s answer, Lin father fell silent for a long time and didn’t ask any more questions. Then, he began to laugh.

To him, his son’s great capabilities were a tremendous honor for the family ancestors.

In Lin Haoran’s previous life, in January 1985, Li Jiacheng purchased a 34.6% stake in Hongkong Electric Group, one of the top ten British-owned listed companies, for 2.9 billion, successfully taking control.

Now, his own stake in the group was about the same, which naturally qualified him to take control.

Moreover, Lin Haoran had only spent a little over six hundred million Hong Kong dollars in total, several times less than what Li Jiacheng had paid.

As they chatted, around eight in the evening, Lin Haoran’s beeper suddenly vibrated.

It was an unfamiliar number. Without thinking much of it, he walked to the landline and dialed the number back.

“Hello, this is Lin Haoran. Who may I ask is calling?” Lin Haoran asked proactively.

“Hello, Mr. Lin. I’m Bao Fuda, the general manager of the Hongkong Land Group. There’s something I’d like to talk to you about. Is this a convenient time?” a fluent English voice came from the other end of the line.

Bao Fuda?

Lin Haoran understood instantly. After failing to buy shares from Caesar Bridges, they were now trying to buy shares from him, the public “second-largest shareholder of Hongkong Electric.”

At this moment, Lin Haoran didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

This Hongkong Land Group, having made so much money from Kowloon Wharf, was now acting all rich and assertive.

“Your Hongkong Land Group wants to acquire my shares in Hongkong Electric, right? I’m sorry, Mr. Bao Fuda, but to be honest, I have no intention of selling them. Furthermore, the number of shares I currently hold is enough to give me a controlling stake in the group. You should give up on this idea.

I suggest that Hongkong Land can turn its attention to other enterprises, such as the Hongkong Telephone Company or the China Light & Power Company. Neither of these two is inferior to Hongkong Electric. There’s no need for Hongkong Land to keep its eyes fixed on Hongkong Electric. I have other matters to attend to, so I won’t chat with you any longer, Mr. Bao Fuda. Bye-bye.” After speaking, Lin Haoran hung up the phone without waiting for Bao Fuda to reply.

The Hongkong Telephone Company would, if nothing unexpected happened, also be acquired by the Hongkong Land Group. Lin Haoran had no interest in that company.

As for the China Light & Power Company, it was responsible for the electricity supply to the Kowloon Peninsula and was one of Hong Kong’s two major power suppliers.

That company was firmly in the hands of the Kadoorie family. If Hongkong Land set its sights on China Light & Power, then it would no longer have designs on Hongkong Electric.

After all, the Governor’s Office would never allow Hongkong Land to monopolize the entire electricity supply of Hong Kong.

And after Lin Haoran hung up, far away in a commercial building in Central, Bao Fuda held the receiver in disbelief, not putting it down for a long time.

This Chinese person had already gained control of Hongkong Electric?

His first reaction was disbelief.

Immediately, he thought of something else. That afternoon, he had called Caesar Bridges, the former largest shareholder of Hongkong Electric, only to be told that his shares had already been sold. Before he could say anything, the other party had hung up.

Now, combining that with what Lin Haoran had just said, could it be that Caesar Bridges had sold his shares to Lin Haoran?

It was an unfavorable start. Bao Fuda was originally unwilling to give up. He had finally managed to get Lin Haoran’s beeper number through his connections in the evening, only to be met with this kind of outcome.

Bao Fuda didn’t know for sure if what Lin Haoran said was true, but he decided to call Caesar Bridges again to verify his own thoughts.

If he had really acquired the shares of both the first and second-largest shareholders, then perhaps he was truly aiming to acquire the Hongkong Electric Group.

If the other party already controlled enough shares, then Hongkong Land was just wasting its time.

A few minutes later, he had confirmed his theory with Caesar Bridges. Caesar Bridges had indeed sold his shares to Lin Haoran.

Hearing this news, Bao Fuda knew that Lin Haoran was probably not lying. Hongkong Electric had been secretly brought under his control without anyone noticing.

At the beginning of the month, the competition between Hongkong Land and the Bao family had ended, with Hongkong Land being forced to end its dominance over Kowloon Wharf by selling off its shares.

After losing the battle to increase its holdings in Kowloon Wharf, Hongkong Land was, to say the least, extremely unwilling to concede defeat.

Coupled with the large amount of cash Hongkong Land now held, they decided, after discussing with Jardine Taipan Newbiggin and others, to acquire a large enterprise that could replace Kowloon Wharf.

After analyzing several major enterprises in Hong Kong, they finally set their sights on Hongkong Electric, which had no controlling shareholder.

They just never expected to suffer a setback right at the start!

It had only been a few days since they began their move on Hongkong Electric, and it was already about to end in failure.

Bao Fuda could only call Newbiggin to report the matter.

Although he was the general manager and Executive Director of Hongkong Land, when it came to major decisions, Newbiggin, the Taipan of both Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, had the final say.

“Haoran, by answering him like that, won’t you offend the Hongkong Land Group?” Back at the Lin family villa, Lin Wan’an’s cautious nature made him start to worry again.

“Don’t worry, Dad. It won’t go so far as to offend them. And even if it does, I’m not afraid. You don’t need to worry yourself over nothing,” Lin Haoran said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

Should he just hand over Hongkong Electric to them just to avoid offending them?

Lin Haoran wasn’t that spineless.

In the blink of an eye, a night passed. At nine o’clock the next morning, Lin Haoran arrived at the Wan’an Group Building.

Although he already held 34.5% of Hongkong Electric’s shares, he still planned to continue accumulating more. After all, it was still unclear what Hongkong Land’s plans were.

The more shares he held, the more secure he would feel.

“Zhixue, help me tally up how many pending orders there are for Hongkong Electric below four Hong Kong dollars,” Lin Haoran instructed as he walked into the Universal Investment Company office.

“Yes, Boss. I’ll get on it right away,” Su Zhixue replied.

Currently, Universal Investment Company’s business target was Hongkong Electric, so after the end of each trading day, Su Zhixue would obtain a report of the trading data and the pending orders at closing from the stock exchange.

Since the trading volume for Hongkong Electric was currently very high, many shareholders were planning to make short-term investments, so there were quite a few pending orders with prices higher than the closing price.

A few minutes later, Su Zhixue had compiled the data.

“Boss, the pending orders below four Hong Kong dollars total over 18.89 million shares,” Su Zhixue reported.

Lin Haoran frowned. Was that all?

18.89 million shares only accounted for about 3% of Hongkong Electric’s total shares.

He had originally planned that if there were enough pending orders, he would have Su Zhixue sweep up all the orders under four Hong Kong dollars at once after the market opened, to see if he could instantly raise his stake in Hongkong Electric to over 40%.

Since it was only about 3%, he decided not to acquire them for the time being.

He would let Universal Investment Company conduct its normal acquisitions for a while, and then make a strong push just before the market closed.

Because he was preparing to have a showdown with Chairman Chen Shoulin and the entire Hongkong Electric Board of Directors today.

“Zhixue, after the market opens, you can try to increase the intensity of accumulating Hongkong Electric shares a bit. Also, pay attention to the trading volume and whether that suddenly appeared competitor is continuing to acquire shares. I’ll call you at noon,” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Yes, Boss. I know what to do,” Su Zhixue nodded in assent.

Chapter 160: The Persistent Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land

After giving instructions to Su Zhixue, Lin Haoran didn’t linger at the Wan’an Group Building.

Wan’an Group had no major events happening recently, so he didn’t need to spend too much energy there.

Currently, the most important matter was the Hongkong Electric Group. He could hardly wait to take control of it.

After leaving the Wan’an Group Building, Lin Haoran and his two bodyguards drove to the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters.

Upon arriving at the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters, he went straight to the Chairman’s office.

At that moment, Chen Shoulin wasn’t busy with work. Instead, he was sitting in his chair, frowning in thought.

Seeing Lin Haoran enter, Chen Shoulin immediately stood up.

“Mr. Lin, did you really acquire all of Mr. Caesar Bridges’ shares?” Even now, Chen Shoulin found it hard to believe.

Last night, he had received a call from Caesar Bridges.

On the call, Caesar Bridges had told Chen Shoulin that he had already sold his shares to Lin Haoran.

The news was so sudden that Chen Shoulin couldn’t process it.

Although he knew it was true—after all, Caesar Bridges had told him personally, so there was no reason for him to lie—he still found it utterly unbelievable.

Lin Haoran had acquired the shares of both the largest and second-largest shareholders of the Hongkong Electric Group, which indicated his intention to take over the company.

Once Lin Haoran held a controlling stake in Hongkong Electric, Chen Shoulin’s career path at the company would become very uncertain. Whether he stayed or left would no longer be up to the Board of Directors, but up to Lin Haoran.

Therefore, after learning of this, Chen Shoulin had spent the entire night worrying about his career.

He was only in his fifties, the prime of his professional life. If he was forced to leave Hongkong Electric, although finding another job wouldn’t be difficult, he was still very attached to the company. After all, he had invested so much of his energy here.

“Mr. Chen, that’s right. Let me be frank with you. Not only have I acquired all of Mr. Caesar Bridges’ shares, but I’ve also accumulated a significant amount through the stock market. I now effectively control over 34% of Hongkong Electric Group’s shares. The reason I’m here today is to tell you that I now have the power to take control of the company and become its decision-maker.” Lin Haoran sat down and said to Chen Shoulin with a smile.

After speaking, Lin Haoran took out the Hongkong Electric Group stock certificates from his briefcase and placed them on the desk.

Lin Haoran had a great deal of admiration for the Chairman of Hongkong Electric Group before him.

After all, he had led the company to continuously break through its development bottlenecks, allowing its revenue and profits to grow year after year.

It was safe to say he was an outstanding professional manager.

Otherwise, he would never have been able to reach such a position in a British-owned company.

At that moment, Chen Shoulin finally understood.

No wonder he had come looking for shareholder information yesterday afternoon. It turned out there was a purpose behind it.

A stake of over 34% already gave him veto power over “major matters” within the group.

Although he wasn’t technically a controlling shareholder, because the combined shares of all other major shareholders (excluding small retail investors) in Hongkong Electric were less than his, Lin Haoran’s say was the most powerful.

At this point, Lin Haoran could call a Board of Directors meeting, dismiss the current Chairman, and appoint himself to the position.

In Hong Kong, major shareholders of many public companies could control the management with a stake of only ten or twenty-odd percent.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s position was extremely secure.

Looking at the stock certificates on the desk, Chen Shoulin gave a wry smile and asked, “Mr. Lin, what are your plans for me? Are you going to make me leave Hongkong Electric Group?”

“No, no, Mr. Chen, you’ve misunderstood. Although I’m taking control of Hongkong Electric, I have no intention of ousting you. Your performance here is plain for all to see. Even after I become the true decision-maker, I don’t plan to push you out. I hope you will remain with the company and continue to contribute to its success,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

How could he possibly drive away such an outstanding professional manager like Chen Shoulin?

Currently, Fok Kin-ning had not yet matured. If he got rid of Chen Shoulin, he wouldn’t be able to find a more suitable manager for Hongkong Electric.

Manage it himself? Don’t be ridiculous. Lin Haoran knew his own limits when it came to management.

Therefore, keeping Chen Shoulin was the best choice.

It would take Fok Kin-ning at least a few years to mature.

In a few years, Chen Shoulin would be in his sixties. By then, even if he wanted to retire, there would be a successor ready.

Even if Chen Shoulin was still going strong and had no plans to retire, it wasn’t as if Hongkong Electric was the only major enterprise Lin Haoran would own.

He now had several billion Hong Kong dollars at his disposal; one Hongkong Electric Group could never satisfy him!

So, Lin Haoran wasn’t worried at all about future arrangements for when Fok Kin-ning was ready.

His concern should be not having enough capable managers under him, not having too many!

“Mr. Lin, could you be a bit more specific about your arrangements for me?” Chen Shoulin asked.

Hearing Lin Haoran say he had no intention of driving him out, Chen Shoulin breathed a sigh of relief. He had laid out many plans for Hongkong Electric’s development, many of which were either in progress or yet to be implemented. He would have been truly unwilling to leave at this juncture.

“Alright, Mr. Chen, then let me be clearer. My taking control of Hongkong Electric Group is now an unchangeable fact. After I do, I will become the Chairman of the group, and you, Mr. Chen, will become the Executive Director and general manager.

Although your title will be a step down, rest assured that you will still be the one managing the company. I generally won’t interfere much in the group’s affairs.

You probably know about my other two companies, Wan’an Group and Green Island Cement Company. Both are currently managed by their respective general managers. I rarely meddle in their management. I only provide oversight and approve major strategic development plans.

I’m not like other Chinese bosses who keep a tight grip on everything. After all, I’m only in my twenties and certainly don’t have as much experience in corporate management as you all. With so many companies under my name, I can’t possibly manage them all myself. Do you understand what I’m saying, Mr. Chen?” Lin Haoran explained in detail.

With his “Loyalty” special ability, Lin Haoran could confidently entrust his companies to capable professional managers.

If any of these professional managers were to show signs of betrayal, corruption, or other issues, he could detect it through their loyalty levels.

Therefore, under these circumstances, he naturally didn’t need to worry too much about his companies.

“Mr. Lin, I understand,” Chen Shoulin said, nodding solemnly.

“In that case, Mr. Chen, after I take control of Hongkong Electric Group, are you willing to accept my invitation to become the company’s Executive Director and general manager?” Lin Haoran asked with a serious and earnest expression.

“I am willing!” Chen Shoulin agreed without the slightest hesitation.

After all, although he would lose the title of Chairman, if things were as Lin Haoran said, his actual power within Hongkong Electric wouldn’t change much. He would simply have Lin Haoran above him as an overseer.

Previously, he was already subject to the supervision of the Board of Directors, and major company matters were decided at board meetings.

Now, there wasn’t much of a change, really.

Chen Shoulin believed that Lin Haoran probably wasn’t deceiving him. After all, there was no need to lie to him at this point; the man had already become the group’s decision-maker.

“Excellent. Mr. Chen, then I hope we will have a pleasant collaboration in the future!” Lin Haoran extended his right hand and said with a smile.

“A pleasure to work with you, Boss!” Chen Shoulin replied, nodding solemnly.

Once he accepted Lin Haoran’s invitation, Chen Shoulin knew that in his eyes, Lin Haoran was no longer just a major shareholder, but the boss who could decide his fate at the company.

“Mr. Chen, next, please organize a Board of Directors meeting. It’s best for this matter to go through the proper board procedures. Also, after the meeting, let’s hold a press conference,” Lin Haoran continued.

“Yes, Mr. Lin. I know what to do,” Chen Shoulin replied with a nod.

He had accepted the fact that a major change was coming to the Hongkong Electric Group.

Just as Chen Shoulin was about to call all the board members to inform them of the meeting, the telephone rang.

“Hello, Chen Shoulin speaking.” Chen Shoulin picked up the receiver and answered.

Lin Haoran stood by silently.

Unexpectedly, Chen Shoulin’s next sentence was, “Mr. Newbiggin, is there something I can help you with?”

Newbiggin? The Taipan of Jardine Matheson?

Hearing Chen Shoulin’s words, Lin Haoran instantly knew why Newbiggin was calling. It was surely to find out from Chen Shoulin if what Lin Haoran had told Bao Fuda last night was true.

He hadn’t expected the Taipan of Jardine Matheson to call personally. It seemed that Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land hadn’t given up on Hongkong Electric yet!

“That’s correct, Mr. Newbiggin. Mr. Lin is now a major shareholder of the Hongkong Electric Group, and he holds over 34% of the shares. I can confirm this,” Chen Shoulin said in his third sentence.

There was no longer any need to hide this matter, as these details would have to be announced when Lin Haoran took control of the company.

After Chen Shoulin hung up the phone, he frowned and muttered to himself, “Why would Mr. Newbiggin suddenly call to ask about these things?”

Lin Haoran then explained with a smile, “The general manager of Hongkong Land Group, Mr. Bao Fuda, called me last night wanting to acquire my shares in Hongkong Electric. They wanted to secretly take over the company, but I rejected them outright. I also told them not to bother trying to make a move on Hongkong Electric, because there was no point anymore.”

Chen Shoulin had a sudden realization. No wonder.

“I never imagined this. Hongkong Electric Group used to fly under the radar, but now it’s become a hot commodity. Everyone wants a piece of it!” Chen Shoulin said with some emotion.

Lin Haoran smiled. Besides him and the Hongkong Land Group, there were plenty of others who had their eyes on Hongkong Electric, like Li Jiacheng and the Carrian Group.

Thankfully, he had sufficient funds now and had gotten a head start, beginning his play for Hongkong Electric last year. If he had been any later, and if Hongkong Land had made its move first, it would have been difficult to wrest the company from them, even with his substantial capital.

Chapter 161: Li Jiacheng Already Has His Eyes on This Plot of Land?

Although Hongkong Electric Group had numerous shareholders, not all major shareholders could become members of the Board of Directors.

The Hongkong Electric Group’s Board of Directors, for instance, had a total of thirteen members, but only five of them were shareholders—specifically, the top five in terms of shareholding percentage.

The other eight board members were professional managers from Hongkong Electric Group, all of whom were also part of the company’s senior management.

However, now that the original top two shareholders had sold their shares to Lin Haoran, they were naturally no longer suitable to continue serving as non-executive directors of Hongkong Electric Group.

So, in reality, there were now only twelve members on the Board of Directors, which included Lin Haoran and Chen Shoulin.

In other words, Chen Shoulin only needed to notify the other ten.

Aside from Chen Shoulin himself, the other seven senior managers normally worked at the headquarters or other branch offices in Hong Kong. As Hongkong Electric Group had very few overseas operations at present, these senior executives rarely traveled abroad for business. Notifying them to return would not take long.

Therefore, the main task was to notify the other four shareholders to attend the meeting.

The final time for the board meeting had to be arranged based on the availability of these four shareholders; a meeting couldn’t just be convened at a moment’s notice.

After consulting with the four shareholders, they finally decided to hold the board meeting at 5:00 PM.

Once the board meeting was scheduled, Chen Shoulin began to arrange the press conference.

Now that he had accepted the reality of Lin Haoran taking control of Hongkong Electric Group, Chen Shoulin wholeheartedly focused on doing his job well.

At twelve noon, during the stock market’s lunch break, Lin Haoran made a special call to Su Zhixue to get an update on the situation.

Most importantly, he wanted to see if Hongkong Land Group had given up.

If they still harbored intentions for Hongkong Electric Group, they would certainly intensify their stock accumulation. With experienced traders like Su Zhixue, this would be easy to spot.

In that case, Lin Haoran would have no choice but to spend a great deal of money to quickly accumulate more shares from the market or buy them from other shareholders, increasing his stake and completely eliminating any chance for Hongkong Land Group.

“Boss, trading this morning returned to its usual state. We managed to acquire the vast majority of the low-priced shares. By increasing our accumulation efforts, we bought a total of about 7.82 million shares in the two and a half hours this morning. Without any other major competitors, the stock price didn’t change much,” Su Zhixue reported to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran nodded and said, “Zhixue, continue this morning’s pace of accumulation this afternoon. Don’t push the stock price up for now!”

Originally, he had planned to harvest all shares below four Hong Kong dollars before the market closed, which would likely have raised his stake in Hongkong Electric Group to over 40% within the day.

However, upon learning that Hongkong Land Group had ceased its activities in the market, Lin Haoran decided against it.

Evidently, after determining that it would be very difficult to acquire Hongkong Electric Group, Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group had chosen to give up.

After all, their opponent already held over 34% of the shares. It would be incredibly difficult for them to surpass that stake, let alone take a leading position.

Moreover, even if they could accumulate that many shares, their rival Lin Haoran could continue to do the same.

Giving up and choosing another target was the most sensible choice. The decision-makers behind Hongkong Land Group weren’t that foolish.

Furthermore, abruptly pushing Hongkong Electric Group’s stock price from its current level of around 3.5 Hong Kong dollars to 4 Hong Kong dollars per share would make it virtually impossible for the price to fall again in the current market conditions.

Lin Haoran still intended to continue accumulating shares of Hongkong Electric Group until he reached a 49.9% stake. That way, he wouldn’t have to worry about anyone snatching the controlling stake from him.

Once his shareholding reached 49.9%, he would stop increasing his stake. It would be unnecessary, as that level of ownership would make his position unassailable.

From the very beginning, Lin Haoran had never considered privatizing Hongkong Electric Group. A 49.9% stake was more than enough.

Judging by the accumulation this morning, with Hongkong Land Group no longer stirring up trouble in the market and Universal Investment Company increasing its efforts, Lin Haoran could easily increase his stake by another 3% today.

At this rate, it wouldn’t take him long to reach his 49.9% target.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran went to the Chairman’s office, preparing to gain a deeper understanding of Hongkong Electric Group.

From now on, this major British-owned firm would be his enterprise, so naturally, he needed to be thoroughly familiar with it.

“Boss, this is the main development plan for Hongkong Electric Group this year that our board previously discussed. What do you think?” Chen Shoulin handed a document to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran nodded, took the document, and began to read it carefully.

“Real Estate Cooperative Development Plan!”

The document stated that Hongkong Electric Group planned to form a real estate development company in partnership with other Hong Kong property giants within the year. Hongkong Electric Group would then sell two invaluable properties to this new company: the old power plant site on Electric Road, North Point, and the Inland Lot at Jardine’s Lookout.

Although Hongkong Electric Group had already ventured into the real estate industry, its property business was not large in scale. It relied more on cooperative construction with other real estate companies, so Hongkong Electric Group was largely incapable of developing these priceless plots of land on its own.

After all, Hongkong Electric Group had only entered the property sector in 1976, just four years ago.

The plan also listed Hongkong Electric Group’s prospective partners, such as Cheung Kong Holdings Group, Sun Hung Kai Properties, New World Development, Hopewell Holdings, Wheelock, and Hongkong Land Group.

Evidently, although Hongkong Electric Group was a British-owned company, because its Chairman, Chen Shoulin, was Chinese, he was more inclined to partner with Chinese property developers.

Besides, Chinese property companies were developing rapidly and were indeed qualified for such a partnership.

Lin Haoran had some knowledge of Chen Shoulin’s development plan, as it was a well-known case of cooperation.

If Lin Haoran hadn’t suddenly intervened in Hongkong Electric Group’s affairs and prepared to take control, thus changing the original course of history, Hongkong Electric Group would have eventually chosen to partner with Cheung Kong Holdings Group and Wheelock this very year.

In Lin Haoran’s previous life, Hongkong Electric Group would eventually form International City Holdings with Li Jiacheng’s Cheung Kong Holdings Group and the British-owned foreign firm Wheelock. In the end, Hongkong Electric Group and Cheung Kong Holdings Group would each hold a 34% stake, with Wheelock holding 32%, and Li Jiacheng would serve as the company’s chairman.

Subsequently, Hongkong Electric Group sold the properties to International City Holdings for 2.11 billion Hong Kong dollars. International City Holdings developed the old power plant site on Electric Road, North Point, into the later famous City Garden, which included thirteen high-rise residential buildings and one office tower, with a total floor area of 3.178 million square feet, ultimately yielding substantial profits.

It was this collaboration that made Li Jiacheng set his sights on Hongkong Electric Group.

However, Lin Haoran had now changed all of that, so Li Jiacheng would naturally no longer have the opportunity.

This also showed that, in reality, the value of just these two plots of land was as high as Hongkong Electric Group’s current market capitalization.

Not to mention, Hongkong Electric Group also owned multiple other valuable plots in areas like Tsuen Wan, Sheung Wan, Chai Wan, and Fortress Hill.

Hongkong Electric Group’s current total market capitalization of only around 2.2 billion Hong Kong dollars was remarkably low.

Moreover, Hongkong Electric Group itself had a stable income from its electricity sales business. Selling electricity alone earned the company a net profit of three to four hundred million Hong Kong dollars annually!

Based on these estimates, Hongkong Electric Group would be worth buying even if it sold for five or six billion Hong Kong dollars!

And now, Lin Haoran had taken it over when its value was just over two billion. A large portion of the shares he had accumulated early on were acquired at an even lower cost. It was truly a huge bargain!

“This development plan is quite good. It allows Hongkong Electric Group to better leverage its strengths. However, we’re in no hurry to choose a partner,” Lin Haoran said with a smile after reading through the documents.

Now that he was in charge of Hongkong Electric Group, he naturally wouldn’t let Li Jiacheng reap the benefits.

It was a matter of keeping business within the family. Of course, it would be better for his own real estate company to earn that money.

The current Wan’an Real Estate Group indeed lacked the capability to develop such a large-scale real estate project, and it would be difficult to expand its scale in the short term. The simplest solution was to acquire a real estate company and then merge it with Wan’an Group. This would significantly boost Wan’an Group’s property development capabilities.

Even without a merger, that company could form a new property development company with Hongkong Electric Group and Wan’an Group to develop these plots of land.

In other words, all three companies should be under his control!

That was the true meaning of keeping business within the family!

“Speaking of which, Mr. Li from Cheung Kong Holdings Group has invited me several times to discuss the old power plant site on Electric Road, North Point. He hopes to cooperate with our Hongkong Electric Group. Cheung Kong Holdings Group is quite strong and sincere, so I was once inclined to work with them. But since you’ve said so, Boss, we’ll put this plan on hold for now!” Chen Shoulin said from the side.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel surprised. Li Jiacheng already has his eyes on the old power plant site on Electric Road, North Point?

But on second thought, it was normal. This plot was the most valuable piece of land under Hongkong Electric Group, so it was natural for it to attract attention.

However, at this time, Li Jiacheng’s energy should be focused on Hutchison Whampoa.

Regarding Hutchison Whampoa, Lin Haoran actually felt it was a pity. If he had traveled back two or three years earlier, he could have competed with Li Jiacheng for it.

Unfortunately, he arrived too late. The timing was off. Before he had the strength to make a move on Hutchison Whampoa, Li Jiacheng had already sealed a deal with HSBC.

In September of last year, something happened in Hong Kong that shocked everyone: Li Jiacheng successfully acquired the 22.4% stake in Hutchison Whampoa held by HSBC.

This stake was not enough for Li Jiacheng to take control of Hutchison Whampoa, so for now, he was placating the Hutchison Whampoa Taipan, Willie, and not rushing to seize his position. Instead, he merely served as an Executive Director of Hutchison.

Behind the scenes, however, he was secretly continuing to accumulate Hutchison’s shares.

Li Jiacheng’s strategy was simple: wait until his stake in Hutchison exceeded 40%, then oust Willie. That way, Li Jiacheng could logically take control and become the new Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa!

Lin Haoran’s feelings about missing out on Hutchison Whampoa were just a slight regret; it wasn’t particularly heart-wrenching.

After all, there were many high-quality British-owned companies in Hong Kong. If he couldn’t acquire Hutchison Whampoa, he could just acquire other major British-owned firms.

For example, Hongkong Electric Group was now under his control.

Of course, one Hongkong Electric Group was not enough to satisfy his appetite.

He currently had ample funds on hand.

While these stock prices were still relatively low, it was best to acquire more high-quality companies to keep costs down.

In a few years, the market value of most high-quality companies would have multiplied several times over.

Acquiring them then would be far less cost-effective than acquiring them now!

“I plan to acquire a real estate company with decent strength. Let’s develop that North Point plot after my acquisition is complete!” Lin Haoran replied directly.

His meaning was already crystal clear: he did not approve of the plan to partner with Cheung Kong Holdings Group!

Chapter 162: Taking Control of Hongkong Electric Group, Shareholders Scramble to Sell Their Shares

Lin Haoran’s words astonished Chen Shoulin.

He hadn’t expected that his boss, after acquiring Hongkong Electric Group, would still have the capital to continue acquiring other enterprises.

Moreover, a development project like the old power plant site on Electric Road, North Point, was not something an ordinary real estate company could handle. The plot of land alone was worth over a billion Hong Kong dollars, not to mention the additional capital required for development.

Therefore, if his boss wanted to pursue this, he would have to acquire a major real estate enterprise!

Cooperation was cooperation, regardless of the partner. The boss had no intention of working with Cheung Kong Holdings Group, and Chen Shoulin saw no particular reason to object. It wasn’t necessary.

For the rest of the afternoon, Chen Shoulin provided his new boss with a large amount of important documents from Hongkong Electric Group for his review.

Meanwhile, Chen Shoulin himself became extremely busy.

After all, with both a Board of Directors meeting and a press conference to arrange, there was a mountain of work to do!

In the blink of an eye, it was 3:40 PM, with only twenty minutes left before the market closed for the day.

Lin Haoran put down the documents and called Su Zhixue again.

“Boss, I’ve just done a rough calculation. The number of Hongkong Electric Group shares we’ve accumulated today, including this morning’s acquisitions, has already exceeded twenty million shares. However, the stock price has been gradually pushed up to around 3.6 Hong Kong dollars, and it’s rising a bit faster than usual,” Su Zhixue reported.

“Alright, well done!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

This was more or less what he had anticipated.

When the volume of buy orders increased, the stock price would inevitably rise faster. There was no helping it.

“By the way, since there’s still a little time before the market closes, Zhixue, I need you to quickly calculate something for me. If we want to bring today’s total acquisition to around thirty-five million shares, how high will that push the stock price?” Lin Haoran asked, having suddenly thought of something.

“Right away, Boss. I’ll calculate it immediately. It should take five to ten minutes. I’ll call you back shortly!” Su Zhixue quickly hung up and began calling the stock exchange to get the statistics.

Lin Haoran, for his part, sat by the telephone, waiting for news from Su Zhixue.

A thought had just occurred to Lin Haoran. His current holdings in Hongkong Electric Group, not counting the shares accumulated by Universal Investment Company today, already amounted to 217.25 million shares.

If he could acquire thirty-five million shares today, his total holdings in Hongkong Electric Group would slightly exceed forty percent!

A forty percent stake was a major milestone.

About seven minutes later, Su Zhixue finally called back.

“Boss, I’ve just had the traders at the stock exchange run the numbers. Based on the current sell order prices, if we want to acquire a total of thirty-five million shares of Hongkong Electric Group, the price will be driven up to around 3.78 Hong Kong dollars per share!” Su Zhixue replied.

Lin Haoran glanced at the time. It was now 3:54 PM, meaning there were less than six minutes until the stock market closed.

“Alright, I want you to act immediately. Sweep the pending orders. Set the target at anything under 3.8 Hong Kong dollars!” Lin Haoran issued the direct command.

“Understood!”

With time being of the essence, Su Zhixue didn’t chat any further with Lin Haoran and quickly got back to work.

A full twenty minutes passed before Su Zhixue called back again.

After the market closed, he still needed to compile a summary of the day’s acquisitions.

“Boss, today we accumulated a total of 39.78 million shares of Hongkong Electric Group stock at an average price of 3.69 Hong Kong dollars per share. The total expenditure was approximately 146.79 million Hong Kong dollars. The consequence was that we pushed the stock price directly from 3.52 Hong Kong dollars to 3.8 Hong Kong dollars per share,” Su Zhixue reported briskly.

“Excellent, you all performed very well.” Lin Haoran was extremely satisfied.

This aggressive accumulation had certainly been effective. Although the stock price had shot up quite a bit, it was well worth it. Just last week, it would have taken several days to acquire such a volume.

This was nearly forty million shares!

It was a clear indicator of just how active the Hong Kong stock market was, with so many retail investors trading.

Adding to the 217.25 million shares he already possessed, Lin Haoran now held 257.03 million shares. Calculated as a percentage of total shares, this was a full 40.8 percent.

Now, he felt even more secure about his position in Hongkong Electric Group.

With over forty percent of the shares, who could possibly oppose his taking control of the company?

In a flash, it was five in the afternoon.

The members of Hongkong Electric Group’s Board of Directors arrived at the conference room one after another.

They murmured among themselves about this suddenly convened meeting, guessing at its purpose.

They knew that board meetings were not called lightly, unless it was an emergency or a major event.

However, when the time came, they discovered that Hongkong Electric Group’s largest shareholder, Caesar Bridges, hadn’t shown up.

Since he wasn’t there at the scheduled start time, it meant Caesar Bridges would be absent from this board meeting.

Some board members even began to wonder: could this meeting be about Mr. Caesar Bridges?

“Alright, the time for the meeting has come. Please quiet down. I’ll ask the board secretary to record the minutes of our entire meeting. Today, we have two main items on the agenda:

First, Mr. Caesar Bridges has sold his shares in the group to Mr. Lin Haoran. Therefore, effective immediately, Mr. Caesar Bridges automatically withdraws from the Hongkong Electric Group Board of Directors. From this day forward, Mr. Caesar Bridges has no affiliation with our Hongkong Electric Group.

The second agenda item is that Mr. Lin Haoran has now acquired over thirty-four percent of Hongkong Electric Group’s shares, making him a major shareholder of the company.

The third agenda item is my resignation from the position of Chairman of Hongkong Electric Group. I propose that Mr. Lin Haoran succeed me. Now, let’s welcome Mr. Lin to speak.” Chen Shoulin cut straight to the chase.

As soon as he finished speaking, many of the directors present couldn’t help but draw a sharp breath.

The news was too shocking.

They had already been astounded when Lin Haoran acquired the shares of the second-largest shareholder, Percy.

Now, not only had he acquired the shares of the former largest shareholder, but he also held over thirty-four percent of the company. How could this not be shocking!

“Colleagues, allow me to correct that. I now hold over forty percent of Hongkong Electric Group’s shares. Just today, I had my people acquire a substantial number of additional shares from the secondary market.

In light of this situation, I have decided to propose myself as Chairman of the Board of Hongkong Electric Group. Mr. Chen Shoulin will serve as the group’s Executive Director and general manager. In the future, I will oversee the development of Hongkong Electric Group in my capacity as Chairman, while management affairs will remain in the hands of Mr. Chen Shoulin!” Lin Haoran stood up and said with a smile.

Normally, decisions of such magnitude required a vote by the board members.

But now, a vote was completely meaningless. The amount of equity Lin Haoran held already gave him veto power on the board. Whatever he said, others would find it difficult to oppose.

When Lin Haoran finished speaking, the room was terrifyingly silent.

Even the board secretary paused his note-taking, staring dumbfounded at Lin Haoran, as if finding the whole affair utterly unbelievable.

This news had come too suddenly, so suddenly that they hadn’t even had a moment to process it.

However, a round of applause broke the silence—it was Chen Shoulin.

The sound of clapping instantly brought everyone back to their senses, and they quickly followed suit, applauding as well.

A major shake-up was coming. Hongkong Electric Group was about to undergo a major shake-up.

This was the thought in everyone’s mind.

Who could have imagined that Lin Haoran, this young local Chinese man from Hong Kong, was aiming to take control of Hongkong Electric Group?

Over forty percent of the shares!

With this, the Board of Directors of Hongkong Electric Group was now a mere formality. Who among them could possibly oppose Lin Haoran’s proposals?

If he turned out to be a reckless leader, what kind of future would Hongkong Electric Group have?

Although Lin Haoran had just said that management would remain with Chen Shoulin, they didn’t believe for a second that Lin Haoran wouldn’t interfere in the group’s operations.

At this thought, the four Westerner shareholders present grew worried.

“Alright, that covers the agenda for this meeting. Thank you all for coming. We have a press conference at six o’clock, where we will announce these matters to the public. Those who wish to attend may stay. This board meeting is now adjourned!” Chen Shoulin declared the meeting’s end.

It was less a meeting and more of a summons for them to receive an announcement.

After the meeting concluded, the attendees lingered, discussing the events in hushed tones.

Lin Haoran, however, returned to the chairman’s office to wait.

He planned to let Chen Shoulin continue using this office. Although he was now the Chairman, he probably wouldn’t be coming to the group too frequently. It was better to just let Chen Shoulin have it, as he was already used to working here.

Having officially become the Chairman, Lin Haoran could now see the loyalty levels of the senior executives. They were all quite good, in the high eighties.

Of course, their loyalty was not to him personally, but to Hongkong Electric Group.

But now that Lin Haoran was in control of the company, their loyalty to Hongkong Electric Group was, indirectly, loyalty to him.

As for the few shareholders, they were not employees of the group but rather co-owners, so their loyalty levels would not be displayed.

Seeing these loyalty scores, Lin Haoran felt reassured.

It was no wonder Hongkong Electric Group was so well-managed. With such a loyal and capable management team, how could the company not thrive?

Not long after Lin Haoran sat down in the office, Chen Shoulin unexpectedly walked in, followed by four shareholders.

“Boss, these four gentlemen have something to discuss with you,” Chen Shoulin said to Lin Haoran.

“Oh? What is it?” Lin Haoran asked, a little surprised.

“Mr. Chen, it’s like this. I was wondering if you are still acquiring shares in Hongkong Electric Group? I hold thirty-five million shares, and if you are willing to buy them, I’m prepared to sell them to you at a price of 4 Hong Kong dollars per share.” This was the original third-largest shareholder of Hongkong Electric Group, who was now the second-largest.

“Mr. Chen, I hold thirty-two million shares of Hongkong Electric Group. I am also willing to sell them to you at 4 Hong Kong dollars per share.”

“Mr. Chen, I hold twenty-nine million shares of Hongkong Electric Group, and I too am willing to sell them to you at 4 Hong Kong dollars per share.”

“Mr. Chen, I hold 28.5 million shares of Hongkong Electric Group, and I am also willing to sell them to you at 4 Hong Kong dollars per share.”

The four men stated their purpose one by one.

Hearing their words, even Lin Haoran was surprised.

His takeover had actually prompted them to decide to exit Hongkong Electric Group?

This was a scenario he had truly not anticipated. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had Su Zhixue aggressively accumulating shares on the stock market; he could have just bought them directly from these shareholders.

Could it be that they were afraid the stock would plummet after he took charge?

Such a fear was perfectly normal. After Lin Haoran took control of Green Island Cement Company, its stock price had indeed fallen. This was common knowledge in Hong Kong, and these Hongkong Electric Group shareholders were naturally well aware of it.

Perhaps that was one of the reasons, Lin Haoran guessed.

Regardless, it was good news for him. He could now easily increase his holdings to 49.9 percent without having to continue accumulating from the market.

If he had continued buying from the stock market, the price would have undoubtedly broken past 4 Hong Kong dollars per share by the time he reached 49.9 percent, possibly even reaching 4.2 or 4.3 Hong Kong dollars.

Their offer to sell to him at 4 Hong Kong dollars per share was indeed quite reasonable.

However, Lin Haoran had no intention of accepting an offer that had fallen right into his lap at that price.

“Gentlemen, I understand your intentions. But I’m afraid that since I already control over forty percent of the shares, no one can threaten my position. There’s little need for me to increase my shareholding any further.

“Moreover, once my holdings exceed fifty percent, I would be required to privatize Hongkong Electric Group, and I have no intention of doing so. Therefore, even if I were willing to buy your shares, I couldn’t buy all of them.

“Furthermore, I cannot accept your offer price of 4 Hong Kong dollars per share. If I wanted more shares, I would be better off acquiring them from the stock market at a lower cost. We will be holding a press conference shortly, and soon all of Hong Kong will know that I am in charge of Hongkong Electric Group. Who knows if the company’s stock price will fall or rise after they hear the news?

“Last week’s closing price was 3.5 Hong Kong dollars per share. If you are willing to sell, I can buy 57.34 million shares from you at that price. Any more than that would push my stake over fifty percent. If you’re not interested, you are free to sell on the secondary market,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He guessed that these men were worried that once the news broke, the stock price of Hongkong Electric Group would plummet, making it difficult for them to sell.

So, Lin Haoran was openly threatening them.

The men exchanged glances. Just as Lin Haoran thought they would confer amongst themselves, the second-largest shareholder spoke with surprising speed, “Mr. Lin, I am willing to sell my thirty-five million shares to you at 3.5 Hong Kong dollars per share!”

“Mr. Lin, I am also willing to sell to you at 3.5 Hong Kong dollars per share!” the third-largest shareholder quickly added.

Twenty minutes later, Lin Haoran had signed share transfer agreements with the two of them, officially adding 57.34 million shares to his holdings in Hongkong Electric Group for a cost of 200.69 million Hong Kong dollars. His total share count now reached 314.37 million, representing 49.9 percent of the total shares.

As for the remaining two shareholders, they were unfortunately out of luck. Lin Haoran had no intention of acquiring any more.

It was their fault for speaking up too late.

Fortunately, the average price for the shares Universal Investment Company had accumulated that day was only 3.69 Hong Kong dollars per share, not much more than 3.5 Hong Kong dollars, otherwise Lin Haoran would have felt the sting.

Still, the acquisition of his stake had gone very smoothly, and he wasn’t going to quibble over such a small amount of money.

Hongkong Electric Group, from this day forward, was firmly in Lin Haoran’s grasp. At this point, even if Hongkong Land Group was still not ready to give up, they had absolutely no chance of snatching Hongkong Electric Group from his hands.

Chapter 163: The News Spreads, The Tycoons’ Reactions

Before six in the evening, reporters from over a dozen of Hong Kong’s mainstream media outlets had already arrived at the headquarters of the Hongkong Electric Group.

In Hong Kong, the Hongkong Electric Group was a British-owned behemoth known to all, its market capitalization ranking among the top ten British-funded, publicly listed companies.

Therefore, these media reporters were naturally very respectful, and every single one of them arrived on time.

Oriental Daily News, South China Morning Post, Wah Kiu Yat Po, Sing Tao Daily, Wireless Television, Rediffusion Television, Hong Kong Radio, and others were all present—these were the most famous media organizations in Hong Kong.

At six o’clock, Chen Shoulin, representing the Hongkong Electric Group, formally announced all the decisions made at the Board of Directors meeting, stunning every reporter in attendance.

In front of the press, Chen Shoulin solemnly declared the fact that Mr. Lin Haoran now held a staggering 49.9% of the shares in Hongkong Electric Group. This move was undoubtedly a clear signal to all parties coveting Hongkong Electric’s interests, such as the Hongkong Land Group, Cheung Kong Holdings Group, and Carrian Group, effectively curbing their potential ambitions and rivalries.

Lin Haoran serving as the Chairman of Hongkong Electric Group was a completely different matter from Chen Shoulin holding the same position.

Even as Chairman, Chen Shoulin was merely a professional manager—to put it bluntly, a high-level employee of Hongkong Electric. If things went poorly, he would be a scapegoat, constantly at risk of being ousted. Many of his decisions required a vote from the Board of Directors to be executed.

But Lin Haoran, as Chairman, owned nearly half of the group’s shares. He was the real Boss, holding the greatest authority within the Hongkong Electric Group. If he wished, his word could be law, and the Board of Directors would be nothing more than a decoration. Even if he ran the company into the ground, there was nothing anyone could do. Such was the power of holding a controlling stake in a company.

After the announcement, it felt as though countless questions were swirling in the reporters’ minds, all of which they wanted to ask Lin Haoran.

However, he only selected a few questions to answer briefly before leaving the scene in a hurry. Otherwise, the reporters had far too many questions; he could have been answering for hours and still not be finished, and many of those questions were ones he did not want to answer.

Lin Haoran, this young and suddenly rising Chinese entrepreneur, was no stranger to the public.

His acquisition of the Green Island Cement Company had previously caused a great stir.

Later, he was reported by British shareholders and was forced to privatize Green Island Cement Company.

How long had it been since then, and he was already acquiring another British-owned company?

And most importantly, Green Island Cement Company was simply no match for the Hongkong Electric Group.

Just in terms of market capitalization, the difference between the two was severalfold.

If Green Island Cement Company was just a medium-to-large British-funded, publicly listed company, then the Hongkong Electric Group was a top-tier one. An insurmountable gap lay between them.

What the reporters were most curious about was the source of Lin Haoran’s funds.

Acquiring Green Island Cement Company and even privatizing it was understandable, as the funds involved were only around two to three hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

But Hongkong Electric Group was a behemoth with a current total market capitalization of over two billion. To acquire 49.9% of its shares, at the current stock price, would require at least one billion Hong Kong dollars!

However, Lin Haoran did not answer this question, maintaining an air of mystery. Throughout Hong Kong, apart from the head of Citibank’s Hong Kong branch and Su Zhixue, no one knew that he had made a huge fortune from gold futures.

In any case, the source of his funds was legitimate, so he had no fear of investigation.

After the interview, although the newspapers wouldn’t report it until the next morning and the television stations needed time to edit their footage, Hong Kong Radio quickly broadcast the news.

“We interrupt this program with breaking news. Just moments ago, the Hongkong Electric Group officially announced a major personnel change. Mr. Lin Haoran, the new Chairman of Green Island Cement Company, has formally taken over as the Chairman of the Hongkong Electric Group. It was simultaneously announced that he and the parties he represents hold a stake of up to 49.9% in the Hongkong Electric Group.

This change marks another long-established British-owned corporate giant coming under the leadership of a Chinese entrepreneur since the shift in control of Kowloon Wharf. At the press conference that followed, Mr. Lin Haoran demonstrated a leadership style that was both far-sighted and humble.

He clearly stated that he would fully support and respect the years of hard work and outstanding contributions of the former Chairman, Mr. Chen Shoulin. He also announced that Mr. Chen Shoulin would take on a new role as Executive Director and general manager, continuing to contribute to the future development of the Hongkong Electric Group.

Mr. Lin Haoran emphasized that this change aims to further promote the integration of internationalization and localization within the Hongkong Electric Group, jointly creating an even more brilliant future…”

In that instant, Hong Kong Radio’s breaking news spread throughout Hong Kong via car radios, home radios, and other channels.

It was dinnertime for most citizens, and the news immediately sparked widespread and heated discussion.

Hongkong Electric Group! Although not on the same scale as giants like Hutchison Whampoa or Jardine Matheson, it was only slightly inferior and was considered a top-tier British-owned company in Hong Kong.

But now, this giant had been acquired by Lin Haoran, and so quietly at that.

Previously, Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Green Island Cement Company had already caused a huge sensation, being the first British-funded, publicly listed company to be acquired by a Chinese-owned enterprise.

At the time, because everyone felt he was too young, they were not optimistic about the future of Green Island Cement Company under his management. As a result, the stock price plummeted, and few dared to continue holding its shares.

But how much time had passed? He had once again acquired an even larger British-owned company, and with a 49.9% stake.

Could such a person lack ability?

If acquiring Green Island Cement Company could be attributed to a lucky windfall or support from elders, then acquiring the Hongkong Electric Group was definitely not a matter of luck.

Moreover, reporters had already investigated Lin Haoran’s background. His father was merely the boss of an ordinary publicly listed company and could offer him extremely limited help.

At this moment, everyone’s perception of Lin Haoran began to change completely.

Being young did not necessarily mean one was incapable of managing a company.

While news of the Hongkong Electric Group acquisition was stirring up widespread discussion among the citizens of Hong Kong, some of the city’s business tycoons, such as Pao Yue-kong, Michael Sandberg, Newbiggin, Bao Fuda, and Li Jiacheng, had already learned of this industry-shaking news through their extensive intelligence networks across Hong Kong’s business community as soon as the press conference began.

With their profound industry backgrounds and extensive networks, these magnates could always grasp market trends and major events one step ahead of the common person.

In Prince’s Building, at the headquarters of the World-Wide Shipping Group, Pao Yue-kong put down the telephone receiver in his personal office, his expression filled with astonishment.

“This Nephew Lin is truly extraordinary!” Pao Yue-kong muttered to himself with some emotion.

To win control of the Kowloon Wharf, he had gone through incredible hardships and paid a price of several billion, finally managing to drive the Hongkong Land Group out and take charge.

Everyone knew that although Pao Yue-kong had won the Kowloon Wharf acquisition battle, it could only be described as a Pyrrhic victory.

After the battle, Kowloon Wharf’s stock price began to decline with each trading day. The more it fell, the greater Pao Yue-kong’s paper losses became.

Although Pao Yue-kong had long been mentally prepared for this, knowing that initial losses were unavoidable in order to successfully shift his assets from sea to land, a loss was still a loss.

In contrast, Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Hongkong Electric Group had proceeded without a single hitch before its success. It could even be described as having been completed quietly, which often meant the acquisition cost was low due to a lack of competitors.

At this moment, the two acquisitions—Pao Yue-kong’s of Kowloon Wharf and Lin Haoran’s of Hongkong Electric—seemed to form a stark contrast.

If Pao Yue-kong had previously regarded Lin Haoran as just a junior in the business world, then from this moment on, Lin Haoran’s status was enough to stand on equal footing with him, at the pinnacle of Hong Kong’s business community.

“It seems I’ll have to tell the Bao family juniors to foster good relations with this Nephew Lin from now on!”

…

In the Chinese Building, Li Jiacheng sat in his office, frowning upon receiving the news.

Lin Haoran had acquired the Hongkong Electric Group?

This news was completely unexpected.

His previous dealings with Lin Haoran were over the Green Island Cement Company. At that time, not long after he had secured a huge sum from the Kowloon Wharf affair, he set his sights on Green Island Cement, wanting to acquire the high-quality British-owned company.

Unexpectedly, a little-known young man had already laid the groundwork, even convincing Pao Yue-kong to persuade him to give up on acquiring Green Island Cement.

Li Jiacheng had always abided by the principle of valuing harmony in business and avoided offending other tycoons, which was one of the main reasons for his extensive network.

To give Pao Yue-kong favor, and because Lin Haoran already had a first-mover advantage, giving him no certainty of victory, Li Jiacheng had no choice but to reluctantly abandon the acquisition of Green Island Cement and focus on negotiating with Michael Sandberg to take over Hutchison Whampoa.

Just last September, after much effort and numerous private discussions with Michael Sandberg, Li Jiacheng finally reached an agreement with HSBC and successfully acquired the bank’s shares in Hutchison Whampoa, thus becoming Hutchison’s Major shareholder.

However, being a Major shareholder alone was not enough to fully control Hutchison Whampoa. Furthermore, its business sectors were entirely unfamiliar to Li Jiacheng. A rash change in management could have a detrimental effect on the company.

Given this, to ensure a smooth transition and successful takeover, Li Jiacheng adopted a cautious strategy.

On the surface, he maintained a harmonious relationship with Hutchison’s senior management, avoiding direct conflict. Privately, however, he gradually integrated his own team into Hutchison’s management system, allowing them to adapt and gain control over various operations.

At the same time, he was secretly and continuously increasing his shareholding in Hutchison, waiting for the opportune moment.

Once Li Jiacheng believed he held enough shares, he would legally remove the current Hutchison chairman and assume the position himself, thereby achieving complete control over Hutchison Whampoa.

Therefore, before he had total control of Hutchison Whampoa, his main priorities were to familiarize himself with its business and to continuously accumulate shares, leaving him unable to attend to other matters.

As for the Hongkong Electric Group, Li Jiacheng had long wanted to cooperate with them, even harboring ambitions of bringing them into his fold.

With its rich, high-quality land resources and stable core business income, the Hongkong Electric Group was like a bank that constantly appreciated in value, bringing a considerable cash flow to its shareholders every year.

However, before he had complete control of Hutchison Whampoa, his funds were tied up and could not be used elsewhere. Thus, his plan was to first cooperate with Hongkong Electric and then slowly find a way to take over this high-quality, major British-owned firm.

He just never expected that before any cooperation could even begin, the Hongkong Electric Group would be acquired, and by a young opponent he had encountered before, no less.

Li Jiacheng’s ambition was immense. Acquiring Hutchison Whampoa was just one of his goals. He had already planned to start maneuvering for the Hongkong Electric Group after completely securing Hutchison. But now, it seemed all his plans were in vain. Hongkong Electric had been acquired by someone else beforehand.

Lin Haoran’s 49.9% controlling stake in Hongkong Electric had completely extinguished Li Jiacheng’s ambitions for the company.

“Truly, the new generation surpasses the old, and each is stronger than the last. This Mr. Lin is no simple man!” Li Jiacheng sighed. Missing out on Hongkong Electric was, in the end, a regret.

…

Meanwhile, not far from the Chinese Building, at Jardine Matheson’s headquarters, Newbiggin sat side-by-side with Bao Fuda. They too had received the news at top speed.

The Hongkong Land Group’s plan to acquire Hongkong Electric had been personally approved by Newbiggin.

He just hadn’t expected their plan to be forced to a halt so soon after the decision was made.

In the morning, after confirming the situation with Hongkong Electric’s Chairman Chen Shoulin, he had instructed the Hongkong Land Group to stop accumulating shares, as it was no longer meaningful.

Now, the news from his subordinates made Newbiggin feel fortunate that their attempt to acquire Hongkong Electric had only just begun, with little time and cost invested.

“Perhaps we should consider Mr. Lin’s suggestion to the Hongkong Land Group. It’s time to study the feasibility of acquiring the Hongkong Telephone Company and CLP Holdings,” Bao Fuda said solemnly to Newbiggin at his side.

“Yes, good. The Hong Kong property market is booming right now, which is a great opportunity for us to expand. The only way for the Hongkong Land Group to grow more rapidly in a short period is to continuously acquire and merge with more high-quality enterprises, not just in Hong Kong, but also quality companies overseas. The old conservative, steady, and prudent strategy is clearly no longer suitable for Hongkong Land!” Newbiggin said in agreement.

The forced acquisition of Kowloon Wharf by Pao Yue-kong had already pushed Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land toward a more rash, impatient, and speculative approach, as they sought an opportunity to challenge the Chinese tycoon.

Unfortunately, they had missed out on the Hongkong Electric Group, a company they had been very optimistic about. Now, they could only shift their focus to other enterprises.

Chapter 164: An Idea for Intelligence, Coveting the Oriental Daily News

The next morning, as reports from various newspapers and media outlets were published, the citizens gained a clearer understanding of Lin Haoran’s acquisition of the Hongkong Electric Group.

For example, the Oriental Daily News, Hong Kong’s leading newspaper by sales, not only published a detailed account of Hongkong Electric Group’s official announcement from the previous day but also meticulously compiled and printed a biographical profile of Mr. Lin Haoran. This painted a more three-dimensional and comprehensive picture of him, giving the public a deeper understanding of his achievements and background.

“Lin Haoran, currently 26 years old, is the youngest son of Lin Wan’an, the former chairman of Wan’an Group. He graduated from the London Grand School of Business in Britain.

In the summer of 1978, after returning from his studies abroad, Lin Haoran became the head of a small cement factory, which marked the beginning of his involvement with the cement industry.

However, Mr. Lin Haoran was not content with merely running a small factory. With his foresight, he seized the opportunity to buy up a large number of Kowloon Wharf shares when the price was low, ultimately earning his very first pot of gold through Kowloon Wharf.

A few months later, using these precious funds, he quietly completed the acquisition of Green Island Cement Company, Hong Kong’s largest cement supplier, formally taking over the company and assuming the role of Chairman.

This move not only made him stand out in the business world but also made him the first Chinese entrepreneur to successfully acquire a British-funded, publicly listed company, attracting widespread public attention.

However, the good times didn’t last long. The subsequent scandal, where British shareholders of Green Island Cement reported a ‘violation of acquisition rules,’ forced Lin Haoran to privatize the company to quell the controversy. The privatization has since been successfully completed.

Fast forward to February of last year, Lin Haoran officially took the baton from his father, Lin Wan’an, to become the Chairman of the publicly listed Wan’an Group.

After taking office, he once again demonstrated his decisive leadership by pushing forward a privatization plan for Wan’an Group, which was also successful.

At 6 p.m. on January 28, 1980, Hongkong Electric Group formally announced that Mr. Lin Haoran had successfully acquired the company, holding 49.9% of its shares and officially assuming the position of Chairman.

It is rumored that on the eve of the oil crisis, Lin Haoran foresaw the event and raised funds for a major investment in the oil industry. This move might have been the crucial financial backing for his acquisition of Hongkong Electric Group…”

Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Hongkong Electric Group was, without a doubt, explosive news today!

Who in Hong Kong didn’t know of Hongkong Electric Group?

With a history of nearly a hundred years, this power company was one of the oldest in the world and one of the most well-known publicly listed companies in Hong Kong.

“It’s incredible. He’s only in his twenties, and he acquired Hongkong Electric Group on his own. He’s really brought honor to us Chinese!”

“You can say that again! Hongkong Electric! They supply the power to my home. I contribute a lot to their electricity bills every year. This is great. It’s better for a Chinese person to earn that money than those British blokes!”

“Not only can he predict that Kowloon Wharf’s stock would soar, but he can even foresee an oil crisis. A person like him will definitely become one of the top figures in Hong Kong’s business world.”

“What do you mean, ‘in the future’? I’d say that by becoming the boss of Hongkong Electric Group, he’s already at the pinnacle of Hong Kong’s business world.”

“He’s young, but so talented at making money. Hongkong Electric Group’s future is definitely bright. The Hong Kong stock market is so hot right now. Maybe my shares in Hongkong Electric could become a very wise investment. I’ve decided! I’m buying one hundred lots of Hongkong Electric stock when the market opens!”

“Only 26, young and rich, and handsome too, based on the photos. If I could marry him, I’d even be willing for my chest to get a little bigger.”

“You’re having such daydreams in broad daylight? In your dreams.”

…

All across Hong Kong, discussions about Lin Haoran taking control of Hongkong Electric Group were rampant. The vast majority of people felt that he was bringing glory to the Chinese people.

In Hong Kong, under the rule of the British Hong Kong government, the British were historically considered first-class citizens, while the Chinese were second-class.

It was a common occurrence for the British to look down on the Chinese.

Now, seeing Chinese businessmen acquire one British-owned company after another felt like they were turning the tables and becoming the masters. How could the local citizens of Hong Kong not be thrilled? Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Hongkong Electric Group was absolutely a matter of great pride for the Chinese in Hong Kong!

An article published in the Sing Tao Daily particularly struck a chord with the citizens of Hong Kong.

Under the headline “Chinese-Funded Conglomerates Acquire British-Owned Companies One After Another: The Decline of British Conglomerates, the Rise of Chinese Conglomerates!”, the article deeply analyzed the impact of Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Hongkong Electric Group.

The article stated: “Mr. Pao Yue-kong’s acquisition of the Kowloon Wharf Group, Mr. Li Jiacheng’s acquisition of the Hutchison Whampoa Group, Mr. Lin Haoran’s acquisitions of Green Island Cement Company and Hongkong Electric Group, and so on—this series of acquisitions of British-owned companies by Chinese entrepreneurs, something that had never happened before, has occurred repeatedly over the past two years. This represents the gradual rise of Hong Kong’s Chinese-funded conglomerates. Let us look forward to a future where more British-owned companies are transformed into Chinese-owned enterprises…”

In Lin Haoran’s villa in the Severn Road district, he had just woken up. He was eating breakfast while reading the newspaper.

As expected, he was the star of all the newspapers today.

When he saw the part of the Oriental Daily News report that detailed his personal history, even Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

He hadn’t expected these paparazzi to be so skilled at digging up information. They had even managed to find out that he’d made a fortune from the oil crisis. Almost no one knew about that!

Although some of the details were incorrect, it demonstrated that the Oriental Daily News was truly capable. It was no wonder it had been the best-selling newspaper in Hong Kong for over a decade.

“If I could successfully acquire the Oriental Daily News, wouldn’t that mean I would have a direct and powerful intelligence network at my disposal?” A thought suddenly flashed through Lin Haoran’s mind.

The Oriental Daily News, a newspaper beloved by ordinary citizens, had a unique appeal:

First, it closely followed every corner of Hong Kong society, quickly capturing and reporting in-depth on all sorts of news related to people’s livelihoods. Its timeliness and broad coverage firmly captured the hearts of its readers.

Second, its supplementary section was a collection of the finest works from Hong Kong’s journalism and literary circles, providing readers with rich spiritual nourishment.

Furthermore, its writing style was concise and clear, and its variety of columns was rich and diverse. It was both professional and approachable, satisfying the reading needs of different age groups.

Even Lin Haoran himself counted the Oriental Daily News among the papers he had to read every day in Hong Kong.

Its ability to gather so much news and information daily was largely thanks to its paparazzi and its network of informants spread throughout Hong Kong.

Right now, what Lin Haoran lacked most wasn’t money, but intelligence!

It was like before, when he had wanted to find Fok Kin-ning’s whereabouts. He had to go through a lot of trouble and spend money just to finally get his home address.

This passive and inefficient process made him feel greatly inconvenienced.

If he had his own intelligence agency, everything would be completely different.

He would no longer need to rely on uncertain external factors; obtaining information would become direct and efficient.

More importantly, the head of the intelligence agency could carefully select and present him with crucial information daily, allowing him to gain early insights and grasp market trends.

In the fiercely competitive business world, the value of intelligence was immeasurable.

To have information one step ahead meant being able to make decisions earlier and seize market opportunities. Conversely, being slow to acquire information could lead to missed opportunities or even being put on the defensive.

Therefore, establishing his own intelligence system was undoubtedly a key step to enhancing his competitiveness and ensuring business success.

And for Lin Haoran, if he could truly control the Oriental Daily News, it would be a shortcut into the world of intelligence.

Compared to the enormous funds, long time, and endless energy required to build an intelligence system from scratch, the intelligence foundation and accumulated resources of the Oriental Daily News were especially valuable.

Although directly obtaining highly classified intelligence would still be challenging, as a media platform, its profound expertise in information gathering, organization, and analysis would be enough to provide Lin Haoran with significant support in business competition and decision-making.

Besides, the Oriental Daily News was also an excellent advertising platform. In the future, Lin Haoran’s industries and products would multiply, making the paper’s role even more significant.

At this moment, Lin Haoran had the idea of acquiring the Oriental Daily News.

Of course, this wasn’t something to be rushed. The Oriental Daily News was not a publicly listed company, so secretly acquiring shares to gain control as he had with Hongkong Electric Group was impossible. If he wanted to acquire it, the only way was to approach the owner behind the Oriental Daily News.

After finishing breakfast and resting for a bit, he checked the time and saw it was already past nine in the morning. So, Lin Haoran set off for the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters building.

This was his first official visit to the group after becoming its Chairman. Although he had successfully acquired it, he was not yet very familiar with its operations.

Now that Hongkong Electric Group had become the most important enterprise under his name, he naturally had to take it seriously.

The distance from the Severn Road villa to the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters building was not far. After just a ten-minute drive, the car smoothly entered the underground parking garage of the headquarters building.

“Good morning, Chairman.”

“Good morning, Boss.”

“Morning, Boss~”

From the garage to the chairman’s office, employees, both Westerners and Chinese, greeted their young new boss along the way.

And Lin Haoran nodded and smiled in return to each of them.

When he arrived at the chairman’s office, Chen Shoulin was not there.

“Where is Director Chen?” Lin Haoran asked Chen Shoulin’s assistant.

Although Chen Shoulin was no longer the chairman, he was now an Executive Director of Hongkong Electric Group, so there was nothing wrong with calling him Director Chen.

“Chairman, Director Chen went to a meeting. There’s a senior management meeting in Meeting Room 3 right now. They hold one every morning,” the assistant replied respectfully.

Lin Haoran nodded. He didn’t go to the meeting room to find them but sat down on the sofa in the negotiation room, his mind already calculating.

He had made approximately 5.744 billion Hong Kong dollars from gold futures.

From this amount, he had spent about 594 million Hong Kong dollars to buy shares in Hongkong Electric Group.

This meant he still had about 5.15 billion Hong Kong dollars in available funds.

However, the 240 million loan from Bumiputra Finance was due for repayment next month, so Lin Haoran had to subtract that amount.

Even so, he still had nearly five billion Hong Kong dollars in cash.

He certainly couldn’t just let this money sit idle in the bank; that would be far too wasteful.

It was only the beginning of 1980, and the stock prices of many high-quality listed companies were still very low. In a few years, their value would multiply several times over. If he didn’t seize the opportunity to acquire them now, he would be wasting a golden opportunity.

So, now that the acquisition of Hongkong Electric Group was complete, which company should he acquire next?

Lin Haoran sat on the sofa, crossing his legs and frowning in thought.

He had previously planned to acquire a large real estate company, and it now seemed like the right time to act.

Chapter 165: The Goal is to Spend Five Billion, Market Caps of the British-Owned Giants

Now that Lin Haoran had ample funds on hand, investment was a certainty.

Based on his knowledge from his past life, the Hong Kong stock market would generally trend upward over the next few years, despite repeated rises and falls.

It might occasionally plummet by ten or twenty percent, but good news would quickly pull the Hang Seng Index back up again.

As for the period between 1982 and 1984, influenced by the issue of sovereignty negotiations, the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index would fluctuate between 676 and 1000 points, which could hardly be considered a stock market crash.

It wouldn’t be until 1987 that Hong Kong would experience a major stock market crash in the true sense of the word.

Therefore, for the next few years, he could essentially invest in the stock market with confidence.

With nearly five billion Hong Kong dollars in hand, such a massive sum of capital naturally couldn’t be targeted at just one listed company.

Moreover, the several companies under his banner would continue to generate more wealth for him in the future.

So, for a long time to come, he would not be short of funds.

What he needed to do was invest, and invest heavily.

The little interest earned from a bank account was not worth mentioning; leaving the money in a bank was too much of a waste.

Hong Kong had many high-quality listed companies. For him, even if he didn’t take control after buying in, he could still make a handsome profit from the stocks in the future.

For example, Hongkong Land Group, Wheelock, Swire & Co., Hong Kong and China Gas, Kowloon Motor Bus, China Motor Bus, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, and so on.

He was particularly interested in Hongkong Land Group. When he was acquiring Green Island Cement Company, he had already entertained the idea of one day acquiring this property giant of a British-owned conglomerate, known as the “Landlord of Central.”

Now, with sufficient funds, he could start making his moves on Hongkong Land Group ahead of schedule.

Besides listed companies within Hong Kong, he could also invest in internationally renowned companies through the stock market, such as Coca-Cola, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, Intel, and so on. Holding these stocks long-term would result in appreciation of several hundred, even a thousand times over.

“Looks like Universal Investment Company needs to scale up. Relying on the current small team for small-scale operations won’t do,” Lin Haoran decided.

Letting Su Zhixue and his team handle the trading for one or two companies’ stocks was manageable, but any more than that and they would certainly be overwhelmed.

Moreover, the scale of the listed companies Lin Haoran was targeting would only get larger, and the difficulty of trading would increase accordingly.

Seeing that Chen Shoulin had not yet returned from his meeting, Lin Haoran simply left the Hongkong Electric Group and headed for the Wan’an Group Building.

He didn’t go straight to Universal Investment Company but instead went to the general manager’s office at Wan’an Group.

Inside the office, Yang Mingyi was on the phone. From the few sentences Lin Haoran overheard, he could tell Yang was discussing a partnership.

Seeing Lin Haoran enter, Yang Mingyi pointed to the telephone receiver, signaling for his boss to take a seat first.

A minute or so later, he finally hung up the phone.

“Boss, congratulations on becoming the Chairman of Hongkong Electric Group!” Yang Mingyi stood up and offered his respects.

The matter of taking control of Hongkong Electric Group had already caused a huge stir. As one of Lin Haoran’s subordinates, Yang Mingyi was naturally well aware of it.

“Thank you. Are you busy with a project?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Boss, there’s a building construction project in Wan Chai that’s currently looking for a suitable construction company. Our Wan’an Construction Engineering Company, under Wan’an Group, has become their intended partner, but it’s not finalized yet,” Yang Mingyi explained.

Lin Haoran nodded.

“By the way, General Manager Yang, I want to accelerate the development of Wan’an Group. The current pace is too slow. Do you have any ideas on how to grow Wan’an Group quickly, preferably in a short period? I’m not saying we need to reach the level of property giants like Hongkong Land Group or Cheung Kong Holdings Group, but at least several times our current size,” Lin Haoran asked.

Although the current Wan’an Group had made some progress compared to when he first took it over, the progress wasn’t actually that significant.

The main reason was that Lin Haoran hadn’t focused much of his energy here.

And while Yang Mingyi was eager to grow the group quickly, he lacked the necessary capital and projects, leaving him willing but powerless.

But now, Lin Haoran had not only acquired Green Island Cement Company but also Hongkong Electric Group, giving him a large number of resources available for development. Even the large plot of land that Amigo Company bought in Kwun Tong required its own factory complex to be built, and all of these were opportunities for collaboration with Wan’an Group.

However, the current scale of Wan’an Group was too small. It clearly couldn’t handle so much business. It didn’t even have the capability to develop the plot of land in Hung Hom where Green Island Cement was located.

“Boss, it’s very difficult for the current Wan’an Group to suddenly expand its scale several times over. However, if certain conditions are met, Wan’an Group can also develop rapidly.”

“First is capital. Our Wan’an Group is currently short on funds. The money from previous loans was used to buy land, and it will be difficult to recoup cash flow from other projects in the short term. So, to expand directly, we need sufficient capital.”

“Second is projects. Wan’an Group currently has two main projects under construction: one is a commercial building in North Point, and the other is the Shangri-La Hotel tower in Tsim Sha Tsui. The remaining projects are either too small to mention or haven’t been secured yet, like the Wan Chai project I was just discussing.”

“As long as the company has sufficient capital and projects, Wan’an Group’s strength can multiply several times over in a short period. The property industry in Hong Kong is booming right now, so there’s no shortage of skilled construction workers. We can expand our construction teams at any time.”

“Besides that, there’s another way to directly strengthen Wan’an Group, and that is to merge with other real estate companies,” Yang Mingyi carefully laid out his thoughts.

Lin Haoran nodded. He had also considered acquiring a real estate company and merging it with Wan’an Group, but he hadn’t yet found a suitable target. It was clearly more appropriate to entrust this matter to Yang Mingyi, who was an industry insider after all.

Now, in early 1980, the stock prices of various listed companies had generally risen, but not by too much. It was still a cost-effective time to make an acquisition.

“Alright, General Manager Yang. For now, I’ll inject two hundred million Hong Kong dollars into Wan’an Group. You’ll be in charge of expanding the group’s scale. As for projects, you don’t need to worry about that at all. There are plenty of projects waiting for you. For example, the current headquarters of Green Island Cement Company, that plot of land in Hung Hom—I plan to build a large-scale Hung Hom commercial center there.”

“In addition, Hongkong Electric Group has many projects to develop, but Wan’an Group currently lacks the strength to participate. So, I plan to build up Wan’an Group’s capabilities first.”

“Also, you must be very familiar with Hong Kong’s real estate industry. I plan to acquire a real estate company, with a market cap under five hundred million Hong Kong dollars. After the acquisition, we will merge it directly with Wan’an Group. This way, our Wan’an Group will have a qualitative leap forward!” Lin Haoran stated directly.

A real estate company under five hundred million was sufficient. For comparison, the market cap of Li Jiacheng’s Cheung Kong Holdings Group was just over a billion Hong Kong dollars, and that was after Li Jiacheng’s acquisition of Hutchison pushed Cheung Kong’s stock up a wave. Just three months ago, its total market cap was only around one billion.

Now that he held a large amount of capital, he was flush with cash. Besides, this was all for laying the groundwork for the future, for better development. It was all worth it.

Hearing his boss’s words, Yang Mingyi was already overcome with excitement.

He naturally knew that his boss was extremely wealthy; otherwise, it would have been impossible to take down a British-owned behemoth like Hongkong Electric Group.

As the general manager of Wan’an Group, responsible for all its day-to-day management, he certainly hoped for the group to grow larger and larger.

However, the current Wan’an Group was clearly lagging far behind other property developers.

Therefore, receiving his boss’s support was definitely a golden opportunity for Wan’an Group to rise.

“Boss, rest assured. I’m very familiar with all the real estate companies in Hong Kong. I’ll immediately find out which company is most suitable for you to acquire!” Yang Mingyi said excitedly, patting his chest.

At this moment, it was as if he could see the day Wan’an Group would become one of Hong Kong’s top real estate enterprises.

“I will transfer the two hundred million Hong Kong dollars to the group’s corporate account within the day. I’ll leave the rest to you. Keep up the good work. Stick with me, and your future will be bright,” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he left the general manager’s office.

After leaving the office, Lin Haoran went directly to Universal Investment Company’s office.

With the acquisition of Hongkong Electric Group’s shares just completed, Universal Investment Company had no immediate tasks, so things were rather quiet.

“Hello, Boss.”

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, the employees greeted him one after another.

Lin Haoran nodded to each of them, then asked Su Zhixue to follow him into the general manager’s office.

“Boss, I was paying special attention to Hongkong Electric Group’s stock today. I originally thought the share price would fall, but unexpectedly, it rose instead. It climbed to 3.9 Hong Kong dollars per share in a short time and is now heading straight for 4 Hong Kong dollars per share, with considerable trading volume,” Su Zhixue reported.

“Is that so?” Lin Haoran was somewhat surprised.

He, like others, had expected the stock price to fall after the announcement of him taking control of Hongkong Electric Group. He didn’t expect that not only did it not fall, but it was rising at a decent pace. The market was about to break for lunch, and in just over two hours, the price had risen by a full 0.1 Hong Kong dollars, and this was without Universal Investment Company accumulating shares to drive it up.

However, judging from the market’s reaction, it was clear that the shareholders of Hong Kong no longer underestimated Lin Haoran. Instead, they believed Hongkong Electric Group had great potential under his leadership. Otherwise, these people wouldn’t be driving up the company’s stock price.

“Yes, it was beyond my expectations as well,” Su Zhixue nodded.

“Zhixue, I came here this time because I have new tasks for you,” Lin Haoran said to Su Zhixue after sitting down.

“Boss, please give your instructions.”

“First, I want you to gather information on the current stock prices and trading situations of major listed companies, with a focus on British-owned companies. Second, expand the scale of Universal Investment Company, especially the trading team.”

“I will need you all to do a lot of things going forward. Universal Investment Company’s current scale is entirely small-scale operations. You can start by merging the Securities and Commerce Department from Wan’an Group. In addition, you can poach people from other companies. You should be very clear about the hiring standards, and I will personally review them in the end.”

“In short, your tasks ahead are immense. You know that I made a huge amount of money in gold futures, so I’m going to make large-scale investments next. It’s obvious that Universal Investment Company’s current scale is far from sufficient!” Lin Haoran said with gravity.

His goal was to spend all of these five billion Hong Kong dollars.

As for the future, by the time he spent it all, more sources of funding would naturally become available. It wasn’t as if he would stop making money.

With an information advantage of several decades, even if he only knew the general outline, it was enough for him to make money easily.

“Boss, the data on listed company stock prices is easy to get. I’ll call the stock exchange right now and have my contact there prepare a file and fax it to our company,” Su Zhixue said, and then picked up the phone.

Su Zhixue had frequent contact with the stock exchange and had become familiar with them; he had his own people there.

While they waited for the documents, Lin Haoran and Su Zhixue discussed the upcoming investment plans, which Su Zhixue would be responsible for executing.

He had great trust in Su Zhixue. Since Su Zhixue began following him, his loyalty had always been at 100, never once dropping.

About twenty minutes later, a document finally arrived from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Lin Haoran eagerly began to read it.

“HSBC, market cap of 14.857 billion Hong Kong dollars.”

“Hang Seng Bank, market cap of 9.378 billion Hong Kong dollars.”

“Jardine Matheson & Co., market cap of 4.283 billion Hong Kong dollars.”

“Hongkong Land Group, market cap of 7.769 billion Hong Kong dollars.”

“Hutchison Whampoa, market cap of 4.382 billion Hong Kong dollars.”

“Swire & Co., market cap of 3.566 billion Hong Kong dollars.”

“Hongkong Electric Group, market cap of 2.254 billion Hong Kong dollars.”

“The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, market cap of 2.212 billion Hong Kong dollars.”

“Swire Properties, market cap of 2.032 billion Hong Kong dollars.”

“Hong Kong Telephone, market cap of 2.011 billion Hong Kong dollars.”

“Cross-Harbour Tunnel, market cap of 1.465 billion Hong Kong dollars.”

“Hong Kong and China Gas, market cap of 589 million Hong Kong dollars.”

…

“Hongkong Land Group’s market cap is actually higher than Jardine Matheson & Co.’s, and by so much?” Lin Haoran was a little surprised to see these figures.

Strictly speaking, Jardine Matheson was Hongkong Land’s parent company, yet the parent company’s market cap was lower than its subsidiary’s.

“Boss, that’s quite normal. Hongkong Land is the biggest landlord in Central, owning a massive amount of property in the core commercial district. Jardine, on the other hand, is less impressive in that regard. Jardine is primarily focused on international trade and finance,” Su Zhixue explained with a smile.

Chapter 166: Acquisition Target, Buying a Building

Lin Haoran continued to look at the document in his hands.

The data in the file was based on the stock market’s closing numbers from the previous day.

“In other words, with my current strength, I could even afford to buy Jardine Matheson & Co.?” Lin Haoran’s eyes lit up.

But after a moment’s thought, he shook his head.

Jardine Matheson was the lifeblood of the British-funded conglomerates in Hong Kong; it was highly unlikely he would succeed in acquiring it.

Right now, Lin Haoran was only rich; he didn’t have much influence.

The British-funded conglomerates behind Jardine Matheson were very united. Trying to acquire Jardine Matheson secretly would be extremely difficult. Money alone wasn’t enough to seize a controlling stake.

Moreover, Jardine Matheson held a rather special status among these British-funded conglomerates and was once even known as the “King of the Foreign Firms.”

Hongkong Land Group, on the other hand, was just a property company controlled by Jardine Matheson, much like Kowloon Wharf, which Pao Yue-kong had just snatched away.

If Pao Yue-kong could acquire Kowloon Wharf, then he, Lin Haoran, could naturally acquire Hongkong Land Group.

Furthermore, Jardine Matheson and its subsidiary, Jardine Securities, only held around twenty percent of Hongkong Land’s shares. Perhaps he could start with Hongkong Land Group first.

Although Hongkong Land Group’s market capitalization was high, as long as Lin Haoran controlled thirty percent of its shares, he had a very high chance of directly seizing a controlling stake.

And based on Hongkong Land Group’s current market capitalization, thirty percent would only cost a little over two billion Hong Kong dollars.

Most importantly, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, Hongkong Land Group was more valuable than Jardine Matheson. He could take or leave Jardine Matheson, but he was determined to get his hands on Hongkong Land Group.

The Landmark, Connaught Centre, Alexandra House, Prince’s Building, Gloucester Building—in all of Central, nearly every major commercial property belonged to Hongkong Land.

Beyond Central, Hongkong Land Group was also continuously developing in Hong Kong’s most prosperous commercial districts like Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui, and Wan Chai, owning numerous commercial properties, hotels, and other businesses.

Even Hong Kong’s tallest building, Connaught Centre, was under Hongkong Land Group’s ownership.

These properties were priceless. Forget a few billion Hong Kong dollars; at current market prices, they were worth twenty billion. Taking over Hongkong Land meant controlling these properties.

This was a value that Jardine Matheson could not compare with.

Jardine Matheson had been investing heavily overseas for years, and its foreign assets had long surpassed its Hong Kong assets, establishing a formidable international trade presence.

However, as for those trade channels, could he truly control them just by taking over Jardine Matheson? Definitely not.

Jardine Matheson’s overseas assets, financial businesses, and so on were all in the hands of the British. Even if he took over the company, they might find a way to leave him with nothing but an empty shell of Jardine in Hong Kong. By then, the true value of Jardine Matheson would be greatly diminished.

Hongkong Land Group, however, had most of its assets in Hong Kong. Although it had invested in hotels and commercial buildings overseas in places like Singapore, Manila, and Bangkok, these were tangible fixed assets. The property rights couldn’t just run away.

Therefore, taking over Hongkong Land was Lin Haoran’s primary goal. Whether he could take over Jardine Matheson was secondary!

If two to three billion Hong Kong dollars could really secure control of Hongkong Land Group, he could afford it.

If he could truly spend that amount to control a giant like Hongkong Land, it would be more than worth it.

But Lin Haoran also knew that the market capitalization of all these major British-funded and Chinese-funded enterprises would soon begin to rise steadily.

In another two or three years, there would be more and more publicly listed companies with market caps exceeding ten billion Hong Kong dollars, not just HSBC.

So, taking advantage of the current low stock prices presented an excellent opportunity to take over Hongkong Land Group.

Besides that, Lin Haoran knew something else. The current Taipan of Jardine Matheson, Newbiggin, was afraid that both Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land Group would be coveted by Chinese-funded conglomerates after Kowloon Wharf was forcefully acquired by Pao Yue-kong.

Therefore, facing this crisis, Newbiggin had adopted a series of measures to strengthen his control over Jardine and Hongkong Land, namely the Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land cross-shareholding strategy.

This was likely to be implemented at the end of this year. By then, Jardine Matheson would hold forty percent of Hongkong Land’s shares, while Hongkong Land would hold thirty-eight percent of Jardine Matheson’s.

Once they succeeded, if Lin Haoran hadn’t managed to control Hongkong Land by then, all his efforts could be in vain, and he would have to wait for the next opportunity.

Of course, even if he didn’t succeed this time, there would be other chances. Moreover, as long as he secretly held enough shares this time and didn’t announce it, they wouldn’t find out.

In the future, Chinese-funded conglomerates like Li Jiacheng’s would make multiple attempts to acquire Hongkong Land Group, all of which would end in failure.

In fact, Li Jiacheng had come very close to succeeding during the next major stock market crash, but he gave up, unwilling to pay the price he had previously agreed to.

After missing that chance, the Chinese-funded conglomerates never got another opportunity to acquire Hongkong Land Group, which remained under Jardine Matheson’s control thereafter.

“Perhaps I can acquire shares of both Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land Group at the same time. I can try to take control of Jardine Matheson as well. If I ultimately fail to control Jardine Matheson, I can use my stake in it to threaten their senior management into giving up their controlling stake in Hongkong Land Group!” Lin Haoran thought of a plan.

In any case, regardless of how he acquired them, holding shares in these two giants would not be a losing proposition.

Right now, one had a market cap of over four billion Hong Kong dollars, and the other over seven billion. By the end of the year, their value would surely increase by a considerable amount.

Besides his own funds, he could also use the Hongkong Electric Group to scheme for Hongkong Land Group’s shares!

At this moment, a rough plan targeting Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group was gradually forming in Lin Haoran’s mind.

“Zhixue, take this down. But no one else can know about this. The future stock accumulation must be done separately. The traders can’t know which listed companies we are specifically targeting for acquisition or how much we intend to buy. I want you to be the only one who knows. I trust you completely, so your responsibility from now on will be immense, do you understand?” Lin Haoran said to Su Zhixue with a serious expression.

Su Zhixue took out a notebook and a pen as he replied, “Rest assured, Boss. I understand the gravity of the situation and will definitely handle the confidentiality properly!”

Anyone would know what an explosive matter an investment of several billion Hong Kong dollars was. If word got out, the consequences would be dire.

“From now on, your main task for the time being will be the stock acquisition plan for four listed companies: Jardine Matheson & Co., Hongkong Land Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, and Kowloon Motor Bus.

“Except for Jardine Matheson, our goal for the other three listed companies is to acquire a stake of around thirty percent in each. You don’t need to worry about the funds.

“As for Jardine Matheson, you can acquire shares as you see fit. Buy as many as you can.

“I must emphasize that for Hongkong Land Group, I hope you can find a way to acquire over twenty percent of its shares within six months. This is crucial for my subsequent strategy.

“As for other requirements, you should already be familiar with them based on past experience. You must maintain the utmost caution and secrecy to ensure our actions are not detected by them, so as to avoid tipping them off!” Lin Haoran continued.

“Boss, you’re actually planning to acquire Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land?” Su Zhixue was utterly stunned.

Hong Kong and China Gas and Kowloon Motor Bus didn’t surprise him, but Jardine and Hongkong Land were a completely different story. These were two of Hong Kong’s top-tier enterprises, surpassing even the Hongkong Electric Group that the Boss had just acquired.

Therefore, hearing that the Boss wanted to acquire these two companies, Su Zhixue was so shocked that the exaggerated expression on his face was impossible to hide.

Who could have imagined that just over a year ago, the Boss was being so cautious about acquiring the Green Island Cement Company? In such a short time, not only had he successfully acquired Green Island Cement and Hongkong Electric Group, but now he was setting his sights directly on Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co.

This was simply unbelievable.

“Yes, that’s the plan. Whether we can succeed depends on your progress with the accumulation. So, you have a difficult task ahead of you. I hope you won’t disappoint me. For every acquisition you complete, I will give you a generous reward. Keep it up!” Lin Haoran patted Su Zhixue on the shoulder and said earnestly.

“Yes, Boss, I know what to do. Although the task is daunting, I will not let you down. I will assemble a new team as soon as possible. Based on the current tasks, this trading team will need about thirty to fifty people!” Su Zhixue replied with a serious look.

“You decide. In short, our objective must not be revealed. You handle the initial screening of the new recruits. Personal integrity is very important. After the team is formed, I will come and conduct the final review to see if anyone is unsuitable!” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

His method of review was simple; naturally, he would use loyalty to judge. He would absolutely not use anyone whose loyalty was lacking!

Once the secret of his acquisitions was leaked, the other party would become guarded, and the difficulty of the acquisition would increase significantly.

“Yes, Boss!”

“Prepare well, and let me know when the team is assembled. The current team can start secretly accumulating shares of Hongkong Land Group. For the other three companies, you can assign the tasks after the new team is formed and I have given my approval!”

After giving his instructions, Lin Haoran left the Universal Investment Company and the Wan’an Group Building.

He had already assigned tasks at both companies. They would naturally call to inform him upon completion.

After leaving the building, Lin Haoran first went to the Hong Kong branch of Citibank and transferred two hundred million Hong Kong dollars into the Wan’an Group’s corporate account.

Then, he returned once more to the Hongkong Electric Group building.

It was already past two in the afternoon.

After Lin Haoran took control of the Hongkong Electric Group, the group’s daily business operations did not change significantly.

In essence, the Hongkong Electric Group had only welcomed a new helmsman, while all its business activities continued to closely follow the existing strategic plans and development blueprints.

“Boss, I’m going to Lamma Island tomorrow to inspect the construction progress of the power plant. Would you like to come along?” Chen Shoulin asked when he saw Lin Haoran walk into the office.

Currently, Hong Kong Island was powered by the Ap Lei Chau Power Station, which was also under the Hongkong Electric Group. However, construction of this power plant had begun in 1968, and with the development of Hong Kong Island, electricity consumption had grown immensely. The Ap Lei Chau Power Station was clearly no longer sufficient.

Therefore, two years ago, the Hongkong Electric Group began planning to build a new, larger power plant at Po Lo Tsui on Lamma Island. The plant was currently under intensive construction and was expected to be operational by 1982.

The Po Lo Tsui Power Station on Lamma Island?

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran asked, “What time are we going tomorrow?”

As far as he knew, after this power station was completed, Hong Kong Island would rely on it for electricity for the next several decades, so its importance was immense.

“Let’s say ten in the morning. We’ll leave after I’ve arranged things at the group,” Chen Shoulin replied directly. It was clear the itinerary had already been planned.

“Alright, I’ll be here tomorrow morning. We’ll go together then,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

Since it was one of the Hongkong Electric Group’s most important future assets, he certainly had to go and inspect it himself.

“By the way, Director Chen, I’m thinking of buying a commercial building near Central. Have you heard of any buildings that are up for sale?” Lin Haoran suddenly asked.

He already had plans for the future development of the Universal Investment Company. The plan was to expand its scale and use it as an investment company to hold controlling stakes in several listed enterprises.

So, for Universal Investment Company to still be crammed into a small office within the Wan’an Group Building was clearly inappropriate.

And it was now only January 1980, far from the peak of this property boom. Even when the next property crisis hit and prices bottomed out, they wouldn’t fall to their current levels.

Therefore, buying a commercial building now was a very good deal.

He had wanted to buy a commercial building in Central for a long time, but he hadn’t had enough funds before.

Now that he had sufficient capital, it was time to act.

If he bought now, the price would at least double in a year. By any calculation, it wouldn’t be a loss.

Chapter 167: One Billion for Two Buildings, an Offer for Lane Crawford

“A commercial building in Central? Actually, yes, there is one,” Chen Shoulin said after some thought.

“Who’s the seller? Which building? And what’s the asking price?” Lin Haoran pressed.

“The seller is Wheelock and Company. They’re planning to sell two properties held by their subsidiary, Federal Realty: Federation Building and International Building. After its completion, Federation Building was the tallest commercial building in Hong Kong from 1964 to 1966, only surpassed by Kiu Kwan Mansion in North Point in July 1966. According to the rumors, Wheelock and Company hopes to sell them for 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars. However, that price is a bit high for the current market, so despite the news being out, there have been no interested buyers so far,” Chen Shoulin replied.

“Federation Building and International Building, huh.” Lin Haoran nodded. He knew the location of those two buildings.

Central wasn’t actually that large, and Federation Building was less than one hundred meters from the Hang Fung Building where he used to stay.

Lin Haoran had heard a little about these two buildings in his previous life.

That was because these two buildings were also connected to Li Jiacheng.

If nothing changed, by the end of the year, property prices in Hong Kong would have nearly doubled compared to now. Even then, it wouldn’t be easy to sell the buildings at a high price; after all, over two billion was no small sum.

So, Wheelock and Company devised a plan to sell these two buildings. They would have their subsidiary, Federal Realty Company, form a joint venture with Li Jiacheng’s Cheung Kong Holdings Group. Then, Federal Realty would sell the buildings to this newly formed joint venture for one billion Hong Kong dollars, meaning Cheung Kong Holdings and Federal Realty would each invest 500 million.

Of course, since the two buildings belonged to Federal Realty, they didn’t actually put up any capital. Instead, they immediately received the 500 million Hong Kong dollars invested by Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

Leveraging the reputation and strength of Cheung Kong Holdings Group, the two buildings were quickly sold for 2.235 billion Hong Kong dollars.

In the end, Federal Realty received another 1.1 billion-plus Hong Kong dollars in cash, bringing their total earnings from the two buildings to over 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars.

As for Cheung Kong Holdings Group, after deducting their initial 500 million Hong Kong dollar investment, they made a clear profit of over 600 million Hong Kong dollars. It could be called a win-win.

And now, it was only the beginning of 1980, and unexpectedly, they were already planning to sell.

However, 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars was indeed too high for the current market. No wonder they ultimately failed to sell.

This Wheelock Group was really going all out to develop its shipping company!

In order to grow their shipping business, they implemented a so-called “strategic transfer” of group assets, which meant converting fixed assets on land (properties) into mobile assets floating on the sea (ships). They sold off Wheelock’s various properties on a massive scale to continuously expand the strength of Wheelock’s shipping company.

In the short term, it didn’t seem like a bad idea. Many British-funded conglomerates lacked confidence in Hong Kong’s future and were trying to withdraw their assets.

But who could have predicted that the shipping industry was about to face a major depression? Wheelock and Company’s idea was undoubtedly digging its own grave.

Look at Pao Yue-kong now—how clever. Knowing the shipping industry was about to enter a downturn, he quickly pulled World-Wide Shipping Group out, continuously selling off ships and even giving up his title as the “Number One Ship King.”

“1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars.” Lin Haoran frowned. That price was indeed on the high side.

In another two or three months, 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars would be a fair price, but it wasn’t even February yet. Clearly, a price around one billion Hong Kong dollars was more appropriate.

Even when Wheelock finally managed to sell at the end of the year, they only made 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars.

And the property prices at that time were nearly double what they were now.

“Director Chen, what’s the market valuation for these two buildings right now?” Lin Haoran asked.

“About one billion Hong Kong dollars. It’s around that price, not much higher or lower. Someone has already estimated it,” Chen Shoulin replied.

Lin Haoran nodded and said to him, “Director Chen, help me contact John Marden. I’ll offer one billion Hong Kong dollars for his two buildings!”

John Marden was the current Chairman of the Board of Wheelock Group.

It was precisely because John Marden lacked confidence in Hong Kong’s prospects and was wary of investing in the city that he was constantly selling off Hong Kong assets to invest in the shipping industry.

Lin Haoran had no intention of buying for less than the market price. The Hong Kong property market was booming, and properties were only being quoted at higher prices. It was impossible to buy below market value.

If he could get them for one billion Hong Kong dollars, it would be an absolute bargain.

Spend one billion Hong Kong dollars now, and if he wanted to sell at the end of the year, he could get over two billion Hong Kong dollars, more than doubling his money.

“Alright, Boss, I’ll contact him right now!” Chen Shoulin was decisive and quick.

Two minutes later, Chen Shoulin, still holding the phone, didn’t hang up right away. Instead, he said to Lin Haoran, “Boss, Mr. John Marden, the Chairman of Wheelock and Company, wants to speak with you personally. He’s preparing to come over here.”

“Good. Tell him I’ll wait for him here,” Lin Haoran nodded in agreement.

Chen Shoulin relayed his boss’s words to the other party.

“Boss, he said he’ll be here in about half an hour,” Chen Shoulin said after hanging up the phone.

Lin Haoran nodded and asked, “Director Chen, do you think he’ll sell for one billion Hong Kong dollars?”

“Boss, since he’s coming over to negotiate in person, it means they’re very eager to sell. The chances of a deal are very high. When I told him your price, he didn’t hesitate at all before saying he wanted to come and discuss it with you. So, I believe a deal can be reached,” Chen Shoulin replied after thinking for a moment.

“I hope so. I’m quite willing to buy these two properties,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

On the stock market side of things, it would be impossible to spend all several billion Hong Kong dollars in a short time.

Money like this was better invested than left in a bank.

Just like current property prices, which were constantly rising. The increase in half a month was enough to match a year’s worth of interest in the bank.

At this moment, Chen Shoulin was becoming more and more astounded by Lin Haoran. After spending so much to acquire Hongkong Electric Group, he could still easily pull out one billion Hong Kong dollars. Moreover, he planned to buy it in his personal capacity, not under Hongkong Electric Group, which meant the money was all his own.

Such financial strength was simply terrifying.

In less than half an hour, John Marden had arrived at Chen Shoulin’s office.

John Marden was a short, elderly man in his sixties. Upon seeing Lin Haoran, he proactively smiled and shook his hand, saying, “Mr. Lin, you are truly young and promising.”

“Hello, Mr. Marden. Please, have a seat!” Lin Haoran simply smiled at John Marden’s compliment.

Speaking of which, although Wheelock and Company was once one of the Four Big Hongs in Hong Kong, its current market capitalization on the Hong Kong stock market was less than that of the Hongkong Electric Group.

In fact, Wheelock and Company’s market cap was now only half of Hongkong Electric Group’s!

The reason Lin Haoran wasn’t targeting Wheelock and Company was that he knew its controlling stake was held solely by John Marden, and the other major shareholder, the Zhang family, let John Marden manage Wheelock as he saw fit.

Therefore, even if he secretly accumulated Wheelock and Company’s shares on the stock market, he wouldn’t be able to seize the controlling stake unless he could acquire the shares from either John Marden or the Zhang family. Only then would he have a chance to take over Wheelock and Company.

Moreover, Wheelock Group was pouring all its capital into the shipping industry. Taking over Wheelock Group would be like picking up a hot potato.

In another world, Pao Yue-kong dared to acquire Wheelock Group in 1985 because he himself was a shipping industry magnate. To avoid being affected by the shipping recession, he had to adopt the strategy of “abandoning the ships to come ashore.”

Although he suffered heavy losses in the takeover battle for Kowloon Wharf, he ultimately succeeded in coming ashore. By 1985, he had long recovered his strength and had once again become much more powerful.

As shipping was the industry where he had started, with his enhanced financial strength, he had no worries about taking over Wheelock.

But Lin Haoran was different. He knew nothing about the shipping industry and had no connections in that field. If he took over the already heavily loss-making Wheelock, he would only drag it deeper into the mud.

Throughout the 1980s, the global shipping industry entered an extremely difficult recession, fundamentally caused by a decrease in seaborne trade demand and an increase in shipping capacity supply.

In the early 1980s, the shipping industry was in extreme difficulty. Even from 1986 to 1997, the international shipping market was essentially in a period of volatile consolidation, with no clear cyclical upward or downward trend in freight rates.

And Wheelock and Company, which originally controlled a large number of properties in Hong Kong, kept selling them off to develop its shipping business, leading to most of Wheelock and Company’s assets being invested in the shipping industry.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had no intention of touching the shipping industry for the time being, unless he had a substantial need for it.

For this reason, Lin Haoran had no interest in Wheelock Group for now.

At the very least, focusing his targets on assets he deemed worth acquiring was enough.

After Lin Haoran, John Marden, and Chen Shoulin sat down, they began to chat.

Although this matter had nothing to do with Chen Shoulin, Lin Haoran was now his boss, so if he could help, he naturally would do his best.

“Mr. Marden, I became interested in buying Federation Building and International Building as soon as I heard Federal Realty wanted to sell. However, your asking price of 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars is clearly much higher than the market price. From what I understand, the market value is around one billion Hong Kong dollars.

I’m a straightforward person, and I won’t try to negotiate a price lower than the market value. Buying it at market price is fair and reasonable. For a price of 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, I believe you won’t find any other buyer in Hong Kong, Mr. Marden,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, I came here specifically for this matter. Selling them to you for one billion Hong Kong dollars is not out of the question, but I have one condition: I need to be paid in cash, not with other forms of collateral. Wheelock is in urgent need of capital for development!” John Marden stated the purpose of his visit.

In commercial transactions involving huge sums of money, demanding a one-time full payment from the buyer is indeed quite a challenge.

Therefore, the common practice is for the buyer to propose using some assets or shares as collateral to ease financial pressure and facilitate the deal.

Mr. Marden had clearly considered this. He probably thought it would be difficult for Lin Haoran to raise such a large amount of capital in a short time, so he insisted on cash payment, which was crucial for Wheelock’s urgent need for cash flow.

However, Wheelock’s current strategy was to actively liquidate its Hong Kong assets. Their goal was to obtain direct capital, not to acquire more fixed assets or company shares.

This strategy also reflected their high demand for liquidity.

“Mr. Marden, I can agree to your condition. I have sufficient funds on hand. As soon as we sign the deal, my one billion Hong Kong dollars can be transferred to you at any time. Also, I’d like to ask if you have any intention of selling Lane Crawford. I am very interested in your group’s Lane Crawford Group.”

Lane Crawford Group is a luxury retail company with a long history in Hong Kong, founded in 1850 and with a history of over a hundred years.

What Lin Haoran valued was not its achievements in the luxury goods sector, but its retail and department store business.

Lane Crawford owned two of Hong Kong’s four major department stores, Daxin Department Store and China Department Store. Besides dealing in high-end consumer goods, it also expanded into interior design, selling antiques, jewelry, and cosmetics. Its chain stores were spread across the prosperous downtown areas of Hong Kong, making it one of the largest retail and department store groups in the city.

The future prospects for Hong Kong’s retail industry were excellent. Acquiring this major retail group would definitely be of great help to his future ventures.

Most importantly, Lane Crawford Group’s market capitalization wasn’t high, only 390 million Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Haoran had also considered acquiring it secretly through the stock market, but he gave up after looking at its shareholding structure.

This was because 56.5% of Lane Crawford Group’s shares were controlled by Realty Trust, a company under Wheelock and Company. Even if he bought up all the shares held by the public, he wouldn’t be able to seize control.

“Mr. Lin is actually interested in Lane Crawford Group?” John Marden was somewhat surprised.

“Yes, Mr. Marden. I’m very interested in the retail industry,” Lin Haoran nodded with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, this is a rather significant matter. I need to convene a Board of Directors meeting to discuss it. This isn’t something I can decide on my own,” John Marden did not agree immediately.

In reality, he had the final say in almost everything at Wheelock Group. It was just that Lin Haoran’s proposal was too sudden, and he hadn’t had time to think it over carefully.

“Alright, Mr. Marden, I’ll await your reply,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Acquiring the 56.5% stake controlled by Realty Trust at the normal stock price would only cost a little over two hundred million Hong Kong dollars. Even if they demanded a premium, it couldn’t be that high. Lin Haoran could accept a price 10% or 20% higher.

Now, it all depended on whether they were willing to sell this high-quality business.

“Okay, then let’s finalize the deal for the two properties, Federation Building and International Building, first!” John Marden shifted the topic back.

Chapter 168: Inspecting Lamma Island, a Young Girl Asks for a Ride

After concluding his talks with John Marden, Lin Haoran’s acquisition of the Federation Building and the International Building proceeded very smoothly.

The deal between the two parties was finalized that very day.

Upon payment of one billion Hong Kong dollars, the property rights for the two towers were transferred to the Universal Investment Company.

However, to bolster the strength of the Wan’an Group, Lin Haoran immediately gave the group full authority to take over and manage the two newly acquired buildings.

From then on, the Wan’an Group could use these two buildings to collect rent, house offices, and more.

The headquarters of the Universal Investment Company could also be moved from its current location in the Wan’an Group Building to the renowned Federation Building.

Although this thirty-one-story skyscraper had long since lost its title as Hong Kong’s tallest building, it remained an important part of Central’s skyline.

The next morning, at a little past nine, Lin Haoran arrived early at the Hongkong Electric Group.

After Chen Shoulin finished his meeting, they departed from the Hongkong Electric Group and headed for the Central Ferry Piers.

Besides Lin Haoran, Chen Shoulin, and the two bodyguards, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, several senior executives from the Hongkong Electric Group also accompanied them.

Lin Haoran had initially thought they would be taking a passenger ferry to Lamma Island, but to his surprise, they were boarding a small company boat belonging to the Hongkong Electric Group.

Noticing his boss’s surprise, Chen Shoulin explained with a smile, “We don’t just supply electricity to Hong Kong Island; we also supply power to Lamma Island, Ap Lei Chau, and other surrounding islands. Our staff often need to visit these islands to repair and maintain power supply equipment, so our group has a few company boats and workboats.”

Lin Haoran understood immediately upon hearing Chen Shoulin’s explanation.

The company boat was fast. It left the Central Ferry Piers and reached its destination, the Yung Shue Wan Ferry Pier on Lamma Island, in just over half an hour.

After disembarking, they found themselves in a fishing village of a considerable size. There was even a village sign at the pier that read “Yung Shue Wan Village.”

“The power plant we’re building is at Po Lo Tsui, just a few hundred meters south of this small fishing village. Since the pier over there is still under construction, we’re disembarking at the Yung Shue Wan pier for now. Once the Lamma Island West Pier at the power plant is completed, we’ll be able to land directly at the plant’s pier next time,” Chen Shoulin explained as he walked side-by-side with Lin Haoran after they landed.

Lin Haoran nodded, carefully observing the fishing village before him.

He didn’t have much of an impression of Lamma Island, only knowing that it was one of Hong Kong’s larger islands, the site of the power plant serving Hong Kong Island, and also, he recalled, the birthplace of the famous future movie star, Chow Yun-fat.

Lamma Island only had a few villages, and this Yung Shue Wan Village was likely the largest one.

Lin Haoran wasn’t particularly concerned about whether Chow Yun-fat was from this village or not.

After all, he had little interest in the film industry; the returns were too slow.

Although he had numerous movie plots in his head, which, if he had a professional screenwriter write them out and then filmed them, could certainly make him a big name in the Hong Kong film industry.

But Lin Haoran had no interest whatsoever.

Hong Kong’s two biggest film companies at the time, Shaw Brothers Studio and Golden Harvest, were already doing very well if they could make a profit of a few tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars a year.

Why would Lin Haoran bother with something that required so much time and effort for such a meager return?

He could earn much more than that by casually investing in a few projects.

Of course, while he wasn’t interested in the film industry, he might be interested in acquiring a stake in the television industry, provided he didn’t have to manage it.

For instance, TVB or ATV. These two television companies were full of dazzling stars and were also among the biggest advertisers in Hong Kong. If he could acquire a partial stake in one of them, Lin Haoran wouldn’t mind. It wouldn’t cost much anyway, and he could treat it as a passion project.

Moreover, becoming a TV station owner would increase his influence.

Now, holding several billion Hong Kong dollars, a sum of one or two hundred million was no longer a significant amount in Lin Haoran’s eyes.

As he recalled, TVB’s current owner, Mr. Lee, was due to pass away from a sudden heart attack in a few months. He wondered if he might be able to buy the Lee family’s shares in TVB then.

If he could, Lin Haoran would be very interested.

However, even if he managed to buy the Lee family’s shares, he wouldn’t take control of TVB. He didn’t have the energy to manage a television station.

It was better for TVB to remain under the management of Shao Yifu, as his previous life had already proven that he could manage TVB exceptionally well.

Walking south from Yung Shue Wan Village for a few dozen meters, they reached a small hill.

The hill was not high, perhaps better described as a knoll, and it dipped low in the middle.

A small gravel path led south from Yung Shue Wan village. It was narrow, and from the look of it, it had been recently laid.

“Our construction team built this road to provide convenient access from the Yung Shue Wan pier to our power plant construction site. But after next month, the plant’s pier will be completed, and we’ll close this road to prevent people from wandering over there,” Chen Shoulin explained as they walked.

The few-hundred-meter walk didn’t take long, and the path up the small hill wasn’t steep. In about ten minutes, they arrived at the power plant’s construction site.

Standing on the high slope, they looked down over the entire site. The place was a hive of activity, with over a hundred construction workers working in an orderly fashion.

The current construction was phase one of the power plant, which mainly involved erecting some buildings. There was no sign of any power generation equipment yet.

“Why are there so few people working?” Lin Haoran asked, somewhat curious.

Although the workers below were busy, he had expected a construction site of this scale to have at least several hundred people.

“Boss, our most important task right now is laying the submarine cable. Once that’s done, we can move all the power generation equipment from Ap Lei Chau to Lamma Island. What we’re doing here now is just preliminary work, like building offices, chimneys, and so on. That’s why we don’t need many people. When the equipment is transferred here for installation in the future, we’ll need a lot of manpower,” Chen Shoulin replied with a smile.

The group inspected the construction site for over an hour, during which Chen Shoulin gave some operational guidance to the site manager.

Afterward, they went to inspect the pier that was under construction.

Lin Haoran just watched quietly. He was completely ignorant about these matters and certainly wouldn’t give any uninformed commands.

The scenery on Lamma Island was indeed beautiful. Since the power plant had not yet begun operations, the island was completely free of any pollution.

After inspecting the power plant, Lin Haoran and the others started walking back.

By this time, it was already twelve o’clock noon.

“There’s a restaurant in Yung Shue Wan Village with excellent food. I had lunch there the last time I came. Boss, let’s have lunch before we head back,” Chen Shoulin said as they walked.

“Alright, Director Chen. I’m not familiar with this area, so I’ll leave it all to you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The weather today wasn’t sunny; on the contrary, it was overcast all day.

After returning to Yung Shue Wan Village, Chen Shoulin led Lin Haoran and the others to a rustic seafood restaurant near the pier.

Lamma Island’s livelihood was based on fishing, and a thick smell of seafood hung in the air near the pier.

Lin Haoran found the smell a little unpleasant and couldn’t help but frown.

The smell was not as strong once they stepped inside the restaurant.

Chen Shoulin ordered all of the restaurant’s signature dishes: Lobster with House Special Sauce, Typhoon Shelter Crab, Clay Pot Braised Abalone with Molten Center, Shark Fin Casserole, Steamed Leopard Coral Grouper, Curry Fish Balls, and more, all seafood-related.

There were eight people in their party, and ordering ten dishes wasn’t exactly extravagant.

Most importantly, the restaurant wasn’t expensive. Despite ordering so many dishes, a majority of which were seafood, the bill was only a few hundred Hong Kong dollars—an excellent value.

As the saying goes, “live off the mountain if you’re near a mountain, live off the sea if you’re near the sea,” and Lamma Island was no exception.

“This is delicious!” Lin Haoran said after trying some of the Leopard Coral Grouper. The fish was tender and fresh.

“Of course. I wouldn’t have recommended it to you otherwise, Boss,” Chen Shoulin said with a smile.

Lunch took nearly an hour.

It was already a little past one in the afternoon.

“Let’s go, time to head back.” Stepping out of the restaurant, Lin Haoran looked around. The environment here was quite nice, though not much different from Deep Water Bay.

Due to the overcast sky, the sea didn’t look particularly beautiful. To see that azure blue, one would have to wait for a clear, sunny day.

The group returned to the Yung Shue Wan pier, only to see a passenger ferry that had just departed a short while ago.

Just as Lin Haoran and his group were about to board their boat, several girls on the pier started crying out in dismay.

“Just one more minute and we would have caught the ferry.”

“What do we do? The next ferry isn’t until after five in the afternoon. We’ll get back around six. My mother will kill me for being out so late.”

“Lizhen, it’s all your fault for walking so slow.”

“I didn’t mean to! How was I supposed to know I’d sprain my ankle? It still hurts!”

“Oh, Xiaofeng, don’t blame Lizhen. Let’s just figure out what to do now.”

“What else can we do? We have to wait for the next ferry. Sigh, I was planning on going shopping in Causeway Bay this afternoon. I guess that’s not happening now.”

“Hey, isn’t that boat from the Hongkong Electric Group? Do you think we could hitch a ride with them? It looks like they’re preparing to go back to Hong Kong Island.”

“You’re right! Lizhen, we missed the boat because of you. Why don’t you go ask them for us? Maybe they’ll let us hitch a ride back!”

“Alright, I’ll try.”

…

Just as the men boarded their boat, a girl’s voice called out from behind: “Wait, sir, please wait.”

Lin Haoran turned around to see a beautiful young girl who looked about fifteen or sixteen.

A gentle breeze brushed through her soft hair. With a hint of almost imperceptible shyness, the girl seemed to want to step forward, but her inner hesitation made her appear uncertain, stirring a feeling of protectiveness in those who saw her.

“Is there something you need?” Chen Shoulin asked.

“Uncle, we missed the last ferry and can’t get back to Hong Kong Island. Could we please catch a ride on your boat?” the girl said, mustering her courage.

Lin Haoran looked at the young girl before him. The more he looked at her, the more she reminded him of an actress.

Who was it?

It suddenly came to him. This girl looked like the lead high school student, Lin Xiaohua, from the movie Happy Ghost.

She just looked a little younger, though not by much.

“I’m sorry, this is a company boat…” Chen Shoulin began to refuse, but Lin Haoran cut him off.

“Come on up. We’re heading back to the Central Ferry Piers now,” Lin Haoran said to the girl with a gentle smile.

Chapter 169: This Deal Was So Worth It!

The three young women boarded the boat, and it began its return journey.

If it had been an unfamiliar vessel, the three would certainly not have dared to board. But this was a Hongkong Electric Group boat, complete with its logo, and some of the people on board were dressed like senior executives. That was why they felt safe enough to get on.

The influence of the Hongkong Electric Group in Hong Kong, especially on Hong Kong Island, was already deeply ingrained in the public consciousness.

“Handsome, thank you so much. You’re a really good person.”

“Yeah, how about we treat you to a meal when we get back to Hong Kong?”

“Handsome, do you work for the Hongkong Electric Group? That’s such a huge company, I’m so envious. It would be amazing if I could work there after I graduate. I heard the pay and benefits are great.”

“Isn’t that the truth? A cousin of mine works for one of Hongkong Electric Group’s subsidiaries, and he’s doing so well. The matchmakers have practically worn out his family’s doorstep.”

…

As soon as they were on board, the three young women surrounded Lin Haoran, chattering away. They all seemed to be social butterflies.

They knew that if Lin Haoran hadn’t agreed, they likely wouldn’t have been allowed on board. The elderly gentleman in the suit and tie had clearly been about to refuse them.

Lin Haoran had been all over the news in the past few days, and his photo had been in the papers. Even today, many newspapers were still running stories about him.

After all, the Hongkong Electric Group was a company whose market capitalization ranked among the top ten British-funded, publicly listed companies in Hong Kong. The fact that it had been acquired by a young Chinese entrepreneur like Lin Haoran was such sensational news that the buzz wouldn’t die down for at least another week or two.

But at their age, these young women clearly weren’t interested in the news. Even if they had glanced at Lin Haoran’s picture, they wouldn’t have remembered his face. They were far more concerned with movie stars, so they didn’t recognize him at all.

The more Lin Haoran looked at the girl who had spoken first, the more she resembled the actress he knew from his past life.

So, he smiled and asked, “What are your names? What brought you to Lamma Island?”

“My name is Yang Xiaofeng, this is my classmate Hou Lingxia, and this is Li Lizhen. We’re all students at North Point Concordia Middle School and best friends. We planned to spend half a day at Yung Shue Wan on Lamma Island. We were supposed to take the ferry that just left, but we missed it,” a tall girl with a few freckles on her face replied quickly and clearly.

Lin Haoran nodded, finally confirming that the girl before him, with a hint of baby fat on her cheeks, was the Li Lizhen he knew.

Li Lizhen. She was an actress who had left a deep impression on his memories from his past life. Her lively and adorable role in Happy Ghost, her feisty and bold character in Devoted to You, her unyielding spirit in Final Victory, her innocent charm in Crazy Love…

Children born in the eighties and nineties had basically grown up watching Hong Kong movies and held a certain inexplicable affection for the big stars in them.

He never expected to run into a famous celebrity from his past life just by visiting Lamma Island.

As a teenager, Li Lizhen was truly beautiful. With her slight baby fat, she exuded a vibrant, youthful aura, almost a perfect match for the character of Lin Xiaohua in Happy Ghost.

“Your name is Li Lizhen, right?” Lin Haoran said to her.

Li Lizhen nodded emphatically in response.

“Are you interested in shooting a commercial? I think your look would be very suitable for advertisements. Our company is planning to shoot a series of public service announcements to be displayed all over Hong Kong Island,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Although Li Lizhen was only fifteen now, she was already a young beauty. In two or three more years, she would undoubtedly be a stunningly beautiful woman.

It’s only natural to appreciate beauty, after all.

Of course, Li Lizhen was still young, and Lin Haoran certainly had no such intentions. But in a few more years, things would be different.

“Wow, shooting a commercial! Lizhen, I’m so jealous of you! If only I had a chance like this.”

“Yeah, Lizhen, if you don’t say yes, I’ll be anxious for you.”

Li Lizhen’s two classmates looked at her with envy.

From the way Lin Haoran had been able to let them on the boat, even when the man who looked like a leader was about to refuse, they could tell he was no ordinary person. He was probably some sort of executive at Hongkong Electric Group.

At that moment, the thought of her own picture being displayed on streets and alleys all across Hong Kong made Li Lizhen incredibly excited.

However, she didn’t agree immediately. Instead, she said cautiously, “I need to go home and discuss it with my dad and mom.”

“Alright. If you decide you’re interested, you can come to the Hongkong Electric Group anytime. Someone will be there to receive you,” Lin Haoran said with a chuckle.

Throughout the journey, the girls chattered nonstop.

A little over half an hour later, the Hongkong Electric Group’s official boat arrived smoothly at the Central Ferry Piers.

“Handsome, are you sure you don’t want us to treat you to dinner?” asked the tall girl.

“No, thank you. I still have work to do,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile, declining the offer.

“Well then, handsome, thanks for the ride! Goodbye!” The outgoing girls took the initiative to bid Lin Haoran farewell.

“Goodbye,” Lin Haoran responded with a smile.

“Boss, you know, you’re right. That girl you mentioned really is well-suited for commercials. Her face is beautiful, and her figure is excellent,” Chen Shoulin remarked, now that they were alone.

He wasn’t sure why Lin Haoran had suddenly brought up shooting a commercial with the girl, but he didn’t dwell on it. Instead, he found himself completely agreeing with his boss’s assessment.

“If she does come looking for me, please make arrangements. Our Hongkong Electric Group often needs to film public service announcements, don’t we? Find a spot for her in one of them,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, offering no further explanation.

A public utility company like the Hongkong Electric Group had a significant need for public service announcements—for example, slogans calling on people to save electricity or reminding everyone of their responsibility to protect power facilities. Many of these required actors.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s suggestion was entirely reasonable.

“Understood. I’ll arrange it,” Chen Shoulin naturally had no objection to such a small matter.

Back at the Hongkong Electric Group, Lin Haoran didn’t stay long before leaving.

He was heading to the Federation Building, the commercial tower in Central that he had just purchased the day before.

The Federation Building was in an excellent location, not far from the Central Ferry Piers and only about three hundred meters from Hongkong Land Group’s Alexandra House.

This area could be considered the most prosperous core of Central.

Since the deal had only been finalized yesterday, the handover of the Federation Building from the Wan’an Group was still in progress.

When Lin Haoran arrived at the Federation Building, Yang Mingyi, the general manager of Wan’an Group, was also there, overseeing the handover with the general manager of Federal Realty.

Standing on the rooftop, thirty-one stories high, and looking down at the entire city center of Hong Kong, Lin Haoran was filled with emotion.

From this day forward, this renowned Hong Kong skyscraper belonged entirely to him.

Although the Federation Building was no longer the tallest in Hong Kong and would soon not even be in the top ten, its location alone was a testament to its value.

In twenty or thirty years, the value of this place would increase by at least several dozen times.

When he first set foot in Central after traveling through time, he had sworn to himself that he would own a building of his very own in its most bustling area. Now, that wish had come true.

And not just one building, but two.

Although the International Building wasn’t as tall as the Federation Building, it was still over twenty stories high and considered a significant part of Central.

The Central of today was not the Central of twenty or thirty years later, which would be filled with skyscrapers two to three hundred meters tall. At present, the tallest completed building in Hong Kong was the Connaught Centre, at just 178.5 meters.

However, another building was set to be completed within the year that would surpass the Connaught Centre: the Hopewell Centre in Wan Chai, which would stand at 216 meters.

Therefore, at nearly one hundred meters tall, the Federation Building was definitely considered a skyscraper in the Hong Kong of today.

As for the International Building, Lin Haoran didn’t place as much importance on it. He planned to sell it in early 1981 when property prices peaked.

When the real estate crisis hit, he could take his pick of any building he wanted, and at a price nearly half of what it would have been in early 1981.

He was clearly not satisfied with just acquiring the Federation Building.

For instance, with his current secret maneuvers against the Hongkong Land Group, if he succeeded in taking it over, he would have many more buildings at his disposal.

The Connaught Centre, Alexandra House, Prince’s Building, Gloucester Building, Duke’s Building, and more—all these vital components of Central belonged to the Hongkong Land Group.

Becoming the biggest landlord in Hong Kong, or even the world, seemed like a pretty good idea.

Of course, this would require enormous capital to support it.

Acquiring British behemoths like Hongkong Land Group would significantly shorten the time needed to achieve that goal.

After spending about ten minutes on the roof, Lin Haoran went downstairs to the 31st floor.

The 31st floor was bustling with activity, with movers constantly carrying things in and out.

This had been the headquarters of Federal Realty. After the transaction, their headquarters naturally had to be relocated.

He walked into an office that was over two hundred square meters. Inside, Yang Mingyi was still in discussion with a Westerner.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, both Yang Mingyi and the Westerner greeted him.

Lin Haoran nodded with a smile and asked, “Is the handover not finished yet?”

“Boss, most of the handover work has been successfully settled. We are now discussing some potential cooperation opportunities, hoping to collaborate with Federal Realty in more business areas in the future,” Yang Mingyi replied.

Lin Haoran nodded and looked around the office.

The office was mostly empty, with only a desk and a few chairs left.

Lin Haoran pulled out a chair and sat down.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Yang, since the handover matters are settled, I’ll go back and report to Mr. John Marden. I won’t disturb you any further,” the Westerner said. Seeing that Lin Haoran had arrived, he had no intention of continuing the discussion and politely bid them farewell.

“Alright, take care,” Lin Haoran said with a polite smile.

After the Westerner left, Yang Mingyi began his report: “Boss, through the handover process, I’ve gathered the information on the Federation Building and the International Building. Currently, the occupancy rate for these two buildings is 76%. Apart from a small portion that was already vacant, the rest was used by Federal Realty and some companies under the Wheelock Group.

“Now that they’ve been sold to us, the self-use offices of these Federal Realty companies will be moved out one by one. I’ve negotiated with them and given them one week to relocate. As for the tenants, no separate arrangements are needed. The rent from February onwards will be collected by us, and the tenants’ security deposits will be transferred to Wan’an Property Management Company. Based on past records, these two buildings can generate about six million Hong Kong dollars in rent per month. That’s over seventy million Hong Kong dollars in rent per year.”

It was the end of January, so the transition of rent collection would be seamless.

“Over seventy million Hong Kong dollars a year?” This was somewhat beyond Lin Haoran’s expectations.

He had originally thought that a monthly income of three to four million Hong Kong dollars would be good. He hadn’t expected it to exceed his imagination.

Spending one billion Hong Kong dollars to buy these two buildings was so worth it.

Based on this rental income alone, even if the rent never increased, he could recoup his investment in just over a decade, though that didn’t account for the effects of inflation. If inflation were considered, it was a different story.

Moreover, in ten months, if he wanted to sell these two buildings, he could get at least two billion Hong Kong dollars or more for them.

After all, if he hadn’t bought these two buildings this time, by the end of the year, the Wheelock Group would have partnered with the Cheung Kong Holdings Group to sell them, ultimately fetching over 2.2 billion Hong Kong dollars.

It was indeed very worth it. This deal was so worth it!

“In recent years, as property prices have risen, rents have also been increasing almost every year. Plus, this area is in the core of Central, the most developed region for finance and commerce. So, the occupancy rate of our two buildings is very high. You could say we never have to worry about finding tenants.

“If Federal Realty hadn’t reserved a portion for their own use, the occupancy rate from rentals alone would be at least 95%. In this Federation Building alone, there are over thirty financial companies with their offices here,” Yang Mingyi explained.

“For Wheelock Group to be willing to let go of such a golden goose that lays golden eggs, they really are generous,” Lin Haoran remarked with a sigh.

“Tell me about it. I was also very surprised when I learned about the rental income of these two buildings. I can’t believe Wheelock was willing to put them up for sale!” Yang Mingyi strongly agreed with his boss.

“Let’s reserve the 28th, 29th, 30th, and 31st floors of the Federation Building for our own use. The Wan’an Group headquarters can move here, occupying the 28th, 29th, and 30th floors. The 31st floor will be for Universal Investment Company. Also, this office on the 31st floor will be reserved for me as a reception room. The rest can all be rented out,” Lin Haoran said after some thought.

He knew that Pao Yue-kong had a reception room in the Prince’s Building that was entirely his own. That room was incredibly imposing, like a reception hall in the Great Hall of the People, a symbol of status.

Although Lin Haoran’s current status was far from matching Pao Yue-kong’s—Pao was not only a titan of Hong Kong’s Chinese business community but also the famous World Shipping Magnate, treated with courtesy by the leaders of every country he visited.

Clearly, in terms of influence and status, Lin Haoran was still a long way from Pao Yue-kong. But Lin Haoran believed that one day he would be able to stand shoulder to shoulder with Pao Yue-kong, and even surpass him.

The footprint of the Federation Building was two to three times larger than that of the Wan’an Group Building, so each floor was much more spacious.

Three floors would be more than enough for the Wan’an Group headquarters to move in. If they needed more space in the future, they could simply expand.

“Alright, Boss. By the way, I’d like to change the name of this Federation Building to the new Wan’an Group Building. What do you think, Boss?” Yang Mingyi brought up the idea of renaming the building.

Changing the name from Federation Building to Wan’an Group Building would undoubtedly help to gradually increase the influence of the Wan’an Group.

“Fine, I agree. You can handle this matter,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

Now that he had bought the building, he couldn’t just keep the “Federation Building” sign up. That would be like continuing to give free advertising to Federal Realty!

With two properties in Central collecting rent, the market capitalization and strength of the Wan’an Group had clearly soared.

Coupled with Lin Haoran’s injection of two hundred million in capital, the Wan’an Group was now overflowing with confidence.

Chapter 170: Hongkong Land’s General Manager Comes Calling

Time flew by, and soon it was February.

Compared to January, the temperature in Hong Kong had gradually warmed up in February. However, this year, February was marked by continuous spring rain, which made for rather unpleasant weather.

After the Federal Company vacated all the necessary offices, the International Building and the Federation Building were successively brought under the complete control of the Wan’an Group’s subsidiary, Wan’an Investment Company.

Despite this, Wan’an Group and Universal Investment Company could not yet move into the new Wan’an Group Building—the former Federation Building.

This was because the floors from the twenty-eighth floor up required renovation.

Although it was only a simple renovation, it would still take about a month.

Lin Haoran had already communicated his personal requirements for his private meeting room to the Wan’an Group.

Based on the boss’s needs, they had produced design blueprints. He was very satisfied with the design style, and now all that remained was to wait for the renovations to be completed before he could use it.

Until the renovations were finished, both Wan’an Group and Universal Investment Company would continue to operate out of the old Wan’an Group Building.

Over the past week, under Su Zhixue’s leadership, Universal Investment Company had been expanding its team while relying on the original five-person team to secretly accumulate shares of the Hongkong Land Group.

Wan’an Group’s original Securities and Commerce Department had been dissolved. The dozen or so employees from the defunct department were all transferred to Universal Investment Company.

After all, Wan’an Group was no longer a publicly listed company, so there was no need to maintain such a department.

Lin Haoran had already checked the loyalty of these dozen or so individuals while they were at Wan’an Group; it ranged from seventy-five to eighty-five, so there was no issue with their loyalty.

After being integrated into Universal Investment Company, their loyalty levels had actually increased by a few points.

The former department head, Dai Bin, saw his loyalty increase from the original eighty-five to eighty-nine points.

The reason was simple: ever since Wan’an Group was privatized and delisted, these employees had been very worried about being laid off.

Now, they no longer had to worry about this issue. In fact, their benefits and compensation had even improved slightly. For them, this was naturally a better outcome, so it was perfectly normal for their loyalty to increase under these circumstances.

In addition, Su Zhixue was also recruiting new elite traders through human resources firms and headhunting companies.

As for Yang Mingyi, Lin Haoran had previously asked him to find a suitable real estate company to acquire, but ultimately, none were found.

The reason was simple: Hong Kong’s real estate companies were all developing at a breakneck pace, and almost no one was willing to sell their company.

As for acquiring from the stock market, Chinese-owned real estate firms were very cautious and gave no opportunities for a takeover.

Regarding British-owned real estate firms, the stronger ones were subsidiaries of major British-owned firms and were not suitable targets for now, while the weaker ones were just small fry, useless to acquire.

However, none of this mattered. Now, with ample funds, the Wan’an Group could develop rapidly, relying on two hundred million in capital and the steady stream of rental income from its two buildings.

With funding secured, Wan’an Group, under the management of Yang Mingyi, began to expand its workforce. First, it took on the construction project for Evergo Company’s industrial park, and then it entered into cooperation talks with the Hongkong Electric Group.

Although Hongkong Electric was not yet capable of developing the old power plant site on Electric Road, North Point, it could develop the inland lot on Jardine’s Lookout.

Jardine’s Lookout boasted an extremely advantageous geographical location, being part of Hong Kong’s villa district on The Peak. Developing a high-end luxury complex consisting of a dozen or so Western-style houses here was entirely feasible.

Thus, Hongkong Electric Group and Wan’an Group jointly established a company called International Urban Company. Both parties injected two hundred million Hong Kong dollars each, for a total of four hundred million Hong Kong dollars. Then, Hongkong Electric sold the plot of land to International Urban for three hundred and fifteen million Hong Kong dollars, and the two would jointly develop the land.

The two hundred million Hong Kong dollars in capital was, of course, the sum Lin Haoran had provided, and it was now coming into play.

With Lin Haoran, the boss, acting as the intermediary, cooperation with both Evergo Company and the Hongkong Electric Group proceeded very smoothly, without any obstacles.

On the last day of January, the new Wan’an Group Building and the International Building successfully contributed their first month’s income to Wan’an Group—a total of over six million Hong Kong dollars, plus more than ten million Hong Kong dollars in security deposits (tenants paid two months’ deposit and one month’s rent). Even after spending two hundred million Hong Kong dollars, Wan’an Group still had funds to continue expanding its construction teams.

Wan’an Group, the real estate enterprise, was developing in an orderly and rapid manner. It was not impossible for it to surpass the Five Tigers of Real Estate in the future.

On Yang Mingyi’s recommendation, Lin Haoran set his sights on Gammon Construction. This company was currently controlled by Jardine Matheson. It was originally a listed company but was directly privatized by Jardine Matheson in 1975.

Gammon Construction was considered the best construction company in Hong Kong, incomparably stronger than Wan’an Group’s own Wan’an Construction Engineering Company. If he could acquire it, Wan’an Group’s strength would undoubtedly multiply several times over.

Unfortunately, after a conversation with Mr. Newbiggin of Jardine Matheson & Co., the other party was unwilling to sell Gammon Construction.

Helpless, Lin Haoran could only temporarily give up on the idea.

Now, his only hope was to take over the Hongkong Land Group as soon as possible. Once he controlled Hongkong Land, what would Gammon Construction amount to?

In one week, Universal Investment Company had spent over one hundred and fifty million Hong Kong dollars, acquiring approximately 1.95% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares.

This speed was beyond Lin Haoran’s imagination; it was indeed much faster than he had anticipated.

But it was understandable. The Hong Kong stock market in 1980 was by far the most active year in its history. The trading volume surged, and the four major exchanges were bustling with people every day. Everyone knew the bull market had arrived. If they didn’t jump in to make a quick profit now, were they supposed to wait for the bear market?

Shareholders who made money from the stock market were so engrossed that they were unwilling to go out for lunch. Instead, they would extravagantly order a takeaway of shark fin rice and eat it right at the entrance of the exchange, waiting for the afternoon session to open.

Because the trading volume was so immense, Universal Investment Company seized the opportunity to accelerate its acquisitions without being discovered by others.

This was, of course, very beneficial for Universal Investment Company. If this rate of accumulation could be sustained, sooner or later, Lin Haoran would become a major shareholder of Hongkong Land Group.

At that point, even if he couldn’t yet control Hongkong Land, he would be in an advantageous position, ready to seize any opportunity to take control of the conglomerate.

In early February, Evergo Company distributed another dividend.

In the three months from November of last year to January, despite it being the off-season for fans, the introduction of two new products—electric blankets and electric hot water bags—coupled with the reputation Evergo had built over the past two years, resulted in a large volume of orders for both products.

Although the final earnings couldn’t compare to the profits from fan orders in the summer, the profit for these three months still unexpectedly broke the one hundred million Hong Kong dollar mark, reaching a terrifying figure of one hundred and twenty-two million Hong Kong dollars.

Of this amount, fifty million Hong Kong dollars had already been distributed between the two of them in mid-December. Now, Evergo’s account still held over seventy million Hong Kong dollars.

At that time, Lin Haoran had needed funds to acquire shares in the Hongkong Electric Group.

Ultimately, after discussion, Lin Haoran and Liu Luanxiong decided to take out another sixty million Hong Kong dollars as dividends. The remaining ten million plus would be used as working capital, for instance, to pay Wan’an Group for the construction of the Evergo industrial park, which was about to begin.

Lin Haoran already had a plan for Evergo Company.

This autumn, when Evergo Company was still at its peak in terms of orders, he would persuade Liu Luanxiong to take the company public.

After the IPO, they would quickly push up Evergo’s stock price, at which point he would seek an opportunity to sell his shares in the company.

After all, the profits from Evergo’s fan manufacturing business couldn’t stay this high forever. They were expected to drop significantly starting next year.

A saturated market couldn’t possibly allow them to maintain such high profits indefinitely.

As for the electric blankets and hot water bags, the two newly added products, Lin Haoran knew even better that they wouldn’t last for long. Besides, the winter season was too short each year; the hot weather lasted much longer than the cold.

On the morning of February 7th, Lin Haoran woke from his sleep. On the three-meter-wide Simmons bed, Rosamund Kwan was still fast asleep.

Yesterday afternoon, Rosamund Kwan had learned that her father, Kwan Shan, was once again away on a long trip, and she couldn’t help but call Lin Haoran.

So, Lin Haoran had Li Weiguo drive over to pick her up.

Occasionally releasing some energy was, naturally, a very comfortable thing for a vigorous young man like Lin Haoran.

At eighteen, Rosamund Kwan had become even more alluring, as if the qualities of maturity and girlish youth were both concentrated in her.

“Time to get up, it’s past seven,” Lin Haoran said as he whipped off the covers, instantly revealing Rosamund Kwan’s perfect figure to the open air.

Rosamund Kwan rubbed her eyes and reluctantly opened them.

And Lin Haoran, full of vigor in the morning, pounced on her again at the sight.

“Brother Haoran, I’m going to be late,” Rosamund Kwan answered, panting weakly.

“It’s fine to be an hour late once in a while. Just say you overslept.”

It was over an hour later before the scent of hormones gradually dissipated.

“Get up. Let’s get up, have breakfast, and tidy up. I’ll take you to school,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Brother Haoran, I don’t want to get up,” Rosamund Kwan said with her eyes closed, lying lazily in Lin Haoran’s arms, as if still reminiscing about the recent pleasure.

In the end, however, she did get up. After all, if she skipped a whole day of school and the news reached her father, it would be a disaster.

Lin Haoran recalled that Rosamund Kwan’s father, Kwan Shan, would fall deep into debt due to his business within this year and eventually have to skip town, leaving Hong Kong and leaving Rosamund alone to face the creditors.

Now, he didn’t care about such a small debt. He even intended to groom Rosamund Kwan into a corporate manager, starting by giving her a small company to learn how to be a person in charge—without any shares, of course.

In this world, now that Rosamund Kwan had become his woman, he had no intention of letting her enter the entertainment industry, a circle where it was easy to be led astray.

After breakfast, Lin Haoran dropped Rosamund Kwan off near her school entrance and then made a trip to the Green Island Cement Company in Hung Hom.

Green Island Cement was now gradually relocating its cement production to Yuen Long. At the same time, it had also purchased a plot of land in Sai Kung, over fifty thousand square meters in size, preparing to build a second Green Island Cement factory there.

As the car drove into the Green Island Cement Company, it was very quiet inside. The productivity here was now only a quarter of what it used to be. Once the preliminary work in Sai Kung was complete, all the production equipment from here would be moved there.

In this way, the two cement production bases, one in the east and one in the west, would be sufficient to meet the demand of Hong Kong, Macau, and the surrounding areas in the future.

At that point, the Green Island Cement Company’s site could be completely demolished to build a commercial building.

He went up to the general manager’s office in the Green Island Building. The general manager, Burton, was busy on the phone.

Lin Haoran didn’t disturb him and went to the Finance Department office next door instead.

Speaking of which, Lin Haoran rarely came to the Green Island Cement Company these days, spending most of his time at Hongkong Electric Group and Wan’an Group.

After all, compared to the Hongkong Electric Group, Green Island Cement seemed less important now.

Of course, in Lin Haoran’s heart, Green Island Cement still held a higher status than Hongkong Electric, as Green Island Cement was his privatized company, whereas he only owned nearly half of Hongkong Electric.

“Good morning, Boss,” the employees in the Finance Department greeted Lin Haoran one after another as he walked in.

After responding to each of them, Lin Haoran arrived at Fok Kin-ning’s Finance Director’s office.

“Boss.” Seeing Lin Haoran enter, Fok Kin-ning put down his work and quickly stood up.

When Lin Haoran acquired the renowned Hongkong Electric Group, Fok Kin-ning finally knew which major British-owned firm his boss had been acquiring.

He had been looking forward to it ever since.

“The accounting work at Green Island Cement is piling up. How are you holding up? Can you handle it?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Boss, of course I can. After getting used to the work here, I’d have no problem even if the workload was several times greater!” Fok Kin-ning was brimming with confidence.

“Good. I have a task for you. Start training a successor. In a while, I plan to transfer you to the Hongkong Electric Group. It’s more complex and the scale is larger over there, so you need to be mentally prepared,” Lin Haoran said solemnly.

When he transferred Fok Kin-ning to Hongkong Electric, he wouldn’t immediately be given a major management position, but a mid-level management role was certain, such as the Accounting Supervisor of Hongkong Electric. He would start by gaining experience in mid-level management and then gradually be promoted once he had adapted.

But even as an Accounting Supervisor, the workload would be much greater than his current role as chief financial officer.

After all, the scale of Hongkong Electric Group’s assets was enormous.

Upon hearing this, Fok Kin-ning’s face instantly lit up with an excited smile.

He had been anticipating this ever since he learned that his boss had acquired Hongkong Electric.

After all, this was the Hongkong Electric Group, one of Hong Kong’s corporate behemoths.

“Yes, Boss. I will not disappoint your expectations,” Fok Kin-ning said with great solemnity.

He had long been aware of the importance his boss placed on him, and such a gesture naturally moved him deeply.

When Lin Haoran told him to prepare for the transfer to Hongkong Electric, Fok Kin-ning’s loyalty even broke through ninety, reaching ninety-two.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran felt even more at ease entrusting this talented young man with important responsibilities.

Lin Haoran chatted with Fok Kin-ning for a while. Just as he was about to go to Burton’s office, his beeper emitted a piercing buzz.

Without a second thought, he called the number back.

“Boss, this is Chen Shoulin. Mr. Bao Fuda, the general manager of Hongkong Land, is here to see you. He said he wants to discuss something important with you. Could you please come over?” Chen Shoulin said directly over the phone.

Hongkong Land’s general manager is here? What for?

“Alright, wait for me. I’ll be there in half an hour,” Lin Haoran replied immediately.

Although he didn’t know Bao Fuda’s purpose, Lin Haoran took it very seriously.

Furthermore, he was still keeping a close eye on Hongkong Land, secretly and continuously accumulating its shares, hoping to one day take control of this behemoth.

After hanging up, he informed Fok Kin-ning and skipped his visit to Burton’s office. He left the Green Island Cement Company directly and headed for the Hongkong Electric Group Headquarters.

Chapter 171: Bao Fuda’s Purpose

Half an hour later, Lin Haoran had already arrived at the Hongkong Electric Group Headquarters at 44 Kennedy Road.

Entering the meeting room at the Hongkong Electric Group Headquarters, he saw Chen Shoulin talking with a middle-aged Westerner.

Evidently, this was the renowned general manager of the Hongkong Land Group, Bao Fuda.

“Mr. Lin, a pleasure.” Upon seeing Lin Haoran, Bao Fuda proactively stood up to shake his hand and greet him.

“Mr. Bao Fuda, a pleasure to meet you.” Lin Haoran responded with a smile.

Although he didn’t know why Bao Fuda had come, it was clear he had some purpose regarding the Hongkong Electric Group.

Previously, the Hongkong Land Group had wanted to acquire the Hongkong Electric Group, but Lin Haoran had unfortunately beaten them to it. Helpless, they could only turn their attention to other companies.

After the three of them sat down again, Chen Shoulin explained to Lin Haoran, “Boss, I was just speaking with Mr. Bao Fuda. The purpose of his visit is to propose a joint development with our Hongkong Electric Group for the plot of land at the old power plant site on Electric Road, North Point.”

Upon hearing Chen Shoulin’s words, Lin Haoran had a sudden realization.

No wonder the Hongkong Land Group had wanted to acquire Hongkong Electric. It seemed the biggest reason was that they had their eyes on this plot of land.

It made sense. Aside from the stable income from selling electricity, the most valuable asset of the Hongkong Electric Group was that plot of land in North Point. Based on current land prices, the site of the old power plant on Electric Road alone was worth around one billion Hong Kong dollars. By the end of the year, it would be worth two billion.

For such a priceless plot of land, Hongkong Land would naturally try to find a way to profit from it.

This was perhaps their biggest motivation for trying to acquire the Hongkong Electric Group before. Unfortunately, they missed their chance, as Lin Haoran had secured it first. Now, they were forced to seek a partnership, hoping to participate in the development of this land.

After entering the 1980s, Hongkong Land seemed to have regained its confidence in Hong Kong’s future. Under the leadership of Executive Director and general manager Bao Fuda, it, like many other property developers, saw the booming real estate market and began expanding aggressively. It quickly transformed from a conservative and stable property investor into an active and aggressive property developer.

Hongkong Land not only followed in the footsteps of Chinese-owned enterprises, actively seeking out and successfully acquiring shares in a series of high-quality public companies, but it also established an image as a “super partner” in the real estate industry, widely seeking cooperation opportunities with other companies to jointly invest in and develop the property market.

Currently, the Hongkong Land Group was pushing forward with its ambitious expansion plan at full speed, about to join hands with numerous well-known companies like Far East Consortium, the Carrian Group, Hang Lung Properties, Cheung Kong Holdings, Kiu Kwong Property, and the Yaumati Ferry Company to collaboratively develop over seventy real estate projects.

Therefore, it was quite normal for the Hongkong Land Group to approach the Hongkong Electric Group, hoping to cooperate on the development of the old power plant site on Electric Road in North Point.

It wasn’t just the Hongkong Land Group; quite a few other real estate companies likely had their eyes on this plot as well. Cheung Kong Holdings Group, for example, was a known party and had already discussed the matter in detail with Chen Shoulin on multiple occasions.

“Yes, Mr. Lin. We have come with the utmost sincerity. I know the Hongkong Electric Group has plans to develop that land, but you likely lack the capability. After all, your company is still a newcomer to the property industry and certainly can’t develop such a large plot independently. However, our Hongkong Land Group is very strong in property development. If Hongkong Electric were to partner with us, I am confident we could develop a large residential complex there. Hong Kong’s property prices are soaring. By the time the development is complete, prices may have already doubled or even tripled. We stand to make a substantial profit from this plot of land then,” Bao Fuda said earnestly.

“Oh? And what is this sincerity you speak of, Mr. Bao Fuda?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Lin Haoran planned to develop the old power plant site on Electric Road himself, intending for the Hongkong Electric Group and the Wan’an Group to develop it jointly. This way, he could maximize his profits.

It came down to that old saying: keep business within the family!

However, since the Hongkong Land Group had come seeking a partnership, Lin Haoran was curious to see what kind of terms they would offer.

As for the Hongkong Land Group, Hong Kong’s largest real estate company, Lin Haoran already planned to acquire it. In other words, in his heart, he already considered it his own.

With the capital he now controlled, and given that other Chinese-owned enterprises hadn’t yet made a move on Hongkong Land, as long as his ambitions remained unknown to the outside world and undetected by Jardine Matheson & Co., the probability of successfully taking control of the Hongkong Land Group was still very high.

The precondition was that he had to take it over before Hongkong Land and Jardine Matheson began their mutual shareholding policy.

Otherwise, once the Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson began their mutual shareholding policy, their combined holdings would be nearly forty percent. At that point, an acquisition would be virtually impossible for him, as it’s almost impossible to accumulate over forty percent of the shares from the stock market.

However, even after the Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. implemented their mutual shareholding, Lin Haoran would still have a chance to control the company. That chance would come after 1983, when the new Taipan of Jardine Matheson would completely abolish this mutual holding practice, significantly reducing the shares each held in the other.

That would be Lin Haoran’s second opportunity to take control of the Hongkong Land Group.

All of this would require adapting to circumstances as they arose. Until that time came, he couldn’t know how Universal Investment Company’s stock accumulation would proceed or if the process would be smooth. He couldn’t accurately predict the future; everything was just speculation.

“Mr. Lin, here’s our proposal. Our Hongkong Land Group intends to form a joint venture with the Hongkong Electric Group to establish a property development company. After our detailed market assessment, the current value of this plot of land is in the range of nine hundred million to one billion Hong Kong dollars. To show our sincerity, we propose using one billion Hong Kong dollars as the benchmark valuation. Both parties will contribute five hundred million Hong Kong dollars to purchase the land for a total of one billion. Subsequently, we will, under the name of this joint venture, formally acquire the plot from your Hongkong Electric Group. After the project is developed and completed, the resulting profits will be split fifty-fifty. This ensures that the Hongkong Electric Group doesn’t have to bear the pressure of development alone and also presents a significant win-win opportunity for both of us,” Bao Fuda explained their plan.

This cooperation model was quite popular in Hong Kong’s current real estate industry. Its advantages were obvious. First, it effectively distributed the financial pressure, allowing projects to launch more smoothly.

Second, by pooling the resources of both parties, development efficiency was improved, helping to bring the project to market faster.

Furthermore, the profit-sharing mechanism ensured that both parties could receive substantial returns.

Finally, through cooperation, the risk borne by a single party was effectively reduced, achieving true risk-sharing and mutual benefit.

As Bao Fuda proposed, they would jointly invest one billion Hong Kong dollars. In practice, this meant that even before development began, the Hongkong Electric Group would receive five hundred million Hong Kong dollars in capital from Hongkong Land. They wouldn’t need to put in their own five hundred million, as it was merely moving money from one hand to the other. Moreover, after the land was developed, the Hongkong Electric Group would still receive fifty percent of the profits.

If Lin Haoran hadn’t acquired the Hongkong Electric Group, by the end of the year, Hongkong Electric, Cheung Kong Holdings Group, and Wheelock Group would have followed a similar cooperation model, jointly establishing a property development company. The only difference would be that the partnership would involve three parties instead of two.

“Mr. Bao Fuda, actually, before you came, quite a few developers already had their eyes on this plot, including top British-owned and Chinese-owned enterprises. But we haven’t agreed to any of them. Because I myself own the Wan’an Group, which also focuses on real estate development. I’m sure you’re aware of this, Mr. Bao Fuda. The reason we haven’t started development yet is because the Wan’an Group currently lacks sufficient funds. Besides, there’s no rush to develop the old power plant site on Electric Road in North Point. Given the current Hong Kong market conditions, its future value will only increase. I believe your Hongkong Land Group can see this as well, or you wouldn’t have come to us for a partnership,” Lin Haoran said unhurriedly.

To secure a partnership, they would have to offer enough to make it worthwhile.

The type of partnership proposed by the Hongkong Land Group was too common; they didn’t have much of an advantage. To be honest, with such a standard proposal, the Hongkong Electric Group could partner with anyone. Take the “Five Tigers” of the Chinese property world—while their total scale might not match Hongkong Land’s, their development capabilities are certainly not inferior. So why must they partner with the Hongkong Land Group?

The location of the old power plant on Electric Road in North Point was destined to be priceless. The plot was less than two kilometers northeast of Causeway Bay, adjacent to the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, and right on the shores of Victoria Harbour. It was a prime location. Directly opposite this plot was the Shangri-La Hotel tower project, currently under construction by the Wan’an Group.

With such a great location, its value was in no way inferior to plots in places like Hung Hom or Causeway Bay.

This was a juicy piece of meat that everyone wanted a bite of, and the Hongkong Land Group was naturally no exception.

Bao Fuda listened to Lin Haoran’s words without any change in expression. He knew that sealing this partnership would not be easy.

Despite Lin Haoran’s youth, the fact that he could successfully seize the controlling stake in the Hongkong Electric Group at such a young age—and right under the nose of their Hongkong Land Group—was enough to demonstrate this young Chinese man’s extraordinary nature.

Moreover, it had been nearly ten days since Lin Haoran took control of the Hongkong Electric Group. During this time, the company’s stock price hadn’t fallen due to his takeover; on the contrary, it had been steadily rising.

Now, a single share of the Hongkong Electric Group had reached a price of about 4.1 Hong Kong dollars. In terms of total market capitalization, the company’s value had already exceeded 2.5 billion Hong Kong dollars.

This rate of increase was even faster than when their Hongkong Land Group had attempted to accumulate shares secretly.

Therefore, this was enough to show that even the shareholders in the market had gained confidence in the Hongkong Electric Group after Lin Haoran took control.

Their Hongkong Land Group, and indeed Jardine Matheson & Co., had long ago investigated Lin Haoran’s background.

The results of their investigation were not much different from what the Oriental Daily News had reported.

To be able to predict the surge in Kowloon Wharf’s stock price, to snatch Green Island Cement Company from the hands of Li Jiacheng, to boldly invest in oil when others were still speculating about a potential oil crisis, and to quickly take control of the Hongkong Electric Group right before their own Hongkong Land intended to acquire it—all of this was enough to prove that Lin Haoran was no simple man!

So, in reality, after all these events, no one in Hong Kong, whether from the British-funded conglomerates or the Chinese-funded conglomerates, dared to look down on Lin Haoran anymore.

In the business world, age often comes with more extensive business experience, which is undoubtedly a valuable asset.

However, when faced with certain business geniuses, mere age and accumulated experience do not always constitute an absolute advantage.

This is because geniuses can often use their extraordinary insight, innovative thinking, and rapid learning ability to quickly bypass the experience accumulation phase, and even achieve unprecedented success in certain fields.

Just like Lin Haoran, who, in the hearts of many tycoons, was now considered a rare business genius!

Chapter 172: Conditions for an Equity Stake in Hongkong Land Group

“Mr. Lin, I wonder what conditions you have in mind? We’ve come with the utmost sincerity. Partnerships are always negotiable, and I believe that after some discussion, we can certainly reach an agreement,” Bao Fuda said patiently, putting the ball in Lin Haoran’s court.

Conditions?

Lin Haoran frowned. Bao Fuda’s visit was sudden, and he had only just learned of its purpose. He hadn’t given the matter any serious thought.

So, when asked to name his conditions on the spot, he was at a loss for an answer.

“Are you busy today, Mr. Bao Fuda?” Lin Haoran didn’t answer directly, asking this instead.

Although he wasn’t sure what Lin Haoran meant, Bao Fuda answered honestly, “My most important task today is to discuss this collaboration with your Hongkong Electric Group. This was a decision made after discussions with Mr. Newbiggin and the entire Hongkong Land Board of Directors. We hope to do our best to reach an agreement with you.

“Our Hongkong Land has nearly a century of historical experience in a real-estate development. In addition, we have the best marketing resources in Hong Kong. If the Hongkong Electric Group agrees to work with us, I believe you won’t regret it. This will be a mutually beneficial partnership.”

He was still trying to persuade Lin Haoran to choose to partner with their Hongkong Land Group.

After all, the value of the plot of land at the former Electric Road power plant in North Point was too great for Hongkong Land to willingly give up.

“Since you’re not busy today, Mr. Bao Fuda, please rest here for a moment. I’d like to discuss this matter with our Hongkong Electric Group’s Executive Director, Mr. Chen Shoulin, before making a decision. How does that sound?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Of course, no problem. I can wait!” Bao Fuda agreed immediately.

If they could secure this partnership, it would be another major project for Hongkong Land Group.

If this plot of land was developed successfully, it would be worth dozens of other ordinary projects, and Hongkong Land Group stood to gain profits of over several hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Moreover, this was a conservative estimate from Newbiggin and Bao Fuda. In their hearts, they even felt that if the Hong Kong real estate industry continued to soar, by the time the land was developed, property prices would have already multiplied several times over. At that point, profits could reach over a billion Hong Kong dollars!

Who wouldn’t want a bite of such a massive profit?

However, neither Newbiggin nor Bao Fuda knew at this point that in two years, Hong Kong’s real estate industry would face a major crash.

In that case, let alone making a profit of over a billion Hong Kong dollars, they would be lucky to break even.

While Bao Fuda was still thinking about what would happen after a successful partnership, Lin Haoran and Chen Shoulin had already left the reception room and gone to Chen Shoulin’s general manager’s office.

After entering the office and closing the door, the two sat down.

“Director Chen, you’re a senior in the business world. In your opinion, what conditions should we propose to maximize the Hongkong Electric Group’s interests?” Lin Haoran posed the question to Chen Shoulin, hoping to get a better idea from him.

A seasoned business old-timer like Chen Shoulin would surely have his own ideas.

“Boss, I’ve been considering this matter since Mr. Newbiggin first spoke to me about it. I actually think there’s no problem at all with cooperating with Hongkong Land Group. In fields like real estate development, they have the best development capabilities. After the development is complete, we can even use their marketing channels to sell the finished projects to the public.

“However, it’s clear that this plot of land has attracted many real estate companies, so it’s only right that we seek greater benefits. I have two ideas for now: one is to increase our land valuation. For example, raise the valuation from one billion Hong Kong dollars to 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars. If Hongkong Land wants to partner with us, they’ll need to invest six hundred million Hong Kong dollars. That way, we can make an extra one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. They should be able to accept this condition. The profit from developing the old power plant site on Electric Road in North Point will definitely not be low, which is why so many people have their eyes on it.

“The other idea is that the Hong Kong real estate market is currently developing in a positive direction, which means the prospects for Hongkong Land Group are excellent. After all, Hongkong Land itself is the largest real estate enterprise in Hong Kong and owns the most properties here, something Chinese-owned real estate companies can’t compare to. So, we can propose a model of equity financing in exchange for shares to move forward.

“This equity financing would essentially mean Hongkong Land Group injects capital in exchange for their shares. For example, based on Hongkong Land Group’s current market capitalization of 7.8 billion Hong Kong dollars, five hundred million Hong Kong dollars is equivalent to about 6.4% of their shares.

“By doing this, our Hongkong Electric Group would also become a shareholder of Hongkong Land Group. In the future, not only will we successfully develop this plot in North Point, but we will also become one of Hongkong Land’s major shareholders. When they make substantial profits in the property sector in the future, we’ll receive our due dividends, and these dividends will be long-term!” Chen Shoulin explained his thoughts.

Right now, no one foresaw the major crisis that would hit the Hong Kong property market in two years, so it was normal for Chen Shoulin to think this way.

It wasn’t just Chen Shoulin; even someone like Li Jiacheng currently had no idea that a real estate crisis was coming soon.

They would likely only become aware of a potential crisis a year or two later when various warning signs began to appear as the property market developed.

As for now, the real estate market had not yet reached the peak of this boom, so naturally, there were no signs of a crisis.

Lin Haoran knew about the existence of the real estate crisis, but Chen Shoulin’s idea sparked an inspiration.

He was already secretly accumulating shares of Hongkong Land Group, but acquiring 30% or more would not be easy.

The further he went, the fewer loose shares of Hongkong Land were held by the public, which would make it more difficult for his Universal Investment Company to acquire them.

But if, through this partnership, Hongkong Electric Group could become a shareholder of Hongkong Land and control a portion of its shares, it would be a huge help to Lin Haoran.

After all, although Hongkong Electric Group was not a company he had privatized, he held the controlling stake. This meant that any shares controlled by Hongkong Electric were effectively his to command.

In other words, if Hongkong Electric could really pull this off, the shares of Hongkong Land it held could be counted as his when he wanted to take control of Hongkong Land in the future.

This way, Lin Haoran could even have Hongkong Electric hold shares in Hongkong Land openly and legitimately.

In Hong Kong, it was very normal for companies to hold shares in each other.

For example, there was cross-shareholding between HSBC Group and Jardine Matheson Group. Newbiggin, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., was even a member of HSBC’s Board of Directors.

Such cross-shareholding was a very common practice among top-tier enterprises in Hong Kong.

Especially among the major British-owned firms, there were basically all kinds of complex relationships between them.

In the eyes of these British financial groups, as long as the shares held by another party did not threaten their primary controlling stake, it wasn’t a bad thing. On the contrary, it could strengthen the cooperative relationship between the two parties.

“Director Chen, I think your second idea is excellent. Our Hongkong Electric Group isn’t short on funds right now, so there’s no need to take that capital of several hundred million Hong Kong dollars. Instead, becoming a shareholder in Hongkong Land Group and gaining entry to their Board of Directors is also a great opportunity.

“Hongkong Land owns numerous commercial properties in Central. These properties are only for rent, never for sale. They’re practically a golden goose that only lays golden eggs. If it weren’t for the expansion of the Hongkong Land portfolio, constantly reinvesting profits into new projects and even taking out bank loans, Hongkong Land could earn a handsome income every year just from the commercial properties they currently hold!

“In the short term, taking the cash is more advantageous. But from a long-term perspective, holding shares in Hongkong Land Group is definitely a better idea!” Lin Haoran also shared his view.

Hongkong Electric Group had a very large cash flow and its profits were not low.

When Lin Haoran took control of Hongkong Electric Group, the company had not paid out dividends for over a year.

Although Hongkong Electric would constantly reinvest its profits, a considerable amount of funds remained within the group.

For example, after Lin Haoran took control of Hongkong Electric, he discovered that the group’s account balance was as high as 392 million Hong Kong dollars.

This was a substantial amount of money.

If he chose to have Hongkong Electric distribute this money as dividends now, with his 49.9% stake, he could directly receive half of it, which would be nearly two hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

However, Lin Haoran had no intention of issuing dividends for the time being; he wasn’t short on one or two hundred million Hong Kong dollars right now.

Furthermore, he wasn’t going to explain to Chen Shoulin that his reason for wanting Hongkong Electric to hold stock in Hongkong Land was to set the stage for a future takeover of Hongkong Land.

This was something that no one but him and Su Zhixue would be told.

Even the trading team at Universal Investment Company, despite accumulating shares of Hongkong Land, just thought Lin Haoran wanted to play the market and profit from the price difference.

It wasn’t as if Lin Haoran hadn’t done this before. He had accumulated shares of Kowloon Wharf previously with the ultimate goal of profiting from stock trading. The Boss had made a lot of money that time.

These traders would naturally never imagine that their Boss had such huge ambitions as to swallow a behemoth like Hongkong Land Group.

After all, in their eyes, it was simply impossible. Hongkong Land Group was a giant with a market capitalization two or three times higher than the Hongkong Electric Group their Boss now owned.

Taking over Hongkong Electric was already a difficult feat. To go on and take over Hongkong Land Group? Just how much capital would that require!

“The worry now is that they won’t agree to this method. After all, based on the current market capitalization, 6.4% of the shares is quite a high percentage. As far as I know, Jardine Matheson & Co. and its subsidiary, Jardine Securities, only hold about 20% of Hongkong Land’s shares,” Chen Shoulin continued.

Lin Haoran nodded. That was indeed very possible. The fact that Kowloon Wharf was snatched away by Pao Yue-kong must have made Jardine Matheson worry that they would lose Hongkong Land as well.

This might be why Newbiggin ultimately chose to strengthen the cross-shareholding between Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group.

“Regardless, we can give it a try. From what Bao Fuda said, we can tell that they are truly keen on securing the cooperative rights for the former power plant site on Electric Road in North Point. I believe they won’t be willing to give up just like that!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

In Lin Haoran’s eyes, the partnership proposal from Hongkong Land was a surprise in itself.

If they agreed to his terms, Lin Haoran could agree to partner with Hongkong Land.

If they didn’t, then he simply wouldn’t give Hongkong Land the opportunity. He might as well let Wan’an Group develop the project in the future.

After some more discussion, the two concluded their meeting and returned to the reception room.

At this time, Bao Fuda was waiting in the room, frowning from time to time as if he had run into a difficult problem.

“Mr. Bao Fuda, after discussing with our boss, we have decided to give Hongkong Land Group a chance to cooperate. However, this partnership will not be conducted exactly as you just described. We hope that Hongkong Land Group can exchange for our cooperation through equity financing. Based on the market capitalization…” Chen Shoulin relayed the idea he and Lin Haoran had discussed to Bao Fuda in its entirety.

After hearing it, Bao Fuda looked surprised.

He hadn’t expected them to make such a request.

But it didn’t take long for Bao Fuda to reply, “Mr. Lin, Mr. Chen, this matter is of great importance. I cannot make a decision lightly. I need to go back and discuss it with Mr. Newbiggin and convene a Board of Directors meeting before a decision can be made!”

Bao Fuda himself didn’t have strong feelings about the proposal, but he was considering it from Hongkong Land Group’s perspective, so naturally, there was no problem for him.

But Bao Fuda knew that his agreement on behalf of Hongkong Land meant nothing; Jardine Matheson & Co. had to agree.

This could involve complex factors related to Jardine Matheson & Co.’s control over Hongkong Land Group.

Although it seemed highly unlikely that Hongkong Electric Group would ever have a chance to acquire Hongkong Land, there was a saying: better to be safe than sorry.

Ever since Kowloon Wharf was acquired by Pao Yue-kong, Jardine Matheson & Co. had become a startled bird.

Therefore, Bao Fuda felt that it was enough to leave the matter for Jardine Matheson to decide; he didn’t need to overthink it.

“Alright, Mr. Bao Fuda. You can go back and discuss it thoroughly. I will await your reply,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

As for the partnership with Hongkong Land Group, he would accept it whether it succeeded or failed.

If it succeeded, he would gain another ally in his acquisition of Hongkong Land Group.

If it failed, the plot of land at the former Electric Road power plant would be developed by Wan’an Group, allowing him to profit even more from it!

Chapter 173: Riddled with Doubts, A Spokesperson for Citibank?

Bao Fuda hurried back.

He was more than willing to accept Hongkong Electric Group’s terms. They were highly beneficial to the Hongkong Land Group.

Although it meant giving up shares, it would also save the Hongkong Land Group a large sum of capital.

Five hundred million Hong Kong dollars in cash was not an amount that even Hongkong Land could produce casually.

In the battle for Kowloon Wharf, for instance, after realizing they could not win, Hongkong Land ultimately chose to sell its shares at a high price. In the end, they only made a profit of six to seven hundred million Hong Kong dollars from it.

Bao Fuda was looking at the problem from the perspective of the Hongkong Land Group, so he certainly supported this financing method.

However, Newbiggin might not see it the same way.

That was why he had to go back and present the problem to Newbiggin, the Taipan of the group.

Connaught Centre, the headquarters of the Hongkong Land Group.

Upon learning that Bao Fuda had returned from the Hongkong Electric Group and had something to discuss with him, Newbiggin came over from Jardine Matheson’s headquarters.

The headquarters of the two companies were not far apart, making travel between them convenient.

In the future, Jardine Matheson Group’s headquarters would also be moved here, and Connaught Centre would be formally renamed Jardine House.

In Bao Fuda’s general manager office, Bao Fuda gave Newbiggin a detailed report on his trip to the Hongkong Electric Group, including the events that transpired and the conditions the other party had proposed.

“A partnership through financing with shares?” Newbiggin’s brow furrowed tightly after hearing Bao Fuda’s report.

“Mr. Bao Fuda, what are your thoughts?” Newbiggin asked.

“Taipan, I believe this method of cooperation is feasible. If they want to hold our shares, they can just as easily buy them on the secondary market with their five hundred million Hong Kong dollars. By cooperating this way, we can save a large amount of capital, which can be invested in other projects,” Bao Fuda offered his opinion.

“Do you think they might be targeting the Hongkong Land Group, aiming to seize control?” After the battle for Kowloon Wharf, Newbiggin had become extremely sensitive to such matters. He was terrified that Jardine Matheson & Co. would lose Hongkong Land Group as well. If that happened, he would become a great sinner in the history of Jardine Matheson. To lose Kowloon Wharf and Hongkong Land, the two most important companies under Jardine’s control, during his tenure—he would no longer have the face to run for the position of Taipan in the next term.

The loss of Kowloon Wharf had been unavoidable. Pao Yue-kong’s late-stage acquisition offer of 105 Hong Kong dollars per share made the outcome irreversible, no matter who was the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. Besides, they had at least made a considerable profit from Pao Yue-kong upon their exit, so it wasn’t a total defeat.

But the Hongkong Land Group was different. With the precedent of Kowloon Wharf, if he allowed Hongkong Land to be lost as well, the responsibility would truly fall squarely on his, Newbiggin’s, shoulders.

Therefore, the Hongkong Land Group absolutely could not be snatched away by another financial group like Kowloon Wharf was. This was the bottom line!

“It’s unclear at the moment. We’ve investigated Mr. Lin Haoran’s background. I heard they recently spent one billion Hong Kong dollars to purchase two buildings from the Wheelock Group. The former Federation Building has now been renamed Wan’an Building by him.”

“Acquiring the Hongkong Electric Group cost at least one billion Hong Kong dollars, and then he spent another billion on the buildings. He has already spent two billion Hong Kong dollars in a short period. My investigation revealed that all these funds came from Citibank. I even suspect that Mr. Lin Haoran might have the major American financial group, Citibank, backing him. Otherwise, he couldn’t possibly possess such strength. Mr. Lin Haoran might just be Citibank’s public spokesperson.”

“If he could amass so much capital on his own, Mr. Lin Haoran would be too incredible to be true. It’s simply unbelievable.”

“Looking at Mr. Lin Haoran’s rise, it’s just too strange. First, he acquired Green Island Cement Company, then the Hongkong Electric Group. These are not feats that a young man like him could accomplish.”

“Although there are rumors that he made a fortune by boldly investing a huge sum in oil before the oil crisis, crude oil prices only rose two or three times. Even with that surge, he should have made at most a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars. It’s impossible for him to have come up with so much capital, and the source of his principal is also very suspicious.”

“I tried to have a private chat with the president of Citibank’s Hong Kong branch, but he wouldn’t reveal Mr. Lin Haoran’s details. However, I could sense from his tone that this head of Citibank Hong Kong holds Mr. Lin Haoran in high regard, as if he were an important figure within Citibank.”

“So, I believe the hypothesis that Mr. Lin Haoran is Citibank’s spokesperson in Hong Kong is very likely.”

“But, even if it is Citibank, they shouldn’t be investing so heavily in Hong Kong. In recent years, it’s not just our British-funded conglomerates; many American-funded ones have also been pulling out. For example, Mr. Li Jiacheng’s acquisition of the American-owned Everhigh Company three years ago is the best proof of American capital withdrawing from Hong Kong.”

“An investment exceeding two billion Hong Kong dollars is already beyond my imagination. I think the probability of Citibank putting more capital into Hong Kong is low.”

“While Citibank’s investment strategy is global, they shouldn’t be allocating so many resources to a single city, especially when Hong Kong’s prospects are currently viewed unfavorably.”

“As for the Hongkong Electric Group itself, it’s even more impossible for them to have the strength to swallow the Hongkong Land Group. Although they are not weak, our market capitalization is three times theirs, and our true strength is more than three times greater. For them to take on the Hongkong Land Group would be nothing more than an egg against a stone.” Bao Fuda voiced the thoughts he had mulled over on his way back.

That’s right. Bao Fuda felt that Lin Haoran was simply a spokesperson propped up by Citibank.

Otherwise, it was impossible for a young man like Lin Haoran to rise so quickly in such a short time. It was completely beyond his comprehension; it was absolutely impossible.

They had already thoroughly investigated the Lin family. Lin Wan’an’s past was completely within their grasp. They were just an ordinary billionaire family. How could they produce one billion, or even two billion, Hong Kong dollars at a moment’s notice?

Forget Lin Haoran; even their own Hongkong Land would find it difficult to raise two billion Hong Kong dollars in cash on short notice.

Someone like Pao Yue-kong had only managed to raise 2.1 billion Hong Kong dollars in a short time with the support of HSBC. It would have been very difficult for Pao Yue-kong to do so on his own.

Don’t be fooled by the high valuations of these large companies; many of their assets are fixed, and their actual cash flow is not substantial.

When they had money, they would almost always invest it. They would never keep too much cash on their books. Leaving it in a bank was a pure waste.

The source of Lin Haoran’s funds was simply too mysterious. In truth, even the president of Citibank’s Hong Kong branch only had a vague idea. He only knew that Lin Haoran had close ties with Citibank’s head office, possessed enormous funds, and was classified as a top-tier client by headquarters. This was because the chairman of Citibank had personally instructed him to serve Lin Haoran well.

But, of course, Citibank would never disclose this information to outsiders. It was client confidentiality. If they did, Citibank’s reputation would be ruined.

Bao Fuda’s words made Newbiggin sink into contemplation.

He was considering the degree of risk involved in this partnership.

“Is it really not possible to partner with the Hongkong Electric Group by means of a capital injection?” Newbiggin asked, not ready to give up.

That method was the most secure. Although it would require a huge sum of money from the Hongkong Land Group, it carried no risk.

“Taipan, they have made it clear. If we want to partner, it must be through financing for Hongkong Land Group. Otherwise, they have no intention of partnering, because their new chairman, Mr. Lin Haoran, also owns a real estate company. It’s just that it currently lacks funds and hasn’t started development yet,” Bao Fuda said, shaking his head.

After hearing Bao Fuda, Newbiggin said nothing more.

At that moment, his gaze drifted out the window. His position happened to face Hongkong Electric Group’s plot of land in North Point.

From high up in Connaught Centre, one could clearly see the site of the old power plant. The straight-line distance was not far.

The location of the old power plant on Electric Road in North Point was simply too good, and its area was not small. If the partnership was successful, the Hongkong Land Group could definitely reap enormous profits from it.

And so, Newbiggin was now torn.

Newbiggin was not only the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. but also the Taipan of the Hongkong Land Group. He had the final say in both.

From every perspective, he hoped for the Hongkong Land Group to develop faster and better. Only then would his position as Taipan be more secure.

Newbiggin was well aware that his term at Jardine and Hongkong Land was nearing its end, and the Keswick family wanted to reclaim control of Jardine Matheson & Co. Therefore, his top priority now was to improve the development of Jardine and Hongkong Land, to get the Jardine Matheson & Co. Board of Directors on his side. Only then could he defeat the Keswick family in the next election for his term.

After serving as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. for these past few years, Newbiggin had grown increasingly infatuated with the pleasure that came with such power.

Securing the partnership with the Hongkong Electric Group was equivalent to obtaining a high-profit project for the Hongkong Land Group, which would give him another bargaining chip in his competition with the Keswick family.

Should he cooperate or not?

If he chose to cooperate, there would be certain risks. If Citibank was truly backing them, and if Citibank genuinely intended to invest on a large scale in Hong Kong, then it wouldn’t be difficult for them to take over the Hongkong Land Group.

One had to remember that Citibank was the largest commercial bank in the world. In terms of strength, it was far superior to HSBC, the financial titan of Hong Kong.

At best, HSBC could only throw its weight around here in Hong Kong, but Citibank’s influence spanned the entire globe. The two were not on the same level at all.

If he chose not to cooperate, it meant that the Hongkong Land Group would lose this opportunity.

“Taipan, it seems we can’t find out much from Mr. Lin Haoran’s side. Why don’t we investigate from Citibank’s end? Although it’s impossible to get useful information directly from Citibank—they would never tell us.”

“But we can investigate whether they have any large-scale investment plans for the Asian region, especially Hong Kong. If they do, their past shareholder reports should mention it. As a publicly listed company, Citibank couldn’t possibly fail to disclose such long-term investments!” Bao Fuda suggested from the side.

“Yes, that’s one way. Let’s do that. Have our people gather Citibank’s shareholder reports for the last three years and study their contents. If there’s anything suspicious, we’ll abandon this partnership. If there are no issues, we will then discuss and decide through Hongkong Land’s Board of Directors!” With no better ideas for the moment, Newbiggin readily agreed with Bao Fuda’s proposal.

Thus, the intelligence departments of Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land began their investigation.

These shareholder reports were all publicly available, so collecting them was not difficult. In less than half a day, they had gathered all of Citibank’s publicly released shareholder reports and annual financial statements from the past three years. There wasn’t much material; they were typically issued only two or three times a year, so the compiled data wasn’t voluminous.

Once the materials were collected, there was so little that they didn’t even need subordinates to analyze and report back. They began reading through them themselves.

Citibank’s market was distributed worldwide; even in Africa, they were one of the major financial institutions.

However, Newbiggin and Bao Fuda’s focus was obviously not on those places, but on the Asian region.

After reviewing these reports and financial statements, they now understood the status of the Hong Kong market in Citibank’s eyes.

Within Citibank, Japan, South Korea, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia were the most important markets in Asia. Their investments and profits in these regions were at the forefront in Asia.

However, when it came to the Hong Kong market, they discovered that not only had Citibank not increased its investment in the past two years, but it had actually reduced its investment capital. Even the investment quota for Singapore had surpassed that of Hong Kong.

Seeing this, Newbiggin and Bao Fuda exchanged a look.

They were surprised, yet at the same time, they felt this was normal.

Even their British-funded conglomerates were worried about Hong Kong’s future prospects, let alone the American ones. Reducing investment was a very normal thing to do; it was good enough that they hadn’t withdrawn from the Hong Kong market entirely.

From these documents, they could judge that it was impossible for Citibank to suddenly make a large-scale investment in Hong Kong.

Yet, the sudden appearance of Lin Haoran’s more than two billion Hong Kong dollars had, for the most part, come from Citibank.

This was what Newbiggin and Bao Fuda found most strange.

Could it be that these funds all belonged to Lin Haoran?

But that was impossible. For a young man to suddenly acquire such a massive sum of money was just too strange.

Everything was so murky and confusing, making it impossible to see through the twists and turns.

“Do Lin Haoran’s funds really come from Citibank? Is he truly the spokesperson Citibank is cultivating in Hong Kong?” Bao Fuda couldn’t help but say aloud.

“Right now, there are two possibilities. One is that Lin Haoran is Citibank’s spokesperson in Hong Kong. The other is that these funds are Lin Haoran’s own. We can analyze it from these two possibilities. Under these two scenarios, let’s analyze whether there would be risks if we agree to Hongkong Electric Group’s proposal for a financing-for-equity-stake partnership,” Newbiggin’s response was more direct.

Chapter 174: Tell Them Yes!

The two men began to ponder Newbiggin’s question carefully.

“Let’s assume Lin Haoran is the frontman Citibank has been secretly grooming in Hong Kong. Based on the information we just reviewed, it’s unlikely Citibank would invest on a large scale in Hong Kong, at least not for the next few years. As for the future, that depends on whether Hong Kong’s prospects improve. So, in this scenario, Citibank would probably not acquire our Hongkong Land Group.

“As for the second possibility, if the funds belong to Mr. Lin Haoran himself, it’s already incredible that he could come up with over two billion Hong Kong dollars in two years. In fact, I believe a portion of that money must have been loaned from Citibank.

“For instance, when Mr. Lin Haoran previously privatized the Green Island Cement Company, he used a loan to have Wardley assist with the privatization. Furthermore, he also took out a loan of forty-five million Hong Kong dollars from Hang Seng Bank by pledging his shares. These funds were clearly all for Green Island Cement.

“In other words, back then, Mr. Lin Haoran was only able to acquire Green Island Cement and even completely privatize it by relying on external forces. His own capital was limited.

“His acquisition of the Hongkong Electric Group was too sudden, and the source of his funds too mysterious. I don’t think all that money could have been his own; rather, he likely financed it through loans from Citibank.

“This would also explain why he maintains such a good relationship with Citibank. If their relationship weren’t good, Citibank would have never given him the loan.” Before long, Bao Fuda had voiced his thoughts.

Jardine Matheson & Co. was a shareholder and board member of HSBC, and Hang Seng Bank was a subsidiary of HSBC. Loans of several tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars would eventually be disclosed at HSBC’s Board of Directors meetings, so Lin Haoran’s loans from both HSBC and Hang Seng Bank were no secret to Jardine Matheson.

Although Jardine Matheson was a shareholder and board member of HSBC, the ironic thing was that during the battle for Kowloon Wharf, HSBC had openly supported Pao Yue-kong, a Chinese entrepreneur who was also on the board. They had directly loaned Pao Yue-kong a staggering 2.1 billion Hong Kong dollars to take over Kowloon Wharf, showing no regard for their fellow British-funded conglomerate, Jardine Matheson.

So, while Jardine Matheson and HSBC still maintained a cooperative relationship on the surface, their bond was already riddled with cracks.

Hongkong Land Group’s current eagerness to begin large-scale investments was not unrelated to HSBC’s decision to help a Chinese-funded conglomerate instead of one of its own. The Jardine faction hoped to surpass HSBC and reclaim its position as the leader of the British-funded conglomerates.

Bao Fuda’s words made Newbiggin nod involuntarily. He agreed with these thoughts, as his own conclusions were much the same.

“I’ll add one more point. We must sign a contract with the Hongkong Electric Group stipulating that if they ever decide to sell the shares they hold, they must offer them to us at Jardine Matheson first. Otherwise, if a Chinese-funded conglomerate tries to acquire Hongkong Land and Hongkong Electric sells the shares to them, we’ll still be at risk!” Newbiggin came up with a precautionary measure.

Pao Yue-kong acquiring Kowloon Wharf, Li Jiacheng acquiring Hutchison Whampoa, and Lin Haoran acquiring the Hongkong Electric Group—these acquisitions by Chinese-funded conglomerates had shown everyone that the era of British-funded conglomerates was in decline while Chinese-funded conglomerates were on the rise. This put Newbiggin on high alert, cautious that others might be eyeing the Hongkong Land Group or even the Jardine Matheson Group itself.

Faced with the very real possibility of being coveted by Chinese-funded conglomerates, Newbiggin had to think several steps ahead.

“Taipan, that’s an excellent idea. This would prevent other Chinese-owned enterprises from using the shares held by Hongkong Electric to acquire Hongkong Land. Lin Haoran could still do so, but he clearly lacks the capacity to acquire the Hongkong Land Group. If they agree to this contract, we can proceed with the financing partnership with complete peace of mind!”

Bao Fuda was full of praise for Newbiggin’s suggestion. As expected of the Jardine Taipan, his considerations were far more thorough than his own!

“In that case, let’s convene a Hongkong Land board meeting. We’ll let the Board of Directors decide!” Newbiggin declared directly.

The Hongkong Land Group’s Board of Directors was essentially controlled by Newbiggin and Bao Fuda. Convening a board meeting was merely a formality. This way, if anything went wrong in the future, the decision would be the board’s, and they wouldn’t have to shoulder all the blame.

Apart from a few British shareholders, the members of Hongkong Land Group’s board were all senior executives of the company.

Therefore, calling an emergency meeting wouldn’t take much time.

This partnership could potentially involve over a billion Hong Kong dollars in future profits for the group and required financing through company shares. For Hongkong Land Group, this was naturally a major affair, not something they could decide on their own.

Financing with shares meant that Hongkong Land Group would have to issue new shares to free up enough for the partnership with the Hongkong Electric Group. After all, all of Hongkong Land’s existing shares were owned, and it was impossible to take shares from current owners to give to Hongkong Electric. The only option was to issue new shares.

Issuing new shares would dilute the ownership percentage of existing stock. For example, if Hongkong Land Group originally had a total of five hundred million shares, increasing it by 6.4% would bring the total to about 534.2 million shares. The original five hundred million shares’ ownership would fall from 100% to around 93.6%, diluting the stakes of all original shareholders.

For a publicly listed company, issuing additional shares was a very common practice. When a company wanted more capital for development, issuing new shares was an excellent method.

A major decision like this certainly required board approval.

Three hours later, Hongkong Land Group held an emergency board meeting.

As expected, with Newbiggin and Bao Fuda, the two most powerful executives at Hongkong Land, both voting in favor, the proposal passed unanimously with no opposition.

Regarding the cooperation through share exchange and the final number of new shares to be issued, Lin Haoran had already made it clear that Hongkong Land’s market capitalization would be calculated based on the previous day’s closing stock price. Neither Newbiggin nor Bao Fuda objected to this.

The leverage was not on their side but with the Hongkong Electric Group. It wasn’t as though Hongkong Electric absolutely had to partner with them; on the contrary, Hongkong Land was the one knocking on their door seeking cooperation. Under such circumstances, haggling was pointless. If the other party simply said they weren’t interested, no amount of talk would matter.

To secure the development rights for the North Point plot, Hongkong Land Group had indeed made considerable concessions, all for the sake of greater profits in the future.

At present, unless a property company was short on funds, few major enterprises developed new projects by selling properties off-plan.

After all, with the way property prices in Hong Kong were soaring, if they sold at current prices, the prices could double or triple by the time the development was completed in two or three years. But the property company would have already sold most of the units at the prices from two or three years prior. In the end, they would only make a small profit for all their hard work. Why bother?

Therefore, a major enterprise like Hongkong Land Group would certainly not use the method of selling off-plan to develop projects during this property boom.

They had already estimated that developing the old site on Electric Road, North Point, and selling it only after completion would yield profits that were not just substantial but potentially unimaginably high.

This was precisely why they were willing to let the Hongkong Electric Group become a shareholder just to get a piece of the North Point development.

After the board meeting, Newbiggin, as the Executive Director of Hongkong Land Group, couldn’t wait and immediately headed for the Hongkong Electric Group.

By this time, Lin Haoran had already returned home and was lying on the sofa, reading a book.

Over at Universal Investment Company, the acquisition of shares in several listed companies was proceeding in an orderly fashion. Every afternoon when the market closed, Su Zhixue would report the day’s results, as well as the cumulative progress, to him on time.

In Lin Haoran’s hands was a copy of The Practice of Management. Although he had entrusted the companies under his banner to professional managers, he also hoped to deepen his own understanding of management.

Just as he was engrossed in his reading, the telephone rang.

Lin Haoran put down his book, picked up the receiver from the nearby telephone, and answered.

“Boss, it’s Chen Shoulin. Mr. Bao Fuda came by again just now. They’ve made a decision with impressive speed. After their discussions, they’ve decided to agree to the terms we proposed.

“However, they also have one condition. If our Hongkong Electric Group ever intends to sell these shares in the future, we must offer them to Jardine Matheson first. Only if Jardine refuses to buy them can Hongkong Electric sell the shares to others.

“I need to ask for your opinion on this matter. If you agree, I will reply to Mr. Bao Fuda immediately. They will then prepare for the partnership. They hope to sign the contract at Connaught Centre, where Hongkong Land will invite reporters to witness the event and announce it to the public!” Chen Shoulin reported to Lin Haoran.

“Tell them yes!” Lin Haoran said without a moment’s hesitation.

His reason for having Hongkong Electric hold shares in Hongkong Land was never to sell them to others; it was all for his future plan to take control of the company.

Therefore, this condition was no problem for him at all!

“Alright. In that case, Boss, you and I will need to be at Hongkong Land Group’s office in Connaught Centre before ten o’clock tomorrow morning. Please be ready,” Chen Shoulin continued.

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow morning!” Lin Haoran hung up the phone with a smile.

Hongkong Land Group’s agreement to this condition was wonderful news for him.

With the Hongkong Electric Group holding these shares, he was even more confident in his ability to acquire Hongkong Land Group.

After all, this was 6.4% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares, not a small stake by any means!

If Universal Investment Company could accumulate over 24% of the shares on the secondary market, it would mean he controlled over 30% of the company. With such a stake, he could challenge Jardine Matheson’s position in Hongkong Land.

Of course, to be safe, it was better to hold even more shares.

The British-funded conglomerates were remarkably united. It wasn’t as simple as Lin Haoran winning just by exceeding the roughly 20% stake held by the Jardine faction. There were other British-funded conglomerate shareholders, and they all supported Jardine Matheson.

In that sense, Lin Haoran’s quest to take control of Hongkong Land Group meant his opponent wasn’t just Jardine Matheson & Co. but all of Hongkong Land’s British shareholders.

Chapter 175: Becoming a Director of Hongkong Land Group

After briefly reporting to Lin Haoran, Chen Shoulin convened a simple board meeting at the company.

In the conference room, Chen Shoulin announced the partnership they had reached with the Hongkong Land Group to all the members of the Hongkong Electric Group’s Board of Directors.

For Hongkong Electric Group to become a shareholder in Hongkong Land Group, and to hold so many shares at that, was a good thing. Naturally, there was no reason to object.

The plot of land at the former site of the power plant on Electric Road, North Point, had already been listed as one of Hongkong Electric Group’s key development projects for the year. It was only logical to now co-develop it with a real estate giant like Hongkong Land Group.

Besides, any opposition from the other directors would be useless. Lin Haoran, the Chairman, and Chen Shoulin, the Executive Director, had both agreed to the partnership plan.

Lin Haoran’s 49.9% stake gave him the highest voting power in the group. Combined with the voting rights held by Executive Director Chen Shoulin, any unified opposition from the others would be futile.

At 9:30 AM on February 8th, Lin Haoran left his villa on Severn Road by car.

His destination was Connaught Centre in Central, the headquarters of the Hongkong Land Group.

Before heading over, Lin Haoran had already called Chen Shoulin to arrange a meeting in the ground-floor lobby of Connaught Centre.

Upon arriving at Connaught Centre, he saw Chen Shoulin, who had arrived early. Standing beside Chen Shoulin was the head of Hongkong Electric Group’s legal counsel.

The three men, accompanied by their bodyguards, took an elevator straight to the 51st floor.

The 51st floor was where Bao Fuda, the general manager of Hongkong Land Group, had his office. All of Hongkong Land’s executive offices and boardrooms were located on this floor.

After stepping out of the elevator, they were guided by a staff member and soon arrived at Bao Fuda’s office.

Inside the office, Lin Haoran saw not only Bao Fuda, the general manager of Hongkong Land Group, but also Newbiggin, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. Besides them stood several other Westerners. Judging from their attire, they were likely senior executives or shareholders of Hongkong Land Group.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Chen, you’re here.” Seeing the two of them, Bao Fuda stood up from his chair and greeted them enthusiastically.

Newbiggin also rose, walked over to Lin Haoran, and shook his hand.

“Mr. Lin, we’ve prepared the initial draft of the partnership agreement. In a moment, you and Mr. Chen can join us in the conference room next door. We’ll review the agreement in detail there, and if there are no issues, we can sign it.” Newbiggin seemed to be in a good mood.

“With Hongkong Electric Group and Hongkong Land Group working together, we’ll all be on the same side from now on!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

As it was about time, the group left the office and walked a dozen meters down the corridor, finally arriving at a conference room that was well over one hundred square meters.

In the conference room, Lin Haoran, Chen Shoulin, and the head of Hongkong Electric Group’s legal counsel represented their side.

On the Hongkong Land Group’s side were Newbiggin, Bao Fuda, and their legal counsel.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Chen, we’ve clearly written the conditions and details of our cooperation into the agreement. Please take a look. If you find anything inappropriate, we can amend it at any time. Once it’s settled, we can sign the agreement!” Bao Fuda handed several copies of the draft agreement to Lin Haoran and his team.

Newbiggin and his colleagues didn’t look at the copies; it was clear they had already reviewed the contents carefully after it was drafted.

The previous afternoon, after his call with Lin Haoran, Chen Shoulin had stayed at the Hongkong Electric Group Headquarters to discuss the details with Bao Fuda at length, so there was little left to negotiate today.

Lin Haoran, Chen Shoulin, and the head of Hongkong Electric Group’s legal counsel all examined every clause and detail of the draft agreement with intense focus, determined not to miss any oversight.

Lin Haoran quickly scanned through it and personally found no obvious problems, so he waited quietly for Chen Shoulin and the group’s legal counsel to conduct a more thorough review.

A few minutes later, the head of legal counsel spoke slowly, “Chairman, Director Chen, this agreement is largely perfect. There is just one minor point I suggest we adjust slightly.

Specifically, it’s Article Five, which stipulates that Hongkong Electric Group must give priority consideration to Jardine Matheson & Co. when selling its shares.

I suggest we add a condition to this: that is, Jardine Matheson & Co. has the right of first refusal, but if the purchase price proposed by Jardine Matheson does not meet our expectations, and another buyer is willing to offer a higher price, we should retain the right to sell to the higher bidder.

This modification would ensure our flexibility in the transaction while also demonstrating full consideration for the interests of all parties.”

Upon hearing this, both Lin Haoran and Chen Shoulin nodded in agreement, expressing their admiration for the legal counsel’s professional insight and meticulous consideration.

Indeed, a professional was a professional. He had spotted the issue at a glance. Amending it this way was a sufficiently cautious move.

Next, Chen Shoulin handed the agreement to Bao Fuda and Newbiggin, then said with a smile, “Gentlemen, you’ve heard the issue our legal counsel just raised. Any problem with adding the condition he mentioned?”

The legal counsel’s meaning was simple: although Jardine Matheson had the right of first refusal, they couldn’t be the ones to dictate the final share price. Otherwise, wouldn’t Hongkong Electric Group be left with no pricing power?

Of course, in reality, Lin Haoran had no intention of selling the Hongkong Land Group shares held by Hongkong Electric to anyone.

He wasn’t particularly concerned about this clause.

However, Lin Haoran was very supportive of the change, because it would prevent others from thinking he had designs on Hongkong Land Group.

“This clause can be added, but we need to set a reasonable cap on the share price to ensure the transaction is fair and transparent. I propose setting the transaction cap at 120% of the real-time share price. For example, if the current price is 5 Hong Kong dollars per share, the highest bid cannot exceed 6 Hong Kong dollars per share.

We don’t know if you might deliberately strike a secret deal with someone else. If you first propose a price we can’t accept, and then engage in backroom dealings to sell the shares to another financial group with unclear intentions, that would be very disadvantageous for us.

To avoid potentially unfair transactions, this is our bottom line. Otherwise, our right of first refusal would be nothing but a meaningless gesture.” As the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., Newbiggin quickly grasped the key point.

“I can agree, but I hope to raise this transaction cap from 120% to 130%. A 120% cap is too low!” Lin Haoran said without hesitation.

He hoped these actions would lower Jardine Matheson & Co.’s guard against him, allowing him to better lay his groundwork for a move on Hongkong Land Group in secret.

As for selling the shares to someone else, that was simply impossible.

Why would he sell them to others when he could acquire Hongkong Land Group himself?

“Alright, I agree to that as well!” Newbiggin replied directly.

An additional 10% cap wouldn’t have a significant impact on them.

In Newbiggin’s view, Hongkong Electric Group couldn’t be becoming a shareholder in Hongkong Land just to sell the shares for cash. How would that be any different from them simply investing cash directly into their joint real estate development company?

He believed the reason Hongkong Electric Group insisted on this condition was likely as a precaution in case they faced financial difficulties in the future. Only then would they be forced to sell their stake in Hongkong Land Group. Otherwise, it wouldn’t make sense to propose such a condition.

In the end, both parties had no further objections.

Soon, the amended agreement was ready.

After another review confirmed there were no more issues, two copies were prepared, and everything was set.

“Taipan, the media we invited have arrived. They are waiting outside,” an assistant came in and said softly to Newbiggin.

“Invite them in. Our signing ceremony is about to begin,” Newbiggin said directly.

“Yes, Taipan!”

A moment later, several reporters carrying cameras walked in from outside. Judging from the logos on their clothing, they were from three newspapers: the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, the South China Morning Post, and The Asian Wall Street Journal. There weren’t many of them.

Conversely, there were no reporters from the Oriental Daily News, the newspaper with the largest circulation in Hong Kong. It was clear these British-funded conglomerates didn’t hold the Oriental Daily News in high regard.

Everyone knew that although the Oriental Daily News had long held the top spot for sales in Hong Kong, its reputation was not very good due to the influence of the Ma family that controlled it. It was normal for these British conglomerates not to invite them.

Inviting these reporters was clearly just a way for Hongkong Land to announce the partnership to the public through journalists they had long-standing relationships with; there was no need for too many.

Each party held a copy of the agreement. Witnessed by the reporters, Lin Haoran and Chen Shoulin signed on behalf of their side, while Newbiggin and Bao Fuda signed for theirs.

Afterward, Lin Haoran shook hands with Newbiggin, and Chen Shoulin shook hands with Bao Fuda. As the reporters snapped photos, the deal was officially concluded.

At this point, the reporters were still unaware of the specific details of the transaction.

It wasn’t until the Q&A session that Bao Fuda, as the host, explained the details of the partnership.

Instantly, the few reporters knew a big story had just landed.

Who would have thought that after coming under the control of a Chinese-owned enterprise, Hongkong Electric Group would become a shareholder in Hongkong Land Group?

Over 6% of the shares was no small amount. Among Hongkong Land’s publicly known shareholders, this would rank in the top five.

Jardine Matheson & Co., the major shareholder, naturally owned the most shares. Originally, together with its subsidiary Jardine Securities, it controlled about 20% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares.

However, after this round of financing, their shareholding had been appropriately diluted, leaving them with only about 18.72%.

Of course, given Jardine Matheson & Co.’s current cautious attitude, they would definitely increase their shareholding again; it was unlikely they would settle for just 18.72% of Hongkong Land’s stock.

The reporters quickly jotted down these details. They knew that once this news was released, it would definitely stir up intense discussion among the citizens of Hong Kong.

One of the protagonists, Mr. Lin Haoran, the Chairman of Hongkong Electric Group, was a young man from Hong Kong who had produced one piece of astounding news after another.

“Mr. Lin, on behalf of the Hongkong Land Group, I invite you to become a member of our Board of Directors!” Newbiggin extended the invitation sincerely in front of the reporters.

The moment this deal was struck, it was a well-deserved honor for Lin Haoran, representing Hongkong Electric Group, to become a member of the Board of Directors of Hongkong Land Group.

After all, controlling 6.4% of Jardine Group’s shares—if that didn’t warrant a board seat, it would be outrageous.

“I am deeply honored to become a member of the Hongkong Land Group’s Board of Directors!” Lin Haoran said solemnly.

As Lin Haoran’s voice fell, a round of enthusiastic applause immediately erupted, welcoming the addition of this new Director.

The members of Hongkong Land’s Board of Directors were all present. They had, of course, already made this decision in a prior board meeting. Now was simply an opportunity, with reporters present, to announce it to the outside world.

Lin Haoran knew that Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson Group would implement a strategy of mutual control through cross-shareholdings within the year at the earliest. This was likely a defensive strategy hastily adopted in response to persistent market rumors about Chinese entrepreneurs planning to team up to acquire Hongkong Land or even Jardine Matheson.

Currently, such rumors had not yet started to circulate, so Newbiggin naturally hadn’t begun to implement this strategy.

But after becoming a member of the Hongkong Land Group’s Board of Directors, Lin Haoran would be the first to know about such developments. As a board member, Newbiggin couldn’t hide these matters from him.

Therefore, joining the Hongkong Land Group’s Board of Directors was extremely advantageous for him.

It was equivalent to Lin Haoran planting an informant inside Hongkong Land Group—and that informant was none other than himself!

Any major decisions made by Hongkong Land Group would require his participation.

This way, he would have more time to formulate a response.

Now, his confidence in acquiring Hongkong Land Group had grown even stronger!

Chapter 176: Li Jiacheng Sets His Sights on Hongkong Land Group

Just as expected, the news that Hongkong Land Group was partnering with Hongkong Electric Group through an equity investment to develop the old power plant site on Electric Road in North Point spread throughout all of Hong Kong the next morning, following reports in the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, the South China Morning Post, and The Asian Wall Street Journal.

To prevent anyone else from getting ideas about Hongkong Electric Group’s shares in Hongkong Land, at Hongkong Land Group’s specific instruction, all three newspapers made it a feature story.

Essentially, this condition eliminated any possibility of future interested parties trying to purchase shares from Hongkong Electric Group if they wanted to make a play for Hongkong Land Group.

After waking up in the morning, Lin Haoran habitually began reading the newspaper.

The one in his hands was a copy of the Hong Kong Commercial Daily.

It was one of the papers he read every day without fail.

On the front page, a photo of him shaking hands with Newbiggin was the headline feature.

Both Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group were top-tier publicly listed companies in Hong Kong. A partnership between them was enough to attract widespread attention. The fact that a young Chinese entrepreneur like Lin Haoran was involved only added more fuel to the discussions surrounding the news.

After carefully reading the article, he noted that the Hong Kong Commercial Daily had reported the facts truthfully, without any sensationalism, basically providing a detailed account of the partnership between Hongkong Electric Group and Hongkong Land.

From now on, Chen Shoulin would represent Hongkong Electric Group in discussions with Hongkong Land Group on how to proceed with the development of the Electric Road power plant, so Lin Haoran didn’t need to worry about it too much.

Therefore, after signing the agreement, Lin Haoran no longer had to concern himself with the matter. Chen Shoulin would report to him periodically on the partnership’s progress.

Today was February 9th, a Saturday, which meant the stock market was closed.

Thus, the office of Universal Investment Company was also closed.

Lin Haoran glanced at the drizzling rain outside and immediately dismissed any thoughts of going out.

The continuous spring rain nourished the earth, but it was rather inconvenient for getting around.

In North Point, inside a residential building near Fortress Hill.

Li Lizhen was at home with two of her best friends from school, reading comics and chatting. It was the weekend, so they didn’t have to go to school.

“Lizhen, that handsome guy you met on the way back from Lamma Island said he wanted to invite you to shoot an ad. How come we haven’t heard anything about it since?” the taller girl asked curiously.

“Oh, that. I told my mother about it when I got home, and she was worried I’d run into a scammer. After all, even though we knew they were from Hongkong Electric Group, we didn’t know his specific identity. What if he was lying? So I never went. To be honest, I really wanted to. If it was real, just imagine—promotional posters for Hongkong Electric Group plastered all over Hong Kong Island. Wouldn’t I become a celebrity? How cool would that be!” Speaking of this, Li Lizhen’s voice was filled with both regret and longing.

“That’s true. He didn’t even say who he was. Who knows who he is? Just walk into the Hongkong Electric Group Headquarters and say you’re there to shoot an ad? People would probably think you’re crazy!” the tall girl laughed.

It wasn’t her who got the chance anyway. That’s how many best friends were—they just didn’t want to see the other person doing better than them.

“Lizhen, Xiaofeng, look! The young man in this newspaper looks so familiar. Isn’t he the handsome young guy we met on the ferry back from Lamma Island? If he hadn’t agreed, we would have had to wait there all afternoon to get back,” said another friend, who was reading the paper, her voice filled with surprise.

“Where, where? Let me see.” Li Lizhen and the girl named Yang Xiaofeng were immediately drawn over.

“Ah, the Chairman of Hongkong Electric Group?”

“Holy crap, the guy we met that day was actually the boss of Hongkong Electric Group? A chairman of such a big company at his age?”

“This is insane! I can’t believe I didn’t recognize such an important person.”

“There was some news a while back about Hongkong Electric Group getting a new Chairman. It seemed to cause a huge stir. I even heard my dad talking about it with his friends, but I never paid close attention. I can’t believe it was him.”

“Lizhen, you’re going to be rich! I can’t believe you were noticed by a handsome, domineering CEO who wants you to shoot an ad. I’m so jealous.”

“How is he domineering? Wasn’t he really nice and easy to talk to? He was quite funny, too. But speaking of which, he is pretty handsome. It’s a pity he wasn’t interested in me. It would have been great if he’d asked me to shoot the ad. I might have some spots on my face, but I’m not ugly. Plus, I’m taller than Lizhen and my figure is slimmer.”

“You’re not ugly, but look at you—no boobs, no butt. No wonder he wasn’t interested in you.”

“You’re the one with no boobs! Your whole family has no boobs!”

Instantly, the room filled with the sounds of teasing and playful squabbling.

After a long while, Li Lizhen said, “I want to seize this opportunity. I might stop studying in a couple of years. If I can really become famous by shooting this ad, at least I’ll have a clear path for the future and won’t have to worry about what job to do. Now that his identity is confirmed, I finally know the invitation was real. No wonder that guy who looked like a manager had to listen to him.”

“There’s a picture of the manager who was about to turn us away that day. He really is a manager! He’s the general manager and Executive Director of Hongkong Electric Group. We were so lucky! To think we’d meet the two most powerful big shots of Hongkong Electric Group just by taking a ferry,” her friend added.

“Lizhen, you might become a celebrity. Don’t forget us when you’re rich and famous!”

“Don’t worry! We’re the best of friends. Even if I become a star, I’ll never forget you guys!”

…

Deep Water Bay villa district, the Li family villa.

In the morning, Li Jiacheng woke up early. It was Saturday, and there was nothing major to handle at Cheung Kong Holdings Group. As for Hutchison Whampoa, the time was not yet ripe for him to take control. So, he had a rare day to spend at home with his wife and children.

“Hongkong Land Group is collaborating with Hongkong Electric Group to develop the old power plant site on Electric Road in North Point through issuing new shares as financing?” Seeing this news, Li Jiacheng couldn’t help but frown.

He had previously contacted Mr. Chen Shoulin, the former Chairman of Hongkong Electric Group, multiple times, hoping that Cheung Kong Holdings Group could partner with them to develop this plot of land.

He knew that if Cheung Kong Holdings Group successfully co-developed this land with Hongkong Electric Group, his company could make at least several hundred million Hong Kong dollars from it. And that was a conservative estimate. Given the current growth of Hong Kong’s real estate market, it was possible to make over a billion Hong Kong dollars after the development was complete!

Originally, after Lin Haoran took control of Hongkong Electric Group, he had planned to find a time to meet with him to discuss this collaboration.

He just hadn’t expected that less than two weeks after Hongkong Electric Group changed its Chairman, another company had already seized the opportunity for this plot of land—and that company was Hongkong Land Group.

In other words, the North Point project was now beyond the reach of Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

“Why would Lin Haoran choose to partner with Hongkong Land Group in this manner? Normally, collaborations are done through capital injections, but he actually went for Hongkong Land Group’s shares. Is he trying to acquire Hongkong Land Group?”

Such a bold thought popped into Li Jiacheng’s mind.

But he immediately shook his head, dismissing the possibility.

The fact that Lin Haoran was able to acquire Hongkong Electric Group was already beyond his expectations.

Moreover, many people speculated that Lin Haoran must have accumulated a significant amount of debt to acquire Hongkong Electric Group; otherwise, how could he have secured a controlling stake so quickly?

If nothing else, even the renowned Ship King, Pao Yue-kong, had incurred massive debt to acquire Kowloon Wharf.

As for himself, Li Jiacheng, he also owed HSBC money for the acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa. The deal he struck with HSBC involved only a 20% down payment, with the remaining balance deferred for two years. One could say that HSBC had practically handed Hutchison Whampoa to him on a silver platter.

It was no wonder that Hutchison Whampoa’s Taipan, Willie, had criticized HSBC’s actions: “Li Jiacheng’s move is equivalent to buying Hutchison Whampoa, worth over a billion US dollars, with a deposit of just twenty-four million US dollars.”

How could Lin Haoran possibly rely on his own funds to first take over Green Island Cement Company and then, in such a short time, follow up by taking over Hongkong Electric Group?

Therefore, the moment this thought appeared, Li Jiacheng immediately dismissed it.

“Then again, is there an opportunity for me to acquire Hongkong Land Group?” The thought grew stronger as he considered the vast portfolio of commercial properties that Hongkong Land Group controlled in Hong Kong’s core districts, such as Central, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, and Tsim Sha Tsui.

“Jardine Matheson & Co. only controls about 20% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares. Perhaps after I successfully take control of Hutchison Whampoa, I can try to acquire it! No, I need to investigate Hongkong Land Group’s detailed information immediately. Even though I can’t make a move now, I must prepare for the future!”

With this in mind, Li Jiacheng began calling his subordinates, instructing them to investigate and gather information on Hongkong Land Group.

Since 1978, first Lin Haoran suddenly acquired the British-funded, publicly listed company Green Island Cement Company, then Pao Yue-kong successfully acquired Kowloon Wharf, followed by Lin Haoran’s successful acquisition of Hongkong Electric Group. As for himself, Li Jiacheng, although Hutchison Whampoa was in the bag, he had yet to achieve true control.

Therefore, he couldn’t spare too many funds to plan for other ventures at the moment. Most of his capital was being used to stealthily continue accumulating shares of Hutchison Whampoa. His goal was to control at least 40% of the shares, which would allow him to openly oust Willie, the Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa. Only then would it be the time for him, Li Jiacheng, to truly take control of Hutchison Whampoa!

Judging from the situation in recent years, Chinese-funded conglomerates had begun to view British-owned companies as tempting cakes, and many wanted a piece of the action.

Li Jiacheng’s ambitions were naturally greater. He had regretted losing the small target of Green Island Cement Company back then, but now that he had obtained the big cake of Hutchison Whampoa from HSBC, he was still quite satisfied.

But could a single Hutchison Whampoa satisfy him?

Of course not.

At that moment, he set his sights on Hongkong Land Group.

After giving his instructions and hanging up the phone, Li Jiacheng’s gaze returned to the newspaper.

He found this young man, Lin Haoran, more and more incredible.

He first met Lin Haoran in 1978, only two years ago.

At that time, he had just been thinking of acquiring Green Island Cement Company, but a few days into his move, he was stopped by Pao Yue-kong, all because of this young man, Lin Haoran.

In the end, he made a small profit from Lin Haoran and was forced to abandon his acquisition attempt on Green Island Cement Company.

Since then, although the two had no further collaborations, Li Jiacheng had kept a close eye on the young man.

He never expected that this young man would continue to astonish him.

First, he took over Hongkong Electric Group, a British-owned giant that even he himself coveted. Now, he was using Hongkong Electric Group’s land to become a shareholder and Director of Hongkong Land Group.

“What exactly is his goal?”

Li Jiacheng knew that this young man, Lin Haoran, was definitely not simple. There had to be a purpose behind his actions. But after concluding that Lin Haoran shouldn’t have the financial strength to acquire Hongkong Land Group, Li Jiacheng really couldn’t figure out what Lin Haoran’s objective could be.

Chapter 177: Name Your Price

The Lin Haoran of today was no longer the young man Li Jiacheng could look down on, but a Hong Kong business tycoon who stood on equal footing with him.

To achieve in just two short years what others couldn’t in a lifetime was, at the very least, no simple feat.

“At this rate, it’ll take until the end of the year to accumulate over forty percent of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares. I can’t make any other big moves during this time. It’s so frustrating!” Li Jiacheng lamented, leaning back on the sofa.

If it weren’t for the need to continue spending a fortune accumulating shares in Hutchison Whampoa Group, he would have loved to make a move on Hongkong Land Group right now.

Li Jiacheng had always been skilled at planning ahead and secretly accumulating shares in his targets.

But for now, he had to prioritize the bigger picture. He hadn’t yet truly and completely secured Hutchison Whampoa, and if he diverted his attention to acquiring other companies, he feared he might end up with nothing.

Besides, Hongkong Land Group’s current market capitalization was significantly higher than Hutchison Whampoa’s. He had only managed to take Hutchison Whampoa with the support of two of Hong Kong’s biggest tycoons, Pao Yue-kong and Michael Sandberg. Otherwise, with his current strength, taking it would have been impossible.

To acquire Hongkong Land Group, he would have to rely solely on his financial power. Furthermore, wresting control of Hongkong Land from Jardine Matheson & Co. would be an even greater challenge.

These plans had to remain secret. If word got out, Newbiggin would surely become wary of him, and his efforts could be thwarted before he even began.

…

Severn Road, Lin family villa.

With no other work scheduled for the time being, Lin Haoran set his sights on the Oriental Daily News.

In his hands, Lin Haoran held a file on the Oriental Daily News.

The Oriental Daily News was the top-selling general-interest daily newspaper in Hong Kong. It was founded on January 22, 1969, by the Ma family, which at the time had triad connections.

Since then, the Oriental Daily News had always been under the Ma family’s control.

Two years ago, the founders of the newspaper, the two Ma brothers, were implicated in the case of Crippled Ho and became wanted by the police. The brothers subsequently fled to Taiwan one after the other.

After they absconded, the Ma family’s grey-area businesses were either shut down or gradually taken over by other triads, while their legitimate businesses, like the Oriental Daily News, were preserved.

Although the founders and bosses had skipped town, the Ma family still had younger members in Hong Kong. Thus, control of the Oriental Daily News was hastily handed over by the Ma brothers to Ma Xizhen’s son, Ma Chengkun.

This young man, only in his early twenties, took over Hong Kong’s best-selling newspaper under the difficult circumstances of the Ma family’s decline. It was certainly a heavy burden for him.

Having just taken the helm of the Oriental Daily News, Ma Chengkun had yet to find his footing in Hong Kong’s business world. Coupled with his youth and less mature mindset, Lin Haoran saw a potential opportunity to acquire the paper from him.

In the future, once he was firmly established in Hong Kong and his thinking had matured, it would be much more difficult for Lin Haoran to buy the Oriental Daily News from him.

The Changye Building in Wan Chai was the current headquarters of the Oriental Daily News.

After carefully reading through the information on the Oriental Press Group, Lin Haoran had a clear picture.

He decided to visit Ma Chengkun in person and see if he could buy it directly from the Ma family.

In truth, newspapers weren’t extremely profitable, but their influence was far more valuable than money.

Acquiring the Oriental Daily News would not only provide him with an excellent source of intelligence, but with its massive circulation in Hong Kong, he could also, to some extent, control public opinion through the city’s largest newspaper.

These were advantages that other industries could not offer.

And so, Lin Haoran dialed the personal contact number for Ma Chengkun listed in the file.

“Hello, this is Ma Chengkun.” The call connected quickly, and a young man’s voice came from the other end.

“Hello, Mr. Ma. This is Lin Haoran from Hongkong Electric Group. I believe you’ve heard of me?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“So it’s Mr. Lin. Is there something I can help you with?” Upon hearing Lin Haoran’s introduction, the tone on the other end immediately became respectful.

After all, this was the business tycoon who had acquired a major British-owned firm in Hong Kong, a feat beyond what his Ma family could compare to.

For the past two years, news about Lin Haoran had been a regular occurrence, and each time it was something major.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s fame in Hong Kong was anything but low.

Even if people couldn’t recognize his face, most knew of the figure named Lin Haoran. The mere mention of his name would evoke a sense of awe: “He’s the pride of us Hong Kong Chinese.”

As the boss of Hong Kong’s largest-circulation newspaper, Ma Chengkun was naturally very familiar with Lin Haoran.

“Is this a convenient time, Mr. Ma? If so, I’d like to pay you a visit. There are a few things I’d like to discuss with you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Convenient, of course, it’s convenient. I’m at the Oriental Press Group right now, on the 7th floor of the Changye Building in Wan Chai. You are welcome anytime,” the voice on the other end answered without hesitation.

“Good, I’ll see you in a bit then,” Lin Haoran replied before hanging up.

Stepping out of the villa’s main hall, he saw a light, continuous drizzle enveloping all of Hong Kong. Looking from their villa towards Victoria Harbour, the view was a hazy blur, lacking the magnificent beauty of a clear day.

“Weiguo, Weidong, let’s go. We’re heading out,” Lin Haoran said, composing himself and calling out to the two brothers.

“Boss, where are we going?” Li Weiguo asked, turning his head to face the boss in the back seat after habitually taking the driver’s seat.

“To the Changye Building in Wan Chai,” Lin Haoran said directly.

Li Weiguo had been his driver for over a year and was now very familiar with places like Central, Wan Chai, and Causeway Bay.

Upon receiving the Boss’s instructions, he started the car smoothly, and they soon left the villa, heading towards Wan Chai.

After leaving Severn Road, they quickly reached the bustling city center.

The normally busy streets now looked somewhat desolate. There were few pedestrians, and those who were out were hurrying along under umbrellas.

In just over ten minutes, Lin Haoran’s car pulled into a building with four large, gold-gilded characters on it: Changye Building.

It was worth noting that he had changed cars after returning from the United States.

Now that he was a man of considerable wealth, there was no telling who might have ideas about him, and relying solely on two bodyguards wasn’t a hundred percent guarantee of safety.

So, for security, Lin Haoran had switched his usual Mercedes-Benz for a Rolls-Royce, and a bulletproof one at that.

Bulletproof glass and a specially reinforced body and tires gave the car a profound sense of security.

It had cost him over three million Hong Kong dollars, but when it came to safety, as long as he could fulfill his potential, the money was well spent.

Besides, over three million Hong Kong dollars wasn’t a huge sum for him.

In this era, cars were not expensive to him. Even a standard Rolls-Royce Phantom series cost only a little over one hundred thousand US dollars. For someone with assets worth several billion Hong Kong dollars, a few million was truly just pocket change.

Ordinary cars like Hondas or Fords could be bought outright for as little as twenty or thirty thousand Hong Kong dollars.

His car, however, was a custom-made, extended Rolls-Royce Phantom. It was said to have been originally commissioned by a wealthy tycoon who suddenly went bankrupt and couldn’t afford the final payment before delivery. As a result, Lin Haoran was lucky enough to acquire this specially made, bulletproof Rolls-Royce in a very short time.

The license plate, with five 8s, was also something Lin Haoran had won at an auction for tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars.

After getting out of the car, he took the elevator directly to the 7th floor. As he stepped out, he saw the beautiful receptionist of the Oriental Press Group.

“I’m here to see your Mr. Ma. I have an appointment,” Lin Haoran said with a friendly smile to the receptionist.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Ma has already given instructions. He said he would come out to greet you as soon as you arrived. I’ll contact him right away,” the receptionist said, standing up respectfully. She had clearly recognized Lin Haoran.

Working at a news media company like the Oriental Daily News, the staff often discussed the latest hot topics. A high-profile figure like Lin Haoran was naturally a frequent subject of their conversations.

“No need for all that trouble. Just take me to his office,” Lin Haoran said directly.

He wasn’t concerned with such formalities. Although his status was now special, he never used it to put on airs.

Following the receptionist for about ten meters, they soon arrived at a general manager’s office.

At that moment, a young man in a suit and tie was already walking out of the office. Having seen Ma Chengkun’s file, Lin Haoran recognized him at a glance.

“Hello, Mr. Lin. I was just about to come out and welcome you. I didn’t expect you to be here already. Please, come in and have a seat.” This Mr. Ma had an excellent attitude, appearing very respectful and low-key.

Indeed, his conduct over the past two years had been very low-key, with very little news about him circulating in the market.

He had no choice but to be low-key. The two decision-makers of the Ma family had been forced to flee Hong Kong, leaving behind only the younger generation.

In the past, their family had competed with other triad societies in Hong Kong and had made quite a few enemies.

Especially in drug trafficking, fighting to the death with rivals over territory, they had made quite a few mortal enemies.

Now, with the Ma family’s influence in Hong Kong gradually dismantled and their power greatly diminished, they were afraid that being too high-profile would attract old enemies to their door.

The Ma family, once one of the four major triad families in Hong Kong, was no longer in its glory days. Without the support of their elders, life was not easy.

Considering their young age, it was a testament to their ability that they were gradually able to establish themselves in Hong Kong and stabilize their legitimate businesses here.

Faced with a sudden visit from Lin Haoran, a newly risen tycoon in Hong Kong’s business world, Ma Chengkun was puzzled but did not dare to be careless.

The Ma family itself was a notorious triad family. Even when the two brothers, Ma Xiru and Ma Xizhen, were still in Hong Kong, few legitimate business magnates associated with them.

After the two brothers fled, even fewer legitimate business people were willing to work with them. The connections they once had were now eager to keep their distance.

Now, the sudden visit from Lin Haoran, the most famous rising star in Hong Kong’s business scene over the past two years, both surprised and unsettled him. He was unsure of the other party’s intentions.

“Mr. Ma, you are truly young and promising. To take over such a large enterprise at your age and manage it so orderly is impressive. When I was your age, I was still in university!” Lin Haoran said with a smile after sitting down.

Indeed, when he was twenty-two or twenty-three, he had been studying at a university in Britain. He wasn’t lying.

“Mr. Lin, you flatter me. I’m a bit embarrassed. You are the true role model for the youth of Hong Kong. You built such a massive enterprise at a young age through your own efforts. If I could achieve even one-tenth of your success in the future, I would be more than content,” Ma Chengkun said with a wry smile.

Coming from anyone else, Lin Haoran’s words might have sounded normal, but from Lin Haoran himself, it felt a little strange. When it came to business achievements, which young person in Hong Kong could possibly compare to Lin Haoran?

Perhaps because they were both young men, although Lin Haoran was a few years older, Ma Chengkun gradually relaxed as they chatted, and their conversation became more natural.

From Ma Chengkun, Lin Haoran learned more than what was in the file. Apart from some of the younger generation who remained in Hong Kong, many had gone to Taiwan to join Ma Chengkun’s father, Ma Xizhen, and his uncle, Ma Xiru.

The reason Ma Chengkun didn’t leave Hong Kong was because when his elders fled, they entrusted most of their legitimate businesses here to him.

This wasn’t much of a secret, so Ma Chengkun didn’t hide it.

After chatting for a long time, Ma Chengkun finally couldn’t help but ask, “Mr. Lin, there must be a reason for your visit today, right?”

He had wanted to ask this question from the moment he met Lin Haoran but had held back, thinking Lin Haoran would bring it up himself.

Unexpectedly, not only did Lin Haoran not bring it up, but he also kept subtly probing him about the Ma family’s affairs.

“Since you’ve brought it up, Mr. Ma, I’ll get straight to the point. I did indeed come here today with a clear purpose. I want to acquire the Oriental Press Group, which your Ma family currently controls. As for the price, feel free to name one. We can negotiate,” Lin Haoran stated bluntly.

Chapter 178: The Ma Brothers’ Decision

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Ma Chengkun was taken aback.

He had suspected that Lin Haoran had a purpose in coming here today, but he never imagined that his target was the Oriental Daily News.

This left him at a loss, unsure how to respond for a moment.

Although he had grown up witnessing the ferocity of his father’s generation in the underworld, the Ma family could no longer afford to be so bold. When his father left Hong Kong, he had warned him to always keep a low profile.

Therefore, he had strictly followed his father’s instructions. The past two years had been relatively peaceful, and under his control, the Oriental Daily News had not fallen into disarray.

Of course, he was merely the owner of the Oriental Daily News. In reality, he was well aware that he was too young and had almost no experience in business management. Thus, when it came to managing the Oriental Daily News, he was very good at delegating authority, allowing a professional manager to handle the company’s daily operations.

Moreover, whenever he encountered a problem he couldn’t handle, he would call his father or uncle, who were far away in Taiwan.

In these two years, although he was still very young, he had matured and become much more composed.

After a moment, Ma Chengkun finally shook his head and said, “Mr. Lin, our Ma family has no intention of selling the Oriental Press Group.”

The Ma family was not short of money. They had already raked in a fortune from their drug trade in the past, not to mention other gray-area industries like gambling.

Although the Ma family had abandoned these businesses two years ago, in the preceding decade, as one of the Four Great Triad Families, the money they had earned was no less than what most ordinary wealthy people made.

However, much of this money couldn’t see the light of day, and they had no choice but to launder it through legitimate enterprises.

“Mr. Ma, I know your current situation is not an easy one. As far as I know, your father’s generation made quite a few enemies. Although the police have intensified their crackdown on triad societies with the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption in recent years, leading to the dismantling of many triads and a significant reduction in their power, many of your rivals are still doing quite well.

If I were you, Mr. Ma, I would be worried about the safety of myself and my family. Obviously, leaving Hong Kong and going to Taiwan to join your father is the safest course of action. Have you considered leaving Hong Kong to reunite with your father?

You can do business anywhere; you don’t have to stay in Hong Kong. Sell the Oriental Press Group to me, and you won’t have too many ties here. You can then focus on developing your career on your father’s side with peace of mind.” Lin Haoran knew he wouldn’t agree easily, so he continued to speak with a smile.

After hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Ma Chengkun was indeed deeply affected. The past two years had been difficult for him. He rarely went out, usually confining his activities to the company and his home. He had even secretly dug a hidden tunnel in his villa, just in case any enemies came seeking revenge, so that he and his family could escape in time.

However, the Ma family was clearly unwilling to completely withdraw from Hong Kong. They held onto the hope that one day the Ma brothers could return from Taiwan openly and legitimately.

At the same time, by owning the Oriental Daily News, Hong Kong’s best-selling newspaper, they could control public opinion to some extent and improve the Hong Kong public’s impression of their family. To put it simply, they hoped to gradually whitewash their reputation.

After all, they could no longer engage in the drug trade, and constantly bearing the weight of that crime was not pleasant.

Although the possibility of the Ma brothers returning to Hong Kong openly was slim, Ma Chengkun, who had been a filial son since childhood, still wanted to keep that possibility alive.

At this moment, he was in a difficult position, unsure how to deal with Lin Haoran, this newly-risen tycoon of the Hong Kong business world.

Ma Chengkun knew that if he wanted to develop his prospects in Hong Kong, it would be best to be on good terms with a figure like Lin Haoran. This would surely make it easier for the Ma family to navigate the Hong Kong business world in the future.

But he was truly unwilling to sell the Oriental Daily News.

Perhaps it would be better to let my father decide this matter. Besides, it’s not my place to make such a decision on my own, Ma Chengkun thought to himself.

With this in mind, Ma Chengkun said to Lin Haoran, “Mr. Lin, I need to consult my father about this.”

“Of course. If you can, Mr. Ma, you could call your father right now,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

Ma Chengkun did not refuse. He walked over to his desk and dialed his father, Ma Xizhen’s, frequently used contact number in Taiwan.

After Ma Xizhen fled to Taiwan in 1978, he was arrested again for “entering with a fraudulent document” and spent a year in prison. He had just been released a few months ago.

However, this one-year sentence was nothing compared to Crippled Ho’s thirty years.

Decades later, in his old age, Ma Xizhen’s greatest wish would be to return to Hong Kong for a visit. But for now, he had not yet reached the stage of wanting to return to his homeland in old age, so he naturally didn’t have such thoughts.

Ma Xizhen was only in his forties now. At this time, he was rather grateful that he had managed to escape, avoiding a sentence of several decades like Crippled Ho.

Lin Haoran sat on the sofa, crossing his legs as he watched Ma Chengkun make the call from a distance, making no move to get closer and listen.

At the same time, he curiously observed the office, which was over one hundred square meters large.

Though spacious, the office was sparsely furnished and not as luxurious as one might imagine.

The entire office was divided into two areas: the reception area where Lin Haoran sat, and Ma Chengkun’s work area.

From the decor, one could see that the current Ma Chengkun was indeed keeping a low profile, both in his actions and his demeanor.

He had no choice but to be low-key. As far as Lin Haoran knew, the only remaining asset of the Ma family in Hong Kong was this Oriental Press Group.

Just as Lin Haoran had said, if the Ma family sold the Oriental Press Group, they would truly have no more ties in Hong Kong and could withdraw the entire family.

Meanwhile, in an apartment in Taipei City, seven or eight hundred kilometers away, Ma Xizhen was on the phone with his son, Ma Chengkun.

Ma Xizhen was also quite surprised to learn that Lin Haoran wanted to acquire the Oriental Press Group.

He hadn’t expected someone to set their sights on the Oriental Press Group.

Back when the two Ma brothers fled, the reason they didn’t bring the younger generation like Ma Chengkun with them was that they knew their children had not committed any crimes. The family’s past misdeeds had nothing to do with them, so leaving them in Hong Kong posed little risk, at least they wouldn’t be arrested by the police.

Besides that, the most important reason was that after arriving in Taiwan, they had no foundation there at all. Moving the entire family to Taiwan was fraught with too many uncertainties, and under such uncertain conditions, they were unwilling to risk a total wipeout.

Therefore, before leaving Hong Kong, they decided to leave their wife and children behind.

After getting out of prison, he had paid special attention to matters in Hong Kong and naturally knew about the newly risen figure, Lin Haoran.

Such a figure was beyond their imagination—a true Hong Kong tycoon, the kind of status that they, as triad society bosses, yearned for the most.

Unfortunately, once a gangster, always a gangster. They were self-aware enough to know this.

After learning of Lin Haoran’s intentions, even Ma Xizhen hesitated.

Should they sell the Oriental Press Group?

He knew that his son hadn’t had an easy time these past two years, which worried him greatly. Moreover, their power base in Hong Kong had essentially been disbanded, and their former connections were gradually becoming useless, while many of the enemies they had made were still openly acting as triad society bosses.

So, during his two years in prison, he had considered whether to bring his wife and children to Taiwan for their safety, but he had never made a final decision.

As time went on, the two brothers gradually established themselves in Taipei. They each used their laundered criminal proceeds to open several legitimate companies.

“Chengkun, wait a moment. I need to call your uncle and discuss this with him first,” Ma Xizhen finally said.

“Alright, Dad, I’ll wait for your news,” Ma Chengkun replied.

By handing the decision over to his elders, he no longer needed to worry about it too much.

In fact, Ma Chengkun was under immense pressure as the boss of the Oriental Press Group. After all, he was too young. In the past, with his father’s generation to shield him, he barely had to think about anything and lived a carefree life.

It wasn’t until after Crippled Ho was arrested that the Ma brothers realized the gravity of the situation. Only then did they hastily deal with their assets in Hong Kong and hand over the Oriental Press Group to the then twenty-year-old Ma Chengkun.

Therefore, the past two years had been truly difficult for Ma Chengkun. The burden on his shoulders was too great, so great that it felt like it was beyond what someone his age could bear.

In his heart, he actually wished his father could always be there to support him.

Now, he just had to wait for his father and uncle’s decision. Whatever the outcome, he would accept it.

While the two Ma brothers were discussing, Ma Chengkun made a point of informing Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran wasn’t in a hurry. He continued to chat with Ma Chengkun, this equally young heir of the Ma family in Hong Kong. This time, they didn’t talk about the acquisition of the Oriental Press Group, but about the Ma family’s glorious past.

Speaking of the past, Ma Chengkun’s eyes filled with light. That was the most brilliant moment for their Ma family; being one of the Four Great Triad Families in Hong Kong was a memory he still savored.

After about half an hour, the phone rang again.

Ma Chengkun hurried to answer it.

Sitting on the sofa, Lin Haoran could see Ma Chengkun nodding repeatedly, but of course, he couldn’t hear what was being said.

He had come with high hopes for the Oriental Daily News, but he also knew that it might not work out. Since the Oriental Press Group was not a public company, he couldn’t force a takeover.

If the acquisition of the Oriental Daily News failed, he would have to turn his attention to other newspaper groups. Although their sales couldn’t compare to the Oriental Daily News, he would have no other choice.

About ten minutes later, Ma Chengkun finally hung up the phone.

At this point, Lin Haoran also grew a little tense. He wondered what the Ma family’s final decision was. Would they sell the Oriental Press Group?

Ma Chengkun returned to the sofa and sat down.

He looked at Lin Haoran and spoke, “Mr. Lin, my dad and uncle have discussed it. If you are willing to offer two hundred million Hong Kong dollars, we will sell the Oriental Press Group to you.

By the way, we are not trying to make an exorbitant demand. The reason for the two-hundred-million-Hong-Kong-dollar price is that it includes this building, the Changye Building, which is owned by the Oriental Press Group.

In addition, we also own a large printing factory in Chai Wan, and the plot of land that factory is on also belongs to our company. So, our asking price of two hundred million Hong Kong dollars is very reasonable.”

Lin Haoran nodded. Hearing that Ma Chengkun had agreed to sell, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He had already researched the Oriental Press Group before coming, so he knew that what Ma Chengkun said was true.

Without these two properties, the Oriental Press Group itself would only be worth a few tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars. But with the properties included, two hundred million Hong Kong dollars was by no means excessive.

The printing factory property in Chai Wan wasn’t particularly valuable, but the Changye Building they were in was worth over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. By the end of the year, a market capitalization of two hundred million wouldn’t even be considered high.

“Mr. Ma, I’m a straightforward person as well. I accept the price you’ve proposed. However, I hope we can close this deal as soon as possible!” Lin Haoran said directly.

He would feel more at ease once he secured the Oriental Press Group.

Besides, acquiring this company now—not even counting the Oriental Daily News itself—the two properties alone were enough to ensure he wouldn’t lose money. He might even make a considerable profit within a year.

Chapter 179: Building an Intelligence Department

After coming to an agreement with the Ma family, the next step was naturally to finalize the deal as quickly as possible.

Originally, Lin Haoran had planned to use the Hongkong Electric Group to purchase the Oriental Press Group. This would have saved him two hundred million Hong Kong dollars while still giving him control of the company—killing two birds with one stone.

However, considering the need to close the deal with the Ma family swiftly, he decided against it. If the Ma family changed their minds and the transaction fell through, all his efforts would have been for nothing.

Although he could have pushed the acquisition through the Hongkong Electric Group, it was ultimately a public company. Even with a controlling stake, he would still need to go through the Board of Directors, a process that would consume a considerable amount of time.

As it stood, he had nearly four billion Hong Kong dollars in cash, so two hundred million was readily available.

Besides, he could recoup that sum and more early next year just by selling the Changye Building, which would fetch at least three hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

The eighteen-story Changye Building was located in the core district of Wan Chai, giving it a greater advantage than the Wan’an Group Building in Causeway Bay, though its footprint was slightly smaller.

By selling that building, he would not only acquire Hong Kong’s largest press group for free but also turn a profit of at least one hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Therefore, paying for the deal out of his own pocket was still an extremely lucrative move.

From the moment the Ma brothers agreed to the deal to Lin Haoran having the Oriental Press Group’s assets audited, signing the contract, transferring the funds, and officially becoming the new boss, the entire process took just a little over three hours.

It was, by all accounts, a lightning-fast transaction.

“Mr. Ma, a pleasure doing business with you. I wish the Ma family a new and prosperous future in Taiwan!” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he shook Ma Chengkun’s hand.

“Thank you for your kind words!” After shaking hands, Ma Chengkun turned and glanced around the office. From this day forward, it no longer belonged to him.

He felt a mix of reluctance, sadness, and relief.

The sale of the Ma family’s last remaining business in Hong Kong had been so abrupt that even now, with the deal closed, it all felt slightly unreal.

Present in the general manager’s office of the Oriental Press Group were two others besides Lin Haoran and Ma Chengkun.

One was the man who actually ran the Oriental Press Group, Deputy General Manager Cui Zilong.

The other was the company’s chief financial officer, Han Ning.

Since the Oriental Press Group was a private company, a major event like a change in ownership did not require a public announcement, unlike the complex procedures for a publicly listed enterprise.

And for the time being, Lin Haoran had no intention of publicizing the matter.

As long as the senior management of the Oriental Press Group kept it quiet, the news of him becoming the new boss would not leak out anytime soon.

He had his reasons for keeping it under wraps for now.

Back when the Hongkong Land Group made that deal with him, Lin Haoran had sensed that Newbiggin suspected him of targeting the company.

Therefore, to maintain a low profile, he did not plan to make a big announcement about this acquisition, at least not for a while.

Acquiring companies one after another was too conspicuous.

Of course, now that the Hongkong Electric Group had secured shares in the Hongkong Land Group, it wouldn’t be a huge issue even if the truth came out. After all, Universal Investment Company had used discreet stock accumulation rather than openly declaring its intentions.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Cui, Mr. Han, I’ll be leaving now. We’ll meet again!” Ma Chengkun knew he no longer had any business there, so he didn’t linger.

“Take care, Mr. Ma,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, waving him off.

At that moment, the two senior executives, Cui Zilong and Han Ning, watched Ma Chengkun’s retreating back with complicated expressions.

Neither of them could have imagined that in just half a day, their boss would change, and to none other than the renowned, newly minted business tycoon of Hong Kong, Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Cui, Mr. Han, let’s sit down and talk,” Lin Haoran said with a smile to the two executives of the Oriental Press Group.

“Yes, Boss,” they replied in unison.

They followed Lin Haoran to the sofa in the office and sat down.

Neither of them dared to underestimate their new boss.

As professionals in the news industry, they were naturally very familiar with Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Han, tell me about the financial situation of the Oriental Press Group,” Lin Haoran said, looking first at Han Ning.

“Boss, our Oriental Press Group has four main sources of revenue. First is the rental income from the Changye Building. This is an eighteen-story building, and aside from the sixth and seventh floors which we use ourselves, the other sixteen floors are leased out, generating a little over one million Hong Kong dollars in rent each month.

“Second is advertising revenue from our newspapers and magazines. This brings in over two million Hong Kong dollars a month and is a relatively stable income stream, making it our company’s largest source of revenue.

“Third is circulation revenue from the sale of newspapers and weekly magazines. Whether through subscriptions or retail, the higher the circulation, the higher the income. Our Oriental Daily News is the best-selling newspaper in Hong Kong, with a minimum circulation of over one hundred thousand copies, sometimes approaching three hundred thousand. The Oriental Weekly magazine also sells between fifty to one hundred thousand copies a month. Combined, the income from this is between one million and one and a half million Hong Kong dollars.

“Fourth is book publishing, such as martial arts novels, popular science books, and so on. This can generate several hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars in revenue for us each month.

“Beyond that, we also increase revenue by hosting various events, such as press conferences and exhibitions. These activities not only boost the press’s visibility but also attract more sponsors and partners, creating additional income sources.

“Additionally, we offer value-added services like market research, data analysis, and news copyright licensing. These services also bring in some income, although not a significant amount.

“Basically, our monthly revenue is around five million Hong Kong dollars. Our business has hit a plateau, so revenue is very stable. Annually, our total revenue is between fifty and sixty million Hong Kong dollars.

“However, our expenses are also substantial, averaging around three million Hong Kong dollars per month. Fortunately, we own our property, so not only do we not pay rent, but we also collect it. Coupled with the fact that our newspaper sales have consistently ranked first in Hong Kong, our company is the leader in the Hong Kong newspaper industry in terms of both revenue and profit.

“We also have overseas operations, mainly in areas of Southeast Asia with large Chinese populations. However, because our market share there is small, the profits are almost negligible. Currently, the company has just over 5.54 million Hong Kong dollars in its accounts,” Han Ning reported, giving Lin Haoran a detailed overview of the Oriental Press Group’s finances.

Ma Chengkun had been decent enough not to withdraw the company’s available funds when he sold it to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran listened quietly to Han Ning’s report.

He wasn’t surprised that the Oriental Press Group only had a monthly profit of around three million Hong Kong dollars, and that was including the rental income from the building.

After all, he hadn’t bought the Oriental Press Group with the expectation of it being highly profitable. He was more interested in its capabilities—intelligence gathering, shaping public opinion, advertising, and so on. Those alone were worth the purchase price.

“Alright, Mr. Han, you can get back to work. By the way, keep the matter of me becoming the new boss quiet for now,” Lin Haoran instructed.

“Yes, Boss. I understand,” Han Ning said respectfully before exiting the office.

Lin Haoran turned his gaze to Cui Zilong, who was still seated nearby.

This deputy general manager was no small fry. He had been personally promoted by Ma Xizhen several years ago and was exceptionally talented in corporate management.

Though only in his thirties, he managed the massive Oriental Press Group with remarkable order, keeping the Oriental Daily News firmly in its number-one sales position in Hong Kong. It was fair to say he was a key contributor to its success.

Cui Zilong: [Loyalty: 79/100]

Judging by the loyalty score, Cui Zilong’s dedication to the Oriental Press Group could only be described as average, not the high eighties or even higher that one might expect.

However, it was possible that with the Ma family’s complete exit, he felt somewhat disheartened about the company, which could explain his less-than-stellar loyalty score.

“Boss, I was wondering what your plans are for my position?” Cui Zilong asked Lin Haoran with frankness.

He assumed that after acquiring the Oriental Press Group, Lin Haoran would want to replace the key senior executives with his own trusted people. Thus, he wasn’t very confident about keeping his job.

Still, Cui Zilong believed that with his abilities, he could easily find a good position at another company even if he left the Oriental Press Group, so he wasn’t particularly nervous.

“Mr. Cui, I’ve looked into your background, and I know you’re a capable man. That’s why I want to promote you to general manager and have you continue to manage the Oriental Press Group. As for me, you know I have quite a few businesses under my belt—Green Island Cement Company, Wan’an Group, Hongkong Electric Group—so I definitely won’t have much time to manage things here. What do you think?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Cui Zilong looked rather surprised by Lin Haoran’s words.

He hadn’t expected Lin Haoran not only to keep him on but to offer him the general manager position directly.

Although he had been in charge of the Oriental Press Group’s management before, he was ultimately just a deputy general manager, and his authority wasn’t fully reflected by his title.

But from Lin Haoran’s tone, he could tell that he genuinely intended to entrust the management to him, rather than finding someone else to take his place.

For Cui Zilong, this was undoubtedly a good thing.

“Boss, thank you for your trust. I will not disappoint your expectations!” Cui Zilong said to Lin Haoran with solemnity.

At that moment, his loyalty score rose from 79 to 85.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran nodded. Now this was more like it!

“While I won’t interfere much in the company’s daily operations, I will be paying very close attention to the situation here. At the same time, I have some important things I need you to handle. I hope you won’t let me down,” Lin Haoran said seriously, his eyes fixed on Cui Zilong.

“Boss, please give me your instructions!”

“I want you to use the existing resources of the Oriental Press Group to build an intelligence department for me. Its purpose will be to collect important information in the business world and report it to me in a timely manner. Also, when I have specific intelligence needs, I’ll direct you to acquire the relevant information. Do you understand what I mean?” Lin Haoran said with great gravity.

In this age of information explosion, we are constantly surrounded by all sorts of information and intelligence.

From news events learned through newspapers, television, or even gossip from passersby, to the ever-changing trends in the market, information is everywhere. And this information can often be the key factor in accumulating wealth.

As the famous saying goes: “Put information and intelligence first, and wealth will follow. How much you gain often depends on how much you know.” This statement precisely articulates the importance of information on the path to pursuing wealth.

The timing of acquiring information is also crucial; the earlier you know something, the greater the benefit you can extract from it.

How had Lin Haoran managed to build such a vast fortune in just two short years? It was because he was a transmigrator who knew many things that others did not!

As for his vision for the Oriental Press Group, Lin Haoran didn’t expect to foresee events that hadn’t happened yet. He only hoped that once an event occurred, he would receive the relevant information in the shortest possible time. That level of timeliness would be sufficient.

The heads of some of Hong Kong’s top business conglomerates all had their own intelligence departments—people like Michael Sandberg of HSBC, Li Jiacheng of Cheung Kong Holdings, Newbiggin of Jardine Matheson & Co., and Pao Yue-kong of Kowloon Wharf. Their intelligence capabilities varied in strength, but they all had their own sources of information.

Therefore, it was an absolute necessity for Lin Haoran to build his own intelligence department.

Chapter 180: Progress on the Four Stocks

“Boss, although building an intelligence department is identical in principle to how we gather news and information, the amount of information we can currently obtain is actually quite limited.”

“To achieve the results you expect, we’ll need to invest a considerable amount of capital into it.”

“For instance, back when the Ma family was involved in grey-area businesses, we used certain channels to get intelligence, including from Chinese Detective Inspectors, Chief Inspectors, and even some important officials in the Governor’s Office. All of these relationships required us to spend a significant amount of money to maintain.”

“But after the Crippled Ho incident, Mr. Ma had us sever our ties with most of them, so our intelligence sources are now very limited. While we get inside news faster than the average person, we have almost no way of learning things that others want to keep hidden.”

“However, it won’t be difficult for us to re-establish these connections, it’s just that it might cost an extra several hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars a month, or even more.”

“Additionally, we’ll also need to contact and reactivate our informants within the major British-owned and Chinese-owned enterprises. Only then can we acquire the business information you need at the fastest possible speed.”

“So, to meet your requirements, Boss, the company will have to spend at least an extra one million Hong Kong dollars or more each month!” Cui Zilong said directly.

Back when the Crippled Ho incident came to light, the Ma family was able to prepare in advance, and Ma Xiru even left Hong Kong ahead of time, precisely because they had their own informants everywhere.

If Ma Xizhen hadn’t needed to stay in Hong Kong to deal with those grey-area businesses and liquidate them as quickly as possible, he wouldn’t have been caught by the Hong Kong police.

Even so, he ultimately escaped Hong Kong safely and fled to Taiwan.

The intelligence department built by the Ma family was instrumental in all these successes.

And this department had been secretly established by the Oriental Press Group.

Although its capabilities had been significantly reduced, its foundation was still solid. Rebuilding an intelligence department sufficient for Lin Haoran’s needs wouldn’t be very difficult; it would just cost more money.

“Alright. In that case, I’ll put you in charge of this. But remember, you need to be cautious about these things. Don’t leave too many loose ends when you do anything. I don’t want to get into too much trouble,” Lin Haoran emphasized.

An extra expenditure of over a million Hong Kong dollars a month wasn’t something he cared much about, as long as the investment yielded a sufficient return.

“Rest assured, Boss. I have experience with this. I was involved when the Ma family built their intelligence department back in the day, and it won’t be hard to get back in touch with those informants. Since you want to set up an intelligence department, Boss, I will definitely do my best,” Cui Zilong guaranteed.

After a long conversation with Cui Zilong in the general manager’s office of the Oriental Press Group at Changye Building, during which he gained a deeper understanding of the company, Lin Haoran finally left.

Going forward, there wouldn’t be many changes at the Oriental Press Group. They would continue their usual operations. Apart from the change in ownership, there were no personnel changes.

Thus, Lin Haoran’s takeover of the Oriental Press Group didn’t really change the company much, other than strengthening the development of its intelligence organization.

In the blink of an eye, it was February 11th.

Today was Monday, and the stock market was open.

Lin Haoran’s primary target right now was the Hongkong Land Group!

The 6.4% stake held by the Hongkong Electric Group had already given him a solid foundation.

If he couldn’t even take down the Hongkong Land Group with this advantage, he would be wasting this unexpected setup.

That 6.4% of Hongkong Land shares was indeed unexpected. In fact, the other party had approached him, which led to his proposal, and they ultimately succeeded in reaching a deal.

Causeway Bay, Wan’an Group Building, Universal Investment Company office.

Lin Haoran only headed out after lunch today, and his first destination was Universal Investment Company.

The original Federation Building, now the New Wan’an Building, was still under intense renovation. Therefore, both Wan’an Group and Universal Investment Company were still operating from their original offices.

It would be at least the end of the month before they could move.

By the time he arrived, the stock exchange’s midday break had ended, and the afternoon trading session had officially begun.

The office was organized into several small teams, each responsible for a specific task. Members of one team were not allowed to communicate about their assignments with members of other teams.

As professionals in the industry, everyone naturally knew what could and could not be said. They had all signed confidentiality agreements and were bound to observe at least a basic level of professional ethics. If they were to casually leak information, not only would they be unable to survive in this industry, but if discovered, they would also face enormous fines and possible jail time.

So, without a sufficient incentive, these people would not normally divulge their activities.

Lin Haoran noticed that Universal Investment Company now had over thirty employees, a significant increase from the handful it had before.

Among them, at least half were very familiar faces.

Some were original members of the trading team, while others were employees who had been merged in from Wan’an Group’s securities department. Lin Haoran had seen most of them many times and was naturally familiar with them.

Besides them, there were some faces Lin Haoran didn’t recognize, who were clearly new employees hired by Su Zhixue.

Now, Su Zhixue, the general manager of Universal Investment Company, only needed to oversee the general situation and no longer had to personally participate in trading.

Walking into Su Zhixue’s office, Lin Haoran saw him studying the past pending orders and transaction records of several stocks.

Although he no longer needed to personally participate in the stock accumulation, he had to assign tasks to the traders under him. He needed a thorough understanding of each stock to better manage the overall situation and complete the tasks his boss had given them.

“Boss, you’re here.” Seeing Lin Haoran, Su Zhixue quickly put down his work, stood up, and greeted him.

Lin Haoran nodded, closed the office door, and asked with a smile, “How’s the progress?”

Several days had passed since they began acquiring the four stocks.

“Boss, this is a summary of the accumulation up to this morning’s break. I’ve compiled it all here.” Su Zhixue respectfully handed a notebook to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran took the notebook and sat down to read it.

Hongkong Land Group, Jardine Matheson & Co., Hong Kong and China Gas, and Kowloon Motor Bus—these four stocks were the current targets of Universal Investment Company.

The notebook recorded the acquisition status of these four stocks, including the total number of shares, the percentage of ownership, the capital expended, the average price per share, and so on.

Hongkong Land Group: Currently holding approximately 3.42% of shares, total expenditure of 267.2 million Hong Kong dollars.

Jardine Matheson & Co.: Currently holding approximately 1.82% of shares, total expenditure of 78.15 million Hong Kong dollars.

Hong Kong and China Gas: Currently holding approximately 2.41% of shares, total expenditure of 14.13 million Hong Kong dollars.

Kowloon Motor Bus: Currently holding approximately 2.59% of shares, total expenditure of 13.54 million Hong Kong dollars.

Seeing these figures, even Lin Haoran was slightly surprised.

He hadn’t expected Universal Investment Company’s progress to be so rapid in just a few days.

Their key target, Hongkong Land Group, was particularly impressive; they already held about 3.42% of the shares. If he added the approximately 6.4% from Hongkong Electric Group, the shares of Hongkong Land under his covert control were approaching 10%.

He was also very satisfied with the progress on the others.

The notebook contained transaction data for each trading day, which Lin Haoran could see very clearly.

This morning’s accumulation for all four stocks, in particular, was much higher than on previous days.

“Why was the trading so active today? Is there a possibility of being discovered?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Don’t worry, Boss. Most stocks saw good gains in the market today, so trading was very active. The trading volume this morning alone was greater than the entire day’s volume last Friday. We took advantage of this opportunity to accumulate shares aggressively under the cover of such huge trading volume, so there’s no risk of being discovered!” Su Zhixue explained.

Lin Haoran nodded. If the stock market remained very active, although share prices would surely rise, it would also allow his accumulation speed to increase.

In just a few days, he had already spent around 373 million here. The rapid expenditure of funds also proved that his shareholdings were growing, making the money well spent.

Of these four stocks, he was determined to acquire three: Hongkong Land Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, and Kowloon Motor Bus.

As for Jardine Matheson & Co., acquiring it was optional. He could let nature take its course, as he was more focused on Hongkong Land Group.

Hong Kong and China Gas was the sole gas supplier in Hong Kong, monopolizing the entire market. Like the Hongkong Electric Group, it had a very stable source of income. It could be said that as long as this company didn’t make reckless investments, its annual profits were very stable.

Taking over this company would provide a steady annual income.

The other target, Kowloon Motor Bus, was Hong Kong’s largest bus company. It owned numerous plots of land across the Kowloon Peninsula and was also the largest bus company in Hong Kong.

In fact, there was also a bus company on Hong Kong Island, China Motor Bus, which also owned a large amount of land.

However, in terms of scale, China Motor Bus paled in comparison to Kowloon Motor Bus.

The reason was simple: the population of the Kowloon Peninsula was far greater than that of Hong Kong Island, and it was home to a large number of ordinary people, so Kowloon Motor Bus had several times more passengers than China Motor Bus.

Therefore, Lin Haoran felt that acquiring Kowloon Motor Bus would be more worthwhile.

In fact, both Kowloon Motor Bus and Hong Kong and China Gas would be coveted by other financial groups by the end of this year.

Kowloon Motor Bus, for example, would be targeted by Sun Hung Kai Properties.

Hong Kong and China Gas would be targeted by Jardine Matheson Group, though according to the original history, it would ultimately be successfully acquired by Henderson Land Development Properties.

So, there were quite a few competitors.

All of this was, in fact, a natural development trend in Hong Kong’s business world. Chinese-owned enterprises, especially real estate companies, had all made a huge profit in these years. The simplest way to expand their scale was naturally to directly merge with or acquire other high-quality enterprises, especially listed companies with large land reserves or those with stable, monopolistic income. They all became the targets of these rapidly rising Chinese-funded conglomerates.

Fortunately, it was still early in the year, and he had enough time to make his arrangements.

By the time these people wanted to enter the market and were thinking about how to take over these companies, he might have already accumulated enough shares.

This was the advantage of planning ahead.

He stayed at Universal Investment Company for the entire afternoon, only leaving after the stock market closed.

The afternoon trading was not as active as the morning, and the pace of accumulation slowed down again.

But this was all very normal. The stock market itself was highly volatile. The slightest rumor could immediately affect the rise and fall of a single stock or even the entire market.

Leaving the Wan’an Group Building, Lin Haoran took a car directly to the Hongkong Electric Group.

In the general manager’s office at the Hongkong Electric Headquarters Building, Chen Shoulin was approving documents. When he saw Lin Haoran walk in, he put down his work.

“Boss, I was just about to call you. I have something important to report,” Chen Shoulin said with a smile.

Chapter 181: Jardine Matheson Becomes Hongkong Electric’s Rival Once More

Hearing there was something important to report, Lin Haoran immediately perked up.

“What is it? Tell me in detail,” he asked curiously after pulling out an armchair in front of his desk and sitting down.

“A few years ago, our Hongkong Electric Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. planned to jointly acquire another long-established public utility, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. We secretly accumulated a portion of its shares and hoped to launch a full takeover bid with cash and stock.

However, we faced strong opposition from the Hong Kong and China Gas’s Board of Directors. Since the board held a majority controlling stake, even with all the capital Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Electric Group had, we couldn’t proceed with the acquisition without their consent. The full takeover ultimately failed. The whole affair caused quite a stir at the time. As a result, we still hold the shares of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company that we acquired from the secondary market, which amounts to about 7.2% of the total shares. These shares were never sold off.

Just this afternoon, Mr. Newbiggin, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., called me. He hopes we will sell our portion of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company shares to them, as they intend to launch a fierce attack on the company. I need to know your thoughts on this matter, Boss.

Like us, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company has stable earnings. And because it’s a monopolistic public utility listed in Hong Kong, supplying the entire market, its performance is very reliable. In the few years we’ve held their shares, they’ve paid dividends basically every year or two. Over five years, we’ve received nearly ten million Hong Kong dollars in dividends.

Therefore, I advise against selling the shares to Jardine Matheson & Co. I believe this is a more profitable investment than most, a high-quality asset with no possibility of loss. Even if they offer a premium, I recommend we don’t sell. In fact, cooperating with them on another acquisition attempt might be a good move.” Chen Shoulin reported in detail.

A company like Hong Kong and China Gas, because it hadn’t pursued diversified development or market expansion like the Hongkong Electric Group, may not have much room for significant appreciation as its market is largely fixed. However, its revenue is extremely stable. Even decades from now, the company will still exist and its profits will remain very substantial.

“Hongkong Electric actually owns shares in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company and even tried to acquire it?” Lin Haoran was very surprised.

He genuinely didn’t know about this.

The acquisition battles for British-owned companies like the Hongkong Electric Group, Kowloon Wharf, Hutchison Whampoa, and Wheelock were legendary events involving tycoons like Li Jiacheng and Pao Yue-kong. Even Lin Haoran knew the general details of those stories.

But the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was clearly less famous than these major British-owned firms, so it was normal for him not to know much about it.

Furthermore, Lin Haoran had only been in control of the Hongkong Electric Group for a short time, and he didn’t visit often. Although he was trying hard to understand the group’s situation, there were still many documents he hadn’t had the chance to review.

He had only looked at the most crucial information, such as how much capital the group had and its monthly earnings. That was what he most wanted to know.

Unexpectedly, truly unexpectedly, the Hongkong Electric Group had given him another pleasant surprise.

After all, he was now also secretly accumulating shares in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, with the intention of acquiring this high-quality, publicly listed utility in the future.

A 7.2% stake was already quite significant.

The acquisition attempt by the Hongkong Electric Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. took place in 1975. Lin Haoran hadn’t transmigrated yet, and his original self was still studying in Britain, so naturally, he had no memory of the event.

After the acquisition of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company by the Hongkong Electric Group and Jardine Matheson ultimately failed, Hongkong Electric even retaliated.

They launched a campaign to give away electric water heaters in new residential developments. This not only increased residents’ electricity consumption but also got back at the gas company by reducing gas usage.

These instant water heaters had a high power rating of 8 kilowatts, consuming a full 18 kilowatt-hours of electricity in just one hour. Although they were seemingly given away for free, Hongkong Electric didn’t lose out at all. They also required a deposit, so the saying ‘the wool still comes from the sheep’s back’ was perfectly true.

Facts proved that this strategy by the Hongkong Electric Group was very shrewd; it not only retaliated against the Hong Kong and China Gas Company but also significantly increased Hongkong Electric’s revenue.

Of course, this retaliation clearly didn’t cause a major loss for the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

It is worth mentioning that the reason the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s Board of Directors refused the cash-and-stock acquisition offer back then, giving the two British giants Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Electric no room to negotiate, was because it was a Chinese-owned enterprise controlled by a Chinese-funded conglomerate. These Chinese directors had backbone and stubbornly refused to be acquired by British-owned companies like the Hongkong Electric Group and Jardine Matheson & Co.

And now, Jardine Matheson & Co. had not given up on the idea of an acquisition and was once again targeting the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. Even Chen Shoulin hadn’t expected this.

“Boss, it’s like this. Although we failed to acquire them back then because their board held too many shares, times have changed. After five or six years, the shareholding structure of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company has changed. The board’s stake is no longer as large as it used to be.

“Precisely because of this, Newbiggin sees another opportunity to acquire the company. That’s why he has turned his attention to our shares. If they can acquire our 7.2% stake, it would obviously be a huge boost for Jardine Matheson & Co.,” Chen Shoulin continued to explain.

Lin Haoran nodded. Through Chen Shoulin’s explanation, he was gradually understanding the history and current situation.

“We can’t agree to their request, Director Chen. To be honest, I’ve also set my sights on the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. I’ve looked into the company’s situation, and it is indeed a very high-quality listed company. It’s just that they lack ambition and have little desire for market expansion or diversified development, which is why their income is almost entirely from selling gas. Do you think we could succeed if we tried to acquire it ourselves?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Lin Haoran had long since marked the Hong Kong and China Gas Company as a must-acquire target. He would certainly not agree to Jardine Matheson trying to snatch it first.

“Boss, our company has ample funds at the moment. Aside from the portion needed for the North Point project with Hongkong Land Group, we have a considerable amount of capital available. Under normal circumstances, without Jardine Matheson’s interference, we would indeed have the ability to acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. But given the current situation, it will be quite difficult. We don’t know how many shares of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company Jardine Matheson controls, so we can’t be sure we can out-compete them.

Jardine Matheson is much more powerful than the Hongkong Electric Group. The British-funded conglomerates behind it are mostly famous aristocratic families from Britain. Although I’m not sure how many shares they currently hold in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, it’s definitely more than what we have—very likely over 10%. Furthermore, from what I could gather from his phone call, they’re already planning to continue accumulating shares covertly from the secondary market, in an attempt to take control of this Chinese-owned listed company,” Chen Shoulin said, shaking his head.

“Then tell me, if we want to acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, how can we compete with Jardine Matheson & Co.?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Boss, the best way is actually to get the support of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s Board of Directors. Over the past two years, taking advantage of the stock market surge, a few of the Chinese shareholders sold off their stocks. This has caused the proportion of Chinese-owned shares to fall below previous levels. Jardine Matheson is planning to take advantage of this vulnerability.

Assuming they hold over ten percent of the company’s shares and then successfully acquire our 7.2%, their stake will exceed 20%. If they then aggressively buy up shares from the secondary market, even the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s board might not be able to maintain its controlling stake.

In the face of absolute power, if your controlling stake isn’t secure, you are always at risk of being acquired,” Chen Shoulin replied.

Lin Haoran nodded. Chen Shoulin’s suggestion was perhaps the best way for him to acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

This was also why Lin Haoran insisted on controlling 49.9% of the Hongkong Electric Group’s shares; only then could he feel at ease, knowing that no matter how much capital others had, they couldn’t snatch his controlling stake.

Judging by Universal Investment Company’s stock accumulation of the Gas company, it seemed Jardine Matheson hadn’t launched its attack on the stock market yet. Instead, they planned to negotiate for Hongkong Electric’s 7.2% stake first, and then use their powerful financial strength to seize control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

The reason Jardine Matheson & Co. was approaching the Hongkong Electric Group for its shares at this time was because they felt they were in a ‘honeymoon period’ with Hongkong Electric. The recent agreement for Hongkong Land to jointly develop the old power plant site on Electric Road, North Point with Hongkong Electric in exchange for equity led Newbiggin to believe there was a high probability Hongkong Electric would agree.

However, this time, Newbiggin had overestimated his chances.

So what if they were cooperating? Every company has its own independent development plan. They would never give up on a project just to do them a favor because of a past collaboration.

“Are you familiar with the boss of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company?” Lin Haoran suddenly asked.

“Boss, I know both the Chairman of Hong Kong and China Gas, Li Mingze, and an important director, Li Guobao. Back in 1975, I tried to use my identity as a Chinese person to negotiate with them multiple times. At that time, I wasn’t the Chairman of the Hongkong Electric Group, but the general manager.

However, they felt that even though I was the general manager of the Hongkong Electric Group with some decision-making power, I was just a senior manager with no equity—a professional manager, that’s all. In the end, the Hongkong Electric Group was still a British-owned company, so they refused.

Although I tried my best to persuade them, I failed every time. That’s why the negotiations during the 1975 acquisition battle ultimately ended in failure!” Chen Shoulin seemed to recall the negotiations from years ago, still bitter about the failure.

“To be honest, it’s a good thing you didn’t succeed back then. Otherwise, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company would be controlled by Jardine Matheson by now,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Although it was a joint acquisition by the Hongkong Electric Group and Jardine Matheson, it was clear that Jardine Matheson would have been the dominant party in the end. The Hongkong Electric Group would have had a hard time competing with them for the final say. Five years ago, Jardine Matheson was at its absolute peak. Back then, it controlled the Hongkong Land Group and the Kowloon Wharf Group, and their combined market capitalization was something that not even HSBC could necessarily match.

As for the Jardine Matheson of today, although its strength has been greatly diminished by the loss of the Kowloon Wharf Group, as the saying goes, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse. It is still far stronger than the Hongkong Electric Group. The gap between top-tier companies can also be very large.

“Boss, I’ll reply to Mr. Newbiggin then. I’ll refuse him directly and tell him that our Hongkong Electric Group also has plans to acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company!” Chen Shoulin said.

“Yes, reply just like that. As for acquiring the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, we’ll discuss it further and figure out a plan,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

Upon learning that the Hongkong Electric Group owned 7.2% of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s shares, Lin Haoran suddenly changed his mind. He decided to use the Hongkong Electric Group as the entity to acquire the gas company.

Meanwhile, Universal Investment Company could continue to accumulate shares on the stock market, ready to assist Hongkong Electric in taking over the Hong Kong and China Gas Company at any time.

Chapter 182: To Each Their Own!

As Hongkong Electric Group’s current controlling shareholder, if the group could acquire Hong Kong and China Gas Company, it would be equivalent to Lin Haoran taking control of it.

If possible, Chen Shoulin was also in favor of acquiring Hong Kong and China Gas Company. Even just holding a certain amount of shares would be an excellent investment, as long as the company didn’t make any reckless investments.

In 1975, the cost for Hongkong Electric Group’s secret acquisition of the 7.2% stake in Hong Kong and China Gas Company wasn’t high, costing less than ten million Hong Kong dollars.

Over the past few years, the share prices of most high-quality listed companies in Hong Kong had risen several times over, and Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s stock was no exception, having multiplied in value several times already.

Just from the dividends over the years, not counting complex factors like inflation, Hongkong Electric Group had already made its initial investment back.

This alone demonstrated the high quality of Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

It was dozens of times better than leaving money in a bank, and it was completely risk-free.

In contrast, investing in other ventures carried a certain degree of risk.

For instance, Hongkong Electric Group had been pursuing diversified development in recent years, no longer limiting itself to its main business of selling electricity. Over time, it had ventured into real estate development, property management, technical services, retail, advertising, finance, and more.

Through diversified development, opening up more lines of business had indeed led to a significant increase in Hongkong Electric Group’s revenue and profits, but some investments did end up losing money.

For example, in 1978, Hongkong Electric Group loaned eight million Hong Kong dollars to a listed company. The borrower’s investment failed, leaving them unable to repay the loan. Their stock plummeted, and they became insolvent. In the end, Hongkong Electric Group could only apply to the court for a compulsory liquidation of the company, recovering just over five million Hong Kong dollars. Not only did they fail to earn any interest, but they also lost over two million Hong Kong dollars.

This example was enough to prove that investments came with risks!

Even the real estate industry, though it had been booming in recent years and allowing many property companies to make huge profits, could face a housing crisis at any time.

But Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s stable income and its monopoly on the Hong Kong market meant there was virtually no possibility of loss. It wasn’t even affected by the market economy; after all, gas was a basic living necessity. No matter how poor people were, they still needed to cook. You couldn’t just use firewood in the city. These factors alone were enough to make it the best possible investment.

After receiving his boss’s instructions, Chen Shoulin called Newbiggin directly from his office.

Whether they were selling or not, they had to give the other party an answer. It was a matter of courtesy.

At that moment, in his office at Jardine Matheson’s headquarters, Newbiggin was studying the detailed documents on Hong Kong and China Gas Company that his subordinates had submitted.

Five years ago, they had attempted to acquire this Chinese-owned public utility company, but they had failed and were forced to give up.

Just like that, five years had passed, and Jardine Matheson had finally found another opportunity for an acquisition.

Originally, the Chinese shareholders of Hong Kong and China Gas Company held over 42% of the shares and were very united. That was why Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Electric Group, even when working together, couldn’t force an acquisition of the company. It was practically impossible to acquire more shares than the Chinese-owned enterprises through the stock market.

But in the past few days, Jardine Matheson & Co. had received a crucial piece of information: the third-largest shareholder of Hong Kong and China Gas Company had taken advantage of the high trading volume and stock prices to secretly sell off almost all of their shares.

This shareholder had held an 8.8% stake in Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Both Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Electric Group held a certain number of shares, and Jardine Matheson’s stake even exceeded that of the apparent third-largest shareholder. But no one knew exactly how many shares Jardine Matheson & Co. controlled.

To this day, no one knew that besides the publicly known shareholders, Jardine Matheson, that old fox, was holding so many shares.

It was because of this news that Newbiggin once again had the idea of acquiring Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

After all, without that 8.8% stake, the Chinese shareholders would be left with only around 33% of the shares. This effectively meant that an additional 8.8% of the stock had entered the secondary market and was now in the hands of retail investors.

It was far easier to acquire shares from retail investors than from these wealthy shareholders.

A 42% stake was very difficult for them to acquire.

But a 33% stake was a different story. The probability of a successful acquisition had increased significantly.

That was why he came up with the idea of acquiring the shares held by Hongkong Electric Group.

If he could successfully acquire Hongkong Electric’s shares and add them to his own, Jardine Matheson & Co. could launch a “Dawn Raid” operation, aggressively buying up Hong Kong and China Gas Company shares on the market. This would allow them to surpass the combined stake controlled by the Chinese shareholders in one fell swoop and achieve a controlling stake in the company.

Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land had used this acquisition method many times, and it had proven effective every time!

Just then, the phone rang.

“Mr. Newbiggin, this is Chen Shoulin. After a discussion among several key board members of Hongkong Electric Group, we have decided not to sell the group’s shares in Hong Kong and China Gas Company. My apologies,” Chen Shoulin’s voice came from the other end of the line.

Hearing Chen Shoulin’s words, Newbiggin was stunned. In order to buy Hongkong Electric’s stake, he had offered a 20% premium over the current market price, which was a very sincere offer.

However, he quickly regained his composure and replied to Chen Shoulin, “Mr. Chen, if the price isn’t right, we can always discuss it further.”

“No, no, Mr. Newbiggin, it’s not a matter of price. We truly have no intention of selling. In fact, not only will we not sell, but we also plan to increase our shareholding in Hong Kong and China Gas Company,” Chen Shoulin replied.

In the Taipan’s office at Jardine Matheson, Newbiggin frowned.

What did Hongkong Electric mean by this? Did they also want to compete for the controlling stake in Hong Kong and China Gas Company?

It was quite possible. Hongkong Electric Group was now considered a Chinese-owned enterprise, and judging from the past actions of its new boss, Lin Haoran, it was very likely that he wanted to acquire Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

At that moment, Newbiggin really wanted to curse.

He had thought that after five years, and with the change in Hongkong Electric Group’s actual helmsman, they would have given up the idea of acquiring Hong Kong and China Gas Company. He never expected that, just like Jardine Matheson, they had no intention of giving up at all.

It seemed his plan to take Hong Kong and China Gas Company for himself was not going to work.

“Mr. Chen, since that’s the case, why don’t we reinstate the cooperation agreement we signed five years ago? What do you think?” Newbiggin said directly.

Chen Shoulin naturally knew what he was talking about. Five years ago, in order to successfully acquire the Chinese-owned enterprise, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, Jardine Matheson & Co. had signed a cooperation agreement with Hongkong Electric Group to work together to obtain a controlling stake.

As for the issue of who would have management control of Hong Kong and China Gas Company after the acquisition, both parties had clearly agreed at the time: the party with the higher final share percentage would become the Chairman of Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

In other words, they would take over the company together, but as for the controlling stake, it would be a competition based on their respective abilities.

Unfortunately, their collaboration had ended in failure, and the agreement they signed was naturally voided.

Now, the reason Newbiggin was bringing this up again was that he was very confident he could acquire more shares than Hongkong Electric Group.

Other than a few senior executives at Jardine Matheson & Co., no one knew how many shares of Hong Kong and China Gas Company they actually controlled!

“Alright, Mr. Newbiggin, I agree on behalf of Hongkong Electric Group. However, there’s no need to sign a new agreement; it’s not very meaningful. We’ve worked together many times, and Hongkong Electric Group’s reputation is solid,” Chen Shoulin replied with a smile.

He said this under instructions from Lin Haoran.

“Very well. Goodbye then, Mr. Chen!” After learning Hongkong Electric’s stance, Newbiggin had no desire to continue the conversation with Chen Shoulin.

At Hongkong Electric, after hanging up the phone, Chen Shoulin spoke with Lin Haoran again.

“Boss, do we really have a chance of winning against Jardine Matheson & Co.? From his tone, I’m certain they must already control a significant number of shares, perhaps even as much as 15%. We only have 7.2%, and our financial strength is not as great as theirs. All things considered, our chances of winning are very low,” Chen Shoulin asked, voicing his doubts directly.

If he were still the one in charge of Hongkong Electric Group, he would have thought this venture had absolutely no chance of success. There would be no need to agree to their proposal or focus too much on Hong Kong and China Gas Company. They could just continue holding their 7.2% stake.

But his boss had told him to agree to Jardine Matheson’s proposal, which he found rather strange.

“I can’t guarantee that either. But didn’t you say it yourself? Hong Kong and China Gas Company is a high-quality enterprise. Even if we don’t end up with control of the company, holding its shares is still a solid investment. We won’t lose money, so winning or losing doesn’t really matter,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“That’s true. In that case, let’s just go with the flow,” Chen Shoulin said with great approval.

In reality, this wasn’t what Lin Haoran was thinking at all. He already had a preliminary idea of how to take over Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Knowing that Jardine Matheson & Co. was getting involved early, Lin Haoran knew that the difficulty of acquiring Hong Kong and China Gas Company had just increased significantly.

But Lin Haoran had no intention of giving up. So what if it was Jardine Matheson & Co.?

Now, with his immense financial resources, he wasn’t afraid of this foreign firm at all!

He was even entertaining the idea of acquiring Jardine Matheson & Co. itself.

Would Lin Haoran be afraid of a potential acquisition target?

Of course not!

Since he had decided to compete with Jardine Matheson & Co., he planned to approach it from three directions.

First, Hongkong Electric Group would continue to accumulate shares from the secondary market.

Second, Universal Investment Company would do the same, also buying up shares from the secondary market.

Third, he would secretly contact the current Chairman of Hong Kong and China Gas Company, probe him first, and see if he could acquire enough shares from them directly!

Hongkong Electric Group was now a Chinese-owned enterprise, no longer a British-owned one.

Therefore, when Lin Haoran came forward for the acquisition in the future, those shareholders wouldn’t be as resistant.

If they were unwilling, there was no rush. He could just wait for another opportunity—when Jardine Matheson & Co. made another all-out takeover bid.

When Jardine Matheson made their aggressive move, the Chinese shareholders might not be able to hold on to their controlling stake. At that point, to prevent Jardine Matheson from succeeding, they would most likely choose to sell their shares to Lin Haoran.

From what he had learned from Chen Shoulin about the acquisition battle five or six years ago, Lin Haoran knew that the shareholders of Hong Kong and China Gas Company would never sell the company to a British-owned enterprise.

Originally, Lin Haoran had planned to have Universal Investment Company slowly and secretly accumulate shares of Hong Kong and China Gas Company, waiting for the right moment to strike.

But now, it was clear that this approach was no longer suitable.

He hadn’t expected the situation to force him to take over this listed company so soon.

“By the way, Director Chen, could you please give me the contact information for Mr. Li Mingze, the Chairman of Hong Kong and China Gas Company? I’d like to have a private chat with him,” Lin Haoran said to Chen Shoulin.

“Of course, Boss. Please wait a moment while I look through my contact book,” Chen Shoulin replied. He took a small notebook from his pocket and began flipping through it.

This notebook contained the network of contacts Chen Shoulin had built over decades. To him, it was a priceless asset.

This Mr. Li Mingze also had another special identity.

He was the full-blooded elder brother of Li Xiaohe, the current Chairman of Hong Kong’s Wireless Television.

And if nothing unexpected happened, Li Xiaohe would pass away from heart disease in a few months.

Contacting Li Mingze now might also prove helpful in the future when he wanted to acquire the Li Xiaohe family’s stake in Wireless Television.

Chapter 183: The Head of the Lee Family

In Chen Shoulin’s office, Lin Haoran dialed a number.

It was the work contact number for Li Mingze, the current Chairman of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

The call was quickly connected.

“Hello, this is Li Mingze. Who is this?” An elderly man’s voice came from the other end of the line.

“Mr. Lee, hello. This is Lin Haoran, Chairman of the Hongkong Electric Group. I would like to pay you a visit. I was wondering if you might have some time?” Lin Haoran stated directly.

“Mr. Lin? Of course. I’m at the Hong Kong and China Gas Company office in North Point’s Quarry Bay right now. You’re welcome to come over anytime, Mr. Lin,” Li Mingze quickly replied.

“Alright, Mr. Lee. Give me half an hour. We’ll see each other then,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The title of Chairman of the Hongkong Electric Group was indeed useful. No one would dare look down on it. He could basically visit whomever he pleased, and no one would refuse.

After all, it was a corporate giant with a market capitalization of over two billion Hong Kong dollars.

In comparison, the market capitalization of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was just over five hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

As another one of Hong Kong’s public utility companies, the reason for Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s much lower market capitalization compared to the Hongkong Electric Group was mainly because although it had an equally long history, the company had hoarded far less land than Hongkong Electric. Moreover, its land holdings were mostly small plots, and it owned fewer properties. Based on the valuation of fixed assets alone, Hong Kong and China Gas was worth much less than Hongkong Electric.

Furthermore, Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s annual profits were also considerably lower than those of the Hongkong Electric Group; it simply couldn’t match Hongkong Electric’s money-making capabilities.

The combination of these factors resulted in a market capitalization four to five times smaller than that of the Hongkong Electric Group.

“Director Chen, let’s go over together,” Lin Haoran said to Chen Shoulin after putting down the receiver.

“Alright, Boss. Give me a few minutes. I just need to give some instructions to the Director of Operations,” Chen Shoulin replied with a nod.

“Okay, I’ll wait for you in the garage. You can just ride in my car. I’ll be coming back to the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters after we’re done,” Lin Haoran said before turning and leaving the office.

The Hongkong Electric Group Headquarters wasn’t far from Lin Haoran’s villa on Severn Road, so returning would be on his way.

Lin Haoran took his two bodyguards down to the underground parking garage, got into the car, and waited for Chen Shoulin.

Before three minutes had passed, Chen Shoulin hurried down.

Li Weidong specially opened the car door for him and only returned to his seat in the front passenger side after closing it.

“Boss, this car is truly luxurious. It’s my first time riding in one. You really get what you pay for,” Chen Shoulin remarked, curiously examining the custom-edition Rolls-Royce.

Although Chen Shoulin had previously been the Chairman of the Hongkong Electric Group, he was ultimately just a professional manager.

Over the years, he had certainly earned a lot at Hongkong Electric. His base salary and executive dividends had made him one of Hong Kong’s top-earning “Working Emperors.”

However, even with his success, his assets had not yet reached the ten-million-Hong-Kong-dollar mark. He might not even be willing to spend money on a standard-edition Rolls-Royce, let alone a custom, limited-edition one that cost several million Hong Kong dollars.

“It’s alright. To me, a car is just a means of transportation. As long as it’s comfortable and safe, that’s enough,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The car quickly left Kennedy Road, heading for North Point’s Quarry Bay, ten kilometers away.

Even though it was the evening rush hour, the traffic was not congested at all.

A little over twenty minutes later, the Rolls-Royce slowly pulled into a parking spot in front of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company headquarters.

The Hong Kong and China Gas Company could be said to be Hong Kong’s oldest public utility institution. Founded in 1862, its history was even longer than that of the Hongkong Electric Group.

The company’s core business included the production, transmission, distribution, and marketing of town gas, the sale of gas appliances, and the provision of comprehensive after-sales services.

Although its business structure was simple, because it was in a monopolistic industry—being the sole supplier of gas for all of Hong Kong, serving a population of several million—its revenue and profits were extremely stable. It had no liabilities, making it one of Hong Kong’s few blue-chip companies.

They entered the building and spoke to the front desk. Soon, a staff member led the two of them to an office. On the door was a golden plaque that read: Chairman of the Board’s Office.

The staff member knocked on the door, and an elderly man’s voice quickly came from inside: “Come in.”

“Mr. Chairman, the two distinguished guests have arrived.”

Lin Haoran and Chen Shoulin had already entered the office. An elderly man had stood up from his seat and come out from behind his desk to greet them.

This was the famous head of the Lee family, Li Mingze. He was seventy-five years old and wore a pair of black-framed glasses.

The Lee family’s origins were not entirely respectable; they had made their fortune in the opium trade, which allowed them to rapidly accumulate their first pot of gold for their rise.

After Li Mingze’s father inherited the family business, he founded Hysan Development Company Limited, invested in the real estate industry, and continued to operate the opium trade.

However, from the time Li Mingze inherited the family business, the “Hysan Lee family” completely cut off all business related to opium, venturing further and further into legitimate industries.

As the heir to the Lee family, Li Mingze greatly expanded the business after inheriting his father’s Hysan Development Company Limited. His ventures surpassed the original family enterprise, totaling more than twenty large-scale industrial and commercial companies, and transforming the family business into a diversified corporate group.

Over the years, Li Mingze expanded into diversified operations, including real estate, trade, textiles, tourism, hotels, shipping, banking, trusts, gas, petroleum, telecommunications, and projects like the Cross-Harbour Tunnel between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The Hsin-Hua Semiconductor Company he founded also broke new ground for integrated circuit production in Hong Kong.

If he overlooked how the Lee family’s ancestors had made their fortune, Lin Haoran felt that Li Mingze was a highly respectable elder in the business world.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Chen, what a rare visit! Please, come in and have a seat!” Li Mingze said with a hearty laugh, pointing to the sofa by the coffee table.

“Elder Mr. Lee, we’re intruding,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile as well.

After the three of them sat down, Li Mingze curiously studied Lin Haoran, this young junior of the business world.

Although the man before him was a junior in business, no one dared to underestimate him, including Li Mingze himself.

After all, in his twenties, he had acquired two British-owned companies in succession, each larger than the last. In just two short years, he had already traveled a path that others might not complete in a lifetime. The appearance of such a person was a good thing for the Chinese-funded conglomerates, as it greatly increased their power.

Leaving aside the Hongkong Electric Group, just his position as Chairman of the Green Island Cement Company was enough to grant him a certain standing among the Chinese-funded conglomerates.

Not to mention, Lin Haoran was now the renowned Chairman of the Hongkong Electric Group.

“Mr. Lin is truly young and promising. As they say, the new generation surpasses the old,” Li Mingze said with some emotion.

Since inheriting his position as the head of the Lee family, he had led them to rapid growth, elevating them to one of the Four Great Families. He could be considered a pillar among the Chinese-owned enterprises in Hong Kong.

But compared to Lin Haoran, he felt that his own lifetime achievements were no longer something to be proud of.

Acquiring two major British-owned companies in just two short years was an absolutely glorious achievement for the Chinese-funded conglomerates.

“Not at all, it was just good luck. Compared to you, Elder Mr. Lee, I’m just a newcomer to the Hong Kong business world,” Lin Haoran said humbly.

“Turning the Hongkong Electric Group from a British-owned company into a Chinese-owned enterprise caused quite a sensation in our Chinese Chamber of Commerce. The British-funded conglomerates have always dominated the business world in Hong Kong. We Chinese all hope that one day, the Chinese-funded conglomerates can surpass them and truly become the masters of Hong Kong’s business scene. This is the lifelong pursuit of many Chinese businessmen.

“Seeing more and more Chinese entrepreneurs rise up, I feel truly gratified. It’s a pity I’m old and probably don’t have many years left. Otherwise, I would really want to fight like you young people and push the advantage of the Chinese-funded conglomerates one step further!” Li Mingze continued, clearly moved by Lin Haoran’s presence. He even sighed at the end.

The Chinese Chamber of Commerce Li Mingze mentioned was the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. Founded in 1900, this chamber was already eighty years old. Almost all of Hong Kong’s famous Chinese entrepreneurs were members, including tycoons like Li Jiacheng, Pao Yue-kong, and Cheng Yu-tung, and even Lin Haoran’s father, Lin Wan’an.

However, Lin Wan’an was just an ordinary member of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, while Li Mingze was its vice-chairman.

Despite having ‘China’ in its name, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company had actually been a British-owned company in the past—and a very pure one at that. In its early years, it was under Wheelock, but was later jointly acquired by Li Mingze and several other Chinese businessmen who eventually gained a controlling stake, turning it into a Chinese-owned enterprise.

In Hong Kong, since the majority of the population was Chinese, some foreign-owned enterprises would add the word ‘China’ to their names to win goodwill, such as the Hong Kong and China Gas Company and CLP Holdings.

Today, Hong Kong and China Gas was a Chinese-owned enterprise, but the British-funded conglomerates were still eyeing it covetously. Five years ago, they had almost succeeded in reacquiring it.

As for CLP Holdings, a company controlled by the Kadoorie family, they held what was effectively an absolute controlling stake, making any acquisition attempt virtually impossible.

“Mr. Lee, speaking of which, I was the one who represented the British-funded conglomerate in negotiations with you five years ago. In the blink of an eye, five years have passed. Looking back, it truly brings up a lot of emotions,” Chen Shoulin interjected with a sigh.

“Yes, time flies like an arrow. In the blink of an eye, I have one foot in the grave. The future belongs to young people like Mr. Lin!” Li Mingze said with a smile.

“I see you’re glowing with health, Mr. Lee. You don’t look like someone with one foot in the grave. You clearly have a long life ahead of you,” Lin Haoran chuckled.

In reality, Lin Haoran knew that this old man before him truly did not have long to live.

If he recalled correctly, he would pass away in 1983 at the age of seventy-eight. This meant he only had three years left.

Of course, Lin Haoran would not say any of this out loud.

“By the way, Mr. Lin, Mr. Chen, what brings you here today?” After so much pleasantry, Li Mingze finally got straight to the point.

“Mr. Lee, as you probably know, our Hongkong Electric Group is one of the shareholders of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. I have an idea… I’m hoping to acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. I was wondering if you had any intention of selling your shares?” Lin Haoran didn’t beat around the bush either.

“Acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company?” This caught Li Mingze completely off guard.

He hadn’t expected this to be the reason for their visit.

“Yes, Mr. Lee. Like the Hongkong Electric Group, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company is a publicly listed public utility institution in Hong Kong. I’m very fond of such companies. Although their potential for future growth is limited, their earnings are stable. This is true for Green Island Cement, Hongkong Electric, and Hong Kong and China Gas alike.

“After acquiring the Hongkong Electric Group, and given that it is already a shareholder in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, the idea of acquiring it came to my mind. I wonder what your thoughts are on this, Mr. Lee?” Lin Haoran continued to explain.

As he finished speaking, Lin Haoran looked at Li Mingze with an expectant gaze.

Of course, this wasn’t his real reason, but he had to admit, his stated logic was quite sound.

Whether it was the Hongkong Electric Group, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, or Green Island Cement, they all shared a common characteristic: they were monopolies. Within their respective markets, they had no competitors, and their income was extremely stable.

Chapter 184: So This Is the Foundation of a Great Family?

Li Mingze frowned. Although the sudden question caught him off guard, he quickly responded, “Mr. Lin, I truly have no plans to sell my shares in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. If I ever do decide to sell, I will consider you first.”

“Alright, Elder Mr. Lee. Even if the business deal fails, the goodwill remains. Mr. Lee is a senior in our Chinese business community, and I still have much to learn from you. By the way, there is something I must tell you. Jardine Matheson & Co. has set its sights on the Hong Kong and China Gas Company again.

“They approached me about acquiring my shares, but I refused. Mr. Lee, you should be aware of this. Also, I hope you will not mention this to anyone. If word gets back to Jardine Matheson & Co., they may develop a negative opinion of me.

“Since the Hong Kong and China Gas Company bears the name ‘China’ in its title, I hope it can always remain in the hands of us Chinese, not the British. For it to be controlled by them would be a great shame and humiliation for all Chinese businessmen!” Lin Haoran said with conviction.

Lin Haoran hadn’t held much hope of persuading a business senior like Li Mingze on this visit. Not everything could go as smoothly as the acquisition of the Oriental Daily News, especially when dealing with one of Hong Kong’s major business families, the Lees, who were notoriously difficult to convince.

His visit today was merely to build a relationship with Li Mingze. By getting to know each other, he was simply expanding his network.

Since Jardine Matheson & Co. was so confident in winning the competition against his Hongkong Electric Group, it meant they already held a substantial number of shares. It was only a matter of time before they launched an attack on the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and it wouldn’t be long—they might even make a move in the near future.

With Jardine Matheson’s strength, shareholders of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company like Li Mingze might not be able to withstand their offensive, and would very likely lose control.

At that point, he would have no choice but to seek outside help.

Judging by how much Li Mingze valued Chinese-owned enterprises and his past actions, he would be unwilling to see the Hong Kong and China Gas Company become a British-owned company again.

Now, Lin Haoran had left a deep impression on him and had expressed his interest in acquiring the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, which proved Lin Haoran had the capability to compete with Jardine Matheson.

When the time came, Li Mingze would naturally turn to Lin Haoran for help first.

Moreover, building a good relationship with Li Mingze now was also related to another matter.

In four months, Li Mingze’s younger brother, Li Xiaohe, the Chairman of the Board of TVB, would pass away from a heart attack. Li Xiaohe’s family would have no interest in continuing to manage TVB.

If Lin Haoran could use his connection with Li Mingze to contact Li Xiaohe’s family, he would have a high probability of acquiring the Lee family’s shares in TVB and officially becoming a major shareholder.

Therefore, it didn’t matter whether today’s discussion was successful or not. The most important thing was to plan ahead for future events and lay a solid foundation.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Li Mingze’s expression grew serious. He murmured, “Jardine Matheson & Co. still hasn’t given up?”

In 1975, Jardine Matheson & Co. had teamed up with the Hongkong Electric Group to launch an acquisition battle for the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. At the time, they had nearly succeeded. However, Li Mingze and the other shareholders had the backing of some tycoons from The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. With this external support, Jardine Matheson’s and Hongkong Electric’s joint operation ultimately ended in failure.

Since then, although both companies had continued to hold some shares in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, they hadn’t shown any further intention of an acquisition. Li Mingze had thought they had given up.

He never expected they would set their sights on it again.

“One of your major shareholders recently cashed out and exited by selling their stock, didn’t they? That’s what Jardine Matheson & Co. told us,” Lin Haoran said.

“That is indeed the case. We thought we had kept it secret enough that no one would find out for a while, and we didn’t plan to announce it. I didn’t expect the news to leak out,” Li Mingze said with a wry smile.

“Elder Mr. Lee, since that shareholder wanted to exit the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, why didn’t you acquire those shares? That way, Jardine Matheson & Co. wouldn’t have had this opportunity to exploit, would they?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

He had been curious about this ever since he learned of it. The Lee family was considered a top-tier wealthy family in Hong Kong with considerable assets. Logically, coming up with a few tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars shouldn’t have been difficult for them.

“Mr. Lin, I’ll be frank with you. Although our Lee family is large and our business extensive, our investments are also numerous. Under the name of Hysan Development Company Limited alone, we have invested in nearly one hundred companies. The family situation is quite complex.

“These include companies like the Hong Kong Tube and Metal Company, Caltex Oil, the Bank of East Asia, the Miramar Hotel, and so on. I personally hold over ninety corporate positions in these enterprises, such as director, supervisor, vice chairman, and even chairman.

“You could say that most of our liquid capital is tied up in investments, so the family doesn’t actually have much cash on hand. While we could take out loans, any investment by the Lee family requires a vote at a family meeting. I don’t have the final say on everything.

“And while the returns from the Hong Kong and China Gas Company are stable, the rate of return isn’t as high as in high-profit sectors like real estate. Therefore, some members of our family disagree with increasing our shareholding.

“Besides, at the time, I thought that if we kept it under wraps and didn’t make a public announcement, word wouldn’t get out.

“I just never expected that it would leak out in the end. Regardless, thank you very much for providing me with such important information, Mr. Lin. I owe you a favor for this.”

Li Mingze sighed.

Holding positions in over ninety companies?

Hearing Li Mingze’s explanation, even Lin Haoran was deeply shocked.

To this day, he only held positions in six companies: Hongkong Electric Group, Green Island Cement Company, Wan’an Group, Oriental Press Group, Hongkong Land Group, and Universal Investment Company.

However, apart from Hongkong Land Group where he was just a director, he was the actual controller of the other five companies.

The Lee family, on the other hand, likely held a controlling stake in only a small fraction of those companies, and were merely major shareholders in the rest.

Even so, holding over ninety positions was enough to leave Lin Haoran utterly astonished.

So this is the foundation of a great family?

In comparison, although he had substantial capital behind him, he was still too young and involved in far too few enterprises.

Of course, if he wanted to, with the funds at his disposal, he could control not just a hundred, but a thousand small and medium-sized enterprises. It just wasn’t necessary. He had no intention of investing randomly.

And it was clear that the Lee family wasn’t investing randomly either.

“Please forgive me for disturbing you so late in the evening. If there’s nothing else, we’ll be on our way. Elder Mr. Lee, let’s chat again when we have time. Your experience in the business world is invaluable, Mr. Lee. I look forward to learning some of that precious knowledge from you.” Lin Haoran glanced at the time—it was almost seven in the evening—and stood up to leave.

“By the way, Mr. Lin, you aren’t a member of The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, are you? On behalf of the Chamber, I would like to extend an invitation to you. I hope you will join us. The members of the Chamber can share resources, band together for mutual support, and promote development. It is quite influential. Joining will certainly be beneficial to your career development. I look forward to your participation in strengthening the power of us Chinese entrepreneurs!” At that moment, Li Mingze extended an invitation to Lin Haoran.

Although Lin Wan’an was also a member, his membership represented him alone and didn’t have much to do with Lin Haoran.

Now, Lin Haoran had become a renowned, newly risen tycoon in Hong Kong’s business world. Despite his youth, no one dared to underestimate him.

If a person like him could be brought into the Chamber, it would enhance its strength and give them a better footing in the competition between Chinese-funded conglomerates and British-funded conglomerates.

“Join The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong?” Lin Haoran had never really given the matter much thought.

All this time, he had been accumulating capital by leveraging his foreknowledge of the future.

With these advantages, he was destined to occupy a pivotal position in the business world, even without joining any chamber of commerce.

However, after a moment of thought, a smile quickly appeared on Lin Haoran’s face. He then said, “Alright, I accept!”

Joining the Chamber had only benefits and no downsides. Although it seemed of marginal use to him, joining would likely allow him to meet more Chinese-owned tycoons, making it easier to interact and even cooperate with them in the future.

Making money through the Chamber might not be its main benefit, but the connections were priceless.

“Excellent! Mr. Lin, you are indeed straightforward. Your word is enough! There are some procedures for joining The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. Every member must undergo a strict review. Of course, with your business achievements, Mr. Lin, the admission process will naturally not be too complicated.

“I’ll have someone at the Chamber handle the procedures for you first, and then contact you to come over to the Chamber’s office. It won’t take up too much of your time!”

Hearing Lin Haoran agree, a smile appeared on Li Mingze’s face, and his gaze toward Lin Haoran became even more cordial.

“Alright, thank you for your trouble, Elder Mr. Lee. In that case, we’ll be leaving now. We’ll visit and trouble you again when we have the time.” With nothing else to discuss, Lin Haoran didn’t plan to stay any longer.

“Mr. Lin, why don’t you stay for dinner?” Li Mingze asked politely.

“No, thank you for the invitation, Mr. Lee. We have other matters to attend to. Goodbye!” Lin Haoran declined with a smile.

The four of them—Lin Haoran, Chen Shoulin, Li Weiguo, and Li Weidong—walked out of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company headquarters. It was already dark outside.

“Director Chen, let’s have dinner together before I send you home,” Lin Haoran said to Chen Shoulin after getting into the Rolls-Royce.

“Alright.” Chen Shoulin certainly wouldn’t refuse an invitation from his boss.

“Weiguo, drive to the Joyful Abundance Restaurant,” Lin Haoran said to Li Weiguo in the driver’s seat.

“Yes, Boss!” After receiving the order, Li Weiguo started the car and headed swiftly toward the Joyful Abundance Restaurant.

Lin Haoran had been to this restaurant many times, so Li Weiguo was very familiar with the route.

“Boss, since Mr. Lee didn’t agree, why did you tell him about Jardine Matheson’s plan? By doing so, you’ve allowed him to prepare in advance. Won’t this result in neither our Hongkong Electric Group nor Jardine Matheson & Co. having a chance to acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company?” Chen Shoulin asked curiously.

“From what Newbiggin said, it’s clear they are determined to acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. This means they already control far more shares than we do, and they might already be confident of a successful takeover. Therefore, if we were to compete with them head-on, our chances of winning are slim.

“Mr. Lee and the other Chinese shareholders obviously don’t want Jardine Matheson & Co. to take control and turn the Hong Kong and China Gas Company from a Chinese-owned to a British-owned enterprise. This is our opportunity. Furthermore, I could sense from Mr. Lee’s words that he isn’t particularly keen on increasing his own stake. Once Mr. Lee and the others can’t hold on any longer, they will definitely turn to us for help. That will be our chance.”

Lin Haoran didn’t hide his intentions from Chen Shoulin and directly told him his plan.

In fact, in the world of Lin Haoran’s previous life, these Chinese shareholders of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company were also ultimately unable to fend off Jardine Matheson’s offensive.

In the end, they had no choice but to seek help from real estate tycoon Li Zhaoji. With Li Zhaoji’s assistance, the Chinese-owned enterprise successfully repelled Jardine Matheson’s attack, and the Hong Kong and China Gas Company subsequently became a publicly listed company controlled by Li Zhaoji’s family.

In this world, Lin Haoran had made his move in advance. It was clear that Mr. Li Zhaoji would not have the chance to take control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Chapter 185: Developing the Green Island Cement Plot

In a small private room at the Joyful Abundance Restaurant, Lin Haoran ordered a few house specialties. Four people couldn’t eat that much, and he disliked extravagance.

The dishes were served quickly.

“Boss, should we continue to acquire shares of Hong Kong and China Gas Company?” Chen Shoulin asked.

Regarding the acquisition of Hong Kong and China Gas Company, Chen Shoulin had decided to follow his boss’s orders rather than act on his own authority. His focus was on managing the overall development of the Hongkong Electric Group.

The Hongkong Electric Group was no longer a public company where no single shareholder could call the shots; it was now a listed enterprise with a controlling shareholder.

Although Lin Haoran rarely interfered in the group’s affairs, for a major investment project like this, his decision was paramount. As a professional manager, Chen Shoulin could, at most, offer suggestions.

Judging from the boss’s previous actions, he was targeting the shares held by the Li family.

If the Li family or other Chinese shareholders were unwilling to sell their shares to them, the Hongkong Electric Group could basically declare its acquisition attempt a failure.

It would be difficult for them to compete with Jardine Matheson & Co. by accumulating shares on their own, because Jardine Matheson likely already held a significant stake, perhaps fifteen percent or even twenty percent.

In contrast, the Hongkong Electric Group only held 7.2 percent of Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s shares. Accumulating stock on the market? There was no way they could catch up to Jardine Matheson.

After all, Jardine Matheson & Co. was one of the top three financial tycoons in Hong Kong. Jardine Securities was nearly on par with HSBC Securities in terms of strength.

As for Hongkong Electric Group, its financial securities business was a side venture at best. If they were to compete with Jardine Matheson in the secondary market, they couldn’t possibly win against its securities subsidiary.

Fortunately, the Chinese shareholders of Hong Kong and China Gas Company strongly disliked British-owned companies like Jardine Matheson & Co., making it highly unlikely they would sell their shares to them.

This was an advantage for the Hongkong Electric Group.

If they could strike a deal with the Chinese shareholders, they could easily surpass Jardine Matheson.

“Accumulate. Starting tomorrow, you will organize the acquisition of Hong Kong and China Gas Company shares on the secondary market. While we’re betting heavily on the Li family and the other Chinese shareholders, we also need to build up our own strength. The more shares we control, the better our chances of winning will be,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Not only would Hongkong Electric Group be accumulating shares, but Universal Investment Company would also continue to acquire shares from the secondary market.

He didn’t know exactly how many shares Jardine Matheson held, so the plan was to accumulate as many as possible. If the combined holdings of Hongkong Electric Group and Universal Investment Company exceeded fifteen or even twenty percent, the Chinese shareholders, when faced with pressure from Jardine Matheson, would have no choice but to sell some of their shares to him. In that case, any further efforts by Jardine Matheson would be futile.

Lin Haoran simply didn’t believe that Jardine Matheson could acquire over forty percent of the shares.

After a sumptuous dinner at the Joyful Abundance Restaurant, Lin Haoran first had Li Weiguo drive Chen Shoulin back to the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters building before returning to his villa on Severn Road.

In the blink of an eye, another night passed.

The next morning, Lin Haoran didn’t get out of bed until after ten o’clock.

He wasn’t in a hurry, not until Jardine Matheson & Co. launched its all-out assault on Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Chen Shoulin was managing things at Hongkong Electric Group, and Su Zhixue was in charge at Universal Investment Company. He had given all the necessary instructions, so there was no need for him to be too involved.

After a leisurely lunch at home, Lin Haoran finally went out.

The rain had stopped today, but the sky was still overcast. Hong Kong hadn’t seen the sun in days.

“Weiguo, let’s go to the Green Island Cement Company,” Lin Haoran said directly to Li Weiguo, who was in the driver’s seat.

“Yes, Boss!”

Half an hour later, the Rolls-Royce was parked in front of the Green Island Building.

Since acquiring the Hongkong Electric Group, he had been visiting the Green Island Cement Company less often.

After all, his largest asset was now the Hongkong Electric Group, with Green Island Cement Company taking a back seat.

“Good afternoon, Boss.” Seeing Lin Haoran, Burton, who was sitting in his office, stood up to greet him.

“Mmm, good afternoon. Have you had lunch?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“I ate in the canteen. I just got back from there,” Burton replied.

Lin Haoran nodded, pulled a nearby chair upright, and sat down.

“By the way, Boss, we’ve already submitted an application to the Governor’s Office to rezone the Green Island Cement Company’s plot in Hung Hom from industrial land to commercial land. We’re just waiting for government approval. When the time comes, we’ll need a large sum of money for the land premium payment to the government,” Burton said.

“How much is the estimate?” Lin Haoran asked.

The plot in Hung Hom was classified as industrial land. To develop it for real estate, its zoning definitely needed to be changed from industrial to commercial.

Of course, the government wouldn’t stand in Green Island Cement Company’s way. After all, if tall buildings were constructed on this plot, it would certainly improve Hong Kong’s urban image.

Conversely, if it remained a cement plant, it would undoubtedly be a major blight on Hong Kong’s cityscape.

This location was right on the shore of Victoria Harbour, directly across from the bustling commercial districts of Causeway Bay and Wan Chai.

“Our plot of land is eight hundred thousand square feet. According to current policies, the cost will likely be a little over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars,” Burton replied.

“That much?” Lin Haoran frowned.

“And that’s after a discount. The government has always been very supportive of rezoning industrial land along Victoria Harbour to commercial use to improve Hong Kong’s skyline. Plus, the cement plant causes significant dust pollution, and we often receive complaints. The government has approached us multiple times hoping we would relocate the plant, so they’re offering a certain discount. Without the discount, we’d have to pay a premium of at least over two hundred million Hong Kong dollars,” Burton said with a wry smile.

After hearing Burton’s explanation, Lin Haoran no longer thought that a little over one hundred million was expensive.

In reality, if Lin Haoran knew that in a few years, Hutchison Whampoa would pay a five hundred ninety million Hong Kong dollar premium to develop the Whampoa Dockyard plot, he would think one hundred million was even less expensive.

Of course, the total area of Whampoa Dockyard was about three times larger than Green Island Cement’s Hung Hom plot, so a price several times higher was perfectly normal.

Besides, in a few years, land premiums would rise with the tide, and it wouldn’t be at the current price.

“When can we expect to start developing this plot?” Lin Haoran walked to the window and looked out at the cement plant grounds.

The Green Island Cement plant was still in operation, but the main production had already been moved to Yuen Long. They were just waiting for the infrastructure on the Sai Kung plot to be completed, and then this equipment could be moved to the second plant in Sai Kung.

After the move, demolition and development could begin here at any time.

“In about a month, we can move to the Sai Kung site. At that point, we can start looking for a design firm to draw up plans for this plot. By the way, Boss, for this location, do you think we should develop residences or commercial buildings?” Burton asked.

“Develop commercial buildings and a large shopping mall!” Lin Haoran said without hesitation.

Building a residential complex here would be a complete waste.

This was a prime, top-tier sea view of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. By developing commercial buildings and a large shopping mall, we could collect a huge amount in rent every year alone.

Developing a residential complex, on the other hand, is just a one-time sale. It’s not worth it.

Take Li Jiacheng’s development of the Whampoa Dockyard, for example. He turned it into a massive residential complex, building a total of ninety-four apartment towers and earning five point two billion Hong Kong dollars in profit over several years.

Just five point two billion Hong Kong dollars? Lin Haoran thought that was too little. If he were the one developing the Whampoa Dockyard plot, he would never build a residential complex.

After all, he knew just how hot Hong Kong’s future property market would become!

Although there would be a real estate crisis in two years, that crisis would only last for two years. The market would soon recover and grow even faster, followed by a real estate boom lasting over a decade. There would be other property crises later on, but they would all be weathered quickly, and the market would take off once again.

Therefore, as long as he had the resources, Lin Haoran would never get into the one-time business of developing residential complexes to sell apartments.

Even though there would be property management income later on, how much money could that possibly make?

To Lin Haoran, Hong Kong’s property prices in the 1980s were still far too cheap. The potential for future appreciation was immense.

“Mmm, I think so too. But whether we develop a residential complex or commercial buildings, including the land premium, the development cost could be over seven or eight hundred million Hong Kong dollars. With Green Island Cement’s current earnings, it would be very difficult to support the development of this plot. On top of that, we also have a five hundred million Hong Kong dollar loan. Property prices are still rising now, but it’s hard to say what the future market will look like,” Burton continued.

Although Burton was indeed very skilled at running a business, he had no idea what the future trend of Hong Kong’s real estate market would be.

Green Island Cement’s current monthly profit was already in the tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars. For the company, this was the highest profit it had ever earned.

But to develop an eight hundred thousand square foot plot, build at least a dozen commercial towers and a large shopping mall on it… the cost alone could indeed reach seven or eight hundred million Hong Kong dollars. The development would take a long time, and construction costs would continue to rise over the years. By the time it was completed, the total cost could exceed one billion Hong Kong dollars.

Fortunately, they could supply the cement, a crucial construction material, themselves, which would save some costs. But steel bars, stone, sand, and so on all had to be purchased from outside suppliers.

“As for the funding, you don’t need to worry. We’ll find a way when the time comes,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He already had a plan for developing the Green Island Cement plot.

That was why, starting last year, he had Green Island Cement Company start hoarding land and property.

Building ten commercial towers here would not be easy, and it would be difficult to develop them all at once. Fully developing this plot would take at least seven or eight years, so the funds didn’t need to be paid out all at once.

Since acquiring Green Island Cement Company, Lin Haoran had barely taken any profits from it, basically leaving them for the company to buy more land and property. He knew that after 1981, the value of this land and property would at least double.

Green Island Cement Company had even mortgaged the Hung Hom plot to take out a five hundred million Hong Kong dollar loan from HSBC to purchase land and property.

After more than a year of appreciation, the market value of this plot, based on current land prices, had already exceeded one billion Hong Kong dollars, so securing a five hundred million Hong Kong dollar loan was easy.

As a result, Green Island Cement Company now held quite a few valuable downtown plots and even some commercial properties.

The purchase price for these commercial properties and plots was over six hundred million, and many were bought last year. After several months of increases, their value had also risen considerably.

Next year, Lin Haoran would have Burton quickly sell off these plots and commercial properties at the peak of the property market to cash out.

His target wasn’t high; he just needed their value to double. If they doubled exactly, they could be sold for one point three billion Hong Kong dollars. Even after paying off the five hundred million dollar loan plus interest, there would still be seven or eight hundred million Hong Kong dollars in profit.

Meanwhile, Green Island Cement Company’s cement business would continue to provide a steady income. For instance, it was currently earning ten million Hong Kong dollars in profit per month, and if they expanded further into overseas markets, the profits would be even higher.

This way, Green Island Cement would be able to develop the plot using only its own resources, with no need for Lin Haoran to invest any more of his own money.

Lin Haoran’s purpose in acquiring these companies was for them to become self-sufficient and grow on their own, not for him to have to keep pouring money into them.

Chapter 186: A Call from Government House

After chatting with Burton for half an hour about the future development plans for Green Island Cement, Lin Haoran sought out Chief Financial Officer Fok Kin-ning to get an update on recent affairs.

Lin Haoran had high hopes for Fok Kin-ning, a management elite he was grooming for the future.

Fok was currently training his successor for the position of chief financial officer at Green Island Cement. His successor was also a Chinese man, slightly older than Fok himself.

This successor’s loyalty rating was at 87. After an assessment, it was determined that he had a good aptitude for management and was well-versed in financial accounting, but he lacked senior management experience.

Once he gained enough management experience, he would be perfectly capable of serving as Green Island Cement’s chief financial officer. Therefore, Lin Haoran was very supportive of the successor Fok was training.

In an estimated two or three months, Fok Kin-ning would be able to transfer from Green Island Cement to Hongkong Electric Group.

The operations at Green Island Cement were too monolithic and not particularly strong, so there was a limit to what one could learn there.

It was better to let Fok Kin-ning go to Hongkong Electric Group sooner to learn, starting from a mid-level position, where he would grow much faster.

Lin Haoran rarely came to the Kowloon Peninsula. Since he was already here, he decided to pay a visit to the Amigo Company.

Entering February, orders for Amigo Company’s electric blankets and hot water bags had decreased significantly. In contrast, orders for fans had started to pick up again, mainly due to distributors stocking up in advance for the upcoming summer season.

As a result, the factory was not as busy as it had been.

Even Liu Luanxiong, the company’s general manager, was not occupied with order-related matters at the moment.

“Haoran, you’ve come at the perfect time,” Liu Luanxiong said, his eyes filled with anticipation as he looked at Lin Haoran. “I did some calculations. The plots of land I invested over a hundred million Hong Kong dollars in have appreciated by about fifty percent according to current market prices. In other words, if I sell them now, I can get more than two hundred million Hong Kong dollars. Recently, another property developer approached me about buying the land. I’m so torn about whether I should sell. Haoran, give me some advice!”

The real estate market was rising so quickly that holding onto these plots of land was making him nervous, fearing a sudden crash.

He knew that Hong Kong’s real estate industry had experienced a major crash between 1973 and 1974, though it had eventually recovered.

“Are you thinking of cashing out to invest in something else?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“No, I don’t have the mind for that. Although the company’s orders are down a bit now, they’ll start surging again next month and will probably return to their peak in April or May. It’s just that I’ve invested so much, sunk all my money into it, and I can’t help but worry,” Liu Luanxiong said with a wry smile.

“If you trust me, don’t sell for now,” Lin Haoran said with a chuckle. “If a real estate crisis were to occur, there would generally be signs to judge it by. You know I’ve also invested quite a bit in the real estate industry, so I’ve specifically studied the Hong Kong market. From what I can see, there are no signs of a market crash. There shouldn’t be any problems for at least a year. As for what happens after a year, I can’t guarantee anything!”

In the future, Liu Luanxiong was destined to be a business tycoon, but he was still young for now.

A tycoon who had yet to fully mature still lacked confidence in some of his judgments.

“Alright, I’ll listen to you!” Liu Luanxiong said directly.

Liu Luanxiong genuinely admired Lin Haoran, a young man several years his junior.

They had been partners for over a year, and during this time, he had watched Lin Haoran successfully acquire a major British-owned firm. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t envious.

But his envy did not turn into jealousy.

This was because his partner, Lin Haoran, had also given him a great deal of help, making his path in the business world much smoother.

After chatting with Liu Luanxiong for a while, the two of them went to visit Amigo’s new headquarters.

However, the new headquarters was currently just an empty plot of land.

Amigo Company had already signed a construction contract with Wan’an Group.

For this plot of industrial land, they planned to construct five six-story industrial buildings and one nine-story office building, with an estimated completion time of one year.

Since the buildings were not tall and the structure of the industrial buildings was relatively simple, the construction costs were not high.

Wan’an Group had undertaken the construction of these six buildings, and Amigo Company would pay Wan’an Group sixty million Hong Kong dollars in installment payments for the construction fees.

According to the cost budget, Wan’an Group stood to make a profit of around twelve million Hong Kong dollars from this project. With its simple engineering, short construction period, and high profit, it was a decent project for Wan’an Group.

If this had been back when Lin Wan’an was in charge of Wan’an Group, a collaboration like this would have been considered a major project.

However, for the current Wan’an Group, a profit of over ten million Hong Kong dollars was certainly not considered a major project.

The projects they were collaborating on with Hongkong Electric Group were the real major projects.

At the construction site, Wan’an Construction Engineering Company had nearly completed the preliminary preparations, and the construction team had already moved in.

After inspecting the site, Lin Haoran bid farewell to Liu Luanxiong and drove back to the Wan’an Group Building in Causeway Bay.

By this time, it was already past four in the afternoon, and the stock market had closed.

“Boss, the rate of stock accumulation for Hongkong Land Group, Jardine Matheson & Co., and Kowloon Motor Bus was normal today. However, we noticed something strange about the Hong Kong and China Gas Company shares. The trading volume was clearly higher than yesterday’s, but every time we tried to buy a large lot, someone else beat us to it. Over the entire day, the number of shares we acquired was only one-third of yesterday’s amount. I suspect a major player has entered the market, and their team of traders is larger and more capable. We’re outmatched.”

In the general manager’s office of Universal Investment Company, Su Zhixue, who was frowning at the data, reported to Lin Haoran as soon as he saw him.

“That’s perfectly normal. You have two competitors now: Hongkong Electric Group and Jardine Securities, which is under Jardine Matheson. The fact that you managed to acquire one-third of yesterday’s amount despite their involvement is already quite impressive. Just do your best and don’t feel too much pressure,” Lin Haoran explained with a smile.

“No wonder!” Su Zhixue had a moment of realization.

Although Universal Investment Company now had many more traders and its capabilities had greatly increased, it had to accumulate shares of four listed companies simultaneously. Naturally, it couldn’t compare to a more professional securities firm like Jardine Securities. They were not on the same level, so managing to snatch up a considerable number of shares was indeed quite an achievement.

Lin Haoran then looked at the stock accumulation situation for Hongkong Land Group, Jardine Matheson & Co., and Kowloon Motor Bus. Everything was going well. As long as they steadily continued accumulating, controlling these companies in the future was no longer just a dream.

He was particularly confident about the shares of Hongkong Land Group.

Due to the booming real estate industry, the trading volume for property stocks was exceptionally high. This allowed Universal Investment Company to use the high volume as cover and accumulate a significant number of shares each day.

However, there was also a clear downside: the stock price was rising very quickly. Only a week had passed, and Hongkong Land Group’s market capitalization was already approaching eight billion Hong Kong dollars. It probably wouldn’t be long before it hit ten billion Hong Kong dollars—perhaps not even a few months.

After discussing the upcoming plans with Su Zhixue, just as Lin Haoran was about to head upstairs to see Yang Mingyi, his pager suddenly vibrated.

Lin Haoran took it out and looked at the number. He didn’t recognize it at all, but he used the phone in Su Zhixue’s office to call back anyway.

“Hello, is this Mr. Lin Haoran?” a voice speaking fluent English came from the other end of the line. It was clearly a Westerner.

“This is Lin Haoran. Who is this?” Lin Haoran asked, puzzled.

“Good day, Mr. Lin. I am a staff member from Government House. I am calling on behalf of the Governor to invite you to the Spring Festival Banquet hosted by His Excellency at 8 PM on the evening of February 16th. The invitation has already been delivered to your home by a staff member. We look forward to your attendance,” the person on the phone quickly stated their purpose.

An invitation from Governor Sir Murray MacLehose?

Lin Haoran was a little surprised. He hadn’t expected Government House to invite him.

It was already February 12th, and the first day of the Lunar New Year was on February 16th.

This Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, was considered a good governor for Hong Kong. During his tenure, he established the Independent Commission Against Corruption, requiring corrupt officials to explain the sources of their unusual assets.

Anyone who could not provide a clear account was investigated and prosecuted by the Hong Kong government.

His swift and decisive actions were dubbed the ‘anti-corruption storm’ by the people of Hong Kong. Corrupt officials all feared a visit from ICAC officers, who would invite them for ‘coffee’ to explain their cases.

Furthermore, during his time in office, MacLehose pushed for sweeping reforms that brought profound changes to Hong Kong’s society.

His reforms covered housing, anti-corruption, education, medical care, welfare, infrastructure, transportation, and various economic and social spheres. Major policies and constructions like the Ten-Year Housing Programme, the development of new towns, the establishment of the ICAC, nine-year free education, the construction of the Mass Transit Railway, and local administrative reforms were all launched during his tenure.

He was, by all accounts, a very capable official.

Hong Kong was a city primarily composed of Chinese people. Although MacLehose was British, he understood the significance of the Spring Festival to the Chinese. Therefore, it was quite normal for him to host a Spring Festival Banquet and invite prominent Chinese tycoons from all sectors of Hong Kong.

Lin Haoran was simply surprised that he himself would be invited.

Although his prominence in Hong Kong had been steadily rising, and he was now recognized as one of the city’s business tycoons, he had never had any dealings with MacLehose.

“Very well, I will be there on time!” Although he was surprised by the invitation from Government House, it was ultimately a good thing, so Lin Haoran accepted without hesitation.

New Year’s Eve was for spending with his parents, but the evening of the first day of the New Year was of no consequence.

Evidently, the reason MacLehose chose to host the Spring Festival Banquet on the first day of the New Year, rather than a New Year’s Eve dinner, was out of consideration for families gathering for their reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve.

This demonstrated his deep understanding of Chinese culture.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran felt a bit sentimental. In the blink of an eye, the Spring Festival was here again.

This would be the second Spring Festival he was about to celebrate since he had transmigrated.

Leaving the offices of Universal Investment Company, Lin Haoran went to Yang Mingyi’s office, chatted with him for a few minutes, and then left the Wan’an Group Building.

Wan’an Group was developing very steadily, and there was basically nothing he needed to worry about.

Upon returning to his villa on Severn Road, a housekeeper quickly came to report that a staff member from Government House had delivered an envelope.

Lin Haoran walked into his study and began to examine the envelope closely.

The envelope was clearly stamped with the official seal of Government House, giving it an air of formality and solemnity.

He opened the envelope directly. Inside was a gilt-edged invitation card that shimmered under the light.

On the invitation, written in formal script, were the words “Invitation to the Government House Spring Festival Banquet,” cordially inviting Mr. Lin Haoran to attend.

The invitation detailed the time and location of the banquet, and bore the personal signature and seal of Governor Sir Murray MacLehose.

All these details made the invitation seem exceptionally formal and authentic. Lin Haoran could tell at a glance that it was definitely not a forgery.

Without even realizing it, he had already caught the attention of someone at the Governor’s level.

As the highest official in the Hong Kong government, MacLehose held the greatest power in the city. Being on good terms with him could only bring benefits, not harm.

Chapter 187: Can You Beat Them?

Before they knew it, time had slipped away, and it was already February 14th.

Today was a special day—Valentine’s Day in the West.

At noon, Lin Haoran received a call from Rosamund Kwan saying she wanted to come find him.

Girls were often love-struck, and on such a special day, they always liked to be with their men to feel the romance.

Lin Haoran didn’t refuse. He told her to stay put and had Li Weiguo drive the Mercedes-Benz to pick her up.

While Mercedes-Benz cars were considered luxury vehicles in Hong Kong, many wealthy people owned them, so they weren’t particularly eye-catching. They were standard for the affluent, and you could see at least one Mercedes-Benz in every ten cars on the street.

As for the Rolls-Royce, it was too conspicuous. Wherever it went, it was the brightest star.

To be honest, Lin Haoran never intended to marry Rosamund Kwan. He was only pursuing her because he coveted her beauty and her fame from his previous life. She definitely wasn’t suitable to be his wife, but being his mistress was a pretty good option.

Speaking of which, although Lin Haoran had women in his previous life, he never had a proper, serious relationship. So, when Rosamund Kwan took the initiative to ask him out, he simply took her out, like a normal couple, to stroll around and make up for the regrets of his past life.

Today, the stock market was still open. Both Universal Investment Company and Hongkong Electric Group were accumulating stock, but he left this to his subordinates. They would naturally report their results after the market closed or on the next business day. As for the process, there was no need for him to get too involved.

For the time being, there was nothing else that required his attention.

Tomorrow was New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Eve wasn’t a statutory holiday in Hong Kong, and it just so happened to fall on a Friday, so the stock market was still trading normally.

According to Rosamund Kwan, she didn’t know which woman her father had gone off to celebrate with, and he definitely wouldn’t be home tonight, which was why she dared to sneak out so openly.

Although Lin Haoran was a celebrity, he was still young. The photos of him in newspapers and the videos on television were mostly of him dressed formally.

However, when he went out in ordinary clothes, with a different hairstyle, and wearing glasses, basically no one who wasn’t very familiar with him recognized him.

“Where do you want to go?” Lin Haoran asked Rosamund Kwan, who was sitting next to him in the Mercedes-Benz, with a smile.

“I want to go to Mong Kok. I haven’t been there to shop in a long time,” Rosamund Kwan said, looking at Lin Haoran with anticipation.

“Okay, let’s go to Mong Kok then,” Lin Haoran said, nodding without hesitation.

So, the Mercedes-Benz started up and headed towards the bustling area of Mong Kok.

Mong Kok, located at the northern end of Nathan Road, was one of Kowloon’s earliest developed areas, famous for its typhoon shelters and temples.

It retained many old traces. In the streets and alleys, it wasn’t hard to find old-fashioned bakeries, God niche stores, mahjong parlors, and other traditional shops. Most businesses here were small-scale, and the area also had some of Hong Kong’s oldest streets. Walking was the best way to explore and discover hidden gems.

Mong Kok’s authentic flavor was completely different from the modern scenes of Central and Tsim Sha Tsui.

He remembered that when he was pursuing Rosamund Kwan last year, the first time they went shopping was here. He bought her a pair of Roger Vivier shoes, and with a few words, he got together with this famous actress of the future.

In the blink of an eye, more than a year had passed. The person was still the same person, but she had matured a lot and become even more luscious.

Mong Kok was the most crowded district in Hong Kong, a popular shopping destination for local Chinese people. Many shops and restaurants were open all night, and the entire area was bustling and crowded, with banks, commercial buildings, and small, exquisite shops.

Although it wasn’t as high-end as Central, Wan Chai, and Tsim Sha Tsui, its popularity was due to its down-to-earth nature, offering a wide range of affordable goods that attracted many young people to shop here.

Basically, these young people from ordinary backgrounds, when they wanted to go shopping, the first places they thought of weren’t Central or Causeway Bay, but the bustling area of Mong Kok.

However, due to its high population density and large crowds, triad societies also gathered here. Many major Hong Kong triad societies had their territory here, with the 13K triad society having the greatest influence.

As an international metropolis, Hong Kong was influenced by the trends and cultures of countries around the world. The social situation was complex, and changes were rapid. However, social security management was loose and chaotic.

Although the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption had reduced the collusion between many triad societies and the police, and triad bosses like Crippled Ho and the Ma brothers had been taken down, there were still many triad societies that were thriving.

For example, the 13K, Sun Yee On, and Wo Shing Wo, all had considerable influence, with some even claiming to have hundreds of thousands of members.

However, these triad societies were very clear about who they could provoke and who they couldn’t.

Therefore, they basically wouldn’t touch the wealthy families. This was why Hong Kong was relatively chaotic in this era, but no triad society dared to provoke Lin Haoran, even though he openly exposed his identity as a scion of a wealthy family.

Of course, this wasn’t one hundred percent guaranteed. If they encountered ruthless criminals who disregarded life and death for money, such as Cheung Tze-keung, Yip Kai-foon, and Kwai Ping-hung, they wouldn’t care if you were from a wealthy family. As long as they could get money, kidnapping wealthy people was their basic operation.

In the evening, after a lavish Sichuan dinner at a Sichuan restaurant, Lin Haoran continued to stroll through the bustling area of Mong Kok with Rosamund Kwan.

Lin Haoran was an ordinary person in his previous life, so he didn’t have any resistance to shopping in these commercial districts that mainly sold ordinary products. On the contrary, he was very interested.

In this life, although he had rapidly expanded his wealth by relying on his special Transmigrator identity, he had only experienced a little over a year.

In Lin Haoran’s heart, he was still just an ordinary person. He didn’t think these places were unsuitable for him just because of his superior status.

Before they knew it, they had arrived at Temple Street. It was already dark, and this famous street had transformed into a bustling night market lit up with lights. Hundreds of stalls sold affordable goods such as clothes, electronics, and watches.

Today, before meeting Lin Haoran for Valentine’s Day, Rosamund Kwan had specially taken the time to dress up carefully. She wore a snow-white dress and the Roger Vivier shoes that Lin Haoran had bought for her before. The hem of her dress swayed gently with her light steps, like a newly blooming lily, beautiful and alluring.

Without knowing when, they had arrived at Tung Choi Street in Mong Kok. Rosamund Kwan, like other girls in love, held Lin Haoran’s big hand. Her face was like a newly bloomed peach blossom, her skin was fair and delicate, as if it would blush with a light touch, and she looked very happy.

The name Tung Choi Street was strange, but it had a source. Because of the location of this road, it was originally a field for growing water spinach, so it was named Tung Choi Street.

With the development of Mong Kok, the vegetable fields had long disappeared and been replaced by commercial and residential buildings, but the road name Tung Choi Street had been preserved.

At each stall, Rosamund Kwan would pull Lin Haoran to stop and carefully look for anything suitable.

In fact, despite shopping for a long time, their hands were still empty, and they hadn’t bought anything.

The main reason, besides Lin Haoran not being able to stand these cheap goods, was that Rosamund Kwan’s purpose in shopping wasn’t to buy anything at all, but to be with Lin Haoran, her beloved.

As far as Lin Haoran was concerned, if he wanted to give Rosamund Kwan something, of course, he would buy high-end branded items. Most of the time, you get what you pay for. Now that he was a super-rich man with billions of dollars, there was no need to save that little bit of money.

Today, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo were wearing ordinary clothes instead of their usual suits. This was specially arranged by Lin Haoran so that they wouldn’t be so eye-catching.

Now he was the chairman of Hongkong Electric Group. If he was noticed, or even recognized, the paparazzi all over Hong Kong might take pictures of him. It would be a troublesome matter for Lin Haoran to be seen shopping with a girl.

Therefore, the best way was to dress normally, not attract too much attention, so that others wouldn’t recognize him as the famous business tycoon.

As they walked, they passed a large jewelry store. Rosamund Kwan looked at the dazzling array of gold, jewelry, and other accessories in the display case and inadvertently revealed a look of desire.

However, she quickly averted her gaze and intended to walk past the jewelry store with Lin Haoran.

Rosamund Kwan was well aware of Lin Haoran’s current status—the famous chairman of Hongkong Electric Group.

This identity didn’t make her complacent; on the contrary, she felt somewhat inferior, because she knew that the gap between her and Lin Haoran’s status was too great.

Before, when Lin Haoran was just Lin Wan’an’s son and hadn’t become the chairman of a company, although there was still a gap, the Lin family was just a small wealthy family after all, not yet at an unreachable level.

In Rosamund Kwan’s view, if she could marry into the Lin family, this small wealthy family, in the future and be a rich wife, it would be a good idea.

But now, the gap was really something that she couldn’t climb over.

Could she really be the wife of someone of Lin Haoran’s status?

Therefore, Rosamund Kwan was inferior in front of the current Lin Haoran and didn’t dare to make any requests, fearing that Lin Haoran would abandon her at any time.

However, just as Rosamund Kwan was about to take Lin Haoran past the jewelry store, she was stopped by Lin Haoran.

“We’ve been shopping for so long today and haven’t bought anything. It’s Valentine’s Day, after all, so I can’t give you nothing. I’ll give you a gold necklace. No refusing!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Rosamund Kwan, who had originally planned to refuse, didn’t say anything more after hearing Lin Haoran’s last sentence and obediently followed Lin Haoran into the gold store.

Lin Haoran scanned the jewelry in the glass cabinet and directly pointed to a more expensive gold chain, saying to the saleswoman, “This one, wrap it up for me!”

The saleswoman hadn’t even gotten into the mood yet and was about to introduce some mid-range jewelry to the young couple, but Lin Haoran’s words immediately stunned her.

“Please wait a moment, sir. I’ll pack it up for you right away.”

After the saleswoman finished speaking, she took out the gold chain and put it in an exquisite gift box as quickly as possible, fearing that Lin Haoran would regret it.

Lin Haoran didn’t say much and directly paid the bill.

From entering the store to paying the bill, it only took less than two minutes.

“Here, take it. It’s for you. This is your Valentine’s Day gift,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Thank you, I like it very much.” At this moment, Rosamund Kwan was overjoyed.

“Let’s go, it’s late. We should go back,” Lin Haoran said, looking at the time on his watch. It was already past nine o’clock.

“Yeah,” Rosamund Kwan followed Lin Haoran out of the jewelry store with a sweet feeling in her heart.

Their parking spot was only a few hundred meters away, so the group walked back the way they came.

Lin Haoran and Rosamund Kwan walked in front, holding hands like an ordinary couple.

Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, on the other hand, followed behind like passersby, protecting their boss at all times.

The flow of people on the street was no longer as large as it was at seven or eight o’clock in the evening. After all, although tomorrow was New Year’s Eve, people still had to go to work. Only a few couples, like Lin Haoran and Rosamund Kwan, were still holding hands and strolling on the street.

After walking for about a hundred meters, Li Weidong, who was very vigilant, already sensed something was wrong. He whispered to Li Weiguo, “Someone is following the Boss.”

Li Weiguo glanced at the back and quickly realized that they were being followed by at least five or six people.

These people all had tattoos on their bodies, and at first glance knew they were members of the triad society.

So, the two quickly walked to Lin Haoran’s side and told him in a low voice.

Lin Haoran frowned. He had gone shopping with Rosamund Kwan several times, but this had never happened before.

Soon, he looked towards Rosamund Kwan and probably knew why.

Rosamund Kwan was carrying a bag printed with the logo of a certain jewelry store. Obviously, it was this bag that attracted these people.

Usually, Lin Haoran dressed in a noble manner, and Li Weiguo and Li Weidong also went out with him in suits and ties, following behind him like bodyguards. So, basically no gangster would provoke him.

But tonight, to avoid being too conspicuous, he looked like an ordinary person. Others couldn’t recognize him. Li Weidong and Li Weiguo were also not dressed like bodyguards now, but at most like ordinary people.

Lin Haoran and his group were indeed easy for others to overlook, but they were also easy targets for some thugs.

“Can you beat them?” Lin Haoran didn’t panic, but asked Li Weidong and Li Weiguo with a smile.

After all, he knew how strong Li Weidong and Li Weiguo were. They had easily defeated Lin Yi back then.

As long as the other party didn’t have a gun, there was basically no need to worry about safety issues.

“Boss, don’t worry. If there are only these people, I can take them all down by myself,” Li Weidong said confidently.

Thugs who wanted to rob ordinary people were obviously not high-ranking members of the triad society. These people were usually bullies who feared the strong and preyed on the weak, and their fighting ability was poor.

“Okay, then if they make a move later, leave it to you. Weiguo, you stand by me and protect me and Rosamund Kwan,” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Yes, Boss!”

Although the few of them were talking, their pace didn’t stop, and they continued to walk towards the parking spot.

At this time, the thugs who were following Lin Haoran and his group also knew that their movements had been discovered, and there was no need to hide their actions.

So, they directly surrounded them, counting a total of six people, all young people in their twenties and thirties.

“Hey, beauty, not bad looking. How about staying and hanging out with us brothers?” The leader looked at Rosamund Kwan, a lewd smile on his face.

Chapter 188: Break a Bone in Each of Their Hands

“What do you want?” Lin Haoran turned, shielding Rosamund Kwan behind him, and spoke to them calmly.

Li Weidong and Li Weiguo stood on Lin Haoran’s left and right, their gazes also fixed on the men.

“We don’t want much. The New Year is coming up, and us brothers are a little short on cash. Seeing how you were throwing money around in the jewelry store, you must have a lot on you, right? Hand over all your money and the gold. And while you’re at it, leave the girl behind, and I might let the rest of you go!” the man who spoke first said arrogantly.

There were six strong young men on their side, while Lin Haoran only had three men. Plus, this was their territory, so these thugs didn’t take Lin Haoran’s group seriously at all.

Most importantly, they could call for more backup at any time because they had powerful backers!

“And if I say no?” Lin Haoran chuckled.

“Still smiling? Let’s see if you’re still smiling in a minute. Since you’d rather do this the hard way, I’ll oblige you. Brothers, get them!” As soon as the leader finished speaking, the six men charged forward.

The six men weren’t particularly burly, but they were all wearing the flashy floral shirts common in gangster movies. With vicious looks on their faces, they were clearly the type who had been running roughshod over the streets for years.

The surrounding crowd saw this and quickly moved far away.

The nearby shop owners, however, didn’t panic or pull down their security gates. Instead, they watched with the air of spectators at a show, as if they were long used to such scenes.

It was clear they had long grown accustomed to the tyranny of these men.

Besides, having paid their protection money, they didn’t have to worry about the thugs causing them trouble.

Li Weidong stepped forward alone, positioning himself in front of Lin Haoran’s group to face the six menacing thugs.

In their eyes, Lin Haoran’s group was completely at their mercy. They were just low-level members of the triad society, usually only able to squeeze some money out of ordinary civilians. As for the big money, it never fell to them.

Seeing Li Weidong standing alone before them, the six thugs paused, clubs in hand, and sized him up carefully.

“You’ve got guts, kid. Taking on six of us?” said the leader.

“Just come at me all at once. It’ll save time.” Li Weidong’s voice was calm and powerful, as if stating an undeniable fact.

The thugs were stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter out of sheer anger, as if they had just heard the world’s greatest joke.

They exchanged a look and tacitly spread out, surrounding Li Weidong from all sides, intending to overwhelm him with their numerical advantage.

The fight broke out in an instant.

Li Weidong’s figure flickered, appearing like a phantom at one thug’s side. He grabbed the man’s wrist, gave it a light twist, and with a cry of pain, the first thug was already on his knees, his club flying from his grasp.

Immediately after, he used his momentum to spin, slamming his back into another thug who was attempting a sneak attack. The man staggered back several steps as if struck by a sledgehammer, nearly falling over.

Li Weidong’s movements were fluid and precise. Every step perfectly neutralized the thugs’ attacks while allowing him to retaliate swiftly.

He employed fighting techniques that looked simple but were profound, sometimes using softness to overcome hardness, deflecting his opponents’ force, and other times unleashing peerless ferocity, the power in his fists and feet astonishing.

In just a few minutes, the six arrogant thugs were all on the ground, either clutching their stomachs and wailing or holding their arms and groaning. Not a single one could get back up.

Li Weidong stood where he was, his breathing even, as if he had just completed a light morning workout.

“Remember, having more people doesn’t mean you’ll win,” Li Weidong said to them faintly before turning and returning to Lin Haoran’s side.

“Let’s go,” Lin Haoran said calmly. He turned to leave with his group, paying the thugs no mind.

“Don’t you dare leave! Our 13K won’t let you off! I’ve memorized your faces, and we’ll find you sooner or later!” Behind them, the leader, though wailing in pain, was still making threats.

In their view, being beaten in front of so many shopkeepers and passersby was a huge loss of face.

Lin Haoran, who had originally intended to just teach them a lesson and leave it at that, now turned back to face the six thugs on the ground.

“Scared now? You messed with our 13K, so you’re in for it. Unless you get on your knees and beg for forgiveness, maybe we’ll consider letting it go.” Seeing Lin Haoran’s group stop, the leader thought they were afraid and immediately became smug.

“Weidong, go and break a bone in each of their hands,” Lin Haoran said, turning to Li Weidong.

It wasn’t good to kill someone in the street, but he could certainly teach them a profound lesson.

“Yes!”

After speaking, Li Weidong picked up a club from the ground and walked toward the men.

“What are you doing? Don’t do anything crazy! We’re from 13K!” The thug leader was on the verge of tears. He cursed himself for running his mouth and provoking them again.

They wanted to get up and run, but after the beating they had just taken, their bodies were wracked with pain. They didn’t have the strength to stand.

It was only now that they realized they had picked on the wrong person.

However, Li Weidong gave them no chance to resist. Club in hand, he walked over to the thug who had talked the most. He looked down at the trembling underboss, and before the man’s terrified eyes, he brought the club crashing down.

A crisp crack rang out—the sound of a bone breaking.

The leader immediately let out a pig-like squeal. The shriek gave the onlookers secretly watching from the sidelines goosebumps.

Li Weidong moved quickly. It was just six strikes, nothing difficult. In less than half a minute, each of the six thugs had a bone in their hand broken.

“Let’s go. Since they’re from a major triad society, someone has probably called for backup. It’ll be troublesome if we stay,” Lin Haoran said to Li Weidong and the others.

Although Li Weidong and Li Weiguo were powerful, they couldn’t possibly win against dozens or hundreds of people. If their opponents brought guns, it would be even more trouble.

Therefore, leaving quickly was the best option.

The car was less than a hundred meters away, so the group wasn’t flustered.

Rosamund Kwan, who had been silent the whole time, wasn’t feeling scared. Instead, she was filled with a sense of security.

They made it back to the Mercedes-Benz without issue. Li Weiguo quickly started the engine and drove away from the scene.

Although Lin Haoran wasn’t the least bit afraid of these so-called triads, it was still wise to be cautious on their turf.

Not long after Lin Haoran’s group departed, a large crowd gathered around the thugs.

“Brother Haobei, are you alright?” one of the newcomers squatted down, asking the underboss with concern as his face contorted in pain.

“Forget about me! Go after them, now! Three guys and a girl, they went that way!” The underboss gritted his teeth and ordered, forcing the words through excruciating pain as he pointed in the direction Lin Haoran’s group had fled.

However, a fresh wave of agony from his hand made him suck in a sharp breath involuntarily.

Not only had he been beaten severely, but a bone in his right hand was also broken. The pain was so intense it brought him to the verge of blacking out.

And so, dozens of thugs immediately rushed off in the direction Lin Haoran had gone.

Unfortunately, they had only taken a few steps when they saw the headlights of a private car switch on about a hundred meters away, and then the car sped away from Mong Kok.

How were they supposed to chase that?

The whole incident had lasted less than ten minutes. It was already impressive that backup had arrived so quickly. How could they have been prepared for anything else?

If they had been given enough time to prepare, they would have certainly given chase in a car.

But it was too late now. Once the other party’s car entered the main road and merged with the traffic, there was no way for them to know which car was theirs in the dark of night.

Sitting in the back seat, Lin Haoran thought about what had just happened.

13K?

He knew of this triad society. It was one of the three largest in Hong Kong.

In his past life, he had learned a little about this triad society from some Hong Kong films, but his knowledge was superficial.

In this life, being from a wealthy and influential family, he wasn’t particularly familiar with triad societies.

Breaking the thugs’ hand bones had certainly offended them.

But they were the ones who had started it, and he wasn’t in the habit of letting himself be bullied.

Still, making enemies of them was ultimately a hassle.

After returning to the villa on Severn Road and going upstairs, the first thing Lin Haoran did was call Cui Zilong, the general manager of the Oriental Press Group.

“Mr. Cui, this is Lin Haoran.”

Lin Haoran was calling Cui Zilong’s home number. It was already ten o’clock at night, so Cui Zilong was naturally not at the Oriental Press Group’s offices.

“Boss, what can I do for you?” Cui Zilong asked curiously upon learning it was his boss calling.

“Sorry to call so late and disturb your rest, but there’s something I need to trouble you with. There was a brawl involving some thugs in Mong Kok just now. I’d like to know the specifics. Could you please look into it for me?” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Boss, give me half an hour!” To his surprise, Cui Zilong replied directly without asking why his boss wanted to investigate such a strange matter.

“Alright, thank you.” Lin Haoran nodded.

After that, he took a shower before returning to the phone. It wasn’t long before the other party called back.

“Boss, I’ve got the details. There was indeed a fight tonight at the intersection of Tung Choi Street and Nathan Road in Mong Kok. A few low-level members of the 13K triad society, who are used to throwing their weight around, reportedly tried to bully a few people and ended up getting a beating themselves.

“These 13K members are under a man called Bearded Yong. Bearded Yong is the 13K’s decision-maker for the Yau Tsim Mong district. All six of them had their hand bones broken. As for who the other party was, no one knows yet, but I hear they’re investigating. A lot of people witnessed the incident, so with their influence, it’s only a matter of time before they find out who was responsible,” Cui Zilong explained over the phone.

“What channels did you use to find this out?” Lin Haoran asked, curious.

“Boss, we have informants inside the 13K triad society. We sometimes rely on them to get key news stories, so this kind of thing is the easiest to investigate,” Cui Zilong replied with a laugh.

“I see. Do you have the contact information for the 13K’s Dragon Head?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

“The 13K’s Dragon Head? Boss, the current Dragon Head, a Mr. Ge Zhixiong, hasn’t been involved in day-to-day affairs for a long time. He’s more of a spiritual leader for the 13K now. The society is actually run by several decision-makers who don’t see eye to eye, but none of them dare to disobey Mr. Ge. As for contact information, I can get Mr. Ge’s or Bearded Yong’s. Which one do you want, Boss?” Cui Zilong asked directly.

“Give me Mr. Ge’s number,” Lin Haoran said without hesitation.

Ten minutes later, Lin Haoran had a number in his hand. It was the contact number for Ge Zhixiong, the second-generation Dragon Head of the 13K.

After jotting down the number, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but think that acquiring the Oriental Press Group had truly been worthwhile.

The reason he wanted Ge Zhixiong’s contact information was that the 13K was, after all, a major triad society. If this matter wasn’t handled properly, he worried it would cause him trouble down the line. Even the government hadn’t managed to dismantle the 13K, let alone a businessman like him.

Lin Haoran didn’t want trouble, but he wasn’t the one at fault in this incident, so he didn’t regret his actions that night.

He planned to resolve this problem at its source by going straight to their Dragon Head.

With his rising status in the Hong Kong business world, there was normally no reason for the 13K to offend him over a few nobodies.

But it was always better to be safe than sorry.

This whole thing was a nuisance. Although those people didn’t know it was him yet, with the 13K’s influence, even if they couldn’t trace it back to him, they might be able to trace it to Rosamund Kwan. So the matter had to be resolved.

It’s better to offend a gentleman than a villain.

If Lin Haoran didn’t handle this properly, he feared these people would resort to underhanded tactics against him or Rosamund Kwan.

Chapter 189: Demanding an Explanation

The events of the evening didn’t affect Lin Haoran’s sleep in the slightest.

He wasn’t at all worried about 13K.

Even the lowest-level young gangsters knew that no matter how powerful a triad branch was, it had to follow the big money.

A business tycoon like him was the ultimate financial backer.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was in no hurry. He even planned to use the fact that he was in the right to call Mr. Ge directly and demand an explanation, just to see how the other party would handle it.

Regardless, what he wanted was an acknowledgment of their mistake and, more importantly, no more trouble in the future. He had no desire whatsoever to get entangled with Hong Kong’s triad societies; they were from different worlds.

Every person in Hong Kong had probably heard the legendary stories of the 13K Dragon Head, Ge Zhixiong. Lin Haoran, too, recalled these stories from his memories.

Ge Zhixiong was the son of 13K’s founder, Ge Zhaohuang. While Ge Zhaohuang was still alive, Ge Zhixiong was essentially the Crown Prince of 13K.

After Ge Zhaohuang passed away, Ge Zhixiong naturally inherited his father’s position as the Dragon Head, leading 13K to even greater prominence.

More than twenty years ago, the 13K triad society, under Ge Zhixiong’s leadership, instigated a large-scale disturbance, gathering over two thousand people for a street protest that even went head-to-head with the Hong Kong police.

Subsequently, other triad societies followed suit, leading to severe damage to public property, rampant looting and arson, and plunging society into chaos.

This event came to be known in history as the “Double Ten Riot.”

In response, the Hong Kong government took strict measures, deporting the senior leadership of 13K, including Ge Zhixiong, who was forced to take refuge in Macau.

A few years later, as the impact of the “Double Ten Riot” gradually faded, Ge Zhixiong was finally able to return to Hong Kong.

Having gone through this ordeal, Ge Zhixiong came to a profound realization: no matter how powerful a triad was, it was insignificant in the face of the government.

Therefore, after returning to Hong Kong, Ge Zhixiong lost interest in managing the triad’s affairs, choosing to retreat behind the scenes and live a low-key life.

From then on, the thirty-six branches under the 13K banner began to operate independently, losing their former unity and becoming a scattered mess.

Although Ge Zhixiong was no longer directly involved in the society’s affairs, as the spiritual leader of 13K, he still held a position of considerable importance. No matter how arrogant and domineering these branches became, they still had to give him some face.

So, having him solve this matter was the most suitable choice for Lin Haoran.

The next morning, Lin Haoran had Li Weiguo drive Rosamund Kwan back to Kowloon Bay.

This was not at Lin Haoran’s request, but Rosamund Kwan’s.

She was afraid that her father, Kwan Shan, would return home after celebrating Valentine’s Day and find her missing, which would be troublesome. So, she went back home early.

After Rosamund Kwan left, Lin Haoran stayed home and read the newspaper for a while.

It wasn’t until around ten in the morning that he dialed Ge Zhixiong’s number.

Since retreating from the scene, Ge Zhixiong had been living a quiet life as an ordinary businessman.

It was said that at home, Ge Zhixiong always presented himself as a benevolent father to his son. His own son never even suspected that this kind and amiable father was actually the Dragon Head of the 13K triad society, one of the overlords of Hong Kong’s underworld.

Ge Zhixiong was incredibly protective of his family. Deep down, he did not want his son to follow in his footsteps and enter the perilous world of the triads.

As a result, Ge Zhixiong’s son grew up believing his father was just an ordinary businessman.

It wasn’t until an accident where Young Ge got into trouble for co-signing a loan for a friend. The friend disappeared after borrowing the money, leading the creditors to come knocking. With no other choice, Young Ge could only call the police.

Afterward, people were stunned to discover that the young man being hounded by triad debt collectors was the one and only son of the 13K “Dragon Head,” Ge Zhixiong. The turn of events was astonishing.

Upon hearing the news, the 13K top brass moved quickly to sort out the mess for Young Ge, raiding the debt collectors’ den and settling the matter.

After this incident, Young Ge finally learned his father’s true identity, which also reflected just how extremely low-profile Ge Zhixiong had kept himself since retiring from the underworld.

Today was New Year’s Eve, a day for family reunions.

Ge Zhixiong was sitting on his sofa watching television, relaxed and at ease, just like any other day.

Life in retirement was indeed comfortable. He no longer had to worry about fights and killings. He never meddled in any of 13K’s affairs, big or small, and just focused on living his own quiet life.

Since the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the triad societies had gradually lost their patrons. The police officers they had once bribed no longer dared to associate with them.

So, although 13K still seemed impressive on the surface, Ge Zhixiong knew that the present-day 13K, along with other major Hong Kong triads like Wo Shing Wo and Sun Yee On, no longer possessed their former strength. Going against the government would be their downfall sooner or later.

This was also the reason he had decided to wash his hands of the business.

As he was watching TV, the telephone next to him rang.

“Hello, who is this?” Ge Zhixiong asked directly after picking up the phone.

Ge Zhixiong was now fifty-three years old. Though he had been retired for a long time, he had not lost his aura as a big shot. Within Hong Kong’s triad societies, almost everyone gave him face and would not provoke him.

“Is this Mr. Ge? I’m Lin Haoran from the Hongkong Electric Group. I believe you’ve heard of me,” a young voice said from the other end of the line.

Lin Haoran?

Ge Zhixiong quickly realized who it was. The boss of the Hongkong Electric Group, with a market capitalization of over two billion Hong Kong dollars. Though very young, he was a tycoon who ranked among the top in the Chinese business world.

The business world wasn’t ranked by age. It wasn’t a world where seniority made you the top dog.

After all, businessmen were in the business of making money. Naturally, the one with the most money was the most powerful.

And Lin Haoran was clearly a top-tier figure among the Chinese-funded conglomerates. Although no one knew his exact net worth, just the Hongkong Electric Group and the Green Island Cement Company alone were enough to crush most of Hong Kong’s prestigious families.

Moreover, the Lin family was one of Hong Kong’s traditional powerful families, and none who could reach that status were simple.

This was not someone he could afford to offend.

Although he wasn’t sure why Lin Haoran was calling him, Ge Zhixiong responded quickly, “Hello, Mr. Lin. Who in Hong Kong doesn’t know of you? May I ask why you’re calling?”

He had originally intended to use a more respectful form of address, but then he considered that the other party was about the same age as his son, and he couldn’t bring himself to say it.

“Last night, in Mong Kok, I was ambushed and robbed by your 13K men for no reason. Thankfully, my bodyguard is skilled and took care of them. Otherwise, I would be the one lying on the ground. As I recall, I’ve never offended you, yet you made a move against me. I’m calling this time to demand an explanation. You’re the Dragon Head of 13K, so you’re the only one I can turn to,” Lin Haoran stated bluntly.

With 13K’s capabilities, it wouldn’t be difficult to investigate someone’s background. They would find out it was him sooner or later, so he didn’t plan to hide it and went straight to demanding an explanation.

Although Ge Zhixiong had announced his retirement, he was still the public face and Dragon Head of 13K.

At that moment, Ge Zhixiong was completely stunned. He had heard last night that some of the society’s members had been beaten up but didn’t think much of it. Such incidents were far too common.

He just never imagined that the person they had provoked last night was actually Lin Haoran.

No wonder one man was able to take down all six of them.

Although Ge Zhixiong had long since stopped interfering in the society’s affairs, someone would still report to him every morning about any important events within the organization.

The news that some members had been beaten in Mong Kok last night had reached his ears within half an hour.

He just hadn’t planned to do anything about it; it had nothing to do with him.

He never expected that the person the Yi Branch was now searching for all over the city was the famous business tycoon, Lin Haoran.

At that moment, even for a man who had been a triad boss for decades, beads of sweat formed on his forehead in the February air.

He already knew the details of last night’s incident, so he was certain Lin Haoran wasn’t lying. It was indeed his 13K men who had provoked the other party first. The man was just taking a casual stroll, yet 13K members tried to extort him and steal his woman on the street. Anyone would be furious in such a situation, let alone a business tycoon.

“This is trouble,” was the first thought in Ge Zhixiong’s mind.

Because Ge Zhixiong knew that Lin Haoran was definitely not someone their triad society could afford to offend.

Ever since the 13K leadership was forced to flee Hong Kong in 1956, the triad’s power had already begun to decline significantly.

Although the number of members seemed to be growing, without their informants in the Hong Kong police and under the government’s supervision, they could no longer act with impunity. Bullying ordinary people was one thing, but bullying a business tycoon?

That was suicidal.

These days, triad societies were often just tools for the powerful families. Many small and medium-sized triads were used by them, and even a major society like theirs often helped these families do things they couldn’t do themselves.

If they offended one of these powerful families, even 13K would find itself in deep trouble.

“Mr. Lin, this might be a misunderstanding. Let me find out the specifics first. I will personally host a banquet for you tomorrow night and give you an explanation then. How does that sound?” Ge Zhixiong said quickly.

Although he no longer managed 13K’s affairs, he was, after all, its nominal Dragon Head. If the society offended Lin Haoran and the matter wasn’t handled properly, the consequences would be unimaginable.

He had seen it before—when these powerful families got ruthless, they could have the Hong Kong government step in and dismantle a major triad in minutes.

“That won’t be necessary. Sir Murray MacLehose has invited me to a banquet at Government House tomorrow evening, so let’s skip the dinner. I just hope you can give me a reasonable explanation. I’m not an unreasonable person, but I won’t be bullied either. Don’t you agree, Mr. Ge?” Seeing the other man’s attitude, Lin Haoran knew that Ge Zhixiong would likely handle the matter for him.

Hearing that Lin Haoran had been invited to a banquet by Sir Murray MacLehose, Ge Zhixiong understood even more clearly just how high this young tycoon’s status was.

There were very few people in Hong Kong who could receive an invitation from the Governor himself. This was not just a simple wealthy man, but someone who held a certain standing even before the Governor.

Was this the kind of person they could afford to offend?

At that moment, he wanted nothing more than to run up to those six men and curse them out. They were all blind fools. Of all the people to provoke, they had to go after a financial backer they couldn’t possibly afford to offend.

Ge Zhixiong was well aware of the extortion and collection of “protection money” carried out by the low-level members of the society.

In his view, wasn’t this the most basic state of being a triad?

Otherwise, why did triad societies fight to the death over territory?

It was precisely so they could exploit the common people in the territory they controlled.

Because of this, the various branches of the society had always turned a blind eye to these activities, letting them run rampant in their respective territories, as long as they didn’t go too far.

After all, a portion of the income collected by these low-level members was an important source of revenue for the society.

On paper, 13K had over a hundred thousand members. With such a large base, if each person contributed one thousand Hong Kong dollars a year, it would bring in a handsome income of over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars for the society.

But even with extortion, you had to pick your targets.

“Mr. Lin, please rest assured, I will definitely give you a satisfactory answer. We were not aware of these things. They were entirely the actions of individuals and do not represent our 13K!” Ge Zhixiong said solemnly.

Ordinarily, he wouldn’t want to get involved, preferring to live his quiet life in peace.

But in this situation, he had to step forward.

No matter what, 13K was his father’s life’s work.

This incident might not seem like a big deal, but if they thoroughly offended Lin Haoran, their days would be numbered.

Go against the Lin family?

Ge Zhixiong wouldn’t even dare to entertain such a thought.

The networks between powerful families were complex and intertwined; pulling one string could unravel the whole thing.

Take Lin Haoning of the Lin family, for instance. His wife was from the equally prominent Cao family.

And the Cao family, in turn, had countless connections with many other powerful families.

Lin Haoran’s two older sisters had also married into powerful families of equal standing.

These overlapping relationships meant that while Hong Kong’s powerful families might seem like rivals in the business world, if a triad dared to provoke any one of them, it would undoubtedly be digging its own grave.

What’s more, the Lin family was no longer the ordinary powerful family of the past. Being able to seize a controlling stake in a major British-owned firm and being invited to the Governor’s banquet were achievements beyond the reach of most.

These accomplishments alone were enough to place the Lin family among the ranks of Hong Kong’s upper-echelon families.

“Good. I hope you won’t disappoint me.” After saying this, Lin Haoran hung up the phone.

Chapter 190: Don’t Worry, I Paid in Full!

After hanging up on Ge Zhixiong, Lin Haoran didn’t leave the villa immediately. Instead, he stayed until after three in the afternoon before heading out.

As for the matter with 13K, there was no need to deal with it for the time being. He would just have to see how the other party handled it.

After leaving, he didn’t go to any of the companies under his name. Instead, he had Li Weiguo drive directly to the Deep Water Bay villa area.

Today was New Year’s Eve, a day for family reunions, so naturally, he had to go back to spend it with his parents.

Except for the first day after his return from the United States at the end of January, he hadn’t been back for more than two weeks.

His father and mother hadn’t said anything about it, simply assuming that Lin Haoran was busy managing several companies and didn’t have time to come home, which was understandable.

Compared to their older son, Lin Haoning, their younger son, Lin Haoran, already came back quite often.

Half an hour later, Lin Haoran’s Rolls-Royce was parked in the Lin family villa’s parking spot.

“Haoran, you’re back.” Hearing the sound of the engine, his mother had already come outside.

“Mother, I’m back to celebrate the holiday with you!” Lin Haoran smiled and gave his mother a hug.

“Good, good. Come on in. Your dad has been waiting for you,” his mother said with a warm smile.

“Has Older Brother’s family not come back yet?” Lin Haoran asked as they walked.

“Your older brother called this morning. He said he has company matters to attend to and will be back around six this evening,” his mother replied.

Lin Haoran nodded but didn’t continue the conversation on that topic.

Entering the-first floor living room of the villa, Lin Wan’an was leisurely listening to music, a book in hand.

From his radiant complexion, it was clear that his health was improving by the day.

Evidently, ever since dividing the family assets between his two sons, the elder Lin’s health had indeed recovered well with careful recuperation.

If he had continued to socialize and drink as frequently as he used to, or stayed up late handling company affairs, his health would only have deteriorated.

“Haoran, you’re back just in time. Come and tell me about how the Wan’an Company is doing.” Seeing Lin Haoran, Lin Wan’an smiled and gestured for him to sit beside him.

Although he had been retired for some time, the Wan’an Group was still his life’s work, so he was naturally concerned about it.

“Alright, Dad,” Lin Haoran said, quickly walking over to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with his father.

He then began to recount some of the Wan’an Group’s recent activities over the past ten-odd days.

For example, signing a contract with the Hongkong Electric Group to co-develop the Jardine’s Lookout Inland Lot, preparing to develop the plot of land in Hung Hom with the Green Island Cement Company, and accepting the contract from Amigo Company to build the industrial park.

“Haoran, what’s this about the Federation Building being renamed the Wan’an Building? Did you lease the Federation Building?” Lin Wan’an couldn’t help but ask.

Lin Wan’an had found out about the name change last week but hadn’t called Lin Haoran to ask about it.

However, the matter had been on his mind, as he was the one who had founded the Wan’an Group.

The fact that a building that was once the tallest in Hong Kong had been renamed the Wan’an Building—how could he not be surprised?

Lin Haoran’s purchase of the Federation Building and the International Building had happened only recently, and it hadn’t been reported by the media yet. The Wheelock Group had also not made a public announcement.

However, after buying the two buildings, Lin Haoran had immediately renamed the Federation Building to the Wan’an Building. Such a major event was naturally impossible to keep under wraps.

The Federation Building was a significant part of Hong Kong Central’s skyline and attracted a lot of attention, so it was perfectly normal for Lin Wan’an to be aware of it.

“Dad, I bought the Federation Building, as well as the nearby International Building,” Lin Haoran explained directly, not hiding it from his father.

“How much did you spend?” Lin Wan’an pressed.

How could Lin Wan’an not have a rough idea of the value of these two buildings? It must have been an astronomical price.

Last month, on the day Lin Haoran returned from the United States, he had informed his father of his intention to take control of the Hongkong Electric Group. Lin Wan’an had already been mentally prepared for that.

Therefore, he wasn’t surprised that his younger son was now the Chairman of the Hongkong Electric Group.

But buying two commercial skyscrapers in Central was something he knew nothing about.

And to him, it was simply unbelievable.

How long had it been since he acquired the Hongkong Electric Group? And now he had bought two incredibly valuable buildings. It was too hard to believe.

“The two buildings cost a total of one billion Hong Kong dollars. The price is actually quite reasonable. I think there’s still room for appreciation later on, so I bought them,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Haoran, you didn’t mortgage your shares in the Hongkong Electric Group, did you? That’s very risky. If the real estate market collapses, you’ll be in trouble. Repaying the loan would become a huge problem,” Lin Wan’an said with concern.

Lin Wan’an had been a cautious man his entire life. Although he had resolved to support his son’s aggressive development strategy and stay out of business affairs, there were many times when he couldn’t help but worry.

“Don’t worry, Dad. I paid for these two buildings in full. I didn’t borrow a single cent from the bank,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Hearing this, Lin Wan’an finally felt relieved.

At the same time, he was even more astounded by his son’s capabilities.

One billion Hong Kong dollars. He spoke of such a massive sum so casually.

And yet he, Lin Wan’an, had worked diligently his entire life and had only managed to accumulate assets worth two to three hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

In contrast, his younger son, Lin Haoran, had gone from acquiring Green Island Cement to taking over the Hongkong Electric Group, and now to spending one billion Hong Kong dollars in cash to buy two commercial skyscrapers in Central. These were all feats he himself could hardly have accomplished.

Perhaps the only thing on that list he could have potentially achieved was acquiring the Green Island Cement Company, but that would have required his entire life’s savings to succeed.

The difference was too vast.

Lin Haoran had previously told him that he had made a fortune in gold futures.

Originally, Lin Wan’an thought that taking over the Hongkong Electric Group was already outrageous enough. But now he realized that the term “monstrously talented” was no longer sufficient to describe his son.

At this thought, Lin Wan’an’s face, aside from shock, was filled mostly with happiness.

After all, no matter how capable Lin Haoran was, he was still a member of the Lin family, his son.

After chatting with his parents at home for a long time, the evening quickly approached six o’clock.

In the kitchen, the maids were already busy preparing the New Year’s Eve dinner.

A car horn sounded from outside. His mother immediately stood up joyfully and hurried out, just as she had when welcoming Lin Haoran.

Evidently, his older brother, Lin Haoning, had returned.

They were, after all, brothers by blood. Although Lin Haoning had used some underhanded tactics to secure a win in their past competition, Lin Haoran’s perspective had broadened considerably since then. He naturally wouldn’t hold those things against him.

He also stood up and walked out of the villa’s entrance.

Outside, it was indeed Lin Haoning’s family. His mother was holding her eldest grandson, kissing his cheeks repeatedly.

There was his older brother Lin Haoning, his sister-in-law Cao Shaoling, and his nephew Lin Jianbin.

Driving the car was the familiar figure of Lin Yi. This turncoat was now Lin Haoning’s bodyguard and chauffeur.

When he saw the Younger Young Master looking over, Lin Yi’s gaze immediately became shifty.

However, Lin Haoran paid him no mind, merely glancing at him before walking toward Lin Haoning with a smile.

“Older Brother, sister-in-law, you’re back,” Lin Haoran greeted them with a smile.

“Yes, Haoran. When did you get back?” Lin Haoning asked as he opened the trunk of the car and took out several gift boxes.

“I’ve been back for a few hours,” Lin Haoran replied.

“Haoran, do you have a girlfriend yet? If not, how about your sister-in-law finds one for you? My uncle’s daughter, my cousin Cao Shaozhen—you’ve met her before—just turned twenty this year and is as lovely as a flower. How about I introduce you two? If our families could strengthen our ties through marriage, and the Cao and Lin families could advance hand in hand, wouldn’t that be wonderful?” Cao Shaoling’s attitude towards her brother-in-law Lin Haoran was now completely different from before. She was even trying to play matchmaker, hoping to set him up with her cousin.

In Cao Shaoling’s eyes, true powerhouses always commanded respect, even to the point of sycophancy.

Lin Haoran’s current achievements and status had undoubtedly made her see him in a new light.

Any previous antagonism was long gone.

“Thank you for the kind thought, sister-in-law, but I have my own plans for my marriage,” Lin Haoran politely declined her offer.

Upon hearing this, a look of disappointment flashed across Cao Shaoling’s face, but she quickly put a smile back on. After all, she understood that you can’t force love.

“Happy New Year, Uncle,” Lin Jianbin, who was already in elementary school, greeted Lin Haoran timidly from the side.

“Happy New Year! Here’s a big red envelope for you. Be well-behaved and study hard in the new year!” Lin Haoran smiled, patting his nephew’s head as he took a large red envelope out of his pocket.

“Thank you, Uncle!” Lin Jianbin’s face lit up with a happy smile.

Although he was born into a wealthy family, Lin Haoning and his wife were very strict with Lin Jianbin, and he didn’t usually get much pocket money.

That was why he was so happy.

“Go on, your grandpa has been missing you. Go have a chat with him,” Lin Haoran said with a chuckle, pointing toward the living room.

Lin Jianbin immediately ran into the villa.

As night fell, the family enjoyed a sumptuous New Year’s Eve dinner in the dining room.

Since it was New Year’s Eve, both Lin Haoran and Lin Haoning’s family were staying the night at the Lin family villa.

Knowing that her son Lin Haoran and grandson Lin Jianbin both loved fireworks, their mother had instructed the maids to buy a large supply in advance.

With a crisp shout, the first firework was lit. It shot into the dark sky with a swoosh.

Then, it burst into a myriad of brilliant stars in mid-air. Fiery red, jade green, ocean blue, and sun-like gold intertwined into dazzling patterns, painting the night sky like a dream.

More fireworks were lit in succession. Some spiraled into the sky, drawing elegant arcs; others hovered at low altitudes, showering down curtains of silver rain. Cluster after cluster of fireworks slowly bloomed in the night sky, symbolizing happiness, health, and the vibrancy of spring in the coming year.

Lin Haoran joined in, setting off several fireworks himself. The feeling of relaxation was exceptionally pleasant.

He watched the fireworks blossom one after another. Amidst the ceaseless explosions, time seemed to stand still, and all worries and sorrows were scattered by the brilliant light.

At the same time, the sound of fireworks began to erupt from other villas in the Deep Water Bay area, filling the entire sky with colorful bursts, as bright as day.

“Haoran, want to go up to the roof and talk?” Lin Haoning came to Lin Haoran’s side and patted his shoulder.

Amidst the deafening sound of the fireworks, Lin Haoning’s voice was very soft, but Lin Haoran heard him.

“Sure, let’s go up!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“Keep an eye on Jianbin and make sure he doesn’t get hurt playing with the fireworks,” Lin Haoning instructed the maids before turning to leave the open area.

Chapter 191: The True Top Circle of Hong Kong

On the rooftop terrace of the villa, the two brothers, Lin Haoran and Lin Haoning, sat on lounge chairs, admiring the brilliant fireworks in the surrounding sky.

At this moment, although they were brothers, Lin Haoning knew that his status and his younger brother’s were no longer on the same level.

The assets Lin Haoning had received from their father Lin Wan’an’s division of the family property, those properties, were now worth over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. Yet, compared to his younger brother Lin Haoran, the assets he controlled were truly not worth mentioning.

In terms of wealth, the gap between them was immense, and it looked as though it would only grow larger in the future.

Looking at his own brother beside him, Lin Haoning was filled with a multitude of feelings.

“Older Brother, what did you want to talk about?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile, turning his head as he watched the splendid fireworks launching from the direction of Pao Yue-kong’s villa.

“It’s nothing specific, really. I just suddenly felt emotional and wanted to spend some time alone with you, to reminisce about our childhood. Do you remember? The days when the four of us siblings set off fireworks together. I wasn’t married yet, and you were still little. We had no burdens on our minds; life was so carefree,” Lin Haoning said, lost in childhood memories.

Although Lin Haoran and Lin Haoning were brothers, one was the eldest and the other the youngest, with a nearly ten-year age gap between them.

“Of course, I remember. Especially that time your firework flew over to the neighbor’s villa and almost set their roof on fire. They even came to our door. Luckily, it was discovered in time, so it didn’t cause a major disaster,” Lin Haoran chuckled. These were memories he had retrieved from his mind.

In wealthy families, if the members are of comparable strength, conflicts are often unavoidable.

However, the Lin family was now an exception.

Lin Haoran was the helmsman of the Hongkong Electric Group, with a market capitalization of two to three billion Hong Kong dollars, an enterprise he had built up in a short time through his own abilities. Lin Haoning was naturally well aware of how formidable he was.

Therefore, even Lin Haoning couldn’t help but feel a sense of inferiority when facing his exceptionally capable younger brother.

This was the intangible pressure brought by Lin Haoran’s status in the business world; it had nothing to do with familial affection.

“How is your Wanfeng Fan Factory doing now?” Lin Haoran asked with a slight smile.

“We’ve entered the off-season, so orders have certainly dropped significantly. However, after breaking into the North American market last year, we still made a profit of over thirty million Hong Kong dollars. I’m planning to expand further this year. Do you have any suggestions?” Lin Haoning asked with sincerity.

He was completely convinced of his younger brother’s money-making abilities.

“The North American market is different from places like the Middle East. The hot weather there doesn’t last long. Sales have been good these past two years mainly because of the oil crisis, which forced people to rely on electric fans.

Moreover, because the hot weather is brief, fans are used less frequently and are quite durable, so the market can easily become saturated.

Right now, more and more fan manufacturers are pouring into the North American market. Sales might still be good this year, but market demand will likely start to decline next year.

You’ll have to weigh the options and make your own decision,” Lin Haoran offered his opinion without much thought.

The two chatted on the rooftop for a long time. Throughout their conversation, Lin Haoning maintained an attitude of humble inquiry, while Lin Haoran generously shared his insights on the future, unsparingly giving him valuable advice.

Ultimately, they were both part of the Lin family. Although Lin Haoning’s past actions had greatly displeased Lin Haoran, they were just the sort of things that commonly happened in prominent families.

Even in rural villages, brothers would fight tooth and nail, sometimes even coming to blows, over trivial gains.

But no matter how they fought, they were all Lins, all blood brothers.

So, Lin Haoran had now come to view those past matters with a much more open mind.

But he would only offer suggestions. Whether Lin Haoning listened was his own business.

Just like last year, when Lin Haoning had followed Lin Haoran’s advice to enter the North American market, which had allowed him to earn a great deal.

If he hadn’t entered the North American market and had instead remained in the Middle East, trapped in fierce competition with numerous rivals, he would have been lucky to make a profit of ten-odd million Hong Kong dollars a year from the fan manufacturing industry, even with diligent work.

Perhaps because he had stayed up too late last night, Lin Haoran didn’t wake up until after ten in the morning.

Being by the sea, the salty breeze had long since cleared the air of the smell of gunpowder from the fireworks.

The first day of the Lunar New Year was a time for family reunion, and Lin Haoran rarely spent an entire day at home.

It wasn’t until the evening that he got into his Rolls-Royce and left the Deep Water Bay villa for Government House.

When they learned that Lin Haoran had actually received an invitation from the Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, to attend the Spring Festival Banquet at Government House, Lin Wan’an, his wife, Lin Haoning, and his wife were all completely shocked.

Beyond the shock, Lin Wan’an, as a father, felt immense pride in Lin Haoran.

Their Lin family had finally made a name for itself, to the point of receiving an invitation from the Governor himself.

That was the Governor, the highest-ranking administrative official in Hong Kong.

Lin Wan’an had been in business for many years and had achieved some success, but he had never been granted such an honor.

The car wound its way up the twisting roads, and half an hour later, it arrived at Government House, situated between Albert Road and Lower Albert Road in the Mid-Levels of Central.

At this moment, the area in front of Government House was packed with all sorts of luxury cars—Rolls-Royces, Bentleys, Maybachs, and more.

Here, ordinary cars like Mercedes-Benz and BMW were a rare sight.

After all, those who could receive an invitation from Sir Murray MacLehose were basically members of Hong Kong’s upper echelon, the city’s powerful and influential elite, the kind who were never short on money.

Lin Haoran entered Government House with Li Weidong and Li Weiguo. After presenting his invitation card, a staff member immediately led him through several corridors, finally arriving in a luxurious grand hall.

As for Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, another staff member led them to a separate area where they would wait.

At this moment, there were nearly twenty people already in the hall.

Unsurprisingly, Western faces made up the majority of the twenty, with very few Chinese people.

But the number was ridiculously small.

Among the Chinese guests, there was only Pao Yue-kong of Kowloon Wharf and Li Jiacheng of Hutchison Whampoa. Just the two of them.

As for the other famous Chinese tycoons Lin Haoran knew of—Cheng Yu-tung, Kwok Tak-seng, Li Zhaoji, Chao Chung-hin, Shao Yifu, Mr. Fok—none of them were present.

Evidently, they had either not received an invitation or had not yet arrived.

It was Lin Haoran’s first time receiving this invitation, so he wasn’t very clear on the details.

On the other hand, Lin Haoran recognized quite a few of the Westerners: Michael Sandberg from HSBC, Newbiggin from Jardine Matheson & Co., Lawrence Kadoorie from CLP Holdings, Schreyer from Swire & Co., John Marden from Wheelock and Company, and more. Besides them, there were some major political figures and many others Lin Haoran was not familiar with.

The Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, was also among them. He stood in the center of a circle, surrounded by a few tycoons, enthusiastically discussing something.

Although it was the first time Lin Haoran had received his invitation, everyone in Hong Kong knew what Sir Murray MacLehose looked like.

After all, his image frequently appeared on television news and in the newspapers.

Sir Murray MacLehose also made appearances at many large-scale events.

Though he was the Governor, he was considered a very approachable official. Whether it was an act or not, at least he made the effort.

Lin Haoran’s arrival instantly drew the attention of everyone in the hall.

There weren’t many people, only about twenty, which made the spacious hall feel quite empty.

Sir Murray MacLehose was the first to walk over, saying with a smile, “Mr. Lin, we were just waiting for you.”

“Good evening, Sir Murray MacLehose. My apologies. It’s my first time, I thought I was early!” Lin Haoran said with a wry smile as he shook the Governor’s hand.

He hadn’t expected to be the last one to arrive.

He had arrived twenty minutes early. The time on the invitation was eight in the evening, but it was only around seven-forty.

Before leaving, he had eaten dinner with his family at home.

However, knowing there was a banquet tonight, he hadn’t eaten too much.

Otherwise, arriving here and being unable to eat anything would have been awkward.

Lin Haoran glanced at his watch again, confirming that he hadn’t misread it. It was indeed only about seven-forty in the evening.

“Haoran, we usually arrive half an hour early. The banquet hasn’t started yet, so you’re not too late,” Pao Yue-kong, who was standing nearby, explained with a smile, likely noticing Lin Haoran’s awkwardness.

Since it was an invitation from Sir Murray MacLehose, it was quite normal for these people to arrive half an hour early.

After arriving, they could chat about potential collaborations. They were all members of Hong Kong’s top circle, and any cooperation between them would typically involve projects worth over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

After shaking hands with Sir Murray MacLehose, Lin Haoran proceeded to greet and shake hands with everyone present—Michael Sandberg, Newbiggin, Schreyer, and the others.

“Truly young and promising. I never expected you to take control of the Hongkong Electric Group so quietly.”

“Not at all, Mr. Schreyer. You are all seniors in the business world. I am just a newcomer with much to learn.”

“Mr. Lin, perhaps we can cooperate in the future.”

“I would be delighted. Mr. Kadoorie, your CLP Holdings and our Hongkong Electric Group are in the same industry. There are many opportunities for us to collaborate, for instance, on technology.”

“Mr. Lin, our last collaboration was very pleasant. Let’s work together again when we have the chance.”

“Of course, Mr. Marden. I am very satisfied with the two commercial buildings I purchased.”

…

Greeting everyone took a full five or six minutes, exchanging a few pleasantries with each of the nearly twenty people.

These were all major figures, most of whom he had only seen in the news before.

After greeting all the Westerners, Lin Haoran finally turned his attention to the other two Chinese men in the hall, Li Jiacheng and Pao Yue-kong.

“Haoran, come on over,” Pao Yue-kong beckoned warmly when he saw Lin Haoran looking their way.

“Uncle Pao, Mr. Li, Happy Spring Festival!” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he walked over to greet them.

“Finally, there’s one more of us Chinese,” Pao Yue-kong remarked with a sigh.

“Uncle Pao, why are you two the only ones here? Cheng Yu-tung, Kwok Tak-seng, Li Zhaoji, Chao Chung-hin, Shao Yifu, Mr. Fok… they’re all extremely well-known business tycoons. Did they not receive invitations?” Lin Haoran asked curiously in Cantonese.

“Haoran, Sir Murray MacLehose actually hosts several banquets every year, including for Christmas, New Year’s Day, Easter, and the Spring Festival. You probably don’t know this, but in previous years, I was the only Chinese person invited. Brother Jiacheng is here for the first time, just like you.

“This is a circle, the most exclusive circle in Hong Kong. You only get invited if you have Sir Murray MacLehose’s approval. I was surprised when you walked in; I didn’t expect you to be invited too.

“You must have been at your Deep Water Bay villa all day. If I had known you were invited, I would have given you a call and come over with you,” Pao Yue-kong explained with a smile.

“Is that so?” Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

The most exclusive circle in Hong Kong?

People like Cheng Yu-tung, Kwok Tak-seng, Li Zhaoji, Chao Chung-hin, Shao Yifu, and Mr. Fok didn’t qualify?

Did that mean that in Sir Murray MacLehose’s eyes, they still weren’t considered top figures in the business world?

“Mr. Lin, I suspect we were invited because I took control of Hutchison Whampoa, and you, Mr. Lin, took control of the Hongkong Electric Group. These are among Hong Kong’s traditional major hongs. By acquiring these companies and becoming the bosses of these giants, we have become part of the top tier of Hong Kong’s business world. That is likely the reason we received invitations from Sir Murray MacLehose,” Li Jiacheng added with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded. Combining that with what Pao Yue-kong had said, he guessed it was true.

Acquiring the Hongkong Electric Group alone might not have been enough to qualify him. But with the addition of the Green Island Cement Company he controlled, plus the one billion Hong Kong dollars he had just spent to buy two commercial buildings from Wheelock and Company, all of it together was enough to put him on par with the Four Big Hongs.

Perhaps that was the reason he had been invited by Sir Murray MacLehose.

“Uncle Pao, what are the benefits of being in this circle?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“Benefits? That’s something you can only experience for yourself. Everyone on the outside is trying all sorts of ways to squeeze into this circle. It’s the same group of us every year. As you know, this place is ultimately run by the British, so the circle is naturally dominated by them.

“The reason I was invited to join back then was because I was named the World Shipping Magnate that year and had gained a certain amount of global influence. For two new members to be added this year, you two, is a surprise even to me,” Pao Yue-kong said with a smile.

Chapter 192: Firearm License

Hearing Pao Yue-kong’s words, Lin Haoran didn’t press the matter further.

He could guess a few things.

For instance, being part of this circle would make many things much more convenient in the future. If he couldn’t handle something, he could even seek help from the Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose.

Furthermore, the tycoons present, from both political and business spheres, basically constituted the most elite network in Hong Kong. This network was, in itself, an immeasurable asset.

Looking around the room, nearly everyone was middle-aged or older, over forty. He was the only young man in his twenties.

It was clear what a rare honor it was for Lin Haoran to be invited by Sir Murray MacLehose.

After chatting with Pao Yue-kong for a few minutes, Lin Haoran went to talk to others.

There were so many big shots here; building good relationships with them would be extremely beneficial for his development in Hong Kong.

For example, the highest-ranking officer of the Hong Kong Royal Police, Commissioner Han Yili, was among the guests.

Don’t be fooled by the name; though it sounded Chinese, Han Yili was actually a British Westerner. He had been appointed Deputy Commissioner of Police in 1974 and promoted to Commissioner in 1979.

Many Westerners in Hong Kong, besides their English names, would adopt a Chinese name. This was especially true for British officials at the Secretary of State level or higher, each of whom had a Chinese transliteration.

For example, Michael Sandberg, Chris Patten, David Wilson, Jeremy Hunt, Liz Truss, Reginald Stubbs, Theresa May, Sir Murray MacLehose, and so on. If one didn’t know better, they might really think these people were Chinese, but in fact, they were all genuinely British.

“Commissioner Han, I hope I can count on your guidance in the future!” Lin Haoran struck up a conversation with Han Yili.

Han Yili was also quite curious about this young man, Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Lin, you are truly young and promising. To have built such an enterprise at such a young age is a rare feat, even in Britain!” Han Yili praised.

“You flatter me, Commissioner Han. By the way, I have a small request. I’m not sure if it would be difficult to handle,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Oh? Please, go ahead, Mr. Lin,” Han Yili’s curiosity was piqued.

“Some time ago, when I was out, I ran into a group of gangsters trying to extort me. If my personal bodyguards weren’t skilled, I might have been kidnapped. What I fear most is if the other party had firearms. No matter how good my bodyguards are at fighting, they can’t dodge a bullet. So, I’d like to apply for firearm licenses for my two bodyguards. I was wondering if such an application is difficult to get approved,” Lin Haoran raised the question.

That night in Mong Kok, this thought had already crossed Lin Haoran’s mind.

If those gangsters had been armed with guns, he would have been in serious trouble.

After all, he knew that in this era of Hong Kong, shootouts between triad societies were not uncommon.

He was lucky that night to have encountered the lowest-ranking members of a triad. If he had run into members with even a little standing, they might very well have been carrying firearms.

Therefore, if Li Weiguo and Li Weidong could carry guns to protect him, Lin Haoran’s safety would be much more secure.

Lin Haoran had heard from Li Weiguo that Li Weidong was a sharpshooter in the army, incredibly skilled with both long and short guns.

As for Li Weiguo, while not as proficient as Li Weidong, he was also highly competent.

So, he had been thinking about equipping the two brothers with handguns for some time.

In Hong Kong, firearm control was a critical area with very strict regulations.

Hong Kong law clearly stipulated that private ownership of firearms was illegal unless a special permit was obtained.

These laws were designed to protect the public from the threat of gun violence and to ensure that only authorized personnel, such as police officers and members of other law enforcement agencies, could legally carry and use firearms.

Triad societies, being in the business of lawlessness, naturally wouldn’t bother with these restrictive laws. They lived on the edge; if they actually obeyed the law, they wouldn’t have joined a triad in the first place.

But Lin Haoran was different. He was not only a law-abiding citizen but also a public figure. If Li Weiguo and Li Weidong carried guns without approval and something happened that required them to return fire, it would have a negative impact on Lin Haoran.

Thus, it would be best if his two bodyguards could legally carry firearms.

If not, Lin Haoran would still prepare guns for them anyway. After all, any negative impact was better than being caught in a dangerous situation.

However, meeting the top man of the Royal Hong Kong Police here today might be the perfect opportunity to resolve this matter.

Lin Haoran knew that applying for a firearm license through the standard procedures was virtually impossible.

But if the Commissioner of Police could handle it for him, then Li Weiguo and Li Weidong could carry their guns legally, without having to do so secretly.

“Mr. Lin, is that all? Acknowledged. Please come to the Police Headquarters when you have a moment and submit your two bodyguards’ identification information. I will take care of this for you.” To Lin Haoran’s surprise, Han Yili agreed to his request without any hesitation.

Everyone invited here was a personal guest of Governor Sir Murray MacLehose. Han Yili was essentially doing Lin Haoran this favor out of respect for Mr. MacLehose.

“Thank you so much, Commissioner Han. When you have some free time, I would like to act as the host to express my gratitude,” Lin Haoran said gratefully.

“There’s no need for that. As you know, our Governor strongly dislikes such things,” Han Yili politely declined with a smile.

The current Independent Commission Against Corruption was no laughing matter.

Before the ICAC was established, corruption was rampant in Hong Kong society.

Even the fire brigade demanded illicit payments to put out fires; otherwise, the firefighters would arrive on the scene and stand idly by, watching the blaze consume everything.

A senior Hong Kong police superintendent named Han De, who was later convicted in the ICAC’s anti-corruption storm, once gave a famous testimony from the former ICAC building: “In the Hong Kong police force, corruption has become a way of life, as natural as sleeping at night, waking up in the morning, and brushing one’s teeth.”

On February 15, 1974, the Hong Kong Legislative Council passed the “Independent Commission Against Corruption Ordinance,” announcing the establishment of an “independent anti-corruption organization unrelated to any government department, including the Police Force,” which became the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption.

After the ICAC was founded and began to crack down hard on corruption, the situation gradually improved.

Clearly, Commissioner Han Yili was wary of these issues. Although he was the top officer of the Hong Kong Royal Police, the ICAC was not under his purview.

The banquet hosted by Government House had a relaxed atmosphere. Everyone present was of high status, so there was no sycophantic behavior.

Unlike Chinese banquets, British ones were typically held in a buffet style.

Guests could mingle with wine glasses, conversing with whomever they wished, occasionally saying “cheers.”

As the host, Sir Murray MacLehose made a point of toasting each guest individually, including the young Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Lin, when I have some free time, perhaps we can have a private chat,” Sir Murray MacLehose said to Lin Haoran with a smile as they toasted.

Sir Murray MacLehose held a very high opinion of this young man, Lin Haoran. At just over twenty years old, he was already on par with the other business tycoons present. His future was boundless!

The British were in Hong Kong for their interests, and a Hong Kong business tycoon like Lin Haoran clearly held great value.

“Of course. I look forward to a private conversation with you, Mr. Governor,” Lin Haoran was a little surprised by Sir Murray MacLehose’s words but quickly replied.

No matter how wealthy these businessmen were, they couldn’t compare to the power wielded by a Governor like Sir Murray MacLehose.

To develop smoothly in Hong Kong, building a good relationship with Sir Murray MacLehose was one of the best strategies.

Otherwise, if you offended them, don’t think you would be safe just by being law-abiding. They had countless ways to cause you trouble.

As Sir Murray MacLehose moved on from Lin Haoran to toast other guests, Michael Sandberg, the Taipan of HSBC, approached him.

“Cheers.”

The two clinked their glasses and each took a small sip of red wine.

“Mr. Lin, I had a good feeling about you from the start. I never expected you to achieve so much in just one year. It’s truly astonishing!” Michael Sandberg said with a smile.

“I’ve just been lucky. In the business world, I’ll still need to rely on your guidance, Mr. Michael Sandberg,” Lin Haoran replied modestly.

“Mr. Lin, have you ever considered joining HSBC and becoming a member of our Board of Directors?” Michael Sandberg stated his purpose.

A member of HSBC’s Board of Directors?

Lin Haoran was somewhat taken aback.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, I’m not a shareholder or a senior executive at HSBC. Wouldn’t it be inappropriate for me to serve as a director?” Lin Haoran asked, puzzled.

“That’s very simple to arrange. HSBC and Hongkong Electric Group can establish a cross-shareholding relationship. That way, Mr. Lin would naturally be a shareholder of HSBC. Of those present, apart from the government officials and yourself, everyone else is already a director at HSBC. I have also invited Mr. Li Jiacheng to join the board,” Michael Sandberg said with a smile.

Lin Haoran was shocked to hear Michael Sandberg’s words.

HSBC was trying to gather all the business tycoons under its wing!

No wonder HSBC could become the leader of Hong Kong’s financial world. With such a powerful network, who could possibly challenge its position?

This was a good thing. Lin Haoran didn’t have to think for long before deciding to accept.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, I accept!” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Excellent. Then let’s find a time to discuss the details,” Michael Sandberg said, satisfied.

The banquet continued until after nine in the evening.

Lin Haoran benefited greatly from this event at Government House. Not only did he get to know many of Hong Kong’s political and business elites, but he also earned the appreciation of Governor Sir Murray MacLehose.

“Boss, where are we heading back to?” Li Weiguo asked, turning his head after they got into the car.

Li Weiguo was asking whether to go back to the Severn Road villa or the Deep Water Bay villa.

“Let’s go back to the Deep Water Bay villa. It is the first day of the Lunar New Year, after all,” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Yes, Boss.”

The car slowly pulled away from the gates of Government House.

The streets of Hong Kong were exceptionally quiet tonight. Pedestrians and vehicles were sparse, but the lights in every household shone brightly as families gathered to celebrate the festival.

From New Year’s Eve to the second day of the new year, Lin Haoran had no intention of dealing with any work matters.

If it hadn’t been for the invitation from Governor Sir Murray MacLehose tonight, Lin Haoran wouldn’t have even bothered to go out.

Tomorrow was the second day of the Lunar New Year, a day when, by tradition, married daughters return to their parents’ home.

If all went as expected, his two sisters would come to the Deep Water Bay villa with their husbands and children. They were so good to him, and Lin Haoran knew it.

Therefore, it wouldn’t be right for him not to be at the Lin family villa in Deep Water Bay tomorrow to wait for his sisters’ return.

Trading on the four stock exchanges would resume on the third day of the Lunar New Year.

When that time came, the battle would continue.

Jardine Matheson & Co. had its eyes on the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. It probably wouldn’t be long before they launched their attack.

Whether or not he could take over the Hong Kong and China Gas Company would depend on how fiercely Jardine Matheson launched its offensive.

“Weiguo, Weidong, it’s the New Year. Do you miss home?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“I do. I miss my parents. I wonder if they got into trouble because I illegally immigrated,” Li Weidong said candidly.

“I miss them too. My parents are gone, but my grandparents are still there. I wonder how they’re doing,” said Li Weiguo, who was driving.

“Have you ever thought about bringing them to Hong Kong?” Lin Haoran chuckled.

“Of course, but I don’t dare go back. I don’t know if I’ll get arrested by the Public Security Bureau if I return, let alone bring them over,” Li Weidong said, his spirits a little low.

After all, it was the New Year. Although they were eating and drinking well with their boss in Hong Kong, this special holiday inevitably made them think of their loved ones.

“This year, I’ll try to find some time to help you bring them to Hong Kong!” Lin Haoran told them.

Over the past two days, although the two hadn’t said anything, Lin Haoran could clearly sense that their moods were not high.

They had snuck into Hong Kong in 1978, so it had been over a year. They had already spent two Spring Festivals in Hong Kong.

So it was obvious they missed their families.

Now that Lin Haoran had a considerable amount of capital, he decided it was time to start laying the groundwork for investments in Shenzhen.

When the time came, he could figure out a way to bring the families of both Li Weidong and Li Weiguo to Hong Kong.

By doing so, the two would become even more devoted to him.

Lin Haoran’s safety depended on these two brothers. It was only right to treat them well.

Chapter 193: Jardine Matheson’s Dawn Raid

On the morning of the second day of the Lunar New Year, Lin Haoran was still sound asleep when he was awakened by a knock on the door.

Outside was the Lin family’s Filipino maid.

“Younger Young Master, the Madam asked me to come and wake you. Second Miss and Third Miss have returned,” the young maid, who looked to be in her twenties, reported after Lin Haoran opened the door.

“Mm, I got it. I’ll be down in a bit,” Lin Haoran replied with a yawn.

He glanced at his watch; it was already ten in the morning. No wonder his two older sisters were already here.

After returning from Government House last night, Lin Haoran hadn’t gone to bed right away.

He had met so many influential figures, and it took him some time to process it all.

If he could build good relationships with these people, every single one of them could provide him with help he could never have obtained before, especially the political tycoons.

After quickly washing up, Lin Haoran changed into a set of casual clothes, placed some red envelopes in his pockets, and headed downstairs.

Before he even reached the ground floor, he could hear the lively sounds from below.

“Second Sister, Second Brother-in-law, Third Sister, Third Brother-in-law, Happy New Year!” When he reached the first-floor hall, he found the house bustling with activity, with more than ten people present.

There were six children alone.

His second sister had three kids, his third sister had two, and then there was his older brother’s son.

“Uncle Haoran, wishing you a prosperous new year! Now, where’s my red envelope?” Second Sister’s eldest son was a social butterfly. Though still in primary school, he couldn’t wait to rush over and ask for a red envelope the moment he saw Lin Haoran.

“Alright, alright, there’s one for everyone. Two red envelopes for each of you!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

He then started handing out red envelopes, not even skipping his nephew Lin Jianbin, to whom he had already given one.

“Haoran, you’ve really made something of yourself now. You’ll have to look after us in the future!” Second Brother-in-law came forward to shake his hand, smiling.

Third Brother-in-law also came over to exchange pleasantries with Lin Haoran.

The Lin Haoran of today had long since made them see him in a new light; he was now a major figure in the business world.

It was no exaggeration to say that even if both of their families were combined, along with the original Lin family, they still wouldn’t measure up to the Hongkong Electric Group alone.

And they were merely employees in their respective family businesses.

“Second Brother-in-law, Third Brother-in-law, have you ever considered setting up your own business? If you have, I can provide some assistance,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

His two sisters had always been so good to him; he naturally knew how to repay their kindness.

His brothers-in-law were both in their thirties, slightly younger than his older brother Lin Haoning. Although they held management positions in their family enterprises, their actual power was limited.

Moreover, their families were much larger than the Lin family, with more relatives. While securing an important position in the family business wouldn’t be difficult, becoming the successor was a different matter.

That was why Lin Haoran wanted to suggest they set up their own businesses.

At the very least, with his current standing in the business world, it wouldn’t be difficult for him to offer them some help.

Plus, he knew many future development trends. While he couldn’t guarantee they would become titans of industry, helping them surpass their own family businesses was certainly not difficult.

Take Liu Luanxiong, the general manager of Amigo Company, for example. His family was quite well-off, but Liu Luanxiong didn’t fare well in the family business and wasn’t valued. So, he struck out on his own to develop his own career. Today, the strength of Amigo Company has far surpassed that of the Liu family’s enterprise.

If his second and third sisters’ families wanted to set up their own businesses, Lin Haoran would naturally support them.

With his current capabilities, a little guidance and some resources would be enough to ensure his sisters’ families would be well-off in the future.

Lin Haoran’s words made his brothers-in-law’s faces light up with joy.

After all, Lin Haoran was now the Chairman of the Hongkong Electric Group. If he casually referred some business their way, their circumstances would improve dramatically.

“Haoran, are you serious? I’ve been wanting to start my own business for ages. In the family company, those old fogies never trust me. If you’re serious, we should have a good chat. Give me some advice, and I’ll really go for it. I’ll follow your lead!” Second Brother-in-law said with a smile, his eyes shimmering with anticipation.

“Haoran, I’m planning to start my own HR company. What do you think? With so many factories in Hong Kong, every single one needs a large number of workers. I think this industry has a lot of potential,” Third Brother-in-law quickly added, sharing his own idea.

“Second Brother-in-law, it depends on which industry you’re interested in. I can give you some suggestions. As for you, Third Brother-in-law, an HR company is indeed a good business. For example, my fan factory’s workforce can reach over ten thousand during peak season. And construction companies also need a huge number of people. If you can get your company off the ground, I can give you all this recruitment business. It’s the same as giving it to someone else. I could even give you work if you want to start a high-end headhunting firm. But the prerequisite is that the quality of the talent you find must be top-notch,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“Third Brother-in-law, my Wanfeng Fan Factory also needs a lot of assembly line workers in the summer. If you want to get into this, you should act quickly,” Lin Haoning chimed in from the side, expressing his support.

Seeing the family so happy and harmonious, Lin mother was very gratified.

“Haoran, when are you going to find us a sister-in-law? Your mother was just nagging me, saying she wants to hold your son soon,” Third Sister said with a laugh.

Lin Haoran was already twenty-six this year. At this age, he was indeed of marriageable age. Even in prominent families, many married around this time, some even younger.

However, he was in no hurry.

“Third Sister, my career is my priority right now. I don’t have time for romantic matters. Let’s talk about it after my career is more stable,” Lin Haoran said with a wry smile.

Lin Haoran didn’t leave Deep Water Bay for the entire day.

After lunch, however, his older brother Lin Haoning left the Lin residence with his wife and child. They were, of course, heading to his wife’s parents’ home.

In the afternoon, Lin Haoran made a special trip with gifts to visit the nearby home of Pao Yue-kong to offer New Year’s greetings.

Pao Yue-kong was a senior to him in the business world, and he had provided significant help during the acquisition of Green Island Cement Company and the purchase of oil. This alone was reason enough for him to pay his respects to this business senior, not to mention that their homes were only a few minutes’ walk apart.

At Pao Yue-kong’s home, Lin Haoran chatted at length with the World Shipping Magnate.

Pao Yue-kong’s attitude towards Lin Haoran was no longer that of a senior to a junior, as it had been in the past. They now basically treated each other as equals.

Although more than half a year had passed since Pao Yue-kong took over Kowloon Wharf, he was still recuperating and building up his strength, with no major ambitions in the Hong Kong business world for the time being.

During the acquisition of Kowloon Wharf, the Bao family had incurred a colossal debt of 2.1 billion Hong Kong dollars. Paying off this debt was no small feat.

Early this year, to reduce its debt ratio, the World-Wide Shipping Group had been forced to sell off a number of ships, most of which were bought by Wheelock’s subsidiary, Wheelock Shipping Company.

However, the Bao family’s acquisition of Kowloon Wharf was perfectly timed. Property prices were on the rise, and the value of Kowloon Wharf’s numerous properties had increased substantially.

In a little over a year, the value of their stake in Kowloon Wharf would at least double. It could be said that although the Bao family suffered heavy losses by paying a large premium during the acquisition, they would sooner or later make it all back.

Chatting with Pao Yue-kong taught Lin Haoran a great deal. Pao Yue-kong would occasionally recount stories of business battles he had experienced, and these stories were all precious treasures of knowledge.

Compared to Lin Wan’an’s business experience, Pao Yue-kong’s was clearly richer and offered more to learn from.

One was engaged in small-scale operations in Hong Kong, while the other navigated the grand world market, earning the respect of leaders from various countries. They were on completely different levels.

At the same time, through Pao Yue-kong’s introduction, Lin Haoran also met his four sons-in-law.

Speaking of which, of Shipping Magnate Pao’s four sons-in-law, only one was a Hong Kong local. The other three were not from Hong Kong but from different countries. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say his sons-in-law could form a small United Nations.

Lin Haoran stayed and chatted at Pao Yue-kong’s house for over two hours before leaving.

Pao Yue-kong had wanted to keep Lin Haoran for dinner, but Lin Haoran declined, explaining that his sisters and brothers-in-law were waiting for him at home.

Today was a day for their family reunion, and for him to join the Bao family’s dinner would feel out of place.

That evening, the families of Second Sister and Third Sister stayed over at the Lin residence.

With so many children in the house, Lin Haoran, their younger maternal uncle, specially had Li Weiguo go out and buy a large number of fireworks, which they set off in an open area.

The fireworks from New Year’s Eve had long since been used up.

His older brother didn’t return that night, likely staying over at his father-in-law’s place.

Nevertheless, the Lin residence was incredibly lively. Throughout the year, the second day of the Lunar New Year was the most bustling.

All day long, the smiles never left the faces of Lin father and Lin mother.

In the blink of an eye, another night passed. On the morning of the third day of the Lunar New Year, Lin Haoran had originally planned to go directly to the Hongkong Electric Group, but his mother asked if he wanted to visit his maternal grandfather’s house.

Considering that his work wasn’t particularly urgent, Lin Haoran decided to make the trip.

By noon, however, Lin Haoran was rushing to the Hongkong Electric Group.

The reason was a phone call from Chen Shoulin, informing him that Jardine Matheson & Co. had begun its acquisition of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company!

And so, Lin Haoran hurriedly bid farewell to his maternal grandfather’s family and drove to the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters building.

At twelve-thirty in the afternoon, Lin Haoran appeared in the general manager’s office at the Hongkong Electric Group.

“Boss, this morning, after the market opened, Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s stock was bought up in large quantities, and its price shot up. By the twelve o’clock midday closing bell, its market capitalization had risen from 590 million Hong Kong dollars before the market opened to 720 million. The trading volume was nearly five times that of the entire previous trading day. We just received news that Jardine Matheson’s subsidiary, Jardine Securities, in conjunction with the Hongkong Land Group, has launched a ‘Dawn Raid’ on Hong Kong and China Gas Company. They’ve also jointly announced an offer of 120 million Hong Kong dollars to acquire approximately 15% of the shares from the market. In other words, Jardine Matheson has directly raised Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s market capitalization to a total of 800 million. This has caused a huge stir. The stock will probably be a hot sell in the afternoon. After all, most people think the company isn’t worth such a high price, so many shareholders will certainly take the opportunity to sell,” Chen Shoulin reported what had happened that day without even stopping for pleasantries.

“How many shares do they currently hold? Do you know?” Lin Haoran asked, frowning.

“Jardine Matheson hasn’t disclosed that, but by our estimates, they control at least 25% of the shares. They likely already held nearly 20% before this, which is why they’re so confident. Adding in the pending orders they snapped up from the secondary market this morning, their holdings have very likely reached 25%. That’s why they’re making a public offer for another 15%. If they complete this acquisition, Jardine Matheson will effectively control 40% of the shares, which would be enough to make them the major shareholder and give them the power to take control of Hong Kong and China Gas Company,” Chen Shoulin replied.

Lin Haoran nodded and began to think.

At the close of the previous trading day, Hongkong Electric Group held about 8% of Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s shares, plus about 2.8% from Universal Investment Company.

This meant he currently controlled about 10.8% of the company’s stock, a far cry from what Jardine Matheson now held.

With such a small stake, and based on what Chen Shoulin had described of Jardine Matheson’s position, under normal circumstances, he stood practically no chance of competing with them.

Meanwhile, Li Mingze and his group of Chinese-funded conglomerates held about 33% of the shares.

If he were to ally with this group, even if Jardine Matheson acquired 40% of the shares, they still wouldn’t be able to control Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

This was because, even now, their combined stake was already over 43%.

However, Lin Haoran had no intention of doing so. It would bring him no benefit!

So what if Jardine Matheson’s takeover failed? The actual control of Hong Kong and China Gas Company wouldn’t be in his hands.

What he wanted was actual control of Hong Kong and China Gas Company!

And to achieve that goal, simply acquiring shares from the stock market was clearly not enough to even surpass Jardine Matheson.

Chapter 194: Take as Much as You Can

Jardine Matheson & Co. had truly pulled off a brilliant sneak attack, choosing to launch their offensive against the Hong Kong and China Gas Company while everyone was still immersed in the Spring Festival.

At this moment, Li Mingze was probably still utterly bewildered, never having anticipated something like this.

Although today was the Third day of the Lunar New Year, for these Britons, the Spring Festival was not their holiday.

Now, if Lin Haoran wanted to take control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company and become its actual controller, there was only one way.

That was for Li Mingze and his group of Chinese-owned enterprise shareholders to sell a portion, or even all, of their shares to him. If that happened, Jardine Matheson & Co. could not possibly hold more shares than him.

However, getting Li Mingze and the others to sell their shares to him would not be easy.

After all, Li Mingze had previously told him that he had no intention of selling his shares in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Moreover, the annual returns from the Hong Kong and China Gas Company were incredibly stable, making it an excellent company to hold shares in.

As the Chairman of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, he and the other Chinese-owned enterprise shareholders could issue dividends whenever they wanted. If they chose not to, they could use the profits to cooperate with their own related businesses. It could be said that they held a firm grasp on the company’s profits.

But Lin Haoran knew that unless one specific thing happened, Li Mingze would be forced to relinquish his controlling stake.

That would be when Jardine Matheson & Co. fully achieved the strength to control the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. In order to resist the British-owned company, they might choose to seek outside help, or even give up their controlling stake.

Once Jardine Matheson & Co. reached the point of holding a controlling stake, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company would no longer be controlled by the Chinese-funded conglomerate. At that time, they would have very little final say in the company.

At that point, the Chinese-funded conglomerate would no longer be able to decide the development direction of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Then, their returns from holding the shares would certainly not be as high as when they were in control, and the value of their equity would diminish.

Furthermore, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company would once again transform from a Chinese-owned enterprise into a British-owned company. As men who styled themselves as patriotic entrepreneurs, they would surely find this situation unacceptable.

Faced with Jardine Matheson’s aggressive assault and feeling powerless, what could they do?

They could only seek help from other Chinese entrepreneurs in the outside world.

In another timeline, it was precisely because they couldn’t withstand Jardine Matheson’s assault that this Chinese-funded conglomerate had no choice but to turn to real estate tycoon Li Zhaoji for help. In the end, Li Zhaoji successfully seized control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

“This afternoon, Hongkong Electric Group will continue to secretly participate in the stock accumulation. Accumulate as many shares as you can!” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Boss, if Jardine Matheson is really going for forty percent or even more, doesn’t that mean we don’t have a chance to fight for control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company anymore? The premium for acquiring shares this afternoon is too high. From a business perspective, it’s not worth it,” Chen Shoulin voiced his doubts.

“Director Chen, do you remember our meeting with Mr. Li Mingze at the Hong Kong and China Gas Company before the New Year? We still have a chance to control the company. Mr. Li Mingze will most likely turn to us for help.

That will be the opportune moment for us to take control of this enterprise. Besides, I have an investment company that is also acquiring shares of Hongkong Electric Group. If all goes smoothly, I am confident that Hongkong Electric Group can seize control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. Even if Jardine Matheson really manages to acquire over forty percent of the shares through the stock market, we can still hold more equity than them!” Lin Haoran explained with a smile.

They had already given Li Mingze a heads-up and expressed their intention to acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. Moreover, Hongkong Electric Group was already one of its major shareholders.

In addition, Lin Haoran’s conversation with Li Mingze at the Hong Kong and China Gas Company headquarters had gone quite well, leaving a deep impression on him.

Under these circumstances, they would definitely prioritize seeking help from Lin Haoran, a fellow Chinese entrepreneur.

After all, compared to the real estate tycoon Li Zhaoji, Lin Haoran’s current strength was clearly greater, and he was more certain to be able to fend off Jardine Matheson’s aggressive takeover.

Moreover, Li Mingze was clearly keen to build a good relationship with Lin Haoran.

Therefore, if Jardine Matheson truly forced this Chinese-funded conglomerate to the point where they had to ask for Lin Haoran’s help, he would have a very high chance of taking control of the company.

“Then how much should we acquire?” Chen Shoulin asked.

“As much as we can. The more shares we hold, the more we have the upper hand. Don’t worry about short-term gains and losses.

Although the stock price of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company has been pushed up from a total market cap of less than six hundred million Hong Kong dollars to eight hundred million, it may seem like we’ll lose money if we acquire shares now. But from a long-term perspective, if our Hongkong Electric Group can control the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, the pros will definitely outweigh the cons.

The Hong Kong and China Gas Company is a high-quality enterprise, otherwise you wouldn’t have thought of acquiring it five years ago. Right now, the stock prices of most listed companies in Hong Kong are rising. Even if Jardine Matheson didn’t try to acquire it, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s price would have risen to this level in the next few months thanks to the stock market craze.

However, don’t drive the price up. Just acquire shares at the price announced by Jardine Matheson. If we push the price even higher and start a price war, causing Jardine Matheson to fail to acquire enough shares, then Li Mingze’s side won’t feel the crisis, and we won’t get our chance to take control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company,” Lin Haoran continued.

“Yes, that makes sense. Just like our own Hongkong Electric Group, its stock price is constantly rising. The current price of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company is indeed not too high. Alright, I will instruct the head of our securities department to prepare for this afternoon’s operation,” Chen Shoulin said with a nod.

“Good, go now. The market will open for the afternoon session soon,” Lin Haoran said, glancing at the time. It was already about twelve-forty in the afternoon.

“Okay, I’ll go down to the securities department right now.” After saying this, Chen Shoulin hurriedly left the office.

Lin Haoran didn’t stay idle either. He picked up the office phone and called Su Zhixue.

“Boss, I was just about to call you. There’s an emergency. Jardine Matheson suddenly…” As soon as the call connected, Su Zhixue, realizing it was his boss, immediately began to report.

“I’m already aware of the situation. I’m calling you precisely for this matter. Get ready to go all out this afternoon to snatch up shares. Get as many as you can!” Lin Haoran interrupted Su Zhixue and gave his directive.

“Understood, Boss. If the competition to buy is fierce, should we raise the price?” Su Zhixue asked.

“No need. We just need to match Jardine Matheson’s acquisition price,” Lin Haoran replied.

“Alright, Boss. I understand what to do,” Su Zhixue answered.

“By the way, how was the share accumulation this morning?” Lin Haoran then asked.

“The stock price climbed rapidly this morning. Jardine Matheson’s acquisitions were extremely aggressive, but we also took the opportunity to buy a significant number of shares. We now hold nearly four percent of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Since Jardine hadn’t made a public announcement at the time, and today is the Third day of the Lunar New Year, and our shareholding percentage wasn’t too high, we didn’t disturb you immediately,” Su Zhixue reported in detail.

“Good, I understand. Hurry up and get ready. The market is about to open,” Lin Haoran instructed.

“Yes, Boss!”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran wasn’t the least bit nervous.

Universal Investment Company held 4% of the shares, and Hongkong Electric Group held 8%. This meant he effectively controlled 12% of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s shares.

These shares, combined with the 33% held by the Chinese-funded conglomerate, totaled a full 45%.

If he wanted to, even if Jardine Matheson secured 40%, they still wouldn’t have a larger controlling stake than his Chinese-funded conglomerate faction.

However, for the sake of the acquisition, Lin Haoran was certainly not willing to do this, nor would he reveal that Hongkong Electric Group was secretly acquiring shares of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

This group of Chinese-funded conglomerate shareholders was unwilling to spend money to increase their holdings, yet they were also unwilling to let Jardine Matheson snatch away their controlling stake. In the end, their only option was to seek outside help.

That afternoon, Lin Haoran decided to stay at Hongkong Electric Group to keep an eye on things. He wasn’t planning on going anywhere. He wanted to see just how many shares Jardine Matheson could ultimately snatch up at such a high price.

Acquiring shares at a premium of over 35%—such a price was, in fact, Jardine Matheson’s way of making the Chinese-funded conglomerate shareholders of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company give up any thought of increasing their own holdings.

Jardine Matheson & Co. had already thoroughly investigated the situation of that group. They knew that under these circumstances, these Chinese shareholders were highly unlikely to increase their shareholdings.

This was also the reason for their confidence.

For Newbiggin and the other senior executives at Jardine Matheson, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was already in the palm of their hands this time.

In a single day, they had pushed the market capitalization from 590 million Hong Kong dollars to 800 million, a premium of over 35%. If it weren’t for the goal of seizing control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, even a company like Jardine Matheson would be unwilling to make such an acquisition.

Meanwhile, as soon as Jardine Matheson announced through the stock market their intention to acquire a 15% stake at a premium, Li Mingze, the Chairman of the Board of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, was informed.

The Li family was a prominent Chinese family that had been influential in Hong Kong for decades. They had a wide network of connections, and naturally, they had to maintain their social obligations. Thus, during the Spring Festival, Li Mingze was extremely busy. Not only did he have to receive all sorts of friends and relatives who came to offer New Year’s greetings, but he also had to pay New Year’s visits to other tycoons.

Therefore, on the Third day of the Lunar New Year, with nothing pressing, Li Mingze had no time at all to manage the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Most importantly, he was not just the Chairman of the Board of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company; he also served as the head of several other enterprises, including Chairman of Hysan Development Company Limited and Chairman of Hong Kong Tube and Metal Company. It was impossible for him to devote all his time to the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

However, upon learning of Jardine Matheson’s actions, he immediately put aside the matters at hand and rushed back to the Hong Kong and China Gas Company headquarters.

At the same time, he urgently contacted He Tingxi and other key shareholders of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Within just an hour, all these shareholders had gathered in a conference room at the company headquarters.

At this moment, these shareholders hadn’t even mentally shifted back to work from the Spring Festival atmosphere.

“Chairman Li, what’s the situation now?” He Tingxi asked.

“The situation is not in our favor. It’s been half an hour since the market opened this afternoon. After Jardine Matheson’s premium acquisition offer, the trading volume of our company’s stock has skyrocketed. The volume was already terrifying this morning after Jardine’s massive buying spree. Now, in just half an hour, the volume has matched the entire two-and-a-half-hour morning session. We need to be mentally prepared for our stakes to be surpassed by Jardine Matheson!” Li Mingze sighed.

“Then what do we do? We managed to snatch control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company from a British-funded conglomerate without hesitation. If it gets snatched back by a British-funded conglomerate again, we’ll lose face at The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong,” He Tingxi said with a苦笑.

Each of them had their own businesses and were members of The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, with status and reputation within the chamber. They had been incredibly proud when they took control of this enterprise previously held by a British-funded conglomerate.

But now, it was about to be taken back, and they were certainly unwilling to let that happen.

“My situation, as you all should know, makes it impossible for me to increase my shareholding. Is anyone else willing to increase their stake to ensure we don’t lose our controlling interest? I am willing to give up my position as Chairman of the Board,” Li Mingze asked, his gaze sweeping over the few men before him.

“All my recent funds are tied up in my Jiali Company. We’re currently expanding into the North American market, so I can’t free up any capital,” He Tingxi said, shaking his head.

He Tingxi’s Jiali Company was a manufacturer of plastic and metal parts, not particularly prominent in Hong Kong’s business circles.

Li Mingze sighed and turned his gaze to the other three shareholders.

However, the other three also shook their heads one after another. They knew their own situations all too well.

Chapter 195: Jardine Matheson Announces Its Takeover of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company

While Li Mingze and the others were anxiously figuring out how to respond to Jardine Matheson & Co.’s surprise attack, the Hong Kong stock market was buzzing with activity.

Although it was the third day of the Lunar New Year and most people had not yet returned to work…

…when Jardine Matheson & Co. announced their acquisition decision, the vast majority of shareholders learned of it in less than an hour.

Hong Kong is such a small place; news travels incredibly fast.

Especially those shareholders who frequently traded stocks; they all had their own sources of information.

Therefore, which of the shareholders holding Hong Kong and China Gas Company stock still had the heart to celebrate the festival? Making money was the most important thing.

A situation where the stock price was directly and sharply driven up was rare. If they missed this opportunity, who knew how long they’d have to wait for another.

Hongkong Electric Group, the securities department office. Lin Haoran and Chen Shoulin were both present.

“Our group’s holdings in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company have surpassed ten percent!” At 1:48 PM, the head of the securities department reported excitedly.

“What percentage of the afternoon trading volume does that represent?” Lin Haoran asked.

“It’s about twenty-five percent of the total afternoon trading volume. Our securities department isn’t as strong as Jardine Securities, Jardine Matheson’s subsidiary. They have more manpower and a higher level of professionalism. So, this result is actually quite good, better than expected,” the department head replied.

Lin Haoran nodded.

In other words, since the market opened this afternoon, Hongkong Electric Group had increased its holdings in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company by two percent, accounting for twenty-five percent of the total trading volume. This meant that the total traded volume of Hong Kong and China Gas stock was around eight percent.

In less than an hour after the market opened, eight percent of Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s shares had been traded. This figure was terrifying.

He wondered how things were going over at Universal Investment Company.

Lin Haoran didn’t disturb them for the time being.

With the addition of professional traders, Universal Investment Company’s trading capability was now no less than that of Hongkong Electric Group’s securities department. However, Universal Investment Company had diverted some of its staff to other investments. They were not only accumulating shares of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company but also secretly acquiring shares of Hongkong Land Group, Jardine Matheson & Co., and Kowloon Motor Bus.

Therefore, Universal Investment Company’s accumulation speed was actually slower than Hongkong Electric Group’s.

This meant that in those forty-eight minutes, Jardine Matheson & Co. had increased its shareholding by more than four percent?

At this rate, they might really manage to accumulate over ten percent, or even fifteen percent, of the shares by the time the market closed.

This Jardine Matheson & Co. was indeed very powerful.

However, considering the shares held by the three parties—Lin Haoran, Jardine Matheson & Co., and Li Mingze’s group of Chinese-funded conglomerates—there weren’t many shares left in the hands of the public shareholders. The pace would likely slow down as they neared the end.

Lin Haoran was curious to see just how many shares Jardine Matheson & Co. could ultimately acquire.

Time ticked by, and in the blink of an eye, it was four in the afternoon—closing time.

The securities department at Hongkong Electric Group was already calculating the results.

In less than ten minutes, the head of the securities department began to report the results to Lin Haoran and Chen Shoulin.

“Over the entire afternoon, we acquired a total of 4.3% of the shares. Adding the 8% we held previously, Hongkong Electric Group now holds a total of 12.3% of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s shares. Most of these were accumulated in the first two hours. In the last hour, because the number of shares held by the public had significantly decreased, there wasn’t much left. So between three and four o’clock, our gains weren’t substantial,” the head reported quickly, handing a meticulously prepared data sheet to Lin Haoran.

This afternoon, Hongkong Electric Group had spent 34.4 million Hong Kong dollars.

The only question was how many shares Jardine Matheson & Co. had managed to accumulate.

This, however, could basically be estimated.

Because apart from Jardine Matheson, only Lin Haoran’s two companies would secretly participate in accumulation when the stock price had been driven up so high.

As for Li Mingze’s group, they had no intention of increasing their holdings in the first place, and it was even more unlikely with the price soaring so high. That’s why they were only seeking external help. Otherwise, in another world, Li Zhaoji wouldn’t have had the opportunity to take control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Therefore, by subtracting the amount accumulated by Hongkong Electric Group and Universal Investment Company from this afternoon’s total trading volume, one could basically determine Jardine Matheson & Co.’s gains for the afternoon.

The department head had also calculated the total trading volume for the afternoon, which reached a terrifying 22.1%. The transaction value for the Hong Kong and China Gas Company this afternoon alone reached around 170 million Hong Kong dollars.

This showed just how many people had been tempted to sell their Hong Kong and China Gas shares after Jardine Matheson & Co. released the news.

It really proved the saying: a failed transaction isn’t often because the other party is unwilling to sell, but because the price you offered didn’t meet their expectations.

And now, with the price jacked up by thirty-five percent, the selling shareholders came flocking, undeterred even by the ongoing Spring Festival celebrations in their quest to make a profit.

This wasn’t a behemoth like Kowloon Wharf or Hongkong Land Group. Although the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was strong, ten of them might not even be a match for one Hongkong Land Group.

Therefore, for the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s stock transactions to reach as high as 170 million Hong Kong dollars in a single afternoon was a terrifying figure.

Lin Haoran picked up the phone in his office and called Su Zhixue. By this time, Su Zhixue should have already compiled the transaction data.

Sure enough, after Su Zhixue answered the call, he began to report the day’s results to Lin Haoran.

Among the results, the data for the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was what concerned Lin Haoran the most.

As for the progress with the other three—Hongkong Land Group, Jardine Matheson & Co., and Kowloon Motor Bus—he wasn’t as concerned.

These three would be impossible to take down in the short term; it would require a long-term effort.

Especially Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group, both of which were behemoths.

Kowloon Motor Bus, perhaps, would be much easier to acquire.

“Over the course of the afternoon, we increased our stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company by about 3.6%. Adding to the 4% we already had, we now hold a total of about 7.6%,” Su Zhixue reported, relaying the situation with the gas company.

“Alright, I understand. Thank you for your hard work. I have some things to take care of here,” Lin Haoran said before hanging up.

At the same time, he now had a rough idea of how many shares Jardine Matheson & Co. had accumulated this afternoon.

Universal Investment Company had indeed accumulated fewer shares than Hongkong Electric Group, but not by much.

Hongkong Electric Group acquired 4.3% in the afternoon, and Universal Investment Company acquired 3.6%, for a total of 7.9%. With the total trading volume at 22.1%, this meant that Jardine Matheson & Co.’s accumulation was estimated to be around 14.2%. This was quite close to their announced target of 15%.

This showed that Jardine Matheson & Co. was still very powerful. The trading capability of Jardine Securities was such that even Hongkong Electric Group’s securities department and Universal Investment Company combined were far from being its match. This was the gap between them, but it couldn’t be helped. The other party was a long-established securities firm that had helped Jardine Matheson & Co. become one of the three financial giants of Hong Kong.

As for Hongkong Electric Group, financial services were merely a side business, so it was normal for them not to be as strong.

And as for Universal Investment Company, although it was a professional firm, it lacked a deep foundation and experience. It would take a long time for it to develop.

While Lin Haoran and his subordinates were analyzing the day’s situation, at the headquarters of Jardine Securities, Newbiggin, Bao Fuda, and others were in their office.

“The trading volume was a full 22.1%, so why did we only manage to increase our stake by 14.2%?” Newbiggin asked, frowning.

Their target was to acquire around fifteen percent, but this time, despite the large-scale sell-off by shareholders, they had only accumulated 14.2%, falling short of their expectations.

“Taipan, our investigation revealed that the remaining shares were purchased by multiple accounts, so we don’t know who our opponent in this accumulation was. However, we did acquire 14.2%, which isn’t far from our target. Even with this small shortfall, the combined stake of Jardine Securities and Hongkong Land Group has still broken through forty percent, reaching 40.7%,” the general manager of Jardine Securities reported.

“Our position as the major shareholder of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company is now unchallengeable. Our private investigations show that Li Mingze and his group hold less than thirty-three percent of the shares in total. Even if they were the ones who acquired that 7.9%, our controlling stake would be comparable to theirs—and there’s no guarantee they were the ones who bought it. Therefore, we now have the power to control the Hong Kong and China Gas Company!” Bao Fuda said with a smile.

“Don’t forget, Hongkong Electric Group controls 7.2% of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s shares. Could they have been the ones who acquired that 7.9%?” Newbiggin said, as if he’d guessed something.

“Even if Hongkong Electric Group secretly acquired all of it, they pose no threat to us. From the moment we made our move, they lost any chance to compete for control. 7.2% plus 7.9% is only 15.1%. Even if they participated this morning, their stake couldn’t possibly exceed twenty percent. So what can they possibly use to fight us?

“Without a path to gaining control, I don’t think Hongkong Electric Group would help Li Mingze and his people. There’s no benefit for them in doing so, and they would needlessly offend us at Jardine Matheson & Co.” Bao Fuda wasn’t worried at all.

After all, holding over forty percent of the shares in any listed company in Hong Kong was generally enough to secure a controlling stake.

What they didn’t know, however, was that the stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company controlled by Lin Haoran was not 7.2%, nor 15.1%, but 19.9%—this included the shares secretly accumulated by Universal Investment Company!

“That’s true. I had a pleasant conversation with Mr. Lin at the Government House on the night of the sixteenth. He shouldn’t be willing to help that group of Chinese-funded conglomerates without any chance of gaining control himself. Not unless Li Mingze and the others sell their shares to Hongkong Electric Group, but that’s basically impossible. Five years ago, we offered them so many benefits, and still they refused to sell. It shows how much they value control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. Why would they sell to Hongkong Electric Group now!” Newbiggin also felt he was overthinking things.

“After lying in wait for five years, we’re finally going to take the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. It hasn’t been easy!” At this moment, Newbiggin felt both emotional and excited.

In recent years, the proportion of shares held by that group of Chinese businessmen was simply too high, leaving them with no opportunities.

That was until they coincidentally learned that a Chinese shareholder was planning to sell his shares on the stock market. They acted swiftly, secretly intercepting these shares through the secondary market, and most of them ended up in the hands of Jardine Securities.

This was what gave them the opportunity to take control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Combined with today’s dawn raid, their stake had officially surpassed forty percent. Under normal circumstances, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company would be unable to escape their grasp.

“By the way, Taipan, the reporters should be arriving soon. Let’s go and get ready,” Bao Fuda reminded him.

At noon, they had already begun preparing for this ‘Dawn Raid’ operation. Not only did they release the news, but they also arranged for their subordinates to notify more than a dozen of Hong Kong’s mainstream media outlets.

They planned to announce at five in the afternoon that Jardine Matheson & Co.’s accumulated stake had exceeded forty percent, and they would be formally taking control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company!

As for Li Mingze, the Chairman of the Board of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, he would naturally have to step down.

Newbiggin glanced at the time. It was almost 4:30 PM. He stood up and said with a smile, “Alright, let’s go prepare. I’m very much looking forward to announcing our victory!”

After losing Kowloon Wharf, Jardine Matheson & Co.’s strength had been greatly diminished. Now, by controlling the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, although it wasn’t as good as Kowloon Wharf, it wasn’t bad either. At least it could compensate for some of the loss.

Moreover, Hongkong Land Group was also secretly acquiring several companies. If all went smoothly, the strength of their Jardine faction would soar, and the loss of Kowloon Wharf would soon be recouped!

At five in the afternoon, in a spacious conference room at Jardine Matheson & Co., the company made a sensational announcement: “Jardine Matheson Group’s subsidiaries, Jardine Securities and Hongkong Land Group, now collectively control 40.7% of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, officially becoming its largest shareholder. Furthermore, Jardine Matheson & Co. will formally take over the management of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company on February 19th!”

This announcement was made unilaterally by Jardine Matheson & Co., without any consultation with Li Mingze or the other shareholders of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Because they believed that with the stake they controlled, Li Mingze and the others were powerless to resist.

Chapter 196: Boss, Your Foresight Is Truly Godlike!

Such a massive move by Jardine Matheson & Co. naturally didn’t escape the notice of the directors representing the Chinese-funded conglomerates on the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Although Li Mingze was the Chairman of the Board of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, he actually discussed most matters, large and small, with the other three main Chinese shareholders. Along with the shareholder who had previously sold his shares, they formed a Chinese consortium that had always kept a tight grip on the company. It wasn’t as if Li Mingze had the final say on everything.

Therefore, the other three shareholders also had a great deal of say in the company.

Just about half an hour after the press conference was held to announce the matter, Li Mingze and the other three men learned about it.

“40.7%!”

This share percentage filled them with despair.

If their original fellow shareholder was still with them, they naturally wouldn’t have feared Jardine Matheson’s invasion. But now, the four of them together controlled less than 33% of the shares. How could they compete?

Against Jardine Matheson’s “Dawn Raid” this time, they were defeated before they even had a chance to fight back.

“Sigh, if only Old Wu hadn’t sold those shares. Then we could have continued to hold a firm grip on the Hong Kong and China Gas Company!” one director said, his face full of regret.

“Indeed. Jardine Matheson has gone too far. To unilaterally announce that they can now take over the Hong Kong and China Gas Company… it’s as if they don’t even see us!” another shareholder said, filled with indignation.

“If I had known this would happen, I would have taken the opportunity to sell off my shares this afternoon. The price was quite decent; at least I could have made a profit. Now that they hold over 40%, they definitely won’t continue buying at this afternoon’s price. The stock price of Hong Kong and China Gas will probably fall back to its previous level soon,” the first director added regretfully.

“There’s no point in saying all this now. We should discuss how to deal with Jardine Matheson,” another shareholder said, shaking his head helplessly.

“Deal with them? How? With the stake they now hold, we have no power to fight back. It looks like we’re going to lose our status as a Chinese-owned enterprise. If only we had each set aside some funds to increase our shareholding this afternoon. Even though we might not have been able to compete with a financial enterprise like Jardine Securities, one of Hong Kong’s top three securities firms, we would have at least had a fighting chance. Now, that chance is completely gone,” He Tingxi said with a wry smile.

There was actually another reason why Li Mingze and the others had been unwilling to increase their holdings at noon. They believed it would be very difficult to compete with Jardine Securities in the process of acquiring more shares. Although they had also ventured into the financial securities sector, the gap in their trading expertise compared to Jardine Securities was simply too wide.

Rather than fighting for such a slim chance of victory, it was better to give up. Besides, they couldn’t accept the inflated stock price.

They had been unwilling to increase their holdings even at the original stock price; when that former shareholder wanted to sell his shares to them, none of them were willing to buy. So how could they possibly increase their holdings now that the price had been driven up by a full 35%?

“Don’t lose heart, everyone. We might still have a chance to turn the tables. Even if we can’t keep control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, we can at least ensure it remains a Chinese-owned enterprise and doesn’t become a British-owned one again!” Li Mingze, who had been silent all this time, suddenly said.

The person he was thinking of was none other than Lin Haoran, the Chairman of the Hongkong Electric Group.

Before the new year, Lin Haoran had approached him, hoping to acquire his shares, but he hadn’t agreed at the time.

Moreover, everyone knew that the Hongkong Electric Group, controlled by Lin Haoran, held 7.2% of the shares.

“What chance?” Hearing Li Mingze, the other three directors immediately looked at him, though none of them held out much hope. To them, their current situation was a dead end. Even asking the tycoons in the Chamber of Commerce for help would be useless.

The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong wasn’t that large, with just over a hundred members, and all of them were members of it.

For businessmen of their stature, whose wealth and status were already considerable and for whom further advancement in the business world was difficult, there was only one thing left that they valued most: face. Therefore, unless they had no other choice, they were unwilling to let a British-owned company snatch the Hong Kong and China Gas Company from their hands. That would be incredibly shameful.

“You all should know that the Hongkong Electric Group currently holds 7.2% of the shares, and its boss is also one of our own, a Chinese person,” Li Mingze said with a smile.

The other three were naturally aware of this. However, since none of them had any dealings with Lin Haoran, and because the Hongkong Electric Group had always had a good relationship with Jardine Matheson, they hadn’t considered him.

“Mr. Lin Haoran might not be willing to cooperate with us to resist Jardine Matheson’s takeover, would he? As far as I know, Jardine’s subsidiary, the Hongkong Land Group, and the Hongkong Electric Group were cooperating on developing a plot of land in North Point before the new year. Besides, his shares combined with ours would only amount to about 40%, which is still not enough to stop Jardine Matheson,” He Tingxi said with a wry smile.

“Gentlemen, there’s something you don’t know. Mr. Lin Haoran approached me before, hoping I would sell my shares in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company to him. He has sufficient funds to acquire our company; I just didn’t agree at the time.

“Later, I also made a point to invite him to join The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, and he agreed. I’ve already asked the chamber to start the process. Before long, he’ll be a member and one of us, so to speak.

“Why didn’t we increase our holdings in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company? Isn’t it because we lack the money? But Mr. Lin Haoran doesn’t. Plus, he’s interested in acquiring our company and already holds a significant number of shares. Right now, he is the only one who can fend off Jardine Matheson’s takeover!” Li Mingze finally told them what had happened before.

With money and shares, if he were willing to help, there would indeed be a good chance of repelling this attack from Jardine Matheson.

“But with nothing to gain, and given Hongkong Electric Group’s good relationship with Jardine Matheson, Mr. Lin Haoran is unlikely to help us, right? Although Mr. Lin is very capable, he’s still young and hasn’t been in the business world for long. His way of thinking might not be the same as ours,” He Tingxi voiced his doubts.

“We can offer him the controlling stake. We can promise him the position of Chairman of the Board if he can repel Jardine Matheson’s invasion. As for our shares, if he offers a price that satisfies us, selling them to him isn’t out of the question. After all, given the current situation, it’s impossible for us to maintain control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company anyway. There’s not much point in holding on to the shares,” Li Mingze replied.

“That’s one way to do it. If the Hong Kong and China Gas Company isn’t taken over by Jardine Matheson and we can sell our shares for a good price, I’m willing to sell. I don’t have high hopes for the company anymore. If Jardine Matheson successfully seizes the controlling stake, they’ll surely find ways to dilute future profits or keep reinvesting without paying dividends. Holding the stock would be completely meaningless then,” a director said with a wry smile.

Just like with the Hongkong Land Group and the old Kowloon Wharf, hoping for dividends from holding their stock was basically impossible.

Hongkong Land Group, for instance, would basically reinvest any profits into further real estate development. Dividends? That was just a pipe dream.

Before it was acquired by Pao Yue-kong, Kowloon Wharf was the same. The funds it earned were all poured into the construction of Harbour City, to the point where it was even in debt every year. Where would the money for dividends come from?

Therefore, they had zero desire to continue holding shares in a Hong Kong and China Gas Company controlled by Jardine Matheson.

“Our only option now is to find him and try our luck. On our own, we stand no chance against Jardine Matheson. Director Li, why don’t you contact Mr. Lin Haoran right now? Jardine Matheson has already bypassed us and announced to the public that they’ve successfully acquired the company. If we can give them a good slap in the face, we can at least vent some of our frustration,” He Tingxi said directly.

“Alright, I’ll contact him right now. I don’t know where he is, but I have Mr. Lin’s beeper number, so I can try to reach him anytime,” Li Mingze said with a nod.

With that, he found the number he had written down and dialed it on the phone.

At this time, the first generation of mobile phones, commonly known as “big brother” brick phones, had not yet been officially commercialized.

Therefore, if you called someone and they weren’t near their telephone, you usually couldn’t reach them.

So, the best way to get in touch was to page them on their beeper.

As for the “big brother” mobile phones, it would be at least another five or six years before they officially entered the Hong Kong market and became a common communication tool.

Lin Haoran was still at the Hongkong Electric Group at this time. He had received a report on the Jardine Matheson matter from Cui Zilong, the general manager of the Oriental Press Group, at the earliest opportunity. He got the news quite a bit earlier than Li Mingze and the others because the Oriental Daily News was one of the media outlets Jardine Matheson had invited.

The last time the Hongkong Land Group and the Hongkong Electric Group cooperated, Hongkong Land hadn’t invited the Oriental Daily News, only three media outlets with which they had better relations.

But this time was different. Jardine Matheson had invited over a dozen mainstream media outlets. It would have been unreasonable not to invite the Oriental Daily News, Hong Kong’s best-selling newspaper.

Upon learning that Jardine Matheson had actually acquired a 40.7% stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, even Lin Haoran was a little surprised, though it was also within his expectations.

However, it was merely surprise.

To him, if Li Mingze and the others were willing to sell their shares to him, it wouldn’t matter even if Jardine Matheson held 45%, because he would hold more.

But if Li Mingze and the others were unwilling to sell to him, then what did it matter how many shares Jardine Matheson held?

So, all he had to do now was wait and see what Li Mingze’s attitude would be.

As he was chatting with Chen Shoulin in his office, his beeper suddenly buzzed.

Lin Haoran picked up the beeper, glanced at the number, and immediately called back.

“Hello, this is Lin Haoran. Who is this?” Lin Haoran asked directly once the call connected.

“Mr. Lin, this is Li Mingze. Where are you? There’s something I’d like to talk to you about,” Li Mingze asked from the other end of the line.

They’ve come knocking already?

Lin Haoran was slightly surprised, but he quickly masked it with a smile and replied, “Elder Mr. Lee, Happy New Year. I’m at the Hongkong Electric Group Headquarters building right now. If it’s convenient for you, you’re welcome to come over. I already have tea prepared and await your arrival.”

Li Mingze was over seventy, a good ten years older than Lin Haoran’s own father, so he certainly deserved the respectful address.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s invitation, Li Mingze readily agreed, “Alright, I’ll be there in about half an hour. Please wait for me.”

He hung up the phone hastily before the words were even out, clearly in a rush to get to the meeting.

Putting down the phone, Lin Haoran turned to Chen Shoulin and smiled. “See? Mr. Li Mingze is on his way.”

Upon hearing this, Chen Shoulin said with a look of utter admiration, “Boss, your foresight is truly godlike. In this regard, I am in complete awe!”

Chapter 197: Just a Farce After All

Half an hour later, Lin Haoran and Chen Shoulin met with Li Mingze, who had traveled a long way to see them.

To their surprise, Li Mingze hadn’t come alone. He had brought three other major shareholders of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company with him.

As a result, Chen Shoulin’s office felt exceptionally crowded.

“Elder Mr. Lee, Happy New Year. I haven’t had the chance to pay you a visit yet, and now you’ve come to see me. As your junior, I’m truly embarrassed,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, they all took their seats.

“Mr. Lin, I won’t beat around the bush. I think you have a good idea of why we’re here. That’s right, we’ve come about the matter concerning Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. We hope you will step in to save the Hong Kong and China Gas Company and prevent it from falling into the hands of Jardine Matheson & Co.”

As soon as they sat down, before Lin Haoran could even ask about their purpose, Li Mingze stated it directly.

“Mr. Lee, and esteemed guests, frankly, we are in business to make a profit. No one is willing to offer help at a high price without gaining anything in return. Take the current stock price of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. If I were to intervene, it would just mean increasing our shareholding to surpass Jardine Matheson’s. But what tangible benefits would I ultimately gain from doing so?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

If he could offer a helping hand without any cost, that would be one thing. But with the stock price so high, entering the fray with no profit in sight would make him a sucker, wouldn’t it?

“Mr. Lin, we considered this before coming. Naturally, we wouldn’t ask you to work for free. As long as we can make Jardine Matheson return in defeat, we are willing to give up the controlling stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company and hand over the position of Chairman to you. All of this can be stipulated in a signed agreement,” Li Mingze replied.

“Mr. Lee, you know I’ve had my eye on acquiring the Hong Kong and China Gas Company for some time. When I approached you before, you declined, likely because of the price.

As for Jardine Matheson, to be honest, it will be somewhat difficult to snatch the Hong Kong and China Gas Company back from their grasp, but it’s not impossible. I have my own reasons to be confident.

From what I know, the four of you hold nearly thirty-three percent of the shares combined. If I could acquire all your shares, I would be much more certain of success. What are your conditions for selling me your shares?” Lin Haoran didn’t beat around the bush either, directly proposing an acquisition.

Merely serving as Chairman was far from enough to satisfy his ambition.

Holding a position without sufficient shares meant that even if the company made a fortune, his cut would be small. In the end, he would be left with a meager profit. What was the point?

What he truly sought was an absolute controlling stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company—and that meant owning enough shares!

“Mr. Lin, are you truly confident that you can prevent the foreign firm from taking control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company?” Li Mingze asked gravely.

By this point, Li Mingze was no longer concerned with holding a controlling stake. His bottom line was simply to fend off Jardine Matheson’s invasion.

He no longer had a choice. His own stake was just over ten percent, and even combined with the other three shareholders, it only amounted to nearly thirty-three percent. How could they compete with Jardine Matheson’s 40.7 percent?

As for selling their shares in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, that was not out of the question, as long as the price was right.

“That’s right, I am confident, provided that you sell your shares to me. Let’s put it this way: to show my sincerity, I can acquire your shares at the price Jardine Matheson put out today. This is an extremely sincere offer. If you agree, I can guarantee that Jardine Matheson’s press conference today will turn out to be nothing but a farce. This afternoon, we, on our side, will also have increased our holdings!” Lin Haoran declared with great confidence.

He held 19.9 percent of the shares. If he acquired the nearly thirty-three percent from these men, his stake would exceed fifty percent. No matter what Jardine Matheson tried to do, it would be useless.

Lin Haoran didn’t mind the loss from a premium acquisition if it meant successfully gaining control of a high-quality listed company like the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

After all, with normal development, an energy company like this could have a market capitalization of one to two hundred billion Hong Kong dollars in thirty years, which was a testament to its considerable potential.

By comparison, during Pao Yue-kong’s takeover battle for Kowloon Wharf, Lin Haoran had initially begun acquiring shares at only twenty to thirty Hong Kong dollars per share. To seize control in a single decisive strike, Pao Yue-kong had driven the price up to one hundred and five Hong Kong dollars per share. Now that was true boldness; the financial losses were calculated in the billions. Compared to that, Lin Haoran’s thirty-five percent premium for the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was nothing!

“Mr. Lin, we can agree to that!” To Lin Haoran’s surprise, Li Mingze agreed decisively.

For Li Mingze and the others, this was perhaps the best possible outcome.

The moment Jardine Matheson launched its ‘Dawn Raid’, they were destined to lose control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Under these circumstances, holding onto their shares without a controlling stake had little meaning.

And Lin Haoran’s offer to acquire their shares at today’s trading price was naturally acceptable to them.

They had considered this possibility before coming and were even eager to sell, their only concern being that Lin Haoran might try to drive the price down.

They hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to be so straightforward, so they were straightforward in return.

Seeing them agree so readily, Lin Haoran realized his previous words had been unnecessary; these men had likely already made up their minds to sell their shares.

But on second thought, it made sense. Given their current predicament, holding onto shares while about to lose control of the company was rather pointless.

If Jardine Matheson were to take control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, although there was a Board of Directors where they could vote on important decisions, the other party would hold over forty percent of the shares. With such a stake, making decisions would be easy for them. Any opposition from the current shareholders would amount to nothing more than minor trouble; in the end, Jardine Matheson would find a way to get what it wanted.

“And you all? Do you agree as well?” Lin Haoran asked, looking at the other three shareholders.

“If Mr. Lee agrees, then we naturally agree too. We’ve always been a united front when it comes to decisions,” one of the shareholders said with a smile.

“In that case, let’s get this settled today. Gentlemen, please wait here for a moment while I go draft the contracts,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Very well,” Li Mingze and the others replied softly.

At that moment, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

Although they were losing their stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, the profits they were gaining were substantial. With this capital, they could join forces to take control of other listed companies.

Moreover, they would prevent the Hong Kong and China Gas Company from becoming a British-owned company, which was also good news. Ultimately, they had not lost face.

Lin Haoran and Chen Shoulin left the office and went to the Legal Department.

“Director Chen, I’ve decided to buy all their shares. However, I know that given Hongkong Electric Group’s current situation, it wouldn’t be appropriate for it to acquire the entire lot. I will purchase the other portion with my own money. So, Hongkong Electric Group can increase its holdings by a certain amount, and I’ll cover the rest. How many shares do you think Hongkong Electric Group should acquire? Regardless of how many shares it holds, I’ve decided that the Hong Kong and China Gas Company will operate under the Hongkong Electric Group’s umbrella as one of its publicly listed subsidiaries, with you in full charge!” After they sat down, Lin Haoran explained the matter.

Hongkong Electric Group did have a good amount of capital, but it was all earmarked for other uses, such as the joint development of the plot in North Point with the Hongkong Land Group and the Jardine’s Lookout Inland Lot with the Wan’an Group. These projects required funding, and Hongkong Electric Group had other investments planned; it couldn’t pour all its money into buying shares of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Hearing that Lin Haoran intended to give control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company to Hongkong Electric Group, Chen Shoulin was thrilled. This would directly and significantly increase the group’s strength!

Currently, Hongkong Electric Group held a total of 12.3 percent of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s shares, which was already a considerable amount.

“Boss, I think increasing our shareholding to around twenty percent would be completely fine. Any more than that might affect the group’s capital,” Chen Shoulin said, offering his opinion based on his intimate knowledge of the group’s situation.

“Alright, let’s increase it to twenty percent. The four of them hold 32.9 percent, nearly thirty-three percent of the shares. Hongkong Electric Group will acquire another 7.7 percent, and I’ll have Universal Investment Company and Wan’an Group split the rest. This way, Hongkong Electric Group will be the major shareholder, and its controlling stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company will be fully justified!” Lin Haoran made his decision quickly.

Both Wan’an Group and Universal Investment Company were his private enterprises. Whether the companies held the shares or he held them personally made no difference.

And he had complete authority over both companies.

Thus, with the help of the group’s legal counsel, several contracts were quickly drafted.

In the contracts, Hongkong Electric Group, Universal Investment Company, and Wan’an Group each signed share transfer agreements with Li Mingze and the other three shareholders.

For its part, Hongkong Electric Group spent another 61.6 million Hong Kong dollars to acquire 7.7 percent of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s shares, bringing its total stake to 20 percent.

As for Universal Investment Company, which already owned 7.6 percent, it acquired another 10 percent in this feast of equity division, bringing its total holdings to 17.6 percent.

Wan’an Group acquired the remaining 15.2 percent.

The 10 percent for Universal Investment Company and 15.2 percent for Wan’an Group were actually funded by Lin Haoran personally. In total, he would have to spend 200 million Hong Kong dollars for this transaction.

Although the expenditure was significant, Lin Haoran was extremely satisfied. He had finally gotten his hands on the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

The three companies controlled by Lin Haoran now held a combined total of 52.8 percent of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s shares.

With over fifty percent, no matter how much Jardine Matheson increased its stake, it would be useless. Their announcement this afternoon would ultimately become a farce.

Moreover, since a portion of the shares would be held by Hongkong Electric Group, it wouldn’t trigger any takeover and merger regulations.

Furthermore, as a public utility company, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was guided and supervised by the Hong Kong government, making any attempt to privatize it quite difficult.

Therefore, there was no issue with Lin Haoran using three separate companies to hold the shares. Besides, Hongkong Electric Group was not his private enterprise, so its stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company did not entirely represent his personal holdings.

“Elder Mr. Lee, and everyone, it’s already evening, so the fund transfer will have to wait until tomorrow. You will receive the money by tomorrow afternoon at the latest,” Lin Haoran said with a smile after the contracts were signed.

“We’re not in a hurry about that. Mr. Lin, both our parties are very satisfied with this cooperation. We look forward to more opportunities to work together in the future,” Li Mingze laughed heartily.

“Of course, I also look forward to more opportunities for cooperation. You are all seniors in the business world, and I still have much to learn from you,” Lin Haoran replied humbly.

This transaction with Li Mingze had also served to strengthen their relationship.

June, the month of Li Xiaohe’s passing, was not far off.

When the time came, Lin Haoran would need Li Mingze’s help to acquire a stake in TVB.

As the patriarch of the Li family, Li Mingze clearly held great prestige. With his help, acquiring the shares held by Li Xiaohe’s descendants should not be difficult.

Moreover, he knew from his past life that Shao Yifu had been able to take charge of TVB only because Li Xiaohe’s children had no interest in managing it, which handed Shao Yifu such a golden opportunity.

Otherwise, if the Li family had wished to maintain control over TVB, Shao Yifu would never have had the chance to take over.

Chapter 198: The Citizens’ Reaction

Only after reaching a deal with Lin Haoran did Li Mingze learn that the young man before him had secretly amassed a 19.9% stake in the company.

In other words, Lin Haoran’s personal shareholding now surpassed his own.

Combined with the shares their side had just transferred, Lin Haoran’s controlled stake exceeded fifty percent.

At this moment, even Li Mingze had to admire Lin Haoran’s boldness.

“Mr. Lin, do you remember my previous invitation for you to join The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong?” After settling the share transfer, Li Mingze didn’t rush back but started chatting with Lin Haoran.

“Of course, I do. I’ve been looking forward to it!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“I submitted your information before the New Year, but we ran into the Spring Festival. As you know, everyone has their own affairs during the holiday, and much of the chamber’s work has been put on hold. So, in a few days, you should receive a formal invitation from The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, and then you’ll become an official member,” Li Mingze continued.

“Yes, I understand,” Lin Haoran replied with a nod.

He wasn’t in a hurry to join the chamber, nor did he have particularly high expectations.

Given his current status, he was already among the top echelon of Hong Kong’s business world. In this position, many people deferred to him, not the other way around.

The biggest benefit of joining would be meeting more people, making future collaborations more convenient.

With his current standing in the business community, practically anyone he sought out would meet with him, and many were eager to build a good relationship with him.

“Also, regarding Hong Kong and China Gas Company, I’ll go over tomorrow to handle the handover with you. You can rest assured about that, Mr. Lin. This matter also requires a public announcement. Given the current complex situation, it’s best to do it with the media present.

I’ll make the arrangements tonight when I get back. Mr. Lin, you can come to the Hong Kong and China Gas Company headquarters in Quarry Bay before nine in the morning tomorrow. We will complete the change of positions in front of the press. Since Jardine Matheson announced they would be coming tomorrow, they will surely be there. These things need to be dealt with, so it’s best to resolve them all at once,” Li Mingze steered the conversation back to the company.

Jardine Matheson’s move had failed, but they were completely unaware of it at this moment, likely still dreaming their beautiful dream of taking control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Now, having been forced to give up his controlling stake in the company, Li Mingze naturally delighted in Jardine Matheson’s failed takeover!

Although he had already signed the share transfer agreement with Lin Haoran, he was still the Chairman of Hong Kong and China Gas Company until the position was formally changed.

“Alright, I’ll have to trouble you with this, Mr. Lee. And thank you for inviting the media as well,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He continued chatting with Li Mingze and the others for over half an hour before seeing them out.

He glanced at the time; it was already past six in the evening.

Returning to the general manager’s office, Lin Haoran said to Chen Shoulin, “Director Chen, at Hong Kong and China Gas Company, I will still hold the title of Chairman of the Board, and you will serve as Vice Chairman of the Board. From now on, the management of the company will be in your hands. Any problems with that?”

Hong Kong and China Gas Company also had a general manager, who was a professional manager. After all, Li Mingze couldn’t be at the company often, as he had other businesses to manage. His role was more about overseeing the bigger picture, so the company naturally needed a professional manager who could focus their energy on it.

“Boss, of course there are no problems. You can rest easy!” Chen Shoulin said with a smile.

Chen Shoulin knew very well that the boss taking the Chairman position was purely a figurehead role. The day-to-day management would basically be thrown to him, the professional manager.

Only for major events, such as the acquisition of Hong Kong and China Gas Company, would the boss, Lin Haoran, take it seriously and get involved.

The integration of Hong Kong and China Gas Company into the Hongkong Electric Group as a publicly-listed subsidiary not only gave Chen Shoulin more power but also brought other benefits. At the very least, he could now draw a salary from the gas company as well, and his performance-based commission from Hongkong Electric Group would be higher.

Simply put, after Hong Kong and China Gas Company merged with Hongkong Electric Group, Chen Shoulin’s income would increase significantly. This was naturally a good thing for him. Although his work would become busier, it was all worth it.

After bidding farewell to Chen Shoulin, Lin Haoran didn’t go back to the Deep Water Bay villa but returned directly to the Severn Road villa, which he hadn’t been back to in days.

He had already given two of the maids in the villa leave to go home for the New Year; they would return on the fifth day of the lunar month.

In addition, two other maids had voluntarily stayed behind for the holiday.

The maids Lin Haoran had hired were all from the Philippines, but they were actually of Chinese descent.

In Hong Kong, Filipino maids of Chinese ethnicity were the most popular. Not only were their wages reasonable, but their service was also high-quality and they were obedient. Moreover, they could speak Mandarin.

A night passed in the blink of an eye. It was now the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, February 19th.

The weather today wasn’t very good; rain was falling from the sky, and worse, it was a cold rain.

The temperature in Hong Kong had dropped to around ten degrees Celsius, but the wind chill made it feel even colder.

When Lin Haoran left the house, he deliberately wore a warmer suit.

When he arrived at the Hong Kong and China Gas Company headquarters in Quarry Bay, Chen Shoulin was already waiting for him in the parking lot.

He checked the time. It was about eight-forty in the morning, still a little time before the nine o’clock meeting Li Mingze had mentioned.

“Director Chen, how long have you been here?” Lin Haoran greeted Chen Shoulin with a smile.

“Boss, I just arrived a few minutes ago. I didn’t see your car in the lot, so I guessed you hadn’t arrived yet and waited for you here,” Chen Shoulin replied.

“Alright, let’s go upstairs together.”

The two entered the elevator and pressed the button for the fifth floor.

The Hong Kong and China Gas Company headquarters building wasn’t tall, only eight stories high, and Li Mingze’s Chairman’s office was on the fifth floor.

Walking into Li Mingze’s office, it seemed he had been waiting for some time. The other three shareholders were also in the office.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Chen, good morning!” Upon seeing Lin Haoran and Chen Shoulin, Li Mingze and the other three men greeted them.

“Good morning!”

“We invited the media last night, and they’ve all arrived. We didn’t invite too many, just the Oriental Daily News, Hong Kong Commercial Daily, Hong Kong Economic Times, and the South China Morning Post,” Li Mingze continued.

“These few outlets are enough. By the way, have the people from Jardine Matheson arrived?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Not yet. They probably think the acquisition of Hong Kong and China Gas is a hundred percent done deal, so they’re in no hurry to get here,” Li Mingze replied, also smiling.

He couldn’t wait to see the reaction of Newbiggin and the other senior management from Jardine Matheson when they found out that, after all their efforts, they had ultimately failed to gain a controlling stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

The thought alone was thrilling!

For Li Mingze, their Li family had many businesses. Losing Hong Kong and China Gas Company was a pity, but not a major blow.

At the very least, before he left, he had prevented the company from becoming a British-owned enterprise and had successfully sold his shares at a good price.

Therefore, he could accept the current situation.

The Li family could also accept the outcome; one could say everyone was happy.

Last night, after returning home, he had immediately convened a meeting with the key members of the Li family.

Although the media hadn’t had time to report on Jardine Matheson’s announcement, the senior members of the Li family were naturally aware of it.

Thus, they were all worried about how to handle the Li family’s shares in Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

After all, with the loss of control, the potential profits would be greatly diminished. Everyone knew what would happen to the company after Jardine Matheson took over, so there was little point in holding on to the shares.

Unexpectedly, Li Mingze had brought back such good news.

At the price they sold, the value of the Li family’s stocks was nearly one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. For the Li family to make a clean retreat from Jardine Matheson’s attack and obtain a huge sum of money was certainly a good thing!

His position as the Li family’s patriarch was now even more respected by his clansmen.

So, under these circumstances, Li Mingze had naturally come to handle the loose ends at Hong Kong and China Gas Company in a cheerful mood.

“Elder Mr. Lee, is that the Oriental Daily News in your hand?” Lin Haoran asked, noticing the newspaper in Li Mingze’s possession.

“Yes, it’s the Oriental Daily News. It has already reported on Jardine Matheson’s announcement from last night. I assume you haven’t seen it yet, Mr. Lin? Here, take a look,” Li Mingze said with a smile, handing the newspaper to Lin Haoran.

It had been some time since Lin Haoran had acquired the Oriental Press Group, but few knew that the ownership of Hong Kong’s leading newspaper company had quietly changed hands.

And he had no intention of making this news public.

For Lin Haoran, there was no tangible benefit to him whether he disclosed it or not.

Furthermore, as a non-listed, privately-owned company, the Oriental Press Group was under no obligation to disclose such information.

Lin Haoran held the latest edition of the Oriental Daily News. The front-page headline read: “Explosive News: Jardine Matheson & Co. Announces Successful Acquisition of Hong Kong and China Gas Company!”

The article detailed the news that Jardine Matheson had announced to the public last night.

“Holds 40.7% of Hong Kong and China Gas Company shares!”

Seeing this very high shareholding ratio, everyone would believe that Jardine Matheson had indeed succeeded in their acquisition.

“Let’s go, it’s almost nine o’clock. I’ve told the reporters that we will hold a press conference at nine o’clock sharp to announce a few things,” Li Mingze said, looking at his watch.

For him, a job worth doing was a job worth doing well. Just because he had sold his shares didn’t mean he would simply wash his hands of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. At the very least, he had to handle these matters properly and complete the handover to the new boss, Lin Haoran, before officially severing all ties with the company.

Thus, the group left the office, took the elevator, and went down to the third floor of the building.

Here, there was a spacious training room. The tables and chairs had been moved to the back, making the room seem very empty, easily capable of accommodating over a hundred people.

At this moment, apart from some staff from Hong Kong and China Gas Company, the room was filled with reporters and photographers from the four media outlets.

When they saw Li Mingze and his group walk in, all eyes turned to them.

No one found it strange that Lin Haoran was there, as it was well-known that the Hongkong Electric Group held shares in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. This was especially true for media professionals, who would certainly be aware of it.

So, when these people saw Lin Haoran, they merely assumed he was there representing Hongkong Electric Group and didn’t think anything more of it.

When these reporters received the invitation from Hong Kong and China Gas Company last night, their first reaction was that Li Mingze was probably going to announce his resignation.

They couldn’t think of any other reason why the company would hold a press conference.

Everyone shared the belief that once Jardine Matheson announced they held 40.7% of the shares, the matter was essentially settled.

That is, Jardine Matheson had completely taken over Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and the company was about to become British-owned.

Therefore, many citizens felt rather disheartened by this morning’s news.

“I can’t believe Jardine Matheson actually acquired Hong Kong and China Gas Company. It’s so unexpected!”

“Isn’t it? But there’s nothing to be done. Jardine Matheson is too powerful. It’s normal that Mr. Li Mingze couldn’t fend off their hostile takeover.”

“Sigh, I’ll have to be more frugal with gas from now on. I really hate letting these Westerners make money off me!”

“Me too. If there’s a Chinese-owned option, I always prioritize our own brands. These Westerners always look down on people!”

“Sigh, what’s most annoying is that Hong Kong and China Gas Company still has the word ‘China’ in its name, but it’s about to be controlled by Westerners. It’s really hard to accept.”

Everyone was Chinese, so they naturally supported Chinese-owned enterprises becoming stronger.

Moreover, the older generation of Hong Kongers had mostly immigrated to the city due to war. Many of them held patriotic sentiments.

Thus, events like Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Hongkong Electric Group, Pao Yue-kong’s acquisition of Kowloon Wharf, and Li Jiacheng’s acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa had all left the citizens astonished and proud.

However, today, ordinary citizens had to face a piece of news that displeased them: Hong Kong and China Gas Company was about to become a British-owned enterprise.

Such news was indeed dispiriting.

But no matter how dissatisfied they were, they were powerless to change this fact.

Jardine Matheson was already a dominant force in Hong Kong. Its acquisition of Hong Kong and China Gas Company was, to some extent, a normal part of business competition.

Chapter 199: The Victor is King, the Loser is Outlaw!

Looking at the reporters below, Li Mingze sat on the dais with rather complicated feelings.

He had served as the Chairman of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company for several years now, and being suddenly forced to step down, he was naturally reluctant to leave.

Over the years, he had earned a great deal of money for his family through the company, continuously expanding their business empire.

But from this day forward, this place would no longer make money for the Li family.

Lin Haoran was also sitting beside him, ready to speak after Li Mingze finished his statement.

Just then, a staff member rushed in, walked up to Li Mingze, and whispered, “Chairman, Mr. Newbiggin, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., and his party are here. They’re coming upstairs now.”

The voice wasn’t loud, but the reporters below heard it crystal clear, as no one else in the training room was speaking at that moment; it was quite silent.

Hearing the staff member’s words, the reporters’ interest was instantly piqued. They knew they were in for a good show.

As members of the press, they loved seeing situations like this. It was the only way to write more controversial articles, attract more readers, and get ahead of other companies in the fiercely competitive newspaper and media industry.

When Li Mingze heard this, he decided to hold off on speaking any further. He would wait for Newbiggin and the others to arrive before proceeding.

No one else was in a hurry either; everyone was anticipating what would happen after Newbiggin’s party arrived.

Two minutes later, guided by a Hong Kong and China Gas Company employee, Newbiggin entered the training room.

He was not alone; many others were with him, including Bao Fuda, the general manager of the Hongkong Land Group.

Hongkong Land Group had also participated in the acquisition.

As Newbiggin walked into the room, his eyes first fell upon Lin Haoran sitting on the dais. He found it strange, but then he recalled that the Hongkong Electric Group was also a shareholder of Hong Kong and China Gas and assumed that was the reason.

It never occurred to him that Lin Haoran had secretly acquired the shares belonging to Li Mingze and the others.

After all, no one would have ever imagined such a thing. No one would have thought that Li Mingze and the other few shareholders would unanimously sell all their shares to the same person.

In everyone’s eyes, holding 40.7% of the shares already made them the undisputed largest shareholder, more than enough to control the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Therefore, Newbiggin smiled and greeted Lin Haoran, “Mr. Lin, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

In contrast, he paid little attention to Li Mingze, the patriarch of the Li family, one of Hong Kong’s old Four Great Families of Chinese enterprise.

“Good morning, Mr. Newbiggin!” Lin Haoran stood up and responded with a smile of his own.

Li Mingze, for his part, was long accustomed to this. He had clashed with Jardine Matheson & Co. years ago when he resisted their incursions, and their relationship had been sour ever since.

“Since everyone is here, I shall announce a personal decision of mine!” Li Mingze said into the microphone.

At once, everyone fell silent. All eyes, including Newbiggin’s, focused on Li Mingze.

Everyone believed that Li Mingze was about to announce his resignation as the Chairman of the Board of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

In his current predicament, stepping down voluntarily was the only choice. With their shareholding, Jardine Matheson & Co. could easily have him removed from his position at a Board of Directors meeting anyway.

As expected, Li Mingze continued, “Today, I officially announce here that I will be resigning from my position as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company!”

His words were just as everyone had anticipated, so no one showed much surprise. The photographers, however, captured the moment. Some reporters even thought that this photo would surely be the lead image for the front-page news.

At this moment, even Newbiggin broke into a smile.

This Mr. Lee certainly knows his place, saving me the trouble of formally ousting him! Newbiggin thought to himself.

With that in mind, he eagerly walked over to Li Mingze’s side.

Li Mingze had intended to say more, but to his surprise, Newbiggin showed him no respect at all, directly taking the microphone and addressing the crowd, “Since so many people are present, I too have an announcement to make. Our Jardine Matheson & Co. has now taken a controlling stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company with absolute strength. Therefore, I have decided that I will concurrently serve as the Chairman of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. Starting today, Hong Kong and China Gas will become another publicly listed enterprise under the Jardine Matheson banner!”

Instantly, the members of the Jardine faction who had come with Newbiggin erupted in fervent applause.

However, apart from them, no one else clapped.

For Newbiggin, Jardine Matheson & Co. had been lying in wait for five years and had finally succeeded in taking over the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. At this moment of triumph, he naturally held Li Mingze in little regard.

The situation left Li Mingze deeply embarrassed.

He was, after all, a renowned senior in Hong Kong’s business community. While not a top-tier magnate, he was still a well-known figure among Chinese-owned enterprise entrepreneurs.

Newbiggin was showing him no respect whatsoever!

If you won’t give me any face, why should I give you any?

The Li family’s network in Hong Kong didn’t rely on the British-funded conglomerates, so they had absolutely no fear of Jardine Matheson & Co.

Although the Li family’s wealth couldn’t compare to many of the newly emerged Chinese-funded conglomerates, Li Mingze’s status in Hong Kong’s business world was exceptionally high, and his roots ran deep.

This was not only because the Li family was one of the traditional Four Great Families of Chinese enterprise, but also because Li Mingze was the only Chinese Grand Master in the Freemasons, an identity that significantly elevated his standing in Hong Kong society.

Therefore, he was naturally unafraid of Jardine Matheson & Co. To put it bluntly, with his family’s connections in Hong Kong, even the Governor had to show him some respect.

To him, his wealth might fall short, perhaps far short, of these financial groups, but his status was by no means inferior.

“Mr. Newbiggin, I’m sorry, but I haven’t finished. Please wait until I’m done,” Li Mingze said, pulling the microphone back in front of him.

Newbiggin didn’t argue. He was curious to see what else Li Mingze could possibly say.

“At the same time, before resigning from my position as Chairman, I and three other members of the Board of Directors have already sold our shares to three companies under Mr. Lin Haoran. From now on, we will have no further relationship with the Hong Kong and China Gas Company!” Li Mingze continued with a smile.

He couldn’t wait to see Newbiggin’s reaction.

Having just been insulted by Newbiggin, he was eager to slap these Westerners in the face.

True to his expectations, as soon as he finished speaking, Newbiggin’s expression changed. His eyes widened as if he had just witnessed something utterly unbelievable.

The people below immediately broke into a flurry of discussion.

Everyone had a rough idea of the shares held by Li Mingze and his group—nearly 33%.

And now, they had been sold to Lin Haoran?

It was hard to fathom.

At this moment, Lin Haoran, who had been silent all this time, stood up to speak.

“Mr. Newbiggin, our Hongkong Electric Group and the Jardine Matheson Group have been in fair competition. I regret to inform you that the position of Chairman should rightfully be mine, as the shares we control far exceed those controlled by your Jardine faction.”

“Yesterday, not only did we acquire the shares of Mr. Li Mingze and his associates, but we also accumulated a significant number of shares from the stock market. Therefore, the shares of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company that we now control have exceeded 50%. It is only right and proper that I serve as Chairman. If you wish to be involved, Mr. Newbiggin, I believe you could take on another position within the Hong Kong and China Gas Company!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

This was normal business competition. Originally, Lin Haoran had not intended to make Newbiggin lose face.

However, Jardine Matheson & Co. had been far too high-profile over the past two days.

Not only had they unilaterally announced last night that Jardine Matheson was about to take control of Hong Kong and China Gas, but now, he had even declared himself Chairman before anything was confirmed.

So, he really couldn’t blame Lin Haoran for this.

He now held a controlling stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. It was impossible for him to let Newbiggin be Chairman just to save his face. Lin Haoran wasn’t that spineless.

With his ample funds, he no longer feared Jardine Matheson & Co. In fact, he was secretly attempting to acquire Jardine Matheson & Co. itself, and even the Hongkong Land Group!

“By the way, this is the share transfer agreement that I signed with Mr. Li Mingze and the other three gentlemen yesterday!” After speaking, Lin Haoran took the share transfer agreement out of his briefcase and held it up for everyone to see.

Although they couldn’t make out the detailed clauses, everyone could clearly see the large characters for “Share Transfer Agreement.”

At this moment, Newbiggin stared at the scene, his face pale and at a loss for words.

He hadn’t expected the Hongkong Electric Group, which had been so quiet, to silently pull out such a trump card.

Now, Jardine Matheson & Co. was destined to become a laughingstock, and he, Newbiggin, had become the clown of Hong Kong’s business world.

“Friends from the press, today’s press conference ends here. We will have further information sent to you later, so if you could please leave for now, we’d appreciate it!” Lin Haoran knew Newbiggin was in an awkward position, and it wasn’t appropriate to let the reporters stay. So, he simply sent them away.

Although what just happened had caused Newbiggin, a tycoon in the business world, to lose face, and he had in a sense offended him, Newbiggin was ultimately a top tycoon in Hong Kong’s business scene. It wasn’t wise to make a mortal enemy of him.

The subsequent matters could be decided through internal discussions.

The reporters obediently and orderly left the training room.

No one dared to disobey Lin Haoran. A tycoon like him often had sensational news, and if they offended him this time, they could forget about being invited next time.

For them, the news material they had gathered today was more than enough. It would allow their editorial departments to write a plethora of clickbait articles.

“Mr. Lin, shall we talk in private?” After the reporters had all left, Newbiggin looked at Lin Haoran with a complex expression.

For him, this acquisition had been a complete failure.

For this operation, Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land had invested over two hundred million Hong Kong dollars in cash. This didn’t even account for the shares they already held in Hong Kong and China Gas; otherwise, the total investment would have certainly exceeded three hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Thus, they had paid a huge price for this acquisition.

Over two hundred million Hong Kong dollars would normally be enough for them to control several sizable publicly listed companies.

But in the case of Hong Kong and China Gas, despite investing so much effort and capital, they ended up failing to even secure a controlling stake.

Most importantly, they were now destined to become a joke in Hong Kong.

At this moment, Newbiggin knew he had been too arrogant, thinking everything was in the palm of his hand.

Reality, however, had slapped him hard across the face.

With the opponent holding over 50% of the controlling stake, there was no way Jardine Matheson & Co. could wrest control.

In reality, there were very few Hong Kong and China Gas shares left in the hands of retail investors on the stock market now—less than 10%.

Even if Jardine Matheson & Co. bought up all the remaining shares on the market, it would be useless.

“Of course, Mr. Newbiggin. Let me make some arrangements first. Please wait a moment!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

After speaking, he turned to Chen Shoulin and said, “Director Chen, please handle the work handover with Elder Mr. Lee.”

Then he turned again to Li Mingze, who was sitting nearby, and said, “Elder Mr. Lee, I’ll have to trouble you.”

“Yes, Boss!” Chen Shoulin accepted the task. From now on, this company would be his to manage.

Li Mingze also nodded and followed Chen Shoulin out of the training room.

The others also left one after another. The last person to leave thoughtfully closed the door, as everyone knew that the two tycoons inside were about to decide the future of the company.

Soon, only Lin Haoran and Newbiggin remained in the entire training room.

Newbiggin was, after all, a veteran of the business world. Although his expression had been ugly just a moment ago, it had now returned to normal.

“Mr. Lin, I truly admire you. These methods are not something one would expect from someone your age!” Newbiggin said with some feeling.

The victor is king, the loser is outlaw.

This time, the Hongkong Electric Group was the winner of this acquisition battle.

And Jardine Matheson & Co., naturally, was the loser.

Newbiggin was an old-timer in the business world; he had won and lost his share of business battles in his life. All of this was normal.

He just never expected that, in the end, he would underestimate this young man!

Was this the price of arrogance?

One Hong Kong and China Gas Company was not enough to make Newbiggin consider Lin Haoran an enemy.

After all, the Hongkong Land Group was still cooperating with the Hongkong Electric Group, and the benefits there were much greater.

“Mr. Newbiggin, to be honest, this was all a surprise to me as well. I had originally intended for Hongkong Electric to give up the fight. After all, your Jardine Matheson & Co. is too powerful; our Hongkong Electric Group could never compete. But surprises always happen.”

“Just yesterday, when I learned of your company’s acquisition decision, I was quite astonished. We at Hongkong Electric could not match such boldness. But then, Li Mingze and the others approached me on their own initiative, persuading me to take over the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.”

“In the end, I was convinced by them. Taking advantage of the high trading volume on the stock market, I accumulated some shares, and with the shares they transferred to me, it led to the scene you saw today.”

“So, it’s not that I’m particularly brilliant. It’s just that everything was such a coincidence!” Lin Haoran explained, his words a mix of truth and falsehood.

In front of these wily old foxes, one couldn’t afford to appear too shrewd. Otherwise, they would definitely find ways to guard against you in the future.

Just like this time, if they had been wary of Lin Haoran, Li Mingze and his group might not have been pressured into selling their shares to him and willingly giving up their controlling stake.

What Lin Haoran said was clearly an explanation that this was all a coincidence, unrelated to his own ability, and not something he had been planning all along.

Chapter 200: When Hard Tactics Fail, Try Soft Ones!

Whether Newbiggin believed him or not, at this point, there was no longer any meaning in delving into whether this was all a setup by Lin Haoran.

Even if it had been Lin Haoran’s plan, what could they do about it?

To a certain extent, this was just the norm in business competition.

In business warfare, there will always be a losing side and a winning side.

“Mr. Lin, perhaps we should discuss the matter of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company,” Newbiggin said, sitting down across from Lin Haoran.

Having reached this point, he could only accept the situation.

Ask Lin Haoran to hand over the Hong Kong and China Gas Company to their Jardine Matheson Group?

That was a pipe dream. Such a high-quality enterprise, one that Jardine Matheson & Co. was willing to pay a premium to acquire, was a company no one would willingly relinquish control of.

Just like Li Mingze, the former Chairman of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, he would never have sold his shares to Lin Haoran if he hadn’t been outmaneuvered by Jardine Matheson & Co.

Right now, what Newbiggin wanted most was to figure out how to withdraw gracefully from the Hong Kong and China Gas Company situation.

Should they hold on to their 40.7% stake and remain as a shareholder with no decision-making power?

Of course, they would never do that.

Doing so would just be a waste of Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group’s capital.

Although the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was a premium asset with very high annual profits, under the control of the Hongkong Electric Group, who knew what they would do with the company’s profits?

Not everyone would manage the Hong Kong and China Gas Company like Li Mingze, who distributed profits every year or every other year.

This time, in the short span of a month, Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group had invested over 200 million Hong Kong dollars.

They had already held a certain percentage of shares for several years. Like the Hongkong Electric Group’s previous 7.2% stake, that capital had been invested early, so the cost basis was not high.

But the subsequent investment of over 200 million Hong Kong dollars was a very large sum for them, one that couldn’t just be tied up in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, unable to be utilized.

Therefore, Newbiggin now needed to convert the shares he held into cash and then use that capital to invest in other projects or acquire other public companies that they could fully control.

“Mr. Newbiggin, please feel free to speak your mind,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“I hope that Mr. Lin can acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company shares held by Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group at market price!” Newbiggin stated directly.

Since the other party already held over 50% of the shares, Jardine Matheson & Co. had no chance to take control. Newbiggin felt it was time to be decisive and retreat quickly.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Newbiggin, but I already control a sufficient number of shares. I don’t think there’s any need for me to increase my holdings,” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

“Mr. Lin, I must inform you that your stake has exceeded 50%, which has triggered the Hong Kong Takeovers and Mergers Code. You now have an obligation to make a general offer. Although you hold the shares through multiple companies, you are the actual controller of all of them.

If no one brings it up, the Hong Kong Securities Commission might not bother with it. But if we file a petition with the Securities Commission to investigate your violation in this acquisition, Mr. Lin will still have to acquire our shares!” Newbiggin said bluntly.

Newbiggin had considered gradually selling off their shares on the stock market, but given the current situation of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, it was not feasible.

The reason was simple: the Jardine faction and the Hongkong Electric Group together held over 90% of the company’s shares.

In other words, there were very, very few shares of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company available on the stock market.

If they were to offload their shares on the secondary market, any slightly large volume would be quickly noticed by others.

The ultimate result would undoubtedly be a rapid drop in the stock price on the secondary market.

They held a 40.7% stake. Without someone secretly acquiring their shares, how long would it take for them to sell off such a large amount?

Therefore, the best solution was to find a buyer to purchase their shares directly.

But now, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was completely under Lin Haoran’s control. Under these circumstances, it would be impossible for Jardine Matheson & Co. to find a buyer for their shares, unless they were willing to sell at a very, very low price. But that would mean taking a huge loss, which they were naturally unwilling to do.

So, the best method now was to force Lin Haoran, the actual controller of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, to buy these shares!

Lin Haoran hadn’t expected Newbiggin to say this. He had considered this issue before but had thought that since the shares were held by three different companies, there shouldn’t be a problem.

However, thinking about it now, he realized he had been a bit naive.

He remembered how, during the acquisition battle for the Green Island Cement Company, the Securities Commission had openly sided with the British shareholders.

Now, even if his situation would normally be overlooked, the Securities Commission would likely side openly with Jardine Matheson & Co.

However, forcing him to submit would not be easy.

Acquire their shares at the current market price? Newbiggin was dreaming.

Currently, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company had a market capitalization of 800 million Hong Kong dollars, but this was all a result of Jardine Matheson & Co. deliberately driving up the stock price in an attempt to seize control of the company in a lightning strike.

Before the new year, the total market capitalization of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was only between five hundred ninety million and six hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Did they want him to continue playing the sucker?

That was, of course, impossible!

“I’m sorry, but Mr. Newbiggin may be disappointed. Although Mr. Li Mingze and I have signed a share transfer agreement, the transaction is not yet complete. My funds have not been transferred to them, and they have not yet handed over the stock certificates to me.

Since Mr. Newbiggin feels that my actions are not quite proper, it’s very simple. Later, Mr. Li Mingze and I will sign a new share transfer agreement, reducing my actual controlling stake to 49.9%. I don’t think the venerable Mr. Li would refuse me.

After all, he’s been a shareholder of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company for a very long time. It’s quite normal for him to keep a small portion of the shares as a memento, wouldn’t you say?” Lin Haoran said with a calm smile.

Last night, after signing the share transfer agreement with Li Mingze and the others, Lin Haoran had arranged to transfer the funds to their accounts before this afternoon, at which point they would hand over all the stock certificates to him.

So, the deal between them was indeed not yet complete. Although a contract had been signed, until the final step was taken, the transaction was not truly finalized, because the stocks were not yet in Lin Haoran’s hands.

Facing a wily old fox like Newbiggin, Lin Haoran was not the least bit flustered. It was now a matter of countering every move. He was curious to see what new tricks Newbiggin could come up with.

Lin Haoran’s words made Newbiggin’s brows furrow. This development was indeed beyond his expectations.

Clearly, the path of using threats to force Lin Haoran into a mandatory acquisition was now blocked.

Therefore, Newbiggin decided to change his strategy. If the hard approach didn’t work, he would try a soft one.

“Mr. Lin, the relationship between our Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Electric Group has always been quite good. We have a long history of frequent collaboration. For instance, five years ago, we jointly attempted to acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. Although it ultimately failed, it’s enough to show that our relationship has always been excellent.

Just last month, our Hongkong Land Group even entered into a strategic partnership with the Hongkong Electric Group. We have always been excellent partners.

The Hongkong Electric Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. competed for the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and in the end, you won. On behalf of Jardine Matheson & Co., I congratulate you.

The Hong Kong and China Gas Company is an outstanding public utility enterprise. Most importantly, it’s a monopoly. Your Hongkong Electric Group has yet to achieve a monopoly in power supply, as you still have a competitor in CLP Holdings. But the Hong Kong and China Gas Company has a monopoly over the entire Hong Kong market.

The gas pipelines that now crisscross the entire city center of Hong Kong ensure that no other competitor will emerge. This is why our Jardine Matheson & Co. wanted to acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company—for its stable and substantial returns, of which there are few equals in all of Hong Kong.

Just think, if you were to completely privatize it, all future profits of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company would be entirely yours. Owning the Hong Kong and China Gas Company is like owning a gold mine, continuously producing gold for you,” Newbiggin continued.

What Newbiggin said was indeed all true. Shortly after the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was founded, its gas pipelines and gas lamps quickly spread throughout Victoria City, which is now the Central and Western District of Hong Kong Island.

Then in 1892, the company’s business expanded further to cover the Kowloon Peninsula.

By now, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s pipelines already covered all the bustling areas of Hong Kong, including the new towns.

One could say that the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was basically irreplaceable. Its thousands of kilometers of gas pipelines had already saturated the entire Hong Kong market.

Even if a capitalist wanted to support a new gas company now, it would be completely impossible for it to develop!

Therefore, its monopoly status would only continue to exist.

Especially after entering the 1970s, due to the rapid increase in Hong Kong’s population and the leap in economic development, the piped gas business was flourishing. In the eyes of various financial groups, the gas company was a veritable cash cow.

For example, last year, the annual profit of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company reached over seventy million Hong Kong dollars. This was pure profit, not revenue. As Hong Kong’s population boomed and new customers were added each year, the company’s revenue and profits grew higher and higher.

Although there was a significant gap between its profits and those of the Hongkong Electric Group, if you compared the profit-to-market-cap ratio, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s was even better than Hongkong Electric’s.

This was what led Jardine Matheson & Co., the largest British-funded conglomerate, to team up with Hongkong Electric Company a few years ago in a hostile takeover attempt of the gas company. The joint action by the British-funded conglomerate ultimately ended in failure due to the strong opposition from Li Mingze and other Chinese businessmen.

However, the high quality of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company made Jardine Matheson & Co. unable to forget about it, determined to take it over, which led to the recent “Dawn Raid” operation by Jardine Matheson.

What the senior management of Jardine Matheson & Co. did not expect was that this surprise acquisition attempt had still failed!

Naturally, Lin Haoran was very clear about the specifics of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

It wasn’t impossible for him to privatize the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, but doing so at the current stock market price was out of the question.

As for acquiring it based on the current total market capitalization of 800 million Hong Kong dollars, he had no interest at all. Jardine Matheson & Co. could sell their stake to whomever they pleased.

“Mr. Newbiggin, if you are willing to sell your shares to me for 200 million Hong Kong dollars, I wouldn’t mind acquiring them!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Buying the combined 40.7% stake of Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group for 200 million Hong Kong dollars was effectively valuing the Hong Kong and China Gas Company at a total market capitalization of around 500 million Hong Kong dollars.

This way, Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group would naturally suffer a massive loss.

Because this time, in their bid to acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group had invested over 200 million Hong Kong dollars for a stake of just around 30%.

Now they were being asked to sell a 40.7% stake for 200 million? It was obvious they would never sell.

Who could accept losing tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars in an instant?

Fortunately, Newbiggin had been smart enough to pull the Hongkong Land Group in on the acquisition together, which meant Jardine Matheson & Co.’s losses weren’t as devastating. If Jardine Matheson & Co. had absorbed all those shares on its own, its shareholders would probably be coming after him.

“200 million Hong Kong dollars? That’s impossible!” Newbiggin refused without a second thought.

He could not make such a decision on his own. Although he was the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., he couldn’t bear this responsibility.

“In that case, why don’t we put this topic aside for now? You are well aware that the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s stock price reached its current level entirely because you yourselves pushed it up. If I were to accept your price, wouldn’t I be playing the sucker? For me, gaining a controlling stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company is already very satisfying. As for privatizing the company, I honestly hadn’t considered it before,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

With his current cash flow, privatizing the Hong Kong and China Gas Company wouldn’t be difficult.

The prerequisite was whether the share price was worth it!

Newbiggin knew it was impossible to persuade Lin Haoran today. He could only go back and discuss it with Jardine Matheson & Co.’s think tank and the members of the Board of Directors.

“In that case, I’ll take my leave. We can talk again later!” Newbiggin no longer wished to stay.

“Won’t Mr. Newbiggin stay for the Board of Directors meeting? You are now a major shareholder of the company and could hold a very important position. I propose that you, Mr. Newbiggin, serve as a Board Supervisor. What do you think?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“No need. We can discuss these things later. Mr. Lin, I’ll be heading back now.” After speaking, Newbiggin left the training room without a backward glance.

Board Supervisor, my foot. If he were to actually take that position, it would be a complete humiliation for him.

After all, he had come here aiming for the position of Chairman of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. Now, even if he couldn’t be the Chairman, he should at least be made Vice Chairman, right?

Therefore, he naturally refused Lin Haoran’s proposal.

Chapter 201: An Unexpected Joy, Over Seventy Million Hong Kong Dollars in Available Capital

“Take care, Mr. Newbiggin. Come by for tea when you have time,” Lin Haoran added just as Newbiggin was about to close the door.

These words only made Newbiggin walk faster.

Staying here would only bring him fruitless sorrow!

Although Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group now held a staggering 40.7% of the shares, it was useless without a controlling stake.

He could cause Lin Haoran considerable trouble on the Board of Directors, but there was no point. It would only cause their relationship to deteriorate.

Newbiggin could see it now—Lin Haoran appeared very polite on the surface, but he was actually devious and full of schemes.

Speaking of which, Newbiggin had already suffered two setbacks at Lin Haoran’s hands.

The first was during the acquisition of Hongkong Electric Group. Just as they had begun to make their move, Lin Haoran had already secured a controlling stake, completely dashing their hopes of coveting the company.

That situation had been more palatable. Since they didn’t hold many shares in Hongkong Electric Group when they first entered the market and the stock price had continued to rise, they had made a small profit when they sold them off.

Although that bit of money was insignificant to Jardine Matheson & Co., at least they hadn’t lost anything, and it hadn’t taken much time.

Therefore, Newbiggin only felt a hint of regret for failing to acquire Hongkong Electric Group.

This time, however, Jardine Matheson & Co. had invested not only a significant amount of time but also a huge sum of money into its plan to acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Now, it seemed it would be difficult to recoup those funds. If they wanted to sell in the short term, they would certainly incur a substantial loss.

In Newbiggin’s eyes, Lin Haoran was simply his unlucky star. Every time Jardine Matheson & Co. had an important plan, Lin Haoran would be there to ruin it!

Newbiggin left, his heart filled with indignation. Running into Lin Haoran was just the worst luck!

Only when Newbiggin’s figure had vanished down the hallway did Lin Haoran leave the training room.

Outside, the people from Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group had also left, leaving only the staff from Hong Kong and China Gas Company and Hongkong Electric Group.

Lin Haoran went to check the Chairman’s office and saw Chen Shoulin and Li Mingze handling the handover of work-related matters.

He decided not to disturb them for the time being.

Just then, a middle-aged man approached him.

His name was He Zhenxing, the general manager of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

“Boss, how about I give you a tour of our Hong Kong and China Gas Company headquarters?” He Zhenxing said respectfully.

Anyone who could win the controlling stake of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company against Jardine Matheson & Co. was no ordinary person. Thus, He Zhenxing didn’t look down on his young boss because of his age.

Besides, he knew that this new boss had an even more formidable identity: the boss of Hongkong Electric Group!

Although both were public utility enterprises in Hong Kong, Hongkong Electric Group was far more formidable than the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Among the publicly listed companies in Hong Kong, Hongkong Electric Group ranked in the top ten.

The market capitalization of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, on the other hand, ranked in the thirties among all listed companies in Hong Kong!

The difference in market capitalization was several times over.

“Excellent. I’ll have to trouble you, General Manager He,” Lin Haoran said with a smiling nod.

He had learned a little about this General Manager He from Li Mingze.

According to Li Mingze, He Zhenxing had studied in Britain over twenty years ago. After graduating, he stayed in Britain and joined the renowned publicly listed utility company, London Gas Company. He worked there for over a decade, eventually rising to the position of Deputy General Manager.

Had He Zhenxing remained at London Gas Company, he would have surely become general manager one day.

However, his parents were getting old and were unwilling to immigrate to Britain. Out of filial piety, he had no choice but to resign from London Gas Company and return to Hong Kong.

After returning to Hong Kong, he joined the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, becoming its general manager, a position he had now held for nearly five years.

Now, as the chairman of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, Lin Haoran could see He Zhenxing’s loyalty.

He Zhenxing: [Loyalty: 89/100]

It was much higher than he had expected.

But it was understandable. Due to his profession, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was the best choice of employment for He Zhenxing after returning to Hong Kong from London; he had extensive experience in the industry.

Moreover, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was a monopoly in Hong Kong—no other company supplied gas.

Coupled with the fact that He Zhenxing had been with the company for many years, he had developed a certain degree of loyalty.

Led by He Zhenxing, Lin Haoran inspected several departments of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company for the first time.

The Gas Department, responsible for gas production, transmission, and sales, was the company’s core business, covering gas distribution, retail of gas appliances, and more.

The Finance Department handled the company’s financial management, capital operations, and financial reporting.

The Human Resources Department was in charge of talent recruitment, training, performance management, and other human resource tasks.

There were also departments like Legal, Marketing, and Technology, each playing a crucial role in the company’s operations.

After nearly an hour, Lin Haoran had a general understanding of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company headquarters.

To his surprise, the company had over seventy million Hong Kong dollars in available liquid capital in its accounts.

Moreover, the company was still bringing in six to seven million Hong Kong dollars in profit each month.

These funds were separate from the company’s daily reserve funds, which were meant for company expenditures and naturally couldn’t be used for dividends.

The change in the controlling stake of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company had happened too suddenly.

Jardine Matheson & Co. had announced a high-priced stock accumulation and gained control of 40.7% of the shares on the same day.

Under such circumstances, shareholders like Li Mingze had no time to distribute this money as dividends.

So, this turned out to be a windfall for Lin Haoran.

Although the price he paid for the shares on the stock market was relatively high due to Jardine Matheson & Co. driving up the price, if this money were distributed as dividends, he could significantly lower his costs.

After all, with the shares he now controlled, he and Hongkong Electric Group would receive over thirty million, almost forty million Hong Kong dollars out of the seventy-odd million.

It was worth noting that the Hong Kong and China Gas Company had already paid taxes on this money.

In Hong Kong, if a company is registered locally and has already paid profits tax, investors typically do not need to pay dividend tax again upon receiving dividends.

The reason Li Mingze and the others hadn’t waited for the dividends before selling their shares was that they knew if Jardine Matheson & Co. truly took control, this money would never be distributed as dividends. The most likely scenario was that Jardine Matheson & Co. would use it for investments under the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s name. At that point, dividends would be a distant hope.

Furthermore, when Lin Haoran bought the shares from Li Mingze and the others, he was very straightforward, directly offering the same stock price that Jardine Matheson & Co. had offered to the market. This, in effect, was equivalent to compensating for the missed dividend.

This was why Li Mingze and the others had agreed to sell their shares so readily.

The listed giants controlled by British-funded conglomerates like Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group constantly reinvested their profits, sometimes even taking out loans to do so. Otherwise, Hongkong Land would not have become so heavily indebted.

Under such circumstances, where would they find the money for dividends?

Two years from now, Hongkong Land Group would even be known as Hong Kong’s king of debt, precisely because it recklessly expanded in the real estate sector, making it common practice to take out bank loans for investments!

Looking at the latest financial report handed over by the chief financial officer, Lin Haoran revealed a satisfied smile.

Over seventy million Hong Kong dollars was no small sum.

This showed that the Hong Kong and China Gas Company hadn’t paid dividends for nearly a year.

This was a truly great and unexpected surprise.

Perhaps, if Jardine Matheson & Co. wanted to sell their shares again, he might consider buying them if they were offered at the price from before the year’s end.

After all, this sum of money from the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was considerable. If the entire seventy-plus million Hong Kong dollars were to fall into his hands, his cost of acquiring the company wouldn’t be as high as he had imagined. It would be a great deal!

There was no need to privatize the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, but if the cost was right, he wouldn’t be opposed to doing so.

Besides, if he needed money in the future, he could always take the Hong Kong and China Gas Company public again.

Therefore, Lin Haoran wasn’t too conflicted about whether to privatize the company.

For now, as he saw it, the decision on whether to privatize the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was actually in the hands of Jardine Matheson & Co.

If Jardine Matheson & Co. was willing to sell to him at the previous, normal price, he wouldn’t mind privatizing the company.

But if they insisted on the current price, then they could just continue holding onto their shares.

In any case, Lin Haoran had no intention of using this sum of over seventy million Hong Kong dollars for dividends, as he wasn’t short on cash at the moment.

What if Jardine Matheson & Co. requested a dividend? Unfortunately for them, Lin Haoran planned to invest this capital in fields like real estate.

He would absolutely not hand over the money to Jardine Matheson & Co. so easily.

Stepping out of the Finance Office and into an empty office, Lin Haoran finally said to He Zhenxing, “General Manager He, I want you to discreetly investigate the audit supervisor and the cashier in the Finance Department. I think there might be something wrong with them.”

The moment he entered the Finance Department, Lin Haoran had noticed that the two individuals had pitifully low loyalty scores, both under thirty. This was starkly different from everyone else, which clearly indicated they were a problem.

“Boss, why do you say that?” He Zhenxing asked, curious.

“When I looked at them just now, I noticed their eyes were shifty. From a psychological standpoint, I believe they’re very problematic. If you investigate them quietly, you might uncover some surprising things,” Lin Haoran fabricated an explanation off the cuff.

“Boss, you also know psychology?” He Zhenxing was even more surprised.

“Yes, I took psychology as an elective in university, so I know a little about it. Speaking of which, General Manager He, you should also be a graduate of the University of London, right? That makes us alumni. I graduated from the London Business School,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“So the boss is my alumnus! What a coincidence! I studied engineering. I started out as a gas engineer after graduation and only gradually moved into management. Alright, I will investigate this quietly. If I find anything, I will report it to you immediately, Boss,” He Zhenxing responded.

The audit supervisor and cashier were both unique and important positions. If the two of them were in cahoots, it would indeed be easy for them to engage in corrupt activities that would be difficult to detect.

If Lin Haoran didn’t have his special ability to see loyalty, he naturally wouldn’t have discovered there was a problem with the two of them.

After He Zhenxing gave Lin Haoran a general tour of the company’s departments, they returned to the Chairman’s office.

“Elder Mr. Lee, Director Chen, are you two finished with the handover?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Boss, we’re almost done. There wasn’t too much to hand over, really. General Manager He is aware of most of the important matters,” Chen Shoulin replied.

Lin Haoran nodded. At the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, Li Mingze’s previous role had been more about overseeing the general situation and making major corporate decisions, while He Zhenxing, the general manager, was the true manager and implementer of those decisions.

“Director Chen, General Manager He, please organize a meeting with the senior management. With such a major change in the company, people are bound to be feeling apprehensive. What we need now is to stabilize the company as quickly as possible and get it back on its normal development track. We also need to issue a public announcement about the changes. You two discuss it first. I have some things to discuss with Elder Mr. Lee,” Lin Haoran instructed them.

“Yes, Boss!” the two agreed and exited the office together, leaving Lin Haoran and Li Mingze alone inside.

Chapter 202: A Big Blunder?

“Mr. Lin, what happened today was incredibly satisfying!” Li Mingze laughed heartily in his office.

Having been forced by Jardine Matheson & Co. to give up the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, Li Mingze was naturally resentful.

After all, he had never intended to let go of this blue-chip company.

The events of the morning had been a roller coaster of twists and turns, with Jardine Matheson getting a slap in the face time and again. For Li Mingze, it was a release of his frustrations, and his gloomy mood finally lifted.

“Speaking of which, I should thank Jardine Matheson,” Lin Haoran said with a smile. “If they hadn’t tried to hostilely take over the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, I might not have had the chance to take control of it.”

It was true. Jardine Matheson’s hostile takeover attempt had created the perfect opportunity for Lin Haoran to become the controlling party of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. Otherwise, whether he could have succeeded would have been highly uncertain.

“By the way, Mr. Lin, what did you and Mr. Newbiggin talk about? I’m very curious,” Li Mingze asked, looking directly at Lin Haoran.

There was no need for Lin Haoran to hide this matter; in fact, he needed to discuss it with Li Mingze.

So, he said directly, “Mr. Lee threatened me, claiming that my actual controlling stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company would exceed fifty percent. He wanted to sell me their shares at the same price they bought them on the stock market. I refused, of course. I’m not going to be a big sucker.

The current price was artificially inflated by Jardine Matheson anyway. And as it happens, our transaction is still at the contract-signing stage. So I was just about to discuss this with you, Elder Mr. Lee. Could you temporarily hold on to about 2.9% of the shares, so that my actual controlling stake doesn’t exceed fifty percent? I’ll find an opportunity to buy these shares from you later, and I’ll make sure you don’t lose out, Elder Mr. Lee!”

Li Mingze held approximately 13.5% of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s shares, making him the former major shareholder.

If he retained 2.9% of these shares, the combined stake controlled by Lin Haoran’s three companies would be exactly 49.9%, leaving Jardine Matheson with no grounds for complaint.

Moreover, Lin Haoran could acquire Li Mingze’s shares at any time. In this situation, even if Jardine Matheson bought up all the remaining shares on the stock market, they would be unable to launch a counter-attack.

It all depended on whether Li Mingze would agree.

A 2.9% stake was not much, but based on a total market capitalization of 800 million Hong Kong dollars, it was still worth 23.2 million Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Haoran’s proposal was, in effect, a unilateral breach of their previous agreement. It remained to be seen if Li Mingze would mind.

“Alright, I agree to this. However, regarding Mr. Newbiggin’s demand for you to buy their shares, I think you should consider it carefully, Mr. Lin.

As a public utility company, and a monopolistic one at that, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company plays a vital role in the economy and people’s livelihoods. If you were to acquire their 40.7% stake, you would hold over ninety percent of the company’s shares.

At that point, you would undoubtedly need to privatize the company, as remaining on the stock market would be pointless. The government might review and regulate the privatization based on public interest and other factors to ensure the public’s welfare isn’t harmed.

In Hong Kong, it is possible in principle for public utility companies to be privatized, but they have different characteristics from ordinary listed companies.

The privatization of utilities like electricity, gas, and water can affect basic public services and fees, so the government will treat such actions with caution.

Therefore, if you want to privatize the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, it will likely be subject to government regulation and public scrutiny. If you’re considering buying their shares, it would be best to consult with the Securities Commission to understand the government’s position before deciding whether to proceed with privatization.”

While readily agreeing, Li Mingze also offered Lin Haoran some sound advice.

As someone who had served as the Chairman of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company for many years, Li Mingze was naturally well-versed in these matters.

Furthermore, for Li Mingze, agreeing to Lin Haoran’s proposal was a way to foster good relations with him. With the Li family still holding a 2.9% stake, it was no loss, even if they held onto it indefinitely.

He knew he was getting old, and a young man like Lin Haoran was destined to become a titan of Hong Kong’s business world—he could even be considered one already. Building a good relationship with Lin Haoran now would benefit the Li family in the future.

Li Mingze’s quick agreement put Lin Haoran at ease.

Otherwise, he would have had to find someone else to temporarily hold the shares, which would have been much more troublesome.

“Thank you for your support, Elder Mr. Lee, and thank you for the reminder. I will consider the matter of privatization carefully. In that case, let’s sign a new share transfer agreement. The previous one will be voided,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Yes, alright. Let’s not delay. We should get this settled as soon as possible. I imagine the outside world is in an uproar over what’s happened with the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. Mr. Lin, you’ve made a name for yourself again!” Li Mingze chuckled heartily.

“Thank you for your trouble, Elder Mr. Lee.”

Half an hour later, the two had signed a new share transfer agreement.

With the new contract in place, Li Mingze was still a shareholder of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, but he had gone from being the major shareholder to an ordinary one holding only 2.9% of the shares.

“Mr. Lin, since everything is settled, I’ll be on my way. You know I have many other companies to look after,” Li Mingze said, glancing at the time as he stood up.

“Of course, take care, Elder Mr. Lee. I will arrange for the funds to be transferred to the four of you as soon as possible. It will definitely be in your accounts before the afternoon. Also, I will reserve a director’s seat for you on the Board of Directors,” Lin Haoran said, rising to see him off.

Li Mingze waved his hand and quickly disappeared down the corridor of the office building.

To him, being a director or not didn’t mean much anymore. If the company didn’t pay dividends, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company would have little to do with the Li family going forward.

Besides, since Lin Haoran had said he would buy his remaining shares later, he didn’t think he was being deceived.

In other words, the Li family’s holding of this 2.9% stake was only temporary.

After Li Mingze left the Hong Kong and China Gas Company headquarters, Lin Haoran went to the room where Chen Shoulin, He Zhenxing, and the others were meeting.

The meeting was on the fifth floor, the same level as the chairman’s office, a convenience for the senior management.

As he walked into the conference room, all the mid-to-high-level managers present stood up.

“Everyone, let’s give a round of applause for our new Chairman, Mr. Lin Haoran, and welcome him!” He Zhenxing, as the general manager, took the lead and began to clap.

Instantly, the room erupted in warm applause.

There were over fifty people in the conference room, all of them mid-to-high-level managers from the company’s headquarters.

In reality, the change in leadership at the top of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company had little impact on the management team. The management structure remained the same; only the boss had changed.

Lin Haoran scanned the loyalty of the people present. Other than the Audit Supervisor, everyone else was fine, with loyalty scores ranging from the low seventies to the high eighties.

This range of loyalty was more than sufficient, so he had no intention of interfering with the management structure.

As for the Audit Supervisor, Lin Haoran had already alerted general manager He Zhenxing, who he was sure would provide a satisfactory response.

The Cashier was not part of the mid-to-high-level management, so the one with a very low loyalty score was not in the conference room.

For the general manager, secretly investigating two people was a simple matter.

Moreover, with Lin Haoran having just become the company chairman, He Zhenxing was surely keen to impress his new boss.

“Thank you, everyone. I hope you will all continue to work together as you always have to manage the company well. That is my greatest expectation of you. I won’t say any more than that for now,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, standing before the crowd.

“Boss, this is the public announcement we’ve drafted. Please take a look and see if there are any issues,” Chen Shoulin said, handing an A4 sheet of paper to Lin Haoran.

The announcement stated that the four original major shareholders, including Li Mingze, had sold all their shares to Hongkong Electric Group, Wan’an Group, and Universal Investment Company. Effective immediately, Mr. Lin Haoran would serve as Chairman of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and Mr. Chen Shoulin would serve as Vice Chairman.

“Change this. I’ve re-negotiated with Mr. Li Mingze and we’ve signed a new contract. Mr. Li Mingze will sell 10.6% of his 13.5% stake to Wan’an Group and retain the remaining 2.9% for himself. He will also keep his position as a member of the Board of Directors of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

In other words, Hongkong Electric Group, Wan’an Group, and Universal Investment Company collectively hold a 49.9% stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company!” Lin Haoran stated the details of the new contract he had just signed with Li Mingze.

“Alright, Boss, I’ll change it right away!” Chen Shoulin nodded, took the paper back, and made the amendments.

After Lin Haoran confirmed the revised announcement was correct, it was sent to various newspapers and media outlets, including the Oriental Daily News, the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, and the Hong Kong Economic Times.

At the same time, Wireless Television and Asia Television also received the announcement.

Three hours had passed since the farce at nine o’clock that morning. In the blink of an eye, it was noon.

When the drama unfolded, the news from the press conference that Jardine Matheson had held alone the day before had already spread throughout Hong Kong via the media.

So, all morning, many citizens had been discussing the matter.

Most were lamenting the fact that this Chinese-owned enterprise was about to become a British-owned company.

However, since it was a matter of normal business competition, everyone knew there was nothing they could do about it.

But at twelve o’clock noon, many people watching the midday news on Wireless Television were stunned by an astonishing piece of news.

“We interrupt this program with a message just received by our station. The Hong Kong and China Gas Company sent a letter to our station ten minutes ago, issuing the following announcement: Mr. Li Mingze, the original chairman of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, has officially stepped down from his position. Mr. Lin Haoran, Chairman of the Hongkong Electric Group, will officially assume the concurrent role of Chairman of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. Here are the details…”

The news instantly reached viewers through countless television sets across Hong Kong.

“What? Wasn’t the Hong Kong and China Gas Company acquired by Jardine Matheson?”

“A complete reversal? Did Jardine Matheson just make a huge blunder?”

“It’s great that the Hong Kong and China Gas Company wasn’t acquired by a British-owned company.”

“Jardine Matheson looks like a clown now. I really thought they had acquired the company, but it turns out they’re just a joke.”

“Mr. Lin Haoran did a brilliant job this time. I was so down all morning, but now I can finally laugh out loud.”

“You can say that again! I’ve always supported the rise of Chinese-owned enterprises and can’t stand those Westerners who look down their noses at people. When I saw the news, I was actually thinking of replacing my gas water heater with an electric one. Now I don’t have to; they’re both Chinese-owned enterprises anyway.”

…

For a moment, all of Hong Kong was shaken by the sudden news, and people everywhere were discussing the dramatic turnaround.

Chapter 203: The Sincerity of an Apology

At noon, after lunch with Chen Shoulin and the others, Lin Haoran went to HSBC to wire the payment for the shares to Li Mingze and the rest.

The funds from Hongkong Electric Group would be handled by their Finance Department, so Lin Haoran was only responsible for a portion of it.

After the funds were transferred, he returned to the company. Chen Shoulin called Li Mingze and the others to inform them that the payment had been sent.

The news of Lin Haoran taking control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was bound to keep the citizens of Hong Kong buzzing for several days.

Especially since it was still the Spring Festival period, a time when everyone had the habit of visiting family and friends. During these visits, they would naturally chat.

mundane household matters could only be discussed for so long, so the series of events surrounding the Hong Kong and China Gas Company over the past few days became the most popular topic of conversation.

First, Jardine Matheson & Co. announced a high-priced acquisition of the company’s shares. Then, after the stock market closed, they held a high-profile press conference to declare that they had become the de facto controlling party and were about to take over the company.

The most laughable part was when Jardine Matheson’s Taipan, Newbiggin, announced himself as the new Chairman right in front of the company’s original chairman, even though nothing was confirmed.

In the end, right after he said it, Lin Haoran delivered a direct slap in the face.

No one had expected that the one to ultimately claim the fruit of victory would be a young man like Lin Haoran.

Now, everyone knew that the Hong Kong and China Gas Company would remain a Chinese-owned enterprise. Furthermore, its boss held a staggering 49.9% of the shares, making it impossible for anyone to snatch this blue-chip company from his hands.

Therefore, when the citizens talked about this matter, their faces were mostly wreathed in smiles.

In Hong Kong, the older generation of citizens was mostly comprised of immigrants from the mainland. Although they had moved to Hong Kong, they still held very complex patriotic feelings for their homeland.

Thus, they were all delighted to see the rise of a Chinese-owned enterprise.

On the stock market, without the large-scale stock accumulation by capital from Jardine Matheson, Hongkong Land, and Lin Haoran, everyone knew that the battle for the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was over. Things gradually returned to calm.

Moreover, the current stock price had been artificially inflated, already more than 35% higher than the closing price of the last trading day before the new year.

So, even though there weren’t many shares left in the hands of smaller shareholders, the stock price of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was still falling today.

Many shareholders who had failed to sell yesterday could only lower their pending order prices if they wanted to sell today.

By the time the market closed in the afternoon, the company’s total market capitalization had fallen back to around 650 million Hong Kong dollars.

Although this was still slightly higher than the 590 million Hong Kong dollar market capitalization at the last trading day before the new year, it was more or less back in the same ballpark.

Moreover, since there were so few of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s shares left in the hands of the public, it was actually very easy to drive the price up. For it to fall back to this level was already quite good; it was basically impossible for it to return to its previous price.

Besides, the Hong Kong stock market was currently in a bull market, and very few stocks fell on any given day, unless a company was hit with some truly bad news that caused its share price to drop.

Lin Haoran didn’t pay much attention to the stock market situation. After all, he now held 49.9% of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s shares. Unless he decided to privatize the company, the rise and fall of the stock price had little to do with him.

Lin Haoran stayed at the Hong Kong and China Gas Company until the afternoon before leaving.

With senior executives like Chen Shoulin and He Zhenxing at the company, he had very little to worry about.

After leaving, Lin Haoran went to the Hongkong Electric Group.

Having just taken control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, Chen Shoulin would definitely need to focus a lot of his energy there over the next few days to get a handle on things quickly.

Hongkong Electric Group and the Hong Kong and China Gas Company were both public utilities, so there were many similarities in their management. For Chen Shoulin, it was a familiar task.

As for Hongkong Electric Group, there were unlikely to be any issues, and if any did arise, they could be dealt with promptly.

Back at Hongkong Electric Group, everything in the company was in perfect order; Chen Shoulin’s temporary absence had caused no disruptions.

Lin Haoran took a stroll around the company and activated his Golden Finger. The loyalty of every employee and manager was laid bare before him.

If he saw someone with low loyalty, he would inform Chen Shoulin to conduct a quiet investigation.

Today was a good day; he didn’t find anyone with loyalty issues.

Returning to his office, Lin Haoran was looking through last year’s financial report—the 1979 financial report—that he had requested from the Finance Department, intending to examine it in detail.

Just then, his beeper vibrated.

Lin Haoran sighed and could only put the financial report down on his desk. He took out his beeper and dialed the number back.

“Hello, this is Lin Haoran. Who is this?” Lin Haoran asked directly.

“Mr. Lin, this is Ge Zhixiong. I’m very sorry to bother you during the New Year. First, I wish you a Happy New Year. I was wondering if you might have a moment now?” On the other end of the line, Ge Zhixiong spoke respectfully, afraid of offending Lin Haoran even further by mistake.

Previously, Lin Haoran had told Ge Zhixiong to give him an explanation.

Originally, Ge Zhixiong had planned to visit in person long ago, but it happened to be the Spring Festival period. Everyone was busy, and there was no guarantee Lin Haoran would be free, so Ge Zhixiong had delayed until today, not daring to disturb him during the busiest time of the Spring Festival.

For the past few days, Ge Zhixiong had been living in fear. Even though it was the New Year, he was in no mood to celebrate.

What happened today with the Hong Kong and China Gas Company made Ge Zhixiong even more determined to settle this matter as soon as possible.

After all, this Mr. Lin didn’t even bat an eye at Jardine Matheson & Co. What did the 13K triad society amount to in comparison?

He was afraid that if he waited too long, Lin Haoran would suddenly remember the incident in Mong Kok, and then the 13K would be in big trouble.

“I have time. Mr. Ge, feel free to say what’s on your mind,” Lin Haoran said without putting on any airs.

“Mr. Lin, I was wondering if I could pay you a visit. It’s about that incident last time. I will absolutely give you a satisfactory response!” Ge Zhixiong asked respectfully.

“Sure, come on over. I’m at the Hongkong Electric Group Headquarters. You should know where that is!” Hearing Ge Zhixiong’s words, Lin Haoran did not refuse.

The matter wasn’t particularly big, but it wasn’t small either.

He had already taught those thugs a lesson at the time and didn’t really care much about these triads anymore. It all depended on how the 13K planned to give him a “satisfactory response.”

“Right away, Mr. Lin! Please give me half an hour!” Ge Zhixiong continued.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran went back to reading Hongkong Electric Group’s financial report.

From last year’s financial report, Lin Haoran could see that Hongkong Electric Group truly lived up to its reputation as one of Hong Kong’s few blue-chip companies. Although the group was currently diversifying, not a single one of its businesses had lost money last year.

Electricity sales, property development, property management, technical services, retail, advertising, finance, and so on—all of them were profitable last year!

Among these, the riskiest was probably the financial lending business. Hongkong Electric Group had suffered losses in this area before when a publicly listed company they had loaned money to went bankrupt due to a broken capital chain, causing the group to fail to recover even the principal, let alone the interest.

It was because of this that the senior management of Hongkong Electric Group had become more cautious with their investments.

As for property development, Hongkong Electric Group’s model was different from other real estate companies.

The group primarily focused on developing its own plots of land. Even if they encountered a property crisis in the future, there would be no risk of losses.

This was why Hongkong Electric Group hadn’t suffered any losses last year.

Lin Haoran was naturally very satisfied with this situation. Acquiring Hongkong Electric Group was proving to be a very worthy investment.

Half an hour later, a car pulled into a parking space outside the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters building.

Then, two middle-aged men got out of the car.

They were Ge Zhixiong, the Dragon Head of the 13K, and Bearded Yong, the 13K’s decision-maker for Yau Tsim Mong.

At this moment, they showed none of the defiant, arrogant air of triad tycoons. Instead, their faces were filled with apprehension.

In Hong Kong’s triad world, they were once like underground emperors.

However, facing a business tycoon like Lin Haoran, they didn’t dare show the slightest hint of offense.

Although the 13K was extremely powerful, with a purported membership of over one hundred thousand, if a business tycoon like Lin Haoran went to the government, the 13K would undoubtedly face hard times.

One only had to look at the fates of Crippled Ho and the Ma brothers to understand.

Crippled Ho was sentenced directly to thirty years in prison. His triad society, once one of the four largest in Hong Kong, was severely weakened after many of its key members were arrested, and it gradually declined.

The Ma family was the same. The Ma brothers were forced to flee to Taiwan, and the Ma family, once one of the Four Great Families of the underworld, quickly dissipated.

After these events, all triad members understood that no matter how powerful they seemed, they couldn’t fight the government.

The swaggering arrogance of the past was long gone.

After getting out of the car, Ge Zhixiong and Bearded Yong took a large gift bag from the trunk and walked into the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters building.

Lin Haoran had already used the intercom to inform the head of the group’s security department that some triad bosses would be coming.

Both Ge Zhixiong and Bearded Yong were very famous in the Hong Kong underworld, so the head of security naturally recognized them.

Therefore, as soon as Ge Zhixiong and Bearded Yong entered the building, they were stopped by security. They were first scanned with a security detector to confirm they weren’t carrying any metal weapons before being escorted to Lin Haoran’s office.

After all, even though Ge Zhixiong had come to apologize, he was still a triad leader. For the boss’s safety, the head of security dared not be careless.

A knock suddenly sounded at the door from outside.

“Come in,” Lin Haoran called out.

The office door opened slowly, and the head of the security department said deferentially, “Boss, Mr. Ge and Mr. Pan have been escorted here.”

“Hello, Mr. Lin. I’m Ge Zhixiong, and this is our 13K’s Pan Zhiyong. This is a small token of our sincerity. I hope you won’t mind,” Ge Zhixiong said, carefully placing the gift bag next to the desk.

“Happy New Year, Mr. Lin. I am Pan Zhiyong.”

These two triad tycoons appeared extremely low-key and respectful in front of Lin Haoran.

If one didn’t know their identities, it would be hard to imagine that they were renowned figures in the Hong Kong underworld.

“Have a seat.” Lin Haoran put down the ledger in his hands, gesturing with a slight lift of his hand toward the chairs beside him. Only then did the two of them slowly sit down.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” Lin Haoran asked softly with a smile on his face.

At this, Bearded Yong stood up.

“Mr. Lin, we have thoroughly investigated what happened that night. The six men are all my subordinates. They were blind to your importance and offended you. It was my failure to teach them properly.

“Although I did not order this, since they are my subordinates, I bear significant responsibility. As a show of sincerity, I have had all six of them tied up and detained. To kill or to torture, it is all up to you, Mr. Lin.

“Just give the word, and you won’t need to lift a finger. I will handle it for you. Furthermore, if there is anything you need from our 13K in the future, please do not hesitate to ask.

“We may not be able to do great things, but we can take care of certain matters that might be inconvenient for you,” Bearded Yong said, choosing his words carefully.

The relationship between Hong Kong’s triad societies and its wealthy families has always been intricate and complex.

To put it bluntly, Hong Kong’s triad societies often served as tools for the wealthy families, tasked with carrying out missions that might damage their reputations, such as illegal acts like murder and arson.

In other words, these triad societies were, to some extent, shouldering the blame for the wealthy families, playing the role of the scapegoat!

Chapter 204: Seeing Han Yili Again

Lin Haoran had no way of knowing what possessed Bearded Yong to make such an offer.

Handle matters for him that he couldn’t do himself? Willingly act as a scapegoat?

This style of doing things was hardly befitting of a triad boss!

He was somewhat surprised, not expecting them to show such sincerity in their apology.

Or perhaps, they were taking this opportunity to find a reliable backer?

Although Lin Haoran might not necessarily protect them if something happened, a casual word from him could potentially resolve a crisis for them.

In truth, Lin Haoran was aware of the intricate and complex relationships between Hong Kong’s triad societies and its wealthy families.

He had learned a fair bit about 13K over the past few days. Although 13K was still a triad society, ever since its Dragon Head, Ge Zhixiong, had washed his hands of the business and stepped away from its affairs, the various branches of 13K had gone their own ways. It was no longer a unified society in the true sense of the word.

They were more like a collection of numerous gangs that had united to form a super-triad—13K.

Bearded Yong was one of the more formidable figures among these branches. As the decision-maker of the Yi Branch, he ranked among the top two in all of 13K and currently held sway over Yau Ma Tei, Tsim Sha Tsui, and Mong Kok.

While Bearded Yong couldn’t represent the entirety of 13K, he was a leading figure among its branches. His power within 13K was immense, and few dared to cross him.

Therefore, even though he was only representing the Yi Branch, his words carried significant weight.

As for Ge Zhixiong, it was clear he was only here to escort Bearded Yong, hoping Lin Haoran wouldn’t hold a grudge against the entire 13K organization.

Although he no longer wanted anything to do with 13K’s affairs, he couldn’t bear to see the society his father founded face a crisis just because they had offended Lin Haoran. This was why he had felt compelled to bring Bearded Yong here to apologize.

“I’ve already taught those six a lesson. Let’s consider this matter closed. However, Mr. Pan truly needs to discipline his men properly. This time, it was me you encountered, and I consider myself a reasonable person, so I won’t pursue it. But next time, if you run into someone less accommodating whom you can’t afford to offend, things might not be resolved so easily.

As for you two, your gesture is appreciated. Very well, if I have anything for you to do in the future, I’ll give you a call!” Lin Haoran decided to accept Bearded Yong’s offer of goodwill.

To him, having a formidable enforcer from the underworld at his disposal seemed like a decent arrangement.

Of course, Lin Haoran didn’t anticipate having much for him to do. He only agreed to officially put an end to the matter; he had accepted their apology.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Ge Zhixiong and Bearded Yong glanced at each other and let out a deep sigh of relief.

This Mr. Lin was far more reasonable than they had imagined.

Although they were both old-timers who had navigated the underworld for years, in the presence of someone like Lin Haoran who wasn’t even afraid of British-owned financial groups, they didn’t dare show any of their usual big shot airs.

“Mr. Lin, we deeply regret this incident. It was our 13K’s mistake. I’ve already spoken with the decision-makers of all the branches and told them to keep their men in line, avoid stirring up trouble, and prevent similar incidents from happening again!” Ge Zhixiong also spoke up.

“Mm, that’s your business. I won’t get involved. If there’s nothing else, you can head back. I have a meeting soon. By the way, take these gifts back with you. I’ve accepted your apology, but I’ll pass on the presents,” Lin Haoran said, gesturing toward the large gift bag.

While he didn’t know what was inside, was there anything he couldn’t obtain himself? He had no need for gifts from the triad.

“Mr. Lin, please accept it. This is a token of our sincerity. If Mr. Lin feels it’s not enough, we can add more!” Bearded Yong said, opening the gift bag to reveal stacks upon stacks of one-hundred Hong Kong dollar bills.

Lin Haoran estimated there was at least one million Hong Kong dollars in there.

No wonder it required such a large bag.

“Take it back. Do you think I’m short on money? My Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, Green Island Cement—which one isn’t a company with a market capitalization in the hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars? If you’re truly sincere, then in the future, helping me solve some troublesome matters that I can’t handle publicly will be the greatest show of sincerity you can offer,” Lin Haoran said with a wave of his hand.

A lot of triad money was dirty and came from questionable sources. He had no intention of accepting it.

Besides, one million Hong Kong dollars was a small sum to him. He really didn’t think much of it.

“Since Mr. Lin has said so, Zhiyong, you should take the money back,” Ge Zhixiong, who was standing to the side, interjected.

“Rest assured, Mr. Lin. If there’s ever a need for my services in the future, I will not hesitate to help!” Bearded Yong said solemnly.

“Alright, that’s all for today. I have other matters to attend to, so I won’t keep you,” Lin Haoran said after glancing at his watch.

“Goodbye, Mr. Lin!” the two said in unison. After speaking, they took the money and exited Lin Haoran’s office.

Watching them leave, Lin Haoran pondered for a moment before dismissing the thought.

He had no intention of getting too involved with the triad.

For him, opportunities to use such people were truly few and far between.

As a transmigrator, he could simply conduct his business honorably; there was no need to resort to unscrupulous methods for profit.

“Weiguo, Weidong, come in,” Lin Haoran called out toward the door.

“Boss,” the two men said as they entered.

They had been standing guard outside the entire time, just in case any trouble occurred.

Though the probability was low, it was better to be safe than sorry.

“We’re going to the Police Headquarters later to get you firearm licenses,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He had previously discussed this with the Commissioner of Police, Han Yili, who had already agreed to issue firearm licenses for his two bodyguards.

Obtaining one was a difficult task for ordinary people, but for the Commissioner of Police, it was a simple matter of a single command.

“Boss, I haven’t touched a gun in years. I can’t wait to feel what it’s like to hold one again,” Li Weidong said, his eyes lighting up with anticipation.

Li Weiguo was also filled with excitement.

Although they were highly skilled in martial arts, against a bullet, no amount of skill could compare to a single shot.

Therefore, if they were armed, their combat effectiveness would increase dramatically.

While they couldn’t use their guns at any time, simply possessing them would give them more confidence and better ensure the boss’s safety.

They had been retired from the military for several years, and naturally, had no opportunity to handle firearms since then.

Now, they finally had the chance, and what’s more, they would be carrying them legally.

Back on the mainland, if you weren’t police or in the army, you would never get such an opportunity.

He just wasn’t sure if the Commissioner of Police, Han Yili, was at Police Headquarters.

So, Lin Haoran first made a phone call to Han Yili.

He had exchanged business cards with all of them back at Governor Sir Murray MacLehose’s residence, so he had Han Yili’s contact number.

The call connected quickly.

After learning of Lin Haoran’s purpose, Han Yili told him directly that he would be waiting for him in his office.

“Let’s go. We shouldn’t keep him past his work hours,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

It was just after four in the afternoon, and civil servants at the Hong Kong Police Department generally got off work at six.

The Police Headquarters was located in May House on Arsenal Street, Wan Chai. It wasn’t far from the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters building; the drive would take less than ten minutes.

There was still plenty of time.

Li Weiguo and Li Weidong followed Lin Haoran out of the Hongkong Electric Group building and drove directly to May House in Wan Chai.

Before long, Lin Haoran and his men arrived at the headquarters of the Hong Kong Royal Police.

This was also where the Police Department’s offices were located.

After parking the car, Lin Haoran led Li Weidong and Li Weiguo into May House.

Thanks to Han Yili’s prior arrangements, they were smoothly guided by a staff member onto an elevator and up to the 19th floor, arriving at Han Yili’s office.

“Mr. Lin, Happy New Year! Congratulations on acquiring another public company. Your strength has grown immensely!” Han Yili greeted Lin Haoran with a smiling congratulation.

Although the newspapers had yet to publish more detailed reports, the news had already spread throughout Hong Kong via television and radio broadcasts.

“It was purely an accident. If Mr. Li Mingze and the others hadn’t taken the initiative to sell me their shares, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company,” Lin Haoran replied modestly.

“Did you bring their identification documents? If so, I’ll have someone process the firearm licenses for you,” Han Yili said directly after a few pleasantries.

Han Yili and Lin Haoran were speaking in English, so Li Weiguo and Li Weidong couldn’t understand what they were saying.

“Weiguo, Weidong, take out your identity cards and give them to Commissioner Han,” Lin Haoran said, turning to remind the two brothers who were still unaware of what was happening.

Li Weidong and Li Weiguo took their Hong Kong identity cards out of their pockets and handed them to Han Yili.

Ten minutes later, the relevant staff from the Police Department returned with three completed firearm licenses, each bearing the official stamp of the Police Department.

That’s right, three of them.

In addition to the licenses for the two bodyguards, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, Han Yili had also specially prepared one for Lin Haoran.

Although it might not be of much use, at least if Lin Haoran were to carry a firearm, it would be legal.

From this day forward, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo were also legally permitted to carry firearms in Hong Kong.

Han Yili had even thoughtfully asked if Lin Haoran needed help procuring a few police-issue handguns, but Lin Haoran politely declined.

The reason was that he looked down on the handguns currently equipped by the Hong Kong Royal Police.

Since the beginning of the year, the Hong Kong Royal Police had begun a large-scale update of their firearms, starting to fully equip the force with the Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolver, available in long and short-barreled versions.

This gun was a basic self-defense weapon. Its greatest advantage was its reliability and that it wouldn’t misfire, but its stopping power was very low, its ammunition capacity was only six rounds, and its range was short.

It could still intimidate young gangsters armed with knives, but against well-prepared robbers, the poor sustained firepower and slow reload speed of the “.38” meant they could only watch the thieves escape in dismay.

Given Lin Haoran’s status, he naturally intended to equip Li Weidong and Li Weiguo with more powerful firearms, since this was all for the sake of his personal safety.

Taking the Hong Kong Royal Police’s Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolver as an example, to put it bluntly, it had little more than a deterrent effect. Its practical use was truly lacking.

If they were to face an opponent who was also armed, the risk would be substantial, even with Li Weidong and Li Weiguo’s excellent marksmanship.

“Commissioner Han, thank you very much for your help. If you ever need anything in the future, please don’t hesitate to ask. I enjoy dealing with friends like you the most,” Lin Haoran said with a smile after the matter was settled.

“It’s just a small thing, Mr. Lin. Don’t worry about it,” Han Yili said with a wave of his hand, clearly not thinking much of the minor favor.

The main reason Han Yili helped Lin Haoran was that Lin Haoran’s status in the Hong Kong business world was now extremely high. Even Governor Sir Murray MacLehose held him in high regard, so he, as the Commissioner of Police, naturally did not dare to slight him.

Issuing a few firearm licenses was a trivial matter he could handle with ease.

Chapter 205: Intelligence from Jardine Matheson & Co.

Lin Haoran and Han Yili weren’t well acquainted, so naturally, they didn’t have much to talk about.

After settling the matter of the firearm license, the two exchanged a few more pleasantries before Lin Haoran said his goodbyes and left the Police Headquarters.

Just as Lin Haoran was leaving May House in Wan Chai in his Rolls-Royce, a senior management meeting was being held in a very tense atmosphere at the Jardine Matheson headquarters in nearby Central.

The failure of the acquisition had forced them to convene a meeting to discuss how to handle their shares in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group together controlled 40.7% of the shares, yet they couldn’t even secure a controlling stake. It was certain they wouldn’t continue to hold these shares.

Keeping the shares wouldn’t result in any direct losses, but it would tie up their capital.

For them, continuing to hold shares in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company now offered a future rate of return that was far too low.

Therefore, holding onto these shares was, in effect, a loss for Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group.

The most important thing now was how to smoothly divest from the Hong Kong and China Gas Company and turn their attention to other listed companies or further investments in the real estate industry.

Newbiggin looked at the senior executives and began, “Gentlemen, what’s done is done. The outcome of the failed acquisition is set. Let’s discuss what we should do next.”

Silence fell over the meeting room. The senior executives exchanged glances, each contemplating a course of action.

After a moment, a senior finance general manager was the first to break the silence. “Mr. Newbiggin, I believe we should find a suitable buyer as soon as possible and sell our shares in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. This would allow us to recoup our capital and prevent it from being tied up long-term.”

“Finding a suitable buyer is easier said than done. The Hong Kong and China Gas Company is now firmly controlled by Lin Haoran. No other buyer could possibly wrest control from him. To that extent, the value of our shares is greatly diminished. No one would spend hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars on our shares just for dividends.

It’s not just Jardine Matheson that needs to offload these shares; the Hongkong Land Group also has to sell the shares they accumulated. As you all know, this is a crucial time for expansion for Hongkong Land. If we had won the controlling stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, it would have boosted the strength of both our companies. But our acquisition has failed, and now we’re in an awkward position. These shares have become a burden to us!

Between our two companies, we need to dispose of a full 40.7% of the shares. Finding a suitable buyer is practically impossible unless we sell at a very low price! Who among you wants to try and find a suitable buyer for the group? If you can manage to offload these shares without us taking a loss, I’ll give you a promotion and a raise!” Newbiggin finished, sweeping his gaze across the meeting room.

However, everyone pointedly avoided his gaze, not daring to meet the eyes of Newbiggin, the Taipan.

They knew very well that finding a suitable buyer without incurring a loss was simply impossible.

Even if they were willing to take a loss, finding a buyer was not guaranteed.

With that kind of money, wouldn’t investing in real estate be a much better option?

This was a transaction involving nearly three hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

With that much capital, why would anyone buy shares in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company?

“I was against acquiring the Hong Kong and China Gas Company from the start,” a senior executive who was also a shareholder chimed in. “The real estate market is booming right now, with property prices practically doubling in a year. Why did we need to acquire the gas company? Look where it’s gotten us! The acquisition failed, and now our capital is stuck.”

“What’s the use of being a Monday morning quarterback now? The most important thing is to figure out how to handle this, not to assign blame. There was nothing wrong with acquiring the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. Everyone agrees it’s a quality enterprise. We just didn’t expect to fail under these circumstances!” another senior executive retorted.

As the discussion grew heated, a younger executive offered a different perspective: “Everyone, I don’t think we necessarily have to rush to sell the shares. Although we didn’t get the controlling stake, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company is still a company with potential. We could continue to hold the shares and try to influence the company’s decisions through other means, striving for greater returns in the future.”

This view immediately drew opposition from some.

An older senior executive said, “Young man, your idea is too naive. We’ve already failed in this acquisition. Continuing to hold the shares will only put us in a more passive position. Besides, given the insufficient returns, our capital structure doesn’t allow us to hold these shares for the long term.”

Bao Fuda then stood up and offered his opinion: “Everyone, I suggest we first contact various investment institutions and business owners to see who might be interested in these shares. We don’t need to sell them all at once, nor to a single buyer. If we can sell a portion in batches and another portion through the stock market, we can still recoup this capital in the short term and reinvest it in other projects.

If all else fails, our only option is to try and persuade Mr. Lin Haoran to buy our shares. As it stands, he’s likely the one most interested in our stake. If he acquires our shares, he could even take the Hong Kong and China Gas Company private.

Judging by his previous actions of privatizing the Green Island Cement Company and the Wan’an Group, he’s very likely to be interested in privatizing the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. Young people, you know, they always think they can make more money when the company is entirely in their own hands!”

Bao Fuda was not only the general manager of the Hongkong Land Group but also a member of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s senior management.

Moreover, the day’s agenda was also related to the Hongkong Land Group.

“In my opinion, we should let Jardine Securities handle the trading and release these shares back into the market,” said a director sitting next to Bao Fuda, standing up. “Although it will take a considerable amount of time due to the large number of shares we hold, if we’re careful, we can recoup our capital in as little as two or three months, or at most, a year and a half.”

“I agree. In the current market, the chances of finding a suitable buyer are too slim. Rather than blindly searching for a buyer and being forced to sell at a loss, it’s better to gradually sell the shares through the stock market.

None of those investment institutions are easy to deal with. Why would they do anything that doesn’t benefit them?

Our Jardine Securities has the ability and power to manipulate the stock price of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company on the secondary market. If the trading is handled well, we might not only break even but could even make a profit. Several stocks that Jardine Securities has been trading recently have risen significantly.

Moreover, the entire stock market is trending upward. Even though the price of Hong Kong and China Gas shares dropped quite a bit today, it’s only a matter of time before it recovers, even without our intervention,” a deputy general manager of Jardine Matheson & Co. offered his thoughts.

…

The room was filled with differing opinions, and the debate raged on.

Everyone had a different idea, but no one suggested they should continue to hold the shares.

Jardine Matheson & Co. had always been domineering; when they targeted a company, they were never content to play second fiddle.

But Lin Haoran’s shareholding percentage had extinguished their ambition to control the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. So now, their sole focus was on offloading these stocks as quickly as possible to recoup their capital.

Watching the heated discussion, Newbiggin felt conflicted.

He knew that each option had its own pros and cons that needed to be carefully weighed.

“Let me summarize. Right now, there are two main opinions: one, to find other suitable buyers; and two, to gradually sell our shares through the stock market. Since that’s the case, let’s put it to a vote,” Newbiggin said, putting a stop to the pointless debate.

The results of the vote came quickly. Of the twenty-three people present, eight voted for the first option, and fifteen for the second.

This was because the vast majority held little hope of finding a suitable buyer.

Therefore, selling on the secondary market was clearly the most reliable method.

They still had faith in the capabilities of Jardine Securities.

This time, the acquisition of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company had failed, but the blame couldn’t be placed on Jardine Securities. On the contrary, Jardine Securities had done their job exceptionally well during this acquisition.

Although the plan was to accumulate 15% and they only ended up acquiring 14.2%, the difference was negligible.

“The result of the vote is clear. Based on this, we’ve decided to entrust Jardine Securities with handling this matter. Mark, you will lead this task,” Newbiggin said gravely, looking at Mark, the general manager of Jardine Securities. “Furthermore, I must ask everyone to maintain strict confidentiality. If this leaks, our plan could be hindered or even sabotaged.”

“Taipan, please rest assured. I will do my utmost and will not let you down,” Mark responded.

With that, the senior management meeting concluded on this decision.

However, what Newbiggin didn’t know was that not long after the meeting ended, news of it had already reached Cui Zilong, the general manager of the Oriental Press Group.

“Mr. Cui, I have a piece of major intelligence concerning Jardine Matheson & Co. Interested in hearing it?” That evening, as Cui Zilong was relaxing at home, his phone suddenly rang.

The voice on the other end belonged to a senior manager at Jardine Matheson & Co., someone he had recently gone to great lengths to befriend.

This senior manager was one of the informants Cui Zilong had specifically placed within business tycoons like Jardine Matheson & Co., the Hongkong Land Group, Wheelock, HSBC, and World-Wide Shipping, in response to Lin Haoran’s request to build a sharp intelligence network.

After all, his boss was a business magnate with numerous competitors in Hong Kong. The most valuable intelligence would undoubtedly come from other corporate giants.

This man was getting on in years, with dim prospects for further promotion, so he had started thinking about making some extra money on the side.

“Oh? What is the intelligence about? And what’s the price?” Cui Zilong asked casually, not thinking much of it at first.

“It’s about the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. The price is one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars. Non-negotiable,” the other party quickly stated his terms.

Although he was a senior manager at Jardine Matheson & Co. with a handsome salary, his annual pay was still only a few hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars.

The Hong Kong and China Gas Company?

Cui Zilong’s interest was instantly piqued. He was, of course, well aware that his own boss was also the helmsman of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Just today, the editorial department of the Oriental Daily News had written several articles about Lin Haoran taking control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, as well as Jardine Matheson’s blunder. These had already been drafted into major feature pieces that would be published in tomorrow’s newspaper.

The Oriental Press Group and the Hong Kong and China Gas Company were now sister companies in every sense of the word.

“Mr. Andrew, I am indeed interested, but I’ll need to consider if the intelligence is truly worth one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars. After all, that’s not a small sum,” Cui Zilong replied cautiously.

“Rest assured, Mr. Cui, it’s absolutely worth the price. I’m more interested in our long-term cooperation, not a one-off deal. Why would I take such a great risk and leave myself vulnerable to you for a mere one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars? I’m thinking about the long run,” the man said sincerely.

Cui Zilong thought it over. The man was indeed unlikely to ruin his career for such a paltry sum.

“Done! Mr. Andrew, please tell me the details. I’ll pay in cash to ensure you have no lingering concerns,” Cui Zilong agreed readily after weighing the pros and cons.

After all, he had gone to great trouble to place a high-level chess piece within Jardine Matheson. It was important for both sides to show sincerity in their first collaboration.

Even if this piece of intelligence wasn’t worth a hundred thousand, it would lay a solid foundation for deeper cooperation between them in the future.

Chapter 206: This Rate of Spending is Frighteningly Fast!

After He Zhenxing obtained the news that Jardine Matheson & Co. was preparing to secretly sell its shares on the stock market, Lin Haoran soon received a report from him at home.

“Jardine Matheson & Co. is going to sell its shares through the stock market?” Lin Haoran was somewhat surprised, not expecting them to actually take this route.

Lin Haoran was now fully aware of the contents of the high-level meeting held by Jardine Matheson & Co.

This would not be an easy path, as the trading volume for the Hong Kong and China Gas Company had already plummeted significantly. Selling the 40.7% stake they held would be quite difficult.

As for the 100,000 Hong Kong dollars He Zhenxing spent on this information, Lin Haoran didn’t think it was expensive, regardless of whether the tip proved useful. On the contrary, he found it to be a rather good deal.

Intelligence, after all, was a money-burning enterprise. How could one gather any intelligence without being willing to spend?

He just hadn’t expected He Zhenxing to be so capable as to turn a high-level executive at Jardine Matheson & Co. into an informant. This in itself was already highly commendable.

He couldn’t help but feel a touch of admiration; the general manager of the Oriental Press Group was truly a master of intelligence gathering.

Even if the informant was just an ordinary executive, he could still obtain a great deal of useful information.

In fact, ever since Newbiggin had approached him to discuss acquiring the shares of Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group, Lin Haoran had been mulling over a question: should he acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company?

The Hong Kong and China Gas Company was very different from other corporations. As long as it developed conscientiously and stayed away from speculative investments, the company was an enterprise that could continuously generate substantial profits.

As for other listed companies, why did their founders take them public?

It was for no other reason than to secure financing, expand their market scale, allow shareholders to cash out and skip town, or reduce the risks of entrepreneurship.

However, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company needed none of this. The reason was simple: it had no risk of losses. It had already completely monopolized the Hong Kong market and could provide stable and decent returns every month!

These were feats that many other listed companies could not achieve.

Therefore, privatizing the Hong Kong and China Gas Company would bring more benefits than drawbacks for Lin Haoran.

However, he would naturally not agree to Newbiggin’s proposal to acquire it at a total market capitalization of 800 million Hong Kong dollars.

Now, having received this piece of intelligence from Jardine Matheson & Co., Lin Haoran began to reconsider the issue.

Should he privatize it or not?

If he didn’t, Jardine Matheson’s choice to return its shares to retail shareholders through the secondary market would be a good thing for Lin Haoran.

Although having a large number of shares concentrated in the hands of Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group didn’t pose a huge threat to Lin Haoran’s controlling stake, it did allow them to interfere in the company’s management.

After all, holding 40.7% of the stock naturally granted them the right to participate in corporate governance.

But if they returned their shares to ordinary shareholders, the equity would be diluted, and naturally, no one would be able to interfere with Lin Haoran’s controlling stake.

From this perspective, he supported Jardine Matheson & Co. taking this path.

However, if Lin Haoran wanted to privatize the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, the best method would be to have Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group sell their shares directly to him.

Currently, the known situation was that he indirectly held a 49.9% stake, Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land held 40.7%, and Li Mingze held 2.9%. Added together, this reached a staggering 93.5%.

With these shares, he could successfully privatize the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. As for the 6.5% in the hands of retail shareholders, that small amount would be much easier to handle.

But again, he was unwilling to purchase the shares held by Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group at a valuation of 800 million Hong Kong dollars.

From He Zhenxing, Lin Haoran had already learned that the present-day Jardine Matheson & Co. had absolutely no intention of continuing to hold shares in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. Instead, they wanted to find a way to dispose of these shares as quickly as possible to recover their funds.

For Lin Haoran, this was the best news he could have hoped for.

With the second-largest shareholder having no intention to remain, no one would be able to meddle in the management of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. In other words, he could do as he pleased with the company.

Having not yet decided whether to privatize the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, Lin Haoran put the matter aside for the time being.

In the blink of an eye, a night passed.

In the morning, after Lin Haoran got up, the servants had already prepared the day’s newspapers for him.

There were over a dozen of the best-selling newspapers, including the Oriental Daily News, the South China Morning Post, the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, and the Hong Kong Economic Times.

Lin Haoran read the newspapers while sipping soy milk and eating fried dough sticks.

The events that had occurred at the Hong Kong and China Gas Company the previous morning had been announced by two television stations and Hong Kong Radio, but neither was actually clear on the specific details of the press conference.

At the time, only four newspaper media outlets had witnessed the entire event.

And this morning, those four papers published multiple detailed reports, disclosing all the particulars of the press conference.

Reading these reports, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but chuckle.

This time, Newbiggin had truly lost face again.

He had repeatedly announced with great fanfare that he had taken control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, only to end up returning in defeat.

Jardine Matheson & Co. and Newbiggin would undoubtedly continue to be the laughingstocks of the town today.

As Lin Haoran had predicted, the public’s reaction was fervent.

Yesterday, after the news aired on television, everyone had a general idea that Lin Haoran had ultimately succeeded in taking control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, but they were completely unaware of the process.

It was only this morning that everyone was shocked to realize there had been so many twists and turns.

Newbiggin’s repeated setbacks brought a sense of satisfaction to the public.

Later that morning and afternoon, besides a trip to the Hongkong Electric Group, Lin Haoran also visited the former Federation Building, now the New Wan’an Building.

Renovations on the top floors of this former tallest building in Hong Kong had resumed on February 18th, the third day of the Lunar New Year. The progress was acceptable, and it was expected to be completed by mid-March.

By then, both Wan’an Group and Universal Investment Company would be able to move in.

After his inspection, Lin Haoran arrived at Universal Investment Company an hour before the stock market closed.

“Boss, we’ve noticed something. Someone is actively acquiring shares of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, while the number of sell orders is decreasing. Today, the stock price of Hong Kong and China Gas has been rising straight up, and the increase has been quite rapid,” Su Zhixue reported to Lin Haoran.

Although they no longer needed to purchase shares of Hong Kong and China Gas, Su Zhixue had continued to monitor it.

Unexpectedly, this monitoring led him to discover an anomaly in the trading of the company’s stock.

“Hmm?” Lin Haoran was also very surprised to hear this.

Hadn’t he heard that Jardine Matheson & Co. was planning to have Jardine Securities sell off their shares?

“I received a tip that Jardine Matheson & Co. has already decided to have Jardine Securities sell these shares. Could they be the ones buying? But what would be the reason for doing so?” Lin Haoran asked, puzzled.

“Boss, it’s not hard to understand. They’re driving up the stock price and increasing trading volume to attract uninformed shareholders to follow the trend and speculate. With the current bullish market, many shareholders will surely take the bait.

“This way, they can sell their own shares at a higher price. In the process, they can also continuously buy low and sell high to invigorate trading in Hong Kong and China Gas stock, allowing them to recoup their funds faster. These are all common trading tactics for market makers ‘reaping the leeks’.”

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Su Zhixue immediately figured out the reason and explained.

Although Lin Haoran had been involved in the stock accumulation process when acquiring Green Island Cement at the beginning, their trading had been very low-key back then to prevent the stock price from rising too quickly.

He had never engaged in this kind of manipulation to hype up a stock, increase its trading volume, and raise its price, so such a scenario hadn’t occurred to him.

But Su Zhixue was different. He was highly skilled in these operations and naturally understood the reasons behind them very clearly.

“So that’s how it is,” Lin Haoran said, instantly understanding after hearing Su Zhixue’s explanation.

It seemed that Jardine Securities was not in a hurry to sell off the shares, because doing so would only drive the price lower and lower.

If they wanted to sell, they naturally didn’t want to sell at a low price; the higher the price, the better.

To sell at a high price, they needed to make the stock’s market performance look good, which would attract more shareholders to pay attention to it.

Did this mean that the Jardine faction’s holdings in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company were actually increasing?

It must be more than 40.7% by now.

However, even if Jardine controlled a 45% stake, it wouldn’t have any additional impact on Lin Haoran.

“If that’s the case, will they start selling today?” Lin Haoran raised his question.

“No, Boss,” Su Zhixue replied. “Although they’ve successfully pushed up the price of Hong Kong and China Gas stock, the number of shareholders flooding in isn’t that large yet. This requires a process of accumulation.

“If they were to start selling off large quantities now, it would be an unwise trading move unless they only intend to sell a small portion of their shares. They will need at least several, or even more than ten, trading days to further attract more shareholders into the market.”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran no longer felt any urgency in considering whether to privatize the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

An hour later, the stock market closed.

Su Zhixue handed the collated data to Lin Haoran.

Taking the notepad, Lin Haoran began to read it carefully.

Since the Lunar New Year, Lin Haoran hadn’t paid any attention to the situation with the other three stocks.

Now, the notepad recorded the acquisition status of shares in the Hongkong Land Group, Jardine Matheson & Co., and Kowloon Motor Bus, including the total number of shares, ownership percentage, funds spent, average price per share, and so on.

Hongkong Land Group: Currently holds approximately 6.51% of shares, with a total expenditure of 463.01 million Hong Kong dollars.

Jardine Matheson & Co.: Currently holds approximately 2.91% of shares, with a total expenditure of 125.20 million Hong Kong dollars.

Kowloon Motor Bus: Currently holds approximately 7.39% of shares, with a total expenditure of 41.33 million Hong Kong dollars.

Compared to before the new year, the progress was quite good.

He was particularly surprised to find that the rate of stock accumulation for Kowloon Motor Bus had been the fastest during this period.

In contrast, the Hongkong Land Group, which previously had the highest accumulation ratio, was now lagging behind Kowloon Motor Bus.

As for the shares of Jardine Matheson & Co., the progress was slightly slower, but Lin Haoran didn’t mind. He valued the Hongkong Land Group more than Jardine Matheson & Co.

Among the three, Kowloon Motor Bus had the lowest market capitalization.

But even so, its total market capitalization exceeded five hundred million Hong Kong dollars, only slightly lower than that of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

A 7.39% stake was still too low.

The current shareholding was clearly far from enough to gain control of the company.

For now, it seemed he wouldn’t need to be too concerned with these three stocks in the short term. He could get involved again when they were close to reaching their predetermined shareholding targets.

In the meantime, he felt completely at ease leaving everything to Su Zhixue.

With ample funds, he had no financial worries at all.

He even took the opportunity to take stock of his financial situation.

After returning from the United States, his funds had reached over 5.7 billion Hong Kong dollars. He later received a dividend of thirty million Hong Kong dollars from Evergo, bringing his total to nearly 5.8 billion Hong Kong dollars.

From this sum, he had spent approximately 594 million Hong Kong dollars to purchase shares in the Hongkong Electric Group.

He had injected 200 million Hong Kong dollars into Wan’an Group, spent one billion Hong Kong dollars to purchase the Federation Building and the International Building, and another 200 million to acquire the Oriental Press Group.

In addition, the acquisition of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company also cost about 200 million Hong Kong dollars, not including the shares held by the Hongkong Electric Group.

And the accumulation of shares in Jardine Matheson & Co., the Hongkong Land Group, and Kowloon Motor Bus had so far cost about 630 million Hong Kong dollars.

Money flowed like water. In such a short period, he had already spent over 2.8 billion Hong Kong dollars.

This meant that he now had less than three billion Hong Kong dollars on hand.

This money was vanishing frighteningly fast!

After a rough calculation, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but marvel at his own spending rate. It was truly terrifying.

Chapter 207: Sharpshooter

In the blink of an eye, more than a week had passed, and even the Lantern Festival was over.

The Spring Festival atmosphere in Hong Kong gradually faded with the passage of time.

Today was already March 2nd.

During this period, Lin Haoran had used his connections to acquire three CZ75 pistols for himself, along with a large stockpile of ammunition.

The CZ75 pistol featured an all-metal frame and a forged barrel, giving it a sturdy structure and a classic design.

Its dual-mode operating system allowed for both single-action and double-action firing, providing the user with more options.

At the same time, the CZ75’s magazine capacity was large, typically holding between fifteen to twenty-six rounds. This offered a clear advantage in combat, reducing the frequency of reloads and enhancing sustained fighting capability.

Furthermore, the gun was exquisitely crafted, with high precision in the fitting of its components. This resulted in excellent stability when firing, ensuring a high degree of shooting accuracy.

Based on these advantages, and on the advice of Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, Lin Haoran ultimately chose this firearm.

The Li Weiguo and Li Weidong brothers were particularly excited after getting their hands on the pistols.

Lin Haoran, too, was very interested.

After all, in his previous life, he never had the chance to play with such a powerful weapon. Now, he could finally satisfy his curiosity.

With Han Yili’s authorization, Lin Haoran and the Li kardeşleri frequently went to the police shooting range near Sheung Wan to practice.

Although the two brothers were skilled marksmen, they needed to readjust and regain their feel for the firearms after so many years without handling them.

However, they were clearly not out of practice for long when it came to shooting, or perhaps they both possessed exceptional talent in this area.

After just two days of intensive training, their shooting skills quickly returned, recovering to nearly eighty or ninety percent of their former level.

By the third day of training, Li Weiguo began to truly showcase his shooting talent.

His movements when raising and firing the gun were fluid and powerful. Every bullet struck its target with unerring accuracy, drawing cheers from the Hong Kong Royal Police officers training nearby.

And when everyone’s eyes turned to Li Weidong, they were left even more astonished.

Whether shooting from a standing or prone position, he was exceptionally steady.

When standing, his posture was as firm as a pine tree, his gaze as sharp as a hawk’s. The pistol in his hand seemed like an extension of his body.

When prone, he was completely focused, every action demonstrating the rigor and precision of a professional shooter.

As the gunshots rang out, the bullets flew toward the bullseye as if they had a life of their own, never missing their mark.

Facing moving targets, Li Weidong handled them with ease.

His eyes were locked on the target, his body adjusting swiftly as it moved. The firearm in his hands seemed to possess its own intelligence, always firing decisively at the most critical moment to send a bullet straight into the center of the moving target.

As for fixed targets, they were a piece of cake for Li Weidong.

His shooting speed and accuracy were so high that “a hundred shots, a hundred hits” was no longer sufficient to describe his divine skill.

The Royal Police instructors at the training ground, seeing how remarkable their skills were, wanted to compete against them.

In the end, several instructors who refused to concede were all defeated.

With Li Weidong and Li Weiguo equipped with pistols, Lin Haoran’s security could be said to have increased by several levels, making his outings much safer.

These past few days, Lin Haoran, who had developed a keen interest in shooting, also threw himself into training.

With the most professional Royal Police instructors by his side providing meticulous guidance, they patiently explained and demonstrated everything from the structural principles of the firearm to the correct shooting posture.

However, it had to be admitted that Lin Haoran really didn’t seem to have much talent for shooting.

He hadn’t been shooting for long, and despite three days of diligent practice, his results were merely average.

When he shot, the bullets generally hit the target board, which seemed decent. But upon closer inspection, out of ten shots, there might not even be one or two that hit the 8-ring or higher.

For someone who aspired to achieve something in the field of shooting, such results might have been discouraging.

But Lin Haoran was not disheartened.

In his view, he had at least learned how to use a pistol now, and that was enough.

After all, he wasn’t a bodyguard, and he didn’t need to personally face dangerous situations in his daily life.

He was learning to shoot purely out of interest, just to have another hobby, and also so he could be of some use in an emergency.

Therefore, even if his results weren’t outstanding, it didn’t have much impact on his daily life.

Skills like shooting were only mastered through years of extensive training.

Take Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, for example. The reason they possessed such formidable shooting skills now was because they had undergone massive amounts of training during their time in the army.

Otherwise, no matter how talented they were, it would be impossible to achieve such an exaggerated level of marksmanship in just three days.

Lin Haoran naturally understood that everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses.

He wouldn’t negate his own worth just because of his poor performance in shooting.

On the contrary, he would approach this new hobby with a more peaceful mindset, enjoying the fun and challenges that came with the process.

Perhaps one day in the future, with continued occasional practice, his shooting level would improve.

But even if it didn’t, he wouldn’t feel any regret, because he had already gained a great deal of precious enjoyment from the process, and that was enough.

“Mr. Lin, our training ground is interested in hiring Mr. Li Weidong and Mr. Li Weiguo as honorary instructors for the range. They would occasionally provide guidance on marksmanship to our instructors. There are no requirements, I was wondering if this would be possible?”

The person in charge of the training ground was a British Westerner, and he too had been deeply impressed by the marksmanship of Li Weidong and Li Weiguo.

Especially Li Weidong’s skill. In the opinion of this director, he could go directly to the Olympics and win the shooting championship without any special preparation, because Li Weidong’s performance at the training ground was simply that amazing!

And this was his skill level after not having practiced for several years and just suddenly resuming training.

If people like them could occasionally teach the instructors at the training ground, it would undoubtedly improve the instructors’ marksmanship.

Lin Haoran did not reply immediately. Instead, he turned with a smile and asked Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, “They want to hire you as honorary instructors. There are no strict requirements, you just need to guide these instructors occasionally. Are you willing?”

“It’s all up to the Boss to decide,” the two said in unison.

For them, in Hong Kong, everything naturally depended on their boss’s decision.

“You’ll need to come here to train occasionally anyway to keep your skills sharp. In that case, whenever you come to train, just take some time to guide them. This can be considered repayment for them providing us with the training facility,” Lin Haoran said after a moment of thought.

Under normal circumstances, it was very safe, and there was basically no opportunity to fire a gun. It was even more impossible to fire one randomly outside, as it could easily injure or kill someone by mistake.

Therefore, when they wanted to practice shooting, the best place was obviously the training ground.

Although they were able to come here thanks to the consideration of Han Yili, the Police Commissioner, it was still a favor owed.

And if Li Weidong and Li Weiguo became their honorary instructors, it would effectively be the same as repaying that favor.

“Yes, Boss,” the two said without any objection.

Only then did Lin Haoran turn to the Westerner in charge and inform him of what he had just decided.

Learning that the two sharpshooters had agreed, the Westerner in charge was ecstatic.

“Mr. Lin, I’ll go draft the honorary instructor appointment certificates for them right away,” the Westerner said, then hurried away from the training ground.

About twenty minutes later, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo each received an appointment certificate.

From now on, the two were honorary instructors at the Sheung Wan Police Training Base.

“Mr. Lin, we will provide corresponding remuneration each time they come to instruct. We won’t let them provide guidance for free,” the Westerner in charge said with a smile after handing the certificates to Li Weidong and Li Weiguo.

Neither Li Weidong nor Li Weiguo understood English, and this Westerner couldn’t speak Cantonese, so he could only communicate with their boss, Lin Haoran.

“The payment is not necessary. We used your training base to practice, so this can be considered a form of repayment,” Lin Haoran said with a wave of his hand, declining on behalf of Li Weidong and Li Weiguo.

Hong Kong was currently promoting an anti-corruption and clean government campaign, and public spending had been significantly reduced. So even if the two were to receive a salary for each coaching session, it wouldn’t be much.

It was better not to take that little bit of money at all.

Lin Haoran was not short of money, and his two bodyguards were well-paid. They used the other party’s training ground to practice shooting, and they weren’t charged for it, so there was really no need to ask for this small amount of money.

He checked the time; it was already past five in the afternoon.

Thus, Lin Haoran bid farewell to the director and left the Sheung Wan training base in the Rolls-Royce.

“Boss, does this mean we’ve become Hong Kong civil servants?” Li Weidong asked from the front passenger seat, his face full of smiles, as happy as a child.

Although there was no salary, given their current circumstances, they couldn’t care less about the salary of a civil servant. What they valued was the status.

“Yes, of course. If you agreed, they would have no problem inviting you to become official police instructors,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Let’s forget about becoming official. We have to protect you, Boss,” Li Weidong said, shaking his head hastily.

“That’s right, Boss. You’re our benefactor. My brother and I have long decided to sell our lives to you!” said Li Weiguo, who was in the driver’s seat.

Ever since Lin Haoran had stated that he would find an opportunity to bring their relatives to Hong Kong within the year, the loyalty of the Li Weidong and Li Weiguo brothers had skyrocketed to 99.

Clearly, 100 loyalty was just around the corner.

Once Lin Haoran truly brought their relatives over, the two brothers’ loyalty would shoot straight to 100, and they would become Lin Haoran’s truly die-hard subordinates.

So far, only one of his subordinates had reached 100 loyalty: Su Zhixue, the general manager of Universal Investment Company.

This showed just how difficult it was to achieve 100 loyalty.

However, a loyalty of 99 was already quite rare.

The number of subordinates with loyalty over 90 was very small, which was enough to prove how high a loyalty of 99 was.

He could completely entrust his safety to these two bodyguards.

Before heading home, Lin Haoran had Li Weiguo drive to the Hongkong Electric Group.

With a talented professional manager like Chen Shoulin at Hongkong Electric Group, there would naturally be no issues.

Even now that he had to split his time to manage the Hong Kong and China Gas Company as well, it was no problem at all.

At least so far, Chen Shoulin was doing a fine job.

“Boss, Hongkong Electric’s power supply business has basically hit a bottleneck. So, I plan to enter overseas markets, such as Southeast Asia or even mainland China. What do you think?” In the office, Chen Shoulin proposed his idea.

“Good, I agree!” Lin Haoran agreed immediately, without a second thought.

Although the Hong Kong market’s electricity sales were constantly increasing due to the growing population, Lin Haoran knew that due to the limited land area of Hong Kong, the population growth would slow down in the future.

For example, Hong Kong’s population had already exceeded five million this year, but he also knew that even forty years later, the population would only be just over seven million.

An increase of only about two million people in forty years was not a fast growth rate at all.

As Hong Kong’s electricity business became increasingly saturated, it was clear that expanding abroad was the best way to break through the bottleneck.

Moreover, he knew that in the other world, after Li Jiacheng acquired Hongkong Electric Group, it had also expanded its electricity business overseas, entering the power supply markets of countries like Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Thailand.

Of course, Hongkong Electric certainly wouldn’t give up on the mainland Chinese market, it just wouldn’t have a very large share.

Chapter 208: An Unexpected Incident, Chen Shoulin’s Suggestion

Hearing his boss agree to his plan, Chen Shoulin breathed a sigh of relief.

Developing overseas markets would certainly require a significant initial investment. Because of this, Chen Shoulin had been worried that his boss would reject his idea.

But Lin Haoran was not short on cash right now, so he naturally didn’t care how small Hongkong Electric Group’s dividends were in the short term.

What he valued was the future of Hongkong Electric Group.

After all, holding 49.9% of the shares, Lin Haoran didn’t have to worry about a hostile takeover of Hongkong Electric Group without his consent.

Chen Shoulin took a proposal from his desk drawer and handed it to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran accepted it. It was Chen Shoulin’s plan for overseas market expansion.

“Thailand?” Lin Haoran was a little surprised to see the country named in the proposal.

He had originally thought Chen Shoulin would lead the advance into the Philippines or Malaysia, two eastern countries that were relatively close. He hadn’t expected him to choose Thailand as the starting point.

“Boss, I’ve already studied the power supply situation in Southeast Asia. Currently, Bangkok in Thailand is developing very rapidly, so electricity is in extremely short supply. The current power supply companies in Bangkok are far from sufficient to supply the entire city.

“At the end of last year, the Bangkok government had plans to invite foreign power companies to increase the electricity supply capacity for Bangkok and its surrounding cities. Therefore, I believe Hongkong Electric Group’s overseas market development can start from Bangkok!” Chen Shoulin explained from the side as Lin Haoran read the proposal.

“Good. Go ahead and do it boldly and with confidence!” After reading the proposal, Lin Haoran placed it back on the desk.

He was, of course, very clear about the development situation in Thailand.

In the 1980s and 1990s, all of Southeast Asia was developing rapidly, and Thailand was no exception. All sectors were growing swiftly, and electricity consumption would naturally surge.

If it hadn’t encountered the 1997 Asian financial crisis, getting fleeced by Western capital and suffering a major blow to its vitality, Thailand’s economy wouldn’t have stagnated in the twenty-first century.

Therefore, Thailand’s electricity consumption would only increase from now on. If Hongkong Electric Group entered the Thai market, it would indeed be able to generate more profit for the group.

The Hong Kong market was simply too small. Not only that, but Hongkong Electric Group didn’t even have a monopoly on Hong Kong’s power supply. On the Kowloon Peninsula, there was another power supplier—CLP Holdings, which further reduced Hongkong Electric Group’s share of the power supply.

As for the Mainland China power supply market, Lin Haoran had no intention of considering it.

Anyone knew that an industry like power supply in the Mainland would definitely be handled by state-owned enterprises. If Hongkong Electric Group entered, it could at best carve out a small piece of the energy market, which wasn’t very interesting.

“How are things on the Hong Kong and China Gas Company side?” Lin Haoran looked at Chen Shoulin and asked.

After the successful acquisition, Lin Haoran had rarely gone over to Quarry Bay.

To him, as long as the Hong Kong and China Gas Company developed according to its normal trend, it was enough.

“Everything is developing normally. There haven’t been any changes in the management, so there won’t be any major shifts. This is a report on some of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s recent major decisions. It’s all written here.” Chen Shoulin handed another report to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran nodded and began to read it.

Previously, he had mentioned to He Zhenxing that an Audit Supervisor and a Cashier at the Hong Kong and China Gas Company might be problematic.

Sure enough, on the third day, He Zhenxing called to report on the situation with the two individuals.

It turned out that after receiving his orders, He Zhenxing had acted swiftly, conducting a secret, comprehensive, and meticulous review of the Audit Supervisor’s and the Cashier’s work.

As the investigation deepened, the truth gradually came to light.

As expected, just as Lin Haoran had predicted, the two of them indeed had serious problems.

It turned out that the Audit Supervisor had used his position to collude with the Cashier. Taking advantage of the Cashier’s responsibility for handling fund settlements, the two had worked together in concert, engaging in large-scale embezzlement.

Over a period of two years, they had used various methods to embezzle a total of over five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars.

Their actions had seriously violated the company’s interests and disrupted its normal operational order.

Once this matter was exposed, it shocked everyone both inside and outside the company. It also made general manager He Zhenxing keenly aware of the urgent need to strengthen the company’s internal management and supervision mechanisms.

As the company’s general manager, He Zhenxing decided to take this opportunity to conduct a comprehensive review and optimization of the company’s various rules and regulations, and to strengthen employee training and management to ensure that such incidents would not be repeated.

At the same time, He Zhenxing showed no leniency toward the two embezzlers. He actively assisted the relevant authorities in imposing severe penalties on them, and the embezzled five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars had to be recovered.

Currently, the Audit Supervisor and the Cashier had been taken into custody and were awaiting further legal judgment!

Lin Haoran was not surprised when he learned what had happened.

In fact, he had already guessed their situation when he saw their Loyalty levels.

Now that the investigation results were out, it was merely what he had expected.

When word of this reached Li Mingze, even he was shocked.

He had been in charge of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company before, but he had never imagined that there were two colluding employees in such important positions within the company.

However, the affairs of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company had little to do with him now. Although he still held the title of Director, his stake of nearly 2.9% did not give him much interest in getting involved in its affairs. Even if he wanted to, he no longer had the authority.

These days, he was focusing most of his time on the family business, Hysan Development Company Limited.

Just as he was discussing work matters with Chen Shoulin, the landline phone on the desk suddenly rang.

“Boss, let me get the phone first,” Chen Shoulin said, looking at Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran nodded, signaling him to take the call.

A moment later, however, Chen Shoulin handed the receiver to Lin Haoran. “Boss, the call is for you.”

“For me?” Lin Haoran was a little stunned, but he took the receiver directly.

“Boss, it’s Burton. I guessed you might be at Hongkong Electric Group around this time, and I was right,” came the voice of Burton, the general manager of Green Island Cement Company.

“Is there something you need?” Lin Haoran asked.

“A rather serious incident has indeed occurred. This afternoon, at the cement factory of Green Island Cement Company’s Manila branch, a very vicious incident took place. A group of local triad members armed with guns rushed into the factory area, injuring several employees and causing the death of one local Manila employee,” Burton reported quickly.

“Why would something like this happen?” Lin Haoran frowned, somewhat surprised.

This was clearly a malicious incident.

“They made threats, warning us to withdraw from the Visayas market, or they won’t make it easy for us in the future. After our people called the police, they left before the police arrived. But I’ve already figured out the reason.

“The Visayas market is one of the three major population markets in the Philippines, located between Luzon Island and Mindanao Island, with a population of over ten million. In the past year, we have become the third-largest cement supplier on Luzon Island, and the Visayas market was our next target for expansion.

“Currently, the cement market share in the Visayas is monopolized by a cement supplier called Aemex Company. It’s obvious that this group of triad members was sent by this cement company to prevent us from entering the Visayas market.

“This time, it was probably just a warning. The local employee who died had thought he could stand up for the factory since he was a local, but he ended up being made an example of and was beaten to death,” Burton reported in detail, combining what he had learned.

“What was the local police department’s response? As a foreign enterprise, if our business environment can’t be effectively secured, don’t they have anything to say?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

The period from the 1950s to the 1980s could be considered the most glorious thirty years for the Philippine economy.

During this time, the Philippine economy developed rapidly, becoming one of the world’s newly industrialized countries and emerging markets. Its economy was relatively open, and foreign investment poured in, with many companies from developed countries investing and setting up numerous factories here.

“The police department responded. They can guarantee that as long as we call them, they will arrive in time, but that’s not very effective. A police officer privately told our manager there that this triad is very powerful, and even the police don’t dare to provoke them,” Burton replied with a wry smile.

“Alright, I understand. I’ll head over to Green Island Cement Company tomorrow. For now, let’s hold off on entering the Visayas market. A strong dragon cannot crush a local snake. Entering this market like this will only lead to greater losses for us. I’ll figure out a solution later. Also, compensate the dead and injured employees according to local standards!” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Okay, Boss, I know what to do. Then let’s leave it at that, Boss. I still need to communicate with the manager of the Manila branch to discuss the aftermath,” Burton said.

“Alright, go on and get busy!” Lin Haoran said and then hung up the phone.

Sitting in his chair, Lin Haoran’s brow was tightly furrowed as he pondered the matter concerning Green Island Cement Company.

Today, Green Island Cement Company’s monthly profit was close to twenty million Hong Kong dollars, with an annual profit of over two hundred million Hong Kong dollars. It was no longer the ordinary listed company of the past with a monthly profit of only a few million Hong Kong dollars.

Therefore, Burton was currently full of enthusiasm for further expanding the market in Southeast Asia.

The Philippine market was the first overseas market they had entered, but their business in the Philippines had always been mainly confined to Luzon Island.

However, just as they were getting their first taste of entering the Visayas market, they encountered such an accident.

Although Lin Haoran usually adopted a hands-off management style for his various companies, rarely interfering too much in their specific affairs and giving professional managers full autonomy, the problem faced by Green Island Cement Company’s Manila branch was clearly beyond Burton’s ability to handle. After all, this was in a country they were not familiar with, beyond their sphere of influence.

Therefore, Lin Haoran would certainly have to personally intervene and discuss countermeasures with Burton to find a solution.

“Boss, has Green Island Cement Company run into trouble in the Philippines?” Chen Shoulin had guessed some of what was happening from Lin Haoran’s words just now, so he asked.

Lin Haoran didn’t hide anything and told Chen Shoulin exactly what had happened over there.

“Boss, I have a suggestion,” Chen Shoulin said slowly.

“Oh? Let’s hear it,” Lin Haoran said, looking at Chen Shoulin with curiosity.

“Boss, your status in the Hong Kong business world is now extraordinary. Under normal circumstances, no one would dare to provoke you lightly. Even the top triad societies like the 13K, Sun Yee On, and Wo Shing Wo would definitely keep their distance from you, because they wouldn’t have the guts.

“But in Southeast Asia, the situation is completely different. Although your status in Hong Kong is high, when you get to Southeast Asia, people there won’t care about your identity. This is the reality. After all, your main business power is not there, and your network of connections is relatively weak.

“Therefore, they dared to directly use a local triad organization to deal with Green Island Cement Company. They are the local snakes in Southeast Asia, while we are just outsiders. They won’t take us seriously at all.

“Moreover, what happened in the Philippines today could happen tomorrow in Thailand, Malaysia, or other places. When that time comes, Boss, you might still find yourself feeling helpless.

“So, my suggestion is that you could consider developing your own force, such as establishing a security company. With your current strength and development momentum, it’s not impossible for your future industries to spread across the globe.

“Without a certain level of armed deterrence, even the greatest wealth is just a fat piece of meat in the eyes of others, and everyone will want a piece!”

Chen Shoulin laid out his thoughts in detail.

Chapter 209: When Fellow Countrymen Meet, They Shoot You in the Back

Chen Shoulin’s words sent Lin Haoran into deep thought.

It was true. Here in Hong Kong, almost no one would dare to provoke him, let alone touch his businesses.

Furthermore, with the protection of the two brothers, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, his personal safety was more or less guaranteed.

However, the situation with his overseas industries was entirely different.

Out there, people wouldn’t care if he was some Hong Kong business tycoon. He had no deep roots in the countries of Southeast Asia, and his investments there were still small, so naturally, he couldn’t command enough respect at present.

A strong dragon cannot crush a local snake. Even if he increased his investments in the future and earned the government’s full attention, it still wouldn’t be a one-hundred-percent guarantee for the security of his assets in those countries.

In light of this, it truly seemed imperative to have his own armed force.

This was not just to protect himself and his family, but also to safeguard his businesses.

As a legitimate businessman, he obviously couldn’t start a triad society. Once you were associated with a triad, you would be labeled for life.

But developing his own armed force under the guise of a security company was a choice that was both legal and viable.

In his past life, Lin Haoran had watched videos on social media and learned about the world’s top security companies.

These firms included G4S, Securitas, Allied Universal, ADT Security, Brink’s, Secom, North American Security, Securiguard, and Best Security.

With their outstanding security services, high level of professionalism, and advanced technological capabilities, they enjoyed a prestigious reputation in the security field, fully capable of meeting the various security needs of corporations and individuals.

Lin Haoran’s ambitions weren’t that lofty. He just needed this armed force to be able to protect his businesses, and that would be enough.

Of course, if it could develop even further on that foundation and eventually stand alongside the world’s top security firms, that would be for the best.

After bidding farewell to Chen Shoulin, Lin Haoran continued to ponder this issue.

If developed well, the security industry could not only protect his own assets but also expand its business and generate more income for him.

Currently, Hong Kong had no particularly formidable local security brands. Instead, it was mostly triad societies collecting protection money. Many factories and entertainment venues essentially paid a fee for their safety, thereby avoiding harassment from these triads.

Of course, these triads only dared to prey on small and medium-sized factories and small workshops that lacked scale and power.

Take Amigo Company, for instance. Ever since Lin Haoran invested, became its boss, and moved it to Kwun Tong, no triad had dared to bother the company’s factory grounds.

As for tycoons like Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng, their bodyguards were actually hired from internationally renowned bodyguard agencies.

After all, they couldn’t be sure of loyalty. If they hired their own bodyguards and were betrayed, the consequences would be dire.

But hiring from long-established, internationally acclaimed bodyguard agencies eliminated that worry. The fact that these companies had built such sterling reputations over many years was for a reason. Employers could hire them with complete peace of mind.

If an incident of a bodyguard killing their client were to occur, the impact on these companies would be enormous. They would, of course, never allow such a thing to happen.

“Weiguo, are there many people in Mainland China with skills as exceptional as yours?” On the way back, Lin Haoran asked Li Weiguo, who was driving.

“Boss, while not extremely common, they’re definitely not rare. Mainland China has a massive population and a mandatory military service system. The number of conscripts each year is in the hundreds of thousands.

“Even if only a few become experts, the cumulative number of veterans discharged each year is quite substantial.

“Not to mention, even if you pick one exceptionally skilled fighter out of a hundred people, that’s still a considerable number. Plus, with so many who participated in the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam last year, they are all warriors who have been tested by life and death. It’s no wonder that powerful individuals have emerged from their ranks.”

Li Weiguo answered in detail while focusing on his driving.

At present, it was still before the period of major military downsizing that would happen in a few years, so the number of young people who had served was vast.

Among so many veterans, there were naturally many skilled fighters.

Li Weidong and Li Weiguo had been training in martial arts since childhood, so they quickly became elite figures after enlisting. Even after being discharged, they had never let their skills deteriorate.

Even if many veterans from the Mainland didn’t possess the same level of strength as the Li brothers, they were still no worse than the elite members of these triads.

If he could attract some of them to join, this security company could grow rapidly.

Hearing Li Weiguo’s words, Lin Haoran began to form a plan.

In Hong Kong, the skilled fighters were mostly triad elites. They fought daily over turf, and their strength was indeed not to be underestimated.

The six triad members he had encountered in Mong Kok that night were just the lowest-level grunts. Their skills were mediocre at best, and Li Weidong had been able to take them down quickly on his own.

But if they had run into the elites of the 13K that night, especially those who had served a few years in the military and then illegally immigrated to Hong Kong to join the triads, many of them would have been quite skilled.

Even if Li Weidong and the others encountered them, although they would certainly win, it would require much more effort.

Over the past year, Lin Haoran had long sensed that Li Weidong and Li Weiguo were extremely formidable fighters.

If they chose to become martial arts actors, they might have become famous all over Hong Kong.

Many of these triad members had themselves illegally immigrated from the north. Among them, many, like Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, were veterans. Some had even fought in real wars and might have been even stronger.

However, after illegally immigrating, most of them lacked any specific skills and could only rely on brute force to make a living, eventually choosing to join a triad society.

If he intended to establish a powerful security company, these people were clearly not the ideal candidates.

The best method was still to recruit talent from the north.

These were all things worth considering.

After returning home, Lin Haoran went to bed early.

The next morning, he left home early again and headed to the Green Island Cement Company.

Green Island Cement’s production base in Hung Hom had already ceased all operations.

Currently, production activities in Hong Kong were mainly supported by the two major plants in Yuen Long and Sai Kung, whose capacity was sufficient to meet the demand in both Hong Kong and Macau.

As for the Hung Hom production plant, its equipment had long been moved to Sai Kung, and the site was ready for demolition at any time.

The Green Island Cement headquarters in Hung Hom currently only retained a few departments, with some having also been relocated to Yuen Long and Sai Kung.

The company originally had two Deputy General Managers, and now each was responsible for one of the plants.

As for Burton, he remained at the Green Island Cement Building to oversee the overall situation.

After all, today’s Green Island Cement Company was no longer what it used to be.

The cement business in Hong Kong was now just one part of the company’s operations. Not only had its overseas markets been developed extremely well, but it had also begun to diversify.

For example, Green Island Cement Company had recently acquired a mining company in Australia, and in Hong Kong, it had acquired a large brick factory, a large lime factory, a hot-mix asphalt plant, and so on.

These factories or mining companies essentially produced raw materials essential to the infrastructure industry.

It was clear that Burton intended to build Green Island Cement Company into a comprehensive infrastructure enterprise.

All of this, naturally, had Lin Haoran’s approval.

With Hong Kong’s real estate market booming over the past two years, the infrastructure material factories acquired by Green Island Cement Company were bound to elevate the company’s strength to a new level in the future.

Over the past year, under Burton’s aggressive expansion of the cement business, Green Island Cement’s revenue and profits had already increased substantially. Its earning power was now several times what it had been when he first took over.

For such a talented manager, he would naturally support any reasonable suggestions.

Green Island Cement Building, general manager’s office.

“Boss, I have properly handled the disgusting incident that occurred at the Philippines branch company. This is the detailed report. Please have a look,” Burton said as he handed a report to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, then sat down and began to review it carefully.

The contents of the report were largely consistent with what Burton had told him over the phone, but it was far more detailed, with every step of the aftermath clearly recorded.

According to the report, a total of thirteen employees suffered minor injuries in the incident, all of them superficial. The company planned to give them a small additional compensation as a gesture of care.

As for the employee who unfortunately died, the company had already compensated his family according to local standards. As a result, the family did not react aggressively, and the matter was settled.

The incident cost Green Island Cement Company a total of over five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, mainly for employee compensation.

After all, the employees were part of the company, and the company naturally couldn’t shirk its responsibility and let them seek resolution through illegal means.

Additionally, there was an almost negligible expense, which was the initial investment for entering the Visayas market.

For the time being, it would be very difficult for Green Island Cement Company to re-enter the Visayas market, unless they could solve the problem of the local thugs and protect the safety of the company and its employees.

Otherwise, forcing their way into the Visayas market would likely result in more losses than profits.

This showed that expanding into overseas markets was not so simple after all.

“What do you know about the triad that targeted our company?” Lin Haoran asked.

“The head of the branch company has already reported to me. This gang is the second-largest local Chinese triad society, called the Brotherhood, with over a thousand members. Three-quarters of them are Chinese, and the rest are local natives,” Burton replied.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but show a flicker of surprise.

He had originally assumed that this triad would be composed of locals.

He never expected that so many of its members were his own countrymen…

This reminded him of a saying he had seen online in his previous life, which now felt exceptionally fitting.

There was indeed such a saying circulating among the overseas Chinese: “When fellow countrymen meet, they shoot you in the back.”

Many Chinese who went abroad to work would also repeatedly warn their friends and family: overseas, never easily trust your compatriots, because sometimes, the ones most likely to stab you in the back are them.

Lin Haoran put down the report and sat in his chair, lost in thought.

Having suffered this loss, he was certainly not going to let it go.

Although Lin Haoran never liked to stir up trouble, since the other party had come knocking on his door, he had to respond.

The most direct way, of course, was to fight fire with fire!

However, seeking revenge in a short amount of time would be no easy feat.

After all, he currently had no armed forces at his disposal.

He couldn’t possibly rely on his two bodyguards, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, to take on a thousand men by themselves, could he?

Although the two were highly skilled, such an act would be tantamount to suicide.

“Did we encounter similar problems when we entered the market on Luzon Island?” Lin Haoran turned to Burton and asked.

“Boss, we actually didn’t encounter such trouble on Luzon Island. The business environment there is relatively good, attracting a lot of foreign investment. Competition is fierce in all sectors, and the government encourages legitimate market competition.

“So, in the cement industry, the addition of one more competitor didn’t cause much of a stir. Plus, I have connections within the government there, so our development has been very smooth.

“However, when it comes to the Visayas market, the situation is completely different. Because it’s far from the political center of Manila, many industries are monopolized by local enterprises. It’s very difficult for outsiders to enter, and my connections don’t extend that far.

“When I was planning to enter the Visayas market, I did have this concern. I was just hoping for the best, thinking that those monopolistic enterprises wouldn’t openly come to our doorstep with threats. Now it seems I was too optimistic. I didn’t expect them to bribe a triad from Manila to cause trouble and threaten us.” Burton shook his head and sighed.

Chapter 210: Two Tycoons Pay a Visit

For now, the events in the Philippines could only be put on the back burner.

After all, organizing an armed force wasn’t something that could be accomplished in a short amount of time.

He currently had no foundation in the Philippines, only a few small businesses. How could he possibly contend with the local powers?

Moreover, the market in the Visayas, and even further south in Mindanao Island, wasn’t particularly large. It wasn’t an absolute must-enter market.

The most prosperous market there was concentrated on Luzon Island, the largest island in the Philippines. As long as Green Island Cement Company could secure a sufficient market share on Luzon Island, its expansion in the Philippines would still be considered a great success.

The entire Southeast Asian market was vast, and Green Island Cement Company still had significant room for growth. For instance, the company had already entered the markets in Malaysia and Singapore.

Therefore, for the time being, the only option was to enter other markets first. In the future, if he had the strength to violently resolve the problems encountered entering the Visayas market, then he would naturally go in.

Moreover, Lin Haoran had gained a wealth of experience from this incident.

On one hand, he decided to have Burton and the heads of his other holding companies continue to strengthen their risk assessments for overseas operations.

In the process of expanding into foreign markets, they couldn’t just focus on commercial interests; they also had to fully consider the local social environment and security risks.

For regions with poor public safety and rampant criminal forces, they had to make thorough preparations in advance, including establishing good relationships with the local government and police to seek legal protection.

On the other hand, he decided to accelerate the formation of the Security Company.

He would find a time to send someone to Mainland China, or perhaps even go himself, to communicate with the relevant departments and discuss the possibility of recruiting retired military personnel.

At the same time, he needed to start drafting a development plan for the Security Company, clarifying its scope of business, service standards, and management model.

He hoped to build a professional, efficient, and reliable security team to provide comprehensive protection for his businesses.

Furthermore, Lin Haoran also considered cooperating with other enterprises that had overseas operations to jointly address security risks.

Countless Hong Kong businessmen had invested in the Philippines. People like Pao Yue-kong, Li Jiacheng, and Li Mingze all had their own businesses there.

By uniting, these companies could share resources and support each other, which would be more than enough to enhance their ability to deal with criminal forces.

After a long talk with Burton, Lin Haoran went to the Finance Department to chat with Fok Kin-ning before leaving the Green Island Cement Company.

Fok Kin-ning had essentially finished training his successor for the chief financial officer position. In a short while, once it was confirmed that this successor could independently manage the Finance Department of Green Island Cement Company, he would be able to move directly to Hongkong Electric Group, a much larger platform for his development.

Although Green Island Cement Company had developed rapidly over the past year, the gap between it and Hongkong Electric Group was still immense.

It was not a gap that could be closed in a short period.

What’s more, while Green Island Cement was developing rapidly, Hongkong Electric Group was also advancing at an equally fast pace, if not faster. Its diversified development was making it look more and more like a comprehensive, publicly listed giant in Hong Kong.

“Boss, are we heading to Amigo Company or Hongkong Electric Group next?” Li Weiguo asked, turning his head from the driver’s seat.

Usually, when Lin Haoran came to Green Island Cement Company, he would also drop by Amigo Company, as the two weren’t far apart.

That was why Li Weiguo had asked.

“Let’s go to Joyful Abundance Restaurant for a meal first, then head to Hongkong Electric Group,” Lin Haoran said after checking the time. It was already past twelve o’clock, a perfect time for lunch.

He had left home at nine, and three hours had passed in the blink of an eye.

As for Amigo Company, there was nothing major going on recently, so he couldn’t be bothered to go.

With Liu Luanxiong there, he didn’t need to worry about Amigo Company at all.

If something truly came up that Liu Luanxiong couldn’t handle, he would call Lin Haoran. Since investing in Amigo, Liu Luanxiong had called him quite a few times.

After all, for Liu Luanxiong, many issues that were difficult for him to resolve were easily handled by Lin Haoran. When faced with a tough problem, calling Lin Haoran was naturally the best option.

After lunch, Lin Haoran had Li Weiguo drive to the Hongkong Electric Group.

He spent another afternoon at the Hongkong Electric Group before leaving again.

This time, his destination wasn’t his villa on Severn Road, but his parents’ home at the Deep Water Bay villa.

In the afternoon, his father had called to tell him that Guo Henian would be visiting in the evening and would be joining them for dinner, insisting that Lin Haoran must come back.

It was obvious that Guo Henian’s visit to the Lin family was for Lin Haoran.

As for Lin Wan’an, he was not yet important enough for Guo Henian to pay a personal visit.

This was something he couldn’t refuse.

Guo Henian could be considered his senior in the business world.

Besides, he happened to need to strengthen his cooperative relationships with these business tycoons from Southeast Asia. It would certainly be helpful in preventing a repeat of the ugly incident that had happened to the Green Island Cement branch company in the Philippines.

Lin Haoran had actually just been back to the Deep Water Bay villa two days prior for the Lantern Festival. On a holiday like that, he naturally had to go home to be with his parents.

So this time, although his mother was happy to see him, there wasn’t the same joy of a long-awaited reunion.

“Dad, what does Old Mr. Guo want to see me about?” Lin Haoran asked his father curiously in the study on the first floor of the Lin family villa.

“Chairman Guo didn’t specify the reason over the phone. I suspect he wishes to strengthen his cooperation with you. After all, you are not the same man you once were,” Lin Wan’an said after some thought.

Lin Haoran nodded and proceeded to chat with his father, Lin Wan’an, about recent events.

However, not wanting to worry his father, Lin Haoran didn’t tell him what had happened to Green Island Cement Company in the Philippines.

When it came to his parents, he should only report the good news and keep the bad to himself.

At six in the evening, Guo Henian arrived punctually at the Lin family villa.

Following close behind him was still his niece, Guo Xiaohan.

To his surprise, Guo Xiaohan seemed to have been meticulously dressed up today, appearing even more beautiful and charming.

After his father shook hands and greeted Guo Henian, Lin Haoran immediately followed suit.

“Uncle Guo, Miss Guo, good evening!” Lin Haoran said with a broad smile as he shook their hands.

“Nephew Lin, you have truly opened my eyes. I remember when we met last year, you had just acquired Green Island Cement Company. I never expected that in such a short time, you would also bring major public companies like Hongkong Electric Group and Hong Kong and China Gas Company under your banner. Even I feel inadequate in the face of such accomplishments,” Guo Henian said with deep emotion.

Guo Henian was in charge of a massive family enterprise, with assets worth billions of Hong Kong dollars.

However, even he found it hard to imagine succeeding in acquiring public companies like Hongkong Electric Group and Hong Kong and China Gas Company from business tycoons in Hong Kong like Jardine Matheson & Co., as Lin Haoran had done.

“I was just a bit luckier, that’s all. Uncle Guo, Miss Guo, please, come in and have a seat. Dinner is ready,” Lin Haoran replied humbly.

Guo Xiaohan’s gaze never left Lin Haoran, a hint of admiration shining in her eyes.

The first time Guo Xiaohan met Lin Haoran, she had formed a very favorable impression of him.

Lin Haoran’s subsequent business maneuvers, each one shocking the Chinese business circle, had unknowingly sparked a feeling of admiration in her.

When she learned that her uncle was visiting the Lin family tonight, she had made a special effort to go home and dress up carefully.

It was all in the hope of leaving a deep impression on Lin Haoran.

Just then, a knock came from the door.

“Dad, why don’t you show Uncle Guo and Miss Guo inside first? I’ll go see who it is,” Lin Haoran suggested.

Lin Wan’an nodded in agreement and led the two into the main hall.

At the same time, a maid had already gone to open the door.

“Huh? Isn’t this Uncle Pao?” Seeing Pao Yue-kong standing outside, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but show a trace of surprise.

“Haoran, my boy. I hope my unannounced visit isn’t causing you any trouble,” Pao Yue-kong asked with a smile.

“Not at all, not at all. We couldn’t be happier that you could come, Uncle Pao. We’re just about to have dinner. If you don’t mind, please join us. Chairman Guo of Kerry Group is here as well,” Lin Haoran said, making an inviting gesture.

He had visited Pao Yue-kong during the Spring Festival, but the two hadn’t been in contact since.

His father hadn’t mentioned that Pao Yue-kong was coming, so it was clear that Pao Yue-kong was an unexpected guest who had come on a whim.

Although he was unsure of the purpose of Pao Yue-kong’s visit, Lin Haoran maintained his hospitality. Besides, this senior figure in the business world had always treated him quite well.

“Then I won’t be polite. Thank you for having me!” Pao Yue-kong accepted readily.

The two walked into the front courtyard of the villa one after the other, heading straight for the main hall.

“Mr. Pao, please, take a seat.” Lin Wan’an recognized the visitor as Pao Yue-kong at a glance, and he quickly rose from his chair to warmly invite him to sit.

He truly had not expected Pao Yue-kong himself to come calling.

Although their homes were adjacent, Pao Yue-kong had never once set foot in the Lin family’s home.

After all, there was a significant disparity even among wealthy and powerful families.

Over the past year, Lin Haoran’s status in the business world had grown increasingly prominent, but he was rarely at home, so Pao Yue-kong naturally never had the opportunity to visit.

“Chairman Guo, I didn’t expect to see you here!” Pao Yue-kong exchanged a few words with Lin Wan’an before turning to Guo Henian, smiling and nodding in greeting.

“Mr. Pao, it’s been a long time. I’ve been looking for a suitable opportunity to pay you a visit. I never thought I’d have the good fortune of running into you at the Lin family home today. It’s a true honor,” Guo Henian also responded warmly to Pao Yue-kong’s greeting.

Although Guo Henian was from Southeast Asia, he had entered the Hong Kong market several years ago and was now a long-term resident.

In recent years, Chinese businessmen from Southeast Asia had been entering the Hong Kong market in droves, bringing greater competition. As a result, the local Hong Kong tycoons weren’t very keen on interacting with these Southeast Asian magnates, and some even ostracized them.

However, Guo Henian was like a fish in water in Hong Kong. He not only established cooperative relationships with many local businessmen but also quickly integrated into the circle of Hong Kong’s elite.

Furthermore, Guo Henian already held a prominent position in the business world, hailed as the richest man in Southeast Asia, with vast financial resources. Thus, many Hong Kong businessmen were happy to collaborate with him.

“Our Lin family is truly honored today, to have two tycoons gracing us with their presence!” Lin Wan’an said, his face wreathed in smiles.

Pao Yue-kong was widely known as the richest Chinese person in Hong Kong, while Guo Henian was recognized as the richest man in Malaysia.

Lin Wan’an would never have dared to imagine such a situation before.

Although the Lin family was once considered wealthy, they were merely at the entry-level. Compared to titans like Pao Yue-kong and Guo Henian, the gap was simply too vast.

The dinner passed in a flurry of greetings and conversation.

In truth, Lin Haoran wasn’t fond of this kind of social banquet. That was why, despite being the helmsman of several companies, he rarely participated in such events.

But tonight was unavoidable. The social obligations had followed him right to his doorstep; how could he possibly escape?

After dinner, Lin Wan’an, Lin Haoran, Pao Yue-kong, Guo Henian, and Guo Xiaohan all moved into the reception room on the first floor.

Chapter 211: The Goal of Southeast Asia’s Richest Man

“Did Mr. Pao visit the Lin family to discuss important matters with Nephew Lin?” Guo Henian asked curiously after sitting down.

Guo Henian, of course, had a purpose for his visit, but he never expected to run into Pao Yue-kong here.

Some topics were clearly not suitable for a deep discussion with Lin Haoran in front of Pao Yue-kong. After all, this was about a partnership between him and Lin Haoran, not with Pao Yue-kong.

Pao Yue-kong naturally understood the unspoken meaning behind Guo Henian’s words; it concerned business secrets between the two parties.

So, he responded with a smile, “Actually, it’s nothing particularly urgent. My servant saw Haoran’s car when passing by the Lin residence, and since I haven’t caught up with Haoran in a long time, I decided to drop by for a visit. I should be heading home after a short chat. Speaking of which, this is actually my first time setting foot in the Lin family’s mansion.”

“Uncle Pao, our homes are right next to each other. You can visit anytime. The doors of the Lin family are always open for you,” Lin Haoran said with a hearty laugh.

“I’m well aware of that, but it’s been hard to catch you back here this past month!” Pao Yue-kong teased.

“Well, I have a few more companies on my hands now. To make it more convenient to handle matters in the Central district, I moved there. But I still come back here from time to time,” Lin Haoran explained.

“I imagine Chairman Guo and Haoran have important business to discuss? I’m afraid I’ll be in your way if I stay, so I shouldn’t linger.

But before I go, there’s something I wanted to mention to Haoran. Guangdong Province will be sending out invitations for an inspection tour to well-known Hong Kong businessmen like us soon. I’ve already heard whispers about it.

Haoran, when the arrangements are made, would you be interested in going together? If you are, we can travel as a group,” Pao Yue-kong asked with a smile.

“An inspection tour of Guangdong Province? Of course, I’m interested!” Lin Haoran’s interest was immediately piqued.

He had been looking for an opportunity to go to Mainland China to handle some business, and he didn’t expect one to present itself just like that.

Moreover, an official reception was completely different from him going on his own.

With an official reception, his business would undoubtedly proceed much more smoothly.

“Mr. Pao, you’re certainly well-informed. I’ve also been interested in surveying the Mainland Chinese market. I hear they’re planning economic reforms over there, which is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If you don’t mind, I’d like to join you all as well. What do you think?” Even Guo Henian, who was sitting aside, was full of interest.

Guangdong Province today was like a blank blueprint, full of infinite possibilities for the future.

Everyone present was a business elite who naturally understood how to seize opportunities and establish a foothold in Mainland China ahead of time.

“Of course. If all goes as expected, a group of top Chinese business magnates will be invited. Myself, Haoran, Mr. Guo Henian, as well as Mr. Li Jiacheng, Mr. Cheng Yu-tung, Mr. Li Zhaoji, Mr. Kwok Tak-seng, Mr. Fok, and others will surely all receive invitations to go in separate groups.

The information I have is that there will be an in-depth inspection of Shenzhen and Guangzhou. The invitations should be delivered to everyone within the week,” Pao Yue-kong said with a smile.

Pao Yue-kong had always maintained close ties with Mainland China, even frequently returning to his ancestral home in Zhejiang to visit. With his status as the World Shipping Magnate, he was naturally held in high regard by the mainland authorities, so his relationship with them was excellent.

Therefore, it was perfectly logical for him to receive such news in advance.

An invitation for an inspection tour was, simply put, a way to attract these Hong Kong tycoons to invest in Guangdong Province.

It was 1980 now, which was indeed a very opportune time.

“Excellent. I’ll be waiting for you to give me a call then, Mr. Pao. To be honest, I’ve long been eager to experience the culture and customs of Mainland China,” Guo Henian said with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, Chairman Guo, and Haoran, I’ll take my leave now. If any of you are free, you’re welcome to come by my home for a visit!” Pao Yue-kong bid them farewell one by one.

Coming to the Lin residence had just been a spur-of-the-moment decision by Pao Yue-kong; he hadn’t come for anything important.

Since Chairman Guo and Lin Haoran now had important matters to discuss, Pao Yue-kong was not so tactless as to stick around and pry into their business secrets.

“Uncle Pao, I’ll see you out,” Lin Haoran said, standing up to see him off.

At the doorway, Pao Yue-kong stopped and said, “Haoran, you can go back inside. It’s a short walk for me, only two or three minutes.”

But Lin Haoran was still worried and instructed Li Weiguo to escort him back to the Bao family’s villa.

Pao Yue-kong had come alone, and it was now nighttime. Although the Deep Water Bay villa district had always been safe, it was better to be safe than sorry.

After all, Pao Yue-kong was leaving from the Lin residence. If anything happened to him on the way, the Lin family could not escape responsibility.

After watching Pao Yue-kong’s figure recede into the distance, Lin Haoran finally turned and went back inside.

In the study, Guo Henian was chatting with Lin Wan’an. When they saw Lin Haoran return, their gazes immediately fell upon him.

Lin Haoran sat down on the sofa opposite Guo Henian and asked curiously, “Uncle Guo, I was wondering what brings you here?”

As the saying goes, one doesn’t visit without a purpose. Guo Henian definitely had something to discuss with him; otherwise, he wouldn’t have come in person.

“Chairman Guo, I’ll leave you to it. Please, continue your chat,” Lin Wan’an said at this moment, standing up and voluntarily leaving the study.

For Lin Wan’an, although he didn’t need to avoid matters concerning his own son, he preferred not to get too involved in sensitive business topics, considering his two sons had now separated their businesses and were operating independently.

Suddenly, only Lin Haoran, Guo Henian, and Guo Xiaohan were left in the study.

“Nephew Lin, I wonder if you’re interested in a plot of government land in Sheung Wan that’s about to be auctioned? The government will be auctioning it soon, with a starting bid set at two hundred seventy million Hong Kong dollars.

Given the current real estate market in Hong Kong, I estimate the final sale price will reach at least four hundred million Hong Kong dollars. Therefore, I hope to find a partner to jointly bid for and develop this plot of land. Here is the official information on it.”

Guo Henian stated the purpose of his visit and handed the government auction documents to Lin Haoran.

Guo Henian was incredibly wealthy and could mobilize most of his family’s capital. Logically, he was fully capable of undertaking various projects in Hong Kong on his own.

However, since entering the Hong Kong market in the early 1970s, although Guo Henian had invested in multiple projects, almost all of them were partnerships; he rarely invested alone.

There was, of course, a deeper meaning to this approach.

As a businessman from Southeast Asia, Guo Henian was well aware of the difficulties foreign businessmen faced when trying to integrate into the Hong Kong business world.

To gain a firm foothold in Hong Kong’s business community, one had to establish good relationships with local businessmen.

Only then could he ensure his family’s investments in Hong Kong would proceed smoothly.

And partnering with local Hong Kong enterprises was the best way to achieve this goal.

Collaborating not only reduced risks but also strengthened friendships between them—killing two birds with one stone.

Lin Haoran’s rapid rise in recent years had already secured him an important place in Guo Henian’s mind.

Although he had worked with Lin Haoran before, the Shangri-La Hotel tower project was relatively small, with Wan’an Group acting mainly as the contractor. After the project’s completion, their relationship had become more distant.

Therefore, Guo Henian had the idea of further deepening his cooperation with Lin Haoran.

Just then, the government announced an upcoming auction of government land. Guo Henian had his eye on a plot in Sheung Wan and immediately came up with a plan to bid for it jointly with Lin Haoran.

“A plot of land in Sheung Wan?” Lin Haoran took the documents from Guo Henian with a hint of curiosity.

The plot was adjacent to Hong Kong University, to its northeast. While not directly on the coast, it was only a few hundred meters from the sea.

The total area of the plot reached 455,400 square feet, equivalent to about 42,300 square meters, which was not a small area.

Considering its location in Sheung Wan, where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold, its value was self-evident.

Lin Haoran also noticed that the plot was only a hundred meters away from the Sheung Wan exit of the soon-to-be-completed Western Harbour Crossing.

Further east was the famous Hollywood Road.

This was indeed an exceptionally prime piece of land.

Lin Haoran put down the documents. Instead of immediately responding to the offer of cooperation, he asked, “Uncle Guo, do you have any specific plans for this plot of land in the future?”

Sheung Wan’s location was no less prosperous than areas like Wan Chai, and it was also adjacent to Central.

In some respects, the value of the easternmost part of Sheung Wan was almost on par with Central.

Unlike places like Mong Kok and Yau Ma Tei, which were filled with a bustling, grassroots atmosphere, Sheung Wan exuded a more elegant and unique ambiance, just like its nickname, “In the Mood for Love.”

Its commercial atmosphere was just as strong as Central’s, yet it possessed its own distinct character.

“Nephew Lin, if our bid is successful, I plan to build a large-scale, comprehensive high-rise commercial plaza on this plot. It will consist of several high-rise buildings, with the lower floors for commercial businesses and the upper floors planned for rental purposes, such as hotels and office buildings, similar to the Harbour City model.

Although it can’t compare to Harbour City in terms of area, a project of this scale is prominent enough for a location like Sheung Wan. Once completed, it will become the largest shopping center in Sheung Wan by area,” Guo Henian explained his vision in detail.

Hearing Guo Henian’s plan, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel tempted.

If Guo Henian had proposed developing it into a residential complex, Lin Haoran might not have been very interested.

But faced with this type of rental property project that perfectly combined a shopping mall with office buildings, Lin Haoran’s interest was instantly sparked.

“I wonder how Uncle Guo proposes we cooperate?” Lin Haoran pressed on.

“I estimate the auction price for this plot will be around four hundred million Hong Kong dollars, and the subsequent development will require another six hundred million or even more.

Therefore, the entire project will require an investment of at least one billion Hong Kong dollars. This is no small sum; the amount of capital involved is enormous.

If Nephew Lin is interested, it depends on how much capital you can spare. I can offer you up to forty-nine percent of the shares. However, it’s worth noting that this project will take at least five years to complete.

So, the investment capital doesn’t need to be paid all at once. But the initial funds for the auction will certainly need to be in place first. The subsequent partnership funds can be injected gradually according to the project’s progress and financial needs,” Guo Henian explained with a smile.

One billion Hong Kong dollars? That was indeed not a small amount.

However, once this project was successfully completed, it would become a gold mine that generated huge profits year after year. The investment was undoubtedly well worth it.

Lin Haoran knew roughly how Hong Kong would develop in the future.

There was no need to consider whether Hong Kong had development prospects—all he had to do was invest heavily!

Besides, it was only early 1980. Compared to the real estate prices in mid-1981, current prices were less than half of what they would be.

If he could secure this plot of land at this point in time, it would undoubtedly be a fantastic deal.

Guo Henian was willing to offer up forty-nine percent of the shares, which also meant he would hold at least fifty-one percent to maintain control over the project.

“Uncle Guo, let me think it over carefully!” Lin Haoran did not give an immediate answer.

“Of course, Nephew Lin. Take your time,” Guo Henian replied with a smile.

It wasn’t that he had no other partners to choose from; he was even fully capable of undertaking this project alone.

Although one billion was a significant sum, the Guo family’s investments were widespread. This capital was not limited to this single project; it could be deployed in other areas as well.

However, since it was a development project that would span several years and the capital did not need to be invested all at once, the difficulty of developing it alone was not that great.

But this time, he was determined to partner with Lin Haoran.

From the successful acquisition of Green Island Cement Company, to Hongkong Electric Group, and then the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, Lin Haoran had demonstrated astonishing business acumen. Every company had been revitalized under his management.

What was even more astounding was that this business prodigy was not even thirty years old!

Therefore, even the seasoned Guo Henian couldn’t help but feel a sincere admiration for Lin Haoran.

Recalling his own twenties, although he had also achieved a certain level of success, he paled in comparison to Lin Haoran.

The gap between them was like an insurmountable chasm, leaving Guo Henian filled with deep emotion.

Chapter 212: Revenge, the Sooner the Better!

Collaboration was not an issue for Lin Haoran; he currently had ample funds on hand.

Although acquiring publicly listed companies like the Hongkong Land Group would be a considerable expense, that was a matter for the future.

Before he used up the nearly three billion Hong Kong dollars he had left, he would always find new ways to turn a profit.

After all, he couldn’t rely on his past accumulations forever.

Moreover, companies like Green Island Cement Company, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and Wan’an Group were continuously generating income for him, earning him at least several hundred million Hong Kong dollars a year.

Therefore, investing a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars in a project with such immense potential was nothing to Lin Haoran.

As for the controlling stake, he wasn’t particularly concerned.

In fact, Lin Haoran didn’t care much about management rights either.

Just like with the many companies currently under his name, he directly handed over management to professional managers.

He was crystal clear about whether he possessed the acumen for business management.

Besides, he was already so wealthy, why work so hard? He should take it easy when he could.

He strongly disapproved of his father’s approach—working hands-on his entire life, only to end up riddled with illnesses.

As long as the project could continue to generate profits for him in the future, that was enough. Why get hung up on management rights?

Furthermore, with an experienced business tycoon like Guo Henian personally at the helm, he felt even more at ease.

Having thought things through, Lin Haoran decided not to dwell on it any longer. He looked up at Guo Henian and said firmly, “Uncle Guo, after careful consideration, I’ve decided to accept your partnership proposal. As for the equity, I would like to hold 49%.”

“Nephew Lin, you just acquired Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and you can still free up this much capital?” Guo Henian’s face showed his astonishment.

Even Guo Xiaohan, who had been watching Lin Haoran quietly, now wore an expression of disbelief.

This was truly shocking.

Lin Haoran had recently been locked in a fierce competition with Jardine Matheson & Co., and despite his youth, he had ultimately triumphed over the long-established British-owned giant to successfully take over the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

And Jardine Matheson, such a historic British-owned behemoth, had actually lost to a young man in his twenties.

Against this backdrop, everyone assumed that Lin Haoran had paid a heavy price in the acquisition battle for Hong Kong and China Gas.

Logically, the funds he could mobilize at this point should be nearly depleted.

Yet, Lin Haoran had unhesitatingly declared his intention to secure the largest possible equity stake, which took everyone by surprise.

Did that mean he could still effortlessly mobilize several hundred million Hong Kong dollars?

It seemed that the true strength of this young man was far greater than anyone had imagined!

“Uncle Guo, you also just mentioned that this project will take at least five years to complete, so the investment funds don’t need to be paid all at once.

“As for the initial auction funds of around four hundred million Hong Kong dollars, splitting it between us would only be two hundred million each. Two hundred million Hong Kong dollars isn’t too difficult for me.

“And for the subsequent funds, I naturally have ways to raise them!” Lin Haoran explained with a smile.

“Good, Nephew Lin is indeed straightforward. In that case, the partnership is settled. Since we haven’t won the bid yet, there’s no need to discuss more detailed cooperation for now.

“The most urgent matter is that the government land auction is in three days. I’ve already registered for it, so let’s bid for this plot of land first.

“How about this: we’ll sign a land auction agreement tomorrow, and if we successfully acquire the land, we can then discuss the next steps of our cooperation in detail. What do you think?” Guo Henian spoke frankly!

“Of course, no problem. I’ll leave the arrangements to you, Uncle Guo!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

And just like that, a project with a total investment exceeding one billion Hong Kong dollars was easily agreed upon.

This plot of land was adjacent to Hong Kong University. Once the commercial plaza was completed, the student body of this top-tier institution alone would be enough to ensure the project’s prosperity.

After all, the spending power of student couples at Hong Kong University was not to be underestimated.

While Hong Kong University currently had a student population of less than ten thousand, in the future, its enrollment could reach forty to fifty thousand.

Furthermore, the Sheung Wan area was densely populated, providing a solid customer base for the commercial plaza.

It could be said that building a large-scale commercial plaza here was almost a guaranteed success.

In addition, there was no need to worry about leasing the office space portion of the project. Although it was a few hundred meters from the coastline, for a high-rise building, that was no distance at all, and there weren’t many tall buildings obstructing the view.

Plus, the future Western Harbour Crossing would make transportation even more convenient.

Sea-view office buildings with distant views of bustling areas like Central and Tsim Sha Tsui—how could businesses not be interested in such a location?

The geographical advantages here were simply too obvious!

After the preliminary agreement was reached, Guo Henian did not leave in a hurry but continued to chat with Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran was naturally delighted by this.

After all, Guo Henian was a renowned tycoon in the Southeast Asian business world. His life was rich and colorful, a story of legendary proportions.

To be able to converse with him, even if he couldn’t learn any tangible experience, just listening to his stories was enough to be enlightening and fascinating.

“Uncle Guo, could you tell me about your past? For example, any business battles that have left a lasting impression on you,” Lin Haoran asked with a smile after sipping a cup of hot tea.

Although Guo Xiaohan didn’t interject, she continued to brew and pour tea for Guo Henian and Lin Haoran.

“Speaking of a business war that remains fresh in my memory, I have to mention the white sugar trade war from ten years ago. It was that battle that established my special connection with Mainland China…” Guo Henian enthusiastically recounted his past glories to Lin Haoran.

It turned out that in the 1960s, Guo Henian had expanded the sugar trading business left by his father and successfully earned the title of “Asia’s Sugar King.”

And Guo Henian’s first direct confrontation with Mainland China occurred during that white sugar trade war.

At that time, the assets of the Oei Tiong Ham family in Indonesia were taken over by the government, leaving the Asian sugar industry without a leader. The Ministry of Foreign Trade in Mainland China astutely seized this opportunity, and with government backing, began exporting large quantities of sugar to Malaysia, intending to dominate the market long-term.

For a time, cargo ships laden with white sugar sailed from China, flooding the Malaysian market like a tide.

This sudden offensive caught Guo Henian off guard, and his sugar, at a price disadvantage, piled up in warehouses.

Faced with this predicament, Guo Henian quickly adjusted his strategy, importing sugar from India to reclaim market share at a lower price.

In the end, he successfully defeated the sugar industry competition from China, solidifying his position as the Sugar King and dominating the Asian sugar industry ever since.

It was this white sugar trade war that forged an unbreakable bond between the Chinese government and Guo Henian.

He seized the opportunity to establish Malaysia’s first sugar refinery, leasing large tracts of land from the government to grow sugarcane. He quickly built a distribution network covering all of Malaysia, forming an “integrated operation” model of “raw materials—processing—sales.”

In 1970, on the eve of a global rise in sugar prices, he decisively bought up large quantities of white sugar on the international market and invested in sugar futures.

By this point, he had controlled 80% of Malaysia’s raw sugar market and held a 10% share of the world’s white sugar market.

…

Lin Haoran listened with great interest. He never expected Guo Henian to have such a past.

Indeed, those who become the richest are no simple characters!

He himself could not have done it.

Guo Henian sharing these stories with Lin Haoran was undoubtedly his way of imparting valuable business experience to this junior, a topic he usually only discussed with those close to him.

“By the way, Uncle Guo, do you have any investments in the Philippines?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“The Philippines? Of course. I have quite a few investments there, mainly operated through Guo’s Industries International Company. It’s now a reasonably well-known enterprise in Manila, currently managed by one of my cousins,” Guo Henian replied with a smile.

“Then has Uncle Guo heard of a triad society called the Brotherhood?” Lin Haoran asked.

“The Brotherhood? Of course, I know of them. That gang has a rather poor reputation in the Filipino Chinese community. They frequently oppress Chinese people, engage in kidnapping and extortion—they’ll stop at nothing.

“Just last year, there was a kidnapping and murder case that shocked the Chinese community. A well-known businessman from Taiwan was kidnapped by the Brotherhood in the Philippines. They demanded a ransom of one million New Taiwan dollars from the family.

“However, even after the family paid the ransom, the Brotherhood still brutally murdered the businessman.

“The incident caused a huge uproar at the time. With that family’s resources, they could have sought revenge by bribing other local forces in the Philippines.

“But it’s a pity that after the businessman’s death, his family fell into a fierce inheritance dispute, and no one cared about seeking revenge!” Guo Henian said with deep emotion.

Lin Haoran nodded. Clearly, this Brotherhood was an extremely troublesome triad force!

“Then if one wanted to deal with this triad force, are there any viable methods?” Lin Haoran asked humbly for advice.

Being targeted and bullied by this triad for no reason, Lin Haoran would naturally not let the matter rest.

Anyone who crossed him was destined for a bad end.

As the saying goes, a gentleman can wait ten years for his revenge; a villain seeks it from dawn till dusk!

On the surface, Lin Haoran naturally had to maintain the demeanor of a gentleman.

But behind the scenes, occasionally resorting to a villain’s methods was not out of the question!

For him, the sooner the revenge, the better!

Therefore, if there was an opportunity to strike back at this Brotherhood, he would certainly not let it go.

“What, have these people offended you?” Guo Henian couldn’t help but become curious.

After all, Lin Haoran wouldn’t bring this up for no reason.

“Indeed. Here’s what happened…” Lin Haoran did not hide anything, telling Guo Henian everything that had happened to the Philippines branch company of Green Island Cement Company.

Such matters could be easily uncovered by anyone who cared to investigate, so there was no need to conceal them.

Besides, there was nothing to hide. It was simply a matter of seeking revenge.

At their level of status, they could not possibly allow others to bully them.

You can’t achieve great things by being soft-hearted!

Therefore, Guo Henian completely understood Lin Haoran’s thoughts.

After hearing Lin Haoran’s story, Guo Henian showed no surprise. He said slowly, “The police force in the Philippines is relatively weak and has limited control over society, so triads are rampant there.

“Therefore, when organizations like the Brotherhood make threats or even commit violence, the local police are often powerless.

“Even my own Guo’s Industries International Company has been harassed by local triads before. But ever since I became acquainted with the leader of the largest Chinese triad society in Manila, Guo’s Industries International Company has never encountered such troubles in the Philippines again.”

“The largest Chinese triad society? In that case, if I paid them to deal with this Brotherhood, would they take the job?” A glint of light flashed in Lin Haoran’s eyes as he asked.

If money could solve the problem and allow him to get his revenge, Lin Haoran was not opposed to such a method.

Moreover, he wanted to take this opportunity to connect with this local powerhouse. That way, before his own security force was established, his businesses in the Philippines would at least have some protection.

Chapter 213: You Need to Be Mentally Prepared

“Nephew Lin, to be honest, this so-called number one Chinese gang isn’t exactly a force for good. Their activities are no different from the Brotherhood’s—kidnapping, extortion, fraud, forcing women into prostitution, human trafficking, drug dealing, they do it all.

However, there is one difference between them and the Brotherhood: they primarily target people of other ethnicities and rarely go after Chinese people. They’ve even helped quite a few Chinese who were down on their luck. This is why, despite their heinous acts, they have a relatively good reputation within the Chinese community.

Of course, as long as they don’t bother us, we have no need to interfere. After all, we aren’t law enforcement; we have no obligation to eradicate evil and punish the wicked.

This gang is called the Four Seas Gang, named with the meaning ‘brothers from all corners of the world.’ They have over three thousand official members, making them considerably stronger than the Brotherhood.

From what I know, the leader of the Four Seas Gang has been considering absorbing the Brotherhood for some time now. Over the years, they’ve frequently clashed with the Brotherhood over territory. Although they’ve held the upper hand, they’ve never been able to defeat them completely.

Therefore, if you’re planning to rely on the Four Seas Gang to deal with the Brotherhood, I’m afraid that’s not very realistic. With their current strength, the Four Seas Gang hasn’t reached the point where they can suppress the Brotherhood.

But, if you just want the Brotherhood to stop bothering you, that’s much simpler. I can introduce you to the Dragon Head of the Four Seas Gang. You pay them some protection money, and the Brotherhood will basically not dare to provoke you again,” Guo Henian said with a smile.

“Protection money?” Lin Haoran frowned.

He thought to himself that it would be more reliable to assemble his own armed force as soon as possible.

According to what Pao Yue-kong had just said, they would be heading to Mainland China for an inspection tour soon. Lin Haoran planned to use this opportunity to recruit a group of combat-effective military veterans and bring them to Hong Kong.

This shouldn’t take too long.

In the meantime, the Philippines branch company of Green Island Cement had no plans to enter the Visayas market, so the triad members from the Brotherhood probably wouldn’t come looking for trouble on their own initiative.

The reason the Brotherhood members were threatening Green Island Cement Company was surely because they had been bought off by the cement company that monopolized the Visayas market. Such things were common in business competition; people would resort to any means for profit.

So, if he could eliminate the threat of the Brotherhood in the future and enter the Visayas market, Lin Haoran would absolutely have Green Island Cement enter that market, and ideally, he would crush that other cement company.

However, Lin Haoran had an idea inspired by Guo Henian’s words.

Since the Four Seas Gang had always been interested in absorbing the Brotherhood, perhaps he could use this opportunity to cooperate with them and strike at the Brotherhood together.

In doing so, the Four Seas Gang would owe him a favor, and his businesses in the Philippines would have their protection in the future.

At the same time, by collaborating with the Four Seas Gang, Lin Haoran could also showcase his own armed forces, making the gang wary of offending him.

This way, he would have established a certain degree of deterrence in the Philippines!

Relying on paying protection money to ensure one’s safety was undoubtedly a stopgap measure, not a long-term solution.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had no intention of going down that road.

Pay protection money for this market, pay protection money for that market… all the money he earned would go to protection fees. Why even bother?

“Thank you for the advice, Uncle Guo. If the need arises, I will definitely ask you for an introduction,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile after thinking it through.

“I have extensive connections in both Malaysia and Singapore. No one there would dare to provoke me. So, if your businesses encounter any problems in Singapore and Malaysia, just let me know. I can step in and help you resolve them!” Guo Henian added.

The Guo family had been deeply rooted in Malaysia for many years, establishing a solid foundation. Their relationship with the Malaysian government was also intricate, so naturally, no one would dare to cross them.

It could be said that in Malaysia, the Guo family was the very definition of a “local powerhouse”!

Guo Henian was clearly trying to deepen his relationship with Lin Haoran.

After all, for Lin Haoran to have achieved such extraordinary success in his twenties, his future potential was limitless.

Such a business prodigy was naturally worth currying favor with.

Doing so would also be greatly beneficial to the future development of the Guo family.

After all, in the business world, it was often difficult to develop sustainably by going it alone. It was best to unite, form alliances, and face challenges or cooperate together.

The stronger their network of connections, the more advantageous it would be for the commercial development of both parties.

“Thank you, Uncle Guo. If I have a need, I will certainly ask for your help!” Lin Haoran replied without reservation after hearing Guo Henian’s words.

Most of the enterprises under his name had plans to expand into the Southeast Asia market, and Malaysia and Singapore were undoubtedly crucial markets among them.

Green Island Cement Company, for instance, had already entered the Malaysian and Singaporean markets, but its market share was still small. With Guo Henian’s help, Green Island Cement could perhaps rapidly expand its market share.

As for Hongkong Electric Group and the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, two public utility-listed companies, although they didn’t have any businesses in Southeast Asia yet, given that they had already reached a developmental bottleneck, it was only a matter of time before they expanded beyond Hong Kong and into Southeast Asia.

Even Wan’an Group, a real estate company, could also enter the Singapore market. After all, Singapore’s future prospects were in no way inferior to Hong Kong’s. Expanding into the Singaporean market was undoubtedly a wise move; otherwise, it would be a waste of this land of infinite potential.

With Guo Henian’s support, their path of development would undoubtedly be much smoother.

The three of them had a very pleasant conversation in the reception room. After chatting for over an hour, Guo Henian and Guo Xiaohan finally took their leave from Lin Haoran.

“Nephew Lin, and you too, Xiaohan, you are both young people. The future belongs to you. You should communicate more in the future and progress together!” Upon parting, Guo Henian said to them earnestly.

Guo Henian’s words made Guo Xiaohan blush, her cheeks turning a rosy pink, which made her look exceptionally charming and lovely.

Clearly, Guo Henian had sharply perceived that his niece, Guo Xiaohan, had developed feelings for Lin Haoran.

In the world of prominent and wealthy families like theirs, the marriages of their children were often not their own to decide, but rather were marriage alliances forged through mutual interests.

However, the current Lin family was now a match for their Guo family.

Since Guo Xiaohan was interested in Lin Haoran, this was undoubtedly a gratifying matter for Guo Henian.

After all, being able to marry the man she fancied was far more fortunate than being forced by the family to marry into another wealthy family.

Lin Haoran was no fool; he naturally understood the deeper meaning behind Guo Henian’s words.

He took a good look at Guo Xiaohan, noting her outstanding appearance and profound knowledge. Now that she was learning business by Guo Henian’s side, it was clear she would not be a mere decorative vase in the future.

Such a woman was indeed a worthy candidate for a primary wife.

However, he currently had little interest in marrying and settling down. After all, he was not short of female companions. As for his relationship with Guo Xiaohan, he decided to let nature take its course.

Moreover, with Lin Haoran’s current status and position, he had no need to rely on a political marriage alliance to consolidate his standing.

If he liked her, he would marry her; if he didn’t, he naturally wouldn’t consider it.

Lin Haoran did have a certain degree of favorable impression of Miss Guo, but it was merely an appreciation for a beautiful woman, not yet reaching the level of affection.

Love at first sight?

Lin Haoran had never experienced such a feeling.

Therefore, for Lin Haoran, it was best to let things unfold naturally.

After all, he was only in his twenties. It was still too early to talk about marriage!

“Uncle Guo, Miss Guo, please feel free to visit my home on Severn Road when you have time. My place isn’t far from yours. You are welcome anytime!” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he saw them to their car.

“Alright, we will definitely pay a visit when we have time. See you tomorrow,” Guo Henian replied with a smile.

“Goodbye, Mr. Lin!” Guo Xiaohan bid farewell to Lin Haoran in a ladylike manner. Her beautiful eyes lingered on him for a long time, and only when the car slowly pulled away from the Lin family’s gate did she reluctantly retract her gaze.

“Xiaohan, have you fallen for that young man, Lin Haoran?” Guo Henian asked teasingly on the way back.

“Uncle, how could you say that? I haven’t,” Guo Henian’s words made Guo Xiaohan’s face, which had just returned to normal, turn bright red again.

“Haha, look at you, still denying it. Your expression has already betrayed you. If you really like him, your uncle supports you. During the New Year, I already discussed this with your father. He said that if you can marry Lin Haoran, he won’t stand in your way.

Hong Kong is a very promising city. Our Guo family’s developmental focus will gradually shift from Southeast Asia to Hong Kong.

But I must remind you that you need to be mentally prepared. An outstanding man like Lin Haoran will definitely not have only one woman in the future.

It’s very normal for him to have affairs and find mistresses on the side. As long as he doesn’t bring them home openly, I suggest you turn a blind eye. This is the fated reality of wealthy families; truly faithful rich men are too few and far between!

And if you wanted to marry a commoner because of this, the family and your father would certainly stop you. You need to think this through as well,” Guo Henian planned to give Guo Xiaohan a preemptive warning.

“Uncle, we’re not even close to that step yet. What are you talking about!” Guo Xiaohan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

However, she did begin to seriously consider this issue.

If nothing else, her own uncle before her had more than one wife.

Her father also had other women on the side.

Unless she never married, she would eventually be unable to avoid a political marriage. Almost all the prominent Chinese families in Malaysia were like this.

She had seen far too much of this growing up.

And for Guo Henian, if the Guo family could form a marriage alliance with the Lin family, it would undoubtedly bring enormous benefits.

The strength of the multiple enterprises under Lin Haoran’s control was already on par with the Guo family’s, not to mention his future growth potential.

If the two families could join forces, the result would definitely be a multiplier effect where one plus one was greater than two!

…

In the blink of an eye, a night passed.

In the morning, Lin Haoran had breakfast before unhurriedly leaving for Hongkong Electric Group.

Last night, he had already made arrangements with Guo Henian, agreeing to sign a cooperation agreement at Hongkong Electric Group.

This agreement was currently just a letter of intent for a joint bid. True in-depth cooperation could only proceed after successfully winning the auction for the plot of land in Sheung Wan.

After all, if they failed to acquire the land, no matter how detailed the contract terms were, it would all be just pointless talk.

At ten o’clock in the morning sharp, Lin Haoran met with Guo Henian and Guo Xiaohan, who had arrived as scheduled.

Guo Henian had clearly come prepared; the cooperation agreement was all ready.

Lin Haoran took the agreement, reviewed it carefully, and after confirming there were no issues, he solemnly signed it with Guo Henian.

The agreement was detailed, with all terms and clauses clearly laid out. Even the maximum bidding limit was stated—470 million Hong Kong dollars.

This meant they could add a maximum of 200 million Hong Kong dollars to the starting bid. Once the auction price exceeded this limit, they would abandon the bid, and the cooperation agreement would become invalid.

Furthermore, the agreement stipulated that before successfully bidding, neither party needed to invest funds in advance, but only needed to pay a small auction margin.

Guo Henian had already paid this small margin when he registered, so there was no need to quibble over such a small amount for the time being.

After successfully winning the land, the government would grant a grace period for preparing the funds, so they wouldn’t need to pay the full amount to the government immediately.

“Nephew Lin, a pleasure to work with you!”

“Uncle Guo, a pleasure to work with you!”

Smiles appeared on both of their faces.

Chapter 214: Don’t Worry, They’ll Give Me Face!

In the blink of an eye, two days flew by, and the calendar turned to March 5th.

At three o’clock in the afternoon on March 5th, a tense government land auction was underway at an auction house in Wan Chai.

The auction attracted more than twenty real estate companies and financial groups.

These conglomerates came from complex backgrounds, including powerful local Hong Kong enterprises, British and American giants, and even financial groups from Southeast Asia.

What was most striking was that the Hong Kong government had put eight plots of government land up for auction at once.

Clearly, the Hong Kong government intended to capitalize on the rising land prices and was deliberately releasing these plots to increase government revenue.

The locations of these plots were all quite good. Nearly every one became a hot commodity in the eyes of the bidders. Amidst the fierce competition, the final transaction price for half of the plots more than doubled.

For the past two years, Hong Kong’s real estate market had been exceptionally hot, and major developers were increasing their investments one after another, hoping to get a piece of the pie.

The aggressive entry of Southeast Asian financial groups, in particular, had significantly pushed up Hong Kong’s real estate prices.

The community of wealthy individuals in Southeast Asia was vast, far exceeding that of Hong Kong.

In countries like Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia, the economic lifelines were largely in the hands of ethnic Chinese.

And these wealthy Chinese tycoons had all set their sights on the promising market of Hong Kong.

Unlike the pessimistic British-funded conglomerates, they had more faith that Hong Kong’s future would not be bleak.

It was not hard to imagine the immense impact these Southeast Asian tycoons would have on Hong Kong by pouring huge sums of capital into its real estate market!

Lin Haoran specifically attended this auction with Guo Henian, seeing it as an opportunity to broaden his horizons.

At the venue, he did indeed see many major figures in real estate.

All the tycoons known as Hong Kong’s Five Tiger Generals of real estate were present, including Li Jiacheng, Li Zhaoji, Cheng Yu-tung, Gordon Wu, and Chen Qizhong. The bosses of companies like the Yingjun Group, Nan Fung Group, Dah Chong Real Estate, and Sino Land were also in attendance.

In addition, Bao Fuda of the Hongkong Land Group, Schreyer of Swire & Co., and others were also there.

Some intended to bid individually, while many others, like Lin Haoran and Guo Henian, had formed financial groups to bid collaboratively.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, everyone greeted him one by one.

After all, with his current strength in the business world, Lin Haoran had already surpassed the vast majority of people present.

Although Lin Haoran was young, no one dared to underestimate him, nor did they have the right to.

Moreover, everyone present was now a member of The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, making their relationships even closer.

All of the Chinese people participating in the auction here were members of The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

Last month, with the help of Li Mingze, Lin Haoran had successfully joined the chamber.

Because of his entry, The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong had specifically held a welcoming ceremony. With the exception of members who were away on business trips, almost everyone attended.

After all, Lin Haoran’s addition elevated the overall strength of The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, adding another heavyweight figure to its ranks.

At the meeting, someone proposed that Lin Haoran directly assume the position of vice president of the chamber, and even tycoons like Pao Yue-kong, Li Jiacheng, and Li Mingze raised their hands in agreement.

While the position of president was unique, there were relatively more spots for vice presidents.

For them, adding or subtracting one vice president made little difference.

For many, holding a high-level position in the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce was an honor and a great opportunity to increase their influence, and Lin Haoran’s business prowess was more than sufficient for him to serve as vice president.

However, Lin Haoran tactfully declined the offer.

He humbly expressed his position, citing his youth and the fact that many in attendance were his seniors in the business world.

For him, joining the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce was a natural course of events. Simply having his name on the roster was enough; he didn’t need extra titles or complicated responsibilities.

Rely on a vice president position to increase his influence? For him, it was completely unnecessary.

Furthermore, he had no intention of investing too much time in this chamber.

In the end, due to Lin Haoran’s firm refusal, he was appointed as a supervisor of the chamber.

Although he held this title, he did not have to bear many responsibilities. He could even choose not to attend chamber meetings, making it essentially a sinecure.

Given Lin Haoran’s current wealth and status, it would certainly be inappropriate for him to be just an ordinary member.

Interestingly, after Lin Haoran rejected the position of vice president, these people turned around and offered the role to his father, Lin Wan’an.

Lin Haoran couldn’t be bothered with this; they could do as they pleased.

And Lin Wan’an gleefully accepted the position. To him, becoming a vice president of the chamber thanks to his son was not something to be ashamed of.

At this auction, everyone present was quite surprised to learn that Lin Haoran was partnering with Southeast Asia’s richest man, Guo Henian, for a joint bid.

But soon, this surprise turned into understanding.

In fact, many of those present had cooperated directly or indirectly with Guo Henian before. They were not opposed to this financial magnate from Southeast Asia.

Many even considered expanding their business to Southeast Asia when they encountered bottlenecks in the Hong Kong market.

Therefore, in their eyes, the collaboration between Lin Haoran and Guo Henian was nothing more than a perfectly normal affair.

The plot of land in Sheung Wan attracted bids from as many as seven financial groups.

In the end, the plot was sold for a high price of 406 million Hong Kong dollars, with the winning bidders being the Lin Haoran and Guo Henian partnership.

The transaction price was slightly higher than Guo Henian’s estimate, mainly due to the exceptionally fierce bidding, which included strong competitors like Cheng Yu-tung, Gordon Wu, Chen Qizhong, Bao Fuda, and other industry giants.

However, when the bidding price climbed to 400 million Hong Kong dollars, only Lin Haoran’s party and Cheng Yu-tung remained, with all other competitors having withdrawn.

Subsequently, when the price reached 406 million Hong Kong dollars, Cheng Yu-tung also reluctantly dropped out of the bidding.

At this moment, Lin Haoran and Guo Henian couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Their target this time was precisely this plot of land, and now their wish had been fulfilled.

And the fact that the transaction price was far below their preset maximum limit of 470 million Hong Kong dollars was undoubtedly good news.

The reason this auction went so smoothly was largely due to the government releasing eight plots of government land simultaneously, which to some extent diverted the competitors’ focus, making them unwilling to spend too much capital on a single plot.

Additionally, the Sheung Wan plot’s auction was scheduled second, which also provided a favorable condition for Lin Haoran and Guo Henian to successfully acquire it for 406 million Hong Kong dollars.

If not for these factors, securing this plot at this price would have been unquestionably much more difficult.

After the auction ended, both men, in a cheerful mood, went to the Wan’an Group Building in Causeway Bay.

Now that they had won the bid, it was time to finalize the further details of their cooperation.

The headquarters of Guo Henian’s main business in Hong Kong, Kerry Group, was in Tsim Sha Tsui, so it was more convenient for them to meet in Causeway Bay.

Ultimately, the two parties agreed on an initial investment of 500 million Hong Kong dollars. Lin Haoran would invest 249.5 million Hong Kong dollars for a 49.9% stake, while Kerry Group would invest 250.5 million Hong Kong dollars for a 50.1% stake.

This way, the funds for the auctioned land were covered, as was the initial investment for its development.

For at least a year, Lin Haoran would not need to inject any more money into it.

Moreover, both sides had already confirmed that once the design blueprints were ready, the project would be handed over to Wan’an Group.

This was a major construction project, from which Wan’an Group could earn at least tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars in construction fees. However, completing this project would take at least several years.

Kerry Group would lead the project, and Wan’an Group would be in charge of its construction—a win-win situation for everyone.

On the morning of March 6th, Lin Haoran, who was at home, received an invitation letter from Guangdong Province.

The letter cordially invited Lin Haoran to visit and inspect Shenzhen and Guangzhou in Guangdong Province. The timing was not restricted; as long as he gave advance notice of his arrival, they would send someone to handle his reception throughout the trip.

Not long after receiving the invitation, Lin Haoran got a call from Pao Yue-kong.

“Haoran, do you have any thoughts on when to go to Mainland China?” Pao Yue-kong asked as soon as the call connected.

“Uncle Pao, I’m flexible. Let’s go with your schedule!” Lin Haoran replied.

He truly had nothing important to attend to recently, so his schedule was quite free.

“In that case, how about we go tomorrow morning at eight?” Pao Yue-kong said directly.

“That works for me, but you should discuss it with Mr. Guo Henian. I don’t have a preference,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

They had agreed at the Lin family home that Guo Henian would go with them.

“Don’t worry, I’ve already talked to him. That’s the time!” Pao Yue-kong replied.

“Alright, in that case, let’s set it for that time!” Lin Haoran confirmed.

“Good. We’ll meet at the Kowloon Wharf Building in Tsim Sha Tsui at eight tomorrow morning. We’ll go to the Luohu Port together to handle the border crossing procedures. I’ll call the relevant departments in Guangdong Province in a moment and have them prepare for our reception!” Pao Yue-kong said, his familiarity with the process evident.

As business tycoons who frequently returned to Mainland China, they were naturally very familiar with these things.

After hanging up, Pao Yue-kong went to attend to his affairs, while Lin Haoran began to pack a couple of sets of clothes into a luggage bag and instructed Li Weiguo and Li Weidong to prepare for the trip to Mainland China.

This trip wouldn’t be for just one day; they would be staying for at least a few days.

Moreover, besides investigating the mainland market, Lin Haoran had two other things to accomplish: first, find a way to recruit some capable retired soldiers, and second, bring Li Weidong’s and Li Weiguo’s families to Hong Kong to further increase their loyalty.

Hearing the news, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo were both excited and slightly worried.

“Boss, if we go to Mainland China, will the Public Security Bureau give us trouble?” Li Weidong asked, his face full of concern.

“Don’t worry, you both have Hong Kong identity cards now, so it will be fine. Besides, the penalties for illegal immigration have been reduced in the Mainland. And anyway, they’ll give me some face!” Lin Haoran said with a reassuring smile.

Mainland China was inviting Lin Haoran to attract investment.

The status of Li Weiguo and Li Weidong as former illegal immigrants was merely a minor issue. The mainland authorities would not displease Lin Haoran over such a small matter.

After all, Lin Haoran now controlled Hongkong Electric Group, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and many other well-known enterprises. His influence was enough to make the mainland side treat him with great importance.

“Oh, right. Since we’re going to Mainland China, I’ll take this opportunity to arrange for your families to come to Hong Kong for a reunion!” Lin Haoran added with a smile.

“Thank you, Boss!” Li Weidong and Li Weiguo said, their faces filled with delight.

Since coming to Hong Kong, their lives had changed dramatically. They were living a life of comfort they could never have imagined before.

However, because they had immigrated illegally, they had lost contact with their families and hadn’t known of their situation for over a year.

Their families had become their deepest concern.

Now, having the chance to see their families again, and even bring them to Hong Kong, was a dream come true for them.

Chapter 215: I Want to Acquire This Land and Build a Large Industrial Park!

March 6th, 1980. Morning.

On this day, Lin Haoran rose early.

A little after nine in the morning, he left with two bodyguards.

Today, they were heading to Mainland China. He had already arranged to meet Pao Yue-kong at Kowloon Wharf Tower before ten o’clock.

At nine-fifty, Lin Haoran’s Rolls-Royce arrived punctually at the base of Kowloon Wharf Tower.

Pao Yue-kong was already there.

Lin Haoran also noticed a minibus parked to the side, a driver sitting in the driver’s seat, waiting.

A short while later, Guo Henian’s car arrived as well. Guo Xiaohan was still with him, indicating that Guo Henian planned to bring his niece along on this trip to the Mainland.

“Since everyone is here, let’s set off. You can leave your cars here. I’ve arranged for a company minibus to take us directly to Luohu Port. Once we’re there, special personnel from the Mainland will be there to receive us,” Pao Yue-kong said with a smile.

Neither Lin Haoran nor Guo Henian had any objections. After all, they weren’t familiar with the route to the Mainland, and having Pao Yue-kong lead the way would save them a lot of trouble.

As for the port, having designated personnel receive them would naturally be more convenient and safer. There was indeed no need to drive themselves.

And so, everyone boarded the minibus.

“Uncle Pao, how many times have you been to Guangzhou?” Lin Haoran asked curiously after everyone had taken their seats.

“Guangzhou? I’ve only been once. Actually, I only returned to the Mainland for the first time a few years ago. I’ve been back a few times since, but mostly to Beijing and my hometown in Zhejiang.

Every time I go back, the relevant Mainland departments give me a warm reception. As a Chinese man, I naturally hope to see Mainland China prosper and develop,” Pao Yue-kong answered, filled with emotion.

Pao Yue-kong was thirty-one when he officially left the Mainland to start his business in Hong Kong, so his feelings for his homeland ran very deep.

In contrast, Guo Henian’s life experience was vastly different.

He was born and raised in Malaysia and had spent almost his entire life in Southeast Asia. Naturally, it was difficult for him to understand Pao Yue-kong’s sentimental attachment to his hometown.

However, Guo Henian’s father was also an immigrant from the Mainland, which was his father’s homeland, so he was not entirely without feeling for it either.

During the journey, the three of them began to chat about Mainland China.

Due to his extensive experience and deep understanding of the Mainland, Pao Yue-kong naturally became the most talkative one.

Guo Henian chimed in from time to time, while Lin Haoran was mostly a listener, completely engrossed.

Although Lin Haoran had grown up on the Mainland in his previous life, that was a world several decades in the future.

He had no personal experience of the Mainland in this era. His only impressions were perhaps from movie scenes or photos on social media.

They departed from Kowloon Wharf Tower in Tsim Sha Tsui, crossed the entire urban center of the Kowloon Peninsula, passed through the Lion Rock Tunnel, drove along Sha Tin Road through the Sha Tin town center, then turned onto the Tolo Highway, heading north through mountains and ridges.

After taking the Fanling Highway and then Luohu Road, they finally arrived at the Hong Kong side of Luohu Port.

The distance wasn’t actually that far—only about forty kilometers from Tsim Sha Tsui to Luohu Port—but it took over an hour. The main reason was the poor road conditions and the many winding, narrow roads.

The border officials on the Hong Kong side of Luohu Port naturally wouldn’t dare to give Lin Haoran and his group a hard time; these were all tycoons.

So, after completing all the necessary procedures, they let them pass.

After crossing the border into the Mainland side of the port, they were met by designated personnel from Shenzhen who had been waiting for them.

“Mr. Pao, Chairman Guo, Mr. Lin, hello! Welcome to Shenzhen!” The person in charge of the reception shook hands with Lin Haoran’s group one by one. They had clearly reviewed their information beforehand and were able to recognize each person quickly and accurately.

After exchanging pleasantries, everyone boarded another minibus.

This minibus, however, was not Pao Yue-kong’s but a special vehicle arranged by the Mainland authorities.

Over here, they had to follow their arrangements; otherwise, Lin Haoran and the others wouldn’t even know which way to go.

According to the plan, they would first conduct a one-day inspection in Shenzhen before departing for Guangzhou the next morning to meet and negotiate with the relevant officials there.

Lin Haoran was filled with endless curiosity about the Shenzhen of this era.

In his previous life, he had worked in Shenzhen. By then, it was already an international metropolis, its prosperity on par with Hong Kong, its GDP having even surpassed it.

It was a city that had created miracles!

However, the Shenzhen before his eyes now left Lin Haoran with a first impression of poverty and backwardness.

Hong Kong’s urban landscape was undoubtedly very modern, while Shenzhen’s streets were not even comparable to Hong Kong’s remote new towns.

As the minibus slowly drove into Shenzhen’s city center, the receptionist specially arranged for them to get out and stroll down the street to more directly experience the city’s charm.

Walking on the streets of Shenzhen, the first thing they noticed were the somewhat narrow roads brimming with the thick atmosphere of daily life.

The road surfaces were mostly unrefined stone slabs and dirt paths. Occasional potholes kicked up clouds of dust as worn-out bicycles rolled over them, adding a rustic touch to the street.

On both sides of the street, low-rise brick-and-tile houses and wooden plank buildings were scattered about, their walls mottled, as if recounting the vicissitudes of time.

There were not many shops, but each one exuded a unique charm. Crude signboards bore shop names written in crooked calligraphy, conveying a peculiar sense of intimacy.

The general stores were filled with daily necessities. From pots and pans to needles and thread, though not comprehensive, they were enough to meet the basic needs of the residents.

In the small eateries, the aroma of simple meals wafted out. There were no luxurious decorations, only a few simple tables and chairs, yet the diners ate with great relish.

The pedestrians on the street were dressed plainly, with blue and grey cloth garments being the norm. Though the styles were monotonous, they revealed a kind of simple beauty.

Their faces were filled with anticipation and longing for a better life, their steps hurried but their spirits high.

Children chased each other and played on the street. Their games were simple and innocent; a rubber band or a marble could bring them endless joy.

In the distance, the roar of machinery from construction sites could be heard. The busy figures of workers shone under the sun, contributing their strength to the construction of this rising city.

The Shenzhen before him stood in stark contrast to the international metropolis in his memory from decades later.

He found it hard to imagine that this city, still somewhat backward now, would one day shine with such dazzling brilliance.

Along the way, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong dared not make a sound, afraid of causing trouble for their boss.

They had illegally immigrated to Hong Kong by passing through the Shekou area of Shenzhen.

Back then, while scouting the route, they had lost count of how many times they had visited these parts of Shenzhen.

Therefore, they were naturally quite familiar with the city.

At this moment, stepping foot once again into this city that was both familiar and somewhat strange, the two brothers felt exceptionally conflicted.

They inspected Luohu, Futian, and even Shekou, heading west all the way.

Right now, Shenzhen’s population was still too small, with the entire city having only a few hundred thousand people. But Lin Haoran knew that in the future, this place would accommodate over ten million people!

The person in charge of the reception led them on a focused inspection of industrial parks under construction, such as the Shahe Industrial Zone and the Shekou Industrial Park. Local officials personally accompanied them, constantly mentioning preferential policies in the hopes of attracting investors like Lin Haoran.

“I want to acquire this land and build a large industrial park!” Lin Haoran looked at the vast expanse of land awaiting development, pointed to a plot next to the Shekou Industrial Park, and said to the official with a smile.

The official was overjoyed to hear this. He was aware of Lin Haoran’s background; though Lin Haoran looked deceptively young, he was the boss of several large corporations and a renowned figure in Hong Kong’s business world.

If he was willing to invest here, it would be absolutely wonderful news for Shenzhen.

The whole point of inviting him over was to get him to invest!

Last year, Shenzhen’s Gross Regional Product, what everyone often called GDP, was less than two hundred million RMB!

The market capitalization of any one of Lin Haoran’s companies was higher than Shenzhen’s annual GDP!

“Mr. Lin, we in Shenzhen welcome your investment at any time! For your investment, we will provide the most favorable treatment. You can choose any plot of land you wish!” the official said straightforwardly.

At this moment, Shenzhen was still in the primary stage of development, and investment promotion was a gradual process. Therefore, everything here was like a blank canvas waiting for ambitious individuals to paint their blueprints. Infinite development potential lay hidden everywhere.

“Nephew Lin, are your businesses also involved in the manufacturing industry?” Guo Henian asked curiously from the side.

The news that Lin Haoran was the boss of the Evergo Company was not widely known in Hong Kong. Lin Haoran had always been low-key about this matter, so it was understandable that Guo Henian was unaware.

“Uncle Guo, actually, as early as two years ago, I started a large electric fan factory with a friend. Its current annual output value has reached several hundred million Hong Kong dollars,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

For these business tycoons, manufacturing was often not their first choice. They preferred industries like trade, real estate, and finance, which could yield quick profits.

It was just like Li Jiacheng, who had also started in manufacturing, running a plastics factory.

But when he discovered the greater potential in the real estate industry, he gradually handed over the plastics factory business to his sister to manage, while he devoted himself entirely to real estate.

Therefore, when faced with Guo Henian’s question, Lin Haoran felt no need to deliberately hide his manufacturing background.

In fact, come this autumn, Lin Haoran was already planning to take the Evergo Company public after discussing it with Liu Luanxiong.

Once it went public, he would be able to cash out a considerable sum of money.

Although he did not intend to continue delving deep into the electric fan industry, he would not easily give up his foothold in manufacturing.

In his view, although the profit margin in manufacturing was relatively low, it could create a large number of jobs and had an undeniable contribution to society.

If he could provide employment for more people through manufacturing, his social status and influence in the Mainland would undoubtedly be significantly enhanced.

“An annual output value of several hundred million Hong Kong dollars?” Upon hearing this figure, not only Guo Henian but even Pao Yue-kong, who was standing nearby, showed a look of surprise.

The official from Shenzhen’s eyes lit up even more, his mind racing.

Shenzhen was currently in a critical period of rebuilding from scratch. What it needed most was not high-end industries like finance, real estate, or high-tech, but the most fundamental sector: manufacturing!

Manufacturing could not only drive the development of the entire industrial chain but, more importantly, it could create a large number of jobs for society. When the common people had stable jobs, their income would increase, which in turn would promote the economic development of the whole society.

It could be said that manufacturing was the cornerstone of Shenzhen’s current development. Only by laying this foundation solid could they provide strong support for the future development of high-end industries.

That evening, Lin Haoran and the others stayed in the most luxurious guesthouse in Shenzhen.

In reality, though it was called luxurious, it was no different from a very ordinary hotel in Hong Kong.

At noon tomorrow, they would set off for Guangzhou to inspect and negotiate in the provincial capital.

Just as Lin Haoran was preparing for bed, a knock suddenly came from the door, accompanied by Pao Yue-kong’s voice: “Haoran, you’re not asleep yet, are you?”

It was only a little past nine in the evening, so Lin Haoran was naturally not yet asleep. He went to open the door for Pao Yue-kong.

“Uncle Pao, what is it?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“Haoran, let’s talk inside,” Pao Yue-kong said with a mysterious expression.

Lin Haoran nodded, let Pao Yue-kong into the room, and pulled over a chair for him to sit down.

Chapter 216: Two Hundred Veterans

Upon hearing Pao Yue-kong’s words, Lin Haoran’s curiosity was instantly piqued. What matter could possibly require such a secretive delivery?

This was truly inconsistent with the usual style of a tycoon.

“Uncle Pao, please, go ahead!” Lin Haoran replied with a solemn expression.

“Haoran, it’s fine for you to make legitimate investments in Mainland China, but remember to stay away from sensitive or special industries, especially those involving items Britain has explicitly banned for import into the Mainland. At the same time, when dealing with the relevant departments, you must maintain a proper distance. Don’t get too involved. Hong Kong is going through a tumultuous time right now, and the foundation of your main businesses is there. If the Government House were to pin some label on you, your economic activities in Hong Kong would become incredibly difficult, facing obstacles at every turn. I’m telling you this for your own good!” Pao Yue-kong said in a low, earnest voice.

Had it been anyone else, they might have been perplexed by Pao Yue-kong’s words, but Lin Haoran understood the unspoken question immediately.

The Hong Kong British government was doing everything in its power to maintain its rule over Hong Kong, and thus was averse to Hong Kong businessmen having too much contact with Mainland China.

Pao Yue-kong was subtly reminding him to be measured in his actions on the Mainland!

“Uncle Pao, I understand. Thank you sincerely for the reminder!” Lin Haoran nodded in gratitude.

“Good. Since you understand, you should get some rest. I’ll be heading back now!” Seeing that Lin Haoran had grasped his meaning so quickly, Pao Yue-kong did not linger.

After Pao Yue-kong left the room, Lin Haoran sat back down in his chair, lost in thought over his words.

Why were most Hong Kong businessmen still hesitant to invest in Mainland China at this time?

The primary reason was their lack of confidence in the Mainland’s future development. The secondary reason was the fear that the Hong Kong British government would label them unfavorably.

When you’re under someone else’s roof, you have no choice but to bow your head. It was a helpless reality.

However, through his knowledge from his past life, Lin Haoran already knew that after the two countries signed the Joint Declaration in 1984, the Hong Kong British government’s restrictions would be greatly relaxed.

This was because the Governor’s Office had already realized that continuing to seek rule over Hong Kong was a lost cause.

It was from that year onward that more and more Hong Kong businessmen began to turn their sights toward the massive market of Mainland China.

But at this moment, no one knew what the future held.

Everyone understood that in the face of a nation, even wealthy businessmen like them were just slightly more conspicuous ants.

It was for this reason that Pao Yue-kong worried that Lin Haoran, a junior in the business world whom he held in high regard, might be too aggressive with his investments in the Mainland. It showed that his concern for Lin Haoran was quite genuine.

As for Lin Haoran, his investments in the Mainland over the next few years were primarily focused on paving the way for the future; he was in no rush to invest heavily.

For example, in places like Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Shanghai—cities with immense strategic development potential—he planned to first hoard large plots of land. This included areas like Nanshan, Luohu, and Futian in Shenzhen; Tianhe, Yuexiu, and Haizhu in Guangzhou; and Pudong, Huangpu, and Minhang in Shanghai. Then, he would simply develop some electronics manufacturing and construct commercial buildings in these locations…

Twenty or thirty years later, without even mentioning anything else, the value of the land alone would soar to a terrifying figure.

Forty years ago today, Shenzhen’s GDP was less than two hundred million RMB. But forty years later, its GDP would exceed two trillion RMB, an increase of more than ten thousand times!

One could only imagine the terrifying speed of Shenzhen’s economic development over those few decades.

The night passed quickly.

In this era, the developed area of Shenzhen was not large, so there weren’t many places for them to inspect. They were mainly concentrated around the Shekou and Luohu areas.

At noon, after having a meal in Shenzhen, the group took a private car directly to the provincial capital, Guangzhou.

With no expressways, they had to take the national highway. The journey of over one hundred kilometers took a full three hours before they finally reached their destination, Guangzhou.

Although Guangzhou at this time was far from being as prosperous as Hong Kong, as a major city, its scale and facilities still surpassed Shenzhen’s.

The high standard of their reception made Lin Haoran keenly feel the importance and courtesy afforded to him as a Hong Kong businessman.

In the afternoon, Lin Haoran had a private, in-depth meeting with a relevant official. This meeting did not include Pao Yue-kong, Guo Henian, or the others.

When the official learned that Lin Haoran intended to make large-scale investments in Guangdong Province, his attitude became even more cordial and enthusiastic.

Taking advantage of the warming relations, Lin Haoran put forward a request of his own: he hoped to recruit a group of veterans who had participated in the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam to protect his enterprises.

These veterans, tempered by the crucible of war, were certainly far more capable and disciplined than soldiers who had never seen real combat.

Originally, Lin Haoran thought that while the other party would likely agree to this request, they probably wouldn’t offer much assistance.

To his surprise, the official not only agreed but also promised to help him find a full two hundred men according to his requirements.

For the local government, allowing a small number of people to work in Hong Kong in exchange for a large investment was undoubtedly an extremely worthwhile deal.

After all, their top priority at the moment was to promote economic development with all their might!

“Mr. Lin, please rest assured,” the official promised solemnly. “At the end of last year, we had a batch of soldiers who were discharged. They all participated in the self-defense counterattack against Vietnam and are currently working in various units in Guangzhou. Contacting them is very convenient. If they are willing to go to Hong Kong with you, they will be entirely under your authority, with no further affiliation or connection to us.”

Two hundred men—the number was neither too large nor too small. Lin Haoran was satisfied and did not ask for more.

Once he successfully recruited these two hundred battle-hardened soldiers, the security company he was planning would have a solid foundation.

In the future, he could even consider further expanding recruitment on the Mainland.

After investing in the Mainland, he would continue to recruit personnel there and find ways to send them to Hong Kong, which would be a legitimate reason.

These two hundred men were merely a foundation.

As for whether these two hundred men would be government-planted informants, Lin Haoran didn’t care.

What he truly needed were capable enforcers who would unconditionally obey his orders and do exactly as told. That was enough.

The main purpose of the Security Company was to protect his ever-growing number of businesses.

Besides, he had his “Loyalty” special ability. In the future, he could tell at a glance if someone was problematic.

Most importantly, since the government here was willing to help, it was evident that the two hundred men they contacted would not be lacking in ability.

His only concern was that if this news got out, such a move might arouse the vigilance and suspicion of the Governor’s Office.

However, Lin Haoran had already thought it through.

After gathering this group of men, he would have the Mainland send a boat to deliver them to the Sai Kung area. The patrols in Sai Kung were not as strict as those in Shenzhen Bay, so sending them there would be no problem at all.

Then, he would gradually move them into the urban area and have them apply for Hong Kong identity cards.

Currently, Hong Kong still implemented the Touch-base policy for illegal immigrants, which was relatively lenient.

If an illegal immigrant from the Mainland successfully snuck into Hong Kong and reached the urban area, they could become a legal resident of Hong Kong. If they were intercepted by law enforcement in the border’s restricted zone, they would be repatriated to the Mainland.

This policy would not be officially terminated until October of this year.

With Lin Haoran’s assistance, these men would naturally reach the urban area smoothly.

Then, he could gradually absorb them into the Security Company.

“Thank you so much!” Lin Haoran said with great solemnity. “After I return, I will immediately send someone over to discuss the investment plans in detail. If all goes well, our investment will reach one hundred million Hong Kong dollars within three years, perhaps even more. In the future, I will continue to increase my investment!”

The sincerity shown by the official left Lin Haoran deeply satisfied, and he naturally did not want to disappoint him.

After all, he was already planning to make large-scale investments, starting with the manufacturing industry by setting up production bases on the Mainland.

This was not a difficult task for Lin Haoran.

Upon hearing Lin Haoran mention an investment figure in the hundreds of millions, a satisfied smile appeared on the official’s face. This was clearly no small sum!

Thus, while Lin Haoran continued his market inspection of Guangzhou, the veterans interested in working in Hong Kong were successively gathered at a location in the provincial capital.

In this era, there was no shortage of people who wanted to go to Hong Kong, especially in Guangdong Province, which was right next door.

In Guangdong Province, everyone knew of Hong Kong’s prosperity and wealth; otherwise, so many people wouldn’t risk their lives to illegally immigrate.

Now, with such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity before them—a chance to go to Hong Kong with guaranteed stable employment—it was a dream come true for many. Naturally, they had to seize it firmly.

Therefore, gathering these veterans was not difficult at all.

On Lin Haoran’s third day in Guangzhou, he received the good news: the required personnel had been found.

Lin Haoran did not inform Pao Yue-kong or Guo Henian about this matter, and the local government also kept a low profile, not publicizing it widely.

At 3:00 PM on March 10th, three hundred spirited young men were assembled in a gymnasium in Guangzhou.

That’s right, a full three hundred.

The reason they found three hundred was because the government knew Lin Haoran would be selective, so they brought three hundred for him to choose two hundred from.

This showed just how thoughtful the official was; their treatment of a potential foreign entrepreneur like Lin Haoran was truly excellent.

Although their physiques were not particularly robust due to their diet, combat effectiveness was not measured by build alone.

Standing before the two hundred young men, Lin Haoran said with a smile, “I’m sure you all already know why I’ve sought you out through the government. First, let me introduce myself. I am an entrepreneur from Hong Kong, and I currently own several large enterprises there.

My request is very direct: I need you to protect the security of these enterprises. To put it simply, if you can pass my test, you will become members of my security company. In other words, you’ll be what we commonly call enforcers. As for compensation and benefits, I guarantee they will be far more generous than you expect. Understood?”

“Understood!” the two hundred men replied in unison, their voices powerful and firm.

It was clear that although these men had been discharged, their years of training had not been forgotten so quickly.

“Weidong, Weiguo, I’ll leave the upcoming test to you,” Lin Haoran said, turning to the two of them. “I need a group of men who can fight. I don’t require their skills to be on par with yours, but they must at least be at Lin Yi’s level. Anyone who isn’t up to par will be eliminated. Pick out the best two hundred for me. As for how to judge them, you have full authority!”

Lin Yi’s skill level might be considered quite good among ordinary people—he could take on five at once—but he was average when facing powerful experts like Li Weidong and Li Weiguo.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s requirement was neither excessively harsh nor too lenient.

He had come to the Mainland this time to find elites, not ordinary men.

If they weren’t elites, he could have just hired a large number of people in Hong Kong. Why go through all the trouble of coming to the Mainland to find them?

Chapter 217: A Smooth Return to Hong Kong

Lin Haoran stood to one side, curious as to how Li Weiguo and Li Weidong would conduct the selection.

They were both former soldiers, so obviously the best method was to use the most common ways of selecting elites in the military.

But since Lin Haoran had never served, he naturally didn’t understand these things.

“You should all know by now. Out of three hundred men, we’re only keeping the strongest two hundred. Whether you can seize this opportunity depends on your own abilities!

“I will conduct this selection fairly and impartially. I’ve divided it into two major stages: a preliminary test and a follow-up test, followed by a final comprehensive evaluation!” These words were spoken by Li Weiguo.

As for Li Weidong, he was better suited for direct action.

After Li Weiguo’s explanation, Lin Haoran finally understood how they planned to carry out the selection.

First came the physical fitness test: long-distance running to test endurance and cardiopulmonary function, sprints to assess explosive power, push-ups and sit-ups to evaluate upper body and abdominal strength, pull-ups to measure upper body pulling strength, and the standing long jump to test leg power.

For each event, the two men would give them a strict score.

After the fitness test, they requested access to a nearby military training base from the accompanying official. The official applied to his superiors and quickly received approval.

Thus, at a nearby military training base, the three hundred men underwent assessments for shooting accuracy and the speed of disassembling and assembling firearms, with each person being scored once again.

This was followed by a stress test and a psychological evaluation to ensure they could remain calm and execute tasks efficiently under high-pressure situations.

The above were all part of the preliminary test. Then came the most exciting part.

The two organized one-on-one combat matches among the three hundred men, using a specific scoring system to evaluate the participants’ fighting skills, offensive and defensive capabilities, tactical application, and more.

The selection process took the better part of a day, not ending until nearly ten o’clock at night.

After ranking everyone by score, the two men ultimately selected the top two hundred.

As for the remaining men, they were regrettably eliminated.

Lin Haoran observed the entire selection process. He noticed that even the eliminated veterans were remarkably skilled.

But since Mainland China had only approved a quota of two hundred, Lin Haoran, though he found it a pity, did not ask the official to increase the number.

“Your selection method is practically the standard for elite special forces!” even the head of the military training base couldn’t help but exclaim.

For the veterans who were unfortunately not selected, Lin Haoran prepared a special subsidy for each of them as a token of recognition for their effort and time. After all, he couldn’t let them have made the trip for nothing.

Over the past two days, after completing their inspection in Guangzhou, Pao Yue-kong and Guo Henian had headed back, stopping to inspect Dongguan along the way.

Lin Haoran didn’t go with them. His main purpose for coming this time wasn’t to inspect any market, but to find a way to recruit some capable veterans for Hong Kong, a task he had now accomplished.

As for the Mainland China market?

Lin Haoran had no need to inspect it at all. He knew very well which areas would develop, what they would become, and which regions had the most potential for appreciation.

Rather than market research, this trip was more about personally experiencing the atmosphere of Mainland China in this era.

After selecting and making arrangements for the veterans, Lin Haoran gave them two days to return home and prepare.

Afterward, the relevant personnel would escort them to Huiyang, which was near Sai Kung, and secretly arrange their transport to the coast of Sai Kung in Hong Kong.

All expenses were covered by Lin Haoran, with assistance from the local government.

Lin Haoran had already discussed these matters with the official. For Mainland China, helping with two hundred veterans was a significant favor, so handling the other arrangements was a simple matter of returning it.

By noon on March 12th, Lin Haoran had already left Guangzhou and was now in a remote mountain village in Huiyang.

The place was dozens of kilometers from the sea, but it bordered the northeastern edge of Shenzhen.

Led by a reception head dispatched by the local government, and with Li Weidong and Li Weiguo guiding the way, they successfully reached their destination.

This was the two brothers’ hometown.

The village wasn’t large, with only a few dozen households, all surnamed Li.

While Li Weidong and Li Weiguo joyfully reunited with their families, Lin Haoran, accompanied by the local reception staff, carefully observed the small village built against the mountain.

The return of the two brothers sent the entire small mountain village into a frenzy.

The village was situated at the foot of a mountain, its houses built close to the mountainside. Most were constructed from large, yellow earth bricks and topped with black tiles.

He learned from the local residents that the disappearance of Li Weiguo and Li Weidong had not significantly impacted the village’s daily life; it had merely become another topic of conversation after meals.

The families of Li Weidong and Li Weiguo had not been punished in any way for the two’s disappearance; the government had simply classified them as missing persons.

In the Shenzhen or Huiyang areas, it was not uncommon for people to illegally immigrate to Hong Kong, and most people had grown accustomed to it.

Those who were caught and repatriated would face certain penalties; those who successfully made it across without being discovered naturally faced no consequences.

However, a situation like this—returning successfully after illegally immigrating, and accompanied by government personnel at that—was a first. It caused the villagers to gather at the two brothers’ homes, watching the spectacle and gossiping amongst themselves.

Lin Haoran gave them two hours to prepare, after which they would depart for Hong Kong.

Therefore, after a brief reunion with their families, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo instructed their relatives to start packing for the journey.

In truth, there wasn’t much to pack. Neither family owned many valuables, and they would naturally have to buy new things once they reached Hong Kong.

Over the past year or so, the two brothers had spent almost nothing, saving up the salaries Lin Haoran had given them.

With their current savings, it would be a simple matter for each of them to purchase a property in Hong Kong.

When the villagers learned that the two had returned to take their families to Hong Kong, they were green with envy.

Many people pleaded with Li Weidong and Li Weiguo to take them to Hong Kong as well.

However, the two brothers knew this would cause trouble for their Boss, so they refused without hesitation. Being able to take their own families to Hong Kong was something they had never even dared to dream of before.

Two hours later, the brothers and their families were ready.

Neither had a large family. Li Weidong was bringing his parents and grandfather. Li Weiguo’s parents had passed away, but his grandparents were still alive, and he also had a younger brother who was about fifteen years old.

“Let’s go. It’s still early. We should get back before dark,” Lin Haoran said, glancing at the time. It was already past two in the afternoon.

And so, the nine of them boarded the government bus and returned to the Luohu port of entry.

It was difficult for ordinary people to travel to Hong Kong openly, but with Lin Haoran’s status, and the fact that Li Weidong and Li Weiguo were now Hong Kong identity holders, there was no problem at all clearing their families’ identities. After registration, they were openly allowed to pass.

After crossing the border, a minibus that Lin Haoran had arranged by phone was already waiting for them.

By a little after five in the afternoon, Lin Haoran was finally back in the center of Hong Kong.

The entire trip had taken a full week.

After bringing Li Weidong’s and Li Weiguo’s families to Hong Kong, Lin Haoran noticed that, without him realizing it, their Loyalty had risen to one hundred.

Upon returning to Hong Kong, Lin Haoran took special care to settle their families, finding temporary lodging for them. This made the two men even more grateful to him.

Since their families had just moved, Lin Haoran specially approved for the two of them to take leave in rotation.

For him, there was little difference between going out with one bodyguard or two. He was relatively safe in Hong Kong, and now that his bodyguards were armed, his security was even stronger.

The day after his return to Hong Kong, following Lin Haoran’s arrangements via phone calls, the two hundred veterans were successfully and secretly landed in batches at Lobster Bay in Sai Kung. Lobster Bay was located in the southeastern part of Sai Kung, while border patrol boats were mostly concentrated in the north. Thus, their transfer was exceptionally smooth and went completely undetected.

After arriving in Sai Kung, they were temporarily housed at the second plant of the Green Island Cement Company.

After all, two hundred young men suddenly showing up in the city center to apply for identity cards would definitely attract a lot of attention.

Lin Haoran didn’t need to handle this matter personally. He delegated the task to Burton from the Green Island Cement Company.

To a senior Westerner executive like Burton, this was a trivial matter.

However, to reduce the risk, after some discussion, Burton arranged for the men to be taken into the city in batches over the course of a week to apply for their identity cards.

In the general manager’s office of the Oriental Press Group, Changye Building, Wan Chai.

At this moment, Lin Haoran and Cui Zilong were sitting on the sofa.

Lin Haoran hadn’t been here since acquiring the Oriental Press Group. He usually communicated with Cui Zilong by phone if anything came up.

This was only his second time here.

“General Manager Cui, have you been able to cope since we added the intelligence department?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Boss, it’s actually been fine. I’m able to delegate many things reasonably to my subordinates, so it’s not too busy,” Cui Zilong replied while brewing tea.

“In that case, how about I add a little more to your plate? Of course, I’ll increase your salary and benefits accordingly,” Lin Haoran continued.

Lin Haoran had come to see Cui Zilong with a clear purpose.

Now that the two hundred veterans had arrived in Hong Kong, it was time to establish the Security Company.

After careful consideration, Lin Haoran felt that intelligence and security were complementary, so he planned to put Cui Zilong in charge of establishing the Security Company.

After all, the Oriental Press Group was now his private property, and Cui Zilong was effectively working for him personally.

“Boss, why don’t you tell me what the job is first?”

Cui Zilong paused his tea-making, not rushing to agree. Instead, he looked at Lin Haoran with curiosity.

“Have you heard about the trouble the Green Island Cement Company’s branch in the Philippines had with the local triad?” Lin Haoran asked.

Cui Zilong nodded. “Of course, I’ve heard about that.”

“After that incident, I came to a profound realization: as our business continues to expand, our assets won’t be safe without adequate security.

“Therefore, I came up with the idea of establishing our very own Security Company. To that end, I have already managed to recruit two hundred highly capable veterans.

“Next, I plan to use these two hundred security personnel as the foundation to gradually grow this Security Company. My hope is that it will not only provide solid protection for my own businesses but also carve out a unique path of development in the security industry.

“You’ve probably heard of internationally renowned security firms like G4S, Securitas, Allied Universal, ADT, Brink’s, Guardforce, North America Security, Security Sentinel, and Best Security.

“My goal is to emulate these top companies. So, I want to ask you, are you interested in concurrently serving as the head of this Security Company?

“If you’re interested, the general manager position is yours. If not, I’ll have to find another suitable candidate,” Lin Haoran explained his intentions in detail and with clear directness.

“Two hundred veterans?” Cui Zilong repeated in surprise.

What an impressive move!

“That’s right. And these veterans have all participated in real wars, experienced their brutality, and some have even killed the enemy with their own hands!” Lin Haoran added with a smile.

He had learned this information from their personal files.

Among the two hundred veterans, many had received a second-class merit, and some had even been awarded a first-class merit.

Chapter 218: Private Reception Room

“Boss, do you plan to have this company operate under the Oriental Press Group, or will it be run independently?” Cui Zilong asked.

After Lin Haoran’s explanation, Cui Zilong had gained a certain understanding of the matter.

He had not expected his boss to have quietly arranged for two hundred highly competent military veterans.

At this moment, while asking his question, he was also carefully considering whether to accept the job his boss was offering.

The Oriental Daily News had essentially hit a plateau. It wasn’t easy to go international; at most, it could only expand its market share in Southeast Asia. Penetrating the Western market was practically impossible.

Moreover, the news media was a tricky business. Because it could control public opinion, governments in different regions had varying requirements, making it extremely difficult for the Oriental Daily News to enter other markets.

Therefore, Cui Zilong had been considering how to advance his career path, and now, this seemed like it could be an excellent opportunity.

“Of course, it will be run independently. Oriental Press Group is a newspaper and media enterprise. Don’t you think it’s strange to have a security company under it?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Cui Zilong nodded and then said, “I can serve as the head of the security company concurrently, but Boss, your goal is not small. The difficulty of developing it into an international-level security company, as you’ve described, is immense.”

“We’ll just let that happen naturally; it’s not a mandatory objective. Besides, I will gradually increase my investment. You just need to focus on managing the company well. I’ll recruit a professional to assist you in management!” Lin Haoran continued.

“Alright, I’ll give it a try then!” Cui Zilong finally accepted the task.

Subsequently, Lin Haoran and Cui Zilong discussed their upcoming plans in the office.

First, they would register a company called Universal Security Consulting Company and recruit relevant office staff.

In Hong Kong, due to the influence of various triad societies, most small and medium-sized enterprises primarily paid protection money. The security guards for many properties were, in fact, members of these triad societies.

As for the market for bodyguards, it was largely dominated by major international security firms.

Hong Kong did have one reasonably capable local security company, Jardine Matheson Security Company, but its business was currently limited to providing services for Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group’s various properties, essentially functioning as a supplier of ordinary security guards.

Cui Zilong was a newcomer to the security industry, so Lin Haoran specifically poached a deputy general manager from the Hong Kong branch of G4S to be his second-in-command.

G4S was the world’s largest security consulting company. Although he had only poached a deputy general manager from a branch company, the man knew everything there was to know about the industry. This way, Cui Zilong could quickly familiarize himself with the sector while having a professional to assist him.

This deputy general manager was very knowledgeable about the various aspects of a security company, but his management skills were clearly inferior to Cui Zilong’s.

With one as the head and the other as his deputy, they complemented each other perfectly.

After establishing Universal Security Consulting Company, Lin Haoran immediately bought a plot of land of over three hundred thousand square meters near Clearwater Bay in Sai Kung.

The area was wild and mountainous, so the land was very cheap.

Most importantly, it was nestled between mountains and the sea, making it very secure. There would be hardly any disturbances, which was perfect for building a training base.

There were also two abandoned three-story buildings on the plot. Although uninhabited, they were still in decent condition and not structurally unsound. With a little tidying up, they could be made habitable.

New construction would certainly take several months, and the security company’s personnel couldn’t wait that long to begin training.

In the week following Lin Haoran’s return, the two hundred military veterans gradually went to the city center to get their Hong Kong identity cards.

Before long, all two hundred veterans and the logistics department had moved in. Until the construction was complete, they could only conduct basic training.

The construction was handled by the Wan’an Group, which had already sent a construction team to the site. From then on, the training base would undergo construction and training simultaneously.

Once completed, it would become a professional training base on par with a military facility.

After careful consideration, Lin Haoran transferred Li Weiguo to Universal Security Consulting Company to become the Head Instructor of the newly established security firm!

Between the two brothers, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, Li Weidong was stronger, so it was most suitable for him to continue as Lin Haoran’s personal bodyguard.

Li Weiguo’s skills were slightly inferior to Li Weidong’s, but he was more shrewd. He was also an excellent fit for the role of Head Instructor.

Moreover, back in Guangzhou, it was Li Weiguo who had led the selection of these two hundred veterans. He definitely had a talent for training and was more than capable of being the Head Instructor.

As for Lin Haoran, he was primarily active in Hong Kong for the time being, so one bodyguard was indeed sufficient.

Chinese business tycoons like Li Jiacheng, Pao Yue-kong, and Li Zhaoji also typically only took one bodyguard with them when they went out.

Once Universal Security Consulting Company gradually stabilized in the future, Li Weiguo could be reassigned back at any time.

Alternatively, when Lin Haoran traveled elsewhere on business, he could also temporarily take Li Weiguo with him.

Lin Haoran specially set aside a day to watch these men train. Being new arrivals, the veterans’ loyalty to him was not particularly high, generally ranging between 70 and 80.

Lin Haoran felt this was good enough. After all, they had just come from Mainland China, so it was unrealistic to expect excessively high loyalty. The fact that their loyalty wasn’t in the fifties or sixties was already a pleasant surprise to him.

Besides, loyalty was something that could increase over time; it wasn’t static.

After getting the initial establishment of Universal Security Consulting Company sorted out, Lin Haoran no longer needed to worry about matters on that front for the time being.

In the blink of an eye, the date was March 21st.

In the morning, after finishing breakfast, Lin Haoran left the house with Li Weidong.

Li Weidong had also become his driver.

Since his parents and grandfather had been brought to Hong Kong, Li Weidong had clearly become much more cheerful.

The villa on Severn Road was very secure. Occasionally, after Lin Haoran returned home, he would permit Li Weidong to go and spend time with his parents.

“To the Wan’an Building in Central,” Lin Haoran said to Li Weidong.

“Yes, Boss!” The Rolls-Royce slowly pulled out of the Severn Road villa and headed towards Central.

While Lin Haoran had been inspecting prospects in Mainland China, the former Federation Building, now the New Wan’an Building, had finally completed its simple renovation!

Consequently, both Wan’an Group and Universal Investment Company had moved in.

Wan’an Group’s headquarters occupied the 28th, 29th, and 30th floors, while Universal Investment Company was on the top floor, the 31st.

In the new Wan’an Building, Lin Haoran also had a reception room that was entirely his own. It was over two hundred square meters in size and was also located on the 31st floor.

However, speaking of which, because he had been busy with Universal Security Consulting Company recently, he had not yet visited the new office since returning to Hong Kong.

The car drove into the underground parking garage of the Wan’an Building. The garage was almost full of cars, which showed that the building’s occupancy rate was very high.

The floors below the 27th were primarily for leasing, so there were naturally quite a few companies in the building.

Some small and medium-sized enterprises did not rent very large spaces, so some floors housed several companies at once.

There weren’t many tenants who could afford to rent an entire floor or multiple floors.

Such large corporations were more likely to purchase their own headquarters rather than rent.

Pressing the button for the 31st floor, it wasn’t long before Lin Haoran and Li Weidong arrived at the top level of the building.

Stepping out of the elevator, the first thing they saw was the reception desk of Universal Investment Company. The receptionist, Zhao Lin, was still with the company and was now supervising two newly hired receptionists.

“Good morning, Boss,” they all greeted upon seeing Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran smiled and nodded in response.

The office space here was now much more expansive, capable of accommodating Universal Investment Company’s continued growth in the future.

The current staff of Universal Investment Company included numerous departments such as the Investment Department, Research Department, Risk Management Department, Operations Department, and Administration Department. The company was becoming increasingly well-structured, with a total employee count exceeding two hundred. It was a far cry from the fledgling enterprise with only a few traders at its inception.

Although this was Lin Haoran’s first visit since they had moved, he was perfectly clear on the layout, so he quickly made his way to Su Zhixue’s office.

Now, each department had its own independent office area. The Investment Department, in particular, had separate zones for each investment project, which greatly enhanced confidentiality. It was no longer like before, where several projects were crammed into a single office.

It was fortunate that the early traders had high loyalty, preventing their investment plans from being leaked. This had allowed Lin Haoran’s covert acquisition plans to proceed smoothly all along.

“Boss, you’re here.” Seeing Lin Haoran, Su Zhixue quickly stood up from his office chair and came out to greet him.

It was only about nine in the morning, half an hour before the stock market opened, which was why Su Zhixue was in his office.

Once the market opened, he would have to go and keep a close eye on the traders.

Although Su Zhixue was the company’s general manager, he was also an excellent trader. He just no longer needed to handle trading personally. Even so, he would still oversee the overall situation during trading hours.

“Yes. How is the progress on those three stocks?” Lin Haoran asked as he sat down.

“Boss, as of yesterday’s market close, aside from our stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. which is only at 6.82%, our concealed holdings in the other two stocks have both exceeded 10%. We hold 10.69% of Hongkong Land Group and 13.56% of Kowloon Motor Bus. The progress is not slow!” Su Zhixue reported.

Lin Haoran nodded, saying with satisfaction, “This progress is good, keep it up!”

Although they were still a long way from an actual acquisition, Lin Haoran knew that if they kept this up, he would be able to hold a controlling stake in Kowloon Motor Bus within a few months at most. There was also a significant chance of taking control of Hongkong Land. As for Jardine Matheson & Co., he would let nature take its course.

After all, from the very beginning, his primary target had been Hongkong Land Group, not Jardine Matheson & Co.

“By the way, Boss, there is one more thing I need to report to you. Jardine Matheson & Co. has recently been selling off a considerable number of shares on the stock market. Their current stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company should be no more than 20%,” Su Zhixue continued his report.

Previously, Lin Haoran had entertained the idea of privatizing the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. However, after consulting with the Chairman of the Hong Kong Securities Commission, he ultimately chose to abandon the plan.

A 49.9% stake was virtually no different from 50%. In other words, holding half of the company’s shares was good enough.

Since the Securities Commission did not want him to privatize the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, he naturally wouldn’t force the issue.

Using the money he saved to invest elsewhere was just as good.

“Hmm, let them sell. Don’t worry about it,” Lin Haoran said nonchalantly.

The Hong Kong and China Gas Company was firmly in his grasp. Even if Jardine Matheson & Co. didn’t sell their shares, they couldn’t compete with him for the controlling stake.

“Boss, you haven’t seen your private reception room yet, have you? How about I take you to have a look?” Su Zhixue said with a smile.

“Alright, I’d like to see how the renovation turned out!” Lin Haoran said as he stood up.

Lin Haoran had come up with the concept for his private reception room himself, and the Wan’an Group had created the renderings.

He was curious to see how much the reality differed from the renderings.

One walking behind the other, the two men left the office and walked for a dozen meters before arriving at a set of large double doors.

Su Zhixue took out a key, unlocked the door, and pushed it open. Lin Haoran followed close behind.

Walking into the reception room of over two hundred square meters, the first thing that greeted his eyes was a wide and grand space, exuding a powerful sense of magnificence.

The floor was covered with a thick, hand-woven carpet, its soft texture creating an immediate sense of comfort underfoot.

On the ceiling hung several ornate chandeliers.

Several sets of elegant leather sofas were arranged in a circle, paired with exquisite solid wood coffee tables, displaying prestige without sacrificing comfort.

Against the wall stood tall bookshelves filled with various books and fine decorations, radiating a strong scholarly atmosphere.

Giant floor-to-ceiling windows allowed sunlight to pour in unobstructed, offering a panoramic view of the beautiful scenery outside.

By the windows were several vibrant green plants, adding a touch of natural freshness to the interior.

Chapter 219: The Beginning of the Mainland Strategy

Lin Haoran was indeed very satisfied with this grand private reception room.

“The Wan’an Group’s construction team really didn’t disappoint me. They’ve basically recreated the style of the design renderings perfectly,” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he surveyed the meticulously arranged private reception room.

“Boss, I need to head over to the investment department. The stock market is about to open,” Su Zhixue, who had been accompanying him for some time, said after glancing at his watch.

“Alright, go ahead. I’ll just look around myself,” Lin Haoran said with a wave of his hand.

After Su Zhixue left, Lin Haoran continued to examine the reception room. To one side, there was a separate office of about fifty square meters, which was reserved for Lin Haoran’s use.

However, he rarely needed an office, so it was really just for show.

The spacious floor-to-ceiling windows faced Victoria Harbour, offering a stunning view.

When meeting with important tycoons, choosing this place as the venue would certainly be very impressive.

After looking around, Lin Haoran left the reception room and took the elevator down to the 29th floor. He inspected the new premises of the Wan’an Group before heading to Yang Mingyi’s office.

However, Yang Mingyi was not in.

“Boss, General Manager Yang has gone to Tsim Sha Tsui to inspect the progress of the Shangri-La Hotel Tower project,” the head of Wan’an Group’s secretarial department quickly reported to him.

The project in Tsim Sha Tsui was clearly Guo Henian’s Shangri-La Hotel Tower project.

It was currently Wan’an Group’s only project in Tsim Sha Tsui.

“Contact him for me and tell him to come back. I have something to discuss with him,” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Yes, Boss, I’ll contact him right away!” the head of the secretarial department replied promptly and hurried off.

A few minutes later, she returned and said to Lin Haoran, “Boss, I’ve contacted the person in charge at the construction site and relayed your message. General Manager Yang should be back in about half an hour.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, indicating that she could return to her work.

He then leisurely brewed some tea in Yang Mingyi’s office, savoring the aroma as he waited patiently.

As expected, Yang Mingyi rushed back in less than half an hour.

“Boss, did you need me for something urgent?” Yang Mingyi asked eagerly as soon as he sat down.

“Don’t be anxious. Have some tea first and catch your breath,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, comforting the slightly flustered Yang Mingyi.

Yang Mingyi picked up the teacup, took a light sip, and then turned his gaze back to Lin Haoran.

“General Manager Yang, I hear you’re from Guangdong Province, is that right?” Lin Haoran finally asked.

“Yes, Boss. I’m from Humen, Dongguan. My family and I moved here in 1949. Thirty-one years have passed in the blink of an eye,” Yang Mingyi said with a touch of emotion as he recalled the past.

Indeed, a large number of people from Mainland China had migrated to Hong Kong in 1949, for reasons everyone was well aware of.

Moreover, travel between the two places was frequent back then, with no need to immigrate illegally.

It wasn’t until 1951 that Hong Kong established a border restricted area, so it wasn’t strange for Yang Mingyi to have come over during that period.

Yang Mingyi was now exactly fifty years old, which meant his whole family had moved here when he was around nineteen.

“Have you been back to your hometown since then?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

Yang Mingyi shook his head and said, “No, there were too many restrictions. My parents wanted to go back in the early years, but they were never able to make the trip.”

In this era, although it was possible to return to Mainland China, the restrictions were indeed numerous, so very few people chose to go back.

“I just took a trip to Guangdong Province a while ago and had an in-depth discussion with the officials there. I found that the potential for future development there is enormous. In particular, labor and land costs are very low, and they are planning economic reforms. You’ve heard about this, haven’t you?

“My idea is to launch large-scale investments in the Mainland. In the short term, we’ll focus mainly on Shenzhen, Dongguan, Guangzhou, and Chancheng. In the medium to long term, the plan is to expand to major cities like Shanghai, Beiping, Shancheng, as well as Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Rongcheng. Therefore, I need a person with outstanding management skills to lead our charge into the Mainland market and break new ground for me.

“I’ve already reached a preliminary consensus with the local government. Initially, we will invest in building industrial parks, developing the manufacturing industry, constructing commercial towers, and promoting infrastructure development in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Over the next two to three years, I plan to invest hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars. This is an ambitious goal, and it comes with great responsibility.

“After careful consideration, I believe you are the most suitable candidate, General Manager Yang. Having you as the person in charge of this project is undoubtedly the ideal choice. Of course, I won’t force you. I just want to know if you’re willing to take on this heavy responsibility. If you are, I will entrust it to you!” Lin Haoran said solemnly.

“Then what about Wan’an Group here?” Yang Mingyi raised his concern.

For Yang Mingyi, this proposal was indeed unexpected.

He had never imagined the Boss would assign him such a task. His first thought was about what would happen to Wan’an Group, which he had been managing all along.

“I already have a plan for Wan’an Group. I intend to merge Wan’an Group with Green Island Cement Company to establish a parent group company. This way, the resources of both parties can be more rationally allocated and shared.

“If you agree to take charge of the investment projects in the Mainland, you will become the ultimate head of our Mainland operations. As for Hong Kong, Mr. Burton will preside over the work here after the merger.

“Of course, once a solid foundation is laid in the Mainland, if you still wish to return to work in Hong Kong, you’re welcome back anytime. I certainly won’t treat you unfairly then!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Burton’s performance over the past year had indeed left Lin Haoran very satisfied.

It could be said that Green Island Cement’s current success was all thanks to Burton’s outstanding leadership and had little to do with Lin Haoran himself.

If Burton hadn’t been the general manager, Green Island Cement’s annual profit might only be twenty or thirty million Hong Kong dollars today.

But now, based on the current development trend, as long as Green Island Cement continued to expand its market share, it wouldn’t be difficult to achieve an annual profit of several hundred million Hong Kong dollars in a few years.

A manager who could make money for him was a good manager.

Naturally, he wouldn’t be stingy about giving such a talented person greater opportunities for development.

And while Yang Mingyi was also good, his management skills were clearly slightly inferior to Burton’s.

Furthermore, Yang Mingyi himself was from Guangdong Province, making him the most suitable candidate to send there for development.

Currently, Wan’an Group and Green Island Cement were already cooperating on the development of the Hung Hom plot of land. But since both companies were, in fact, his private enterprises, this kind of cooperation was actually unnecessary.

Rather than letting them operate independently, it was better to merge them.

It was just like Li Jiacheng, whom he knew of from his previous life, who also controlled Canada Yidong Group, Hutchison Whampoa Group, Green Island Cement, and Anderson Asia through Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

He didn’t plan to merge the publicly listed companies for the time being, but there was no need to keep the solely-owned enterprises too scattered.

The solely-owned enterprises currently in his hands were Green Island Cement Company, Wan’an Group, Universal Investment Company, Oriental Press Group, and Universal Security Consulting Company.

He held a controlling stake in two publicly listed companies, Hongkong Electric Group and Hong Kong and China Gas Company, both with a 49.9% shareholding. With such a stake, it was basically impossible for any financial group to wrestle control from him.

He intended to keep Universal Investment Company operating independently, as it involved too many investment secrets, so a merger was unnecessary.

There was also no need to merge Oriental Press Group and Universal Security Consulting Company for now. They could be merged in the future after they had developed further.

The most important thing right now was to merge Wan’an Group and Green Island Cement Company first.

Wan’an Group was a real estate company, while Green Island Cement Company was an infrastructure enterprise; the two were deeply interconnected.

Lin Haoran’s words sent Yang Mingyi into deep thought.

It was obvious that the Boss very much wanted him to go to the Mainland.

“Boss, my main concern is that the local government in the Mainland might give us a hard time when we invest. If that happens, our investment…” Yang Mingyi began to worry.

Although it was the Boss’s money, he would be the one in charge of the Mainland market. If the investments there resulted in losses, it would do him no good either.

“You can rest assured on that point. When I went to the Mainland this time, they treated us with great importance. The top official even met with me and promised to give us the most preferential policies. He also said that if we encounter any obstruction or difficulties during the investment process, we can contact him at any time, and he will personally resolve it for us!” Lin Haoran said directly.

Lin Haoran was not worried about this matter at all.

Those local officials might try to extort and obstruct small and medium-sized businesses, but they would never dare to do such a thing to a project with such a large investment.

Especially now, in the early stages of attracting investment for economic reform, they needed to provide a good investment environment, or who would go and invest? Everyone would be scared away!

Therefore, Lin Haoran had never even considered Yang Mingyi’s concern.

With his current status in the Hong Kong business world, to put it bluntly, if they offended him and targeted his businesses in the Mainland, the consequences of that getting out would be unimaginable!

The local governments would naturally take this into account.

“Alright, Boss, I agree!” Yang Mingyi asked no further questions.

As an employee, since the Boss wanted him to go to an unfamiliar market to break new ground, he ought to go.

Although it was fraught with uncertainty.

But Yang Mingyi also knew that even if he could refuse, and the Boss said he wouldn’t make things difficult, it would ultimately leave a bad impression in the Boss’s mind.

Besides, venturing into the Mainland might just carve out a different path for his career.

“You should still have quite a few relatives in Dongguan, right?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Yes. Telephone communication in the Mainland isn’t well-developed, and it’s probably hard for ordinary people to have the chance to make calls, but my parents and our relatives in the Mainland often exchange letters,” Yang Mingyi said with a nod.

“In that case, it’s settled. You should get ready over the next few days. I will discuss this with Mr. Burton. Everything in the Mainland will be starting from scratch, so it will be tough on you. I won’t be in the Mainland, but I will fully support you. Believe me, the speed of Guangdong Province’s development in the future will be much faster than you can possibly imagine!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Hong Kong’s development speed was fast enough, wasn’t it?

But compared to Shenzhen’s future development speed, it truly wasn’t on the same level.

After all, Hong Kong’s development was already very mature.

Chapter 220: Do You Want to Destroy the Brotherhood?

A few days later, Yang Mingyi left Hong Kong for Guangdong Province, taking with him a group of mid- to high-level managers who had decided to follow him to develop in Mainland China.

At the same time, he also brought a batch of engineering and technical personnel from the Wan’an Group.

After all, in this era, places like Shenzhen were mostly barren wastelands. For any future development, they first needed to build factories and office buildings.

Lin Haoran had already told him the key areas for investment, even marking them out on a map for him.

As for capital, the initial startup fund was one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. Of course, this wasn’t to be spent recklessly; the sum was more than enough for the initial investment in many projects.

The first step was to buy up large plots of land in key areas of Shenzhen, Dongguan, Guangzhou, and Chancheng—as large as they could get—and then invest in building industrial parks.

The present was not actually the best time to invest in Mainland China; it was still quite early. A few years later, as policies became more refined, it would be a much more suitable environment for investment.

The most important reason for Lin Haoran to enter the mainland so early was simply to seize the first-mover advantage, to claim some of the better locations before others could beat him to it.

People like Pao Yue-kong and Guo Henian had inspected the mainland market, but they were uncertain if it would ever truly develop. Thus, their initial investments were minor, such as building a hotel or something similar.

Lin Haoran, who was directly buying land to build industrial parks, was likely the only one of his kind.

By the time the industrial parks were completed, at least two or three years would have passed. By then, there would naturally be development projects suitable for the mainland.

Electronic manufacturing, infrastructure manufacturing, textiles, food processing, machinery manufacturing, and more—these would all gradually be touched upon.

The development of the mainland would not happen too quickly. Yang Mingyi’s current role was more about laying the groundwork for the future, staking a claim on the best locations first.

In this era, one hundred million Hong Kong dollars was no small sum in Mainland China. Even in Hong Kong, it was a considerable amount, more than enough to purchase a lot of prime real estate in several mainland cities.

Right now, let alone Shenzhen, even in Guangzhou, the provincial capital, land was not expensive at all.

After all, the mainland’s economy had yet to take off, so there was no basis for land price speculation.

Moreover, they were being brought in as part of the mainland’s effort to attract investment, which meant they would receive certain policy benefits for land purchases and development, lowering their costs even further.

Having finally attracted a major investor, the local authorities would naturally do whatever they could to keep them. And how would they do that? Through favorable policies and incentives, of course.

Without any advantages, why would anyone invest there?

Meanwhile, Wan’an Group officially merged with Green Island Cement Company to establish the Wanqing Group.

Burton was appointed President of Wanqing Group, with Lin Haoran as Chairman. The group had two subsidiaries: Green Island Cement Company and Wan’an Real Estate Development Company. The company headquarters was the Wanqing Building, formerly the New Wan’an Building.

The building had been renamed again after just over two months.

However, it was clear that the Wanqing Building was destined to have a far greater influence than the Wan’an Building ever did.

For the convenience of operations, Burton also moved the headquarters of Green Island Cement Company from Hung Hom to the Wanqing Building.

In the blink of an eye, more than a month passed.

During this month, all the businesses developed smoothly.

Good news also came from Yang Mingyi. With the support and assistance of the Shenzhen government, they had acquired multiple plots of land in Luohu, Nanshan, and Shekou. Notably, next to the Shekou Industrial Park, they secured a plot of a full one million square meters.

This piece of land would be developed into a large-scale industrial park. Not only that, but because it was adjacent to Shenzhen Bay, a large port could be built. In the future, products manufactured in this industrial park could be shipped to all corners of the world directly from this port.

Thanks to the Guo family’s help, Green Island Cement Company’s cement and other infrastructure products successfully captured more of the market in Malaysia.

The Guo family was a local powerhouse in Malaysia. Their real estate business was one of the largest in the country, and the demand from the Guo family alone significantly boosted Green Island Cement’s revenue.

The secret accumulation of shares in Kowloon Motor Bus, Hongkong Land Group, and Jardine Matheson & Co. continued unabated, still unnoticed by the public. Their holdings in Kowloon Motor Bus had already surpassed twenty percent, and the opportunity to take over the publicly listed utility company was just around the corner.

Over at Universe Security Consulting Company, after a period of intense training, the retired soldiers had gradually recovered the physical fitness, discipline, teamwork, and tactical awareness they possessed in the military.

Although the base was not yet fully constructed, all the necessary training equipment and programs were in place.

They had even built a temporary indoor shooting range out of sheet metal for firearms training.

To improve their combat skills, Li Weiguo, the chief instructor, frequently had the members spar with one another.

Everything was developing in a positive direction.

With professional managers handling everything, Lin Haoran was happy to enjoy his leisure.

…

However, just as Lin Haoran was enjoying his peace and quiet, new troubles were brewing in the Philippines.

May 5th marked the beginning of summer.

Late at night, in a large compound in a southern suburb of Manila, several hundred men had gathered. Most were tattooed young men in their twenties and thirties, with a few older members in their forties and fifties mixed in.

Many of them bore minor injuries, some with their hands or legs wrapped in white bandages.

They were members of the Brotherhood.

Just two hours earlier, they had been through a fierce battle against their main rivals in Manila—the Four Seas Gang.

The conflict was initiated by the Four Seas Gang in an attempt to seize a street controlled by the Brotherhood. In the end, they succeeded.

“Are the casualty numbers tallied?” the Dragon Head of the Brotherhood asked, his face calm on the surface.

Inside, however, his heart was a raging volcano of fury.

“Brother Yong, the casualty report is in. We lost nineteen brothers this time, and one hundred and twelve were injured. The losses are devastating. What’s worse, by losing West Street, we’ll lose at least ten million US dollars in annual income!” a subordinate reported grimly.

The Brotherhood had to support over a thousand members, and losing this territory was a heavy blow.

However, against the powerful Four Seas Gang, they were helpless.

Under constant pressure from the Four Seas Gang, their territory had been shrinking day by day.

“Those bastards. I’ll make them pay for this sooner or later!” the Dragon Head said through gritted teeth.

“Brother Yong, the society’s public funds are already stretched thin. The dead and injured brothers all need compensation. We have to solve this quickly, or it will cause discontent among the men,” the person in charge of finances reminded him.

“Then what should we do? Does anyone have any good ideas? We can’t let our brothers suffer. The most important thing for us is unity!” The Dragon Head scanned the faces of the society’s top brass.

Although these high-ranking members were all personally rolling in money, they were clearly unwilling to use their own funds to fill this gap.

“I have a suggestion,” a high-ranking member began. “Does everyone remember Green Island Cement Company? We were hired by Aemex Company to warn them not to enter the Visayas market.

“As far as I know, that cement factory was smart enough not to try and enter that market again. What does that tell us? It means they don’t have any powerful backing!

“Isn’t a company like that ours for the taking? We can go threaten them, make them pay protection money. If they don’t, we can secretly cause trouble for them until they submit. Wouldn’t that solve the compensation problem?”

“That’s a great idea! Let’s do it!”

“Right, tell them to cough up a million or so US dollars. They wouldn’t dare refuse unless they want to give up the Philippine market!”

“I heard that this cement factory is a top seller on Luzon Island. They’re making a huge profit. How could they possibly give up our Philippine market so easily?”

“We’ll just tell them that as long as they pay the protection money, we’ll leave them alone. As for the future… well, when we’re short on cash again, we can just go ‘borrow’ some more from them. Foreign companies like this without any backing are basically our personal cash cows!”

The high-ranking member’s proposal was met with enthusiastic approval, and everyone nodded in agreement.

To them, any idea that didn’t involve them spending their own money was a good one.

“Alright, that’s settled then. Baldy Biao, take a hundred men tomorrow morning and give them a taste of what we can do. Warn them they have one week to come up with one million US dollars, or they’ll face the consequences.

“But don’t kill anyone this time. After all, they’re our ‘sponsor’!” The Dragon Head looked at a bald, tough-looking man of about thirty and gave the order.

“Got it, Boss!” the bald man readily agreed.

In their eyes, Green Island Cement Company was like a fish on the chopping block, ready to be carved up. They had no doubt the company would cooperate.

If they didn’t, they had plenty of ways to make them submit.

They were well-versed in this sort of business.

They might be wary of large corporations with powerful backing, but they wouldn’t show any mercy to a company like Green Island Cement, which had no roots in the local community.

The next morning, in front of the Green Island Cement Company’s factory in Manila, Baldy Biao led over a hundred triad members and completely blockaded the main gate.

“Get your person in charge out here!” Baldy Biao roared at the trembling security guards at the entrance.

Soon, the head of Green Island Cement Company’s Philippine branch hurried to the factory gate.

“Listen up,” Baldy Biao warned viciously. “I’m giving you one week to get us one million US dollars in protection money. In return, our society will be responsible for your safety. If you dare to disobey, you’ll face the consequences.

“Remember, you have only one week. If we don’t see that one million dollars after a week, it won’t be a matter of one or two people dying. I guarantee your company will have no place left in the Philippines!”

After his speech, Baldy Biao and his men swaggered into the factory premises, showing off their strength before leaving arrogantly.

After they had gone, the branch head let out a long sigh of relief and immediately contacted the Hong Kong headquarters to report the emergency to the Group President, Burton.

“The Brotherhood?” Even Burton was deeply surprised to hear this.

He never expected that even though Green Island Cement Company had obediently stayed on Luzon Island and not expanded into the Visayas, they would still be targeted. And this time, it was blatant extortion.

One million US dollars was no small sum; it was nearly half a month’s profit for the company.

Although he had some government connections in the Philippines, the government’s power was often limited when dealing with such a large triad society.

Therefore, Burton decided to report the matter to his boss first.

Less than an hour after the incident, Lin Haoran received the troubling news.

When he heard about it, Lin Haoran was at the Hongkong Electric Group’s office, discussing the group’s overseas market expansion with Chen Shoulin.

“Hmph, I was going to give you some breathing room, but you just had to come knocking on death’s door yourselves,” Lin Haoran muttered to himself after hanging up, his brows tightly furrowed.

Even a saint has his limits, let alone a man.

Immediately, Lin Haoran dialed Guo Henian’s number from his office.

“Nephew Lin, what’s the occasion for you to call me?” Guo Henian was quite surprised to receive a call from Lin Haoran, as it was the first time Lin Haoran had initiated contact.

“Uncle Guo, I remember you mentioning that you know the Dragon Head of the Four Seas Gang in the Philippines, is that correct? Would you be able to give me his contact information?” Lin Haoran got straight to the point.

“The contact info for the Four Seas Gang’s Dragon Head? No problem, wait a moment, I’ll find it for you right now!” Guo Henian readily agreed.

A few minutes later, Lin Haoran had the contact number for the Four Seas Gang’s leader.

He dialed it without hesitation.

After a brief self-introduction, upon learning that Lin Haoran was a friend of Guo Henian, the Dragon Head of the Four Seas Gang naturally did not dare to be disrespectful.

“Mr. Lin, what can I do for you?” the other party asked politely.

“Mr. Xiao,” Lin Haoran said directly, “do you want to destroy the Brotherhood?”

Chapter 221: Two Hundred Veterans Set Out

Lin Haoran’s decision to seek out the Dragon Head of the Four Seas Gang was for a very simple reason.

He planned to leverage the power of the Four Seas Gang to jointly eliminate the threat posed by the Brotherhood, which had repeatedly threatened and provoked the Green Island Cement Company.

To this end, he intended to send his two hundred veterans into real combat.

These two hundred veterans, who had fought on battlefields, were undoubtedly far superior in individual capability to ordinary triad members. However, the Brotherhood was a large triad society with over a thousand members.

Therefore, pitting these two hundred men alone against such a large force would inevitably lead to unnecessary casualties.

To reduce these needless sacrifices, the Four Seas Gang had to serve as the main fighting force.

As for the members of the Universal Security Consulting Company, they would be responsible for a covert flanking maneuver, tasked with taking out the enemy’s high-level key figures.

Once the Brotherhood was eliminated, the Four Seas Gang would undoubtedly become the biggest beneficiary.

Since they stood to gain the most, it was only natural that they should bear the greatest responsibility.

Moreover, the Four Seas Gang would have to take the fall for the large number of deaths resulting from the eventual clash.

Lin Haoran’s objective in this operation was not to gain benefits or seize territory in the Philippine underworld.

He had no interest in occupying these territories to collect protection money or sell drugs.

Otherwise, his security company would be a triad, not a security company.

His goals were pure and limited:

First, revenge.

Second, a show of force as a deterrent.

Third, to have a large triad society like the Four Seas Gang owe him a favor.

Fourth, to give this batch of veterans real combat experience and enhance their practical skills.

Since the local police couldn’t protect his business, he would take matters into his own hands.

After this battle, Lin Haoran’s businesses in the Philippines would no longer face any threats.

On the other end of the phone, the Dragon Head of the Four Seas Gang heard Lin Haoran’s words, and his first reaction was, what nonsense is this Mr. Lin talking?

They also wanted to wipe out the Brotherhood, but was it that easy?

They had clashed with the Brotherhood many times over the years. Although they had won more than they had lost, completely annihilating the other side was simply impossible.

“Mr. Lin, I don’t understand what you mean,” the Four Seas Gang’s Dragon Head said directly.

“I have a very low opinion of the Brotherhood. They’ve provoked me, so I intend to wipe out their society. I just wanted to ask if Mr. Xiao is interested. If you are, I can send a well-equipped armed force to assist you. As long as we seize the opportunity, there’s no way the Brotherhood will survive!” Lin Haoran stopped beating around the bush and stated his purpose directly.

“Mr. Lin, are you joking?” The other party was clearly still in disbelief.

This news was simply too sudden for him.

Moreover, he knew nothing about Lin Haoran. If the other party hadn’t mentioned Guo Henian’s name, he would have hung up long ago.

“For Mr. Xiao, even if this is false, you have nothing to lose, do you? This is a very rare opportunity. You can swallow up all of the Brotherhood’s territory and even absorb most of their members to strengthen your Four Seas Gang.

If Mr. Xiao isn’t willing, then let’s forget it. Just pretend I, Lin, never said a thing. Of course, I would still be very happy to be friends with Mr. Xiao. Mr. Guo Henian has told me many times that you are a man of honor,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

With such a good opportunity, Lin Haoran didn’t believe the other party would refuse.

After all, if they could completely crush the Brotherhood, the Four Seas Gang’s power in Manila would absolutely skyrocket.

“Mr. Lin, give me some time to consider. I’ll give you a reply as soon as possible!” It was obvious that Mr. Xiao was moved by Lin Haoran’s words.

However, since he was unfamiliar with Lin Haoran’s background, he needed to investigate his identity first.

Once he confirmed Lin Haoran’s identity and found that he truly had the power to back up his claims, it would be an enormous boon for the Four Seas Gang.

If they could successfully defeat the Brotherhood, the Four Seas Gang could take over all of the Brotherhood’s sphere of influence and territory, thereby significantly increasing the triad society’s strength.

If he let such an opportunity slip by, he wouldn’t be worthy of his position as Dragon Head.

“Alright, I’ll wait for your news,” Lin Haoran said before hanging up.

If the other party wanted to investigate him, the only way was through Guo Henian.

And just as Lin Haoran had predicted, after hanging up, the Dragon Head of the Four Seas Gang immediately dialed Guo Henian’s number.

He was eager to find out who this Mr. Lin was and why he was so determined to go after the Brotherhood.

Mr. Xiao’s call with Guo Henian lasted for a full ten minutes.

During this ten-minute exchange, he gained a preliminary understanding of Lin Haoran.

Unexpectedly, this Mr. Lin was just a young man in his twenties, but he was already the helmsman of several large corporations.

Through Guo Henian’s account, he also learned about the recent incident where the Green Island Cement Company had been threatened by the Brotherhood.

“So that’s how it is. No wonder this Mr. Lin detests the Brotherhood so much. I just wonder how strong his armed force really is.” After hanging up, the Dragon Head of the Four Seas Gang sat in his chair, lost in thought.

The Four Seas Gang was much more powerful than the Brotherhood in Manila, so they naturally knew about the recent incident where the Brotherhood had threatened a foreign company and even killed someone.

A big boss like him probably wouldn’t lie. Perhaps this was a real opportunity to eradicate the Brotherhood in one fell swoop!

I must agree. I have to agree.

For the Four Seas Gang he helmed, the best and most direct way to expand its power was to annex other forces.

And just as Mr. Lin had said, even if the operation failed, their Four Seas Gang would suffer no losses.

After all, would the Four Seas Gang fear retaliation from the Brotherhood?

Of course not.

Thus, the Dragon Head of the Four Seas Gang quickly made his decision.

A short while later, Lin Haoran received another call from the triad Dragon Head, who expressed his wish to discuss the details of their cooperation.

It seemed the partnership was a done deal.

Furthermore, through the Four Seas Gang Dragon Head’s explanation, Lin Haoran gained a deeper understanding of the Brotherhood’s situation.

He hadn’t expected that the Four Seas Gang and the Brotherhood had recently had a fierce battle and that the Four Seas Gang had suffered heavy losses. No wonder they had turned to extorting the Green Island Cement Company.

It turned out that the misfortune that befell Green Island Cement was indirectly related to the Four Seas Gang.

Unfortunately for them, they had picked a fight with the wrong person this time. The Brotherhood was still completely unaware that they had offended someone they absolutely could not afford to offend.

After a long conversation, Lin Haoran and he agreed that men would be dispatched to the Philippines within three days to make contact.

As for the specific details of the cooperation, they would naturally have to wait until Lin Haoran’s men arrived to discuss them in detail.

At noon, Lin Haoran arrived at the Universal Security Company’s training base in Sai Kung.

Having been notified, Cui Zilong also rushed over.

In a simple office at the training ground, Lin Haoran, Cui Zilong, and Li Weiguo were gathered together.

“Weiguo, these veterans have been training for so long. How well do you understand them now?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Boss, these men are all very capable,” Li Weiguo replied. “Among these two hundred men, a few have fighting skills nearly on par with my own. When I spar with them, it’s an even match.

Therefore, I’ve already promoted them to squad leaders. Even the weaker members can easily handle several ordinary young men.

I can say that any one of these men has the potential to become a special forces soldier in the army, and some could even become elite soldiers. Their overall quality is very high!

Moreover, with the dietary adjustments we’ve made during this period, their physical fitness has also significantly improved!”

As the head instructor and a member of the management at the training ground, Li Weiguo knew the situation of these two hundred men like the back of his hand.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly.

At this moment, Cui Zilong also looked at Lin Haoran, puzzled, wondering why the Boss had suddenly summoned him.

“Get ready. I’m planning to arrange some real combat training for these men!” Lin Haoran said with a solemn expression.

“Real combat training?” Li Weiguo and Cui Zilong asked almost in unison, completely baffled by their boss’s words.

Subsequently, Lin Haoran detailed the series of incidents that the Philippine branch of Green Island Cement Company had encountered recently.

After hearing the explanation, the two of them finally understood. So many things had happened during this time.

“It is precisely because of this incident that I specially recruited a batch of veterans from Mainland China. My goal is to build a powerful security company capable of protecting our businesses. Now, it’s time for them to face a real test.

General Manager Cui, I plan to send you to lead a team to Manila, Philippines, to cooperate with a large local triad, the Four Seas Gang, to fight against another triad force—the Brotherhood. Our goal is to completely destroy the Brotherhood, especially their high-level leadership. It would be best to round them all up in one go!

Your main task will be to command from behind the scenes, as well as to contact and negotiate with the leader of the Four Seas Gang to ensure the smooth execution of the operation. So there will be no danger. Our security personnel will not have to face the enemy head-on this time, but will instead adopt a covert encirclement strategy against the Brotherhood.

Of course, if you’re unwilling to go, I’ll send someone else. It depends on your personal wishes.

In fact, the main force against the Brotherhood will be the Four Seas Gang. They are numerous and powerful, far surpassing the Brotherhood, so your mission this time is relatively easy!” Lin Haoran explained the entire plan to them in detail.

Cui Zilong knew nothing about the incident Green Island Cement had faced in the Philippines because it had happened abroad, had not been publicly reported, and the Oriental Press Group’s intelligence network mainly covered Hong Kong.

As for Li Weiguo, as Lin Haoran’s bodyguard, his duty was to protect him when he went out, and he wouldn’t enter the office, so he didn’t know the specifics of the matter either.

“Boss, I agree to go,” Cui Zilong said directly.

Having taken this job, he naturally knew his responsibilities. Besides, according to the Boss, the trip wasn’t very risky, and he wouldn’t have to fight personally. The most important task was merely to discuss the cooperation with the Dragon Head of the Four Seas Gang.

“Boss, I’d like to go too. I’ve been with these two hundred men this whole time and know them very well. It would be most appropriate for me to be the one to arrange them,” Li Weiguo volunteered.

“But your grandparents just arrived in Hong Kong. It might not be a good time for you to leave, right?” Lin Haoran had not originally intended for Li Weiguo to go.

This was a subordinate with one hundred percent loyalty; he had never thought of letting Li Weiguo take such a risk.

“Don’t worry, Boss. Even if I participate in this operation, there won’t be any problems. You know my capabilities, and this trip shouldn’t take too long,” Li Weiguo said in a firm tone.

“Alright then. By the way, are there any snipers among these men? If so, take out their leaders from the dark first. That will make things much easier!” Lin Haoran suddenly asked.

“Snipers? Yes, there are. Among these two hundred men, we can pick out at least twenty snipers. A few of them even received great merits as snipers in the Sino-Vietnamese War last year!” Li Weiguo replied with a smile.

“That makes things easier. General Manager Cui, you must book tickets to Manila for tomorrow. If tickets are tight, just charter a plane. I think Cathay Pacific Airways should offer that service.

Once you arrive, General Manager Cui, you’ll first discuss with the Dragon Head of the Four Seas Gang to find the best time for a surprise attack. The Four Seas Gang must have ways to gather the Brotherhood’s members in one place!

Also, after this matter is successfully handled, you need to open a branch of Universal Security Consulting in Manila. If we want to become an international security consulting company in the future, limiting our development to Hong Kong is far from enough!” Lin Haoran instructed gravely.

Next, Lin Haoran, Li Weiguo, and Cui Zilong carefully discussed the operational matters for their trip.

There were flights from Hong Kong to Manila every day, and the journey was only a little over two hours.

Therefore, going to Manila was very convenient.

And so, the matter was settled.

For these veterans to further improve their strength, real combat was essential. Otherwise, training day after day on the training ground would ultimately have limited effect.

Only through real combat could their comprehensive abilities be enhanced more quickly.

Chapter 222: A Probing Spar

A flight from Hong Kong landed smoothly at the airport in Manila, the largest city in the Philippines.

Cui Zilong and Li Weiguo, leading two hundred plainly dressed members of the Universal Security Consulting Company, set foot on this unfamiliar land.

Lin Haoran had already instructed Burton to cooperate with Cui Zilong.

As a result, several large buses were already parked and waiting for them in the airport parking lot.

Half an hour later, they arrived at the Green Island Cement Company’s plant on the outskirts of Manila.

The factory was bustling with activity, yet worry was visible on the faces of many of the workers.

The Green Island Cement’s Philippines branch had been gaining market share, causing a surge in orders and an expansion of production tasks, which had already made the factory a busy place.

The events of the past two days had prompted some local employees to resign, fearing for their lives.

So, with orders piling up and the workforce shrinking, it had become common for employees to work over ten hours a day.

The factory would have a hard time hiring new people until the situation was resolved.

“General Manager Cui, we have plenty of vacancies in our employee dormitories. We can get your men settled in there,” the Factory Manager said as he greeted Cui Zilong and his group.

The Factory Manager knew, of course, that these men were here to solve the company’s security problems.

The Factory Manager breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of the two hundred able-bodied men.

For the past two days, he had been on edge, waiting for a response from headquarters.

He hadn’t expected headquarters to act so quickly. He just wondered how they planned to deal with the Brotherhood.

Regardless, having these men at the factory gave him a sense of security, at least for now.

“Have these men pose as new factory employees for now. Don’t mention their true identities to anyone,” Cui Zilong said gravely.

“Rest assured, General Manager Cui. Mr. Burton already briefed me. No one will know,” the Factory Manager said, nodding.

“Please get these two hundred men settled in. Also, arrange a car and a reliable driver for me; I need them.” Cui Zilong had no intention of resting. He needed to resolve the situation here as quickly as possible so he could return to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong wasn’t exactly peaceful with its many triad societies, but there, he had the Boss watching his back. No one would dare to cross him.

But Manila was different. Even with two hundred men, he still felt a sense of trepidation.

Because Manila was far more chaotic than Hong Kong.

The Philippines was a country where guns weren’t banned. The legal trade of firearms resulted in an exceptionally high rate of gun ownership among the public.

This situation had a significant negative impact on the country’s stability and public safety.

Because gun ownership was legal, it was difficult to control activities like robbery and murder.

The Factory Manager readily agreed to Cui Zilong’s requests.

Soon, a Chinese driver pulled up beside Cui Zilong in a Volkswagen Passat.

Cui Zilong and Li Weiguo got into the car.

“Take us to Tangde Restaurant in Chinatown.”

Half an hour later, Li Weiguo and Cui Zilong found themselves on a narrow, stone-paved street.

This was the famous Manila Chinatown. The street was lined with Chinese shops, most with signs in Chinese characters.

Above the storefronts were quaint, delicate arcaded buildings, the streetscape reminiscent of the style of the Shangxiajiu district in Guangzhou.

The Passat finally stopped in front of a building with classical decor.

“Gentlemen, we’ve arrived at Tangde Restaurant,” the driver said.

“Alright, thanks. Just wait for us here. We’ll be back within an hour,” Cui Zilong said, then got out of the car with Li Weiguo.

He looked up at the three-story building. It looked aged, and a sign hung above, bearing the four characters for ‘Tangde Restaurant’.

Cui Zilong had already contacted Mr. Xiao, the Dragon Head of the Four Seas Gang, and arranged to meet him in a private room here.

Apparently, this restaurant was Mr. Xiao’s private property.

They walked into the restaurant. It was bustling with activity, a clear sign that business was usually good.

After giving the room number, a waiter led them to a quiet private room on the third floor.

He opened the door and saw the man sitting inside—the renowned Dragon Head of Manila’s Four Seas Gang.

“Hello, Mr. Xiao. I’m Cui Zilong, the representative sent by Mr. Lin. This is Mr. Li Weiguo. The two of us are responsible for this operation,” Cui Zilong introduced.

“Mr. Cui, Mr. Li, please have a seat.” Mr. Xiao stood up and gestured for them to sit.

The three then began to discuss the details of their cooperation.

The Four Seas Gang had informants all over Manila, so finding a suitable opportunity wouldn’t be difficult.

Additionally, the Four Seas Gang was to provide Li Weiguo’s team with two hundred handguns and five sniper rifles, all of which had been pre-arranged between Lin Haoran and the Dragon Head.

After all, the Four Seas Gang stood to gain the most from the Brotherhood’s destruction; it was only natural they would contribute something.

Half an hour later, they had more or less finalized the details.

“Mr. Li, since you’re leading the team this time, I presume your martial arts skills are quite remarkable. How about we have a friendly match?” Mr. Xiao said, standing up with a smile.

He clearly wanted to see what Li Weiguo was made of.

After all, while he knew they had brought two hundred elite men, he knew nothing about their actual capabilities.

Thus, he still had some doubts about the men Lin Haoran had sent.

It would be a good chance to test the Head Instructor’s strength.

If the instructor was skilled, his men were likely competent as well, which would give him more confidence in their success.

“Of course, Mr. Xiao. Be my guest.” Li Weiguo didn’t mind.

He was very confident in his own fighting abilities.

Especially over the past month, as the Head Instructor, he had frequently sparred with his men, and his skills had improved even more.

This Mr. Xiao, to have become the Dragon Head of a major gang, was clearly a formidable fighter.

But Li Weiguo wasn’t fazed in the least.

The three of them left the private room and went up to the rooftop, which was deserted.

The buildings in Chinatown weren’t very tall.

From here, they could look down on many of the streets in the Chinatown district.

“Mr. Li, please!”

“Mr. Xiao, please!”

And so, the contest between the two martial arts experts officially began.

The only spectators were Cui Zilong and a young man, who was clearly a trusted subordinate of Mr. Xiao’s, perhaps a younger relative.

Li Weiguo was agile, his footwork nimble, like a leopard poised to strike, constantly probing for an opening.

Mr. Xiao, in contrast, was more composed. While his movements lacked Li Weiguo’s swiftness, each strike and block revealed profound skill and precise foresight.

They traded blows, fists whistling through the air and kicks blurring in a flurry of motion, making it impossible to tell who had the upper hand.

Li Weiguo pressed his advantage in speed, trying to overwhelm his opponent and find an opening for a single, decisive strike.

But Mr. Xiao, with his solid defense and accurate counters, repeatedly neutralized the attacks and looked for his own chances to retaliate.

As time wore on, their stamina began to wane, but their fighting spirit only intensified.

Then, during a fierce exchange, Li Weiguo suddenly switched tactics. He stopped relying solely on speed, focusing instead on power and rhythm.

He deftly capitalized on a slip in Mr. Xiao’s offense, instantly repositioning himself and launching a counterattack with unstoppable force.

With a ghostly flicker of movement, Li Weiguo appeared at Mr. Xiao’s side and landed a heavy, powerful side kick squarely on his calf.

Although Mr. Xiao happened to be wearing a shin guard which absorbed most of the impact, he still felt the staggering force of the blow.

He swayed, nearly losing his balance.

Li Weiguo had aimed for that spot intentionally; he had no desire to injure his opponent.

It was just a friendly spar, after all. There was no need for injuries.

That single strike not only broke the stalemate but also fully ignited Li Weiguo’s fighting spirit.

He pressed his advantage, unleashing a relentless barrage of attacks that forced Mr. Xiao back step by step.

Finally, after a brilliant combination of punches, Li Weiguo ended the intense spar with a spectacular spinning kick.

“You went easy on me, Mr. Xiao,” Li Weiguo said calmly, without a hint of smugness over his victory.

After all, his opponent was a middle-aged man of about forty who was at a disadvantage due to his age. In his youth, he was likely no weaker than Li Weiguo was now; otherwise, he could never have built such a powerful faction in a foreign land.

“Impressive skills, Mr. Li. I’m no match for you. I’m getting old, truly old,” Mr. Xiao said with a sigh.

The young man who had been watching was stunned.

He knew his boss’s strength. Even though he was over forty, he was without a doubt the strongest fighter in the Four Seas Gang.

He never expected that the mightiest Dragon Head of the Four Seas Gang would be defeated by a young man.

If word of this got out, it would undoubtedly shock many people.

Cui Zilong’s expression, however, remained unchanged. He wasn’t surprised by the outcome.

As the general manager of the Universal Security Consulting Company, he was well aware of how formidable Li Weiguo was.

If he weren’t, how could he have been the Boss’s bodyguard? How could he be the company’s Head Instructor?

“I only had the advantage of youth over you, Mr. Xiao. Your skills are formidable as well,” Li Weiguo said humbly.

“Mr. Li, you must be the strongest among the men you brought this time, correct?” Mr. Xiao asked tentatively.

Just now, Li Weiguo had thoroughly defeated him. It had been an almost complete suppression; his attacks had been too fast.

Mr. Xiao had been mostly on the defensive.

As a triad Dragon Head, he had personally led his men in bloody battles to carve out his territory. It was safe to say his combat experience was extensive.

And yet, with all that skill, he had been defeated in less than five minutes.

He had given it his all, but still lost in the end.

Such skill led Mr. Xiao to believe that Li Weiguo was undoubtedly the strongest among the men who had come this time.

However, Li Weiguo shook his head. “I’m only the team leader because I have a good relationship with the Boss—I used to be his bodyguard. In reality, there are several men with us this time whose skills are in no way inferior to mine. And while the others may not be my equal, they are all excellent fighters.”

Mr. Xiao studied Li Weiguo’s expression. He didn’t seem to be lying.

Mr. Xiao was utterly astonished.

There were several others with them who were this strong?

Moreover, from what he understood, all these men had seen battle, which meant their marksmanship couldn’t be poor.

At that moment, all of Mr. Xiao’s previous worries vanished, replaced by a burgeoning sense of confidence.

Chapter 223: A Turtle in a Jar

Time flew by, and soon it was May 9th.

That afternoon, Cui Zilong received a message from the Dragon Head of the Four Seas Gang: the Brotherhood would be gathering at eight o’clock that night at a manor in the southern suburbs to discuss important gang matters.

All of the Brotherhood’s top brass, along with more than half of their mid-level and low-level leaders and regular members, would be assembled at this manor.

The number of Brotherhood triad society members gathered at the manor would exceed five hundred.

Such a good opportunity was naturally not to be missed. They might even be able to wipe them out in one fell swoop.

Clearly, the Four Seas Gang had informants within the Brotherhood.

Of course, the Brotherhood might very well have informants within the Four Seas Gang as well.

Therefore, the Four Seas Gang’s Dragon Head wouldn’t tell his subordinates about the operation against the Brotherhood too early. Only a few of his most trusted chieftains knew in advance.

Cui Zilong and his men had been here for three days, waiting patiently.

The guns from the Four Seas Gang had already been secretly delivered to Li Weiguo and his men. Now, each of them had a pistol, and a few even had sniper rifles.

In a place like the Philippines, martial arts skills were secondary; gunfights were far more common.

This was a country where one could legally own firearms. No matter how tough you were, you couldn’t fight an armed opponent with your bare hands.

For the past few days, to prevent any Brotherhood informants from discovering this group of unknown men who had suddenly appeared at the Green Island Cement factory, everyone had maintained a very low profile. They even wore factory uniforms and helped out at the plant, successfully misleading people into thinking they were just newly hired workers.

These veterans were from Mainland China, and many of them had been assigned to various factories back home. They were no strangers to hard work, so this kind of temporary job didn’t faze them. They played their parts convincingly and even temporarily solved the factory’s labor shortage, which put the Factory Manager in a very good mood.

Since the Brotherhood had their sights set on Green Island Cement Company, they might have already planted informants among the employees, so it was crucial not to alert the enemy.

After all, the Green Island Cement factory in the Philippines had lost a number of employees recently due to the Brotherhood’s threats, so hiring new workers was perfectly normal.

Upon receiving the news, Cui Zilong and Li Weiguo quickly mobilized, preparing for the night’s events.

This was real combat, fraught with mortal danger, and they couldn’t afford a moment of carelessness.

In a dormitory at the Green Island Cement Company, Cui Zilong, Li Weiguo, and the five most skilled snipers were gathered together.

Outside, a man was smoking in the hallway, but he was actually standing guard to prevent anyone from accidentally overhearing their secrets. No one knew that they were discussing tonight’s battle plans inside the room.

Each of the five snipers held a photograph. These five photos were of the Brotherhood’s five most important figures, including their Dragon Head and the other four chieftains.

“You should all be familiar with the manor’s surroundings,” Li Weiguo said solemnly. “There’s an abandoned chemical plant about five hundred meters from the manor. Its cooling towers are three or four stories high, a perfect place for you to set up. Your targets tonight are the men in these photos. Kill them, and you will be rewarded for your merits!”

A distance of about five hundred meters was really not far for a sniper. For a professional, it was practically a hundred shots, a hundred hits.

As for the remaining 195 men, they would support the Four Seas Gang, providing backup when the two gangs clashed.

Tonight, they were preparing to execute a “turtle in a jar” tactic: first, they would take down the Brotherhood’s leadership to destroy their command structure, trapping them inside the manor so they couldn’t escape, and then they would launch a swift, powerful assault.

Without its chieftains, the Brotherhood would surely descend into a disorganized mess, making it much easier to crush them.

The Four Seas Gang’s Dragon Head had told them that his gang would mobilize over a thousand members for this fierce battle tonight.

After discussions, the mission for Li Weiguo’s men was to keep the Brotherhood pinned down in the manor. The fighting inside would be handled by the Four Seas Gang.

Although the Four Seas Gang claimed to have over three thousand members, they had to leave men behind to guard their territory. They couldn’t deploy everyone, or they might risk having their own headquarters taken over by another triad society.

Furthermore, they would only formally notify their men of the operation tonight, having gathered them in advance under some other pretext.

In the past, despite their superior numbers, they wouldn’t have dared to engage in an all-out firefight with the Brotherhood like this.

Although the Brotherhood had significantly fewer members, this was a gunfight. Once a firefight broke out, both sides would suffer considerable losses.

Usually, conflicts were limited to small-scale brawls involving a hundred or so men.

The turf war a few days ago, which involved over a thousand participants, was already the largest-scale clash to erupt in recent years.

But tonight, they were confident. With the support of Li Weiguo’s two hundred elites, the Dragon Head of the Four Seas Gang felt it was a gamble worth taking.

If they won, all of the Brotherhood’s territory would belong to the Four Seas Gang.

Soon, it was past seven o’clock, and night had fallen.

Mr. Xiao from the Four Seas Gang had already called to say they were ready to move out.

So, Li Weiguo set off with his two hundred men.

Several large buses transported them to a drop-off point two kilometers from the manor.

The two hundred men, plus Li Weiguo, then proceeded to their destination on foot, moving quickly under the cover of darkness.

A distance of two kilometers was a trivial matter for men accustomed to regular long-distance running training.

Soon, the five snipers had entered the abandoned factory grounds, each climbing a cooling tower. They found their positions and began observing the inside of the manor through their rifle scopes.

Although it was already night, the manor was brightly lit, making it no different from daytime. The snipers could easily monitor the situation inside.

Meanwhile, Li Weidong and the remaining 195 men were lying in wait outside the manor’s perimeter wall. Their mission was simple: let no one escape.

The men from the Four Seas Gang had not yet arrived. Their territory was some distance away, but they had departed earlier, so they should be arriving soon.

These people were holding a gang meeting, which was bound to last for some time.

Therefore, there was no need to rush. In fact, if they arrived too early and tipped off the enemy, the Brotherhood might take precautions. Then, even if they succeeded, their own casualties would be much heavier.

Li Weiguo didn’t get close to the manor. Instead, he was perched in a tree dozens of meters away, carefully observing the situation within.

However, the tree wasn’t very tall, and he could only vaguely see that the grounds were brightly lit and teeming with shadows.

The Brotherhood had chosen an excellent location for their manor. There were almost no residences nearby, and it was even close to the sea. The manor had a grove of coconut trees and a large swimming pool beside them, clearly a place the Brotherhood leadership used for getaways.

But Li Weiguo couldn’t see any of this clearly. The spot where he stood was only about as high as the perimeter wall.

“A Qiang, what’s the situation inside?” Li Weiguo picked up his walkie-talkie and asked the sniper team leader, who was several hundred meters away.

“Reporting, Instructor. The people in the manor are currently too scattered. We have not yet identified the targets,” A Qiang’s clear voice came through the walkie-talkie.

“Alright, continue to monitor closely. Report to me immediately if anything unusual happens!” Li Weiguo instructed sternly.

“Understood!”

The 195 veterans were now lying in wait outside the manor’s wall, silently awaiting Li Weiguo’s next command.

Li Weiguo gazed into the distance. On the road two or three kilometers away, he could faintly see the flicker of numerous headlights. Clearly, the Four Seas Gang’s forces were about to arrive.

About two minutes later, A Qiang’s voice suddenly came over the walkie-talkie again: “Reporting, Instructor! The people inside have started to gather. We estimate there are at least five hundred of them. They are assembling in the manor’s open ground. Our targets are speaking, and the chieftains have appeared!”

Li Weiguo glanced down at his watch, its dial glowing in the dark. The time was 8:05 p.m.

“Can you get a clear shot at each target?” Li Weiguo asked urgently.

“Yes, the five of us have our respective targets locked. We’ve also observed that they are generally carrying firearms, especially the two guards at the gate, who are each holding a submachine gun!” the voice on the other end responded swiftly.

Identifying whether someone was armed wasn’t particularly difficult. Especially for these Filipino triad society members, they often had a habit of tucking their pistols into their clothes for a quick draw in a critical moment, catching their opponents by surprise with their speed.

Even from a distance of five hundred meters, a careful observer could still notice any unusual bulges in their clothing and make a rough judgment as to whether they were carrying a gun.

Li Weiguo was not surprised by this.

In the Philippines, it wasn’t just triad members; many ordinary citizens also owned guns. This was precisely why they needed the Four Seas Gang as their main force.

The triad society culture here was completely different from that in Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, most triad members still used knives and clubs as their primary weapons. Only a few leaders illegally possessed firearms.

Therefore, to prevent massive casualties, Li Weiguo knew he could not give the order rashly.

The lives of these two hundred men rested on his decision, and he had to be responsible for them.

He looked again towards the convoy he suspected belonged to the Four Seas Gang and saw that they had quietly approached the manor and were now less than a kilometer away.

The convoy’s headlights had been turned off, and he could only faintly hear the low rumble of their engines, which was exactly what Li Weiguo and Mr. Xiao had agreed upon beforehand.

Driving with their lights off was the signal that they were about to arrive.

The time was ripe.

Li Weiguo gave the order decisively, “You five must fire simultaneously. Make sure you eliminate all five leaders in one go. After completing that task, immediately turn your attention to the gate and take out the two guards with the submachine guns!”

These five snipers were the absolute best among the two hundred men, which was why this crucial sniping mission had been entrusted to them.

“Yes, sir!” The sniper’s firm reply reached Li Weiguo’s ear through the walkie-talkie.

Bang! Almost at the same instant, five gunshots tore through the night sky, and five bullets shot like lightning towards the Brotherhood leaders standing hundreds of meters away.

Then, before the people over there could react, the snipers swiveled their rifles and locked onto the two guards at the gate.

…

Hong Kong, Severn Road villa district, Lin family villa.

It was already past ten o’clock at night. Lin Haoran put down the book in his hands, walked out of his study, and was about to head to his room to rest.

Just then, the telephone rang.

With a sigh of resignation, he had no choice but to return to the study and pick up the phone.

Chapter 224: Kowloon Motor Bus’s Competitor

Hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran was wide awake.

He never expected that just over two hours ago, his men had already been in a fierce gunfight.

However, the call from Li Weiguo brought good news.

The mission was a resounding success. The Brotherhood’s entire leadership had been wiped out, which could be considered revenge for Green Island Cement.

Furthermore, since the Four Seas Gang was the main force this time, none of Lin Haoran’s men were killed or injured.

According to Li Weiguo, the Four Seas Gang had lost over a dozen men, with dozens more suffering from gunshot wounds, but none of that had anything to do with Lin Haoran.

As for the Brotherhood, apart from the five high-ranking members killed directly by sniper fire, the rest of their mid-to-high-level leadership had been finished off by the Four Seas Gang. As for the ordinary members, those who were killed were killed, and those who surrendered surrendered. It was said that over a hundred had died—an extremely brutal outcome.

Moreover, Mr. Xiao, the Dragon Head of the Brotherhood, had promised Li Weiguo that after taking over the Brotherhood’s territory, he would give them all the cash profits.

He also said that if they ever needed anything in the Philippines in the future, they could call on the Four Seas Gang at any time. They would do their best to help, asking for nothing in return, only for friendship.

Lin Haoran had made no such requests beforehand.

Evidently, the sight of snipers taking out several of the Brotherhood’s chieftains, including their Dragon Head, with headshots had thoroughly terrified Mr. Xiao.

Even a triad Tycoon like him was frightened by the power displayed by Universe Security Consulting Company.

In other words, if he, Mr. Xiao, were to cross Lin Haoran, he could very well be the next one to have his head blown off.

The most important factor in the swift takedown of the Brotherhood was that all their chieftains had been eliminated at the outset, leaving the rest leaderless. The Four Seas Gang’s casualties were actually considered light under the circumstances.

The next morning, Lin Haoran received another call.

This time, however, it was from Cui Zilong.

“Boss, the Four Seas Gang tallied up the profits. They secured over eight million US dollars in cash alone. Mr. Xiao said he wants to give it all to us. Should we take it or not?” Cui Zilong asked.

“Take it. Why not? Take out one million US dollars from that amount and distribute it among the brothers. Consider it a reward for their combat training this time. The rest goes into the company’s accounts for development,” Lin Haoran answered directly.

His men had contributed, and their role had been crucial. Naturally, they deserved a share of the returns.

As for whether the Four Seas Gang had actually only managed to get their hands on a little over eight million US dollars, Lin Haoran didn’t care. After all, this wasn’t part of any prior agreement. The fact that they were willing to offer this money to his side showed that Mr. Xiao knew how to conduct himself.

After all, the role Li Weiguo’s men played was instrumental in their ability to swallow up the Brotherhood.

If the Four Seas Gang had been on their own, even knowing that the Brotherhood leaders were gathered in that estate, they couldn’t have eliminated all of them in one fell swoop.

Without taking out the leaders first, they wouldn’t have dared to be too aggressive.

They understood the principle of a Pyrrhic victory.

Therefore, the five snipers had actually played the most significant role.

“Also, Boss, I’d like to make a suggestion. Gun control is basically nonexistent here in the Philippines, which makes it the perfect place to set up a training base. It’s so chaotic here that if we want real combat, we can find opportunities for live-fire training anytime. I think it would be most appropriate to establish our main training base here.

Furthermore, because of the poor public security, the demand for security services is much higher here than in Hong Kong. Many people with even a little bit of money want to hire bodyguards for protection. This would provide us with more sustainable income.

We can also easily expand our team here and recruit more suitable members. In Hong Kong, although no one bothers us in Sai Kung because of its remote location, some of our training activities ultimately have to be kept under wraps,” Cui Zilong proposed.

In Hong Kong, ordinary people had no safety concerns, so only the truly wealthy worried about being kidnapped and hired bodyguards.

But in Manila, things were different. Even ordinary people could be in danger if their luck ran out, especially during this era of the seventies and eighties.

In his few days here, Cui Zilong had witnessed the chaos of the society firsthand.

Especially after the major incident last night, the police couldn’t have cared less.

To them, gang wars were nothing to be surprised about; they were already used to it.

But Cui Zilong had never seen anything like it.

In Hong Kong, triad clashes at most involved knives and machetes. Gunfights were rare occurrences that ordinary people seldom witnessed.

For Universal Security Consulting Company, an environment like this was a paradise.

As long as they legitimately established a security company here, they could easily obtain firearm licenses, making their possession of firearms legal.

Even if it were illegal, the police generally wouldn’t bother them much.

There was too much going on for them to manage.

This way, they could conduct shooting training openly and legitimately.

Whenever they wanted live combat experience, they could simply act as mercenaries and take on a paid mission.

As for Hong Kong, no one would dare use force against any of Lin Haoran’s businesses.

After some thought, Lin Haoran agreed with Cui Zilong’s idea.

“I’ll stay here for now to set up the branch company. Mr. Li Weiguo will also use this time to select suitable instructors. We’ll head back after everything is sorted out. Until then, we’ll remain in Manila. I’ll arrange things on the Oriental Press Group side and temporarily hand over my duties to the Deputy General Manager,” Cui Zilong continued.

With the Brotherhood annihilated and the Four Seas Gang now treating them with reverence and awe, Cui Zilong was no longer worried about staying in the Philippines. His previous fears were gone.

“Alright. You handle all of this,” Lin Haoran said, having no objections.

Afterward, Lin Haoran also spoke with Li Weiguo on the phone, telling him to stay in Manila for the time being to handle matters concerning the training base.

Placing the main training base in Manila instead of Hong Kong was not a problem at all.

The training base in Hong Kong would not be abandoned, of course. They would continue to recruit. A security company with only two hundred people was far from enough.

In fact, setting up a main training base in the Philippines was just the beginning. In the future, they would only open more and more training bases.

G4S Company, the world’s largest security company, had security personnel numbering in the hundreds of thousands, providing services ranging from security for properties, high-end shops, and banks to celebrity bodyguards, cash and jewelry transport, and alarm systems.

Universe Security Consulting Company still had a long way to go to catch up to G4S Company.

The goal might not be achievable, but as long as they continued to develop and grow, their scale would gradually approach that of a security company like G4S.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran immediately shared the good news with Burton.

The Wanqing Group could now expand into the Philippines with confidence.

As for local kingpins?

With the deterrent force of Universe Security Company and the favor of the Four Seas Gang, any problems could be quickly resolved.

It wasn’t just the Wanqing Group; even the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, the Oriental Press Group, and the Hongkong Electric Group could now expand their operations into the Philippine market.

With a backer there, it would be a waste of resources not to expand and capture a share of that market.

Hong Kong, after all, was just a small market.

Several of his companies, such as Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and Oriental Press Group, had essentially hit a ceiling with their primary businesses. The best way to break through this bottleneck was to expand outward.

The Philippines had a large Chinese population. Although public security was a bit chaotic, the market was not small. If they could capture a portion of the market there, it would be enough for them to continue expanding their scale.

Take Green Island Cement Company, for example. Since becoming the third-largest cement supplier on Luzon Island, its monthly profits from the Philippines had long surpassed those from the local Hong Kong market.

The Philippine market had made an indispensable contribution to Green Island Cement Company’s monthly profits of over ten million Hong Kong dollars.

This was the benefit of a large population.

More people meant greater market demand.

The total market of Hong Kong’s five million people was ultimately too small.

And the population of the Philippines was ten times that of Hong Kong!

Moreover, since the 1950s, with assistance from the United States, the Philippine economy had developed rapidly. Its per capita GDP was once second only to Japan in Asia. The economy there was actually quite strong during this period.

With the matter in the Philippines properly handled, Lin Haoran turned his attention elsewhere.

In the blink of an eye, another two days passed, and it was now May 12th.

In the afternoon, Lin Haoran unexpectedly received a call from Su Zhixue.

“Boss, there’s abnormal trading activity in Kowloon Motor Bus’s stock. The data indicates that someone is definitely targeting this stock!” Su Zhixue said over the phone.

When Lin Haoran arrived at the Universal Investment Company in the Wanqing Building, Su Zhixue handed him a set of data.

It was a comparison chart of the trading volume of Kowloon Motor Bus stock over the past month.

The list showed detailed data on the percentage of the total daily trading volume that Universal Investment Company accounted for.

Starting two weeks ago, Universal Investment Company’s daily stock accumulation percentage had begun to decline slowly.

Previously, Universal Investment Company had absorbed at least 70% of Kowloon Motor Bus’s total daily traded shares. But starting two weeks ago, that figure had dropped to less than 60%.

Today, it had plummeted directly to just 40%.

Clearly, someone else was targeting Kowloon Motor Bus, just like Lin Haoran.

“Boss, for the past two weeks, I thought the market trading volume for Kowloon Motor Bus had simply increased, and that the decrease in our absorption percentage was just normal market behavior—that more shareholders had taken an interest in the stock. But with such a sharp drop today, I knew something was definitely wrong. Another financial group must be targeting Kowloon Motor Bus,” Su Zhixue said grimly.

Lin Haoran nodded, looking at the data report. He was curious as to who was targeting Kowloon Motor Bus.

If Hongkong Electric Group were not a shareholder of Hongkong Land Group, Lin Haoran might have suspected that Hongkong Land was behind it.

But now, he was privy to every move Hongkong Land Group made. As a key member of their Board of Directors, he had the right to be informed of any major decisions they made.

This was one of the benefits of Hongkong Electric Group becoming a shareholder in Hongkong Land Group.

Since it wasn’t Hongkong Land Group, who could it be?

Could it be that Guo Desheng had made his move?

Having worked in Shenzhen in his past life, Lin Haoran knew that in the future, Kowloon Motor Bus was a part of Guo Desheng’s Sun Hung Kai Group.

He just didn’t know when Guo Desheng had started acquiring it.

Universal Investment Company was currently focused on three main targets: Hongkong Land Group, Jardine Matheson & Co., and Kowloon Motor Bus.

So, although Universal Investment Company had grown stronger, its traders were spread thin. If someone was targeting Kowloon Motor Bus, it was perfectly normal for them to only absorb 40% of the trading volume.

If the other party wanted to remain hidden, it would be very difficult for Lin Haoran to investigate.

He wondered if the Oriental Press Group’s intelligence network could dig up any useful information.

However, since he had this indirect lead about Guo Desheng, perhaps he could uncover some useful news.

“How much of Kowloon Motor Bus’s stock do we hold?” Lin Haoran asked.

“As of today, we hold 23.63% of Kowloon Motor Bus’s total shares,” Su Zhixue reported, simultaneously handing Lin Haoran today’s performance sheet.

Lin Haoran nodded and said, “No matter who’s targeting Kowloon Motor Bus, just continue trading as usual. With the amount of shares we currently control, we already have a leading advantage.”

“Yes, Boss. I understand!” Su Zhixue said respectfully.

Leaving Su Zhixue’s office, Lin Haoran went to his own office within his private reception room and made a call to Cui Zilong, who was far away in the Philippines.

Cui Zilong was the overall person in charge of the Oriental Press Group’s intelligence network. Contacting him was more reliable than going through the current Deputy General Manager of the company.

Lin Haoran knew that Cui Zilong had been busy these past few days setting up the branch companies for Universal Security and Oriental Press in the Philippines.

“Boss, you were looking for me. Do you have any instructions?” Cui Zilong asked over the phone.

“How are things progressing over there?” Lin Haoran didn’t state his purpose directly, first inquiring about the situation in the Philippines.

“Boss, the Four Seas Gang has successfully transferred 8.56 million US dollars into the company account. One million of that has been distributed to Li Weiguo and the two hundred security personnel. Additionally, we have registered a security consulting company in Manila,
and have purchased a plot of land of about 230,000 square meters by the sea in the southwestern suburbs of Manila. We plan to establish the headquarters and future main training base for the Philippine branch of Universal Security Consulting Company there.

Since construction will take some time, we have temporarily rented a training ground, and the two hundred security personnel have been properly settled.” Cui Zilong answered in detail.

“I’m calling you this time because I have another task for you…” Lin Haoran then briefly explained the situation with Kowloon Motor Bus to Cui Zilong.

“Investigate the suspicious parties secretly acquiring Kowloon Motor Bus? This task has a certain degree of difficulty, but since you have a target in mind, Boss, the investigation should be relatively easier. At the very least, we can find out if Sun Hung Kai is behind this acquisition. Boss, please give me some time. I’ll give it a try,” Cui Zilong replied after a moment of thought.

Chapter 225: Their Covetous Designs Must Be Stopped

At the headquarters of Sun Hung Kai Properties, in the Chairman of the Board’s office, Guo Desheng was listening to a subordinate’s report.

The decision to acquire Kowloon Motor Bus had been made by him personally.

Over the past few years, fueled by its rapid growth in the real estate industry, Sun Hung Kai Properties had become increasingly powerful, even surpassing many of the major British-owned firms. It had already secured a place among the top twenty listed companies in Hong Kong by market capitalization. Judging by the current surge in real estate stocks, Sun Hung Kai Properties might even enter the top ten by the end of the year.

Guo Desheng had a goal: for Sun Hung Kai Properties to overtake the Hongkong Land Group and become the largest real estate company in Hong Kong.

His targets were never Cheung Kong Holdings Group or New World Development. In terms of real estate prowess alone, he believed Sun Hung Kai Properties was stronger than both of them.

Therefore, the Hongkong Land Group was the target Sun Hung Kai Properties aimed to surpass.

The Sun Hung Kai Centre in Wan Chai, for which the land was acquired in 1977 and which was currently under construction, was designed to be fifty-three stories high with a floor area of eight hundred sixty thousand square feet. The building’s majestic and modern exterior was designed to stand in direct opposition to the Hongkong Land Group’s Connaught Centre. By designing it to be just one foot taller than the Connaught Centre, Sun Hung Kai Properties was subtly signaling its intention to overtake Hongkong Land.

With money in the bank, the company naturally needed to expand on its victories.

Li Jiacheng’s acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa, Pao Yue-kong’s acquisition of Kowloon Wharf, and Lin Haoran’s acquisition of the Hongkong Electric Group—this series of takeovers had deeply spurred Guo Desheng. To grow rapidly, it was not enough for a company to simply advance one step at a time. The best method was to merge with other blue-chip companies.

Before Li Jiacheng acquired Hutchison Whampoa, the overall strength of Cheung Kong Holdings Group was not even on par with Sun Hung Kai Properties.

But after the acquisition, the people of Hong Kong generally believed that Li Jiacheng had completely surpassed Guo Desheng.

Such talk struck a deep chord with Guo Desheng.

Unwilling to admit defeat, he naturally began looking for ways to surpass old friends like Li Jiacheng among the Chinese-owned enterprises.

Thus, he started searching for high-quality listed companies to acquire, and Kowloon Motor Bus, a public utility company, quickly came into his sights.

In truth, Guo Desheng was not interested in Kowloon Motor Bus’s transportation business.

Making money in a public utility sector like the bus industry was not easy.

Like the electricity sector, the bus industry in Hong Kong was a monopolistic public utility.

On Hong Kong Island, China Motor Bus held a monopoly.

And on the Kowloon Peninsula, Kowloon Motor Bus similarly held a monopoly.

This might seem advantageous, with no threat from competitors, but in reality, it came with various restrictions.

For one, the Hong Kong government had established a Profit Control Scheme that restricted the bus industry. It stipulated that the annual profits of China Motor Bus and Kowloon Motor Bus, Hong Kong’s two monopolistic transportation companies, could not exceed fifteen percent of their prescribed net asset value. Any excess funds had to be transferred to a Development Fund, and any shortfall would be covered by withdrawals from that same fund.

This, to a certain extent, limited the profits of the transportation company owners.

Therefore, Guo Desheng looked down on the meager profits from Kowloon Motor Bus’s transportation services.

The real estate industry could easily double its value in a single year.

Since he was not interested in the transportation business, why did Guo Desheng want to acquire Kowloon Motor Bus?

The reason was simple: there were other benefits substantial enough to make Guo Desheng covet it!

As a long-established public utility company in Hong Kong, Kowloon Motor Bus had been constantly buying plots of land in its early days and now owned a vast number of cheaply acquired properties, such as depots and parking lots.

These plots of land were not just in the suburbs of Kowloon; many were also located in the most bustling city centers like Tsim Sha Tsui, Hung Hom, Mong Kok, and Yau Ma Tei.

Moreover, ever since the Cross-Harbour Tunnel opened, both China Motor Bus and Kowloon Motor Bus could operate routes to the other side of the harbor.

Consequently, during the 1960s and 1970s, Kowloon Motor Bus had successively purchased numerous plots of land on Hong Kong Island to build parking lots and depots.

Furthermore, because land in the suburbs was cheap back then, Kowloon Motor Bus had continuously stockpiled it. Now, those former suburbs had transformed into central urban areas, causing the value of the land to rise dramatically.

The land they had hoarded in the past was now priceless. Much of it could even be developed into commercial buildings, residential complexes, or industrial buildings.

It could be said that Kowloon Motor Bus’s market capitalization, like that of many old British-owned companies, was significantly lower than its net asset value.

What Guo Desheng had his eyes on was precisely this land.

As the boss of a real estate company, if he could acquire Kowloon Motor Bus, he could use his controlling stake to develop these plots through cooperative means, continuously exploiting the company’s potential. In the end, all of Kowloon Motor Bus’s land would slowly become the property of Sun Hung Kai Properties.

The reason Lin Haoran wanted to acquire Kowloon Motor Bus was exactly the same as Guo Desheng’s.

He, too, had his eyes on the vast land holdings of Kowloon Motor Bus.

If all this land were developed by Wan’an Real Estate Company, then the ultimate beneficiary would naturally be him, Lin Haoran.

“We currently hold a total of 5.32% of Kowloon Motor Bus shares? Progress is still too slow.” After hearing the report from the head of securities, Guo Desheng frowned.

In recent years, Sun Hung Kai Properties had been making more and more money, so he had more and more capital at his disposal. Flush with cash, Guo Desheng naturally hoped to take down this coveted listed company as quickly as possible.

“Boss, we’ve only been acquiring shares in Kowloon Motor Bus for two weeks. This pace of accumulation isn’t actually slow. For some reason, this stock is incredibly popular; its daily trading volume is comparable to some listed real estate companies.

“Today, we ramped up our acquisition efforts and ended up buying two to three times more shares than usual. If we continue buying at today’s pace starting tomorrow, I estimate that in three months at the minimum, Sun Hung Kai’s secret holdings will exceed thirty percent.

“At that point, we can openly make a takeover bid for Kowloon Motor Bus,” the head of securities reported to Guo Desheng.

“Three months?” Guo Desheng’s fingers tapped an irregular rhythm on his desk.

“Boss, I’ve analyzed Kowloon Motor Bus’s trading volume over the past six months. I suspect the volume is so high because we aren’t the only ones targeting it. Other financial groups are after it as well. If that’s the case, forget three months—it’s questionable whether we can even compete with them!” After some deliberation, the head of securities voiced his speculation.

“Do you have any suspects?” Guo Desheng asked.

“Yes, Great Eagle Holdings. I heard a rumor in the industry that they are interested in acquiring either China Motor Bus or Kowloon Motor Bus. This rumor has been circulating since the beginning of the year, so I’m not sure if they have already made a move,” the subordinate replied.

“Great Eagle Holdings!” Guo Desheng’s frown deepened.

Great Eagle Holdings was a formidable company. Among the Chinese-owned real estate magnates, it was ranked fifth, behind only Li Jiacheng’s Cheung Kong Holdings, Guo Desheng’s Sun Hung Kai Properties, Cheng Yu-tung’s New World Development, and the recently emerged Carrian Group.

Therefore, Guo Desheng did not underestimate Great Eagle Holdings.

As a listed company, it would not be difficult for them to raise capital.

However, if his only opponent was Great Eagle Holdings, Guo Desheng wasn’t too afraid. His biggest fear was that his rivals were the likes of Jardine Matheson & Co. or the Hongkong Land Group.

After all, his Sun Hung Kai Properties was considerably stronger than Great Eagle Holdings. In terms of assets, Guo Desheng was far wealthier than Lo Ying-shek of Great Eagle Holdings.

“I’ll find out if this is true. Once I have the results, I’ll let you know. Continue acquiring Kowloon Motor Bus shares tomorrow!” Guo Desheng instructed his subordinate.

After the subordinate left the office, Guo Desheng had his intelligence department investigate the matter.

Intelligence was crucial for tycoons, so at their level, they naturally had their own sources of information, though the quality varied.

However, a targeted investigation was not difficult.

For instance, since his subordinate suspected Great Eagle Holdings, he could have his people gather intelligence on them. This significantly reduced the difficulty of the investigation.

…

A day later, at the Universal Investment Company in Wanqing Building, Lin Haoran received another call from Cui Zilong.

“Boss, based on our investigation, I’ve gathered some intelligence. We learned from a mid-level manager in Sun Hung Kai’s securities department that they are indeed secretly acquiring shares of Kowloon Motor Bus.

“Moreover, we stumbled upon an extra piece of information. It’s not just Sun Hung Kai Properties; another real estate giant, Great Eagle Holdings, is also involved.

“Upon receiving this news, I immediately arranged for a more in-depth investigation into Great Eagle Holdings. The results show that this acquisition is being personally handled by Lo Yuk-sui, the son of Great Eagle Holdings’ Chairman of the Board, Lo Ying-shek.

“Lo Yuk-sui is a financial expert. Just early this month, he consolidated all of his hotel businesses into the Regal Hotels Group and plans to take it public.”

As soon as the call connected, Cui Zilong quickly reported the situation to Lin Haoran.

When it came to intelligence, as long as one was willing to spend money and had some leads, a covert investigation was not difficult.

But trying to get information without spending money was a fool’s errand.

However, an investigation without any leads was impossible to start.

For instance, if Lin Haoran hadn’t suspected Sun Hung Kai’s involvement when he asked Cui Zilong to investigate, the intelligence agency would have been like a headless fly, buzzing around aimlessly and unable to uncover any truly useful information.

After all, since the other party had chosen to accumulate shares covertly, they must have taken certain security precautions.

Upon learning that he had two competitors this time, Lin Haoran did not feel overly anxious.

As expected, both Great Eagle Holdings and Sun Hung Kai Properties had only been eyeing Kowloon Motor Bus for a short time, while his Universal Investment Company had beaten them to it, and capital was not an issue.

Under these circumstances, if the acquisition of Kowloon Motor Bus still failed, it could only be attributed to Lin Haoran’s poor luck.

At 4:10 PM, Su Zhixue handed a report to Lin Haoran.

“Boss, today’s trading was even more difficult. Although we increased our acquisition efforts, even bringing in two reinforcements from the Jardine Matheson project team, we only managed to secure about thirty-six percent of today’s trading volume. As of today, our holdings have only reached 24.58%, much less than anticipated. The opponent has upped their buying.

“If this continues, not only will it severely slow down our acquisition of Kowloon Motor Bus, but it will also continuously increase our acquisition costs.” While Lin Haoran looked at the report, Su Zhixue voiced his concerns.

Sun Hung Kai Properties was a powerhouse, almost on par with Cheung Kong Holdings, and Guo Desheng was one of Hong Kong’s Chinese-owned tycoons. The shares Lin Haoran currently held were not enough to secure victory.

Therefore, getting them to give up on acquiring Kowloon Motor Bus would not be easy.

Su Zhixue’s words made Lin Haoran ponder.

Although Kowloon Motor Bus’s market capitalization wasn’t high compared to Jardine Matheson or Hongkong Land, acquiring it at a low price was naturally better.

Moreover, the market capitalization of Kowloon Motor Bus had been rising rapidly over the past few months.

They had started acquiring shares in early February, at which time Kowloon Motor Bus’s total market cap was just over five hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

But in just three months, its market capitalization had already surged from over five hundred million to over seven hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

If Great Eagle Holdings, Sun Hung Kai Properties, and their Universal Investment Company continued to compete, wouldn’t the share price of Kowloon Motor Bus skyrocket?

That would not be a good deal at all!

Chapter 226: Taking Action Tonight

After some thought, Lin Haoran quickly came up with a plan.

It was common knowledge that Hong Kong had two bus companies: Kowloon Motor Bus and China Motor Bus.

What Lin Haoran hadn’t expected was that three well-funded financial groups had all set their sights on Kowloon Motor Bus at the same time.

He had initially chosen to acquire Kowloon Motor Bus because he knew it controlled more land and its public transport operations were more profitable than China Motor Bus. That was why he’d targeted Kowloon Motor Bus instead of China Motor Bus.

He knew it was impossible to control both bus companies; the government would never allow it.

To divert Guo Desheng’s attention now, China Motor Bus was clearly the most suitable option.

With one powerful competitor out of the way, Universal Investment Company’s acquisition of Kowloon Motor Bus would certainly be much easier, and the stock price wouldn’t rise so quickly.

As for the other competitor, Great Eagle Holdings, he wasn’t particularly worried.

He currently held 24.58% of the shares.

If Guo Desheng shifted his acquisition target, Universal Investment Company should be able to increase its stake to 30% within ten days, or even a week.

At that point, if he let a hint of this news slip to Lo Ying-shek, Lin Haoran believed the man would stop his acquisition attempt on Kowloon Motor Bus.

As for how to make Guo Desheng shift his focus to China Motor Bus, Lin Haoran already had an idea.

“Zhixue, get me a report on China Motor Bus’s recent trading activity,” Lin Haoran instructed.

“Right away, Boss. Give me a moment, I’ll have our staff stationed at the stock exchange fax one over,” Su Zhixue said.

He then made the call right in front of Lin Haoran.

Since Universal Investment Company had expanded, it had long had its own employees stationed at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

This way, they didn’t have to rely too heavily on the exchange’s traders, reducing the risk of information leaks.

About ten minutes later, Su Zhixue walked back into the office holding a document fresh from the fax machine.

“Boss, these are the detailed daily trading volumes for China Motor Bus over the last three months,” Su Zhixue said, handing the papers to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran took the document and began comparing China Motor Bus’s trading volume with that of Kowloon Motor Bus. The contrast was immediately apparent.

When he was first deciding whether to acquire China Motor Bus or Kowloon Motor Bus, Lin Haoran had compared the situations of the two companies.

That was back in February, and China Motor Bus’s market capitalization was actually slightly higher than Kowloon Motor Bus’s at the time.

Yet now, in May, Kowloon Motor Bus’s market capitalization was over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars higher than China Motor Bus’s.

The reason, of course, was that people like Lin Haoran and Guo Desheng had been aggressively accumulating Kowloon Motor Bus stock during this period.

As for China Motor Bus, its daily trading volume, which was not even a fifth of Kowloon Motor Bus’s, showed that no financial group had made a move on it yet.

Over the past decade or so, Hong Kong’s economy had continued to boom, leading to a significant improvement in citizens’ quality of life and, consequently, higher expectations for bus services.

However, the boss of China Motor Bus, Yan Chengkun, firmly believed that citizens only needed cheap bus services. He therefore maintained a low-cost operational strategy and refused to modernize the fleet.

His increasingly conservative management policy had caused China Motor Bus to become antiquated and dilapidated.

Its forty-year-old headquarters was in a state of disrepair, desperately needing renovations; its vehicles were old and its services infrequent; employee morale was low, and the quality of its bus service was deteriorating, leading to an endless stream of passenger complaints…

Because of this, China Motor Bus stock was not favored by the market. Its trading volume was sluggish, and its share price naturally struggled to see any significant growth.

In comparison, Kowloon Motor Bus to the north, though in a similar situation, was slightly better.

At the very least, Kowloon Motor Bus provided better service and was more proactive about updating its fleet.

Lin Haoran stared at the data on the report, lost in thought.

If he had known there would be this much competition for Kowloon Motor Bus, he would have just chosen to acquire China Motor Bus from the start.

However, he already held so many shares in Kowloon Motor Bus that switching targets now was clearly not a good idea.

Moreover, the value of Kowloon Motor Bus’s land was much higher than that of China Motor Bus, and its bus revenue was also greater. Therefore, the profits from acquiring Kowloon Motor Bus would be larger!

This was surely the reason the other two had also chosen to acquire Kowloon Motor Bus. If you were going to acquire something, you might as well acquire the best.

Soon, he made his decision.

“Starting tomorrow, pull some traders to begin accumulating shares of China Motor Bus. The more, the better, but don’t let its boss find out!” Lin Haoran said directly to Su Zhixue after comparing the data.

“Acquire China Motor Bus stock? Boss, are you planning to acquire this company too? But the government won’t allow that,” Su Zhixue said with a puzzled expression, not understanding his boss’s motive.

“Don’t worry about it for now. I have my reasons. Just do as I say!” Lin Haoran said with a wave of his hand and a smile.

“Yes, Boss!” Su Zhixue didn’t ask any more questions.

Lin Haoran had his reasons for having Su Zhixue accumulate shares of China Motor Bus.

In the blink of an eye, the next day arrived, and the stock market opened as scheduled.

Su Zhixue assigned three people to form a dedicated China Motor Bus project team.

According to the information on China Motor Bus stock he had obtained the previous evening, there were far more pending orders for China Motor Bus than for Kowloon Motor Bus.

Furthermore, its stock price was not high, making the accumulation process much easier.

After all, there were no other competitors.

That morning, Lin Haoran didn’t go directly to Wanqing Building. Instead, he made a trip to the Kwun Tong district.

Liu Luanxiong had called him the previous night to update him on the recent situation at Amigo Company.

It had been a while since his last visit to the company.

Starting in April, Amigo Company’s orders had begun to increase significantly, no longer dominated by small orders as they had been in January, February, and March.

This year’s order trend was similar to last year’s, showing no decrease. Distributors were still placing orders feverishly, a clear sign that the demand for electric fans in the European and American markets remained enormous.

By May, orders were still on par with the same period last year.

As expected, Amigo Company would generate another profit of over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars for Lin Haoran this year.

However, Lin Haoran knew that starting next year, the demand for electric fans in North America would decrease drastically. At that point, let alone a profit of over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, making twenty to thirty million a year would be considered a good result.

The gradual saturation of the fan market would cause demand in North America and even Europe to drop sharply, and more people would begin targeting these markets.

After all, over the past two or three years, someone was bound to eventually notice these two special markets instead of focusing solely on the Middle East.

With the combination of these factors, the number of orders from there would naturally plummet, and profits would decline accordingly.

None of this was apparent yet, as this year was still the peak of demand.

Lin Haoran stayed at Amigo Company until the afternoon, inspecting the entire factory area before returning to Liu Luanxiong’s office to chat.

With Amigo Company’s rapid growth over the past two years, Liu Luanxiong’s personal funds had swelled. He had begun to carry the air of a capital tycoon, his words carrying a commanding presence.

However, when facing Lin Haoran, he seemed congenitally a step below.

After all, no matter how rich he was, he was still a world away from Lin Haoran.

Even among the wealthy, there were classes.

Lin Haoran also received his share of all the profits Liu Luanxiong made from Amigo Company.

But outside of Amigo Company, Lin Haoran was the boss of several other enterprises. The gap between them was too vast.

“Haoran, what do you think? Should I sell my plots of land and use the money to acquire a publicly listed company?” Liu Luanxiong asked humbly as they sat in Amigo Company’s negotiation room.

Over the past year, Liu Luanxiong had invested almost all the money he’d earned into buying land.

As a result, the value of the land he now held was enormous, worth between two and three hundred million Hong Kong dollars at current market value.

At the current rate of appreciation, it would be no problem for its market capitalization to reach three or four hundred million Hong Kong dollars by the end of the year.

However, Lin Haoran’s status as the chairman of a listed company filled Liu Luanxiong with envy.

In Liu Luanxiong’s view, no matter how profitable Amigo Company was, it was ultimately not a listed company and did little to enhance his personal influence.

Amigo Company was currently making a fortune quietly, and very few people knew about it.

Hearing Liu Luanxiong’s words, Lin Haoran instantly understood what he meant.

So, he smiled and said, “Xiong, I suggest you don’t sell the land just yet. Judging by the current signs in Hong Kong’s real estate industry, there’s not a hint of a market crash. The value of your land will only continue to rise. Even if you were to acquire a listed company now, the money you’d make wouldn’t necessarily outpace the rate at which land prices are increasing. If you want to be the boss of a listed company, you’ll have your chance soon enough!”

If he wanted to be the boss of a listed company, it was simple enough—they could just take Amigo Company public.

However, Lin Haoran had no intention of pushing for an IPO for Amigo Company until its profit-making potential was fully exhausted.

Maximizing profits was what Lin Haoran pursued.

It wasn’t until after three in the afternoon that Lin Haoran bid farewell to Liu Luanxiong, left Amigo Company, and headed for Wanqing Building.

By the time he arrived, the stock market had already closed for the day, and Su Zhixue had already tallied their gains.

“Boss, the competition for Kowloon Motor Bus stock was still fierce today, and the share price rose even faster than yesterday. Our current stake has just barely broken 25%, reaching 25.13%. Our rivals have stepped up their accumulation efforts!” Su Zhixue reported from the side.

Lin Haoran nodded.

Today, the shares they had accumulated accounted for about 35% of the total trading volume, slightly lower than yesterday.

However, the cost of accumulation was higher than yesterday’s.

The reason for this was naturally the excessive rise in the stock price. Today’s closing price was about 3.2% higher than yesterday’s, an extremely high rate of increase.

If it continued to rise like this every day, the price of Kowloon Motor Bus stock would double in less than a month, a situation Lin Haoran certainly could not accept.

There were already two known competitors. Including themselves, that made three financial groups targeting Kowloon Motor Bus. It would be stranger if the price didn’t soar!

This could not go on. He had to stop his two competitors’ actions as soon as possible.

Otherwise, the cost would only get higher the longer he waited.

Moreover, besides Sun Hung Kai Properties and Great Eagle Holdings, there was an even bigger obstacle: the current boss of Kowloon Motor Bus, Mr. Deng Zhaojian, and the major shareholder, Lei Juekun.

“The volume of China Motor Bus stock we accumulated is this high?” Lin Haoran looked at the acquisition data for China Motor Bus, a hint of surprise in his eyes.

After just one day of trading, they had already acquired a 4.82% stake in China Motor Bus.

“It’s quite normal, Boss,” Su Zhixue explained. “China Motor Bus stock has always had low trading volume, so there were a lot of low-priced pending orders. We were able to seize the opportunity on the first day to accumulate a large number of shares at a relatively low price.”

“So we took advantage of the first day to acquire as much as we could. After all, a one-day surge in trading volume probably won’t make the boss of China Motor Bus too suspicious. He’ll likely assume it’s normal market behavior, since the stock’s volume has occasionally spiked in the past.”

“But if we want to avoid alerting anyone that someone is targeting China Motor Bus, our accumulation speed tomorrow can’t be like today’s. If we can acquire even half of what we got today, that would already be pretty good.”

A 4.82% stake was not low. Lin Haoran decided: he would take action tonight!

===TRANSLation ENDS===

{“characters”:{“颜城坤”:“Yan Chengkun”,“邓兆坚”:“Deng Zhaojian”,“雷觉琨”:“Lei Juekun”},“locations”:{},“organizations”:{},“terms_and_jargon”:{“操盘员”:“Trader”,“资本大佬”:“Capital tycoon”,“项目小组”:“Project team”}}

Chapter 227: Lin Haoran’s Solution

After leaving Su Zhixue’s office, Lin Haoran returned to his own.

He then took out his phone book and quickly flipped to a name—Guo Desheng!

His phone book essentially covered all the major business tycoons in Hong Kong—British-owned, American-owned, Chinese-owned, and more. The phone numbers of over a hundred people were stored within its pages.

This was the network he had steadily built after his rise to prominence.

For instance, the Spring Festival Banquet hosted by the Government House and his membership in the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce had allowed him to meet a great number of important figures he previously had no opportunity to encounter.

Most of the time, it was others who took the initiative to connect with him.

After all, Lin Haoran had already, almost without realizing it, entered the ranks of Hong Kong’s top-tier business tycoons.

“Elder Guo? This is Lin Haoran,” Lin Haoran introduced himself after the call connected.

Guo Desheng was nearly seventy years old. Respecting the old and loving the young was a traditional Chinese virtue, and Lin Haoran was very respectful toward his elders, especially since Guo Desheng was also his senior in the business world.

“Mr. Lin? Is there something you need?” Guo Desheng was quite surprised to learn the caller was Lin Haoran.

Although he knew Lin Haoran, they weren’t particularly close.

This was because they had never collaborated on anything.

In fact, they had only met a few times in the past two years, always at major events, and never privately.

However, Guo Desheng genuinely admired Lin Haoran, this rapidly rising star among Chinese-owned enterprises.

He, Guo Desheng, had toiled in the business world for decades to achieve what he had today.

But Lin Haoran? In just two short years, he had already surpassed him to become one of Hong Kong’s most preeminent entrepreneurs.

A person like that was far more astonishing than those who were older.

After all, the success of the older generation was a result of many years of accumulation.

The wealth Lin Haoran had amassed, however, was not from long-term accumulation but was acquired in a short period.

For this reason, Guo Desheng often instructed his eldest son to learn from young business magnates like Lin Haoran so that he could better inherit his business in the future.

“There is indeed something rather important I’d like to discuss with you. I was wondering if Elder Guo has a moment. If you do, I’d like to have a chat,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“An invitation from Mr. Lin? Even if I’m busy, I’ll make time. Just name a time!” Guo Desheng’s hearty laughter came through the phone.

“How about now?” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Excellent. I’m at the Sun Hung Kai Building right now. Mr. Lin, you can come straight over. I’ll wait for you in the reception room!” Guo Desheng responded quickly.

“Alright. Elder Guo, please give me twenty minutes. I’ll be there shortly,” Lin Haoran said before hanging up.

The Sun Hung Kai Building was in Wan Chai. Getting there from Wanqing Building in Central wouldn’t take too long; twenty minutes was more than enough.

Thus, Lin Haoran immediately left Wanqing Building with Li Weidong and headed for the Sun Hung Kai Building.

A little over ten minutes later, Lin Haoran arrived in front of a building that was over twenty stories high.

This building was the current headquarters of Sun Hung Kai. Before their new headquarters was completed, this was where the company was based.

After stating his purpose at the front desk, a staff member quickly escorted Lin Haoran to the elevator, eventually taking him up to the 22nd floor.

In the reception room, Guo Desheng was already waiting for him. Next to him was a young man who looked to be in his early thirties.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, Guo Desheng rose to greet him and shook his hand.

“Mr. Lin’s visit truly brightens up our Sun Hung Kai company!” Guo Desheng said with a smile.

“Not at all. I am but a junior and don’t deserve such praise from you, Elder Guo!” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

He was even younger than the man’s son. Dealing with these old-timers was sometimes a bit vexing for Lin Haoran.

After all, the age difference was there. Although they were all business tycoons, there was always a generation gap, especially with someone older than his own father.

“This is my eldest son, Bingxiang. You and Mr. Lin should get to know each other. In the future, the world will belong to you young people. We’re all getting old!” Guo Desheng pulled his son forward and introduced him to Lin Haoran.

“Hello, Mr. Lin. I’m Guo Bingxiang. It’s a pleasure to meet you!” Guo Bingxiang’s attitude was very respectful.

“Hello, Brother Bingxiang. We’re both young. There’s no need for such formalities,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, shaking Guo Bingxiang’s hand.

Barring any surprises, the future Sun Hung Kai Group would be inherited by him.

“Please have a seat, Mr. Lin.” Guo Desheng gestured for him to sit.

The three of them then sat down.

“May I ask the purpose of Mr. Lin’s visit today?” Guo Desheng went straight to the point after they were seated.

Meanwhile, Guo Bingxiang was preparing tea for the two of them.

“I hear that Chairman Guo is interested in Kowloon Motor Bus and intends to acquire it?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

At that moment, both Guo Desheng and Guo Bingxiang couldn’t help but stare at Lin Haoran. His words had certainly taken them by surprise.

They hadn’t disclosed their plan to acquire Kowloon Motor Bus to the public. It was a secret known only to a few dozen key mid-to-high-level executives and traders within the company.

They never expected the news to have leaked.

“How did you find out, Mr. Lin?” Guo Desheng didn’t deny it.

Since Lin Haoran could bring it up, he must have verified the information. There was no point in denying it now.

“I learned of it by chance. I don’t mind telling you, Elder Guo, that I’m also interested in Kowloon Motor Bus, and I’ve been planning this for a long time. I’ve come today in the hope that we can resolve this matter peacefully, so we don’t end up in a fight that benefits no one,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Mr. Lin is also interested in Kowloon Motor Bus?” Now Guo Desheng was even more astonished.

As far as they knew, only Great Eagle Holdings had entered the fray.

He hadn’t expected Lin Haoran, an even more powerful business tycoon, to have his eyes on Kowloon Motor Bus as well.

This was truly beyond his expectations.

“I’ve always been very interested in acquiring these public companies, as Elder Guo should be well aware!” Lin Haoran said after taking a sip of tea.

First, there was the acquisition of Green Island Cement, then Hongkong Electric Group, followed by the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. The latter two, in particular, were among Hong Kong’s most well-known public companies. These events were common knowledge in Hong Kong.

It could be said that when it came to acquiring British-owned companies, Guo Desheng believed Lin Haoran was a cut above even Li Jiacheng and Pao Yue-kong.

Some media outlets had even given Lin Haoran a nickname: “The Collector of British-owned Companies!”

Although the nickname wasn’t widely circulated, it was recognized by many.

Guo Desheng nodded, his expression now serious.

If Great Eagle Holdings were their only competitor, Sun Hung Kai would still have a good chance of taking over Kowloon Motor Bus. But now, not only was there another competitor, but it seemed he had been planning for longer, which meant he likely held far more shares than Sun Hung Kai. This made things difficult.

“If I may ask, Mr. Lin, how many shares do you currently hold?” Guo Desheng inquired.

“Over 25%!” Lin Haoran did not hide the fact.

With this percentage of shares, he was already quite confident.

However, to truly control Kowloon Motor Bus, his stake needed to be raised to around 40%.

In Lin Haoran’s previous life, when Sun Hung Kai acquired Kowloon Motor Bus, their final controlling stake was close to 40%.

“Over 25%!” Guo Desheng muttered the figure to himself.

This completely blew his expectations out of the water.

It was far more than what Sun Hung Kai held.

To this day, even after stepping up their stock accumulation efforts, Sun Hung Kai had only managed to secure 6.21% of Kowloon Motor Bus shares.

6.21% was a far cry from 25%. They had no chance of surpassing him.

Moreover, their opponent was aware of their competition and was also financially stronger than Sun Hung Kai.

This meant their bid to acquire Kowloon Motor Bus could basically be declared over.

Guo Desheng’s brow furrowed even deeper.

Was the high-quality public company he had finally set his sights on going to end in failure before it even began?

Guo Desheng felt a sense of unwillingness, but he was also helpless.

The young man before him was unlikely to be deceiving him; the 25% stake was very likely real.

Indeed, just as Lin Haoran had said, with their acquisition of Kowloon Motor Bus now essentially hopeless, it was pointless to continue wasting time and money on it.

Besides, continuing to compete would be like killing a thousand of the enemy at the cost of eight hundred of their own.

“I was wondering, Elder Guo, how many shares of Kowloon Motor Bus have you acquired so far?” Lin Haoran asked.

“6.21%!” Guo Desheng didn’t hide it either.

There was no point in hiding it anymore.

Since his opponent knew that Sun Hung Kai was accumulating shares of Kowloon Motor Bus, they would have a hard time winning this acquisition battle even if they continued buying.

“I have an idea that could be mutually beneficial for both of us!” Lin Haoran said slowly.

“Oh? Please, do tell, Mr. Lin,” Guo Desheng’s curiosity was piqued.

Guo Bingxiang also turned his attention to Lin Haoran.

With his father present, there was no opportunity for him to speak, so he acted merely as a listener, pouring tea for them.

However, Guo Desheng had brought him to this meeting with Lin Haoran in the hope that he could learn more.

Just as he was now, Guo Bingxiang was learning from his father how to interact with other tycoons.

“Besides holding over 25% of Kowloon Motor Bus, I also have nearly 5% of China Motor Bus shares. I am determined to acquire Kowloon Motor Bus. As for China Motor Bus, I’m sure you’re aware, Elder Guo, that the government will not allow one person to control both bus companies.

Therefore, I propose that Sun Hung Kai consider shifting its focus to China Motor Bus. I am willing to transfer my shares in China Motor Bus to you, and in return, Sun Hung Kai can transfer its holdings in Kowloon Motor Bus to me.

China Motor Bus, like Kowloon Motor Bus, is a high-quality public utility company. More importantly, its stock price is still relatively low at the moment, and no other competitors have set their sights on it.

If Sun Hung Kai can discreetly make its move on China Motor Bus, I believe this public company will not escape your grasp. In contrast, the stock price of Kowloon Motor Bus is already somewhat high, and our continued competition will only drive it higher, which is detrimental to both of us.

Elder Guo, what do you think of this proposal?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

This was the reason he had come to meet Guo Desheng.

This idea was, arguably, a perfect solution that would leave both parties without any losses.

If the other party transferred their shares to Lin Haoran, his stake in Kowloon Motor Bus would directly surpass 30%, reaching 31.33%!

At the same time, the other party could easily switch targets and obtain the China Motor Bus shares that Lin Haoran held.

Guo Desheng did not answer immediately but sat in his chair, deep in thought.

He had, of course, carefully evaluated China Motor Bus as well.

The company wasn’t much different from Kowloon Motor Bus. The only differences were that its fixed assets were slightly lower and its bus services were less extensive due to population distribution. In reality, it was also a very high-quality public company.

But Guo Desheng’s initial thinking had been the same as Lin Haoran’s: if you’re going to choose, choose the best.

So, he had ultimately chosen Kowloon Motor Bus, which had led to today’s predicament.

It was an awkward situation, with everyone bumping into one another.

Now, the solution Lin Haoran proposed seemed to be an excellent one.

“Bingxiang, what do you think?” Guo Desheng turned and asked his son.

“Dad, I think Mr. Lin’s proposal is excellent!” Guo Bingxiang replied.

Chapter 228: Collector of Publicly Listed Utility Companies

When Guo Desheng said this, it was clear that he had decided to give up on acquiring Kowloon Motor Bus. The next target, naturally, would be China Motor Bus.

The difference between the two wasn’t large. Taking over China Motor Bus was far better than having this acquisition attempt end in total failure!

“Then, how about we discuss a stock swap?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He could hardly wait to get his hands on the Kowloon Motor Bus shares held by Sun Hung Kai Properties.

Once he had them, his holdings would surpass those of Kowloon Motor Bus’s current largest shareholder, Mr. Lei Juekun.

Although it wouldn’t guarantee a controlling stake, he would be a major shareholder. All he needed to do was acquire a few more shares to take full control and become the new boss of Kowloon Motor Bus.

And since Guo Desheng had already made up his mind, he was clearly unwilling to waste any more time on Kowloon Motor Bus.

“I have a proposal. How about we sell our shares to each other at the original price we paid to acquire them?” Guo Desheng said with a slight smile.

A stock swap was a win-win plan in itself; there was no need to try and profit from each other.

Guo Desheng’s proposal was actually somewhat disadvantageous for him.

After all, Sun Hung Kai Properties had put a great deal of effort into Kowloon Motor Bus.

In contrast, Lin Haoran’s Universal Investment Company’s move on China Motor Bus had been nothing more than an impromptu decision.

In the end, he had only sent a few people, and in just a single day of trading, they had already accumulated a full 4.82% of China Motor Bus’s shares.

Of course, the main reason for this was a perfect storm of timing, opportunity, and favorable conditions.

China Motor Bus had very low trading volume, but the number of pending sell orders far exceeded it.

They were able to accumulate a lot just by absorbing the pending orders on the market.

Kowloon Motor Bus’s stock, on the other hand, was fiercely contested. Its price was constantly rising, and buy orders were as numerous as sell orders, which naturally drove up the cost.

“Elder Guo, you truly are a straightforward person. It’s settled then. Why don’t we get this done today? That way, we can both start working toward our respective goals tomorrow,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Of course!” Guo Desheng nodded in agreement.

“Elder Guo, may I borrow your phone? I need to contact my head of securities to come over,” Lin Haoran said, standing up.

“Bingxiang, take Mr. Lin to the office next door to make his call,” Guo Desheng gestured to Guo Bingxiang, who was standing beside him.

“Mr. Lin, please follow me!”

A little over twenty minutes later, Su Zhixue rushed to the Sun Hung Kai Headquarters with the necessary documents.

“Elder Guo, it’s been a pleasure working with you!” Lin Haoran said, shaking Guo Desheng’s hand after Su Zhixue had finalized the share transfer on behalf of Universal Investment Company.

“Mr. Lin, I wish you success in taking Kowloon Motor Bus!” Guo Desheng said with a hearty laugh.

“Of course, and I wish you success with China Motor Bus as well!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

At that moment, it was as if the two publicly listed utility companies could not escape their grasp.

After settling their business, Lin Haoran and Su Zhixue bid farewell to Guo Desheng and Guo Bingxiang and returned to Wanqing Building.

“Boss, our stake in Kowloon Motor Bus has reached 31.33%. I think we should launch a preemptive strike and formally announce our acquisition of Kowloon Motor Bus to make any third parties back off. Sun Hung Kai is no longer a competitor, which is good news for us. Our biggest rival is gone, but Great Eagle Holdings is definitely still in the game, and we don’t know how many shares they’ve acquired!” Su Zhixue proposed to his boss in Lin Haoran’s office.

Before Lin Haoran became the largest shareholder of Kowloon Motor Bus, that title actually belonged to Lei Juekun, who held around 22% of the shares.

However, Lei Juekun did not serve as the Chairman of the Board of Directors, only as a Director of the company. Their focus was mainly on Kowloon Development Company, which was primarily in the real estate sector.

The Chairman of the Board was another founder of Kowloon Motor Bus, Deng Zhaojian, but Mr. Deng’s actual shareholdings were not that significant.

The founders of Kowloon Motor Bus and their descendants were quite united. The Lei Juekun family, the Lin Mingxun family, the Deng Zhaojian family, the Tan Huantang family, and others collectively held nearly 35% of the shares.

Therefore, although Lin Haoran had now become the largest shareholder, his 31.33% stake was not actually enough to seize control of Kowloon Motor Bus.

In other words, for Lin Haoran to completely take control of Kowloon Motor Bus, he needed to acquire, at a minimum, more shares than the company’s founder alliance held.

Lin Haoran thought for a moment and quickly made a decision. He was only a few percentage points away from having complete control of Kowloon Motor Bus.

That being the case, there was no rush to make a public announcement.

Though the Lei Juekun family held 22% of Kowloon Motor Bus’s shares, their family’s focus was not on the bus company but on Kowloon Development Company.

After all, everyone knew that real estate was the most profitable industry right now.

Furthermore, Lei Juekun was also involved in the film industry. The Lai Shing Cinema Circuit he controlled was one of Hong Kong’s four major cinema circuits, second only to the Shaw Brothers’ Cinema Circuit and the Golden Harvest Cinema Circuit.

Therefore, with Kowloon Motor Bus’s stock price so high, it was certain that they wouldn’t invest more money to increase their stake.

As for the other founding families with smaller shareholdings, it was even less likely. Even if they wanted to increase their stake, it was uncertain how much capital they could raise.

If they had wanted to increase their shareholding, they would have done so years ago. Why wait until now?

“Here’s the plan. When the market opens tomorrow, I want you to start buying up shares aggressively, but don’t make any announcements yet. As for the price ceiling, I’ll leave that to your discretion. In short, before the market closes tomorrow, I want to see Universal Investment Company’s stake in Kowloon Motor Bus exceed 36%!” Lin Haoran stated directly.

A 36% stake was basically enough to take control of Kowloon Motor Bus, though it wasn’t entirely secure. There was always a risk that a coalition could form to snatch away the controlling stake later.

To be more secure, he just needed to increase his holdings slowly over time.

This approach would also prevent the price of Kowloon Motor Bus stock from being driven up too much.

Aggressive accumulation would certainly cause the stock price to rise faster, but for just a few percentage points, it wasn’t worth dragging things out.

Otherwise, the longer it took, the higher the stock price would climb, and the final cost would increase.

Therefore, the best method was a quick and decisive battle, learning from the “Dawn Raid” acquisition style of the Hongkong Land Group to take down Kowloon Motor Bus in one fell swoop.

If this were ten or twenty years in the future, this method would certainly not work, as there would be a stock disclosure system.

But things were different now. Hong Kong’s equity system was not yet fully developed and was riddled with loopholes, making it the perfect time for covert takeovers of these listed companies.

Many of the previous acquisition battles in Hong Kong had, in fact, involved secretly accumulating a certain percentage of shares before going public.

And sometimes, when the secret accumulation was accidentally leaked, they were forced to go public.

Take Li Jiacheng, for example. A couple of years ago, he secretly accumulated shares in Kowloon Wharf, reaching a stake of about 18%, only for it to be leaked by accident.

After a series of targeted measures by Jardine Matheson & Co. and confirming that he could not acquire Kowloon Wharf, Li Jiacheng ultimately had no choice but to sell his shares to Pao Yue-kong in exchange for favorable terms for himself.

“Yes, Boss. I know what to do!” Su Zhixue responded respectfully.

Since his boss had made a decision, he just needed to follow orders.

The next day, May 14th, at 9:30 AM, the stock market opened as scheduled.

Before the market opened, Su Zhixue gathered the members of the Kowloon Motor Bus project team for a meeting, simultaneously pulling the short-lived China Motor Bus project team, which was about to be disbanded, into the Kowloon Motor Bus team.

Today, they would go all out and intensify their accumulation of Kowloon Motor Bus stock.

Lin Haoran didn’t head to Wanqing Building until noon.

When he arrived at the company, most of the employees had gone to the building’s canteen for lunch, but Su Zhixue was still there, studying the morning’s trading data in his office.

“You’re not getting lunch?” Lin Haoran asked in surprise.

“I’ve already asked a colleague to grab me a boxed lunch. It’s no problem,” Su Zhixue replied nonchalantly.

Lin Haoran nodded and asked, “How did the accumulation go this morning?”

Now that control of Kowloon Motor Bus was within reach, even Lin Haoran was paying close attention.

After all, if he succeeded, he would add another publicly listed company to his portfolio.

And Kowloon Motor Bus’s market capitalization was not small; it had always been ranked among the top thirty listed companies in Hong Kong.

Once he acquired Kowloon Motor Bus, he would own three publicly listed utility companies: Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and Kowloon Motor Bus!

At this rate, he wouldn’t just be a collector of British-owned companies; he would have to add a new moniker: Collector of Publicly Listed Utility Companies!

“Boss, when the market opened this morning, we didn’t strike hard right away. We proceeded as usual, just increasing the intensity of our accumulation. Without Sun Hung Kai Properties as a competitor, our acquisition speed has indeed increased significantly.

In just one morning, we’ve increased our shareholding by nearly 2%. This afternoon, we’ll continue to accumulate steadily, and then, just before the market closes, we’ll sweep up a batch of pending orders all at once to push our shareholding past 36%!” Su Zhixue reported.

Lin Haoran nodded. An increase of nearly 2% meant they now held over 33% of Kowloon Motor Bus’s shares. With another push in the afternoon, breaking past 36% would not be difficult.

Meanwhile, at the headquarters of Great Eagle Holdings, Chairman Lo Ying-shek was listening to a report from his son, Lo Yuk-sui.

Their strategic acquisition of Kowloon Motor Bus hadn’t been going on for long, only about a week.

However, after they started, they discovered that although the trading volume for Kowloon Motor Bus was getting larger and larger, the number of shares they were accumulating was not that high.

At first, they thought the high trading volume was simply because the stock was popular with ordinary shareholders.

But when they truly started making their move on Kowloon Motor Bus, they began to feel that something was amiss.

“Are you saying there are other competitors for Kowloon Motor Bus?” Lo Ying-shek asked.

“Yes, Dad. I consulted with a securities trading expert, and he believes that Besides us, there must be another financial group aggressively accumulating Kowloon Motor Bus shares right now.

Our current holdings in Kowloon Motor Bus are still small. If someone is truly that far ahead of us, then our chances of successfully acquiring it are not high. Perhaps it would be better for us to switch targets.

Didn’t we research both Kowloon Motor Bus and China Motor Bus? Although China Motor Bus is slightly inferior to Kowloon Motor Bus, if we can’t acquire Kowloon Motor Bus, China Motor Bus might be our best alternative,” Lo Yuk-sui replied.

Lo Ying-shek paced back and forth in his office, contemplating the feasibility.

They had been acquiring shares for nearly a week and now held 3.26% of Kowloon Motor Bus. It really wasn’t much.

Chapter 229: Our Boss Wants to Take Control of Kowloon Motor Bus

Lo Ying-shek’s idea was simple. The current Chairman of Kowloon Motor Bus, Deng Zhaojian, didn’t hold many shares. He had only managed to remain chairman for so long because of his status as a founder and the Lei family’s lack of interest in managing the company. He wasn’t a major threat.

The biggest threat was, of course, the largest publicly known shareholder, Lei Juekun!

If they could acquire the Lei family’s Kowloon Motor Bus shares, taking control of the listed company would be a piece of cake.

“We can try, but Dad, it definitely won’t be easy to get Lei Juekun’s Kowloon Motor Bus shares. Even if he’s willing to sell, he’ll surely take the opportunity to drive up the price,” Lo Yuk-sui said cautiously.

“Let’s give it a try. How will we know if we don’t?” Lo Ying-shek said with a smile.

“Then, Dad, should we arrange to speak with Mr. Lei Juekun about this now?” Lo Yuk-sui asked.

“Yes, I’ll call him. If I’m the one calling, he’ll at least show me some respect,” Lo Ying-shek said directly.

And so, Lo Ying-shek called Lei Juekun from his office at the Great Eagle Holdings headquarters, contacting the Hong Kong tycoon.

However, what Lo Ying-shek didn’t know was that even if he succeeded in buying Lei Juekun’s shares, he was destined to fail in taking control of Kowloon Motor Bus. His efforts were doomed to be in vain.

Universal Investment Company, Investment Department.

After a short lunch break, the trading team began their work again.

In the afternoon, Kowloon Motor Bus stock was still being actively traded.

Following the pace set in the morning, the Universal Investment Company team continued their stock accumulation, snapping up shares at suitable prices.

Time flew by, and soon it was past three o’clock in the afternoon, with less than twenty minutes until the market closed.

Lin Haoran didn’t stay at Wanqing Building that afternoon; instead, he went to the Hongkong Electric Group.

After learning that they now had security in the Philippines, Chen Shoulin began to set his sights on the Philippine market.

The Philippines was a populous country, with a population already exceeding fifty million and continuing to rise steadily.

If Hongkong Electric Group could capture a certain market share in the Philippines, it would naturally be good news for the company.

As a nation composed primarily of islands, the Philippines’ geography was perfectly suited for hydroelectric power. The country, made up of thousands of islands, possessed over four hundred rivers and abundant water resources.

For this reason, Chen Shoulin had sent a team of experts to the Philippines to conduct a survey for a few days. The team had now returned.

Through their investigation, the team concluded that the Philippines was currently experiencing a severe power shortage, especially in the metropolis of Manila. Due to the ever-increasing population and electricity consumption, even with ongoing investment in power generation, the supply could not meet the total demand. Therefore, the government was welcoming of investment in the power sector.

Chen Shoulin had reported this matter to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran, of course, was supportive.

He knew that the population of the Philippines would indeed skyrocket in the future.

Although it was only fifty million now, Philippine society encouraged early marriage and childbirth—one could marry at sixteen, divorce was legally prohibited, contraception was restricted, and those who had abortions faced imprisonment. The society even tacitly accepted a form of polygamy. These policies led to persistently high birth rates.

From what Lin Haoran knew from his previous life, the Philippines was a country with a population of over one hundred million.

It was conceivable that with its current population of only fifty million, there was still significant room for growth.

Lin Haoran gave his direct support to Chen Shoulin’s plan. After all, they now had muscle in the Philippines, which at least guaranteed corporate security. Anyone who wanted to move against him would have to be psychologically prepared for retaliation, just like the fate that befell the Brotherhood.

The downfall of the Brotherhood had surely spread throughout Manila, given the triad’s size.

Although Universal Security Consulting Company did not publicly announce its involvement in the matter with the Brotherhood, any faction that wanted to know would know. There was a tacit understanding about these things, which instilled a certain degree of wariness toward Universal Security Consulting Company and, by extension, Lin Haoran who was behind it.

This was a deterrent effect. Anyone who wanted to provoke them would have to be prepared.

Even if they had the strength, there was no need to provoke them; after all, no one would willingly court a death wish.

Furthermore, a project like a hydroelectric plant was a public utility, which the government would certainly support. It couldn’t be easily threatened by triads.

In the future, as Lin Haoran’s status in the international business world grew, the Philippine Department of Commerce would be even less likely to dare offend him.

Additionally, Chen Shoulin also planned to have the Hong Kong and China Gas Company enter the Philippine market, starting with Manila.

After his discussion with Chen Shoulin, Lin Haoran headed back to the Wanqing Group.

By the time he returned to Universal Investment Company, there were only a few minutes left before the stock market closed.

Lin Haoran didn’t disturb Su Zhixue and the others at work. Instead, he returned to his own office, sipping tea while admiring the scenery outside his window.

The weather in Hong Kong was excellent today. The sky was clear for miles, offering high visibility, so much so that he could clearly see the bustling traffic on the Kowloon Peninsula.

About ten minutes later, a knock came from the door.

“Come in,” Lin Haoran said.

A moment later, Su Zhixue opened the office door and walked in.

“Boss, today’s task is complete. It went very smoothly!” Su Zhixue said, walking in with a report in his hand.

“Good, let me see.”

Lin Haoran wasn’t surprised. The tasks he assigned Su Zhixue were usually successful, and today’s mission hadn’t been particularly difficult.

Su Zhixue handed the report to Lin Haoran and stood by his side.

“Have a seat, don’t just stand there,” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he took the report.

“Thank you, Boss.” Only then did Su Zhixue sit down.

The report detailed the latest situations regarding Hongkong Land Group, Jardine Matheson & Co., and Kowloon Motor Bus, all compiled into three neat tables.

However, Lin Haoran’s eyes naturally went first to the one he was most concerned about: Kowloon Motor Bus.

After all, taking control of Kowloon Motor Bus was now within reach.

“36.83% stake in Kowloon Motor Bus!”

“This much?” Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

His goal had only been to exceed 36%, so he hadn’t expected Su Zhixue to over-deliver by almost a full percentage point.

He glanced at the purchase price per share. It was indeed quite a bit higher than yesterday’s, but still within his acceptable range.

Besides, it was only a few percentage points of shares.

The shares they had accumulated earlier were all at relatively low prices.

Even if the price was higher now, the average unit price would be pulled down by the earlier low-cost purchases.

“Boss, after Sun Hung Kai Properties stopped competing with us, our trading was a lot less difficult, and the stock accumulation became much simpler. On top of that, no one expected us to sweep through some of the pending orders that were priced much higher than today’s opening price. That’s how we managed to exceed the target,” Su Zhixue explained.

The closing price was a full 6% higher than the opening price, a rare surge in the stock market. It was no wonder that Universal Investment Company’s Kowloon Motor Bus project team was able to accumulate so many shares in a single day.

After this wave, everyone would surely be convinced that a financial group was targeting Kowloon Motor Bus for an acquisition. Tomorrow, if nothing unexpected happened, the stock price of Kowloon Motor Bus would continue to rise sharply.

However, once they realized that no one was continuing the stock accumulation, the stock price would inevitably cool down. It would then naturally experience a decline until the price stabilized.

For now, at least, Universal Investment Company had no need to continue accumulating Kowloon Motor Bus shares.

“With this shareholding percentage, no one can threaten our position, right?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Boss, it’s absolutely impossible. We’ve investigated thoroughly. The total shares of all publicly known shareholders combined are less than what we hold. The only way would be if another financial group already held a certain number of shares and also acquired all the shares from Lei Juekun, Deng Zhaojian, and the others.

But that scenario is clearly impossible, at least for now. Otherwise, they would have already announced it. If they had acquired those shares, Mr. Deng Zhaojian would no longer be the Chairman of Kowloon Motor Bus,” Su Zhixue said, shaking his head.

In truth, Lin Haoran also knew that their position was basically secure with this stake; he was just being a little cautious.

However, with a full 36.83% stake, the probability of failing to win the final say in Kowloon Motor Bus was minuscule.

“In that case, let’s send a formal notice to Kowloon Motor Bus. Announce our shareholding to them!” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Understood. I’ll immediately write a notification letter in the name of Universal Investment Company and send it to Kowloon Motor Bus to have them convene a board meeting!” Su Zhixue instantly understood his boss’s meaning. After saying this, he stood up and left Lin Haoran’s office.

He needed to hurry back to his own office, write the notification letter as quickly as possible, and then have someone deliver it into the hands of Deng Zhaojian, the Chairman of Kowloon Motor Bus.

Soon, the notification letter was written. After confirming there were no errors, Su Zhixue stamped it with the official seal of the Universal Investment Company general manager’s office, folded it, and placed it in an envelope.

Originally, he had planned to send someone else.

But on second thought, he decided it was better to deliver it personally. This matter was too important; he would only be at ease if it was placed directly into Deng Zhaojian’s hands.

The Kowloon Motor Bus headquarters was located in Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, which also housed the largest bus depot in Hong Kong, capable of parking numerous buses.

It was already past five in the afternoon when Su Zhixue arrived.

However, when he got to the Kowloon Motor Bus headquarters, Deng Zhaojian had not yet left for the day.

Although Su Zhixue wasn’t a major figure, Lin Haoran was a well-known entrepreneur. When it was learned that Su Zhixue was there representing the business magnate, he encountered no trouble and was able to meet Deng Zhaojian smoothly.

“You’re here representing Mr. Lin Haoran. What is this about?” Deng Zhaojian, who had already been informed of his arrival by the head of security via walkie-talkie, asked curiously upon seeing Su Zhixue.

“Mr. Deng, I am here today on behalf of Universal Investment Company, a company under Mr. Lin Haoran, to meet you and to deliver an official notice into your hands!” After speaking, Su Zhixue handed over the envelope with both hands.

“An official notice?” Deng Zhaojian took the envelope with a puzzled expression.

His confusion was understandable, as Kowloon Motor Bus had no business dealings with any of Lin Haoran’s companies.

As one of the founders of Kowloon Motor Bus, Deng Zhaojian was naturally not young. He was now seventy-nine years old, approaching the age of eighty.

Although he had managed KMB as the Chairman of the Board of Directors for a long time, the way his hands trembled as he held the envelope suggested the old gentleman’s health was a cause for concern.

Putting on his reading glasses, Deng Zhaojian read the document, word by word.

He read slowly, but even so, it didn’t take long to finish a single notification letter.

After reading it, Deng Zhaojian placed the letter on his desk. His expression was no longer as calm as it had been moments ago.

A 36.83% stake—Deng Zhaojian naturally understood what this meant.

This had happened too suddenly, without any prior warning.

Although the trading volume of Kowloon Motor Bus had increased significantly in recent months, as a listed company, they had no right to interfere with any transactions on the market. It was simply normal market behavior, and they wouldn’t have found anything even if they had investigated.

Moreover, he had no intention of increasing his own shareholding. He wasn’t a major shareholder to begin with, and given his advanced age, he had simply ignored the fluctuations in the stock market.

He had, in fact, long suspected that a financial group had its eyes on Kowloon Motor Bus.

He just hadn’t expected things to happen so quickly.

And the acquirer was none other than that new Chinese businessman, famous for taking over British-owned companies.

“Since Mr. Lin now holds so many shares, what does he intend to do?” Deng Zhaojian gradually composed his shocked expression and asked with a serious tone.

Chapter 230: Great Eagle Holdings’ Sincerity

Deng Zhaojian was not surprised by Su Zhixue’s words.

After all, what other reason could there be for secretly accumulating so many shares if not to gain a controlling stake in Kowloon Motor Bus?

“Alright, I understand. I will convene a board meeting as soon as possible and announce this matter to the public.” At this moment, Deng Zhaojian was, on the contrary, quite calm.

He was already seventy-nine years old. At this age, he had no choice but to admit he was getting old.

Perhaps this was also the best time for him to gradually step away from Kowloon Motor Bus.

From the founding of Kowloon Motor Bus in 1933 until now, Deng Zhaojian had been at the helm for nearly fifty years.

Especially after the Lei family gradually shifted their focus to Kowloon Development Company, he held the final say at Kowloon Motor Bus.

Of course, this was also why the founding families of Kowloon Motor Bus trusted him so much.

Such a long time had made him long accustomed to his identity as the Chairman of the Board of Kowloon Motor Bus.

At this moment, Deng Zhaojian probably only felt a sense of reluctance to let go.

“Then I’ll have to trouble you, Mr. Deng. Our Boss will be coming over tomorrow to handle the transfer of management. You will continue to serve as the Vice Chairman of Kowloon Motor Bus. I believe you don’t have plans to retire just yet,” Su Zhixue said with a smile.

These were all things Lin Haoran had told Su Zhixue.

After all, Deng Zhaojian had managed Kowloon Motor Bus for the better part of his life and knew it like the back of his hand. It wouldn’t be appropriate for him to suddenly leave the management team.

“Alright. I’m a major shareholder in Kowloon Motor Bus, after all. Naturally, I can’t just abandon it,” Deng Zhaojian did not refuse the offer.

For him, he was never the largest shareholder of Kowloon Motor Bus to begin with.

Now, there was simply one more shareholder who wanted to take charge.

And in the short term, Kowloon Motor Bus couldn’t do without Deng Zhaojian.

This would also give him enough time to gradually step away from the management of Kowloon Motor Bus, rather than having to leave all at once.

“In that case, Mr. Deng, I’ll take my leave. I’ll leave the upcoming arrangements to you.” After speaking, Su Zhixue left the Kowloon Motor Bus headquarters in Lai Chi Kok.

As for Deng Zhaojian, he began making calls to the other major shareholders of Kowloon Motor Bus.

Meanwhile, at the Kowloon Development Company headquarters on Nathan Road in Kowloon, in the Chairman’s office.

At this moment, several people were seated on the sofa.

Two of them were prominent figures in Hong Kong’s business world.

One was Lei Juekun, the boss of Kowloon Development Company.

The other was Lo Ying-shek, the boss of Great Eagle Holdings.

The rest were their juniors.

At noon, Lo Ying-shek had called Lei Juekun to request a meeting to discuss a matter, but Lei Juekun was inspecting a construction site at the time and didn’t receive the call.

By the time he learned of it, it was already the afternoon.

So, the two parties finally agreed to meet at half past five in the afternoon.

In real estate, Great Eagle Holdings was undoubtedly much stronger than Kowloon Development Company.

What set Great Eagle Holdings apart from other real estate companies was that they had started with industrial buildings.

Originally, Great Eagle already owned a significant amount of industrial land in the New Territories. Later, they purchased large amounts of industrial land in areas like Kwai Chung and successively built numerous industrial buildings.

Especially in the three years from 1976 to 1978, Great Eagle Holdings became the largest supplier of industrial buildings in Hong Kong.

During that time, a “jeans craze” was sweeping through, and many owners of small, unlicensed factories accumulated vast fortunes. They rushed to purchase factory buildings to expand their production.

Coupled with the Hong Kong government’s strict enforcement of laws requiring factories to move out of residential buildings, small manufacturers were in desperate need of small industrial units. All these factors led to the industrial buildings constructed by Great Eagle Holdings selling out in a short period. As a result, they amassed a huge fortune, becoming a presence second only to the Five Tiger Generals of Chinese-owned Hong Kong real estate.

This was also why Great Eagle Holdings was now so wealthy and looking to go on a buying spree.

As for the Lei family, although they couldn’t compare to Great Eagle Holdings in the real estate industry, their overall strength was by no means inferior.

Kowloon Development Company, which focused mainly on real estate, was also a well-known property developer in Hong Kong.

In addition, the Lei family also held 22% of the shares in Kowloon Motor Bus, making them a major shareholder.

Furthermore, the Lei family also controlled Hong Kong’s third-largest cinema circuit—the Lai Shing Cinema Circuit.

Therefore, the strength of the two families could be said to be on par with each other.

“Mr. Lo wants to purchase our Kowloon Motor Bus shares?” Lei Juekun was very surprised to learn the purpose of the visit.

After all, since they founded Kowloon Motor Bus in 1933, it had never been acquired by outsiders; it had always been in the hands of its founders.

Although Lei Juekun wasn’t a founder, his father was. His father had co-founded it with Deng Zhaojian and others back in the day.

It could be said that Deng Zhaojian was one of his elders, which was one of the reasons Deng Zhaojian had been able to serve as the Chairman of Kowloon Motor Bus for so long.

“Yes, Mr. Lei. We’ve come with great sincerity. We can purchase the shares you hold at a price 30% above the market value!” Lo Ying-shek said solemnly.

In reality, Lo Ying-shek knew very well that with the current rate of increase in Kowloon Motor Bus’s stock price, it wouldn’t take long to reach a 30% gain.

Moreover, that afternoon, he had noticed that in the secondary market, Kowloon Motor Bus’s stock price had once again been subjected to a massive acquisition by some financial group, directly pushing the price up by nearly 6%.

Lo Ying-shek didn’t know how many shares his opponent held, but he felt that as long as he could secure Lei Juekun’s 22% stake and add it to his own shares, he would be able to seize the initiative. Even if the other party kept pushing hard in the secondary market, so what?

What he wanted to do was to overtake on a curve and directly seize the position of Kowloon Motor Bus’s largest shareholder!

“Mr. Lo, I’m very sorry, but I have never considered selling our Kowloon Motor Bus shares, and our family has no intention of doing so!” Lei Juekun said, shaking his head.

This was the Lei family’s business. Although Lei Juekun had the final say, the business didn’t belong to him alone; it belonged to the entire family.

Their family’s development strategy was not to let go of the businesses their elders had worked so hard to build unless they faced a real crisis.

It was for this reason that even when Sun Hung Kai Properties later became the largest shareholder, they never gave up their status as shareholders of Kowloon Motor Bus and had always remained one of its major shareholders.

“As I understand it, Kowloon Development Company has always wanted to acquire that commercial plot of land on Kwu Fuk Road in Kwai Chung, but we were the swift-footed who arrived first. If you sell your Kowloon Motor Bus shares to our Great Eagle Holdings, I can make the decision to resell this commercial plot to Kowloon Development, and at a price 20% below the current market value!” Lo Ying-shek played his trump card.

After all, people like them would only act when they were sufficiently confident.

Ever since the container terminals were built in Kwai Chung, foot traffic had increased dramatically, so Kowloon Development had already ramped up its development efforts in Kwai Chung several years ago.

Currently, in the Kwu Fuk Road area, Kowloon Development has built a residential project that is very important to the company. Next to this complex is a plot of land that Kowloon Development wanted to acquire to continue expanding the project and build supporting residential facilities, such as a shopping mall.

Unfortunately, that plot of land was purchased by Great Eagle Holdings ahead of time, and Kowloon Development missed the opportunity.

Lo Ying-shek knew exactly how much Kowloon Development coveted this plot of land, which was why he intended to use it as a crucial bargaining chip.

Great Eagle Holdings had purchased this plot a year ago, and its market value had since more than doubled. Even if they sold it at a 20% discount on the current market price, their Great Eagle Holdings would still make a considerable profit on the land.

Sure enough, upon hearing Lo Ying-shek’s words, Lei Juekun became conflicted.

This was, after all, an era where profit was king. Although Lei Juekun had no intention of selling the Kowloon Motor Bus shares, if the benefits were great enough, it wasn’t impossible!

“Dad, I think that’s a great offer! We don’t really prioritize Kowloon Motor Bus anyway. We can cash out over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars and get that plot of land. It’s killing two birds with one stone!” said Lei Juekun’s eldest son, who was sitting beside him, his interest piqued.

For their Lei family, the advantages indeed outweighed the disadvantages.

If the family knew about this, everyone would agree.

However, Lei Juekun did not agree immediately. Instead, he sat on the sofa, deep in thought.

Although the benefits were many, it would completely disrupt his development plans.

As the head of the Lei family, he naturally had his own development plans, and he had already mapped out his plans for the next few years.

Just as Lei Juekun was contemplating whether to accept the offer, the office phone rang.

“Excuse me, I need to take this call,” Lei Juekun said to Lo Ying-shek.

“Please, Mr. Lei.”

So, Lei Juekun stood up, walked briskly to his desk, and picked up the receiver.

“Hello, this is Lei Juekun.”

“Juekun, it’s Deng Zhaojian. I have something important to tell you.” On the other end of the line was none other than the Chairman of Kowloon Motor Bus, Deng Zhaojian.

“Uncle Deng, please speak!” Lei Juekun was quite respectful toward Deng Zhaojian.

“Mr. Lin Haoran, the boss of the Hongkong Electric Group, has been secretly accumulating shares and now holds 36.83% of Kowloon Motor Bus. He has officially become the largest shareholder. We’re holding a board meeting tomorrow at ten in the morning. I need you to be there,” said Deng Zhaojian.

“What? Uncle Deng, how could this be so sudden?” At that moment, even Lei Juekun was stunned.

“Juekun, I just found out myself. Their people just came over to talk to me and delivered the official notice. I called you right after they left,” Deng Zhaojian said with a wry smile.

36.83% of the shares—they naturally knew what this meant. It meant that from now on, Lin Haoran would have the final say at Kowloon Motor Bus. It meant that Kowloon Motor Bus had a new owner, and it was no longer up to them, the founders and their descendants, to call the shots.

“Is this news… real?” Lei Juekun asked in disbelief.

“I wish it were fake too, but the official notice has their company’s seal on it. They wouldn’t lie, and there’s no need to. They will report it to the Securities and Futures Commission and the stock exchange tomorrow. Juekun, that’s all for now. We’ll talk when we have time. I still have to call the Tam family, the Lam family, and the others.” After saying this, Deng Zhaojian hung up.

As for Lei Juekun, he stood there holding the receiver, not putting it back for a long time.

He truly didn’t care much about having control of Kowloon Motor Bus.

But now that someone else had seized it, his feelings were incredibly complex.

After inheriting Kowloon Motor Bus from his father, he had never been very interested in it, choosing instead to focus on the real estate business.

Now that he had received this news, he felt a sudden sense of loss.

Lei Juekun stood like that, holding the receiver, for a full minute or two before finally putting it down and returning to the sofa.

Everyone present noticed that something was wrong with Lei Juekun.

“Dad, what’s wrong?” Lei Juekun’s eldest son asked, seeing his father’s grim expression.

Just now, he had also heard his father address the person on the phone as Uncle Deng, and he certainly knew who Uncle Deng was.

Therefore, the matter was definitely related to Kowloon Motor Bus, but he had no idea what it was specifically.

Chapter 231: Kowloon Motor Bus Trading Halts!

In the past, although Lei Juekun didn’t involve himself much in the affairs of Kowloon Motor Bus, instead letting Deng Zhaojian wield the company’s authority, it was only because the Lei family had the confidence to do so.

Holding 22% of Kowloon Motor Bus’s shares, they could reclaim control of the company at any moment.

After all, the shares they held had always made them the major shareholder of Kowloon Motor Bus.

And a major shareholder naturally had more of a final say.

To them, Deng Zhaojian, one of their elders, was merely managing Kowloon Motor Bus on their behalf. The real boss was the Lei family!

However, the news Deng Zhaojian delivered meant that the Lei family had completely lost their grip on Kowloon Motor Bus!

Lo Ying-shek, the Chairman of Great Eagle Holdings, who had been hoping to purchase shares from the Lei family, was also utterly shocked by Lei Juekun’s words.

Someone had already beaten them to Kowloon Motor Bus?

Suddenly, Lo Ying-shek and his son, Lo Yuk-sui, exchanged a look, a flicker of relief in their eyes.

Yes, relief.

If they had acquired the shares but failed to gain a controlling stake, although they wouldn’t suffer a major loss immediately, their capital would have been tied up indefinitely.

It would not be easy to sell off so many shares on the secondary market in a short period.

Once it was confirmed that Lin Haoran had acquired Kowloon Motor Bus, no other financial group would be interested in its shares.

With no interest from financial groups, the trading volume would plummet, leaving only some small-scale operations among individual shareholders.

A drop in trading volume would naturally slow down the sale of their shares.

They might even have to keep lowering the price to sell them.

As for finding other buyers, that was even more impossible.

Who would want to buy such a large block of shares in a listed company that already had a new owner?

As it stood, before buying the Lei family’s shares, they only held a few percentage points of Kowloon Motor Bus stock, which could be quickly offloaded on the secondary market.

“Mr. Lei, since such a major change has occurred with Kowloon Motor Bus, we’ll be taking our leave now!” Lo Ying-shek and his son Lo Yuk-sui stood up simultaneously to bid Lei Juekun farewell.

At this moment, they naturally had no intention of buying the shares in the Lei family’s possession.

If they bought them, wouldn’t they be stuck with a hot potato?

“Take care, Mr. Lo!” Lei Juekun was in no mood to continue the conversation with Lo Ying-shek.

This whole affair was too sudden, so sudden that they had absolutely no time to prepare for it.

“Dad, what do we do about this?” Lei Juekun’s son asked, his face grim.

The sudden loss of control over Kowloon Motor Bus was naturally a bitter pill for them to swallow.

“What else can we do? The other party holds 36.83% of the shares, more than ten percentage points more than us. We can only let nature take its course. Tomorrow morning, you’ll come with me to the board meeting at Kowloon Motor Bus,” Lei Juekun said helplessly.

Everyone in Hong Kong’s business world knew that Lin Haoran was a tycoon with ample funds. First, he acquired Green Island Cement, then Hongkong Electric Group, followed by the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and now he had set his sights on Kowloon Motor Bus. Furthermore, the shares he now held was an unchangeable fact that he had the power to take control of Kowloon Motor Bus.

To put it bluntly, any single one of the companies Lin Haoran had taken over was stronger than their Lei family’s entire enterprise.

So, with what could the Lei family possibly compete against the current Lin Haoran?

In this situation, they had no choice but to admit defeat.

Meanwhile, after leaving the Kowloon Motor Bus headquarters, Su Zhixue did not immediately return to his office. Instead, he went to the Securities Commission and the Stock Exchange to report Universal Investment Company’s acquisition of Kowloon Motor Bus.

The Securities Commission had not yet changed the mandatory general offer trigger point from 50% to 35%, so Universal Investment Company’s acquisition was entirely legal and compliant, violating no regulations.

In the blink of an eye, it was the next morning, May 15th.

Lin Haoran left home a little after eight o’clock.

He first went to Wanqing Building.

The news of his acquisition of Kowloon Motor Bus had not yet spread, so even Burton, the President of Wanqing Group, was unaware of it.

The reason Lin Haoran sought out Burton was, naturally, to have him take over the management of Kowloon Motor Bus.

Ordinarily, for a listed public utility company, having Chen Shoulin take charge of Kowloon Motor Bus would have been the best choice, since he was already managing Hongkong Electric Group and the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, both of which were listed public utility companies.

However, Hongkong Electric Group was not involved in this acquisition, so it could not hold a controlling stake in Kowloon Motor Bus.

Therefore, the best solution was to merge Kowloon Motor Bus into Wanqing Group.

After all, Wanqing Group was a company he solely owned.

After the merger, Wanqing Group would own three companies: Green Island Cement Company, Wan’an Real Estate Company, and Kowloon Motor Bus.

The group’s strength was gradually growing.

At that moment, Burton, who had not been at work for long, was reviewing a summary report submitted by his subordinates. He was quite surprised to see Lin Haoran arrive.

“Boss, what brings you here?” Burton asked curiously.

“I’ve come to tell you some good news,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“What good news? Please tell me, Boss,” Burton asked, continuing in Cantonese that was not fluent but understandable.

“To make Wanqing Group even stronger, I’ve acquired another listed company and plan to merge it into the group. Get ready, you’ll be coming with me to take over its management in a bit,” Lin Haoran said with a chuckle.

“You’ve acquired another listed company?” Burton was a little stunned.

His boss was just too formidable. He had just acquired the Hong Kong and China Gas Company at the beginning of the year. How long had it been, and now another listed company?

“That’s right, Kowloon Motor Bus Company. I now hold over 36% of its shares, enough to gain control. The Kowloon Motor Bus board meeting is scheduled for ten o’clock,” Lin Haoran said, glancing at his watch. It was exactly nine in the morning, so there was no rush.

“Alright, Boss. I’ll just put my things away and I’ll go with you!”

Although truly shocked by his boss’s actions, Burton wasted no time. He immediately placed the documents on his desk into a drawer and stood up.

At Universal Investment Company, Su Zhixue finished assigning tasks to his subordinates and also made his way to Burton’s office.

The three of them would head to the Kowloon Motor Bus headquarters in Lai Chi Kok together.

At the same time, traders at the exchanges were surprised to find that Kowloon Motor Bus stock, which they had been planning to speculate on, was suspended from trading today. Furthermore, trading was halted simultaneously on all four stock exchanges.

Yesterday, the stock price of Kowloon Motor Bus had soared, and its trading volume had surged. The closing price was a full 6% higher than the opening price.

It was obvious that a financial group was frantically acquiring Kowloon Motor Bus.

Whenever such a situation occurred, it was considered good news for shareholders, as it meant another opportunity to make a short-term profit.

Thus, many shareholders were fully prepared, planning to buy Kowloon Motor Bus shares as soon as the market opened today and sell them off after the price was driven up.

But it was suspended from trading?

Soon, the Stock Exchange issued a notice: Universal Investment Company now holds 36.83% of the shares. Due to a change in company management, the market will be closed for one day for adjustments.

Seeing this, everyone knew that yesterday’s acquisition wave was orchestrated by Universal Investment Company.

And while Universal Investment Company might have been unknown to most people before, after the Hongkong Electric Group and Hong Kong and China Gas Company incidents, everyone knew that the boss behind it was Lin Haoran.

Unexpectedly, Lin Haoran had once again acquired a listed company.

Instantly, shareholders at all four stock exchanges burst into fervent discussion.

“Mr. Lin is just too fierce, isn’t he? One acquisition after another.”

“You can say that again! Look at the listed companies under his name. Hongkong Electric Group’s market capitalization is already over three billion Hong Kong dollars, Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s is over one billion, and based on yesterday’s closing price, Kowloon Motor Bus is over nine hundred million. And that’s not even counting the privatized Green Island Cement Company and Wan’an Real Estate Company. It’s insane…”

“With that kind of wealth, isn’t he more formidable than Mr. Li Jiacheng and Mr. Pao Yue-kong?”

“I agree. I even think Mr. Lin might already be the richest Chinese man in Hong Kong, right?”

“Not necessarily. The richest is probably still Mr. Pao Yue-kong. After all, his World-Wide Shipping Group has a high valuation, and now he’s also acquired Kowloon Wharf.”

“No wonder the trading volume for Kowloon Motor Bus has been so high these past few months. It turns out it was Mr. Lin making big moves. What a shame I sold too early. If I had held on until now, my investment would have almost doubled in a few months. What a loss, what a loss.”

“He’s incredible. And Lin Haoran is so young, about the same age as my daughter. If my daughter could marry him, that would be a truly wonderful thing.”

“You’re dreaming, aren’t you? Why don’t you have your daughter take a look in the mirror?”

“What’s wrong with my daughter? Does my daughter eat your family’s rice? You think your daughter is so good-looking?”

“Better than your daughter, at least. A girl like yours, with no chest and no ass, you’d be lucky if she could get married at all. And you want her to land a rich son-in-law? I think you’ve lost your mind.”

“Damn you! You looking for a fight?”

“Bring it on! I’ve never been scared of the likes of you!”

“Mr. Lin is a real acquisition maniac. Who do you think his next target will be?”

“Another one? Isn’t his empire terrifying enough already?”

“Why wouldn’t there be another one? Haven’t you noticed? Mr. Lin Haoran seems to have a particular fondness for acquiring listed public utility companies. Whether it’s Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, or Kowloon Motor Bus. I’m guessing his next one will be another public utility.”

“That’s right. I used to think he liked acquiring British-owned companies, but since Hong Kong and China Gas and Kowloon Motor Bus aren’t British-owned, that theory has been disproven. I wonder who his next target will be? If we can guess right, we’ll make a fortune.”

“As for listed public utility companies, there are only a few. I guess his next target is Hongkong Telephone Company.”

…

The shareholders chattered animatedly. Some even got into fights over it, while others began to study who Lin Haoran’s next acquisition target might be.

It was as if Lin Haoran constantly acquiring listed companies was just a normal state of affairs.

At that moment, Lin Haoran, Burton, and Su Zhixue had already arrived in a Rolls-Royce at the Kowloon Motor Bus headquarters in Lai Chi Kok.

Inside the office of the Chairman of the Board at the Kowloon Motor Bus headquarters, Deng Zhaojian, Lei Juekun, and several other board members were gathered, awaiting the arrival of Lin Haoran and his party.

The expressions on everyone’s faces were grim.

To them, Kowloon Motor Bus was founded by them or their fathers; it was their own company.

Even if control were to change hands, it should have been an internal shift among them.

But now, that situation had been completely upended.

From this day forward, Kowloon Motor Bus no longer belonged to them.

Even as shareholders of Kowloon Motor Bus, they were now just shareholders.

Although they still had a certain degree of say, it was far from enough to decide the future direction of the company.

This was a blow to them all.

But now, no matter what was said, it seemed meaningless.

After all, unless they united to fight against Lin Haoran and continue to increase their shareholding on the stock market…

But there was no point.

Among those present, the Lei family was the strongest.

But compared to Lin Haoran, the Lei family was leagues behind.

How could they possibly compete?

No matter how much they increased their shareholding, could they ever surpass Lin Haoran?

It was unthinkable. They definitely couldn’t. Increasing their stake would just be a waste of money.

They did not have that kind of capital to squander.

In the office, someone couldn’t help but let out a helpless sigh.

For these descendants of the KMB founders, Lin Haoran taking control of Kowloon Motor Bus meant their ancestral business was lost.

Chapter 232: Kowloon Motor Bus’s New Chairman, the Mysterious Source of Funds

At the sight of Lin Haoran, everyone’s eyes turned to him.

Lin Haoran was, without a doubt, one of the hottest Chinese entrepreneurs of the past two years.

In less than two years, he had risen rapidly, acquiring several well-known listed companies one after another.

In terms of acquisition prowess, he was on par with even British-owned behemoths like Jardine Matheson.

What was most striking was Lin Haoran’s incredibly young age—only twenty-six!

Aside from those lucky few who inherited massive fortunes, which of Hong Kong’s business tycoons wasn’t a middle-aged or elderly person in their forties, fifties, or even seventies and eighties?

They had all taken note of a figure like Lin Haoran before.

However, none of them had ever imagined that this rising star among Chinese businessmen would one day have anything to do with them.

Kowloon Motor Bus, a company they valued, had been acquired by him just like that.

And there had been no news of it beforehand.

“Mr. Lin, hello.” Deng Zhaojian reacted quickly, striding over to Lin Haoran to shake his hand warmly with a smile.

Now that the change in ownership of Kowloon Motor Bus was a done deal, there was no point in saying anything else.

“Hello, Old Mr. Deng. I’ve long heard of your reputation. I’ll be counting on your guidance at Kowloon Motor Bus in the future!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile, his tone respectful of the elder.

Then, his gaze shifted to Lei Juekun. Before Lei Juekun could speak, he proactively extended his hand. “This must be Mr. Lei, I presume?”

Lei Juekun was quite well-known in Hong Kong’s circle of Chinese entrepreneurs. Although Lin Haoran had not met him before at The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, Lei Juekun frequently appeared in the news and newspapers, so Lin Haoran recognized him at a glance.

“Mr. Lin is truly young and promising. I am deeply impressed!” Lei Juekun said with sincere admiration.

“Not at all, it’s just a bit of good luck,” Lin Haoran responded modestly.

However, everyone present knew that this could not have been achieved by luck alone. Only with sufficient financial resources and strength could one acquire these listed companies so smoothly.

Take Lei Juekun, for example. He would not even dare to think of acquiring listed companies with significant market capitalization like Hong Kong and China Gas Company or Green Island Cement Company, let alone a behemoth like the Hongkong Electric Group.

The atmosphere on the scene was rather amicable, at least on the surface.

No one dared to offend Lin Haoran, because they didn’t have the power to do so.

“It’s about time. Let’s head to the conference room,” Deng Zhaojian said, glancing at his watch.

They had scheduled the meeting for ten in the morning, and it was almost that time.

Thus, the group followed him to a conference room on the third floor of the office building to hold the board meeting.

The core agenda of the meeting was Lin Haoran’s formal appointment as Chairman of Kowloon Motor Bus, with Burton and Deng Zhaojian serving as Vice Chairmen of the company. The positions of the other members remained unchanged.

Lei Juekun, the former largest shareholder and now the second-largest shareholder, retained his position as a member of the Board of Directors without holding any other concurrent roles.

Although Lin Haoran was the newly appointed Chairman of the Board, he actually entrusted all daily management responsibilities to Burton.

In terms of share distribution, Lin Haoran already held a significant advantage. Coupled with everyone’s understanding that it was unwise to make an enemy of this powerful leader, nearly all the motions he proposed passed unanimously.

Even if there were dissenting opinions, they could hardly change the outcome, as the Chairman of the Board already held greater decision-making power, not to mention Lin Haoran’s personal shareholding far exceeded the combined total of all other directors present.

As for the second-largest shareholder, Lei Juekun, he expressed his support without hesitation, raising no objections.

After all, his family’s business was focused on the real estate industry, and he wasn’t particularly concerned with the management of Kowloon Motor Bus; otherwise, he wouldn’t have left it in Deng Zhaojian’s hands for so long.

Kowloon Motor Bus operated on a system of one share, one vote. With the support of shareholders like Lei Juekun, Lin Haoran’s control over the company was a smooth and natural process.

Meanwhile, after the four major Stock Exchanges suspended trading of Kowloon Motor Bus for a day and issued a public announcement, the news quickly spread throughout most of Hong Kong.

These events naturally drew the attention of many media outlets.

Thus, numerous media organizations, such as TVB, Rediffusion Television, Hong Kong Radio, the Oriental Daily News, the South China Morning Post, the Sing Tao Daily, the Wah Kiu Yat Po, the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, and many others, flocked to the Kowloon Motor Bus headquarters in Lai Chi Kok, hoping to get a scoop.

While Lin Haoran and the others were holding their board meeting in the conference room, more than a dozen reporters had already gathered at the Kowloon Motor Bus headquarters, and more were steadily arriving.

However, the board meeting could certainly not be disturbed, so the reporters were stopped and told to wait downstairs. Someone would naturally inform them once the meeting was over.

By the time Lin Haoran’s board meeting concluded, a crowd of more than thirty reporters had gathered on the first floor of the Kowloon Motor Bus office building, representing almost every mainstream media outlet in Hong Kong.

So, when the conference room door opened, a staff member hurried in to report the situation downstairs to Deng Zhaojian, the former Chairman.

“Since they’re all here, let them come up,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“This is Mr. Lin Haoran. He will be the company’s Chairman from now on,” Deng Zhaojian reminded the staff member.

The official announcement had not yet been released, so the employees were naturally unaware that such a major change had occurred within the company.

“Understood. I’ll go down and call them up right away.” The staff member gave Lin Haoran a shocked look before quickly leaving the conference room.

“Mr. Lin, there’s an empty office next door. Since these reporters have come, I’ll have the staff tidy it up. We can consider it a simple press conference,” Deng Zhaojian said, looking at Lin Haoran.

“Yes, thank you for your trouble, Old Mr. Deng,” Lin Haoran nodded.

As a large, publicly listed utility company, a change of this magnitude at Kowloon Motor Bus certainly had to be announced to the public. The simplest way was to hold a press conference.

However, Kowloon Motor Bus had not prepared for this in advance.

Now that the reporters had shown up on their own, it saved them a great deal of trouble.

The staff at Kowloon Motor Bus worked quickly. In less than ten minutes, they had cleaned the empty office until it was spotless.

They also set up a simple stage with a long table and a few chairs. On the back wall, they put up the Kowloon Motor Bus logo.

At this point, dozens of reporters, led by staff, filed into the makeshift press conference room in an orderly fashion.

Lin Haoran, Deng Zhaojian, and Burton took their seats, with Lin Haoran in the center and Deng Zhaojian and Burton on either side.

Meanwhile, Lei Juekun, the former largest shareholder of Kowloon Motor Bus, did not go on stage. He felt that as an ordinary board member, his presence there would serve no purpose.

“I am aware of the reason you are all here. That’s right, Mr. Lin Haoran has become the largest shareholder of Kowloon Motor Bus. Furthermore, at the board meeting we just concluded, Mr. Lin Haoran was formally appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kowloon Motor Bus. Mr. Burton, the President of Wanqing Group, and I will serve as Vice Chairmen of the Board,” Deng Zhaojian announced briefly.

The room immediately filled with the clicking of camera shutters, capturing the three of them in that moment.

This was undoubtedly a historic piece of news. In its nearly fifty-year history since its founding, the controlling stake of Kowloon Motor Bus had always been in the hands of its founders and their families. Today, that history was completely changed.

The star of the day was destined to be Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Lin, may I ask what made you decide to acquire Kowloon Motor Bus?” a reporter from the Oriental Daily News asked first.

“Over the past year, I have been continuously studying Kowloon Motor Bus. I had long ago considered in detail the various advantages of investing in this company. It is a very high-quality listed company that caught my attention. So, when the opportunity to acquire it arose, I acted without hesitation,” Lin Haoran said, his face beaming with joy.

“What is the reason behind your successive acquisitions of listed companies?” a reporter from TVB immediately followed up.

“I am very interested in companies with high asset values. Over the past two years, I have spent nearly half of my work time planning my future development and keeping an eye on investment opportunities in Hong Kong and overseas. I have a very clear picture in my mind of the asset situations of many listed companies in Hong Kong.

“Therefore, I can make swift decisions as soon as an opportunity presents itself. Take Kowloon Motor Bus, for example. When I discovered its low trading volume, a stock price that wasn’t too high, and that the largest shareholder’s stake wasn’t very large, I knew it was an opportunity for me. So, I decisively launched a targeted acquisition. Unsurprisingly, I successfully took control of this historic bus company,” Lin Haoran replied again, his face wreathed in smiles.

“Mr. Lin, you’ve been acquiring companies frequently, and your funds seem to be endless. Some speculate that your capital comes from other foreign financial groups. What is your response to that?” a reporter from the Hong Kong Commercial Daily posed a sharp question.

Lin Haoran’s rise was indeed shockingly sudden and mysterious, which had led to all sorts of speculation about him in the market.

Especially in top business circles, many even believed that Lin Haoran was Citibank’s agent in Hong Kong because his financial dealings with Citibank were unusually frequent, far surpassing his relationship with the local bank, HSBC.

Most people were skeptical that Lin Haoran had earned all the money himself.

After all, earning billions of Hong Kong dollars in two years was something that even the mighty Jardine Matheson & Co. would find difficult to achieve.

For Lin Haoran to do it alone was even more unbelievable.

The short two months Lin Haoran spent working at the Huafeng Cement Factory after returning from Britain had long been thoroughly investigated by various parties.

If he had possessed such enormous wealth back then, why would he have been willing to spend months in obscurity in a remote Hong Kong suburb like Yuen Long?

Therefore, the source of Lin Haoran’s funds had always been a mystery, and he himself was extremely tight-lipped, making the enigma all the more confusing.

The Hong Kong Commercial Daily’s question was aimed at hoping to get some useful information out of Lin Haoran and perhaps lift a corner of this veil of mystery.

However, Lin Haoran had no intention of disclosing his source of funds.

In his view, maintaining this sense of mystery was actually more advantageous.

Exposing everything would do him no good.

Burton and Deng Zhaojian couldn’t help but turn to look at Lin Haoran, brimming with curiosity about the source of his funds.

Everyone else in the room also fixed their gazes on Lin Haoran, equally curious about the answer to this question.

Among the crowd, only Su Zhixue fully understood the path of Lin Haoran’s rise, from buying oil to investing in gold futures, every step crystal clear.

One could say that Su Zhixue had personally witnessed his boss transform from an ordinary rich scion into a super-rich magnate in less than two years.

But as a subordinate who was one hundred percent loyal to Lin Haoran, Su Zhixue would naturally guard the secret closely and not breathe a word to the outside world.

Chapter 233: Lin Haoran’s Powerful Backer?

“Regarding the source of my funds…” Lin Haoran had only just begun to speak when everyone present pricked up their ears, eager to hear what he would say next.

However, his following words were both exasperating and amusing.

“No comment. It’s my trade secret!” Lin Haoran said, still smiling.

Although the crowd was unwilling to accept this answer, there was nothing they could do.

After all, he had the right to remain silent, and they could only accept it helplessly.

And just like that, the hastily arranged press conference came to a swift end.

Soon, the representatives of the company’s major shareholders also departed. There was no point in staying.

Burton and Lin Haoran, however, remained.

As for Su Zhixue, he hurried back to Wanqing Building.

Lin Haoran mainly wanted to gain a deeper understanding of Kowloon Motor Bus.

Burton, on the other hand, needed to learn from Deng Zhaojian and manage the handover.

Although Deng Zhaojian would temporarily continue to serve as the Vice Chairman of Kowloon Motor Bus, having lost his ultimate executive power, he was already entertaining thoughts of a slow retirement.

He was seventy-nine years old. At his age, he should have retired long ago; he had only persevered in his post out of dedication.

“Mr. Lin, this is all the information on Kowloon Motor Bus’s land reserves.” In the chairman’s office, Deng Zhaojian took a file folder from his bookshelf and handed it to Lin Haoran.

“Thank you for the trouble, Elder Mr. Deng,” Lin Haoran said with a smile. He then opened the folder and began leafing through the documents inside.

The Sin Fat Road plot in Kwun Tong-Lam Tin, area 216,800 square feet.

The Tat Chee Avenue plot in Shek Kip Mei, area 136,300 square feet.

The Cheung On Estate plot in Tsing Yi, area 87,900 square feet.

The Tiu Keng Leng plot in Tseung Kwan O, area 189,800 square feet.

The Starfish Bay plot in Sha Tin, area 237,600 square feet.

The Tin Shui Wai plot in Yuen Long, area 139,600 square feet.

The Sai Ning Street plot in Kennedy Town, area 64,600 square feet.

The Quarry Bay plot in North Point, area 73,900 square feet.

…

Looking at these documents, Lin Haoran was greatly astonished.

He never expected Kowloon Motor Bus to have such extensive land reserves.

Moreover, the land in Kowloon and the New Territories had been accumulated ten or twenty years ago, or even earlier. The prices were cheap back then, and the documents even recorded the purchase costs.

For example, the plot in Tin Shui Wai, Yuen Long, was purchased from the government nearly twenty years ago. The 139,600-square-foot plot of land had cost a mere three hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars.

One had to remember that Tin Shui Wai was now a key development area in Yuen Long, one of the focal points for creating the Yuen Long New Town.

Today, buying that same plot of land would cost at least ten million Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Haoran estimated that the total market value of these twenty-odd land reserves, large and small, was at least several hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Although the vast majority were in the suburbs with few in the city center, most were primarily in the inner suburbs, where land was not cheap.

It was worth it. Absolutely worth it.

Seeing these land reserves put Lin Haoran in a good mood.

This investment was indeed a very good deal.

Meanwhile, Deng Zhaojian was diligently explaining the various affairs of Kowloon Motor Bus to Burton.

Though he had lost his ultimate authority, Deng Zhaojian was still a shareholder of Kowloon Motor Bus, not just a professional manager.

Therefore, the future success of Kowloon Motor Bus was still relevant to him.

Furthermore, as one of the company’s founders, he naturally did not want to see it decline.

It wasn’t until after three in the afternoon that Burton and Lin Haoran left Kowloon Motor Bus together.

“Boss, Mr. Deng told me that he will gradually reduce his management of Kowloon Motor Bus over the next year until he fully retires,” Burton said on the way back.

“Mm, it’ll be tough on you from now on. The Wanqing Group is getting bigger and bigger!” Lin Haoran had no objections to this.

“It’s manageable. With Mr. Deng still around, there’s nothing to worry about. As for what happens in a year, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Burton said, unfazed.

To him, it was just another company added to the group. But for the group as a whole, it was a good thing, as it meant another company’s resources could be mobilized.

One might think that a bus company’s role was limited to transportation and had little connection to the other companies under the Wanqing Group.

In reality, with proper resource allocation, it could benefit the other companies under the Wanqing Group.

For instance, if Wan’an Real Estate Company were to develop a residential complex in the future, establishing a bus stop nearby would definitely add tangible value to the property.

After all, MTR stations were few and far between, and only a minority could afford a private car. Therefore, buses were the most important mode of transport in all of Hong Kong, and the one most used by the public for their daily commute.

Upon returning to Wanqing Building, Burton went to get busy.

His workload was increasing; he was no longer the professional manager responsible for just Green Island Cement Company.

After parting with Burton downstairs, Lin Haoran went straight up to the office of Universal Investment Company.

Kowloon Motor Bus’s stock was suspended from trading today, so Universal Investment Company’s main task was focused on two stocks: Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group.

Lin Haoran glanced at them and then paid them no more mind.

Whether it was Jardine Matheson or Hongkong Land, a takeover was still a long way off. It was not something to be considered in the short term.

As for Hongkong Land, the most promising target, it would take at least several months before there was a chance to acquire it.

Jardine Matheson was an even more distant prospect.

“Boss, do we still need to increase our shareholding in Kowloon Motor Bus tomorrow?” In Su Zhixue’s office, the two began to chat.

“Increase it, but there’s no rush. Let’s push the stock price down first. Without the targeted accumulation from the financial groups, the price of Kowloon Motor Bus shares should fall to a certain extent in the short term. You can increase our holdings then as the situation dictates. For Kowloon Motor Bus, I also plan to hold around 49.9%,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

With a stake of just over thirty percent, others still had a chance to launch a sneak attack and seize control from him.

But if his shareholding reached 49.9%, no one, no matter who, would have that opportunity.

They currently held 36.83% of Kowloon Motor Bus shares, not too far from 49.9%—only a difference of about thirteen percentage points.

Without competitors like Great Eagle Holdings and Sun Hung Kai Properties, it would be a simple matter for Universal Investment Company to accumulate another thirteen percentage points of Kowloon Motor Bus shares.

Moreover, without the other financial groups involved, it would not be difficult for their Universal Investment Company to manipulate the stock price of Kowloon Motor Bus now.

The share price of Kowloon Motor Bus had indeed risen too quickly during this period, faster than many listed real estate companies.

Such a stock price was naturally unreasonable. It was time for it to return to its original value.

After chatting with Su Zhixue for a while, Lin Haoran left Wanqing Building.

“Boss, where are we going?” Li Weiguo asked, turning his head after getting into the driver’s seat.

“Let’s go back to the villa in Deep Water Bay!” Lin Haoran said after a moment’s thought.

It had indeed been some time since he had last been there. The last time was probably in early April, over a month ago.

“Yes, Boss!” Li Weiguo started the car’s engine, and it slowly pulled away from Wanqing Building.

Meanwhile, the news of Lin Haoran taking over Kowloon Motor Bus had already caused a huge stir throughout Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, not only was there a dazzling array of morning papers, but the number of evening papers was also considerable.

Papers like Tonight’s Post, Central Sound Evening News, Arabian Nights Post, South China Evening Post, and The Grand Evening Post were too numerous to list.

Hong Kong, a city with a population of five million, had hundreds of media outlets, including newspapers and magazines, which served as important channels for citizens to obtain information.

After the daily papers hit their deadlines, the evening news cycle would begin, a period stretching from 1:30 AM to 3:30 PM—a full twelve hours. Some evening papers even extended their publication times by another hour or two.

Local Hong Kong news or international information that broke during this period would be promptly published in that day’s evening paper, fully demonstrating the rich diversity of news sources.

Citizens could read the day’s freshly-published news immediately, without having to rely on yesterday’s news.

In addition, television news and radio broadcasts were also sources for the day’s events.

Therefore, by evening, the news from the Kowloon Motor Bus press conference that morning had spread throughout all of Hong Kong.

Originally, the news of Lin Haoran becoming a major shareholder of Kowloon Motor Bus had only circulated within a small circle of shareholders.

But with its dissemination through newspapers, television, and radio, the news spread like wildfire.

The news of Lin Haoran taking the helm of Kowloon Motor Bus undoubtedly became a hot topic.

However, the public seemed to have grown accustomed to his move of acquiring yet another listed company, treating it merely as a topic of casual conversation.

Their attention was drawn more to another question.

This question was the very one raised by the reporter from the Hong Kong Commercial Daily: “Where exactly does the capital for Lin Haoran’s successive acquisitions of listed companies come from? Is it true, as some have speculated, that his funds are all provided by Citibank? Is Lin Haoran actually Citibank’s frontman in Hong Kong?”

“What do you all think? How deep are Mr. Lin’s pockets? It’s like acquiring listed companies costs him nothing, buying them one after another.”

“Who knows? When he acquired Green Island Cement Company, my jaw nearly hit the floor. I never thought he’d then swallow a company like the Hongkong Electric Group, one of Hong Kong’s top ten listed companies. Then came the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and now, after such a short time, Kowloon Motor Bus has also fallen into his hands. If all this is his own money, I honestly find it hard to believe.”

“I know, right? Even Mr. Pao Yue-kong couldn’t come up with that much capital, could he? Back then, Mr. Pao went to great lengths just to take control of Kowloon Wharf!”

“Exactly! And wasn’t it with HSBC’s help that Mr. Li Jiacheng became the major shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa? Mr. Lin is only in his twenties, how could he possibly have so much money?”

“Right now, I’m not concerned about where his money comes from. I’m more concerned about whether he’ll continue his acquisitions, and which listed company will be his next target.”

“No matter what, he’s Chinese, which is much better than being controlled by those British-owned companies. At least with him in charge, we Chinese have a say.”

“That makes sense. I agree with both hands! Who cares where his money comes from!”

…

This news and information also reached the ears of British magnates like Newbiggin, Michael Sandberg, and Schreyer.

Even the Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, showed great interest in the matter, frowning as he read the news.

If Lin Haoran was indeed secretly representing Citibank, then everyone’s attitude towards him would have to become much more circumspect.

After all, although they were backed by the British government, in the Western world, the United States was the leader, not Britain.

Citibank, as one of the largest financial groups in the United States, possessed deep connections in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Could it be that Citibank was truly Lin Haoran’s powerful backer?

Chapter 234: Pushing for Marriage

While all of Hong Kong was abuzz with discussion, Lin Haoran had already returned smoothly to the Deep Water Bay villa.

Seeing Lin Haoran return, his mother was overjoyed.

Naturally, Lin Haoran’s parents were aware of the news about their son acquiring Kowloon Motor Bus.

Because of this, Lin Haoran’s mother was immensely proud of her son.

“Haoran, tell Dad, did your money really come from Citibank? Is Citibank really your powerful backer?” In the study, Lin Wan’an couldn’t contain his curiosity and finally asked the question.

Although his son had once told him he had made a lot of money in oil and gold futures, one acquisition after another was simply too much. How could someone possibly make billions in oil and gold futures?

Forget the tycoons of Hong Kong; even he, his own father, didn’t believe it.

Privatizing Green Island Cement Company cost several hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Acquiring 49.9% of Hongkong Electric Group’s shares must have cost at least one billion Hong Kong dollars, right?

Hong Kong and China Gas Company also had to be several hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

And now, Kowloon Motor Bus was another several hundred million.

Buying two buildings also cost one billion Hong Kong dollars.

A few hundred million here and a few hundred million there… it all added up to at least three or four billion Hong Kong dollars!

And that wasn’t even counting the small sum spent to privatize the Wan’an Group.

All of this was spent, bit by bit, in just over a year.

Running the numbers, even Lin Wan’an found it terrifying.

The rate at which his son spent money was horrifying.

Billions of Hong Kong dollars! In Hong Kong, even an old, established, major British-owned firm like Jardine Matheson & Co. probably couldn’t produce that much cash, right?

And yet his son had spent so much, time and time again?

Even Lin Wan’an, who had seen his fair share of the business world, found it unbelievable when he estimated the total.

Lin Haoran looked at Lin Wan’an’s earnest face and was a little speechless.

He had already told his father the truth, but even he no longer believed him.

“That’s right, all this money came from Citibank!” Since his father didn’t believe him, Lin Haoran could only continue telling the “truth.”

His money was indeed withdrawn from Citibank, but it was all his own, not the bank’s. It was just temporarily deposited there.

Perhaps maintaining this air of mystery was not a bad thing for him.

After all, it was truly unbelievable for a young man to be able to pull out billions of Hong Kong dollars so easily.

Citibank was indeed doing an excellent job of protecting client privacy, having not revealed how Lin Haoran obtained such a massive sum.

Lin Haoran was now a major client of Citibank. If they couldn’t even protect this bit of privacy, Citibank’s reputation would take a major hit.

Even if Citibank denied that Lin Haoran was their representative in Asia, as long as the source of his funds remained unclear, people would inevitably continue to speculate and gossip.

This also lent Lin Haoran a certain mysterious aura.

“I knew it. Haoran, did you sign some kind of cooperation agreement with Citibank? Are these companies yours in name only, with Citibank actually pulling the strings from behind?” Lin Wan’an let out a sigh of relief, yet he felt a twinge of disappointment.

“Dad, don’t ask anymore. Just know that these companies are all under my management,” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head helplessly.

“Alright, alright, Dad won’t ask.” Lin Wan’an assumed it involved some unspeakable secrets, so he didn’t press the matter further.

Lin Haoran’s performance over the past year had been so incredible that it felt like a dream to Lin Wan’an, utterly surreal.

“Dad, you’re looking better and better these days. It’s a good thing you retired early. In the past, all those illnesses were caused by overwork!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, looking at his father’s radiant face.

“I feel like I’m ten years younger now. But after a while, life gets boring. I’m planning to find something to do,” said Lin Wan’an.

Without the burden of the Wan’an Group, Lin Wan’an was more relaxed, but after a long time, it was indeed easy to get bored.

“Oh? Dad, what are you thinking of doing?” Lin Haoran’s curiosity was piqued.

Finding something to do would certainly be good for his health, as long as it wasn’t too strenuous.

“Remember that film’s celebratory banquet I took you to last year? I’m thinking of partnering with a few old friends to invest in movies again. It doesn’t matter if we make money or not; it’s just to have something to do,” Lin Wan’an replied.

When Lin Haoran first heard his father wanted to invest in movies, he had thought about trying to dissuade him. After all, if a film was made well, it could certainly make money, but only those on the box office charts were decent. As for those that didn’t even make the charts, it was better to forget them.

Lin Haoran had never been very interested in the film industry, simply because he looked down on the meager profits it offered.

However, hearing his father say that making money didn’t matter and that it was just something to do, Lin Haoran decided against trying to talk him out of it.

As a hobby, it wasn’t a bad idea.

Besides, their Lam family was not short on money now.

“Dad, how much money do you have on hand?” Lin Haoran asked.

“What? Are you out of money, Haoran? I’ve already divided most of my assets between you two brothers. I only have a few million Hong Kong dollars left. If you’re really in urgent need of cash, I can sell some of the few properties I have left. I should be able to scrape together ten million Hong Kong dollars for you.” Hearing Lin Haoran’s question, Lin Wan’an thought his son was short on money.

“Dad, you’ve misunderstood. I’m not asking for your money. I was just asking because if you’re ever short on cash, you should ask me for it. After all, I inherited so much from you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The assets he inherited from Lin Wan’an were worth over one to two hundred million Hong Kong dollars, so Lin Haoran still held great respect for his father.

“That won’t be necessary. Your mother and I don’t spend much, and investing in movies isn’t like making a big production; it won’t cost much at all,” Lin Wan’an said, waving his hand to indicate that he didn’t need money from his son.

“Alright, if you’re ever short of money, just let me know!” Lin Haoran didn’t dwell on the issue.

“Dinner’s ready! Stop chatting!” his mother’s voice called from outside.

“Alright, alright, we know! We’re coming out,” Lin Wan’an responded to the call.

Lin Haoran glanced at the wall clock in the study. Unconsciously, the time had already reached six in the evening.

Since Lin Wan’an had stopped going out to work, dinner time at home had moved up quite a bit.

In the past, they would have had to wait until at least seven in the evening to eat.

Tonight’s meal was exceptionally lavish. Seeing her son had returned, Lin Haoran’s mother had specially instructed the maid to go shopping.

Usually, when it was just the two of them at home, they ate more simple and light meals.

“Haoran, eat more. I heard that the neighboring Bao family and Li family often buy from this roast goose stall. You should try it,” his mother said as she placed a massive goose leg into Lin Haoran’s bowl.

“Mother, please don’t give me any more. I’m not a guest; I’m home!” Lin Haoran was both touched and amused.

“Look at you, I haven’t seen you in over a month, and you’ve lost weight. You need to eat more meat to build yourself up,” his mother said, her face full of affection.

“Mother, I really haven’t lost weight. I even weighed myself; I’ve gained a few pounds this month,” Lin Haoran replied, slightly exasperated.

He ate well every day and had never intentionally tried to lose weight. How could he have gotten thinner?

“By the way, Haoran, what do you think of Miss Guo?” his mother suddenly changed the subject.

“Miss Guo? You mean Guo Xiaohan?” Lin Haoran asked back, curious.

“That’s her. What do you think of her as a person?” a hint of mystery laced his mother’s words.

“Well, she’s quite nice. She’s good-looking and well-educated,” Lin Haoran answered after a moment’s thought.

“Haoran, you’ve reached a marriageable age. In my opinion, Miss Guo is a very suitable match. Our two families are also well-matched in social and economic status,” his mother continued.

Here we go again, he sighed. The topic of marriage was being brought up once more.

What frustrated Lin Haoran the most was that every time he came back here, his mother would inevitably try to rush him.

In this era, children from poor families often married young; in Hong Kong, it wasn’t surprising for people to marry in their teens.

However, among the wealthy families, it was not uncommon for people to marry after the age of thirty.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was in no hurry at all.

As far as he was concerned, he hadn’t had enough fun yet!

“Mother, marriage is a major life decision. I don’t want to be casual about it. There’s no rush!” Lin Haoran said helplessly.

“Mr. Guo Henian told me that Miss Guo’s parents have agreed to the matter between you two, and Miss Guo is also interested in you. As long as you agree, this marriage can be settled!” at this point, his father added from the side.

Evidently, the Guo family was also eager to further their relationship with the Lam family.

He did have a favorable impression of Guo Xiaohan, but it hadn’t reached the point of marriage.

Lin Haoran fell silent, clearly unwilling to continue the conversation on this topic.

“Fine, you decide for yourself!” His father didn’t continue trying to persuade him.

After dinner, Lin Haoran sat on the terrace in front of the attic, enjoying the sea breeze.

In May, Hong Kong had already entered summer. The daytime temperature could reach around thirty degrees Celsius, and even at night, it was twenty-three or twenty-four degrees.

Feeling the sea breeze, listening to the sound of the waves, and hearing a song playing on a nearby radio was quite pleasant.

The environment of the Deep Water Bay villa district was completely different from the Severn Road villa. Living there occasionally, then living here occasionally, felt very nice.

In the blink of an eye, a night passed.

The next morning, Lin Haoran had breakfast with his parents at home and read the newspaper for a while. It wasn’t until after ten in the morning that he left the Lin family villa.

Lin Haoran didn’t pay much attention to the public’s reaction; he was already used to it.

Previously, whether it was the acquisition of Green Island Cement Company, Hongkong Electric Group, or Hong Kong and China Gas Company, each one had caused a huge sensation in Hong Kong.

Now, the sensation caused by taking control of Kowloon Motor Bus was actually less than the one from acquiring Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

After all, when he acquired Hong Kong and China Gas, there was another competitor—Jardine Matheson & Co.

Jardine Matheson had even made several blunders and lost face because of it.

In comparison, the reason the Kowloon Motor Bus acquisition caused a stir was mostly because the news was so sudden that it caught everyone off guard.

He believed that in two or three days, the hype around Lin Haoran taking control of Kowloon Motor Bus would gradually die down.

Lin Haoran’s Rolls-Royce came to a steady stop in the underground parking lot of Wanqing Building.

He walked into Burton’s office, only to find he wasn’t there. An employee informed Lin Haoran that the President had gone to Kowloon Motor Bus half an hour ago to handle some matters.

Lin Haoran was not surprised by this.

After all, the Wanqing Group had just taken over Kowloon Motor Bus. As the Group’s President and the Vice Chairman of Kowloon Motor Bus, Burton naturally needed to spend more time there in the initial stages to sort things out.

Otherwise, if Deng Zhaojian really washed his hands of Kowloon Motor Bus and Burton was unfamiliar with its affairs, it would mean Burton was not being responsible enough.

Since Burton was not around, Lin Haoran did not stay in the Wanqing Group’s executive offices. Instead, he took the elevator to the floor where Universal Investment Company was located.

When he arrived at Su Zhixue’s office, he happened to have just returned from another office.

“Boss, good morning!” Su Zhixue greeted him enthusiastically.

“Morning. How is Kowloon Motor Bus’s stock price doing?” Lin Haoran pulled up a chair and asked as he sat down.

“Kowloon Motor Bus’s stock, just as we predicted, dropped as soon as the market opened, with quite a few large sell orders. I suspect Great Eagle Holdings took this opportunity to sell off the Kowloon Motor Bus shares they held. The stock price has already fallen back to last week’s price.” Su Zhixue replied.

The drop in Kowloon Motor Bus’s share price was not unexpected, but the extent of the fall was somewhat startling.

It went without saying that Great Eagle Holdings’ sell-off was behind this.

For Great Eagle Holdings, since acquiring Kowloon Motor Bus was now hopeless, they would naturally withdraw quickly and look for other targets.

Next, if nothing unexpected happened, Sun Hung Kai Properties would soon face a new competitor.

Chapter 235: A Call from Li Mingze

A little over a week later, the total market capitalization of Kowloon Motor Bus had fallen from its peak of over 900 million Hong Kong dollars to less than 800 million Hong Kong dollars.

During this period, the Kowloon Motor Bus project team at Universal Investment Company, through continuous trading—selling high and buying low—accumulated more and more shares of Kowloon Motor Bus.

Since there were no more competitors, and besides Universal Investment Company, basically no other financial group wanted to buy this stock.

Therefore, increasing their shareholding from just over thirty percent to 49.9% was not particularly difficult.

Even though Universal Investment Company was now accumulating shares slowly to avoid driving up the stock price, it was estimated that this could be achieved in less than half a month.

Meanwhile, Cui Zilong of the Oriental Press Group and Li Weiguo, the Head Instructor of Universal Security Consulting Company, finally concluded their trip to the Philippines and returned to Hong Kong.

“Boss, everything has been properly arranged,” Cui Zilong reported in Lin Haoran’s office at the Oriental Press Group headquarters. “The Deputy General Manager of Universal Security Consulting Company is over there, gradually advancing our plan.

We’ve brought back fifty men this time to develop the security business here in Hong Kong, while leaving one hundred and fifty in the Philippines as the foundation for our development. In the future, we will use this core team as a basis for further recruitment.”

For Universal Security Consulting Company, the current priority was not to rush into taking on assignments, but to expand the team.

The existing security team of two hundred was still small; if they took on a mission, the training base would be empty.

Therefore, the company’s security force had to be expanded to a certain scale to ensure sufficient manpower reserves before they could start accepting business widely.

In a place like the Philippines, it wasn’t actually difficult to get missions; the key was to establish prestige.

For instance, the last time Li Weiguo led his men and took out the five chieftains of the Brotherhood with sniper rifles had already earned Universal Security Consulting Company a considerable reputation in certain circles in the Philippines.

In the future, once the company took on a few more mercenary contracts, it could further consolidate and expand its influence in the Philippines.

By then, opportunities to make money would naturally flow in endlessly.

“Good, you just handle the arrangements,” Lin Haoran said with a smile. “Here in Hong Kong, expand as quickly as possible as well. Don’t just focus on the elite services; we can also develop the most basic security guard dispatch business.

There are so many factories in Hong Kong. As long as we capture a portion of that business, it will be enough to bring considerable profits to Universal Security Consulting Company.”

Universal Security Consulting Company was destined to be a cash-burning project in its early stages. After all, the cost of ammunition for training, salaries, and so on amounted to a significant monthly expenditure.

Therefore, if the high-end bodyguard business couldn’t turn a profit yet, they could start with low-level security labor dispatch!

“Don’t worry, Boss. I already have a plan for this. I came back to Hong Kong this time to prepare for it. The 50 retired soldiers we brought back will also serve as our instructors in Hong Kong.

Lately, the number of people illegally immigrating to Hong Kong has been increasing. Many of them have served in the army, and even if they haven’t, there are plenty of strong young men among them. These can all be our recruitment targets.

Expanding Universal Security Consulting Company isn’t difficult. We’re currently in the preparation phase and haven’t officially started profitable operations, but I will work hard to get the company on the right track by the end of this year, to become a security consulting company in the true sense, and strive to become self-sufficient as soon as possible!” Cui Zilong reported.

Lin Haoran was satisfied with Cui Zilong’s arrangements. “Good. I’m confident you’ll complete the task outstandingly.”

Cui Zilong continued, “If there’s nothing else, I’ll head back to the Oriental Press Group. There are still many matters there that I need to handle.”

Cui Zilong’s main job was still at the Oriental Press Group; his general manager position at Universal Security Consulting Company was merely a concurrent role, so he had to focus his main energy on the press group.

He was clearly more of an expert in the newspaper and media industry.

Cui Zilong had been away from Hong Kong for over half a month. Although the deputy general manager of the Oriental Press Group had been maintaining the company’s daily operations, many major decisions still required him, the general manager, to make the final call.

Lin Haoran nodded with a smile. “Alright, you can go. It’s been tough on you during this time!”

Only Li Weiguo and Lin Haoran were left in the office.

“Weiguo, from now on, you can come back and continue as my bodyguard. This way, you two brothers can rotate and take a few days off each month to reunite with your families. You should resign from the Head Instructor position at Universal Security Consulting Company,” Lin Haoran said to Li Weiguo.

From now on, the training of top security personnel would primarily be based at the training facility in the Philippines. The fifty men in Hong Kong were a sufficient foundation for development here.

Moreover, those men were quite skilled themselves. After a period of training, they would be qualified to serve as instructors, so there was naturally no need for Li Weiguo to remain there.

“Yes, Boss. Whatever you arrange,” Li Weiguo naturally had no objections.

Li Weidong was also very happy to see Li Weiguo again.

The two brothers seemed to have endless topics to talk about, whispering to each other right in front of Lin Haoran.

After all, this was the first time he had been separated from his older cousin for so long since coming to Hong Kong.

Time flew by, and soon it was June.

After nearly half a month, Burton had gradually adapted to the management situation there. At the same time, Wanqing Group had sent a high-level executive to serve as general manager of Kowloon Motor Bus to assist Burton in managing the company. This famous listed public utility company was gradually being peacefully taken over by Wanqing Group.

As for the original Chairman Deng Zhaojian’s role, from now on it would be more of a supportive management position. Whenever he decided to resign, Kowloon Motor Bus would be completely under the control of Wanqing Group.

One day, Lin Haoran was at the Hongkong Electric Group Headquarters, discussing the group’s work with Chen Shoulin.

Suddenly, the beeper on his waist buzzed.

“I need to make a call,” Lin Haoran said to Chen Shoulin with a smile.

“Of course, Boss, please go ahead.”

So, Lin Haoran walked over to a nearby desk and dialed the number back.

Anyone who had his beeper number was definitely someone he knew.

Sure enough, an elderly man’s voice came from the other end of the line.

“Mr. Lin, are you busy right now?” The caller was none other than Li Mingze, the former Chairman of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

“I’m free. Elder Mr. Lee, please go ahead and speak.” Lin Haoran was rather curious about the purpose of Li Mingze’s call.

The last time he had met Li Mingze was back in March, when Lin Haoran joined The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. More than two months had passed since then.

“Today is my little grandson’s first birthday. We’re holding a first birthday banquet at the Liyuan International Hotel tonight, so I wanted to invite Mr. Lin to attend,” Li Mingze stated his purpose.

The Liyuan International Hotel was precisely the Li family’s family business.

With Lin Haoran’s recent acquisition of Kowloon Motor Bus, his reputation and status in Hong Kong’s business world had clearly risen again.

After all, wealth was the most direct expression of power.

Therefore, it was quite normal for Li Mingze to want Lin Haoran to build a good relationship with the younger generation of the Li family. Clearly, this grandson’s first birthday banquet also served such a purpose.

“No problem. Since Elder Mr. Lee has invited me, I must certainly attend. What time tonight? I will be there on time,” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Just arrive at the Liyuan International Hotel before seven-thirty tonight, Mr. Lin,” Li Mingze replied.

“Okay, see you tonight, Elder Mr. Lee. Is there anything else? If not, I’ll hang up now,” Lin Haoran asked.

“There is one more thing. The shares in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, do you still want to keep them? If not, I plan to sell them through the secondary market,” Li Mingze continued to ask.

Last time, due to the threat from Newbiggin of Jardine Matheson & Co., Lin Haoran had chosen to keep the shares he controlled at 49.9%. Because of this, Li Mingze still held 2.9% of the shares.

As several months passed, the stock price of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company continued to climb, breaking the one billion Hong Kong dollar total market capitalization mark last month.

The reason was simple: the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s profits were high enough that many shareholders were anticipating good dividends.

However, Lin Haoran, who now controlled the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, had not used the company’s nearly eighty million Hong Kong dollars in profit for dividends. Instead, he had Chen Shoulin invest it all in real estate.

This, of course, was Lin Haoran’s arrangement.

After all, it was February and March at the time, and Hong Kong’s real estate market was far from its peak, making it a great investment opportunity.

Any property or plot of land bought then could double in value if held until next year. Such a good deal was much better than cashing out.

In the future, these funds would continue to be invested, for instance, in opening up overseas markets. He had no intention of issuing dividends for the time being.

For him, he wasn’t short on a few tens of millions; it was better to let the Hong Kong and China Gas Company grow stronger.

Hong Kong’s gas market had indeed reached a bottleneck, but there were still overseas markets.

The initial phase of expanding into overseas markets also required capital.

“Elder Mr. Lee, I had actually forgotten about that. If you want to sell, go ahead. The stock price is high right now, so you can still make a nice profit, Elder Mr. Lee,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Indeed, the current stock price of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was already somewhat higher than the price when Li Mingze had sold the stock to him.

Therefore, Li Mingze holding onto the shares until now had actually been beneficial for him.

Besides, 2.9% of the shares wasn’t a lot; it wouldn’t be difficult for the Li family to sell them on the secondary market.

“Alright, since you say I can sell them, I will. I had been considering selling them for a while but was afraid you still had a use for them,” Li Mingze said with a hearty laugh.

His words clearly indicated to Lin Haoran that he was doing him a favor.

“Thank you, Elder Mr. Lee, for thinking of me, a junior. I will be on time for your grandson’s first birthday banquet tonight. And I wish your grandson a happy first birthday!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

The two chatted for a little while longer before hanging up.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran sat in his chair and began to think.

The Li family was one of the traditional Four Great Families of Hong Kong, with extensive connections, and were clearly skilled at socializing.

This was not what Lin Haoran was currently considering.

Right now, he was thinking about something else.

In his memory, Mr. Li Xiaohe, the current Chairman of the Board of Wireless Television, would, if he recalled correctly, pass away from a heart attack on June 28, 1980.

And today was June 6, 1980.

This meant that Mr. Li Xiaohe, who had been the Chairman of the Board since the founding of Hong Kong’s Wireless Television and had held the position for 13 years, would pass away in just over twenty days.

Afterward, the Li family would have no intention of continuing to manage TVB, and another tycoon in Hong Kong’s film and television industry, Mr. Shao Yifu, the boss of Shaw Brothers Studio, would become the Chairman of the Board of this television station.

Lin Haoran had set his sights on the TVB shares held by the Li family.

Today’s Hong Kong Wireless Television was not yet a listed company. There was only one way to become a shareholder: buy shares from the current shareholders of Wireless Television.

Clearly, after Li Xiaohe’s death, it would be an excellent opportunity for Lin Haoran to become a major shareholder of TVB.

And tonight, if nothing unexpected happened, all members of the Li family should be present at the first birthday banquet for Li Mingze’s grandson.

After all, Li Mingze was the current leader of the Li family.

Tonight would be a good chance to get to know Li Xiaohe’s wife and children in advance.

Furthermore, it wasn’t just Li Xiaohe who held TVB shares in the Li family; several of his younger brothers also held TVB shares. With their shares combined, their position as the largest shareholder was unshakable, which was the key reason why Li Xiaohe could always be in charge of TVB.

Therefore, tonight was also a perfect opportunity to meet these people.

Chapter 236: The Large and Prosperous Lee Family

At seven o’clock in the evening.

Lin Haoran left Wanqing Building and was chauffeured toward the Liyuan International Hotel in Wan Chai.

The Lee family had developed early, so they had managed to acquire numerous plots of land at low prices in areas like Causeway Bay, Wan Chai, and even Central, using them to construct commercial buildings.

The income from these properties alone was enough to make the Lee family incredibly wealthy.

However, the Lee family had never sold these properties, preferring to hold onto them.

This Liyuan International Hotel in Wan Chai was one of the Lee family’s assets.

Because it was built early, the nineteen-story building wasn’t particularly prominent in the Wan Chai area.

A little after seven, Lin Haoran’s private Rolls-Royce, driven steadily by Li Weiguo, slowly entered the underground parking garage of the Liyuan International Hotel.

Upon exiting the garage, they were greeted by a sea of luxury vehicles.

Top-tier cars like Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Maybach, Bugatti, McLaren, and Aston Martin were all on display, resembling a low-key yet lavish car show.

The sports cars were undoubtedly driven by the younger generation.

Evidently, these were the cars of the Lee family members and the guests they had invited.

Given the Lee family’s significant standing in Hong Kong, those invited to this grand event were, without exception, an elite class of the rich and powerful.

After taking the elevator to the first-floor lobby, Lin Haoran had just stepped out when he was promptly recognized by the hotel’s lobby manager, who had been waiting nearby.

By now, Lin Haoran’s reputation in Hong Kong was at its zenith, making him highly recognizable. Most people could identify him at a glance.

This was a far cry from his situation more than a year ago when he was just entering the business world by acquiring the Green Island Cement Company.

A series of mergers and acquisitions had made him a frequent feature on major news headlines. His face could be seen in newspapers, magazines, and on television screens.

Therefore, it wasn’t surprising that even those who had never met him could recognize him.

“Mr. Lin, good evening! Our Chairman has given special instructions. Once you arrived, you were to be escorted directly to the Lee family’s banquet hall. Please allow me to lead the way,” the lobby manager said respectfully.

“Yes, thank you for your trouble,” Lin Haoran replied with a slight smile.

He then followed the lobby manager into another elevator.

The lobby manager lightly pressed the button for the sixth floor. Clearly, the Lee family’s first birthday banquet was being held on this level.

The elevator doors soon opened again, revealing a remarkably spacious hall, far larger than the lobby on the first floor.

“Mr. Lin, this way, please. The Chairman is waiting in the hall. I will get back to my duties now,” the lobby manager said, gesturing forward.

Lin Haoran nodded, his eyes having already found Lee Mingze.

Stepping out of the elevator with Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, Lin Haoran surveyed the meticulously decorated hall. Every detail signaled the immense importance the Lee family placed on this new member.

Although the Lee family was large, its members were close-knit. The addition of a new member was undoubtedly an event of extraordinary significance for the entire clan.

A red carpet, adorned with fresh flowers and colorful lights, stretched from the elevators deep into the banquet hall, dazzling the eye. It was like a bridge to happiness, guiding every guest into the heart of the celebration.

On either side of the red carpet, waiters in splendid uniforms stood perfectly straight, welcoming each distinguished guest with warm smiles and elegant composure.

Stepping into the banquet hall, the scene was even more breathtaking.

A massive crystal chandelier hung in the center of the hall, its brilliant light filling the space with a dreamlike, almost fairytale-like ambiance.

The surrounding walls were hung with select works of art and photographs from the family’s history, silently telling the story of the Lee family’s glory and splendor passed down through generations.

Exquisite tableware and fresh flowers were arranged on the banquet tables, where guests sat enjoying fine food and laughter, their faces beaming with happiness and contentment.

Lin Haoran’s arrival quickly drew the attention of many guests in the hall, who cast curious and respectful glances his way.

“Mr. Lin, a very warm welcome to you!” Lee Mingze strode forward to greet him, his face wreathed in smiles as he shook Lin Haoran’s hand.

“Elder Mr. Lee, congratulations! This is just a small token. I wish the little birthday star of the Lee family a happy birthday and a healthy life!” After shaking hands, Lin Haoran took a beautifully wrapped gift bag from Li Weiguo and handed it to Lee Mingze.

Inside the gift bag was a pair of gold anklets that Lin Haoran had picked out at a well-known jewelry store near Wanqing Building. While its monetary value was nothing to people of their status, the gift carried the meaning of “The gift is small, but the sentiment is great.”

“Mr. Lin, your presence alone is our greatest honor. There was no need for you to go to such expense,” Lee Mingze said politely, though his hands had already accepted the gift box, a broad smile on his face.

He then handed the box to a junior family member beside him and began to point out the various guests who had already arrived, introducing them to Lin Haoran one by one.

“Mr. Lin, this is my second brother, Lee Mingqia; my third brother, Lee Xiaohe; my fourth brother, Lee Rongsen; my fifth brother, Lee Rongjie…”

“It’s a pleasure to meet all of you seniors of the business world!” Lin Haoran smiled and shook hands with each of them, exchanging pleasantries.

The Lee family was large and their businesses extensive. Most of Lee Mingze’s brothers were involved in commerce, and many had achieved considerable success. It was therefore not incorrect to call them Lin Haoran’s seniors in the business world.

Compared to the Lee family’s massive lineup, the Lam family’s numbers were indeed paltry, with only a few members.

The Lee family, on the other hand, had numerous members in Lee Mingze’s generation alone.

Lin Haoran thought to himself that if he wanted the Lam family to become a truly great family, he would have to work much harder in the future. After all, his current enterprises were no smaller than those of the Lee family.

Among the many guests, the one who most captured Lin Haoran’s attention was Mr. Lee Xiaohe, the Chairman of the Board of Wireless Television.

Although he was seventy-one, Lee Xiaohe looked no different from any other elderly man. However, Lin Haoran knew that this old man’s life was drawing to a close; he had only twenty-two days left.

An accident like a sudden heart attack often catches people completely off guard, something no one can predict.

Lin Haoran had long known this was Lee Xiaohe’s fate and had no intention of interfering.

After all, he was not a doctor and had no reason to bring up someone else’s health without cause.

Rather than spending his energy worrying about others’ health, he should focus more on his own parents’ well-being.

Life has its end. No matter who it is, all will eventually return to dust.

This is a journey everyone must take, with no exceptions.

In addition, Lee Mingze personally introduced the members of his son’s generation to Lin Haoran, a gesture that fully demonstrated his earnest desire to build a good relationship with him.

Lin Haoran equally cherished this opportunity, as he also hoped to get to know these young members of the Lee family.

He had come tonight precisely to establish connections with these Lee family members and win their support for his acquisition of Wireless Television.

After all, whether he could acquire Wireless Television depended on the support of the people present.

Therefore, Lin Haoran put his heart into getting to know them and engaging in conversation, hoping to pave the way for his business endeavors.

Judging by the scene, the number of outside guests invited by the Lee family was moderate—neither too many nor too few.

Besides Lin Haoran, other business giants such as Shao Yifu, Li Zhaoji, Guo Desheng, and Zhou Qibang were also in attendance.

Even more surprising was the presence of several high-ranking political figures, including some whose importance was second only to the Governor himself.

Among these figures were a few Lin Haoran had met at Governor Sir Murray MacLehose’s banquet, such as Police Commissioner Han Yili.

However, there were also many faces he did not recognize, such as members of Hong Kong’s early Four Great Families of Chinese Enterprise—the Zhou, He, Li, and Lee families.

Of these four families, Lin Haoran was relatively familiar with only the He and Lee families.

As for the He family, since the gambling king was still focused on his casino business in Macau, another key figure from the family was representing them tonight.

Lee Mingze also took this opportunity to introduce these important individuals to Lin Haoran.

Everyone was intensely curious about Lin Haoran, this rising star of the Hong Kong business world, and they all paid close attention to him.

“Sixth Uncle, hello. You are a business senior whom I particularly admire. I hope we’ll have a chance to cooperate in the future!” Lin Haoran said with deep meaning when he met Shao Yifu.

Among the eight Shaw siblings, Shao Yifu was the sixth, so in old Shanghai, he was respectfully called “Shaw the Sixth.” After coming to Hong Kong, he became revered as “Sixth Uncle.”

This title was renowned throughout Hong Kong.

Of course, only he himself knew the true meaning behind his words.

“Mr. Lin is young and accomplished. I, too, greatly admire you. I also look forward to having the opportunity to collaborate with you in business,” Shao Yifu replied with a smile.

Shao Yifu wore black-framed glasses, had a thin frame, and his hair was starting to thin at the top.

Yet, who would have thought that this seemingly old and frail man possessed such astonishing vitality that he would live to the age of 107?

“There will be a chance. I believe it will come very soon. I have always held the highest respect for Sixth Uncle,” Lin Haoran said with a laugh.

Shao Yifu’s energy was currently still focused on Shaw Brothers Studio.

At TVB, he was merely a member of the Board of Directors.

However, in Lin Haoran’s previous life, after Shao Yifu became the Chairman of the Board of TVB, he quickly shifted his focus to the television station, gradually abandoning the film business that had made his fortune.

Today’s main character was not Lin Haoran.

So, after exchanging pleasantries with everyone, the event soon moved on to today’s main theme—the first birthday banquet for the Lee family’s young grandson.

The banquet lasted for a full two hours.

By the time Lin Haoran left the Liyuan International Hotel, it was already ten o’clock at night.

For him, this evening’s birthday banquet had been a fruitful one, allowing him to meet many people he hadn’t known before.

And those people were just as happy to make his acquaintance.

This birthday banquet showed that the Lee family’s network of connections was indeed incredibly powerful—far more so than his, a newcomer to the business world.

Of course, this was limited to a certain level of connections. It was clear that the Lee family had not broken into the very top tier.

For example, for a small matter like a first birthday banquet, they likely wouldn’t be able to invite Governor Sir Murray MacLehose.

After all, as influential as the Lee family was, they were not yet important enough to command that much of Governor Sir Murray MacLehose’s attention.

The golden age of the Lee family had long since passed.

The landscape of Chinese-owned family businesses in Hong Kong had already changed. Many new families had gradually surpassed the old Four Great Families in strength.

For example, the business strength of figures like Pao Yue-kong, Li Jiacheng, and even Lin Haoran himself had definitely surpassed that of the Lee family.

Of course, no matter how much they had declined, their power could not be underestimated. The wealth and network accumulated over many years were the sediments of time, something others could not easily surpass.

Take Lin Haoran for example. His rise had been too rapid. Even if his wealth had already surpassed the Lee family’s, his network of connections certainly couldn’t compare.

This network wasn’t just about knowing people; the depth of the relationships was also crucial.

For example, Shao Yifu and Lee Xiaohe were undoubtedly old friends.

Chapter 237: A Call from Jobs, Apple’s IPO Plan

The acquisition of shares in Hong Kong’s Wireless Television wasn’t an immediate priority.

With his connection to Li Mingze, he was fairly confident.

No matter what, Li Mingze still had a certain degree of say within his family.

As long as Li Mingze was willing to help him, it shouldn’t be too difficult to secure the majority of the Lee family’s shares.

Furthermore, during his visit to the Lee family, he had made sure to express his goodwill to the other family members.

From his conversations with them, it was evident that they all hoped to build a good relationship with him.

After all, Lin Haoran controlled several large listed companies across a wide range of industries.

Hong Kong was only so big; they were bound to have opportunities to cooperate in the future.

After Li Xiaohe’s passing, no one in the Lee family was interested in the management rights of Wireless Television, so it would naturally be an opportune time to acquire the equity.

He had already done some investigation and found that Li Xiaohe held a total of 6% of the shares.

Of course, this wasn’t the entirety of the Lee family’s TVB shares.

In fact, the entire Lee family held over 20% of Wireless Television’s equity. Li Xiaohe’s younger brothers also held a certain number of shares.

Combining all the Lee family’s shares made them the shareholder with the most control over TVB.

As long as he could acquire all the shares held by the Lee family, Lin Haoran would become the Major shareholder of Wireless Television!

Currently, TVB’s shareholding structure was quite complex. Although it was not a listed company, its shares were held by multiple parties. Besides the Lee family and Shao Yifu, the Eu Yan Sang family, Britain’s Independent Television, Gilman & Co., the National Broadcasting Company from the United States, and even Hutchison Whampoa all owned TVB shares.

Considering the Lee family as a single entity, they were the largest shareholder, with Shao Yifu being the Second-largest shareholder.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye, and it was now June 8th.

At just past nine in the morning, Lin Haoran got out of bed. After having breakfast served by a Chinese maid, he was preparing to leave for the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters building.

However, at that moment, the telephone in the study began to ring.

Lin Haoran picked up the phone. It was his father calling him.

“Dad, what’s the matter?” Lin Haoran asked, his curiosity piqued.

“Haoran, it’s not me. An American named Jobs is looking for you. It’s a good thing I know a little English, or I would have just hung up,” Lin Wan’an said over the phone.

“Jobs? Alright, Dad. Thanks for the trouble. I’ll call him right back,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

When he was in the United States, he had spent ten million US dollars to finance Apple Inc., ultimately acquiring 10% of the company’s shares.

Nearly half a year had passed in a flash.

The contact information he had left at Apple Inc.’s headquarters was the phone number of the Lin family villa in Deep Water Bay, so it was perfectly normal for Jobs to call him and for his father to answer.

“Who’s Jobs? Why would an American be looking for you?” Lin Wan’an asked curiously.

“Jobs is the Chairman of a computer company in the United States. It’s normal that you don’t know him. I spoke with him when I was in America. He’s a talented young man. Dad, I won’t keep you. I’m hanging up now,” Lin Haoran answered.

The current Jobs was indeed not very famous.

While Apple Inc. had a certain degree of recognition in the United States, its fame hadn’t reached Hong Kong.

Even if the Hong Kong media had reported on it, few people would have paid attention.

After all, computers were still, frankly, high-end toys for a select few; their adoption rate was low.

In Hong Kong, only some large corporations like banks and finance companies used computers, and even then, not many.

Hong Kong’s development in the technology sector was truly lackluster.

Hong Kong’s tech manufacturing was mostly focused on low-end electronics. Finding high-end tech research talent was quite difficult.

It couldn’t be helped. Hong Kong had very few tech R&D companies. There were some chip processing plants, though. For instance, Silicon Valley’s famous Fairchild Semiconductor was the first chip company to set up a production line in Hong Kong.

The company would produce wafers in the United States, ship them to Hong Kong for packaging and testing, and then send a portion of the finished product back to the US while selling the rest directly in Asia.

Its role was essentially that of a contract manufacturer; the R&D, of course, was still done in the United States.

Following Fairchild Semiconductor’s great success in Hong Kong, other American companies, including Texas Instruments and Motorola, as well as some Japanese companies, successively set up factories in Hong Kong.

These high-end processing plants also became a part of Hong Kong’s prosperous manufacturing industry.

However, Hong Kong ultimately focused on industries like trade, finance, and real estate.

Without high-end research laboratories, it naturally couldn’t retain high-end tech talent.

Even if such people came to Hong Kong, they would struggle to find suitable work.

This was one of Hong Kong’s weaknesses.

“Alright, alright, I won’t disturb you,” Lin Wan’an said and hung up.

After ending the call with his father, Lin Haoran flipped through his phone book and quickly found the contact information for Apple Inc.’s Chairman, Jobs.

“Mr. Jobs? This is Lin Haoran,” Lin Haoran said in standard English after the call connected.

“Good morning, Mr. Lin. I’m not disturbing you, am I? I figured it should be morning in Hong Kong at this time, so I decided to call,” Jobs asked from the other end of the line.

It was June, so the United States was on Pacific Daylight Time. The time difference between Silicon Valley and Hong Kong was 15 hours.

At that moment, it was just past nine in the morning on June 8th in Hong Kong, while the time in Silicon Valley was just past six in the evening on June 7th.

“Not at all. Mr. Jobs, what can I do for you?” Lin Haoran asked inquisitively.

“It’s like this, Mr. Lin. Apple Inc. is planning to go public with an IPO in December. The purpose of this listing is to bring a large amount of capital to the company, allowing us to increase investment in R&D, production, and marketing to promote rapid growth. The decision to go public has been unanimously approved by the Board of Directors. As one of Apple’s major shareholders, I’m calling you specifically to let you know that after the IPO, our shareholding percentage will be reduced accordingly,” Jobs said quickly.

Apple Inc. is going public?

Lin Haoran wasn’t surprised.

He already knew that Apple would go public at the end of this year.

When that happened, several of the main shareholders would become billionaires.

“Alright, Mr. Jobs, I understand. I am very supportive of the company going public!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Also, on the day of the listing, as one of the company’s Major shareholders, I hope that you, Mr. Lin, can personally participate and ring the opening bell with us at the Nasdaq Stock Exchange!” Jobs continued.

“It would be my honor. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I will be there to witness this historic moment in person!” Lin Haoran agreed.

This was a rare historical moment. Apple’s IPO was definitely a historically significant event, and it seemed like a good thing to be a part of, so Lin Haoran agreed without a second thought.

To him, although he knew Apple would only truly enter its explosive growth period after the mid-to-late 1990s, he wasn’t in a hurry.

His investment in Apple was merely a strategic move made in advance.

Lin Haoran couldn’t control how many twists and turns Apple would face along the way; it was perfectly normal for a company’s development to have its ups and downs!

He just needed to know that Apple would set a market capitalization record of 623.5 billion US dollars in 2012, remain one of the world’s most valuable companies thereafter, and in 2023, its market cap would exceed three trillion US dollars!

With such a market cap, if he could consistently hold 10% of the shares, it would mean his 10% stake would be worth over three hundred billion US dollars!

Three hundred billion US dollars! This stake alone would be enough to make him the world’s richest man in the future.

Of course, he also knew that Apple would go through multiple rounds of financing, and his current 10% stake would be continuously diluted.

However, Lin Haoran didn’t care.

He could just buy more shares after the dilution.

As far as he knew, before the 21st century, Apple’s highest market cap was only a few billion US dollars.

But once the 21st century began, Apple entered a period of frantic, explosive growth.

For example, in 2001, Apple’s market cap was only 6.38 billion US dollars.

But by 2023, it had surpassed three trillion US dollars.

In just 22 years, it had grown nearly five hundred times!

Therefore, he wasn’t worried about his equity in Apple being diluted.

In any case, with his current 10% stake, no matter how much it was diluted, he would always remain a relatively important shareholder in Apple Inc.

“In that case, Mr. Lin, I won’t disturb you any longer. Goodbye,” Jobs said.

“Goodbye!”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran left the villa with Li Weidong and Li Weiguo.

The Apple IPO was still nearly six months away, so there was no rush.

Still, speaking of which, he had never experienced the feeling of ringing the bell for an IPO.

Although he was the Boss of several listed companies, his holdings like Hongkong Electric Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, and the Hong Kong and China Gas Company were all already public.

As for Wan’an Group and Green Island Cement Company, which were once listed, he had since privatized them.

“It seems I’ll have to experience it when I get the chance,” Lin Haoran mused, sitting in the luxurious back seat of the Rolls-Royce.

If all went according to plan, he would experience an IPO even before Apple’s. He had been secretly planning this listing since last year.

That was to take Amigo Company public.

By June, Amigo Company had entered a frenzy of taking orders.

Numerous orders were flooding in from America, Europe, and even Oceania. This summer, Amigo Company was destined to make another fortune.

Amigo Company’s orders wouldn’t drop until September.

This year, he would likely earn another two hundred million from Amigo Company.

This was no small amount, especially considering it was just a manufacturing company, and he only held a 50% stake.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call Amigo Company the most profitable manufacturing company in Hong Kong right now.

Who would have thought that Hong Kong’s most profitable manufacturing company was, just two years ago, a small workshop with only a few dozen workers, where even the boss had to tighten screws himself!

This was the benefit of seizing an opportunity.

If Liu Luanxiong hadn’t seized this chance, he might not have achieved the status of one of Hong Kong’s top ten tycoons in his later life.

“Boss, we’ve arrived at the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters building.” The Rolls-Royce came to a steady stop in the building’s underground parking garage, and Li Weiguo turned around, gently interrupting Lin Haoran’s thoughts.

“Right, let’s go!” Lin Haoran snapped back to reality and got out of the car after Li Weidong opened the door for him.

Taking the elevator, Lin Haoran didn’t go straight to Chen Shoulin’s office but instead toured the Hongkong Electric Group building.

After all, he was the Chairman of Hongkong Electric Group, the big boss of this company with a market capitalization exceeding three billion Hong Kong dollars.

In April, Hongkong Electric Group’s market cap had already surpassed three billion Hong Kong dollars, making it a solid top-ten listed company in Hong Kong.

Now, it was climbing towards a market cap of four billion Hong Kong dollars.

The bull market in Hong Kong had led to exaggerated gains for many stocks. As a top-ten stock, Hongkong Electric Group had become a target for speculation among many shareholders.

Lin Haoran didn’t care about this. He held 49.9% of the shares and had no plans to increase or decrease his holdings for the time being. It seemed that however much Hongkong Electric Group’s stock rose, it didn’t have much to do with him.

Although there was a significant gap between Hongkong Electric Group and the top two behemoths, HSBC and Hongkong Land Group, being in the top ten was enough to prove how strong the company was.

Chapter 238: Being Targeted

“Good morning, Chairman.”

“Good morning, Chairman!”

“Morning, Boss.”

…

As Lin Haoran walked through, employees of the Hongkong Electric Group greeted him one after another.

Lin Haoran, of course, nodded and smiled in response to each of them.

The makeup of Hongkong Electric Group’s staff was now roughly balanced, with Chinese and Westerners each accounting for about half. Compared to when Lin Haoran first took the helm of the group, this was a significant change.

When he first became Chairman of the Hongkong Electric Group, although there was a certain number of Chinese employees, Western employees still held the dominant position.

After Lin Haoran took full control of the company, under his discreet direction, Chen Shoulin set about increasing the proportion of Chinese employees.

After all, the Hongkong Electric Group had now transformed into a Chinese-owned enterprise; it was no longer the British-owned company it once was.

In senior management, selection was based on ability, regardless of whether the candidates were Chinese or Western. As long as they had sufficient talent and loyalty, they could hold the position.

But for lower and mid-level positions that were less demanding of specialized skills, it seemed inappropriate to continue having a majority of Western employees.

Of course, this didn’t mean immediately laying off all Western employees. Talented Westerners were still welcomed and retained.

For those employees with low loyalty and a potential for dissent, Lin Haoran applied the same standard to everyone, ordering Chen Shoulin to gradually adjust the personnel, regardless of whether they were Western or Chinese.

Soon, Lin Haoran arrived at the Finance Department of Hongkong Electric Group.

“Morning, Boss,” said Fok Kin-ning.

This management genius, who had previously served as the chief financial officer of Green Island Cement Company, had now been transferred by Lin Haoran to the Hongkong Electric Group, where he had been for a month.

In reality, Green Island Cement Company’s parent company, the Wanqing Group, was no less formidable than the Hongkong Electric Group. It would have been a perfectly viable option for Fok Kin-ning to be promoted from Green Island Cement to the Wanqing Group.

After all, the current Wanqing Group controlled three major enterprises: Wan’an Real Estate Company, Green Island Cement Company, and Kowloon Motor Bus.

However, after some consideration, Lin Haoran decided to transfer him to the Hongkong Electric Group.

This was because the chief financial officer at Wanqing Group was a highly competent financial talent whose loyalty was already over eighty.

If Fok Kin-ning were transferred there, it would clearly be difficult for him to get promoted.

At the Hongkong Electric Group, on the other hand, the current chief financial officer was a British man with a loyalty score of only seventy-something.

Therefore, it was only a matter of time before Fok Kin-ning would replace this chief financial officer and become the new CFO of the Hongkong Electric Group.

After that, with more training, he would gradually be promoted to higher levels, no longer confined to financial management.

Fok Kin-ning was only twenty-eight years old, still young, with plenty of time for training.

“How are you settling in here? Getting used to it?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Boss, I’m very used to it. And I already feel that I can learn more at Hongkong Electric Group than I could at Green Island Cement Company. Besides, President Chen is very good to me. He often teaches me about management, and I’ve learned a great deal. Thank you for cultivating me, Boss!” Fok Kin-ning said with deep sincerity.

He had long known that Lin Haoran was personally grooming him, which set him apart from the others.

For this, he felt nothing but touched and grateful.

From now on, working diligently for his boss was his most important duty!

Several months ago, Fok Kin-ning’s loyalty had already reached 92. Now, after his transfer, it had climbed to 95.

This was an exceptionally high score, placing him in the top five among all of Lin Haoran’s subordinates.

“Keep up the good work. I don’t lack platforms for you to display your talent; it all depends on whether you can seize the opportunity. I already have several major corporations under my control, and there will only be more in the future. I look forward to the day you can hold your own. When that day comes, you too will be able to manage a listed company!” Lin Haoran began to paint a rosy picture for Fok Kin-ning.

Of course, it wasn’t exactly an empty promise, because Lin Haoran knew that Fok Kin-ning truly possessed this managerial talent. Barring any surprises, he should be able to make his mark at the Hongkong Electric Group very quickly.

After all, his rapid rise in his previous life, eventually becoming one of Li Jiacheng’s most important right-hand men and helping Li Jiacheng’s enterprises seize numerous opportunities, was more than enough to prove his unquestionable ability.

In this life, Fok Kin-ning had already been recruited by him, so Li Jiacheng could forget about it.

Coupled with his current loyalty of 95, it would be a waste not to cultivate such a person intensively!

This was why Lin Haoran was investing so heavily in his development.

He was also eagerly hoping that this great general would mature quickly and conquer new territories for his companies.

Hongkong Electric Group and Green Island Cement were different. Hongkong Electric had long developed into a diversified conglomerate. Although its main business was still electricity sales, its other ventures—such as real estate, engineering, property management, finance, and the manufacturing and sale of electrical appliances—were all developing very well, making its strength a force to be reckoned with.

So, while Fok Kin-ning was now an accounting supervisor—merely in mid-level management—it might seem like a demotion from his senior position at Green Island Cement Company to a mid-level role at Hongkong Electric Group.

In reality, with his salary remaining largely unchanged, Fok Kin-ning could indeed learn more here, which was more beneficial for his future. Therefore, he was more than happy to be transferred.

Since Fok Kin-ning was very satisfied with his current situation, that was for the best.

The purpose of sending him here in the first place was to help him grow as quickly as possible.

After chatting with Fok Kin-ning and inspecting the department, Lin Haoran made his way to the president’s office of the Hongkong Electric Group.

Inside the office, Chen Shoulin was looking down at something, his brow tightly furrowed. He was clearly troubled.

Only when he heard Lin Haoran enter did Chen Shoulin look up.

“President Chen, has something happened?” Lin Haoran asked, a little curious.

It was rare to see Chen Shoulin with such an expression; he had evidently run into a difficult problem.

“Last week in Chai Wan, a family’s electric water heater had an electrical leak. It ended up electrocuting a couple who were bathing together, and they both died. That product was an electric water heater sold by our Fortress company. It’s from a brand we established ourselves many years ago, the Fortress brand water heater.

“Later, we and the police sent people to conduct a technical inspection. We found that they hadn’t unplugged the water heater while bathing. But that wasn’t the main reason. The main reason was that their power source was an external extension cord, and the sockets got wet while they were bathing, which caused the electrical leak.

“Over these years of development, Fortress brand water heaters have become the best-selling electric water heater brand in Hong Kong. This incident originally had nothing to do with our company. After all, the fault wasn’t ours; it wasn’t a quality issue with our water heater at all. The police also issued a notice confirming it wasn’t a problem with our product.

“That day, in front of the family, the matter was considered settled. Our Fortress company even gave the family a sum of money out of goodwill, which they accepted.

“But three days ago, the couple’s family started protesting outside our Fortress company every day, holding banners and shouting about wanting justice. Moreover, the Hong Kong Times and some smaller tabloids have reported on this extensively, which has greatly damaged Fortress’s reputation. Sales these past few days have been dismal, and some people who had already placed orders are now canceling them.

“In the short term, the impact on Fortress Electrical Company isn’t huge, but in the long run, it will be a major blow. Boss, look, this is the report from the Hong Kong Times.” After speaking, Chen Shoulin handed a newspaper to Lin Haoran.

Fortress Electrical Company was a subsidiary of the Hongkong Electric Group that primarily manufactured and sold electrical appliances. Back when the Hongkong Electric Group had tried to acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company and failed, they initiated a campaign to give away free electric water heaters to new residential developments. This would not only increase residents’ electricity consumption but also serve as retaliation against Hong Kong and China Gas by reducing their gas consumption.

From then on, Fortress Electrical Company began to expand aggressively in the home appliance manufacturing and sales industry. To this day, it not only produces and sells electric water heaters but has also developed and manufactured appliances like electric fans, induction cookers, and electric ovens.

Among them, the Fortress brand electric water heater has become the top-selling brand in Hong Kong. It could be said that the Hongkong Electric Group had unexpectedly stumbled upon a very promising path, further enhancing the group’s diversified development.

For the Hongkong Electric Group, the popularization of these appliances not only brought in new revenue for the company but also increased electricity consumption, killing two birds with one stone.

After years of development, Fortress Electrical Company had become a medium-to-large enterprise with annual sales exceeding one hundred million Hong Kong dollars and a net profit of over ten million Hong Kong dollars. It was considered a relatively important subsidiary under the Hongkong Electric Group.

At this moment, Lin Haoran was looking at the copy of the Hong Kong Times in his hands.

The incident was indeed reported, and it was placed in the most prominent position on the front-page headline.

Most importantly, the report was not what Chen Shoulin had described. It twisted the facts and stated directly that the Fortress brand electric water heater had an electrical leak that caused the deaths, accusing the Fortress brand water heater of having quality issues.

Although the Hong Kong Times couldn’t compare to papers like the Oriental Daily News, Sing Tao Daily, or Hong Kong Economic Times, it was still a popular comprehensive newspaper with a daily circulation in the tens of thousands, ranking among the top ten in sales.

Putting down the newspaper, Lin Haoran looked up and asked, “Does Fortress brand electronics have any competitors?”

After reading the report, Lin Haoran’s first thought was that someone was trying to sabotage Fortress Electrical Company.

“Yes, and quite a few. Since they’re electronic products, there are many appliance brands in Hong Kong, and the competition is fierce. I have the same suspicion—that a competitor intentionally bribed the couple’s family to cause trouble!” Chen Shoulin said.

“Did you report it to the police?” Lin Haoran asked.

“We did, but the police are reluctant to get involved, citing the family’s recent loss. They came, took a statement, and left. The police’s attitude towards our company has never been like this before. I suspect there’s a powerful benefactor manipulating things behind the scenes, someone with so much influence that even the police don’t want to offend them,” Chen Shoulin said, rubbing his brow as he leaned back in his chair.

Lin Haoran nodded. From all the current signs, there was indeed something wrong with this matter.

A company with sales over one hundred million and annual profits over ten million Hong Kong dollars wasn’t something Lin Haoran was overly concerned about, but it was still his enterprise. Besides, didn’t companies make money by accumulating small amounts?

If this company had problems, and that company had problems, how would he make money?

Moreover, this was a clear attack on Fortress Electrical Company, an attack on his enterprise.

Business competition was normal, but since the other party wanted to play dirty, Lin Haoran had no intention of letting them go.

“President Chen, do you have any suspects?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

Chen Shoulin had been in charge of the Hongkong Electric Group for so many years; he must have known the group inside and out. Lin Haoran guessed he likely had a suspect in mind.

If Fortress Electrical Company ignored this, the continuous negative publicity would eventually lead to a worsening reputation, destroying the good name they had worked so hard to build over the years.

This would undoubtedly be a major blow to the Hongkong Electric Group.

Chapter 239: We Must Counterattack!

“I have a suspect in mind, but I can’t be certain,” Chen Shoulin said, somewhat hesitant about whether to voice his thoughts.

After all, in Chen Shoulin’s view, it was merely his own speculation.

If his guess was wrong, a hasty counterattack would be equivalent to friendly fire.

“President Chen, just say it. I’ll investigate thoroughly before making any decisions,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Alright, I’ll be direct. I suspect Jardine Home Services Company’s subsidiary, Jardine Electrical City. This electronics chain currently has eight stores throughout Hong Kong, with five of them on Hong Kong Island.

“Thanks to our own advantages, Fortress Electrical Company’s sales have always been strong, especially for electric water heaters. No other company in Hong Kong can match our sales volume.

“Because of this, we’re considered the largest electrical appliance retail chain in all of Hong Kong.

“Jardine Home Services Company is very ambitious. Last year, Jardine Electrical City only had three stores. In less than a year, they’ve opened five more. However, their sales have reportedly been lackluster, remaining in a lukewarm state—not losing money, but not making much either.

“However, after this incident with our Fortress Electrical Company, I’ve noticed that foot traffic at Jardine Electrical City has increased. It’s no surprise that their appliance sales have probably soared too.

“Considering all these factors, I suspect that the reason Fortress Electrical Company is being targeted and even slandered this time is that Jardine Electrical City is behind it,” Chen Shoulin explained, sharing his hypothesis.

“President Chen, do you have detailed information on Fortress Electrical Company here?” Lin Haoran asked.

He only knew which subsidiaries belonged to the Hongkong Electric Group, but he hadn’t looked too deeply into their individual situations before.

“Yes, Boss. I’ll get the files for you right now.” After speaking, Chen Shoulin rummaged through the bookcase behind him and eventually pulled out a folder.

“This contains detailed information on Fortress Electrical Company from its inception to the present day.” Chen Shoulin opened it, glanced inside to confirm he had the right one, and then handed the folder to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran began to read through it.

Fortress Electrical Company was founded in 1975, making it five or six years old.

It possessed a significant advantage that other electronics retailers couldn’t match.

That is, Fortress Electrical Company used all of the Hongkong Electric Group’s electricity payment centers as its sales outlets.

On Hong Kong Island alone, Fortress Electrical Company had twenty-one sales outlets, covering most of the island’s bustling areas, such as Central, Causeway Bay, Wan Chai, North Point, Sheung Wan, Kennedy Town, Aberdeen, Stanley, and Chai Wan.

As it developed over the years, it even opened standalone appliance sales outlets on the Kowloon Peninsula in places like Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok, Sham Shui Po, and Kwun Tong.

Thanks to the advantage of the payment centers, citizens paying their electricity bills would inevitably notice the appliances in the service halls, especially the electric water heaters. As a result, Fortress Electrical Company’s electric water heaters became its best-selling product.

Moreover, the stores didn’t need to hire additional salespeople; the electricity service clerks acted as part-time sales agents, which saved a considerable amount in base salaries.

For these clerks, selling appliances meant earning extra commission, making it a good way to supplement their income.

Thus, Fortress Electrical Company had a very smooth start right from its founding.

All employees at the electricity payment centers were required not only to know how to process bill payments but also to be proficient in sales, for which they received training.

Initially, Fortress Electrical Company only sold electric water heaters.

As it grew, home appliances like electric fans, induction cookers, and electric ovens were gradually added to its product line.

Today, Fortress Electrical Company’s industry reputation and market share have made it the largest electronics retail brand in Hong Kong, deeply trusted by consumers.

In other words, Fortress Electrical Company held the largest share of the home appliance sales market in all of Hong Kong.

It was perfectly normal for an ambitious company like Jardine Electrical City to want to chip away at Fortress Electrical Company’s market share.

If they had relied on their own strength to grow, Lin Haoran would have had no objections.

But if their goal was to step on Fortress Electrical Company to boost their own sales, then they couldn’t blame him for what came next.

He had to counterattack. If he didn’t, people would think Lin Haoran was a pushover.

Of course, before striking back, he needed to confirm whether Jardine Electrical City was truly the one pulling the strings.

If it was as Chen Shoulin suspected, then they would naturally have to retaliate.

If he didn’t teach them a harsh lesson, this kind of problem would surely keep happening in the future.

Closing the file on Fortress Electrical Company, Lin Haoran gently placed it on the desk, then looked up at Chen Shoulin.

“President Chen, regardless of whether someone is masterminding this conspiracy, Fortress Electrical Company can’t go on like this. Do you have a solution?” Lin Haoran asked.

“If my guess is correct, then our competitor is using this non-existent media war to target us. This is a petty trick that British-owned companies are particularly adept at using. Countless Chinese-owned enterprises have had their reputations ruined or have even been driven to bankruptcy by them.

“In the past, the Hongkong Electric Group was a British-owned company, so perhaps they held back. But now that you’ve acquired it, Boss, their attitude has likely changed.

“In my opinion, if Jardine Electrical City is truly behind this, then Jardine Matheson’s Taipan, Newbiggin, must also be aware of it. After all, the Hongkong Electric Group isn’t a small enterprise. When they initiated this, they must have considered our unique position and made the decision only after careful deliberation.

“Since Mr. Newbiggin has tacitly approved it, it will be quite difficult for us to turn the tables in this area.

“That’s because both the police and the Department of Justice will almost certainly secretly condone Jardine Matheson’s actions. They might not even intervene, even though we are the ones being falsely accused.

“In this situation, although we are in the right, resolving this through legal channels will be very difficult.

“The best way to restore our reputation is to use a more influential media outlet to publicize the evidence we hold.

“Also, we can’t sue Jardine Electrical City, but we can sue the Hong Kong Times. We need to file a lawsuit against them in the High Court of First Instance. Even if it turns into a protracted battle, possibly a lawsuit that lasts one or two years, our goal isn’t necessarily to win the case. It’s to blow this matter up—the bigger, the better—because the responsibility for this doesn’t lie with us!

“If their reports continue like this, the losses we suffer will only grow. Therefore, we must expose the truth of this matter as quickly as possible!

“We never expected them to bribe a major newspaper like the Hong Kong Times. To be honest, even if we sue, we might not win in the end, and even if we do, the compensation will be minimal.

“Fortunately, they didn’t bribe the Oriental Daily News, which has the highest circulation in Hong Kong. Otherwise, we’d be in even more trouble,” Chen Shoulin explained, laying out his thoughts.

Spreading rumors had long been a habit for the Hong Kong media. For the sake of sales, popularity, and profit, they were capable of anything.

This was because it was a loophole in the law. Even if they lost a lawsuit, the damages they were ordered to pay were never too high. For these media companies, exploiting such loopholes came at very little cost.

Precisely because the cost of spreading rumors was so low, Hong Kong’s media was notoriously chaotic, fabricating news stories under the banner of “press freedom.”

After hearing Chen Shoulin’s words, Lin Haoran nodded.

He was all too familiar with the chaos of Hong Kong’s media.

It was for this very reason that he had sought to acquire the Oriental Daily News, the newspaper with the largest circulation.

It was quite incredible that, to this day, no one had discovered that the Oriental Daily News had a new owner.

But it was also understandable. Even within the Oriental Press Group, very few people knew about it. If they didn’t announce it, it was unlikely many people would find out.

To this day, many mid- and low-level employees at the Oriental Press Group still believed the Ma family owned their company.

Cui Zilong had always managed the Oriental Press Group anyway. The Ma family were just the bosses behind the scenes; their presence or absence made little difference.

So, even though the entire Ma family had moved to Taiwan, no one would have guessed that they had already sold the Oriental Press Group.

Even Chen Shoulin, surprisingly, didn’t know that the Oriental Daily News belonged to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran didn’t really care if the mid- and low-level employees knew he was their boss. As long as he controlled the top management of the Oriental Press Group, that was enough.

“President Chen, I have some news for you,” Lin Haoran said mysteriously.

“Oh? Please, go on, Boss.” Chen Shoulin looked at his boss curiously, wondering what he was about to say.

“Actually, the Oriental Daily News is now one of my companies. I acquired it some time ago. If you want to use the Oriental Daily News to counterattack, there’s no problem at all. I’ll have the general manager of the Oriental Press Group cooperate with you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“What? You acquired the Oriental Daily News?” This news genuinely astonished Chen Shoulin.

After its founding, the Oriental Daily News had quickly become the highest-selling newspaper in Hong Kong, and it had maintained that position ever since.

People had tried to acquire the newspaper company in the past, but the Ma family had rejected all offers.

For the Ma family, the Oriental Daily News was the best tool for whitewashing their image. How could they sell it so easily? It wasn’t like they were short on money.

So, over time, everyone gave up on coveting the Oriental Daily News.

No one could have imagined that Hong Kong’s most famous newspaper company had been secretly acquired by his boss.

For Chen Shoulin, this news was both shocking and unexpected.

“Yes, I acquired it several months ago. I just never announced it. It’s enough that you know; there’s no need to publicize it,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

“That’s fantastic! Things will be much more convenient for our Hongkong Electric Group now,” Chen Shoulin said excitedly.

With the Oriental Daily News backing them, what did he have to fear from the Hong Kong Times?

Their circulation numbers weren’t even in the same league. The Oriental Daily News’s daily sales were several times higher than the Hong Kong Times’s.

“I’ll have the Oriental Press Group investigate this matter for Fortress Electrical Company right away. We’ll see if Jardine Home Services Company is behind this. If they are, we won’t let them off the hook either. Their Jardine Electrical Company wants to grow, right? We’ll ruin their reputation so that they never have a chance to rise again!” Lin Haoran continued.

Currently, the Hongkong Electric Group and the Hongkong Land Group were partners, with the former even being a shareholder in the latter.

So, if they were truly behind this, Lin Haoran would be very surprised.

However, it wasn’t impossible. After all, during the last competition with Jardine Matheson to acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, the Hongkong Electric Group had severely embarrassed Jardine Matheson and Newbiggin.

At that time, Jardine Matheson had thought victory was in their grasp and had impatiently announced ahead of time that they would take control of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, only to be slapped in the face in the end.

Having lost so much face, they must have harbored resentment. It wasn’t out of the question that this was their revenge, and in fact, the possibility was quite high.

But everything would have to wait for Cui Zilong to send someone to investigate.

Until the investigation results were out, everything was just speculation.

Although, the likelihood of this speculation being true was growing.

Chapter 240: Sir Murray MacLehose’s Misunderstanding

After a chat with Chen Shoulin, Lin Haoran left Hongkong Electric Group.

Before leaving, however, he called Cui Zilong and asked him to come to Wanqing Building to discuss something.

As for Chen Shoulin, he would first gather information and prepare to sue the Hong Kong Times for fabricating facts and damaging Fortress Electrical Company’s reputation.

Since they had made a decision, they would make a big deal out of it!

With reason and evidence on their side, they weren’t afraid to escalate the matter.

After all, if things continued this way, their reputation would be damaged whether they made a fuss or not. It was better to be direct and publicize the facts. As long as the Oriental Daily News guided public opinion effectively, they weren’t afraid that the citizens’ minds wouldn’t change.

After all, among the current Hong Kong newspapers, the Oriental Daily News was far more authoritative in the public’s eyes than the Hong Kong Times!

With the Oriental Daily News backing him, Chen Shoulin felt emboldened.

Riding in the Rolls-Royce, Lin Haoran soon arrived at Wanqing Building and took the elevator back to his office.

In his hand, he held several newspapers, including a copy of the Hong Kong Times and a few less popular local tabloids.

Before long, Cui Zilong arrived.

“Boss, did you call me for something urgent?” Cui Zilong asked as soon as he entered.

“Have a seat first, there’s no rush,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, pointing to the chair in front of his desk.

Cui Zilong nodded and sat down.

“Here, take a look at these.” Lin Haoran handed the newspapers he had brought back to Cui Zilong.

Cui Zilong wasn’t sure what his boss meant, but he obediently took the newspapers and began to read them carefully.

He flipped through the papers several times but didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

Cui Zilong looked up at his boss with a puzzled expression.

“Fortress Electrical Company is a subsidiary of Hongkong Electric Group,” Lin Haoran reminded him.

Cui Zilong finally understood what his boss was referring to and began to examine the reports closely.

Without exception, the content of the articles was aimed at smearing Fortress Electrical Company.

Then, Lin Haoran told Cui Zilong the whole story in detail.

“That’s the situation. I need you to investigate as quickly as possible whether Jardine Matheson & Co. is behind this. At the same time, I want you to contact Mr. Chen Shoulin, the President of Hongkong Electric Group, immediately to discuss how to proceed. We absolutely cannot let other media outlets continue to slander us.

Oh, and see if you can find any clues related to Jardine Matheson from the family of the couple who were electrocuted. As for how to find them, I’m sure you know what to do,” Lin Haoran said.

“Understood, Boss. I’ll go back and make arrangements right away. I’ll also contact President Chen of Hongkong Electric Group as soon as possible and try to get a piece in tomorrow’s latest edition of the paper!” Cui Zilong replied respectfully.

“Good. Be discreet in your actions, and don’t leave any loose ends,” Lin Haoran nodded and then reminded him.

“Yes, Boss, I understand. I’ll get right on it then!” With that, Cui Zilong left the office.

Watching Cui Zilong’s departing figure, Lin Haoran fell into thought.

If it was confirmed that a company under Jardine Matheson & Co. was behind this, it would indeed be troublesome.

However, Lin Haoran wasn’t afraid of them.

In business, you had to play by the rules!

At least, the public ones.

Government House would certainly favor Jardine Matheson & Co.; he was already mentally prepared for that.

But he wasn’t completely powerless to fight back now.

To be targeted for no reason was, frankly, quite annoying for Lin Haoran.

As long as there was evidence confirming Jardine Matheson’s involvement, Lin Haoran would immediately counterattack. He had plenty of ways to do so.

It was common knowledge how Jardine Matheson & Co. had grown; they had plenty of skeletons in their closet.

But perhaps this was just the nature of business competition. What he was facing was mere child’s play.

He was still too inexperienced. He would definitely go through more business warfare in the future.

“Perhaps I should pay a visit to Government House,” Lin Haoran frowned.

He didn’t expect Government House to seek justice for Fortress Electrical Company, but at the very least, they shouldn’t interfere too much.

As long as Sir Murray MacLehose stayed out of it, he was confident he could deal with Jardine Matheson & Co.

So, he simply made a call to Government House right from his office.

Before long, the call was answered. On the other end was the very person Lin Haoran wanted to reach—Mr. Murray MacLehose, the Governor of Hong Kong.

“Hello, Mr. Governor. Are you free at the moment? I would like to pay you a visit,” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Previously, during a banquet at Government House, Sir Murray MacLehose had told Lin Haoran to find some time to chat with him privately.

“Ah, it’s Mr. Lin. Of course I have time. I’m in my office at Government House right now. You can come over directly, Mr. Lin,” Sir Murray MacLehose said without hesitation.

“Excellent, Mr. Governor. I’ll be there in about twenty minutes,” said Lin Haoran.

Wanqing Building was located on Des Voeux Road Central, the busiest street in Central, only about two kilometers from Government House. Twenty minutes was more than enough time.

And that was only because Government House was situated in the Mid-Levels of Central, requiring a long detour. The straight-line distance between the two was merely a few hundred meters.

Since he had an appointment to see Governor MacLehose, Lin Haoran wasted no time. He got up, called for the brothers Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, and left Wanqing Building for Government House.

About ten minutes later, Lin Haoran appeared outside Government House.

Perhaps having been notified in advance by the Governor, a staff member saw Lin Haoran and proactively led him to Sir Murray MacLehose’s office.

As for Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, they went to the waiting area inside Government House.

This was the first time Lin Haoran had formally met with Governor MacLehose in private.

Upon entering the Governor’s office, Sir Murray MacLehose stood up from behind his desk, a smile on his face, and proactively extended his hand to shake Lin Haoran’s. “Hello, Mr. Lin. Please, have a seat on the sofa over there.”

“Hello, Mr. Governor. It’s been a while. I apologize for the intrusion.” After shaking hands, Lin Haoran followed Sir Murray MacLehose to the meeting area adjacent to the office space.

A long time had indeed passed since their last meeting, which had been on the first day of the Spring Festival in February. It was now June.

“Would you like tea or coffee, Mr. Lin?” the Governor asked after they sat down.

“Coffee, with sugar, please. Thank you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“As you wish.”

Soon, a female secretary served them both steaming cups of coffee.

The last time they met, at the Spring Festival banquet, they had only chatted briefly. After all, there were many people present, and Sir Murray MacLehose couldn’t devote too much time to Lin Haoran.

Moreover, at that time, Lin Haoran had only just come onto the Governor’s radar. His status was considerably lower than that of the other tycoons. To Sir Murray MacLehose, Lin Haoran had barely earned the qualification to enter that circle.

But following Lin Haoran’s subsequent series of acquisitions, his controlled assets soared, and his status rose along with them.

This time could be considered their first truly private meeting.

“Mr. Lin, what you’ve accomplished recently is truly astonishing, even more so than when we last met!” Facing this young man, Sir Murray MacLehose did not look down on him; instead, he was filled with admiration.

When they last met, Lin Haoran had just taken control of Hongkong Electric Group, officially becoming one of Hong Kong’s business tycoons.

Yet now, less than half a year later, Lin Haoran had successively taken over the Hong Kong and China Gas Company and Kowloon Motor Bus.

Not only that, but he had also spent one billion Hong Kong dollars in cash to buy the two Chung Hwa Commercial Buildings.

As Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose naturally had access to the best intelligence in Hong Kong. He had learned through his subordinates when Oriental Press Group was transferred to Lin Haoran.

Who wouldn’t be astonished by such a string of acquisitions?

In the past, an acquisition battle for a listed company of Kowloon Motor Bus’s caliber might not even happen once a year.

But in Lin Haoran’s hands, several such acquisition battles had taken place in just over a year, and he had succeeded every time.

Even Sir Murray MacLehose, as Governor, had to take such strength seriously!

After all, Kowloon Motor Bus, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and Hongkong Electric Group were all among the top thirty listed companies in Hong Kong.

Hongkong Electric Group was even in the top ten!

Furthermore, if Lin Haoran’s Wanqing Group were to go public, it would definitely rank in the top ten as well.

After all, Green Island Cement Company under Wanqing Group was now a very powerful enterprise, and with Kowloon Motor Bus and Wan’an Real Estate Company also under its management, Wanqing Group’s strength was comparable to many giants.

“It’s nothing but good luck,” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, I’m very curious. What is your exact relationship with Citibank?” Sir Murray MacLehose asked the question he had long wanted to ask.

It wasn’t that they hadn’t investigated, but the details of Lin Haoran’s dealings were only known to Citibank’s top executives. The executives had only denied that Lin Haoran was their frontman, but they would not, under any circumstances, disclose the source of his funds, which was suspicious.

“My relationship with Citibank is quite good. We are excellent partners. They’ve provided me with a great deal of help, which is what allowed me to achieve what I have today. That’s why I say I’ve been lucky.

Last year, I went to the United States and met privately with Citibank’s Chairman, Mr. Walter Wriston, in New York. We got along splendidly. I’m very grateful for the help Citibank has given me!” Lin Haoran answered with a smile.

Citibank had indeed given him considerable help with gold futures, allowing him to smoothly acquire billions of Hong Kong dollars in capital.

Of course, this was just a transaction; it was mutually beneficial for both parties.

In reality, if he had gone to JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Merrill Lynch, or Goldman Sachs, they would have also taken the deal.

However, Lin Haoran’s answer led Governor MacLehose to a misunderstanding.

He frowned. Could it be that Lin Haoran’s relationship with Citibank was really… that kind of relationship?

Chapter 241: This is Just Ordinary Business Competition

“Mr. Governor, I’ve come today to inquire about a certain matter.” Unaware of the complex thoughts running through Sir Murray MacLehose’s mind, Lin Haoran decided to state his purpose directly.

After all, he was too young. Continuing to chat with a wily old fox of MacLehose’s caliber would only lead to more pleasantries, and if he wasn’t careful, he might be outwitted.

“Oh? Please, go on, Mr. Lin,” MacLehose said, snapping back to the present with a curious expression.

Lin Haoran handed over a copy of the Hong Kong Times he had brought with him, while also giving a detailed account of the incident involving Fortress Electrical Company.

Then, he continued, “As a businessman, I certainly cannot accept my company being slandered for no reason. We have the police’s product quality notice from that time, which proves we had nothing to do with the incident and that it wasn’t caused by our products. Yet, our competitor has twisted the truth like this, causing us to suffer heavy losses.

“To put it more severely, a simple matter like this could potentially bankrupt my Fortress Electrical Company. All I want is a fair business environment, not one where we can be framed at will. Our company sought help from the police, but ultimately received none.

“Left with no other choice, I can only turn to you, Mr. Governor, for help. I hope you can uphold justice for my company!”

Sir Murray MacLehose was fluent in Chinese. Not only did he speak Cantonese fluently, but he could also speak Minnan. He had served as a diplomatic official in the consulate in the Minnan region of Mainland China back in the 1940s and was a true China expert. A Chinese newspaper was naturally no challenge for him.

“Mr. Lin, please wait a moment while I get a better understanding of the situation,” MacLehose said. He set the newspaper aside, walked over to his desk, and made a phone call.

Lin Haoran waited attentively.

In truth, if this matter really involved Jardine Matheson & Co., he would be able to tell from MacLehose’s reaction.

After all, the police’s unwillingness to get involved meant they had certainly received kickbacks from the powerful party behind the scenes.

When MacLehose called, the person in charge of the case would not dare to hide anything.

Having served as the Governor of Hong Kong for nearly a decade, MacLehose’s prestige throughout the territory was immense.

Lin Haoran didn’t try to eavesdrop on the call. Instead, he sat patiently on the sofa and waited.

A full five or six minutes passed before MacLehose put down the receiver and returned to the sofa.

“Mr. Lin, I’ve looked into the matter. It’s true that you have been slandered, but this is an ordinary case of business competition. It may not be appropriate for us to intervene,” MacLehose said, his expression somewhat troubled.

MacLehose’s words already indicated that he was siding with the clandestine competitor in this affair.

Hearing this, how could Lin Haoran not know? Chen Shoulin’s guess must have been correct—it was Jardine Matheson & Co. behind it all.

In Hong Kong, only a few British-owned companies like Jardine Matheson & Co. and HSBC could force the Government House to give them face, even to the point of bending the rules.

He had never offended HSBC.

But he had offended Jardine Matheson & Co., and had utterly humiliated them in the process.

Combined with Chen Shoulin’s speculation, it was almost certain that it was Jardine Matheson.

MacLehose could be considered a good official. In his nearly ten years as Governor, he had done many good things for Hong Kong.

For instance, with his assistance, Hong Kong had gradually transitioned from a light industry-based economy to one centered on electronics, finance, and commerce, becoming one of the “Four Asian Tigers.” This laid a crucial foundation for Hong Kong’s prosperity, stability, and its emergence as an international financial hub in Asia.

Most famously, he established the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Before the ICAC was established, corruption in Hong Kong was rampant.

Firefighters would demand payment before turning on their hoses to put out a fire.

Paramedics would collect “tea money” before taking patients to the hospital.

Once at the hospital, patients had to “tip” the female attendants, colloquially known as “aunties,” to receive proper care.

Want to enroll your child in a government school? You had to bribe a public official first.

Perhaps the most brazen was the Royal Hong Kong Police Force, which abused its power for monetary gain and protected illegal and criminal activities.

That was what society in Hong Kong used to be like. The citizens who lived through that era understood it deeply; the common people suffered immensely.

However, things began to change after MacLehose became the Governor of Hong Kong.

Under MacLehose’s leadership, the ICAC was established, launching a massive anti-corruption campaign.

From then on, Hong Kong transformed from a region plagued by serious corruption into one of the least corrupt places in the world.

Even into the twenty-first century, Hong Kong remains one of the most incorruptible areas in the world.

But the prerequisite for his governorship was that he was, first and foremost, a Briton!

Regardless, the status and standing of Jardine Matheson & Co. were certainly superior to Lin Haoran’s.

After receiving this indirect confirmation, Lin Haoran was not disappointed.

Because this was just as he had expected. He never intended to rely on the Government House to solve this problem anyway.

“Mr. Governor, I think I have my suspicions. The government doesn’t have to help us solve this problem, and I don’t need your help. Since this is just a very ordinary matter of business competition, I hope the Hong Kong government will not interfere in the competition between my rival and me. How does that sound?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Certainly. On behalf of the Government House, I can promise you that we will not interfere in any way with the competition between you, as long as no criminal acts are committed!” The Governor agreed without the slightest hesitation.

For MacLehose, this was actually a major headache, and he had no desire to get involved.

After all, as a representative of the government, he was supposed to uphold the rules. But with Jardine Matheson & Co. breaking them, he couldn’t realistically take action against them.

Furthermore, MacLehose was wary of the potential powers backing Lin Haoran. If Lin Haoran really did have that kind of relationship with HSBC, even he, the Governor of Hong Kong, would have to show him some face.

So, it was obvious. If he could avoid getting involved, he would. MacLehose did not want to touch this matter!

Fairness?

In this world, there is no such thing as absolute fairness!

“With that answer from you, Mr. Governor, I am more than satisfied!” Lin Haoran broke into a smile.

Now, he could deal with the business competition from Jardine Matheson & Co. without restraint, free from the worry that the government would pull any tricks.

After all, since MacLehose had given his word in front of Lin Haoran, knowing his character, he would certainly not go back on his promise.

Lin Haoran had at least that much confidence in him.

If MacLehose were to break his promise and interfere in their affairs with Jardine Matheson & Co. even under these circumstances, then there would be nothing more for Lin Haoran to say.

With his current net worth and billions in capital, he would be a business tycoon no matter where he went.

He could liquidate all his assets in Hong Kong and move directly to Singapore if it came to that.

But unless things reached that point, Lin Haoran was unwilling to leave Hong Kong. This whole affair was, after all, a relatively minor matter.

“Mr. Lin, we are planning to organize a visit to Britain for a delegation of Hong Kong’s business community in August. We will be inviting renowned business figures such as Mr. Newbiggin, Mr. Michael Sandberg, Mr. Pao Yue-kong, Mr. Schreyer, and you, among others. I hope you will be able to join us then, Mr. Lin,” MacLehose brought up another topic.

This so-called “visit” was, in reality, just a way to encourage Hong Kong’s entrepreneurs to invest in Britain. It was common knowledge that Hong Kong’s major financial groups were rolling in money, a fact that Lin Haoran understood well.

This was something he definitely couldn’t refuse.

After all, they were still in charge of Hong Kong. If he refused, he might be targeted in the future.

“I am honored to receive the invitation. I will definitely attend!” Lin Haoran readily agreed.

Europe was a crucial market. No matter what, he would not miss out on a market that large.

Therefore, even if they hadn’t invited him, Lin Haoran planned to expand his business there in the future.

He wouldn’t miss out on the markets in America, Japan, Southeast Asia, or Australia, either.

He would not be satisfied with being confined to the markets of Hong Kong and Mainland China.

For example, investing in Apple Inc. and becoming a shareholder was one example of his investments in overseas markets.

Besides that, the Wanqing Group was also currently investing in the Southeast Asian market.

The Amigo Company, in particular, specialized in business for the European and American markets.

So, Lin Haoran wasn’t just cooped up in Hong Kong squabbling over this small market; he had always kept his eye on the larger global market.

The reason he was still active in Hong Kong was simply that he hadn’t been in this world for long. He needed to gradually acclimate to this era in Hong Kong, and at the same time, get used to his new identity as a business tycoon.

His rise to wealth had been too sudden. The Lin Haoran of today was like a member of the nouveau riche; he needed time to adjust.

Moreover, the most important thing was to build a solid business foundation for himself in Hong Kong, and from there, expand to the rest of the world.

Thus, he could expand into overseas markets slowly. He had no intention of getting rich overnight.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s reply, MacLehose was also very satisfied.

This Briton, who had been the Governor of Hong Kong since 1971, was now a man in his sixties.

His eyes seemed to be full of wisdom.

However, Lin Haoran also knew that this Governor had only two years left in his term.

“I have some good news for you, Mr. Lin. I have already submitted your information to nominate you for the CBE, the Order of the British Empire. Barring any surprises, you will receive a CBE medal within the year,” MacLehose continued.

“Thank you so much for your consideration, Mr. Governor. I am extremely grateful!” Lin Haoran feigned a look of great excitement.

Inside, however, he felt no great surprise.

He knew that this was actually the lowest rank of the British orders of chivalry, and the one with the most members.

However, the fact that MacLehose had nominated him clearly showed that he highly recognized his achievements during this period.

In any case, it was still a good thing.

In Hong Kong, many tycoons like Shao Yifu, Pao Yue-kong, and Li Mingze had received the Order of the British Empire. This could be considered one of Britain’s methods for winning over the wealthy.

Lin Haoran wouldn’t refuse it, because there was no reason to.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he would always be a Hong Konger.

Receiving a medal meant little.

After that, Lin Haoran and MacLehose chatted for another ten-odd minutes.

“Mr. Governor, I apologize for disturbing you and taking up your time today. If there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave now,” Lin Haoran said, glancing at the time and rising to his feet.

“Don’t say that, Mr. Lin. You are always welcome here. If you need anything, feel free to call me anytime. If it’s something I can solve, I will certainly do my best to help you,” MacLehose also stood up and said politely.

“Just hearing those words from you is an honor, Mr. Governor!” Lin Haoran smiled and shook hands with MacLehose to bid farewell.

Walking out of the Government House, Lin Haoran looked up at the clear sky and felt a sense of relief.

As long as the government didn’t interfere, he wasn’t afraid of Jardine Matheson & Co.

So what if they were an old British-owned hegemon? The Jardine Matheson & Co. of today was no longer the all-powerful conglomerate it once was.

Chapter 242: The Four Newspapers’ Alliance

After leaving the Government House, Lin Haoran didn’t go anywhere else, simply having Li Weiguo drive him back to Severn Road.

June in Hong Kong was already unbearably hot. With Victoria Peak blocking the way, the sea breeze from the south could hardly reach Central. Only a slight draft blew in from the east and west ends of Victoria Harbour.

When Lin Haoran returned home, he immediately felt much cooler.

Severn Road was located on Mount Gough in the Victoria Peak area. The area was lush with trees, and the occasional sea breeze made the temperature a few degrees cooler than in the city.

Upon returning to the villa, Lin Haoran first swam for over ten minutes in the pool before getting out and lying down on a lounge chair, enjoying the gentle breeze. It was very pleasant.

An umbrella overhead completely shielded him from the sun.

Just then, a young Filipino maid walked over with a glass of chilled orange juice and placed it on the small round table beside him.

“Come here and massage my shoulders,” Lin Haoran said to the maid with a smile.

The maid had just turned twenty this year. She was of Chinese-Filipino descent and quite pretty. She had been working at the Lin family villa on Severn Road for three months.

“Yes, Boss,” the maid said obediently, moving behind Lin Haoran to massage his shoulders.

The two brothers, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, patrolled the courtyard, diligently carrying out their duties.

Outside the villa gate, there was even a security post, manned by two of the fifty veterans who had returned from the Philippines. They guarded the villa in shifts.

Although Severn Road was extremely safe, even more so than Deep Water Bay, with patrol cars frequently whizzing by, the houses here were far apart. Bolstering security was never a bad idea.

The maid’s pressure was perfect—not too hard, not too soft—and Lin Haoran found it very comfortable.

At some point, he fell asleep.

Deep in a dream, Lin Haoran was suddenly roused by a voice.

He opened his eyes. The person calling him was Li Weidong.

Unconsciously, evening had arrived. The sun was setting, painting the clouds a magnificent golden yellow.

The view from the Severn Road villa was excellent, overlooking the entire Hong Kong urban area.

The last rays of the sun reflected beautifully off the glass windows of the high-rise buildings.

“Boss, the phone is ringing,” Li Weidong reported.

Lin Haoran yawned, got up, and walked briskly into the hall to answer the phone.

“Hello, this is Lin Haoran,” he said directly after picking up the receiver.

“Boss, it’s Cui Zilong. I’ve got a lead on the information you asked me to look into today,” Cui Zilong said over the phone.

“Come over to Severn Road. Bring the files with you and have dinner here,” Lin Haoran said.

It was almost dinnertime, and he imagined the villa’s kitchen was already preparing the meal.

Cui Zilong was one of his most important subordinates, and he had always valued him.

“Alright, Boss. Give me twenty minutes, I’ll head over right now!” Cui Zilong agreed without hesitation.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran went to the bathroom and washed his face to wake himself up a bit.

The drive from Central to the Severn Road villa wasn’t long. A little over ten minutes later, Lin Haoran heard the sound of an engine from the first-floor hall.

Li Weiguo walked out quickly to open the gate. Sure enough, it was Cui Zilong, who had already parked his car neatly in a parking spot.

“Thanks for making the trip,” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he also walked out.

“It’s no trouble. I just got off work, and it’s my honor to come to the Boss’s place for a free meal,” Cui Zilong replied with a laugh.

“Come on, let’s go inside and sit,” Lin Haoran said, gesturing toward the villa.

The two men entered the villa, one after the other.

Lin Haoran led Cui Zilong into the study on the first floor. After they sat down, Cui Zilong opened his briefcase and took out several photographs.

“We learned from our informant inside the Hong Kong Times that someone had indeed instructed them to hype up this matter. However, as for the true mastermind, it’s likely that only the boss of the Hong Kong Times is privy to that information. Even their newspaper’s general manager was simply following orders.

“Unable to identify the mastermind through the Hong Kong Times, we shifted our focus to a Chinese mid-level manager at Jardine Home Services Company. We successfully bribed him, and he told us that Jardine Home Services Company had intended to crush Fortress Electrical Company since the beginning of this year. Only by doing so could their Jardine Electrical City seize the market share of Fortress Electrical’s chain stores.

“However, these clues are still not enough to prove that Jardine Home Services Company was the instigator of this incident.

“Fortunately, around five in the afternoon, our people managed to acquire some photos—the ones I’m holding right now. They were taken two days ago by paparazzi from another newspaper at a coffee shop near Jardine House. The photos clearly show the general manager of Jardine Electrical City meeting with Mr. Hong, the boss of the Hong Kong Times.”

The incident had been stirred into a frenzy by the Hong Kong Times over the past few days. Hong Kong’s paparazzi were everywhere, and the boss of the Hong Kong Times was a relatively well-known figure, so it wasn’t surprising that paparazzi would capture such photos.

Lin Haoran took the photos. In them, the two men didn’t seem particularly wary of being photographed. The expressions and gestures on their faces were captured perfectly.

From the photos alone, Lin Haoran could guess that the general manager of Jardine Electrical City was likely plotting something with the other man.

In truth, even without Cui Zilong’s investigation, Lin Haoran already knew from Governor MacLehose that a subsidiary of Jardine Matheson & Co. was definitely behind this.

Now, with the information Cui Zilong had uncovered, the matter was essentially confirmed.

The photos were the best evidence.

“Afterward, we learned from the relatives and neighbors of the protestors that strangers had indeed been visiting their homes frequently over the past few nights. Judging by their attire, they were most likely reporters from the Hong Kong Times,” Cui Zilong continued.

Lin Haoran nodded, looking at the photos as he sank into thought.

The other party’s actions were clearly targeted, aimed at tarnishing the reputation of Fortress Electrical Company.

If Fortress Electrical were merely a company that sold other brands of appliances, the situation wouldn’t be this severe.

But as it happened, all the appliances Fortress Electrical now produced were products under their own Fortress brand.

In other words, all the appliances sold by Fortress Electrical were Fortress brand!

Initially, the appliances sold by Fortress Electrical were, in fact, well-known major brands in Hong Kong.

Later, seeing how high the sales were, Chen Shoulin had the idea of selling their own products, having other electronics companies manufacture them and then putting their own brand on them.

This way, Fortress Electrical Company’s profits could be greatly increased.

However, this move had both its pros and cons.

The pro, naturally, was that they made more money.

The fact that Fortress Electrical Company could now be so easily framed was a con.

If a product had a problem, Fortress Electrical Company couldn’t escape responsibility.

In reality, products of any brand, even major ones, would inevitably have some customers experiencing quality issues.

But those were rarely reported, so it was never a big deal.

This time, however, the Hong Kong Times used sensational news about someone being electrocuted to hype up the matter, causing Fortress Electrical Company’s reputation to plummet.

If this matter wasn’t handled well, the hard-earned reputation they had built over the past few years would be gone.

“How are you coordinating things with Mr. Chen Shoulin?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Boss, after discussing it with President Chen, we came up with a plan. This afternoon, I invited the presidents of three newspapers with whom I have good relations: the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, the Wah Kiu Yat Po, and the Sing Tao Daily.

“I didn’t tell them that Jardine Matheson & Co. was behind this. Instead, I told them about our plan to take down the Hong Kong Times. As it turned out, the presidents of all three newspapers were very interested. They know that if the Hong Kong Times is brought down or its reputation is damaged, it will benefit everyone.

“The Hong Kong Times’ daily circulation is at least twenty to thirty thousand copies. The newspaper market in Hong Kong is only so big. If we can take down the Hong Kong Times, its readership will naturally be gradually taken over by publications like the Oriental Daily News, Wah Kiu Yat Po, Hong Kong Commercial Daily, and Sing Tao Daily.

“President Chen has evidence proving that the Hong Kong Times is publishing fake news and manipulating public opinion. Once our newspapers unite, the Hong Kong Times will be skinned alive, if not completely destroyed!

“Tomorrow, our four newspapers will jointly report on the Hong Kong Times manipulating public opinion to frame a company. Several articles have already been written. Boss, you can take a look.” After speaking, Cui Zilong smiled and took several sheets of A4 paper from his bag.

The newspaper industry in Hong Kong was intense. The small city of Hong Kong was home to over four hundred newspaper and magazine companies.

So, this industry was fiercely competitive.

As one of the top ten newspapers, the Hong Kong Times was a target for other papers that were eager to carve up its readership, especially other top-ten publications like the Oriental Daily News and the Sing Tao Daily.

If the Hong Kong Times’ reputation was damaged this time and their sales dropped, it was almost certain that most of their readers would be divided among Hong Kong’s top ten media outlets.

Besides, a story like this was a hot topic in itself.

This was why the presidents of the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and Sing Tao Daily had so readily agreed to Cui Zilong’s proposal.

The bosses of these newspapers had no idea that Jardine Matheson & Co. was also involved.

If they knew, they wouldn’t have had the same idea.

After all, offending Jardine Matheson & Co. was not a good thing.

But of course, Cui Zilong wasn’t going to tell them that Jardine Matheson & Co. was involved in this matter.

With four major newspapers jointly publishing these stories, it was a safe bet that starting tomorrow, life was going to be very difficult for the Hong Kong Times.

Chapter 243: A Black Sheep in the Press

Central, Jardine House, the Taipan’s office.

Newbiggin leaned back in his executive chair, appearing to be in an excellent mood.

Seated before him was the general manager of Jardine Home Services Company.

Jardine Matheson & Co. owned over four hundred subsidiaries or affiliated listed companies, including the Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Securities.

Jardine Home Services Company was one such subsidiary.

“Taipan, over the past few days, the performance of our Jardine Electrical City stores has skyrocketed. Sales have more than tripled compared to before. If this keeps up, as long as Fortress Electrical Company can’t recover, we will inherit the majority of their market share!” the general manager of Jardine Home Services Company said with a broad smile.

All eight Jardine Electrical City stores were opened near Fortress Electrical Company’s chain stores. Furthermore, they and Fortress were the only two major electrical appliance chains in Hong Kong.

As long as Fortress Electrical Company’s reputation was thoroughly ruined, rendering them unable to recover, Jardine Electrical City would naturally be the biggest beneficiary.

Jardine Matheson was already a major brand in Hong Kong, with subsidiaries spanning nearly every industry. They had a finger in almost every pie.

“You’ve done an excellent job, but I feel it’s not enough. Only the Hong Kong Times is a mainstream newspaper; the others are insignificant. Contact a few more. It would be best to completely cripple them!” Newbiggin laughed heartily.

At that moment, he felt indescribably elated.

As the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, a position he had held for several years, he had long grown accustomed to his esteemed status in Hong Kong.

Even when facing Governor Sir Murray MacLehose, he considered himself on equal footing.

Therefore, Newbiggin had been holding a grudge ever since the major loss of face during the attempted acquisition of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Although, thanks to the market operations of Jardine Securities, they ultimately suffered no financial losses in that campaign and managed to sell off all their shares in Hong Kong and China Gas over the following months.

But he had never forgotten the “humiliation” he had suffered at the hands of Lin Haoran.

On the surface, he seemed to have stopped mentioning the matter.

In reality, however, he was constantly thinking of how to get revenge on Lin Haoran.

Although the incident was actually a result of their own arrogance—announcing a deal before it was finalized—Newbiggin didn’t care about that.

To him, the matter was simple: Lin Haoran had made him lose face.

Not only had it caused Jardine Matheson’s acquisition of Hong Kong and China Gas to fail, but it had also turned Jardine Matheson and himself into laughingstocks for that period, with newspapers and media outlets reporting on it for over half a month.

Every time he saw a newspaper article mocking him, his resentment for Lin Haoran of the Hongkong Electric Group grew.

As for the fact that the Hongkong Electric Group held a 6% stake in the Hongkong Land Group, making them partners, that meant nothing.

It was just like the relationship between Jardine Matheson and HSBC. Not only were they both British-owned companies, but they also held shares in each other—Jardine Matheson owned 3% of HSBC, and HSBC owned 6% of Jardine Matheson, which demonstrated a very close relationship.

Yet, HSBC had still helped Pao Yue-kong in the Kowloon Wharf takeover battle instead of them, causing Jardine Matheson to lose Kowloon Wharf, an important affiliated listed company.

Therefore, what they valued most was profit, not some cooperative relationship.

When the head of Jardine Electrical City and Jardine Home Services Company proposed framing Fortress Electrical Company using the incident of a user’s electrocution, Newbiggin agreed without hesitation.

It would both increase the market share of his subsidiary and allow him to exact harsh revenge on the Hongkong Electric Group. To Newbiggin, it was a perfect case of killing two birds with one stone. How could he possibly disagree?

To that end, he even made a call beforehand to smooth things over with the Police Department.

Over the past few days, the plan had proceeded flawlessly. Fortress Electrical Company, which prided itself on being the largest electrical appliance chain in Hong Kong with the highest market share, had seen its reputation completely destroyed by their efforts.

“Taipan, your idea is absolutely brilliant! I’ll start contacting those influential newspapers and media outlets tomorrow. As long as we offer a reasonable sum and use Jardine Matheson’s powerful background as leverage, I’m sure they’ll gladly comply!” The general manager of Jardine Electrical Company spared no effort in flattering Newbiggin.

After the general manager of Jardine Electrical Company had left the office, Newbiggin did not immediately end his workday. Instead, he remained seated, lost in the thoughts of a moment ago.

Newbiggin had no intention of fighting Lin Haoran to the death.

After all, the Hong Kong business world was only so big; you were bound to run into each other eventually. A fight to the death was out of the question.

For Newbiggin, this action was merely a light warning to the young Lin Haoran, a way to make him realize that in the Hong Kong business world, power was still firmly in the hands of British-owned companies like theirs, not something that Chinese-owned enterprises could easily challenge.

Furthermore, it served as a release and retaliation for his own inner discontent.

Soon, the night passed.

June 9th, early morning.

On a street in Mong Kok, in front of a newsstand, Old Li, a man in his forties, slowly pulled up the rolling shutter of his kiosk, just as he did every day.

Soon, the newspaper deliverymen arrived one after another, neatly stacking various newspapers inside the kiosk.

Old Li was physically disabled. He had gone astray in his youth, joining a triad, and had unfortunately lost an arm in a brawl.

After losing his arm, he was promptly abandoned by the triad, and even making a basic living became a problem.

Later, with the help of a relative, he opened this newsstand and finally had a stable source of income.

He had been running the kiosk for nearly twenty years. While it couldn’t make him rich, his monthly income was steady, and his life was peaceful, no longer the kind of life spent living on a knife’s edge.

Now, he savored this tranquility and comfort, leading a content and leisurely life.

After finally setting everything up, Old Li let out a rare sigh of relief. As usual, he sat down on his personal stool and began to read a newspaper under the dim light.

It was just past five in the morning, and there wouldn’t be any customers for a while. They would only start trickling in after six.

Therefore, this period of downtime was perfect for passing the time with a paper.

The newspaper in his hand was the Oriental Daily News, a publication deeply loved by the readers of Hong Kong.

The Oriental Daily News primarily targeted the general public. One of its key features was its extensive coverage of local Hong Kong social news, attracting readers with its timeliness and broad reporting scope; its team of reporters dedicated to local news numbered over a hundred.

A second feature was its supplement section, which published a large number of articles by well-known figures in Hong Kong’s press and literary circles, offering rich and diverse content.

A third feature was its short, concise articles, varied columns, and simple, easy-to-understand language, catering to the reading needs of different age groups.

Even Old Li, the kiosk owner, had a special fondness for the Oriental Daily News. He read it carefully almost every day, without fail.

The headline was particularly eye-catching, instantly chasing away Old Li’s sleepiness.

“‘A Black Sheep in the Press’, Hong Kong Times Exposed for Allegedly Fabricating Fake News to Maliciously Damage the Reputation of a Local Hong Kong Company.”

This was the front-page headline of the Oriental Daily News.

The article not only included the technical assessment report issued by the police but also showed a photo of the burnt extension cord in the bathroom in question, which was caused by improper wiring.

This conclusive evidence clearly indicated that the incident had nothing to do with the quality of the product itself. It was entirely due to the family’s improper use, which caused the extension cord to come into contact with water, leading to the electric shock accident.

The writer, with superb writing skills and solid evidence, laid out the entire incident with clarity, allowing readers to understand the truth of the matter at a glance.

As a newsstand owner, Old Li was naturally well aware of the Hong Kong Times’s reports over the previous consecutive days.

He had even secretly felt relieved that he hadn’t installed a Fortress electric water heater in his own home.

This showed just how massive the negative impact of the Hong Kong Times’s reporting had been on Fortress Electrical Company!

However, what shocked Old Li was that those reports, which had run for days, were actually fabricated.

But as a kiosk owner, he was already accustomed to such phenomena.

He had seen it all before: hype, fabrication, and clout-chasing from many of Hong Kong’s media outlets.

“The Oriental Daily News really didn’t disappoint me. They’re so full of integrity!” Old Li praised sincerely.

After a quick read-through of the Oriental Daily News, Old Li turned his attention to another high-circulation newspaper in Hong Kong—the Sing Tao Daily.

Although the Sing Tao Daily’s circulation was not as high as the Oriental Daily News’, its daily sales had long been stable in the top three, making it another one of Hong Kong’s mainstream newspapers.

“Shocking! The Recently Sensationalized Water Heater Leak Incident Has Been Confirmed as Fake News!” This was the banner headline of the Sing Tao Daily.

Different writers naturally produced different articles.

However, Old Li could see that the news content reported by the Sing Tao Daily was more or less the same as that of the Oriental Daily News.

With the two top-selling newspapers both reporting on the matter, Old Li realized that the Hong Kong Times was probably in trouble.

Next, he picked up the Hong Kong Commercial Daily and the Wah Kiu Yat Po, both of which also reported on the incident.

With four heavyweight newspapers all covering the story, and with such conclusive evidence, he was now convinced that the Hong Kong Times’s reporting had been intentional. The purpose was self-evident: to smear Fortress Electrical Company.

Chapter 244: Getting Rid of Jardine Matheson’s Lackeys

At Old Li’s newsstand, the books, magazines, and newspapers were all neatly arranged in their proper places. The best-selling cigarettes, bottled water, preserved fruits, and chewing gum were placed in conspicuous spots, awaiting customers.

As the sun rose, the sky grew brighter.

At this moment, Old Li stopped reading his own newspaper, as the number of pedestrians on the street began to increase.

“Extra! Extra! Big news! Come and get your papers!”

Every now and then, Old Li would shout, drawing the attention of many people.

“Lame-Hand Li, what’s the big news today? Give me one.” A regular customer walked up to Old Li’s newsstand and asked curiously.

“You got it. One copy of the Oriental Daily News. You’ll know once you read it,” Old Li said with a cheerful laugh.

Having lost an arm, the neighborhood regulars were used to calling him Lame-Hand Li, and Old Li had grown accustomed to it.

“Lame-Hand Li, give me a copy of the Oriental Daily News.”

“Here you go. One dollar, please!”

“Lame-Hand Li, I want a copy of the Hong Kong Commercial Daily.”

“One dollar, please!”

…

After a busy morning, the flow of customers finally thinned out after nine o’clock.

Old Li wiped the sweat from his face and took a quick tally. All one hundred and fifty copies of the Oriental Daily News were sold out.

Even the hundred copies of the Sing Tao Daily and the hundred copies of the Hong Kong Commercial Daily were gone.

Only a few copies of the Wah Kiu Yat Po remained, but it was nearly sold out as well.

Business was good today.

A smile appeared on Old Li’s face.

The purchase price for each newspaper varied, but it was generally between 0.4 and 0.6 Hong Kong dollars.

So, for each paper he sold, he made a profit of about 0.5 Hong Kong dollars.

This morning alone, he had sold nearly five hundred newspapers. After subtracting the cost, he had earned at least over two hundred Hong Kong dollars, which was excellent.

This was far better than his usual sales.

On days without any sensational news, selling three to four hundred papers in a whole day was already considered quite good.

Today, it wasn’t even ten o’clock in the morning.

Although sales would dwindle for the rest of the day, with very few people buying papers later on, the morning’s volume was enough to prove that today’s newspaper sales were truly outstanding.

If he had known there was such big news, he would have stocked more copies of the Oriental Daily News and the Hong Kong Commercial Daily.

“Starting tomorrow, I’m not stocking the Hong Kong Times anymore!” Looking at the less than half-sold stack of the Hong Kong Times, Old Li made up his mind.

Unsold newspapers were always returned to the publisher; no one dared stock papers from publishers that didn’t offer returns.

However, some publishers offered a full refund, while others bought them back at a discount.

The Hong Kong Times, for example, had a cost price of 0.6 Hong Kong dollars but a return price of only 0.4. There were at least sixty copies of the Hong Kong Times left, meaning he would lose over twenty Hong Kong dollars on this issue alone.

Normally, Old Li would stock fifty copies of the Hong Kong Times at most, sometimes only thirty or forty.

But a few days ago, the news stirred up by the Hong Kong Times had caused its sales to rise significantly.

That was why Old Li had decided to take a hundred copies this time.

He never expected something like this to happen.

Fortunately, the other papers sold extremely well today, so he could afford to lose twenty-odd Hong Kong dollars.

With nothing else to do, Old Li casually picked up a copy of the Hong Kong Times and began to flip through it.

As expected, today’s Hong Kong Times was still focused on the follow-up news about the family of the electrocuted couple causing a scene. It had almost become a soap opera, with the article repeatedly mentioning the tragic incident of the couple’s death by electrocution.

Old Li skimmed through it quickly and lost interest in reading any further.

He had already blacklisted this newspaper company.

As a newsstand owner, Old Li was well-versed in the ways of the media world.

He knew that with the four major newspapers joining forces to expose the truth, the Hong Kong Times’ good days were over.

At the very least, its sales would plummet in the short term, and it was certain to fall out of the top ten. What was worse, it might become completely ignored, its decades of accumulated reputation destroyed overnight.

This was all their own doing, the result of a backlash.

Meanwhile, a similar situation was unfolding at nearly every newsstand across Hong Kong.

There were nearly two thousand newsstands in all of Hong Kong.

On the bustling, neon-lit streets of Hong Kong, where every inch of land was precious, one could always find a newspaper stall by the roadside.

Customers would hand over a one-Hong Kong-dollar coin, receive the day’s paper from the vendor, and begin to read about life.

Year after year, these newspaper stalls had become an indispensable part of the daily streetscape.

An inconspicuous newspaper stall often had a history spanning decades, supporting several generations of a family.

The news of the four major newspapers jointly reporting on the Hong Kong Times’ deliberate campaign to slander a company spread throughout Hong Kong in an instant.

On street corners, in company offices, and in front of corner stores, everyone was talking about it.

“These unscrupulous media outlets just love to start rumors and cause trouble. The government shouldn’t allow a paper like the Hong Kong Times to continue operating.”

“Exactly! Fortress Electrical Company is a subsidiary of the Hongkong Electric Group, isn’t it? It’s a Chinese-owned enterprise now. These media outlets don’t go after British-owned companies, but they specifically target Chinese-owned ones. It’s absolutely shameless!”

“I used to subscribe to the Hong Kong Times every day. I’m never reading their paper again. It’s all fake news, what’s the point? I’d be better off buying a storybook.”

“Me too! I used to buy it more often than the Oriental Daily News. I never thought they were this kind of newspaper. It’s so disappointing.”

“I bet the Hong Kong Times took money to do this. The Hongkong Electric Group must have offended someone.”

“Who knows? I actually bought the Hong Kong Times today. I originally sympathized with that family’s ordeal, but then I overheard others talking and found out the news was fabricated.”

“And this is supposed to be one of the top ten newspapers in Hong Kong? They should just go bankrupt!”

“Yeah, I hope they go out of business. News without truth isn’t news, it’s just making up stories!”

…

The whole affair, in just one morning, had already caused a huge uproar throughout Hong Kong.

Public opinion was almost entirely one-sided.

The credibility of the Hong Kong Times was plummeting.

These four newspapers normally sold at least two hundred thousand copies a day combined, but with such a huge story today, they sold at least over three hundred thousand.

At many newsstands, these four papers sold out quickly.

At the headquarters of the Hong Kong Times, the general manager knew as soon as morning came that disaster had struck. He hastily contacted the Boss.

For the past few days, they had been relying on their coverage of this incident, and their newspaper sales had soared. They couldn’t have been happier.

“It doesn’t make sense. Why would four newspapers team up to come after us? What newspaper hasn’t run a fake story before?” the Boss muttered, frowning.

He had agreed to do this because he had privately received significant benefits from Jardine Matheson, and besides, the hype would greatly increase the Hong Kong Times’ sales. The advantages were many.

Moreover, he felt that with Jardine Matheson & Co. backing him, nothing could go wrong.

But he never expected that four newspapers would suddenly team up to target them, and with solid evidence no less.

Obviously, this evidence must have been provided by Fortress Electrical Company.

However, newspapers attacking each other had never happened before.

This was also why the Hong Kong Times had dared to take on this assignment.

“Boss, I’ve contacted the general managers of all four newspapers, but none of them would give a reason. Two of them even hung up on me directly,” the general manager said to the Boss with a wry smile.

“Don’t panic. I’ll go to Jardine Home Services Company. They started this. If they don’t help us, we’ll publicize their involvement. Jardine Matheson & Co. has commissioned us to do plenty of things over the years. If we go down, we’ll take them with us. I’m sure they’ll have a solution!”

The Boss was a ruthless man. If the Hong Kong Times suffered heavy losses because of this, he was determined not to let Jardine Home Services Company off easy. After all, the general manager of Jardine Home Services had promised him there would be no problems and that he could rest assured.

Over the years, the Hong Kong Times had done a lot of this kind of work for companies in the Jardine faction. They had long since established a very tacit cooperative relationship.

You could say that the Hong Kong Times was Jardine Matheson’s lackey!

For this very reason, after Jardine Home Services Company decided to go after Fortress Electrical Company, they went straight to the Hong Kong Times to report on the matter.

However, just as the Boss was about to contact Jardine Home Services Company, its general manager was also reeling in shock from the day’s events.

First thing in the morning, he had planned to contact several more newspapers to join the Hong Kong Times in sensationalizing the news about the Fortress electric water heater electrocuting people.

Unexpectedly, he made several calls, but everyone he spoke to flatly refused once they heard what he wanted.

At first, he had no idea what was going on.

Later, a newspaper boss told him about the stories in the Oriental Daily News, the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, and others. Only then did he understand why he had been rejected so bluntly.

He had even, comically, called Cui Zilong, the general manager of the Oriental Daily News…

After all, the Oriental Daily News was the best-selling newspaper in Hong Kong.

After learning about the situation, the first thought of the Jardine Home Services Company’s general manager was to distance himself from the whole affair!

Just as he was thinking about how to distance himself from it, the Boss of the Hong Kong Times happened to call.

“Mr. Reed, you must know what happened today, right? You have to save our company! You contacted us to do this, and if this isn’t resolved, our newspaper will suffer devastating losses!” The moment the call connected, the Boss of the Hong Kong Times began to pour out his troubles.

“Boss Hong, you’ll have to take the fall for us on this one for now. You absolutely must not leak our involvement. You should know Jardine Matheson & Co.’s position and power in Hong Kong. If this gets out, I don’t think Mr. Hong will be able to continue doing business in Hong Kong,” the general manager of Jardine Home Services Company said bluntly.

The Boss of the Hong Kong Times didn’t just have a newspaper business; he had other businesses in Hong Kong as well, which was why the general manager of Jardine Home Services Company dared to threaten him so openly.

Hearing this, Boss Hong was stunned.

Had they just been cast aside like a sacrificial pawn?

“But don’t worry, Boss Hong. We at Jardine Matheson & Co. will certainly not let your company go under. I’m already on my way to discuss this with Mr. Newbiggin. We’ll have an answer for you soon. Just hold tight and don’t panic!” the general manager of Jardine Home Services Company continued.

Chapter 245: Jardine Matheson’s Ruthless Move, Death with No Corroborating Evidence!

Shortly after nine in the morning, inside the Lin family villa on Severn Road, Lin Haoran received a call from Cui Zilong.

As Cui Zilong recounted the recent events in detail, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a little surprised.

He had not expected Jardine Home Services Company to actually attempt to have the Oriental Daily News report on the matter.

Under normal circumstances, even if someone were to refuse a request from Jardine Home Services Company, they would never leak the news to the outside world. After all, most media outlets were unwilling to offend the powerful Jardine Matheson & Co.

But the Oriental Daily News was an exception, as Lin Haoran was now its boss.

From this, it was easy to see just how vicious Jardine Matheson’s methods were.

Jardine Matheson had attempted to control public opinion through multiple media outlets, intending to deal a fatal blow to Fortress Electrical Company and completely destroy the “Fortress” brand.

Once their plan succeeded, even if Fortress Electrical Company had evidence proving they were being smeared—that the couple’s electrocution death while showering was not caused by the electric water heater—these media outlets would still twist the truth.

After all, the couple had indeed been electrocuted to death while showering, and they were using a Fortress brand water heater at the time.

However, Jardine Matheson had acted too late.

Since only one mainstream paper, the Hong Kong Times, had reported on the incident so far, its influence was limited. When four major papers joined forces to report the truth, they easily turned public opinion around.

“What’s the situation outside now that the four major newspapers have reported on it?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Boss, the matter has caused a huge stir. As expected, Fortress Electrical Company’s crisis is over. Furthermore, the Hongkong Electric Group is currently holding a press conference to explain the whole incident.

Dozens of media outlets are attending, including the two television stations, TVB and Rediffusion Television. This is now completely public. TVB is broadcasting it live right now. If you’re interested, Boss, you can tune into TVB’s Jade Channel,” Cui Zilong said with a smile.

“Has Jardine Home Services Company made any moves since then?” However, Lin Haoran felt that things couldn’t be this simple.

After all, the behemoth standing behind them was the renowned Jardine Matheson & Co.

If the matter was resolved this easily, they wouldn’t have achieved their current status.

Jardine Matheson & Co. had built its fortune on the opium and arms trade; such an enterprise could hardly be benevolent.

“No. Only the general manager of Jardine Home Services Company called me this morning, wanting our Oriental Daily News to do the same as the Hong Kong Times. After I refused his request, he never contacted me again. I recorded the entire conversation with him,” Cui Zilong said.

As the general manager of the Oriental Daily News, he often dealt with sensitive news, so his office landline was a tape-recording telephone, allowing him to record critical calls at any time.

“Alright, you continue to keep an eye on Jardine Home Services Company. I suspect they won’t give up this easily. I’ll head over to your office later!” Lin Haoran said.

“Understood, Boss. I’ll step up our intelligence gathering!” Cui Zilong responded.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran picked up the remote control and pressed a button. The television flickered to life, showing TVB’s Jade Channel.

On the screen, the first person he saw was Mr. Chen Shoulin, an Executive Director of the Hongkong Electric Group, answering questions from reporters one by one.

After watching for a moment, Lin Haoran casually turned off the television.

At that moment, his mind was occupied with how to deal with Jardine Matheson & Co.

He couldn’t just let it go after being punched for no reason.

Although he was secretly planning to acquire the Hongkong Land Group, it certainly couldn’t be completed in a short time. Despite having increased the pace of stock accumulation, he only held around 20% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares. Taking control of the company would not be easy.

The idea that “a gentleman’s revenge can wait ten years” was not his style.

He believed in taking revenge as soon as possible.

Jardine Matheson had plenty of dirt from its rise to power, and perhaps he could start from there.

Since they wanted to use public opinion to kill his company, why couldn’t he use public opinion against them?

After all, he now controlled Hong Kong’s best-selling newspaper.

With that, he took Li Weidong and Li Weiguo with him and left the villa, heading straight for Changye Building in Wan Chai.

Twenty minutes later, Lin Haoran arrived at Changye Building.

He rarely came here; he could count the number of times he’d visited on one hand. Most of the time, Cui Zilong would go to Wanqing Building to report to him.

The three of them took the elevator to the seventh floor and eventually arrived at Cui Zilong’s office.

The seventh floor was quiet. This was where the executive offices of the Oriental Press Group were located, as well as the intelligence department’s base of operations.

Soon, Lin Haoran entered Cui Zilong’s office.

“Boss, this is the information we’ve gathered. This evidence proves that Jardine Home Services Company and the Hong Kong Times orchestrated this incident together.” Upon seeing Lin Haoran, Cui Zilong handed him a small zipper pouch.

Lin Haoran nodded, took the pouch, and unzipped it. Inside were a cassette tape and several photographs.

The photos showed the general manager of Jardine Home Services Company meeting with Mr. Hong, the boss of the Hong Kong Times.

As for the cassette tape, it was clearly the recording of the phone call Cui Zilong had with the general manager of Jardine Home Services.

These two pieces of evidence, when combined, were enough to prove they were behind it all.

“Play it for me,” Lin Haoran said, handing the tape to Cui Zilong.

Cui Zilong took the tape, then stood up and walked over to a cassette player. He skillfully inserted the tape and quickly pressed the play button.

Soon, a clear conversation emanated from the player.

“Hello, this is the Oriental Press Group.”

“May I ask if this is Mr. Cui Zilong?”

“Yes, this is Cui Zilong. Who is this?”

“Hello, Mr. Cui. I am Mr. Reed, the general manager of Jardine Home Services Company. I have a business proposition I’d like to discuss with you.”

“Please go ahead, Mr. Reed.”

“Regarding the news reported by the Hong Kong Times about the water heater causing a death, I assume you’ve heard about it, Mr. Cui. I hope the Oriental Daily News can also report on this matter.

If you can agree to this request, Mr. Cui, I will privately give you a reward of 50,000 Hong Kong dollars, paid entirely in cash to ensure confidentiality. Furthermore, you will become a friend of our Jardine Home Services Company from now on.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Reed, but you should find someone else. We at the Oriental Daily News are not interested in this story!”

The conversation ended there.

However, Lin Haoran knew that these two pieces of evidence alone wouldn’t cause any real harm to Jardine Matheson.

“General Manager Cui, have your people collect evidence of any criminal activities Jardine Matheson has been involved in over the past few years. I have a use for it,” Lin Haoran said to Cui Zilong.

“Understood, Boss!”

…

At the same time, the general manager of Jardine Home Services Company had arrived at Newbiggin’s office.

After listening to his subordinate’s report, Newbiggin was slightly surprised.

He hadn’t expected his opponent’s counterattack to create such a huge commotion.

To be honest, Newbiggin didn’t care much about Jardine Electrical City.

In fact, the entire Jardine Home Services Company was not very prominent within Jardine Matheson & Co.

After all, Jardine Matheson & Co. controlled over four hundred subsidiaries and associated public companies.

So, in Newbiggin’s eyes, this whole affair was merely a small lesson for the Hongkong Electric Group, settling a score for a previous humiliation.

This was quite similar to how insignificant Fortress Electrical Company had seemed to Lin Haoran before.

But now, he had to intervene.

If he didn’t, not only would he fail to get revenge on Lin Haoran, but he might even end up tarnishing the reputation of Jardine Matheson & Co.

For instance, if the Hong Kong Times were to reveal everything, it would indeed cause some trouble for Jardine Matheson.

Though he wasn’t too concerned—such a minor issue wouldn’t cause any real problems for Jardine Matheson & Co.—it was best to avoid it altogether.

After pacing around his office for a while, Newbiggin made up his mind.

He strode to the telephone and quickly dialed a number.

As soon as the call connected, Newbiggin said bluntly, “I have a task for you. It must be completed today!”

“Taipan, please give your instructions!” A woman’s voice came from the other end.

“Send the police officer who signed the technical assessment report and his family to Southeast Asia—the Philippines or Malaysia will do. I need you to handle this by the end of today.

Before they leave, you must record a video. In it, he must confess that he took money from Fortress Electrical Company to sign that technical report, that all the evidence at the scene was fabricated, and that the deceased actually died from an electrical leak in the water heater!” Newbiggin said in a firm tone.

He didn’t need to specify the other details. Newbiggin knew his associate would understand what to do and would complete the task perfectly.

“Understood, Taipan. I guarantee you will receive good news before tonight,” the person replied.

“Good. I’ll be waiting for your good news!” Newbiggin hung up, satisfied.

That’s right, Newbiggin’s strategy was brutally direct: he wanted to turn this into an unsolvable case, leaving no one to testify!

At the same time, he would frame Fortress Electrical Company once more.

Since Fortress Electrical Company’s most critical piece of evidence was the technical assessment report from the police, he would simply render that report invalid!

That way, who could prove the real cause of death?

Fortress Electrical Company would have no choice but to take the blame!

“Taipan, your move is truly brilliant!” The general manager of Jardine Home Services Company, who had been observing from the side, quickly chimed in with a look of utter admiration after Newbiggin hung up the phone.

“It’s just child’s play!” Newbiggin waved his hand dismissively, but a smug smile crept onto his lips.

He held a trump card—a team that answered only to him, specializing in handling all sorts of sudden and complex incidents.

For instance, persuading or threatening the officer and his family and sending them abroad was a trivial matter for this team.

After all, few people are immune to the lure of greed.

As long as the incentive was great enough, any problem could be solved with ease.

This was their standard operating procedure: simple and direct.

Chapter 246: Boss, Something Terrible Has Happened

Time ticked by.

In the blink of an eye, evening had arrived.

The joint publication by the four major newspaper media outlets had made the Hong Kong Times a public pariah, a rat scurrying across the street for everyone in Hong Kong to disdain.

Normally, it was quite common for the media to fabricate news. The citizens were long used to it, and no one would make a huge fuss. Even if a story was exposed as false, it would quickly be forgotten.

But this time was different for the Hong Kong Times. Being reported on by several major news outlets at once was a devastating blow. The impact was immense, and negative public opinion of the paper skyrocketed.

However, just as the citizens of Hong Kong thought the matter was settled, the story took another turn.

At seven in the evening, most families and corner stores turned on their televisions.

After the collapse of Commercial Television two years prior, the Hong Kong television market was once again monopolized by two stations: Rediffusion Television and Wireless Television.

Although Rediffusion Television currently held a ratings advantage in certain time slots and with certain dramas, Wireless Television also boasted many classic series and a broad audience base. The two stations each held a significant share of the Hong Kong television market at the time.

The drama series Dynasty had not yet aired, so Rediffusion Television’s lead in the ratings was slight, but it was still an advantage.

Therefore, at this moment, more than fifty percent of the viewers in Hong Kong were watching Rediffusion Television.

The station was a genuine British-owned company, one hundred percent controlled by British Rediffusion.

However, a year later in March 1981, British Rediffusion would sell sixty-one percent of its shares to an Australian financial group. A year after that, Chairman Chiu of the Far East Group would formally take control of Rediffusion Television, eventually renaming it Asia Television.

But for now, in June of 1980, Rediffusion Television was not yet Asia Television. It was still a purely British-owned company.

Originally, Rediffusion Television was scheduled to broadcast the drama series Man in the Net.

Man in the Net was a drama series directed by Mak Dong-hung and Lau Kar-ho, starring Chan Koon-tai, Kong Hon, Ma Man-yee, and others. The eighty-episode series had premiered on Rediffusion Television on May 12, 1980.

Set in a rural town after the victory in the war of resistance, the series told the story of the grudges and romances between the brothers Shi Jiabao and Shi Jiawei in the criminal underworld.

Moreover, the show brought together a group of acclaimed actors from the Hong Kong television scene at the time, including Chan Koon-tai and Kong Hon, whose superb performances added greatly to its appeal.

At the same time, Hong Kong in the 1980s was in a period of rapid economic development and social change, and there was a high demand among audiences for dramas that reflected social realities and explored human nature.

Man in the Net met this demand perfectly, and thus received widespread attention and adoration.

Therefore, the series garnered extensive attention and discussion upon its broadcast. Its tight plot and vivid characters were deeply loved by the audience.

However, just as viewers were eagerly awaiting the start of the show, the image that appeared on screen was not the opening sequence of Man in the Net.

Instead, the screen showed Wei Qiuhua, a star actress who had moved from Commercial Television to Rediffusion Television after the former’s collapse.

Seeing this, the audience was baffled, wondering what on earth Rediffusion Television was up to.

After all, this was the scheduled airtime for Man in the Net.

Nonetheless, it piqued everyone’s curiosity, so almost no one changed the channel.

“We interrupt this program for an emergency news bulletin. The drama Man in the Net will be delayed by ten minutes. This station has just received news that Mr. Tang Jie, a Technical Police Superintendent in the Criminal Investigation Department of the Hong Kong Royal Police, fled Hong Kong with his family today. Before his departure, Mr. Tang recorded a video and mailed it to our television station. The following is the content of that video!” After Wei Qiuhua finished speaking, the image on the television screen changed again.

“Stop watching TVB! Quick, switch to Rediffusion! There’s big news!”

All across Hong Kong, people were shouting to their neighbors to change the channel.

Instantly, Rediffusion Television’s ratings soared, while TVB’s plummeted in tandem.

At that moment, countless families in Hong Kong were glued to their televisions, anxious to see what was happening.

After all, the joint report by the four major newspapers today, followed by the Hongkong Electric Group’s press conference, had caused a massive stir. The entire city was talking about the slander against Fortress Electrical Company.

Everyone had thought the matter was settled.

But how much time had passed? How could there be another reversal?

In the video, the Hong Kong police officer recounted how “he was bribed by the general manager of Fortress Electrical Company to fabricate a false report,” telling the story as if it were the undeniable truth.

Moreover, with a sincere expression, he apologized to the citizens of Hong Kong, stating that he had not expected the incident to have such a large impact. He claimed his conscience could not bear it, which was why he decided to step forward and reveal “the truth of the matter.”

The video was short, lasting only two minutes.

But when it finished playing, it instantly caused a massive uproar throughout Hong Kong.

“Holy shit, another twist!”

“I can’t believe the Hong Kong Times report was actually true. We were wrong about them.”

“Fortress Electrical Company bribed a police officer to cover this up? That’s despicable!”

“You can say that again!”

“I’ll boycott Fortress Electrical Company for life!”

“Isn’t it normal for people to get electrocuted by appliances? They should have just admitted it! But not only did Fortress not admit their mistake, they even tried to bribe a cop to fabricate the facts. How disgusting!”

“Exactly, right?”

At that moment, Fortress Electrical Company, which had just escaped a crisis, was immediately plunged into an even deeper one.

Ordinary citizens were like that, easily manipulated by public opinion.

The strongest evidence Fortress Electrical had was the technical assessment report issued by the police department.

Now, this police officer’s words had just rendered that report completely void!

In less than half an hour, the news swept through all of Hong Kong. Almost everyone knew about it.

…

At the Lin family villa on Severn Road, Lin Haoran, having just finished dinner, was preparing to go upstairs to study the newly released Apple III.

Jobs had shipped the computer to him. It had just arrived today, and after he got home, he had Li Weidong help him carry it up to the study.

According to Jobs, this was Apple Inc.’s latest and greatest product.

As one of Apple Inc.’s major shareholders, it would be a bit absurd for Lin Haoran not to even know what his own company’s products looked like.

The Apple III was originally designed to compete with IBM for market share in business and enterprise computing.

The product had only been released last month.

However, this product was destined to fail. Lin Haoran had read about it in the Steve Jobs biography in his previous life.

The main reasons for the Apple III’s failure included overheating issues, software and hardware compatibility problems, and its high price.

First and foremost, the overheating was the main culprit.

Jobs had demanded that the designers not include a cooling fan in the Apple III, which led to poor heat dissipation.

User feedback revealed that the Apple III often overheated, causing chips to dislodge from the motherboard and the screen display to glitch. Some users even reported that floppy disks were nearly melted from the high temperature when ejected.

Second, the Apple III’s software and hardware compatibility and the lack of tailored software also affected its market performance.

The Apple III used an emulation mode to be compatible with the Apple II, but many advanced features could not be fully utilized, leading to a poor user experience.

Furthermore, there was little compatible software, and the system was prone to crashing, which further hampered its market acceptance.

Finally, the Apple III’s exorbitant price was another reason for its failure.

Its price ranged from four thousand three hundred and forty US dollars to ten thousand US dollars, far higher than many other commercial computers based on the CP/M operating system at the time, which deterred many potential customers.

Although Lin Haoran already knew about the failure of this Apple Inc. product, he did not intervene to stop it.

This was because, from the very beginning of his investment, he had decided not to interfere in any of Apple Inc.’s affairs, including product R&D.

Failure was failure; it was just something to be experienced again in this world.

But if he interfered too much and caused Apple Inc. to change completely, Lin Haoran would have no idea what kind of tech company it would become in the future. This would be tantamount to completely losing his foresight regarding the company.

Although Lin Haoran’s investment had added another shareholder to Apple Inc., the impact was minimal. His role was merely that of an investor who did not meddle in any of the company’s affairs.

Therefore, his investment would not change Apple Inc.’s development.

But if he started bossing them around about product design, causing the final product to be completely different from the one in his original world, the indirect changes would be immense, completely altering the company’s development trajectory.

For these reasons, Lin Haoran had decided not to make any changes to Apple Inc.

He skillfully pressed the power button, and the Apple Inc. logo soon appeared.

However, this device, which seemed so advanced to people of this era, looked incredibly outdated to Lin Haoran—so outdated that after trying it for a bit, he lost all interest.

In his eyes, it was practically e-waste, with very little entertainment value.

He turned off the computer, bored. Just as Lin Haoran was about to leave the study and watch some television to pass the time, the phone in the study began to ring.

“Hello, this is Lin Haoran,” he said, walking over and picking up the receiver.

“Boss, it’s Chen Shoulin! Something terrible has happened! Our Fortress Electrical Company has been set up again! Just now, Rediffusion Television aired a video. In the video, it’s the police officer who issued the technical assessment report for Fortress Electrical Company, but now he’s turned around and is saying that the only reason he issued that report was because we bribed him…”

Chapter 247: General Manager Cui, Isn’t This Too Much of a Coincidence?

After hearing Chen Shoulin’s report, Lin Haoran was a little surprised, but not overly so.

As expected, Jardine Matheson had made their move. This matter wouldn’t be resolved so easily.

He had been planning to have Cui Zilong gather some useful evidence before launching a counterattack, but he hadn’t expected the other party to make their next move before he could even retaliate.

“President Chen, I’ll discuss this with General Manager Cui first. You should also see if you can come up with any countermeasures,” Lin Haoran said. He knew that saying more to Chen Shoulin at this moment would be pointless. It was better to talk to Cui Zilong and see if they had any useful leads.

“Alright, Boss. I’ll hang up then!” Chen Shoulin said before ending the call.

Lin Haoran, however, kept the telephone receiver in his hand. Instead of putting it down, he immediately dialed another number.

His target was Cui Zilong, the man in charge of his intelligence agency.

Lin Haoran first called the number for the general manager’s office at the Oriental Press Group, but no one answered.

At this hour, he should have already left work, so it was normal for him to not be in the office.

So, Lin Haoran dialed another number—Cui Zilong’s home phone.

This time, someone picked up quickly.

It was Cui Zilong’s wife who answered the phone. After a brief question, it was confirmed that Cui Zilong was indeed at home.

Soon, Cui Zilong was on the line.

“Boss, you must be calling about the Fortress Electrical Company matter, right? I just saw the report on Rediffusion Television as well,” Cui Zilong asked proactively.

“Yes. Are you free right now? I’ve been thinking, this must have happened very suddenly. That police officer was clearly bribed or coerced by Jardine Matheson to do something like this. He definitely can’t stay in Hong Kong now.

If I’m not mistaken, he must have left Hong Kong before the video was broadcast, most likely by plane. I need you to use your network immediately to find out how he left Hong Kong and what his next destination is,” Lin Haoran replied directly.

When he received Chen Shoulin’s call, Lin Haoran’s first thought was that the police officer was the key figure in this incident.

The most direct way for Fortress Electrical Company to survive this crisis was to find that officer!

“Boss, I was just about to discuss this with Director Chen. When I saw the news, I had almost the same thought as you. If he wants to leave Hong Kong, it’s either by ferry or by plane.

And since they’re leaving as a whole family, it’s best for them to reach their destination as soon as possible. As for leaving by car, that’s impossible, unless they plan on moving to Mainland China. But who would move to the mainland these days?

So I’m more inclined to believe they left by plane. I immediately sent people to search for any useful information, especially at Kai Tak International Airport. There should be a record of their departure.” Cui Zilong replied with a smile.

His answer made Lin Haoran nod to himself in approval. This subordinate of his was indeed sharp enough. It was clear from this incident that he had already thought things through without needing instructions from his boss, Lin Haoran.

“So, that means you haven’t found any useful intelligence yet, right?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

“Not yet. I sent someone to investigate about twenty minutes ago, but immigration records are easy to find, so it shouldn’t take long. I’ve had people look into departures from both the international ferry terminals and Kai Tak International Airport. I’m trying not to miss anything and to find useful intelligence as soon as possible!” Cui Zilong replied immediately.

“Good. Thank you for your trouble. Call me as soon as you have any news!” Lin Haoran said.

“Don’t worry, Boss. I’ll hang up for now. I’ll notify you as soon as I have news!”

Putting down the receiver, Lin Haoran rubbed the bridge of his nose.

From his transmigration in 1978 until the beginning of this year, his development had been incredibly fast, with things going smoothly almost every time.

This was really only the second time he had been targeted like this.

The first time, of course, was when the Brotherhood threatened the Philippines branch company of Green Island Cement. But that matter wasn’t difficult for him to resolve. They were just a bunch of triad members; fighting fire with fire was enough to handle them.

In fact, after that incident, they had established a certain deterrent effect in the Philippines. When they expanded their market there, it was just like in Hong Kong, with many benefits.

That could be considered the reward for victory.

But this time was different. His opponent was Jardine Matheson & Co., known as the “King of the Foreign Firms.”

So, to be honest, Lin Haoran was under quite a bit of pressure.

Fortress Electrical Company had annual sales exceeding one hundred million Hong Kong dollars and profits in the tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars. While not an incredibly massive enterprise, it was by no means a small business.

After all, the number of companies in all of Hong Kong with annual profits of over ten million Hong Kong dollars could be counted on one’s fingers.

Moreover, this was one of his own businesses. Today, Fortress Electrical Company was being bullied; tomorrow, it could be another one of his companies. How could he let that stand?

He wasn’t a fish on the chopping block—to be slaughtered at will.

Ultimately, the reason was that he was too young, and others thought he was an easy target.

If it were an old-timer like Pao Yue-kong or Li Jiacheng, it wouldn’t be so simple for Jardine Matheson & Co. to use such tactics against them.

The main issue was that Lin Haoran lacked sufficient deterrent effect in Hong Kong. Although he was suspected to have the towering tree of Citibank behind him, Jardine Matheson & Co. in Hong Kong wasn’t necessarily afraid of Citibank.

And his previous acquisitions had all been settled with money.

Perhaps in Newbiggin’s eyes, he was just a young man who was constantly spending money on acquisitions.

Just as Lin Haoran was thinking about how to establish his authority in Hong Kong, the telephone on the side rang again.

The caller was Cui Zilong, who had just hung up not long ago.

“Boss, we found him. The officer’s name is Tang Jie. He’s been with the Royal Police Force for eighteen years, an old officer around forty years old. Our people found out that around six-thirty this evening, there was a flight to Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

According to the registration information, Tang Jie and his entire family took that flight out of Hong Kong. They are expected to arrive at Manila International Airport at nine-oh-eight in the evening,” Cui Zilong reported quickly.

After hearing Cui Zilong’s words, Lin Haoran almost laughed out loud.

“General Manager Cui, isn’t this too much of a coincidence?” Lin Haoran exclaimed.

“Boss, yes, I was also very surprised when I received this intelligence. It is indeed a coincidence. I even confirmed it several times, and they clearly stated that there was no mistake,” Cui Zilong said, also laughing.

If the other party had gone to the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, or even somewhere in Europe, it would have been difficult for them.

But of all places, they just had to run off to Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

One had to remember that the Universal Security Consulting Company, which Cui Zilong was now in charge of, had a very important branch company in the Philippines. They had power there as well.

Not only that, but they also had a good relationship with the Four Seas Gang, the largest Chinese triad in the Manila area. The two sides had already reached a cooperative partnership.

For this police officer to leave Hong Kong for Manila, wasn’t he just walking right into Lin Haoran’s sphere of influence?

Lin Haoran glanced at the wall clock. It was only about eight-thirty in the evening.

This meant that the officer and his family were still on the plane at this very moment, not yet having reached their destination of Manila!

“Since that’s the case, you should know what to do, right?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He also felt relieved. He never expected Jardine Matheson to send this key piece of evidence right into his hands.

“Rest assured, Boss. I’ve already made arrangements. The moment they arrive in Manila, they will be quickly brought under our control!” Cui Zilong replied.

“Okay. Sorry to make you work overtime tonight. I hope to get evidence that’s in our favor as soon as possible. At the same time, Jardine Matheson & Co.’s actions this time have thoroughly enraged me. Find some dirt on them as soon as you can. I want to make Jardine Matheson & Co. regret this!” Lin Haoran continued.

“This is what I should be doing. I’ll leave it at that for now, Boss. I still need to contact our people in Manila!” Cui Zilong said.

“Alright, go ahead!”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran breathed a sigh of relief.

For this police officer to go to the Philippines was tantamount to walking right into a trap.

In that case, it wouldn’t be difficult to find evidence of his collusion with Jardine Matheson & Co.

With that, the crisis at Fortress Electrical Company would naturally no longer be a problem.

The world of business… this world of business is truly not simple at all!

Lin Haoran stretched, preparing to leave the study, watch some television, and then go to bed early.

…

Manila’s time is not much different from Hong Kong’s due to their similar longitudes, so there is no time difference. When it was just past eight in the evening in Hong Kong, it was also past eight in the evening in Manila.

In Manila, as long as you have money, you can do anything.

After establishing a branch company in the Philippines, Universal Security Consulting Company not only had one hundred and fifty retired soldiers still stationed there but had also successively hired many locals.

These people were mainly in logistics departments.

At the same time, under Lin Haoran’s instructions, Cui Zilong had begun to build an intelligence department in the Philippines, with Manila as its focus.

Although the intelligence department was still in its nascent stages and it was difficult to obtain major intelligence, it was still a simple task to acquire specific information and handle matters for the headquarters in Hong Kong.

Thus, just twenty minutes after Lin Haoran’s call with Cui Zilong, there were already people from Universal Security Consulting Company at Manila International Airport.

Having bribed the head of customs at the airport, they quickly obtained firsthand information.

The flight from Hong Kong to Manila was indeed scheduled to land in a little over ten minutes, and they had also obtained a copy of the passenger list.

Chapter 248: Mr. Lin, You Truly Have Some Impressive Methods!

A little after seven in the morning, Lin Haoran’s internal clock woke him from his dream.

After his call with Cui Zilong last night, he hadn’t received any more calls.

However, Lin Haoran knew that things were in motion over in the Philippines.

After getting up, he did a workout in the villa’s gym before having breakfast and reading the newspapers.

As expected, today’s news was abuzz with activity.

The story aired by Rediffusion Television last night, in particular, had fanned the flames of public interest.

Lin Haoran scanned over a dozen of Hong Kong’s mainstream newspapers, and the vast majority of them had been influenced by Rediffusion Television’s report.

Some even openly criticized Fortress Electrical Company for bribing the police and forging a fake report. Other articles supported Fortress Electrical Company.

The whole affair had become complicated and confusing.

Jardine Matheson’s video had dragged Fortress Electrical Company, which had just managed to escape the court of public opinion, right back into the controversy.

If this wasn’t handled well, the Fortress Electrical Company brand would essentially be ruined.

A little after nine in the morning, Lin Haoran left the villa and headed directly to the Hongkong Electric Group Headquarters.

When he arrived at Hongkong Electric Group, Chen Shoulin wasn’t in his office; he was in a meeting.

Lin Haoran wasn’t in a hurry. He made a call to the general manager’s office at the Oriental Press Group.

“Boss, I was just about to report to you,” Cui Zilong said after picking up the phone.

“Is it good news or bad news?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Good news, of course,” Cui Zilong replied with a laugh.

“Alright, I’m at the Hongkong Electric Group Headquarters. Come over here,” Lin Haoran said after a moment of thought.

Since Fortress Electrical Company was a subsidiary of Hongkong Electric Group, it was perfectly appropriate to have him come over to resolve this matter together.

“Okay, Boss. Please wait for me. I’ll gather some materials and be right there,” Cui Zilong answered immediately.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran waited in Chen Shoulin’s office for another ten-odd minutes before Chen Shoulin returned.

“Good morning, Boss.” Chen Shoulin looked utterly exhausted; last night’s events had likely cost him a good night’s sleep.

“Yes. How is Fortress Electrical Company doing now?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Some of our store employees said that many citizens have been causing trouble at the stores, demanding full refunds and saying they don’t dare use our products anymore. I hope General Manager Cui can come up with some useful evidence,” Chen Shoulin said with a wry smile.

Being falsely accused by the very police officer who issued the report, and being unable to produce any favorable evidence—the situation was truly agonizing.

“Don’t worry. General Manager Cui just told me there’s good news,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Another ten-odd minutes passed before Cui Zilong finally arrived at Hongkong Electric Group.

“Boss, President Chen, sorry to keep you waiting,” Cui Zilong said, slightly out of breath.

“Tell us about the situation in the Philippines,” Lin Haoran asked directly.

This was what they most wanted to know.

Chen Shoulin also fixed his gaze on Cui Zilong.

“Last night, after the police officer named Tang Jie and his family arrived in Manila, our men, posing as representatives from Jardine Matheson & Co., picked them up at the airport. We successfully took them away, and after some persuasion, we indeed found evidence in our favor.

Tang Jie had a one million Hong Kong dollar HSBC cheque in his possession, and it was stamped with Jardine Matheson & Co.’s finance seal. Their plan was to cash it at the HSBC branch in Manila after arriving in the Philippines. They just didn’t expect us to find them so quickly.

That money was a payoff from Jardine Matheson & Co. for Tang Jie to leave Hong Kong. At the same time, we also recorded a video last night where Tang Jie personally confesses in Manila how he was coerced by Jardine Matheson & Co. and ultimately had no choice but to collude with them to frame Fortress Electrical Company. The videotape is currently on the earliest flight from Manila to Hong Kong, which took off at eight this morning. It’s expected to arrive at the Hong Kong airport around ten-thirty,” Cui Zilong reported.

Lin Haoran nodded. The situation was developing in a favorable direction.

“Additionally, as per your request, Boss, I’ve also collected some dirt on Jardine Matheson & Co. For example, earlier this year, Jardine Matheson set a trap to frame the boss of Feng Ming Company, allowing them to acquire the company at a low price. The boss, Huang Zhang, is still in prison. The evidence we’ve found is enough to prove this was entirely Jardine Matheson’s doing.

This file is about what Jardine Matheson did in Central last May…”

As Cui Zilong spoke, he took out pieces of evidence. There were photos, videos, and signed documents, all filling up a large bag.

And this was just the evidence Cui Zilong had gathered in a short amount of time. Given more time, he could definitely collect much more.

One could only imagine how many wicked deeds Jardine Matheson & Co. had committed.

Jardine Matheson & Co. had always used underhanded tactics in business competition, such as suppressing rivals through lawsuits and political influence to gain an unfair advantage. These were the keys to their victories.

But this time, since Sir Murray MacLehose had promised not to intervene in their competition, and Jardine Matheson was being so aggressive, they couldn’t blame Lin Haoran for playing rough.

“I want to expose Jardine Matheson & Co.’s misdeeds one by one through the media. Can we work with newspapers like the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and Sing Tao Daily?” Lin Haoran asked.

Yesterday, these newspapers had joined the Oriental Daily News in reporting on the false accusations against Fortress Electrical Company.

However, when Lin Haoran read those papers this morning, their focus had already shifted to the video aired by Rediffusion Television last night. Overall, it wasn’t too bad; their reporting hadn’t gone too far.

“Boss, I’ve already spoken with their general managers about this. I learned that they’ve received a warning from Jardine Matheson & Co. Now that they know Jardine Matheson is involved, they don’t plan to get mixed up in this anymore,” Cui Zilong said with a wry smile.

Lin Haoran nodded. With a personal warning call from Jardine Matheson & Co., those media outlets certainly wouldn’t dare to continue their reports.

There was no helping it. Jardine Matheson & Co.’s deterrent effect in Hong Kong was too strong; few dared to offend them.

The three of them then discussed how to retaliate against Jardine Matheson & Co. in the office.

Nearing eleven in the morning, someone finally delivered a videotape.

Chen Shoulin found a conference room equipped with a VCR.

Soon, a video appeared on the television screen.

“Hello everyone, I am Tang Jie, former Technical Superintendent of the Hong Kong Royal Police Criminal Investigation Department. I am currently in the Philippines. I previously recorded a video, but that video was actually fake. I apologize for colluding with Jardine Matheson & Co. and being forced to falsely accuse Fortress Electrical Company. But I had my difficulties. In Hong Kong, I was threatened by people from Jardine Matheson & Co. I either had to choose to collude with them and receive a one million Hong Kong dollar cheque, or my entire family would be murdered.

I’m afraid of dying. I never imagined that issuing a technical report would bring me mortal danger. The authenticity of that technical assessment report is beyond doubt; it couldn’t be more real. The reason I recorded that previous video was entirely because I was forced. I’m sorry…”

On the screen, the former police officer named Tang Jie tearfully recounted how Jardine Matheson & Co. had coerced him.

“I’ll have TVB air this videotape. Also, General Manager Cui, from now on, have the Oriental Daily News report one piece of scandalous material on Jardine Matheson & Co. every day—and make sure it’s backed by solid evidence. I want to make Jardine Matheson regret this decision!” Lin Haoran said sternly to Cui Zilong.

Lin Haoran was confident TVB would air it because he knew the Lee family had never been particularly fond of British-funded conglomerates.

Since Rediffusion Television chose to air their video at seven last night, having TVB air this one at the same time tonight would be the perfect counterattack.

“Yes, Boss!” Cui Zilong replied.

“President Chen, as for your side, don’t rush. After this video airs tonight, hold another press conference tomorrow to decry Jardine Electrical City’s unfair competition. This time, we’ll settle this matter for good!” Lin Haoran continued, turning to Chen Shoulin.

“Good. This affair is finally coming to an end. I still prefer to compete fair and square, not by using underhanded tactics in business!” Chen Shoulin let out a deep sigh of relief.

The business world was indeed cruel. Back when Hongkong Electric Group was a British-owned company, he had never experienced this kind of unfair competition. Perhaps that was why the group had developed so smoothly in the past.

At noon, after having lunch with them, Lin Haoran went directly to TVB.

At TVB, Lin Haoran met with Li Xiaohe, the Chairman of TVB’s Board of Directors.

The old man before him only had about ten days left to live, though he himself was naturally unaware of this fact.

Lin Haoran had no intention of revealing this. It was best to let nature take its course.

“I wonder what brings Mr. Lin here today?” Li Xiaohe was slightly surprised by Lin Haoran’s visit.

“Elder Mr. Lee, I have indeed come today to ask for a favor,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, please speak freely. If it’s something I can help with, I certainly will!” Li Xiaohe said readily.

“I have a videotape here. Once you watch it, Elder Mr. Lee, you’ll understand,” Lin Haoran said, taking a videotape from his bag.

“Mr. Lin, let’s go to the viewing room over there.” Li Xiaohe took the videotape curiously without asking any further questions.

A few minutes later, the video finished playing.

“Mr. Lin, you truly have some impressive methods!” After watching the video, Li Xiaohe indeed understood the purpose of Lin Haoran’s visit.

The Fortress Electrical Company affair was causing an uproar all over Hong Kong, and Li Xiaohe had naturally been keeping an eye on it.

Last night, because of that video on Rediffusion Television, TVB’s viewership ratings had dropped significantly.

Chapter 249: Our Holdings in Hongkong Land Group Have Exceeded 25%!

In fact, by this point, many in the media already knew that Jardine Matheson & Co. was behind the affair. Everyone assumed that Fortress Electrical Company was powerless to handle it this time.

Unexpectedly, though Lin Haoran had remained silent throughout the ordeal, he had already gathered the resources to fight back against Jardine Matheson & Co.!

“I wonder if Elder Mr. Lee would dare to have TVB broadcast this video?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Dare? Of course, I dare. This is nothing but beneficial for TVB!” Li Xiaohe agreed without hesitation.

TVB didn’t need to curry favor with Jardine Matheson & Co., as it was backed by several British-funded and American-funded financial groups.

“In that case, I’ll leave this videotape with you, Elder Mr. Lee. I hope the Jade Channel can broadcast this program at seven o’clock tonight!” Lin Haoran said solemnly.

“Of course, that’s no problem at all. The Lee family and Mr. Lin are friends; we can certainly help with such a small matter!” Li Xiaohe said with a smile.

Not only would it be a favor to Lin Haoran, but it would also steal viewership ratings from Rediffusion Television during tonight’s time slot. Why wouldn’t he do it?

After chatting with Li Xiaohe for a bit longer, Lin Haoran bid him farewell.

This Elder Mr. Lee would be dead in just over ten days; there was no need to interact with him too much.

If it hadn’t been for the matter with Fortress Electrical Company, he would never have thought of dealing with Li Xiaohe.

For the rest of the day, neither Hongkong Electric Group nor Lin Haoran made any public statements.

Even Newbiggin, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, thought that Hongkong Electric Group had admitted defeat.

Time flew by, and soon it was seven o’clock in the evening.

This year, as Rediffusion Television had invested more and more in television dramas, its viewership ratings had gradually surpassed its competitor, TVB.

But TVB’s ratings weren’t too bad either, at most just slightly lower than Rediffusion Television’s.

So, at this moment, many families were watching television. While plenty had their sets tuned to Rediffusion Television, just as many were watching TVB’s channels.

“We interrupt this program for an urgent news bulletin. This news item is a video recorded by Tang Jie, a former Technical Superintendent of the Hong Kong Royal Police’s Criminal Investigation Department…” On the Jade Channel, the celebrated anchor Wang Mingquan, just as Rediffusion Television had done the night before, suddenly interrupted the broadcast with a news bulletin just as everyone was anticipating the start of a drama series.

Instantly, this caught the attention of many viewers. Some who had been watching Rediffusion Television quickly switched over to the Jade Channel after being called over by their neighbors.

Once the video finished playing, everyone began to discuss it—in their homes, in front of corner stores, and everywhere else.

In front of a corner store in Tsim Sha Tsui, the owner had moved his television set to the entrance to attract residents who didn’t own a TV.

Watching the video, they began to chatter among themselves.

“Isn’t Jardine Matheson & Co. just shameless?”

“I can’t believe Jardine Matheson & Co. was behind all this. But now that I know it’s them, I’m not surprised. Haven’t they done enough evil things over the years?”

“These damn British-owned companies! We should boycott Jardine Matheson!”

“Yeah, I agree! Jardine Matheson & Co. first manipulated the Hong Kong Times, and then they bribed the police to frame Fortress Electrical Company. It’s despicable!”

“I remember now! At the beginning of the year, Jardine Matheson tried to acquire the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, but Mr. Lin Haoran ended up acquiring it instead. That made them lose a lot of face. They probably held a grudge over it, so this must be their revenge against Mr. Lin Haoran. After all, Hongkong Electric Group is his company.”

“That’s a very plausible theory!”

“I was wrong about Fortress Electrical Company, and wrong about Hongkong Electric Group!”

“Sigh, damn Jardine Matheson & Co. Manipulating public opinion, trying to use us as their weapon… It’s disgusting.”

In that moment, Jardine Matheson & Co., which had been operating from behind the scenes, was dragged directly into the spotlight.

At this point, everyone finally understood why Fortress Electrical Company, Hong Kong’s retail giant for electrical appliances, had been the subject of one negative report after another.

The mastermind behind it all was the King of the Foreign Firms, Jardine Matheson & Co. No wonder.

The video on the Jade Channel caused a huge stir. This time, no one doubted that Jardine Matheson was the culprit, because in the video, Tang Jie had displayed a cheque for one million Hong Kong dollars. The Jardine Matheson & Co. company finance seal on the cheque was perfectly clear, and the date was from the previous day, when Tang Jie had skipped town!

In the blink of an eye, another night passed.

This time, people discovered that all of Hong Kong’s major newspapers were also reporting on the story.

Normally, their content would have been finalized by seven o’clock in the evening; some printing presses would have already started printing the next day’s papers.

But the video broadcast by the Jade Channel forced many newspapers to halt their presses. They had to redo their layouts, cutting some articles to add the story of how Jardine Matheson & Co. had manipulated the media and framed Fortress Electrical Company with fake news.

Not only that, but today’s Oriental Daily News also reported on two scandals involving Jardine Matheson that had occurred this year.

The evidence for these scandals was conclusive, completely irrefutable.

But when they happened, no media outlets dared to report on them. Because the other party was Jardine Matheson & Co.!

In Hong Kong, you could afford to offend anyone except Jardine Matheson & Co. and HSBC.

But now, the Oriental Daily News was the first to break this unwritten rule, boldly exposing some of Jardine Matheson’s dark secrets.

These were scandals that the public had never known about, as no media outlet had dared to report them, and those who knew dared not speak out.

Inside the Jardine Matheson headquarters, in Newbiggin’s office.

At this moment, Newbiggin was like an enraged lion, yelling into the telephone receiver in his office.

The floor was littered with smashed objects, including a vase that was now in smithereens.

On the other end of the line was the head of the team he controlled, the one that handled his special tasks—a British woman.

“Tell me, why would this police officer film such a video in the Philippines? Why did it get to Hong Kong so quickly? Why was that cheque stamped with Jardine Matheson’s company finance seal? Why? WHY!” Newbiggin’s face was red with fury.

“Taipan, I followed your instructions to the letter. You gave us no orders regarding what to do after they arrived in the Philippines. Also, I must inform you of something else: the Oriental Daily News has been acquired by Mr. Lin Haoran. Your plan to use the media to create a public outcry against him was flawed from the start. Furthermore, Simon Keswick will hold you accountable for this mistake at the shareholders’ meeting!” the woman on the other end replied calmly.

Her words left Newbiggin speechless. His subordinate had indeed followed his orders perfectly, and all the tasks he had assigned were completed.

In just one day, Jardine Matheson & Co. had become an object of public scorn throughout Hong Kong.

However, as the霸主 of Hong Kong’s business world, Jardine Matheson & Co. was not without the means to fight back.

On the same day, the Hongkong Electric Group held another press conference.

At this press conference, Lin Haoran spoke personally.

“As a local Hong Kong entrepreneur, I hope for a fair and just competitive market environment in Hong Kong. Jardine Matheson’s actions have been deeply disappointing. I expect a satisfactory response from Jardine Matheson & Co., and I demand an apology from Mr. Newbiggin!” Lin Haoran declared, directly calling out Newbiggin in public!

With this, Lin Haoran had openly declared war on Jardine Matheson & Co.

However, Jardine Matheson & Co. did not respond. On this matter, they were clearly in the wrong.

Meanwhile, Newbiggin used Jardine Matheson’s influence to contact Hong Kong’s major media outlets. Under their pressure, all the outlets promised not to report on the matter the next day.

After all, when confronted directly, most media outlets did not want to make an enemy of Jardine Matheson & Co.

The sole exception was the Oriental Daily News!

On the third day, the Oriental Daily News continued its reporting with a scandal involving Jardine Matheson & Co. from the previous December.

The Oriental Daily News was the best-selling newspaper in all of Hong Kong.

Even if other media outlets stopped reporting on the affair, the influence of the Oriental Daily News alone was enough to keep the story boiling.

On the fourth day, the Oriental Daily News reported another scandal.

The fifth day…

Jardine Matheson & Co. remained silent, offering no apology whatsoever.

In the blink of an eye, the time came to nine in the morning on June 17th.

Under Lin Haoran’s covert control, a massive protest began in Causeway Bay, denouncing Jardine Matheson’s various unfair competitive practices.

Among the crowd were disguised members of the 13K, employees from the Hongkong Electric Group, and many who had been treated unfairly by Jardine Matheson.

At first, there were only a thousand protesters, but as time passed, by nine-thirty in the morning, the number had swelled to over ten thousand and was still growing.

They marched to the Jardine Matheson headquarters, chanting slogans at the entrance to protest the company’s evil deeds.

At this point, even the police dared not to intervene rashly.

These were not triad society members, but ordinary citizens, so the police did not disperse them by force.

The main road in front of the Jardine Matheson building was already choked with people, completely blocked.

Newbiggin stood in his office, gazing at the scene unfolding below, a trace of panic rising in his heart.

The situation had spiraled completely out of his control.

This couldn’t go on.

He turned back to his desk and quickly dialed a number. “Mr. Governor, this is Newbiggin. I have an urgent matter to discuss with you… I hope you can step in and help mediate between us and Mr. Lin Haoran. Yes, we desperately need your help… Alright, I will await your good news!”

…

Meanwhile, in the nearby Wanqing Building, Lin Haoran was also standing in his office, watching the massive procession hundreds of meters below, an involuntary smile spreading across his face.

This time, he had gone all out, directly confronting Jardine Matheson.

Let them make a scene. The bigger, the better.

If the government openly sided with Jardine Matheson and came after him again, at worst, he would just pull his investments and skip town, leaving Hong Kong for good.

This time, he wanted everyone in Hong Kong’s business community to fear him.

“Boss, our holdings in the Hongkong Land Group have exceeded 25%!”

Just then, Su Zhixue entered Lin Haoran’s office and reported to him respectfully.

Over the past few days, the stock prices of Jardine Matheson and its listed subsidiaries, like the Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Securities, had plummeted due to these events.

This naturally gave Su Zhixue the opportunity to secretly and aggressively accumulate shares as many people were panic-selling their stock in Jardine Matheson and the Hongkong Land Group.

In just these few days, they had acquired more shares in Jardine Matheson and the Hongkong Land Group than they would normally accumulate in a month.

“And what about Jardine Matheson & Co.? How much do we have?” Lin Haoran asked with satisfaction.

“Our stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. has also increased to 14.8%. According to our information, the Keswick family, Jardine Matheson’s major shareholder, only holds about 10% to 15% of the shares. Our holdings are now nearly on par with the Keswick family’s,” Su Zhixue replied.

Chapter 250: So What If He’s a Business Tycoon?

Lin Haoran raised his wrist and glanced at the time. It was already twelve-thirty in the afternoon.

“You should go get some lunch. I’ll need you to keep an eye on the stock market when it opens this afternoon,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Alright, Boss. I’ll be leaving then,” Su Zhixue replied, then quickly took his leave.

Lin Haoran also prepared to leave the company for a trip to the Hongkong Electric Group.

After the video was released, Fortress Electrical Company, a subsidiary of the Hongkong Electric Group, quickly returned to its previous level of business.

In fact, it was even better. Many people felt they had wrongly accused Fortress Electrical Company. The incident had greatly boosted the reputation of the electronics retail company, attracting many new customers.

When citizens wanted to buy electronics, the first company that came to mind was Fortress Electrical Company, not any other.

In contrast, Jardine Electrical City was in a miserable state.

For the past few days, anyone keeping watch would have seen that Jardine Electrical City had almost no customer traffic.

As long as the heat from this incident hadn’t died down, Jardine Electrical City could forget about restoring its former sales figures.

When everyone learned about a company that resorted to underhanded tactics for growth, it would inevitably be met with disdain.

Therefore, Jardine Matheson’s actions this time could be described as shooting themselves in the foot.

Just as he was about to step out of his office, the telephone rang.

Lin Haoran walked over and picked up the telephone receiver, holding it to his ear.

“Is this Mr. Lin? This is Sir Murray MacLehose.” Sir Murray MacLehose’s voice came from the other end.

The Governor was looking for him?

Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

However, he quickly composed himself and replied, “Hello, Mr. Governor. What can I do for you?”

“There is something I’d like to discuss. Is Mr. Lin available right now?” Sir Murray MacLehose asked.

“If it’s the Mr. Governor calling, of course I’m always available!” Lin Haoran said with a laugh.

“If you’re free, how about you come to the Government House at two o’clock this afternoon?” Sir Murray MacLehose continued.

“Alright. I’ll see you at two o’clock this afternoon!” Lin Haoran agreed.

After hanging up, he sat in his office chair and thought for a moment before getting up and leaving the office.

It was no surprise that Sir Murray MacLehose was looking for him; it had to be about Jardine Matheson & Co.

That they had managed to hold out for a week was a surprise even to Lin Haoran.

No matter what, Jardine Matheson was a renowned British-owned company. Even in Britain, it was considered a top-tier firm.

Therefore, the Government House certainly couldn’t just stand by and watch Jardine Matheson continue down this path.

If things went on like this, Jardine Matheson’s reputation would be completely ruined.

With a bad reputation, doing business would surely become more difficult.

Chinese-owned enterprises were already beginning to surpass British-owned companies. Jardine Matheson’s self-destructive actions this time would only result in greater losses.

Through the glass window, he could see that the protestors outside were gradually dispersing.

This time, many people had brought eggs to the protest. Upon arriving at the Jardine Matheson headquarters, many of the eggs were thrown against the walls near the building’s main entrance. Yolks, whites, and shells trickled down the walls.

At that moment, the area around the main entrance of the Jardine Matheson headquarters was a complete mess, and the cleaning staff had not yet had a chance to clean it up.

This scene had already been captured by reporters from the Oriental Daily News and other media outlets. It would likely be the headline photo for tomorrow’s news.

Initially, many media outlets had indeed given Jardine Matheson face and refrained from reporting on the news.

But as the Oriental Daily News reported on it daily, exposing one or two pieces of scandalous material on Jardine Matheson each day, their newspaper sales soared.

A couple of days ago, for instance, they had set a new record, with sales reaching a staggering three hundred twenty thousand copies.

The newspaper readership in Hong Kong was largely fixed. When the sales of the Oriental Daily News surged, the sales of other newspapers would naturally plummet.

Aside from entertainment and gossip, very few people would buy two or three different general news papers at once, since much of the news was repetitive. For the average person, buying more was a waste of money.

Under these circumstances, how could the other newspapers hold back?

The Oriental Daily News was taking over the entire newspaper market; how were they supposed to compete?

Thus, they too began to report on the matter between Jardine Matheson and the Hongkong Electric Group, trying their best to win back some of their old readers. As for Jardine Matheson’s warnings, they no longer paid them any mind.

As a result, virtually all mainstream media in Hong Kong were now reporting on the incident.

TVB, after broadcasting the video, had been following the event daily, with related reports in their noon and evening news segments.

Rediffusion Television, on the other hand, as a purely British-owned company, had consistently given Jardine Matheson face by not reporting on the news.

However, the absence of Rediffusion Television did nothing to cool the heat surrounding the competition between Jardine Matheson and the Hongkong Electric Group.

As long as Jardine Matheson did not apologize, the Oriental Daily News would continue its reports, releasing one piece of dirt every day. It wasn’t difficult at all.

In its history of over a century in Hong Kong, Jardine Matheson had accumulated far too much scandalous material. Even if the Oriental Daily News reported one incident per day, they could go on for years without a problem.

After all, for Jardine Matheson to become the “King of the Foreign Firms” in Hong Kong, they had resorted to countless illegal competitive practices.

A diligent investigation would uncover a vast amount of dirt.

It was just that in the past, everyone gave Jardine Matheson face and did not want to offend them, so few media outlets ever reported on it.

But now, the Oriental Daily News was not afraid of Jardine Matheson!

Under these circumstances, Jardine Matheson’s reputation was only getting worse.

Lin Haoran had lunch with his two bodyguards in the canteen of the Wanqing Building. The canteen had prepared a special meal for him, stir-frying several exquisite dishes just for the boss.

After lunch, Lin Haoran stayed in Burton’s office until about one-thirty before leaving the Wanqing Building.

Burton had been very busy lately, focusing on expanding into overseas markets, with the current priority being Southeast Asia.

In addition, Wan’an Real Estate Company had also been expanding rapidly, securing several large projects.

After Wanqing Group took control of Kowloon Motor Bus, Burton had its reserve plots of land re-zoned for commercial development, which naturally led to cooperative development with Wan’an Real Estate Company.

So, Burton had essentially no free time recently.

However, he was full of drive.

The difference between being the Deputy General Manager of Green Island Cement Company and the President of a large conglomerate was immense.

Burton naturally knew how to seize this opportunity.

Furthermore, he had never been the person in charge of a large group before. Although he was highly capable, he certainly needed time to adapt. Thus, until he fully settled into his current position, he was bound to be busy.

Accustomed to being hands-on from his time as Deputy General Manager at Green Island Cement Company, he still tended to handle matters personally in his work.

Even Lin Haoran had offered advice on this, and Burton himself realized that changing this habit would take time.

In the parking garage of Wanqing Building, Lin Haoran sat in the back of the Rolls-Royce and said, “To the Government House.”

“Yes, Boss!” Li Weiguo responded as he started the engine, and the Rolls-Royce slowly drove away from the Wanqing Building.

A dozen minutes later, the Rolls-Royce pulled into a parking space in front of the Government House.

Led by a staff member from the Government House, Lin Haoran followed a familiar path to Sir Murray MacLehose’s office.

Just a week ago, Lin Haoran had met with Governor MacLehose, who had promised not to intervene in the matter between him and Jardine Matheson.

During this time, Sir Murray MacLehose had indeed kept his promise and had not interfered in the affairs between the two parties.

He wondered how the matter would be handled today.

In truth, for Lin Haoran, letting Jardine Matheson off the hook wasn’t out of the question, provided they agreed to his demands!

“Mr. Governor, Mr. Lin is here,” the staff member announced after knocking on the office door.

“Come in,” Sir Murray MacLehose’s voice sounded from within.

The staff member turned the doorknob and said to Lin Haoran, “Please come in, Mr. Lin.”

Lin Haoran nodded and strode into the office.

Inside, just as he had suspected, not only was Governor MacLehose present, but so was Newbiggin, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Lin. Please, have a seat!” Sir Murray MacLehose said with a smile, gesturing toward the sofa.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Governor!” Lin Haoran nodded and sat down opposite Sir Murray MacLehose.

Newbiggin did not greet Lin Haoran, and Lin Haoran naturally did not speak first.

After all, the two parties were currently in a state of discord.

After sitting down, Lin Haoran’s gaze shifted between Sir Murray MacLehose and Newbiggin, as if trying to discern their intentions.

“Mr. Lin, I’ve invited you here today mainly in the hope of easing the relationship between you and Jardine Matheson. Hong Kong is a small place, and as the saying goes, ‘you’re bound to run into each other.’ There’s no need for everyone to make the relationship so tense.

In my opinion, perhaps the two of you could sit down and talk things over calmly to resolve these disputes together, creating a harmonious environment for Hong Kong’s business community,” Sir Murray MacLehose said with a smile.

“Mr. Governor, we were not the ones who started this incident. We have always conducted our business properly and stayed out of trouble. It was Jardine Matheson that took the initiative to set a trap for our company. I believe you are aware of this, Mr. Governor.

Therefore, I believe whether this matter can be resolved depends entirely on Jardine Matheson’s attitude!” Lin Haoran bluntly threw the issue back to Newbiggin, referring to Jardine Matheson’s past actions.

When Jardine Matheson was attempting to frame his company, Sir Murray MacLehose had not stepped in to mediate.

So, it was obviously impossible for him to let the matter drop so easily now.

At the very least, he demanded that Jardine Matheson first show an attitude of remorse.

At this moment, Newbiggin’s face was as dark as water.

After all, he was a pivotal figure in Hong Kong’s business world, his status comparable to that of Sir Murray MacLehose and Michael Sandberg.

Therefore, asking him to take the initiative to admit fault was indeed a difficult thing for him to do.

“Mr. Lin, what do you think Jardine Matheson needs to do to bring this matter to a close?” Newbiggin finally asked.

“I made my position clear at the previous press conference. All I wanted was a sincere apology. However, to this day, I have yet to hear any indication of remorse from Jardine Matheson, which I find very disappointing.

At this point, even if you were to offer an apology, I wouldn’t let this go so easily. Besides an apology, you will also need to provide us with full compensation. We suffered quite heavy losses during those few days, and we can’t just let it slide without a second thought,” Lin Haoran said, his tone calm but firm.

So what if he’s a business tycoon?

Chapter 251: A Public Apology, Unprecedented!

“I can apologize to you right now in front of Mr. Governor, as long as Mr. Lin is willing to put an end to this dispute and ensure that the Oriental Daily News will no longer pursue Jardine Matheson & Co. We are willing to pay Hongkong Electric Group one million Hong Kong dollars in compensation as a show of our sincerity!” Newbiggin mustered his courage and forced out the words, which were exceptionally difficult for him to say.

For him, this was indeed a decision that required immense resolve.

In the past, who in Hong Kong could have ever made the illustrious Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. bow his head in apology?

“Apologizing in front of me is meaningless. I demand that Mr. Newbiggin publicly apologize to Hongkong Electric Group on television, not just to me personally. Also, one million Hong Kong dollars? Is Jardine Matheson treating me like a beggar?” Lin Haoran said with disdain.

Even a clay Bodhisattva has a certain inviolable dignity, let alone a man of flesh and blood.

Since they had tried to use the media to spread rumors and destroy his company, how could Lin Haoran let Jardine Matheson off so easily?

An apology required a proper show of sincerity.

“Absolutely not!” Newbiggin shot to his feet, his face flush with anger.

Make him apologize to all of Hong Kong on television?

He could never do something so humiliating!

“Mr. Lin, that request is indeed a bit much. How about we try something else?” Sir Murray MacLehose chimed in from the side, trying to mediate.

“Too much? Mr. Governor, if I hadn’t secretly acquired the Oriental Daily News, I likely wouldn’t have had a single platform in the media to speak for me.

If not for the stroke of luck that someone helped me find that police officer and obtain irrefutable evidence to clear my name, Fortress Electrical Company—a retail giant with annual sales exceeding one hundred million Hong Kong dollars—would probably have ceased to exist by now.

If I didn’t have some capabilities of my own, the losses would have been immeasurable. Mr. Governor, can you even imagine that?

Jardine Matheson & Co. bullied me because I’m young. Should I just have taken it lying down and not fought back? If you do something wrong, you must have the courage to face the consequences!

If Mr. Newbiggin can’t even agree to a condition like this, do you see an ounce of sincerity in his offer? Continuing this conversation is just a waste of everyone’s time!” Lin Haoran’s words were firm and powerful.

He had reached a point of no return. Since he had already made an enemy of Jardine Matheson, offending a Governor was a small matter in comparison.

At worst, he would just shift his future investments overseas.

With billions of Hong Kong dollars in cash, Lin Haoran could become a business magnate wherever he chose to invest. Why should he suffer such grievances in a tiny place like Hong Kong?

He could even sell off the companies he owned, such as Hongkong Electric Group, Green Island Cement Company, and Kowloon Motor Bus. If he wanted to sell, he could do so at a premium in a heartbeat.

There were plenty of people who wanted to acquire these companies.

Lin Haoran’s speech left Sir Murray MacLehose speechless.

He had never intended to get involved in such a dispute in the first place.

He had only stepped in to mediate as a favor to Jardine Matheson and because of the influence of the British-funded conglomerates.

After all, Jardine Matheson & Co. had no direct connection to him.

Meanwhile, after hearing Lin Haoran’s words, a seated Newbiggin fell into a long silence, an intense battle seemingly raging within him as he struggled to make a decision.

But he also knew that if this mediation failed, Jardine Matheson’s losses would only continue to mount.

The only way out was to get Lin Haoran to agree to a settlement, then let the incident’s impact gradually fade. With time, the public’s attention would naturally shift elsewhere.

In short, the plan was to let it cool down.

There was no storm that time could not quell.

After an intense internal struggle, Newbiggin finally chose to compromise. He looked up at Lin Haoran and asked, “I can make a public apology. As for the compensation, what are Mr. Lin’s specific demands? As long as it’s not too outrageous, I am willing to accept!”

Considering Newbiggin’s usually arrogant nature, he was indeed making a huge concession this time.

After all, sitting across from him was a Chinese man, someone he had always looked down upon.

“Ten million Hong Kong dollars,” Lin Haoran stated his condition directly. “If Jardine Matheson can compensate ten million Hong Kong dollars, I can agree to drop the matter regarding your recent actions. What do you think?”

Ten million Hong Kong dollars was a small sum for Lin Haoran.

For Jardine Matheson, it was not an enormous amount of money either.

But it was enough to make Jardine Matheson feel the sting and teach them a profound lesson.

This compensation was not only a warning to Jardine Matheson but also a strong signal from Lin Haoran to the entire Hong Kong business community.

He wanted everyone to know that the consequences of crossing him would be severe.

Jardine Matheson was a living example. In the future, anyone who dared to act rashly would have to think twice.

“Ten million Hong Kong dollars is but a drop in the bucket for Jardine Matheson, Mr. Newbiggin. I think we should just settle on that. The longer this drags on, the greater your losses will be. Right now, this is no longer just about Jardine Electrical City; it concerns the reputation and interests of the entire Jardine faction!” Governor Sir Murray MacLehose added his support.

As far as Governor MacLehose was concerned, he wasn’t the one paying. As long as the matter could be settled, the Hong Kong business world could return to its usual tranquility.

These past few days, the government had been under considerable pressure.

The public was dissatisfied with the government’s inaction in handling the Jardine Matheson affair, flooding them with letters and calls of complaint.

Therefore, Sir Murray MacLehose was also feeling a major headache and desperately hoped the matter could be resolved as soon as possible.

He couldn’t very well order an investigation into Jardine Matheson’s dark history, could he?

After all, which of those overseas British-owned companies had not accumulated its capital through some degree of plunder?

So, investigating Jardine Matheson was out of the question.

After a moment of deep thought, Newbiggin slowly said, “Mr. Lin, I have a proposal. Jardine Matheson is willing to transfer the entirety of Jardine Electrical City to Hongkong Electric Group.

Currently, Jardine Electrical City owns eight chain stores, all located on the ground floors of bustling streets, each with an area of no less than 300 square meters, and all are freehold properties.

Based on current market capitalization, the total value of these stores is about twenty million Hong Kong dollars. If Hongkong Electric Group can pay ten million Hong Kong dollars, 100% of Jardine Electrical Company’s shares will be yours. However, after the transfer, you must relinquish the use of the ‘Jardine’ company name.”

The current operating status of Jardine Electrical City showed that continuing to run it would only lead to greater losses. This subsidiary was no longer necessary, which was the core reason behind Newbiggin’s transfer proposal.

More importantly, the cost at which Jardine Home Services Company had originally purchased these properties was far lower than their current value.

With this move, they could not only shed the burden of Jardine Electrical City but also avoid paying an additional ten million Hong Kong dollars.

Most critically, Newbiggin believed that such a move would look more like a normal business transaction between enterprises rather than the payment of compensation, thus allowing Jardine Matheson & Co. to save some face.

Although, at this point, Jardine Matheson had already lost more than enough face.

“Alright. But before we make a final decision, we need to conduct a detailed investigation and appraisal of Jardine Electrical City to ensure the actual situation matches what Mr. Newbiggin has described,” Lin Haoran replied.

Lin Haoran had seen at least three of the eight Jardine Electrical City stores, and their locations were indeed impeccable.

In the future, acquiring commercial properties in such prime locations would be extremely difficult.

If he could take this opportunity to bring them into his fold, it would undoubtedly be a wise choice.

Once these stores were integrated into Fortress Electrical Company, it would significantly boost its strength, making Fortress Electrical’s position in the Hong Kong appliance sales market even more unshakable.

As for making Jardine Matheson admit defeat, Newbiggin’s public apology on television would already be a massive blow to their prestige.

Anyone with discerning eyes could see the deeper meaning behind the Jardine Electrical City deal—it was also a transaction signifying Jardine Matheson’s surrender.

Therefore, the deterrent effect generated by this incident would be enough to ensure that no one would dare to cross him so easily in the future.

“That’s more like it. The Hong Kong business world isn’t that large, and you are both leaders in your industry. There’s really no need to keep relations so tense. Now, why don’t you shake hands and make peace, and we can call this matter happily resolved. How does that sound?” Sir Murray MacLehose said, looking up with a smile.

At the same time, he breathed a silent sigh of relief, having feared both parties would be too stubborn to reconcile.

This position of Governor was truly not an easy one to hold!

And so, with Sir Murray MacLehose as a witness, Lin Haoran and Newbiggin shook hands and made peace.

The matter was considered settled.

After leaving Government House, Lin Haoran immediately instructed Chen Shoulin to have people begin an in-depth investigation into Jardine Electrical City.

The results came back quickly. According to the current market capitalization, Jardine Electrical City was indeed worth twenty million Hong Kong dollars.

Furthermore, the people at Jardine Electrical City were very cooperative with the investigation. The results showed that the company had no outstanding debts, and Jardine Home Services Company would settle all employee salaries, leaving no liabilities for Fortress Electrical Company.

Even a seasoned veteran like Chen Shoulin, who had seen it all, was shocked by the deal his boss had secured.

He had never imagined that his boss would not only force Jardine Matheson & Co. to admit defeat but also make them transfer Jardine Electrical City to Hongkong Electric Group at what amounted to a ten-million-Hong-Kong-dollar loss!

With such a strong and decisive boss, who would dare to provoke Hongkong Electric Group in the future?

At that moment, Chen Shoulin felt his confidence and resolve in managing Hongkong Electric Group instantly multiply.

That evening, Newbiggin appeared in the live studio of Rediffusion Television and delivered a solemn apology to all of Hong Kong.

Dressed in a suit, Newbiggin stood before the camera and began gravely, “I am Newbiggin, Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. Regarding the incident where Jardine Electrical City falsely accused Fortress Electrical Company, I, on behalf of Jardine Matheson & Co., extend my sincerest apologies to Hongkong Electric Group and Mr. Lin Haoran.

In the future, Jardine Matheson & Co. will uphold the principles of fairness and justice in its competition with all parties in the business world and will never again resort to improper means…”

Newbiggin’s apology quickly spread to every household in Hong Kong.

The news stunned everyone, ranking as one of the most sensational events since the founding of Hong Kong.

For a long time, the British-funded conglomerates had held a position high above everyone else. To the local people of Hong Kong, this had seemed commonplace.

However, the scene they were witnessing now upended all their perceptions.

Newbiggin, the helmsman of the “King of the Foreign Firms,” was publicly apologizing to a Chinese-owned enterprise’s businessman.

Chapter 252: Buy a House, Get Free Appliances; Make the Brand Bigger and Stronger!

Newbiggin’s public apology indeed had a significant impact throughout Hong Kong.

Everyone was shocked by Lin Haoran’s power.

No one had expected that he could actually make Newbiggin, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, bow his head and admit his mistake. This was truly unexpected for everyone.

This even included the major British-funded conglomerates.

Schreyer of Swire & Co., John Marden of Wheelock and Company, Michael Sandberg of HSBC, and other tycoons of the British-funded conglomerates now all felt a certain degree of apprehension towards Lin Haoran.

As for the leaders of Chinese-owned enterprises like Pao Yue-kong, Li Jiacheng, and Cheng Yu-tung, they were all filled with admiration for this young man.

Lin Haoran’s deterrent effect had reached its peak at this moment.

After this incident, Lin Haoran’s status in Hong Kong had directly reached the same level as that of Michael Sandberg, Pao Yue-kong, and Newbiggin.

Even Newbiggin had to bow his head and admit his mistake. Who would dare to cross Lin Haoran now?

To provoke him would be courting death, wouldn’t it?

And Lin Haoran was true to his word. That very afternoon, he had the Oriental Daily News stop reporting on Jardine Matheson & Co.’s scandals.

As for the other media outlets, they had nothing to do with him.

But considering Jardine Matheson & Co.’s strength, they would naturally be able to handle those media outlets.

Fortress Electrical Company’s acquisition of Jardine Electrical City not only eliminated a competitor but also added eight stores, a significant boost to its strength.

Moreover, the floor space of these new stores was much larger than the original Fortress Electrical chain stores.

At least for the short term, no other electrical appliance chain could surpass Fortress Electrical Company’s scale, and it would be difficult for anyone to do so for several years to come. Its position as number one in appliance sales was basically secured.

While there were many other appliance stores in Hong Kong, few were chain stores.

What’s more, Jardine Electrical City, which originally had the potential to catch up to Fortress Electrical Company, had now been absorbed by it.

On the morning of June 20th, led by Chen Shoulin, Lin Haoran visited the Chai Wan industrial park.

Here, there was an electrical appliance manufacturing plant under the Hongkong Electric Group—Fortress Electrical Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Currently, the scale of Fortress Electrical Manufacturing Co., Ltd. was far smaller than the Amigo Company. It only had about a thousand employees and mainly produced small home appliances like electric water heaters, electric fans, induction cooktops, electric ovens, and rice cookers. The production scale was not large, mostly focused on meeting the sales demand of Fortress Electrical Company’s chain stores.

“President Chen, have you considered exporting these appliances?” Lin Haoran asked, looking through the glass window at the busy figures in the production workshop inside.

Fortress Electrical Manufacturing Co., Ltd.’s product line was indeed quite rich. In comparison, the Amigo Company’s product line seemed very simple, focusing mainly on electric fans.

“Boss, Fortress Electrical Manufacturing Co., Ltd. has actually only been established for a little over two years. Before that, we were a sales agent for other appliance brands for several years, but we later found that we were losing a lot of profit.

So, we decided to import technology, purchase assembly lines, and establish this manufacturing plant, creating our own brand. The original intention was to become self-sufficient.

There are numerous appliance factories in Hong Kong, and the competition is exceptionally fierce. It’s extremely difficult to seize more market share in the local market.

Only through exporting can we seize market share. The local market is basically saturated. It’s already good that we can capture a portion of the market through Fortress Electrical Company.

However, regarding exports, the Hongkong Electric Group’s main focus is currently on internationalizing its power station business. As for home appliances, we will pay attention to overseas markets in the future to see if we can capture some market share there,” Chen Shoulin replied.

Lin Haoran nodded. Development certainly had to be taken one step at a time.

“You can look into the North American and European markets. The demand for home appliances in these places is enormous,” Lin Haoran said.

His older brother Lin Haoning’s electric fan factory, for example, was doing quite well in the North American market. However, he also knew that market was nearing saturation, and entering now wouldn’t allow them to capture much of it.

But regardless, expanding the market would allow Fortress Electrical Company to earn more money.

The factory was not very large, and its production scale was far from comparable to the Amigo Company, but the employees were very busy.

This was because Fortress Electrical Company’s reputation had soared recently, which also increased the sales of Fortress appliances, so the factory now had more orders.

However, Lin Haoran was definitely not satisfied with this level of production.

He had sent Yang Mingyi to Mainland China to lay the groundwork; he definitely planned to get into the manufacturing industry in the mainland in the future.

All of Fortress Electrical Company’s products could be manufactured in the mainland, provided there were enough orders.

Relying on Fortress Electrical Company’s small market in Hong Kong, it was obvious there wouldn’t be many orders.

“Sigh, Hong Kong is too small. A little bit of development and you hit a bottleneck. Exporting and developing overseas markets are the only ways to expand,” Chen Shoulin lamented.

“Actually, I don’t think Fortress Electrical Company’s development in Hong Kong has reached a bottleneck at all!” Lin Haoran said with a sudden smile.

He remembered something he had seen in his past life: some developers, to make their properties sell better, would offer free home appliances with the purchase of a house.

At this time, such a sales strategy had never appeared anywhere in the world.

With so many real estate projects in Hong Kong now, if they could strike a deal with some property companies, Fortress Electrical Company’s order volume could at least double.

“Boss, please, go on,” Chen Shoulin said, his curiosity piqued.

“The Hong Kong real estate market is booming right now. If we can partner with giants like Cheung Kong Holdings Group, Sun Hung Kai Properties, Henderson Land Development, Ying Tung Group, New World Development, and Hopewell Holdings to launch a ‘buy a house, get free appliances’ promotion, it’s essentially selling our home appliances directly to these real estate companies. I believe that many property companies will gladly accept this proposal to boost their property sales.

Furthermore, I have some reputation in Hong Kong, and I’m on good terms with many real estate tycoons. As long as the cooperation proposal benefits them, many should give me this favor. The probability of successful collaboration is quite high. This way, Fortress Electrical Company’s product order volume is bound to soar.

Not only that, we can also set our sights on the Southeast Asian market. For example, I have a close relationship with Mr. Guo Henian, Southeast Asia’s richest man. The Guo family has a very strong property development business in Malaysia and Singapore. If we can secure a partnership with them, Fortress Electrical Company’s product sales will undoubtedly reach new heights!” Lin Haoran explained his idea.

Now, as his reputation grew, his network of connections also expanded, making business negotiations naturally much smoother.

After hearing this, a glint of excitement flashed in Chen Shoulin’s eyes. He couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration, “Boss, that’s a brilliant idea! The real estate market may be competitive, but ‘buy a house, get free appliances’ is definitely an eye-catching selling point. Leave this to me. I will do my absolute best to secure agreements with as many partners as possible!”

At that moment, Chen Shoulin was filled with admiration for his boss. He never thought Lin Haoran could come up with such an ingenious strategy.

If this could really be achieved, Fortress appliance sales could increase severalfold, not just double.

Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore—the market was so vast.

A full set of home appliances wouldn’t cost the property developer much, but it would definitely make many bargain-hunting buyers feel like they got a great deal.

This way, it would be a win-win for Fortress Electrical Company and the property developers!

With Lin Haoran as the boss, many people would surely give him face, and the chances of successfully negotiating a deal would be much higher.

“With appliances, it’s all about the brand. To make the brand bigger and stronger, we must maintain good quality. After-sales service also needs to be excellent. Once we’ve built a good reputation, we won’t have to worry about sales!” Lin Haoran continued.

In his past life, the reason brands he knew like Gree, Midea, and Haier could stand out among so many appliance brands was precisely because of their good reputation.

“Rest assured, Boss. Although we’ve only been established for just over two years, we have always been extremely strict with our quality control and have never cut corners. I’ve always known that sacrificing quality for high profits is shortsighted, which is why, as a new brand, we’ve been able to achieve such excellent sales in just two years.

As for after-sales service, I can proudly say that Fortress Electrical Company is definitely a leader in this area in Hong Kong. We have set up repair points in every store to ensure we can respond quickly and solve problems within the warranty period, without the cumbersome process of sending products back to the factory.

For products that are out of warranty or have been damaged by the user, although we charge a repair fee, our prices are more affordable compared to other appliance repair shops. Therefore, excellent after-sales service has also become an important source of profit for Fortress Electrical Company!” Chen Shoulin reported confidently.

After hearing this, Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction and continued the in-depth discussion with Chen Shoulin inside the factory.

Although he wouldn’t manage these businesses personally, he could provide some ideas for Chen Shoulin, the actual manager, to implement.

Although this appliance factory wasn’t massive and was only considered mid-sized in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran was hopeful about its future potential.

After all, the manufacturing industry would undoubtedly be a field full of opportunities in the future, especially as the Mainland China market continued to open up and the investment environment improved. Manufacturing could be said to be one of the best initial investment projects.

As for real estate, in Mainland China right now, people were lucky just to have enough to eat. Where would they get the money to buy houses?

It was better to first invest in manufacturing, provide more jobs, let people have more money in their hands, and let the overall business atmosphere gradually improve. This would create the first group of wealthy people, and only then could the mainland real estate industry take off.

He also hoped the Fortress brand could quickly grow into a well-known brand in Hong Kong, bringing more orders for Fortress Electrical Company and, in turn, earning him more money.

Once Fortress Electrical Company was well-developed, he could even have it go public independently, which would allow him to raise more capital for development.

In the future, the Hongkong Electric Group could be restructured. After the restructuring, the group’s original non-electricity businesses, including real estate, hotels, retail, financial investments, and so on, could be spun off into a separate group and then listed to raise funds!

And the original Hongkong Electric Company would once again become a company purely focused on electricity production and supply.

In Lin Haoran’s past life, Li Jiacheng had done the exact same thing.

Chapter 253: A Sudden Event, An Opportunity to Acquire TVB Shares

As the Fortress Electrical Company incident subsided, Lin Haoran’s life gradually returned to calm.

In the blink of an eye, the time came to June 28th.

At noon, Lin Haoran made a trip to Amigo Company in Kwun Tong.

For the past month, Amigo Company had been swamped with so many orders that they were busy almost 24 hours a day.

Over ten thousand workers in three industrial buildings, divided into two shifts, worked around the clock just to barely meet the order volumes for each client on time.

These distributors from Europe and America had been continuously stocking up since May to ensure they had enough inventory for the summer, so their orders were massive.

These distributors had made a fortune last year, giving them a taste of success, so naturally, they weren’t willing to miss another opportunity to strike it rich this year.

As far as Amigo Company was concerned, as long as the distributors paid on time, they would accept any number of orders. Even if the distributors couldn’t sell everything later, it had nothing to do with Amigo Company.

A surge in orders naturally meant that Amigo Company’s income for the month would be very high.

With Liu Luanxiong, a future business tycoon with exceptional management skills, in charge here, Lin Haoran basically didn’t have to worry.

However, as a partner, Lin Haoran would still come over every once in a while to chat with Liu Luanxiong about company affairs and catch up on its recent situation.

“Haoran, let me tell you, those elders in my family are all green with envy now that I’ve built such a big business. Every single one of them is thinking about making me hand Amigo Company over to the family for them to manage. They’re really dreaming.

My startup capital of tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars was all borrowed from my father-in-law. Not only did my family not offer a single bit of help, but they also kept mocking my venture as a fool’s dream. Now that they see I’ve achieved something, they want to come and reap the rewards, to snatch away the fruits of my labor. How is that possible?” Liu Luanxiong said with a smug look on his face.

After all, Liu Luanxiong was still young, and at this moment, he was filled with a sense of accomplishment. This was the best possible comeback to those family elders who had once looked down on him!

“Of course, as your partner, I only trust your management skills, so I have complete faith in you running the company. But if your family members want to interfere in the company’s affairs, I will definitely oppose it!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Today’s Amigo Company had long surpassed the Liu family’s own Yau Luen Yick Kee Fan Factory. It could even be said that it had become the number one in Hong Kong’s fan industry. It was no wonder the Liu family had their eyes on Amigo Company.

“Don’t worry, this is the business I worked so hard to build. How could I possibly hand it over to them? They’re just indulging in wishful thinking. But seeing the look in their eyes, how they don’t dare to look down on me anymore, it feels great. The other day, two elders from the family came to the factory to see me, and when they saw the scale of our production, the envy on their faces just made my day!” Liu Luanxiong laughed heartily.

“The manufacturing industry only earns small money. When the opportunity arises in the future, I’ll take you to earn the big money!” Lin Haoran said, patting Liu Luanxiong on the shoulder.

The ‘big money’ he was talking about was, of course, capital operations—taking the company public!

“Oh, Haoran, then I’ll be looking forward to it!” Liu Luanxiong’s eyes lit up, filled with excitement.

With those words from Lin Haoran, he felt his future was filled with infinite possibilities.

He even began to imagine that perhaps, in the future, he too could become one of the top tycoons in Hong Kong’s business world, just like Lin Haoran.

Liu Luanxiong still remembered that when Lin Haoran approached him for a partnership, Lin Haoran had only just successfully acquired Green Island Cement Company.

However, in the year that followed, Liu Luanxiong witnessed his partner write one legend after another.

First, he successfully took control of the Hongkong Electric Group, then snatched the Hong Kong and China Gas Company from under the nose of the mighty Jardine Matheson & Co. Immediately after, he spent a huge sum to purchase two commercial buildings in Central with a total value of one billion Hong Kong dollars.

And that wasn’t the end. He then set his sights on Kowloon Motor Bus and ultimately succeeded in bringing it under his control.

Over the past year or so, Lin Haoran’s performance could only be described as a miracle.

As Lin Haoran’s business partner, it was impossible for Liu Luanxiong not to feel a sense of envy.

Compared to Lin Haoran’s brilliant achievements, the one or two hundred million Hong Kong dollars in dividends he had earned from Amigo Company seemed insignificant.

Therefore, Liu Luanxiong felt he needed to follow closely in Lin Haoran’s footsteps. If he could receive his guidance and venture into the capital market, his achievements would surely far surpass what he had now.

Just as Lin Haoran was about to say something more, his beeper started vibrating.

“Xiong, I need to make a call,” Lin Haoran said to Liu Luanxiong after glancing at the number on his beeper.

“Okay, go ahead. I need to get busy too. A batch of goods from yesterday had faulty starter capacitors. I have to urge the materials supplier to replace them for us as soon as possible, and this batch will have to be reworked. Ugh, what a hassle!” Liu Luanxiong also promptly left the office, ready to dive back into his busy work.

Lin Haoran watched Liu Luanxiong leave before walking over to the landline on the office desk.

A glance at the number displayed on his beeper and he knew who was calling.

The call was from none other than Cui Zilong, the general manager of Oriental Press Group.

He had been in frequent contact with Cui Zilong recently and had already memorized his office number.

“Hello, General Manager Cui, did you need me for something?” Lin Haoran asked after dialing.

“Boss, there’s been a development. I just received news that Mr. Li Xiaohe, the Chairman of the Board of Wireless Television, suffered a sudden heart attack. He was rushed to the hospital, but resuscitation efforts failed. The matter hasn’t been made public yet; only a few people know,” Cui Zilong said directly.

“Mr. Li Xiaohe passed away… is today June 28th?” Lin Haoran was taken aback and couldn’t help but ask.

He wasn’t an ordinary office worker, constantly thinking about what day it was and if the weekend was coming.

To him, every day felt more or less the same, so he really wasn’t sure of the exact date.

However, he knew that Li Xiaohe was supposed to die on June 28th.

“Boss, yes, today is June 28th!” Cui Zilong gave an affirmative reply.

“Alright, I understand. Thank you for the trouble,” Lin Haoran said.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran sat in Liu Luanxiong’s office, his right hand instinctively resting on his chin as he began to ponder.

He had long anticipated Li Xiaohe’s death. Without his interference, these events were just unfolding as they were meant to.

This meant that the time for him to invest in TVB had more or less arrived.

However, he couldn’t rush this matter.

Because Lin Haoran knew that with Li Xiaohe having just passed away, if he were to impatiently run to them to talk about acquiring their TVB shares, he’d be lucky if they didn’t kick him out. That alone would be considered giving him a favor.

So, there was no rush.

He had to at least wait until after Li Xiaohe’s funeral, then find the right opportunity to request the acquisition of their shares through his connection with Li Mingze, the head of the Li family.

After Li Xiaohe, no one else in the Li family was interested in managing TVB, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to buy the TVB shares from the few shareholders within the Li family.

He just didn’t know when Shao Yifu would take over as Chairman of the TVB Board of Directors.

As for TVB, Lin Haoran’s idea was simple: he didn’t have to be the Chairman of the Board, but if the opportunity arose, he still hoped to secure the position of the largest shareholder.

It was just like with Kowloon Motor Bus before, where the position of Chairman of the Board could be left to Mr. Deng Zhaojian, but the Lei family always held a firm grip on their status as the largest shareholder.

This way, the Lei family could have a significant say in Kowloon Motor Bus. Most importantly, if they wanted to, they could take over Deng Zhaojian’s chairmanship at any time.

Lin Haoran’s approach was the same as the Lei family’s. If he were to manage TVB, he really didn’t have the time for it.

Shao Yifu, on the other hand, was an excellent manager.

His desire to acquire TVB’s shares was simply to have a certain amount of say in the television station, thereby being able to use it to control public opinion to some extent.

Just like the last time with Fortress Electrical Company, if he hadn’t acquired the Oriental Daily News beforehand, under the deterrent effect of Jardine Matheson & Co., the other media outlets wouldn’t have dared to help him. In that case, Fortress Electrical Company would have, without a doubt, gone bankrupt because of the incident.

Therefore, through this matter, he could clearly see just how powerful public opinion was, and the importance of the media.

It was just like the Ma Xiru brothers, who founded the Oriental Daily News for the very purpose of whitewashing their past actions.

The value of the media wasn’t in how much money it could make, but in the significant help it could bring Lin Haoran.

This was also the reason behind his idea to invest in TVB.

The only question was whether Shao Yifu would also want to acquire the Li family’s shares.

In Lin Haoran’s previous life, according to information he had gathered from the internet, Shao Yifu became a major shareholder and directly took over as the Chairman of the TVB Board of Directors shortly after Li Xiaohe’s death.

So, if nothing unexpected happened, he must have bought a portion of the shares from the Li family, which propelled his equity stake to make him the largest shareholder.

As for the Li family, they held on to a portion of their shares, only gradually selling them off after TVB went public.

The question was, could he secure the Li family’s shares before Shao Yifu made his move?

All of this was still unknown, and to be honest, Lin Haoran wasn’t very confident.

He could only hope to successfully acquire all of the Li family’s shares.

Although his relationship with Li Mingze was quite good, Shao Yifu had been partners with the Li family for many more years.

If that didn’t work out, becoming the second-largest shareholder was also acceptable. In any case, investing in TVB was something he was determined to do, and Li Xiaohe’s death was the best opportunity for him to do so.

Just as Shao Yifu was currently TVB’s second-largest shareholder, he still held a certain amount of say. In the past, Li Xiaohe often discussed how to develop TVB with Shao Yifu.

Initiatives like establishing the Wireless Artist Training Class in 1971 and creating the “Miss Hong Kong” pageant in 1973 were all ideas proposed by Shao Yifu. Although he wasn’t the Chairman of the Board, he had indeed made significant contributions to TVB.

Chapter 254: I Have My Own Plans!

Lin Haoran paid close attention to the news surrounding Li Xiaohe. It wasn’t until the third day, June 30th, that TVB officially issued an obituary.

The news shocked the whole of Hong Kong society, and many found the sudden turn of events hard to believe.

After all, as the helmsman of TVB and a leading figure in Hong Kong’s film and television industry, Li Xiaohe’s death seemed particularly abrupt.

Soon after, Lin Haoran received a call from Li Mingze.

“Mr. Lin, my brother Xiaohe has unfortunately passed away. We will be holding his funeral at three in the afternoon on July 1st at the Tseung Kwan O Chinese Permanent Cemetery. We sincerely invite you to attend,” Li Mingze said, his voice heavy with grief.

As a distinguished representative of the Lee family, Li Xiaohe’s departure was undoubtedly a heavy blow to his kin.

“Elder Mr. Lee, please accept my condolences. I will certainly be there on time,” Lin Haoran solemnly promised.

In the blink of an eye, it was two in the afternoon on July 1st. Dressed in a black suit, Lin Haoran made his way directly to the Tseung Kwan O Chinese Permanent Cemetery.

Upon arrival, Lin Haoran discovered that many of Hong Kong’s most prominent and noble families had come today.

Chinese-owned enterprise tycoons such as Shao Yifu, Li Jiacheng, and Pao Yue-kong were almost all in attendance.

Many influential figures from the British-funded conglomerates had also come, though he did not see major players like Michael Sandberg, Sir Murray MacLehose, or Newbiggin.

Li Xiaohe, much like his older brother Li Mingze, was a highly respected figure in Hong Kong’s business community.

Like Li Mingze, he had held positions in numerous companies throughout his life, including Chairman of the Board of Hong Kong’s Wireless Television, Chairman of the Board of Associated Canners, Chairman of the Board of Mei Foo Investments Limited, Director of British-American Tobacco Hong Kong, Director of Cathay Pacific Airways, and Director of the Shanghai Commercial Bank.

It could be said that Li Xiaohe’s achievements in the business world were in no way inferior to his brother Li Mingze’s—in fact, they may have even been greater.

“Mrs. Lee, my condolences,” Lin Haoran said, his eyes immediately finding the grief-stricken Lee Luk Yankeun, the woman who would one day be known as Hong Kong’s premier socialite.

Even in his past life, Lin Haoran had heard of her; she was a woman with formidable investment skills.

“Thank you, Mr. Lin, for taking the time to attend my late husband’s funeral,” Lee Luk Yankeun replied sorrowfully.

Before Li Xiaohe’s passing, Lee Luk Yankeun, only fifty-five years old, had spent most of her time assisting her husband and raising her children in the family home.

Her husband’s sudden death was undoubtedly a heavy blow, leaving her completely at a loss.

Next, Lin Haoran exchanged a few brief words with each of Li Xiaohe’s relatives.

This was not the place for tycoons to discuss business, so he did not converse with Pao Yue-kong, Li Jiacheng, or the others, merely exchanging nods.

The funeral proceeded smoothly in a solemn atmosphere.

It was evening when Lin Haoran finally returned home.

For Lin Haoran, the end of Li Xiaohe’s funeral meant he could finally begin talks with the Lee family about acquiring their TVB shares.

He was also paying close attention to the situation at TVB.

With Li Xiaohe having just passed away, the company was temporarily under the full authority of TVB’s general manager.

Therefore, a board meeting had not yet been convened.

In other words, Shao Yifu had not yet taken control of TVB to become its new Chairman of the Board.

So, the next morning, Lin Haoran called Li Mingze.

Although Li Mingze was no longer the Chairman of the Board for the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, he still held plenty of other senior executive positions.

Lin Haoran knew that he usually spent more of his time at the offices of Hysan Development Company Limited.

After all, this company was the Lee family’s core business.

It was by relying on this enterprise that the Lee family had gradually grown to become one of Hong Kong’s Four Great Families.

The call went through without a problem.

“Mr. Lin, is there something you need?” Li Mingze’s voice was somewhat hoarse, as if he had not yet emerged from his grief.

After all, Li Xiaohe was a brother with whom he had been close, as well as one of the Lee family’s most crucial core members.

Moreover, in Li Xiaohe, Li Mingze seemed to see his own future.

Li Mingze was older than Li Xiaohe, already at the advanced age of seventy-five—an age where one is said to be able to follow their heart’s desire without transgression.

However, in reality, Li Mingze himself did not have much time left to squander.

According to Lin Haoran’s knowledge, he would pass away in July 1983, which meant that the patriarch of the Lee family actually had only three years of life remaining.

Though they were all extremely wealthy, they could not enjoy the same longevity as men like Shao Yifu, the Gambling King, or Li Jiacheng.

“Indeed, there is something I’d like to discuss with you, Elder Mr. Lee,” Lin Haoran replied.

“Then come to my office. I’ll be waiting for you in my office at the Hysan Development Company Limited headquarters,” Li Mingze stated directly.

“Alright, I’m on my way now.” After hanging up, Lin Haoran immediately took a car to the headquarters of Hysan Development Company Limited.

More than twenty minutes later, Lin Haoran met the slightly weary old man—Li Mingze.

Today, Li Mingze’s face showed unconcealable exhaustion; he clearly had not fully emerged from the shadow of his brother’s death.

Li Xiaohe’s passing was undoubtedly a heavy blow to the Lee family, both on an emotional level and in terms of their social prestige.

“Mr. Lin, please have a seat,” Li Mingze said, gesturing toward the sofa adjacent to his desk.

“Thank you,” Lin Haoran replied politely, taking a seat opposite Li Mingze.

“Mr. Lin, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” Li Mingze asked directly.

“Elder Mr. Lee, I’ll get straight to the point. I am interested in purchasing the TVB shares held by the Lee family, and I hope to receive your assistance and support!” Lin Haoran said with sincerity.

“Mr. Lin is interested in TVB? Its current market share is quite a bit worse than Rediffusion Television’s,” Li Mingze remarked, slightly surprised.

Indeed, it was an indisputable fact that TVB’s current viewership ratings could no longer compare with Rediffusion Television’s.

The root cause was the quality of TVB’s drama series, which was clearly inferior to Rediffusion’s.

For the Lee family, TVB had become a hot potato. The matter had already been discussed internally, and no one was willing to take over its management.

Furthermore, Li Xiaohe’s son was still young, so the idea of him inheriting his father’s business was out of the question.

Thus, the future executive power of TVB would either fall into the hands of a British-American consortium or be taken over by Shao Yifu.

The British-American consortium was highly unlikely to take over. Although they were among TVB’s founders, they had long expressed no interest in managing Wireless Television, which was why Li Xiaohe had been able to serve as Chairman of the Board for so many years.

“I’m aware of that. However, the only reason TVB’s ratings lag behind Rediffusion Television’s is the quality of its dramas. As long as the quality of the content improves, the ratings will naturally rise,” Lin Haoran answered, unconcerned.

“Improving the quality of television dramas is easier said than done,” Li Mingze said with a wry smile.

Although Li Mingze had no direct involvement with TVB, four of its shareholders were from the Lee family, and all of them were his younger brothers. As the current patriarch of the Hysan Lee clan, he was naturally well-informed about TVB.

From Li Mingze’s response, Lin Haoran sensed that Shao Yifu had not yet proposed a plan to the Lee family to increase his shareholding in TVB.

For Lin Haoran, this was a golden opportunity.

If Shao Yifu had already made his move, this excellent chance would have been lost.

“I have my own plans. I only hope that Elder Mr. Lee can provide some assistance. If the Lee family is willing to sell their shares to me, I am willing to form a close partnership with them. In the future, for any business the Lee family wishes to collaborate on with my companies, I will give you priority. As for the price, it need only be reasonable,” Lin Haoran stated solemnly.

After forcing Newbiggin to bow his head and admit his mistake, his status in Hong Kong’s business world had quietly risen to a level on par with giants like Michael Sandberg and Pao Yue-kong.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s promise carried significant weight.

Of course, to Lin Haoran, this was merely painting a rosy picture. It cost him nothing, so it was of little consequence.

“Mr. Lin, I am not a shareholder of TVB. I cannot decide whether my family members are willing to sell their TVB shares. However, I can help you contact them and advocate on your behalf!” Lin Haoran’s words had indeed moved Li Mingze.

Although the Lee family’s relationship with Lin Haoran was currently good, he wanted to take it a step further.

The most important reason the Lee family became one of Hong Kong’s Four Great Families was not wealth, but their network!

The Lee family had always excelled at dealing with people. With Lin Haoran’s status in Hong Kong’s business world continuously rising, strengthening their family’s ties with him could only be beneficial.

Their wealth was no longer considered outstanding in present-day Hong Kong, yet they still held a firm position among the Four Great Families.

The ultimate reason for this was their family’s incredibly strong network of personal connections.

If possible, Li Mingze hoped his family members would seize this opportunity to do Lin Haoran a favor, especially since they had no intention of continuing to manage TVB anyway.

Lin Haoran had already investigated; the Lee family currently held a total of 24% of TVB’s shares, making them the largest shareholder.

Shao Yifu, personally, held 21% of TVB’s shares.

To be honest, since TVB was not a publicly listed company, there was no reference value, which made it difficult for Lin Haoran to name a price.

However, as long as the price the Lee family proposed wasn’t too outrageous, he was still willing to buy.

“In that case, I must trouble you, Elder Mr. Lee. I look forward to receiving your reply soon,” Lin Haoran said with a respectful tone.

Since he had spoken up before Shao Yifu, the probability of successfully acquiring the Lee family’s shares was quite high.

“Very well. I will convene a family meeting today and raise this matter. As soon as we reach a decision, I will inform you immediately, Mr. Lin,” Li Mingze responded.

“Then, Elder Mr. Lee, I will not disturb you any longer. I shall await your good news.” Although the purpose of his visit had not yet been fully achieved, everything that needed to be said had been said. All that remained was to wait for an answer, so Lin Haoran politely took his leave.

Chapter 255: 5.8 Billion Hong Kong Dollars, All Spent!

In the Chairman’s office at Shaw Studios, Tai Po Tsai, Clearwater Bay, Kowloon.

At this moment, the two bosses of Shaw Brothers Studio, Shao Yifu and Shao Renmei, sat across from each other.

While many people only knew of Sixth Uncle Shao Yifu, his third brother, Shao Renmei, was less famous. In reality, Shao Brothers Studio was founded by both Shao Renmei and Shao Yifu.

However, compared to Shao Yifu, who remained diligent and managed countless tasks daily even after turning sixty, Shao Renmei was content to delegate authority to his brothers and nephews, preferring to enjoy a life of luxury.

Consequently, Shao Renmei had a much lower public profile and was quite a low-key individual.

“Third Brother, this is a golden opportunity for our Shaw Brothers to take control of Wireless Television. Hong Kong has developed rapidly over the years, and televisions are becoming more and more common. The rise of television is unstoppable. If I can become the Chairman of the Board of Wireless Television, it would put us in a position where we can advance or retreat as we please!” Shao Yifu’s expression was grave.

Shao Yifu was saddened by the passing of his good friend Li Xiaohe, but he accepted that old age, sickness, and death were a natural part of life.

When news of his eldest brother’s death came last year, Shao Yifu had also been grief-stricken but soon came to terms with it.

Right now, he needed to consider the interests of Shaw Brothers Studio.

Although he hadn’t directly served as Wireless Television’s Chairman of the Board over the years, the platform had indirectly helped Shaw Brothers Studio cultivate a large number of outstanding actors.

This experience had given Shao Yifu a profound understanding of the television industry’s immense potential.

Especially throughout the seventies, as Golden Harvest steadily ate into Hong Kong’s film market share while Shaw Brothers Studio’s own share gradually declined. This was one of the key reasons Shao Yifu had conceived the idea of taking control of Wireless Television.

In the sixties, one could say that Shaw Brothers Studio controlled nearly half of the film market in the Chinese-speaking world.

But since the start of the seventies, the departure of Raymond Chow, the missed opportunity with Bruce Lee, the defection of Michael Hui, and other events had suddenly given the once-unrivaled Shaw Brothers Studio a major competitor—Golden Harvest.

Despite this, Shao Yifu felt no regret for his past decisions.

As the saying goes, you can’t have standards without rules.

Once a company grows to a certain size, it must establish and enforce corresponding rules to ensure stable development.

Anyone who tried to break those rules was, without a doubt, harming the company.

And Li Xiaohe’s death presented Shao Yifu with an opportunity for Shaw Brothers to shift its focus from film to television.

“Yifu, I also think the prospects for the television industry are very promising. You go ahead and do what you need to do; Third Brother will support you completely. But considering the Lee family holds the most shares in Wireless Television, if you become Chairman of the Board directly, your position might not be stable in the future.”

“Therefore, I suggest that if you want to become the Chairman of the Board, you should consider buying some of their shares. That way, our Shaw Brothers can officially become the largest shareholder of Wireless Television, and it would be a matter of course for you to serve as Chairman!” Shao Renmei offered his thoughts.

At seventy-nine years old, Shao Renmei had long lost interest in managing the business; he was more willing to enjoy a leisurely retirement.

Thus, he always gave his sixth brother, Shao Yifu, his unconditional support.

Although he was also one of the bosses of Shaw Brothers Studio, he had long since ceased to be actively involved in the company’s management.

However, although Shao Renmei seemed to be in semi-retirement, he was still a businessman with exceptional commercial acumen.

Shao Renmei had a calm and seasoned personality, which complemented his decisive sixth brother, Shao Yifu, perfectly.

It was said that in the early 1970s, when director Li Hanxiang, who had been labeled a “traitor” to Shaw Brothers, asked to return, Shao Yifu had been inclined to refuse. It was thanks to Third Brother Shao Renmei’s persuasion—“We’re after profit, not pride”—that the great director got the chance to stage a comeback.

Shao Renmei was not only level-headed but also remarkably eloquent.

Back in the day, Shaw Brothers often invited Japanese directors to Hong Kong to shoot films, supposedly to bring in foreign talent. In reality, it was a way to learn their trade secrets, allowing the studio’s own directors to learn more filming techniques.

At a press conference, a reporter questioned this practice. Shao Renmei, unperturbed, casually replied, “Hollywood uses European directors too,” effortlessly defusing the situation and earning the great admiration of director Zhang Che, who was also in attendance.

“Third Brother, that’s what I was thinking too. But Xiaohe’s funeral was just yesterday. It doesn’t seem appropriate for me to approach the Lee family about buying shares right now. I plan to wait a couple of days before discussing it with them.”

“Considering the deep friendship between our Shaw Brothers and the Lee family over so many years, they shouldn’t refuse us if they have no intention of continuing to manage Wireless Television. After Xiaohe’s passing, the only one in the Lee family capable of taking over as Chairman of the Board of Wireless Television is probably Mr. Li Mingze.”

“However, I remember that when we founded Wireless Television, Mr. Li Mingze wasn’t interested. He doesn’t personally hold any shares in Wireless Television, so I doubt he’ll have changed his mind by now,” Shao Yifu said with a nod.

He was very confident about purchasing the Lee family’s shares in Wireless Television.

“Yes, our decades-long friendship with the Lee family speaks for itself. There shouldn’t be any problem. The era of Shaw Brothers’ monopoly over the film industry is truly over. We can’t keep wallowing in past glories. It’s time for Shaw Brothers to find a new path!” Shao Renmei lamented.

He recalled their beginnings in the film industry back in the twenties, first helping out at the Tianyi Film Company founded by their eldest brother, and later, when he and Shao Yifu founded Shaw Brothers Studio. The two brothers had worked in the film world for over fifty years, from their humble start to their glorious peak, and then from that peak into a period of decline. The journey filled him with a surge of emotion.

“I really miss the old days when Father was still around, with the six of us siblings together,” Shao Yifu said, growing nostalgic.

Their father had passed away early, in 1920, when Shao Yifu was only thirteen years old.

Now, in the blink of an eye, decades had passed.

And so, the two men, both in their seventies, sat in the office, reminiscing about their youth.

…

Meanwhile, after leaving Li Mingze’s office, Lin Haoran made his way to the Wanqing Building.

Soon, he appeared in the office of the Universal Investment Company on the 31st floor.

Nearly half a month had passed since Su Zhixue had last informed Lin Haoran that their stake in the Hongkong Land Group had exceeded 25%.

Although the stock prices of Jardine Matheson, the Hongkong Land Group, and other listed companies in the Jardine faction had stopped falling after the Oriental Daily News and other media outlets ceased their attacks, it was difficult for the stocks to resume their previous rapid ascent in the short term.

Originally, the Hongkong Land Group’s market capitalization had broken through ten billion and was quickly climbing toward eleven billion Hong Kong dollars.

After this incident, however, Hongkong Land’s total market cap fell back to around nine billion Hong Kong dollars. While it was impossible for it to return to the seven-billion-plus valuation it had when Universal Investment Company first entered the market, it was still a good outcome for them.

At the very least, Universal Investment Company’s cost of stock accumulation was now much lower.

As for Jardine Matheson, it had taken an even harder hit. Its market cap, which had been approaching six billion Hong Kong dollars, plummeted back to just over four billion.

Universal Investment Company had seized the opportunity this month to secretly and rapidly accumulate shares in both companies.

The events that had transpired with Fortress Electrical Company this month had, from another perspective, brought Lin Haoran an enormous benefit.

A single farce had allowed him to accelerate his accumulation of shares in the two major British-owned firms, Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land Group, while also significantly lowering his costs.

At this moment, his stake in Hongkong Land had reached 26.27%.

And his stake in Jardine Matheson had reached 15.23%.

It was safe to say that he had secretly become a major shareholder in both foreign firms.

In the case of Hongkong Land, Lin Haoran now even had a chance to contend with Jardine Matheson for the controlling stake.

The reason the accumulation of Jardine Matheson shares was so much slower than Hongkong Land’s was that British-funded conglomerates held more of its stock, meaning there was far less floating stock for Jardine Matheson on the market compared to Hongkong Land.

This was also why the accumulation of Hongkong Land shares had gone so smoothly.

Lin Haoran sat down opposite Su Zhixue, looking over the current progress of Universal Investment Company’s operations.

“Boss, our available funds are almost completely used up!” Su Zhixue reminded him from the side.

“How much is left in the account?” Lin Haoran was astonished. A total of 5.824 billion Hong Kong dollars, and it was nearly gone already?

That was truly unbelievable.

In the back of his mind, he had always felt he had two or three billion Hong Kong dollars left to use, so he’d felt no sense of urgency about his funds.

“I just went to the finance department. She said there’s about thirty million Hong Kong dollars left in the account,” Su Zhixue replied.

“Hand me the calculator,” Lin Haoran said, pointing to the one in front of Su Zhixue.

Taking the calculator from Su Zhixue, Lin Haoran did some quick math.

He had brought back a full 5.744 billion Hong Kong dollars from the United States, and later received two dividends from Amigo Company totaling 80 million Hong Kong dollars.

As for his other companies, Lin Haoran had never taken money from their accounts. After all, if he casually withdrew profits from a business, the enterprise itself would have no capital left for expansion. His own funds had been plentiful, so there had been no need to draw from his subsidiary companies.

Therefore, his actual available funds after returning from the United States were approximately 5.824 billion Hong Kong dollars.

However, he had then spent 594 million Hong Kong dollars on the Hongkong Electric Group;
followed by an injection of 200 million Hong Kong dollars into Wan’an Company;
not long after, he spent one billion Hong Kong dollars to buy the Federation Building and the International Building, two commercial buildings in Central, from Wheelock and Company;
then he spent 200 million Hong Kong dollars to acquire the Oriental Press Group from the Ma family;
followed by nearly 200 million Hong Kong dollars to acquire a 49.9% stake in the Hong Kong and China Gas Company;
the initial investment for the joint commercial plaza project in Sheung Wan with Guo Henian also cost 250 million Hong Kong dollars;
in April, he successfully acquired 49.9% of Kowloon Motor Bus, spending approximately 360 million Hong Kong dollars;
the 26.27% stake in Hongkong Land Group cost about 2.23 billion Hong Kong dollars;
and the 15.23% stake in Jardine Matheson cost about 760 million Hong Kong dollars.

He hadn’t realized until he added it all up. In just half a year, he had spent nearly 5.8 billion Hong Kong dollars!

Even Lin Haoran himself was stunned after calculating the speed at which he had spent money.

“I’ll handle the money situation. Continue accumulating Hongkong Land shares as planned. You can temporarily halt the acquisition of Jardine Matheson shares,” Lin Haoran said after some thought.

Judging by Governor Murray MacLehose’s attitude toward Jardine Matheson, his chances of taking over the company were slim, but he was determined to secure Hongkong Land.

In Lin Haoran’s mind, Jardine Matheson was far less important than Hongkong Land, so he wasn’t too concerned.

If he could take over Jardine Matheson, great. If not, his shares could serve as an important bargaining chip in his bid to control Hongkong Land.

This was the most important reason for accumulating Jardine Matheson’s stock.

“Yes, Boss!” Su Zhixue replied respectfully.

Thirty million Hong Kong dollars wouldn’t last long, given Hongkong Land’s high market capitalization.

Furthermore, he would soon need to spend money to purchase shares in Wireless Television from the Lee family.

However, it wouldn’t be difficult for Lin Haoran to raise more funds.

He could either resort to his old method: loans.

Or, he could transfer funds from his subsidiaries like Green Island Cement Company, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and Hongkong Electric Group, which could easily free up several hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Or, he could orchestrate an IPO for one of his companies to raise capital from the stock market.

Or he could sell some assets, like properties or plots of land, such as the International Building.

However, he didn’t plan to use the second method, as those companies still needed capital for expansion. It wasn’t yet time to harvest their profits.

As for the third method, preparing a company for a public listing would take at least two to three months, making that route a hassle as well.

And for the International Building, now was not the best time to sell.

Chapter 256: Investing in HSBC

It was still early, so the Lee family certainly wouldn’t have a decision so quickly.

Therefore, the task before Lin Haoran now was to find a way to raise money.

He needed money to buy TVB shares, and he also needed money to increase his shareholding in Hongkong Land Group.

His funds wouldn’t free up until at least autumn.

So, the best solution for now was to get a bank loan first.

In any case, he wasn’t really concerned about the interest.

The stock market was about to open again at one in the afternoon. Su Zhixue had already left the office and was busy in the investment department.

Lin Haoran sat in his office for a while before deciding to make a trip to HSBC.

Before leaving, Lin Haoran first called Michael Sandberg’s office to confirm he was there, only then did he depart from Wanqing Building.

What set Michael Sandberg apart from other British tycoons was his willingness to build good relationships with Chinese entrepreneurs. Figures like Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng were on good terms with Sandberg, which was one of the reasons Lin Haoran had a favorable impression of him.

However, Lin Haoran had actually only been to Michael Sandberg’s office twice, the first time being over a year ago.

At that time, Lin Haoran had sold his Kowloon Wharf shares to Pao Yue-kong, netting over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

That was what he considered his true first pot of gold, so he had been particularly excited and even made a special trip to HSBC to check his account.

As it turned out, this had alerted Mr. Michael Sandberg, the Taipan of HSBC, who then invited him to his office for a chat.

Thinking back on it now, Lin Haoran was filled with emotion.

So many memories!

Back then, he had to rely on loans for his capital, and earning tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars from the Kowloon Wharf shares had been incredibly exciting.

Now, however, he controlled assets worth several billion, or even close to ten billion, Hong Kong dollars.

The Rolls-Royce slowly pulled away from the Wanqing Group building, heading for the HSBC Main Building less than six hundred meters away.

In less than ten minutes, Lin Haoran’s car had pulled into an open-air parking spot in front of the HSBC building.

“Mr. Lin, our Taipan is already waiting for you in his office!” To Lin Haoran’s surprise, the Senior Client Manager, Huang Yulan, was already waiting for him in the lobby. Upon seeing him enter, she respectfully walked over to lead the way.

“Alright, thank you, Manager Huang,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The senior client manager was thrilled to hear that Lin Haoran actually remembered her name.

Li Weidong and Li Weiguo stayed in the first-floor waiting area while Lin Haoran followed the client manager into the elevator. They soon arrived outside the Taipan’s office.

Manager Huang knocked on the door.

But Michael Sandberg had already opened it.

Previously, when Lin Haoran visited, Sandberg would always be seated, waiting.

This time, not only had he sent someone to greet him on the first floor, but he had also personally come to open the door.

These actions alone were enough to show how highly Michael Sandberg now regarded Lin Haoran.

But it made sense. Lin Haoran’s status had undergone a seismic shift compared to before; one could say the two men were now on the same level.

“Mr. Lin, hello. It’s been a long time!” Michael Sandberg extended his hand and greeted him with a smile.

“Mr. Sandberg, it has been a long time,” Lin Haoran replied, also smiling.

The two indeed hadn’t seen each other in a while. Michael Sandberg hadn’t attended Li Xiaohe’s funeral previously.

The last time they met was at Government House, when Governor Sir Murray MacLehose had invited Hong Kong’s most elite circle for a Spring Festival banquet.

At that time, although Lin Haoran had barely managed to squeeze into this circle, he was, at best, at the very bottom of it.

Four or five months had passed since then.

But when Lin Haoran forced Newbiggin to apologize on behalf of Jardine Matheson & Co., it signified that he had already reached the highest echelon.

“Mr. Lin, please have a seat over there,” Michael Sandberg said, pointing to the sofa in the meeting area.

Lin Haoran nodded and followed Michael Sandberg to the meeting area within the office.

“Mr. Lin, you never visit without a purpose. You must have come to see me about something, right? But to be honest, even if you hadn’t come, I was planning to invite you over for a meeting soon anyway,” Michael Sandberg said with a smile after sitting down.

“Oh? You have something to discuss with me as well, Mr. Sandberg?” Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

At this point, Lin Haoran was in no hurry to state his own reason for being there.

“On behalf of HSBC, I would like to invite you, Mr. Lin, to join the HSBC Board of Directors and become a board member. To that end, HSBC is willing to offer 1% of its shares for you to purchase at half the market price, making you an HSBC shareholder. What do you think, Mr. Lin?” Michael Sandberg’s tone was both serious and expectant.

Lin Haoran was a little surprised after hearing Michael Sandberg’s words.

Make him a member of HSBC’s Board of Directors?

He had never considered this.

But it wasn’t impossible.

As he recalled, thirty or forty years in the future, HSBC was a listed bank with a market capitalization in the trillions, one of the top ten banks in the world.

Although its future potential couldn’t compare to Apple Inc., it was still a company with excellent prospects.

However, HSBC’s current market capitalization was the highest of any listed company in all of Hong Kong. As far as Lin Haoran knew, HSBC’s market cap had risen to around sixteen billion Hong Kong dollars. 1% of its shares would be worth one hundred and sixty million Hong Kong dollars. Even at half price, it would still cost eighty million Hong Kong dollars!

Right now, he couldn’t even come up with fifty million Hong Kong dollars, let alone eighty million.

After some thought, Lin Haoran understood why HSBC wanted him to become a member of its board.

HSBC’s primary business was currently in Hong Kong. Although they were trying to open up overseas markets and were constantly attempting to acquire banks in places like Britain and the United States, their progress wasn’t very good.

Moreover, even if their overseas expansion went well, the Hong Kong market would still be their largest.

No one knew what the future held for Hong Kong. In the 1950s, the Mainland China operations of companies like Jardine Matheson and HSBC had all been suspended, causing them severe losses.

As a result, they were wary of the north, fearing that if Hong Kong returned to Mainland China’s governance, their industries in Hong Kong would be lost just like before.

This was why so many British-owned companies were withdrawing from Hong Kong. Even if the probability was only 1%, many people in the British-funded conglomerates didn’t dare to take the gamble.

Thus, Jardine Matheson & Co. was now vigorously developing its overseas markets.

Wheelock and Company was going even further, constantly selling off its Hong Kong properties and using all the proceeds to buy ships in an attempt to transfer its capital out and turn it into mobile fixed assets.

But HSBC was different from other foreign firms. Hong Kong had always been HSBC’s home base; all their achievements originated from Hong Kong.

One could say that even if Hong Kong’s fate was as they feared, HSBC had nowhere to run.

Furthermore, with the continuous withdrawal of British-funded conglomerates, HSBC’s top executives had long since realized that the future of Hong Kong would undoubtedly belong to Chinese-owned enterprises. The decline of the British-funded conglomerates was inevitable.

Therefore, the current strategy of HSBC’s leadership was to build good relationships with Chinese-funded conglomerates, even at a loss, to get to know and even support Chinese businessmen like Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng.

Their actions were, of course, a way to plan for HSBC’s future, ensuring they would have these tycoons as allies, which would give them more confidence.

Everyone knew that without HSBC’s help, neither Pao Yue-kong nor Li Jiacheng could have achieved such great success.

Lin Haoran was different from them. He hadn’t relied on HSBC; he had developed entirely on his own.

But this made HSBC value him even more.

A person like him could only be an ally, not an enemy.

“Mr. Sandberg, in principle, I am very much looking forward to investing in HSBC. I can agree, but to be honest with you, my funds are tight at the moment. In fact, the very reason for my visit today is to hopefully secure a loan from HSBC,” Lin Haoran got straight to the point.

“Mr. Lin, as far as I know, you have a close working relationship with Citibank, don’t you?” Michael Sandberg asked, slightly surprised, trying to probe the true nature of the relationship between Citibank and Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran had long known that many people in Hong Kong mistakenly believed he had some special connection with Citibank, even seeing him as a puppet propped up by them.

He had never bothered to explain this, and it seemed the misunderstanding had its benefits.

Therefore, he had never taken the initiative to clarify these rumors.

“I do indeed have a good working relationship with Citibank. They’ve given me a lot of support. But my decision to seek a loan from HSBC this time is based entirely on my own considerations and has nothing to do with Citibank. Why, Mr. Sandberg? Is HSBC unwilling to take on this business?” Lin Haoran said with a hint of a jesting smile.

“Of course not. We are deeply honored that you’ve chosen HSBC, Mr. Lin. May I ask how much you plan to borrow?” Michael Sandberg replied sincerely.

In the world of business, lending was undoubtedly one of the core operations of a bank, and HSBC was naturally eager to attract more high-quality clients like Lin Haoran.

After all, lending to a client like Lin Haoran carried relatively little risk.

“I plan to borrow two billion Hong Kong dollars. I wonder if HSBC can accommodate this request?” Lin Haoran stated his loan amount directly.

This figure was one Lin Haoran had carefully considered.

For an ordinary person, two billion Hong Kong dollars might be an astronomical sum, unattainable in a lifetime.

But for Lin Haoran, earning this amount was not difficult, given enough time.

Even facing a high interest rate of 10% was completely manageable for him.

Chapter 257: Does Anyone Intend to Take Over the Reins of TVB?

Given their positions, two billion Hong Kong dollars was a huge sum, but not an unbearable risk.

For example, when Pao Yue-kong had previously competed with Jardine Matheson & Co. for Kowloon Wharf, it was precisely because HSBC suddenly provided him with up to 2.1 billion Hong Kong dollars in loan support that he successfully won control of Kowloon Wharf.

Therefore, it was perfectly fine for HSBC to lend such a large sum to Lin Haoran.

“Collateral is not an issue. How about I pledge my shares in the Hongkong Electric Group?” Lin Haoran said after some thought.

The Hongkong Electric Group’s current market capitalization had reached as high as 3.8 billion Hong Kong dollars, and Lin Haoran owned 49.9 percent of the shares.

Even at its current market capitalization, the shares he held were not worth two billion Hong Kong dollars.

But this was a completely different concept. One had to understand that these shares represented a controlling stake in the Hongkong Electric Group!

Moreover, the Hongkong Electric Group was also a major shareholder of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, holding twenty percent of its shares (with Universal Investment Company holding 17.6 percent and Wan’an Real Estate Company holding 12.3 percent). Nominally, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company was a publicly listed subsidiary of the Hongkong Electric Group!

It could be said that if Lin Haoran had no intention of selling, then no matter how much money other buyers invested—be it three billion, four billion, or even five billion Hong Kong dollars—they could not wrest control of the Hongkong Electric Group from him.

The reason was that attempting a full acquisition of shares through the stock market, including those held by other small shareholders, was practically impossible.

Once such an intention surfaced, it would have to be done publicly by raising the acquisition price to entice shareholders to sell, and Lin Haoran would naturally find out about it easily.

He would only need to increase his own shareholding slightly to easily ensure his stake exceeded fifty percent. At that point, who could possibly shake his controlling position?

So, although the Hongkong Electric Group shares Lin Haoran controlled were worth less than two billion Hong Kong dollars at market value, to those who coveted the company, his position was worth far more than two billion!

What’s more, given Lin Haoran’s current status, he could borrow several hundred million Hong Kong dollars from major banks and finance companies in Hong Kong without any collateral at all.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s proposal to use his Hongkong Electric Group shares as collateral was not the least bit excessive.

If Michael Sandberg wouldn’t even agree to this, Lin Haoran could easily secure the funds by applying for a loan from any other bank, such as Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank, or the Bank of East Asia.

The only reason he had come to see Michael Sandberg was to take this opportunity to build a better relationship with HSBC in preparation for his move to take control of the Hongkong Land Group.

If both Citibank and HSBC supported him, combined with his absolutely dominant shareholding, taking control of the Hongkong Land Group would be a matter of course.

Since HSBC could support Pao Yue-kong in taking over Kowloon Wharf, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for them to support him in taking over the Hongkong Land Group, would it?

This way, even if Jardine Matheson & Co. wanted to use the government to pressure him, he wouldn’t be without supporters.

At the very least, HSBC’s current strength far surpassed that of Jardine Matheson & Co.

Sure enough, upon hearing Lin Haoran’s decision, Michael Sandberg said without hesitation, “Of course. Mr. Lin, your willingness to pledge your shares in the Hongkong Electric Group as collateral is already beyond my expectations. I approve this loan, and there won’t be any major issues with the higher-ups.

However, since you intend to borrow such a large sum, Mr. Lin, once the loan is approved, I trust you won’t have any problem using a small portion of it to acquire a one percent stake in HSBC and become one of our shareholders?”

While agreeing, Michael Sandberg didn’t forget to remind Lin Haoran to buy into HSBC.

Borrowing money from HSBC to buy shares in HSBC—it was a rather strange proposition.

However, Lin Haoran agreed without hesitation.

After all, for the other party to let him buy into HSBC, it was like stumbling upon a massive bargain for Lin Haoran.

It was a pity the stake was so small, only one percent.

If it were more, Lin Haoran would have gladly taken it.

He knew, after all, that HSBC’s stock price would continuously rise in the future.

The trend moving forward was basically a gradual climb, with occasional dips due to stock market crashes, but it would rebound immediately after each crash passed.

For example, HSBC’s current total market value was approximately sixteen billion Hong Kong dollars. However, fourteen years later, in 1994, HSBC’s market capitalization would leap to two hundred and twenty billion Hong Kong dollars.

What kind of growth rate was that?

It meant that HSBC’s market value in 1994 would be equivalent to the combined market capitalization of fourteen HSBCs of its current size.

“In that case, it’s settled. Thank you, Mr. Michael Sandberg. I hope the funds can be disbursed as soon as possible. As for pledging the Hongkong Electric Group shares, we can handle the paperwork at any time!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Two billion Hong Kong dollars is a substantial amount, so I’ll need to convene a meeting with senior management. However, that shouldn’t be a major issue. I will give you a reply this evening at the earliest, or by noon tomorrow at the latest. Once it’s confirmed and we’ve both signed the contract, I can authorize the immediate transfer of the two billion Hong Kong dollars to your bank account, Mr. Lin!” Michael Sandberg continued.

“We are all straightforward people. Once the funds arrive, I can invest and become a shareholder of HSBC. I look forward to becoming a shareholder and a member of the Board of Directors. That would make you and I colleagues, Mr. Michael Sandberg!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

In the future, he definitely intended to invest in and control a bank, but it obviously wouldn’t be HSBC.

Controlling HSBC was basically an impossible feat. The difficulty would be ten, perhaps even a hundred times greater than controlling Jardine Matheson & Co.

He didn’t even have the confidence to control Jardine Matheson & Co., let alone HSBC.

However, there were so many banks in the world. While he couldn’t control HSBC, controlling another bank would be just the same.

There was no rush for this matter.

His main goal right now was to first build a more solid foundation in Hong Kong, a place he already considered his home base.

Afterward, the two of them chatted in the office for a long time.

Hong Kong wasn’t a large place, and its top business circle was even smaller.

Therefore, Lin Haoran also hoped to build a good relationship with Michael Sandberg.

Although his relationship with Citibank was currently decent because of that previous transaction, Citibank was, after all, an American bank. Its Hong Kong branch was far weaker than HSBC and couldn’t provide timely local support.

Establishing a close relationship with HSBC was particularly important.

In Michael Sandberg’s office, the two had an in-depth conversation for over an hour, discussing the details of the two-billion-Hong-Kong-dollar loan, such as the interest rate, term, and so on.

In addition, they also explored potential future opportunities for cooperation. The atmosphere was very amicable.

It wasn’t until around three in the afternoon that Lin Haoran bid farewell to Michael Sandberg and left HSBC.

The loan was basically a done deal. That being the case, the funding shortage at Universal Investment Company was naturally resolved.

Furthermore, once there was news from the Lee family, he wouldn’t have to worry about the funds to purchase their shares.

After leaving HSBC, Lin Haoran headed straight back to his villa on Severn Road.

He probably wouldn’t get any news from Li Mingze until that evening at the earliest; there was no use in rushing it.

Just as Lin Haoran was heading home in his Rolls-Royce, in an office in the Liyuan International Hotel building in Wan Chai, about a kilometer away, several core members of the Lee family were gathered together.

Besides these core members, Lee Luk Yankeun, the widow of the recently deceased Li Xiaohe, was also present.

Her husband had passed away, but her children were still too young, clearly unsuited to inherit Li Xiaohe’s estate immediately.

So, after Li Xiaohe’s death, Lee Luk Yankeun became the inheritor of her husband’s estate.

Li Mingze had summoned them all here today for the matter concerning Lin Haoran.

Besides Lee Luk Yankeun, Li Mingze’s second younger brother Lee Mingqia, fourth younger brother Lee Rongsen, and fifth younger brother Lee Rongjie were also present.

They all had one thing in common: they held shares in TVB, having all followed Li Mingze in founding it.

The Lee family was very united, but apart from family businesses like Hysan Development Company Limited and the Liyuan International Hotel, most of them had their own separate investments.

The investment in TVB, for instance, was a personal venture of Li Xiaohe and the others, having little to do with the family.

The wealth gained from such external investments belonged to them personally, not to the family.

The Lee family also strongly supported its members in starting their own businesses, as this was the way for the family to develop better, rather than having everyone depend on the family enterprises.

It was only when matters concerned the family’s interests that the family’s interests were prioritized above all else.

“Older Brother, why did you call us here?” inside the office, Second Brother Lee Mingqia asked curiously after they had all sat down.

“We are all saddened by Third Brother’s passing. However, we have an issue before us concerning TVB. Although I have no connection to TVB myself, as your older brother, I am very concerned about this matter.

Whether the Lee family continues to control TVB will also have a certain impact on the family. So I want to ask, does anyone among you intend to take over the reins of TVB?” Li Mingze asked directly.

The four people present all held the same amount of TVB equity. Combined, their shares made them the major shareholder of TVB, which was the primary reason Li Xiaohe had always been able to serve as the Chairman of the Board.

A 24 percent stake was a very large amount for a company like TVB, which had multiple shareholders.

Li Mingze’s words made them look at each other.

“Older Brother, I know my own abilities. I don’t have what it takes to manage TVB. Do you want to take charge, Older Brother? If you want to become the chairman of TVB, I support you!” Second Brother Lee Mingqia said after a moment of thought.

“You all know I’ve never had any interest in the television industry,” Li Mingze said, shaking his head in refusal. At the same time, he looked at the remaining three.

“Older Brother, my abilities are even less than Second Brother’s. I’m fine being a shareholder, but forget about being the chairman. I’d just run TVB into the ground, there’s no need for that. My skills are only enough to manage our Liyuan International Hotel,” Fourth Brother Lee Rongsen said next.

Lee Rongsen was currently the general manager of the Liyuan International Hotel, assisting his older brother Li Mingze in managing the family hotel.

“Older Brother, I feel the same way. Among us brothers, only you and Third Brother had the most outstanding management talent. Now that Third Brother is gone, if someone has to take over TVB, only you, Older Brother, have the ability and prestige,” Fifth Brother Lee Rongjie said with a wry smile.

At that moment, everyone’s gaze focused on Lee Luk Yankeun.

Chapter 258: The Result of the Lee Family’s Discussion

Their words made it clear that no one present was interested in taking charge of TVB.

In their view, even under the management of Li Xiaohe—acknowledged as the most capable manager in the Lee family—TVB had been unable to compete with Rediffusion Television.

They were all self-aware enough to know that if they took over, TVB’s situation would likely only worsen.

The position of TVB Chairman was not an easy one to hold.

Doing a good job was one thing, but doing poorly would only bring shame, and they could be forced to step down at any moment.

Since they each held a small number of shares, the position of TVB Chairman was, to them, a thankless task.

“Since none of you are interested in having a controlling stake in TVB, I have a suggestion: let’s sell all the shares!” Li Mingze said, sitting in his chair and addressing the core family members.

“Older Brother, TVB shares are not easy to sell. The company itself doesn’t make much profit, and it’s not a listed company!” Fourth Brother Lee Rongsen said with a frown.

When they founded TVB, the capital raised from each shareholder wasn’t much, but in the dozen or so years since its founding, TVB hadn’t been very profitable.

This was especially true during the years when Commercial Television was established. The three-way rivalry created fierce competition. To boost viewership ratings, nearly all of the station’s profits were reinvested into producing new television series. Receiving dividends for the year was out of the question; it was normal to operate at a loss.

After Commercial Television went bankrupt, TVB’s situation had improved slightly in the last two years, as the competition had eased.

However, its rival, Rediffusion Television, remained aggressive, continuously increasing production budgets to create more high-quality dramas. As a result, even after Commercial Television’s collapse, TVB’s viewership ratings struggled to surpass Rediffusion’s.

It wasn’t that difficult to beat Rediffusion Television in viewership ratings. They could simply increase investment, improve the quality of their dramas, and cater to the audience’s tastes. The ratings would naturally rise significantly.

But none of the shareholders were willing to invest more money. To the Lee family, TVB was a business that only took in money without giving any back; its only value was enhancing the Lee family’s reputation.

Although the television station could sustain itself, the title of TVB Director came with few benefits.

This was why Lee Mingqia, Lee Rongsen, Lee Rongjie, and the others had absolutely no interest in taking charge of TVB.

It was also why Li Mingze himself had little interest in it.

“I’ve already found a suitable buyer for you. If you agree, we can sell!” Li Mingze said with a smile.

Lin Haoran’s status in the business world had now far surpassed his own. He had even forced a top British tycoon like Newbiggin to bow his head and admit fault—something that had never happened since the founding of Hong Kong. One could imagine how high Lin Haoran’s standing in Hong Kong had become after this incident.

Therefore, as far as Li Mingze was concerned, it was crucial for the Lee family to be on good terms with Lin Haoran.

“Older Brother, who is it? Could it be Mr. Shao Yifu?” The first person Second Brother Lee Mingqia thought of was Shao Yifu.

After all, Shao Yifu’s personal stake was only slightly smaller than the Lee family’s, and he had always been very dedicated to TVB. It wouldn’t be surprising if he was eyeing their shares.

“No, Mr. Shao Yifu hasn’t contacted me. His Shaw Brothers Film Company is currently locked in a close competition with Golden Harvest, so he probably can’t spare much energy for TVB,” Li Mingze said with a smile.

“Older Brother, just tell us. Who is it?” Even Lee Luk Yankeun was curious about who wanted to buy their TVB shares.

“Alright, I won’t keep you in suspense. Mr. Lin Haoran, the Chairman of Hongkong Electric Group, contacted me. He’s interested in acquiring the TVB shares held by our Lee family. He didn’t specify a price, but he indicated that as long as the price is reasonable, he won’t haggle too much.

You all know Mr. Lin’s current stature in Hong Kong’s business world. He has risen to his current position in a short amount of time. Most importantly, he’s still young, only in his twenties. Although our previous interactions have kept our relationship with Mr. Lin Haoran on good terms, I think this is a perfect opportunity. By selling him the TVB shares that none of you are interested in, you can not only get a decent sum of money and get rid of this hot potato, but also allow our Lee family to earn a favor from Mr. Lin Haoran. It’s a way to kill two birds with one stone!”

This time, Li Mingze didn’t beat around the bush and stated his thoughts directly.

As the current head of the Lee family, Li Mingze’s opinion carried a lot of weight.

No one refuted him after hearing his words; after all, they had little interest in TVB themselves.

They had initially become TVB shareholders only at the encouragement of Li Xiaohe.

But over the past dozen years, they discovered that TVB didn’t make much money and gradually lost interest in it.

Among them, the one with the most interest was probably Lee Luk Yankeun.

This was, after all, one of the businesses her late husband valued most. If possible, she would have liked to carry on her husband’s legacy and continue managing TVB.

But Lee Luk Yankeun also knew that although she had studied business administration in her youth, she had spent the last twenty-odd years at home, assisting her husband and raising her children, and lacked any real practical experience.

She had only heard Li Xiaohe talk about it often, so she could only discuss it in theory.

Besides, even if she stepped forward and tried to take charge, the others would never agree.

Therefore, Lee Luk Yankeun didn’t say much. At this point, she could only go with the flow.

If she could cash out her shares, it would be a good outcome for her as well.

With Hong Kong’s property prices soaring, Lee Luk Yankeun felt she could earn much more by investing the funds in the real estate industry.

“Should we discuss this with Mr. Shao Yifu? Just in case he has any objections. After all, our Lee family has always had a good relationship with the Shao family,” Lee Luk Yankeun said.

Influenced by her husband, Li Xiaohe, she knew Shao Yifu was a longtime friend of his. She felt it would be improper not to inform him about this.

“Third Sister-in-law, there’s no need to mention it. If he disagrees with us selling, are we really going to listen to him? It’s better to just sell it directly!” Fourth Brother Lee Rongsen replied with a smile.

Lee Luk Yankeun said no more.

“Older Brother, it’s not impossible for us to sell the shares to Mr. Lin Haoran, but the price is a difficult matter. We don’t know what a suitable price would be,” Second Brother Lee Mingqia said, looking at Li Mingze.

“That’s right. Neither of Hong Kong’s two television stations are listed companies, so there’s no data for reference. It’s really hard to say how much to sell them for,” Fourth Brother Lee Rongsen added with a nod.

“So you can all discuss what a good price would be. It certainly can’t be too high; Mr. Lin is no sucker. But if it’s too low, you’ll be at a loss. I’m not a TVB shareholder, Older Brother. The shares are yours. You all should discuss a price that you feel is appropriate but not outrageous. I’ll then convey it to Mr. Lin. If it works out, the deal will be done,” Li Mingze said after some thought.

“Older Brother, do you think a total market capitalization of two hundred million Hong Kong dollars for TVB is excessive?” Lee Mingqia asked after a moment of thought.

Although TVB’s current profitability wasn’t strong, its influence was considerable, and the Lee family knew this very well.

Thus, just because TVB wasn’t very profitable didn’t mean it wasn’t valuable.

After all, TVB was one of only two television stations in Hong Kong and one of only two companies holding a broadcast license.

“Isn’t two hundred million Hong Kong dollars a bit low? In my opinion, three hundred million would be more appropriate!” Lee Rongsen said greedily.

After all, no one would turn their nose up at money.

A total market cap of three hundred million would mean several million more Hong Kong dollars for each of them.

Although the Lee family enterprise was vast, there were many family members. The annual dividends that reached their hands weren’t substantial. If they wanted spending money, they had to earn it themselves.

“Three hundred million Hong Kong dollars might be a bit much. I think a compromise would be better. Let’s calculate it based on a market cap of two hundred and fifty million Hong Kong dollars. That way, each of us can still get fifteen million Hong Kong dollars,” Lee Rongjie added, voicing his opinion.

“Yankeun, what about you? Any thoughts?” Li Mingze asked, turning to Lee Luk Yankeun.

“Older Brother, I’ll go with your arrangements. I don’t have any thoughts,” Lee Luk Yankeun said, shaking her head.

Her husband had only passed away a few days ago, and she still felt a bit lost. Coupled with the preceding exchange that made her decide to say no more, she naturally wouldn’t offer any ideas, even if she had them.

Li Mingze nodded and said, “In that case, let’s proceed with the two hundred and fifty million total market capitalization that Fifth Brother suggested. Does anyone have any objections? If not, I’ll negotiate with Mr. Lin Haoran at this price. If he agrees, then everyone will be happy. If he doesn’t, you all can discuss it again. After all, this is your own wealth, and as your Older Brother, I can’t let you sell with regrets!”

“Older Brother, I have no objections,” Second Brother Lee Mingqia said immediately.

“I have no objections either. Let’s go with this price!” Fourth Brother Lee Rongsen quickly followed.

“I have no objections either!”

“No objections.”

The last two echoed their agreement.

Based on a total market capitalization of two hundred and fifty million Hong Kong dollars, their 24% stake would be worth sixty million Hong Kong dollars.

Their shares were divided equally, meaning each person would receive fifteen million Hong Kong dollars. While Lin Haoran might deal in hundreds of millions or billions, a sum in the tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars was still a considerable amount of money in Hong Kong’s business circles.

“If that’s the case, then it’s settled. How about this, since everyone is here, I’ll contact Mr. Lin Haoran now to save you all from making extra trips,” Li Mingze suggested after a moment’s thought.

Although the Lees were one family, they didn’t live together. Each had their own home; with so many people, it was impossible to continue living under one roof.

“Older Brother, I think that’s a good idea. Since we’ve made a decision, let’s get this done as soon as possible. I have a business trip to Macau in two days!” Lee Mingqia said.

Li Mingze nodded and, without wasting any time, picked up the phone in his office and paged Lin Haoran’s beeper.

He wasn’t sure where Lin Haoran was at this time; after all, the new business tycoon owned several companies.

Therefore, the fastest way to reach him was undoubtedly by paging him.

At that moment, Lin Haoran had actually already returned home.

Seeing someone had contacted him, Lin Haoran naturally called back as quickly as possible.

Only people he knew had his beeper number.

“Mr. Lin, this is Li Mingze,” said the voice from the telephone receiver.

Chapter 259: Officially Becoming TVB’s Major Shareholder

Li Mingze called him. The topic was, unsurprisingly, about what they had discussed that morning.

Sure enough, Lin Haoran soon heard the news he had been hoping for.

“Mr. Lin, I’ve already discussed the matter of selling our TVB shares to you with my family members. After some persuasion, they’ve agreed in principle to transfer all of their held TVB shares to you.

“As for the price, after some discussion, they’d like to use a total market capitalization of two hundred fifty million Hong Kong dollars as the basis. That means they’re hoping for a price of sixty million Hong Kong dollars for the twenty-four percent stake. What do you think of that proposal, Mr. Lin?”

Li Mingze didn’t beat around the bush, directly stating the outcome of their discussion in front of his younger brothers and sisters-in-law.

“Elder Mr. Lee, I accept this price. If possible, I’d like to sign the share transfer agreement with you immediately. What do you think?” Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a little surprised upon hearing the offer.

He decided to finalize the matter as quickly as possible.

Originally, he would have been very satisfied to acquire the TVB shares for one to two hundred million Hong Kong dollars. He never expected them to ask for only sixty million, a price that was far below his expectations.

With such an attractive price, he naturally had no reason to refuse.

At this moment, Lin Haoran was eager to sign the contract with the Lee family and lock this down.

After all, the industry titan Shao Yifu was also eyeing this, ready to intervene at any moment.

Therefore, the sooner this was signed, the better.

“You’re quite decisive, Mr. Lin. Since you’re in such a hurry, how about this: come over to the Liyuan International Hotel now. I’ll be waiting for you on the 12th floor. My younger brothers and sisters-in-law are all here,” Li Mingze said, equally surprised by Lin Haoran’s frankness.

Since both parties were so straightforward, there was no need to delay any further.

“Alright, Elder Mr. Lee. Give me half an hour, I’ll be right over!” Lin Haoran didn’t want to waste time either and responded directly.

“Okay. During this time, I’ll have the Lee family’s legal counsel prepare the share transfer agreement. That way, when you arrive, you can review the contract directly, and if there are no issues, we can sign immediately.” Li Mingze was also a man of decisive action.

After hanging up the phone, a smile blossomed on Lin Haoran’s face.

He never thought that becoming TVB’s major shareholder would be so simple—much simpler than he had imagined.

He had originally thought there would be some twists and turns, but now it seemed he had been overthinking things.

Although he didn’t have sixty million Hong Kong dollars on hand at the moment, that wasn’t an urgent issue.

A few tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars was not a major problem for him at all.

HSBC would approve his two billion Hong Kong dollar loan by tomorrow at the latest.

Even if something went wrong with the loan, he could easily divert sixty million Hong Kong dollars from his own companies for this emergency.

To Lin Haoran, this sum of money was truly just a drop in the bucket.

Becoming TVB’s major shareholder for only sixty million Hong Kong dollars was indeed a pleasant surprise for him.

In any case, it was a good thing, as it meant he could spend much less money.

He was glad they hadn’t asked him to make an offer; otherwise, he might have generously offered a hundred million Hong Kong dollars for the Lee family’s TVB shares.

He had just gotten home and hadn’t even had time to warm the sofa before he had to head out again.

But how could Lin Haoran feel tired at a time like this? He called for Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, and they hurriedly left the villa again, heading straight for Wan Chai.

He had said to wait half an hour, but in reality, Lin Haoran’s Rolls-Royce arrived at the underground parking garage of the Liyuan International Hotel in about twenty minutes.

Led by a staff member, he took the elevator and soon arrived on the 12th floor.

The 12th floor was clearly not part of the hotel but an office area—and a high-level one at that.

Walking down the corridor, he could see the nameplates on the various office doors: Deputy General Manager’s Office, Chief Financial Officer’s Office, General Manager’s Office, Conference Room…

After walking for about ten meters down the corridor, he finally arrived in front of an office door.

The nameplate on the door read: Chairman’s Office.

A staff member knocked on the door, and it opened right away.

Appearing before Lin Haoran were five people, all of whom he recognized: Li Mingze, Lee Luk Yankeun, and the others.

At this moment, they all came out to welcome him.

“Mr. Lin, please come in and have a seat,” Li Mingze said with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded and walked in.

The office was spacious, over one hundred square meters.

So, with several people inside, it didn’t feel crowded at all.

Lin Haoran shook hands and exchanged a few pleasantries with each of the core members of the Lee family before they all sat down.

“Everyone, I agree to the price you’ve proposed. Let’s not waste any more time and get the share transfer agreement settled. I will have the sixty million Hong Kong dollars transferred to your bank accounts within two days!” Lin Haoran said directly after sitting down.

He didn’t intend to discuss any other irrelevant matters with the Lee family. After all, the most important thing now was to sign the share transfer agreement so that the TVB shares wouldn’t slip away.

“Mr. Lin, this is a draft contract that our family’s legal counsel just prepared. Please take a look and see if there’s anything that needs to be revised. We can discuss it further,” Li Mingze said, handing over the contract they had drafted in the short time they had.

The Lee family’s business interests were spread all over Hong Kong, and they signed countless contracts every year. Drafting a share transfer agreement was complete child’s play for their legal counsel.

Lin Haoran took the contract from Li Mingze and examined it carefully. Finding no issues, he nodded and said, “This is fine. Let’s sign according to this contract!”

He might be young, but he wasn’t clueless, especially when it came to share transfer agreements. He had already signed several of them and was very familiar with the process.

“Good. Since there are no issues, I’ll have someone print it out,” Li Mingze said with a smile.

Because the Lee family’s shares were held by four individuals, Lin Haoran needed to sign a separate share transfer agreement with each of them.

The contract signing went smoothly. Half an hour later, Lin Haoran held four signed share transfer agreements in his hands.

“Elder Mr. Lee, it has been a great pleasure cooperating with you. What I like most about your family is how straightforward you are!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily after putting the contracts in his bag.

This wasn’t his first time working with the Lee family. Last time, Li Mingze had sold him shares of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, allowing him to triumph in his competition with Jardine Matheson & Co.

This time, they had helped him smoothly secure the position of TVB’s major shareholder.

Therefore, he had a favorable impression of the Lee family.

As for how the Lee family ancestors had made their fortune, what did that have to do with him?

Just like the Ma family, who had started out by trafficking drugs, it hadn’t stopped Lin Haoran from cooperating with them to purchase the Oriental Daily News.

“The pleasure is all ours, Mr. Lin. We also hope for more opportunities to cooperate in the future. The Lee family is eager to take our relationship with you to the next level!” Elder Mr. Lee also laughed cheerfully.

Li Mingze’s actions were undoubtedly paving the way for the Lee family’s future.

Establishing a good relationship with Lin Haoran would, at the very least, provide a powerful backer for the Lee family’s future. Li Mingze had already keenly sensed that Lin Haoran’s future achievements would not be limited to what was currently visible.

A tiny place like Hong Kong would probably not be able to contain a figure like Lin Haoran. Sooner or later, he would create colossal waves in the global business world and become one of the world’s business tycoons.

The recent passing of his third brother, Li Xiaohe, had also given Li Mingze much to think about.

The old generation of the Lee family had all entered their twilight years.

He was now seventy-five years old, and it was hard to say how much time he had left.

Although his fourth and fifth brothers were only in their sixties, and his seventh brother was still in his prime at just over fifty, in the realm of business, only he and his third brother, Li Xiaohe, had achieved significant success in their generation.

Now that his third brother was gone, he couldn’t help but worry: if he were no longer around as well, what would become of the Lee family?

Among the next generation of the Lee family, there were a few promising young talents who showed potential in business, but they were still young and lacked the experience to take on great responsibilities. They needed more training and tempering.

Thus, the Li Mingze of today was filled with deep anxiety and relentless planning for the Lee family’s future.

When people get old, their minds tend to wander, and they worry easily.

This was especially true for the patriarch of a great family like his; there were far too many things he had to consider.

Every decision had to be weighed to see if it would benefit the family.

In truth, although Li Mingze was a renowned tycoon in Hong Kong, to whom even the likes of Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng would show some respect, his life was quite tiring. The number of things he had to consider every day was simply overwhelming.

“How about this, Mr. Lin? You can have dinner here tonight, and we’ll go back and bring the TVB share certificates for you now,” Lee Mingqia suggested.

“Aren’t you going to wait for the money transfer before giving them to me?” Lin Haoran asked with a surprised smile.

“We trust your character, Mr. Lin!” Lee Rongsen added.

“Alright, thank you for the trouble. I’ll have the money transferred to your respective accounts by tomorrow at the latest!” Lin Haoran said with satisfaction.

A signed contract could still be backed out of, at worst requiring compensation for breach of contract. But once the share certificates were in his hands, there was no room for the Lee family to have any regrets.

So, their straightforwardness was only beneficial to Lin Haoran.

Next, Lin Haoran and Li Mingze chatted in the office, while Lee Rongsen, Lee Luk Yankeun, and the others went back to retrieve their TVB share certificates.

Such important documents were usually kept in a safe, so they certainly couldn’t have someone else deliver them.

That evening, Lin Haoran enjoyed a sumptuous banquet at the Liyuan International Hotel.

And the twenty-four percent of TVB’s shares were now in his possession.

From that moment on, without anyone else’s knowledge, he was already the largest shareholder of TVB.

He just wondered, what kind of reaction would Shao Yifu have when he heard the news?

Chapter 260: The Two Billion Arrives, Re-electing the Chairman of the Board

It wasn’t until around ten o’clock the next morning that Lin Haoran received a call from Michael Sandberg.

Knowing that Michael Sandberg would likely call him in the morning, Lin Haoran had simply waited at home instead of rushing out early.

“Mr. Lin, I’m terribly sorry to have kept you waiting. Our senior management meeting wasn’t held until nine this morning. Regarding your loan, after some discussion, all the senior executives have approved it. You can bring the Hongkong Electric Group shares over for the mortgage loan. As soon as the contract is signed, I will approve the loan immediately, and the funds will be transferred directly to your HSBC account!

Also, regarding your investment in HSBC to become a shareholder and board member, as this is a matter of great importance, we are preparing to hold a press conference. It will likely be held within three days. I will notify you of the specific time separately!” Michael Sandberg said over the phone.

Originally, Michael Sandberg had said it might be settled by the previous evening, but it was clear the senior management meeting hadn’t taken place as scheduled.

However, this didn’t matter much to Lin Haoran; it was just a matter of a little sooner or later.

As for becoming a shareholder, it was obvious that HSBC wanted to announce the matter publicly, letting the citizens of Hong Kong know that Lin Haoran, this Chinese tycoon, had become one of HSBC’s owners. This could be seen as a small tactic to increase HSBC’s standing in the hearts of Hong Kong’s citizens.

Hong Kong was, after all, a city with a predominantly Chinese population, and HSBC was a bank whose clientele was also mainly Chinese, so currying favor with the Chinese community was a key strategy.

Otherwise, HSBC would not have gradually accepted Chinese individuals as members of its Board of Directors.

“Alright, Mr. Michael Sandberg. I will arrive at the HSBC headquarters in about half an hour. I look forward to meeting with you again!” Lin Haoran hung up the phone with a smile.

Two billion Hong Kong dollars were finally about to arrive. How could he not be happy?

Although it was a loan, for Lin Haoran, repaying this sum when it was due would not be difficult.

After retrieving the Hongkong Electric Group share certificates, Lin Haoran left the Severn Road villa with the brothers Li Weidong and Li Weiguo.

The location of Severn Road was excellent. Whether going to Causeway Bay, Wan Chai, Central, or Sheung Wan, the journey wasn’t too long, generally taking about twenty minutes.

Thus, about twenty minutes later, Lin Haoran once again appeared in the personal office of Michael Sandberg, the Taipan of HSBC.

“I apologize for making you wait, Mr. Lin. I had originally planned to hold the senior management meeting yesterday afternoon, but a few of the executives were unavailable, so we had to postpone it until this morning,” Michael Sandberg said apologetically after they sat down.

“It’s no matter, a little time makes no difference. If there are no issues, let’s sign the loan contract. I’ve brought the Hongkong Electric Group share certificates with me!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Of course, I have the loan contract ready. Please have a look, Mr. Lin!” Michael Sandberg said as he handed a contract to Lin Haoran.

The contract was entirely in English, but that was no challenge for Lin Haoran.

After reading it carefully twice, he found no problems.

The interest rate, term, and other details listed were exactly as he had discussed with Michael Sandberg the day before, with no changes.

Compared to the past, bank loan interest rates in Hong Kong had risen significantly, with the market rate generally above thirteen percent per annum.

However, Michael Sandberg had given Lin Haoran a preferential rate of ten percent annual interest.

This meant that for his two-billion-Hong-Kong-dollar loan, Lin Haoran would have to pay two hundred million Hong Kong dollars in interest for one year.

But compared to the profits he stood to make, two hundred million Hong Kong dollars was truly nothing.

Once he could take over the Hongkong Land Group, what did a little interest matter?

From around five percent in 1978 to over ten percent now, one could imagine how steeply bank interest rates in Hong Kong had climbed.

In March of this year, the annual interest rate for bank loans had even reached a terrifying sixteen percent; it had only dropped a little in the past few months.

This wasn’t even the peak. By October of next year, the annual interest rate for bank loans would directly break through twenty percent.

This was mainly because the Hong Kong property market was still booming, and the public’s demand for loans had soared, so the banks naturally took the opportunity to make a fortune.

The speculation in property prices allowed the banks to make a huge profit.

“Okay, let’s sign according to this contract!” Lin Haoran said directly.

And so, the two of them signed the loan contracts, which were in duplicate.

Afterward, Michael Sandberg affixed his official seal.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, it’s a pleasure doing business with you,” Lin Haoran said, standing up with satisfaction after the contract was settled and shaking Michael Sandberg’s hand.

“A pleasure indeed,” Michael Sandberg was also in a good mood, his face wreathed in smiles.

Two billion Hong Kong dollars was no small sum, even for a financial behemoth like HSBC in Hong Kong.

But with Lin Haoran using his Hongkong Electric Group shares as collateral, it was not a problem at all.

“Now that the contract is signed, I’ll arrange for the funds. Would you mind waiting in the VIP room for a moment, Mr. Lin?” Michael Sandberg said after a quick, confirming glance at the Hongkong Electric Group share certificates.

“Of course. Thank you for your trouble.”

Lin Haoran followed Michael Sandberg out of the Taipan’s office and was led by Senior Client Manager Miss Huang to a VIP room to wait.

Once the funds arrived, he still needed to transfer sixty million Hong Kong dollars to the four former TVB shareholders from the Lee family.

At the same time, the stock trading bank account for Universal Investment Company also needed further deposits.

At twelve noon, Lin Haoran walked out of the HSBC headquarters building with a smile of satisfaction.

Everything was settled, and for the time being, there was no shortage of funds.

He could continue to accumulate shares of the Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. without any pressure.

He was now full of confidence that he would take control of the Hongkong Land Group, Hong Kong’s largest real estate group, within the year.

After all, just the day before, he had seen that the shares of Hongkong Land Group held by Universal Investment Company had already reached 26.27 percent.

And that was only the shares held by Universal Investment Company.

One shouldn’t forget that Hongkong Electric Group also held six percent of Hongkong Land Group’s shares!

And Hongkong Electric Group was completely under Lin Haoran’s control.

In other words, Lin Haoran had the final say over this six percent stake as well.

Effectively, Lin Haoran’s actual controlling stake in the Hongkong Land Group had already surpassed thirty-two percent.

Even if Lin Haoran proposed to take control of the Hongkong Land Group right now, he might have a chance of success.

However, he was in no hurry and planned to continue increasing his shareholding.

At the very least, Universal Investment Company had to control thirty percent of Hongkong Land Group’s equity.

Due to the large number of shares already acquired, it was clear that the pace at which Universal Investment Company accumulated more shares would slow down.

But no matter what, every extra share increased his certainty.

Although Jardine Matheson and Jardine Securities held only about twenty percent of Hongkong Land, other British shareholders also held a certain amount of equity, some public and some private. Even Lin Haoran didn’t know exactly how many shares of the Hongkong Land Group the British-funded conglomerate controlled.

However, it was certainly over thirty percent.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s thinking was simple: the more he could increase his holdings, the better!

After all, if he revealed his ambitions prematurely and failed to achieve his goal of taking control, Jardine Matheson & Co. would surely mount a defense.

So, the acquisition of the Hongkong Land Group had to succeed in one go!

…

Kowloon Tong, Broadcast Drive, TVB Headquarters.

Shao Yifu had just arrived from Tseung Kwan O. As he walked into TVB, the headquarters of Hong Kong’s famous television station, it seemed a bit deserted.

Shao Yifu was a non-executive director of TVB, but as the second-largest shareholder, he held a certain amount of say in the company and often visited.

Greeted by employees along the way, Shao Yifu arrived at the TVB Chairman’s office.

Opening the door and walking in, he looked at the photo of Li Xiaohe still hanging on the wall and couldn’t help but feel a touch of melancholy.

He and Li Xiaohe had known each other for decades and shared a deep friendship. Shao Yifu was still saddened by his friend’s passing.

However, it was only a fleeting sorrow; he wasn’t one to be overly sentimental.

At his age, he had seen plenty of life and death.

His own father and older brother had passed away one after another, and life had gone on. Not to mention, Li Xiaohe was just a friend from the business world.

A knock came from the door.

“Come in!” Shao Yifu said, looking up at the office door.

The office door opened, and in walked TVB’s General Manager, Yu Bojun.

“Mr. Shao, it has been several days since Director Li passed away. TVB cannot remain without a chairman for long. Therefore, I plan to organize a Board of Directors meeting to re-elect a Chairman of the Board. What are your thoughts?” Yu Bojun asked respectfully for his opinion.

“Mm, a re-election is indeed necessary,” Shao Yifu nodded in agreement.

Although the company’s daily affairs were mostly handled by the general manager, the position of chairman was equally indispensable, especially at TVB, where many major decisions were often made by the chairman.

“I believe it would be best for you, Mr. Shao, to serve as the company’s new chairman,” Yu Bojun stated his position while they were alone.

“Let’s see the Lee family’s attitude first. If they want the position, I have no reason to contend for it,” Shao Yifu said, shaking his head.

Due to Li Xiaohe’s passing, he hadn’t yet discussed with the Lee family who should take over TVB.

“If the Lee family wishes to take the position, I believe only Mr. Li Mingze is qualified. However, he has never seemed interested in the television industry,” Yu Bojun said after a moment of thought.

“Has there been any major change in the company these past few days?” Shao Yifu changed the subject, not responding to Yu Bojun’s comment.

“No. Although Director Li’s passing was very sudden, he had made arrangements for the company’s recent work before he passed away. I am currently carrying out the work plans he set, so there have been no issues,” Yu Bojun replied.

After a brief chat with Yu Bojun, the latter left the office.

Shao Yifu, however, remained in the office, lost in deep thought.

Chapter 261: Brother Yifu, You’re Too Late!

Originally, Shao Yifu had planned to contact the Lee family in another day or two.

But now that Yu Bojun had proposed a board meeting to re-elect the Chairman of the Board, he decided to approach the Lee family sooner.

For Shao Yifu, the position of TVB’s Chairman was one he was determined to secure.

After all, just as his third elder brother had said, it was time for Shaw Brothers Studio to find a fallback plan for itself.

The television industry was the best choice for this plan.

Thus, Shao Yifu used the telephone in his office to call Li Mingze directly.

Although Li Mingze wasn’t a shareholder of TVB, everyone in Hong Kong knew that he was the one who made the decisions for many of the Lee family’s affairs. He was the head of the Lee family.

Shao Yifu’s goal was to acquire the Lee family’s shares and become the largest shareholder. That way, he could legitimately assume the role of TVB’s Chairman.

And if he wanted the few Lee family shareholders to sell him their shares, approaching Li Mingze to act as an intermediary was the most suitable course of action.

“Brother Mingze, what are you busy with?” Shao Yifu asked politely once the call went through.

“Just handling some matters at the company. To what do I owe the pleasure of your call today, Brother Yifu?” Li Mingze asked curiously.

The two were only two years apart in age, both in their seventies, and they had known each other for decades. Their relationship was quite good.

“I am indeed calling to ask for a favor,” Shao Yifu replied.

“Please, Brother Yifu, just say the word. Given our friendship, I’ll definitely help if I can!” Li Mingze’s curiosity about the reason for Shao Yifu’s call grew.

“Then I’ll be direct. I was wondering if you, Brother Mingze, have any interest in the position of TVB’s Chairman?” Shao Yifu said with a smile.

“You know what I’m like. You all wanted me to help found TVB back then, and I had no interest. Not to mention I’m so old now and have quite a few positions on my plate. I simply don’t have the energy to manage TVB,” Li Mingze answered without hesitation.

“Perfect. Since you’re not interested in TVB, Brother Mingze, I’d like to acquire the TVB shares held by your Lee family. I’ll offer a very fair price. Could I trouble you to be my intermediary and see which of your brothers are willing to sell their shares? What do you think?” Shao Yifu finally stated his purpose.

“Brother Yifu, I’m afraid I can’t help you with this. My apologies!” Hearing this, Li Mingze replied with a wry smile.

“Why? Could it be someone in your Lee family intends to inherit Brother Xiaohe’s position as Chairman?” This was Shao Yifu’s immediate thought.

“No, Brother Yifu, it’s not that I don’t want to help, nor is it that someone in our family wants to be TVB’s Chairman. It’s that you’re too late. Our shares were sold just yesterday. They were probably planning to inform you at the board meeting. We had no idea you were interested in our family’s TVB shares. If we had known, I wouldn’t have let them sell,” Li Mingze said, sounding quite helpless.

In reality, he had intentionally kept this from Shao Yifu.

This was because Li Mingze felt that although Shao Yifu was also a tycoon in Hong Kong’s business world, a renowned movie mogul even, he was about the same age as himself. How much longer did he have?

Moreover, Lin Haoran’s current standing was clearly much higher in comparison—so high that even Newbiggin had to take the initiative to apologize.

If it had been Shao Yifu, he certainly wouldn’t have had the power to make Newbiggin apologize to the whole of Hong Kong on television.

It was obvious that the Lee family had a greater need for personal connections like the one Lin Haoran offered.

For this very reason, he had deliberately not told Shao Yifu about this matter in advance.

In fact, as a wily old fox who had navigated the business world for decades, how could Li Mingze not know that for something as major as selling stocks, it was best to consult with the other TVB shareholders, or at least give them some prior notice?

He had done it on purpose.

Li Mingze was unwilling to miss such a rare opportunity to strengthen the relationship between Lin Haoran and the Lee family.

He had no interest in TVB himself. As far as he was concerned, what was sold was sold, and it was no loss to the Lee family.

After hearing Li Mingze’s words, Shao Yifu was stunned.

The Lee family shares, which he had already considered his, had been snatched up by someone else?

It was just as the saying goes: “Strike first to gain the advantage, strike late and suffer disaster.”

At this moment, he was filled with regret. If he had known, he wouldn’t have delayed.

He had originally thought it was inappropriate to bring up the matter with the Lee family so soon after Li Xiaohe’s passing, so he decided to wait a few more days.

He never expected that his wait would be in vain.

After calming down, Shao Yifu asked helplessly, “Who was it?”

“Mr. Lin Haoran. He approached us, hoping to buy our TVB shares. After my second and fourth brothers discussed it, they agreed to Mr. Lin’s acquisition request and sold the shares to him on the same day. Now, our Lee family’s twenty-four percent stake has all been sold to Mr. Lin,” Li Mingze said truthfully.

“Alright, I understand. Sorry to have bothered you, Brother Mingze. Let’s have tea when you’re free.” Shao Yifu was in no mood to continue the conversation.

“Of course. You must be busy, Brother Yifu. I should get back to my work as well.” The matter was somewhat awkward, so Li Mingze had no interest in chatting further either.

Thus, both parties tacitly hung up the phone.

After the call ended, Shao Yifu sat in his chair, his expression complex.

He had never in his wildest dreams imagined that this young man, Lin Haoran, would beat him to the punch.

He held twenty-one percent of the shares, which wasn’t much different from Lin Haoran’s twenty-four percent. He wasn’t too concerned about that.

What troubled Shao Yifu was Lin Haoran’s objective. Could he really be planning to take complete control of TVB?

Shao Yifu was not very familiar with this suddenly risen business tycoon. As they were in different industries, they’d had no opportunities to interact, having only met at The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and at Li Xiaohe’s funeral.

“It seems I’ll have to pay a visit to this young tycoon who made even Newbiggin bow his head and admit his mistake,” Shao Yifu muttered to himself.

He wanted to know Lin Haoran’s purpose for acquiring TVB shares.

The sudden appearance of such a competitor had caught him completely off guard.

Originally, Shao Yifu had thought that taking control of TVB would be practically problem-free.

But now, the sudden appearance of Lin Haoran, a figure he found formidable, was truly beyond his expectations.

If it were anyone else, he would still be confident in competing.

But his opponent was Lin Haoran, a man who had recently acquired several listed companies and had even forced the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. to bow his head and admit fault. He felt his confidence wavering.

There was no use overthinking it. Shao Yifu decided to stop contemplating and just meet with this young man to see what his true intentions were.

Immediately, he began searching for a contact number.

He quickly found a business card in his wallet with Lin Haoran’s contact information on it.

He had gotten this card when they exchanged contact information at The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

At that moment, Lin Haoran was already in his office at Universal Investment Company.

After leaving the HSBC headquarters building, he took the Li Weiguo and Li Weidong brothers to a nearby high-end restaurant for a relatively simple lunch, then went straight to Wanqing Building.

Just as Lin Haoran was discussing stocks with Su Zhixue, the beeper at his waist buzzed.

“I need to make a call,” Lin Haoran said.

“Boss, I’ll go check on things in the Investment Department then,” Su Zhixue said, tactfully leaving the office.

Although he didn’t know who was calling his boss, there were some things he definitely shouldn’t overhear. Su Zhixue always knew how to avoid suspicion.

After dialing the number back, Lin Haoran asked directly, “Hello, this is Lin Haoran. May I ask who this is?”

“Hello, Mr. Lin. This is Shao Yifu. I’m not disturbing you, am I?” An elderly man’s voice came from the other end.

“Ah, it’s Old Mr. Shao. Of course not, you’re not disturbing me at all,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He hadn’t expected the man to call so quickly. It seemed he already knew about his purchase of the TVB shares.

Therefore, Lin Haoran wasn’t surprised by Shao Yifu’s call; it was only a matter of time.

“Mr. Lin, is it a convenient time for you? I’d like to pay you a visit to discuss something in person,” Shao Yifu requested directly.

“If Old Mr. Shao is looking for me, I’m naturally available. I’m in my office on the thirty-first floor of Wanqing Building in Central right now. Please come right over, Old Mr. Shao!” Lin Haoran invited warmly.

“Excellent. Then please wait a little while, Mr. Lin. I’m currently at the TVB headquarters in Kowloon Wharf. It should take about thirty to forty minutes to get there,” Shao Yifu replied.

“It’s no trouble. I happen to be free. I’ll await your arrival, Old Mr. Shao,” Lin Haoran said with a slight smile.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran calmly sat in his office and called the front desk on the first floor of Wanqing Building, informing them that Shao Yifu would be coming and to have someone bring him up to the office.

Then, Lin Haoran continued to look over the shareholding documents that Su Zhixue had given him earlier.

It was quite a distance from Kowloon Tong. One was in the northern part of the city, the other in the south, a good ten kilometers apart. The route also passed through the bustling city center, so with traffic jams, red lights, and the queue to pay the toll at the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, the journey would definitely take thirty to forty minutes.

It was well within his expectations that Shao Yifu would seek him out.

Even if Shao Yifu hadn’t looked for him, he had planned to find some time to visit this legendary tycoon of the Hong Kong film industry.

Lin Haoran knew that TVB was indeed at a disadvantage in viewership ratings right now, unable to compete with its local rival, Rediffusion Television. But once Shao Yifu took the helm, he quickly turned the tables.

After that, TVB almost consistently suppressed ATV.

In the era before he traveled through time, Asia Television had already gone bankrupt, while TVB stood firm as a rock.

It could be said that after Shao Yifu took charge, he truly put TVB on the fast track of development. Twenty years later, in March of 2000, TVB’s market capitalization would even soar to thirty-seven billion Hong Kong dollars at one point.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had no intention of fighting Shao Yifu for control. There was simply no need.

With his status as the largest shareholder, he would certainly have a degree of say in TVB’s matters. When he needed to use TVB, he would naturally be able to do so at any time.

Chapter 262: You’re Afraid I’ll Fight You for Control of TVB, Aren’t You?

About forty minutes later, Shao Yifu arrived as expected.

By this time, Lin Haoran had already returned to his private reception room.

“Old Mr. Shao, welcome. It is an honor to have you!” Seeing that Shao Yifu had arrived, Lin Haoran personally went to the door to greet the man, who was in his seventies.

The sheer number of Shao Yifu schools and Shao Yifu hospitals in Mainland China in his past life was enough to earn Lin Haoran’s respect.

Although it was said that this money came from exploiting his employees, it didn’t detract from the fact that his philanthropic work was truly outstanding.

He was a capitalist, after all. Wasn’t exploiting employees a perfectly normal thing to do?

“Mr. Lin, please forgive me for this presumptuous visit and for disturbing you,” Shao Yifu said with a chuckle.

“Old Mr. Shao, please, come in and talk,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, gesturing toward the spacious and luxurious reception room.

The two entered the reception room, one after the other.

Shao Yifu walked over to the floor-to-ceiling glass window. He couldn’t help but stop and admire the view of the Central streetscape and even Victoria Harbour.

A trace of envy couldn’t help but surface in his heart.

The unique nature of the film and television industries meant that it was difficult to locate his offices in the city center, let alone a core business district like Central.

“This building must be worth at least eight or nine hundred million Hong Kong dollars now, right?” Shao Yifu remarked with a sigh.

Although he was an entertainment tycoon, the money made from films wasn’t as insane as that from real estate.

Even after being a film tycoon for decades, his net worth was still under one billion Hong Kong dollars.

To put it bluntly, if he really wanted to buy this building, he would have to bankrupt himself.

The Shao family’s future ten-billion-dollar fortune was largely earned after taking control of TVB.

Lin Haoran had purchased the Federation Building and the International Building from Wheelock and Company at the beginning of the year.

Now, just a few months later, the one billion he had spent was worth at least one and a half billion Hong Kong dollars at current market prices.

That was how wildly property prices had soared this year.

Stock prices had risen just as wildly.

This was why Lin Haoran didn’t invest all his money in real estate, but in the stock market instead.

Even if he invested several billion in real estate, earned a hundred percent return, cashed out, and then entered the stock market, the stock market would have also doubled by then.

He was better off taking the opportunity to acquire the listed companies he had his eye on while there wasn’t much competition.

If he waited until he’d made enough money in real estate before entering the stock market to acquire listed companies, others would have also accumulated a lot of capital by then. There would be more competitors, and the cost of acquisition would be far more than double.

“Based on the current market, it’s indeed worth eight or nine hundred million. But I’m not planning to sell it, so its value doesn’t have much to do with me,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He truly had no plans to sell the Wanqing Building.

A prime property like the Wanqing Building was a rarity in Central.

However, if he needed the funds, he might consider selling the twenty-something-story International Building.

The real estate industry would reach its recent peak early next year, and then signs of a crisis would begin to appear, lasting until 1982.

By the end of 1982, the market would crash, and then it would begin to gradually recover in 1984.

So, if he were to sell, he would do it at the peak and buy it back when the market crashed. He could earn quite a bit from that one sale and repurchase.

After the two had taken their seats, Shao Yifu looked at Lin Haoran with a complicated expression.

In terms of assets, he was indeed far behind this young man.

A lifetime of hard work couldn’t compare to what this person had accumulated in two years.

The gap was enough to make one feel hopeless.

Even Shao Yifu, a tycoon in the entertainment industry, felt this way.

To put it bluntly, he was nothing in front of Newbiggin.

But Lin Haoran had been able to make Newbiggin apologize in front of all of Hong Kong.

The gap between the two was very apparent in this regard.

Therefore, Shao Yifu did not treat Lin Haoran as a junior just because of his youth.

“What would you like to drink, Old Mr. Shao?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Tea, please. Thank you,” Shao Yifu said without a second thought.

Soon, Zhao Lin, the front desk supervisor of Universal Investment Company, personally brought each of them a cup of hot tea. She then respectfully exited the reception room, closing the door behind her.

“Old Mr. Shao, you’ve come about TVB, haven’t you?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile, watching Zhao Lin’s retreating figure.

“That’s right. Mr. Lin, may I ask what your goal is in acquiring TVB’s shares? Could it be that you intend to take control of TVB?” Since Lin Haoran had brought it up, Shao Yifu decided to stop beating around the bush and asked the question that was weighing on his mind.

This was his biggest worry. With the film industry stagnating, Li Xiaohe’s death presented him with an opportunity to develop in another industry.

Although Shao Yifu knew that the real estate industry made money quickly, he had no intention of entering it. To him, that field was too unfamiliar.

On the other hand, film and television were related. Moreover, he wasn’t ignorant about the television industry. As one of the founders of TVB, his understanding of it was no less than that of Chairman Li Xiaohe. It was just that Li Xiaohe had always been the chairman, so he never had the chance to directly manage TVB.

But now, Li Xiaohe was dead. For him, this was truly the perfect opportunity, and Shao Yifu was determined to seize it.

The Lee family might not be optimistic about the television industry, but that didn’t mean Shao Yifu shared their view.

What he saw was the ever-increasing number of television viewers in Hong Kong and around the world each year.

Shao Yifu even believed that sooner or later, every family in Hong Kong would own a television set.

By then, everyone in Hong Kong would be a television viewer.

One could only imagine how large the television market would be at that point!

Furthermore, over the past decade, the Shaw Brothers Film Company had used TVB to cultivate numerous actors, which showed him TVB’s utility.

The decline of the Shaw Brothers Film Company forced him to turn his attention to the increasingly promising television industry.

This was the main reason he planned to take control of TVB after Li Xiaohe’s death.

“Old Mr. Shao, you’re afraid I’ll fight you for control of TVB, aren’t you?” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

He was naturally aware of Shao Yifu’s ambitions for TVB.

However, as one of TVB’s founders, he was indeed qualified to lead it.

Shao Yifu fell silent for a moment after hearing Lin Haoran’s words.

He felt as if he had no secrets before this young man.

“That’s right. I do intend to become the new chairman of TVB,” Shao Yifu admitted.

“Old Mr. Shao, you can actually rest assured. I have so many companies under my name—whether it’s the Hongkong Electric Group, Green Island Cement Company, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, or Kowloon Motor Bus, Wan’an Real Estate Company, and so on—not a single one of them has fewer assets than TVB.

I don’t mind telling you, even Mr. Michael Sandberg, the Taipan of HSBC, has invited me to invest in HSBC and become a member of its Board of Directors. I’ve already agreed to Mr. Michael Sandberg’s proposal. So, my energy is limited, and it’s impossible for me to attend to every company I invest in.

Therefore, I’m not really that interested in the executive power at TVB. On the contrary, I strongly support you, Old Mr. Shao, in becoming the new chairman of TVB. You have many years of experience in the film industry, and I personally feel that film and television are essentially the same field. Your experience in film is transferable to television, and it will surely lead TVB to a brighter future. So, no matter how you look at it, I have no reason to compete with you for the position of chairman.

So, Old Mr. Shao, you can put your mind at ease. In all of TVB, only you are qualified for the role of chairman. If anyone else wants the position, I will absolutely oppose it!” Lin Haoran didn’t keep Shao Yifu in suspense and directly stated what was on his mind.

TVB’s future development still depended on this old man.

Lin Haoran wouldn’t feel at ease with anyone else managing it.

After all, his knowledge from his past life told him that it was under Shao Yifu’s management that TVB reached its zenith, quickly catching up to and even surpassing Rediffusion Television.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s promise, Shao Yifu couldn’t help but breathe a secret sigh of relief.

Since Lin Haoran had said this, he probably wouldn’t go back on his word at the board meeting and compete with him for the chairman’s seat.

Although Lin Haoran was only a new shareholder in TVB with no established foundation, Shao Yifu would have normally been expected to win the chairmanship with the support of most others at the board meeting.

However, the reason Shao Yifu was so worried after learning Lin Haoran had bought the Lee family’s shares was that, based on Lin Haoran’s track record of acquiring companies, if he wanted to take control of a company, he would just pour in massive amounts of capital, and the other shareholders would sell their shares to him in a heartbeat.

At that point, what use was a deep foundation?

If the other party directly owned over fifty percent of the shares, how could you compete against his absolute controlling stake with your meager foundation?

So, when he heard that Lin Haoran had bought the Lee family’s shares, Shao Yifu’s mind had gone blank for a long time, and a sense of crisis had washed over him.

Now, hearing Lin Haoran’s words, he was truly and deeply relieved.

At the very least, as long as Lin Haoran didn’t compete with him for the position, he was fully confident of becoming TVB’s chairman.

“For Mr. Lin to suddenly invest in TVB, you must have some unique insights into the television industry. As we all know, TVB’s current viewership ratings are indeed lagging behind Rediffusion Television’s. Faced with this situation, how should we turn things around?” Shao Yifu suddenly asked.

He didn’t know much about Lin Haoran, only that this young man had risen abruptly in just two years to become a tycoon in Hong Kong’s business world, with assets far exceeding his own, an old-school businessman.

This rapid rise had led many to believe that Lin Haoran was a puppet cultivated by Citibank.

But whether he was a puppet of Citibank or not, on paper at least, companies like the Hongkong Electric Group and Kowloon Motor Bus were under Lin Haoran’s name.

Chapter 263: The Next Target

For a figure like this, Shao Yifu was not only curious but also wanted to know what Lin Haoran was really made of.

“Old Mr. Shao, your words have put me in a difficult position. I’m a complete layman when it comes to the television and film industry. But that said, I believe you are more than capable of managing TVB impeccably. I have full confidence in your abilities.

However, though I may be a layman, I’ll be bold and offer a few humble opinions: first, find a suitable market position for TVB; second, place greater emphasis on the in-house drama production department; third, keep up with the times and use the most advanced television technology; fourth, produce higher-quality television series and variety shows; and fifth, expand into overseas markets…”

Although discussing television with Shao Yifu felt a bit like showing off in front of the master, Lin Haoran knew that if he wanted the man not to underestimate him, he had to offer something of substance.

Complete ignorance would only earn him contempt.

“Mr. Lin, are you suggesting that TVB hasn’t found its proper positioning at present?” Shao Yifu suddenly interrupted Lin Haoran.

He understood the other points; he was well aware of them. But when it came to market positioning, Shao Yifu was curious to hear Lin Haoran’s unique perspective.

“I personally believe there’s nothing wrong with TVB’s current pursuit of comprehensive programming. After all, with only two major television stations in Hong Kong, diverse programming is naturally more ideal. However, our focus shouldn’t be too heavily skewed towards grand narrative programs. Instead, we should concentrate more on content that reflects the lives of ordinary Hong Kong citizens.

Why do I say this? Because while viewers from the middle and upper classes are important, they ultimately represent only a small fraction of the total audience. If TVB’s programs fail to attract the lower-class citizens, wouldn’t that be equivalent to abandoning a massive viewership base?

In Hong Kong, the choice of television stations is already limited. When advertisers choose where to place their ads, they don’t pay particular attention to the specific demographics of our audience, as that’s often difficult for them to ascertain. What advertisers value most are our viewership ratings.

High ratings mean better results for the advertisers’ placements, and advertising fees will rise accordingly. Therefore, for us as a television station, boosting viewership is paramount. This is why I emphasize that TVB needs to clarify and secure its own positioning,” Lin Haoran stated his views directly.

He had been paying attention to TVB’s current programs. Having been an ordinary person in his past life, he knew what common people liked to watch and what they didn’t.

The key reason Rediffusion Television had managed to surpass TVB in viewership ratings over the past two years was its precise program positioning.

Their recent series, such as Man in the Net, The Great Inner Circle Heroes, and The Chronicles of the Lake and Sea Heroes, were deeply loved by the citizens of Hong Kong precisely because they were relatable and down-to-earth.

Not only that, but it was rumored that Rediffusion Television was about to launch a blockbuster production—the Dynasty series.

The series included three parts: Home on the Pearl River, Thunder in the Ancient Capital, and Gold Mountain Dream, totaling seventy-five episodes.

As far as Lin Haoran knew, this series had set a viewership record for Rediffusion Television and, later, for Asia Television.

Dynasty’s viewership ratings far exceeded TVB’s, forcing TVB to make an unprecedented decision: to axe The Brothers, the series starring Adam Cheng and Carol Cheng that was airing opposite it.

The Brothers was originally planned for eighty episodes, but TVB abruptly canceled it after only fifteen episodes had aired.

This just goes to show how crucial program positioning truly is.

Of course, Lin Haoran was simply relying on his knowledge from a past life, just an armchair strategist. If he were asked to manage TVB, even knowing the root of its viewership problems, he wouldn’t necessarily be able to raise the ratings.

The most Lin Haoran could do was give Shao Yifu a heads-up. As for whether Shao Yifu himself had any ideas on the matter, Lin Haoran had no way of knowing.

After Lin Haoran finished speaking, Shao Yifu remained silent.

He frowned at times, then took a deep breath, as if contemplating the ideas Lin Haoran had just presented.

“Mr. Lin, I’ve learned a great deal!” Shao Yifu suddenly stood up and said to Lin Haoran with great solemnity.

He was already well aware of things like strengthening the original drama department and expanding into overseas markets.

Though Shao Yifu hadn’t been the Chairman before, he had often offered his suggestions to Li Xiaohe. For instance, the Miss Hong Kong pageant and the Wireless Artist Training Class were both implemented under Li Xiaohe’s leadership, but they were actually Shao Yifu’s own proposals.

These two ideas not only brought considerable ratings to TVB but also supplied Shaw Brothers Studio with many talented actors—a win-win situation.

Now, Lin Haoran’s words felt like an epiphany, and he couldn’t help but feel a growing admiration for the young man before him.

“Mr. Lin, is this what you call being a layman? In my opinion, you have more ideas than an expert!” Shao Yifu exclaimed.

“Old Mr. Shao, you’re flattering me too much. I know my own limits. It was just an offhand remark, not to be taken too seriously. I look forward to you becoming TVB’s Chairman soon and raising the ratings. That way, as a shareholder, I can see some returns too!” Lin Haoran said with a modest smile.

Although TVB was currently at a disadvantage compared to Rediffusion Television, it still had certain strengths.

For example, TVB was the pioneer in free-to-air television. Rediffusion Television had initially focused on pay TV and only ventured into the free market years after TVB had solidified its position.

This gave TVB a solid audience base from the very beginning. Even though it was slightly behind now, it still possessed a multitude of loyal viewers.

Furthermore, Rediffusion Television would experience several changes in ownership over the next two years, first being acquired by an Australian financial group and later sold to the Far East Group’s Chairman Qiu. The frequent changes in shareholders and senior management would undoubtedly have a major impact on its future development, including its management style, which could directly affect its viewership ratings.

In contrast, TVB’s senior management had remained stable for a very long time. If not for Li Xiaohe’s sudden death from a heart attack, its leadership structure might have remained unchanged.

This stability in leadership provided TVB with stylistic consistency, which was one of its most important competitive advantages.

Next, Lin Haoran and Shao Yifu discussed a few more points.

Although he certainly wouldn’t have the confidence to manage TVB well himself, he was perfectly capable of offering some unique and beneficial insights based on the foresight he had from his previous life and his understanding of the current situation.

By now, Shao Yifu’s attitude toward Lin Haoran had shifted several times.

It went from initial unfamiliarity and caution, to relief upon learning Lin Haoran had no intention of competing for the chairmanship, then to surprise at his suggestions, and finally to sincere admiration.

In Shao Yifu’s view, it was a good thing TVB wasn’t a large public company. Perhaps that was why Lin Haoran wasn’t interested in its executive power. Otherwise, if Lin Haoran were to become Chairman, he might very well be no worse than Shao himself.

At this moment, his heart was filled with a sense of relief.

“By the way, Mr. Lin, Wireless Television is holding a board meeting tomorrow at nine in the morning. As a major shareholder, it would be best if you didn’t miss it. We will be re-electing the new senior leadership team,” Shao Yifu said to Lin Haoran as their conversation wound down.

The company was, of course, supposed to notify its major shareholders of such matters. But with Lin Haoran’s sudden acquisition of the Lee family’s shares, it was clear TVB hadn’t had time to inform him yet. Shao Yifu’s visit now served as a notification of sorts.

“I will be there on time, you can rest assured, Old Mr. Shao. As for the position of Chairman, I only recognize you. I won’t approve of anyone else who wants the job!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Shao Yifu was destined to manage TVB well; the same couldn’t be said for others.

For Lin Haoran, TVB’s purpose was to be a tool he could use whenever he needed it. He didn’t want control over the station’s management.

The higher TVB’s ratings and the more important its status in Hong Kong, the more useful it would be to him.

Of course, as TVB’s market capitalization grew after its IPO in the future, he would naturally make some money along the way.

Television would inevitably face a decline one day, but that was probably more than thirty years away.

With the advent of smartphones, the number of people watching television would only decrease, and its influence would naturally diminish.

However, he would certainly sell his equity long before that time came.

Twenty or thirty years was too far off; he didn’t plan to think about it too much.

Shao Yifu left Lin Haoran’s reception room with a mix of complex yet pleasant feelings.

Watching Shao Yifu’s departing figure, Lin Haoran stretched and prepared to head to Su Zhixue’s office again.

The matter with TVB was now basically resolved perfectly. Unsurprisingly, his next target was the Hongkong Land Group.

He could hardly wait to take control of Hong Kong’s largest property development company.

Once he was in charge, he would interfere with the Hongkong Land Group’s development strategy.

Because he knew that between 1981 and 1982, due to its blind expansion, the Hongkong Land Group became heavily indebted when the real estate crisis hit, earning it the infamous title of Hong Kong’s “King of Debt.”

It was normal for real estate companies to have debt; many expanded rapidly by constantly investing with bank loans.

But debt ratios could vary greatly.

Hongkong Land’s investment decisions in and before 1982 were overly aggressive and lacked sufficient market judgment.

For instance, they overinvested in certain high-risk projects or made massive investments without adequately assessing market prospects.

These flawed investment strategies led to enormous losses, which in turn increased the company’s liabilities.

Since he was going to take control of Hong Kong’s largest real estate company and become its boss, Lin Haoran naturally couldn’t allow its debt ratio to become too high.

Any reckless investments that could be avoided must be avoided.

After all, once he took control of the Hongkong Land Group, his own interests would be at stake.

Chapter 264: Vice Chairman of the Board of TVB

In the blink of an eye, the next day arrived.

It was now July 4, 1980.

In the morning, Lin Haoran got out of bed shortly after seven.

Hong Kong in July was sweltering. Even at seven or eight in the morning, the temperature was already twenty-eight or twenty-nine degrees Celsius.

The TVB shareholder meeting was scheduled for nine o’clock in the morning. The journey from the Severn Road villa to Kowloon Tong would obviously take quite some time, especially since it was during the morning rush hour. The traffic in the city center was bound to be extremely heavy.

Therefore, after a simple breakfast and a quick glance at the morning paper, Lin Haoran left the house at eight o’clock with the two brothers, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo.

As expected, the endless streams of carsGridlocked the main roads of Hong Kong’s city center. Gloucester Road, in particular, which led to the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, was queued up in a long line.

It wasn’t until half-past eight in the morning that Lin Haoran’s private car finally made it through the Cross-Harbour Tunnel and arrived on the Kowloon Peninsula.

At around ten to nine, the car finally pulled up smoothly at the TVB headquarters on Broadcast Drive in Kowloon Tong.

Lin Haoran was a well-known figure in Hong Kong. The vast majority of Hong Kongers could recognize him, let alone a place like TVB Television, which frequently dealt with the news.

Thus, Lin Haoran’s appearance came as a great surprise to many TVB employees.

The news of his acquisition of TVB shares had not yet been released, so even the staff at TVB were unaware of the matter.

However, some of the bolder ones began to greet this great Hong Kong tycoon.

Some even guessed that Lin Haoran might have already become one of the company’s bosses—otherwise, why would he come here so early in the morning?

After all, many shareholders and Directors who were rarely seen had come to the company this morning.

For Lin Haoran to show up at TVB at such a special time, the reason was obvious.

“Good morning, Mr. Lin.”

“Mr. Lin, I didn’t expect to see you here!”

“Mr. Lin, are you looking for Chairman Shao? I can take you to him.”

…

Lin Haoran responded to each of them with a friendly nod and followed the young man who had offered to take him to Shao Yifu into the building’s elevator.

Obviously, for someone of Lin Haoran’s stature, who else would he be looking for at TVB besides Shao Yifu?

In the days following Li Xiaohe’s funeral, Shao Yifu had been making frequent appearances at TVB, essentially taking over the authority Li Xiaohe held when he was alive.

“You’re Chow Yun-fat, aren’t you?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile as they walked.

The man leading him upstairs was none other than the famous film star, Chow Yun-fat. Lin Haoran had recognized him the moment he spoke.

Now twenty-five years old, Chow Yun-fat had enrolled in the TVB television actors training course in 1973. He graduated smoothly in 1974, and after a brief spell of playing bit parts, he got his chance to act.

In 1975, the period romance drama “Dream of the Red Chamber,” co-directed by Siu Sheng, Li Huimin, and Chen Yuchao, was broadcast, with Chow Yun-fat playing the role of Jiang Yuhan.

In 1976, he starred in his first film, “The Reincarnation.” The television series “The Bund,” which aired earlier this year, especially catapulted him to stardom, making him a household name across all of Hong Kong.

“I didn’t think you would know who I am, Mr. Lin.” A look of delight appeared on Chow Yun-fat’s face.

After all, the man before him was a renowned business tycoon.

Although they were about the same age, Chow Yun-fat was just an actor. Even though acting had made him famous, he was still not in the same league. He and a business tycoon like Lin Haoran were on completely different levels.

“How could I not recognize the Xu Wenqiang you played? It was an excellent performance. Keep up the good work. I believe you’ll soon be famous throughout the entire Chinese-speaking world!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“I’ll work hard, Mr. Lin!” Chow Yun-fat said, his voice tinged with excitement.

Although they were of a similar age and he was now a famous star, when facing Lin Haoran, Chow Yun-fat couldn’t help but feel as if he were facing his boss.

They took the elevator up.

Soon, they arrived at the Chairman’s office.

The door was open, and inside, many people were standing or sitting around—both Westerners and Chinese.

Among them was Shao Yifu.

“Mr. Lin is here,” Shao Yifu said with a smile upon seeing Lin Haoran.

Everyone else immediately turned to look at Lin Haoran.

“Good morning, Old Mr. Shao. Good morning, everyone,” Lin Haoran greeted these strangers with a smile.

To be here at this moment, they were, without a doubt, the shareholders or their representatives.

TVB had quite a few shareholders. Besides Shao Yifu and himself, there were the Eu Yan Sang family, Britain’s Independent Television, Gilman & Co., the United States’ National Broadcasting Company, and even Hutchison Whampoa, all of whom held shares in TVB.

Back then, TVB was able to secure one of only two television licenses because of the joint efforts of these powerful entities.

If it had been just Shao Yifu and the Li Xiaohe brothers, they would have never been able to obtain Hong Kong’s second television license.

TVB was officially launched on November 19, 1967, founded by Li Xiaohe, Kidorrie, Shao Yifu, and others.

Kidorrie was the former Chairman of the Board of Hutchison & Co., and he had used the foreign firm to invest in TVB when it was founded.

However, it was clear that Hutchison Whampoa did not hold many shares now, so the current Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa, Willie, had only sent a senior executive to attend the meeting.

Through introductions, Lin Haoran learned that this man was Willie’s deputy, Richard Lee.

Although Li Jiacheng had already become a Major shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa, he had not yet formally announced that he would take control of the company. Therefore, Willie still served as the Chairman and CEO of Hutchison Whampoa.

As for the Eu family, Independent Television, Gilman & Co., and National Broadcasting Company, they had all merely sent their respective representatives.

There were nearly ten people present, each representing a different power.

Shao Yifu introduced them to Lin Haoran one by one.

Evidently, these people already knew that Lin Haoran had acquired the Lee family’s shares, so they showed no surprise at the moment.

“It’s about time. Let’s start the meeting,” general manager Yu Bojun said.

The wall clock in the Chairman’s office showed that it was nearly nine o’clock.

With that, the group left the Chairman’s office and moved to the conference room next door, taking their seats around a large oval table.

As the general manager, Yu Bojun was the host of today’s meeting.

“Before we begin the meeting, let us first observe a minute of silence for the passing of Chairman Li Xiaohe…”

A minute later.

“Everyone, first let us welcome a new member to TVB—Mr. Lin Haoran. He is now also the Largest shareholder of TVB,” Yu Bojun began by introducing Lin Haoran.

“Colleagues, it is a great pleasure to be working with all of you. I hope TVB will continue to flourish,” Lin Haoran said simply as he stood up.

Other than Shao Yifu, there were no real big shots present; they were basically just representatives sent by the powers behind them, so Lin Haoran didn’t bother with excessive pleasantries.

“I’m sure you all know the reason why you’ve been called here today. That’s right, the main item on our agenda is to re-elect a new Chairman of the Board,” Yu Bojun said, looking at everyone.

“On behalf of Independent Television, I declare that we have no intention of running for the position of Chairman of the Board.”

“On behalf of Gilman & Co., I declare that we also have no intention of running for the position of Chairman of the Board.”

“On behalf of the National Broadcasting Company, I declare that we too have no intention of running for the position of Chairman of the Board.”

“We at Hutchison Whampoa also have no intention of running for the position of Chairman of the Board!”

As soon as Yu Bojun finished speaking, the representatives of several British and American capital firms successively announced their lack of interest in the chairmanship of TVB.

These individuals rarely participated in TVB’s decision-making. They were not interested in managing TVB, and since their shareholdings weren’t large, they knew their chances of becoming chairman were slim, so they naturally didn’t want to bother.

Shao Yifu looked at everyone present. Although he had been in charge of Shaw Brothers Studio for many years, the thought of soon becoming the Chairman of TVB made him feel a little excited.

At this moment, apart from Shao Yifu, everyone else even thought that the reason Lin Haoran acquired the Lee family’s shares was to take control of TVB and become its chairman.

Thus, many of those present were ready to watch a good show.

“Everyone,” Lin Haoran spoke up at this moment.

Instantly, all eyes focused on him.

Except for Shao Yifu, everyone else assumed Lin Haoran was about to nominate himself for the position of Chairman of the Board.

“As the Largest shareholder of TVB, I solemnly recommend Mr. Shao Yifu for the position of Chairman of the Board. I personally believe that he is, without a doubt, the most suitable person for this role!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Lin Haoran’s words immediately surprised many people in the room.

They had not expected this young and promising tycoon to be uninterested in the chairman’s position, instead throwing his full support behind Shao Yifu.

At this time, the Eu family’s representative, TVB’s general manager Yu Bojun, also stood up and said, “On behalf of the Eu family, I also give my full support to Mr. Shao Yifu for the position of Chairman of the Board!”

Basically, the combined shares of Lin Haoran, Shao Yifu, and the Eu family already exceeded fifty percent.

This meant that even if someone else wanted to compete for the position, it would be difficult to contend with Shao Yifu.

Moreover, Shao Yifu’s prestige at TVB had always been very high, second only to the late Li Xiaohe.

Now that Li Xiaohe had passed away, Shao Yifu’s prestige naturally became the highest at TVB.

Therefore, for Shao Yifu to be in charge of TVB was indeed perfectly justifiable and what everyone hoped for.

“Thank you very much, Mr. Lin and General Manager Yu, for your trust and support. As you all know, TVB is currently facing some difficulties. Since no one else wishes to run for this position, I will put myself forward. I hope to serve as the Chairman of the Board of Wireless Television and work hard to manage it even better!” Shao Yifu stood up with a confident smile and declared.

With the firm support of Lin Haoran and Yu Bojun, Shao Yifu was filled with confidence. Even if the British and American powers did not express their support, he believed he could secure the position smoothly.

What’s more, he already maintained good relationships with the representatives of these British and American entities.

“Then let’s proceed to a vote. All those in favor of Mr. Shao Yifu serving as Chairman of the Board, please raise your hand!” Yu Bojun proposed the vote at the opportune moment.

As expected, the voting process went exceptionally smoothly, with no one raising any objections.

Chapter 265: Li Jiacheng’s Ambition

Lin Haoran did not refuse Shao Yifu’s proposal for him to serve as the Vice Chairman of the Board.

With a professional like Shao Yifu around, the position was merely a nominal one for Lin Haoran anyway.

In the end, the proposal was passed unanimously.

As TVB’s largest shareholder, Lin Haoran was more than qualified to be the Vice Chairman of the Board.

Afterward, as the new Chairman of the Board, Shao Yifu reported some of his management policies to the shareholders and their representatives in the conference room.

He even brought up the issue of repositioning TVB, a matter that Lin Haoran had raised with him just the day before.

The shareholder meeting didn’t last long, concluding in just half an hour.

Aside from Shao Yifu becoming the new Chairman of the Board and Lin Haoran the new Vice Chairman, everyone else’s positions remained unchanged, so there wasn’t much to discuss.

After the meeting ended, the shareholders and their representatives left the TVB headquarters building one after another.

Shao Yifu, Lin Haoran, and Yu Bojun returned from the conference room to the Chairman’s office.

“Old Mr. Shao, you know that I have quite a few businesses under my name, so I definitely won’t have much time to devote to TVB. The future development of TVB will have to rely on you and Mr. Yu,” Lin Haoran said directly after sitting down.

“Mr. Lin, I understand. As long as you can occasionally offer the company some good suggestions, that will be more than enough!” Shao Yifu said with a smile.

For him, it was better if Lin Haoran didn’t interfere.

No one wants someone capable of bossing them around in the company; it would only make management cumbersome.

However, after their conversation yesterday, he recognized Lin Haoran’s talent and hoped he would occasionally bring useful suggestions to TVB.

The three of them chatted in the office for a while before Lin Haoran bid them farewell, preparing to make a trip to Wanqing Building.

The matter with TVB was more or less settled, and the rest would naturally be left to the new Chairman, Shao Yifu.

…

Cheung Kong Holdings Group, Chairman’s office.

Li Jiacheng was currently sitting in his executive chair while the head of the securities department reported to him.

“Mr. Li, as of today, the shares of Hutchison Whampoa held by our Cheung Kong Holdings Group have officially exceeded forty percent, reaching the target you set!” his subordinate reported excitedly.

“Good, you’ve done very well. I’ll double your year-end bonuses this year!” Li Jiacheng tried to remain calm, but he couldn’t hide his smile.

Hutchison Whampoa was finally within his grasp!

How could he not be excited?

At the end of last year, HSBC sold 22.4% of Hutchison Whampoa to Li Jiacheng at a low price, but 22.4% alone was certainly not enough to control Hutchison Whampoa.

Therefore, after acquiring the shares held by HSBC, Li Jiacheng had Cheung Kong Holdings Group quietly continue to increase its holdings in Hutchison stock, choosing not to engage in open strife and veiled struggles with Willie.

In his view, there was no need for that. As long as he held enough shares, ousting Willie was only a matter of time.

Now, half a year had passed, and their holdings in Hutchison had finally exceeded forty percent.

Everyone knew what this meant.

It meant that Li Jiacheng could finally, in the truest sense, take control of this major foreign firm.

Originally, Cheung Kong Holdings Group definitely wouldn’t have had so much capital to increase its holdings. Not only that, but they also owed HSBC several hundred million Hong Kong dollars in debt.

However, over the past six months or so, Hong Kong’s real estate market had soared so crazily that Cheung Kong Holdings Group’s assets nearly doubled in that short period. Many projects developed in previous years were continuously sold off while prices were high.

As a result, Cheung Kong Holdings Group’s financial situation became much more comfortable.

It wasn’t just Cheung Kong Holdings Group. The reason why companies like Sun Hung Kai Properties, Henderson Land Development, and others suddenly had as much money as Li Ka-shing and wanted to go on acquisition sprees was the same.

The real estate market boom over the past two years had given them incredibly abundant cash flow, making it seem as though their wealth was growing every day without them having to do anything.

Over the past six months, Lin Haoran had successively acquired Hongkong Electric Group, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, Kowloon Motor Bus, and others. Each acquisition was major news, which indirectly provided some cover for Cheung Kong Holdings Group’s clandestine acquisition activities, making their stock accumulation smoother.

Furthermore, seeing Lin Haoran’s repeated success in acquiring these listed companies, Li Jiacheng was green with envy and constantly pushed the securities department to speed up their accumulation of Hutchison stock.

In another world, Cheung Kong Holdings Group wouldn’t have exceeded forty percent ownership of Hutchison stock until the end of the year.

But in this world, influenced by Lin Haoran, Cheung Kong Holdings Group had already achieved this goal by July.

After his subordinate left the office, Li Jiacheng sat in his chair and began to think.

He was naturally envious that Lin Haoran was continuously acquiring companies that even he hoped to control.

Whether it was Green Island Cement, Hongkong Electric Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, or the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, these were all blue-chip companies that Li Jiacheng very much wanted to control, but unfortunately, he had now missed his chance with all of them.

Therefore, Li Jiacheng hoped to secure complete control over Hutchison Whampoa as soon as possible and then set his sights on other blue-chip companies.

For a long time now, he had coveted the Hongkong Land Group.

Now that he held forty percent of Hutchison Whampoa Group’s shares, taking control was only a matter of time. It seemed it was time to move on to the next target.

Hutchison Whampoa Group alone could not satisfy Li Jiacheng; his ambitions were enormous. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have attempted something like an ant swallowing an elephant by targeting Hutchison Whampoa, whose market capitalization far exceeded that of Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

The booming real estate industry had also fueled his growing ambitions.

If he was going to make a move, he had to go big.

And the Hongkong Land Group was clearly a very suitable target.

“Once I take control of the Hutchison Whampoa Group, I can use both Cheung Kong Holdings Group and Hutchison Whampoa Group to make a clandestine move on the Hongkong Land Group. Hongkong Land won’t be easy to take… should I find a partner?” Li Jiacheng fell into deep thought.

Li Jiacheng naturally knew that Jardine Matheson & Co. and Jardine Securities together held only twenty percent of the shares in Hongkong Land Group.

Therefore, this presented a great opportunity for him to gain control. As long as the shares of Hongkong Land Group held by Cheung Kong Holdings Group and Hutchison Whampoa Group exceeded twenty percent, he would effectively become the major shareholder of Hongkong Land Group.

The allure of the Hongkong Land Group for Chinese tycoons was undoubtedly immense. It was Hong Kong’s oldest and largest real estate company, possessing a vast portfolio of prime commercial buildings in the golden locations of the Central business district, the heart of Hong Kong’s economy. It was hailed as the “pearl on the Crown” of Hong Kong real estate.

As the Hongkong Land Group stated in its advertisements: “Without Hongkong Land, the view of Victoria Harbour would be completely different.”

Whoever controlled the Hongkong Land Group could be called the “King of Kings” in Hong Kong’s real estate world!

And Li Jiacheng wanted to be that “King of Kings.”

Now, looking at the Hutchison Whampoa Group, which he had effectively taken over, Li Jiacheng’s ambition to acquire the Hongkong Land Group was magnified infinitely.

Relying solely on Cheung Kong Holdings Group would certainly not be enough to take over the Hongkong Land Group.

But adding the behemoth that was the Hutchison Whampoa Group increased his chances countless times over.

If he could bring in a powerful partner, the probability of taking over Hongkong Land Group would increase yet again.

“Brother Pao?” Li Jiacheng thought. Pao Yue-kong was his best friend in the Hong Kong business world. Pao Yue-kong’s help over the years had been indispensable to his current success.

However, Li Jiacheng quickly shook his head, extinguishing the thought.

Pao Yue-kong clearly didn’t have much capital at the moment.

The acquisition of Kowloon Wharf had cost the Bao family too much money. Not only that, but they also owed HSBC a debt of 2.1 billion Hong Kong dollars. It had only been a little over a year, and the Bao family was still recovering. How could they have the spare energy to partner with him in acquiring the Hongkong Land Group?

“Team up with Cheng Yu-tung, Li Zhaoji, Guo Desheng, and the others?” Li Jiacheng then thought of others.

He didn’t consider Lin Haoran, as he wasn’t familiar with this suddenly rising young man, and he wasn’t accustomed to working with people he didn’t know well.

In contrast, Cheng Yu-tung, Li Zhaoji, Guo Desheng, and the others were old friends from the business world. Back in 1976, they had even joined forces to acquire that plot of land in Sha Tin to develop the famous City One Sha Tin.

“Perhaps I can try to acquire it myself. If I can use both Cheung Kong Holdings Group and Hutchison Whampoa Group to control the Hongkong Land Group, then I will become the most powerful entrepreneur in all of Hong Kong, the true richest man in Hong Kong. Since I can control the Hutchison Whampoa Group, why can’t I control the Hongkong Land Group?” As he thought about it, Li Jiacheng’s ambition swelled once more.

At this thought, he could no longer sit still.

Li Jiacheng left his office and went straight to the Finance Department of Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

“How much available capital does the company currently have?” Li Jiacheng asked the head of the Finance Department directly.

“Mr. Li, the company currently has 128 million Hong Kong dollars in available funds on its books. We’ve spent a lot of money acquiring Hutchison Whampoa shares recently. However, in two weeks, we’ll be able to start selling one of our real estate projects in North Point. We’ll be able to recoup several hundred million Hong Kong dollars then!” the head of the Finance Department responded respectfully.

Ten minutes later, Li Jiacheng impatiently summoned the head of the company’s securities department and arranged for his people to begin a clandestine accumulation of Hongkong Land Group’s stock.

Since he had already decided to attempt an acquisition of the Hongkong Land Group, he decided to have Cheung Kong Holdings Group move first.

There was no need to continue accumulating shares of Hutchison Whampoa; once he successfully took control, he could direct Hutchison Whampoa to accumulate shares of the Hongkong Land Group as well.

With this two-pronged approach, his dream of becoming the major shareholder of the Hongkong Land Group might just become a reality.

Chapter 266: HSBC Director

Two years ago, Li Jiacheng secretly accumulated shares in Kowloon Wharf. Although the attempt ultimately failed due to a leak, he had successfully acquired nearly 20% of Kowloon Wharf’s shares before being discovered.

This time, as long as he learned from his past mistakes and maintained better secrecy, by the time he was discovered, the combined stake in the Hongkong Land Group held by his two companies might have already surpassed that of Jardine Matheson & Co.

The very thought made Li Jiacheng’s blood boil with excitement, as if he possessed the drive of his youth again, eager to make a move on the Hongkong Land Group immediately.

Recently, Li Jiacheng had come across an article in a newspaper.

The article featured an unofficial list ranking the top ten wealthiest Chinese tycoons in Hong Kong.

As it turned out, he was ranked behind Pao Yue-kong and Lin Haoran, placing only third.

The article sparked heated discussion and was widely accepted by the public.

After all, although Li Jiacheng was the major shareholder of both the Cheung Kong Holdings Group and Hutchison Whampoa, Lin Haoran was clearly more formidable in comparison.

His portfolio—Green Island Cement Company, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, Kowloon Motor Bus, Oriental Press Group, and more—was so impressive that, if not for his short time on the scene, many would have believed his wealth already surpassed Pao Yue-kong’s.

Li Jiacheng was naturally aware of the public’s opinion.

But he saw things differently. He had no complaints about being ranked behind Pao Yue-kong; after all, Pao was his senior.

But he couldn’t accept being placed behind a young man like Lin Haoran.

Therefore, Li Jiacheng was now determined to change the public’s perception of him. He wanted to become the recognized second-richest, or even the richest, man in Hong Kong.

If he could take control of the Hongkong Land Group, this dream would surely become a reality. Forget surpassing Lin Haoran—surpassing Pao Yue-kong would be no problem at all!

For now, he would let the Securities Department of the Cheung Kong Holdings Group take the first step, secretly acquiring shares of the Hongkong Land Group.

Once he ousted Willie and gained complete control of the Hutchison Whampoa Group, he would have them make a move on the Hongkong Land Group as well!

Li Jiacheng was a man of action. Once he made a decision, he was impatient to see it through.

Consequently, the Securities Department of the Cheung Kong Holdings Group quickly convened a meeting. The target of this meeting was none other than the Hongkong Land Group!

That evening, TVB reported on the changes in its senior management during the nightly news.

It was no surprise to anyone that Shao Yifu had become the new Chairman of TVB; he was, after all, a founder and a key shareholder.

What truly astonished everyone was that Lin Haoran had become a major shareholder of TVB and, on top of that, its Vice Chairman.

It turned out that after acquiring Kowloon Motor Bus, Lin Haoran had not stopped his acquisition spree. He had set his sights on TVB—one of only two television stations in Hong Kong—and successfully become a major shareholder.

His relentless investment and acquisition activities made everyone feel as if the young man had an endless supply of money.

Under Shao Yifu’s leadership, TVB might not see many changes in the short term, but in the long run, it was certain to become better and more competitive. It was only a matter of time before it surpassed Rediffusion Television.

Therefore, Lin Haoran knew he didn’t need to devote any energy to TVB.

If things went as expected, Shao Yifu would eventually find a way to increase his own equity and become TVB’s major shareholder, which would allow him to sit more securely in his Chairman’s seat.

However, Lin Haoran didn’t mind. The 24% stake he currently held was more than enough for him.

From the very beginning, he had never intended to hold a controlling stake in TVB.

He didn’t need a controlling stake in every company he targeted.

Just like with Apple Inc., he had only taken a 10% stake and had no ulterior designs on the company’s controlling stake.

TVB was different from a print media outlet like the Oriental Daily News.

The Oriental Daily News was already well-managed by its original general manager, and after Lin Haoran took control, he kept the same man in charge, ensuring there would be no major changes.

Even if Cui Zilong were gone, Hong Kong had plenty of talent in print media; after all, there were hundreds of newspaper companies across the territory.

But TVB was a television station, one of only two in all of Hong Kong. Excellent television management talent was bound to be scarce, so not just anyone could manage TVB well.

In Hong Kong, Lin Haoran believed that only Shao Yifu could manage TVB effectively.

The former TVB television supervisor, Leung Shuk-yee, was decent, but after she moved to Commercial Television, she hadn’t exactly made it a powerhouse. Even poaching her back to TVB would not guarantee that its viewership ratings would surpass Rediffusion Television’s.

So, it was best for him to just be a shareholder; he had no designs on the executive power of TVB either.

As for management, it was better left to a professional like Shao Yifu.

In the blink of an eye, it was the fifth of the month.

Today, Lin Haoran still had business to attend to.

He had an appointment with Michael Sandberg to hold a press conference at HSBC, announcing his investment in the bank and his appointment as a shareholder and board member.

The previous day, Lin Haoran had received a call from HSBC’s Taipan, Michael Sandberg, informing him that everything for the investment and the press conference was ready. He asked Lin Haoran to come to the HSBC headquarters before 10 AM today, July 5th.

Investing eighty million Hong Kong dollars for a 1% stake in HSBC was an excellent deal by any measure, especially since HSBC’s market capitalization was already around sixteen billion Hong Kong dollars.

Not only could he get a small bargain, but he could also deepen his relationship with HSBC. For Lin Haoran, it was a win-win situation.

Upon arriving at HSBC, Lin Haoran was surprised to see not only Pao Yue-kong and the others, but Li Jiacheng as well.

Pao Yue-kong’s presence was normal, as he was also a board member of HSBC.

But as far as he knew, Li Jiacheng was not yet on HSBC’s Board of Directors.

This meant that Li Jiacheng was most likely here for the same reason he was: to be invited by HSBC to join the board.

Adding two Chinese board members at once? This had to be a record in HSBC’s history.

“Mr. Lin, hello! I didn’t expect to see you here!” Li Jiacheng smiled and took the initiative to shake Lin Haoran’s hand.

“I’m also very surprised to see you here, Mr. Li,” Lin Haoran chuckled.

As a member of HSBC’s Board of Directors, Pao Yue-kong had clearly been informed about the two of them in advance.

Sure enough, after some discussion, it was just as Lin Haoran had thought. Today, not only was he joining HSBC’s Board of Directors, but Li Jiacheng was as well.

However, there was a stark difference between him and Li Jiacheng: he was investing in HSBC today to obtain a 1% stake, whereas Li Jiacheng had simply been invited to become a board member. There was no discounted share offer for him.

This made Lin Haoran wonder: was he more highly valued by Michael Sandberg?

That didn’t seem right.

The fact that HSBC had allowed Li Jiacheng to acquire its shares in the Hutchison Whampoa Group at a below-market price showed they wanted to support him.

Since he couldn’t figure it out, Lin Haoran decided not to dwell on it. It wasn’t worth getting bogged down in such matters.

With some time before 10 AM, Pao Yue-kong, acting as the senior figure, chatted with Lin Haoran and Li Jiacheng, helping them get familiar with the situation at HSBC.

“With HSBC making you both board members, it has strengthened the voice of us Chinese at HSBC. This is a good thing!” Pao Yue-kong said with a smile.

Pao Yue-kong was the first Chinese Director at HSBC. Besides him, all the director positions at the bank were firmly held by Westerners.

Now, the addition of Li Jiacheng and Lin Haoran truly strengthened the Chinese voice within HSBC.

However, although they were adding two Chinese directors, Lin Haoran knew that HSBC was ultimately still a British-owned company, and the British still called the shots.

This was a fact that couldn’t be changed by adding two Chinese directors.

Lin Haoran had never for a moment thought he could interfere in HSBC’s affairs.

He only wanted to foster a good relationship with Hong Kong’s largest financial giant. Now, by becoming its shareholder and a board member, he had achieved just that.

“Uncle Pao, isn’t Mr. Newbiggin here?” Lin Haoran glanced around and was surprised not to see Newbiggin.

As far as he knew, Jardine Matheson & Co. held 3% of HSBC’s shares, making it one of the bank’s key shareholders.

“Haoran, you caused Jardine Matheson & Co. to lose a great deal of face last time. Why would he show up? Jardine only sent a senior executive this time,” Pao Yue-kong explained with a smile.

The last time, Newbiggin’s conflict with Lin Haoran over the Fortress Electrical Company affair had escalated to the point where he had to personally apologize on television in front of all of Hong Kong. It was indeed a great humiliation for Newbiggin, so it was quite normal for him not to come and see Lin Haoran.

Pao Yue-kong was not afraid of Jardine Matheson & Co. either. When he competed with them for Kowloon Wharf, he had already thoroughly offended them.

What’s more, judging from the last incident, although both Newbiggin and Pao Yue-kong were members of HSBC’s board, HSBC had clearly favored Pao Yue-kong over Jardine Matheson. This gave Pao Yue-kong even more confidence.

At 10 AM, dozens of reporters arrived at HSBC, including journalists from the Oriental Daily News and TVB.

It was clear that HSBC was deliberately publicizing the appointment of two Chinese directors to its board.

They wanted this matter to be known by everyone.

With the reporters as witnesses, Lin Haoran and Michael Sandberg signed the investment agreement.

From that moment on, Lin Haoran officially became a shareholder of HSBC. Although it was only a 1% stake, it was not an insignificant amount. At the very least, it placed him among HSBC’s top twenty shareholders.

Chapter 267: It Can’t Be Jardine Matheson & Co.

HSBC was not just listed in Hong Kong, but also in New York, London, and other major financial centers. It could be said that their shareholders were spread across the globe, with even the largest shareholder holding less than 10%.

So, this 1% of the shares was actually not a small amount.

After signing the share purchase agreement, Michael Sandberg, the Taipan of HSBC, announced on the spot that the two Chinese businessmen, Lin Haoran and Li Jiacheng, would simultaneously become Directors of HSBC. The matter had already been approved by a vote at an HSBC board meeting.

It was nearly twelve o’clock when Lin Haoran finally left HSBC.

Foreign-owned enterprises like Jardine Matheson & Co. didn’t have the Chinese habit of discussing business over a meal and drinks.

In Europe and the United States, private life is highly valued. Lunch is part of private life, while business negotiations belong to work. Work matters are to be completed in the office during work hours. Therefore, there is no custom of discussing business over lunch in Western countries.

So, even for something as significant as becoming an HSBC shareholder, Lin Haoran didn’t get a chance for a free meal.

Besides, he wasn’t interested in Western food anyway. He’d rather find his own meal.

After leaving HSBC, Lin Haoran took his two bodyguards to a nearby Cantonese restaurant for lunch, and then went straight to Wanqing Building.

Wanqing Building was less than five hundred meters from the restaurant, making it very convenient to get to.

When he arrived at the President’s office of Wanqing Group, Burton was on the phone.

These days, Burton was not only managing Green Island Cement Company, but also Wan’an Real Estate Company and Kowloon Motor Bus. He had long become a top-tier professional manager on the same level as Willie.

“Boss, good afternoon!” Seeing Lin Haoran, Burton quickly ended his call, stood up, and greeted him.

“Yes, good afternoon. Have you run into any difficulties recently?” Lin Haoran casually pulled out a chair, sat down, and asked with a smile.

“There haven’t been any major problems. The three companies under Wanqing Group are each developing on their own track. My main focus right now is still on internationalizing Wanqing Group. Green Island Cement Company’s development in Southeast Asia is going very well. Especially with the help of the Guo family, our market share in Singapore and Malaysia is gradually increasing. Everything is heading in the right direction.

“Oh, right, Boss, I’ve recently been planning to have Kowloon Motor Bus expand into overseas markets as well. Kowloon Motor Bus’s development in Hong Kong has basically hit a bottleneck. Only by going abroad can it achieve better growth. Lately, I’ve set my sights on Malaysia’s second-largest city, Penang. The city has a large Chinese population, but its basic transportation infrastructure lags far behind that of the capital, Kuala Lumpur. The government is currently accepting bids for a new bus company. If we can win the bid, it would be a major breakthrough for Kowloon Motor Bus!” Burton reported to Lin Haoran.

When Lin Haoran first met Burton, although he was only the Deputy General Manager of Green Island Cement Company, his main focus was on developing overseas markets.

Clearly, he was passionate about expanding into foreign markets.

Now, Green Island Cement Company’s revenue and profits were increasing every month. The main credit went to Burton for continuously opening up overseas markets, which constantly boosted Green Island Cement’s sales. As the market grew, profits naturally followed.

So, after Kowloon Motor Bus came under his management, Lin Haoran wasn’t surprised that he wanted to take it into overseas markets.

“Penang?” Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

He knew of the city. It was a city with a very high proportion of Chinese residents. In Penang, as long as a Chinese person could speak Mandarin, there were no communication barriers. If you met a Chinese person, they could almost certainly speak Mandarin.

“Yes, Boss. Our bidding team has already gone to Penang. I hope we succeed. Once we get a start, Kowloon Motor Bus will definitely be able to enter more overseas markets in the future,” Burton said expectantly.

“What are the chances of success?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Not high, but not low either. As far as I know, five bus companies are currently bidding. Three of them are local Malaysian bus companies, and the other two are foreign-owned. One is Singapore’s publicly listed New Transit Bus, and the other is our Kowloon Motor Bus.

However, the service from the three local bus companies is very poor, and their overall strength isn’t great. The buses they operate are mostly quite old and dilapidated. The Penang local government probably won’t be impressed. So, our real competitor is New Transit Bus. That company was formed two years ago from the merger of three private bus companies in Singapore and went public in the same year. It’s currently the largest bus company in Singapore,” Burton continued his report.

Lin Haoran nodded. This was something he couldn’t personally interfere with. If it succeeded, great. If not, so be it.

Besides, he didn’t really care much for the profits from bus operations.

The only reason Lin Haoran had acquired Kowloon Motor Bus was to get his hands on the numerous land reserves it owned.

As for the profits earned by the Kowloon Motor Bus company itself, they were dispensable to Lin Haoran.

Moreover, there was no guarantee that expanding into a new market in Southeast Asia would even be profitable.

However, Lin Haoran still supported Burton’s decision.

If nothing else, expanding into overseas markets could at least drive the stock price higher.

He chatted with Burton in the office for a long time. Looking at the group’s performance report for the first half of 1980, Lin Haoran was extremely satisfied.

Back then, merely serving as the Deputy General Manager of Green Island Cement was truly a waste of Burton’s talent.

Lin Haoran believed his management skills were in no way inferior to those of the professional managers at Hong Kong’s top-listed companies.

It was a good thing Lin Haoran had acquired Green Island Cement; otherwise, Burton probably would have never had the chance to display his abilities.

In another world, Green Island Cement Company was eventually acquired by Li Jiacheng’s Cheung Kong Holdings Group. After the acquisition, Li Jiacheng would have naturally used various means to oust Green Island Cement’s original senior executives and replace them with executives he trusted most, cultivated from within Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

For instance, look at the Hutchison Whampoa Group. After Willie was forced out, the remaining triumvirate was also eventually pushed out by Li Jiacheng.

Perhaps this was why Burton’s talents were never fully realized in that other world.

The two chatted in the office for a long while. Most of the time, it was Burton reporting his various development plans to his boss, Lin Haoran.

For Lin Haoran, as long as a decision wasn’t detrimental to the company’s interests, he would do his best to support it and rarely interfered.

As they were talking, his beeper went off.

Lin Haoran picked it up and saw it was from Su Zhixue.

He didn’t call back, because Su Zhixue’s office was just one floor up.

“You carry on, I have to take care of something,” Lin Haoran said to Burton.

“Take care, Boss.”

After leaving Burton’s office, Lin Haoran took the stairs directly from the 30th floor to the 31st.

“Huh? Boss, you were in Wanqing Building?” Seeing Lin Haoran appear outside his office, Su Zhixue stood up to greet him.

“Yes, I was just discussing some work matters with Mr. Burton at Wanqing Group. What’s up? Did you need me for something?” Lin Haoran closed the office door and sat down in a chair next to Su Zhixue.

“There is something I need to report to you. This morning, we noticed a sudden surge in the trading volume of Hongkong Land Group’s stock. It became much more difficult to accumulate shares than usual. I initially thought it was just a random occurrence.

But unexpectedly, it was like that for the entire morning trading session. Not only that, but after the market opened this afternoon, Hongkong Land Group’s trading volume remained just as high. Based on this, there must be a major player with significant capital entering the market to compete with us. I was worried that Jardine Matheson & Co. might be increasing its stake in Hongkong Land Group, so I rushed to report it to you, Boss,” Su Zhixue replied.

“It can’t be Jardine Matheson & Co.,” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head with great confidence.

He knew that although Jardine Matheson & Co. was preparing to implement a cross-shareholding scheme with Hongkong Land Group to prevent Chinese-funded conglomerates from coveting either company, Jardine Matheson would never use its own money to buy shares directly on the secondary market.

As he recalled, Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group increased their mutual holdings by using their assets for financing—for example, with their shares in the Wheelock Group. They didn’t acquire shares on the secondary market.

Besides, they didn’t need to accumulate shares from the secondary market. As the controlling party, they had plenty of other methods to increase their equity.

“If it’s not Jardine Matheson & Co., then who could it be?” Su Zhixue wondered aloud.

“Whoever it is, it won’t have a major impact on us, will it? Just keep accumulating shares steadily. We have ample funds right now!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Having just secured a two billion Hong Kong dollar loan, their funds were indeed extremely plentiful. At least until they successfully took control of Hongkong Land Group, they wouldn’t have to worry about money.

Their current holdings, plus the 6% from the Hongkong Electric Group, already exceeded 32%.

For the other party to enter the game now was clearly too late. They posed no threat to him whatsoever.

Moreover, Universal Investment Company was also still continuously accumulating shares. Although the pace had slowed considerably, it was still steadily increasing its holdings.

Although Lin Haoran didn’t know for sure who was targeting Hongkong Land Group’s shares, he had a good guess: it was likely one of the other major Chinese tycoons.

The ambitions of the Chinese-funded conglomerates towards Hongkong Land Group had not died out, even into the 1990s.

It was precisely because of the Chinese-funded conglomerates’ designs on Hongkong Land Group that Jardine Matheson & Co. had implemented the cross-shareholding policy in the first place.

If it was those Chinese tycoons, then Lin Haoran had no reason to worry at all.

After all, the British-funded conglomerate’s holdings, including the 20% held by Jardine Matheson & Co., already exceeded 30%. Add his own stake of over 32%, and it meant that at most, only a little over 30% of the shares were left on the stock market.

Under these circumstances, as he continued to increase his holdings, who could possibly surpass him?

Moreover, if it was these Chinese-funded conglomerates accumulating Hongkong Land Group’s shares, it was actually good news for Lin Haoran.

Perhaps, when the time came, he could join forces with them to ensure Jardine Matheson & Co. could never recover.

Of course, Lin Haoran only planned to do this under special circumstances.

If he could secure a controlling stake in Hongkong Land on his own, Lin Haoran had no intention of letting other Chinese-funded conglomerates get involved.

Chapter 268: Let’s Double Your Assets!

Just as Su Zhixue had said, it would take Universal Investment Company at least another two months to reach a 30% shareholding percentage. Therefore, Lin Haoran was in no hurry to take control of the Hongkong Land Group.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, another week had passed. It was now July 17, 1980.

At a little past three in the afternoon, Lin Haoran appeared in the arrivals hall of Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport.

Liu Luanxiong had taken a trip to the United States a week ago and was returning today.

During his time in the United States, Liu Luanxiong discovered a fact that was difficult for him to accept.

He had visited numerous electronics superstores in the United States and found that fan sales had dropped to varying degrees.

Although the decline wasn’t huge, a man like Liu Luanxiong could naturally see a glimpse of the fan industry’s future trend.

Moreover, it wasn’t just the United States. According to feedback from Mexico and Canada, sales had also declined to varying degrees compared to the previous year, just like in the US.

This left Liu Luanxiong deeply worried.

Although Lin Haoran had already told him that the fan industry in North America would eventually become saturated.

But now that he had seen it for himself, he still found it somewhat hard to accept.

After all, in the past two years, Evergo Company had generated a level of wealth for him that he could have never previously imagined.

Two years ago, when he had left his family, he couldn’t even scrounge up a few thousand Hong Kong dollars.

It was only thanks to the tens of thousands he borrowed from his father-in-law that he was able to partner with a friend and open the Evergo fan factory.

After his partner, Lin Haoran, injected capital, Evergo Company seized the opportunity for rapid development.

As a result, the Liu Luanxiong of today had long grown accustomed to Evergo Company receiving large volumes of orders.

Last month, Evergo Company’s order volume had indeed surged, but many distributors were just stocking up in advance, which was why last month’s order numbers were on par with the same period last year.

But come July, when distributors found that sales weren’t meeting expectations, the orders they placed with Evergo Company naturally began to decrease.

This was precisely why Liu Luanxiong had gone to the United States last week.

After investigating, Liu Luanxiong had made an overseas call to Lin Haoran, telling him what he had seen and heard in the United States, his tone filled with dejection.

Lin Haoran hadn’t tried to console him much. Instead, after getting Liu Luanxiong’s return flight details to Hong Kong, he decided to pick him up from the airport.

In Lin Haoran’s opinion, the time to plan Evergo Company’s IPO had arrived!

Before, when Evergo Company’s order numbers were excellent, getting it to go public might have required a great deal of persuasion from Lin Haoran.

But now that sales were showing signs of decline, convincing Liu Luanxiong would be much simpler.

At 3:43 PM, Lin Haoran, sitting on a chair in the arrivals hall, finally spotted Liu Luanxiong carrying a suitcase.

Liu Luanxiong wasn’t accompanied by bodyguards. He felt that since he spent most of his time at the factory, not many people knew him. He wasn’t a famous figure yet, so he had never considered hiring any.

This time, he had gone to the United States alone, without even bringing his wife.

Of course, whether he had experienced some exotic foreign pleasures while alone in the United States, Lin Haoran had no way of knowing.

But based on his understanding of Liu Luanxiong, it was quite possible.

“Huh? Haoran, you actually came to pick me up?” Seeing Lin Haoran, Liu Luanxiong was quite surprised.

After all, in his eyes, although they were partners, their statuses were worlds apart.

If Lin Haoran hadn’t injected capital into Evergo Company and become his partner, Liu Luanxiong felt that even as a tycoon worth hundreds of millions, he might not have had the opportunity to associate with him.

While not incredibly numerous, there were certainly a few hundred tycoons in Hong Kong with assets exceeding one hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Before 1978, such tycoons were far rarer than they were now.

But in the last two years, the explosion in real estate prices, combined with the stock market’s bull run, had created many new tycoons.

Property prices easily doubled or tripled, and stocks multiplied several times over. In such a market, it was no surprise that the number of tycoons had multiplied as well.

“Is it so strange for me to pick you up?” Lin Haoran laughed.

Lin Haoran’s arrival genuinely touched Liu Luanxiong.

“Let’s go. Back to the company. This isn’t the place to talk,” Lin Haoran said, glancing at the crowd around them.

Although Liu Luanxiong was already a tycoon worth hundreds of millions, in order to manage Evergo Company, he had moved directly into the factory with his wife and their son, who was born last year. He had set up a three-bedroom apartment in Evergo’s factory building, all for the convenience of managing the company.

During this period, Liu Luanxiong was truly working hard for his career.

Around them were many travelers who had just arrived in Hong Kong and people waiting to pick them up. Quite a few of them already recognized the famous Hong Kong tycoon, Lin Haoran, and some were itching to come over and greet him.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had no intention of lingering.

With the development of Hong Kong’s economy, passenger traffic at Kai Tak International Airport had been increasing year by year, and it had long become one of the busiest airports in the world.

At this moment, although the surrounding travelers were predominantly Chinese, Caucasians, Black people, and others were not uncommon.

This was especially true for Caucasians; a casual glance in any direction would reveal that at least twenty to thirty percent of the people were Westerners.

After all, Westerners were generally part of the high-income bracket in Hong Kong, so a higher proportion of them traveled by plane.

Liu Luanxiong nodded and followed Lin Haoran out of the arrivals hall to the parking lot outside.

Sitting in Lin Haoran’s Rolls-Royce, Liu Luanxiong looked around at the interior with a hint of envy.

However, with his current net worth, buying a Rolls-Royce would be a trivial matter. It was just that Liu Luanxiong didn’t feel it was necessary yet.

Even though he was already a tycoon, he was still in the phase of making a fortune quietly. He spent most of his time at the factory and hadn’t yet grown accustomed to a lavish lifestyle, despite being a rich scion from a young age.

Kai Tak International Airport was in Hung Hom, only about two kilometers away from the Evergo Company factory in Kwun Tong. It was very close.

Thus, after just a few minutes, the Rolls-Royce slowly pulled up in front of the company building.

The two of them returned to the office, one after the other.

“Aren’t you going to see your wife and child first? Your wife’s just upstairs,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, turning to Liu Luanxiong.

“No hurry. My wife and child aren’t going anywhere,” Liu Luanxiong said nonchalantly.

“How was the trip to the United States?” Lin Haoran asked, sitting in the office with his legs crossed.

On the phone, Lin Haoran hadn’t discussed much with Liu Luanxiong, merely telling him they would talk after he returned.

“I have a lot of thoughts. I can feel that the window of opportunity for electric fans is probably closing. Just as you said before, we can still make money in the future, but we won’t see the massive profits of the last two years. Haoran, you were spot on!” Liu Luanxiong said with a sigh.

Last year, Lin Haoran had told Liu Luanxiong that Evergo Company’s ‘honeymoon period’ would last for another year at most.

At the time, Liu Luanxiong had been dismissive. Although he hadn’t refuted Lin Haoran’s words, he hadn’t truly believed him either.

But after this trip to the United States to investigate the drop in orders, he now knew that what Lin Haoran had said last year was completely right!

“After next year, a sharp drop in orders is certain, so you need to be mentally prepared. The sudden surge in demand for fans in the Americas was clearly due to several factors, especially the oil crisis.

We’re still in the midst of the oil crisis, but over the past year or so, almost everyone who needed an electric fan has bought one. And fans aren’t disposable items; you can use them for many years after buying one, so saturation is perfectly normal.

Besides, places like the United States and Canada aren’t even particularly hot. I had already considered all this when I first invested.

For the past two years, Evergo Company has made a huge profit because of the surge in demand for electric fans in the North American and European markets, with annual profits exceeding three hundred million Hong Kong dollars. But I predict that once these markets are saturated, Evergo’s annual profits will plummet to ten or twenty million Hong Kong dollars, and possibly even lower.

I imagine that’s a stark contrast that will be hard for you to accept at first, but that’s the reality. This is just a return to normalcy. The manufacturing industry can’t be wildly profitable forever,” Lin Haoran said with a chuckle.

It was only July, and order volumes were already starting to trend downward. Liu Luanxiong indeed found this difficult to accept.

They had originally thought that orders would be massive in June, July, August, and September. But based on the current trend, they would be lucky to achieve two-thirds of last year’s performance this summer.

But Lin Haoran was already mentally prepared, so he wasn’t surprised at all.

Liu Luanxiong nodded. Although he knew this was very likely, he couldn’t help but feel miserable.

If that was really the case, his only option would be to switch industries. He had grown accustomed to monthly profits of tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars during the peak season. If that suddenly dropped tenfold one day, he really wouldn’t be able to stand it. He would definitely have to pivot to other sectors.

Since graduating from university, the only industry he had ever been involved in was fan manufacturing.

If he had to switch, he really didn’t know which industry would be a good choice.

The real estate industry? That was indeed a good option. Last year’s investment had already given him a taste of success. Just hoarding land had actually doubled his net worth.

“Haoran, if the fan industry really declines, what do you think about me investing all my capital into real estate? Is there any potential in that?” Liu Luanxiong asked humbly.

Among all the people he knew, only Lin Haoran could be considered a true big shot in the business world.

His father, for instance, was just an ordinary factory owner, who could only be considered an average wealthy person.

In Liu Luanxiong’s view, for Lin Haoran to reach such heights at such a young age, he had to be an incredibly forward-thinking person.

From the fact that Lin Haoran, an outsider to the industry, had proactively invested in Evergo Company, leading to Evergo earning several hundred million Hong Kong dollars in just two short years, Liu Luanxiong could tell that Lin Haoran was genuinely capable, not some puppet spokesperson groomed by Citibank as the rumors claimed.

“Fan manufacturing is, in the end, just a small-scale operation. And with your current financial strength, transitioning to another industry would be very simple, whether it’s real estate or something else. However, I’d advise you not to enter the property market for now. Nothing can keep booming forever; there will always be a downturn.

If you want to get into real estate, I suggest you make your move when the market is in a slump. But I’d advise you not to be in such a hurry to switch industries. Evergo’s potential is far greater than this. If handled correctly, you might just be able to double your assets!” Lin Haoran said mysteriously.

“Double? How is that possible?” Liu Luanxiong was skeptical.

He knew that, through his land and property investments last year, the market value of the plots he held had already surpassed three hundred million Hong Kong dollars and was still rising.

And that wasn’t even counting this year’s dividends. Including those, plus the subsequent rise in real estate, he would have at least five hundred million in assets by the end of the year!

Double five hundred million in assets?

Wouldn’t that mean a net worth of at least one billion?

Chapter 269: Coaxing Big Liu to Take Evergo Company Public!

“It seems you still understand too little about the power of capital!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

“The power of capital?” Liu Luanxiong muttered to himself.

In another world, after the profits of Evergo Company suddenly plummeted, Liu Luanxiong did not give up. Instead, he explored diversification, gradually expanding Evergo’s business into products like lighting fixtures and kerosene heaters.

However, these attempts at diversification failed to recapture Evergo Company’s 1979 moment of glory.

Thus, it wasn’t until 1983 that Liu Luanxiong finally took Evergo Company public, greatly increasing his wealth and giving him a taste of the power of capital. This event could be considered the beginning of his astonishing rise as a Hong Kong capitalist.

But in this world, due to Lin Haoran’s interference, Liu Luanxiong was clearly off to a much more impressive start.

An early capital investment had allowed Evergo Company to reach an astonishing scale far sooner, capturing a larger share of the North American fan market.

Not only that, but the current Evergo Company had even entered markets like Europe.

It was safe to say that the Evergo Company of this parallel world was at least several times stronger.

For the past two years, Evergo Company had been making a fortune quietly. Although many of its peers in the manufacturing industry were aware of this suddenly rising company, few knew its true strength.

“That’s right, the power of capital. Earning money honestly can make you rich, but it can’t make you a top tycoon. Look at all the top tycoons in Hong Kong, like Mr. Pao Yue-kong, Mr. Li Jiacheng, Mr. Li Zhaoji, and so on. If they had just focused on steady development, they would never have become giants of Hong Kong’s business world.

“Before they became business giants, they all wisely chose to take their companies public. After going public, a company’s brand value and social recognition increase significantly, and so does its competitiveness. More importantly, you can rapidly acquire enormous funds through public financing.

“Look, our Evergo Company isn’t public yet, so it doesn’t have a clear market capitalization. But as soon as we successfully go public, with our outstanding performance over the past two years, the company’s market value will surely rise with the tide. Our company will instantly become a major listed enterprise in Hong Kong.

“The money we earned before has already been distributed to everyone as dividends, fair and square. But after going public, Evergo Company will have a market-recognized stock market value. This way, our assets will no longer be just the cash we hold, but will also include the value of our stock holdings. Doubling your assets like that won’t be difficult at all!

“We’ve already split the money we made earlier. After going public, you can still use the funds raised from the financing to develop Evergo Company, or even pivot to develop other industries!

“Haven’t you always dreamed of being the Chairman of a listed company? Once Evergo Company goes public, that dream will come true. By then, you’ll be a rising young tycoon in Hong Kong’s business world, and even your Liu family will have to see you in a new light!” Lin Haoran said with a laugh.

Although Lin Haoran made it sound as if everything was for the future of Evergo Company, his inner thoughts were quite different.

Lin Haoran was encouraging Evergo Company to go public purely to cash in.

With the decline in order volume, Evergo’s annual profit would be decent at ten to twenty million Hong Kong dollars starting next year. Splitting that with Liu Luanxiong, for an annual share of just over ten million Hong Kong dollars… honestly, Lin Haoran couldn’t be bothered.

So, it was better to take advantage of Evergo’s current brilliant performance and get the company listed as soon as possible. He might be able to sell his shares at a good price and make his exit.

Lin Haoran felt no attachment to the soon-to-be-listed shares of Evergo Company.

Before leaving, he planned to fully leverage his status as a shareholder of Evergo Company to squeeze out the last bit of profit.

The Hong Kong stock market of today had no regulations stipulating that founder’s shares could not be transferred or sold within a year.

He could sell whenever he wanted!

With the Oriental Daily News fanning the flames, it would be hard for anyone not to know about Evergo Company’s glorious achievements over the past two years!

By the time Evergo Company went public, it would certainly have an astonishing market capitalization. As for how much, Lin Haoran couldn’t guess.

As long as the reports in the Oriental Daily News were not fabricated, it would have nothing to do with Lin Haoran if Evergo Company’s market value were to fall in the future due to declining performance.

After all, when he held the shares of Evergo Company, the company’s performance was indeed that good. The taxes paid would be proof!

Last year, Evergo Company had paid over thirty million Hong Kong dollars in taxes.

As he listened to Lin Haoran, Liu Luanxiong’s eyes indeed lit up.

Lin Haoran’s final words especially resonated with him: being the Chairman of a listed company, becoming a rising young tycoon in Hong Kong’s business world, and making the Liu family see him in a new light!

Every point was something he yearned for, the temptation was overwhelming.

At this moment, Liu Luanxiong’s worries about the company’s declining performance seemed to vanish into thin air.

His mind was completely absorbed in calculating the various benefits that taking Evergo Company public could bring him.

“Haoran, do you think our company can really raise a lot of capital if we go public? Can we become as well-known a listed company in Hong Kong as Cheung Kong Holdings Group or New World Group?” Liu Luanxiong’s voice carried a hint of uncertainty.

A young heart always holds greater aspirations for glory. At this moment, Liu Luanxiong could already envision the magnificent scene of himself as the helmsman of a listed company, but a trace of apprehension remained in his heart. After all, this was something he had never imagined before.

“Of course. An annual profit of several hundred million Hong Kong dollars… even among the current top twenty listed companies, not many can achieve that. Just imagine, if our performance from last year and this year were to be exposed, what a shocking piece of news that would be?” Lin Haoran said with great confidence.

“So, we’ve decided to take Evergo Company public?” At this moment, despite holding assets worth hundreds of millions, Liu Luanxiong lacked practical experience in capital operations and was thus not entirely sure.

His only source of confidence, perhaps, was Lin Haoran, a true big shot.

“That’s right. I believe the time is ripe for Evergo Company to go public. Barring any surprises, the company’s performance will likely decline sharply next year. If we don’t go public soon while our performance is still strong, it will be difficult to achieve the peak valuation of our current performance even if we do go public in the future.

“But as long as we seize this window of good performance and quickly push forward with the listing process, we can use the large amount of capital raised to plan our transition in advance and venture into new, more promising industries!” Lin Haoran continued to elaborate.

By going public while the company’s performance was still excellent, the funds raised from financing would certainly be much higher than if they waited until after performance had plummeted.

“Alright, then it’s decided. We’ll take the company public!” At this point, Big Liu had already adopted Lin Haoran’s suggestion.

In the past, when the company’s monthly profits were so lucrative, he would never have considered going public.

After all, once listed, these profits would have to be shared with more investors.

However, after his trip to the United States, Liu Luanxiong was now very clear that if the company maintained its current state, its profits would most likely plummet next year.

At this critical juncture, what was the harm in letting shareholders come in for a piece of the pie?

More importantly, the benefits, fame, and so on that he could gain by going public would undoubtedly far exceed what he would get from keeping Evergo Company private.

“In that case, let’s start planning the listing of Evergo Company. You’re probably not familiar with the IPO process, but don’t worry. I have a good relationship with Wardley, a subsidiary of HSBC, and they are very professional in this area.

“If we hand over the listing to them, we just need to pay a service fee, and we won’t have to worry about our lack of experience. Whether it’s the regulatory investigation, drafting the prospectus, applying to the exchange, pre-listing promotion, or the actual listing, Wardley can help us with all of it.

“You just need to cooperate with Wardley, and in two months at most, you will be the Chairman of a listed company! Wardley can even act as the company’s lead underwriter, helping us sell all the shares!” Lin Haoran continued.

At present, since securities laws were not yet very comprehensive, taking a company public was not as complicated as a Hong Kong IPO in later years. Two months of preparation was more than enough.

It was now mid-July, which meant that two months later, in mid-September, Evergo Company could become a listed company.

With an annual revenue of over one billion Hong Kong dollars and a profit margin of twenty to thirty percent, wasn’t it a simple matter for such a high-quality enterprise to go public?

Right now, there were about one thousand three hundred fifty listed companies in Hong Kong.

Among these thousand-plus listed companies, the quality varied greatly. Some even had annual revenues of only a few million Hong Kong dollars and negative profits. Companies with a market capitalization exceeding one hundred million Hong Kong dollars were only a small fraction. If Evergo Company were to truly go public, it could easily squeeze into the top fifty listed enterprises in Hong Kong.

Therefore, for a high-quality enterprise like Evergo Company, going public was basically a piece of cake.

Listing was not a problem at all.

The problem they faced was how to get a good price for Evergo Company’s initial public offering!

However, this was not a problem for Lin Haoran.

He controlled TVB and the Oriental Daily News, two of Hong Kong’s top media outlets.

As long as he had these two media outlets report on Evergo Company’s performance since its founding, especially its performance last year and this year, he could make Evergo Company a household name.

By then, would he still have to worry about Evergo Company not achieving a satisfactory offering result?

Such a worry was completely unnecessary.

Chapter 270: I Didn’t Expect You to Be Hiding an Ace Like This!

“In that case, Haoran, I’ll trouble you to contact Wardley. I’ll cooperate fully with their work to ensure our company can go public as smoothly and quickly as possible.

After hearing everything you’ve said today, I can’t wait to see Amigo Company become a prestigious listed company!” At that moment, Liu Luanxiong’s eyes were filled with desire and boundless fantasies about the future.

To become the chairman of a listed company… two years ago, Liu Luanxiong wouldn’t have dared to even dream of it, yet now it was about to become a reality.

Amigo Company had only two shareholders, so anything concerning the company was decided by Lin Haoran and Liu Luanxiong. Now that Lin Haoran had proposed it and Liu Luanxiong had agreed to take the company public, the matter was settled. There was no need for any complicated procedures.

Lin Haoran and Liu Luanxiong chatted in the Amigo Company office for a full two hours before Lin Haoran left.

Before he departed, he took a file from the company’s chief financial officer, Li Meihui.

This file contained the company’s monthly revenue, profits, and tax payments since its founding, as well as a history of Amigo Company’s development.

The data was all real, so there was no need to fabricate anything. Falsifying revenue figures was completely unnecessary.

After all, Amigo Company’s revenue over the past two years was solid and could withstand any investigation.

Lin Haoran planned to have the Oriental Daily News publish this data!

Once this data was made public, it was certain to make many Hong Kong citizens remember Amigo Company, an enterprise that had previously kept a low profile.

Currently, Amigo Company indeed had a low profile in Hong Kong—so low it was almost pitiful.

This was because although Amigo Company’s revenue was strong, it was involved in foreign trade. The products Amigo manufactured weren’t sold in Hong Kong, so the average citizen had never heard of it. Only those within the industry and former employees knew of this rapidly rising manufacturing enterprise.

After leaving Kwun Tong, although it was already six in the evening, Lin Haoran didn’t hurry home. Instead, he went to the seventh floor of Changye Building in Wan Chai, the headquarters of the Oriental Press Group.

By this time, many companies had already closed for the day. However, most of the employees at the Oriental Press Group were still at work.

The media industry was different from others. Finalizing articles, typesetting, and so on all began at this time. Working late into the night was a common occurrence, especially for a newspaper like the Oriental Press Group, which consistently ranked first in Hong Kong’s newspaper sales. Overtime was nothing out of the ordinary.

“Hello, Boss.”

“Hello, Mr. Lin!”

…

When Lin Haoran entered the Oriental Press Group, many employees who saw him greeted him one after another.

Ever since the incident with Fortress Electrical Company, Lin Haoran’s acquisition of the Oriental Daily News had become common knowledge. As employees of the company, everyone naturally knew about it.

Lin Haoran smiled and nodded in response, then took the elevator and soon arrived on the seventh floor.

Cui Zilong was also still in his office. He wasn’t surprised by his boss’s arrival, as Lin Haoran had called him from Amigo Company earlier to let him know he would be stopping by later.

“Boss, please have a seat.” Cui Zilong stood up and politely gestured to the chair beside his desk.

Lin Haoran smiled and nodded, slightly adjusting the chair before sitting down comfortably.

“I’m not keeping you from getting off work, am I?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Given the special nature of the Oriental Press Group’s industry, how could I possibly get off work so early? Not to mention I’m juggling several roles right now,” Cui Zilong said with a wry smile.

The vast majority of the company was still working; as the general manager, he certainly couldn’t leave early.

“You’ve been working hard!” Lin Haoran said with a hint of solemnity.

“It’s my duty. Since I’m earning this high salary, it’s only natural that I do my utmost,” Cui Zilong replied frankly.

“The reason I came over and asked you to hold off on finalizing tomorrow’s paper is that I want you to report on something. This is some information on Amigo Company. Take a look.” Lin Haoran handed the file to Cui Zilong.

While at Amigo Company, Lin Haoran had specifically called Cui Zilong and instructed him not to finalize tomorrow’s news too quickly, precisely to save the headline spot for a report on Amigo Company.

Cui Zilong took the file and began to read it carefully.

After a moment, Cui Zilong looked up at his boss, his face showing a hint of surprise.

“Boss, is the data in this file real?” Cui Zilong asked seriously.

Although he controlled the Oriental Press Group’s intelligence network, he would never have his subordinates investigate his own boss, so Cui Zilong was not familiar with Amigo Company.

“Of course it’s real. Leaving everything else aside, the tax records alone are an irrefutable fact that no one can forge. A quick check would reveal the truth.

I didn’t originally plan to push Amigo Company into the spotlight; after all, making money quietly is the best way. But now that we’re planning an IPO, we naturally need to give potential shareholders a basic understanding of the company. That’s why I decided to have the Oriental Daily News report on it, to let them get to know the company ahead of time,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Boss, if Amigo Company has truly been so profitable these past two years, it will definitely capture the attention of all of Hong Kong’s shareholders after it goes public. This is absolutely a company with limitless potential!

As a media professional, I have some knowledge of the manufacturing industry. This company is definitely one of the most profitable manufacturing companies in Hong Kong. I didn’t expect you to be hiding an ace like this!” Cui Zilong said, his face alight with astonishment.

“The report can’t just be a simple overview of the company. It would be best to present it through a compelling true story. Let me briefly introduce my partner. From his perspective, we can unearth a lot of fascinating material.

My partner, Mr. Liu Luanxiong, felt he wasn’t being given the respect he deserved in his family’s business, so in early 1978, he resolutely decided to strike out on his own.

When he left his family, he was penniless. He even had to borrow the start-up capital from his wife’s parents’ home…” Lin Haoran smiled, not responding directly to Cui Zilong’s comment, but instead began to recount the little-known stories behind Amigo Company.

The newspaper was full of master editors who were skilled at turning trivial matters into captivating narratives. Liu Luanxiong’s real and moving backstory was the perfect material for them to display their talents.

Often, true stories are more touching and resonant.

Experiences like Liu Luanxiong’s, being looked down upon by his family for being young and ambitious, were not uncommon in real life.

The key was that as long as Amigo Company’s revenue data was reliable, even if the company faced setbacks in the future and fell from its peak, it would have no direct connection to today’s promotional report.

After all, a company’s market capitalization always fluctuates with its performance. Poor future performance couldn’t be blamed on today’s glorious achievements.

Before deciding to publicize Liu Luanxiong’s entrepreneurial story, Lin Haoran had specifically asked for his opinion.

Unexpectedly, Liu Luanxiong had agreed without any hesitation.

Looking back at the early days of his venture, he had indeed endured many frustrating moments. Not only had his family elders offered no help, but they had also been unceasingly sarcastic.

Fortunately, he had ultimately succeeded. Otherwise, Liu Luanxiong could easily imagine how awkward his position in the family would have been, like that of a clown.

Although there’s a saying, “don’t air your dirty laundry in public,” what he had experienced wasn’t truly a family scandal, but merely his family’s doubts about his abilities.

Now, Liu Luanxiong had rewritten his own destiny, and the company he founded had even surpassed his family’s business. Such an inspirational story was undoubtedly brimming with positive energy!

Cui Zilong listened intently to his boss’s account.

Lin Haoran was quite familiar with Liu Luanxiong’s story, so he spoke fluently for over ten minutes before pausing.

“Boss, based on the story you’ve outlined and the facts about Amigo Company, we can write several highly inspirational articles.

This won’t be difficult to handle. I’ll have the best writers at the Oriental Press Group draft a few outstanding pieces, and then we’ll carefully select the most suitable one for publication.

Tomorrow, the headline of the Oriental Daily News will be reserved for this story. I believe it’s certain to generate widespread discussion across all of Hong Kong!” Cui Zilong said earnestly.

Liu Luanxiong’s experience was truly inspiring.

He had returned from studying abroad and toiled away in his family’s business for several years, only to have his ideas repeatedly ignored and even dismissed as impractical by the family elders.

In the end, he resolutely left the family to start his own business.

In just two short years, he had not only established a firm footing but had also surpassed his family’s enterprise.

Such an inspirational story would undoubtedly touch everyone’s heart.

“Good. Go make the arrangements now. I’ll wait here for the good news,” Lin Haoran instructed with a smile.

Even though it was evening, he wasn’t in a hurry to go home. Lin Haoran was eager to see the final drafts and planned to review them personally to ensure their quality.

While waiting, Lin Haoran asked Li Weiguo to fetch a few dinners from the employee cafeteria, intending to have a simple meal.

Despite having long been one of Hong Kong’s top tycoons, he wasn’t particular about his daily meals, especially during busy work periods. As long as it filled his stomach, it was good enough.

Perhaps motivated by his boss’s dedication to work, Cui Zilong returned to the office in just about an hour, a little after seven in the evening.

“Boss, I gathered the three best writers in the company. They’ve each completed an article. I think they’re all excellent. Please take a look.” Cui Zilong handed three manuscripts to Lin Haoran.

“Good, thank you for your hard work!” Lin Haoran took the manuscripts and responded gratefully.

The office immediately fell into a quiet hush, with only the occasional sound of Lin Haoran turning a page.

The writers at the Oriental Press Group truly lived up to their reputation; it was no wonder it had become Hong Kong’s largest newspaper. After reading them, Lin Haoran felt that each article was exceptionally well-written. Choosing just one was difficult; he felt torn.

Although the three articles were written from different perspectives, their core message was the same. Therefore, only one could be chosen for publication, as publishing all three would be redundant.

Chapter 271: Amigo Company Makes a Name for Itself in Hong Kong

“Oh?” Lin Haoran took the article Cui Zilong was pointing to and read it carefully once more.

The core of the piece wasn’t Amigo Company’s dazzling performance, but rather Liu Luanxiong’s legendary journey from having nothing to borrowing money to start a business, and finally becoming a leading figure in Hong Kong’s foreign trade manufacturing industry.

The entire article was filled with an air of a triumphant comeback, a slap in the face to his detractors, making readers instinctively empathize as if they had personally experienced Liu Luanxiong’s struggle. It was incredibly immersive.

As for Amigo Company’s development, it was skillfully woven into the narrative, like the finishing touch on a painting, becoming a seamless part of the story.

In addition, Lin Haoran, the big shot himself, also appeared in the article.

After all, on the surface, he was also a key figure in Amigo Company’s rise.

As a well-known business tycoon in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran’s name could also, to some extent, elevate Amigo Company’s profile.

Although the detailed description of Amigo Company’s growth was not the main focus, anyone who read the article would undoubtedly be left with a deep impression of its current splendid achievements.

“Good, let’s go with this one!” Lin Haoran said decisively.

He was indeed very satisfied with this article.

On the surface, it was about the rise of a prominent figure like Liu Luanxiong, but in reality, it indirectly introduced the previously unknown Amigo Company, which fit his requirements perfectly.

“Alright, I’ll take this article to be finalized. Boss, I’ll get back to it.” After speaking, Cui Zilong hurriedly left the office with the article.

After all, it was already past seven in the evening. Finalizing the稿 at this hour was indeed a bit late, and they would have to rush.

After finalizing the draft and typesetting, it had to be printed overnight so that the delivery men could distribute it to the various newsstands the next morning.

Since the matter was settled, Lin Haoran didn’t stay any longer. He took the two brothers, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, and went straight back to the villa on Severn Road.

In the blink of an eye, a day passed.

At a little past seven in the morning, Lin Haoran woke up naturally.

He unhurriedly changed his clothes, washed up, and went down to the first-floor living room, asking a servant to bring him breakfast and the newspaper.

The servant moved quickly. A few minutes later, Lin Haoran was sitting on the sofa, eating breakfast while opening the newspaper.

Opening the Oriental Daily News, Lin Haoran was immediately captivated by the bold, eye-catching headline: “Shocking! A New Chinese Business Tycoon’s Leap from Nothing to Hundreds of Millions in Just Two Years!”

The headline was extremely compelling. Without reading the content, one could easily mistake it for a story about Lin Haoran’s own legend.

After all, in the public’s mind, such a description was a perfect fit for Lin Haoran.

This article was the very draft Lin Haoran had personally reviewed last night, and now it was emblazoned on the front-page headline of the Oriental Daily News.

Although he had already read the content twice, as Lin Haoran scanned it again, he was still deeply drawn in by the twists and turns of the story.

This kind of classic story framework might be commonplace in the world of future web novels, but in the current era, few dared to attempt such a writing style.

This was perhaps one of the reasons why the Oriental Daily News was so explosively popular in Hong Kong; they could always produce unexpected articles that successfully captured the attention of a large readership.

Moreover, this wasn’t a fictional legend but a real event, simply embellished by the writer’s skillful touch to make it more captivating.

Currently, the daily circulation of the Oriental Daily News had stabilized at over one hundred thousand copies, sometimes even breaking the two hundred thousand mark, wielding extraordinary influence.

Therefore, today, Liu Luanxiong was destined to become a household name in Hong Kong.

And Amigo Company, mentioned in the article, would inevitably rise to fame along with him, its name echoing throughout Hong Kong.

After all, a company with an annual net profit of several hundred million Hong Kong dollars… there were only a handful of those in all of Hong Kong.

Lin Haoran’s purpose was to indirectly publicize Amigo Company’s strength under the guise of making Liu Luanxiong famous.

This way, when Amigo Company went public, it would naturally be welcomed by the shareholders.

The Oriental Daily News consistently held the top spot in newspaper sales across Hong Kong. Just as Lin Haoran had predicted, as soon as today’s paper was released, the front-page article immediately captured the attention of countless readers.

On streets and in alleyways, many people who had read the article started discussing it with others.

“Such an outstanding company isn’t even publicly listed?”

“Read the article carefully. It mentions that Amigo Company took off rapidly after Lin Haoran injected capital. I think Mr. Liu Luanxiong’s leap to becoming a multi-millionaire had a lot to do with luck. After all, Mr. Lin Haoran is one of the top tycoons in Hong Kong now. His help was the key to Amigo Company’s rise!”

“Whether it was luck or not, he’s a bona fide tycoon with assets over one hundred million now, and he’s in charge of such a powerful company. That’s not an achievement you can chalk up to luck alone.”

“A net worth of several hundred million Hong Kong dollars, that puts him among the more powerful tycoons in Hong Kong, right?”

“What surprises me the most is that such an incredible company was unheard of before and isn’t publicly listed.”

“Yeah, it would be great if it were a listed company. An enterprise this profitable, if you held its shares, you’d surely get a hefty dividend. It’s definitely a stock worth holding for the long term, much better than putting money in the bank.”

“Isn’t this just bragging? A fan factory making several hundred million Hong Kong dollars in profit in a year? How’s that possible? I don’t think even Hongkong Electric Group, China Light & Power, or Hutchison Whampoa can do that, can they?”

“I don’t think they’re bragging. There’s tax data here. I’m a finance professional, and based on this tax data, their revenue and profit figures should be correct. If anyone wanted to check, it would be easy to investigate through the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau. Since the Oriental Daily News dared to report the detailed figures, they probably wouldn’t falsify them. That would seriously damage their reputation.”

“My friend’s uncle’s family runs an electronics factory. I’ve heard them talk about this company. They said it’s a manufacturing plant that really did spring up out of nowhere in the last two years with an astonishing volume of orders. It’s just that nobody knew they were making this much money.”

“Speaking of Amigo Company, I’ve experienced it firsthand. At first, it was just as the newspaper described, an obscure little workshop in Aberdeen. I was one of the employees back then.

Later, after Mr. Lin Haoran invested, the company had ample funds and moved to the industrial park in Kwun Tong. Last summer, the company had an unbelievable number of orders, and the number of employees grew to over ten thousand.

But in the winter, the orders dropped off, so we switched to producing electric hot water bags and other winter products. At that time, because of the reduced orders, my salary dropped a bit, so I resigned.

I heard that around April or May this year, Amigo Company started hiring on a large scale again. It seems their orders have increased significantly. A lot of what the newspaper reported is true. As for their specific income, I’m not too clear on that.”

…

In just one morning, Liu Luanxiong and Amigo Company became the talk of Hong Kong.

If there were something like a Weibo Hot Search back then, Liu Luanxiong and Amigo Company might have ranked in the top two.

In a single morning, the Oriental Daily News sold well over one hundred thousand copies.

And one newspaper might be passed on to others after being read.

As a result, several hundred thousand people may have read this article.

Although Hong Kong is small geographically, its population is highly concentrated, mainly in the Kowloon city center and on Hong Kong Island.

Coupled with word-of-mouth, this eye-catching article spread rapidly throughout Hong Kong in just a few hours.

Naturally, the news soon reached his father’s ears.

Yau Luen Yick Kee Fan Factory was the family business founded by Liu Luanxiong’s father when Liu was ten years old.

After more than a decade of development, Yau Luen Yick Kee Fan Factory had become a giant in the manufacturing industry, with annual revenues exceeding one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, focusing on the Middle East market.

And Liu Luanxiong’s father, thanks to the growth of the factory, was even known as the “Ceiling Fan King.”

When Liu Luanxiong set up his own business two years ago, his father was furious. After all, although he was disappointed that Liu Luanxiong wasn’t living up to his potential, he had also intended to groom him as his successor.

The reason Liu Luanxiong had left to start his own business was because of an argument with his father, which finalized his decision.

And because of this, his father decided to teach him a lesson by not giving him any financial assistance.

He never expected that in less than a year, he would receive news that his own son’s fan factory was now doing even better than his Yau Luen Yick Kee Fan Factory.

This was something Liu Luanxiong’s father had truly never imagined.

At this moment, he sat in his office, reading the report in the Oriental Daily News, his expression growing darker by the second.

In the report, he seemed to have become the negative example, defeated by his own son.

Although it was the truth, the matter had now become the talk of the town, making him feel utterly humiliated.

“This rebellious son, he’s so ungrateful! Without me, would he be where he is today?” Liu Luanxiong’s father slammed his hand on the desk, striking it so hard that he cried out in pain.

…

At noon, dozens of reporters descended upon an industrial park in Kwun Tong.

The article in the Oriental Daily News had given these reporters another hot news topic, which was why dozens of them had gathered at Amigo Company.

These journalists included not only reporters from the Oriental Daily News but also from famous mainstream Hong Kong media outlets such as TVB, Rediffusion Television, the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, and the Sing Tao Daily.

Their purpose was to interview Amigo Company’s boss, Liu Luanxiong, and to learn more about this previously little-known enterprise.

TVB even set up a live broadcast, allowing many people in Hong Kong to watch the interview in real time.

Facing so many reporters, Liu Luanxiong, despite being a successful businessman, couldn’t help but feel nervous.

For the past two years, he had spent most of his time managing the company at the factory and had made almost no public media appearances.

This sudden rise to fame had caught him somewhat off guard.

However, deep down, Liu Luanxiong felt immense satisfaction.

He knew that from this moment on, he had become a renowned entrepreneur in Hong Kong, even surpassing his father to become an even more successful one.

Under the focus of dozens of reporters’ cameras, Liu Luanxiong quickly composed himself and calmly accepted the interview.

He looked radiant, his initial nervousness gradually dissipating as he quickly settled into the role of a successful individual.

Perhaps he was naturally endowed with a powerful aura. Facing these mainstream Hong Kong media outlets, he handled the situation with the ease of a seasoned expert.

Liu Luanxiong passionately recounted his entrepreneurial story to the reporters, his account far more detailed and vivid than the report in the Oriental Daily News.

Meanwhile, at home, Lin Haoran was watching the live interview on TVB’s Jade Channel.

Watching the spirited Liu Luanxiong on screen, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but reveal a satisfied smile.

Whether Liu Luanxiong became famous was not important to Lin Haoran.

What he cared about was that Amigo Company had now become a household name throughout Hong Kong, no longer just an obscure fan factory.

“Let the hype build!” Sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed, Lin Haoran watched the interview on TV and murmured with a smile.

He knew that as Amigo Company’s fame grew, its market capitalization would also rise with the tide when it went public in the future.

At that time, if he chose to sell his shares, he would surely reap a substantial profit.

Lin Haoran himself was already a business tycoon known to everyone in Hong Kong, so he didn’t mind letting Liu Luanxiong shine in the spotlight.

Chapter 272: Governor MacLehose Summons Once More

For the next week or so, Liu Luanxiong reveled in boundless prestige. Reporters vied to interview him every day, and he felt as though he were living in the constant flash of spotlights.

He began to lose himself in this novel experience of soaring fame.

Previously, despite being a billionaire, he had remained relatively unknown, recognized only by the employees within his own factory.

Now, however, his name was known throughout almost all of Hong Kong. Whenever he went out, people would warmly greet him as “President Liu.”

This unprecedented attention and recognition felt new and deeply gratifying to him.

“So this is what it feels like to be a famous public figure.” In the Amigo Company office, Liu Luanxiong’s smile had hardly faded.

Half an hour earlier, a reporter from Ta Kung Pao had just concluded an exclusive interview with him. Even after the reporter left, the office still buzzed with the lingering excitement of the session.

This was already the tenth or so reporter who had sought an exclusive interview with him.

He was, after all, still young, and he readily agreed to every request for an exclusive interview.

Liu Luanxiong seemed captivated by the splendor of his reputation, completely immersed in the joy of his rising fame.

Every word of praise, every ounce of attention, was like sweet dew nourishing the deep yearning and relentless pursuit of renown within his heart.

In an instant, Liu Luanxiong became the most prominent young business leader in all of Hong Kong, second only to Lin Haoran.

And Amigo Company, jointly held by these two young billionaires, attracted countless eyes and immense attention.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran had met with the general manager of Wardley and secured a partnership to assist Amigo Company with its public listing.

After that, there was nothing left for him to do.

Wardley would liaise directly with Liu Luanxiong; any necessary communication would happen between them.

In the blink of an eye, August arrived.

One day, Lin Haoran once again received a call from Governor Murray MacLehose.

On the other end of the line, MacLehose invited him to Government House, saying there was an important matter to discuss.

Upon arriving at Government House and entering MacLehose’s office, Lin Haoran found several figures already seated on the sofa.

Besides Governor MacLehose, there were Michael Sandberg, Newbiggin, Schreyer, Pao Yue-kong, Li Ka-shing, and others—a group of six or seven in total.

Every one of them was a top tycoon in Hong Kong’s business world.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, Michael Sandberg, Pao Yue-kong, and the others all smiled and nodded in greeting.

Newbiggin was the sole exception.

This narrow-minded British man in his forties had lost face to Lin Haoran on two previous occasions. He now considered Lin Haoran an enemy and, completely disregarding his own stature as a business tycoon, showed no intention of reconciliation.

Since Newbiggin ignored him, Lin Haoran naturally wouldn’t go looking for a snub.

So what if it was Jardine Matheson & Co.? In fact, he had already quietly become a major shareholder of the company, though it had yet to be made public.

Even the Taipan of Jardine Matheson was merely a professional manager.

The equity structure of Jardine Matheson was convoluted. Even as a major shareholder, seizing control would not be easy, not to mention the potential interference from Government House. It was therefore still uncertain whether he could truly take control of Jardine Matheson.

But he was determined to acquire Jardine Matheson’s core subsidiary—the Hongkong Land Group.

What would Newbiggin’s state of mind be then?

Therefore, Lin Haoran was completely unbothered by the hostility Newbiggin displayed.

After all, in the Fortress Electrical Company incident, Jardine Matheson had been the one to provoke matters first; Lin Haoran had not been the one to start trouble.

Now, Newbiggin was acting like the victim, a display that only made Lin Haoran look down on him even more.

Not long after Lin Haoran took a seat, several more top tycoons arrived.

The dozen or so people in the room could be said to control a majority of Hong Kong’s commercial sectors.

Looking at the business tycoons present, Lin Haoran had already guessed Governor MacLehose’s purpose for summoning him.

During their last private meeting, the Governor had mentioned a plan to organize a delegation of Hong Kong business leaders for a visit to Britain in August and had told him to prepare for it.

Now that August had arrived, Lin Haoran figured that MacLehose had gathered these business leaders precisely for this matter.

Just as he expected, once everyone had arrived, Governor MacLehose stood before the group and announced, “Gentlemen, you are all the finest representatives of Hong Kong’s business community. I believe you may have already heard the reason I’ve invited you here.

“That’s right. At the invitation of the Queen of England, we will be organizing a delegation of Hong Kong’s business elites to visit Britain for a week-long tour and inspection. At present, we have tentatively set the departure time for ten in the morning on August 8th. Does anyone have any objections? If you do, please raise your hand.”

For a matter of such importance, MacLehose had presumably already notified everyone involved in advance so they could make the necessary preparations.

After all, everyone present was a business tycoon managing one or several large enterprises and would need to make arrangements ahead of time.

Today was August 1st. By gathering everyone a week in advance, MacLehose was clearly giving them sufficient time to handle their work and ensure a smooth departure.

For Lin Haoran, the specific departure date was of little consequence.

He wasn’t like some of the other tycoons present, who needed to personally handle a great number of tasks and preferred to be hands-on with everything.

He relied on his team of professional managers.

Of course, several of the tycoons present were also professional managers themselves, such as Michael Sandberg and Newbiggin, who had the complete trust of the shareholders behind them.

Although they were not shareholders of HSBC or Jardine Matheson, they were able to hold the top positions in their respective companies thanks to the full authority granted to them by the shareholders.

No one in the room raised their hand; it was clear that everyone accepted MacLehose’s arrangement.

“Since there are no objections, the departure time is set,” MacLehose decided decisively.

Following that, MacLehose discussed the itinerary and other arrangements for the visit to Britain in detail with the group.

Considering the relatively short, one-week duration of the visit, it was impossible to cover too many places. Therefore, the main itinerary would be concentrated within the London metropolitan area.

As for extending the visit?

That was even more impractical. Everyone present was a business tycoon with a packed schedule; they couldn’t afford to waste too much extra time.

The entire discussion lasted for about an hour and concluded successfully.

Lin Haoran was actually quite looking forward to visiting Britain.

Although his predecessor had graduated from the London Business School, he himself had never set foot in the country and could only imagine it through fragmented memories.

In the nearly two years since he had crossed over to Hong Kong, the only overseas places he had actually visited were the United States and the Middle East.

On both of those trips, his purpose had been extremely clear—to profit from the oil crisis and gold futures.

Both excursions had been immensely fruitful, earning him a vast amount of cash.

His ability to own multiple publicly listed companies today was largely thanks to those two opportunities.

Otherwise, if he had developed step-by-step in Hong Kong, although he had many advantages as the son of a wealthy family and becoming a billionaire might not have been difficult, achieving what he had now would have been exceedingly hard.

Perhaps he would have only been able to take the money he earned from Kowloon Wharf, the inheritance from his father, and the profits from Amigo Company to invest in plots of land and wait for their value to appreciate.

However, although waiting for land values to rise would eventually generate substantial cash flow, by then he would have long missed the golden opportunity to acquire blue-chip companies like the Hongkong Electric Group, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and Kowloon Motor Bus.

Therefore, those two trips away from Hong Kong were of extraordinary significance to Lin Haoran.

But now, as for what he could do in Britain and what benefits it might bring him, he couldn’t think of anything off the top of his head.

World Cup betting? It was obviously not the right time; the next World Cup wasn’t until 1982.

Moreover, he hadn’t paid any attention to the World Cup of this era in his previous life. Even with his exceptional memory now, he couldn’t conjure up information he had never known.

Thus, he had no specific plans for the upcoming trip to Britain.

He could only take it one step at a time.

Once he arrived in Britain, he would see if there were any opportunities to make money.

If there were, that would be for the best.

If not, he would just treat it as a chance to relax.

Besides, the Wanqing Group could also take this opportunity to expand its market presence in Europe.

Confining himself to the Southeast Asian market was clearly not enough to satisfy his ambitions.

After all, the European and American markets were the largest in the world.

For his companies to join the ranks of global giants, they had to take the path of internationalization.

Otherwise, they would forever remain regional enterprises, unable to break through their limitations.

It was just like HSBC. The reason it would become one of the top ten international banks in the future was precisely because it constantly pursued international development, continuously acquiring banks in the United States, Britain, and other places, thereby greatly expanding its market reach.

Lin Haoran was also ambitious. He too hoped that Wanqing Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and others could go international and one day become world-renowned enterprises, rather than just engaging in small-scale operations in a small place like Hong Kong or even Southeast Asia.

After leaving Government House, seeing that it was still early, Lin Haoran decided to head to Wanqing Building, which was not far away.

Before he reached the building, the beeper on his waist buzzed.

He took it out and looked at the number. The call was from the TVB Chairman’s office. If he wasn’t mistaken, it must be Shao Yifu looking for him.

To put Shao Yifu at ease, in the dozen or so days since the TVB board meeting had elected a new Chairman and Vice Chairman, Lin Haoran, the Vice Chairman, had not once visited the TVB headquarters on Broadcast Drive in Kowloon Tong, let alone interfered with its management.

In reality, Lin Haoran was just lazy.

From his location on Hong Kong Island, a trip to Broadcast Drive would take at least thirty to forty minutes.

On the other hand, it also served to reassure Shao Yifu.

Chapter 273: The “Stingiest” Boss

Just then, the Rolls-Royce arrived at the base of the Wanqing Building.

“Park in one of the spots outside for now. I’m going in to make a phone call,” Lin Haoran instructed Li Weidong.

“Yes, Boss!” Li Weidong acknowledged, then smoothly pulled the car into a company-designated parking space outside the Wanqing Building.

Instead of heading straight to his office, Lin Haoran walked into the ground-floor lobby and approached the reception desk.

The moment he stepped into the lobby, the receptionist’s eyes filled with a mix of nervousness, deep respect, and star-struck admiration.

Lin Haoran smiled and nodded at her. “I need to use the phone,” he said, then walked directly to the reception phone and dialed the number back.

The call connected quickly, and the voice on the other end was that of Shao Yifu, the titan of Hong Kong’s entertainment industry.

“Old Mr. Shao, is there something I can help you with?” Lin Haoran asked, getting straight to the point.

Shao Yifu had not been among the business tycoons summoned by Governor Sir Murray MacLehose this time. Although Shao Yifu was a renowned figure in Hong Kong with considerable influence in the business world, in terms of assets, he could not rank among the top ten Chinese tycoons in Hong Kong during this era, let alone the super-rich Westerners living in the city.

Furthermore, the British government’s primary purpose in inviting Hong Kong’s business leaders for a visit was to encourage them to invest in Britain. Shao Yifu’s business was centered on the film industry, a sector in which Britain had little need for investment. What they truly desired were investments from Hong Kong’s business community in manufacturing, trade, finance, technology, and other fields.

“Mr. Lin, are you free at the moment? If it’s convenient, could you come to the TVB building on Broadcast Drive? You are our Vice Chairman, after all. There are some work-related matters I’d like to discuss with you in person, and I hope to get some valuable opinions from you!” Shao Yifu replied.

“Of course, Old Mr. Shao. I just finished up with something. Give me thirty or forty minutes, and I’ll be right there!” Lin Haoran answered without a moment’s hesitation.

After all, he was now the Vice Chairman and the largest shareholder of TVB. Since he had been personally invited, it would be inappropriate not to go.

After finishing the call, Lin Haoran returned to the car.

“Weidong, let’s head to the TVB Headquarters in Kowloon Tong,” Lin Haoran said to Li Weidong, who had just settled back into the driver’s seat.

“Yes, Boss!”

It wasn’t rush hour, so the drive was free of traffic. In just about half an hour, they arrived at the Wireless Television building.

The guard at the security booth recognized the boss at a glance and quickly and proactively opened the gate, allowing the car to proceed directly to the building’s internal parking lot.

This was only Lin Haoran’s second visit, but there wasn’t a single employee in the building who didn’t recognize him. Consequently, every staff member he encountered along the way greeted their new boss with enthusiasm.

Soon, Lin Haoran arrived at the Chairman’s office.

After knocking, Lin Haoran gently turned the handle and found Shao Yifu inside.

“Mr. Lin, please, come in and have a seat,” Shao Yifu greeted him warmly.

Lin Haoran walked over, pulled up a chair, and sat down with a smile. “Old Mr. Shao, you can just call me Haoran from now on. We’re business partners now; there’s no need to be so formal.”

“Alright, Haoran it is. I’m several decades your senior, so you can just call me Sixth Uncle. Many people do,” Shao Yifu responded cheerfully.

Although Lin Haoran might have surpassed Shao Yifu in wealth, the man was, after all, an elder in his seventies. Addressing him as a peer would have been inappropriate.

“Sixth Uncle, may I ask why you’ve called me here today?” Lin Haoran asked directly.

“Sixth Uncle” rolled off the tongue quite smoothly.

“Haoran, TVB’s performance these past few months has been rather mediocre. Since I took over the management of TVB early last month, I’ve come to truly understand the difficulties Brother Xiaohe faced managing Wireless Television.

“It’s true that viewership ratings can be improved by creating high-quality programs. Based on my years of experience in the film industry, I’m confident that TVB can produce more shows that audiences will love in the future.

“However, I’ve noticed that even when our ratings are excellent for a period, our advertising revenue remains limited. Over ninety-five percent of the company’s revenue comes from advertising; other sources are practically negligible.

“For example, last year, our ratings were on par with Rediffusion Television, but after deducting all expenses, our net profit was only close to six million Hong Kong dollars. For a company of TVB’s size, that figure is truly disappointing.

“Therefore, we must find ways to increase the company’s profits to reward us shareholders. Furthermore, I plan to take Wireless Television public in the next few years. If our profits are too low, it will undoubtedly be a disadvantage for an IPO. A major strategy I’m considering is to increase revenue and cut costs.

“Currently, TVB’s main expense is staff salaries. During Brother Xiaohe’s time, I rarely looked at the books. But after taking over, I found that the company has many unnecessary expenditures, excessively high production costs, and even many employees who contribute little yet enjoy high salaries.

“Once these issues are rectified, the company can save at least five to eight million Hong Kong dollars in expenses annually. But even so, Wireless Television’s annual profit would still be just over ten million Hong Kong dollars at most.

“My Shaw Brothers Film Company can’t compare to real estate companies, but we can often produce high-grossing films on a low budget, generating substantial profits. We can make tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars a year.

“I believe the television industry has more potential than the film industry in the future. I’ve just been studying it for a long time and still can’t find other ways to increase the company’s revenue.

“Haoran, the wealth you’ve accumulated in just two years is something I could never achieve in a lifetime. You surely have unique insights and methods. So, do you have any good suggestions or strategies?” Shao Yifu laid out his reasons for inviting Lin Haoran all at once.

For a company of this scale to have a net profit of less than six million Hong Kong dollars for an entire year was indeed pathetic. It was no wonder the Lee family shareholders had lost interest in TVB.

Based on the six percent equity each of the Lee brothers held, even if the entire six million Hong Kong dollars were distributed as dividends, each would receive less than four hundred thousand. Moreover, the company needed to retain a portion of its funds for development, so a full dividend distribution was impossible.

With Lin Haoran’s current twenty-four percent stake, even with a six million dollar profit, his dividend would be less than one point five million Hong Kong dollars.

Such a return was indeed not high for Lin Haoran; it was so negligible that he almost looked down on it.

Even if they managed to double the company’s profit through Shao Yifu’s proposed cost-cutting strategies, he would only receive around three million Hong Kong dollars a year. For Lin Haoran, this figure was still not worth his attention.

Of course, the sixty million Hong Kong dollars he had spent to acquire the twenty-four percent stake wasn’t a huge sum either. At a dividend rate of three million a year, he would recoup his investment in twenty years. The investment wasn’t a loss, just not very profitable.

Besides, Lin Haoran’s true intention in acquiring TVB shares was not purely for financial gain. He valued TVB’s immense influence in the media as one of Hong Kong’s two major television stations. Lin Haoran had already experienced the advantages of controlling a mainstream media outlet with the Oriental Daily News. With TVB added to his portfolio, he would fear no public opinion challenge in Hong Kong.

Of course, if TVB could bring him additional profits, it would be the icing on the cake. Even with a net worth of several billion Hong Kong dollars, he wouldn’t mind having more money. When it came to money, the more, the better.

Lin Haoran wasn’t surprised by Shao Yifu’s cost-cutting strategy. In his previous life, he knew that Shao Yifu was an incredibly “stingy” boss, almost to a fault.

Early in his career, when a production crew manager requested twenty Hong Kong dollars to buy one hundred pan-fried buns for the on-location crew’s breakfast, Shao Yifu refused, arguing that the buns from the company canteen only cost ten cents each. This led to escalating tensions within the crew. Ultimately, the on-location staff went on strike due to the lack of breakfast, causing the company to lose over ten thousand dollars.

One would think he would learn his lesson, but after this incident, Shao Yifu remained unchanged, sticking to his unyielding ways, which sowed the seeds for many future controversies.

Ten years ago, Raymond Chow, who had made indelible contributions to the development of Shaw Brothers films, requested a share of the company’s stock dividends but was flatly rejected by Shao Yifu. Soon after, Chow resigned in anger and started his own company, which would later become Shaw Brothers’ number one competitor—Golden Harvest Pictures.

In the same year, Shao Yifu missed out on Bruce Lee, who had just returned to Hong Kong from the United States, again over financial issues. Bruce Lee asked for a ten thousand US dollar fee per film, but Shao Yifu deemed the price too high, and they failed to reach an agreement. As a result, Golden Harvest Pictures successfully signed Bruce Lee with a higher salary.

Afterward, due to similar financial considerations, Shaw’s successively lost a host of talented directors and actors, including Samuel Hui, Jackie Chan, and Tsui Hark. They all chose to leave, and the glory of Shaw Brothers Studio gradually faded as it headed into decline.

This was the biggest reason why Shao Yifu had set his sights on taking control of TVB after Li Xiaohe’s death.

As expected, the same story was now playing out at TVB, as Shao Yifu had already taken charge.

In the world of Lin Haoran’s previous life, TVB employees were famous for doing the most work for the least pay. Their rival, ATV, copied Golden Harvest’s strategy and exploited this weakness, poaching a host of stars including Lydia Shum, Eric Tsang, Felix Wong, and Adam Cheng with salaries three times higher, severely damaging TVB.

Later, as the entertainment industry’s landscape changed, the once-dominant TVB gradually entered a period of slow growth. By 2011, when Shao Yifu sold his TVB shares, the company’s business had declined significantly.

Faced with these events, Shao Yifu believed he was “just a businessman” who had to follow the rules of business. He always adhered to this management philosophy, strictly controlling costs and never readily spending lavishly on stars.

The outside world found it difficult to make a simple judgment on the success or failure of his business philosophy, or even to fully understand it. This was because this businessman, often described in media reports as “penny-pinching” and seen by his employees as the “stingiest boss,” had founded the Shaw Foundation in Hong Kong in 1975 and began making large, systematic donations to education, healthcare, and other welfare causes around the world.

Especially in Mainland China, the ubiquitous Shao Yifu academic buildings, Shao Yifu primary schools, Shao Yifu middle schools, and Shao Yifu hospitals were all testament to how much he had contributed to philanthropy.

Lin Haoran had once looked into it. According to public data, Shao Yifu’s cumulative donations to social welfare and charitable causes exceeded ten billion Hong Kong dollars.

Ten billion Hong Kong dollars! That was definitely a huge portion of his total assets. He wasn’t like Li Jiacheng, whose net worth was in the hundreds of billions of Hong Kong dollars. The film and television industry Shao Yifu was in meant he could never earn as much as real estate tycoons like Li Jiacheng or Li Zhaoji.

Chapter 274: Lin Haoran’s Idea

Lin Haoran was truly surprised by Shao Yifu’s reason for seeking him out.

In his view, with Shao Yifu’s capabilities, managing TVB at this stage should have been a piece of cake.

Therefore, after becoming a major shareholder, Lin Haoran had naturally continued to act as a hands-off manager, with no intention of getting too involved in its affairs.

To him, the profits from TVB were something he was never going to care much about.

He would only make use of TVB when he needed it.

Besides, the status of being TVB’s boss also brought him certain benefits.

“Good suggestions and strategies?” Lin Haoran furrowed his brow. He didn’t speak immediately, instead sitting in his chair to think.

“Sixth Uncle, do you have our company’s financial reports? I’d like to use them for analysis, to see if I can come up with some suggestions.” After thinking for a moment, Lin Haoran looked up at Shao Yifu and asked.

“Of course, we have financial reports. Not just the annual ones, but even the monthly financial reports. I’ll get them for you now!” Shao Yifu said, then took a folder from the bookshelf behind him and handed it to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran took the folder and skimmed through it, eventually flipping to the last page.

The folder contained not only last year’s annual financial report and this year’s semi-annual report but also the monthly reports for the past two years.

The last page was last year’s annual report.

The monthly reports didn’t offer much value as a reference, as expenditures and investments varied each month. Sometimes, a month with several new shows filming simultaneously would see increased costs and a temporary loss, which was normal since dramas still in production had yet to generate profit.

Only the annual report could effectively consolidate the data.

Lin Haoran was looking at the 1979 annual financial report for Wireless Television.

Lin Haoran carefully examined every piece of data on the annual financial report.

Just as Shao Yifu had said, TVB’s revenue was almost entirely dependent on advertising, with other sources of income being negligible.

For example, with the overseas broadcasting and on-demand business, TVB’s viewership ratings in overseas markets were not high to begin with. Coupled with the multiple parties taking a cut during the broadcasting process, the final revenue that reached the television station was minimal.

“Sixth Uncle, why is our revenue limited to just television commercials? Aren’t there other forms of advertising revenue we could explore?” Lin Haoran asked, a trace of doubt in his mind as he looked at the report.

“Other forms of advertising revenue? Haoran, what do you mean? I don’t quite understand,” Shao Yifu asked, looking confused.

“Commercials during program breaks are undoubtedly the main source of income, but besides that, there should be many other ways to increase advertising revenue, right?” Lin Haoran was equally puzzled.

In his memory, from childhood to adulthood, the television he watched had many other forms of advertising revenue besides standard commercials.

Anyone who had ever watched television would know this.

“Haoran, why don’t you elaborate?” Sixth Uncle Shao Yifu’s curiosity was piqued.

“Take the dramas produced by TVB, for instance. Most are filmed by our own station, and there are many money-making opportunities within them. For example, when we’re filming, especially modern urban dramas, there will be appliances, cars, and other products featured. We can sign sponsorship contracts with certain businesses in advance. The television programs will use these products and even feature them in close-up shots. I imagine quite a few brands would be interested in sponsoring.

“Let me give you an example. Suppose our station is filming a police drama about catching criminals. There might be a car chase scene, and a chase is a great test of a car’s performance. This would be an excellent opportunity for car promotion. We can negotiate with a car brand beforehand, have them pay us a sponsorship fee, and we’ll use their cars for filming. That way, everyone gets what they want.

“The station can also generate revenue by collaborating with well-known brands and hosting various events. By partnering with famous brands, the station can leverage their influence to improve program quality and attract more viewers. At the same time, by hosting events like galas, singing competitions, beauty pageants, and so on, the station can not only receive sponsorship income but also increase audience participation and loyalty.

“Take TVB’s flagship program, ‘Miss Hong Kong.’ I think it’s a huge waste to only run commercials during its broadcast. As the most famous and popular variety show in Hong Kong, its viewership ratings have always been excellent. We should find suitable sponsors before the next ‘Miss Hong Kong’ pageant begins. When the show airs, we can prominently feature the sponsors. I’m sure many advertisers would be interested. If negotiated well, the money earned could be no less than that from commercial breaks.

“Besides ‘Miss Hong Kong,’ we can also plan more quality variety shows. While boosting viewership ratings, we can also attract more program sponsors.

“And besides advertising, the many dramas we’ve filmed are all valuable gold mines. We can license the copyrights to television stations outside of Hong Kong for broadcast, earning significant copyright income. If we license enough of them, we might even recoup our production costs through copyright fees alone.

“Furthermore, we can leverage our television platform to launch a product sales business. We can introduce products on TV, and viewers can order by phone. This way, we can convert viewership ratings into sales and profit from them.

“That’s all I can think of for now. Personally, I feel there are so many ways for a television station to generate income. Especially as televisions become more common and the audience grows, the exposure rate gets higher and higher. You could say that viewership is money; it all depends on whether we know how to use it. Diversified profit models are what will provide the station with broader room for profit. Relying solely on a single advertising method like commercials during broadcasts is no wonder our station’s revenue is so low.”

Lin Haoran patiently explained his ideas, drawing from the television programs he had watched in his previous life.

In truth, television advertising models of this era were indeed quite simple, only beginning to diversify in the mid-to-late eighties.

Sixth Uncle Shao Yifu listened to Lin Haoran with rapt attention. His expression shifted dramatically, from initial curiosity to subsequent shock, and finally to a sudden realization.

“Haoran, I was right to come to you this time. I’ve learned so many valuable things from what you’ve said. I never knew television could have so many ways to be profitable!” Shao Yifu said with emotion.

Sixth Uncle himself was a business prodigy; otherwise, he couldn’t have achieved his current status in the business world. He was quick to grasp and apply new concepts.

Therefore, Shao Yifu had truly gained a great deal from this conversation.

It was foreseeable that once he digested and implemented what he had learned today, TVB’s revenue and profits would see a significant increase.

Moreover, as television became increasingly popular, the value of advertising would rise with the tide. TVB’s future prospects were indeed limitless.

At that moment, Shao Yifu was extremely thankful that he had fought hard for executive power over TVB back then.

This way, even if Shaw Brothers Film Company were to decline, he would have left himself a fallback plan.

“I was just mentioning it off the cuff. Whether these methods can make money will still depend on you, Sixth Uncle. You know I’m very busy—I’m spread too thin. I even have to go to Britain next week. Of course, as a TVB shareholder, I hope TVB makes a huge profit. That way, my own returns will rise with the tide,” Lin Haoran explained with a smile, not revealing the fact that he was happy to be a hands-off manager.

In the eyes of the public, Lin Haoran had numerous enterprises under his command, including Green Island Cement, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Kowloon Motor Bus, and Oriental Press Group. It went without saying that he was a busy man.

Therefore, Shao Yifu did not doubt Lin Haoran’s words.

After all, he knew from his own experience. Since becoming the Chairman of TVB, he had to manage both Shaw Brothers Studio and TVB, which made him much busier than before.

“You’re still young, so it’s normal to be busy. I was just as busy when I was young, and I found it fulfilling. But now I’m over seventy, and I often wonder how many years I have left,” Shao Yifu said, full of emotion.

Perhaps even he himself never expected that he would ultimately live past the century mark to the ripe old age of 107, becoming an extremely long-lived and wealthy old man.

Perhaps this was the karmic reward for his many years of philanthropy.

Lin Haoran didn’t mention any of this to Shao Yifu. With a faint smile, he let the topic drop and steered the conversation to other matters.

“Sixth Uncle, when is our next ‘Miss Hong Kong’ variety show pageant?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“We already have that arranged. It’s scheduled to start on October 26th. In fact, auditions are already underway across Hong Kong,” Shao Yifu replied.

Lin Haoran nodded. There were still over two months to go, so preparations needed to start soon.

Lin Haoran was actually quite curious about this famous variety show. He wanted to witness the renowned “Miss Hong Kong” pageant in person.

The two chatted amiably in the office, and before they knew it, more than an hour had passed. Lin Haoran then rose to bid farewell.

With Shao Yifu holding down the fort at Wireless Television, he basically didn’t have to worry about any problems arising.

After all, TVB would have become very successful even without his involvement.

What’s more, Lin Haoran had just given Shao Yifu a number of suggestions.

Applying these suggestions to business management would definitely bring more revenue to TVB.

It was a forgone conclusion that TVB would go public in the future. Although its current profits weren’t high in Lin Haoran’s eyes, he still hoped that TVB’s market capitalization would be a respectable figure when it had its IPO.

That way, if the day came when he no longer valued TVB’s influence as a media outlet and wanted to sell his shares, he could do so at a satisfactory price.

“Sixth Uncle, I’ll have to trouble you to manage the company from now on. If anything comes up, feel free to call me. I’ll help in any way I can,” Lin Haoran said with a smile before leaving.

“I know you’re busy. I won’t bother you unless it’s absolutely necessary!” Shao Yifu laughed heartily.

“Then I’ll be heading back,” Lin Haoran said, waving to Shao Yifu as he prepared to leave Kowloon Tong.

“Alright, go on with your business. I’m going to find Mr. Yu to discuss the suggestions you just made and see how we can further increase the company’s revenue and profits!” Shao Yifu said, standing up to see him off.

Chapter 275: Guo Henian and His Family Pay a Visit

Although he was over seventy, Shao Yifu was glowing with health and showed no signs of his advanced age.

After bidding farewell to Shao Yifu, Lin Haoran left the TVB Headquarters.

Though the place was teeming with stars, there were very few truly famous actresses at the time.

Therefore, even though Lin Haoran harbored some hopes of a romantic conquest, these thoughts dissipated after he learned more about TVB’s current situation.

At present, the number of well-known female artists at TVB could be counted on one hand. Even the so-called “Four Great Star Actresses”—Liza Wang, Zhao Yazhi, Huang Shuyi, and Li Siqi—were mostly past the age of thirty.

Zhao Yazhi, at twenty-seven, was in her prime. She was close to his age, exceptionally beautiful, and her portrayal of Bai Suzhen in The New Legend of Madame White Snake was unforgettable.

However, the current Zhao Yazhi was not only married but also pregnant and at home on maternity leave.

She would probably give birth in another two months, so Lin Haoran naturally had no interest in her; he wasn’t that depraved.

After leaving the TVB building, Lin Haoran didn’t visit any other companies.

He had first gone to Government House, then to the TVB building in Kowloon Tong, and by now it was already past twelve in the afternoon.

Lin Haoran didn’t eat lunch out. Instead, he had Li Weiguo drive him straight back to the Lin family villa in Deep Water Bay.

Come to think of it, it had been quite a while since he had last been back.

Currently, all the companies under his name were operating normally, and he would be contacted promptly about any major issues.

Thus, Lin Haoran didn’t need to worry too much about corporate management.

As for the debt to HSBC, he wasn’t the least bit concerned about not being able to repay it when it came due.

When the time came, the real estate market would be at its peak for those few years. He planned to sell the plots of land he had previously hoarded, aiming for a handsome return at a high price.

In addition, Amigo Company was set to go public in September, and he might be able to secure a substantial return through his shares in the company.

With the International Building, which could be sold at any time, thrown into the mix, it wouldn’t be difficult to scrape together two billion Hong Kong dollars.

So, when it came to debt, Lin Haoran was truly unconcerned.

When he arrived home, his father was not there.

According to his mother, Lin Wan’an had gone out early in the morning, supposedly to discuss a new film project with some friends.

Lin Haoran had no intention of stopping Lin Wan’an from dabbling in movies. Although it wasn’t easy to make money in filmmaking, he would let his father do as he pleased, whether he profited or lost.

Even if he lost money, how much could a film lose in this era?

In any case, Lin Haoran wasn’t short on cash. If there was a loss, so be it; he could still support his parents.

Upon learning that Lin Haoran hadn’t had lunch yet, his mother hurried off to tell the housekeeper to prepare a meal for him.

“Mother, you don’t need to prepare too many dishes. A simple meal for me, Weiguo, and Weidong will be fine,” Lin Haoran called out to her.

“I know, I know. Have some snacks to tide you over. You haven’t had lunch this late, don’t starve yourself,” his mother said, continuing on her way without looking back.

In reality, it was just past twelve, which wasn’t very late.

In just about twenty minutes, several dishes, appealing in color, aroma, and taste, were placed on the dining table.

Savoring the delicious food, Lin Haoran felt a warmth spread through him.

His villa on Severn Road, though freeing and unrestrained, lacked the company of family.

Only by returning here did it truly feel like home.

With a week left before his trip to Britain, Lin Haoran spent the next three days at home accompanying his parents, not going anywhere.

It wasn’t until the fourth day that he finally left the Deep Water Bay villa area.

Before heading to Britain, he needed to check in with the heads of his various companies. If there was anything that required his attention, he could handle it while he was still in Hong Kong.

So, over the next two days, Lin Haoran met with Wanqing Group President Burton, Hongkong Electric Group general manager Chen Shoulin, and Oriental Press Group general manager Cui Zilong, among others.

In the blink of an eye, it was August 7th.

In the morning, he paid a visit to Amigo Company.

Liu Luanxiong was now a leading figure among Hong Kong’s young businessmen, and when Lin Haoran saw him, he could sense that his partner was currently brimming with pride and success.

After all, he had been in the limelight so much recently that his fame was almost on par with Lin Haoran’s.

Thanks to the recent media coverage, few people in Hong Kong didn’t know who he was.

“Haoran, the preparations for Amigo Company’s initial public offering are going very well. We’re just waiting for the Stock Exchange to review the documents we submitted. Wardley said that given our company’s quality, the whole listing process won’t even take two months. We might be able to officially go public by the beginning of next month,” Liu Luanxiong said excitedly upon seeing Lin Haoran.

“That’s certainly good news. But even though we’re about to go public, we can’t relax on the management side. Otherwise, if our performance drops, the market capitalization won’t be as good as we expect,” Lin Haoran advised.

“Don’t worry, Haoran. Although orders did drop slightly in July and again in August, the decline isn’t significant. It won’t affect our profits for the year,” Liu Luanxiong said nonchalantly.

“Good, I trust you,” Lin Haoran smiled.

“By the way, Haoran, I plan to hold a factory relocation ceremony before we go public, moving the factory to our very own industrial park. It’s sure to further boost Amigo Company’s influence!” Liu Luanxiong added.

The Amigo Industrial Park, constructed by Wan’an Real Estate Company, was due to be completed this month. The small industrial park consisted of only a few industrial buildings, and its construction wasn’t complex, so it was indeed about time for it to be finished.

“Alright, you’re the general manager. You call the shots,” Lin Haoran said casually.

Wan’an Real Estate Company had also earned several million Hong Kong dollars from this construction project, so in a way, Lin Haoran had profited a little.

The two chatted some more about company matters, with Liu Luanxiong doing most of the talking since he was the one managing the company.

“By the way, Xiong, I’m going to Britain tomorrow. I came over today specifically to let you know. I’m not sure when I’ll be back, but it will definitely be before the company goes public,” Lin Haoran finally stated his purpose for the visit after they had talked for a while.

The official visit to Britain was scheduled for one week.

After that week, everyone was free to make their own arrangements.

Lin Haoran wasn’t sure how long he would stay in Britain on this trip.

“To Britain? Are you going to survey the market there?” Liu Luanxiong asked curiously.

“You could say that. I was invited by the Queen of Britain. People like Mr. Michael Sandberg and Mr. Pao Yue-kong will be going as well,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

These things weren’t exactly secrets.

“A personal invitation from the Queen of Britain… When will I ever reach that level?” Liu Luanxiong was instantly filled with envy.

In that moment, he felt that his own achievements were not enough to warrant such self-satisfaction.

“You’re one of the most commercially talented young men I’ve ever met. I believe you’ll definitely reach that level in the future!” Lin Haoran patted Liu Luanxiong on the shoulder and laughed heartily.

In his previous life, Liu Luanxiong had consistently ranked among the top ten richest people in Hong Kong for many years.

And in this world, influenced by Lin Haoran, Liu Luanxiong’s starting point was even more impressive.

At this point in his original timeline, Liu Luanxiong’s assets would have just surpassed one hundred million.

But now, even excluding his stake in Amigo Company, Liu Luanxiong’s net worth was already in the hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars. Not to mention, Amigo Company, currently at its peak, was about to go public. Driven by extensive media promotion, it had become a household name, known as Hong Kong’s number one manufacturing enterprise.

Therefore, when Amigo Company went public, its market capitalization was bound to be an impressive figure.

Lin Haoran had no aversion to Liu Luanxiong.

After all, in this world, he had used Liu Luanxiong to earn a significant amount of money.

Liu Luanxiong was practically creating wealth for him continuously. The dividends over these two years would surely exceed three hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

And once Amigo Company successfully went public, the market value of his shares would undoubtedly far surpass the dividends he had received over the past two years.

Thus, his initial investment of nearly 1.2 million Hong Kong dollars in Amigo Company would likely yield a return of well over 600 million Hong Kong dollars in just two short years.

To him, a man like this was practically his God of Wealth!

While chatting with Liu Luanxiong, Lin Haoran received a phone call.

The call was from Guo Henian, and its purpose left Lin Haoran quite surprised.

Guo Henian said on the phone that he hoped to visit Lin Haoran in the evening with his wife, children, and niece, since they all lived in the villa area on The Peak.

Lin Haoran, of course, agreed immediately.

Come to think of it, he had invited Guo Henian to be his guest long ago, but Guo Henian had never come over.

Now, on the eve of his departure from Hong Kong, he was suddenly paying a visit, which he found somewhat surprising.

Although he was unsure of the reason, the Guo family had helped him a great deal recently, so he would never refuse such a request.

The greatest hero in Green Island Cement Company’s trailblazing expansion into the Southeast Asian market in the first half of this year wasn’t the general manager, Burton, but Guo Henian!

The reason Green Island Cement Company had so smoothly captured a decent market share in Malaysia and Singapore was due to the Guo family’s help.

The Guo family was a local powerhouse in Malaysia. With their introductions, Green Island Cement Company effortlessly secured a significant portion of the market, causing the cement producer’s sales, revenue, and profits to soar.

After hanging up with Guo Henian, Lin Haoran bid farewell to Liu Luanxiong.

Guo Henian was now considered one of his elders and had provided him with considerable help since they had met. Lin Haoran certainly had to treat this elder’s visit with due importance.

Chapter 276: Guo Henian’s Request

After returning to his Severn Road villa, Lin Haoran specially arranged for the kitchen to purchase more ingredients and prepare a lavish dinner.

Around six in the evening, Lin Haoran finally greeted the Guo family.

They didn’t live far away, so it was extremely convenient for them to come over.

Lin Haoran stood outside the villa, welcoming them with a smile.

“Uncle Guo, long time no see.”

“Mrs. Guo, hello.”

“Miss Guo, you look very beautiful today!”

…

Lin Haoran shook hands and greeted each of them. After a few pleasantries, he invited them into the villa.

Standing in the ground-floor hall, Guo Henian briefly surveyed the interior and said with a smile, “Haoran, your decor is quite simple.”

“I don’t pay much attention to these things. There’s no need to spend too much effort on renovations, especially since I might move somewhere else in a year or two,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Although his place wasn’t extravagantly decorated, it was by no means plainly furnished.

He had simply designed it with a modern, minimalist style in mind.

That was why the renovations were completed in just two short months.

“That’s true. With your wealth now, where can’t you live? I’m even planning to buy a villa in Deep Water Bay,” Guo Henian said with a laugh.

Deep Water Bay was home to many great Chinese tycoons, such as Pao Yue-kong, Li Jiacheng, and others; almost all of them lived there.

Guo Henian wanted to build good relationships with these local Hong Kong tycoons, so moving there was clearly a suitable choice.

In contrast, The Peak’s villa area was still dominated by wealthy Westerners.

Of course, as Westerners gradually left Hong Kong due to a lack of confidence in its future—returning to Britain or relocating to places like Australia and the United States—their villas became vacant.

Because of this, the villas on The Peak and in the Mid-Levels would gradually become dominated by Chinese tycoons in the future.

“It’s a good idea for you to move to the Deep Water Bay villa area, Uncle Guo. You can continue to be my neighbor. Although I rarely stay there, I go back at least once or twice a month. The atmosphere among our Chinese business magnates is definitely stronger there,” Lin Haoran said in agreement.

“I’m buying villas mainly as an investment. I’m not just buying one; I plan to buy several. The number of wealthy people in Hong Kong is bound to increase, and villas are a scarce resource.

I’m very optimistic about these places, especially the villa areas in Mid-Levels, The Peak, Deep Water Bay, and Repulse Bay. I think it’s a good idea to buy and hold a few if you have the money. You won’t have to worry about them not appreciating in the future.

While I know many Westerners and even some Chinese are pessimistic about Hong Kong’s future for political reasons, I am just the opposite. I believe Hong Kong has a very promising future.

It’s backed by a massive market of over one billion people. As long as Mainland China can develop, Hong Kong is bound to have a brighter future. Moreover, the Mainland now uses Hong Kong as a transit hub for imports and exports. This place is so prosperous largely thanks to the Mainland. I went to Beiping last month and met with an old statesman, and he gave me immense confidence!” Guo Henian said, as if to remind Lin Haoran.

His trip to the Mainland must have given him a very solid reason for his immense confidence. The fact that he could speak so frankly to Lin Haoran showed that he regarded this junior quite well.

“Uncle Guo, I am certainly full of confidence in Hong Kong’s future, but I also have my own perspective. I think the development of Hong Kong’s real estate industry has become a bit blindly exaggerated.

The major financial groups are constantly increasing their investment in real estate, and the banks are continuously lowering their lending requirements, pushing up property prices. On top of that, wealthy individuals from Southeast Asia and other regions are entering the Hong Kong market. All of this has caused Hong Kong’s property prices to rise at a pace that has deviated from normal development. Sooner or later, it will face a crisis.

However, after the crisis, prices will definitely continue to rise, just like the stock market. Where there’s a bull market, there will inevitably be a bear market. Uncle Guo, you should also be mentally prepared. Of course, this is just me talking off the cuff. Uncle Guo’s experience is far greater than mine; you surely have your own judgment,” Lin Haoran said with a laugh.

There was no harm in him phrasing these words as speculation. Whether Guo Henian believed him or not was Guo Henian’s business, not his.

It might have been a bit inappropriate to say such things as a junior, but Lin Haoran said them anyway. This was mainly because the Guo family had provided considerable help to his companies recently. Regardless of their motives, Lin Haoran was grateful for the favor, so he offered a special reminder.

Guo Xiaohan listened quietly from the side. Today, she was dressed very elegantly, looking both beautiful and ladylike, exuding the air of a well-bred young woman.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Guo was sitting on the sofa, tending to her child.

“Young Master, distinguished guests, dinner is ready.” At that moment, a household servant came over, bowed slightly, and informed them.

“Uncle Guo, Miss Guo, let’s go have dinner first. After we eat, we can talk in the study,” Lin Haoran said, rising to his feet with a smile.

Even now, he was still unsure of the purpose of Guo Henian’s visit.

But Lin Haoran knew he must have a purpose; he wouldn’t just pay a visit for no reason.

It was just like himself; whether visiting Pao Yue-kong’s home or Governor Murray MacLehose, he always went with a purpose.

If you went without any specific reason, even if you did visit, you wouldn’t know what to talk about, and the conversation wouldn’t last long.

“Alright, we’ll be troubling you today,” Guo Henian said heartily.

“Uncle Guo, you are welcome anytime. It’s no trouble at all. Please.” Lin Haoran made a welcoming gesture.

The group moved from the living room to the dining room.

On the dining table, more than a dozen lavish dishes had been prepared, mainly featuring local Hong Kong specialties.

Guo Henian was a Malaysian Chinese, born and raised, while his father was from Southern Fujian. Lin Haoran reckoned he should be accustomed to Hong Kong cuisine.

The last time they visited his father’s home, Lin Wan’an had also prepared local Hong Kong dishes, and Lin Haoran had noticed then that both Guo Henian and Guo Xiaohan ate with great relish.

“It’s nothing special, please don’t mind. Uncle Guo, Mrs. Guo, Miss Guo, please have a seat,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“There are only a few of us, yet you’ve prepared so many dishes. This is almost wasteful. How can you say it’s nothing special?” Guo Henian replied with a laugh.

“Would you like a drink, Uncle Guo?” Lin Haoran asked.

“No, thank you. I have to drink often at business functions. There’s no need for it here at your place. So now, I avoid drinking whenever I can,” Guo Henian said, shaking his head.

“It seems Uncle Guo dislikes social engagements too. My father is the same. Too many functions took a toll on his health. Now that he’s retired early, his health has recovered. What you said is right, Uncle Guo!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

About half an hour later, the dinner concluded in a harmonious atmosphere.

After dinner, Lin Haoran invited them into the study to talk.

Since Mrs. Guo had to look after the child, she didn’t go into the study and remained in the living room to watch television.

In the end, Guo Henian and Guo Xiaohan followed Lin Haoran into the study.

As the host, Lin Haoran began to prepare tea for them.

Before the Guo family arrived, Lin Haoran had asked a servant to tidy up the study and wash the tea set.

Normally, when he was home alone, he wouldn’t bother making tea for himself, so this tea set was rarely used.

After preparing the tea and pouring a hot cup for both Guo Henian and Guo Xiaohan, Lin Haoran got straight to the point. “As the saying goes, one doesn’t visit without a purpose. I imagine you must have something to discuss with me this time, Uncle Guo.”

“Can’t I come for a visit if there’s nothing to discuss?” Guo Henian said with a laugh.

“That’s not what I mean, but I have a strong feeling you came with a purpose, Uncle Guo,” Lin Haoran said with certainty.

“I really can’t hide anything from you, haha. I did indeed come to ask a favor of you. You’re heading to Britain tomorrow, aren’t you?” Guo Henian said with a smile.

“Yes, Uncle Guo. Tomorrow, I will be accompanying some of Hong Kong’s business seniors on a week-long visit to Britain.” Although he wasn’t sure why Guo Henian brought this up, Lin Haoran nodded.

It was normal for Guo Henian to know about such matters.

It was a pity that Guo Henian was not a local Hong Konger. With the Guo family’s wealth, they might even be richer than the current Li Jiacheng.

After all, the Guo family was the wealthiest in Malaysia, and indeed, in all of Southeast Asia.

If the Guo family had been local Hong Kong merchants, they would surely have been invited to participate in this visit to Britain.

“Haoran, it’s like this. I would like to ask you to take Xiaohan with you on this visit. The purpose is to let her gain some experience and broaden her horizons. Xiaohan has shown considerable talent in business and is a very outstanding junior in our Guo family, well worth cultivating.

In addition, our family has several joint projects underway in Britain, and her trip would also allow her to represent us in inspecting and supervising the progress of those projects. I wonder if this arrangement would be an inconvenience to you?” Guo Henian got straight to the point, directly stating the intention of his visit.

Lin Haoran’s gaze shifted to Guo Xiaohan, who was sitting diagonally opposite him. Their eyes met, and a blush gradually crept onto Guo Xiaohan’s face. She then shyly lowered her head.

He looked away and said to Guo Henian with a smile, “Uncle Guo, a small matter like this is no problem at all. Miss Guo can gather here at my place tomorrow morning at eight to depart. I will personally accompany her to Britain.

If all goes well, once we’re in Britain, we’ll have the opportunity to meet with British government officials and even the Queen. Miss Guo can participate as my assistant. It’s just that I’ll have to ask Miss Guo to play this role for a little while.”

“Mr. Lin, I have been serving as my uncle’s assistant during my time in Hong Kong. I believe I am more than capable of handling this job and won’t cause you any trouble, Mr. Lin!” Unexpectedly, Guo Xiaohan raised her head and spoke to Lin Haoran with confidence.

Guo Henian first glanced at Lin Haoran, then turned to look at his niece, a complex smile appearing on his face.

Chapter 277: Departing for Britain

“Haoran, while Xiaohan is in Britain, I’ll have to trouble you to take good care of her,” Guo Henian said with a teasing smile.

At the same time, he couldn’t help but sigh inwardly, “A daughter will always leave the nest!”

After all, Guo Xiaohan had been studying business management under him for some time, and Guo Henian knew his niece’s temperament like the back of his hand.

When was the usual Guo Xiaohan ever this demure?

She had the personality of a strong, career-driven woman. When handling work matters, she was both decisive and flawless. Even Guo Henian was full of praise for her and had taught her almost all the business experience he could impart.

Sometimes, Guo Henian even regretted that Guo Xiaohan wasn’t a man. If she were, the Guo family would have another highly capable successor.

The Guo family had numerous industries spread throughout Southeast Asia, requiring many capable Guo family descendants to manage them.

Unfortunately, she was ultimately a woman and would marry out sooner or later.

From that unspoken smile, even Lin Haoran knew that Southeast Asia’s richest man was trying to create some private space for him and the Guo family’s young lady.

The so-called project inspection and learning experience were, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, nothing more than excuses.

After all, given Guo Henian’s status in the business world, the British Prime Minister would personally meet with him if he were to visit Britain.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, the young lady of the Guo family would not lack such opportunities. It was obvious that Guo Henian was merely creating an opportunity for him and Guo Xiaohan to be alone together.

What he hadn’t expected was for Guo Henian to be so proactive in acting as a go-between for him and Guo Xiaohan.

After all, Guo Henian’s business standing was not much less than Pao Yue-kong’s, placing him among the top tier of tycoons.

However, Lin Haoran pretended not to notice.

He was somewhat averse to the idea of a marriage alliance.

But Guo Xiaohan was a woman of both talent and beauty, which gave Lin Haoran a rather favorable impression of her.

Therefore, his stance on Guo Xiaohan was to neither reject nor pursue her, preferring to let nature take its course.

Although Lin Haoran often coveted the beautiful female stars from his past life, he had no intention of investing much emotion in them. To put it bluntly, these actresses were not suitable to be his legitimate wife.

Just like Big Liu from his previous life—though he had dalliances with numerous beauties in the entertainment industry, he never gave his heart to any of them. After all, everyone knew why those women sought him out; they were only after his money.

Lin Haoran was the same. He didn’t have Big Liu’s extravagant fantasy of running through the entire entertainment industry, but a little dalliance now and then was fine.

The most important thing in life was to be happy. Having been an ordinary person his entire previous life, it would be a waste of this one if he lived it by the book now that he was a super-rich man.

As for marrying a female star, he truly had no such thoughts.

But keeping a beauty in a gilded cage now and then seemed like a fine idea.

Take Rosamund Kwan, for example. He had no intention of marrying her either. Possessing the best years of her youth was satisfaction enough for him.

“Uncle Guo, please rest assured. I will definitely take good care of Miss Guo!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

The three of them chatted in the study for over an hour. The conversation was mainly between Lin Haoran and Guo Henian. As for Guo Xiaohan, she mostly listened, speaking little, her beautiful eyes occasionally landing on Lin Haoran with a shy expression.

It was evident that this young lady of the Guo family also had a considerable good impression of Lin Haoran.

At a little past eight in the evening, Lin Haoran saw them out of the Lin family villa.

“Uncle Guo, Mrs. Guo, Miss Guo, take care. Be safe on the road. Should I have my bodyguards escort you back?”

The distance between their two homes was only a few hundred meters, so it wasn’t far.

“Don’t worry, my bodyguards are quite skilled. Besides, the security in the Mid-Levels and The Peak districts is quite good. There won’t be any safety issues,” Guo Henian said dismissively, waving his hand.

Indeed, dangerous incidents rarely occurred in The Peak district. It was one of the areas the Hong Kong Royal Police paid the most attention to, with patrol cars passing through at regular intervals.

“Miss Guo, please come over early tomorrow, preferably around eight. Let’s not be late. As a junior, it wouldn’t be right to make all the business seniors wait for us,” Lin Haoran said to Guo Xiaohan with a smile.

The departure time was ten o’clock sharp the next morning, meaning the plane would take off around ten.

The drive from the Severn Road villa district to Kai Tak International Airport in Hung Hom would take at least thirty to forty minutes during the morning rush hour.

If they encountered a car accident in the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, even more time would be wasted.

So, although the departure was at ten, it was best to arrive at the airport a bit earlier to allow for any unexpected delays on the road.

This time, the Hong Kong government had specially chartered a plane for the group of tycoons.

After all, every person heading to Britain was a tycoon of considerable status. It would clearly be inappropriate for them to take a regular commercial flight.

Therefore, there were plenty of seats on the plane. It was no problem at all for Lin Haoran to bring two bodyguards and Guo Xiaohan. He didn’t even need to report it; the Government House would handle all the procedures for them at the airport the next day.

Even if everyone brought three or four people, the total would be less than a hundred. A plane capable of flying to London, Britain, was certainly not a small aircraft; it could easily seat two to three hundred people.

This was the privilege of a top tycoon; their procedures were naturally different from those of ordinary people.

“Mr. Lin, please don’t worry. I will be here before eight,” Guo Xiaohan replied, her lovely eyes sparkling.

Only after Guo Henian’s Rolls-Royce had disappeared down the road did Lin Haoran return to his home.

He had to wake up early the next morning, so after returning home, Lin Haoran quickly washed up and went to rest.

Lin Haoran’s sleep quality was excellent; he slept soundly until dawn.

Opening his eyes, he pressed the switch on the small lamp beside him and glanced at the wall clock. It was around seven in the morning, still early.

Feeling refreshed, Lin Haoran got out of bed. After washing up, he put on a suitable suit and called for the young Filipino-Chinese maid in her early twenties to come up and help him tidy his attire.

Since he was traveling to Britain with a group of tycoons, he definitely had to dress more formally.

Lin Haoran rarely wore his suits, preferring casual clothes.

He only wore these custom-made suits for formal occasions.

Standing before the mirror, his reflection showed him in a well-tailored dark suit. Every inch of the fabric clung to his tall and straight frame, outlining smooth and powerful lines.

The texture and color of the suit had a low-key, luxurious sheen under the light, complementing his restrained temperament.

The collar of his white shirt was immaculate, and his tie was carefully chosen, its color perfectly matching the suit—neither too ostentatious nor lacking in personality, adding a highlight to his overall look.

An unprecedented light of confidence shone in Lin Haoran’s eyes, a mature charm that radiated from within, refined by time.

His facial features appeared even more defined against the backdrop of the suit, and a faint, charming smile played on his lips, as if he was confident of success in facing any challenge ahead.

“Young Master, you look even more handsome than usual dressed like this,” the maid said, practically swooning.

At home, Lin Haoran was usually easygoing, so the maids were not afraid of him.

“Am I not handsome usually?” Lin Haoran teased.

“Of course the Young Master is always handsome, but you’re even more handsome now!”

After getting dressed, Lin Haoran left the bedroom and went downstairs for breakfast.

His luggage had been packed the day before. All that was left was to wait for Guo Xiaohan to arrive so they could head to the airport together.

“Weidong, go up to my bedroom and bring my luggage down, then join me for breakfast.” He saw the two brothers, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, walk in from outside, clearly just finished with their workout.

“Yes, Boss!” Li Weidong replied before quickly heading upstairs.

“Boss, I’m going to take a quick shower. I worked up a bit of a sweat during my workout. It won’t take long. We’ve both already eaten breakfast,” Li Weiguo said respectfully from the side.

“Alright, go ahead,” Lin Haoran said, glancing at the time. It was not yet seven-thirty, so there was no rush.

A short while later, Li Weidong came down with Lin Haoran’s luggage.

He wasn’t bringing much, just a few sets of clothes and little else.

After all, everything else would surely be arranged for him in Britain, so there was no need for him to pack daily necessities.

“Weidong, you should go take a shower too. Once we’re on the plane, it’ll be over twenty hours before we reach our destination,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, glancing at Li Weiguo.

“Boss, I was just about to,” Li Weiguo said with a nod.

Since bringing their families over, the two brothers’ loyalty to Lin Haoran had reached a terrifying one hundred percent, so Lin Haoran now trusted them completely.

Twenty minutes later, Li Weiguo and Li Weidong reappeared before Lin Haoran, both having changed into suits.

“Have you both told your families? This trip to Britain might take ten days to half a month,” Lin Haoran, who had finished breakfast and was reading the newspaper, asked as he looked up.

“Boss, we’ve already told our families,” Li Weiguo replied.

Just then, a maid came in to report, “Young Master, a car has parked in our parking space outside.”

Lin Haoran checked the time. It was seven fifty-five in the morning. He figured it must be Guo Xiaohan.

He stood up and walked toward the villa’s entrance.

Li Weidong and Li Weiguo followed him out.

Opening the main gate, he saw that it was indeed Guo Xiaohan outside. She was just getting out of her car, and her driver was helping her with two large suitcases.

When girls travel, it’s different from how Lin Haoran does it; they’re bound to bring a lot of things. Since this trip to Britain would not be short, bringing two suitcases was quite normal.

“Miss Guo, good morning,” Lin Haoran greeted with a smile.

Li Weidong and Li Weiguo had already taken the initiative to help with the suitcases.

“Good morning, Mr. Lin,” she replied with a sweet smile.

Perhaps because her uncle was not around, Guo Xiaohan seemed much more relaxed today, completely lacking the reserve she had shown during their previous meetings.

“Come on in. Rest for a bit before we leave. Have you had breakfast?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile as he walked back inside.

“I have,” Guo Xiaohan responded with a slight nod.

Lin Haoran led Guo Xiaohan into the living room, while Li Weidong and Li Weiguo began loading the suitcases into the car.

The trunk of one Rolls-Royce was clearly not enough for the luggage of four people.

So, for this trip to the airport, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo would each drive a car. What didn’t fit in the trunk could be placed on the back seat of Lin Haoran’s old, now-retired Mercedes-Benz.

Lin Haoran planned to leave around eight-thirty. That way, they wouldn’t have to worry even if there was heavy traffic. Under normal circumstances, even with traffic, they should be able to reach Hong Kong Kai Tak International Airport before nine-thirty.

“Have you been to Britain before, Miss Guo?” Lin Haoran asked curiously after they sat down.

“Mr. Lin, you can just call me Xiaohan. ‘Miss Guo’ sounds a bit distant,” Guo Xiaohan said proactively.

“Alright, we’re both young, there’s no need to be so formal. I’ll call you Xiaohan, then, and you can just call me Haoran. Of course, since I’m two years older than you, you can call me Brother Haoran,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Okay, Brother Haoran.” Although Guo Xiaohan was more open than before, her face flushed slightly when she said this. It was clear that for her, this was a very intimate form of address.

With the change in how they addressed each other, their relationship seemed to grow closer.

Compared to when Guo Henian was present, Guo Xiaohan, who used to be very quiet, was much more talkative today. She would often take the initiative to start conversations with Lin Haoran.

Through their chat, Lin Haoran gradually came to have a deeper understanding of this talented and beautiful woman.

Guo Xiaohan had previously studied at Princeton University’s Bendheim Center for Finance in the United States. She had just returned to Southeast Asia last year after completing her studies and immediately began learning business management under Guo Henian, serving as his assistant.

Lin Haoran had heard of Princeton University; it was a highly renowned institution on par with Harvard and Stanford.

And Princeton University’s Bendheim Center for Finance was essentially Princeton’s business school.

To be able to study at such a prestigious institution, Guo Xiaohan was clearly exceptional enough.

Guo Xiaohan was not surprised to learn that Lin Haoran had graduated from the London Business School.

In her view, for Lin Haoran to have built such a massive enterprise at his age, he must be a super-genius. It wouldn’t be surprising no matter which school he graduated from.

Coming from a privileged background, Guo Xiaohan had seen all sorts of business geniuses growing up.

But she knew that no matter how brilliant they were, none could compare to Lin Haoran.

After all, according to her uncle, Lin Haoran’s current wealth was already comparable to that of the Guo family.

The vast fortune the Guo family possessed today was the result of decades of hard work.

And Lin Haoran’s family background was no secret in Hong Kong.

His father, Lin Wan’an, was just an ordinary billionaire.

In all of Hong Kong, there were at least a hundred billionaires like Lin Wan’an.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s wealth could not have come from Lin Wan’an; he must have earned it all through his own abilities.

As for Citibank?

Guo Henian had his own opinion.

In recent years, Citibank’s investments in the Far East had been mainly focused on Singapore; they hadn’t paid much attention to the Hong Kong market.

Thus, Guo Henian guessed that Lin Haoran at most had a cooperative relationship with Citibank. As for whether he was a puppet cultivated by the bank, Guo Henian felt it was impossible.

Because with Citibank’s power, if it wanted to invest in Hong Kong, there was no need to cover its tracks or resort to such means.

The only possibility was that Lin Haoran’s abilities were so highly valued that even Citibank sought a deep partnership with him.

This was also why Guo Henian regarded Lin Haoran so highly.

In his view, connections were also a form of investment. Building a good relationship with a young business magnate like Lin Haoran would only benefit the Guo family, with no downsides.

Moreover, Guo Henian had already decided to shift his business development focus from Southeast Asia to Hong Kong in the future.

In Southeast Asia, the Guo family’s growth had nearly hit a ceiling, and he needed to find a way to break through it.

Focusing on investing in Hong Kong’s development was an important move in his strategy.

As their in-depth conversation continued, they unconsciously drifted to the topic of business.

Guo Xiaohan talked about her experiences and observations from the past year. Through the platform her uncle had built in Hong Kong, she had learned a great deal, and these experiences had allowed her to integrate her knowledge.

As Guo Xiaohan spoke eloquently, Lin Haoran suddenly felt a sense of inadequacy.

In terms of business talent, the woman before him was far superior. They weren’t even in the same league.

The reason Lin Haoran had been able to accumulate his current fortune was, aside from the rich scion status granted by Lin Wan’an that allowed him to easily obtain large initial capital, primarily due to his unique ability as a transmigrator to foresee future trends. This was how he had succeed step by step, whether it was in the business warfare for Kowloon Wharf, hoarding oil during the oil crisis, or investing in gold futures.

Without this foresight, he would probably be just an ordinary rich scion in this world.

After a long while, Lin Haoran glanced at his watch. It was already eight thirty-five in the morning.

He stood up and said to Guo Xiaohan, “Let’s go, it’s time to head out.”

“Okay, Brother Haoran.” Perhaps due to their deep conversation, their relationship had grown much closer, and Guo Xiaohan was more relaxed around Lin Haoran, addressing him as if he were an older brother from her own family.

The two cars drove out of the Lin family villa on Severn Road, one after the other, heading towards Kai Tak International Airport.

Just as Lin Haoran had expected, the traffic was very heavy at this time.

They were stuck at the toll plaza before the Cross-Harbour Tunnel for a good ten minutes before finally entering the tunnel.

After the tunnel, the roads were still not very clear. It wasn’t until around nine-twenty in the morning that the two cars pulled steadily into the airport parking lot.

Governor Murray MacLehose had arranged everything for them today. Upon arrival, a car was waiting to take them to the meeting point, and there were people to help with their luggage.

Lin Haoran was eventually led to an extremely luxurious waiting lounge, where he saw a few Western business tycoons he wasn’t very familiar with. Among them, the most familiar was Mr. Schreyer from Swire & Co.

As for Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng, they hadn’t arrived yet.

But it was understandable. Both of them lived in the Deep Water Bay villa area, which was likely the farthest from the airport among all the tycoons. At this hour, it would probably take them at least an hour to get there.

Though he didn’t know them well, Lin Haoran quickly struck up a conversation.

The men chatted and laughed in the lounge, while Guo Xiaohan quickly settled into the role of an assistant.

By nearly nine-forty, everyone had arrived one by one, including Li Jiacheng, Pao Yue-kong, Michael Sandberg, and Newbiggin.

“Mr. Lin, it truly is good to be young!” Seeing Guo Xiaohan beside Lin Haoran, Michael Sandberg couldn’t help but show a knowing smile.

Lin Haoran knew that Michael Sandberg must have misunderstood, thinking he had specially brought a beautiful woman along to accompany him on his trip to Britain.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, this is my assistant,” Lin Haoran said with a chuckle, not offering a detailed introduction.

Pao Yue-kong, however, recognized Guo Xiaohan’s identity at a glance.

When Guo Henian had visited the Lin family villa in Deep Water Bay, Pao Yue-kong had happened to be visiting as well, and they had all had dinner together.

“I didn’t expect the relationship between the Guo family and Haoran to be so deep. It’s a pity my daughters are all married; otherwise, if one could marry him, I would have a worthy heir,” Pao Yue-kong mused with some emotion.

He had no sons, only four daughters, all of whom had married over the years.

Moreover, his four daughters had married men from different places, making things rather complex.

In Pao Yue-kong’s eyes, if Lin Haoran could become his son-in-law, he would clearly be the most suitable successor to the business empire he had built. Unfortunately, that ship had sailed.

“Honored guests, it is time. We can now board the plane,” announced the trip coordinator after registering everyone who was departing, speaking respectfully to the assembled business tycoons.

And so, the group of thirty to forty people left the lounge and headed for the boarding gate.

On this trip, Lin Haoran was actually one of those who brought more people. Most had brought only one or two companions.

Li Jiacheng, for instance, brought his eldest son and one bodyguard.

Pao Yue-kong brought only a single bodyguard.

His sons-in-law had to remain in Hong Kong to manage their various companies.

Several of the Westerners were even traveling alone.

So, in reality, there were fewer than forty people in total.

On the plane, all the tycoons were seated in first class. Guo Xiaohan was also arranged in the seat next to Lin Haoran.

The bodyguards and others were seated in the regular cabin.

As the plane slowly taxied away from the terminal, accelerating faster and faster, it soon broke through the clouds above Hong Kong, heading towards Britain.

Chapter 278: Guo Xiaohan’s Embarrassment, A Young Woman’s Thoughts

Considering there were several elderly people in their sixties and seventies on the plane, the flight didn’t fly directly to London. Instead, they stopped in Istanbul for a few hours for refueling and rest.

It wasn’t until a little after nine o’clock on the morning of August 9th that the plane slowly landed at London International Airport.

Before landing, Lin Haoran specifically adjusted his watch to London time.

Looking at this vast airport, Lin Haoran felt both familiar and strange.

Although he hadn’t been here himself, the original owner had visited this airport numerous times. Seeing everything here, the scenes from his memories involuntarily surfaced.

Since London time is eight time zones behind Hong Kong, it may only be a little after nine in the morning here, but in Hong Kong, it’s already past five in the afternoon.

To express the importance they placed on the arrival of the Hong Kong business delegation, several British leaders were present to welcome them.

“You must be Mr. Lin. I’ve heard of your name even in Britain. Welcome to London.” The Mayor of London warmly shook hands with Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Mayor, it’s my honor to be remembered by you. To be honest, I was a student here just over two years ago. It feels great to be back in London!” Lin Haoran laughed.

With just a casual remark, he narrowed the distance between them.

Doing business requires maintaining good relations with the government, especially since Britain is a significant market. While only Amigo Company currently has a presence in the British market, Lin Haoran’s other companies will definitely expand into the entire British and even European market in the future.

After walking down the long red carpet and feeling travel-worn, they were taken to a hotel for a day of rest, as arranged.

The inspections and visits were scheduled to begin the following day.

A government-provided car slowly transported them to a building.

Lin Haoran looked up at the magnificent, ten-story hotel. He hadn’t been here before, but he had heard of it.

This hotel was the famous Dorchester Hotel in London.

With nearly fifty years of history, The Dorchester is one of the most expensive and earliest luxury hotels in the world.

Located in the heart of London, its old-fashioned, legendary, and luxurious appearance is highly sought after by royal dignitaries and celebrities from all over the world.

The hotel’s exterior dates back to 1792 when it was transformed by civil engineer McAlpine into one of the best hotels in Europe, officially opening in 1931.

The hotel is also known for its magnificent decor and personalized service.

In Lin Haoran’s view, the hotel’s exterior was only moderately luxurious, but walking inside allowed one to truly appreciate its extravagance.

The service was excellent. As soon as the car stopped, a waiter proactively helped with the luggage and led the way.

Clearly, the London government had arranged their room numbers in advance.

Lin Haoran was assigned to a suite with three bedrooms and a living room, one of the bedrooms having two beds.

This perfectly accommodated Lin Haoran, Guo Xiaohan, Li Weidong, and Li Weiguo.

Today’s schedule was free for them to arrange as they wished, without any specific plans from the British government.

After putting down his luggage, Lin Haoran couldn’t wait to take a shower, instantly washing away the fatigue.

After showering and drying his hair, he heard a knock at the door.

Lin Haoran opened the door and saw Guo Xiaohan, holding a small bag containing clothes.

“Brother Haoran, I wanted to use the master bathroom here to take a shower. The bathroom outside is a bit inconvenient,” Guo Xiaohan said, somewhat embarrassed.

As she spoke, her cheeks began to flush.

Lin Haoran understood Guo Xiaohan’s meaning.

This suite, despite having three bedrooms and a living room, only had two bathrooms: one in the master bedroom where Lin Haoran was staying, and one public washroom in the living room area.

Li Weidong and Li Weiguo were staying in another room, so it was clear that it would be somewhat inconvenient for Guo Xiaohan to shower in the public bathroom.

Understanding this, Lin Haoran smiled and said, “Go ahead and shower, I just finished. I’ll go out first.”

“Okay, thank you, Brother Haoran,” Guo Xiaohan said, her face flushed, displaying a somewhat feminine demeanor.

Leaving the room, Lin Haoran gently closed the door and walked to the balcony outside the living room, looking at the scenery.

This place wasn’t far from Buckingham Palace. Even walking there would only take about ten minutes. Standing on the balcony, Lin Haoran could see the upper part of Buckingham Palace.

After watching for a while, Lin Haoran returned to the living room, sat on the sofa, and contemplated his next plans.

It was still early, not even noon. He certainly couldn’t just stay in the hotel all day.

He had already slept enough on the plane, and even if he wanted to go to sleep now, he wouldn’t be able to.

Since that was the case, why not take Guo Xiaohan and the others to London’s Chinatown for a look around?

The original owner of Lin Haoran had studied in London for four years, and the most familiar place besides the University of London was Chinatown.

Having just arrived in London, he felt unfamiliar with everything here, and only Chinatown gave him a sense of familiarity. Furthermore, Lin Wan’an had a very good friend in Chinatown, who was also an elder to Lin Haoran. When Lin Haoran came here to study, Lin Wan’an entrusted him to take care of Lin Haoran, so the original owner often went to Chinatown, where he made many friends.

Just as he was thinking this, he heard Guo Xiaohan calling from the master bedroom.

“Brother Haoran, come in here for a moment.”

“What’s wrong?” Lin Haoran asked in confusion, coming to the door of the master bedroom but not entering.

He could be unscrupulous with other female celebrities.

But he knew that he couldn’t treat a rich girl like Guo Xiaohan the same way he treated female celebrities.

Therefore, he had always maintained a certain distance from Guo Xiaohan, even though he had already sensed that she was interested in him.

At this moment, Guo Xiaohan’s heart was filled with a mix of shyness, embarrassment, and other emotions.

After entering the room, she hung her dry clothes on the side, then took off her clothes and began to shower.

Since this wasn’t her room, she didn’t plan on enjoying a leisurely bath. Instead, she stood in the bathtub and directly used the showerhead to wash herself, planning a quick and decisive battle, finishing as soon as possible and leaving.

However, after showering, as she draped herself in a bath towel, dried her body, and was about to take out her dry clothes to change, she inadvertently slipped, and all her clothes fell into the bathtub.

The bathtub already contained water from her shower, so all her clothes were soaked.

As for the wet clothes she had originally planned to change out of, although they were placed aside, they had been splashed with water during the shower and were now half-wet.

She swore, it wasn’t intentional.

Guo Xiaohan felt like crying but had no tears.

She couldn’t just walk out wrapped in a bath towel, or wear wet clothes out.

If only Brother Haoran was in the living room, she would dare to do so, but there were two bodyguards as well.

Guo Xiaohan had indeed made up her mind about Lin Haoran. Her Uncle Guo Henian had talked to her privately, and in her heart, she had already decided that she hoped to marry Lin Haoran in the future.

That’s why when her Uncle Guo Henian created opportunities for her to meet Lin Haoran alone, she not only acquiesced but even felt secretly happy.

Born into a wealthy Southeast Asian family like the Guo family, Guo Xiaohan had long known that she couldn’t control her own marriage.

In all likelihood, for the sake of family interests, she would eventually be engaged and married to a stranger she didn’t like.

Even if she had no worries about food and clothing for the rest of her life, she was destined to be unable to control her own life.

Therefore, Guo Xiaohan worked hard to enter the world’s top universities, studying business management, in order to change all of this.

But after graduating, she realized that she was ultimately naive.

So what if she graduated from the world’s top universities?

Without a decade or more of experience, the family wouldn’t give her enough management authority if she wanted to become the backbone of the family’s business.

So, the final result would only be to listen to the family’s arrangements, find a business ally, marry them, and bring certain benefits to the family.

This was certainly not what she wanted.

And when she first met Lin Haoran, she was filled with curiosity about Lin Haoran, and even had a certain amount of affection for him.

At that time, Lin Haoran had only just acquired Green Island Cement Company and only had some potential.

However, Lin Haoran’s subsequent acquisitions, one after another, not only shocked her, but even her Uncle Guo Henian felt deeply shaken.

And with each meeting, her feelings for Lin Haoran grew stronger.

Uncle Guo Henian noticed her thoughts and had a deep conversation with her, asking if she had any interest in Lin Haoran.

“Rather than be with someone you don’t love, it’s better to marry someone you admire.” That was Guo Xiaohan’s true thought.

Therefore, she agreed to Guo Henian’s matchmaking.

Because she liked Lin Haoran, who was young and talented that fit all her fantasies about a spouse.

But after all, she was a girl, and she definitely couldn’t take the initiative.

But this time, she really didn’t do it on purpose.

Helpless, she had no choice but to call Lin Haoran.

“Brother Haoran, can you come over here first? There’s something I can’t bring myself to say.” Seeing Lin Haoran standing outside the door and not coming in, Guo Xiaohan was both gratified and worried that Lin Haoran hadn’t taken a liking to her.

Since she had called him in this tone, Lin Haoran couldn’t just stand outside.

He was still a little delusional about everything inside.

To be honest, Guo Xiaohan’s looks were no less than Rosamund Kwan’s, only her height wasn’t as tall as Rosamund Kwan’s at 170cm, but she was still about 165cm tall, which wasn’t considered short for a girl.

The bathroom was made of glass, and although it wasn’t very clear, he could vaguely see Guo Xiaohan standing in the bathroom wrapped in a white bath towel.

Which vigorous young man could resist such a scene?

Primal desires made Lin Haoran even have the impulse to rush in at this moment, but he quickly suppressed the urge.

Chapter 279: Tang Lou, the Tycoon of London’s Chinese Merchants

“What’s wrong?” Lin Haoran asked again, standing outside the bathroom.

“Brother Haoran, could you go to my room and get my pink suitcase for me? The clothes I brought are all wet.” Although Guo Xiaohan felt a little shy, seeing how proper Lin Haoran was behaving gave her a complicated feeling.

“Alright, I’ll go get it for you right now.” Lin Haoran didn’t know whether to laugh or cry; he had thought it was something serious.

He walked out of the room, closed the door, went to Guo Xiaohan’s room next door, and wheeled the pink suitcase out before returning to the master bedroom.

“I’ve left the suitcase at the bathroom door. I’m leaving now.” After setting it down, Lin Haoran glanced inside at Guo Xiaohan, who was wearing only a bathrobe. She had an amazing figure.

“Thank you, Brother Haoran,” Guo Xiaohan said to him.

As the door to the room closed again, Guo Xiaohan breathed a sigh of relief, but her mind began to wander.

Her biggest fear was that Lin Haoran wasn’t interested in her.

Stepping out of the bathroom in her bathrobe, Guo Xiaohan felt quite conflicted as her mind raced.

Compared to being forced into a marriage with a stranger from another wealthy family in the future, she would much rather marry Lin Haoran, whose rise she had witnessed with her own eyes.

Who would have thought that just over a year ago, Lin Haoran was merely someone her uncle, Guo Henian, had seen potential in.

Yet today, just over a year later, his status was nearly on par with her uncle’s.

Such a rapid rise was unparalleled anywhere in the world.

Though her mind was filled with wild thoughts, her hands didn’t stop moving.

She first locked the door, then opened the suitcase, found a new set of clothes, and quickly put them on.

Once she was ready, Guo Xiaohan took her wet clothes and the suitcase and left the room, returning to her own bedroom.

Seeing Lin Haoran again, Guo Xiaohan couldn’t help but blush.

Ordinarily, she wasn’t like this; she was usually calm and composed no matter what happened.

After all, she was from a wealthy and influential family and had seen all sorts of grand occasions.

But for some reason, when she was with Lin Haoran, she couldn’t control her heart and would easily experience emotions that were rare for her, such as nervousness, shyness, and worry.

After putting away her clothes, blow-drying her hair, and carefully getting herself ready, Guo Xiaohan finally left her room and came before Lin Haoran.

“Brother Haoran.”

After her shower, Guo Xiaohan possessed a certain inexplicable allure, as if she had become even more beautiful.

Her skin was so moist and supple it looked as if it would break from a mere puff of air.

She was now wearing a long, floral dress, which gave her a completely different charm compared to her usual work attire.

“You look beautiful,” Lin Haoran said after looking her up and down so intently that Guo Xiaohan began to feel a little embarrassed.

Lin Haoran’s words sent a jolt of delight through Guo Xiaohan’s heart.

It seems Brother Haoran isn’t completely uninterested in me, Guo Xiaohan thought to herself.

“Brother Haoran, what are our plans for today?” Guo Xiaohan asked curiously after calming down and sitting on the sofa next to Lin Haoran.

For this week, she would be accompanying Lin Haoran. After the week-long visit to Britain was over, she would attend to her own business, such as inspecting the joint projects between the Guo family and others in Britain.

“I’ll take you to London’s Chinatown later. How does that sound?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“That’s great! I’ve heard a lot about London’s Chinatown and was planning to find some time to visit. It’s wonderful that you can take me, Brother Haoran,” Guo Xiaohan said happily.

Working as an assistant for her uncle, Guo Henian, was often a serious affair. Although he was very good to her, he was usually quite stern, which made her serious as well.

Now, far away from her uncle in Britain, thousands of miles from home, she felt as if she had returned to her days as a student in the United States.

It was just that when she was with Lin Haoran, all sorts of thoughts would constantly surface in her mind.

Perhaps this is what it feels like to like someone, Guo Xiaohan thought to herself.

By now, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo had also taken turns showering in the public bathroom.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran checked the time. It was almost noon. He said to them, “Get ready. We’ll go out for a walk in a bit.”

The government had arranged a private car for each of the tycoons. All they had to do was call for it and provide a destination.

This was quite convenient, as it meant they didn’t have to worry about Li Weidong and Li Weiguo not knowing the roads here.

There wasn’t much to prepare, and two minutes after Lin Haoran spoke, he left with the other three.

In the hotel corridor, Lin Haoran ran into Pao Yue-kong.

“Haoran, where are you headed?” Pao Yue-kong asked with a curious smile.

“I’m planning to take a walk around Chinatown. What about you, Uncle Pao? Are you heading out as well?” Lin Haoran asked in return.

“Me? I’m not going out today. I’m getting old, not as energetic as you young people. I’m going to grab lunch at the hotel restaurant and then head back to my room to rest,” Pao Yue-kong said with a sigh, as if lamenting his age.

Pao Yue-kong was only sixty-two, but Lin Haoran knew he had just over eleven years left to live. His health must have already started to decline, and after a long journey of more than twenty hours, he definitely needed to rest.

They took the elevator down together. Pao Yue-kong got off on the third floor, where the restaurant was, and bid farewell to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran continued down to the first floor with Guo Xiaohan and the others.

After a word with the receptionist in the lobby, a Westerner in his early thirties soon approached Lin Haoran. This was his driver for his time in London, available on call.

Lin Haoran was truly surprised that the British government would make such arrangements.

This level of attention was almost comparable to the reception for visiting dignitaries from some countries.

The driver asked respectfully, “Mr. Lin, where would you like to go?”

“Let’s go to Tang Lou in Chinatown,” Lin Haoran said directly.

Tang Lou was a rather famous restaurant in London’s Chinatown. The owner was said to have invited a group of renowned chefs from places like Hong Kong and Taiwan to work there.

As long as a customer requested it, they could prepare almost anything—Lu, Chuan, Yue, Min, Huaiyang, Zhejiang, Xiang, and Hui cuisines—and the flavors were exceptionally authentic. It was also the most famous Chinese restaurant in London.

“Very well, Mr. Lin. Please, get in.” The driver opened the rear door of a Rolls-Royce parked outside the hotel entrance.

After they were all seated, the car started up smoothly and pulled away from the hotel.

The Dorchester Hotel was in an excellent location; it took very little time to get to any of London’s famous landmarks.

London’s Chinatown, for example, was only about two kilometers away. It took them just ten minutes to reach their destination.

London’s Chinatown is located in the Soho district of the City of Westminster and consists of one main street and several side streets.

Although it has no official administrative boundaries, Chinatown is superbly located in the heart of London. The surrounding transportation is extremely well-developed, and it is not far from Buckingham Palace or 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s residence.

The car slowly pulled up in front of a building steeped in the charm of ancient Chinese architecture.

After getting out of the car, Lin Haoran looked up at the five-story building.

It had an exterior of gray bricks and dark tiles, with numerous round wooden beams set into its structure. Large, bright red lanterns hung from every floor, each bearing the character “Tang” (唐).

This was his destination—Tang Lou.

In his memory, his original self had visited this place countless times during his four years of university.

Therefore, he was exceptionally familiar with it.

“Mr. Henry, we’ll probably be in Chinatown for about three hours. You can come back here before three-thirty this afternoon. You’re free to do as you wish until then,” Lin Haoran said, turning back to remind the driver before entering the restaurant.

His purpose for coming here was not only to show Guo Xiaohan around Chinatown but also to visit someone who had helped him a great deal during his studies—a sworn brother of his father.

So, he certainly wouldn’t be leaving Chinatown anytime soon.

“Of course, Mr. Lin!” the driver replied respectfully.

“Let’s go. Follow me, and don’t get lost,” Lin Haoran said to Guo Xiaohan and the others with a smile.

London’s Chinatown wasn’t exactly a peaceful place.

It was home to numerous triad societies and gangs. Groups like the Triads dominated the entire area, and fights involving knives and guns were common occurrences.

Of course, Lin Haoran wasn’t afraid, because he had backing in Chinatown.

His backer was the owner of this very Tang Lou, Tang Kun, a sworn brother of his father, Lin Wan’an.

Tang Kun had actually come to London from Hong Kong over twenty years ago and quickly built an empire for himself. This Tang Lou was just one of his many properties.

As far as Lin Haoran knew, even the leader of the Triads, the largest society in Chinatown, had to give Tang Kun face.

Furthermore, he held a key position in the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in London. It was safe to say that this uncle of his was no simple character.

According to Lin Wan’an, Tang Kun had once hoped that Lin Wan’an would come to Britain to do business, offering to provide him with considerable resources.

However, Lin Wan’an had ultimately declined.

After all, while Lin Wan’an might not be a top-tier figure in all of Hong Kong, he was still a man who had entered the ranks of the wealthy elite through his own efforts. He could do very well for himself in Hong Kong and naturally had no need to come to London.

Upon entering the restaurant, Lin Haoran was quickly noticed.

The lobby manager on the first floor of Tang Lou strode toward Lin Haoran with a smile, greeting him warmly, “Young Master Lin, it’s been a long time.”

“Manager Wu, you’re still here! Haha, long time no see! I can’t believe it’s been two years, and you’ve been promoted. Congratulations!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, having noticed the nameplate on Manager Wu’s uniform.

In his memory, Manager Wu used to be the assistant lobby manager, but now his nameplate clearly read “Lobby Manager.” He had obviously been promoted.

“Director Gao was transferred to another restaurant to take charge, leaving his position vacant. I was lucky enough to fill it,” Manager Wu said, his face beaming with a smile as he spoke of the matter.

Chapter 280: Haoran, You’re Not Bragging, Are You?

“Manager Wu, is my Uncle Tang at the restaurant?” Lin Haoran asked directly after exchanging a few pleasantries with Manager Wu.

“Young Master Lin, the Boss came in this morning and hasn’t left. He should be in his private tea room on the third floor,” Manager Wu replied.

“Then I’ll let you get back to your work. I won’t disturb you any longer,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He remembered this place vividly, so he naturally didn’t need anyone to show him the way.

“Alright, Young Master Lin. I’ll get back to it. If you need anything, just let me know.”

“Brother Haoran, you seem very familiar with this Manager Wu. Do you come here often?” Guo Xiaohan asked, a little surprised, once they were in the elevator.

“I used to come here a lot when I was studying in London. A friend of my father’s opened this restaurant,” Lin Haoran explained simply.

Guo Xiaohan nodded in understanding and didn’t ask any more questions.

Soon, the elevator stopped on the third floor. They stepped out and walked down a long corridor. Lin Haoran familiarly approached a door.

There was no nameplate on the door, but Lin Haoran knew this was his Uncle Tang’s private tea room.

He knocked on the door, and soon an elderly man’s voice came from within: “Come in.”

Lin Haoran opened the door. Sure enough, an old man was inside, sipping tea and reading a book. He didn’t even look up to see who it was, probably assuming it was one of his subordinates.

“Uncle Tang, you’re as leisurely and carefree as ever,” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he walked in with Guo Xiaohan.

As for Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, they remained outside and did not enter.

“Eh? Haoran, you’re in London? Why didn’t you say anything beforehand?” The old man put down his book and looked up in surprise.

“Well, I came over to handle some business. Just got off the plane not long ago and rushed over to pay you a visit, Uncle Tang,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“You’ve got a good heart, kid. I can’t believe it’s been two years in the blink of an eye. How is your father’s health these days?” Tang Kun asked with concern.

To inquire about his friend’s father’s health upon meeting was a testament to their being sworn brothers.

Although he surely spoke with Lin Wan’an on the phone often, he hadn’t seen him in person. Even if Lin Wan’an said he was well, Tang Kun was only half-convinced.

“Ever since my Dad retired a year ago, he’s been recuperating. His health is much better now. He had a full check-up at the hospital two months ago, and all his levels are basically back to normal. He’s much healthier now,” Lin Haoran answered respectfully.

“That’s good to hear. I’ve been wanting to find time to go back to Hong Kong to see him, but things often get in the way. It’s good that he’s well, really good,” Tang Kun said, his expression one of relief.

In fact, this Uncle Tang was two or three years older than Lin Wan’an, and his health was only slightly better than Lin Wan’an’s had been.

So, it was likely his family who wouldn’t let him fly back to Hong Kong, especially since it was a journey of over ten thousand kilometers.

“Before I came to London, my father asked me to send you his regards. He also said he’d find time to come to London for tea with you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“I’d love to have tea with your father, but who knows when we’ll see each other next. The last time we met was five years ago. Time really flies… Have a seat, what are you still standing there for?

“Is this your girlfriend? She’s quite nice, a good match for you. When are you getting married? When the time comes, even if my health is failing, this Uncle Tang will definitely attend your wedding banquet,” Tang Kun said, his tone suddenly shifting as he looked at Guo Xiaohan beside Lin Haoran and smiled.

At his words, Guo Xiaohan immediately blushed crimson.

“Uncle Tang, this isn’t my girlfriend. This is Miss Guo Xiaohan, from the Guo family of Southeast Asia. Her family and I have business dealings, so we interact quite often. It just so happens that we both came to Britain, and since it’s Xiaohan’s first time here, I’m acting as her guide,” Lin Haoran explained with a hint of resignation after they sat down.

“The Guo family of Southeast Asia? You don’t mean Guo Henian’s Guo family, do you?” Tang Kun asked, looking slightly surprised.

Among the families with the surname Guo in Southeast Asia, Guo Henian’s family was undoubtedly the most prominent. When someone mentioned the Guo family, he was the first person Tang Kun thought of.

“Hello, Uncle Tang. Guo Henian is indeed my uncle,” Guo Xiaohan took the initiative to introduce herself.

“Haoran, it seems you’ve done quite well for yourself in Hong Kong these past two years, to be dealing with a prominent family like the Guos,” Tang Kun praised with a smile.

After all, as Southeast Asia’s richest man, Guo Henian was a renowned figure throughout the Chinese-speaking world.

“Uncle Tang, haven’t you been following the news from Hong Kong these last two years?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

Although Hong Kong was small and news might not necessarily reach Britain, Lin Haoran had assumed that since Tang Kun was from Hong Kong, he would have kept up with events there and at least known a little about his own progress over the past two years.

However, from their conversation, Lin Haoran sensed that Tang Kun knew nothing of his experiences since returning to Hong Kong. Even his father, Lin Wan’an, hadn’t mentioned anything.

“My whole family moved to Britain over twenty years ago, and our relatives have followed over the years. Now, Wan’an is the only old friend I have left in Hong Kong.

“So I don’t usually pay much attention to what’s happening over there. Why, have you caused some sort of big stir in Hong Kong?” Tang Kun seemed quite curious.

“Brother Haoran is now the boss of several public companies. He’s very famous in the Hong Kong business world,” Guo Xiaohan interjected, a hint of imperceptible pride in her voice.

Lin Haoran glanced at Guo Xiaohan in surprise. Why did the girl’s tone sound a little proud?

“Is that so? And Wan’an, that old fellow, didn’t even tell me something so significant. Haoran, hurry up and tell me the details. Which public companies are you the boss of now? Let’s see if I recognize any of them,” Guo Xiaohan’s words made Tang Kun even more surprised.

“Green Island Cement Company, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and Kowloon Motor Bus. Just those few, I suppose,” Lin Haoran confessed frankly, holding nothing back.

After all, anyone could find out these things with a simple phone call back to Hong Kong.

After hearing what Lin Haoran said, Tang Kun looked at him with disbelief. Before leaving Hong Kong, he too had made a name for himself in the business world and achieved considerable success.

Later, for personal reasons, he sold his assets in Hong Kong and moved his entire family to London to develop his business.

Therefore, Tang Kun was naturally familiar with these long-standing companies.

“Haoran, you’re not bragging, are you?” Tang Kun said.

“Everyone in Hong Kong knows about this, Uncle Tang. I have no reason to lie to you. The reason I came to London this time is because I was invited by the British government to visit and inspect the market here.

“I just arrived this morning, rested for a bit at the hotel, and then came straight here to pay my respects to you, sir. According to my schedule, tomorrow morning I have to go to Downing Street to meet with the Prime Minister,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Seeing that Lin Haoran didn’t seem to be bragging, Tang Kun gradually began to believe him.

“Two years ago, I was still advising you to stay and build your career in Britain. I never imagined that in just two short years, you would have created such an incredible enterprise for yourself. It’s truly unbelievable,” Tang Kun said with some emotion.

Afterward, the two chatted in the tea room, with Tang Kun mostly asking the questions and Lin Haoran answering.

After all, for Tang Kun, it was hard even for him to believe that Lin Haoran, a member of the younger generation, could have achieved so much in just two years.

After chatting for about twenty minutes, Lin Haoran noticed Guo Xiaohan sitting quietly beside them and said, “Uncle Tang, I haven’t eaten yet. I’ll go downstairs to have a meal first and come visit you again when I have time.”

Since the purpose of visiting his elder had been achieved, he naturally didn’t plan to stay any longer.

If they kept talking, all his business would soon be pried out of him.

“You just arrived in London. How can I, your uncle, not play the part of a proper host? How about this: I had a late breakfast this morning and haven’t had lunch yet either. Let’s have lunch together. It’s not easy to find authentic Hong Kong cuisine in London, but my place can satisfy you,” Tang Kun said with a smile.

“Then I’ll have to trouble you, Uncle Tang,” Lin Haoran did not refuse.

This restaurant belonged to Uncle Tang anyway, so getting a free meal was no big deal.

He recalled that during his four years studying in London, he had gotten free meals at this restaurant countless times.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t pay, but that Tang Kun had instructed the restaurant staff not to take his money.

He had already racked up so many unpaid meal tabs in the past; one more wouldn’t make a difference.

The two men walked side-by-side in front, with Guo Xiaohan following behind them, and Li Weidong and Li Weiguo at the very back.

Seeing the two bodyguards, Tang Kun was now completely convinced of Lin Haoran’s words.

After all, without a certain status and position, who would need two bodyguards with them at all times?

“Haoran, this Miss Guo seems like a good match for you, and your families are well-suited. This Uncle Tang advises you to seize the opportunity. Don’t let a good girl like her slip away,” Tang Kun said to Lin Haoran in a low voice as they walked.

But no matter how low he spoke, Guo Xiaohan, who was less than two meters behind him, naturally heard every word clearly.

“Uncle Tang, you don’t need to trouble your old self with such matters,” Lin Haoran said with some resignation.

“You rascal, you’re not a kid anymore. If you hadn’t been unwilling to stay and make a life in Britain back then, I would have wanted to betroth Xiao Lan to you. Now Xiao Lan is already married. At your age, you should get married soon, too. Your Dad and I were talking about this exact issue the last time we spoke on the phone,” Tang Kun laughed heartily.

“Sister Xiao Lan is married?” Lin Haoran asked, a little surprised.

He remembered that this Sister Xiao Lan was Tang Kun’s younger daughter, a year older than him. When Lin Haoran was in Britain, Tang Kun had indeed intended to set them up. Perhaps that was why Tang Kun had always been so good to him, but unfortunately, Lin Haoran had failed to appreciate his kind intentions.

Chapter 281: When a Woman Pursues a Man, There’s but a Layer of Gauze

“Yes. Early this year, she married the son of a friend of mine from the London Chinese Chamber of Commerce. She protested at first. Truth be told, she quite liked you, but you never said yes. Seeing her getting older, her marriage couldn’t just be delayed forever. She couldn’t find anyone suitable herself, so I had to arrange this match for her. In my day, it was common for girls to marry in their teens,” Tang Kun said with great emotion.

Standing behind Tang Kun, Guo Xiaohan was very surprised to hear this. She hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to have such a past.

But then again, a man as outstanding as Brother Haoran was bound to have girls fall for him.

At the same time, this Uncle Tang’s daughter’s experience made her think.

Her own circumstances were too similar to this young miss of the Tang family. Though born into a prestigious family, their fates were not their own to decide.

Guo Xiaohan had just graduated last year. If fate didn’t bring her and Lin Haoran together, she would likely end up like this young Miss Tang, eventually betrothed to someone who was a good match in terms of social standing.

Therefore, to change all this, the young man before her was her only chance.

At this thought, her gaze toward Lin Haoran became even more ardent and resolute.

The group soon arrived at a private room on the third floor.

“Order whatever you like, don’t be polite with Uncle Tang. If it’s not on the menu, just ask. Our chefs can definitely make it.” After the waiter came in, Tang Kun handed the menu to Lin Haoran and said with a smile.

“Uncle Tang, it’s not the first day you’ve known me. When have I ever been polite with you?” Lin Haoran said, expertly flipping open the menu and ordering a few of Tang Lou’s famous signature dishes before handing it to Guo Xiaohan.

“See if there’s anything you like. Don’t be polite with my Uncle Tang, he’s the most generous person.”

“You can decide. I don’t eat much.” The girl was, after all, a bit shy.

In the end, Lin Haoran casually ordered a few more dishes.

“Haoran, you’re here in London to survey the market. Does this mean you’re planning to expand into Britain? Your Uncle Tang has some influence in the London area. If you need anything, just say the word. Given the relationship between your Dad and me, I will certainly do everything in my power to help you.” While waiting for the food, they inevitably started chatting again.

Speaking of which, Lin Haoran truly felt it was a pity for his predecessor.

If he hadn’t transmigrated, the original owner of his body probably would never have achieved much in his life. He would have failed in the competition with his Older Brother, been unable to inherit the Wan’an Group, but would still have received a considerable share of the assets.

With those assets, the predecessor would have, at most, lived his life as an ordinary wealthy man.

But if he had chosen to stay in London and ended up marrying Sister Xiao Lan, with a father-in-law like Tang Kun to help him, he would surely have thrived in London.

Therefore, in Lin Haoran’s view, although his predecessor graduated from a prestigious university, judging by his various choices, he was not someone destined for greatness.

“Of course, Uncle Tang, I won’t be polite, you can rest assured. I don’t have any specific plans for the British market at the moment, but Europe is a large market, and I will be investing heavily here in the future. As the headquarters for the European market, London would be the most suitable choice,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He deeply understood the benefits of having connections.

Therefore, if he could use the Tang family’s network in London, it would naturally be for the best.

As for owing favors or the like, he didn’t care at all.

If these connections could bring him sufficient help, what did owing a few favors matter?

“As it happens, our British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce is holding a networking event tonight. Since you’re planning to expand into the market here, Haoran, how about I take you with me tonight? Are you free?” Tang Kun asked.

“Of course. I happen to have no plans tonight. I’ll have to trouble you then, Uncle Tang.” Lin Haoran agreed readily without a moment’s hesitation.

He was certainly unwilling to miss such a good opportunity.

This British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce surely brought together the vast majority of Chinese business tycoons in all of Britain.

Just like the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, attending such a networking event would definitely allow him to meet many people.

In the future, when his enterprises expanded into the market here, he might have a use for these connections.

Therefore, for Lin Haoran, this was a must-go.

This was not Hong Kong, after all.

His reputation in Hong Kong was indeed very high, even reaching the same level as people like Pao Yue-kong and Newbiggin, and many people would give him face.

But that was only in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong was, in the end, too small.

And his enterprises, aside from the Green Island Cement Company which was doing well in Southeast Asia, were mostly focused on business in Hong Kong.

Therefore, one could say that outside of Hong Kong, almost no one knew him.

He might have been on the same level as Newbiggin and Pao Yue-kong in Hong Kong, but outside of the city, the gap between him and these tycoons was vast.

Take Pao Yue-kong, for instance. With the title of World Shipping Magnate, he would be received with great ceremony wherever he went.

Although Newbiggin was just a professional manager, Jardine Matheson & Co. had started its internationalization decades ago, so the status of Jardine Matheson’s Taipan was equally effective in various overseas locations.

All in all, although Lin Haoran’s assets had already reached the top tier in Hong Kong, he still had a long way to go to reach the status of someone like Pao Yue-kong.

“Then come back here around six in the afternoon, and I’ll take you there. There are many figures in the British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce who are much more powerful than your Uncle Tang. Knowing them will definitely be helpful for you in Britain in the future,” Tang Kun said with a laugh.

“Uncle Tang, since entering the business world, I’ve come to deeply realize that it’s very difficult to achieve anything by relying on yourself alone. Connections are very important,” Lin Haoran agreed.

After the dishes arrived, the two continued to chat while they ate.

They weren’t discussing any confidential topics, so there was no need to exclude Guo Xiaohan and the others.

The meal lasted for nearly an hour before it ended.

After lunch, Lin Haoran bid farewell to Tang Kun.

After all, besides visiting this elder, he also planned to stroll through the famous London Chinatown on this trip.

“Remember to be here on time tonight. If anything comes up, you can call your Uncle Tang,” Tang Kun reminded him as he was about to leave.

“Got it, Uncle Tang. You should get back to your work. I’ll be going now.” Lin Haoran waved and left Tang Lou with Guo Xiaohan and the others.

Once outside Tang Lou, Guo Xiaohan became more talkative.

After all, in front of an unfamiliar elder like Tang Kun, she didn’t have much to say.

“Haoran, this Uncle Tang of yours, his status seems quite extraordinary, doesn’t it? I think I’ve heard my uncle mention his name,” Guo Xiaohan couldn’t help but ask as they walked along the main street of Chinatown.

During the conversation just now, Lin Haoran and Tang Kun had talked more about Lin Haoran’s affairs, without mentioning Tang Kun’s background.

“He is indeed extraordinary, much more powerful than my father was in the past. This Tang Lou is just one of his more modest businesses. It seems Tang Lou has six chain stores throughout Britain. Besides the restaurant industry, my uncle is also involved in real estate, retail, and other sectors. As for how powerful he is exactly, I’m not entirely sure,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

London’s Chinatown consists of one main street and several surrounding smaller roads. The Chinatown archway at the eastern end of the main street is a landmark building, and Tang Lou was located in a relatively central part of Chinatown, which was also the most bustling area.

Lin Haoran led Guo Xiaohan and the others, strolling and enjoying themselves along the way.

All sorts of Chinese restaurants and souvenir shops lined both sides of the street, with signboards predominantly in Chinese characters. Chinese elements were everywhere.

At this moment, Guo Xiaohan no longer seemed like the child of a wealthy family, but like an ordinary girl, her path filled with gasps of surprise and bursts of laughter wherever she went.

They ambled along, stopping to buy things they liked, and the time passed quickly.

“You studied in the United States, didn’t you go to Chinatown often?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

He didn’t find Chinatown particularly novel, but the various Chinese elements here gave him a sense of kinship in a foreign land.

“I studied at Princeton University, which is in the city of Princeton, New Jersey. The entire state of New Jersey doesn’t even have a proper Chinatown. To visit one, I’d have to go to Philadelphia’s Chinatown or New York’s Chinatown.

But I’m not actually that curious about Chinatowns. After all, Malaysia is also a country with a large Chinese population. The reason I find London’s Chinatown so novel is that this is my first time in Britain, so everything here feels fresh to me.

Plus, I have Brother Haoran with me, so I feel very happy,” Guo Xiaohan answered while browsing through the dazzling array of crafts in a souvenir shop.

Hearing Guo Xiaohan’s words, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but turn to look at her.

He realized that Guo Xiaohan seemed particularly forward today, a stark contrast to the slightly reserved girl he knew in Hong Kong.

Lin Haoran thought to himself that if this continued, he might really be “conquered” by this young lady!

Because there’s an old Chinese saying: “When a man pursues a woman, there’s a mountain between them; when a woman pursues a man, there’s but a layer of gauze.”

If Guo Xiaohan really went all out, Lin Haoran wasn’t sure he could resist.

After all, she was a woman of both talent and beauty. It would likely be difficult for anyone to resist her proactive advances.

London’s Chinatown wasn’t large, but even so, the group spent a full two hours wandering around.

By now, the two bodyguards’ hands were full of shopping bags, all things Guo Xiaohan had bought. Some were for herself, and she had even bought a watch for Lin Haoran.

He had originally intended to refuse, but he couldn’t withstand Guo Xiaohan’s strong insistence, so in the end, he let her buy it. After all, it was only a few thousand British pounds, which wasn’t a large sum of money for either of them.

Around half past three, the group returned to the ground floor of the Tang Lou.

Their driver, Henry, was already waiting for them in the car.

Chapter 282: Your prestige here is truly impressive!

Although the driver had been assigned to him by the British government, the man wasn’t his subordinate. Lin Haoran knew he should show due respect to those who served him; it had nothing to do with one’s personal status.

“Of course, Mr. Lin. Please, get in.” Henry politely opened the car door for Lin Haoran with his left hand, while his right hand gently rested on the top of the doorframe to prevent Lin Haoran from accidentally hitting his head.

Just ten minutes later, the Rolls-Royce pulled up smoothly to the main entrance of The Dorchester Hotel.

He had to be at Tang Lou before six o’clock to join Uncle Tang for the British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce networking event. It was already nearly four, so he wouldn’t have much time at the hotel.

“Mr. Henry, I’ll have to trouble you again around five-forty. I’ll be going back to Tang Lou in Chinatown,” Lin Haoran told the driver before getting out.

“No problem at all, Mr. Lin. I’ll be ready whenever you call,” the driver said with a smile, making an okay gesture.

Laden with shopping bags, Lin Haoran returned to his hotel room and dropped onto the sofa. He turned on the television and started watching a local channel.

It seemed women were born for shopping. He had watched Guo Xiaohan shop for over two hours without a hint of fatigue.

After putting her things away, Guo Xiaohan also came back to the living area and sat down next to Lin Haoran.

“I’m heading over to Uncle Tang’s later. Do you want to come along?” Lin Haoran asked, turning his head.

“It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to go. Besides, I’m tired after walking around all day. I’ll just rest at the hotel,” Guo Xiaohan said, shaking her head.

Although she wanted to go, she knew it wasn’t a good idea. After all, he was being taken there by one of his elders, not going to the Chamber of Commerce event on his own. It would be out of place for her to tag along.

“Alright, then get some rest here,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, not particularly bothered by it.

They sat on the sofa, chatting and watching television. In the blink of an eye, it was about five-forty in the afternoon.

Lin Haoran left with Li Weidong and Li Weiguo again, leaving Guo Xiaohan alone at the hotel.

When they arrived at the hotel entrance on the ground floor, the driver, Henry, was already waiting as expected.

It was rush hour, so the drive from the hotel to Tang Lou took a full fifteen minutes.

This was precisely why Lin Haoran had decided to leave twenty minutes early.

After getting out of the car, Lin Haoran said directly to the driver, “Mr. Henry, you can head back to the hotel now.”

He had no idea what time the British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce event would end, and it would be a waste of time for the driver to wait here.

Besides, he would be riding back in Uncle Tang’s car anyway. He could just ask Uncle Tang to drop him off at the hotel first.

Only after the car had driven away from Tang Lou did Lin Haoran turn and enter the ground floor.

To his surprise, Tang Kun was already there.

“Haoran, since you’re here, let’s get going. As for your two bodyguards, just bring one. Leave the other here at Tang Lou,” Tang Kun said, glancing at his watch.

“Okay, Uncle Tang. I’ll follow your arrangements tonight. Weiguo, you’ll stay here at Tang Lou for now. I’ll come back to get you tonight,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Uncle Tang’s car was a bulletproof Rover. The brand might be obscure decades from now, but in this era, it was an undisputed luxury car brand.

Rover was a cornerstone of the British automotive industry, with nearly a century of history and rich cultural significance.

The brand was founded in Birmingham in 1878 and had once been the official vehicle for the Queen, the British royal family, prime ministers, and the Holy See, ranking alongside Rolls-Royce.

However, the luxury brand was now in gradual decline, though it was still a common sight in Britain.

The private car could seat five people without issue, but with three in the back, it would certainly be less comfortable. Leaving one bodyguard behind was the perfect solution.

“Yes, Boss!” Li Weiguo naturally had no objections.

Tang Kun’s driver was also his bodyguard. Lin Haoran had met him before and heard he was quite skilled. He was supposedly a formidable top enforcer for the Triads, but for some unknown reason, he had retired from the underworld to become Tang Kun’s driver and bodyguard.

From this, however, Lin Haoran could guess that his Uncle Tang’s relationship with the Triads was certainly not superficial.

This was perhaps one of the reasons he had been able to thrive in London.

With the backing of a major triad society, everyone would probably have to give him face.

“Little Wu, take this gentleman, the bodyguard, to the lounge and make sure he’s well taken care of,” Tang Kun said, calling over Manager Wu from the lobby.

“Yes, Boss!” Manager Wu replied respectfully.

“Let’s go. We shouldn’t be too late,” Tang Kun said to Lin Haoran with a smile, turning his head.

They all got into the car. Li Weidong took the front passenger seat, while Lin Haoran and Tang Kun sat in the back.

“Uncle Tang, what position do you hold in the British Chinese Chamber of Commerce?” Lin Haoran asked curiously from the back seat as the car started to move slowly.

“I’m just a vice-president, but our chamber has six vice-presidents in total, so my position isn’t as prominent as you might think,” Tang Kun said with a laugh. Though his words were humble, he couldn’t hide his inner pride.

In truth, becoming a vice-president of the British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce was certainly something to be proud of.

It not only required a certain social standing but was also a recognition of one’s personal ability and influence—something that could not be easily achieved with wealth alone.

“I’ve also joined the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, but I’m only a supervisor. Your position as vice-president is quite something, Uncle Tang,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“I was wondering how Wan’an managed to become a vice-president of the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. He bragged to me about it several times not long ago. Now I finally get it. It must be because of you, right?” Tang Kun said, as if a thought had just struck him.

Tang Kun was indeed quick-witted. Lin Wan’an had become the vice-president of the chamber in Hong Kong by leveraging his identity as Lin Haoran’s father.

Otherwise, given his original standing, he would have been lucky to land even a minor role.

Lin Haoran gave an awkward smile and didn’t continue the conversation on that topic.

The Rover moved swiftly through the streets of London. After a good half an hour, it finally stopped in front of a building that was over twenty stories tall.

Getting out of the car, Lin Haoran looked up at the building and saw that it was primarily a hotel.

The Oriental Dragon International Hotel.

“Our networking event is on the fifth floor, in the hotel’s business conference restaurant. It’s an enterprise owned by one of the chamber’s vice-presidents and is a very well-known luxury hotel in London,” Tang Kun explained with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded. He had heard of the Oriental Dragon Hotel before; he seemed to recall a Chinese classmate mentioning it during his four years of studying abroad.

They took the elevator directly to the fifth floor.

Exiting the elevator, they found themselves in a very spacious hall.

The hall was brilliantly lit, and dozens of people had already gathered.

“Old Tang is here! Come on over for a chat.”

“Director Tang, long time no see!”

“Brother Kun, heard a lot about you lately. Must have made a killing on that last wave, huh?”

…

The moment Tang Kun entered the hall with Lin Haoran, the eyes of dozens of people turned to him, and many came over to greet him.

This was enough to show that Tang Kun’s status within the Chamber of Commerce was definitely high; it was no wonder he could serve as a vice-president.

Tang Kun quickly blended in, chatting with them.

As for Lin Haoran, the young man with him, he was simply regarded as one of Tang Kun’s ordinary juniors and wasn’t given a second thought by anyone.

After exchanging pleasantries with several important figures, Tang Kun finally called Lin Haoran over and began to introduce him to everyone.

“Everyone, this is a junior of mine, Lin Haoran, from Hong Kong. In the future, please do look after him if he needs anything,” Tang Kun said with a hearty laugh, his hand on Lin Haoran’s arm.

“Since he’s Director Tang’s junior, he’s my junior too, of course! Haoran, is it? If you ever run into any trouble in Birmingham, just come find me. I have some influence there. As long as it’s not too difficult, I’ll do my best to help with just one phone call. Here’s my card,” said a man of about fifty, wearing gold-rimmed glasses. He patted Lin Haoran’s shoulder warmly and laughed heartily.

“Brother Kun’s junior is a junior in my heart as well. Though my influence in London might not compare to Brother Kun’s, and I probably can’t help much with things he can’t solve, I am in the commodity trade and manage several large retail chains. Haoran, I’m sure you’re in big business in Hong Kong too, right? If there’s an opportunity for us to cooperate, we must have a good talk.”

…

As soon as Tang Kun finished his introduction, several people immediately came forward to build a connection with Lin Haoran.

However, Lin Haoran knew that these people were only doing it out of respect for Uncle Tang.

Otherwise, who would have paid him any attention?

“Thank you, seniors of the business world. I will certainly trouble you if the need arises,” Lin Haoran said, smiling and shaking their hands while exchanging platitudes.

He had come here precisely to expand his business network, especially on the European side.

However, the people he wanted to meet weren’t these ordinary chamber members who were so quick to curry favor, but rather the president, honorary presidents, and vice-presidents—those who held real power in the British and even European business world.

This flurry of pleasantries lasted for a good ten minutes before the enthusiasm died down.

“Uncle Tang, your prestige here is truly impressive!” Lin Haoran couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration when no one else was around.

“Actually, it’s not all about status. The reason I’m so highly regarded in the chamber is that I treat my friends with sincerity and dedication. If I can help, I never refuse.

“Because of that, many people in the chamber have received my help in one way or another. Some later achieved great success, with fortunes that rival my own, but they still hold me in high regard.

“Haoran, you must remember this: to win genuine respect from others, you must first give your own sincerity, because hypocrisy only begets hypocrisy,” Tang Kun taught him earnestly.

Chapter 283: Identity Revealed, Attitudes Shift

More influential figures began to arrive.

President, vice-presidents, executive president, secretary-general, and so on. The business prowess of each of these tycoons was at least on par with Tang Kun’s, and a few were even far wealthier.

As each one arrived, Tang Kun took the initiative to introduce Lin Haoran to them.

Out of respect for Tang Kun, these men were all extremely polite to Lin Haoran.

For these tycoons to hold important positions in the British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, it was clear they wielded considerable influence even in the broader British business world.

But after getting a sense of their wealth, Lin Haoran realized that probably none of them were richer than he was.

After all, he had made several billion Hong Kong dollars in hard cash from gold futures alone. If he included the subsequent appreciation of his stocks and real estate, his net worth might even have surpassed ten billion Hong Kong dollars.

A billionaire ten times over—even on a global scale, counting all the hidden tycoons, he could hold his own.

As for Britain, the only ones likely richer than him were the famous Rothschild family.

This was the early 1980s, not the later era where fortunes in the hundreds of billions were commonplace.

So, it was quite normal that the magnates of this Chinese General Chamber of Commerce were not as wealthy as him.

After some time, just when Lin Haoran thought everyone had arrived, the presidents and vice-presidents all seemed to receive some news and headed for the elevators.

Even Tang Kun said to Lin Haoran, “Haoran, you stay here for a moment. We’re going to greet an important figure.”

An important figure?

Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

The president, honorary president, and others were already here. Who else could warrant all these people going downstairs together to welcome them?

Though curious, Lin Haoran knew he would find out who this unknown big shot was soon enough.

A full five minutes later, the elevator doors slowly opened.

Nearly ten people walked out, one after another.

Huh, Lin Haoran recognized the man in the lead at a glance.

He was a Westerner, and he stood out conspicuously, surrounded by a group of Chinese people.

Wasn’t this one of the leaders from the British government who had personally come to greet him this morning—the Mayor of London?

Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a little surprised. He hadn’t expected this particular big shot to show up. No wonder all the tycoons from the Chamber of Commerce had gone downstairs to give him such a grand welcome.

And as Lin Haoran looked at the mayor, it was clear that the mayor also spotted him in an instant.

“Mr. Lin, I didn’t expect to see you here,” the mayor said with a smile, striding over to Lin Haoran and extending his hand.

“Good evening, Mr. Mayor. I didn’t expect to see you again here either,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile, shaking his hand.

Their exchange of pleasantries left everyone present utterly shocked.

To think that this junior brought by Tang Kun was treated with such courtesy even by the mayor himself.

This was the Mayor of London!

At this moment, how could they not realize that the young man before them was anything but simple.

Even Tang Kun, Lin Haoran’s elder, was a bit astonished.

Although he had already heard from Lin Haoran about some of his dealings in Hong Kong, he had never imagined that the mayor would show Haoran such respect.

“Lin Haoran… no wonder that name sounded a bit familiar. Isn’t he that super-rich tycoon who suddenly rose to prominence in Hong Kong?”

“Yes, I’ve heard that name too, I just didn’t connect the dots a moment ago. A friend of mine in Hong Kong told me he’s incredibly powerful. Even the mighty British-funded conglomerates ended up bowing to him.”

“Now that you mention it, I remember! The Times reported on it some time ago—a business war between Jardine Matheson & Co. and a Chinese man. It ended with the Taipan of Jardine Matheson forced to issue a public apology on television.”

“I never paid much attention to him, but I can’t believe he’s that capable. He’s only in his twenties! To have achieved so much at such a young age is astounding.”

…

In fact, a portion of the magnates present, like Tang Kun, had immigrated to Britain from Hong Kong. The past few decades had seen a wave of emigration from Hong Kong, not just Westerners, but also some of the local Chinese, with Britain being a primary destination.

The vast majority of those who could afford to immigrate had been in business in Hong Kong, and it was only natural for them to continue in business after arriving in Britain. It was no surprise that some of them had thrived.

So, while Lin Haoran was exchanging pleasantries with the mayor, many of them finally recognized him.

And those who didn’t know Lin Haoran were quickly brought up to speed on his accomplishments in Hong Kong by others.

“And here I was thinking he was just some ordinary junior of Director Tang’s. I never imagined his power surpasses that of most people in this room.”

“You can say that again. Thinking about what I said to him earlier, I feel like a complete clown.”

The revelation of Lin Haoran’s true identity sent a massive shockwave through the room.

At this moment, it wasn’t just the ordinary members of the Chamber of Commerce; even the senior executives—the vice-presidents and the president—couldn’t help but start taking Lin Haoran seriously.

“Old Tang, I never knew you had such an outstanding junior. Why haven’t you ever mentioned him before?” the president of the Chamber of Commerce standing next to Tang Kun remarked with emotion.

The environment in Britain was completely different from Hong Kong. Although Chinese people in Britain could achieve a degree of success, it was difficult to reach the top tier of the British business world. Compared to the local British, the Chinese were like second-class citizens, and various discriminatory policies already hindered the development of these Chinese businessmen.

Take the president, for instance. Among the many British Chinese merchants, his wealth was already outstanding, yet his net worth was merely one or two hundred million British pounds.

At the current exchange rate of about eleven Hong Kong dollars to one British pound, the president’s net worth was only around one or two billion Hong Kong dollars.

Compared to Lin Haoran, his wealth was several times smaller.

In contrast, Hong Kong was a city dominated by its Chinese population. When numerous British-funded conglomerates withdrew their capital, skeptical of Hong Kong’s future, the massive market vacuum and resources they left behind were quickly carved up by Chinese-funded conglomerates. These enterprises grew rapidly, eventually surpassing their British counterparts.

Thus, the Chinese in Hong Kong were able to successfully overtake British-owned enterprises to become the most powerful force in the city’s business world.

The Chinese-funded financial groups in Britain, on the other hand, struggled to break into the ranks of the UK’s top tycoons. This was the reason why.

“Old Liu, I’m not afraid to tell you, I had no idea about any of this until today. My nephew here never told me a thing, and I rarely pay attention to news from Hong Kong, so I was completely in the dark,” Tang Kun said to the president beside him with a wry smile.

He had been in a state of shock all day. After Lin Haoran returned to his hotel in the afternoon, Tang Kun immediately called a friend in Hong Kong with whom he wasn’t particularly close. In the end, he confirmed that everything Lin Haoran had said was true.

What a great son-in-law, he thought. Just let him slip through my fingers.

If his daughter had married Haoran, then the wealth he had worked so hard to build would have someone he could entrust it to.

What a pity. When Lin Haoran graduated, he hadn’t given it a second thought and had flatly refused his offer to stay.

Gazing at Lin Haoran, who was chatting with the mayor over there, a profound sense of regret washed over Tang Kun.

After some polite conversation, Lin Haoran didn’t continue speaking with the mayor for too long.

After all, he was just a guest today, brought here by Uncle Tang to expand his network, not to be the star of the show.

The Mayor of London then turned his attention to chat with the others.

The so-called networking event was simply a gathering for everyone to meet and discuss potential collaborations.

It was rare for everyone to get together, and the regular events organized by the Chamber of Commerce served as an excellent platform for cooperation.

A large spread of food had been prepared, mostly Chinese cuisine. After all, everyone here was a Chinese businessman; it would have been inappropriate to serve steaks and other Western dishes.

By this time, Lin Haoran was feeling a bit hungry. Before the event officially began, everyone would first have dinner.

There were more than a dozen tables set up.

Lin Haoran was ultimately seated at the head table with the tycoons.

Originally, if the mayor hadn’t appeared, he likely would have been placed at a table with ordinary members.

But when even the mayor treated him with such importance, no one dared to look down on him.

During the banquet, the air was filled with laughter and cheerful conversation, with many raising their glasses to toast Lin Haoran.

Towards the foreign mayor at the head of the table, they maintained a proper distance, knowing that these British people generally didn’t follow the customs of a Chinese drinking table, let alone the social etiquette surrounding banquets.

However, since Lin Haoran was from Hong Kong and was Chinese like them, they naturally assumed he would accept and participate in such cultural practices.

In Chinese business circles, the higher one’s status and the more respected they were, the more people would toast them as a sign of respect.

But they were destined for disappointment.

“My friends, I do apologize, but my body has a slight allergy to alcohol. I will use this cup of tea in place of wine to return your kind sentiments. Thank you all for your warm hospitality,” Lin Haoran said with a graceful smile as he poured and raised his teacup.

In truth, he had no such allergy. He had simply noticed the eager looks on many of the people around him. If things continued this way, he likely wouldn’t be able to get away without downing several rounds of strong liquor. By that point, forget participating in the networking event—he’d probably be drunk before the banquet was even over.

So, he cleverly swapped the liquor in his hand for the tea beside him. As for tea, no matter how much he drank, the worst that could happen was a few extra trips to the restroom.

Chapter 284: Vicious Competition

The Mayor of London didn’t stay long at the chamber’s networking event. He only attended the dinner, exchanged a few brief words with the guests, and then departed in a hurry.

His main purpose for attending was at the invitation of the chamber’s president, to represent the government and express its support for the legitimate business operations of the chamber’s members. The gesture was more symbolic than anything else, so there was naturally no need for him to participate in the subsequent activities.

Before leaving, he even walked over to Lin Haoran to chat with him for a few more moments.

As for what they discussed, only Lin Haoran himself knew; no one else went over to listen.

At that moment, every member of the British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce present had a very new and profound understanding of Lin Haoran.

Even those who had known nothing about him before quickly learned just how immense his wealth and power were from the introductions of others.

Now, the way everyone looked at Lin Haoran was different.

Even the president of the chamber, a man who held enormous prestige among the Chinese community in all of Britain, knew that his own enviable fortune was still a far cry from Lin Haoran’s.

The market capitalization of Hongkong Electric Group alone was comparable to his entire net worth.

The president, however, had already started to formulate plans involving Lin Haoran.

If he could draw a man like this into the chamber of commerce, there might be numerous opportunities for them to collaborate.

After Mr. Mayor left, the atmosphere at the event became even more lively.

Once dinner was over, the tables were not cleared away but left for everyone to drink tea and chat.

Many people gathered in groups, discussing potential collaborations.

British merchants often excluded Chinese merchants, so the best way for them to develop further was to unite and find more opportunities to work together.

At first, many people approached Lin Haoran, seeking a chance to cooperate with him.

However, upon learning that Lin Haoran had not yet made any investments in Britain, they could only leave in disappointment.

After all, no matter how powerful he was, he had to have business interests here in Britain; otherwise, it had little to do with them.

Nevertheless, no one overlooked him because of this. Everyone wanted to build a good relationship with Lin Haoran.

Just because he had no investments here now didn’t mean he wouldn’t make a move in the future.

After all, why had he come all the way to Britain? Why did the mayor hold him in such high regard? Why was he attending this chamber event? All signs pointed to his intention to enter the British market.

Once he officially set foot in the British market, opportunities for collaboration would surely follow.

Partnering with a boss whose assets were worth tens or even hundreds of billions of Hong Kong dollars, even in a minor capacity, could cause the net worth of these British-Chinese merchants to skyrocket.

This was the thought in the minds of many present.

Seeing that no one was bothering him for the time being, Lin Haoran breathed a sigh of relief.

He had already achieved his purpose for coming to the British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce. In his small bag, he had already collected over eighty business cards from representatives of Chinese merchants in various British industries.

Anyone who could join this general chamber was at least a millionaire, so their standing was not insignificant.

In the future, when he wanted to enter the British market, it should be a much smoother process.

Moreover, with an elder like Tang Kun around, others would give Tang Kun a measure of respect, even if he himself had no power.

At that moment, the dozen or so tables were all occupied by chamber members, drinking tea and discussing business.

Only four or five people remained at the table where Lin Haoran was seated. The others had gone off to discuss collaborations with other members.

Some conversations involved confidential matters, so those involved would retreat to private rooms to talk.

Lin Haoran listened with great interest as Uncle Tang and President Liu discussed matters of the British business world.

These were things he normally wouldn’t have a chance to hear.

In the past, he naturally wouldn’t have bothered to learn about them.

But now that he was preparing to develop his business in the British market, it was better to understand the landscape.

“Old Liu, don’t you hold quite a few shares in the Shipley Company? With the DHL Group making a major push into the British market this past half-year, you must be in a bit of trouble,” Tang Kun said suddenly.

Lin Haoran suddenly realized that the conversation had ventured into territory he was unfamiliar with.

He knew neither the Shipley Company nor the DHL Group, nor did he know what they did.

However, Lin Haoran didn’t interrupt to ask. He simply sat on his stool, sipping his tea and eating the exquisite pastries on the table, listening with curiosity.

“Yes, I’m the fourth-largest shareholder of the Shipley Company. Recently, because of DHL Group’s aggressive entry into the British market, they’ve snatched market share from both Royal Mail and our Shipley Company, causing our stock price to plummet.

“To capture more of the market, the DHL Group is willing to operate at a loss. If this continues, our market share at Shipley will only shrink further.

“When I first bought my shares, Shipley’s total market capitalization was nearly one hundred million British pounds. DHL has only been in the British market for half a year, and Shipley’s market cap has already fallen by almost half. This is probably the biggest loss I’ve ever taken on an investment,” President Liu said with a wry smile.

“Isn’t your Shipley Company increasing its investment? You have the advantage of being a local brand, and you’ve been operating in the domestic market for so many years. Your brand recognition is deeply ingrained. If you increase your investment to fight back, you shouldn’t be losing to the DHL Group, right?” Tang Kun asked in surprise.

“How can we invest? DHL is competing without any regard for cost. Their pickup and delivery services are essentially running at a loss. We held a shareholder meeting at Shipley last month to discuss further financing to get the capital to compete with them.

“But a month has passed, and we still haven’t found a suitable investor. They either offer too low a price or aren’t interested. None of our current shareholders are willing to increase their shareholding, either. So now, all we can do is watch as the DHL Group conquers the British market.

“Based on the stock market value, I, as the fourth-largest shareholder, have already lost over five million British pounds in the last six months. That’s real money!” President Liu said with a wry smile.

“Thankfully, I’ve never been very interested in stock market investments. I’ve always just stuck to honestly and diligently managing my own little patch,” Tang Kun said with a smile.

“By the way, Mr. Lin, I heard you have a record of several successful ventures in the Hong Kong stock market. Even a great British-owned enterprise with over a century of history like Jardine Matheson & Co. was defeated by you. I wonder if Mr. Lin has any brilliant insights?” President Liu suddenly turned to Lin Haoran and asked.

Although Lin Haoran was young, only in his twenties, no one dared to underestimate him.

This President Liu, a man in his early sixties, had built a great enterprise in Britain and was considered a top figure in the business world.

“President Liu, I am completely ignorant of this Shipley Company and DHL Group you’re talking about. I don’t even know what’s happened, so how could I offer any opinion?” Lin Haoran said with a wry smile.

“Haoran, the Shipley Company is a publicly listed logistics company. In Britain, it’s second only to the Royal Mail Company, with over twenty years of operational history, firmly holding the number two spot. The DHL Group, on the other hand, is a logistics company that has risen out of Germany.

“Although the DHL Group was founded only eleven years ago, its growth has been astonishing. Thanks to strong financial backing, DHL Air Cargo rapidly expanded its routes to Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, and Singapore within its first couple of years.

“Early this year, the DHL Group made a strong entry into the British market. As soon as it arrived, it used a pricing strategy far below the market rate to aggressively seize market share from local British logistics companies. I heard their rates are a full two to three times lower than Shipley’s. This is clearly a strategy of taking a loss to capture the market.

“According to newspaper reports, in the last six months, under the onslaught from the DHL Group, several reputable local British logistics companies have already declared bankruptcy one after another. Although the Shipley Company is large and has many loyal customers, so there’s no immediate danger of collapse, the erosion of its market share is an undisputed fact.

“Because of this, Shipley’s shareholders have fallen into a panic. The stock price has been falling continuously for months, dropping by more than half in just six months,” Tang Kun explained the situation in detail before President Liu could elaborate further.

“Isn’t this vicious competition? Doesn’t the British government do anything to stop it?” Lin Haoran asked in surprise.

Vicious competition refers to a company using prices far below the industry average or even below cost to sell products or provide services, or using improper business tactics to seize market share.

Clearly, the situation Tang Kun described perfectly fit the definition of vicious competition.

“Stop it? Easier said than done,” President Liu said, shaking his head with a wry smile. “Many people in Parliament support them, so any opposition is futile. What’s worse, they are adept at manipulating public opinion. They organized thousands of people to march in protest against our attempts to stop their low-price strategy. You know how Western countries, including Britain, always parade their democracy.”

Lin Haoran nodded, but then shook his head and said, “President Liu, I understand your predicament. However, in my opinion, the only way to win back the market might be to temporarily emulate the DHL Group and increase your investment.

“But you have a huge advantage. As a local company, Shipley has built a good reputation in Britain over many years. It wouldn’t be difficult to reclaim your market share. As long as you are willing to invest the capital, this foreign competitor will naturally be unable to compete with you.”

Chapter 285: Forget About Being Vice-President

Suddenly, as if struck by a flash of inspiration, President Liu’s eyes lit up. He looked at Lin Haoran with an expression full of anticipation.

“Mr. Lin, I wonder if you might be interested in considering the matter of financing Shipley Company? If you are, I can introduce you to the Board of Directors. I’m certain they would be delighted to hear that someone is willing to inject capital, especially a backer with deep pockets like yourself,” President Liu said enthusiastically, grabbing Lin Haoran’s shoulder.

“Er, President Liu, your proposal is rather sudden. I’ve never considered anything like this. Besides, I’m quite unfamiliar with Shipley Company’s situation, knowing only a little from our conversation just now,” Lin Haoran replied with a wry smile.

Even with ample funds, he couldn’t blindly invest in a company he knew nothing about, especially since Shipley Company was currently facing difficulties. If he got involved, he would likely just end up being a sucker.

“Old Liu, don’t just focus on dragging others down with you. Don’t pull Haoran into this,” Tang Kun interjected from the side, also with a wry smile. “Haoran’s father and I go way back—we have a life-and-death bond. If his father found out about this, he’d chew me out.”

“Haoran, you should really think about it. You can look into Shipley Company’s specifics when you get back. If you need more detailed information, just ask me. I can give you the company’s most detailed files!” President Liu, however, was persistent.

In President Liu’s view, Lin Haoran’s financial strength was clearly far greater than that of many large financial groups. With his financing, Shipley Company might actually stand a chance against the vicious competition from DHL Group.

“Alright, President Liu. I will consider it seriously,” Lin Haoran replied with a nod, leaving his options open.

Whatever his final decision, since the offer had been made, he didn’t want to shut the door completely for now.

Lin Haoran calculated inwardly; he did indeed want to learn more about Shipley Company’s actual situation.

After all, the logistics industry, both now and in the future, had vast development prospects.

Especially with the future popularization of the internet and the rise of online shopping, the logistics industry would experience even more rapid growth.

If Shipley Company truly possessed a certain level of competitiveness and potential within the industry, he might consider investing in it.

As for DHL Group’s vicious competition?

Lin Haoran wasn’t really concerned.

The world was vast, and the logistics industry was destined to see the emergence of numerous corporate giants.

For instance, there were the ones he would later become familiar with: Maersk, Kuehne + Nagel, FedEx, UPS, ZTO Express, YTO Express, and China Post, to name just a few.

It could be said that complete monopolization by any single company in this industry was impossible.

However, in this era, the volume of logistics was far from comparable to the future, so the number of customers was naturally relatively small.

Therefore, the market size seemed rather limited. For one company to capture more market share meant another would lose an equivalent amount.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, President Liu breathed a quiet sigh of relief. As long as it wasn’t an outright rejection, there was still a chance.

As the fourth-largest shareholder in Shipley Company, President Liu naturally didn’t want to see it easily pushed out of its number-two position in the industry, as this directly affected the rise and fall of hs personal wealth.

In Hong Kong, the logistics industry was dominated by foreign brands. Although Pao Yue-kong’s World-Wide Shipping Group could loosely be classified as part of the logistics sector, their business model was rather singular, limited to taking orders and transporting goods. Its limitations were obvious, and its operating model was vastly different from other logistics companies.

If possible, Lin Haoran could even consider cultivating a logistics company of his own.

For a while, Lin Haoran returned to being a listener, sipping tea and eating snacks while listening to President Liu and Uncle Tang discuss collaborations and other business matters.

The two made no effort to hide their discussions about certain collaborations from Lin Haoran, talking openly in front of him.

In the blink of an eye, an hour or two passed, and it was now nine o’clock in the evening.

By this point, the networking event was more or less coming to an end.

After all, many of those present were elderly men in their sixties and seventies, so staying out too late was clearly inappropriate.

“By the way, Mr. Lin, there’s something I’d like to discuss with you,” President Liu said suddenly to Lin Haoran, seeing that some people were already preparing to leave.

“President Liu, I will give the financing matter serious thought after I get back,” Lin Haoran said, assuming he wanted to talk about Shipley Company again.

Without a sufficient understanding of Shipley Company, Lin Haoran would not invest in it lightly.

However, President Liu shook his head and said with a smile, “Mr. Lin, that’s not what I was referring to. As the president of the British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, I would like to sincerely invite you to join. I wonder if you would be willing, Mr. Lin?”

“Join the British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce? Uh, President Liu, as you know, I’m from Hong Kong. I don’t even have any investment projects in Britain. Wouldn’t it be inappropriate for me to join?” Lin Haoran was a bit surprised, not expecting this to be what President Liu wanted to discuss.

“Mr. Lin, that’s not a problem at all. Several members of our chamber of commerce aren’t permanently based in Britain for business either, but they’ve still joined. It’s just a nominal membership. Joining our chamber makes potential collaborations more convenient. We have a powerful network of personal connections. There are only benefits to joining, no downsides,” President Liu continued.

“Haoran, he’s right about that. You can join the British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce. You have nothing to lose,” Tang Kun agreed.

“Since Uncle Tang says so, I certainly won’t refuse. In that case, I’ll join the British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

It was just joining a chamber of commerce; to him, it was no big deal.

He had already joined one in Hong Kong, so he didn’t mind adding another one here. It wasn’t like it required anything from him.

These chambers of commerce were all begging him to join; it wasn’t him actively seeking membership.

The reason they wanted him to join was simply to strengthen the chamber’s influence.

After all, Lin Haoran’s current financial power surpassed everyone else present.

His inclusion meant the chamber’s influence would rise to a new level.

“That’s wonderful! How about this: you could take up a nominal position as a vice-president in the chamber? I will call a meeting. Now that everyone is aware of your situation, I’m sure it will be approved.” Hearing Lin Haoran agree, President Liu smiled and continued.

“Let’s forget about being vice-president. As you know, my businesses are almost entirely in Hong Kong. Even if I develop the British market in the future, I can’t be based here permanently. Making me a vice-president would just be a waste of a position. There’s no need to give me a role with actual responsibilities,” Lin Haoran refused directly, waving his hand dismissively.

What a joke. He wasn’t even interested in the vice-president position at the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, let alone the one in Britain.

“In that case, I’ll discuss it with the chamber’s senior executives later. I’ll inform you as soon as there’s a result, Mr. Lin. Even if I can’t reach you, Old Tang should be able to,” President Liu said with a hearty laugh.

“President Liu, please stop with the formal address. I’m only in my twenties, and you’re my senior in the business world. Like Uncle Tang, you can just call me Haoran. How about this, I’ll call you Uncle Liu,” Lin Haoran said with a wry smile.

“Accomplishment comes first. Although you are young, Mr. Lin, your power in the business world is clearly no less than mine. In that case, I’ll take the liberty of my age and just call you Haoran,” President Liu laughed heartily.

In truth, he had felt a bit awkward himself with the formal address. After all, the other person was just a young man in his twenties; his own son was more than ten years older than Lin Haoran.

Now that Lin Haoran had said this, President Liu felt a sense of relief.

After chatting for a little while longer, the day’s networking event finally came to a close.

Once in Tang Kun’s car, Tang Kun warned him, “Haoran, don’t take President Liu’s offer to invest in Shipley Company to heart. The waters there run very deep. If you’re not careful, you could lose your shirt!”

“Don’t worry, Uncle Tang. I know what to do,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“DHL Group is backed by immense financial power. No matter how much money you have, you may not be able to compete with the financial group behind them. You can make money in any industry; there’s no need to willingly walk into danger,” Tang Kun continued, imparting his wisdom.

“I understand. Thank you for your concern, Uncle Tang. By the way, Uncle Tang, after we get back to Tang Lou, I’ll have to trouble you to have someone drive me back to the hotel,” Lin Haoran said, changing the subject.

“Ah Wei, you’ll take Young Master Lin back later,” Tang Kun said to the driver.

“Yes, Boss. Don’t worry!” the driver replied while driving.

After returning to Tang Lou, Tang Kun got out of the car, and Li Weiguo got in. It took only ten minutes to get from Tang Lou back to The Dorchester Hotel.

He swiped his key card and entered the suite’s living room, only to find Guo Xiaohan still there, watching television.

Hearing the door open, Guo Xiaohan immediately stood up. When she saw it was Lin Haoran and his two bodyguards, she breathed a sigh of relief and a smile appeared on her face.

“Brother Haoran, you’re finally back.”

Lin Haoran glanced at the time. It was already around ten o’clock at night. He asked in surprise, “Xiaohan, why aren’t you asleep yet?”

“It’s still early. I wanted to wait for you to come back before I went to sleep,” Guo Xiaohan replied.

Her words were a bit ambiguous; someone who didn’t know better might have thought she was waiting to sleep with Lin Haoran.

“You should get some sleep. According to the schedule, we have to go to Downing Street for a meeting with the Prime Minister at nine tomorrow morning. You can come with me then and broaden your horizons,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The meeting with the Prime Minister tomorrow wasn’t just for him alone; he would be going together with the dozen or so tycoons who had come from Hong Kong.

At that time, Guo Xiaohan would act as his assistant, and there would be no problem at all in bringing her along!

“Okay, I’ll go to sleep then. You should get some sleep too, Brother Haoran,” Guo Xiaohan said with a nod.

“Alright, go on. Good night!” Lin Haoran smiled.

Chapter 286: The Iron Lady of Downing Street

The night passed quickly.

Even though he didn’t fall asleep until nearly midnight, Lin Haoran still woke from his slumber just after seven in the morning.

Perhaps because he had rested enough on the plane, the time difference didn’t affect him at all; it was as if he were still in Hong Kong.

That biological clock, once it adapts, is truly hard to change.

He quickly washed up and changed into a suit, just as a knock came from the door.

He opened it to find Guo Xiaohan.

“Brother Haoran, I’d like to wash my face and brush my teeth in here,” Guo Xiaohan said at the door, holding a towel, toothbrush, cup, and other toiletries.

“Sure, go ahead. I just finished up anyway,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Thanks, Brother Haoran.”

“When we get back tonight, let’s switch rooms. That way you won’t always have to run in here. I can just use the public restroom outside,” Lin Haoran added.

When they first moved in, he hadn’t really considered the inconvenience for a woman.

“Brother Haoran, there’s no need. I’m fine in that room. We don’t have to move everything around, it’s too much trouble!” Unexpectedly, Guo Xiaohan refused outright.

At that moment, Guo Xiaohan’s heart was a tangle of complex emotions.

In her eyes, this was a perfectly legitimate opportunity for close contact with Brother Haoran. If they switched rooms, where would she find another chance like this?

She knew she had to seize the opportunity her uncle had created for her.

Walking out into the main living area, Lin Haoran noticed Li Weidong and Li Weiguo washing up in the public restroom. No wonder Guo Xiaohan had wanted to use the one in his room.

At eight o’clock in the morning, the group went down to the hotel’s buffet for breakfast, where they saw Pao Yue-kong, Michael Sandberg, and the others, exchanging greetings.

Around eight-forty, Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan followed Pao Yue-kong and the rest into a government car headed for Downing Street.

The dedicated vehicle was a minibus, which could easily accommodate everyone.

As for Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, they remained at the hotel.

They were clearly not suited to tag along for this special engagement, and the government would naturally handle security.

The drive from the hotel to Downing Street didn’t take long. Before nine in the morning, their vehicle had already arrived at a quiet street.

Through the windows, they could see that the street was heavily guarded.

Downing Street is located within Westminster in London, the capital of Britain. For the past two hundred years, it has been the official residence of important cabinet members, the British Prime Minister, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who also serves as the Second Lord of the Treasury.

The most famous residence on Downing Street is undoubtedly Number 10. It was formerly the residence of the First Lord of the Treasury, but since that position merged with the office of Prime Minister, it has become the Prime Minister’s official residence.

Thus, “Downing Street” and “10 Downing Street” have become synonymous with the British Prime Minister or the Prime Minister’s Office, while “11 Downing Street” represents the Chancellor of the Exchequer or their office.

After a series of checks, the vehicle finally drove onto the famous street.

“Uncle Pao, you must have been here many times, haven’t you?” Lin Haoran asked Pao Yue-kong, who was seated in front of him, out of curiosity.

“I wouldn’t say many, but I’ve been here more than a dozen times,” Pao Yue-kong said with a smile.

Pao Yue-kong was not just a Hong Konger; he was also a British citizen, having been naturalized over a decade ago.

This gave him a significant advantage in Britain.

“This is my first time. I’m quite looking forward to it,” Lin Haoran said with a light laugh, looking at the heavily guarded street outside.

In truth, Lin Haoran was perfectly calm inside. Perhaps his current wealth was the source of his profound confidence.

Thinking back, besides officials in Mainland China, the highest-ranking figure he had ever met was Governor Sir Murray MacLehose.

This was his first time meeting a British Prime Minister.

And it wasn’t just the Prime Minister; according to the itinerary, they were also scheduled to be received by the Queen in a few days.

“Haoran, in your current position, all you need is time. Your wealth is already more than sufficient; what you lack now is reputation. Once you make a name for yourself, you will be respected and treated with courtesy in any country you visit!” Pao Yue-kong said with a hearty laugh.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly. He understood this principle well.

His biggest weakness at the moment was the lack of a large multinational corporation, which limited his ability to build an international profile through a corporate platform.

Companies like Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and Kowloon Motor Bus primarily operated within Hong Kong.

Relatively speaking, Green Island Cement Company was perhaps the most international, but its business only covered Hong Kong and a few countries in Southeast Asia, with markets in several of those countries still in the initial stages of development.

Therefore, he lacked a truly global enterprise to back him.

In contrast, Pao Yue-kong’s business empire had long since expanded across the globe, and he was even hailed by authoritative international media as the “World’s number one shipping magnate.”

With such prestigious accolades to his name, he could handle himself with ease wherever he went.

The vehicle eventually came to a stop in a parking space.

The dozen or so passengers disembarked one by one and followed an official to Number 10.

At that moment, the famous Prime Minister had already come out to greet them, shaking hands with each of the visiting Hong Kong business tycoons.

This was none other than the renowned Iron Lady, who had just been elected the previous May.

When it was Lin Haoran’s turn, before he could introduce himself, the Iron Lady said with a broad smile, “Mr. Lin, hello. Your reputation certainly precedes you. It is rare indeed for the Hong Kong business world to have such a talented young man.”

“You’re too kind. I’ve just been a bit lucky,” Lin Haoran replied humbly.

He was also somewhat surprised that she knew who he was.

But on second thought, it was understandable. Hong Kong was probably the best-developed among all the colonies, so it was only natural for the Iron Lady to pay close attention to it.

And since Lin Haoran had been a leading figure in Hong Kong for the past two years, it wasn’t surprising that she would recognize him.

“When there’s an opportunity, I look forward to speaking with you privately,” the Iron Lady continued.

“I look forward to it, Madam,” Lin Haoran said solemnly.

In reality, his mind was on the fall this Iron Lady would take two years from now.

That fall would be no small matter; it would directly trigger a crash in Hong Kong’s real estate market.

Guo Xiaohan stood by Lin Haoran’s side, looking nervous.

However, the Iron Lady also shook her hand. Although she didn’t say anything, the gesture was enough to delight Guo Xiaohan.

After all, she had only just graduated. Even though she was used to grand occasions from following her uncle, it was impossible not to be nervous when faced with a nation’s Prime Minister.

After the greetings were exchanged, the Iron Lady led everyone into the house.

Number 10 was not spacious; in fact, it seemed a bit cramped.

However, it was fully equipped, including a conference room that, while not large, was perfectly functional.

This was not only the Prime Minister’s office but also her residence during her term.

Usually, the Prime Minister would meet with others at more formal, official venues.

But the Iron Lady’s choice to meet the business leaders from Hong Kong here was perhaps intended to create a more cordial atmosphere.

After all, receiving guests in one’s own home implies a greater sense of intimacy.

The entire meeting was actually quite short. The Iron Lady mainly spoke about Britain’s glorious history and its excellent business environment.

The message was clear: she hoped these business tycoons from Hong Kong would invest in Britain.

In the future, companies like HSBC, Jardine Matheson & Co., and others would indeed move their headquarters to Britain, even though their primary operations remained in Hong Kong.

After just a half-hour chat, the meeting concluded.

After leaving Downing Street, there were various inspection tours.

First, they visited the financial district, including places like the London Stock Exchange.

Then, they toured the City of London and its surrounding areas.

Lin Haoran and the others spent the next week in this fashion. During that time, they also met the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

Perhaps out of consideration for the fact that several of the tycoons were in their sixties and seventies, the schedule was not packed too tightly.

August 16th was the last day of the officially arranged visit.

When it was over, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

He actually felt quite resistant to these kinds of official arrangements.

But, since he was making his way in Hong Kong, he had no choice but to cooperate. Otherwise, it would be a simple matter for them to make his life difficult.

Over the course of the week, Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan were constantly together, and their relationship had indeed become increasingly intimate. Guo Xiaohan would even occasionally make small gestures reserved for couples, like taking his hand of her own accord or straightening his clothes.

Despite this, the two of them had never taken the final step.

As Lin Haoran saw it, maintaining their relationship this way felt quite nice, and he was reluctant to take it further for the time being.

He had a lot to consider. A conflict had always lingered in his mind: whether or not he should marry Guo Xiaohan.

He knew that once he crossed that final line with her, he would have to marry her.

She was different from girls like Rosamund Kwan or others in the entertainment industry, who could simply be lovers.

Guo Xiaohan was a girl from a prominent, wealthy family. She was approaching him with the clear intention of marriage. If he took her and didn’t marry her, the ultimate result would be making an enemy of the Guo family.

The reason Lin Haoran could exercise such self-control was because he had no shortage of women to satisfy his physical needs.

If he had the urge, women would come to his door at a moment’s notice, even here in Britain.

But being with Guo Xiaohan was a lifetime commitment.

He certainly couldn’t make such a decision lightly.

After all, he hadn’t had his fill of fun yet.

“Brother Haoran, starting tomorrow, I have to go handle our Guo family’s business. I won’t be able to follow you anymore,” Guo Xiaohan said, turning to Lin Haoran as she watched TV in the living room that evening.

The Guo family had quite a few business interests in Britain, and Guo Henian had naturally assigned her tasks for this trip.

“How about I have Weidong accompany you? That way I’ll worry less. Your uncle did ask me to take good care of you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Chapter 287: Honorary President, President Liu’s Invitation

On the morning of August 17th, Guo Xiaohan left early, picked up by a car that had come for her.

Li Weidong was the one who left with her.

With Li Weidong protecting her, Lin Haoran could rest easier.

Over the past two years, Li Weidong had often studied English in his spare time. Although he wasn’t very fluent, he could already understand and speak a little. Moreover, he was always extremely sharp in his work.

Li Weiguo, on the other hand, though more formidable in combat, was clearly not as quick-witted as Li Weidong, so he couldn’t get the hang of learning.

This was why Lin Haoran had sent Li Weidong to temporarily protect Guo Xiaohan.

Lin Haoran stayed in the hotel until ten in the morning before heading out.

Nearly half of the dozen or so Hong Kong tycoons had booked flights for today.

They had arrived on a private jet, but they had to arrange their own return trips. After all, everyone had different schedules, making it impossible to provide transportation for all of them.

Li Jiacheng, for instance, had a flight at noon. There were still many matters at Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa waiting for him to handle.

Especially with Hutchison Whampoa, after secretly acquiring a 40% stake, he was already planning to take control.

Therefore, he naturally couldn’t stay in Britain any longer.

Schreyer had the same itinerary as Li Jiacheng and had also booked a flight back. The main business of Swire & Co. was in Hong Kong, so spending too much time here was a waste.

Newbiggin, Michael Sandberg, and the others, as representatives of the British-funded conglomerates, clearly had matters to discuss with the financial groups behind them, so they were in no hurry to return.

Pao Yue-kong was also in no rush to leave. He had a lot of business in Britain and even Europe, and he wanted to take this opportunity to discuss collaborations with some business tycoons.

Looking at the once-bustling hotel floor, now filled with unfamiliar guests, Lin Haoran felt a touch of emotion.

He wasn’t in a hurry to go back either.

When he stepped out, the driver, Henry, was already waiting for him in the driver’s seat.

Perhaps knowing that Lin Haoran had no businesses in Britain and would have trouble getting around, the British government had made excellent arrangements this time, not dismissing the driver just because the official trip had ended.

“Mr. Lin, where would you like to go?” Henry asked respectfully after Lin Haoran and Li Weiguo were seated.

“Let’s go to Tang Lou in Chinatown,” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Very well, Mr. Lin!” Henry replied, starting the car and slowly driving away from The Dorchester Hotel.

His stay here had been quite comfortable, and the service was excellent, so even though the visit was over, Lin Haoran had no intention of moving.

Besides, The Dorchester Hotel was in an excellent location, convenient for getting anywhere. There was no need to go through the trouble of moving.

About a dozen minutes later, the Rolls-Royce was parked in a spot outside Tang Lou.

Walking into the lobby, Lin Haoran immediately saw Manager Wu scolding a supervisor at the front desk.

Manager Wu obviously saw Lin Haoran as well. He left the supervisor and walked quickly over to Lin Haoran.

“Young Master Lin, are you here to see the Boss? He’s upstairs. President Liu is also with him. They’re probably discussing something,” Manager Wu said with a smile before Lin Haoran could speak.

“Alright, I understand. You can get back to your work,” Lin Haoran said with a nod, not minding the interruption.

“I’ll get back to it then. Young Master Lin, please make yourself at home. Let me know if you need anything,” Manager Wu continued.

Lin Haoran nodded and walked straight to the elevator.

Uncle Tang was in a meeting, so normally it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to interrupt.

However, the other party was President Liu, whom he knew. At this moment, Uncle Tang was probably just having tea with President Liu.

He went up to the third floor, arrived at Uncle Tang’s tea room, and knocked on the door.

A moment later, a voice came from inside: “Come in.”

The speaker was Uncle Tang.

Lin Haoran turned the doorknob and entered. Inside, as expected, were Tang Kun and President Liu of the British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce.

“Oh? It’s Haoran. Come, have a seat,” Tang Kun said, pleasantly surprised to see Lin Haoran.

Even President Liu was quite surprised.

“Uncle Tang, Uncle Liu, good morning!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He glanced at the table, which had not only a tea set but also a variety of Cantonese-style dim sum.

For the past week, everything had been officially arranged, so after the chamber of commerce networking event that night, he hadn’t come to see Tang Kun again.

“I saw the reports about you in the papers,” Tang Kun said with a smile after Lin Haoran sat down.

“It’s finally over. For a whole week, I followed their schedule completely, visiting various places, meeting both the Prime Minister and the Queen. I was so busy I didn’t even have time to come and have tea and a chat with you, Uncle Tang,” Lin Haoran said with a wry smile.

“Isn’t that something to be happy about? Many people dream of meeting the Queen but never get the chance. Take me, for example, I’ve never had the honor of being invited by Her Majesty. Old Liu here, on the other hand, has been received twice and was even awarded a knighthood,” Uncle Tang replied with a hint of envy.

“It’s just a low-ranking knighthood,” President Liu said with false modesty, though he couldn’t hide the proud smile on his face.

In Britain, being granted a title was indeed a great honor and an effective way for the Queen to win people over.

Sir Murray MacLehose had also told him in private that he had submitted his name, and if things went as expected, he would be knighted this year.

But Lin Haoran wasn’t British, so he had no interest in this method of currying favor.

“Haoran, what are your plans next? Are you heading back to Hong Kong?” Tang Kun asked.

Lin Haoran shook his head and said, “Uncle Tang, I don’t plan on going back so soon. I’ll stay in London for a few more days to study the British business market. Although I’ve gained some understanding this past week, I hope to learn more in-depth.

“I plan to expand my business to Britain and even Europe within the year. It’s not a long-term solution to stay in my own little patch in Hong Kong. To grow bigger, I have to go the route of internationalization. Besides, in Britain, I have connections like you, Uncle Tang. If I can’t even expand here, I won’t be able to expand anywhere else,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Which industries are you planning to enter? Uncle Tang will do his best to help where he can,” Tang Kun asked, his curiosity piqued.

“I have plans for the real estate industry, the electronics trade, security consulting, and so on. These are all businesses I’m already running in Hong Kong,” Lin Haoran said after a moment’s thought.

London’s real estate market certainly wouldn’t grow as much as Hong Kong’s, but Lin Haoran knew that the future trend was still upward.

As for electronics, he could export the appliances produced by Hongkong Electric Group’s Fortress Electrical Company to Europe.

Building up the Fortress brand would also be a breakthrough point in the future.

And as for Universal Security Consulting Company, the reason he named it “Universal” was that his ambition was to have the company established all over the world, just like the world-famous G4S.

Although it would be very difficult, without dreams, what’s the difference between a person and a salted fish?

As for industries like buses, electricity, and gas energy, if opportunities arose to expand them here, Lin Haoran wouldn’t mind. However, he knew the difficulty was much greater, as these were public utility sectors, all restricted by the government. One couldn’t just enter the market at will.

For example, Hongkong Electric Group was currently trying to enter the market in Thailand. That was only because the government there was accepting foreign bids; otherwise, they wouldn’t even be able to get a foot in the door. These things required finding the right opportunities.

On the other hand, industries like real estate, trade, and security were mainstream sectors. Anyone with money could enter them without any restrictions.

“I also hold a certain standing in the British business community. If Haoran wants to enter the British market, I can provide you with some convenience,” President Liu also said with a smile.

“In that case, I thank you in advance, Uncle Liu,” Lin Haoran said solemnly.

Regardless of the other party’s motives, the fact that he said it was a favor to him.

“By the way, Haoran, our chamber of commerce held a senior executive meeting a couple of days ago. The president, executive president, vice-presidents, secretary-general, directors, and other senior members all attended. After discussion, we’ve decided to grant you the title of Honorary President of the British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce. Don’t be so quick to refuse. This is just a nominal position and carries no actual work burden for you personally!” President Liu said with a smile.

“Honorary president? President Liu, you’re being too kind. I’m only twenty-six!” Lin Haoran was left speechless and bemused.

The title sounded even more impressive than vice-president. Even though it came with no real power, he likely wouldn’t be involved in actual management work even if he were a vice-president.

“Haoran, your capabilities have been recognized by all of us. Our chamber values strength, regardless of age. When you’re in Britain in the future, feel free to visit the chamber’s headquarters more often. It’s right here in Chinatown, just two hundred meters from Tang Lou. If you have time, you can drop by. Chamber members often come here for tea and to discuss business,” President Liu continued.

“Haoran, just accept it. This title has only advantages for you and no disadvantages. You don’t have to give anything in return. With this connection, when you do business with chamber members in the future, people will give you face and won’t easily offend you,” Tang Kun also persuaded.

In the end, Lin Haoran agreed.

An honorary president was an honorary president. He already had enough titles, so one more didn’t matter.

However, this was the British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, a different league from the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

Seeing Lin Haoran agree, President Liu also breathed a sigh of relief.

When even the Mayor of London treated Lin Haoran with such high regard, everyone in the chamber had already acknowledged him.

Age and experience were not an issue at all.

In the world of business, financial power was what mattered most.

The three of them continued to chat in the tea room.

At one point, while Tang Kun was in the restroom, President Liu spoke to Lin Haoran in a low voice, “Haoran, how about we talk alone this afternoon?”

“Of course, no problem!” Lin Haoran agreed immediately.

He figured that President Liu likely wanted to discuss the matter of investing capital in the Shipley Company.

Chapter 288: Ten Million British Pounds for 20% of the Shares

At noon, Lin Haoran, Tang Kun, and President Liu had lunch together at Tang Lou.

After lunch, President Liu bid Tang Kun farewell.

Before leaving, President Liu gave Lin Haoran a meaningful look.

Lin Haoran naturally understood what he meant and nodded with a smile.

After chatting with Tang Kun a little longer at Tang Lou, Lin Haoran finally said his goodbyes and left.

“Mr. Henry, please take me to Yongsheng Building in the City of London,” Lin Haoran said to the driver after getting into the car.

This was the address President Liu had given him, supposedly for his private office.

President Liu had started in trade and later branched out into real estate, finance, and investment. He had done exceptionally well in Britain’s financial sector, which was why he had set up his headquarters in the City of London.

“Of course, Mr. Lin. Please hold on tight!” Henry said, starting the engine and pulling away from Chinatown.

A little over twenty minutes later, Lin Haoran arrived at the underground parking garage of a skyscraper more than thirty stories tall.

He entered an elevator with Li Weiguo and Henry, went up to the ground floor, and after confirming with the front desk, entered another elevator and pressed the button for the 31st floor.

A minute later, Lin Haoran arrived on the 31st floor.

This was the executive office floor for President Liu’s company.

A tycoon worth one or two hundred million British pounds was no simple character; he likely had tens of thousands of employees under him.

At that moment, President Liu was already there to welcome Lin Haoran.

“Haoran, you’re finally here. I’ll take you to my office for some tea,” President Liu said with a hearty laugh.

“Uncle Liu, sorry to keep you waiting,” Lin Haoran said, greeting him with a smile.

Li Weiguo and Henry remained in the lounge while Lin Haoran followed President Liu into a spacious office that was at least three to four hundred square meters.

In the City of London, where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold, using several hundred square meters for an office was indeed extravagant.

The office was lavishly decorated, with a 90-degree panoramic view that overlooked a large part of London.

“Uncle Liu, you certainly know how to live. This office is even more luxurious than mine in Hong Kong,” Lin Haoran remarked with a sigh.

“When you get old and have made this much money, you have to enjoy it a little. You can’t take it with you when you die. After I’m gone, what can I possibly take? So it’s better to enjoy it as much as possible while I’m still alive!” President Liu said with a smile.

“Uncle Liu, I agree with you completely. When you reach our level of wealth, money really is just a number. One should enjoy it more!” Lin Haoran concurred.

“Come, have a seat!” President Liu said, pointing to a partitioned-off area that served as a small teahouse.

Sipping tea while admiring the view of London from high above was truly a fine way to enjoy life.

However, London’s weather couldn’t compare to Hong Kong’s. It was often rainy and foggy here, the climate was very unstable, with fairly frequent heatwaves in the summer and the possibility of extreme weather like storms in the winter.

The weather today was quite nice, with clear skies. It was the best weather Lin Haoran had experienced in his week in Britain.

After sitting down, Lin Haoran asked curiously, “Uncle Liu, this building is called Yongsheng Building. You don’t own the entire building, do you?”

The name didn’t sound British; it had a Chinese flavor to it. There was also a Yongsheng Building in Hong Kong, though he knew that one had no connection to President Liu.

“Haoran, you’re a sharp guesser. I bought this building six years ago, and it was the right decision. In the years since, the value of my building has tripled, and it brings in several million British pounds in rent every year. I only use three floors myself; the rest are all rented out. The occupancy rate is exceptionally high here in the City of London.” President Liu sounded quite proud as he mentioned this.

However, to Lin Haoran, an asset tripling in value over six years wasn’t particularly impressive.

A building his father, Lin Wan’an, had bought in Sheung Wan six years ago had since increased in value four or fivefold. Tripling was nothing special.

This showed that, compared to property prices in Hong Kong, the appreciation of London’s real estate was not particularly fast.

Of course, London was a city with a long history and a very high starting point, so it was normal for its property prices to not rise as quickly.

“Uncle Liu, you truly are a business leader among the Chinese in Britain,” Lin Haoran said with a grin, naturally keeping his inner thoughts to himself.

“By the way, Haoran, how is your consideration of investing capital in Shipley Company coming along?” President Liu asked, no longer beating around the bush.

Over the past few days, President Liu had specifically tasked people with looking into Lin Haoran’s business history. He hadn’t realized it before, but the more he learned, the more he felt that Lin Haoran’s money-making ability was absurdly strong.

This man was practically a one-man financial group. If Shipley Logistics Company could secure the backing of someone like him, what did some ‘Squid Capital’ matter?

Shipley Logistics Company would have a fighting chance.

“Uncle Liu, to be honest with you, I’ve been busy scouting the British market these past few days and haven’t had time to look into this company. All I know about it so far is what I’ve heard from you and Uncle Tang,” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

“I have already prepared detailed information on Shipley Logistics Company for you right here. You can take a look. This is all authentic data, nothing is falsified. You can also investigate through your own channels.” President Liu then picked up a file from the side and handed it to Lin Haoran.

The file wasn’t thick, but it wasn’t thin either—a dozen or so A4 pages, each filled with English text.

It was a British company, so it was perfectly normal for everything to be in English.

“It’s all in English. That shouldn’t be a problem for you, Haoran. I saw you graduated from the University of London, so I didn’t bother translating these documents into Chinese,” President Liu continued.

“It’s no trouble, I can read it,” Lin Haoran said with a smile and began to look through it.

He first did a quick scan of the document. It contained Shipley Company’s founding history and development, its market share, annual financial reports, and so on. It was indeed very detailed.

If he had hired someone to investigate, they might not have been able to get such detailed information.

After a quick flip-through, Lin Haoran returned to the first page and began to read carefully.

President Liu fell silent, patiently sipping his tea and waiting.

Lin Haoran only briefly glanced at the company’s development history.

The most important parts were the financial information and market share.

It even included data from the first half of this year, after the competitor had appeared.

In the past, Shipley Company’s market share had indeed been very stable, without significant fluctuations.

But in the last six months, Shipley Company’s market share had plummeted by nearly thirty to forty percent.

It was no wonder its stock price had fallen so much.

Shipley Company’s primary market was Britain, but it also had logistics operations in markets like Australia, Canada, the United States, and Hong Kong. However, its overseas market involvement was not extensive, focusing mainly on the transport of large goods in those regions.

The company’s profit last year was nearly ten million British pounds, making it a company with good earning potential.

However, in the first half of this year, its profit was less than three million British pounds, a very steep decline. Even if it could maintain its first-half performance, its annual profit would be less than six million British pounds, and maintaining that level would be extremely difficult.

It was no surprise the stock price had plummeted so tragically, losing half its market capitalization in six months.

After ten or so minutes, Lin Haoran had finished his rough reading.

“Haoran, you see, although our market share has declined over the past six months, the downward trend has now significantly slowed. The remaining customers are mostly our loyal users, forming our stable core customer base. This is the result of Shipley Company’s hard work over the last twenty to thirty years, and it’s our greatest strength to stand firm in the market and face any challenge.

Many are wary of the capital power behind the DHL Group, fearing that any new capital injection would only lead to a short-term fight that can’t be sustained, and once the funds run out, we’d be back where we started.

But we firmly believe that the DHL Group cannot continue this vicious competition indefinitely. Their entry into the British market is ultimately for profit, not a meaningless price war. I don’t believe they can sustain operating at a loss for two, three, or even more years. That goes against the principles of capital operations.

With your financing, I believe it won’t be difficult to maintain our position as the second-largest logistics company in Britain!” President Liu said, analyzing the situation as soon as Lin Haoran closed the file.

Lin Haoran nodded and asked with a smile, “If I’m interested in financing, how many shares are you willing to offer me?”

“Ten million British pounds in exchange for 20% of the shares. That’s absolutely no problem,” President Liu replied. “We’ve already discussed this at the Board of Directors. In fact, our company used to have quite substantial cash reserves, with stable dividends every year.

Unfortunately, the DHL Group entered the British market and launched its vicious competition shortly after we paid out our dividends. Once dividends are distributed, it’s very difficult to get that money back from the shareholders. That’s why we’re facing a capital shortage.

Currently, the company’s monthly profit is only a few hundred thousand British pounds, which is far from enough to counter DHL Group’s vicious competition. But if ten million British pounds were injected into the company’s account, we would have enough confidence to compete on price and win back the market share we’ve lost!”

“Ten million British pounds? That seems like an amount President Liu could manage, doesn’t it? Why not invest it yourself? That way, you might even be able to take control of the company,” Lin Haoran asked in surprise.

Ten million British pounds was only a little over one hundred and ten million Hong Kong dollars. For Lin Haoran, it was an amount he could produce at any time.

But he also considered a problem: the man before him, President Liu, was also a tycoon. Wouldn’t it be easy for him to come up with that sum?

“I won’t hide it from you, Haoran. I became a shareholder three years ago by acquiring the shares of another shareholder in Shipley Company. To be honest, I’m not that interested in the logistics industry. It was mainly a very important local partner who strongly recommended I become a shareholder.

At the time, I had ample funds, so I spent ten million British pounds to buy 10% of the shares. But starting last year, I’ve invested a large amount of capital in real estate development in cities like London, Manchester, Birmingham, and Edinburgh. I’ve even accrued tens of millions of British pounds in debt to the banks for it. Right now, I don’t have much cash flow to mobilize. Even the rent collected from this building is mostly used to pay off my debts.”

Chapter 289: I Want a Direct Acquisition

“I understand, Uncle Liu. This is a significant matter, and I can’t make a decision right away. How about this? Let me think it over, and I’ll give you a reply as soon as possible, alright?” Lin Haoran said after a moment of thought.

“Of course, Haoran. You can take this file back to study, but please ensure you keep it confidential. While some of the data in here is public, some of it is our company’s internal information. If it were to leak, it would have a negative impact on the company.

As for your situation, I went to Shipley Company a couple of days ago and spoke with several key shareholders. They are very receptive to your investment and have entrusted me to discuss it with you thoroughly. If you agree, the deal is set,” President Liu continued.

“Alright, Uncle Liu, you can rest assured. But is it okay if I show this to my Uncle Tang?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Old Tang is no problem, of course. I know his character; he won’t go around gossiping. But if you tell him, he’s definitely going to try and stop you from investing in Shipley Logistics Company,” President Liu said with some concern.

He had been worried that Old Tang would interfere, which was why he had invited Lin Haoran here to talk.

If Tang Kun found out and tried to stop it, wouldn’t all this effort be for naught?

“Don’t worry, Uncle Liu. If I’m truly interested, not even my Dad could stop me, let alone Uncle Tang,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

In fact, after reading through the company’s file, Lin Haoran’s interest in it had genuinely surged.

It had a stable client base in Britain, a market presence in multiple countries and regions, and had even entered the Hong Kong market. It was quite impressive.

Although he had never heard of it in Hong Kong, there were numerous logistics companies there. Practically all the major global logistics firms had branch companies in Hong Kong, so it was normal for him not to have heard of it.

Moreover, after reviewing the documents, a twenty percent stake wouldn’t satisfy him.

If he was going to invest capital in, he would aim to directly hold a controlling stake in the company.

If it could withstand this wave of vicious competition from the DHL Group, it was clear that Shipley Company’s stock price would soon return to its previous market capitalization of over one hundred million British pounds, or perhaps even higher.

Therefore, investing now was indeed a very good deal.

However, before investing, he certainly had to gain a thorough understanding of Shipley Company. He couldn’t decide to invest based solely on President Liu’s account.

Who knew if this information was fabricated?

“By the way, Shipley Company is the second-largest logistics company in Britain. Has the largest one done anything about the DHL Group’s vicious competition?” Lin Haoran asked, curious about another point.

“Britain’s largest logistics company is the Royal Mail. Their main business is handling government contracts and national freight transport, so their business volume is stable. The DHL Group’s operations don’t have much of an impact on the Royal Mail. So, in reality, if you don’t count government agency business, our Shipley Company is the largest logistics company in Britain.

“Speaking of which, after the Iron Lady became Prime Minister, the Royal Mail actually tried to acquire Shipley Company last year, but the Board of Directors didn’t agree, and the deal fell through. This might be the biggest reason why the Royal Mail hasn’t stepped in to stop the DHL Group’s vicious competition. If they had intervened, the DHL Group would never have been able to implement their tactics so smoothly.

“After the DHL Group entered the British market, we tried to resume talks with the Royal Mail about them taking a stake, but the price they offered was too low, and we couldn’t reach an agreement,” President Liu explained.

Lin Haoran nodded. If it was as President Liu described, that was indeed a very likely scenario.

Royal Mail—one could tell from the name that it was clearly a royal or state-owned enterprise.

After the Iron Lady took office, she made many big moves, such as nationalizing some car brands in an attempt to use state power to revive the British auto industry. It wasn’t impossible that the Royal Mail would want to acquire Shipley Company.

After that, Lin Haoran chatted with President Liu for another half an hour before taking his leave.

President Liu had invited Lin Haoran over specifically for this matter, and now that they had covered most of it, there was no need to continue the conversation.

President Liu personally escorted Lin Haoran to the underground parking garage before returning to his office.

Back in the car, Lin Haoran immediately told Henry to drive to Tang Lou again.

Speaking of which, although Lin Haoran’s predecessor had studied in Britain for four years and had many friends, a search through his memories revealed that he didn’t have a single true confidant.

And none of the companies under his name had any operations in Britain, which meant he had no one he could deploy here.

While Amigo Company exported products to Europe, including Britain, the company was focused solely on exports. It only had one office in Paris and not a single employee in London.

Therefore, he realized that in Britain, the only person he could likely trust was Uncle Tang.

Uncle Tang was his father Lin Wan’an’s sworn brother. According to Lin Wan’an, more than thirty years ago, when Hong Kong was invaded by Japan, Lin Wan’an and Tang Kun had gone through a life-and-death trial together. They had forged an unbreakable bond, becoming the closest of friends, a friendship that had lasted to this day.

Judging from his experiences during his four years of study in Britain, Uncle Tang had treated him very well, so he trusted him completely.

Upon returning to Tang Lou, he learned from Manager Wu that Uncle Tang had gone out to handle business for his other ventures, and his return time was unknown.

“Manager Wu, is there a vacant office here? I need to make some calls and wait for Uncle Tang,” Lin Haoran asked.

At this time of day, there weren’t many diners in Tang Lou, so Manager Wu wasn’t busy.

“Yes, Young Master Lin. Let me show you the way!” Manager Wu replied.

Lin Haoran nodded and followed Manager Wu to a room on the third floor, just a few doors down from Uncle Tang’s tea room.

It was indeed a vacant office, devoid of any files, but it was fully equipped with a desk, telephone, and printer.

After thanking Manager Wu and watching him leave, Lin Haoran sat down and started making calls.

He hadn’t been in contact with Hong Kong for a while, so he took the opportunity to call Su Zhixue, Burton, Chen Shoulin, and even his parents.

He made seven or eight calls in total, talking for nearly an hour before he finished.

From Su Zhixue, Lin Haoran learned that the stock accumulation of Hongkong Land Group shares had indeed become increasingly difficult, as another competitor had entered the fray.

However, with over thirty-two percent of the shares already in his control, Lin Haoran wasn’t the least bit worried about this sudden competitor.

Therefore, Lin Haoran instructed Su Zhixue to just continue accumulating shares steadily, paying little mind to the rival.

Putting down the phone, Lin Haoran stepped out of the office and discovered that Uncle Tang had returned to Tang Lou at some point. The door to the tea room was still open.

“When I got back, Manager Wu told me you were here. I came upstairs and saw you were on the phone, so I didn’t want to disturb you,” Uncle Tang said with a smile as Lin Haoran walked in.

“Uncle Tang, do you have any channels with investigation agencies? I want to look into some things through one,” Lin Haoran asked directly.

“An investigation agency? Of course. What do you want to look into?” Tang Kun asked in surprise.

“I want to find information on Shipley Company,” Lin Haoran replied, not intending to hide anything.

“Shipley Company? Haoran, you can’t still be thinking of investing in that company, can you? A year ago, it would have been a worthy investment, but now it has a formidable competitor. I’d advise you to forget about it,” Uncle Tang said, trying to dissuade him again.

“Uncle Tang, to be honest with you, I don’t just want to invest capital in this company, I want to acquire it directly and gain a controlling stake. You know I have a number of businesses in Hong Kong, so I’ve been planning to enter the logistics industry for a while now.

“This Shipley Company has a very good foundation, and its current market capitalization isn’t too high. If possible, I want to take this opportunity to acquire it. For me, there’s only an upside. My main problem right now is that I don’t know enough about the company, so I want to have it investigated by an agency!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Although he had obtained a lot of material from President Liu, it was far from enough.

If that information was all true, then what he most wanted to know were the detailed profiles of the shareholders, to see which of them were willing to sell their equity.

Given Shipley Company’s current situation, Lin Haoran was confident that there would definitely be shareholders willing to sell.

Then, after acquiring an initial stake, he would move to take over the company’s controlling stake.

Merely being a shareholder with no real say wouldn’t satisfy him; there was no point in that.

Besides, the logistics industry was destined to be a sector with ever-growing potential. Since he had the chance to enter it now, he was going to be the big boss!

After getting the details from President Liu, he was no longer worried about their competitor, the DHL Group.

“The risk is too great. Shipley Company’s stock price could fall even further. Old Liu has already lost quite a bit…” Tang Kun tried to persuade him again.

“Uncle Tang, you don’t need to say any more. I have my own plans,” Lin Haoran said with a wry smile.

Seeing this, Tang Kun understood that further persuasion would be futile, so he nodded in agreement. “Alright, I’ll give you a contact number. It’s for a director at an international investigation company here in Britain. Their intelligence sources are reliable, and the fee depends on the difficulty of the inquiry. I often use them to gather information.

“They have an office in London, and since Shipley Company is a listed company, investigating it won’t be too difficult, so the fee shouldn’t be outrageous—probably around ten thousand British pounds. How about this: when you decide to go, I’ll go with you. Their director knows me, so they won’t take advantage of you as a newcomer.”

“That would be perfect. Thank you for the trouble, Uncle Tang,” Lin Haoran said, a smile breaking across his face.

Chapter 290: Letting the Wolf into the Sheepfold, Becoming the Largest Shareholder

A day later, Lin Haoran successfully obtained the investigation materials he needed.

Sure enough, his thorough preparation paid off.

By carefully comparing the data, he confirmed that the information provided by President Liu was authentic, with no signs of forgery.

Furthermore, Lin Haoran had the investigation firm conduct a detailed probe into the situations of Shipley Logistics Company’s major shareholders.

He was particularly interested in the latest developments and current circumstances of the second- and third-largest shareholders.

As for Shipley Logistics Company’s current Chairman—who was also the largest shareholder and the company’s founder—Lin Haoran discovered through his in-depth investigation that it would be difficult to acquire shares from him.

The Chairman valued control over the company immensely and had even rejected a proposal from Royal Mail to purchase a stake, precisely because he feared losing his controlling influence.

Fearful of losing control, he had even structured the company with A/B shares when it went public.

A/B shares are a special equity structure that allows a company to issue two different types of stock: Class A and Class B shares, which differ in voting rights and dividend rights.

This structure is typically used by publicly traded companies to achieve the goal of “one share, different votes,” where ordinary shareholders get one vote per share, while Class B shares held by specific executives or founders can carry more votes per share. This allows them to retain control of the company while attracting more investment.

Wheelock and Company in Hong Kong, for example, uses this A/B share system.

It remained to be seen whether the Chairman would consider selling now that the company was facing a crisis; that was something Lin Haoran would only find out after negotiating with him in the future.

Although Shipley Company had a long history of nearly thirty years, it only officially went public three years ago.

As a result, a large number of founder’s shares still remained.

For instance, the company founder currently held 26% of the shares, firmly securing his position as the largest shareholder. Combined with his majority ownership of Class B shares, his voting power was close to 40%, giving him the most say in the company.

The second-largest shareholder was a local British angel investment financial group, holding 12% of the shares. They tended to invest without getting involved in company decisions, and it was this financial group’s support that had helped the company go public.

The third-largest shareholder and the original fourth-largest shareholder were both co-founders, each holding 10% of the shares. However, the original fourth-largest shareholder chose to cash out and exit after the IPO, transferring his shares to President Liu. Consequently, President Liu now held the position of the fourth-largest shareholder.

These four were the core shareholders of Shipley Logistics Company.

Through the materials obtained from the investigation firm, Lin Haoran discovered that the angel investment financial group was actually looking for a buyer for its shares.

The reason was their lack of confidence in competing head-on with Squid Capital, the powerful capital behind the DHL Group.

After all, Squid Capital’s power was not to be underestimated; even the United States couldn’t escape its control.

The investigation materials further revealed that the head of the financial group had already contacted several potential buyers, but no deal had been reached because the offered acquisition prices were too low.

Therefore, if all went well, he should be able to get his hands on the second-largest shareholder’s equity.

After completing his investigation, Lin Haoran made a decision: he would take control of half the company’s equity, but before that, he needed to secure at least over 40%.

On the morning of August 19th, Lin Haoran appeared in the office of the branch manager at Citibank’s London branch.

His purpose this time was to commission Citibank’s securities division to accumulate shares of Shipley Company.

He wanted to take advantage of the prevailing pessimism to increase his shareholding to over 40%, thereby surpassing the founder’s voting power and ultimately taking control of the company.

His relationship with Citibank was quite good.

While making the request, Lin Haoran placed a call to Mr. Walter Wriston of Citibank in New York, right in front of the London branch manager.

As a result, the branch manager’s attitude toward Lin Haoran changed dramatically, becoming exceedingly respectful.

Lin Haoran’s goal was crystal clear: he wanted Citibank’s securities team to secretly acquire as many shares as possible, both to avoid detection and to prevent driving up the stock price.

For Lin Haoran, acquiring Shipley Company, with a total market capitalization of only fifty million British pounds, was not a difficult task.

He had previously borrowed two billion Hong Kong dollars from HSBC, so his funds were more than sufficient.

Moreover, the Chairman of Shipley Company had taken the initiative to propose financing, which undoubtedly made things more convenient for Lin Haoran.

However, the Chairman would likely never have dreamed that this financing partnership was, in reality, letting the wolf into the sheepfold.

After settling this matter, Lin Haoran felt at ease.

He decided he would take control of the company before returning home.

And he planned to stay in Britain for a little over half a month at most.

So, time was somewhat tight.

After leaving Citibank’s London branch, Lin Haoran called President Liu.

The call connected quickly.

“Uncle Liu, it’s Haoran,” Lin Haoran introduced himself with a smile.

“Haoran! How are you coming along with your consideration of the financing matter?” President Liu asked impatiently before Lin Haoran could even bring it up.

“Uncle Liu, after two days of consideration, I’ve made my decision. I agree to the financing terms. But as you know, I can’t stay in Britain for too long, so I hope you can move forward with the financing as soon as possible. I can’t wait for long,” Lin Haoran replied directly.

“That’s wonderful! I’ll bring this up with Shipley Company’s Chairman right away. I guarantee we’ll have it settled within three days!” President Liu said, overjoyed.

For President Liu, Lin Haoran’s ten-million-pound capital investment meant that Shipley Company would have the funds to compete with the newcomer, DHL Group. They would have nothing to worry about for at least a year.

With that, the stock price would naturally rise.

“Alright, thank you for your trouble, Uncle Liu.” Lin Haoran said before hanging up.

As for the second-largest shareholder, he wasn’t in a hurry to contact them. He planned to wait until he became a shareholder in Shipley Company himself before approaching them secretly.

By doing so, he could increase his equity to over 40% as quickly as possible, allowing his voting power to surpass the founder’s and giving him complete control over the company.

Three days later, Lin Haoran was in a 15-story office building on London’s South Bank. Through the glass window behind him, a massive logistics warehouse was visible, with large trucks busily coming and going.

In front of them were reporters from more than a dozen major British media outlets.

This was the headquarters of Shipley Company.

At that moment, Lin Haoran was seated on the dais.

Beside him sat four other people.

These four, including President Liu, were Shipley Company’s four major shareholders.

But from this day forward, Shipley Company would have five major shareholders.

“We are holding this press conference today to announce a momentous piece of news: Shipley Logistics Company is about to welcome a new shareholder—Mr. Lin Haoran from Hong Kong. Mr. Lin Haoran will invest ten million British pounds in this round of financing, and after the company issues new shares, he will hold 20% of the company’s equity.

“At the same time, to effectively counter the malicious competition from our rivals, we have decided to invest this entire ten million pounds into our operations. Starting tomorrow, our logistics and delivery fees will be offered at a 50% discount. We are prepared to operate at a loss to contend with our competitors until they cease their malicious practices.

“Here, I also solemnly declare that Shipley Logistics Company will not be intimidated by any form of malicious competition!” the Chairman, Beau Stevens, announced with great passion.

With the funds secured, the Chairman’s confidence had clearly grown, and he was eager to reclaim lost market share.

Although the price after the 50% discount was still slightly higher than DHL Group’s, Shipley Logistics Company had its own unique advantages, such as a more established network of locations and faster delivery speeds.

Therefore, he was full of confidence for the year ahead!

His words immediately caused a huge stir among the reporters present.

Originally, the market had widely predicted that Britain’s logistics market would settle into a three-way rivalry, with Shipley Logistics Company likely to slip from second to third place due to the aggressive entry of DHL Group.

However, Shipley Logistics Company was now showing astonishing determination, vowing to go head-to-head with DHL Group!

The next morning, the news spread rapidly through newspapers and television broadcasts, sweeping across all of Britain.

At the same time, the name Lin Haoran entered the public consciousness of many British people for the first time.

In the past, news of him taking control of companies like Hongkong Electric Group and Hong Kong and China Gas Company had occasionally appeared in the British media, but it hadn’t garnered much attention. After all, those were Hong Kong companies, not local British enterprises.

This time, however, was completely different. It involved a highly renowned British company, and Lin Haoran had not only become its second-largest shareholder but also a key figure in its future, naturally attracting a great deal of attention.

Through the financing, Lin Haoran successfully acquired a 20% stake in Shipley Company, becoming the logistics company’s second-largest shareholder.

The original largest shareholder’s stake was diluted from 26% to 20.8%, but he remained the largest shareholder; the former second-largest shareholder moved down to the third position, with their stake decreasing from 12% to 9.6%; meanwhile, the original third- and fourth-largest shareholders saw their 10% stakes reduced to 8% respectively.

This news also caught the attention of shareholders, and on that day, Shipley Logistics Company’s stock price soared by 8%.

Meanwhile, Citibank’s securities division, acting on Lin Haoran’s behalf, seized this opportunity to increase his holdings by another 3.8%.

Although the stock price had risen, Lin Haoran didn’t really care.

On the contrary, he used the trading frenzy to covertly become Shipley Logistics Company’s largest shareholder.

Next, his target was the head of the financial group.

If he could persuade him, their 9.6% stake would become his.

With that, his total shareholding would be getting ever closer to exceeding 40%.

Chapter 291: Taking 49.9% of the Equity in One Week!

As expected, when Shipley Company announced a price drop of fifty percent, its business volume saw a significant increase the very next day.

Although everyone knew this was a loss-making strategy, there was no other choice.

If they didn’t take a loss now, the market would be completely dominated by their competitor, and winning it back would be incredibly difficult.

Therefore, the Chairman of Shipley Logistics Company was, in fact, a man of great resolve.

…

The City of London, Yongsheng Building.

President Liu sat in his office, watching London’s financial news channel on the television opposite him. A report on the rise of Shipley Logistics Company’s stock price was playing, and a satisfied smile spread across his face.

If Shipley Company didn’t raise financing or invest more money, its market share would only continue to shrink, and even its loyal customers might eventually switch to the competition.

After all, sentiment doesn’t pay the bills.

If DHL Group’s logistics prices remained low while Shipley Company’s stayed at the normal rate, even the most loyal customers would start to feel resentful over time and eventually leave.

Thus, President Liu’s biggest fear was that if things continued this way, the company’s stock price would keep falling, and his shares would become increasingly worthless.

Yet, he was unwilling to provide the financing himself.

Now, after bringing in the young Lin Haoran, not only had the stock price stopped plummeting, but it had actually surged. How could he not be pleased?

Although the company was destined to have no dividend this year, he didn’t care.

As long as the stock price didn’t fall too disastrously, that was enough. With stocks, as long as the share price held, he could cash out at any time.

President Liu did indeed have ulterior motives in letting Lin Haoran invest.

However, he never intended to harm him. After all, with the new capital injection, the company now had the courage to compete head-on with the newcomer, DHL Group.

But, in the beginning, President Liu had not held out much hope.

To his surprise, the young Lin Haoran had actually agreed.

“Once the stock price rises, I need to consider selling as soon as possible. The logistics industry has too many uncertainties. This time it’s DHL Group; who knows which group will enter the market next time,” President Liu muttered to himself as he watched the screen.

In his view, a traditional industry like logistics was slow to generate profit and carried high risks. It couldn’t compare to the finance or real estate sectors.

…

While President Liu was contemplating his next move, Lin Haoran was already in the private room of a quiet coffee shop.

Across from him sat the former second-largest shareholder, the head of a financial group with some, but not extensive, power—a Mr. Erwin.

The Scotsman was currently more curious than surprised by Lin Haoran’s invitation.

On the day of the press conference, Lin Haoran had obtained the contact information of several shareholders, including Mr. Erwin.

Thus, on the third day after becoming a shareholder of Shipley Company, Lin Haoran privately invited the head of the financial group for a meeting.

“Mr. Lin, I wonder what you’ve asked me here to discuss?” Erwin asked directly.

As far as he was concerned, he and Lin Haoran were not familiar with each other, so he had no intention of beating around the bush.

“Mr. Erwin, I hear you have plans to sell your shares in Shipley Company, is that correct?” Since the other party was being direct, Lin Haoran had no intention of being circuitous either.

“Mr. Lin wants to purchase the shares I hold?” A look of astonishment covered Erwin’s face.

This was indeed unexpected. He never thought this young man had sought him out to buy his shares.

“That’s right. I heard it from Mr. Liu. Mr. Liu is one of my elders, and he told me that you’ve been looking for a buyer for some time, but a deal was never finalized. If you’re willing to sell, I have an interest in taking them off your hands. Of course, if you’re not willing, we can forget about it. I won’t force you,” Lin Haoran said with a faint smile.

He naturally wouldn’t tell Erwin that he had investigated him. Bringing up President Liu was an excellent excuse.

The matter was very sudden for Erwin, who was completely unprepared.

He couldn’t help but frown. After taking a sip of coffee, he spoke again, “Mr. Lin, I wonder what price you are offering.”

“Five million British pounds for all the shares you hold!” Lin Haoran stated his price directly.

This price was not much different from the current market value.

Although the stock price had risen, the shares Erwin held no longer constituted the original twelve percent.

Five million British pounds might not sound like a huge sum, but converted to Hong Kong dollars, it was over fifty million.

Therefore, for this financial group head of moderate influence, it was already a substantial amount of capital.

“Someone offered me five million British pounds before, and I didn’t sell. If that’s all you’re offering, Mr. Lin, then let’s forget it. If you wish to purchase them, the price will have to be at least eight million British pounds,” the other man said, shaking his head.

“Mr. Erwin, you should think this over carefully. Although the stock price appears to be rising now, it’s just a temporary hype. As a seasoned investor, I believe you are well aware that even with temporary funds to compete with DHL Group, it means the company will have to operate at a loss for the foreseeable future.

“Even if it holds on for a year, what then? No one knows what the situation will be in a year. Are you so sure DHL Group will just give up? The people controlling them are from Squid Capital!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Squid Capital of this era was not as fearsome as it would be decades later, but it was still far beyond what someone like Erwin could contend with.

It was precisely for this reason that he wanted to divest.

“Since you’re aware of the reasons, Mr. Lin, why were you willing to invest in the company, and why do you want to purchase my equity?” Erwin retorted.

From the moment Lin Haoran expressed his desire to acquire the shares, he had realized Lin Haoran’s intention was to seize control of Shipley Company.

“It’s simple. I have the confidence to handle their aggressive competition. Mr. Erwin, you must have some idea of my situation in Hong Kong by now, right? I have the financial strength. I’m not afraid, even if Squid Capital is behind them. But the prerequisite is that I control Shipley Company.

“If I take control of Shipley Company, I will continue to invest in it. If even you won’t sell your equity to me, I naturally cannot proceed with the next phase of my plan,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Seven million British pounds. Not a penny less!” Erwin said after a moment of silence.

Lin Haoran shook his head and said, “How about this: six million British pounds. If you agree, the deal is done. This price is already considerably higher than the market value. I don’t have much time to spend in Britain; I need to return to Hong Kong soon. If you don’t agree, then we’ll have to let the matter drop. When Shipley Company’s stock price falls again in the future, I’ll re-enter the market.

“My advantage is my youth. I’m not in a hurry to enter the British market. I only agreed to finance Shipley Company this time because my Uncle Liu persuaded me. How about this? I’ll give you a day to go back and think it over. What do you say? Of course, I hope you won’t mention this to Mr. Theo Stevens, or this transaction will not be able to proceed.”

He knew that Mr. Erwin had nearly sold his shares for five million British pounds before, but after hesitating for a few days, the potential buyer had given up on the investment.

The reason he dared to make an exorbitant demand this time was simply because the stock price had stabilized after Lin Haoran’s financing came in.

Every one million British pounds represented over ten million Hong Kong dollars. Lin Haoran had no intention of being a sucker. Six million British pounds was already a generous offer.

“Mr. Lin, for six million British pounds, I can sell them to you. We can even sign the contract today. How about it?” Unexpectedly, just as Lin Haoran gave him time to consider, the other party agreed immediately.

Erwin was reminded of his previous hesitation, which had led to the deal falling through. He had regretted it for some time afterward.

This time, the sale price was higher, and he knew he had to be content. If he missed this opportunity, he might not find another one.

Just as Lin Haoran had said, he was extremely wary of Squid Capital, the force behind DHL Group.

In his opinion, no matter how well-funded Lin Haoran was, he was just a lucky young man with no real power to clash head-on with Squid Capital.

Therefore, taking this opportunity to divest and run was the best choice.

“Excellent. Mr. Erwin is indeed straightforward. Let’s get it done today. Once we do, the funds will be transferred directly to your account!” Lin Haoran said with a satisfied smile.

It was for the best that Erwin agreed. This way, a voting power surpassing the company’s chairman was just around the corner!

That same day, Lin Haoran went to Erwin’s office and signed the share transfer agreement with him, acquiring another 9.6% of the company’s shares.

Meanwhile, over the past three days, Citibank’s securities division had accumulated a full 7.8% of the shares from the stock market on Lin Haoran’s behalf.

Due to the recent market hype surrounding Shipley Company, such a large volume of transactions went completely unnoticed.

In just four days, the stake he held in Shipley Company had reached a staggering 37.4%!

Furthermore, after signing the contract, Erwin agreed to keep the transaction confidential for one month.

For Lin Haoran, one month was more than enough time.

In fact, he wouldn’t even need that long.

Two days later, Lin Haoran’s stake in Shipley Company officially exceeded forty percent, reaching 40.9%.

If he were to acquire the equity held by President Liu at this point, the chairman would basically have no power left to contend with him for the controlling stake.

However, Lin Haoran ultimately chose not to approach President Liu to buy his shares. Instead, he sought out another shareholder.

In the end, Lin Haoran spent another five million British pounds to acquire an 8% stake from another shareholder.

With sufficient funds and the company’s poor condition, seizing control of its shares was indeed not difficult.

The day after, Lin Haoran had Citibank’s securities division accumulate another one percent or so of the shares and then stopped the commissioned trading. For him, he now had enough shares.

Chapter 292: I Hope You Will Voluntarily Give Up the Chairman’s Position

After successfully acquiring 49.9% of Shipley Company’s shares, Lin Haoran made a point of calculating all his expenses. The financing cost was ten million British pounds, the payment to the two shareholders reached eleven million British pounds, and the shares acquired on the stock market, including transaction fees, cost approximately six point eight million British pounds.

In other words, to secure this 49.9% stake, Lin Haoran had spent twenty-seven point eight million British pounds in just one week, equivalent to three hundred and twenty million Hong Kong dollars.

To gain control of a renowned British listed company, whose market capitalization had exceeded one point one billion Hong Kong dollars just six months ago, for just over three hundred million Hong Kong dollars was, in his view, a very worthwhile investment.

However, merely acquiring 49.9% of the equity wasn’t enough. The next step was to take control of Shipley Company and then figure out how to contend with its competitors.

Of course, he already had a plan in mind when he decided to take over Shipley Company.

So, at nine in the morning on August 27th, Lin Haoran appeared at the Shipley Company headquarters on London’s South Bank.

Not only that, but Tang Kun had also come with him.

It was only after securing the 49.9% stake that Lin Haoran had informed Uncle Tang about the matter.

After listening to Lin Haoran’s detailed explanation, Tang Kun was shocked, but he also knew that the facts could not be changed.

Moreover, this was Lin Haoran’s own decision. At most, he only had the right to persuade, not to stop him.

Upon learning that Lin Haoran intended to seize power at Shipley Company today, Tang Kun not only insisted on coming along but also called President Liu, fearing that his junior, Lin Haoran, might be put at a disadvantage.

Lin Haoran was naturally more than happy to have them.

After all, both President Liu and Tang Kun were old-timers who had been navigating London for twenty or thirty years. They were local powerhouses, in a sense. Having them as backup was indeed much better than Lin Haoran going it alone.

Compared to Tang Kun, President Liu was even more astonished by how Lin Haoran had quietly acquired 49.9% of the shares in just a few days.

After all, he had originally only wanted to bring Lin Haoran in so that Shipley Company would have enough capital to withstand the vicious competition from DHL Group.

He never expected the man’s ambitions to be so great that he would secretly acquire half of the company’s shares.

“Haoran, with you doing this, I don’t know how I’m going to face Mr. Beau Stevens. We have a decent relationship. By bringing you in, I’ve ended up hurting him!” President Liu said with a wry smile.

President Liu had initially taken on shares in Shipley Company as a favor to Beau Stevens.

Now, with Lin Haoran’s maneuver, wasn’t it equivalent to letting the wolf into the sheepfold?

And he was the one who had introduced Lin Haoran.

Beau Stevens would surely blame him now.

So, President Liu could only offer a wry smile.

“Uncle Liu, if I hadn’t invested, how could Shipley Company have possibly contended with DHL Group? In fact, if each of you few shareholders had been willing to invest another two or three million British pounds, you wouldn’t have needed me, a new shareholder, to raise capital.

“But since none of you were willing to increase your investment, doesn’t that imply that you yourselves lack confidence in the company’s prospects? I was able to easily purchase shares from the other two shareholders, which speaks volumes. Since you aren’t so optimistic about the company’s future, why not let me try my hand at being in charge of it?” Lin Haoran said with a faint smile.

He might not be familiar with the specific operations of the logistics industry—one could even call him an outsider—but Lin Haoran’s confidence stemmed from his vast financial resources.

For these shareholders of Shipley Company, tens of millions of British pounds was undoubtedly a colossal sum.

For Lin Haoran, however, it was a piece of cake. Even though his current cash flow was partly from a loan, his confidence in his ability to repay it with ease was unshaken.

At present, the biggest challenge facing Shipley Company was merely a competitor engaged in malicious competition.

But once Lin Haoran took over, he had the confidence and resources to ensure DHL Group’s malicious competition would fail.

Lin Haoran had heard of this DHL Group. Abbreviated as DHL, it would one day become one of the top three international logistics companies in the world, on par with FedEx from the United States.

But the DHL Group of today was not the formidable enterprise it would become in the future; it was still in its development phase.

Lin Haoran was naturally not afraid of a company that had yet to fully mature.

Besides, Shipley Company had too many advantages.

DHL Group’s competitive edge was merely its price war tactics.

The previous Shipley Company would naturally have been beaten into retreat by DHL Group.

But now that Shipley Company had sufficient funds to engage in a price war of its own, DHL Groud’s advantage was completely gone.

Moreover, Lin Haoran had already made a decision. Once he took control of Shipley Company, he would launch a counter-attack against DHL Group.

Why should DHL Group be allowed to bully Shipley Company on its own turf without Shipley being able to fight back?

The three of them soon arrived on the 12th floor of the Shipley Company headquarters building, the floor where the Chairman’s office was located.

“Ah, Mr. Liu, Mr. Lin, you’re here! I have some good news for you. Since we lowered our prices, our market share has been steadily increasing. In just one week, our daily order volume has returned to what it was six months ago. As for DHL Group, their market share has been continuously declining since we announced our decision,” Shipley Company’s founder and chairman, Beau Stevens, said excitedly as soon as he saw Lin Haoran and the others.

At this moment, Beau Stevens had not yet realized that his position as chairman was about to be lost.

Shipley Company already had a strong reputation in Britain. Having been in operation for several decades as a local enterprise, it was natural that when prices were no longer a disadvantage, the local people would be more willing to support a local business.

Supporting domestic brands was a common sentiment in any country.

The British people had their pride as well.

They were still basking in the glory of the empire on which the sun never sets.

Therefore, it was quite normal for Shipley Company to recapture the market in such a short time.

However, the reality was that the larger the market share, the greater the losses.

They were basically operating at a loss right now, with the sole purpose of reclaiming market share.

It all depended on how long DHL Group was willing to play this game with them.

Furthermore, Lin Haoran felt that a company like DHL Group, which would become one of the world’s top three logistics companies, was unlikely to give up so easily.

Britain was, after all, one of the most important markets in Europe. How could they possibly abandon it?

“Mr. Beau Stevens, I came here to discuss something with you,” Lin Haoran replied directly.

President Liu remained silent. He didn’t even smile upon hearing Beau Stevens’ good news, but instead kept quiet.

He could already guess how Mr. Beau Stevens would react after learning Lin Haoran’s purpose.

Seeing that the atmosphere was not what he had expected, Beau Stevens’ smile faded. He suddenly had a bad feeling.

The office door was already closed. At this moment, there were only four people in the room.

“What is it, Mr. Lin? Please speak,” Beau Stevens asked after the four of them sat down.

“Over the past week, I have successfully acquired 49.9% of the company’s shares. Therefore, the purpose of my visit is to express my hope that you, Mr. Beau Stevens, will voluntarily give up the chairman’s position.

“As the controlling shareholder, I plan to convene a Board of Directors meeting to discuss and decide on my appointment as the new chairman. To avoid catching you by surprise, Mr. Beau Stevens, I am giving you this advance notice,” Lin Haoran said, getting straight to the point and stating his intentions clearly.

Upon hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Beau Stevens looked as if he had been struck by lightning, his eyes widening in disbelief.

“Impossible! Mr. Lin, how could you possibly hold 49.9% of the company’s shares?” Beau Stevens retorted incredulously.

Although Beau Stevens currently held only 20.8% of Shipley Company’s shares, thanks to the A/B share system, his voting power was actually 40%.

However, faced with Lin Haoran’s direct holding of 49.9% of the shares, even with 40% voting power, Beau Stevens was now powerless, with no way to counter.

“Mr. Beau Stevens, I have no reason to deceive you. Mr. Erwin and Mr. David have both sold their shares to me. In addition, I acquired another portion of shares on the stock market. With sufficient funds, do you really think it would be difficult for me to hold 49.9% of the company’s shares?

“To be honest with you, I own several listed companies in Hong Kong, each with a market capitalization that surpasses Shipley Company’s. In particular, Hongkong Electric Group’s market capitalization is approaching five hundred million British pounds. Therefore, acquiring Shipley Company was not much of a challenge for me.”

Lin Haoran’s words completely shattered the last shred of doubt in Beau Stevens’ heart.

Suddenly, as if grasping at a final straw, Beau Stevens turned anxiously to President Liu. “Mr. Liu, based on our years of friendship, you’ll stand by me and support me, right?”

President Liu held 8% of the company’s shares, meaning his support would increase Beau Stevens’ voting power by a corresponding 8%.

Although it still wouldn’t be enough to contend with Lin Haoran, he firmly believed that with the added influence of his status as the founder, if he didn’t voluntarily resign as chairman, Lin Haoran might not be able to replace him so easily.

In those few short minutes, Beau Stevens’ emotions had gone through a violent swing, plummeting from his earlier joy and confidence into a cold abyss.

However, this matter was destined to disappoint Beau Stevens.

President Liu sighed. In today’s matter, he was truly caught between a rock and a hard place. It was a difficult position to be in.

But Lin Haoran had already spoken with him on the way here.

So he knew that even if he supported Beau Stevens, it would be useless against Lin Haoran’s abundant capital.

Chapter 293: Now That It’s Come to This, What Choice Do I Have?

After several days of increases, Shipley Company’s market capitalization had risen to around seventy million British pounds. Although still a ways off from its former glory of over one hundred million pounds, the actions of the shareholders showed that everyone was still very confident in the company after it had announced its countermeasures.

Therefore, for the past week, Shipley Company’s Chairman, Beau Stevens, had been ecstatic. Watching the company’s order volume rise steadily each day filled him with energy.

This company was his life’s work. For this reason, he had remained unmoved even when Royal Mail wanted to acquire it.

But now, facing the imminent loss of control, his mind was in turmoil, and he had no idea what to do.

President Liu’s words were the final straw.

President Liu had made it very clear that he would not support him.

In other words, it was now impossible for him to get President Liu’s backing.

At this moment, Beau Stevens felt like a walking corpse, his mind a complete blank, unsure of what to do.

After a moment, he finally calmed down.

“Mr. Lin, Shipley Company is my life’s work. If I voluntarily resign as Chairman, what are your plans for the company’s next steps?” Beau Stevens asked calmly.

After all, he had been the boss for decades. Even if he was hit hard in the moment, he could quickly calm down and think rationally.

It was clear that Lin Haoran taking control of Shipley Company was inevitable, unless he poured funds in to compete with Lin Haoran at any cost, accumulating shares from the stock market.

But that would be completely meaningless. With a formidable enemy outside the company, if such internal competition were to erupt, Shipley Company would not be far from collapse.

As the founder, Beau Stevens was naturally unwilling to watch Shipley Company disappear.

So, after learning that the other party held nearly fifty percent of the shares, and especially with President Liu not supporting him, Beau Stevens had completely given up any intention of fighting him.

“My initial decision is that once I formally become the company’s Chairman, the next step is to push Shipley Company deeper into the West German market.”

“My strategy will be to borrow from the DHL Group’s playbook, initially using a price war as a breakthrough. However, given the West German government’s different attitude compared to Britain’s, we can’t just enter with extremely low prices.”

“But we still have advantages. For example, we can offer prices slightly lower than the DHL Group or launch special promotions like ‘buy one, get one free’ to attract customers. Of course, these specific measures will have to be decided after the company gains a deeper understanding of the West German business environment.”

“In short, since the DHL Group is waging a price war with us in Britain, we’ll take the fight to their home turf—West Germany—and start a price war of our own!”

“From what I know, Shipley Company has already dabbled in the West German market, but its share is small. As long as we increase our investment, we are fully capable of capturing a larger share of the West German market and striking at the heart of the DHL Group’s base of operations.”

“This is both a response to the DHL Group and a way to display our strength. Even if we don’t succeed completely, we’ll make them back off in Britain and remember that this is our territory. I refuse to believe the DHL Group can act this arrogantly on our home court forever!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Now that he had acquired Shipley Company, it naturally had to do better on the path of internationalization. If it were just to operate within Britain’s own little patch, there would have been no need for Lin Haoran to acquire the company.

Lin Haoran’s words made Beau Stevens’s eyes light up, but he immediately grew worried. “Mr. Lin, the ten million British pounds currently in our account can’t sustain losses for a long time.”

“If we continue to operate at a loss, whether in Britain or West Germany, once that money is gone, the company’s capital chain will be strained.”

“In the British market, we might be able to last for nearly a year. But if we adopt the same strategy in West Germany, I’m afraid the funds will only last for half a year. This is a problem that needs to be considered carefully.”

At this moment, after confirming that he could no longer compete with Lin Haoran for the chairman position, Beau Stevens quickly adjusted his mentality. As the company’s second-in-command, he began to seriously examine the challenges and risks before them.

After all, he couldn’t just wash his hands of Shipley Company simply because he lost the chairmanship.

Not only did he found this company, but he had also run it for nearly thirty years to bring it to its current scale.

Moreover, even if he lost the chairman’s position, the shares he held and his forty percent voting rights still made him an important member of the company. His rights in Shipley Company would not be completely lost just because Lin Haoran was taking control.

From Beau Stevens’s words, Lin Haoran knew that the company’s founder had yielded.

But he had no choice but to yield, given that Lin Haoran held half of the shares.

“Although the DHL Group is backed by the Squid Capital financial group, I’ve already investigated their strength. They’re strong, but not unbeatable. They can’t compare at all to the hesitant capital financial groups in the United States.”

“So you don’t need to worry too much about how long they can last. They have money, but they can’t keep burning it forever. They’ll either have to change their strategy against us or seek a private settlement. I believe they didn’t enter the British market just to perish with us,” Lin Haoran analyzed with a smile.

He had learned from that international investigation company that the force behind the DHL Group indeed had significant influence here in Europe, even able to penetrate the British Parliament.

But that power had its limits and was still within a range he could counter, which was why Lin Haoran was this confident.

Beau Stevens nodded, tacitly accepting Lin Haoran’s proposed strategy.

“Mr. Beau Stevens, how about we hold a board meeting tomorrow? Do you have any objections to me becoming the company’s Chairman? If not, then it’s settled. I still have great respect for you, Mr. Beau Stevens. Even if I become Chairman, I will support you in becoming the company’s Vice Chairman and CEO,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

In truth, Beau Stevens was the soul of Shipley Company. So even after taking control, Lin Haoran couldn’t just kick him out before establishing his own influence in Britain.

Therefore, keeping Beau Stevens in the company was a necessity.

In the future, once he had a certain level of influence in Europe, it wouldn’t be difficult to oust the founder if he really wanted to. There were plenty of ways.

“Now that it’s come to this, what choice do I have?” Beau Stevens said with a wry smile.

In fact, the company itself only had five board members: the original four shareholders plus a professional manager, who was the company’s general manager.

After Lin Haoran joined the company through financing, he naturally became a board member as well.

But the other two shareholders had already sold their shares, so they could no longer serve as board members. This meant that, starting today, Shipley Company effectively only had four board members left.

And here, three of them were already gathered: Beau Stevens, Lin Haoran, and President Liu.

As for the general manager, he was also at the company and could be summoned at any time.

So, a Shipley Company board meeting could be held anytime, unlike the more complicated procedures at places like HSBC or Jardine Matheson & Co.

“In that case, it’s settled. We’ll hold a board meeting at the company tomorrow and then announce the matter publicly. How does that sound?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Fine. You call the shots. I have no objections,” Beau Stevens said with a nod.

After learning that Lin Haoran would continue to support him as the company’s CEO, the resentment in Beau Stevens’s heart lessened considerably.

After all, the CEO was the true manager of the company.

“Then I’ll have to ask Mr. Beau Stevens to make the arrangements. Let’s say ten o’clock tomorrow morning. We’ll see each other then!” Lin Haoran continued.

“Alright, I’ll arrange it!”

After leaving the Chairman’s office, Lin Haoran didn’t rush to leave the company. Instead, he took a tour.

Although he had officially become a shareholder a week ago, he hadn’t actually been back since. This was only his second time at the company headquarters.

President Liu acted as a guide, introducing the various departments to Lin Haoran.

Watching more than twenty large tractor-trailers being loaded with goods in the large platform parking area in front of the warehouse, and seeing the busy figures inside, Lin Haoran felt very satisfied.

And this was just one warehouse in London. In fact, throughout Britain, Shipley Company had over twenty warehouses of various sizes, and even more than a dozen overseas.

If he used this company as a foundation to expand, Shipley Company might one day become a world-renowned logistics company.

The current Shipley Company already had a solid foundation. With a bit more development, it could certainly become one of the logistics giants in the future. It wasn’t impossible for it to become a logistics titan like Maersk.

And all this had only cost a few tens of millions of British pounds. It was more than worth it.

As long as their competitor, the DHL Group, stopped its vicious competition, with Lin Haoran’s subsequent support, Shipley Company would surely be able to develop rapidly.

Not to mention other places, Shipley would definitely be able to secure a significant market share in at least Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.

Therefore, the future potential of this company was absolutely massive.

After inspecting the various departments, Lin Haoran got into a car with President Liu and Tang Kun, preparing to head back to Tang Lou.

“Uncle Liu, I’m guessing you were planning to sell your shares once the company’s market capitalization went up, weren’t you?” Lin Haoran suddenly asked President Liu, who was sitting in the back seat.

President Liu looked a bit awkward. He did indeed have such an idea.

Just like the other two original shareholders, he had lost faith in Shipley Company’s future prospects after the DHL Group entered the British market.

Chapter 294: Taking Control of Shipley, Declaring War on the DHL Group!

Lin Haoran’s words sent President Liu into a brief period of deep thought, but he didn’t continue the conversation on that topic.

Back at Tang Lou, the three of them continued to drink tea and chat.

Time flew by. Lin Haoran had left Hong Kong on August 8th, and it was now already August 27th.

This meant he had been in Britain for nearly twenty days.

However, Lin Haoran was in no hurry to return.

Guo Xiaohan, on the other hand, had left London three days prior and returned to Hong Kong.

After all, Guo Xiaohan couldn’t stay here forever. She had her own work back in Hong Kong, and once she finished handling the Guo family’s cooperative projects in Britain, it was naturally time for her to go back.

Guo Xiaohan left with a hint of regret, as she and Lin Haoran had not broken through that final barrier.

Even so, their relationship had reached a very ambiguous stage—not quite lovers, but more intimate than most.

In the blink of an eye, another day passed.

Beau Stevens, having resigned himself to his fate, had completely abandoned the idea of fighting to reclaim his position as the major shareholder. He knew he didn’t have the financial strength to do so.

At ten in the morning, Lin Haoran and President Liu both appeared at the Shipley Company headquarters.

Uncle Tang did not come. Based on Beau Stevens’s attitude the previous day, there was no need for him to come and provide backing for Lin Haoran.

In one of Shipley Company’s meeting rooms, five people were present.

They included Beau Stevens, the company’s Chairman; President Liu; Lin Haoran; the company’s general manager, Mr. Martin; and a secretary to record the meeting minutes.

Although the number of board members was small, as a listed company, they had to go through all the proper procedures and issue a public announcement. The agreement they had reached the day before was not enough on its own.

As expected, the entire board meeting concluded quickly.

In the end, Lin Haoran officially became the company’s Chairman, while Beau Stevens became the Vice Chairman and CEO. The positions of the general manager and President Liu remained unchanged.

From this day forward, Lin Haoran officially took control of Shipley Company, becoming the number one boss of this British logistics giant. It was also the first time he had acquired a company outside of Hong Kong, and the company was of a considerable size.

Although Lin Haoran had also invested in Apple Inc. in the United States, he merely held 10% of the shares there and had no management rights, which was very different from his position in Shipley Company.

After the meeting, several announcements were sent to major British media outlets such as the Financial Times, The Times, and The Daily Telegraph.

Beau Stevens had initially asked if they should hold a press conference to announce the changes in the company.

However, Lin Haoran thought it over and rejected the proposal, feeling it was a bit too ostentatious.

The public announcement would suffice anyway.

Yet, while Lin Haoran wanted to keep a low profile, the media did not grant him his wish.

After the announcements were sent to the newspapers, the following day, several of them reported on the changes in Shipley Company’s senior management.

During this period, Shipley Company was definitely one of the more well-known enterprises in Britain, the reason being Beau Stevens’s bold declaration from a week ago.

His direct stand against the DHL Group had naturally stirred the patriotic sentiments of many British people.

This was also why Shipley Company had been able to return to its business peak in just one week.

The media valued popular topics the most; whatever was trending was what they were willing to report on.

So, upon receiving the announcement distributed by Shipley Company, these newspapers not only placed it on the conspicuous front page but also used exceptionally large headlines, as if afraid people wouldn’t see it.

Thus, Lin Haoran once again entered the British public’s line of sight.

This Chinese man from Hong Kong had only invested capital in Shipley Company a week ago, and now, just one week later, he had directly become the company’s chairman.

Previously, many people had already investigated Lin Haoran’s background.

Everything from his graduation from the University of London to the purpose of his visit to Britain had been thoroughly investigated. Lin Haoran had been invited by the British government and possessed formidable financial backing.

Many people were curious about this young man.

Compared to Squid Capital, it was clear that the British public felt more goodwill toward Lin Haoran.

After all, Lin Haoran was a graduate of a British university. Not only that, but Hong Kong was still a British overseas territory, so he was considered one of their own.

In contrast, the DHL Group was the true outsider.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s takeover of Shipley Company did not provoke much resistance from the British people.

In just one day, Lin Haoran’s fame in Britain had multiplied several times over.

Many who followed the news now knew of Lin Haoran, the new chairman of Shipley Company.

So, as soon as the news of the changes on Shipley Company’s Board of Directors and Lin Haoran’s background was released, Shipley Company’s stock became a hot topic.

In just one morning, Shipley Company’s stock price surged by as much as 22%.

By the afternoon, the company’s total market capitalization had broken through ninety-five million British pounds.

In a single trading day, Shipley Company’s stock price had risen by over thirty percent, bringing its market capitalization close to what it had been more than half a year ago.

The next morning, just ten minutes after the market opened, Shipley Company’s market capitalization directly broke through one hundred million British pounds, returning to its previous all-time peak.

Lin Haoran’s takeover had brought sufficient confidence to the shareholders.

The reason Shipley Company’s stock price had fallen so rapidly before was that the company had no effective countermeasures when facing the DHL Group’s entry into the British market and its aggressive devouring of Shipley’s market share. Moreover, Shipley Company’s chairman, Beau Stevens, had only average financial strength.

This was why shareholders had been pessimistic about Shipley Company’s future.

But now, after Lin Haoran took control, Shipley Company’s future prospects clearly became much brighter.

Under these circumstances, with many shareholders full of confidence in Shipley Company, it was only natural that the stock price would be pushed up.

Most importantly, there were actually not many Shipley Company shares left on the secondary market.

Lin Haoran himself held 49.9% of the shares, Beau Stevens held another 20.8%, and President Liu owned 8%. This left only 21.3% of the shares in circulation.

When so many shareholders were eyeing this stock, a situation where supply is short and demand is high arose. It would have been strange if the stock price didn’t rise rapidly.

This morning, Lin Haoran arrived at the company early to discuss the feasibility of a policy to increase their market share in West Germany with Beau Stevens.

However, the company’s general manager, Mr. Martin, quickly came to find him.

“Mr. Chairman, a reporter from The Times has come to the company. They hope to conduct an exclusive interview with you,” Mr. Martin said directly to Lin Haoran after entering the office.

“The Times? Let them come over!” Lin Haoran thought for a moment and agreed.

This media outlet had significant influence worldwide, so it was best not to offend them. Besides, it was just an exclusive interview.

If he had to face many journalists, he would find it troublesome, but one outlet was fine.

Soon, two reporters from The Times arrived at the Chairman’s office.

“Mr. Beau Stevens, you should stay as well,” Lin Haoran called out when he saw the former chairman about to leave.

“Mr. Lin, this is your personal interview. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to stay,” said Beau Stevens.

“It’s just an interview. You are the soul of this company. My true role is just that of an investor. It would be even more inappropriate if you left. They are clearly here for Shipley Company,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Beau Stevens nodded and turned back to his chair.

Lin Haoran looked at the two reporters who had just entered.

“You came to find me. What did you want to interview me about?” Lin Haoran asked directly.

“Mr. Lin, let’s get straight to the point then. May I ask, what was your purpose in investing in Shipley Company? And why did you ultimately decide to increase your shareholding by so much?” After asking, the reporter held the microphone near Lin Haoran’s mouth.

“It’s simple. I believe Shipley Company is a company with great potential. It has considerable influence among the British public. This trip to Britain has left a deep impression on me, so I’ve decided to shift my future investment focus to Europe, particularly Britain. And it just so happened that a shareholder of Shipley Company invited me to invest in the company, so I did.

After investing, I discovered that Shipley Company had been managed too conservatively in the past. I believe Shipley Company has tremendous potential for internationalization. With the right development, it could become a multinational logistics giant with a presence across continents. Therefore, I decided to increase the level of my investment and directly become the company’s largest shareholder!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“So, what are your plans for Shipley Company moving forward?” the reporter continued to ask.

“Of course, and this is something we were planning to announce next. Currently, we already occupy a significant portion of the logistics market in Britain. Increasing our market share further won’t be easy. Therefore, we’ve decided to set our sights on the path of internationalization. Next, our Shipley Company will focus its investment on West Germany, and France will also be our next target.

In West Germany, we already have a very good foundation, so we will build upon it and increase our investment. In the coming year, we plan to invest over fifty million British pounds in West Germany, France, and other areas to increase our market share in those countries. We are already prepared for initial losses. This is all in preparation for the future!” Lin Haoran continued.

Although they had absolutely no intention of investing fifty million British pounds in West Germany and France, bragging didn’t cost anything. He might as well say it first; it could even intimidate the DHL Group.

In reality, moving into the West German market was merely a tactic of advancing as a form of retreat, aimed at making the DHL Group cease its cash-burning campaign in Britain.

The two reporters exchanged a look, their faces revealing their excitement.

===TRANSLation ENDS===

{“characters”: {“马丁先生”: “Mr. Martin”}, “locations”: {}, “organizations”: {“《金融时报》”: “Financial Times”, “《每日电讯报》”: “The Daily Telegraph”}, “terms_and_jargon”: {“自己人”: “one of our own”, “僧多粥少”: “supply is short and demand is high”, “吹牛不用打草稿”: “bragging doesn’t cost anything”, “以进为退”: “advancing as a form of retreat”, “CEO”: “CEO”}}

Chapter 295: Perhaps We Can Try to Acquire Our Competitor

The interview lasted a mere twenty minutes. The two reporters wanted to ask more, but Lin Haoran declined, explaining that he still had many matters to attend to.

Even so, the two reporters left the office satisfied with the results.

This exclusive interview had been a great success for them!

They could already imagine that once today’s interview was turned into an article, it would undoubtedly attract a great deal of attention.

After all, there was no shortage of people who enjoyed a good spectacle, no matter where you were.

Although Lin Haoran never mentioned DHL Group by name during the interview, every sentence seemed to be aimed directly at them.

After the reporters left, Mr. Theo Stevens said worriedly, “Mr. Lin, you’ve revealed our entire plan. Can we still enter the West German market successfully?”

“Mr. Theo Stevens, you don’t actually think we’re going to burn money in the West German market, do you? Our objective is more about getting DHL Group to negotiate a truce with them and stop this cash-burning war in the British market. We’ve already recovered our market share in Britain. Our next goal isn’t to burn money, but to figure out how to make a profit. Business is always about making money. While the West German market isn’t small, it’s ultimately DHL Group’s home turf. It would be very difficult for us to compete with them there. The reason I proposed this idea was merely to frustrate DHL Group!”

Seeing that Mr. Theo Stevens was genuinely planning to put a great deal of effort into the West German market, Lin Haoran didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

That day, although Shipley Company’s stock price continued to rise, the rate of increase had clearly slowed down compared to the previous day.

By the time the market closed, Shipley Company’s market capitalization had only reached about 110 million British pounds.

“Haoran, your methods are truly formidable. In just a few days, you’ve caused a company’s stock price to more than double!” President Liu exclaimed with emotion.

Lin Haoran had invested a total of 27.8 million British pounds in Shipley Company. Now, based on its market capitalization, his investment had already doubled in value.

However, this was ultimately just the stock market value. If not cashed out, it was just a string of numbers with little real significance.

“This isn’t my doing. It’s just market behavior. I haven’t interfered at all,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“I’m tempted to sell my shares right now, but thinking about what you said, I’ve held back. I also hope that Shipley Company can truly become a multinational logistics giant in the future!” President Liu continued.

President Liu currently held an 8% stake. Given the high activity of Shipley Company’s stock, it wouldn’t be difficult for him to sell his shares on the secondary market.

The company’s stock price had returned to its current level entirely thanks to Lin Haoran, so he was quite satisfied with his decision to bring Lin Haoran into the company.

“My exclusive interview with The Times today will likely be reported tomorrow. The stock price will probably see another surge. If you want to sell, take the opportunity. As for how Shipley Company will fare in the future, no one knows. I can’t guarantee that this company will ultimately become an industry giant,” Lin Haoran said after a moment of thought.

This could be considered him doing President Liu a favor.

This President Liu held great prestige in the Chinese business community. Doing him a favor would certainly be useful in the future.

“Now that you’ve said that, I’m feeling rather conflicted,” President Liu said with a wry smile.

“Then think it over carefully. I already hold 49.9% of the shares and have no intention of increasing my stake further. So, as for how to handle your shares, Uncle Liu, you can decide for yourself,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Hong Kong’s securities laws were, in fact, largely modeled after Britain’s, so they naturally had provisions like mandatory takeover offers.

He had no intention of privatizing Shipley Company, so a 49.9% stake was more than enough.

In the blink of an eye, another day passed.

In the morning, Lin Haoran woke up in his hotel.

Not long after, the pre-arranged room service staff delivered breakfast and newspapers to the living room.

Lin Haoran had been staying at this hotel and had grown accustomed to this daily morning routine.

The only thing he wasn’t used to was perhaps Guo Xiaohan’s departure.

It was indeed a bit strange not having a beautiful woman to look at by his side.

After all, Guo Xiaohan had stayed with him in this suite for half a month, albeit in a separate bedroom.

When Guo Xiaohan was around, they would engage in some playful banter every day, and the days passed by quite leisurely.

After changing his clothes, Lin Haoran sat in the living room, reading the newspaper while eating breakfast.

In his hands was a copy of The Times.

As expected, The Times had placed the article about his exclusive interview in the most prominent section.

Lin Haoran read the article carefully.

He was surprised to find that The Times’s report was even more exaggerated and actively guided its readers to connect the dots to DHL Group.

The most sensational part was the headline: “Business Competition Escalates, Lin Haoran Declares War on DHL Group!”

“This media… they’re really all the same,” Lin Haoran muttered to himself.

However, it was still within his range of acceptance.

He was rather curious to see how DHL Group would react.

Meanwhile, in a skyscraper of over forty floors near the financial district in London, more than a dozen people were gathered in a conference room, holding a meeting.

The man seated at the head of the table was the big shot behind DHL Group, a decision-maker from Squid Capital!

The power of Squid Capital was by no means insignificant among European financial groups. They controlled several companies that were major enterprises in Europe, and their wealth ranked among the top even on the continent.

They were also DHL Group’s largest shareholder.

It was for this reason that DHL Group was so ambitious, hoping to expand their market to the rest of the world as quickly as possible, which naturally included an important market like Britain.

Influenced by the news about Shipley Company, many senior executives, including the largest shareholder behind DHL Group, had come directly to Britain.

They had already invested tens of millions of British pounds in Britain; they certainly couldn’t just give up on this market.

But now, watching the market they were devouring get taken back by their rival bit by bit, it was clear that continuing this price war was pointless.

Compared to Shipley Company, DHL Group’s market capitalization was obviously much larger.

More than a decade ago, not long after DHL Group was founded, with the backing of capital, they quickly went public in London, New York, and Paris.

To this day, after just over a decade of development, DHL Group’s total market capitalization had already exceeded five hundred million British pounds, several times that of Shipley Company.

Their internationalization was clearly superior to Shipley Company’s, and the data in their annually published financial reports showed that their revenue was also several times greater.

“Everyone, you’ve all seen the papers, haven’t you? Shipley Company has said they want to enter our headquarters’ country, West Germany, and compete with us to the very end. This Mr. Lin Haoran’s financial resources are no less than ours. If this continues, it will only lead to a mutually destructive outcome. What are your thoughts?” The person in charge from the Squid financial group asked, looking at the dozen or so people present.

“Mr. Altair, in my opinion, we should have a proper talk with Shipley Company. We don’t want a mutually destructive outcome, and I’m sure they don’t either,” said a senior executive from DHL Group on the left.

“Mr. Carlisle is right. There’s little point in us continuing to compete with low prices in Britain. We haven’t been without gains over the past six months here. Although Shipley Company has won back a lot of the market, many local logistics companies have gone bankrupt, and we’ve taken over much of their market share. That’s a gain in itself. In fact, just by reading the article, we can tell that the reason this Mr. Lin wants to enter the West German market is simply to pressure us,” another senior executive added.

“If you ask me, let’s just find someone to secretly take out this Mr. Lin Haoran. Once he’s dead, Shipley Company will naturally lack the energy to compete with us!” a more radical subordinate proposed.

“You think getting rid of him is that simple? I had my people look into it. During his time in Britain, not only does he have two bodyguards with him at all times, but even the British government has assigned him a highly capable bodyguard to serve as his driver and for security. The hotel where they are staying has excellent security measures, and he rarely makes public appearances,” another senior executive countered.

“I also think their move into the West German market is likely a smokescreen. Although we didn’t achieve our goal in entering the British market this time, the results are still decent. If we manage our operations well, our DHL Group is destined to become an important logistics company in the British market.”

…

Everyone discussed amongst themselves.

The article published by The Times had indeed forced them to come up with a countermeasure.

In the six months since entering the British market, DHL Group had continuously burned through money. The original goal was to surpass Shipley Company and become the second-largest logistics company in Britain after Royal Mail.

Unexpectedly, just as everything was proceeding, Shipley Company had somehow found the strength to fight back.

“Mr. Altair, everyone, I have a proposal. We might want to consider this. Perhaps we can try to acquire Shipley Company. Although Shipley’s current market capitalization is not low, they are indeed worth that value. They have many loyal customers in Britain who, even under our low-price strategy, persisted in using Shipley Company.

“Therefore, this company’s foundation in Britain is truly strong. If we can acquire Shipley Company and use it to absorb the British market, we naturally wouldn’t have to go through all this trouble.”

Chapter 296: Squid Capital Comes Knocking

The Squid financial group behind the DHL Group was considerably weaker than its counterpart in the United States.

However, they possessed a decent network in Europe.

Although DHL Group was just one of the major groups they controlled, it was also the most promising.

Once DHL Group became a global logistics giant, the financial group’s strength would soar.

In the short decade or so since its inception, they had already conquered the markets of many countries, securing important positions within them.

Therefore, they held high hopes for DHL Group.

This wasn’t their first attempt at the British market; they had begun laying the groundwork here as early as ten years ago.

However, because Britain already had a highly developed logistics system, their business expansion had always been rather slow.

For this reason, they had decided to adopt a more aggressive market strategy at the beginning of this year, not hesitating to invest a huge sum to accelerate their entry into the British market.

Behind this move was their urgent desire to no longer wait for the market’s slow, natural development.

The senior executive’s words immediately sent the decision-maker of the Squid financial group into deep thought.

Indeed, if they could take control of Shipley Company, wouldn’t that also count as a success for them?

After Lin Haoran had intervened in Shipley Company’s affairs, they had also thoroughly investigated the young man’s background.

His cooperation with Citibank and other details were all crystal clear.

Of course, any information that Jardine Matheson & Co. couldn’t uncover, they naturally couldn’t either.

After all, this financial group was actually weaker than the Jardine Matheson financial group.

Although they were a Squid financial group, the gap between them and their American counterpart was obvious.

Many people began to discuss this idea.

In the end, a significant number were in favor of acquiring Shipley Company.

After all, they had already invested tens of millions of British pounds in the British market. If they were to give up now, it would essentially be a waste of all their efforts, and the market share they had captured would be far from their expectations.

“Check it. What is Shipley Company’s total market capitalization right now?” the Squid financial group’s decision-maker asked directly.

A few minutes later, someone reported, “As of three minutes ago, Shipley Company’s total market value has risen to 148 million British pounds. That article in The Times has caused the stock to be highly sought after by shareholders, and the trading volume is exceptionally high!”

The head of the financial group frowned. The rise was a bit too steep.

“If we want to acquire Shipley Company, how should we negotiate with the other party? What kind of price should we offer?” the head of the financial group posed a new topic.

And so, the discussion began anew.

The final conclusion was to leverage their personal connections and all the power they could mobilize to persuade Lin Haoran to sell Shipley Company to them.

In their view, Lin Haoran was an outsider, just like them.

Moreover, according to their investigation, he had no foundation whatsoever in Britain.

His takeover of Shipley Company was a complete accident.

Therefore, persuading him to sell his shares shouldn’t be difficult; the key was the price.

Most importantly, they had several very influential allies in the British government—members of Parliament who held significant sway in both the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

This was precisely why they had been able to sweep through the British logistics sector with vicious competition, even forcing several local logistics companies into bankruptcy.

As long as these heavyweights from the British Parliament intervened, Lin Haoran would undoubtedly have to consider this factor carefully.

And so, the meeting concerning Shipley Company came to an end.

At Shipley Company’s headquarters, Lin Haoran stood up from his chair and stretched.

He glanced at the watch on his wrist; it was already past three in the afternoon.

Just moments ago, a subordinate had reported to him that Shipley Company’s stock price had unprecedentedly broken the 150 million British pounds mark.

Although this market capitalization wasn’t particularly eye-catching on the British stock market, it was enough to rank in the top one hundred.

That’s right, just the top one hundred.

Like Hong Kong, even though the world was still experiencing the oil crisis, with major industrial nations suffering from severe inflation and economic recession, Britain’s stock market and economic performance were completely different.

Since last year, the British stock market had been continuously rising. Shipley Company had ridden this bull market to push its market capitalization past one hundred million British pounds.

Publicly listed companies whose stock prices had soared like Shipley’s were a common sight in Britain.

However, at the beginning of the year, DHL Group had entered the British market, unscrupulously seizing market share, which caused Shipley Company’s performance to shrink continuously, leading to a steady decline in its stock price.

One could say that Shipley Company was one of the few stocks on the British market that had been falling over the past six months.

Now, it was merely catching up rapidly to the gains of the main pack.

So, in reality, a total market capitalization of 150 million British pounds was only enough to rank in the top one hundred.

If Shipley Company’s market capitalization were placed in Hong Kong, it would just barely make it to the tail end of the top forty.

If it could only make the top forty or so in Hong Kong, it was normal for it to only be in the top one hundred in Britain.

After all, Britain was a large country with a population of fifty to sixty million and a formidable economy, not something a city like Hong Kong with only five million people could compare to.

It was a carnival for investors.

Although this superficial prosperity was actually at the cost of inflation, causing the value of cash to constantly shrink and become less and less valuable.

Just as he was about to leave the office, the office phone suddenly rang.

Lin Haoran assumed the call was for Beo Stevens, as this had always been his office.

But Beo Stevens wasn’t here at the moment; he was out attending to company development matters.

Picking up the telephone receiver, Lin Haoran said directly, “Hello, Mr. Stevens is not here. I can take a message for him.”

“Pardon me, I’m not looking for Mr. Stevens. I’d like to speak with Mr. Lin Haoran. Is he there, please?” Unexpectedly, a middle-aged voice came from the other end, specifically asking for him by name.

“This is Lin Haoran. And you are?” Lin Haoran asked, puzzled.

He really hadn’t expected anyone to be looking for him.

After all, he had only taken control of Shipley Company a few days ago.

“Hello, Mr. Lin. My name is Altair, from DHL Group. I believe you’ve probably heard of me. I was wondering if you might have some time? I’d like to have a chat with you,” the man said, directly stating his identity.

Altair?

Lin Haoran was a little surprised. He hadn’t expected a call from this man.

He wasn’t completely in the dark; he knew that this man named Altair was a decision-maker for the financial group behind DHL Group, a key figure in a European Squid Capital.

Could he be calling to talk about a truce?

If so, that would be for the best.

Lin Haoran had no desire to burn money competing to the end with a Squid Capital.

Although in Lin Haoran’s eyes, this particular Squid Capital’s true strength was just so-so, not even a match for the financial group behind Jardine Matheson & Co.

But Lin Haoran knew that the Squid groups were very united. The European Squid financial groups, the American ones, and so on… if any other Squid financial groups supported this Altair, then he would certainly be unable to compete.

If nothing else, even Hong Kong had a fairly powerful Squid financial group: the Kadoorie family, the owners behind China Light & Power.

Of course, with Lin Haoran’s current financial strength, he was clearly no longer afraid of the Kadoorie family.

“Of course, I have time. What can I do for you, Mr. Altair?” Although he had his suspicions, Lin Haoran still asked.

“I’d like to meet with you in person to discuss things. The location can be up to you, Mr. Lin!” the other party replied.

“Then let’s meet at the Tang Lou in Chinatown. We can talk there. I can leave now and be there in about half an hour,” Lin Haoran suggested with a smile.

He felt completely at ease about his safety at Tang Lou.

Because Uncle Tang had told him that the Triads’ British headquarters was nearby, and they essentially controlled that entire area.

And it was clear that Uncle Tang had significant ties to the Triads, so setting the meeting place at Tang Lou was definitely the safest option.

“Excellent. It’s a deal then. I’ll see you in half an hour, Mr. Lin!” the other party agreed immediately.

Putting down the receiver, Lin Haoran let out a sigh of relief.

His reason for making a big show of entering the West German market was nothing more than a threat to DHL Group.

It seemed now that putting out that rumor had been somewhat effective.

As long as the two sides could eventually reach a truce and stop the vicious competition, then the ten million British pounds Lin Haoran had previously raised for financing might not even be needed, and Shipley Company could immediately return to a state of stable profitability.

However, Lin Haoran had no idea that the other party wasn’t coming for a truce, but for his shares.

Bringing Li Weidong and Li Weiguo with him, and calling for his driver Henry, Lin Haoran left London’s South Bank and headed for Chinatown.

Half an hour later, he appeared at Tang Lou, where the head of the Squid financial group was already waiting for him on the ground floor.

“Uncle Tang, could I borrow an office for a while? I have something to discuss with someone,” Lin Haoran said, getting straight to the point after finding Tang Kun, who was drinking tea.

“The empty office on the third floor is all yours. Use it as you please,” Tang Kun said with a smile, glancing at Altair behind him. He didn’t ask what Lin Haoran wanted to discuss.

Evidently, he didn’t recognize Altair, because Altair’s territory wasn’t in Britain.

Lin Haoran led Altair to the same office he had used for phone calls last time and closed the door.

The future DHL Group would become one of the top three logistics companies in the world, so it was clear that this Mr. Altair’s methods were by no means ordinary. Thus, Lin Haoran began to take him seriously.

Chapter 297: A Share Swap, Warren Buffett’s Company

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Lin Haoran went straight to the point.

They didn’t know each other well, so there was no need to waste time on small talk.

“Mr. Altair, why don’t you get straight to the purpose of your visit?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Then I’ll be direct, Mr. Lin. We at DHL Group would like to acquire the Shipley Company shares you hold!” Hearing Lin Haoran’s question, the other party didn’t beat around the bush any longer.

“Acquire my shares?”

Lin Haoran was quite surprised.

This was completely unexpected.

He had assumed they were coming to negotiate a truce, but it turned out they wanted to acquire his shares directly.

Their intention was crystal clear: DHL Group wanted to swallow Shipley Company whole.

“An acquisition? That’s not out of the question. What price are you offering?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Investing in Shipley Company had indeed been an unexpected turn of events. Furthermore, he had only invested about ten days ago and held no particular attachment to the company. If they offered a price that satisfied him, selling the shares wasn’t impossible.

As for the logistics industry, if he wanted to get into it, he could start a company in Hong Kong at any time.

“As far as we know, Mr. Lin, you’ve invested a total of less than thirty million British pounds in Shipley Company. We’ll acquire it for fifty million pounds. How does that sound?” Altair said directly.

“Mr. Altair, are you joking? From what I know, Shipley Company’s current market capitalization is as high as one hundred and fifty million British pounds. I own half the shares, and you’re offering fifty million? If this is how you negotiate, without any sincerity, then I don’t think there’s any point in continuing this conversation,” Lin Haoran said bluntly, not giving him any face.

Did they really take him for a fool?

Although Shipley Company’s stock price was currently a bit inflated, that was true for many other listed companies as well.

More importantly, his equity represented a controlling stake in Shipley Company, which was completely different from ordinary shares.

Buying shares from other shareholders would only grant them the status of a shareholder.

But buying his shares would not only grant them shareholder status but also direct control of the company.

It was one thing for them not to offer a premium over the market price, but they were actually trying to lowball him?

“Mr. Lin, I have another idea. Shipley Company could merge with DHL Group at a reasonable market valuation. That way, Mr. Lin, you would become an important shareholder in our DHL Group. What do you think?” Seeing Lin Haoran’s firm refusal, it was clear the previous price was a non-starter, so Altair continued.

However, Lin Haoran rejected this proposal as well.

Although DHL Group had a bright future and would become one of the top three logistics giants in the world, Lin Haoran had no interest in it.

After all, it was a company cultivated by Squid Capital. Even if he became a shareholder, so what? He would never have the final say.

In the logistics sector, Lin Haoran was determined to control a company where he had the final say.

And it was clearly impossible for him to control DHL Group.

So, what was the point of becoming an ordinary shareholder in DHL Group?

“Mr. Lin, let me be frank. I have discussed the plan to acquire Shipley Company with Mr. Enris Oliveira, the Lord President of the Council, who is also the Leader of the House of Lords. He has given my acquisition proposal his utmost support. Not only that, but several other Members of Parliament also share his view. Given the Lord President’s stance, I sincerely hope you will engage in a more thorough negotiation with me,” Altair continued, his words subtly hinting at the use of high-level influence.

“Oh? Is that so? In that case, I might just have to discuss this matter of being given a ‘friendly suggestion’ with Madam Prime Minister. I was planning to make a large-scale investment in Britain, but the current business climate seems somewhat concerning.”

Faced with Altair’s insinuation, Lin Haoran showed no weakness, directly bringing up the Prime Minister in response.

Although he didn’t have a deep personal relationship with the Prime Minister, given the great importance the British government had placed on him this time, he believed she would at least show him a favorable attitude on the surface.

This Iron Lady was, after all, determined to revitalize the British economy.

After hearing Lin Haoran’s reply, Altair furrowed his brow.

This negotiation was much more difficult than he had imagined.

“Then what are your terms, Mr. Lin? What will it take for you to agree to sell your stake in Shipley Company?” Altair decided to put the ball in Lin Haoran’s court.

The group had invested tens of millions of British pounds in Britain, and he didn’t want this venture to end in failure.

Becoming Britain’s third-largest logistics company, in Altair’s view, was a failed venture.

After all, the investment and the return were completely disproportionate.

“One hundred million British pounds. If you give me one hundred million pounds, I’ll sell you all of my 49.9% stake,” Lin Haoran said with a grin, making an exorbitant demand.

He knew this price was unrealistic, but since the other party had dared to lowball him so aggressively, he could naturally jack the price up just as high.

Negotiations like this were rarely easy.

“Mr. Lin, you know that price is unrealistic. Let’s both be more sincere and negotiate a proper price, shall we?” Altair said, shaking his head.

From Lin Haoran’s reaction, Altair knew that he wasn’t dead set on holding onto his Shipley Company shares; he just needed the right price.

But he couldn’t just accept any price either.

Back in the conference room, they had already discussed this and reached a conclusion: at most, they would pay the market price.

Even so, they might not be able to come up with that much capital.

They had already invested over forty million British pounds in Britain in the last six months.

DHL Group wasn’t just entering the British market; it had already become a local logistics giant in over a dozen countries.

Therefore, those other countries also required investment.

Not only that, but many more new markets were waiting for them to invest.

Coming up with too much cash was impossible.

Lin Haoran also began to consider his options.

Should he just take the money and run?

Investing in Shipley Company had indeed been an unexpected turn of events.

When he came to Britain, he had never intended to invest in such a listed company, much less imagined that he would, in such a short time, unseat its chairman and take the position himself.

Over the past few days, he had come up with many initial plans for Shipley Company.

For instance, after returning to Hong Kong, he would vigorously develop Shipley Company’s market in Hong Kong and all of Southeast Asia.

After all, he had a certain network in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, so it would surely be easy for Shipley Company to open new markets there.

Moreover, Shipley Company actually had a presence in Hong Kong, though they mainly focused on the international logistics side of the business.

But if he sold now, he would, in all likelihood, make a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars and head straight back to Hong Kong.

Making a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars in ten days was indeed good; it would be a nice windfall.

However, to be honest, Lin Haoran was a little unsatisfied with just making four or five hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Haoran fell into thought, not giving an answer for a long time.

He knew if he named too high a price, the other party would never agree.

What he was considering now was whether he should sell Shipley Company or not.

As Lin Haoran remained silent, the other party grew anxious.

“Mr. Lin, I have one more proposal. I can transfer to you a portion of the shares from my family’s investment portfolio as a swap. Over the years, our family has made numerous investments in Europe, the United States, and Japan, including many companies where we are a major shareholder. If you’re willing to accept these shares, you could easily gain control of one of those companies. Mr. Lin, why don’t you take a look and see if any of these projects interest you?” Altair suggested.

“Oh? What companies are we talking about?” Lin Haoran’s curiosity was immediately piqued.

After all, the whole point of him working so hard to make money was to seize bigger investment opportunities.

It was perfectly normal for these large financial groups to invest all over the place; it was completely in line with their way of doing things.

He just didn’t know if there would be anything that interested him.

If there was, a swap wasn’t out of the question.

“One moment, Mr. Lin. I’ll write some down.” Altair took out a pen and paper and began to write furiously in front of Lin Haoran.

Although Altair and the family behind him were powerful, they weren’t on the same level as a top-tier financial group like Squid.

Therefore, the companies they held controlling stakes in were unlikely to be anything truly impressive.

Among the companies where they were major shareholders, there certainly wouldn’t be any corporate giants.

But perhaps there was a company he was familiar with that had great future potential.

Soon, Lin Haoran was holding a piece of white paper. Listed on it were a dozen or so company names, and next to each name was the percentage of shares they held.

For a few of the companies, their equity stake even exceeded thirty percent.

Gaining a controlling stake in those would indeed not be difficult.

“Huh? Berkshire Hathaway?” Among the names, Lin Haoran spotted one that was very familiar.

Isn’t that the company of Warren Buffett, the stock market guru?

As he recalled, this company was incredible. Over several decades, under the leadership of Warren Buffett, its market capitalization had soared by a factor of more than eighty thousand.

“This company, what’s its current market cap?” Lin Haoran asked, pointing to Berkshire Hathaway.

It was only 1980, so Berkshire Hathaway’s stock price couldn’t be too high yet.

“Berkshire Hathaway? The company’s market capitalization should be around two hundred million US dollars right now.” Altair was a little surprised to see Lin Haoran point to that name.

He had the impression that the company wasn’t very reliable, as its profits were entirely dependent on the investments of Warren Buffett.

His father had been the one to decide on the investment in Berkshire Hathaway, and they had held the shares for over a decade now.

Although Berkshire Hathaway’s stock had risen considerably over the past decade or so, it wasn’t as if it had never suffered losses.

Chapter 298: An Investment with Returns Exceeding Forty Billion US Dollars

Berkshire Hathaway, 56,000 shares!

“All of these stocks represent investments made by my Altair family and have no connection to the DHL Group. If you’re interested, Mr. Lin, we can use them in a trade. For example, this ATT Company is a famous listed retail enterprise in France, and this one, San’an Electric Co., Ltd., is a well-known Japanese electrical R&D and manufacturing company. They both have very promising futures…” Altair briefly introduced them one by one to Lin Haoran.

It was obvious that these were investments he didn’t particularly value, which was why he was offering them up.

“I’ve taken a look, and of all the stocks here, this is the only one I’m somewhat interested in,” Lin Haoran said with a smile. “If you’d like to make a trade, Mr. Altair, we can use this stock. It’s just that you don’t hold many shares, so it won’t be enough to trade for a significant stake. Besides, we still haven’t agreed on a final price for Shipley Company.”

Lin Haoran was surprised that this man named Altair, the decision-maker for the Squid financial group, actually controlled fifty-six thousand shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock.

That might not sound like a lot of shares, right?

But it couldn’t be underestimated. To this day, Berkshire Hathaway’s total outstanding shares were only close to five hundred thousand. Holding fifty-six thousand shares was incredibly impressive, equivalent to over ten percent of the company!

It was worth noting that Berkshire Hathaway was a listed company that rarely issued new stock. Coupled with investments from the stock market guru Warren Buffett, its annual investment profits were extraordinarily high.

Even forty years later, Berkshire Hathaway’s total shares would only amount to 1,634,500. The number of new shares added over several decades was only about three times the original amount.

Because of this, decades later, the price of a single share in Berkshire Hathaway would be absurdly high, reaching over seven hundred thousand US dollars.

And its total market capitalization would exceed one trillion US dollars!

Therefore, these fifty-six thousand shares of Berkshire Hathaway were an incredibly scarce resource!

Lin Haoran had once read about the history of Berkshire Hathaway’s development.

In 1964, Berkshire Hathaway’s stock was priced at nineteen dollars per share. That year, Buffett took over the nearly bankrupt company and became its largest shareholder.

In December 1980, its stock price was 425 dollars.

In December 1990, its stock closed at 6,675 dollars.

In December 2000, its stock closed at 71,000 dollars.

On April 29, 2016, its stock closed at 219,000 dollars.

By December 2024, its stock price had soared to 724,000 dollars.

If he held onto these fifty-six thousand shares until 2024, their value would exceed forty billion US dollars.

Right now, based on its market capitalization, they were only worth around twenty-four million US dollars.

Most importantly, because Berkshire Hathaway stock was so scarce, acquiring fifty-six thousand shares would be extremely difficult.

And this Altair actually wanted to sell it?

“We can discuss the details step by step. If you are genuinely interested in this Berkshire Hathaway stock, Mr. Lin, we can exchange it directly at the current market value. If it weren’t for the Altair family’s recent heavy investments causing a slight cash flow strain, I wouldn’t be considering a stock swap with you.”

After the negotiation so far, Altair had realized it was practically impossible to acquire the young man’s shares for less than market value.

If DHL Group were to acquire Lin Haoran’s shares, it was clear the group didn’t have enough capital to complete the transaction.

Therefore, Altair’s current plan was to first acquire a portion of the shares on behalf of his family, and then have DHL Group acquire the rest.

This way, neither the Altair family nor DHL Group would face excessive financial pressure, and they could still smoothly gain control of Shipley Company.

However, the Altair family’s funds were also relatively tight recently, and it was difficult to quickly liquidate stocks for a large amount of cash. Yet, they were desperate to acquire Lin Haoran’s shares in Shipley Company.

So, the most direct approach was to see if Lin Haoran was interested in any of their stocks for a swap, which would alleviate the financial strain.

While taking out a loan was an option, those stocks would have to be dealt with sooner or later. Plus, loan interest was not cheap, and a quick sell-off could depress the stock price. In comparison, a stock swap carried no such risks.

“Mr. Altair, I’m quite curious about this stock. When I was in the United States, someone mentioned it to me, saying it was the stock market guru Warren Buffett’s company. Why are you looking to sell it?” Lin Haoran asked with a hint of curiosity.

“There’s no harm in telling you, Mr. Lin. Although this company belongs to the stock market guru Warren Buffett and its value has seen good growth over the years, rising from a dozen or so dollars per share over a decade ago to more than four hundred dollars today, it has one drawback: it never pays dividends.

“The Altair family has held this stock for over a decade and has never received a single dividend. Even though the stock price keeps rising, to my family, if it’s not converted to cash, it’s just a bunch of numbers with no real meaning.

“My father initially invested one million US dollars, and now, by market value, it’s worth over twenty million US dollars. Although we’ve never received dividends, I’m quite satisfied with the appreciation. However, I have no intention of holding on to it any longer,” Altair explained.

This was all public information, so Altair didn’t hide anything from Lin Haoran.

“I see!” Lin Haoran realized.

He actually hadn’t known that Berkshire Hathaway stock never paid dividends.

No wonder Altair wanted to sell it.

He just wondered if Mr. Altair would come to regret this decision immensely in the future.

After all, who could have imagined that these fifty-six thousand shares would one day be worth over forty billion US dollars?

Seeing that they actually held so many shares of Berkshire Hathaway, Lin Haoran was tempted.

He had to get them, absolutely had to!

The potential of Berkshire Hathaway was no less than that of Apple Inc.

Most importantly, Berkshire Hathaway’s stock was simply too scarce.

Even if Lin Haoran tried to acquire them on the secondary market, he wouldn’t necessarily be able to buy many.

Of course, Lin Haoran wouldn’t show how desperate he was for these shares.

And so, the two of them continued their negotiations in this small office, only a little over ten square meters in size.

Although Lin Haoran hadn’t brought any capable assistants with him this time and had no one to help with the negotiations, he wasn’t flustered in the slightest.

After all, he had handled many negotiations on his own in the past. As long as he stuck to his bottom line, no matter how tough the other party was, they couldn’t persuade him.

What’s more, Mr. Altair was also meeting him alone this time.

Though the other man was an old-timer with a very clear objective—to acquire his shares in Shipley Company.

But he, in turn, had his eyes on the other’s Berkshire Hathaway stock.

A full hour and a half later, the two sides finally reached an agreement.

The Altair family would trade their fifty-six thousand shares of Berkshire Hathaway, valued at today’s closing stock price, for shares in Shipley Company. The remaining balance would be paid in cash by the DHL Group.

Lin Haoran’s shares in Shipley Company would be sold to the other party for a value of seventy million British pounds.

For Altair, what he wanted was the controlling stake in Shipley Company. With it, the DHL Group could potentially surpass even Royal Mail in the British market.

As for Lin Haoran, the Shipley Company equity was dispensable. The moment he learned the other party had fifty-six thousand shares of Berkshire Hathaway, he had already decided to let go of Shipley.

After all, acquiring these fifty-six thousand shares was equivalent to a long-term investment with future returns exceeding forty billion US dollars!

Converted to Hong Kong dollars, that was two to three hundred billion!

During the negotiation, Altair also tried to persuade Lin Haoran to accept other stocks in the trade, but it was clear Lin Haoran had no interest in companies that would lack any international recognition in a few decades. For all he knew, many of those dozen or so companies might have gone bankrupt by then. What would be the use of acquiring them?

“Mr. Lin, if possible, I’d like to finalize this deal today.” At this point, Altair was eager to get it done.

Otherwise, Altair was afraid Lin Haoran might change his mind.

“Of course!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

So, Altair made a call and summoned his family’s lawyer and the head of the DHL Group. Lin Haoran, in turn, borrowed a legal counsel from Uncle Tang to assist him with signing the contracts.

By that evening, the transaction between Lin Haoran, Altair, and the DHL Group was officially concluded by contract.

After this deal, Lin Haoran would relinquish all his shares in Shipley Company.

But, he would gain fifty-six thousand shares of Berkshire Hathaway.

He would also receive 59.2 million British pounds in cash!

Just over ten days ago, Lin Haoran had spent a total of only 27.8 million British pounds on Shipley Company.

In other words, after deducting the cost, this investment of a little over ten days not only meant he had essentially gotten fifty-six thousand shares of Berkshire Hathaway—a stock with a future value of over forty billion US dollars—for free, but he had also earned an extra 31.4 million British pounds.

And those thirty-odd million British pounds were equivalent to 370 million Hong Kong dollars.

So, this trip to Britain was not in vain.

Although compared to his month-long trip to the United States, his earnings this time weren’t as much—not even a tenth of it.

But those fifty-six thousand shares of Berkshire Hathaway made it all worth it.

Therefore, after closing this deal, Lin Haoran was quite satisfied with his trip to Britain.

However, the former chairman of Shipley Company, Mr. Beo Stevens, was destined to get a raw deal from him.

If Lin Haoran had remained in charge of the shares, Beo Stevens could naturally have continued to manage Shipley Company.

But now that his shares had been sold to Altair and the DHL Group, there was no way the DHL Group would let Beo Stevens continue managing Shipley Company.

Chapter 299: Standing in a Window of Opportunity, Even a Pig Can Fly

The official exchange of shares would take place on the third day.

At that time, the DHL Group would also need to directly wire the funds into Lin Haoran’s Citibank account.

The reason for waiting until the third day was that the DHL Group needed time to prepare over fifty million British pounds.

This was no small sum, so it was perfectly normal for them to need two days to mobilize the funds.

In any case, both parties had signed the contract, which stipulated a penalty of twenty percent of the transaction price for any breach, so both sides were confident the other would not back out.

Watching Mr. Altair leave Tang Lou with a smile on his face, contract in hand, Lin Haoran, however, frowned and sat in his office, lost in thought.

By signing this contract privately with the head of this Squid financial group, he had completely screwed over Beo Stevens.

President Liu, on the other hand, would be easy to handle. He only held eight percent of the shares, which wouldn’t be difficult to sell if he chose to.

As for how Shipley Company’s stock would perform after the deal was announced, Lin Haoran estimated a short-term drop, but a long-term upward trend.

After all, once Shipley Company became a publicly listed subsidiary of the DHL Group, its development was bound to accelerate.

So, he wasn’t really screwing over the British shareholders either.

People might complain about him in the short term, but Lin Haoran couldn’t care less.

It was just a very normal business transaction.

As for what the British government might think of him, Lin Haoran wasn’t worried.

The family behind the Squid financial group already had connections in Britain; even the Speaker of the House was a backer of this Squid financial group. Wasn’t it perfectly normal for him to be “forced” to sell Shipley Company?

“Haoran, your move truly astonishes me. I never knew making money could be this easy,” Uncle Tang lamented at this moment.

Because Uncle Tang’s lawyer was needed for the signing of the contract, Lin Haoran did not hide the details from him.

Therefore, Tang Kun was already aware of the transaction between Lin Haoran and the DHL Group.

Tang Kun didn’t know the future potential of Berkshire Hathaway’s stock, so he wasn’t particularly concerned about it.

But the fifty-nine million two hundred thousand British pound cash transaction was something Uncle Tang could clearly understand.

And Tang Kun could also roughly calculate how much money Lin Haoran had spent to acquire Shipley Company in the first place.

Back then, even Tang Kun had wanted to persuade Lin Haoran not to acquire Shipley Company’s shares.

So, in just about ten days, he had made tens of millions of British pounds?

This money-making ability was too outrageous.

It was no wonder Lin Haoran had amassed so much wealth in just two short years.

At this moment, Tang Kun’s face was filled with nothing but admiration.

This junior of his, the son of his good friend, had a truly formidable talent for making money.

Setting others aside, take Tang Kun himself: after a lifetime of hard work in business, the wealth he had accumulated was merely close to one hundred million British pounds, still a considerable gap from President Liu.

And Lin Haoran, in a little over ten days, had earned a third of the wealth he had amassed in his entire life.

“Uncle Tang, if I told you this was all luck, a complete stroke of luck, would you believe me?” Lin Haoran said with a chuckle.

In fact, it truly was a stroke of luck.

He had never considered acquiring shares in Shipley Company initially. It was only at President Liu’s persuasion that he finally agreed to become a shareholder.

However, since he had become a shareholder, Lin Haoran had simply decided to secretly acquire more shares and snatch the controlling stake.

And he had never imagined that the DHL Group would want to acquire his equity.

When Mr. Altair first approached him, he had even assumed the man wanted to make peace and call a truce to their price war.

As it turned out, the man had sought him out to acquire his shares.

Therefore, selling the shares to the other party was a spur-of-the-moment decision by Lin Haoran.

Everything had been such a coincidence, a complete stroke of luck.

“If you can make so much money by luck alone, then Haoran, you must truly be this era’s Son of Fortune. I, your Uncle Tang, have been in business my whole life. I naturally know that luck is a part of success, and a very crucial part at that. But I also know that success depends more on one’s own capabilities. So don’t say it’s all just luck. Wan’an is truly fortunate to have a son like you!” Tang Kun began to sigh with emotion.

“Uncle Tang, I once heard a senior say that when you’re standing in a window of opportunity, even a pig can fly. I was simply going with the flow. Opportunities are everywhere in this world, but not everyone can ultimately grasp them. I’ve noticed, Uncle Tang, that you and my father have one thing in common: you are both too cautious,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

This Uncle Tang’s way of doing things was practically identical to Lin Wan’an’s, which was perhaps why he had never become the leader of the British Chinese business community.

“I am already content with the family business I have now. As long as the younger generations aren’t wasteful, this fortune is enough to support three to five generations without any worries. Why should I take too many risks?” Uncle Tang had his own considerations.

“Uncle Tang, it’s good that you think that way. At least you don’t have to work so hard. I see you’re very comfortable now, coming to Tang Lou for tea every day, living a life of leisure,” Lin Haoran said, nodding in agreement.

Everyone thought differently.

Take Lin Haoran for example. His current wealth was enough to ensure that he and even several generations of his descendants would live without worry.

But Lin Haoran still wanted to earn more money, because he was still young.

Moreover, he had the advantage of being a transmigrator and knew many things about the future. It would be a pity not to make use of that.

As for Uncle Tang, he was getting old, and his health wasn’t the best. It was natural for him to be content.

After the two chatted for a while, Lin Haoran called President Liu and asked him to come over.

His deal with the DHL Group would be officially announced the day after next, and it would certainly affect the stock market.

Therefore, Lin Haoran decided to do President Liu a favor and let him decide the fate of his shares in advance.

In the future, insider trading would clearly be illegal.

Insider trading refers to the illegal act where an individual with knowledge of inside information about a security, or someone who has illegally obtained such information, buys or sells that security, leaks the information, or advises others to trade the security before the information is made public.

A significant proportion of insider trading and leaking of inside information occurs during major asset restructuring of listed companies. High-risk groups for insider trading often include the directors, supervisors, and senior management of listed companies, personnel associated with major shareholders, and individuals from the opposing party in a transaction.

But in this era, securities laws were not yet comprehensive, and the law couldn’t touch him.

To combat the frequent occurrence of insider trading, Britain passed the Company Securities (Insider Dealing) Act 1985, the Financial Services Act 1986, the Criminal Justice Act 1993, and the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.

These laws progressively refined the definition, regulation, and investigation of insider trading, ensuring legal responsibility and penalties for such actions.

But it was only 1980 now. Even if Lin Haoran did it openly, he would not be committing a crime.

Most importantly, telling President Liu about this would make President Liu owe him a favor. In the future, when he laid out his plans for the British market, it would be much smoother with the help of Uncle Tang and President Liu.

At seven in the evening, President Liu arrived at Tang Lou in a hurry.

Upon learning that Lin Haoran had something important to discuss with him, he had immediately left a social engagement and came straight over.

“Haoran, you were in such a hurry. What did you need to see me about?” President Liu asked directly upon meeting him.

“There is indeed something I need to tell you. Let’s go to a private room to talk. It’s not suitable to discuss this out here,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Thus, the three of them, including Uncle Tang, sat down in a private room.

Once the door was closed, Lin Haoran got straight to the point: “Uncle Liu, I reached a deal with the DHL Group today. After the transaction, I will no longer be a shareholder of Shipley Company. I’ve sold all my shares to them. This transaction will be announced to the public the afternoon of the day after tomorrow.”

“In other words, Shipley Company will become a subsidiary of the DHL Group. Considering you own eight percent of the shares, although it’s somewhat unethical, I decided to privately share this news with you. Whether you hold or sell your Shipley shares is up to you!”

“What? You sold Shipley Company’s equity to the DHL Group?” President Liu shot up from his chair, his face a mask of shock.

The shock of this news was no less than when he had learned from Lin Haoran a few days ago that the young man had quietly acquired 49.9% of Shipley Company’s shares.

Only a few days had passed, and he had already sold those shares?

Not only that, but he had sold them to a competitor of the DHL Group.

“Yes. Buying and selling shares is ultimately a transaction, and I was never particularly focused on Shipley Company to begin with. The price they offered satisfied me, so I had no reason to refuse the sale. What’s more, they have the backing of several Members of Parliament. I’m naturally unwilling to offend them excessively,” Lin Haoran explained.

By telling President Liu now, if he considered selling his shares, he could at least offload a good portion during tomorrow’s trading day. Although eight percent was too much to sell off completely, every little bit counted.

“Haoran, I can’t thank you enough for telling me this. I’ll remember this favor! To be honest with you, I already took advantage of the relatively high trading volume today to secretly sell off about three percent of my shares. I was planning to hold on to the remaining five percent or so and observe.

If the company had a promising future, I’d keep it; if not, I could pull out at any time. Thanks to your warning, I would likely have been stuck with that five percent.” President Liu said solemnly.

“I didn’t expect you to be so proactive, Uncle Liu,” Lin Haoran said, a little surprised.

With only five percent of the shares left, it would indeed be much easier to handle. Between tomorrow’s trading day and the day after, he could sell off a large portion. Even if he couldn’t sell it all, there wouldn’t be much left.

“I like to leave myself some leeway, just to be prepared for any eventuality!” President Liu replied with a smile.

“No wonder you were able to build such a vast family business, Uncle Liu!” Lin Haoran remarked with admiration.

Chapter 300: Amigo Company’s IPO Date Confirmed

Time flew, and soon it was September third.

That morning, Lin Haoran conducted the final transaction with Mr. Altair, the head of Squid Capital.

After the deal was successfully completed, the 59.2 million British pounds were transferred to Lin Haoran’s account. At the same time, he took possession of the 56,000 share certificates for Berkshire Hathaway.

Of course, he had in turn given up all his shares in the Shipley Company.

From that day forward, the British logistics company, a hot topic of discussion, no longer had anything to do with Lin Haoran.

Afterward, Altair wanted to invite Lin Haoran to a joint press conference, but he declined.

Whatever happened next had nothing to do with him.

If he made an appearance, he might be targeted by certain individuals.

“Uncle Tang, I’ve been in Britain for nearly a month. It’s time I went back to Hong Kong. I plan to leave in two days,” Lin Haoran said to the elder in Tang Kun’s tea room at the Tang Lou.

He had to go back. A few days ago, Liu Luanxiong had gotten his contact information from Chen Shoulin and told him some good news: the IPO date for Amigo Company had been confirmed.

On September twelfth, Amigo Company would be listed simultaneously on four stock exchanges: the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Far East Stock Exchange, the Kam Ngan Stock Exchange, and the Kowloon Stock Exchange!

On such an important day, as one of the two major shareholders of Amigo Company, Lin Haoran could not be absent.

So, it was time to prepare for his return.

“Mm, although Hong Kong is thousands of miles away from Britain, it’s convenient to fly back and forth. Come visit your Uncle Tang when you have time,” Tang Kun said with a smile.

“Of course. I see my Dad’s recovery is coming along well. The next time I come to London, I’ll bring him with me,” Lin Haoran replied solemnly.

During his time in London, this elder had provided him with considerable help, genuinely treating him as one of his own. Lin Haoran was well aware of this.

Therefore, he naturally held such an elder in the highest respect.

“Haoran, our friendship is well and truly over after this,” President Liu said with a wry smile, though he didn’t seem upset in the slightest. “He wanted to talk to you, but I told him I couldn’t reach you either.”

Although Beo Stevens was a well-known figure in British business circles, he was not considered a top-tier tycoon.

For people like them, connections were ultimately secondary to profit.

President Liu had made a fortune from his Shipley Company shares this time. What was losing a business acquaintance in comparison?

“Mr. Beo Stevens and I never had any kind of relationship to begin with. There’s nothing to talk about,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

It was obvious that Mr. Beo Stevens hated his guts.

But what did that have to do with him?

Lin Haoran’s sale of the shares to the DHL Group had indeed caused another huge stir throughout Britain.

In the short span of a month, the publicly traded company had become a focus of public attention multiple times.

No one had expected, however, that this would be the final outcome.

Many people wanted to interview Lin Haoran again, but they couldn’t find him.

Because Lin Haoran had simply moved to a different hotel.

It was better for him not to make any more public appearances regarding this matter.

As for President Liu, in just a day and a half, before the DHL Group officially announced the transaction, he had decisively sold off all of his remaining 5% of the shares!

As a result, President Liu undoubtedly made a huge profit, which made the favor he owed Lin Haoran all the more significant.

This trip to Britain was well worth the trip. Not only did he get to know a group of influential Chinese merchants in Britain, but he also earned 370 million Hong Kong dollars and 56,000 shares of Berkshire Hathaway.

On September fifth, at London International Airport, Lin Haoran, along with Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, was about to board a flight back to Hong Kong.

Both Tang Kun and President Liu had come to see them off.

“Haoran, I look forward to the opportunity to cooperate with you in business,” President Liu said, patting Lin Haoran’s shoulder.

Through the Shipley Company affair, President Liu had gained a deep appreciation for Lin Haoran’s ability to make money. It was clear that collaborating with him offered a high probability of making a fortune.

“Uncle Liu, there will be opportunities. It’s about time, I have to board. Uncle Tang, Uncle Liu, I’m off!” Lin Haoran glanced at his watch and bid farewell to the two older men.

“Alright, Haoran, have a safe trip!” Uncle Tang offered his blessing.

“Haoran, a safe journey!” President Liu added immediately after.

Lin Haoran waved to them, then turned and walked toward the boarding gate without looking back.

Of the dozen or so Hong Kong business tycoons who had come to Britain, Lin Haoran was the last to return.

So, on the journey back, it was just him, Li Weidong, and Li Weiguo.

Therefore, Lin Haoran booked three first-class tickets directly.

Lin Haoran never skimped on his two bodyguards; after all, his safety depended on them.

After a journey of more than twenty hours, on the afternoon of September seventh, the plane carrying Lin Haoran finally landed safely at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport.

Looking through the cabin window at the familiar scenery of Hong Kong’s city center, he was in an exceptionally good mood.

He had been away from Hong Kong for a full month this time.

He hadn’t told anyone he was coming back, so when the plane arrived in Hong Kong, there was no one to pick him up.

Lin Haoran got into the Rolls-Royce that had been sitting idle in the airport parking lot for a month.

Li Weidong carefully checked the front and back of the Rolls-Royce, its chassis, and various other parts. Only after confirming that everything was in order did he get into the driver’s seat and start the engine.

The luxury car had been parked for a whole month, and the parking fees alone had accumulated to several thousand Hong Kong dollars. For an ordinary person, it would have been a painful expense, but Lin Haoran didn’t care about it at all.

“Boss, where are we going?” Li Weidong asked.

“Let’s go back to the villa in Deep Water Bay,” Lin Haoran answered directly without any hesitation.

He should go see his parents first.

It was just past three in the afternoon, so he would be able to have dinner with his parents.

He could also take the opportunity to give them the gifts Uncle Tang had entrusted him with.

Forty minutes later, the Rolls-Royce came to a steady stop at the Lin family villa in Deep Water Bay.

“Huh, Older Brother is actually back? How rare!” Lin Haoran murmured in surprise upon seeing the Bentley parked nearby.

Although they were both in Hong Kong, only twenty or thirty kilometers apart, it was clear that his older brother rarely came back after moving out, returning at most three to five times a year.

Most of those visits were for important holidays like the New Year or their parents’ birthdays. It was extremely difficult to see Lin Haoning in Deep Water Bay at any other time.

The distinctive sound of the Rolls-Royce’s engine naturally alerted the people inside the Lin family villa.

So, just as Lin Haoran got out of the car, his father, mother, and Lin Haoning had all come out to the family’s parking area.

His parents’ faces were filled with pleasant surprise at seeing him.

“Dad, mother, Older Brother!” Lin Haoran took the initiative to greet them with a smile.

“Haoran, why didn’t you tell us you were coming back?” his mother chided.

“I wanted to give you all a surprise!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

Lin Haoning gave Lin Haoran a rare hug.

Ever since Lin Haoran became a business tycoon, his older brother always seemed to feel a sense of awkwardness when facing him.

“Older Brother, did sister-in-law and Jianbin not come back?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Jianbin is at school. Your sister-in-law has to pick him up this afternoon, so they haven’t come back,” Lin Haoning explained.

“Come on, let’s go inside and talk,” Lin Wan’an said.

“Dad, mother, Uncle Tang sent you both gifts. Wait a moment,” Lin Haoran had just finished speaking when Li Weiguo opened the trunk and took out several large gift boxes.

As for what was inside the boxes, Lin Haoran hadn’t asked too many questions. It was most likely just some British specialty products.

“A Kun is so thoughtful!” Lin Wan’an said with emotion.

“Weiguo, take these gift boxes to the ground floor hall,” Lin Haoran instructed.

“Yes, Boss!”

“I’ll go tell the kitchen to prepare more food. Today is a good day. It’s so rare for you two brothers to be back together!” his mother said as she walked toward the kitchen.

Lin Wan’an, Lin Haoran, and Lin Haoning entered the study together.

Lin Haoning took the initiative to brew tea.

“Haoran, you caused such a stir on your trip to Britain this time that it was even reported here in Hong Kong. Your ability to make money is truly incredible!” Lin Haoning said with envy after pouring Lin Haoran a cup of tea.

It would be a lie to say he wasn’t envious. To casually make tens of millions of pounds in such a short amount of time—that was hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars! His, Lin Haoning’s, entire fortune was only about that much.

“Oh? It was actually reported here in Hong Kong?” Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

“Of course. You’re a well-known figure in Hong Kong, after all. So the things you did in Britain were basically reported by our mainstream media here in Hong Kong the very next day.”

“For instance, when you first financed the Shipley Company, the second time when you became its Chairman, and the third time when you sold your shares in the company. Every time, the media here in Hong Kong reported on it, and it caused quite a sensation,” Lin Wan’an said with a smile, his heart filled with pride. This was his son.

Lin Haoran nodded. It made sense. These mainstream Hong Kong media outlets, like the Oriental Daily News, Sing Tao Daily, Ta Kung Pao, and others, all had offices in Britain. Even if they couldn’t find out what was happening there immediately, they would know very quickly.

Some media outlets simply cooperated directly with papers like The Times, the Daily Telegraph, and the Daily Mirror, reprinting some of their important news.

So, it was quite normal for news from there to be reported here in Hong Kong. In the past, when Lin Haoran read the Oriental Daily News and other papers, he often saw major news from places like Britain and the United States in the international section.

Chapter 301: The Hongkong Land Group Can’t Escape Now

“These are all the newspapers that have reported on you in the past two months. I saved them for you.” Lin Wan’an turned and took a stack of newspapers from a cabinet in his study, handing them to Lin Haoran.

Basically all of Hong Kong’s mainstream newspapers were there: Oriental Daily News, South China Morning Post, Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, Hong Kong Commercial Daily, and so on.

Lin Haoran quickly flipped through them. As expected, nearly everything he had done in London, Britain, had been reported.

For example, the news of him, Pao Yue-kong, Michael Sandberg, and others being received by the Queen.

For example, the news of his quiet acquisition of the Shipley Company.

Even the news of him becoming the honorary president of the British Chinese General Chamber of Commerce was reported.

It was clear that the Hong Kong media were extremely well-informed!

“By the way, Haoran, it’s rare to see you. There’s something I’d like to ask your advice on,” Lin Haoning said, his tone turning serious.

“Oh? Older Brother, feel free to ask. We’re brothers, after all!” Lin Haoran put down the newspapers and said with a smile.

By now, the gap in status between him and Lin Haoning had grown ever wider.

With Lin Haoning’s current net worth, he could be considered a well-known tycoon with assets over one hundred million in Hong Kong.

But compared to Lin Haoran, there was a world of difference.

Having come to terms with this reality, Lin Haoning now treated his younger brother with exceptional respect.

“This summer, I noticed that although my Wanfeng Fan Factory still has many orders from North America, the volume has dropped quite a bit compared to last year. Several distributors have also reduced their order sizes. Do you think I should continue focusing solely on manufacturing fans, or should I reform the company?” Lin Haoning asked humbly.

With Evergo Company’s order volume falling, Wanfeng Fan Factory’s would naturally decline as well, and even faster than Evergo’s.

After all, Wanfeng Fan Factory was now focused on the North American market.

Ever since getting a taste of the multiplied profits from the North American market, Lin Haoning no longer cared for the market in the Middle East.

So, he simply gave up the orders from the Middle East to concentrate on North America.

From last year to this year, he had indeed made a lot of money from the North American market. In over a year, although the profit didn’t exceed one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, he had still made a good seventy to eighty million.

In the past, when focusing on the Middle East market, Lin Haoning couldn’t have dreamed of making this much money from Wanfeng Fan Factory without at least eight or ten years of work.

But now, after just over a year, their orders had seen a significant drop. Faced with this situation, Lin Haoning was naturally anxious.

“I think you’ve already felt the situation in the North American market. The reason for the decline is that the market is nearing saturation. Future demand won’t be like it was last year.

A decline in demand from the North American market is inevitable. But if you can accept that, the market can still be profitable for you. Despite the drop, it’s still better than the Middle East in terms of competition and profit margins.

Therefore, my advice is this: if you can’t accept the reduced income from fewer orders, you could consider diversifying the company’s business. Both Wanfeng Fan Factory and my Evergo Company are highly dependent on foreign trade, which means overseas markets.

You don’t have to limit yourself to fans. You can try to find other suitable products to manufacture. As for what to produce, you’ll need to communicate with your overseas suppliers yourself to understand their needs and then produce accordingly. If you can grow the contract manufacturing business, you will have a place in the future of the manufacturing industry.

Of course, if you’ve grown accustomed to high profits, Wanfeng Fan Factory might not meet your expectations at present. In that case, you could consider selling the fan factory. With your current net worth of several hundred million Hong Kong dollars, you’re already wealthier than Dad was before dividing the family property among us. You have enough capital to enter any industry you want,” Lin Haoran said after some thought.

In terms of wealth, the current Lin Haoning had indeed matched or even surpassed Lin Wan’an of the past.

This was because Lin Haoran had previously advised him to buy plots of land and property, and on top of that, had helped him enter the North American market.

Therefore, Lin Wan’an had earned a considerable amount of money over the past year.

In particular, he had taken almost all of his cash flow and, following Lin Haoran’s advice, used it to buy plots of land or commercial buildings.

After a year of appreciation, the value of these land plots and commercial buildings had more than doubled.加上 in the fan industry, he had earned tens of millions more.

Under these circumstances, if one were to carefully calculate his market capitalization, Lin Haoning’s wealth had already surpassed four hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Haoran’s words sent Lin Haoning into deep thought.

While Lin Haoning was thinking, Lin Wan’an started chatting with Lin Haoran.

The two of them talked mostly about what Lin Haoran had been up to during his time in Britain.

They spoke particularly about Tang Kun.

The two were indeed very close friends. Tang Kun was very concerned about Lin Wan’an back in Hong Kong, and likewise, Lin Wan’an was very concerned about Tang Kun in London, Britain.

Unfortunately, both of their health had started to decline in their fifties, making them unsuitable for long-haul flights.

“Dad, have you had a check-up recently? How are you doing?” Lin Haoran asked.

“I get a check-up every month now. The doctor says I’m recovering very well, and the results are better each time. These old problems of mine are all from too many social engagements in the past. Now that I’m retired, I’m taking good care of myself, and there are no issues.

Speaking of which, Haoran, Haoning, you two must remember not to overdo the business dinners like I did. Otherwise, your body might break down when you reach my age, and that would be terrible,” Lin Wan’an warned earnestly.

“Don’t worry, Dad. With my standing in the Hong Kong business world, who can force me to attend a social engagement I don’t want to go to?” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“Dad, I’m mainly running Wanfeng Fan Factory, and my business is primarily foreign trade. I have few business dealings locally in Hong Kong, so I have very few business dinners,” Lin Haoning answered his father seriously, even though his mind was elsewhere.

The three of them chatted until it was time for dinner.

In the evening, the family of four enjoyed a sumptuous dinner at home.

After dinner, Lin Haoning bid his parents and Lin Haoran farewell. He was a married man with a family of his own; it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to stay at his parents’ house while leaving his wife and children at home.

The next morning, Lin Haoran woke up early. After breakfast, he spent some time reading the newspaper.

In today’s mainstream media, only one newspaper, Ta Kung Pao, was still reporting on him. The article analyzed his recent business case.

Aside from that, no other newspapers had any news about him.

This was quite normal. He had already been covered extensively, and the events didn’t take place in Hong Kong, so they naturally couldn’t report on him every day. The world didn’t revolve around him.

At nine in the morning, Lin Haoran said goodbye to his parents, got into the Rolls-Royce, and had Li Weidong drive him directly to Wanqing Building.

In Burton’s office, Lin Haoran chatted with him for nearly half an hour. Burton diligently reported on the recent situation of Wan’an Real Estate Company, Green Island Cement Company, and Kowloon Motor Bus.

Overall, nothing particularly special had happened within Wanqing Group over the past month. All the companies were developing well, especially the overseas markets, where expansion was progressing even faster.

From Burton’s words, Lin Haoran also learned that—he wasn’t sure if it was because of his deepening relationship with Guo Xiaohan—Green Island Cement Company’s market expansion in Southeast Asia had somehow accelerated.

Furthermore, Kowloon Motor Bus had won the operating rights for buses in Penang, marking its official entry into the overseas market. The Guo family’s help had played a significant role in Kowloon Motor Bus successfully winning the bid.

Lin Haoran couldn’t help but fall into thought.

With his current wealth, he certainly didn’t need to ride anyone’s coattails, because he was the coattails.

But having the Guo family’s help seemed to be a good thing too. Most importantly, Guo Xiaohan was not only beautiful, but she also wasn’t a useless vase who knew nothing.

It seemed the favors he owed the Guo family were piling up.

After thinking for a moment, he didn’t dwell on it. Lin Haoran left Burton’s office and went up to the 31st floor, where Universal Investment Company was located.

As he walked into the Universal Investment Company office, every employee who saw him greeted him respectfully.

All along the way, he was met with a constant stream of “Good morning, Boss,” and “Morning, Boss.”

Lin Haoran responded to every greeting with a smile and a nod, soon arriving at Su Zhixue’s office.

Today was September 8th, which also happened to be a Monday, so it was a stock market trading day.

Therefore, Su Zhixue was not in his office; he was likely out arranging work.

However, Lin Haoran wasn’t in a hurry. He sat down in a chair and started flipping through a document.

About twenty minutes later, he saw Su Zhixue appear.

Although surprised to see Lin Haoran in his office, Su Zhixue didn’t think much of it and simply said, “Morning, Boss.”

“Yes. Report to me on the company’s recent situation,” Lin Haoran replied with a nod.

Although Su Zhixue had contacted Lin Haoran in Britain many times, it was difficult to report much over the phone, mostly just simple updates on important matters.

“Yes, Boss!”

Then, Su Zhixue began his report.

Through Su Zhixue’s briefing, Lin Haoran gradually understood the progress Universal Investment Company had made with the Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co.

Although the pace of stock accumulation over the past month hadn’t been fast, Lin Haoran was already very satisfied with the progress.

Before Lin Haoran left for Britain, Universal Investment Company’s stake in the Hongkong Land Group had already reached 26.27%. Adding the 6% held by the Hongkong Electric Group, it meant they already controlled over 32% of Hongkong Land’s shares back then.

Now, a month later, the stake held by Universal Investment Company had reached 28.83%. Including the Hongkong Land shares held by the Hongkong Electric Group, they now effectively controlled over 34%, even approaching 35% of the shares.

The Hongkong Land Group basically couldn’t escape now.

Chapter 302: Inviting Michael Sandberg and Pao Yue-kong

As for his shares in Jardine Matheson & Co., he understood that he held 15.23% before his trip to Britain, and now that shareholding percentage had reached 17.18%.

Of course, Lin Haoran’s focus had always been solely on the Hongkong Land Group. He was not particularly concerned about whether he could take control of Jardine Matheson & Co.

If he could, he wouldn’t mind taking it over.

But if it ultimately proved difficult to vie for a controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co., Lin Haoran was determined to make a profit from it regardless.

“By the way, Boss, over the past month, we failed to reach our target of over 29% in the Hongkong Land Group. The main reason is that our unknown competitor has continued to ramp up their stock accumulation. To avoid exposing ourselves, we’ve correspondingly reduced ours,” Su Zhixue added from the side.

Lin Haoran nodded and asked curiously, “This new competitor that has emerged—can you estimate roughly how many shares they’ve accumulated over the past month?”

If the other party accumulated too many shares, it would have a significant impact on him.

After all, if they continued their accumulation, by the time he was ready to make a move on Jardine Matheson & Co. to seize the controlling stake in Hongkong Land Group, the competitor could potentially sell their shares to the British-funded conglomerate. In that case, Lin Haoran’s plan to control the Hongkong Land Group could fall through.

“Based on our daily analysis and estimation of past transaction data, the shares held by the other party this month are roughly between 2% and 3%. No more than that,” Su Zhixue replied directly.

“Let’s appropriately increase the pace of our accumulation. If they hold too much, it will be disadvantageous for us. Although we know this competitor is some Chinese financial group, their identity isn’t certain, nor do we know how their relationship is with the Jardine Matheson consortium,” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Alright, Boss. I’ll go make the arrangements right now!” Su Zhixue replied.

“Yes, go on,” Lin Haoran waved his hand, dismissing Su Zhixue to his work.

In the past, to avoid letting Jardine Matheson & Co. realize that someone was coveting the Hongkong Land Group, Lin Haoran would certainly have chosen to reduce the intensity of his stock accumulation to avoid alerting the enemy.

But now, the shares in his hands had already surpassed those of any British shareholder. This meant that every additional share he acquired made his position more secure and increased his chances of winning by another fraction.

Therefore, although this unknown Chinese financial group had entered the fray, Lin Haoran was not overly worried, but he would not let his guard down either. He would remain vigilant in case they decided to aid the British-funded conglomerate for their own benefit, thereby strengthening their position.

With his current shareholding, he could, in fact, announce his bid for the controlling stake in the Hongkong Land Group at any time.

But Lin Haoran wasn’t in a hurry. He planned to wait until the listing of Evergo Company was settled before taking control of the Hongkong Land Group.

Furthermore, to be more certain of his success, Lin Haoran decided to enlist some powerful support for himself.

Relying on himself alone, his chances of success were high, but he feared unexpected complications.

After spending two or three hours at Wanqing Building, Lin Haoran had lunch with Burton and Su Zhixue before leaving Central and heading to the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters building.

In the afternoon, Lin Haoran had another discussion with Chen Shoulin at the Hongkong Electric Group Headquarters, catching up on the group’s recent situation. He stayed at the company until nearly evening before leaving.

For the next two days, Lin Haoran spent most of his time in Kwun Tong.

Evergo Company was at a crucial juncture with its public listing. Although he could usually afford to be hands-off with the company, at a time like this, he had to devote some time to it.

“The company goes public tomorrow. You’ll be the chairman of a listed company from now on. How are you feeling?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile in Evergo Company’s general manager’s office.

“I feel great, of course. I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. But naturally, I’m also a bit nervous. I’m afraid people won’t approve of the market capitalization we’ve set!” The excitement on Liu Luanxiong’s face was almost impossible to hide, but there was also a hint of worry.

Earlier this month, with Lin Haoran’s approval, Liu Luanxiong had once again distributed most of Evergo Company’s profits as a dividend.

After the dividend payout, Lin Haoran received another seventy million Hong Kong dollars.

They were about to go public; if they didn’t pay out the dividends now, these profits would have to be shared with the public shareholders. Liu Luanxiong understood this point well.

By now, Evergo Company had already become a very well-known enterprise in Hong Kong. Even before its listing, its fame was no less than that of the top ten listed companies.

The promotional campaign over the past two months had already made everyone aware of this high-quality enterprise.

And Liu Luanxiong himself had been in the limelight for these two months, frequently giving interviews to reporters.

At this moment, laid out before Lin Haoran was the detailed documentation for Evergo Company’s upcoming listing, which covered important information such as the specific number of shares to be issued and the initial IPO price.

After Evergo Company went public, it would offer 20% of its shares in its Initial Public Offering. The total number of shares in the initial offering was set at twenty million, with a price of ten Hong Kong dollars per share.

This meant that once the listing was successful, the shares held by Lin Haoran and Liu Luanxiong would each amount to forty million shares, giving them a personal market value of four hundred million Hong Kong dollars each.

Based on the issue price, their estimated market capitalization for the company after listing was one billion Hong Kong dollars.

However, there was still a critical question hanging in the air: whether the shares issued in this IPO would be successfully subscribed to by the market.

Judging from the current public opinion and market reaction, there was extremely high anticipation and enthusiasm for Evergo Company’s listing.

This undoubtedly added a measure of confidence to the company’s path to going public.

But the market is always unpredictable, and the final subscription result would have to wait for the market’s verdict.

Liu Luanxiong was well aware of this. After all, it was his first time taking a company public. Even though he had been a celebrated figure in Hong Kong for the past two months, it was hard not to feel a little worried and insecure at times.

When a company first goes public, the number of shares issued during the IPO is determined by its financing plans and capital needs.

If a company needs to raise more funds, it might choose to issue more shares.

Conversely, if the need for capital is not particularly urgent, the company might opt to issue fewer shares.

A company like Evergo, for instance, was not short on funds at all.

The real reason they were going public was not to raise capital.

Lin Haoran’s purpose for the listing was to take the opportunity, while the company’s profits were still good, to sell it at a good price and divest himself of it.

Liu Luanxiong’s purpose was even simpler: he had been coaxed by Lin Haoran into agreeing to the listing in the first place.

Therefore, offering 20% of the shares for the IPO was already quite a lot.

“Don’t worry. Look at our Evergo Company’s outstanding performance over the past two years. In all of Hong Kong’s manufacturing industry, no one can match it. Add to that our massive promotional campaign these last two months, I think a valuation of one billion is actually a bit conservative. Subscribing to these twenty million shares will be absolutely no problem!” Lin Haoran said with a confident smile.

With the affirmation from Lin Haoran, a business tycoon in Hong Kong, the worries in Liu Luanxiong’s heart dissipated.

“Tomorrow, we will be listed simultaneously on all four of Hong Kong’s stock exchanges. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange will be our home ground, where the two of us will ring the bell together. As for the other three stock exchanges, I have already arranged for senior executives to handle the relevant matters. However, there is one thing that might require you to personally step in,” Liu Luanxiong continued.

“Oh? What is it you need my help with?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“I want to invite some business tycoons to attend, which would give our listing more credibility and momentum. Although my profile has risen these past two months, the number of big shots I’ve come into contact with is limited, and I’m not very familiar with them. Therefore, it might be more appropriate for you to handle this,” Liu Luanxiong explained.

“No problem. I will invite Mr. Michael Sandberg and Mr. Pao Yue-kong. These two heavyweights should be enough to really make an impression, right?” Lin Haoran said with a slight smile.

“More than enough,” Liu Luanxiong’s heart leaped with joy upon hearing the names Lin Haoran mentioned.

These two were truly top-tier tycoons in Hong Kong. Even with his current net worth of several hundred million, they might not necessarily pay any attention to a rising star in the business world like him. If he were to invite them, they might not even bother to reply. But it was a different story if Lin Haoran was the one asking.

With these two tycoons gracing the event, one could only imagine that Evergo Company would become the hottest star on the stock market!

“I’ll give them a call now and ask. It’s a bit short notice, so in case they happen to have other work scheduled for tomorrow, I’ll find some other people!” Lin Haoran said directly.

He knew all the business tycoons in Hong Kong, and his relationship with many of them was quite good. For him, this was just a small matter.

Ten minutes later, Lin Haoran had successfully completed the two phone calls.

Upon learning the reason for Lin Haoran’s invitation, both Pao Yue-kong and Michael Sandberg agreed to his request without any hesitation.

Michael Sandberg, in particular, even postponed his other work commitments for this.

Pao Yue-kong, as an outstanding representative of Hong Kong’s Chinese business community, and Michael Sandberg, a heavyweight figure from the British-funded conglomerate, their presence would undoubtedly add immense weight to the upcoming listing event.

Hearing this good news, the large stone in Liu Luanxiong’s heart was finally lifted.

At the same time, he couldn’t help but look at Lin Haoran with some envy, thinking to himself: for even two top-tier tycoons to give him so much favor, just when would he be able to achieve such an eminent status and position?

Lin Haoran saw his longing and encouraged him with a smile, “Once Evergo Company is successfully listed, your status in the business world is bound to rise with the tide. With a listed company worth over a billion Hong Kong dollars in your hands, once your wealth accumulates to a certain level, you’ll naturally be able to enter that top circle.

“I have full confidence in your future. I believe your standing in Hong Kong will one day surpass mine!” As he spoke, Lin Haoran clapped Liu Luanxiong on the shoulder and laughed heartily.

In truth, even without Lin Haoran’s help, Liu Luanxiong, with his own natural talent for business, was destined to become one of the top ten richest men in Hong Kong in the future.

After all, business acumen was often an innate talent.

Now, Liu Luanxiong’s starting point was even higher. What the future held, he didn’t know, but at the very least, it couldn’t be worse than his current position.

“Let’s hope so!” Liu Luanxiong said, a little wistful.

Chapter 303: First Day of Listing, Market Cap Breaks 1.8 Billion!

In the blink of an eye, the morning of September 12th arrived.

Today was a momentous day.

Amigo Company would be listed simultaneously on the four major stock exchanges: the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Far East Stock Exchange, the Kam Ngan Stock Exchange, and the Kowloon Stock Exchange!

At 8:30 in the morning, Lin Haoran had already arrived at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in Central.

At the same time, Liu Luanxiong also arrived and was discussing the listing procedures with the senior executives of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The heads of Wardley, a subsidiary of HSBC, also arrived one after another.

With their support for today’s listing, failure was virtually impossible.

Li Meihui and other senior executives from Amigo Company had already been dispatched to the Far East Stock Exchange, the Kam Ngan Stock Exchange, and the Kowloon Stock Exchange to act as listing representatives.

At nine o’clock, Pao Yue-kong and Michael Sandberg arrived one after another.

Both of their offices were nearby, so it was not a long trip for them.

“Uncle Pao, Mr. Michael Sandberg, thank you for your support!” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he shook their hands.

“Haoran, I’m truly envious of you. Starting today, your wealth will see another substantial increase. I know a fair bit about Amigo Company, and with its revenue-generating capabilities, its market capitalization is sure to be an impressive figure!” Pao Yue-kong said with a hint of envy.

“Mr. Lin, congratulations!” Michael Sandberg added with admiration.

It could be said that both men had watched Lin Haoran rise from the beginning.

This was especially true for Pao Yue-kong. When he first met Lin Haoran, he was just a young man who had not even acquired Green Island Cement Company. Pao had only chatted with him for a bit because they were neighbors, but he saw something extraordinary in the young man.

What happened afterward completely exceeded Pao Yue-kong’s expectations. Not only did Lin Haoran make a fortune off him—an old-timer in the business world—with his Kowloon Wharf shares, but he also went on to acquire multiple companies: Green Island Cement Company, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, Kowloon Motor Bus, Oriental Press Group, and more.

In the short span of two years, his journey had been so astounding that even he, with all his worldly experience, was stunned!

It was the same for Michael Sandberg. He first met Lin Haoran when Lin Haoran and Pao Yue-kong were trading Kowloon Wharf shares. Lin Haoran had gone to HSBC to check if the funds had arrived, and that was how they met.

So now, beyond their surprise, the two men had perhaps grown accustomed to the young man’s achievements.

It was as if any earth-shattering move Lin Haoran made was to be expected.

“I was just lucky. I happened to meet Xiong, a young elite in the business world, and invested in Amigo Company. Come, let me introduce you. This is my partner, the Chairman of Amigo Company, Liu Luanxiong.

Don’t be fooled by his youth. Besides managing Amigo Company, he has also amassed a considerable fortune. He managed Amigo Company single-handedly. I only acted as an investor and barely offered any help,” Lin Haoran said, pulling Liu Luanxiong over to introduce him to the two men.

“Mr. Liu’s great name rings like thunder. It is a pleasure to finally meet such a young and promising talent! For Hong Kong to produce another talent like Haoran is truly a blessing for its business community. Mr. Liu, if you have the time, please come by my private reception room for a good chat!” Pao Yue-kong said with a beaming smile as he shook Liu Luanxiong’s hand.

“Mr. Liu, please feel free to visit HSBC anytime. I think very highly of you!” Michael Sandberg said, shaking Liu Luanxiong’s hand with equal enthusiasm.

“Thank you both for your recognition. I will certainly make time to visit you!” Despite the immense prestige he had gained over the past two months, receiving acknowledgment from these two heavyweights still sent a thrill of excitement through Liu Luanxiong.

The group chatted in an office within the Stock Exchange.

“There are several times more shareholders in our exchange today than usual. It seems they’re all here for your Amigo Company!” the general manager of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange commented with a wide smile.

The more people there were, the better it was for the exchange. After all, they earned a commission on every transaction. Although the commission per trade was small, the high volume of trading meant it would add up to a significant amount.

“Let’s hope so!” Lin Haoran laughed.

“It’s about time. We can go out now,” Liu Luanxiong said, glancing at his watch.

He could no longer contain his eagerness.

“Alright, let’s go!” Lin Haoran declared with a wave of his hand, leading the way out of the office.

The group of tycoons walked out to the main floor of the Stock Exchange.

Sure enough, even though it was only nine o’clock, the trading hall was already swarming with people.

Not only that, but many media reporters were also present, all eager to witness Amigo Company’s public listing.

The pre-listing hype for Amigo Company over the past two months had indeed been a great success.

As a result, many people were now curious to see what kind of market capitalization Amigo Company would achieve on its first day of listing.

Normally, a company would trade on the grey market before its official listing to ease the pressure, but this time, Amigo Company was only offering 20% of its shares. Coupled with its strong performance over the last two months, the company saw no need to take this step, nor did it require underwriters to handle the sales.

Furthermore, before the listing, Amigo Company had offered its employees and senior executives a benefit. With the help of Wardley, the company held a stock subscription.

In the end, of the twenty million shares, a total of 6.82 million were subscribed to by senior executives and employees, and HSBC subscribed to another one million shares.

This meant that only 12.18 million shares remained out of the initial twenty million.

This was why Lin Haoran was so confident that all the shares would be snapped up.

Hong Kong’s stock market was still in a bull phase, with many shareholders still in the midst of their ‘shark fin rice’ days.

When a high-quality stock like this appeared, wouldn’t they rush to buy it?

At 9:18 AM, under the watchful eyes of industry titans like Pao Yue-kong and Michael Sandberg, as well as numerous reporters and shareholders, Lin Haoran and Liu Luanxiong stood side by side and jointly rang the opening bell.

This solemn and thrilling moment marked the official and successful listing of Amigo Company, a manufacturer primarily of electric fans, as it entered the hallowed halls of the capital market.

The atmosphere was electric. The thundering of drums was deafening, and a lion dance troupe beat gongs and drums while leaping joyfully, turning the entire scene into a grand festival.

Everyone present was immersed in joy and anticipation, celebrating this historic moment together.

Time quietly moved to 9:30 AM. This was not only the first key moment after Amigo Company’s successful listing but also the official opening of the stock market for the day.

As the opening bell rang, Amigo Company’s stock officially entered the secondary market, beginning its free trade and embarking on a brand-new chapter.

Just like the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the other three exchanges were also bustling with activity, though their ceremonies were slightly less grand.

After the listing ceremony ended, Lin Haoran was surprised to find that the two busy men, Pao Yue-kong and Michael Sandberg, were in no hurry to leave.

They, too, wanted to witness a miracle and see how long it would take for the ten-million-plus shares of Amigo Company to be sold out after the market opened.

Lin Haoran sat in a private room, watching the lively scene on the main floor through a glass window, his heart filled with anticipation.

Liu Luanxiong, on the other hand, was too restless to stay put and had run off somewhere.

Just six minutes later, Liu Luanxiong burst into the private room and exclaimed excitedly, “Haoran, all of our shares have been bought up by the shareholders!”

“Congratulations, congratulations!” Pao Yue-kong offered.

“That was much faster than I expected. I thought it would take at least half an hour!” Michael Sandberg said, looking somewhat shocked.

Although the listing was simultaneous across four exchanges, it still involved over ten million shares. For them to be completely bought up in just five or six minutes was truly beyond everyone’s expectations.

“Thank you, thank you!” Lin Haoran was all smiles.

With all twenty million shares sold, Amigo Company had raised two hundred million Hong Kong dollars in financing. The company was now flush with cash.

After seeing the result, Michael Sandberg and Pao Yue-kong took their leave.

They were both extremely busy men, and it was already a rare thing for them to have spent so much time at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Now that they had witnessed the miracle, it was time for them to return to their own affairs.

By the time the market closed for the noon break at twelve o’clock, Amigo Company’s price per share had already soared to 16.8 Hong Kong dollars.

This meant that Amigo Company’s total market capitalization had reached a staggering 1.68 billion Hong Kong dollars!

At noon, everyone had a simple lunch at the exchange, discussing the listing.

Lin Haoran remained at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange until four in the afternoon. When the bell for the market close rang, everyone’s face was lit up with joy.

By then, Amigo Company’s stock price had surpassed 18 Hong Kong dollars, reaching 18.21 Hong Kong dollars per share.

In other words, as of the market close today, Amigo Company’s market capitalization had reached an incredible 1.821 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Haoran, Liu Luanxiong, and all the senior executives of Amigo Company held a celebratory banquet at a lavish nearby hotel.

“Haoran, you should say a few words, too,” Liu Luanxiong prompted Lin Haoran, who was beside him, after delivering his own impassioned speech about the listing.

“Thank you all for your unwavering support and companionship. It is your trust and hard work that have allowed Amigo Company to stand out in a fiercely competitive market and successfully go public. Today, we not only celebrate this historic achievement but also take it as a new starting point to create an even more brilliant future together!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, rising to his feet to offer a few simple words.

Today was undoubtedly a day to be remembered for both Lin Haoran and Liu Luanxiong.

The shareholders’ enthusiasm had been unprecedented, pushing Amigo Company’s market capitalization to 1.8 billion Hong Kong dollars, a fact that made his blood boil with excitement.

This achievement meant that from its very first day of listing, Amigo Company had ranked among the top fifty listed companies in Hong Kong, showcasing its powerful market influence and development potential.

As Lin Haoran’s words fell, the room erupted in thunderous applause and cheers, pushing the celebration to its climax.

The senior executives of Amigo Company raised their glasses in a toast, celebrating this hard-won victory together.

Among these executives were many elites who had been carefully recruited by headhunting firms over the past two months. Their addition had injected new vitality and wisdom into the company.

After all, now that the company was public, it faced a more complex market environment and higher management demands.

Chapter 304: A Mole Within, The Ambition to Take Over Hongkong Land is Exposed

In the days that followed, the rise of Evergo Company’s stock price finally slowed, eventually stabilizing at a total market capitalization of around two billion Hong Kong dollars.

This market capitalization already ranked just outside the top thirty among Hong Kong’s listed companies.

For this, Liu Luanxiong, the newly-minted chairman of a listed company, was naturally basking in the limelight, frequently giving interviews.

Having raised two hundred million Hong Kong dollars in financing, Liu Luanxiong, after discussing with Lin Haoran, decided to aggressively expand into the manufacturing industry, no longer limiting themselves to products like electric fans.

In addition, they would continue to expand their scale and thoroughly establish the Evergo brand.

Lin Haoran directly supported Liu Luanxiong’s aggressive ideas.

Because he had no intention of holding onto his Evergo Company shares for too long.

The fact that Evergo’s market capitalization could now stabilize at around two billion Hong Kong dollars had already exceeded his expectations.

This was much better than he had imagined.

According to his previous thinking, he would have been satisfied if Evergo’s market cap had reached over one billion Hong Kong dollars.

With the market cap now at around two billion Hong Kong dollars, it meant that the forty million shares he held in Evergo Company were worth eight hundred million Hong Kong dollars!

And just two years ago, he had only invested one million two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars.

In the past two years, the dividends he had received from Evergo Company had already reached a staggering sum of over three hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Not to mention, the shares he currently held were worth another eight hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

The next thing he had to do was find a suitable buyer and sell off his Evergo Company shares!

After all, if things went as expected, Evergo Company’s profits would definitely drop sharply next summer.

By then, when Evergo Company’s monthly profits dwindled to two or three million Hong Kong dollars, it would be impossible to maintain a market cap of two billion. It would be completely normal for the market cap to drop to a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Of course, such a buyer would not be easy to find. After all, purchasing his shares would cost a considerable amount of money.

However, he wasn’t in a hurry about this.

At least, not within this year.

If all else failed, he could slowly sell them on the stock market, but that would be more difficult.

In this era, there weren’t too many restrictions on shareholders cashing out. Plus, Lin Haoran was not the one in charge of Evergo Company, so it wouldn’t be a problem for him to cash out.

Before the IPO, Lin Haoran had already spoken with Liu Luanxiong. At that time, Liu Luanxiong had hoped he would take the position of Vice Chairman, but Lin Haoran had no interest and ultimately only accepted a director’s position.

Since he already planned to sell his shares in Evergo, there was no point in fighting for any position.

In fact, if he wanted to, he could even challenge Liu Luanxiong for his position now.

He and Liu Luanxiong each held forty million shares of Evergo Company.

Liu Luanxiong was, after all, still a newcomer to the world of capital and wasn’t very guarded against such things.

If Lin Haoran really wanted to seize the controlling stake in Evergo, he would only need to secretly accumulate some shares on the stock market to surpass Liu Luanxiong and take control.

It was just that he had no interest in Evergo Company. Why fight for control of a company he was planning to sell off?

He might as well think about how to sell his equity at its current market value.

However, Lin Haoran held too many shares. If he sold them on the secondary market too quickly, it could drag down the stock price and affect Evergo’s market capitalization.

Therefore, the best course of action was to find someone interested in Evergo’s shares.

Lin Haoran guessed that if word got out, someone would likely be interested, right?

But to be in a rush to transfer shares right after the company had gone public was indeed somewhat inappropriate.

So, it would be best to find a suitable opportunity.

It was September now, so there was no need to rush.

Now that Evergo Company had successfully gone public and even exceeded his expectations, he could set matters concerning it aside for the time being.

The days passed one by one, and in the blink of an eye, it was September 24th.

In the morning, Lin Haoran woke up in bed with Rosamund Kwan, this young lady, lying beside him.

Her father, Kwan Shan, was away on a business trip again. Plus, yesterday was a special holiday—the Mid-Autumn Festival—so she had come over on her own initiative to spend a very passionate holiday with Lin Haoran.

His father and mother had gone to Southeast Asia for a vacation, so even though it was the Mid-Autumn Festival, he hadn’t returned to the villa in Deep Water Bay.

Having someone help him release some energy once in a while was naturally a good way to live.

After breakfast, Lin Haoran had Li Weidong drive her back to school.

He had nothing planned for the day, so he wasn’t in a hurry to go out.

It had been over ten days since Evergo Company’s IPO. The company’s market capitalization had risen to around two point one billion Hong Kong dollars, though it would occasionally drop.

It was still a bull market, after all. On top of that, Liu Luanxiong would give exclusive interviews from time to time, constantly revealing his grand plans, so even at a high point, the stock price still had room to rise.

The entire market was on the rise, so it was unlikely for a highly talked-about listed company like Evergo to experience a significant drop.

To say nothing of others, Hongkong Electric Group’s market cap had already risen to nearly five billion Hong Kong dollars.

Meanwhile, both the Hong Kong and China Gas Company and Kowloon Motor Bus had market caps exceeding two billion Hong Kong dollars; in fact, their valuations were quite a bit higher than Evergo Company’s.

Among them, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s market capitalization had reached about two point six billion Hong Kong dollars.

Kowloon Motor Bus had similarly reached about two point four billion Hong Kong dollars.

All three companies were in the top thirty of Hong Kong’s listed companies by market capitalization.

Evergo Company, on the other hand, ranked somewhere between thirty-first and thirty-fifth, its position on the list often fluctuating due to stock price changes.

He checked the time; it was nine o’clock in the morning. Just as Lin Haoran was thinking he had nothing to do this morning and was planning to have lunch at home before going out, Su Zhixue called.

As soon as the call connected, Su Zhixue said from the other end, “Boss, this is bad! Our accumulation of Hongkong Land Group’s shares has been exposed!”

“What happened? Tell me in detail,” Lin Haoran asked, puzzled.

Logically speaking, their confidentiality measures were quite good. In over a year, Universal Investment Company had never had a leak. How could their operation have been exposed?

“I just found out. Today’s Hong Kong Times reported on something. The newspaper mentioned our Universal Investment Company by name, stating in the article that we have been secretly accumulating shares of Hongkong Land Group with the aim of acquiring the Hong Kong real estate giant. In other words, our plan has been leaked. For now, I have no idea where the leak came from,” Su Zhixue replied.

The Hong Kong Times. It was this very newspaper that had previously slandered Fortress Electrical Company, a subsidiary of Hongkong Electric Group.

After Newbiggin publicly admitted his mistake and apologized on television, the Hong Kong Times fell out of the ranks of Hong Kong’s top ten newspapers due to the fabricated news scandal, and its circulation reportedly plummeted.

Unexpectedly, they had popped up again.

It seemed they were unwilling to accept their massive drop in sales.

Ever since that incident, even Lin Haoran had stopped subscribing to the Hong Kong Times.

Before that, it had been among the newspapers he read daily.

It was obvious that the leak about Universal Investment Company accumulating Hongkong Land shares meant there was a mole within the company.

Although they had signed confidentiality agreements, no one could guarantee that every single person would truly maintain secrecy.

After all, if the benefits were great enough, leaks were to be expected.

Moreover, with so many employees at Universal Investment Company now, some of them were bound to think they could get away with it, believing that if they leaked information, they wouldn’t be caught.

Fortunately, to prevent leaks, everyone in both the Hongkong Land and Jardine Matheson acquisition project teams was responsible for different tasks. Even with a leak, the other party would only know that Universal Investment Company was accumulating Hongkong Land’s shares. Only Su Zhixue knew the exact number of shares they held.

“Alright, I understand. Don’t panic. With the shares we currently hold, we still have a greater than ninety percent chance of success in taking control of Hongkong Land Group,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Right now, Universal Investment Company held over twenty-nine percent of Hongkong Land Group’s shares. Adding the six percent held by Hongkong Electric Group, it meant that he, Lin Haoran, already controlled over thirty-five percent of Hongkong Land’s shares.

And according to his previous investigations, the British-funded conglomerates, including Jardine Matheson, collectively held only about thirty percent of Hongkong Land Group’s shares.

Of course, he couldn’t rule out the possibility that there were holdings he hadn’t uncovered.

This was precisely why Lin Haoran hadn’t announced his bid to take over Hongkong Land Group—he wanted to increase his chances of success even further.

But now, unexpectedly, before he even planned to announce it, someone had taken the initiative to announce it for him.

“Boss, what’s the plan, then? Hongkong Land’s stock should be very active today,” Su Zhixue asked.

“How many shares of Hongkong Land does our Universal Investment Company currently hold?” Lin Haoran asked.

“As of yesterday’s market close, we held 29.36% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares,” Su Zhixue reported.

“Then, after the market opens, try to accumulate another wave. Sweep up all the listed shares. Get as many as you can. You go and arrange it. I’ll head to the company in a bit,” Lin Haoran said directly.

Since it was already exposed, there was no need to hide it anymore.

It seemed the battle for control of Hongkong Land Group would have to be moved up.

“Weiguo, go and buy me a copy of the Hong Kong Times,” Lin Haoran said to Li Weiguo after hanging up the phone.

Li Weidong hadn’t returned from Kowloon yet. Since the news was already out, there was no use in panicking.

“Yes, Boss!” Li Weiguo hastily left the Lin family villa.

There was a newsstand about a kilometer away; it wouldn’t take long to drive over and buy one.

Five minutes later, Li Weiguo returned with the newspaper.

Chapter 305: Jardine Matheson & Co.’s Jardine-Land Mutual Control Plan!

The article in the Hong Kong Times certainly had some substance to it.

It even revealed that Universal Investment Company had begun acquiring shares in the Hongkong Land Group at the beginning of the year.

This further convinced Lin Haoran that an employee from within Universal Investment Company had leaked the information.

However, the article also speculated on the exact number of Hongkong Land Group shares Universal Investment Company held, estimating it to be between 10% and 15%, which was quite a ways off from the actual amount.

Furthermore, Universal Investment Company’s other target—Jardine Matheson & Co.—was not mentioned.

Putting down the newspaper, Lin Haoran frowned.

His a proactive stance on acquiring shares in the Hongkong Land Group had now become a reactive one.

Fortunately, apart from himself and Su Zhixue, no one knew the true extent of Universal Investment Company’s holdings in the Hongkong Land Group.

After he finished reading the newspaper, Li Weidong had returned.

Lin Haoran, accompanied by Li Weiguo, left the Lin family villa, got into the Rolls-Royce, and directed Li Weidong to drive straight to Wanqing Building.

Meanwhile, at the Jardine Matheson & Co. headquarters in Central, the senior executives of Jardine Matheson and the Hongkong Land Group were in an uproar.

Universal Investment Company was a well-known investment firm in Hong Kong, and many knew it was, in fact, Lin Haoran’s private capital management platform.

Therefore, in a sense, Universal Investment Company’s every move was a reflection of Lin Haoran’s will.

Now, a shocking piece of news was quietly spreading: Universal Investment Company was accused of secretly accumulating shares of the Hongkong Land Group over the past six months.

This news would seem unbelievable and absurd to anyone in charge of Jardine Matheson & Co.

Lin Haoran… coveted the Hongkong Land Group?

Jardine Matheson & Co. had already convened an emergency conference call, with even the decision-maker of the Keswick family in Britain participating.

The Hongkong Land Group was of immense importance to Jardine Matheson & Co.

Originally, Jardine Matheson & Co. had two crucial publicly listed subsidiaries: Kowloon Wharf and the Hongkong Land Group.

Now that Kowloon Wharf had been taken by Pao Yue-kong, they were determined not to lose another vital subsidiary in the Hongkong Land Group.

“What are everyone’s thoughts on this matter? How should we respond to Lin Haoran’s actions?” asked former Jardine Matheson Taipan Henry Keswick sternly over the phone.

Although the Keswick family was ostensibly the major shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co., they actually only held about 10% of the shares.

Despite this, they treated Jardine Matheson as their family business.

After Henry Keswick stepped down, Newbiggin took over.

However, Keswick was now planning to reclaim control of Jardine Matheson & Co. He was preparing to oust Newbiggin and have his younger brother, Simon Keswick, take his place.

Of course, to force Newbiggin out, he needed him to make enough mistakes.

Losing Kowloon Wharf had been a significant error, but it wasn’t enough.

Even so, Henry Keswick was unwilling to see Jardine Matheson & Co. lose the Hongkong Land Group.

Kowloon Wharf and the Hongkong Land Group were like Jardine Matheson’s left and right arms. Losing Kowloon Wharf was like losing an arm; if Hongkong Land was also lost, it would be like losing both.

“I think we should first ascertain this Lin Haoran’s current position and find out how many shares of the Hongkong Land Group he already holds,” a shareholder suggested.

“This is just a newspaper report. It might not be true, right?” another shareholder questioned.

“No, it’s likely true. Just half an hour ago, Jardine Securities reviewed the stock trading activity for the Hongkong Land Group over the past year. Indeed, since the beginning of the year, the trading volume of its shares has risen sharply.

“Especially in the last three months, the volume has been even higher than before. Besides, whether it’s true or not, we must take precautions. Jardine Matheson & Co. cannot lose the Hongkong Land Group!” the general manager of Jardine Securities said in a grave tone.

“According to the newspaper, Lin Haoran’s stake is only between 10% and 15%. If that’s the case, we still have time to prepare our defenses. Ever since HSBC helped Pao Yue-kong forcibly acquire Kowloon Wharf, I realized that the other British-funded conglomerates in Hong Kong are no longer reliable.

“To protect our controlling stake in the Hongkong Land Group, we can only rely on ourselves. Especially in the last two years, with old British-owned companies like Green Island Cement, Hutchison Whampoa, and the Hongkong Electric Group being acquired by Chinese-funded conglomerates one after another, the myth of our invincibility has been completely shattered.

“Even our Hongkong Land Group, and perhaps Jardine Matheson & Co. itself, may now be seen as prizes for the taking by Chinese-funded conglomerates. Today, the report in the Hong Kong Times confirms my fears. Someone is already eyeing the Hongkong Land Group.

“Therefore, I have been contemplating how to safeguard the Hongkong Land Group for some time now. I’ve come up with a plan that, while not yet perfected, has considerable potential. Once successfully implemented, no one will be able to acquire the Hongkong Land Group, or even our very own Jardine Matheson & Co.!” Newbiggin said, finally speaking up.

“Mr. Newbiggin, please tell us, what is this plan?” Henry Keswick asked curiously.

Henry Keswick still trusted the abilities of Newbiggin, the current Taipan of Jardine Matheson. However, where the Keswick family’s interests were concerned, no matter how capable Newbiggin was, he had to be removed so a Keswick could take over.

So, although Newbiggin was still in charge, an internal power struggle had already begun within Jardine Matheson & Co.

After composing his thoughts, Newbiggin slowly explained, “I call this plan the ‘Jardine-Land Mutual Control Plan.’ From the name, you might have already guessed my idea.

“That’s right. I plan to have Jardine Matheson & Co., Jardine Securities, and the Hongkong Land Group increase their shareholdings in each other, creating a stable iron triangle structure to achieve mutual control. This way, those Chinese merchants coveting our two companies will be forced to retreat.

“As long as each party holds 40% of the other’s shares, combined with the shares held by the shareholders of our British-funded conglomerate, the total will easily exceed 50%. Thus, the controlling stakes in Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land will be solid as a rock, and we will have no more lingering concerns.

“Even if those Chinese-funded conglomerates are wealthy, as long as we are unwilling to sell, they won’t be able to forcibly seize our controlling stake!”

Newbiggin’s words immediately sparked a discussion among everyone present.

The method was indeed a good one. If successfully implemented, no matter how much money the other party had, they wouldn’t be able to snatch away their controlling stake.

However, it was not without its difficulties, namely how they would increase their holdings in each other’s companies.

“Please, everyone, calm down. I have already considered this issue. My initial idea is that, given the current situation where the Hongkong Land Group is being targeted, we should first resolve its problem by increasing Jardine Matheson & Co.’s controlling stake in it.

“We can have the Hongkong Land Group issue new shares, into which we at Jardine Matheson & Co. will inject quality assets such as our thirty million-plus Wheelock A shares and our equity in the World Trade Centre in Causeway Bay. This will strengthen our control over the Hongkong Land Group.

“At the same time, the issuance of new shares will also effectively dilute the shares in Lin Haoran’s hands, reducing his influence. It kills two birds with one stone.” Seeing that the debate was getting heated and a consensus was hard to reach, Newbiggin spoke again, presenting his solution.

Newbiggin’s words instantly won the approval of many, and even Henry Keswick praised him over the phone, “Mr. Newbiggin’s proposal is indeed an excellent idea. I think we should proceed according to this plan.

“Now that the opponent has shown his hand, as long as we are fully prepared, Lin Haoran won’t be able to snatch the Hongkong Land Group from us, no matter how wealthy he is. After all, our Hongkong Land Group is not as easily breached as the Hongkong Electric Group!”

“Alright, it’s settled then. We will strive to resolve this matter completely within two weeks!” Newbiggin said decisively.

“Two weeks is too long. We need to accelerate the process of issuing new shares. I propose we complete it within ten days!” Henry Keswick quickly added.

Henry Keswick remained highly vigilant when it came to Lin Haoran.

Especially after Lin Haoran’s recent trip to Britain, where the Shipley Company incident caused a city-wide sensation. In the end, he had profited by tens of millions of British pounds, causing numerous local British companies to lose all face.

To be honest, the Keswick family’s wealth was merely average in Britain, not particularly outstanding. They only held about 10% of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s shares and didn’t even have a controlling stake. He lacked the might of a financial group like the Squid financial group behind the DHL Group.

Therefore, Henry Keswick feared that delaying for too long would lead to complications.

Henry Keswick had a grand plan in mind: he wanted his family to gain complete control of Jardine Matheson & Co. and use it to secure more benefits for the family, thereby elevating the Keswick family to the status of a top-tier financial group in Britain.

“Mr. Keswick, I’ll do my best,” Newbiggin finally replied cautiously.

The task of securing Jardine Matheson’s position and increasing its controlling stake in the Hongkong Land Group within ten days was indeed a significant challenge for him.

But he knew in his heart that this was a necessary measure to guard against Lin Haoran.

And so, the decision was made.

However, issuing new shares for the Hongkong Land Group was no simple task. It required meticulous preparation, submission of filing materials to the Stock Exchange, followed by a series of procedures including public announcements.

With all that, a ten-day deadline was indeed very tight.

Just as the high-level conference call at Jardine Matheson & Co. concluded, Lin Haoran’s car arrived at Wanqing Building.

He took the elevator and soon reached the 31st floor, where Universal Investment Company was located. He went to the Hongkong Land Group project team’s office and saw Su Zhixue organizing work.

“Boss, you’re here!” Seeing Lin Haoran, Su Zhixue’s anxious heart finally settled. It was as if he had found his backbone.

Chapter 306: Finding the Mole, Lin Haoran’s Plan

“Let’s talk in your office,” Lin Haoran said to Su Zhixue.

“Yes, Boss!” Su Zhixue replied.

The two soon arrived at the general manager’s office.

“What’s the situation with the Hongkong Land Group?” Lin Haoran asked.

It was now ten o’clock in the morning, meaning the stock market had been open for half an hour.

“Boss, the news spread too fast, so a lot of shareholders have their eyes on Hongkong Land Group’s stock. In just under half an hour, Hongkong Land Group’s market capitalization has already risen from nine point five billion Hong Kong dollars to ten point two billion Hong Kong dollars, and it’s still climbing. In this half-hour, we’ve accumulated a total of 1.18% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares. Adding that to the 29.36% we already held, our Universal Investment Company now actually holds 30.54% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares. Due to the rapid increase, I’ve temporarily suspended further accumulation,” Su Zhixue reported.

Lin Haoran nodded and said in surprise, “We actually bought that much?”

1.18%. In the past month, it would have taken them nearly one or two weeks to acquire that much.

Now, it had taken them less than half an hour.

“In the past, we were more cautious with our stock accumulation to avoid being discovered. When the market opened today, we were free of all constraints and went all out. We’re very familiar with Hongkong Land Group’s stock, so we were able to acquire shares with ease,” Su Zhixue replied.

Following that, Su Zhixue reported on Hongkong Land Group’s current situation.

Numerous shareholders were now rushing in, hoping for a repeat of an event like the Kowloon Wharf takeover battle. Many had made a huge profit from Kowloon Wharf’s stock last time, so it was perfectly normal for them to start speculating on Hongkong Land Group’s shares after learning that Lin Haoran had set his sights on it.

“Based on the shareholders’ current reaction, its stock price should continue to rise rapidly in the short term. Should we continue to increase our shareholding?” Su Zhixue asked after his detailed report.

Lin Haoran calculated for a moment. Including the 6% from Hongkong Electric Group, he effectively controlled 36.54% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares.

Barring any surprises, it was impossible for Jardine Matheson & Co. and all the British shareholders combined to hold more than that amount. In other words, he could basically seize the controlling stake.

The only concern now was the unknown competitor, who should have accumulated under five percent of the shares in the past two or three months.

If this competitor sold their shares to Jardine Matheson & Co., then his 36.54% stake might not be secure.

“What’s the trading volume for Jardine Matheson & Co.?” Lin Haoran asked after some thought.

“The trading volume for Jardine Matheson & Co. stock is about the same as usual, with no significant changes. I estimate that only our Universal Investment Company is secretly accumulating it,” Su Zhixue replied.

“I see. Continue accumulating Hongkong Land Group’s shares, but slow down the pace. Have the Jardine Matheson & Co. project team increase their efforts to acquire Jardine Matheson shares!” Lin Haoran said directly.

A preliminary plan had already formed in his mind.

“Yes, Boss,” Su Zhixue nodded.

“By the way, Zhixue, has anyone from the Hongkong Land Group project team resigned recently?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Boss, our compensation is top-tier in Hong Kong’s securities industry, so no one would resign voluntarily unless we fired them. In fact, not a single employee has resigned from our company this year.” Although he didn’t understand why the Boss was asking, Su Zhixue answered truthfully.

“Alright, I understand. You can get back to your work now!” Lin Haoran said with a wave of his hand.

“I’ll be leaving then, Boss!” Su Zhixue said before exiting the office.

Watching Su Zhixue leave, Lin Haoran also left the general manager’s office and returned to his own.

He didn’t interfere too much with the project team’s work arrangements. He trusted his general manager, Su Zhixue, completely and didn’t want to cause any disruptions.

Sitting in his office, he looked out at the skyscrapers on both sides of Victoria Harbour and the bustling streets filled with traffic.

In the distance, an airplane was taking off from Kai Tak International Airport.

Today in Hong Kong, the weather was pleasant and the sky was clear, but Lin Haoran’s heart was anything but calm.

He was finally making his move on Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co.

Especially with Hongkong Land Group—for him, success was the only option; failure was not!

Time ticked by, and soon it was twelve o’clock noon.

Lin Haoran finally left his office. Su Zhixue happened to be coming out of the office where the Jardine Matheson & Co. project team was based.

“Boss, it’s the lunch break. The morning trading session is over. I’ll come to your office to report on this morning’s results,” Su Zhixue said hurriedly to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran shook his head and said directly, “That can wait. I want you to gather everyone from the Hongkong Land Group project team and bring them to the conference room. It won’t take long, just a few minutes!”

He hadn’t forgotten that there was still a suspected mole in the company.

From his earlier conversation, Lin Haoran already knew that no employee had resigned this year, which meant the informant who sold the story to the Hong Kong Times was still working here!

Enjoying a high salary at the company while trying to make extra cash on the side—there was no such thing as a free lunch.

For anyone else, finding this mole would be a difficult task.

But for Lin Haoran, it was as easy as could be.

“Yes, Boss. I’ll do it right away before they all go out for lunch,” Su Zhixue immediately agreed.

Soon, dozens of employees from the Hongkong Land project team had gathered in one of the company’s conference rooms.

There were men and women, though mostly men. Dressed in suits, the employees now waited with puzzled looks on their faces.

It was their lunch break. They had an hour to eat before returning to work in the afternoon.

When Lin Haoran walked into the conference room, all the employees stood and said in unison, “Good afternoon, Boss!”

“Right, you’ve all worked hard recently!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

At that moment, however, his eyes were fixed on a middle-aged man wearing a colorful tie.

His Loyalty score was glaringly obvious.

Most of the other employees had scores in the seventies or eighties, with the lowest being seventy. Yet this middle-aged man with the colorful tie had a Loyalty score so low that Lin Haoran could tell at a glance that something was wrong.

Ruan Jingcheng: [Loyalty: 13/100]

It was ridiculously low.

He had checked the Loyalty of everyone who joined the company. If he remembered correctly, this man’s score had once been over seventy, but now it was a pitiful thirteen.

He knew from experience that Loyalty would plummet after an act of betrayal.

So, it was clear at a glance who the mole was.

“I won’t keep you any longer. You can all go to lunch. You’ll have another busy afternoon,” Lin Haoran continued.

Everyone was a little baffled, not understanding why the Boss had called them over.

Was it just to say those two sentences?

It wasn’t just the employees on the scene; even the general manager, Su Zhixue, didn’t understand the point of this.

After everyone had left, Lin Haoran turned to Su Zhixue and asked, “That middle-aged man with the colorful tie, slight bald spot, and gold-rimmed glasses—that should be Ruan Jingcheng, right?”

“Yes, Boss. He’s been with the company for a while. He was part of the third batch of hires and has been here for over a year,” Su Zhixue answered respectfully.

Lin Haoran nodded but didn’t directly tell Su Zhixue that this Ruan Jingcheng was the spy.

There was no point in telling him. With a mole like this, conventional methods would never make him confess.

So even if he told Su Zhixue, it would be difficult for him to find concrete evidence to expose the mole.

“Starting this afternoon, don’t assign him any important work, especially confidential tasks. But be careful not to let him realize you’re targeting him,” Lin Haoran then instructed.

“Huh? Boss, do you suspect he’s the one who leaked the news that we were targeting Hongkong Land Group?” Su Zhixue quickly understood.

That was the only explanation for why the Boss would target an ordinary employee.

“Just do as I say,” Lin Haoran said with a faint smile, offering no further explanation.

The reason he didn’t have Su Zhixue fire him directly was that Lin Haoran didn’t want to alert the enemy.

If he were suddenly fired, the man would surely realize his actions might have been exposed.

If he then fled Hong Kong, it would be difficult for Lin Haoran to find him.

Although he was just a minor figure, he had to face the consequences for what he had done.

And for Lin Haoran, making this mole confess his mistakes was a simple matter—he just had to use unconventional means!

“Yes, Boss, I understand,” Su Zhixue immediately replied, not pressing the issue further.

For him, it was enough to follow the Boss’s orders.

Next, Su Zhixue took the initiative to report on the company’s results for the entire morning.

After slowing the pace of acquiring Hongkong Land Group shares, by the time trading closed at 12 PM, Universal Investment Company’s stake in the group had only reached 30.76%, an increase of just 0.22% from two hours earlier.

Jardine Matheson & Co., on the other hand, had been a fruitful endeavor.

Over the morning, Universal Investment Company had increased its shareholding in Jardine Matheson by 0.96%.

Adding this to their existing shares, Lin Haoran now secretly controlled over 19% of Jardine Matheson’s shares. At the morning’s acquisition rate, surpassing 20% today would be no problem at all.

This was the first time they had acquired such a large amount since they began accumulating Jardine Matheson & Co. stock.

After all, in the past six months or more, they had only accumulated about 18% of Jardine Matheson’s shares.

But now, in just a single morning, the trading volume was nearly one percent of Jardine Matheson’s total shares.

Chapter 307: A Feint to the East, an Attack to the West—Michael Sandberg’s Shock!

In the past, because Jardine Matheson & Co. did not have many shares in the secondary market, accumulating them was extremely difficult, not to mention they had to prevent others from discovering their designs on the company.

But today, after intensifying their efforts, the speed of their stock accumulation naturally increased significantly.

However, after this move by Universal Investment Company, the Hongkong Land Group would likely be on high alert.

But Lin Haoran no longer cared.

Since the matter with Hongkong Land Group had already been exposed, he was preparing a feint.

After Su Zhixue finished his report, Lin Haoran sent him off to lunch.

Then, he took out a phone book, quickly flipped to a page filled with numbers.

Lin Haoran picked up the office phone and dialed a number.

Soon, the call connected.

He was calling Bearded Yong, one of the leaders of the 13K.

“Mr. Pan, there’s a matter I’d like to trouble you with…” Lin Haoran told Bearded Yong everything about the mole, down to the last detail.

That’s right, Lin Haoran intended to use the power of the triad society to find evidence.

If the gentle approach didn’t work, it was time for the hard one.

With the methods of a triad society like the 13K, finding evidence on the mole wouldn’t be difficult at all!

“Rest assured, Mr. Lin. I will handle this matter for you properly. We’ll have results by tonight at the earliest. If he really is the mole you say he is, I can definitely help you find sufficient evidence!” Bearded Yong agreed immediately after hearing Lin Haoran’s request.

“Then I’ll have to trouble you, Mr. Pan!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“It’s a small matter, Mr. Lin. I’ll go instruct my men right away!” Bearded Yong answered respectfully.

No matter how unruly he was in the outside world, he didn’t dare show an ounce of disrespect to Lin Haoran.

“Alright, I won’t disturb you any further, Mr. Pan,” Lin Haoran said before hanging up.

As for Ruan Jingcheng, the ordinary employee on Universal Investment Company’s Hongkong Land Group project team, Lin Haoran’s goal was not merely to find concrete evidence that he had leaked company secrets.

His true intention was to make an example of him, to make every employee at Universal Investment Company deeply understand just how severe the consequences of betraying the Boss were!

With the 13K’s intervention, there was no doubt Ruan Jingcheng would face a brutal interrogation tonight.

While Lin Haoran wouldn’t go to the extreme of taking his life, he intended for Ruan Jingcheng to spend the rest of his days in prison, living off the state!

Only when Ruan Jingcheng’s tragic fate became a lingering shadow in the minds of all Universal Investment Company employees, making them deeply feel the heavy price of their mistakes, would Lin Haoran’s objective be truly achieved.

After the call, Lin Haoran also left Wanqing Building.

At this point, there was no use staying at Universal Investment Company.

He first had a delicious lunch with the brothers Li Weidong and Li Weiguo at a nearby restaurant, then had Li Weidong drive him directly to the HSBC headquarters building.

About ten minutes later, Lin Haoran appeared at the HSBC headquarters.

“Is Mr. Michael Sandberg in his office?” Lin Haoran asked the lobby manager directly.

He was now a member of HSBC’s Board of Directors, which made him one of its senior executives.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Michael Sandberg came to the office early this morning and hasn’t left since. I saw him having a meal in the company cafeteria half an hour ago. He should be in his office now,” the lobby manager replied hurriedly upon seeing it was Lin Haoran.

Knowing Michael Sandberg was in, Lin Haoran took the elevator straight to the floor of his office.

Arriving at the door to Michael Sandberg’s office, Lin Haoran knocked. Sure enough, Michael Sandberg’s voice came from inside: “Please come in.”

He turned the handle and opened the door. As expected, Michael Sandberg was at his desk, head down, writing something with a fountain pen.

When the door opened, Michael Sandberg finally looked up. Seeing that his visitor was Lin Haoran, he was visibly surprised.

He immediately stood up to greet him, walking out from behind his desk with a smile. “Mr. Lin, the world is abuzz with rumors that you’re planning to acquire Hongkong Land Group. Surely it’s not true?”

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, let’s sit over there and talk,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, gesturing towards the sofa in the reception area.

He was in no hurry to answer Michael Sandberg’s question.

Michael Sandberg nodded, and the two walked over to the reception area and sat down facing each other.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, I won’t beat around the bush. I’ve come today to seek your support,” Lin Haoran said directly after sitting down.

“Oh? Mr. Lin, do you mean you want me to support your acquisition of Hongkong Land Group?” Michael Sandberg asked, hazarding a guess.

“No, Mr. Sandberg, I want to acquire Jardine Matheson & Co.! As far as I know, HSBC is also an important shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co., holding six percent of its shares. You previously supported my Uncle Pao in acquiring Kowloon Wharf. This time, I hope you can represent HSBC and support my acquisition of Jardine Matheson & Co.!” Lin Haoran said with a serious expression.

Lin Haoran’s real target was, of course, not Jardine Matheson & Co.

Trying to hold a controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. with less than twenty percent of the shares was undoubtedly a fool’s dream.

After all, Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group were completely different.

The shares held by the British shareholders in Hongkong Land Group, combined with those held by Jardine Matheson & Co., amounted to only about thirty percent.

But the shares of Jardine Matheson & Co. held by these British-funded conglomerates were close to forty percent.

And right now, he only held nearly twenty percent of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s shares.

Even though he had long since far surpassed the shares held by the Keswick family, becoming Jardine Matheson & Co.’s true largest shareholder, it was of no use!

Of course, it wasn’t completely useless. If HSBC were to support Lin Haoran’s bid to take control of Jardine Matheson & Co., it might just be possible!

This was because it wasn’t as simple as HSBC holding six percent of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s shares. HSBC also represented the largest faction among the British-funded conglomerates.

If even HSBC supported Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Jardine Matheson & Co., then there was absolutely a chance for him to take control of the company.

After all, among the British shareholders, not all of them supported the Keswick family; quite a few supported HSBC.

The very reason Lin Haoran had sought out Michael Sandberg was to gain his support.

Of course, for him, this was just a smokescreen.

In reality, he had no confidence at all in his ability to take control of Jardine Matheson & Co.; even if HSBC did end up supporting him, he might not succeed.

Everyone knew it was a foregone conclusion that the Chinese-funded conglomerates in Hong Kong would surpass the British-funded ones. Jardine Matheson & Co. now represented the last bastion of dignity for the major British-owned firms.

What Lin Haoran valued more was whether he could successfully take control of the Hongkong Land Group.

Currently, the Hongkong Land Group had been swept into a whirlwind of heated debate, which was seriously affecting his plan to take control of the company.

Therefore, Lin Haoran decided on a feint, shifting everyone’s focus from the Hongkong Land Group to Jardine Matheson & Co.

“Jardine Matheson & Co.? Aren’t you trying to acquire the Hongkong Land Group?” Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, even the usually imperturbable Michael Sandberg now wore a shocked expression.

Just two years ago, Jardine Matheson & Co.’s strength was on par with HSBC’s, and its status was even slightly higher.

Why did HSBC support Pao Yue-kong’s acquisition of Kowloon Wharf? Why didn’t it help Jardine Matheson & Co., a fellow British-owned enterprise?

This came down to the issue of status.

No matter where you looked, there was competition, even among the British-funded conglomerates!

HSBC had been rising in recent years, but there was a stumbling block in its path, preventing it from becoming the true number one among Hong Kong’s British-funded conglomerates.

That stumbling block was Jardine Matheson & Co.!

So why did HSBC help Pao Yue-kong snatch Kowloon Wharf from Jardine Matheson & Co.?

In reality, it was so that after Jardine Matheson & Co. lost an important subsidiary like Kowloon Wharf, HSBC’s strength would surpass it, allowing HSBC to become the true number one among the British-funded conglomerates.

In the end, HSBC succeeded.

After losing Kowloon Wharf, Jardine Matheson & Co.’s strength was gradually being surpassed by HSBC!

“I think acquiring Jardine Matheson & Co. is a better move. Hongkong Land Group is just a subsidiary under Jardine Matheson & Co. If I successfully acquire Jardine Matheson & Co., wouldn’t I indirectly control the Hongkong Land Group? Why would I need to go to the trouble of acquiring Hongkong Land Group?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“I’d like to know, how many shares of Jardine Matheson & Co. does Mr. Lin currently hold?” The look of shock on Michael Sandberg’s face had yet to completely fade.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Michael Sandberg, but until I have the support of you and HSBC, I cannot disclose the exact number of Jardine Matheson & Co. shares I own. However, I can tell you with certainty that I am already a major shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co.!” Lin Haoran replied.

This response, ironically, convinced Michael Sandberg that his true target was indeed Jardine Matheson & Co., not some Hongkong Land Group.

“Could it be that the leak about Hongkong Land Group was false news you deliberately released?” it occurred to Michael Sandberg to ask.

Lin Haoran just gave a mysterious smile, neither confirming nor denying it.

If the other party had misunderstood, that seemed to be for the best.

This way, everyone’s focus would naturally shift from the Hongkong Land Group to Jardine Matheson & Co.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, my purpose in coming to see you was to hopefully gain your support. Since you can’t give me a definite answer right now, I’ll be heading back. I look forward to hearing some good news from you!” Lin Haoran said, rising to his feet.

“Alright, then I won’t keep you from your work, Mr. Lin. I’ll see you out!” Michael Sandberg replied distractedly.

At that moment, his mind was in turmoil, a complex mix of thoughts filling his head.

In the morning, when he learned of the news that Lin Haoran was secretly targeting the Hongkong Land Group, he had been shocked.

Now, hearing from Lin Haoran himself that he was actually targeting Jardine Matheson & Co., he was even more stunned. His heart was anything but calm!

Chapter 308: HSBC’s Countermeasure

After Lin Haoran left the HSBC headquarters, Michael Sandberg immediately summoned several of his confidants to discuss the matter.

Although major decisions usually required the approval of the HSBC Board of Directors, Michael Sandberg held extremely high prestige within HSBC. His decisions often received the board’s ratification.

This was because all the senior executives understood that Michael Sandberg was wholeheartedly dedicated to the development of HSBC, and all his decisions were made in the bank’s best interests.

After he informed his confidants of his conversation with Lin Haoran, every single one of them was shocked.

After all, this was Jardine Matheson & Co. they were talking about!

In the past, it was the largest financial group in Hong Kong.

Even though it had lost Kowloon Wharf over a year ago, leading to a decline in its power, an old saying goes: a lean camel is still bigger than a horse. The current Jardine Matheson was still strong enough to rank second only to HSBC.

And now, someone was targeting Jardine Matheson, and a young Chinese man at that. How could these confidants not be shocked?

“Gentlemen, in your opinion, should we agree to Lin Haoran’s proposal and support his bid to take control of Jardine Matheson? Or should we reject his move?” Michael Sandberg finally asked with great solemnity.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, I don’t think we should support Mr. Lin!”

“That’s right, I agree! We went to great lengths, using Mr. Pao Yue-kong, to knock Jardine Matheson from its throne as Hong Kong’s hegemon, allowing HSBC to take the top spot. If we support Mr. Lin’s takeover of Jardine Matheson, wouldn’t our power be surpassed by a Chinese financial group?”

“Laurie is right. Our current position was not easily won. Mr. Lin already controls Hongkong Electric Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and several other powerful enterprises.

If we allow him to also take control of Jardine Matheson, it would mean he not only controls Jardine Matheson but also indirectly controls the Hongkong Land Group. The combined strength of all the enterprises under his command would surpass that of HSBC. Such a situation is not in our best interests!”

Not a single confidant was in favor of supporting Lin Haoran.

Michael Sandberg nodded in satisfaction. “That’s what I was thinking as well, which is why I didn’t agree to his proposal then and there. But I didn’t refuse him either. After all, Mr. Lin’s influence in Hong Kong’s business world is growing stronger by the day.

We still don’t know what Hong Kong’s future political landscape will look like, so it would be unwise to excessively offend this ever-strengthening Chinese financial group!”

“Not only should we refuse Mr. Lin, but we should also secretly pass this information to Jardine Matheson so they can prepare. If Mr. Lin takes over Jardine Matheson, it will do us more harm than good!” another confidant chimed in.

“So, what do you all think is the best way to respond to him without causing offense?” Michael Sandberg asked.

“Taipan, if we want to both refuse him and avoid offending him, I think the simplest and most direct method is to stall for time. Just keep delaying our answer. If he asks, we can say that the company’s senior executives haven’t made a decision yet. That way, there’s nothing he can do. As long as we don’t openly support Jardine Matheson, we won’t be seen as offending him!”

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, we could adopt an ambiguous stance,” another confidant suggested. “We can express interest in Mr. Lin’s proposal but state that we need time to carefully consider and evaluate it. This way, we neither reject him outright nor explicitly offer support, leaving ourselves room to maneuver.”

“At the same time, we can emphasize that any change regarding Jardine Matheson must be handled with caution, as it concerns the stability of Hong Kong’s business environment and the rights of numerous stakeholders,” another added. “Phrasing it this way makes us appear responsible and gives Mr. Lin a reasonable waiting period. During this time, we can covertly observe the situation and even manipulate events behind the scenes to ensure our interests are maximized.”

Hearing this, a flicker of approval crossed Michael Sandberg’s eyes. “That’s an excellent strategy. It’s polite yet leaves us ample room to operate.

We can also express our admiration for Mr. Lin’s business acumen, while simultaneously mentioning HSBC’s contributions and sense of responsibility to Hong Kong’s economy, implying that we will consider the bigger picture in any decision we make.”

Michael Sandberg and his confidants deliberated for a long time. Afterward, he made a direct call to Newbiggin, and the two arranged to meet in a secret location.

He planned to inform Newbiggin of Lin Haoran’s intention to acquire Jardine Matheson, thus giving Jardine Matheson ample time to prepare. With that, it would be impossible for Lin Haoran’s acquisition to succeed.

Michael Sandberg would not stand by and watch Jardine Matheson be acquired by Lin Haoran just like that.

Because it was not in HSBC’s best interests.

Only by remaining the hegemon of Hong Kong’s business world could HSBC have more final say.

An hour later, Jardine Matheson had been informed of Lin Haoran’s plan to acquire them.

Upon hearing the news, all of Jardine Matheson’s senior executives were stunned.

They were aware that the trading volume of Jardine Matheson’s shares had surged today, but they hadn’t paid it much mind, assuming someone was simply trying to manipulate the stock price on the coattails of the fluctuations in Hongkong Land Group’s shares.

But now, Michael Sandberg was telling them that Lin Haoran’s target wasn’t Hongkong Land Group, but Jardine Matheson itself?

If that were the case, it seemed all their strategic moves concerning Hongkong Land today had been for nothing.

And so, the senior executives of Jardine Matheson began a new round of discussions, deliberating on how to counter Lin Haoran’s ambition.

At four in the afternoon, Lin Haoran returned to the offices of Universal Investment Company.

Just as they had expected, their stock accumulation of Jardine Matheson shares that afternoon had progressed at the same pace as in the morning. At the same time, Universal Investment Company’s holdings in Jardine Matheson officially surpassed twenty percent, reaching 20.23%.

This stake was nearly double what the Keswick family held in Jardine Matheson.

As for Hongkong Land Group’s stock, their holdings had not increased much in the afternoon, as too many individual shareholders and even large investment funds had entered the fray.

The total number of available shares for Hongkong Land Group was not particularly large to begin with. With all the speculation, the share price surge was naturally exaggerated, and its market capitalization was even showing signs of surpassing HSBC’s.

Of course, everyone knew this market capitalization was just an illusion. They were all waiting for the great battle between Lin Haoran and Jardine Matheson over Hongkong Land.

They were eagerly anticipating a repeat of the Kowloon Wharf takeover battle, this time with Hongkong Land as the prize.

For the shareholders, it was a gamble. If they bet correctly, it could be their carnival.

Just like with the Kowloon Wharf stock, the share price had soared from twenty Hong Kong dollars per share to a high of one hundred and five Hong Kong dollars—a full fivefold increase!

Time flew, and evening soon arrived.

At six o’clock, Universal Investment Company closed for the day on time.

As usual, Ruan Jingcheng, in high spirits, got into his private car and left Wanqing Building, heading for his home in North Point.

He had been with Universal Investment Company for over a year, and this period was the pinnacle of his career. His income for one year was equivalent to what he had earned in two or three years previously, all thanks to the high bonuses.

But people are rarely satisfied. Now in his middle age, with several children to educate and a mortgage on a newly purchased house, his financial pressures had mounted. Earning more money had become his primary concern.

It was at this time that a reporter from the Hong Kong Times secretly contacted him, hoping he could provide some valuable information in exchange for a handsome reward.

He had initially intended to refuse, as he was doing well at Universal Investment Company and the benefits were good. But tempted by the high payout, he eventually agreed, especially since the other party promised he would never be exposed.

“This is just between you and me. As long as you don’t say anything and I don’t say anything, it’s impossible for anyone to know it was you! The bigger the scoop, the higher the reward I can request from my company for you!”

Just like that, Ruan Jingcheng received a payment of seven thousand Hong Kong dollars, a sum with which he was very satisfied.

Ruan Jingcheng drove out of the Wanqing Building and quickly merged onto the main road.

However, he was unaware that a van was already trailing behind his private car.

After driving for over ten minutes, his vehicle entered the North Point area. He then left the main road and turned onto a side street.

Just then, a van suddenly accelerated, cut in front of him, and screeched to a halt, forcing Ruan Jingcheng to stop his car as well, waiting to see what they would do.

But to his surprise, a man got out of the passenger seat of the van, walked straight to his window, and tapped gently on the glass.

Puzzled, Ruan Jingcheng rolled down his window, about to ask what was going on.

Before he could speak, the man yanked open the car door. Before Ruan Jingcheng could react, the man swiftly unbuckled his seatbelt and dragged him out of the driver’s seat.

Immediately after, several more people jumped out of the van. While Ruan Jingcheng was paralyzed with terror, they worked together to lift him into the van in front, quickly shut the doors, and sped off.

The entire incident took no more than thirty seconds.

The van then passed through the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, quickly entered the Kowloon Peninsula, and finally drove into a remote warehouse…

That evening, Lin Haoran returned to the Lin family villa on Severn Road as usual.

The news of his intention to acquire Jardine Matheson had already been leaked. Now, he just had to wait for it to brew.

His goal was precisely to shift everyone’s focus from Hongkong Land to Jardine Matheson.

Only then would he have a better chance of taking control of Hongkong Land Group.

At a little past nine that night, Lin Haoran received a phone call.

The call was from Bearded Yong, the 13K decision-maker for Yau Tsim Mong.

Chapter 309: Lin Haoran Announces Acquisition of Jardine Matheson & Co., Hongkong Land Group’s Stock Price Plummets

After hanging up, Lin Haoran didn’t give much thought to the call from Bearded Yong.

His intention toward that particular employee of Universal Investment Company had always been simply to make an example of him.

Only by doing so could he reduce the chances of similar incidents happening at the company in the future.

At nine o’clock the next morning, Lin Haoran arrived again at Universal Investment Company.

Today, everyone was horrified to discover something new.

Several major newspapers were reporting on something completely unexpected.

Lin Haoran’s target wasn’t Hongkong Land Group, but Jardine Matheson & Co.?

They learned of this not from Michael Sandberg, nor from Jardine Matheson, but from someone Lin Haoran himself had arranged to inform the media.

Originally, Lin Haoran had only planned to give the story to the Oriental Daily News. After all, it was his own paper, and an exclusive scoop would naturally be better for his own people.

But on second thought, he realized everyone would guess that he had leaked it himself. After the much-publicized Fortress Electrical Company incident, everyone knew the Oriental Daily News was now Lin Haoran’s property.

So, he had someone spread the news, intentionally leaving out the Oriental Daily News and instead leaking it to several other major newspapers like the Sing Tao Daily, Ta Kung Pao, and the South China Morning Post.

This way, no one would know that Lin Haoran had released the information himself.

He needed to cool down the hype around Hongkong Land so he could increase his shareholding while the opportunity lasted, thus securing a firmer grasp on the situation.

After meeting with Michael Sandberg yesterday, he had received no reply by this morning. He already knew that getting support from HSBC was basically impossible.

In other words, his chances of taking control of Jardine Matheson were now practically zero.

Therefore, he had to focus all his efforts on Hongkong Land Group.

Although his actual controlling stake in Hongkong Land, including the 6% held by Hongkong Electric Group, was already close to 37%.

But to guarantee one hundred percent success, Lin Haoran decided to increase his shareholding in Hongkong Land even further.

However, the current stock price of Hongkong Land was too high. Every additional 1% of shares cost tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars more than it would have in the past.

Therefore, it was essential to drive down Hongkong Land’s stock price.

And the method to do that was simple: make everyone think his target was Jardine Matheson, not Hongkong Land!

Not long after he arrived in Su Zhixue’s office, Burton called.

“Boss, the head of property security just told me that a lot of reporters have shown up on the first floor, at least thirty or forty of them. They’re hoping for an interview. Do you want to see them? If not, I’ll have security block them,” Burton reported urgently.

“Reporters? Arrange for them to gather in an empty space. I’ll go talk to them,” Lin Haoran said after a moment’s thought.

He wasn’t surprised at all that reporters had come looking for him.

With such a major development, it would be strange if they didn’t seek him out.

In fact, Lin Haoran guessed that the reporters had probably split into two groups—one coming for him, the other heading to the Jardine Matheson headquarters.

After all, the main players in this affair were him and Jardine Matheson.

“Alright, Boss. I’ll make the arrangements now. There’s an empty conference room on the 28th floor that would be perfect for you to meet them. You can come down in about 20 minutes,” Burton said directly.

“Okay, thank you for your hard work,” Lin Haoran said before hanging up.

Twenty minutes later, Lin Haoran, accompanied by Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, took the elevator down to the 28th floor.

The moment he stepped out, he saw Burton.

At the same time, several more security guards were present on the floor.

These guards were from the Universal Security Consulting Company, which was now responsible for the security of the entire Wanqing Building, as well as properties like the International Building and Wan’an Building in Causeway Bay.

With so many reporters present and the Boss coming down, security naturally needed to be reinforced.

“Boss, the reporters are all in room 2806. I’ll take you there,” Burton said to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly and followed Burton into a conference room that had been cleared of its tables.

As soon as he crossed the threshold, the flashes of twenty to thirty cameras lit up instantly, as dazzling as a starry sky.

The reporters eagerly tried to swarm around him, but they were kept at a safe distance by several well-trained security guards.

Lin Haoran walked calmly to the front of the group of reporters and said with a smile, “Everyone, I understand why you’re here, so I’ll share a brief statement with you all.

“The reports in the newspapers are accurate. I do intend to acquire Jardine Matheson & Co. Since this is now public, I won’t hide it any longer.

“The idea of acquiring Jardine Matheson came to me at the beginning of this year. In my view, Jardine Matheson is an outstanding enterprise, and a successful acquisition would undoubtedly have a profound impact on my career and life plans.

“To be frank with you all, I have already become a major shareholder of Jardine Matheson. I will be formally engaging with the Jardine Matheson Board of Directors shortly to discuss the matter of the acquisition.”

Instantly, the room erupted in a commotion. With Lin Haoran’s personal confirmation, every reporter knew that Hong Kong was about to witness another earth-shattering business war.

At that moment, a reporter raised his hand and asked, “Mr. Lin, how confident are you about acquiring Jardine Matheson?”

Hearing the question, a confident smile touched the corners of Lin Haoran’s lips. He looked at the reporter and said slowly, “Confidence is something I’ve always had, and in abundance.

“Just like when I previously acquired Hongkong Electric Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, and China Gas Company, I am full of confidence about acquiring Jardine Matheson. I believe this time will be just as smooth as before.

“This is not just because I have already become Jardine Matheson’s largest shareholder, but also because I have a clear blueprint and plan for its future development.

“I am well aware that as a long-standing business giant in Hong Kong, Jardine Matheson’s brand value, business network, and market influence are immeasurable.

“I am confident that through my efforts and the collaboration of my team, we can further unlock Jardine Matheson’s potential and push its business toward greater diversification and higher levels of growth.

“Of course, I also understand that acquiring and integrating a company of this scale is no easy task. But I believe that with my experience and resources in the business world, combined with Jardine Matheson’s own solid foundation, we can overcome any challenge and create an even more brilliant future together.

“Therefore, I am full of confidence about taking control of Jardine Matheson, and I look forward to working hand in hand with my colleagues there to achieve great things.”

Lin Haoran’s words conveyed a strong sense of confidence and determination, leaving no doubt in the minds of the reporters present about his firm belief in this acquisition.

For a moment, camera flashes went off one after another, capturing this significant moment.

Lin Haoran’s performance was incredibly convincing. His speech made every reporter completely believe that he genuinely wanted to acquire Jardine Matheson.

Yet who could have imagined that Lin Haoran’s true target was not Jardine Matheson at all, but Hong Kong’s largest real estate conglomerate—Hongkong Land Group!

The reporters wanted to ask more questions, but Lin Haoran didn’t give them the chance.

“Everyone, I have a lot of work to attend to, and later I have to discuss the acquisition with Mr. Newbiggin. I’ve said everything I wanted to say. You may all leave now.”

After speaking, Lin Haoran left the conference room under the escort of his security guards, leaving behind a crowd of reporters who were still buzzing with discussion, trying to dig up more information.

This impromptu press conference quickly became the focal point of Hong Kong’s business community and society at large, sparking widespread discussion and speculation.

With dozens of people in the room, someone was bound to spread the word quickly.

Thus, not long after Lin Haoran dealt with the reporters, the news reached the four stock exchanges.

Upon confirming that the newspaper reports were true, many of the shareholders and financial groups that had participated in the stock accumulation of Hongkong Land the day before were left stunned.

Everyone was saying Lin Haoran was going to acquire Hongkong Land. How did it suddenly become Jardine Matheson?

Yesterday, Jardine Matheson’s stock price had risen by nearly 50%, and its market capitalization had reached a terrifying figure of over thirteen billion, not far behind HSBC’s total market value.

Now, with this news, one could only imagine the impact on the stock market.

Thus, not long after the market opened, Hongkong Land Group’s stock price began to plummet.

Everyone knew that Hongkong Land’s stock had been driven up too high the day before. With the news now confirmed, its price was bound to fall sharply.

Consequently, many shareholders were willing to cut their losses and sell their Hongkong Land shares, fearing that if they waited too long, they would lose even more.

13.5 billion, 13 billion, 12.6 billion, 12.1 billion, 11.7 billion…

In just half an hour after the market opened, Hongkong Land’s stock price had fallen back to around ten billion Hong Kong dollars.

In stark contrast to Hongkong Land, Jardine Matheson’s stock price climbed steadily higher.

Shareholders were prone to believing whatever they heard, and the current situation was playing out exactly as Lin Haoran had intended.

Although his actions bordered on market manipulation, no one would think so at this time, because he had genuinely become Jardine Matheson’s largest shareholder, with his stake reaching 20%.

Holding so many shares gave him the right to declare his ambition to acquire the company.

Whether he succeeded or not was another matter entirely.

Besides, he had never explicitly denied wanting to acquire Hongkong Land Group.

Not long after he returned to his office, a young man, led by the head of security, came to his office.

He was one of Bearded Yong’s subordinates, here to deliver the evidence to Lin Haoran.

As for Bearded Yong, it was naturally not appropriate for him to come in person.

Chapter 310: Li Jiacheng’s Ambition

Meanwhile, at the Jardine Matheson & Co. headquarters, Newbiggin was also meeting with a crowd of reporters.

By now, he was also aware of Lin Haoran’s stance toward Jardine Matheson & Co.

Faced with this sudden interloper, he was quite worried. After all, he knew that Lin Haoran had previously secured a two billion Hong Kong dollar loan from HSBC!

At the time, no one knew the purpose of this huge sum, but now, Newbiggin finally understood—the other party intended to use these funds to acquire Jardine Matheson & Co.!

Faced with the well-funded Lin Haoran, neither Newbiggin himself nor the other shareholders of Jardine Matheson could help but feel a little shaken.

Could they truly remain as steadfast as a rock, completely unshaken?

The answer was likely no.

But when faced with a barrage of questions from the reporters, Newbiggin responded with a firm resolve: “After in-depth discussions with our shareholders, we can state unequivocally that Jardine Matheson & Co. has no intention of being sold. Mr. Lin Haoran’s designs on Jardine Matheson will ultimately come to nothing. Jardine Matheson will always be a core enterprise of our British-funded conglomerate and will never fall into the hands of a Chinese-owned enterprise!”

In front of the public, he naturally had to maintain his composure and show no sign of panic.

“Then, what is your view on the fact that Mr. Lin Haoran has already become a major shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co.?” a reporter pressed on.

Newbiggin answered with a solemn expression, “Even if Mr. Lin has become a major shareholder, he cannot shake our controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. On this issue, all our British shareholders are in complete and unwavering agreement!”

“If Mr. Lin insists on continuing to increase his shareholding in Jardine Matheson, will this affect your controlling position?” another reporter asked.

“It will be absolutely difficult for Mr. Lin to acquire any more shares, and we have already prepared corresponding countermeasures. Therefore, I advise Mr. Lin to give up on the idea of acquiring Jardine Matheson, because he cannot possibly succeed, and he will certainly not be able to shake my control over Jardine Matheson & Co.!” Newbiggin replied swiftly and firmly.

“So, Mr. Newbiggin, could you tell us what your response strategy will be?”

…

Wanqing Building, 31st floor, in Lin Haoran’s office.

At that moment, he held evidence of a mole delivered by the 13K. Lin Haoran merely glanced at it, planning to hand it over to Su Zhixue to deal with after the market closed for the day.

After all, a common employee wasn’t worth his personal attention.

And just as Hongkong Land Group’s stock price plummeted to a certain level, the Hongkong Land Group team at Universal Investment Company, led by Su Zhixue, had already begun to secretly and continuously accumulate more of the company’s shares.

This was the day with the most pending sell orders for Hongkong Land Group stock in months.

A large number of pending orders went unfilled, piling up on the secondary market platform.

To sell as quickly as possible, shareholders kept lowering their prices, continuously driving down the transaction price.

The traders at Universal Investment Company steadily absorbed some of the shares.

Meanwhile, a few hundred meters away from Wanqing Building, in the Chinese Building, a certain department was also closely monitoring the secondary market for Hongkong Land Group.

This was the Securities Department of Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

Earlier this month, after returning to Hong Kong from Britain, Li Jiacheng had announced his official takeover of Hutchison Whampoa, and the former Chairman of the Board, Mr. Willie, had been forced to resign.

In other words, Hutchison Whampoa, a major British-owned firm and one of the Four Big Hongs, had been officially acquired by Li Jiacheng.

Thus, he turned his full attention to Hongkong Land Group.

Two days ago, upon learning that Lin Haoran had set his sights on Hongkong Land Group and had been planning his move for over half a year, Li Jiacheng’s first thought was: “Damn it, I’ve probably failed again!”

But today, the newspapers reported that the company Lin Haoran wanted to acquire was not Hongkong Land Group at all, but Jardine Matheson & Co.!

And so, Li Jiacheng’s confidence was restored.

Although Cheung Kong Holdings Group and Hutchison Whampoa did not yet hold many shares in Hongkong Land Group, in Li Jiacheng’s view, Hongkong Land itself was a behemoth. It wouldn’t be so easy to acquire; he could take his time.

Li Jiacheng believed that if he was given two years to lay his plans in secret, he could definitely take down Hongkong Land Group.

Moreover, after officially taking control of Hutchison Whampoa, Li Jiacheng had gained an ally in his quest to acquire Hongkong Land.

So now, Cheung Kong Holdings Group could acquire shares of Hongkong Land Group together with the Hutchison Whampoa Group.

He had his own sources of intelligence, so he had immediately learned about the interviews with both Newbiggin and Lin Haoran.

At this moment, Li Jiacheng saw this as a golden opportunity to accelerate his acquisition of Hongkong Land Group.

Let Lin Haoran fight Jardine Matheson & Co. out in the open, while he acquires shares of Hongkong Land in the shadows!

Lin Haoran had figured out that the British-funded conglomerate collectively held only about thirty percent of Hongkong Land Group’s shares, a fact that Li Jiacheng could naturally see as well.

Therefore, although Hongkong Land’s current stock price was absurdly high, he believed that spending three billion Hong Kong dollars to gain control of the group would be a deal with absolutely no downside!

“This Lin Haoran is too young and too greedy, after all, attempting to indirectly control Hongkong Land by acquiring Jardine Matheson. If he had focused solely on Hongkong Land, I might not have had an opportunity.

But now, he’s overestimating himself by coveting Jardine Matheson, intending to clash head-on with the British-funded conglomerate. Such youthful vigor is not always a good thing. Let him taste some hardship!” Li Jiacheng muttered to himself, a smile playing on his lips as he reviewed the intelligence report his subordinate had handed him.

He was quite satisfied with the current situation.

Because of this, the Securities Departments of both Cheung Kong Holdings Group and Hutchison Whampoa Group had quietly joined the fray, increasing their holdings of Hongkong Land Group shares.

“Perhaps, when Lin Haoran’s battle with Jardine Matheson shows signs of flagging, I can extend a helping hand. Let him focus on dealing with Jardine Matheson while I concentrate on Hongkong Land. He should gladly accept such a proposal!” At that moment, a new plan was already forming in Li Jiacheng’s mind.

Ever since taking over Hutchison Whampoa, his ambition had grown like wildfire, becoming uncontrollable.

If he could succeed in a takeover akin to a snake swallowing an elephant with Hutchison Whampoa, why couldn’t he conquer Hongkong Land Group as well?

Once he secured a controlling stake in Hongkong Land Group, combining its strength with that of Cheung Kong Holdings Group and Hutchison Whampoa Group, he would undoubtedly become the foremost leader of a super financial group in Hong Kong!

This was the very heart of Li Jiacheng’s current, burgeoning ambition!

As Cheung Kong Holdings Group and Hutchison Whampoa made their move, Su Zhixue’s team also noticed something unusual.

“Boss, that persistent competitor still hasn’t given up. After Hongkong Land’s stock price fell, they made their move at the same time we did!” Su Zhixue came to Lin Haoran’s office to report.

“Oh? They’re quite relentless. I pushed down Hongkong Land’s stock price, and they’re just coming in to snap up a bargain?” Lin Haoran murmured with a frown.

After a moment’s thought, Lin Haoran asked, “How fast are they accumulating shares?”

“Not very fast. They also seem worried about driving the stock price back up, so they’re accumulating very cautiously. Their actions are almost in perfect sync with ours. They are only competing with us for shares below sixty-eight Hong Kong dollars per share and won’t touch anything above that. By the way, sixty-eight Hong Kong dollars per share puts Hongkong Land Group’s total market capitalization at around ten billion Hong Kong dollars,” Su Zhixue replied.

Lin Haoran nodded and said, “Since they don’t want to drive the price up too high, you go ahead and raise Hongkong Land’s market cap to eleven billion Hong Kong dollars. How many shares can you acquire that way?”

Did they want to snap up a huge bargain?

There was no such thing as a free lunch.

“I’ll need to run the numbers. The pending orders for Hongkong Land are changing every second,” Su Zhixue answered cautiously.

“Alright, get back to it. Don’t worry about calculating for now. Just raise Hongkong Land’s stock price to a market cap of eleven billion Hong Kong dollars. At the same time, keep monitoring the market. See if they continue to buy after the price rises, and notify me immediately if anything happens!” Lin Haoran said directly.

Before today, counting the shares held by Universal Investment Company and Hongkong Electric Group, he already controlled nearly thirty-seven percent of Hongkong Land Group’s shares.

This meant he only needed to acquire another three percent, spending another three to four hundred million Hong Kong dollars, to push his holdings in Hongkong Land past forty percent.

Moreover, it was rare to see so many pending orders on the secondary market. This was a great opportunity, and if he missed it, it would be hard to find another one.

This was because there couldn’t be that many retail shares left on the secondary market.

Furthermore, he didn’t want this unknown competitor to hold too many shares of Hongkong Land.

If they held too much and later realized they couldn’t acquire Hongkong Land, they might turn around and hold out for a better price, selling their shares to the British-funded conglomerates behind Jardine Matheson. In that case, even with a forty percent stake, his position might not be secure.

Therefore, he had to take advantage of this excellent opportunity to accumulate more shares on a large scale. At the same time, he would also drive the stock price up a little. This way, he could achieve his goal of a rapid share increase while also preventing his opponent from continuing their accumulation.

Li Jiacheng was operating so secretively that even now, Lin Haoran had no idea that the one secretly opposing him was Li Jiacheng.

In actuality, many Chinese-funded conglomerates would later set their sights on Hongkong Land; Li Jiacheng was merely the first to make a move.

In another world, Li Jiacheng had coveted Hongkong Land Group multiple times, but unfortunately, all his attempts ended in failure.

Lin Haoran checked with the Finance Department of Universal Investment Company and was surprised to find that of the two billion Hong Kong dollar loan he had taken from HSBC, he had only spent about one billion Hong Kong dollars so far.

Not only that, but he had also earned another 370 million Hong Kong dollars through the Shipley Company while in Britain. So, in reality, he still had over a billion Hong Kong dollars in available funds.

Chapter 311: Spreading the News: Selling Amigo Company Shares!

Although he had ample funds at the moment, the money was ultimately from a loan and would have to be repaid.

If possible, it would be best to secure a sum of money himself.

In the blink of an eye, it was four o’clock in the afternoon.

This marked the official close of the Hong Kong stock market for the day.

At 4:15 PM, Su Zhixue walked into Lin Haoran’s office with a report.

“Boss, we caught everyone off guard and pushed the stock price straight to 74 Hong Kong dollars per share, bringing Hongkong Land Group’s total market capitalization to eleven billion Hong Kong dollars. Our shareholding has reached 33.78%, just shy of 34%!

“Also, after we drove the price up, we noticed the other party has temporarily stopped making moves, but we don’t know if they will resume tomorrow. Our sudden large-scale stock accumulation caused a sharp spike in Hongkong Land’s trading price.

“As a result, many shareholders have withdrawn their pending orders, afraid of selling themselves short. This has further reduced the number of Hongkong Land shares available on the market, making it much more difficult to acquire them now.” Su Zhixue handed the report to Lin Haoran while highlighting the key points.

“33.78%?” Lin Haoran repeated, a smile spreading across his face.

What did this mean?

It meant that his controlling stake in Hongkong Land Group was already approaching 40%!

With just a little more accumulation, his controlling shares in Hongkong Land would break through the 40% mark.

After all, Hongkong Electric Group held 6% of the shares, which were also under his control.

Taking the report, he began to read it and replied with a smile, “You all did very well!”

While the stake in Hongkong Land had reached 33.78%, their shares in Jardine Matheson & Co. had not increased at all, remaining at around 20%.

After all, once the news of his intention to acquire Jardine Matheson & Co. spread, the stock price had remained stubbornly high.

Since it was difficult to take control of Jardine Matheson, he naturally wouldn’t be a sucker and overpay.

Therefore, Universal Investment Company had not made any moves on Jardine Matheson & Co. today.

There was little to worry about regarding the Hongkong Land situation.

With sufficient funds, any resistance from Jardine Matheson & Co. would be futile.

As for Jardine Matheson itself, although he knew the probability of a successful acquisition was very low, he had no intention of stopping the performance.

Because Jardine Matheson still had a lot of utility value.

For instance, the Jardine Matheson shares he held!

And what about the shares of Amigo Company?

Did Jardine Matheson and Amigo Company have any connection?

The two seemed to be completely unrelated, having nothing to do with each other.

But in Lin Haoran’s view, the current sensational acquisition of Jardine Matheson could still be linked to Amigo Company.

He handed all the evidence provided by 13K to Su Zhixue, asking him to arrange the follow-up work.

After reviewing the evidence, Su Zhixue was utterly shocked.

He hadn’t expected it to really be Ruan Jingcheng.

Ruan Jingcheng hadn’t come to work today, which Su Zhixue had found strange.

Later, Ruan Jingcheng’s family had called, telling him that Ruan Jingcheng hadn’t been home yesterday or today, and his whereabouts were unknown.

Su Zhixue had been puzzled at the time.

Now, seeing the evidence in his hands, he understood immediately that the Boss had made a move against him.

“Don’t worry, Boss. I will issue a company-wide announcement about Ruan Jingcheng to warn everyone. I will also contact the police. I will make sure Ruan Jingcheng pays the price he deserves!” Su Zhixue said solemnly.

At the same time, his admiration for his boss grew even stronger.

He had managed to pinpoint the mole from among so many people in the company in such a short amount of time.

If it were up to him, he knew he would never have been able to find the informant and would have had to turn the matter over to the police.

However, given the police’s capabilities, it was unlikely they would have been able to find the true mastermind.

Lin Haoran nodded, said a few words to Su Zhixue, and left the company.

He had spent most of the day at Wanqing Building. Now, it was time to have a chat with Newbiggin.

He got into his private car and had Li Weidong drive to Jardine House.

In less than ten minutes, Lin Haoran was in the underground parking lot of Jardine House.

Upon reaching the first-floor lobby, Lin Haoran intended to go directly to Newbiggin’s office but was stopped by the building’s head of security.

“Mr. Lin, do you have an appointment? If not, we will need to report to the Taipan,” the head of security said directly.

In Hong Kong, almost no one didn’t recognize Lin Haoran, including the Westerners living there.

Although this head of security was also a Westerner, he recognized Lin Haoran at a glance.

He was naturally aware of the current conflict between Jardine Matheson & Co. and Lin Haoran, so he didn’t hesitate to stop him.

“I’m a major shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co. It’s perfectly reasonable for me to be here. What right do you have to stop me?” Lin Haoran said, crossing his arms and looking at the head of security.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Lin. This is my duty. Please understand,” the head of security said helplessly.

“In that case, go ahead and contact Newbiggin. I’d like to see if he really intends to avoid me!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

There were quite a few people in the Jardine House lobby at that moment, including some reporters milling about, waiting for useful information or a chance to interview senior executives from Jardine Matheson & Co. They hadn’t expected to see such a scene.

Instantly, a dozen reporters swarmed forward, so fast that even the security guards couldn’t stop them.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Newbiggin has stated that you cannot possibly succeed in acquiring Jardine Matheson. What are your thoughts on this?” a reporter eagerly asked, thrusting a microphone in front of Lin Haoran.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran didn’t refuse the reporters’ questions and accepted the interview under the watchful eyes of numerous Jardine Matheson employees.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions. We have a Chinese proverb, ‘Who will emerge victorious?’ Until the very last moment, who can say for certain whether I will succeed in acquiring Jardine Matheson?” Lin Haoran replied with a faint smile.

“Mr. Lin, we’re all very curious, where did you get your funding?” another reporter immediately asked.

Lin Haoran had previously acquired Green Island Cement Company, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and Kowloon Motor Bus. Now he was targeting Jardine Matheson & Co., hailed as the “King of the Foreign Firms.” It was truly unbelievable.

At the same time, everyone was even more curious about the source of Lin Haoran’s funds. Could it really be, as many speculated, support from Citibank?

“I don’t mind telling you all. In fact, two months ago, I took out a loan of two billion Hong Kong dollars from HSBC!” Lin Haoran answered with a smile.

The crowd broke into an uproar. No one had expected the source of his funds this time to be HSBC, albeit in the form of a loan.

That explained why he had so much money to accumulate Jardine Matheson shares.

“Mr. Lin, since your funds are from a loan, for such a large sum, what will you do if your acquisition of Jardine Matheson fails and the loan becomes due?” a reporter asked.

“Failure? I believe I cannot fail. As for the funding, I do face some difficulties, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken out a loan. Of course, I have my own assurances.

Everyone should know that Amigo Company successfully went public not long ago, and its market capitalization is now over two billion Hong Kong dollars. I currently hold 40% of Amigo Company’s shares. To be more certain about acquiring Jardine Matheson, I plan to find a suitable buyer for my stake in Amigo.

“That way, my financial pressure will naturally be cut in half, and my confidence in acquiring Jardine Matheson will be even stronger!” Lin Haoran dropped a bombshell.

That’s right, he took advantage of the reporters’ presence to opportunistically spread the news that he wanted to sell his shares in Amigo Company.

This way, it would seem perfectly reasonable.

After all, compared to Amigo Company shares, acquiring Jardine Matheson was obviously ten, even a hundred times more important. Faced with such a choice, anyone would prioritize Jardine Matheson.

The two were not on the same level at all.

As for Liu Luanxiong, he had ways to appease him.

Why had Lin Haoran taken Amigo Company public?

It was to find an opportunity to cash out while the company was still at its peak.

He had been considering the right time to release the news and find a suitable buyer.

The current situation was just too perfect.

This piece of news from Lin Haoran sent the reporters into a state of euphoria. This was huge.

They hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to actually plan on selling his shares in Amigo Company.

After all, the IPO of Amigo Company had caused a huge stir a short while ago, with its stock price continuously breaking historical records. The company’s current market cap was over 2.2 billion Hong Kong dollars.

The reporters quickly jotted down this information. They could already imagine how eye-catching tomorrow’s headlines would be when everyone learned that Lin Haoran had to sell his Amigo Company shares to fund the acquisition of Jardine Matheson!

Jardine House wasn’t just occupied by Jardine Matheson employees. Over half of the thirty-plus floors in the skyscraper were rented out to other companies.

Therefore, the crowd around Lin Haoran grew larger and larger, to the point where even the building’s security could no longer maintain order.

Every word he said during the interview was heard by many.

So, even before the reporters could publish it in the newspapers, the news would be spread far and wide before the day was over.

Chapter 312: The Confrontation with Newbiggin

Faced with the reporters’ pressing questions, Lin Haoran answered without a second thought, “The reason I’m considering taking action against Jardine Matheson & Co. is largely due to the substantial loan I secured from HSBC.

If I can obtain further, unwavering support from HSBC, my confidence in successfully acquiring Jardine Matheson will undoubtedly be even stronger, just like Mr. Pao Yue-kong’s successful acquisition of Kowloon Wharf back in the day!”

Although Lin Haoran knew full well that HSBC was unlikely to support his plan to acquire Jardine Matheson, having noticed Michael Sandberg’s prolonged silence, it didn’t stop him from using HSBC’s name to add a layer of intimidation to his actions, playing a game of “the fox borrowing the tiger’s might.”

He had invested a massive amount of capital in Jardine Matheson & Co.

If he could successfully take control of the company, that would naturally be the best outcome.

However, if he couldn’t become the controlling party, holding on to those shares would be of little significance.

Therefore, using this opportunity to pressure the British-funded conglomerates for a considerable return was also a wise move.

After successively losing Kowloon Wharf and Hongkong Land Group, Lin Haoran, in truth, no longer held Jardine Matheson & Co. in high regard.

Jardine Matheson’s greatest advantage now was nothing more than its internationalization. Over the past twenty years, it had acquired companies in many overseas countries, thereby opening up channels for itself in those nations. However, this single advantage was of little use to Lin Haoran.

The British-funded conglomerates would obviously not want him to continue holding so many shares in Jardine Matheson and remain a major shareholder.

Holding a large number of shares meant that even if this acquisition attempt failed, he could stage a comeback at any time and launch another takeover bid whenever he pleased.

If he held on to these shares, the powers behind Jardine Matheson, especially the Keswick family, would only tighten their grip on the company as their private domain. How could they tolerate a massive threat like Lin Haoran continuing to hold so many shares?

After answering a few more questions from the reporters, the head of security received a response from Newbiggin.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Newbiggin is waiting for you on the 28th floor,” the security head said directly.

“Everyone, that concludes the interview!” Lin Haoran said to the reporters with a smile.

Even though the reporters wanted to ask more questions, they could see that he had business to attend to and felt it was inappropriate to continue crowding him.

Thus, the reporters voluntarily dispersed.

Their notepads and cameras already held plenty of useful material, enough for the writers in their editorial departments to craft many captivating articles.

Led by a member of the building’s property management staff, Lin Haoran stepped into a Western-style office on the 28th floor.

Inside sat the renowned taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., Newbiggin.

“Mr. Lin, please have a seat.” Although his heart was in turmoil and he desperately wanted to show his displeasure, Newbiggin ultimately suppressed his emotions and spoke to Lin Haoran in a calm and composed tone.

After all, the man before him had publicly claimed to be a major shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co. This status could not be taken lightly, and it was very likely true.

If it was true, then Lin Haoran’s equity already posed a significant threat to him, the taipan of Jardine Matheson.

Newbiggin’s mind drifted back to a few months ago when he was forced to publicly apologize to Lin Haoran on television. For him, that was undoubtedly the most humiliating disgrace of his life.

However, he had never imagined that this opponent, who had made him lose all face, would one day set his sights on Jardine Matheson & Co., attempting to covet the super-corporation that was entirely under his command.

At this moment, a complex look flashed in Newbiggin’s eyes—a mix of vigilance toward Lin Haoran’s intentions and a premonition of the challenge that lay before him.

He knew this meeting would not be simple. A contest that would determine the future of Jardine Matheson was quietly beginning.

“Mr. Newbiggin, I’m sure you can guess the reason for my visit. I believe Jardine Matheson is an excellent company, which is why I want to acquire it.

I’ve come today hoping to gain your support. If you can help me take control of Jardine Matheson, I guarantee that you can continue to lead its operations in the future,” Lin Haoran said with a smile after taking a seat.

“Mr. Lin, I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you. Jardine Matheson will never fall into Chinese hands!” Newbiggin shook his head without hesitation, his tone firm.

Lin Haoran did not seem surprised by this answer.

“I hope you’ll reconsider. As of now, I am the largest shareholder of Jardine Matheson, which is enough to secure me a seat on the Board of Directors and grant me considerable say. If I also gain the support of HSBC, your current position may be in jeopardy,” Lin Haoran continued his persuasion.

“HSBC will never side with you or support your acquisition of Jardine Matheson!” Newbiggin retorted without hesitation, his voice full of confidence.

Having been the taipan of Jardine Matheson for many years, Newbiggin had long since seen through many things, and he knew every detail of the company’s affairs.

For this reason, he had his own speculations as to why HSBC had supported Pao Yue-kong’s acquisition of Kowloon Wharf back then.

It was simply to knock Jardine Matheson & Co. off its throne, allowing HSBC to secure the top seat and become the undisputed leader.

And as it turned out, HSBC had indeed gotten its wish. Today, it was the unquestionable leader in Hong Kong’s business world.

However, Newbiggin couldn’t help but wonder: if Lin Haoran successfully acquired Jardine Matheson and further integrated the power of all the companies under his banner, would HSBC’s lofty position as the number one in business remain secure?

The answer was obviously no. That high and mighty throne would likely be in grave danger.

The combined strength of companies like Hongkong Electric Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and Green Island Cement was already formidable.

If Lin Haoran were to also control Jardine Matheson and, by extension, indirectly control Hongkong Land Group, how could HSBC possibly remain number one?

Therefore, Newbiggin was very confident that HSBC would absolutely not nurture a tiger that would become a future threat by supporting Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Jardine Matheson.

“Oh? Why is that?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“A hunch. I have a hunch that HSBC will not possibly support you!” Naturally, Newbiggin could not reveal his true thoughts.

“Who knows what the outcome will be until the very end?” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, I would like to know, how much equity in Jardine Matheson do you currently hold?” Newbiggin asked seriously, his eyes betraying a gravity that could not be ignored.

Lin Haoran smiled slightly and laid his cards on the table. “Mr. Newbiggin, I don’t mind telling you that my shares in Jardine Matheson already exceed twenty percent. As far as I know, the largest shareholder, the Keswick family, only holds about ten to twelve percent of the equity.

This is why I am so confident about acquiring Jardine Matheson. As long as I get the support of some shareholders, especially if HSBC provides its backing, then I am confident I can become the one in control of Jardine Matheson!”

Upon hearing this, Newbiggin’s expression changed slightly. He clearly had not expected Lin Haoran to hold so many shares.

Twenty percent. Holding so many shares, Newbiggin was now convinced that the man was genuinely trying to acquire Jardine Matheson, not just talking.

After a brief silence, he tried to compose himself and respond more calmly.

“Mr. Lin, even if your stake is not small, you still need the support of many more shareholders to become the one in control of Jardine Matheson. The probability of success is still very small.”

“Of course, I understand that. But believe me, I have made ample preparations. I will do my best to win HSBC’s support. However, even without their backing, I am confident that I can achieve my goal through other means,” Lin Haoran said, exuding confidence.

During their conversation, Lin Haoran did not mention the fact that he already controlled nearly forty percent of Hongkong Land Group’s shares.

Newbiggin, of course, did not know Lin Haoran had this ace up his sleeve and was still contemplating how to deal with the current situation.

“Mr. Lin, Jardine Matheson has a long history and a deep heritage. It will only belong to us, the British-funded conglomerates. We will not give it up easily. I hope you can understand that.”

Lin Haoran smiled in response, “Mr. Newbiggin, I respect the history and traditions of Jardine Matheson, but the business world is always full of change and opportunity. I believe that in its future development, Jardine Matheson needs more open and diverse thinking, and I am here with precisely that vision.”

The conversation with Newbiggin seemed to yield no useful information, but Lin Haoran had already achieved his goal.

He had proactively informed the other party that he held over twenty percent of the shares to create a greater sense of urgency.

He wanted these Westerners to live in fear.

Only then could he ultimately secure the greatest benefit.

In the end, the negotiations between the two broke down on bad terms.

Watching Lin Haoran’s figure leave the office, Newbiggin stared for a long time without turning away.

This young Chinese tycoon had shocked him time and time again.

With a sigh, Newbiggin came back to his senses and prepared to call the Henry Keswick family to discuss how to deal with the threat from Lin Haoran.

A twenty percent stake in Jardine Matheson was destined to hang over the heads of those who controlled the company, like a great mountain.

Meanwhile, after leaving Newbiggin’s office, Lin Haoran departed from Jardine House.

“Boss, where are we going?” Li Weidong asked, turning back from the driver’s seat.

“Let’s head back to the villa on Severn Road,” Lin Haoran said, glancing at the time. It was almost five in the afternoon; there was no need to go to the office.

At this point, he was in no hurry to make his next move.

Today’s two press interviews, coupled with his conversation with Newbiggin, had already set the stage.

All that was left to do was to wait patiently for events to develop further.

Chapter 313: Carrian Group Sets Its Sights on Amigo Company

For many of Hong Kong’s citizens, the day’s events were a drama the likes of which was rarely seen.

Although the newspapers had yet to report on it, the content of Lin Haoran’s two interviews, as well as Newbiggin’s, had already been actively spread by some and was known to many.

This was especially true for the upper echelons of society with a certain degree of influence, who were already fully aware of the situation.

While Lin Haoran was on his way back, in another building in Central, a middle-aged man’s eyes grew brighter and brighter as he listened to his subordinate’s report.

This was the headquarters of the Carrian Group, a real estate giant that had been sizzling hot in Hong Kong for the past two years.

And this middle-aged man was Chen Songqing, who was already a household name in Hong Kong.

His fame was no less than Lin Haoran’s, and he held a significant position among Chinese enterprises.

However, Lin Haoran had never had much interaction with him.

He knew very well that this man was not someone to be trifled with, and doing business with him would be tantamount to digging one’s own grave. Therefore, he had long decided to have no involvement with Chen Songqing whatsoever.

In fact, at the beginning of this year, Chen Songqing, the Chairman of the Carrian Group, had extended an olive branch to Lin Haoran at the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, hoping to jointly develop a real estate project, but Lin Haoran had politely declined with an excuse.

The Carrian Group’s current market capitalization already ranked among the top five real estate companies in Hong Kong.

However, what was unbelievable was that this real estate behemoth had been incorporated just three years prior, with a registered capital of only five million Hong Kong dollars.

On the surface, it seemed that, like Lin Haoran, it had completed a development journey of decades in just two or three years.

But in reality, he was completely different from Lin Haoran.

The rise of the Carrian Group was built on improper means such as speculation, loans, falsification, and conspiracy to defraud.

For example, Lin Haoran’s first financial partner, Bumiputra Finance, was the Carrian Group’s largest partner.

Over the past three years, Chen Songqing had already extracted over one billion Hong Kong dollars from this sucker of a finance company.

Not only that, but Chen Songqing had also borrowed heavily from other finance companies and banks.

The way Carrian Group secured so many bank loans was mainly by relying on its sophisticated financial maneuvers and strategic asset mortgages.

In 1978, the Carrian Group purchased a piece of land in Yuen Long for 18.5 million Hong Kong dollars and immediately mortgaged it to Malaysia’s Bumiputra Finance, successfully obtaining a loan of 60 million Hong Kong dollars.

In the same year, the group mortgaged another piece of land, purchased a few months earlier for 1.7 million Hong Kong dollars, to the Bank of Communications for a loan of 20 million Hong Kong dollars—an amount far exceeding the land’s cost.

In this way, the Carrian Group utilized the “snowball” principle, continuously mortgaging newly acquired assets to obtain more loans, and then using those loans to continue purchasing new assets.

This strategy caused the group’s assets and liabilities to grow rapidly in tandem, turning it into the business behemoth it was in Hong Kong’s commercial world today.

However, no one could have imagined that in 1983, just three years later, the Carrian Group’s fraudulent scheme would be exposed. This rapidly rising business empire would collapse spectacularly, leaving behind a black hole of debt amounting to over ten billion Hong Kong dollars, of which the amount owed to Bumiputra Finance alone would reach a staggering 4.6 billion Hong Kong dollars.

At this moment, this spirited middle-aged man already had an idea.

Lin Haoran intended to sell his shares in Amigo Company. Perhaps he could try to acquire Amigo Company!

When Amigo Company went public, he had paid attention to this enterprise.

At the time, he had marveled at how a fan factory, primarily in the manufacturing industry, could generate such high profits.

He was, of course, very clear about how the Carrian Group had expanded to its current state in the past two or three years.

Therefore, the Carrian Group was actually very unstable. Once the real estate market took a downturn, the Carrian Group could go bust at any time.

If he could acquire a high-quality industrial company like Amigo Company, it would undoubtedly fortify the Carrian Group’s moat and simultaneously push its market capitalization even higher.

That’s right, at this very moment, the leader of this Carrian empire had quietly set his sights on Amigo Company.

A company with an annual turnover of 1 to 2 billion Hong Kong dollars and profits of 400 to 500 million Hong Kong dollars—a market capitalization of five billion Hong Kong dollars for such an enterprise would not be excessive.

And now, Amigo Company’s market capitalization was just over two billion.

If he could secure a controlling stake in Amigo Company, he could definitely hype it up into a behemoth among Hong Kong’s top ten companies by market capitalization.

When that time came, wouldn’t getting his hands on two or three billion Hong Kong dollars, or even more, be child’s play?

Therefore, after receiving his subordinate’s report, Chen Songqing was tempted.

Although he had no money, and Carrian Group, in reality, had little money and was heavily in debt.

But it didn’t matter if he had no money. He could get a loan!

He was very familiar with this method.

As long as he could get the controlling stake in Amigo Company, he could then push Amigo Company’s stock price higher, while also boosting the Carrian Group’s market capitalization. Through this back-and-forth, he could get his hands on even more funds.

Thinking of this, he quickly contacted a subordinate: “Help me find detailed information on Amigo Company, especially its equity information.”

“Yes, Boss!”

Half an hour later, Chen Songqing held a document in his hand. This information was actually publicly released by securities firms.

Mr. Liu Luanxiong held 40% of the shares, and Mr. Lin Haoran held 40%.

These were the main shareholders of Amigo Company.

“As long as I buy the shares from Lin Haoran and then secretly accumulate some more from the stock market, won’t I be able to directly oust this Mr. Liu Luanxiong and take control of Amigo Company?” Chen Songqing’s eyes grew increasingly bright.

This was indeed possible.

Since Lin Haoran had publicly announced his intention to sell his shares in Amigo Company, it was unlikely to be just an off-the-cuff remark.

Even if he acquired the shares at the current market capitalization, he would only need to spend around one billion Hong Kong dollars to control the company.

Then, by using Amigo Company to rake in another two or three billion Hong Kong dollars, or even more, the Carrian Group could expand wildly again. The dream of becoming Hong Kong’s number one real estate stock in the future would not be out of reach!

At this thought, Chen Songqing wished he could acquire Amigo Company immediately.

Looking back at the Carrian Group’s development path, it was easy to see that his secret formula was: buy, buy, buy; borrow, borrow, borrow; and speculate, speculate, speculate!

At the end of 1979, Carrian acquired a controlling stake in the listed company Meihan Enterprises at a high price, renaming it Carrian Investment to serve as the group’s listed flagship.

In January 1980, Carrian announced a partnership with the Zhong family to purchase the Golden Gate Tower from Hongkong Land for 998 million Hong Kong dollars.

…

The Carrian Group expanded its business empire rapidly through large-scale acquisitions funded by issuing new shares and borrowing from banks.

However, Chen Songqing was still not satisfied with the current pace of Carrian Group’s development.

He wanted the Carrian Group to grow even faster!

Thus, Chen Songqing soon found Lin Haoran’s contact information.

This wasn’t a contact number Lin Haoran had given him; Lin Haoran hadn’t given him a business card back then.

He obtained Lin Haoran’s contact information through other tycoons in the industry. The number was for Lin Haoran’s private office in Wanqing Building.

However, when he called, no one answered.

Because Lin Haoran was no longer at Wanqing Building, it was natural that no one would answer the phone.

After trying several times, Chen Songqing gave up in frustration.

“Perhaps I’ll have to visit Lin Haoran in person tomorrow,” Chen Songqing muttered to himself.

At this moment, Lin Haoran had already returned home safely.

He had no idea that on the very day he announced his intention to sell his shares in Amigo Company, someone had already taken an interest.

Not long after he arrived home, Guo Henian called, wanting to pay him a visit to thank him for taking care of Guo Xiaohan in Britain.

As for his true purpose, only he himself knew.

Lin Haoran naturally couldn’t refuse a visit from this business tycoon.

So, after hanging up, he immediately had the kitchen staff go out and buy groceries to entertain the richest man in Southeast Asia that evening.

At a little past six in the evening, Lin Haoran once again saw Guo Henian, along with Guo Xiaohan, whom he hadn’t seen in over ten days.

He didn’t know if it was his imagination, but when Guo Xiaohan looked at him, her eyes seemed to hold a hint of resentment.

She had already revealed her feelings in Britain, and it would be strange if she didn’t feel resentful after he hadn’t taken the initiative to contact her in the ten-odd days since her return.

Lin Haoran gave an awkward smile, pretending not to have noticed.

He had no plans to get married so early.

“Haoran, I never thought you’d want to acquire Jardine Matheson & Co. Are you facing any difficulties with the acquisition? If you have any problems, don’t hesitate to tell your Uncle Guo. I’ll definitely help if I can!” Guo Henian asked with a smile as they sat in the study.

With the strength of the Guo family, he indeed had the ability to help. If nothing else, he definitely had the funds!

“There’s no need, Uncle Guo. I can handle the matter with Jardine Matheson myself!” Lin Haoran hurriedly shook his head and said.

He wasn’t so desperate as to need the Guo family to step in, and he would rather avoid owing such a favor.

With Michael Sandberg’s delayed response and the information he received from Newbiggin, Lin Haoran had already confirmed that it was impossible for him to get the support of HSBC’s 6% stake in Jardine Matheson.

What did this mean?

It meant that HSBC would not allow him to acquire Jardine Matheson & Co.!

If the Jardine Matheson shares held by the British-funded conglomerate were like those of the Hongkong Land Group, it would be fine. He could acquire the behemoth on his own.

But the British-funded conglomerates collectively held nearly 40% of the shares, while he currently held only 20%, and the stock price was already so high.

If he were to press on with the acquisition regardless of cost, it wasn’t impossible to succeed, but it was completely unnecessary.

Jardine Matheson was not worth him paying such a high price.

In Lin Haoran’s view, the true value of Jardine Matheson was less than half of Hongkong Land Group’s, perhaps even less.

“Oh? Haoran, it seems you’re full of confidence about acquiring Jardine Matheson, then?” Guo Henian misunderstood.

Chapter 314: Persuading Liu Luanxiong

“Uncle Guo, I have my own plans for Jardine Matheson & Co. As for the funds, I’ve already decided to sell my shares in Amigo Company. Once the sale is complete, I’ll have plenty of capital, so I won’t be short on cash. As for confidence… well, until the very last moment, I’m never completely sure. But in the end, I have to try,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Guo Henian said in surprise, “You’re actually going to sell your Amigo Company shares?”

Everyone knew what a high-quality asset Amigo Company was now.

And everyone already knew the story of how Lin Haoran had invested in the company. After all, Liu Luanxiong had recounted the entire tale in an interview.

Because of this, everyone agreed that Lin Haoran had a truly remarkable eye for investment.

To spend a mere one point two million Hong Kong dollars and get a return of over a thousand times in just two years—what was that if not a keen eye?

The investment was a massive success, the rate of return simply astounding.

In Guo Henian’s view, a company with such a high rate of return like Amigo was something to be held for the long term, not sold.

So, he was shocked to learn that Lin Haoran wanted to sell his shares.

“Compared to Amigo Company, I think gaining control of Jardine Matheson & Co. is more worthwhile!” Lin Haoran explained.

Guo Henian nodded. That was true. No one would consider Amigo Company and Jardine Matheson to be in the same league.

No matter how much money Amigo made, it was still just a manufacturing company, and no one knew what the future held.

Jardine Matheson was different. It was a long-established, venerable firm. Amigo’s value wasn’t even a fraction of Jardine’s fixed assets alone.

That evening, after dinner, Guo Henian and Guo Xiaohan bid farewell to Lin Haoran.

Guo Henian had originally come over hoping to get involved with the Jardine Matheson affair. After all, this was Jardine Matheson & Co.

If he could join forces with Lin Haoran to take down Jardine, it would be an incredible boon for the Guo family.

Anyone in Hong Kong could tell you how prestigious Jardine Matheson was.

But now that Lin Haoran had indicated he didn’t need his help, Guo Henian could only leave with a sense of regret.

Standing at the villa’s entrance and watching Guo Henian’s departing figure, Lin Haoran sighed.

He had already guessed Guo Henian’s true purpose.

But even with sufficient capital, Lin Haoran wasn’t certain he could take down Jardine Matheson on his own. Why would he drag the Guo family into these turbulent waters?

A night passed in the blink of an eye.

In the morning, Lin Haoran woke up at his usual time, just after seven.

He ate his breakfast while reading the newspaper.

As expected, he looked through several papers, and they were all reporting on the matter between him and Jardine Matheson & Co.

This was all within his expectations.

At nine in the morning, Lin Haoran left the Severn Road villa and headed to Wanqing Building.

To his surprise, not long after he returned to his private office, he had a visitor.

It was Liu Luanxiong, the Chairman of Amigo Company. He had sent a message to Lin Haoran’s beeper.

Liu Luanxiong had only found out from the morning paper that Lin Haoran was planning to sell his shares in Amigo.

This was something Lin Haoran had never discussed with him.

So, Liu Luanxiong was extremely anxious and wanted to find Lin Haoran immediately to get a clear answer.

“Haoran, where are you? I want to talk to you,” Liu Luanxiong asked directly after Lin Haoran called him back.

“I’m at Wanqing Building,” Lin Haoran answered straightforwardly.

He wasn’t the least bit surprised by Liu Luanxiong’s reaction; he had anticipated it.

After all, Lin Haoran held a forty percent stake, the same as him. If Lin Haoran sold his shares, Liu Luanxiong’s position in Amigo Company would be threatened.

Not everyone would be like Lin Haoran and leave all control of the company to him.

Half an hour later, Liu Luanxiong arrived at Wanqing Building and met with Lin Haoran in his office.

“Haoran, you’re not really going to sell your shares, are you?” An expression of disbelief was written all over Liu Luanxiong’s face.

“Don’t be anxious. Sit down and we can talk things over slowly,” Lin Haoran said calmly, gesturing to a nearby chair.

Liu Luanxiong took a moment to compose himself, pulled out the chair, and sat down.

“What do you think will happen to Amigo Company after next year, when orders plummet and other business areas don’t show much progress?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Impossible. Our company has ample funds right now. As long as we develop it properly, even if the fan business declines, other areas will grow to compensate. If worse comes to worst, I’ll have Amigo Company enter the real estate industry!” Liu Luanxiong replied without hesitation.

“You’re not familiar with other industries. Do you think that by having Amigo Company suddenly enter an unfamiliar field, it’s a hundred percent guaranteed to succeed?” Lin Haoran smiled.

His words made Liu Luanxiong fall silent for a moment.

But soon, Liu Luanxiong looked up at Lin Haoran and said, “Haoran, are you saying you don’t believe I can develop Amigo Company successfully from here on out?”

“No, quite the opposite. I have great confidence in your abilities. I watched you build Amigo Company with your own two hands. Your talent for business is rare in Hong Kong. It’s just that talent needs the right timing. We are currently in an oil crisis, and most industries around the world are in a slump. You should know this. The fan industry just happened to benefit from the oil crisis, but most other companies are not doing well.

“Therefore, once Amigo Company loses the highly profitable fan business, its revenue and profits are bound to fall sharply in the short term. The final result, I don’t need to spell it out for you, is that Amigo will enter its own winter. The stock price will plummet, and the market capitalization could easily drop several-fold!

“As for me, I’m at a critical moment in my acquisition of Jardine Matheson. Facing a shortage of funds, I have to find a way to secure enough capital from other sources. Amigo’s current high stock price presents the perfect opportunity for me to sell.

“That’s why I came up with the idea of selling my Amigo shares. It’s also a chance to teach you about the allure of capital!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“But if you sell your shares in Amigo, what am I supposed to do?” Liu Luanxiong said with a frown.

“It’s simple. If someone tries to acquire my shares in Amigo, they’re definitely aiming for a controlling stake. To the outside world, this will look like the beginning of a fierce battle.

“All you need to do is put on a show of resistance, but secretly, you should quietly sell your own shares. This way, you can secure a substantial profit.

“You founded Amigo Company with your own hands, so you have a deep emotional attachment to it and would surely be reluctant to lose it. But regaining control is very simple.

“Next year, when Amigo’s orders and profits fall sharply, the stock price will naturally follow. At that point, you can buy back the shares on the stock market at a much lower cost, easily regaining control of the company.

“What’s more, you’ll earn a lot of money in the process. And by then, Amigo Company will be completely and utterly under your sole control, instead of us having equal shares. You’re new to the world of capital, which is why you agreed when I proposed we have equal equity. But as you experience more of these things, you’ll slowly discover there’s a lot worth learning!” Lin Haoran offered his advice.

In reality, Lin Haoran was borrowing this strategy from what Liu Luanxiong had done in another world.

In the world of Lin Haoran’s previous life, once Amigo Company went public, its market capitalization quickly soared to five hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

However, at that point, the conflict between Liu Luanxiong and the other founder, Liang Yingwei, began to surface.

Liu Luanxiong devised a plan and began to sell off large quantities of his company stock, a move that immediately triggered widespread panic in the market.

It was common knowledge at the time that Amigo’s development was inseparable from Liu Luanxiong’s leadership. If he left, the company’s prospects would be cast into shadow.

Influenced by this, many shareholders also began to dump their Amigo stock, causing the price to fall sharply. And right at that moment, Liu Luanxiong secretly began buying up large amounts of the company’s shares at low prices, buying at the bottom.

Before long, Liu Luanxiong once again became the major shareholder of Amigo Company, and his stake was now far larger than that of his partner, Liang Yingwei.

Faced with this situation, Liang Yingwei had no choice but to sell his own shares in the company.

From then on, Amigo Company was completely under Liu Luanxiong’s sole control, and he had once again solidified his leadership position within the company.

Another crucial point was that through this in-and-out maneuver, Liu Luanxiong not only regained control of the company but also earned several hundred million in cash.

In this world, Lin Haoran suggested a different approach, advising him not to openly sell his Amigo shares.

The reason was that Amigo’s market cap was already over two billion, which was extremely high.

If he were to openly sell his shares, it would inevitably cause the stock price to plummet, resulting in a huge loss for him and damaging his reputation and influence.

Lin Haoran believed that after next year, everyone would see the true state of Amigo Company, and the stock price would naturally fall dramatically.

Therefore, Liu Luanxiong could wait for that opportune moment to buy back shares at a lower cost, thereby further consolidating his position and earning a greater profit.

As Liu Luanxiong listened to Lin Haoran’s words, his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

With this in-and-out maneuver, wouldn’t he make a massive profit of several hundred million for free?

And, just as Lin Haoran had said, Amigo Company might truly become a company he controlled all by himself in the future.

Chapter 315: 1.1 Billion Hong Kong Dollars, Sold!

Lin Haoran had no intention of offending Liu Luanxiong, a future Chinese tycoon whose rise he had witnessed. Instead, he planned to cultivate him, truly treating him like a protégé.

After all, the business world was vast, and making an enemy of everyone was hardly a good thing. It was always necessary to cultivate some friends in the business community.

Now, under his guidance, Liu Luanxiong was gradually becoming a tycoon in the Hong Kong business world, which meant Liu Luanxiong already owed him a massive favor.

If nothing else, even HSBC was now supporting and cultivating its own circle, including figures like Pao Yue-kong, Li Jiacheng, and even Lin Haoran himself.

This just went to show that forming alliances was a universal law of survival in every field.

Ultimately, Liu Luanxiong was persuaded by Lin Haoran and came to agree with his way of thinking.

“Once you quietly liquidate your shares in Amigo Company, combined with the wealth you’ve already accumulated, you’ll be a big shot with over a billion in cash. 1.x billion Hong Kong dollars… what is there that you can’t do? Why cling so tightly to Amigo Company?

“In the end, the Amigo Company of today only grew because of you. Without you, Amigo Company would lose its soul. Forget being worth over a billion Hong Kong dollars, I think even a few hundred million would be an overestimation!” As Liu Luanxiong was about to leave, Lin Haoran clapped him on the shoulder and said with a smile.

In fact, Amigo Company’s fixed assets were merely a few tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

From Lin Haoran’s perspective, once it lost its crucial advantage in orders and its powerful earning capacity, Amigo Company would be nothing more than an ordinary manufacturing plant.

“Haoran, I understand now. Thank you for your guidance!” Liu Luanxiong said solemnly.

He had truly learned a great deal from Lin Haoran.

After the stock market opened, Lin Haoran specifically asked Su Zhixue to keep an eye on Amigo Company’s stock price.

To his surprise, apart from a slight impact at the opening bell where the price dropped by about 0.5%, it quickly climbed back up.

In other words, Amigo Company’s stock price was not affected at all by Lin Haoran’s announcement of his plan to sell his shares.

This was quite normal, though. Although Lin Haoran was one of Amigo Company’s two major shareholders, everyone had long known that he was, in reality, just an investor.

Amigo Company had reached its current heights entirely thanks to its founder, Liu Luanxiong.

Therefore, even if Lin Haoran no longer held shares in Amigo Company, the impact on the company wouldn’t be significant.

Moreover, the reason Lin Haoran was selling his shares wasn’t that Amigo Company lacked prospects, but that he wanted to free up capital to acquire Jardine Matheson & Co.

Seeing that Amigo Company’s stock price remained unaffected, Lin Haoran felt relieved.

The shares were still in his hands, so he naturally didn’t want the price to plummet. If it did, the selling price would be affected, even if he could find a buyer.

The stock price of Jardine Matheson & Co. continued to rise steadily.

However, what the outside world didn’t know was that Lin Haoran had already instructed Su Zhixue to halt all stock accumulation of Jardine Matheson.

With the price so high now, accumulating more shares was pointless.

It would only drive up his average cost. Why bother?

As for Hongkong Land Group’s stock, in the half-hour after the market opened, with Universal Investment Company intentionally keeping the total market capitalization at around eleven billion, Su Zhixue noted that the mysterious, unknown rival had not continued to accumulate shares, which was evident from the trading volume.

“Boss, Mr. Chen Songqing from the Carrian Group is in the lobby on the first floor. He would like to see you.” Just as Su Zhixue was reporting to Lin Haoran, the receptionist from the Wanqing Building’s lobby called.

“Mr. Chen Songqing? Have someone bring him up to my office,” Lin Haoran said directly.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran frowned.

What did Chen Songqing want with him?

He and this tycoon had no dealings with each other.

After all, from his past life, he knew how the Carrian Group would end up. That was why, at the beginning of the year, when Chen Songqing had wanted to cooperate with him, Lin Haoran had flatly refused him with a casual excuse.

This man was no saint. Collaborating with him in business would surely result in him being the one to lose out.

However, since the man had come to his door, he couldn’t just refuse to see him.

He was also curious to find out what Chen Songqing wanted.

Could it be that he hadn’t given up and still wanted to partner with him in business?

“Boss, I’ll get back to work then,” Su Zhixue said after Lin Haoran hung up the phone.

“Yes, you can go. Keep a close eye on the stock prices and trading volumes of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land. If anything sudden happens, report to me immediately!” Lin Haoran instructed him.

“Yes, Boss!” With that, Su Zhixue exited Lin Haoran’s office.

Gazing out at the bustling streetscape of Central, Lin Haoran sat in his chair and awaited Chen Songqing’s arrival.

A few minutes later, a knock came at the office door.

“Come in!” Lin Haoran called out as he stood up to greet his guest.

Although he knew Chen Songqing’s secrets and that his enterprise was bound to collapse sooner or later, he still had to maintain appearances.

After all, the man was currently one of the giants of Hong Kong’s business world.

A security guard entered, followed by Chen Songqing.

“Mr. Lin, we meet again!” Chen Songqing said with a hearty laugh after the security guard had left.

Lin Haoran shook hands with Chen Songqing and gestured to an empty chair beside him. “Mr. Chen, please have a seat.”

Chen Songqing nodded and sat down.

“Mr. Chen, may I ask what brings you here today?” Lin Haoran didn’t beat around the bush and asked directly about his purpose.

He had no intention of engaging in lengthy small talk.

“Mr. Lin, in that case, I’ll be direct. I read in the newspaper that you intend to sell your shares in Amigo Company. Is that true?” Chen Songqing asked, looking at Lin Haoran.

The realization dawned on Lin Haoran. He had assumed the man was here to discuss a business partnership, but it turned out he was after his shares in Amigo Company.

This was completely unexpected.

As long as it wasn’t a business collaboration, it was fine.

“Indeed. I was the one who let that information out, so it’s certainly true. As you know, I’m currently interested in acquiring Jardine Matheson & Co., but such an acquisition requires substantial financial backing. Otherwise, how could I even dream of targeting it? Therefore, I have no choice but to let this go and find a suitable new owner for my stake in Amigo Company,” Lin Haoran replied with a wry smile on his face.

“Mr. Lin is truly a role model for us Chinese merchants! Your acquisition of the Hongkong Electric Group was already admirable enough, and now you have the strength to plan the acquisition of Jardine Matheson. I truly hope that one day I can be as successful as you, Mr. Lin!” Chen Songqing said with great emotion.

His envy was palpable.

After all, this was Jardine Matheson & Co.!

Most people wouldn’t even dare to dream of it, yet Lin Haoran was already putting his plan into action.

Although the final outcome was still unknown, it was enough to showcase Lin Haoran’s extraordinary power.

“Mr. Chen’s Carrian Group is equally a model for our generation to learn from. Its rate of development is so fast that even I am deeply impressed!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Exchanging pleasantries was, of course, second nature.

“Mr. Lin, let’s not mince words. I am very interested in the Amigo Company shares you hold. I would like to acquire them at market price. What do you say?” Chen Songqing also decided to stop with the small talk and stated his intentions directly.

Currently, Amigo Company’s total market capitalization was about 2.3 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Haoran held 40% of the shares, which meant the offer was to acquire them for 920 million Hong Kong dollars.

To be honest, Lin Haoran was quite satisfied with this price. After all, it was a massive sum of 920 million Hong Kong dollars.

However, he had no intention of agreeing so easily.

Lin Haoran had heard about Chen Songqing’s rise and knew that the man was a master at amassing wealth.

If he was going to sell the shares to him, it would be a terrible waste not to take the opportunity to “fleece” him a little.

Although Lin Haoran had no desire to partner with Chen Songqing in business, selling shares was merely a transaction, different in nature from a business collaboration.

Selling to him was no different from selling to anyone else.

“Mr. Chen, your offer, to be frank, is too low. If it weren’t for the huge capital demand for the Jardine Matheson deal, I would never sell my Amigo Company shares. If I were willing to sell at this price, I’m sure many large financial groups would be interested,” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

“Mr. Lin, this price is already very fair. After all, this is a transaction of nearly one billion Hong Kong dollars. Throughout all of Hong Kong, there probably aren’t many financial groups that could swallow that, are there?” Chen Songqing pressed on.

“As a financial group from Southeast Asia, Mr. Chen, you should know that a lot of capital has flowed from Southeast Asia into Hong Kong in recent years. Adding to that Hong Kong’s local financial groups and the British-funded conglomerates, even if a single entity can’t take it, they can partner up to acquire it. So I am not at all worried about being unable to sell my shares. Mr. Chen should be aware of Amigo Company’s quality. If you can see it, others naturally can too,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Then, what price are you looking for, Mr. Lin?” Chen Songqing asked, feeling he had no other choice.

“1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars. If you can offer 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, Mr. Chen, I will sell my shares in Amigo Company to your Carrian Group!” Lin Haoran stated his price.

“Impossible! Mr. Lin, that price is outrageous!” Chen Songqing shot up from his chair.

Acquiring a 40% stake for 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars would effectively raise Amigo Company’s valuation to three billion Hong Kong dollars, which was indeed somewhat absurd.

However, Lin Haoran was just making an exorbitant demand to make the negotiation easier.

“Mr. Chen, this price isn’t exaggerated at all. You must understand, I hold a 40% stake, and my partner, Mr. Liu Luanxiong, also holds 40%. Once you take over this stake from me, you can easily obtain a controlling stake in Amigo Company with some appropriate shareholding increase from the market.”

“The value behind that is something that mere market capitalization cannot measure. Gaining a controlling stake in an enterprise worth over two billion Hong Kong dollars will undoubtedly double the strength of your Carrian Group!” Lin Haoran’s words hit Chen Songqing right where it hurt.

Sure enough, Chen Songqing fell into deep thought upon hearing this.

He had originally thought he could acquire this 40% stake for less than a billion.

But he hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to see right through his intentions and call out his plan directly.

This was going to be difficult.

“Mr. Lin, 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars is too high; we can’t possibly afford it. Let’s each take a step back. 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars, how about it?” Chen Songqing desperately wanted the Amigo Company shares.

The Carrian Group’s funds were actually not plentiful; he would have to find a way to get a loan from Bumiputra Finance for the money to buy the shares.

“Mr. Chen, it’s a deal!” To his surprise, Lin Haoran agreed爽快ly!

1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars. That was a price that left him extremely satisfied.

Chapter 316: A Cat in a Tiger’s Skin

Hearing Lin Haoran agree, Chen Songqing couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

The price of 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars was indeed on the high side, and he would still need to continue accumulating Amigo Company’s shares from the stock market to truly contend for its controlling stake.

But when he thought about the future profits he could make using Amigo Company, he felt that the investment was well worth it!

Initially, the Carrian Group was just a newly established enterprise with an investment of a few million Hong Kong dollars. Yet, it had only taken three years for it to become a real estate tycoon in Hong Kong.

In fact, when the Carrian Group was founded, its main business was selling pesticides. Who could have imagined it would be so glorious three years later?

He was very confident in his methods.

Once he secured the controlling stake in Amigo Company, Chen Songqing was confident he could use it to take out more loans, further elevating the Carrian Group’s status in Hong Kong and truly reaching the level of a top-tier enterprise.

Using complex business operations and financial tactics to exaggerate the group’s strength and financial status, even bordering on fraud and embezzlement—he handled these methods with ease.

The mere thought of it excited Chen Songqing immensely.

On his way over, he had been worried that someone else might beat him to the punch and acquire Lin Haoran’s shares in Amigo Company.

After all, the whole of Hong Kong knew about this matter by now.

Now that Lin Haoran had agreed to sell to him, he could finally relax.

“Mr. Lin, a pleasure doing business with you!” Chen Songqing’s face beamed with an enthusiastic smile.

“I can transfer the Amigo Company shares to you, but on the condition that the funds are delivered promptly. I’ll give you three days to prepare. If the funds haven’t arrived by then, and another potential buyer comes along in those three days, I’ll have to consider their offer. As you know, I urgently need the capital for the Jardine Matheson project. If you delay for too long, I might have to reconsider selling the shares to you,” Lin Haoran said bluntly.

“Three days? No problem, rest assured, Mr. Lin.” Chen Songqing agreed without hesitation. “I can sign the contract with you today and guarantee the funds will be gathered within three days!”

He was confident he could persuade Yang Changdao of Bumiputra Finance to lend him this enormous sum.

After all, Yang Changdao was already in cahoots with him, and the two had a history of successful collaborations.

A massive deal worth 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars was settled between the two of them in just a few words.

Afterward, with the help of the Wanqing Group’s legal counsel, Lin Haoran negotiated the signing of a letter of intent with the Carrian Group’s legal counsel, and then they signed it.

As for the Amigo Company shares, Lin Haoran would naturally only hand them over after the funds arrived.

He was well aware that this Mr. Chen Songqing was highly skilled in the art of getting something for nothing.

Therefore, he would never transfer the Amigo Company shares to the other party before seeing the money.

Chen Songqing left Wanqing Building in a cheerful mood.

His next primary task was to raise the funds.

Chen Songqing already had a plan in mind, vowing to bring Amigo Company under his wing as quickly as possible.

At three in the afternoon, Lin Haoran received an unexpected call telling him to turn on the television.

He promptly found a room in the building with a television and tuned it to Rediffusion Television.

Unexpectedly, it was a live interview program, and today’s guest was none other than Chen Songqing.

“I am very honored to announce that the Carrian Group has reached an agreement with Mr. Lin Haoran to acquire all of his shares in Amigo Company.

This move marks another important milestone for the Carrian Group. After a successful acquisition, our business will expand into the manufacturing industry and the crucial field of international trade.

Amigo Company is undoubtedly an outstanding enterprise. Its international trade network covers key countries in the North American market, such as the United States, Canada, and Mexico, as well as in the European market, including Britain, France, and Germany. It is a leader in Hong Kong’s manufacturing and international trade industries.

The Carrian Group is committed to becoming a large, diversified, and comprehensive enterprise group. We are confident that within three years, we will rank among the top five listed companies in Hong Kong in terms of overall strength!

At the same time, after acquiring Amigo Company, I am determined to develop the company even further, conquer more international markets, and I will not let down a single one of Amigo Company’s shareholders!” During the interview, Chen Songqing passionately shared his grand blueprint.

At that moment, it was as if Amigo Company were already a subsidiary of the Carrian Group.

This fellow’s ability to bluff was truly impressive. Although it was all talk, the fact that he could be so persuasive proved he was talented in certain respects.

Lin Haoran watched the scene on TV in astonishment, muttering to himself, Hasn’t the deal even been finalized yet, and he’s already so eager to announce it to the public?

This guy really knows how to build hype!

Turning off the television, Lin Haoran didn’t call Chen Songqing.

He wasn’t worried about the funds not arriving on time. If they didn’t, he would simply use the Oriental Daily News and TVB to announce that he had not reached a deal with the Carrian Group. Then, everything the Carrian Group had done would be for naught.

He didn’t call Chen Songqing. Instead, it was Liu Luanxiong who called him.

After Lin Haoran found out about Chen Songqing’s interview, Liu Luanxiong learned of it as well.

Although Liu Luanxiong didn’t have intelligence departments like Lin Haoran, he was the chairman of Amigo Company, after all. With something this big happening, someone on good terms with him was bound to see the interview and inform him.

“Haoran, we just met this morning, and you already sealed the deal with him this afternoon? This Chen Songqing is a big name in Hong Kong’s business world; he gets way more media exposure than I do. Can I really use the Carrian Group to cash out from Amigo, and then win it back next year?” Liu Luanxiong asked, sounding a little uncertain.

Although he had already decided to follow Lin Haoran’s advice and secretly sell his shares in Amigo Company, Amigo was still the company he had founded. His emotional attachment to it was deep, and he worried that once the Carrian Group took over, he would be powerless to get it back.

“Don’t worry, Xiong. The Carrian Group is just a cat in a tiger’s skin. It’s not as powerful as you think. If you want to take back Amigo, it won’t be difficult at all!” Lin Haoran said with a reassuring smile.

The Carrian Group of today might seem enormous, but in reality, most of its capital was raised through improper means. It was saddled with debt—a true paper tiger.

Liu Luanxiong’s worries were truly unnecessary.

“Alright, I’ll listen to you then. There are a lot of reporters gathered downstairs, all waiting to interview me. I haven’t decided if I should see them yet,” Liu Luanxiong said with a wry smile.

“See them. Why not? These reporters just want to ask your opinion on the Carrian Group acquiring your shares. When you talk to them, act resolute. Make everyone think you won’t give up control of Amigo Company easily.

Then, pretend you’re powerless against the Carrian Group and have no choice but to sell your shares and exit. That way, even if people later find out you’ve been quietly selling off your stock, they can’t blame you,” Lin Haoran chuckled.

He could roughly guess that Chen Songqing wanted to use Amigo Company to leverage more capital.

However, this ethnic Chinese entrepreneur from Malaysia was perhaps being a little too naive.

Lin Haoran didn’t believe that the other party would be able to operate the company and actually make it better.

After all, he knew the ins and outs of Amigo Company like the back of his hand.

The potential of the fan manufacturing industry alone was simply not enough to turn it into a Hong Kong behemoth.

In fact, in Lin Haoran’s opinion, Amigo Company’s current market capitalization was severely inflated.

Kwun Tong, Amigo Company headquarters, Chairman’s office.

After hanging up the phone with Lin Haoran, Liu Luanxiong immediately instructed his subordinate to bring the reporters to his office to be interviewed.

This time, he decided to follow Lin Haoran’s advice.

Although on the surface, Lin Haoran’s direct help to Amigo Company over the past two years wasn’t significant—the business expansion and the company’s growth were almost entirely due to his own hard work—

But Liu Luanxiong had never questioned the fairness of his fifty-fifty split with Lin Haoran.

In reality, Liu Luanxiong knew in his heart that Lin Haoran’s help over the past two years had been immense. Without Lin Haoran’s strategic guidance, Amigo Company could never have achieved its current success, and he himself would never have accumulated his current wealth!

For example, Lin Haoran had once advised him to invest his dividend earnings into plots of land and real estate.

As a result, in just over a year, those initial investments had doubled, and in some cases, even tripled!

Without Lin Haoran’s guidance, his two or three hundred million Hong Kong dollars in cash would probably just be sitting in a bank, earning negligible interest.

Therefore, Liu Luanxiong admired and deeply trusted Lin Haoran, this business prodigy who was even younger than himself, from the bottom of his heart.

In Liu Luanxiong’s eyes, without Lin Haoran’s investment and guidance, Amigo Company might still be just an obscure little enterprise today.

Facing the reporters, Liu Luanxiong stated with certainty that even if his personal resources were no match for the Carrian Group, he would not easily give up his controlling stake in the company.

In the blink of an eye, another day passed.

The stock market opened as scheduled.

Today, the shareholders at the four major stock exchanges seemed to have gone mad.

Previously, all eyes had been on Jardine Matheson & Co.

But after the Carrian Group announced its acquisition of Lin Haoran’s shares and Liu Luanxiong publicly declared that he would not easily give up his controlling stake, Amigo Company’s stock also became a target for speculation among shareholders.

Chapter 317: Li Jiacheng Seeks a Partnership

Normally, Chen Songqing shouldn’t have so openly announced his acquisition of Evergo Company shares before gaining true control.

After all, such a move could easily prompt Liu Luanxiong, Evergo’s true leader, to mount a defense.

But in reality, the reason Chen Songqing decided to announce the deal right after it was settled was that he had already secretly acquired a portion of the shares.

It wasn’t a huge amount—only a little over three million shares, which accounted for just over 3% of the company.

However, this meant that once he obtained Lin Haoran’s shares, the Carrian Group’s stake in Evergo would exceed 43%, surpassing Liu Luanxiong’s 40%.

Moreover, Chen Songqing had already confirmed with Lin Haoran that Liu Luanxiong held only 40% of the shares and had not increased his holdings.

Thus, he decided to announce the news immediately, with the specific aim of driving up Evergo’s stock price.

This way, it would be much harder for Liu Luanxiong to overtake the Carrian Group.

This was Chen Songqing’s true strategy.

Before his interview in the afternoon—that is, right after striking the deal with Lin Haoran—he had already instructed the Carrian Group’s Securities Department to continue accumulating Evergo stock before its price soared.

This old-timer never fought a battle unprepared.

Watching Evergo’s stock price climb steadily, surging toward 30 Hong Kong dollars per share and pushing its total market capitalization to a high of 3 billion Hong Kong dollars, Chen Songqing nodded in satisfaction.

In any case, his deal with Lin Haoran was set. The final transaction price was fixed at 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars, and this could not be changed. If either of them backed out, they would have to pay a substantial penalty for breach of contract.

Therefore, the higher Evergo’s stock price climbed, the happier he was.

After leaving Wanqing Building that morning, he had gone straight to the offices of Bumiputra Finance to discuss the matter with its general manager, Yang Changdao.

Chen Songqing proposed that if Bumiputra Finance would grant the loan, the Carrian Group was willing to pledge its Evergo equity as collateral. He also promised Yang Changdao benefits amounting to tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars. Yang Changdao agreed to the deal and said he would persuade his headquarters, promising the funds would arrive within two days.

You have to be willing to part with the child to catch the wolf—a principle Chen Songqing understood deeply.

Ten million Hong Kong dollars was certainly a lot of money, but compared to securing a 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollar loan, it was what mattered most.

That’s right, the loan amount he had discussed with Yang Changdao was 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, not 1.1 billion!

What Yang Changdao didn’t know, however, was that after he agreed to this deal, the financial hole in Bumiputra Finance’s books would only grow deeper.

Three days later, on September 29th, a Monday.

In a conference room at Wanqing Building, under the watchful eyes of dozens of reporters, Lin Haoran and Chen Songqing formally signed the share transfer agreement.

Upon signing the contract, Lin Haoran successfully received 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Haoran had made a point to report this transaction to the Securities Commission and had received its approval.

From that moment on, the company Evergo officially had nothing more to do with him.

Even if it went bankrupt in the future, it would be none of his concern.

His transaction was legal, compliant, and mutually voluntary!

Seeing his accounts flush with funds once again, Lin Haoran was very satisfied.

Now that the Evergo shares had been successfully converted into cash, it was time for the final showdown with Jardine Matheson & Co.

He couldn’t wait to take over Hongkong Land Group.

Lin Haoran knew that the sooner he gained control of Hongkong Land, the better.

Otherwise, if it remained under the control of the British-funded conglomerates, they might recklessly invest in new high-cost projects before the real estate bubble burst, turning Hongkong Land into the most indebted company in Hong Kong. By the time he took over, it would be a mess to clean up.

In the Chinese Building, at Li Jiacheng’s office.

Watching Lin Haoran sell off his stake in Evergo and successfully cash out 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars, Li Jiacheng was filled with envy.

Many people considered Evergo Company an excellent enterprise, but Li Jiacheng did not share this view.

He saw Evergo’s weakness: it had too few fixed assets. Apart from a small industrial park in Kwun Tong, it had practically no other tangible assets.

In his opinion, a company like that, no matter how high its annual turnover or profits were, could not possibly be worth a total market capitalization of 3 billion Hong Kong dollars.

To him, that valuation was simply absurd.

However, none of this seemed to concern him, so he never mentioned Evergo in any public interviews. After all, he had no desire to offend Lin Haoran.

His target was Hongkong Land Group!

However, since last week, Hongkong Land’s stock price had stabilized, holding its total market capitalization at around 11 billion Hong Kong dollars.

This had caused him to temporarily pause his stock accumulation. It was only today that he decided to continue increasing his shareholding.

Currently, his two major companies, Cheung Kong Holdings Group and Hutchison Whampoa, had secretly amassed a stake of over 5% in Hongkong Land.

This progress wasn’t particularly fast, as he had been laying the groundwork for three long months.

“With this 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars in hand, plus the 2 billion he borrowed from HSBC, Lin Haoran might actually succeed in acquiring Jardine Matheson. It seems I need to seize the opportunity and accelerate my plans for Hongkong Land as well,” Li Jiacheng muttered to himself.

He had previously wondered why someone was deliberately keeping Hongkong Land’s stock price high, causing trading volume to plummet.

His subordinates had tried several times to push the price down, even going so far as to sell off some of their shares, but the other party had absorbed them all.

The only small comfort was that since last week, Hongkong Land’s trading volume had remained low.

After in-depth discussions with his team, they all came to the same conclusion: Jardine Matheson must be secretly propping up the price. Their intention was to prevent other forces from taking advantage of the situation and targeting Hongkong Land during the sensitive period when the British-funded conglomerate was locked in a battle with Lin Haoran for control of Jardine Matheson itself.

Therefore, if it really was Jardine Matheson’s doing, Li Jiacheng felt somewhat relieved.

Although the cost of a covert acquisition would increase significantly, as long as he could successfully gain control of Hongkong Land, it would all be worth it.

Now that he had full control of Hutchison Whampoa, Li Jiacheng was brimming with confidence.

When it came to Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, Li Jiacheng’s view was identical to Lin Haoran’s: he also saw Hongkong Land as the more valuable prize.

As for Jardine Matheson, in Li Jiacheng’s eyes, a Jardine Matheson without Hongkong Land would be greatly diminished in value.

“It seems it’s time to pay Lin Haoran a visit,” Li Jiacheng decided.

He planned to persuade Lin Haoran to cooperate with him, to work together to seize both Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land from the British-funded conglomerate.

However, one doubt still lingered in Li Jiacheng’s mind.

Research from his company had previously confirmed that someone else, just like him, had been eyeing Hongkong Land even before he started.

At first, he had assumed this person was Lin Haoran.

But after Lin Haoran announced his intention to acquire Jardine Matheson, Li Jiacheng began to think it likely wasn’t him.

He didn’t believe Lin Haoran could possibly have enough capital to acquire shares in both Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land so aggressively at the same time.

Therefore, this unknown competitor in the shadows was what truly worried Li Jiacheng.

Having made his decision to speak with Lin Haoran, Li Jiacheng made a call to confirm if he was in his office.

Learning that Lin Haoran was at his office in Wanqing Building, Li Jiacheng didn’t hesitate and prepared to head over.

Leaving his office, Li Jiacheng rode in his bulletproof private car straight to Wanqing Building.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran, sitting in his office at Wanqing Building, felt a sense of curiosity after hanging up the phone.

Why was Li Jiacheng looking for him?

Just half an hour ago, Chen Songqing had taken his leave. Judging by the smile on Chen’s face, he was clearly confident about his takeover of Evergo.

But that had little to do with him anymore.

His mind was now entirely focused on Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land.

Lin Haoran couldn’t figure out the reason for Li Jiacheng’s visit, so he decided to stop thinking about it.

He would find out soon enough when Li Jiacheng arrived.

Twenty minutes later, Lin Haoran met the spirited business tycoon in his office.

Lin Haoran noticed that Li Jiacheng’s aura was completely different from the last time he’d seen him.

Perhaps it was because he had successfully taken control of Hutchison Whampoa.

After all, before taking over Hutchison Whampoa, Li Jiacheng wasn’t considered one of Hong Kong’s top magnates.

But after his successful takeover, he absolutely was.

“Mr. Lin, my congratulations! To acquire such a large sum of capital again, I’m truly envious!” Li Jiacheng congratulated him as soon as they met.

“The feeling is mutual, Mr. Li. Your successful takeover of Hutchison Whampoa at the beginning of the month has been the source of my envy for a long time. Although I now own Hongkong Electric Group, it still falls short when compared to Hutchison Whampoa,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Speaking of which, I still have some regrets about Hongkong Electric Group. Last year, I was thinking about acquiring it after I gained control of Hutchison Whampoa. I never expected Mr. Lin would be the swift-footed one who arrived first!” Li Jiacheng lamented.

Thanks to Pao Yue-kong, the relationship between Li Jiacheng and Lin Haoran was actually quite good. While not close, they could be considered casual friends.

“Well, I’ll have to apologize for that! By the way, Mr. Li, may I ask the purpose of your visit today?” Lin Haoran asked directly after a few pleasantries.

“Mr. Lin, to be frank, I’ve come here today because I’d like to propose a partnership,” Li Jiacheng said with a smile.

“A partnership? What kind of partnership are you referring to, Mr. Li?” Lin Haoran asked in surprise.

“Mr. Lin, you’re currently trying to acquire Jardine Matheson, but your chances of success are likely not very high, are they? As far as I know, HSBC does not support your bid to take control of Jardine Matheson,” Li Jiacheng continued.

Chapter 318: Rejecting Li Jiacheng, Li Jiacheng’s Ominous Premonition!

“That’s right. I hope to join hands with you, Mr. Lin, to deal with the British-funded conglomerates of the Jardine faction,” Li Jiacheng said with a smile.

“Mr. Li, can you tell me what your specific goal is?” Lin Haoran asked, his voice tinged with curiosity and doubt.

He couldn’t believe Li Jiacheng would be so kind as to suggest they team up against the formidable British-funded conglomerates of the Jardine faction. There had to be a clear objective behind it.

Li Jiacheng might seem affable on the surface, but a man who could successfully snatch Hutchison Whampoa from HSBC was anything but simple.

The British-funded conglomerate behind Jardine Matheson & Co. was no simple matter. Why would Li Jiacheng go out of his way to offend them for no reason?

“Mr. Lin, to be frank, I’ve studied Jardine Matheson & Co.’s situation closely. Even with your ample funds, the chances of you successfully acquiring the company are extremely slim. However, I have a way to significantly boost your odds of success!” Li Jiacheng paused.

“Mr. Li, please just get to the point. Don’t beat around the bush,” Lin Haoran said with a wry smile.

“Then I’ll be direct. I want to team up with you to acquire the Jardine faction. I’ll let you have Jardine Matheson & Co. and its subsidiary, Jardine Securities. I only want the Hongkong Land Group. If we join forces, the Jardine faction will have to fight a war on two fronts, which will significantly improve your chances of success!” Li Jiacheng finally revealed his ambition.

A wave of realization washed over Lin Haoran. He finally understood who had been secretly competing against Universal Investment Company all these months—it was Li Jiacheng!

No wonder someone else had been so quick to target the lucrative prize of Hongkong Land Group. Given Li Jiacheng’s current status, he certainly had the resources and confidence.

In the last two years, Pao Yue-kong had taken the lead by successfully wresting Kowloon Wharf from Jardine Matheson & Co. But the effort had severely weakened the Bao family, as they had paid a massive premium for the acquisition. It would take them at least two or three years to recover.

In contrast, Li Jiacheng, who had also acquired a major British-owned firm, had taken over Hutchison Whampoa shares from HSBC at a very low price. As a result, he had made an absolute fortune from the acquisition.

Furthermore, over the past two to three years, Cheung Kong Holdings Group had profited immensely from the booming real estate sector. With the Hutchison Whampoa Group now fully under his control, his power had grown by leaps and bounds.

According to media statistics from last year, 1979, the total building area owned by Cheung Kong Holdings Group had reached fourteen point five million square feet, surpassing Hongkong Land Group’s thirteen million square feet.

Although the value of Cheung Kong Holdings’ properties was lower than Hongkong Land’s due to location differences, and a significant gap in overall strength remained, the fact that it could rival Hong Kong’s number one real estate group in terms of area was a testament to Cheung Kong Holdings Group’s current formidable power.

With the property market having doubled in value, repaying the previous debt to HSBC had become a simple matter for Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

Coupled with his control over the Hutchison Whampoa Group, the capital he could now mobilize was immense.

Even if he didn’t have enough cash to acquire Hongkong Land Group outright, his control over these two major conglomerates meant he could easily secure sufficient loans—just as Lin Haoran had used his shares in Hongkong Electric Group as collateral to borrow two billion Hong Kong dollars from HSBC.

Lin Haoran frowned. This was getting complicated. How should he respond?

After a moment of thought, Lin Haoran decided it was best to be direct.

With his current power, he had no reason to fear offending Li Jiacheng. Besides, his true financial resources far surpassed Li Jiacheng’s.

So, with an apologetic tone, he began, “Mr. Li, I’m very sorry. My primary reason for acquiring Jardine Matheson & Co. was actually to get to Hongkong Land Group. In my view, Hongkong Land is worth far more than Jardine Matheson.

I chose to acquire Jardine Matheson & Co. in the hope of indirectly controlling Hongkong Land Group through it. Therefore, for you to ask me to give up Hongkong Land now… I’m truly sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

He now controlled over forty percent of Hongkong Land Group’s shares.

While he didn’t know the exact number of shares Li Jiacheng held, he estimated that over the past three months, the shares the other party had accumulated were likely far below ten percent. After all, Su Zhixue had been monitoring Hongkong Land Group’s trading data.

In other words, with the shares Lin Haoran currently held, not even Li Jiacheng, Jardine Matheson, and the other British-funded conglomerates combined could match him.

With his terrifyingly high shareholding percentage, seizing a controlling stake in Hongkong Land Group would be a simple matter!

The only reason he hadn’t formally announced his move to take control of Hongkong Land Group was to put more pressure on the British-funded conglomerates.

If he could successfully wrest the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. from them, that would be ideal.

As it stood, his bid for Jardine Matheson & Co. wasn’t a complete failure yet.

But if his bid to take control of Jardine Matheson & Co. ultimately failed, Lin Haoran intended to make them give up Hongkong Land Group willingly.

After all, these conglomerates still held a significant portion of Hongkong Land’s shares. If he took control, they could use their equity to stir up trouble.

Lin Haoran’s goal was to make the people from these British-funded conglomerates accept their defeat, utterly and completely!

Li Jiacheng was deeply surprised by Lin Haoran’s words.

He hadn’t expected to be rejected so decisively.

“Mr. Lin, you need to think this through. You can’t fight the entire British-funded conglomerate on your own. As things stand, not even HSBC supports your bid to take control of Jardine Matheson & Co.

If we team up, each taking on a different opponent, our chances of success would increase dramatically. It would be mutually beneficial.

While Jardine Matheson’s market capitalization might be lower than Hongkong Land’s, it remains a top player in many sectors in Hong Kong. It also owns numerous properties across the city, making it a high-quality British-owned company. Even without Hongkong Land, Jardine Matheson would still be one of Hong Kong’s top corporations.

Why be so greedy? You might end up with nothing,” Li Jiacheng pressed on, not yet ready to give up.

“Mr. Li, how about this? I’ll let you have Jardine Matheson, and I’ll take on Hongkong Land. What do you say? I can even sell you the Jardine Matheson shares I control. As for Hongkong Land, there’s no way I’m giving it up,” Lin Haoran said with a sudden smile.

If Li Jiacheng were to agree, Lin Haoran would genuinely be willing to part with his Jardine Matheson shares for the right price.

After all, he knew that without HSBC’s support, his chances of acquiring Jardine Matheson were pitifully slim.

The six percent stake in Jardine Matheson held by HSBC was simply too critical.

The only reason he hadn’t given up yet was to extract more benefits from the situation.

“I’m sorry, but we have no plans to acquire Jardine Matheson & Co.” To Lin Haoran’s surprise, Li Jiacheng answered without a moment’s hesitation.

Lin Haoran chuckled inwardly.

You don’t even want Jardine Matheson yourself, so what right do you have to push me to acquire it?

“Mr. Li, are you sure you won’t reconsider Jardine Matheson? As you know, I’m now a major shareholder. That status would be a huge advantage if you were to launch an acquisition,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“No, thank you. I think I prefer Hongkong Land. I’ll leave Jardine Matheson to you, Mr. Lin,” Li Jiacheng replied, shaking his head.

In Li Jiacheng’s mind, with his current holdings of over five percent in Hongkong Land and a powerful ally in Hutchison Whampoa, his own chances of acquiring Hongkong Land were quite high.

“In that case, Mr. Li, it seems we’ll have to settle this in the market. But I’d advise you not to waste too much effort on Hongkong Land, because you have virtually no chance of success. Hongkong Land is already within my grasp. As we are both Chinese merchants, I would prefer we didn’t end up fighting each other,” Lin Haoran said, choosing his words carefully.

Lin Haoran’s words sent Li Jiacheng’s mind racing.

He suddenly asked aloud, “Mr. Lin, I’d like to know… do you already hold a significant number of shares in Hongkong Land?”

Before this meeting, he had been confident that Lin Haoran didn’t hold many shares in Hongkong Land and that his competitor for the company was someone else entirely.

After all, he found it hard to believe that Lin Haoran could amass a huge stake in Hongkong Land while simultaneously becoming a major shareholder in Jardine Matheson & Co.

The combined market capitalization of the two companies was substantial.

Lin Haoran pondered for a moment before speaking slowly. “Mr. Li, can you agree to one condition? If I tell you, you must promise not to tell a soul. I hadn’t originally planned to make this public.”

He truly hadn’t intended to reveal this, as it could interfere with his plans.

However, now that Li Jiacheng had asked, he was debating whether it was wise to tell him.

Telling Li Jiacheng had its upsides—it could make him completely abandon his designs on Hongkong Land, thereby stopping him from accumulating any more shares.

Seeing Lin Haoran’s serious attitude, Li Jiacheng couldn’t help but feel an ominous premonition.

Could it be? Did the man truly hold an unexpectedly large number of shares in Hongkong Land?

“I can assure you, I will not breathe a word of this to anyone. You should trust my promise, Mr. Lin. My reputation for being tight-lipped is well-known throughout Hong Kong. When I agree to something, I always follow through. Please, Mr. Lin, speak,” Li Jiacheng said, his gaze fixed firmly on Lin Haoran.

“Very well then. I’ll share something with you, Mr. Li. To be perfectly honest, I already have the power to take control of Hongkong Land Group at any moment. The shares I hold exceed the total held by all the British-funded conglomerates combined, even including those held in proxy by Jardine Matheson Securities.

Since you’re interested in Hongkong Land, Mr. Li, you must have noticed the significant increase in its stock’s trading volume since the beginning of the year. That wasn’t a natural market phenomenon.

I would guess that your current holdings in Hongkong Land are not substantial—no more than ten percent at the absolute most, and possibly only around five percent. That’s because, for the past year, I have essentially controlled Hongkong Land’s secondary market.

To put it bluntly, even if you managed to acquire every single share available on the secondary market, you still wouldn’t surpass my holdings. And what’s more, I doubt you could even accomplish that.”

Chapter 319: I’m Willing to Acquire Your Shares!

Lin Haoran’s words struck Li Jiacheng’s heart like a heavy hammer, and his expression instantly turned grave.

After all, he had placed high hopes on acquiring the Hongkong Land Group and had been meticulously preparing for it for months.

For Lin Haoran to so accurately deduce that he currently held around five percent of Hongkong Land’s shares confirmed it: the mysterious financial group that had first made a move on the company could be none other than him.

At that moment, Li Jiacheng’s feelings were incredibly complex.

If what Lin Haoran said was true, then there was indeed no need for him to continue targeting Hongkong Land Group, as it would only be a futile effort.

What did it mean to hold more shares in Hongkong Land Group than the British-funded conglomerate and Jardine Matheson & Co. combined?

It meant that Lin Haoran held over thirty percent of Hongkong Land Group’s shares.

Meanwhile, his Cheung Kong Holdings Group and Hutchison Whampoa together held only about five percent. How could he possibly compete?

Gazing at the high-spirited young rival before him, Li Jiacheng couldn’t help but lament, “Truly, the new generation surpasses the old, and each is stronger than the last!”

He had come seeking a partnership, but he never expected this to be the outcome.

Originally, he thought he could cleverly exploit the competition between the British-funded conglomerate and Lin Haoran to profit and seize control of Hongkong Land Group in one fell swoop.

Now, however, it seemed that all of it was just a pipe dream, an empty fantasy in the end.

At that moment, the Li Jiacheng before Lin Haoran seemed to have suddenly lost his usual spirited demeanor, becoming listless.

He had truly been dealt a heavy blow by Lin Haoran.

He recalled two years ago when he had been determined to acquire Green Island Cement, only to find that Lin Haoran had already made his move. In the end, with Pao Yue-kong’s mediation, he had no choice but to hand over his Green Island Cement shares to Lin Haoran.

Later, he set his sights on the Hongkong Electric Group, but fate seemed to be playing a joke on him, as this high-quality public utility company had also been preemptively taken by Lin Haoran.

And now, Hongkong Land Group, which he had meticulously planned to acquire for months, had once again been snatched by Lin Haoran.

Faced with such a situation, Li Jiacheng couldn’t help but feel a sense of despair. How was he supposed to keep playing this game?

Perhaps, at this moment, he should feel a shred of relief that Lin Haoran had only graduated from the University of London in Britain in 1978. By the time he returned to Hong Kong, he had already missed the golden opportunity.

Otherwise, it was likely that even Hutchison Whampoa or Pao Yue-kong’s Kowloon Wharf would not have escaped Lin Haoran’s grasp!

The man was simply terrifying, specifically targeting high-quality listed companies for acquisition!

Whether it was Green Island Cement, Hongkong Electric Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, or the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and now Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group, Li Jiacheng knew full well the quality of these enterprises.

“Stabilizing Hongkong Land’s stock price at its current level of around seventy-four Hong Kong dollars per share—that was your doing, wasn’t it?” Li Jiacheng asked after a moment of thought.

“Yes, I instructed my people to do it. With the percentage of shares we currently hold, the British-funded conglomerate can no longer pose any threat to me. Hongkong Land Group is already in the bag, so there’s no need to increase my stake any further. However, I noticed a competitor was continuously increasing their holdings in Hongkong Land Group. To stop them from accumulating more, I chose to directly drive up the stock price. I never expected that competitor to be you, Mr. Li!” Lin Haoran admitted frankly.

After hearing Lin Haoran’s explanation, Li Jiacheng sighed helplessly.

At this moment, Li Jiacheng felt somewhat at a loss.

After some deep thought, Li Jiacheng finally decided to return to his company and discuss the next steps with his team.

The plan clearly needed to be revised; continuing to get entangled with Hongkong Land Group would be pointless.

Although Lin Haoran had not disclosed specific figures, Li Jiacheng was already convinced that he was not lying.

“Mr. Lin, in that case, I won’t take up any more of your time. I need to go back and consider our next strategy!” Li Jiacheng said as he stood up.

There was no point in staying here any longer.

“Mr. Li, if I may be so bold as to ask, how many shares of Hongkong Land Group do you currently hold?” Lin Haoran inquired.

“Before I came here, I held about 5.13% of the shares,” Li Jiacheng answered honestly, without hiding anything.

“Mr. Li, if you’re interested in selling, I’m willing to acquire the shares you hold for five hundred million Hong Kong dollars. As you know, Hongkong Land’s current stock price has been artificially inflated by me. Even though I already have enough shares, I’m still willing to acquire yours if you’re willing to sell. Of course, I won’t force you. If you’re not willing, then we can forget it!” Lin Haoran proposed with a smile.

Before this, Hongkong Land Group’s market capitalization had hovered around nine billion-plus Hong Kong dollars, so Lin Haoran’s offer was already slightly higher than its actual value.

If Li Jiacheng decided to sell his Hongkong Land shares to Lin Haoran, while the profit wouldn’t be huge, he could at least be guaranteed not to take a loss.

The reason Lin Haoran wanted to acquire Li Jiacheng’s shares was that he was not short on funds. Increasing his stake in Hongkong Land Group was a testament to his confidence in the company’s value and the future of Hong Kong’s real estate industry.

Although Hong Kong would experience a real estate bubble in a year or two, it would only last for about two years.

Once that difficult two-year period was over, the future of Hongkong Land Group would be brilliant. Therefore, the more shares he held, the greater his profits would be.

Moreover, there was still some time before the Hong Kong real estate bubble burst. During this period, he could make ample preparations to reduce Hongkong Land Group’s debt to a minimum.

By doing so, Hongkong Land Group would be able to weather the crisis safely.

He would definitely help shed the title of “Hong Kong’s biggest debtor” after taking control of Hongkong Land Group.

Blind expansion during a real estate peak was inadvisable!

“Mr. Lin, I need to go back and discuss this with the company’s senior executives. I can’t make this decision right now!” Li Jiacheng did not agree directly.

“Of course. I’ll await your reply anytime, Mr. Li!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Alright, Mr. Lin, I’ll be taking my leave then!” Li Jiacheng had no intention of staying any longer.

He also had to go back and instruct his people to stop accumulating Hongkong Land Group’s shares.

After all, before coming over, he had ordered the securities departments of both Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa to continue increasing their holdings in Hongkong Land.

Under the current circumstances, with the stock price so high, any further accumulation would only result in his own losses.

Additionally, Li Jiacheng needed to go back and discuss whether they should consider changing their target.

Jardine Matheson & Co. seemed like a decent option. While not as high-quality as Hongkong Land Group, it was still a representative of Hong Kong’s British-owned companies. If he could take control of Jardine Matheson, it would be of great use to him.

However, this was a matter he would have to discuss with Michael Sandberg. If he could win Michael Sandberg’s support, he felt it was feasible.

But Li Jiacheng’s idea was doomed to fail.

Nurtured by HSBC’s deliberate support, Li Jiacheng’s strength was no longer to be underestimated. With the two top Hong Kong enterprises, Cheung Kong Holdings Group and Hutchison Whampoa Group, under his control, his power was nearly comparable to that of Pao Yue-kong’s World-Wide Shipping Group and Kowloon Wharf.

However, what would it mean if Li Jiacheng also succeeded in acquiring Jardine Matheson & Co.?

It would mean that the strength of the corporate conglomerate under his control might surpass that of HSBC itself.

Would HSBC be open to that? Obviously not.

Just as a Dragon Head in a triad society would never want to be surpassed by his junior, the business world was the same; tycoons would never sit by and watch their positions be threatened.

“Take care, Mr. Li!” Lin Haoran saw him to the door and watched him step into the elevator before returning to his chair.

Judging from Li Jiacheng’s reaction, he had indeed given up his designs on Hongkong Land Group, which meant Lin Haoran no longer needed to keep a close eye on the matter.

Although he wasn’t worried even if Li Jiacheng were to help Jardine Matheson’s group of British-funded conglomerates, it was always better to be safe than sorry.

If Li Jiacheng continued to increase his holdings and teamed up with the Jardine Matheson conglomerates, they would indeed have the ability to resist Lin Haoran’s takeover of Hongkong Land Group.

Though the likelihood of their cooperation was low, what if Li Jiacheng decided to sell his shares to those British conglomerates for profit?

That was not impossible!

With a complex mix of emotions, Li Jiacheng left Wanqing Building. After sitting in his chair and reflecting on his conversation with Li Jiacheng, Lin Haoran left his office again and headed to Su Zhixue’s office next door.

By now, it was almost noon. A glance at his watch showed there were just over ten minutes until the stock market closed for the lunch break.

Su Zhixue wasn’t in his office, but Lin Haoran wasn’t in a hurry to find him. Su Zhixue would naturally return to his office after the morning trading session ended.

Sitting in Su Zhixue’s office, he saw Su Zhixue walk in from outside at around five past twelve, just as expected.

“Boss, please wait a moment. I’ll tally up some data and then report to you,” Su Zhixue said, unsurprised to see Lin Haoran, and gave him a brief greeting.

“Mm, no hurry. You take care of your work first!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

And so, Su Zhixue buried himself in his work, punching numbers into a calculator with one hand and writing with a fountain pen in the other.

The morning stock market trading session was only two and a half hours, so there wasn’t a huge amount of data to compile.

About five minutes later, Su Zhixue finally put down his pen.

“Boss, let me report to you. At eleven-thirty, we noticed another irregularity in Hongkong Land Group’s trading volume. I suspect that the unknown rival has decided to make a move on Hongkong Land’s shares again.”

Chapter 320: Newbiggin’s Resentment

After chatting with Su Zhixue in his office for half an hour, Lin Haoran finally left Wanqing Building.

He had a casual lunch at a nearby restaurant and then returned to his car.

After some thought, Lin Haoran again had Li Weidong drive to Jardine House.

It was time to demand some power!

After all, he was now a major shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co. Demanding some power was perfectly justified.

In his briefcase, he carried the share certificates for Jardine Matheson & Co.

These certificates proved he owned over 20% of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s shares.

As for Hongkong Land Group, if nothing unexpected happened, Li Jiacheng was unlikely to increase his shareholding any further, as there was little point in doing so.

Li Jiacheng had said he owned 5.13% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares. Even if he had accumulated more in the last half hour of the morning session, judging by the trading volume, the increase wouldn’t have been significant.

Therefore, even if Li Jiacheng’s shares were combined with those of the British-funded conglomerate, they would only hold around 35%, posing no threat to him.

Meanwhile, his own stake in Hongkong Land Group had already surpassed 40.5%.

If Li Jiacheng ultimately agreed to sell his shares to him, then the British-funded conglomerate would have no chance of resisting him at all.

In a meeting room on the 32nd floor of Jardine House, the headquarters of Jardine Matheson & Co.

At this moment, more than twenty people were seated in the spacious meeting room, which spanned two to three hundred square meters.

Not only was Newbiggin, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., present, but also the general manager of Hongkong Land Group, the general manager of Jardine Securities, Henry Keswick, and other key senior executives and important shareholders from Jardine Matheson and its subsidiaries. They were all gathered here.

Jardine Matheson & Co. was facing an unprecedented crisis. Any misstep could lead to the loss of their control over the company, which naturally made all the senior executives of the British-funded conglomerate extremely tense.

For now, they had set aside their internal struggles to actively discuss how to counter the acquisition challenge from Lin Haoran.

Henry Keswick, the contemporary patriarch of the Keswick family, had departed from Britain the day before yesterday afternoon, only arriving in Hong Kong this morning.

Upon his arrival, Henry Keswick didn’t even take a moment to rest or eat lunch. He eagerly took the car sent by Jardine Matheson & Co. and headed straight for Jardine House.

Accompanying him were over a dozen other shareholders of Jardine Matheson & Co.

These individuals formed the British-funded conglomerate of Jardine Matheson & Co., controlling the entire Jardine Matheson Group.

The threat from the Chinese-funded conglomerate forced them to take this crisis seriously.

Naturally, none of them wished to lose control of Jardine Matheson & Co.

If Lin Haoran were to take over the company, it would undoubtedly have a massive impact on their interests.

After all, the indirect benefits of maintaining control over Jardine Matheson & Co. were far greater than what they could earn from dividends as mere shareholders.

This was the very reason why so many financial groups fought tooth and nail for a controlling stake.

Take the former Green Island Cement Company, for example. The original chairman held only a small number of shares but used the company to reap enormous benefits for himself, far exceeding any dividends.

“Mr. Newbiggin, do we know how many Jardine Matheson & Co. shares Lin Haoran holds?” Henry Keswick asked, looking directly at Newbiggin.

“Mr. Henry, when Mr. Lin Haoran met with me, he did not specify how many shares he controlled. He merely informed me that he had become a major shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co., with over 20% of the shares. However, that’s just his side of the story. I don’t quite believe it!” Newbiggin said, shaking his head.

He and Henry Keswick had been secretly vying for power for over two years.

Henry Keswick was determined to see the Keswick family regain control of Jardine Matheson & Co., while Newbiggin did everything he could to avoid being ousted.

Now, however, they were forced to work together.

They both understood that if Lin Haoran succeeded in taking over Jardine Matheson & Co., the consequences would be unthinkable.

Once Lin Haoran took charge, Newbiggin’s position as Taipan would surely be lost!

At the same time, the Keswick family would completely lose its control over Jardine Matheson & Co.

This was a reality neither of them could accept.

This was especially true for the Keswick family, who had always regarded Jardine Matheson & Co. as their private domain.

As for the other British shareholders, they had always followed Henry Keswick’s lead, presenting a united front with him against outsiders.

“Gentlemen, if we stand united against this external threat, we need not fear Lin Haoran taking over Jardine Matheson & Co. But as long as he remains a major shareholder, he will always be a latent danger.

Does anyone have a good idea on how to eliminate this threat for good? Jardine Matheson & Co. should be our impenetrable fortress. I, Henry Keswick, will absolutely not allow any Chinese merchants to set foot in our Jardine Matheson & Co., and I believe you all feel the same!” Henry Keswick stood up and addressed everyone present with solemnity.

Just as everyone was pondering a solution, Bao Fuda, the general manager of Hongkong Land Group, stood up.

“Mr. Bao Fuda, do you have a good idea?” Henry Keswick asked, looking at Bao Fuda expectantly.

“Mr. Henry, and everyone present, I’m not here to answer the previous question. Rather, I have something important to bring to your attention. The person in charge of the project team at Hongkong Land Group’s securities department has informed me that trading in our company’s stock has also been abnormal. Our current market capitalization has been pushed up to eleven billion Hong Kong dollars, which is not the result of normal trading. It is suspected that someone is interfering in Hongkong Land Group’s stock market, and that party may also be a Chinese merchant!” Bao Fuda said, raising another issue.

As soon as he finished, many people in the room frowned.

After all, Hongkong Land Group was currently Jardine Matheson & Co.’s most important subsidiary. Losing Hongkong Land would be a devastating blow to Jardine Matheson.

“Mr. Newbiggin, during our last conference call, how is the progress on our cross-shareholding plan, particularly Jardine Matheson & Co. increasing its stake in Hongkong Land Group?” Henry Keswick once again looked at Newbiggin.

A few days ago, they had held a conference call. At the time, they had thought Lin Haoran was targeting Hongkong Land Group, so they discussed how to deal with that crisis.

Ultimately, Newbiggin had proposed the cross-shareholding plan.

They just hadn’t expected that Lin Haoran’s target was actually Jardine Matheson & Co., not Hongkong Land Group, so no one had paid much attention to the matter since.

“Everyone, since the last conference call, I have not slacked off in the execution of this decision. Although progress has slowed, under normal circumstances, it should be completed within ten days. We currently estimate that we can complete the share increase by October 3rd!

By then, we can announce it to the public. However, we are facing a problem. Mr. Lin Haoran is now a major shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co. If we use Jardine Matheson to increase our stake in Hongkong Land Group, wouldn’t the biggest beneficiary be Mr. Lin Haoran?

So I was also planning to discuss with you whether we should halt this plan. But if other Chinese merchants are eyeing Hongkong Land Group, then we must continue with it.

For now, Jardine Matheson & Co. is still firmly in our grasp, but the same can’t be said for Hongkong Land Group. Our stake in Hongkong Land is still on the low side!” Newbiggin replied, standing up.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly grew heavy.

It was troublesome enough that someone was coveting Jardine Matheson & Co., and now someone else was eyeing Hongkong Land Group.

In the past, they had been supremely confident, never believing anyone could wrest control from their hands.

But ever since Pao Yue-kong had forcefully taken Kowloon Wharf from Jardine Matheson & Co., their pride and confidence had vanished.

“Mr. Newbiggin, Mr. Henry, I believe the best strategy is to use our connections and resources, even resorting to some deterrent tactics, to compel Mr. Lin Haoran to voluntarily give up his shares in Jardine Matheson & Co. We could also consider using Governor Sir Murray MacLehose’s influence to intervene.

If Sir Murray MacLehose is willing to step in, he will certainly give us some support. Besides, given our current shareholdings, even if Mr. Lin Haoran has become a major shareholder, it will be by no means easy for him to gain full control of Jardine Matheson & Co. If we succeed in persuading him, we can focus all our efforts on dealing with the potential unknown challenges facing Hongkong Land Group.

Today, with the booming development of Hong Kong’s real estate industry, the wealth of Chinese merchants has grown to a point where they can no longer be ignored. Their financial strength is now on par with our British-funded conglomerates, so we cannot underestimate the power of these Chinese-funded conglomerates!” said a senior executive of Jardine Matheson & Co.

“This strategy is feasible. If we can’t get through to Sir Murray MacLehose, we can also try contacting the Prime Minister’s wife. I believe that Madam Prime Minister would also be unwilling to see Jardine Matheson & Co. fall into the hands of a Chinese-funded conglomerate. This is a matter of face for the British-funded conglomerates in Hong Kong. If Lin Haoran wants to continue to operate in Hong Kong, or even in the British Commonwealth, these are factors he cannot afford to ignore!” Henry Keswick said, nodding in agreement.

Under normal circumstances, the entire meeting should have been presided over by Newbiggin, as he was the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co.!

In reality, however, the meeting was almost entirely dominated by Henry Keswick, the former Taipan.

Faced with this situation, Newbiggin was certainly dissatisfied.

But there was nothing he could do. Although he had been the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. for several years, Henry Keswick was not only the former Taipan but also a previous major shareholder of the company. He had more support from the other British shareholders.

And he, Newbiggin, was merely a professional manager.

“Could I use Lin Haoran to completely kick Henry Keswick out of Jardine Matheson & Co.?” As the others were deliberating, a wicked idea suddenly surfaced in Newbiggin’s mind.

He was well aware that the Henry Keswick family wanted to oust him so that Henry Keswick could take over again.

In his competition against the Keswick family, he was even at a disadvantage.

However, after careful consideration, Newbiggin had to abandon this unrealistic idea.

He had met with Michael Sandberg, the Taipan of HSBC, yesterday, and Sandberg had made it clear to him that HSBC would not support Lin Haoran in his bid for Jardine Matheson & Co.

In other words, Lin Haoran was unlikely to win against the British-funded conglomerate behind Jardine Matheson & Co.

Even if he teamed up with Lin Haoran, what good would it do?

Thinking of this, Newbiggin couldn’t help but sigh.

Chapter 321: Newbiggin Tips Him Off

By the time Lin Haoran arrived at Jardine House, the internal meeting of the British-funded conglomerate behind Jardine Matheson had already concluded.

Furthermore, as they had come straight to the meeting upon arriving in Hong Kong without even stopping for lunch, the group left Jardine House together afterward, heading to a nearby upscale hotel owned by Jardine Matheson & Co. to rest.

“Lin Haoran is here to see me again?” Hearing his subordinate’s report, Newbiggin, who was in his office, was somewhat surprised.

“Yes, Taipan. Mr. Lin is on the ground floor. I’ve stopped him,” said the head of the Security Department.

He was actually in a bind. Everyone knew that Lin Haoran was a major shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co., yet he had repeatedly blocked him from going upstairs. It was tantamount to directly offending a major boss!

But he had no choice. Lin Haoran’s status was too sensitive right now, and he had to follow Newbiggin’s orders. Newbiggin was his direct supervisor.

“Bring him up. I’ll wait in my office,” Newbiggin replied instantly, without a moment’s hesitation.

“Yes, Taipan. If he comes again next time, should I still stop him?” the head of security followed up.

“Don’t stop him anymore. When he comes, just bring him directly to my office. There’s no point in stopping him!” Newbiggin replied.

“Understood!” The head of security breathed a sigh of relief upon receiving Newbiggin’s reply.

A few minutes later, Lin Haoran met Newbiggin once again.

“Please have a seat, Mr. Lin,” Newbiggin said, gesturing to a chair in front of his desk.

Lin Haoran smiled and nodded. With the familiarity of an old friend, he pulled the chair into a good position before sitting down.

“May I ask what brings Mr. Lin to see me this time?” Newbiggin asked directly.

“Mr. Newbiggin, as a major shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co., I have the right to participate in its management. Putting other things aside, at the very least, becoming a member of the Board of Directors isn’t an excessive demand, is it?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, forgive my bluntness, but you have no proof that you are a major shareholder of Jardine Matheson. So far, this has been merely your side of the story,” Newbiggin said, shaking his head.

“Rest assured, Mr. Newbiggin, I don’t make empty claims. I’ve brought the proof with me this time. I currently hold over twenty percent of Jardine Matheson’s shares, and I’ve brought the stock certificates for exactly twenty percent for you to inspect,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Looking at the stock certificates before him, Newbiggin had no choice but to believe that what Lin Haoran said was true.

Previously, Lin Haoran had told him that he held over twenty percent of Jardine Matheson’s shares, but Newbiggin had been skeptical.

However, now faced with concrete evidence, he had to accept this fact.

What did this mean?

It meant that Lin Haoran’s position as the largest shareholder was now unshakable. Even the shares held by the Keswick family were a distant second.

The proportion of shares in Lin Haoran’s hands was enough to give him a significant position within Jardine Matheson & Co.

“From what I know of him, Lin Haoran doesn’t seem very interested in managing the company. If I let him join senior management to act as a check on Henry Keswick, wouldn’t my own position remain secure, just as it was before?

“How could Henry Keswick oust me then?” The complex thoughts that Newbiggin had suppressed now resurfaced uncontrollably.

He was, after all, just a professional manager. However, upon learning that Henry Keswick intended to remove him from his current position and replace him with Simon Keswick of the Keswick family, Newbiggin naturally launched a series of counterattacks.

Thanks to his many years in a leadership position at Jardine Matheson, he had naturally built a vast management team loyal to him. Now, over eighty percent of the mid-to-high-level managers at Jardine Matheson were, in fact, his confidants.

Coupled with the public support of several shareholders, this made it impossible for Henry Keswick to easily remove him, even though Newbiggin was at a disadvantage.

What did it matter to him if Jardine Matheson was controlled by a British-funded conglomerate?

He was just a professional manager. If he was going to be forced out by Keswick, what was the point of defending the British-funded conglomerate’s controlling stake in Jardine Matheson?

In that moment, Newbiggin’s mind raced.

He, Newbiggin, still held significant sway within Jardine Matheson. If he chose to support Lin Haoran, it would undoubtedly weaken Henry Keswick’s power in the company considerably.

In this way, by having Lin Haoran keep Henry Keswick in check, he, Newbiggin, could secure the greatest benefits for himself!

Newbiggin’s heart couldn’t help but pound faster at that moment.

This plan… it might actually work.

Once Henry Keswick’s and Lin Haoran’s influence within Jardine Matheson reached a state of equilibrium, it would be the most ideal outcome for Newbiggin, the professional manager.

Having come to this realization, Newbiggin’s gaze on Lin Haoran involuntarily grew intense.

This intensity even made Lin Haoran feel a bit uncomfortable, giving him goosebumps.

Putting down the stock certificates, Newbiggin suddenly said, “Mr. Lin, although you are a major shareholder of Jardine Matheson, let me be frank: your status as a shareholder won’t last for long. I don’t think there’s any need for you to become a board member!”

“Why? Why won’t my status as a shareholder last for long?” Lin Haoran asked, somewhat curious.

“This matter is still confidential. I hope you can promise not to tell anyone, Mr. Lin. Can you promise me that?” Newbiggin asked gravely.

“Of course, I can promise you that, Mr. Newbiggin. Please, speak,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

“To tell you the truth, Mr. Lin, all of Jardine Matheson’s important shareholders have now arrived in Hong Kong. They plan to use Governor Sir Murray MacLehose and the Prime Minister’s wife to persuade you. I trust you don’t want to offend those two, do you?” Newbiggin revealed the decision they had made in their earlier meeting.

“Using MacLehose and the Prime Minister’s wife to intimidate me?” Lin Haoran frowned, but he wasn’t particularly shocked.

Because Lin Haoran had long been mentally prepared. How could the acquisition of Jardine Matheson be simple?

Besides, in the current situation, he only held twenty percent of the shares, which wasn’t enough to control Jardine Matheson.

Continue to increase his holdings to surpass those British-funded conglomerates? He had no such intention.

Once Jardine Matheson lost the Hongkong Land Group, its value would be greatly diminished in his eyes.

There was no need to spend a fortune to further increase his stake in Jardine Matheson.

Right now, he merely wanted to put pressure on the Keswick family and others behind Jardine Matheson, in order to sell his shares at a good price.

The cost at which he had accumulated his Jardine Matheson shares was not high; compared to the current stock price, it was ridiculously low.

If he could seize this opportunity to sell at a good price, not only could he successfully control the Hongkong Land Group, but he could also earn a handsome return.

So, if the other party wanted to use Governor MacLehose or the Prime Minister’s wife to intimidate him, it would be completely useless.

But why would Newbiggin tell him something so confidential?

Could it be that Newbiggin had some ulterior motive?

Seeing that Lin Haoran didn’t show any sign of shock, Newbiggin was a little surprised.

Could it be that he wasn’t afraid of government pressure?

That’s impossible, isn’t it?

Perhaps he’s just putting on a calm facade!

So Newbiggin thought to himself.

“Actually, if you want to increase your say in Jardine Matheson, Mr. Lin, perhaps I can help you! And I don’t mind telling you, your twenty percent stake in Jardine Matheson is about to be diluted. Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land are going to implement a cross-shareholding policy. Both sides will continue to finance each other, and your equity will only shrink!” Newbiggin continued.

Newbiggin’s words made Lin Haoran feel as if he had misheard.

How could this be possible?

He had utterly humiliated Newbiggin in the past, making a mortal enemy of him.

Yet now, Newbiggin was telling him that he could help him.

And he was even revealing such a confidential piece of information?

The Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land cross-shareholding plan—even if Newbiggin hadn’t told him, he already knew about it.

What Lin Haoran hadn’t expected was that the other man would take the initiative to tell him.

This was indeed unexpected.

Lin Haoran naturally didn’t believe Newbiggin would be so kind-hearted.

“Mr. Newbiggin, just state your purpose directly. Beating around the bush is tiring for everyone,” Lin Haoran said bluntly.

“I can support you in increasing your say in Jardine Matheson, Mr. Lin, but you must promise me one thing in return,” Newbiggin continued.

“Please go on, Mr. Newbiggin.”

“I hope that you will always support me as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, until I retire!” Newbiggin stated his true purpose.

When Newbiggin said this, understanding dawned on Lin Haoran.

He had long known that there was a rivalry between Newbiggin and Henry Keswick, but who would have thought that Newbiggin would resort to tipping him off just to avoid being ousted?

“I can consider it. But Mr. Newbiggin, I’d like to know, what method do you have that can get me enough say in Jardine Matheson?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Just a partial say?

Lin Haoran was not satisfied with that.

If he were to truly acquire Jardine Matheson, he would be after an absolute controlling stake.

Frankly, he had no interest in having just a partial say!

Previously, Lin Haoran had never even entertained the thought of acquiring Jardine Matheson.

Coupled with the potential dissuasion from the Governor and even the Prime Minister’s wife in the future, the possibility of him acquiring Jardine Matheson was even more remote.

However, Newbiggin’s actions now sparked a new interest in him for acquiring Jardine Matheson.

Perhaps, with Newbiggin’s cooperation, it really might be possible to successfully acquire Jardine Matheson in the end!

Although compared to the Hongkong Land Group, Jardine Matheson’s value was indeed slightly inferior.

But Jardine Matheson was, after all, a major firm with a centuries-long history. Even without Hongkong Land, its power was not to be underestimated.

Chapter 322: The Progress of the Jardine and Hongkong Land Cross-Shareholding Plan

“Mr. Lin, the key challenge you face right now is how to properly handle the pressure from the government. Whether it’s Sir Murray MacLehose or the Prime Minister’s wife personally lobbying you, I believe you should show them as much respect as possible. After all, the business world is always at a disadvantage to the political world. I’m sure you’re well aware of this, Mr. Lin.

“However, as long as you promise not to increase your shareholding in Jardine Matheson & Co., I can mediate the situation. I can ensure that you not only keep your existing shares but also concurrently hold some key senior executive positions within Jardine Matheson. Alternatively, you could appoint a confidant to a key role. But there is one condition: you must not touch the position of Taipan!

“So long as you can do that, I am confident I can persuade the higher-ups to refrain from seeking help from Governor MacLehose or the Prime Minister’s wife.

“In other words, as long as you guarantee you won’t increase your stake and won’t covet the Taipan’s seat, I can ensure your interests in Jardine Matheson remain unharmed. I can even secure HSBC’s support for you!

“Furthermore, I need you to consistently support me as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson. Only by me remaining as Taipan can you ensure your interests in Jardine Matheson are protected.

“I am a professional manager, and in reality, I am just serving important shareholders like you. Everything I do is for the benefit of Jardine Matheson!

“You also know that once someone from the Keswick family regains control of Jardine Matheson, it will be impossible for you to maintain your interests in the company,” Newbiggin stated his intentions bluntly.

Newbiggin was quite cunning. If Lin Haoran chose not to increase his shareholding and not to contend for the Taipan position, it would mean he had completely lost his chance to take the lead.

Although holding 20% of the equity gave him considerable voting power, in Newbiggin’s eyes, this was just the right card for him to use to counterbalance Henry Keswick.

Moreover, once the Jardine-Hongkong Land cross-shareholding plan was successfully implemented, Lin Haoran’s controlling stake would be further diluted.

Although Henry Keswick had many supporters behind him, as long as Newbiggin could secure the backing of Lin Haoran, HSBC, and a few friendly shareholders, Henry Keswick would struggle to pose a threat to him.

As long as Newbiggin didn’t make any major mistakes, he could sit securely in the Taipan’s seat at Jardine Matheson and continue to control the lifeline of the King of the Foreign Firms.

Lin Haoran now understood Newbiggin’s self-serving plan—it was nothing more than a desire to occupy the position of Jardine Matheson’s Taipan for the long term.

Based on what Lin Haoran knew about Jardine Matheson from his previous life, Newbiggin would be forced to resign in two or three years. The reason the Keswick family used to oust him was quite direct—the loss of Kowloon Wharf was considered Newbiggin’s greatest failure.

In addition, during the Hong Kong real estate bubble, both Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group suffered heavy losses, and this responsibility also fell squarely on Newbiggin’s shoulders.

Therefore, despite his deep roots in Jardine Matheson, he had to bid a regretful farewell to the place where he had served for more than thirty years.

At that time, he was undoubtedly unwilling to accept such a departure.

He felt that the main faults—Jardine losing Kowloon Wharf, and Hongkong Land being mired in losses and dragging Jardine down with it—were not his. Rather, it was a tactic by the Keswick family to reclaim control of Jardine by deliberately pinning all the blame on him.

Looking at it now, the internal struggle between Newbiggin and the Keswick family had, in fact, already begun.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t be seeking Lin Haoran’s help.

At that moment, Lin Haoran understood many things.

No increasing his shareholding?

To Lin Haoran, that was no big deal.

Because he hadn’t planned on increasing his stake anyway.

The current stock price of Jardine Matheson had been driven up too high and was no longer suitable for acquisition; it had long deviated from its actual value.

Furthermore, the British-funded conglomerates controlled too much of Jardine’s equity. No matter how much more he bought, it would be useless.

As for not competing for the Taipan position, he didn’t really care about that either.

Becoming the Taipan of Jardine Matheson wasn’t that important to Lin Haoran. If he held a large enough controlling stake in the future, even the Taipan would have to listen to him. Otherwise, when it came to corporate decisions, he could veto them with a single vote, directly opposing anything not in his favor!

In that way, Jardine Matheson would effectively be under his control.

And Lin Haoran had already figured out how to increase his controlling stake in Jardine Matheson without buying more shares.

That was to leverage the Jardine-Hongkong Land cross-shareholding plan that Newbiggin was pushing.

Right now, his controlling stake in the Hongkong Land Group was basically at the point where he could take control at any time; he just hadn’t announced it yet.

And all the senior executives at Jardine Matheson were still unaware of this.

Besides him and Su Zhixue, only Li Jiacheng knew the general picture.

And Li Jiacheng had promised not to disclose the matter. Given Li Jiacheng’s reputation, Lin Haoran believed he wouldn’t deliberately spread the word and risk offending him.

So, as long as he entered Jardine Matheson’s decision-making circle and pushed for the cross-shareholding plan between Jardine and Hongkong Land, then when Hongkong Land controlled a certain amount of Jardine’s shares, he could indirectly control Jardine through Hongkong Land without increasing his own stake in the company!

Even if his controlling stake in Hongkong Land was diluted due to financing, it was currently over 40%. The dilution wouldn’t be too significant.

Besides, he could continue to increase his shareholding in Hongkong Land!

Furthermore, he had high hopes of acquiring the shares held by Li Jiacheng.

Based on his understanding of Li Jiacheng, the man who was the richest Chinese person in his previous life was highly ambitious. Since he couldn’t control the Hongkong Land Group, he was unlikely to continue holding its shares. The most probable outcome was that he would withdraw his capital to acquire other companies.

After all, a 5% stake in Hongkong Land was already worth 500 million Hong Kong dollars. With 500 million Hong Kong dollars, he could do many things. Why would he leave his money tied up in Hongkong Land shares?

Currently, the trading volume for Hongkong Land on the secondary market was extremely low. If Li Jiacheng wanted to sell, his only options were to sell to Lin Haoran or to the British-funded conglomerates.

Obviously, Li Jiacheng’s relationship with Jardine Matheson was not that great. Initially, Li Jiacheng had actually coveted Kowloon Wharf. After being discovered, the two sides had clashed many times, ultimately leading to Jardine Matheson asking Michael Sandberg to persuade him to give up on Kowloon Wharf. Only then did Li Jiacheng reluctantly sell his Kowloon Wharf shares to Pao Yue-kong.

Otherwise, the owner of Kowloon Wharf today might not be Pao Yue-kong, but Li Jiacheng.

Therefore, although Jardine Matheson and Li Jiacheng were both at the pinnacle of Hong Kong’s business world, their relationship was actually not that good.

If he could acquire Li Jiacheng’s 5% stake in Hongkong Land, it would mean that before the financing, his stake in Hongkong Land would exceed 45%. Who could possibly compete with him for control of the company then?

Of course, with the shares he currently controlled, even without Li Jiacheng’s 5%, it wasn’t that critical.

“Mr. Newbiggin, before I answer your question, I’d like to know, what stage has your cross-shareholding plan for the Hongkong Land Group reached?” Lin Haoran asked.

“I might as well tell you, Mr. Lin, that our current plan is to first increase our holdings in the Hongkong Land Group. At present, our Jardine Matheson & Co. holds a total of 20% of Hongkong Land’s shares. Once the acquisition is successful, our stake in Hongkong Land is expected to increase to 27.8%. This will solidify Jardine’s controlling stake in Hongkong Land.

“And after Jardine’s controlling stake in Hongkong Land increases, we will proceed to the next phase, which is to have Hongkong Land also acquire shares in Jardine Matheson & Co., completely cutting off any covetous designs from outside financial groups, besides yourself, Mr. Lin.

“Of course, increasing Jardine’s stake in Hongkong Land to 27.8% is far from our final goal. In the future, we plan for Jardine and Hongkong Land to each hold about 40% of the other’s shares. That way, no other financial group could possibly threaten us. This needs to be planned step by step. My plan is to complete it within half a year, and I’ll even strive to complete it by the end of this year!” To show his sincerity, Newbiggin laid out his plan directly.

In reality, even if he didn’t say it, it would have to be announced in a few days after Jardine completed its share increase in Hongkong Land. After all, both Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land were listed companies. For such a major event, they needed to make a public announcement immediately, or they would violate securities regulations, and the Securities Commission would come after them.

In another world, by December 1980, Jardine Matheson & Co. had announced that it and its subsidiary, Jardine Securities, held 40% of Hongkong Land Group’s equity, while Hongkong Land also held 38% of Jardine Matheson’s equity. This meant Newbiggin’s plan had been completed by that time.

In this world, because of Lin Haoran’s appearance, things had changed slightly, but the overall trend remained the same. The cross-shareholding plan was still proceeding as scheduled.

After hearing Newbiggin’s words, Lin Haoran was secretly delighted.

He was surprised by Jardine’s sense of urgency.

To complete the cross-shareholding plan this year, and it was already almost October—did that mean their plan was to finish it within these three months?

According to Newbiggin, Hongkong Land would eventually control nearly 40% of Jardine Matheson’s shares.

What did this mean?

It meant that once Lin Haoran took control of Hongkong Land, he would directly and indirectly control Jardine Matheson.

40% of the shares, plus the 20% of Jardine shares he currently held—even if diluted, it would still be over ten percent. Wouldn’t that mean his actual controlling stake in Jardine would exceed 50%?

With that, how could these British-funded conglomerates possibly compete with him?

Even if they ultimately brought in the government, brought in Governor MacLehose, brought in the Prime Minister’s wife, what use would it be?

Unless the British-funded conglomerate was willing to spend the money to buy out the Jardine shares held by Hongkong Land.

Chapter 323: Jardine Matheson’s Second-in-Command

“Mr. Newbiggin, I’ve given it some thought. I can agree not to increase my shareholding in Jardine Matheson & Co. and not to contend for the position of Taipan. However, I need you to promise me one thing: I want the post of Vice Chairman of the Board. That’s not too much to ask, is it? After all, I am Jardine Matheson’s largest shareholder,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The title of Vice Chairman of the Board wasn’t actually very important to Lin Haoran.

His ultimate goal was to use the Hongkong Land Group to control Jardine Matheson.

Making such a request now was merely a smokescreen.

In reality, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson was, in conventional terms, the Chairman of the Board.

“Taipan” was just a traditional title used in British-owned companies.

For instance, Michael Sandberg, the Taipan of HSBC, was in fact the Chairman of the Board of HSBC.

Now, by demanding the post of Vice Chairman of the Board, Lin Haoran was essentially asking to be Jardine Matheson’s deputy Taipan—the second-in-command!

“Mr. Lin, your request is a bit excessive. It puts me in a very difficult position,” Newbiggin said with a dissatisfied frown.

Vice Chairman of the Board was effectively the second-in-command at Jardine Matheson.

Newbiggin was truly reluctant to give up such an important position.

The current Vice Chairman of the Board of Jardine Matheson was a concurrent post held by the general manager, who was a confidant of Newbiggin and a key member of his leadership team.

If the position of Vice Chairman of the Board was given to Lin Haoran, what would that mean?

It would mean that his control over Jardine Matheson would be weakened.

This was something Newbiggin was unwilling to see.

“Mr. Newbiggin, surely you understand me by now? All I’m after is a title. You’re well aware that I own numerous listed companies, such as the Hongkong Electric Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, Green Island Cement, and the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

“Although I hold important positions in these companies, anyone who knows me understands that I rarely interfere in their specific affairs. Take the Hongkong Electric Group, for example. I’m the Chairman, but visiting two or three times a week is already quite a lot, and each time I’m just there to take a casual look.

“I much prefer to entrust decision-making to professional managers because I firmly believe their management skills are far superior to mine. The same would be true for Jardine Matheson. Even if I were fortunate enough to become its Vice Chairman of the Board, I would not involve myself too much in day-to-day management,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

In that moment, he had successfully crafted an image of himself as someone who valued reputation above all else.

In truth, he didn’t need to craft it at all. Those familiar with him knew that he genuinely disliked meddling in company affairs.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s words carried a great deal of weight.

“Mr. Lin, can you guarantee that you will not interfere in the company’s management?” Newbiggin asked, looking up after a moment of silence.

“Of course. I know my own capabilities. In fact, I don’t think I’m suited to managing companies. That’s why I’ve always seen myself as an investor, not a manager,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

He could promise not to interfere with the company himself, but he made no promises about finding someone to replace Newbiggin in the future!

To be honest, Newbiggin must have had extraordinary talents to become the Taipan of Jardine Matheson.

But in Lin Haoran’s eyes, Newbiggin’s abilities were still insufficient.

After all, it was during Newbiggin’s tenure that Jardine Matheson was surpassed by HSBC.

Furthermore, the blind expansion of the Hongkong Land Group over the next two years had Newbiggin’s support, a responsibility that Lin Haoran felt should rightly fall on Newbiggin’s shoulders.

Therefore, if he succeeded in using the Hongkong Land Group to indirectly control Jardine Matheson, he would eventually oust Newbiggin and find someone else to manage the firm.

And that successor would have to be obedient to him.

Just like Burton, Chen Shoulin, Cui Zilong, and Su Zhixue were now—they knew how to adapt to the times and were very obedient.

As the Boss, if his subordinates didn’t listen, what was the point of keeping them?

Of course, although Lin Haoran demanded obedience from his top generals, he was also aware of his own management limitations, so he wouldn’t easily interfere in company management on a whim.

The only exception would be matters he had foreknowledge of. For instance, he knew the Hong Kong real estate bubble was coming soon, something his subordinates couldn’t possibly know. In that case, he would intervene.

“Mr. Lin, can you guarantee this at the Board of Directors meeting?” Newbiggin pressed.

His biggest fear was Lin Haoran interfering too much.

He was already sick and tired of Henry Keswick’s excessive meddling in Jardine Matheson.

Although Henry Keswick was usually in Britain, there were members of the Keswick family among the senior executives. If a decision displeased Henry Keswick, his people would immediately jump out to obstruct it.

Vice Chairman of the Board was a very important position. Although bringing Lin Haoran into the top ranks could indirectly reduce Henry Keswick’s power in Jardine Matheson, he didn’t want to see Lin Haoran constantly emerging to oppose him.

What he wanted was for Henry Keswick and Lin Haoran to be adversaries, creating a balance of power.

A private promise from Lin Haoran was useless, but if Lin Haoran could make that promise at a board meeting, he wouldn’t have to worry about him going back on his word.

“I can. At the board meeting, I can guarantee that I personally will not be directly involved in the management of Jardine Matheson. I can also guarantee that I will not continue to increase my shareholding in the company,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“If Mr. Lin agrees, I can go back and discuss this matter with the other senior executives of Jardine Matheson and even with Mr. Michael Sandberg. I can’t make the decision right now. The position of Vice Chairman of the Board is too important for me to agree to lightly,” Newbiggin continued.

“Of course. I can wait for your answer, Mr. Newbiggin. There’s no rush,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

“Then let’s conclude our chat for today. If there’s nothing else, Mr. Lin, you may head back. I will handle this matter as quickly as possible and give you a reply soon,” Newbiggin said, standing up to see him out.

The matter was too important. Newbiggin needed to discuss it with his advisors before making a final decision.

Lin Haoran stood up nonchalantly and smiled at Newbiggin. “In that case, Mr. Newbiggin, I’ll take my leave. I look forward to your reply.”

From his conversation with Newbiggin, Lin Haoran already knew that, at the very least, the government would not be intervening.

With that, his lingering concerns vanished.

By the time the government decided to step in, it would be too late.

Based on Newbiggin’s reaction, however, securing the position of Vice Chairman of Jardine Matheson should be no problem.

Once he became Vice Chairman, even if he didn’t directly participate in management, he could still push the cross-shareholding plan between Jardine Matheson and the Hongkong Land Group to proceed at a faster pace.

Most importantly, after becoming Vice Chairman, nothing regarding Jardine Matheson or the Hongkong Land Group could be hidden from him.

From then on, Jardine Matheson would hold no secrets from him.

Newbiggin had no idea that Lin Haoran had originally been on the verge of giving up on controlling Jardine Matheson.

But it was his own greed for power that had reignited Lin Haoran’s ambition to take control of the company.

After bidding Newbiggin farewell, Lin Haoran left Jardine House and headed for the Hongkong Electric Group Headquarters.

For the time being, he didn’t need to take any action regarding Jardine Matheson or Hongkong Land; he just needed to wait and see how things developed.

If he could acquire Jardine Matheson, that would be for the best.

Although in Lin Haoran’s view, Jardine Matheson’s value was far less than that of the Hongkong Land Group.

But Jardine Matheson also had many advantages.

Even after losing Kowloon Wharf, and potentially Hongkong Land in the future, Jardine Matheson would still retain its core competitiveness as a blue-chip company.

Its business was wide-ranging, not only covering retail, real estate, finance, shipping, and construction, but also constantly expanding into new fields.

This diversified business structure allowed Jardine Matheson to flexibly respond to various market risks, ensuring stable profitability in different economic environments.

It was particularly noteworthy that Jardine Matheson’s internationalization strategy had been quite successful over the past two decades.

Compared to enterprises still confined to a single region, Jardine Matheson had successfully transformed into a truly international company.

Take HSBC, for example. Although it had become the top dog of Hong Kong’s business world, its path to internationalization was not going smoothly. The vast majority of its profits still relied on Hong Kong. Therefore, HSBC could at best be considered a regional enterprise, and the gap between it and Jardine Matheson in terms of internationalization was enormous.

Jardine Matheson had established a deep presence on a global scale. This presence not only enhanced its competitiveness in the global market but also brought it numerous opportunities, such as the burgeoning growth of its foreign trade business.

Through its global layout, Jardine Matheson could better utilize global resources, expand international markets, and enhance its brand influence.

At the same time, this international strategy also enabled Jardine Matheson to better cope with changes in the global economic environment and maintain its long-term, steady development.

Therefore, one could say that Jardine Matheson’s path of internationalization was one of the key guarantees of its status as a blue-chip company.

This was one of the aspects of Jardine Matheson that Lin Haoran valued most.

Lin Haoran spent the entire afternoon at the Hongkong Electric Group, chatting with Chen Shoulin about the company’s current situation and its development plans for the coming months.

At a little past five in the afternoon, as Lin Haoran was preparing to leave the Hongkong Electric Group Headquarters, his beeper buzzed.

He glanced at the number. His memory was excellent; it was Newbiggin’s work phone number.

Could he have made a decision so quickly?

Curious, Lin Haoran called Newbiggin back.

Chapter 324: Giving Pointers to a Protégé

“Then when will the board meeting be held?” Lin Haoran asked.

“The preliminary decision is to hold it tomorrow at nine in the morning. Over a dozen of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s major shareholders are currently in Hong Kong,” Newbiggin replied over the phone.

“Alright, I’ll attend the Jardine Matheson & Co. board meeting on time tomorrow,” Lin Haoran answered with a smile.

He wasn’t too surprised that Newbiggin had agreed to his request.

From Newbiggin’s reaction during their chat in his office, Lin Haoran knew the man was already tempted.

As for Michael Sandberg also agreeing, that was even less surprising.

The final decision Lin Haoran and Newbiggin had discussed was for Lin Haoran to give up control of Jardine Matheson & Co. and merely join the senior management as a major shareholder.

What did this mean?

It meant that Jardine Matheson & Co. would not be Lin Haoran’s enterprise, which meant that Lin Haoran could not use it to surpass HSBC in power.

With that, Michael Sandberg could naturally rest easy.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran was in a very good mood.

As for Hongkong Land Group, he was no longer in a hurry to announce that he had taken control.

Because once the announcement was made, Jardine Matheson & Co. would certainly not continue with the cross-shareholding plan.

If that happened, his plan to use Hongkong Land Group to gain control over Jardine Matheson & Co. would fail.

After leaving the Hongkong Electric Group building, Lin Haoran made a trip to the villa district in Kowloon Tong.

His older brother, Lin Haoning, lived in this area.

However, Lin Haoran wasn’t here to see his older brother this time but to visit Liu Luanxiong.

Liu Luanxiong had bought a villa in the Kowloon Wharf villa district last year, but he had never moved in.

Now that Lin Haoran had sold his shares to the Carrian Group, a power shift was beginning at Amigo Company. It was clearly no longer suitable for Liu Luanxiong to live at the factory, so he had moved directly into this villa with his wife and child.

That morning, Liu Luanxiong had called specifically to sincerely invite Lin Haoran to be a guest at his home.

Considering that he had been somewhat unfair to Liu Luanxiong in the matter of selling his Amigo Company equity, Lin Haoran ultimately decided to accept the invitation and pay a visit in the evening.

After passing through the busy Cross-Harbour Tunnel and heading north along the main thoroughfare of Princess Margaret Road, Lin Haoran arrived at Liu Luanxiong’s villa district in just under half an hour.

The area was packed with villas, and the population density was higher than in some parts of Hong Kong Island, but the property prices were clearly no match for the villas in the Mid-Levels, the mansions on The Peak, or the estates in Deep Water Bay.

“Haoran, I was so looking forward to your arrival! Come on, let’s go to the study and have a good chat,” Liu Luanxiong said, beaming as he came out to welcome him.

Following closely behind him was his wife, Madam Liu, holding a little boy of about one year old.

“One moment, I need to get something,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, taking several exquisite gift boxes from Li Weiguo and handing them to Liu Luanxiong. “It’s my first time visiting, so I brought some small gifts for your wife and child.”

“You don’t have to be so formal when you come to my place. Why bring gifts?” Although Liu Luanxiong said this, he still happily accepted the gift boxes from Lin Haoran.

The group entered the villa and, under Liu Luanxiong’s guidance, arrived at the spacious study.

“I’ve already told the kitchen to prepare dinner. We must drink to our heart’s content tonight!” Liu Luanxiong’s face was wreathed in smiles, showing no sign of being bothered by Lin Haoran selling his shares to the Carrian Group.

“You seem to be in a good mood. How are things at Evergo now?” Lin Haoran asked curiously, sitting on the sofa across from Liu Luanxiong.

Over the past few days, he hadn’t paid much attention to Amigo Company’s situation.

After all, that company no longer had anything to do with him.

His attention was entirely focused on the affairs of Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. Now, how to get these two foreign firms under his control was his top priority.

There were indeed newspaper reports about the competition between Liu Luanxiong and Chen Songqing at Amigo Company, but Lin Haoran knew very well that most of this was fake news.

As a former shareholder of Evergo who knew Liu Luanxiong quite well, he could tell that most of the news circulating in the papers was likely untrue.

“What else could it be? I’m competing with them on the surface while secretly selling shares. I now hold less than twenty percent of the actual shares. These past few days, while many people were speculating on Amigo Company’s stock, I took the opportunity to offload a lot of shares. I’m trying to sell them all off before they realize I’m giving up on the company.

“Of course, even if I don’t sell them all, I don’t care. The current share price of Amigo Company is higher than its actual value, and I’ve already made a lot of money. Sooner or later, I’ll be back.

“I did some research on Carrian Group and found that their source of funding is very questionable. Just as you said, their foundation might really be unstable. They aren’t as strong as one might think.

“Besides, after next year begins, Amigo Company’s stock price will definitely be affected by the market. A sharp drop in price will be unavoidable. I’ll just slowly start my stock accumulation again then!” Liu Luanxiong said with a broad smile.

Clearly, he was very satisfied with the current selling price.

Lin Haoran nodded, and they delved into a detailed conversation.

From what Liu Luanxiong said, Lin Haoran learned that he had sold over twenty percentage points of his shares. Although this prevented Amigo Company’s stock price from rising further, it still allowed him to sell a large amount while everyone was still in the dark about his intentions.

Selling over twenty percentage points of shares, equivalent to twenty to thirty million shares, was indeed a lot. But there were too many shareholders, so even his massive sell-off didn’t have a very large impact.

“Hasn’t Chen Songqing tried to talk to you?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“Chen Songqing and I have already spoken. He wants me to give up my controlling stake in Amigo Company but promised that I could continue as general manager. I would just have to be loyal to them, and Amigo Company would be merged into the Carrian Group as a subsidiary.

“We are seemingly at peace on the surface right now. I still handle company affairs as usual during the day, while Carrian Group has already sent their finance people in and placed several senior executives. They still have no idea that I plan to give up my controlling stake in Evergo. They think I’ll fight to the bitter end!” Liu Luanxiong replied.

“Logically, after your sell-off, there should be a lot of Amigo Company shares on the market. It should be very easy for him to increase his shareholding, right? Even with the market capitalization hyped up to three billion Hong Kong dollars, increasing his stake by a few more points shouldn’t be difficult. He should have enough to announce control of Amigo Company by now, shouldn’t he?” Lin Haoran was a little confused.

“My guess is they’re afraid that a direct announcement would cause Amigo Company’s stock price to plummet, so they’re considering how to act in a way that will lessen the impact on the stock market!” Liu Luanxiong speculated.

Liu Luanxiong’s words were like a sudden revelation to Lin Haoran.

Indeed, based on what Lin Haoran knew about the Carrian Group, their acquisition of Amigo Company was for no reason other than to use it to make even more money through crooked methods.

But if Amigo Company’s stock price were to plunge, that would clearly be against the Carrian Group’s interests.

“By the way, Haoran, I’d like to ask your advice. I have several hundred million Hong Kong dollars in cash now. Do you think I should invest it all in buying plots of land or property?” Liu Luanxiong asked humbly.

Lin Haoran thought for a moment. It was almost October 1980, which meant that the peak of the Hong Kong real estate market in recent years was not far off.

As he recalled, the highest prices were around early 1981.

After that, prices basically stopped rising for the rest of 1981, and the early signs of a real estate bubble were already appearing.

This situation lasted until September 1982, when the Iron Lady had a fall. The Hong Kong real estate bubble finally couldn’t hold on any longer and began to burst.

Right now, there were still nearly two years until then.

However, buying plots of land, properties, and other real estate now was already near the peak. Although he wouldn’t lose money over two years, he definitely wouldn’t make very high profits either.

Of course, there was still profit to be made. At the very least, the gains over the next few months would be much better than keeping the money in a bank.

“If you don’t know what to do with the money, then I think you can indeed invest it in real estate. But you must pay close attention. Once you notice anything unusual in the real estate industry, it’s best to sell as quickly as possible. Hong Kong’s property prices have risen a bit too much right now. I’m worried a real estate bubble might appear in the future, but as for whether it will happen, I’m not sure,” Lin Haoran said cautiously.

Although he knew the Hong Kong real estate bubble was bound to happen, he certainly couldn’t say that. Giving an estimate was enough.

“I’m not worried about that. I plan to wait until next summer, when Amigo Company’s performance slumps. That will inevitably affect the stock price, and I’ll need to pull my funds back to secretly accumulate shares then!” Liu Luanxiong said with a smile.

He didn’t bother to hide this from Lin Haoran, because the idea itself had come from him.

“If you really don’t know where to spend your funds, I can suggest you buy shares in HSBC. Its stock is suitable for long-term holding, not short-term speculation. You know how it is with bank stocks—they’re heavily influenced by the economy. But from a long-term perspective, I believe HSBC is an excellent stock. Or, you could see if there are any listed companies you’re interested in and acquire one for fun,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Forget it, I’m not interested in HSBC. But you’ve reminded me, the stock market is so hot right now. Perhaps I can take a look at the investment world,” Liu Luanxiong’s eyes lit up.

“Then give it a try. With your wealth now, it’s time to try your hand at investing,” Lin Haoran readily agreed with his idea.

This tycoon would come to be known as the King of Financial Hunts. His outstanding performance and successful cases in the investment field were not much inferior even when compared to Li Jiacheng.

Chapter 325: Jardine Matheson & Co. Meeting, a Vote!

In this world, Liu Luanxiong was starting from a higher point; perhaps his future achievements would be even greater.

The business world was vast, and Lin Haoran couldn’t possibly earn all the money himself.

As things stood, Liu Luanxiong already owed Lin Haoran a considerable number of favors, and their relationship could be considered quite strong.

In the future, having an ally and protégé like Liu Luanxiong might prove to be a significant help.

Going it alone was never a good idea, and the business world was no exception.

That evening, Lin Haoran enjoyed a sumptuous banquet at the Liu residence.

Liu Luanxiong clearly held Lin Haoran in high regard. To Lin Haoran’s discerning eye, the ingredients on the table were all top-tier, with many being imported seafood. The cost of the meal was at least over one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars.

For a rare change, Lin Haoran had a little to drink that night, but not much, as he had important plans for the next day.

It was after eight in the evening when he finally bade Liu Luanxiong farewell.

“Haoran, feel free to come over whenever you have time. In the Hong Kong business world, you’re the only true kindred spirit I have!” Liu Luanxiong, slightly inebriated, stood by Lin Haoran’s car window, speaking with a hiccup.

“Alright. You should head back and get some rest. I’ll definitely come drink with you again when I have the chance.” Lin Haoran waved to him, and the car merged into the night.

Upon returning home, Lin Haoran washed up and went to bed early.

He didn’t wake from his slumber until a little after seven the next morning.

At nine o’clock that morning, Jardine Matheson & Co. was holding a board meeting, and Lin Haoran certainly didn’t want to be late.

He followed his usual routine of eating breakfast at home while reading the newspaper. At around eight-twenty, Lin Haoran set out with Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, heading straight for Jardine House.

The location of Severn Road was indeed excellent. Whether going to Central, Sheung Wan, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, or North Point, it normally took only a dozen minutes, sometimes even just a few.

If he lived in Deep Water Bay, it would likely take him over half an hour to arrive during the morning rush hour.

At eight-forty, Lin Haoran smoothly arrived at Newbiggin’s office.

He wasn’t familiar with Jardine House; both times he had come, someone else had guided him upstairs to find Newbiggin. He had no idea where the meeting room was.

Besides, it was still early. It was most appropriate to go to Newbiggin’s office and head to the meeting room with him.

“Mr. Lin, I’ve arranged everything. At nine o’clock, Mr. Michael Sandberg, Henry Keswick, and other major shareholders or their representatives, along with all board members and senior executives from the management team, a total of 32 people, will all attend on time,” Newbiggin said upon seeing Lin Haoran.

At this moment, Newbiggin seemed to have forgotten the past conflicts with Lin Haoran, forgotten the humiliation of being forced to apologize to all of Hong Kong’s citizens on television.

Because he knew that, in the end, he was just a professional manager—to put it bluntly, just a wage earner.

Lin Haoran was different. He now controlled over 20% of the shares, making him one of the true bosses of Jardine Matheson & Co., and the largest shareholder at that.

Under these circumstances, how could he still put on airs? How could he show Lin Haoran any attitude?

Lin Haoran nodded and chatted with Newbiggin in his office for a while. Around eight-fifty, he followed Newbiggin to the meeting room.

On the surface, he and Newbiggin were now on a united front.

In the world of business, there are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests.

Their current cooperation was a matter of each taking what they needed.

Newbiggin wanted to use Lin Haoran to check the Keswick family, allowing him to hold on to his position as Taipan of Jardine Matheson for the long term.

Lin Haoran, on the other hand, was using Newbiggin to understand their plans and to keep a close watch on the progress of Jardine Matheson’s cross-shareholding plan, so that he could announce his takeover of Hongkong Land Group at the opportune moment and thereby gain reverse control of Jardine Matheson & Co.

They arrived at a meeting room that was at least two or three hundred square meters. Many people had already gathered inside, including the familiar face of Michael Sandberg.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, we meet again,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, congratulations!” Michael Sandberg showed no awkwardness for not having replied to Lin Haoran earlier.

Tycoons like him had long since learned to remain impassive in many situations; they were thick-skinned.

HSBC was also one of Jardine Matheson’s major shareholders, holding 6% of its shares. As the Taipan of HSBC, Michael Sandberg naturally had to participate in such an important meeting.

Michael Sandberg even took the initiative to introduce Lin Haoran to some influential tycoons from the British-funded conglomerates.

Among them was Henry Keswick.

Henry Keswick gave Lin Haoran a complicated look, offered a simple greeting, and said nothing more.

In fact, Henry Keswick still had no idea what this meeting was about.

Seeing Lin Haoran here, he was utterly baffled.

Newbiggin had not consulted Henry Keswick about his agreement to make Lin Haoran the Vice Chairman of the Board of Jardine Matheson & Co.

He knew that Henry Keswick would never agree.

Newbiggin hadn’t even given a heads-up to the few shareholders who were on very good terms with Henry Keswick.

These were the very people who wanted to kick him out of his position as Taipan of Jardine Matheson.

But so what?

Newbiggin was now confident he could stand against Henry Keswick.

He had successively won over Michael Sandberg and a few other shareholders he was on good terms with.

As for Jardine Matheson’s senior executives, the vast majority of them were his supporters.

With the addition of Lin Haoran, a major shareholder holding over 20% of the shares, Newbiggin believed he could outvote Henry Keswick and his faction.

As long as Lin Haoran successfully entered Jardine Matheson’s core leadership, Newbiggin believed Henry Keswick would no longer be a threat to him.

As for whether Henry Keswick would cooperate with Lin Haoran to oust him?

Newbiggin had no such worries.

Because he knew that Henry Keswick’s ambition would never accommodate Lin Haoran, the largest shareholder.

Lin Haoran’s appearance posed a serious threat to the Keswick family’s interests in Jardine Matheson & Co. Why would he ever cooperate with Lin Haoran?

Once everyone was seated, Newbiggin, as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, began to preside over the meeting.

“Everyone, we are holding this meeting today primarily to discuss and decide on one matter. After multiple discussions with Mr. Lin Haoran, Mr. Lin has agreed to stop increasing his shareholding in Jardine Matheson & Co. Currently, Mr. Lin holds a total of 20.86% of Jardine Matheson’s shares and no longer intends to take control of the company.

“Therefore, after deliberation, Mr. Lin’s request is that he hopes to obtain a nominal position as Vice Chairman of the Board. He will not participate in actual management but will join the Board of Directors to be involved in major decision-making.

“Hence, this meeting is being held to vote on whether Mr. Lin will become the Vice Chairman of the Board of Jardine Matheson & Co. The final decision will be determined by a simple majority vote,” Newbiggin announced solemnly, rising to his feet to address the room.

After Newbiggin finished speaking, Lin Haoran stood up at the appropriate moment.

“Everyone, the recent events concerning Jardine Matheson & Co. have caused quite a stir, so you should all know who I am. Mr. Newbiggin has shown great sincerity, and after discussions, I have decided to cease increasing my shareholding in Jardine Matheson. My request is not demanding; I am merely asking for a nominal position at Jardine Matheson. If this passes, it will naturally be a happy outcome for all. If it does not, then I will continue to increase my shareholding.

“I won’t hide it from you—I recently sold my shares in Amigo Company and obtained a substantial amount of capital. This capital is more than enough for me to continue acquiring Jardine Matheson shares on a large scale. If I really choose to increase my holdings, even if I can’t gain control of Jardine Matheson for now, I will have the chance to do so in the future.

“I know you want to use the government to pressure me, but I’m not afraid to tell you that I’m not afraid of government pressure. Jardine Matheson & Co. is a listed company, and my acquisition of its shares through the market is perfectly legal and compliant. If you think you can use the government to pressure me, let me tell you, you’re overthinking it!” Lin Haoran said slowly in standard English.

His meaning was clear: agree, and I’ll stop my acquisitions. Disagree, and I’ll continue, because I have plenty of money.

Right now, Lin Haoran only had 20% of the shares, which did not yet pose a threat to the British-funded conglomerate.

But if he continued to increase his stake, it could very well pose a threat in the future.

After all, circumstances change. It wasn’t impossible that a shareholder from one of the British-funded conglomerates might secretly sell their shares to Lin Haoran in the future.

No one could guarantee that the shareholders of their British-funded conglomerate would remain united forever.

If Lin Haoran truly amassed enough shares, along with those purchased from British shareholders, he might genuinely be able to take control of Jardine Matheson & Co.

This was certainly a scenario many shareholders were unwilling to see, especially Henry Keswick.

Therefore, the words Lin Haoran spoke at this moment were, in effect, a threat to Henry Keswick.

If they agreed, it would be a happy outcome for everyone.

Lin Haoran’s words actually made Henry Keswick calm down.

When Newbiggin had first started speaking, his initial instinct was to object immediately.

But now, he needed to think it over.

“Everyone, Mr. Newbiggin, let’s pause the vote for a moment. We need to discuss this. It won’t take long,” Henry Keswick said, standing up.

“Of course!” Newbiggin nodded.

With that, Henry Keswick left his seat and walked towards the door.

Twelve or thirteen people followed behind him.

These people included several important shareholders and a few senior executives from Jardine Matheson.

They were Henry Keswick’s most important supporters within Jardine Matheson & Co.

Henry Keswick certainly had to think this matter through carefully, as it now involved the interests of his Keswick family.

He had to devise a plan that would be satisfactory for all parties involved.

Chapter 326: Vice Chairman of the Board

Adjacent to the main conference room was a smaller meeting room.

At this moment, a dozen or so people filed into this small meeting room, with the last person closing the door behind them.

“Everyone, let’s discuss whether we should approve of Lin Haoran, a Chinese man, becoming the Vice Chairman of the Board of Jardine Matheson & Co.,” Henry Keswick said gravely, looking at the dozen or so people present.

His gaze lingered on the senior executives from the Keswick family faction, as their primary concern was the family’s interests.

“Mr. Henry, I think we should just agree,” one of the shareholders said, standing up. “Since he has promised not to increase his shareholding in Jardine Matheson & Co., as long as we all stick together with our shares, we have no reason to fear that he could pose a threat to us.”

“Mr. Harrod is right. The shares we hold here already exceed twenty-six percent. As long as we remain united, the initiative will stay with us! Besides, I also understand that Mr. Michael Sandberg would never allow Lin Haoran to take control of Jardine Matheson & Co. So, if Lin Haoran were to reveal any ambitions, HSBC’s six percent stake would not support him either,” another shareholder agreed.

“I know that, but having him at Jardine Matheson & Co. will definitely affect our interests here. Ultimately, we still have to drive him out!” Henry Keswick said resentfully.

He was already deeply dissatisfied that Newbiggin’s management had led to Jardine Matheson & Co. losing Kowloon Wharf, and he was determined to win back control of the company.

He just hadn’t expected that retaking control of Jardine Matheson would be much harder than he had imagined.

Over the past few years, Newbiggin had become deeply entrenched at Jardine Matheson. The prestige Henry had left behind from his own time as Taipan years ago had already faded by more than half. Now, the vast majority of middle and senior management at Jardine Matheson recognized only Newbiggin and not him, Henry Keswick.

Because of this, his attempt to oust Newbiggin had ultimately ended in failure.

So, Henry Keswick was now biding his time, waiting for Newbiggin to make another major mistake.

Unexpectedly, before Newbiggin could make another blunder, a Chinese man had entered Jardine Matheson?

And this Chinese man’s shareholding was even higher than his own.

What did this mean?

It meant that the interests of his Keswick family in Jardine Matheson & Co. had been severely violated!

It meant that their chances of taking control of Jardine Matheson again had become even smaller.

This was naturally something Henry Keswick did not want to see.

Therefore, driving Lin Haoran out of Jardine Matheson & Co. was Henry Keswick’s next major goal.

“Mr. Henry, I don’t think this is a matter of urgency. Let’s agree to their terms for now. This Mr. Lin Haoran won’t be able to stay at Jardine Matheson & Co. for too long anyway!” At this moment, a senior representative from Henry Keswick’s camp spoke up.

“Oh? Why is that?” Henry Keswick asked in surprise, looking at the executive.

This executive was a confidant from his time as Taipan of Jardine Matheson.

Even after Henry Keswick left his post, this confidant had remained at Jardine Matheson & Co., holding a senior position in an important department.

“Mr. Keswick should remember a plan Mr. Newbiggin proposed in a previous meeting—the cross-shareholding plan between Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group.

“Currently, this plan is still in its initial stages, focusing mainly on Jardine Matheson increasing its controlling stake in Hongkong Land. I am one of the main participants. Next, Hongkong Land will also acquire a stake in Jardine Matheson. Once Hongkong Land carries out its financing of Jardine Matheson, the equity held by all shareholders present will be diluted.

“And this Mr. Lin Haoran, like you all, will see his shares diluted. Hongkong Land is still under our control. Once Mr. Lin’s shares are diluted, we can absolutely use our own controlling stake, combined with Hongkong Land’s, to jointly force Mr. Lin Haoran off the Jardine Matheson Board of Directors.

“In that case, he can either be a powerless shareholder or sell his shares. At that point, if we have Governor Sir Murray MacLehose intervene, Mr. Lin Haoran, seeing no benefit in staying with Jardine Matheson, will weigh his options and surely choose to sell.

“By then, our goal of driving Mr. Lin Haoran out of Jardine Matheson will naturally be achieved. Furthermore, when he wants to sell his Jardine Matheson shares, you can all band together to further increase your shareholding, strengthening your control over the company. When that time comes, even if you want to oust Newbiggin, he will be powerless to stop you!” the confidant said with a smile.

His words made Henry Keswick nod repeatedly. Indeed, agreeing for now was merely a stopgap measure. Once the cross-shareholding plan between Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land was complete, the chances of forcing Lin Haoran off the board would increase significantly.

The most important thing right now was that HSBC and Newbiggin’s supporters had all agreed to back Lin Haoran’s entry onto the board, and as Vice Chairman no less.

If the cross-shareholding plan was successfully implemented, they would no longer be threatened by Lin Haoran, because even if he held on, he would be unable to take control of Jardine Matheson.

After all, their future goal was for Hongkong Land to hold nearly forty percent of Jardine Matheson’s shares. Combined with the shares held by their own British-funded conglomerate, it meant that Lin Haoran had absolutely no possibility of taking control. At that point, what threat could he possibly pose?

In an instant, Henry Keswick’s slightly gloomy expression transformed into a satisfied smile.

It seemed Lin Haoran was nothing to fear after all.

“Good. Let him be the Vice Chairman of the Board for now. After the cross-shareholding is complete, we’ll remove him from the board. For now, let him have his moment of triumph!” Henry Keswick said, beaming.

“In that case, it’s settled!” another shareholder immediately chimed in.

“Yes. Let’s head back to the other conference room. We shouldn’t keep them waiting too long,” Henry Keswick said, standing up first, ready to return next door.

The dozen or so people returned to the conference room.

Lin Haoran looked at Henry Keswick’s face and found it a bit strange.

He remembered that when Henry Keswick had left the room, his expression had been quite foul.

But now, he was as calm as still water, as if nothing had happened at all.

It seemed they had reached a conclusion.

Lin Haoran wasn’t particularly concerned about their decision.

In truth, the voting power present that supported his appointment as Vice Chairman already exceeded that of Keswick’s group.

Of course, their support was certainly better. It would remove any obstacles, and his position as Vice Chairman would be entirely legitimate.

“Mr. Keswick, I trust you’ve concluded your discussion?” Newbiggin asked.

Henry Keswick nodded and said, “We’ve discussed it and have made a decision!”

“In that case, let’s proceed with the vote! All in favor, please raise your hands. Those opposed may remain as you are. The secretary-general will tally the votes shortly,” Newbiggin announced to everyone, no longer delaying.

As soon as he finished speaking, nearly everyone in the room raised their hands at the same time.

Witnessing this, many people showed looks of surprise.

Even Lin Haoran was taken aback.

Although he had deliberately pressured them earlier, he had never expected that after their discussion, they would all unanimously agree to his appointment as Vice Chairman of the Board.

He wasn’t sure what trick Henry Keswick had up his sleeve, but as long as everyone agreed, it was the best possible outcome.

“Excellent, it’s a unanimous vote. From this day forward, Mr. Lin Haoran will serve as the Vice Chairman of the Board for Jardine Matheson & Co. After the meeting, the Secretariat will be responsible for contacting the media to announce the change in Jardine Matheson’s senior management!” Newbiggin said, leading the applause.

At this moment, Newbiggin saw Lin Haoran as being on his side. His appointment was beneficial to him as well, so he acted rather enthusiastically.

Lin Haoran glanced at Henry Keswick’s expression. He was still just as calm and did not clap along with everyone else.

However, none of this had much to do with Lin Haoran.

It was impossible for him and Henry Keswick to ever have a good relationship.

Anyone who knew the future of Jardine Matheson & Co. would know that the Keswick family’s goal was to gain complete control over it.

In another world, the Keswick family had indeed succeeded in completely controlling Jardine Matheson.

After ousting Newbiggin, Henry Keswick had his younger brother, Simon Keswick, take over as the new Taipan of Jardine Matheson, and from then on, they maintained control over the major British-owned firm, even successfully fending off the Chinese-funded conglomerates that were coveting the Hongkong Land Group.

In this world, however, Lin Haoran’s appearance had completely shattered the original dynamic.

Now, for the Keswick family to maintain control over Jardine Matheson as they had in the other world had clearly become exceptionally difficult.

Lin Haoran stood up, beaming, and said, “I am very pleased to have everyone’s support in my appointment as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Jardine Matheson & Co. From now on, we are colleagues. I hope to work hand in hand with all of you to help Jardine Matheson achieve faster growth!”

Lin Haoran’s words were met with another round of less than enthusiastic applause.

The confidants of the Keswick family, in particular, couldn’t even be bothered to pretend, sitting in their chairs without moving a muscle.

However, Lin Haoran didn’t care at all.

Right now, everyone was just putting on a false front, each with their own agenda.

He, Lin Haoran, was no different. He had his own ambition: to control both Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group!

Chapter 327: Once the Wings Harden, They Stop Listening!

Just as the meeting concluded, Jardine Matheson & Co. issued a statement that quickly spread through Hong Kong’s major media outlets.

Lin Haoran had been promoted to Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors at Jardine Matheson & Co., and this news undoubtedly caused a massive uproar.

In the past, Jardine Matheson was known as an inner fortress of the British-funded conglomerates, a realm where Chinese individuals found it difficult to enter senior management, let alone a position as important as the second-in-command.

But what were they witnessing now?

Lin Haoran had suddenly become the Vice Chairman of Jardine Matheson?

Although Lin Haoran had previously declared his intention to acquire Jardine Matheson, almost no one at the time believed he could succeed.

Industry experts had long since analyzed that for a Chinese person like Lin Haoran to gain complete control of Jardine Matheson, his equity stake would need to approach or even exceed fifty percent.

Therefore, in the eyes of many, Lin Haoran, this newly-risen tycoon who had successfully acquired multiple public companies in Hong Kong, seemed destined to meet his Waterloo at Jardine Matheson.

But now, although Lin Haoran had not gained full control of Jardine Matheson, the news that he had become its Vice Chairman was enough to shock everyone.

What did this mean?

It meant that the solid fortress of the British-funded conglomerate, Jardine Matheson, had a crack successfully torn into it by Lin Haoran.

From this day forward, the ownership structure of Jardine Matheson would no longer be the exclusive domain of British-funded conglomerates!

In the blink of an eye, October arrived.

As the news was reported by major media outlets, it spread throughout Hong Kong.

From now on, Lin Haoran had another title—Vice Chairman of the Board of Jardine Matheson & Co.!

This title might seem ordinary elsewhere and not represent much.

But in Hong Kong, this position was immensely important.

It was well-known that Jardine Matheson was the crown jewel of foreign firms in Hong Kong, its tentacles extending into every industry. The daily lives of Hong Kong citizens were almost inextricably linked to Jardine Matheson, with its business scope covering numerous sectors including retail, food and beverage, hotels, construction, insurance, real estate, and securities.

For example, Jardine Matheson owned retail giants like Wellcome, 7-Eleven, and Mannings, renowned restaurant brands such as Pizza Hut, KFC, and Maxim’s, as well as luxury hotels like the Mandarin Oriental.

After more than a hundred years of weathering storms, the Jardine Matheson brand was deeply rooted in the land of Hong Kong, becoming an inseparable part of it.

It could be said that the vast majority of Hong Kong citizens had countless connections to Jardine Matheson in their daily lives.

Therefore, when Lin Haoran ascended to the core senior management of Jardine Matheson, the news was undoubtedly exciting and welcome to the wider Chinese community.

No matter where one was, a sense of national honor was always deeply ingrained in people’s hearts.

Now that Hong Kong’s economy had achieved remarkable success, its citizens’ aspirations had also evolved, moving from basic survival needs toward higher ideals.

Lin Haoran was true to his word. Even after becoming the Vice Chairman of Jardine Matheson, he did not use his position to meddle in the company’s management.

In fact, after the meeting, Lin Haoran left Jardine Matheson. He couldn’t be bothered to go to Jardine House unless something required his attention.

However, he did place one of his own people among the senior executives: Li Meihui, the former chief financial officer of Amigo Company.

Now that Amigo Company no longer had any connection to him, and with the Carrian Group taking over, it was impossible for them to entrust such a crucial position as CFO to the former boss’s confidant. Thus, Li Meihui had also resigned from Amigo Company.

It was a perfect arrangement to place her in a regular senior executive position at Jardine Matheson.

This could be considered planting his own eyes and ears inside Jardine Matheson.

Outside the Hongkong Electric Group building, Lin Haoran had just gotten out of his car. As he was about to go upstairs to talk to Chen Shoulin about Hong Kong and China Gas Company’s plans for overseas market expansion, he was stopped by a group of reporters who had been lying in wait.

The security guards from Hongkong Electric Group, along with the two brothers Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, were about to drive them away, but Lin Haoran stopped them.

“Ask what you want, and be quick about it. I’ll answer what I can. You have five minutes!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, looking at his watch.

His words were a pleasant surprise to the reporters.

“Mr. Lin, there are rumors that you’ve given up on acquiring Jardine Matheson. Is that true?” one reporter asked first.

“I have currently stopped acquiring Jardine Matheson’s stock and have made it clear at the Board of Directors meeting that I will not increase my shareholding any further,” Lin Haoran replied, not directly addressing the rumor.

In reality, his plan was far from abandoning Jardine Matheson; he intended to use Hongkong Land Group to achieve a reverse takeover of the company.

However, the outside world was unaware of this. They mistakenly believed that Lin Haoran’s cessation of share purchases meant he had completely given up on controlling Jardine Matheson, content with the position of Vice Chairman of the Board.

In this way, in the battle for Jardine Matheson, Lin Haoran appeared to have neither succeeded nor failed.

“Mr. Lin, as a senior executive at Jardine Matheson second only to Mr. Newbiggin, will you continue to pursue the position of Taipan?” another reporter asked.

“If there’s an opportunity, I’d naturally hope to become the Taipan of Jardine Matheson. However, it’s clear that the other British-funded conglomerates are unwilling for me to hold that position at the moment, so I can only dream about it for now. As for whether there will be an opportunity in the future, who knows? Let time be the judge!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

After answering a few more questions, Lin Haoran, under the protection of his security guards, walked into the Hongkong Electric Group building, leaving a dozen or so reporters who still wanted to ask more questions to depart with regret.

The fact that Lin Haoran had answered so many questions was already a great favor to them. To pester him further would be crossing a line.

On the stock market, with Jardine Matheson announcing Lin Haoran as Vice Chairman and Lin Haoran declaring he would no longer increase his shareholding, Jardine Matheson’s stock price seemed to fizzle out, and the speculation died down.

After all, Lin Haoran’s reply was essentially equivalent to giving up on the acquisition of Jardine Matheson. Without that suspense, the company’s stock price naturally couldn’t maintain its high valuation.

However, none of this mattered much to Lin Haoran.

Even if Jardine Matheson’s stock price fell, he had little interest in its shares anymore.

His sole focus now was on having Hongkong Land Group gain control of Jardine Matheson. In that case, whether he increased his personal stake in Jardine Matheson was no longer significant.

At Hongkong Electric Group, the overseas market expansion was proceeding very smoothly. After winning the bid for a power supply project near Bangkok, experts from the group conducted an inspection and decided to build a dam in a nearby valley. This would create a reservoir covering more than ten square kilometers, which would then be used for hydroelectric power generation.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, as Hongkong Electric Group’s only publicly listed subsidiary, was also brewing plans to go abroad.

No matter how well they did in Hong Kong, the market was ultimately too small, and the potential for growth was very limited.

Therefore, to expand the market, besides diversifying into other industries, the best and simplest method was to develop overseas markets!

Although they couldn’t achieve a monopoly overseas as they had in Hong Kong, capturing even a portion of the market would significantly increase the revenue of Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Now, Hong Kong and China Gas Company was also targeting the Southeast Asian market, especially its major cities.

Southeast Asia was densely populated. Cities like Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila, and Kuala Lumpur were plentiful, and aside from Singapore, which had a smaller area and population than Hong Kong, many of them had larger populations.

If Hong Kong and China Gas Company could enter just a few of these cities, the company’s revenue would soar.

If Lin Haoran were to try to enter these markets relying on his own status in Hong Kong, it might not be possible.

But with the help of the Guo family, a local powerhouse in Southeast Asia, local governments would likely give them favor, greatly increasing the chances of Hong Kong and China Gas Company entering these markets.

For example, Chen Shoulin had recently been in discussions with relevant officials in Kuala Lumpur about forming a new energy supply company as a joint venture between Hong Kong and China Gas Company and a local enterprise.

While Lin Haoran and Chen Shoulin were discussing the company’s grand plans, a similar conversation was taking place in Newbiggin’s office at Jardine House.

Across from Newbiggin was none other than the current leader of the Keswick family, Henry Keswick.

“Mr. Newbiggin, I expect to return to Britain in a couple of days. Before I go, I’d like to have a talk with you,” Henry Keswick said solemnly.

He had been in Hong Kong for several days and had to prepare to return to London.

After all, Henry Keswick was not just a major shareholder in Jardine Matheson; he also had numerous business interests in Britain.

He was needed there to oversee the overall situation, so he couldn’t stay away from Britain for too long.

“Of course, Mr. Henry. Please, tell me what you’d like to talk about!” Even though they had become adversaries over the issue of power, Newbiggin always treated Henry Keswick with sufficient respect.

This was because Newbiggin owed his position as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson to Henry Keswick’s promotion.

Newbiggin had worked at Jardine Matheson for thirty years; one could say he had dedicated his entire working life to the company.

When Henry Keswick stepped down, he had recognized Newbiggin’s talent and ultimately chose him as his successor.

But who could have imagined that after becoming the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, Newbiggin would become captivated by the supreme power it offered? This effectively meant that the Keswick family’s controlling stake in Jardine Matheson was continuously weakening.

Looking at the man who was once his subordinate, Henry Keswick felt a wave of emotion.

Chapter 328: The Jardine-Land Cross-Shareholding, Li Jiacheng Sells Hongkong Land Shares!

“Mr. Newbiggin, I’ve been thinking for the past few days, and I believe the Jardine-Land cross-shareholding policy you proposed is excellent. However, I think its implementation is moving too slowly. I suggest we fully implement it as soon as possible.

Specifically, Hongkong Land Group should also hold a certain amount of Jardine Matheson & Co. shares. That’s the only way to stop Jardine Matheson from being targeted by Chinese-funded conglomerates! I think both companies should increase their shareholdings at the same time, not step-by-step. It would be best to get this done within two months!

Therefore, I hope you can accelerate the implementation of this decision. This concerns the interests of all of us in the British-funded conglomerate!” Henry Keswick said solemnly.

His goal was actually quite simple, just as they had discussed in the small meeting room: to have Hongkong Land Group hold a controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co.

This way, the shares of all Jardine Matheson & Co. shareholders would be diluted.

Take Lin Haoran, for example, who currently held around 20% of Jardine Matheson’s shares.

If Jardine Matheson were to raise capital through financing, his 20% stake would shrink due to the issuance of new shares.

And these British-funded conglomerates could use Hongkong Land Group’s controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. to call another board meeting and kick Lin Haoran off the Board of Directors!

In Henry Keswick’s view, Hongkong Land Group was still firmly under the control of their British-funded conglomerate.

Although there were rumors that someone was secretly accumulating shares in Hongkong Land Group, Henry Keswick didn’t believe it could be Lin Haoran.

Even though an employee from Universal Investment Company had secretly leaked this information, most people dismissed it as a lie once Lin Haoran announced his intention to acquire Jardine Matheson & Co.

After all, accumulating 20% of Jardine Matheson’s shares had already required a significant amount of capital.

Hongkong Land Group’s stock price was nearly double that of Jardine Matheson & Co., so acquiring it would undoubtedly cost much, much more!

Therefore, the once-sensational news that Lin Haoran wanted to acquire Hongkong Land Group had gradually died down. No one believed Lin Haoran had such capability.

Hearing Henry Keswick’s words, Newbiggin didn’t overthink it. He simply nodded and replied, “Mr. Henry, I will do everything I can to speed up the process. With your support, everything will go more smoothly. We had originally planned to complete this within six months, but if we can get the support of the entire Board of Directors, the work can certainly be finished faster. Forget two months—I think we can get it done in one!”

This proposal had been Newbiggin’s own idea. Since it had everyone’s full support and cooperation, he naturally had no objections.

As the Taipan of both Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group, the one who stood to gain the most from the cross-shareholding was Newbiggin himself.

Two days later, on October 3rd, Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group formally announced to the public that Jardine Matheson would exchange assets worth 1.195 billion Hong Kong dollars for approximately sixty-four million newly issued shares of Hongkong Land Group. The transferred assets included a fifty percent stake in the World Trade Centre in Causeway Bay and thirty-three million Wheelock A-shares.

After the transaction, Jardine Matheson & Co.’s equity in Hongkong Land Group increased from the original 20% to 27.8%.

On October 8th, Jardine Matheson & Co. announced another issuance of twenty-five million new shares to Hongkong Land Group, which Hongkong Land purchased with cash.

At the same time, Hongkong Land Group had already quietly accumulated 5% of the shares from the secondary market.

On October 24th, Hongkong Land Group announced again that it now controlled 30.1% of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s shares.

Through multiple shareholding increases, either by issuing new shares or accumulating them from the secondary market, the two companies quickly achieved a state where they each held a significant stake in the other in less than a month.

At this point, Jardine Matheson & Co. held 30.2% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares, and Hongkong Land Group held 30.1% of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s shares.

If events had followed their original historical course, Jardine Matheson & Co. would have ended up with 40% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares, while Hongkong Land would have held 38% of Jardine Matheson’s.

However, in this world, because Lin Haoran had already accumulated a large portion of the shares from the secondary market, it was much more difficult for the two groups to acquire shares there.

Consequently, they only ended up holding around 30% of each other’s shares, which was significantly less than in the alternate history.

With that, and without Lin Haoran announcing that he already held over 40% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares, both companies declared that they had become a major shareholder in the other.

This move completely deterred many of the Chinese-funded conglomerates that had been eyeing the two companies.

This was especially true for Li Jiacheng. Upon seeing this development, he, who had been considering whether to buy Lin Haoran’s Jardine Matheson & Co. shares, completely gave up any designs on the company.

As for the roughly 5% of Hongkong Land Group shares he held, their importance in his mind had greatly diminished.

China Building, Cheung Kong Holdings Group. In a small meeting room of only about thirty square meters, Li Jiacheng was holding a meeting with several of his trusted aides, discussing one problem.

Should he sell the Hongkong Land Group shares he held, or not?

“Mr. Li, I think it’s better to sell. At the current price, we won’t make much money, but we won’t lose any either. It just means a few months of planning have gone to waste.”

“I agree. Given the current situation with Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co., we no longer have any opportunity to make a move. Giving up is the best choice. Both Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa are expanding rapidly and require a lot of capital. Although holding Hongkong Land shares might appreciate in the long run, we shouldn’t tie up too much capital in a company we can’t control!”

“I also agree we should sell!”

…

In the meeting room, the aides all gave their opinions.

However, it was clear from their words that none of them recommended holding onto the Hongkong Land Group shares.

A 30% stake! And that’s on top of the Hongkong Land Group shares already held by the British-funded conglomerates within Jardine Matheson. What did this mean?

It meant they no longer had any chance of controlling Hongkong Land Group, because the combined shares held by those two factions already exceeded 40%!

The Hongkong Land shares held by the British-funded conglomerates combined with Jardine Matheson’s 30.2% stake already exceeded 40%, reaching 42.3%!

This information had all been publicly disclosed!

Li Jiacheng remained expressionless, finally saying, “Then let’s sell them!”

These aides had been of immense help to him during his rise.

They were all great contributors to Cheung Kong Holdings.

Therefore, Li Jiacheng placed great importance on their opinions!

But no matter what, Li Jiacheng felt a trace of unwillingness in his heart.

He had wanted both Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group.

But now, with this move by Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, his ambitions for these two groups had been utterly defeated.

From this day forward, he no longer had the standing to covet these two companies.

“These British-funded conglomerates… what a brilliant move,” Li Jiacheng said with some emotion.

His own stock accumulation in Hongkong Land had been extremely discreet; the only person who knew he owned these shares was Lin Haoran.

Yet, to defend against Chinese-funded conglomerates like them, the British conglomerates had made such a decision, completely dashing his hopes for the two groups.

“Old Wu, what’s Hongkong Land Group’s current market capitalization?” Li Jiacheng asked the head of the Securities Department.

“Mr. Li, Hongkong Land Group’s market cap is currently around twelve billion Hong Kong dollars. We hold 4.32%, so based on the market cap, our shares are worth about 520 million Hong Kong dollars!” the head of the Securities Department quickly replied.

Because Hongkong Land Group had issued some new shares, the percentage of shares held by Li Jiacheng’s companies had been slightly diluted, dropping from over 5% to the current 4.32%.

However, the stock price had risen quite a bit during this period, so their value hadn’t dropped and was still over 500 million.

Li Jiacheng nodded.

He was considering something: would it be better to sell these shares to Lin Haoran, sell them directly on the secondary market, or sell them to the British-funded conglomerates?

After Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land announced the success of their cross-shareholding, Hongkong Land’s stock price might continue to fall.

If he sold them on the secondary market, he might not be able to get 520 million Hong Kong dollars; even getting 500 million Hong Kong dollars would be a challenge.

And finding a private buyer for the shares of a company with no prospect of a controlling stake would not be easy.

For wealthy financial groups, the value of such shares was greatly diminished.

However, Li Jiacheng knew that Lin Haoran would definitely buy them.

He knew that Lin Haoran held a significant number of Hongkong Land Group shares himself.

Lin Haoran was the only person with the power to make a move on Hongkong Land Group.

Back then, Lin Haoran had offered to buy these shares from him for 500 million Hong Kong dollars.

At the time, Li Jiacheng hadn’t made up his mind, so he never replied.

Now, if he sold these shares to the British-funded conglomerates, he could definitely gain some benefits.

However, he was considering whether it was worth offending Lin Haoran for those benefits.

After all, in the Hong Kong business world today, he was the only one who knew just how terrifyingly vast Lin Haoran’s wealth was!

In his opinion, Lin Haoran’s true wealth had definitely surpassed Pao Yue-kong’s.

Was a person like that someone he could afford to offend?

No, he couldn’t.

If he offended Lin Haoran this time, their relationship would probably be irreconcilable for life.

The stakes were too high.

Ever since he learned that Lin Haoran had secretly achieved a controlling stake in Hongkong Land Group, he had already elevated Lin Haoran’s status to a level half a step above his own.

As for the British-funded conglomerates, he wasn’t particularly afraid of them. His accumulation of Hongkong Land shares had been done in secret, so the British didn’t know about it.

Besides, his relationship with the Jardine faction had always been mediocre at best.

Chapter 329: Kick Lin Haoran Out of Jardine Matheson & Co.!

After the meeting, Li Jiacheng called Lin Haoran directly.

“Mr. Li, give me half an hour. I’ll be right over!” Lin Haoran said immediately after learning the purpose of the call.

He had been waiting for this call from Li Jiacheng for over half a month, and today, he finally received it.

His long wait had not been in vain.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran took his private car directly to the Chinese Building.

Twenty minutes later, he arrived at the underground parking garage of the Chinese Building.

When he went up to the ground floor lobby, a staff member was already waiting for him.

Led by the Cheung Kong Holdings staff member, he took the elevator to Li Jiacheng’s office.

For nearly a month, he had been perfectly clear about the actions of Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group.

However, he had remained impassive and made no move to stop Jardine Matheson’s actions.

These British-funded conglomerates accelerating the cross-shareholding plan between the two groups was exactly what he wanted!

Both the Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. had undergone some degree of financing, which diluted his original shareholdings slightly. But he hadn’t been idle; he had Universal Investment Company continue to increase its shareholding, buying up as many shares as were diluted.

Fortunately, neither Jardine Matheson nor Hongkong Land had raised too much capital through financing, and nearly half of their stock accumulation came from the secondary market, so he didn’t need to increase his holdings by much.

To this day, his shareholding in Jardine Matheson & Co. was still maintained at around 19%.

As for his shares in the Hongkong Land Group, counting the portion held by the Hongkong Electric Group, his control had reached 43%.

The Hongkong Electric Group had always held 6% of the shares. After the dilution, on Lin Haoran’s orders, the Hongkong Electric Group also increased its shareholding in the Hongkong Land Group.

As of today, Lin Haoran knew it was time to close the net.

The Hongkong Land Group held 30.1% of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s shares!

This meant that once he took control of the Hongkong Land Group, he would also control this 30.1% stake. Combined with the 19% of Jardine Matheson shares he already held, his effective control over Jardine Matheson would reach a staggering 49.1%. Under these circumstances, could Jardine Matheson possibly escape?

No, they couldn’t!

As for the Hongkong Land Group, Lin Haoran wasn’t worried at all.

He knew that Jardine Matheson & Co. currently held 30.2% of Hongkong Land’s shares, and combined with the roughly 12% held by other British-funded conglomerates, their total holdings were as high as 42%.

But he himself held 43%.

In reality, very few of Hongkong Land’s shares were left on the stock market.

Everyone thought there were fewer sell orders for Hongkong Land because people didn’t want to sell.

The truth was, the shares remaining in the hands of ordinary shareholders had dropped to less than ten percent, because a portion was still held by Li Jiacheng.

Lin Haoran had been waiting for Li Jiacheng’s call, but to his surprise, the other party had never contacted him.

Based on his understanding of Li Jiacheng, even if Li Jiacheng didn’t sell to him, he would never sell to the British-funded conglomerates.

Given Li Jiacheng’s low-key, humble personality and his reluctance to offend people, he would only choose to sell to the British-funded conglomerates if he couldn’t get a satisfactory outcome from negotiations with Lin Haoran.

Therefore, Lin Haoran hadn’t been in a hurry.

Now, the other party had finally reached out.

“Mr. Lin, I never imagined your ambition was so great. Congratulations, your dream is about to come true!” Li Jiacheng remarked with emotion upon seeing Lin Haoran.

Through this series of events, Li Jiacheng had long since guessed Lin Haoran’s intentions.

Why hadn’t he announced that he already held a controlling stake in the Hongkong Land Group?

When Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group jointly announced their cross-shareholding, Li Jiacheng finally understood Lin Haoran’s true objective.

The man wanted to use the Hongkong Land Group to indirectly control Jardine Matheson & Co. This was an ambition that even he, Li Jiacheng, could never have imagined before.

In the end, he had still underestimated this young man.

Before Lin Haoran, his own ambitions seemed utterly insignificant. He, Li Jiacheng, willingly conceded defeat!

“Well, it hasn’t succeeded just yet!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, I won’t be the villain here. I’ll lend you a hand and sell you all the Hongkong Land Group shares we hold!” Li Jiacheng continued.

“Mr. Li, I’ve waited a long time to hear you say that. As for the price, how about we go by the current market rate?” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

“Alright, let’s go with the market price!” To Lin Haoran’s surprise, Li Jiacheng readily agreed.

At the current market price, the shares he held were worth about 520 million Hong Kong dollars.

Based on his earlier acquisition cost, he had spent about 470 million Hong Kong dollars.

In fact, being able to make a profit of nearly fifty million Hong Kong dollars from this was quite satisfactory for Li Jiacheng.

“Once Mr. Lin takes control of the Hongkong Land Group, I think there will be many areas where we can cooperate!” Li Jiacheng added.

“Of course!”

With both parties being so straightforward, they settled the deal in just a few words.

Afterward, Lin Haoran called over the legal counsel from Universal Investment Company, and the two parties signed the share transfer agreement that very day.

In the end, for a price of exactly 520 million Hong Kong dollars, Lin Haoran bought the combined 4.32% stake in the Hongkong Land Group held by Li Jiacheng’s Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings.

Adding this to the 43% he already owned, Lin Haoran’s shareholding in the Hongkong Land Group now reached a high of 47.3%!

With a stake this large, no matter how much the British-funded conglomerates struggled, it would be useless.

Back when Li Jiacheng had just taken control of Hutchison Whampoa, his ambition had been immense. He was confident he could surpass even Pao Yue-kong in a short time.

In the future, becoming the richest man in Hong Kong was not just a dream!

But after selling this block of shares, Li Jiacheng had completely given up on the idea of becoming the richest man in Hong Kong.

Because he knew that this young man, Lin Haoran, was about to take control of the two behemoths, Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group. Adding to that the Hongkong Electric Group, Wanqing Group, and others he already controlled, how could he possibly compete?

Such power completely crushed him, leaving him with no will to even think about competing.

If Heaven made a Jiacheng, why did it also have to make a Haoran?

Meanwhile, at 4:30 that afternoon, a plane slowly landed at Kai Tak International Airport.

The plane had flown in from Britain.

Onboard, half the faces were Western, and half were Chinese.

If Lin Haoran had been there, he would have instantly recognized one of the passengers: the famous head of the Keswick family, Mr. Henry Keswick.

That’s right. After more than half a month, Mr. Henry Keswick had once again flown from Britain to Hong Kong.

His purpose this time was also very simple: to drive Lin Haoran out of the Jardine Matheson & Co. Board of Directors!

By now, his confidant from Jardine Matheson & Co. had already arrived to pick him up.

The completion of the Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land cross-shareholding had filled him with confidence.

Although the final cross-held stakes for both Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land were only around 30%, a bit short of their planned 40%, in Henry Keswick’s eyes, this was more than enough to oust Lin Haoran.

With the 30.1% of Jardine Matheson shares held by the Hongkong Land Group, plus the shares held by their British-funded conglomerate, they could easily surpass 50%.

Under these circumstances, he no longer feared Lin Haoran’s threats. No matter how much Lin Haoran increased his shareholding, it would be impossible for him to surpass the stake controlled by the British-funded conglomerate.

Therefore, after tolerating this Chinese man for nearly a month, it was time to close the net and kick Lin Haoran off the board as soon as possible.

In this way, he would be more confident in ousting Newbiggin in the future.

During this period, he had come to understand Newbiggin’s scheme; it was nothing more than an attempt to use Lin Haoran to restrain him.

But how could Newbiggin have possibly known that he had long planned to drive Lin Haoran out of Jardine Matheson & Co.?

Over the past month, Henry Keswick had, of course, not been idle.

After returning to Britain, he first sought out several key shareholders of HSBC. His goal was to have them persuade Michael Sandberg to support Jardine Matheson & Co. in kicking Lin Haoran off the Board of Directors.

The Jardine Matheson & Co. shares held by HSBC would have a significant influence on this decision.

In the end, after promising various benefits to the heads of the British-funded conglomerates behind HSBC, he succeeded. He successfully convinced the conglomerate backing HSBC, and then, indirectly, convinced Michael Sandberg.

Thus, coming to Hong Kong this time, Henry Keswick was extremely confident about forcing Lin Haoran out of the Jardine Matheson & Co. Board of Directors. Even if Newbiggin wanted to help Lin Haoran, it would be useless in Henry Keswick’s opinion.

“Is everything ready?” Henry Keswick asked the driver, sitting in the car.

This driver was no ordinary person; he was a key senior executive at Jardine Matheson & Co. and Henry’s confidant within the company.

“Mr. Henry, it’s all ready. This afternoon, I submitted a request to Mr. Newbiggin to call a board meeting. It’s scheduled for ten o’clock tomorrow morning. Mr. Newbiggin should be notifying all the board members right now!” the confidant replied while driving.

“Mm, you’ve done well!” Henry Keswick said with a satisfied nod.

“By tomorrow, that damned Chinese man will be driven out of Jardine Matheson & Co. I’ve long found that Chinese man, Lin Haoran, to be an eyesore. He actually wants to acquire Jardine Matheson & Co.? Dream on! Jardine Matheson & Co. will forever belong to the Keswick family. No one else can touch it!” Henry Keswick muttered.

Henry Keswick’s ambition was immense. He wanted to build the Keswick family into a world-class dynasty, like the Rothschild family.

And Jardine Matheson & Co. was the source of his confidence.

As long as he could keep Jardine Matheson & Co. firmly in the family’s grasp, this dream would sooner or later come true.

The car finally stopped in the underground parking garage of a skyscraper in Central. The building’s signboard read: Mandarin Oriental Hotel, a famous luxury hotel in Hong Kong and an international hotel investment and management group.

Chapter 330: The British Conglomerate Makes Its Move!

Wanqing Building, 31st floor, Lin Haoran’s private office.

After reaching an agreement with Li Jiacheng and settling all matters regarding the share transfer, Lin Haoran returned to his office.

The time had come. There was no longer any need to delay his takeover of the Hongkong Land Group.

Therefore, the next step was to organize a management team to take control of the company.

Once the takeover of Hongkong Land Group was successful, he would move on to Jardine Matheson & Co.!

In Hong Kong, both companies were among the largest, so taking them over would not be a simple task.

At that moment, he was gathering his top subordinates like Burton and Cui Zilong to discuss how to manage the takeover of these two enterprises.

Previously, the activities of Universal Investment Company had been kept under wraps, so neither Burton nor Cui Zilong had any inkling of Lin Haoran’s plans.

Now, learning that their boss had quietly amassed the strength to control both Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, they were both utterly stunned.

Taking over either Jardine Matheson or Hongkong Land would have been incredible enough.

“Boss, even though you can now hold a controlling stake in Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, I still recommend not rushing to have your confidants take over directly. Instead, a gradual approach would be better. For now, solidifying your controlling position is enough,” Burton proposed.

“Oh? Why is that? Wouldn’t it be more direct and effective to have our team occupy the senior executive positions?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“Both the Wanqing Group and your other enterprises have a wealth of management talent. While their administrative skills are outstanding, they may not be familiar with the specific operations of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land. If we rashly take over and replace the original senior management on a large scale, both companies will likely suffer a severe blow in the short term.”

“Therefore, Boss, the most prudent approach is to proceed step by step. After securing the controlling stake, temporarily retain the original senior executives. Then, slowly infiltrate your confidants, giving them enough time to thoroughly understand the internal workings of the companies before gradually taking over management. This will minimize the losses for both companies!” Burton explained with a smile.

Lin Haoran quickly grasped the meaning behind Burton’s words and nodded.

“In that case, we indeed can’t change too much of the senior management when taking over these two companies. I won’t need to prepare too much either,” Lin Haoran said thoughtfully, resting his chin on his hand.

Taking over the Hongkong Electric Group was a completely different situation from taking over Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land this time.

In the case of Hongkong Electric, Lin Haoran greatly admired Chen Shoulin’s abilities. Moreover, as a Chinese manager, Chen Shoulin had led the Hongkong Electric Group to achieve outstanding results. The financial reports from previous years clearly showed how profitable the group was under the management of Chen Shoulin’s team.

Therefore, after acquiring the Hongkong Electric Group, he had not made significant adjustments to the senior management.

However, the situation with Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land was entirely different.

These two companies had long been firmly controlled by the British-funded conglomerate, and their senior executives were almost all from that circle.

If Lin Haoran wanted to truly take control, he would inevitably have to clean house in the future. Otherwise, even he, the major shareholder, might not be able to direct the company’s operations smoothly.

But replacing all the senior executives at once would certainly lead to the situation Burton described.

So, the best method was to replace the senior management slowly, rather than all at once.

Just as Lin Haoran was about to speak again, the phone on his desk rang.

Lin Haoran picked up the telephone receiver directly and answered in front of Burton, Cui Zilong, Su Zhixue, and the others, “Hello, this is Lin Haoran.”

“Mr. Lin, this is Newbiggin. I’m calling to inform you of something. Tomorrow at ten in the morning, Jardine Matheson will be holding a board meeting in conference room 2807 on the 28th floor of Jardine House. I’ll have to trouble you to be there on time,” Newbiggin said from the other end of the line.

“Mr. Newbiggin, could you tell me the specific purpose of this meeting?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

He had originally planned to make a surprise move on the Hongkong Land Group tomorrow, holding a press conference there to announce his takeover.

He hadn’t expected Newbiggin to invite him to a board meeting at Jardine House.

“Mr. Lin, to be honest with you, I don’t know the specifics either. It was Henry Keswick who convened this meeting using his rights as a major shareholder. I heard that Mr. Henry Keswick has already arrived in Hong Kong,” Newbiggin said helplessly.

Since Lin Haoran’s appointment as Vice Chairman of the Board, the relationship between Henry Keswick and Newbiggin had evidently become more strained. Keswick no longer consulted him on many matters.

“Alright, I understand. I’ll be there on time tomorrow morning!” Lin Haoran finally agreed.

Hongkong Land wasn’t going anywhere. He was curious to see what sort of scheme Henry Keswick was plotting with this mysterious board meeting.

“Good. In that case, Mr. Lin, I’ll hang up now. I still need to notify the other board members!” Newbiggin said upon hearing Lin Haoran’s reply.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran was still pondering Henry Keswick’s purpose in calling this meeting.

However, after thinking it over and over, Lin Haoran couldn’t figure out his opponent’s objective.

He was already the Vice Chairman of Jardine Matheson. Could the other party still be trying to come after him?

Unable to come up with an answer, Lin Haoran decided to stop thinking about it. He would find out the purpose of the meeting tomorrow anyway.

Thus, he continued his discussion with Burton, Cui Zilong, and the others on how to best take over the two behemoth enterprises.

Although Burton and Cui Zilong were each in charge of their own companies, which had no connection whatsoever to Jardine Matheson or Hongkong Land, both the Wanqing Group and the Oriental Press Group were solely owned by Lin Haoran. The two men were simply working for him, so there was naturally no issue with summoning them to discuss this matter.

In the blink of an eye, it was October 25th.

Today was the weekend. Normally, apart from a few senior executives on duty, many of Jardine Matheson’s executives would not be at work.

However, today at Jardine House, practically all the senior executives were present.

Not only that, but many major shareholders who rarely showed up were also at Jardine House.

Even some of the British shareholders from the Hongkong Land Group were present at Jardine House.

Lin Haoran arrived at the ground floor of Jardine House with Li Weidong, Li Weiguo, and others.

At the elevators, Lin Haoran happened to run into Michael Sandberg, the Taipan of HSBC. He greeted him with a smile, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, good morning!”

Unexpectedly, Michael Sandberg seemed to have a guilty conscience. He returned an awkward smile and gave only a perfunctory reply.

This scene greatly surprised Lin Haoran.

In the past, Michael Sandberg had always been very polite to him, and their relationship could be considered quite good.

What was different today?

Seeing that the other man had no intention of continuing the conversation, Lin Haoran didn’t press the matter. The two entered the elevator in silence and rode up without another word.

When he arrived at the conference room, it was already filled with people.

Lin Haoran had seen most of the faces last time, but there were some he didn’t recognize.

It seemed that even more people were attending this meeting than the last one.

Soon, he saw Mr. Henry Keswick.

At that moment, Henry Keswick was walking into the conference room in high spirits, chatting with shareholders from other British-funded conglomerates.

Lin Haoran even felt that the way Keswick looked at him was somewhat meaningful.

This made Lin Haoran feel even more strongly that this board meeting was a trap, and he was likely the main course.

Had the other party come all the way from Britain again just to deal with him?

Whatever, he thought. Come what may, I will face it. Lin Haoran was not flustered.

Soon, the time came to ten in the morning.

As the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, Newbiggin stood up to give the opening remarks.

“At the request of Mr. Henry Keswick, this board meeting has been convened. Next, I invite Mr. Henry Keswick to preside over this meeting.”

Everyone immediately turned their attention to Henry Keswick.

Many of them were his confidants and had naturally known the purpose of this meeting in advance.

Only those who were not close to Henry Keswick wore looks of confusion, waiting for what he had to say next.

Lin Haoran glanced at Michael Sandberg’s expression. The Taipan of HSBC was as calm as still water, showing no curiosity at all about what Henry Keswick was about to say.

It was obvious that Michael Sandberg already knew.

As soon as Newbiggin finished speaking, Henry Keswick also stood up.

“Everyone, the Hongkong Land Group is now the controlling shareholder of Jardine Matheson, so several of its major shareholders are also here today representing Hongkong Land to participate in this meeting. Let us welcome them.” As Henry Keswick’s voice fell, many people in the room began to applaud.

Only then did Lin Haoran realize that the few unfamiliar Westerners were shareholders of Hongkong Land.

No wonder he didn’t recognize them.

“I’ve called everyone here today and troubled you all to make this trip because there is a very important matter that requires a vote. As you all know, Jardine Matheson has always been an enterprise of our British-funded conglomerate.”

“However, Mr. Lin Haoran’s entry into the core senior management of Jardine Matheson is clearly contrary to the interests of our British-funded conglomerate. Therefore, my purpose this time is to once again propose a vote, with the aim of removing Mr. Lin Haoran from his position as Vice Chairman of the Board and revoking his status as a board member!” Henry Keswick said all in one breath!

Now that the cross-shareholding plan between Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land had made effective progress, Henry Keswick was no longer afraid of Lin Haoran’s threats.

So what if he had more money and could continue to increase his shareholding?

Having convinced HSBC and the shareholders and board members of Hongkong Land, their side’s voting power was already higher than that of Lin Haoran and Newbiggin combined.

Chapter 331: Bao Fuda Switches Sides

Henry Keswick’s words instantly astonished everyone present who had not been informed of the meeting’s purpose beforehand.

Many even let out audible gasps of surprise.

Even Newbiggin wore a look of utter shock.

He had never imagined that the purpose of the board meeting Henry Keswick had called was to drive Lin Haoran out of Jardine Matheson & Co.!

When Lin Haoran first became the Vice Chairman of the Board of Jardine Matheson, Newbiggin had worried he might meddle too much in the company’s affairs.

But as time went on, Newbiggin discovered that Lin Haoran was true to his word and did not interfere with the company’s management at all.

In fact, from the beginning of the month to the end, the number of times Lin Haoran had come to Jardine House could be counted on one hand.

Therefore, he had gradually come to believe that allowing Lin Haoran into the core of Jardine Matheson’s Board of Directors was the best possible choice.

Not only did Lin Haoran not interfere with Jardine Matheson’s business, but he could also serve as a check on Henry Keswick, allowing him, the Taipan, to exercise his own authority to the fullest within the company.

If things could have continued this way, it would have been the ideal situation for Newbiggin!

But the cross-shareholding plan between Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land Group had just been completed, and Henry Keswick was already this impatient to kick Lin Haoran off the Board of Directors?

In that moment, a thousand thoughts raced through Newbiggin’s mind. He finally understood why Henry Keswick had urged him to expedite the cross-shareholding plan.

“But how can he be so certain that he can oust Mr. Lin?” This was what puzzled Newbiggin.

The reason Newbiggin had never considered this possibility was that he didn’t think Henry Keswick could rally enough support to push Lin Haoran out.

After all, Mr. Michael Sandberg had supported Lin Haoran’s entry into the Board of Directors and his appointment as Vice Chairman of the Board.

Furthermore, Bao Fuda was considered his own confidant. As the Executive Director of Hongkong Land Group, Bao Fuda represented a significant portion of its voting power, and he was unlikely to support the motion. Given these circumstances, Newbiggin did not believe Henry Keswick could succeed in forcing Lin Haoran out.

Regardless, all he could do now was wait and see how things developed. Today’s meeting had already veered out of his control.

Many people were profoundly shocked.

Lin Haoran, in contrast, was as calm as still water, his face a completely emotionless mask, as if Henry Keswick’s words had nothing to do with him at all.

Of course, he wasn’t flustered. After all, just as Henry Keswick had his resources and confidence, so too did he, Lin Haoran, have his own.

Once he revealed his hand, he had no doubt that everyone present would be even more astounded.

“Everyone, we will now proceed with the vote to remove Mr. Lin Haoran from his position as Vice Chairman of the Board and as a board member. The outcome will be determined by voting power. Those in favor, please raise your hands. Those against, do nothing!” At this point, Newbiggin could only stand up reluctantly and announce the vote.

However, he still didn’t think Henry Keswick would succeed.

He didn’t want Lin Haoran to leave Jardine Matheson’s Board of Directors, but faced with Henry Keswick’s attack, he was helpless. As the representative of the British-funded conglomerate, Keswick had the right to make this decision.

As soon as Newbiggin finished speaking, everyone in the room quickly made their choice.

Among the British-funded conglomerate, except for the few shareholders who supported Newbiggin, the vast majority raised their hands.

Not only that, even Michael Sandberg, the Taipan of HSBC, raised his hands.

Lin Haoran finally understood the awkward expression Sandberg had worn in the elevator. It turned out he intended to be Henry Keswick’s accomplice in this.

No wonder!

Besides Michael Sandberg, an even more important representative, Bao Fuda, now raised his hand on behalf of Hongkong Land Group. In addition, the other few shareholders from Hongkong Land Group also raised their hands.

Hongkong Land Group now held 30.1% of Jardine Matheson’s shares, so its voting power was extremely important.

And as the de facto manager of Hongkong Land Group, Bao Fuda was clearly in a position to represent their opinion.

Coupled with the votes from the other Hongkong Land shareholders, it was clear that Hongkong Land was overwhelmingly in favor of Henry Keswick’s move to kick Lin Haoran off Jardine Matheson’s Board of Directors.

“Mr. Bao Fuda, you!” Newbiggin stared in shock at the man beside him, Bao Fuda, the Executive Director and general manager of Hongkong Land Group, whom he had always considered a confidant.

He couldn’t believe it. The de facto manager of Hongkong Land Group, who had always been obedient to his every command, had chosen not to follow him this time, but to side with Henry Keswick in supporting the move to oust Lin Haoran from Jardine Matheson?

“Mr. Newbiggin, my apologies. This time, I support Mr. Henry Keswick!” Bao Fuda said in a low voice.

In truth, Henry Keswick had already won Bao Fuda over in private.

Previously, Jardine Matheson held 20% of Hongkong Land’s shares and was its de facto controlling party.

Hongkong Land, on the other hand, held no shares in Jardine Matheson at all.

Therefore, Hongkong Land had always been an associated subsidiary under Jardine Matheson.

Newbiggin was even the Taipan of Hongkong Land, though his power there was obviously not as great as it was at Jardine Matheson. The primary control of Hongkong Land was in the hands of its Executive Director, Bao Fuda.

But now, Hongkong Land and Jardine Matheson had effectively achieved cross-shareholding. Each had become the other’s “largest shareholder” to an indisputably controlling degree.

Under these circumstances, Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land were effectively peer companies. It was no longer accurate to say that Hongkong Land was a subsidiary of Jardine Matheson!

Consequently, Bao Fuda’s ambitions had naturally grown.

And right at that moment, Henry Keswick had made Bao Fuda a promise: in the future, if he helped drive Newbiggin out, Keswick would groom him as the successor for Jardine Matheson, while at the very least allowing him to maintain his position at Hongkong Land.

And so, Bao Fuda decisively switched sides, choosing to support Henry Keswick.

In Bao Fuda’s view, they were both professional managers. Why should he be a rank below Newbiggin?

Newbiggin’s expression was now exceptionally complicated.

He quickly scanned the room and knew in his heart, without needing to calculate carefully, that the current voting result was enough to put Lin Haoran in an unfavorable position at this board meeting.

Although Lin Haoran held over ten percent of the shares, with the majority of members opposing his presence on the board, it would be impossible for him to maintain his position.

His plan, which had been realized for less than a month, had come to nothing. Newbiggin was deeply unwilling to accept it.

But he was helpless. Having lost the support of both Michael Sandberg and Bao Fuda, his plan to use Lin Haoran to keep Henry Keswick in check had been declared a failure.

“Based on the calculation of voting power, the approval rate for this motion is 64%, with a disapproval rate of 36%. This vote is officially passed! Effective immediately, Mr. Lin Haoran will no longer serve as the Vice Chairman of Jardine Matheson’s Board of Directors, and his status as a board member is also revoked!” Very quickly, the secretary-general in charge of tabulating the results from the secretariat announced the final outcome.

Instantly, a fervent round of applause broke out in the room. Most of the Westerners wore smiles of relief and joy.

For these people from the British-funded conglomerate, Lin Haoran’s entry into the upper echelons of Jardine Matheson was a kind of humiliation.

Now, driving Lin Haoran out of the core leadership was their greatest victory.

So what if Lin Haoran still held a significant number of shares?

From this day forward, even if he held onto those shares forever, he would be nothing more than an ordinary shareholder!

“Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land will remain in the hands of our British-funded conglomerate. We will absolutely not allow any Chinese-funded conglomerates to covet them!” Henry Keswick stood up again, proclaiming his victory.

Jardine Matheson was his Keswick family’s property, and he would not permit any Chinese-owned enterprise to get its hands on it!

Lin Haoran, who had been silent until now, suddenly chuckled.

These people were truly naive, to think that by ganging up on him, they could really drive him out of Jardine Matheson.

However, he wasn’t in a hurry to announce that he had, in fact, already taken control of Hongkong Land.

This was, after all, Jardine Matheson’s home turf.

Announcing it here would certainly be a slap in the face to these people, but if he wanted to control Jardine Matheson, he first had to formally take control of Hongkong Land.

There was no need to rush!

“Mr. Lin Haoran, is there anything else you would like to say?” Newbiggin asked, turning to Lin Haoran.

Newbiggin didn’t want Lin Haoran to leave either, but things had reached a point where he no longer had a say.

Lin Haoran’s loss of his board seat at Jardine Matheson was now a foregone conclusion.

“I have nothing to say, but I would like to mention one thing to everyone. To those of you who have come all the way from Britain, please don’t be in such a hurry to return. Trust me, or you might find yourselves having to turn right back around to Hong Kong as soon as you get home!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

No one understood Lin Haoran’s words, much less grasped their meaning.

However, Lin Haoran didn’t care whether they understood him or not.

Let them be smug for a little while longer.

Soon enough, they would probably discover that they had celebrated far too soon.

“Mr. Henry Keswick, is there anything else?” Newbiggin asked, turning to Henry Keswick again.

“No, that’s all I had to say!” Henry Keswick replied, his face wreathed in smiles.

With Lin Haoran gone, his power at Jardine Matheson would be even greater. The next step was to wait for an opportunity to remove Newbiggin, install someone from the Keswick family, and reclaim management control of Jardine Matheson.

Everything was proceeding according to his plan.

“In that case, this meeting is adjourned! Secretariat, please draft an announcement for public release as soon as possible after the meeting!” Newbiggin said, his mood sour.

“Yes, Mr. Newbiggin!” the head of the secretariat replied respectfully.

The meeting had lasted less than ten minutes before it was over.

And Henry Keswick had achieved his goal.

Lin Haoran walked out of the conference room alone, feeling a little reflective.

This meeting had indeed been somewhat unexpected.

However, he wasn’t the least bit upset by the outcome.

“Mr. Lin, please wait a moment!” Just then, Michael Sandberg called out to Lin Haoran from behind.

“What is it, Mr. Michael Sandberg?” Lin Haoran stopped and asked with a smile.

Chapter 332: I Ask the Government House for Justice!

Although Lin Haoran understood what Michael Sandberg was saying, he was inwardly unconvinced.

It was widely known that at HSBC, Michael Sandberg wielded supreme authority. Even the powerful financial groups behind HSBC could not sway his decisions.

It was precisely under Michael Sandberg’s exceptional leadership that HSBC had managed to surpass Jardine Matheson & Co., standing proudly above the rest of Hong Kong’s business world with its performance soaring year after year.

These brilliant achievements had undoubtedly earned Michael Sandberg the respect and recognition of all of HSBC’s shareholders, allowing his authority within the bank to reach its zenith.

Therefore, in Lin Haoran’s view, Michael Sandberg’s words were nothing more than an attempt to play both sides. After blatantly scheming against him, he was now foolishly trying to gain his forgiveness and reconcile.

It was the very definition of a petty man’s conduct.

It was clear that one shouldn’t get too close to such a person.

However, Lin Haoran did not reveal his true thoughts on the surface.

Maintaining his smile, he said, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, I completely understand your position. Please rest assured, as a board member of HSBC, I know that prioritizing the interests of the bank is the right thing to do. This matter will not affect our relationship.”

“That would be for the best, of course,” Michael Sandberg continued. “This incident has indeed caused Mr. Lin to suffer a loss, but the world of business is a battlefield; it’s impossible for things to always go smoothly. You’re still young. After experiencing a few more things like this, you’ll naturally become more adept at handling them. I actually wanted to support you, but as you know, there are many times when my hands are tied. HSBC isn’t a one-man show, and the Hongkong Land Group has already agreed to remove you from your position. Even if I hadn’t voted, the outcome would likely have been difficult to change.”

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, say no more. I completely understand. Please don’t worry, I won’t hold any resentment toward you over this!” Lin Haoran said with a hearty laugh.

“That’s good. Mr. Lin, if you have a moment, please feel free to come by my office for a chat. We still have many topics we can discuss in depth. I have something urgent to attend to now, so I’ll take my leave!” Michael Sandberg replied.

“Of course, take care, Mr. Michael Sandberg!” Lin Haoran waved him goodbye.

As he watched Michael Sandberg’s receding figure, the smile on Lin Haoran’s face gradually faded, replaced by a cool indifference.

There was no reason to stay in Jardine House any longer. If he remained, he would likely be seen as nothing more than a joke, even though he was the largest individual shareholder.

Sitting in the back seat of his private car, Lin Haoran contemplated his next move.

The British-funded conglomerates banding together against him was something he had not expected.

Originally, he had planned to directly announce his takeover of the British-owned conglomerate. With the shares he now controlled, especially after purchasing the Hongkong Land Group shares held by Li Jiacheng, he had enough to completely take control of the behemoth that was the Hongkong Land Group. No one would be able to oppose him.

But now that all the British-funded conglomerates had united to exclude him, he had other ideas.

“Boss, where are we going?” Li Weidong’s voice interrupted Lin Haoran’s thoughts.

“Back to Wanqing Building!” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Yes, Boss!” Li Weidong replied as he started the engine.

Ten minutes later, he was on the thirtieth floor of Wanqing Building.

In Burton’s office, Lin Haoran walked in and said directly to him, “Mr. Burton, I have a task for you.”

It was the weekend, so the Universal Investment Company was closed, and Su Zhixue was not in the office.

Burton, the President of Wanqing Group, however, was managing a group that was growing larger by the day. He was now filled with passion for his work, so he would come to the office even on a weekend.

“Please tell me, Boss,” Burton said, putting down his work and asking curiously.

“I need you to gather all the major mainstream media outlets in Hong Kong for a press conference at Wanqing Building at one o’clock this afternoon. Get as many as you can. I have an announcement to make!” Lin Haoran stated directly.

“Yes, Boss!” Burton accepted the task without asking what it was about.

Lin Haoran was not calling this press conference to directly announce his takeover of the Hongkong Land Group.

Through this dismissal from the board, he saw an opportunity to ensure that the Government House would not interfere when he moved to take control of Jardine Matheson & Co.

Returning to his own office, Lin Haoran did not go out again, instead choosing to watch television.

At noon, he had Li Weidong get him some takeout for lunch.

At that moment, the Jade Channel was broadcasting the midday news.

“Breaking news, this station has just received a notice from Jardine Matheson & Co. that effective immediately, Mr. Lin Haoran will no longer serve as Vice Chairman and board member of Jardine Matheson & Co. Here are the details…” After a few local Hong Kong news stories, Lin Haoran finally saw the report about his dismissal.

In fact, ten minutes earlier, Shao Yifu had already called to ask for his opinion on whether to report the story.

Even Shao Yifu was shocked when he received the notice from Jardine Matheson & Co. He hadn’t expected such a major event to happen so early in the morning.

Lin Haoran had simply told him to report it as usual.

Although he was one of the bosses of TVB, it was something that TVB should report. It wasn’t exactly negative news, and Lin Haoran had no objection.

It wasn’t just TVB; Rediffusion Television was reporting it as well.

Compared to newspapers, television media had the advantage of being able to deliver the latest information more quickly.

As the anchor on screen announced the news that he had been jointly removed from his position by all the members of the Jardine Matheson & Co. Board of Directors, Lin Haoran even felt a flicker of ironic amusement.

The members of the British-funded conglomerates were clearly eager to announce their “victory” to the outside world, attempting to defend the past glory of their conglomerates and conceal their decline.

However, would such self-deception really work?

Around twelve fifty, Burton came up to report, “Boss, the media have arrived. More than twenty major outlets are here, all of a considerable size, including the Oriental Daily News, South China Morning Post, Wah Kiu Yat Po, Sing Tao Daily, Wireless Television, Rediffusion Television, Hong Kong Radio, and so on. They are currently gathered in a staff training room on the 28th floor. We’ve also sent security to maintain order. You can go straight there!”

“Good, thank you for your trouble!” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

Accompanied by Burton, Li Weidong, Li Weiguo, and others, Lin Haoran arrived at the staff training room on the 28th floor.

The room was already filled with forty to fifty people, with most media outlets having sent two or three representatives.

When Lin Haoran entered, the chattering reporters instantly fell silent.

As professionals from Hong Kong’s mainstream media, they were all well aware of Lin Haoran’s collective dismissal by the British-funded conglomerates at Jardine Matheson & Co.

Now, they were extremely curious about the purpose of this press conference.

“Everyone, I imagine you’re all aware of what happened this morning. That’s right. I, the largest individual shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co., have been stripped of my seat on the Board of Directors.

“As you all know, I am just a Chinese merchant, but my rights at Jardine Matheson should not be treated so lightly. Therefore, I’ve gathered you all here today in the hope that you will help me convey a message to the Government House and the Securities Commission.

“I ask the Government House to uphold justice for me, Lin Haoran! As one of the largest individual shareholders of Jardine Matheson & Co., it is a grave injustice that I cannot even retain a position as a board member. I implore the Securities Commission to provide a reasonable and convincing explanation for this matter!” Lin Haoran declared solemnly.

Of course, he could have privately contacted Governor Sir Murray MacLehose or the Chairman of the Securities Commission to seek a solution, but that was not his true intention.

His objective was not to return to the Jardine Matheson & Co. Board of Directors.

He could already execute a reverse takeover of Jardine Matheson through the Hongkong Land Group, so what was the point of returning to the board?

His goal was to make the Government House and, by extension, the Securities Commission, stay out of his fight with these British-funded conglomerates.

If he approached them privately, it would merely result in a quiet conversation between the two parties, having no broader impact.

More importantly, he was certain that both men would, without a doubt, side with the British-funded conglomerates.

Therefore, Lin Haoran decided to take more drastic action. He wanted to publicize the matter and let the entire Hong Kong society know about his plight.

His goal was to make this a focal point of public opinion, drawing everyone’s attention to this injustice.

Only then could he pave the way for his subsequent plans and, hopefully, make the government feel it was in the wrong and thus refrain from interfering in his conflict with the British-funded conglomerates.

Lin Haoran’s words immediately sent a buzz of discussion through the crowd.

They had not expected this to be Lin Haoran’s purpose.

Subsequently, the reporters began asking questions nonstop. After answering a few, Lin Haoran announced that the press conference was over.

Having the media deliver his message to the Governor and the Chairman of the Securities Commission had accomplished his goal for the day. There was no need to say any more.

The reporters left Wanqing Building, their hearts filled with excitement.

The day’s events had been incredibly dramatic. Now, their staff writers would have plenty of material to craft many captivating articles.

However, they all had a tacit understanding. Instead of returning to their respective companies, they all headed in unison to another destination—the office of the Securities Commission.

They were going to interview Chairman Miles to get his take on the matter.

Half an hour later, a group of reporters flooded into the office of the Chairman of the Securities Commission.

Faced with the reporters’ questions, Miles replied solemnly after a period of careful consideration, “I have some understanding of the matter between Jardine Matheson & Co. and Mr. Lin Haoran. I deeply regret the outcome of Mr. Lin Haoran being removed from the Jardine Matheson & Co. Board of Directors.

“However, to my knowledge, this was based entirely on a normal business decision, a right exercised by all members of the Jardine Matheson & Co. Board of Directors in accordance with regulations. Under these circumstances, as an official of the Securities Commission, I have neither the authority nor the standing to interfere excessively.”

Chapter 333: A Call from Pao Yue-kong

The reply from Miles, the Chairman of the Securities Commission, reached Lin Haoran’s ears in the shortest possible time.

Just as he had predicted, it was impossible for Miles to give any response favorable to him.

After leaving Miles’s office, the reporters didn’t even return to their companies. Instead, they turned around and headed for Government House, hoping to get a different answer there.

At that moment, Sir Murray MacLehose was in his office, reading a report submitted by his subordinate.

He was, of course, perfectly clear about the events concerning Jardine Matheson & Co.

He found it quite normal that the British-funded conglomerates were collectively ostracizing Lin Haoran. As a Briton himself, how could he not know what they were like?

However, he did not intend to interfere too much in this matter. Perhaps Lin Haoran being ousted from the Board of Directors of Jardine Matheson & Co. was the best possible outcome.

“Mr. Governor, there are many reporters outside requesting an interview!” a staff member came in to report.

“Many reporters? How many exactly?” Sir Murray MacLehose asked, slightly surprised.

Why had these reporters come to interview him out of the blue?

“About fifty or so, and they are all from Hong Kong’s mainstream media outlets,” the staff member replied.

“Alright, I understand. I’ll go out and see,” Sir Murray MacLehose said after a moment of thought, then walked straight outside.

As one of the most beloved governors in Hong Kong’s history, Murray MacLehose was indeed a very approachable government official with an excellent reputation among the citizens of Hong Kong.

He also placed great importance on listening to public opinion.

So, at this moment, Murray MacLehose was rather curious as to why these people were seeking him out.

Soon, Murray MacLehose arrived at the main gate outside Government House.

With the guards present, the reporters naturally dared not force their way in and were waiting patiently for a response from Government House.

Unexpectedly, they saw Governor Murray MacLehose himself walking out from within. Everyone was deeply surprised and, at the same time, overjoyed.

Governor Murray MacLehose had actually agreed to their interview.

“For so many of you to come together, you must all be here for the same purpose, I imagine? You, the reporter from the South China Morning Post, why don’t you tell me why you’re here?” After walking out, Murray MacLehose asked, pointing directly at one of the reporters.

“Mr. Governor, it’s like this. We are here to interview you about…” The Westerner reporter from the South China Morning Post recounted in detail Lin Haoran’s request for Government House to intervene on his behalf, and even relayed the response from Miles of the Securities Commission.

After listening to the reporter’s account, Murray MacLehose fell into deep thought, his brow furrowed.

Why didn’t Lin Haoran approach him privately?

Given Lin Haoran’s current status, he would grant him an audience at any time if he had asked for one in private.

However, Lin Haoran had chosen to use the media as a bridge to convey this matter, which Murray MacLehose found somewhat perplexing.

But right now, that wasn’t the main point.

The crucial thing was how he should respond to these reporters.

Facing the numerous reporters’ questions, Murray MacLehose, after careful consideration, said slowly, “In matters of the securities industry, I am not an expert, whereas Chairman Miles of the Securities Commission is the authority in this field. Since he considers this matter to be legal and compliant, I cannot make any biased decision. Therefore, Chairman Miles’s statement represents the government’s position, and I will not comment further.”

After the reporters had left, Murray MacLehose returned to his office and made a call to Miles.

…

On the morning of October 26th, every newspaper was reporting on the feud between the British-owned Jardine Matheson conglomerate and Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran’s press conference, the interview with Securities Commission Chairman Miles, and the interview with Governor Murray MacLehose were all processed and turned into brilliant articles.

“These people from the British-funded conglomerates are too much!”

“Exactly! He holds a full 19% of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s shares, yet he has no say in the company’s affairs? How is that fair?”

“The British always favor their own!”

“And to think I always thought Sir Murray MacLehose was a good Governor. When it comes to matters involving the British, isn’t he just biased towards them?”

“I always thought Hong Kong belonged to the people of Hong Kong, but now it seems Hong Kong still ultimately belongs to the British.”

“Sir Murray MacLehose… I’ve always respected him, but now it seems he doesn’t deserve my respect!”

…

The matter began to escalate among the citizens of Hong Kong.

Although this issue had nothing to do with them personally, Lin Haoran, a source of pride for the Chinese community, had already become an idol for many. Now that he had encountered such a situation, they couldn’t help but feel it was an injustice.

In many other publicly listed companies, a 19% stake could even land you the position of Chairman.

Yet, not only was Lin Haoran unable to become the head of Jardine Matheson & Co., he was even kicked off the Board of Directors, losing any right to intervene.

If this wasn’t unfair, what was?

Severn Road, Lin family villa.

Lin Haoran ate his breakfast while reading the news in the papers.

He had actually anticipated the responses from Murray MacLehose and Miles even before he held the press conference.

After reading through the papers, Lin Haoran put down the last one. His face showed satisfaction with the reports, without a trace of displeasure over the favoritism shown by Government House.

In this era, Hong Kong was ultimately a colony. Before its return to China, wasn’t such favoritism completely normal?

Everything he had orchestrated was simply to get an attitude, a promise, from Government House.

A promise not to interfere in the competition between him and the British-owned Jardine conglomerate.

Although he was already one hundred percent confident that he could execute a reverse takeover of Jardine Matheson & Co. through the Hongkong Land Group.

The stance of Government House was crucial.

Even if he gained one hundred percent control of Jardine Matheson & Co., if Government House had objections, he might be forced to abandon it.

Who else was in charge here but Government House?

Fortunately, from what he knew of Murray MacLehose, this governor was a relatively reasonable person. As long as one acted within the rules, he would generally strive for fairness and impartiality.

This might not have been the case with other previous governors of Hong Kong.

Bzzzt… Bzzzt… His beeper went off.

Lin Haoran picked it up and glanced at it, not knowing who was calling.

Nevertheless, he walked over to the telephone and dialed the number back.

“Hello, this is Lin Haoran,” he said, introducing himself as soon as the call connected.

“Haoran, it’s your Uncle Pao.” To Lin Haoran’s surprise, the person on the other end was Pao Yue-kong.

This phone number must be from his residence at the Bao family’s estate in Deep Water Bay, which explained why Lin Haoran didn’t recognize it.

“Uncle Pao, what’s the matter?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“Haoran, I’ve heard all about you being removed from the Board of Directors of Jardine Matheson & Co., and I am deeply indignant. I’m calling specifically to ask about your plans. If there’s anything you need help with, don’t hesitate. Just tell your Uncle Pao, and I’ll do my best to assist.

“The path for us Chinese-funded conglomerates is already fraught with challenges. Those British-funded conglomerates don’t want to see us grow stronger. That’s why we must unite the strength of the Chinese-funded conglomerates!” Pao Yue-kong said from the other end of the line.

“Uncle Pao, I truly appreciate your kind offer. If I really need help, I will certainly ask you. But for now, I can handle the situation on my end. There’s nothing that requires your personal assistance at the moment!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

He hadn’t expected Pao Yue-kong to call specifically about this matter. It’s in times of adversity that you see true character.

From this, it was clear that Pao Yue-kong genuinely cared for him and supported him as a junior.

“Given the current situation where Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group have mutual control, you won’t be able to continue acquiring Jardine Matheson. I advise you to give up on that idea for now. The fact that they’ve interlocked the two companies has indeed taken me by surprise. It has completely thwarted our designs on Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land.

“But Haoran, although there’s no opportunity now, I believe there definitely will be in the future. I’ve looked into this Jardine-Land mutual control strategy, and it’s not without its flaws. I suggest you hold on to your shares for now and look for another opportunity down the line. You’re still young, and you have plenty of time ahead of you. I also hope to see the day Jardine Matheson & Co. is acquired by a Chinese-funded conglomerate!” Pao Yue-kong continued.

“Oh? What are the flaws of the Jardine-Land mutual control strategy?” Although Lin Haoran wasn’t swayed by Pao Yue-kong’s words, he asked with some curiosity.

He wanted to see what brilliant insight Pao Yue-kong had.

“After in-depth research, I believe that although the cross-shareholding plan seems to completely block Chinese-funded conglomerates’ ambitions for these two companies, this ‘linked boats’ strategy has a significant flaw. Haoran, you must know about the Battle of Red Cliffs during the Three Kingdoms period, right? It was precisely because all the ships were chained together that a single fire could burn down Cao Cao’s entire fleet, leading to his army’s crushing defeat.

“Similarly, the mutual control between Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group, while appearing to make them stronger together and able to withstand any external threat, means that if one of them encounters a severe financial crisis, it will directly affect the other, causing massive losses for both companies!” Pao Yue-kong explained his thoughts.

Hearing Pao Yue-kong’s analysis, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a sense of admiration.

As expected of the man widely recognized as the leader of the Chinese merchants in Hong Kong, the tycoon who had managed to snatch Kowloon Wharf from the hands of Jardine Matheson & Co. His insights were truly unique and his caliber extraordinary.

Lin Haoran had long been aware of this flaw in the Jardine-Land mutual control strategy, as he knew its ultimate outcome was failure.

In another timeline, this plan had gone bankrupt after just three years.

The reason was precisely that both companies held forty percent of each other’s shares.

When the Hongkong Land Group fell into deep trouble due to a real estate crisis, its capital largely frozen and its debts soaring, Jardine Matheson & Co. was dragged down with it because it was also controlled by Hongkong Land, its own funds tied up and debts mounting.

Just like that, Jardine Matheson & Co. was pulled under by the Hongkong Land Group.

In the end, the Keswick family seized the opportunity and ousted Newbiggin from Jardine Matheson & Co. in one fell swoop.

Chapter 334: The Boulder in His Heart Finally Lifts

Inside Government House, Sir Murray MacLehose listened to his subordinate’s work report, his brow furrowing.

As the Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose had indeed made outstanding contributions to Hong Kong, leading many Hong Kong citizens to regard him as one of the most distinguished and beloved governors in history.

During his term, Sir Murray MacLehose vigorously pushed forward a series of reforms that brought about profound changes to Hong Kong society.

These reforms covered various aspects, including housing, anti-corruption initiatives, education, medical care, welfare, infrastructure development, transportation, the economy, and society at large.

Under his leadership, major policies and construction projects were launched one after another, such as the Ten-Year Housing Programme, new town development, the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the implementation of nine years of free education, the construction of the underground railway, and local administrative reforms.

These policies not only directly improved the quality of life for citizens but also forged a positive image for the colonial government in their hearts, while significantly strengthening the Hong Kong people’s sense of belonging to this land.

These were all achievements he had long taken pride in.

But now, unsettling public opinions were reaching his ears, making Sir Murray MacLehose feel somewhat disheartened.

It seemed that his years of accumulated achievements were about to be undone by his favoritism in a single matter, causing many citizens to change their view of him.

He had already questioned Miles, the Chairman of the Securities Commission, in detail. Regarding the dispute between Jardine Matheson & Co. and Lin Haoran, Jardine Matheson’s actions were indeed not entirely aboveboard.

Although the securities laws of the time were still incomplete and lacked clear provisions, common sense dictated that Lin Haoran, holding nearly twenty percent of Jardine Matheson’s equity, should have the right to intervene in company affairs.

However, Miles’s response clearly deviated from common sense, showing a tendency to favor the British-funded conglomerate.

Yet, considering that Jardine Matheson represented the face of British-funded conglomerates in Hong Kong, he, as the Governor, couldn’t help but support their joint effort to exclude Lin Haoran from the Jardine Matheson Board of Directors.

Furthermore, his direct and public support for Securities Commission Chairman Miles’s response was indeed unfair to Lin Haoran.

Currently, Lin Haoran had become one of the representative figures of the Chinese merchant community, his influence in Hong Kong growing by the day.

It was clearly inappropriate for him to openly side with the British-funded conglomerates.

Caught in such a dilemma, even Sir Murray MacLehose, the Governor, felt deeply troubled.

Sir Murray MacLehose had traveled north to Britain several times to discuss the future of Hong Kong. Now, during these eventful times, he did not want to see internal conflict between Hong Kong’s British-owned and Chinese-owned conglomerates.

“It seems I need to have a proper talk with Lin Haoran. This matter cannot be delayed any longer. Only Lin Haoran can quell this storm,” Sir Murray MacLehose muttered to himself.

With this thought, he immediately picked up the telephone receiver, preparing to call Lin Haoran.

Sir Murray MacLehose had several ways to contact Lin Haoran, but considering it was already past nine in the morning, he was unsure if Lin Haoran was at home or busy with company affairs.

So, he decided to use the most direct method—contacting Lin Haoran via his beeper.

At that moment, Lin Haoran had just hung up the phone with Pao Yue-kong and was about to head to Wanqing Building.

Burton, the President of Wanqing Group, had called to tell him that many reporters had gathered at Wanqing Building, all hoping to interview him and get more valuable comments.

Just as he reached the ground floor of his villa, the beeper on his waist began to buzz urgently.

Lin Haoran took out the beeper and saw that the number displayed was from the Government House office.

His memory was now exceptionally sharp; he could basically remember any number he had seen once. This was perhaps an unexpected benefit of his transmigration.

MacLehose was looking for him?

Lin Haoran was not surprised by this.

From the moment he stirred up a storm across the city, he had anticipated that MacLehose would eventually contact him.

Now, everything was simply developing as he had predicted.

Walking into the study on the ground floor, Lin Haoran immediately dialed MacLehose’s number.

“Mr. Governor? This is Lin Haoran,” Lin Haoran introduced himself as soon as the call connected.

“Ah, Mr. Lin, is now a convenient time for you? If so, how about you come over to Government House so we can talk in person?” On the other end of the line, MacLehose’s voice was quite polite.

“For an invitation from the Mr. Governor, I am naturally free anytime. Please give me twenty minutes, I will be right there,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran immediately had Li Weidong drive him to Government House.

He hoped that this trip to Government House would result in Governor MacLehose promising not to interfere in any competition between him and the Jardine faction conglomerates!

A little over ten minutes later, the Rolls-Royce was parked steadily in a spot outside Government House.

Upon entering Government House, a staff member, who had already been notified, led Lin Haoran through a few corridors before arriving outside the Governor’s office.

Knock, knock, knock.

After a series of knocks, the reply “Come in” came from inside.

The Government House staff member opened the door for Lin Haoran before bowing and leaving.

By this time, Sir Murray MacLehose had already come out from behind his desk to greet him.

“Good morning, Mr. Governor!” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he shook MacLehose’s hand.

“Mr. Lin, please have a seat over on the sofa,” Sir Murray MacLehose said, pointing to the sofa in the reception area.

“Would you like something to drink? I can have my secretary bring it for you,” Sir Murray MacLehose continued after Lin Haoran sat down.

“No, thank you. I just had breakfast, I’m quite full,” Lin Haoran said, quickly waving his hand.

Government House usually served coffee, which he wasn’t particularly fond of.

“Mr. Lin, regarding the Jardine Matheson affair, I’m afraid it’s not convenient for me to get too involved. I hope you can understand. As Mr. Myles stated, this is a purely commercial matter. If you expect me to intervene on your behalf, it truly puts me in a difficult position. I hope, Mr. Lin, that you won’t overcomplicate the issue,” Sir Murray MacLehose said, getting straight to the point.

“Mr. Governor, I sincerely apologize for the trouble I’ve caused you. It was inconsiderate of me to have let this matter stir up such a storm across the city!” Lin Haoran apologized profusely.

“It is I who should apologize for not being able to provide you with useful assistance. I am fully aware of the situation between you and Jardine Matheson. However, I can try to contact Mr. Henry Keswick for you, and we can all sit down and discuss it again.

“Although I cannot guarantee the reinstatement of your position as Vice Chairman of the Board, I am confident I can secure you a seat as a board member,” Sir Murray MacLehose continued.

This was a decision Sir Murray MacLehose had reached after careful consideration. He planned to help Lin Haoran secure a board member seat, hoping it would persuade him not to pursue the matter further, and at the same time, ease the conflict between the British-funded and Chinese-owned conglomerates.

Although the power of Government House was immense, and he had the final say on almost everything in Hong Kong, as the Governor, he had to weigh numerous factors. He couldn’t rely solely on government authority to forcibly resolve every issue.

This was especially true when dealing with figures like Lin Haoran, who already possessed a high degree of social influence. He needed to be treated with caution and could not be easily offended.

Hearing Sir Murray MacLehose’s words, Lin Haoran was somewhat surprised, not expecting MacLehose to make a concession.

But would a mere board seat be enough to satisfy him?

Of course not!

What he wanted was the position of Taipan of Jardine Matheson, not the status of a board member with only voting rights.

After some deep thought, Lin Haoran slowly said, “Mr. Governor, I appreciate your kind intentions, but after consideration, I’ve decided not to trouble you any further. However, I have one request. Since it is inconvenient for the Government House and the Securities Commission to interfere excessively in normal commercial activities, I hope that in my upcoming, normalized competition with the Jardine faction of British-funded conglomerates, the Government House and the Securities Commission can remain neutral and not interfere. As long as you, Mr. Governor, can agree to this, I will publicly declare that this matter is purely a market affair and has nothing to do with Government House.”

This was Lin Haoran’s true objective!

Although he was already certain of victory and confident in his ability to control Jardine Matheson and the Hongkong Land Group, Government House was like a sharp sword hanging over his head, forcing him to take the issue very seriously.

However, once Government House promised not to interfere in the future normal competition between him and the Jardine British-funded conglomerate, he would be completely free of any lingering concerns. He could then proceed with his plan without any inhibitions and formally announce his move to take control of the Hongkong Land Group!

Lin Haoran’s words took Sir Murray MacLehose by surprise.

He didn’t even want the board seat he was offering?

What was this Lin Haoran trying to do?

Could it be that he thought he could single-handedly contend with the entire Jardine faction of British-funded conglomerates?

After all, the current Jardine faction, with the exception of a very few like Newbiggin, had already united to present a common front.

Even HSBC had, for the first time, sided with Henry Keswick and supported his actions.

Therefore, in Sir Murray MacLehose’s view, the competition between Lin Haoran and the British-funded conglomerate represented by Henry Keswick was a battle with absolutely no chance of victory.

After considering all this, Sir Murray MacLehose said decisively, “Alright, Mr. Lin, I can promise you that. As long as your competition with Jardine Matheson stays within the rules, and as long as you do nothing illegal, I, on behalf of Government House, will not interfere in your affairs in any way!”

“Mr. Governor, your word is the greatest support you could give me. Thank you!” A smile had already spread across Lin Haoran’s face.

With this promise from Sir Murray MacLehose, the boulder in Lin Haoran’s heart finally lifted.

Based on his understanding of Sir Murray MacLehose, the man was someone who kept his word and would not easily go back on it.

Even if he wanted to renege, given the percentage of shares Lin Haoran held, his control over the two companies was inevitable. Coupled with his own promise, could MacLehose really decide to make him concede again?

How could he concede? Would they have the people from the British-funded conglomerate buy his shares?

Giving up Jardine Matheson wasn’t entirely out of the question. As long as those Brits were willing to offer a price that satisfied Lin Haoran, he wouldn’t mind transferring all his Jardine Matheson shares to them.

But it was doubtful they could raise such a colossal sum of money!

As for the Hongkong Land Group, there was even less of a chance he would give it back.

Chapter 335: To the Connaught Centre, I Have an Important Announcement to Make!

Leaving Government House, Lin Haoran was in high spirits.

The matter he had worried about most was finally resolved, completely freeing him of any lingering concerns.

Next, it was time to take the most crucial step.

It was now October 1980, and the investments of both Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group were not yet excessive.

But starting in 1981, these two companies, especially the Hongkong Land Group, would begin to expand blindly, leading to heavy losses on numerous investment projects.

This was a scenario that Lin Haoran did not want to see.

Therefore, it was time to take control of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, and the sooner the better!

After leaving Government House, Lin Haoran went straight to the Wanqing Building.

Just as he came up from the underground parking garage to the first-floor lobby, he saw that a crowd of reporters had gathered outside, hoping to run into him here.

The events of yesterday had already created a storm across the city, and their newspaper sales had soared as a result.

Naturally, they were now hoping to get more useful news from Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Lin, please wait, I’d like to ask…”

“President Lin, can we have a few minutes of your time?”

“Boss Lin, do you have any plans for Jardine Matheson & Co.?”

…

Seeing Lin Haoran appear in the first-floor lobby, more than twenty reporters scrambled to rush forward and interview him.

However, they were quickly stopped by the security guards.

Even so, they all stretched their microphones out as far as they could, hoping to make Lin Haoran stop and accept their interview.

To their delight, Lin Haoran did indeed turn to face them.

At that moment, all the reporters thought Lin Haoran was about to accept their interview.

“Everyone, you can head over to the Connaught Centre first. I’ll be there shortly. I have an important announcement to make!” Lin Haoran said to the group of reporters from several meters away.

With that, he ignored them, turned around, and entered the elevator to go up to the Wanqing Group headquarters, leaving behind a crowd of stunned reporters.

“The Connaught Centre? Isn’t that the headquarters of the Hongkong Land Group?”

“Could it be that Mr. Lin has a move planned against Hongkong Land?”

Many of them had already grasped the key point.

And so, the reporters couldn’t help but get excited. Perhaps there would be another good show to watch today.

Before long, all the reporters at the Wanqing Building had left, moving as a group to their next destination: the Connaught Centre, just a few hundred meters away.

No one thought Lin Haoran would lie. If he tricked so many reporters into going to the Connaught Centre only for nothing to happen, it would be equivalent to offending the entire media.

Therefore, since Lin Haoran told them to wait at the Connaught Centre, it must mean that something important was truly about to happen.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran quickly arrived at Burton’s office.

Burton had just hung up the phone. Seeing Lin Haoran, he couldn’t help but smile. “Boss, you’re finally here. Some of those reporters have been waiting for over an hour.”

“I’ve already sent them all away!” Lin Haoran said with a wave of his hand.

“Those people are so persistent you can’t even shoo them away. What a hassle!” Burton lamented.

“Enough of that. I want you to assist me in announcing the takeover of the Hongkong Land Group. Get ready quickly, bring the necessary personnel, and we’ll head over to the Connaught Centre!” Lin Haoran ordered directly.

“Boss, you’re finally going to announce it! Congratulations! Alright, I’ll get ready right away. I’ll bring everyone from the Legal and Finance Departments. That should be enough for you to initially take over Hongkong Land. Of course, to gain complete control, you’ll have to slowly replace the senior executives with your own confidants. That’s not something that can be done in a short time,” Burton said, a hint of surprise in his voice.

Although he was under no obligation to help Lin Haoran take control of Hongkong Land, he considered that the Wanqing Group was wholly owned by Lin Haoran. Ultimately, he was just an employee working for the boss, so naturally, he had to grant him this favor. When the boss gave an order, he had to help!

“Yes, go and prepare as quickly as possible. I’ll wait for you,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

The matter seemed rushed, but in reality, Lin Haoran had been waiting for a long time. Now that his last lingering concern had been settled, he was unwilling to delay any longer.

“Okay, Boss, I’ll go prepare now. I won’t keep you waiting long,” Burton said before heading out to attend to his tasks.

Meanwhile, at the Connaught Centre several hundred meters away, the scene was exceptionally lively.

A large number of reporters had gathered in the first-floor lobby and outside the building.

Moreover, a steady stream of more reporters was still arriving.

Hong Kong was only so big, and the media had the most well-connected sources.

So, when Lin Haoran told the first group of reporters to go to the Connaught Centre, the news spread like wildfire, reaching the ears of many other journalists in no time.

On the 51st floor, in the general manager’s office of the Hongkong Land Group, Bao Fuda was busy with his work.

As Hongkong Land was a behemoth in Hong Kong’s business world, Bao Fuda naturally had a great deal of work to handle every day.

Just as he was absorbed in his work, the telephone beside him rang.

“Hello.”

“Mr. Bao Fuda, a large number of reporters have gathered downstairs,” his subordinate reported.

“A large number of reporters? What do they want to cover?” Bao Fuda asked, puzzled.

“I’ve already asked them. They said they don’t know what’s going on either, only that Mr. Lin Haoran told them to come here, saying he would be over later to make an important announcement!” his subordinate continued to report.

“Alright, I understand. Have the security guards maintain order,” Bao Fuda instructed.

Putting down the telephone receiver, Bao Fuda couldn’t help but frown.

Why on earth had Lin Haoran called all these reporters here?

The matter was too important for him not to take it seriously.

Moreover, since it involved Lin Haoran, it was no longer something he could decide on his own. After all, Lin Haoran and Jardine Matheson & Co. had just had a conflict the day before.

Thinking of this, he made two consecutive calls: one to Newbiggin, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., and the other to Henry Keswick, the representative of Jardine Matheson’s British-funded conglomerate.

After he told them exactly what was happening downstairs, both men said they would come over immediately.

Elsewhere, Henry Keswick was sitting in his hotel. He had originally planned to take an evening flight back to London, Britain.

In his view, having driven Lin Haoran out of Jardine Matheson’s core management, his objective had been achieved.

From now on, the matters here could be handled by his representative in Hong Kong; he could pull the strings from afar.

But now, Lin Haoran was saying he had an important announcement to make at the Connaught Centre. This made his heart tighten, and a bad feeling welled up inside him.

“Cancel tonight’s plane ticket. Also, we’re going to the Connaught Centre now!” Leaving the hotel, Henry Keswick went straight to his secretary and told her.

Although an ominous feeling had taken root in his heart, he still didn’t know what exactly was happening and was thus completely unable to prepare.

For now, all he could do was go to the Connaught Centre and see what tricks Lin Haoran was up to.

Wanqing Building!

“Boss, I’ve gathered several dozen people. They’ll be enough to help you with the initial takeover of Hongkong Land. We’re ready to leave at any time!” Burton reported as he walked in. Lin Haoran was looking at a September financial report for the Wanqing Group.

“Good. In that case, let’s go!” Lin Haoran said directly.

He glanced at the time; it was only around eleven in the morning.

And so, Lin Haoran led the group and set off for the Connaught Centre in a grand procession.

A Rolls-Royce led the way, followed by several private cars and a large bus. Twenty minutes later, they appeared in the outdoor parking lot of the Connaught Centre.

Lifting his head, Lin Haoran looked at the 52-story skyscraper, and a sense of pride welled up within him.

This building would soon be his!

The Connaught Centre stood tall in Hong Kong’s Central district. At 52 stories high, it was built and owned by the renowned property developer, the Hongkong Land Company, and completed in 1973.

The exterior wall of the Connaught Centre combined concrete and mosaic tile materials, with an additional metal casing. This design not only gave the building a stronger modern feel but also effectively prevented the safety hazard of falling tiles.

As Hong Kong’s first skyscraper, the Connaught Centre was famous for its iconic round window design and had become an indispensable landmark. Even decades later, its landmark status would remain as solid as ever.

The building’s round “moongate” windows skillfully integrated the timeless aesthetics of Chinese architecture. Standing by a window, one could take in the breathtaking panorama of the sparkling Victoria Harbour and the majestic scenery of Victoria Peak.

It not only ushered in a new era of skyscrapers in Hong Kong but also became the tallest building in Hong Kong and even Southeast Asia in the 1970s.

It was only a few months ago that the Connaught Centre’s position as the tallest was overtaken by the Hopewell Centre in Wan Chai.

Despite this, the Connaught Centre was now the second tallest building in Hong Kong.

Moreover, due to its location in the core business district of Central, the value of the Connaught Centre, Hong Kong’s second-tallest building, was still much higher than that of the new tallest, the Hopewell Centre.

Location is everything!

Wan Chai clearly could not compare to Central, and its intrinsic value was far lower!

Lin Haoran, leading his dozens of people, appeared imposing in the first-floor lobby of the Connaught Centre.

The security guards at the Connaught Centre wanted to stop them, but when the person in charge saw that the man leading the group was the tycoon Lin Haoran, he immediately stopped the guards, allowing Lin Haoran and his entourage to enter the lobby.

Even ordinary people could enter the lobby; he couldn’t possibly block a business tycoon like Lin Haoran!

His arrival quickly caught the attention of the reporters who had been waiting for a long time.

Instantly, the reporters all swarmed around him.

Chapter 336: Newbiggin Pledges Allegiance to Lin Haoran

Lin Haoran didn’t try to force his way upstairs with his dozens of men. Instead, he said to the head of security, “Please inform Mr. Bao Fuda that I have something important to discuss with him.”

The head of security was a tall Westerner who looked like he could handle himself in a fight, and he spoke very fluent Cantonese.

“Mr. Lin, with your status, there’s no need for me to report this. I’ll arrange for someone to take you up right now. However, you can’t bring too many people, or it will put me in a difficult position,” the head of security said, looking troubled as he glanced at the dozens of people behind Lin Haoran.

Just then, a slight commotion stirred among a group of reporters near the lobby entrance.

Following the sound, everyone looked over to see Newbiggin, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., walking into the lobby.

Newbiggin was not just the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co.; he was also the Taipan of the Hongkong Land Group.

“Well, Mr. Newbiggin, you’ve arrived at the perfect time!” Seeing Newbiggin, Lin Haoran smiled and walked up to him.

With Newbiggin on the scene, there was naturally no longer any need for the head of security.

“Mr. Lin, what is your purpose for coming to the Hongkong Land Group today? And why have you gathered so many reporters?” Newbiggin asked two questions in a row.

To this moment, he still had no idea what Lin Haoran’s business at the Connaught Centre was.

“Mr. Newbiggin, I was originally planning to find Mr. Bao Fuda, but since you’re here, that’s even better. Please call an emergency meeting of the Hongkong Land Group’s Board of Directors. I have a major matter to announce to them!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“A major matter? Could you be more specific, Mr. Lin?” At that moment, even Newbiggin felt an ominous premonition welling up inside him.

“To be blunt, I already own enough shares to control the Hongkong Land Group. I have come today to formally take the controlling stake of the company!” Lin Haoran whispered to him, seeing that no one was nearby.

Currently, his holdings in the Hongkong Land Group had reached as high as 47.3%, making him the undisputed largest shareholder.

Even with the recent cross-shareholding plan implemented by Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, which had increased Jardine Matheson’s stake in Hongkong Land from 20% to 30.2%, and adding the nearly 12% held by other British shareholders, their combined shares still fell short of what Lin Haoran held alone.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was now fully qualified to take control of the Hongkong Land Group!

After the stock accumulation by him and Jardine Matheson, only about 10% of Hongkong Land’s shares remained on the secondary market. It was practically impossible for them to acquire more shares from the secondary market to surpass him.

The fewer shares there are on the secondary market, the harder it is to accumulate them.

“How is that possible?” Newbiggin’s reaction was intense, his voice rising involuntarily, causing many people who were watching to look over.

Newbiggin couldn’t imagine how Lin Haoran could possibly have enough shares to control the Hongkong Land Group.

After all, Hongkong Land’s equity structure was quite transparent. Aside from unknown shareholders, like those who had secretly accumulated shares such as Lin Haoran, Jardine Matheson & Co. held 30.2%, and other British-funded conglomerate shareholders held nearly 12%. He was crystal clear on these facts.

What did this mean?

It meant that the British-funded conglomerate side, in total, already controlled about 42% of the Hongkong Land Group’s shares.

Although these shares were spread across multiple shareholders, with Jardine Matheson & Co. being the largest among them.

But they could unite and act as a collective to resist external forces.

Against this backdrop, for Lin Haoran to single-handedly hold over 42% of the shares seemed like a daunting, if not impossible, task.

In Newbiggin’s eyes, this was simply preposterous.

At Hongkong Land’s current stock price, a stake of over 42% was worth more than several billion Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Haoran’s publicly disclosed shareholding in Jardine Matheson & Co. was already as high as 19%. Could he really have taken out several billion Hong Kong dollars more to quietly accumulate so many shares of Hongkong Land?

Newbiggin’s first reaction was utter disbelief!

He thought to himself that even HSBC, a tycoon in Hong Kong’s financial world, would probably find it difficult to mobilize such a colossal sum of money so easily.

Facing Newbiggin’s shock and doubt, Lin Haoran said with a smile, “Mr. Newbiggin, do you think I, Lin Haoran, have any reason to lie to you? To tell you the truth, an investment company under my name already holds over 47% of the Hongkong Land Group’s shares. I’m sure you know very well what this shareholding percentage means, Mr. Newbiggin, don’t you?”

At this point, Lin Haoran no longer needed to hide it. It was time to make the news public.

“Mr. Lin, do you have evidence to support your claim?” Newbiggin asked with a grave expression.

“Of course. I didn’t bring all these people here today for a tour. Among them are lawyers and financial staff. I’ve even brought the equity certificates for Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land. You should understand my intentions for bringing them.

“Furthermore, Mr. Newbiggin, don’t forget that I am also the largest private shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co., holding 19% of the shares. Adding the 30.1% stake in Jardine Matheson held by Hongkong Land, this means I can effectively control up to 49.1% of Jardine Matheson’s shares.

“In other words, I have successfully acquired Jardine Matheson & Co., and I will be leading this company from now on. Having said all this, Mr. Newbiggin, I believe you understand the gravity of the situation.” Lin Haoran’s tone was no longer polite as he faced Newbiggin.

Lin Haoran’s words struck Newbiggin like a bolt from the blue, leaving him completely stunned and disoriented.

This…

No wonder Lin Haoran had never interfered when Newbiggin was implementing the Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land cross-shareholding plan. He had even shown great approval for the decision.

It turned out he had been secretly plotting all along, waiting for the cross-shareholding plan to be completed so he could reap the fruits of victory in one fell swoop, thereby easily taking control of the two giants, Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group.

Holding over 47% of Hongkong Land’s shares gave him an absolute advantage. Even if all the members of the British-funded conglomerate joined forces, they would be unable to challenge Lin Haoran’s position.

Even if all the British-funded conglomerates, including HSBC, combined their shares, they would be powerless against Lin Haoran’s personal holdings!

In this situation, Newbiggin couldn’t help but feel a sense of pity for those British-funded conglomerates, especially the Keswick family, who had started to see him as a thorn in their side in the last two years and wanted to oust him from Jardine Matheson & Co.

As for himself, he was ultimately just a professional manager. In the past, he had always considered the glory of the British-funded conglomerates to be his own mission, but when the Keswick family began to show signs of ostracizing him, his perspective had quietly changed.

Now, he was beginning to re-evaluate his own position and future.

“Mr. Lin, regarding the matter of convening a board meeting, I think we can put that aside for a moment. I would like to speak with you privately, in a personal capacity. What do you think?” Newbiggin said seriously.

“Of course, no problem. You’re familiar with this place. You can decide where we talk,” Lin Haoran replied with a calm smile.

He wasn’t in a hurry. After all, to smoothly take control of Hongkong Land and even Jardine Matheson, he would need the full cooperation of this Taipan, Newbiggin.

If Newbiggin could cooperate actively, Lin Haoran’s takeover process would naturally be much smoother.

However, if Newbiggin chose not to cooperate, the final outcome would remain unchanged—given Lin Haoran’s massive shareholdings and the promise he had received from Governor Murray MacLehose, Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land were already in his pocket—but the process would inevitably encounter some turbulence.

Lin Haoran naturally hoped for the takeover to proceed as smoothly as possible.

“How about we talk in my car?” Newbiggin suggested after some thought.

He didn’t want what they discussed to reach others’ ears.

This was the Hongkong Land Group, after all. Though he was the Taipan here as well, the one with the most final say on a daily basis was the Executive Director, Bao Fuda. And from the previous board meeting, Newbiggin already understood that this confidant, whom he had personally groomed, had already betrayed him.

“Let’s go to my car. It’s bulletproof, and the soundproofing is much better than in an ordinary luxury car!” Lin Haoran understood that Newbiggin wanted to discuss matters he didn’t want others to overhear, so he said with a smile.

“That would be for the best!” Newbiggin agreed.

With that, Lin Haoran gave Burton an instruction, telling him to take his subordinates to find a place in the first-floor lobby to sit and rest.

“Mr. Anthony, please take them to the employee rest area to wait,” Newbiggin said to the head of security.

He was, after all, the Taipan of the Hongkong Land Group. Even if Bao Fuda was usually in charge here, his own final say could not be underestimated.

“Yes, Taipan!” the head of security replied, accepting the order.

“Mr. Burton, go with him,” Lin Haoran said to Burton with a smile upon seeing this.

After watching Burton and the others leave, Lin Haoran, along with the two brothers Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, walked out of the lobby again and headed towards the parking spaces outside.

Many reporters tried to follow, but Lin Haoran politely yet firmly stopped them.

At this moment, the reporters didn’t dare to press too hard, fearing they might anger Lin Haoran and be kicked out of the subsequent press conference.

Later, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo were stationed to stand guard outside the car, while Lin Haoran and Newbiggin sat together in the back seat of the Rolls-Royce.

This custom private car not only had excellent safety features but also outstanding soundproofing. Once the windows were closed, the noise from the outside world became almost inaudible.

They could talk here without anyone outside hearing what they said.

“Mr. Newbiggin, if there’s anything you want to say, please speak freely. However, you already know my purpose for coming here today. I am not willing to drag this matter out any longer. Taking control of the Hongkong Land Group is something I must do today,” Lin Haoran said, initiating the conversation.

“I want to know, once you successfully take control of Hongkong Land and even gain a reverse takeover of Jardine Matheson & Co., what are your plans for me?” Newbiggin looked at Lin Haoran and asked solemnly.

In the lobby, he had indeed been at a loss for what to do after hearing Lin Haoran’s words.

But then, he thought about Lin Haoran’s personality. This Boss didn’t like managing companies.

If that was the case, wouldn’t he still have a chance to continue being in charge of Jardine Matheson & Co., or even the Hongkong Land Group?

As long as he could stay at Jardine Matheson, Lin Haoran’s takeover didn’t seem to have much to do with him. As for those British-funded conglomerates, why should he care so much about them?

Share in the glory? The honor of the British-funded conglomerates?

He was overthinking it. He was just a wage earner, just a professional manager.

After learning of Lin Haoran’s shareholding percentage, Newbiggin already knew that the British-funded conglomerates had no chance of winning.

And within the British-funded conglomerate, he only had the support of some shareholders; the rest basically followed the Keswick family’s lead.

It was only thanks to the fact that almost all the mid-to-high-level management at Jardine Matheson & Co. listened to him that he had some resources and confidence when facing the Keswick family.

And his control over nearly 80% of the mid-to-high-level management was also the source of his confidence when facing Lin Haoran.

Since the British-funded conglomerates had no chance of winning, Newbiggin decided to pledge his allegiance to Lin Haoran. Perhaps he could even maintain his position.

Hearing Newbiggin’s words, Lin Haoran immediately broke into a smile.

Chapter 337: Hongkong Land Group Becomes Jardine Matheson & Co.’s Parent Company!

Newbiggin’s words were very direct.

He had already admitted defeat and wanted to pledge his allegiance to Lin Haoran.

Asking such a question clearly indicated his hope that Lin Haoran would keep him on, allowing him to continue as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co.

Newbiggin, who was only around fifty, was clearly unwilling to retire from the corporate world so soon.

Moreover, for three-fifths of his life, he had been dealing with Jardine Matheson & Co. If he were to suddenly leave, he truly wouldn’t know what to do next.

Start a business? He had indeed earned a lot over the years at Jardine Matheson, and with his insight, he could certainly build a successful enterprise if he were to start his own.

But he was fifty, after all, and didn’t have much confidence in his future. He wasn’t sure he could persevere if he had to start from scratch with a small company.

As for joining another company? With his experience as Jardine Matheson’s Taipan, he could easily become a professional manager elsewhere.

Yet, in all of Hong Kong or even Southeast Asia, there were almost no companies larger than Jardine Matheson, and he wouldn’t deign to work for any that were smaller.

Therefore, in Newbiggin’s view, remaining in his position as the head of Jardine Matheson was the best possible outcome.

At this point, he could no longer care whether the boss behind him was a Chinese-funded conglomerate or a British-funded one; to him, it made little difference.

For Lin Haoran, keeping Newbiggin around in the short term certainly had more pros than cons.

After Newbiggin’s many years of management, if you had to name the person most familiar with the current state of these two major firms, it would undoubtedly be him, the Taipan.

Just like Li Jiacheng, who hadn’t been in a hurry to oust Willie, the former Taipan of Hutchison, after successfully acquiring Hutchison Whampoa.

Instead, he continuously placed his own subordinates among Hutchison’s senior executives, and only after they had familiarized themselves with the company’s various operations did he kick Willie out in one fell swoop.

Moreover, after ousting Willie, he kept Willie’s management team because Li Jiacheng knew his own team couldn’t truly take charge of the entirety of Hutchison Whampoa in just one year.

In fact, it ultimately took Li Jiacheng three to four years to completely remove the senior executives Willie had left behind.

Even an old-timer like Li Jiacheng didn’t dare to replace the original management team right from the start, let alone Lin Haoran.

Newbiggin was indeed quite talented; otherwise, he couldn’t have devised the Jardine-Land mutual control strategy, nor could he have held the position of Taipan at Jardine Matheson so securely for so long.

However, he would definitely have to get rid of Newbiggin in the future. The man was too power-hungry.

But given Jardine Matheson’s current situation, ousting him within a year was clearly not appropriate.

Therefore, even if Newbiggin wanted to leave, Lin Haoran would have tried to persuade him to stay.

Now that Newbiggin wanted to stay and had taken the initiative to pledge his loyalty, it was exactly what Lin Haoran wanted.

“Regarding the matter of your position…” Lin Haoran was about to give a prepared speech when Newbiggin interjected again.

“Mr. Lin, I have been with Jardine Matheson & Co. for over thirty years, and I know the company and Hongkong Land Group like the back of my hand. Even the British-funded conglomerates have always had great trust in my management abilities. Therefore, I sincerely request that you allow me to remain in my position after you take control of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land.

In return, I will support and assist you in smoothly taking control of Hongkong Land Group and even Jardine Matheson & Co., allowing you to become the actual controller behind these two major firms! At the same time, I will continue to work hard in the future to develop Jardine Matheson even further, creating more value for the shareholders!” Newbiggin said with great solemnity.

After speaking, he looked at Lin Haoran with an expectant gaze.

In that moment, he had completely cast aside the memory of having to apologize to all of Hong Kong on television.

Dignity?

If he were no longer the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, he would be nothing.

Lin Haoran was a little surprised to hear Newbiggin’s words.

So direct? So straightforward?

Where was the dignity of the British-funded conglomerates?

Still, if Newbiggin was going to be this refreshingly direct, all the better!

“Mr. Newbiggin, it’s not impossible to have you continue as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, but you are British, after all. I don’t have enough trust in you. Do you understand what I mean?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, are you asking for a pledge of allegiance?”

A flash of understanding crossed Newbiggin’s eyes. He quickly adjusted his posture, appearing even more sincere and determined.

“Mr. Lin, I completely understand your concerns. In this ever-changing business world, trust is indeed the most valuable asset. To prove my determination, I am willing to immediately handle several key matters to demonstrate my position and capabilities through concrete actions.

First, I will begin optimizing the management structure of Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group to ensure a more transparent and efficient decision-making process. At the same time, I will strengthen cost control to improve profitability. I will personally oversee the progress of several key projects to ensure they not only align with the company’s long-term plans but also bring considerable returns to shareholders in the short term.

Second, regarding cooperation with and maintenance of relations with the British-funded conglomerates, I will use the connections and experience I’ve accumulated over the years to ensure a smooth transition, making sure Mr. Lin will not encounter any unnecessary obstacles after taking control.

“Finally, to completely dispel your doubts, I am willing to accept a performance review and supervision mechanism for a certain period. If my performance fails to meet the standards you set during this time, or if I commit any act that betrays your trust, I am willing to unconditionally accept any punishment, including but not limited to a change in position or dismissal.”

Newbiggin’s words revealed an unquestionable resolve and sincerity. He understood that at this critical juncture, his every action would directly affect his future.

Newbiggin was still very confident in his own abilities. In his view, although Jardine Matheson’s strength had been greatly diminished by the loss of Kowloon Wharf, causing it to be surpassed by HSBC and lose its status as Hong Kong’s hegemon.

But the responsibility for Kowloon Wharf’s acquisition couldn’t be entirely blamed on him. If those British-funded conglomerates hadn’t been unwilling to hold more shares and support Jardine Matheson in increasing its stake in Kowloon Wharf, instead holding onto the idea of controlling more with less, how could Pao Yue-kong have acquired it?

Moreover, while they lost Kowloon Wharf, they also obtained a large amount of capital from Pao Yue-kong. It wasn’t a complete defeat. On the contrary, Pao Yue-kong had paid too high a price for the hostile takeover of Kowloon Wharf.

Even though nearly two years had passed since the event, many media outlets still brought it up from time to time, believing that Pao Yue-kong’s acquisition of Kowloon Wharf could at best be considered a “Pyrrhic victory”!

Upon hearing this, a satisfied smile crept onto Lin Haoran’s lips. He could feel Newbiggin’s urgency and resolve, which was exactly what he needed.

After some thought, Lin Haoran decided to agree to Newbiggin’s request.

“I can agree to let you keep your position as Taipan of Jardine Matheson. However, as for Hongkong Land, I do not intend for it to remain an associated subsidiary of Jardine Matheson.

Given the current equity structure, it’s not unfeasible to make Hongkong Land Group the parent company of Jardine Matheson. Therefore, I intend to personally serve as the Taipan of Hongkong Land Group.

Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group will still maintain a close relationship, but this relationship will be adjusted. It will no longer be Jardine Matheson controlling Hongkong Land, but rather Jardine Matheson becoming a subsidiary of Hongkong Land. Of course, I won’t interfere too much in Jardine Matheson’s operations; you will still be in charge over there.

What do you think? If you can accept this arrangement, the position of Jardine Matheson’s Taipan is still yours!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He was definitely not willing to let Newbiggin have too much of a hand in Hongkong Land Group.

In another world, the reason Hong Kong’s largest real estate company ended up heavily in debt was due to reckless expansion and blind investment, carried out by Bao Fuda under Newbiggin’s decisions.

In contrast, Newbiggin had managed Jardine Matheson & Co. quite well.

Therefore, letting him continue to manage Jardine Matheson was no problem at all for Lin Haoran.

In any case, he didn’t place as much importance on Jardine Matheson as he did on Hongkong Land Group.

As for the actual person to take charge of Hongkong Land Group, Lin Haoran already had a suitable candidate in mind.

He was, however, determined to oust Bao Fuda, the current general manager and Executive Director of Hongkong Land Group.

Yesterday, at the Jardine Matheson Board of Directors meeting, he had directly bypassed Newbiggin, the Taipan, and chosen to be in cahoots with those British-funded conglomerate shareholders.

What use was a disobedient subordinate?

Lin Haoran’s words were unexpected to Newbiggin.

He hadn’t imagined Lin Haoran’s plans would be like this.

After careful consideration, Newbiggin decided to agree to his new boss’s terms.

After all, if he left Jardine Matheson, he would be nothing.

But if he continued as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, he would still be a top tycoon in the Hong Kong business world.

“Mr. Lin, I agree!” With that thought, Newbiggin said solemnly.

“A pleasure working with you!”

“A pleasure working with you!”

With the terms settled, smiles couldn’t help but appear on both their faces.

“Please rest assured, Mr. Lin. From now on, I will do my utmost to assist you in taking control of Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. The majority of the executive power in both companies is in my hands. With my support, the Keswick family and those British-funded conglomerates won’t be able to stir up any trouble!” Newbiggin said with great seriousness.

“With you saying that, I can rest easy!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Although his equity stake meant that neither Jardine Matheson nor Hongkong Land could escape his grasp, it would still be a hassle if the Keswick family wanted to cause a scene.

But with the support of Newbiggin, the Taipan, the situation was completely different.

“Then go and prepare for the Hongkong Land Group board meeting. It’s getting late,” Lin Haoran said, glancing at the time. It was nearly noon, and he was ready to get out of the car.

Chapter 338: Announcing the Takeover, Henry Keswick’s Resentment

Lin Haoran and Newbiggin were discussing matters in the car. Although the reporters outside couldn’t know what they were talking about, they knew it had to be about Hongkong Land Group.

At that moment, the crowd of reporters was being held back by the Connaught Centre’s security about ten meters away from the Rolls-Royce, unable to get any closer. After all, the man inside the car was the Taipan of Hongkong Land Group, Newbiggin, and the head of security at the Connaught Centre knew his duty.

After a discussion lasting more than ten minutes, the two finally got out of the car. Seeing this, the crowd knew their meeting had ended.

“Mr. Lin, can you tell us what you were discussing in the car just now? Can you reveal anything?” a reporter shouted towards Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran stopped, faced the reporter, and shook his head with a smile. “You should all go get some lunch first. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a little longer for my announcement. Someone will notify you all later. In any case, what I have to announce will certainly not disappoint you!”

Next, Newbiggin had to convene an emergency meeting with the board members of Hongkong Land Group, and there was no telling how long that board meeting would last.

Newbiggin had already hurried towards the elevator, ready to go upstairs and arrange the meeting.

As the Taipan of both Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group, Newbiggin handled such matters with great ease.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran walked into the ground floor lobby and noticed that most of the reporters were still standing their ground, not having left.

He even vaguely heard some reporters discussing whether to order takeout and eat there, terrified of missing a major interview opportunity.

Lin Haoran wasn’t familiar with the Connaught Centre, but with a staff member guiding him, he soon arrived at Bao Fuda’s office.

“Mr. Lin, I’ve already started notifying all the board members. The board of Hongkong Land Group is primarily composed of senior management. Apart from two who are currently inspecting project sites, the rest are all here in the Connaught Centre. I’ve also notified the five other shareholder board members one by one!” Newbiggin said with a smile upon seeing Lin Haoran.

“Good, thank you for your trouble,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

At that moment, Bao Fuda stood to the side in silence.

Just a moment ago, he had learned from Newbiggin the purpose of Lin Haoran’s visit.

Learning that Lin Haoran already held over 47% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares was like a bolt from the blue to Bao Fuda, leaving him completely stunned.

Just yesterday, at the Jardine Matheson & Co. board meeting, he had represented Hongkong Land and cast a vote in favor of the proposal to remove Lin Haoran from the board.

What did this mean?

Bao Fuda knew, of course.

And he also knew very well what a 47% stake signified.

While Jardine Matheson & Co. was plotting how to oust Lin Haoran, the man had quietly amassed enough shares for a controlling stake. This reversal was something he found difficult to accept.

He had voted in favor, which was tantamount to offending Lin Haoran. The natural consequence was that once the other party gained a controlling stake in Hongkong Land, could he possibly continue to be in charge of the company?

Any rational person knew it was impossible.

Therefore, Bao Fuda was somewhat dispirited at the moment, feeling utterly lost about his future.

He didn’t know what the future held for Jardine Matheson & Co. or whether it would fall under Lin Haoran’s control, but Hongkong Land Group most certainly would.

This was because there weren’t many notable British shareholders within Hongkong Land itself.

The only reason they had always been able to control Hongkong Land was through the shares held by Jardine Matheson & Co.

Bao Fuda was filled with regret, blaming himself for his rash decision to side with Henry Keswick instead of his own superior, Newbiggin.

He deeply understood that the importance of one’s choices was far greater than he had ever imagined. The most crucial thing in life was to choose the right direction, not to blindly pursue speed.

Now, Bao Fuda understood that he would ultimately have to bear the consequences of his own mistaken choice.

While Bao Fuda remained silent, Lin Haoran greeted him with a smile. “Good afternoon, Mr. Bao Fuda!”

Just as Newbiggin was about to discuss the board meeting with Lin Haoran, a middle-aged to elderly man walked in from outside.

This was the renowned Henry Keswick, the ultimate controller behind the Jardine faction’s British-funded conglomerate.

He had served as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. from 1972 until 1975, when he stepped down and was succeeded by Newbiggin.

Seeing Lin Haoran in Bao Fuda’s office, Henry Keswick visibly paused for a moment before continuing to walk in.

“Mr. Newbiggin, can you tell me what’s going on?” Henry Keswick glanced at the three of them before his gaze finally rested on Newbiggin.

“Mr. Henry Keswick, Mr. Lin Haoran is about to seize the controlling stake of not just Hongkong Land Group, but Jardine Matheson & Co. as well. You should prepare yourself,” Newbiggin sighed as he replied.

Newbiggin had rather complicated feelings about Henry Keswick, the former Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co.

He was grateful for the promotion Henry Keswick had once given him, yet he also resented him for trying every means possible to push him out.

“That’s absolutely impossible! Mr. Newbiggin, what kind of outrageous joke are you telling?” Henry Keswick retorted without hesitation as soon as Newbiggin finished speaking.

How could that be possible? Lin Haoran was going to seize control of Hongkong Land, and even Jardine Matheson & Co.?

To Henry Keswick, this was an absolutely absurd joke!

Jardine Matheson & Co. had long been a company firmly controlled by the Keswick family.

Even when Lin Haoran’s stake had reached nearly 20%, far exceeding the shares the Keswick family held in Jardine Matheson, Henry had still easily ousted him from the company.

Now that Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group had established a cross-shareholding structure, Henry Keswick believed it would be even more difficult for Lin Haoran to gain a controlling stake in Jardine Matheson.

Therefore, Henry Keswick was skeptical of Newbiggin’s words and simply refused to believe them.

Newbiggin wanted to explain further, but he was interrupted by Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran interjected with a smile, “Mr. Henry Keswick, Hongkong Land Group is about to hold an emergency meeting. I must insist that you attend. As for whether you can remain in control of the situation, you will find out then!”

“Fine. I’d like to see what new tricks you can pull!” Although Henry Keswick felt a hint of panic, he appeared perfectly calm on the surface.

From a young age, he had been placed in Jardine Matheson by his elders to gain experience. By the time he was just over thirty, he had already entered the senior management of Jardine Matheson and led the company to great success. This was something Henry Keswick had always been proud of.

Now, although he had retired from the management of Jardine Matheson, in Henry Keswick’s heart, the company was still the Keswick family’s property, and outsiders could hardly covet a piece of it.

Despite his firm inner conviction, Newbiggin’s words had shaken him, and he began to slightly believe what he was being told.

Could it be? Did Lin Haoran truly have the ability to take control of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land?

However, no matter how he wracked his brain, he couldn’t figure out how Lin Haoran could have possibly done it.

None of them had eaten lunch yet, so Newbiggin specially arranged for everyone to have a simple but sumptuous lunch at a restaurant just downstairs from the Connaught Centre.

Time ticked by. The board meeting arranged by Newbiggin was scheduled for one in the afternoon. He had even contacted the two senior executive board members who were out of the office and called them back to the company for the meeting. Under normal circumstances, the meeting would be able to start on time.

At twelve-fifty, Lin Haoran, led by Newbiggin, arrived on the 47th floor of the Connaught Centre.

Henry Keswick and Bao Fuda followed closely behind.

Henry Keswick did not believe Lin Haoran had the ability to take away Jardine Matheson & Co., let alone Hongkong Land, but Bao Fuda did. After all, Newbiggin had sworn to him about the most crucial details, how could it be false?

Here, there was a conference room of over a hundred square meters. Today’s board meeting was to be held in this very room.

Before long, more than a dozen people had arrived in the conference room.

Hongkong Land Group was different from Jardine Matheson & Co.; it didn’t have as many board members, nor as many shareholders with large stakes.

This was because, in the past, control over Hongkong Land was usually exercised indirectly through Jardine Matheson, allowing them to reap considerable profits from Hongkong Land with a smaller capital investment.

Under such a model, who would be willing to pay a greater price to directly control shares in Hongkong Land?

These members of the Jardine faction’s British-funded conglomerate were all exceedingly shrewd.

However, sometimes being too clever can backfire. If one overthinks things, they can only bear the consequences themselves.

At this moment, standing behind Lin Haoran were not only Burton but also Su Zhixue and Chen Shoulin.

Lin Haoran had called Su Zhixue over at noon. In any case, he was the general manager of Universal Investment Company, and the shares of both Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land were all held under Universal Investment Company.

In addition, Chen Shoulin was also present, as he was now the President of Hongkong Electric Group, and Hongkong Electric held 6% of Hongkong Land’s shares, making it one of Hongkong Land’s major shareholders!

Many of the board members present were still in a state of confusion, not understanding the reason for such a hastily convened board meeting.

Moreover, the strangest thing was that it wasn’t just Henry Keswick who was present, but also Mr. Lin Haoran. What relationship did he have with Hongkong Land, and why was he here?

“Quiet, please. Since everyone has arrived, we will now officially begin the meeting!” announced Newbiggin, the Taipan of Hongkong Land.

The room immediately fell silent.

“Mr. Lin, the stage is now yours,” Newbiggin then turned his gaze to Lin Haoran.

“Zhixue, you make the announcement,” Lin Haoran said with a smile to Su Zhixue who was beside him.

Although Su Zhixue felt a little apprehensive—this was, after all, the headquarters of the renowned Hongkong Land Group—his nerves quickly settled after seeing the encouraging look from his boss, Lin Haoran.

The time from when he was an ordinary stock trader to becoming the general manager of an investment company had been too short, after all. He still needed more grooming.

Su Zhixue, holding a briefcase, stood up from his seat.

Seeing an unfamiliar Chinese face stand up, everyone in the room immediately turned their attention to Su Zhixue.

Of the sixteen people present, apart from Lin Haoran, Su Zhixue, and Chen Shoulin, the rest were all Westerners. Therefore, the three of them seemed somewhat out of place.

Hongkong Land Group was a very traditional British-owned company. From its founding nearly a century ago to the present day, it had never been out of British control.

What they didn’t know, however, was that this state of affairs was about to change.

Su Zhixue took a deep breath to calm himself, then announced in fluent English: “On behalf of Universal Investment Company and Mr. Lin Haoran, I would like to inform you all of an important matter.

Universal Investment Company currently holds 41.3% of the shares of Hongkong Land Group, which means we now possess the qualifications for a controlling stake in Hongkong Land. Therefore, the purpose of today’s meeting is to formally announce that Hongkong Land Group will become a publicly listed company under Universal Investment Company. Here are copies of our shareholding certificates for your review. We have also prepared the original documents.”

With that, Su Zhixue handed a copy to Newbiggin beside him. After a quick glance, Newbiggin promptly passed it to the next person.

Su Zhixue’s words were like a clap of thunder on a clear day, catching most people in the room off guard and leaving them utterly shocked.

What? Universal Investment Company was taking control of Hongkong Land Group?

How was that possible?

Henry Keswick held the copy in his hand, unable to accept the reality.

But the facts were laid bare before him; stock certificates could not be forged.

“No, no, that can’t be true. And even if you hold 41.3% of the shares, with the shares held by Jardine Matheson & Co. and our other shareholders, our total shareholding percentage is 42%. We still have more than you! You haven’t met the standard to gain a controlling stake in Hongkong Land!” Henry Keswick looked up abruptly, speaking rapidly.

However, the flush rising on his face had already betrayed his inner turmoil.

“Mr. Henry Keswick, please don’t forget that Hongkong Electric Group holds 6% of Hongkong Land’s shares. And Hongkong Electric Group is also under Mr. Lin Haoran’s leadership.” At this point, Chen Shoulin from Hongkong Electric Group stood up and calmly refuted him with a smile.

Everyone knew exactly what this meant. In reality, the shares of Hongkong Land that Lin Haoran controlled had reached a staggering 47.3%.

Moreover, these shares were highly concentrated, unlike those of their British-funded conglomerate, which, even with Jardine Matheson’s 30.2%, only amounted to about 42% and were widely dispersed.

Under these circumstances, what right did they have to confront Lin Haoran, whose shares were highly concentrated and amounted to nearly 50%?

Chen Shoulin’s words completely shattered the last shred of hope in Henry Keswick’s heart.

47.3%.

He knew very well what that represented.

Even if their British-funded conglomerate continued to increase their holdings in the secondary market, it would be impossible to surpass Lin Haoran.

To begin with, only about 10% of the shares remained on the secondary market. Many people were long-term holders, and subtracting them, could they really increase their holdings by 5%?

Even if they could, Lin Haoran could increase his holdings as well!

Chapter 339: A Forceful Declaration—And You Have No Choice But to Agree!

Su Zhixue’s announcement sent shockwaves through the conference room.

Almost all the Westerners found it hard to believe.

They recalled the previous takeover battle for Kowloon Wharf. Although Jardine Matheson & Co. ultimately lost, the fight had dragged on for over half a year before Pao Yue-kong successfully seized control.

But now, they had heard nothing about anyone powerful enough to acquire the Hongkong Land Group, yet they were being told in this meeting that Hongkong Land had already been acquired?

“As the person in charge of Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group, I would like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to Mr. Lin Haoran on officially becoming the new leader of the Hongkong Land Group. From this point forward, I will fully cooperate with all your decisions and actions!” Newbiggin stood up and declared his position solemnly.

Having resolved to follow Lin Haoran, Newbiggin naturally had to make his stance clear first.

A vote?

Was a vote even necessary?

Not only did Lin Haoran hold 47.3% of Hongkong Land’s shares, but one couldn’t forget that he also controlled an additional 19% of Jardine Matheson’s shares!

What could the British-funded conglomerates possibly use to fight him?

“No wonder you insisted on having the Hongkong Land Group exchange shares for the joint investment with the Hongkong Electric Group. It turns out this was all premeditated!” Bao Fuda had a sudden realization. He now understood why Hongkong Electric had insisted on shares as a condition for their cooperation. His voice carried a hint of resentment.

He understood that after this meeting, he might very well be facing unemployment.

“This is just a perfectly normal business decision. How could you call it premeditated?” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Just then, Su Zhixue proceeded to announce a fact that was even harder for them to accept!

He continued, “Given that the Hongkong Land Group holds 30.1% of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s shares, making it the effective controlling shareholder, and that Universal Investment Company also holds 19% of Jardine Matheson’s shares, the total controlled shares amount to 49.1%.

“Therefore, as of today, Jardine Matheson & Co. will be officially incorporated into Universal Investment Company as one of its listed enterprises. In the future, both Jardine Matheson and the Hongkong Land Group will continue to advance steadily under the leadership of Mr. Lin Haoran!”

If losing the Hongkong Land Group was a bitter pill that Henry Keswick could barely swallow, then losing Jardine Matheson & Co. was a completely unbearable blow.

What was the foundation of the Keswick family?

It was Jardine Matheson!

Henry Keswick dared not imagine what the consequences would be if the Keswick family lost Jardine Matheson!

Over the years, relying on the immense financial power of Jardine Matheson, the Keswick family had risen from an obscure little family in Britain to a prominent one that could rank among the great British financial groups. All of this glory stemmed from the endless wealth brought by Jardine Matheson.

Although they only held 12% of the shares, their deep-rooted control over Jardine Matheson for many years, coupled with the substantial profits from their indirect control over the Hongkong Land Group, meant the return on their 12% stake far exceeded its actual equity value!

This was precisely why they had never chosen to increase their shareholding.

In Henry Keswick’s eyes, the capital required to increase their stake was no small sum. Since Jardine Matheson was firmly in their grasp, why bother going to such trouble and inviting problems?

“No, you can’t control Jardine Matheson! It belongs to our British-funded conglomerate, and it’s not for you Chinese to touch! I will ask Mr. Governor to intervene! This is a hostile takeover! Your actions are doomed to fail!” Henry Keswick was speaking incoherently now.

Losing Hongkong Land was an unchangeable fact, but he couldn’t accept losing Jardine Matheson, even if his shareholding was inferior!

“A hostile takeover? Jardine Matheson is a publicly listed company. My acquisition of its shares through the secondary market is a completely legal business operation. As far as I know, Mr. Henry Keswick, you hold only about 12% of Jardine Matheson’s shares, correct?

“Even adding HSBC’s 6% and the shares held by other British-funded conglomerates, the total is barely over twenty percent. The 30.1% held by the Hongkong Land Group already far exceeds your portion, and with the 19% controlled by our Universal Investment Company, we control a combined total of nearly 50% of the shares. May I ask, Mr. Henry Keswick, how do you intend to fight for the controlling stake?

“Furthermore, I must inform you of something, Mr. Henry Keswick. Before coming to the Connaught Centre, Governor Sir Murray MacLehose already assured me that he would not intervene in any legitimate business competition between myself and the Jardine faction conglomerates.

“All my actions are legal and compliant. I’d very much like to see what brilliant move you have, Mr. Henry Keswick, to reclaim this controlling stake.” Lin Haoran sat calmly in his chair, responding with composure to Henry Keswick’s accusations.

Having secured Governor Sir Murray MacLehose’s promise, Lin Haoran was indeed confident of success in taking control of Jardine Matheson.

The main reason was that these British-funded conglomerates, in order to minimize their investment, all held such small stakes.

Who would have thought that before he began his stock accumulation, the Keswick family, Jardine Matheson’s largest individual shareholder, held a pitiful 12% or so.

If they held around 30%, coupled with the support of other British-funded conglomerates, who would dare to make a move on Jardine Matheson?

The situation the British-funded conglomerates found themselves in today was entirely of their own making.

Everyone present fell silent.

The few British shareholders who owned shares in Hongkong Land looked at one another, seeming to communicate through their gazes.

Lin Haoran taking control of Hongkong Land did not significantly affect their interests.

After all, although they were major shareholders, Jardine Matheson had always been the one calling the shots at Hongkong Land. Their small stakes were mostly for collecting dividends.

Moreover, they knew very well that continuing to support Mr. Henry Keswick would be completely useless.

With such a significant-share disadvantage, they were naturally in a weak position. Showing support was pointless; it was better to remain silent.

Therefore, not a single one of the Hongkong Land shareholders spoke up.

As for the board members who were professional managers, they looked at their immediate superior, Bao Fuda, then at his superior, Newbiggin. After a brief exchange of glances, they quickly came to a decision.

“At this meeting, given our significant advantage, a voting session is unnecessary. Even if Mr. Henry objects, you have no choice but to agree. I hereby announce several important decisions: Effective immediately, I will officially take over the leadership of the Hongkong Land Group as its major shareholder.

“Mr. Newbiggin will no longer serve as the Taipan of the Hongkong Land Group but will retain his positions as a Director of Hongkong Land and the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co.

“Simultaneously, Mr. Bao Fuda’s positions as Executive Director and general manager are hereby revoked. Mr. Newbiggin will assume these duties in an acting capacity until a new candidate is appointed. During this period, the Finance Department will be temporarily managed by our side. I ask the head of the Finance Department to cooperate fully with our work.

“Furthermore, for the senior management of Hongkong Land present here, if you wish to resign along with Mr. Bao Fuda, I can approve your requests. If you choose to stay, you are equally welcome.

“But be warned, in the future, both the Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson will be stricter in their selection of senior management. Anyone who is not up to the task will face the risk of demotion or dismissal. I hope you will all be fully prepared.” Following that, Lin Haoran directly announced his plans.

“As the Taipan of Jardine Matheson and former Taipan of Hongkong Land, I support Mr. Lin Haoran’s decisions!” Newbiggin stepped forward to say once more.

Bao Fuda, once an important figure as Executive Director and general manager, was directly removed from the Hongkong Land Group by Lin Haoran.

In any case, with the experienced former Taipan Newbiggin at the helm, Hongkong Land would remain stable and avoid major turmoil even without Bao Fuda.

Lin Haoran’s words shattered Bao Fuda’s last shred of hope.

At this moment, Bao Fuda’s face was ashen, and he was filled with uncertainty about his future.

He had chosen to support Henry Keswick because he was taking a side.

In his view, although Newbiggin was the current Taipan, in charge of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, he was ultimately just a professional manager like himself. Once he lost his position, he would be nothing.

Henry Keswick, on the other hand, was the representative of the Keswick family, the true decision-maker behind Jardine Matheson.

When choosing between Henry Keswick and Newbiggin, he naturally chose the former.

But now, the person he had chosen had fallen from grace, and he was suffering the consequences.

“Sigh!” Bao Fuda heaved a deep sigh, not reacting with the same disbelief as Henry Keswick.

This outcome was simply the price he had to pay for his choice.

Even their top boss, Newbiggin, had declared his support for Lin Haoran. The other senior executives of Hongkong Land naturally looked out for their own interests.

Bao Fuda and the few Hongkong Land shareholders remained silent, while the other senior executives of Hongkong Land began to declare their positions one by one.

“Mr. Lin, I am willing to continue staying at the Hongkong Land Group and make my due contribution to the company.”

“Mr. Lin, I am willing too!”

“I’m willing as well!”

Of the eight senior managers present, aside from the silent Bao Fuda, the other seven chose to remain in their posts.

For them, it was merely a change of boss, which had little to do with their personal interests.

Although they had looked down on the Chinese in the past, they understood the principle of adapting to the times!

“Good. As the future true master of Jardine Matheson and the Hongkong Land Group, I welcome you all to stay. I believe you will not regret the choice you’ve made today!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

In reality, he had already planned to gradually push these people out of Hongkong Land’s senior management in the future.

But for now, it was impossible. If he kicked them all out at once, it would descend into chaos.

Chapter 340: A Shock to the Entire Audience

Newbiggin’s early defection was a huge benefit to Lin Haoran’s takeover of the Hongkong Land Group.

One could tell just by how cooperative these senior executives from Hongkong Land were.

If Newbiggin hadn’t been the first to switch sides, it’s certain they would not have submitted so easily.

Facing the current situation, Henry Keswick knew that saying anything more here would be useless. He could only go back and think of a way to snatch Jardine Matheson & Co. back.

Therefore, the board meeting concluded quickly.

As soon as the meeting ended, Henry Keswick hurried out of the conference room.

Another key figure, Bao Fuda, also left the conference room in a silent hurry. It had been decided during the meeting to terminate his position at the Hongkong Land Group, so the silhouette of the former Executive Director looked particularly desolate.

He never imagined that on an ordinary, unremarkable day, he would actually lose his job.

Many of Hongkong Land’s senior executives came over to exchange pleasantries with Lin Haoran. From their expressions, it was clear that they had submitted, at least on the surface. At the very least, the Hongkong Land Group would not fall into chaos due to a major change in its upper management.

Outside the door, the head of security for Connaught Centre had been waiting for some time. Seeing everyone emerge, he breathed a sigh of relief.

He was about to report to Bao Fuda, but Bao Fuda merely pointed at Newbiggin behind him, shook his head, and then left.

Although he didn’t understand what had happened, the head of security was sharp enough to walk over to Newbiggin’s side.

“Is there something you need?” Newbiggin asked, turning to look at him.

“Taipan, nearly two hundred reporters have gathered downstairs. If we don’t give them a response soon, I’m worried they’ll cause trouble,” the head of security said with a wry smile.

These nearly two hundred people didn’t represent two hundred media outlets; rather, nearly every outlet had sent two or three representatives.

Even so, such a scene was quite astonishing.

All of Hong Kong is only so big. After two or three hours of this brewing, it was safe to say that pretty much every reporter who could come had come.

Lin Haoran had appeared at the Hongkong Land Group and indicated that there would be an announcement.

One didn’t need to guess what the announcement would be about; it was definitely not something minor, but very likely a sensational piece of news.

And so, more and more reporters had gathered.

“Perfect. Let’s hold a press conference. Have your men go down and prepare. We’ll all go down later to deal with these reporters!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He wanted to take this opportunity to announce two major events: his successful acquisition of the Hongkong Land Group and, by extension, his indirect controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co.

The acquisitions of Hongkong Land and Jardine Matheson had been plotted for a long time, since the beginning of the year.

Now that his efforts had finally borne fruit, Lin Haoran was eager to make it known to the world.

This was an absolute victory for the Chinese-funded conglomerates.

With Lin Haoran’s complete takeover of Hongkong Land and Jardine Matheson, it symbolized that the Chinese-funded conglomerates in Hong Kong had now completely surpassed the British-funded conglomerates.

As of now, the Chinese-funded conglomerates controlled Jardine Matheson & Co., the Hongkong Land Group, the Hongkong Electric Group, Kowloon Wharf, Hutchison Whampoa, and more.

As for the British-funded conglomerates, only a few major firms like HSBC, Swire & Co., and the Wheelock Group remained.

Moreover, the Hongkong Land Group also held thirty-three million A shares of Wheelock and Company. Although Wheelock’s A/B share structure meant that these thirty-three million shares only accounted for 11.8% of the equity, they held just 7.4% of the voting rights.

But even with only 7.4% of the voting rights, it was enough to make the Hongkong Land Group one of Wheelock Group’s most important shareholders.

In the future, if Lin Haoran wanted to acquire Wheelock, he could launch a takeover bid for Wheelock and Company at any time, using these thirty-three million shares as a foundation.

Fortunately, neither Jardine Matheson nor Hongkong Land had A/B shares, so Lin Haoran, with his overwhelming voting power, had easily taken over Hongkong Land, thereby indirectly controlling Jardine Matheson.

Otherwise, it would have taken a much greater effort for him to succeed.

Preparing for the press conference wasn’t difficult. Following Newbiggin’s instructions, the lobby on the ground floor of Connaught Centre was quickly transformed into a temporary press conference venue.

“Mr. Lin—no, I should address you as Boss from now on. The preparations downstairs are complete. Let’s go down together!” Newbiggin said, turning to Lin Haoran. He had now clearly defined his new role.

In front of Lin Haoran, he was no longer the all-powerful Taipan of Jardine Matheson, a man on par with Michael Sandberg, but more like an ordinary employee, a wage earner who could be fired at any time.

Under these circumstances, if he didn’t know how to adjust his mindset and attitude, he would likely not be able to hold onto his position as Taipan for long.

“Alright, let’s go down and meet these reporters,” Lin Haoran responded with a smile, quite pleased with the change in Newbiggin’s attitude.

Who would have thought that just a few months ago, this Taipan of Jardine Matheson had been so arrogant and condescending, thinking he could easily deal with a Chinese businessman like him and showing Lin Haoran no respect whatsoever.

Although he was later forced to bow his head and apologize in front of all of Hong Kong’s television viewers due to Lin Haoran’s counterattack, the resentment in his heart must have still been there.

Today, however, how could he dare to harbor any such resentment?

Lin Haoran, along with Newbiggin, Su Zhixue, Chen Shoulin, and the others, took the elevator straight down to the ground floor.

Meanwhile, Burton took the finance team directly to Hongkong Land’s Finance Department to audit the company’s financial situation, in order to prevent the British-funded conglomerate from tampering with the books.

After all, Hongkong Land’s finances frequently involved tens of billions of dollars. A little tampering could easily make a few hundred million disappear.

Now that Lin Haoran was the absolute controlling shareholder of Hongkong Land, he naturally didn’t want to see that happen.

If nothing else, just look at Green Island Cement Company from two years ago. It was not a particularly large enterprise, yet its chairman managed to pull off a deception worth tens of millions. One could only imagine what was possible for a behemoth like Hongkong Land with a market capitalization in the tens of billions.

Furthermore, although Hongkong Land’s market capitalization was nearly ten billion, in reality, its true value far exceeded that figure.

Take Connaught Centre, where they were at this moment. This building, once the tallest in Hong Kong and now the second tallest, was easily worth several billion Hong Kong dollars.

Hongkong Land owned many similar commercial buildings in places like Central, Wan Chai, and Causeway Bay.

Although these buildings might not be as tall as Connaught Centre, they were at least twenty to thirty stories high. Based on current property prices, each was valued at over one billion Hong Kong dollars.

The title “King of Central” was by no means an undeserved reputation.

This was precisely why Hongkong Land could firmly hold its position as the largest real estate company in Hong Kong.

And throughout Hong Kong, Hongkong Land’s properties and cooperative ventures were even more numerous and widespread.

Therefore, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, the ten-billion-dollar market cap was far from reflecting its true value.

Although Hongkong Land was currently burdened with several billion Hong Kong dollars in debt, relative to its overall strength, this debt was but a drop in the bucket.

In another two years, Hongkong Land’s debt would have ballooned to over ten billion Hong Kong dollars.

But now, it was not yet 1981, and Hongkong Land’s debt was still at a manageable level.

Now that Lin Haoran had officially taken control of Hongkong Land, he certainly would not allow it to continue making reckless investments as its other-worldly counterpart had done.

Under his management, Hongkong Land would naturally not repeat the same mistakes and become the debt-ridden “King of Debt.”

The group soon arrived at the ground-floor lobby.

At this time, under the orderly management of dozens of security guards, the reporters were neatly arranged in a designated area.

The periphery was meticulously set up to create the atmosphere of a press conference. A dais had even been erected, making the whole setup look quite formal and professional.

The sight of Lin Haoran and Newbiggin caused a stir in the crowd.

However, with the security guards maintaining order and shouting for quiet, the scene quickly settled down.

Lin Haoran and Newbiggin walked to the front of the dais and looked at the two to three hundred reporters before them.

At that moment, a subordinate handed over a wired microphone. The microphone was passed to Newbiggin, who in turn passed it to Lin Haoran.

Holding the microphone, Lin Haoran faced the crowd of reporters with a smile.

Under everyone’s expectant gaze, he began to speak: “I’m sure you are all very curious about what brings me to the Hongkong Land Group today, and why Mr. Newbiggin and I are here.”

Lin Haoran’s words made many people nod involuntarily.

Those who had arrived early had already been waiting here for three hours.

Just a moment ago, they had seen the famous former Taipan of Jardine Matheson, Henry Keswick, leaving with a dark expression under the protection of his bodyguards. This made everyone even more curious about what major event Lin Haoran had orchestrated today!

Now, the time for the announcement had finally come. How could they not be excited?

So, at this moment, everyone stared at Lin Haoran with expectant eyes, waiting for his next words.

“I, Lin Haoran, am here to formally announce a few things: Starting today, I, Lin Haoran, will officially take control of the Hongkong Land Group, becoming its controlling shareholder and Taipan. Furthermore, from this day forward, Jardine Matheson & Co. will become a subsidiary holding of the Hongkong Land Group. Mr. Newbiggin will continue to serve as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, reporting directly to me. That is all I have to say!” Lin Haoran announced with a smile.

Every word Lin Haoran spoke left the reporters in disbelief.

Was—was this real?

This was an incredible reversal!

Lin Haoran had successfully taken control of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land?

Hongkong Land now held a controlling stake in Jardine Matheson?

In the past, wasn’t it always Jardine Matheson that existed as Hongkong Land’s parent company?

What on earth had happened?

At this moment, everyone was dumbfounded, their faces filled with utter disbelief.

This news was too sudden, too shocking!

Jardine Matheson & Co.!

The Hongkong Land Group!

Could it be that they were both going to become Chinese-owned enterprises from now on?

Chapter 341: Unprecedented

At that, the reporters could hold back no longer. They all tried to surge forward to ask Lin Haoran questions.

However, the conference staff managed to hold back the reporters who were on the verge of losing their composure.

“Mr. Newbiggin, is all of this true?” a Western reporter shouted at Newbiggin, trying to get a more reliable confirmation from him.

These Western reporters still couldn’t believe it, even now.

The British-owned companies they were so proud of, Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group, had just been taken over by a Chinese-owned enterprise?

This… they refused to believe it was true.

“It’s fake. It must be fake!” one Western reporter murmured.

“Everyone, everything Mr. Lin Haoran has said is true!” Although Newbiggin wasn’t holding a microphone, his voice carried clearly to every person’s ears.

Newbiggin’s words instantly forced all the Western reporters to face and accept this fact, however unwilling they were.

Meanwhile, the Chinese reporters at the scene erupted in cheers. It was not just a celebration, but an expression of national pride.

Although Lin Haoran taking control of Hongkong Land and Jardine Matheson & Co. seemed to have no direct connection to them, he was Chinese, and as fellow countrymen, they felt this glory and pride as if it were their own.

In Hong Kong, Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. had penetrated nearly every industry; the lives of most citizens were inseparable from these two magnates.

Now, learning that these two tycoons were now Chinese-owned enterprises controlled by a Chinese-funded conglomerate filled them with an overwhelming sense of pride.

In Hong Kong, they had long been treated as second-class citizens, always feeling a sense of inferiority in front of Westerners. Though it had become a habit, no one wanted to live like that forever.

Now, Lin Haoran’s successful seizure of these two major companies from a British-funded conglomerate was undoubtedly a victory for the Chinese people!

Including Lin Haoran’s previous acquisition of Hongkong Electric Group, Pao Yue-kong’s acquisition of Kowloon Wharf, and Li Jiacheng’s takeover of Hutchison Whampoa—in the eyes of ordinary Hong Kong citizens, these were all victories for the Chinese, one after another.

But this time, Lin Haoran had brought both Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group under his banner. It was clear that this victory was far grander, truly unprecedented!

Some Chinese reporters were so emotional that their eyes filled with tears, which streamed endlessly down their cheeks. They would wipe them away, only for new ones to immediately take their place, completely uncontrollable.

For so many years under the Governor’s Office’s rule, when had the Chinese ever won such a glorious victory?

“Next, if you have any questions, you may direct them to Mr. Newbiggin. Not only will he continue to serve as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., but he will also be the interim Executive Director and general manager of Hongkong Land Group, continuing to help me manage Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group!” Lin Haoran continued.

Immediately, many reporters at the scene started clamoring with questions. Now that it had come to this, they had far too many things they wanted to ask.

…

Two hours had passed since the press conference. It was now just after three in the afternoon.

At this moment, Lin Haoran was sitting in an office on the 51st floor of the Connaught Centre.

This was originally Bao Fuda’s office.

Now that Bao Fuda had been ousted by Lin Haoran and was no longer in charge of Hongkong Land Group, the office naturally belonged to him.

Sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting a golden glow over the spacious, over one-hundred-square-meter office.

The office was decorated in a style that was simple yet luxurious. The off-white walls contrasted sharply with the dark wood flooring, creating an atmosphere that was both elegant and warm.

Several abstract art paintings hung on the walls, their vibrant colors adding an artistic touch to the business-centric space.

The view from the floor-to-ceiling windows was breathtaking, offering a panoramic vista of the bustling scenery of Central and even the entire Eastern District. The towering skyscrapers were arranged in a staggered yet orderly fashion, and the endless stream of traffic below was like a flowing urban tapestry.

This Bao Fuda certainly knew how to live. The luxury of this office was no less than that of Newbiggin’s.

He had been to Newbiggin’s office twice, and it was even slightly smaller than this one.

“All of this will be mine from now on!” Lin Haoran was very pleased with this office, and indeed with the several commercial buildings surrounding the Connaught Centre.

Compared to the Connaught Centre, the current Wanqing Building (the former Federation Building) did seem to pale in comparison.

However, whether it was the Wanqing Building or the Connaught Centre, both had their moments of glory, both had served as the tallest building in Hong Kong.

In the early sixties, the Wanqing Building was the pinnacle of Hong Kong’s skyline;
while the Connaught Centre held the title of Hong Kong’s tallest building for almost the entire seventies.

This meant that Lin Haoran, without even realizing it, now owned two buildings that had once defined the height of Hong Kong.

As a property of the Hongkong Land Group, the ownership of the Connaught Centre might not legally belong to Lin Haoran alone, but as the actual controller of the group, everything here was naturally his to command.

Moreover, Hongkong Land didn’t just own the Connaught Centre. It also held properties like The Landmark, Alexandra House, the Prince’s Building, and the Gloucester Building, all important components of Hong Kong’s skyline.

Without these buildings from the Hongkong Land Group, Hong Kong’s skyline would be several rungs lower.

Hongkong Land Group had worked so hard to build so many skyscrapers in Central, and in the end, he was the one who reaped the rewards!

Just then, Newbiggin walked in from outside.

“Finished with the handover from Mr. Bao Fuda?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Boss, the handover is mostly complete. Although I wasn’t directly in charge of Hongkong Land, as the Taipan of the parent company, most important matters required my signature and approval. So there wasn’t much to hand over. I’ve also already discussed Mr. Bao Fuda’s severance package with him. We’ll follow the contract and pay him half a year’s salary!” Newbiggin replied.

Lin Haoran nodded, unconcerned about the compensation. Bao Fuda’s salary was only a bit over one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars a month, so half a year’s salary was less than one million Hong Kong dollars, an amount he naturally didn’t care about.

“I have full control over the senior management here at Hongkong Land Group now. Boss, you can find a successor at any time, and I will hand over the management of the group!” Newbiggin continued.

“Loyalty: 62/100.”

After Newbiggin’s submission, Lin Haoran could now see his loyalty score.

A loyalty of 62 wasn’t high. In fact, it was quite average, barely a passing grade. But Lin Haoran didn’t care.

Although he didn’t know what Newbiggin was truly thinking, Lin Haoran was quite satisfied with his words.

Newbiggin surely wouldn’t submit so easily with his whole heart, but so what?

Lin Haoran only needed his outward submission, because Newbiggin still had great value to him at this moment.

To be honest, if Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. were without Newbiggin right now, they would likely descend into chaos.

Especially since the senior management of both Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group consisted almost entirely of Western faces. Even in mid-level management, Chinese employees were in the minority.

Facing such a situation, if Lin Haoran were to hastily take over full control, it would be like taking on an unmanageable company.

The mid-to-high-level management would feign compliance while secretly defying him. If a major problem arose in the company, he might be the last to know.

In contrast, by keeping Newbiggin, Lin Haoran could simply manage the Western senior executives through him, which would be far simpler and more effective.

Once Lin Haoran gradually established his footing among the mid-to-high-level management of Hongkong Land and Jardine Matheson & Co. and could fully control the situation, Newbiggin would lose his usefulness. At that point, Lin Haoran could remove him from Jardine Matheson & Co. anytime he wished.

“I don’t know much about Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co., only what’s publicly available. Mr. Newbiggin, give me a proper briefing on the specific situation of these two groups,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, looking at Newbiggin.

“Of course, Boss!”

The two began to talk in the office, with Newbiggin doing most of the talking and Lin Haoran listening intently.

The information Lin Haoran previously had on Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group was not comprehensive. Although he could get a lot of information through his intelligence department, he hadn’t delved too deeply into the details before the official acquisition.

Now, as the big boss of both groups, he no longer needed to rely on external intelligence agencies. He could just have Newbiggin, the Taipan, report to him in detail.

There was no need for Newbiggin to hide any of this. Even if he didn’t say, Lin Haoran, now the boss, would gradually learn everything as he became more involved with the businesses of the two groups.

While Lin Haoran and Newbiggin were talking in the office, the news that Lin Haoran had taken control of Hongkong Land Group and indirectly controlled Jardine Matheson & Co. spread throughout Hong Kong at the speed of light.

Even before the media had reported on it and before anyone knew the specific details, most people already had a rough idea of what had happened.

For instance, the key pieces of news—that Lin Haoran had successfully acquired Hongkong Land Group, that Hongkong Land Group had become Jardine Matheson’s parent company, that Bao Fuda was out, and that Newbiggin would continue as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co.—spread throughout Hong Kong at an incredible speed.

At first, people were skeptical of the news, half-believing and half-doubting.

But as the information spread widely, more and more people spoke of it with certainty. When Hong Kong Radio took the lead and broadcast the news to its vast audience, many people driving or listening to the radio received more detailed information directly.

Thus, the doubts gradually dissipated, and more and more people began to believe that this was not just a baseless rumor—Lin Haoran had indeed successfully taken control of Hongkong Land Group and indirectly gained control of Jardine Matheson & Co.!

The news spread rapidly through the streets and alleys of Hong Kong.

The Chinese people recovered from their initial shock and were pleasantly surprised.

The Westerners went from shock to disbelief.

This was undoubtedly the biggest event in the history of Hong Kong’s business world—truly unprecedented!

Chapter 342: Seeking Help from Government House

Government House.

Murray MacLehose was the first to know. He had learned of the matter through his intelligence agency before Lin Haoran had even finished his press conference.

Upon hearing the news, he was stunned for a long time.

He had just called Lin Haoran to Government House that morning to mediate, hoping he wouldn’t escalate the situation.

Yet, only a few hours had passed, and now he was being told that Lin Haoran had already taken control of Hongkong Land Group?

Not only that, but he had used Hongkong Land Group to execute a reverse takeover of Jardine Matheson & Co.?

It all seemed too surreal. Even though he knew the information from his subordinate was usually accurate, he still harbored doubts.

This was beyond his imagination.

Hongkong Land Group, a behemoth with a market capitalization of over ten billion Hong Kong dollars, and Lin Haoran now controlled 47.3% of its shares?

Even at a market cap of ten billion Hong Kong dollars, those shares were worth 4.7 billion.

Four point seven billion! What an immense figure!

As the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Murray MacLehose had a profound understanding of money.

At this moment, how could he not understand why Lin Haoran had insisted that he not intervene in the contest between him and the Jardine faction and other British-funded conglomerates?

Initially, he had been quite confident, believing that Lin Haoran alone could never stand against these allied British-funded conglomerates.

Now, only a few short hours later, the slap in the face had come so swiftly!

Sir Murray MacLehose’s fingers tapped an aimless rhythm on his desk.

He was contemplating how to handle the situation.

An event of this magnitude would undoubtedly cause a massive sensation in Hong Kong—far more sensational than Pao Yue-kong’s acquisition of Kowloon Wharf or Li Jiacheng’s takeover of Hutchison Whampoa!

His heart, of course, sided with the British-funded conglomerates.

But he had already given his word to Lin Haoran that morning. If he were to interfere now, to persuade Lin Haoran to give up Jardine Matheson & Co., it would be a betrayal of his own promise.

What a complicated situation!

But it seemed he couldn’t simply do nothing, either.

Jardine Matheson & Co. was completely different from Hutchison Whampoa.

Although both were among the Four Big Hongs, Hutchison Whampoa was not in the same league as Jardine Matheson.

Moreover, HSBC had intentionally let Li Jiacheng take over Hutchison Whampoa.

Therefore, no British-funded conglomerate had objected to a Chinese-owned enterprise controlling Hutchison Whampoa. At most, Hutchison Whampoa’s former Taipan, Willie, grumbled behind the scenes, but it had no effect on Li Jiacheng’s control.

Jardine Matheson & Co., however, was an entirely different matter.

It was a massive enterprise jointly controlled by several British-funded conglomerates from Britain. More importantly, it represented British prestige.

Now, Jardine Matheson & Co. had fallen so easily into Lin Haoran’s hands. What did this mean? It meant that Lin Haoran had given the British-funded conglomerates, including those behind HSBC, a resounding slap in the face!

After deliberating for a long time, Sir Murray MacLehose couldn’t come up with an effective solution.

“Let’s see if the Jardine Matheson shareholders come to me. If they don’t, I’ll pretend this never happened. If they do, I’ll deal with it then,” Sir Murray MacLehose muttered.

Just as he was struggling for a response, the phone rang.

“Mr. Governor, Henry Keswick is here to see you,” a staff member from Government House reported.

“Bring him in,” Sir Murray MacLehose said.

After hanging up, Sir Murray MacLehose couldn’t help but frown.

He had been planning to act as if nothing had happened, but the other party had come to him directly. It seemed there was no avoiding it.

Outside Government House, the visitor was none other than the renowned former Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., Henry Keswick.

After leaving Connaught Centre, Henry Keswick had immediately found the main shareholders behind Jardine Matheson & Co. Together, they went to HSBC to discuss the matter with Michael Sandberg.

When Michael Sandberg learned that Lin Haoran had forcefully declared control of Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group with his share advantage, his reaction was one of complete disbelief, finding the situation preposterous.

Even HSBC only dared to pull some minor tricks to keep Jardine Matheson in check. As for controlling Jardine Matheson & Co.? HSBC wouldn’t even dare to dream of it.

But Lin Haoran, what had he done?

Single-handedly, he had taken control of Jardine Matheson & Co., a company they had always regarded as a rival?

Michael Sandberg understood perfectly well what this implied.

It meant that Lin Haoran’s power in the business world had already surpassed that of HSBC. HSBC’s position as the hegemon of Hong Kong, held for a mere two years, was about to be relinquished.

“Mr. Henry Keswick, given the proportion of shares Mr. Lin Haoran currently holds, your chances of reclaiming Jardine Matheson & Co. through conventional business means are minuscule.

Right now, the only viable strategy is to use the government’s power to pressure Mr. Lin Haoran. If he buckles under that pressure, you might have room to negotiate; otherwise, I’m afraid Jardine Matheson & Co. will be difficult to get back into your hands,” Michael Sandberg offered his advice.

Michael Sandberg inwardly hoped that Henry Keswick could regain control of Jardine Matheson. That way, even if Lin Haoran still surpassed HSBC with the formidable strength of Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and others, the gap wouldn’t be too large, and there would still be a chance to overtake him in the future.

However, if Lin Haoran controlled not only Hongkong Land Group but also Jardine Matheson, it would be nearly impossible for HSBC to become the industry leader again. At least, it was a goal unlikely to be achieved during Michael Sandberg’s tenure.

This was naturally not a sight Michael Sandberg wished to see.

Businessmen always pursue profit.

Cooperation is for profit; competition is also for profit.

It was because of Michael Sandberg’s advice that Henry Keswick had decisively gone to Government House, hoping to receive assistance from Sir Murray MacLehose.

Soon, led by a staff member of Government House, Henry Keswick arrived at Sir Murray MacLehose’s office.

Sir Murray MacLehose personally came to the door to greet him.

Henry Keswick’s status was not ordinary. He was not only the current head of the Keswick family but also a British aristocrat with a considerable network in British politics.

Therefore, even a governor of Sir Murray MacLehose’s stature treated him with great importance.

“Mr. Governor, I’m sure you already know the purpose of my visit. I hope you can provide some assistance. We, the Keswick family, are not willing to lose control of Jardine Matheson & Co.!” Henry Keswick said impatiently, before he had even sat down.

As for Hongkong Land Group, he didn’t even bother to mention it.

In the current situation, regaining control of Jardine Matheson would be a victory in itself. To want Hongkong Land back as well?

A fool’s dream!

Henry Keswick couldn’t imagine how heavy a blow it would be to the Keswick family if they completely lost control of Jardine Matheson, their golden goose that laid golden eggs.

The Keswick family had just managed to ascend to the level of a first-tier British family-conglomerate by relying on Jardine Matheson. If they lost it, their status would surely drop a tier.

Although their 12% of shares remained, without any final say, those shares were of little use.

Cash them out?

What was the use of a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars? The profits their family had gained from controlling Jardine Matheson over the years were far beyond a mere few hundred million.

So, no matter what, Henry Keswick was unwilling to lose Jardine Matheson. He would not miss even the slightest chance.

Using the government for intimidation was his last opportunity.

“Mr. Henry Keswick, don’t be so anxious. Please, have a seat. Let’s talk this through properly,” Sir Murray MacLehose said with a smile, pointing to the sofa as he saw the other man’s agitated state.

Only then did Henry Keswick realize he had been somewhat impolite.

He couldn’t help it; Jardine Matheson & Co. was simply too important to the Keswick family.

In the past, he had never imagined that the Keswicks would lose control of Jardine Matheson.

Even in the years after Newbiggin took over, when he began to show signs of disobedience, the Keswick family could still maintain a degree of control over Jardine Matheson through the pieces they had placed in senior management.

However, now that Lin Haoran held a controlling stake in Jardine Matheson, it meant he basically had the final say. The people he had placed in Jardine Matheson’s senior management could be removed by Lin Haoran at any moment.

Faced with such a situation, what use could his 12% of shares possibly have?

After the other man sat down, Sir Murray MacLehose finally spoke: “Mr. Henry Keswick, even if I were to step in, what use would it be? Mr. Lin Haoran indirectly controls 49.1% of the shares through Hongkong Land Group.

The shares held by your conglomerates are far, far too few. Even the shares Mr. Lin holds himself, not counting those from Hongkong Land, amount to 19%, which is much more than the shares your family, Mr. Henry Keswick, holds in Jardine Matheson!

Mr. Lin Haoran’s actions were all business transactions. It was simply that you failed to take effective preventative measures, allowing him to succeed. As the Governor, I have no reason to approach Mr. Lin and ask him to give up Jardine Matheson!”

Sir Murray MacLehose’s words cut straight to the heart of the matter.

Even if he could pressure Lin Haoran into giving up Jardine Matheson, the shares would still have to be purchased with money. Did they expect him to just hand over the shares for free?

Government House didn’t have that kind of tyrannical power; that would be acting completely outside the rules.

And did the British-funded conglomerates represented by Henry Keswick really have the funds to acquire the Jardine Matheson shares?

Especially now that Jardine Matheson’s stock price had risen to a market capitalization of over eight billion Hong Kong dollars.

Even the 19% in Lin Haoran’s hands was worth over a billion, approaching two billion Hong Kong dollars.

If the Keswick family were to raise that sum, they would probably have to liquidate all their assets.

Moreover, given that Lin Haoran and the others also held 30.2% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares, how could they possibly agree to transfer these shares to them!

At this point, the complexity of the problem was beyond what the government could resolve by simply stepping in.

Chapter 343: Stop Hongkong Land from Becoming the King of Debt!

Even if they resorted to threats, why would the other party yield so easily when such immense wealth was at stake?

Not unless they decided to abandon everything and completely sever all ties.

However, if such news were to leak, it would not only impact Hong Kong’s social stability but also deal a major blow to the British government’s credibility.

Ultimately, this only concerned the interests of those British-funded conglomerates. How could the government possibly take such a huge risk to deal with Lin Haoran?

Sir Murray MacLehose’s words quickly calmed Henry Keswick down.

Indeed, the Keswick family’s influence wasn’t great enough to make the government risk its own credibility just to help him.

“Mr. Henry Keswick, in my opinion, what you need to seriously consider right now is whether you have the financial capacity to take over the shares Mr. Lin Haoran holds, or if you can find partners to invest with you. Otherwise, everything else is just empty talk.

“Furthermore, even if you do raise the funds, you must consider whether it’s worth paying such a high price to take over their shares from Mr. Lin. I believe that as a businessman, Mr. Henry Keswick, you understand these things better than I do.

“If you can properly resolve these issues, although I cannot pressure Mr. Lin into a direct agreement with you, I can still persuade him to give you an opportunity to negotiate. As for the rest, please consider it carefully on your own. You may go back and think it over!” Sir Murray MacLehose added.

He had indeed promised not to intervene in the competition between Lin Haoran and the Jardine Matheson-led British-funded conglomerate. However, now that the competition seemed settled, talking about it any further was pointless.

His role was more that of a mediator, and such an act shouldn’t be considered interference.

In the end, whether the British-funded conglomerate, represented by Henry Keswick, could successfully negotiate a deal had little to do with him.

Sir Murray MacLehose’s words sent Henry Keswick into deep thought.

After a moment, he slowly raised his head and said, “Mr. Governor, I was inconsiderate to have rushed here and bothered you. I apologize. I will go back and think things through carefully.”

In just a few sentences, Sir Murray MacLehose had rendered Henry Keswick, the former Taipan and a major shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co., speechless.

Leaving Government House, a rare look of confusion appeared in Henry Keswick’s eyes.

For the time being, he couldn’t get any useful assistance from Government House; he needed to go back and think things through carefully.

At HSBC, Michael Sandberg had actually suggested another idea: the Keswick family and HSBC could join forces to acquire the shares Lin Haoran held. The Keswick family didn’t have much cash on hand, but Jardine Matheson & Co. did.

However, Henry Keswick didn’t even consider this option.

He knew all too well about HSBC’s ambitions.

Although they were both British-funded conglomerates, each had its own agenda.

Two years ago, why was Pao Yue-kong able to successfully acquire Kowloon Wharf? Wasn’t it HSBC pulling the strings behind the scenes?

The goal was none other than to weaken Jardine Matheson & Co.’s power, allowing HSBC’s strength to completely surpass it.

In the end, HSBC used this underhanded tactic to successfully secure its dominant position in Hong Kong’s business world.

But who could have imagined that after only two years as the hegemon, HSBC would get a slap in the face from a young Chinese man?

Henry Keswick knew very well that Michael Sandberg’s proactive offer of cooperation was solely for the sake of HSBC’s ambitions.

First, if HSBC united all the British-funded conglomerates behind Jardine Matheson, Lin Haoran, after weighing the pros and cons, would likely give up his partnership with Jardine Matheson. But if it were just Jardine Matheson or HSBC acting alone, Lin Haoran might not give up so easily.

Second, HSBC was financially powerful and could easily raise a large sum to acquire Lin Haoran’s shares. More importantly, this move would allow HSBC to strengthen its influence within Jardine Matheson, almost turning Jardine Matheson into its subsidiary, thereby once again consolidating its position as the霸主 of Hong Kong’s business world.

HSBC’s proactiveness was all for its own purposes.

Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, Henry Keswick would never choose this path.

In fact, he didn’t even want to consider it.

To him, what was the difference between Jardine Matheson being controlled by Lin Haoran or by HSBC?

Meanwhile, as the news of Lin Haoran taking control of Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group spread throughout Hong Kong, Lin Haoran also received many phone calls.

These calls were almost all from major Chinese tycoons in Hong Kong, such as Pao Yue-kong, Li Jiacheng, Cheng Yu-tung, and Chen Songqing.

The purpose of their calls was, without exception, to congratulate Lin Haoran.

Previously, when Lin Haoran controlled listed companies like the Hongkong Electric Group, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and Kowloon Motor Bus, he was already one of the top magnates in Hong Kong’s business world.

Now, with Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group under his command, his power was even more formidable.

Basically, Lin Haoran was now unquestionably the largest financial group in Hong Kong. Even the powerful HSBC could hardly compare.

Jardine Matheson & Co., the Hongkong Land Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, the Hongkong Electric Group, Green Island Cement, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, the Oriental Daily News, the Wanqing Group—each was a leader in its industry.

And now, they all belonged to the same boss: Lin Haoran!

In this situation, no matter how powerful HSBC was, it could not compare to Lin Haoran.

From this day forward, the business landscape of Hong Kong had been completely rewritten.

The Chinese-funded conglomerates had risen to become the dominant force, the number one financial group in Hong Kong.

As for the once-glorious British-funded conglomerates, they could now only retreat into the background. Although their strength remained, they could no longer compete with the combined power of the Chinese-funded conglomerates.

This was good news for all the Chinese financial groups.

Although they were envious of Lin Haoran’s acquisition this time, they all knew they didn’t have the strength to pull it off.

Li Jiacheng had already guessed the outcome when he sold his shares in the Hongkong Land Group to Lin Haoran, so he was the calmest among them.

As for the others—whether it was Pao Yue-kong, Cheng Yu-tung, Chen Songqing, or Li Zhaoji, Kwok Tak-seng, and the rest—their voices were filled with shock even as they congratulated him.

No one in all of Hong Kong wasn’t shocked.

The acquisition of Kowloon Wharf by Pao Yue-kong and Hutchison Whampoa by Li Jiacheng had already been tremendously shocking to all Chinese merchants.

Now, Lin Haoran had gone for the big one, getting his hands on the most famous of them all, Jardine Matheson & Co. How could they not be shocked?

There had been a major shake-up! Hong Kong’s business world had undergone a complete transformation!

From noon until this evening, he had basically stayed in Connaught Centre and hadn’t gone anywhere.

Over at Jardine Matheson & Co., although things would remain stable since Newbiggin’s position as Taipan was retained, he still sent people to thoroughly investigate their financial accounts.

With Newbiggin’s loyalty of just over sixty, he didn’t trust him very much. A person like that could betray him at any time.

If it weren’t for the fact that Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group still needed Newbiggin, he would have kicked him out in a heartbeat.

At this moment, the office that had originally belonged to Bao Fuda had become Lin Haoran’s office.

The chair Bao Fuda used to sit in had been replaced with a new one.

In front of him were thick stacks of documents.

The strength of the Hongkong Land Group was truly immense. He hadn’t realized just how formidable it was until he looked through the documents, and what he found was staggering.

The Hongkong Land Group currently had over seventy projects under construction, large and small, in Hong Kong.

Many of them were being developed in partnership with various real estate developers.

For instance, the Hongkong Land Group was cooperating with about thirty companies, including the Far East Group, Hang Lung Properties, Kiu Kwong Property, the Yaumati Ferry Company, Cheung Kong Holdings Group, the Carrian Group, Hopewell Holdings, Wheelock and Company, Swire & Co., and others.

And now, before him, was the Hongkong Land Group’s future development plan.

These plans were all devised by Bao Fuda and approved by Newbiggin.

For instance, the Hongkong Land Group was currently negotiating a partnership with a consortium formed with Sino Land. They planned to spend over one billion Hong Kong dollars to purchase a plot of land measuring 1.45 million square feet at the Red Hill section of Tai Tam Road on Hong Kong Island. The plan was to build about four hundred luxury villa-style residences. Once the deal was finalized, the Hongkong Land Group would invest five hundred million Hong Kong dollars for a 40 percent stake.

There was also a planned partnership with the Carrian Group to invest nearly three billion Hong Kong dollars to purchase a plot of land of about 86,000 square feet at the old wing of the Miramar Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui’s tourist center. They planned to build a high-end commercial building, and the Hongkong Land Group would inject one billion Hong Kong dollars for a 35 percent stake.

Lin Haoran roughly calculated the dozen or so projects, large and small, and found that the total investment already exceeded eight billion Hong Kong dollars.

And these were just the plans for the immediate future. This didn’t even include the projects already under joint development by the Hongkong Land Group, nor the long-term plans for the second half of 1981, or even 1982.

Once everything was tallied up, the scale of investment was unimaginable.

Part of this investment came from Hongkong Land’s own earnings, while another part came from bank loans.

No wonder that after the real estate crisis hit, the Hongkong Land Group’s debt reached as high as fifteen billion Hong Kong dollars, making it Hong Kong’s famous “King of Debt”!

These projects were all set to be officially implemented in 1981. But now that Lin Haoran was in charge of the Hongkong Land Group, he would certainly not let it continue down the path to becoming the King of Debt.

It had to be stopped!

He had already looked at the Hongkong Land Group’s financial report.

As of October this year, the Hongkong Land Group’s debt situation was still very healthy.

This was especially true after the Hongkong Land Group had recently sold the Golden Gate Tower and its Kowloon Wharf shares, both of which had been very profitable.

In addition, the income from the Hongkong Land Group’s leasing business was also very good, supplemented by funds from property sales.

Currently, the Hongkong Land Group’s apparent debt was only around 4.8 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Based on the current real estate market capitalization, compared to the Hongkong Land Group’s total assets of over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars, this debt ratio from 4.8 billion Hong Kong dollars was really not high.

Chapter 344: Finding a Successor for Hongkong Land Group

He’d made a killing. Lin Haoran’s latest investment could only be described as having made him a fortune.

He had invested around three billion Hong Kong dollars in Hongkong Land Group, bit by bit.

Now, however, Hongkong Land Group’s property value alone was estimated to be over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars. If this wasn’t an insane profit, what was?

It was no wonder so many major Chinese tycoons would covet Hongkong Land Group in the future.

Who wouldn’t want to get their hands on such a high-quality property enterprise?

Of course, if Hongkong Land Group continued its blind investments, it would still face significant risks.

In another world, by the time the Hong Kong real estate crisis erupted in September 1982, Hongkong Land Group had already accumulated fifteen billion Hong Kong dollars in debt.

And this debt, naturally, had to be repaid.

When the property bubble burst, even with its vast portfolio of real estate, it would be difficult to liquidate assets. And even if they could be liquidated, it would mean selling at a loss—a disastrous situation.

But there was no other choice; the debts had to be paid.

For this very reason, Hongkong Land Group at that time was embroiled in a severe crisis.

Fortunately, that property crisis began to subside after only two years. Otherwise, even with the Keswick family back at the helm, Hongkong Land Group might not have survived, ultimately facing the risk of bankruptcy due to a ruptured capital chain.

Now that Lin Haoran held the power of life and death over Hongkong Land Group, he would naturally not allow such a situation to occur.

Looking at the proposals before him, Lin Haoran knew it was time to find a capable leader for Hongkong Land Group.

Hongkong Land Group was enormous, far larger than Wanqing Group. A corporate management novice like him had no idea where to even begin.

Although he knew he had to stop Hongkong Land Group’s blind expansion, he still needed a manager—someone who could run the company properly. Then, he could simply oversee the overall situation from behind the scenes, stepping in to intervene if any problems arose.

But who was fit to serve as the Executive Director and general manager of Hongkong Land Group?

The people Lin Haoran was familiar with were mostly Li Ka-shing’s top lieutenants.

The future Fok Kin-ning would be a possibility, but he hadn’t matured yet. If he were transferred to Hongkong Land Group now, he would be better suited as an assistant general manager, not the general manager.

Since Fok Kin-ning wasn’t suitable, there was another person Lin Haoran knew quite well: the former mercenary and Hutchison Taipan, Ma Shiming.

In his past life, Lin Haoran had read a book titled Ma Shiming’s War Diary: From Fierce General to Business Titan.

The book was Ma Shiming’s autobiography, and Lin Haoran had been deeply impressed after reading it.

Ma Shiming was a man of wisdom and courage, possessing steely resolve, a tireless work ethic, and a drive for self-improvement.

His brilliant achievements in the business world were undoubtedly due to his extraordinary personal qualities.

However, this future key subordinate of Li Ka-shing didn’t seem to be in Hong Kong at the moment.

Based on his knowledge of Ma Shiming, he should have just recently resigned from Jardine Matheson & Co. and was preparing to establish his own financial firm, Davenham Investments, in a joint venture with the Rothschild family.

He just wasn’t sure how far along those preparations were.

Ma Shiming was definitely a world-class corporate manager; even Mr. Ren Zhengfei had called him a life mentor.

Therefore, Lin Haoran would have absolute peace of mind if Ma Shiming were to manage Hongkong Land Group, or even Jardine Matheson & Co.

However, the biggest problem Lin Haoran currently faced was that he didn’t know Ma Shiming’s whereabouts.

Still, contacting him shouldn’t be too difficult.

After all, Ma Shiming had only just left Jardine Matheson & Co.

Besides Ma Shiming, Lin Haoran had another candidate in mind.

That was Mr. Willie, the former Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa.

Mr. Willie was exceptionally talented, which was why he was known as the “Company Doctor.”

So, what is a “Company Doctor”? In short, it’s someone adept at solving corporate problems, especially for companies suffering heavy losses.

Once hired as a corporate leader, he could often turn a company from loss to profit in short order.

It was because of this ability that the Hutchison Whampoa Board of Directors, represented by HSBC, had the discerning eye to hire Willie as the Taipan of Hutchison in 1975.

As expected, in just two to three years, Hutchison Whampoa, which had been mired in losses, was successfully turned profitable under Willie’s leadership.

Hutchison Whampoa and Jardine Matheson & Co. were both among the Four Big Hongs. Though Jardine Matheson was larger than Hutchison Whampoa, they were in the same league.

Since Willie could restore order to the gravely ill Hutchison Whampoa in such a short time, he would naturally be able to handle the management of Hongkong Land Group, or even Jardine Matheson & Co., with ease.

Thus, from this perspective, Willie was clearly a very suitable candidate as well.

So why would Li Ka-shing force out such an excellent professional manager?

The reasons were quite direct. Lin Haoran summarized them into the following three points:

Disagreement in business philosophy: Li Ka-shing and Willie had different management approaches. Willie excelled at corporate restructuring and turning around losses, whereas Li Ka-shing focused more on long-term development and strategic planning. This difference likely led to conflicts in key decisions, which in turn affected the company’s overall operations.

Shift in the power structure: As Li Ka-shing’s shareholding in Hutchison Whampoa increased, so did his influence. Willie, as the former leader, likely found his status and influence challenged. To solidify his own position and drive the company forward, Li Ka-shing may have felt it necessary to adjust the management team to better implement his own business philosophy and strategic blueprint.

Personal grievances and workplace competition: After Li Ka-shing successfully acquired Hutchison Whampoa, Willie had publicly expressed his discontent, accusing Li Ka-shing of “getting something for nothing.” This public dispute undoubtedly heightened the tension between them. At the same time, as a professional manager, Willie might have felt pressure from Li Ka-shing in the workplace, leading him to consider resigning.

In Lin Haoran’s opinion, these three points were the main reasons Li Ka-shing decided to let Willie leave Hutchison Whampoa.

However, none of this had anything to do with Lin Haoran.

In fact, even if he hired Willie, it would be a short-term appointment, perhaps for two or three years. Once a more suitable candidate emerged, he would be replaced.

Furthermore, Hongkong Land Group was currently expanding aggressively, with development projects cropping up everywhere. How to handle these ongoing projects was another issue, and Willie was clearly an expert in such matters.

Projects that could be completed and turn a profit before 1982 should naturally be kept.

However, real estate projects that would take two to three years to complete should be sold off promptly. This would prevent a situation where the projects were completed just as the real estate crisis hit, making it impossible to recoup the investment or even resulting in a loss.

Therefore, with the property market currently booming, the best strategy was to transfer the development rights of these long-term projects as soon as possible.

At this critical juncture, maintaining sufficient cash flow was paramount!

The lower the debt, the better.

In fact, Lin Haoran didn’t want Hongkong Land Group to carry any debt at all when the property crisis arrived.

Choosing between Ma Shiming and Willie put Lin Haoran in a bit of a dilemma.

Both men were exceptionally talented.

As for why he wasn’t considering Chinese professional managers?

The reason was simple: outstanding Chinese professional managers were few and far between in this era. A Chinese professional manager like Chen Shoulin, who was recognized by a British-funded conglomerate, was already a rarity in all of Hong Kong.

But Chen Shoulin needed to continue overseeing Hongkong Electric Group, and Lin Haoran had no intention of transferring him away from there.

Therefore, for the next few years, it was best to have a Western professional manager for both Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group.

In the future, as his businesses gradually discovered more talented Chinese individuals, these Westerners would eventually be replaced.

So, who should he choose as the professional manager?

Lin Haoran slumped into his chair, deep in thought.

Willie’s flaw was quite obvious: he had an excessive ambition for power. Although Lin Haoran didn’t necessarily see this as a dealbreaker, it was a flaw nonetheless.

Ma Shiming, on the other hand, was too perfect.

Perhaps he could prioritize Ma Shiming? If he couldn’t convince Ma Shiming to abandon his entrepreneurial ambitions and come manage Hongkong Land Group for him, then he could turn to Willie.

A simple plan quickly formed in Lin Haoran’s mind.

Finding Ma Shiming might be difficult for others, but now that he controlled Jardine Matheson & Co., where Ma Shiming had worked for over a decade, it shouldn’t be hard at all. The company would have extensive records on him.

Just then, his stomach let out a grumble.

He checked his watch. Without realizing it, it was already almost seven in the evening.

Outside, the lights were just coming on along the streets of Central and across the harbor on the skyscrapers of Kowloon’s Tsim Sha Tsui.

“Time to go back,” Lin Haoran murmured to himself.

In any case, Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land weren’t going anywhere. He wasn’t in a hurry at all.

Standing up from his desk, Lin Haoran stretched and was about to grab the bag beside his desk to head back to his villa on Severn Road.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Lin Haoran walked over and opened it. Standing outside was none other than Newbiggin, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co.

“Boss, let’s have dinner together. We can talk more,” Newbiggin said with a smile.

At that moment, if it weren’t for the fact that his loyalty was still at 62, Lin Haoran might have actually believed that Newbiggin had completely submitted to him.

However, regardless of his loyalty level, Lin Haoran naturally remained wary of this Jardine Taipan.

“Alright, let’s have dinner. We can also talk about my plans for Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group,” Lin Haoran nodded.

It didn’t matter where they ate. Having just successfully taken control of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, he did need to communicate more with the man.

This was especially true for Jardine Matheson. For the time being, they couldn’t do without Newbiggin; his role at this stage was still crucial.

Chapter 345: The Richest Man in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran

In a private room of a high-end private kitchen restaurant near Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran and Newbiggin were seated across from each other.

Each had his own thoughts, but on the surface, the atmosphere was amicable.

“Boss, do you have any opinions on Jardine Matheson & Co.’s development plans?” Newbiggin asked, wiping his hands with a wet towelette while they waited for the food to be served.

That afternoon, Lin Haoran had not only reviewed Hongkong Land Group’s project development plan for the next few months, but also that of Jardine Matheson & Co.

However, unlike Hongkong Land, Jardine Matheson’s development was more skewed towards overseas investment.

In fact, by the 1970s, Jardine Matheson’s overseas assets already accounted for more than sixty percent of its portfolio.

In other words, Jardine Matheson’s assets in Hong Kong comprised less than forty percent of its total.

The reason, of course, was the same as that of other British-owned companies: they were worried about the future, lacked complete confidence, and were gradually transferring Jardine Matheson’s assets. A company that once had its core business almost entirely in Hong Kong was steadily transforming into a true multinational conglomerate.

In terms of internationalization, Jardine Matheson was indeed far ahead of HSBC.

For example, their holdings included Davis Company in Hawaii, Rennies Company in South Africa, Henry Waugh Company in Singapore, Matheson & Co. in London, and the Middle East Transport and Trading Company in Liberia, among others.

Years of overseas investment had made Jardine Matheson far more well-known abroad than HSBC.

However, although Jardine Matheson’s global investment and acquisition spree seemed quite successful at the moment, Lin Haoran knew that it would eventually pay a heavy price.

Ultimately, many of its overseas holding companies were basically sold off at huge discounts.

“Regarding Jardine Matheson’s development, you can proceed according to your plans for now. I won’t interfere too much. But for Hongkong Land, I have my own considerations. So, as the interim Executive Director there, your purpose is not to expend a great deal of energy developing the company.

My objective is simple: you just need to maintain Hongkong Land’s current stability and ensure it can operate normally. That will be enough,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

As Jardine Matheson was an enterprise primarily focused on overseas investment, Lin Haoran did not intend to get too involved in its operations before he decided to replace Newbiggin.

He naturally understood that a professional manager like Newbiggin, with such a strong desire for power, would surely become dissatisfied if he interfered too much in operations.

Besides, Jardine Matheson’s current development was steady, so there was no need for excessive intervention.

However, Lin Haoran had a different view of Hongkong Land.

He believed that the development blueprint crafted by Newbiggin and Bao Fuda was essentially just an endless expansion plan.

If the Hong Kong market did not experience a property bubble in the future, these plans might just be sustainable.

But Lin Haoran knew in his heart that the next property bubble was less than two years away.

Therefore, under these circumstances, continuing with such an aggressive expansion plan was undoubtedly digging their own grave.

Lin Haoran was naturally unwilling to see Newbiggin continue to push forward with such an unrealistic development strategy.

“Boss, do you mean that we are to suspend all of Hongkong Land’s development plans for the next few months?” Newbiggin asked, a look of surprise on his face.

He knew that many of these projects had undergone lengthy preliminary negotiations by Hongkong Land. He and Bao Fuda had even poured a great deal of effort into in-depth discussions for each project.

If they were to suddenly halt the cooperation process now, all their previous efforts would go to waste, a squandering of time and energy.

Although these projects had not yet begun, and there would be no financial loss from canceling them, Newbiggin still felt it was a great pity.

“Yes, Mr. Newbiggin. I think I have communicated this with you before, and you should remember. I am keeping you on as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, but I have my own arrangements for Hongkong Land, so I won’t need you to worry about it too much.

As long as you continue to manage Jardine Matheson well, I will be very satisfied. Jardine Matheson truly cannot do without you, and I hope you will not disappoint me. If Jardine Matheson can develop even better, you know my personality; I am not one to interfere excessively.

Besides, it would be difficult for you to manage both Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land. So, I will find a successor to take charge of Hongkong Land as soon as possible. You won’t be troubled with Hongkong Land for too long!” Lin Haoran replied with a faint smile.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Newbiggin nodded, though he still felt a sense of reluctance in his heart.

He was still the Jardine Taipan, but in the past, he could manage Hongkong Land as well.

Now, Hongkong Land had little to do with him anymore. Even though he still held the title of Executive Director, it was only temporary.

But what could he do, no matter how unwilling he was?

Compared to Bao Fuda, who was forced to resign directly, his own outcome was already quite good. At least he still held the position of Taipan of Jardine Matheson. He was still one of the top tycoons in the Hong Kong business world.

The two men talked in depth in the private room for a long time, and it was not until around nine o’clock in the evening that the dinner slowly came to a close.

Through their conversation, Lin Haoran gained a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding of Jardine Matheson.

Although he had looked through a lot of documents in the afternoon, most of them were focused on Hongkong Land.

In his opinion, Hongkong Land’s potential value was much higher than Jardine Matheson’s—at least double.

And in the future, as the Hong Kong property market continued to heat up, the skyrocketing property prices would further highlight the value of Hongkong Land, making the gap between it and Jardine Matheson even more apparent.

After watching Newbiggin drive away, Lin Haoran finally said to Li Weidong, “Let’s go. Head back.”

“Yes, Boss!”

In the blink of an eye, a night passed.

Throughout the day, the news of Lin Haoran taking control of Hongkong Land and, by extension, Jardine Matheson, had already caused a huge stir throughout Hong Kong. The news had even reached many countries in Southeast Asia.

Jardine Matheson was extremely well-known in Southeast Asia. For such a powerful British-owned company to be acquired by Lin Haoran was indeed a surprise to many.

In the evening, both the Jade Channel and Rediffusion Television aired more detailed reports.

By the next morning, as major newspapers and media outlets published their stories, even more details were revealed.

Miles, the Chairman of the Securities Commission, accepted a joint interview with more than a dozen mainstream media outlets that morning.

Mainly, everyone wanted to know what the government’s attitude was on the matter.

And Miles’s answer was very interesting.

“Mr. Lin Haoran’s acquisition was completely legal and compliant, but the process also exposed deficiencies in Hong Kong’s securities legal framework. Therefore, I have decided to take action and propose an important recommendation to the Legislative Council,” Miles announced solemnly during the interview. “Currently, a listed company in Hong Kong is not required to make a mandatory takeover offer to shareholders until its stake reaches fifty percent. This threshold is clearly too high. I believe that lowering this trigger point to thirty-five percent would be more reasonable.”

If the trigger point was set at thirty-five percent, Mr. Lin Haoran would not have been able to quietly acquire over forty percent of the shares. In that case, it would have been highly unlikely for Hongkong Land and Jardine Matheson to fall into his hands so easily.

Because, if the rule were changed to thirty-five percent, and Lin Haoran had still secretly accumulated shares up to that point without announcing a full takeover, the Securities Commission could have ruled his acquisition illegal.

Miles’s decision was, naturally, an attempt to protect the interests of the British-funded conglomerates.

However, even if the rules were to be changed in the future, it was of little importance to Lin Haoran.

After all, he had now successfully taken control of numerous British-owned companies and understood the wisdom of knowing when to be content.

More importantly, after acquiring a series of companies in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran had come to a profound realization: it was time to set his sights on the broader world stage.

Although Hong Kong had immense development potential, it was ultimately a small pond, unable to contain his greater ambitions.

He would never be satisfied with the limitations of this small pond. He wanted to break free, to step into a wider world, and to pursue a more glorious future.

Jardine Matheson was already internationalized. With his current controlling stake in Jardine Matheson, it was as if he already had an international enterprise.

However, in his heart, he did not actually think much of the companies Jardine Matheson had acquired around the world.

The reason was simple: none of them were well-known enterprises. Lin Haoran knew without even thinking too much that the future prospects of these foreign companies were very limited.

This was why he was more interested in Hongkong Land and less so in Jardine Matheson.

At this moment, a dozen newspapers were spread out before Lin Haoran.

He had already read through seven or eight of them, all mainstream Hong Kong newspapers. Every single one, in its own style, reported on the news of him taking control of Hongkong Land and the reverse takeover of Jardine Matheson. Even Lin Haoran had to admit that the articles were very well-written.

However, the newspaper currently in his hands was of particular interest to him.

It was a copy of the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, one of Hong Kong’s mainstream newspapers, with sales consistently ranked in the top five.

Today’s Hong Kong Commercial Daily not only published the blockbuster news of Lin Haoran taking control of Hongkong Land and the reverse takeover of Jardine Matheson, but it also uniquely featured an in-depth report on Lin Haoran himself.

The report covered his rise, his feud with Jardine Matheson, and his legendary experience as the first person to acquire a major British-owned company.

What was particularly striking was an article in the center of the front page, with a headline that was especially eye-catching: “The Title of Hong Kong’s Richest Man Changes Hands! The Business Landscape is Reshaped as Lin Haoran is Crowned the Undisputed Richest Man!”

Chapter 346: A Scourge Comes Knocking

At nine in the morning, Lin Haoran headed out directly.

His destination was not the Hongkong Land Group headquarters, but the Jardine Matheson headquarters.

He had a purpose for coming here, of course.

Since he had kept Newbiggin on as Taipan, indirectly controlling Jardine Matheson & Co. was exceptionally easy.

In the morning, a board meeting was held, presided over by Newbiggin.

Henry Keswick did not attend this board meeting, merely sending a member of the younger generation of the Keswick family to participate.

After all, everyone knew that with his absolutely overwhelming controlling stake, the fact that Lin Haoran controlled Jardine Matheson & Co. was irreversible.

In contrast, HSBC’s Taipan, Michael Sandberg, wore a smile and chatted cheerfully with Lin Haoran before the meeting, as if the previous vote to oust Lin Haoran from the Jardine Matheson & Co. Board of Directors had never happened.

This was all just putting on an act. An old-timer like Michael Sandberg knew how to play his part, and having lived two lives, what hadn’t Lin Haoran seen? He naturally knew how to act as well.

He also acted as if he had forgotten the unpleasantness between them.

However, Lin Haoran guessed that this old-timer, Michael Sandberg, probably regretted his previous decision by now.

Speaking of which, Michael Sandberg had indeed looked after him very well in the past, sincerely treating him as one of his own to cultivate, much like Li Jiacheng, with the intention of gaining a powerful ally.

His calculation was that even if the Hong Kong government were to be led by the Chinese in the future, HSBC could maintain a firm footing and continue to thrive with such an ally.

Of course, all of this was predicated on HSBC’s ability to maintain its dominant position.

However, life is unpredictable. This once-promising future ally had now become a threat to HSBC, one whose strength had already far surpassed it.

No one could have possibly predicted such a reversal.

Thus, Michael Sandberg was indeed in a rather awkward position.

But as a Tycoon of his caliber, even if he felt awkward inside, he maintained a high degree of composure on the surface.

He was completely different from Newbiggin; no matter how the environment changed, Michael Sandberg’s position as the Taipan of HSBC remained as solid as ever.

Newbiggin, on the other hand, now faced the risk of losing his Taipan title at any moment.

This was merely a formal board meeting, just going through the motions, because everyone knew that Lin Haoran’s takeover of Jardine Matheson & Co. was already an unchangeable fact.

But for a publicly listed company, without going through this procedure, although Lin Haoran could announce it himself, it would ultimately lack proper legitimacy.

Once the board meeting was held, everything was set in stone.

After the meeting concluded, Lin Haoran went to the personnel department of Jardine Matheson & Co.

His purpose in coming here was to find Ma Shiming’s contact information.

It was certainly not appropriate for Newbiggin to continue holding a nominal position at Hongkong Land Group. Having him temporarily manage Jardine Matheson & Co. was already a great show of favor. As for Hongkong Land Group’s new successor, the sooner one was found, the better.

Now that Lin Haoran was the true boss of Jardine Matheson & Co., he naturally obtained Ma Shiming’s file with great ease.

Through Ma Shiming’s file, Lin Haoran gained a deeper understanding of this famous Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa and Li Jiacheng’s most important strategist. This further convinced him that finding Ma Shiming to serve as the Taipan of Hongkong Land Group was the most correct choice.

In 1966, Ma Shiming joined Jardine Matheson & Co., beginning his career.

After joining Jardine Matheson & Co., Ma Shiming started from the bottom, with grassroots jobs like selling air conditioning systems and elevators.

During his time at Jardine Matheson & Co., he was trained in multiple fields, including the sale of goods like wallpaper, nuts, steel, machinery, and electrical appliances.

Ma Shiming’s performance at Jardine Matheson & Co. was outstanding, and he gradually gained the company’s esteem.

In the 1970s, he was even sent to the University of London and Stanford University in the United States for advanced studies, specializing in business administration courses.

During his time at Jardine Matheson & Co., he was gradually promoted to the position of Executive Director, becoming one of the company’s senior management personnel.

Ma Shiming worked at Jardine Matheson & Co. for over a decade, until this year, when he realized his path for promotion seemed to have reached its end. The position of Executive Director was the highest he could currently achieve.

What worried him even more was that the current Taipan, Newbiggin, was engaged in a fierce internal struggle with the Keswick family, which undoubtedly signaled that the Keswick family was intent on reclaiming the controlling stake of the Taipan.

This situation clearly indicated that the position of the next Taipan on the Jardine Matheson & Co. Board of Directors was firmly controlled by a very small number of people, especially the Keswick family.

Against this backdrop, Ma Shiming was very clear that it was almost impossible for him to get any further promotion opportunities within Jardine Matheson & Co.

Therefore, he made a decisive choice—he began to entertain the idea of resigning, planning to start his own business to seek new developments in his personal career.

Having worked at Jardine Matheson & Co. for over a decade, Ma Shiming undoubtedly had deep feelings for the company.

But faced with no hope of promotion, he naturally understood that if he wanted a breakthrough, perhaps starting his own business was the only way out.

If one looked closely, one would find that many of these tycoons from British-funded conglomerates were mostly only in their forties or fifties.

In other words, this age was their absolute peak.

Figures like Michael Sandberg, Newbiggin, Willie, Bao Fuda, and even Henry Keswick were all within this age range.

And Ma Shiming was now forty years old. It could be said that the experience he had accumulated over more than a decade at Jardine Matheson & Co. was enough to make his business management experience no worse than any tycoon in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, he only lacked a good opportunity.

Although he was an Executive Director at Jardine Matheson & Co., Ma Shiming’s status and influence in the company were significantly different from Bao Fuda’s.

Bao Fuda had considerable decision-making power at Hongkong Land Group and could lead many important matters.

However, in Ma Shiming’s environment at Jardine Matheson & Co., he did not have much of a say.

This was mainly because the company’s power was primarily in the hands of the Taipan, Newbiggin. Almost all important decisions were made by Newbiggin, while Ma Shiming mostly played the role of an executor.

Therefore, from a power perspective, despite both being Executive Directors, there was indeed a large gap between Ma Shiming’s position at Jardine Matheson & Co. and Bao Fuda’s at Hongkong Land Group.

This gap was not only reflected in decision-making power but also likely affected their influence within their respective companies and their career development prospects.

From the personnel department, Lin Haoran successfully obtained Ma Shiming’s contact information.

“Mr. Lin, as I understand it, Mr. Ma Shiming has already gone to Singapore. I have his contact information there; this is his current landline number in Singapore,” the head of human resources informed Lin Haoran.

After all, Ma Shiming had been a senior management member of Jardine Matheson & Co. For such an important figure who had worked at the company for many years, even after his departure, the company would still keep tabs on him.

Moreover, as a former member of the Jardine Matheson & Co. Board of Directors, the company would certainly need to contact him sometimes to follow up on matters left over from his tenure.

Therefore, it was not surprising that the personnel department at Jardine Matheson & Co. knew his latest contact information.

Having gotten Ma Shiming’s contact number, Lin Haoran took a stroll around the Jardine Matheson & Co. headquarters before returning once more to the original general manager’s office at Hongkong Land Group.

Sitting down, Lin Haoran tried to call Ma Shiming.

However, the phone went unanswered. It was obvious that Ma Shiming was not at home at this time.

It was currently around eleven in the morning. At this hour, Ma Shiming had probably already gone out for business.

Lin Haoran was already prepared for the possibility of not getting through, so he wasn’t disappointed. If he couldn’t reach him now, he could always try again tonight.

A knock came from the door.

“Come in,” Lin Haoran called out.

The person who opened the door was none other than Newbiggin.

“Boss, Mr. Chen Songqing of the Carrian Group called me. He wants to pay a visit to discuss a joint development project between the Carrian Group and Hongkong Land Group in Tsim Sha Tsui. The project involves nearly three billion Hong Kong dollars.

“But you said to halt all new projects, so I couldn’t make a decision and rejected him directly. Now he wants to see you, hoping to negotiate with you,” Newbiggin reported as soon as he entered.

Chen Songqing?

Hearing this name, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a flicker of surprise. How had this calamity come knocking again?

In the timeline of another dimension, Hongkong Land Group’s general manager, Bao Fuda, ultimately could not escape the fate of resigning in disgrace, and the Taipan, Newbiggin, was directly ousted by the Keswick family who seized the opportunity. Behind all of this, the Carrian Group undoubtedly played a pivotal role.

If it could be said that Hongkong Land Group fell into difficulties due to blind expansion, it at least still possessed the deep foundation of Hong Kong’s number one property enterprise, with properties scattered throughout Hong Kong’s prime locations and ample resources and confidence.

However, the Carrian Group’s blind expansion was even more absurd and unrestrained.

Starting from an obscure pest control company with an initial capital of only a few million Hong Kong dollars, it transformed into a dazzling new star in the Hong Kong real estate world in just two to three years.

But all this brilliance was built on fraud and deception. In other words, the Carrian Group actually had no foundation to speak of.

Every one of its projects was like a time bomb, hiding enormous debt risks behind it.

The result, unexpectedly, was that the two got mixed up together. In just one or two years, the Carrian Group had practically become Hongkong Land Group’s most important partner.

They collaborated on numerous large and small projects, with the scale of their cooperation being so extensive that the total amount involved was as high as tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars.

In fact, even if it had encountered a turbulent real estate market, with Hongkong Land Group’s deep foundation, it could have originally managed to cope and weather the storm.

Chapter 347: The Persistent Chen Songqing

Two years later, Hongkong Land Group would be tightly bound to the Carrian Group. By then, it would be impossible to shake off the menace that was Carrian.

Once the Carrian Group faced a major crisis and collapsed as quickly as a stirred-up hornet’s nest, the consequences would be unimaginable.

This meant that after the swift rise and fall of the Carrian empire, the pressure from all the projects jointly promoted by Hongkong Land and Carrian would instantly shift entirely onto Hongkong Land’s shoulders.

Even worse, when the Carrian Group’s capital chain completely snapped, the entire Hongkong Land Group would be ruthlessly dragged into the abyss, losing its last straw to clutch at and falling into an unprecedented predicament.

It was only thanks to the property crisis lasting a mere two years and the Keswick family’s willingness to make sacrifices, selling off numerous properties at a loss, that Hongkong Land Group was arduously rescued from the crisis.

Even so, Hongkong Land Group was greatly weakened, finding it difficult to reclaim its former glory.

In contrast, figures like Li Jiacheng and Pao Yue-kong, who had not cooperated with the Carrian Group, were almost unaffected, their businesses continuing to flourish.

This was why some said Chen Songqing was a menace; whoever worked with him was destined for misfortune.

Therefore, since Lin Haoran had transmigrated to this world, he had never once considered any business cooperation with Chen Songqing.

Now that Chen Songqing had come knocking, seeking to continue their partnership, Lin Haoran was naturally going to refuse.

But before refusing, he had to at least meet the man. After all, Chen Songqing was a significant figure in Hong Kong.

If he avoided the meeting, rumors would inevitably spread that Lin Haoran, after taking control of Jardine Matheson & Co., had become so arrogant that he wouldn’t even deign to see a person like Chen Songqing.

“Then let him come over,” Lin Haoran said.

“I just spoke with him on the phone. He should be on his way now. It probably won’t be long,” Newbiggin replied.

“Mm.”

Lin Haoran said no more and pulled out the file on Hongkong Land Group’s future development plans that he had been looking at the day before.

He calculated that in the next six months, among the projects already proposed and under negotiation, there were over a dozen collaborations with the Carrian Group!

These dozen or so projects involved a total sum of over five billion Hong Kong dollars.

Among them, the largest was the commercial building project in Tsim Sha Tsui that Newbiggin had just mentioned.

This project aimed to build a large commercial complex in Tsim Sha Tsui, similar to The Landmark, with a total investment of about three billion Hong Kong dollars. The current proposal was for Hongkong Land Group to invest one billion Hong Kong dollars for a 35% stake.

Without a second thought, Lin Haoran was certainly unwilling to proceed.

Once the Carrian Group collapsed, Hongkong Land might have to bear the full three billion Hong Kong dollar investment and its associated debts. Such a partnership was guaranteed to be a massive loss.

Before long, Chen Songqing arrived at Connaught Centre and was led to Lin Haoran’s office by a staff member.

“Mr. Lin, congratulations, congratulations! My sincerest congratulations on acquiring Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land. Such an achievement fills me with envy!” Chen Songqing said felicitously as he shook Lin Haoran’s hand.

Upon learning that Lin Haoran had acquired Hongkong Land and executed a reverse takeover of Jardine Matheson, Chen Songqing’s first reaction was jealousy.

Apart from his partner banks and financial companies, almost no one knew the source of Chen Songqing’s funds.

Chen Songqing’s public story was that he had a powerful benefactor behind him, a backer with immense influence in Southeast Asia.

Therefore, no matter how much capital he raised through unscrupulous means, others saw it as a testament to his true capabilities. Even Hongkong Land Group was fooled, successively entering into multiple partnerships with him, believing the Carrian Group had real substance.

Because this was his own modus operandi, and the source of Lin Haoran’s funds was equally mysterious, Chen Songqing had developed a mistaken belief. He thought Lin Haoran’s money, like his, was obtained through fraud and deception.

So, while Chen Songqing was jealous of Lin Haoran’s ability to take over Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, he also grew more determined to achieve such feats himself.

In the past two years, the Carrian Group had made many major moves, but they paled in comparison to Lin Haoran’s series of acquisitions.

This gave Chen Songqing an idea: if Lin Haoran could pull off something so outrageous, why couldn’t he?

Thus, the current Chen Songqing was even more eager to accelerate his expansion, wanting to be more aggressive.

Originally, according to the plan, even if a cooperation agreement for the Tsim Sha Tsui project was eventually signed with Hongkong Land, it wouldn’t be finalized until next year at the earliest.

But after seeing Lin Haoran successively acquire Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, he had the idea to speed up the project’s implementation.

As he saw it, as long as this project was finalized, even if the Tsim Sha Tsui deal fell through, he could still finagle over two billion Hong Kong dollars in financing from the banks.

Most importantly, he felt that this young man, Lin Haoran, would be more agreeable and easier to persuade than the former British-owned firm’s professional managers.

For example, he had successfully acquired the Amigo Company from Lin Haoran’s hands last time.

The Amigo Company was now basically under the Carrian Group’s control. Liu Luanxiong had successfully divested, selling all his Amigo shares on the market.

Therefore, the Carrian Group’s word was now law at the Amigo Company.

Liu Luanxiong’s departure did indeed have a considerable impact on Amigo’s stock price initially, with its market value plummeting by over 40% within a week.

However, Chen Songqing was not Liu Luanxiong’s former partner; manipulating people’s minds was his forte.

By releasing a few rumors, he quickly brought Amigo’s stock price back to its original level, and it continued to rise.

To this day, Amigo Company’s stock price was even higher than Carrian Group’s.

The reason Chen Songqing had inflated Amigo’s stock price was, naturally, to secure larger loans from the banks.

Evidently, he had succeeded.

Therefore, Chen Songqing did not regret buying the Amigo Company.

Now, facing Lin Haoran again, Chen Songqing had a misguided feeling.

He felt he could easily persuade Lin Haoran to approve the cooperation between Hongkong Land and the Carrian Group to advance the Tsim Sha Tsui project.

“Mr. Chen, please have a seat. What can I do for you today?” Lin Haoran asked, feigning ignorance.

“Mr. Lin, it’s like this. You might not be aware yet, but Hongkong Land Group and our Carrian Group had previously reached a preliminary agreement to jointly develop a large-scale commercial project in Tsim Sha Tsui East.

Mr. Newbiggin is very familiar with this matter, as I discussed it with him in detail two months ago. Hongkong Land also sent a team for on-site inspection and evaluation. The cooperation agreement is basically finalized, just waiting for the final signatures.

Now that you’ve taken over Hongkong Land, Mr. Lin, I wanted to discuss this collaboration with you in greater depth. This project has enormous potential for both parties. If successfully implemented, it’s projected to more than double our profits within three years.”

Assuming Lin Haoran was unfamiliar with the project, Chen Songqing explained patiently, trying to tempt him with the prospect of doubling his profits.

However, how could Lin Haoran be so easily swayed?

“I’m very sorry, Mr. Chen, but Hongkong Land Group has decided not to participate in this project,” Lin Haoran stated directly.

“Why?” Chen Songqing was somewhat stunned.

“After taking over Hongkong Land, I discovered that its debt ratio is far higher than I expected, reaching a very dangerous level. After careful consideration, I’ve decided that Hongkong Land will adopt a more stable development strategy for the next two years and will no longer pursue aggressive expansion.

After all, I’m just a young man, and the amount of capital involved in Hongkong Land is immense. I can’t bear such a huge risk. Hongkong Land is now the most important asset under my name, and I hope it will bring me higher-quality assets, not heavy liabilities.

Therefore, Mr. Chen, I suggest you might consider finding other partners. There are many real estate companies in Hong Kong, and numerous financial groups from Southeast Asia are currently pouring into the Hong Kong market. Any of them could be ideal partners for you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, there is absolutely no possibility of loss with this project, you can rest assured. I guarantee that it will yield more than double the profit within three years. If it doesn’t, I will compensate you in my capacity as the Chairman of the Board of the Carrian Group!” Chen Songqing said, trying to persuade Lin Haoran with an even greater temptation.

The reason Chen Songqing was so eager to partner with Hongkong Land was simple: Hongkong Land was a prestigious brand name. Any cooperation secured with Hongkong Land allowed him to borrow more money from the banks.

Other real estate partners simply didn’t have that kind of clout.

However, Lin Haoran knew this man was destined for bankruptcy and prison. What good was his guarantee?

No matter how Chen Songqing tried to entice him or how many assurances he gave, Lin Haoran would never cooperate with him.

“I apologize, but until Hongkong Land’s debt ratio falls below the red line I’ve set, I don’t intend to take on any new development projects. The projects Hongkong Land is currently involved in are already giving me a headache, because I’ve discovered that the company’s cash reserves are already very low!” Lin Haoran said with a wry smile.

Hearing Lin Haoran reject him repeatedly, showing no intention of cooperating whatsoever, Chen Songqing suddenly realized that the man before him genuinely had no plans to work with him.

Did that mean all his preparatory work had been for nothing?

“Since Mr. Lin has no intention of cooperating at the moment, we’ll leave it at that for now. However, I am willing to wait for you to change your mind. Should you be interested in cooperating in the future, Mr. Lin, Hongkong Land will still be our first-choice partner. Later, I’ll have someone send over an analysis of the Tsim Sha Tsui project’s advantages. I hope you’ll find the time to review it in detail.”

Chapter 348: Wariness, Arranging a Meeting with Ma Shiming

After sending off the persistent Chen Songqing, Lin Haoran put the matter out of his mind.

Less than half an hour later, the Carrian Group indeed sent over another set of documents. Without even glancing at them, Lin Haoran fed them directly into the paper shredder.

Newbiggin, who was standing to the side, looked as if he wanted to speak but hesitated. If he were still in control of the Hongkong Land Group, he would have definitely agreed to this collaboration with the Carrian Group. He was especially surprised by Chen Songqing’s promise to compensate them if the profits were less than double.

Was there really such a good deal?

Even so, Lin Haoran still refused. Now, he had gone so far as to destroy the documents from the Carrian Group without a single glance.

“Boss, could you tell me why you’re refusing to work with the Carrian Group? Hongkong Land’s current debt ratio is definitely on the lower side among Hong Kong’s real estate companies!” Newbiggin couldn’t suppress his curiosity and had to ask Lin Haoran.

He had previously been the Taipan of the Hongkong Land Group, so he was naturally very familiar with its financial situation, especially its relatively low debt ratio. This was a key factor that had given him the resources and confidence to push for the group’s massive expansion.

Therefore, Newbiggin was deeply perplexed by Lin Haoran’s reasons for rejecting Chen Songqing and the Carrian Group. He believed there had to be more complex considerations at play, not just what was apparent on the surface.

“No. In your eyes, Hongkong Land’s debt ratio is low, but I feel it’s still too high. More importantly, I have no idea about the Carrian Group’s true background. To achieve such strength in just three short years with completely obscure sources of funding… I don’t intend to let Hongkong Land get any more entangled with a partner like that!” Lin Haoran said with a faint smile.

This was only part of his reasoning. As for the potential real estate crisis in the future, Lin Haoran had no intention of telling Newbiggin.

The man before him was merely a temporary figure he was keeping on to stabilize the situation at Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group. How could Lin Haoran possibly pour his heart out and explain everything to him?

“The Carrian Group’s source of funds?” Newbiggin mumbled to himself.

He was not only curious about Chen Songqing’s funding sources, but he also held the same doubts about Lin Haoran’s.

In his view, both of their funds seemed to be shrouded in a veil of mystery, their origins far from clear.

Of course, he would never voice these thoughts aloud.

“Boss, I’m heading back to my office at Jardine Matheson & Co. to handle some work.” Seeing that he wasn’t going to get a clear answer, Newbiggin didn’t linger.

“Alright, go on,” Lin Haoran said with a wave of his hand, immediately turning his attention back to the project documents in his hands.

Since the Carrian Group hadn’t been very large in the past two years, Hongkong Land didn’t actually have that many joint projects with them. Lin Haoran took a look and saw that the total amount involved was less than one billion Hong Kong dollars. These were all projects with signed contracts or that were already under construction.

A few hundred million Hong Kong dollars in projects with the Carrian Group was a loss he could afford, even if it happened right now. But if the collaboration amounted to several billion, or even tens of billions, of Hong Kong dollars, it would be a heavy shackle even for the Hongkong Land Group.

Although Hongkong Land had acted as the benevolent giant of real estate over the past two years, collaborating on development projects with major companies all over, the scale of these collaborations was always determined by the partner’s size.

For example, at the beginning of this year, the Carrian Group could at best be considered a mid-sized Hong Kong real estate company, so Hongkong Land naturally wouldn’t collaborate with it on excessively large projects.

But as Chen Songqing continued his fraud and deception, hyping up the Carrian Group into a top-tier Hong Kong property firm, Hongkong Land began to take him more seriously. They had even gone so far as to discuss a project worth as much as three billion Hong Kong dollars. However, this collaboration was prevented by Lin Haoran’s sudden acquisition before it could officially begin.

In other words, it was now destined to be impossible for the Carrian Group to use its partnership with Hongkong Land as a pretext to secure more loans.

As for the existing joint projects, apart from those that could be completed within a year, Lin Haoran wanted to get rid of all the others that had construction periods of two to three years or even longer.

Currently, the Hongkong Land Group had more than seventy real estate projects underway, with a total investment exceeding ten billion Hong Kong dollars.

All of these projects had already entered the investment phase and could not be easily terminated without incurring significant losses.

It was worth noting that these projects were not entirely dependent on collaborations with other real estate companies.

About a third of the projects were initiated independently by the Hongkong Land Group, and they were crucial for the group’s future development.

The ten-year cluster redevelopment plan in Central, in particular, was a core component of Hongkong Land’s growth.

Landmark buildings such as The Landmark, Alexandra House, Prince’s Building, and Gloucester Building were all important parts of this redevelopment plan.

These buildings, seamlessly connected by walkways, formed a magnificent architectural cluster. They not only occupied the prime real estate of Central but also greatly enriched its skyline, showcasing Hongkong Land’s outstanding capabilities in urban planning and architectural design.

A grand plan like this ten-year redevelopment, which held immense benefits for Hongkong Land’s future, was something Lin Haoran naturally supported wholeheartedly.

Moreover, the plan was now in its final stages. In two or three years at most, it would be fully completed. Lin Haoran had essentially reaped a huge benefit from the British-funded conglomerate’s initial investments and strategic layout.

As for the projects in collaboration with other real estate companies, there were many that Lin Haoran didn’t particularly support. If these projects could be transferred to other firms, it would directly lighten Hongkong Land’s burden.

He didn’t want to see the Hongkong Land Group saddled with billions, or even tens of billions, of Hong Kong dollars in debt before the real estate crisis hit.

Instead, he hoped that Hongkong Land would not only be debt-free but would also have ample cash flow.

Then, when the time came, he could leverage the Hongkong Land Group to “harvest” Hong Kong real estate properties at low prices during the property bubble.

Once the real estate crisis was over, it would be time for the Hongkong Land Group to soar once again.

On Lin Haoran’s desk were vast amounts of documents from Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group.

For these two major firms to become Hong Kong’s most preeminent enterprises, their reputations were certainly not unearned.

Consequently, the volume of documents was immense. Even if Lin Haoran only picked out the core, essential materials to read, it would likely take him one or two weeks to get through them all.

Around six in the evening, Lin Haoran once again called Ma Shiming.

This time, much to Lin Haoran’s surprise, someone finally answered the phone.

“This is Ma Shiming. May I ask who is calling?” Ma Shiming asked quizzically from the other end.

“Mr. Ma Shiming, this is Lin Haoran from Jardine Matheson & Co. I believe you’ve probably heard of me,” Lin Haoran introduced himself with a smile.

“So it’s Mr. Lin. May I ask why you’re looking for me?” Ma Shiming asked, still puzzled.

As a former Executive Director of Jardine Matheson & Co., he still paid close attention to the company even after leaving.

The recent major upheaval at the Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. had already become the talk of the town throughout Southeast Asia in a very short time.

As a former Executive Director of Jardine Matheson, Ma Shiming had learned of the matter right away.

At the time, he couldn’t believe it. He never expected that Jardine Matheson & Co. would be taken over so quietly by a Chinese person.

When Lin Haoran became a famous figure in Hong Kong, such as during the acquisitions of Green Island Cement and the Hongkong Electric Group, Ma Shiming was still employed at Jardine Matheson, so he had some knowledge of Lin Haoran.

It was precisely because he knew who Lin Haoran was that Ma Shiming found it all so incredible.

But no matter how incredible it was, after the major shake-up in Jardine’s senior management, the company had little to do with him now.

He had been with the company for a full fourteen years and naturally had deep feelings for Jardine Matheson.

But no matter how deep those feelings were, he was no longer an employee of Jardine Matheson & Co.

He just didn’t understand why this new Boss of Jardine Matheson was looking for him, a former senior executive who had left the company long ago.

“I would like to pay you a visit, Mr. Ma Shiming, to discuss a few things. I was wondering if you might be free tomorrow?” Lin Haoran asked.

“If Mr. Lin wants to see me, I’m available anytime, of course. It’s just that, Mr. Lin, you should know that I’m currently in Singapore, not Hong Kong,” Ma Shiming said. Although he didn’t know what Lin Haoran wanted, he was still surprised.

Hong Kong was far from Singapore, separated by the entire South China Sea—one at its northernmost point, the other at its southernmost.

“As long as you’re free, that’s what matters. In that case, shall we arrange to meet tomorrow afternoon?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

If he could win over a top-tier professional manager like Ma Shiming, what was a personal trip?

“Alright, I’ll wait for your call tomorrow afternoon then!” Ma Shiming hung up, his face a mask of confusion.

Although he had no idea why Lin Haoran would go to the trouble of personally traveling all the way to Singapore to see him, he also knew that some matters were indeed not convenient to discuss over the phone.

Once they met, he would naturally find out why this young Chinese tycoon was looking for him.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran immediately had Su Zhixue arrange a plane ticket for him to Singapore for the morning.

As top-tier Hong Kong enterprises, both the Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. actually had their own private jets for senior executives.

This was especially true for Jardine Matheson; with over sixty percent of its assets distributed overseas, it was common for its senior executives to travel abroad on business. Having private jets was nothing to be surprised about.

However, Lin Haoran had no intention of using the private jets of these two newly acquired companies. The reason was simple: his own safety.

Although he had outwardly succeeded in taking a controlling stake in both companies, holding a controlling stake didn’t mean he had truly won the allegiance of their employees in such a short amount of time.

In fact, the original British-funded conglomerate powers behind Jardine Matheson probably wished him dead.

Chapter 349: Intercepting the Future Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa

Therefore, for his own safety, quietly taking a passenger flight to Singapore shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Besides, with his current status and position, buying a plane ticket under a false name was child’s play.

Lin Haoran had long prepared several different identities for himself, all to ensure his safety was completely secure.

“Boss, I’ve booked three tickets for you on the 8:12 AM flight from Kai Tak Airport direct to Singapore’s Paya Lebar Airport tomorrow. I’ll deliver the tickets to you personally later!” Su Zhixue reported over the phone.

In the blink of an eye, another night passed.

At 8:12 AM on November 1st, an airplane sped down the runway at Kai Tak Airport before soaring into the blue sky.

No one on this plane knew that the renowned new master of Jardine Matheson & Co. was right here.

At this moment, Lin Haoran, wearing sunglasses and a flat cap, sat in first class, appearing exceptionally low-key.

Just across the aisle from him in another first-class seat was his personal bodyguard, Li Weidong, who was vigilantly scanning their surroundings.

And in the first-class cabin behind Lin Haoran was another bodyguard, Li Weiguo, who was also maintaining a high state of alert.

The entire first-class section was exceptionally quiet. Besides the three of them, there was only one flight attendant, dedicated to their service, working in hushed tones.

Although economic exchanges between Southeast Asia and Hong Kong were frequent, not every flight had first-class seats booked. On today’s flight, it just so happened that Lin Haoran and his two companions were the only ones.

Lin Haoran glanced at the shrinking Hong Kong city center, then closed his eyes, preparing to take a nap.

His purpose for this trip to Singapore was very clear: to find Mr. Ma Shiming, the man he knew from his past life as Li Jiacheng’s most important strategist.

As long as he could successfully make this tycoon one of his top lieutenants, then this trip, no matter how tiring, would be well worth it.

Ma Shiming—even the famous founder of Huawei, Ren Zhengfei, had called him a life mentor. One could only imagine how formidable this man’s talents were.

Ma Shiming’s contribution to the future success of Li Jiacheng’s Hutchison Whampoa was absolutely indispensable.

Moreover, if he didn’t act first and poach Ma Shiming now, Li Jiacheng would eventually recruit him in the future.

Li Jiacheng’s current status might not compare to his, but Li Jiacheng’s eye for talent was undeniable!

It was no exaggeration to say that without Ma Shiming’s assistance, even if Li Jiacheng had maintained control of Hutchison Whampoa, it likely would not have reached the glorious heights it later did.

Ma Shiming’s involvement undoubtedly injected powerful momentum into Hutchison Whampoa’s development and forged a legendary chapter in Li Jiacheng’s business empire.

However, in this parallel world, Li Jiacheng was destined to miss his chance with Ma Shiming, because Lin Haoran had already decided to intercept this capable man.

Around noon, the flight Lin Haoran was on arrived smoothly in Singapore.

Although Singapore’s economy was also developing rapidly at this time, there was still a noticeable gap compared to Hong Kong.

The Singapore of this era was far from reaching the level of its future self that would surpass Hong Kong.

Many of Lin Haoran’s companies had branch companies in Singapore, such as Wanqing Group, Jardine Matheson & Co., Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and even the Universal Security Consulting Company had gradually expanded its operations here.

However, he had no intention of telling anyone he was in Singapore.

Public security in Singapore was even better than in Hong Kong, so he wasn’t too concerned about his safety during this secret visit.

At the airport, Lin Haoran directly gave Ma Shiming a call.

It was already lunchtime.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he dialed, the call was answered.

The person who answered was none other than Ma Shiming.

Knowing that Lin Haoran would be coming to see him in person this afternoon, Ma Shiming had decided not to go out for lunch, just in case Lin Haoran called and couldn’t reach him.

What Ma Shiming hadn’t expected was that Lin Haoran would call him just as it was turning noon.

“Mr. Ma, I’ve arrived in Singapore. I assume you haven’t had lunch yet? I’m not familiar with Singapore. Could you suggest a place, preferably with a private room where we can have lunch and chat privately? We can head over there,” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Alright, let’s meet at the Nanyang International Grand Hotel. The atmosphere there is quite nice, and it’s private. I’ll wait for you at the entrance!” Ma Shiming said after a moment’s thought.

“OK, Mr. Ma, see you in a bit!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran, along with Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, took a taxi from the airport and headed straight for the Nanyang International Grand Hotel.

Compared to Hong Kong, Singapore was much smaller. In 1980, Singapore’s land area was just over five hundred square kilometers, significantly smaller than the more than seven hundred square kilometers it would expand to decades later.

For a place with such scarce land resources and a booming economy, expanding its territory through land reclamation was an inevitable choice.

In just over ten minutes, Lin Haoran’s party arrived at the entrance of the Nanyang International Grand Hotel.

At the entrance, Lin Haoran saw the renowned Mr. Ma, the Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa.

“Mr. Lin, hello!” Upon seeing Lin Haoran, Ma Shiming immediately came forward to shake his hand.

“Let’s go inside first,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He was no longer just a celebrity in Hong Kong; he now had a certain degree of fame throughout Southeast Asia.

After all, the economies of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia were closely linked. Major business events in Hong Kong were typically reported in Southeast Asian countries, especially Singapore. Therefore, Lin Haoran’s media exposure here was not insignificant.

After entering the grand hotel, a waiter led Lin Haoran and Ma Shiming to a private room.

It was a very traditional Chinese-style hotel, but since Singapore’s population was predominantly Chinese, this was perfectly normal.

Once inside the private room, the two exchanged a few pleasantries, casually ordered a few dishes, and began their conversation after the waiter had left.

“Mr. Ma, I heard you worked at Jardine Matheson & Co. for fourteen years. Why did you suddenly resign?” Lin Haoran changed the subject, getting straight to the point.

“Yes, Jardine Matheson witnessed my career growth, and I have a deep emotional attachment to it. But people must part ways eventually, and my journey with Jardine Matheson has come to an end,” Ma Shiming nodded, his tone tinged with nostalgia for the past.

However, it was clear he didn’t want to discuss the reasons for his departure in too much detail.

“Mr. Ma, you’re probably aware that Jardine Matheson’s senior management has recently undergone a change, and I have had the good fortune to become its new helmsman.”

Lin Haoran paused here deliberately to observe Ma Shiming’s reaction.

Then, he continued, “Such major changes often bring new opportunities, especially for an experienced and exceptionally capable professional manager like yourself. It’s a rare chance.”

Hearing this, Ma Shiming raised his eyebrows slightly, seemingly waiting for Lin Haoran to continue.

“Mr. Ma, I sincerely invite you to join the Hongkong Land Group as its new general manager and Executive Director. You will be fully responsible for the daily operations and major decisions of the Hongkong Land Group.

“Furthermore, as you may already know, the relationship between Hongkong Land and Jardine Matheson has been newly adjusted. Jardine Matheson is now a member of the Hongkong Land Group.

“This means that as a senior executive of Hongkong Land, you will also have the opportunity to be involved in Jardine Matheson’s affairs. In fact, if you feel the general manager position is not enough, I can even offer you the position of Taipan.

“Of course, if you know anything about me, you’ll know that once I hire a professional manager, I place a great deal of trust in them.

“Therefore, Mr. Ma, you can rest assured that if you agree, the authority you will wield will be no less than what Mr. Newbiggin had before!” Lin Haoran said in a sincere and solemn tone.

Ma Shiming was clearly stunned by the offer. He remained silent for a moment, appearing to weigh the pros and cons.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran continued, “I know this is not an easy decision for you, but please believe me, the posts and status that the British-funded conglomerates could never give you, I can. If you agree, you will become a tycoon in Hong Kong’s business world, on par with figures like Mr. Michael Sandberg!”

Ma Shiming was silent for a moment before he spoke: “Mr. Lin, I was only a Director at Jardine Matheson before. As far as I know, Mr. Newbiggin is still serving as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson. Why would you choose me instead of Mr. Newbiggin?”

This was what puzzled Ma Shiming.

Before he resigned, although he was a senior executive at Jardine Matheson, he wasn’t particularly well-known, certainly not as much as Bao Fuda, the general manager of Hongkong Land.

“After taking over Jardine Matheson, I looked deeply into your background, Mr. Ma, especially your heroic deeds on the battlefield and the innovative proposals you put forward at Jardine Matheson. All of these left a deep impression on me.

“I believe that your talents far surpass Mr. Newbiggin’s and that you are fully capable of taking his place. You just lacked the opportunity to do so before,” Lin Haoran answered earnestly.

“Mr. Lin, thank you very much for your recognition and appreciation. But to be honest, I am currently preparing to start my own business and have already successfully secured support from investors. The company is about to be established in Singapore.

“I have been planning this for a long time and have invested a great deal of effort into it. Therefore, I’m very sorry, Mr. Lin, but I’m afraid I cannot accept your kind offer. My decision to resign and start a business was made after careful consideration and was not an impulsive one,” Ma Shiming replied to Lin Haoran with sincerity and resolve.

Resigning to start a business was clearly a long-planned, well-considered decision for Ma Shiming. It was obviously unrealistic for Lin Haoran to think he could persuade him with just a few words.

Chapter 350: A Moment of Silence for Superman Li

“Mr. Ma, I’m guessing the reason you left Jardine Matheson & Co. is that you saw no future there, which is why you ultimately decided to start your own business, correct?” Lin Haoran looked at Ma Shiming and continued to press.

Ma Shiming nodded, not denying it.

At the same time, he was somewhat surprised that Lin Haoran had been able to see through his reasons for leaving Jardine Matheson.

He had not revealed these thoughts to very many people.

In his heart, Ma Shiming had already taken an interest in this young man, Lin Haoran.

After all, he had received the utmost respect from Lin Haoran—respect he could never get from the British-funded conglomerate.

In all his years at Jardine Matheson, no one had ever told him that his abilities were comparable to Mr. Newbiggin’s.

After he was promoted to senior executive at Jardine Matheson, what he saw was mostly internal strife!

Infighting among the senior executives, and infighting between the British conglomerate’s shareholders and senior management.

“Mr. Ma, I’m sure you can feel my sincerity. I have the utmost respect for your talents. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have traveled all the way from Hong Kong to see you personally. I came here hoping you would agree to work with me to develop Hongkong Land Group and even Jardine Matheson & Co. further.

“In fact, if you wish to take charge of Jardine Matheson, I can have Mr. Newbiggin step down immediately and hand over complete control of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land to you.

“As for starting your own business, Mr. Ma, while I’m sure you’ll achieve great things, I’ve heard that the Rothschild family has decided to invest in you. But even so, the investment would likely be a few million Hong Kong dollars at most, wouldn’t it?

“Even with your immense skills, Mr. Ma, how could you rapidly grow a new company with only a few million Hong Kong dollars in startup capital into a top-tier group?

“Mr. Ma, you’ve already entered your forties. If I gave you ten years, would you be confident in growing your own company into a magnate with a market capitalization of several billion Hong Kong dollars? The challenges involved are not to be underestimated.

“In contrast, Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land have a combined market capitalization approaching twenty billion Hong Kong dollars, and I firmly believe their actual value is far greater.

“If you are willing to join, you will immediately become the one in charge of these two major groups. If you let such a rare opportunity slip by, will you not feel a sense of regret?” Lin Haoran extended his invitation with sincerity once more.

Hearing this, Ma Shiming nodded slightly, clearly moved by Lin Haoran’s words.

He knew very well that what Lin Haoran said was reasonable. Despite having accumulated a certain amount of experience and connections after so many years in the business world, starting a company from scratch and building it into an industry leader was by no means an easy task.

Seeing his opening, Lin Haoran pressed on while the iron was hot: “Mr. Ma, you want to start your own business simply because you see no hope at Jardine Matheson and desire a larger platform to showcase your talents. But if you start your own company, wouldn’t that be a waste of your abilities? It would be such a pity!

“As large corporate groups with diversified operations, Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land not only possess formidable financial strength and brand influence but also have a global business network and partners.

“If you are willing to return to Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, I believe we can provide you with a much broader stage to fully unleash your talents and potential.”

At this point, Lin Haoran paused, his gaze fixed on Ma Shiming, trying to catch any hint of wavering in his expression.

And just as he expected, a flicker of hesitation and contemplation crossed Ma Shiming’s eyes.

As Lin Haoran had said, although he was full of confidence in the new company he was about to start, if he began from scratch, could he really be sure he could develop it into a great enterprise within his lifetime?

Having lived in Hong Kong for many years, he had an in-depth understanding of the city’s business landscape.

Whether it was the long-established Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group, or the powerful HSBC, these business tycoons had all weathered nearly a century, or even more than a century, of trials and tribulations to achieve their current glory.

Although there were exceptions like the Carrian Group, which had risen in just two or three years, completing decades of development history for others, Ma Shiming knew very well that the source of Carrian Group’s funds was too complicated and confusing. It didn’t rely on a normal business development model but was built up by a huge amount of capital from an unknown source.

And did he, Ma Shiming, have that kind of massive financial backing?

The answer was obviously no.

So, at that moment, Ma Shiming fell into deep hesitation.

Even if he chose to start his own business, he would have to rely on external investment. After all, the funds he had accumulated over the years at Jardine Matheson were not enough to support him in independently establishing a reasonably ideal new company.

The thought of having to slowly struggle in a small company, enduring hardship just to grow it to a medium size, while the threshold of a large corporation seemed completely out of reach…

Was he truly willing to accept such a prospect?

If he accepted Lin Haoran’s offer, it would mean a meteoric rise, placing him directly at the pinnacle of the business world.

More importantly, that position would provide him with a far broader stage to fully display his talents and abilities!

At this moment, Ma Shiming frowned.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran was secretly pleased. He knew he had successfully struck a chord with Ma Shiming.

So, he continued to add pressure, “Mr. Ma, I know you are a man of great ambition and ideals. I believe that on the platform of Hongkong Land, you will not only be able to realize your entrepreneurial dream but also take your business talents to their absolute peak.

“And as the current Boss of Hongkong Land and Jardine Matheson, I will also fully support your work and decisions, and together, we will build an even more glorious business empire.”

Ma Shiming fell into contemplation upon hearing this.

He understood that Lin Haoran’s words were not without basis. Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land indeed possessed advantages and resources that were currently incomparable to his own.

And while he himself had the passion and determination for entrepreneurship, turning his company into an industry leader in a short period would certainly require immense effort and sacrifice.

Seeing that Ma Shiming was no longer refusing as decisively as before but was lost in thought, Lin Haoran knew his entrepreneurial spirit was beginning to waver.

Fortunately, he had come early. Although Ma Shiming had already secured a promise of investment, the company had clearly not been formally established yet.

This gave him a great chance to persuade Ma Shiming to finally agree.

If he hadn’t interfered, Ma Shiming would have eventually founded an engineering consultancy company and, through it, developed business dealings with Li Jiacheng.

It was because of this that Li Jiacheng recognized Ma Shiming’s true talent and invited him to join on multiple occasions, only to be rejected each time.

In order to acquire this brilliant talent, Li Jiacheng went so far as to acquire the company Ma Shiming had founded, which was what finally convinced Ma Shiming to join Hutchison Whampoa.

Now, none of that had happened yet. Regardless of whether Ma Shiming agreed or not, Lin Haoran would not give up easily.

There were countless talented people in the world, but top-tier talents like Ma Shiming were few and far between. Since he had encountered one, how could he possibly let him go?

Just then, a knock came from the door.

A waiter then brought the dishes into the private room one by one. Soon, tranquility returned to the room.

Li Weidong and Li Weiguo were not in the private room. They had chosen to sit at a table in the main hall not far from the room and had ordered their own food.

After all, the topic Lin Haoran and Ma Shiming were discussing was rather private. Although Lin Haoran trusted Li Weidong and Li Weiguo completely, he also had to consider Ma Shiming’s feelings.

“Mr. Ma, let’s eat first. You can take your time to think it over!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, interrupting Ma Shiming’s thoughts as he saw him still frowning in contemplation.

Ma Shiming snapped back to reality, picked up his chopsticks, and began to eat lunch with Lin Haoran.

Although he was a Westerner, he had lived in Hong Kong for over a decade and had long since grown accustomed to the lifestyle in Chinese communities. He used chopsticks more skillfully than some Chinese people.

As they ate, Lin Haoran chatted with Ma Shiming about some matters back in Hong Kong.

It was obvious that Ma Shiming was somewhat distracted. He was likely struggling with whether or not to accept Lin Haoran’s offer.

Half an hour later, they had finished their meal.

Just as Lin Haoran thought it would be difficult for Ma Shiming to make a decision in a short time, Ma Shiming finally spoke slowly.

“Mr. Lin,” Ma Shiming said, “your sincerity and determination have moved me deeply. I am willing to join Hongkong Land Group and work with you to create a more brilliant business future.

“But before that, I must confirm that every word you’ve said today is true and not a spur-of-the-moment promise. I wouldn’t want to find that your thoughts have changed after I formally join Hongkong Land.”

Hearing this, a wave of joy surged through Lin Haoran’s heart.

“Mr. Ma, a warm welcome to you!” Lin Haoran said sincerely. “I believe that under your outstanding leadership, Hongkong Land and Jardine Matheson will surely usher in an even more glorious future.

“Moreover, although I’m still young in Hong Kong’s business circles, I believe everyone has gotten a sense of my character over the past two or three years. Integrity is a principle I hold dear.

“The reason I came to Singapore personally to invite you, Mr. Ma, is because I have complete confidence in your extraordinary talents!”

“In that case, Mr. Lin, it’s a pleasure to work with you!” Ma Shiming stood up and extended his right hand!

At this moment, Ma Shiming’s action signified that he had officially given up on the idea of starting his own business.

Though starting his own business would have come with an investment from the great Rothschild family financial group, how could it possibly be as appealing as joining Hongkong Land to take charge of both it and Jardine Matheson?

“It’s a pleasure!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, solemnly shaking hands with the brilliant middle-aged man before him.

At the same time, he let out a deep sigh of relief. He had finally succeeded. It hadn’t been easy.

This trip to Singapore, though very rushed, had not been in vain!

Chapter 351: A Bombshell Announcement

As the old saying goes, it is human nature to look out for oneself.

Lin Haoran felt not the slightest guilt for poaching Li Jiacheng’s most important future top lieutenants one after another.

After all, his relationship with Li Jiacheng was mediocre at best.

Isn’t that just how the business world works?

For the sake of one’s own interests, ruthless tactics were common, let alone simply poaching someone ahead of time.

Li Jiacheng probably wouldn’t even connect Fok Kin-ning and Ma Shiming to himself if he met them face-to-face now. In this world, any fate he might have had with them had been completely severed.

The world had already changed tremendously because of his arrival.

Perhaps this was the so-called butterfly effect.

That afternoon, Lin Haoran and Ma Shiming continued to talk at length.

Now that Ma Shiming had agreed to join Hongkong Land Group, Lin Haoran could voice some of his inner thoughts with confidence.

He could stay out of the day-to-day management of Hongkong Land Group, but over the next two years, the Group’s development in the real estate sector had to slow down!

What Lin Haoran hadn’t expected was that when he mentioned that Hong Kong was very likely to experience a real estate crisis within the next two years, Ma Shiming was in complete agreement!

Ma Shiming had already been a man of great foresight during his time as a senior executive at Jardine Matheson & Co.

However, he wasn’t the Taipan, the one with the final say, so some of his ideas, such as the prediction of a real estate crisis in Hong Kong, were never taken seriously.

This lack of trust from his superiors was one of the major reasons Ma Shiming had left Jardine Matheson & Co.

Upon learning that Ma Shiming had long foreseen the real estate crisis in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran was thoroughly impressed.

At the same time, he congratulated himself on his decision to make this long journey to recruit Ma Shiming for Hongkong Land Group.

He knew that a real estate crisis would hit Hong Kong in two years, but that was only because he was a Transmigrator.

But what about Ma Shiming? He was no transmigrator. He had seen the coming crisis based entirely on his own talent.

In all of Hong Kong, there were probably only a handful of people who could see it coming. Even top tycoons like Michael Sandberg and Newbiggin would never believe that any sort of real estate crisis was imminent in Hong Kong.

Having convinced Ma Shiming, Lin Haoran did not stay in Singapore any longer. After resting for a night, he boarded a flight to Hong Kong the next morning.

Ma Shiming did not immediately return to Hong Kong with Lin Haoran.

He had been in Singapore for some time. Before starting his new venture, he had even bought a house and moved his family over.

Now that he had decided to return to Hong Kong, he needed to take care of his family affairs.

However, Ma Shiming promised Lin Haoran that he would depart from Singapore within three days to return to Hong Kong.

At that point, he would be ready to take the reins of Hongkong Land Group.

And Lin Haoran would finally be able to rest easy about Hongkong Land Group.

Moreover, with Ma Shiming on board, the process of ousting Newbiggin would be accelerated. As a former Executive Director of Jardine Matheson & Co., Ma Shiming’s understanding of the company was not much less than Newbiggin’s.

Of course, he wouldn’t force Newbiggin out immediately. For now, only Newbiggin could keep those senior executives in line. Ma Shiming might not be able to.

Although Ma Shiming had previously served as an Executive Director, his prestige at Jardine Matheson & Co. was far less than Newbiggin’s, and he would have difficulty commanding the respect of the group of Westerner senior executives.

And replacing these Westerner senior executives with his own confidants was not something that could be accomplished in a short time.

Therefore, even with Ma Shiming joining Hongkong Land Group and indirectly controlling Jardine Matheson, Newbiggin could not be ousted right away.

Lin Haoran had already discussed these points with Ma Shiming yesterday afternoon.

Ma Shiming was a man of great foresight and reason. He deeply agreed with Lin Haoran’s assessment and was even in full support.

At twelve-thirty in the afternoon on November 2nd, a plane landed smoothly at Kai Tak International Airport.

As Lin Haoran stepped off the plane and onto Hong Kong soil, he couldn’t hide the smile on his face.

On this trip to Singapore, he hadn’t gone anywhere—he hadn’t even inspected his own branch company there—but successfully and easily recruiting Ma Shiming meant his objective had been achieved.

Having just gained control of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, he had no desire to be away for too long.

In the blink of an eye, two days passed.

At two-thirty in the afternoon on November 4th, Lin Haoran once again appeared at Kai Tak International Airport.

This time, however, he wasn’t there to catch a flight, but to pick someone up.

Ma Shiming and his family had returned to Hong Kong.

Seeing Lin Haoran, the big boss, come to greet him personally at the airport, Ma Shiming was clearly touched.

In the past, he had been a senior executive at Jardine Matheson & Co. at best. When had he ever received such personal attention?

“Mr. Ma, welcome back to Hong Kong!” Lin Haoran said, giving Ma Shiming a light embrace.

“Thank you!” Ma Shiming wanted to say so much, but in the end, it all came down to those two words.

“I know that when you went to Singapore, you sold your house in Hong Kong to strengthen your resolve to start your own business. Now that you’re back, you probably don’t have a place to settle in yet. But please don’t worry, I’ve already prepared a residence for you. Please, come with me!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Ma Shiming hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to be so considerate. He couldn’t help but feel that his decision to return to Hong Kong had been a wise one.

He had returned with four other people: his wife and three children.

For this reason, Lin Haoran had specifically sent two cars.

Half an hour later, Lin Haoran was standing in front of a villa in the Mid-Levels.

“Mr. Ma, you can live here for the time being. It’s less than two kilometers from Connaught Centre, which will be convenient for your commute. I’ve also arranged a private car for you,” Lin Haoran said, gesturing to the villa with a smile.

This villa was one of his properties. Since the beginning of the year, Lin Haoran had purchased several villas in the Mid-Levels and on The Peak. These were all rare properties, and even if housing prices plummeted in two years, he wouldn’t lose money based on the price he paid.

The villa before them was valued at around two million Hong Kong dollars. As for the car inside, it was a Mercedes-Benz that cost less than a hundred thousand.

The villa was his own property, now temporarily available for Ma Shiming to live in.

But if Ma Shiming’s future contributions were great enough, he wouldn’t be against transferring the deed directly to him to win the loyalty of this extraordinarily talented top lieutenant.

In Lin Haoran’s eyes, Ma Shiming’s talent was a priceless treasure!

The wealth he would generate in the future would surely be far greater than he could imagine!

Lin Haoran knew which enterprises were high-quality, so after his rise in the business world, he embarked on a continuous buying spree.

But he was also very clear that he himself did not possess exceptional management talent, which made capable professional managers particularly important.

Otherwise, no matter how high-quality an enterprise was, without good management, it would gradually decline due to poor operations.

Though he had already persuaded Ma Shiming to join, only by treating him with sincerity would he earn double the return.

Therefore, winning his subordinate’s loyalty was essential.

“Dad, are we really going to live here from now on?” Ma Shiming’s youngest son asked, gazing at the villa in joyous surprise. It was clear he was utterly delighted with the living environment.

His other two children also surveyed the three-story detached villa with looks of pleasant surprise and anticipation.

Although it lacked the tranquility of The Peak and its villas’ superior views, this place clearly had its own advantages, such as being closer to Central and having more of the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Although Ma Shiming had once served as an Executive Director of Jardine Matheson & Co., his tenure was not long before he resigned. Furthermore, during his career of over ten years, he had also spent time studying at universities in Britain and the United States. Consequently, his income over the years was not as substantial as outsiders might have imagined.

Back in Hong Kong, Ma Shiming’s family had only lived in a high-rise apartment. When had his children ever had the chance to experience life in such a luxurious villa?

“Mr. Lin, I haven’t even officially joined Hongkong Land Group, nor have I made any substantial contributions to you or the company. I’m truly unworthy of such a generous gift!” Ma Shiming said with a wry smile.

This debt of favor would be truly difficult to repay!

Lin Haoran smiled to himself. If I don’t put you in my debt, how can I make you work for me willingly?

“Mr. Ma, your talent is worth this courtesy. Please, don’t be formal. I’ve already arranged for all the daily necessities and appliances in the villa. You can just move your luggage in and settle right down!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Listening to Lin Haoran’s words, Ma Shiming felt a wave of profound gratitude. He knew very well the weight this special treatment carried.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm his emotions, then said to Lin Haoran with great solemnity, “Mr. Lin, your trust and support have moved me beyond words.

Please believe me, I will use all my talent and effort to repay you and the Group. In the days to come, whether facing challenges or opportunities at work, I will give it my all and never disappoint your expectations.”

Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction. Wasn’t everything he had done for the very purpose of securing Ma Shiming’s genuine loyalty?

Now, it was clear that his repeated gestures of goodwill had achieved their goal.

He patted Ma Shiming’s shoulder and smiled, “Mr. Ma, I believe in your ability and determination. Now, let’s go inside and see your new home!”

With that, Lin Haoran was the first to walk into the villa, with Ma Shiming’s family following closely behind.

The villa’s interior was decorated in a style that was both luxurious and warm. All sorts of daily necessities and appliances were readily available, clearly arranged with great care.

Ma Shiming’s wife and children excitedly darted through the various rooms, their faces beaming with happy smiles.

Watching this scene, Ma Shiming’s heart filled with gratitude.

He knew that Lin Haoran had prepared all of this specifically for him, so that he could work with peace of mind.

How could he not engrave such thoughtfulness in his heart?

A day later, Lin Haoran and Ma Shiming appeared together at the Hongkong Land Group headquarters in Connaught Centre.

At the same time, Hongkong Land Group officially released a bombshell announcement to the public!

Effective immediately, Ma Shiming would serve as the Vice Chairman of the Board and general manager of Hongkong Land Group, taking charge of its management.

Originally, Lin Haoran had planned to retreat completely behind the scenes, even entrusting the position of Taipan to Ma Shiming.

Chapter 352: Newbiggin’s Frustration

Jardine Matheson & Co. headquarters, in Newbiggin’s office.

When Hongkong Land Group officially announced that Ma Shiming would take over as general manager and concurrently serve as Vice Chairman of the Board, Newbiggin’s feelings were incredibly conflicted.

The day before, Lin Haoran had informed Newbiggin in advance that a successor for Hongkong Land Group had been chosen, meaning that he, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., would no longer hold a concurrent position at Hongkong Land Group.

At the time, Newbiggin was full of curiosity and wanted to ask who the candidate was, but Lin Haoran didn’t explain much. He simply gave a mysterious smile and replied, “You’ll know tomorrow.”

After receiving this news, Newbiggin mulled it over repeatedly, but he could never guess who Lin Haoran would choose for such a great responsibility.

Now, with Hongkong Land Group’s official announcement, all suspense was gone.

However, this was an outcome Newbiggin found difficult to accept.

The most critical reason was that the person taking over executive power at Hongkong Land Group was a subordinate he had once thought very highly of.

As Ma Shiming was a former board member of Jardine Matheson, Newbiggin was, of course, all too familiar with him. One could even say he had personally groomed him.

Admittedly, Ma Shiming was exceptionally talented and had provided him with enormous help in management, which was why he had relied on him so heavily when Ma Shiming was working for Jardine Matheson & Co.

But at times, he had disagreed with the decisions Ma Shiming proposed, and the two often had differing opinions.

When their opinions clashed, the final decision naturally had to be his, the Taipan’s.

A few months ago, when Ma Shiming had offered his resignation, Newbiggin had tried his utmost to retain him.

After all, the help Ma Shiming had given him during his tenure was not insignificant, even though most of the credit ultimately went to him, the Taipan.

Therefore, he was naturally unwilling to lose such a talented subordinate.

But everyone has their own ambitions. Despite Newbiggin’s reluctance, the Board of Directors ultimately respected Ma Shiming’s decision and approved his resignation.

He had thought that he and Ma Shiming might not cross paths much again in this lifetime.

Unexpectedly, however, in just two or three months, this former top lieutenant had returned to Hong Kong, and in such a capacity.

Most importantly, he had been invited back to serve as the general manager of Hongkong Land Group and concurrently as the Vice Chairman of the Board.

But the fact that was most difficult for Newbiggin to accept was that his former subordinate had now transformed into his direct superior.

The hierarchical relationship between Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group had now been inverted.

Previously, Jardine Matheson & Co. was the parent company of Hongkong Land Group.

But now, with the combined shares in Jardine Matheson & Co. held by Hongkong Land Group and Lin Haoran exceeding the shares Jardine Matheson & Co. held in Hongkong Land Group, this status had undergone an earth-shattering change.

Hongkong Land Group was no longer a subsidiary; it had reversed roles and become the parent company.

As for Jardine Matheson & Co., the former parent company, it was now reduced to being a subsidiary of Hongkong Land Group.

What did such a change in status mean?

It meant that he, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., was now nominally under the jurisdiction of Hongkong Land Group.

Ma Shiming had even become his nominal superior.

How could Newbiggin not find this difficult to accept!

But no matter how hard it was for him to accept, it was now a fact.

So, after Hongkong Land Group announced this bombshell, Newbiggin hurried to Hongkong Land Group’s headquarters.

The purpose, naturally, was to fight for his own interests.

Newbiggin’s goal was to ensure that Ma Shiming could not interfere in Jardine Matheson & Co.’s affairs in his capacity as the head of the parent company, Hongkong Land Group.

He felt that if even the daily operations of Jardine Matheson & Co. were subject to direct intervention from Hongkong Land Group, then what was the point of his existence as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co.?

He could not accept being demoted from a decision-maker to an executor who simply followed others’ orders.

The desire for and control of power had long been deeply ingrained in Newbiggin’s heart; he would never easily give up his absolute managerial authority over Jardine Matheson & Co.

Completely relinquishing control over Hongkong Land Group was already his absolute limit.

But he had to maintain control over Jardine Matheson & Co., just as before!

When he first arrived at Hongkong Land Group, Newbiggin saw Ma Shiming giving a joint interview to TVB and the Oriental Daily News.

He asked a company employee and confirmed that his Boss, Lin Haoran, was not at the Hongkong Land Group headquarters.

After waiting for over half an hour, Ma Shiming finally concluded his interview.

At that moment, Newbiggin felt so utterly frustrated.

In the past, he would never have had to wait like this, and he should have been the one being interviewed!

Once upon a time, he had held absolute sway over Jardine Matheson & Co. and even Hongkong Land Group. Even Ma Shiming had to be respectful toward him and follow his work arrangements.

But now, after only a few short months, his position had undergone a seismic shift.

On the surface, he still held the title of Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., but his status was nowhere near what it used to be.

Who could have imagined that the relationship between Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group would take such a dramatic turn? The former parent company had become the subsidiary, and the former subsidiary had become the parent company.

“Mr. Newbiggin, what brings you here?” After the reporters left, Ma Shiming walked over with a smile, as if he had just noticed Newbiggin.

Newbiggin took a deep breath, trying hard to control his emotions and hide the disappointment and unwillingness in his heart.

He forced a smile, attempting to communicate with this former subordinate, now his superior, in a calm and dignified manner.

“Mr. Ma, congratulations on becoming the Vice Chairman of the Board and general manager of Hongkong Land Group.” Though Newbiggin’s voice was calm, the complex emotions within it were hard to conceal.

Ma Shiming smiled, his eyes showing a hint of sincerity and humility. “Thank you for your congratulations, Mr. Newbiggin. Actually, I am also very grateful for your past guidance and trust. Without your direction and support, I might not have been able to achieve what I have today.”

Newbiggin nodded slightly, his heart filled with mixed feelings.

He understood perfectly well that although these words were pleasant to hear, they were nothing more than empty pleasantries.

So, he changed the subject and got straight to the point. “Mr. Ma, I came here to talk to you about some future issues concerning Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group.”

“Please, speak, Mr. Newbiggin. I’m all ears!” Ma Shiming said solemnly.

Ma Shiming was slightly taken aback but quickly regained his composure, gesturing for Newbiggin to continue.

“With Hongkong Land Group becoming the parent company of Jardine Matheson & Co., I know that Hongkong Land has the right to interfere in Jardine Matheson’s decisions. But I also hope that, in this process, Jardine Matheson & Co. can maintain a certain degree of independence and autonomy.”

Newbiggin continued, choosing his words carefully, “After all, Jardine Matheson & Co. has its own unique history and culture, as well as a proven and effective management system. And I, Newbiggin, have many years of experience managing Jardine Matheson & Co. and have earned everyone’s recognition. I believe Mr. Ma also has faith in my management abilities. Therefore, I hope that, without affecting the bigger picture, we can maintain this independence, and that you, Mr. Ma, will not interfere in any way with Jardine Matheson’s decision-making authority.”

Newbiggin stated his purpose directly.

It was a sudden realization for Ma Shiming. No wonder Newbiggin had rushed over to see him so eagerly right after he took office.

So, he was worried about him interfering with the management of Jardine Matheson & Co.

He did, in fact, have such power now.

As the nominal second-in-command of Hongkong Land Group, with the Boss and Taipan, Lin Haoran, not overly involved in the group’s affairs, Ma Shiming was effectively the person in charge with real power.

Therefore, he was fully capable of making the decision to intervene in the affairs of Jardine Matheson & Co.

However, after his in-depth conversation with his Boss, Lin Haoran, in Singapore, Ma Shiming had realized Newbiggin’s crucial role at Jardine Matheson & Co. in the short term. Thus, he understood that he couldn’t be too hasty or push too hard.

Otherwise, if he forced Newbiggin out and left no one in Jardine Matheson’s senior management who could keep things in check, he wouldn’t be able to find so many suitable senior executives to take over their work in the short term. That would be bad for everyone.

Besides, he himself was not a domineering person. He understood perfectly well that the best course of action for the time being was to let Jardine Matheson & Co. operate smoothly under Newbiggin’s leadership. The best strategy was to wait until their own people had gradually replaced the senior management at Jardine Matheson, and then slowly oust Newbiggin!

Therefore, letting Newbiggin continue to be in charge of was the most suitable choice.

After all, Ma Shiming had just joined Hongkong Land Group, and his primary task was to focus on the group’s internal affairs to ensure everything ran smoothly.

He couldn’t bite off more than he could chew. He hadn’t even truly grasped Hongkong Land Group yet, so why should he interfere with the management of Jardine Matheson & Co.!

Thus, Ma Shiming smiled at Newbiggin and said, “Mr. Newbiggin, please rest assured. Under normal circumstances, I will not interfere with the decisions of Jardine Matheson & Co. I have full confidence in your talent and leadership.

Of course, as a major shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co., Hongkong Land Group and I will naturally pay attention to its development. But we trust that under your leadership, Jardine Matheson & Co. will move forward steadily. As long as there are no major mistakes, we will maintain our full trust and support.”

Hearing Ma Shiming’s words, Newbiggin secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

He had been quite anxious on his way here, afraid that Ma Shiming would use his authority to meddle in Jardine’s affairs.

He had even prepared himself to argue his case forcefully with Ma Shiming.

Now that he had received Ma Shiming’s clear response, Newbiggin knew he no longer had to fight over this matter.

And yet, despite this, he still felt a sense of indignation.

This feeling, as if he were begging Ma Shiming not to interfere in the affairs of Jardine Matheson & Co., made him extremely displeased. Truly, extremely displeased.

As the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. for many years, Newbiggin had long since cultivated the dignity and confidence of a superior.

However, when facing Ma Shiming, this dignity of a superior seemed to have been greatly diminished.

This left him feeling somewhat dejected, and also a little helpless.

Chapter 353: The British-funded Conglomerate Has Not Given Up on Jardine Matheson & Co.

With mixed feelings, Newbiggin returned to his office at the Jardine Matheson & Co. headquarters.

Shortly after he arrived, the phone rang.

Although Newbiggin didn’t know who was calling, he picked up the telephone receiver as quickly as possible.

“Hello, is this Mr. Newbiggin? You finally answered. I’ve already called you several times, but no one picked up.” Before Newbiggin could even speak, the voice on the other end started talking.

The voice was very familiar; Newbiggin knew who it was the moment he heard it.

Indeed, on the other end of the line was the renowned former Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., Mr. Henry Keswick.

“Mr. Henry, did you need something?” Newbiggin asked, somewhat surprised to hear from his former superior.

Compared to himself, he felt Henry Keswick was in the most miserable position.

After Lin Haoran’s sudden announcement that he had taken control of the Hongkong Land Group and indirectly controlled Jardine Matheson & Co., he, Newbiggin, at least remained as the Taipan.

Henry Keswick, however, had now completely lost his voice within Jardine Matheson & Co.

This was mainly because Lin Haoran’s control over Jardine Matheson was extremely strong. Holding 49.1% of the shares, he had absolute control within the company.

Although Henry Keswick still held over 10% of Jardine Matheson’s shares, this was now insignificant in the current situation.

It was just as Henry Keswick had previously united other shareholders on the Jardine Matheson Board of Directors to oust Lin Haoran from the board, turning him into an ordinary shareholder.

In reality, even though Lin Haoran had not formally announced Henry Keswick’s removal from the Board of Directors, Henry was now no different from an ordinary shareholder.

Henry Keswick had lost his say, and the one holding power was his former rival.

In such a situation, how could the other party possibly grant him any decision-making power? It was clearly impossible.

“Mr. Newbiggin, are you free right now? I’d like to talk to you, preferably without anyone knowing,” Henry Keswick said.

“I am, Mr. Henry. Just name a place, and I’ll head over now!” Newbiggin replied directly, without a second thought.

He was still the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. As long as Lin Haoran didn’t intervene, he was the boss. Even if he left to handle personal matters during work hours, no one could say a thing.

Moreover, he was particularly curious: what on earth did Henry Keswick want with him?

A week had passed since Lin Haoran took control of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land.

Initially, Newbiggin had thought that the British-funded conglomerate, represented by Henry Keswick, would quickly find a way to counterattack Lin Haoran.

But after waiting a whole week, Newbiggin had not seen any action from these British-funded conglomerates.

Just when Newbiggin was thinking that Henry Keswick and the others had completely given up on Jardine Matheson & Co., the man finally contacted him.

He just didn’t know what it was about.

“In that case, I’ll be waiting for you at the Atlantic Coffee Shop next to the Mandarin Oriental in Central!” Henry Keswick continued.

The Atlantic Coffee Shop was a coffee chain brand owned by the Keswick family.

However, the chain was quite modest in scale, operating mainly in Britain. In Hong Kong, there were only two branches, and it had no connection whatsoever to Jardine Matheson & Co.

It was precisely because it was his family’s business that Henry Keswick chose the Atlantic Coffee Shop as the meeting spot.

“Alright, Mr. Henry. I’ll be there in twenty minutes!” Newbiggin responded.

“I’ll be waiting!” Henry Keswick said and hung up.

As for Newbiggin, he had just returned to his office and had not even warmed his seat before he was leaving again.

Before he left, he told his secretary, “I’m going out to take care of something. If anything comes up, we can talk about it when I get back!”

A little over ten minutes later, Newbiggin was in a secluded private room inside a coffee shop.

This was the Atlantic Coffee Shop that Henry Keswick had mentioned.

As Newbiggin stepped into the private room, the rich aroma of coffee filled the air. Henry Keswick, who had not been heard from for a week, was sitting there, leisurely sipping his coffee.

Upon seeing Newbiggin, Henry Keswick finally stood up and shook his hand.

“Mr. Henry, I thought you had already left Hong Kong and returned to Britain!” Newbiggin said with a smile.

“How could I be willing to return to Britain without taking back Jardine Matheson & Co.?” Henry Keswick replied.

“Mr. Henry, given Jardine Matheson’s current situation, you still haven’t given up on it?” Newbiggin said, a little surprised.

Although he had already guessed before coming that Henry Keswick was likely planning a counterattack.

But even with that thought in mind, hearing Henry Keswick’s confirmation in person still left Newbiggin somewhat astonished.

After all, the Keswick family now held only about 12% of Jardine Matheson’s shares. In contrast, Lin Haoran controlled up to 49.1% of the shares, including those held by the Hongkong Land Group—a shareholding percentage of nearly 50%.

Under these circumstances, he really couldn’t understand what means Henry Keswick had left to reclaim Jardine Matheson & Co.

“Although Jardine Matheson & Co. was not founded by our Keswick family, our family has been involved with it for many years. I am already the fifth generation, and under my leadership, Jardine Matheson’s development reached its peak. So, unless we have no other choice, how could the Keswick family possibly give up on Jardine Matheson & Co.?” Henry Keswick sighed.

Losing control of Jardine Matheson was a disgrace to his family. He could already imagine how many financial groups and families would laugh at them if he returned to Britain just like this.

Having Jardine Matheson forcibly taken by a Chinese man was such a huge humiliation—who could bear it?

“Then, Mr. Henry, why did you ask for me? After all, you should know that even with a new boss, I am still the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., still in charge of this great firm!” Newbiggin asked with a smile.

“Mr. Newbiggin, although you are still the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, I heard not long ago that Mr. Ma Shiming has become the Taipan of the Hongkong Land Group. Furthermore, Lin Haoran has declared Hongkong Land the parent company of Jardine Matheson. This means Mr. Ma Shiming, your former subordinate, is now your superior. I believe you must be quite unwilling to accept that, Mr. Newbiggin?” Henry Keswick said with a faint smile.

He had specifically chosen this moment to find Newbiggin, precisely to persuade him to return to the British-funded conglomerate’s camp!

Newbiggin had served as Taipan at Jardine Matheson & Co. for many years, making him incredibly influential within the company in the short term. Without this influence, his position as Taipan would not be so secure.

He had not been idle this past week. Instead, he had been running around, doing a great deal of work, all of which related to how to reclaim control of Jardine Matheson & Co.

As for the Hongkong Land Group, he had completely given it up.

Forget Hongkong Land; if he could truly reclaim Jardine Matheson, that would be the greatest victory.

Over the past week, Henry Keswick had gone all out, making various preparations and lobbying various British-owned powers. The results of these efforts had shown him a glimmer of hope for reclaiming the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co.

And if he could successfully win Newbiggin’s support, that hope would undoubtedly shine even brighter!

Therefore, even though Newbiggin had previously sided with Lin Haoran, and despite their past internal struggles where Keswick had once tried to oust him, Keswick decided to take the initiative and extend an olive branch to Newbiggin for the sake of the bigger picture, hoping he would rejoin the British-funded conglomerate.

As long as he could persuade Newbiggin to stand with them again, what did a temporary bow of the head matter?

After all, a great man should know when to yield and when to stand firm. A temporary compromise was worth it for the final victory.

It was impossible for Henry Keswick not to feel a trace of hatred for Newbiggin.

If Newbiggin hadn’t proposed and implemented the Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land cross-shareholding policy, how could Lin Haoran have used the Hongkong Land Group to indirectly control Jardine Matheson & Co.?

Therefore, Newbiggin could not escape the blame for Jardine Matheson’s current predicament.

What infuriated Henry Keswick even more was that this former Taipan of Jardine Matheson, a representative of the British-funded conglomerate, and a successor he himself had cultivated, had been the first to stand up and support Lin Haoran after his takeover of Hongkong Land and indirect control of Jardine Matheson was announced.

Such an act was undoubtedly a complete betrayal, something difficult to tolerate!

But even so, he had to endure it.

The greater good came first!

If there was a real chance to take back Jardine Matheson & Co. in the future, it wouldn’t be too late to deal with Newbiggin then.

“There’s nothing to regret. Mr. Ma Shiming and I have reached an understanding. We will each manage our own affairs; he runs his Hongkong Land Group, and I focus on my Jardine Matheson & Co.,” Newbiggin said with a smile.

However, behind that smile, only he himself knew whether any resentment truly existed.

He just wasn’t willing to show that resentment in front of Henry Keswick.

From the moment Newbiggin chose to support Lin Haoran, he realized that he and Henry Keswick were no longer on the same path.

However, Newbiggin had no regrets.

He was just a professional manager. He answered to whoever was the boss.

Being loyal to a particular boss was, to him, just a normal part of the workplace.

Chapter 354: A Time Bomb Was Planted Under the Car

While Newbiggin and Henry Keswick were discussing matters, Lin Haoran was not idle either.

After the announcement that Ma Shiming would be appointed as general manager and Vice Chairman of the Board of Hongkong Land Group, he received an invitation from a well-known newspaper for an exclusive interview.

And this newspaper was none other than the prestigious New York Times.

Given the significant global influence of The New York Times, Lin Haoran ultimately accepted their invitation.

Why was Pao Yue-kong recognized as the world’s number one shipping magnate? It was precisely the coverage from publications like American Business Daily, The New York Times, and Newsweek that fanned the flames, spreading his fame across the globe.

Of course, Pao Yue-kong’s exceptional capabilities were the fundamental reason he was hailed as the “Ship King”—a title he truly deserved.

These world-renowned media outlets acted as disseminators, allowing even the general public to become familiar with Pao Yue-kong.

A few years ago, America’s Newsweek had even featured Pao Yue-kong in a cover story, reverently calling him the “King of the Seas.”

Pao Yue-kong could even call the White House directly and speak with the president.

Therefore, when a businessman reaches a certain height in the commercial world, their social status rises accordingly.

And now, it was clear that the heights Lin Haoran had reached in the business world had also elevated his social status.

Although for the past two years, Lin Haoran had mostly been engaged in small-scale operations in Hong Kong.

But Hong Kong was, after all, a very famous international metropolis.

It was a world-renowned free port, a city where trade, finance, and shipping were highly concentrated and developed.

Therefore, although Lin Haoran had only achieved his considerable success in Hong Kong, his wealth was already on par with the world’s top tycoons.

The drawback, perhaps, was that his fame was not particularly high on the world stage.

Take Pao Yue-kong, for example. Leaders from basically all over the world knew him and treated him with great respect, largely due to media publicity. Lin Haoran, on the other hand, lacked this kind of international media coverage. As a result, his fame was limited to Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and Britain. In other places, very few people knew who he was.

The interview lasted for over an hour. As expected of a top global media outlet, many of the questions The New York Times asked Lin Haoran were quite eye-catching.

For instance, they asked for his views on the current global economic landscape, particularly how Hong Kong’s role as Asia’s financial center was evolving against the backdrop of the continent’s economic rise.

After some thought, Lin Haoran replied that he believed Hong Kong would continue to serve as a bridge connecting Eastern and Western markets, its unique financial system and legal environment providing a stable and transparent platform for international investors.

As the interview progressed, The New York Times team even dared to touch upon some extremely sensitive and intriguing questions, especially concerning the seemingly inexhaustible source of Lin Haoran’s funds during his multiple large-scale acquisitions.

After all, Lin Haoran’s every move in the business world seemed so calm and unhurried, with his capital flowing so smoothly it seemed entirely unaffected by market fluctuations. This naturally sparked curiosity and speculation from the outside world.

Faced with such a question, Lin Haoran demonstrated his wisdom and prudence.

He did not disclose any specific details, instead responding in a manner that was both tactful and vague, protecting his personal privacy without making the conversation awkward.

Because Lin Haoran knew very well that the reason he had made so much money was largely due to his identity as a transmigrator, which allowed him to foresee many events. This enabled him to earn vast sums of capital, and with such a deep financial foundation, he had defeated one competitor after another.

If he revealed too much, everything about him would seem too exaggerated. It was best to answer such questions vaguely.

“My funding comes from various sources: early hard work and accumulation, the support of partners, and a precise grasp of market opportunities. Of course, the efforts and wisdom of my team behind the scenes are also indispensable,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, his eyes filled with a calm and unhurried confidence.

Such an answer not only avoided the landmine of revealing sensitive information but also cleverly conveyed the multiple factors behind his success, allowing the interview team to respect his privacy while also sensing his wisdom and demeanor as a successful entrepreneur.

After the interview ended, Lin Haoran didn’t give the matter much thought.

As his position in the business world became increasingly stable and his achievements continued to mount, Lin Haoran knew it was only a matter of time before he became world-famous.

Just like this exclusive interview with The New York Times, they had even promised him that he would be the cover figure for their next issue.

And Lin Haoran was well aware that the interview with The New York Times was just the beginning. In the future, there would definitely be more internationally renowned media outlets wanting to interview him.

And as more high-profile media outlets reported on him, his influence would naturally and gradually increase.

All of this would just come with time.

He had the unique advantage of being a transmigrator, able to see future trends and seize business opportunities, which allowed him to accumulate wealth far beyond ordinary people.

Although his current global influence couldn’t compare to that of the former Ship King, Pao Yue-kong, Lin Haoran was confident that he had long since surpassed him in terms of accumulated wealth.

This was evident from the fact that the Hong Kong Commercial Daily had unreservedly bestowed the title of “richest man in Hong Kong” upon him in its reports, and no one had raised any objections.

The entirety of Hong Kong society, from business peers to the general public, had already tacitly accepted Lin Haoran as the representative of the pinnacle of wealth in Hong Kong.

After the interview, Lin Haoran sat in his private office in the Wanqing Building, his fingers tapping arrhythmically on his desk.

Having taken Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group, his achievements in Hong Kong seemed to have reached their peak.

To put it bluntly, he was now the number one figure in Hong Kong’s business world.

Even Michael Sandberg, the supreme overlord of Hong Kong’s financial sector, was at most on the same level as him.

After acquiring Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group, the only thing left in Hong Kong that truly interested him was probably HSBC.

But Lin Haoran knew very well that just because he had successfully acquired Jardine Matheson, it didn’t mean he had the capability to take control of HSBC.

The interests of Jardine Matheson, at most, were tied to those of many British-funded conglomerates. HSBC, however, likely involved the interests of the British and Hong Kong governments themselves. How could they possibly allow him to take control of HSBC?

Therefore, from beginning to end, Lin Haoran had never entertained too many ideas about HSBC.

Becoming a board member of HSBC was already something of a surprise to him.

Of course, Lin Haoran was also well aware that even as a member of HSBC’s Board of Directors, it was of little use.

One only had to look at Jardine Matheson to understand. As one of HSBC’s most important shareholders, the two companies even engaged in cross-shareholding, yet when it came to a critical conflict of interest, HSBC still chose not to help Jardine Matheson.

So, Lin Haoran never held any great illusions about HSBC.

Since there was no chance of achieving his biggest goal, perhaps it was time to shift his focus overseas.

He now indirectly controlled Jardine Matheson. Although the company had many overseas assets, to be honest, Lin Haoran didn’t think much of them.

For example, none of the overseas companies acquired by Jardine Matheson had the potential to become international enterprises; they were basically just local businesses with little prospect for growth.

In contrast, the Hongkong Land Group’s layout in Central was practically a money-printing machine, set to provide generous returns continuously into the future!

This was why he valued the Hongkong Land Group so highly but wasn’t as concerned about Jardine Matheson & Co.

Although Jardine Matheson had long been involved in overseas investments, their investment vision was, in the end, somewhat limited.

But if Lin Haoran were the one investing, his options would be far more extensive.

Look at the companies that had already begun to make their mark and still had unlimited future potential: American giants like Intel, ExxonMobil, and Coca-Cola; European elites like Siemens and Novo Nordisk; and Japanese international corporations like Toyota, Sony, and Mitsubishi.

Companies like these were everywhere. Whether now or in the future, which one wasn’t a leader in its industry?

Wouldn’t investing in these companies be far more promising than acquiring the obscure businesses under Jardine Matheson?

His previous investment in Apple Inc. was a case in point.

Anyone living in the twenty-first century would know just how glorious Apple Inc.’s future would be.

“Boss, there’s an urgent situation to report!” Just as Lin Haoran was pondering his overseas expansion strategy, Burton strode in.

“Hmm? An urgent situation?” Lin Haoran looked up curiously.

“Our security personnel were patrolling the underground parking lot when they noticed something unusual under your car. When they looked underneath, they discovered that a time bomb had been planted there at some point. Fortunately, it was discovered very quickly. We’ve already called the police, and the entire underground parking lot has been sealed off. On the surveillance footage, we saw a car follow your private car in shortly after you arrived. It parked next to yours, and someone secretly installed the device. If it hadn’t been discovered in time, the consequences would have been unimaginable!” Burton reported, his expression grave.

Burton’s words made Lin Haoran break out in a cold sweat, and his heart began to race.

Someone wanted to assassinate him!

But thankfully, his luck wasn’t bad; it was discovered in advance. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

Chapter 355: Forming the Shadow Guard Team

Lately, Lin Haoran had, after all, become somewhat lax about his personal security.

One-on-one encounters were manageable, but secret plots were another matter. Even with two highly skilled bodyguards by his side, it was impossible to guard against everything.

Just like this time, a time bomb had been secretly planted in his private car. If the patrolling security guards hadn’t discovered it ahead of time, what would have become of him?

There was no need to even think about it; the outcome would have certainly been tragic!

Flesh and blood are nothing in the face of a bomb.

He was still young and had earned so much money. If he died just like that, wouldn’t he become the most pathetic person in the world?

To earn so much money yet have no chance to enjoy it—he was unwilling to accept such an outcome.

Of course, given Li Weidong and Li Weiguo’s usual habits, they would have thoroughly inspected the car before getting in, so the probability of them discovering it wasn’t small.

Even so, the incident today was enough to raise Lin Haoran’s vigilance.

Better to be safe than sorry!

“Have you caught the person who planted the time bomb?” Lin Haoran asked directly after composing himself.

“Not yet. The perpetrator was extremely covert, clearly an experienced professional. After planting the bomb, he immediately drove away. The license plate has been all but confirmed as forged. The police have verified that the plate number doesn’t exist, and the gate guard doesn’t have a strong recollection of the man.

If your private car hadn’t been in range of a surveillance camera, we wouldn’t even have been able to determine when the bomb was planted. As for the suspect’s appearance, due to the limited resolution of the closed-circuit surveillance, we can’t make out his features. The police are currently gathering information in the underground parking garage, and they’ve already sent professionals to dismantle the time bomb.

Regarding the whole incident, the police said they will launch an investigation, but I believe it will be very difficult to ultimately find out who was behind this,” Burton replied.

Lin Haoran nodded. He naturally understood that it was quite fortunate that the Wanqing Building even had closed-circuit surveillance in its underground garage.

After all, closed-circuit surveillance only began to see widespread commercial use in the seventies. Now, at the beginning of the eighties, it wasn’t very common.

More importantly, the resolution of surveillance cameras at the time was not high. In a dim environment like an underground parking garage, trying to get a clear look at the person’s face from the footage was next to impossible.

“Take me to the surveillance room!” Lin Haoran said, standing up.

“This way, Boss.”

Led by Burton, Lin Haoran arrived at a surveillance room.

The room was equipped with over twenty small black-and-white television sets, each one representing a closed-circuit camera.

To have a surveillance system of this scale was quite rare in all of Hong Kong.

At that moment, Lin Haoran could see the surveillance feed from the underground garage. Many police officers were present, and all the lights were on, making the scene much clearer.

But Lin Haoran knew very well that the underground garage did not normally have all its lights on; that would be too much of a waste of electricity.

Under normal circumstances, it was unlikely that someone would come in to plant a bomb. But Lin Haoran’s identity was too critical. He was a famous businessman in Hong Kong who had just taken over Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group.

In a situation like this, there were quite a few people who would want him dead!

As an operator worked the controls, the footage from one of the cameras was quickly replayed.

In the video, after Lin Haoran got out of the car with Li Weidong and Li Weiguo and left the underground garage, less than a minute passed.

Then, a nondescript sedan pulled up beside the Rolls-Royce. A man got out of the car. His face was unclear; it seemed he had intentionally put on a hood before exiting, making his features very blurry. Then, faintly, he could be seen crawling under the Rolls-Royce.

A few minutes later, the man returned to his own car and drove out of the Wanqing Building’s underground parking garage.

The entire process took less than five minutes!

“Mr. Burton, go and liaise with the police. I won’t go down. Also, there’s no need to make a big deal out of this!” Lin Haoran said, turning to Burton.

Burton’s loyalty was now as high as 92, so Lin Haoran had complete trust in him.

Lin Haoran knew that the mastermind who wanted him dead was definitely no ordinary person. Expecting the police to get revenge for him?

That was simply impossible.

What he needed to do now was to strengthen his own security.

He had indeed grown lax about his safety recently, but this incident served as a wake-up call, making him realize that even in Hong Kong, in his own stronghold, his safety was by no means guaranteed!

“Understood, Boss. I’ll head down now!” With that, Burton said his goodbyes to Lin Haoran and hurried downstairs to connect with the police officer in charge of the case.

As for Lin Haoran, he did not linger in the surveillance room. Instead, he returned to his private office with Li Weidong and Li Weiguo.

Through the glass window, he could clearly see the towering white building—the Connaught Centre.

That building now belonged to him, Lin Haoran!

At this moment, however, Lin Haoran’s mind was not on it.

“Weidong, what are your thoughts on this matter?” Lin Haoran asked.

Since founding the Universal Security Consulting Company, his available security forces had indeed grown much stronger.

But these men were not by his side day to day. The only ones who truly followed him at all times were Li Weidong and Li Weiguo.

Although the people from the Universal Security Consulting Company could provide timely support, it still took time for that support to arrive.

As his wealth grew, so did the number of people he offended. For example, after his successful acquisition of Jardine Matheson, the tycoons behind the British-funded conglomerates must hate him to the bone.

Although this incident might not be directly related to the British-funded conglomerates, regardless of who the mastermind was, the most important thing for Lin Haoran right now was not to get to the bottom of it, but to effectively improve his personal security.

Currently, relying solely on Li Weidong and Li Weiguo for daily protection was clearly no longer enough.

How to further strengthen his security had become a pressing issue.

If his enemies resorted to underhanded methods to target him in secret, then even adding more bodyguards might have little effect.

Li Weidong certainly understood the urgency of the matter.

His own safety was tied to the Boss’s. If anything happened to the Boss, he could not escape the blame.

Most importantly, the Boss had saved both his and Li Weiguo’s lives, and for the past two years, he had treated them like family.

Not only that, but the Boss had also specifically brought their families over from their hometown and was taking care of them.

Therefore, Li Weidong would absolutely not allow anyone to harm his Boss.

After careful consideration, he proposed, “Boss, I’ve recently been studying cases from some of the world’s top security firms, and I’ve learned a lot. Given your current situation, I believe we should form a shadow guard team dedicated to your protection.

Weiguo and I can be in the open, while the shadow guard team protects you from the shadows, and can even handle threats that we can’t deal with directly. This way, your safety can be comprehensively guaranteed!”

“Shadow guards?” Lin Haoran couldn’t help but repeat the term upon hearing Li Weidong’s proposal.

A thoughtful look flashed in Lin Haoran’s eyes. He nodded slowly, clearly very interested in the idea.

“Weidong, continue. This shadow guard team, how do you think we should form it? How would the members be selected? How would they be trained?” Lin Haoran pressed.

Li Weidong nodded and continued, “Boss, my idea is that we can handpick a group of elites from the Universal Security Consulting Company to form the core of the shadow guard team.

They will not only have to pass rigorous background checks to ensure their loyalty and reliability, but also possess outstanding physical fitness and professional skills.

Although we don’t have experience forming a team of shadow guards, we can learn from advanced international practices and hire world-renowned security experts to provide this elite group with comprehensive, professional training.

The training curriculum would include, but not be limited to, close-quarters combat, concealment techniques, firearms use, intelligence gathering and analysis, as well as anti-tracking and anti-eavesdropping skills. These skills are crucial for shadow guards, enabling them to handle themselves in complex and ever-changing environments.

At the same time, we must also focus on developing the psychological fortitude of the shadow guard members. They must be able to maintain their composure and judgment under high-pressure situations, which is vital to ensuring mission success. Therefore, we will include psychological conditioning in the training to help them build a strong mental defense.

As for the numbers, my initial idea is to form a small, elite team of about ten to fifteen people. A team of this size can ensure efficiency while reducing the risk of exposure.

Normally, they would appear near you, Boss, under various guises, or blend into different corners of society, making them difficult to detect. But if an emergency occurs, they could assemble rapidly to form a tight security net, ensuring your safety, Boss.

They might even be able to detect signs of danger before it happens, nipping it in the bud!”

Lin Haoran nodded frequently as he listened, full of praise for Li Weidong’s proposal. “Weidong, that’s an excellent idea. I’ll discuss this with Cui Zilong today and have him immediately start making arrangements to form the shadow guard team. I’m putting you in charge of supervising this project. You must ensure that every step is taken meticulously, with no oversights.”

This matter couldn’t be delayed any longer. The time bomb failed this time, but who knew if the other party would plan another attempt?

Therefore, Lin Haoran hoped that this shadow guard plan proposed by Li Weidong could be implemented as soon as possible so that he could feel at ease.

He didn’t want to live in constant fear.

Chapter 356: Guo Henian Visits Again

Lin Haoran naturally took his own safety very seriously.

Therefore, he contacted Cui Zilong that very day and put him in charge of assembling the shadow guard.

Most importantly, he instructed him to invite the world’s top international security experts to conduct the training.

Although the elites of the Universal Security Consulting Company already underwent rigorous training, the formation of the shadow guard required the addition of specific courses, such as identity concealment, counter-surveillance, and anti-eavesdropping techniques—areas not yet covered by Universal Security’s current training system.

As for other skills like combat and firearms, these elites were already exceptionally proficient.

Therefore, assembling this shadow guard team would not take too long.

According to Li Weidong and Cui Zilong’s estimates, the shadow guard could be officially providing security for Lin Haoran in as little as half a month.

After his conversation with Lin Haoran, Cui Zilong moved swiftly. He began searching for international security experts on one hand, and on the other, he immediately set off for Manila to select suitable candidates for the shadow guard.

While the Universal Security Consulting Company in Hong Kong had many talented individuals, the gun-ridden, complex environment of Manila was arguably more suitable for screening the kind of elites he needed.

Moreover, the Manila training base had now become Universal Security Consulting Company’s largest and best training facility.

The time bomb under the Rolls-Royce had been successfully defused by bomb disposal experts from the police. To be absolutely certain, the vehicle underwent a comprehensive inspection. Only after confirming it was safe did Lin Haoran feel at ease enough to take it home.

In light of the incident, and to ensure his personal safety before the shadow guard team was fully formed, Lin Haoran decided to reduce his outings to avoid giving potential enemies any opportunities.

At the same time, security around his villa was also strengthened. The Universal Security Consulting Company directly dispatched more than a dozen elite bodyguards to stand guard.

The police department also promised to increase patrols on Severn Road.

Under such high-intensity protection, Lin Haoran was certain he would be safe.

At a little past seven in the evening, Lin Haoran was on the phone with Burton in the ground-floor study of his Severn Road villa.

Just as Burton had predicted, relying on the police to uncover the truth was nearly impossible.

The perpetrators had clearly come prepared, leaving behind no valuable clues or evidence.

The police department merely stated they would do their best to investigate, but there was no telling when they would have any results.

Meanwhile, the intelligence department under Cui Zilong had also sprung into action.

However, the incident was so covert that even the intelligence department struggled to gather any useful information.

After all, this was not an era of ubiquitous surveillance; once a vehicle entered the remote mountains, tracking it became exceedingly difficult.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran sat quietly in his chair, lost in thought.

He went through the list of people who might want him dead, one by one.

Henry Keswick? Bao Fuda? Or Altair from Squid Capital, the backer of the DHL Group?

He even considered his own older brother, Lin Haoning.

Why would he think of Lin Haoning?

Because if something unfortunate were to happen to Lin Haoran, his assets would undoubtedly be inherited by his parents.

And his parents only had two sons. If Lin Haoran were gone, Lin Haoning would naturally be the one to inherit those assets in the future.

Of course, he considered this possibility very small.

He knew Lin Haoning’s character very well; his brother was unlikely to do such a thing.

But one can’t be too careful. Although he was inclined to believe Lin Haoning had nothing to do with it, this incident made him realize that apart from his verifiably loyal subordinates and his parents, no one else could be trusted one hundred percent.

After all, once you lose your life, it’s gone for good. He dared not gamble on it.

Dying in his last life gave him a chance to be reborn, but that didn’t guarantee he would get another chance if he died in this one.

As he was thinking, the phone rang.

Lin Haoran casually picked up the telephone receiver.

Two minutes later, he put it down.

The call was from Guo Henian, who said he was bringing Guo Xiaohan over for a visit.

Lin Haoran naturally welcomed them, though he was unsure of the purpose of their visit.

A little over ten minutes later, the sound of a car horn echoed from outside.

Lin Haoran walked out of the villa’s main gate and, sure enough, saw Guo Henian’s private car parked at the entrance.

“Uncle Guo, welcome!” Lin Haoran approached with a smile, warmly shaking hands with Guo Henian, who had just stepped out of the car.

“Haoran, let’s talk inside,” Guo Henian said, gesturing toward the villa.

Lin Haoran nodded in agreement.

At that moment, Guo Xiaohan got out from the other side of the car. She looked Lin Haoran over carefully, her face filled with concern.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran gave her a warm smile.

“Uncle Guo, have you had dinner?” Lin Haoran asked with concern.

“We have. We just came from Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon. This daughter of mine insisted on coming to see you right away, so I brought her straight here. We haven’t even been home yet,” Guo Henian replied with a smile.

Beside him, Guo Xiaohan’s face turned beet red, but she didn’t refute him, tacitly admitting her concern for Lin Haoran.

Hearing Guo Henian’s words, Lin Haoran understood that he must have already heard about the time bomb planted on his car that afternoon.

After all, Hong Kong was only so big. Although Lin Haoran had no intention of publicizing the matter, it wasn’t difficult for tycoons like them to find out.

In fact, he had already received several calls that afternoon. Pao Yue-kong, Li Jiacheng, and others had all called to express their concern.

After all, once you reached a certain level of influence, you generally had your own sources of intelligence. It was natural for them to learn about such things easily.

The three of them entered the ground-floor study, and a short while later, Guo Xiaohan took it upon herself to make tea.

Meanwhile, Guo Henian and Lin Haoran began their conversation.

“I’ve heard about what happened to you this afternoon. To be honest, I’ve experienced my fair share of similar troubles in Southeast Asia. At our level, having competitors is unavoidable.

We can’t stop others from wanting us dead, but what we can do is improve our own security. This experience should serve as a wake-up call for you,” Guo Henian said with a sigh.

Lin Haoran nodded seriously. “You’re right, Uncle Guo. This incident really made me realize my own shortcomings in security. I’ve already started taking steps to strengthen it.”

Hearing this, Guo Henian nodded in approval. “Good. The fact that you’ve acted so quickly shows you’re a decisive person. However, I must remind you that security is not something that can be perfected overnight. It requires continuous effort and investment. Moreover, as your status and influence grow, the threats you face will also increase, so you cannot let your guard down for a moment.”

Lin Haoran deeply agreed. “Don’t worry, Uncle Guo, I will always keep that in mind. By the way, Uncle Guo, besides this matter, was there something else you wanted to talk to me about, bringing Xiaohan here today?”

“Besides Xiaohan wanting to see you, there is another matter, which is related to my trip to Tsim Sha Tsui this afternoon. You should be familiar with Mr. Chen Songqing of the Carrian Group. He wishes to collaborate with me on a major project, so I made a special trip there to inspect it,” Guo Henian replied.

“Tsim Sha Tsui? Carrian Group? The project you’re talking about, could it be the Carrian Group’s planned Tsim Sha Tsui East Commercial Plaza project? The one with a total investment of three billion Hong Kong dollars?”

Based on the information Guo Henian provided, Lin Haoran quickly made the connection. After he took over the Hongkong Land Group, he had directly terminated the partnership with the Carrian Group on this very project.

“Yes, that’s the one. I went to Tsim Sha Tsui this afternoon for this project. After my inspection, I found that it has enormous potential and is very likely to become another Landmark in the future. I’m very optimistic about it.

However, from what I know, this project was originally supposed to be a collaboration between the Carrian Group and the Hongkong Land Group, which you recently acquired, right? Why did you abandon such a high-quality project after taking over Hongkong Land?” Guo Henian voiced his confusion.

Lin Haoran finally understood the true purpose of Guo Henian’s visit.

“Uncle Guo, how much do you know about Mr. Chen Songqing?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“I don’t know him in depth. Only that he came from Southeast Asia, went bankrupt there, and then came to Hong Kong. Here, he quickly began to make his mark and is now one of Hong Kong’s top tycoons, a heavyweight in the real estate industry,” Guo Henian answered truthfully.

“After taking over the Hongkong Land Group, I did some investigation into Mr. Chen Songqing. I found that the source of his funds is quite suspicious. Uncle Guo, have you ever considered how the Carrian company, which was just an ordinary insecticide company three years ago, could skyrocket to become one of Hong Kong’s top real estate companies in just two or three years? Where did his funds come from?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Where did they come from? You’ve found some clues?” Guo Henian’s curiosity was immediately piqued.

Indeed, the source of Chen Songqing’s funds had always been a mystery.

“According to my investigation, most of Mr. Chen Songqing’s funds come from loans, and high-interest loans at that. He often uses new loans to pay off old ones. The financial institutions involved include Bumiputra Finance, the Bank of Communications, and others. It’s not because, as rumored, Mr. Chen Songqing has some powerful backer. Of course, this is just my speculation based on the information I’ve investigated, and I can’t guarantee it’s completely accurate.

Uncle Guo, if you believe me, it would be best not to partner with Mr. Chen Songqing. However, the final decision is, of course, yours to make. I’m just offering my perspective.”

Chapter 357: Haoran, Do You Know Mr. Buffett?

The main reason Lin Haoran told Guo Henian all this was because the Guo family had given him considerable help.

If it were someone with whom he had only a casual relationship, he wouldn’t have said a word.

As for the potential real estate crisis in the future, Lin Haoran had no intention of revealing it to Guo Henian.

Considering Guo Henian’s personal capabilities and the Guo family’s investment layout in Hong Kong, even if a real estate crisis did hit, the impact on him would be relatively limited.

After all, real estate investment was not currently the Guo family’s primary focus in Hong Kong.

Even when the Guo family had previously partnered with other real estate companies to acquire several plots of land in Tsim Sha Tsui, their goal wasn’t to develop real estate projects, but to build their own hotels.

The Guo family had ample cash flow and could do a great many things.

Of course, the future Guo family group would definitely invest heavily in Hong Kong’s real estate sector, but for now, it was only just the beginning.

“Really? If that’s the case, then we can’t cooperate on this project. When I get back, I’ll send people to conduct a thorough and discreet investigation based on the points you’ve raised,” Guo Henian said in a low voice, his brow furrowed.

He was naturally well aware that if the Carrian Group’s development was truly propped up by a cycle of loans, then collaborating with them would carry immense risk.

Once the Carrian Group’s capital chain broke and they collapsed, the Guo family’s losses on this project would be disastrous.

After all, the Carrian Group held the dominant position in this project.

Once they went bankrupt, their subsequent investments would be cut off. Not only that, but their bankruptcy would trigger a series of debt issues.

By then, the project would become a hot potato, incredibly difficult to handle.

In that case, if the Guo family truly invested capital in this project, it was highly likely that their money would be completely wiped out, all for nothing.

Guo Henian would certainly not take such a huge risk.

“Whether it’s true or not, Uncle Guo, you’ll know once you’ve conducted a thorough investigation. But my advice is that you should avoid collaborating too much with Mr. Chen Songqing, or you might end up on the losing end.

If you look closely, you’ll find that people like Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng have not established any partnerships with Chen Songqing. They are all shrewd men, which clearly indicates they’ve also noticed something amiss with Mr. Chen.

I won’t say more, as I don’t have concrete evidence. It’s still up to you, Uncle Guo, to find people and investigate in detail,” Lin Haoran continued.

Guo Henian nodded, his expression solemn. “This project is truly exceptional. After I inspected it, I was almost impulsive enough to sign the cooperation agreement with Mr. Chen Songqing. It’s a good thing I came to ask you first. When I go back and investigate thoroughly, if things are really as you say, Haoran, then Uncle Guo will truly owe you a huge favor!”

Lin Haoran smiled. “Uncle Guo, we’re family, there’s no need for such formalities. Given our relationship, is there any need to distinguish between you and me? You’ve helped me a lot in the past, so this is what I should do.”

At the mention of “family,” Guo Xiaohan, who was brewing tea, suddenly paused her movements. Her gaze shifted to Lin Haoran, her eyes filled with anticipation.

Clearly, she had misunderstood the meaning of their words.

Guo Henian looked between the two of them and laughed heartily. “Speaking of which, Haoran, you should be well aware of our Xiaohan’s feelings for you. I won’t say much more, but you have to give a clear answer, right? You can’t just keep dragging this on.”

“Uncle Guo, you’re being a bit too direct,” Lin Haoran said with a helpless, wry smile.

“If I’m not direct, who knows how long you’d drag it on? When Xiaohan heard that someone was trying to frame you, she was on edge the entire afternoon. The moment we left Tsim Sha Tsui, she was urging me to come and see you. She couldn’t be at ease until she saw you with her own eyes.

I think you should be able to understand these feelings. Besides, our Guo family is the leading financial group in Southeast Asia, and you, Lin Haoran, are now the recognized richest man in Hong Kong. Our two families are a good match in terms of social standing, and Xiaohan’s looks are outstanding. What more could you be picky about?” Guo Henian continued.

“Uncle Guo, as you know, I’m only twenty-six right now, and I have no plans for an early marriage. Xiaohan is only twenty-four. We’re both still young. Marriage is a major life event and can’t be decided on a whim, don’t you agree?

Since you need an answer, how about this: if Xiaohan is willing to wait, give me two years to consider. Two years from now, regardless of the outcome, I will give a definite answer. Xiaohan will still be young then, so I think you should be able to understand and wait.

Of course, if Xiaohan is unwilling to wait, that’s fine too. At present, my focus is mainly on my career, which is at a critical stage of development. Romance is not my current priority. So, Xiaohan, whether you’re willing to wait or not is your choice to make, how about it?”

As he finished speaking, Lin Haoran’s gaze fell on Guo Xiaohan’s face, his tone carrying a hint of solemnity.

He did indeed have a good impression of Guo Xiaohan. She was beautiful, talented, and came from a prominent family. A girl like her was undoubtedly his ideal partner.

However, he truly had no intention of walking down the aisle so soon.

At the same time, he would never treat Guo Xiaohan with the same casual attitude he had towards Rosamund Kwan.

Giving Guo Xiaohan two years was, in a way, a test for her.

If she could wait sincerely, how could he possibly let such a devoted girl slip through his fingers?

Playing around with female celebrities was done with a hunter’s mentality.

So Lin Haoran could be very unrestrained.

But in his two lifetimes, he had never considered marrying an actress; they were only suitable as mistresses.

And Guo Xiaohan was clearly not in the category of a mistress.

Today, for the first time, Lin Haoran had stated his intentions so frankly, which could be considered a clear answer for Guo Xiaohan.

“Since you’ve put it that way, there’s not much more for me to say. This is a choice for you young people, and it’s indeed not appropriate for me to interfere too much,” Guo Henian said, nodding in understanding.

Although Guo Henian wasn’t completely satisfied with Lin Haoran’s response, at least it was a clear stance, no longer vague and ambiguous like before.

After hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Guo Xiaohan remained silent at first. After a while, she gazed at Lin Haoran and said seriously, “Brother Haoran, I’m willing to wait for you!”

Lin Haoran felt a bit of a headache when it came to Guo Xiaohan.

He felt he was still young and hadn’t had his fill of fun yet; he truly didn’t want to step into the prison of marriage so early.

Although it might be possible to secretly continue enjoying himself on the side after marriage, he wasn’t sure if Guo Xiaohan could accept such a lifestyle. If he were caught, the marriage would become torment for both of them.

The best-case scenario would be for Guo Xiaohan to tacitly accept it and turn a blind eye.

Before the 1980s, there were indeed very few outstanding female celebrities in Hong Kong; only a handful like Rosamund Kwan and Cherie Chung could catch his eye.

However, Lin Haoran knew very well that in a few years, stars like Vivian Chow, Joey Wong, Chingmy Yau, Michelle Reis, Veronica Yip, and Nina Li Chi would shine as brightly as the constellations.

Each one was a girl of national beauty, each with her own unique charm.

As one of the bosses of TVB, how could he let such an opportunity slip by?

Since he had been reborn, it would be a terrible waste not to live wildly and recklessly.

Perhaps because their feelings were now out in the open, Guo Xiaohan became more talkative afterward.

Two years wasn’t too long, nor was it too short, but Guo Xiaohan firmly believed that she could wait.

After a man as outstanding as Lin Haoran had occupied her heart, she could no longer see any other man.

Lin Haoran was too exceptional, so much so that she felt she could never be moved by any other man again.

“By the way, Haoran, do you know Mr. Buffett?” Guo Henian asked suddenly.

“Mr. Buffett? Of course, I do. The famous American stock market guru, Mr. Warren Buffett!” Although Lin Haoran didn’t understand why Guo Henian had suddenly brought this person up, he nodded in response.

“Mr. Buffett has invested in one of my companies listed in Singapore, so he’s one of my partners. I just received a call from him saying he’s coming to Hong Kong next week. I’ll be meeting with him then. One can learn a lot from him. If you’d like to meet Mr. Buffett too, I can take you with me,” Guo Henian continued.

“Alright, then I’ll have to trouble you, Uncle Guo. I would also very much like to meet this legendary stock market guru!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Speaking of which, he and this stock market guru, Buffett, did have a bit of a connection!

The three of them chatted until nine o’clock at night before finishing.

When it was time to leave, Guo Xiaohan was reluctant to part.

For her, Lin Haoran’s reply, though not entirely what she had hoped for, at least gave her something to look forward to.

Although she felt a little wronged by the matter, having been so forward herself without a good result all this time.

“Uncle, don’t they say, ‘When a woman pursues a man, there’s but a layer of gauze between them’? Why is Brother Haoran so difficult to handle!” Guo Xiaohan complained aggrievedly in Guo Henian’s private car.

“That’s because that saying only applies to ordinary men. An outstanding man like Haoran naturally has no shortage of admirers. It’s only reasonable that he doesn’t agree so easily.

Besides, I actually think it’s a good thing he didn’t agree right away. It shows that he is very serious about you, not making a rash decision!” Guo Henian explained with a smile.

“Uncle, now that you put it that way, I understand! So, Brother Haoran is serious about me. I must hold a certain place in his heart!” Guo Xiaohan’s face lit up, and she became happy.

Watching his niece completely caught in the whirlwind of love, her intelligence seemingly taking a major hit whenever she was dealing with Lin Haoran, utterly losing the sharpness she showed when learning corporate management from him, Guo Henian couldn’t help but sigh.

He couldn’t tell whether this affair was a blessing or a curse.

He could only wish that his niece would find a good home in the future!

Chapter 358: I Don’t Want Him to Live Past This Month

At the Severn Road villa, Lin Haoran personally saw Guo Henian and Guo Xiaohan to their car before turning and heading back inside.

As for Guo Xiaohan, he felt he had already given her a clear answer.

Regarding his future with Guo Xiaohan, Lin Haoran had already made up his mind. He decided to leave it to time and let fate take its course.

The night passed in the blink of an eye.

Lin Haoran had survived a meticulously planned assassination attempt. He had no intention of making it a public sensation, so the news was little known among the general populace. However, it had already spread like wildfire throughout Hong Kong’s high society.

The incident drew widespread attention from the upper class, prompting many tycoons to heighten their vigilance and strengthen their personal security measures.

After all, while Lin Haoran had been lucky enough to escape this murder plot, they probably wouldn’t have been so fortunate if it had been them.

Today, not only was his own intelligence organization working at full capacity to track down the mastermind, but even the 13K triad, which boasted a hundred thousand members, had quietly launched its own investigation.

Although the mastermind might be difficult to apprehend, Lin Haoran would show no mercy to the person who had directly planted the bomb if any clues were found. He would never allow himself to be seen as a soft target!

Ma Shiming’s takeover of Hongkong Land Group was exceptionally smooth. In just two or three days, he encountered no thorny issues. On the contrary, he quickly won the widespread support of the group’s original middle and senior executives.

Originally, the senior executives imposed by the British-funded conglomerate were concentrated more at Jardine Matheson & Co., while Hongkong Land Group was largely helmed by professional managers.

Moreover, Ma Shiming had been an Executive Director at Jardine Matheson & Co. just two or three months prior, and he enjoyed a certain degree of prestige within Hongkong Land Group.

Coupled with the fact that he was a Westerner who had worked at Jardine Matheson for a good dozen years, his identity made the takeover of Hongkong Land Group all the more seamless. The entire process was incredibly smooth.

Lin Haoran did not step out of his house for the entire day.

Until the shadow guard team was formally established, Lin Haoran decided to keep a low profile and go out as little as possible.

After all, although the murder attempt had failed, it was still unknown whether the other party had given up or was secretly plotting their next move.

That evening, after dinner, Lin Haoran returned to the third floor and turned on the television.

At that moment, TVB’s Jade Channel was broadcasting a highly popular program—the large-scale Miss Hong Kong beauty pageant.

This pageant had been running for nearly four months, with the preliminary auditions alone lasting for three months.

It wasn’t until the 26th of last month that the Miss Hong Kong pageant officially began its televised live broadcasts.

However, at that time, Lin Haoran had been busy battling for key projects with Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group. Naturally, he had no time to spare for an event like the Miss Hong Kong pageant.

The grand finale was scheduled for the middle of the month.

Tonight, the semi-finals were underway.

As a Transmigrator, Lin Haoran knew nothing about this year’s Miss Hong Kong pageant.

However, from the contestants’ performances, he could vaguely sense that this year’s pageant seemed to lack any particularly outstanding beauties. In the future he knew, not a single one of this year’s contestants had ever made a name for herself.

Since Shao Yifu took over TVB, he had implemented a series of sweeping reforms.

With every reform, Shao Yifu would personally call Lin Haoran to solicit his opinion as the largest shareholder, and Lin Haoran always gave his full support.

He knew very well that under Shao Yifu’s leadership, TVB’s viewership ratings would rise steadily. In the future, it would dominate Hong Kong’s ratings for a long time and even expand internationally.

Of course, all of this required time to build up; the changes at TVB might not be significant in the short term.

But there was no denying that Miss Hong Kong, as TVB’s signature program, had an influence that was not to be underestimated.

Ever since the Miss Hong Kong pageant began in 1980, whenever the show aired, its viewership ratings would easily surpass those of Rediffusion Television, becoming a hot topic of conversation among viewers.

On the television screen, the bikini-clad contestants presented a visual feast for the audience with their stunning figures.

Combined with the entertaining question-and-answer segment and the diverse talent showcases, the program was undoubtedly filled with captivating elements. It was no wonder the ratings were so high and the show was so beloved by the public.

However, for Lin Haoran, who was already the richest man in Hong Kong and had seen countless top-tier beauties in his past life through various video streaming platforms, these contestants, who were considered women of outstanding beauty in the eyes of ordinary people, seemed rather ordinary to him.

Therefore, Lin Haoran watched the program casually, showing little interest in the contestants.

With his status as TVB’s largest shareholder, if he so much as hinted at it, these contestants would likely be falling over themselves to get close to him.

But the current Lin Haoran was extremely picky; not just any woman could catch his eye.

If a woman didn’t possess peerless beauty or couldn’t pique his interest in the slightest, he wouldn’t spare her a second glance.

On the afternoon of November 7th, as Lin Haoran was sitting in a chair reading, the phone in his study suddenly rang.

“Mr. Lin, based on the limited clues we had, we at 13K have captured the man who planted the time bomb,” came the voice of Bearded Yong, a member of the 13K triad.

“Did you find out who ordered him?” Lin Haoran asked in surprise.

As expected, the 13K was a powerful organization, truly worthy of being a triad society with one hundred thousand members.

“No. The interrogation revealed that he doesn’t seem to know who his handler is. He was just paid to do the job,” Bearded Yong reported in detail.

“Alright, thank you for your hard work. I’ll contact Mr. Cui Zilong from the Oriental Press Group and have him follow up with you,” Lin Haoran said after a moment’s thought.

Having Cui Zilong take his men over was also a way to confirm if the man was really the bomber.

After all, he had no way of knowing if Bearded Yong had just grabbed a random person to pass off as the culprit.

“Of course, Mr. Lin. Just have Mr. Cui contact me,” Bearded Yong responded readily.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran immediately dialed Cui Zilong’s number.

Just two days ago, Cui Zilong had gone to Manila in the Philippines and handpicked twenty elite individuals.

Additionally, he had hired a security expert from the United States at a high price to train these elites.

These twenty people were not the final roster; five would be eliminated through a selection process, leaving a final fifteen to form the shadow guard team, which would be exclusively responsible for Lin Haoran’s security.

After making these arrangements, Cui Zilong had returned to Hong Kong that very morning.

After explaining the whole situation to Cui Zilong, Lin Haoran said no more and immersed himself once again in the book he had yet to finish.

As night fell, Cui Zilong’s call finally came.

“Boss, we sent someone to confirm. The man is indeed the culprit. We also found the car that appeared in the underground parking lot of Wanqing Building. After multiple interrogations this afternoon, we have finally confirmed that he truly doesn’t know who ordered him. He only knows that he took the job from the black market for a commission of two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars,” Cui Zilong reported in detail.

Lin Haoran was not surprised. Since the mastermind dared to act so boldly, they must have made thorough preparations to prevent anyone from uncovering the truth.

If he were to assassinate someone, he would also plan meticulously to ensure that no one could trace the order back to him.

Although it was a slight regret, Lin Haoran had been prepared for this, so he didn’t feel much emotional fluctuation.

“Mm, I understand,” Lin Haoran replied with a slight nod.

“Boss, how should we handle this culprit? Should we hand him over to the police, or do you have other arrangements?” Cui Zilong asked cautiously.

“You can decide whether or not to hand him over to the police, but my only requirement is this: I don’t want him to live past this month, and it must be handled cleanly, leaving no loose ends for us.

Furthermore, his ultimate fate can be made public at an appropriate time. It will serve as a warning to those who are getting restless and harboring ill intentions towards me,” Lin Haoran’s words carried an indisputable chill.

He would show no mercy to anyone who dared to make a move on him.

His life was not something others could touch so easily.

In this era, so-called law was often just a paper tiger within the circles of high society.

“Understood, Boss. I will handle it properly and give you a satisfactory result!” Cui Zilong answered firmly.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran’s mind was unusually calm.

He never proactively made enemies, but if someone crossed him, he would never let them off easily.

With his current status in society, he was no longer the ordinary person he used to be. His mentality was now worlds apart from his past.

The assassination incident was temporarily closed.

Failing to find the mastermind wasn’t because his subordinates were incompetent, but because cases like this often left no clues. Even with heaven-defying abilities, it would be difficult to root them out.

By comparison, this incident had already shown that his own forces were much stronger than the police.

If he had relied on the police department, days would have passed with no progress.

But when he gave the order, there were results in just two or three days.

This showed that that bunch of Hong Kong police couldn’t be trusted.

His top priority now was to strengthen his own security.

At his level, as his business empire continued to expand, he would only offend more and more people. In the future, there would surely be more people who would want to take his life.

Feeling quite bored at the Severn Road villa, three days after the assassination attempt, Lin Haoran decided to return to his parents’ home at the Deep Water Bay villa.

With his parents around to chat with, life wasn’t so dull.

When Lin Wan’an saw that his son had brought over a dozen bodyguards with him this time, he couldn’t help but be a little surprised.

These days, Lin Wan’an was rarely involved in business matters. Now retired, he was mostly enjoying his golden years, and had recently been taking Lin Haoran’s mother on vacations to Southeast Asia from time to time. Therefore, he was unaware of the assassination attempt his son had recently endured.

Chapter 359: Mr. Buffett, We’re Already Partners

After spending three days at the villa in Deep Water Bay, Lin Haoran received a call from Guo Henian on the afternoon of November 10th.

“Haoran, Mr. Buffett arrived in Hong Kong this morning. We’ve arranged to meet at six this evening in a private room at the Joyful Abundance Restaurant. You should come along and meet the famous stock market guru. Given your current situation, I imagine you’re considering investing in the United States. Mr. Buffett has an excellent reputation and extensive connections in the American business world. Knowing him can only be beneficial for you!” Guo Henian said directly over the phone.

“Of course, Uncle Guo. I’ll be there on time!” Lin Haoran readily agreed.

“See you tonight then!”

“See you tonight!”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran glanced at the time and saw it was already two in the afternoon.

There was still plenty of time.

Lin Haoran had heard of the world-renowned stock market guru, Warren Buffett, in his previous life. It was a name he had practically grown up hearing.

Now, finally having the chance to meet this legendary figure in person, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a sense of anticipation.

Of course, with Lin Haoran’s current net worth, he was perhaps not inferior to Buffett at this point in time—he might even be worth more.

However, in terms of fame, the two were worlds apart.

Lin Haoran might be somewhat known in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, and Britain, but Buffett was already a globally renowned business tycoon.

Especially after successfully avoiding the stock market crash in 1969, his fame had skyrocketed.

Over the past ten or twenty years, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway had invested in many well-known companies like The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Coca-Cola, and General Dynamics, all of which yielded substantial returns.

With his long-term stable investment performance and an outstanding track record of almost never making a mistake, Buffett had long since made a name for himself globally, becoming an idol and role model for countless investors.

However, Lin Haoran also knew that Buffett’s status would only grow higher in the future.

Especially during the tech bubble of 1999, Buffett, with his keen insight, foresaw the potential risks in the market.

At the Sun Valley Conference that year, he publicly predicted the market for the first time, warning investors to be wary of the bursting of the tech bubble.

Sure enough, not long after, the tech bubble burst, and tech stocks plummeted. Buffett, however, was already prepared and used his cash to acquire a large number of undervalued assets.

This move fully demonstrated Buffett’s investment wisdom and precise judgment, earning him widespread recognition and high praise.

For such an outstanding investor, Lin Haoran felt sincere admiration.

Although Lin Haoran also had a general idea of the international economic trends for the next few decades, this was mainly due to his identity as a transmigrator and the knowledge he had accumulated in his previous life.

In contrast, Buffett predicted the future entirely on his own foresight and insight, an ability that was undoubtedly more admirable.

In the blink of an eye, it was five o’clock in the evening.

The trip from Deep Water Bay to Tsim Sha Tsui took some time.

Plus, the evening rush hour was approaching.

So at this time, Lin Haoran left with his bodyguards.

Three cars departed from the Deep Water Bay villa in a grand procession, heading towards the Joyful Abundance Restaurant.

Forty minutes later, Lin Haoran’s convoy slowly pulled up to the entrance of the Joyful Abundance Restaurant.

This restaurant was extremely well-known in Hong Kong. It was a luxurious establishment that Lin Haoran had frequented many times, and his father, Lin Wan’an, had often brought him here.

The food was truly praiseworthy, and coupled with its excellent service and elegant ambiance, everything about it exuded first-class quality. Thus, it was highly favored by Hong Kong’s upper class.

And now, the Joyful Abundance Restaurant actually belonged to Lin Haoran.

As it turned out, this famous restaurant was one of the assets acquired by the Hongkong Land Group.

Since Lin Haoran became the new boss of the Hongkong Land Group, the Joyful Abundance Restaurant had naturally become one of his properties.

Walking into the lobby of the Joyful Abundance Restaurant, Lin Haoran quickly caught the attention of the lobby manager.

At this moment, two-thirds of the tables in the restaurant’s main dining hall were already occupied. Considering it wasn’t even six o’clock yet, this occupancy rate was quite impressive.

Usually, by a little after six, it would be difficult to get a table.

The customers who could afford to dine at the Joyful Abundance Restaurant were all either rich or noble. Even dining in the main hall was quite expensive.

Otherwise, Lin Wan’an wouldn’t have favored this restaurant so much in the past, frequenting it so often.

In the past, the Lam family, though not as powerful as they were now, was still considered one of Hong Kong’s wealthy families, albeit just on the entry-level, not one of the top-tier ones.

A restaurant that Lin Wan’an enjoyed dining at could hardly be subpar.

Just then, the lobby manager hurried over and greeted Lin Haoran respectfully, “Good afternoon, Director Lin. Do you have any special instructions?”

Lin Haoran replied with a smile, “I have an appointment with Mr. Guo Henian. He should have booked a private room here. Could you please take me to it?”

Hearing this, the lobby manager immediately nodded and replied, “Yes, Mr. Guo Henian has already booked a private room upstairs, and he has already arrived. I’ll take you there right away.”

Led by the lobby manager, Lin Haoran soon arrived at a quiet and elegant private room.

Inside the private room, Guo Henian had been waiting for some time, and his niece, Guo Xiaohan, was by his side.

“Haoran, you’re here!” Guo Henian smiled and greeted him warmly as soon as he saw him.

Because of the uncertain relationship between Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan, Guo Henian already considered Lin Haoran one of his own.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have specifically invited Lin Haoran to such an important meeting with Buffett.

“Uncle Guo, Xiaohan, good afternoon!” Lin Haoran responded with a smile as well.

“Brother Haoran, come sit here,” Guo Xiaohan said softly, pointing to the empty seat beside her.

With her uncle present, she seemed less lively.

Lin Haoran had already figured out Guo Xiaohan’s personality back in Britain.

It was obvious that with an elder around, she naturally couldn’t be as uninhibited.

Lin Haoran didn’t hesitate, walking straight to her side, gently pulling out the chair, and calmly sitting down.

Tonight’s Guo Xiaohan, clearly aware she would be seeing Lin Haoran, had specially dressed up. Her already pretty and charming face was now radiant, like a fairy descended to the mortal world.

The faint, unique fragrance of a young woman quietly wafted into Lin Haoran’s nose, delighting his senses.

“Uncle Guo, I’m not late, am I?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Not at all, we just arrived a short while ago ourselves. Mr. Buffett should be here soon. I spoke with him on the phone earlier; he said he’s staying nearby and will arrive promptly at six,” Guo Henian replied, glancing at his watch.

Lin Haoran nodded and then began to chat with Guo Henian.

From Guo Henian’s account, Lin Haoran learned that while the Kerry Group was the Guo family’s business, it had gone through a phase of external financing.

As early as 1972, Buffett had invested in the Kerry Group and was now the third-largest shareholder outside of the Guo family, making him a major shareholder in the company.

In recent years, the Guo family’s Kerry Group had developed rapidly and with strong momentum.

Clearly, this investment by Buffett had brought Berkshire Hathaway substantial returns.

As for Buffett, the Kerry Group was just one of his many successful investment cases.

They hadn’t been talking for long when a knock came from outside the private room, followed by the appearance of a white man about fifty years old.

Guo Henian and Lin Haoran quickly stood up to greet him.

“Mr. Buffett, long time no see! A warm welcome to Hong Kong!” Guo Henian walked over enthusiastically and shook his hand firmly.

“Chairman Guo, it has indeed been a long time. The last time we met was probably three years ago when I was on a business trip to Singapore, wasn’t it?” Buffett responded with a smile. Their relationship was clearly very amicable.

“Come, come, let me introduce you. This is Mr. Lin Haoran, the current richest man in Hong Kong and also the current helmsman of Jardine Matheson & Co.,” Guo Henian said, pulling Lin Haoran to his side and introducing him with a broad smile.

Guo Henian specifically mentioned the titles “richest man in Hong Kong” and “helmsman of Jardine Matheson & Co.” in the hope that Buffett would see Lin Haoran in a new light.

After all, Jardine Matheson & Co. enjoyed an extremely high reputation in Hong Kong and even internationally, incomparable to many other companies.

At the mention of Jardine Matheson & Co., Buffett would undoubtedly feel a sense of respect, and he would naturally pay more attention to Lin Haoran.

“Oh? So you are Mr. Lin. I’ve read about you in many newspaper reports. It’s true that meeting you is better than just hearing about you. You’re even more young and promising than the reports say. Mr. Lin, it’s a pleasure to meet you!” Buffett’s face showed a look of surprise and admiration.

When he first entered, Buffett had noticed Lin Haoran, but he had initially assumed Lin Haoran was just one of Guo Henian’s juniors.

He never expected this young man to be a newly risen tycoon in Hong Kong.

As an investor, Buffett didn’t invest randomly. He needed to carefully study companies from all over the world to see which ones were suitable for investment.

And Hong Kong, being a relatively well-known international metropolis, was a place whose companies he had, of course, researched.

And the name Lin Haoran had frequently caught his eye while he was studying Hong Kong’s business scene.

“You’re too kind, Mr. Buffett. I’ve heard stories of your achievements since I was young. It’s a great honor for me to have the opportunity to meet you today!” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he shook Buffett’s hand.

“Let’s not stand around chatting. Let’s go over there and talk while seated,” Guo Henian said, pointing to the chairs and interrupting their pleasantries.

So, the group returned to the dining table and sat down again.

“Mr. Lin, I’ve been studying Hong Kong companies recently and have found that several of the enterprises under your name have quite promising prospects. Perhaps we’ll have a chance to work together in the future!” Buffett said after sitting down, continuing their previous topic.

“Mr. Buffett, as a matter of fact, we’re already partners!” Lin Haoran said with a mysterious smile.

Chapter 360: Invitation to Join the Board of Directors

“I am a shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Wouldn’t you say that makes us partners?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Did you buy Berkshire Hathaway shares on the secondary market, Mr. Lin? May I ask how many?” Buffett asked, a little curious.

“I hold fifty-six thousand shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Based on the shareholding percentage, I believe I own over 10% of the company’s shares. According to Berkshire Hathaway’s publicly available shareholder data, my holdings should be second only to yours, Mr. Buffett, making me the second-largest shareholder. Am I mistaken?” Lin Haoran continued.

The transaction between Lin Haoran and the person in control of the DHL Group had involved a trade of Berkshire Hathaway stock.

However, the matter had not been made public, so it was perfectly normal that Buffett was unaware.

“Fifty-six thousand shares? Could it be, Mr. Lin, that your Berkshire Hathaway shares are the very ones previously held by the Altair family?” Buffett quickly connected the dots, a look of shock on his face.

It was common knowledge that the Altair family had been Berkshire Hathaway’s second-largest shareholder, with a publicly declared holding of fifty-six thousand shares—an investment that went back quite a long time.

By a stroke of coincidence, Lin Haoran also held fifty-six thousand shares, which made Buffett instinctively link the two, guessing that this Mr. Lin’s shares had come from the hands of that famous Squid Capital family.

“Mr. Buffett, you are truly sharp. You guessed it right away. Indeed, the Berkshire Hathaway shares I hold were acquired through a transaction with the Altair family.

Back in September, while I was still in Britain, I made a sizable deal with the Altair family. I imagine you may have heard something about it, Mr. Buffett?

At the time, the Altair family was interested in acquiring a British publicly listed company I had just taken control of, but they lacked sufficient funds. So, Mr. Altair proposed using some of their family’s corporate shares as an exchange.

After careful consideration, I chose these fifty-six thousand shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. In my opinion, with you at the helm, Mr. Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway has limitless future prospects.

I have studied your investment history over the years, Mr. Buffett, and I firmly believe that holding your shares will only bring returns, never losses,” Lin Haoran explained with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, I am confident you will not regret this decision!” Buffett said with conviction.

After all, for an investor to put their money into Berkshire Hathaway was the greatest vote of confidence in him.

“Of course, I feel the same way. I’m certain I won’t regret it!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

Since acquiring the shares, Lin Haoran had been keeping an eye on Berkshire Hathaway’s market capitalization.

In September, its market cap was just over two hundred million US dollars.

However, just two months later in November, it had already soared to three hundred million US dollars.

This meant that in just two short months, the value of the Berkshire Hathaway shares Lin Haoran held had increased significantly.

It was projected that by the next year, the company’s market capitalization could break the five-hundred-million-dollar mark.

Of course, to Lin Haoran, the current market cap of three hundred million US dollars was still trivial.

Compared to the one trillion dollar market cap it would one day reach, three hundred million was just the tip of the iceberg.

“In that case, we truly are partners. Mr. Lin, as the Chairman of the Board of Berkshire Hathaway, I would like to formally invite you, on behalf of the company, to join the Berkshire Hathaway Board of Directors. With the shares you hold, you are more than qualified to be a board member!” Buffett said solemnly.

“Of course, I would be delighted to join the Berkshire Hathaway Board of Directors and become your colleague, Mr. Buffett!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Holding over 10% of the shares and being the second-largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, second only to Buffett, the true man in charge, he was indeed qualified to become a board member.

And Buffett, who held an absolute controlling stake in Berkshire Hathaway, had no concerns that other shareholders could pose any threat to him.

Buffett was largely indifferent to who became a shareholder in Berkshire Hathaway.

Besides, he, Warren Buffett, was the soul of the company. A Berkshire Hathaway without him would be like a body without a soul, stripped of most of its value.

Therefore, Buffett never worried about anyone wresting control of Berkshire Hathaway from his hands.

“On that note, when would be convenient for you to make a trip to Omaha, Nebraska, Mr. Lin? Given the importance of a board member, I would very much hope you could visit our headquarters in person,” Buffett added.

As a businessman focused on investment, Buffett made a point of studying companies and entrepreneurs from all over the world. Naturally, he knew of Lin Haoran, the Hong Kong businessman who had risen so rapidly in recent years.

Lin Haoran had gone from a recent college graduate to a top tycoon, accomplishing this incredible feat in less than two years.

For this reason, even Buffett hoped to become acquainted with such an outstanding young man.

The headquarters of the renowned Berkshire Hathaway Inc. was not located in a bustling metropolis like New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago, but surprisingly, in the small city of Omaha, Nebraska.

This choice of location might have surprised many.

The primary reason Berkshire Hathaway was based in this small city rather than a major one was that it was Buffett’s hometown; it was where he was born.

“Alright. If all goes smoothly, I will be traveling to the United States next month. I’ll take you up on that then, Mr. Buffett!” Lin Haoran nodded with a smile.

“In that case, I will eagerly await your visit, Mr. Lin. This is my personal business card. Please feel free to contact me anytime!” After speaking, Buffett took an elegant business card from his pocket and handed it to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran accepted the stock market guru’s card with both hands and offered his own in return.

“Haoran, I never would have imagined you had this kind of connection with Mr. Buffett.”

Guo Henian, who had been listening to the conversation between Lin Haoran and Buffett, had been utterly astonished. He could no longer hold back his question.

“Indeed, Uncle Guo. I also find this coincidence quite remarkable. I was already surprised when you mentioned Mr. Buffett was coming to Hong Kong. I was actually planning to visit him on my way to the United States, but it seems I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him here in Hong Kong ahead of schedule,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

It was already November, and Lin Haoran had plans to visit the United States in the coming month of December.

Mr. Jobs himself had called to personally invite him to attend the bell-ringing ceremony for Apple Inc.’s IPO.

Apple Inc. was scheduled to go public in December, and as a major shareholder, Lin Haoran naturally had to be present to witness, and even participate in, this historic moment.

“Doesn’t that mean you also have an indirect relationship with our Kerry Group?” Guo Henian remarked with emotion.

Since Berkshire Hathaway was a shareholder in Kerry Group, and Lin Haoran was a shareholder in Berkshire Hathaway, it was indeed reasonable to say that Lin Haoran had a connection to Kerry Group.

“Uncle Guo, the fact that even Mr. Buffett is so optimistic about Kerry Group’s future is proof enough that under your leadership, the group has a brilliant future ahead!” Lin Haoran praised with a smile.

Although he didn’t know what Kerry Group’s market capitalization would reach in the future, he did recall that even decades later, though Guo Henian had relinquished his title as Southeast Asia’s richest man, he was still the renowned richest man in Malaysia.

In particular, the Shangri-La Hotel, owned by Kerry Group, would grow into one of the top ten luxury hotel chains in the world, its influence known by almost everyone.

The sugar market in Southeast Asia had always been a monopoly in the hands of the Guo family.

Moreover, Kerry Group had invested heavily in real estate in places like Hong Kong and Singapore. Under these circumstances, there was no way Kerry Group could perform poorly.

So, Buffett’s investment in Kerry Group was clearly a very high-quality one.

It was no wonder that Buffett and Guo Henian’s relationship was so good.

As a junior, Guo Xiaohan sat quietly beside Lin Haoran, not interrupting. She simply pricked up her ears and listened intently to the conversation between the three business tycoons.

Guo Xiaohan’s admiration for Lin Haoran grew ever deeper.

Lin Haoran’s current wealth had likely surpassed that of the entire Guo family, and he had built it all himself through his own effort and brilliance!

The more Guo Xiaohan learned about Lin Haoran, the more she was captivated and impressed by his talent.

In comparison, how could she possibly develop feelings for any other boy?

Lin Haoran was simply too outstanding, so much so that Guo Xiaohan couldn’t help but feel she wasn’t good enough for him.

Fortunately, her own Guo family was quite respectable. They were, after all, known as the family of Southeast Asia’s richest man, a status on par with the Lam family.

Otherwise, under the dazzling light of Lin Haoran’s achievements, she might have truly felt inferior.

The group sat together, savoring authentic Hong Kong cuisine while engaging in a deep discussion on various business topics.

From the way Buffett skillfully handled his chopsticks, it was clear that the world-famous stock market guru was quite familiar with Chinese food and had likely enjoyed it often.

During their conversation, Lin Haoran learned that Buffett had come to Hong Kong to personally inspect the operations of a certain publicly listed company headquartered there.

As for which company it was, Buffett did not disclose.

Lin Haoran understood this. Given Berkshire Hathaway’s investment style, once they targeted a company, they often sought to acquire a large stake rather than just a small number of shares.

Therefore, if the news were to leak beforehand, it could trigger market speculation, causing abnormal stock price fluctuations that would be detrimental to the company’s investment strategy.

Although Berkshire Hathaway’s market capitalization was only about three hundred million US dollars at present, the actual market value of its investment portfolio was far greater, several times that amount.

This was largely attributable to Berkshire Hathaway’s long-standing policy of not paying dividends.

Chapter 361: An Important Mission

The day after meeting Warren Buffett, Lin Haoran paid a visit to the Wanqing Building.

This was his first time at the company, six days after the time bomb incident.

Before this, he had either been staying at his villa on Severn Road or secluded in his residence in Deep Water Bay. His only outing had been to the Joyful Abundance Restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui; otherwise, he had not left these safe locations.

All these cautious arrangements were made to ensure his safety.

Until his shadow guard team was officially in place, he remained very careful about his security.

The reason he came to the Wanqing Building today was that after meeting Buffett, he had formed a plan for his next stage of development.

As three cars slowly drove into the underground parking garage of the Wanqing Building, more than a dozen bodyguards filed out. Two of them remained in the garage to prevent any mishaps with the vehicles, like what had happened last time.

With these dozen or so bodyguards providing close protection, Lin Haoran’s security was significantly enhanced.

After making his way to his office with practiced familiarity, Lin Haoran immediately summoned Su Zhixue.

“Boss, you were looking for me?” Su Zhixue asked respectfully, standing before Lin Haoran after gently closing the office door.

“Yes, there’s something I need to discuss with you. By the way, how much liquid capital does the company have on its books right now?” Lin Haoran asked.

Most of his funds were held by the Universal Investment Company. After all, it was his personal investment firm, and keeping the funds there was more convenient for management. For instance, if a transfer was needed, he only had to instruct the Finance Department.

He could see the loyalty of every employee in the company, so he naturally had no worries about the safety of his money.

“Boss, we currently have about 1.385 billion Hong Kong dollars on the books,” Su Zhixue reported truthfully.

Lin Haoran nodded upon hearing this. 1.385 billion Hong Kong dollars was indeed no small sum, and he wasn’t surprised that such a large amount remained.

A few months ago, Lin Haoran had successfully secured a two billion Hong Kong dollar loan from HSBC.

Subsequently, through a series of shrewd trades in Britain, he not only reaped substantial profits but also acquired an additional fifty-six thousand shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which was an unexpected bonus.

Upon returning to Hong Kong, Lin Haoran actively participated in and promoted the IPO of Amigo Company.

After Amigo Company’s successful listing, he sold his shares at the right time and also earned 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars from the Carrian Group.

Therefore, even though Lin Haoran had recently invested heavily in acquiring shares of Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co., it was reasonable that he still had 1.385 billion Hong Kong dollars left in his account under the current business climate.

More than two weeks had passed since he completed the stock accumulation of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land.

During this time, Universal Investment Company had remained quiet, its focus shifting more towards providing support to the Securities Departments of Wanqing Group and Hongkong Electric Group.

As for Jardine Matheson, there was naturally no need for Universal Investment Company to provide additional support.

After all, Jardine Matheson had its own renowned securities firm in Hong Kong, Jardine Securities.

Universal Investment Company’s strength was still a far cry from that of Jardine Securities.

This was unavoidable. Universal Investment Company had only been established for two years, and compared to the long-established Jardine Securities, its foundation was much weaker.

However, as Universal Investment Company handled more and more acquisitions, it accumulated more experience. Its current strength was already considered quite impressive among Hong Kong’s many investment firms.

“Zhixue, I have an important mission for you,” Lin Haoran said, his tone turning serious.

“Boss, please go ahead,” Su Zhixue said, sitting up straight across from Lin Haoran, his expression also becoming grave.

He recalled his past, when he was just an ordinary trader, so financially strapped that he couldn’t even afford his son’s medical treatment.

It was the appearance of his Boss, Lin Haoran, that changed everything. Not only did he lend him money to get through the hardship, but he also improved his salary and personally mentored him, allowing him to grow into an investment company manager.

All these changes were thanks to his Boss.

Therefore, Su Zhixue felt a deep sense of gratitude toward Lin Haoran.

In his mind, only by working for his Boss with all his heart could he begin to repay this kindness, though he knew he would likely never be able to fully repay it in his lifetime.

“You should know my current situation here in Hong Kong. I now control several publicly listed companies, including Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land Group. I’ve achieved nearly all my set goals in Hong Kong.

Therefore, I plan to expand my vision to the international stage, and the United States, with the world’s most developed economy, will be my next territory to conquer. I intend to build Universal Investment Company into an international investment firm like Berkshire Hathaway.

Next month, I’ll be going to the United States myself. Before I go, I want you to lead a team there to handle the preliminary preparations. In the future, you will be stationed in the US long-term, so be mentally prepared. You can even consider bringing your family along. As for Hong Kong, we will just maintain a branch company.

Do you have any thoughts on this? If you’re unwilling to go, I won’t force you. I’ll pick someone else, and you can continue to oversee things here in Hong Kong,” Lin Haoran explained his strategic vision in detail.

To be honest, after gaining control of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, there weren’t many other companies in Hong Kong that caught his eye, aside from HSBC and Swire & Co.

And acquiring HSBC and Swire & Co. was practically impossible.

There was no need to elaborate on HSBC.

As for Swire & Co., it was controlled by Britain’s Swire family, which had been at the helm for over a century.

The Swire family’s long-term control and management gave Swire & Co. strong stability and continuity in its business and finances, making it difficult for other Chinese-owned enterprises to acquire it easily.

The difficulty of acquiring Swire & Co. was far greater than that of acquiring Hongkong Land Group or Jardine Matheson & Co.

This was why, in Lin Haoran’s previous life, Swire & Co. had never been targeted by any of the Chinese-funded conglomerates.

In contrast, Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. had been constantly coveted by Chinese-funded conglomerates, though all attempts ultimately failed.

Although Universal Investment Company could continue to be based in Hong Kong and remotely manage investments in the United States, Europe, and Japan, there were still many inconveniences in practice.

To implement his global strategy more effectively, the best course of action was to move to the United States, as his primary future investments would be centered on American companies.

Of course, Hong Kong was where Universal Investment Company started, and its importance was self-evident. It could not be easily abandoned.

In the future, Lin Haoran would continue to acquire businesses in Hong Kong, but compared to the past, he would not need to expend as much thought and energy.

Now that Lin Haoran was the richest man in Hong Kong, aside from the banks, the financial group he controlled possessed the greatest financial power in the city.

Therefore, even if he wanted to acquire a company in Hong Kong in the future, he could do so with ease.

For example, he could easily acquire Wheelock and Company, one of The Four Big Hongs, if he so wished. After all, Hongkong Land Group held thirty-three million shares of Wheelock and Company, making it a very significant shareholder.

“Go to the United States?” Su Zhixue repeated in surprise. The plan was clearly unexpected.

This new arrangement Lin Haoran proposed truly caught Su Zhixue off guard.

After all, he was accustomed to his life in Hong Kong. The sudden prospect of moving to the United States made him feel a bit apprehensive. He thought he might have misheard and wanted to confirm it.

“That’s right. I plan to send you to lead the investment team to the United States!” Lin Haoran reiterated firmly.

“No problem, Boss. I’ll do everything in my power to carry out your instructions!” After confirming the news, Su Zhixue answered without the slightest hesitation.

Lin Haoran’s kindness towards him was immeasurable; moving to the United States was a small thing by comparison.

Besides, it was only temporary. It wasn’t as if he would never have the chance to return to Hong Kong in the future.

“Good. In that case, start preparing for the trip to the United States. I’ll arrange for the Deputy General Manager of Universal Investment Company to take over here in Hong Kong.

As for the staff, you can take anyone willing to go with you to the US. Just leave a small team behind to handle daily operations. We won’t force those who don’t want to go; they can choose to join the Securities Department of either Hongkong Electric Group or Wanqing Group.

Universal Investment Company doesn’t need a large staff in Hong Kong. The surplus can be transferred to our other groups,” Lin Haoran continued.

“Boss, are you planning to have Universal Investment Company go public in the United States in the future?” Su Zhixue asked curiously.

After all, Lin Haoran had mentioned turning Universal Investment Company into an enterprise like Berkshire Hathaway, which was a famous investment company listed in the United States, with investment as its core business.

“No, Universal Investment Company will always exist as my privately and wholly-owned investment enterprise. It will not go public, not now, not ever,” Lin Haoran gave a definitive answer.

With his sharp insight into future economic trends, taking Universal Investment Company public would be tantamount to handing his wealth over to others.

Lin Haoran would obviously not make such a foolish decision.

He knew very well which companies would become industry leaders and which ones would see their market capitalization soar into the trillions of dollars.

With such an informational advantage, it was one hundred percent impossible for the companies he invested in to lose money.

Chapter 362: The Sai Kung Training Base

After discussing it with Su Zhixue, Lin Haoran fully respected his opinion and ultimately decided to headquarter the American branch of the Universal Investment Company in the world’s largest metropolis—New York City.

The reason was simple: the city was home to the famous New York Stock Exchange.

When it came to investing, it was naturally more convenient to be close to a stock exchange.

After all, Lin Haoran’s investments were primarily focused on publicly listed companies.

As far as Lin Haoran was concerned, it didn’t matter whether the headquarters was in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, or Los Angeles. After all, Su Zhixue would be the one permanently stationed in the United States, not him.

In the future, Lin Haoran would still spend most of his time in Hong Kong, his home base.

After his discussion with Su Zhixue, Lin Haoran told him to start preparing.

Considering this was a transnational relocation of their office to the United States, thousands of miles away, it would undoubtedly take a considerable amount of time to prepare.

A particularly crucial factor was the employees’ willingness to move, as not everyone would want to relocate to the United States.

On this point, Lin Haoran and Su Zhixue had already agreed. If the number of employees willing to go to the United States was lower than expected, it wouldn’t be a problem. Their plan was to first establish a foothold in the US and then recruit new staff locally.

Compared to Hong Kong, New York’s securities investment sector was teeming with talent, so they had no concerns about finding suitable candidates.

After leaving the 31st floor, Lin Haoran did not rush to leave Wanqing Building. Instead, he went to the Wanqing Group office on the 29th floor.

In Burton’s office, Lin Haoran listened intently to Burton’s work report, nodding from time to time in approval.

Burton was undoubtedly an an exceptionally outstanding professional manager. As for why Lin Haoran had never heard of him in his previous life, perhaps it was because Burton never had the chance to truly shine at Green Island Cement.

But now, in less than two years, Green Island Cement had risen to become one of the top three cement companies in Southeast Asia, with its sales in the region far surpassing those in its Hong Kong home market.

The greatest credit for this clearly belonged to Burton, the President of Wanqing Group.

Kowloon Motor Bus had successfully entered the Malaysian market. Although it was still some way from turning a profit, taking this step toward internationalization was undoubtedly a positive sign.

Meanwhile, Wan’an Real Estate Company had also established itself in Singapore and was currently collaborating with the Kerry Group on a joint real estate development project.

Everything was steadily progressing in a better direction.

Burton’s loyalty score of 92 gave Lin Haoran complete trust in him.

If nothing else, the month-over-month improvement in the financial reports was enough to make Lin Haoran very satisfied.

The most profitable subsidiary under Wanqing Group was Green Island Cement Company. Last month, Green Island Cement had brought the group a profit of forty-three million Hong Kong dollars.

Thinking back to two years ago, before he had taken over, Green Island Cement’s monthly profit was merely two to three million Hong Kong dollars. Now, in just two short years, it had increased a full twenty-fold!

Of course, the biggest reason for the low profits back then was the corruption of the former chairman.

Even without the embezzlement, Green Island Cement Company’s monthly profit would have struggled to reach ten million Hong Kong dollars.

Therefore, the current profit of over forty million Hong Kong dollars per month was truly astonishing.

If it could maintain this level of profitability, wouldn’t the annual profit reach four to five hundred million Hong Kong dollars?

A subordinate who could create wealth for him was a truly good subordinate.

Besides Burton, it was clear that the Guo family had also made a significant contribution.

And so, being so deeply indebted to the Guo family for their favor made things complicated for Lin Haoran!

If he didn’t marry Guo Xiaohan in the future, he wouldn’t know how to repay the Guo family for this indebtedness.

After an in-depth conversation with Burton that lasted over an hour and having lunch in the Wanqing Building cafeteria, Lin Haoran finally left the building.

He glanced at the time; it was already past one in the afternoon.

Lin Haoran then returned to the underground parking garage and got back into his car.

“Weidong, let’s head to the Universal Security Consulting Company training base in Sai Kung,” Lin Haoran instructed directly.

“Yes, Boss, we’ll head out now!” Li Weidong replied, then started the car. It slowly drove out of the Wanqing Building’s parking lot, passed through the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, and sped toward Sai Kung.

The twenty preliminary candidates for the shadow guard team, handpicked by Cui Zilong from Manila, Philippines, were currently undergoing intensive special training at the Universal Security Consulting Company’s training base in Sai Kung.

To enhance their professional skills, the company had specially hired an international security expert from the United States to primarily teach crucial skills such as identity concealment, anti-tracking, and anti-eavesdropping.

As for the other training disciplines, these elite bodyguards from Universal Security Consulting Company were already well-versed in them, and each was highly skilled.

At present, the training was focused on shoring up their weaknesses, aiming to get them up to the shadow guard standard as soon as possible so they could provide solid protection for Lin Haoran.

Although Lin Haoran was currently accompanied by a dozen bodyguards wherever he went, ensuring his safety was well guaranteed, traveling like this was far too conspicuous.

Therefore, shadow guards were the more suitable choice.

For the past few days, whenever Lin Haoran was at home, Li Weidong would go to the Sai Kung training base to supervise and would give Lin Haoran a detailed report upon his return.

As a result, Lin Haoran was fully aware of the situation there.

However, these were the men who would be responsible for his safety in the future, yet he had never met a single one of them. This was clearly inappropriate.

Possessing the golden finger ability to check loyalty, Lin Haoran naturally had to make good use of this advantage.

He decided to personally visit the training base to see these men for himself. Anyone with a low loyalty score would have to be decisively eliminated.

After all, when it came to his protectors, the higher their loyalty, the more secure he would be!

The distance from Central to Clearwater Bay in Sai Kung was neither too far nor too close.

The journey took about forty minutes to reach the destination.

The last time Lin Haoran had visited this training base was several months ago. That was shortly after he had returned from Guangzhou in Mainland China, before the training base in the Philippines had been established.

Later, after the Green Island Cement Company’s factory in Manila was threatened with extortion, Universal Security Consulting Company’s main training base was moved to the Philippines, and Lin Haoran had not been back to the Sai Kung training base since.

However, he knew that even though the main force had moved to the Philippines for training, Yang Mingyi had still occasionally brought over quite a few retired soldiers from Guangdong Province in the past six months.

Today, the total number of members at the Sai Kung training base had reached over three hundred.

About half of the members were from Mainland China, while the other half were recruited locally in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong had a serious problem with illegal immigration, especially individuals from Vietnam. Tempered by war, their combat capabilities were formidable, making them potential talent that Universal Security Consulting Company could consider recruiting.

In addition, the company also hired some Eastern European whites and African blacks who were adrift in Hong Kong. They were powerfully built, also possessed combat experience, and were not to be underestimated.

As long as they were obedient, their nationality didn’t matter. If Universal Security Consulting Company wanted to pursue internationalization in the future, having only Chinese bodyguards would certainly be unsuitable.

Therefore, far from being abandoned, the training base in Hong Kong had grown and strengthened.

Furthermore, the members here were periodically dispatched to the training base in the Philippines for special training.

After all, the Philippines had significant advantages over Hong Kong in this regard.

For one thing, the freedom to own firearms was something Hong Kong could not compare to.

Moreover, due to the prevalence of firearms, gunfights were relatively frequent. Once these members were sent there, they could get opportunities for real combat practice at any time.

In Hong Kong, even the major triad societies normally just used knives and clubs for fights; not every one of them had a handgun.

Besides, the triad societies in Hong Kong wouldn’t dare to offend a major financial backer like Lin Haoran.

This was evident from how easily the 13K had submitted to him.

Thus, the training base here in Sai Kung, Hong Kong, was more for procedural training. For true combat training, they still had to go to the Philippines.

The training base was located in a remote, mountainous area of Clearwater Bay in Sai Kung. Backed by mountains and facing the sea, its complex environment was perfect for training the team members.

Lin Haoran had called ahead before setting out.

So, as soon as his convoy arrived at the gate, the person in charge of the training base was already there to greet him.

“Hello, Boss. I am Peng Donghai, the head of the Universal Security Consulting Company’s Sai Kung training base. I’m responsible for assisting General Manager Cui Zilong in managing everything here.” The man who opened the car door for Lin Haoran was a burly, middle-aged man whom Lin Haoran had never met.

However, seeing the loyalty score of 88 above his head, Lin Haoran felt very reassured!

“Instructor Peng, hello! Thank you for your hard work!” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he got out of the car and shook his hand.

“General Manager Cui said he will be here within half an hour,” Peng Donghai added.

Lin Haoran nodded and carefully surveyed his surroundings.

This plot of land, spanning over three hundred thousand square meters, was already quite large.

The site was now meticulously organized, fully equipped with all sorts of training facilities.

Not only that, but several new buildings had also been added, and the shooting range had long since moved past its rudimentary era of being a tin-sheet shed. In its place stood a magnificent five-story building.

“Take me to see the twenty trainees first,” Lin Haoran instructed directly.

Most of these men would shoulder the heavy responsibility of protecting him in the future. Although their status in Lin Haoran’s mind might not compare to that of the Li brothers, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, Lin Haoran also understood that his future safety depended on them, so he valued them highly as well.

“Boss, please follow me!” Instructor Peng replied. He then led Lin Haoran, Li Weidong, Li Weiguo, and the others onto an on-site transport vehicle and drove toward a training ground.

A few minutes later, the vehicle came to a steady stop.

“Loyalty in our hearts, protection in our actions, the Boss’s trust, we’ll fulfill it to our death!” The twenty young men, clad in uniform training attire, shouted the slogan in unison. Their voices were loud, resonant, and full of vigor.

Chapter 363: The Pass List

“Everyone, thank you for your hard work!” After confirming their loyalty, a satisfied smile appeared on Lin Haoran’s face.

These men were all elites, handpicked by Cui Zilong from the training base in Manila, Philippines.

However, what surprised Lin Haoran was that he found all of them somewhat familiar.

Thinking back carefully, he had a sudden realization. These were the very same young veterans of the Vietnam War he had personally brought back from Guangzhou in Mainland China.

During the operation to establish the training base in Manila, the vast majority of them had stayed behind. After rigorous training, they had now become a loyal and formidable team of bodyguards.

After all, the training base in Manila was far superior to the one in Hong Kong in terms of both facilities and environment.

Although veterans could maintain their excellent skills for a short time, in this field, if you didn’t advance, you would fall behind. Once training stopped, their abilities would gradually decline.

This rule applied to both marksmanship and hand-to-hand combat.

Therefore, to maintain or even improve their skills, they needed to persist in daily training.

Even the brothers Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, who often accompanied Lin Haoran and seemingly had little time for personal training, were no exception.

Whenever they returned to the villa and had a spare moment, they would spontaneously work out in the backyard, honing their physical fitness and skills.

Additionally, they would find time to go to the police shooting range in Sheung Wan, not only to maintain their marksmanship but also to occasionally act as instructors, guiding the police officers in their shooting techniques.

After all, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo were now officially employed as part-time instructors by the Hong Kong police.

At this moment, the loyalty readings displayed before Lin Haoran’s eyes were enough to surprise even himself.

Among these twenty men, nine had loyalty scores exceeding ninety, with the highest reaching an astonishing ninety-three.

Although the loyalty of the remaining eleven members hadn’t broken the ninety-point mark, they were all steadily above eighty-five.

Ordinarily, he was already very satisfied if his employees reached a loyalty of eighty, but today, the loyalty of these bodyguards was generally above eighty-five, far exceeding his expectations.

Of course, these men would be responsible for his safety in the future, so the higher their loyalty, the better.

The reason for Lin Haoran’s satisfied smile was precisely because their loyalty far surpassed what he had anticipated.

Originally, before coming here, he had estimated that he would be quite pleased if these shadow guards, just selected and brought back to Hong Kong from Manila, had a loyalty of over eighty.

However, the current situation was that nearly half of them had loyalty scores above ninety, and the lowest was still over eighty-five. How could he not feel delighted and satisfied?

Thinking about this, Lin Haoran understood why their loyalty was so high.

First, they were all handpicked by Cui Zilong from the training base in the Philippines. Their character and abilities had been rigorously assessed and screened.

Furthermore, these men were originally brought back by Lin Haoran himself from Guangdong Province. Many of them likely came from poor backgrounds. Given the harsh living conditions in Mainland China during this era, the opportunity to follow a boss like Lin Haoran not only meant a stable job and income but also a chance to change their own and their families’ destinies.

The past six months had been enough for them to realize what a great opportunity it was to work for a boss like Lin Haoran.

It was an opportunity others could only dream of!

Such a background and experience naturally filled them with gratitude and loyalty toward Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran had brought them to Hong Kong, not only greatly improving their quality of life but also providing them with excellent remuneration.

Under such circumstances, how could they not be deeply grateful to him?

Although their work did involve a certain degree of life-threatening danger, which of these veterans of the Vietnam War hadn’t crawled their way back from the brink of death?

What did the danger of their current job count for in their eyes?

They were long accustomed to surviving in adversity. To them, this job was perhaps just another form of challenge and mission, and the rewards were far better than toiling away in the Mainland for a few dozen yuan a month.

In just six months, the wealth these men had accumulated already surpassed what they could have earned over many years of work in the Mainland.

Therefore, considering all these factors, it was perfectly normal for them to show such high loyalty to Lin Haoran.

“You should all be clear about the purpose of your return to Hong Kong. In the future, ten to fifteen of you will become my shadow guard personal bodyguards, responsible for my safety.

“Therefore, my future safety is in your hands. As you all know, my identity is rather special, and it’s not impossible that someone might want to harm me.

“So, every one of you is crucial to me. Of course, the most important thing for a shadow guard is to learn to conceal their identity. So, ultimately, not all of you can be by my side.

“But rest assured, even if some of you are not selected as shadow guards due to the limited number of spots, there’s no need to be discouraged. We will have other suitable arrangements for you, and the compensation will not be much less than that of the shadow guards!” Lin Haoran stood before the twenty men, his expression solemn as he spoke.

“Loyalty in our hearts, protection in our actions! We will fulfill our Boss’s command, even unto death!” The twenty men shouted the slogan in unison again, their voices loud and powerful.

“In a moment, I will shake hands with each of you. Please introduce yourselves then, so I can get to know you all better!” Lin Haoran said with a gentle smile.

“Yes, Boss!” the twenty men replied in unison.

Afterward, Lin Haoran began to shake hands with them one by one.

“Reporting to Boss, I am Li Weimin, from Xiangshan in Guangdong Province.”

“Reporting to Boss, I am Zhang Zhiwei, my hometown is Shaozhou in Guangdong Province.”

“Reporting to Boss, my name is Ping Yaojie, from the Wuyi region.”

…

He memorized each person’s name. After all, most of them would become indispensable and important figures by his side in the future. Understanding their basic information was the bare minimum.

More importantly, by observing their loyalty, Lin Haoran already had a clear plan in mind.

The nine individuals with loyalty scores over ninety had already passed his initial assessment. He planned to discuss the matter with Cui Zilong later.

These nine men had crossed the first threshold and would be entrusted with the important responsibility of protecting him.

After all, everyone selected for this team of twenty was outstanding in their abilities.

Even Cui Zilong had mentioned to him that there was little difference in skill among these men.

Under these circumstances, he naturally leaned toward choosing those with the highest loyalty to provide a solid guarantee for his safety.

Although a loyalty rating in the eighties was already quite good, it was still slightly inferior when compared to one above ninety.

To give a simple example, in a critical moment of life and death, a bodyguard with a loyalty over ninety would undoubtedly step forward without hesitation to protect their master with their life.

As for those with a loyalty in the eighties, he couldn’t be entirely certain they would make the same sacrifice.

Therefore, those with higher loyalty were naturally more favored by him.

Loyalty was not just a measure of a person’s reliability; it was the key factor in determining whether they were suitable to remain by his side.

As for whether the final shadow guard team would be fixed at ten members or expanded to fifteen, Lin Haoran wasn’t too concerned. He planned to let the team weigh in on that decision.

As long as his safety could be guaranteed, the size of the team was not the key issue in his eyes.

After the self-introductions were over, Lin Haoran gestured for them to sit down, and he sat directly on the lawn with them, starting a relaxed conversation.

Merely knowing their names and origins was clearly not enough to understand each person deeply.

The best way to get to know them more comprehensively was to unearth more valuable information through conversation.

Facing a big boss like Lin Haoran, these men were inevitably a bit reserved and nervous at first.

But under the influence of Lin Haoran’s gentle and approachable tone, everyone gradually let down their guard and began to open up, engaging in a sincere conversation with their boss.

As they were chatting, a transport vehicle from the training base slowly approached in the distance. The door opened, and out stepped Cui Zilong, whom he hadn’t seen for a while.

“Boss.” As soon as Cui Zilong got out of the vehicle, he immediately greeted Lin Haoran.

“Alright, everyone, you can continue your training. I won’t disturb you any longer,” Lin Haoran said, standing up and smiling at the twenty men before him.

After bidding farewell to the group, Lin Haoran, along with Cui Zilong and the head of the training base, Peng Donghai, headed to the base’s office by car.

“Boss, what do you think of this batch?” Cui Zilong asked with a smile after they were seated in the office.

“They’re excellent. Their morale is exceptional, and I’m very satisfied. As for their skills, I don’t know much about that yet,” Lin Haoran replied affirmatively.

“Their skills have reached the standard of top international bodyguards. Even the special security expert we invited from the United States was full of praise for them,” Cui Zilong added.

“Boss, I’ve been at this training ground for nearly half a year. Before joining Universal Security Consulting Company, I was an instructor at a world-renowned security firm. It was General Manager Cui who invited me over. From my experience, this group is definitely the elite of the elite in the international security field!” Peng Donghai chimed in with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded. He believed there was no reason for the two of them to exaggerate on this matter.

Chapter 364: Newbiggin’s Change in Attitude

Taking the list from Lin Haoran, Cui Zilong couldn’t help but say, “Boss, isn’t this a bit hasty?”

In his view, determining who passed based on a few casual conversations was indeed rather rash.

Beside him, Peng Donghai, the Head Instructor of the training base, also nodded instinctively, very much agreeing with Cui Zilong.

“Just do as I say. Besides, aren’t there still a few spots left for you to confirm? You yourself said that the twenty of them are quite close in skill. It shouldn’t be a problem for me to choose candidates that I feel are suitable, right?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Of course, he couldn’t explain to them that he possessed a special ability that allowed him to see a person’s Loyalty.

That would be too ridiculous, and no one would believe him.

Moreover, he could never reveal his special ability. That kind of thing would forever remain his secret.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Cui Zilong didn’t object further. He glanced at the names on the list and then handed it to Peng Donghai.

As the Head Instructor of the training base, Peng Donghai was already very familiar with the twenty men, even though they were elites who had only recently been transferred back from the Philippines.

Therefore, after just a few glances at the list, a look of surprise appeared on his face.

Among the nine names on this list, there were several he remembered vividly. Their skills were definitely among the best of the twenty.

He hadn’t expected the Boss to be able to tell who was more formidable just by chatting with them briefly.

Though surprised, Peng Donghai didn’t voice his thoughts.

Their goal was to select a dozen or so shadow guards. Since the Boss had already confirmed nine of them, they just needed to pick a few more.

“By the way, how much longer will this shadow guard team need to train?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

Going out with more than a dozen bodyguards made him a conspicuous figure everywhere he went. Even he didn’t feel very comfortable with that kind of attention.

To put it bluntly, being so conspicuous actually increased his risk.

In contrast, when he used to travel with only Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, his presence was much less pronounced.

Once the shadow guard team was formed, he would no longer have this worry.

While his presence would be diminished, his security would be greatly enhanced.

“Boss, based on the current progress, their training should be mostly complete in about another week. The international security expert we specially invited commented that most of this group has shown extremely high aptitude. As soon as the training concludes, we can begin the selection process and add the suitable candidates to your security protection team,” Peng Donghai replied.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly. A week was quite fast.

After talking with the two men, Lin Haoran made a special trip to the training grounds for an in-depth discussion with the international security expert.

Following a thorough discussion with the specially invited international expert and listening to his professional opinion, Lin Haoran made the final decision: the shadow guard team would be structured as a 13-man unit.

Why not fifteen? The international expert pointed out that the core of shadow guard work was stealth; the more people there were, the harder it was to conceal their identities.

Ten men, on the other hand, felt a bit thin on strength. Therefore, thirteen, a number in between, was the most suitable.

These thirteen men, plus his two personal bodyguards, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, would bring the total to fifteen. Adding or subtracting one or two would not have a significant impact on the whole.

Lin Haoran already had a preliminary list of nine people in mind, which meant they only needed to select four more, and the team’s roster would be finalized.

After his conversation with the international security expert, the twenty trainees even gave him a demonstration of what they had learned.

After spending two hours at the training base, Lin Haoran was very satisfied with his trip to Sai Kung.

All he had to do now was wait for them to be ready for duty.

In the blink of an eye, it was November 13th.

A little over a week later, Lin Haoran once again headed to Jardine House.

As for Hongkong Land Group, since Ma Shiming had taken over, he had handled all matters in an orderly fashion.

Lin Haoran had just been there the day before and was very pleased with Ma Shiming’s management abilities.

This man, hailed as Li Jiacheng’s strongest strategist in Lin Haoran’s previous life, displayed management talent in no way inferior to Newbiggin’s. In Lin Haoran’s eyes, his talent was even superior.

Therefore, he was already quite reassured about Hongkong Land Group.

As long as his top lieutenants remained loyal, he could comfortably entrust the company to their management.

On the other hand, despite Newbiggin’s presence at Jardine Matheson & Co., Lin Haoran still felt a little uneasy.

The reason was simple: he wasn’t worried about how Newbiggin managed Jardine Matheson, but he had reservations about Newbiggin himself.

This renowned Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., in Lin Haoran’s eyes, was the type of person who was fiercely loyal only to himself.

For such a person, if used correctly, he was indeed a sharp blade.

But if used poorly, he might turn around and hurt you one day.

Lin Haoran arrived at Newbiggin’s office, but he wasn’t there.

It wasn’t until a dozen minutes later that Newbiggin hurried back.

“Boss, why didn’t you let me know in advance that you were coming?” When facing Lin Haoran, Newbiggin’s demeanor wasn’t the feigned respect he had shown before, but rather a sense that he was reluctant to see him.

However, Lin Haoran didn’t answer Newbiggin’s question just then.

Because at that moment, he was staring at the number above Newbiggin’s head.

He remembered that last week, Newbiggin’s Loyalty was still at 62.

Although that was already very low in his eyes, at best a level he could barely trust.

But looking at it today, the Loyalty had actually dropped to 48.

It didn’t take much thought to realize that Newbiggin’s attitude toward him, his Boss, must have changed during this time.

As for whether he had used Jardine Matheson & Co. for his own personal gain…

Lin Haoran still believed Newbiggin probably hadn’t done that yet.

Because if he had, his Loyalty wouldn’t be a simple 48; it would most likely have dropped into the teens.

So, with Lin Haoran already holding a controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co., why would Newbiggin have such a shift in thinking?

This point greatly puzzled Lin Haoran.

After all, Newbiggin was just a professional manager. Theoretically, after Lin Haoran gained complete control of Jardine Matheson, he shouldn’t be having such ideological fluctuations.

Unless… Newbiggin believed Lin Haoran’s control over Jardine Matheson wasn’t yet secure!

This thought flashed through Lin Haoran’s mind, making him instantly consider many possible reasons.

“Boss?” Seeing Lin Haoran remain silent, just staring at him intently, Newbiggin couldn’t help but feel a chill, as if goosebumps were breaking out on his skin.

He couldn’t have found something out already, could he?

Lin Haoran came back to his senses and said to Newbiggin with a smile, “Mr. Newbiggin, although I haven’t been to Jardine House recently, I’m still aware of the situation at Jardine Matheson. You’ve managed the group so well. It must have been hard work for you during this time!”

“It’s what I ought to do,” Newbiggin replied modestly. “As the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, drawing this salary, I am naturally responsible to the entire Jardine Matheson Board of Directors.”

In his heart, Newbiggin believed he was loyal to Jardine Matheson, not to Lin Haoran, the major shareholder.

“Mr. Newbiggin, I heard you’re planning to acquire a mining company in Australia. I was wondering how that’s progressing?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Investing overseas had always been a tradition for Jardine Matheson & Co., and to date, it controlled over seventy foreign enterprises.

Lin Haoran had become fully aware of this information after taking over the company.

However, he wasn’t particularly concerned with the specific operations of these overseas enterprises.

He had carefully studied them and found that while most were not well-known, their annual performance was decent, and at least they weren’t a liability to Jardine Matheson.

And based on his understanding of Jardine Matheson’s development plans, Newbiggin was currently focused on making inroads in Australia’s mining and energy sector, something Lin Haoran had not interfered with.

Although the prospects of the overseas companies Jardine Matheson had invested in were quite average, Lin Haoran figured that even if they didn’t make much money, they wouldn’t lose much either.

Before he could completely replace Newbiggin, he didn’t intend to meddle too much in the specific affairs of Jardine Matheson & Co.

For now, Jardine Matheson still needed Newbiggin.

His most important task at present was to first consolidate his control over Hongkong Land Group.

He had already vetted the senior executives at Hongkong Land.

Any mid-to-senior executives whose loyalty to the group was below 70 would be replaced in the future.

He had already given a list of those to be replaced to Ma Shiming.

However, this couldn’t be rushed; it had to be done slowly.

Hongkong Land Group was currently under Ma Shiming’s control, with some senior executives loyal to Lin Haoran already occupying key positions.

However, even a company the size of Hongkong Land couldn’t replace everyone on the list quickly.

Therefore, in Lin Haoran’s view, he would not act rashly against Jardine Matheson & Co. until the issues at Hongkong Land were completely resolved.

Not targeting Jardine Matheson also meant not making any moves against Newbiggin for the time being.

After all, with the complete separation of Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, Newbiggin no longer had any influence over Hongkong Land.

“Boss, we are currently in negotiations. There hasn’t been any substantial progress yet,” Newbiggin answered.

But his tone gave Lin Haoran a sense of preoccupation, as if he were reluctant to discuss the topic in depth.

From Newbiggin’s tone, Lin Haoran became even more certain that Newbiggin must have done something he didn’t want him to know about.

Chapter 365: The British-Funded Conglomerate’s Plan

After a brief chat with Newbiggin in his office, Lin Haoran asked about Jardine Matheson & Co.’s latest situation before leaving Jardine House.

The moment Lin Haoran stepped out the main door, Newbiggin was on the phone at his desk.

“Mr. Henry? This is Newbiggin. Lin Haoran just paid a visit to Jardine House… Yes, he only asked a few simple questions. It seems he’s still unaware of our plan.

Alright, I’ll continue to keep an eye on him. At the first sign of any movement, I’ll report to you immediately! Okay, I’ll hang up now.” After ending the call, Newbiggin was lost in thought.

A week ago, Henry Keswick had persuaded him to once again support the British-funded conglomerate in their bid to reclaim Jardine Matheson & Co.

However, until Henry Keswick had made sufficient preparations, this matter could not be revealed to Lin Haoran.

The promise Henry Keswick had made him was that Newbiggin would serve as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. for the next two terms!

This was the ultimate reason he had agreed to help Henry Keswick.

Although Lin Haoran had not meddled much with Jardine Matheson & Co. during Newbiggin’s time as Taipan under him, and had barely even shown up at the group’s headquarters, Newbiggin knew very well that Lin Haoran’s inaction was only because he was still needed to keep things stable.

Once he lost his value in the future, it was a certainty that Lin Haoran would not hesitate to kick him out of the Taipan’s seat.

Therefore, after Henry Keswick personally sought him out in private and laid out their entire plan, Newbiggin, after careful consideration, decided to switch his support back to the British-funded conglomerate.

He felt that with the conglomerate’s thorough preparations, there was a very high probability they could regain control of Jardine Matheson & Co.

Besides, even if they failed, the impact on him would be minimal.

Henry Keswick had already promised him that he could remain anonymous in the affair, serving merely as an informant.

In other words, even if the British-funded conglomerate, represented by Henry Keswick, failed in their attempt to reacquire Jardine Matheson & Co., it would have no effect on him.

His role now was that of the conglomerate’s most important piece on the board inside Jardine Matheson & Co. He was to report any sign of trouble to Henry Keswick immediately so they could seize the right moment.

“I wonder how Mr. Henry Keswick’s discussions with the Rothschild family are progressing. If they can really bring the Rothschilds on board, they might actually be able to reclaim control of Jardine Matheson!” Newbiggin thought to himself as he sat in his chair.

Earlier, Henry Keswick had arranged a private meeting with him at a coffee shop and successfully persuaded him to return to the British-funded conglomerate’s camp.

Henry Keswick’s confidence was, of course, well-founded.

First, the Keswick family had already raised one billion Hong Kong dollars to increase its shareholding in Jardine Matheson & Co.

Once the acquisition was complete, the Keswick family’s shareholding percentage would jump from the current 12% to over 20%, potentially surpassing Lin Haoran as the largest individual shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co.

Second, Henry Keswick had successfully lobbied local British-funded conglomerates in Hong Kong, such as Michael Sandberg and the Swire family, who had all pledged their full support to the Keswick family’s bid to reclaim the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co.

Most importantly, Henry Keswick was currently focused on the most critical step—striving to persuade Britain’s, and indeed Europe’s, most renowned and discreet financial family: the Rothschild family.

If he could successfully secure the Rothschild family’s investment, reclaiming the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. would be practically a sure thing.

Henry Keswick sought to cooperate with the Rothschild family because he knew full well that they were not as ambitious as HSBC.

Once the Rothschild family became an investor in Jardine Matheson & Co., they would be more inclined to act as stable financial investors rather than covet the company’s controlling stake.

This way, the controlling stake of Jardine Matheson & Co. would ultimately fall back into the hands of the Keswick family.

Furthermore, with the Rothschild family on board, the overall strength of these British-funded conglomerates would increase significantly, far surpassing what it was before.

At that point, they might even leverage the influence of the British Royal Family to compel Lin Haoran to relinquish his controlling position in Jardine Matheson & Co.

The key to all this really lay in whether Henry Keswick could successfully persuade the Rothschild family.

However, even though they were all British-funded conglomerates, it would not be easy for the Keswick family to persuade the Rothschilds.

The Keswick family was ultimately not a top-tier financial family in Britain; the gap between them and the Rothschild family was simply too vast.

Therefore, before anything was set in stone, Henry Keswick chose to keep a low profile, not making the matter public.

This was why Lin Haoran was still in the dark, unaware that even with his 49.1% factual control over Jardine Matheson & Co.’s shares, these British-funded conglomerates had not given up and were still plotting to take back control.

As an Englishman, Newbiggin’s own interests always came first, but deep down, he preferred to see a British-funded conglomerate in control of Jardine Matheson & Co. rather than a Chinese person.

After the upheaval of Lin Haoran’s successful takeover of Jardine Matheson, Newbiggin’s personality was no longer so arrogant and conceited.

In the past, with his control over the vast majority of Jardine Matheson’s senior executives, he might have dared to challenge the Keswick family.

However, Lin Haoran’s arrival made him realize that in the face of an absolute controlling stake, even holding managerial power over most of the company’s senior executives meant nothing. One had to bow to reality.

This year was undoubtedly the most stifling he had ever experienced as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co.

Even before Lin Haoran took control, he had already suffered repeated humiliation.

And after Lin Haoran officially took power, he had been forced to continuously bow his head to this Chinese man.

What he found even harder to accept was the complete loss of control over the Hongkong Land Group.

All these experiences filled his heart with indignation and helplessness.

Despite his previous falling out with the Keswick family, Newbiggin had always held a deep respect for his old leader, Henry Keswick.

It was precisely because of this that Henry Keswick was able to so easily persuade Newbiggin to return to the British-funded conglomerate’s camp.

However, what Newbiggin did not anticipate was that even if the British-funded conglomerate successfully reclaimed control of Jardine Matheson & Co., his position as Taipan would soon be lost for one reason or another.

At this moment, he was still dreaming of serving two more terms as Taipan, completely unaware that this was nothing more than a verbal promise from Henry Keswick to keep him on their side for the time being.

On Newbiggin’s desk lay a copy of the South China Morning Post.

Founded in 1903, the newspaper was one of Hong Kong’s most influential English-language publications. Although its circulation was only in the tens of thousands, its readership was primarily concentrated among high-level figures in politics and business.

Right now, the paper’s headline was still focused on the news of Lin Haoran taking control of Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group.

Lin Haoran’s takeover of these two major groups had far-reaching effects that would not die down quickly, thus attracting the attention of many readers.

With public interest still high, these newspapers were relentlessly digging for related inside information.

“Lin Haoran, oh, Lin Haoran, enjoy being smug for now!” Newbiggin muttered to himself as he read the article.

Although he had outwardly submitted to his new boss, Lin Haoran, he had never forgotten his past humiliation.

After leaving Jardine House, Lin Haoran drove directly from Central back to his villa on Severn Road.

Beside him sat Rosamund Kwan, whom he had not seen for half a month.

However, Rosamund Kwan’s expression was not good at the moment.

While at home, Rosamund Kwan had called him, saying her family had encountered a problem they couldn’t solve on their own. She hoped Lin Haoran could send someone to pick her up, as she was unable to leave the house otherwise.

Considering that Rosamund Kwan had been his mistress for over a year, Lin Haoran eventually agreed to her request.

So, Lin Haoran first went to Jardine House, then sent Li Weidong and a bodyguard to Rosamund Kwan’s residence.

He, in the meantime, remained at Jardine House to wait for their return.

“Boss, when we got there, there was a group of debt-collecting thugs outside Miss Kwan’s house. She was trapped inside. As soon as we arrived, we taught those thugs a lesson and successfully brought Miss Kwan out,” Li Weidong reported to Lin Haoran while driving.

Hearing Li Weidong’s words, Lin Haoran turned to Rosamund Kwan and asked, “Rosamund, tell me, what on earth happened?”

At Lin Haoran’s question, Rosamund Kwan, whose face had merely been grim, seemed to find her pillar of support. Tears began to stream down her face uncontrollably as she buried her head in Lin Haoran’s chest.

Lin Haoran gently stroked her back, comforting her softly, “Don’t worry. Tell me what happened. I’ll take care of it for you.”

“My dad’s business failed, and he racked up a huge debt. Then he just fled Hong Kong, leaving me to face all this alone. The creditors are forcing me to pay them back, but where would a girl who hasn’t even graduated from school get the money to repay them?

They even wanted to take me away. Luckily, the door to my house is pretty sturdy, and they didn’t dare make too much noise and attract the police. I had no other choice but to ask you for help, Brother Haoran. If you hadn’t sent people over, I really don’t know what I would have done if they had actually broken down the door,” Rosamund Kwan sobbed, her words broken and intermittent.

Upon hearing this, it all clicked into place for Lin Haoran.

He knew a little about Rosamund Kwan’s family background and was indeed aware that her father, Kwan Shan, had later accumulated significant debts.

He just never expected it all to happen in 1980.

Chapter 366: A Contract of Servitude, A Tyrannical Demand!

Kwan Shan was a seasoned senior in the Hong Kong entertainment industry. He had been a sensation in Hong Kong since the 1950s and held a very high reputation in film and television circles.

For this reason, Lin Haoran was quite curious about just how much debt Rosamund Kwan’s father had incurred.

More importantly, from what Li Weidong had said, Lin Haoran knew that a gang of thugs was trying to collect this debt.

This usually meant that the money Kwan Shan had borrowed was likely a high-interest loan.

Legitimate banks wouldn’t typically use such methods to collect debts.

Besides, Kwan Shan was a rather famous figure in Hong Kong.

It was just strange that he would resort to getting a high-interest loan to do business.

This was completely unexpected for Lin Haoran.

“They said my Dad owes one million eight hundred thousand, but he called home earlier and said he only owed one million two hundred thousand,” Rosamund Kwan replied, crying.

Lin Haoran nodded gently and comforted her, “Let’s go home first, and we can talk there.”

A dozen or so minutes later, the Rolls-Royce returned to the villa on Severn Road.

For Rosamund Kwan, returning to Lin Haoran’s place was a clear relief. She was no longer afraid of someone showing up at her door.

The two went up to the third floor. After they sat down, Lin Haoran asked, “So what do you plan to do now?”

Over one million Hong Kong dollars was a trivial sum to Lin Haoran, but he wasn’t going to simply pay off Kwan Shan’s debt for him.

“I don’t know either. When my Dad left Hong Kong, I was still at school and had no idea about this. By the time I got home, he had already called to tell me about it and to be careful in Hong Kong. But in a situation like this, even if a girl like me is careful, where can I hide? I had no choice but to call you!” As she spoke, her tone revealed clear displeasure with her father.

“Then don’t worry about him. With me here, no one will dare to touch a single hair on your head,” Lin Haoran said with a reassuring smile.

After all, Rosamund Kwan was his woman now, and he certainly wouldn’t allow her to be bullied.

“Brother Haoran, can you help me pay off this debt? If you agree, I’ll do anything for you. My Dad can’t carry this debt forever!” Rosamund Kwan suddenly looked straight at Lin Haoran, her eyes filled with pleading.

Rosamund Kwan was well aware of the vast gap between her and Lin Haoran.

His status as the richest man in Hong Kong made her deeply conscious that she was not a suitable match.

Furthermore, she was afraid her father would worry or object if he found out about her relationship with Lin Haoran, so she had always been careful to keep it a secret, never revealing it to anyone.

But her heart was also filled with uncertainty. Although she was acutely aware of the insurmountable chasm between her and Hong Kong’s top tycoon, and that a true future together was nearly impossible, she was unwilling to give up this relationship so easily.

Having grown up in a family where both parents were part of the Hong Kong entertainment industry, Rosamund Kwan had seen more of the world’s harsh realities than her peers since childhood.

Therefore, she knew better than anyone what a rare opportunity it was to be able to rely on a powerful backer like Lin Haoran.

Even understanding that the possibility of becoming Lin Haoran’s official wife was minute, Rosamund Kwan never once thought of giving up.

She silently played the role of an underground lover, willingly staying by Lin Haoran’s side, cherishing this hard-won support.

At only nineteen years old, Rosamund Kwan’s mindset was already far more mature than that of her peers.

Lin Haoran gazed at Rosamund Kwan, a complex emotion flickering in his eyes.

After some careful thought, he spoke slowly, “Rosamund, I can help you solve this problem, but you must agree to one condition of mine.”

Hearing this, Rosamund Kwan’s heart tightened, but a sliver of hope also began to rise.

She looked up at the famously powerful tycoon beside her, waiting for him to continue.

“I want you to be my lover forever. Remember, once you agree, you must be loyal to me and have no other man. You should be well aware of the consequences of breaking this promise.” Lin Haoran’s words were extremely domineering and merciless, leaving no room for negotiation.

Hearing this, Rosamund Kwan was momentarily stunned.

She had never expected Lin Haoran to propose such a harsh condition. To agree meant she would have to tether her entire future to this man. More importantly, she would completely forfeit her right to choose any other partner.

She was well aware of Lin Haoran’s methods and capabilities, and she knew he was not making an empty threat. If she broke her promise, the consequences would be more than she could bear.

She clearly remembered the incident in Mong Kok, where she and Lin Haoran had been harassed by thugs from the 13K. In the end, not only did the 13K triad bow their heads in apology, but they also swore to follow Lin Haoran’s lead from then on.

She knew very well that if even the powerful 13K triad society in Hong Kong had to submit to Lin Haoran, the consequences for her would be unimaginable if she agreed and then went back on her word.

Therefore, faced with Lin Haoran’s demand, Rosamund Kwan fell into a long silence.

Her heart was filled with mixed feelings, her thoughts in turmoil.

The thought of her father’s massive debt weighed on her heart like a boulder.

Her father’s current situation made it clear he was unable to repay it; otherwise, he wouldn’t have chosen to flee, not even taking his own daughter with him when he skipped town.

This decisiveness and helplessness made her feel both pained and resentful.

Furthermore, even with Lin Haoran’s protection giving her a sense of security in Hong Kong, as long as the debt remained unresolved, she would be living under a shadow, constantly on edge, afraid that the creditors would one day show up and shatter this rare moment of peace.

Weighing the pros and cons, Rosamund Kwan’s resolve began to waver.

She understood that perhaps agreeing to Lin Haoran’s demand was the only way to solve her current predicament.

Although it meant sacrificing her freedom and her future, under the pressure of reality, she seemed to have no other choice.

Besides, she did genuinely like the feeling of being with Lin Haoran.

She understood that, right now, she had no better option than to agree.

“Brother Haoran, I…” Rosamund Kwan’s voice trembled slightly, but in the end, she firmly uttered the word, “Okay.”

Lin Haoran smiled faintly, a trace of satisfaction in his eyes.

He gently took Rosamund Kwan’s hand and said softly, “Rosamund, don’t worry, I’ll treat you well. I’ll take care of this debt for you, and I’ll make sure you have a better life in Hong Kong.”

“Mhm!” Rosamund Kwan nodded softly.

Now that she had agreed, things were simple.

He had proposed such a demand precisely because he had some understanding of Rosamund Kwan’s character.

He had no desire to help her resolve her debt only for her to turn around and fall into the arms of another man, leaving him to have played the sucker.

So, if she wanted him to help pay off this money and fix this mess, how could there not be a price to pay!

Thus, a silent agreement was reached between the two—a complex transaction involving emotions, debt, and the future.

There was no need to sign any contract for this sort of thing; it was unnecessary.

If Rosamund Kwan really did break the agreement, he had plenty of ways to make her suffer the consequences.

“Do you know who your father owes the money to?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

“Yes, I heard my Dad say it’s Jinjiang Finance Company. Those people are very influential in the underworld,” Rosamund Kwan replied.

Lin Haoran nodded and made a phone call right in front of her.

“Help me check the specific details of Kwan Shan’s debt to Jinjiang Finance Company,” Lin Haoran said concisely as soon as the call connected.

“Understood, Boss. I’ll call you back in ten minutes!” the head of the intelligence department responded quickly and respectfully.

The intelligence department was now operating with increasing maturity and had a dedicated person in charge of coordinating all matters. This also freed up Cui Zilong from the heavy workload, allowing him to focus on more core tasks.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran turned to look at Rosamund Kwan. Seeing her sitting in silence, her eyes revealing a mix of complexity and struggle, he could roughly guess what was going through her mind.

He understood what agreeing to such a condition meant to her. Her current silence was perhaps a reflection of her inner turmoil.

So, he chose to give her some space, not rushing to break the hard-won tranquility.

In less than ten minutes, the phone rang again. Clearly, investigating such a trivial matter was no challenge for the intelligence department.

“Boss, we have the details. Kwan Shan initially took out a bank loan for about five hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, but when it was due, he was unable to repay it. He started robbing Peter to pay Paul, borrowing from financial institutions to pay off the previous loan. By the time he got to Jinjiang Finance Company, it was the fifth financial institution he had borrowed from. With the constantly accumulating interest, his total debt at Jinjiang Finance Company reached one million two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars. What’s worse, after he defaulted, Jinjiang Finance Company slapped him with a six hundred thousand dollar penalty fee, which is why Kwan Shan skipped town. Also, it’s worth noting that Jinjiang Finance Company is backed by a medium-sized triad society in Hong Kong that has intricate connections with the 13K triad.” The head of the intelligence department reported in detail.

“Understood. Thank you for your hard work!” Lin Haoran replied before hanging up.

Lin Haoran had the phone on speaker, so Rosamund Kwan, who was beside him, heard everything clearly.

“What kind of business is your Dad in, exactly?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

Logically, Kwan Shan was also a famous movie star in Hong Kong. He should have earned a lot from acting, so how did he end up in this situation?

“I don’t know. My Dad never talks to me about his business matters!” Rosamund Kwan said, shaking her head.

Since Rosamund Kwan didn’t know, Lin Haoran didn’t press the issue and made another call.

This time, he called Bearded Yong of the 13K.

Since that triad society had intricate connections with the 13K, it was for the best.

“Mr. Lin, you were looking for me. What can I do for you?” Bearded Yong asked respectfully as soon as he answered the phone.

With Lin Haoran’s current status in the Hong Kong business world, no matter how unruly Bearded Yong was, he wouldn’t dare to show it in front of Lin Haoran.

This was a man to whom even the British-funded conglomerates had to bow. What did triads like them count for?

Lin Haoran briefly explained Kwan Shan’s debt situation to Bearded Yong.

“I’ll transfer the one million two hundred thousand to you later. Make sure you handle this properly. But remember, don’t let Kwan Shan know the debt has been cleared. Understand?” Lin Haoran said finally.

As for the penalty fee? He didn’t mention it. What needed to be paid would be paid, and what didn’t, wouldn’t.

“Mr. Lin, leave this to me. I guarantee I’ll handle it perfectly! As for the one million two hundred thousand, you don’t need to worry about it, Mr. Lin. With me handling it, they won’t dare to cause any more trouble,” Bearded Yong responded confidently.

“I will pay what needs to be paid. Do you think I care about one million two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars? It’s settled. Thanks for your trouble this time. I’ll treat you to tea when I have the chance!” Lin Haoran said directly.

“It’s no trouble at all, this is what I should be doing. I will definitely handle this matter properly for you, Mr. Lin!” Bearded Yong said solemnly.

“Alright, I’ll count on you. That’s all for now!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, then hung up the phone.

After hanging up with Bearded Yong, Lin Haoran called the Finance Department at Universal Investment Company and had them transfer one million two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars to Bearded Yong.

Chapter 367: Why Are the Rothschilds Here?

“Brother Haoran, why can’t I tell my Dad?” Rosamund Kwan had clearly overheard Lin Haoran’s phone call with Bearded Yong. Seeing that he had finally hung up, she couldn’t help but ask.

“Your Dad left you here in Hong Kong to face those debt collectors while he ran off first. Don’t you have any thoughts about that?” Lin Haoran asked back with a smile.

“He is, after all, my father. What can I do about it?” Rosamund Kwan said with a helpless, wry smile.

“If you tell him, he might think this money came too easily and won’t cherish it at all. In that case, do you think your efforts are still worth it?

It’s better not to tell your father for now. Let him always feel a little guilty towards you. Besides, once I’ve handled this for you, you won’t have any lingering concerns in Hong Kong, will you?

From what I know, your father left Hong Kong with his mistress, didn’t he? Why should you disturb their life?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He actually didn’t want Kwan Shan to return. Having Rosamund Kwan in Hong Kong was more than enough.

Rosamund Kwan was silent for a long time. Seemingly having thought it through, she nodded and said, “Alright, I won’t tell my father!”

That night, to repay Lin Haoran for resolving her father’s debt problems, Rosamund Kwan served him with great effort, using the techniques she had learned from videotapes, which made Lin Haoran feel an ecstatic bliss.

The next morning, Bearded Yong called Lin Haoran to inform him that everything had been taken care of.

Not only that, but Jinjiang Finance Company had even refunded a portion of the interest.

Lin Haoran, of course, didn’t care about the interest and told Bearded Yong to handle it himself, considering it payment for his work.

For the next few days, Rosamund Kwan stayed at the Severn Road villa and didn’t go to school.

With her father’s sudden departure, she was no longer in the mood for school.

Besides, Rosamund Kwan was already a sixth-form student, and there wasn’t much left for the school to teach her.

And she had no plans to continue on to university after graduation.

So, it made no difference whether she went to school or not.

Before the shadow guard team was formally assigned to protect him, Lin Haoran had little interest in going to his companies.

Each company had trustworthy professional managers to handle things for him, so what was there to worry about!

Of course, Jardine Matheson & Co. was an exception.

But since the time wasn’t right to deal with Newbiggin yet, he couldn’t be bothered with Jardine Matheson & Co. either.

In any case, with a beautiful woman at home attending to him meticulously, and with the shadow guard team set to join his security detail in just another week, he wasn’t in a hurry.

Occasionally, he would take his private yacht out with a dozen bodyguards to go fishing.

So, even without going to the office, he was living a very carefree life.

He decided to just consider it a vacation for himself!

This was the life of the truly wealthy! He had no desire whatsoever to experience the state of a boss who was busy handling all sorts of affairs all day, worked to the bone!

While Lin Haoran was enjoying his pleasant vacation, Henry Keswick once again appeared in the Atlantic Coffee Shop next to the Oriental Culture Hotel in Central. Sitting opposite him was the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., Newbiggin.

“Mr. Henry, you’re beaming. Your trip back to Britain must have been a great success, wasn’t it?” Newbiggin asked curiously.

“Indeed it was, Mr. Newbiggin. I have good news for you. I successfully persuaded the current patriarch of the Rothschild family to agree to invest in Jardine Matheson & Co., and they have already contacted the Royal Family.

This time, the Rothschild family will send a core member to assist with this matter. Even more exciting, they successfully convinced the Royal Family to send one of their princes, His Royal Highness.

With this, even if Lin Haoran is reluctant to give up Jardine Matheson & Co., he will have to give favor to Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Rothschild family!” Henry Keswick laughed heartily, clearly extremely satisfied with his trip to Britain.

“So, Mr. Henry, what do you need me to do?” Newbiggin was also delighted after hearing what Henry Keswick said.

What did this mean? It meant that his position as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. for the next two terms was secure.

In his view, Henry Keswick would surely honor his promise.

The current Newbiggin was still naive enough to believe that Henry Keswick would keep his word.

He was just too naive. In the face of real interests, what was a verbal promise worth?

“Mr. Newbiggin, your task now is simple. Just continue to maintain stability at Jardine Matheson & Co. and cooperate with our actions. If there’s any development on Lin Haoran’s side, please notify us immediately. When everything is in place, you will naturally understand what to do next!” Henry Keswick said with a smile.

“Mr. Lin Haoran really seems to be ignoring the affairs of Jardine Matheson & Co. lately. He’s almost completely hands-off with the work here. Currently, among the senior executives at Jardine Matheson, only the Finance Department has been touched by him. The current head of finance and most of the finance team members are Lin Haoran’s people,” Newbiggin said with a frown.

Although he felt that Lin Haoran not meddling was a good thing—he liked having no one managing him and making all the decisions himself.

But when Lin Haoran truly showed almost no concern for Jardine Matheson & Co., a hint of suspicion arose in Newbiggin’s heart.

“Don’t worry about him. Mr. Lin’s time holding a controlling stake in Jardine Matheson is running out. Whether he truly doesn’t want to manage Jardine Matheson & Co. or is plotting something behind the scenes, so what?” Henry Keswick said nonchalantly.

“Alright, Mr. Henry, I know what to do. I’ll notify you immediately if there are any developments!” Newbiggin nodded.

November 18th, noon.

Lin Haoran was lying on a lounge chair on the terrace, his eyes closed, basking in the sun. It was extremely comfortable.

Behind him, Rosamund Kwan was standing and massaging his shoulders.

In November in Hong Kong, even at noon, the temperature was only around 20 degrees Celsius. Sunbathing, even in the middle of the day, wasn’t hot at all.

Just then, a telephone rang from inside the house.

Only then did Lin Haoran get up, reluctantly heading back into the room to answer the phone.

If only there were mobile phones, it wouldn’t be so troublesome.

Unfortunately, it was only the early 1980s. Although mobile phones had been invented, it would still take a few more years before they reached the commercial stage.

“Hello, this is Lin Haoran,” Lin Haoran said, identifying himself without checking the number on the phone.

“Mr. Lin, it’s Sir Murray MacLehose. I have some good news for you. Remember I previously mentioned nominating you for the CBE honour? It has now been formally approved, and it will be presented to you by Prince Charles himself. Tonight at seven o’clock, I will be hosting a small banquet at Government House. I hope you can make a trip to Government House, where the Prince will personally bestow the honour upon you!” on the other end of the line, Governor Sir Murray MacLehose said with a smile in his voice.

A few months ago, Governor MacLehose had indeed mentioned that he had submitted Lin Haoran’s name, so Lin Haoran wasn’t surprised by this.

What he found strange was that Prince Charles would personally come to Hong Kong to award him a CBE honour. Moreover, in his opinion, the CBE honour wasn’t a particularly high-level one.

Lin Haoran wore a puzzled expression. As far as he knew, the CBE honour didn’t come with the title of Knight, making it a relatively lower-ranking honour awarded by the Royal Family. That Prince Charles would personally come to present such an honour was hard for him to believe.

Unless, the other party’s true purpose wasn’t simply to award this honour, but something else entirely.

Despite his confusion, Lin Haoran quickly replied, “Of course, Mr. Governor. I am extremely honored that His Royal Highness would personally come to Hong Kong to award me this honour. I will be sure to attend on time before seven o’clock tonight.”

“Alright then. If there’s nothing else, I’ll hang up. I look forward to your arrival tonight, Mr. Lin!” Sir Murray MacLehose said, ready to end the call.

“Please wait a moment, Mr. Governor. I’d like to ask, besides myself, who else will be attending the banquet tonight?” Lin Haoran asked proactively.

“Besides Mr. Lin, there will be Mr. Henry Keswick, Mr. Newbiggin, Mr. Michael Sandberg, Mr. James Rothschild…” Sir Murray MacLehose didn’t hide anything and directly listed a string of names.

What surprised Lin Haoran was that all these people were British.

In other words, at this banquet tonight, he, Lin Haoran, would be the only Chinese person.

Not even the famous World Shipping Magnate, Pao Yue-kong, was on the invitation list.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran sat in his chair, thinking.

This was a bit unusual.

Moreover, among the names on the list, he heard one that was rarely heard in Hong Kong but was world-renowned—Mr. James Rothschild.

He didn’t know who Mr. James Rothschild was, but he certainly knew of the Rothschilds.

If nothing else, the reason Ma Shiming had the idea to start his own business was that he had met a core member of the Rothschild family, and that core member was very optimistic about Ma Shiming’s future, thus willing to invest in his venture.

However, in the end, the Rothschild family’s investment didn’t go through because Lin Haoran had lured Ma Shiming back to Hong Kong.

Why would someone from the Rothschild family appear in Hong Kong?

This family, both now and decades later, was incredibly famous, arguably the most powerful financial group in Europe.

But he couldn’t figure out why the Rothschild family had come to Hong Kong.

Unable to make sense of it, Lin Haoran decided not to dwell on it. He returned to the terrace, lay down on the lounge chair, and said to Rosamund Kwan with a smile, “Rosamund, please continue. Your massage is really comfortable!”

Although Rosamund Kwan’s technique was a bit amateurish, Lin Haoran found it exceptionally pleasant.

The reason was simple: Rosamund Kwan’s pressure was just right, perfectly matching his comfort level.

“Okay, Brother Haoran, I’ll start now!” After speaking, Rosamund Kwan placed her hands on Lin Haoran’s shoulders again and began to massage them.

And Lin Haoran closed his eyes in comfort, enjoying the moment.

Chapter 368: A Hongmen Banquet, the British-Funded Conglomerates Join Forces to Pressure Him!

At half past six in the evening, Lin Haoran left home accompanied by his bodyguards. The journey took only about ten minutes, and he soon arrived outside Government House.

Led by a staff member, Lin Haoran entered a meticulously decorated courtyard within Government House.

It was obvious that with the impending arrival of Britain’s Prince Charles, everyone at Government House, from top to bottom, was treating the event with the utmost importance.

Lin Haoran had thought he would be the first to arrive, but he was surprised to find that Newbiggin and Michael Sandberg were already in the courtyard.

“Mr. Lin, long time no see!” Michael Sandberg greeted him warmly.

“Indeed, it has been a while, Mr. Michael Sandberg,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

On the surface, Michael Sandberg seemed as amicable toward him as ever.

However, Lin Haoran knew very well that to Sandberg, friendship was a fleeting cloud. For the benefit of HSBC, he would not hesitate to cast aside anyone he was on good terms with, even going so far as to prop up others for his own use.

Everything was for the benefit of HSBC!

Take Li Jiacheng, for example. Although he was already a strong player, with Sandberg’s deliberate grooming, he acquired Hutchison Whampoa, one of the Four Big Hongs, at a very low cost. This instantly catapulted him into the ranks of Hong Kong’s top tycoons. The purpose of this was to ensure that, in the face of Hong Kong’s uncertain future, he could one day provide sufficient support to HSBC.

Pao Yue-kong was another example, also deeply tied to HSBC.

In fact, Sandberg had previously considered grooming Lin Haoran as well.

However, Lin Haoran’s personal development had completely spiraled out of Sandberg’s control, forcing Sandberg to eventually abandon the idea.

As seven o’clock drew nearer, more and more guests arrived at Government House.

Finally, in the courtyard, Lin Haoran saw the man himself: Prince Charles.

According to Lin Haoran’s recollection, this prince would serve as the Prince of Wales for a full sixty-four years, only ascending to the British throne in 2022.

By then, however, Prince Charles would already be seventy-three years old.

The banquet was indeed a small affair, with fewer than twenty people actually invited.

There were a few guests Lin Haoran had never even seen before.

He guessed they must be from the Rothschild family.

“Mr. Lin, we haven’t seen each other for two or three months, and your business achievements have already reached new heights! Even in Britain, I often hear of your great successes. It is truly admirable,” Prince Charles said to Lin Haoran with a smile.

He recalled that back in August, Lin Haoran had been granted the honor of a personal audience with the Queen, an occasion at which Prince Charles, as the Prince of Wales, had also been present.

“Your Royal Highness Prince Charles, hello! It is a great honor to see you again!” Lin Haoran responded respectfully.

Prince Charles continued, “Her Majesty the Queen speaks very highly of the remarkable achievements Mr. Lin has made. I have come to Hong Kong on behalf of the Royal Family, and after the banquet, I will personally present you with the CBE honour. I hope that in the future, Mr. Lin will make even greater contributions to the mutual development between Hong Kong and Britain!”

Following a brief exchange of pleasantries, Prince Charles turned to converse with other guests.

“You must be Mr. Lin Haoran. I’ve long heard of you, and seeing you today, you truly live up to your reputation—so young and promising. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is James Rothschild, from the Rothschild family. On behalf of my family, I sincerely hope to establish a friendship with you.” After Lin Haoran finished his conversation with Prince Charles, a middle-aged Western man approached him and spoke warmly.

“Mr. James Rothschild, hello! It is a great honor to meet you as well!” Lin Haoran replied just as politely.

Everything seemed to be proceeding in a very harmonious atmosphere.

One by one, Hong Kong’s top tycoons came over to greet Lin Haoran.

Even if some had their own agendas, they were ultimately impressed by Lin Haoran’s strength—that was an undeniable fact.

The strong are respected in any field, and the business world is no exception.

During dinner, many people frequently proposed toasts to Lin Haoran, and he ended up drinking several glasses of red wine.

The British style of dining tends to be buffet-style, and tonight’s dinner at Government House was no different.

At eight o’clock in the evening, after Lin Haoran had eaten his fill, the dinner came to a close.

“Everyone, I am Charles. I am here to announce something. On this trip to Hong Kong, I will be representing the Royal Family to confer the CBE honour upon Mr. Lin Haoran. Let us offer Mr. Lin our warmest congratulations!” As Charles spoke, the nearly twenty people present immediately gathered together.

After Prince Charles’s announcement, the banquet hall erupted in enthusiastic applause.

The guests all looked at Lin Haoran with congratulatory gazes. Many even came forward again to shake his hand or embrace him, expressing their respect and well wishes.

Lin Haoran wore a smile, accepting everyone’s congratulations with humility and grace, but inwardly, he remained on high alert.

He understood perfectly that there might be more complex motives hidden behind the presentation of this CBE honour.

After all, a small medal hardly seemed reason enough for the Prince of Wales to travel thousands of miles to Hong Kong, let alone for a core member of the Rothschild family to attend in person.

Though his heart was full of doubt, Lin Haoran maintained a calm and composed demeanor on the surface.

He knew that for now, all he could do was take things one step at a time and see how the situation developed.

“Thank you very much, Prince Charles, and thank you to all the guests for your congratulations,” Lin Haoran said. “This honor means a great deal to me. It is not only recognition of my past efforts but also an encouragement for me to continue moving forward. I will treasure this honor and continue to work hard to make due contributions to Hong Kong.”

At a signal from Prince Charles, the award ceremony officially began.

A solemn, elegant, and commemorative piece of music began to play.

A staff member, holding an exquisite box containing the CBE honour, walked slowly toward Lin Haoran.

Prince Charles personally took the medal from the box and pinned it to Lin Haoran’s chest.

Once it was in place, the two shook hands again, and Prince Charles gently patted Lin Haoran on the shoulder as a sign of encouragement and congratulations.

The professional photography team at Government House had already captured the precious moment of Lin Haoran receiving the CBE honour.

In the photograph, Lin Haoran wore the medal, holding the certificate in his left hand while shaking Prince Charles’s right hand. Both men’s faces were wreathed in smiles.

After the award ceremony concluded successfully, the atmosphere in the banquet hall grew even more festive.

Guests raised their glasses one after another, offering Lin Haoran their most sincere respects. Amidst fine wine and delicacies, the conversation flowed with laughter and cheer, creating a joyous scene.

Tonight, Lin Haoran seemed to have become the most dazzling star in Government House.

“Mr. Lin, after the banquet is over, please don’t leave just yet. There’s something I’d like to discuss with you,” Prince Charles said to Lin Haoran after the ceremony.

“Of course, Your Royal Highness,” Lin Haoran nodded.

At this moment, he guessed that he would soon find out their true purpose.

Come what may, I can’t run from it; I can only face it.

At half past eight, Lin Haoran followed Prince Charles to a conference room in Government House.

To his surprise, Governor Sir Murray MacLehose, Michael Sandberg, Newbiggin, James Rothschild, and a host of others were all present.

He was the only Chinese person among a dozen or so Western tycoons, standing out conspicuously and seeming slightly out of place.

It was as if all of them knew what was about to happen; he alone was kept in the dark.

The feeling was that of a Hongmen Banquet—something bad was about to occur.

“Your Royal Highness Prince Charles, could you please tell me your purpose for being here directly?” Lin Haoran asked, getting straight to the point after sitting down.

“Mr. Lin, I must clarify that this matter is not directly related to our Royal Family. I am merely acting as a representative for everyone here, playing the role of a mediator. I hope you will consider relinquishing your controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co., allowing it to return to the embrace of the British-funded conglomerates.

“Of course, as compensation, the representatives of these conglomerates will offer reasonable terms. After all, since its founding, Jardine Matheson & Co. has always been a symbol of British-owned enterprises in Hong Kong. We do not wish to see the British-funded conglomerates lose their control over it.” Prince Charles finally revealed the true purpose of the meeting.

Jardine Matheson & Co., with a market capitalization approaching eight billion Hong Kong dollars and an actual value far exceeding that, had undoubtedly become the focal point of these powerful factions’ joint action.

Most importantly, Jardine Matheson & Co. had become a matter of face for their entire British-funded conglomerate.

Previously, Lin Haoran had successively taken control of the Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co., which was tantamount to a resounding slap across the face of these British-funded conglomerates.

“On behalf of HSBC, I also hope that Mr. Lin can return the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. to the British-funded conglomerates,” Michael Sandberg spoke up at this moment.

“On behalf of Swire & Co., I also hope that Mr. Lin can return the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. to the British-funded conglomerates,” said the leader of the Swire family.

“On behalf of the Rothschild family, I also hope that Mr. Lin can return the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. to the British-funded conglomerates,” James Rothschild chimed in.

Following them, several more magnates from Hong Kong’s British-funded conglomerates spoke up. Without a doubt, they were all representing their respective powers, persuading Lin Haoran to relinquish his control over Jardine Matheson & Co.

This was hardly simple persuasion. This was practically a coup!

With a sudden realization, Lin Haoran understood. So this was their purpose tonight.

So many British-funded conglomerates had gathered here, clearly to exert pressure on him!

If Lin Haoran were to disagree, what would that mean?

It would mean he would effectively make enemies of all these British-funded conglomerates.

In such a scenario, no matter how powerful Lin Haoran was, he would have to consider how to navigate this predicament.

Lin Haoran frowned, his fingers beginning to tap on the conference table at some point.

The only sound in the entire room was the rhythmic tapping from Lin Haoran.

It was as if he was facing immense pressure.

Chapter 369: No Easy Compromise

However, at this moment, Lin Haoran was exceptionally calm inside, not at all under the immense pressure he seemed to be on the surface.

The reason was quite simple: he had never held much ambition for Jardine Matheson & Co. in the first place.

From beginning to end, Lin Haoran’s target had only ever been the Hongkong Land Group. Control of Jardine Matheson & Co. was merely a spoil of war he had acquired along the way.

He had never anticipated that seizing control of Jardine Matheson & Co. would be so effortless.

Just when he was about to give up, the opportunity had quietly presented itself, allowing him to grasp a controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. without any trouble.

Facing the current situation, Lin Haoran had a plan in mind.

He knew that although these British-funded conglomerates had united to pressure him, the bargaining chips in his hands were more than enough to give him an advantageous position in this game.

He intended to handle this sudden “mediation” with a calm and rational attitude.

Right now, no one present had mentioned the Hongkong Land Group at all, an obvious sign that they had already resigned themselves to its fate.

Or perhaps, in their minds, even if Hongkong Land Group’s market capitalization exceeded that of Jardine Matheson & Co., its status was far inferior to the latter.

Therefore, they didn’t care about the British-funded conglomerates losing Hongkong Land Group, but were instead extremely unwilling to accept the loss of Jardine Matheson & Co.

“His Royal Highness Prince Charles, and all the esteemed seniors of the business world present,” Lin Haoran stood up at this moment, his tone firm and solemn. “You should all be aware that to acquire the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co., I paid an immeasurable price, investing billions of Hong Kong dollars.

“I am full of confidence in Jardine Matheson & Co.’s future, especially its international investment projects. I believe its potential is limitless, which is precisely why I was willing to fight for this controlling stake at any cost. How could I possibly give up this hard-won fruit of victory just because of a few words from you?

“Today, looking across all of Hong Kong, and even on a global scale, only Jardine Matheson & Co. can take on a role of such significant influence. Even HSBC’s influence is primarily confined to Hong Kong and its surrounding regions.”

Lin Haoran’s words revealed an importance placed on Jardine Matheson & Co. that seemed to surpass even that of HSBC.

Even if all these people from the British-funded conglomerates joined forces with the Royal family to pressure him, he could not possibly agree so easily.

A brief silence fell over the room. Prince Charles gently stroked his chin. For him, it didn’t really matter who held Jardine Matheson & Co.; he was merely here to make a statement.

After all, Jardine Matheson & Co. was not a royal asset and had no connection to the Royal family.

“Mr. Lin,” Henry Keswick finally broke the silence, his voice steady and powerful. “Every one of us has witnessed your determination and investment. But please understand, Jardine Matheson & Co. is by no means just a company confined to Hong Kong. It carries the years of historical legacy and glory of the British financial groups in Hong Kong. Therefore, I hope you will consider this matter carefully.

“If you are willing to consider transferring the Jardine Matheson & Co. shares you hold and returning the controlling stake, then please state your conditions. As long as they are reasonable, we can seriously consider and satisfy them. After all, the Hong Kong business circle is not large, and you have no need to make enemies of all of us British-funded conglomerates over this matter.”

Henry Keswick’s words carried a hint of sincerity and compromise, attempting to resolve the current problem with a rational and pragmatic attitude.

He was well aware that Lin Haoran’s controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. had become the core bargaining chip in this contest. Only by successfully persuading Lin Haoran could they proceed with their subsequent plans; otherwise, all the preparations he had made recently would be for nothing.

To reclaim the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co., Henry Keswick had truly spared no effort.

Not only had he made numerous promises to the other British-funded conglomerates, but he had also leveraged his personal connections to successfully persuade the most powerful financial group in Britain and even Europe, the Rothschild family, and had even requested Prince Charles to travel to Hong Kong to lend his support.

All of this was something he would never have done so readily under normal circumstances.

After all, doing so meant that even if they regained control of Jardine Matheson & Co., they would lose a significant amount of benefits.

But Henry Keswick had no other choice. If he failed to get it back, the Keswick family would have no power at all within Jardine Matheson & Co.

With an almost absolute controlling stake in Lin Haoran’s hands, what did the Keswick family’s 12% of Jardine Matheson & Co. shares even count for?

No matter what, he had to make Lin Haoran give up Jardine Matheson & Co.

However, the current situation forced him to pay an enormous price.

He had already invested far too much to preserve the Keswick family’s position in Jardine Matheson & Co.

An emergency meeting had already been convened within the family, and they had unanimously decided to regain control of Jardine Matheson & Co. at any cost.

Faced with this family resolution and the current complex situation, Henry Keswick understood very well that only by reclaiming the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. could the Keswick family return to the pinnacle of the company.

Lin Haoran listened quietly to Henry Keswick’s statement, his eyes showing not the slightest waver, as if he had already made up his mind.

He knew very well that if he agreed too easily, he wouldn’t gain much even if he gave up the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co., because it would make these Westerners feel that he, Lin Haoran, was a pushover. This did not align with his consistent business principles.

“Mr. Henry,” Lin Haoran began slowly, his voice carrying an unquestionable firmness, “I understand your position and respect the Keswick family’s deep connection to Jardine Matheson & Co.

“But as I said before, I invested a huge sum to acquire this controlling stake out of a firm belief in its future potential. Therefore, I will not give it up easily.”

He paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone present, and continued.

“Of course, I also understand your urgent desire to regain control. But please remember, the business world operates on fair trade, not on coercion. If the Keswick family and the participating British-funded conglomerates here can propose a plan that satisfies me, then for the sake of Prince Charles and the Royal family, I am willing to consider giving up this controlling stake.

“However, that is only consideration. If it doesn’t satisfy me, I will still not agree, even if all of you pressure me. You should know that with my current financial strength, I don’t necessarily have to stay in Hong Kong. I would be treated with courtesy wherever I go.”

Hearing this, Henry Keswick couldn’t help but inwardly admire Lin Haoran’s composure and determination.

To remain so calm and unperturbed in the face of so many British tycoons, and even a British prince, was truly remarkable. No wonder he had achieved such great success at such a young age.

For the first time, Henry Keswick truly acknowledged in his heart that Lin Haoran’s abilities were superior to his own.

He knew that against a business magnate like this, any threats or intimidation would be futile.

Thus, he adjusted his tone, attempting to continue the negotiation in a more peaceful manner.

“Mr. Lin, we are of course willing to propose a fair and reasonable plan. But before that, I would like to ask, what is your definition of ‘satisfactory’? Or rather, what specific benefits do you expect to gain from this transaction?”

Lin Haoran smiled faintly, as if he had expected this question. “It’s simple. I demand that you provide an offer that fully reflects the value of the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. Additionally, you must properly resolve the cross-shareholding issue between Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. After all, you’re asking me to give up Jardine Matheson & Co., you can’t expect me to give up Hongkong Land along with it, can you?

“At the same time, I also wish to receive some additional compensation. After all, I invested a great deal of effort and time for this controlling stake. If this compensation is satisfactory to me, giving up Jardine Matheson & Co. is naturally not a problem. Although I would still be reluctant to part with Jardine Matheson & Co., in the face of benefits, everything can be negotiated.”

He paused for a moment, then continued, “Of course, I will also consider your position and interests. But please remember, you are the ones asking me to relinquish the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co., not that we both share this desire.

“So if the compensation is not enough, I will not give it up easily. Otherwise, I would rather choose to continue holding this controlling stake. In my view, Jardine Matheson & Co. is the best enterprise in Hong Kong. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be known as the King of the Foreign Firms.”

As Lin Haoran’s words fell, the atmosphere in the room once again became tense and delicate.

Lin Haoran’s meaning was already crystal clear. Out of respect for the Royal family, he had given these British-funded conglomerates a way out. The matter of relinquishing the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. was negotiable, but he would not agree easily.

If his conditions were not met, he would not give up his controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co.!

Lin Haoran was not worried about potentially offending all the British-funded conglomerates after completing this transaction.

He knew that these conglomerates were not a monolithic bloc. For example, the British interests behind HSBC had their differences with the Keswick family and others.

Therefore, once this matter settled, all parties would eventually return to normal and mind their own business.

With Lin Haoran’s current influence in Hong Kong, even if these British-funded conglomerates intended to avoid him, it would be difficult to completely evade opportunities for cooperation with his companies.

Although Lin Haoran had not agreed directly, his words greatly satisfied Prince Charles.

After all, Lin Haoran had clearly stated that the only reason he was making a concession was out of respect for the Royal family. Otherwise, he would never give up Jardine Matheson & Co. so easily, even if all the British-funded conglomerates joined forces to pressure him.

At this point, Prince Charles once again played the role of peacemaker: “Mr. Lin, Mr. James Rothschild, Mr. Henry Keswick, and everyone else present, since we have discussed this much, I suggest we each take a step back.

“Next, you can find a suitable time and place to sit down again for a more in-depth discussion. I believe that through further negotiation, you will surely find a solution that satisfies all parties. It’s getting late now, why don’t we all head back for the time being!”

Chapter 370: Privatize the Hongkong Land Group!

Holding a medal, Lin Haoran returned to his villa on Severn Road, his mind heavy with thoughts.

Everything that had happened tonight had far exceeded his expectations.

He hadn’t anticipated that the British-funded conglomerates would join forces to compel him to relinquish his hold on Jardine Matheson & Co.

He hadn’t even considered such a thing when he went to Government House. That these people would still refuse to give up, even after he had already secured a controlling stake in Jardine Matheson, was astonishing.

However, far from being annoyed, Lin Haoran felt a faint smile form inwardly.

Returning to his study on the third floor, Lin Haoran casually tossed the medal into a drawer.

To him, this medal was far from being an honor worth boasting about.

The British government’s attempt to win him over with this medal was clearly a grave miscalculation.

What disgusted him even more was how they had applied pressure immediately after presenting the medal, forcing him to give up his controlling stake in Jardine Matheson. Any favorable impression he might have had of the British government was completely gone.

After all, the British government ultimately served the British people. In their eyes, Hong Kong was merely a colony, so it was only natural for them to look down on a Chinese man like him.

However, Lin Haoran didn’t care in the slightest.

Because he knew that the time Hong Kong would remain under British jurisdiction was running out.

By his calculations, in just over a decade, Hong Kong would return to the embrace of the motherland.

At that time, he would no longer have to act according to the whims of these British men.

Even now, he wouldn’t put up with them.

If the target of these British-funded conglomerates had been the Hongkong Land Group instead of Jardine Matheson, Lin Haoran would have never agreed to their demands, no matter what.

As for Jardine Matheson, as long as the benefits were sufficient to satisfy him, he wasn’t entirely against the idea of letting it go.

But the prerequisite was that the benefits had to be substantial enough to tempt him.

Otherwise, nothing was up for discussion!

This was also why he wasn’t angry.

In Lin Haoran’s eyes, Jardine Matheson’s overseas investment projects held little potential.

He had even previously planned to oust Newbiggin in the future and sell off these overseas assets with their bleak prospects, recovering the capital to invest in more valuable projects.

Now, it seemed that since these British-funded conglomerates wanted Jardine Matheson back, he might be able to use the company to secure more benefits for himself.

To Lin Haoran, Jardine Matheson’s future development was indeed not optimistic.

Even in the 2020s, with Hongkong Land still as its subsidiary, Jardine Matheson’s market capitalization would barely reach around fifty billion US dollars.

Now that Jardine Matheson had lost Hongkong Land, its value had already been greatly diminished.

Lin Haoran estimated that in the coming decades, it would be a rare achievement for Jardine Matheson’s market capitalization to reach twenty to thirty billion US dollars; fifty billion was an extravagant hope.

In contrast, HSBC, which was currently comparable in strength to Jardine Matheson, would have a future market capitalization as high as one point six trillion Hong Kong dollars.

As the two major representatives of the British-funded conglomerates in Hong Kong, the future development gap between Jardine Matheson and HSBC would be worlds apart.

Taking all these factors into account, Lin Haoran naturally wasn’t too concerned about the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson.

But not caring was one thing; there had to be sufficient benefits. Otherwise, he wouldn’t give anyone an ounce of respect, not even the King of Heaven.

Sitting in his study chair, Lin Haoran fell into deep thought.

He was considering what conditions to propose to Henry Keswick and the others.

First, the cross-shareholding between Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land definitely had to be resolved.

Otherwise, if he gave up his shares in Jardine Matheson, wouldn’t Jardine Matheson once again end up with a controlling stake in Hongkong Land?

That was, of course, impossible.

In fact, the issue between Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land had to be settled before he even sold his 19% stake in Jardine Matheson.

Perhaps this was the perfect opportunity to completely sever the lingering, tangled ties between the two.

“Why not take this opportunity to completely privatize the Hongkong Land Group?” This thought suddenly flashed through Lin Haoran’s mind.

The future value of the fixed assets currently held by the Hongkong Land Group was not to be underestimated. If managed properly, its profitability could probably rival even a mint.

After all, Hongkong Land owned a vast number of properties in prime locations such as Central, Sheung Wan, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, and Tsim Sha Tsui. Not only were they numerous, but they also occupied the most central locations.

Even if Hongkong Land were to cease all other business expansions in the future, just by collecting rent from these properties in prime locations, it would be enough to ensure a steady and substantial stream of income.

In the past, Hongkong Land, with its British-owned background, had acquired many of the most central and bustling plots of land and developed a large number of properties for its own portfolio. Its advantages were self-evident.

Hongkong Land was hailed as the “Landlord of Central,” and this title was by no means without basis.

Not only that, but Hongkong Land also owned many high-quality subsidiaries, with Dairy Farm International being one of them. Under Dairy Farm International was Hong Kong’s most famous supermarket chain brand—Wellcome.

Furthermore, Mannings, Hong Kong’s largest health and beauty retail chain, and the company holding a 50% equity stake in Maxim’s, were also under Dairy Farm International, further highlighting its powerful business strength.

Therefore, in Lin Haoran’s view, Hongkong Land was of much higher quality than Jardine Matheson.

Without Hongkong Land, Jardine Matheson was nothing!

Jardine Matheson was nothing more than a vampire leeching off Hongkong Land.

This would become evident in another world, where the future Jardine Matheson would find a way to spin off Dairy Farm International from Hongkong Land, allowing it to become completely independent, thereby transferring its control from Hongkong Land to Jardine Matheson.

But now, they still belonged entirely to Hongkong Land. With Lin Haoran in control of Hongkong Land, it was impossible for Jardine Matheson to make a move on Dairy Farm International.

Dairy Farm International was now a wholly-owned enterprise under Hongkong Land, a privatized subsidiary.

Once this idea took root, Lin Haoran couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Privatizing Hongkong Land was a real possibility.

Currently, his stake in Hongkong Land had reached 47.3%; a little more and it would exceed 50%.

But just under 50% was far too little.

After all, the future value of Hongkong Land was ridiculously high.

Why did the well-known Hongkong Land of later generations, despite holding so many of Hong Kong’s premium properties, end up in such a miserable state?

Wasn’t the main reason the exploitation by its parent company, Jardine Matheson?

With profits constantly being transferred to Jardine Matheson, and then from Jardine Matheson to the British-funded conglomerates led by the Keswick family, it would be a miracle if Hongkong Land thrived.

Moreover, having lost its other major asset—Dairy Farm International—Hongkong Land’s annual revenue and profits would plummet.

Otherwise, if Hongkong Land were to develop on its own, relying solely on rent collection to generate tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars in profit a year, coupled with Dairy Farm International’s powerful retail business, its value, in Lin Haoran’s opinion, would be no less than the future HSBC.

“Privatizing Hongkong Land can be an important bargaining chip in my negotiations with these British-funded conglomerates. Besides the 30.2% of Hongkong Land shares held by Jardine Matheson, those conglomerates hold about another 10%.

I am determined to get that 10%, and if I can add Jardine Matheson’s 30.2%, then I’ll control nearly 87.5% of Hongkong Land’s shares. However, achieving this goal will require no small amount of capital!” Lin Haoran pondered while tapping his fingers on the desk, his brow furrowed.

Even if he acquired the 30.2% stake from Jardine Matheson through a share swap, Lin Haoran would still need to pay a certain consideration, though this money would go into Hongkong Land’s account, not directly to Jardine Matheson.

Including the 6% stake from the Hongkong Electric Group, he currently controlled a total of 47.3% of Hongkong Land’s shares.

However, to fully privatize Hongkong Land, he needed to acquire the remaining 52.7% of the shares. Even at a total market capitalization of ten billion Hong Kong dollars, he would need to raise more than five billion Hong Kong dollars.

He couldn’t raise such a massive amount of capital in the short term.

This was indeed a thorny problem!

The cash currently available on his books was only one point three eight five billion Hong Kong dollars; this was information Lin Haoran had previously learned from the Universal Investment Company.

There was a huge gap between this one-plus billion and the required five-plus billion.

What gave him an even bigger headache was that he was also saddled with a two billion Hong Kong dollar debt to Jardine Matheson. With interest, the total amounted to two point two billion Hong Kong dollars.

Although he had only taken out the loan for a year and there were still seven months until the repayment date, which didn’t seem urgent, it would still have to be paid off next year.

This huge debt undoubtedly added immense pressure to his fundraising efforts.

Over five billion Hong Kong dollars plus two point two billion Hong Kong dollars—this astronomical figure made Lin Haoran break into a cold sweat.

The need for seven to eight billion Hong Kong dollars truly made him feel immense pressure.

He recalled how just two years ago, he had needed a loan for even tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars. Now, the scale of capital he was scheming for was in the billions.

However, it was already November, which meant the end of the year was approaching. If needed early next year, Lin Haoran planned to raise funds from his subsidiaries like Wanqing Group and Hongkong Electric Group, expecting to easily gather over a billion Hong Kong dollars.

However, even with this additional billion-plus, the total would only reach two to three billion Hong Kong dollars. Adding what he could get from his Jardine Matheson shares, perhaps another billion or so, there was still a large gap compared to the seven to eight billion he needed.

Even if he managed to raise five billion Hong Kong dollars first, it would still be far from enough, with a significant shortfall remaining.

There were too many complex factors involved. Lin Haoran thought it over and over but couldn’t find a clear solution.

“I should get some rest. I’ll summon my top lieutenants tomorrow to discuss it together.” Looking at the time, it was already past ten at night. Lin Haoran finally decided to put his thoughts aside and prepare for bed.

After all, he now had many experienced and capable assistants by his side. Their business acumen far surpassed his own, so why should he worry alone?

Chapter 371: Everyone Has Their Specialty

The next morning, Lin Haoran left early and headed straight for Connaught Centre.

Soon, he arrived at Ma Shiming’s office.

“Boss, are you really planning to give Jardine Matheson & Co. back to that group of British-funded conglomerates?” Ma Shiming asked impatiently as soon as he saw Lin Haoran.

As the current head of Hongkong Land Group’s management, he had naturally learned of the major events at Government House right away.

“Transferring the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. to them isn’t out of the question. Mr. Ma, in your opinion, how does Jardine Matheson’s value compare to that of Hongkong Land Group?” Lin Haoran suddenly asked.

Lin Haoran’s question left Ma Shiming speechless for a moment as he fell into deep thought.

After careful consideration, Ma Shiming said, “Hongkong Land Group’s value is much greater than Jardine Matheson & Co.’s! I worked at Jardine Matheson for over a decade, so I’m very familiar with the company, inside and out.

Right now, Jardine Matheson’s greatest advantage is its relatively successful path toward internationalization and its excellent international reputation. However, according to the annual financial reports, many of the companies Jardine Matheson has invested in internationally are actually losing money, some quite frequently.

All in all, the annual profits Jardine Matheson gains from its overseas subsidiaries are not that significant. In contrast, its Hong Kong subsidiaries like Hongkong Land Group, Jardine Securities, Kowloon Wharf, and Gammon Construction generate higher profits for it.

However, having now lost Kowloon Wharf and Hongkong Land Group one after the other, Jardine Matheson’s own strength has been greatly diminished. Compared to Hongkong Land Group, it’s naturally much weaker. This can be seen from their market capitalizations—Jardine Matheson’s market cap is significantly lower than Hongkong Land’s!”

Hearing Ma Shiming’s insights, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but nod in agreement, inwardly marveling. In his previous life, Ma Shiming had been one of Li Jiacheng’s right-hand men for a reason; his perspective was truly satisfactory.

Bringing Ma Shiming back from Singapore was an incredibly wise decision.

If he had asked someone else, he might not have received such a profound analysis.

“Mr. Ma, as you know, I’m currently being pressured by various allied forces and may have to give up my controlling stake in Jardine Matheson. This means I can no longer fulfill my promise to let you manage the company.

“But please rest assured, I will always keep the executive power of Hongkong Land Group in your hands, no matter what. I have an idea now. I want to take advantage of their eagerness to reclaim the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson to privatize Hongkong Land Group. What do you think of this idea?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Losing the executive power of Jardine Matheson is fine. I’m already very satisfied with managing Hongkong Land Group. In the past, even Mr. Newbiggin rarely had time for Hongkong Land’s affairs. Usually, he would only consult with Mr. Bao Fuda on major issues. Most of the time, Mr. Bao Fuda made the decisions at Hongkong Land himself. So, managing just this one company, Hongkong Land Group, is already more than enough work for me.

“However, Boss, are you really planning to privatize Hongkong Land Group? I don’t think it’s necessary. Hongkong Land’s market capitalization is over ten billion Hong Kong dollars. Even after a slight dip since you took over, it’s now stable at around ten billion Hong Kong dollars. Privatizing it would be extremely difficult.

“More importantly, as a publicly listed company, Hongkong Land Group can help you share a significant amount of risk. Once it’s privatized, you’ll have to bear a much greater risk alone.” Ma Shiming expressed his confusion and concern about Lin Haoran’s plan to privatize Hongkong Land.

In his view, privatizing a company with such a massive market capitalization was clearly not a wise choice.

Those British-funded conglomerates always hope to control more power with fewer shares.

For example, Harrier Santu, the former chairman of Green Island Cement Company, and the Keswick family, Jardine Matheson’s largest British shareholder, both tried to completely control their respective companies while only holding a dozen or so percent of the shares.

Their goal was obvious: to reap the greatest benefits with the least cost and minimal risk.

But his own boss wanted to do the exact opposite, which was what Ma Shiming couldn’t understand.

As a Briton, Ma Shiming had naturally studied Western management principles.

Weren’t all business owners supposed to seek the greatest profits with the least risk?

However, Lin Haoran didn’t plan to explain too much about this.

Only he knew just how terrifyingly the Hong Kong real estate market would develop in the future.

In other words, based on the future trends of Hong Kong’s property market, Hongkong Land Group would face virtually no risk at all!

In that case, keeping Hongkong Land as a publicly listed company and letting so many people hold its shares would just be giving money away.

Even though, as the controlling shareholder, he could leverage his position to secure more benefits, he would still have to share a significant portion.

Unless he resorted to illegal means and skimmed all the profits.

With his current capabilities, he wouldn’t stoop to committing crimes. That kind of thing could easily be used against him, so there was simply no need.

Therefore, since Hongkong Land Group faced no risk and was destined to be a massive gold mine, continuously generating endless wealth for him, it would be a huge waste not to privatize it.

He wanted to privatize any company that could generate a huge cash flow for him.

Take Hong Kong and China Gas Company, for example. If it weren’t a publicly listed utility that couldn’t be privatized, he would have done so long ago.

Because he knew that Hong Kong and China Gas’s earning potential was even greater than that of Hongkong Electric Group.

These publicly listed utility companies could practically be called businesses that make money while lying down; no matter what happened in the market, they would remain unaffected.

Since public utilities like Hong Kong and China Gas and Hongkong Electric Group couldn’t be privatized, he should at least be able to privatize Hongkong Land, a company that would also be an effortless money-maker in the future, right?

Although for now, the difficulty of privatizing Hongkong Land Group seemed immense.

And that difficulty primarily stemmed from the capital required.

Once he raised enough funds, privatizing Hongkong Land would basically be no problem at all.

The difficult part now was the funding.

Raising several billion Hong Kong dollars in a short period wasn’t insurmountably difficult for him—he could just take out loans.

But was it worth accumulating so much debt in such a short time?

This was a problem Lin Haoran had to face.

After all, even he couldn’t guarantee that he could really come up with several billion Hong Kong dollars next year to repay this debt.

“Mr. Ma, I have full confidence in the future of Hongkong Land Group. If it were still like the old Hongkong Land under the British-funded conglomerates, blindly investing and expanding, causing its debt to climb higher and higher, then I certainly wouldn’t be thinking about privatization.

“But now, under my control, Hongkong Land has halted its aggressive expansion plans. Its current debt ratio is excellent. In this situation, I’m not afraid of any risks the company might bring me.

“Mr. Ma, you’re probably worried about another property bubble bursting in Hong Kong, aren’t you? Even if a real estate crisis similar to the one in 1973 were to happen in the future, in my view, it would be just like in 1973 and 1974—Hong Kong’s real estate industry would quickly recover and usher in an even greater space for development.

“So, as long as Hongkong Land maintains a very low debt ratio, I’m not afraid of any kind of real estate crisis!” Lin Haoran continued.

Ma Shiming nodded and replied, “This sort of thing is outside my management scope; it’s up to you, Boss, to decide. The most I can do is offer my opinion. Since you have so much confidence in Hongkong Land’s future, I won’t try to dissuade you.”

“The main difficulty I’m facing now is the enormous amount of capital I need to raise, which is causing me a lot of trouble. To privatize Hongkong Land, I must raise several billion Hong Kong dollars in a short time. Therefore, I’m trying to figure out how to reduce the amount of capital needed to achieve this goal,” Lin Haoran said with a sigh.

Raising several billion Hong Kong dollars in the short term was indeed a lot of pressure. If the amount could be reduced, that would be for the best.

“Boss, you Chinese people have an old saying: ‘Everyone has their own specialty.’ For a matter involving several billion Hong Kong dollars, I suggest it’s best to consult a financial expert. My primary responsibility is to manage the company’s overall direction and plan the group’s future development,” Ma Shiming said with a smile.

A financial expert?

Hearing Ma Shiming’s words, Lin Haoran fell into contemplation.

Speaking of financial experts, the one who left the deepest impression on him was probably Fok Kin-ning.

In the other world, this top lieutenant, who was also one of Li Jiacheng’s right-hand men, had a background in finance, didn’t he?

Moreover, he had read Fok Kin-ning’s profile; Fok Kin-ning wasn’t just highly talented in finance, but also in negotiations.

In that case, why not consult Fok Kin-ning and, at the same time, test him to see what good strategies he might have.

He had been grooming Fok Kin-ning for over a year now. Initially, he had made Fok Kin-ning the chief financial officer at Green Island Cement Company, then later transferred him to Hongkong Electric Group, where Fok Kin-ning now also held an important position.

However, Fok Kin-ning had been in a training phase, and Lin Haoran hadn’t paid too much attention to his recent progress.

It was time to assess his performance.

Although Fok Kin-ning was only twenty-nine years old, in the business world, many successful entrepreneurs began to make their mark in their twenties.

If this time, he could see a significant improvement in Fok Kin-ning’s abilities, he could consider promoting him to a higher position.

It wasn’t out of the question to even have him take charge of an entire company.

After all, as the number of companies under his control grew, the lack of capable assistants was becoming more and more pronounced.

If Fok Kin-ning could become his capable right-hand man sooner rather than later, nothing could be better.

Chapter 372: Getting Hongkong Land Group’s Shares for Free

Lin Haoran, having made up his mind, didn’t linger at Connaught Centre. After bidding farewell to Ma Shiming, he left.

“Let’s go to the Hongkong Electric Group Headquarters,” Lin Haoran said to Li Weidong after getting into the car.

“Yes, Boss!”

The three cars slowly drove out of the underground parking lot of Connaught Centre, soon merging onto the main road and heading straight for the Hongkong Electric Headquarters Building on Kennedy Road in Wan Chai.

Speaking of which, although Severn Road and Kennedy Road were not far apart—less than a kilometer, in fact—Lin Haoran hadn’t been here in nearly a month.

The main reason was that for the past month, his focus had been entirely on Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group.

As for the Hongkong Electric Group, with Chen Shoulin at the helm, it had been developing steadily and progressively.

Therefore, he hadn’t had to worry much about it.

Along the way, employees greeted Lin Haoran one after another, and he nodded in response to each of them.

It had been over a year since he took control of the Hongkong Electric Group, and these employees had long since grown accustomed to their new boss, Lin Haoran.

Arriving at Chen Shoulin’s office, Lin Haoran discovered that Chen Shoulin wasn’t in.

He asked the president’s assistant next door and learned that Chen Shoulin had gone to Lamma Island again today to inspect the progress of the new power station.

As the most crucial project for the entire Hongkong Electric Group at present, it was perfectly normal for Chen Shoulin to go and inspect it.

Lin Haoran had gone with him before.

Lin Haoran wasn’t too concerned about Chen Shoulin’s absence; after all, he hadn’t come specifically to see him today.

So, Lin Haoran headed for the Accounting Department’s office.

“Where is Director Fok?” Lin Haoran asked an employee as he walked into the Accounting Department.

“Director Fok? Boss, are you referring to Deputy Director Fok Kin-ning?” the employee asked cautiously.

“Oh, Fok Kin-ning got promoted?” Lin Haoran was genuinely unaware of this.

Previously, after he had transferred Fok Kin-ning here, Fok had become the head of the Accounting Department, which was considered a middle-management position within the Hongkong Electric Group.

A Director, however, was already considered a senior executive, and the same went for a Deputy Director.

“Boss, Director Fok was just promoted last month!” the employee replied.

Lin Haoran nodded. It was clear that since being transferred to the Hongkong Electric Group, Fok Kin-ning had quickly earned Chen Shoulin’s approval and had now been promoted with a raise.

“Where is he?”

“Boss, Director Fok went to the Finance Department about half an hour ago,” the employee continued.

“Alright, I understand. Thank you!” Lin Haoran said with a gentle smile.

“It’s my pleasure.” Hearing how approachable her boss was, the female employee, who looked to be only twenty-four or twenty-five, broke into a smile.

After bidding the employee farewell, Lin Haoran went to the Finance Department next door.

The Finance and Accounting Departments of the Hongkong Electric Group were actually connected. Although they were in two separate large offices, a door linked them, as the two departments were interdependent.

The Accounting Department provided the basic data, which the Finance Department then used for analysis and decision-making.

Their work was closely related, jointly supporting the company’s financial management and decisions.

Entering the Finance Department, Lin Haoran quickly spotted Fok Kin-ning. He was at a workstation, discussing something with a senior executive from the Finance Department.

Lin Haoran approached quietly, not wanting to disturb them immediately, and listened from the side.

From their conversation, Lin Haoran gathered that they were discussing the renegotiation of interest rates for several expiring loans from a finance company under the Hongkong Electric Group.

The Hongkong Electric Group had diversified its development, and its subsidiary, Capital Finance Company, was now a significant contributor to the group’s profits.

The Hongkong Electric Group was a publicly listed utility company with very strong cash flow, generating a huge amount of cash every month. Leaving this money in the bank would certainly be a waste.

Therefore, several years ago, the Hongkong Electric Group had established the subsidiary Capital Finance Company and started a lending business to utilize this cash flow.

Especially in the last two years, as Hong Kong’s real estate market boomed, bank interest rates had also been rising steadily.

For example, more than two years ago, when Lin Haoran took out a loan from Bumiputra Finance, an interest rate of 5% was negotiable.

But by the middle of this year, when Lin Haoran borrowed from HSBC, even with his Hongkong Electric Group shares as collateral and even with HSBC giving him a discount, the final interest rate was still 10%.

Now, in November, the prevailing interest rate for loans from major banks and finance companies in Hong Kong had already surpassed 15% and was heading even higher.

Therefore, even for old clients of Capital Finance Company who wanted to take out another loan after repaying their previous one, it was impossible to get the same interest rate as before.

Lin Haoran listened quietly to the discussion between Fok Kin-ning and another Finance Department executive whom he didn’t know well, and couldn’t help but admire Fok’s professionalism and foresight.

Just as Fok Kin-ning and the executive were deep in their heated discussion, Lin Haoran coughed lightly to announce his presence.

They both looked up, and upon seeing Lin Haoran, they quickly stood up to greet him.

“Boss, what brings you here?” Fok Kin-ning asked, somewhat surprised.

“I have something to discuss with you. It seems you’re almost done here, so I couldn’t help but interrupt. Kin-ning, come with me. I have something to tell you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Yes, Boss!” Fok Kin-ning nodded.

With that, Fok Kin-ning followed Lin Haoran out of the Finance Department’s office.

Since Chen Shoulin wasn’t in the office and wasn’t expected back soon, Lin Haoran decided to just borrow his office.

Fok Kin-ning closed the office door behind them before sitting down opposite Lin Haoran.

“It’s been a while since you transferred from Green Island Cement Company to the Hongkong Electric Group. How do you find it? Are you settling in? I heard you’ve been promoted to Deputy Director? Congratulations, Kin-ning!” Lin Haoran said with a broad smile.

“Boss, none of this would have been possible without your guidance and the opportunities you’ve given me. Without you, I wouldn’t have achieved what I have today. In my time at the Hongkong Electric Group, I’ve truly learned a lot of knowledge and gained experience I’d never been exposed to before—things that would have been difficult to learn at Green Island Cement Company.

I’m very happy working here. Director Chen also looks out for me and often takes me along when he negotiates deals, which has allowed me to learn about many areas I was previously unfamiliar with,” Fok Kin-ning replied, full of gratitude.

Lin Haoran nodded and checked Fok Kin-ning’s loyalty level.

The last time, he remembered Fok Kin-ning’s loyalty was already at 95.

Now, after a few months, it had risen again, reaching 96.

Such a high loyalty level was truly unexpected for Lin Haoran.

Perhaps it was due to the deep gratitude Fok Kin-ning felt for Lin Haoran for recognizing his talents.

“I’m very pleased that you’re able to learn new things here and apply that knowledge to contribute to the company. I actually came here today because there’s a problem I’d like to hear your opinion on,” Lin Haoran continued with a smile.

“Boss, please, go ahead. I’ll tell you everything I know without holding back!” Hearing that Lin Haoran wanted his advice, Fok Kin-ning immediately sat up straight, a serious expression on his face, and replied earnestly.

“You’re probably aware that I now control Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group. However, I’m currently facing a problem. That group of British-funded conglomerates wants to take back the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson and are about to negotiate with me. I plan to use this opportunity to gain significant benefits for myself, specifically, I intend to privatize the Hongkong Land Group and make Hong Kong’s largest real estate company entirely mine.

However, the problem I’m facing is the significant funding gap required to privatize Hongkong Land. Although I can take out loans, I don’t want to be burdened with too much debt over the next year, as I’ve already borrowed 2 billion Hong Kong dollars from HSBC.

So, under these circumstances, how can I privatize the Hongkong Land Group at the lowest possible cost? By the way, I currently hold about 19% of Jardine Matheson’s shares, which can be liquidated. Also, I plan to have Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land exchange the shares they hold in each other…”

Lin Haoran explained in detail the situation and his plans regarding Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group to Fok Kin-ning.

After hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Fok Kin-ning sat in his chair and began to ponder. Clearly, he needed time to process the information Lin Haoran had shared.

However, it didn’t take him long to digest it. Soon, Fok Kin-ning took out a piece of paper and a pen and started scribbling furiously on it.

About two or three minutes later, Fok Kin-ning looked up at Lin Haoran and said, “Boss, based on my calculations, at Jardine Matheson’s current market capitalization, your 19% stake can be liquidated for about 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars. Your funding gap for Hongkong Land is between 5 billion and 6 billion Hong Kong dollars, with the exact amount depending on the final price you negotiate.

Therefore, your actual funding gap is around 4 billion Hong Kong dollars. You currently have about 1.3 billion Hong Kong dollars in available funds, which means the final shortfall is less than three billion Hong Kong dollars.

You’re worried that if you take out such a large loan all at once, on top of the previous 2 billion loan, you’ll be burdened with too much debt. But actually, I don’t think you need to worry about that at all!” Fok Kin-ning said with a smile.

“Oh? Kin-ning, go on. Why don’t I need to worry about this issue?” Lin Haoran’s curiosity was piqued.

Fok Kin-ning elaborated, “Boss, you mentioned earlier that Hongkong Land has 770 million Hong Kong dollars on its books. Once the privatization of Hongkong Land is complete, the entire company will belong to you, and you’ll naturally have free rein over those funds.

Furthermore, regarding your plan to have Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land fully exchange their cross-held shares to completely sever their mutual shareholding relationship, what does this imply?

It means that even if you use a loan to finance the acquisition of the 30.2% stake in Hongkong Land held by Jardine Matheson, that money will ultimately remain within Hongkong Land. Once you successfully privatize Hongkong Land, you can still use those funds freely. It’s essentially like the money coming right back to you. In a way, you’d be getting those shares for free.”

Chapter 373: Appointing Fok Kin-ning as His Negotiation Assistant

Lin Haoran was no fool; he naturally understood Fok Kin-ning’s detailed explanation.

Now, having heard Fok Kin-ning out, he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Indeed, he had been overthinking things and had certainly fallen into a misconception.

As Fok Kin-ning had said, once the privatization of Hongkong Land Group was successful, it would mean he would be the sole boss, with no other shareholders.

In other words, Hongkong Land Group’s money would naturally be his money.

And right now, Hongkong Land Group’s accounts held a considerable amount of cash flow. Once he successfully privatized the group, he could naturally mobilize these funds as he pleased.

Most importantly, once the mutual shareholdings between Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group were successfully exchanged, the 30.2% stake held by Jardine Matheson would return to Hongkong Land Group.

At that point, Lin Haoran could, in his capacity as an investor, buy those 30.2% of the shares. The money he spent on them would naturally go into Hongkong Land Group’s account.

And after he privatized Hongkong Land Group, wouldn’t that money still be his?

What did this mean? It meant he could essentially get those 30.2% of the shares for free!

The only shares he would have to spend real money on were the ones on the secondary market and those held by the British-funded conglomerates.

The shares held by these British-funded conglomerates amounted to only about 10%, while the shares on the secondary market were only about 12.5%.

In other words, he only needed to spend money to acquire a total of 22.5% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares.

Even at Hongkong Land Group’s current market capitalization, this 22.5% stake would only cost him a little over two billion Hong Kong dollars.

Was a little over two billion Hong Kong dollars a strain for him?

Not at all.

For starters, he still had 1.385 billion Hong Kong dollars on hand, and Hongkong Land Group currently had 770 million in disposable funds. That alone was over 2.1 billion Hong Kong dollars.

With everything clarified, Lin Haoran felt suddenly enlightened.

He had indeed gotten trapped in a misconception before.

The billions in debt had inevitably put him under immense pressure.

But after Fok Kin-ning’s analysis, he realized he had been worrying needlessly.

As his thoughts cleared, Lin Haoran’s mood lightened.

He began to realize that his previous worries and anxieties were largely due to a one-sided understanding of the situation. Fok Kin-ning’s meticulous analysis was like a key that had unlocked the mental block that had been troubling him for so long.

“Kin-ning, thank you so much. Your analysis has been a real eye-opener,” Lin Haoran said sincerely.

If his previous approval of Fok Kin-ning was based mainly on his past life’s knowledge and admiration for the business tycoon’s glorious achievements, at this moment, he truly felt Fok Kin-ning’s brilliant talent and profound insight firsthand.

Every word and every piece of analysis from Fok Kin-ning was like a precision scalpel, cutting straight to the heart of the matter and opening up a completely new perspective for Lin Haoran.

If a talent like this were recruited by Li Jiacheng, he would undoubtedly become a force to be reckoned with, and it would be a huge loss for anyone else.

Fortunately, relying on his keen intuition and decisive action, Lin Haoran had preemptively brought Fok Kin-ning onto his team.

This head start made him feel incredibly fortunate and satisfied.

At this thought, a brilliant smile spread across Lin Haoran’s face—a smile filled with confidence for the future, and also one of sincere appreciation for Fok Kin-ning’s abilities.

He knew that with a strategist like Fok Kin-ning by his side, his business empire would become even more stable and powerful.

“Boss, these are just some of my personal views. It’s all part of my job!” Fok Kin-ning said humbly.

“Are you interested in joining Hongkong Land Group? If you are, I can arrange for you to be Mr. Ma Shiming’s assistant. And when the time is right, it wouldn’t be impossible for you to directly lead one of Hongkong Land’s subsidiaries, like Dairy Farm International,” Lin Haoran suddenly proposed.

Becoming the assistant to Ma Shiming, the head of Hongkong Land Group, was already a senior executive position.

Fok Kin-ning’s talent had deeply won his approval; in his mind, Fok Kin-ning had already become the ideal successor to Mr. Ma Shiming.

Fok Kin-ning shook his head gently and said, “Boss, I’ve been at Hongkong Electric Group for less than a year. Changing positions so frequently, let alone jumping to a new company, wouldn’t be very beneficial for my career development.

I’ve just found my footing at Hongkong Electric, and having to adapt to a completely new environment again isn’t suitable for me. Although Hongkong Land is far stronger than Hongkong Electric, Hongkong Electric is also quite sizable at present. I plan to put down roots here for a while. If I intend to join Hongkong Land Group in the future, I will discuss it with you in advance.”

Currently, Hongkong Electric Group’s market capitalization exceeded three billion Hong Kong dollars. Though there was a significant gap with Hongkong Land Group, as one of Hong Kong’s top ten listed companies, Hongkong Electric also had diverse development paths and was steadily moving towards internationalization.

Therefore, for Fok Kin-ning, Hongkong Electric Group was also a good choice.

What he needed now was to accumulate experience in corporate management.

“Alright, since you feel this is more suitable, I fully support you. Whenever you decide to move to Hongkong Land, just let me know. I have great confidence in your future!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“Thank you for your guidance, Boss!” Fok Kin-ning said gratefully.

He was well aware that the Boss was treating him like this because he saw him as a trusted aide, as his most dependable key assistant for the future.

For someone not yet thirty, how could he not be moved by such trust and high regard?

“By the way, I’m about to start negotiations with the British-funded conglomerates. Director Chen mentioned to me before that you’ve demonstrated extremely strong communication and response skills in negotiations and have helped him successfully close several deals.

As it happens, this isn’t my strong suit, especially since I’ll be facing the tycoons from numerous British-funded conglomerates. I’m honestly not very confident. How about this: you can act as my temporary assistant and help me with the negotiations. If you can help me secure a better deal, I’ll be sure to reward you handsomely!” Lin Haoran suddenly requested of Fok Kin-ning.

“Of course, Boss. Whenever you need me, just let me know, and I’ll be ready at a moment’s notice. However, before the negotiations, I will need detailed information on both sides, as well as information on your psychological bottom line for the talks. Only then can I assist you more effectively!” Fok Kin-ning replied earnestly.

“Got it. I’ll have someone prepare a detailed file as soon as I get back, and I’ll give it to you then. But you must remember, this matter must be kept strictly confidential. You cannot disclose it to anyone; only you can know.

As for my intended terms and my bottom line, I’ll find a suitable time to discuss them with you in detail. For security reasons, we won’t put any of this in writing!” Lin Haoran instructed with a serious expression.

Faced with a matter that could involve hundreds of millions or even billions in interests, even Lin Haoran was exceptionally cautious.

“Rest assured, Boss, I understand!” Fok Kin-ning replied with a solemn look.

Looking at Fok Kin-ning’s loyalty rating, which was as high as 96, Lin Haoran was filled with trust for him.

“You can get back to your work then. I need to go back and prepare. As for Hongkong Electric, I’ll speak with Director Chen, so you won’t be put in a difficult position. How is your department doing now? Are there any urgent tasks you’ve taken over?” Lin Haoran asked with concern.

“Boss, I’m currently assisting the chief financial officer. Even if I’m away for a short time, it won’t be a major issue. It won’t have a significant impact on the department’s operations,” Fok Kin-ning answered.

“Mm, that’s good. I’ll head back first. You finish work at six in the afternoon, right? Come by the Connaught Centre then, and I’ll give you the documents. Remember, no one can know the contents of the file, not even your family!” Lin Haoran said once more with great solemnity.

“Yes, Boss!” Fok Kin-ning replied with a firm nod.

Seeing that Chen Shoulin wouldn’t be back at the company anytime soon, Lin Haoran decided not to linger. After a brief farewell to Fok Kin-ning, he left.

He was quite satisfied with the outcome of his trip to Hongkong Electric Group.

After leaving Hongkong Electric Group, Lin Haoran returned to the Connaught Centre.

Last night at the Government House, he and the British-funded conglomerates had not set a specific time for their next meeting.

Both sides understood that since the talks had reached that stage, the next step was for each to consider their bottom lines and think about how to gain the maximum benefit in the negotiations.

All of this required time to prepare.

Otherwise, rushing into negotiations without adequate preparation would likely lead to mutual dissatisfaction and an ultimate failure to reach an agreement.

After returning to Hongkong Land Group, Lin Haoran found Ma Shiming again and asked him to prepare a detailed file on Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. The file was to include their current cash on hand, shareholder structure, stock market capitalization, and so on.

This information was, of course, for Fok Kin-ning’s preparation.

As for his negotiation bottom line, he would arrange to meet with Fok Kin-ning beforehand to discuss his thoughts in detail once a time was set with the British-funded conglomerates.

After that, Lin Haoran didn’t go anywhere else, staying at the Connaught Centre.

He spent the entire afternoon contemplating his bottom line for the negotiations with the people from the British-funded conglomerates.

Sitting in his office, Lin Haoran diligently wrote and doodled, jotting down his various thoughts in a scattered manner.

He knew that only with thorough preparation could he fight for the greatest possible benefit in the negotiations.

Otherwise, if he was underprepared, he might become an “easy mark” in the eyes of those British-funded conglomerates.

As his thoughts swirled, time slipped away quietly.

Suddenly, the ringing of the office phone broke the silence.

Chapter 374: The Prerequisite for Relinquishing Jardine Matheson & Co.

“Mr. Lin, this is Henry Keswick. Regarding the matter of Jardine Matheson & Co., we should set a suitable time and place to sit down and discuss it in detail. Are you free tomorrow? If it’s convenient, we can arrange to meet in the conference room at Jardine House for an in-depth conversation,” Henry Keswick said directly over the phone.

“Tomorrow?”

Lin Haoran showed no surprise. He had long known that these British-funded conglomerates were unwilling to drag this matter on for too long.

As long as he refused to give up his controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co., these British shareholders, even while still holding shares, could not truly exercise their management rights.

“Alright, you can set the time. I’ll make a trip over tomorrow!” Lin Haoran replied indifferently.

After all, the initiative was in his hands. Even if the timing was a bit rushed, he didn’t mind at all.

As long as these British-funded conglomerates couldn’t meet his minimum conditions, they couldn’t expect him to relinquish his controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co.

“In that case, let’s set it for ten o’clock tomorrow morning. We’ll see you then, how does that sound?” Henry Keswick continued.

“No problem. See you at ten o’clock tomorrow morning,” Lin Haoran readily agreed.

Hanging up the telephone receiver, Lin Haoran recalled the drop in Newbiggin’s loyalty. How could he not understand the reason now?

The British-funded conglomerates must have successfully persuaded Newbiggin to stand on their side once again.

However, Lin Haoran wasn’t particularly concerned about Newbiggin’s departure. It didn’t matter what he chose to do personally.

Even if he had no intention of giving up Jardine Matheson & Co., he would have found an opportunity to kick Newbiggin out in the future.

Besides, even if he did give up Jardine Matheson & Co., who would be its helmsman in the future, and what would that have to do with him?

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran began to carefully consider what his bottom lines were in dealing with the British-funded conglomerates.

Stretching his back, Lin Haoran picked up the telephone receiver again and made a call to Fok Kin-ning.

Since this group of British conglomerates was so eager to negotiate, it was obvious they had already formed a united front internally and agreed on their terms.

On his end, Lin Haoran naturally needed to talk to Fok Kin-ning about their negotiation bottom line.

He told Fok Kin-ning that after work, there was no need to come to the Hongkong Land Group’s office; instead, he should go directly to the Joyful Abundance Restaurant.

Fok Kin-ning lived in Kowloon, and the Joyful Abundance Restaurant was in Tsim Sha Tsui, so it was on his way home by car.

At the same time, Lin Haoran also called Chen Shoulin to inform him that he would be temporarily commandeering Fok Kin-ning for a period. As for the negotiations, Lin Haoran estimated they couldn’t be settled in a short time.

Because the conditions and bottom lines he had come up with this afternoon were something this group of British conglomerates would likely not agree to so easily.

Chen Shoulin naturally had no objections and said he would arrange for Fok Kin-ning’s paid leave.

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it was six o’clock in the evening.

At the headquarters of the Hongkong Land Group, many employees had already started leaving for the day.

Lin Haoran also left Connaught Centre with a file in hand, accompanied by his numerous bodyguards.

The convoy headed directly for Tsim Sha Tsui. Although the distance wasn’t far, the heavy traffic in the Cross-Harbour Tunnel meant it took a full twenty-plus minutes for Lin Haoran’s convoy to arrive smoothly at the Joyful Abundance Restaurant.

Entering the restaurant’s main hall, he found it already bustling with people; there wasn’t a single empty table in sight.

Even the private rooms would have been unavailable during this dinner hour.

However, as the big boss behind the Joyful Abundance Restaurant, Lin Haoran had already called the restaurant’s general manager in advance to reserve a quiet private room.

Led by the manager, Lin Haoran was soon shown to a fairly large private room.

The room had an inner chamber and an outer hall, which was perfect for the bodyguards to have their dinner in the outer hall.

Li Weidong and Li Weiguo first conducted several thorough checks of the inner chamber. Only after confirming that no listening devices had been installed did they withdraw.

Although the Joyful Abundance Restaurant, as a high-end dining establishment under the Hongkong Land Group, was now part of Lin Haoran’s industrial empire, it had previously been under the management of Jardine Matheson & Co.

Therefore, Lin Haoran couldn’t be certain whether the British-funded conglomerate had secretly arranged for people to monitor him here, so every one of these precautions was essential.

He would absolutely not allow his opponents from the British-funded conglomerate to discover his bottom line in advance and adopt targeted strategies.

Barely ten minutes after Lin Haoran arrived at the Joyful Abundance Restaurant, Fok Kin-ning was led into the private room.

“Boss!” Fok Kin-ning greeted Lin Haoran politely and respectfully upon seeing him.

“Yes, come, have a seat. I’ve already ordered the food. We can eat and talk. Those British folks are coming to negotiate with me tomorrow, so you need to be fully prepared.

“Although I have the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. now and there’s nothing they can do if I refuse, considering we’re all here in Hong Kong, and I don’t place that much importance on Jardine Matheson & Co. anyway, there’s no need to let our relationship become too strained.

“So, this negotiation is crucial. We must both satisfy my conditions and get them to agree willingly. Your task is not an easy one,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Yes, Boss. I understand!”

“Here is some information I carefully prepared this afternoon. You must study it thoroughly when you get back. Remember, it’s best to review it alone in your private room. It must be kept confidential, as this is all core corporate business intelligence!” Lin Haoran said with a solemn expression.

Although some of the content in these documents could be publicly obtained from corporate annual reports, there was also a portion of core and sensitive information that should not be leaked.

Lin Haoran would not have easily allowed anyone else to take these materials with them, but he had great trust in Fok Kin-ning’s loyalty. Coupled with the time constraint, he simply let him take it home to review at his leisure.

At the same time, this was also a signal to Fok Kin-ning: I, your boss, trust you very much!

“Understood, Boss. After I’m done reading, I will destroy these documents immediately and won’t let anyone see them. Also, Boss, I’m not living at my parents’ house anymore. For work convenience, I rented an apartment in a residential complex in Causeway Bay a few months ago,” Fok Kin-ning explained as he respectfully accepted the documents with both hands and carefully placed them in his bag.

“I thought you were still living in Yau Ma Tei, so I specially chose this place thinking it would be on your way home. I didn’t expect it to be a misunderstanding,” Lin Haoran said with an embarrassed smile.

He really hadn’t paid much attention to Fok Kin-ning’s personal situation lately.

Ever since he had transferred Fok Kin-ning from the Green Island Cement Company to the Hongkong Electric Group for training, he hadn’t inquired much about his work or personal life, so it was normal that he didn’t know.

There were many elegant and quiet restaurants in Central. If he had known earlier that Fok Kin-ning lived on Hong Kong Island, he might have chosen to meet in Central and wouldn’t have needed to come all the way to this side of Kowloon.

“It’s fine. I don’t really have much to do after work anyway. By the way, Boss, what time is the negotiation tomorrow?” Fok Kin-ning asked.

“Come to Jardine House around nine fifty tomorrow morning. I’ll be waiting for you in the Taipan’s office at Jardine Matheson & Co.!” Lin Haoran replied.

Fok Kin-ning nodded.

The two were in no hurry to get down to business. They only began their formal discussion after all five dishes Lin Haoran had ordered were served.

“Kin-ning, next I will lay out for you some of my core principles and bottom lines for relinquishing the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. These are all critical. The heavy task of negotiation will fall to you. I’m entrusting this entirely to you!”

Lin Haoran picked up a piece of roast goose and tasted it. After gently dabbing the oil from the corner of his mouth with a napkin, he looked up at Fok Kin-ning and spoke.

Facing the expert negotiators from the British-funded conglomerates, Lin Haoran, despite having a clear bottom line in mind, might not have the upper hand in terms of eloquence and negotiation skills. This could easily put him in a passive position.

Fok Kin-ning, on the other hand, had shown extraordinary talent in negotiations. With him leading the talks and Lin Haoran personally overseeing them, they wouldn’t fear the opponent’s numbers and could more effectively control the negotiation’s dynamics.

Although the Joyful Abundance Restaurant was founded by the Hongkong Land Group, which was originally a British-owned enterprise, it was a Chinese restaurant specializing in Hong Kong cuisine.

The food here was truly exceptional in color, aroma, and taste. Even someone like Lin Haoran, who had savored all kinds of delicacies, was full of praise for the dishes at Joyful Abundance Restaurant.

This made it easy to understand why the Joyful Abundance Restaurant was so popular among Hong Kong’s middle and upper classes.

After taking control of the Hongkong Land Group, Lin Haoran had reviewed the financial reports for the Joyful Abundance Restaurant. For the entirety of last year, the restaurant’s revenue was over 130 million Hong Kong dollars, with profits reaching over 30 million Hong Kong dollars.

What a pity, the Joyful Abundance Restaurant currently had only one location. In Lin Haoran’s eyes, it had the full potential to develop into a restaurant chain group!

In the future, he planned to find an opportunity to discuss this possibility with Ma Shiming.

However, all that would have to wait until the matter with Jardine Matheson & Co. was settled. There was no rush for now.

“Boss, please go ahead!” Fok Kin-ning also put down his chopsticks, preparing to listen to Lin Haoran’s instructions with his full attention.

“Before we discuss me relinquishing the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co., there is one prerequisite that must be resolved: the cross-shareholding issue between Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group. I demand an equal-value exchange of the shares that Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group hold in each other. Only if they agree to this condition will I be willing to continue the discussion,” Lin Haoran said in a firm tone.

The current situation was that Jardine Matheson & Co. held 30.2% of the shares in the Hongkong Land Group, while the Hongkong Land Group held 30.1% of the shares in Jardine Matheson & Co. The proportions of each other’s shares they held were almost identical, with a negligible difference.

However, there was a difference in the market capitalizations of Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group. The Hongkong Land Group’s market capitalization was higher, currently around 10.2 billion Hong Kong dollars.

As for Jardine Matheson & Co., because the market had widely believed earlier that Lin Haoran would directly take control of the company and potentially engage in a fierce battle with the British-funded conglomerate, its stock price had once soared. At its peak, its total market capitalization had reached over nine billion Hong Kong dollars.

However, after Lin Haoran successfully gained indirect control of Jardine Matheson & Co. through the Hongkong Land Group, its market capitalization had indeed declined to some extent.

Despite this, the market capitalization of Jardine Matheson & Co. was currently stable at around 8.4 billion Hong Kong dollars.

If things proceeded according to the plan proposed by Lin Haoran, then the market capitalizations of Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group would achieve a certain degree of parity. For that group of British investors, this was something they would probably not accept easily.

Chapter 375: We Cannot Possibly Accept This Proposal!

However, Lin Haoran couldn’t be bothered with all that. This was his first non-negotiable bottom line in these negotiations.

If the other party wasn’t even willing to accept this condition, then he felt there was no need to continue with the negotiations.

Although he had already considered giving up Jardine Matheson & Co., it was on the premise that he would gain sufficient benefits!

And using the opportunity of giving up Jardine Matheson & Co. to privatize Hongkong Land Group at the lowest possible cost—that was his prerequisite for abandoning Jardine Matheson.

He wasn’t foolish enough to give up Jardine Matheson if he couldn’t privatize Hongkong Land Group while also giving up Jardine Matheson & Co.

Fok Kin-ning was also a smart man. As soon as Lin Haoran finished speaking, he completely understood his Boss’s intentions.

“Alright, Boss, I’ve committed this condition to memory!” Fok Kin-ning said with a nod.

Lin Haoran continued, “If both sides can agree on the prerequisite, then I don’t have many other conditions.

“First, all of Hongkong Land Group’s British shareholders need to give up the shares they hold. I will acquire them at market value.

“Second, Jardine Matheson & Co. needs to transfer Gammon Construction Company and Jardine Securities Company to Hongkong Land Group. At the same time, the subsidiaries of the Mandarin Hotel and the Oriental International Hotel should also be moved under Hongkong Land Group.

“Of course, my final bottom line is that they must return the two hotel chain brands, the Mandarin Hotel and the Oriental International Hotel, to Hongkong Land Group.

“As for Gammon Construction Company and Jardine Securities Company, just do your best to fight for them. I’m not particularly interested in them.

“In addition…”

Fok Kin-ning listened carefully to his boss’s words, afraid of missing a single important sentence.

And Lin Haoran laid out all the conditions he had thought of that afternoon, one by one.

At the same time, Lin Haoran also detailed the backgrounds of the big shots from the British-funded conglomerate, placing particular emphasis on the Rothschild family, the ally Henry Keswick had brought in.

By the time the two finished dinner, more than an hour had passed.

“That’s all for tonight. Go back and digest the conditions, bottom lines, and the information I’ve given you. Tomorrow, speak boldly. If you misspeak, I’ll prompt you, so don’t panic!” Lin Haoran stood up, patted Fok Kin-ning’s shoulder, and said with a smile.

“Yes, Boss. Please rest assured, I will not disappoint you!” Fok Kin-ning said solemnly.

After bidding farewell to Fok Kin-ning, Lin Haoran left the Joyful Abundance Restaurant and returned to his villa on Severn Road.

Time passed quickly, and a night went by in a flash.

Today was already November 20th.

In the morning, with Rosamund Kwan attending to him, Lin Haoran got out of bed feeling refreshed and invigorated.

Although Rosamund Kwan was staying here temporarily, Lin Haoran planned to have her leave the Severn Road villa after some time and would arrange a less demanding job for her.

It was indeed inappropriate for Rosamund Kwan to live here long-term, especially considering that Guo Xiaohan might visit at any time.

After all, Guo Xiaohan had already made her feelings clear and was waiting for Lin Haoran’s reply.

Openly bringing a mistress home would only create a psychological barrier for Guo Xiaohan!

With his current wealth, he certainly didn’t lack for properties.

When the time came, he could just have Rosamund Kwan move into the apartment he had purchased two years ago in Hang Fung Building.

Although her father’s debt problem had been resolved, Lin Haoran was still a little worried about Rosamund Kwan’s safety if she were to return to her original home alone.

Therefore, he would feel more at ease if she moved out and lived somewhere else.

Even if he only considered Rosamund Kwan his mistress, as his woman, he would still show her a certain degree of care.

For Lin Haoran, he didn’t require Rosamund Kwan to have strong earning potential. He only wanted her to be like a vase—a beautiful vase that was pleasing to his eye, a vase that belonged only to him. That was enough.

It wasn’t until nine-thirty in the morning that Lin Haoran left the house and headed directly to Jardine House.

When he arrived at Jardine House and went up to Newbiggin’s office, Lin Haoran discovered that Fok Kin-ning had arrived even earlier than him and was already sitting in the office, waiting.

Newbiggin was clearly already aware of Fok Kin-ning’s identity, so he had allowed him into the office.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, both Fok Kin-ning and Newbiggin stood up to greet him.

Lin Haoran nodded. He noticed that Newbiggin’s Loyalty was even lower now. It had been over forty before, but now it had dropped to just over thirty.

It was clear he no longer considered Lin Haoran his boss and was just putting on a superficial act.

But it wasn’t surprising. With the Royal Family intervening, Newbiggin naturally assumed that Lin Haoran would have no choice but to give up Jardine Matheson & Co.

He glanced at the time; it was already nine fifty-five in the morning.

“Boss, Mr. Henry, Mr. James Rothschild, and the others are already waiting for you in the conference room. We can head over now,” Newbiggin said.

“Alright, let’s go then,” Lin Haoran replied with a nod.

Lin Haoran, with Fok Kin-ning in tow, followed Newbiggin into an elevator and up to a conference room on the 19th floor of Jardine House.

Inside the conference room, a dozen or so core figures of the British-funded conglomerate, including Henry Keswick and the prospective investor, James Rothschild, were already seated.

Polite yet serious smiles adorned their faces, a clear indication of their high expectations for this negotiation.

“Mr. Lin, good morning.” Henry Keswick rose to greet him, his tone carrying a barely perceptible hint of arrogance, but it was mostly pre-negotiation courtesy.

Lin Haoran paid no mind to Henry Keswick’s attitude. As long as he achieved his goals, he couldn’t care less about the attitudes of these British-funded conglomerates.

He smiled in response, “Good morning, everyone. Allow me to introduce you. This gentleman beside me is my assistant, Mr. Fok Kin-ning. For the upcoming negotiations, he will represent me in discussing matters concerning Jardine Matheson & Co. with all of you.”

Lin Haoran’s words immediately caused everyone’s gaze to shift to Fok Kin-ning.

Seeing that Fok Kin-ning, like Lin Haoran, was a young man, the British tycoons present were quite surprised.

In their view, even if Lin Haoran found someone to negotiate on his behalf, it should have been an old-timer in his forties like Ma Shiming. Why would he choose someone as young as Fok Kin-ning?

Instantly, a sense of underestimation welled up in the hearts of many.

After Lin Haoran and Fok Kin-ning took their seats, today’s negotiations officially began.

The atmosphere in the conference room was subtle and tense.

Had it been anyone else facing this group of British tycoons, they would likely have been flustered by now.

But Lin Haoran was perfectly calm, because with the leverage he currently held, he had the resources and confidence to face them.

Among this group, only the core member of the Rothschild family was worthy of his serious attention.

As for Henry Keswick?

To be honest, with his current net worth, he had long since far surpassed the wealth of the Keswick family.

Lin Haoran gently tapped the table, signaling that Fok Kin-ning could begin.

Fok Kin-ning took a deep breath and stood up.

Lin Haoran appeared composed and unhurried, but the young Fok Kin-ning couldn’t help but feel a little nervous inside.

However, he quickly calmed his emotions, forcing himself to settle down.

He knew very well that he was representing his boss at this moment. A poor performance would be a disgrace to his boss.

At the same time, Fok Kin-ning was also keenly aware that this negotiation was not just about the company’s interests; it was also a golden opportunity to prove his capabilities to his boss.

If he performed exceptionally, his career prospects would undoubtedly be brilliant. Conversely, if he performed poorly, not only would he leave a bad impression on his boss, but he would also betray the trust and importance his boss had placed in him.

Therefore, he had to give it his all and live up to the task.

“Honorable gentlemen, first and foremost, I must clarify that our boss currently holds an open attitude regarding whether or not to relinquish the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co.

“This openness is manifested in the fact that if you can meet the conditions set forth by our boss, then everything is negotiable. This includes even the possibility of returning the controlling stake of Jardine Matheson & Co. to you—it is not impossible!” Fok Kin-ning’s voice was clear and powerful, each word precisely striking a chord in the hearts of everyone present.

Lin Haoran, sitting next to Fok Kin-ning, was quite satisfied with his opening performance.

To remain calm and composed in the face of so many tycoons was not something an ordinary person could do.

“Mr. Fok, may I ask, what are the conditions you are proposing?” Henry Keswick asked.

“Before we discuss giving up the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co., we have a prerequisite. Only if you agree to this condition will we continue the talks. Otherwise, there is no need to proceed!

“This condition is that we must first settle the matter of the shares that Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group hold in each other. Our boss has explicitly proposed that both sides conduct an equivalent exchange. This exchange will not depend on current market value fluctuations but will be based on a one-to-one swap of the shareholding percentages.

“In short, once the swap is complete, Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group will no longer hold any shares in each other, achieving a complete clarification of the shareholding structure,” Fok Kin-ning stated the condition Lin Haoran had proposed.

Upon hearing this, the British tycoons in the conference room exchanged glances. This condition clearly struck at the core of their interests.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Fok, we cannot possibly accept this proposal.” A British shareholder stood up at this point, his face shocked as he rejected it outright. “Hongkong Land Group’s market capitalization is significantly higher than Jardine Matheson & Co.’s. If the shares held by both parties were calculated at current market value, the difference in their value is nearly five hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

“This means that if such an exchange were to be executed, Jardine Matheson & Co. would suffer a loss of over five hundred million Hong Kong dollars in market value. Even if we were willing to compromise, it would be extremely difficult to provide a reasonable explanation to the vast number of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s shareholders.”

According to the current stock market capitalization, the 30.2% stake in Hongkong Land Group held by Jardine Matheson & Co. was worth around three billion and eighty million Hong Kong dollars.

Meanwhile, the 30.1% stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. held by Hongkong Land Group was worth around two billion, five hundred and thirty million Hong Kong dollars.

Chapter 376: A Hardline Stance

“That’s right, this condition is absolutely unacceptable to us!” Henry Keswick also stood up, directly stating his opposition.

If the Keswick family could regain control of Jardine Matheson & Co., they would naturally take the largest share of its profits.

After all, as the new leadership, risks and rewards went hand in hand. When profits were high, their family would naturally receive more.

But by the same token, if Jardine Matheson & Co. suffered losses, their family’s losses would also be the most severe.

In short, the company’s losses were directly tied to the Keswick family’s losses. The greater the company’s loss, the greater their family’s loss.

This was all real money!

As for the excuse about not being able to answer to the wider body of shareholders, it was nothing more than a pretext.

According to Jardine Matheson & Co.’s current shareholding structure, Hongkong Land Group and Lin Haoran together held as much as 49.1% of the shares. Adding the nearly 40% held by the British-funded conglomerate, if the British-funded conglomerate also agreed, nearly 90% of the equity would support this share-swap plan. The retail investors would have no right to object at all.

It was just like when HSBC sold its shares in Hutchison Whampoa to Li Jiacheng at a very low cost—they had never sought the approval of their shareholders either.

Harm the shareholders’ interests? In the face of absolute control, shareholders had no right to object!

As Henry Keswick finished speaking, other British shareholders of Jardine Matheson & Co. successively rose to their feet, expressing their firm disagreement with the decision.

Among them was even Michael Sandberg. As one of Jardine Matheson’s major shareholders, HSBC’s interests were at stake, so they would naturally object.

After all, HSBC held 6% of Jardine Matheson’s shares. This 500 million Hong Kong dollar loss, if used for dividends, would equate to a thirty million Hong Kong dollar loss for HSBC.

One after another, people in the room stood up to voice their opposition.

James Rothschild did not speak. He merely sat at the conference table, watching the clash between Lin Haoran’s side and the British-funded conglomerate.

After all, he was not a shareholder of Jardine Matheson at present and had no right to speak. His words would be useless.

At this moment, Lin Haoran, who had remained silent, also rose to his feet.

All eyes immediately focused on him, eager to see if he would back down in the face of universal opposition from the British-funded conglomerate.

However, they were destined to be disappointed.

With a smile on his face, Lin Haoran swept a slightly sarcastic gaze over everyone present and said, “Gentlemen, my assistant, Mr. Fok Kin-ning, has already made it very clear. The prerequisite for this negotiation is that you must accept this preliminary proposal. Otherwise, there is nothing to discuss.

“You should think it over carefully. I currently hold the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson. My willingness to negotiate is based on the expectation of a corresponding return on my interests. If you are unwilling to concede even this small benefit, may I ask, what is the point of continuing this discussion?

“Why don’t we all just disperse and go our separate ways? After all, I had no intention of selling my controlling stake in Jardine Matheson in the first place. If not for the sake of Prince Charles, the Royal Family, and the favor I’m showing to everyone present, I would have never given you the opportunity to negotiate.

“If you think I’m doing business as if it were charity, or if you think that with so many of you, you can gang up on me because I’m an easy target, then there’s truly no need for us to continue this conversation.

“From now on, I will continue to hold the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson, and you all can peacefully remain shareholders. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful arrangement?

“I believe that under my management, Jardine Matheson is certain to flourish. When the time comes and we are profitable, everyone will naturally get a piece of the pie. What’s not to like about that?”

So what if he was facing a group of British tycoons? Did they think they could use their numbers to bully him?

As his wealth and power had grown, so too had Lin Haoran’s resources and confidence.

Lin Haoran was just that unyielding. His meaning was already crystal clear: either you agree to the precondition, or there’s no need to talk any further.

To be honest, in the past, he would have felt a little nervous even when facing tycoons like Newbiggin or Michael Sandberg.

But now, Lin Haoran was entirely unafraid, even if all the British-funded conglomerates present united to ostracize him.

So what if the Rothschild family got involved?

Of course, he didn’t want to make things so tense with these people either, but that was on the condition that the negotiations between them were fair and just.

Since these people wanted to force him to give up Jardine Matheson, it was only natural for him to receive some appropriate compensation!

Seeing Lin Haoran’s resolute attitude, the tycoons of the British-funded conglomerates all showed their displeasure. Fok Kin-ning understood that it was his time to step up, adopting a more rational tone to ease the atmosphere and guide both sides back to the negotiating table.

He slowly stood up, a smile on his face, and spoke in a calm and sincere tone, “To all the esteemed shareholders of Jardine Matheson, I completely understand your positions and concerns. Mr. Lin’s words were direct, but they indeed pointed out the foundation of this negotiation: both sides must show sincerity and expect a corresponding return.

“Everyone here is a tycoon in the world of business, so you all understand very well that any successful transaction is built on the foundation of mutual benefit and a win-win outcome.”

Fok Kin-ning paused, looked around, and continued, “Let’s try looking at this from another angle. Jardine Matheson & Co. is a company with a long history and profound influence. Although its market capitalization may seem lower than that of the Hongkong Land Group, everyone is well aware of its actual value. This is a company whose stock market value is completely underestimated.

“Otherwise, you wouldn’t place such importance on Jardine Matheson, going to such lengths to try and reclaim it even after Mr. Lin Haoran has already secured a controlling stake. The actual value of Jardine Matheson is in no way inferior to that of Hongkong Land.

“I believe all you business tycoons here agree with this in your hearts. Therefore, the proposal we’ve put forward isn’t an excessive demand, wouldn’t you say?”

He paused again, observing the reactions of the shareholders, then went on, “To acquire Jardine Matheson, Mr. Lin planned for a very, very long time. This was all normal business conduct, and he invested a great deal into it. If he were to just give up Jardine Matheson like this, do you think our Boss would be content?

“I believe no one would be. If any of you were in this situation, you would feel the same way! Therefore, a fair and reasonable proposal is the key for both sides to reach a consensus.

“I am confident that through detailed negotiations, we can certainly find a solution that both guarantees Mr. Lin’s return on his investment and maximizes the interests of all shareholders.”

Fok Kin-ning changed his tone, speaking even more gently, “Of course, it’s difficult for you to make a decision on such a major matter in a short time, and opposition is normal. It certainly requires everyone to take some time to consider and decide. Our Boss’s precondition has already been laid out for you.

“Whether to continue the talks or to give up on Jardine Matheson is now all up to you. I suggest you first hold in-depth discussions among yourselves to clarify your respective bottom lines and expectations.”

He looked at Lin Haoran, and the two exchanged a subtle glance. Lin Haoran nodded slightly, satisfied with Fok Kin-ning’s response.

Fok Kin-ning then continued, “Mr. Lin has demonstrated his sincerity and patience. He is willing to wait until you can find a plan that satisfies all relevant parties. Therefore, I implore you all not to rush into a decision to object.

“If you truly want the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson, you should show your sincerity. Otherwise, you should also understand that there is no point in continuing the talks.

“Jardine Matheson is a company with a very promising future. Just yesterday, our Boss mentioned to me that he is truly reluctant to part with it. If not for the favor he’s showing all of you, he wouldn’t give it up for any amount of money.

“Because compared to short-term gains, Mr. Lin is more concerned with long-term interests. And the future of Jardine Matheson is clearly that of a very promising Hong Kong behemoth. To have him give it up just like this is, frankly, already a bit unfair.

“So, I suggest you consult internally and consider whether to continue pursuing the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson, rather than focusing on temporary gains and losses. The world of business is full of variables, but what remains constant is everyone’s pursuit of success and respect for cooperation.”

Compared to Lin Haoran’s direct and tough stance, Fok Kin-ning’s words were gentler and more rational. Like a fresh breeze, they gradually eased the tense, confrontational atmosphere in the meeting room.

The expressions on many shareholders’ faces began to soften, as if they were re-evaluating the situation and considering whether it was necessary to reject the proposal so hastily.

All the shareholders of the British-funded conglomerate looked at one another.

At this moment, the representative of the Rothschild family, Mr. James Rothschild, also spoke up. “Mr. Fok’s words have some merit. Since Mr. Lin’s stance is so firm, perhaps we should find another time to speak with him. Before that, we should confer and come to a decision. Otherwise, it is indeed meaningless to continue this discussion!”

James Rothschild’s words were tacitly accepted by all the British shareholders present.

Henry Keswick nodded and said, “In that case, let’s conclude our negotiations with Mr. Lin for today!”

“Since it’s settled, we’ll take our leave. You can take your time to discuss. Mr. Henry, you can notify me anytime once you have a decision. Of course, I actually hope you’ll give up on Jardine Matheson. I’m truly reluctant to let it go! Gentlemen, goodbye!” Lin Haoran stood up, and after speaking, he left with Fok Kin-ning in a confident stride.

He left the group of British tycoons behind to continue their discussion.

With such high stakes, their deliberations would certainly not yield a quick result.

Chapter 377: The Shadow Guards Report for Duty

“Boss, based on my experience negotiating with Director Chen before, these people should eventually agree. I can feel that they’re determined to get Jardine Matheson & Co.,” Fok Kin-ning said to Lin Haoran with a smile as they stood in the elevator.

“I don’t really care whether they agree or not. If they do, I’ll consider giving up Jardine Matheson and start privatizing the Hongkong Land Group. If they don’t, I’ll just continue to manage Jardine Matheson. No matter the outcome, it’s not a significant loss for me,” Lin Haoran replied with a laugh.

“That’s true. Given your current position, Boss, they’re the ones who should be anxious!” Fok Kin-ning nodded in agreement.

“Since today’s negotiations can’t move forward for now, let me take you to Connaught Centre to see the Hongkong Land Group. If you’re interested in moving over in the future, I can transfer you anytime. As for the Hongkong Electric Group, I’ve already spoken with Director Chen. He’ll arrange for you to take paid leave temporarily, so you don’t need to worry about your work there,” Lin Haoran continued.

Lin Haoran was extremely pleased with Fok Kin-ning’s performance at the negotiating table today.

At only twenty-nine years old, Fok Kin-ning had already displayed such extraordinary courage and insight, far exceeding his expectations.

After all, Lin Haoran himself was so composed because he had the resources and confidence to back it up.

But Fok Kin-ning was, at the end of the day, just a professional. To be able to maintain such a demeanor in the face of numerous industry titans was something an ordinary person could not do.

Given a few years to cultivate his talents, he would undoubtedly become an invaluable key assistant.

Lin Haoran naturally cherished such talent.

“I’m truly overwhelmed by your kindness, Boss!” Fok Kin-ning said, filled with emotion.

The importance the boss placed on him was truly exceptional!

This gave Fok Kin-ning a strong sense of belonging, as if he had finally found a boss worthy of his complete dedication.

With a group of bodyguards, the two left Jardine House and headed directly for Connaught Centre.

A few minutes later, their convoy entered the underground parking garage of Connaught Centre.

They took the elevator and soon arrived at Ma Shiming’s office.

At that moment, Ma Shiming was on the phone. Seeing Lin Haoran and Fok Kin-ning walk in, he pointed at the telephone receiver, indicating that he would talk to them in a moment.

A few minutes later, Ma Shiming finally hung up.

“Boss, I heard you were negotiating with the British-funded conglomerate from Jardine Matheson & Co. today. How did it go?” Ma Shiming asked Lin Haoran, his face full of curiosity.

“Something like this is never settled so easily. We’re still at a stalemate. We’ll have to see what they decide in the end,” Lin Haoran answered with a smile.

“Indeed. After all, it concerns the controlling stake of Jardine Matheson & Co. How could something so momentous be settled so easily!” Ma Shiming nodded in agreement.

“By the way, this is Mr. Fok Kin-ning, my temporary assistant for the negotiations. He’s currently the Deputy Director of the Finance Department at the Hongkong Electric Group and a young man with great management potential. You two should get to know each other. I might transfer him to the Hongkong Land Group in the future to become a key senior executive,” Lin Haoran said, introducing Fok Kin-ning to Ma Shiming.

Ma Shiming wasn’t particularly impressed. He thought Fok Kin-ning was a bit too young to be truly capable.

After all, when he, Ma Shiming, was twenty-nine, he was merely a low-to-mid-level manager at Jardine Matheson & Co.

However, since this was someone the boss valued, he still shook Fok Kin-ning’s hand with due respect.

“Mr. Ma, I’ve admired you for a long time and have always wanted to learn from you,” Fok Kin-ning said excitedly upon meeting Ma Shiming.

“You two can chat. Mr. Ma, you were once a senior executive at Jardine Matheson & Co., so you’re very familiar with it. And Mr. Fok is now my temporary assistant for the negotiations. Could I trouble you to share some more details about Jardine Matheson with him? I’m going to the office next door to make a call,” Lin Haoran said to them.

With that, he left Ma Shiming’s office and went into an empty one next door.

Lin Haoran had already given Bao Fuda’s old office to Ma Shiming.

Since he rarely came by, it was a waste for him to occupy such a large office. It was better to let Ma Shiming have a good working environment to manage the group for him.

He glanced at the time. It was only about eleven in the morning, still early.

After sitting down, Lin Haoran made a call to Su Zhixue.

Previously, Lin Haoran had instructed Su Zhixue to prepare his team to travel to New York in the United States.

For that, Lin Haoran had given him a week to prepare.

Not much time had passed, so Su Zhixue was naturally still in Hong Kong.

The call connected quickly.

“Zhixue, how are the preparations coming along?” Lin Haoran asked directly.

“Boss, out of the two hundred and eighty-five people in the company, two hundred and twenty-three are willing to go to the United States. The rest will stay at the Hong Kong headquarters. The list is basically finalized. The next step is to give them some time to prepare, and then we plan to charter a plane to New York!” Su Zhixue replied.

“Mm, very good. However, I need you to delay the trip to the United States for now. I have an important mission for you, which you can consider your last assignment before leaving Hong Kong!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Boss, please give your orders!” Su Zhixue replied respectfully.

Su Zhixue always followed Lin Haoran’s arrangements with one hundred percent obedience.

“I need you to deploy your team to start accumulating shares of the Hongkong Land Group. Buy as many as you can, there’s no upper limit. As for the intensity of the buying, you should understand. The stock price of Hongkong Land is still reasonable right now, and I don’t want you to drive it up too high!” Lin Haoran continued.

This was his reason for calling Su Zhixue.

Since the British-funded conglomerate was unlikely to give up its controlling stake in Jardine Matheson, it was necessary for him to continue with his plan to privatize the Hongkong Land Group.

Once he acquired the Hongkong Land shares from the British conglomerate and Jardine Matheson, he could directly announce the privatization.

Although regulations allowed for a compulsory privatization, some people might refuse to sell their shares upon learning that Lin Haoran intended to privatize Hongkong Land.

Therefore, before the news was out, he wanted Su Zhixue to strike first and accumulate as many shares as possible.

As for how many they could ultimately acquire, he would let nature take its course.

With Universal Investment Company’s current funds, it was more than enough to handle acquisitions on the secondary market.

“Understood, Boss. I’ll make the arrangements right away!” Su Zhixue replied.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran sat in his chair, lost in thought.

He didn’t really care how many shares Universal Investment Company could accumulate. Whatever they couldn’t acquire could be left to old-timers like Wardley to handle.

He was determined to privatize the Hongkong Land Group!

With such a good opportunity to privatize such a high-quality enterprise, it would be a terrible waste if Lin Haoran didn’t seize it.

As he was thinking, the beeper on his waist vibrated.

Lin Haoran took it out and saw it was an unknown number.

Nevertheless, he immediately dialed the number back from the office phone.

“Boss, this is Cui Zilong. I have some good news for you. The shadow guard team has officially completed their training and selection. They have passed our assessments as well as those of international security experts and are ready to join your security detail at any time. If you’re free, you could come over to Sai Kung!” Cui Zilong’s excited voice came through the phone.

“Great. I happen to be free right now. I’ll head over right away,” Lin Haoran replied immediately upon hearing the news.

He had been looking forward to this shadow guard team for a long time.

Now that they were finally ready to report for duty and provide him with protection, he was naturally thrilled as well.

This was much better than going out every day with more than a dozen bodyguards in plain sight.

It was too conspicuous, a feeling Lin Haoran strongly disliked.

So, he went to the office next door to inform Ma Shiming and Fok Kin-ning.

He found that Ma Shiming and Fok Kin-ning seemed to be getting along very well.

However, Lin Haoran didn’t dwell on it. After telling them, he left Connaught Centre.

With his dozen bodyguards, Lin Haoran left Connaught Centre once again, heading straight for Sai Kung.

His schedule for the day was a bit hectic.

But at the thought of the shadow guards joining his detail, he couldn’t be bothered with anything else.

In this world, safety was always the most important thing!

If you lost your life, no amount of money was useful if you couldn’t live to enjoy it.

The addition of the shadow guards would certainly provide him with a higher level of security, and in a less ostentatious way.

After a half-hour drive, the car arrived smoothly at the Universe Security Consulting Company’s Hong Kong training base.

As soon as Lin Haoran got out of the car, he saw Cui Zilong waiting with thirteen young men. They were dressed in plain clothes, but their eyes were sharp and their builds were athletic.

These were the members of the shadow guard team he had long been anticipating. Having undergone rigorous selection and professional training, they were about to become a crucial line of defense for his personal security.

“Boss, this is our shadow guard team. They are ready to become your shadow guard bodyguards at any time,” Cui Zilong introduced.

Lin Haoran carefully sized up these young men. Their eyes revealed a firmness and composure that clearly showed they were elites forged through intense training.

He nodded in satisfaction and said, “Very good. I will remember your hard work and dedication. From today onwards, you are my personal bodyguards. But remember, your identity is different from that of ordinary bodyguards. You will follow and protect me covertly as shadow guard bodyguards.

After your rigorous training, I’m sure I don’t need to say more. Li Weimin, Zhang Zhiwei, Ping Yaojie…, from now on, I’m entrusting my safety to you all!”

Lin Haoran called out the names of all thirteen members accurately and without hesitation. This gesture sent a wave of warmth through the shadow guard members, who were both surprised and moved.

Chapter 378: Rapid Progress

Thirteen shadow guard bodyguards officially joined Lin Haoran’s protection detail, becoming his invisible shield in daily life and travel.

The dozen or so bodyguards who had previously followed Lin Haoran, with the exception of Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, all returned to the company.

As for their future arrangements, that was naturally not something Lin Haoran needed to worry about.

Universal Security Consulting Company was now also operating in Hong Kong, taking on high-end bodyguard services.

Perhaps because they had been fortunate enough to become shadow guards, the loyalty of the remaining four—in addition to the original nine whose loyalty was already over ninety—all surpassed ninety as well.

This made Lin Haoran trust them even more, allowing him to confidently entrust his safety to them.

From now on, whenever Lin Haoran went out, these thirteen shadow guards would follow him—not openly like the previous dozen or so bodyguards, but covertly.

As for how they would follow, they naturally had their techniques.

For instance, during his daily travels, three seemingly ordinary cars would discreetly tail Lin Haoran’s private car.

Once they reached the destination, these shadow guards would quickly change their identities according to the surroundings, blending into the crowd, doing their utmost to remain concealed and unnoticed by anyone other than Lin Haoran.

However, despite their low-profile approach, they could respond swiftly at critical moments, handle any security issues, and even provide necessary support to Lin Haoran at a moment’s notice.

This was their unique role as shadow guards: ensuring Lin Haoran’s safety was never compromised while avoiding unnecessary public attention.

With these new bodyguards, Lin Haoran left the Sai Kung training base and headed for Connaught Centre.

For the next two days, Lin Haoran didn’t receive any calls from Henry Keswick.

However, according to the information he had gathered through his intelligence network, the people from the British-funded conglomerate seemed to be in conflict, having split into two factions.

The one led by Henry Keswick, in order to reclaim the controlling stake of Jardine Matheson & Co., had decided to agree to the precondition Lin Haoran had proposed.

The other faction, led by Michael Sandberg, opposed this condition.

After all, a company like HSBC had rarely interfered in Jardine Matheson & Co.’s affairs in the past. To them, they were merely shareholders; it made little difference who held the controlling stake.

If not for their hope that HSBC would reclaim its dominant position in Hong Kong’s business world, they at HSBC would never have supported Henry Keswick in retaking the controlling stake of Jardine Matheson & Co.

Lin Haoran wasn’t at all surprised that a rift had appeared within the British-funded conglomerate.

They were never very united to begin with.

Now, with their respective interests at stake, it was perfectly normal for disagreements to arise.

It wasn’t until the third day, November 23rd, that Lin Haoran finally received a call from Henry Keswick.

“Mr. Lin, we’ve discussed it. The cross-shareholding between Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group can be directly returned to each respective party, with no additional money changing hands. From now on, Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group will no longer have any relationship. Mr. Lin, you can take this step immediately. We will jointly sign the agreement at the Board of Directors meeting!” Henry Keswick said directly.

“Not so fast. Let’s finish our discussion before we proceed!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

These people were certainly dreaming. They wanted to resolve the cross-shareholding issue between Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group right now?

If they did that now, what would it mean?

It would mean that Lin Haoran’s stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. would drop to just nineteen percent, while the British-funded conglomerate held forty percent of the shares. This would be equivalent to them directly reclaiming the controlling stake of Jardine Matheson & Co.

So, how could he possibly take this step so easily unless more of his conditions were met?

“Mr. Lin, surely you don’t have more conditions?” Henry Keswick found Lin Haoran’s words hard to accept.

They had thought this was his only condition.

“Mr. Henry, don’t forget, we’ve always emphasized that this is a precondition for negotiations, not the only condition!” Lin Haoran replied unhurriedly.

They thought he would give up the controlling stake of Jardine Matheson & Co. for just one condition?

These Brits were dreaming!

Henry Keswick was silent for a long time before he finally said, “Mr. Lin, whatever other conditions you have, just lay them all out. We will continue to discuss them internally. Whatever we can agree to, I will do my best to make it happen. As for what we cannot agree to, I hope you won’t make things difficult for me, Mr. Lin. We are all entrepreneurs in Hong Kong; there’s no need to make our relationship so tense!”

Henry Keswick’s tone toward the end even had a hint of concession.

It was clear that Henry Keswick was desperate to regain control of Jardine Matheson & Co. and couldn’t wait another moment.

However, the British-funded conglomerate was a web of differing interests, and the Keswick family’s power was far from enough for him to make decisions alone.

Right now, the only thing Henry Keswick could do was advance the negotiations and get this matter settled as soon as possible.

Lin Haoran glanced at the time on his watch. It was just past one in the afternoon.

So, Lin Haoran replied directly, “Mr. Henry, how about this? I’ll have my negotiation assistant, Mr. Fok Kin-ning, and the current head of Hongkong Land Group, Mr. Ma Shiming, go to Jardine House to speak with you. They represent my intentions. How does that sound?”

He didn’t plan on going himself. It made no real difference whether he was there or not. Fok Kin-ning was already crystal clear about his conditions and his bottom line.

Besides, with an old-timer like Ma Shiming there to hold the fort, he wasn’t worried that Fok Kin-ning would be intimidated when facing that group from the British-funded conglomerate.

Lin Haoran also wasn’t concerned that Fok Kin-ning would agree to any unsatisfactory terms; after all, he would be the one signing off on the final deal.

“Alright, we’ll head over to Jardine House now and wait for them!” Henry Keswick didn’t say much more and agreed immediately.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran called Fok Kin-ning and Ma Shiming separately.

“Kin-ning, although I’m not going, Mr. Ma will be there. He has more experience, so don’t be nervous. I believe in you!” Lin Haoran said with a smile at the end of his call with Fok Kin-ning.

Fok Kin-ning’s performance at Jardine House last time had left him very satisfied, enough to make Lin Haoran have great faith in his negotiation skills.

Moreover, Lin Haoran could sense that Fok Kin-ning’s negotiation demeanor was much better than his own.

If Lin Haoran were to negotiate in person, his overly forceful attitude might end up just infuriating the other party.

But Fok Kin-ning was different. Even if the final terms remained unchanged, his negotiation style wouldn’t anger the people from the British-funded conglomerate.

This was another reason why Lin Haoran didn’t want to go this time.

“Don’t worry, Boss. I definitely won’t disappoint you. Just wait for my good news!” Fok Kin-ning said solemnly.

Ma Shiming also indicated that he would provide Fok Kin-ning with all the help he needed.

After all, Ma Shiming was now the head of Hongkong Land Group, and the current negotiations were all related to the company.

Putting down the telephone receiver, Lin Haoran sat leisurely in his rocking chair at home, his thoughts galloping like an untamed horse, wandering off to places unknown.

He recalled Fok Kin-ning’s performance last time and couldn’t help but feel a sense of approval.

Fok Kin-ning’s composure and wit were indeed well-suited for such complex and volatile negotiations.

And as the head of Hongkong Land Group, Ma Shiming’s participation undoubtedly added more weight to the negotiation team.

Although Fok Kin-ning was still young and lacked some managerial experience, he was still countless times more outstanding than the average person.

Ma Shiming, in particular, had been navigating the business world for many years and had seen it all. He had his own strategies and bottom lines, as well as the ability to handle all sorts of complicated situations.

At this moment, he sat quietly in his rocking chair with his eyes closed to rest, but his mind refused to calm down.

Although he would be the beneficiary regardless of whether the deal went through or not, the interests involved were simply too immense—so immense that even though he appeared calm on the surface, his heart was in turmoil.

All that was left now was to wait.

Following Lin Haoran’s arrangements, Rosamund Kwan had left the Severn Road villa yesterday and moved into the apartment in Hang Fung Building that Lin Haoran had spent nearly a million Hong Kong dollars on.

Although he planned to keep her as a beautiful adornment, Lin Haoran didn’t let her remain idle.

Because he knew that being idle would eventually lead to boredom.

So, he specially arranged for a shop of over three hundred square meters in The Landmark, a property under the Hongkong Land Group near Hang Fung Building in Central, for her to run a high-end clothing business. She would directly franchise a high-end clothing brand under the Hongkong Land Group, and all supplies would be handled by a subsidiary of Hongkong Land.

In any case, Lin Haoran wouldn’t charge her rent or a franchise fee. As for how much money she could earn each month, that was Rosamund Kwan’s own business; Lin Haoran couldn’t be bothered with that.

At some point, Lin Haoran fell asleep in his rocking chair.

He was only woken by the ringing of the telephone.

He yawned, glanced at his watch, and realized he had napped for over two hours. It was now past three in the afternoon.

“Hello, this is Lin Haoran. Who is this?” Lin Haoran picked up the telephone receiver and said directly.

“Boss, it’s Fok Kin-ning. Our negotiation just ended. I’m calling to report to you,” Fok Kin-ning’s steady voice came through the phone.

“Oh? Have you reached an agreement?” There was a hint of surprise in Lin Haoran’s voice.

“There is still one condition that has not been agreed upon. A disagreement has once again arisen within the British-funded conglomerate. Mr. Michael Sandberg and several other shareholder representatives from the conglomerate have voiced their opposition.

However, Henry Keswick privately told me after the negotiation that he would do his best to push for this cooperation in a short time. We won’t need any more negotiations, as everything else has been settled except for that one condition.

Moving forward, we just need to wait for further feedback from Mr. Henry,” Fok Kin-ning replied clearly.

Progress seems to be very rapid!

Chapter 379: Plucking Jardine Matheson & Co. Clean, a Done Deal!

It wasn’t long before Fok Kin-ning and Ma Shiming arrived at Lin Haoran’s villa on Severn Road.

It was the first time either of them had been here, but the villas on Severn Road were not densely packed. After Lin Haoran gave them the address, they found it with ease.

Lin Haoran greeted them outside the villa and led them into the study on the first floor.

“Thank you both for your hard work today!” After Fok Kin-ning and Ma Shiming were seated, Lin Haoran personally brewed and poured tea for them.

“Boss, this is all part of our job,” Ma Shiming said, shaking his head.

“Boss, we have fulfilled our mission. The results of this negotiation are quite substantial. Although one condition has yet to be finalized, given Mr. Henry’s positive attitude, I believe a smooth agreement is just around the corner!” Fok Kin-ning reported with a serious expression.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran first filled a cup of tea for each of them, not forgetting one for himself. Then he slowly looked up, his gaze focused on Fok Kin-ning.

“Kin-ning, tell me the details. Walk me through the negotiation process and the final outcome.”

“Yes, Boss!” Fok Kin-ning replied, then began to recount the entire negotiation process in vivid detail.

This time, the terms agreed upon between Lin Haoran’s side and the British-funded conglomerate basically covered all the conditions Lin Haoran had previously mentioned.

1. They agreed to persuade the four British shareholders of Hongkong Land Group to sell their shares to Lin Haoran at market price.

2. The two Jardine-owned hotel brands, Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Oriental International Hotel, would also be transferred back to Hongkong Land Group.

3. The Rothschild and Keswick families hoped to acquire Lin Haoran’s 19% stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. at market price. However, Fok Kin-ning proposed a total purchase price of 1.9 billion, pushing Jardine Matheson’s total valuation to 10 billion Hong Kong dollars, which they ultimately accepted.

4. The British-funded conglomerate agreed to support the privatization of Hongkong Land Group.

5. Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group would sever all subsidiary ties, with no further relationship between the two parties in the future.

6. Hongkong Land Group would acquire a 20% stake in Gammon Construction!

These were the terms that had been settled between the two sides.

The Mandarin Oriental Hotel and the Oriental International Hotel were actually founded by Hongkong Land. It was only later that Jardine Matheson & Co. spun them off from Hongkong Land to be controlled directly. Now, they could be considered as returning to their rightful place.

Moreover, compared to Jardine Securities, the Mandarin Oriental and Oriental International hotels were not considered crucially important subsidiaries under Jardine Matheson. To prevent Lin Haoran from continuing to press the issue of Jardine Securities, they ultimately agreed.

As for Lin Haoran’s 19% stake in Jardine Matheson, Fok Kin-ning never brought it up at the negotiating table. Instead, the people from the British-funded conglomerate took the initiative to propose that Lin Haoran sell the 19% stake to them.

The reason they were so proactive was their fear that as long as Lin Haoran held that 19%, he could still potentially make another attempt to seize the controlling stake of Jardine Matheson in the future.

Therefore, to completely eliminate any possibility of a takeover by Lin Haoran, they had no choice but to agree, even at a price slightly above market value.

Over the past year, Universal Investment Company had spent approximately 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars accumulating this 19% stake in Jardine Matheson.

Now, being able to sell it for 1.9 billion Hong Kong dollars was a massive profit of 800 million.

As for unexpectedly obtaining a 20% stake in Gammon Construction, that was truly a windfall!

Lin Haoran had only mentioned Gammon Construction offhandedly before.

He had not expected Fok Kin-ning and Ma Shiming to actually secure this 20% stake for him, which left Lin Haoran genuinely surprised and delighted.

These two were truly worthy of being Li Jiacheng’s most capable right-hand men in his previous life.

And now, these two outstanding talents had become his own right and left arms!

As for Li Jiacheng, my apologies, but your talent is now mine.

Fok Kin-ning recounted the events at the negotiation table, and Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction from time to time.

The last condition that had yet to be settled was relinquishing the controlling stake in Kwai Chung Container Terminal 5!

Lin Haoran was well aware of the importance of the Kwai Chung terminals. They had once been the busiest container port in the world. Even though their importance gradually declined with the economic development of Mainland China, they still played a very significant role.

Therefore, when discussing it with Fok Kin-ning, Lin Haoran had insisted that the British-funded conglomerate agree to this condition, with Hongkong Land willing to acquire it for 100 million Hong Kong dollars.

The reason the British-funded conglomerate was unwilling to give up the controlling stake in Kwai Chung Container Terminal 5 was that if they did, Jardine Matheson’s asset ratio in Hong Kong would drop below 10%. They would have almost no significant assets left in Hong Kong, effectively becoming a multinational corporation focused mainly on managing international properties.

Moreover, everyone knew the importance of the Kwai Chung terminals, which was also why HSBC was unwilling to agree.

The value of a terminal was far more than 100 million Hong Kong dollars; even 1 billion would be a difficult price to buy it for at present, though no one would be selling.

But having come this far, Henry Keswick was clearly past caring about such things. It was just the controlling stake in a terminal. If he had to let it go, he would.

With the prospect of regaining control of Jardine Matheson in sight, he was naturally thinking of sacrificing a smaller profit for a larger gain.

With the many overseas companies acquired in the past, Henry Keswick felt that the remaining properties in Hong Kong were not so important anymore.

After all, the most important assets, Kowloon Wharf and Hongkong Land, were already completely lost. What difference would losing one more terminal make?

When Fok Kin-ning finished speaking, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but applaud.

“I am very satisfied with your performance today!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Boss, I plan to completely transform Hongkong Land into a diversified enterprise. It will no longer rely solely on real estate as its main business but will develop a structure with multiple core businesses.

“During my time at Jardine Matheson, I learned that the British-funded conglomerates behind Jardine had intended to strip Hongkong Land of its non-real estate assets, aiming to shape it into a pure property company.

“Industries like hospitality, retail, and shipping all faced the risk of being integrated and swallowed by Jardine Matheson. Take the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, for example. It was originally founded by Hongkong Land, but as its high-end hotel brand solidified, Jardine Matheson got the idea to annex it, eventually spinning it off from Hongkong Land to gain full control.

“Dairy Farm International, Hongkong Land’s strongest subsidiary, was also slated by Jardine’s British senior executives to be spun off in the future and then directly controlled by Jardine Matheson.

“However, now that Hongkong Land is independent and has regained many of its businesses, this is an excellent opportunity to redouble our diversified development! We should seize this moment to push Hongkong Land toward a more diversified and integrated direction,” Ma Shiming interjected.

“Yes, I agree. Although Hong Kong’s real estate industry appears to be booming, I already have a feeling that it might be heading for a collapse. So, Mr. Ma, you shouldn’t expand too much in the real estate sector from now on. In fact, you need to scale back!” Lin Haoran said in strong agreement.

“I am well aware of that. Of our seventy-plus property projects currently under construction, aside from the most core ones like the ten-year plan projects, I am already looking for buyers for many of them. I will strive to reduce Hongkong Land’s debt to under 1 billion Hong Kong dollars within a year!” Ma Shiming said with a nod.

Lin Haoran chatted with Fok Kin-ning and Ma Shiming at the Severn Road villa for a full two hours. In the evening, he held a banquet at the villa, inviting the two to dine with him, which was a way to show them how much their boss valued them.

That same night, Lin Haoran received another call from Henry Keswick.

On the phone, Henry Keswick said to Lin Haoran, “Mr. Lin, we have convinced Mr. Michael Sandberg and the others. We are willing to give up the controlling stake in Kwai Chung Container Terminal 5 and transfer it to Hongkong Land! I hope we can sign the agreement on the terms we’ve reached tomorrow!”

From Henry Keswick’s voice, Lin Haoran could not help but detect a sense of exhaustion.

To regain control of Jardine Matheson & Co., Henry Keswick had indeed paid a colossal price, leaving the company greatly weakened.

The Jardine Matheson of today was a shadow of its former glorious self.

However, Henry Keswick had no other choice.

If he hadn’t compromised, they probably wouldn’t have even been able to hold on to their current stake in Jardine Matheson, and would have ended up with nothing.

At least now, having regained control of Jardine Matheson, the future was still full of hope. Anything was possible.

In Henry Keswick’s eyes, Jardine Matheson still had a deep foundation, controlled vast overseas assets, and with its global reputation, had every potential to return to its peak.

In Hong Kong, it still controlled important assets like Jardine Securities.

Originally, many British-funded conglomerates had reservations about the future of the Hong Kong market, and some were even pessimistic.

Perhaps, after this incident, they could take the opportunity to completely adjust their strategy, abandon the Hong Kong market, and focus all their efforts on expanding into overseas markets. This could be a wise choice.

“Excellent, Mr. Henry, you are indeed a straightforward man! Tomorrow morning, I will personally come to Jardine House to formally sign the contract with you. Congratulations, Mr. Henry, on regaining control of Jardine Matheson!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

Although he had lost the inconsequential Jardine Matheson & Co., he could now openly announce the privatization of Hongkong Land.

Moreover, he had gained more than enough benefits from Jardine Matheson. This round was definitely not a loss.

The only losers were the tearful Keswick family and those British-funded conglomerates.

Lin Haoran had practically plucked Jardine Matheson & Co. clean before “returning” it to them.

Chapter 380: Unequal Treaty, the Ultimate Art of Getting Something for Free!

The next morning, Lin Haoran, accompanied by his bodyguards, once again appeared at Jardine Matheson & Co.

This time, there was much more to handle.

However, he didn’t need to manage the vast majority of the work himself; Ma Shiming, the man in charge of the Hongkong Land Group, was responsible for it.

As for Lin Haoran, his job was to sign the various agreements that had been reached with the British-funded conglomerate from Jardine Matheson & Co.

Newbiggin, as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, also played a crucial role in the proceedings.

In the 19th-floor conference room of Jardine House, Lin Haoran, Ma Shiming, Fok Kin-ning, and the Hongkong Land Group’s legal team were all seated on one side of the conference table.

On the other side sat Henry Keswick, Newbiggin, and other representatives of the British-funded conglomerate.

Even the four British shareholders of the Hongkong Land Group were present.

Although Lin Haoran didn’t know what promises Henry Keswick and the others had made to persuade them to willingly sell their shares in the Hongkong Land Group to him, it was none of his concern. All he needed to do was sign the contracts with these four individuals and purchase the Hongkong Land shares they held.

Lin Haoran even spotted the long-unseen figure of Bao Fuda. It was clear that the former Executive Director and general manager of the Hongkong Land Group had now been recalled by Henry Keswick.

Compared to Newbiggin, Bao Fuda was clearly more obedient to Keswick. Now that they were on the verge of reclaiming their controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co., Henry Keswick had naturally summoned him back.

Outside the window, the bustling scenery of Hong Kong stretched out before them, but the atmosphere inside the room was somewhat tense.

Lin Haoran held the contracts prepared by Jardine Matheson & Co. and confirmed the terms with the other party one by one.

The signing of each contract signified the official transfer of a portion of Jardine Matheson’s or the British shareholders’ assets and rights. The beneficiaries, naturally, were the Hongkong Land Group and Lin Haoran.

The legal counsel of the Hongkong Land Group and Ma Shiming had already arrived earlier to review these contracts in detail. Lin Haoran, however, was being cautious and was reviewing them one more time for his own peace of mind.

After all, the interests involved in these contracts were substantial.

First were the contracts for the transfer of shares with the four British shareholders of the Hongkong Land Group.

The four British shareholders collectively held 10.2% of the Hongkong Land Group’s shares. For these four contracts, Lin Haoran would ultimately spend 1.042 billion Hong Kong dollars.

The four British shareholders readily signed their names, and Lin Haoran slowly added his own signature as well.

After acquiring this 10.2% stake, combined with the 41.3% previously held by Universal Investment Company, the 6% held by the Hongkong Electric Group, and the 0.85% accumulated from the stock market two days ago, Lin Haoran now effectively controlled 58.35% of the Hongkong Land Group’s shares.

Next came the agreement to transfer the controlling stake in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Oriental International Hotel brands from Jardine Matheson & Co. back to the Hongkong Land Group, as well as a statement of support for the Hongkong Land Group’s privatization.

Following that was the controlling stake in Kwai Chung Container Terminal 5, which the Hongkong Land Group would acquire from Jardine Matheson & Co. for one hundred million Hong Kong dollars!

…

As contracts were signed one by one, the finalization of each clause put Lin Haoran’s mind at ease.

On the side of the British-funded conglomerate, however, everyone from Henry Keswick to Newbiggin felt as if their hearts were bleeding.

Although today was a day worth celebrating, marking the return of Jardine Matheson & Co. to their hands once everything was settled.

But Jardine Matheson had lost far too much.

These were practically unequal treaties.

But what could they do? Even this outcome was only achieved by leveraging the favor of the British Royal Family, which finally convinced Lin Haoran to relinquish Jardine Matheson.

Otherwise, forget about what they had lost; they wouldn’t even have been qualified to sign these unequal treaties, because Lin Haoran would have simply refused to give up Jardine Matheson.

“Mr. Lin, we’ve signed everything that needed to be signed. Shall we proceed with these two contracts now?” Henry Keswick said expectantly, holding out two contracts to Lin Haoran.

Of these two contracts, one was for Lin Haoran to transfer his 19% stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. for 1.9 billion Hong Kong dollars; the other was for Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group to swap the shares they held in each other.

Once both sides reclaimed their equity from the other, Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group would be completely independent of each other, with no subsidiary relationship remaining.

These two conditions were, in fact, also unequal treaties. For example, selling 19% of Jardine Matheson’s shares for 1.9 billion Hong Kong dollars was clearly a price much higher than the market value.

Furthermore, the value of the Hongkong Land shares held by Jardine Matheson & Co. was over five hundred million Hong Kong dollars more than the value of the Jardine Matheson shares held by the Hongkong Land Group.

But Henry Keswick had no choice. It had been difficult enough to persuade all the British shareholders behind Jardine Matheson to agree to these terms, so it was best to get these two share agreements signed as soon as possible.

Because once signed, it would mean that Lin Haoran had completely distanced himself from Jardine Matheson & Co., no longer indirectly controlling it through the Hongkong Land Group.

This was what Henry Keswick anticipated the most.

As long as the papers were signed, what did short-term losses matter?

In the future, he was confident he could lead Jardine Matheson & Co. to new heights through the numerous overseas subsidiaries under his control!

“Of course. Mr. Henry, you’ve been very straightforward, so there’s no reason for me to drag my feet!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

Subsequently, Lin Haoran, Henry Keswick, and James Rothschild each signed the two contracts.

The Keswick family certainly didn’t have the resources to absorb this entire 19% stake.

Therefore, they had no choice but to cede a portion of the shares to the Rothschild family.

In the end, the Keswick family spent one billion Hong Kong dollars to take 10% of Jardine Matheson’s shares from Lin Haoran, while the Rothschild family acquired the remaining 9% for nine hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

On the other side, Newbiggin, representing Jardine Matheson & Co., and Ma Shiming, representing the Hongkong Land Group, also signed the agreement to return the shares to each other at no cost.

This contract had an attached addendum. The addendum stated that the British shareholders, led by Henry Keswick and including HSBC, had held a board meeting for Jardine Matheson & Co. and had unanimously approved this transaction.

This would ensure they could not go back on their word in the future.

It wouldn’t have been sufficient for Newbiggin alone to sign this contract on behalf of Jardine Matheson.

On the Hongkong Land Group’s side, however, Lin Haoran’s approval alone was enough.

What’s more, this contract was beneficial to the Hongkong Land Group, so there was no question of them backing out.

After the two contracts were signed, Lin Haoran smiled, shook Henry Keswick’s hand, and said, “Mr. Henry, congratulations on reclaiming your position as the Major shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co.!”

“The pleasure is mutual. And congratulations to you too, Mr. Lin, on taking another step forward in privatizing the Hongkong Land Group!” Henry Keswick managed a rare smile.

With the 10% stake acquired from Lin Haoran, the Keswick family’s holding in Jardine Matheson & Co. increased from its original ~12% to around 22%, making them the undisputed Major shareholder, and the only shareholder with a stake of over 10%.

Combined with the significant support the Keswick family already enjoyed within the British-funded conglomerate, their controlling stake in Jardine Matheson was now stronger than ever before.

Furthermore, as Lin Haoran understood it, the 30.1% stake that Jardine Matheson reclaimed from the Hongkong Land Group would not be used for external financing. Instead, they planned to retire these shares, effectively removing them from existence. As a result, the Keswick family’s 22% stake would increase to about 31.5% once the 30.1% of shares were gone.

This would further solidify the Keswick family’s controlling stake in Jardine Matheson.

This was likely why the Keswick family dared to bring in the Rothschild family’s ‘Squid financial group’.

The Keswick family’s decision was a move born of necessity.

The Keswick family and the British shareholders behind HSBC were not on good terms, and Henry feared that HSBC would try to seize control in the future.

Therefore, the Keswick family had found it difficult to find a powerful financial group to take over part of Lin Haoran’s equity.

The Rothschild family happened to possess the necessary strength. Although their relationship with the ‘Squid financial group’ was not great, bringing them in would at least create a three-way standoff, preventing HSBC from increasing its control over Jardine Matheson.

Most importantly, with the Keswick family holding a definitive advantage, their equity would still be greater even if the Rothschild family and HSBC were to temporarily join forces.

Thus, they were very confident.

However, none of this had much to do with Lin Haoran anymore.

After shearing Jardine Matheson clean, Lin Haoran’s next task was to target the 30.2% stake in the Hongkong Land Group that had been returned from Jardine Matheson.

Lin Haoran already controlled 58.35% of Hongkong Land’s shares, surpassing the 50% trigger point. Even if he didn’t want to, he was now required to initiate a privatization offer for the group.

The 30.2% stake returned by Jardine Matheson was now effectively ownerless. The next step was either to seek new financing or to handle it as Jardine Matheson was doing with its own returned shares.

Lin Haoran, of course, chose to proceed with financing and buy this 30.2% stake. Once he acquired these shares, his holdings in the Hongkong Land Group would reach a staggering 88.55%.

And the funds he used to purchase this 30.2% stake would end up in the Hongkong Land Group’s account.

Next, he just needed to wait for the privatization to conclude, and the funds in the Hongkong Land Group’s account would naturally belong to him and him alone.

This, perhaps, was the ultimate art of getting shares for free!

As the contracts were successfully signed by both parties, the room erupted in warm applause.

Although on the surface, the others did not seem to benefit directly from these contracts, it was evident that Henry Keswick had already promised them various benefits individually.

Therefore, strictly speaking, no one lost out.

Lin Haoran was undoubtedly the biggest winner in this cooperation.

Henry Keswick, on the other hand, used this opportunity to regain his controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co., though he had to sacrifice a portion of his vested interests to achieve this goal.

Chapter 381: Unfazed by Debt, Another 3 Billion Loan!

After settling matters, Lin Haoran took the stack of contracts and left Jardine House without further delay.

The handover between the Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. would naturally be handled by the senior executives of Hongkong Land, represented by Ma Shiming.

“Kin-ning, it’s been hard on you these past few days. You completed the task brilliantly. I’ll have a bonus transferred to your account as a reward for your efforts,” Lin Haoran said to Fok Kin-ning, who was sitting beside him in the car.

“Boss, this is all part of my job. There’s no need for a bonus!”

Fok Kin-ning was very surprised. He considered this a learning experience, so he didn’t expect the Boss to reward him for it. Although he didn’t know how much the bonus would be, knowing his boss, it wouldn’t be a small sum.

“You deserve it. That’s how it is when you work for me. Keep up the good work. I have high hopes for you, and I hope you can grow quickly. The stage in Hong Kong isn’t big enough. In the future, your horizons may need to span the entire world,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Fok Kin-ning was already so outstanding at twenty-nine. One could only imagine how capable he would be in his thirties.

It was no wonder that in Lin Haoran’s previous life, after joining Cheung Kong Holdings, Fok Kin-ning became a board member of Hutchison Whampoa in his early thirties.

Since his boss insisted, Fok Kin-ning no longer declined.

After all, who doesn’t work for money?

After dropping Fok Kin-ning off near his home, Lin Haoran had Li Weidong drive to Wanqing Building.

Fok Kin-ning was still on leave today, so after finishing his business, he didn’t need to return to the Hongkong Electric Group.

Therefore, Lin Haoran sent him home.

When they arrived at the underground parking garage of Wanqing Building, the other thirteen shadow guards, besides Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, quickly changed into various disguises and entered Wanqing Building in different capacities.

Some men were also left behind in the underground garage to prevent anyone from tampering with Lin Haoran’s private car again.

All thirteen shadow guards were now equipped with handguns, and they all had legal firearm licenses.

Ever since a remote-controlled bomb was planted on Lin Haoran’s Rolls-Royce in the Wanqing Building underground garage, the police were fully aware of the incident, even though it wasn’t widely publicized.

Moreover, it was police experts who had been sent to dismantle that bomb.

Given Lin Haoran’s special status now, it was normal for him to have top-tier bodyguards. Therefore, Han Yili, the Commissioner of the Police Department, had readily helped process the firearm licenses for these thirteen bodyguards.

With this, Lin Haoran’s safety was even more secure.

Lin Haoran didn’t go looking for Wanqing Group’s President, Burton, but went directly to the offices of Universal Investment Company.

Inside the office, though not overly busy, many people were occupied with their own tasks. A team was already quietly accumulating shares of the Hongkong Land Group on the stock market.

“Boss, you’re here.” Seeing Lin Haoran, Su Zhixue immediately put down his work and came to Lin Haoran’s office.

“Yes. How did Hongkong Land’s stock price fare today?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Not much different from before, but our pace of accumulation is getting more and more difficult. As you know, there aren’t many Hongkong Land shares available on the market to begin with, and some people intend to hold them long-term. So, as we gradually increased our buying, Hongkong Land’s stock price inevitably rose today,” Su Zhixue replied.

“I see. Don’t worry about it, just continue the normal accumulation. You guys can work on it today, increase our holdings by as much as you can, as long as the stock price doesn’t exceed 105% of the previous trading day’s closing price. Starting tomorrow, I’ll hand the work over to Wardley Limited. They will handle the privatization process, and your team can continue preparing for the move to New York in the United States,” Lin Haoran said directly.

At this point, Lin Haoran could already announce the privatization of the Hongkong Land Group. Professional matters should be handled by professional firms, and Wardley Limited was the most suitable choice for this task.

If Jardine Matheson & Co. were still under his control, he could have assigned this to Jardine Securities, as they also offered such services.

However, since Lin Haoran no longer had any ties to Jardine Matheson, there was no need to contact Jardine Securities.

In his view, the only remaining valuable asset of Jardine Matheson in Hong Kong was Jardine Securities, but even that wasn’t much.

This was because Jardine Securities didn’t have many fixed assets; its value lay more in its expertise in the securities industry.

And if Lin Haoran had Universal Investment Company gradually poach its talent, the firm would eventually be worth nothing.

“Understood, Boss!” Su Zhixue acknowledged the order.

By one o’clock that afternoon, Lin Haoran had received two fund transfers totaling 1.9 billion Hong Kong dollars from the Keswick family and the Rothschild family for the sale of their shares.

According to Hong Kong’s tax laws, share transfers are generally considered capital transactions.

Since Hong Kong does not levy personal tax on capital gains, share transfers in Hong Kong are generally exempt from personal income tax.

Adding this to the roughly 1.3 billion Hong Kong dollars already in Universal Investment Company’s account, Lin Haoran’s actual available funds now amounted to about 3.2 billion Hong Kong dollars.

However, Lin Haoran then transferred out four sums of money through HSBC, totaling 1.042 billion Hong Kong dollars, to pay the four former British shareholders of the Hongkong Land Group.

Thus, his remaining available funds were actually just over 2 billion Hong Kong dollars.

In the past few days, Universal Investment Company had increased its stake by 0.85%, which cost about ninety million Hong Kong dollars.

Today, being the last day of operations, Universal Investment Company likely wouldn’t be able to accumulate many more shares.

Even with over 2 billion Hong Kong dollars available, buying the 30.2% stake in Hongkong Land would require at least 3 billion Hong Kong dollars. Although this was a temporary outlay that he could recover after a successful privatization, he still needed to pay this sum before he could legally secure new financing for Hongkong Land to acquire those shares.

Right there, Lin Haoran was already facing a shortfall of nearly 1 billion Hong Kong dollars.

And that wasn’t all. Over 10% of the shares were still in the hands of retail investors on the stock market.

Privatizing this portion would also cost over 1 billion Hong Kong dollars.

By this calculation, Lin Haoran’s actual shortfall was only around 2 billion Hong Kong dollars, which was still acceptable.

But he couldn’t just spend all of Universal Investment Company’s funds. After all, Su Zhixue and his team had tasks assigned by Lin Haoran for when they arrived in the United States.

Once they settled down in the United States, they were to begin secretly accumulating shares of certain listed companies that Lin Haoran was optimistic about through the secondary market, eventually becoming major shareholders in these enterprises.

These included companies like Intel, Walmart, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and others.

To become a major shareholder in these titans, one needed substantial capital.

Therefore, Lin Haoran did not intend to touch the remaining 1.2 or 1.3 billion Hong Kong dollars in Universal Investment Company’s account.

As a result, Lin Haoran’s actual funding gap was around 3 billion Hong Kong dollars!

His next step was to secure 3 billion Hong Kong dollars to officially privatize the Hongkong Land Group.

However, this was not a difficult task for him.

With the equity he now controlled in his companies, he could probably secure a loan of 10 billion Hong Kong dollars, let alone 3 billion.

As for the 2.2 billion Hong Kong dollars he still owed HSBC, the repayment was not due for another six or seven months, so that was not a concern.

This time, however, Lin Haoran did not plan to borrow this sum from HSBC.

After all, he had already borrowed 2 billion from them, and HSBC had consistently opposed him in the Jardine Matheson affair. He naturally didn’t want to let HSBC profit from this loan.

3 billion Hong Kong dollars was no small sum, and ordinary banks would struggle to provide such a massive amount of capital.

In Hong Kong, only a few banks like HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank had the capacity to provide such a loan.

But Lin Haoran already had a target for the loan: Citibank, with whom he had collaborated several times before.

With Universal Investment Company expanding to the United States and targeting companies that were already large by this era’s standards, maintaining a good relationship with Citibank would be a great advantage for Lin Haoran.

Moreover, Citibank was not yet a bank controlled by Squid Capital. Among the four major financial groups in the United States, only Citibank was a worthy partner for Lin Haoran.

However, Lin Haoran also knew that even Citibank would not be able to avoid infiltration, or even control, by Squid Capital in the future.

Of course, that wouldn’t happen until after 1998.

At that time, Citibank would merge with Travelers Group to form today’s Citigroup, and because Travelers Group was Squid Capital, Citibank ended up being infiltrated by them.

But it was only 1980 now, a long way from 1998, so Lin Haoran could cooperate with Citibank with peace of mind.

As for the future, after another decade or two, Lin Haoran believed it wouldn’t be too difficult for him to prevent the merger between Travelers Group and Citibank if he wished.

By then, he was confident that his influence in the business world would have reached the global pinnacle.

That evening, Lin Haoran made a phone call to Mr. Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank, who was far away in New York.

To Lin Haoran’s surprise, even though Walter Wriston was in the United States, he had been keeping a close watch on his important partner, Lin Haoran, through Citibank’s Hong Kong branch.

Therefore, Walter Wriston, though in distant New York, was fully aware of all the major events involving Lin Haoran in Hong Kong recently.

Consequently, upon learning the purpose of Lin Haoran’s call, Walter Wriston agreed without hesitation.

Of course, collateral was still required. After all, 3 billion Hong Kong dollars was no small amount.

Chapter 382: Saved Ninety Million

The next morning, Lin Haoran went to Citibank’s Hong Kong branch.

Today was November 25th, and December was fast approaching.

Lin Haoran brought with him some of his Hongkong Land Group share certificates, enough to use as temporary collateral to secure a sufficient loan from Citibank.

A legal counsel from Universal Investment Company also came to assist Lin Haoran with the loan application.

It was clear the manager of Citibank’s Hong Kong branch had already received a call from Mr. Walter Wriston, Chairman of Citibank in the United States.

Therefore, as soon as Lin Haoran arrived at the bank, he was warmly received by the Hong Kong branch manager.

Initially, before setting out, Lin Haoran had hesitated over whether to take out the loan from Citibank’s Hong Kong branch or directly from Citibank’s US headquarters. After all, given his current status and his relationship with Citibank’s senior executives, obtaining a loan from the headquarters wouldn’t have been difficult.

However, after learning about the loan interest rates in the United States over the phone, Lin Haoran decisively abandoned the idea of borrowing from Citibank in the US.

Currently, it wasn’t just Hong Kong’s loan rates that had soared; the United States had not been spared either, and the rise in US interest rates was even more staggering.

To combat rampant inflation, the Federal Reserve had raised short-term interest rates this year, a move that drove a comprehensive increase in all types of loan rates, including mortgage rates.

In January of this year, the interest rate for federal funds loans in the United States was still at 14%.

But now, ten months later, the US loan interest rate range had been raised to an astonishing 19% to 20%, a level that set a new historical high for the country.

In comparison, while Hong Kong’s loan rates were also high, they seemed relatively moderate next to those in the US, with the annual interest rate stabilizing at around 15%.

For certain important clients, Hong Kong’s banking institutions would offer additional discounts, bringing the actual interest rate down to the 13% to 14% range.

Nevertheless, compared to when Lin Haoran had applied for a two billion Hong Kong dollar loan from HSBC, the current short-term loan rates had still risen.

Back then, HSBC had given Lin Haoran a preferential rate of 10%. However, Lin Haoran was already aware of the current banking climate.

Therefore, he had come prepared for a high interest rate.

“Mr. Lin, given that you are one of Citibank’s top partners, our Chairman has specially approved a preferential interest rate for this loan, aiming to further solidify the collaborative relationship between Citibank and yourself.

Therefore, for the three billion Hong Kong dollar loan you’ve applied for, the annual interest has been discounted to 10%. This means if the loan term is one year, the annual interest will be three hundred million Hong Kong dollars, and the total amount to be repaid upon maturity will be three point three billion Hong Kong dollars. I wonder if you are satisfied with this interest rate arrangement, Mr. Lin?” the manager of Citibank’s Hong Kong branch proposed politely after inviting Lin Haoran into his office and handing him a cup of hot tea.

“Oh? A 10% interest rate?” Lin Haoran asked, slightly surprised.

He had originally thought that even a 13% preferential rate from Citibank would have been quite good. He never expected Citibank to take the initiative and lower the rate directly to just 10% per annum.

If Citibank had offered 13% as he had anticipated, Lin Haoran would have accepted it. After all, it was a market-driven rate and already quite favorable.

This 10% rate meant he would save a full ninety million Hong Kong dollars in interest. How could Lin Haoran not be surprised?

This wasn’t two years ago anymore.

Over two years ago, when Lin Haoran secured a loan from Bumiputra Finance, the interest rate back then was merely between 5% and 10%, and Bumiputra Finance had even given Lin Haoran a relatively favorable rate.

However, at that time, the oil crisis had not yet surfaced, the world economy was on a stable development track, and Hong Kong’s real estate industry was nowhere near its current frenzy.

Therefore, it was completely understandable that annual loan rates were relatively low during that period.

Now, however, the situation was completely different.

Loan interest rates at financial institutions in Hong Kong and most parts of the world had seen significant increases.

The reason, of course, was the oil crisis, which had caused prices to skyrocket in many countries and regions around the world. Faced with such severe inflation, governments everywhere had no choice but to raise loan interest rates to curb high prices, artificially creating an economic recession to bring prices back down to normal levels.

Under these circumstances, the financial industry naturally seized the opportunity for explosive growth.

It was also during these two years that Hong Kong gradually solidified its position as a global financial center, becoming a world-class financial hub second only to New York and London.

From what Lin Haoran knew, even Bumiputra Finance was now offering clients rates that were basically between 14% and 15%.

So, for Citibank to offer him a rate of 10% was truly conscientious!

With Hong Kong’s real estate market booming, real estate companies and homebuyers were taking out loans from banks in large numbers.

Even though Hong Kong now had hundreds of financial institutions, top-tier banks like Citibank and HSBC remained the first choice for the public.

Therefore, Citibank was in no short supply of loan customers.

Of course, a single loan of three billion Hong Kong dollars like Lin Haoran’s had probably set a record for Citibank’s Hong Kong branch.

This showed just how exceptionally well Citibank was treating Lin Haoran.

This was likely related to Chairman Walter Wriston’s long-term attention to Lin Haoran. He probably felt that Lin Haoran could become one of Citibank’s most important long-term partners in the future, hence this gesture of goodwill.

Lin Haoran, for his part, was more than happy to accept such goodwill!

“Yes, Mr. Lin. Do you have any thoughts on the 10% rate? If you have any suggestions, I can try to submit a request to our US headquarters.

However, Mr. Lin, please understand that this rate is already extremely favorable. In the past six months, we haven’t offered a rate below 13%, not even to our most important clients.

If it weren’t for the Chairman’s personal and special approval, as the branch manager, I would have no authority to lower the annual loan rate to such a level.”

Seeing Lin Haoran mention the 10% rate again, the branch manager mistook his surprise for dissatisfaction and quickly explained.

“No, you misunderstand. I am very satisfied with this rate. Let’s draw up the contract based on it. I’ve brought 30% of Hongkong Land Group’s equity to use as temporary collateral. That should be acceptable, right?” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

In reality, for a three billion Hong Kong dollar loan, an ordinary entrepreneur would normally have to pledge equity with a market capitalization of at least five or even six billion.

However, Lin Haoran had already discussed this with Walter Wriston last night. He didn’t intend to pledge all the Hongkong Land Group shares he currently controlled, so he chose to offer shares of roughly equivalent value. After some hesitation, Walter Wriston had agreed.

Because Walter Wriston was thinking of Lin Haoran’s money-making ability.

This young Chinese man had used gold futures to earn over a billion US dollars, a feat that had startled even him, the worldly-wise Chairman of Citibank, at the time.

Subsequently, Lin Haoran’s multiple maneuvers in Hong Kong, acquiring several well-known enterprises, had further amazed Walter Wriston.

Therefore, Walter Wriston ultimately chose to trust Lin Haoran’s ability to repay the loan, agreeing to let him borrow three billion Hong Kong dollars using only 30% of Hongkong Land Group’s equity as collateral.

“Of course. Let’s proceed with the loan process, then. I have already printed the contract. I’ll bring it for you to review, Mr. Lin. If there are no issues, we can sign it. Once the contract is signed, I will immediately connect remotely with our US headquarters, and the funds will be transferred to your account within two hours!” the branch manager said respectfully.

The manager of Citibank’s Hong Kong branch was a Chinese man who had interacted with Lin Haoran several times before, so they were quite familiar with each other.

When discussing a loan of three billion Hong Kong dollars, even this branch manager, who had seen his fair share of high-stakes situations, found it difficult to remain calm.

He had previously served as a branch manager in New York State, and even there, he had never personally handled a loan of this magnitude.

Furthermore, with even Citibank’s Chairman, Walter Wriston, holding Lin Haoran in such high regard, the branch manager’s respect for him had only grown.

Lin Haoran took the loan contract and read it carefully. Finding no issues, he then had the legal counsel from Universal Investment Company, who was there to assist him, review it several times. After confirming there were absolutely no problems, Lin Haoran signed the contract with the branch manager.

“A pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Lin. I will fax the contract to the United States now. As soon as they have reviewed it, the funds will be deposited into your account very soon!” The branch manager stood up and shook Lin Haoran’s hand with a smile.

“Good, I trust your efficiency. In that case, I won’t wait here. I’ll go attend to my other business. You can give me a call on my beeper when the funds arrive!” Lin Haoran said, nodding with a smile.

He had many things to attend to. Now that the loan was settled, even though the money hadn’t arrived yet, given Citibank’s reputation and his partnership with them, Lin Haoran naturally trusted them. There was no need to stay and wait for the funds to be transferred.

With his bodyguards, Lin Haoran got back in his car and headed for the nearby HSBC headquarters.

Now that the loan was settled, it was time to move on to the most important matter—the complete privatization of Hongkong Land Group.

Chapter 383: This Young Man’s Methods for Raising Money Are Too Formidable

Next, he went over to HSBC to sign a privatization service agreement with Wardley Limited.

Once he entrusted this matter to Wardley Limited, he would no longer have any concerns about the privatization of Hongkong Land Group.

After all, he had previously used Wardley Limited to successfully privatize two listed companies, Green Island Cement Company and Wan’an Group. He had great faith in Wardley Limited’s capabilities.

In the field of privatizing listed companies, Wardley Limited was the best in Hong Kong. Although he was displeased with HSBC’s recent actions, he understood perfectly well that the business world operated this way; when interests were at stake, one would naturally make choices that benefited oneself.

To maintain its dominant position in Hong Kong’s business world, HSBC would naturally do its utmost to obstruct Lin Haoran’s control over Jardine Matheson & Co.

It was just like when HSBC chose to help the Chinese merchant Pao Yue-kong to prevent Jardine Matheson & Co. from losing Kowloon Wharf.

Though such a strategy was competitive, it was also reasonable, and Lin Haoran understood it.

After all, in a relatively small business circle like Hong Kong’s, everyone was bound to cross paths. Even if there was occasional friction, they still needed to maintain a cordial facade.

What’s more, Lin Haoran himself was a board member and shareholder of HSBC, although his shares only accounted for 1% of the bank.

However, he had purchased this 1% stake for eighty million Hong Kong dollars, and the value it represented was not to be underestimated.

Especially forty years from now, when HSBC’s market capitalization would break the one trillion Hong Kong dollar mark. The value of this 1% stake in Lin Haoran’s hands would soar to tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars, an undoubtedly considerable fortune.

Therefore, although the two sides had disagreed on certain matters, Lin Haoran always believed that business competition was one thing, but mutual respect and cooperation were still indispensable.

Upon arriving at the HSBC headquarters, Lin Haoran first went to the Taipan’s office and met with the Taipan himself, Mr. Michael Sandberg.

Michael Sandberg was clearly a little surprised by Lin Haoran’s arrival, but after learning the purpose of his visit, he had a sudden realization and became extremely enthusiastic.

After all, Hongkong Land Group was now destined to be controlled by Lin Haoran. Whether it was privatized or remained a listed company made little difference to HSBC.

It was better to do Lin Haoran a favor and help him handle this matter, which would also secure a decent deal for Wardley Limited.

Regarding the unpleasantness that had occurred between them over the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson & Co., both Lin Haoran and Michael Sandberg had a tacit understanding and chose to avoid the topic as if it had never happened.

They resumed their former mode of interaction, once again appearing like close partners in the business world.

In business, there are no permanent enemies, nor permanent friends—only permanent interests.

Lin Haoran had long since grown accustomed to the hypocrisy and unpredictability of this world.

Michael Sandberg personally called the general manager of Wardley Limited to his office to discuss the matter of privatizing Hongkong Land Group with Lin Haoran.

With the assistance of Universal Investment Company’s legal team, and after more than two hours of discussion, Lin Haoran finally signed the privatization service agreement with the general manager of Wardley Limited.

From now on, the complex aspects of Lin Haoran’s privatization of Hongkong Land Group would largely be handled by Wardley Limited.

The only thing Lin Haoran had to do was provide the money!

When they learned that Lin Haoran already had the funds to buy back the 30.2% stake in Hongkong Land Group from Jardine Matheson & Co., both the general manager of Wardley Limited and HSBC’s Taipan, Michael Sandberg, were astonished.

This was a 30.2% stake! Based on the current market capitalization, it was worth a little over three billion Hong Kong dollars.

According to company regulations, holding over 90% of the shares allowed for a compulsory acquisition of the remaining Hongkong Land Group shareholders’ stakes.

As things stood for Lin Haoran, the biggest obstacle was how to acquire this 30.2% stake.

Once he secured this 30.2% stake, carrying out a compulsory acquisition would be essentially effortless.

Besides this 30.2% stake, there was still nearly 10% of the shares on the stock market. Wardley Limited would be responsible for acquiring these. At the compulsory acquisition price, this would also be worth one billion Hong Kong dollars.

By this calculation, the funds Lin Haoran personally needed to raise for the privatization of Hongkong Land Group would have to exceed five billion Hong Kong dollars!

How did he get so much money?

Even with the Keswick family and the Rothschild family purchasing his 19% stake at a high price, he would have only received 1.9 billion Hong Kong dollars.

There was still a massive gap to reach five billion Hong Kong dollars.

Moreover, Lin Haoran had just borrowed two billion Hong Kong dollars from HSBC a few months ago.

Needless to say, that two billion Hong Kong dollars had been spent on the covert stock accumulation of Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group shares in recent days.

So, the fact that Lin Haoran now possessed such vast funds to privatize Hongkong Land Group was shocking, even to Michael Sandberg.

It completely exceeded his imagination.

This young man’s methods for raising money were far more formidable than he had imagined. Even if it was borrowed from other financial institutions, it was still a testament to Lin Haoran’s strength.

Being able to secure such a large loan in one go was a demonstration of strength in itself!

During the negotiation, Lin Haoran’s beeper had vibrated once. When he called back, it was, as he had expected, the branch manager of Citibank’s Hong Kong branch, informing him that three billion Hong Kong dollars had been deposited into his personal Citibank account.

Hearing this news, Lin Haoran breathed a sigh of relief.

Although he had great faith in Citibank and the contract had been signed, he still felt a little anxious until the money was in his account.

The amount of money involved was simply too large—a full three billion Hong Kong dollars. In Hong Kong, 90% of financial institutions couldn’t produce such a sum.

Now that the money had arrived, he could naturally announce the privatization of Hongkong Land Group to the public.

He could even start another round of financing for Hongkong Land Group.

After signing the privatization service agreement for Hongkong Land Group with Wardley Limited, Lin Haoran, accompanied by his lawyer and bodyguards, prepared to leave HSBC.

Just as he was about to leave, Michael Sandberg called out to him, “Mr. Lin, should you have any need for loans in the future, the doors of HSBC are always open for you. Don’t forget, you are not only a shareholder of HSBC but also an important member of our Board of Directors.

With the shares of the various listed companies you hold as collateral, I can approve a very substantial loan for you. And regarding the interest rate, I will definitely give you a very preferential rate!”

Lin Haoran paused slightly, turned around, and responded to Michael Sandberg with a smile, “Of course, Mr. Michael Sandberg. If the need arises, I will certainly contact you!”

With that, Lin Haoran and his entourage left HSBC. As for Michael Sandberg’s words, they went in one ear and out the other.

With the blue-chip companies he now held, getting a loan was indeed remarkably simple.

The trip from HSBC headquarters back to Connaught Centre took less than ten minutes. Lin Haoran took the elevator straight to the 51st floor, the top floor.

When he stepped out of the elevator, Lin Haoran was standing at the door of Ma Shiming’s office.

However, Ma Shiming was not in the office. He was clearly still dealing with various handover matters with Jardine Matheson & Co.

Lin Haoran picked up the phone on the desk and called Newbiggin’s office.

Soon, Newbiggin answered the phone, “Hello, who is this?”

“Mr. Newbiggin, this is Lin Haoran. Is Mr. Ma Shiming there? If so, could you please put him on the phone?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Oh, it’s Mr. Lin. Mr. Ma is right next to me. I’ll transfer you now,” Newbiggin replied in a calm tone.

Now that Jardine Matheson & Co. and Lin Haoran had no connection, Newbiggin’s arrogance had resurfaced.

Recalling the days when he had to call Lin Haoran “Boss,” for Newbiggin, it was a humiliating history he would rather not remember.

Now that Lin Haoran was no longer his boss, he naturally felt relieved and pleased.

Soon, Lin Haoran heard Ma Shiming’s voice over the phone.

“Mr. Ma, how is the handover process coming along?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Boss, everything is proceeding smoothly. But it’s true that due to the huge number of assets and documents involved, some of the accounts are a bit chaotic and need to be reorganized.

At the same time, there are some lost asset certificates whose ownership needs to be verified. The entire handover process is quite complex. Therefore, we estimate it will take at least another week to completely separate the assets and business between Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co.

My part is almost done. The various departments of Hongkong Land Group will handle these matters from now on, and I’ll just be here to oversee the overall situation.

However, since Jardine Matheson & Co. is about to hold a joint press conference with Hongkong Land Group, I haven’t been able to return to Connaught Centre yet,” Ma Shiming replied.

“Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group are holding a press conference? Perfect. I was originally planning to have you arrange a press conference anyway. This saves me the trouble. I’ll head straight over to Jardine House!” Lin Haoran said with a laugh.

Originally, Lin Haoran had intended to have Ma Shiming organize a press conference. After all, his stake in Hongkong Land Group had already exceeded 50%. If he didn’t announce the privatization to the public, the Securities Commission would probably start to make things difficult for him again.

After all, Lin Haoran had dealt a heavy blow to the British-funded conglomerate in this Jardine Matheson affair, causing them to lose all face, even on the international stage.

Moreover, this incident had occurred right under the close supervision of the Securities Commission.

Therefore, the Chairman of the Securities Commission, Miles, likely held all sorts of grudges against him and was just waiting for an opportunity to use some petty tricks to punish Lin Haoran.

So, to avoid giving them any leverage, Lin Haoran had to ensure that everything on his end was handled perfectly.

Chapter 384: They Offered So Much, I’d Have Been a Fool to Refuse!

Jardine Matheson & Co. was so eager to hold a press conference, clearly impatient to announce to the world that the British-funded conglomerate had reclaimed its controlling stake in the company.

When Lin Haoran arrived at Jardine House, he indeed saw a considerable number of reporters in the ground floor lobby.

At the same time, a large section of the spacious three to four hundred square meter lobby had been cordoned off. Staff were busily setting up a dais, and the preparations seemed to be nearing completion.

Behind the dais, a large red banner covered a temporary backdrop, with the words “Jardine Matheson & Co. Press Conference” faintly visible.

The recent affair involving Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group had caused a huge stir throughout Hong Kong, as captivating as a grand drama. It had reporters scrambling for every bit of grapevine news, and newspaper sales had soared. As a result, the reporters’ own salaries and commissions had also increased significantly.

Now that another major announcement concerning Jardine Matheson was about to be made, the reporters were naturally thrilled.

Some with sharp eyes quickly noticed Lin Haoran’s arrival and tried to rush forward to interview him, but they were promptly stopped by the security guards at Jardine House.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran, along with Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, took an elevator and vanished from the reporters’ sight.

Up in the Jardine Matheson Taipan’s office, a number of influential figures had already gathered in the room, which measured over a hundred square meters.

The likes of Newbiggin, Ma Shiming, Henry Keswick, and James Rothschild were all seated on the sofas in the meeting area, chatting about something.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, they all greeted him.

“Mr. Lin,” Henry Keswick said with a smile upon seeing him, “we had originally planned for Mr. Ma to represent the Hongkong Land Group at this conference, which is why we didn’t specifically invite you. But since you’re here, it’s all the more perfect!”

However, Lin Haoran sensed that the current head of the Keswick family didn’t seem too keen on him attending this press conference, as it had never been mentioned to him before.

If Ma Shiming hadn’t brought it up, he wouldn’t have even known about it.

But upon reflection, Lin Haoran could roughly guess the reason.

Perhaps these people from the British-funded conglomerates were unwilling to face too many questions at the press conference about the conditions under which he had relinquished his controlling stake in Jardine Matheson.

After all, although these British-funded conglomerates appeared to have reclaimed control of Jardine Matheson, they had actually only secured Lin Haoran’s agreement by signing a series of unequal treaties.

If Lin Haoran revealed too many details at the press conference, these British-funded conglomerates would be utterly humiliated.

Reclaiming the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson was supposed to be a cause for celebration for the British-funded conglomerates, but if too many details were made public, it wouldn’t seem like something worth trumpeting so loudly.

“Mr. Henry, you look absolutely radiant! Congratulations on reclaiming the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson. Usually, having Mr. Ma Shiming represent me on such occasions would suffice. However, considering I am in the process of privatizing the Hongkong Land Group, this significant news also needs to be disclosed to the public.

Since you’ve already arranged a press conference, I thought I’d save myself the trouble of holding a separate one,” Lin Haoran said with a laugh, his tone light and humorous.

Upon hearing this, Henry Keswick instantly understood why Lin Haoran had rushed over after learning the news.

At that moment, Newbiggin interjected, “Mr. Lin, the press conference will begin in the ground floor lobby in twenty minutes. Please have a seat inside for a moment, and we will all head down together shortly.”

The Newbiggin of this moment seemed to have regained his former triumphant spirit. In his view, his position at Jardine Matheson was about to become even more secure.

In the blink of an eye, another ten minutes or so passed, and the group took the elevator downstairs together.

When they reached the ground floor lobby, it was already packed with people.

Compared to the number of reporters Lin Haoran had seen when he first arrived, there were now at least two or three times as many, with a rough estimate of at least one to two hundred people.

The pulling power of Jardine Matheson was, naturally, considerable.

He noticed that there were eight seats on the dais. Two of them bore his and Ma Shiming’s names, but they were placed at the far left end.

Lin Haoran didn’t mind. After all, this was no longer his home turf, and he no longer had any connection to Jardine Matheson.

British-funded conglomerates were naturally arrogant and looked down on Chinese-owned enterprises. Coupled with government support, even though Lin Haoran’s power was now undeniable, he was still not well-regarded by them.

Although the Chinese-funded conglomerates in Hong Kong were now gradually surpassing the British ones, these British conglomerates believed in their hearts that the Chinese firms had only developed because the British were steadily withdrawing, leaving a piece of the big cake for them.

Otherwise, the Chinese-funded conglomerates would have never had the chance to grow, and Hong Kong would still be their British domain.

Their arrival caused a stir among the reporters.

They had finally seen the big shots.

Newbiggin was still the nominal Taipan of Jardine Matheson, so he naturally sat in the center of the dais.

Once everyone was seated according to the nameplates, Newbiggin, full of triumphant spirit, stood up and faced the one to two hundred reporters below.

All eyes immediately focused on Newbiggin, waiting for his big announcement.

“Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Jardine Matheson & Co., I am here to make a formal announcement. As of today, Jardine Matheson & Co. returns to British hands. From now on, Mr. Lin Haoran will have no connection to our company, nor will he be a shareholder of Jardine Matheson!” Newbiggin declared directly.

Instantly, an uproar swept through the venue.

No one had expected that less than a month after Lin Haoran had taken control of Jardine Matheson, the company would change hands again.

Many reporters clamored to ask for specific details, and the scene descended into chaos.

Everyone knew the immense impact this announcement would have once it was published.

Could this be a defeat for the Chinese-funded conglomerates in their confrontation with the British-funded ones?

Seeing the situation, Newbiggin lightly tapped the microphone in his hand, signaling for quiet.

A hint of smugness flickered in his eyes; he was clearly pleased with the reaction.

As the clamor gradually subsided, Newbiggin cleared his throat and continued:

“I understand everyone’s curiosity, but please allow me to explain. Yes, as I just said, Jardine Matheson & Co. has completed a restructuring of its equity and has returned to the embrace of British capital.

This decision was the result of lengthy negotiations between the British-funded conglomerate led by Mr. Henry Keswick and Mr. Lin Haoran, aimed at promoting the long-term development of Jardine Matheson.”

Here, Newbiggin paused deliberately, his gaze sweeping over every reporter present, as if to gauge their reactions.

Then, changing his tone, he continued, “Of course, we must also express our deepest gratitude to Mr. Lin Haoran for relinquishing his controlling stake in Jardine Matheson, allowing the company to move towards a better future.

Although Mr. Lin briefly served as the controlling party of Jardine Matheson, we all know that the company is rooted in the deep soil of the British-funded conglomerates and possesses a long and glorious history.

It is a company with a pure British bloodline. Returning to the embrace of British capital is undoubtedly the most natural and correct choice in its development. If you have any questions, you may ask them now. We will answer what we can!”

Having said his piece, Newbiggin sat down.

Below the dais, the reporters were abuzz with discussion.

Could Lin Haoran have been treated unfairly, forced to return Jardine Matheson?

What was the inside story behind all this?

At this moment, numerous reporters were full of questions, eager for answers.

“Mr. Henry, we are very curious, what price did you pay to reclaim the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson?” Just then, a reporter, unable to contain his curiosity any longer, stood up and directed his question to the former Taipan of Jardine Matheson, Henry Keswick.

Henry Keswick took the microphone, a smile on his face, but his tone was very brief: “Mr. Lin Haoran and we reached the decision for this equity adjustment after multiple rounds of in-depth negotiations in a harmonious and friendly atmosphere. As for the specific details, those are corporate business intelligence and are not convenient to disclose here. Jardine Matheson will issue a public announcement later, and we will disclose what needs to be disclosed.”

Clearly, Henry Keswick had no intention of revealing more about the specific negotiation process and conditions to the public.

As far as he was concerned, he wished these reporters only needed to know one thing: that Jardine Matheson was back in the hands of his Keswick family!

With that, he gently put down the microphone, his gaze sweeping across the room as if to silently declare: that is our answer.

Although the reporters were reluctant, faced with Henry Keswick’s clear stance, they could only temporarily suppress their questions and search for other potential angles.

At this point, a reporter from the Oriental Daily News stood up, pointing his microphone at Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Lin, during the negotiation process with the British-funded conglomerate, did you encounter any unfair treatment?”

“Of course not. As Mr. Newbiggin emphasized, our negotiations were conducted and concluded in a completely fair and just environment.

Additionally, I’d like to take this opportunity to announce something. My personal shareholding in the Hongkong Land Group has now exceeded fifty percent. Therefore, I and my Universal Investment Company officially declare that the Hongkong Land Group will initiate privatization procedures.

We have reached an agreement with HSBC’s subsidiary, Wardley, who will be fully responsible for handling all matters related to the privatization of the Hongkong Land Group. The relevant application procedures have already been submitted to the Securities Commission. For specific details, you can obtain them from Wardley.

As for why I gave up the controlling stake in Jardine Matheson—while it wasn’t my original plan, they offered so much, I’d have been a fool to refuse. Therefore, I decided to let go of Jardine Matheson and focus all my efforts on advancing the privatization of the Hongkong Land Group,” Lin Haoran said into the microphone, a smile on his face.

Chapter 385: Taking Down Hongkong Land Group for Under Five Billion!

When Lin Haoran finished speaking, the entire hall fell into a brief, sudden silence.

More than the British-funded conglomerate’s final words to Lin Haoran, the reporters were interested in his announcement that he would privatize the Hongkong Land Group.

They exchanged glances, seemingly processing this sudden piece of information.

The privatization of Hongkong Land Group was undoubtedly explosive news, and to be announced on the same day that Jardine Matheson & Co. changed hands only amplified its impact.

Most importantly, everyone present knew what privatizing Hongkong Land Group meant.

This was a behemoth with a market capitalization of over ten billion Hong Kong dollars. What did that imply? It meant that if Lin Haoran wanted to privatize this company, not counting the shares he already held, he would need to invest at least several billion more Hong Kong dollars.

Recalling Lin Haoran’s words, “They offered me so much, I’d be a fool not to agree,” the reporters’ imaginations ran wild.

Could it be that Lin Haoran had acquired an unimaginable amount of capital from the British-funded conglomerate, which gave him the strength to privatize Hongkong Land Group?

No wonder Lin Haoran had suddenly given up on Jardine Matheson & Co.

Compared to controlling Jardine Matheson, the benefits of privatizing Hongkong Land Group were clearly greater.

Hongkong Land Group—the real estate behemoth known as the “King of Central” in Hong Kong.

At this moment, compared to the domineering move of privatizing Hongkong Land Group, Jardine Matheson returning to the hands of the British-funded conglomerate seemed insignificant.

Although Jardine Matheson was known as the “King of the Foreign Firms,” everyone in Hong Kong knew this was because it used to hold the two behemoths, Kowloon Wharf and Hongkong Land Group.

Now that Jardine Matheson had lost Kowloon Wharf and Hongkong Land Group one after another, its true value was no match for Hongkong Land’s!

In fact, even the market capitalization of Kowloon Wharf was not far off from Jardine Matheson’s now.

Although no one knew the specific details or conditions of their transaction, just as Lin Haoran had said, if a choice had to be made between controlling Jardine Matheson and privatizing Hongkong Land Group, the vast majority of people in Hong Kong would choose to privatize Hongkong Land without a second thought.

The only condition was having enough capital!

Once again, the reporters were stunned by Lin Haoran’s financial might.

Privatizing Hongkong Land Group—who would dare to even think of it?

In an instant, what was supposed to be Jardine Matheson’s home ground had become Lin Haoran’s personal stage.

The faces of the British tycoons turned ugly.

At that moment, a foreign reporter stood up and asked in English, “Mr. Lin, can you disclose how much capital you received from the British-funded conglomerate that gave you sufficient strength to carry out the privatization of Hongkong Land Group?”

“In business transactions, specific monetary amounts are often considered confidential. However, I can disclose that this transaction was fair and reasonable. During the negotiations, both parties demonstrated great sincerity and professionalism, which ultimately led to this win-win situation.

Certain terms were designated as confidential from the outset of negotiations, so I cannot directly answer your question. But I can say with certainty that I have ample financial support for the privatization process of Hongkong Land Group.

Furthermore, I would like to announce another important piece of news: Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group have completed a restructuring of their cross-shareholdings, which was a key factor in Jardine Matheson’s return to the British-funded conglomerate.

In other words, the 30.2% of Hongkong Land Group shares previously held by Jardine Matheson are now back in the hands of Hongkong Land Group, and I plan to spend three billion Hong Kong dollars to acquire this equity.

Currently, the relevant acquisition procedures are underway in an orderly fashion. Once the acquisition is complete, I will hold nearly 90% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares, bringing me even closer to completing its privatization!” Lin Haoran added with a smile.

After that, the reporters’ attention was almost entirely focused on Lin Haoran, leaving the British tycoons to the side, staring at each other.

Whose home ground was this, anyway?

Newbiggin was now regretting his decision. If he had known this would happen, he wouldn’t have let Lin Haoran come over, nor should he have allowed Ma Shiming to stay.

As a result, the reporters were now only concerned with Lin Haoran’s privatization of Hongkong Land Group, while the news of their British-funded conglomerate regaining control of Jardine Matheson seemed like a minor event.

“Everyone, today’s press conference is about to conclude. Please take your leave. We will discuss any subsequent matters at a later date.” At this point, under Henry Keswick’s signal, Newbiggin stood up and politely asked the reporters to leave.

He called it polite, but in reality, he was ushering them out before they had finished their interviews.

Originally, both Newbiggin and Henry Keswick had been fully prepared to handle all sorts of questions from the reporters.

However, to their surprise, before they could say what they wanted, the reporters’ attention had already shifted to Lin Haoran, leaving them sidelined. Naturally, they didn’t want this press conference to continue, as it was a humiliating affair for them.

Lin Haoran was not surprised by Newbiggin’s actions.

Since the necessary information had been announced, it was fine to end it.

Before the conference dispersed, he announced to the crowd, “Everyone, Universal Investment Company and Wardley Limited will also be releasing an announcement regarding the privatization of Hongkong Land Group shortly. You are all welcome to report on it. Thank you.”

With Lin Haoran’s announcement of the conference’s end, the reporters, though still wanting more, had no choice but to stand up and leave the hall, their minds filled with questions and excitement.

Lin Haoran’s words were bound to be like a stone thrown into a calm lake, creating ripples that would shake the whole of Hong Kong society.

The reporters who walked out of the hall immediately got busy. Some rushed back to their editorial offices to write their reports, while others quickly made phone calls to their sources to verify more details.

Even more reporters headed to Wardley Limited’s headquarters, trying to get more detailed information from Wardley about Lin Haoran’s privatization of Hongkong Land Group.

As for Jardine Matheson, only a few British media outlets remained, hoping to get some details from their side.

The news of Hongkong Land Group’s privatization spread like wildfire, reaching every corner of the city.

The British tycoons who remained in place had varying expressions—some were angry, some were helpless, but most were wary of Lin Haoran.

At that moment, the excitement of the British-funded conglomerate’s recapture of Jardine Matheson seemed to have vanished into thin air.

That same day, Wardley Limited announced that Universal Investment Company’s privatization of Hongkong Land Group had been approved and filed with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, and the privatization process had begun.

Simultaneously, Universal Investment Company formally announced that it had secured financing of three billion Hong Kong dollars for the 30.2% of shares that Hongkong Land Group had repurchased.

On another front, Hongkong Electric Group also formally announced that it had sold its 6% stake in Hongkong Land Group to Universal Investment Company for 600 million Hong Kong dollars.

Under Wardley Limited’s guidance, there was a massive stock accumulation on the market that day, sweeping up most of Hongkong Land Group’s pending orders on the exchange.

On this single day, the shares Wardley Limited accumulated from the stock market reached a staggering 4.8%.

With this, Universal Investment Company effectively controlled 93.7% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares.

Only 6.3% of the shares now remained on the secondary market.

On the morning of November 26th, the general manager of Wardley Limited announced that since Universal Investment Company already owned 93.7% of Hongkong Land Group’s issued shares, in accordance with Hong Kong’s “Takeovers and Mergers Code,” Universal Investment Company would proceed with a compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares from other shareholders.

As for the acquisition price, according to the regulations stipulated in Hong Kong’s “Takeovers and Mergers Code,” the consideration paid by the offeror to the shareholders accepting the offer must be in cash or a cash equivalent and must not be less than the highest price paid by the offeror or its concert parties for voting shares during the offer period and the six months prior to its commencement.

In the past six months, Hongkong Land Group’s highest share price corresponded to a market capitalization of 11.6 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Although this was a bit higher than its current market capitalization of just over ten billion, only 6.3% of the shares remained on the secondary market. Therefore, even if the acquisition was based on a total market capitalization of 11.6 billion Hong Kong dollars, it wouldn’t cost Lin Haoran much extra—only about sixty million more Hong Kong dollars.

To him, spending an extra few tens of millions was nothing compared to completely privatizing Hongkong Land Group.

At this point, Universal Investment Company could have already announced the successful privatization of Hongkong Land Group.

However, Lin Haoran was in no hurry.

In any case, Hongkong Land Group could not escape his grasp now, and the loan from Citibank had a one-year term.

To ensure the stable operation of the privatized Hongkong Land Group and to avoid legal disputes or operational disruptions due to opposition from minority shareholders, Lin Haoran believed it was better to acquire as many shares as possible.

As for those who ultimately refused to sell, there was nothing Lin Haoran could do. After the privatization was completed and officially announced, if these few minority shareholders who hadn’t sold their stocks came looking for him, he would just buy them out at the privatization share price.

And dividends?

Naturally, those would no longer concern them. In the future, Hongkong Land Group would belong entirely to Lin Haoran.

Once the privatization was successful, the billions of Hong Kong dollars in Hongkong Land Group’s accounts, including the three billion he paid to finance the 30.2% stake, would become his personal assets!

At that point, Lin Haoran would be able to easily access several billion Hong Kong dollars in cash from Hongkong Land Group’s corporate account.

By then, let alone repaying Citibank the 3.3 billion Hong Kong dollars in principal and interest, even paying off the two billion Hong Kong dollars and 200 million in interest he had borrowed from HSBC months ago would be no problem at all.

During this period, Hongkong Land Group had sold off many projects and recouped a lot of capital, and the funds in the group’s accounts were growing.

All of this would become his personal assets after Lin Haoran completely privatized Hongkong Land Group.

Chapter 386: A New Titan of Global Business: Lin Haoran and His Commercial Empire

The privatization of the Hongkong Land Group instantly became the most sensational news in all of Hong Kong.

In contrast, the return of Jardine Matheson & Co. to the hands of a British-funded conglomerate seemed far less important.

This was because everyone knew that the Jardine Matheson & Co. of today was, in effect, merely headquartered in Hong Kong.

The vast majority of its assets were overseas.

According to an analysis by a Hong Kong economic expert, Jardine Matheson & Co.’s current assets in Hong Kong accounted for less than 10% of its total holdings.

In other words, its core was no longer in Hong Kong.

In the past, it was often said that the lives of citizens in Hong Kong were inseparable from the shadow of Jardine Matheson & Co.

Jardine Matheson & Co. had exerted a profound influence on Hong Kong in various sectors, including commercial retail, real estate, infrastructure, public services, the economy, and employment.

Yet today, Jardine Matheson & Co. had successively lost a series of important assets, including Kowloon Wharf, the Hongkong Land Group, Dairy Farm International, the Kwai Chung terminals, the Mandarin Hotel, and the Oriental International Hotel. In its actual operations in Hong Kong, there were few significant subsidiaries left.

Even the 20% stake in the listed subsidiary, Gammon Construction, which was originally held by Jardine Matheson & Co., had now fallen into the hands of the Hongkong Land Group.

Currently, Jardine Matheson & Co.’s most critical subsidiary in Hong Kong was perhaps only Jardine Securities.

Although Jardine Matheson & Co. boasted a long and storied history of over a century with deep-rooted influence in Hong Kong, as it lost one important subsidiary after another, it now appeared in the public eye as a weak, ailing cat, unable to hold a candle to the Hongkong Land Group.

After completely severing ties with Jardine Matheson & Co., the Hongkong Land Group successfully took over the majority of the former’s core assets in Hong Kong.

This meant that the already formidable Hongkong Land Group was now even more powerful, like a tiger that had grown wings.

Privatization was not something that could be completed in a short time. Based on past experience, even with the assistance of Wardley, it would require several months.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was not in a great hurry to privatize the Hongkong Land Group.

On the morning of November 28th, Lin Haoran appeared at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport.

He wasn’t going anywhere himself but was there to see someone off.

The employees of the Universal Investment Company had finally completed their preparations. At ten o’clock sharp this morning, they would depart from Hong Kong on a chartered plane bound for New York, United States.

Two days before their departure, Lin Haoran had made a special trip to secretly screen the employees. Any employee with a loyalty score below eighty was summarily rejected. In the end, one hundred ninety-eight employees would be heading to the United States.

After all, the future focus of his plans was in developed countries like the United States, Japan, and Europe. Being overseas, far from Lin Haoran’s direct control, employees with low loyalty would be very likely to betray him and secretly leak confidential information.

Therefore, the most crucial trait for the employees going abroad was high loyalty.

A loyalty score of eighty was the absolute minimum standard.

In New York, Lin Haoran had already commissioned John Reed, the Vice President of Citibank, a week prior to find and select a skyscraper near Times Square. He purchased an entire floor, approximately 1,300 square meters, to serve as the office for the Universal Investment Company.

Based on current New York real estate prices, this cost Lin Haoran approximately 4.8 million US dollars.

Converted to Hong Kong dollars, this figure exceeded twenty million, and it was just for a single floor.

At present, real estate prices in New York were indeed considerably higher than in Hong Kong.

In this era, the price of commercial buildings in prime New York locations ranged from 200 to 300 US dollars per square foot.

Areas like the vicinity of Times Square were the core of the core, and prices there were comparatively much higher.

The floor Lin Haoran purchased was acquired at a relatively favorable price. It was being sold by a company that had entrusted the sale to Citibank, and the price Lin Haoran paid was already quite a bit lower than the market rate.

Once the employees of the Universal Investment Company settled in, they would be able to start work quickly.

Previously, Lin Haoran had already given Su Zhixue detailed instructions to target listed companies once they began operations.

Furthermore, Lin Haoran had not touched the funds that were previously in the Universal Investment Company’s accounts.

Therefore, when Su Zhixue led the team over, the company’s accounts would not be short of capital.

“I have arranged a guide for you in New York. This guide will be responsible for picking you up at the airport and helping you and the team settle in smoothly. If you need anything, call me anytime. I will also be traveling to the United States next month, and I hope to see that you have everything in order by the time I arrive!” Standing before the boarding gate, Lin Haoran patted Su Zhixue’s shoulder and instructed him with a smile.

At this moment, with less than twenty minutes before the flight’s departure, it was time to board.

Lin Haoran reiterated his instructions to ensure Su Zhixue understood the importance of the mission.

“Understood, Boss. I’ll report our safe arrival as soon as we get there!” Su Zhixue replied, full of gratitude.

Su Zhixue felt incredibly honored to have such an excellent boss.

He did feel a hint of uncertainty about the future; after all, he was leading nearly two hundred people to the unfamiliar United States.

Although he had been there once before on a business trip with Lin Haoran, the purpose of that trip was entirely different from settling down for long-term work.

Despite his reservations, Su Zhixue felt that even if the path ahead was fraught with hardships and obstacles, he was willing to give his all to execute every task his boss assigned to him to the best of his ability.

Only by doing so could he repay the profound kindness his boss had shown him and live up to the trust placed in him.

Standing in the airport terminal, Lin Haoran watched through the glass window as the plane carrying Su Zhixue and nearly two hundred other employees soared into the sky, gradually disappearing from his sight. Only then did he snap back to the present.

Next month was also when Apple Inc. would go public.

He had already promised Mr. Jobs, the Chairman of Apple Inc., that he would be there to ring the opening bell for the IPO at the NASDAQ Stock Exchange.

Although Apple Inc. was not particularly outstanding at this point, especially since it would experience a long slump after its IPO, Lin Haoran was extremely optimistic about the company’s future.

It wasn’t just him; he believed that any person who had traveled back in time would acquire shares in Apple Inc.

After all, in the 21st century, everyone knew how incredible Apple Inc. was, especially in terms of market capitalization, where it was virtually invincible. Only a few companies like Microsoft and Nvidia could compete with it.

Moreover, personally ringing the opening bell at Apple Inc.’s IPO meant that Lin Haoran was not just witnessing the company’s listing but was an active participant. He was naturally willing to take part in such a historically significant event.

“Let’s go, to the Connaught Centre,” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Yes, Boss!” Li Weidong replied respectfully.

Upon arriving at the Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran found the ground floor lobby still crowded with numerous reporters. They were desperately trying to interview a senior executive from the Hongkong Land Group to obtain exclusive information that other media outlets had not yet acquired.

The media industry was indeed fiercely competitive. While the job of a reporter might seem glamorous, they had to put in tremendous effort to acquire more valuable news.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, the reporters’ eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. They were about to surge forward and surround him for an interview.

However, they were promptly stopped by the security guards.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran, accompanied by Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, smoothly entered an elevator and headed straight for the 51st floor, leaving a dozen reporters to watch in regret as he disappeared from their view.

Arriving on the 51st floor, he knocked on the door of Ma Shiming’s office. Hearing a “Come in,” he knew that Ma Shiming was indeed in the office.

Lin Haoran turned the doorknob and opened the door to see Ma Shiming holding a proposal in his left hand and a pen in his right. He was looking up at Lin Haoran, clearly wanting to see who had come to find him.

“Boss, you’re here.” Seeing Lin Haoran, Ma Shiming immediately stood up from his chair and came forward to greet him.

“Yes, Mr. Ma. It must have been difficult for you during this period. How is the handover with Jardine Matheson & Co. proceeding?” Lin Haoran shook hands with Ma Shiming before casually sitting down in a chair and asking.

“Currently, the handover is proceeding normally. Jardine Matheson & Co. hasn’t made things difficult for us. Everything that needs to be handed over is in the process of being transferred. At this rate, it looks like it should be completed in another three or four days! I was just planning to head over to Kwai Chung Container Terminal 5 after I finish up with the group’s affairs,” Ma Shiming replied with a smile.

“Good, that puts my mind at ease,” Lin Haoran nodded.

“By the way, Boss, your influence in Hong Kong is growing ever greater. Even media in the United States are reporting on your achievements. Take a look at this report. It says that with your own efforts, your influence across Asia is rapidly climbing, and you’ve become a force that cannot be ignored!” Ma Shiming handed over a newspaper, his tone filled with admiration as he congratulated him.

“All of Asia? That’s quite an exaggeration. It would be more accurate to call me an entrepreneur with some influence in Hong Kong. All of Asia is far too flattering, especially since there are still many powerful and hidden tycoons out there,” Lin Haoran said with a touch of modesty, but he still accepted the newspaper from Ma Shiming.

He glanced down and saw that it was a copy of The Wall Street Journal. The front-page headline featured his photograph, accompanied by a striking caption.

Lin Haoran smiled faintly. He understood that reports from these international media outlets often contained a degree of exaggeration, but he also knew that it reflected his growing attention and influence on the global business stage.

This was how it was for entrepreneurs; as their strength grew, their influence naturally followed.

To the right of his photograph in the newspaper was a headline that read, “A New Titan of Global Business: Lin Haoran and His Commercial Empire.” The article described in detail how Lin Haoran had rapidly risen from the son of a wealthy family to become a heavyweight figure influencing the economies of Hong Kong and even Asia.

The report not only mentioned the privatization of the Hongkong Land Group and Wanqing Group’s overseas expansion but also analyzed Lin Haoran’s strategic moves in real estate, finance, infrastructure, and other fields, as well as his unique insights into future economic trends.

As Lin Haoran finished reading the report, a smile unconsciously played on his lips, but his mind remained calm.

Receiving praise was, of course, a pleasant affair. This recognition was undoubtedly an affirmation of his current achievements.

But he also knew that while these accolades were heartening, his journey was still long, and the real challenges lay ahead.

While his business empire in Hong Kong continued to expand, his ventures in Southeast Asia were also unfolding in full swing. Next, his gaze would turn to the world’s most powerful economy—the United States.

Chapter 387: If This Place Doesn’t Want Me, Another Place Will

For the next few days, Lin Haoran rarely went to the company.

He would either be at his Severn Road villa or back at the Deep Water Bay villa to see his parents. His days were quite leisurely.

He chose to stay away from the office because he knew he had become the target of numerous paparazzi, as if his every move could trigger their keen senses.

Although Lin Haoran wasn’t an entertainment star, his popularity, especially during this period, was no less than that of the hottest A-listers in the entertainment industry.

One or two interviews were one thing, but being trailed by reporters every day was a life no one would want to live.

On December 2nd, at Cui Zilong’s suggestion, Lin Haoran accepted an exclusive interview with the Oriental Daily News.

The Oriental Daily News was now one of his own media companies, so there was naturally no issue with giving an interview to his own media outlet.

During the interview, Lin Haoran also revealed many details about the negotiations with the British-funded conglomerate—details that everyone was most eager to know.

Aside from a few details that were contractually stipulated as confidential, Lin Haoran told the Oriental Daily News reporter everything he could.

As a result, the Oriental Daily News naturally obtained the most scoops.

Consequently, the next day, December 3rd, the Oriental Daily News flew off the shelves.

In a single day, the newspaper’s sales not only broke its own record but also shattered the peak sales record for the entire Hong Kong newspaper industry, with single-day sales reaching a high of 486,000 copies, just a step away from the five hundred thousand mark. It was truly a pity.

Although it fell short of crossing the five hundred thousand threshold, this achievement was already astonishing enough.

In the past, it was a rare and commendable achievement for a newspaper’s sales to exceed three hundred thousand copies.

Now, the Oriental Daily News’s sales of nearly five hundred thousand copies undoubtedly set a new, towering benchmark, a record that was expected to be hard to break for a long time to come.

And after this report was published, Lin Haoran’s influence in Hong Kong grew even stronger.

As for Jardine Matheson & Co., although it had ostensibly returned to the British-funded conglomerate, it had in fact become a laughingstock.

After all, the price the British-funded conglomerate had paid to get Jardine Matheson & Co. back was absurdly high.

Though they eventually got it back, it was a Jardine Matheson & Co. whose strength had been greatly diminished.

In everyone’s eyes, without its numerous powerful subsidiaries, Jardine Matheson & Co.’s importance in Hong Kong had naturally declined significantly.

In a large private room in the Atlantic Coffee Shop near Jardine House, Henry Keswick, James Rothschild, Michael Sandberg, Bao Fuda, and others were gathered to discuss several very important matters.

This discussion was being held behind the back of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s Taipan, Newbiggin.

The most important matter on their agenda was to dismiss Newbiggin from his position as Taipan and elect a new one.

Dismissing Newbiggin was something Henry Keswick had wanted to do ever since Jardine Matheson & Co. lost Kowloon Wharf.

Now, under Newbiggin’s tenure, Jardine Matheson & Co. had not only lost Kowloon Wharf but also Hongkong Land Group, Dairy Farm International, the Kwai Chung Container Terminals, the Mandarin Hotel, the Oriental International Hotel, and a series of other important assets. In such a situation, a scapegoat was definitely needed.

And clearly, Newbiggin was the perfect scapegoat.

In the past, due to the shareholding ratios, they had been unable to dismiss Newbiggin at a Board of Directors meeting.

But now, things were completely different; the equity structure of Jardine Matheson & Co. had changed entirely.

This meant that the people gathered here, united, had more than enough power to oust Taipan Newbiggin.

Even though he had already reclaimed control of Jardine Matheson & Co., Henry Keswick had delayed his return to Britain, hoping to handle these matters before he left.

All of this was deeply intertwined with the interests of the Keswick family.

In the coffee shop, the several business tycoons who could read Chinese looked at the report in the Oriental Daily News with sour expressions.

Although the report was factual, they had never intended to make these matters public.

After all, it was quite humiliating.

But now, Lin Haoran’s exposé had clearly brought shame upon their entire British-funded conglomerate.

Yet, there was nothing they could do.

After all, these were the facts. Were they going to refute them?

Among them, the one with the foulest expression was Henry Keswick.

He reminisced about how glorious his tenure as Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. had been. Not only did he preside over numerous powerful subsidiaries like Kowloon Wharf and Hongkong Land Group, but the company was also the most powerful enterprise in Hong Kong.

But after he handed the position over to Newbiggin and retired to Britain, Jardine Matheson & Co. lost Kowloon Wharf, Hongkong Land Group, and more.

If not for his drastic measures, they might have lost Jardine Matheson & Co. itself.

At this moment, he hated Newbiggin’s guts.

In his view, the person most responsible for Jardine Matheson & Co.’s current state was Newbiggin, its current Taipan.

Therefore, he had gathered this group of British shareholders here today for the sole purpose of ousting the man who bore the greatest responsibility.

“Gentlemen, this is my younger brother, Simon Keswick. He joined Jardine Matheson & Co. in 1962, initially as a Trainee Executive. Over the subsequent two decades, Simon worked for Jardine companies in Hong Kong, North America, Japan, Singapore, and Australia, accumulating a wealth of international business experience.

In 1972, he was appointed Managing Director of Jardine Matheson Australia. In 1977, he advanced further to become Chairman of Jardine Insurance Group. These experiences have undoubtedly laid a solid foundation for his future.

At this time, I sincerely recommend Simon to become the new Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., succeeding Mr. Newbiggin. I hope that all of you present will give him your full support!”

Putting down the newspaper, Henry Keswick stood up, looked at the tycoons present, and brought his brother forward from behind him, introducing him with great solemnity.

“Greetings, seniors of the business world! I am Simon Keswick. I am confident that I can take on the great responsibility of Jardine Matheson & Co. and lead it out of its current predicament, back to the pinnacle of success once more!” Simon Keswick said, brimming with confidence.

The Keswick family was now undoubtedly the largest shareholder in Jardine Matheson & Co., with the most say in its affairs.

With the addition of their supporters, the Keswick family could almost hold a controlling stake in the company.

However, to prevent internal strife, Henry Keswick still hoped to gain the support of the other shareholders.

“Mr. Henry, I’ve said before that I won’t interfere too much in Jardine Matheson & Co.’s affairs. You can make the decision. As long as it doesn’t harm the company’s interests, I will support you!” James Rothschild was the first to state his position.

“HSBC has no objections either!” Michael Sandberg also spoke up.

Sandberg knew that with the shares HSBC currently held, their opposition would be futile anyway, so he might as well agree.

Besides, the Jardine Matheson & Co. of today was no longer the rival that secretly competed with HSBC; it simply lacked the strength to be HSBC’s enemy.

Hearing the responses from these two big shots, Henry Keswick breathed a sigh of relief.

Simon Keswick’s eyes also lit up, knowing that the position of Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. was likely secured.

In another world, Simon Keswick didn’t successfully become the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. until 1983.

But in this world, it wasn’t even 1981 yet, and he could already assume the role.

However, the Jardine Matheson & Co. he was taking over was much weaker. Having lost Hongkong Land Group and numerous other high-quality subsidiaries, it was as if it had lost at least two-thirds of its strength.

Therefore, the Jardine Matheson & Co. he was inheriting was a mess, and developing it again would be no small challenge.

Just like that, Newbiggin, who was still handling affairs at Jardine House, was sold out without his knowledge.

At that moment, Newbiggin was still fantasizing that he would serve as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. for the next two consecutive terms.

This was something Henry Keswick had verbally promised him.

He believed that, given Henry Keswick’s character, he would keep his word.

What he didn’t know was that in the face of family interests, a verbal promise wasn’t worth a damn.

“In that case, it’s settled. Tomorrow morning, Jardine Matheson & Co. will hold a new board meeting, and we will put these matters on the table then!” Henry Keswick said gravely.

The others all nodded.

And so, Newbiggin’s fate was decided so unceremoniously.

The next morning, in a conference room at Jardine House, the first board meeting was held since Jardine Matheson & Co.’s return to the hands of the British-funded conglomerate.

Although Newbiggin was unclear as to why the meeting was being held, as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., he had still prepared for it.

In the end, after the meeting concluded, Newbiggin was, without a doubt, ousted.

Even at the moment the meeting ended, Newbiggin still couldn’t believe it was real—that he had been dismissed from his position right there in the conference room.

“Mr. Henry, this can’t be true! Didn’t you personally promise me that you would let me serve as Chairman of the Board for two more consecutive terms?” Spotting Henry Keswick walking past, Newbiggin hurriedly went up and grabbed his arm, his words urgent and jumbled.

“Mr. Newbiggin, we are all rational adults. You should be well aware of the immense losses Jardine Matheson & Co. has suffered under your leadership. If not for the cross-shareholding policy you implemented, the company would never have fallen into today’s predicament.

Whether it’s the loss of Kowloon Wharf or Hongkong Land Group, you must bear all the responsibility. I ask you, under these circumstances, do you still believe you are qualified to continue serving as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co.?

Of course, you have had both successes and failures at the company in the past. We will be generous with your severance package, so you needn’t worry about that. I also hope, Mr. Newbiggin, that you will handle the handover to Simon peacefully.”

Henry Keswick calmly pulled his arm free from Newbiggin’s grasp and spoke in a level tone.

After Henry Keswick left, Newbiggin’s face was a mask of despair.

He knew his career at Jardine Matheson & Co. was over.

Suddenly, an idea came to him. Perhaps he could approach Lin Haoran.

Hongkong Land Group’s current strength was far greater than that of Jardine Matheson & Co.

And in terms of both influence and management ability, Newbiggin felt he was superior to Ma Shiming.

If I can convince Lin Haoran, won’t I become the new Taipan of Hongkong Land Group?

When that happens, what will Jardine Matheson & Co. even matter?

To hell with being the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co.!

Chapter 388: 1.28 Billion Hong Kong Dollars in Funds

Connaught Centre, 51st floor, the general manager’s office of the Hongkong Land Group.

Lin Haoran was currently discussing Hongkong Land matters with Ma Shiming.

The Hongkong Land Group of today could be considered an enormous, diversified conglomerate. This was especially true for its subsidiary, Dairy Farm International, whose business interests were wide-ranging and varied.

Therefore, although Hongkong Land was primarily a real estate enterprise, its other businesses were also numerous.

When factoring in its hotel and shipping industries, one could say that the Hongkong Land Group had inherited all of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s core businesses in Hong Kong.

The topic of Lin Haoran and Ma Shiming’s discussion was specifically Hongkong Land’s subsidiary, Dairy Farm International.

Dairy Farm International was acquired by the Hongkong Land Group in 1972 and was now a wholly-owned private subsidiary. It stood as Hong Kong’s largest food manufacturing, wholesale, and retail group.

Its holdings included Wellcome supermarkets all over Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, Mannings pharmacies, delicatessens, sandwich shops, ice cream stands, as well as a fifty percent stake in Maxim’s Group, Hong Kong’s largest operator of both Chinese and Western fast-food restaurants and bakeries.

It was safe to say that Dairy Farm International had hit a developmental ceiling in Hong Kong. To break through, its only option was to expand beyond the city’s borders.

In other words, it had to pursue internationalization.

“Boss, I’ve heard you have a good network of personal connections in Southeast Asia. I think Dairy Farm should begin its development there, focusing first on major international cities like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Manila, and Jakarta.

“Once we have covered these markets, we can then expand into second and third-tier cities. Southeast Asia has a large population. Capturing this market alone would be enough for Dairy Farm International to grow,” Ma Shiming said to Lin Haoran, pointing to Southeast Asia on a world map.

“How much cash does Dairy Farm International have right now?” Lin Haoran asked, his eyes on the map, not rushing to answer Ma Shiming’s suggestion.

“Dairy Farm is primarily in the retail sector, so its cash levels fluctuate daily. However, its accounts currently hold approximately 1.28 billion Hong Kong dollars.

“A portion of that, about two hundred million Hong Kong dollars, is due to suppliers within the next two months. This means that Dairy Farm International has over one billion Hong Kong dollars in disposable funds,” Ma Shiming replied.

“That much? Isn’t that more than the disposable funds the Hongkong Land Group had before?” Lin Haoran was somewhat surprised.

Currently, the Hongkong Land Group held nearly five billion Hong Kong dollars in cash.

However, this figure included the three billion Hong Kong dollars he had invested. Coupled with the recent sale of several real estate projects to bag holders, which had brought in a significant amount of capital, Hongkong Land’s cash reserves had reached a staggering five billion Hong Kong dollars.

Hongkong Land did not intend to publicize this. Lin Haoran was content with making a fortune quietly; otherwise, the privatization process would become a bit complicated.

In any case, the privatization of the Hongkong Land Group was already underway, so there was no need to release detailed corporate information to the public today.

Just a month ago, Lin Haoran knew that Hongkong Land’s available funds were less than one billion Hong Kong dollars. He hadn’t expected Dairy Farm International’s cash flow to be so formidable.

No wonder Jardine Matheson would later try every means possible to spin Dairy Farm International off from the Hongkong Land Group.

“Although Dairy Farm International is a subsidiary of the Hongkong Land Group, their financial systems are separate, just as Hongkong Land’s funds were separate from Jardine Matheson’s in the past. Each manages its own capital.

“Last year, Dairy Farm International spent four hundred eighty million Hong Kong dollars to acquire the Franklins supermarket chain in Australia, extending its retail network there.

“Six months ago, to bid for a plot of land in Causeway Bay, the Hongkong Land Group transferred six hundred twenty million Hong Kong dollars from Dairy Farm. Otherwise, Dairy Farm would have even more funds now,” Ma Shiming explained.

Lin Haoran nodded, a sense of deep satisfaction filling his heart.

Fortunately, Jardine Matheson had not yet split Dairy Farm off from Hongkong Land. Otherwise, his losses would have been substantial.

This was a golden goose that was constantly generating wealth for him!

The food and retail industries Dairy Farm was involved in were completely different from real estate.

As the old saying goes, to the people, food is heaven. The public can never do without food.

Even a sharp fall in Hong Kong’s property prices would have little impact on Dairy Farm International.

And as Hong Kong’s largest food manufacturing, retail, and wholesale group, Dairy Farm International’s revenue and profits were extremely stable.

“I agree with pioneering the Southeast Asian market first. We also can’t miss out on Macau and Taiwan. In a few years, we can even consider the market in Mainland China. Additionally, I am now having Universal Investment Company expand into the United States.

“When the time comes, if we identify promising retail or food companies in the US, I can have you evaluate them for acquisition. Compared to developing new markets from scratch, direct acquisition is clearly the fastest method of expansion,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Jardine Matheson’s vast international market channels were a result of its strategy of mergers and acquisitions, which allowed it to rapidly become an international enterprise.

As he recalled, if not for his intervention, Dairy Farm International would have embarked on its journey of internationalization in a few years, just as Jardine Matheson spun it off from Hongkong Land.

First, it would have acquired Kwik Save, Britain’s sixth-largest supermarket group, for 2.1 billion Hong Kong dollars, establishing an initial foothold in Europe.

Next, it would have brought the Spanish retail chain Simago S.A. under its umbrella for nine hundred eighty-three million Hong Kong dollars.

Subsequently, it would have turned its sights to Australia, spending 1.264 billion Hong Kong dollars to acquire New Zealand’s Woolworths supermarket group…

However, despite its sales network extending to Europe and Australia and capturing a large market share, it did not achieve the substantial profits that Dairy Farm’s senior executives had anticipated.

The fundamental reason was the population factor!

Britain’s population was decent, exceeding fifty million at the time. But Spain had just over thirty million people, and New Zealand had only about three million. Moreover, these countries had large land areas, so their small populations were spread out, making them nations with a low population density.

Expanding into countries with large areas but small populations instead of the densely populated Southeast Asia was a strategy doomed to fail.

Now, since these events had not yet occurred, Lin Haoran would certainly not allow Dairy Farm International to make such pointless investments.

Even if they were to invest, they would only choose to build new sales channels in major cities like London or New Delhi.

As for spending one or two billion to acquire a large, loss-making conglomerate?

Unless Lin Haoran had lost his mind, he would never make such a decision.

Southeast Asia, on the other hand, with its large population and rapid economic development, was the most ideal market for Dairy Farm International’s expansion.

Singapore, in particular, was very similar to Hong Kong.

Since Dairy Farm International could earn so much money in Hong Kong, it would naturally do quite well if it could capture a certain market share in Singapore.

This was the advantage of being a transmigrator. Knowing Dairy Farm International’s future allowed him to help it avoid bad investments.

Lin Haoran wasn’t worried that Ma Shiming would act recklessly, because any large-scale investment required his approval as the boss.

They would first expand into Southeast Asia; markets in other regions could be tackled slowly.

As he was chatting with Ma Shiming, Lin Haoran’s beeper vibrated.

“Who’s looking for me?” Lin Haoran curiously took out his beeper to look at it, then dialed the number back.

“Hello, is this Mr. Lin?” A voice very familiar to Lin Haoran came from the other end of the line.

It was Newbiggin’s voice.

Although he wasn’t sure why the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. was calling him, Lin Haoran still replied, “This is Lin Haoran. Mr. Newbiggin, is there something I can help you with?”

“Mr. Lin, I would like to meet with you alone. There are some things I wish to discuss with you. I was wondering if that would be convenient,” Newbiggin said.

“Then come over to Connaught Centre. I’m on the 51st floor, in the general manager’s office.” Out of respect for the man’s position, Lin Haoran did not refuse.

He was also curious as to what Newbiggin wanted to discuss.

“Alright, Mr. Lin. I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.” With that, Newbiggin hung up.

“Boss, what could Mr. Newbiggin want with you?” Ma Shiming, who was standing nearby, asked with some surprise.

Now that the Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co. had separated, logic dictated that if Newbiggin needed to contact someone, it should be him, the general manager and Vice Chairman of the Board of Hongkong Land. Why would he seek out the boss?

“I’m not sure either. He said he’s on his way and wants to talk to me alone. Never mind him, let’s continue our discussion,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, shaking his head.

He no longer cared about Jardine Matheson & Co., and by extension, he didn’t care about Newbiggin, the professional manager.

Just then, the phone in Ma Shiming’s office rang.

Ma Shiming picked up the telephone receiver. “This is the Hongkong Land Group.”

After a moment, Ma Shiming handed the receiver to Lin Haoran and said, “Boss, it’s a call from Mr. Cui. He says he has something to tell you.”

Lin Haoran took the receiver and asked with a smile, “General Manager Cui, what can I do for you?”

“Boss, I just received an internal tip. Half an hour ago, Jardine Matheson & Co. concluded a board meeting. During the meeting, Taipan Newbiggin’s position was terminated by a collective vote of all the British shareholders. The person taking over his duties is Henry Keswick’s younger brother, Simon Keswick,” Cui Zilong informed him over the phone.

“Alright, I understand. Thank you. Is there anything else?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

“That’s all!”

“Okay, I’ll hang up then.” After saying that, Lin Haoran placed the receiver back on the cradle.

He wasn’t the least bit surprised by Newbiggin’s forced departure.

Even if he hadn’t been fired now, he would have been fired later, and Simon Keswick would have still been his successor. The timing was just a bit earlier now; nothing else had changed.

Why did Newbiggin come looking for me right after being fired?

Lin Haoran found it strange.

“Newbiggin’s been fired,” Lin Haoran said to Ma Shiming beside him, unable to figure it out.

“Boss, you don’t think he’s trying to join the Hongkong Land Group, do you?” Ma Shiming immediately thought of a possibility.

After all, Newbiggin was only in his early forties. At this age, he was in the prime of his professional career. He surely wouldn’t be content to retire just like that.

Chapter 389: An Immense Humiliation!

Given that Newbiggin’s loyalty had previously dropped from a respectable sixty-something to the forties, and then further down to the thirties, Lin Haoran had no need for such a person to be in charge of an enterprise, no matter how capable or talented he was.

After all, he couldn’t trust someone like that!

Ma Shiming, on the other hand, now had a loyalty score of 88. Naturally, Lin Haoran trusted him completely.

Why would he trust a capable but disloyal man over a subordinate who was both capable and loyal?

Only a fool would do something like that.

“Mr. Newbiggin is certainly capable. In my opinion, the responsibility for Jardine Matheson & Co. losing Kowloon Wharf, Hongkong Land Group, and so on, cannot be placed entirely on his shoulders. Wasn’t it all caused by the British-funded conglomerate holding too few shares? As a professional manager, his hands were tied. The fact that he could devise a strategy like the Jardine-Land mutual control is enough to demonstrate his ability. His talent is sufficient to support a corporate giant. When I was at Jardine Matheson, I learned a great deal about management from him. If he’s willing, I would consider making him my deputy!” Ma Shiming said with a smile.

“Knowing Newbiggin’s personality, if you made him your deputy, I suspect he’d think you were insulting him. How could he possibly agree? If he did, I’d be willing to give him a chance!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

Low loyalty wasn’t a huge issue. Newbiggin was indeed talented, and with Ma Shiming keeping an eye on him, he wouldn’t be able to cause any trouble.

However, from what Lin Haoran knew of him, he felt it was impossible for Newbiggin to agree.

“That’s true. Based on my years of knowing him, he is indeed that kind of person!” Ma Shiming fully agreed with Lin Haoran’s assessment.

As they were talking, the front desk on the ground floor called, announcing that a Mr. Newbiggin was downstairs.

Lin Haoran told them not to stop him and just let him come up on his own.

After all, Newbiggin had previously served concurrently at Hongkong Land Group and was far more familiar with the place than even Lin Haoran or Ma Shiming.

Before long, Newbiggin reached the 51st floor and arrived at the general manager’s office.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Ma, good day to you,” Newbiggin said, greeting Lin Haoran and Ma Shiming with a rare display of politeness.

“Mr. Newbiggin, please, have a seat. What can I do for you?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, I’d like to talk to you alone. Mr. Ma, would you mind stepping out for a moment?” Newbiggin requested.

“I don’t think that’s necessary. Mr. Ma is a very important partner of mine now. There shouldn’t be anything that needs to be kept from him,” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

“It’s alright, Boss. I’ll head out first. You two can talk. I was just about to go to the real estate department anyway. Mr. Newbiggin, I won’t disturb you.”

Ma Shiming smiled, stood up, and waved to them before walking out of the office. He even thoughtfully closed the door, leaving Lin Haoran and Newbiggin alone inside.

“Mr. Newbiggin, whatever it is, you can say it now, can’t you?” Lin Haoran said again.

Now that he was no longer the boss of Jardine Matheson & Co. and Newbiggin was no longer an employee of a company under him, he could no longer see Newbiggin’s loyalty score.

If Newbiggin’s loyalty had been higher and remained stable when Lin Haoran first took control of Jardine Matheson, he might have had some interest in a talent like him.

However, Newbiggin’s loyalty had plummeted time and again, and Lin Haoran had long since lost interest in him.

“Mr. Lin.” Newbiggin took a deep breath as if steeling himself for a decision. “I’ve come to see you today because I know that the future for Jardine Matheson & Co. is likely no longer optimistic.”

Lin Haoran raised an eyebrow slightly, waiting for him to continue.

“To be frank with you, I no longer hold the position of Taipan at Jardine Matheson. The successor is Henry Keswick’s younger brother. I believe that without me at the helm, Jardine Matheson will inevitably begin to decline!” Newbiggin’s tone was tinged with a trace of bitterness.

“You’re no longer with Jardine Matheson, Mr. Newbiggin? I understand how you feel, but the business world is a place where the winner takes all. The shareholders of Jardine Matheson will naturally choose the leader they deem most suitable,” Lin Haoran replied, feigning surprise as if he had no prior knowledge of the matter.

Newbiggin nodded, seemingly unsurprised by Lin Haoran’s response. “Yes, I understand. But I’m not here today to complain or seek sympathy. I’m here because I realize that Hongkong Land Group, which you’ve secured, has a brighter future than Jardine Matheson. Your vision and courage have earned my deepest admiration.”

“You flatter me, Mr. Newbiggin. I was merely lucky. Both Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land are well-known, excellent companies,” Lin Haoran replied calmly.

“Mr. Lin, what I want to say is that I am willing to join Hongkong Land Group and contribute my talents. You should know that with my experience and ability, I can help Hongkong Land achieve internationalization more quickly and develop even further,” Newbiggin finally revealed his purpose, looking at Lin Haoran with expectant eyes.

Lin Haoran was silent for a moment. He hadn’t expected Ma Shiming’s prediction about the reason for Newbiggin’s visit to be so accurate.

The man had been fired from Jardine Matheson and, without a second thought, had run straight to Hongkong Land to seek a new position.

He did appreciate Newbiggin’s ability; after all, anyone who could serve as Taipan of Jardine Matheson was no simple character. But as Ma Shiming had said, Newbiggin’s personality and ambition could be a double-edged sword.

Moreover, his low loyalty score destined that Lin Haoran could never place him in a position of great importance.

“Mr. Newbiggin, your skills and experience are indeed impressive. But as you know, Hongkong Land Group is not currently short of personnel, especially senior management. Besides, building harmony and trust within a team takes time,” Lin Haoran said tactfully.

“Mr. Lin, I believe there would be no obstacles if I were to take over the management of Hongkong Land Group. Most of the current senior management were promoted with my personal approval.

“Furthermore, I was in charge of Hongkong Land Group for a long time, five years in fact. I am more familiar with the group’s operations and situation than Mr. Ma. Therefore, I believe I am more suited to be the leader of Hongkong Land Group than Mr. Ma Shiming.

“If you are willing to trust me, Mr. Lin, and give me a chance, I will do everything in my power to build a more glorious Commercial Empire for you and take Hongkong Land’s strength and reputation to new heights!” Newbiggin, however, did not give up, his reply this time more direct.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but scoff inwardly. “It’s precisely because I know many of Hongkong Land’s senior executives were promoted by you that I’m having Ma Shiming gradually replace them with more trustworthy people. And you’re using that as a bargaining chip to persuade me? How could I possibly agree?”

On the surface, however, Lin Haoran remained polite and courteous. “I’m very sorry, Mr. Newbiggin, but after this period of contact and consideration, I personally believe Mr. Ma Shiming’s talents are equally outstanding.

“Moreover, we have already signed a formal contract, and barring special circumstances, his position will not be easily changed. Of course, I also hold your exceptional talents in high regard, Mr. Newbiggin.

“If you are willing, I could consider making you Mr. Ma Shiming’s capable assistant to jointly help manage Hongkong Land Group. I wonder what Mr. Newbiggin thinks of that?”

At this, Newbiggin’s expression changed instantly.

Ma Shiming had once been his a trusted and capable subordinate, someone he had personally promoted, which was how Ma Shiming had the opportunity to rise through the ranks to the senior management of Jardine Matheson & Co.

And now, he was being asked to serve under Ma Shiming, the very man he had once promoted, as a deputy?

To him, this was simply an immense humiliation!

Newbiggin’s face clouded over as he seemed to be desperately suppressing his inner rage and bitterness.

He was silent for a moment before finally speaking, his voice carrying a barely concealed chill. “Mr. Lin, I’m afraid I cannot accept your proposal. I was the Taipan of Jardine Matheson for five years, overseeing countless major business decisions.

“To now be asked to serve under someone else, to become a deputy, is not only an insult but also a negation of all my past efforts.”

Lin Haoran already knew he would not agree, but he thought nothing of it. He had little interest in Newbiggin to begin with.

“Mr. Newbiggin, your abilities and experience are undoubtedly very valuable. But as I said before, building harmony and trust in a team takes time.

“Since you have no interest in being Mr. Ma’s deputy, let me make another suggestion. If you’re willing, I can offer you a consulting or advisory position. That way, you can continue to apply your expertise without disrupting the existing management team. What do you think?” Lin Haoran continued with a smile.

“I’m sorry, I’m not very interested in that. Since we cannot reach an agreement, I will take my leave. Mr. Lin, I still hope you will consider this seriously. With my in-depth understanding of Hongkong Land Group and its subsidiaries, I am confident I can manage it exceptionally well.”

Newbiggin stood up as he spoke, a complex mix of unwillingness and frustration in his eyes.

He straightened his suit jacket, preparing to leave. But as he turned, he seemed to remember something, pausing to add, “Mr. Lin, I am not being arrogant. I just hope you understand that the success of an enterprise often requires a leader with vision and decisiveness. I believe I am the person Hongkong Land Group needs.”

It was obvious that he was unwilling to accept his failure to achieve his goal on this visit.

Lin Haoran smiled and shook his head, feeling no ripples in his heart.

He called out to Newbiggin’s retreating back, “Take care, Mr. Newbiggin. I won’t see you out. I still have some matters to attend to.”

Chapter 390: Acquire a Bank?

Not long after Newbiggin left the office, Ma Shiming returned.

“Mr. Ma, you were right. He was coming after Hongkong Land Group. He thinks he’s a better manager than you and wants to take your place!” Lin Haoran said to Ma Shiming with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Ma Shiming showed no immediate indignation or displeasure toward Newbiggin. Instead, he responded in a calm and confident tone, “Boss, in your personal opinion, whose abilities are superior—mine or Mr. Newbiggin’s?”

Lin Haoran was momentarily taken aback, then the corners of his mouth lifted into an appreciative smile.

He said with a laugh, “Mr. Ma, the very reason I traveled all the way from Hong Kong to Singapore to personally invite you to join Hongkong Land Group was because I already had a deep understanding and full appreciation of you, and that includes a high recognition of your talents.

“That recognition is in itself the best proof of your capabilities. Therefore, when Mr. Newbiggin proposed his idea, I rejected him without a moment’s hesitation.

“In my eyes, no matter how outstanding or talented Mr. Newbiggin may be, he can’t compare to you in many respects. More importantly, I have greater faith in your character and your way of doing things, and I believe you can create a brighter future for Hongkong Land Group.

“As for Mr. Newbiggin, while he served as the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. and Hongkong Land Group for many years, and Hongkong Land certainly made progress thanks to the rising real estate market, other property companies were also booming. Jardine Matheson & Co., on the other hand, I’ve observed has only been going downhill!”

The boss’s words were filled with trust and praise for Ma Shiming, making him feel his important position within Hongkong Land Group.

Lin Haoran noticed that after he finished speaking, Ma Shiming’s loyalty rose directly from 88 to 90.

Perhaps being trusted by his boss had moved him.

In any case, a rise in loyalty was ultimately a good thing.

Lin Haoran’s mood instantly brightened.

Newbiggin’s visit hadn’t been a complete waste after all; at the very least, it had somewhat strengthened Ma Shiming’s loyalty to him.

As for Newbiggin’s final plea for him to reconsider, Lin Haoran just smirked. There was absolutely no need for any consideration.

As far as he knew, after leaving Jardine Matheson & Co., Newbiggin quickly faded from the public eye and lost his once-prominent name in the business world.

“Boss, over the past month, I’ve tried putting some of our projects on the market, and the response has been quite good. We found buyers very quickly. The largest buyers are financial groups from Southeast Asia. As outside forces, it’s not easy for them to acquire prime projects.

“And our Hongkong Land Group, as a former British-owned company, received a certain degree of favor from the government, so we have many good projects in hand. Therefore, once we put the word out about our projects, they often sell in less than a week.

“As of now, we have successfully sold four joint-venture projects and one independently developed project. Most of these were planned or had their land acquired one or two years ago. Selling them at current market prices is not only easy, but we’ve also made a hefty profit.

“For example, that plot of land east of Quarry Bay—our company initially acquired it at auction for 170 million Hong Kong dollars. Including the investments over the past two years, the total cost came to only about 210 million Hong Kong dollars. Now, we’ve successfully sold it for 400 million Hong Kong dollars to the renowned Su financial group from Southeast Asia, for a net profit of 190 million Hong Kong dollars.

“In total, from these five projects, we’ve recouped 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars!” Ma Shiming shifted the topic to report on other progress, no longer mentioning Newbiggin.

This was why Hongkong Land Group’s cash flow could now reach as high as five billion Hong Kong dollars.

Although some money was spent during the handover from Jardine Matheson & Co., it was a trivial amount.

Previously, Hongkong Land Group had over seventy real estate projects under development!

This showed just how vast the assets held by Hongkong Land Group were.

After a screening process, Lin Haoran had decided to keep about thirty of these projects.

These were unsuitable for sale. For example, Lin Haoran kept all the projects related to Hongkong Land Group’s “Ten-Year Grand Plan.”

These projects were all located in Central, or places like Causeway Bay, Wan Chai, and Sheung Wan. Selling them now would be equivalent to terminating the massive “Ten-Year Grand Plan,” a foolish move he would certainly not make.

Therefore, he had basically kept all the projects in Central.

The remaining forty-plus projects, involving over thirty joint ventures and nearly ten independent developments, were all slated to be sold off as quickly as possible.

And now, according to Ma Shiming, five of them had already been sold.

Previously, Lin Haoran had instructed Ma Shiming to sell off all the projects in less-than-core locations and those developed in partnership with undesirable companies.

In particular, the dozen or so projects co-developed with the Carrian Group had to be sold.

Otherwise, when the Carrian Group crashed in two or three years, wouldn’t Hongkong Land Group be left holding the bag like a sucker?

It now seemed that Ma Shiming was carrying out his orders with great diligence.

Most importantly, Ma Shiming, like him, also felt that with the Hong Kong real estate industry’s reckless growth, problems were bound to arise soon.

Selling now might seem like a loss, because Hong Kong’s real estate industry would continue to rise over the next few decades.

But Lin Haoran knew very well that after a little over a year, the Hong Kong property market would crash, and countless real estate companies would go bankrupt.

At that time, it would be child’s play for him to have Hongkong Land Group acquire properties at relatively low prices.

It was already December, and Hong Kong’s property prices had nearly reached their peak before the bubble burst. At most, they would rise slightly more before topping out early next year.

So, he wasn’t greedy. He couldn’t insist on selling at the absolute peak. The projects involved were too large, and being too greedy might trigger the real estate crisis to erupt prematurely.

On the contrary, right now, because there were no signs of the crisis, selling these projects wouldn’t have too great an impact on the Hong Kong real estate industry.

“By the way, what’s the market value of the remaining thirty-plus real estate projects that are to be sold?” Lin Haoran asked.

“I had the group’s Finance Department run the numbers. Including the five projects already sold, the total value is about six billion Hong Kong dollars. Since our more valuable projects are mostly near Central and aren’t for sale, the locations of the ones we’re selling are a bit inferior compared to commercial districts like Central. So, their average value is generally around one hundred to two hundred million Hong Kong dollars per project,” Ma Shiming reported.

Lin Haoran calculated in his head, “Six billion, and Hongkong Land Group has already sold 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars’ worth. That means we can still bring in another 4.8 billion Hong Kong dollars.”

Excellent. In that case, once everything was sold, wouldn’t Hongkong Land Group be holding ten billion in cash?

However, Hongkong Land Group currently had 4.8 billion Hong Kong dollars in debt. Although these funds didn’t need to be repaid in the short term, they would certainly have to be paid back eventually.

Therefore, this 4.8 billion in debt had to be subtracted from the nearly ten billion in cash.

That still left nearly five billion Hong Kong dollars available for use.

However, of that five billion, 3.3 billion was money Lin Haoran would need to repay Citibank in a year. So, when factored in, the available funds weren’t that substantial.

In addition, the nearly thirty projects still under development also required capital.

Fortunately, the land for these projects had mostly been purchased, the bulk of the cost had been paid, and a considerable amount had already been invested. While the remaining funds required were still large, with Hongkong Land Group’s current capabilities after reducing its burdens, this level of investment was now an effortless matter.

And one shouldn’t forget that as Hong Kong’s biggest landlord, Hongkong Land Group’s property portfolio was its greatest strength. Even if the group stopped developing new real estate projects, a massive amount of funds would still flow into the company’s accounts each year from rent collection.

Furthermore, Dairy Farm International, a subsidiary of Hongkong Land Group, was an enterprise whose profits were no less than those of Hongkong Land itself. As the 100% controlling parent company, Hongkong Land Group could easily mobilize funds from Dairy Farm International.

All things considered, Lin Haoran suddenly realized that both Hongkong Land Group and Dairy Farm International held an enormous amount of cash.

This cash was currently held in several banks that Jardine Matheson & Co. had previously invested in.

But now, Hongkong Land Group was no longer a subsidiary of Jardine Matheson & Co. Keeping the funds in these banks was clearly a waste!

Moreover, it wasn’t just Hongkong Land Group and its subsidiaries. The other companies Lin Haoran now controlled, such as Hongkong Electric Group and Wanqing Group, also generated massive financial transactions and held large cash reserves.

Leaving these funds in other major banks, even if safe, was highly inefficient!

In the past, Hongkong Land Group would invest any surplus cash, and it also carried a lot of debt. Plus, Jardine Matheson & Co. was itself involved in the financial industry, so this was never a concern.

But things were different now. Not only had Hongkong Land Group completely separated from Jardine Matheson & Co., but it also held a huge amount of cash. To handle this situation as before was clearly inappropriate.

At least a company like Hongkong Electric Group had started financial services, offering loans to the public and earning a good profit.

Should Hongkong Land Group also set up an investment company to use its idle cash for overseas investments?

He wasn’t interested in loan interest, but he could invest in the stock market!

“Mr. Ma, Hongkong Land Group is temporarily withdrawing from the real estate industry, and our cash holdings are growing. What do you think about us setting up an investment company to manage these funds?” Lin Haoran looked at Ma Shiming and asked.

“Boss, I think that since you’re now considered one of the wealthiest men in all of Hong Kong, and the group companies you control are all behemoths in Hong Kong, I suggest you go all the way and just acquire a bank!” Ma Shiming said with a smile.

Chapter 391: Spreading Rumors

Acquiring a bank—he had never really considered it before.

The main reason was that he was accumulating wealth too quickly!

So quickly that he hadn’t had time to consider much else. After securing one sum of money, he would immediately start thinking about which company to acquire next.

Now, it seemed he really ought to control a bank that was completely his own.

Most importantly, owning his own bank would make capital circulation much more convenient.

In his previous life, the main reason Li Jiacheng never acquired a bank in Hong Kong was because he had been propped up by HSBC. Under such circumstances, if he were to start a bank in Hong Kong, it would be a slap in the face to HSBC.

That was why he never acquired certain banks.

But Lin Haoran was different. He hadn’t relied on HSBC for his rise and didn’t owe them any significant debts of favor.

Besides, during the Jardine Matheson & Co. affair, HSBC had even stepped in to cause him trouble.

Therefore, there was no problem with him taking control of a bank.

“Mr. Ma, which bank do you think would be a good one for me to acquire?” Lin Haoran asked humbly.

“Boss, right now, there are over four hundred banks and finance companies in Hong Kong. Setting aside the finance companies, there are a full one hundred and eight licensed banks.

“And from what I’ve heard, the government hasn’t closed the channel for license applications yet. Those who meet the criteria can still apply. So, we can foresee that the number of bank brands in Hong Kong will only increase in the future!

“After all, I’m not a professional in the finance industry. Although I have some understanding of Hong Kong’s banking sector, I’d still suggest you gather more information, Boss, and make a decision after a careful evaluation.

“Hong Kong has many foreign banks, but not that many local ones. My recommendation is to prioritize acquiring a local Hong Kong bank. As far as I know, there are only twenty-seven local bank brands of various sizes in Hong Kong; the rest are all foreign-owned!

“As for the foreign banks, if you plan to expand in the banking industry in the future, you could consider investing through the local bank you acquire, rather than investing directly in a foreign bank.”

Ma Shiming didn’t suggest a specific target, but instead offered another piece of advice.

Lin Haoran nodded, agreeing with Ma Shiming’s suggestion.

“Mr. Ma, you make a very good point. Indeed, we need a deeper understanding of the market to make the wisest choice. However, faced with all these banks, especially with the limited number of local ones, do you have any suggestions to help me screen for targets?” Lin Haoran asked.

Ma Shiming pondered for a moment before replying, “Boss, Hong Kong’s banking industry is indeed dominated by foreign banks. There are relatively few local ones, only twenty-seven. The main ones include HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, Dah Sing Bank, Wing Lung Bank, Chiyu Banking Corporation, Nanyang Commercial Bank, and the Bank of East Asia. Since the options are limited, we should be more meticulous in our screening.

I suggest considering the following aspects: first, whether these banks have a good reputation and a stable customer base in the local market, as this affects their future development prospects;
second, examine their operational health, including asset quality, profitability, and risk management;
furthermore, we need to understand the shareholders’ ownership percentages and whether they are willing to sell. This is crucial for a successful acquisition.

Of course, these are just my preliminary thoughts. The specifics will require your further investigation and evaluation. I hope these suggestions are helpful to you.”

Lin Haoran nodded. Although Ma Shiming wasn’t a banking expert, his insights had indeed given Lin Haoran some excellent suggestions. In any case, Lin Haoran felt what Ma Shiming said was very reasonable.

Among these local Hong Kong banks, HSBC was out of the question. Although it was a bank born and raised in Hong Kong, it was British-owned and would never be acquired by Lin Haoran.

As for Hang Seng Bank, Hong Kong’s second-largest bank, HSBC had acquired a 51% stake during the bank run crisis of the sixties, giving it an absolute controlling stake. So, it was also nearly impossible for Lin Haoran to target Hang Seng Bank.

Therefore, his targets were narrowed down to the remaining local banks that weren’t as powerful.

Lin Haoran didn’t particularly care how strong they were.

He had no intention of becoming a banking tycoon.

Lin Haoran knew very well that in pre-handover Hong Kong, no matter how much he developed, he would be restricted by the Government House.

And that was to say nothing of post-handover Hong Kong.

What he wanted to do with the acquired bank was simple: to effectively manage the cash flow of his various subsidiaries and not let that capital sit idly in other banks.

Instead of letting other banks use his money to make investments or issue high-interest loans, he might as well use those funds to earn big money himself.

Whether it was Green Island Cement, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, Hongkong Land Group, or Dairy Farm International, they were all companies with large amounts of cash on hand.

It would be a terrible waste not to put these funds to good use.

With these thoughts in mind, Lin Haoran decided to take action.

It was already December. In about ten days, he would be heading to the United States.

Because Apple Inc.’s IPO was on December 12th.

He planned to arrive in the United States two days early.

Before leaving for the United States, Lin Haoran hoped to screen for a suitable target.

As for completing the acquisition, he wasn’t in a hurry.

Acquiring a bank was not something that could be done overnight.

“Mr. Ma, you need to continue with the sale of the property projects. The housing prices haven’t peaked yet, so now is the perfect time for us to sell off. Once the market peaks and signs of a crisis begin to appear, it will be much more difficult for us to sell.

“Not only that, but even if we do manage to sell, the price might not be to our satisfaction!” Lin Haoran re-emphasized the urgency of the real estate projects, bringing the focus back to the issue.

The current market situation was extremely favorable for them. Property prices were continuously climbing, but there were no obvious signs of a bubble yet. It was the perfect opportunity for them to cash out and exit.

“Rest assured, Boss. My thoughts are perfectly in line with yours. The development speed of Hong Kong’s real estate market has indeed gone beyond a controllable range. I predict that in one or two years at most, the property industry might face a crisis similar to the one in 1973, or possibly even more severe.

“Therefore, I will follow your instructions and continue to sell off projects in relatively average locations. However, considering that Hongkong Land Group is the largest real estate company in Hong Kong, selling off too many projects at once could indeed attract excessive market attention and cause unnecessary panic.

“So, I plan to adopt a strategy of selling in batches, for example, releasing a few projects each month. This way, we can gradually cash out while avoiding too great an impact on the market.

“This will allow us to achieve our financial goals while also maintaining the company’s market image and stability,” Ma Shiming replied with a smile, looking confident of success.

Lin Haoran nodded and, after careful consideration, offered a suggestion of his own. “True, such a large-scale sell-off will have a certain impact on the real estate market.

“To mitigate that impact and maximize our profit, I think we can have someone spread some rumors. Say that in order to acquire Hongkong Land Group, I personally incurred a massive debt, and that the group itself is also facing some financial pressure, with some debts nearing maturity that need to be repaid.

“Therefore, to raise capital, Hongkong Land Group has no choice but to put some of its prime projects up for sale. This will dispel any negative speculation arising from our large-scale sell-off and make outsiders believe it’s a normal move prompted by financial pressure.

“At the same time, this news might attract some financial groups looking for high-quality projects to come knocking. They might be willing to raise their prices due to the projects’ appeal. That way, not only can we cash out smoothly, but we can also take the opportunity to earn a larger profit. It would kill multiple birds with one stone!”

Ma Shiming’s eyes lit up after hearing this, and he expressed his strong approval of Lin Haoran’s plan. “Boss, that’s a brilliant strategy! It solves the problem of potential market fluctuations from the sell-off and also attracts more buyers and increases the selling price. It truly kills two birds with one stone!”

“However, Boss,” Ma Shiming’s tone changed as he added with a hint of concern, “this might have some adverse effects on you personally in the short term.”

Lin Haoran smiled faintly and said nonchalantly, “Mr. Ma, business is like a battlefield. Sometimes, for the greater good, small personal sacrifices are unavoidable.

“These rumors might put some temporary pressure on me, but as long as we can successfully sell off some of the less desirable projects, bring greater benefits to the company, and ensure Hongkong Land Group has ample funds, then the sacrifice is worth it.

“Besides, I believe time will be the best proof. Once this storm passes and the market stabilizes, everyone will naturally see Hongkong Land Group’s stability and strength. By then, these rumors will naturally dissipate, and I will personally gain more respect and recognition because of it.”

Never mind him; even the renowned Pao Yue-kong, the World Shipping Magnate who commanded the winds and clouds of the business world, had paid a great price to take over Kowloon Wharf. To this day, he was still recuperating, halting expansion, and adjusting his strategy.

In comparison, what would it matter if Lin Haoran, a young man who had been active in the business world for less than three years, encountered some financial difficulties after successfully acquiring Hongkong Land Group?

It was an unavoidable challenge on the path of growth. Once the rumors spread, no one would think the news was fake. They would be certain that Lin Haoran had run into financial pressure!

Therefore, Lin Haoran didn’t care at all about the impact these rumors would have on him once they spread.

“That’s true. My thinking was too shallow,” Ma Shiming said with a nod.

The two then continued to discuss various matters concerning Hongkong Land Group’s work in depth. Although Lin Haoran was young, with the vast knowledge and insight he had accumulated from online platforms in his previous life, he could often quickly grasp the essence of a problem and offer precise and unique advice.

Whenever Lin Haoran put forward a viewpoint or suggestion, Ma Shiming would listen with great interest, nodding frequently. He was deeply impressed that his young boss was not only sharp-minded but also had unique insights, always able to find the best solution in the complex business environment.

“Boss, you are truly young and promising, with extraordinary insight!” Ma Shiming exclaimed with sincere admiration. “No wonder you’ve been able to build such a magnificent enterprise at such a young age. I truly prostrate myself in admiration.”

The current Hongkong Land Group was simply enormous.

After inheriting most of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s assets in Hong Kong, Hongkong Land Group’s strength had undoubtedly grown by a great deal. Although it hadn’t doubled, which would be terrifying, its strength had increased several-fold.

Consequently, Ma Shiming’s workload was also immense.

Chapter 392: Would You Like to Change Office Buildings?

After leaving the Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran and his bodyguards went to the Changye Building in Wan Chai, the headquarters of the Oriental Press Group.

When he arrived at the 7th-floor office, Cui Zilong happened to have just returned from outside as well.

“Boss, you were looking for me?” Cui Zilong asked curiously after he and Lin Haoran sat down.

Cui Zilong knew very well that his boss rarely came here unless there was an important job he needed him to do.

“Yes, you’re just in time. I have a few tasks to assign to you,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

“Boss, please give me your instructions.”

“First, I need you to gather a detailed file on Hong Kong’s local bank brands as soon as possible. I need extremely detailed information, including but not limited to market reputation, asset quality, profitability, risk control, shareholder information, shareholding ratios, debts, and so on.

“Second, I want you to spread a rumor for me. The content should be that I, Lin Haoran, have taken on massive debt to acquire the Hongkong Land Group. I’ve borrowed two billion from HSBC, three billion from Citibank, and other unknown amounts.

“At the same time, Hongkong Land Group, as a property company, is also heavily in debt and facing a cash crunch, with some debts nearing maturity that need urgent repayment. To ease the debt pressure, I am forced to consider selling off some of Hongkong Land Group’s property projects.

“I want this rumor to be known throughout all of Hong Kong, but absolutely no one can trace it back to you. I imagine that won’t be too difficult for you, right?” Lin Haoran said with a faint smile.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Cui Zilong was utterly astonished.

Investigating Hong Kong’s local banks was one thing, but being asked to spread rumors detrimental to his own boss was something he couldn’t quite comprehend. After all, prominent social figures usually treasured their reputation.

Cui Zilong hesitated for a moment before deciding to voice his question: “Boss, I understand your intention might be for a strategic purpose, but isn’t Hongkong Land Group already being privatized? This means that even with this, the stock price can’t be affected. For a group that’s no longer publicly traded, wouldn’t the impact of such a rumor be limited?”

Cui Zilong couldn’t figure out what good could possibly come from tarnishing his own name.

Wouldn’t this let all of Hong Kong know that Lin Haoran was now caught in a serious financial crisis?

Once this rumor spread, the magnitude of its impact was easy to imagine.

Many people would likely think that Lin Haoran clearly lacked the strength to privatize the Hongkong Land Group but had insisted on a hostile takeover, ultimately leading to a strained capital chain.

Such public opinion would undoubtedly cause great damage to Lin Haoran’s business reputation and could even affect his future collaborations and development in the business world.

For instance, if he needed to take out another loan from a bank, the bank would assess this matter, conclude that lending to the boss would be a huge risk, and ultimately refuse the loan.

“Just go ahead and do it. I have my own reasons for this, you don’t need to worry!” Lin Haoran knew Cui Zilong had his best interests at heart, but he didn’t explain further.

Right now, he had no financial pressure whatsoever. Not even a little.

Forget financial pressure; after the privatization of the Hongkong Land Group was complete, the amount of capital he could deploy would be enormous.

But no one else knew that. Moreover, a simple investigation would easily reveal that Lin Haoran was indeed saddled with terrifying debts.

If he didn’t mention the loans from HSBC and Citibank, under normal circumstances, no one would know he had borrowed that money.

It was just like Chen Songqing of the Carrian Group, whose capital relied entirely on bank loans, yet to this day, no one knew. Everyone still thought his money came from a powerful financial group, with a big shot watching his back.

This was because loan agreements had confidentiality clauses. As long as the loan was being repaid normally, neither the bank nor the finance company would proactively disclose such matters.

But now, with Lin Haoran secretly leaking the information himself, it would be much simpler for them to investigate.

Lin Haoran had indeed borrowed two billion from HSBC and another three billion from Citibank. In everyone’s eyes, it was entirely possible that there were even more hidden loans that couldn’t be investigated.

“Alright, then I have no choice but to follow your orders. Rest assured, Boss, I will use black market channels to spread this news. No one will know that you or I were the ones who spread it!” Cui Zilong said solemnly.

“Good, then I can rest easy. Get both of these things done as soon as possible. Oh, and to lighten your load, you don’t need to investigate HSBC and Hang Seng Bank. I’m heading to the United States around the tenth of the month. I hope you can have both of these tasks completed nicely before I go!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The reason Lin Haoran wanted the bank information sorted out before his trip to the United States was so that his subordinates could begin making moves on the selected banks while he was away.

“Understood. Boss, please have a seat. I’ll make arrangements for the investigation into the banks. Spreading the rumor isn’t urgent and it won’t be difficult for me. I guarantee that within two days, all of Hong Kong will know about this!” After speaking, Cui Zilong went to his desk and began making a phone call, evidently instructing the relevant personnel to start the investigation.

Back when the Ma family controlled the Oriental Press Group, Cui Zilong was already in charge of intelligence. Therefore, he naturally had various channels, including black market ones, and could conceal his identity. Spreading a rumor was indeed not a difficult task for him.

Lin Haoran sat in the corner of the office, sipping tea while waiting for Cui Zilong.

About ten minutes later, Cui Zilong finally finished his call.

“Boss, I’ve already instructed the relevant personnel to begin the investigation. However, the bank information you require needs to be very detailed, so collecting it will take some time. I will do my best to get it done before you leave for the United States!” Cui Zilong said as he returned to Lin Haoran and sat down.

“Mm, I’m confident you can do it. By the way, General Manager Cui, would you like to change office buildings? Move the company to Central?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Right now, if there was one thing Lin Haoran didn’t lack, it was property. Hongkong Land Group alone owned numerous commercial buildings, all located in Hong Kong’s most prime business districts.

Although the location of the Changye Building wasn’t bad, and the Oriental Press Group didn’t require much office space, the surrounding streets were too narrow. Every time he came, Lin Haoran felt the environment was too chaotic. Furthermore, due to the narrow streets and towering buildings, it seemed dim even in broad daylight.

This was why Lin Haoran rarely felt like visiting the Changye Building unless it was necessary.

Cui Zilong was slightly taken aback, then he smiled and shook his head. “Boss, thank you for your kind offer. But I think the Changye Building is quite good. The transportation is reasonably convenient, and our people are used to the environment here.

“Besides, moving the company to Central would definitely increase costs significantly. Our current operations are good, and we’re completely self-sufficient, so there’s no need to incur unnecessary expenses.”

“I know the Oriental Press Group may not compare to your other large, listed companies in terms of profitability, but to me, as long as the company can develop steadily without being a burden to you, Boss, that’s already excellent.

“After all, our Oriental Daily News holds a significant position in Hong Kong’s media industry. Being able to provide you with public opinion support and intelligence gathering is also part of our value, isn’t it?”

Although the Oriental Press Group was wholly owned by Lin Haoran as a private enterprise, its finances were independent.

Among the many famous Hong Kong companies under Lin Haoran, the Oriental Press Group was perhaps the least profitable.

However, the Oriental Daily News held an irreplaceable position in Lin Haoran’s heart.

As the top-selling newspaper in Hong Kong’s media world, it not only provided Lin Haoran with powerful public opinion support but was also an important window for him to gather intelligence and perceive market trends.

Whenever Lin Haoran needed to understand the latest developments in a certain industry or assess the risks of an investment, the Oriental Daily News could always provide him with timely and accurate information.

More importantly, the Universal Security Consulting Company, a subsidiary of the Oriental Press Group, had now become a solid line of defense in Lin Haoran’s business empire.

This company was responsible for ensuring the security of all of Lin Haoran’s enterprises, providing comprehensive, gap-free security for everything from daily operations to major events.

Therefore, although the Oriental Press Group was not outstanding in terms of profitability, Lin Haoran had always regarded it as a very important enterprise.

He understood very well that for the long-term development of an enterprise, the value of an influential newspaper and a professional security team far exceeded short-term economic benefits.

If Cui Zilong had seriously considered moving, Lin Haoran was fully capable of providing a sufficiently spacious office for the Oriental Press Group in the Connaught Centre or another commercial building in Central.

After all, for the Hongkong Land Group, the spatial resources of the 51-story Connaught Centre were more than enough.

Moreover, Hongkong Land Group also owned numerous commercial buildings in Central, such as Alexandra House, Prince’s Building, Gloucester Building, and so on. Most of the office floors were leased out, with very few being used by the company itself.

Lin Haoran nodded. Since Cui Zilong was unwilling to move, he wouldn’t insist. After all, Cui Zilong was the one in charge of the Oriental Press Group, not him.

Currently, the Oriental Press Group’s operational status was indeed excellent.

He had previously reviewed the company’s financial reports and found that the Oriental Daily News consistently generated a stable profit of two to three million Hong Kong dollars per month.

Chapter 393: “Deep in Financial Crisis” Spreads Throughout Hong Kong

Besides, Lin Haoran was confident that as the bodyguard business gradually expanded and improved, it would become completely self-sufficient without any problem.

He was very satisfied with the current state of its operations.

He had originally thought he might need to inject capital into the company over the long term, but now it seemed that wouldn’t be necessary at all.

After a brief chat with Cui Zilong in the office, Lin Haoran bid him farewell and left.

Cui Zilong immediately set to work preparing to spread the rumors through black market channels.

It was still early. If he spread the rumors now, the media outlets would be the first to receive the news. That way, barring any surprises, tomorrow’s newspapers would be filled with all sorts of speculation flying around.

Hong Kong was only so big; it truly wasn’t difficult to have a rumor spread across the entire city in a very short time.

Once these rumors were circulating in the market, even if the Hongkong Land Group sold off dozens of properties, it wouldn’t cause too great of a shock to Hong Kong’s real estate market.

More importantly, this would help the Hongkong Land Group smoothly sell off the properties Lin Haoran was not optimistic about, allowing them to quickly recoup funds and completely shed the burden of debt.

He didn’t want the Hongkong Land situation to trigger a premature property crisis in Hong Kong’s real estate industry.

In the blink of an eye, a day passed.

The next morning, Lin Haoran awoke from his slumber.

These past few days, a cold snap from Siberia had moved south again, so even in Hong Kong, the temperature had dropped to a low of six or seven degrees Celsius.

With the heating on in the bedroom, Lin Haoran didn’t feel cold.

After washing up and changing into some thicker clothes, Lin Haoran went downstairs, ready to read the newspaper while eating breakfast.

Lin Haoran sat before the floor-to-ceiling windows of the dining room, holding a copy of the Hong Kong Commercial Daily. The headline was precisely the rumor he had asked Cui Zilong to spread yesterday.

The paper, with a striking headline and a detailed report, described how he had taken on massive debt to acquire the Hongkong Land Group. It even listed the specific amounts he had borrowed from HSBC and Citibank, citing information obtained from relevant bank employees.

Next, Lin Haoran picked up the Oriental Daily News. The paper took an objective and impartial stance, thoroughly analyzing the rumor, listing in detail the various speculations in the market, and timely reminding readers to maintain rational thinking until there was official confirmation.

The article concluded by cleverly touching upon the issue of privatizing Hongkong Land Group, subtly suggesting that this rumor could influence the group’s future direction.

This was clearly a deliberate move by Cui Zilong. After all, everyone knew the Oriental Daily News was wholly owned by Lin Haoran. To the public, this reporting style seemed like an attempt to cover up the truth, but it came across as a case of protesting too much.

In contrast, Ming Pao was more aggressive, directly quoting an “insider” who claimed that Lin Haoran had taken a huge risk to acquire the Hongkong Land Group, borrowing heavily, and was now mired in financial difficulties.

The article also interspersed a review of Lin Haoran’s past business decisions, suggesting that his acquisition of so many large enterprises in just over two years was almost certainly achieved through leverage, and attempted to find clues of his aggressive strategies in his history.

The Hong Kong Economic Journal, on the other hand, took a different approach. It focused on analyzing the potential impact of the rumor on Hong Kong’s property market, pointing out that if the rumor were true, would a large-scale asset sale by the Hongkong Land Group have too great an effect on the market?

At the same time, the paper also interviewed several economists, who offered multi-faceted interpretations of Hongkong Land Group’s privatization and Lin Haoran’s personal financial situation.

Putting down the newspapers, Lin Haoran was very satisfied with the rumor Cui Zilong had started.

He hadn’t expected that after just one day, these newspapers would begin reporting on such a large scale, just as he had envisioned.

Under these circumstances, it went without saying that everyone in Hong Kong would know about this by today.

Just as Lin Haoran had thought, in the streets, alleys, and skyscrapers of Hong Kong, citizens were heatedly discussing the matter.

In addition to the reports from these mainstream newspapers, the rumors on the street were even more varied and colorful.

Some said Lin Haoran had already secretly met with executives from several banks to seek emergency loans.

Others claimed that HSBC and Citibank had already begun risk assessments on Lin Haoran’s loans and were preparing to take appropriate measures.

Some went even further, fabricating “first-hand information” that Lin Haoran had admitted at a private dinner that his capital chain was tight and he was forced to consider selling personal assets.

For a time, the rumor that Lin Haoran’s capital chain was in danger of breaking spread like wildfire through Hong Kong. The news that Lin Haoran was “deep in a financial crisis” quickly became the hottest topic in the city.

In the Lin family villa on Severn Road, a faint smile played on Lin Haoran’s lips as he browsed through the newspapers.

He knew that while it was hard to distinguish fact from fiction in these reports and rumors, they were enough to cause a huge stir in all circles of Hong Kong society.

Just as he was enjoying a generously filled portion of seafood and egg stone-ground rice noodle rolls, the phone in the first-floor study began to ring.

The phone numbers on the first and third floors were the same, so he could answer calls promptly whether he was on the first floor or the third.

It was only around eight in the morning, so anyone looking for him would know he should still be at home at this time. It wasn’t strange for them to call his home to find him.

Lin Haoran put down the half-eaten rice noodle rolls, wiped his mouth with a napkin, then stood up from the dining table and strode into the study.

“Hello, this is Lin Haoran.”

“Haoran, are you really in some kind of financial trouble? How about I sell all the property I’m holding? Their value has gone up a lot these two years, at least doubling or tripling. It should help you raise tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars. I knew I shouldn’t have let you do business so aggressively. Maybe then you could have avoided this kind of predicament…” On the other end of the line was Lin Wan’an’s anxious voice, pouring out the moment the call connected.

Lin Haoran could even hear his mother’s worried voice next to where Lin Wan’an was speaking.

Like Lin Haoran, Lin Wan’an had a habit of reading the newspapers first thing every morning.

Therefore, Lin Wan’an had seen all the reports about Lin Haoran this morning. As a father, he was naturally frantic with worry.

Lin Haoran’s constant acquisitions over the past two years had long surpassed Lin Wan’an’s imagination, which made him, as a father, begin to believe the reports in the newspapers.

Lin Haoran didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but he was also quite touched. His father, Lin Wan’an, truly cared for him.

Two years ago, after dividing the family assets between the two brothers, Lin Haoran and Lin Haoning, Lin Wan’an had kept only a small portion of the property for himself, including the villa in Deep Water Bay and a few commercial and residential properties.

At the time, they were worth at most seven or eight million Hong Kong dollars.

Now, almost two years later, the value of these properties had nearly tripled.

So Lin Wan’an could indeed scrape together twenty or thirty million Hong Kong dollars.

“Don’t worry, Dad. Don’t believe those rumors. Just think about it, even if I were really in financial trouble, how much could I possibly owe? Five billion? Ten billion? My shares in Hongkong Land Group alone are worth that much, not to mention Hongkong Electric Group, Wanqing Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Kowloon Motor Bus, and so on. If I sold all these companies, I could raise not just ten billion, but twenty billion. Rest assured, you and Mom just need to enjoy your later years peacefully. You don’t have to worry about me at all!” Lin Haoran said with a wry smile.

“Are you really okay? Your companies like Hongkong Electric Group and Hong Kong and China Gas Company… you didn’t take out loans to acquire all of them, did you?” Lin Wan’an said, still sounding unconvinced.

“Don’t worry, Dad, you’re overthinking things. I have absolutely no capital problems. Dad, I understand your concerns, but please believe me, I always know what I’m doing!” Lin Haoran said again.

After much persuasion, he finally managed to allay Lin Wan’an’s fears.

Not long after he hung up, the phone rang again.

This time, it was surprisingly Michael Sandberg.

“Mr. Lin, regarding the two billion you borrowed from HSBC, I assure you the leak did not come from our end. Please rest assured, I have the utmost confidence in your financial strength!” Michael Sandberg said as soon as he spoke.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, please don’t worry. Although I don’t know how this news got out, I won’t be holding you accountable. They can say what they want; it’s no loss to me,” Lin Haoran replied, feigning indifference.

“Mr. Lin, did you really borrow three billion, or even more, from Citibank?” Michael Sandberg’s tone shifted as he asked curiously.

The two billion Hong Kong dollars Lin Haoran had borrowed from HSBC were secured against his shares in Hongkong Electric Group, so Michael Sandberg had no worries about that loan.

However, even Michael Sandberg couldn’t help but be curious about Lin Haoran’s situation.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, I’m afraid I cannot answer you on matters of corporate business intelligence. Please forgive me,” Lin Haoran declined.

Although Michael Sandberg commanded a powerful intelligence network, details like how much someone borrowed from a bank were impossible for his network to uncover unless it was voluntarily disclosed.

If it could be investigated, the truth about the Carrian Group would have been exposed long ago.

Lin Haoran’s reply, however, made Michael Sandberg even more convinced that some of the reports were true.

“Mr. Lin, since you’re unwilling to say, then let’s drop it. I hope you can weather this crisis safely. If you’re looking to sell a certain company, I can help you find a suitable buyer,” Michael Sandberg replied with a smile.

After hanging up with Michael Sandberg, Lin Haoran thought it was over and prepared to leave the study.

Unexpectedly, just as he put down the telephone receiver, the phone rang again.

This time, it was Li Jiacheng.

Li Jiacheng asked if Lin Haoran was really facing financial difficulties, and if needed, he could provide some assistance. But as they talked, Lin Haoran figured out Li Jiacheng’s true purpose—he was clearly eyeing the blue-chip companies under Lin Haoran’s belt.

After hanging up on Li Jiacheng, Lin Haoran received several more calls in succession.

Chapter 394: Hongkong Land Group’s 10.7 Billion Hong Kong Dollars in Cash

Besides Li Jiacheng, Hong Kong property tycoons like Guo Desheng, Li Zhaoji, Cheng Yu-tung, and Chen Songqing also called Lin Haoran.

Their objective was to take over some of Hongkong Land Group’s high-quality real estate projects.

After all, Hongkong Land’s projects were renowned in Hong Kong for their superior quality.

Even the plots that Hongkong Land Group considered less than prime were seen as excellent, high-quality projects by many other property companies in Hong Kong.

However, Lin Haoran gave them all the same reply: go and negotiate with Ma Shiming.

Even Robert Kuok called to inquire about the specific situation and proactively asked if he needed financial support, but Lin Haoran politely declined his offer as well.

That they would call him was well within Lin Haoran’s expectations. After all, wasn’t the whole point of spreading such a rumor to get these Hong Kong property tycoons to come knocking?

The planned sale involved some thirty-odd real estate projects with a total value exceeding 4.8 billion Hong Kong dollars, which seemed like a colossal sum.

But when divided among these major players in Hong Kong’s real estate industry, it no longer seemed so large.

After spending a full hour by the phone, Lin Haoran finally emerged from his study.

The breakfast on the dining table had long been cleared away by the maids.

However, he had already eaten most of it, so he didn’t mind.

At this moment, Lin Haoran’s face was wreathed in smiles.

Cui Zilong had certainly not disappointed him. Not even twenty-four hours had passed, and the first task he had been given was already completed perfectly.

Next, if things went as expected, many reporters would surely want to interview Lin Haoran.

But this was, after all, a rumor. Saying too much could lead to mistakes, so the best course of action was to refuse all interviews.

Therefore, Lin Haoran decided to simply stay home.

For the next few days, he would remain in his villa, not going anywhere, just waiting for the banking information to be compiled so he could analyze which bank would be the most suitable for acquisition.

To relieve his boredom, Lin Haoran gave Rosamund Kwan a call, asking her to come over and keep him company for a few days.

Half an hour later, Rosamund Kwan drove up to the Lin family villa on Severn Road.

Over the next two to three days, the matter of Lin Haoran’s financial crisis escalated.

After all, Lin Haoran was now the publicly acknowledged richest man in Hong Kong.

This was no simple title.

For such a rumor to surface now struck many people as unbelievable.

Just as Lin Haoran had anticipated, several media outlets tried to arrange an interview with him through intermediaries like Ma Shiming, Chen Shoulin, and Burton, but Lin Haoran refused them all.

He had no intention of being interviewed at this time, and the same treatment was extended even to his own companies, the Oriental Daily News and TVB.

Every day, Ma Shiming would give him a detailed report on the progress of the project sales.

On the first day, Hongkong Land Group successfully sold eight real estate projects, recouping 1.768 billion Hong Kong dollars in cash.

On the second day, the results were even better. Hongkong Land Group successfully sold twelve projects, bringing in 1.997 billion Hong Kong dollars.

On the third day, the group continued its push, selling seven projects and recovering 785 million Hong Kong dollars.

On the fourth day, Hongkong Land Group reported another victory, successfully selling nine projects and bringing in another 1.05 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Even Lin Haoran hadn’t expected it. In just four days, all the targeted projects had been completely carved up by over twenty of Hong Kong’s real estate giants.

They either acquired the projects individually or teamed up with other companies to do so.

Furthermore, these property developers acted with a frenzy when faced with reasonably well-located projects. For some projects, several companies competed, and the final deals were closed at a premium.

In the end, the thirty-six property projects, originally estimated to sell for around 4.8 billion Hong Kong dollars at market value, ended up fetching a high price of 5.6 billion Hong Kong dollars—a full 800 million more than expected!

Adding the 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars from the sale of the five larger projects earlier, Hongkong Land Group’s massive sell-off before the onset of the real estate crisis had brought in a staggering 6.8 billion Hong Kong dollars after taxes!

And according to Hongkong Land’s past investment records, the total capital invested in these projects was only about 3.2 billion Hong Kong dollars.

In other words, even after accounting for the initial investment, Hongkong Land Group had made a clear profit of over three billion Hong Kong dollars!

Selling quickly, selling at a high price, and without affecting the market’s property trends—the rumor plan was a resounding success, achieving multiple objectives at once.

“Boss, about those first five projects… if only we knew, we wouldn’t have sold them so early. Those were major projects. If we had held them back to sell later, we could have gotten a premium of at least two or three hundred million Hong Kong dollars more. Your method is brilliant! I would call it the simplest yet most stunning business strategy I have seen in all my years!” Ma Shiming exclaimed while reporting to Lin Haoran.

“How much cash does the group have on its books now?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Boss, if we include this 6.8 billion Hong Kong dollars, the total comes to about 10.78 billion. However, not all the funds from the projects we sold in the past few days have been received. There’s still over two billion Hong Kong dollars that will be settled successively within a month.

“The contracts all stipulate that we can hand over the projects to them first, but the property rights for all projects will only be transferred after the funds have been paid in full!” Ma Shiming reported quickly.

10.78 billion Hong Kong dollars. Wasn’t that even higher than Hongkong Land Group’s total market capitalization before it was privatized…

Hearing this, Lin Haoran felt as if he were in a dream. If Hongkong Land were still a publicly listed company, possessing such a massive cash flow would likely have pushed its market capitalization above twenty billion Hong Kong dollars.

But now, Hongkong Land Group was already undergoing the compulsory privatization process. According to the latest update from Wardley, it was proceeding very smoothly, with large numbers of shareholders going there every day to sell their shares in the Group.

The news from Wardley indicated that in the last few days especially, the number of people proactively selling their shares had increased even more.

At present, Lin Haoran effectively held 96.8% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares, meaning that only about 3.2% of the shares remained in the hands of other shareholders.

Lin Haoran could have announced the successful privatization already, but he was in no hurry to do so.

His plan was to announce the successful privatization of Hongkong Land Group after he returned from the United States.

The sudden increase in shareholders selling their stock was also thanks to the rumor. These shareholders were afraid that Lin Haoran was truly facing a financial crisis and would do something to harm their interests in the company.

Moreover, the percentage of shares Lin Haoran now held had reached the threshold for compulsory privatization. Even if they held on to their stock, it would be useless. The future success or failure of Hongkong Land Group would have nothing to do with them anymore.

Under these circumstances, more and more of the remaining Hongkong Land shareholders naturally went to Wardley to sell their holdings.

Once the privatization was successful, this sum of over ten billion Hong Kong dollars would naturally all be Lin Haoran’s.

Although a large portion would have to go toward repaying debts, the due dates were not yet near. He could use these funds as he pleased until it was time to repay.

Indeed, the business world was a place where opportunity and risk coexisted. Their ability to seize this opportunity was largely due to their accurate judgment of the market and swift action.

“Mm, since these projects have all been cleared out and the funds are steadily coming in, Hongkong Land Group’s main task now is to speed up the construction of the remaining thirty-odd projects. We must ensure their quality!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Boss, that is exactly the situation at Hongkong Land Group right now. After selling off those forty-one projects, we currently have just over thirty remaining. These are our group’s highest priority projects, so quality control is naturally very stringent. You can rest assured, Boss!

“Several of these projects are integral to Hongkong Land’s century-long plan, so we are taking them very seriously and have increased the number of workers assigned to them. However, our construction teams are still largely underutilized.

“So, to keep these employees occupied, Hongkong Land’s subsidiary construction company is now taking on external projects on a large scale. With Hong Kong’s real estate industry being so hot right now, construction workers are in very short supply, so we aren’t worried about them having no work.

“For example, Cheung Kong Holdings’ current construction teams are insufficient, so they’ve outsourced some of the work on their projects to us. It’s the same with other property companies like Sun Hung Kai Properties, Henderson Land Development, Hsin Chong Construction, and Carrian Group. Many of their project deadlines are tight, so they are more than willing to hand over a portion of the work to our construction company.

“This has also reduced a significant burden for us. Many of these employees are highly skilled workers, and I was reluctant to lay them off in large numbers just because of a reduction in projects,” Ma Shiming reported.

Lin Haoran replied with approval, “You’ve done an excellent job. We can’t just lay off good workers like that. Even if a real estate crisis does hit Hong Kong, I believe it won’t last long. When it comes, we can take the opportunity to acquire some high-quality property projects. Then we’ll have more projects again, and our demand for labor will naturally increase.”

As he recalled, the impending property bubble in Hong Kong would only last about two years. After those two years, Hong Kong’s real estate market would recover and begin to develop at an even faster pace.

A real estate project normally took at least two to three years to complete, with some taking three, four, five, or even longer.

Therefore, a property bubble period didn’t necessarily mean that construction on projects had to stop.

After a long conversation with Ma Shiming, Lin Haoran finally hung up the phone.

10.78 billion Hong Kong dollars. Just thinking about such a huge sum of money made Lin Haoran happy.

Hongkong Land Group itself had debts of 4.8 billion Hong Kong dollars, some of which were due within a year, while others had repayment terms of two to three years.

As for his own personal debts—3.3 billion Hong Kong dollars from Citibank and 2.2 billion from HSBC—the repayment deadlines were also still a long way off.

Therefore, after the privatization was successful, this 10.78 billion Hong Kong dollars could be freely mobilized by Lin Haoran for a long time.

The funds were more than ample. At this moment, Lin Haoran was filled with a sense of security and confidence.

This money was enough to cover all his debts, with usable capital left over!

Chapter 395: The Target, Bank of East Asia!

Not long after receiving the report call from Ma Shiming, news finally arrived that day about the bank data.

On the morning of December 8th, Lin Haoran finally received a call from Cui Zilong.

“Boss, we’ve finished gathering the information on the banks. Since most of the banks involved are private rather than publicly listed, collecting the data was quite difficult. But our hard work paid off, and the information we’ve gathered is very comprehensive. It should be everything you need!” Cui Zilong reported over the phone.

“Bring the files over to the villa on Severn Road. I’ll be waiting for you at home,” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Yes, Boss. I’ll bring them over right away!” Cui Zilong said before hanging up in a hurry.

Twenty minutes later, Lin Haoran met with the hastily arrived Cui Zilong.

He was carrying a briefcase, which obviously contained the documents Lin Haoran required.

Lin Haoran led him into the study on the first floor and poured him a cup of hot tea.

“Boss, this is the information we’ve collected. It’s very detailed, and I imagine it would be difficult for you to read through it all in a short time. So, I had my team compile brief summaries of their respective strengths and weaknesses. You can just look at these summaries, decide which bank interests you, and then pull up the detailed file for that one,” Cui Zilong said as he took out a pile of documents and placed them beside Lin Haoran.

Although Cui Zilong didn’t know why his boss wanted to collect information on these banks, he knew better than to ask questions about things that didn’t concern him.

There were indeed a lot of documents—a thick stack that looked to be at least several hundred pages!

It was no wonder it had taken them four days to gather all this information.

Lin Haoran glanced through the list. In addition to Dah Sing Bank, Wing Lung Bank, Chiyu Banking Corporation, Nanyang Commercial Bank, and Bank of East Asia, which Ma Shiming had mentioned before, there were also Canton Bank, Metropolitan Bank, Chekiang First Bank, Commercial Bank of Hong Kong, Dao Heng Bank, Far East Bank, Hang Lung Bank, The Hongkong Chinese Bank, The Ka Wah Bank, Wing On Bank, and so on.

The information was indeed very comprehensive. Aside from HSBC and Hang Seng Bank, the files for a full twenty-five banks were here.

However, Lin Haoran quickly noticed something.

Even among these local Hong Kong banks, many had actually already been acquired by foreign capital.

For instance, Canton Bank was fully acquired by American Pacific Bank.

Metropolitan Bank had 92% of its shares acquired by the International Credit and Investment Group.

Chekiang First Bank had 95% of its shares acquired by the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank of Japan.

Dao Heng Bank was fully acquired by the Hong Leong Group of Malaysia.

Kwong On Bank was fully acquired by Fuji Bank of Japan.

Wing Hang Bank had 51% of its shares acquired by Irving Trust Company from the United States.

…

As he continued reading, Lin Haoran was surprised to find that after eliminating all the foreign-controlled banks, there were very few options left.

“Boss, although it’s much easier to obtain a banking license in Hong Kong now, a few years ago, the government restricted their issuance. This forced many foreign banks wanting to enter the Hong Kong market to either establish finance companies or acquire existing local banks that already held licenses. That’s why the majority of Hong Kong’s local banks have received foreign investment.” As if sensing Lin Haoran’s confusion, Cui Zilong explained from the side.

Lin Haoran sighed. He hadn’t expected the penetration of foreign capital into Hong Kong’s banking industry to be so extensive.

Moreover, acquiring a foreign-controlled bank would obviously be much more difficult.

If they were able to acquire and take control of a Hong Kong bank, their own financial strength couldn’t be insignificant.

The cost to acquire one from them would surely be substantial.

Therefore, he decided not to consider the foreign-controlled banks for the time being.

“General Manager Cui, if I wanted to acquire a local bank, which one do you think would be the most suitable?” Lin Haoran suddenly asked.

There was too much information; he couldn’t be bothered to read it all.

And since Cui Zilong had spent the last few days overseeing the data collection through his subordinates, he was bound to know a great deal.

So, he might be able to provide some useful insights.

“Boss, so you want to acquire a bank!” Cui Zilong had a moment of sudden realization. No wonder the boss had him collect all this information.

Lin Haoran nodded but didn’t say anything further.

After some careful thought, Cui Zilong slowly began his analysis for Lin Haoran: “Boss, after careful consideration, I think you could consider acquiring one of three banks: Commercial Bank of Hong Kong, Dah Sing Bank, or Bank of East Asia.

Although all three have some foreign involvement, the foreign shareholding is not very high.

Specifically, the foreign shareholders of Commercial Bank of Hong Kong are Tokai Bank of Japan and Bangkok Bank of Thailand, each holding only 10%, for a total foreign share of just 20%;

Dah Sing Bank currently has only one foreign shareholder, Britain’s Standard Chartered Bank, which holds 7.5%;

As for Bank of East Asia, it has two foreign bank shareholders: Société Générale of France and China Construction Investment (Hong Kong) Limited.

Among these three, Bank of East Asia is undoubtedly the largest. Its strength ranks in the top five among local banks, second only to HSBC and Hang Seng Bank.

However, this also means it could be the most difficult to acquire, as Bank of East Asia is currently controlled by the Li family, one of Hong Kong’s famous Four Great Families.

In comparison, acquiring Commercial Bank of Hong Kong or Dah Sing Bank would likely be easier. While they also have foreign involvement, the foreign shareholding is relatively low, and they don’t have the backing of a powerful local family.”

After listening, Lin Haoran nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over the documents Cui Zilong had provided as he weighed the options in his mind.

Choosing which bank to acquire wasn’t just about the percentage of foreign ownership and the bank’s size; he also had to consider the feasibility of the acquisition, the cost, and his future development strategy.

Among these banks, Bank of East Asia was undoubtedly the most famous. Even in Lin Haoran’s previous life, it was a very well-known bank. Decades later, its scale was impressive, with total assets approaching nearly one trillion Hong Kong dollars.

Not only that, but he had even had a Bank of East Asia bank card in his past life, so he was naturally very familiar with it.

As for the other two banks, he honestly had never heard of Commercial Bank of Hong Kong. It must have either been absorbed or gone bankrupt.

He had heard of Dah Sing Bank, but its reputation wasn’t great, and it clearly couldn’t compare to the likes of HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, or Bank of East Asia.

Lin Haoran picked up the file for Bank of East Asia and began to read.

“Huh? Bank of East Asia is already a publicly listed company?” Lin Haoran asked in surprise.

He really hadn’t paid attention to that.

“Boss, Bank of East Asia went public very early on. It’s one of Hong Kong’s few long-standing listed banks. Just two years ago, it was one of the top thirty companies on the Hong Kong stock exchange by market capitalization. Its ranking has dropped over the past two years with the surge in real estate company valuations, but even so, Bank of East Asia’s market capitalization is still firmly within the top fifty in Hong Kong, currently sitting at around two point five billion Hong Kong dollars!” Cui Zilong said with a smile.

A publicly listed company. Now Lin Haoran was getting interested.

If he weren’t unable to acquire Hang Seng Bank, that would have certainly been his choice.

But since Hang Seng Bank was off the table, choosing Bank of East Asia, which was only a small step down, wasn’t a bad alternative.

The only question was whether he could actually acquire it.

Lin Haoran turned his attention to Bank of East Asia’s shareholding structure.

The family of Li Peicai held 32.3%, making them the actual controllers of Bank of East Asia.

Société Générale held 5.99%, making it the second-largest shareholder.

And China Construction Investment (Hong Kong) Limited was the third-largest shareholder, holding 4% of the shares.

As for the remaining shareholders, their stakes were all below 2% and not worth mentioning.

The controlling family’s stake was less than 50%!

In other words, the shares held by investors on the secondary market exceeded 50%?

From this perspective, it seemed there was a real possibility of acquiring Bank of East Asia!

The only troublesome part was perhaps the obstacle of the Li family.

Bank of East Asia was founded by the Li family and had been under their control for over sixty years since its establishment.

Consequently, the Li family had always been a major powerhouse in Hong Kong, even one of the Four Great Families, holding a status comparable to the Lee family he was familiar with.

Acquiring Bank of East Asia meant he would offend the Li family.

However, after a moment of thought, Lin Haoran felt at ease.

With his current wealth, which was many times that of the Li family, why should he be afraid of offending them?

Although the Li Peicai family had always been a prestigious family in Hong Kong, his own status was now clearly higher.

Just like the Lee family, who now wanted to be on good terms with him.

What’s more, and most importantly, acquiring Bank of East Asia was just a normal business move.

Thinking of this, Lin Haoran made a preliminary decision.

However, he didn’t rush to finalize his decision. Instead, he put down the documents and chatted with Cui Zilong in the study for a while.

After all, the man had just delivered the information; it was only proper to entertain his guest.

After chatting with Cui Zilong for over half an hour, he finally bid farewell to Lin Haoran.

Once Cui Zilong had left, Lin Haoran picked up the files again and began to carefully study the information on Bank of East Asia.

If he had known so many banks were already infiltrated by foreign capital, he would have told Cui Zilong not to waste time investigating so many of them.

He would have received the data much sooner that way.

But what was done was done; there was no point dwelling on it.

It took Lin Haoran several full hours to slowly finish reading through all the information on Bank of East Asia.

After he finished, he gave the files for Dah Sing Bank and Commercial Bank of Hong Kong another quick look.

Chapter 396: Liquidating Real Estate on a Massive Scale to Recoup Funds

Having set his goal, Lin Haoran naturally needed to make arrangements before leaving for the United States.

That afternoon, after lunch at home, Lin Haoran made a trip to the Wanqing Building.

Wanqing Building, 31st floor, the Hong Kong office of Universal Investment Company.

The entire 31st floor was exceptionally quiet, devoid of its usual hustle and bustle.

When employees saw Lin Haoran, they all greeted him politely, but the moment he passed, their private discussions resumed.

This was hardly surprising, as rumors of Lin Haoran’s financial crisis had been swirling throughout the city.

As his employees, they couldn’t help but feel uneasy, secretly wondering if their boss would consider dissolving the Hong Kong team of Universal Investment Company to cut costs.

A few days earlier, Su Zhixue had already led a team to New York in the United States. At the same time, some employees had been reassigned to the securities or finance departments of companies like Hongkong Land Group and Wanqing Group.

Consequently, the number of employees in the Hong Kong office had dropped significantly, from over three hundred to fewer than seventy at present.

The Hong Kong office was gradually transitioning to a business model similar to that of Jardine Securities, focusing on providing stock trading services for market makers and well-funded investors looking to accumulate shares.

With its outstanding performance over the past two years, Universal Investment Company had indeed attracted a number of clients.

However, the company’s foundations were still relatively shallow.

In the Hong Kong market, facing long-established and powerful financial securities firms like Jardine Securities and Wardley, Universal Investment Company remained at a competitive disadvantage, despite its brilliant achievements over the past two years. It struggled to secure a large volume of business, just enough to get by but not to thrive.

Therefore, the current staff of over sixty was more than enough to handle the existing workload.

Lin Haoran wasn’t concerned about this. As his power in Hong Kong grew, he had gradually lost interest in most of the other publicly listed companies in the city. Consequently, his need for stock accumulation in Hong Kong had naturally diminished.

The fact that the company’s employees could now sustain themselves by taking on external business, without him needing to pay for their upkeep, was already an excellent outcome.

Lin Haoran had no intention of completely dissolving the Hong Kong branch of Universal Investment Company or moving it to the United States. After all, his base of operations was still in Hong Kong.

Although his need for corporate acquisitions in Hong Kong would shrink significantly in the future, it wouldn’t disappear entirely. This time, for instance, he had his sights set on a Hong Kong publicly listed company, the Bank of East Asia. To secretly acquire or even gain control of it, he would have to rely on Universal Investment Company.

He wouldn’t feel at ease entrusting such a matter to any other securities firm.

Therefore, keeping a team in Hong Kong was absolutely necessary.

In the future, as performance improved, increasing staff wouldn’t be difficult anyway.

Hong Kong was home to numerous financial securities firms and industry elites. If he ever needed talent, poaching directly from competitors like Jardine Securities was a simple and effective strategy.

“Boss, have you had lunch? If you need anything, I can have the canteen prepare some fine stir-fried dishes for you right away.” Seeing Lin Haoran’s sudden visit, Dai Shi, now the head and Deputy General Manager of Universal Investment Company in Hong Kong, felt a knot of nervousness in his stomach, but he did his best to make his tone sound natural and considerate.

Dai Shi was considered a veteran of Universal Investment Company. When Lin Haoran first started building his trading team, he had recruited Su Zhixue from Wan’an Company. Then, on Su Zhixue’s recommendation, Dai Shi became the second employee to join Universal Investment Company.

Now, this long-serving employee’s loyalty was as high as 92, which was why Lin Haoran had promoted him to Deputy General Manager of Universal Investment Company last year.

A few days ago, other veteran employees like Han Zihang, Shi Zhensheng, Qi Fen, and Zhao Lin had all followed Su Zhixue to the United States.

Dai Shi, however, had to manage the team in Hong Kong, and since his family was unwilling for him to move to the United States, he had stayed behind to become the person in charge here.

Although Su Zhixue had gone to the United States, he still held the title of general manager in Hong Kong.

One could say that the Hong Kong office was still the company’s headquarters on paper. However, because the main business was shifting to the United States, it required the general manager, Su Zhixue, to personally go and break new ground, establishing a presence there.

“No need, I’ve already eaten. What about you?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Dai Shi was a little tense in Lin Haoran’s presence. After all, his boss’s status was completely different now.

In the past, whenever Lin Haoran came by, he would go directly to Su Zhixue. As the Deputy General Manager, Dai Shi hadn’t had much contact with him.

It was already almost one o’clock.

“Boss, I just got back from the canteen,” Dai Shi replied.

Lin Haoran nodded and said, “Come, walk with me to the office. I have something to assign to you.”

The two of them walked into Lin Haoran’s private office together.

Before he took control of Hongkong Land Group, this was the place he visited most often.

Now, however, having taken control of Hongkong Land Group and successfully gained command of the Connaught Centre—once Hong Kong’s tallest building and now its second tallest—he spent much more time there and thought less of the Wanqing Building.

Lin Haoran had even considered moving Universal Investment Company’s offices to the Connaught Centre, but there was no rush. He would wait until after he had completely privatized Hongkong Land Group and made it his own private enterprise.

“Find a seat anywhere, don’t be so formal. You’re the leader of Universal Investment Company’s Hong Kong team now. A senior executive needs to carry himself like one,” Lin Haoran said with a relaxed smile, noticing Dai Shi’s slight tension.

Although Universal Investment Company handled enormous sums of money and served as a core behind-the-scenes department, its small number of employees meant that even its senior executives might not have the same mindset as those managing large corporations with thousands or tens of thousands of employees.

Top professional managers in Hong Kong, like Ma Shiming and Chen Shoulin, had long since cultivated their own unique presence.

Looking abashed, Dai Shi secretly composed himself before facing his boss again.

“Boss, please tell me what you need done,” Dai Shi asked seriously.

“As you know, I’m planning a trip to the United States. Before I leave, I need you to assemble a small team. I’ll select the members. It doesn’t need to be large, just enough to form an acquisition group.

“The team’s mission is to accumulate shares of the Bank of East Asia on the secondary market, just as we’ve done with other companies in the past. It is imperative that we keep our actions confidential and avoid pushing the bank’s stock price up too high.

“As for the specific number of shares to acquire, there’s no fixed target. Buy as many as you can. My medium-term goal is to hold more than the 32% controlled by the Li Peicai family, giving us significant control over the Bank of East Asia.

“The long-term goal is to gain full control of the Bank of East Asia, to become its absolute controlling shareholder! Zhixue isn’t in Hong Kong right now, so you need to manage the overall situation.

“Work hard. I hope you won’t disappoint me. stick with me, and you will naturally get the rewards you deserve,” Lin Haoran carefully laid out his plan for the Bank of East Asia.

For the time being, before the privatization of Hongkong Land Group was successfully announced, Lin Haoran could not yet use the group’s funds, which meant his own disposable capital was not abundant.

After the acquisition of Hongkong Land Group, Universal Investment Company had about one point two billion Hong Kong dollars on its books. However, in the process of using Universe Group to privatize Hongkong Land Group and buy back shares, the daily expenditures were in the tens of millions, or even one to two hundred million, Hong Kong dollars. The funds were being depleted quite rapidly.

Furthermore, Su Zhixue was on his way to the United States to set up Universal Investment Company’s American branch and planned to invest in some companies with promising prospects, which also required a great deal of capital.

Therefore, that one point two billion Hong Kong dollars would likely be used up soon.

However, Lin Haoran was not the least bit worried about funds now, nor did he plan to seek another loan from the banks.

Amidst the swirling rumors, just yesterday, Lin Haoran had called Burton and instructed him to sell off the land plots, properties, and commercial buildings that Wanqing Group’s subsidiaries, Wan’an Real Estate Company and Green Island Cement Company, had been hoarding.

Having them sell at this moment would only make the story of Lin Haoran’s financial crisis seem more real to the tycoons of Hong Kong, and as such, it would not have any significant impact on the real estate market.

In any case, Lin Haoran knew that property prices wouldn’t rise much further. They were already near their peak. Even by early next year, another ten percent increase would be a good result.

For the past year or two, Lin Haoran had been continuously making arrangements, having his subsidiary companies use any surplus cash to purchase plots of land or property companies. Wan’an Real Estate Company and Green Island Cement Company alone had invested over one billion Hong Kong dollars in total.

Adding in Wan’an Real Estate Company’s own assets, such as the Wan’an Building and the completed project in North Point, selling all these assets now would undoubtedly raise a substantial amount of capital.

After more than a year of growth, Hong Kong’s property prices had more than doubled compared to a year and a half ago.

Land prices were even more absurd; in some prime locations, they had more than tripled.

Now, it was time to harvest.

As long as these plots of land, properties, and commercial buildings were sold off on a massive scale, one by one, Lin Haoran would no longer be short of money.

Originally, Lin Haoran had planned to wait until early 1981 to sell, as that would be when Hong Kong’s real estate prices peaked.

However, the rumor campaign had been so successful that all of Hong Kong truly believed he was in a financial crisis.

Therefore, Lin Haoran felt that this was the most opportune moment for Wan’an Real Estate Company and Green Island Cement Company to sell all the land and commercial buildings they had previously invested in.

The property projects sold by Hongkong Land Group had all been sold to other real estate companies, so property prices had not been affected at all.

Chapter 397: The Carrian Group Again?

After hearing the boss’s instructions, Dai Shi was momentarily stunned.

Weren’t there rumors that the boss was facing a financial crisis?

Why was he still acquiring companies?

And this time, the target was the renowned Bank of East Asia!

He even wanted to gain a controlling stake in it?

Dai Shi naturally understood the meaning behind those words.

The Bank of East Asia’s current market capitalization was as high as two-point-five billion Hong Kong dollars. To gain a controlling stake would cost over one billion Hong Kong dollars at the very least!

Looking at it this way, how could the boss possibly be in a financial crisis?

Inwardly, Dai Shi couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief for his boss.

In his view, the rumor that the boss was facing a financial crisis had just debunked itself.

After all, if he were truly in financial straits, how could he have the luxury of acquiring such a famous publicly listed company in Hong Kong?

“Boss, you can rest assured. I will give it my all to complete this mission perfectly!” Dai Shi said, his face beaming as he made a solemn promise.

“Good. Remember, this must be kept strictly confidential. Not a single word can leak out. Otherwise, I will not be lenient, and you will bear the consequences!” Lin Haoran instructed with a grave expression.

He knew very well that as the Li family’s enterprise, the Bank of East Asia would not be given up easily by Li Peicai’s family.

If even the slightest hint of this plan got out, any of Lin Haoran’s designs on the Bank of East Asia would come to nothing!

Therefore, he could only secretly increase his shareholding through the secondary market. The day his equity surpassed the Li family’s would be the day he no longer had to fear their desperate resistance.

After all, in terms of wealth, there was a significant gap between the Li family’s assets and Lin Haoran’s fortune.

Lin Haoran’s choice of the Bank of East Asia was the result of careful consideration.

He believed that if he was going to acquire a bank, he should choose one that was large, well-established, and had a long history.

While smaller banks were easier to control, perhaps costing only a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars to acquire, such a casual purchase held little meaning for him and couldn’t meet the operational needs of his vast capital.

In short, a small bank couldn’t handle the flow and growth of his enormous funds.

Afterward, Lin Haoran discussed a few more details about the acquisition of the Bank of East Asia with Dai Shi.

“Go and gather everyone in ideologies. I’m going to hold a brief meeting, and I’ll also select a small team for you. This team will operate independently from now on to carry out the covert acquisition of the Bank of East Asia!” After chatting for over ten minutes, Lin Haoran finally said to Dai Shi.

“Yes, Boss. I’ll go and gather the employees right now!” Dai Shi said and hurriedly left Lin Haoran’s office.

Not long after, Dai Shi returned to Lin Haoran’s office to report that all the employees were waiting for him in ideologies.

“Let’s go, we’ll head over together!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, patting Dai Shi’s shoulder.

Soon, the two arrived at a large employee conference room, where more than sixty employees were seated and waiting.

The employees were whispering amongst themselves, and some even had worried expressions.

They were afraid that the boss had called them together to announce layoffs.

The compensation at Universal Investment Company was considered very good compared to other securities investment firms in Hong Kong, so most people were unwilling to leave after joining.

Over the past two years, the employees had earned a substantial amount of money.

The employee conference room was different from the executive one; there was no round conference table. The room itself was quite large, so it could easily accommodate over sixty people.

Lin Haoran stood on the dais, with Dai Shi by his side.

Seeing the worried looks on the employees below, Lin Haoran smiled. He naturally knew why they were concerned.

This could be considered one of the effects of that rumor.

And at this moment, everyone’s loyalty was clear at a glance.

Not a single person had a loyalty score below 70.

Universal Investment Company had strict requirements when hiring employees; Lin Haoran would not hire anyone with a loyalty score below 70.

After all, besides individual ability, confidentiality was of the utmost importance for the work Universal Investment Company did, which required a very high degree of loyalty.

Of the sixty-plus people, more than half had loyalty scores between 70 and 79.

About twenty or so had scores between 80 and 89.

Those with loyalty scores over 90 were few and far between. Lin Haoran could see at a glance that among the sixty-plus people present, only four had loyalty scores above 90.

In that instant, he had already selected the trading team for the Bank of East Asia.

After secretly memorizing the list, Lin Haoran collected his thoughts and looked at everyone present.

“Everyone, I’ve called you all here, but it’s not for any particularly urgent matter. I understand you might be feeling a bit uneasy, worried that I might take measures like layoffs to cut costs.

“Here, I want to state clearly to all of you: as long as you are loyal to the company, diligently perform your duties, and contribute to the company, I guarantee there will be no layoffs.

“Even if there are rumors outside that I’ve run into financial trouble, I’m still more than capable of taking care of every member of our team. Just think, I control the Hongkong Land Group, the Hongkong Electric Group, and the Wanqing Group, companies with thousands of employees. I’ve never once mentioned layoffs there, let alone here, where there are only a few dozen of us.

“So, please put your minds at ease, focus on your work, and don’t worry too much!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, looking at everyone in the room as he gave his assurance.

Lin Haoran’s words instantly made the sixty-plus employees in the room breathe a collective, silent sigh of relief.

Immediately, enthusiastic applause erupted in ideologies. This was the employees’ gratitude toward their boss, thanking him for protecting them even in adversity and not treating them as sacrifices.

After offering some words of encouragement to the employees, Lin Haoran had them return to their posts.

“Dai Shi, come to my office in a bit,” Lin Haoran said to Dai Shi before leaving ideologies.

Dai Shi nodded and followed Lin Haoran straight back to the office.

“I have a list of members for the Bank of East Asia project team. Yan Sheng, Ke Zibin, Yan Guolong, and Zhu Jiarui. You will covertly assemble them into a team and must lead them in maintaining the strictest confidentiality,” Lin Haoran said from his executive chair, naming the four people whose loyalty scores he had just seen were over 90.

Dai Shi now looked surprised. He said, “Boss, these employees have always performed well in the company and are very proactive in their work. How did you notice them?”

“Before Zhixue left for the United States, he spoke to me about the company’s employees. I have a rather strong impression of these names!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He couldn’t possibly say that he could see their loyalty scores, so he just came up with a plausible reason.

“Yes, Boss. I’ll private speak with the four of them later. I’ll arrange a separate office for them to work in, and starting tomorrow, we’ll begin our moves on the Bank of East Asia!” Dai Shi replied solemnly.

It was clear that Dai Shi was also very satisfied with these four individuals.

After all, the boss had said that if the matter were to be leaked, his responsibility would be immense.

Now that he was satisfied with the list the boss had selected, he naturally had fewer worries.

“Keep up the good work. I hope to receive good news when I return from the United States!” Lin Haoran encouraged with a smile.

“I will, Boss. I definitely won’t let you down!”

“Alright, get to it. I’m leaving now. You make the arrangements!” Lin Haoran patted Dai Shi’s shoulder and bid him farewell.

After leaving the 31st floor, Lin Haoran didn’t leave the Wanqing Building directly. Instead, he took the elevator to the 29th floor, to Burton’s office.

Along the way, employees greeted Lin Haoran proactively when they saw him, but like the staff at Universal Investment Company, they all wore a hint of worry, afraid that the boss’s financial crisis would affect their jobs, leading to things like delayed salaries or even layoffs.

These were all normal human reactions, and as long as it didn’t affect their work, Lin Haoran had no intention of refuting the rumors.

Because if he did, wouldn’t his subsequent sale of properties affect Hong Kong’s real estate prices?

If Lin Haoran, without any financial crisis, were to sell off properties on a large scale, it would surely cause widespread panic among the citizens of Hong Kong, thereby impacting property prices.

Therefore, he couldn’t do such a thing.

The rumor was intentionally spread by him, so there was naturally no need to deny it.

Arriving at the door to Burton’s office, he could see Burton on the phone through the glass window.

Lin Haoran opened the office door directly and walked in.

Seeing his boss arrive, Burton quickly stood up.

Lin Haoran waved his hand, signaling him to finish his call first.

Two minutes later, Burton finally hung up the phone.

“Boss, after I spread the news about selling the properties, I just received a call from Mr. Chen Songqing, the Chairman of the Carrian Group. He wishes to purchase the International Building in Central, but hopes we can offer a better price!” Burton reported directly.

“The Carrian Group again?” Lin Haoran thought to himself in surprise.

The Carrian Group was truly wealthy. They had spent over a billion to acquire his shares in the Amigo Company previously.

And now, they wanted to buy the International Building.

“What’s his offer?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

He had discussed this with Burton yesterday. The listed price for the International Building was one-point-two billion Hong Kong dollars, which was slightly higher than the market value.

“Boss, the Carrian Group offered nine hundred million Hong Kong dollars, but I estimate their real target price is around one billion Hong Kong dollars. They’re deliberately lowballing to create room for negotiation!” Burton replied.

“I see. The minimum is one billion Hong Kong dollars. We’re not selling for anything less!” Lin Haoran said with a grin.

“Don’t worry, Boss. I’ll do my best to negotiate a higher price,” Burton replied.

“Right, for the deal with the Carrian Group, the full payment must be received before we transfer the property rights. No installments!” Lin Haoran suddenly added.

Chapter 398: Every Man for Himself

The last time he made a fortune of several billion Hong Kong dollars from gold futures in the United States, Lin Haoran bought quite a few properties upon his return.

Among them were the International Building and the Federation Building, purchased during that period. Securing these two towers ultimately cost Lin Haoran one billion Hong Kong dollars.

The Federation Building, now the Wanqing Building, was one Lin Haoran did not intend to sell.

The International Building, however, was far inferior to the Wanqing Building due to its location, the building itself, and other factors. It was not as important and could definitely be put up for sale.

Back then, he had only spent one billion Hong Kong dollars to buy both towers from Wheelock and Company.

Now, less than a year later, he was selling the worse of the two while keeping the better one, and he could still get one billion Hong Kong dollars, or even more.

This was equivalent to getting the Wanqing Building for free. He had truly made a fortune!

Investing during a property bubble’s growth phase was indeed exhilarating. As long as you could sell off your investments before the crisis hit, it was like picking up money off the ground.

In two years, when property prices hit rock bottom, he could have his companies, such as Wanqing Group and Hongkong Land Group, begin a massive acquisition of commercial buildings and plots of land in areas like Central, Causeway Bay, Wan Chai, and Tsim Sha Tsui.

Most importantly, this time, Hongkong Land Group had put up projects worth a total of 6.8 billion Hong Kong dollars for sale to over twenty real estate companies in Hong Kong. These even included major players like Cheung Kong Holdings Group, Far East Group, Hang Lung Properties, Kiu Kwong Property, Carrian Group, and Hopewell Holdings.

This move depleted a significant amount of the liquid capital available to these real estate tycoons. When the real estate crisis erupted, everyone’s cash reserves would be even lower.

Hongkong Land Group had drained a full 6.8 billion Hong Kong dollars from these companies. Now, with Lin Haoran having Green Island Cement and Wan’an Real Estate Company sell their land and commercial buildings, another three billion-plus Hong Kong dollars would be drained. In total, Lin Haoran would have consumed ten billion Hong Kong dollars of these developers’ cash.

When the property bubble burst, not only would these real estate companies lack reserves, but they would also be dragged down by the money they had spent in the interim, increasing their debt. In that case, wouldn’t the properties put up for sale in Hong Kong be ripe for the picking by Lin Haoran’s companies?

Therefore, selling off a portion of his projects at high prices now was not a problem at all. In fact, it was another strategy to bog down these real estate developers.

Every man for himself. Lin Haoran wasn’t about to worry whether Hong Kong’s real estate companies would face a financial crisis because of this.

After all, these transactions were all entered into willingly by both parties.

Even if he couldn’t buy back some of the sold plots and commercial buildings, acquiring other properties in the same locations at lower prices would serve the same purpose.

Of course, there were assets Lin Haoran would absolutely never sell, like Connaught Centre, Prince’s Building, Alexandra House, The Landmark, Gloucester Building, and Wanqing Building.

Once sold, these would not be easy to get back.

Take the Prince’s Building, for instance. Pao Yue-kong had coveted it in the past. The headquarters of the World-Wide Shipping Group was in the Prince’s Building, and even Pao Yue-kong’s personal reception room was located there.

During Pao Yue-kong’s takeover battle with Jardine Matheson & Co. for Kowloon Wharf, Jardine Matheson had once proposed swapping property for the Kowloon Wharf shares Pao held.

At the time, Pao Yue-kong suggested that Jardine Matheson trade properties like the Prince’s Building. This demonstrated just how much he fancied the Prince’s Building.

However, Jardine Matheson rejected the offer at the time. The Prince’s Building, like Connaught Centre, Alexandra House, and The Landmark, was critically important to Hongkong Land Group’s future layout, so the group could not possibly part with it.

Now that Lin Haoran had acquired Hongkong Land Group, he too had no intention of selling these prime commercial properties in Hong Kong.

Once sold, there was a high probability he would never get them back.

Even if he could, the cost would be extremely high. In that case, why sell them at all?

The International Building was a different story. It was not as important. Even though its location was decent, it was considered quite ordinary in Central. It was better to convert it to cash.

With any luck, he might even be able to buy it back at a very low price in two years!

Right now, he needed capital. It was better to sell what needed to be sold.

Currently, the annual rent from the International Building was only a few million Hong Kong dollars, not even reaching ten million in two years. He had no interest in such short-term rental income; he would much rather sell it for over one billion Hong Kong dollars in available funds.

The purpose of buying these lands and commercial buildings in the first place was to sell them when property prices peaked, not for long-term holding or self-development. Now was the perfect time.

In the president’s office of Wanqing Group, Burton frowned for a moment after hearing Lin Haoran’s words, then his expression relaxed.

Although he did not understand why the boss insisted on full payment to close the deal with Carrian Group, Burton didn’t ask further. He simply nodded and replied, “Alright, Boss. If we do reach a deal with Carrian Group, I will set this as a precondition for the transaction!”

“Yes. And not just for this deal. In the future, Wanqing Group should also avoid collaborating on projects with Carrian Group as much as possible!” Lin Haoran added.

“Boss, do you seem to have some issue with this Carrian Group?” Burton asked, his curiosity piqued.

“I’ve looked into Carrian Group’s background and found that the source of their funds is always problematic. It’s too mysterious, which makes me very suspicious. I believe collaborating with them on projects would carry significant risks. So, to reduce our risk, we should avoid working with them if we can,” Lin Haoran said. Although he didn’t state the real reason outright, he had indirectly expressed his sentiments.

“Understood, Boss. But rest assured, besides the real estate projects Wan’an Real Estate Company is co-developing with your other enterprises like Hongkong Electric Group, Green Island Cement Company, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, and Kowloon Motor Bus, we have no collaborations with any other outside real estate companies!” Burton said with a smile, a look of sudden realization on his face.

“Good, that’s for the best. For the next two years, Wan’an Real Estate Company should avoid blind expansion in Hong Kong. Just focus on steady and solid development,” Lin Haoran said, satisfied with Burton’s decision.

“The main focus for Wanqing Group now is actually on internationalization, especially for Green Island Cement Company. In just two years, we’ve essentially entered the markets in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. In some of these markets, our market share is among the top. Throughout Southeast Asia, the cement produced by our Green Island Cement Company is already a well-known brand. But Southeast Asia is far from our ultimate goal. I hope to expand Green Island Cement Company’s market to South Asia, Australia, and even to Europe and the United States!” Burton continued.

Burton’s ambition was immense; it was clear from the look in his eyes.

Lin Haoran had no objections to this. He wasn’t afraid of ambition, only of a lack of ability.

Burton’s performance over the past two years clearly showed he was not lacking in ability; he was an exceptionally talented professional manager, exactly the kind of person Lin Haoran needed.

Although Burton was Australian and not a local Hong Kong Chinese, Lin Haoran didn’t care whether his top lieutenants were Chinese. As long as they could work hard for him, make big money for him, manage his companies well, and were loyal to him, they were the people he needed!

“By the way, how much capital does Wanqing Group have on its books right now?” Lin Haoran suddenly asked.

“I checked the financial report a few days ago. The group has about 740 million Hong Kong dollars in available funds. Green Island Cement Company accounts for the largest share, with nearly 600 million Hong Kong dollars.

Kowloon Motor Bus has around 100 million Hong Kong dollars.

As for Wan’an Group, most of its funds have been used for land acquisition and project development, so its current available capital is less than 50 million Hong Kong dollars. Boss, do you need to use these funds? If so, we can allocate a portion.” Burton asked, thinking Lin Haoran wanted to use the money.

It had been two years since Lin Haoran acquired Green Island Cement Company, but he had never taken any money from it, not even after last year’s financial surplus was calculated.

At that time, Lin Haoran had acquired a large sum of money from the United States, so he naturally looked down on the small amount of funds Green Island Cement Company had.

He had also not drawn on the funds of companies like Hongkong Electric Group or the Local Press Company, leaving them for their own development, market expansion, and investment purposes.

“Don’t touch those funds for now. Just transfer the proceeds from the sale of the land and commercial properties into Universal Investment Company’s account. As for Wanqing Group’s funds, leave them for the time being. They can be used for any reasonable group-related purposes. I know you also need to invest in the early stages of opening up new markets.

Once the financial reports are out early next year, we’ll see how much available capital the group has and discuss how to allocate it then,” Lin Haoran said after a moment of thought, shaking his head.

Of the over seven hundred million Hong Kong dollars, the only sum that could really be moved was Green Island Cement Company’s nearly six hundred million.

As for Kowloon Motor Bus, since Wanqing Group only held a 49.9% stake and the company remained publicly listed, not having been privatized by Lin Haoran, he couldn’t arbitrarily use its funds for other purposes, unless it was through dividends.

He was even less interested in the few tens of millions held by Wan’an Real Estate Company.

Therefore, he would not touch these several hundred million Hong Kong dollars for now.

After all, once the funds from the property sales arrived, his short-term capital needs would be met.

Chapter 399: A Sudden Kiss, Off to New York!

This batch of commercial buildings and land plots, with a market valuation exceeding three billion Hong Kong dollars, included the International Building that the Carrian Group wanted to purchase, which alone was worth a staggering one billion. And that wasn’t even counting the Wan’an Building, the new building in North Point, and others, whose combined market value was already over two billion.

Adding to that were the plots of land, most of which had already doubled or tripled in value. The proceeds from their sale would undoubtedly be substantial, enough to sustain him for a very long time.

Lin Haoran didn’t have to think hard to understand why the Carrian Group wanted to buy the International Building; he knew exactly what Chen Songqing was planning.

It was nothing more than a scheme to use the acquisition of the International Building to publicize the Carrian Group’s strength, then stage a fake resale. They would announce that they had sold it for a price much higher than their purchase price, thereby pushing up the Carrian Group’s stock price once again to reap even greater profits.

For instance, in January of this year, the Hongkong Land Group had sold the Golden Gate Tower to the Carrian Group for 715 million Hong Kong dollars.

It was precisely this transaction that rapidly turned the Carrian Group into a major real estate company in Hong Kong. Even The Asian Wall Street Journal commented: “This deal has propelled Carrian to the forefront of Hong Kong’s real estate industry, representing the largest-scale entry of Southeast Asian capital into the property market!”

After this deal, the Carrian Group’s influence in Hong Kong grew significantly. Even the Hongkong Land Group put aside its pride to collaborate with them on several projects, making Carrian one of its key real estate partners.

Then, a few months later, the Carrian Group announced that it had sold the building to the Baining Shun Group for 1.68 billion Hong Kong dollars. Of course, no one ever denied whether this transaction was real or fake, not even the Baining Shun Group itself, so everyone assumed the deal had genuinely been completed.

Once the news broke, shareholders swarmed in, and the Carrian Group’s market capitalization soared from 500 million Hong Kong dollars to 3.6 billion Hong Kong dollars, an increase of more than sevenfold.

Following that, the Carrian Group acquired the Amigo Company and now wanted to acquire the International Building. It was obvious that they were repeating their previous moves to expand the Carrian Group’s influence and push its market capitalization even higher!

However, none of this had anything to do with Lin Haoran. As long as the Carrian Group paid up, he would sell. What did he care about their true intentions for buying it?

Once the deal was done, it was out of his hands.

“Yes, Boss. I’ll arrange it. Detailed sales information for the land plots and commercial buildings owned by the Green Island Cement Company and Wan’an Real Estate Company has already been circulated through the proper channels. As soon as the information about the land went out, we received calls from numerous real estate companies making inquiries. We won’t have any trouble selling them.

“Rest assured, our negotiation team will strive for the highest possible price for every property we sell. Each time a sale is finalized, I will have the finance department transfer the proceeds to the Universal Investment Company’s account!”

Burton understood that his boss was short on cash lately. He was already very surprised that Lin Haoran hadn’t touched the group’s funds under such circumstances. Naturally, the Wanqing Group had no reason to hold on to the money from the sale of the land and commercial buildings.

Over the past few years, the Government House would periodically auction off government land, and the bidding was always fiercely competitive. So, selling off land plots was indeed not difficult.

Lin Haoran nodded. He had great trust in Burton.

If nothing else, Burton’s loyalty rating of 92 was enough to put Lin Haoran at ease.

Although some of these Westerner professional managers were greedy for power, they were indeed devoted to their companies.

After chatting with Burton for a while, Lin Haoran bid him farewell. He then made a trip to the Hongkong Electric Group to delegate some work to Chen Shoulin. After all, Lin Haoran didn’t know how long he would be in the United States this time.

It wasn’t until evening that he said goodbye to Chen Shoulin.

If Wan’an Real Estate Company and Green Island Cement Company managed to sell off all the properties they had hoarded, it would raise at least over three billion Hong Kong dollars for him.

Although the Wan’an Group had taken out a 1.3 billion Hong Kong dollar loan from HSBC, using the Wan’an Building as collateral, to hoard land back then.

But in the face of several billion Hong Kong dollars, that 1.3 billion was truly insignificant. Once everything was sold, he could repay it with ease.

He believed that the land and properties from Wan’an Real Estate Company and Green Island Cement would be sold off one by one in a short amount of time. And with that, he would no longer be short on funds.

Checking the time, it was already December 8th. The date of Apple Inc.’s IPO was drawing closer and closer.

Now that everything in Hong Kong was arranged, it was time to head to the United States.

The journey from Hong Kong to New York, spanning a distance of more than fourteen thousand kilometers, had no direct flights. It required a transfer, meaning the trip would take a full twenty-plus hours.

And once he got there, he would need to set aside some time to rest.

Therefore, Lin Haoran decided to depart for the United States tomorrow, at noon on December 9th.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he should arrive in New York on the evening of December 10th. Due to the time difference, Hong Kong was a full thirteen hours ahead of New York.

Not long after he returned home, Lin Haoran heard the sound of a car pulling up outside.

To his surprise, the visitor was Guo Xiaohan.

And this time, Guo Henian hadn’t come with her; she had come all by herself.

Leading Guo Xiaohan into the first-floor living room and having her sit on the sofa, Lin Haoran went to instruct the kitchen to make a couple of extra dishes for dinner before returning.

“Xiaohan, what brings you here?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Brother Haoran, I heard from my uncle that you’re planning to go to the United States. Is that true?” Guo Xiaohan turned to look at Lin Haoran and asked.

Lin Haoran nodded. He had indeed mentioned it to Guo Henian when he had called to ask if he needed any financial help.

“Brother Haoran, are you really not having any financial problems? If you are, our Guo family can offer some help!” Guo Xiaohan asked again.

The rumors outside were so vivid that even seasoned business tycoons believed Lin Haoran was truly facing a financial crisis, let alone Guo Xiaohan. With her limited experience in society, she naturally couldn’t see what the tycoons couldn’t either.

“Don’t worry, Xiaohan. You don’t need to worry about this. I can handle it!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Lin Haoran was already very surprised that she hadn’t chosen to distance herself from him despite suspecting he was in a financial crisis.

So, he was actually a little touched.

The Guo family had treated him incredibly well; they were truly kind and loyal.

He remembered the two-year agreement he had made with Guo Xiaohan. If her feelings hadn’t changed by the time it was up, he wouldn’t mind marrying her then.

In two years, he would be twenty-eight, an age when he should be getting married.

Besides, having built such a vast enterprise, he would need heirs to inherit it. The more, the better.

Guo Xiaohan had actually come tonight for two reasons.

One was to see if Lin Haoran needed help. The other was that Lin Haoran was leaving for the United States, and she didn’t know when he would be back, so she was reluctant to see him go.

In Hong Kong, even if they didn’t see each other every day, she could see him whenever she wanted.

But it would be different once Lin Haoran was in the United States.

That evening, Guo Xiaohan had dinner with Lin Haoran.

After dinner, Guo Xiaohan reluctantly said her goodbyes.

“Brother Haoran, I’m heading back now. I wish you a safe and smooth journey to the United States. When you get there, you must give me a call to let me know you’ve arrived safely!” Lin Haoran said as he walked Guo Xiaohan to her private car.

“Okay. Drive carefully on your way back, be safe!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“I will!” Guo Xiaohan replied, then opened the driver’s side door.

However, just as she was about to step into the car, she abruptly pulled her foot back and turned to face Lin Haoran again.

Lin Haoran thought she had something else to say, but to his surprise, Guo Xiaohan stepped forward, hugged him tightly, and then gently pressed her lips to his.

After a moment of surprise, Lin Haoran not only didn’t push her away, but instead responded to the kiss with great enjoyment.

Guo Xiaohan’s kiss was very inexperienced, and she was mostly led by Lin Haoran, quickly getting lost in the sweetness of the moment.

It wasn’t until Guo Xiaohan was almost out of breath that she reluctantly pushed Lin Haoran away. Her face flushed red, she turned away, not daring to look him in the eye, and hastily got into the driver’s seat. She started the car quickly, as if staying a second longer would make it even harder to part.

Watching her go, Lin Haoran’s lips curved into a smile. This girl… he thought with an amused chuckle.

He turned and instructed Li Weidong, “Drive behind her. Don’t come back until you’re sure she’s home safely!”

“Yes, Boss!” Li Weidong acknowledged before quickly getting into a nearby Volkswagen and speeding off after her.

In the blink of an eye, it was December 9th.

Today was the day Lin Haoran was departing for New York.

Last night, he had called Jobs to inform him that he would arrive in New York before the IPO.

Jobs had replied that their executive team had already completed their roadshow, traveling from California in the west to the east, and had arrived in New York a week ago. They were now in New York making final preparations for the IPO.

Jobs had even offered to bring the Apple Inc. executive team to greet Lin Haoran at the airport.

However, Lin Haoran had declined the offer.

Su Zhixue had already been in the United States for a week. A week was plenty of time for him to have settled in.

It was better to have a trusted subordinate handle the airport pickup.

At eleven in the morning, a disguised Lin Haoran, along with two bodyguards, set out. The other thirteen shadow guards, also disguised as ordinary passengers, would be traveling with them.

Lin Haoran didn’t inform many people about his trip to the United States; only his top lieutenants, his parents, and Guo Henian knew.

After smoothly boarding the plane to New York, Lin Haoran closed his eyes to rest.

At ten-thirty on the evening of December 10th, the plane landed smoothly at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Chapter 400: Wouldn’t Mind Becoming a Hotel Magnate

After stepping off the plane, Lin Haoran instinctively tightened the clothes on his body.

For this trip to New York, Lin Haoran had specifically prepared cotton-padded jackets for his bodyguards, which now came in handy.

The temperature in New York was significantly lower than in Hong Kong. He heard it had even snowed heavily here a couple of days ago.

In contrast, the daytime temperature in Hong Kong could easily reach over twenty degrees Celsius.

As long as it wasn’t raining and didn’t have that damp chill, winter in Hong Kong was actually quite pleasant.

Walking out of the airport’s arrivals hall, Lin Haoran quickly spotted Su Zhixue among the crowd of people waiting, holding a sign with Chinese characters.

He then led the dozen or so people with him toward Su Zhixue.

“Boss, I’ve arranged for a company driver with a minibus. You’ll be staying at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel near Times Square tonight,” Su Zhixue greeted Lin Haoran first, then reported the arrangements.

“Mm, okay. Thank you for your hard work,” Lin Haoran nodded lightly, not particularly concerned about whether the transportation was luxurious.

After all, with more than a dozen bodyguards accompanying him, traveling by private car would likely be inconvenient, especially since these 13 shadow guards didn’t speak any English. This operation in the United States was essentially a shift from covert to overt.

They were each dressed in extremely ordinary cotton-padded jackets, without any uniform bodyguard attire, making it difficult for outsiders to recognize their status. People would only assume they were a group of employees on a market research trip.

The reason for arranging Lin Haoran’s stay at a hotel near Times Square was also very simple: the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, where Apple Inc. was about to go public, was located in Times Square.

Furthermore, the entire office floor that Lin Haoran had purchased in New York was also situated near Times Square and now served as the headquarters for the Universal Investment Company’s United States branch company.

After a minibus ride of over half an hour, Lin Haoran and his group arrived at their destination—the underground parking garage of a towering skyscraper.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, where they were to stay, was located within this skyscraper, occupying more than twenty full floors.

Lin Haoran was staying in a luxurious presidential suite. The suite had three bedrooms, which was perfect for Li Weidong and Li Weiguo to each occupy a guest room, while Lin Haoran stayed in the master bedroom with its own private bathroom.

The other 13 bodyguards were housed in rooms on the same floor.

In truth, the security measures within the hotel were quite stringent, so Lin Haoran didn’t need to be overly concerned about his safety here.

After washing up, Lin Haoran found he couldn’t sleep.

He had already slept a fair bit on the plane, and after landing, he hadn’t yet adjusted to the time difference.

Through the room’s glass window, he could see most of the Manhattan nightscape.

However, it was already past eleven o’clock at night, and most of the lights had been extinguished, so the view wasn’t particularly enchanting.

Below the building, the street was illuminated by streetlights, making it as bright as day.

A number of homeless people were scattered about the streets, wandering around and occasionally casting scrutinizing glances at lone pedestrians.

In the distance, a couple could be faintly seen being chased by several burly men, who only reluctantly stopped their pursuit when the siren of a patrol car suddenly wailed.

Sitting in a hanging basket chair on the master bedroom’s small balcony, Lin Haoran swayed gently, his gaze piercing the night as he observed the nocturnal life of the city’s ordinary citizens.

Chaotic and unsafe—these two words became his most profound impression of New York.

During the day, when the city bustled with people, New York presented the face of a prosperous international metropolis, and he didn’t see such situations.

But whenever night fell and the streets grew sparse with pedestrians, those with ill intentions would begin to emerge.

No wonder on his last visit, after he gave a tip, the driver had kindly reminded him to go out as little as possible at night…

The bedroom was heated, which felt very comfortable compared to the sub-zero temperatures outside.

The facilities and service at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel were truly outstanding, befitting its status as one of the world’s top luxury hotel brands.

However, Lin Haoran believed that Hongkong Land Group’s own Mandarin Hotel and The Oriental Hotel were in no way inferior to the Ritz-Carlton in these aspects.

It was just a pity that these two hotels had not yet established branches in New York; otherwise, he might not have chosen to stay at the Ritz-Carlton.

Lin Haoran fell into deep thought.

In the future, as his international business continued to expand, business trips would become a regular occurrence.

When it came to traveling for business, staying at one of his own hotels was undoubtedly the better choice, both from a security and a privacy standpoint.

He recalled that in another world, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel would also become one of the world’s most elite hotels, a leader among luxury hotel brands.

However, its influence could not ultimately compare to giants like the Hilton Hotel Group, Marriott International Group, InterContinental Hotels Group, or Wyndham Hotel Group. Even compared to the Shangri-La Hotel Group, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel was slightly less prominent.

If Lin Haoran hadn’t once worked in Shenzhen, he might not have even known that such an internationally renowned luxury hotel brand existed.

This wasn’t due to any shortcomings in its service or facilities, but because of its relatively small scale.

Even four decades later, the number of Mandarin Oriental hotels worldwide was only around forty.

In comparison, Hilton had over five thousand hotels!

Marriott also had more than three thousand branches.

Even the relatively niche Shangri-La Hotel had opened over one hundred locations globally!

For this reason, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel’s global recognition was relatively low, mainly due to its scarcity.

Lin Haoran was well aware of the reason behind this. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel had clearly positioned itself in the high-end luxury market and was not in a hurry to pursue large-scale, rapid expansion.

Instead, it focused on providing guests with unparalleled service and a one-of-a-kind accommodation experience.

This boutique operational strategy led the Mandarin Oriental Hotel to prioritize quality of service and attention to detail over simply increasing the number of hotels.

However, now that both the Mandarin Hotel and The Oriental Hotel were part of Lin Haoran’s corporate empire, he was unimpressed with the Mandarin Oriental Hotel’s future development strategy.

The reason was simple: Lin Haoran felt that the most efficient and powerful way to generate profit was by leveraging the power of a brand.

Just like the two hotel magnates, Hilton and Marriott, they had numerous sub-brands under their umbrellas, actively opened up to franchising, and adopted an asset-light business model.

Under this model, although the initial investment seemed relatively low, they were able to secure their position as the world’s most profitable hotels by virtue of their powerful brand influence and extensive network.

As the new owner of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Lin Haoran did not intend for the hotel to continue down its old path of being merely a top-tier, niche luxury brand.

Such a position was too niche to generate substantial profits.

He certainly didn’t want to let a fortune slip through his fingers.

Sitting in the hanging basket, Lin Haoran sank into contemplation.

A thought flashed through his mind: “Perhaps, I could also develop the Mandarin Oriental Hotel into a global hotel giant, similar to Marriott or Hilton.

I shouldn’t just secure a place in the luxury hotel sector; I should also establish a presence across multiple brand tiers, including deluxe, high-end, standard, and economy hotels.

If I were to separate the Mandarin Oriental Hotel into a brand new hotel group and model its development on the Marriott International Group, then in the future, it’s entirely possible for me to build the Mandarin Oriental Hotel into the largest and most profitable hotel group in the world.”

In his memory, the Marriott International Group had been one of the most profitable hotel groups in the world in his past life, and its business model was undoubtedly worth emulating and learning from.

Lin Haoran naturally understood that a successful business model could often provide a company with a huge competitive advantage.

More importantly, he currently had ample financial backing, which gave him the ability to rapidly expand the scale of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and execute his chosen strategy.

Whether through new construction or acquisitions, he was confident he could elevate the Mandarin Oriental Hotel to a new level in a short period.

This, indeed, showed Lin Haoran immense potential for development.

Once he returned to Hong Kong, he decided he would have a good discussion with Simon Keswick and carefully deliberate on how to develop the Mandarin Hotel and The Oriental Hotel.

The hotel industry was an evergreen industry.

If possible, he wouldn’t mind becoming a hotel magnate in the future.

Currently, the Mandarin Hotel and The Oriental Hotel had relatively few locations—fewer than ten at present—and were still in the early stages of brand development, with hotels mainly located in Hong Kong and Bangkok, Thailand.

In fact, although the two hotel brands already belonged to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Management Company, The Oriental Hotel itself had only been acquired by Jardine Matheson & Co. in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1974.

Though the two hotel brands had nominally merged, they were currently operating independently, each with its own separate management.

This situation was clearly not conducive to Lin Haoran’s long-term goal of building the Mandarin Oriental Hotel into a hotel giant.

To achieve this grand vision, he had to break down the current barriers and achieve resource integration and unified management of the two brands.

As he thought, Lin Haoran gradually felt a wave of drowsiness wash over him.

So, he stopped dwelling on it and went back to bed to sleep soundly.

As for the hotel business, he decided he would make detailed plans after returning to Hong Kong.

Lin Haoran slept until the sun was high in the sky before waking up leisurely.

After getting up, he felt rejuvenated, the discomfort of jet lag completely gone.

Today was already December 11th in New York time, leaving only one day until Apple Inc.’s IPO.

After enjoying a sumptuous buffet breakfast at the hotel, Lin Haoran took his bodyguards and decided to first visit the offices of the Universal Investment Company.

Chapter 401: Wishing You All Become Billionaires Tomorrow

The Universal Investment Company office wasn’t far, only about a hundred meters in a straight line from his hotel’s building.

Lin Haoran and his bodyguards didn’t take a car; it was a short enough distance to walk.

His fame in Hong Kong had indeed reached household-name status. Even in Southeast Asia, many people recognized him and knew of his legendary business exploits over the past two years.

In the United States, however, despite his name occasionally appearing in business or general newspapers and even once gracing the front-page cover of The New York Times, it was clear that the American public didn’t have a strong impression of the Asian super-rich.

Those who followed the news might know his name, but very few could recall what he looked like.

Therefore, Lin Haoran felt at ease strolling through the bustling Times Square with a dozen or so bodyguards dressed in various kinds of ordinary cotton jackets, and they didn’t attract much attention from passersby.

Before long, Lin Haoran and his bodyguards arrived at the base of a skyscraper over two hundred meters tall.

Su Zhixue, who had already received the message, had been waiting downstairs for a long time.

Led by Su Zhixue, the group of more than ten people went up to the 39th floor of the building.

This was the office floor Lin Haoran had purchased, which had cost him a full 4.8 million US dollars.

As soon as he entered the office, many employees came up to greet Lin Haoran.

These were the employees he had brought over from Hong Kong.

In the initial phase, the main goal was to get settled, so there was no need to hire new staff.

“Boss, to get the company on track as quickly as possible, and since the workload isn’t too heavy in the short term, I don’t plan on hiring regular traders for now.

However, I plan to hire a local professional manager to be my deputy. We’ll also hire locally for some logistical positions. This will help things run more smoothly.

After all, we haven’t established any connections here yet!” Su Zhixue said after leading Lin Haoran into an office.

“Yes, that’s a good idea. I completely agree. You can make the decisions here,” Lin Haoran said, nodding in approval.

They were all outsiders, unfamiliar with the area, so having local employees would certainly be more suitable.

“Also, although we’ve been here for over a week, our main task is still to familiarize ourselves with the environment and the market. For instance, we’re conducting in-depth research on the local stock market trends and arranging for our staff to observe the trading at the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ Stock Exchange,” Su Zhixue continued to report.

“There’s no rush for that, take your time. By the way, how are the living arrangements for everyone?” Lin Haoran asked with concern.

“After arriving in New York, we stayed in a hotel for five days. During that time, I gave everyone time to find their own housing. We provide a standardized housing allowance in their salaries, so no one had any complaints.

Everyone has found a place to live now. Those who want to live more lavishly found places nearby, while those looking to save money might live farther away.

They’re all highly educated. Even though it’s the first time in the United States for many of them, the language barrier isn’t an issue, so they’ve integrated into life here quite easily,” Su Zhixue said with a smile.

“Good, as long as everything is arranged,” Lin Haoran nodded.

The expenses for nearly two hundred employees were indeed significant. However, once these employees helped him secure a project, the profits he would make would be in the hundreds of millions. Therefore, he wasn’t concerned about the cost of their salaries.

Looking around the office, situated on the 39th floor with its spacious floor-to-ceiling windows, the view was indeed much better than from his hotel room. The cityscape was even more spectacular.

Although Hong Kong was prosperous, in terms of urban development, there was a considerable gap compared to New York.

This city, which already boasted numerous skyscrapers during the Qing Dynasty, now displayed an astonishing urban landscape.

Standing before the floor-to-ceiling window, Lin Haoran gazed at the forest of skyscrapers, unwilling to look away for a long time.

Truly the number one city in the world.

Limited by its terrain, Hong Kong was destined never to present such a magnificent spectacle, which was a bit of a pity.

He chatted with Su Zhixue in the office about future plans, and Su Zhixue reported on what he had accomplished in New York over the past few days.

After chatting for about ten minutes, the two of them went out into the main open-plan office area.

The nearly two hundred employees each had their own work assignments; most of them were reading through documents.

In a space of a full 1,300 square meters, it still felt a bit empty with only two hundred people working.

After inspecting the office, Lin Haoran returned to Su Zhixue’s office. He picked up the phone and made calls to his key subordinates in Hong Kong, such as Simon Keswick, Cui Zilong, Burton, and Chen Shoulin, telling them that if they needed to contact him, they should call Su Zhixue first.

After all, his whereabouts in New York were uncertain, and it wouldn’t be easy for people in Hong Kong to find him.

Therefore, contacting Su Zhixue first was the fastest way to get in touch with Lin Haoran.

After finishing these calls, Lin Haoran dialed a number Jobs had given him a few days ago.

According to Jobs, it was the office number for Apple Inc.’s branch company in New York.

The lack of mobile phones was indeed very inconvenient. Lin Haoran found himself again missing the era when everyone had a cellphone.

When the call went through, it wasn’t Jobs who answered. However, Lin Haoran learned of Jobs’s current whereabouts from the person in charge of the New York branch company.

Jobs and a group of senior executives were currently at the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, discussing pre-IPO preparations with NASDAQ’s senior executives.

Since Jobs was at the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, things were simple.

Because the NASDAQ Stock Exchange was located diagonally across from the building that housed the headquarters of Universal Investment Company’s US branch.

After confirming Jobs’s whereabouts, Lin Haoran hung up the phone.

At that moment, he couldn’t help but miss the era when everyone had a cellphone and could contact anyone they wanted, anytime, anywhere.

But in this era, although mobile phones had been invented, it would clearly take several more years for them to become commercially widespread.

“Perhaps I can speed up the popularization of mobile phones?” The thought suddenly occurred to Lin Haoran.

Making them widespread worldwide would be difficult, but starting with Hong Kong shouldn’t be too hard, right?

The technology should already be mature. It’s just that places like the United States are too large, with too many cities, making widespread adoption very difficult.

But Hong Kong is different. It’s not large to begin with, and if the range was limited to the city center, it would be even smaller.

However, the first truly commercial mobile phone didn’t appear until 1983, right?

Lin Haoran wasn’t entirely sure about the details.

But he planned to take this opportunity in the United States to perhaps have a talk with the president of Motorola.

Because he knew that the first commercial mobile phone came from Motorola.

After saying goodbye to Su Zhixue, Lin Haoran took Li Weiguo and Li Weidong to the NASDAQ Stock Exchange diagonally across the street.

As for the other thirteen bodyguards, they blended in as ordinary people, tailing Lin Haoran to protect him.

Standing at the base of the NASDAQ Stock Exchange building, Lin Haoran looked up at the ten-story building, which was extremely famous despite its modest height, a surprised expression on his face.

The last time Lin Haoran was in New York, he had visited Times Square but had not entered the NASDAQ Stock Exchange building.

Instead, he had made a special visit to New York’s other stock exchange—the New York Stock Exchange—because his destination at the time, the New York Mercantile Exchange, was right next door.

The NASDAQ building is its iconic MarketSite in New York’s Times Square, a ten-story structure.

In Times Square, with its towering skyscrapers, the NASDAQ building didn’t look particularly outstanding, yet its fame surpassed that of most of the surrounding high-rises.

This building is not only the physical embodiment of the NASDAQ Stock Exchange but also features a state-of-the-art event space, often used to celebrate and commemorate important moments in the capital markets.

And tomorrow, Apple Inc. would be going public in this very ten-story building, celebrating the arrival of this moment.

Lin Haoran was actually quite looking forward to it.

As he recalled, on the first day of its IPO, Apple Inc.’s total market capitalization would be nearly 1.8 billion US dollars. Converted to Hong Kong dollars, that would be a market cap of nearly ten billion, which would rank it among the top three in Hong Kong based on market capitalization alone.

And now, with him as a new shareholder in Apple Inc., he wondered if the final market capitalization would change.

With his two bodyguards, he walked through the noisy trading floor and explained his purpose to a lobby manager. The manager spoke to someone unknown over a walkie-talkie, and soon, the three of them were led into a conference room.

As for the dozen or so other bodyguards, they remained on the trading floor, pretending to be ordinary shareholders.

In the conference room, Lin Haoran did indeed see Jobs, as well as Apple Inc.’s other senior executives: Steve Wozniak, Michael Scott, Mike Markkula, and Rod Holt.

These five people were the core senior executives of Apple Inc.

Now that they were all here, one could imagine how much importance they placed on this IPO.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, Jobs and the other four all greeted him with extreme enthusiasm.

After all, Lin Haoran was one of Apple Inc.’s major shareholders, holding a ten percent stake.

Moreover, the ten million US dollars Lin Haoran had provided in financing had been a great help to Apple Inc. during this period.

Without those funds, Apple Inc. would not have developed so smoothly.

At this moment, all five of them were beaming, clearly looking forward to the moment of the IPO tomorrow. After all, it was a symbol of both glory and wealth.

“Congratulations. Tomorrow, you will all become hundred-millionaires and multi-millionaires!” Lin Haoran congratulated them.

Chapter 402: Over 1.3 Billion Dollars

As Lin Haoran recalled from his past life, Apple Inc.’s IPO had created four hundred-millionaires and about forty millionaires.

Evidently, the four hundred-millionaires were among the five men present: Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula, and Rod Holt.

These four were either founders or investors, and all held a significant proportion of the company’s shares.

When Apple Inc.’s market capitalization reached nearly 1.8 billion dollars, these four naturally became hundred-millionaires.

The only one among the five who didn’t become a hundred-millionaire was, of course, Michael Scott.

Although Michael Scott, as Apple’s first CEO, had played a crucial role in the company’s early development by helping to establish its basic structure and achieve profitability, he did not own many shares. His compensation was mostly in the form of a salary.

In fact, Michael Scott’s annual salary at Apple was even far lower than what he had earned at National Semiconductor.

Of course, as the first CEO of Apple Inc., the company had awarded him some shares before the IPO, but it wasn’t a large amount.

However, following Lin Haoran’s financing of Apple Inc., it was clear that his return on investment would multiply many times over, making him the fifth person to hold Apple shares with a market value exceeding one hundred million dollars.

He just wondered what Apple’s final valuation would be this time.

In Lin Haoran’s view, it surely couldn’t be lower than the market capitalization of the Apple he knew from his previous life when it went public, could it?

“It seems Mr. Lin is very confident about our IPO tomorrow!” Jobs said with a smile.

“Of course. I have great confidence in all of you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have invested in the first place!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

“We hope you won’t be disappointed with this investment, Mr. Lin!” Steve Wozniak, who was standing nearby, chimed in with a smile.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with the five of them, Jobs also introduced Mr. Macklin, the Chairman of the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, to Lin Haoran.

“I know of Mr. Lin. You are an incredibly impressive businessman. I’ve heard of your accomplishments in Hong Kong!” Mr. Macklin said with a smile as he shook Lin Haoran’s hand.

“Mr. Macklin is someone I admire greatly as well. Without you, the NASDAQ Stock Exchange wouldn’t have become one of the three major stock exchanges in the United States,” Lin Haoran replied, also smiling.

Before coming, Lin Haoran had done some basic research on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange.

After becoming the chairman of NASDAQ, Macklin had set about implementing his reform plans.

He actively advocated for stockbrokers to use computer screens for real-time pricing. This move not only significantly increased trading volume but also effectively reduced broker fees.

However, there were many skeptics at the time, as computer technology was still immature, and issues like errors and data loss were common.

Faced with such doubts, some suggested that perhaps they should wait, as traditional paper records seemed more reliable at the time.

But Gordon was convinced they had to seize the first-mover advantage and invest capital in building the technology. He invited Bunker Ramo Corporation to collaborate, using their advanced computer technology to design an automated quotation system, which they continuously upgraded and maintained. This system would later become widely known as “NASDAQ”.

Since many employees worked on Wall Street, some Wall Street firms volunteered to be pilot users for trading, which not only propelled the implementation of NASDAQ but also helped resolve a series of technical challenges along the way.

With its tech-friendly image, NASDAQ quickly attracted numerous promising companies seeking technological collaboration and support.

Even Intel gave it high priority and invested significant effort.

Thus, a progressively improving technology stock exchange—NASDAQ—was born.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the Apollo Program and the Star Wars Program filled the American public with boundless憧憬 and anticipation for future technology.

NASDAQ’s automated electronic quotation system perfectly matched this technological atmosphere, appearing particularly cool and avant-garde.

Besides the convenience brought by computers, the NASDAQ Stock Exchange adopted a relatively lenient stance on the ‘one share, one vote’ policy, which ensured that a company’s founders could retain their voting rights after going public.

This was one of the key reasons why Jobs and other senior executives at Apple chose to list Apple Inc. on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange.

They valued NASDAQ’s inclusiveness towards technological innovation and its respect for the rights of founders.

“To be recognized by Mr. Lin is a great honor!” Macklin expressed his sincere satisfaction with Lin Haoran’s words.

Moreover, he had looked into Lin Haoran’s background and knew that although this young man was based in Hong Kong, his wealth and power, even in the United States, would place him among the top financial groups.

Therefore, even as the head of NASDAQ, Macklin was willing to build a good relationship with Lin Haoran.

Through his conversation with the chairman, Lin Haoran had learned that the NASDAQ Stock Exchange was placing immense importance on Apple’s IPO.

The most important reason was their belief that Apple’s total market capitalization upon listing could break all records since NASDAQ’s inception.

In this way, Apple’s IPO would, indirectly, bring substantial benefits to the NASDAQ Stock Exchange.

After all, the NASDAQ Stock Exchange was founded in 1971 and had only been around for about a decade.

Compared to its counterparts in the same city, the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange, both of which had histories spanning over a century, NASDAQ, founded in 1971 and not yet a decade old by December 1980, seemed to lack foundation.

To compete with other stock exchanges, the NASDAQ Stock Exchange had to work hard to expand its influence and attract more companies to list.

And Apple Inc. was one of the most influential and promising companies that NASDAQ had encountered since its founding, and one that was willing to list on its exchange.

After a short chat, Mr. Macklin had other matters to attend to and left the meeting room.

Jobs looked at the remaining Apple executives in the room, then turned to Lin Haoran and said, “As it happens, we’ve finished everything we needed to do at NASDAQ. All the pre-listing preparations are done, and we’re just waiting for tomorrow morning. Mr. Lin, you’ve probably never been to Apple’s New York branch headquarters, have you? Why don’t we head over there together?”

“Of course, no problem!” Lin Haoran nodded in agreement.

Although Lin Haoran wasn’t a senior executive at Apple, or even a board member, his 10% stake in the company meant he could join the Board of Directors anytime he wished. He simply chose not to, as he didn’t want to interfere too much with Apple’s operations.

After all, without him, Apple was destined by its own history to become the most valuable publicly listed company in the world.

He was afraid that his excessive involvement would disrupt Apple’s trajectory. If that led to a dimming of the company’s prospects, it would be a huge loss for him.

Besides, he wasn’t an expert in the tech field. While he had a general, superficial knowledge of Apple’s future products, he saw no need to change or reveal anything.

Lin Haoran’s attitude towards Apple had always been that of an investor; he never had any intention of controlling the company.

After all, Apple’s rise was largely thanks to the solid foundation laid by Jobs, not some inherent superhuman ability of the company itself.

Just imagine, if he actually took control of Apple, wouldn’t that be equivalent to stripping away the spiritual inheritance left by Jobs?

Moreover, for an acquired company, given Jobs’s personality and ambition, it was unlikely he would have stayed on.

Apple’s New York branch headquarters happened to be near Times Square as well.

The group left the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, crossed a street, and after walking less than three hundred meters, arrived in front of a building over thirty stories high.

“Our New York office is on the 15th floor of this building,” Jobs said, pointing to the building as he introduced it to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran nodded, not particularly concerned.

Soon, the group arrived on the 15th floor.

“This is Myron Zork, the general manager of Apple’s New York region. And this is Mr. Lin Haoran, a major shareholder of our company,” Jobs said, making introductions as a middle-aged white man approached them upon entering the office.

“Hello, Mr. Zork. Apple continues to grow strong thanks to colleagues like you who work so diligently on the front lines,” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he shook Myron Zork’s hand.

Myron Zork was clearly surprised by Lin Haoran’s arrival, but as a member of Apple’s senior management, he was not entirely uninformed about him.

“Mr. Lin, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Although I manage operations here in New York, I’ve heard your story. Your involvement has undoubtedly brought immense confidence to Apple Inc.”

Jobs added with a smile, “Myron, Mr. Lin is not only a major shareholder but also our most solid supporter. His support has played a crucial role in this IPO.”

“I only did what I believed to be right. I believe in Apple’s potential and in all of your hard work. We are partners on the same boat, with the shared goal of taking Apple further,” Lin Haoran said modestly.

“Since you’re here, Mr. Lin, let me tell you about the situation for tomorrow’s listing,” Jobs continued.

Lin Haoran nodded, waiting for Jobs to continue.

“Tomorrow, Apple plans to offer 4.6 million shares to the public in its initial public offering. Our total share capital is 58.72 million shares, and the issue price is 22 dollars per share. Once they are all successfully subscribed, the total market capitalization of our Apple Inc. will exceed 1.3 billion dollars!” Jobs continued.

Chapter 403: Apple Inc. Goes Public, Making a Splash in America

“An offering of 4.6 million shares. Are you confident they’ll all be subscribed?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“Of course, I am. Although Apple Inc. has only been around for a short five or six years, we’re quite well-known in the United States. We have a huge fan base. For the past two months, we’ve been on a roadshow from the West Coast to the East. We’ve been met with an incredible welcome in every city we’ve visited. Judging by their reactions, we have no doubt that the shares we’re issuing will be snapped up!” Jobs was brimming with confidence.

“I have complete faith in Apple Inc. as well. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have invested in the first place!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Since Mr. Lin trusts Apple so much, as its founder and Chairman, I certainly can’t let you down. This time, I’m going to make sure your return on investment exceeds tenfold!” Jobs declared grandly.

If all 4.6 million shares were subscribed, Apple Inc.’s total market value would be nearly 1.3 billion Hong Kong dollars, even if the stock price didn’t rise. By that calculation, Lin Haoran’s stake would be worth over one hundred million US dollars, which was indeed more than a tenfold return.

The only question was where Apple’s stock price would end up at the close of trading.

Lin Haoran wasn’t certain either. He wondered if his investment would change Apple’s performance during its IPO.

“I’m looking forward to it!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

“Once we go public, we’ll raise one hundred one million, two hundred thousand dollars from the stock market. With that capital, Apple won’t have to worry about funding for the next few years!” Jobs continued, his face full of anticipation.

Issuing 4.6 million shares at an issue price of $22 per share would indeed bring in $101.2 million.

A sum of over one hundred million dollars was enormous, providing Apple Inc. with a solid foundation.

However, even with such strong financial backing, Apple’s path was not without its bumps.

From his memories of his past life, Lin Haoran knew that Apple would face numerous challenges in its subsequent development.

Among them, the brilliant leader Steve Jobs would even be pushed out by a coalition of senior executives, stripped of his real power, and left with only the empty title of Chairman.

Faced with such a predicament, Jobs ultimately chose to resign, leaving the company he had built with his own hands.

However, Apple’s troubles didn’t end there.

After Jobs’ departure, Apple encountered unprecedented challenges and difficulties.

Only then did the senior executives realize Jobs’ importance and value.

In the end, they had no choice but to invite the founder and soul of the company back, hoping he could lead them out of their predicament.

Jobs’s return undoubtedly injected new life and momentum into Apple.

Under his leadership, Apple quickly adjusted its strategic direction, launching several innovative products that won widespread market recognition and acclaim.

Ultimately, Apple achieved an explosive takeoff, becoming a leader in the global technology industry.

Of course, all of that was many years in the future, and Lin Haoran had no intention of interfering.

When the time came, even if Jobs was forced out of Apple, he would not step in to support him.

Lin Haoran was well aware that the young Jobs was arrogant. Having achieved so much at such a young age, his temperament had already changed significantly.

Being forced out of Apple and gaining experience elsewhere would be a trial by fire for him, paving the way for his later return as a king.

Therefore, no matter what happened to Apple in the future, he had already decided not to interfere in any way and to remain just an investor.

Lin Haoran spent over two hours at Apple’s New York branch company, conversing with the company’s senior executives and gaining a great deal of insight.

From their conversations, Lin Haoran gained a deeper understanding of the Apple of this era.

Although Apple’s product line was not as extensive as it would later become, it had already carved out a niche in the personal computer market with classic products like the Apple II.

These products won over consumers with their excellent performance and unique design, helping Apple establish a firm foothold in the market.

By now, Apple’s product design philosophy and technological prowess had gained widespread market recognition.

This innovative spirit was not only reflected in its hardware but also in its operating system and software development.

For example, Apple’s Mac OS was a leader in the industry at the time, providing users with a more user-friendly and intuitive interface.

In this key area of operating systems, even tech giants like IBM and HP could hardly compete with Apple.

This was the fundamental reason why Apple was able to attract so much enthusiasm during its IPO roadshow.

That evening, Lin Haoran joined Jobs and the others for a lavish dinner at a restaurant near Times Square to celebrate Apple’s upcoming IPO.

After dinner, Lin Haoran returned to his hotel, accompanied by his bodyguards.

Jobs and the others were also staying near Times Square, but in a more economical hotel.

On the eve of the IPO, they were clearly still maintaining a frugal lifestyle.

That night, sitting in the hanging chair on his balcony, Lin Haoran surprisingly found himself unable to sleep.

Although he had seen his share of storms in Hong Kong, and had even acquired a behemoth like the Hongkong Land Group, what he was about to face was the legendary Apple Inc. of his past life—the number one stock in the world of technology.

In comparison, Hongkong Land Group paled in significance.

And now, he was about to become a witness and participant in Apple’s IPO, a fact that filled him with a strange excitement.

It wasn’t until after eleven o’clock that night that Lin Haoran drifted off into a groggy sleep.

In the blink of an eye, the night passed, and the time quietly ticked over to half past seven in the morning.

Lin Haoran was awakened by the ringing of his alarm, which he had deliberately set before bed to avoid missing the important moment.

He stood up and yawned. Although he was still a bit sleepy, he had gotten nearly eight hours of sleep, and his energy was mostly restored.

After a quick wash-up, Lin Haoran had Li Weidong order breakfast to the room while he tidied himself up in the bathroom.

He chose a well-fitting suit, neatened his hair, and examined his reflection in the mirror until he was satisfied before stepping away from the sink.

After all, a momentous day like Apple’s IPO would surely attract a horde of media reporters. As a public figure, he certainly couldn’t look sloppy.

By this time, the waiter had already set out the breakfast, and his two assistants, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, were waiting patiently for their boss.

“Let’s eat. We have to head out soon,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The listing ceremony was scheduled for nine in the morning, so he naturally needed to arrive early.

He flipped through a newspaper while eating a sandwich.

As expected, several business and general-interest newspapers were reporting on Apple’s IPO, which was scheduled for today.

This was a clear indication of the widespread attention Apple’s public offering had garnered.

At eight-twenty in the morning, Lin Haoran left the hotel with his bodyguards and headed straight for the NASDAQ Stock Exchange.

He arrived at the NASDAQ at eight-thirty.

Jobs and the others were already there.

Evidently, while Lin Haoran was excited about Apple’s IPO, Jobs and the other senior executives at Apple were even more so.

The moment Lin Haoran arrived, he was warmly greeted by Jobs.

“Mr. Jobs, I’m not late, am I?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Of course not. Wozniak and the others are already waiting inside. I’ll take you to them,” Jobs replied, shaking his head.

Led by Jobs, Lin Haoran was guided to the VIP room of the NASDAQ Stock Exchange.

Many Apple employees, investors, and media reporters had already gathered there.

The air was thick with a tense yet excited atmosphere as everyone awaited the thrilling moment.

As time went on, the atmosphere inside the exchange grew more intense.

Reporters busily jotted down every detail, and camera lenses were trained on Jobs, Lin Haoran, Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula, Rod Holt, and the others who were about to ring the opening bell.

Finally, at nine o’clock in the morning, the host’s announcement officially kicked off the listing ceremony.

Jobs, Lin Haoran, and other key shareholders and executives of Apple stood shoulder to shoulder in front of the opening bell. Under the eager gaze of the crowd, they forcefully struck the bell that symbolized success.

The sound of the bell was crisp and long, instantly echoing throughout the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. The sound even carried to the surrounding area of Times Square, drawing the attention of many citizens.

At that moment, it was as if Apple was announcing its new beginning to the entire world.

The media reporters sprang into action, the sound of their camera shutters clicking incessantly as they raced against time to capture this historic moment.

In the camera’s frame, Lin Haoran stood steadily to Jobs’ right, his face beaming with a joyous smile.

Today, all of America’s major news media outlets were present: The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, Silicon Valley Today, CNN, and more.

This time, Lin Haoran had truly made a name for himself across the United States.

Once the reports of today’s IPO were published by these media outlets, he would inevitably enter the American public’s consciousness, gradually building his influence in the country.

This was just one of the benefits that Apple’s IPO brought him.

As the bell chimed, Apple’s stock officially began trading.

Lin Haoran and the others remained in the exchange, watching the bustling figures on the trading floor, everyone filled with excitement.

Now, all they wanted to know was just how high Apple’s closing price would go.

Chapter 404: Regretful Citibank

Four million six hundred thousand shares, priced at twenty-two US dollars per share—the quantity wasn’t enormous.

Some of these shares had already been subscribed to by investors, while the rest were in the hands of brokers, who naturally had their own strategies for handling them.

Apple Inc.’s IPO wasn’t just backed by its own massive campaign to build hype; the Nasdaq Stock Exchange also provided significant promotional support, laying a solid foundation for its path to going public.

Furthermore, Apple Inc. had a huge fan base across the United States.

In this era, those who had access to and could master computers, and who had received a computer education, were primarily from the affluent class.

Therefore, as expected, countless shareholders were paying close attention to Apple Inc.’s IPO.

From all corners of the United States, whether through stockbrokers or intermediaries, they kept a constant watch on every subtle change in the stock market.

On the secondary market, Apple Inc.’s stock began to trade, and its price started to fluctuate.

First, it climbed to 23.5 US dollars per share,
then rose again to 23.8 US dollars per share,

After that, it surged all the way to 24.6 US dollars per share,
but soon after, it pulled back slightly to 24.3 US dollars per share,

…

Every fluctuation in the stock price tugged at the heartstrings of countless investors, and the senior executives at Apple Inc. were also watching with particular concern.

Lin Haoran stayed at the Stock Exchange for over an hour before leaving. By then, Apple Inc.’s stock price had already soared to 25.8 US dollars per share.

As someone who owned several listed companies, what kind of storms hadn’t he weathered?

Initially, he had been quite excited due to the influence of the Apple Inc. he knew from his previous life.

But as time went on, that feeling of excitement faded.

The main reason was that the current Apple Inc. was far weaker than the one he knew from his past life; its overall strength couldn’t even compare to his Hongkong Land Group.

After leaving the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, Lin Haoran went straight to the Universal Investment Company office.

“Boss, Mr. Burton from Wanqing Group called at nine this morning. He said he has something to report to you and that you could call him at home when you get back!” Su Zhixue reported as soon as he saw Lin Haoran.

“Okay, I got it.” Lin Haoran nodded, then walked over to the telephone and dialed Burton, who was far away in Hong Kong.

Currently, it was just after ten in the morning in New York.

But in Hong Kong, it was already past eleven at night. At this hour, he would naturally not be at the office, which was why Burton had asked Lin Haoran to call him at home.

Before long, Burton answered the phone.

“Mr. Burton, I hope I’m not disturbing your rest?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Not at all, I just finished washing up and haven’t gone to bed yet. Boss, I called you mainly to report on the progress of Wanqing Group’s recent sales of land plots and commercial buildings,” Burton replied.

“Go ahead.”

“Boss, after in-depth negotiations with the Carrian Group, we’ve reached a preliminary agreement on a sale price of one billion and sixty-eight million Hong Kong dollars. Since the amount is so large, I needed your approval, so I haven’t signed the contract with them yet. Once the final contract is signed, they’ve promised to raise the full amount within three days and transfer it to our designated bank account. Boss, do you have any objections to this price?” Burton asked.

“No objections. Since you’ve reached an agreement, arrange the signing as soon as possible. I happen to need the funds right now,” Lin Haoran replied.

Right now, the International Building could still sell for a high price of over one billion Hong Kong dollars, but in a year or two, with the collapse of Hong Kong’s property market, it would be considered a good deal if the building sold for three or four hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

By then, there would be many sellers and few buyers, and even a high offer might not guarantee a successful transaction.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was indeed very satisfied with the current price of one billion and sixty-eight million Hong Kong dollars.

According to his original expectations, he would have gladly accepted even one billion Hong Kong dollars, let alone one billion and sixty-eight million.

Of course, the higher the price, the better.

“Additionally, regarding the Wan’an Building, we’ve received interest from a potential buyer. Hopewell Holdings hopes to acquire it for three hundred and twenty million Hong Kong dollars. However, our internal minimum price is three hundred and fifty million Hong Kong dollars, and our public asking price is four hundred million. Therefore, both parties are still in the negotiation phase. I will do my best to finalize a price of three hundred and eighty million Hong Kong dollars or even more. I believe there must be other companies interested in this building besides Hopewell Holdings,” Burton continued to report to Lin Haoran.

A ready-made building is indeed something that some companies, after growing in strength, would consider buying directly for their headquarters. And currently, among the commercial buildings in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay, the Wan’an Building, while not cheap, is definitely not overpriced. There were bound to be other interested parties.

Hopewell Holdings, as the developer of what was currently the tallest building in Hong Kong—the Hopewell Centre—their interest in acquiring the Wan’an Building was not hard to understand. After all, Hopewell Holdings had a significant presence in the Wan Chai and Causeway Bay areas.

As for whether a deal could ultimately be reached, no one could say for sure.

“Alright, you have full authority to handle this. I trust you completely!” Lin Haoran responded with a smile.

The members of the negotiating team were elites he had temporarily transferred from the Hongkong Land Group, the finance personnel were his trusted aides, and the legal counsel was one of the top legal teams in all of Hong Kong. Coupled with Burton’s loyalty and reliability, Lin Haoran had no worries about their work and wasn’t concerned that Burton would engage in deceit to profit from the deal.

If he really did profit from it, Lin Haoran would know as soon as he returned to Hong Kong and checked his loyalty level. An investigation would follow, and he wouldn’t be able to get away with it.

“Also, over the past few days, we’ve successively sold several plots of land. Six of these plots were bundled together and sold to Dah Chong Real Estate, another three were sold to Great Eagle Holdings, and a few others were sold to several smaller real estate companies. So far, the total proceeds from these land transactions have reached one billion, one hundred and twenty-eight million Hong Kong dollars. All the funds have been directly wired to Universal Investment Company’s account. I’ve already confirmed with Universal Investment Company’s Finance Department that the funds have all arrived,” Burton continued his detailed report to Lin Haoran.

“One point one billion has already arrived?” Lin Haoran couldn’t help but show a trace of pleasant surprise upon hearing this.

He was currently in urgent need of capital, and the timely arrival of this sum was undoubtedly a godsend.

After all, Universal Investment Company’s original one billion, two hundred million Hong Kong dollars wouldn’t last long in the Hongkong Land Group’s privatization project.

Without taking out loans, a lack of funds meant he could hardly make a move.

For example, here in the United States, if he took a fancy to certain companies and wanted to invest capital in them, and with Universal Investment Company’s US branch company soon to become operational, it would need to make discreet investments in designated targets—all of which required money.

Now that the company had over one billion, one hundred million more Hong Kong dollars in its accounts, he no longer felt the pressure for funds.

And, if assets like the Wan’an Building, the International Building, and other properties were sold smoothly later on, his available capital would continue to increase.

“Excellent. You’ve all done an outstanding job. Keep up the good work!” Lin Haoran affirmed with a smile.

“Yes, ever since we spread the word about these assets, I’ve been receiving inquiry calls from many business owners every day. Not just real estate companies, but even some enterprises from non-real estate sectors have shown strong interest. So, selling these assets isn’t difficult; the key is getting the right price. I will do my utmost to secure the best possible sale price for you, Boss!” Burton continued.

Hong Kong’s real estate market was exceptionally hot right now, and many companies that originally had no involvement in real estate were eager to cross over into the industry.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was not surprised by this situation.

“Alright, Mr. Burton, I’m counting on you. Once everything is successfully resolved, you can be sure there will be a bonus for you,” Lin Haoran said, very pleased.

“The greatest credit belongs to our negotiating team. I merely synthesized their progress and made the final decision,” Burton responded humbly.

After that, Burton exchanged a few more brief words before hanging up.

It was now late at night in Hong Kong. The necessary reporting was done, so there was no need to prolong the call and disturb the other person’s rest.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran stayed at the office until noon and had a working lunch with his employees.

Meanwhile, at the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, Apple Inc.’s closing price for the morning session was 27.62 US dollars per share.

This was a full increase of over five US dollars per share from the original issue price of twenty-two US dollars.

Of course, this wasn’t the final closing price for the day, as trading would continue in the afternoon.

However, to have risen so much in a single morning showed that Apple Inc.’s shares were indeed extremely popular.

After lunch, Lin Haoran rested for a while at the office before leaving Times Square.

He planned to visit Mr. Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank, in the afternoon, as well as Mr. John Reed, the current Vice President and his successor as Chairman.

In response to Lin Haoran’s visit, Citibank’s Chairman, Walter Wriston, was extremely enthusiastic.

After all, the two parties had a history of several successful collaborations.

Back then, it was Citibank that had acted as the guarantor, introducing him to Apple Inc.’s senior executives, which smoothly allowed him to become an investor in the company.

“Mr. Lin, congratulations! If we had known Apple Inc. had such immense potential, we should have invested ourselves in the first place!” Walter Wriston’s smile carried a hint of bitterness.

He recalled how Apple Inc. had actively extended an olive branch to them, offering an investment opportunity. But they had missed the chance by underestimating the computer company, which had only been founded a few years prior, ultimately letting Lin Haoran swoop in and get a great deal.

Looking at it now, based on the original investment amount, Apple Inc.’s value had increased more than tenfold. To say they had no regrets would certainly be a lie.

After all, a return rate of more than tenfold was extremely rare, even for a financial magnate like Citibank.

Chapter 405: A 21-Fold Return. Should I Sell the Apple Shares?

“I have you to thank for this. I hope Citibank will continue to bring me good investment opportunities in the future!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

“Of course, Mr. Lin. You are one of Citibank’s most important clients. We would be more than happy to share such information with you!” Walter Wriston had composed himself by now, a more natural smile on his face.

After chatting with Walter Wriston for a while, Lin Haoran went to see John Reed.

Lin Haoran intended to maintain a long-term partnership with Citibank.

And as the next Chairman of Citibank, strengthening his friendship with John Reed would be quite beneficial for his future.

Most importantly, Lin Haoran had the idea of buying into Citibank, preferably becoming one of its major shareholders in the future.

Because according to the future trajectory of events, Citibank would eventually be controlled by Squid Capital.

But Lin Haoran was unwilling to let Citibank fall under Squid Capital’s control just like that.

Therefore, the simplest way to stop Squid Capital’s hostile takeover was to buy shares in Citibank and become a major shareholder.

That way, even if Citibank wanted to merge with Travelers Group in the future, he could cast a dissenting vote.

Even if the merger ultimately succeeded, his advance preparations would be enough to prevent Squid Capital from becoming the biggest beneficiary.

After all, he hoped to have an excellent banking partner in the United States, and Citibank, in terms of both strength and connections, was the best choice.

He had no intention of holding a controlling stake in Citibank, because he wasn’t an American, and the local government would certainly not allow it.

However, becoming a major shareholder was certainly achievable.

Maintaining a good partnership with Citibank would definitely play a huge role in his strategic plans for the American business world.

Even though he was currently planning to acquire a bank, it didn’t conflict with his plan to buy shares in Citibank.

Not long after leaving the Citibank headquarters and returning to the vicinity of Times Square, it was four o’clock in the afternoon.

Standing on a street in Times Square, Lin Haoran could hear the stock market’s closing bell ringing from within the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

This marked the successful conclusion of Apple Inc.’s first day of being publicly traded.

He just didn’t know if Apple’s final closing price would be what he remembered from his past life.

At this moment, Lin Haoran was very curious.

So, he led Li Weidong and Li Weiguo into the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

On the simple LED display, the closing prices of various listed companies were shown, and Apple Inc. was among them.

The LED displays of this era were still extremely primitive, actually just rows of letters and numbers formed by numerous small lights, incapable of even displaying images.

However, for a stock exchange, this was sufficient.

The final trading price for Apple Inc. displayed above was $36.25 per share.

Seeing this, a surprised expression finally appeared on Lin Haoran’s face.

He hadn’t expected that after he invested, even though he hadn’t interfered with Apple’s management at all, the company was still affected and had changed.

From his memory, Apple’s closing market capitalization on its first day of IPO was about $1.78 billion, with a total share capital of 58.72 million shares. This meant the final closing price should have been around $30.31 per share.

But now, it had actually reached $36.25 per share, quite a bit higher than he remembered.

On its first day of trading, Apple Inc.’s total market capitalization had reached about $2.13 billion, making it stronger and more popular than the Apple of the other world.

Could it be that in the other world, Apple never received that ten-million-dollar investment, whereas in this world, he had invested ten million dollars directly, which led to Apple’s increased influence in the United States?

This was the only guess Lin Haoran could come up with now; otherwise, he couldn’t figure out why the final closing price would change when he had clearly not interfered with Apple’s management at all.

However, this was ultimately a good thing, not a bad one.

In any case, he wouldn’t interfere with Apple’s internal management going forward.

Lin Haoran walked towards the conference room they had been in that morning. As expected, Jobs and the others had likely spent the entire day at the exchange.

After all, they were all young, and this was the first time they had taken a company public. They were bound to be excited and eagerly awaiting the final closing price.

As he approached the conference room, Lin Haoran heard bursts of cheering from inside.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran was even more certain that Jobs and his team were inside.

He knocked, and the door was quickly opened.

Sure enough, inside were Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula, Rod Holt, and others, including Mr. Macklin, the Chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, an excited Jobs rushed out, gave him a huge hug, and exclaimed, “Mr. Lin, we’re all hundred-millionaires!”

He couldn’t help but be excited. After all, Jobs was only twenty-five years old. At such an age, to found a company on his own merit, not with family help, take it public, and become a hundred-millionaire—anyone would find it hard to remain calm.

“Congratulations, congratulations everyone!” Lin Haoran said with a calm smile, appearing exceedingly composed.

Inside the conference room, everyone was beaming with smiles.

There were more than a dozen people inside. Aside from Mr. Macklin, the Chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, the rest were senior executives and investors of Apple Inc.

Not only had four hundred-millionaires been created among them, but dozens of millionaires had also been made within the company.

Moreover, Apple’s current market capitalization was significantly higher than what Lin Haoran knew it to be on its first day of listing in his past life.

This meant that in this world, the net worth of people like Jobs was even higher.

No wonder they were all so excited. At the very least, they were millionaires; how could they not be thrilled!

“I could tell early on that Apple was the most promising company we’ve encountered since the Nasdaq Stock Exchange was founded. I never thought it would break our exchange’s record for the highest market capitalization on its very first day!” Mr. Macklin said with a smile.

A total market capitalization of over $2.1 billion was incredibly impressive, even in the United States at that time.

This served as excellent publicity for the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, capable of attracting more companies to list there.

Therefore, Apple’s IPO was extremely important to the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, so naturally, Macklin was happy.

“Mr. Lin, you probably don’t know this, but Mr. Macklin subscribed to one hundred thousand shares before the IPO. Based on the current market value, although it hasn’t quite doubled, it’s not far off!” Jobs said with a smile on the side.

“Oh? No wonder Mr. Macklin is just as excited as we are!” It was a moment of sudden realization for Lin Haoran.

He had just assumed Macklin was so happy simply because Apple had successfully gone public on the Nasdaq, bringing them a certain advertising effect. He hadn’t expected Macklin to have this move up his sleeve.

One hundred thousand shares might not seem like much, but at the current stock price, it was worth over three million dollars.

This time, he had not instructed Su Zhixue to lead the team in buying low and selling high with Apple’s stock.

After all, Apple’s public offering was only 4.6 million shares, less than one-tenth of the total share capital, and trading on the secondary market was incredibly hot.

This meant that even if Universal Investment Company entered the market to trade, it would be impossible to accumulate too many shares. Making a million dollars or so would have been a good outcome, and he didn’t care much about such a small amount of money.

Plus, he also wanted to see if Apple’s final closing price would match the number from his memory if he didn’t interfere in the secondary market.

Now, it was confirmed that his influence had indeed affected the outcome.

But it didn’t matter; it was of little consequence.

“Mr. Lin, we’ve had someone book a private room at the Plaza Hotel. We’ll be holding a celebratory banquet there tonight. As an important investor in Apple, you mustn’t be absent!” Jobs said with a smile.

“Of course, it would be my honor!” Lin Haoran agreed.

He had never been to the Plaza Hotel, but he had heard of it. It was located on 59th Street in New York, across from Central Park, and to its east was Grand Army Plaza, from which the hotel got its name.

Since its opening, the Plaza Hotel in New York had always been a place for celebrities and dignitaries to stay, considered synonymous with high society and a very famous hotel in New York.

Apple’s first day on the market was so successful, and it had raised the planned capital. Coupled with the substantial increase in everyone’s net worth, it was naturally time for a grand celebration.

“Mr. Macklin, I hope you won’t be absent either. Apple’s successful IPO is also partly thanks to the Nasdaq Stock Exchange,” Jobs said, turning to Macklin.

“Of course, I’d be delighted to attend!” Macklin replied, beaming.

After celebrating in the conference room for a while, the group left the Nasdaq Stock Exchange and returned to Apple’s New York branch company.

In the office, many employees were also radiating with smiles.

Because these employees had all, to varying degrees, subscribed to some shares before Apple went public.

And now that Apple’s stock price had soared, it naturally benefited them as well.

Those whose smiles weren’t as bright were perhaps regretting not subscribing to more shares back then.

Sitting in a chair in the Apple office, Lin Haoran did some calculations in his head.

The 4.6 million shares Apple had offered this time were surplus shares that had already existed. Jobs and the others had specifically set aside a portion of the shares for financing, recruiting top professional managers, and preparing for the IPO.

Therefore, no new shares were issued for this listing.

This meant that even after Apple went public, Lin Haoran still held 10% of the shares.

The initial ten-million-dollar investment was now worth $210 million. At the current exchange rate, that was about 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars.

In less than a year, that initial investment had yielded a terrifying 21-fold return!

“Should I sell the Apple shares?” The thought suddenly surfaced in Lin Haoran’s mind.

Chapter 406: Investor of the Year

The reason he suddenly had the urge to sell his Apple Inc. shares was that he knew very well that the company’s real take-off wouldn’t happen until the 21st century.

Throughout the 1980s, due to product issues, Apple Inc. was more of a technical success than a commercial failure.

It was just like the film industry, where some movies receive critical acclaim and high professional ratings but have terrible box office results, ending up being well-regarded but unpopular.

Apple Inc. was in a similar situation during this period. Despite introducing many excellent technologies and features, its sales continued to decline.

Even Jobs, the core founder, was eventually forced out of Apple Inc.

Throughout the 1980s, up to 1989, Apple Inc.’s market capitalization only grew by 199 percent—less than 200 percent.

And entering the 1990s, Apple Inc.’s stock price continuously fell for various reasons, with product launches faltering and market share steadily declining.

Therefore, up until 1997, Apple Inc.’s shares hadn’t risen much compared to when it went public in 1980.

At that time, Apple Inc.’s market capitalization was only a little over ten billion US dollars. In over a decade, its market value had only multiplied a few times.

It could be said that these dozen or so years were Apple Inc.’s lowest point.

It wasn’t until Jobs’ return that Apple Inc. launched a series of revolutionary products, ushering the company into its true explosive growth phase. In just over twenty years, its market capitalization soared from over ten billion US dollars to a terrifying figure of over three trillion US dollars, making it the king of global stocks.

What did this mean?

It meant that if Lin Haoran wanted to hold on until Apple Inc. became the king of global stocks, he would have to wait at least thirty to forty years.

And during that time, there would be a period of over a decade with almost no growth!

From this perspective, holding onto Apple Inc.’s shares for the long term had a very low cost-to-benefit ratio.

He might as well cash out now, while the stock price was high and his investment had already yielded a return of over twenty times.

This was over two hundred million US dollars, which converted to more than a billion Hong Kong dollars.

If he used this capital for other investments over the next dozen years, there was no telling how many times it could multiply.

So, continue holding Apple Inc.’s shares?

That would clearly be a rather foolish decision.

After all, with his knowledge of the future, making money wasn’t difficult for Lin Haoran.

At this thought, Lin Haoran, who had originally planned to hold onto his Apple Inc. shares indefinitely, suddenly had a change of heart.

The point of investing in Apple Inc. was to make money. If its growth was going to be minimal for more than a decade, what was the point of continuing to hold the shares?

With this realization, Lin Haoran made his decision.

However, he was in no hurry to sell just yet. As a newly listed company, Apple Inc. was clearly enjoying a wave of popularity, and its stock price was unlikely to plummet.

Moreover, the number of shares he held was greater than the total number of shares issued on the secondary market. If he dumped all of his shares into the stock market at once, it would inevitably cause the price to drop.

The best solution was to find a suitable bag holder to purchase all of his Apple Inc. equity in a single transaction.

This way, it wouldn’t have any impact on the stock price.

He knew that such a large block trade required not only a buyer with sufficient financial resources but, more importantly, one with strategic vision and confidence in Apple’s future.

After all, the number of shares he was selling was enormous; not just any institution or individual could easily take them on.

At that moment, inside the offices, Apple Inc.’s senior executives and regular employees were still cheering.

The hugely successful IPO of Apple Inc. had brought them all an unprecedented sense of achievement, as well as considerable wealth.

In the evening, the group took cars to the Plaza Hotel in New York, where they held a grand celebratory banquet.

It was not until after nine in the evening that Lin Haoran bid farewell to Jobs and the others.

By then, Jobs and his colleagues were already thoroughly drunk.

Lin Haoran, however, had little interest in red wine and had not drunk much, so he was not the least bit intoxicated.

It was ten o’clock at night by the time he returned to his hotel.

In the blink of an eye, it was the next day, December 13th.

In the morning, Lin Haoran had the room service deliver newspapers and breakfast as usual.

As expected, the front-page headline of several newspapers was the news of Apple Inc.’s IPO.

Furthermore, the vast majority of them used a photo of Jobs, Lin Haoran, and the others ringing the opening bell as the most prominent cover image.

In the photograph, everyone except Lin Haoran was white, which made him look out of place.

It was precisely for this reason that Lin Haoran also stood out in the photo, appearing even more conspicuous than Chairman Jobs himself.

The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the Financial Times, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily, and so on—of the ten newspapers delivered by the staff, eight reported on the Apple Inc. IPO.

For example, The Wall Street Journal’s front-page headline read, “Apple’s IPO, a New Tech Star Shines,” offering an in-depth analysis of the market impact following the listing.

The article pointed out that Apple Inc.’s successful IPO not only brought the company massive financing but also further boosted the performance of tech stocks on the market.

The article also made special mention of the mysterious investor, Lin Haoran, praising his unique vision in successfully recognizing Apple Inc.’s potential.

Meanwhile, another local paper, The New York Times, ran the headline “Apple’s Glorious IPO: The Beginning of a New Era,” which detailed the company’s journey from its founding to its public offering, emphasizing its outstanding achievements in technological innovation and market development.

The article specifically mentioned the photo of Jobs and Lin Haoran at the listing ceremony, calling them key figures in driving Apple Inc. to success.

At the same time, the article analyzed Apple Inc.’s market prospects post-IPO, suggesting it was poised to become a leading company in the global technology industry.

In an article titled “Apple’s IPO: A Tech Feast for the Nation,” USA Today reported on the market’s reaction with a light and cheerful tone.

The article described the celebrations of Apple Inc. employees and investors, as well as the soaring stock price.

It also featured interviews with several investors and members of the public to gauge their opinions and expectations regarding the IPO.

The Financial Times, on the other hand, took a different approach, focusing its report on Lin Haoran. It highlighted how his ten-million-dollar investment at the beginning of the year had grown to a market value of over two hundred million dollars in less than a year, hailing him as the Investor of the Year.

Lin Haoran had appeared in American newspapers before.

But back then, it was only an occasional mention in a single paper, and the attention was not high.

Now, however, commercial and general news publications across the United States were all reporting on the Apple Inc. IPO.

One could imagine that after these reports were published, Lin Haoran would become completely famous.

It wasn’t just newspapers; even television and radio stations frequently reported on the Apple Inc. IPO, and as a major shareholder, his name was repeatedly heard by the public.

This was the early 1980s, not the 21st century.

Although Apple Inc.’s market capitalization of over 2.1 billion US dollars wasn’t enough to place it in the top 20 of listed companies in the United States, it was more than enough to rank in the top 50.

For instance, AT&T, the company with the highest market capitalization at the time, was valued at just over thirty billion US dollars.

The second-ranked company, IBM, was only worth over twenty billion.

Publicly listed companies with a market capitalization exceeding ten billion US dollars could be counted on one’s fingers.

The world-renowned Procter & Gamble, a global consumer goods giant, was worth just over three billion US dollars at the time, yet it was already ranked 20th.

Therefore, for Apple Inc. to reach a market capitalization of 2.1 billion US dollars immediately upon its IPO was an absolutely sensational event.

It was no wonder that so many news media outlets were paying close attention to it.

If Hong Kong’s listed companies were placed in the United States, although they wouldn’t make the top twenty, two of them—HSBC and Hongkong Land Group—would still make the top fifty.

For a city with a population of only five million to produce two companies strong enough to rank in the top fifty in the United States was a testament to the strength of Hong Kong’s economy.

In this era without mobile phones, newspapers were clearly the most important channel for people to get their news.

Therefore, just like in Hong Kong, newspapers in the United States also had a very large readership.

Lin Haoran, the Investor of the Year, had become a hot topic of discussion among Americans.

Today was Saturday. Although the news of Apple Inc.’s IPO was being hyped up in all major media, the stock market was not yet open, so there was no direct impact on Apple Inc.’s stock price for the time being.

After finishing breakfast, Lin Haoran put on a careful disguise, wearing a pair of wide-rimmed glasses and deliberately changing into an inconspicuous jacket to ensure he would not be easily recognized in public.

After all, the news of Apple Inc.’s IPO was at its peak, and Lin Haoran’s photograph was in almost every newspaper. His fame had increased dramatically, and he could be recognized on the street, drawing unwanted attention.

In Hong Kong, he would have been calmer.

But this was the United States, an unfamiliar place with a more complex environment.

Universal Investment Company was closed on weekends, so Lin Haoran did not go to the office. Instead, after some thought, he made another trip to Citibank.

“Mr. Lin, congratulations!” Seeing Lin Haoran, Walter Wriston offered his congratulations on the surface, but inwardly, he was filled with even more regret.

Why on earth had he passed up such a good investment opportunity?

If Citibank had invested, it would have been an easy profit of over two hundred million US dollars.

Two hundred million US dollars! Even for Citibank, its entire profit last year was just over six hundred million dollars.

Although Citibank was a massive institution with potentially hundreds of billions of dollars in deployable funds, that was, after all, customers’ money.

Citibank’s own investments were not guaranteed to be profitable; many of them resulted in losses.

Therefore, a bank that could turn a profit was, in fact, already doing very well.

Chapter 407: The Invitation that Shocked Hong Kong’s Entire Investment Community!

“I hadn’t expected it either. I was very lucky, and at the same time, I’m very grateful for your recommendation that allowed me to become an investor in Apple Inc.!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile to Walter Wriston’s renewed congratulations.

“I wonder, Mr. Lin, did you have something specific in mind for your visit today?” Walter Wriston asked curiously.

Yesterday had been a social call, but there was no doubt that today’s visit was for business.

“To be honest, Mr. Walter Wriston, I did come to see you about something. You must be aware that I recently acquired a major corporation in Hong Kong called the Hongkong Land Group, right?” said Lin Haoran.

“Of course. That company is quite formidable, with a market capitalization exceeding two billion dollars. Even here in the United States, it would be considered a super-corporation. I’m well aware of it. I never imagined you had the means to privatize it, Mr. Lin. It completely exceeded my expectations!” Walter Wriston said with emotion.

As one of the clients Walter Wriston paid closest attention to, even if he didn’t personally track Lin Haoran’s activities, Citibank’s Hong Kong branch would send regular reports about him.

Therefore, how could Walter Wriston not know about something as major as the privatization of the Hongkong Land Group!

“Although the acquisition has succeeded and the privatization is nearly complete, the market capitalization of the Hongkong Land Group was simply too high. The price I paid to take it over was not small; otherwise, I wouldn’t have needed to take out a three billion Hong Kong dollar loan from Citibank. As a result, I am now extremely short on funds.

“And now, with Apple Inc.’s IPO, the return on my initial investment has been much better than I anticipated. So, I’m thinking of selling my Apple shares. However, it’s a ten percent stake in the company, and I don’t know many people here in the United States, so finding a suitable buyer won’t be easy.

“Therefore, I’d like to ask for your help, Mr. Walter Wriston, in keeping an eye out. If you know anyone interested in Apple shares, perhaps you could act as a go-between!” Lin Haoran stated his purpose for the visit directly.

Lin Haoran planned to use his shortage of funds as an excuse for this matter.

This way, he had a perfectly valid reason for selling his equity in Apple Inc.

After all, this was common knowledge back in Hong Kong.

And as for Citibank, he had borrowed three billion Hong Kong dollars directly from them, so they were well aware of his situation.

After listening to Lin Haoran, a thoughtful look flashed in Walter Wriston’s eyes, though he wasn’t surprised.

After all, from Walter Wriston’s perspective, given Lin Haoran’s situation, it certainly seemed he was in dire need of funds. Wanting to sell shares while Apple Inc.’s IPO was hot was perfectly normal.

He thought for a moment, then smiled. “Mr. Lin, I deeply admire your frankness. Regarding the sale of your Apple shares, I don’t believe it will be too difficult. Especially in the current market, Apple’s potential is widely recognized. Your shares are likely to attract the attention of many investors.”

“As for finding a buyer, rest assured. As a valued client of Citibank, we will naturally assist you with all our resources. Our network and connections span the globe, including numerous investors with a keen interest in the high-tech sector.

“I will immediately activate our internal channels to find the most suitable buyer for your shares. I’ll inform you as soon as we find one.”

For Citibank, this was not a major issue and could be considered a convenient service provided to an important client.

“Thank you very much, Mr. Walter Wriston. I look forward to your good news!” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

With Citibank’s help, selling his Apple shares shouldn’t be too difficult. Besides, Apple Inc. was a hot tech company right now. It was a given that many people would be interested in its shares. The biggest obstacle would likely be the price.

This was a ten percent stake in Apple Inc. Acquiring these shares meant becoming a major shareholder in the company, and securing a position as a board member would not be difficult.

“By the way, Mr. Lin, how long do you plan on staying in the United States this time?” Walter Wriston suddenly asked.

“I’m not sure yet, but I don’t think it will be for more than a month. Is there something you need, Mr. Walter Wriston?” Lin Haoran replied after some thought.

The most important reason for his trip to the United States was to participate in the bell-ringing ceremony for Apple Inc.’s IPO. Now that Apple had successfully gone public, that chapter was closed.

Next, the most important thing was setting up the operations of Universal Investment Company here.

However, Su Zhixue could handle all of that.

So, even if he were to return to Hong Kong now, it wouldn’t be a problem.

But having come all the way to the United States, Lin Haoran certainly didn’t plan on heading back just yet.

At the very least, he would sell his Apple shares first.

“That’s perfect. On December 20th, Citibank will be hosting our year-end gala for our key partners. We look forward to your attendance, Mr. Lin!” Walter Wriston replied.

“Excellent, I will definitely be there!” Lin Haoran agreed immediately.

Today was December 13th, so December 20th was only seven days away—not a long time at all.

Walter Wriston took a golden invitation from his drawer, wrote Lin Haoran’s English name on it, and handed it to him.

Lin Haoran accepted the invitation but didn’t open it right away. Instead, he placed it in his briefcase and continued chatting with Walter Wriston.

An hour later, Lin Haoran bid farewell to Walter Wriston and returned directly to Times Square.

After arriving, Lin Haoran went to the Universal Investment Company office. Su Zhixue had given him a key to the office the day before, and he planned to take care of some things there.

Originally, Lin Haoran had thought the office would be empty.

However, to his surprise, when he arrived, he found Su Zhixue sitting in the general manager’s office, bent over his desk, writing something.

Upon closer inspection, he saw that Su Zhixue was studying the information on the companies Lin Haoran had previously given him, such as Intel, Walmart, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and others.

The sound of Lin Haoran’s footsteps startled Su Zhixue. He looked up, saw it was his boss, and quickly stood up to greet him.

Lin Haoran nodded and said with a smile, “Why aren’t you out and about on a weekend?”

“Boss, I don’t feel like there’s much to see. The company hasn’t truly established itself in the United States yet, and as the general manager, I have a great responsibility.

“Besides, I’ve been researching the performance data of these companies, hoping to find better investment opportunities for us. The companies you gave me, Boss, truly have great potential. I think we can begin to position ourselves gradually,” Su Zhixue said earnestly.

“Alright, you carry on. I have some personal matters to attend to. Don’t mind me,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

With that, he walked into another office, sat down, and began making calls to Hong Kong.

He first called Burton, Cui Zilong, Chen Shoulin, and others to see if anything had happened at the company today.

“Boss, you’ve made the headlines again today!” Cui Zilong said with a laugh as soon as Lin Haoran identified himself.

“Oh? Is it about the Apple Inc. IPO?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

Clearly, apart from his privatization of the Hongkong Land Group, the most famous recent event was undoubtedly the Apple Inc. IPO.

As the largest city in the world, news from New York traveled incredibly fast.

It didn’t take long for news agencies in Hong Kong to learn what was happening here.

So, it wasn’t strange that Lin Haoran had become a headline figure back in Hong Kong.

“That’s right. Several evening papers tonight reported on your investment in Apple Inc. I expect tomorrow morning’s papers will be filled with news about you too. It was also covered on the television news. Your successful investment this time has shocked the entire Hong Kong investment community!” Cui Zilong said with a smile.

In the past, Lin Haoran’s investments in oil and gold futures were carried out in secret.

Although the success of those two investments was no less than, and perhaps even greater than, the Apple investment, they remained relatively hidden because Lin Haoran had not publicly announced them, and those who knew kept quiet. To this day, few people were aware of them.

But this time was different. Lin Haoran was present for the bell-ringing ceremony of Apple’s IPO.

Moreover, as a publicly listed company, Apple Inc. had long since disclosed information on its major shareholders.

Therefore, the fact that Lin Haoran had invested ten million US dollars at the beginning of the year was no secret at all.

As a man from Hong Kong who had accomplished such a major feat in the United States, it would have been strange if the Hong Kong media didn’t report on it extensively.

Apple Inc.’s market capitalization at its IPO was 2.1 billion dollars. In Hong Kong, this would already place it in the top three—no, it would be number two, because the Hongkong Land Group had already been successfully delisted from the stock market!

He didn’t talk with his top lieutenants for long before hanging up. After all, it was already nighttime in Hong Kong, and as long as there were no issues at the company, Lin Haoran wouldn’t take up too much of their time.

With every call, he received their congratulations.

After finishing these calls, Lin Haoran didn’t stop. He immediately dialed another number.

This time, he was calling Michael Sandberg, and it was his home number.

Michael Sandberg had given him this number after he acquired Hongkong Electric Group, implying that he could be reached 24/7.

Shortly after the call connected, Lin Haoran heard Michael Sandberg’s voice.

At that moment, it was just after nine o’clock at night in Hong Kong. Normally, people wouldn’t be asleep so early.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, good evening. I hope I’m not disturbing you?” Lin Haoran laughed heartily, as if the previous conflict with HSBC had never happened.

Chapter 408: Liquid Capital is Plentiful Once More

“Mr. Lin, good evening. Is there something urgent for you to be calling at this hour?” Michael Sandberg’s voice carried a hint of surprise, but more so politeness and curiosity.

In the world of business, especially between British-funded and Chinese-funded conglomerates, interests came first. True friendship was often hard to find.

After the matter with Jardine Matheson & Co. was resolved, Michael Sandberg naturally did not hold onto the previous conflict between them.

“Haha, Mr. Michael Sandberg, you’re as perceptive as ever. I do indeed have a matter I need to trouble you with,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Hearing this, Michael Sandberg’s curiosity grew, though he had no idea what Lin Haoran was planning. “Oh? I’m all ears,” he said.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, you must have heard the news about my investment in Apple Inc. and its successful IPO, haven’t you?” Lin Haoran asked deliberately.

“Of course. Mr. Lin, your investment vision is admirable. The successful listing of Apple Inc. is undoubtedly a huge affirmation of your foresight,” Michael Sandberg said, his words filled with praise, but he was inwardly cautious, wondering about the deeper meaning behind Lin Haoran’s words.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg should also be aware that in order to completely privatize Hongkong Land Group, I am now heavily in debt and in desperate need of money. With Apple’s IPO, its market capitalization has soared, and my initial investment has seen a good return. Therefore, I want to take this opportunity to sell my shares in Apple Inc. to reduce my personal debt!” Lin Haoran stated his purpose directly.

Lin Haoran was making preparations on two fronts. Although he had already asked Citibank to find potential buyers, he wasn’t sure if they could ultimately find a suitable one.

Even if they found a buyer, the offered price might not meet his expectations.

Among the financial groups in Hong Kong, many British-funded conglomerates had shown a strong interest in overseas investments, such as Jardine Matheson & Co., Swire & Co., and Wheelock and Company.

The financial groups behind these British-owned foreign firms were all seeking to reduce their asset ratios in Hong Kong.

Although the individual financial strength of these British-funded conglomerates might not be outstanding, when they united, their financial power was not to be underestimated.

Just like the recent re-acquisition of Jardine Matheson & Co., the amount of capital they invested was considerable.

Individually, they might not be able to bear such huge sums, but they were adept at joint operations or cleverly using company capital.

Investing in blue-chip companies in the United States, the world’s largest economy, was undoubtedly a popular direction for many British-funded conglomerates.

Jardine Matheson & Co., for example, had made quite a few investments in the United States, such as the acquisition of the Davis Company in Hawaii, which had cost them over one billion Hong Kong dollars at the time.

And HSBC was currently seeking to acquire Marine Midland Bank in the United States.

Investments like these were not uncommon among British-owned companies in Hong Kong.

Apple Inc. had just gone public and had an excellent reputation in the United States, making it an unquestionably high-quality enterprise.

If someone truly wanted to enter the tech industry, the Apple shares held by Lin Haoran would seem exceptionally tempting.

After all, according to analyses in numerous business publications, Apple not only possessed cutting-edge technology and vast market prospects, but its brand value and market influence were also immeasurable.

For any financial group looking to venture into the technology sector or seek diversified development, this was undoubtedly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“Mr. Lin, Apple Inc. certainly has a bright future. Are you really willing to sell just like that?” Michael Sandberg’s voice held a trace of curiosity and regret.

After all, the sensation caused by Apple’s first day of listing had already fully demonstrated its potential as a blue-chip company.

Lin Haoran let out a wry smile upon hearing this. “Mr. Sandberg, I’m also very optimistic about Apple’s future. In fact, I invested in it long before it went public, which is enough to show my confidence in it.

“However, my core businesses are here in Hong Kong. To completely privatize Hongkong Land Group, I’ve taken on heavy debt. Therefore, despite my reluctance, I can only part with it and sell my Apple shares.”

He paused for a moment, then continued, “What’s more, in a few months, the loan I took from HSBC will be due. Raising such a huge sum of money to repay the loan will be no easy task for me. So, selling the Apple shares is something I’m forced to do.”

Michael Sandberg nodded in understanding.

“That makes sense. Mr. Lin, I’m sure many financial groups will show great interest in your Apple shares. Rest assured, this is a small favor. I will immediately start spreading the news. I believe that before tomorrow, not only Hong Kong but also the circles in Britain will quickly learn of this.”

After a brief thought, Michael Sandberg continued, “But then again, finding a suitable buyer and reaching a transaction price that satisfies both parties might take some effort.”

Lin Haoran smiled and said, “What you say is very true, Mr. Sandberg. HSBC’s excellent reputation and network in the industry are precisely why I’m seeking your cooperation. As for price negotiations, that’s for later.”

Michael Sandberg smiled faintly and said, “You flatter me, Mr. Lin. But since you’ve asked, I will naturally do my best. Besides, you’re also a board member of HSBC, so this is hardly any trouble at all.”

Lin Haoran’s reason for approaching Michael Sandberg was mainly a matter of thoroughness, a way of preparing on two fronts.

Citibank had strong influence and an extensive network in the United States. With Citibank’s assistance there, Lin Haoran believed he could reach most potential American buyers.

Meanwhile, HSBC enjoyed a fine reputation and influence in both Hong Kong and Britain.

Having HSBC help spread the news would undoubtedly let more powerful financial groups learn of the matter, thereby increasing the chances of finding an ideal buyer.

Since he had decided to sell his shares in Apple Inc., Lin Haoran naturally hoped to maximize his profits.

He knew very well that the more people who knew about this, the more potential buyers there would be.

With competition among numerous financial groups, the value of these shares would likely rise with the tide.

If he encountered multiple financial groups interested in the Apple shares, their bidding against each other would likely drive the price up.

This way, Lin Haoran could reap a more substantial profit.

“With your assurance, Mr. Michael Sandberg, I can rest easy. Thank you very much. It must be very late in Hong Kong, so I won’t disturb your rest!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Alright, goodbye, Mr. Lin!”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran finally walked out of his office.

In Su Zhixue’s office, he was still busy working.

So, Lin Haoran bid him farewell and left the Universal Investment Company office.

In the blink of an eye, the weekend had passed, and it was now December 15th.

Today, the stock market opened for business once again.

Over the two-day weekend, Apple Inc. had been a topic of discussion for many people, especially shareholders. It seemed every sentence in their conversations was about Apple.

Yesterday, Lin Haoran had received a phone call from a large financial group in California, United States. They had offered to buy his shares for two hundred million US dollars.

Of course, he would not agree to it so easily. The price offered was even lower than the market value, so how could he possibly sell?

In any case, he was not in a hurry. He could just wait patiently.

As for selling slowly through the secondary market, it was not out of the question, but Lin Haoran had no intention of doing so, as it would easily drag down Apple’s stock price.

Jobs and the other senior executives at Apple had also learned of Lin Haoran’s intention to sell his shares.

Although they felt it was a pity, Jobs could understand the reasons behind his decision.

Back then, Lin Haoran’s ten-million-dollar investment had been a godsend for Apple, greatly propelling the company’s development.

Now, it was his right to convert that investment into a substantial return.

The senior executives at Apple also knew that in the business world, everyone’s decisions were influenced by their own financial situation and the market environment.

Therefore, they respected Lin Haoran’s decision and hoped that at some point in the future, they could join hands again in a more stable and mutually beneficial way.

As for one of Apple’s own shareholders directly acquiring Lin Haoran’s shares?

That idea was completely unrealistic.

Among Apple’s shareholders, none could currently produce over two hundred million dollars to acquire those shares.

Forget two hundred million dollars; no one could even come up with one hundred million.

Someone like Jobs, without selling his own shares, had at most a few million dollars in cash.

Although Apple’s IPO had indeed created several hundred-millionaires, their wealth was primarily reflected in the market capitalization of their shares.

Without selling their shares, these shareholders actually had very little liquid capital, far from the amount needed to acquire Lin Haoran’s stake.

Even Apple itself had quite limited cash reserves before the IPO.

Although the successful IPO raised one hundred million dollars, after deducting various fees, the actual available capital was less than one hundred million dollars.

Moreover, this money would soon be invested in intense R&D work to drive the company’s continuous innovation and development.

Therefore, Lin Haoran knew very well that there was currently not enough financial power within Apple to buy back the shares he held.

Early in the morning, Lin Haoran went to the Universal Investment Company.

Just as he arrived, he received a call from Burton, who had good news.

Wan’an Building was finally sold for 380 million Hong Kong dollars, and the unnamed new building in North Point had also been successfully transacted for 210 million Hong Kong dollars.

In addition, several more plots of land were successfully sold off. The intended proceeds reached 860 million Hong Kong dollars, though some of the funds had not yet been received.

The 1.068 billion Hong Kong dollars from the Carrian Group for the purchase of the International Building had also arrived.

All told, Wanqing Group’s subsidiaries, Green Island Cement Company and Wan’an Real Estate Company, had sold assets for over 3.6 billion Hong Kong dollars in these past few days.

Most of this money was already in the bank, and the remaining several hundred million Hong Kong dollars would arrive successively.

It could be said that Lin Haoran’s available capital was plentiful once more.

That rumor had indeed been a tremendous help to Lin Haoran.

Not only did it allow Hongkong Land Group to successfully offload some undesirable real estate projects at high prices, but now, in just over a week, it had enabled Wanqing Group to sell off all its previously stockpiled land and commercial buildings. It was a case of killing two birds with one stone.

Chapter 409: Targeting Walmart, an Exorbitant Demand!

The funds from the sale of the land and properties were all deposited into the account of the Universal Investment Company.

Consequently, the United States branch company of Universal Investment Company could now confidently proceed with its predetermined goals.

Over 3.6 billion Hong Kong dollars was no small sum.

These employees had been in the United States for more than ten days and were beginning to develop a deep understanding of the American stock market.

In other words, it was time to get to work for real!

And their first target was Walmart!

This legendary future retail company was founded in 1962 and went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972 with an initial market capitalization of only thirty-six million US dollars.

It had been public for less than ten years, and its current market capitalization was merely 189 million US dollars, far less than that of the newly-listed Apple Inc.

Most importantly, Walmart’s stock price, unlike Apple’s, had not experienced a prolonged downturn after its IPO.

Although Walmart’s market capitalization of 189 million US dollars was hardly significant in the United States, its stock price would later climb steadily. Even if it occasionally dipped, it would quickly rebound and rise again.

By the early 1990s, Walmart’s market capitalization had increased five hundredfold!

And by 2001, its market capitalization had exceeded three hundred billion US dollars, a nearly ten-thousand-fold increase from its initial public offering!

Walmart even held the top spot in the Fortune 500 for many consecutive years.

Therefore, before the twenty-first century, investing in Walmart was clearly far, far more profitable than investing in Apple Inc.

Moreover, Walmart’s market capitalization was still low, making it the perfect time to enter the market.

Imagine investing less than one hundred million US dollars and watching it turn into hundreds of billions in the future. Wasn’t that much more satisfying than painstakingly running a business yourself?

Additionally, Walmart was Universal Investment Company’s first target to test the waters in the United States.

Lin Haoran had already instructed Su Zhixue to accumulate Walmart shares secretly through multiple registered offshore companies, ensuring his actions remained undetected.

He had no intention of revealing his identity as a Walmart shareholder.

After all, this was the United States, not Hong Kong.

With Walmart’s current low market capitalization, he could easily acquire it.

But what was the point of acquiring Walmart?

He lacked the ability to manage it properly.

Besides, a retail company controlled by a non-American was destined to never receive the support of the US government.

If Walmart were truly under his control, it would never reach the great heights it would in the future.

So, regarding Walmart, Lin Haoran’s plan was simply to be a silent, undiscovered shareholder.

When Walmart reached its peak in the future, he could cash out and exit at any time.

For instance, when the twenty-first century arrived and Apple Inc. was about to soar.

At that point, he could sell his Walmart shares and accumulate more Apple Inc. stock!

After all, although Walmart would still be a global giant in the twenty-first century, its growth potential would have diminished.

Apple Inc., on the other hand, was different. It would grow from over ten billion US dollars to more than three trillion in just over a decade—an increase of more than one hundred times!

While Su Zhixue was making his moves on Walmart, Lin Haoran was also keeping an eye on Apple Inc.’s stock price.

After the market opened in the morning, Apple’s stock price indeed climbed steadily.

Driven by the large number of American investors, Apple’s stock price continued to rise.

By the midday break at 12 PM, Apple’s stock had climbed from the previous trading day’s closing price of $36.25 to $42.33 per share.

Watching Apple’s stock price rise, Lin Haoran was naturally in a very good mood.

However, he also knew that Apple’s stock price wouldn’t climb too high in the 1980s.

The current surge was merely due to the hype from ordinary investors.

Once everyone calmed down, the stock price would eventually stabilize.

But regardless, with him looking to sell his shares now, the continuous rise in Apple’s stock price was certainly a good thing.

When the market opened in the afternoon, Apple’s stock price was still on the rise.

The total number of Apple shares issued in the IPO was only 4.6 million.

Even with some employees selling off their own shares, the number of Apple stocks available on the secondary market was not very large.

And Apple had plenty of wealthy fans.

After buying shares, many of them chose to hold for the long term rather than engage in short-term trading.

Therefore, there weren’t many sell orders in the secondary market.

Under these circumstances, the stock price naturally continued to rise.

Soon, it was four o’clock in the afternoon.

Even from the offices of Universal Investment Company, Lin Haoran could faintly hear the closing bell from the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

And by now, Lin Haoran already knew Apple’s final closing price for the day.

$46.68 per share!

The afternoon’s gains were not as strong as the morning’s, but it was still an incredible increase.

After all, the previous day’s closing price was just $36.25 per share.

Now, it had risen by so much again.

With a total share capital of 58.72 million shares, at $46.68 per share, Apple Inc.’s total market capitalization had now reached 2.741 billion US dollars.

This meant that, based on market capitalization, the Apple shares Lin Haoran held were now worth 274 million US dollars.

Judging by the enthusiasm of the investors, the price would probably rise a bit more tomorrow.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran’s mood grew even brighter.

In the afternoon, as he watched the stock price climb, Lin Haoran had even considered having Su Zhixue sell his Apple equity.

In the end, however, he held back.

He owned too many shares; if he sold them all at once, it would truly impact Apple’s stock price.

But selling a small amount was pointless.

As long as the equity was in his hands, the higher the market cap rose, the better!

He just wondered if any financial groups would contact him today.

Lin Haoran believed there were quite a few financial groups interested in Apple’s equity watching from the sidelines.

Just as Lin Haoran had thought, not long after four o’clock, he received a phone call.

The call was from Mr. Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank.

“Mr. Lin, we have a major client in California, backed by a large family financial group. He just called me. They are willing to acquire the 10% of Apple Inc. shares you hold for 250 million US dollars,” Walter Wriston said over the phone.

250 million US dollars. This was quite a bit higher than the price he had in mind yesterday, but since the stock price had risen significantly today, the increase was to be expected.

As for the one who had offered 200 million US dollars yesterday, that person could clearly be disregarded.

“Mr. Walter Wriston, you can have him contact me to discuss the price. Also, if there are any other interested buyers, you can have them call me directly. I’ll be in this office all evening!” Lin Haoran thought for a moment and said with a smile.

“Alright, I’ll give him your number. And congratulations, Apple’s stock price saw another big jump today!” Walter Wriston said ‘congratulations’ but sighed.

After all, such a great investment opportunity had once belonged to Citibank.

Initially, Apple Inc. had hoped for an investment from Citibank.

But now, the investor was not them. All they could do was watch Lin Haoran make a fortune, which naturally filled Walter Wriston with regret.

Walter Wriston didn’t know how many times he had regretted it these past few days.

After all, over two hundred million US dollars was no small amount.

“Thank you for your trouble, Mr. Walter Wriston!” Lin Haoran said before hanging up.

A short while later, Lin Haoran’s phone rang again.

The call was from the very representative of the Californian financial group that Walter Wriston had mentioned.

Lin Haoran picked up the phone, and a middle-aged man’s voice came through: “Mr. Lin, this is Thomas Morton of the Morton family from California. It’s a pleasure to speak with you. Our family is very bullish on Apple Inc., and we are particularly interested in the 10% stake you hold.

Mr. Walter Wriston has already informed us of your intention to sell. We are willing to acquire it for 250 million US dollars. Of course, if you have other thoughts on the price, we can discuss it further.”

Lin Haoran smiled, his mind calculating.

He knew that as Apple’s stock price continued to climb, the value of his shares would also rise with the tide.

Moreover, he could sense the urgency in Thomas Morton’s tone, a clear sign of their eagerness for Apple’s shares.

It seemed they were very optimistic about Apple’s future, willing to spend over two hundred million dollars to get in.

“Mr. Thomas, I appreciate your sincerity. Since we are both interested, let’s be direct. My current asking price is 300 million US dollars. Considering Apple’s potential and future growth, I believe this price is reasonable.

Of course, if you and your family can accept it, we can proceed with the transaction immediately. If not, I respect your decision. After all, this is a significant investment.”

This was only the second potential buyer, and there would surely be others. Lin Haoran was in no hurry to agree so easily, so he directly named a high price, making an exorbitant demand.

On the other end of the line, Thomas Morton was clearly startled by the price, but he quickly regained his composure.

“Mr. Lin, your offer is too high. It’s well above the market price. I don’t think this price is reasonable!” Thomas Morton said with a wry smile.

“Mr. Morton, you may think it’s high, but the shareholders don’t. Everyone can see that Apple Inc. is an exceptionally high-quality enterprise. If I weren’t facing some funding issues, I would never consider selling my Apple shares.”

Chapter 410: Jardine Matheson Wants to Buy Apple Inc. Shares, To the Highest Bidder!

Thomas Morton fell silent for a moment on the other end of the line, clearly weighing Lin Haoran’s words against his family’s desire to buy.

Lin Haoran continued, “Mr. Thomas, this 10% stake I own is larger than the total number of shares Apple Inc. offered to the public in its IPO. Its value isn’t just reflected in the secondary market stock price. I’m sure your family, with its vast experience in the investment world, understands that it’s common for shares in blue-chip companies to be traded at a premium. Especially in this era of rapid innovation in the computer industry, Apple Inc. stands out as a leader. Its future potential is immense, and I believe you and your family can see that.”

After a short pause, Thomas Morton slowly replied, “Mr. Lin, your analysis makes a lot of sense, and Apple Inc. has indeed shown enormous potential. However, three hundred million dollars is certainly over our initial budget. How about this, I need to discuss your price with my family!”

“Of course, Mr. Thomas. I completely understand and respect your decision. However, I hope you can give me a response as soon as possible. As I said, Apple Inc.’s stock price and market value are changing daily, and I don’t want to miss the optimal time for a transaction because of delays. Also, the news that I intend to sell my Apple Inc. shares has already been spread through Citibank. Besides you, I’ve received calls from other interested buyers. As for who I ultimately sell to, it will naturally be the one with the most sincerity. Whether you can seize this opportunity is something you’ll have to consider for yourselves!”

Lin Haoran’s tone was calm, conveying his sincerity without surrendering his initiative in the negotiations.

“Mr. Lin, I understand what you mean. I will give you a response as soon as possible, by tomorrow morning at the latest,” Thomas Morton promised.

After hanging up, a slight smile touched the corners of Lin Haoran’s lips.

He knew he had already secured a favorable position in the negotiations.

Apple Inc.’s stock price and market capitalization were rising steadily, just as he had predicted. This not only increased the value of the shares he held but also instilled a sense of urgency in potential buyers.

From Thomas Morton’s tone, Lin Haoran could sense that he was very keen on acquiring this 10% stake in Apple.

However, Lin Haoran was unconcerned. He didn’t know the man, and there was no obligation to sell the shares to him. He was asking for three hundred million now, but someone else might offer an even higher price. Anything was possible.

Not long after ending the call with Thomas Morton, Lin Haoran received another one.

As expected, it was another interested buyer, but they only offered two hundred thirty million dollars, and their tone lacked sincerity. Lin Haoran ended the call after a brief chat.

After that, several more calls came in, all from within the United States. One offered two hundred million dollars, another two hundred twenty million, and one even offered two hundred fifty million.

Lin Haoran noticed that the higher the offer, the more urgent the bidder sounded. It was clear these were financial groups that were very optimistic about Apple Inc.’s future.

And of course, Lin Haoran told them directly that he wouldn’t consider anything less than three hundred million dollars.

Around three in the afternoon, Lin Haoran received a call from London.

Evidently, the caller had gotten the news from HSBC.

This buyer from London was also very sincere, directly offering two hundred seventy million dollars, which was more or less the current closing price on the stock market.

However, when Lin Haoran told him that he was already discussing a three-hundred-million-dollar deal with the Morton family, the man fell silent. He then told Lin Haoran he would call back very soon.

At six in the evening, Lin Haoran received a call, and this one was a complete surprise. It was from Henry Keswick, the former Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co.

“Mr. Lin, we at Jardine Matheson & Co. would like to purchase your shares in Apple Inc. If you’re interested, we could trade some of Jardine Matheson’s assets in Hong Kong, such as Jardine Securities, Jardine Airport Services, Jardine Insurance Brokers, and others!” Henry Keswick said over the phone.

Lin Haoran was very surprised to hear Henry Keswick’s words.

Truly surprised.

He knew that after being fleeced by him so many times, Jardine Matheson’s main operations were now overseas, with very few assets left in Hong Kong.

Companies like Jardine Securities, Jardine Airport Services, and Jardine Insurance Brokers were among the last of Jardine Matheson’s holdings in Hong Kong.

For him to offer these in exchange for Apple shares—did this mean the senior executives at Jardine Matheson wanted to sever their ties with Hong Kong completely?

“Mr. Henry, are you planning to move Jardine Matheson out of Hong Kong?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

He believed that if they didn’t have such an intention, they would never consider liquidating all their Hong Kong assets.

“As expected, nothing gets past you, Mr. Lin. The senior executives at Jardine Matheson do indeed have this idea. We want to move our headquarters to London,” Henry Keswick admitted.

This was understandable. In Lin Haoran’s previous life, Jardine Matheson had eventually moved its headquarters to London even without losing the Hongkong Land Group.

Not to mention the current Jardine Matheson, which had not only lost its two most important associated subsidiaries, Kowloon Wharf and Hongkong Land, but had also had many other assets taken by Lin Haoran during negotiations, leaving its presence in Hong Kong a shadow of its former self.

Under these circumstances, it was perfectly normal for them to consider leaving Hong Kong.

These British-funded conglomerates were likely worried that Jardine Matheson would once again be targeted by Chinese-funded conglomerates in the future.

“Mr. Henry, my apologies. As you know, my most pressing need at the moment is capital, not acquiring more businesses. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be considering selling my Apple Inc. shares. I’m doing this purely to generate enough cash flow to deal with my current financial difficulties. A financial group in the United States has already offered to buy these shares for three hundred million dollars, though I haven’t yet accepted. But if Jardine Matheson can match the three-hundred-million-dollar price, considering we are both Hong Kong companies, I would be happy to give Jardine Matheson the right of first refusal,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

His explanation was both reasonable and thorough, leaving Henry Keswick with no room for argument.

Indeed, ever since the rumor started circulating, and with Lin Haoran having made no effort to deny it, his financial crisis had become an open secret among Hong Kong’s high society.

In reality, he had little interest in Jardine Matheson’s remaining businesses; the cash shortage was just a convenient excuse to turn them down.

“Very well. I will contact you again if need be, Mr. Lin. I won’t disturb you any further,” Henry Keswick said before hanging up with a note of regret.

Clearly, the three-hundred-million-dollar price Lin Haoran had quoted was far above what Jardine Matheson was willing to pay.

Lin Haoran didn’t mind. He had never expected Jardine Matheson to be able to buy his Apple shares anyway.

The old Jardine Matheson might have been able to, but the current, much-weakened company would find it incredibly difficult to come up with over a billion Hong Kong dollars in cash, unless the financial groups behind them injected more capital or they sold off other overseas assets.

As for raising funds from external financing?

After everything that had happened, these British-funded conglomerates were already on edge. They were more inclined to increase their controlling stake than to dilute their equity again.

After hanging up with Henry Keswick, Lin Haoran took another two calls.

One was from Britain, the other from San Francisco in the United States.

Both callers had the same objective: to acquire his Apple Inc. shares.

For the past two years, the stock markets in the United States and Hong Kong had, similarly, been unaffected by the oil crisis and had instead entered a bull market.

Many knew that Apple Inc.’s stock price was unlikely to fall before the bull market ended; in fact, it was very likely to continue rising.

After all, as technology advanced, the importance of computers was becoming increasingly apparent.

And in the computer industry, Apple Inc. was a very distinctive, representative company, even though it had only been founded a few years ago.

The offers from these two calls were not low—one for two hundred eighty million dollars, the other for two hundred ninety million—creeping ever closer to his current target price of three hundred million.

Seeing how popular the Apple Inc. shares were, Lin Haoran felt relieved.

At the very least, he wouldn’t have any trouble selling this stake.

Looking at the list of more than a dozen phone numbers he had jotted down, Lin Haoran suddenly had an idea.

That’s right, more than a dozen financial groups had called him with offers today.

Since Apple Inc. was so sought after, why not let the highest bidder win? These tycoons, capable of quoting such prices, were obviously from major financial groups with deep pockets. They certainly had operations in New York. If he had them send representatives to bid against each other, wouldn’t that maximize his profit?

After all, based on the Hong Kong dollar exchange rate, an extra ten million US dollars was equivalent to over fifty million Hong Kong dollars!

With this thought, Lin Haoran quickly called back the eight financial groups that had shown the strongest interest.

He explained his idea to them: if they were serious about buying, they could send someone to participate in a bidding session the next morning.

In the end, five of the eight financial groups agreed to send a representative to make an offer.

Five was enough.

He trusted that these big shots wouldn’t collude to suppress the price. He held the final say on the sale, and if they did join forces and the price was unreasonable, he could simply choose not to sell.

After arranging everything, Lin Haoran left the office. He went straight back to his hotel, had a buffet dinner, and then went to rest.

In truth, if he gave it more time, more financial groups would undoubtedly show a keen interest in the Apple Inc. shares.

However, Lin Haoran had no intention of waiting any longer.

He knew very well that there was a limit to how much Apple Inc.’s stock could rise in the near term.

Chapter 411: 5.3 Billion in Available Funds, Stunned by His Own Wealth!

As time went on, Apple Inc.’s stock price might exhaust its growth potential due to its continuous rise.

Coupled with the poor sales and serious defects of the Apple III, a price correction was almost a certainty.

Therefore, his strategy was simple: sell as soon as possible.

Holding onto the shares wouldn’t result in a loss, but the potential for growth over the next decade or so was far too small. He was unwilling to hold them for over ten years just for a meager several-fold increase.

It was far better to take the three hundred million U.S. dollars in cash now. If he invested this capital elsewhere, it could potentially turn into thirty billion dollars, or even more, in a decade’s time.

The night quickly passed.

The next morning, Lin Haoran went to the office of Universal Investment Company as usual.

As for the company’s other traders, they had their own assignments: engaging in short-term operations.

In short, they were to profit by buying low and selling high.

Su Zhixue’s purpose in ordering this was not just to secure those small short-term profits.

More importantly, he hoped that through this hands-on experience, the trading team from Hong Kong could familiarize themselves with and master the workings of the United States stock market while generating revenue for the company.

After all, this was the United States, and its market environment was completely different from Hong Kong’s.

Through such practical operations, the team members could better adapt to and integrate into the U.S. stock market, laying a solid foundation for the company’s long-term development.

As for Walmart, the company’s performance on the stock market was relatively average. Moreover, the team led by Su Zhixue was already accustomed to operating stealthily back in Hong Kong, so their trading would go completely unnoticed.

Over the course of the day, they accumulated about 0.82% of Walmart’s shares—not too much, but not too little either.

Lin Haoran’s goal was to accumulate as many Walmart shares from the stock market as possible, with no upper limit!

And what about triggering acquisition clauses?

Su Zhixue was acquiring the shares secretly through multiple offshore companies, making them untraceable even within the United States.

He had no intention of taking a controlling stake in Walmart; that would be tantamount to ruining it.

Having Hongkong Land Group’s Wellcome supermarkets enter the U.S. market to compete with Walmart for market share?

Forget it. This was the United States, not Hong Kong!

Even if he had the ability to do so, he would be blocked by the government.

Therefore, the best strategy was to let Walmart develop just as it had in his previous world, without interfering in its growth at all.

That way, when Walmart’s market capitalization rose to several hundred billion dollars, Lin Haoran could secretly cash out. How great would that be!

He wasn’t someone obsessed with controlling stakes, unless the target’s value made it worth controlling.

Clearly, the current Walmart was not worth his effort to control.

The future Walmart would be no different.

This was because he was not an American.

It was just like the situation with TikTok; it had flourished in the United States, but the U.S. government was already looking to “reap the leeks.”

In the United States, he was more interested in being an investor and shareholder than a behind-the-scenes controlling figure.

The only way around that would be for Lin Haoran to immigrate to the United States and become a true American.

However, he had no such thoughts. He was already accustomed to life in Hong Kong and was very satisfied with it.

He had no plans to immigrate unless his assets were no longer protected in Hong Kong.

Even if he were to immigrate, Lin Haoran would prioritize Singapore, not the United States.

After chatting with Su Zhixue for a bit, the receptionist informed him that he had visitors.

He went out to check and found it was a representative from one of the parties interested in the Apple Inc. shares.

Within the next half hour, representatives from all five interested parties had arrived.

Lin Haoran greeted the five representatives with a smile and led them into a spacious conference room.

Inside, a long conference table stood in the center, surrounded by comfortable chairs.

This was the conference room the team usually used for meetings.

An abstract painting hung on the wall, adding a modern touch to the room.

“Thank you all for coming such a long way. Please, have a seat,” Lin Haoran said warmly, taking the head seat himself.

The five representatives took their seats, each sizing up their competitors.

Since they had chosen to come, it was clear that they all hoped to acquire the shares and were there with a significant mission.

Lin Haoran glanced at them, hoping they would bid a good price.

“Mr. Lin, we are all very much looking forward to today’s bidding. May we begin?” one representative asked eagerly, his tone filled with confidence.

This representative was none other than the one from the California financial group representing Thomas Morton, who had spoken to Lin Haoran on the phone earlier.

The previous night, when Lin Haoran had called him back to inform him that the shares would be sold via auction, Thomas Morton had been filled with regret.

Because Lin Haoran had previously told him the deal could be closed for three hundred million dollars, but he had hesitated.

He never expected that just half a day later, his hesitation would cause him such regret.

Because three hundred million dollars was no longer Lin Haoran’s asking price.

Since the other party hadn’t agreed to the price on the spot, he naturally had the right to raise it.

Seeing their eagerness, Lin Haoran nodded and signaled an assistant to distribute the prepared bidding rules to everyone.

The rules were simple: a starting bid of three hundred million dollars, with each increment being no less than one million dollars. The highest bidder would win the right to purchase the Apple Inc. shares.

Just a few days ago, when Apple Inc. had just gone public, Lin Haoran’s target price was just over two hundred million dollars.

But in the span of a few days, as Apple Inc.’s stock became highly sought after and its price soared, his target price had risen to three hundred million dollars. Calculated at the Hong Kong dollar to U.S. dollar exchange rate, that was an increase of over five hundred million Hong Kong dollars!

This was an unexpected but pleasant surprise.

After all, over five hundred million Hong Kong dollars was no small sum. Even with his current net worth of over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars, he wouldn’t call five hundred million a small amount.

“Alright, has everyone read the rules clearly? Then let’s begin,” Lin Haoran said, signaling for them to start bidding.

The first representative announced the starting price without hesitation: “Three hundred million dollars!”

Immediately after, the second representative called out his price: “Three hundred and five million dollars!”

The third representative directly shouted a price of three hundred and six million dollars.

From their bids, Lin Haoran could tell that their price ceilings probably weren’t very high.

But he didn’t mind. Any amount more was a gain. Whether it was an extra ten million or twenty million dollars, it was all profit for him.

The fourth representative remained silent; the price had clearly exceeded the limit his superiors had given him.

Just then, the fifth representative called out a price of three hundred and ten million dollars.

As soon as this price was announced, the atmosphere in the conference room grew tense, and all eyes turned to the fifth representative.

The other representatives looked at Lin Haoran, waiting for his reaction.

Lin Haoran smiled slightly, not in a hurry to respond.

He was already very satisfied with this price, but he wanted to see how the others would react.

As expected, the third representative took a deep breath and announced an even higher price: “Three hundred and fifteen million dollars!”

When this price was called, the other representatives showed expressions of surprise.

They hadn’t expected the bidding to be so intense—a five-million-dollar jump in a single bid. And this was U.S. dollars, not Hong Kong dollars!

The fifth representative fell silent for a moment before slowly announcing his price: “Three hundred and twenty million dollars!”

This price had already far exceeded Lin Haoran’s expectations.

He looked at the representatives of the financial groups present, hoping for even higher bids.

Three hundred and twenty million was twenty million dollars higher than yesterday’s target price of three hundred million, which meant an extra profit of over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars for him.

The first representative seemed to sense Lin Haoran’s gaze. He took a deep breath and announced a stunning price: “Three hundred and twenty-five million dollars!”

As soon as this price was announced, the entire conference room fell into a brief silence.

The other four representatives stared at him, their eyes showing surprise, which also indicated that they had essentially given up on the auction.

A smile appeared on Lin Haoran’s face.

He looked at the representative, marveling inwardly at the Morton family’s immense financial power and at their willingness to spend so freely.

After all, this price was already far higher than the stock’s price on the secondary market.

This showed that the financial group behind him had immense confidence in Apple Inc. to be so willing to spend this much to acquire Lin Haoran’s shares!

However, he quickly regained his composure.

After the representative of the Morton family bid three hundred and twenty-five million dollars, there were no further bids. It was clear this was the final, highest price.

He knew that today’s auction had been a complete success.

He smiled and looked around at the five representatives, then announced, “Congratulations to the representative from the Morton family. You have successfully won the right to purchase 5.872 million shares of Apple Inc. for three hundred and twenty-five million dollars. Shortly, we will sign the share transfer agreement to complete this transaction.

As for the other four, please convey my sincere apologies to the gentlemen you represent. Although we were unable to reach an agreement this time, I still look forward to the possibility of working together in the future.”

Although the other four representatives couldn’t hide their disappointment, they had no choice but to accept the outcome.

After all, in the business world, wins and losses are a part of the game. Since they couldn’t match the price offered by another, they couldn’t blame anyone for the failed acquisition.

After the four had left, under the witness of an authoritative legal team, Lin Haoran signed the share transfer agreement with the representative of the Morton family.

By noon that day, Lin Haoran had received the three hundred and twenty-five million dollars from the Morton family.

And just as promptly, Lin Haoran handed over the Apple Inc. stock certificates to the other party.

With that, the transaction was complete, and Lin Haoran was temporarily no longer a shareholder of Apple Inc.

Currently, the U.S. dollar was constantly appreciating, so the exchange rate against the Hong Kong dollar was also in flux.

This month, for example, the exchange rate had stabilized at approximately 5.3 Hong Kong dollars to 1 U.S. dollar.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s actual return on his Apple Inc. shares was approximately 1.723 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Looking back to the beginning of the year, his initial investment was only ten million U.S. dollars, which, at the exchange rate at the time, was equivalent to about fifty million Hong Kong dollars.

From fifty million Hong Kong dollars to over 1.7 billion Hong Kong dollars, his final return on investment was an astonishing 34 times!

Adding the over 3.6 billion Hong Kong dollars that Wanqing Group had obtained from selling plots of land and properties, his current available funds now exceeded 5.3 billion Hong Kong dollars!

And this didn’t even include the funds from the Hongkong Land Group.

If he counted the over ten billion in disposable funds from Hongkong Land Group, it was unimaginable just how wealthy he was now.

After doing a quick calculation in his head, even Lin Haoran himself was stunned by his own wealth!

Chapter 412: Large-Scale Investments, Important Connections!

With ample funds at his disposal, Lin Haoran no longer needed to be timid about investing.

Next, in addition to the Walmart shares, Lin Haoran had Su Zhixue select members to form multiple teams.

Each of these teams would be responsible for a single target.

These targets included Intel, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, Citibank, Chevron, and more.

Intel needs no introduction. Its market capitalization was not high at the time, and it had a very low profile among publicly listed companies in the United States. Although it was well-known in the semiconductor industry, its performance was poor, even incurring losses year after year.

In fact, throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, the market capitalization of American information technology companies was generally unimpressive. The stock prices of household names like Intel, Kodak, and Xerox all significantly underperformed the market.

While stock prices in other industries were constantly rising, tech stocks seemed to be missing the bull market, falling instead of rising.

Even if they rose, they would soon fall again.

Therefore, Intel’s stock price was currently very low, not even ranking among the top one hundred companies in the United States.

But Lin Haoran knew very well that by 1999, this company’s market capitalization would exceed five hundred billion dollars, making it a true global giant.

It was only in the 21st century that Intel seemed unable to keep up with the times, and its market capitalization began a steady decline.

However, that had nothing to do with Lin Haoran. His focus now was on the remaining twenty years of the 20th century.

As for the 21st century, it was still twenty years away—too far in the future for him to worry about.

So, Intel was undoubtedly an excellent company to invest in. With everyone currently disappointed in its stock, it was the perfect time for him to discreetly accumulate shares.

As for Coca-Cola, it was an even clearer choice.

Warren Buffett had made a huge profit by investing in Coca-Cola. Especially in the eighties and nineties, as the premier consumer goods stock, Coca-Cola was an exceptionally high-quality enterprise and a very worthy investment for Lin Haoran.

Then there was ExxonMobil. The oil crisis of the past two years had caused its value to soar, with its market capitalization now exceeding twenty billion dollars, making it one of the three giants among publicly listed US companies, second only to AT&T and IBM.

But Lin Haoran also knew that ExxonMobil’s market capitalization would continue to experience steady growth in the future.

Many companies, no matter how brilliant they once were, were gradually phased out by the changing times, like the former Fairchild Semiconductor.

ExxonMobil, however, was different. It consistently remained at the pinnacle of publicly listed US companies and even became one of the world’s most valuable enterprises in the early 21st century.

Although its growth couldn’t compare to that of tech companies later on, its revenue and profits were not to be underestimated.

As for why he was investing in Citibank, the reason was also simple: he needed the personal connections in the United States!

With the help of Citibank and the powerful financial groups behind it, he could do well for himself in the United States even though he wasn’t an American.

Although his current relationship with Citibank was good, it was ultimately one of mutual interest.

For Lin Haoran, the most direct way to deepen this relationship was to become one of Citibank’s major shareholders, or even join the Board of Directors as a member.

In the future, if the Squid financial group wanted to take control of Citibank, they would have to get his approval first.

Lin Haoran provided Su Zhixue with a list of over a dozen companies. Except for Citibank, these companies all shared a common trait: their future market capitalization would become ridiculously high, with an absurd rate of increase.

As for Citibank, although its growth wouldn’t be as extraordinary as the others, it was still an excellent investment.

And why not focus on investing in a single company? It was simple: with the capital he now held, he had the power to acquire a company if he truly targeted one.

But Lin Haoran had no such intention. He was purely investing to make money and didn’t want the hassle of holding a controlling stake. Nor did he want to disrupt the development trajectory of these companies. After all, if he changed them, their future paths would be altered, and he had no idea what kind of enterprises they would become.

Therefore, the best method was not to interfere—just to invest and hold shares secretly.

Moreover, diversifying his investments across so many companies would help reduce risk. Even if one company’s path was altered by his investment, it was unlikely that they would all change.

Seeing the US branch of Universal Investment Company gradually stabilize, Lin Haoran was very satisfied.

He had checked the loyalty of these employees and was very pleased. Even if they weren’t loyal to him personally, they were loyal to the company and wouldn’t harm its interests, which was enough.

Time flew, and in the blink of an eye, it was December 20th.

Apple Inc.’s stock price had performed just as he had expected, with its total market capitalization peaking at around three billion dollars before failing to climb any higher.

In fact, its stock price had fallen for two consecutive days, bringing its total market capitalization back down to around 2.8 billion dollars.

Lin Haoran had sold his shares for 325 million dollars, which corresponded to a total market capitalization of 3.25 billion dollars.

So, the price he got was quite good.

Now, Apple Inc. had nothing to do with him. If its stock price fell, it was of no great concern to him.

Even if it plummeted to the bottom, it wouldn’t matter to him in the slightest.

The news of the deal he had struck with Mike Markkula had already spread throughout the United States and back to Hong Kong.

The New York Times had even conducted a special interview with him.

As a result, Lin Haoran’s fame in the United States was growing.

Today was Saturday, and the stock market was closed.

Universal Investment Company was also closed. He didn’t go to the office but instead toured some of New York’s famous hotels in a bulletproof Rolls-Royce, accompanied by his bodyguards.

At six in the evening, Lin Haoran arrived at the Citibank headquarters building.

He held a luxurious golden invitation card in his hand.

Today was the date of Citibank’s year-end gala, an event to thank its important long-standing customers.

Lin Haoran had successfully collaborated with Citibank on two major contracts: one for gold futures and another for a three billion Hong Kong dollar loan.

Both contracts had generated considerable profits for Citibank, so he naturally qualified as one of its important clients.

Coupled with his rising fame and growing wealth, Lin Haoran was someone Citibank was keen to court.

Lin Haoran was already very familiar with the Citibank headquarters from his last trip to the United States for gold futures trading.

He had a vivid memory of the skyscraper supported by several massive columns.

After arriving in New York this time, Lin Haoran had already paid a visit to Mr. Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank.

Therefore, he felt right at home on this visit and needed no guidance from the Citibank staff. They didn’t even check his invitation, simply letting him pass and take the elevator directly to the 53rd floor.

Citibank’s year-end gala was being held on the 53rd floor of this building.

Upon reaching the 53rd floor, Lin Haoran stepped into a large, hall-like space.

The area was elegantly decorated. A number of beautiful white women were serving as waitstaff, pushing carts with various foods and arranging everything in a tense but orderly manner.

Glancing around, he saw several sofas in a corner of the hall where about a dozen white men were gathered, chatting about something.

These men were impeccably dressed. The youngest among them appeared to be in his forties, while most were in their fifties, sixties, or even seventies.

Among them, Lin Haoran spotted the Chairman of Citibank, Mr. Walter Wriston.

Evidently, these were Citibank’s most important clients.

As Lin Haoran looked over, Mr. Walter Wriston also noticed him.

He stood up and walked briskly towards Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Lin, welcome to Citibank.” Walter Wriston smiled as he shook Lin Haoran’s hand.

“Thank you for the invitation, Mr. Walter Wriston!” Lin Haoran replied with a polite smile.

“It is our honor to have you here, Mr. Lin,” Mr. Walter Wriston responded enthusiastically, his eyes full of admiration and esteem for Lin Haoran. “Your investment acumen and business wisdom have become legendary in the industry. As your partner, Mr. Lin, we are also very proud.”

If there was anyone present who best understood Lin Haoran’s investment prowess, it was undoubtedly Walter Wriston.

After all, Citibank had witnessed first-hand Lin Haoran’s incredible feat of entering the gold futures market at its lowest point and successfully exiting at its peak.

Afterward, there was Apple Inc., a company they had overlooked, but one that Lin Haoran had taken a keen interest in. He invested, and in less than a year, he had earned a thirty-four-fold return.

In addition, Walter Wriston was well aware of many of Lin Haoran’s investment successes in Hong Kong.

Therefore, his admiration for Lin Haoran was genuine, even though the other man was only in his twenties.

Lin Haoran smiled humbly. “You flatter me, Mr. Wriston. I was just lucky enough to catch the right opportunity. Besides, Citibank’s professional services and support were also crucial factors in my success.”

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Mr. Walter Wriston invited Lin Haoran to join the group of white elites who were conversing.

These men were all important clients of Citibank, spanning various fields such as finance, energy, manufacturing, technology, and food. Many of them were tycoons. Although Lin Haoran was unfamiliar with them, it didn’t matter; through Walter Wriston’s introductions, he was gradually becoming acquainted.

These were all important connections!

Although his relationships with them were still casual, he was, at the very least, beginning to meet them.

To build important connections, you have to start by getting to know people, after all.

Chapter 413: The Chinese Tycoon and the Young Man Who Burst In!

Stepping into the crowd, Lin Haoran quickly blended into the discussion. His speech and manner were appropriate and poised, and he offered unique insights on various economic topics, causing those around him to see him in a new light.

Especially when the topic turned to future investment trends, Lin Haoran shared his views on the technology, energy, and consumer industries. These perspectives were novel and forward-thinking, earning frequent nods of approval from the crowd.

Lin Haoran had already become a celebrity this past month, his influence steadily rising.

Therefore, these people were also happy to acquaint themselves with the remarkably young super-rich man before them.

In the main hall, people began to arrive one after another, all of them guests of Citibank.

In a crowd of Caucasians, Lin Haoran seemed out of place; he was, in fact, the only person of Chinese descent in the entire venue.

However, he would soon no longer be the only one.

The elevator doors opened again. Lin Haoran couldn’t help but look over and was surprised to see another person of Chinese descent.

“Come, come, Mr. Lin. Let me introduce you. This is Mr. An Wang, a very powerful tycoon in American business circles. Since you are both Chinese, I imagine you’ll have a lot to talk about,” Walter Wriston said with a smile, leading Lin Haoran over to An Wang.

“An Wang?” Lin Haoran carefully sized up the Chinese tycoon.

He had indeed heard of this tycoon, a famous Chinese-American scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur.

He was the man who invented magnetic core memory.

The famous Wang Laboratories was no less well-known than Apple Inc.

He was even known as the “Computer King.” In this era, Wang Laboratories had a much longer history than Apple Inc.

Wang Laboratories had reached its zenith, with an annual revenue of three billion dollars. It ranked 146th on the list of 500 largest corporations by America’s Fortune magazine and employed 31,500 people worldwide.

And An Wang himself, with a personal fortune of two billion dollars, was ranked among the ten richest people in America.

Of course, this so-called list of the top ten wealthiest did not include the hidden billionaires.

The truly wealthy… no one ever knows exactly how much money they have, and they themselves wouldn’t deign to reveal their true worth.

Lin Haoran was the same now. No one could calculate how much money he had. In the future, as he invested in these highly promising American companies, they too would gradually become part of his fortune.

But these were all held privately; no one would know.

“Mr. Lin, I’ve heard about your recent exploits. For such an outstanding business prodigy to emerge from the Chinese community is truly heartening. It reminds me our generation isn’t alone!” To his surprise, An Wang took the initiative to greet him and even spoke to Lin Haoran in Mandarin.

In this era, people of Chinese descent in America’s top business circles could be counted on one’s fingers, and An Wang was undoubtedly one of the most prominent among them.

Another one worth mentioning was Morris Chang of Texas Instruments. Both men had achieved extraordinary success in their respective fields.

But the difference between An Wang and Morris Chang was that while Chang held the high position of Global Vice President at Texas Instruments, he was ultimately a professional manager, with his responsibilities focused more on execution and administration.

An Wang, on the other hand, was the founder and boss of Wang Laboratories. He was a well-deserved entrepreneur, possessing absolute control and decision-making power over his company.

This difference in status gave An Wang a greater say and more autonomy in the business world.

“Mr. Wang, you are a senior I should learn from. The success Wang Laboratories has achieved in the United States is truly enviable!” Lin Haoran said humbly.

Looking at the sixty-year-old man before him, Lin Haoran knew that his later years would be somewhat tragic.

In the late eighties, An Wang was diagnosed with a terminal illness, and not long after, in 1990, the tycoon passed away.

Wang Laboratories was naturally inherited by his son.

Under his son’s management, and due to a series of major mistakes, Wang Laboratories went from prosperity to decline.

Just as Wang Laboratories had risen miraculously in the sixties and seventies, it declined at an astonishing speed. Not long after An Wang’s death, the company filed for bankruptcy. It was truly tragic.

However, Wang Laboratories was currently doing very well, so naturally, no one could imagine that it would fall to such a state ten years later.

“Mr. Wang, your achievements have not only greatly inspired the Chinese community but have also had a profound impact on the entire technology sector. I feel incredibly honored to be in the same era as you, to experience and drive these changes together,” Lin Haoran said sincerely.

An Wang’s accomplishments were undoubtedly worthy of the highest praise. He was not just a pioneer in the field of technology; his contributions earned Lin Haoran’s deep admiration.

Moreover, for an old gentleman who had left such a significant mark on the history of technology, his personal charisma and wisdom were equally admirable.

After hearing this, An Wang beamed, his eyes twinkling with appreciation. “Mr. Lin, you are too kind. Your own achievements in the business world are equally remarkable, especially your precise insight and extraordinary foresight in the field of investment. It’s truly admirable. The emergence of such an outstanding talent like you among the Chinese community is a source of pride for us all.”

An Wang did not look down on Lin Haoran because of his youth; instead, he treated the young man as an equal.

The two conversed cheerfully. Although the Caucasian guests around them couldn’t understand Mandarin, they were drawn in by the atmosphere between them, casting curious glances from time to time.

It was a pity that the core of Wang Laboratories was essentially An Wang himself. Otherwise, Lin Haoran would have seriously considered investing in the company to help it develop even further.

But when he thought about the future of Wang Laboratories, his interest waned.

He knew An Wang died of a terminal illness, but he wasn’t clear on what kind.

So, although he had the intention of giving a hint, he ultimately said nothing.

Just as everyone was chatting, the stairwell door next to the elevators burst open.

A young man ran in, panting, followed by a building security guard, also out of breath. It was clear the guard had tried to stop the young man but had failed.

Lin Haoran looked at the young man and found him increasingly familiar.

Wasn’t this… the future richest man in the world, Bill Gates?

Like Jobs, Bill Gates was also born in 1955, which made the Bill Gates of today only twenty-five years old.

When Jobs founded Apple Inc., Bill Gates had also founded Microsoft.

However, Microsoft’s current strength was clearly a far cry from Apple Inc.’s.

Apple Inc. was already a listed company with a market capitalization of nearly three billion dollars, while Microsoft was still an obscure little company.

But they were very lucky. This year, IBM had selected Microsoft to write the key operating system software for its new PC, which was a major turning point in Microsoft’s development.

And so, Microsoft purchased the rights to an operating system for fifty thousand dollars and rewrote it into the Disk Operating System (MS-DOS), which would later become the standard operating system for PCs.

Even so, Microsoft was still a tiny company in the United States, so small that very few people even knew of its existence as a software development enterprise.

Why had he appeared here?

Lin Haoran watched the young Bill Gates before him, a little curious.

Bill Gates’s appearance undoubtedly added an unusual splash of color to the gathering. Everyone present turned their gazes toward him.

He was out of breath, yet his eyes shone with determination and urgency, as if he were chasing some important goal.

The security guard was about to grab him and pull him out of the hall.

But Lin Haoran stepped forward and stopped him.

“This man is a friend of mine. Let him stay,” Lin Haoran said to the security guard with a smile.

“You can go,” Citibank’s Chairman, Walter Wriston, spoke up at that moment.

Since Lin Haoran had spoken up, he would naturally grant him this favor.

After he spoke, everyone retracted their curious gazes.

To them, Bill Gates was just an unknown young man, not worthy of much of their attention.

Even Walter Wriston paid Bill Gates no more mind, returning to the crowd to chat with his important clients.

Lin Haoran, however, sized up the still-panting future richest man in the world with great interest.

To Lin Haoran, although this future tech titan had not yet reached the pinnacle of the world, his potential was not to be underestimated. This was the perfect time to build a good connection with him and offer him help.

“Mr. Lin, thank you so much. I didn’t expect to see you here, and I certainly didn’t expect you to help me out of that jam.” Bill Gates walked up to Lin Haoran and said gratefully, extending his hand. “Let me introduce myself. My name is Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft, a company that primarily develops computer software. You may not know me, but I will never forget your kindness.”

Lin Haoran smiled and shook Bill Gates’s hand. “Mr. Gates, you’re too kind. It’s a surprise for me to meet you here as well. And I believe that the names Microsoft and Bill Gates will soon resonate throughout the entire industry.”

Hearing this, a flash of surprise crossed Bill Gates’s eyes, but it was quickly replaced by gratitude and pride. “Mr. Lin, your encouragement means a great deal to me. Microsoft is growing fast, and we’re working hard to show the world our value.”

Being chosen by a tech giant like IBM to write the key operating system software for its new PC was Bill Gates’s proudest achievement. He often found himself alone in the dead of night, savoring the joy and satisfaction this accomplishment brought him.

“I see the shadow of another young man in you. I believe you will be no less capable than he is!” Lin Haoran suddenly said with a smile, his eyes filled with anticipation and admiration.

Upon hearing this, a curious expression appeared on Bill Gates’s face. “Oh? Who are you referring to, Mr. Lin? Is it someone I know?”

Chapter 414: A Determined Bill Gates

Lin Haoran smiled and nodded. “You should know him, though I’m not sure if he knows you. He’s Jobs, the founder and Chairman of Apple Inc. I see in you a similar dedication and pride in success, that spirit of daring to challenge authority and courage to innovate.”

Hearing this, a flash of surprise and excitement appeared in Bill Gates’s eyes.

He naturally understood Jobs’s status and influence in the tech world. Once Apple Inc. went public, it rapidly became one of the top fifty listed companies in the United States by market capitalization, and Jobs had long been an idol for many young people.

To be appraised so highly by Lin Haoran was an immense honor for him.

“Mr. Lin, thank you so much for your praise. I will continue to work hard and not let you down,” Bill Gates said sincerely.

“Mr. Gates, why did you just come out of the stairwell door?” Lin Haoran asked suddenly, curious.

At the mention of this, an embarrassed smile crossed Bill Gates’s face.

“I actually found out by chance that Citibank was holding its year-end gala today. I heard many business tycoons would be in attendance, including several from the computer industry alone.

“As it happens, I’m in New York on a business trip from New Mexico, so I was especially keen to attend. I thought this might be another opportunity for me, but unfortunately, I wasn’t invited.

“The regular elevators in the Citibank building only go up to the 30th floor; ordinary people can’t access any higher. So, I came up with a plan: I took the elevator to the 30th floor, then took the stairs.

“But while I was climbing, I was unfortunately spotted by a patrolling security guard, and he chased me all the way here!” Bill Gates explained with a wry smile.

After hearing this, Lin Haoran had a sudden realization and couldn’t help but admire Bill Gates’s persistence and determination.

Even after taking an elevator to the 30th floor, he would still have had to climb another twenty-three floors to get here, since this was the 53rd floor after all.

Climbing twenty-three floors in one go, all while being chased by a security guard—just thinking about it sounded exciting.

At this thought, Lin Haoran once again marveled at the future richest man in the world. His perseverance was truly incredible!

Lin Haoran clapped Bill Gates on the shoulder and smiled. “Mr. Gates, your perseverance and resolve are truly admirable. To climb twenty-three floors for a potential opportunity—that’s not something an ordinary person could do.”

Bill Gates smiled humbly. “You flatter me, Mr. Lin. I just feel that sometimes, to seize an opportunity, you have to put in some effort. Although it was a bit of a mess this time, I feel that at least I tried and won’t have any regrets.”

Lin Haoran nodded, expressing his appreciation for Bill Gates’s attitude. “That’s right. Opportunity always favors the prepared. Your actions today are the best proof of that. And although I don’t know how strong your company, Microsoft, is right now, based on my interaction with you, I believe your skills and talent will one day receive the recognition they deserve.”

At this point, Lin Haoran’s tone shifted. “But speaking of which, although you didn’t get to formally attend the gala, you did run into me by accident. Perhaps this could be considered a special kind of fate.”

Hearing this, Bill Gates’s eyes shone with sincerity as he nodded earnestly. “Yes, this truly is a rare fate. Although I have only known of you for a month, Mr. Lin, you have long been my idol and role model. I will strive to learn from you, constantly improve, and hope to one day achieve what you have.”

At this moment, Bill Gates had no status to speak of; he was just an ordinary person. To be treated so seriously by a big shot like Lin Haoran was, of course, quite moving for him.

“If you don’t mind, I would like to be your friend!” Lin Haoran said suddenly with a smile.

At this moment, he already had his sights set on Microsoft.

Microsoft was still an insignificant little company, far worse off than Apple Inc. had been when he first invested in it.

Before his ten-million-dollar investment, Apple Inc. had already made a name for itself in the tech world with the Apple II, becoming one of the stronger companies in Silicon Valley.

And that ten-million-dollar investment had now yielded a return of 325 million dollars.

Microsoft, on the other hand, had only just begun to make its mark by luckily winning a small bid from IBM. Before this, it had been virtually unknown.

However, it was this very bid that became a crucial turning point in Microsoft’s development, completely changing its destiny.

This year, IBM had chosen Microsoft to develop the core operating system software for its new generation of PCs, marking a significant milestone in the company’s history.

Faced with a tight timeline and complex programming requirements, Microsoft had purchased the rights to an operating system called QDOS from a Seattle programmer named Paterson for fifty thousand dollars.

After some adaptation and refinement, Microsoft provided the system to IBM, renaming it Microsoft DOS (MS-DOS).

In the future, with the widespread popularity of the IBM-PC, MS-DOS would also achieve unprecedented success, as other PC manufacturers, eager to maintain compatibility with IBM, all adopted this operating system.

Of course, since Microsoft had only recently won the IBM bid and sales of IBM’s new machine were still low, this computer system had not yet been widely promoted, so Microsoft remained obscure for now.

Lin Haoran’s mind was racing with calculations. He knew very well that the man before him, Bill Gates, and his company, Microsoft, though not yet famous, held immense, hidden potential.

As a transmigrator, Lin Haoran knew that Bill Gates would one day be a figure who rewrote the history of technology. From 1995 to 2007, Bill Gates was named the world’s richest person by Forbes for thirteen consecutive years. This series of accolades was a testament to Microsoft’s outstanding achievements and profound influence.

Lin Haoran knew very well that this young entrepreneur before him was standing at the starting point of a great empire.

“Be friends with me?” Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Bill Gates couldn’t help but look astonished, even a little incredulous.

After all, he was still just a fledgling, an unknown youth in the tech industry, while Lin Haoran was already a business tycoon with a celebrated reputation in the United States and even globally. His wealth and influence were far beyond reach.

In Bill Gates’s view, someone of Lin Haoran’s stature would typically only associate with elites of similar standing and power. A young man like him seemed to belong to a world far removed from Lin Haoran’s.

And yet, such a person was taking the initiative to befriend him?

Even though Bill Gates was very confident in his heart, believing that Microsoft’s future held infinite possibilities after partnering with a giant like IBM, all of this was still just a beautiful vision and an expectation in his mind, not yet a reality.

However, this super-rich man before him, Lin Haoran, had actually taken the initiative to lower his status and befriend him, a young man who was still a nobody?

This sudden gesture of goodwill caught Bill Gates completely off guard. He even wondered if he had heard wrong.

“That’s right. Or is Mr. Gates unwilling to be my friend?” Seeing his reaction, Lin Haoran smiled and extended the invitation again, his eyes full of sincerity and expectation.

At that moment, Bill Gates was finally certain that this was not a hallucination.

An indescribable feeling of emotion and excitement surged in his heart, and he quickly nodded in agreement. “Of course, I’m willing. Mr. Lin, it would be my honor to be your friend.”

For Bill Gates, this was an unexpected delight.

He had come here purely on a whim, just to try his luck.

Bill Gates was well aware of his “illegal trespassing.” Even if he had managed to sneak in successfully, he could have been discovered by security and thrown out at any moment.

However, a relentless fighting spirit burned deep within Bill Gates’s heart.

He knew very well that if he didn’t try, he would never know the chances of success, and there would be no opportunity at all.

By trying, even if the probability of failure was high, there was still a sliver of hope for success.

It was this unwillingness to admit defeat that drove him to take the risk.

As a young man of the same generation as Jobs, Bill Gates had always felt he was in no way inferior to him.

Whenever he saw Jobs and his Apple Inc. shining brightly in the tech world and then compared it to his own current situation, an intense feeling of pressure would arise.

This pressure came less from Jobs’s success and more from Bill Gates’s own deep-seated expectations for himself.

He desperately wanted Microsoft to secure a place in the future of the tech industry, to stand on equal footing with Apple Inc., or even to surpass it.

To achieve this dream, Bill Gates was willing to give it his all.

He knew that success was never easily obtained. Only through constant trying and constant challenging could one possibly seize those fleeting opportunities.

“Excellent. I believe your future will be no worse than mine. Trust me, my judgment isn’t wrong. I can tell just from your actions today!” Lin Haoran said with a wide smile, patting Bill Gates on the shoulder.

“Mr. Lin, you’re too kind. Please, just call me Bill,” Bill Gates said, his tone tinged with humility and gratitude.

He couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride. To be thought of so highly by a famous super-rich man like Lin Haoran was undoubtedly a tremendous encouragement for him.

Lin Haoran looked at Bill Gates and continued, “Bill, your courage and determination have earned my deep admiration. In this competitive era, there aren’t many young people like you who are fearless in the face of difficulties and march bravely forward.”

Bill Gates smiled modestly. “You praise me too much, Mr. Lin. I just did what I believed was right and simply did my best.”

Chapter 415: Making Full Use of a Top-Tier Social Platform

Lin Haoran shook his head and said seriously, “No, Bill. Your actions have already surpassed what most people could imagine. You dare to challenge authority and pursue your dreams. That spirit in itself is a tremendous success. I believe that as long as you persevere, Microsoft will definitely become a leader in the tech world.”

He was laying the groundwork, looking for an opportunity to invest in Microsoft.

Investing when Microsoft was still obscure, and waiting until it went public or even became a titan—the rate of return would surely be a terrifyingly massive number.

Since he had run into the founder of Microsoft by chance, it would be an utter waste to miss such a golden investment opportunity.

“At this banquet, the most famous person in the computer industry is probably Mr. Wang. Bill, would you like me to introduce you to him?” Lin Haoran said with a playful smile.

Hearing this, Bill Gates’s eyes instantly lit up.

He was secretly thrilled. Hadn’t he gone to great lengths to get into this gala for the very purpose of meeting computer industry tycoons like An Wang?

Although Microsoft had already successfully partnered with IBM, and Microsoft DOS had been confirmed as the operating system for IBM’s new generation of computers, laying a solid foundation for Microsoft’s future development, Bill Gates’s ambitions were far greater than that.

Wang Laboratories was an industry behemoth that, by its own strength, could nearly stand toe-to-toe with IBM in the computer industry. It held a pivotal position in the field.

Although its actual strength was far from IBM’s, that was only because Wang Laboratories’ R&D products were relatively specialized.

If he could successfully make this connection and persuade Mr. Wang to include Microsoft DOS in Wang computers’ configurations, then Microsoft’s future would undoubtedly be even brighter, with limitless potential!

At this thought, Bill Gates felt as if his heart had grown wings. He was light and thrilled, as if in a beautiful dream, unable to contain himself.

“Mr. Lin, that would be wonderful! If I could have your introduction, I would be eternally grateful,” Bill Gates said sincerely, unable to hide the excitement in his voice.

Watching Bill Gates’s eager eyes, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but admire his ambition and courage. It’s no wonder he’s destined to be the richest man in the world.

He nodded slightly and said, “Alright, I’ll take you to see Mr. Wang now.”

With that, Lin Haoran led Bill Gates through the bustling crowd, heading toward An Wang.

Along the way, Bill Gates followed closely behind Lin Haoran, his heart a mixture of nervousness and anticipation.

He was well aware that, aside from the busy waiters, every person present was a heavyweight figure in the business world of New York State, and indeed, the United States.

In such an environment, Bill Gates couldn’t help but feel like a single grain of sand in a vast ocean. Compared to these industry titans, he was still green and had yet to establish a firm footing in the business world.

At that moment, he noticed An Wang engaged in a lively conversation with Citibank’s Chairman, Walter Wriston, and others. Hearty laughter rang out from time to time, and the atmosphere was very congenial.

As Lin Haoran led Bill Gates closer, Mr. Wang’s conversation became clearer.

They seemed to be discussing some exciting business plan.

Bill Gates held his breath, trying not to let his footsteps disturb this important conversation.

He secretly planned how to interject at the right moment, to both showcase Microsoft’s value and respect Mr. Wang’s time.

However, An Wang, Walter Wriston, and the others had already noticed Lin Haoran approaching, and they all turned their gazes toward him.

As for Bill Gates, who stood beside Lin Haoran, everyone at most glanced at him without paying him much attention.

In their eyes, Bill Gates was just an insignificant, ordinary person.

“Gentlemen, I hope I’m not interrupting?” A waiter was holding a tray with several glasses of red wine and cocktails. Lin Haoran picked up a glass of red wine and greeted them with a smile.

Bill Gates followed his lead, taking a glass of red wine from the tray as well.

“Of course not. Mr. Lin, care to join us for a chat?” An Wang responded with a smile.

“Of course, I’d be honored!” Lin Haoran accepted.

“Mr. Lin, is this gentleman really a friend of yours?” Walter Wriston asked curiously, seeing Bill Gates following Lin Haoran.

“That’s right. Allow me to introduce you all. This is my friend, Bill Gates. The company he founded is a partner of IBM, and he’s a very promising young man!” Lin Haoran introduced him with a smile.

“A partner of IBM?” Lin Haoran’s introduction immediately caught An Wang’s attention.

After all, IBM had always been a competitor of Wang Laboratories, and the competition between them in the commercial computer sector was fierce.

Now, hearing that this young man’s company was a partner of his rival, how could he not take notice?

“Mr. Wang, I’ve long admired your reputation. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Bill Gates, the founder and CEO of Microsoft.

Our company specializes in the development of computer programming software. It was founded in the same year as Apple Inc. To date, we have made significant achievements in the field of BASIC interpreters, and Microsoft’s BASIC has even gradually become the recognized market standard.

Because of this, we’ve made a small name for ourselves in the industry. IBM has also acknowledged our strengths in software and ultimately entrusted the momentous task of developing their computer system to us at Microsoft,” Bill Gates took the initiative to introduce himself and Microsoft.

“Microsoft? Hmm, I’ve heard a little about it.” An Wang nodded slightly as he said the name.

In the computer industry of this era, the circle was not very large.

Although Wang Laboratories focused on hardware and Microsoft specialized in software, they were both in the computer field. Since Microsoft had started to make its mark and had gained a small reputation, it wasn’t surprising that An Wang had heard of it.

“You’re all in the computer industry—one primarily in hardware, the other in software. You should talk. Perhaps you can even collaborate!” Lin Haoran said with a smile from the side.

Although Microsoft was still weak and not very famous, the fact that it had been recognized by IBM proved it had its own strengths.

This year-end gala hosted by Citibank was, in effect, a way to give back to its important clients and provide them with a platform for cooperation.

“Mr. Gates, could you share with me the unique advantages of your system in terms of compatibility and performance?” An Wang turned, a gentle smile on his face as he looked at Bill Gates.

In truth, An Wang had not initially intended to have a deep conversation with this young entrepreneur. After all, there was a significant disparity in the scale and influence of their companies.

Wang Laboratories enjoyed a prestigious reputation in the American tech industry and was a well-deserved corporate giant. Microsoft, despite its partnership with IBM, was still considered a fledgling startup. Its market share, technological foundation, and brand influence were all in their infancy.

The gap between them was like the brilliant moon and a newly emerging star in the night sky. One was already radiating dazzling light and leading the industry, while the other was still striving to emit its own glow, fighting for a place in the vast cosmos.

However, out of respect for Lin Haoran, this newly minted super-rich fellow countryman, and in recognition of the drive and potential Bill Gates displayed, An Wang decided to give him a chance.

This was not only a response to Lin Haoran’s introduction but also a form of encouragement and support for a young entrepreneur.

Bill Gates sensed An Wang’s goodwill. He took a deep breath and began to detail the unique features of the Microsoft DOS system: “Mr. Wang, our DOS system was designed from the ground up with the needs of compatibility and performance in mind.

It uses a modular design, which allows the system to easily adapt to various hardware configurations, thereby ensuring broad compatibility.

At the same time, we are constantly optimizing the code to improve the system’s operational efficiency, ensuring it can deliver optimal performance even with limited hardware resources…”

Lin Haoran didn’t get too involved in the in-depth discussion between Bill Gates and An Wang.

He was very clear that this year-end gala hosted by Citibank was a rare, top-tier social platform, and he had to make full use of this opportunity to expand his network and resources.

Although Lin Haoran had gained some fame in the United States after the IPO and sale of his Apple Inc. shares were widely reported by the media, he knew that his foundation was still limited.

In the eyes of many, he might just be a foreign upstart clutching a huge amount of cash, lacking a deep industry background and extensive personal connections.

Only Citibank had a decent relationship with him due to their business dealings.

Amidst laughter and lively conversation, the year-end gala unconsciously extended until after eight in the evening before slowly drawing to a close.

Lin Haoran didn’t show much interest in the exquisite and abundant food at the banquet. However, he was extremely satisfied with the social platform that Citibank had so carefully constructed.

During the gala, Lin Haoran, relying on his keen business acumen and the renown he had recently gained through the media, successfully collected over thirty business cards from various business tycoons. At the same time, he handed out an equal number of his own.

These business cards were not just a simple exchange of contact information; they were potential bridges to future cooperation and opportunities.

Many of the business tycoons showed great interest in this young and promising foreign super-rich individual who was rising rapidly in the United States.

They were drawn in by Lin Haoran’s foresight, sharp business insight, and swift, decisive decision-making, and they proactively approached him to make his acquaintance.

And this was exactly what Lin Haoran had hoped for.

Chapter 416: Unbelievable! 30% of Microsoft’s Founder’s Shares for 300,000 US Dollars?

Lin Haoran was well aware that the resources and influence of these tycoons were crucial for his future business development. Thus, he patiently engaged with each one, sharing viewpoints and insights to strengthen their budding friendships.

His humble attitude and sincere smile won him widespread praise and goodwill from the tycoons present.

When the banquet concluded, Bill Gates hurried to catch up with Lin Haoran and said with immense gratitude, “Mr. Lin, thanks to your introduction tonight, I had the opportunity to show Mr. Wang Microsoft’s capabilities. I, Bill Gates, will never forget this kindness for the rest of my life.”

Lin Haoran smiled and waved his hand dismissively. “Bill, it was a small matter for me. I’m glad I could help you. However, speaking of kindness, I do have an idea, I wonder if you’d be willing to hear it?”

Bill Gates’s heart skipped a beat. He sensed that whatever Lin Haoran was about to say would be significant, and he eagerly nodded. “Please, Mr. Lin, go on.”

However, he didn’t say it right away. This was Citibank, a busy place with too many people around—not ideal for a private conversation.

Lin Haoran checked the time. It was eight-thirty in the evening, still reasonably early.

So, he simply suggested, “There’s a 24-hour coffee shop across from the Citibank headquarters. Why don’t we go over there, sit down, and have a proper chat?”

“Of course! I am deeply honored to have such a private conversation with you, Mr. Lin!” Bill Gates agreed at once, without a hint of hesitation.

The two left the Citibank headquarters building and soon arrived at the coffee shop across the street.

Aside from Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, who followed them into the coffee shop, the other shadow guards spread out nearby or entered the cafe, posing as ordinary customers.

Although they didn’t speak a lot of English, their training had equipped them with the basics.

They knew simple phrases like “how much” and “a cup of.”

Once inside, they requested a private room.

Li Weidong and Li Weiguo stood guard at the door.

The two had always stayed by Lin Haoran’s side in the capacity of bodyguards, so there was no issue of them blowing their cover.

They each ordered a cup of coffee.

Bill Gates took a sip of his coffee, his eyes fixed on Lin Haoran with curiosity.

Although he was grateful for Lin Haoran’s help that evening, he was now more eager to find out why this tycoon had specifically invited him here.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran smiled and began to speak slowly. “Although I didn’t know you before, after this brief acquaintance, I’m optimistic about Microsoft’s future, and even more so about you personally.

I think that if I could participate in Microsoft’s development in some way, it might bring even greater benefits to both of us.”

A wave of excitement washed over Bill Gates.

He knew that as a super-rich figure of considerable renown, Lin Haoran’s financial strength and personal connections were not to be underestimated.

If he could secure his support, Microsoft’s development would undoubtedly get a massive boost, and its future would be even brighter.

“Mr. Lin, you mean…” Bill Gates asked tentatively.

Lin Haoran smiled slightly and got straight to the point. “I have high hopes for you, Bill. Although I don’t know much about Microsoft, and in fact had never even heard of the company in the United States before today, through our meeting tonight, I see a shadow of Jobs in you.

So I feel that investing in you will bring me unexpected rewards. I want to invest in Microsoft and become one of your shareholders. I believe that with Microsoft’s growth rate and potential, my investment will see a return very quickly.”

Bill Gates was ecstatic, but he maintained a calm and cautious exterior. “Mr. Lin, I certainly welcome your proposal. However, we’ll need to discuss the specific details of the investment. How much equity are you looking for?”

He hadn’t expected this. Not only had he successfully made his way into Citibank’s year-end gala and met an industry giant like An Wang, but he had also attracted an investor—and not just any investor, but the recently famed Lin Haoran. It was all so unexpected.

“How much equity can you offer?” Lin Haoran countered.

“Microsoft isn’t mine alone; I co-founded it with my partner, Paul Allen. So we each currently hold fifty percent of the shares. If you invest, Mr. Lin, the most I can do is persuade my partner for us to jointly give up thirty percent of the shares!” Bill Gates said, making a bold decision.

He valued not just Lin Haoran’s capital, but the network that came with him.

After all, just that evening, it was because of Lin Haoran that he had finally gained access to the top echelons of the American business world.

Although Microsoft had already struck a deal with IBM, they were hardly IBM’s only partner. Partnering with IBM didn’t guarantee Microsoft’s takeoff.

In IBM’s eyes, this was a deal that couldn’t be any smaller.

So, upon learning that Lin Haoran actually wanted to invest capital in Microsoft, Bill Gates felt that giving up thirty percent of the shares would not only secure sufficient funding but also grant him access to the personal connections of a super-rich tycoon.

Microsoft had not yet truly taken off, so Bill Gates couldn’t possibly imagine how formidable the company would one day become. Thus, he had no qualms about Lin Haoran becoming a shareholder.

To him, being able to ally with such a big shot was an incredible stroke of luck.

Lin Haoran nodded in agreement. “Of course. Thirty percent is very satisfactory. I just wonder, how much financing do you think I should provide?”

Thirty percent of the shares far exceeded Lin Haoran’s expectations.

In his mind, even ten percent would have been good. He never imagined he would be offered thirty percent, which was certainly great news.

As for the investment amount, given the thirty percent stake, Lin Haoran was willing to invest several million US dollars, even though Microsoft’s current strength was still low.

Lin Haoran quickly calculated in his head. Though Microsoft was currently in its nascent stage, its potential and growth rate were not to be ignored.

A thirty percent stake meant that when Microsoft eventually rose to prominence, he would share in enormous profits—profits that might even far surpass his investment returns from Apple Inc.

Regarding the investment amount, he was well aware that Microsoft was in its early growth phase and surely needed money, but he wasn’t sure what price they had in mind.

As far as Lin Haoran was concerned, as long as their asking price wasn’t too outrageous, he could meet it.

Seeing the satisfied look on Lin Haoran’s face regarding the thirty percent stake, Bill Gates secretly breathed a sigh of relief. This strengthened his resolve to forge a partnership with him.

For him, even if the company gave up thirty percent of its shares, he and his partner, Paul Allen, would still each hold thirty-five percent.

Moreover, offering thirty percent would secure greater support from a tycoon like Lin Haoran. If they offered too little equity, he might not take Microsoft seriously.

His goal was to leverage Lin Haoran’s network and personal power.

If nothing else, Bill Gates could tell from the Citibank year-end gala that even the Chairman of Citibank had a very good relationship with Lin Haoran.

He leaned forward slightly, his eyes filled with sincerity and anticipation. “Mr. Lin, regarding the financing amount, we’ve actually had some preliminary thoughts.

A few months ago, we almost closed a financing round, but in the end, we couldn’t reach a consensus on management rights. The other party wanted a certain degree of management power within Microsoft, which didn’t align with our ideas for external financing.

Microsoft is currently in a phase of rapid development. Although we’ve reached an agreement with IBM, there is still a long road ahead. We need more capital to support R&D, marketing, and team expansion.”

Here, Bill Gates paused, as if carefully choosing his next words.

He took a deep breath and continued, “Considering Microsoft’s current valuation and our future potential, I believe a reasonable financing amount would be… around three hundred thousand US dollars. This is on the condition that I hope you won’t interfere too much with company management, Mr. Lin.”

The moment he said the number, Bill Gates nervously watched Lin Haoran’s reaction.

He knew that for a super-rich tycoon, three hundred thousand US dollars might not be a large sum, but given Microsoft’s current scale and stage, it was a significant investment.

Right now, Microsoft was not exactly flush with cash.

For example, a few months ago, Microsoft had spent fifty-nine thousand US dollars to purchase an operating system called QDOS, which was a considerable expense for the company.

Although Microsoft BASIC was gradually becoming the recognized market standard and had a certain level of recognition in the industry, the money earned from selling the BASIC interpreter wasn’t actually that much.

This was because computer hobbyists often developed their own small BASIC interpreters and distributed them for free.

This had a considerable impact on Microsoft’s business.

Although IBM had chosen Microsoft to write the critical operating system software for its new PC, the payment was actually only eighty thousand US dollars.

However, Bill Gates was naturally well aware that the true value of partnering with IBM far exceeded eighty thousand US dollars.

When he heard the price Bill Gates quoted, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but be stunned.

“Three hundred thousand US dollars?” Lin Haoran asked, confirming in disbelief. He thought he must have misheard.

Not three million, and certainly not thirty million, but a mere asking price of three hundred thousand US dollars? This was completely beyond his expectations.

“Is that too high, Mr. Lin? We can still negotiate.” Seeing Lin Haoran’s shocked expression, Bill Gates’s first reaction was that he thought the price was too expensive.

When he first learned that Lin Haoran was interested in investing in Microsoft, Bill Gates had already decided he had to seize this potentially vital partner.

Besides, Microsoft was still just a small company with modest profits.

Therefore, he had no intention of proposing an excessively high valuation. Bill Gates was well aware of Microsoft’s current worth.

Chapter 417: Microsoft’s Ambition

Lin Haoran gently shook his head, a smile playing on his lips. There was not a hint of thinking it was expensive in his eyes; instead, they revealed a sense of unexpected delight.

Unexpected, truly unexpected!

“Bill, you’ve misunderstood. I don’t think this price is high. On the contrary… I’m very satisfied with this price. It’s even a bit lower than I estimated!”

Hearing this, a flash of astonishment crossed Bill Gates’ face, quickly replaced by incredulous joy.

He never imagined that not only would Lin Haoran not haggle, but he would actually find their valuation too low.

This wasn’t just an acknowledgment of Microsoft’s value, but also an affirmation of Lin Haoran’s personal vision.

As the founder of Microsoft, being recognized by a super-rich magnate naturally filled him with immense happiness.

“Mr. Lin, you mean…” Bill Gates asked cautiously, afraid he had misheard.

Lin Haoran smiled and nodded, his tone firm. “Yes, I’m willing to invest three hundred thousand dollars in Microsoft for a thirty percent stake. And I can also promise not to excessively interfere in Microsoft’s daily operations and management.”

He had no interest in meddling with Microsoft’s management. He had a general idea of the company’s future trajectory and knew he couldn’t easily manage the vast commercial empire it would become.

If he were to truly get involved, he might completely upend Microsoft’s original development path, causing it to deviate from the road to glorious achievement he envisioned.

Therefore, he preferred to act as a wise investor, silently supporting Microsoft’s growth from behind the scenes, patiently waiting to witness the moment it shone with dazzling light.

Ultimately, he would happily reap the bountiful fruits of this investment, enjoying the joy and returns brought by Microsoft’s success.

This could take a very, very long time—ten or even twenty years.

But in comparison, what was an investment of three hundred thousand dollars?

He couldn’t care less about such a small amount of money.

Thirty percent of Microsoft’s founder’s shares for only three hundred thousand dollars?

This was absolutely beyond Lin Haoran’s imagination.

It was too low, too absurd, and he was too happy!

It was practically like getting a thirty percent stake in Microsoft for free.

To be honest, with Lin Haoran’s current net worth, three hundred thousand dollars didn’t even count as pocket money.

It was a negligible amount of funds.

But the value of this investment was far beyond what money could measure.

He was betting on Microsoft’s future, on the potential of Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and on the infinite possibilities this team could create.

“Bill, I believe Microsoft’s potential is far greater than this. For me, three hundred thousand dollars is just a small bet on your future success.”

Lin Haoran’s words were filled with confidence and anticipation. “What I value more is the opportunity to be a partner on your road to success, to witness Microsoft’s growth and glory together.”

Bill Gates was moved by Lin Haoran’s sincerity and foresight. He nodded deeply and said earnestly, “Mr. Lin, your trust and support are an invaluable asset to us. Please believe that we will do everything in our power to live up to your expectations.”

“You just mentioned that Microsoft has another founder. Even though we’ve reached an agreement, can you ensure your partner will agree to my financing?” Lin Haoran asked with a hint of doubt.

“You can rest assured, Mr. Lin,” Bill Gates replied with a smile, his eyes full of confidence. “I will definitely convince Paul Allen.

“In the company, major decisions are usually led by me, and Paul has always trusted and supported my judgment.

“Besides, successfully attracting a full three hundred thousand dollars in financing is a huge help to the company.

“Especially with someone of your caliber, with such exceptional vision and business acumen, joining us—that’s an enormous asset for Microsoft.

“I believe Paul will see this as well and will give his full support. For Microsoft, this deal is a guaranteed win!”

“So what are your plans for Microsoft’s future?” Lin Haoran pressed on with a smile.

Bill Gates pondered for a moment before replying with great confidence, “Our goal is to build our own unique influence for Microsoft in the computer software field.

“Although the profitability of the software market currently can’t compare to hardware, both Paul Allen and I firmly believe that as computer technology continues to advance and develop, the importance of software will become increasingly prominent.

“Especially as computers become more powerful and capable of running more complex software, the demand for high-quality software will surge.

“This time, Microsoft has been fortunate to partner with IBM. Although the initial income is only eighty thousand dollars, we believe that as long as IBM’s personal computer sales continue to climb and our MS-DOS system gains widespread market recognition, the Microsoft name will become a household name along with the system’s popularity.

“Next, Microsoft will focus on the research, development, and optimization of computer operating systems. We plan to continuously launch innovative and practical operating systems and software products to ensure our leading position in the OS field.

“Through continuous accumulation and growth, Microsoft will eventually see the day it goes public. Just like Apple Inc., we expect Microsoft to show strength on par with Apple when we have our IPO!”

From Bill Gates’ tone, one could clearly sense that although he was in a small, up-and-coming company, his ambition was exceptionally vast.

Even at a time when Microsoft’s strength was still relatively weak, Bill Gates already harbored the determination to compete with Apple Inc.

Although Apple’s main strength was in hardware while Microsoft focused on software, the two were undoubtedly in direct competition in the software field, especially regarding operating systems.

With its proprietary operating system, Apple also demonstrated strong competitiveness in the software space. Even though Microsoft had secured the OS market share for IBM’s new computer, Apple Inc. would still be a rival that Microsoft could not ignore.

However, this did not diminish Bill Gates’ confidence. He firmly believed that Microsoft could continuously make breakthroughs in the software field and eventually stand on equal footing with Apple Inc.

As Lin Haoran listened to Bill Gates’s description of his future blueprint, his eyes twinkled with approval.

He clapped his hands lightly, as if to cheer on this courage and determination.

“Bill, your foresight and determination have my deepest admiration. With leaders like you and Paul, I believe Microsoft’s future will be even more brilliant.

“As for the competition with Apple Inc., what does that matter? True powerhouses are never afraid of challenges; they grow and strengthen through competition.

“To be honest, I also know a fair bit about computers, and I firmly believe that as computers develop with the times, software will become just as important as hardware.

“I believe that one day, you will stand at the pinnacle of the world, shoulder to shoulder with Apple and all the other top technology companies,” Lin Haoran said with a hearty laugh.

This was the Bill Gates he knew. Ambition wasn’t scary; what was truly admirable was that his ability could fully support that ambition.

And as long as Microsoft flourished in the future, as long as this investment bore fruit, then he, Lin Haoran, would undoubtedly be the ultimate beneficiary.

To acquire thirty percent of Microsoft’s founder’s shares for just under three hundred thousand dollars was, for him, an unexpected and bountiful fortune.

Lin Haoran and Bill Gates spoke for nearly an hour before finally bidding each other farewell and leaving the cafe.

Bill Gates had solemnly promised Lin Haoran that upon returning to his hotel tonight, he would immediately call the company’s other founder, Paul Allen, to discuss the matter in detail and strive to reach an agreement on this financing deal.

Once they both agreed, Bill Gates would represent Microsoft and, without hesitation, formally sign the equity financing agreement with Lin Haoran.

For Lin Haoran, this was undoubtedly a good thing. He was very satisfied with Bill Gates’s decisiveness.

For him, it was best if this financing could be settled as soon as possible. After all, delays breed trouble. Only when the contract was truly signed could he be completely at ease and quietly await Microsoft’s future prosperity and the generous returns that would follow.

Returning to the hotel, Lin Haoran rested early.

In the blink of an eye, the next day arrived: December 21st.

The year 1981 was drawing ever closer.

In the morning, after having breakfast at the hotel’s buffet restaurant, Lin Haoran returned to his room to read the newspaper for a while.

Today’s papers were still reporting on him.

However, the stories were no longer about his sale of Apple Inc. shares.

That had already been covered extensively by all the major media outlets, and there were basically no new angles to pursue.

Now, some newspapers chose to dig for more information on Lin Haoran, such as some of his acquisition activities in Hong Kong.

What they found was shocking.

These American news media outlets had not expected Lin Haoran to have so many impressive achievements over in Hong Kong.

In comparison, the more than three hundred million dollars he had earned from Apple Inc. seemed to count for little.

After all, while Americans might not recognize names like Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, or Kowloon Motor Bus, Jardine Matheson & Co. had a certain degree of influence even in the United States. Many people had heard of the company, a multinational giant.

And such a multinational corporation had previously been under Lin Haoran’s control.

Although he eventually relinquished control of Jardine Matheson, the profits Lin Haoran gained were outrageously large.

Therefore, these reports that dug deep into Lin Haoran’s background also won over a segment of readers.

It was very simple to uncover these details. After all, many of these events had been reported in Hong Kong newspapers. With a little bit of research, one could quickly obtain a large amount of information about Lin Haoran.

However, Lin Haoran wasn’t very concerned. Let them report it. It had all been reported in Hong Kong before; he didn’t care if the American media reported on it again.

Chapter 418: A Fantastic Bargain!

Today was Sunday. The stock market was closed, and Universal Investment Company was closed as usual.

With no plans for the morning, Lin Haoran decided to spend a quiet morning on his hotel balcony, holding an economics book, immersed in his own world.

Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the curtains, spilling onto the balcony and adding a touch of warmth to the winter morning.

Lin Haoran leisurely flipped through the pages of his book, occasionally looking up at the distant, bustling streetscape of New York’s skyscrapers and down at the stream of traffic below, savoring this rare moment of peace and leisure.

Just then, the hotel room’s telephone rang, shattering the tranquility.

Hearing the phone ring, Lin Haoran’s first thought was that it must be Bill Gates. After all, not many people knew this number, as it was the hotel’s private line.

He had given most other people the office number for Universal Investment Company; if they wanted to reach him, they would have to call there.

Last night, in the private room at the coffee shop, besides his business card, he had specifically given this number to Bill Gates so that Bill could contact him at any time.

Lin Haoran was quite eager to invest in Microsoft.

He set down his book, rose, walked over to the phone, and picked up the receiver. Bill Gates’s familiar voice came through. “Mr. Lin, sorry to bother you. This is Bill. I have some good news to share with you.”

Lin Haoran’s heart stirred. He guessed it was about the latest developments regarding Microsoft’s financing.

He smiled and said, “Oh? Bill, what’s the good news that has you so excited? Has there been new progress with the financing?”

Bill Gates chuckled on the other end of the line. “Mr. Lin, you truly have a sixth sense. Last night, I successfully convinced Paul Allen. He is very welcoming of your investment.

“Paul Allen will also be flying from Seattle to New York this morning and should arrive around noon. We can sign the share purchase agreement with you, Mr. Lin, at any time. I was wondering if you might be free at two o’clock this afternoon, Mr. Lin?”

Upon hearing this, a satisfied smile spread across Lin Haoran’s lips.

He had expected Bill Gates to be able to persuade Paul Allen, but hearing the news himself still filled him with genuine delight.

“Of course. Two o’clock this afternoon, right? In that case, come by the Universal Investment Company office. We can officially sign the contract and complete all the formalities there.”

After saying this, Lin Haoran clearly recited the detailed address of the Universal Investment Company office to Bill Gates, ensuring he would have no trouble finding the place.

Bill Gates sounded quite excited on his end as well. He confirmed, “Alright, Mr. Lin. I will be there at two o’clock sharp. Thank you very much for your trust and support. With this investment, we at Microsoft will give it our all. We won’t let you down.”

Three hundred thousand dollars! For Microsoft, this was by no means a small sum. They could do many things with this money, such as marketing, but most importantly, they could focus on developing Microsoft as quickly as possible.

Founded in the same year as Apple Inc., Microsoft was now lagging far, far behind.

Most importantly, Microsoft had yet to truly make a name for itself.

Lin Haoran replied with a smile, “I also believe in your abilities and potential; otherwise, I wouldn’t have made the decision to invest in you. See you this afternoon, Bill. I look forward to our collaboration creating an even brighter future.”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran’s mood was exceptionally light.

After all, this was Microsoft, the most famous computer software enterprise of his previous life.

In the world before he traveled through time, as the world’s largest software company, Microsoft had always dominated the global software company rankings with its powerful technical strength and extensive product line.

Microsoft’s products, including the Windows operating system, Office software suite, and Azure cloud services, covered almost every aspect of people’s lives.

Yet today, in 1980, this future global giant was still languishing in obscurity, recognized by few.

It was precisely for this reason that he was able to finance Microsoft so smoothly, and at such a small cost.

It was hard to believe what a terrifying return this three-hundred-thousand-dollar investment would bring him decades later.

If he remembered correctly, assuming Microsoft’s stock price trajectory remained unchanged from his previous life, its market capitalization would exceed six hundred billion dollars by 1999.

And by 2024, Microsoft’s market capitalization would surpass three trillion dollars, not far behind Apple Inc.

Although his 30% stake would gradually be diluted due to future financing rounds and share issuances after the IPO, his shares would still be absurdly valuable even if they dropped to just 10%.

Assuming he was left with just 10% of the shares, with a market capitalization of six hundred billion dollars nineteen years later, Lin Haoran’s stake would be worth sixty billion dollars. From an initial investment of three hundred thousand dollars, that was a return of two hundred thousand times!

A return on investment of over two hundred thousand times in less than twenty years—what a terrifying rate of return!

Moreover, when Microsoft underwent future financing rounds or went public, he could also increase his shareholding. It wasn’t impossible for him to maintain a 30% stake.

But those were matters for the future; he didn’t need to overthink them for now.

As he recalled, Microsoft wouldn’t go public until 1986, which was still several years away.

So, once the financing contract with Microsoft was signed, he wouldn’t have to worry about it for the time being.

Just three hundred thousand dollars. A fantastic bargain!

He walked back to the balcony. The sunlight was perfect now, warm but not glaring. He took a deep breath of the fresh air, which seemed to be filled with the scent of good fortune.

Investing in Microsoft was indeed a delightful surprise.

If not for the gracious invitation from Citibank’s Chairman, Walter Wriston, which gave him the honor of attending the year-end gala, he might never have had the opportunity to meet so many of America’s business tycoons.

At the gala, not only did he meet the legendary figure of the Chinese-American computer world, An Wang, but he also unexpectedly crossed paths with Bill Gates.

Even without this chance encounter, he would certainly have found a time to invest in Microsoft in the future.

But it was undeniable that this meeting had significantly advanced the timeline of his connection with Microsoft.

Perhaps, without this banquet, he might have only invested in Microsoft after its IPO. While he could still have shared in Microsoft’s future glory, the prime, early opportunity would have been lost, and the returns would have been greatly diminished.

When Microsoft went public in 1986, its market capitalization on its first day was six hundred and seventy million dollars. Although that was several times less than Apple’s on its first day, it was still far stronger than the small enterprise Microsoft was today.

And this time, meeting Bill Gates by chance and striking this investment deal had drastically reduced the cost of his investment in Microsoft.

It could be said that this was an exceptionally successful investment, far more so than his investment in Apple Inc.

Back then, he had invested a full ten million dollars in Apple.

And now, it was a mere three hundred thousand dollars.

In the blink of an eye, it was noon. After lunch, Lin Haoran called Su Zhixue and had him arrange for a lawyer from a renowned New York law firm to assist with the contract signing with Microsoft that afternoon.

A little after one in the afternoon, Lin Haoran was already at the Universal Investment Company office.

Su Zhixue soon arrived with a Caucasian lawyer. Lin Haoran then explained the matter of the investment in Microsoft and the terms, asking them to draft a preliminary contract.

Although Su Zhixue didn’t understand why his boss would invest in a company of such ordinary strength, he didn’t ask any questions.

After all, he knew his job was to do his own work well; other matters were not for him to consider.

Not long after, Bill Gates and a young man arrived.

Without a doubt, the young man had to be Bill Gates’s partner, Paul Allen.

Bill Gates was only twenty-five years old, and though Paul Allen was a bit older, he was only twenty-seven.

As the two entered, Lin Haoran enthusiastically stood up to greet them, extending his hand with a smile. “Bill, welcome. And this must be Mr. Paul Allen. Truly young and promising. I have high hopes for you and for Microsoft. It’s a great pleasure to be working with you both.”

Bill Gates and Paul Allen quickly extended their hands and shook Lin Haoran’s respectfully.

At this point in time, they were not on the same level as Lin Haoran at all, so they almost seemed a class below him in his presence.

Even though Bill Gates was full of confidence in Microsoft’s future, the Microsoft of today was, after all, still an inconspicuous little company.

Bill Gates said, “Mr. Lin, it’s a great honor for us to work with you as well.”

Paul Allen nodded in agreement. “Yes, Mr. Lin. It is Microsoft’s great fortune to receive your investment. So when Bill told me you wanted to invest in Microsoft, I agreed without any hesitation. I’ve brought some of Microsoft’s company documents to help with the contract signing.”

Lin Haoran laughed heartily and said, “Alright, let’s dispense with the pleasantries. Please, have a seat. I’ve already had the contract prepared. Let’s take a look at it, and if there are no issues, we can sign.”

With that, Lin Haoran led the two to the reception area in the office. After they sat down, Su Zhixue brought over the prepared contract.

Lin Haoran handed a copy of the contract to Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and the three began to review it carefully.

The contract’s contents were not complicated, mainly specifying the amount of Lin Haoran’s investment in Microsoft, his percentage of shares, and the rights and obligations of both parties.

They discussed as they read, pausing to negotiate and resolve any points of contention, then revising the document accordingly.

After some discussion and revisions, the three finally reached a consensus on the contract’s terms.

Then, Su Zhixue had corrected contract reprinted in triplicate.

Lin Haoran picked up a pen and meticulously signed his name on the contract.

Seeing this, Bill Gates and Paul Allen quickly followed suit, solemnly signing their names on their respective copies.

Next, the lawyer, acting as a witness, also signed his name on the contract and affixed the official seal of his law firm, giving the document its formal legal standing.

Gazing at the now effective contract, a satisfied smile appeared on Lin Haoran’s face.

This contract signified that, from this day forward, he was officially the third-largest shareholder of Microsoft, second only to Bill Gates and Paul Allen.

Chapter 419: A Pleasant Surprise

After becoming a shareholder in Microsoft, Lin Haoran decided to stay in New York for another two days before flying to California.

He had already done everything he needed to do in New York.

Apple Inc. had successfully gone public, and he had successfully sold his shares after the IPO.

Now, he had even been fortunate enough to become a major shareholder in Microsoft.

And Universal Investment Company’s current situation had clearly stabilized.

He believed that in the near future, he could secretly acquire a significant number of shares in those companies with immense potential, becoming a true hidden tycoon behind the scenes.

The next day at noon, he paid a visit to the Universal Investment Company office.

Su Zhixue reported to him on the company’s progress in acquiring shares of various enterprises, including Walmart, Intel, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, Citibank, Chevron, and others.

Although the progress was not fast, Lin Haoran was very satisfied.

Stock accumulation in these companies was a long-term job, so there was no need to rush.

What surprised Lin Haoran the most was the progress with Intel. He hadn’t expected Universal Investment Company to have already secured 3.5% of the shares in secret. It had only been a few days!

According to Su Zhixue, Intel stock was not very attractive on the market at the moment. Its price had remained stagnant for years and would even dip from time to time.

Therefore, although Intel was well-known in the United States, shareholders had little interest in its stock.

And this, as it happened, gave Universal Investment Company the perfect opportunity for accumulation.

High-tech isn’t always an ideal investment choice; many projects are fleeting, gone in a flash, and a company might rapidly vanish from public view because its products become obsolete.

However, Intel was an exception. It has weathered fifty years of storms and not only remains standing but has continued to grow in scale.

Especially in a few years, starting from 1987, Intel would rank among the top ten in global semiconductor market sales. And from 1991 to 2021, it would consistently hold the top spot, except for three times when it came in second.

This outstanding performance was more than enough to prove that Intel was an exceptionally brilliant company.

Only by enduring the ups and downs of the market can the true essence and value of an investment be revealed.

Moreover, Lin Haoran had read an article in his previous life stating that Intel’s annual dividends were extremely high. Selling semiconductors, after all, generated a solid cash flow.

In other words, investing in Intel, regardless of how high its stock price might climb in the future, could yield significant profits from dividends alone.

After listening to Su Zhixue’s report, Lin Haoran offered him a few words of encouragement and then said his goodbyes.

With Su Zhixue overseeing the United States branch of Universal Investment Company, he felt quite at ease.

It was about time to prepare to leave New York State.

But before departing, Lin Haoran decided to visit Citibank to bid farewell to its Chairman, Walter Wriston.

The man had treated him quite well, though there were certainly considerations of mutual benefit behind it.

However, Lin Haoran felt that compared to HSBC, Citibank’s senior executives were much friendlier towards him.

Soon, Lin Haoran arrived at the Citibank headquarters building.

Recognizing Lin Haoran, the Citibank staff respectfully escorted him to the elevator.

After all, Lin Haoran had been here many times, and with his recent frequent appearances in newspapers and on television, there was hardly an employee who didn’t know him.

He was quite familiar with the place by now. Taking the elevator, he quickly arrived before the door to the Chairman’s office at Citibank.

He knocked on the door of Walter Wriston’s office, and a response came quickly.

The one who opened the door was none other than the head of Citibank himself, Walter Wriston. He had clearly been notified by the front desk.

“Mr. Walter Wriston, it looks like you’re busy. I hope I’m not disturbing you?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Walter Wriston smiled upon hearing this and extended a hand warmly to welcome Lin Haoran. “Mr. Lin, it is an honor for Citibank that you could take the time to visit. How could it possibly be a disturbance? Please, come in.”

Lin Haoran smiled, nodded his thanks, and stepped into the office.

The office was spacious and bright, its decor simple yet elegant. A few oil paintings depicting the New York cityscape hung on the walls, adding an artistic touch to the room.

Lin Haoran had been in this office many times, so he was no longer curious about it.

Lin Haoran said with a smile, “Mr. Walter Wriston, I came here specifically to bid you farewell.

I’ve been in New York for over ten days now, and I’m planning to go to California to handle some matters. Once I’m done there, I intend to return to Hong Kong.

As you are my most important partner in the United States, I felt it was proper to come and say goodbye in person.

I have always cherished our partnership with Citibank. Our collaboration has been very pleasant and fruitful, and I sincerely hope we will have more opportunities to work together in the future.”

“Mr. Lin, you’re leaving New York so soon?” Walter Wriston’s face showed a hint of surprise.

Lin Haoran nodded lightly, a touch of emotion in his voice. “My experience in the United States this time has been very valuable to me.

Although just over ten days isn’t long, I’ve accomplished many important things, and now I must leave. It wouldn’t be appropriate to stay here for too long.

But I have certainly benefited greatly during this time. The United States has an excellent business environment, and I see great investment potential here.

In the future, I will definitely increase my investments in the United States, and I believe that there will be many more opportunities for collaboration between myself and Citibank!”

Walter Wriston smiled in response. “Mr. Lin, it is also a great honor for us to cooperate with a young entrepreneur of your vision and capability. No matter where you are, Citibank will always be your strong supporter.”

“With those words from you, Mr. Walter Wriston, I feel even more reassured. At the same time, I hope that if Citibank has other quality investment projects in the future, you will let me know. The investment in Apple Inc. was also thanks to you!” Lin Haoran continued.

These words caused Walter Wriston’s smile to fade slightly. Clearly, missing out on the Apple Inc. investment had become a point of regret for him.

Originally, the valuable opportunity to invest in Apple Inc. had been in the bag for Citibank, but they had unexpectedly and willingly handed it over to Lin Haoran. As a result, Lin Haoran had used the opportunity to make a huge profit.

In less than a year, Lin Haoran had made a profit of more than thirty times his initial investment. How could Citibank’s senior executives not feel a deep sense of regret?

However, from start to finish, Lin Haoran had no direct involvement in this matter; after all, it was Citibank that had willingly given up the opportunity.

Although Walter Wriston felt a sense of unwillingness, he could only blame his own misjudgment at the time and held no resentment toward Lin Haoran himself.

As a tycoon of the American financial industry, Walter Wriston naturally understood that in the world of investment, opportunity and risk coexist. A single poor decision could mean enormous losses.

The fact that Lin Haoran was able to seize this opportunity and succeed was due to his own vision and ability.

What Citibank needed to do was learn from this experience and evaluate every investment opportunity more cautiously to secure a more advantageous position in future market competition.

“Speaking of investment projects, I do have a financing project here. I’m just not sure if Mr. Lin would be interested.” Pushing the unpleasant thoughts from his mind, Walter Wriston pondered for a moment before speaking.

The young man before him had a promising future, so he was happy to maintain a good relationship with him.

As for this financing project, it was naturally one that Citibank looked down on.

“Oh? Please elaborate, Mr. Walter Wriston,” Lin Haoran said, his curiosity piqued.

If it were some unknown company, he certainly wouldn’t be interested, but if it had potential, he wouldn’t mind investing.

Financing could secure a substantial number of shares at once, which was far more satisfying than slowly accumulating stock on the market, which always carried the risk of leaks.

“Has Mr. Lin heard of Walmart?” Walter Wriston asked.

“I have. Isn’t Walmart a listed company? Is the financing project you’re talking about for Walmart?” Lin Haoran asked inquisitively.

Inwardly, however, Lin Haoran was ecstatic. What a pleasant surprise!

“That’s right,” Walter Wriston replied. “Walmart has recently developed a bold expansion plan, so they intend to issue additional shares.

Although they could raise capital through the stock market, their performance last year was poor and their stock price has been flat. If they try to raise funds or issue bonds through the market, the final result may not satisfy Walmart’s senior executives.

Therefore, they hope to seek financing from major financial groups through a private placement of shares.”

“Mr. Walter Wriston, why aren’t you planning to invest?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“We conducted an evaluation of Walmart, and the result was that it doesn’t meet our investment objectives. Mr. Lin should know that the funds we invest come mostly from deposits, so we are rather cautious with our investments. As for whether you want to invest, that’s for you to decide. I can provide you with a copy of our research on Walmart, free of charge!” Walter Wriston said with a smile.

In fact, after missing the opportunity to invest in Apple Inc., Citibank had become even more cautious in its investments. To avoid missing any promising companies, they conducted much more detailed investigations, followed by discussions at senior executive meetings.

And the proposal to invest in Walmart had been met with an 80% opposition vote from the senior executives.

The reason was simple: Walmart’s performance last year was mediocre, yet they were planning to expand. In everyone’s view, this was blind expansion, and the risk was too great.

The most likely outcome was that Walmart’s blind expansion would lead to severe losses, and they might even go bankrupt in the end!

Chapter 420: Walmart Founder Sam Walton

“Mr. Walter Wriston, I’m somewhat interested in this Walmart you mentioned. If it’s not too much trouble, it would be great if you had detailed information on it. It would also be best if you could provide me with the contact information for the person in charge,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

In truth, he had already decided internally that he absolutely could not miss this opportunity to finance Walmart.

To think that after missing the investment in Apple Inc., Citibank was now planning to miss out on Walmart as well?

“Of course, no problem!” Walter Wriston said. He took a folder from the bookshelf behind his desk and handed it to Lin Haoran.

“This folder contains all the information we’ve gathered on Walmart, including the contact details for its founder, Mr. Sam Walton.

We spent considerable effort investigating Walmart, but since we’ve now decided against investing in them, this information is of no use to us,” Walter Wriston added, explaining.

Lin Haoran nodded, took the folder, gave it a quick look-through, and then closed it.

“I’ll look at this more closely when I get back. As for whether I’ll finance them, I will consider it seriously. However, Mr. Walter Wriston, I have a question. If you don’t invest, will other financial groups invest in them?” Lin Haoran asked.

Walter Wriston smiled and explained, “Mr. Lin, you can rest assured. At present, Walmart doesn’t have any other investors yet.

Their founder, Mr. Sam Walton, is in New York right now. They are very hopeful that Citibank will invest, and he has come to see me several times in the past few days. Given their current situation, it is indeed quite difficult for them to find a suitable investor.”

Lin Haoran finally felt relieved. That was good.

At this point, he had little interest in staying any longer.

However, Citibank had ultimately provided him with a great deal of help, so Lin Haoran chatted with Walter Wriston for another ten minutes or so before finally taking his leave.

After leaving Citibank, Lin Haoran had his driver take him directly to the building where Universal Investment Company was located.

Once in his office, he greeted Su Zhixue and immediately dialed Sam Walton’s beeper number.

There was no need to overthink financing Walmart.

After all, the Walmart of the future would be the world’s largest retail company.

But right now, it was only the third-largest retail company in the United States. As a highly ambitious retail company, its current position was clearly not enough for them. They wanted to go further, even competing for the top spot.

Before long, the phone rang.

“Hello, may I ask who is calling?” an elderly man’s voice came from the phone, tinged with a hint of confusion.

“Mr. Sam Walton? This is Lin Haoran. You may have heard my name recently; I’m the one who just sold his shares in Apple Inc.

I learned from Mr. Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank, that you are seeking financing and are currently in New York. If it’s not too much trouble, would you be able to visit Universal Investment Company near Times Square?

I would very much like to have a face-to-face discussion with you.” Lin Haoran introduced himself politely and directly, expressing his intentions. He finished by giving him the detailed address of Universal Investment Company.

“Mr. Lin? Alright, I’ll be right over. Please wait for me, Mr. Lin. I’ll be there within half an hour!” To Lin Haoran’s surprise, the man agreed without hesitation upon hearing his purpose, his tone revealing a sense of excitement and urgency.

“Excellent, I’ll be waiting for you!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran took out the folder he had gotten from Citibank and began to read through it.

The detailed information on Walmart was laid out before his eyes.

As a financial tycoon in the United States, Citibank’s intelligence-gathering capabilities were naturally strong.

Therefore, the information they gathered was very detailed and accurate.

In the 1960s, the discount store industry in the United States began its period of development.

Sam Walton’s business philosophy was highly compatible with the discount store model: buying in bulk at low costs and selling at bargain prices, while operating with a much larger floor space than grocery stores to offer a diverse range of general merchandise.

Adhering to this philosophy, he opened his first discount department store, named “Walmart,” in July 1962.

Between 1960 and 1966, discount department stores in the United States experienced explosive growth, with the number of stores surging from 1,329 in 1960 to 3,503 in 1966. The industry’s total revenue also leaped from two billion dollars to fifteen billion dollars, a 6.5-fold increase.

Meanwhile, traditional grocery chain giants like Kmart also opened their first discount store in 1962 and rapidly expanded to 250 stores in just five years, with total revenue reaching eight hundred million dollars.

In comparison, however, Walmart was still insignificant in 1967, with only nine stores and a total revenue of nine million dollars.

Despite this, Sam did not stop expanding.

By 1970, Walmart had grown to 38 stores, with total revenue reaching 44.29 million dollars.

However, this rapid expansion also brought heavy financial pressure, forcing Sam to take on millions of dollars in debt.

To alleviate the financial pressure, Walmart chose to go public in 1970.

In the mid-1970s, the U.S. economy fell into crisis, with severe inflation.

Against a backdrop of rising rent, interest rates, and labor costs, the discount store industry faced unprecedented challenges.

Large companies were forced to slow their market expansion due to rising costs.

However, Walmart, located in small towns and rural areas, leveraged its lower competitive pressure and cost advantages to maintain an accelerated pace of expansion even amidst the industry’s downturn.

Although it appeared to be expanding, Walmart had made little profit over the years and was even consistently operating at a loss. This was because all its earnings were poured back into expansion, and some of the newly opened stores were not necessarily profitable.

Therefore, Walmart’s current situation was indeed not good, which was why Citibank was not optimistic about it.

Furthermore, Walmart’s current total market capitalization was only 189 million dollars. Although it was considered a large company on the U.S. stock market, it didn’t have a strong presence.

Lin Haoran read the file carefully. It was thick, over twenty pages long.

At the very end, there was even Citibank’s assessment of Walmart: “Subpar assets, high competition, average strength, poor future prospects…”

Based on Walmart’s development over the past nearly twenty years, it was indeed a very average company.

If Lin Haoran didn’t know that Walmart would become number one in the industry in the future, he too would not be optimistic about it based solely on this information.

But things are unpredictable. Who could have imagined that the overlooked Walmart would one day become the most powerful retail company in the world!

Lin Haoran did indeed own a supermarket chain under his umbrella—Wellcome Supermarket, a subsidiary of Dairy Farm International, which was under the Hongkong Land Group.

But if Wellcome were to enter the U.S. market, it wouldn’t have much potential for future growth.

The reason was simple: the U.S. market was inherently xenophobic, and with interference from the local government, he wouldn’t be able to achieve much success even if he brought Wellcome into it.

This was why he wanted to invest in Walmart. In fact, he had already instructed Su Zhixue to have Universal Investment Company secretly accumulate Walmart shares.

The file also showed that Walmart was seeking to issue an additional ten percent of its shares to raise fifteen million dollars in financing.

In Lin Haoran’s eyes, fifteen million U.S. dollars wasn’t a large sum. Even converted to Hong Kong dollars, it was less than one hundred million.

But for Walmart, it was a significant amount of capital.

In reality, as a retail company, Walmart’s daily cash flow was not small.

But Walmart was already in debt each year. If it continued to expand aggressively, its debt ratio would inevitably skyrocket.

This was why Walmart’s Chairman, Sam Walton, wanted to raise funds—to have enough capital for expansion while reducing liabilities.

Moreover, Walmart was currently facing a huge opportunity. If they could seize it, it would be extremely beneficial for the company’s development.

About twenty minutes later, the receptionist led in a slightly balding elderly gentleman. This was clearly Mr. Sam Walton, the founder and Chairman of Walmart.

Lin Haoran stood up, smiled, and walked forward to shake Mr. Sam Walton’s hand warmly.

“Mr. Walton, it’s a great pleasure to meet you. I’m Lin Haoran,” Lin Haoran introduced himself with a smile.

Mr. Sam Walton also smiled sincerely. “Mr. Lin, of course I know who you are. I have long heard of your great name. I’m very grateful that you could take the time to see me. This means a great deal to Walmart.”

After they were seated, Lin Haoran motioned for the receptionist who had brought him in to pour Mr. Walton a cup of hot coffee, and then he got straight to the point.

“Mr. Walton, I’m sure you already know my purpose for inviting you here. I have carefully studied the information on Walmart, and I greatly admire your company’s business philosophy and model. I believe Walmart has enormous potential for growth, especially in the current market environment,” Lin Haoran said sincerely.

Upon hearing this, a flash of pleasant surprise appeared in Mr. Sam Walton’s eyes.

He was well aware that during the current economic crisis, many investors were pessimistic about the retail industry, which was why he was having such difficulty finding a suitable investor.

Even on the stock market, shareholders showed little interest in Walmart’s stock.

Lin Haoran’s affirmation undoubtedly gave him immense confidence.

Chapter 421: Becoming Walmart’s Vice Chairman

Sam Walton’s attitude toward Lin Haoran was extremely respectful.

He couldn’t possibly imagine that the future Walmart would become the world’s number one retail enterprise, one of the global industrial giants.

After all, Walmart was currently just a retail company that could barely rank third in the United States, an entity of only average strength among the nation’s listed companies.

So, when facing a super-rich individual like Lin Haoran, he was extremely respectful.

After all, Lin Haoran was not only a famous tycoon but also a potential investor in Walmart.

Moreover, if Lin Haoran were to invest in Walmart, it would undoubtedly drive up the company’s stock price.

Lin Haoran’s successful investment in Apple Inc. had recently been a major topic of discussion across the United States.

A return of over thirty times the initial investment in less than a year—that investment was an incredible success!

After listening to Sam Walton, Lin Haoran changed the subject and brought up the issue of financing: “Mr. Walton, I understand you’re hoping to issue an additional ten percent in shares to raise fifteen million US dollars. I was wondering what your plans are for these funds?”

Ten percent of the shares was a significant amount.

Combined with the Walmart shares Lin Haoran was currently accumulating in secret, it wasn’t impossible for him to become Walmart’s largest shareholder in the future.

From what he recalled, Walmart’s market capitalization would reach three hundred fifteen billion US dollars by 1999.

This meant that Walmart’s current market capitalization would multiply by more than a thousand times in just over a decade.

Furthermore, Walmart had maintained dividend growth for many consecutive years, demonstrating a stable dividend policy. Simply holding the shares would yield substantial dividends over a decade later.

Another benefit was that as a major shareholder of Walmart, it wouldn’t be difficult for him to obtain important operational information.

In the future, Lin Haoran’s Wellcome supermarket chain could learn from Walmart’s experience and expand globally.

As for the United States, what did it matter if the market was left to Walmart? As a shareholder, he would benefit all the same.

Mr. Sam Walton was slightly taken aback, clearly not expecting Lin Haoran to bring up the financing so directly.

But he quickly composed himself and explained Walmart’s capital needs and plans in detail.

“Mr. Lin, these funds will be used for two main purposes. First, to continue expanding the number of our stores and increase our market share. Second, to optimize our supply chain management, reduce costs, and enhance profitability,” Mr. Walton explained earnestly.

“Could you elaborate on Walmart’s next steps?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

“Mr. Lin, have you heard of the BigK department store chain?” Mr. Walton asked.

Lin Haoran shook his head and said, “I’m sorry, I’m not familiar with that company. I haven’t heard of it.”

“It’s normal that you haven’t, Mr. Lin. After all, the BigK department store chain’s business is mainly concentrated in the Southeast United States.

It spans nine states, has one hundred and twenty stores, and is currently the fourth-largest department store company in the United States. However, due to extremely fierce market competition, BigK is facing financial difficulties and is looking to sell.

This is undoubtedly a golden opportunity for Walmart. Once we successfully acquire BigK, Walmart will leap to become the second-largest department store company in the nation, second only to Kmart.

At that time, our strength will be greatly enhanced. Our number of stores will reach three hundred and forty-nine, spread across thirteen states, and our annual sales are projected to exceed the two and a half billion US dollar mark.

Therefore, Mr. Lin, if you choose to invest in Walmart, I, Sam Walton, promise you that as long as we successfully acquire the BigK department store chain, I will absolutely not let you down!” Sam Walton explained.

Lin Haoran had a sudden realization. Walmart was planning to surpass other retail enterprises through a merger and acquisition!

This was indeed much faster than opening stores one by one and expanding slowly.

Under normal expansion, adding one hundred and twenty stores would take a considerable amount of time at Walmart’s current pace.

After all, Walmart currently had only two hundred and twenty-nine stores, an achievement that had taken nearly twenty years of development.

Although Lin Haoran wasn’t familiar with Walmart’s development history in his previous life, it was clear that the acquisition of BigK must have played a very important role in it.

“Fifteen million US dollars for ten percent of the shares… that’s not out of the question. I’m quite optimistic about Walmart’s prospects!” Lin Haoran said after some thought.

Sam Walton’s eyes lit up. “Mr. Lin, on behalf of Walmart, I welcome your investment.”

He knew that Lin Haoran was truly wealthy. After all, he had just sold his shares in Apple Inc. for over three hundred million US dollars.

In comparison, fifteen million US dollars was truly nothing.

“However, Mr. Walton, I hope to have the opportunity to join Walmart’s Board of Directors. Of course, I fully respect the professionalism of you and Walmart’s management team, and I will in no way interfere with the company’s daily operations.

After all, I am from Hong Kong, and my primary businesses are indeed concentrated in Asia. For me, investing in Walmart is purely an investment,” Lin Haoran continued with a smile.

Since he had decided to go through official channels for financing, Lin Haoran wanted to take it a step further and directly join Walmart’s senior management.

His purpose was pure and clear: not to interfere with management, but to closely study and absorb Walmart’s excellent business strategies.

He would bring this valuable international experience back to the Wellcome supermarket chain to help it achieve leapfrog development.

Once he became a senior executive within Walmart, he would naturally be qualified to access all of Walmart’s internal information.

Hongkong Land Group, after being privatized, was his private enterprise. This meant that the Wellcome supermarket chain was also his personal business.

Sam Walton nodded and said, “Rest assured, Mr. Lin. With this financing, you will hold ten percent of the shares, making you Walmart’s second-largest shareholder. You are naturally qualified to become a member of Walmart’s Board of Directors. I can also promise to make you the Vice Chairman of Walmart!”

“Vice Chairman?” Lin Haoran showed a hint of surprise, clearly not expecting Sam Walton to make such an offer.

This undoubtedly bestowed upon him a rather high status and authority, but Lin Haoran quickly understood Sam Walton’s deeper meaning.

Considering he wouldn’t be living in the United States long-term, this Vice Chairman position would be more of a symbolic role, a nominal senior executive position.

Moreover, the stance he had previously expressed about not interfering in the company’s operations had also convinced Sam Walton that he wouldn’t meddle in the company’s affairs.

Therefore, giving him such a title was both a recognition of his strength and a sign of respect.

Besides, the Walmart of today was an extremely ordinary enterprise. Giving a super-rich individual a nominal position as Vice Chairman was really not a big deal.

“Mr. Walton is certainly straightforward. I accept this financing deal!” Lin Haoran laughed, announcing that he was about to complete another overseas investment.

However, unlike his previous investment in Apple Inc., Lin Haoran did not plan to sell off this investment in Walmart within a year.

He planned to hold onto the Walmart shares for the long term, considering selling only in the late 1990s at the earliest.

Upon hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Sam Walton was all smiles. His financing goal was finally achieved.

Although an investment from Lin Haoran was clearly not as ideal as one from Citibank—if Citibank had invested, they might have provided considerable assistance out of consideration for their shareholder relationship—since Citibank was unwilling to invest, settling for a super-rich individual like Lin Haoran was a good alternative.

Lin Haoran and Sam Walton’s handshake marked the preliminary agreement of this financing round.

Sam Walton was very self-aware. In the current economic climate, for a retail enterprise like Walmart—which had some scale but still needed to expand, and whose financial situation was only average—obtaining financing from large financial groups was no easy task.

For various reasons, financial institutions like Citibank were cautious about Walmart’s future and had no intention of investing. Even his repeated attempts to seek cooperation had failed to yield any substantial progress.

Of course, it wasn’t that no other major American financial groups had shown interest in financing Walmart.

However, these groups often attached extremely harsh conditions. They not only demanded more shares than expected but also attempted to seize more influence.

Sam Walton shrewdly sensed that the true purpose of these financial groups was not a simple financial investment, but an an attempt to gradually control and ultimately acquire Walmart through financing.

For Sam Walton, Walmart was not just a business; it was the culmination of nearly twenty years of his heart and soul.

From a small shop to the large-scale retail enterprise of today, every step was a condensation of his wisdom and sweat.

Therefore, handing Walmart over to financial groups that only cared about short-term profits was something he could never accept.

Against this backdrop, when Lin Haoran, this mysterious tycoon from Asia, expressed interest in investing in Walmart, Sam Walton naturally cherished the opportunity.

He was very clear that Lin Haoran not only possessed immense financial strength but, more importantly, this Asian tycoon had stated that he would not interfere too much in Walmart’s management, which was also why he was very satisfied with Lin Haoran as an investor.

Walmart was in need of money right now, in need of an opportunity; otherwise, he would not have wanted Walmart to go through a new round of financing.

This time, Sam Walton had done a lot of preparation to find a suitable investor.

Therefore, after Lin Haoran agreed to invest in Walmart, Sam Walton quickly called upon Walmart’s team in New York to sign the investment contract.

In just half a day, Lin Haoran had Universal Investment Company formally sign the investment agreement with Walmart, and he also promptly transferred the fifteen million US dollars to Walmart’s corporate account.

With this fifteen million US dollars, Walmart would no longer be constrained by funds and could confidently proceed with the acquisition of the BigK department store chain.

A day later, Lin Haoran saw the official announcement from Walmart in the newspaper.

It turned out that after successfully reaching a financing agreement with Universal Investment Company, Sam Walton had immediately returned to Bentonville, Arkansas, and swiftly announced the news to the public.

The announcement stated that, effective immediately, Mr. Lin Haoran had officially provided financing to Walmart and successfully acquired a ten percent stake in the company.

Chapter 422: Motorola Headquarters

Lin Haoran becoming a shareholder and Vice Chairman of Walmart didn’t make significant waves in the United States.

After all, Walmart’s presence in the United States was not particularly strong at the time. Its chain stores were mainly concentrated in a few southeastern states, totaling only 229.

While not a small scale, its regional coverage was too limited to attract widespread attention.

However, the course of history is always full of variables.

No one could have predicted that in over twenty years, Walmart would undergo a heaven-and-earth-shattering transformation, with its number of stores skyrocketing, eventually making it the global leader in the retail industry with more than ten thousand branches.

By comparison, Walmart’s current scale might not seem particularly outstanding.

However, the rise of any behemoth requires a gradual process of accumulation and development.

Lin Haoran understood this, so he wasn’t hung up on Walmart’s current size.

In fact, it was because Lin Haoran had been appearing frequently in major media outlets recently that Walmart’s profile had been raised considerably.

Some shareholders had also set their sights on Walmart.

His investment in Apple Inc., as well as his investments back in Hong Kong, had already become known to many through media reports.

Therefore, Lin Haoran now had quite a few fans in the United States, similar to how Jobs would be admired by many in the future.

Since Lin Haoran himself had become a shareholder, these admirers believed Walmart was destined to be a very promising enterprise and followed suit by buying its shares.

As a result, Walmart’s stock price rose significantly.

However, this had little to do with Lin Haoran. Although Walmart was now a target for Universal Investment Company’s covert stock accumulation, acquiring shares was a long-term task. Whether the stock price rose or fell was just an exceedingly normal occurrence.

December 25th was a very special day in the West—Christmas had arrived.

Lin Haoran could already feel the festive atmosphere in the major shopping malls and streets of New York.

But it didn’t have much to do with him. After all, he was a Chinese person and had never been particularly enthusiastic about Western holidays.

At nine-thirty in the morning, Lin Haoran appeared at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Accompanying him were the brothers Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, as well as thirteen other shadow guards.

His destination was Chicago, Illinois.

He planned to visit the Motorola headquarters.

And Motorola’s headquarters was located in a suburb of Chicago.

Su Zhixue had come specially to see him off.

“You’ve been in the United States for over twenty days now. You must be used to life here, right?” Lin Haoran asked Su Zhixue with a smile, sitting on a chair in the departure hall.

“Boss, I didn’t have many friends back in Hong Kong to begin with. This time, I brought my wife and children with me to the United States, so I don’t feel like there’s anything I can’t get used to,” Su Zhixue said, shaking his head.

“If anything comes up, call me right away. I have many plans laid out here in the United States, and their importance is self-evident. You’re the one I trust most over here,” Lin Haoran said, his tone earnest.

“Yes, Boss, I understand. I will do my utmost to live up to your trust,” Su Zhixue replied, nodding solemnly.

He lightly patted Su Zhixue’s shoulder and continued, “Especially now, as our business in the United States gradually expands, your responsibility as the person in charge here is immense.

“Whether it’s the stock accumulation of publicly listed companies like Coca-Cola, Intel, Citibank, Chevron, and ExxonMobil, or other projects that may be involved in the future, you will need to manage everything strategically to ensure it all goes smoothly.

“I’m leaving things here to you. If you have any problems, contact me anytime.”

“Don’t worry, Boss. I will handle everything properly,” Su Zhixue said with a firm nod, his eyes filled with determination and confidence.

Lin Haoran smiled and nodded, then turned and walked towards the boarding gate with the Li Weidong and Li Weiguo brothers and the shadow guards.

Their figures gradually disappeared into the bustling crowd, leaving only the echo of their footsteps in the departure hall.

Su Zhixue stood where he was, watching Lin Haoran leave, a wave of inexplicable emotion welling up in his heart.

The Boss trusted him so much that he felt an impulse to go through hell and high water for Lin Haoran without a second thought.

He knew that this trust was not just a recognition of his personal abilities, but also an expectation tied to the heavy responsibility on his shoulders.

Su Zhixue had been with Lin Haoran for more than two years.

When Universal Investment Company was first established, he was its very first employee.

During his darkest hour, it was his boss, Lin Haoran, who had extended a helping hand.

He felt he could never repay this gratitude in his lifetime. Being loyal to his boss and working hard for him was perhaps the best way to repay him.

Gazing at Lin Haoran’s retreating figure, Su Zhixue took a deep breath, turned, and left the departure hall.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran and his entourage boarded the plane without a hitch.

A little over two hours later, an airplane slowly landed at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

Lin Haoran had never been to Chicago before.

The last time he came to the United States, after settling the gold futures matter in New York, he had flown directly from New York to San Francisco, where he went to the Apple Inc. headquarters and signed the investment contract.

In the end, with ten million dollars, he successfully acquired ten percent of the shares, which had since turned into three hundred and twenty-five million dollars in cash.

Less than a year later, Lin Haoran was back in the United States, but this time he wasn’t going from New York to San Francisco. Instead, he had come to Chicago, the third-largest city in America.

As he deplaned, the sun was shining brightly.

However, the winter sun wasn’t very warm.

It was around eleven o’clock in the morning.

The continental United States spans four time zones, from UTC-5 to UTC-8, with a one-hour difference between each. New York is in the Eastern Time Zone, while Chicago is in the Central Time Zone.

Lin Haoran looked up at the azure sky, feeling a rush of emotion.

This time, he hadn’t come to Chicago for an investment.

He walked out of the airport with the Li Weidong and Li Weiguo brothers and the shadow guards, greeted by Chicago’s uniquely fresh air and a gentle breeze.

Due to the influence of Lake Michigan, Chicago is known for being windy in the winter.

Although the city was not as bustling and noisy as New York, it possessed its own unique charm and allure.

“Boss, where are we going next?” Li Weidong asked.

“First, we’ll get settled at the hotel. This afternoon, we’ll go to Schaumburg,” Lin Haoran replied.

He had already asked Su Zhixue to book a hotel for him in advance, located on the top floors of the Sears Tower, the world’s tallest building.

There was a five-star hotel there named Vertex Mirage. Inspired by the way the building’s highest point refracted the changing clouds, the bottom of its top-floor infinity pool was embedded with dynamic optical glass, which projected the flowing clouds by day and transformed into a map of star trails by night.

Since he planned to develop the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Lin Haoran also intended to stay in more of these top luxury hotels to learn from their experience.

After checking into the Vertex Mirage, Lin Haoran was deeply captivated by its unique design and lavish service.

Overlooking the Chicago cityscape from the edge of the top-floor infinity pool, the clouds and the city skyline intertwined on the dynamic optical glass, creating a series of enchanting scenes that left him feeling relaxed and happy.

It was truly worthy of being the hotel with the highest room rates in Chicago. As Lin Haoran took in the stunning environment, he felt that although the price was high, it was well worth it.

After a short rest, Lin Haoran changed into a sharp suit, ready to head to the Motorola headquarters.

Leaving the hotel, he led the Li Weidong and Li Weiguo brothers and the shadow guards to Schaumburg.

Schaumburg, a suburb of Chicago, was the location of Motorola’s headquarters and the main destination of Lin Haoran’s trip.

On the drive there, Lin Haoran admired the scenery of Chicago through the car window.

Skyscrapers and wide streets complemented each other, showcasing the city’s modernity and prosperity.

Of course, Lin Haoran didn’t personally know Motorola’s President, Robert Galvin, but that didn’t matter. With Citibank as an intermediary, he had successfully contacted this titan of the tech world.

While in New York, he had arranged with Robert Galvin to have a private meeting with him this afternoon.

The primary reason for the meeting was the hope of collaborating with Motorola to make Hong Kong the first region in the world with commercial mobile phone service.

He was simply tired of the days when it was difficult to contact people once he was out and about.

Although mobile phones were still rudimentary and as big as bricks, as long as they were portable and allowed him to make or receive calls at any time, nothing else mattered.

An hour later, Lin Haoran arrived at his destination: Motorola headquarters, an industrial park that looked exceptionally ordinary but was quite large, spanning a full 300 acres.

More than a decade ago, it was already capable of accommodating over ten thousand employees, becoming one of the first corporate headquarters in the United States to be equipped with a cleanroom semiconductor lab.

Security within the campus was tight, but after Lin Haoran reported his identity, he passed through smoothly, and a patrol car even guided his vehicle.

Evidently, Robert Galvin had already informed the head of security about his visit to the Motorola headquarters.

Guided by the patrol car, Lin Haoran’s convoy slowly drove into the core area of the Motorola headquarters.

The campus was lush with trees, creating a stark contrast with the modern office buildings and fostering a work atmosphere that was both tranquil and efficient.

The car finally stopped in front of a uniquely designed building.

Lin Haoran straightened his suit, stepped out of the car, with the Li Weidong and Li Weiguo brothers following close behind.

The other shadow guards remained in the cars.

After all, if a place with such tight security could be dangerous, then there was truly no safe place left.

Chapter 423: Lin Haoran’s Intent to Enter the Telecommunications Industry

Studying the magnificent complex before him, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a touch of sentiment.

Motorola Company. It was likely standing at the zenith of its power right now.

In the field of telecommunications, Motorola was already the trendsetting industry benchmark, its influence pervasive and known to all.

And yet, who could have predicted that such a radiant tech giant would, in the future, walk a path of rapid decline? It was truly a lamentable fate.

In the timeline from which Lin Haoran had come, Motorola had long lost its former glory in the mobile communications sector, falling completely behind and even undergoing multiple changes in ownership!

But none of that mattered to Lin Haoran. His purpose in coming here was simple and clear: to seek a partnership with Motorola Company.

He wanted to bring mobile communication to Hong Kong, and Motorola, currently the most mature and advanced enterprise in global mobile communications technology, was the best possible partner.

Why opt for a partnership instead of a direct investment?

The reason was that Lin Haoran had reservations about Motorola’s performance on the stock market. To put it simply, he wasn’t impressed by its potential for growth.

Although the company was highly renowned and widely recognized in the telecommunications field, its market capitalization didn’t seem to fully reflect its true value.

Even at its future peak, its market cap would only be a few tens of billions of US dollars. Right now, Motorola’s market capitalization was merely around one billion US dollars.

With such a market cap, it didn’t even rank in the top one hundred in the United States.

From its current total market capitalization of one billion US dollars, it would only multiply by a few dozen times at its absolute peak.

It was a far cry from the future prospects of companies like Walmart, Apple, Intel, and Microsoft.

More importantly, even if Lin Haoran attempted to accumulate a large number of Motorola shares through the stock market, he would find it difficult to gain any substantial controlling stake in the company.

This was because Motorola had a deep background as a U.S. military-industrial enterprise, having developed numerous military products for the US armed forces, such as the famous SCR-536 military walkie-talkie and the SCR-300 backpack frequency-hopping walkie-talkie from World War II.

As a person of Chinese descent and a non-US citizen, if Lin Haoran ever harbored the thought of acquiring Motorola, it would be almost impossible to succeed, even if the Galvin family were willing to sell.

The government, citing security and other concerns, would inevitably intervene, leading any acquisition attempt to end in failure.

Furthermore, Motorola had always been firmly in the hands of the Galvin family, leaving outsiders with virtually no opportunity to acquire it.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had never once considered Motorola an investment target.

His goal was merely to get mobile signal coverage in Hong Kong as soon as possible, allowing for the use of mobile phones.

That way, he would no longer have to deal with the hassle of a beeper.

After all, though he was currently in the United States, he actually spent most of the year in Hong Kong.

Besides, the telecommunications industry itself was an extremely profitable sector. For Lin Haoran, an opportunity like this was not to be missed.

If he could successfully enter this industry and take control of Hong Kong’s mobile communications market, it would be a tremendous asset to him.

The fixed-line telephone business in Hong Kong was already monopolized by the Hongkong Telephone Company.

A year ago, Lin Haoran had covertly acquired Hongkong Electric Group, successfully taking down the British-owned giant.

His rival at the time had been the Hongkong Land Group.

After losing the bid for Hongkong Electric Group, Hongkong Land had set its sights on the Hongkong Telephone Company and China Light & Power Company.

In the two or three months that followed, Hongkong Land secretly acquired ten million shares of the Hongkong Telephone Company, but their plan was halted when they entered the competition for the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Even so, Hongkong Land Group currently held those ten million shares of Hongkong Telephone Company, accounting for 10.95% of the total equity.

Although this wasn’t enough to control Hongkong Telephone Company, with such a large stake, he could acquire it at any time if he wished.

This time, if Lin Haoran could persuade Motorola’s President, Mr. Robert Galvin, to partner with him to deploy mobile communications in Hong Kong, he wouldn’t mind acquiring the Hongkong Telephone Company outright.

By doing so, he would directly control both the fixed-line and mobile telecommunications sectors in Hong Kong, and extending his reach to Southeast Asia and other regions in the future would be a simple matter.

At that moment, a secretary in professional attire was already waiting at the entrance. Upon seeing Lin Haoran, she smiled and stepped forward, saying softly, “Mr. Lin, Mr. Galvin is already waiting for you inside. Please, follow me.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly and followed the secretary into Motorola Company’s reception area, which was decorated in a simple yet elegant style.

After passing through several glass doors, they arrived before a spacious office.

The secretary knocked gently, and a deep, powerful voice came from within: “Come in.”

The door opened slowly, and Lin Haoran stepped into the office, his eyes immediately falling on Mr. Robert Galvin, who was seated at the head of a long table.

Robert Galvin was a man of about sixty, dressed in a dark suit. He wore a warm smile, and his eyes revealed a leader’s charisma.

“Mr. Lin, welcome.” Galvin stood up and politely shook Lin Haoran’s hand.

Although Lin Haoran’s fame in the United States had grown significantly recently, Robert Galvin wasn’t particularly concerned.

The reason was simple: Robert Galvin saw Lin Haoran as nothing more than a pure investor.

He, on the other hand, was a tycoon in the tech world.

Under normal circumstances, their paths would never cross.

If it weren’t for the favor to Citibank, Robert Galvin wouldn’t even have been interested in meeting Lin Haoran.

After all, Motorola not only possessed world-leading communications technology but also had a powerful backer in the government. They had no need to curry favor with investors like Lin Haoran, even if the man’s wealth surpassed that of the Robert Galvin family.

In Robert Galvin’s eyes, Lin Haoran initially seemed to be just an upstart who had risen through opportune moments.

His Galvin family, on the other hand, had endured for generations, with deep roots and a historical legacy that newly rich figures like Lin Haoran could not hope to match.

Therefore, Robert Galvin had originally held little interest in meeting with Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Robert Galvin, I’ve long admired your reputation. I’ve known of you since I was a child, known that you are a pillar of the American tech industry. It is a true honor to meet you today!” Lin Haoran said with a sincere smile, showing none of the impetuousness of an “upstart.”

Hearing Lin Haoran’s well-chosen words, the corners of Robert Galvin’s mouth couldn’t help but lift into a slight curve.

Although he held private reservations about Lin Haoran’s background and origins, the young man’s humble and polite demeanor undoubtedly made a good impression, and his own expression became more cordial and friendly.

“You’re too kind, Mr. Lin. It is also my pleasure to be able to converse with a talented young man such as yourself,” Robert Galvin replied.

His words carried the encouraging tone of an elder speaking to a junior, as if implicitly acknowledging Lin Haoran’s status and potential in the business world.

Robert Galvin certainly had reason to be proud. As a titan of the telecommunications industry, Motorola had been a leading international enterprise since World War II. To this day, its position had not only never faltered but had continued to rise.

Even the renowned Bell Labs lagged behind Motorola in the field of telecommunications.

Robert Galvin believed that in the world of telecommunications, Motorola had absolutely no rivals.

Lin Haoran could naturally sense the deep-seated confidence and pride emanating from Robert Galvin, but he wasn’t displeased by it.

He saw Motorola’s future with perfect clarity—its decline was only a matter of time. But what did that have to do with him?

“Mr. Robert Galvin, I’ve brought you a local gift from Hong Kong. I hope you like it,” Lin Haoran said, handing a gift bag to him.

Robert Galvin accepted the bag with a touch of curiosity. He knew that Chinese people often brought a gift when paying a visit, so he didn’t refuse.

At the same time, his favorable impression of Lin Haoran rose another notch.

In reality, the bag contained nothing more than an exquisite Bian-style embroidery of the scroll Along the River During the Qingming Festival, which he had indeed brought from Hong Kong.

He hadn’t only given one to Robert Galvin; he had also given one to Jobs, Citibank Chairman Walter Wriston, and others.

It wasn’t an expensive item anyway.

“Thank you very much for the gift, Mr. Lin. But as you can see, my schedule is always quite tight, with a great deal of important work to attend to.”

Robert Galvin gently set the gift bag down, his tone rather direct. “Therefore, it would be more efficient for both of us if we could get straight to the point and discuss the purpose of your visit. I believe a frank exchange will make our conversation go more smoothly.”

Based on his limited knowledge of Lin Haoran, Robert Galvin privately speculated that the young visitor’s purpose was perhaps to invest in or even acquire Motorola Company.

In Robert Galvin’s mind, Motorola was undoubtedly a company severely undervalued by the stock market; its market capitalization was far from reflecting its preeminent position and deep-seated expertise in the telecommunications industry.

It came as no surprise to Robert Galvin that an investor seeking opportunities, like Lin Haoran, would show interest in Motorola.

After all, over the years, there had been no shortage of investors who had approached Motorola with acquisition inquiries. However, without exception, Robert Galvin had politely declined them all.

Motorola was the enterprise that carried the honor and dreams of the Galvin family. In Robert Galvin’s heart, he would absolutely not allow any outside force to get its hands on it.

Chapter 424: Motorola’s Predicament

Since Robert Galvin wanted to be direct and disliked beating around the bush, Lin Haoran decided to get straight to the point as well. “Mr. Robert Galvin,” he said, “I’ve come today primarily hoping to reach a cooperation agreement with Motorola Company.

Motorola’s outstanding achievements and technological innovations in the communications field have earned my deep admiration. I believe that if we work together, we can certainly create a brilliant future.”

Hearing this, Robert Galvin’s eyes flashed with surprise, but he quickly regained his composure.

He nodded slightly, gesturing for Lin Haoran to continue.

Lin Haoran went on, “I understand that Motorola is a global leader in mobile communication technology. I assume your mobile technology must be quite mature by now?

The region I’m from, Hong Kong, is in urgent need of such advanced technology to drive the development of its communications industry. Therefore, I hope to cooperate with Motorola to jointly develop the mobile communications market in Hong Kong.”

Before coming to Chicago, Lin Haoran had conducted an in-depth investigation of Motorola.

He learned that Motorola’s technology for mobile cellular signal networks was already quite mature, and its mobile phone hardware technology had also reached a commercial standard.

However, despite this technological maturity, Motorola had yet to bring mobile phones to the market.

Lin Haoran knew that there must be many hidden difficulties behind this delay.

Among them, the most critical was government approval.

Building a mobile cellular signal network in a city not only involved massive infrastructure construction but also required consideration of a series of complex technical issues such as signal interference, transmission distance, and coverage area.

More importantly, it required explicit approval and authorization from the government to ensure the network’s security, stability, and legal operation.

For Motorola, obtaining government approval was perhaps not that difficult, given their military background and relatively close relationship with the government.

However, to truly bring mobile phones to market, Motorola faced even more severe challenges.

The biggest difficulty was that in order to sell mobile phones, a mobile cellular signal network had to be established throughout an entire city first.

In a large city like Chicago, the investment required to achieve comprehensive mobile signal coverage was enormous, exceeding one hundred million dollars.

If this network were to be expanded across the entire United States, the required capital would be incalculable.

Motorola Company had conducted detailed estimates. Based on the proportion of wealthy individuals in Chicago—the potential customers—it would take at least over a decade to recoup the investment cost relying solely on users in Chicago.

For any company, this was a long and uncertain process.

However, it was precisely these predicaments faced by Motorola that allowed Lin Haoran to see the possibility of a partnership.

He was confident that with his resources and influence in Hong Kong, as well as his deep understanding of the Asian market, he could help Motorola solve some of its problems and jointly advance the commercialization of mobile phone technology.

American cities have a rather unique characteristic: a large portion of the population is concentrated in the suburbs surrounding the city center, while the population living in the city center itself is actually not very large.

This was the exact opposite of Hong Kong, where the population is heavily concentrated in a very small area in the city center, with few people in the suburbs.

As the city where Motorola Company was headquartered, if Motorola wanted to be the first to commercialize, Chicago would certainly be their first choice for coverage.

But if they only built a mobile network within the few square kilometers of downtown Chicago, the functionality of mobile phones would be greatly diminished, as most people did not live in the city center. They were scattered in various corners of the Chicago suburbs.

This meant that for mobile phones to become truly widespread, a mobile cellular signal network had to be built over a much wider area of the city.

However, the investment required for this was enormous, exceeding one hundred million dollars.

For Motorola Company, this was a huge challenge.

Motorola’s R&D labs worked on a very wide range of projects, all of which required funding. Many of the large-investment R&D projects were extremely long-term, with no foreseeable breakeven point.

It was for this reason that Motorola’s stock price had remained stagnant; everyone knew that almost all the money Motorola earned was reinvested into R&D, leaving profits quite low.

It was naturally impossible for them to spend over one hundred million dollars to build a mobile cellular signal network, especially with a breakeven point so far in the future. One hundred million dollars was no small sum.

And finding external investment partners was even more difficult.

Mobile cellular signal network technology was not exclusive to Motorola.

In fact, their competitor, Bell Labs, had successfully developed an advanced mobile phone system in collaboration with Motorola four or five years ago and had successfully tested a true cellular mobile communication network.

This meant that Motorola did not have an absolute advantage in mobile communication technology. While their technology was no worse than Bell Labs’, their edge was not significant.

Perhaps their only major advantage was that they had developed a commercially viable mobile phone.

In addition, tech companies in Japan, Europe, and other regions also possessed technological capabilities in the mobile communications field that were on par with Motorola’s.

These companies were also actively seeking partners to promote the commercialization of mobile phone technology, but it was clear that unless the government invested, private investors would not put money into this area due to the low rate of return.

Hong Kong, however, was different. The downtown area itself was not very large, covering only the northern end of Hong Kong Island and the southern end of the Kowloon Peninsula, and the population was almost entirely concentrated in this area.

Other areas, such as the central and southern parts of Hong Kong Island, the New Territories to the north of the Kowloon Peninsula, Tuen Mun and Yuen Long to the west, Sha Tin to the east, and even Lantau Island, were sparsely populated and could be ignored for the time being.

Once the investment was made, they would only need to cover the densely populated areas of Hong Kong with a mobile cellular signal network to enter the commercialization stage directly.

This meant that, compared to a large city like Chicago, the capital needed to build a mobile cellular signal network would be drastically reduced. It might only require twenty to thirty million dollars, or even less, to establish an effective cellular mobile communication network in Hong Kong’s city center and surrounding key areas.

Such an investment strategy not only significantly lowered costs but also greatly increased the rate of return.

Due to Hong Kong’s high population density, especially the number of middle- and high-income individuals far exceeding that of Chicago, the cost recovery period would be significantly shortened.

Once the network was built and put into operation, it could become profitable very quickly.

More importantly, if he could be the first to seize the mobile communications market in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran would possess a huge competitive advantage, dominating the city’s mobile communications market.

If this cooperation was sealed, he would not only dominate the fixed-line telephone market in the future but the mobile communications market as well.

Then, with Hong Kong as the center, he could invest outwards.

As the financial and trade hub of Asia, Hong Kong’s market potential, influence, and consumer power were not to be underestimated.

A population base of over five million, along with its position as the world’s third-largest financial center, provided a vast market space and limitless business opportunities.

In contrast, Chicago, the third-largest city in the United States, had a total population of just over two million, and most of these people lived in villas scattered around the city center.

“Cooperation on mobile communication technology? Does Mr. Lin mean you intend to build a cellular mobile communication network in Hong Kong?” Robert Galvin asked with curiosity.

“Precisely,” Lin Haoran confirmed with a nod. “As far as I know, Motorola should currently be conducting large-scale trials of this technology, but the testing costs are quite high, which is why it hasn’t been commercialized yet.

Hong Kong, being a moderately sized city, is very suitable as a testing ground. I propose that our two sides cooperate. Motorola will provide the advanced technical support.

I, on the other hand, will be responsible for the capital investment. As for the equity distribution, we can negotiate based on the actual proportions of our investments. Mr. Robert Galvin, what do you think of this proposal?”

Robert Galvin fell into deep thought upon hearing this.

He carefully weighed the pros and cons of the cooperation, a strong interest in Lin Haoran’s proposal growing within him.

After all, finding a partner willing to bear the financial risk was undoubtedly a huge help for Motorola.

Motorola Company indeed had relatively mature technology. For one thing, Motorola had actually developed the first mobile phone back in 1973, though the technology at the time was rather primitive and not suitable for large-scale commercial use.

Now, after eight years, their hardware technology was much more refined.

As for mobile signals, their technology was also solid, having already undergone multiple small-scale tests.

However, large-scale commercialization presented significant difficulties.

This was because the United States itself is a country with a small population and a vast territory. Take Chicago, for example. Although its core downtown area is not large, its suburbs are extremely expansive. While Chicago has many tall buildings, most of its structures are actually low-rise houses.

Even if they were willing to make a large-scale investment, not many people in the whole of Chicago could afford a mobile phone. As such, recouping the investment was bound to be a distant prospect. As a businessman, one naturally prioritizes profit.

Coupled with the high construction and maintenance costs, large-scale commercialization became fraught with difficulty.

The situation in Hong Kong was completely different. As a moderately sized city, its geography and population density made the construction of a mobile communication network relatively easy.

Furthermore, as the financial and trade hub of Asia, Hong Kong had a large number of wealthy people with an urgent demand for advanced communication technology.

Chapter 425: The Deal Is Done!

If they were the first to achieve cellular mobile network coverage in Hong Kong and then promoted mobile phones, breaking even, and even relying on it to make money in the future, would not be too difficult.

Although somewhat interested, Robert Galvin still shook his head and said, “Mr. Lin, your proposal is indeed very attractive. The market potential of Hong Kong and the financial support you’re offering undoubtedly provide us with a new perspective and opportunity. I am a little interested.

However, before deciding whether to cooperate, Motorola needs to consider several key factors.”

Lin Haoran leaned forward slightly, gesturing for him to continue.

“First, although we have made significant progress in mobile communication technology, just as you said, achieving large-scale commercial use still requires overcoming numerous technical difficulties and cost challenges, such as signal obstruction between high-rise buildings.

Building a cellular mobile communication network in Hong Kong, while relatively advantageous in terms of cost and geography, will still require meticulous planning and a great deal of preliminary work.

Second, as a global enterprise, Motorola’s strategic decisions must consider the impact and layout of the global market. Whether success in Hong Kong can provide experience and a model for our market expansion in other regions is something we must consider.

Most importantly, we don’t have much business over in Hong Kong. To us, Hong Kong is a very unfamiliar place.”

“Mr. Robert Galvin, as a world-leading communications company, Motorola Company’s achievements and your visionary insight, as well as Motorola’s formidable strength, are undoubtedly admirable.

Regarding the technical difficulties and cost challenges you mentioned, I fully understand and respect Motorola’s cautious attitude. To that end, I have already begun a series of preparations in hopes that we can face these challenges together.

On the technical front, I firmly believe that the engineering team at Motorola Company will be able to overcome these hurdles step by step. And large-scale commercial use by consumers is undoubtedly an important way to test the technology and to find and fix bugs.

As for the impact and layout of the global market, Hong Kong, as an international metropolis, possesses market characteristics and consumer trends that are undoubtedly representative on a global scale.

Successfully building and operating a cellular mobile network there would not only provide Motorola with invaluable practical experience but also serve as a window to showcase your company’s technological prowess and innovative spirit to the world.

This will certainly further enhance Motorola’s competitiveness and brand influence in the global market.

To this end, I propose we establish a joint project team specifically responsible for the implementation and promotion of this project in Hong Kong.

This project team would be composed of experts from both Motorola and my side to ensure the project’s smooth progress and the maximization of both parties’ interests.

At the same time, we can also explore gradually replicating this successful model in other potential markets in the future, based on market feedback and business development.”

Lin Haoran took a sip of water, glanced at the other man, and seeing that he was still listening intently, continued speaking.

“Of course, I understand that Motorola needs to consider many factors when making a decision.

Therefore, I am willing to provide a detailed cooperation proposal covering the investment plan, market analysis, expected returns, and risk management strategies for your company’s reference.

I believe that ever since Motorola Company first demonstrated a not-yet-commercial mobile phone in 1973, it has always been committed to maintaining its industry-leading position.

However, facing competitors like Bell Labs and the fact that places like Japan have already launched imperfect cellular mobile phone networks, if Motorola doesn’t seize the initiative in time, it risks missing a development opportunity.

The reason Motorola has not yet truly commercialized its mobile phone technology is undoubtedly due in large part to funding issues.

And a partnership between you and me will provide powerful support for Motorola to solve this problem.

As the inventor of the mobile phone, Motorola surely hopes to bring its product to the market as soon as possible.

And I have a great deal of influence in Hong Kong, capable of helping to resolve all obstacles aside from the technical ones.

I have come here today with the utmost sincerity. If you truly refuse this partnership, Mr. Robert Galvin, I may have no choice but to seek cooperation with Bell Labs or other mobile communications companies.

I believe Motorola Company would also hope that the honor of creating the world’s first mobile phone falls to Motorola… right?” After speaking, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but take another sip of water.

This time, in order to persuade Robert Galvin, he had done a great deal of homework.

That included researching the state of the mobile communications field.

One must fight a prepared battle. Rushing in to seek a partnership without any investigation would almost certainly result in a high probability of failure.

After listening to Lin Haoran’s detailed explanation, Robert Galvin’s brow relaxed slightly, clearly moved by the other party’s sincerity and preparation.

He tapped lightly on the desktop, and after a moment of contemplation, he said, “Mr. Lin, you truly surprise me. As far as I know, you are an outsider to this industry, yet you understand so much about the mobile communications field.

Your profound understanding of the market has also left a deep impression on me. It is undeniable that Motorola is eager to maintain its leading position in the communications sector.

And the honor of producing the world’s first truly commercial mobile phone is, for us, of immense strategic importance.

“Regarding what you mentioned about the uniqueness and representative nature of the Hong Kong market, my reservations have been well addressed.

Your proposed joint project team and your willingness to provide a detailed cooperation plan both demonstrate your serious attitude and thoughtful consideration for this partnership.

Especially your mention of being able to resolve all non-technical obstacles—that is a huge draw for us.

“However, as I said before, Motorola is a global company, and our decisions need to balance various considerations.

Although the Hong Kong market has great potential, our business foundation there is relatively weak, which could increase the risks and uncertainties in the initial implementation phase.”

Seeing his chance, Lin Haoran’s heart leaped with joy. Knowing the crucial moment had arrived, he decided to strike while the iron is hot. “Mr. Robert Galvin, I completely understand your concerns. To mitigate Motorola’s risks in entering the Hong Kong market, I am willing to propose a few further guarantees:

First, my side will bear all the initial capital investment for the project and establish a special risk fund to handle any unforeseen circumstances.

Second, my side will be responsible for the project’s market promotion and customer relations management, utilizing our extensive connections and resources in Hong Kong to ensure the project’s smooth progress and rapid profitability.

Third, to strengthen Motorola’s business foundation in Hong Kong, my side is willing to cooperate with Motorola in multiple areas, including but not limited to technical training, talent development, and market expansion, to achieve resource sharing and a complementary partnership.”

Having said this, Lin Haoran once again picked up his water glass, but this time he didn’t drink immediately. Instead, he waited for Robert Galvin’s response.

He had a plan. For now, without the technology, he had no choice but to partner with Motorola Company.

Once the partnership with Motorola was settled, he would begin the process of acquiring the Hongkong Telephone Company and then use it as the partner entity for the joint venture with Motorola.

In the short term, it would certainly not be profitable. But once the technology matured in the future, he would start acquiring all the shares in their joint venture at a low price, thereby bringing the company completely under his control.

As Robert Galvin listened to the guarantees Lin Haoran proposed, his eyes gradually lit up. These proposals had clearly struck a chord with him.

He nodded gently and said slowly, “Mr. Lin, your proposals are very constructive. Especially your willingness to bear the majority of the initial capital investment and establish a special risk fund—this undoubtedly and significantly reduces Motorola’s market entry risk.

At the same time, your mention of market promotion, customer relations management, and multi-faceted cooperation adds more possibilities and depth to our partnership.”

He paused, seemingly weighing all the information, then continued, “However, as you know, this matter is of great significance. I cannot agree rashly. I need to discuss this with the Board of Directors, so I’m afraid I cannot give you a final answer directly.

How about this, Mr. Lin? Give me one day. I will discuss this matter thoroughly with the senior executives at Motorola Company. As soon as we have a result, I will contact you immediately and begin detailed negotiations with your people. How does that sound?”

“I understand completely, Mr. Robert Galvin. I will be in Chicago for the next two days. I look forward to your good news!” Lin Haoran agreed without hesitation.

Moreover, from Robert Galvin’s tone, he was confident that this partnership was pretty much a sure thing.

In that case, his purpose for this trip to Chicago could be considered accomplished.

After they had talked things over, Robert Galvin personally led Lin Haoran on a tour of the Motorola campus, showcasing some of the company’s R&D achievements and its glorious history.

However, regarding these new products, although Lin Haoran put on a display of great shock, inwardly he was unimpressed.

After all, in his previous life, any random product he had seen was far more advanced than the products of this era.

After the tour, Lin Haoran bid farewell to Robert Galvin and returned to his hotel.

Meanwhile, Robert Galvin, just as he had said, eagerly brought Lin Haoran’s proposal to a senior executive meeting at Motorola that same afternoon.

In the conference room, Motorola’s top executives sat around a circular table, their faces all etched with seriousness.

Robert Galvin stood at the head of the table, meticulously explaining the plan to partner with Lin Haoran and the guarantees he had offered.

The executives listened to Robert Galvin’s report, nodding from time to time in approval.

They were well aware that as mobile communication technology continued to develop, market competition was becoming increasingly fierce. Motorola needed to constantly seize the initiative to maintain its leading position.

The cities here in the United States were indeed not conducive to their initial technology rollout. The investment required for a cellular mobile network was too great. Only after achieving success would numerous investors be willing to jointly build out America’s entire mobile network.

Without a rollout, their technology would just sit there, with no place to be used.

The partnership with Lin Haoran was undoubtedly a rare opportunity.

After a round of intense discussion and deliberation, Motorola’s senior executives finally decided to accept Lin Haoran’s proposal and to enter into a partnership with him.

That afternoon, Robert Galvin eagerly contacted Lin Haoran to tell him the good news that Motorola had agreed to cooperate with him.

When Lin Haoran heard this, all the worries in his heart melted away. The deal was done.

Chapter 426: Target: Hongkong Telephone Company

After receiving the good news from Motorola, Lin Haoran wasted no time and immediately called Simon Keswick, the general manager of the Hongkong Land Group in Hong Kong.

“Mr. Ma, how is the privatization process for the Hongkong Land Group coming along?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile as soon as the call connected.

“Boss, according to the latest feedback from Wardley, we now hold over 98.5% of Hongkong Land Group’s shares. There are very few shares left in the hands of retail investors.

However, the pace has slowed as the acquisition has progressed. In fact, it was only because the shareholders were so willing to sell that we were able to achieve such significant results in a short time.

As for the remaining shares, based on past experience, Wardley’s analysis is that they are mainly held by two types of shareholders: one type consists of people who bought the shares years ago and have since immigrated overseas, so they may not be aware of the privatization;

The other type are shareholders who don’t care much about their small number of shares and might even plan to keep them as souvenirs. Therefore, achieving a 100% shareholding ratio is indeed quite difficult.

Based on this, Wardley has recommended that we can begin preparing our application to the Securities Commission to declare the privatization a success. They will assist us with all the necessary work!” Simon Keswick reported the current situation in detail.

Lin Haoran nodded and said, “Alright, go ahead and apply to the Securities Commission. Get this done for me. I’ve nearly finished my business here in the United States and am preparing to return to Hong Kong. I hope to hear your good news when I get back.”

Although Hongkong Land Group had already been delisted and the privatization process was ongoing, as long as the privatization had not been officially declared a success, the company could not be considered his private enterprise.

“Rest assured, Boss. I will work with Wardley to get this settled for you as soon as possible!” Simon Keswick promised.

“Has anything else happened with the Hongkong Land Group recently?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

“Nothing major has happened within Hongkong Land itself, but something we did has had a considerable impact on Hong Kong,” Simon Keswick reported.

“Oh? What is it?” Lin Haoran was instantly curious.

“Boss, we recently put more than thirty real estate projects up for sale, and through them, we recovered a full 6.8 billion Hong Kong dollars in capital.

More than twenty real estate companies of all sizes across Hong Kong participated in the bidding, so in a short period, the Hong Kong property market has become quite saturated.

Last week, the government sent out invitation cards to all sizable real estate companies in Hong Kong, including us at Hongkong Land Group. The government will be holding a government land auction on January 1st, 1981, where five plots of land will be up for auction.

The locations of these plots are all extremely prime; they are very rare and highly sought-after parcels in Hong Kong. One of them is in Central, just over a hundred meters east of the Connaught Centre, with an area of 73,000 square feet.

The other plots are located on Hennessy Road in Causeway Bay, south of the Central Ferry Piers, and in Tsim Sha Tsui East. It’s safe to say that the locations are all exceptionally superior.

The starting prices are reasonable, but unexpectedly, as far as I know, only three real estate companies have accepted the invitation to participate in the auction so far. And it seems their desire to bid isn’t strong; they’re just going to give the government some face.

In the past, at least a dozen real estate companies would have participated, and the bidding would have been fierce. This is the first time in recent years that a government land auction has seen such a situation,” Simon Keswick explained in detail.

Lin Haoran felt a bit emotional. His actions had, after all, had a certain impact on Hong Kong’s real estate market, with the government bearing the brunt of it. He hoped the Hong Kong government wouldn’t blame him.

“In that case, Hongkong Land Group should also register to participate in the auction. If we can get them at a low price, we’ll take all of them, as long as the price isn’t too outrageous!” Lin Haoran said after a moment’s thought.

These rare plots were not ordinary land.

If they didn’t acquire them now, they might not get another chance.

In any case, Hongkong Land Group had plenty of capital on hand, with over ten billion Hong Kong dollars in usable funds.

Although some of these funds were earmarked for projects and several billion were needed for debt repayment, he could still use the money before the repayments were due.

Besides, even after subtracting those amounts, Hongkong Land would still have several billion Hong Kong dollars available.

The current Hongkong Land Group was more financially robust than ever before.

“Boss, why the sudden interest in buying land again?” Simon Keswick asked curiously, though there was no objection in his voice. Instead, there was a hint of a smile.

Clearly, he was very supportive of this move.

“These plots of land, just as you said, are scarce resources. If we don’t buy them now, we might not get the chance again later.

Although we both predict that Hong Kong is about to face a real estate crisis, I don’t believe this crisis will last for long. Once it’s over, Hong Kong’s property market is bound to experience a new round of explosive growth.

Therefore, if we miss out on these premium plots, we may never be able to get them back in the future.

While we’ve sold off more than thirty real estate projects recently, we didn’t consider those projects to be of the highest quality, which is why we were willing to part with them to reduce Hongkong Land’s debt ratio.

Now, Hongkong Land is flush with cash and free from debt concerns, so we have no issues on the financial front.

Moreover, as far as I know, premium government land is becoming increasingly scarce. Every plot that is sold means one less is available. Therefore, we should acquire them if we can!” Lin Haoran explained.

“Boss, I completely agree with your reasoning. I was actually planning to find a time to discuss this with you, so I’m surprised you brought it up yourself!” Simon Keswick said, pleasantly surprised.

At that moment, Simon Keswick deeply felt that his business philosophy and the Boss’s agreed without prior consultation.

It was a great feeling to be in such complete alignment with the boss on matters of group management.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran smiled and said, “Mr. Ma, we’re on the same page. That’s what you call rapport. The development of Hongkong Land Group needs this kind of tacit understanding between us to go further.”

Although Lin Haoran didn’t know the ins and outs of corporate management, he had a clear vision of the general direction for development, mainly thanks to his rough understanding of the major trends over the next few decades.

As for Simon Keswick, to have come to the same conclusion without specific knowledge of the future demonstrated his forward-thinking mindset.

He had foreseen the direction of the industry’s development through his own sharp insight and rich experience, and his thoughts had aligned perfectly with Lin Haoran’s.

This was the kind of management talent Lin Haoran needed.

Traveling all the way to Singapore to personally invite Simon Keswick back to Hong Kong was an absolute windfall!

Simon Keswick nodded in agreement and continued, “Boss, regarding the land auction, I will start the preparations immediately after our call. I’ll contact the auction organizers and inform them that we will be participating.

At the same time, I will maintain close communication with Wardley to expedite the privatization process, striving to give you a satisfactory conclusion before you return to Hong Kong.”

Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction. “Very good, Mr. Ma. I’ve always been confident in your work. Under your management, Hongkong Land Group has been developing steadily, and I’m sure this time will be no exception.”

“Thank you for your trust, Boss!” Simon Keswick chuckled.

“By the way, Mr. Ma, I called you today because there is another, more important matter I need you to handle. Hongkong Land Group once intended to acquire Hongkong Telephone Company. Although it didn’t succeed, I believe we still hold ten million shares in the company, is that correct?” Lin Haoran said.

“Yes, Boss. Hongkong Land Group does currently hold ten million shares of Hongkong Telephone Company,” Simon Keswick replied truthfully, though he was unsure why the boss was bringing it up.

“I met with Mr. Robert Galvin, the President of Motorola Company, today. I’m sure you have heard of the mobile phone, right? Although it is still a technology that hasn’t been commercialized, there has been plenty of media coverage on it over the years.

I plan to launch a commercial mobile phone business in Hong Kong, and our partnership with Motorola Company is crucial. We have already reached a preliminary agreement to jointly establish a mobile communications company.

Therefore, I have decided that Hongkong Land Group will restart its plan to acquire Hongkong Telephone Company. As the largest communications enterprise in Hong Kong, once we successfully acquire it, we can leverage it to cooperate with Motorola Company,” Lin Haoran stated the purpose of his call directly.

Considering that Hongkong Land was now almost Lin Haoran’s private enterprise, already held ten million shares of Hongkong Telephone, and was in a strong financial position, he believed it was the most appropriate choice to carry out the acquisition.

Since he had already reached a preliminary agreement with Motorola to jointly invest in a mobile communications company in Hong Kong, acquiring Hongkong Telephone would provide powerful support for their partnership.

Hongkong Telephone Company not only possessed a solid foundation in communications technology but also had a rich heritage, having been established in 1925 and operated for over fifty years.

In Hong Kong, the company’s share of the communications market was extremely high, giving it a near-monopoly over the entire industry.

Thus, the acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company was of great significance in advancing the partnership with Motorola.

Chapter 427: They Can’t Escape Our Grasp

Acquire Hongkong Telephone Company?

After hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Simon Keswick had a sudden realization. So this was what the Boss had in mind.

He pondered for a moment before nodding in response, “Regarding the proposal to acquire Hongkong Telephone Company, I fully support your plan.

“Although Hongkong Telephone Company is not technically a listed public utility company, it’s better than one.

“Like Hong Kong and China Gas Company and Hongkong Electric Group, it is a quality asset with stable cash flow. In particular, it holds a de facto monopoly in Hong Kong’s telecommunications market, and its annual profit margins and revenue growth are very stable.”

After a brief pause, Simon Keswick added, “Actually, when I first took over Hongkong Land Group, I had already assembled a team to conduct in-depth due diligence on Hong Kong Telephone, considering whether to proceed with an acquisition.

“But recently, my energy has been focused on the centralized disposal of real estate projects, so that plan was temporarily shelved.

“Now that the group’s capital reserves are abundant, since you’ve brought it up again, I can restart the acquisition process immediately. I’ll have the investment banking team update the valuation model this week, and then we will proceed with the acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company.”

Over the past two years, many industries in the international metropolis of Hong Kong had been affected by the oil crisis, but there were exceptions.

Besides real estate companies, which were unaffected by the crisis, there were four companies that had stood firm for decades, weathering any market fluctuations with almost no impact.

These four companies were CLP Holdings, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, and Hong Kong Telephone. During the oil crisis, they seemed to be invincible, as if risk had nothing to do with them.

This was mainly due to their intimate connection with the daily operations of Hong Kong, ensuring the city ran smoothly day and night. They were like daily necessities—indispensable when needed. The lives of the citizens depended on them.

As such, no matter what crisis hit the market, they remained unaffected, earning just as much as they always had.

Of these four companies, Hongkong Electric Group and the Hong Kong and China Gas Company had already been acquired by Lin Haoran, making him their effective controller.

The remaining two, CLP Holdings and Hong Kong Telephone, he had not yet acquired.

He wasn’t acquiring CLP Holdings because he had already purchased Hongkong Electric Group. If he were to target CLP Holdings as well, the Securities Commission would undoubtedly intervene, as it would constitute a monopoly in the electricity sector—a situation the Hong Kong government would never allow.

As for Hong Kong Telephone, he hadn’t had much interest in it before. At the time, his targets were Hongkong Electric Group and the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. To divert Jardine Matheson & Co.’s attention, he had suggested they target Hongkong Telephone Company.

But now, after reaching an agreement with Motorola Company, his interest had grown considerably.

Hongkong Telephone Company, founded in 1925, specialized in the construction and operation of Hong Kong’s fixed-line telephone network and was now the primary monopoly in local fixed-network services.

Earlier this year, Britain’s Cable & Wireless had attempted to acquire Hongkong Telephone Company, but at that time, Hongkong Land Group was in the process of acquiring Hongkong Electric Group and ultimately lost to Lin Haoran.

It was then that Lin Haoran encouraged the Jardine Matheson side to acquire Hongkong Telephone Company.

In the end, Jardine Matheson & Co. had Hongkong Land Group acquire Hongkong Telephone Company on its own.

This also caused the acquisition attempt by Britain’s Cable & Wireless to end in failure.

Subsequently, Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land Group failed once again while competing with Lin Haoran for the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

During this process, Hongkong Land Group paused its acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company.

To this day, the situation at Hongkong Telephone Company has remained unchanged.

The situation looked complicated, and in reality, it was anything but simple.

Although Jardine Matheson & Co.’s attempt to have Hongkong Land Group acquire Hongkong Telephone Company was ultimately unsuccessful, Hongkong Land still acquired ten million shares. As the current Boss of Hongkong Land Group, Lin Haoran was naturally the ultimate beneficiary.

“What is Hongkong Telephone Company’s current market capitalization? And what does its shareholding structure look like?” Lin Haoran asked after a moment of thought.

Without much hesitation, Simon Keswick replied immediately, “Boss, Hongkong Telephone Company was originally a top-thirty listed giant on the Hong Kong stock market.

“However, due to the general surge in the market capitalization of real estate companies this year, its ranking has slipped quite a bit, even though its own market capitalization has been rising. It’s now ranked thirty-eighth among Hong Kong’s listed companies, with a current market capitalization of about 2.4 billion Hong Kong dollars. The average share price is between 26 and 26.5 Hong Kong dollars.

“Additionally, Hongkong Telephone Company’s management is similar to that of Hongkong Electric Group; it’s controlled by a team of professional managers, and shareholders don’t have excessive controlling stakes within the company.

“Our Hongkong Land Group currently holds ten million shares of Hongkong Telephone Company, which is about a 10.95% stake, making us the company’s second-largest shareholder.

“The largest shareholder holds 15.34 million shares, about 16.8%, and is a British national residing in Hong Kong.

“It wouldn’t be very difficult for us to become a major shareholder in Hongkong Telephone Company, but if we want to acquire or even control it directly, we’ll need to hold over 30% of the shares.

“Furthermore, the Hong Kong Securities Commission has begun implementing new takeover regulations, where a stake exceeding 35% will trigger the takeover code.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly upon hearing this, satisfied with Simon Keswick’s report.

“In that case, acquire 34.9% of the shares. Jardine Matheson is known for its surprise takeovers. Since you worked there for so many years, I’m sure you’re well-versed in this art.

“I want you to complete the acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company as quickly as possible. Afterward, you will manage the company. At the same time, you’ll also be responsible for the joint venture with Motorola Company!” Lin Haoran said after some thought.

As the Boss, he naturally didn’t need a hands-on management style; he could delegate settled matters to his subordinates to handle properly.

“Rest assured, Boss. You can leave this matter to me. Given Hongkong Telephone Company’s current stock situation, once we launch a lightning strike, they won’t be able to escape our grasp!” Simon Keswick said with full confidence.

In fact, he was right.

Currently, Hongkong Land Group held 10.95% of the equity in Hongkong Telephone Company. To reach the 34.9% mark, they only needed to acquire another 24%.

Given Hongkong Telephone Company’s current total market capitalization of about 2.4 billion Hong Kong dollars, this meant Hongkong Land Group only needed to invest an additional 600 million Hong Kong dollars or so to potentially bring the company under its banner.

At that point, with Hongkong Land Group’s shareholding percentage, the Board of Directors of Hongkong Telephone Company would have to follow its directives.

In this way, Hongkong Land Group would have complete control over Hongkong Telephone Company.

After talking with Simon Keswick for nearly half an hour, Lin Haoran finally hung up the phone.

He had been in the United States for half a month already. Now that matters at Universal Investment Company were more or less arranged and there was nothing pressing here for the time being, it was time for him to return to Hong Kong.

Life in the United States was actually quite boring. Most importantly, there were too many people with guns, and his shadow guards couldn’t provide the same 100% security they did in Hong Kong. So, for his own safety, he spent most of his time in the hotel.

This made him feel that the United States was incredibly dull.

Therefore, after finishing his conversation with Simon Keswick, he decided to return to Hong Kong in two days.

Meanwhile, back in Hong Kong, Simon Keswick swung into action under Lin Haoran’s directive.

He knew very well that this acquisition was not just a major change for Hongkong Telephone Company but also a critical step for Hongkong Land Group to expand its business empire and strengthen its power.

After separating from Jardine Matheson & Co., Hongkong Land Group had to follow the path of diversification to the very end.

Acquiring Hongkong Telephone Company would clearly benefit the expansion of Hongkong Land Group’s strength.

Most importantly, Hongkong Telephone Company would not experience losses.

In other words, acquiring Hongkong Telephone Company was very safe!

Simon Keswick first convened an emergency meeting with Hongkong Land Group’s finance, legal, and investment banking teams.

During the meeting, he laid out the plan to acquire Hongkong Telephone Company in detail and assigned various tasks.

The finance team was responsible for raising capital to ensure sufficient funds throughout the acquisition process.

The legal team was responsible for reviewing all relevant legal documents to ensure the acquisition was lawful and compliant.

The investment banking team was responsible for updating the valuation model, developing an acquisition strategy, and finding the right moment to launch their “lightning strike.”

A day later, on December 26th, Simon Keswick sat in an office.

With all tasks prepared, the covert acquisition was set to begin today.

To this end, under Lin Haoran’s orders, a team from Universal Investment Company’s Hong Kong branch company was urgently dispatched to Hongkong Land Group to assist with the acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company!

With the addition of the team from Universal Investment Company’s Hong Kong branch company, Hongkong Land Group’s acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company became even more powerful.

This team brought with them a wealth of market experience and precise data analysis, providing strong support for the execution of the acquisition plan.

According to pre-listing investigations, the final transaction price on the previous trading day was 26.21 Hong Kong dollars per share. Before the market opened today, the trading team had calculated that there were approximately 14.38 million shares in pending orders under 30 Hong Kong dollars per share.

Their mission was to accumulate 21.87 million shares. Combined with the ten million shares they already held, they would reach a 34.9% stake, thereby completing the acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company!

This meant that if they launched a lightning strike after the market opened and absorbed all the pending orders on the market, then, if all went smoothly, they would only need to gradually accumulate another seven million-plus shares to achieve their goal!

The task was formidable, but with Hongkong Land Group’s current formidable strength, this challenge was not insurmountable.

As long as the strategy was sound and the execution precise, success was practically a sure thing.

Even if they couldn’t achieve 100% of their acquisition target today, they would, in practice, be infinitely close.

Chapter 428: A Lightning Strike, Who is Behind It All?

As the stock market opened, Hongkong Land Group’s acquisition quietly began.

After the market opened, Hongkong Land Group’s Trading team acted swiftly. They used advanced trading strategies and ample capital to begin a massive Stock accumulation of Hongkong Telephone Company’s shares.

Thanks to their thorough preparation, their reaction to the market was extremely fast. Before most shareholders could even react, they swiftly cleared all the pending orders on the market.

During this period in the Hong Kong stock market, people were more inclined to buy shares of listed real estate companies. Consequently, the stock prices of these property firms had been soaring. The total Market capitalization of many Chinese-owned enterprise real estate companies had even broken into the top thirty.

Companies like Cheung Kong Holdings Group and Carrian Group had surged into the top ten.

While Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock price had been making steady progress, it didn’t attract much attention from shareholders or Market maker.

At its peak, Hongkong Telephone Company had ranked around tenth among all listed companies in Hong Kong. To have now fallen out of the top thirty showed just how lackluster its performance had been during the Bull market of the past two years.

Therefore, when Hongkong Land Group’s team entered the market, they caught nearly all shareholders completely off guard. Very few people were paying attention to Hong Kong Telephone’s stock.

Under the guidance of Hongkong Land Group’s team, in less than five minutes after the market opened, nearly all pending orders below 30 Hong Kong dollars per share were absorbed by Hongkong Land Group.

Nearly fifteen million shares were scooped up by Hongkong Land Group just like that.

Even Simon Keswick, who was directing the operation from behind the scenes, had not anticipated this.

It was all going too smoothly.

A true lightning strike!

This single haul was substantial enough to rival the holdings of Hongkong Telephone Company’s current Largest shareholder.

Most importantly, the volume of shares they accumulated was even greater than the total pending orders tallied before the market opened.

The reason, naturally, was that some of Hongkong Telephone Company’s shareholders had added new pending orders after the opening bell.

In reality, many shareholders had placed these sell orders for the nearly fifteen million shares almost for fun, never imagining their orders would actually be filled.

After all, with the market price at around 26 Hong Kong dollars per share, they didn’t think for a moment that their orders at 28, 29, or even 30 Hong Kong dollars would be executed anytime soon.

Given the growth rate of Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock, it would have normally taken several months to reach 30 Hong Kong dollars per share.

Hongkong Land Group’s actions caught the entire market completely unprepared.

People didn’t even have time to react.

In an instant, all shareholder’s eyes turned to Hongkong Telephone Company, a firm that had, until now, maintained a relatively low profile on the stock market.

At the same time, the management and shareholders of Hongkong Telephone Company began to closely monitor the developing situation.

No one had a clue who was behind the sudden acquisition of so many of Hongkong Telephone Company’s shares.

The management was especially tense, immediately calling an emergency meeting of senior executives. They knew that if this mysterious party successfully acquired enough shares to become the company’s controlling shareholder, it could lead to significant changes in their business strategy and management structure.

But despite their emergency meeting, there was nothing they could do.

After all, they were just professional managers—to put it bluntly, they were just employees. They had no power to influence the company’s situation as a publicly listed entity.

Just as everyone assumed that someone had their sights set on Hongkong Telephone Company and that a fierce acquisition battle was about to unfold.

At this moment, many shareholders who held onto their Hongkong Telephone Company stock felt fortunate they hadn’t put up sell orders. Now, they thought, they could make a killing.

They believed that if someone was genuinely trying to acquire Hongkong Telephone Company, the stock price was bound to rise to a certain level.

Even if they couldn’t get the main prize, they could at least get the scraps.

However, the unexpected happened. After all the pending orders were swept clean, the market for Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock suddenly fell silent.

People continued to place sell orders for their Hong Kong Telephone shares, naturally at higher prices. They were all above 30 Hong Kong dollars per share, with some greedy investors even listing them at 40 or 50 Hong Kong dollars.

They wanted to take a gamble; if it paid off, they’d make a fortune.

But to their surprise, after the initial wave of orders was filled, the Buy orders for Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock did not continue to pour in as everyone had expected, and the price did not climb steadily.

Nothing happened.

Although pending sell orders kept increasing, the trading volume seemed frozen.

Until 10:30 in the morning, Hongkong Land Group did not accumulate any more shares.

Only a few, believing the price would rise, risked Chasing highs and snapped up a wave of Hong Kong Telephone shares priced in the thirties, a batch totaling over three million shares.

However, the buyers of these three million-plus shares soon came to regret their decision.

They kept a close watch on Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock price movements.

But the meteoric rise they anticipated never materialized.

Forget 40 or 50 Hong Kong dollars per share—it couldn’t even break through 35.

Instead, after a brief fluctuation, Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock price gradually stabilized and even began to trend downward.

Soon, it was 11:00 AM.

By this time, Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock price had once again dropped below 30 Hong Kong dollars per share, with the latest transaction closing at 29.8 Hong Kong dollars.

And the price seemed to be still falling.

The group of shareholders who had bought the three million-plus shares were now filled with a single thought: they shouldn’t have been so greedy!

These buyers began to feel anxious. They had expected to make a quick profit by Chasing highs, but reality had dealt them a heavy blow.

Discussions erupted across the stock market, with people speculating why the person behind the scenes had suddenly gone silent after clearing out so many low-priced pending orders.

Some veteran shareholders, surrounded by a crowd of their peers, began to share their thoughts. They felt this might be a strategy by the mastermind, intended to observe the market’s reaction during a quiet period while also creating psychological pressure on investors who wanted to engage in follow-the-trend speculation.

They were right, but it was no use.

Because Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock price was falling instead of rising.

This kind of psychological pressure was more than the shareholders could bear.

Many of these shareholders were at the Stock Exchange, and they had only chased the high because they saw the sudden spike in Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock price.

Now, they were filled with regret.

But regret was useless.

After all, the shares were already bought.

Now, all they wanted to know was, what should they do in this situation?

Sell?

Wouldn’t that be a massive loss?

Don’t sell?

What if the price never rises again? Wouldn’t they be stuck with it?

The shareholders who bought these three million-plus shares were not the type to hold for the long term; they were speculators who loved to make short-term profits.

With good luck, they could indeed earn a lot, especially in the current Bull market.

But they all shared a common trait: a relatively weak tolerance for pressure.

Watching the growth of Hongkong Telephone Company’s trading volume slow down, eventually reaching a point where a transaction might not even occur for several minutes, they grew even more frantic.

Hongkong Telephone Company’s management and shareholders were equally anxious, desperate to learn the true intentions of the person behind the scenes.

However, no amount of anxiety was going to help.

Because until Hongkong Land Group revealed its identity, no one knew that the mastermind was the renowned Hongkong Land Group itself!

As Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock price continued to slide and trading volume plummeted, the atmosphere of anxiety in the stock market grew thicker.

The shareholders who had bought in by Chasing highs began to panic. They gathered in the corners of the four major stock exchanges, discussing their options in hushed tones. The air was heavy with a sense of oppression and unease.

“What in the world is going on? What kind of game is this person behind the scenes playing?” one shareholder exclaimed, slamming his fist on a table. His face was ashen, clearly unable to bear the pressure of the falling stock price.

“Yeah, what are they trying to do? Are they giving up on the acquisition?” another shareholder joined in, his eyes filled with confusion and anxiety.

“Giving up? That’s unlikely. The person behind this just snapped up so many shares, nearly fifteen million of them! That’s almost as much as Hongkong Telephone Company’s current Largest shareholder. In this situation, it stands to reason that they’re aiming to acquire the company. I don’t think they’d give up so easily,” a seemingly experienced old shareholder said, shaking his head and trying to calm everyone down.

“But with them staying silent like this and the price keep dropping, how are we small shareholders supposed to take it? If this continues, we’re all going to be trapped!” a middle-aged shareholder said anxiously, his eyes revealing helplessness and despair.

The whole reason he bought Hong Kong Telephone Company stock was to bet on a huge surge. Why was the reality so different from what he had imagined?

“I think they might be waiting for the right moment, or perhaps they’re testing the market’s reaction,” another, younger shareholder offered his opinion.

“Testing the market’s reaction? Then why choose Hongkong Telephone Company? This company is stable, but it doesn’t have any particularly outstanding features,” a female shareholder asked, puzzled.

While Hongkong Telephone Company’s revenue and profits were stable, they couldn’t compare to the explosive profits of the real estate industry in recent years, where annual profit growth could often double or triple.

After all, most shareholders didn’t enter the stock market just for a company’s dividend.

The vast majority of shareholders entered the market with dreams of earning greater wealth, and dividends were clearly not enough to satisfy their ambitions.

They were far more eager to obtain the more substantial price difference through a strategy of buying low and selling high.

Chapter 429: The Stock Price Plummets

In reality, Hongkong Telephone Company was already an excellent, high-quality listed company, but shareholders were often keen on making comparisons.

Compared to the real estate companies, Hongkong Telephone Company’s performance seemed rather unremarkable. This was one of the reasons why its stock price, despite rising over the past two years, had not grown explosively.

“Who knows?” The veteran investor shook his head again, a hint of resignation in his voice. “We don’t even know who they are. They’ve been so secretive that we have no idea about their background. How are we supposed to figure them out? Maybe they have some long-term plan.”

“But the price keeps falling. What are we supposed to do?” the middle-aged investor asked anxiously. “We can’t just let it drag on like this, can we? I should’ve just put my money into Cheung Kong Holdings Group shares instead. Their stock surged by eight percent yesterday.”

“I think we should wait and see for now,” the young investor suggested. “Let’s see what their next move is. If they really intend to launch an acquisition, the price will bounce back sooner or later.”

“But what if they call off the acquisition?” the female investor said with worry. “Wouldn’t we be ruined then?”

“Well… no one can say for sure,” the veteran investor sighed in resignation. “The stock market is risky. Investments require caution.”

At that moment, an oppressive atmosphere hung over the entire stock market.

Investors huddled together, discussing their options in hushed tones, but no one had a clear answer.

They were all waiting for the next move from the person behind the scenes, hoping it would bring a turn for the better.

However, the other party seemed to have vanished without a trace, making no further moves.

Stationed at Connaught Centre, Simon Keswick had a firm grasp of the market situation, right down to the general tenor of the investors’ discussions.

This was because Hongkong Land Group had many informants in the market.

Today’s trading was being executed by the traders from Universal Investment Company’s Hong Kong team, with Dai Shi, the company’s Deputy General Manager, personally overseeing the operation.

At first, Simon Keswick had thought the same as the other investors: that after Hongkong Land Group’s lightning strike on Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock, the share price would surely soar.

Jardine Matheson & Co. had a history of making similar moves. But the reputations of Jardine Matheson and, by extension, Hongkong Land, were so prominent that they would typically announce their intentions soon after a lightning strike, causing the share price to continue its sharp ascent.

However, that subsequent surge had little to do with Jardine Matheson, as they would have typically already achieved their objective.

Jardine Matheson’s lightning strikes were displays of immense financial power, executed at a much higher cost.

But the operation Universal Investment Company was running today was entirely different.

Though the price had been raised, it wasn’t by much—only from just over 26 to 30 Hong Kong dollars per share.

This made it easy for investors to grow increasingly suspicious about whether the person behind the scenes was truly aiming for an acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company.

“Mr. Dai, your trading tactics are truly an eye-opener,” Simon Keswick said with a great deal of feeling. “It’s as if you have the stock market in the palm of your hand, and you’ve got the investors’ psychology sized up perfectly!”

“Mr. Ma, Universal Investment Company has made frequent moves in the acquisitions field over the past two years, so we’ve naturally accumulated a great deal of experience. To us, a strategy like this is nothing particularly clever. Anyone who knows the business can figure out what we’re doing, for the most part.

As the saying goes, knowledge is acquired at different paces, and everyone has their own specialty. Your expertise lies in corporate management, so it’s perfectly understandable that you’re not intimately familiar with the stock market,” Dai Shi replied with a smile.

Figuring it out was one thing; daring to act on it was another entirely.

They couldn’t be sure if the person pulling the strings was aiming to fleece the market makers themselves.

If a market maker were to jump in, and the other party decided to start dumping shares, wouldn’t that market maker be left holding the bag with a bunch of high-priced stock?

Precisely for this reason, no market maker with significant capital would dare to wade into these murky waters.

“So, Mr. Dai, what’s your next move?” Simon Keswick asked curiously. “How long do you think it will take to reach our 34.9% target while keeping the acquisition costs down?”

“One day will be enough,” Dai Shi laughed heartily. “We can complete the task today!”

“One day?” Simon Keswick said in disbelief. “How is that possible?”

Simon Keswick had previously discussed the plan with Dai Shi, instructing him to lead his team in accumulating Hongkong Telephone Company shares at a relatively low price. The final average cost was not to exceed 28 Hong Kong dollars per share.

Yet the average price for the more than fourteen million shares they had acquired that morning was already hovering around 28 Hong Kong dollars.

With the stock price now close to 30 Hong Kong dollars, Simon Keswick simply couldn’t fathom how they could complete their objective today while keeping the average cost below 28 Hong Kong dollars per share.

Hearing the surprise in Simon Keswick’s voice over the phone, Dai Shi’s smile grew even wider.

“Mr. Ma, you mustn’t forget that capital management and market manipulation are what our Universal Investment Company does best. While this morning’s trading did drive up our costs considerably, it was all part of the plan.”

He paused for a moment before continuing, “Next, we’ll leverage market volatility and investor psychology. Through a series of complex trading maneuvers—such as staggered buying and concentrated selling to create downward pressure, followed by buying back at the lows—we will drive down the stock price while steadily increasing our stake.

“That way, we can acquire more shares at a lower cost without triggering an overreaction from the market. At the same time, we’ll get the hesitant investors to panic-sell, which will lower our overall costs even further.”

As Simon Keswick listened to Dai Shi’s explanation, his eyes began to light up.

“I see! Mr. Dai, you’re full of brilliant strategies. I’m truly impressed! So it’s really possible to hit our 34.9% target today, and keep the acquisition cost below 28 Hong Kong dollars per share?”

“Precisely,” Dai Shi confirmed with a confident nod. “Of course, it will require tight coordination within our team and for the market to move in our favor at the right times. But as long as we execute this properly, the goal is far from unattainable.

“Besides, judging by the investors’ reactions so far, they’re already starting to panic after just over an hour. That will undoubtedly make our job much easier. Mr. Ma, just wait and see. We’ll see the results this afternoon!”

“Excellent. I’ll be waiting for your good news, Mr. Dai,” Simon Keswick laughed heartily. “Once the mission is successfully completed, I’ll be sure to sing your praises to the Boss and get you the credit you deserve!”

As time passed, the tense atmosphere in the market grew ever thicker.

Investors with high-priced pending sell orders grew increasingly uneasy. They worried that there would be no takers for their shares and that they would ultimately have to sell at a price lower than they’d hoped.

Even some investors who had previously adopted a wait-and-see approach, or who had been steadfast in their convictions, were now beginning to waver.

After all, with so many people trying to sell off their shares, wouldn’t they be the ones to lose out in the end if they didn’t join in?

The investors were completely unable to present a united front, and at that moment, the domino effect began.

A single event or action can trigger a series of similar chain reactions, much like a line of dominoes. When one falls, it strikes the next, setting off a cascade.

It was the same with the investors. Some had initially believed that the person behind the scenes targeting Hongkong Telephone Company must have other motives, and so they had wanted to wait it out.

But when a few timid investors began to sell, the trend spread like wildfire.

Every sale was like a falling domino, compelling more investors to join the sell-off.

“Look, someone else is selling!”

“Why does the price keep dropping? If this continues, I’m going to lose big time!”

“No, I have to sell now. I can’t wait any longer!”

Panic spread like a virus among the investors. They rushed to place low-priced sell orders, hoping to cut their losses before the price dropped any further.

However, this collective dumping of shares only accelerated the downward trend.

29 Hong Kong dollars per share.

28.5 Hong Kong dollars per share.

27 Hong Kong dollars per share.

…

By the time the market closed for lunch at noon, the price had fallen below 27 Hong Kong dollars per share.

Universal Investment Company, however, remained in an unassailable position, completely unperturbed. They knew this was all part of their plan; the falling price would only allow them to acquire more shares at a lower cost.

At noon, sunlight streamed through the windows of the general manager’s office at Universal Investment Company, falling across a desk. The phone on it rang. It was Simon Keswick.

“Mr. Dai,” Simon Keswick began, his tone somewhat probing, “judging by the current trend, Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock will likely continue to fall this afternoon. The number of sellers seems to be increasing. Should we consider waiting a bit longer? Perhaps the price could even drop to 20 Hong Kong dollars.”

Dai Shi chuckled softly. “Mr. Ma, your idea is certainly tempting. It seems like a good way to acquire our target shares at an even lower price, but timing is everything.

“If we wait too long, those keen-nosed market makers might take advantage of the situation. They might hesitate when the price is over 30 Hong Kong dollars, but if it drops to 20, they’ll be itching to make a move. They would never pass up such a prime opportunity to buy at the bottom.

“Therefore, we’ve decided to start quietly accumulating shares this afternoon. But we don’t want the price to drop too low. It’s best to maintain it at a relatively stable level.”

Chapter 430: A Controlling Stake? Why Not Just Launch a Full Takeover!

After Simon Keswick ended his call with Dai Shi, he immediately dialed another number without hesitation.

This call was placed directly to Lin Haoran’s private line at his hotel residence in Chicago.

Considering the time difference, Hong Kong is a full fifteen hours ahead of Los Angeles.

Therefore, while it was just past noon on a sunny day in Hong Kong, Los Angeles was still immersed in the tranquility of just past nine o’clock the previous evening.

At this hour, while not yet late, most people would have finished their day’s work and returned to their hotels or homes to rest.

Simon Keswick guessed that his boss, Lin Haoran, had likely finished his schedule for the day and was back at the hotel.

As expected, the moment Simon Keswick pressed the dial button, Lin Haoran’s voice came through from the other end almost immediately.

Receiving a call from Simon Keswick, Lin Haoran was clearly a little surprised.

According to his planned itinerary, he was scheduled to return to Hong Kong the day after tomorrow.

Just this morning, he had specifically called Simon Keswick. It was nighttime in Hong Kong then, and Lin Haoran had told him about his desire to acquire Hongkong Telephone Company and his collaboration with the Motorola Company.

Now, Simon Keswick’s call came again, making Lin Haoran wonder.

From the perspective of time in Los Angeles, only a day had passed, while in Hong Kong, only a night and a morning had gone by.

The time elapsed was only about twelve hours.

He wondered to himself, could there already be some progress or good news regarding Hongkong Telephone Company in Hong Kong?

“Boss, you’re uncannily perceptive. You guessed it! Yes, there is indeed news from Hongkong Telephone Company, and it’s fantastic news!” Simon Keswick said excitedly, before proceeding to give Lin Haoran a detailed, blow-by-blow account of everything that had happened that morning.

After hearing Simon Keswick’s report, Lin Haoran fell silent on the other end of the line for a moment, apparently processing the information.

Then, his voice came through again, tinged with a hint of a smile, “Mr. Ma, you’ve handled this matter well. It’s been faster and smoother than I imagined. That Dai Shi is a real talent, his abilities are on par with Su Zhixue’s!”

He had initially been worried that with Su Zhixue gone, Dai Shi might not be able to hold down the fort at Universe Group in Hong Kong by himself. Now it seemed he had no reason to worry; Dai Shi was very reliable.

“Yes, Boss. Mr. Dai and his team have shown an extremely high level of professionalism and outstanding operational skill in initiating the acquisition of Hongkong Telephone. Based on the current trend, we’re confident we can reach our 34.9% shareholding target by the end of today, and the cost control has been quite effective.

Even after we reach this target, we expect there will still be plenty of low-priced shares available for purchase on the market.

It’s a pity that the Securities Commission implemented a new policy last month, lowering the threshold for triggering the ‘Takeovers and Mergers Code’ from the original 50% to 35%. Otherwise, we would have been happy to accumulate more shares,” Simon Keswick said with a touch of regret.

Ever since Lin Haoran successfully acquired the Hongkong Land Group, thereby gaining indirect control of Jardine Matheson & Co., the Securities Commission had reacted swiftly, announcing an amendment to the relevant regulations, lowering the takeover trigger point from 50% to 35%.

The intention behind this change was obvious: to prevent Chinese-funded conglomerates from launching large-scale compulsory acquisitions of British-owned companies.

Clearly, the Government House was going to great lengths to protect the interests of the British-funded conglomerates.

After hearing Simon Keswick’s words, Lin Haoran fell into a brief silence before asking, “Is Hongkong Telephone Company considered a public utility listed company?”

“Boss, Hongkong Telephone Company is not classified as a public utility listed company,” Simon Keswick answered without hesitation.

“In that case, can we launch a full takeover?” Lin Haoran confirmed once more.

“Boss, under normal circumstances, that is indeed the case,” Simon Keswick affirmed.

Then, Simon Keswick asked in return, “Boss, are you thinking of a full takeover of Hongkong Telephone Company?”

Lin Haoran let out a small laugh on the other end of the line. “The thought just occurred to me. Initially, I thought Hongkong Telephone Company’s situation was similar to that of the Hongkong Electric Group, where privatization would be more troublesome.

But since it’s not a public utility listed company, it’s naturally free from those restrictions. I personally have a very high opinion of this company.

The communications industry, both now and in the future, is of paramount importance. While its growth may not be as explosive as industries driven by policy and market trends, its stability is hard for other sectors to match.

Moreover, communications companies often have enormous cash flow, just like the Hong Kong and China Gas Company. Most importantly, Hongkong Telephone Company currently holds a monopoly in Hong Kong. Even if competitors emerge in the future, it will be difficult for them to easily seize its market share.

Once the full takeover is successful, Hongkong Telephone Company will become a vital pillar for the Hongkong Land Group, providing it with sustained, stable revenue and cash flow.”

In his memory, from another timeline, Hongkong Telephone Company had once been the target of a “Dawn Raid” launched by Jardine Matheson and the Hongkong Land Group.

In that operation, Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group had rapidly acquired a massive number of Hongkong Telephone shares on the stock market, ultimately securing a 34.9% stake and becoming the company’s major shareholder and holding company.

However, the good times didn’t last. With the bursting of Hong Kong’s property bubble, the Hongkong Land Group found itself mired in debt due to reckless investments, dragging Jardine Matheson & Co. down with it.

To alleviate financial pressure and reduce their debts, they were forced to make the difficult decision to sell their shares in Hongkong Telephone Company.

Ultimately, this valuable asset fell into the hands of Britain’s Cable & Wireless, which had long been eyeing the company covetously.

By 1987, Cable & Wireless merged Hongkong Telephone Company with its other Hong Kong operations (such as international telephone and telegraph services) to form Hong Kong Telecom Limited, or HKT.

At that point, Hongkong Telephone Company became the fixed-line business division of HKT.

Throughout the 1990s, HKT was virtually the sole integrated telecommunications operator in Hong Kong, covering fixed-line, mobile communications (CSL), international communications, and data services, and it monopolized the Hong Kong communications market.

It wasn’t until the turn of the millennium that Li Jiacheng’s son’s company, Pacific Century CyberWorks, acquired Hong Kong Telecom (HKT) for a staggering 78 billion Hong Kong dollars. The merged company was then renamed PCCW Limited.

This was all Lin Haoran knew about Hongkong Telephone from his past life’s memory.

And now, Hongkong Telephone Company had a market capitalization of just over two billion Hong Kong dollars, making its acquisition an absolute bargain.

Moreover, with Lin Haoran’s transmigration to this era in Hong Kong, the city’s commercial landscape had already undergone earth-shattering changes.

He had single-handedly and completely altered the business world of Hong Kong.

In this world, the moment Lin Haoran set his sights on Hongkong Telephone Company, it was already destined that Britain’s Cable & Wireless had completely lost any hope of acquiring it.

As for whether Li Jiacheng’s son would have an opportunity to acquire Hongkong Telephone Company in the future, no one knew. That was a long way off. If, in the future, Lin Haoran felt that Hongkong Telephone was no longer worth holding onto, selling it off wasn’t out of the question.

However, after acquiring Hongkong Telephone Company, Lin Haoran had no plans to sell it for at least a decade.

“Hongkong Land Group currently has ample funds, and Hongkong Telephone Company’s market capitalization is relatively moderate, so a full takeover is not out of the question. It is indeed a high-quality company, and I would also very much like to see Hongkong Land Group bring it into the fold.

However, if we decide to proceed with a full takeover, we will need to submit detailed materials to the Securities Commission and fully disclose all information to the shareholders, including the specific terms of the offer, the offeror’s intentions, and the professional opinion of a financial advisor. This entire process is quite cumbersome, and we are not at all prepared for it at the moment,” Simon Keswick replied after some thought.

“Actually, I don’t really mind whether we do a full takeover or not, as long as we can increase our stake in Hongkong Telephone Company as much as possible. The current 34.9% is indeed a little insufficient for me. In my view, it’s best to hold over 50%. If we could privatize it, like we did with the Hongkong Land Group, that would be even more perfect,” Lin Haoran said after some consideration, expressing his view.

“That’s actually easier to handle, Boss. Triggering the takeover code is just one step in the acquisition process. The success of the acquisition is affected by many other factors.

In other words, even if we trigger a mandatory offer, we don’t necessarily have to completely privatize the target company. For example, if some major shareholders refuse to sell their shares, this could actually lead to a failed takeover.

In that situation, our responsibility is relatively diminished. According to the takeover code, we are only entitled to launch a compulsory acquisition when we hold over 90% of the equity.

The reason companies like Hongkong Land Group, Green Island Cement, and Wan’an Real Estate Company were successfully privatized by you, Boss, is precisely because your final shareholding ratio exceeded 90%, allowing you to exercise the right of compulsory acquisition and ultimately achieve complete control over them.

And while Hongkong Telephone Company is not a public utility, it is still quite special. It is one of Hong Kong’s most important windows to the outside world. Therefore, I suggest that even if we initiate a takeover, you shouldn’t aim to fully privatize it, Boss. After all, this would involve political factors.

It would be best to maintain its listed status. That way, even if the Government House has objections, they won’t interfere too much!” Simon Keswick offered his opinion.

Chapter 431: A Decisive Move, Holding 41.6% of the Shares!

Hongkong Telephone Company’s market capitalization was still less than three billion Hong Kong dollars. For many, such a figure might seem astronomical, and an acquisition would require meticulous planning, perhaps even their full effort.

For Lin Haoran, however, the capital required to completely acquire Hongkong Telephone Company was still within an acceptable range.

After all, the Hongkong Land Group already held ten million shares of Hongkong Telephone Company, which accounted for over 10% of the company.

With this foundation, Lin Haoran was full of confidence about further increasing his shareholding and eventually acquiring the company, and the cost would be significantly lower as well.

With the Hongkong Land Group’s formidable strength and precise market judgment, this acquisition was bound to succeed. When conditions are right, success will naturally follow.

Simon Keswick had also suggested that, given Hong Kong Telephone’s unique position, it would be best to keep it a publicly listed company.

This way, a full 100% buyout wouldn’t be necessary; they would need to invest just over one billion Hong Kong dollars at most.

For the Hongkong Land Group, which currently had a cash reserve of over ten billion Hong Kong dollars, coming up with a billion-plus was a simple matter.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran washed up and went to bed early.

If this had been two years ago, a major event like acquiring the Hongkong Telephone Company would have certainly been something he took very seriously, possibly even losing sleep over it.

But two years had passed, and he had undergone a world-shaking transformation. Although Hongkong Telephone Company was a tycoon in Hong Kong, it seemed less impressive compared to the enterprises he now controlled.

Moreover, Lin Haoran trusted the team at Universal Investment Company and Simon Keswick’s abilities.

He believed that when he woke up, barring any surprises, he would receive good news from Hong Kong the next morning.

So, he fell asleep quickly.

The scene shifts back to Hong Kong.

After finishing the call with his Boss, Simon Keswick immediately called Dai Shi.

The strategy had changed. It was no longer about holding just 34.9% of the shares, but acquiring them with no upper limit!

As long as the stock price was reasonable, they were to buy it all!

The Hongkong Land Group would prepare the necessary acquisition documents.

Once they applied to the Securities Commission, whether the acquisition would ultimately succeed was another matter entirely.

When Dai Shi received Simon Keswick’s call, he was busy handling the details of accumulating shares of Hongkong Telephone Company, with the most important task being to study the pending orders.

Hearing from Simon Keswick that the acquisition strategy had changed, his spirits immediately lifted, and he asked for the specifics of the new plan.

“Mr. Ma, do you mean we are no longer limited to holding 34.9% of the shares, but should acquire as many Hongkong Telephone Company shares as possible?” Dai Shi confirmed.

“That’s right, Mr. Dai. Your understanding is completely correct,” Simon Keswick replied with a smile. “As long as the share price is reasonable, we just keep buying. Hongkong Land will prepare the acquisition materials, so you can proceed boldly without any worries.”

The funds for this acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company were coming from the Hongkong Land Group, not from the Universal Investment Company’s accounts, so Dai Shi had no financial burden.

Now, hearing from Simon Keswick that they were to launch a takeover-style acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company, no longer limited to 34.9% of the shares, and that the order came directly from the Boss, Dai Shi found it much easier to manage the trading.

“Excellent! Mr. Ma, you can rest assured. I will begin the trading this afternoon. From the current look of things, as long as we manage the trades properly, it won’t be a problem for Hongkong Land’s final shareholding to exceed 40% today!” Dai Shi answered with a smile.

Hongkong Land Group already held 10.95% of the shares. Adding the nearly fifteen million shares acquired in the morning, Hongkong Land already held close to 27% of Hong Kong Telephone.

Given the morning’s situation across Hong Kong’s four major stock exchanges, acquiring several million more, or even ten million, in the afternoon would be no problem at all!

All that was left was to wait for the afternoon’s action.

Just before one o’clock in the afternoon, a subordinate called Dai Shi again to report on some of the chatter among investors at the four stock exchanges.

These investors, having chased the high prices in the morning, ended up acquiring a significant number of Hongkong Telephone Company shares, which had now become a hot potato.

Some had placed sell orders for 27 or even 26 Hong Kong dollars per share in the morning, but the mysterious person behind the scenes seemed to have vanished. After the massive stock accumulation in the first five minutes of the morning, there had been no further activity.

As a result, many investors didn’t dare to leave the exchanges even during the one-hour lunch break.

Their hearts were tied to their pending orders on the secondary market, terrified that they genuinely wouldn’t be able to sell and would be stuck with the shares.

This was because there were now far too many pending orders. The number of sell orders under 30 Hong Kong dollars from the morning alone had increased by three or four million shares.

The more pending orders there were, if the number of buyers decreased, the share price could only fall.

For many investors, this day was nothing short of torture.

At one o’clock in the afternoon, as Hong Kong’s four major stock exchanges opened on time, the trading floor instantly erupted with a clamor of voices, and a tense, fervent atmosphere enveloped the entire space.

In the offices of Universal Investment Company, Dai Shi sat calmly at the command center, facing rows of busy traders.

Each trader occupied a workstation, equipped with a telephone.

They were currently engrossed in their calls, maintaining close contact with the floor traders at the four stock exchanges, keeping abreast of the slightest fluctuations in Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock price, and making swift decisions to buy or sell based on market conditions.

After the stock market opened, Dai Shi and his team began their operation. They quietly and slowly acquired the pending orders around the 25 Hong Kong dollar mark, carefully controlling the market’s rhythm. They neither allowed Hong Kong Telephone’s share price to drop below the key level of 25 Hong Kong dollars, nor did they let it rise rapidly due to excessive buying.

This delicate balance was the result of their meticulous planning.

They were well aware that if the price fell below 25 Hong Kong dollars, it would trigger panic selling from more investors, further suppressing the share price. At that point, the सामने major players would certainly enter the market, which would mean competition for the traders at Universal Investment Company.

Conversely, if the price rose too quickly, it might attract the attention of other large funds, increasing the difficulty and cost of the acquisition.

However, this balance was difficult for ordinary investors to grasp.

Watching the share price hover around 25 Hong Kong dollars, they were filled with unease and confusion.

Some began to wonder if a major player was driving the price down on them, and they were becoming the “leeks” to be harvested.

The spread of this sentiment made the atmosphere on the trading floor even more tense.

Investors were whispering to each other, discussing market trends and possible strategies.

Amidst this chaos, Dai Shi and his team remained calm and focused, continuing to operate according to their established plan.

As time went on, the Hongkong Land Group’s shareholding percentage gradually climbed under the careful management of the traders.

Meanwhile, investors realized that Hong Kong Telephone’s stock price just wasn’t rising, and they began to feel helpless and lost.

Fortunately, at least it wasn’t plummeting, which was some small comfort for them.

As long as it didn’t fall too much, even if they incurred a loss, it wouldn’t be too substantial.

Hong Kong Telephone’s stock had now become a source of deep disappointment for many investors, especially those who only traded short-term and didn’t hold for the long run.

They had originally been full of hope, wanting to take a gamble on this wave and earn some profit.

However, reality had dealt them a heavy blow.

At this moment, many investors faced a difficult choice.

The Hong Kong Telephone shares in their hands seemed to have reached a point where no one was interested. To sell, they would likely have to grit their teeth and sell at a loss.

This situation began to unnerve the investors who already held the stock.

They worried that while there were still buyers at the 25 Hong Kong dollar level now, what if Hong Kong Telephone’s stock couldn’t even maintain that price? Would a major downturn follow?

This fear spread rapidly among the investors, further intensifying the market’s panic.

In reality, this concern was not unfounded.

In the stock market, a stock’s rise and fall are often influenced by multiple factors, and a company’s high quality doesn’t guarantee its stock price will always rise. These factors include company performance, investor sentiment, and more.

The current predicament of Hong Kong Telephone’s stock was the result of the combined effect of these factors.

It was clearly a high-quality enterprise, but it seemed rather ordinary compared to the currently booming real estate sector.

However, for Dai Shi and his team, this was the crucial moment for their acquisition.

They knew full well that only by fully exploiting the market’s panic could they acquire more shares at a lower price.

Therefore, Dai Shi and his team continued to maintain their calm and patience, closely monitoring every subtle change in the market, searching for the optimal time to buy.

As time passed, Hong Kong Telephone’s share price continued to hover around 25 Hong Kong dollars, while the Hongkong Land Group’s shareholding quietly grew.

The anxiety and unease of the investors became the best cover for Dai Shi’s team.

They used this market sentiment to discreetly acquire more and more shares.

Time trickled away like fine sand.

When the clock hands pointed to three-forty in the afternoon, Dai Shi once again reviewed the progress of the acquisition.

Over the entire afternoon, his team had silently acquired a full 4.82 million shares of Hong Kong Telephone. What was even more exciting was that the average unit price for these shares had been maintained at around 25 Hong Kong dollars!

This had undoubtedly reduced their acquisition costs significantly.

He quickly instructed a subordinate to compile a detailed tally of all pending sell orders on the market below 30 Hong Kong dollars.

The results showed that in the price range of 25 to 30 Hong Kong dollars, there were still as many as 8.69 million shares waiting to be traded.

Seeing that only ten precious minutes remained, he made a decisive move, issuing the final order to his team: “Acquire all pending orders between 25 and 30 Hong Kong dollars at full force!”

As soon as the order was given, the traders sprang into action.

By the time the exchange’s closing bell rang, all of those pending orders had been swept up by the team.

Some investors who had noticed the unusual activity with Hong Kong Telephone wanted to withdraw their sell orders, only to find that their orders had already been filled.

And the final trade for Hong Kong Telephone for the day was fixed at 30 Hong Kong dollars per share!

Over the course of the afternoon, the shares held by the Hongkong Land Group had increased by about 13.5 million!

Chapter 432: Shareholders Reaped Like Leeks Again

As the afternoon trading session drew to a close, Dai Shi and his team finally breathed a sigh of relief.

After a full day of intense trading, Hongkong Land Group had successfully increased its shareholding in the Hongkong Telephone Company to 41.6%, a figure that exceeded their initial expectations.

It was only then that the shareholders on the Four Stock Exchanges began to realize what had happened.

It seemed they had been reaped like leeks yet again.

Buying in at over thirty Hong Kong dollars a share, only to sell at just over twenty?

Those who suffered the most had lost as much as ten Hong Kong dollars per share.

The shareholders cursed under their breaths, their hearts filled with anger and helplessness.

They had originally believed that Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock price would climb higher and higher, never expecting to become victims of a capital game.

Many were consumed by remorse, regretting their decision to chase the high price and panicking when it began to fall, thus digging themselves into an even deeper hole.

Looking at the final trades, it was obvious that the other party had been truly targeting the Hongkong Telephone Company all along.

They had simply been unwilling to drive the price up.

“This is clearly someone manipulating the market from behind the scenes!” an indignant middle-aged shareholder exclaimed, his face ashen. He clutched a trading slip tightly, which showed he had bought one thousand shares of Hongkong Telephone stock at thirty-five Hong Kong dollars per share, only to have them forcibly sold at twenty-five. In just one day, he had lost ten thousand Hong Kong dollars, a loss of nearly 30%.

“Exactly! This morning, someone was buying at a high price, then they suddenly vanished in the afternoon, only to reappear at the last moment. Isn’t this a blatant attempt to reap us like leeks?” another shareholder chimed in, his voice filled with helplessness and disappointment.

“You can’t blame anyone but yourself for being too greedy.” An older shareholder shook his head, his eyes filled with the wisdom of experience. “The market is risky; one must invest with caution. We’ve all heard this saying, but when it comes to the crunch, we always harbor a sliver of hope, thinking we can seize that ‘guaranteed profit’ opportunity. This time, it’s been a lesson for us old-timers, a reminder not to be so easily blinded by the market’s false prosperity.”

The trading floor was filled with a chorus of complaints as many lamented their losses.

However, that was the nature of the stock market. It was a zero-sum game. If it were that easy for everyone to make money, someone would have to lose to fill the gap.

When you were making money, someone else was always losing it. This was the immutable iron law of the stock market.

Here, greed and fear intertwined, and wisdom and luck coexisted. Everyone had to be responsible for their own decisions.

While the shareholders were sighing over their losses, Simon Keswick had already arrived at the office of Universal Investment Company on the 31st floor of the Wanqing Building.

“Mr. Ma, we delivered!” Dai Shi stepped forward to greet Simon Keswick with a smile.

“Mr. Dai, your trading was outstanding, far exceeding my expectations. This play on the Hongkong Telephone Company not only increased our shareholding but also stirred up a brilliant capital storm in the market.” Simon Keswick shook Dai Shi’s hand, his face beaming with satisfaction. Then, he suddenly made a suggestion. “Would you be interested in moving your offices to the Connaught Centre? I believe the environment and facilities there would be more suitable for your future development.”

Nominally, Universal Investment Company was Hongkong Land Group’s direct superior, as all of Lin Haoran’s actions to acquire Hongkong Land Group had been carried out in the name of Universal Investment Company.

Therefore, the current shareholder of Hongkong Land Group was Universal Investment Company.

However, it was common knowledge that Universal Investment Company was merely the controller in name; it did not interfere with any of the businesses it acquired.

Companies such as the Green Island Cement Company, Hongkong Electric Group, and the Hong Kong and China Gas Company were all held under the name of Universal Investment Company.

But everyone knew that the true helmsman was the boss behind the scenes, Lin Haoran!

And Simon Keswick was particularly impressed by the strength of Universal Investment Company. The acquisition of the Hongkong Telephone Company was a flawless operation.

Such operational capability was in no way inferior to the trading team at Jardine Securities!

If Universal Investment Company could relocate to the Connaught Centre, it would undoubtedly enhance communication and collaboration between them. Should they intend to acquire other companies in the future, it would be much more convenient.

This was precisely why Simon Keswick was advocating for Universal Investment Company’s move to the Connaught Centre.

After all, they all served under the same boss. Although they weren’t subordinate to one another, they shared the same master!

“Mr. Ma, the Boss has actually mentioned this,” Dai Shi said with a smile. “Before he went to the United States, he discussed with me a plan to move the Universal Investment Company office to Connaught Centre after his return. However, the final decision will have to wait for the Boss to make it himself when he gets back!”

Universal Investment Company’s current presence in Hong Kong was relatively small, with a total staff of just over one hundred people, as most employees had been transferred to the United States.

Therefore, if they were to move from the Wanqing Building to Hongkong Land, the practical difficulty would not be great and could be put into effect at any time.

As the second tallest building in Hong Kong, the Connaught Centre was a landmark proper. In comparison, Wanqing Building was indeed slightly less impressive. It was perfectly normal for Lin Haoran to move Universal Investment Company’s offices over.

In fact, he was also planning to move his private reception room and office to the Connaught Centre as well.

As for the office in Wanqing Building, it could be given back to Wanqing Group for their use; there was no need to let it go to waste.

“Alright, Mr. Dai, tomorrow and the day after are the weekend. We currently hold 41.6% of the Hongkong Telephone Company’s shares. I will discuss the subsequent arrangements with the Boss and then inform you. Thank you for your hard work today!” Simon Keswick said with a smile.

“It’s our duty. We’re all working hard for the Boss’s enterprise,” Dai Shi replied humbly, shaking his head.

The two then reviewed the day’s market dynamics again.

Universal Investment Company had been quietly accumulating shares of Hongkong Telephone Company through numerous overseas-registered corporate accounts. Therefore, in the short term, as long as they didn’t publicly declare their intention to acquire the company, they wouldn’t have to worry about the Securities Commission discovering their actions.

For now, Hongkong Land Group’s primary task was to organize and prepare all the necessary documents for the acquisition of the Hongkong Telephone Company, and then submit them to the Securities Commission, clearly stating Hongkong Land’s purpose for the acquisition.

Only after receiving a response from the Securities Commission could they proceed openly with the next step.

For now, it was best to remain in the shadows.

Although a 41.6% stake was not a small amount and was even sufficient to hold a controlling stake in the Hongkong Telephone Company.

But Boss Lin Haoran was not satisfied with this, and Simon Keswick didn’t mind continuing to increase their shareholding. After all, the Hongkong Telephone Company was a very high-quality enterprise. When money was no object, the more shares they controlled, the better, and the more solid their controlling position would be.

Although considering the special nature of the Hongkong Telephone Company—while not a public utility listed company, privatizing it could attract interference from the Government House and cause unnecessary trouble—its listed status had to be maintained.

But at the very least, they needed to secure control of over 50% of the shares, or even more. The current 41.6% was clearly far from enough!

At nine in the evening, Simon Keswick called Lin Haoran in Chicago from his home.

At that time, it was eight o’clock in the morning in Chicago. Under normal circumstances, Lin Haoran would already be awake.

As expected, someone answered as soon as Simon Keswick dialed the number.

“Boss, it’s me, Simon Keswick,” Simon Keswick’s voice came through the telephone line, clear and distinct in Lin Haoran’s ear.

“Oh, Mr. Ma. Calling so early, is there good news from the Hongkong Telephone Company?” Lin Haoran’s voice carried a hint of grogginess from just waking up, but he quickly sounded more alert.

“Boss, your foresight is truly godlike. That’s right, Boss, we’ve successfully acquired a 41.6% stake, far exceeding our initial expectations…” Simon Keswick’s voice was filled with unconcealed excitement as he proceeded to give Lin Haoran a detailed report of the entire day’s operations and results.

To Lin Haoran, while the Hongkong Telephone Company was certainly a tycoon in Hong Kong’s corporate world, its importance in his mind paled in comparison to a behemoth like Hongkong Land Group.

Therefore, Lin Haoran viewed this acquisition with a more detached attitude, seeing it as just another piece in his business layout.

However, as the helmsman of Hongkong Land Group, Simon Keswick’s perspective and feelings were different from Lin Haoran’s.

Although the overall strength of the Hongkong Telephone Company could not be compared to Hongkong Land Group, Simon Keswick knew very well that successfully acquiring this company would bring new growth drivers to Hongkong Land, further consolidating and expanding its market position and diversifying its development.

For this reason, when Simon Keswick learned from Dai Shi that Hongkong Land had successfully secured a 41.6% stake in the Hongkong Telephone Company, far exceeding their initial expectations, his excitement was palpable.

This not only meant they were one step closer to gaining full control of the Hongkong Telephone Company, but it also signaled a broader future for Hongkong Land Group.

After acquiring the Hongkong Telephone Company, Hongkong Land Group’s strength was significantly enhanced, growing day by day.

In the future, the goal of Hongkong Land Group surpassing HSBC to become the largest enterprise in Hong Kong was gradually becoming within reach.

As for Jardine Matheson & Co., its business in Hong Kong had already been substantially reduced. Having lost an important partner like Hongkong Land Group, its strength was even more diminished.

What’s more, their plan to move their headquarters out of Hong Kong undoubtedly signaled that Jardine Matheson & Co. would gradually move away from the core circle of Hong Kong enterprises. This meant that the former ‘King of the Foreign Firms’ was gradually saying goodbye to Hong Kong, and would naturally no longer be in competition with Hongkong Land Group in the city.

“Good, well done!” Lin Haoran laughed on the other end of the line, his tone full of approval.

Seeing such impressive results, he was naturally very satisfied, even though it was something he had expected.

Before going to bed last night, Lin Haoran had received a call from Simon Keswick. At that time, the stake Hongkong Land Group controlled in the Hongkong Telephone Company was just over twenty percent.

Although that figure was not small, in Lin Haoran’s view, it was far from a controlling stake, and thus they couldn’t truly control the company that monopolized Hong Kong’s fixed-line telephone business.

However, after just one night on the American side, the situation in Hong Kong had changed dramatically.

Now, holding 41.6% of the shares was enough to truly control the Hongkong Telephone Company.

This meant they could bring this monopolistic enterprise under their wing, completely take control of it, and further consolidate and expand Hongkong Land Group’s influence in Hong Kong and throughout Asia.

Chapter 433: The Tycoons’ Confusion: Who is the Person Behind the Scenes?

After his conversation with Simon Keswick, Lin Haoran hung up the phone.

The acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company was proceeding with exceptional smoothness, but this was all within his expectations, so he did not seem overly excited.

Gently setting down the telephone receiver, Lin Haoran walked slowly to the balcony and leaned against the railing, gazing out at the magnificent Chicago city view.

Although Chicago’s downtown was not massive in scale, its dense cluster of skyscrapers was a spectacular sight.

Beyond the city center, neatly planned, low-rise residential areas spread out, offering an incredibly open and refreshing view that lifted one’s spirits.

In addition, the adjacent Lake Michigan was equally pleasing to the eye. Its surface was vast and boundless, almost indistinguishable from the sea, presenting a scene of endless splendor.

According to his plan, he had already instructed his subordinates to purchase a plane ticket for him from Chicago to Hong Kong for the next morning.

In other words, he planned to stay here for one last day before returning to Hong Kong.

This was because the main objectives of his trip to the United States had essentially been achieved.

Next, Universal Investment Company would help him continue to secretly accumulate stocks in listed companies like Coca-Cola, Intel, Citibank, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and even Citibank.

His goal was to build Universal Investment Company into a firm specializing in angel investments.

In the future, these companies would continuously generate substantial dividends for him.

Moreover, their stock prices would continue to rise, with growth in the thousands, or even tens of thousands, of times!

As for Apple Inc., it wouldn’t be too late for him to invest in the late nineties.

Knowing which companies held great promise for the future, there was no longer any need for him to launch takeovers.

Once an acquisition was initiated, it could completely disrupt their original development trajectory, ultimately changing the destiny of these companies.

Sometimes, to make money while lying down through stable investments was an accomplishment in itself.

Not everything required a hands-on approach, and the idea that a sense of achievement could only be realized through acquisitions was, in fact, unnecessary.

The companies back in Hong Kong were a different matter.

That was his base camp, which he had to keep firmly in his grasp.

Only then would his say in Hong Kong grow stronger by the day.

If in his previous life Hong Kong had a “Li Half-City,” then in this world, Hong Kong could perhaps be called “Lin Half-City.”

Standing on the balcony, Lin Haoran’s gaze was profound, as if it could pierce through the scene before him to a much more distant future.

That day, Lin Haoran and his bodyguards toured Chicago, the third-largest city in the United States.

During this time, there were no incidents.

In the blink of an eye, another day passed.

In the morning, Lin Haoran and his group of bodyguards appeared at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

There were no direct flights from Chicago to Hong Kong, so they would have a layover in Los Angeles on their return trip.

As a city with a large Chinese population, Los Angeles had flights to Hong Kong almost every day.

Standing in the terminal and looking at the planes outside through the glass window, Lin Haoran suddenly felt that it was very necessary for him to get a private jet.

In fact, he had the same idea the last time he came to the United States to trade gold futures.

However, after returning to Hong Kong, he traveled long distances less frequently, so he had put the thought out of his mind.

Now, standing in this bustling airport, the idea resurfaced.

After all, as his assets grew, security had become a very significant issue.

It was entirely possible that someone had their eyes on his fortune!

And with commercial flights, it was obvious that anyone who wanted to investigate could easily find out which flight he would be on.

If he had a completely secure private jet, Lin Haoran would enjoy absolute confidentiality when he traveled, which would undoubtedly greatly enhance his security.

Although Lin Haoran did not often travel far, there were always critical moments when such a mode of transport was needed.

More importantly, his top lieutenants, such as Simon Keswick, Burton, Chen Shoulin, and Cui Zilong, were currently actively expanding into international markets, frequently traveling between Singapore, Japan, the United States, and Europe.

Owning a private jet would not only meet Lin Haoran’s own travel needs but also provide convenience for these top generals, enhancing their comfort during long journeys.

This way, they could devote themselves to their work with greater energy and contribute to Lin Haoran’s enterprise.

With this in mind, Lin Haoran decided to have Simon Keswick handle this matter for him after he returned to Hong Kong.

There was no need to buy a large airliner, but purchasing a medium-sized private jet capable of long-haul flights was essential.

Now that the Hongkong Land Group had been successfully privatized and become his personal enterprise, it was only natural and justifiable for the group to handle such a private matter for him.

After all, as the owner of the company, he had both the right and the ability to allocate resources to meet his reasonable needs.

The plane roared as it took to the sky, quickly climbing above the clouds.

Sitting in a comfortable first-class seat, Lin Haoran glanced at the Chicago city view and the vast Lake Michigan outside the window before turning his head, gently closing the sunshade, and putting on an eye mask, preparing for the long journey of more than twenty hours ahead.

To ensure his safety, his bodyguards were seated in the surrounding seats; they had booked nearly the entire first-class cabin.

This arrangement naturally made Lin Haoran feel very secure, allowing him to enjoy the flight without any worries.

As the plane flew smoothly, Lin Haoran gradually fell asleep.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, after a night’s sleep, time quietly moved on to Saturday.

Today, Hong Kong’s major mainstream business newspapers, such as the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, Hong Kong Economic Times, The Capital, and the widely popular Oriental Daily News, all featured the shocking scene that had unfolded at Hongkong Telephone Company the day before as their front-page headline.

After all, the sudden, fierce assault on Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock by an unknown force had caused a massive stir in the stock market.

All sectors of society were eager to know who the mysterious figure pulling the strings behind the scenes was!

Hongkong Telephone Company was no ordinary enterprise. In its heyday, it had come close to ranking among the top ten listed companies in Hong Kong.

Although its ranking had slipped in recent years with the rapid rise of real estate and other emerging industries, it remained a well-known company with immense influence in Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, the company was a household name.

Therefore, the word-of-mouth chatter among shareholders yesterday and the in-depth reports about Hongkong Telephone Company in the major newspapers this morning quickly captured the attention of many Hong Kong citizens.

After all, this was a large enterprise with a market capitalization of nearly three billion Hong Kong dollars, holding a pivotal position in the eyes of Hong Kong’s citizens.

The public began to speculate about the stories and motives hidden behind the stock market turbulence.

In Li Jiacheng’s office at the Cheung Kong Holdings Group headquarters in the Chinese Building, he held a newspaper, his eyes locked on the report about Hongkong Telephone Company, his brows furrowing involuntarily.

It was not because he had any interest in acquiring Hongkong Telephone Company; in fact, the fixed-line company had never been on his acquisition list.

As a real estate tycoon, when selecting acquisition targets, Li Jiacheng preferred companies with abundant, high-quality plots of land and severely undervalued market capitalizations, such as the former Green Island Cement, the Hongkong Electric Group, or even the Hongkong Land Group.

Hongkong Telephone Company clearly did not meet his acquisition criteria. It did not need to hoard large amounts of land like other companies. As a company focused on communication services, its core value lay in its services, not its land assets.

However, this report put Li Jiacheng on alert.

Hong Kong was only so big, and Hongkong Telephone Company was no minor player. Someone targeting the company meant that the business landscape in Hong Kong might be about to shift again.

Now, as the Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa, Li Jiacheng’s status had been greatly elevated, but he also wanted to know who the person behind the scenes targeting Hongkong Telephone Company was.

He began to ponder who was manipulating all of this and what their objective was.

In this ever-changing business world, any sign of disturbance could hide a huge opportunity or crisis.

Could it be Lin Haoran?

The image of a young Lin Haoran suddenly appeared in Li Jiacheng’s mind.

It was simply that Lin Haoran’s multiple acquisitions over the past two years had already firmly established his image as an acquisition maniac in people’s minds.

Green Island Cement, the Hongkong Electric Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, the Hongkong Land Group—all had fallen into Lin Haoran’s hands, each one a famous and major enterprise in Hong Kong.

Could it really be him?

But according to his information, Lin Haoran didn’t seem to be in Hong Kong. He was said to have gone to the United States and had been away for over half a month.

Since he wasn’t in Hong Kong, it was logical that Lin Haoran shouldn’t be the mastermind.

But if it wasn’t Lin Haoran, then who could it be?

Li Jiacheng rubbed the bridge of his nose. Without any intelligence, he really couldn’t guess who this person behind the scenes was.

At the same time, other Hong Kong business tycoons, including Michael Sandberg, Simon Keswick, and Chen Songqing, were also speculating about who had targeted Hongkong Telephone Company and who the person behind the scenes was.

Hong Kong’s top circle itself was not large. They called other tycoons, but ultimately received no useful information.

The secrecy of this person behind the scenes an was simply too tight, making it impossible for them to investigate.

The news that Hongkong Telephone Company was being targeted grew more and more intense in Hong Kong.

And Lin Haoran, the mysterious force behind it all, was currently asleep high above the clouds, completely oblivious to the massive stir he had caused in Hong Kong.

When Lin Haoran woke up, the plane had already landed smoothly at Los Angeles International Airport for the layover.

He rubbed his sleepy eyes and looked out the window at the busy airport, a wave of indescribable emotion washing over him.

Chapter 434: Forced to Confess to the Securities Commission Early

Hong Kong’s business community was still immersed in speculation about the Hongkong Telephone Company acquisition.

The major media outlets and business tycoons all tried to unveil the mysterious person behind the scenes, but a definitive answer remained elusive.

Although Lin Haoran’s name was mentioned occasionally, most people didn’t believe he was the mastermind behind the acquisition, given that he was currently in the United States.

But if it wasn’t Lin Haoran, then who could it be?

After all, acquiring the Hongkong Telephone Company was a massive undertaking.

In Hong Kong, there were only a handful of financial groups capable of orchestrating such a large-scale deal so quietly.

Major Chinese tycoons like Li Jiacheng, Pao Yue-kong, Chen Songqing, Kwok Tak-seng, Cheng Yu-tung, and Li Zhaoji successively became objects of suspicion.

These men had made a huge profit in the real estate industry and certainly had the means to participate in such an acquisition.

Some reporters, therefore, sought them out, hoping to glean some useful information.

However, when faced with the reporters’ probing questions, they all directly denied any involvement in the acquisition of the Hongkong Telephone Company.

Even HSBC and Jardine Matheson & Co. became targets of suspicion.

But Michael Sandberg and Simon Keswick also issued denials one after another.

Simon Keswick, in particular, went so far as to publicly announce Jardine Matheson & Co.’s intention to withdraw from Hong Kong.

As a result, everyone realized that none of the suspects seemed to be the person behind the scenes.

Could it be an outsider?

At this point, the only guess people could make was that it wasn’t someone from Hong Kong.

…

At three-thirty in the afternoon on December 28th, a flight slowly touched down on the runway at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport.

It was a direct flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, and Lin Haoran was one of its passengers.

Looking out the cabin window at the familiar Hong Kong city center below, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a surge of emotion.

He recalled his trip to the United States, which had lasted nearly twenty days in total.

Despite the vastness and abundant resources of the United States, in Lin Haoran’s heart, Hong Kong—this international metropolis dominated by Chinese people—was the place that truly captivated him.

This was his territory.

The news of Lin Haoran’s return to Hong Kong was not leaked; the security around it was excellent.

The moment he stepped out of the cabin, he took a deep breath, taking in the familiar air and atmosphere.

Soon, he saw Ma Shiming, the current man in charge of the Hongkong Land Group, who had come to pick him up personally.

“Boss, welcome back to Hong Kong!” Ma Shiming said with a smile.

“Mr. Ma, what’s the public opinion on the Hongkong Telephone Company acquisition now?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile after shaking hands with Ma Shiming.

Ma Shiming was slightly taken aback but quickly regained his composure and replied in a low voice, “The speculation is still rampant, with everyone guessing the identity of the acquirer. However, since you’ve been in the United States, most people haven’t connected you with this acquisition.

Currently, tycoons like Li Jiacheng and Pao Yue-kong have all publicly denied involvement. Even HSBC and Jardine Matheson were implicated, but both have also issued denials. Simon Keswick, however, did reveal Jardine Matheson’s intention to withdraw, which has made the situation even more complicated and confusing.”

“Interesting!” A faint smile touched Lin Haoran’s lips.

In his eyes, acquiring the Hongkong Telephone Company was a rather ordinary affair, yet this ordinary affair was enough to cause a storm in Hong Kong.

After all, the Hongkong Telephone Company was on the same level as an enterprise like the Hong Kong and China Gas Company, top-tier in both fame and influence.

So, it had indeed exceeded his expectations somewhat.

Upon exiting the airport terminal, a black Rolls-Royce was already waiting.

The bodyguard and driver respectfully opened the car door, and Lin Haoran and Ma Shiming got in one after the other.

As the vehicle slowly pulled away from the airport, Lin Haoran leaned back against the soft seat.

Half an hour later, the two arrived back at the general manager’s office in the Connaught Centre.

Once inside the office, Ma Shiming began to report on the events of the past few days in a continuous flow.

While reports could be made over the phone, they were usually brief. A face-to-face report was far more convenient.

Of course, none of this was secret information.

“Are you saying that we’ve already submitted the related documents for the acquisition and privatization to the Securities and Futures Commission?” Lin Haoran asked, suddenly looking up.

“Yes, Boss, the documents have been submitted. But it was a necessary move. We had originally planned to keep it confidential, but this morning, the Securities Commission sent a letter inquiring about the situation with the Hongkong Telephone Company, asking if we were the operators behind the scenes.

Since the Securities Commission was already involved, we couldn’t hide it any longer. However, we only disclosed the 34.9% of shares we currently hold. That’s all Hongkong Land Group holds directly. The remaining shares are controlled covertly by overseas fund companies or held in the names of offshore companies.

Therefore, even the Securities Commission can’t accurately determine how many shares we truly hold. At most, they can only find out that Hongkong Land Group currently holds just 34.9% of the shares.

And this percentage is perfectly legal and compliant. As for the detailed data of our shareholdings, only Mr. Dai and I are aware of it. Even the members of Universal Investment Company’s trading team don’t know the total number of shares they’ve accumulated.

So, the risk of an information leak is not high,” Ma Shiming answered with a nod.

After speaking, he took out a letter of inquiry, which bore the official seal of the Securities Commission.

After glancing at the letter, Lin Haoran handed it back to Ma Shiming.

Since the Securities Commission had already sent a letter of inquiry, denial was clearly impossible; otherwise, it would hinder the smooth announcement of the acquisition later on. Lin Haoran understood this perfectly and felt no dissatisfaction with Ma Shiming for making the decision without reporting to him first.

It was a sudden event, and he had been on the plane at the time. Ma Shiming couldn’t have contacted him even if he had wanted to discuss it.

Besides, Hongkong Land Group already held over 40% of the Hongkong Telephone Company’s shares. Even if this information were made public, there was no need to worry about any competitors emerging.

After all, the Hongkong Telephone Company was already firmly in the grasp of the Hongkong Land Group. No one could snatch it away from them.

The acquisition battle was, in effect, already over. The Hongkong Land Group could take control of the Hongkong Telephone Company at any time. All that remained was to proceed steadily to bring the company completely under their banner.

“Has there been any further news from the Securities Commission?” Lin Haoran asked.

Ma Shiming shook his head gently and replied, “If there were any new feedback, they would usually send a letter or contact me personally. I suspect the Securities Commission is probably still in internal discussions.

However, they shouldn’t be able to stop our acquisition plan. After all, our entire process of acquiring the Hongkong Telephone Company has been legal and compliant. At most, they might ask us to maintain the listing status of the Hongkong Telephone Company.”

The Hongkong Telephone Company held a monopoly over Hong Kong’s entire fixed-line communication market. To the vast majority of citizens, it was like an indispensable public utility company, even if it wasn’t one in name.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” the two men paused their conversation as Ma Shiming called out.

The door opened slowly, revealing a receptionist from the Connaught Centre, followed closely by a young man in a suit.

“Boss, Mr. General Manager, someone from the Securities Commission is here to see you on urgent business!” the receptionist said politely.

“Alright, thank you for your trouble. You can go back to your work now,” Ma Shiming said to the receptionist with a smile, nodding for her to leave.

He then turned his gaze to the young staff member from the Securities Commission.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Ma, I’m a staff member from the Securities Commission. I’m here on behalf of the Chairman of the Securities Commission to deliver a document to your company. Please accept it,” the official said, taking a document from his briefcase and handing it to Ma Shiming.

Lin Haoran remained silent, still seated in his chair. Such minor matters did not require his personal attention.

Ma Shiming took the document and said with a smile, “Thank you for your trouble. Please also extend my regards to Chairman Miles.”

“Of course, Mr. Ma. I will pass on your regards,” the staff member replied.

While opening the document, Ma Shiming exchanged a few pleasantries with the Securities Commission official, thanking him and asking him to wait a moment while he reviewed the contents and prepared a reply.

After the official nodded in agreement, Ma Shiming quickly scanned the document. A flicker of surprise crossed his face but was quickly masked by his usual calm demeanor.

“Boss, this is the Securities Commission’s official response to our acquisition of the Hongkong Telephone Company.” Ma Shiming handed the document to Lin Haoran while briefly summarizing its contents. “They are requesting a more detailed explanation of our shareholding structure and assurances that the acquisition will not affect the normal operations and public service quality of the Hongkong Telephone Company.

Furthermore, they have also emphasized the importance of maintaining the Hongkong Telephone Company’s listing status, stating clearly that while we can acquire the company, we must leave at least 25% of the shares floating on the stock market. That means we can hold a maximum of 75%. They would like to hear our opinion on this now.”

Lin Haoran took the document and read it carefully, a thoughtful look in his eyes.

“75%?” He looked up at Ma Shiming. “What are your thoughts on this?”

Clearly, the Securities Commission’s concern that Lin Haoran might delist and privatize the Hongkong Telephone Company was not without basis.

Looking back at his past acquisitions, from Green Island Cement and Wan’an Group to the Hongkong Land Group, Lin Haoran had demonstrated a strong desire for possession and control. This series of actions had undoubtedly deepened the public’s perception of his acquisition style.

In the Hong Kong business world, Lin Haoran was already famous for being a possessive businessman.

Every one of his privatization cases demonstrated his deep-seated desire for absolute control over his enterprises.

Chapter 435: Li Jiacheng’s Resentment and Despair

Some even speculated that if companies like the Hongkong Electric Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, and the Hong Kong and China Gas Company were not public utility listed companies constrained by regulations that prevented easy privatization, they too would have likely been unable to escape the fate of being privatized by Lin Haoran.

Now, with the Securities Commission’s demand that the Hongkong Land Group hold no more than 75% of the shares, it undoubtedly revealed the regulators’ deep concerns about the possibility of Lin Haoran resorting to extreme privatization measures.

They hoped that by limiting Hongkong Land Group’s shareholding ratio, they could ensure that the Hongkong Telephone Company would maintain its listed status, thereby protecting the continuity of its public services.

However, a 75% stake was not much different from privatization.

Perhaps the only difference was that the Hongkong Telephone Company would have to periodically disclose certain company matters to the public, such as its financial status and operating conditions, major corporate events, governance structure, and important Board of Directors resolutions.

In contrast, a privatized company did not bear such strict disclosure obligations.

They could manage information more flexibly and reduce the pressure of public disclosure, but this could also lower market transparency and the level of investor protection.

The Securities Commission’s insistence on the Hongkong Telephone Company retaining its listed status was clearly aimed at ensuring sufficient transparency in its business operations.

After a moment of thought, Ma Shimin replied, “From our perspective, I believe a 75% stake is sufficient for us to exercise effective control over the Hongkong Telephone Company. Preserving its listed status doesn’t significantly impact our control over the enterprise. Therefore, I’m inclined to accept the Securities Commission’s recommendation. There’s no need to oppose their proposal.”

Lin Haoran nodded in agreement.

“Your thoughts are aligned with mine. Since they’ve proposed it, let’s agree to it. We do need to balance the interests of all parties as much as possible while remaining compliant with the law to ensure a smooth acquisition and stable subsequent operations. It would be obviously unwise to go against the Securities Commission.

“So, reply to the Securities Commission along these lines. At the same time, start preparing the relevant shareholding structure adjustment plan.”

Ma Shimin acknowledged the order and immediately began drafting the reply, while also starting to arrange the specific work for adjusting the shareholding structure.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran leaned back in his chair, lost in thought.

After the staff from the Securities Commission had all left, Ma Shimin thought for a moment and said to Lin Haoran, “Boss, since the Securities Commission already knows, we definitely can’t keep this under wraps any longer. In that case, why don’t we just be direct and announce it to the public!”

“Alright, let’s announce it. You handle it; I won’t make an appearance!” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

After receiving his orders, Ma Shimin immediately began preparing the public announcement.

The statement needed to accurately convey the company’s position while also soothing the market and investors as much as possible.

After several rounds of deliberation and revision, a concise and clear announcement was finalized.

In the announcement, Ma Shimin, on behalf of Hongkong Land Group and Lin Haoran, formally confirmed the decision to acquire the Hongkong Telephone Company, explaining that it was based on considerations for the company’s long-term development strategy.

At the same time, the announcement emphasized that the Hongkong Telephone Company would maintain its listed status and continue to fulfill its disclosure obligations, ensuring that all shareholders and investors could receive timely and accurate information about the company’s operations.

This announcement directly stated Hongkong Land Group’s stance on the Hongkong Telephone Company: it would not be privatized!

Immediately after, subordinates sent by Ma Shimin delivered these announcements to several mainstream media outlets in Hong Kong.

These included the Oriental Daily News, the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, and the Securities Daily.

The next day, Lin Haoran once again dominated the headlines of Hong Kong’s major media.

“Universal Investment Company Officially Announces Acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company, Lin Haoran the Mastermind Behind the Scenes!”

“Lin Half-City Conquers Another Fortress, Hong Kong’s Business Landscape May Be Reshaped!”

“A New Member Joins Lin Haoran’s Commercial Empire, Hongkong Telephone Company Now Under His Command!”

The moment the news broke, the Hong Kong business community was in an uproar.

The news spread like wildfire, reaching every corner of Hong Kong’s business world and sparking shock and heated discussions among countless people.

On the streets and in the alleys, many were talking about it.

This was the Hongkong Telephone Company, whose influence and renown even surpassed that of the Hongkong Electric Group.

After all, the Hongkong Electric Group only monopolized the electricity market on Hong Kong Island, whereas the Hongkong Telephone Company held a solid monopoly over the entire fixed-line communication market in Hong Kong.

Therefore, it was no surprise that Hongkong Land Group’s acquisition of the Hongkong Telephone Company caused such a massive sensation.

As for the retail shareholders who had been cut like leeks, they finally awoke as if from a dream, stunned to realize that the manipulator behind it all was the Hongkong Land Group.

Faced with such a behemoth, their anger and dissatisfaction instantly seemed pale and weak, and they couldn’t even be bothered to complain.

In the face of a giant like Hongkong Land Group, with its vast capital and extensive resources, they, the small shareholders, appeared so insignificant and powerless.

Their voices were like specks of dust in the vast ocean of commerce, easily drowned out.

In this volatile market, small shareholders could often only passively accept the whims of fate.

Those who once held aspirations and dreams for the stock market now had to face the cruel reality and gradually began to calm down.

Regardless, Hongkong Land Group’s acquisition of the Hongkong Telephone Company was destined to cause a great stir in Hong Kong.

Within the top circle of Hong Kong’s business community, tycoons like Li Jiacheng, Michael Sandberg, and Simon Keswick were all utterly shocked.

They had not expected Lin Haoran to once again complete such a monumental acquisition so quietly.

Li Jiacheng sat in his office, his brow tightly furrowed. “It really was him… It seems that even with Hutchison Whampoa, it will be difficult for me to surpass Lin Haoran. The gap between us is only getting wider!”

Li Jiacheng was undoubtedly a man of immense ambition. After successfully securing a controlling stake in Hutchison Whampoa and receiving the staunch support of HSBC, his ambition had grown like weeds, impossible to contain.

In his grand blueprint, he dreamed of becoming the undisputed leader of wealth in Hong Kong and even all of Asia, perhaps even carving out a place for himself on the global stage.

However, reality had placed an insurmountable obstacle before him. Lin Haoran, a rising business star who had only emerged two years ago, now stood like a towering mountain on his path forward, filling him with an unprecedented sense of despair.

Under Lin Haoran’s command were industry giants such as Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, Wanqing Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Kowloon Motor Bus, and the Hongkong Telephone Company. The sheer scale of his commercial empire was breathtaking.

In comparison, the chips Li Jiacheng held seemed stretched thin, with only Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa as his pillars.

Did he still have a chance to surpass Lin Haoran?

Faced with such a disparity, Li Jiacheng couldn’t help but fall into deep contemplation.

Elsewhere, Michael Sandberg dialed Lin Haoran’s number, his voice tinged with a complex mix of emotions. “Mr. Lin, congratulations. The acquisition of the Hongkong Telephone Company is truly astonishing.”

Michael Sandberg’s feelings were complicated because he knew that while HSBC was still ostensibly the largest company in Hong Kong, in terms of overall strength, Lin Haoran had already surpassed it.

This was because the major enterprises under Lin Haoran’s banner were basically all ranked within Hong Kong’s top thirty.

Furthermore, Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group were both giants in the top ten.

If Wanqing Group were a listed company instead of a private enterprise, it would certainly rank among the top ten listed companies in Hong Kong as well.

Combined, these enterprises covered various industries in Hong Kong. Their strength had clearly surpassed HSBC, enough to make Lin Haoran’s personal holdings the number one financial group in Hong Kong.

Faced with this situation, Michael Sandberg could only feel a deep sense of helplessness.

Originally, they had helped Pao Yue-kong acquire Kowloon Wharf precisely to ensure that Jardine Matheson & Co. would be thoroughly surpassed by HSBC, thereby making it the largest financial group in Hong Kong.

But now, just two short years later, HSBC had completely lost its position as the number one financial group.

Their painstaking plans had come to nothing, leaving him feeling both helpless and conflicted.

Lin Haoran smiled faintly and replied with humility, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, you’re too kind. This is just one of our many ordinary moves in Hong Kong.”

“Mr. Lin, I deeply admire your business strategy. However, I must remind you that as your commercial empire continues to expand, you will face more challenges and competition. I hope you can continue to maintain this humble and low-key attitude. We at HSBC would be very willing to be a partner to all the enterprises under your command!” Michael Sandberg said with profound meaning.

“Of course, Mr. Michael Sandberg. I am also happy to maintain a closer cooperation with HSBC. Don’t forget, I am a board member of HSBC!” Lin Haoran replied cheerfully, as if he hadn’t understood the hidden meaning in Michael Sandberg’s words.

He knew that in the business world, a tall tree attracts the wind, but he was not afraid of competition and challenges.

Today, the expansion speed of Lin Haoran’s commercial empire in Hong Kong was staggering.

With the Hongkong Telephone Company brought under his fold, his influence had permeated every corner of Hong Kong.

From real estate, retail, energy, electricity, building materials, investment, finance, transportation, to communications, Lin Haoran’s business empire now covered almost every key industry.

This comprehensive layout not only gave him an absolutely dominant position in the Hong Kong business world but also allowed him to gradually begin to make his mark on a global scale.

However, just as Michael Sandberg had said, as Lin Haoran’s commercial empire grew, he also faced an increasing number of challenges and competition.

HSBC in particular, with its consistently domineering style, would likely cause Michael Sandberg to realize the threat posed by Lin Haoran and secretly join forces with other business magnates like Li Jiacheng, attempting to resist the rise of this new power through cooperation.

However, all of this was merely their speculation and worry.

To Lin Haoran, these potential alliances and conflicts were but a ripple in the normal course of business.

His vision had long since looked beyond the tiny place that was Hong Kong; he was looking at the entire world, contemplating how to make his moves on a much larger stage.

The acquisition of the Hongkong Telephone Company was, for him, just a casual move on the chessboard, with the aim of controlling Hong Kong’s future communications industry and paving a solid information superhighway for his commercial empire.

Chapter 436: Compensation from the Securities Commission

After hanging up with Michael Sandberg, Lin Haoran received a series of calls from several heavyweight figures in Hong Kong’s business and political circles.

Some of these calls were purely congratulatory, others were simple flattery, some expressed intentions to cooperate, and there were even a few veiled probings.

After dealing with these calls, Lin Haoran was finally able to catch his breath.

Although his sights were already set on the global stage, Hong Kong would always be his foundation.

How could one conquer the world without a stable foundation?

Managing his headquarters well was, and always would be, the highest priority in his strategic planning.

Putting down the telephone receiver, Lin Haoran turned to look at Ma Shimin, who had been sitting quietly to the side the entire time.

“Boss, now that the news is public, I believe we can begin the process of taking control of the Hongkong Telephone Company. Just half an hour ago, I contacted Mr. David, the Chairman of the Board of the Hongkong Telephone Company, and we had a preliminary discussion about the takeover by our Hongkong Land Group.

“Mr. David said that before the official takeover, he hopes we can have an in-depth discussion about the future development of the Hongkong Telephone Company,” Ma Shimin reported.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, then asked, “What is this Mr. David’s capability really like? And what are your specific plans for the current senior management of the Hongkong Telephone Company?”

He truly had no intention of interfering too much; Ma Shimin was perfectly capable of handling these matters appropriately.

However, not interfering didn’t mean he wasn’t concerned. After all, as an industry tycoon with a market capitalization approaching three billion Hong Kong dollars, the importance of the Hongkong Telephone Company was self-evident.

“Boss, Mr. David is indeed very capable. He’s also an expert in the communications sector and has managed the Hongkong Telephone Company exceptionally well. As for whether to keep him on, that will depend on his performance.

“If he’s willing to integrate into Hongkong Land Group wholeheartedly, I don’t mind letting him continue to lead the Hongkong Telephone Company. But if he is outwardly compliant but inwardly defiant, then we will have no choice but to consider a replacement,” Ma Shimin reported with a smile.

“Very good, do as you see fit. Also, the takeover of the Hongkong Telephone Company must be implemented as soon as possible, without delay. As you know, I have already reached a cooperation agreement with Motorola to build a cellular mobile signal network in Hong Kong. This could very well make Hong Kong the first city in the world to commercialize mobile phones, and its importance is self-evident.

“Motorola has already indicated that they will send a team of experts and negotiators to Hong Kong within two weeks for in-depth discussions to finalize the partnership.

“Our successful acquisition of the Hongkong Telephone Company at this time is a perfect alignment of timing, opportunity, and support. With the Hongkong Telephone Company’s deep foundation in the communications industry, we won’t be completely in the dark in this field.

“Moreover, I’ve heard that the Hongkong Telephone Company has several of the world’s top communications experts. This will undoubtedly make us even more powerful. After the takeover, we will cooperate with Motorola under the banner of the Hongkong Telephone Company. I believe this partnership will proceed even more smoothly,” Lin Haoran continued.

“Boss, the Hongkong Telephone Company does indeed have three top-tier international communications experts, as well as dozens of highly skilled communications engineers. The current Chairman of the Board, Mr. David, is the most outstanding among them.

“He already had a brilliant record in the communications sector, having once been the chief communications engineer for Siemens in Germany. He was headhunted by the Hongkong Telephone Company at the time with a high salary. Later, due to his excellent performance in corporate management, he gradually moved into the executive ranks and eventually became the one in charge of the company,” Ma Shimin explained in detail.

A flicker of interest appeared in Lin Haoran’s eyes after hearing Ma Shimin’s report.

A top communications expert who was also a talented manager—this was the kind of person he naturally hoped to have.

He strolled to the window, gazing at the prosperous, brocade-like streetscape of Hong Kong.

After a moment of contemplation, he spoke in a steady tone, “From your description, Mr. David’s abilities are indeed beyond question. However, for the future of the Hongkong Telephone Company, what we need more is loyalty to the company and efficient execution.

“If he can cooperate with all his heart, we are naturally willing to give him a stage to display his talents. But if he harbors doubts or disloyalty, then we must not hesitate to make adjustments, because the future of the Hongkong Telephone Company leaves no room for error.”

Hearing this, Ma Shimin nodded solemnly in agreement. “Rest assured, Boss, I will keep a close eye on David’s movements and performance. His request to discuss the takeover with me is likely a way to gauge our attitude towards him.

“Furthermore, I have already drafted a preliminary plan for the specific details of the takeover. After meeting with Mr. David later, I will immediately begin to push forward with matters related to taking control.

“If everything goes smoothly, we could convene a meeting with the Hongkong Telephone Company’s senior executives as early as tomorrow morning to formally announce Hongkong Land Group’s entry. And once Motorola’s team of experts arrives in Hong Kong, we can immediately begin partnership negotiations with them.”

Lin Haoran nodded, his gaze still fixed on the bustling night view outside. He spoke with a hint of deeper meaning, “Mr. Ma, I have always been confident in your efficiency. However, the takeover of the Hongkong Telephone Company is not just a formal assumption of control; more importantly, it’s about winning over the hearts and minds of the people, especially the key technical personnel and core management. Their attitude will directly determine the speed of our future development.”

He turned to face Ma Shimin and continued, “Although Mr. David is exceptionally capable, we cannot pin all our hopes on him alone. You mentioned that the Hongkong Telephone Company has two other top international communications experts. We must make a concerted effort to win these people over. They are not only the core of our technical strength but also key to our future partnership with Motorola.”

Ma Shimin smiled faintly, his tone exuding confidence. “Boss, you don’t really need to worry too much about that. You know how much prestige our Hongkong Land Group has in Hong Kong. Acquiring the Hongkong Telephone Company, and even taking control of it, is not a difficult task for us.

“Before the official takeover, I will personally communicate with each of these experts to gain a deep understanding of their thoughts and practical needs.

“If they are willing to continue serving the Hongkong Telephone Company, we will certainly give them full respect and comprehensive support. If they have concerns, we will do our utmost to resolve their difficulties.

“Furthermore, even after we take over the Hongkong Telephone Company, I will ensure they have sufficient independence. As a non-professional in this field, I will fully respect the decisions of the company’s senior management and will never interfere without cause.”

“Mm, in that case, I am relieved!” Lin Haoran nodded.

“Boss, there’s another piece of good news. A short while ago, Mr. Myles, the chairman of the Securities Commission, called personally. In light of our agreement not to fully privatize the Hongkong Telephone Company, when we accumulate more of its shares, we will no longer be required to acquire them from shareholders at a price no lower than the highest price of the past six months. They will send a formal reply letter to our group later,” Ma Shimin reported after a moment’s thought.

Last Friday, the Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock price had soared to a high of 35 Hong Kong dollars per share.

According to Hong Kong’s current M&A regulations, if a company is to be acquired, the acquiring party must purchase the shares from shareholders at the highest price within the six months prior to the transaction date.

But now, because Hongkong Land Group had abandoned its plan to privatize the Hongkong Telephone Company, this was considered a form of compensation from the Securities Commission.

Having no restrictions on the share price was undoubtedly great news for Hongkong Land Group.

Since they had already effectively achieved a controlling stake in the Hongkong Telephone Company, holding over 40% of the shares, Hongkong Land Group had no need to worry about any other competitors emerging.

Therefore, as they continued to increase their shareholding, they could do so under Hongkong Land Group’s control, effectively reducing the cost of accumulation.

If another British-owned company had intended to privatize the Hongkong Telephone Company, the Securities Commission would likely have taken a more lenient stance and not interfered too much.

But now, with Hongkong Land Group under the leadership of a Chinese helmsman like Lin Haoran, it was destined to receive special attention and different treatment from the Securities Commission!

There was nothing to be done about it.

Nothing can be perfect.

“Mm, good. This is indeed good news. Universal Investment Company will cooperate with your upcoming moves to increase our stake!” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

No stipulated share price meant the price could be controlled.

If they had to increase their stake at the highest price of the past six months, it would mean at least 35 Hong Kong dollars per share. But without this restriction, even if they pushed the price down to 25 Hong Kong dollars per share, it would be perfectly fine.

This was a matter of several hundred million Hong Kong dollars in costs, so it was naturally a good thing.

“Boss, if there’s nothing else, I plan to head to the Hongkong Telephone Company headquarters first to discuss the details of Hongkong Land Group’s takeover with Mr. David. If they can actively cooperate with our takeover, it will undoubtedly be a great thing for us!” Ma Shimin glanced at his watch and continued.

“Alright, you should go then!” Lin Haoran waved his hand straightforwardly.

By now, the hour hand had quietly pointed past five in the afternoon. The gentle glow of the setting sun spilled onto the glass windows of the Connaught Centre, casting a splendid, beautiful play of light and shadow.

After a moment’s thought, Lin Haoran picked up the telephone receiver and dialed his parents’ home number.

“Dad, I’m back in Hong Kong. I’m planning to come over in a little while. I’d like to have dinner with you and mother tonight,” Lin Haoran said with a smile to his father, Lin Wan’an, after the call connected.

“It’s good that you’re back, it’s good that you’re back! I’ll have the kitchen prepare some good dishes right away. Come back early!” Hearing Lin Haoran’s voice, Lin Wan’an sounded exceptionally happy and surprised.

“Okay, Dad, I promise I’ll be home before seven!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Chapter 437: Sister-in-law’s Flattery

Lin Haoran stayed at Connaught Centre until about six in the evening. During that time, he inspected several important departments of the Hongkong Land Group. Only then did he leave Connaught Centre with more than a dozen bodyguards.

The thirteen shadow guards had found it difficult to exert their full strength in the United States, but upon returning to the familiar territory of Hong Kong, they were like dragons returning to the sea. They quickly dispersed, silently lurking around Lin Haoran, no longer making their presence known so easily.

By his side, only the two brothers, Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, remained.

“Boss, where are we heading next?” Li Weidong asked, turning his head from the driver’s seat of the Rolls-Royce.

“To the Deep Water Bay villa,” Lin Haoran replied without hesitation.

“Understood, Boss. We’re leaving now!” Li Weidong responded.

The Rolls-Royce smoothly drove out of the underground parking garage of Connaught Centre, followed closely by three inconspicuous private cars—the vehicles of the shadow guards, low-key and covert.

About half an hour later, Lin Haoran’s motorcade arrived at the Deep Water Bay villa area.

The car came to a steady stop in the Lin family villa’s exclusive parking spot. Before Lin Haoran could even get out, his father and mother had already heard the car and came out to greet him.

“Dad! Mother!” After Li Weiguo opened the car door for him, Lin Haoran stepped out and couldn’t help but give each of his parents a hug.

“It’s good that you’re back. We were so worried about you.” Lin mother studied Lin Haoran carefully, afraid he might have lost even a little weight during his time in the United States.

“Alright, let’s not chat out here. Let’s go inside,” Lin Wan’an said, gesturing toward the villa’s interior, a gratified look on his face.

After all, Lin Haoran’s accomplishments had long since far surpassed his own. Who wouldn’t be proud to have such a son?

Lin Haoran noticed that Lin Wan’an now had a rosy complexion and was hale and hearty. The sickly appearance he once had was completely gone.

It was clear that the past two years of quiet recuperation had indeed allowed his father’s body to recover remarkably well.

“Dad, Mother, please wait a moment. I specifically picked out gifts for you in the United States,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

No sooner had he spoken than Li Weiguo deftly opened the trunk and took out two exquisite gift boxes.

One of the boxes was carefully wrapped for his father, and the other was for his mother.

Lin Haoran took the boxes but didn’t rush to hand them over. Instead, he entered the villa’s ground-floor hall with his parents before presenting the gifts to them.

With a gentle smile, he said, “Dad, this is a limited edition Montblanc fountain pen I picked out for you in the United States. I heard you’ve taken up calligraphy recently, so this pen should be perfect for you.”

Lin Wan’an took the gift box and eagerly opened it. Inside, an exquisitely crafted fountain pen lay quietly on a velvet cushion. Intricate patterns were inlaid on its body, making it look exceptionally noble.

A hint of surprise flashed in his eyes as he nodded with a smile. “Good, good! I love this pen. You know me best.”

His mother also couldn’t wait to open her gift box. Inside was a sapphire-studded necklace, the gems sparkling enchantingly under the light.

She gently caressed the necklace, her eyes filled with delight. “Haoran, this necklace is beautiful. You’re so thoughtful.”

As the founders of a wealthy family, Lin father and mother naturally wanted for nothing material.

But this was a token of Lin Haoran’s affection, and even though they lacked nothing, they were very happy.

Lin Haoran smiled slightly, a hint of apology in his voice. “Mother, I’ve been so busy traveling these past two years and haven’t been able to spend much time with you and Dad. This necklace may not be terribly expensive, but it’s a piece of my heart.”

Lin mother’s eyes grew slightly red. She patted the back of his hand. “Silly child, your safe return is the best gift for us. We understand that you’re out there building your career. We just hope you take care of yourself and don’t get too tired.”

Lin Wan’an nodded in agreement. “That’s right. Your career is important, but your health is your most valuable asset. I used to work too hard on the business and ended up ruining my body. You must learn from my mistakes. You are the pride of our Lam family now, we can’t have anything happen to you.”

A warm feeling swelled in Lin Haoran’s heart. He nodded and promised, “Dad, Mother, don’t worry. I will take good care of myself. I plan to stay in Hong Kong for a while this time. Even if I have to travel, I won’t be gone for too long. Whenever I have free time, I’ll definitely come back to spend it with you.”

Although he was a transmigrator, after more than two years together, he had completely integrated into this role and deeply accepted his parents, viewing them as his own flesh and blood.

To him, this bond of blood and kinship was a fact that no force could ever change.

“Oh, right, after you called to say you were coming back, I also called your Older Brother,” his father continued. “He said he would bring your sister-in-law and Jianbin over tonight for a family dinner. They should be here soon!”

“Yes, it really has been a long time since our whole family has gathered like this,” Lin Haoran responded with a smile.

“Haoran, you’re not young anymore. Have you thought about settling down? Your father and I are hoping to have grandchildren soon,” his mother chimed in. “While you were away in the United States, Miss Xiaohan from the Guo family came to visit us twice. Haoran, your Older Brother was already married at your age. You shouldn’t let such a wonderful girl slip by. Besides, our two families are a good match in terms of social standing, and her feelings for you are very deep!” Her words revealed her extreme satisfaction with Guo Xiaohan as a potential daughter-in-law.

Lin Haoran was quite surprised. He had only been in the United States for about twenty days, and Guo Xiaohan had already visited his parents twice?

He couldn’t help but recall the passionate kiss before he left for the United States. He thought to himself, This girl’s feelings for me are truly deep!

Lin Haoran gently shook his head, clearing the chaotic thoughts from his mind, and said to his mother with a wry smile, “Mother, you don’t need to worry about the two of us. With my current status and position, do you think I’ll have trouble finding a wife?”

Hearing this, his mother couldn’t help but laugh and pat his arm, her tone playfully chiding, “You rascal, you make it sound like your father and I are forcing you. We just think Xiaohan is a nice girl—sensible, considerate, and truly sincere towards you. If you have feelings for her too, don’t make her wait too long.”

Lin Haoran gave a helpless smile and was about to speak when the roar of a car engine suddenly came from outside.

Apparently, his Older Brother, Lin Haoning, and his family had returned.

So, the three of them stood up and walked toward the villa’s entrance.

Sure enough, Lin Haoning’s private car was parked in a spot. He, his wife Cao Shaoling, and their son Lin Jianbin were just getting out.

Seeing Lin Haoran and his parents come out to greet them, Lin Haoning quickened his pace, a broad smile on his face as he greeted them, “Dad, Mother, Haoran.”

Lin Haoran smiled and nodded. “Older Brother.”

“Jianbin, go and greet your Uncle!” Cao Shaoling gently nudged her son, Lin Jianbin.

“Hello, Uncle!” Although Lin Jianbin was a bit shy, he mustered his courage, walked up to Lin Haoran, and greeted him politely.

“Yes, Jianbin. I haven’t seen you in a while. You’ve grown quite a bit!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, patting his nephew’s shoulder.

“Haoran, you’ve really brought glory to the Lam family this time. I can’t believe you actually acquired the Hongkong Telephone Company. If only Haoning had your kind of ability, that would be great.”

Cao Shaoling also made small talk with Lin Haoran, her tone tinged with flattery. It was worth noting that she had never given Lin Haoran the time of day before.

During the most intense period of the succession struggle, she had even joined forces with her parents’ home, attempting to deal with Lin Haoran through unscrupulous means.

But now, Lin Haoran’s status in the business world had long since far surpassed that of her husband, Lin Haoning.

Therefore, Cao Shaoling’s attitude towards Lin Haoran was now worlds apart from what it used to be.

Lin Haoran was well aware of the change in Cao Shaoling’s attitude, but he didn’t show it.

He simply smiled faintly and replied in a calm tone, “You’re too kind, sister-in-law. The acquisition of the Hongkong Telephone Company is just one part of the Hongkong Land Group’s strategy. Older Brother’s achievements in the manufacturing industry are plain for all to see. We brothers each have our own strengths, and we are both working for the development of the Lam family.”

“Alright, let’s stop chatting. The servants have prepared dinner. Let’s go in and eat first. We can talk more after dinner; it’s been a long time since we were all together. Haoran, Haoning, you should both stay the night!” Lin father suggested at this point.

“Dad, I’ll stay and keep you and Mother company tonight then!” Lin Haoran agreed with a smile.

“Okay, Dad. Shaoling, Jianbin, and I will stay here tonight as well!” Lin Haoning likewise did not refuse, nodding in agreement.

Hearing this, Lin father’s face broke into a satisfied smile. He patted Lin Haoran’s shoulder, then turned to look at Lin Haoning, his eyes filled with gratification.

“Good, good. Our family will have a proper get-together tonight,” Lin father said happily, leading everyone toward the dining room.

At the dinner table, laden with a sumptuous and delicious-looking spread, the family sat together in a warm and harmonious atmosphere.

Lin Haoran occasionally put food on his parents’ plates and asked about their health, while Lin Haoning talked about some recent developments in his own career. Cao Shaoling chimed in with agreement from time to time, making for a very harmonious atmosphere.

After dinner, Lin mother took Lin Jianbin to the hall to watch television on the sofa.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran and Lin Haoning followed their father into the study on the ground floor.

It was obvious that their father wanted to take this good opportunity to get a thorough update on his two sons’ current business affairs.

Cao Shaoling, on the other hand, made an excuse to go to the kitchen to instruct the servants to clear the dishes, but in reality, she just wanted to avoid Lin Haoran.

Chapter 438: Older Brother Lin Haoning Humbly Asks for Advice

Lin Haoran naturally noticed Cao Shaoling’s subtle intentions, but he paid them no mind.

After all, they were ultimately family, and the Lam family line was not large. Recalling how his older brother, Lin Haoning, had looked after him in their childhood, Lin Haoran decided to temporarily set aside their past unhappiness.

Of course, if Lin Haoran were to discover that someone in the family was plotting against him—for instance, if they were connected to the previous bomb incident—he would show no mercy on account of blood ties. Not even to his own brother.

Family affection, perhaps, becomes incredibly fragile in the face of self-interest.

Moreover, as a Transmigrator, although Lin Haoran had fully accepted everything about this life, a slight barrier remained deep in his heart, making complete harmony difficult to achieve.

Therefore, while he maintained a cordial relationship with his older brother and sister-in-law on the surface, he kept a certain distance from them in his heart.

Combined with their past actions, it was fated that the bond between Lin Haoran and Lin Haoning could never be as seamlessly intimate as that of other biological brothers.

Inside the study, the Lin father sat behind a large mahogany desk, his gaze sweeping between his two sons, a contented smile on his face.

By now, the wealth of both Lin Haoran and Lin Haoning had far surpassed the amounts Lin Wan’an had distributed when he first divided the family assets.

Under Lin Haoran’s guidance, Lin Haoning had not only successfully entered the North American fan market in recent years but had also invested the profits heavily in real estate, acquiring numerous plots of land, commercial buildings, and villas.

In just two short years, the value of these assets had grown substantially.

It could be said that Lin Haoning’s current total assets amounted to at least four hundred million Hong Kong dollars, far exceeding the scale of the family fortune Lin Wan’an had originally divided.

Lin Haoran’s performance, on the other hand, was even more astounding. Through his own efforts, he had stirred up monstrous waves in Hong Kong’s business world, successfully acquiring several corporate giants with leading market capitalizations and directly propelling the Chinese-funded conglomerates to a position of strength above the British-funded conglomerates.

Even more shockingly, he had brought Hongkong Land Group—the king of Hong Kong’s real estate sector—under his control and privatized it!

The sheer scale of these changes made even Lin Wan’an feel as if he were in a dream, finding it hard to believe it was all real.

However, the irrefutable facts were laid out right before him.

He himself had long since retired from the business world and no longer directly managed corporate affairs.

Yet, it was because of the brilliant achievements of his outstanding son, Lin Haoran, that he was now treated with respect wherever he went.

Even when encountering Hong Kong business tycoons like Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng, they would speak to him as an equal—something that would have been completely unimaginable in the past.

In the Hong Kong business world, many prominent and wealthy families who were once his peers, or even slightly superior in status, now showed him unprecedented deference.

As the vice-president of The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, he was in his element, and everyone had to show him some respect.

He was crystal clear in his heart that all these changes were thanks to his younger son, Lin Haoran.

In light of this, he felt nothing but gratification and pride.

After all, wasn’t it the hope of all elders like them that the next generation would far surpass their own and that their descendants would grow ever stronger?

A complex mix of emotions flickered in Lin Wan’an’s eyes—pride in his sons’ achievements, and a touch of melancholy for his own advancing age.

He coughed lightly, breaking the silence in the study, and said with a gentle smile, “Haoran, Haoning, as your father, I feel immensely proud and satisfied with what you two have achieved. It is our family’s blessing to have descendants like you.”

Lin Haoran and Lin Haoning sat on opposite ends of the sofa. Lin Haoning took the initiative to prepare tea, skillfully pouring a fragrant cup for each of the three of them.

Lin Haoran lightly tapped the table three times with his index and middle fingers—an elegant gesture of thanks to his older brother for pouring the tea.

The aroma of the tea rose with the steam, slowly filling every corner of the study.

“Dad, I couldn’t have achieved what I have today without you. One generation plants the trees so the next can enjoy the shade. You laid a solid foundation for my brother and me, giving us the opportunity to soar in this era of opportunities and challenges,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Indeed, Lin Haoran’s brilliant success today was inseparable from the deep foundation laid by his father, Lin Wan’an.

He recalled when he first arrived, holding only a cement factory, short on funds, and with an uncertain future.

If not for his status as the son of a wealthy family, Lin Haoran would certainly have struggled to obtain the loan of tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars from Bumiputra Finance, let alone gain an advantage in the takeover battle for Kowloon Wharf and accumulate his initial capital.

It was precisely the status and benefits that Lin Wan’an had provided that allowed Lin Haoran to achieve such astounding success in just over two years.

Otherwise, if he had arrived penniless, even with foresight spanning the next few decades, he would have been stuck struggling for his first pot of gold and might even have had to work in a factory, starting from the very bottom.

Without financial backing, even the broadest vision is difficult to realize.

Therefore, deep down, Lin Haoran was immensely grateful for his identity as the son of a wealthy family.

This status had not only given him a valuable starting point but also paved a shortcut to success.

Lin Haoning, sitting nearby, was also deeply moved. He raised his teacup to his father and brother, saying, “Dad, Haoran, I want to thank you both as well. Your support and encouragement have given me the motivation to keep moving forward. I’ll continue to work hard and not disappoint your expectations.”

The three of them chatted in the study, with Lin Wan’an mostly asking questions and Lin Haoran and Lin Haoning answering.

Lin Haoran naturally didn’t volunteer much information he wasn’t asked about.

Lin Haoning seized the rare opportunity and asked curiously, “Haoran, a while ago, rumors were circulating that you were heavily in debt from acquiring Hongkong Land Group. But seeing you acquire Hongkong Telephone Company so easily now, it doesn’t look like you’re short on funds at all. What’s really going on? Also, why did you choose to sell off your property investments on such a large scale at this time?”

Before he went to the United States, rumors of Lin Haoran’s financial crisis had been rampant in Hong Kong. Almost everyone believed them, the Lam family included.

At the time, Lin Haoning had specially called Lin Haoran, sincerely offering to help with one or two hundred million in cash if he was truly in financial trouble.

Given that Lin Haoning’s total assets were only three to four hundred million Hong Kong dollars, this gesture was particularly precious.

However, Lin Haoran was never actually in a real financial crisis, so he had politely declined Lin Haoning’s offer back then.

But that action had subtly changed his attitude toward Lin Haoning.

After all, in a business world where profit is paramount, it was rare to find someone so willing to offer generous financial help.

It seemed that since the competition over the inheritance had ended, Lin Haoning’s feelings toward him had changed a great deal.

“Older Brother, I did face some financial challenges a while ago,” Lin Haoran replied with a relaxed smile. “However, after a trip to the United States, the problem was solved with ease. The media here in Hong Kong has probably reported it too. I had previously invested in an American company, Apple Inc., and unexpectedly, it went public in less than a year. I took the opportunity to sell off some of my Apple Inc. shares, which brought in over a billion Hong Kong dollars. I also got good returns from some other investments. So, my financial situation is completely restored now.”

He deliberately omitted the detail that it had all just been a rumor. Even with his own brother, he chose to keep this secret.

Let them treat the rumor he had spread as the truth!

In any case, it was an indisputable fact that he had indeed reaped substantial rewards during his time in the United States.

“It’s good that the financial problem is solved,” Lin Haoning said, relieved. He then changed the subject and began to ask humbly for advice, “By the way, even Wanqing Group has started selling off its land and properties, obviously on your instruction. So, for the property investments I’ve made over the past two years, is it better to hold on to them or follow suit and sell?”

He asked this question directly, as it was Lin Haoran who had guided him into property investment in the first place, and it had indeed earned him a great deal of money.

Over the past two years, the property market had been on a continuous rise, and his investment returns were substantial.

But now, seeing the companies under Lin Haoran all selling off assets, Lin Haoning couldn’t help but feel uneasy, worried that the market trend was about to shift.

He now held a sincere admiration for his younger brother, especially for his investment acumen.

Lin Haoning had witnessed everything Lin Haoran had done over the past two years.

He had even carefully reviewed Lin Haoran’s various investments and was astounded to discover that his younger brother had never made a misstep. On the contrary, his assets were constantly expanding at every moment thanks to his various investments.

Now, the companies under Lin Haoran were all reducing their investment exposure in the real estate sector. Beyond a lack of funds, this clearly implied a deeper strategic consideration!

This was exactly what worried Lin Haoning.

He was well aware that in the business world, every major decision often concealed an underlying logic and foresight unknown to others.

Back then, if he hadn’t followed Lin Haoran’s advice to shift the focus of his fan export business from the Middle East to North America and invest the profits heavily in real estate, Lin Haoning’s net worth might still be just over a hundred million Hong Kong dollars, not the massive four hundred million it was today.

This decision undoubtedly proved his wisdom and foresight.

Therefore, facing the unpredictable current market situation, Lin Haoning was more convinced than ever that to determine his next investment direction—whether to continue deep in real estate or to adjust his strategy in time to mitigate risks—he had to get direct guidance and valuable advice from Lin Haoran.

He decided that whatever advice Lin Haoran gave would serve as the guide for his next move.

After all, in many past investments, Lin Haoran’s vision and judgment had been proven to be extremely accurate and forward-thinking.

Chapter 439: Taking Over the Hongkong Telephone Company

Lin Haoran was slightly surprised by Lin Haoning’s question.

He hadn’t expected his older brother to pay such close attention to the deeper meaning behind his company’s activities.

In fact, even if Lin Haoning hadn’t asked, Lin Haoran had already planned to find a suitable time to discuss the matter with him.

After all, Lin Haoning was his older brother in name and an indispensable part of the Lam family.

For the sake of their parents, this bond of blood made it impossible for him to ignore the affairs of his family members.

It was a sure thing that the Lam family, thanks to Lin Haoran’s remarkable achievements, was gradually rising to the ranks of the world’s top financial magnate families.

However, the family’s prosperity could not rely on his efforts alone.

If his older brother, Lin Haoning, could carve out his own domain in the business world, it would undoubtedly add more glory and potential to the Lam family’s future.

This would not only be a recognition of Lin Haoning’s personal abilities but also a strengthening of the entire Lam family’s influence.

Therefore, deep down, Lin Haoran held high hopes for Lin Haoning’s development and was willing to provide necessary support and help wherever he could.

Lin Wan’an also turned his gaze to Lin Haoran. He, too, wanted to know if there was truly some other deeper meaning behind his youngest son’s sudden large-scale sell-off of his companies’ assets.

“Older Brother, just as you guessed, there are deeper considerations behind my decision to have Wanqing Group, Hongkong Land Group, and other companies sell off plots of land and properties.

You’ve all experienced the property bubble of 1973 to 1974, so you should be well aware that just before a bubble bursts, the real estate industry often appears abnormally prosperous.

In recent years, Hong Kong’s real estate industry has also seen a period of frantic growth. Moreover, we are currently in the midst of a global oil crisis, and the global economy is generally showing a downward trend.

In this environment, although Hong Kong’s property and stock markets appear prosperous on the surface, I am filled with anxiety, worried that this is merely a false boom before a real estate crisis erupts.

Furthermore, the future political and economic situation in Hong Kong remains unclear. Even the British-funded conglomerates are eager to withdraw, all of which adds more uncertainty to Hong Kong’s future.

Therefore, to effectively mitigate the risks, I decided to have my companies start selling off some of their property assets. This way, even if we do encounter a property crisis, we’ll have enough capital and resources to cope and ensure a smooth transition.

My decision to sell off some assets is based entirely on my prediction of future economic trends and my personal capital allocation strategy. As for your investment decisions, I suggest you make your own judgment based on your financial situation and risk tolerance.

After all, everyone’s situation is different, and I can’t make decisions for you. These are just my thoughts for your reference,” Lin Haoran explained with a smile.

“Alright, I’ll think it over carefully when I get back. Haoran, thank you so much for the advice!” Lin Haoning said gratefully.

In reality, he had already made up his mind. Besides, what Lin Haoran said made perfect sense!

“Haoran, hearing you say that makes me want to sell off the few apartments and shops I own!” Lin Wan’an quipped from the side.

“Dad, the apartments and shops are in your hands. You can do whatever you want with them. In any case, we two brothers will definitely be good and filial to you!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

The three of them chatted until after eight o’clock in the evening before leaving the study one after another.

Lin Haoran watched some television with his mother in the living room and chatted about daily life for a while before bidding them goodnight and returning to his room on the top floor.

The moonlight tonight was exceptionally bright. Standing on the spacious terrace, he could clearly see the waves rising and falling, the tide ebbing and flowing.

However, it was December, and the Hong Kong nights still carried a chill, especially with the recent cold snap moving south, causing nighttime temperatures to plummet to just a few degrees Celsius.

Therefore, Lin Haoran only lingered on the terrace for a moment before returning to his warm bedroom, washing up early, and preparing for bed.

In the blink of an eye, the night passed.

The next morning, after having lunch with his family at his parents’ house, Lin Haoran hurriedly left the Deep Water Bay villa and headed for the Connaught Centre.

Last night, Ma Shimin had called him to report that he had spoken with Mr. David, the Chairman of the Board of the Hongkong Telephone Company.

The two had a very amicable discussion. In the end, Ma Shimin decided to retain Mr. David in his positions as Executive Director and general manager of the Hongkong Telephone Company.

Ma Shimin had even asked Lin Haoran if he wanted to serve as the Chairman of Hongkong Telephone Company.

However, Lin Haoran had no interest in it.

He was already the Boss of Hongkong Land Group now.

And the Hongkong Telephone Company was now merely a listed company under the Hongkong Land Group.

He couldn’t care less about the title.

So, Lin Haoran directly gave the Chairman position to Ma Shimin.

After all, Ma Shimin was the one actually managing things.

As for himself, he was more than happy to be a hands-off manager, a true boss behind the scenes.

At eight-thirty in the morning, Lin Haoran’s motorcade appeared in the underground parking garage of the Connaught Centre.

Taking the elevator, Lin Haoran, along with Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, arrived smoothly at Ma Shimin’s office.

At this moment, besides Ma Shimin, several other senior executives of Hongkong Land Group were present in the general manager’s office.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, Ma Shimin immediately came forward to greet him, a respectful smile on his face. “Boss, good morning. Everything with the Hongkong Telephone Company has been arranged according to your instructions. Mr. David has also expressed his full cooperation with our work. We’ll be heading over to Hongkong Telephone Company later to deploy the takeover, mainly focusing on the Finance Department and the various business departments. For the most part, we won’t interfere too much!”

The other senior executives all followed behind Ma Shimin, respectfully greeting Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran nodded to all of them and said with a smile, “Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Ma. What is Mr. David’s attitude? Did he make any special requests?”

Last night, because Lin Haoran hadn’t seen his father and the others for a long time, Ma Shimin’s call had been brief, only covering the general points without going into detail.

Now, he naturally needed to understand the specifics.

Ma Shimin smiled faintly and replied, “Mr. David is very pragmatic. He clearly stated his willingness to continue serving the Hongkong Telephone Company. When he learned that we want to develop into the mobile communications sector, he was even enthusiastic and expressed his full support for our strategic plan.

However, he did mention some suggestions for the company’s future development, mainly focusing on technology R&D and market expansion. He hopes we can provide support in terms of resources, but not interfere too much with management.”

Lin Haoran nodded and said with a smile, “Mm, it’s good that you’ve reached an agreement. I can understand Mr. David’s position. After all, everyone has their own specialty. Just as I’m not skilled in corporate management, I won’t interfere too much in your management. We have an old saying in China, ‘Trust in those you use, and do not use those you distrust.’”

Lin Haoran paused for a moment before adding, “Mr. David has rich experience and unique insights in the telecommunications industry. We should fully trust and respect his professional judgment.

In terms of technology R&D and market expansion, as long as his proposals are reasonable and beneficial to the company’s long-term development, we should give him our full support. As for the management level, just as you said, we should grant him a certain degree of autonomy and let the professionals do their job.”

Hearing this, a hint of admiration and emotion flashed in Ma Shimin’s eyes.

Although the Boss was young, he possessed wisdom and magnanimity in management that surpassed ordinary people.

This feeling of being trusted gave him more resources and confidence and motivation in his work.

He nodded and continued, “The Boss is absolutely right. I have already arranged a board meeting with Mr. David and the core team of the Hongkong Telephone Company. We will discuss and finalize the upcoming work plan in detail at the meeting when we take over their company today.”

Lin Haoran nodded. He appreciated Ma Shimin’s decisive and meticulous work attitude.

After chatting in the office for a few minutes, Ma Shimin glanced at the time and said, “It’s getting late. We’re scheduled for a board meeting at the Hongkong Telephone Company at nine in the morning. Let’s head over now. Boss, will you be joining us?”

“Of course. After all, I’ll be the boss of the Hongkong Telephone Company from now on. I can’t have never even set foot there!” Lin Haoran laughed.

The headquarters of Hongkong Telephone Company was actually not far from the Connaught Centre, also in Central. The drive would only take a few minutes, and even walking wouldn’t take too long.

The group left the Connaught Centre together.

Accompanying them were members from important departments such as finance and legal affairs.

Taking over a tycoon with a market capitalization of nearly three billion Hong Kong dollars was no simple matter.

Of course, Hongkong Land Group’s strength was many times that of Hongkong Telephone Company, so it wasn’t actually that difficult.

Five minutes later, Lin Haoran’s car arrived at a building of about twenty-some stories.

The building was inconspicuous in Central.

However, it was the headquarters of Hongkong Telephone Company.

As a 55-year-old enterprise, Hongkong Telephone Company’s strength in Hong Kong was naturally considerable. This building was also the exclusive property of Hongkong Telephone Company.

On the ground floor of the building, the senior executives of Hongkong Telephone Company had already come down to greet them.

Leading them was a Westerner who appeared to be nearly fifty years old.

Evidently, he was Mr. David, the current Chairman of the Board of Hongkong Telephone Company.

“Hello, Mr. Lin. I’m David. Welcome!” Sure enough, the man immediately walked over to Lin Haoran, extending his hand to greet him.

Lin Haoran smiled and shook hands with Mr. David, exchanging a few pleasantries.

It would be a lie to say David had no objections to Hongkong Land Group’s takeover.

Previously, he had been in charge of virtually the entire company, with no shareholder able to interfere much in its affairs.

It could be said that after becoming the Chairman of Hongkong Telephone Company, his final say in the company was absolute.

But now, Hongkong Telephone Company had suddenly and inexplicably gained a parent company, an immediate superior, which left him feeling quite helpless.

Chapter 440: Conqueror of Hong Kong’s Giant Corporations

As Lin Haoran and Mr. David finished their pleasantries, Ma Shimin stepped forward at just the right moment to introduce the accompanying senior executives from the Hongkong Land Group, as well as the heads of key departments like finance and legal.

At the same time, David introduced the key senior executives of the Hongkong Telephone Company one by one to Lin Haoran, Ma Shimin, and the Hongkong Land executives present, facilitating an initial understanding between the two sides.

In addition, several major shareholders of the Hongkong Telephone Company, or their representatives, were also in attendance.

They didn’t show much objection to Hongkong Land’s takeover. After all, they had rarely interfered in the company’s daily operations in the past, acting more as investors enjoying the dividend income from their shares.

The two teams quickly got down to business in a harmonious atmosphere, maintaining professional attitudes and courtesy toward one another.

It was clear that Ma Shimin and David, the Chairman of the Hongkong Telephone Company, had reached a consensus yesterday afternoon.

Although David was filled with a sense of helplessness and reluctance, reality was unchangeable.

He understood that if he wanted to retain his position as the head of the Hongkong Telephone Company, he had to accept the fact that the Hongkong Land Group was taking control.

Otherwise, the only path awaiting him was to be kicked out.

Everyone entered a large meeting room, simply yet solemnly decorated and furnished with a large oval table.

Lin Haoran was guided to the seat of honor. He didn’t decline; after all, starting today, this company was officially a part of his industrial empire, and there was no need for excessive modesty.

During the meeting, the discussion focused on the handover process and the adjustment of the company’s senior management following Hongkong Land’s takeover.

Effective immediately, Mr. David would no longer serve as the Chairman of the Board of the Hongkong Telephone Company, but would instead assume the role of Executive Director and general manager.

Meanwhile, Ma Shimin, Executive Director and general manager of the Hongkong Land Group, would become the new Chairman of the Board of the Hongkong Telephone Company.

At the same time, the Hongkong Land Group would become the controlling parent company of the Hongkong Telephone Company. Their relationship would be similar to the one between Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group a year ago.

The Hongkong Telephone Company would maintain its independent operations, and Hongkong Land, as the parent company, would not excessively intervene in its daily affairs.

However, when it came to major decisions, David could not act unilaterally. The Hongkong Telephone Company would have to consult with Chairman Ma Shimin and obtain his approval before proceeding.

Although Lin Haoran sat in the chairman’s seat, he spent most of his time listening to the discussions.

Occasionally, he would offer some of his own insights, but he remained mostly silent.

The meeting lasted for the better part of the morning.

The staff from the Hongkong Telephone Company’s secretarial department had already taken detailed minutes of the meeting’s main points.

Later, they would select certain contents from the minutes to be released to the public.

As a listed company, these public procedures were essential.

“Sirs, a large number of reporters have gathered downstairs, hoping to interview the company’s senior management. Our security guards have temporarily closed the glass doors of the first-floor lobby, but the reporters are still surrounding the building’s entrance. It looks like they won’t leave without an interview,” a staff member reported anxiously, just as the meeting room door opened.

David immediately looked toward Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin, clearly waiting for his two new immediate superiors to weigh in.

Times had changed. David was no longer the Chairman whose word was law at the Hongkong Telephone Company.

“Since the reporters are already here, and we were planning to release some information anyway, we might as well grant them an interview,” Ma Shimin replied after a moment’s thought.

Lin Haoran had no objection.

After all, the Hongkong Telephone Company was a well-known enterprise. It was perfectly normal for its activities to attract the attention of not only the media but also the citizens of Hong Kong.

“Alright, I’ll immediately arrange for the employee training room to be set up as a temporary venue for a press conference,” David said decisively.

As one of Hong Kong’s top companies, the Hongkong Telephone Company often held press conferences in the past. Dealing with media interviews was routine for them.

They handled such matters with ease due to their long familiarity.

A little over ten minutes later, in a spacious training room on the 15th floor of the Hongkong Telephone Company’s headquarters, seventy to eighty reporters had gathered. Despite the large number, the room of over three hundred square meters still felt quite spacious.

The reporters were dressed in various attires, holding microphones and shouldering cameras. The logos visible on their equipment and clothing clearly identified their respective media outlets, including the Hong Kong Commercial Daily, Sing Tao Daily, Ming Pao, Oriental Daily News, and TVB. It was evident that nearly all of Hong Kong’s mainstream media were present.

Hongkong Telephone Company, Hongkong Land Group, Lin Haoran… each name was enough to become a media sensation on its own.

Now, with these keywords brought together, it had undoubtedly sparked unprecedented curiosity and attention from both the media and the public.

On the dais, Lin Haoran, Ma Shimin, David, and a dozen other senior executives from Hongkong Land and the Hongkong Telephone Company were seated in their respective places.

Lin Haoran sat in the center, flanked by Ma Shimin and David on his left and right.

At that moment, all the reporters’ eyes were focused on Lin Haoran, their faces filled with pleasant surprise.

Before coming to this press conference, a great majority of them had gone to the Connaught Centre, attempting to interview the senior executives of the Hongkong Land Group to find out more.

However, they received an unexpected piece of news there: the senior executives of Hongkong Land had already gone to the Hongkong Telephone Company headquarters to begin the takeover.

Thus, these reporters with their keen instincts quickly changed course and descended upon the Hongkong Telephone Company headquarters.

Their original expectation was to interview the company’s senior management and obtain more official information about the acquisition of the Hongkong Telephone Company by the Hongkong Land Group, which would have been satisfying enough.

However, they never imagined that they would unexpectedly see Lin Haoran here—the man who hadn’t made a public appearance in a long time, now hailed as the richest super-rich in Hong Kong and even all of Asia.

Lin Haoran’s appearance was undoubtedly a delightful surprise for a reporters.

The reporters’ spirits were instantly ignited. Filled with excitement, they all aimed their cameras at Lin Haoran, preparing to capture every precious moment.

For nearly a month, the media had been reporting that Lin Haoran was not in Hong Kong.

Later, the news of Lin Haoran standing in the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, ringing the opening bell for Apple Inc.’s IPO alongside its key executives, and turning a ten-million-dollar investment into a two to three hundred-million-dollar return, caused a massive stir in Hong Kong.

Subsequently, the news that he had sold all his Apple Inc. shares also reached Hong Kong.

One could say that although Lin Haoran was not physically in Hong Kong, his legend was recounted almost daily.

Unexpectedly, shortly after his return to Hong Kong, he had once again created such huge waves.

The aftershocks of the Hongkong Land Group’s privatization had not yet completely subsided, and he had already quietly brought the Hongkong Telephone Company, which monopolized Hong Kong’s fixed-line telephone business, under his Hongkong Land’s banner!

By this point, including Green Island Cement, the Hongkong Electric Group, and the Hongkong Land Group, four major British-owned companies had been successfully acquired by Lin Haoran.

This didn’t even count Chinese-owned enterprises like Kowloon Motor Bus, Oriental Press Group, and Hong Kong and China Gas.

If it hadn’t been for the intervention of the Government House, it was likely that even Jardine Matheson & Co. would not have escaped his grasp.

This young Chinese tycoon was truly the conqueror of Hong Kong’s giant corporations!

His every acquisition was shocking, and his every move was so decisive and powerful.

In the eyes of many Hong Kong citizens, a figure like him had already surpassed Michael Sandberg of HSBC in influence, becoming the true representative of Hong Kong’s business world!

David cleared his throat, preparing to begin his statement.

Although the Hongkong Telephone Company had been acquired by the Hongkong Land Group and he had lost the position of Chairman, he was still the one in charge of the company’s practical affairs. This was also his first official appearance as the new Executive Director and general manager.

Only then did the reporters shift their gazes from Lin Haoran to David.

“Friends from the media, good afternoon. First of all, I would like to sincerely thank you all for being here today to witness this momentous collaboration between the Hongkong Telephone Company and the Hongkong Land Group.

As you all know, the Hongkong Land Group will become our controlling parent company, and I myself will serve as the general manager and Executive Director of the Hongkong Telephone Company. In this new position, I will continue to give my all to contribute to the future development of the Hongkong Telephone Company.

This acquisition of the Hongkong Telephone Company by the Hongkong Land Group has already received formal approval from the Securities and Futures Commission, which has undoubtedly laid a solid foundation for our cooperation.

I believe that with the Hongkong Telephone Company officially becoming a member of the Hongkong Land Group, we will have stronger backing and more resources, which will bring more opportunities for the company and propel us to develop faster and better on our future path!

Here, I would also like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all the friends who care for and support the Hongkong Telephone Company. We will live up to your expectations, continue to uphold a spirit of innovation, provide better services to our consumers, and create greater value for our shareholders. Thank you all!”

Following him, Ma Shimin and several other senior executives went on to detail some specific aspects of the acquisition, as well as important matters that could be made public, which had been discussed and decided upon during the board meeting.

Their clear and informative statements gave the reporters present a deeper understanding of the collaboration.

Everything they said was information intended for public release.

As for certain inside information and important decisions that could not be disclosed, they were naturally left unsaid.

And Lin Haoran, though seated at the dais, remained silent throughout.

It was not his place to speak on these matters.

As expected, when the time came for reporters’ questions, many would surely want to interview him.

And he, too, planned to use this opportunity to announce some important matters to the public.

Chapter 441: A Huge Sensation

“Next, we’ll move on to the Q&A session. Please raise your hands. As long as the questions are relevant, we will do our best to answer them,” David announced at the opportune moment.

Before his voice had even faded, the reporters eagerly raised their hands one after another, creating a fervent atmosphere.

Although many reporters were present, the opportunities to ask questions were limited, meaning only a select few would be granted the honor.

“First, a question from the reporter from the Oriental Daily News,” David shrewdly chose the reporter from the Oriental Daily News to start, as it was, after all, a media outlet under his boss’s umbrella.

The reporter from the Oriental Daily News stood up, accustomed to getting the first question. After all, the man before them, Lin Haoran, was also their boss.

“Mr. Lin, hello! I’m a reporter from the Oriental Daily News. First of all, congratulations to the Hongkong Land Group on its successful acquisition of the Hongkong Telephone Company. This is undoubtedly a major event in Hong Kong’s business world recently. As the ultimate owner of the Hongkong Land Group, may I ask for your personal views on this acquisition, Mr. Lin? And what are Hongkong Land’s specific development plans for Hongkong Telephone Company in the future?” the reporter asked Lin Haoran directly.

After all, among the people present, both David and Ma Shimin were merely professional managers—wage earners—while Lin Haoran was the real boss.

It was better to question the boss directly than to interview the professional managers.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly. He certainly wouldn’t refuse a question from his own media company, and besides, the question wasn’t difficult—it was just a very ordinary and normal inquiry.

“Thank you for your question, and thank you to the Oriental Daily News for its long-standing attention to and reporting on our society. This acquisition is a significant step in our strategic blueprint for Hongkong Land Group.

“As a leader in Hong Kong’s communications sector, Hongkong Telephone Company’s fixed-line network coverage, technical strength, and service quality are all recognized industry-wide. We are interested not only in its current value but also in its future growth potential.

“As for our development plans, we will adhere to the principles of openness and innovation, continue to strengthen Hongkong Telephone Company’s network infrastructure, enhance service quality, and at the same time, explore new technologies, such as mobile phone technology, to provide users with more diverse and convenient communication services.

“And on that note, I would like to share a piece of exciting news with everyone. During my recent visit to the United States, I had the honor of reaching a landmark agreement with the global communications magnate, Motorola Company.

“We plan to join hands with Motorola to jointly explore and commit to shaping Hong Kong into the world’s first city to achieve the commercialization of mobile communications.

“Imagine, in the near future, fixed-line telephones will no longer be the only means of communication. People will be able to easily answer and make calls from anywhere, which will undoubtedly bring unprecedented convenience and efficiency to our lives and work.

“The realization of this vision will mark a major leap for Hong Kong in the field of communication technology and will also set a new benchmark for the development of global mobile communications.

“This is one of the biggest reasons why I wanted to acquire Hongkong Telephone Company. In the future, I will have Hongkong Telephone represent me in our collaboration with the communications tycoon, Motorola.

“At the same time, we are also actively considering how to deepen the synergistic cooperation between Hongkong Telephone Company and other business sectors of the Hongkong Land Group through resource integration.

“We believe that through cross-sector strategic synergy, we can not only promote the rapid development of Hongkong Telephone Company in the mobile communications sector but also inject new vitality and momentum into the sustained growth of Hongkong Land Group’s overall business.”

Lin Haoran directly disclosed the details of the partnership with Motorola in his response, which was undoubtedly welcome news for Hong Kong.

The collaboration with Motorola was something that couldn’t be kept secret anyway; after all, a partnership of this scale was a major event.

Since it couldn’t be hidden, it was better to announce it openly.

Although mobile phones might initially serve mainly the more affluent population, the tide of this change was ultimately a positive thing for Hong Kong.

Even people with limited financial means could see hope and future possibilities in it.

Lin Haoran’s answer not only revealed his purpose for acquiring Hongkong Telephone Company but also announced a piece of blockbuster news, instantly earning him a round of applause from the reporters present.

Mobile phones, though not yet commercially widespread globally, were a concept most people were already familiar with.

From Motorola’s release of the world’s first mobile phone in 1973 to the subsequent successful development of the cellular mobile communications network, these milestone events had created huge waves around the world.

Hong Kong, as an international metropolis and one of the world’s top three financial centers, naturally stood at the forefront of the information wave.

No matter how significant a piece of tech news was, it would land on Hong Kong’s major media platforms at the earliest opportunity, bringing the city’s residents the latest technological developments.

What’s more, the people present were all from the media industry, so they were even more well-informed.

Therefore, when Lin Haoran announced the cooperation plan with Motorola, it immediately caused a huge sensation on the scene.

Hong Kong was about to become the world’s first city to commercialize mobile phones?

This news was like a bombshell, leaving the reporters present giddy with excitement.

They began to imagine the scenes this technological revolution would bring: in the streets and alleys of Hong Kong, people would be holding brick-sized mobile phones, effortlessly making long-distance calls, and the traditional status of the landline would be completely overturned.

Instantly, everyone’s focus shifted from the Hongkong Land-Hongkong Telephone acquisition itself to the more forward-looking and captivating topic of Hong Kong becoming the world’s first city to commercialize mobile communications.

“Mr. Lin, does the collaboration between Hongkong Telephone Company and Motorola mean that Hongkong Telephone will launch mobile phone services in the short term?” a reporter from the South China Morning Post eagerly raised his hand to ask, his voice trembling slightly with excitement.

Lin Haoran smiled and nodded. “Yes, our goal is to allow the citizens of Hong Kong to experience the convenience of mobile phones in the shortest possible time.

“Of course, this will require time for communication network construction and equipment testing, but please rest assured that Hongkong Land Group and Motorola will go all out to ensure this vision is realized as soon as possible.”

“So, what specific benefits will the popularization of mobile phones bring to ordinary citizens?” another reporter followed up.

“The benefits are multifaceted,” Lin Haoran explained patiently. “First, mobile phones will break the geographical limitations of fixed-line phones, allowing people to stay in touch no matter where they are. This is undoubtedly a huge blessing for business professionals and people who need to frequently handle business on the go.

“Of course, due to technical barriers and cost issues in the early stages, the price of mobile phones may be relatively high, and not many people may be able to afford them. But please believe that as the technology continues to mature and costs gradually decrease, mobile phones will become more affordable and eventually reach every ordinary household.

“I look forward to the day when even the average person can easily enjoy the convenience brought by mobile communications.”

Lin Haoran’s answer made the reporters even more convinced that Hong Kong was on the cusp of a brand-new era of communication.

Seeing that the atmosphere seemed to be straying from the original purpose of the press conference, Ma Shimin could only smile wryly. He stood up and skillfully guided the topic back on track: “Friends from the press, thank you all very much for your interest in the collaboration between Hongkong Land Group and Motorola.

“However, as our Boss just mentioned, our cooperation is still in its initial stages, and many details are still being planned and refined. To ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information, we plan to announce the latest progress in more detail after the collaboration has matured further.

“Now, let’s return to today’s main topic. If you have any other questions regarding Hongkong Land’s acquisition of Hongkong Telephone, or any inquiries about Hongkong Land’s future development, myself and the other senior executives here would be very happy to answer them for you. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding!”

The reporters had wanted to continue asking questions about mobile communications, as it was explosive news.

However, since Ma Shimin had put it that way, they could only drop the subject and return to the main topic.

Under Ma Shimin’s guidance, the reporters, though still wanting more, refocused their attention on the core issue of Hongkong Land’s acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company.

In the subsequent questioning, a financial reporter from the Hong Kong Economic Journal raised his hand. His question was more professional and in-depth: “Mr. Lin, Hongkong Land’s acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company is undoubtedly a major strategic investment.

“May I ask, what kind of impact will this acquisition have on Hongkong Land Group’s financial situation? Does the group have sufficient funds to support this acquisition and the subsequent integration and operation?”

Lin Haoran smiled slightly; this question was not difficult to answer. “First, I want to emphasize that Hongkong Land Group has always maintained a stable financial position. As you all probably know, Hongkong Land sold quite a few property projects some time ago, which freed up a lot of capital.

“Although this acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company is a sizable investment, after our detailed financial assessment, we are confident that it will not put excessive pressure on the group’s cash flow. In fact, we have already set aside sufficient funds for this acquisition and have formulated a detailed financial plan.”

“Mr. Lin, some time ago, there were rumors that you were facing a financial crisis. You did not step forward to clarify at the time and even chose to leave Hong Kong for the United States. I’d like to ask, were these rumors true?

“If you were not facing a financial crisis, then why did you have your companies sell off some of their real estate properties in Hong Kong? Does this imply a lack of confidence in the future development of Hong Kong’s real estate industry?” another reporter stood up and asked.

Chapter 442: This Is a True Hong Kong Tycoon

Faced with the reporter’s sharp question, Lin Haoran’s expression darkened slightly. His sharp gaze fixed on the reporter, clearly sensing the man’s ulterior motives and ill intent.

Under normal circumstances, public figures tend to act cautiously when facing the media to avoid offending these reporters who wield the power of public discourse.

However, Lin Haoran had no such concerns in Hong Kong.

The number one newspaper in Hong Kong, the Oriental Daily News, was owned solely by Lin Haoran, and he was also a key shareholder with a significant stake in TVB, Hong Kong’s leading television station by viewership ratings.

Coupled with his power in the business world, he truly didn’t care about offending a single media company.

His tone was calm, yet it carried an undeniable authority. “My friend from the press, your question is interesting, but I suggest you get your facts straight before asking, rather than relying on hearsay and random speculation.”

He paused, his gaze sweeping across the room, and continued, “First, regarding the so-called ‘financial crisis,’ I can tell you unequivocally that this is a completely unfounded rumor. As a renowned corporation in Hong Kong and even globally, Hongkong Land Group’s financial situation has always been very healthy.

As for the sell-off of some properties, this is a normal part of the group’s asset optimization and strategic adjustment, aimed at better focusing on our core business and enhancing our overall competitiveness. If you are interested in Hongkong Land Group’s financial data, you can consult our publicly available financial reports, where everything is documented.”

At this point, Lin Haoran’s voice suddenly grew louder, and his tone became harsher. “As for your mention of a ‘lack of confidence in Hong Kong’s real estate industry,’ I want to remind you that Hongkong Land Group has been deeply rooted in Hong Kong for many years. We are full of confidence in Hong Kong’s future. Anyone who questions our confidence is either completely ignorant of our strategy or has ulterior motives.”

He looked directly at the reporter and asked coldly, “I’d like to know, which media outlet are you from? Your manner of questioning interests me.” The reporter clearly hadn’t expected such a forceful response from Lin Haoran. His face flushed with embarrassment as he stammered, “I… I’m a reporter from the Hong Kong Financial Weekly.”

Lin Haoran nodded, a hint of sarcasm in his tone. “Hong Kong Financial Weekly? I remember you were always known for your professionalism and objectivity, but your question today has left me rather disappointed. I hope you will uphold the professional ethics of the media, instead of asking baseless questions just to grab headlines.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the room fell into a dead silence.

The other reporters were also stunned by Lin Haoran’s forceful response, and they all lowered their heads to take notes, not daring to ask similar questions again.

Lin Haoran’s assertive reply undoubtedly left a deep impression on every reporter present.

They realized that this young business tycoon not only possessed a sharp business mind but also an unchallengeable air of authority.

If they offended Lin Haoran, whether they could continue to make a living in Hong Kong would be another matter.

With Lin Haoran’s current financial power, taking down a media company was truly not a difficult task.

After all, even the British-funded conglomerates didn’t dare to offend Lin Haoran easily these days; Jardine Matheson & Co. was a prime example.

Seeing the venue quiet down, Lin Haoran continued, “As for me personally, I did face some financial pressure a while ago, but it was far from a financial crisis. Selling some plots of land and real estate projects was primarily to reduce my liabilities. I personally don’t like to carry too much debt.

You have probably all heard that I recently went to the United States and made a considerable amount of money there. Therefore, my financial situation has greatly improved and is no longer tight. Based on this, my companies have already stopped any further sell-offs of real estate projects.

Regarding the future direction of Hong Kong’s real estate market, frankly, I cannot predict it. I am not an omniscient god who can see the future. But what I want to tell you all is that I spent a huge sum to acquire Hongkong Land Group—the largest and oldest real estate company in Hong Kong’s history. This action alone is enough to demonstrate my positive attitude towards the future prospects of Hong Kong’s real estate market!”

Seeing the situation, Ma Shimin stepped in at the right moment to smooth things over. “Thank you for your answer, Mr. Lin. My friends from the press, if you have any other questions about Hongkong Land Group’s acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company, please feel free to continue. However, please focus on today’s main topic and avoid straying from the core issue.”

Ma Shimin’s words acted as a soothing balm, gradually easing the tense atmosphere that had resulted from Lin Haoran’s harsh response.

He smiled and looked around, his eyes showing a professional composure and experience, clearly well-versed in handling such scenes.

“Mr. Lin has already given a detailed and clear explanation regarding the financial issues you are concerned about as well as Hongkong Land Group’s strategic direction,” Ma Shimin continued. “As a leader in the real estate industry, Hongkong Land Group has always been known for its stable operations and forward-thinking strategies.

This acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company marks another important milestone in the group’s diversified development strategy. Through resource integration and business innovation, we hope to not only promote our own growth but also provide the citizens of Hong Kong with higher quality and more convenient communication services, benefiting the community. This is the original intention and vision behind our acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company.”

However, just as some reporters were eager to ask more questions, Lin Haoran cut them off. “Today’s press conference ends here. All the relevant information concerning Hongkong Land Group’s acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company has been shared in detail by our senior executives present. There is no need for repetition or further discussion of other details.”

With that, Lin Haoran stood up from his chair and walked straight out of the makeshift press conference hall.

His actions were decisive and without a shred of hesitation, as if to silently declare: the doors here are always open to reasonable and well-founded questions, but baseless speculation and attacks will stop here.

Seeing this, the reporters, though still full of questions, could only suppress them. They began packing up their microphones, cameras, and notepads, preparing to leave.

Some reporters exchanged glances, clearly surprised by Lin Haoran’s domineering display. After all, Lin Haoran had always appeared relatively humble and low-key in the past.

Despite their surprise, they still admired his charisma and control.

This was a true Hong Kong tycoon.

Although today’s press conference was not very long, they, the reporters, had gained a great deal.

Therefore, after Lin Haoran announced the end of the press conference, many reporters quickly left the Hongkong Telephone Company headquarters, eager to return and hand over the information they had gathered to their company’s staff writers.

As the reporters left one after another, the lights in the conference hall gradually dimmed.

In the former Chairman’s office of Hongkong Telephone Company, Lin Haoran, Ma Shimin, and David were now seated.

The senior executives and key department employees Ma Shimin had brought from Hongkong Land Group were already liaising with their counterparts at Hongkong Telephone Company.

Although Hongkong Land Group would not interfere too much with Hongkong Telephone Company after the acquisition, and there would be no major personnel changes, it had, after all, become Hongkong Telephone’s parent company, so it certainly needed to have a thorough understanding of the company.

For example, its financial status, operating model, market positioning, and future strategic plans—all of these were key pieces of information that Hongkong Land Group needed to deeply understand and grasp.

Only then could Hongkong Land Group better integrate resources, create synergistic effects, and promote the continued development of Hongkong Telephone Company.

David, as the former Chairman and current Executive Director and general manager of Hongkong Telephone Company, was now giving a detailed presentation of the company’s situation to Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin.

Holding a detailed financial report, he analyzed each figure, from revenue growth and cost control to profit margin changes, explaining every detail with great clarity.

“Boss, Mr. Ma, this is our company’s financial report for the last five years. As you can see, despite market fluctuations, we have consistently maintained a stable financial performance. Our monthly revenue and profits have shown steady growth.”

David pointed to the data on the report and said, “Especially in terms of cost control, we have implemented a series of effective measures that have significantly improved our operational efficiency.”

Lin Haoran glanced at the loyalty level of this former chairman of Hongkong Telephone Company: 82, which was quite good.

He knew that the object of this loyalty was Hongkong Telephone Company, not him personally.

But what did that matter?

For a professional manager, being loyal to the company and managing it well was no different from being loyal to him.

What he feared most were those who, in high positions, were always thinking of using their posts for personal gain.

David was clearly not one of them. Judging by his loyalty level, he was undoubtedly loyal and dedicated to Hongkong Telephone Company.

This was perhaps why he, as a professional manager, was able to quickly climb to the highest position at Hongkong Telephone Company and have the final say within the company!

In that case, there was no problem at all in letting him continue to be in charge of Hongkong Telephone Company.

“Mr. David, regarding the specifics of the company’s operations, you can just liaise with Mr. Ma. I trust that you two can handle everything properly.

Also, you should already have some understanding of the cooperation agreement I reached with Motorola Company. Next, I need you to assemble a team to liaise with Motorola as soon as possible.

They will arrive in Hong Kong in about ten days, and I hope our cooperation can proceed smoothly without any hitches.

Once Hong Kong becomes the first city in the world to implement mobile communications, it will give a huge boost to Hong Kong’s global influence. This is something for all of us to be proud of and look forward to.”

Chapter 443: The Expansion of Green Island Cement

“Boss, please rest assured. Mr. Ma has already spoken with me in detail about the cooperation with Motorola Company. I’m clear on my responsibilities for this partnership.

Once the handover with Hongkong Land Group is complete, I will call Motorola Company to engage in in-depth discussions and make proper arrangements for their visit.

As a member of the communications industry, I am also eagerly looking forward to Hong Kong becoming the world’s first city to commercialize mobile communications. This will be an immense honor for our city,” David expressed respectfully.

Although David was a top expert in the communications industry with great authority in the fixed-line telephone sector, he had relatively less experience in mobile communications.

However, he was very aware that mobile communications represented the future trend. Once this cooperation succeeded, it would bring enormous changes to Hong Kong.

“And as a direct participant in this cooperation, Hongkong Telephone Company will undoubtedly be one of the first to benefit,” David added.

“Boss, I will also pay close attention to this matter. I’m personally very excited for Hong Kong to achieve mobile-to-mobile calling soon. If nothing else, it will be incredibly convenient for someone like me who is often out and about on business,” Ma Shimin chimed in with a smile.

“By the way, Mr. David, you should be quite familiar with the other major shareholders of Hongkong Telephone Company. Could you please help Hongkong Land Group sound them out? For anyone willing to sell their shares, Hongkong Land Group can acquire them at a high price of 30 Hong Kong dollars per share!” Lin Haoran changed the subject.

Relying on Universal Investment Company to continue accumulating shares was possible, but it was also a bit troublesome and could easily drive up the stock price.

Therefore, acquiring shares from the major shareholders of Hongkong Telephone Company was a much simpler and faster method.

Ma Shimin also nodded and said, “That’s right, Mr. David. What the Boss mentioned is what we at Hongkong Land Group are currently considering. As you know, the Securities Commission has already approved us to hold a maximum of 75% of the shares, so we will continue to increase our shareholding if we can. We’ll have to trouble you with this!”

“Understood, Boss, Mr. Ma. I will do my best on this matter, but I’m not confident if I can ultimately persuade them. I can’t guarantee that a deal can be reached,” David replied.

“Mm, I have faith in you both. I trust you won’t disappoint me. Let’s leave it at that for today. I won’t disturb your handover work any longer,” Lin Haoran said to the two men after glancing at the time, which was approaching eleven in the morning.

“Take care, Boss!” Ma Shimin and David stood up and respectfully saw Lin Haoran off.

Lin Haoran waved to them, then walked out of the office and left the Hongkong Telephone Company headquarters with his bodyguard.

Speaking of which, since returning to Hong Kong, he had only been to Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Telephone Company, and nowhere else.

So, after leaving Hongkong Telephone Company, Lin Haoran first made a trip to Wanqing Building.

At Wanqing Building, he chatted with Burton about the situation at Wanqing Group.

In practice, this was Burton reporting to Lin Haoran on the group’s recent developments.

After all, it had been nearly a month since his last visit.

Through Burton’s report, Lin Haoran gradually caught up on Wanqing Group’s latest progress.

For instance, Green Island Cement Company had already met its December production target on the 20th, a full ten days ahead of schedule.

This meant that Green Island Cement Company’s revenue and profits for the month had also risen significantly.

Furthermore, Green Island Cement Company had successfully broken out of Asia and entered the Australian market for the first time, acquiring Australia’s second-largest cement brand, South Pacific Cement Company, at a reasonable price.

This company had a certain market share in both Australia and New Zealand and was performing well. The reason for the sell-off wasn’t due to operational losses, but because the owner behind it wanted to immigrate from Australia to the United States.

Green Island Cement Company seized this opportunity to merge with the cement company and finally enter the Australian market.

Although the entire Australian market was destined to be limited due to its population, this was still a step forward.

This showed that Burton had put considerable effort into the group’s internationalization. He not only successfully pushed Green Island Cement Company into the international market but also made a beneficial acquisition at the right time, further expanding the company’s market share and influence.

Lin Haoran wouldn’t interfere too much with this.

As long as it wasn’t blind expansion, it was fine.

It was now clear that Green Island Cement Company was not expanding blindly, which could be seen from its constantly rising monthly profits and revenue.

In just two short years, Green Island Cement Company had transformed from a cement company whose market only covered Hong Kong and Macau to one that now covered almost all of Southeast Asia and even extended to Australia. All the credit for this belonged to the professional manager, Burton.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was very satisfied with him.

After successfully entering the markets in Penang, Malaysia, and Singapore, Kowloon Motor Bus had not shown any significant performance yet. After all, it had just entered the Southeast Asia market, so it was somewhat unrealistic to expect it to start turning a profit immediately.

As for its market in Hong Kong, it had been growing steadily due to its monopoly, so there was no need for much intervention.

Wan’an Real Estate Company’s main business had now shifted to cooperative land development with the public utility listed companies under Lin Haoran’s control, such as Hongkong Electric Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, and Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

After successfully selling off most of its original plots of land and properties, the company had strategically adjusted its direction to focus on these cooperative projects.

Additionally, there were several projects in Singapore, mostly in collaboration with the Guo family.

Although the Hong Kong real estate market was about to face a crisis in the coming year or so, Wan’an Real Estate Company’s current operations were unaffected.

A single project could take several years, and by the time it was completed, the real estate crisis would have already passed.

Although integrating Wan’an Real Estate Company into Hongkong Land Group might have been a more efficient decision from a business perspective, Lin Haoran chose to maintain Wan’an Real Estate’s independent operation out of respect for family tradition and appreciation for his father’s hard work.

After chatting with Burton for a while, they had a few simple stir-fried dishes for lunch in the company canteen.

After lunch, Lin Haoran bid farewell to Burton and went to the Universal Investment Company office on the 31st floor.

The office was very quiet.

Since Su Zhixue had left Hong Kong with his team, the place naturally felt much less lively.

Seeing Lin Haoran arrive, the employees present were pleasantly surprised and greeted him one after another.

After nodding in response to each of them, Lin Haoran and Dai Shi entered the general manager’s office.

This office had originally been Su Zhixue’s.

But now that Su Zhixue was no longer working in Hong Kong, it was naturally left to Dai Shi, who was in charge of operations here.

“How did Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock perform today?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Today was December 29th, and the stock market was in full swing.

It was now the noon recess, and the morning trading session had just concluded.

“Boss, the news of Hongkong Land Group’s successful acquisition of Hongkong Telephone Company has been announced, and the market reaction has been calm. Everyone knows that Hongkong Land Group is the one in charge behind the scenes, so Hongkong Telephone Company has virtually no other competitors trying to influence the stock price through speculation.

Those well-funded market makers also realize that even if they enter the market, it would be difficult to shake Hongkong Land Group’s controlling stake, so there’s no profit to be made.

Therefore, Hongkong Telephone Company’s stock price was very stable this morning, holding at around 30 Hong Kong dollars per share. Our team has been actively accumulating shares; we buy whenever the price drops below 30 Hong Kong dollars.

In one morning, we’ve successfully acquired over one million shares. While not a huge amount, it’s still a decent gain,” Dai Shi reported the market situation and the team’s progress to Lin Haoran in detail.

Everyone knew that Hongkong Land Group had already secured a controlling stake in Hongkong Telephone Company, and there were no competitors.

Under these circumstances, it was indeed pointless for market makers to enter the fray.

Now, on the stock market, perhaps only the retail shareholders were left amusing themselves.

However, since Universal Investment Company wasn’t buying at high prices, the stock price couldn’t rise much.

“Good, well done. No need to rush, just continue to accumulate shares steadily!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Over one million shares already represented more than a one percent stake.

To be honest, the accumulation speed was not slow at all.

What’s more, since Hongkong Telephone Company had no competitors now, there was even less need to rush.

The only concern was whether the cooperation with Motorola Company, once finalized, would drive up the stock price. This was a potential issue.

This was also the reason why he wanted David to negotiate with the other major shareholders about acquiring their shares in Hongkong Telephone Company.

If they could acquire them at 30 Hong Kong dollars per share, that would be for the best.

“Also, we took on a major project last month. Great Eagle Holdings wants us to assist in the acquisition of China Motor Bus.”

Dai Shi continued, “This project is very interesting. Great Eagle Holdings is interested in China Motor Bus’s stable returns and potential for growth in the public transport sector. They plan to acquire China Motor Bus to further expand their presence in the infrastructure and public utility sectors. However, we may not be able to successfully assist them with the acquisition, because Great Eagle Holdings has an even bigger competitor: Sun Hung Kai Properties.”

Lin Haoran nodded and smiled, “We just need to accomplish our task. As for whether the acquisition is ultimately successful, we just have to do our best. As long as they pay a sufficient commission, that’s enough!”

These were just external projects that Universal Investment Company had taken on, so Lin Haoran wasn’t overly concerned.

For Universal Investment, this was also a sign of progress.

At the very least, it could survive independently without relying on the business he provided and then gradually grow from there.

Chapter 444: Can I Come Here Often in the Future?

That day, Lin Haoran visited Hongkong Electric Group, Oriental Press Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, and Kowloon Motor Bus in succession.

It wasn’t until six in the evening that he finally left the Kowloon Motor Bus headquarters in Lai Chi Kok.

Afterward, his car drove through the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, but instead of heading toward the Deep Water Bay villa area, it turned back toward his long-unvisited villa on Severn Road.

In the afternoon, Lin Haoran had already called the villa’s butler to inform him that he would be having dinner at home tonight, asking them to prepare in advance.

When he returned to the villa, the kitchen had already made full preparations for dinner.

Just as Lin Haoran was about to enjoy his meal, the roar of a car engine suddenly sounded from outside.

A moment later, a servant hurried in and reported to him, “Young Master, Miss Guo is here.”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a trace of surprise.

How did Guo Xiaohan know he had come back here?

Though his heart was full of doubt, he quickly straightened his clothes and went out to greet her personally.

Stepping out of the villa’s main door, he saw Guo Xiaohan standing not far away in the night. She had just closed the trunk of her car and was holding an exquisite gift box.

Under the moonlight, her figure appeared exceptionally gentle and charming.

Seeing Lin Haoran, Guo Xiaohan’s face bloomed with a smile that was both happy and slightly shy. She called out softly, “Brother Haoran, I came without calling first. I hope I’m not disturbing you?”

“Not at all. You’ve come at the perfect time. Dinner has just been prepared,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, taking the gift box she offered.

“What’s this?” he asked curiously.

“Brother Haoran, you went to the United States a while ago, and I happened to go to Italy on a business trip. Before coming back, I specially picked out a pair of Gucci shoes and two belts for you. I hope you’ll like them,” Guo Xiaohan said, her smile as radiant as a flower, her eyes filled with sincerity and anticipation.

“Perfect timing. I also prepared a gift for you from the United States. I’ll give it to you before you leave,” Lin Haoran said with a gentle smile.

Regarding his relationship with Guo Xiaohan, Lin Haoran had always maintained an attitude of letting nature take its course.

Now, seeing Guo Xiaohan being so proactive, he couldn’t help but think that perhaps in two years, this young lady of the Guo family would truly become his official wife.

However, he wasn’t against the idea.

After all, in terms of family background, beauty, and talent, Guo Xiaohan was indeed a perfect match for him.

The only reason he was unwilling to accept Guo Xiaohan immediately was that he wanted to enjoy two more years of unrestrained freedom.

Once he established a relationship with Guo Xiaohan, she would likely move in with him and follow him wherever he went, which meant he would lose a certain degree of his personal freedom.

Furthermore, news of his romance with Guo Xiaohan would surely be sensationalized by the media, which wasn’t something he considered a good thing.

“Really?” Guo Xiaohan confirmed again, the joy on her face blooming like a spring flower, bright and impossible to hide.

“Let’s not just stand here talking. Let’s eat first!” Lin Haoran gestured toward the house with a light flick of his finger.

“Okay!” Guo Xiaohan nodded happily and followed Lin Haoran into the villa, arriving at the dining room, which was decorated in a style that was both elegant and warm.

At that moment, the servants were busy arranging exquisite dishes, and the air was filled with an enticing aroma.

Although dinner was originally prepared for him alone, the table was already laden with five dishes, all perfect in color, aroma, and taste, and in generous portions.

As a super-rich individual, he naturally didn’t worry about being wasteful.

However, Guo Xiaohan’s arrival could help him with some of the food; otherwise, whatever wasn’t eaten would be thrown away anyway.

“Wash your hands first, and then we can eat!” Lin Haoran said with a smile after setting the gift box down properly.

“Alright, I’ll go right now.” Guo Xiaohan felt a thrill of excitement. The thought of having dinner with Lin Haoran made her heart pound like a frightened deer.

After washing her hands, Guo Xiaohan returned to the dining room to see that Lin Haoran was already seated at the table, pulling out a chair for her.

A warmth spread through her heart. She walked over quickly and said softly, “Thank you, Brother Haoran.”

Lin Haoran smiled slightly and motioned for her to sit.

“Don’t be so polite. Go on, try the food and see if it’s to your liking.”

Guo Xiaohan picked up her chopsticks, took a piece of steamed tiger grouper, and savored it.

The fish was tender and melted in her mouth. She couldn’t help but praise, “This is delicious! I didn’t expect your chef to be so skilled.”

Lin Haoran smiled and said, “I’m glad you like it. If you do, you can come more often. I’m usually the only one eating here anyway.”

Guo Xiaohan blinked and said playfully, “Then it’s a deal.”

The two of them chatted about their recent lives as they ate.

Lin Haoran learned from Guo Xiaohan that she knew he had just returned because his motorcade happened to pass by the Guo family villa, and the observant Guo Xiaohan had spotted it.

After all, the license plate on Lin Haoran’s Rolls-Royce was too easy to recognize.

Upon learning this, Guo Xiaohan, who hadn’t seen him in a long time, felt an uncontrollable excitement and couldn’t help but come to visit.

Guo Xiaohan enthusiastically recounted her experiences in Italy, from the ancient architecture and delicious pasta to the local customs. Her descriptions were so vivid and interesting that Lin Haoran nodded frequently.

“It sounds like you gained a lot from this business trip,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Guo Xiaohan nodded, her eyes shining with excitement.

“Yes, Italy is really beautiful. Unfortunately, I was there to handle some family business, so my schedule was a bit tight. I was only there for a week, so I didn’t get to do much sightseeing. Maybe we can go together next time we have a chance.”

Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback, then smiled. “Sure. I haven’t been to Europe in a long time either. It would be a good chance to relax.”

Hearing his response, Guo Xiaohan’s heart filled with joy, and a blush unconsciously crept onto her cheeks.

She lowered her head and said softly, “Then it’s a promise. You can’t go back on your word.”

Looking at her shy expression, Lin Haoran’s heart stirred, but he didn’t continue the conversation on this topic.

This little lass, she was always trying to steer the conversation toward topics meant for couples.

After dinner, Lin Haoran suggested a walk in the garden to aid digestion.

Guo Xiaohan happily agreed. The two of them walked out of the villa side by side, strolling along the garden path under the moonlight.

The night breeze blew gently, carrying the fragrance of flowers.

Guo Xiaohan took a deep breath and remarked, “The air here is so fresh, so much better than the hustle and bustle of the city.”

Lin Haoran nodded and said, “Yes, that’s why I like living here. It’s quiet and comfortable.”

Guo Xiaohan turned her head to look at his profile and asked softly, “Brother Haoran, when you live here all by yourself, don’t you ever feel lonely?”

Lin Haoran paused for a moment, then smiled. “You get used to it. But it’s nice to have a friend visit once in a while.”

The friend Lin Haoran mentioned was, of course, Rosamund Kwan.

Basically, whenever he felt lonely or bored, a single phone call was all it took for Rosamund Kwan to come over on her own accord to relieve his boredom, ensuring his days were never dull.

However, he hadn’t called Rosamund Kwan since his return this time.

That girl was currently busy setting up a franchise for a high-end fashion brand under the Hongkong Land Group, thoroughly engrossed in her new business venture.

As for how she was doing, Lin Haoran hadn’t paid much attention.

In any case, to help her father repay that debt, the young lady had reached a certain kind of agreement with him, which was equivalent to selling herself to him. If she didn’t want to court death, she wouldn’t do anything to betray him.

Guo Xiaohan lowered her head and said softly, “Then… can I come here often in the future?”

Lin Haoran stopped walking, turned to face her, and a gentle smile touched his eyes. “Of course, you can. Didn’t I just say so? You’re welcome anytime you want to come.”

Lin Haoran naturally understood her intentions—she had been upfront about her feelings several times—so he didn’t dwell on the matter.

He checked the time. It was already past eight in the evening, so Lin Haoran led Guo Xiaohan back to the first-floor hall.

“Wait here for a moment. I’ll go get something for you,” Lin Haoran said before walking into the study on the first floor.

He had placed a few gift boxes there, one of which was the gift he had bought for Guo Xiaohan.

He hadn’t only gotten one for Guo Xiaohan; he had also bought one for Rosamund Kwan.

Picking up one of the boxes, Lin Haoran left the study.

“What’s this?” Guo Xiaohan asked, full of curiosity as she accepted the gift box, her face brimming with surprise.

“You’ll know when you open it at home. It’s getting late now. You should head back early so Uncle Guo doesn’t worry,” Lin Haoran said with a gentle smile, his tone soft.

Guo Xiaohan wanted to say that her uncle already knew she was here and wouldn’t be too worried, but she swallowed the words.

She nodded lightly, her heart filled with mixed feelings.

On one hand, she was happy and touched that Lin Haoran had specially brought back a gift for her from the United States.

On the other hand, the subtle intention of seeing her out that he inadvertently revealed left her with a faint sense of disappointment and reluctance to leave.

The gift wasn’t expensive. It was a Sony Walkman portable cassette player, released just last year, the world’s first portable cassette player.

When it came to innovative electronic gadgets like this, the Japanese were indeed quite impressive at the time, with companies like Sony, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Panasonic, and Nintendo.

In comparison, not even the United States, the most powerful country in the world, could compete in this field.

These gadgets were actually available for sale in Hong Kong’s shopping malls.

But when he was in the United States, he happened to see them at a specialty counter and bought a few, thinking he could give them to Guo Xiaohan, Rosamund Kwan, and others.

Since Guo Xiaohan had visited him personally, he decided to take advantage of the favorable situation and give her the gift.

But speaking of which, he could probably start a tech product company himself.

Things like the many yet-to-be-invented handheld games, MP3 players, and PDAs were all extremely popular in the developed nations of the world during the eighties and nineties.

Chapter 445: The Impact of the Press Conference, Will Property Prices Fall?

In fact, he could even leverage this collaboration with Motorola Company to venture into the mobile communications equipment sector—the future world of mobile phones.

In the future, competing on the same stage with international giants like Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson, and Siemens in this field would be an excellent challenge.

Transforming Hong Kong into a city of technology also seemed like a very good idea.

The only difficulty probably lay in the relative scarcity of professional talent in this field in Hong Kong at present.

Hong Kong’s technological talent relied heavily on the return of overseas students, especially Chinese scholars who had pursued advanced studies in the United States, Japan, and Europe.

Cultivating such talent locally faced considerable challenges.

Currently, even Hong Kong’s top institution, Hong Kong University, was far from the world-class standard it would be recognized for in later years. It had little to no global renown and could, at best, be considered a regional university.

The true rise of Hong Kong University, its ascent into the ranks of the world’s top institutions, was something that would only happen after the turn of the twenty-first century.

Perhaps this was the reason why it was so difficult for Hong Kong to develop high-tech industries at the moment.

Although there were numerous technology companies in Hong Kong today, most were concentrated in the low-end tech processing sector.

For instance, companies like Intel located their Asian chip production in Hong Kong primarily to take advantage of the region’s relatively cheap labor.

Furthermore, the industrial parks across Hong Kong were filled with electronics factories. Most of these factories used well-established technologies, requiring only the direct purchase of production lines and materials to begin operation, making their technological sophistication relatively low.

As for core R&D centers, they were few and far between in Hong Kong.

Faced with this reality, to drive Hong Kong’s transformation toward high-tech industries, the fundamental problem of talent shortage had to be addressed.

It wasn’t that there were no solutions; in fact, there were several.

For example, increasing investment in Hong Kong University and other local higher education institutions, not just to upgrade hardware and facilities, but more importantly, to attract world-class faculty and establish cooperation and exchange mechanisms with top global universities.

This would encourage original research, with the hope that in the near future, Hong Kong’s universities could secure a place in the global academic community, attracting more local and international students and thereby cultivating more professionals in high-tech fields.

Secondly, he could advocate for the establishment of tech incubators and accelerator programs to provide comprehensive support—including funding, space, legal advice, and market access—for tech startups, especially those focusing on cutting-edge technologies like mobile communications, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things.

This would not only stimulate local innovation but also attract high-end overseas talent to return and start businesses, creating a virtuous cycle.

Of course, he certainly wouldn’t do it for free; he would want to invest capital in these companies as well.

At the same time, to bridge the short-term talent gap, he could actively promote deep collaborations with international technology companies. This would not be limited to Motorola, IBM, and Intel, but would also include other companies with profound technological foundations.

By setting up joint R&D centers and launching collaborative technology projects, they could bring in foreign experts while providing local employees with world-class technical training and practical experience, accelerating talent development.

The simplest way was to poach talent from major international tech companies, but this method was very costly.

It seemed he should find some time to chat with Ma Shimin of the Hongkong Land Group about this.

Hongkong Land Group now had substantial capital and was on a path of diversification.

Coupled with the opportunity presented by the collaboration with Motorola Company, entering the technology sector was also an excellent chance for them.

Seeing Lin Haoran lost in thought, Guo Xiaohan waved a delicate, fair hand in front of his face.

Lin Haoran snapped back to reality, pushing these matters to the back of his mind.

For now, he would wait until Hongkong Land Group had fully integrated the Hongkong Telephone Company. The two companies were currently in a transitional phase, and Ma Shimin was clearly too busy to deal with much else in the short term.

“I should get going then,” Guo Xiaohan said, a hint of reluctance in her voice.

“Alright, I’ll walk you to the door,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Carrying the gift box, Guo Xiaohan walked side-by-side with him out of the villa. A gentle breeze drifted through the night.

At the car, she carefully placed the gift box in the trunk and shut it gently.

As she turned around, Guo Xiaohan’s gaze fell on Lin Haoran once more. At that moment, it was as if everything around them stood still.

Suddenly, on impulse, she rushed toward him, hugged him tightly, and offered him a passionate kiss.

This kiss was more fervent and affectionate than the one they had shared on their last meeting before Lin Haoran went to the United States, as if pouring all her reluctance and longing into it.

Lin Haoran returned her kiss, and the two were lost in their mutual affection until Guo Xiaohan’s breathing became slightly ragged and they slowly pulled apart.

“I’m leaving,” Guo Xiaohan said, reluctantly getting into the driver’s seat and looking back at Lin Haoran.

At that moment, she truly wished he would ask her to stay. If he had, she absolutely would have.

However, it was clear that Lin Haoran disappointed her.

“Okay, drive safe!” Lin Haoran waved to her with a smile.

Guo Xiaohan resignedly closed the car door, started the engine, and slowly drove away from the Lin family villa.

“Weidong, drive behind her and see her off,” Lin Haoran said, looking at Li Weidong not far away.

Li Weidong nodded at once, got into a car, started it quickly, and slowly followed Guo Xiaohan’s vehicle.

Lin Haoran stood at the entrance, watching Guo Xiaohan’s car blend into the darkness of the night until it completely disappeared.

After returning to the villa, he did not dwell on his thoughts for long.

He slowly walked up to the third floor and stood on the terrace, overlooking the dazzling night view created by the interweaving lights of Central and the Kowloon Peninsula.

The flashing neon lights and streams of traffic formed a magnificent, flowing tapestry that unfolded before his eyes.

He understood the complexities of love between men and women but always managed to approach it with equanimity, not allowing it to become too entangled.

Given his current wealth and status, that kind of unforgettable, bone-deep romantic love no longer seemed to be the focus of his life.

To him, women were more for the purpose of jointly conceiving and raising the next generation, continuing the family’s bloodline.

In the blink of an eye, the night passed.

The date was now December 30th.

Adjusting to the time difference after returning to Hong Kong wasn’t difficult for Lin Haoran.

In just two days, he had completely adapted.

Opening his eyes, the alarm clock on his bedside table showed that it was now 7:50 in the morning.

Lin Haoran stretched lazily before getting out of bed.

After washing up, he went down to the dining room on the first floor.

Soon, a servant had prepared his breakfast and over a dozen newspapers.

This was his usual habit at home.

After enjoying a delicious beef and egg rice noodle roll, a perfectly boiled egg, and a cup of rich soy milk, Lin Haoran contentedly picked up the newspapers, moved to the sofa, and began to read.

As expected, today’s headlines were focused on the momentous acquisition of the Hongkong Telephone Company by the Hongkong Land Group.

Many of the details came from yesterday’s press conference, especially the monumental feat of partnering with Motorola to create the world’s first mobile communications company, which attracted a frenzy of media coverage.

Additionally, Lin Haoran’s tough stance at the press conference had also become a sensationalized topic for many media outlets, destined to attract widespread public attention.

However, Lin Haoran also noticed that despite his explicit denial at the press conference of having insufficient confidence in Hong Kong’s real estate industry, several mainstream media outlets reported with a skeptical tone.

These media analyses suggested that, deep down, Lin Haoran was not optimistic about the future of Hong Kong’s property sector. This was evident from the large-scale sell-off of real estate projects and plots of land by his companies, such as Hongkong Land Group and Wanqing Group.

As for his denial, it was merely a consideration to avoid triggering severe turmoil in Hong Kong’s property industry.

Some went even further. One newspaper directly posed a question in its report: “What is your view on the future trend of Hong Kong’s real estate industry?” thereby sparking public discussion.

This question indeed had a considerable impact on Hong Kong.

As Lin Haoran was reading the newspapers, countless people on the streets, in alleys, and in office buildings across Hong Kong were discussing this very topic.

In a bustling cafe on a prosperous street in Mong Kok, a few casually dressed young and middle-aged men were gathered around a table. Their conversation revolved around Lin Haoran and the future of Hong Kong’s property industry.

“Did you guys hear? Although Lin Haoran denied his lack of confidence in the property market at the press conference, the newspapers have laid it all out. It’s also a fact that he’s been selling off a lot of real estate projects and land lately. Do you think Lin Haoran really lacks confidence in the future of Hong Kong’s property market?

I was planning to buy a house, but after seeing this, I don’t dare to buy anymore. Hong Kong property prices have been rising ridiculously fast recently. If I end up being the bag holder, I’ll be in deep trouble!” said a middle-aged man wearing glasses, his eyes full of confusion.

“Yeah, I’m wondering about that too. Hongkong Land Group and Wanqing Group, aren’t those both his companies? They’ve been making a lot of moves recently, all selling off real estate. Isn’t that a clear sign that he’s not optimistic about the future of Hong Kong property?” another middle-aged man next to him chimed in, stirring the coffee in his cup with a frown.

“But I don’t think Lin Haoran would be that short-sighted, would he? With Hong Kong’s rapid development right now, even if the property market fluctuates in the future, it still has long-term potential,” another man offered a different perspective, his arms crossed confidently over his chest.

“That may be true, but look at those big bosses. Which one of them doesn’t have a keen sense of things? Maybe they’ve really seen risks that we ordinary people can’t see,” the man with glasses spoke again, a hint of worry in his voice.

At the same time, at a newsstand on a street corner, several middle-aged uncles were also fervently discussing the same topic.

“Old Chen, what do you think Lin Haoran is really up to? Denying it on one hand while selling off property on the other. Isn’t that a contradiction?” one uncle asked, pointing at the newspaper headline with a furrowed brow.

“Heh, you don’t get it. Business is like a battlefield. Lin Haoran must have his reasons for doing this. Maybe he’s playing a big game of chess,” the uncle next to him said dismissively. He took a drag from his cigarette with a smile, looking quite composed.

“I think we common folk should just stop worrying about it. As long as our homes are comfortable, who cares how the market changes,” another uncle interjected, his tone carrying a sense of philosophical acceptance.

Meanwhile, in a towering office building in Wan Chai, white-collar workers gathered before the workday began, discussing the potential impact of Lin Haoran’s actions on Hong Kong’s property industry.

“What do you guys think? Does this mean the Hong Kong property market is really about to crash?” a young woman asked worriedly, her eyes filled with unease.

Her fiancé was preparing to buy their marital home, but now, with this news, she was starting to worry for him.

After all, once they were married, she would be helping to pay off the mortgage too.

If property prices plunged, wouldn’t they lose a fortune?

“Not necessarily. Maybe it’s just his personal investment strategy. After all, everyone has different views; we can’t generalize,” a male colleague said comfortingly, trying to ease the young woman’s anxiety.

“But then again, if something really does happen to Hong Kong’s property market, it will have a huge impact on us. After all, our homes are our biggest assets,” another male colleague added, a note of resignation in his voice.

Throughout Hong Kong, from street corners to skyscrapers, everyone from the young to the middle-aged and elderly was heatedly debating the future of Lin Haoran and the city’s property industry.

The topic swept through the entire city like an invisible tide.

All of a sudden, the question of whether property prices would fall had become the focus of intense discussion for countless people.

Chapter 446: Could the Mastermind Be Jardine Matheson & Co.?

At present, Lin Haoran was still unaware of the full extent of the public reaction.

However, from some of the negative reports in the newspapers, Lin Haoran had faintly sensed that this might stir up a widespread controversy.

Even if these media outlets didn’t dare to offend him to his face anymore, they would say anything behind his back for the sake of traffic.

It was even possible that this matter could truly cause fluctuations in Hong Kong’s entire real estate market.

Even so, he had no intention of taking any direct action at this stage.

Sitting on the sofa in his villa, Lin Haoran’s fingers gently traced the words in the newspaper, his brow occasionally furrowing.

He had always been indifferent to the speculation and discussions of the outside world.

After all, the tempests of the business world were never something that could be controlled by a few remarks.

He gently put down the newspaper and gazed out the window. Today was slightly warmer in Hong Kong, but even so, the early morning temperature still hovered in the low teens Celsius.

Yesterday, he had visited and inspected all the companies under his name. Today, he had nothing pressing to attend to, so he didn’t plan on going out in the morning.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it was high noon.

After lunch, Lin Haoran returned to his study, picked up a business book, and flipped to the bookmarked page, ready to continue reading.

Just then, the telephone in the study began to ring.

Lin Haoran had no choice but to close the book again, placing it on the desk beside him as he stood up and picked up the telephone receiver.

“Boss, it’s Cui Zilong. There’s something I need to report to you.” Once the call connected, Cui Zilong confirmed it was Lin Haoran’s voice and spoke.

“Mm, go ahead,” Lin Haoran said. Although he didn’t know what Cui Zilong was about to say, he didn’t overthink it and simply told him to continue.

“It’s like this, Boss. You’ve probably seen this morning’s newspaper reports. According to feedback from our people, all of Hong Kong is abuzz with the news that you ordered your companies to sell off real estate projects and plots of land.

Guided by certain newspapers, many people are now worried about whether you’ve lost confidence in the future of Hong Kong’s real estate industry. Consequently, many are anxious that Hong Kong’s property market might plummet.

Furthermore, there’s another crucial piece of feedback. As of twelve noon today, the number of clients received at major sales offices has dropped by at least ninety percent compared to usual; they’re practically deserted. Even some property developments that were exceptionally popular before seemed unusually quiet this morning.

In addition, we learned from the Land Registry of the Registrar General’s Department that of the more than eight hundred property owners scheduled for property transfers this morning, fewer than one hundred showed up. Most chose to suspend or terminate their transactions.

Based on all this information, the media reports this time are likely to have a considerable impact and shock on the real estate industry,” Cui Zilong reported the current market situation to Lin Haoran in detail.

After hearing Cui Zilong’s report, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but frown deeply.

This unscrupulous media, they really thrive on chaos!

He never expected that these media outlets could stir up such a storm with just a few reports.

He had originally spread that rumor to mitigate the potential negative impact of selling off his real estate projects.

But now, with the media’s embellishments, how would the public bother to look into the real reasons?

At this rate, wouldn’t he be branded the villain of Hong Kong’s real estate industry?

He was certainly making quite a few enemies.

In recent years, Hong Kong’s real estate industry had been booming, with high daily transaction volumes. It was common for over a thousand properties to be sold in a single day.

After all, with continuously rising property prices, almost everyone from the middle class and above had dived into the market.

“Could there be a major power deliberately guiding this from behind the scenes?” Lin Haoran pondered silently.

Although he was quite powerful in Hong Kong now, he was still operating in the broader context of the colonial era.

No matter how powerful he was, he was ultimately just a businessman.

In this complex and ever-changing society, it wasn’t impossible for someone to try and take him down.

The thought made Lin Haoran feel a trace of concern.

“General Manager Cui, do you think someone is trying to target me behind the scenes?” Lin Haoran asked, getting straight to the point.

“Boss, that is indeed a possibility. I’ve carefully studied the papers that are leading the public to believe you’ve lost faith in Hong Kong’s property market, and I’ve found they all have one thing in common—they’re pro-British.

Papers like Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and the Kung Sheung Daily News tend to support the Hong Kong British government and reflect British interests and positions in their regular reporting.

Based on these clues, I speculate that if someone is truly trying to move against you, Boss, it’s very likely someone from a British-funded conglomerate. Only they would have the capability and influence to direct several major media outlets to create such a public outcry simultaneously,” Cui Zilong replied without hesitation, clearly having considered this possibility before making the call.

After hearing Cui Zilong’s words, Lin Haoran held the receiver and began to ponder.

If it was a British-owned power stirring up trouble, it should be easy to narrow down the suspects.

There were only a few British-funded conglomerates in Hong Kong that could afford to offend him.

HSBC?

That could be ruled out immediately.

After all, banks were major beneficiaries of the real estate boom.

The high interest on loans and the steady stream of mortgage business allowed the banks to make a huge profit during the property frenzy.

Therefore, it was unlikely that HSBC was the mastermind pulling the strings.

“In that case, the remaining possibilities are concentrated among the other few British-funded conglomerates,” Lin Haoran thought after a moment’s contemplation. “Conglomerates like Jardine Matheson, the Swire Group, and Wheelock all have tremendous power and influence. They are more than capable of directing the media to create public opinion.”

However, he had no personal grudges with the Swire Group or Wheelock.

Both Swire and Wheelock were involved in the property sector; they wouldn’t smash their own rice bowls.

Especially Wheelock. Hongkong Land Group was now one of Wheelock’s major shareholders and had a seat on its Board of Directors. If they were truly plotting against him, he would have known long ago.

Thus, the biggest suspect was Jardine Matheson & Co.

After all, he had dealt Jardine Matheson & Co. a terrible blow recently, not only snatching away Hongkong Land Group but also seizing most of their assets in Hong Kong.

He had even pushed Jardine Matheson & Co. to the point where they were considering exiting the Hong Kong market.

Under these circumstances, it was entirely possible that Jardine Matheson & Co. would want to retaliate against him before leaving.

Could it really be Jardine Matheson & Co., so bent on revenge that they would stoop to directing the media to create a commotion, attempting to disrupt market order and create problems for me?

At this moment, that was the only conclusion Lin Haoran could reach.

“Boss, are you listening?” Cui Zilong asked from the other end when Lin Haoran remained silent for a long time.

“General Manager Cui, help me investigate whether this is Jardine Matheson & Co. retaliating against me,” Lin Haoran said directly after some thought.

Even if it was confirmed that Jardine Matheson & Co. was behind it, it wouldn’t be of much use, but at least he would know what was going on.

Besides, having a single target would make the investigation easier for Cui Zilong.

“Alright, Boss, I’ll find out as soon as possible!” Cui Zilong responded.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but rub his forehead.

Indeed, even becoming the richest man in Hong Kong was no reason to get complacent.

These people might be respectful to his face, but who knew what schemes they were plotting behind his back.

This incident was undoubtedly a wake-up call for him.

Lin Haoran stood up and walked to the window, looking down at the bustling and complex city of Hong Kong outside.

It seemed that even with his current achievements, he couldn’t afford to be arrogant. He had to remain cautious to survive in this treacherous and unpredictable business world.

“Jardine Matheson & Co., if you are really behind this, I will teach you a profound lesson sooner or later, even if you move out of Hong Kong,” Lin Haoran muttered to himself.

Jardine Matheson & Co.?

He didn’t take them seriously anymore.

They were nothing more than a defeated opponent.

So what if Jardine Matheson & Co. now had the backing of the Rothschild family?

Sooner or later, his wealth would surpass that of the Rothschild family.

He was very confident about that.

Just as he was lost in thought, the phone in the study rang again.

Lin Haoran’s gaze shifted back, and he moved towards the telephone once more.

He glanced at the number; it was a rather unfamiliar one.

However, since they knew his home number, it was clearly someone he knew, so he picked up the receiver without hesitation. “Hello, this is Lin Haoran.”

“Mr. Lin, it’s Chen Songqing. I’m not disturbing you, am I?” On the other end of the line, Chen Songqing’s voice carried a hearty laugh.

“Oh, it’s Mr. Chen. Of course you’re not disturbing me,” Lin Haoran replied, though he was inwardly surprised.

He didn’t have many dealings with the boss of the Carrian Group.

At most, they did occasional one-off deals, such as selling him the equity of Amigo Company, the International Building, and some projects under the Hongkong Land Group.

These one-off transactions were quite good. He had already received the funds, and such a fine sucker was hard to find.

“Mr. Lin, it’s about the reports in the newspapers. You must have seen them. There’s a lot of unscrupulous media out there. Although I know you were facing genuine financial difficulties when you sold your property projects—that’s understood in Hong Kong’s upper society—the public clearly doesn’t believe it. Under these circumstances, this isn’t good news for the development trend of Hong Kong’s real estate,” Chen Songqing said with a wry smile.

“So, Mr. Chen, what exactly do you want to do?” Lin Haoran had already guessed the purpose of Chen Songqing’s call.

The Chairman of the Carrian Group appeared glamorous and successful on the outside, but in reality, it was all just a hollow facade.

Carrian Group’s market capitalization of several billion was nothing more than a castle in the air built on a mirage of fraudulent debt.

Once the property market experienced a sudden storm and the bubble burst, this tycoon who had single-handedly built the Carrian empire would likely face a situation where he would have his reputation ruined.

Chapter 447: A Major Impact, the Worries of the Real Estate Tycoons

The moment Lin Haoran finished speaking, Chen Songqing on the other end of the line chuckled, his tone testing the waters. “Mr. Lin, as you know, Hong Kong’s real estate market is on edge because of your sell-off a while ago. Everyone is watching and waiting.

“If this continues, the impact on Hong Kong’s property sector will surely be immense. After all, as the boss of the Hongkong Land Group, your influence in Hong Kong is just too great.

“Neither your Hongkong Land Group nor our Carrian Group, nor the many other property companies in Hong Kong, want to see a sudden real estate crisis. Although our Carrian Group is considerable in scale, we feel somewhat out of our depth in the face of this situation.

“So, I wanted to discuss with you whether we could join forces to stabilize market sentiment.”

Lin Haoran’s brow twitched slightly, a sense of amusement rising within him.

Although he had made several deals with this sucker, he knew his ultimate fate all too well.

On the surface, Chen Songqing’s Carrian Group was infinitely glorious, but in reality, it was already drowning in debt, its capital chain stretched to the breaking point.

Now, with the slightest fluctuation in the real estate market, the Carrian Group would likely be the first to bear the brunt, the first magnate to fall.

Chen Songqing’s call at this moment was nothing more than an attempt to borrow his power and funds to stabilize the situation and prevent the Carrian Group’s collapse.

“Mr. Chen, what do you mean?” Lin Haoran asked calmly, feigning ignorance.

Seeing that Lin Haoran hadn’t rejected him outright, Chen Songqing felt a flicker of relief and quickly said, “Mr. Lin, I think we could issue a joint statement to show our confidence in Hong Kong’s property market. At the same time, we could announce some new investment plans to give the market a shot in the arm.

“That way, the public’s panic should ease, and the market can gradually return to stability.”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but sneer inwardly.

Chen Songqing’s plan was quite clever—he wanted to use Lin Haoran’s name to steady the market and, in the process, buy himself some breathing room.

However, there was no way Lin Haoran would agree.

Continue to cooperate with the Carrian Group?

Lin Haoran wanted to avoid it like the plague!

This was precisely why he had directed the Hongkong Land Group to sell off all its joint projects with the Carrian Group.

Even another business tycoon, Li Jiacheng, was cautious about cooperating with Chen Songqing, not daring to get involved lightly.

Evidently, some industry titans had already keenly sensed the crisis hidden behind the Carrian Group.

As someone who knew the Carrian Group’s ultimate fate, Lin Haoran naturally had no intention of entering into any long-term cooperation with it.

To put it bluntly, Chen Songqing was like a man plagued by bad luck; getting too close to him would inevitably drag one into endless trouble.

He pondered for a moment before speaking slowly, “Mr. Chen, your proposal is a good one, but the market sentiment is too volatile right now. I’m afraid a hastily issued statement would have limited effect.

“Besides, you’re aware of my current situation. I’m facing considerable financial pressure and temporarily lack the excess capital to invest in new projects.

“While it’s true I made some gains in the United States, they were just enough to cover a portion of my debts. As the new head of a large enterprise like the Hongkong Land Group, I must naturally act with caution and dare not expand recklessly.”

Lin Haoran’s meaning was already crystal clear: Cooperation? Forget it!

Hearing this, Chen Songqing’s heart sank.

He had originally thought Lin Haoran would lend a hand, seeing as they were both real estate tycoons. Everyone knew that Lin Haoran’s current capital was absurdly high.

After all, the Hongkong Land Group had recently sold off a vast number of property projects, and on top of that, Lin Haoran had made a fortune in the United States.

Although Lin Haoran had likely paid a hefty price to acquire Hongkong Land, the funds he had recouped recently must have far exceeded that cost.

So, it was a safe bet that Lin Haoran was not short of funds.

Under these circumstances, it would be an easy matter for the Hongkong Land Group to partner with the Carrian Group again to jointly develop some projects.

This would not only alleviate the pressure on the Carrian Group but also boost public confidence.

The looming threat of a real estate crisis had truly terrified Chen Songqing.

At this moment, where was the triumphant real estate tycoon of old?

He never expected Lin Haoran to be so cold.

Suppressing the anxiety in his heart, he continued to persuade, “Mr. Lin, the current market turmoil is bad for all of us. If we don’t take action soon, I’m afraid Hong Kong’s entire property market will descend into chaos, and everyone’s losses will be immense.”

Lin Haoran gave a faint smile, his tone tinged with a deeper meaning. “Mr. Chen, you’re right. However, the market has its own laws. As businessmen, we can only go with the flow, not against the tide. The current situation probably can’t be solved with a single piece of paper.”

Chen Songqing heard the rejection in Lin Haoran’s words, and his heart went cold.

He knew Lin Haoran had no intention of helping.

He gritted his teeth, a hint of pleading in his voice. “Mr. Lin, for the sake of our many successful collaborations, could you please reconsider? If the market continues to deteriorate, the Carrian Group might…”

Truthfully, Lin Haoran felt no sympathy for the Carrian Group at all.

Chen Songqing had reached his current position entirely through fraudulent loans and by fleecing shareholders.

However, after a moment’s thought, he decided to give this ‘madman’ a piece of good news after all.

He didn’t want the real estate crisis to be triggered by him, either.

Lin Haoran responded with a smile, “Mr. Chen, while I have no plans for in-depth cooperation with the Carrian Group in the real estate sector right now, I can share some information with you.

“Hong Kong’s real estate crisis won’t truly erupt in the short term. Perhaps in just a little while, the property sector will be revitalized and continue to thrive.”

“Oh? What insight do you have to be so certain, Mr. Lin?” Chen Songqing’s voice carried a trace of curiosity and pleasant surprise.

Chen Songqing was, of course, very aware of how he had built his commercial empire.

In his situation, as long as the property market remained hot, he could rest easy.

But if any hint of a crisis appeared in the sector, the Carrian Group would face total ruin.

So, hearing Lin Haoran say there was no need to worry about a real estate crisis, he felt an inexplicable wave of relief wash over him.

“I won’t disclose too much about this matter, Mr. Chen. You just need to rest assured. I can’t guarantee much, but I can say that, at least in the short term, it’s impossible for a property crisis to break out in Hong Kong!” Lin Haoran did not answer his question.

“Alright. In that case, I won’t disturb you any longer, Mr. Lin. I hope you will do as you say!” Chen Songqing ended the conversation with an uneasy heart.

Not long after Lin Haoran hung up, to his surprise, the telephone rang again.

He picked up the telephone receiver, feeling a bit exasperated. So many calls today!

Unexpectedly, the caller was another real estate tycoon.

It was none other than the famous Mr. Luo Yingjun, Chairman of Great Eagle Holdings.

Although Great Eagle Holdings wasn’t a top-tier real estate company, it was one of those that ranked just below the top tier.

His purpose was somewhat similar to Chen Songqing’s. However, he didn’t mention cooperation but asked Lin Haoran to step forward and salvage the public’s confidence in the real estate industry.

Lin Haoran hadn’t expected his actions alone could have such a massive impact on all of Hong Kong.

Even so, he didn’t regret his previous decision to have the Hongkong Land Group, Wanqing Group, and his other companies sell off their property projects, plots of land, and commercial buildings.

In any case, the money was in his hands now. If he had waited a few more months, recouping so much capital would have been much more difficult.

In response to Luo Yingjun’s call, Lin Haoran naturally offered the same reassurance he had given Chen Songqing in his final words, telling him not to worry, as the Hong Kong property sector would not face a crisis just yet.

Following that, a number of tycoons from Hong Kong’s real estate world called him, all with the aim of getting Lin Haoran to step up and restore confidence.

Lin Haoran took calls from these real estate tycoons one by one. With each call, he soothed the other party with the same refrain—Hong Kong’s property market would not face a crisis in the short term, so everyone could rest assured.

Although the tycoons had different objectives—some hoping for cooperation, others merely seeking psychological comfort—Lin Haoran handled them all with a detached attitude.

He neither promised specific actions nor rejected them completely.

After finishing the last call, Lin Haoran leaned back slowly in his chair, lost in thought.

Clearly, in just half a day, the waves stirred up by the media had struck a deep nerve with these business tycoons, causing them to worry.

Although only half a day had passed, the transaction data from sales offices and the Hong Kong Land Registry had thoroughly begun to alarm these tycoons.

Indeed, under normal circumstances, one person’s power could hardly cause such a widespread impact.

But Lin Haoran was definitely an exception.

Not only had he successfully acquired Hongkong Land, Hong Kong’s largest real estate company, but he also controlled several of Hong Kong’s top enterprises.

Since entering the business world, he had been virtually undefeated; even the powerful Jardine Matheson & Co. had fallen at his hands.

Therefore, when some media outlets reported that Lin Haoran might be pessimistic about the Hong Kong property industry, how could it not worry the average citizen?

The methods of these few media companies were truly brilliant, stirring up a storm in the Hong Kong property market with just a few reports.

The mastermind behind it was even more impressive; even Lin Haoran had to feel a sense of respect.

The business world was indeed like a battlefield—treacherous and unpredictable.

However, these people’s wishful thinking was doomed to fail.

To think he, Lin Haoran, would bear the infamy of offending the entire Hong Kong real estate sector?

It was a fool’s dream.

While taking those calls, he had already come up with a countermeasure.

The solution was simple and wouldn’t take long.

In two more days, the rumor that Lin Haoran had lost faith in the Hong Kong property market would crumble on its own.

Now, he didn’t need to do anything. He just needed to wait.

Chapter 448: A Golden Opportunity

The next day, Hong Kong’s property market took a massive hit, just as Lin Haoran had predicted.

The headlines of several major pro-British media outlets continued to sensationalize the news of Lin Haoran’s property development sell-off, and the public’s panic spread further.

The sales offices were desolate and deserted. The once-bustling crowds of potential buyers seemed to have vanished overnight.

The phones at real estate agencies fell silent, and the market plunged into an unprecedented downturn.

Yesterday had perhaps been the most difficult day for those in the real estate industry. Business plummeted by over ninety percent, and many property developments didn’t register a single sale.

Not only that, but a considerable number of citizens who had already paid deposits even showed up at the sales offices demanding refunds.

This scene was playing out in sales offices all across the city.

In the former Golden Gate Tower, now the Carrian Tower.

Chen Songqing sat in his office, his face grim.

He had just received a report from the Finance Department: Carrian Group had earned almost no income yesterday.

Moreover, Carrian Group’s stock price had also taken a significant tumble.

It was important to remember that Carrian Group’s survival depended on two main factors: obtaining loans through various means, and, more importantly, continuously selling presale properties, collecting payments before construction had even begun.

He knew very well what having no income yesterday meant.

Although he wasn’t worried in the short term, if this situation persisted for several months, Carrian Group would undoubtedly be finished.

He clenched his fists, his heart filled with anxiety and unease.

Even though Lin Haoran had offered him some reassurance yesterday, he still couldn’t completely relax.

He was even considering selling off his controlling stake in Evergo Company.

He had spent months scheming to acquire Evergo Company, only succeeding in ousting its founder, Liu Luanxiong, last month.

Now, their Carrian Group had complete control over this top publicly listed company in the manufacturing industry.

However, after taking control of Evergo Company, he had discovered that it wasn’t as high-quality as he had imagined.

Despite this, he couldn’t possibly publicize the truth. For now, he could only maintain Evergo Company’s polished exterior to prevent its stock price from crashing, which would in turn affect Carrian Group.

If worst came to worst, he would even have to sell off the Golden Gate Tower and the recently acquired International Building.

He was getting ahead of himself. These were not immediate concerns, but he knew he couldn’t last if things remained this way for several months.

He had expanded too quickly; it was easy to overextend and get hurt.

“What on earth is Lin Haoran planning?” Chen Songqing muttered to himself, his mind filled with doubt.

At the same time, other real estate magnates were holding emergency meetings to discuss countermeasures.

The bosses of property companies with particularly high debt ratios, such as Hang Lung Properties, Great Eagle Holdings, and Carnival Realty, in addition to Carrian Group, began to panic after just one day.

It was easy to imagine how tragic the consequences would be for them if a property crisis struck after such blind expansion.

In another world, this list of companies would have included one more: Hongkong Land Group!

In that other world, due to its reckless expansion, Hongkong Land Group’s debt had reached over ten billion Hong Kong dollars by 1982.

It had even dragged down its parent company, Jardine Matheson & Co.

However, the Hongkong Land Group of this world had clearly changed completely.

The first thing Lin Haoran did after acquiring Hongkong Land Group was to liquidate its non-performing assets at high prices and completely halt all blind investments.

Although the current Hongkong Land Group still had over four billion in bank debt on paper, it actually had more than ten billion Hong Kong dollars in liquid assets.

Even including Lin Haoran’s own few billion in personal debt, Hongkong Land Group’s funds could easily pay it all off.

So, in reality, Hongkong Land Group’s financial situation was exceptionally healthy, not at all what one would expect from a real estate company.

In Hong Kong, almost all real estate companies had a certain debt ratio.

This included top-tier real estate tycoons like Cheung Kong Holdings, Sun Hung Kai Properties, New World Development, and Hopewell Holdings.

However, for giants like Cheung Kong Holdings and Sun Hung Kai Properties, their debt ratios were mostly not high. Even if they encountered a property crisis, it wouldn’t cause them any crippling damage.

Yet, while the entire real estate industry was in a state of panic, Lin Haoran appeared exceptionally calm.

Today was December 31st, a very special date, the last day of 1980.

After today, it would be 1981.

He sat in the general manager’s office on the 51st floor of the Connaught Centre, holding a cup of coffee, his gaze sweeping over the bustling streets of Central through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

“Boss, should we issue some kind of announcement? Although this matter hasn’t affected our Hongkong Land Group in any way, it’s having a considerable impact on your reputation. These unscrupulous media outlets are really trying to stir up trouble,” Ma Shimin said, looking up after putting down the intelligence report in his hands.

Lin Haoran took a light sip of coffee and said coolly, “No need to rush. Let’s let the bullets fly for a while.”

“The sales offices are just as deserted today as they were yesterday. We’ve also received word from the Hong Kong Land Registry that second-hand property transfers remain dismal today, with fewer than fifty appointments booked,” Ma Shimin continued.

All of this was from intelligence reports, sourced from Hongkong Land Group’s exclusive network.

“Right, the government land auction tomorrow starts at 3:30 PM, correct?” Lin Haoran asked, double-checking.

“Yes, Boss. The auction is scheduled for 3:30 PM tomorrow. As I reported to you before, besides our Hongkong Land Group, three other real estate companies had registered. But according to the latest news, Carrian Group withdrew yesterday. Now, only Wheelock and Company and Swire & Co. are still on the list,” Ma Shimin reported in detail.

“However, my personal observation is that Wheelock and Company and Swire & Co. don’t seem to have any real intention of participating in the bidding. It’s more like they’re making a token appearance to give the Government House some face, just to be part of the crowd,” Ma Shimin added.

There weren’t many British-owned real estate companies left in Hong Kong. The biggest giant, Hongkong Land Group, had been acquired by Lin Haoran; Kowloon Wharf had been taken by Pao Yue-kong; and Hutchison Whampoa had been acquired by Li Jiacheng.

So, in reality, among the British-owned real estate firms in Hong Kong, only Wheelock and Company and Swire & Co. were left to keep up appearances.

Upon hearing this, a smile touched the corners of Lin Haoran’s lips. “Doesn’t that work out even better for us? The fewer competitors, the greater our chances of securing those plots of land.” His tone was filled with confidence and anticipation.

The government land being auctioned tomorrow was a scarce resource!

It would be a great pity to miss it.

Although Hong Kong would experience a property crisis in 1982, the crisis would only last for a brief two years before the market recovered and began a new wave of explosive growth.

Therefore, missing out on these few plots of land would be a huge loss for Hongkong Land Group.

They were all in excellent locations!

“Exactly! If the government land auction isn’t canceled, we might be able to win the bids at the starting price. If so, we’ll be able to save a great deal of money!” Ma Shimin was also getting excited.

If these plots were auctioned during normal times, they would definitely fetch sky-high prices, far exceeding market value.

After all, their scarcity and prime locations meant their prices couldn’t be calculated based on market rates.

But now, their most likely competitor, Carrian Group, had withdrawn. The other two could be considered mere window dressing. Wheelock and Company, in particular, had been shifting its assets overseas and buying ships for over a decade. Why would they spend a fortune on land in Hong Kong?

As for Swire & Co., although real estate was part of their core business, they were more focused on shipping, sugar and food, aviation, and trade. As a highly diversified foreign firm, they were unlikely to invest too much capital in real estate amidst Hong Kong’s uncertain market conditions.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, these two companies could basically be ruled out.

If that was the case, didn’t it mean Hongkong Land Group had no competitors?

At this thought, both Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin felt a surge of excitement.

This was simply a golden opportunity, a godsent chance for them to acquire these priceless land resources at an extremely low price.

“In that case, do you think the Government House will cancel this auction? After all, under these circumstances, it would mean a significant loss for the government,” Lin Haoran posed a question.

He had participated in government land auctions before.

In recent years, virtually every government land auction had been intensely competitive, and the biggest beneficiary, naturally, was the British Hong Kong government.

Although they claimed the financial revenue would be left for Hong Kong’s use, everyone was well aware that the funds were ultimately just transferred back to Britain.

But now, because Hongkong Land Group had sold off so many property projects recently, the vast majority of Hong Kong’s real estate companies had no interest in continuing to participate in auctions.

Coupled with this sudden crisis, if this auction were to proceed, it was a foregone conclusion that the government’s revenue would be drastically reduced.

“Under these circumstances, it’s highly unlikely that the government would abruptly cancel the government land auction,” Ma Shimin analyzed, his tone laced with a degree of confidence. “After all, news of this auction has been widely circulated for more than half a month, with major media outlets competing to report on it. The whole of Hong Kong is paying close attention.

“If the government were to decide to cancel the auction, it would undoubtedly send an extremely negative signal to the market, implying that even the Government House has lost confidence in Hong Kong’s real estate prospects.

“I believe that is a consequence the Government House would be unwilling to see. Therefore, I boldly speculate that the auction will be held as scheduled. Besides, we’re already so close to the auction time. If they wanted to cancel it, they would have done so already.”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran nodded slightly, agreeing with Ma Shimin’s analysis.

Every government decision triggers a chain reaction in the market, especially at such a sensitive time.

Canceling the auction would undoubtedly intensify market panic and would be a major test of the government’s credibility.

Chapter 449: A Call from the Governor, Not Taking the Blame!

Lin Haoran set down his coffee cup, his gaze still fixed on the bustling streetscape of Central as seen through the floor-to-ceiling window.

His expression was composed and calm, as if the turmoil outside had nothing to do with him.

“You’re right, the government probably won’t cancel the auction easily,” Lin Haoran said slowly. “However, we can’t let our guard down. Even though there might not be many competitors at tomorrow’s auction, we still need to be fully prepared.”

Ma Shimin nodded and said with a smile, “Boss, rest assured, I’ve already made the arrangements. We’ll acquire those plots of land at the lowest possible price at tomorrow’s auction and give no one else a chance.”

“I think I’ll attend as well,” Lin Haoran said after a moment of thought.

“Of course, Boss. In that case, please come over a bit earlier tomorrow afternoon, and we can go together,” Ma Shimin replied with a nod.

The two then discussed some more details about the auction.

Just as Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin were talking, the telephone on the desk began to ring.

“Boss, I’ll get this,” Ma Shimin said.

Lin Haoran nodded, gesturing for him to answer.

“Hello, this is Ma Shimin. May I ask who is calling?” Ma Shimin asked politely as he picked up the telephone receiver.

“Mr. Ma, this is Governor Sir Murray MacLehose. Is Mr. Lin Haoran with you? If so, please put him on the phone,” Governor Sir Murray MacLehose’s voice came from the other end, tinged with a formal tone.

Government House controlled the most formidable intelligence network in all of Hong Kong; it wasn’t difficult for him to find out Lin Haoran’s current location.

“Boss, it’s a call from Governor Sir Murray MacLehose. He wishes to speak with you,” Ma Shimin said, turning to Lin Haoran and handing him the receiver, a hint of surprise on his face.

Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback but quickly took the receiver and said with a smile, “Mr. Governor, hello, this is Lin Haoran. It’s a great honor. I never expected you to call me personally.”

“Mr. Lin, I was wondering if you are available at the moment. If you have some free time, would you be able to grace Government House with your presence for a chat? I can arrange for a car to pick you up, but of course, we would welcome you just the same if you wish to drive here yourself,” Sir Murray MacLehose extended a sincere and equally polite invitation over the phone.

Lin Haoran thought for a moment before replying cheerfully, “When the Mr. Governor calls, I am always available. As it happens, I don’t have much to do right now. Give me twenty minutes, and I’ll be right over!”

“Excellent. I will be waiting for you, Mr. Lin,” Sir Murray MacLehose said before hanging up.

Putting down the phone, Lin Haoran frowned.

Why would Sir Murray MacLehose suddenly want to see him at a time like this?

“Boss, in my opinion, the Governor wants to see you because of the real estate issue that’s been causing such a stir these past two days,” Ma Shimin guessed. “After all, if the property sector is unstable, it will lead to a sharp drop in government revenue.”

“That makes sense. I’m heading to Government House now. Do you need to come along?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Ma Shimin was momentarily tempted but then shook his head and replied, “The Governor didn’t mention me. Besides, I have to go to the Hongkong Telephone Company later to follow up on the progress of the mobile communications team’s preparations and discuss the company’s future development plans with Mr. David. I’ll pass.”

“Alright. Since you have things arranged, then focus on your work. I’ll be on my way,” Lin Haoran said, standing up. He waved to Ma Shimin and left the office.

After taking his leave of Ma Shimin, Lin Haoran departed from the Connaught Centre with his bodyguards.

Just over ten minutes later, his convoy came to a steady stop in front of Government House.

After getting out of the car, Lin Haoran strode directly into Government House.

The guards recognized him at a glance, and as they had been notified in advance, they only performed a simple, routine security check before letting him pass.

Without needing any staff to guide him, Lin Haoran, with his familiarity of Government House, easily navigated the corridors and finally arrived at the Governor’s office.

He knocked on the door, and Sir Murray MacLehose opened it himself.

“Mr. Lin, welcome,” Sir Murray MacLehose said with a smile, extending his hand.

“Mr. Governor, it’s been a while,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile of his own.

To be honest, he disliked dealing with these government officials.

However, most of his businesses were in Hong Kong. Even if he wanted to avoid dealings with Government House, it was simply impossible.

Since he couldn’t avoid it, he could only face it head-on.

Lin Haoran shook hands with Sir Murray MacLehose and was then invited into the office.

The office was spacious and bright, its decor simple yet dignified, exuding an air of authority and power.

“Mr. Lin, please have a seat,” Sir Murray MacLehose said, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk.

Lin Haoran nodded and sat down, his eyes fixed on Sir Murray MacLehose, waiting for him to continue.

“Mr. Lin, I’ve invited you here today mainly to discuss the recent situation in the real estate market,” Sir Murray MacLehose began slowly.

Lin Haoran was slightly surprised, but then he nodded, indicating that he was listening intently.

“As you know, the real estate market has been turbulent recently, and many people are speculating about the government’s stance. As the Governor, I naturally need to pay attention to this situation,” Sir Murray MacLehose continued. “Our government has always been committed to maintaining market stability and prosperity, and we do not wish to see major fluctuations.”

Lin Haoran maintained his smile, listening quietly as Sir Murray MacLehose spoke.

“Mr. Lin, your influence in the real estate world is there for all to see, and this matter also began because of you. I would like to hear your thoughts. How do you think we should handle the current situation?” Sir Murray MacLehose changed tack, posing the question to Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Governor, you must be aware of my situation before I went to the United States. In order to acquire the Hongkong Land Group, I indeed paid a hefty price, even going heavily into debt. Therefore, my sell-off of a small portion of my real estate projects is a completely normal business operation.

“The acquisition of the Hongkong Land Group is proof enough of my deep confidence in Hong Kong’s real estate industry. If not for that, I would never have gotten involved in such a massive acquisition worth over ten billion Hong Kong dollars.

“As for this recent turmoil, if you say it started because of me, then I have been truly wronged. In my view, the root of the problem lies in the false reporting by media outlets like the Sing Tao Daily, the Wah Kiu Yat Po, and the Kung Sheung Daily News.

“They deliberately created rumors and stirred up emotions, which is what led the citizens of Hong Kong to become overly concerned with such topics, thereby affecting the stability of the housing market.

“On this point, Mr. Governor, as a political leader in Hong Kong, you must be clearer on this than I am. I am completely an innocent victim in this turmoil!

“In my opinion, the simplest way for Hong Kong’s housing market to return to its former prosperity is to make these few media outlets shut up, instead of having them create trouble by spreading rumors all day long!” Lin Haoran shook his head firmly, expressing his dissatisfaction and innocence.

Asking him to take the fall for something this big?

How could he possibly accept that?

Listening to Lin Haoran’s statement, Sir Murray MacLehose’s brow furrowed slightly. He clearly had reservations about Lin Haoran’s claim that the media was entirely to blame.

If Lin Haoran hadn’t instructed his companies to sell off plots of land and real estate projects on a massive scale, the current situation wouldn’t have arisen.

However, he did not immediately rebut him, choosing instead to continue the conversation in a more measured manner.

“Mr. Lin, I fully understand your position and feelings. It’s true that the media plays an important role in the dissemination of information. But we must also recognize that market fluctuations are often influenced by multiple factors, including the economic environment, policy direction, and investor psychology.

“Attributing the blame to a single source may not help us find the fundamental solution to the problem,” Sir Murray MacLehose said, his tone gentle but firm.

Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback by his words, then nodded, showing a degree of agreement.

“You have a point, Mr. Governor. I’m not denying the role of other factors entirely. It’s just that in this incident, the media’s misleading reports undoubtedly exacerbated the market’s panic. I believe it is necessary for the government to strengthen its supervision of the media to ensure the accuracy and impartiality of information.”

Sir Murray MacLehose nodded with a wry smile, seemingly appreciative of Lin Haoran’s attitude.

“Mr. Lin, the suggestion you’ve raised is very valuable. Our government is indeed considering how to better guide public opinion and maintain market order.

“However, I also hope you can understand that when dealing with such issues, the government needs to consider a balance of multiple aspects. We must protect consumer rights while also taking into account media freedom and diversity of speech.”

Hong Kong’s media had always been known for its freedom of speech, which was undoubtedly representative of the city’s diverse and open society.

However, just as any freedom can be abused, the media’s “freedom of speech,” while bringing a diversity of information and a clash of viewpoints, had also bred some problems.

In order to attract attention and increase traffic, some news outlets would not hesitate to fabricate or exaggerate facts, and even spread fake news. This behavior had severely damaged the credibility of the media and the foundation of trust in society.

Against this backdrop, Hong Kong’s media industry did indeed seem to be a complete mess, which was a cause for concern.

“Although freedom of speech is an important component, I imagine that if you, Mr. Governor, were to personally intervene, those media outlets would probably stop their misleading reports, wouldn’t they?” Lin Haoran posed a counter-question.

“You’re right,” Sir Murray MacLehose nodded in response. “In fact, I already called those media outlets this morning, and they have promised to stop hyping up these topics starting tomorrow.

“But judging from the current situation, these topics have already spread widely in Hong Kong. Even if they stop reporting on them, given the way things are, it will be very difficult for the public’s confidence in Hong Kong real estate to recover quickly. Therefore, Mr. Lin, we still need you to make some effort on your end.”

“In that case, Mr. Governor, what specifically would you like me to do? I also don’t wish for Hong Kong’s real estate market to fall into crisis.

“After all, as one of the largest property developers in Hong Kong, several of my companies, including the Hongkong Land Group, the Hongkong Electric Group, and the Wanqing Group, are involved in the real estate sector. If a crisis were to occur, our losses would also be enormous.

“Therefore, please rest assured, Mr. Governor. I will absolutely not stand by and do nothing. I will definitely respond proactively,” Lin Haoran said, looking at Sir Murray MacLehose as he asked.

Chapter 450: The Governor Bows His Head for Help, Offering Generous Terms

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Murray MacLehose let out a small sigh of relief.

At least he wasn’t the unyielding type, which was a good start.

He had truly worried that Lin Haoran’s skyrocketing wealth would make him arrogant and dismissive of others.

Although as the Governor of Hong Kong, he held almost supreme power in the city, he was by no means a tyrant. He valued his reputation immensely.

It was for this reason that during his tenure, he had implemented numerous policies that benefited the public, earning him the deep respect of Hong Kong’s citizens.

Moreover, Lin Haoran was no ordinary person; he was a super-rich tycoon with enormous influence.

This was evident from the current real estate market situation.

If it were someone else, like Li Jiacheng for instance, even if he had Cheung Kong Holdings Group carry out a massive sell-off of property projects, it might not have caused such a huge stir.

But the media had triggered such a colossal reaction simply by leading the public to speculate that Lin Haoran might have lost confidence in Hong Kong’s property market.

This was enough to demonstrate that Lin Haoran’s influence in Hong Kong’s real estate sector was beyond what ordinary people could imagine.

Public opinion and speculation about him were enough to steer the market’s direction.

Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, MacLehose was unwilling to antagonize Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Lin, restoring the public’s confidence in the real estate market is actually very simple. I have a method, and it will bring you considerable benefits as well!” MacLehose said, looking at Lin Haoran with a pained expression.

Seeing MacLehose’s look, Lin Haoran was puzzled.

What kind of expression was that?

“Please, Mr. Governor, do tell,” Lin Haoran said. Despite his confusion, he remained polite and curious, waiting for MacLehose to continue.

“On January 1st, tomorrow at three in the afternoon, the Lands Department will hold a government land auction. I believe you are aware of this, Mr. Lin?” MacLehose asked.

“Yes, Mr. Governor. Mr. Ma from Hongkong Land Group has already mentioned it to me,” Lin Haoran nodded.

“My plan is simple. The government will put five extremely high-quality plots of land up for auction tomorrow. I trust you are familiar with the details of these plots. I sincerely hope that Hongkong Land Group will actively participate in the bidding for these five plots and strive to acquire all of them!

“In return for Hongkong Land Group’s support, I, on behalf of the government, promise that for these five plots, your group will only need to pay the final auction price. All other additional expenses, such as stamp duty, land premium, land value adjustment fees, and auction commissions, will be waived by the government.

“This way, you will undoubtedly save a substantial amount of money, Mr. Lin. What are your thoughts on this proposal?” MacLehose said slowly, his tone a mixture of anticipation and pain.

After speaking, he handed a document to Lin Haoran.

It detailed what MacLehose had just said, only in a more thorough manner.

Lin Haoran quickly read through the document before looking up at MacLehose.

To say that Governor MacLehose was untroubled would be self-deception.

The rules of past government land auctions were crystal clear: in addition to the transaction price, the winning bidder had to pay additional fees amounting to ten to fifteen percent of the sale price. These included auction commissions, stamp duties, and other layered charges, all of which flowed into the Hong Kong government’s coffers.

But now, to entice Hongkong Land Group to take these five plots, he had to grit his teeth and waive this astronomical sum.

For a starting bid totaling three billion Hong Kong dollars, they could typically expect an extra three to five hundred million in revenue. To abandon such a fortune was a bitter pill to swallow. Even for a veteran politician who had governed Hong Kong for nearly a decade, it was difficult to hide the sharp pang of regret.

What made it even harder to stomach was the brilliant value these plots should have commanded.

The Admiralty plot in Central overlooked Victoria Harbour, the prime plot in Causeway Bay was adjacent to the racecourse, and there was another in the core of Tsim Sha Tsui East…

Had they been put up for auction six months ago, at the peak of the property market, which of these five plots wouldn’t have had Hong Kong’s financial groups vying for them?

According to the Lands Department’s estimates, under normal circumstances, these prime locations would have fetched a premium of at least fifty percent, meaning their final price should have been over four to five billion Hong Kong dollars.

The locations of these five plots were all superb; a starting bid of three billion Hong Kong dollars was truly not high.

Of course, the starting bid could never be set too high in the first place.

But now, forget a premium, he would be lucky if they sold for the base price of three billion. The dignified Governor was now reduced to begging a buyer to take them off his hands!

Yet, this was a loss he had no choice but to accept.

If the auction failed, it would be a public announcement to all of Hong Kong: even the government has lost faith in the property market!

Think of the citizens crowding sales offices demanding refunds, the foreign investors pulling out their capital overnight, the predatory international short sellers…

Most importantly, they were still in the preliminary stages of negotiating Hong Kong’s future with Mainland China. Even he himself was filled with uncertainty about Hong Kong’s future.

Therefore, Britain’s hope was that they should do their utmost to sell as much land as possible!

Because the funds from official land auctions would ultimately flow back to Britain.

So, MacLehose was also unwilling to see Hong Kong’s real estate industry slump during this delicate period.

At the very least, he hoped the slump would wait until after the negotiation results were out!

Before the results were out, they would not miss any opportunity to sell more land!

Although he was the Governor of Hong Kong, the guardian of this land, he was also an official dispatched by Britain. More often than not, he had to consider Britain’s interests.

At this moment, the fate of Hong Kong’s property market rested on a single thought from Lin Haoran. MacLehose’s feelings were quite complicated.

Gazing out the window at the many high-rises of Central, MacLehose suddenly recalled a saying from an old fortune-teller in Chinatown: He who tied the bell must untie it.

The storm triggered by Hongkong Land Group’s sell-off would ultimately have to be calmed by Lin Haoran himself.

Only by Hongkong Land Group accepting these five gilded land deeds could they dispel the market’s doubts and let Hong Kong’s real estate see the light of day again.

Lin Haoran’s fingers tapped lightly on the mahogany desk, the crisp sound echoing in the Governor’s office.

Outside, the noon sun streamed through the glass curtain wall, casting a play of light and shadow on his sharply defined profile.

MacLehose noticed that the young super-rich man’s gaze remained fixed on the gilded auction catalog on the coffee table, as if weighing the gold that flowed between its pages.

“Mr. Governor, this generous gift reminds me of the rules at a Southeast Asian casino,” Lin Haoran suddenly chuckled, his fingertip tracing the diagram of the Central plot. “The house gives you thirty percent of the chips for free to lure you to the table for a life-or-death gamble.”

MacLehose’s Adam’s apple bobbed. The silver spoon for his English coffee clinked softly against the bone china cup.

He suddenly realized that the cup of coffee in front of him had long gone cold.

“You’re joking, Mr. Lin,” the Governor said, dabbing his forehead with a silk handkerchief. “This is merely a gesture of sincerity from the government and the business community to overcome these difficult times together. You see, this plot in Central is adjacent to the Central Ferry Piers and is only about a hundred meters from your Hongkong Land Group’s Connaught Centre. In the future—”

“Within the next year, Jardine Matheson & Co. will relocate its headquarters to London, Britain.” Lin Haoran suddenly interrupted, pulling a neatly folded copy of the South China Morning Post from his suit pocket. The front-page headline featured a photo of Simon Keswick, the current Taipan of Jardine Matheson, announcing their plans to move out of Hong Kong.

“And among the Hang Seng Index constituents, dozens of British-owned companies have relocated their headquarters or main operations to Singapore, Britain, the United States, or Canada in recent years. Even the British-funded conglomerates have no confidence in Hong Kong’s future. Do you think, Mr. Governor, that I would take out three billion Hong Kong dollars to buy these plots of land now, after having just recouped so much capital?”

The office fell into a dead silence.

The ticking of the Baroque-style gilt-bronze mantel clock suddenly seemed deafening.

MacLehose’s knuckles turned white.

He suddenly realized that the bargaining chips he had so carefully prepared were nothing more than a child’s building blocks in this young man’s eyes.

The favorable terms he had agonized over, the additional taxes he had painfully waived, were merely insignificant pieces on the corner of the board from his opponent’s panoramic perspective.

“However—” Lin Haoran suddenly stood up, looking at Governor MacLehose with a smile. “I can agree to your terms, Mr. Governor, and take these five plots. But what I want isn’t a tax exemption, but rather—”

MacLehose’s gaze was entirely fixed on Lin Haoran. He wanted to see what kind of conditions this young man would propose.

“After the land deeds are transferred, Hongkong Land Group will be allowed to defer payment of the outstanding balance for three years. In exchange, after three years, not only will I settle the three billion Hong Kong dollars, but I will also pay all the additional expenses as usual, ensuring the government doesn’t lose a single cent. I wonder if you can accept my terms, Mr. Governor?”

MacLehose’s pupils contracted sharply.

The proposal caught MacLehose completely by surprise. He had expected Lin Haoran to seize the opportunity to demand even harsher terms, such as further reducing the land price or asking for more policy concessions. But the request to defer the land payment was rather unexpected.

There was no exorbitant demand as he had imagined. In fact, he had even offered to pay all the additional fees. For Government House, this was simply good news.

At the very least, they could save those few hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

He would have a better report to give back to Britain.

However, the condition of a three-year deferment made him feel a little troubled.

“Mr. Lin, you are asking for a rather long financial buffer period.” MacLehose quickly calculated the pros and cons of this proposal in his mind. “A three-year deferment means the government will not be able to fully recover the funds from the land auction during this period, which will have a significant impact on our financial arrangements.”

Lin Haoran smiled faintly, as if he had already anticipated MacLehose’s reaction. “Mr. Governor, I understand your concerns, but please allow me to explain. This arrangement is actually beneficial to both sides.

“As you know, I paid a high price to acquire Hongkong Land Group, and I still owe a huge loan to Citibank and HSBC. Although I made some money from Apple Inc. when I was in the United States, it’s far from enough to offset the massive loan.

“As for Hongkong Land Group, it recently acquired the Hongkong Telephone Company, so its expenses have not been small. On top of that, the group already had billions of Hong Kong dollars in debt.

“So, while it may seem like I have ample funds, I actually don’t have that much. Bidding for all five plots was not part of our original plan. For you, Mr. Governor, to suddenly ask me to break my existing plan certainly puts me in a difficult position.

“Furthermore, the three-year grace period I’m asking the government for isn’t free. I will still be paying all those additional fees you promised to waive, so you are not losing out.

“For Hongkong Land Group, it gives us the space to adjust our financial structure and cope with market uncertainties.

“For the government, although the return of funds will be affected in the short term, in the long run, this will not only help stabilize market confidence but also ensure the plots are developed properly, ultimately boosting the surrounding economy and increasing the government’s tax revenue.

“More importantly, I, Lin Haoran, give you my personal guarantee that in three years, Hongkong Land Group will not only pay the land price in full but will also make additional investments to turn these plots into new landmarks for Hong Kong, contributing to the city’s economic prosperity.”

Hearing this, MacLehose couldn’t help but weigh the options internally.

Deferring the payment would sacrifice some immediate revenue, but if it could stabilize the market, prevent greater economic losses, and generate more tax revenue in the future, it might be a worthwhile deal.

Besides, with Hong Kong’s property industry in such a precarious state, Government House wasn’t really losing anything; it was just a delay in receiving the auction payment.

In his heart, he had already agreed to Lin Haoran’s condition. He was even tempted to agree on the spot.

However, perhaps because he had lost face in front of Lin Haoran today, he was reluctant to agree so easily, feeling that holding back might restore a little of his dignity.

Seeing MacLehose remain silent, Lin Haoran continued, “Mr. Governor, although we are delaying payment for three years, the government has no need to worry about whether we’ll be able to produce the money when the time comes.

“As long as you stipulate that we cannot resell these plots before paying the full land price, the government can fully repossess them if we fail to settle the payment by the deadline!”

As far as Lin Haoran was concerned, he had no intention of reselling these plots anyway. In the future, land like this would be priceless.

With such a good opportunity in his hands, why would he ever let it go?

“Mr. Lin, your proposal does put me in a difficult position,” MacLehose said slowly. “This matter is of great importance. I need time to discuss it with the relevant departments. I will give you a formal reply before the auction. How does that sound?”

“Of course, Mr. Governor.” Lin Haoran nodded in understanding. “I look forward to your reply. I also hope that Hong Kong’s property industry will return to its former state.”

“In that case, I won’t keep you any longer, Mr. Lin.” MacLehose showed him the door.

“Goodbye, Mr. Governor!” Lin Haoran waved to MacLehose and bid him farewell with a smile.

Although MacLehose didn’t agree to Lin Haoran’s proposal on the spot, instead saying he needed to consult with various departments, Lin Haoran saw it as a mere formality.

From the importance MacLehose attached to the matter, he was ninety-nine percent certain that their cooperation would be successful.

The reason he was so unconcerned about the media reports, not taking them seriously at all, was precisely because he had already had this plan in mind.

He had long since set his sights on those plots of land. Acquiring all of them would naturally be the best possible outcome.

This way, the outside world could no longer question his confidence in Hong Kong’s real estate industry.

He had been mulling over this plan for the past two days.

Unexpectedly, Government House had also thought of this solution and had even taken the initiative to approach him with favorable terms.

This was a truly unexpected and pleasant surprise for him.

Lin Haoran wasn’t actually very concerned about the few hundred million in extra expenses the government wanted to waive.

He knew that if the government did waive this fee, although he would benefit greatly in the short term, Government House would likely find a way to recoup it from somewhere else in the long run.

From MacLehose’s pained expression, he knew that the Governor was very reluctant to lose this sum of money.

If Lin Haoran had agreed, it would have been tantamount to making Government House suffer a significant loss, which would be like offending them.

After all, with political power in their hands, they had plenty of ways to get that money back.

Down the line, it wouldn’t be impossible for them to find some excuse to slap a hefty fine on Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, or Wanqing Group.

Therefore, he would rather bear this expense willingly than have Government House playing tricks behind his back.

Proposing a three-year delay in settling the auction funds was the result of his careful consideration.

On one hand, it could show MacLehose that he was indeed tight on funds at the moment.

On the other hand, having over three billion Hong Kong dollars at his disposal for three years would be a huge help to him.

After all, coming up with so much money at once, while not difficult for him, would certainly affect his subsequent business layouts.

Now, being able to acquire these five plots at a minimal cost without affecting his future business plans was a move that killed several birds with one stone.

Three years from now, over three billion Hong Kong dollars might not seem like a huge sum in his eyes; he might even be able to produce it casually.

But right now, this money was still quite important to him.

That was why he proposed the condition of deferred payment.

It was both an honest expression of his current financial situation and a well-thought-out plan for his future development.

At the current loan interest rates, if he borrowed three billion from a bank, even at a preferential rate of ten percent per year, he would have to pay nearly one billion Hong Kong dollars in interest over three years.

Now, it was essentially equivalent to getting an interest-free loan of three billion Hong Kong dollars to purchase these five scarce, core-district plots at their starting bid price.

As for the additional expenses, they had to be paid anyway, no matter which real estate company it was.

After seeing Lin Haoran out, MacLehose immediately convened an emergency closed-door meeting with the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau, the Lands Department, and his team of economic advisors.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran, along with his bodyguards, returned to the Connaught Centre.

In the general manager’s office of Hongkong Land Group, Ma Shimin looked at the beaming Lin Haoran and couldn’t help but ask, “Boss, did you receive some good news at Government House?”

“Mr. Ma, your guess is spot on!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

“Government House proposed a cooperation plan that is extremely favorable to us.” A smile appeared in Lin Haoran’s eyes. He walked to his desk, picked up a document, and handed it to Ma Shimin. “Take a look at this, Mr. Ma. We have an opportunity to acquire five high-quality plots of land on very preferential terms.”

Ma Shimin took the document and read it carefully. As he read on, his brow gradually unfurrowed, and an expression of disbelief appeared on his face.

“This… these terms are too generous! The government is actually willing to waive all additional expenses? As far as I know, this is unprecedented in the history of Hong Kong. Even when Hongkong Land Group was still a British-owned company and received preferential treatment, not a single cent of these additional fees could be waived!”

“That’s right. Governor MacLehose is going all out to restore public confidence in the property market,” Lin Haoran nodded, a hint of emotion in his tone. “However, I rejected this good offer!”

“This could have saved at least four to five hundred million Hong Kong dollars. I’m surprised you were willing to give that up, Boss. But I think you were right to refuse.

“It’s clear that Government House proposed this condition reluctantly. If we had accepted this favor, the government would not have been content to let it go.” Ma Shimin strongly agreed with Lin Haoran’s decision.

“I thought so too. That’s why I rejected the government’s preferential policy. However, I used the opportunity to propose another condition: to defer the payment of the land price for three years after the auction concludes.”

Lin Haoran smiled faintly, a sly glint in his eyes. “This way, not only can we acquire these plots at a very low cost, but we will also have ample time to adjust our financial structure and cope with market uncertainties.”

Ma Shimin couldn’t help but slam his hand on the table in admiration.

“Boss, your move is brilliant! This way, we can preserve our cash flow and ensure we have sufficient funds for future project development.”

“Exactly. And I also promised MacLehose that after acquiring these plots, we will develop them into new landmarks for Hong Kong as soon as possible, making the city’s skyline even more beautiful.

“By doing this, not only can we win the trust and support of the government, but we can also establish a good image for ourselves in the market.”

“So, did the Governor agree to your condition, Boss? If he did, it would be an absolutely great thing for Hongkong Land Group,” Ma Shimin asked curiously.

If he agreed, it meant that Hongkong Land Group could essentially get something for nothing, confidently acquiring those five plots of land.

Although they would still need to pay the enormous land price three years later, Hong Kong was developing at a rapid pace. Who knew what the environment would be like in Hong Kong three years from now?

Lin Haoran shook his head and smiled, “The Governor didn’t agree on the spot, but I estimate that it’s pretty much a done deal, unless he wants to see Hong Kong’s property prices start to crash right now.”

According to the historical trend Lin Haoran knew from his previous life, although signs of a property market crash in Hong Kong began to appear in mid-1981, the real crash didn’t happen until September 24, 1982.

On that day, as the Iron Lady was leaving the north gate of the Great Hall of the People, she stumbled and fell, landing on one knee and her hands.

That fall completely exposed the Iron Lady’s unfavorable position in the negotiations.

And Hong Kong’s real estate market plummeted accordingly…

Right now, it was only December 31, 1980. September 24, 1982, was still a long way off!

Chapter 451: Almost Got Trapped by the Governor

Night fell quietly. Before the sun had completely dipped below the horizon, the streetlights of Hong Kong were already eagerly beginning to glow.

The brilliant lights of Connaught Centre shimmered amidst the bustle of Central, echoing the enchanting glow of the distant Victoria Harbour and heralding the arrival of night.

Lin Haoran leaned back by the spacious floor-to-ceiling window, a teacup in hand, leisurely admiring the lingering afterglow of the sunset on the western horizon while immersing himself in the enchanting night view of Hong Kong as it gradually unfolded.

Compared to other bosses who were run ragged by their company’s development, Lin Haoran appeared exceptionally calm and unhurried.

He didn’t need to get bogged down in the day-to-day management trifles of his various subsidiary companies. Instead, he mostly planned strategies from behind the scenes, and occasionally offering his insights based on his knowledge from his past life was enough.

This was the benefit of delegating authority.

In contrast, major Chinese tycoons like Pao Yue-kong, Shao Yifu, and Li Jiacheng were all hands-on, pouring a great deal of energy into running their companies every day.

In Lin Haoran’s eyes, this lifestyle was far too strenuous.

What he pursued was the lifestyle of the truly wealthy.

His subordinates created wealth for him daily, while he, relying on the knowledge and experience accumulated from his past life, calmly steered the overall direction and controlled the big picture. That was enough.

Just then, the phone on the desk rang abruptly, interrupting his thoughts.

Ma Shimin had gone down to the Dairy Farm International office in the afternoon to discuss entering the Japanese market with their general manager and had not yet returned.

Since he wasn’t there, Lin Haoran picked up the telephone receiver himself.

“Is this Mr. Ma? May I ask if Mr. Lin is available? I need to speak with him.” The voice of Governor Murray MacLehose came through the phone.

Lin Haoran had initially thought the call was for Ma Shimin. To his surprise, the caller was none other than Governor Murray MacLehose, whom he had just met at noon.

Lin Haoran smiled faintly, a premonition already forming in his mind.

For the other party to call so eagerly, a decision had clearly been made.

He had originally thought they would inform him tomorrow, but now they couldn’t wait to contact him.

“Mr. Governor, this is Lin Haoran!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

On the other end of the line, Governor Murray MacLehose’s slightly hurried yet polite voice came through: “Mr. Lin, good evening. After an urgent discussion this afternoon, the government has decided to accept your proposed condition of a three-year deferred payment for the remaining balance of the land price.”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran wasn’t overly surprised. It was entirely within his expectations.

He smiled faintly and said, “Mr. Governor, your decision is very wise. This will be a win-win situation for both Hongkong Land Group and the Government House. Furthermore, I will have my subsidiaries, TVB and the Oriental Daily News, assist in restoring the Hong Kong property market to its previous state as soon as possible.”

“Indeed, Mr. Lin. We hope to stabilize Hong Kong’s property market as soon as possible, and your participation will be crucial. We look forward to seeing Hongkong Land Group make a strong showing at tomorrow afternoon’s auction,” Murray MacLehose replied, also smiling.

“Mr. Governor, I have one more concern. As far as I know, Swire & Co. and Wheelock and Company are also participating in the bidding, aren’t they? If they drive up the price of a certain plot of land, we might not necessarily bid on it,” Lin Haoran raised a question at this point.

On the other end of the line, Murray MacLehose fell silent for a moment.

If Lin Haoran could see Murray MacLehose at that moment, he would surely have seen him wiping the sweat from his forehead.

In reality, Murray MacLehose did indeed have a plan.

He was also aware that Swire & Co. and Wheelock and Company were only participating out of respect for him and had no real intention of bidding.

And during their noon conversation, he and Lin Haoran had not discussed the final auction price.

Therefore, he had thought of having Swire & Co. participate in the bidding—to put it simply, to act as a shill and drive up the price. Even if it couldn’t be raised by much, an extra few hundred million Hong Kong dollars would be nice.

As for Wheelock and Company, he understood that Hongkong Land Group was a major shareholder, so he had no intention of having them act as a shill as well.

But Lin Haoran suddenly bringing this up at this moment forced him to abandon the idea.

It seemed that getting an extra few hundred million Hong Kong dollars was no longer possible.

Since he needed Hongkong Land Group to bid for all five plots of land, if they were to secure even one plot less, it would show insufficient confidence. Only by taking all five plots would it truly demonstrate that Lin Haoran was full of confidence in Hong Kong’s property market.

Murray MacLehose sighed and said, “Mr. Lin, please rest assured. Barring any surprises, your Hongkong Land Group should be able to acquire them at the starting bid!”

“Mr. Governor, please rest assured. Hongkong Land Group will not betray the government’s trust. We will secure all five plots of land tomorrow.” Hearing the resignation in Murray MacLehose’s voice, Lin Haoran actually smiled.

He had almost been trapped by the Governor.

This was a concern Ma Shimin had raised in the afternoon when Lin Haoran was telling him about what had happened at Government House.

Now, listening to Murray MacLehose’s tone, it was obvious that this was exactly what he had intended to do.

However, with Lin Haoran suddenly bringing it up, it was clear that the other party’s plan to tamper with the auction had to be abandoned.

“Alright, that’s all for today then. I won’t disturb you any further, Mr. Lin. I look forward to hearing good news from you tomorrow.” At this point, Murray MacLehose had no intention of continuing the conversation with Lin Haoran.

“Goodbye, Mr. Governor.”

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran stood up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, and looked down at the bustling international metropolis.

By now, the afterglow of the sunset had long since vanished, and night had completely fallen.

However, the brilliantly lit streets of Hong Kong were incredibly bright.

In the night, Hong Kong’s lights flickered, each one seeming to tell a story of the city’s tales and hopes.

Thanks to the agreement reached with Government House, the five plots of land were essentially in the bag.

For Hongkong Land Group to acquire five more plots of land in exceptionally prime locations was, of course, a great thing for Lin Haoran.

To be able to acquire these five plots for a mere three billion Hong Kong dollars was an absolutely low price.

In another world, Hongkong Land Group had spent 4.755 billion Hong Kong dollars at the beginning of 1982 to secure the plot for Exchange Square.

At that time, the Hong Kong property crisis had not yet officially begun. Although property prices struggled to rise, they remained at their 1981 levels.

Therefore, many property developers did not believe a housing crisis would erupt in Hong Kong, including Hongkong Land Group, the oldest and most powerful in the territory.

This was why they were willing to bid such a high price for the Exchange Square plot.

Among the five plots to be auctioned tomorrow, two were in Central, and their locations were even more superior than that of Exchange Square.

The Exchange Square plot was 144,000 square feet, a considerable size;

The combined area of the two Central plots being auctioned tomorrow was no smaller than the Exchange Square plot.

The other three plots, though slightly inferior to the two in Central, were also definitely prime land, their value not much less than the Central plots.

Therefore, acquiring five such plots for just three billion Hong Kong dollars now was a guaranteed profit. It could be said that the price was much lower than imagined.

After all, this was the starting bid, and it was a very normal price.

Under normal circumstances, after bidding from several parties, the final price would typically rise more than fifty percent, or even double, the starting bid.

But a while ago, Lin Haoran had both Hongkong Land Group and Wanqing Group successively sell off property projects, plots of land, commercial buildings, and so on, causing these major property developers’ portfolios to become saturated in a short period of time.

It could be said that Hongkong Land Group’s massive sell-off of over thirty property projects had, in a way, disrupted Hong Kong’s property market.

Coupled with the recent media buzz about a property crisis, these developers were even more hesitant to participate in this government land auction.

As a result, these five plots, which could have been auctioned for as high as four to five billion, or even over six billion Hong Kong dollars, ended up with Hongkong Land Group having no competitors. Barring any surprises, they would win the plots at the starting bid.

Not long after he hung up the phone, Ma Shimin hurried back from outside.

“Boss, after a detailed discussion with the general manager of Dairy Farm International, we’ve decided to invest in Japan’s largest bread producer, Yamazaki Baking, as the first step in entering the Japanese market.

At the same time, we also plan to promote brands like Wellcome, Mannings, Guardian, and Maxim’s Cakes in Japan.

After in-depth analysis, we unanimously agree that Japan not only has a large population but also strong consumer purchasing power and extremely high demand for high-quality goods and services.

Therefore, missing out on the Japanese market would be an immeasurable loss for us!” Ma Shimin reported eagerly as soon as he walked in.

Lin Haoran nodded and smiled, “Alright, if you think it’s appropriate, then go right ahead!”

He naturally wouldn’t object to entering the Japanese market.

After all, for a populous and economically developed country like Japan, entering such a market was highly likely to be profitable, not a loss.

Conversely, if they wanted to invest heavily in a place like New Zealand—which, despite being economically developed, has a pitifully small population—Lin Haoran would definitely stop them.

As long as it wasn’t blind expansion or internationalization for its own sake, Lin Haoran would certainly support it.

“With the Boss’s support, I’m even more confident in Dairy Farm International’s internationalization!” Ma Shimin replied, his face wreathed in smiles.

“By the way, I just spoke with Murray MacLehose. The government has approved our deferred payment application, and it’s highly likely the other two competitors won’t participate in the bidding. If all goes well, we should be able to win these five plots at the starting bid.” Lin Haoran briefly relayed the news from his call with Murray MacLehose to Ma Shimin.

Upon hearing this, Ma Shimin’s face lit up with joy: “That’s wonderful, Boss! This will be a new opportunity for Hongkong Land Group’s development.”

Once these five plots were successfully acquired, with Hongkong Land Group’s current ample capital reserves, construction projects could be launched very quickly.

Chapter 452: Unexpected Evidence, A Live Public Address

That evening, after having dinner with Ma Shimin, Lin Haoran returned to his villa on Severn Road.

Not long after he got back, a servant came to announce that Cui Zilong, the general manager of Oriental Press Group, had arrived.

Lin Haoran immediately stood up and personally went to the door to welcome Cui Zilong inside.

“General Manager Cui, for you to come in person, does this mean you’ve gotten hold of some important information?” Lin Haoran asked, full of curiosity.

“Boss, let’s talk in the study,” Cui Zilong suggested, holding a briefcase.

Lin Haoran nodded and led Cui Zilong to the study on the first floor.

After closing the door, Cui Zilong eagerly unzipped his briefcase, took out several photos, and handed them to Lin Haoran.

He then explained, “Boss, after our in-depth investigation, we’ve confirmed that the public opinion being steered by media outlets like Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and Kung Sheung Daily News is indeed related to Jardine Matheson & Co.

“Initially, we focused our investigation on Jardine Matheson but found nothing.

“Later, we shifted our strategy to focus on the heads of these media companies, but we still found no leads. It was clear their confidentiality measures were excellent.

“This is why it took us so long to find any useful evidence.

“However, a very fortunate coincidence allowed us to find proof of the financial ties between Jardine Matheson and those newspapers.

“Based on this evidence, we’ve determined that these media outlets did indeed receive instructions from Jardine Matheson, for which they were paid fees ranging from hundreds of thousands to over a million Hong Kong dollars.

“Coupled with their inherent pro-British stance and their preference for cooperating with British-owned companies like Jardine Matheson, the deal was ultimately made.

“This evidence consists of these photographs, which we unexpectedly acquired from a photographer.

“The photographer first contacted a reporter from our Oriental Daily News.

“As the leading newspaper in Hong Kong, we often purchase interesting news photos from photographers at high prices. This particular photographer just wanted to get a good price and had no idea how valuable these photos were to us.”

Lin Haoran remained silent, taking the photos from Cui Zilong and looking through them one by one.

The photos weren’t crystal clear, but the faces of the main subjects were recognizable. The scene appeared to be a private room in a coffee shop, and the shots were taken from a building across the street. It was obvious they were candid photos.

Lin Haoran immediately recognized a familiar figure in all the photos—Bao Fuda, the former general manager of Hongkong Land Group.

What’s more, in every photograph, there was a box, inside which neat stacks of Hong Kong dollar bills were clearly visible.

“Boss, look. This one is of Bao Fuda meeting with the general manager of Sing Tao Daily at the Atlantic Coffee Shop in Central. The next two show Bao Fuda meeting separately with the editors-in-chief of Wah Kiu Yat Po and Kung Sheung Daily News.

“Although we can’t know the specifics of their conversations, these photos are enough to prove that some kind of transaction was taking place between them.

“They thought they were perfectly safe in the coffee shop’s private room, but they carelessly forgot to close the room’s window, which allowed someone in the building opposite to secretly take these pictures,” Cui Zilong explained, pointing to the figures in the photos one by one.

Lin Haoran nodded. He was naturally familiar with Bao Fuda, but not so much with the other three men in the photos.

Bao Fuda, the former general manager and Executive Director of Hongkong Land Group, had returned to the senior management team of Jardine Matheson & Co. after the British-funded conglomerate successfully reclaimed its controlling stake.

This move was a result of Bao Fuda’s actions during the earlier confrontation with Lin Haoran. As the helmsman of Hongkong Land Group, he was the first to betray the original Jardine Matheson Taipan, Newbiggin, and side with Henry Keswick and the British-funded conglomerate.

Although they ultimately failed, Henry Keswick and the others recognized Bao Fuda’s loyalty, so they called him back after regaining control of Jardine Matheson.

As for Newbiggin, the former Jardine Matheson Taipan, after being jointly ousted by Simon Keswick and the others, he had hoped to join Hongkong Land Group and take Ma Shimin’s position. But how could Lin Haoran possibly agree to that?

So, Newbiggin had since helplessly left the sorrowful place that was Hong Kong and returned to Britain in disgrace.

Lin Haoran carefully examined every detail in the photographs, especially the boxes filled with Hong Kong dollars. They were undoubtedly the most powerful evidence of this secret deal.

Lin Haoran’s eyes lingered on the boxes of money in the photos for a long time. They seemed to silently tell a story of backroom deals and power plays.

“General Manager Cui, you’ve done very well. These photos are more than enough!” Lin Haoran withdrew his gaze and burst into laughter.

“It was really a stroke of luck,” Cui Zilong said with a wry smile, shaking his head. “If that photographer hadn’t happened to find Oriental Daily News to sell these photos, we might still have no evidence linking Jardine Matheson to these newspapers.”

“I understand,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile. “Their transaction was incredibly secretive, limited to clandestine meetings between senior executives, leaving almost no trace.

“Even for us, a scheme like that is difficult to uncover. We can only say that Lady Luck was on our side this time.”

Shortly after handing the evidence to Lin Haoran, Cui Zilong said his goodbyes and left.

After seeing Cui Zilong out of the villa, Lin Haoran returned to the study and stared at the photos again.

“Jardine Matheson, oh Jardine Matheson, you’re just relentless, aren’t you?” Lin Haoran muttered to himself.

These guys were on the verge of completely withdrawing from the Hong Kong market, and yet they still pulled a stunt like this.

They were certainly vindictive.

But their vindictiveness was no match for Lin Haoran’s.

Once he confirmed that Jardine Matheson was the mastermind behind this incident, Lin Haoran resolved to teach them a profound lesson.

As for the media outlets involved, he had no intention of letting them off easily.

They thought they could use him as a tool to make money?

Then they would have to pay the price.

With his current power, a few mere media outlets thought they could take advantage of him?

They had a death wish!

After putting the photos away, Lin Haoran stopped thinking about these matters. He washed up early and went to bed.

That night, Lin Haoran had his driver pick up Rosamund Kwan.

Tonight was a special occasion: New Year’s Eve.

He hadn’t seen Rosamund Kwan since he returned, so this was the perfect time to bring her over.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, Rosamund Kwan was ecstatic, eager to share with him everything she had experienced during their time apart.

After Lin Haoran successfully took control of Hongkong Land Group, he had carefully selected a shop for her of over three hundred square meters in The Landmark, near Hang Fung Building in Central, to run a high-end clothing business.

Not only that, but he had also arranged for Rosamund Kwan to directly franchise a high-profile luxury clothing brand from a Hongkong Land subsidiary, ensuring that all supplies were handled by the subsidiary, which was both worry-free and efficient.

Rosamund Kwan didn’t have to pay any rent or franchise fees, only the cost of the inventory.

With Lin Haoran as her solid backing, Rosamund Kwan’s business was naturally flourishing.

According to her, after deducting costs, she had already made a net profit of nearly one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars that month, a figure she could never have imagined.

Even though this was her first foray into the business world and she lacked experience, resulting in just average sales, the advantage of having no rent or franchise fees significantly lowered her operating costs, and her profits remained substantial.

For this, she was, of course, even more grateful to Lin Haoran.

As the midnight bells chimed, the twelve reverberations seemed to cross the boundary of time, heralding the departure of the old year and the arrival of the new.

Time, that invisible traveler, quietly stepped over the threshold of 1980 and into the year 1981, full of unknowns and hope.

At that moment, the sky above Victoria Harbour seemed to ignite. Colorful fireworks streaked across the night sky like meteors, bursting into dazzling displays of light.

Some twinkled like a dense cluster of stars, shining with a gentle glow.

Some cascaded like a meteor shower, leaving brilliant trails across the heavens.

And others bloomed like magnificent flowers, their multi-colored petals decorating the night sky like a dreamscape.

And in the Lin family villa on Severn Road, Rosamund Kwan held Lin Haoran tightly, her face flushed.

The two shared a very meaningful New Year’s Eve together.

The next morning, Lin Haoran woke up full of energy.

Although Rosamund Kwan had been exhausted the previous night, she also woke up early.

She explained that it was New Year’s Day, and she expected business at the shop to be very good, so she wanted to get there early to prepare.

Lin Haoran didn’t say much and arranged for Li Weidong to drive her to The Landmark first.

As for Lin Haoran himself, he stayed home, casually reading the newspaper while eating breakfast.

As expected, today’s editions of Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and Kung Sheung Daily News no longer contained any news or discussion related to the property crisis. They had clearly received instructions from Governor Murray MacLehose and had reined in their previous audacity.

However, the influence these media outlets had already exerted on Hong Kong society was profound. Even though they had stopped reporting on the issue, the impact was already made, and citizens were still fervently discussing the hot topic of the property crisis.

A little after eight in the morning, Lin Haoran straightened his attire.

He then called Shao Yifu, the Chairman of the Board of TVB, asking him to reserve about ten minutes for him at seven o’clock that evening, during prime time on the Jade Channel.

He planned to use this time to deliver an important public address to the entire population of Hong Kong.

As a major shareholder of TVB, although Lin Haoran was not involved in its management, Shao Yifu could not possibly refuse him this favor.

Chapter 453: The Auction Ends

After hanging up with Shao Yifu, Lin Haoran returned to his Deep Water Bay villa, preparing to have the first meal of 1981 with his parents.

After lunch, Lin Haoran bid farewell to his parents and made a trip to Connaught Centre.

Connaught Centre was quiet and deserted today. Aside from a few staff members on duty, the other employees were not at work.

It was New Year’s Day, and most people had the day off, save for a small number of essential personnel.

Lin Haoran stepped into Ma Shimin’s office. The current head of the Hongkong Land Group was already waiting for him, speaking on the phone.

“In previous years on New Year’s Day, all the major property developments would seize the opportunity for big promotions. I just learned that many developments launched special offers today, but very few genuine buyers showed up. Most of the people there were just shills hired by the developers.

“It seems that if you don’t take any action, Boss, Hong Kong might really face a property crisis. Your personal influence in Hong Kong is just too immense,” Ma Shimin said with some emotion as he hung up the phone.

If things were allowed to continue developing this way, Lin Haoran would undoubtedly offend many of Hong Kong’s property developers.

After all, although a few media outlets had stirred up this mess, in everyone’s eyes, Lin Haoran was the source of it all.

Jardine Matheson & Co. had certainly played a nasty hand.

Lin Haoran smiled, unconcerned. “It’s not that easy to make me take the fall for this. Starting today, this whole affair will come to an end.”

As soon as he acquired all five plots of government land, the “rumor” that Lin Haoran was not optimistic about Hong Kong’s real estate future would naturally crumble on its own.

At three in the afternoon, sunlight pierced through the clouds and sprinkled over the bustling metropolis, adding a touch of vitality to the city.

The streets of Central were packed with people.

Many companies were closed for New Year’s Day, so there were naturally more people out and about.

Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin arrived at the Lands Department on time to participate in the government land auction that Government House had been preparing for nearly a month.

Unlike previous auctions, this one was unusually quiet. Apart from the Hongkong Land Group, Wheelock and Company, and Swire & Co., not a single other property company was present to bid.

The auction was held in a conference room within the Lands Department’s office, presided over by an official from the department.

The atmosphere at the auction was somewhat strange.

Hongkong Land Group’s Boss and general manager were both present in person, whereas Wheelock and Company and Swire & Co. had each sent only a single, little-known senior executive.

This showed that the two foreign firms were mostly just giving favor to Government House and had no intention of taking this government land auction seriously.

In the past, participants in such auctions were either the bosses of property development companies or, at the very least, executives at the general manager level.

Today, however, Wheelock and Swire hadn’t even sent executives of that rank, which clearly revealed their perfunctory attitude toward this auction.

The official presiding over the auction looked at the scene and sighed.

He had personally hosted many government land auctions in the past, but he had never encountered a situation like this.

Which of those auctions hadn’t seen at least a dozen property companies competing?

He remembered one government land auction he had hosted where representatives from over thirty property companies were in attendance. The quality of the government land being auctioned that day was actually far inferior to the plots up for sale today.

Even so, that auction had been exceptionally fierce, with the prices of some plots being driven up to more than double their starting bid before finally being sold.

But today, a scene like this was less an auction and more a formality for plots of land whose buyers had already been decided.

The bidding, it seemed, was just for show.

Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin sat on chairs in the conference room. The official’s voice echoed in the spacious venue, sounding particularly clear.

The first plot was located next to Lung Wo Road, about one hundred meters east of Connaught Centre in Central. This plot was less than fifty meters from the Central Ferry Piers.

It was also the plot with the highest starting bid among the five, a full 1.05 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Based on current market conditions, this plot of land was valued at somewhere between 1.8 billion and 2.5 billion Hong Kong dollars.

The reason the starting bid for government land was set so much lower than the market price was, of course, to leave room for the bidding to rise, thereby making the auction appear intensely competitive.

If the starting bid was set directly at the market price, it wouldn’t seem nearly as enticing.

However, the government had miscalculated this time. They had not expected so many incidents to occur in Hong Kong recently, leading to no one being willing to participate in the bidding.

If they had known this would be the result, the government would never have been willing to put up these prime plots for auction a month ago.

As soon as the official finished his introduction, Ma Shimin, representing the Hongkong Land Group, immediately raised his paddle and called out a bid.

As for the representatives from Wheelock and Company and Swire & Co., they made no move at all.

Unsurprisingly, this most prime piece of real estate was won by the Hongkong Land Group at its starting bid of 1.05 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Afterward, the other four plots of government land went through the same process, all of them successfully acquired at their starting bids.

In reality, if the Taipan of Swire & Co. had been present to see Hongkong Land bidding like this and successfully acquiring these plots for far below market value, he certainly would have joined the bidding as well.

Because the Taipan of Swire & Co. would definitely have been able to see the kind of impact the news of Lin Haoran winning these plots would have once it got out.

Unfortunately, Swire & Co. had only sent a senior executive with little decision-making power. Before he came, his superiors had instructed him that his presence was merely a formality, and he had absolutely no authority to participate in the bidding.

As for Wheelock and Company, they had been divesting their assets all along, so they naturally had no intention of bidding.

This turned out to be a great deal that Lin Haoran swooped in and got.

Otherwise, if Swire & Co. had really participated in the auction, Lin Haoran would have had to bite the bullet and continue bidding, no matter the final price.

Although he had told Governor Murray MacLehose that the Hongkong Land Group had no intention of buying all five plots, deep down, he was actually prepared to acquire them all, no matter the cost.

Now, having won them all at the low cost of their starting bids, he had truly gotten a fantastic deal.

In the end, the Hongkong Land Group acquired all five plots of government land for a total price of 3.02 billion Hong Kong dollars.

“Congratulations, Mr. Lin. Congratulations to the Hongkong Land Group!” After it was over, the senior executives from both Wheelock and Company and Swire & Co. came over to congratulate Lin Haoran.

In truth, although they lacked decision-making power, they were still senior executives and possessed a certain degree of capability.

Thus, by the time Hongkong Land won the second plot, the representative from Swire & Co. had also realized the gravity of the situation and had even hoped to pause the auction so he could apply to his boss for instructions.

Unfortunately, the official did not agree.

Because the official also knew that this auction was meant to end with the Hongkong Land Group taking all five plots.

Lin Haoran accepted their congratulations with a smile, though he knew in his heart that this was just polite pretense.

“Mr. Lin, we would like to trouble you to join us for a press conference at 3:30 this afternoon,” the official from the Lands Department invited Lin Haoran after the auction concluded.

The auction had started at three o’clock sharp, but it hadn’t taken much time at all, ending at around ten past three.

This could be called the fastest government land auction in Hong Kong’s history.

There were no competing bidders; Hongkong Land won everything at the starting price, so it didn’t take long at all.

Government House understood that restoring prosperity to Hong Kong’s property sector required not only substantive policy support but also broad public opinion.

The fact that the Hongkong Land Group had acquired all five plots at this auction was undoubtedly an excellent point for publicity.

Therefore, before the auction was held, the Lands Department had already organized a press conference in advance, just waiting to hold it after the bidding was over.

Hongkong Land acquiring all five plots meant that the narrative pushed by the media was, without a doubt, a “rumor”!

Through the power of the media, they could quickly boost market confidence, attract the attention of more investors and homebuyers, and thereby drive the recovery of the entire property industry.

Since Government House wanted to restore prosperity to Hong Kong’s property sector, it naturally had to seize this opportunity for extensive publicity.

Otherwise, wouldn’t the funds the government lost on these land plots be wasted?

In the past, the final transaction price would have been at least five or six billion Hong Kong dollars.

Now, they had been sold for just over three billion.

Not only that, but they had to beg Hongkong Land to bid, and on top of that, offer the condition of a three-year deferred payment for the land.

It was safe to say that this time, Government House had suffered a huge loss!

Lin Haoran naturally wouldn’t refuse the invitation to the press conference.

Having gotten such a great deal, he had to offer the government some help in return.

So he agreed readily.

At half past three in the afternoon, Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin were led by staff to a government press conference venue.

Many reporters were present. Basically, all of Hong Kong’s major local media outlets had sent people.

This included Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and Kung Sheung Daily News—the very media outlets that had started the trouble. They, too, had sent reporters to the scene.

After all, they were also prominent mainstream media in Hong Kong.

The sight of Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin appearing at the press conference stunned all the reporters.

They had received an invitation from the Lands Department for a press conference.

Many knew that today was the day of the government land auction, so most had guessed that today’s press conference was related to it.

But many had also heard beforehand that practically no property developers would be participating in this auction.

Therefore, many of the reporters had come with the intention of watching a farce unfold.

Despite the uproar over the past few days, Lin Haoran had not come out to refute the rumors.

What did that imply?

It implied that the rumors circulating in the market were likely true!

So why would the Hongkong Land Group actually participate in the bidding?

Chapter 454: Hong Kong’s Number One Television Station

The presence of both Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin here at this moment was proof enough that the Hongkong Land Group had indeed participated in today’s government land auction.

“Just a short while ago, we successfully completed the auction process for five designated plots of government land. With its unique vision and strength, the Hongkong Land Group has won the bids for all the plots. Let us give them our warmest applause and heartfelt congratulations!” At the press conference, the Director of the Lands Department, seated at the center, had just finished speaking when he led the entire hall in thunderous applause.

Upon hearing this, every reporter at the scene was stunned.

Hadn’t it been said that Lin Haoran had no confidence in the future of Hong Kong real estate?

How could he have acted with such boldness, acquiring so many plots of land at once?

The reporters’ shock was palpable. Camera flashes went off one after another as they scrambled to capture this sudden turn of events.

Several reporters from media outlets that had previously published unfavorable remarks about Lin Haoran and the Hongkong Land Group looked particularly awkward, whispering to each other, seemingly discussing how to handle this situation.

With a calm smile, Lin Haoran stood up and nodded slightly to the media and officials present.

“First, I want to thank the Lands Department for organizing this auction, and thank all our friends from the media for their attention. The Hongkong Land Group has always been committed to the long-term development and prosperity of Hong Kong. We are full of confidence in Hong Kong’s future.” Lin Haoran’s voice was clear and firm, resonating throughout the venue via the microphone.

“Some of the recent rumors circulating in the market have indeed caused some trouble for our group and for me personally, but this has only strengthened our resolve to prove everything through our actions.”

He paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone present, and continued, “Today, the Hongkong Land Group successfully won five plots of government land. This was not an impulsive act, but the result of our in-depth market analysis and long-term planning. We believe that as Asia’s financial center and one of the fastest-developing regions in the world, Hong Kong’s property market still possesses immense potential and vitality. The Hongkong Land Group is willing to work with all our peers to jointly promote the healthy development of Hong Kong’s real estate market.”

His words were like a heavy hammer, completely shattering the gloom and negative public opinion that had been pervading Hong Kong’s real estate sector recently.

Who said Lin Haoran had lost faith in Hong Kong real estate?

Look at his actions today! If he wasn’t confident of success, where would he get the audacity to acquire five plots of land in one fell swoop? This move required a massive investment of at least several billion Hong Kong dollars!

Seeing this, the reporters grew agitated, surging forward one after another. Their microphones nearly poked the dais as they strove to catch every word and document every moment of this reversal.

In the crowd, many reporters had already raised their hands eagerly, their eyes glinting with a desire to ask the questions and satisfy the curiosities burning within them.

However, Lin Haoran did not give them the chance.

“Our Hongkong Land Group’s successful bid today is undoubtedly the most powerful refutation of all the rumors that I, Lin Haoran, am pessimistic about Hong Kong’s property industry. Furthermore, I would like to announce an arrangement in advance. Tonight at seven o’clock, I will be making a special address to all the citizens of Hong Kong via TVB’s Jade Channel. I welcome everyone to tune in!”

As Lin Haoran finished, his gaze swept meaningfully over the representatives from several media outlets, including the Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and Kung Sheung Daily News, as if silently conveying a message.

With that, he bid farewell to the officials present and left the scene in a hurry with Ma Shimin.

He left behind a crowd of reporters who wanted to interview him.

A special address?

This immediately captured the attention of all the reporters present.

At this moment, everyone wanted to know what Lin Haoran was going to say.

But to find out, they would have to wait until seven o’clock tonight.

Subsequently, the reporters turned their attention to the officials, vying to ask questions, eager to dig up more details about the auction.

The official handled the heated press conference with composure. However, regarding the special arrangement that allowed the Hongkong Land Group to defer payment for the government land for three years, he remained tight-lipped, not letting a single word slip.

This special term of the deal was highly confidential. Both the Hongkong Land Group and senior officials at Government House were sworn to secrecy, and not a single detail was to be leaked.

After all, if this news got out, it would inevitably cause a huge uproar in all sectors of society, and the consequences would be unimaginable.

Lin Haoran, naturally, couldn’t concern himself with what happened after the press conference.

After leaving the venue, he and Ma Shimin returned to the Connaught Centre.

“The handover of the government land with the Lands Department is now up to you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, seated in his office chair.

“Don’t worry, Boss. This is the Hongkong Land Group’s job, and we will complete it perfectly. Now that we have these five plots of land, we have five more key projects. The future of the Hongkong Land Group is promising!” Ma Shimin said confidently.

“Skyscrapers are to be built on all five of these plots, especially the two in Central. I’ve decided that one of them will become the new tallest building in Hong Kong!” Lin Haoran continued ambitiously.

He wanted the Hongkong Land Group to maintain its status as Hong Kong’s biggest landlord.

“Boss, even if you hadn’t mentioned it, I was just about to suggest it!” Ma Shimin laughed heartily.

Recalling how, just a few months ago, Connaught Centre had lost its crown as ‘Hong Kong’s tallest building’ to the Hopewell Centre in Wan Chai, everyone at the Hongkong Land Group, from top to bottom, felt unwilling to accept defeat.

Therefore, after successfully winning these plots, it wasn’t just Lin Haoran; Ma Shimin’s heart also burned with the same ambition.

“Then it’s settled!” Lin Haoran made the decision with a wave of his hand.

Acquiring these five plots of land had saved them several billion Hong Kong dollars, and that sum was more than enough to fund the construction of the buildings.

“Understood, Boss. Regarding the matter of building Hong Kong’s tallest building, I will arrange for the group to conduct in-depth internal discussions as soon as possible. Also, Boss, you mentioned you’ll be making a special address to all the citizens of Hong Kong tonight. Could you reveal the general content of the speech?” Ma Shimin couldn’t contain his curiosity and couldn’t help but ask.

It wasn’t just the reporters who were full of questions; Ma Shimin was also brimming with curiosity.

But Lin Haoran only gave a mysterious smile and replied, “You’ll find out tonight!”

Seeing that his boss was unwilling to reveal anything in advance, Ma Shimin tactfully refrained from asking further.

After chatting with Ma Shimin for half an hour, Lin Haoran bid him farewell.

After leaving the Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran went directly to the TVB Headquarters building on Broadcast Drive.

By the time he arrived at Broadcast Drive in Kowloon Tong, it was already past five in the afternoon, not long before seven in the evening.

Several months had passed since his last visit.

However, the employees at TVB were well aware that Lin Haoran was also their boss.

Therefore, from the moment he stepped into the TVB Headquarters building, many employees greeted him enthusiastically.

Unlike many other companies that chose to give their employees time off during New Year’s Day, TVB was particularly unique.

Far from feeling deserted, the place was bustling with activity.

Most employees were busy working overtime, and many actors who were participating in tonight’s New Year’s Day Gala were also gathered here.

Although Lin Haoran had only been here a few times, he still had a vivid memory of the place.

So, he easily found his way to the TVB Chairman’s office.

On a normal day, Shao Yifu would have to travel between the Shaw Brothers Film Company and the TVB Headquarters.

But today, the Shaw Brothers Film Company was mostly closed for the holiday, while TVB was the complete opposite.

So, naturally, Shao Yifu was at the TVB Headquarters.

“Haoran, you’re finally here! You certainly have a relaxed life as TVB’s Vice Chairman. We haven’t seen a trace of you in months!” Shao Yifu said, half-jokingly.

In reality, Shao Yifu knew in his heart that he didn’t want Lin Haoran to get too involved in the company’s operations. This way, he could have full authority over the company’s affairs.

“Sixth Uncle, with you holding down the fort at TVB, I naturally have complete confidence. Just look at TVB’s recent viewership ratings—they’ve been consistently far ahead of Rediffusion Television. That’s proof enough that with you at the helm, TVB is in good hands. As for me, the Vice Chairman, I’m more like a spectator who’s just here for the show!” Lin Haoran responded with a smile.

“You haven’t been to the company in a long time. Let me update you on TVB’s recent situation!” Shao Yifu naturally understood that Lin Haoran was just offering pleasantries and didn’t dwell on the matter.

“Thank you for the trouble, Sixth Uncle!” Lin Haoran nodded.

Shao Yifu then took out several ledgers and data books and handed them to Lin Haoran.

Then, he began to speak.

Lin Haoran flipped through the capital and data books while listening to Shao Yifu.

The last time, after acquiring the Lee family’s shares in TVB, Lin Haoran had also offered some suggestions to Shao Yifu regarding TVB.

And Shao Yifu had applied most of these suggestions to the business operations.

The results spoke for themselves. After Shao Yifu took over, TVB’s viewership ratings saw a significant increase. For the past few months, the ratings had consistently remained ahead of the other television station, Rediffusion Television.

In addition, as viewership ratings rose, advertising revenue naturally followed suit.

Although the financial report for 1980 was not yet out, it was expected to be much better than in previous years, without a doubt.

This meant that when it was time for dividends, Lin Haoran should receive a considerable sum, though it was an amount he might not necessarily care much about.

So, although Lin Haoran hadn’t been to the company in several months, he had in fact contributed to its success.

Lin Haoran looked at the data book, which was specifically for recording the viewership ratings of Hong Kong’s television stations.

It not only contained the daily viewership ratings for all the channels under TVB but also those for Rediffusion Television.

In this era, television stations typically commissioned professional survey agencies to conduct viewership surveys.

These agencies would use random sampling to select a certain number of households as a sample and use specific devices to record what television programs these households watched, thereby deriving the viewership data.

Although the accuracy might not have been perfect, it was considered very authoritative for its time.

The data showed that when Lin Haoran first invested in TVB, its total viewership ratings were only on par with Rediffusion Television, and sometimes Rediffusion Television even took the lead.

But afterwards, once Shao Yifu became Chairman, TVB’s ratings began to climb steadily. By September, TVB’s viewership share had stabilized at between sixty and seventy percent.

This meant that their competitor, Rediffusion Television, saw its viewership share squeezed down to between thirty and forty percent.

Chapter 455: The New Generation Surpasses the Old

After hearing Shao Yifu’s report, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but sigh with admiration. “Sixth Uncle, you truly are the best manager for TVB. If I were in charge, I could never have achieved what TVB has today!”

This was what Lin Haoran genuinely thought. He wasn’t skilled at management himself and had never intended to interfere too much with TVB’s operations. Otherwise, Shao Yifu would never have had the chance to become Chairman in the first place.

“You can’t say that. Without the excellent suggestions you made before, TVB wouldn’t necessarily have achieved what it has today,” Shao Yifu said with a smile.

“Let’s not be so modest with each other. In short, with you here at TVB, Sixth Uncle, I have nothing to worry about. From now on, I’m content just being a shareholder,” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

“By the way, Haoran, what is it you want to talk about tonight?” Shao Yifu had been curious about this ever since he received Lin Haoran’s call that morning.

Now that he was finally face-to-face with Lin Haoran, he naturally couldn’t hold back his question any longer, eager to know what kind of speech he planned to deliver to the public using the television station.

“Sixth Uncle, as you know, newspapers like the Sing Tao Daily and Wah Kiu Yat Po have recently been deliberately misleading the public, saying things like I’m not optimistic about Hong Kong’s future. This has caused the entire Hong Kong property market to suddenly stall, as if its engine has died. I’m under immense public pressure because of it.

If I don’t respond soon, Hong Kong’s property sector could really fall into a crisis because of me. That’s why I’m here tonight. I have no desire to become a public enemy.” Lin Haoran didn’t go into detail, but he explained the general purpose of his visit.

Shao Yifu had a sudden realization.

Shaw Brothers had always focused on the film and television industry; they didn’t have much involvement in real estate.

Even so, it wasn’t as if Shao Yifu knew nothing.

As one of Hong Kong’s top business tycoons, he naturally had many friends in the real estate sector.

Even figures like Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng were on good terms with him.

Pao Yue-kong, in particular, was not only a fellow top tycoon in Hong Kong, but they were also middle school alumni and true fellow countrymen.

“Indeed. I’ve been in the Hong Kong business world for decades, and I’m long past being surprised by the media here. Although Hong Kong is a place with freedom of speech, that very freedom means the quality of media outlets is uneven. Fabricating news and manipulating public opinion… it’s all par for the course.

In a situation like yours, you absolutely need to step forward and fight back. Otherwise, even though the media started this mess, everyone will end up blaming you. More importantly, with so many property companies in Hong Kong, many people might shift the blame onto your shoulders!” Shao Yifu strongly approved of Lin Haoran’s intentions.

Born in 1907, Shao Yifu was now seventy-four years old and had been navigating the Hong Kong business world for twenty to thirty years.

Thus, he was a man of considerable experience, and what Lin Haoran was facing was nothing new to him.

Situations like this happened every year in Hong Kong, and it wasn’t unheard of for businessmen with insufficient resources to be bankrupted by public opinion.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s acquisition of the Oriental Daily News and his investment in TVB were very wise choices.

The reason he had allowed the Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and Kung Sheung Daily News to run rampant these past few days without immediately retaliating was because he had the resources and confidence, completely unfazed by their attempts to use him.

In Lin Haoran’s eyes, these media outlets were nothing more than buffoons.

Otherwise, if he had ordered the Oriental Daily News and TVB to counterattack on the very first day, the Sing Tao Daily and the others wouldn’t have been able to stir up any trouble at all.

Of course, their antics had ended up helping Lin Haoran immensely.

It was because of them that the Hongkong Land Group had managed to acquire five plots of land, actually worth five to six billion Hong Kong dollars, for a mere three billion.

This was an outcome achieved by a stroke of luck, something even Lin Haoran hadn’t anticipated.

It was also the reason he hadn’t been in a hurry to make a public statement.

If he had refuted the rumors early on, how could he have acquired those plots of Government land so easily?

Next, Shao Yifu gave Lin Haoran a tour of several of TVB’s key departments.

As they talked, Shao Yifu brought up the upcoming New Year’s Day Gala, which was TVB’s top priority program. They had been preparing for it for nearly a month.

Over at Rediffusion Television, in an effort to compete, they had also put together their own New Year’s Day Gala.

Rediffusion Television was now going all out to win back viewership ratings.

TVB, naturally, couldn’t afford to be careless, or the leading position they had worked so hard to consolidate might be snatched away.

For Shao Yifu to agree to give Lin Haoran such a crucial primetime slot without even knowing what he was going to say was a huge favor.

“Don’t worry, Sixth Uncle. The time I take up tonight won’t cause our Jade Channel’s viewership to drop. In fact, there’s a good chance it will even increase our ratings,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The Jade Channel was TVB’s flagship station and the one with the highest viewership ratings.

The Jade Channel was largely responsible for TVB’s high overall ratings, accounting for the vast majority of its viewership.

Lin Haoran was quite confident he could boost the Jade Channel’s ratings that evening.

At the press conference that afternoon, he had already announced that he would be making a speech on TVB’s Jade Channel that night.

By now, the news had probably spread all over Hong Kong.

As a highly influential figure in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran had certainly piqued the curiosity of many people.

They were curious about what major announcement he was going to make.

This, in turn, would naturally drive the viewership ratings higher.

“Of course I believe you. This property crisis incident alone has shown me just how much influence you have. It’s truly a case of the new generation surpasses the old; each one is stronger than the last. I’ve been in the Hong Kong business world for decades and have never had this much influence!” Shao Yifu said with some emotion.

“I’m just a businessman. I’d rather not have too much influence, or it becomes easy to be used by others, just like this time,” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

“Everything has its pros and cons. Although such great influence has brought you some trouble, the rewards are far greater. You don’t appreciate the good fortune you have. Countless people would kill for that kind of influence!” Shao Yifu said with a hint of envy.

“That’s also true.” Lin Haoran nodded, not dwelling on the topic.

At six o’clock, Shao Yifu took Lin Haoran to the TVB canteen for dinner.

The sight of two business tycoons—especially Lin Haoran, a tycoon among tycoons given his wealth—appearing together in the company canteen surprised many employees, who came over one by one to greet them.

Lin Haoran even spotted Zheng Shaoqiu, Chow Yun-fat, and others.

At this time, there were still very few stars he was familiar with. The one he knew best was probably Chow Yun-fat.

Chow Yun-fat had only become a signature actor for TVB the previous year with his role as Xu Wenqiang in The Bund.

As for Zheng Shaoqiu, he had been a top-tier star in Hong Kong for a long time.

Among the female stars, Lin Haoran only recognized “Ah-je” Wang Mingquan and Zhao Yazhi.

Zhao Yazhi’s beauty was top-notch, and Lin Haoran found her quite admirable.

Unfortunately, Zhao Yazhi was already married and had even given birth to her second child the previous year.

Lin Haoran wasn’t interested in women who already had a husband and children.

With his current status, there was no woman he couldn’t have; there was no need to follow Cao Cao’s example.

After dinner, Lin Haoran and Shao Yifu returned to the office to rest for a while. The time quickly approached 6:50 PM.

Only a few minutes remained before Lin Haoran’s live public address.

In the studio, a female staff member adjusted Lin Haoran’s attire.

Lin Haoran sat in his chair, waiting for seven o’clock to arrive.

At the same time, in every corner of Hong Kong, from the brightly lit city center to the quiet and peaceful villages, television screens in every household flickered with the TVB Jade Channel logo, awaiting the highly anticipated moment: Mr. Lin Haoran’s public address.

The news that Lin Haoran’s Hongkong Land Group had bought all five plots of government land put up for auction that afternoon had already spread throughout most of Hong Kong in just two or three hours.

Hong Kong was a small place, so important news like this naturally traveled fast.

Along with the results of the government land auction, the news that Lin Haoran would be giving a speech on TVB’s Jade Channel at seven o’clock that evening had also spread.

Therefore, many people knew that Lin Haoran would be appearing on television that night.

At that moment, in a high-end restaurant in Causeway Bay, several well-dressed wealthy people were enjoying an exquisite dinner, occasionally glancing up at the wall clock and discussing the upcoming speech in low voices.

As members of Hong Kong’s upper-class society, they held many property assets and naturally didn’t want to see a major drop in Hong Kong’s real estate prices. Thus, they were full of anticipation for Lin Haoran’s appearance, hoping to hear reassuring words from the young tycoon that would restore the public’s confidence in Hong Kong’s property market.

In an ordinary residential area in Central, a family of four was gathered on the living room sofa. The children played excitedly with their toys while their parents stared intently at the television screen, also waiting for Lin Haoran’s speech.

Properties in Central were not cheap. They had just bought their apartment a little over a year ago, and the price they paid wasn’t much less than the current market rates. They were naturally unwilling to see property prices fall, as it would leave them feeling deeply unsettled.

Inside a luxurious villa in Kowloon Tong, several retired elderly people were gathered around a coffee table, sipping tea and chatting. The television was turned up to maximum volume to ensure they could hear every word clearly.

They were curious about what Lin Haoran was going to say, but they were more concerned about whether it would have a positive impact on their quality of life in their later years.

And in the villages of the New Territories, the villagers had finished their farm work early and gathered in front of the small village store, huddled around an old television set, excitedly discussing the impending speech.

Although their pace of life was different from the city’s, and the rise and fall of Hong Kong’s property market seemed to have no connection to them, they were just as curious and expectant about Lin Haoran, a name that frequently appeared in the news.

As the clock hands slowly moved to seven o’clock sharp, it was as if all of Hong Kong was united by an invisible force, with nearly every gaze fixed upon the screens of the Jade Channel.

Chapter 456: A Grudge Must Be Repaid, To Hell With Them!

At this moment, if there were a very precise method for real-time viewership statistics, everyone would be astonished to discover that at seven o’clock, the ratings for the Jade Channel alone had soared to 93%.

This meant that the remaining 7% of viewership was divided among all the other television stations, including TVB’s other channels and the various channels under Lai Television.

However, such a precise real-time statistical method did not exist in this era, so naturally, no one knew that Jade Channel’s viewership at this moment would be so off the charts.

To find out the ratings, one would have to wait until at least the next afternoon for them to be compiled through surveys, and even then, the margin of error was not insignificant.

With a smile on his face, Lin Haoran slowly began to speak to the camera, “Good evening, friends and fellow citizens of Hong Kong. I am Lin Haoran. Today is New Year’s Day, the first day of 1981. I want to give special thanks to TVB for allowing me to communicate face-to-face with everyone at this special moment.”

His voice was crystal clear, carried by the television signal to every corner of Hong Kong.

On camera, he appeared calm and composed, showing no signs of nervousness despite facing an audience of several million people.

“Recently, some malicious narratives suggesting I am pessimistic about Hong Kong’s future have caused a huge uproar in the media. I know that this has caused many people to worry and has even shaken confidence in Hong Kong’s property market.

“Here, I want to solemnly declare to everyone that I have never lost faith in Hong Kong’s future. I believe many of you already know that this afternoon, my company, the Hongkong Land Group, successfully bid for and acquired five prime plots of government land.

“This action alone is more than enough to represent my and Hongkong Land’s full confidence in the future of Hong Kong’s real estate industry. The previous sell-off of property projects was simply a necessary measure taken due to financial difficulties.”

Lin Haoran’s words were like a calming balm, bringing a sense of reassurance to the viewers at home.

Although the news of Hongkong Land successfully acquiring five plots of government land had already spread throughout Hong Kong that afternoon, fanned by interested parties, it was only when people heard Lin Haoran personally confirm it that they truly believed it.

The confidence radiating from Lin Haoran’s words made people begin to reconsider the rumors about him being “pessimistic about Hong Kong’s future.”

“Hong Kong is a place full of vitality and opportunity. Its future will surely be even brighter. Without such a prosperous and stable market as Hong Kong, I, Lin Haoran, would not have achieved what I have today.

“I firmly believe that as long as all of Hong Kong is united and works together, even if we do face economic challenges in the future, we will be able to overcome them and make Hong Kong even more prosperous and beautiful.

“At the same time, I also hope that our friends in the media can report the facts objectively and fairly, and not create fake news or mislead the public just for the sake of sensationalism.”

At this point, Lin Haoran paused deliberately, his gaze profound as he looked into the camera, as if engaging in a heart-to-heart with every single viewer.

“Actually, this is not the main thing I wanted to talk about today.” Lin Haoran faced the camera and continued, his tone tinged with a hint of mystery. “As for whether I have confidence in Hong Kong’s property sector, that much was already self-evident the moment I participated in the land auction and successfully acquired all the plots. The so-called ‘rumor’ crumbled on its own.”

His words were like a stone cast into a still pond, sending ripples spreading outward.

The citizens of Hong Kong, from the small vendors in the streets and alleys to the ordinary families watching television at home, all stopped what they were doing and listened intently to what Lin Haoran would say next.

Even within Hong Kong’s high society, tycoons like Governor Murray MacLehose, Hutchison Whampoa Chairman Li Jiacheng, Kowloon Wharf Chairman Pao Yue-kong, and Jardine Matheson Taipan Simon Keswick all put down their work as if by common impulse, paying close attention to Lin Haoran’s speech.

Originally, everyone had thought Lin Haoran was appearing merely to prove that he was still full of confidence in Hong Kong’s real estate industry.

However, the information revealed in his last sentence seemed to suggest that even more shocking news was about to be unveiled!

Could tonight’s speech be more than it seemed?

Of course, it was not simple!

The moment he confirmed that Jardine Matheson and those few media outlets were targeting him, he had already decided to take revenge.

At this moment, it seemed as though most of the television viewers across Hong Kong were holding their breath, their hearts pounding as they waited with rapt attention for Lin Haoran’s next words.

Their eyes were filled with anticipation and curiosity, as if the entire world had frozen in place.

Even the broadcast director on site was staring intently at Lin Haoran, his gaze locked, afraid of missing any crucial moment or phrase.

Lin Haoran did not keep them waiting long. He calmly pulled three photographs from his trouser pocket—the very same crucial evidence Cui Zilong had obtained by chance.

His true purpose today was to expose the scandal of Jardine Matheson secretly buying and controlling multiple media outlets to manufacture public opinion and influence Hong Kong’s property development!

A grudge must be repaid, to hell with them!

“My friends, you must be curious about the secrets hidden in these three photos in my hand.” Lin Haoran faced the camera, a mysterious glint in his eyes. “Next, I’d like to ask the director to zoom in. I will reveal them one by one!”

At the same time, inside a secluded villa in the Mid-Levels villa area, Bao Fuda was staring intently at the live broadcast on his television screen when a strong sense of unease suddenly welled up within him.

This retaliatory action against Lin Haoran was, in fact, orchestrated by the Keswick family. Jardine Matheson had been nearly crippled by Lin Haoran alone some time ago, and they were naturally unwilling to accept defeat, always plotting to get their revenge. And he, Bao Fuda, was the key figure executing this plan.

He had thought his actions were flawless, leaving no trace behind. He had even used cash for all the payoffs, precisely to avoid leaving a single shred of evidence.

However, when he saw the photos in Lin Haoran’s hand—blurry, yet chilling enough—his heart felt as if it had been struck by a bolt from the blue.

Although the photos had not yet been enlarged and the details were unclear, Bao Fuda could tell from the silhouettes alone that he was the main subject of those pictures.

A chill ran down his spine. He realized that this time, he might have truly gotten himself into big trouble.

Bao Fuda’s hand unconsciously tightened on the armrest of the sofa, his eyes locked on the television screen, a turmoil of emotions churning within him.

This scene was also witnessed by the key personnel from Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and Kung Sheung Daily News who had been involved in the matter.

Their eyes were glued to the television screen, their bodies trembling involuntarily. Fine beads of sweat appeared on their foreheads and trickled slowly down their cheeks.

Once this matter was exposed, the public trust their media outlets had built up over many years would be utterly destroyed in an instant.

They were filled with fear and anxiety, as if they could see the abyss they were about to face.

Meanwhile, on the television screen, the director had already zoomed in, and Lin Haoran began to present the photos one by one.

“The first photo is of a private meeting between a senior executive from Jardine Matheson and the general manager of Sing Tao Daily. Beside them is a suitcase filled with Hong Kong dollars,” Lin Haoran’s voice came through the screen, sharp and clear.

Although Lin Haoran did not mention anyone by name, many viewers already recognized the people in the photograph.

Bao Fuda had been the general manager of Hongkong Land for many years and was already a familiar public figure.

The general manager of Sing Tao Daily was also known to quite a few people.

While no one knew what Bao Fuda and the general manager of Sing Tao Daily were discussing in the photo, the suitcase full of Hong Kong dollars was enough to signify that they were conducting a transaction.

Moreover, for such a large sum of money to be exchanged in cash, rather than by cheque or bank transfer, clearly indicated that this was a deal they did not want anyone to know about!

A single photograph could reveal a great deal.

Bao Fuda stared at the photo on the screen, his expression growing uglier by the second.

He never thought the person in the picture was really him, that Lin Haoran truly possessed such conclusive evidence, and even less that he would be so bold as to make it all public.

“The second photo, once again, reveals a secret meeting between this same senior executive from Jardine Matheson and the editor-in-chief of Wah Kiu Yat Po. Beside them, again, is that suitcase filled with Hong Kong dollars, a silent testament to a transaction of money and interests.”

Lin Haoran’s voice was very calm and clear. He explained in detail as he showed the photo.

This photo was identical in nature to the first, only with a different person, but the underlying chain of interests was crystal clear.

Without needing further explanation, the viewers could understand that Bao Fuda was using money to conduct a dirty deal with another media figure.

At this moment, the audience watching at home was profoundly shocked.

Their faces were etched with astonishment and anger. They couldn’t believe that the media they had always trusted and respected had become a tool for Jardine Matheson to manipulate public opinion.

To become mainstream media outlets, they must have possessed significant public trust. But at this moment, seeing the media big shots in the photos, where was that credibility now?

This feeling of being deceived was like a fishbone stuck in their throats, an unspeakable discomfort.

“The final photo is still of this senior executive from Jardine Matheson in a secret meeting with the editor-in-chief of Kung Sheung Daily News. And next to them is that same suitcase full of Hong Kong dollars, blindingly conspicuous.”

Lin Haoran’s voice was filled with biting sarcasm and irrepressible anger. “This is the ugly truth behind the glamorous facade of ‘press freedom’ and ‘fair reporting’ that some people preach!

“The reason I remained silent all this time and didn’t rush to clarify the rumors was because I was thoroughly investigating the mastermind behind all of this.

“However, the truth I discovered left even me utterly shocked!”

As Lin Haoran’s voice fell, the entire studio fell into a brief silence.

The viewers in front of their televisions seemed too stunned to speak. Was this the society and media environment they lived in?

As for Bao Fuda, his heart felt as if it were being crushed by a giant rock, making it hard to breathe.

Panic and despair surged like a tide, completely drowning him.

He knew very well that once these photos were exposed, not only would his personal reputation be destroyed, but Jardine Matheson would also face immense public pressure and legal risks, and possibly even be held accountable by the Government House.

Chapter 457: A Flustered Simon Keswick

On the television screen, Lin Haoran held up the photos and continued his speech with a deadpan expression.

“At first, when the Sing Tao Daily, the Wah Kiu Yat Po, and the Kung Sheung Daily News began to steer public opinion, I mistakenly thought they were merely chasing public attention and newspaper sales.

However, after I happened to obtain these three crucial photographs, I had a sudden realization. There was a massive conspiracy hidden behind it all.

How can there be so many coincidences in this world? The senior executives of these newspapers just happened to meet with the senior executives of Jardine Matheson & Co. during this exact period, and they all received a suitcase full of cash.

I believe that by now, the audience watching on their televisions must also understand the real truth behind this sudden property crisis sweeping through Hong Kong.

I must admit that in the process of acquiring Hongkong Land Group and Jardine Matheson & Co., I did indeed infringe upon the interests of the financial backers behind Jardine Matheson. But this was all based on normal business competition and operations.

However, for Jardine Matheson to retaliate against me by dragging Hong Kong’s entire property market down with them—that was something I never expected!

This can’t help but remind me of the incident more than half a year ago, when Fortress Electrical Company, a subsidiary of the Hongkong Electric Group, was falsely accused by Jadine’s own Jardine Electrical City in collusion with the Hong Kong Times—an atrocious act that even involved conspiring with the police.

Now, such tactics are being used once again, which makes me deeply concerned about the business environment in Hong Kong. What I long for is a fair, just, and transparent business environment.

Even in a fiercely competitive market, I hope to see head-on competition, not underhanded tricks and conspiracies. Therefore, I implore the Government House to step forward and uphold justice for me!

At the same time, I hope that Hong Kong’s media industry can have more truthful reporting and less fake news, to jointly spread positive energy and contribute to the development of Hong Kong!

Today is New Year’s Day, and TVB’s Jade Channel is about to present a wonderful New Year’s Day Gala. This is all I, Lin Haoran, have to say today, as I don’t wish to delay everyone from enjoying the fantastic program that follows.

I sincerely wish every friend watching on television a better and better new year, with a flourishing career and a happy, harmonious family!”

With that, Lin Haoran gave a sincere, gentle bow to the audience, expressing his deepest wishes.

He then left the live studio and handed the floor back to the television station.

A glance at the time showed he had spoken for almost exactly ten minutes.

Next, the Jade Channel naturally returned to its regular programming, and the New Year’s Day Gala officially began.

As for Lin Haoran, after finishing the broadcast, he went straight back to the Chairman’s office.

Shao Yifu had been watching his entire speech intently.

Seeing Lin Haoran push the door open, Shao Yifu stood up personally to greet him, his eyes filled with admiration.

“Haoran, among all of us Chinese-owned enterprise owners in Hong Kong, you are the boldest. To dare to directly challenge a British-funded conglomerate… truly admirable!” Shao Yifu said with emotion.

This was something Shao Yifu genuinely admired.

In a place like Hong Kong, due to the favoritism of the Government House, the British seemed inherently superior, while the Chinese were often treated as second-class citizens.

Even a high-profile entrepreneur like Shao Yifu wouldn’t dare to easily make an enemy of a Taipan from a top-tier British-funded conglomerate.

Therefore, many of Hong Kong’s Chinese entrepreneurs chose to prioritize harmony and avoid unnecessary conflict.

The truth hidden behind this was simply the helplessness and compromise of the Chinese entrepreneurs.

They had no choice but to act cautiously, because those British-funded conglomerates were backed by the Government House. Offending them would have unimaginable consequences.

The reason Pao Yue-kong had successfully acquired Kowloon Wharf right under the nose of Jardine Matheson was not only because he had the strong support of HSBC, but more importantly, because Pao Yue-kong himself had already acquired British citizenship.

This gave him a certain advantage in his contest with Jardine Matheson, so he did not fear them.

That was indeed a special case.

However, others did not have such advantages.

Besides Pao Yue-kong, who else would dare to repeatedly engage in direct, head-on confrontations with British-funded conglomerates like Lin Haoran?

One could say there was hardly another person like him in all of Hong Kong.

This was not the first time.

The last time, Lin Haoran had forced Newbiggin, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, to make a public apology on television in front of all of Hong Kong.

That was undoubtedly a rare and historic victory for Chinese entrepreneurs.

Now, such a thing might be happening all over again.

And this time, the impact would definitely be greater.

Lin Haoran’s live speech was like a bombshell, sending shockwaves through all sectors of Hong Kong society.

The citizens who had been worried about the property market regained their confidence in Hong Kong’s real estate industry because of his speech.

The media world, on the other hand, was plunged into an unprecedented crisis of trust.

In a villa on Victoria Peak, Simon Keswick, the current Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., had just hung up the phone with Bao Fuda. His face was ashen.

He had just given Bao Fuda a tongue-lashing over the phone. If he hadn’t been so sloppy, how could this have been leaked?

But what was the use of chewing out a subordinate?

Wrecking Hong Kong’s property market and trying to make Lin Haoran the scapegoat was indeed a revenge plot meticulously planned by their family.

Their goal was clear: to deal a heavy blow to this Chinese rival who had caused them such heavy losses, to make him the target of public criticism in Hong Kong’s real estate circle, and to see his influence plummet.

They reasoned that since Jardine Matheson was about to leave Hong Kong and Hongkong Land Group was no longer related to them, what did the rise or fall of Hong Kong’s property industry have to do with them?

They had thought the plan was carried out in such secrecy, with Bao Fuda secretly contacting the heads of those media outlets at the Atlantic Coffee Shop—a place controlled by their Keswick family—that it should have been flawless.

However, they never imagined that despite Bao Fuda’s caution, he had overlooked one crucial detail—the coffee shop window hadn’t been closed!

This oversight allowed a passerby to quietly photograph the scene of their secret meeting, which became the key evidence that would later expose the truth.

This unexpected oversight completely derailed their plans.

They had originally thought they could carry out their revenge discreetly, but the result was the exact opposite. Not only did Lin Haoran detect the crisis in time, but he also exposed their conspiracy to the public through a live television broadcast, causing a massive uproar in society.

Simon Keswick gripped the wine glass in his hand. The liquid swayed gently but never touched his lips.

His gaze went past the floor-to-ceiling windows to the waning lights of the Hong Kong nightscape beyond, but his heart was shrouded in darkness.

He had already realized that not only had this operation failed to strike a blow against Lin Haoran as they had wished, but it had also caused Jardine Matheson’s reputation to plummet, making them the target of public criticism.

Jardine Matheson could deny it, but no one was a fool.

“We underestimated him. We underestimated this young man,” Simon Keswick’s low voice echoed in the empty villa.

At this moment, although he couldn’t predict how this matter would ultimately unfold, he knew in his heart that the consequences would be severe.

Although Jardine Matheson’s business in Hong Kong now accounted for less than ten percent of their portfolio, and most of their operations had moved overseas, they still owned several major commercial buildings and the securities giant, Jardine Securities, in Hong Kong.

Therefore, even though his focus was no longer on Hong Kong, Simon Keswick did not dare to relax in the slightest.

This incident not only touched a sensitive nerve in Hong Kong’s business community but also unexpectedly dragged the Government House into it, making the situation even more complex and tricky.

Everyone knew that today’s government land auction had resulted in heavy losses for the Government House.

Simon Keswick had known about it when the news of the auction came out.

It was just that at the time, he didn’t know that Lin Haoran had already discovered he was the person behind the scenes, so he had appeared very calm.

As long as no one knew, even if the Government House suffered heavy losses, what did that have to do with Jardine Matheson?

But now, the news that Jardine Matheson was the mastermind had gotten out.

Simon Keswick knew very well that if this wasn’t handled properly, it could not only harm Jardine Matheson’s remaining interests in Hong Kong but also trigger a wider social and political storm.

Therefore, he had to handle the current situation with even greater caution. He needed to protect Jardine Matheson’s assets in Hong Kong from loss while also trying to quell the public’s anger, and especially to smooth things over with the Government House to avoid unnecessary trouble for his overseas business.

As a British-owned company, Jardine Matheson’s body might be in Hong Kong, but its heart was in Britain.

And the Government House was also under British jurisdiction.

In other words, this affair of theirs was a slap in Britain’s face.

This would make things awkward even when they were to leave Hong Kong and move their headquarters to London.

At this thought, a wave of panic washed over Simon Keswick. He quickly picked up the telephone receiver again and dialed the number of his older brother, Henry Keswick, far away in Britain.

Fortunately, it was afternoon in Britain, and Henry Keswick answered the phone quickly.

Simon Keswick reported everything that had just happened, including Lin Haoran’s live television speech and the serious consequences he foresaw, giving Henry Keswick a full account.

After finishing his report, he waited nervously, hoping to get some brilliant advice from his older brother on how to resolve the current crisis.

Henry Keswick, this titan of industry who had weathered countless storms in the business world and led Jardine Matheson to its peak in the sixties and seventies—his rich experience and sharp judgment might just be able to help Jardine Matheson find a way out of this mess.

Chapter 458: Killing with a Borrowed Knife!

Retaliating against Lin Haoran was something Henry Keswick had approved.

Therefore, Henry Keswick knew there was no point in blaming his younger brother for the poor execution.

On the other end of the line, Henry Keswick finally broke the silence, his voice remarkably calm. “Simon, the current situation is indeed tricky, but not without a solution. We need a scapegoat to divert public attention and ease the pressure on Jardine Matheson & Co.”

“A scapegoat?” Simon Keswick’s mind stirred, seemingly grasping the deeper meaning in his older brother’s words.

“That’s right. Bao Fuda,” Henry Keswick said without hesitation. “He was the direct executor of this operation and the only one with direct contact with outsiders. Pushing him forward will both appease public anger and protect Jardine Matheson’s core interests from harm. It will also serve as an explanation for the Government House. While it might not completely clear our name, it will at least mitigate our culpability.”

Simon Keswick frowned upon hearing this. “But, Older Brother, Bao Fuda is one of our own. Isn’t this too cruel?”

“Cruel?” Henry Keswick sneered. “In the world of business, there are no permanent friends or enemies, only permanent interests. Since Bao Fuda was careless enough to let the operation leak, he should pay the price for his mistake.”

“But won’t this cause internal dissatisfaction and instability?” Simon Keswick was still hesitant, fully aware of what such a decision meant for Bao Fuda.

“Don’t worry, we can handle this more thoroughly,” Henry Keswick analyzed calmly from the other end of the line. “Give Bao Fuda a generous severance package as compensation for his ‘resignation for personal reasons,’ and then have him leave Hong Kong as soon as possible.

“At the same time, we’ll announce to the public that this was all Bao Fuda’s private decision, made for the sake of his own promotion. It was entirely his personal action and had nothing to do with Jardine Matheson & Co.

“Bao Fuda was trying to display his ability and value by targeting Lin Haoran, but he never expected things to blow up like this.”

Although Simon Keswick still felt a pang of pity, he knew this was the most expedient way to protect Jardine Matheson’s reputation.

Those few photographs had already plunged Jardine Matheson into a vortex of public opinion, and they had to find a way out quickly.

“I understand, Older Brother. While it’s unfair to Bao Fuda, it’s for the overall benefit of Jardine Matheson,” Simon Keswick sighed, finally nodding in agreement.

Once they did this, it would be almost impossible for Bao Fuda to ever return to Hong Kong or Britain.

After hanging up, Simon Keswick immediately convened an overnight meeting with Jardine Matheson’s public relations team and legal counsel to begin preparing the plan to make Bao Fuda the scapegoat.

And just as Simon Keswick was scrambling to handle the crisis, inside the Government House, Sir Murray MacLehose’s face was equally grim.

The television was still tuned to the Jade Channel, which was broadcasting the New Year’s Day Gala. Samuel Hui was on screen, singing “Ten Girls,” a song familiar to every citizen of Hong Kong.

This song was the most famous track from the Cantonese album “’79 Summer Song Collection,” released in August 1979.

However, Sir Murray MacLehose had no interest in it; his mind was far from the cheerful melody.

His expression was a tempest, his brows furrowed as if carrying a colossal weight one moment, his teeth clenched in suppressed fury the next. Then he would let out a long sigh, seemingly exhausted and helpless in the face of the current dilemma.

The recent turmoil in Hong Kong’s property sector had cost him several nights of good sleep.

This time, due to the sudden stall in the property market, the Government House had suffered losses amounting to two to three billion Hong Kong dollars.

In a desperate attempt to turn the tide and save Hong Kong’s property market from disaster, Sir Murray MacLehose, after in-depth discussions with his aides, had decided to personally meet with Lin Haoran. The goal was to persuade him to bid for all five plots of land, thereby sending a strong signal to the outside world that Lin Haoran remained confident in the future of Hong Kong’s property market.

This was no small sum; the amount was so large that even the Government House felt the sting.

More importantly, to secure Lin Haoran’s cooperation, Sir Murray MacLehose had been willing to humble himself on behalf of the Government House, almost begging the other party to agree to participate in the auction.

This move not only resulted in a direct financial loss of two to three billion Hong Kong dollars for the Government House but also caused it to lose all face.

Sir Murray MacLehose had originally thought the matter was just a stunt by a few media outlets chasing traffic.

Only now did he realize that Jardine Matheson & Co. had been the mastermind behind it all.

Sitting in his office at the Government House, Sir Murray MacLehose tapped his fingers lightly on the desk, his eyes filled with deep thought and anger.

He now understood that this incident was far more complex than he had anticipated. The involvement of Jardine Matheson had pushed the situation into an even trickier territory.

He had always maintained a certain distance from corporate competition within Hong Kong’s business world. Especially when British-owned companies were involved, even if he remained impartial, his subordinate departments often tended to give preferential treatment to British-owned companies while potentially placing unnecessary pressure on Chinese-owned enterprises.

He had always turned a blind eye to the actions of his subordinates.

This time, however, Jardine Matheson had not only overstepped the bounds of business competition but had also severely damaged the interests of the Government House and, by extension, the British Empire. This, he could no longer ignore.

This time, Jardine Matheson had completely disregarded the interests of the Government House, all for the sake of retaliating against Lin Haoran. How could Sir Murray MacLehose not be enraged!

This was undoubtedly a major stain on his career as the Governor of Hong Kong!

Deep down, however, Sir Murray MacLehose also felt a sense of relief.

For some time, he had been pondering how to respond to the British government.

Now, at least, he had a perfectly justifiable explanation to offer them!

As the mastermind behind this incident, Jardine Matheson & Co. had to bear full responsibility.

Furthermore, the three media outlets they had bought off could not escape punishment either!

The matter was too significant to be handled lightly. He needed to discuss a counter-strategy with key officials like the Financial Secretary, the Secretary for Justice, and the Commissioner of the Police Department.

But night had already fallen. Even if he wanted to call an emergency meeting, it would have to wait until the next day.

That night, Lin Haoran’s ten-minute speech was like a fierce blizzard sweeping through Hong Kong.

People were talking, and all sorts of speculation and rumors flew about.

The tranquility of the night was but a brief respite before an even bigger storm.

Lin Haoran and Shao Yifu watched almost the entire New Year’s Day Gala together at the live broadcast site, not leaving the TVB Headquarters until nine-thirty in the evening.

The gala was rich and diverse in its content. Even Lin Haoran, a transmigrator who had been exposed to all kinds of video platforms from a later era, was deeply captivated and watched with great interest.

So, it was a given that the viewership ratings for TVB’s New Year’s Day Gala tonight would be through the roof.

Especially after his speech; even when it ended, a large number of viewers would have chosen to stay on the Jade Channel to continue watching the gala’s exciting programs.

However, the final ratings would only be known after the survey company finished compiling the data tomorrow.

In the blink of an eye, the next day arrived.

In the morning, Lin Haoran woke up early as usual.

Beside him, Rosamund Kwan was still sound asleep.

Last night, her shop had its busiest day since opening, so she had worked late before coming over.

Lin Haoran let her be. He got up, washed up, and went downstairs to have the maid prepare breakfast and the newspapers for him.

It was a foregone conclusion that his speech last night had caused a huge sensation in Hong Kong.

At the breakfast table, Lin Haoran flipped through several major newspapers. Without exception, the headlines were all about the content of his speech and the various discussions it had sparked.

He wasn’t surprised by this.

These outcomes were sealed the moment he had spoken those words.

For now, the events were still fermenting.

Ultimately, Jardine Matheson & Co. and the three newspapers would receive the punishment they deserved.

As for what kind of punishment that would be, Lin Haoran was very much looking forward to finding out.

They had caused the Government House to lose two to three billion Hong Kong dollars. He refused to believe the Government House would show them any mercy.

This was precisely why Lin Haoran had chosen to speak publicly to all of Hong Kong.

He wanted to kill with a borrowed knife!

The moment he obtained those three photographs, Lin Haoran had become the mortal enemy of those three newspapers and Jardine Matheson & Co.

Revenge was a certainty.

But revenge didn’t necessarily require one to act personally.

Killing with a borrowed knife was clearly the best method.

Let the Government House avenge him and punish these enemies severely!

Afterward, if the punishment Jardine Matheson received was too light, he wouldn’t let the matter rest.

This business war was far from over, but for now, all he had to do was wait quietly.

After breakfast, Lin Haoran sat in his study.

He didn’t go out.

Between nine and ten in the morning, he received numerous phone calls, most of them from the tycoons of Hong Kong’s business community.

While they admired his courage, they mostly offered their support.

After all, this could be considered a victory for Chinese entrepreneurs.

In the past, British-owned companies had bullied Chinese-owned enterprises countless times, but everyone had been angry yet dared not to speak out.

Now, Lin Haoran had finally stood up for them.

Time quickly passed to eleven in the morning.

At that moment, the phone in the study rang abruptly. Lin Haoran swiftly picked up the receiver and spoke in a steady voice, “Hello, this is Lin Haoran.”

“Boss, it’s Ma Shimin. I have an urgent situation to report,” Ma Shimin’s voice on the other end sounded slightly agitated.

“Go on, what is it?” Lin Haoran said.

Chapter 459: The Harshest Punishment, Shutting Down Three Media Outlets!

“A reaction this quickly?” Even Lin Haoran himself was a little surprised.

He had only made a public statement last night, and the results of the Government land auction had also just been announced yesterday.

To his surprise, in just one night, Hong Kong’s property sector seemed to be showing signs of recovery.

He was astonished by his own influence.

He hadn’t expected the citizens of Hong Kong to trust him so much.

With his strength alone, he could shake the very economic pulse of all of Hong Kong.

Is this my influence?

Lin Haoran had mixed feelings, a myriad of thoughts racing through his mind.

“Boss, the Hong Kong property market has been showing signs of cooling down recently. Yesterday was New Year’s Day, a public holiday, and many property developments launched significant promotional deals to attract customers, hoping to draw in more buyers.

However, although major developments were running promotions yesterday, the public’s confidence in the market was still lacking, so sales figures weren’t as good as expected.

But today, things have taken a turn. Many developments didn’t withdraw yesterday’s special offers; instead, they’ve increased their promotional efforts. This was clearly influenced by the news of your upcoming speech, as they hoped to use this opportunity to stimulate the market.

And your speech, along with the news that the Hongkong Land Group successfully won the bid for the Government land, undoubtedly gave the market a much-needed shot in the arm, igniting the public’s enthusiasm for buying property.

Now, many citizens interested in investing in the property market or buying a home for themselves see this as an opportunity to enter the market at a low price. They’re afraid that if they miss it, property prices will skyrocket again like before.” Ma Shimin’s words were filled with admiration and awe for Lin Haoran’s influence.

Lin Haoran’s influence far exceeded his expectations.

“Understood. Is there anything else you need me to handle?” Lin Haoran didn’t dwell on Ma Shimin’s compliments and asked directly.

“No, that’s all. I mainly wanted to report to you on the property market situation. Oh, right, there is one other thing to report. The technical and negotiation teams from the Motorola Company will arrive in Hong Kong tomorrow,” Ma Shimin replied after a moment’s thought.

“How are the preparations for the meeting with the Hongkong Telephone Company coming along?” Lin Haoran followed up.

“Everything is ready. Plus, Hongkong Telephone Company’s general manager, Mr. David, is an expert in the communications sector. You can rest assured about the partnership with Motorola. I will personally oversee everything, from the initial contact to the signing of the contract,” Ma Shimin reported confidently.

“Very good. I’ll leave it to you, then,” Lin Haoran said, satisfied.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran sat back down in his chair.

It was still early. He planned to go out after lunch.

Meanwhile, at Government House, located in the Mid-Levels between Albert Road and Lower Albert Road in Central, an emergency meeting was held early in the morning.

Before nine in the morning, Governor Sir Murray MacLehose had urgently summoned the Financial Secretary, the Secretary for Justice, the Police Commissioner, and other senior officials, demanding they arrive at Government House by nine o’clock sharp to discuss a matter of great importance.

The core topic of the meeting was precisely how to deal with Jardine Matheson & Co. and the several newspapers, including Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and Kung Sheung Daily News.

Although Jardine Matheson & Co. was a British-owned company, its actions had caused severe losses to Government House and even the British government.

As the administrative body of the Hong Kong region, Government House had never suffered such a significant loss.

Therefore, both Jardine Matheson & Co. and the newspapers had to bear the consequences of their actions.

Only then could Governor MacLehose give a proper account to the British government.

Sir Murray MacLehose forcefully stubbed out his cigar in a gilded ashtray. The smoke curled upwards, highlighting his tense and resolute jawline.

Beside the oval conference table, the Financial Secretary was briefing everyone with a grave expression. The financial estimate report in front of him, detailing the losses to Government House from the land auction due to the property crisis, rustled in the draft.

“Our losses are preliminarily estimated to be at least three billion Hong Kong dollars!” Sir Murray MacLehose cut the Financial Secretary off abruptly. “I know that some of you present may have inextricable links to Jardine Matheson & Co.

But at this moment, you must understand that the enormous losses suffered by Government House and even the British government mean that Jardine Matheson can no longer escape accountability. They must take responsibility for this!”

The Secretary for Justice cleared his throat, signaling he was about to speak. “Mr. Governor, from a legal perspective, the actions of Jardine Matheson and those newspapers constitute a detriment to the public interest. We have every reason to file a lawsuit against them seeking compensation, and they must be punished severely. The penalty cannot be light!”

“I agree with the Secretary for Justice,” the Police Commissioner added. “At the same time, we should also increase our surveillance of these organizations to prevent them from further disrupting Hong Kong’s social stability and economic order.”

Inside the conference room, the senior officials all nodded in agreement.

This incident was no longer a simple case of business warfare; it was a challenge to the authority of Government House and a test of Hong Kong’s social order.

If the punishment was not severe enough this time, more companies would challenge the bottom line of Government House in the future.

“So, what should we do next?” Governor MacLehose’s gaze swept across the important Hong Kong officials present as he asked again.

The Financial Secretary took a deep breath, stood up, and said, “Mr. Governor, and my colleagues present, I propose that the first thing we do is issue an official statement severely condemning the malicious actions of Jardine Matheson and those newspapers, clearly stating our position and attitude.

Following that, the Department of Justice should take the lead in quickly preparing the necessary legal documents to sue them, ensuring the legal process proceeds smoothly. At the same time, the Police Department must step up their supervision and investigation, sparing no effort to gather more concrete evidence.

Furthermore, regarding the immense losses Jardine Matheson has caused us, we cannot condone their actions. We must impose a harsh penalty on them as a deterrent. To prevent them from transferring assets, I recommend an immediate freeze on all their property transactions in Hong Kong, including their commercial buildings.

As for the three media outlets, their actions have severely damaged the interests and reputation of Government House.

Although these media organizations were previously known for being pro-Government House and provided considerable help with our publicity, they have lost their reason for existing the moment they harmed our interests.

Therefore, I propose we directly revoke their media licenses, promptly arrest the responsible individuals, and punish them severely according to the law. They must pay the price they deserve.

In short, the authority of Government House is not to be challenged. Any action that harms our interests and reputation will be met with the most severe crackdown and sanctions.”

The Financial Secretary was indeed a ruthless person, proposing the harshest punishment right off the bat!

As soon as the Financial Secretary finished speaking, a senior executive’s jaw trembled slightly. His lips moved as if he wanted to say something.

However, when his gaze met Governor MacLehose’s stern look, and he considered the grave situation, he ultimately chose silence, wisely keeping his mouth shut.

This senior official was well aware that he had inextricable vested interests with Jardine Matheson & Co. Over the years, Jardine Matheson’s growth had benefited from his covert assistance.

But now, with the authority of Government House damaged and public anger simmering, any words defending Jardine Matheson would be feeble and could even drag him into the storm.

Therefore, he wisely chose to remain silent and wait and see how things develop.

“Punishment is certainly an option, but it must be within the bounds of the law. This is a matter of principle, and Jardine Matheson & Co. is no exception,” Governor MacLehose responded after a moment of contemplation. “As for the three media outlets, I will support the Financial Secretary’s decision. However, we must proceed with caution when dealing with Jardine Matheson.”

Ultimately, Chinese-owned enterprises and British-owned ones were treated differently, especially a behemoth like Jardine Matheson. Although Jardine Matheson was the mastermind behind this affair, even MacLehose didn’t dare to completely alienate them.

He changed his tone and continued, “After all, Jardine Matheson is a century-old British-owned company with complex ties to numerous British financial groups. It also recently received a capital injection from the Rothschild family. This background forces us to be more cautious in handling this matter to avoid unnecessary political turmoil or economic losses.”

“While we wish to recover all our losses, considering the complex network of relationships behind Jardine Matheson, we should not adopt overly aggressive measures. We must find a way to handle this that upholds the dignity of the law, balances the interests of all parties, and does our best to recoup our losses.”

His words made the officials present nod in agreement.

The Financial Secretary nodded slightly, indicating that he understood the Governor’s concerns.

He, of course, also understood that the matter of Jardine Matheson indeed required greater caution to avoid triggering a larger political and economic storm.

As a higher-level decision-maker, the Governor’s considerations were bound to be more comprehensive, the result of deep thought and careful deliberation.

After the meeting adjourned, the various departments of Government House moved swiftly into action.

The first to suffer were the newspapers: Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and Kung Sheung Daily News.

When the employees of these newspapers arrived for work as usual, they found their offices suddenly surrounded by law enforcement.

Shortly after, the senior executives of these newspapers—the owners, editors-in-chief, general managers, and others—were arrested one after another.

What awaited them were harsh interrogations and severe consequences.

At twelve noon, Government House issued a public announcement.

Hong Kong Government House Announcement!

Upon investigation, Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and Kung Sheung Daily News are suspected of disseminating false information, manipulating the market, and harming the public interest, leading to a severe market crisis in the Hong Kong property sector. This is a serious violation of the Publishing Management Regulations and the Media Operations Regulations.

The following decisions have been made:

1. Effective immediately, the media operating licenses of the three aforementioned outlets are revoked. All their publications are to be removed from circulation at once.

2. Judicial detention will be imposed on 21 senior executives from the involved organizations, including general managers and editors-in-chief. The parts of the case involving suspected economic crimes will be transferred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption for a thorough investigation.

3. A campaign to rectify the media industry will be launched this month. The public is welcome to report any leads on violations via the Government House hotline.

Government House reiterates that it will absolutely not tolerate any force undermining the foundation of the rule of law in Hong Kong. Evidence of illegal financial transactions seized in this operation has been submitted to the Privy Council in London for the record.

Hong Kong Government House

January 2, 1981.

Chapter 460: This ‘Killing with a Borrowed Knife’ Worked Too Well!

After all, the Sing Tao Daily, the Wah Kiu Yat Po, and the Kung Sheung Daily News were all among the top ten newspapers in Hong Kong.

Among them, the Sing Tao Daily had consistently ranked in the top three for years.

But now, they were being shut down just like that.

As soon as this announcement was made, it spread throughout all of Hong Kong in an instant.

The release of the notice was like a bombshell, setting off a tremendous uproar across all sectors of Hong Kong society.

On street corners and in alleyways, people were abuzz with discussion, all marveling at the swiftness and decisiveness of the Government House’s action.

At the newsstands, the spots where the Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and Kung Sheung Daily News were usually displayed were now empty.

Government House had demanded the immediate removal of all publications from these three companies, and no one dared to defy them.

Radio and television stations, not wanting to be left behind, quickly launched special programs, inviting legal experts, current affairs commentators, and figures from various social circles to provide in-depth analysis and discussion of the government’s announcement.

In the court of public opinion, there was both praise for the Government House’s efforts to maintain market order and protect public interests, as well as concern and criticism over the restriction of media freedom and the compression of free speech.

After all, Hong Kong had always been known for its freedom of speech.

But this time, the Government House’s decision was so resolute that it gave the Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and Kung Sheung Daily News no chance to react.

Meanwhile, at Jardine Matheson & Co., although they had not yet faced any direct legal action, a state of widespread panic had already set in internally.

Last night, the senior executives of Jardine Matheson had held an all-night meeting to discuss how to handle the matter.

Although reluctant, Bao Fuda could only helplessly accept Simon Keswick’s suggestion. He secretly boarded a boat and left Hong Kong overnight, planning to fly from Manila, two thousand kilometers away, to South Africa to escape.

Jardine Matheson also had important business interests in South Africa, such as the Rennies Company, which it had acquired years ago. South Africa was now one of Jardine Matheson’s key markets.

Although Bao Fuda’s oversight had led to their plot being discovered, Simon Keswick was unwilling to abandon him completely, given his talents.

He arranged for Bao Fuda to take charge of the branch company in South Africa, to make money for the company and hopefully recoup some of Jardine Matheson’s losses.

This way, when Jardine Matheson shifted the blame to Bao Fuda, they could claim that he had already fled to escape punishment.

As for Simon Keswick, he had received a message from an official after the meeting at Government House concluded.

Once he understood the government’s attitude, Simon Keswick knew that the situation might be even more serious than he had imagined.

He then went to Government House personally, hoping to pay a visit and explain that the entire affair was Bao Fuda’s personal doing.

To his surprise, however, Governor Sir Murray MacLehose refused to see him, forcing him to return empty-handed.

Now, even if he wanted to pin the blame on Bao Fuda, he would have to wait until the judge’s trial to bring it up.

Trying to resolve the matter through the Governor seemed impossible for the time being.

However, from the morning meeting at Government House, Simon Keswick also saw a glimmer of opportunity.

It was that Government House was ultimately still somewhat wary of Jardine Matheson & Co. and did not dare to deal with them as they had with the media outlets like the Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and Kung Sheung Daily News.

Otherwise, he, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, might already be behind bars.

This was the only good news, for what it was worth.

In fact, from the very beginning, Simon Keswick had never considered using the power of financial groups like the Rothschild family to interfere.

He knew that if forces like the Rothschild family got involved, the Keswick family’s control over Jardine Matheson could be threatened.

After all, the matter of retaliating against Lin Haoran had been proposed by the Keswick family in the first place.

That Jardine Matheson had ended up in this situation was entirely the Keswick family’s fault.

Although the matter had been discussed with the major shareholders, and everyone, including the Rothschild family, had agreed to it, the plan was their proposal, and the people who executed it were theirs.

Now that the plan had been exposed and they might face severe punishment, the Keswick family would become the greatest sinners of Jardine Matheson and would have to bear all the responsibility.

Simon Keswick was keenly aware that any rash move at this point could push Jardine Matheson into an even deeper abyss.

He had to act cautiously, protecting both the company’s interests and his family’s control.

Unless it was absolutely necessary, he would not use his connections in Britain.

“Sigh!” Simon Keswick let out a heavy sigh, his brow tightly furrowed.

This was the most difficult situation he had ever faced since becoming the Taipan of Jardine Matheson.

He did not regret going after Lin Haoran; after all, Jardine Matheson had suffered immense losses because of him.

What he deeply regretted, however, was letting Bao Fuda carry out the task.

Although Bao Fuda was highly capable, he had been far too careless in this matter, letting someone secretly film the entire process, which ultimately led to the plot being discovered.

If he had handled it himself, he was confident he would not have made such a foolish mistake.

After all, he knew better than anyone how to proceed with caution to ensure nothing went wrong.

If so, the matter of Jardine Matheson’s manipulation would have vanished from public sight as if it had never happened, without anyone being the wiser.

But now, it was too late for regrets.

Simon Keswick could only helplessly accept this reality and come up with a countermeasure as quickly as possible.

He knew that any complaints or self-blame were useless at this point. Only by taking proactive steps could he minimize the company’s losses and impact.

After pacing around his office for a while, he finally picked up the phone again and made a long-distance call to his older brother, Henry Keswick.

With Government House having suffered such a huge loss, they would not let Jardine Matheson off easily, no matter how much they might be wary of the company.

Therefore, this was no longer a matter that an inexperienced Taipan like himself could handle.

Shifting the blame to Bao Fuda might have some effect, but given the severity of the government’s losses, that effect would be minimal.

Jardine Matheson & Co. could not escape this.

Unless they were willing to completely sever their ties with Hong Kong and Britain.

But as a British-owned company, with its shareholders behind it, Jardine Matheson could cut ties with Hong Kong, but not with Britain.

Therefore, his only option was to summon his older brother to Hong Kong and hand the matter over to the more experienced Henry Keswick.

“Older Brother, it’s Simon. The situation has escalated beyond our imagination. Government House won’t let us off the hook easily…” Simon Keswick reported the current situation to Henry Keswick in detail.

“Alright, I understand. I will set off for Hong Kong today. I will personally help Jardine Matheson overcome this crisis,” Henry Keswick replied directly without much else to say after hearing the report.

Severn Road, Lin family villa.

A little after twelve noon, Lin Haoran put down his chopsticks and bowl, went to wash his hands, and vaguely heard the urgent ringing of the telephone from the study on the first floor.

He had received quite a few calls today because of his statement yesterday.

He wasn’t surprised that someone was calling him again now.

Lin Haoran pushed open the study door, strode in, and picked up the telephone receiver.

“Boss, I have something important to report to you!” It was Cui Zilong’s voice, and it was tinged with excitement.

“Oh? Have you come across some good news?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“For our Oriental Daily News, it is indeed good news. Just a short while ago, Government House issued a public announcement…” Cui Zilong proceeded to report the contents of the announcement to Lin Haoran verbatim.

“Shut down directly? I thought Hong Kong was all about freedom of speech,” Lin Haoran said, his jaw dropping in surprise when he learned that the three media companies had been shut down and their senior executives had all been arrested.

He had originally thought that publishing the photos and exposing the secret dealings between the three media outlets and Jardine Matheson would, at most, lead Government House to fine or warn them.

Then, these media outlets would completely lose their credibility among the citizens for creating false narratives and fake news, causing their sales to plummet and their reputations to be ruined.

That was the worst outcome Lin Haoran had envisioned.

However, the reality far exceeded his expectations.

The Government House’s actions this time were swift and decisive. They not only shut down the three media companies directly but also rounded up all the relevant senior executives. Such resolution and force made even Lin Haoran marvel at the government’s boldness and determination.

“Boss, you actually know this better than anyone. When Hongkong Land Group bid for government land, they repeatedly succeeded at the starting bid. This undoubtedly caused the government to suffer considerable financial losses behind the scenes. Under normal circumstances, these plots of land would definitely have sold for much higher prices.

Therefore, no matter how much the government cared about its image, it would never let the actions of these three media outlets go unpunished.

Government House might be wary of a tycoon like Jardine Matheson and find it difficult to move against it, but those three media outlets are a different story. Dealing with them would be as easy as flipping a palm for the government, wouldn’t it?” Cui Zilong analyzed.

“Hmm, you have a point!” Lin Haoran completely agreed with Cui Zilong’s analysis.

This time, the ‘killing with a borrowed knife’ strategy had worked exceptionally well.

Lin Haoran naturally felt no pity for these three media companies.

After all, he had no prior grudges with them; they had even collaborated with the Oriental Daily News in the past.

But now, they had chosen to team up with Jardine Matheson to stir up trouble.

There was no way Lin Haoran would let them get away with it.

Now that they were shut down, it was the best form of revenge for him.

The score was settled.

Chapter 461: Chen Songqing’s Envy

“The shutdown of three mainstream newspapers is undoubtedly a huge opportunity for our Oriental Daily News.

“Although our Oriental Daily News has long been the undisputed sales champion in Hong Kong, we occasionally face challenges from other mainstream papers. Take the Sing Tao Daily, for instance. Their news team is not to be underestimated, and when they break a popular exclusive story, their sales can even surpass ours.

“Now, with these three mainstream media outlets gone from the Hong Kong market, a huge gap has been left behind. This is good news for our Oriental Daily News and for the other remaining mainstream papers.

“And for our Oriental Daily News in particular, as Hong Kong’s number one newspaper, I am fully confident that we can seize the largest share of the market these three papers have left behind!” Cui Zilong continued.

This was precisely why Cui Zilong had sounded so ecstatic on the phone.

After years of development, the Oriental Daily News had long since cemented its position as the top seller.

However, because of this, it had also hit a development bottleneck.

Unless they managed to obtain a particularly sensational exclusive story, it was difficult for the paper’s sales to see any significant increase.

But now, the shutdown of the Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and Kung Sheung Daily News offered the Oriental Daily News hope to break through this bottleneck and find new avenues for growth.

This bottleneck wasn’t about its number one position, which the Oriental Daily News had long secured.

What they truly needed to break through was their daily sales volume.

Although sales could occasionally surge to three or four hundred thousand copies, on most ordinary days, the daily volume hovered around a hundred-some thousand, sometimes even dipping below one hundred thousand copies a day.

Now, with the removal of these three media outlets, the Oriental Daily News had the potential to achieve a significant increase in its regular daily sales, possibly breaking the two hundred thousand mark. During special periods, peak daily sales could even aim for half a million.

This was undoubtedly a massive leap forward.

“By the way, do you have any new information on Jardine Matheson & Co.’s recent situation?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Boss, based on the intelligence I’ve gathered, it seems Sir Murray MacLehose is wary of the powers behind Jardine Matheson & Co., so he hasn’t taken further action against them for the time being.

“However, reports say the government has decided to suspend all asset transactions for Jardine Matheson & Co. in Hong Kong to prevent them from transferring assets before a formal decision is made on how to handle them,” Cui Zilong replied promptly.

“Alright, I understand. On another note, since the Sing Tao Daily, Wah Kiu Yat Po, and Kung Sheung Daily News have been forcibly shut down by the Government House, the large number of media elites under them are now facing a crossroads.

“These talented individuals, whether they are senior editors, reporters, or experienced marketing personnel, are invaluable resources in the newspaper industry. Our Oriental Daily News should take the initiative, create a talent acquisition plan, and proactively extend an olive branch to them.

“These people have a wealth of experience and deep industry connections from their former papers. Their joining us will not only enhance the overall strength of our team but also bring fresh perspectives and creativity, injecting new vitality into our news reporting,” Lin Haoran added, having thought of this just as he was about to hang up.

“Don’t worry, Boss. I was on it as soon as we received the announcement from the Government House. The entire personnel department of the Oriental Press Group is already in motion. We already had a significant talent shortage because of our overseas market expansion, so this is the perfect opportunity!” Cui Zilong said with a laugh.

“Good. Since that’s the case, I have nothing to worry about. If there’s nothing else, I’ll hang up now,” Lin Haoran responded.

“Of course, Boss. I’ll get back to work!”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran lost the desire to remain in his study.

The Government House’s latest move had truly taken him by surprise.

He hadn’t expected them to be so decisive and their methods so uncompromising!

Within Sir Murray MacLehose’s term, this was likely an unprecedented action.

Admittedly, some past governors might have been stricter than Sir Murray MacLehose, but his political style had always been known for being close to the people. He was widely regarded by the citizens of Hong Kong as one of the most outstanding and beloved governors in history, and his actions were usually moderate.

Yet this time, he had skipped the investigation and trial procedures, directly shutting down three highly influential mainstream media outlets without even a judge’s hearing.

Such a measure not only surprised Lin Haoran; it probably shocked every citizen in Hong Kong.

He returned to his room, changed into a suit, tidied himself up, and went out.

“To the Connaught Centre!” Lin Haoran said directly after getting into the Rolls-Royce.

“Yes, Boss!” Li Weidong started the car, and they quickly drove away from the Lin family villa.

Behind the Rolls-Royce, three other cars followed suit.

A little over ten minutes later, Lin Haoran arrived at the Connaught Centre.

Taking the elevator, he soon reached the 51st floor of the building.

In the general manager’s office, Ma Shimin was on the phone.

Seeing Lin Haoran appear, he pointed to the receiver to indicate he was on a call and then continued his conversation.

A few minutes later, Ma Shimin ended the call, stood up, and said, “Boss, I was just on the phone with the person in charge of a property development in Quarry Bay. He told me that sales today have been on fire.

“The buildings we launched last month were only about half sold, but this morning, we sold out all the remaining units. Even some of the less popular floors were completely snapped up.

“This morning alone, our sales for this property development exceeded one hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

“The manager asked me if we should take this opportunity to release more units—to put the buildings that are still in the planning stages, with only blueprints drawn and foundations not even laid, up for sale!”

“If that’s the case, then let’s do it. Before the real property crisis arrives, I predict that even if Hong Kong’s property prices rise, the increase won’t be significant.

“The current surge in customers is just due to the pent-up demand from the past few days. This scene won’t last long; it would be a miracle if this boom lasts for even two or three days. Why don’t we seize this chance to sell off more and recoup more funds?” Lin Haoran said after a moment’s thought.

As Hong Kong’s foremost real estate magnate, the Hongkong Land Group had a wide range of businesses, not only covering numerous commercial buildings but also venturing into the development of villas and residential properties.

Although the proportion of residential properties was slightly less than that of commercial buildings, they were still an important part of the group’s portfolio.

Furthermore, Hongkong Land Group had already cleared out a batch of property projects last month, most of which were joint ventures with other real estate companies.

Therefore, the number of residential projects currently under construction by the group was not that large.

The residential development project in Quarry Bay was a wholly-owned project of the Hongkong Land Group. Since it was already halfway complete and had sold many units, it had not been sold off at the time.

“Besides the Quarry Bay project, our sales this morning at more than a dozen other property developments in places like Sheung Wan, Causeway Bay, North Point, To Kwa Wan, and Yau Ma Tei have also been excellent. I estimate that by the end of today, the funds we’ve recouped could exceed five hundred million Hong Kong dollars, maybe even seven or eight hundred million. This was unimaginable before!” Ma Shimin continued, his voice tinged with amazement.

In the past, Hong Kong’s property market was indeed hot, but it was already considered a great day if Hongkong Land Group’s residential property sales brought in one hundred million Hong Kong dollars in a single day.

But now, after several days in a property slump, Hong Kong’s real estate market had made a comeback against all odds, bringing such a huge benefit to the Hongkong Land Group.

As for commercial buildings, Hongkong Land Group mostly built them in the core areas of Hong Kong. Such prime locations would naturally not be sold but rather leased out, which was the key to long-term development.

Clearly, the Hongkong Land Group was just one of the beneficiaries. Others, such as Cheung Kong Holdings, Sun Hung Kai Properties, the Carrian Group, New World Development, Hopewell Holdings, and Hang Lung Properties, had naturally benefited as well.

While Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin were discussing the day’s property market dynamics in the office, real estate tycoons all over Hong Kong were also closely monitoring the situation at their own property developments.

Chen Songqing, Li Jiacheng, Kwok Tak-seng, Cheng Yu-tung, and others were all overjoyed and invigorated by their sales performance.

Chen Songqing, in particular, felt a heavy weight lift from his heart as the property crisis eased, and he couldn’t help but let out a long sigh of relief.

Just a few days ago, Chen Songqing had been in a state of anxiety, even going so far as to swallow his pride as a real estate tycoon to personally call Lin Haoran and implore him to intervene and stop the crisis from spreading.

However, times had changed. When he learned that all the major property developments under his group were seeing booming sales that morning, the once triumphant and self-assured Chen Songqing was back.

At this moment, he stood in his high-rise office in the Carrian Tower, gazing down upon the bustling streets of Hong Kong’s city center. He exuded an imposing aura of someone in complete control, as if charting the course of the nation—a stark contrast to the anxious man from a few days ago who worried if the Carrian Group could survive the crisis.

As he mused, Chen Songqing couldn’t help but deeply regret his spur-of-the-moment decision to withdraw from the official land auction.

He should have anticipated that the Government House would never stand by and allow Hong Kong’s property crisis to spiral out of control.

In the end, he had been too cautious, lacking boldness!

If he hadn’t backed down then, the Carrian Group would have had the chance to bid for two or three plots of land with immense potential.

Thinking of how Lin Haoran had successfully acquired prime plots of land worth five to six billion for a mere three billion Hong Kong dollars, Chen Songqing had mixed feelings, at once jealous of Lin Haoran’s good fortune and envious of his ability to seize such a golden opportunity.

Chapter 462: Astonishing Viewership Ratings

Witnessing the resurgence of Hong Kong’s real estate industry, Chen Songqing’s ambition was rekindled. He decided to further accelerate the pace of the Carrian Group’s property development.

After two years of rapid expansion, the Carrian Group had firmly established itself among the top three property developers in Hong Kong.

What excited Chen Songqing even more was that the Hongkong Land Group had recently conducted a major sell-off of multiple properties, and the Carrian Group had been fortunate enough to acquire a portion of them.

At this moment, a bold idea sprouted in Chen Songqing’s mind—for the Carrian Group to challenge for the throne of Hong Kong’s leading property enterprise.

“I must find a way to acquire more projects. I need to talk to Yang Changdao, the general manager of Bumiputra Finance, and find a way to raise more funds to speed up our development.

“With Carrian Group’s current scale in real estate, it’s truly possible for us to surpass the Hongkong Land Group within the next two years!” The thought of having a chance to become the leading figure in Hong Kong’s property world made Chen Songqing’s blood boil.

However, if Lin Haoran were to learn of this idea, he would surely scoff at it, thinking that the Carrian Group was advancing blindly, straying further and further down a path that was tantamount to digging its own grave.

Time flew by, and soon it was past four in the afternoon.

Today was destined to be a day of undercurrents in Hong Kong.

The Government House was still searching for evidence, intending to rightfully reclaim their losses.

The sudden closure of three mainstream media outlets had also sent unprecedented shockwaves through the media industry.

At Jardine Matheson & Co., Simon Keswick was waiting anxiously for his Older Brother, Henry Keswick, to come and oversee the overall situation.

And for the major property developers, it was a day worthy of celebration.

In Kowloon Tong, on Broadcast Drive, inside the TVB Headquarters building, Shao Yifu gently put down his work and rubbed his slightly weary brow.

From a busy morning at the Shaw Brothers Film Company to a non-stop afternoon at TVB, the old man, now past the age of seventy, had barely had a moment’s rest.

It was worth noting that Shao Yifu was already over seventy years old.

At his age, many bosses would have long since handed their businesses over to the next generation to enjoy their later years in peace.

But Shao Yifu was different; the older he got, the more ambitious he became.

“I am merely TVB’s second-largest shareholder. The true largest shareholder is Lin Haoran. Why am I working so hard?” Shao Yifu’s gaze fell on the documents on his desk, a wry smile touching his lips as he silently questioned himself.

Despite these occasional self-doubts, Shao Yifu had never felt a trace of regret.

He believed that with the widespread popularization of television sets, nearly every household in Hong Kong would own one in the future.

This foresight made him deeply realize that the television industry was bound to have a significant impact on the film industry.

For this reason, after a period of fierce, life-or-death competition with Golden Harvest Pictures in the seventies, Shao Yifu had decided to gradually shift his focus away from the film industry.

He had no intention of investing too much energy and resources in film anymore. Instead, he was more focused on the development of TVB, hoping to carve out a domain for himself in this new and promising television industry.

The death of Li Xiaohe was, for Shao Yifu, indeed a positive development, though he also felt a pang of regret for the passing of his friend.

But in his eyes, birth, aging, sickness, and death were simply the natural course of life, something no one could escape.

Having experienced the successive deaths of his parents and older brothers, Li Xiaohe’s departure had only created a faint ripple in his heart.

More importantly, being able to smoothly take control of TVB after Li Xiaohe’s death was undoubtedly Shao Yifu’s most treasured achievement this past year.

It was not only a major advancement in his personal career but also added a solid cornerstone to his future business empire.

As the Chairman of TVB, after taking control, he had wholeheartedly dedicated himself to making TVB even better, spending less and less time on the Shaw Brothers Film Company side.

His only regret was failing to acquire the shares held by the Li family.

Fortunately, the largest shareholder, Lin Haoran, had no interest in the management of TVB, which was perhaps a significant reason why Shao Yifu was willing to pour so much effort into it.

Shao Yifu saw TVB as his fallback plan, understanding the potential challenges facing the film industry.

He was planning ahead, hoping to pave a way out for himself through his deep involvement in the television industry.

If the film industry were to truly encounter difficulties, he could still rely on the television sector to hold tight and not end up with nothing.

Just as he was lost in thought, a knock came from the door.

“Come in,” Shao Yifu called out.

“Chairman Shao, the research company just sent over yesterday’s viewership ratings. Good news, great news!” TVB’s general manager, Yu Bojun, excitedly opened the door and rushed in.

“Oh? Yesterday’s viewership ratings, were they very high?” Shao Yifu said with a slight smile.

“More than high! They were ridiculously high! Chairman Shao, take a look!” Yu Bojun said, handing a ratings sheet to Shao Yifu.

These viewership ratings were surveyed by Hong Kong’s most renowned research company and were personally supervised by the relevant department at the Government House, thus carrying significant authority.

Basically, the ratings presented by the research firm represented the respective viewership of the two television stations.

And the most important source of income for a television station—advertising revenue—was also quoted primarily based on these ratings.

The higher the viewership, the higher the advertising revenue, and advertisers were more than willing to pay.

Yesterday, in particular, was January 1st, the start of a new year.

At such a time, higher viewership ratings often meant attracting more viewers and advertisers in the coming year, which was crucial for the long-term development of the station.

Shao Yifu took the ratings sheet and examined it carefully.

His eyes lit up as they followed the numbers, and the corners of his mouth turned up unconsciously.

Indeed, yesterday’s viewership had far exceeded his expectations, setting a new all-time high since TVB’s inception.

The ratings for other time slots were about the same as usual, quite normal, basically between 60% and 70%.

This meant that their rival, Rediffusion Television, had ratings of only 30% to 40% during those same periods.

This had been the norm for the past few months.

However, when it came to the prime time slot from seven to ten in the evening, during the broadcast of the New Year’s Day Gala, the viewership ratings underwent a shocking change.

When Shao Yifu first saw the data, he could hardly believe his eyes. He instinctively rubbed them, thinking they were playing tricks on him.

But after checking again, the data was still starkly clear: TVB’s total viewership during this period had actually broken the 90% mark, reaching an astonishing 91.3%!

Among this, the performance of the Jade Channel was particularly outstanding, single-handedly capturing the vast majority of the viewership with a staggering 90.1%.

The sheer shock of these figures was far beyond Shao Yifu’s expectations.

“Has the research company confirmed there are no errors?” Shao Yifu looked up in disbelief to confirm.

“It’s absolutely true. I couldn’t believe it at first either, but after repeated confirmations, this is indeed the accurate data!” Yu Bojun replied with a smile.

Viewership ratings of over 90%—what did that mean?

It meant that last night, Rediffusion Television’s ratings had plummeted to less than 10%!

In Hong Kong’s landscape, which consisted of only two major television stations, such a vast disparity was simply unprecedented.

Such a massive gap in viewership was unheard of in the history of Hong Kong television and was bound to cause a huge sensation throughout the city.

Shao Yifu had actually re-watched Rediffusion Television’s New Year’s Day Gala from last night. To be fair, its quality wasn’t bad. Although it was slightly inferior to the Jade Channel’s, it was by no means poor enough to cause such a colossal ratings chasm.

“According to the research company’s in-depth analysis, many viewers were initially drawn in by Director Lin’s speech. After his speech ended, most of the audience was still immersed in discussing its content. The majority had no intention of changing the channel and chose to stay, unwilling to switch.”

Seeing that Shao Yifu was still reeling from the shock of the ratings data, Yu Bojun explained further, “This is the main reason for our Jade Channel’s extraordinarily high ratings.”

Upon hearing this, Shao Yifu had a sudden realization. Lin Haoran’s speech from last night had indeed caused a huge stir today.

When he was out, he could constantly overhear citizens buzzing about it.

“In that case, the reason our station achieved such high ratings last night is truly thanks to Haoran!” Shao Yifu exclaimed sincerely.

“That’s right. Without Director Lin’s speech, even though our New Year’s Day Gala was better than Rediffusion Television’s, our ratings would likely have been on par with the usual. After all, Rediffusion Television has its own loyal audience,” Yu Bojun said, nodding in agreement.

“On the six o’clock evening news, we must publicize this extensively. I want everyone in Hong Kong to witness TVB’s glorious moment from last night!” Shao Yifu said, clutching the ratings report and looking up sharply at Yu Bojun.

“Understood, Chairman Shao, I’ll go arrange it right away!” Yu Bojun replied with a firm nod.

He knew very well what these ratings of over 90% signified. It meant that TVB was ringing in 1981 with a brilliant start, and its revenue was bound to see another surge.

At the same time, Shao Yifu excitedly picked up the phone, preparing to be the first to share this thrilling news with Lin Haoran.

Even for a media magnate like him, it was difficult to conceal his excitement at this moment.

Far away in the Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran was chatting with Ma Shimin about the property industry when his beeper suddenly went off.

He glanced at the number and saw that it was from Shao Yifu.

After crossing over to this world, not only could he recall many details from his past life, but he also had a nearly photographic memory.

He promptly dialed back.

“Sixth Uncle, you were looking for me?” Lin Haoran asked directly once the call connected.

“Haoran, I have some huge news for you! Our TVB’s viewership ratings from last night exceeded 90%!” Shao Yifu said excitedly.

Chapter 463: The Largest Fine in Hong Kong’s History

“A ninety percent viewership rating?” Hearing Shao Yifu’s words, Lin Haoran was also quite surprised.

He knew that his speech on the Jade Channel would definitely bring in a lot of viewers.

But he wasn’t sure how much of that audience would remain for the rest of the night after his speech was over.

Now, learning of TVB’s final viewership rating, even Lin Haoran was deeply surprised. It had completely exceeded his expectations.

Didn’t that mean almost no one watched Lai Television last night?

“This is all thanks to you, Haoran. If not for your brilliant performance, the Jade Channel’s ratings would never have soared like that. It looks like our advertising revenue is going to spike again this month.

As for Lai Television, they’ve been losing money for months on end. I think Lai Television is probably following in the footsteps of Commercial Television.

If they can’t hold on, they might just have to close up shop. When that happens, TVB might really be able to dominate the Hong Kong television industry!” Shao Yifu laughed heartily.

A few years ago, Hong Kong had three television stations in a three-way standoff, competing fiercely. But due to poor management, Commercial Television had already made a quiet exit back in 1978.

In Shao Yifu’s eyes, Lai Television, the oldest player in Hong Kong’s television industry, now seemed to be facing the same predicament as Commercial Television.

If it couldn’t turn things around, the fate of closure might be quietly approaching.

Hearing Shao Yifu, Lin Haoran smiled and said, “Sixth Uncle, you can stop dreaming about such a good thing. Television stations have a much stronger effect on public opinion than newspapers. The Government House would never let us monopolize the television industry.

Besides, new television licenses are impossible to get in Hong Kong now. If Lai Television’s parent company doesn’t want to continue operating it, they would choose to sell it, not shut it down!”

Lin Haoran said this because he knew that the current Lai Television would one day become Asia Television.

It was impossible for it to go bankrupt. At least, not before the twenty-first century. Neither station would go under.

Upon hearing this, Shao Yifu’s excitement faded slightly. He nodded thoughtfully. “You’re right. I was being too optimistic. The Government House certainly wouldn’t stand by and watch TVB become the sole dominant player. Having competition in the television industry is an important part of maintaining their rule over Hong Kong.

As for Lai Television, if it really comes to that, the most likely outcome after being taken over by another power would be a renewed, heavy investment, turning them into a new competitor for us.

It was like when Commercial Television was still around, and the three stations were in a three-way standoff. Back then, TVB’s monthly expenses were much higher than they are now. Otherwise, without quality productions, our viewership would be snatched away by the other stations. It seems we need to prepare for a rainy day and get ready to face a new competitor.”

Lin Haoran’s words completely shattered Shao Yifu’s fantasy.

Meanwhile, in the outside world…

That evening, TVB’s news broadcast announced the viewership ratings for both television stations from the previous day, spending a full six minutes explaining TVB’s moment of glory.

Just as Shao Yifu and the others had expected, the news that TVB’s viewership ratings had exceeded ninety percent instantly shocked all of Hong Kong.

Everyone knew what a viewership rating of over ninety percent meant.

Lai Television’s New Year’s Day Gala had less than ten percent?

This comparison starkly revealed the gap between TVB and Lai Television to the public, striking the hearts of Lai Television’s management like a heavy hammer.

At the other end of Broadcast Drive, a huge uproar erupted within Lai Television. The disastrous ratings from the previous night were like a bolt from the blue, impossible to conceal.

The employees looked at each other in dismay. Beyond their shock, they were filled with deep anxiety about their future.

The collapse of Commercial Television was still fresh in their minds, a lingering shadow that they couldn’t shake.

Now, they couldn’t help but start worrying about their own fates.

“Is Lai Television really coming to an end?” This doubt spread quietly through every employee’s heart like weeds, impossible to root out.

“Doesn’t that mean we’re going to lose our jobs?” Fear and anxiety spread rapidly among colleagues. The entire station seemed to be enveloped in a thick, oppressive gloom that made it hard to breathe.

Inside Lai Television, many employees secretly began to plan ahead.

There were only two television stations in Hong Kong. Their career options were few and far between.

If Lai Television really went bankrupt, their best option would be to get a job at TVB.

But Lai Television had just as many employees as TVB.

Once Lai Television was gone, trying to jump ship to TVB would be much more difficult.

If they prepared in advance now, they might be able to get a head start.

This idea began to spread among the employees of Lai Television.

When the news of the abysmal viewership ratings for Lai Television’s New Year’s Day Gala reached its parent company, British Rediffusion, even the experienced senior executives were stunned and found it hard to believe.

After all, this costly gala had been reported to them in detail and approved since the beginning of its preparation.

Yet, such a meticulously planned extravaganza had yielded such pathetic results. It was undoubtedly a heavy blow, a heart-wrenching outcome.

At that moment, within British Rediffusion, the idea of selling Lai Television grew stronger, becoming an almost foregone conclusion.

The executives’ hesitation and wait-and-see attitude vanished. Faced with a subsidiary that was consistently underperforming and showing no signs of improvement, keeping it seemed pointless.

Lai Television, once a rising star under British Rediffusion, had now become a “lost cause” in everyone’s eyes, a truly lamentable situation.

The continuous losses were more than anyone could bear.

In fact, in another timeline, British Rediffusion did indeed transfer 61% of its shares to an Australian financial group in March.

Over the following year, Lai Television changed hands again, acquired by Deacon Chiu, the chairman of the Far East Group.

Then, in 1988, it was acquired once more by Lim Por-yen of the Lai Sun Group.

Each transfer was like a giant stone thrown into a calm lake, stirring up a new wave of competition.

Although the terrifying figure of TVB’s ninety-percent-plus viewership rating sparked a flurry of public discussion, it wasn’t a major event in the grand scheme of things.

Therefore, the citizens were more focused on another matter.

How would the Government House punish Jardine Matheson & Co.?

Three major media outlets had been shut down directly, but they were merely accomplices. The true culprit was Jardine Matheson & Co.

So, no one believed the Government House would let Jardine Matheson off so easily.

While everyone was heatedly discussing it, they were all waiting for the Government House’s final verdict.

Naturally, Lin Haoran was also paying close attention to this matter.

On the morning of January 4th, he received a piece of news: Jardine Matheson’s former Taipan, Henry Keswick, had arrived in Hong Kong again.

Without having to guess, Lin Haoran knew that Henry Keswick must have come to handle Jardine Matheson’s affairs.

However, Lin Haoran couldn’t interfere in this matter for the time being. After all, the Government House was the party that had suffered the greatest loss this time.

As for Lin Haoran himself, although he had suffered some injustice from public opinion at the beginning, he was the one who had benefited the most.

That evening, Lin Haoran received news that Henry Keswick had taken a team to the Government House to conduct negotiations.

He had no way of knowing the outcome of the negotiations. It was the Government House, after all, and his intelligence network couldn’t reach that far inside.

Time quickly passed, and soon it was January 5th.

Over the past few days, although the matter concerning Jardine Matheson was causing a huge stir, neither the Government House nor the Department of Justice had revealed any progress to the public.

So, even the citizens thought the matter was over.

But unexpectedly, the Government House issued another announcement that morning.

In light of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s recent involvement in multiple serious violations, including but not limited to market manipulation, compromising media integrity, and harming the public interest, the Government House, after a thorough investigation and careful consideration, has decided to impose the following penalties on Jardine Matheson & Co.:

One, a fine of five hundred million Hong Kong dollars in cash. This amount must be paid in full within one month of this announcement’s publication, serving as a penalty for its illegal activities and a warning to other enterprises not to follow the same path.

Two, Jardine Matheson & Co. must conduct a comprehensive overhaul of its internal management system to ensure strict compliance with Hong Kong’s laws and regulations in the future, maintain fair market competition, and protect the public interest from harm. The restructuring plan must be reviewed and approved by the Government House and implemented within the specified period.

Three, the Government House will establish a special supervision task force to continuously monitor the implementation of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s restructuring, ensuring it fulfills its commitments. Any violations will result in further severe measures in accordance with the law.

Four, regarding the role of Mr. Bao Fuda, the former Executive Director of Jardine Matheson & Co., as the actual planner and executor in this series of violations, the Government House has confirmed after a thorough investigation that his actions have severely violated the laws and regulations of Hong Kong and caused extreme damage to public interest and market order. Given that Mr. Bao Fuda has fled Hong Kong, the Government House hereby declares:

1. Mr. Bao Fuda will be permanently banned from entering the territory of Hong Kong as a severe punishment for his illegal actions and to uphold the legal dignity and social order of Hong Kong.

2. The Government House will continue to cooperate closely with international law enforcement agencies to track Mr. Bao Fuda’s whereabouts and reserves the right to take further legal action against him, including but not limited to extradition, prosecution, and recovery of illegal gains.

…

Seeing this announcement, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel shocked.

A fine of five hundred million Hong Kong dollars?

This was clearly the final resolution reached after a series of negotiations between Henry Keswick and the Government House following his arrival in Hong Kong.

The severity of this punishment was truly rare.

Five hundred million Hong Kong dollars was by no means a small sum in this era.

One had to know that among the listed companies in Hong Kong, any with a market capitalization exceeding five hundred million Hong Kong dollars was ranked among the top one hundred.

Now, for manipulating public opinion, Jardine Matheson & Co. was being fined five hundred million Hong Kong dollars directly. This was definitely the largest fine in Hong Kong’s history, absolutely unprecedented.

Under the continuous blows from Lin Haoran in recent months, Jardine Matheson had already been greatly weakened, losing almost all of its business within Hong Kong.

Now, with the addition of the five-hundred-million-Hong-Kong-dollar fine from the Government House, it was like adding frost to snow, as if a large chunk of their flesh had been brutally carved away.

Even Lin Haoran was very satisfied with this punitive decision from the Government House.

By releasing the evidence, he had directly used the power of the Government House to exact his revenge. It was undoubtedly an extremely clever strategy.

Chapter 464: Selling Off Jardine Securities!

Inside Jardine House, the headquarters of Jardine Matheson & Co., Henry Keswick and Simon Keswick sat facing each other in the Taipan’s office. A repressive silence filled the room.

Henry Keswick, in particular, wore a thunderous expression.

Although they had successfully avoided more severe legal repercussions after difficult negotiations with the Government House, the victory came at the steep price of a five hundred million Hong Kong dollar fine.

For them, this sum was undoubtedly a heavy blow.

At this moment, both men were lost in thought, their hearts filled with mixed feelings.

He knew that paying the fine was unavoidable; the Government House was determined to hold them accountable for the damages.

After multiple rounds of negotiations, five hundred million Hong Kong dollars was the lowest amount they could secure.

However, Jardine Matheson & Co. was not the only one to bear the consequences.

The Rothschild family, one of Jardine Matheson’s major shareholders, had reluctantly accepted the decision but demanded that the Keswick family assume fifty percent of the responsibility. This meant the Keswick family had to pay two hundred and fifty million Hong Kong dollars out of their own pockets.

This meant that not only had Jardine Matheson & Co. been hit hard, but the Keswick family had also suffered a tremendous loss.

At this moment, Henry Keswick was filled with helplessness and rage.

Who would have thought that a simple attempt at covert revenge against Lin Haoran would end with the Keswick family receiving such a heavy punishment?

In contrast, Lin Haoran had not only suffered no losses and his reputation remained untarnished, but he had also acquired five prime plots of land at a very low cost.

Most importantly, Lin Haoran’s influence had once again grown as a result of this incident.

It was a classic case of “shooting themselves in the foot.”

The conditions proposed by the Rothschild family were exceedingly harsh, leaving the Keswick family with almost no choice. If they refused, the Rothschild family would likely seize the opportunity to cunningly wrest away their controlling stake in Jardine Matheson.

After a long silence, Simon Keswick finally spoke, a hint of apology in his voice, “Older Brother, I’m sorry. I’ve let you down.”

Henry Keswick slowly raised his head, his gaze falling upon his younger brother’s face, which ultimately prompted only a heavy sigh.

He knew in his heart that Simon wasn’t entirely to blame. He had made the decision; it was just that Bao Fuda had failed to handle the details properly during its execution.

“We have to accelerate Jardine Matheson’s withdrawal from Hong Kong,” Henry Keswick said after a moment of thought. “Once we’re back in Britain, with me supporting and guiding you from behind the scenes, Jardine Matheson’s development might be smoother. To be honest, you still lack some experience.”

They had already planned to move their headquarters back to Britain within 1981.

But after this setback, Henry Keswick was even more determined to complete this deployment ahead of schedule.

“Alright, I’ll try to move everything out of Hong Kong completely within the month!” Simon Keswick wholeheartedly agreed with his older brother’s decision.

He didn’t want to stay in Hong Kong a moment longer.

“Also, we need to sell off all our remaining businesses in Hong Kong. In the past, Jardine Matheson was able to become the King of the Foreign Firms largely due to the support of the Government House.

But after this incident, our relationship with them has become strained. Getting their help again will be next to impossible,” Henry Keswick added with a grave expression.

Currently, Jardine Matheson’s business segments in Hong Kong had been significantly downsized. The only core business left was Jardine Securities, with the rest being mostly property assets.

“Older Brother, are you saying… we should sell Jardine Securities as well?” Simon Keswick’s face was filled with astonishment, clearly finding the decision hard to accept.

As one of Hong Kong’s foremost securities firms, Jardine Securities was undoubtedly an outstanding enterprise. Before 1979, its market capitalization had long been ranked among the top thirty listed companies.

Although competition had intensified in the past two years due to the rapid growth of the property sector, causing its market capitalization to slip slightly out of the top thirty, it still held a steady position among the top fifty listed companies in Hong Kong, with a market capitalization of about one point five billion Hong Kong dollars.

Behind such an impressive market capitalization was years of stable revenue and considerable profits.

Within Jardine Matheson’s overall business portfolio, Jardine Securities’ revenue occupied a crucial position, serving as an indispensable source of income for the company.

But now, his older brother was actually saying they should sell off Jardine Securities?

“That’s right. Jardine Securities’ position in Hong Kong’s financial world is indeed prominent, largely thanks to the full support of Jardine Matheson & Co.

But once we withdraw from Hong Kong, our support for Jardine Securities will naturally diminish. Its performance and revenue are bound to be severely impacted, and its market capitalization will inevitably shrink as a result.

Therefore, selling it now while its market capitalization is still high is undoubtedly the best time for us to recoup our funds and mitigate our losses!” Henry Keswick explained earnestly.

“But, Older Brother, Jardine Securities is the culmination of decades of our hard work at Jardine Matheson. To give it up so easily, I…” Simon Keswick’s words were filled with reluctance and struggle. To him, Jardine Securities was more than just a business; it was an important symbol of the family’s honor and legacy.

“Simon, I understand your reluctance, but we must look to the future. This setback has already hit us hard. If we continue to get entangled in Hong Kong, we’ll only find ourselves in a more dangerous situation.

Although the Rothschild family has temporarily accepted our terms, their eyes are full of calculation. We must leave ourselves a fallback plan and not give them any more ammunition,” Henry Keswick said in a tone that allowed no argument.

Bringing the Rothschild family in as shareholders of Jardine Matheson had been a choice made out of desperation.

Now, however, the Rothschild family’s presence on the Board of Directors had become a major hidden danger for the Keswick family.

Initially, the Rothschild family had sworn they would not covet the controlling stake of Jardine Matheson & Co.

But their recent series of actions made Henry Keswick feel increasingly certain that their true intention was perhaps to seize control of the company.

Squid Capital, indeed, could not be trusted!

However, it was too late to say any of this now.

If the Keswick family wanted to solidify their controlling stake in Jardine Matheson, they had to make fewer mistakes.

Otherwise, if the Rothschild family seized an opportunity, the Keswick family might lose control of Jardine Matheson for good.

“Very well, I understand. Then what about our properties in Hong Kong, including Jardine House? Should we consider selling them as well?” Simon Keswick immediately asked.

Although he was the current Taipan of Jardine Matheson, in front of his older brother Henry, he was still more inclined to listen to and follow his opinion.

“The Hong Kong property market still seems to have room to grow. Let’s hold on to the properties for now and wait for their value to increase further,” Henry Keswick replied after some thought, shaking his head.

He was well aware of the frenzy in the Hong Kong property market over the past few days.

This made the loss of the Hongkong Land Group all the more heartbreaking.

Originally, as the leader of Hong Kong’s property industry, Jardine Matheson should have been the biggest beneficiary of this feast.

However, Kowloon Wharf had been forcefully taken by Pao Yue-kong, and the Hongkong Land Group had fallen into Lin Haoran’s hands. Their property business in Hong Kong had been almost completely wiped out.

How could such a result not make him feel the sting!

What he didn’t know, however, was that he would come to regret this decision in two years.

A little over a year later, the real Hong Kong property bubble crisis would arrive, and by then, the prices of commercial properties would plummet.

But by then, it would be too late for regrets.

“In that case, we need to find a suitable buyer for Jardine Securities as soon as possible. But, given its current market capitalization, it won’t be easy to find the right one,” Simon Keswick said, a difficult expression on his face.

Jardine Securities had a total market capitalization of one point five billion Hong Kong dollars, and Jardine Matheson & Co. held approximately forty percent of the shares, meaning their stake was worth about six hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Finding a buyer willing to pay such a colossal sum and also meet their interests was indeed a considerable challenge.

Many financial groups in Hong Kong today had the financial capacity for a six hundred million Hong Kong dollar deal.

However, the current investment hotspots in the market were primarily concentrated in the booming property industry.

In comparison, securities firms seemed somewhat out of favor, naturally making it harder to find a suitable buyer.

If it were only a few tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars, finding someone to take it over might be relatively easy, but a massive sum like six hundred million Hong Kong dollars undoubtedly added significant complexity and uncertainty to the transaction.

“Would HSBC be interested in acquiring it?” Henry Keswick asked after a moment of thought.

Although he was the former Taipan of Jardine Matheson, he had been out of the role for a long time and was no longer very familiar with Hong Kong’s current business world.

“Older Brother, let’s not even consider HSBC. They have their own company, Wardley, which is comparable in strength to our Jardine Securities. Why would they spend another six hundred million Hong Kong dollars to acquire us?” Simon Keswick said, shaking his head.

“Alright. Then who in Hong Kong do you think are the potential financial groups that could buy our shares?” Henry Keswick asked again.

“The financial group most likely to acquire us…” Simon Keswick repeated the phrase, sinking into deep thought.

Henry Keswick sat quietly, not disturbing his brother’s thoughts. He simply stirred the coffee in his hand, waiting patiently.

After a long while, Simon Keswick finally looked up again, a hint of helplessness in his eyes.

Chapter 465: Simon Comes Calling

In Hong Kong, the number of financial groups that could produce a massive sum of six hundred million Hong Kong dollars in one go was neither too large nor too small. In truth, it came down to a select few.

After completely absorbing Hutchison Whampoa, Li Jiacheng of Cheung Kong Holdings saw his cash flow surge. Like Lin Haoran, he was often in the news for having acquired or being in the process of acquiring some company. However, the companies Li Jiacheng acquired all shared a common characteristic: they all possessed large amounts of prime real estate.

Jardine Securities clearly did not fit this profile.

The main reason Jardine Securities boasted such a high market capitalization was its performance.

In Hong Kong, the financial securities industry was dominated by a trinity: Jardine Securities, Wardley, and Baoyuan Investment.

With a colossal entity like Jardine Matheson & Co. backing it, Jardine Securities’ performance was exceptionally strong. But without Jardine Matheson as its pillar, no one could predict the company’s future strength.

Therefore, Simon Keswick knew that if he wanted to sell Jardine Securities, a real estate tycoon like Li Jiacheng would have absolutely no interest.

The same was true for Kwok Tak-seng, Li Zhaoji, Chen Songqing, Cheng Yu-tung, and the others. They were all renowned real estate magnates in Hong Kong who had risen on the back of the booming property industry. As such, these individuals were more focused on the development of the real estate sector.

After acquiring Kowloon Wharf, Pao Yue-kong had been in a state of recuperation and was only now gradually recovering his strength. It was utterly impossible for him to shell out six hundred million to acquire a securities firm.

As for HSBC, it had its own Wardley. Even if Wardley were to acquire Jardine Securities, it wouldn’t guarantee capturing the market share Jardine Securities held. Thus, HSBC had no interest in such a merger and acquisition.

There were also numerous Chinese merchants operating in the financial securities industry, including Sun Hung Kai Properties, which was also involved in securities with its newly rising Sun Hung Kai Securities. However, getting six hundred million Hong Kong dollars from them was basically impossible. They were more inclined to invest their capital in real estate, with financial securities being a secondary business at best.

During a period of vigorous growth in the real estate industry, how could they possibly divert so much capital to invest in financial securities?

Lin Haoran, on the other hand, was a notorious acquisition maniac. He had already taken over many powerful listed companies in Hong Kong, covering nearly every trade imaginable. However, in the financial investment sector, Lin Haoran’s Universal Investment Company was still relatively small in scale.

Based on Lin Haoran’s past actions and his financial strength, even if he was heavily indebted from various acquisitions, six hundred million Hong Kong dollars was a trivial amount compared to his assets worth tens of billions.

Considering all these factors, Simon Keswick ultimately concluded that the person in Hong Kong most likely to purchase Jardine Securities was none other than Lin Haoran.

After hearing Simon Keswick’s analysis, Henry Keswick fell into deep thought.

The relationship between Jardine Matheson and Lin Haoran had become so strained that it was almost irreconcilable. In their past business clashes, Jardine Matheson had mostly been on the defensive, at a disadvantage. Now, because of Lin Haoran, they were being forced to completely withdraw from the entire Hong Kong market.

And this arch-nemesis had now become their most likely potential buyer. The thought filled Henry Keswick with a complex mix of emotions.

However, he was a man who had seen it all, and he readjusted his mindset with ease.

He nodded and said in a low voice, “Alright, then you should contact Lin Haoran privately and sound him out. If he’s interested in acquiring shares in Jardine Securities, we can consider selling. But you have to negotiate the price as high as possible, somewhere between seven hundred and eight hundred million Hong Kong dollars. After all, if he buys our shares, he’ll gain a controlling stake in Jardine Securities. That is our most important bargaining chip.”

Selling the shares publicly on the stock market?

That thought had never crossed the minds of Henry Keswick or Simon Keswick.

As the controlling party of Jardine Securities, they were well aware that under Hong Kong’s securities laws, any intention to reduce their shareholding had to be publicly disclosed in advance. Once Jardine Matheson revealed its intention to exit Jardine Securities, it would undoubtedly trigger market panic, causing the company’s stock price to plummet.

Such an outcome was clearly not what Jardine Matheson wanted.

Therefore, they much preferred to negotiate privately with a potential buyer to ensure a smooth transaction and avoid unnecessary shocks to the market.

That same day, at three in the afternoon, in the general manager’s office of the Hongkong Land Group at Connaught Centre.

Lin Haoran sat in his chair while Ma Shimin, standing opposite him, reported on the progress of the collaboration between the Motorola Company team and the Hongkong Telephone Company.

Two days ago, Motorola’s technical and negotiation teams had arrived in Hong Kong. The already-assembled team from Hongkong Telephone Company immediately began deeper negotiations with them.

Although Lin Haoran had already settled the broad strokes of the cooperation with Motorola’s President, Mr. Robert Galvin, back in the United States, the finer details still needed to be hammered out.

Only after all the details were finalized would the two parties sign the contract, thereby preventing any unnecessary disputes during their partnership.

Ma Shimin reported in detail on the negotiation’s progress, including their discussions on technology transfer, market access, and profit sharing.

Lin Haoran merely listened to get an update; he no longer needed to intervene in the specific details of the cooperation.

His goal was to have Hongkong Telephone Company completely acquire the joint venture once mobile communications were officially commercialized in Hong Kong, while its scale and value were still low.

In that way, both the fixed-line and mobile phone sectors in Hong Kong would essentially be under the control of the Hongkong Telephone Company.

Admittedly, to rush to “discard an ally once their purpose is served” as soon as the collaboration bore fruit might seem a bit unfair to Motorola on an emotional level. However, business is ruthless. If both sides could agree on a reasonable acquisition price, Lin Haoran believed that Motorola, based on its own business interests, would accept the arrangement.

After all, on the stage of capital, maximizing profit is always the primary goal pursued by all parties.

Just as Ma Shimin was reporting, the telephone on the desk suddenly rang sharply.

Ma Shimin immediately paused his report and quickly answered the phone.

A dozen seconds later, he moved the telephone receiver away from his mouth, a look of unconcealed surprise on his face.

“Boss, Mr. Simon Keswick of Jardine Matheson & Co. wishes to meet with you. He has offered to come pick you up. What do you think, should you see him?” Ma Shimin asked, a note of confusion in his voice.

Lin Haoran showed a similar expression of surprise, but then he responded decisively, “Tell him I’m right here at Connaught Centre. If he’s truly keen on meeting, he can come here directly.”

Ma Shimin nodded, put the receiver back to his mouth, and relayed the message.

After hanging up, Ma Shimin was full of doubt, muttering to himself in confusion, “Normally, the feud between us and Jardine Matheson runs deep. Why would they take the initiative to show goodwill at a time like this, and even want to visit you personally, Boss?”

Seeing this, a faint smile touched the corners of Lin Haoran’s lips. With a profound look in his eyes, he asked, “Shimin, what do you make of Simon Keswick’s motive for this sudden visit?”

“It is indeed strange. This morning, Government House just announced the penalty against Jardine Matheson, and this afternoon they’re in a hurry to see you. Other than seeking a partnership, I really can’t think of another reason. But given the current state of affairs between our two companies, a partnership seems highly unlikely,” Ma Shimin said, shaking his head in puzzlement.

Lin Haoran smiled slightly and nodded. “Yes, well, the reason will reveal itself when he arrives. Let’s finish up what we’re doing first.” With that, he gestured for Ma Shimin to continue his report.

Half an hour later, guided by a staff member from Connaught Centre, Simon Keswick arrived at Ma Shimin’s office.

Despite being mortal enemies due to their business rivalry, both sides wore hypocritical smiles.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Ma, I hope my unannounced visit hasn’t disturbed you,” Simon Keswick said with a gentle expression, as if the incident where they suffered heavy losses while trying to retaliate against Lin Haoran had never happened.

Lin Haoran stood up and replied politely, “You’re too kind, Mr. Keswick. Your personal visit is an honor. Please, have a seat.”

After Simon Keswick was seated, Lin Haoran slowly began, “To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit today, Mr. Keswick?”

Simon Keswick glanced at Ma Shimin, a troubled look in his eyes. It was obvious he wished to speak with Lin Haoran in private.

However, Lin Haoran was not about to indulge him and made no move to have Ma Shimin leave.

Simon Keswick’s lips moved, but in the end, he didn’t utter the words to ask Ma Shimin to leave the office.

Ma Shimin smilingly poured a cup of tea for Simon Keswick, then returned to his own seat, acting as if he hadn’t noticed Simon Keswick’s intention at all.

Simon Keswick took a light sip of tea, his gaze shifting between Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin as if weighing something. After a moment, he set down his cup and said formally, “Mr. Lin, I’ll get straight to the point. I was wondering if you might be interested in Jardine Securities?”

“Jardine Securities? Don’t tell me Jardine Matheson intends to sell it?” Lin Haoran was somewhat surprised.

Even Ma Shimin, who was sitting to the side, was astonished.

After all, Jardine Securities was the top stock in the securities industry, a status owed to its best-in-Hong-Kong performance, which slightly outshone even that of Wardley.

They actually wanted to sell a company that generated such substantial profits for Jardine Matheson?

However, Lin Haoran quickly guessed a possible reason.

Jardine Matheson had now not only offended him, the head of Hong Kong’s most powerful financial group, but had also fallen out of favor with Government House. Furthermore, Jardine Matheson already had few remaining businesses in Hong Kong and had previously announced its intention to move its headquarters to London.

Under these circumstances, perhaps they were entertaining the thought of withdrawing from the Hong Kong market entirely.

Chapter 466: Simon, So Angry He Wanted to Slam the Door

“That’s right, we do have such intentions. If Mr. Lin is interested in acquiring Jardine Securities, we are willing to sell it to you! As you must know, Jardine Matheson & Co. holds approximately forty percent of the shares in Jardine Securities and is its undisputed controlling shareholder.

Once Mr. Lin successfully purchases our shares, you will directly become the new owner of Jardine Securities!” Simon Keswick played his trump card without hesitation, hoping to pique Lin Haoran’s interest.

Lin Haoran’s fingers tapped gently on his desk. After a long silence, he turned to Simon Keswick and asked directly, “What is your asking price for the shares of Jardine Securities?”

Ma Shimin, who was standing to the side, did not interject.

After all, they were here for Lin Haoran himself, not for the Hongkong Land Group.

“Eight hundred million Hong Kong dollars. Mr. Lin only needs to pay this amount, and we will transfer all our shares in Jardine Securities to you. At that point, you will control a company with a total market capitalization of one and a half billion Hong Kong dollars!” Simon Keswick’s words made it sound as though purchasing these shares for eight hundred million was an exceptionally good deal.

If Jardine Securities held numerous prime real estate projects, as a listed company, it would undoubtedly attract the attention of many investors.

However, given Jardine Securities’ current state, Lin Haoran felt it wasn’t worth even five hundred million Hong Kong dollars, let alone eight hundred million.

Without Jardine Matheson & Co. as its backer, Jardine Securities’ performance was bound to decline.

Right now, the most valuable assets of Jardine Securities were perhaps its influence built up in Hong Kong over many years and its many industry elites.

He couldn’t help but scoff, retorting, “Mr. Keswick, are you taking me for an easy sucker? Making money isn’t easy these days, and I don’t have spare cash to squander.”

At Lin Haoran’s words, Simon Keswick almost lost his composure.

Thinking of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s current predicament and their urgent desire to withdraw from Hong Kong, selling Jardine Securities seemed to be the best option.

After all, once it lost Jardine Matheson & Co. as its powerful backer, both the performance and market capitalization of Jardine Securities were likely to fall, which would undoubtedly bring huge losses to Jardine Matheson.

Continuing to hold onto the shares of Jardine Securities was clearly very irrational.

Thus, Simon Keswick took a deep breath, trying to adjust the atmosphere. “Mr. Lin, I understand your concerns, but please believe me, the value of Jardine Securities is far greater than that. We are willing to discuss the price further with you to find a solution acceptable to both parties.”

He did his best to calm his emotions and then continued, “Then, Mr. Lin, what do you believe is a reasonable price?”

Lin Haoran smiled faintly and calmly stated a number, “One hundred million Hong Kong dollars. I am willing to acquire your forty percent equity at this price, which I believe is already quite generous.”

Upon hearing this, Simon Keswick’s face changed drastically. He practically shot up from his chair and exclaimed angrily, “Mr. Lin, you might as well be robbing us!”

Faced with Simon Keswick’s furious reaction, Lin Haoran remained calm and composed.

He slowly stood up, placed his hands gently on the desk, and looked directly at Simon Keswick, speaking in a level tone, “Mr. Keswick, let me clarify. My offer of one hundred million Hong Kong dollars was not made rashly or out of malice, but after careful consideration, based on a deep analysis of the current market environment and the actual situation of Jardine Securities.

As far as I know, Jardine Securities is currently still renting office space in Jardine House. Such a large company doesn’t even have its own independent office building, which makes one question its asset structure and independence.

You should know that even the Wan’an Group, which my father used to manage, had a market capitalization far lower than Jardine Securities, yet it had its own headquarters.

Mr. Keswick, in this situation, what do you think is the true value of Jardine Securities? How can it support a total market capitalization of one and a half billion?

In my view, market valuations often contain a bubble, and Jardine Securities’ market cap is clearly overestimated. Therefore, my offer is based on a realistic assessment, not an arbitrary lowball.”

“No, no, no, Mr. Lin, you may not be aware, but Jardine Securities’ performance in recent years has been outstanding. Not to mention revenue, its profits for last year and the year before both exceeded one hundred and fifty million Hong Kong dollars. Even if we go back another year, its profit was over one hundred million.

With such profitability, in my opinion, it can not only fully support its one-and-a-half-billion-dollar market capitalization, but one could even say it has the potential for higher value, reaching two billion would not be an exaggeration.

Therefore, to say its market capitalization is too high is, I’m afraid, somewhat biased.”

Simon Keswick, thinking Lin Haoran was unaware of Jardine Securities’ revenue situation, calmed himself again and explained patiently, trying to make him recognize the company’s true value.

Lin Haoran smiled faintly, not swayed in the slightest by Simon Keswick’s explanation. “Mr. Keswick, my offer is one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. This is my bottom line. If you accept, we have a deal to discuss; if not, then we’ll have to let it go. To be honest, my interest in Jardine Securities is indeed limited.”

Hearing this, Simon Keswick’s face turned ashen. He felt greatly insulted. “Mr. Lin, your offer is an outright contempt for our Jardine Securities! In that case, I see no need for us to continue this conversation!”

Lin Haoran maintained his smile, his tone tinged with a bit of mockery. “Mr. Keswick, since it has come to this, I won’t keep you any longer. Take care, I won’t see you out!”

Full of frustration and knowing that staying any longer would be pointless, Simon Keswick left Ma Shimin’s office in a rage, almost as if he were fleeing.

Watching Simon Keswick leave in such a state, even Ma Shimin couldn’t help but laugh. He felt not a shred of pity for Simon Keswick, despite having once been a senior executive at Jardine Matheson & Co.

After all, his boss now was Lin Haoran, not his former employer, Jardine Matheson.

“I never thought they would want to sell off Jardine Securities. That’s their most important subsidiary in Hong Kong right now. It seems they are really planning to completely withdraw from the Hong Kong market,” Ma Shimin said with some emotion.

“If they hadn’t fallen out with the Government House and still had its backing, Jardine Securities could have thrived in Hong Kong, even if Jardine Matheson & Co. moved its headquarters to Britain.

But this time, in order to retaliate against me, they foolishly tried to manipulate public opinion and drag Hong Kong’s real estate industry down, triggering a crisis that resulted in heavy losses for the Government House.

This karma left Jardine Matheson with a terrible impression at the Government House. Even though the punishment is over, they can’t expect any more favoritism in the future.

Without its backer, the decline of Jardine Securities is only a matter of time. Other companies will certainly seize the opportunity to gradually take over its market share. They realize this and want to sell it off as quickly as possible while the stock price is still high.

Unfortunately for them, I’m no sucker to be taken advantage of!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Boss, are you really not interested in Jardine Securities at all? Admittedly, their asking price of eight hundred million for a forty percent stake is a bit high, but if a deal could be made for five hundred million, it would undoubtedly be a bargain.

If you were to take control of Jardine Securities, combining your influence in Hong Kong with its brand recognition and talented personnel accumulated over many years, you could certainly give full play to your talents and push its market capitalization to new heights!

Moreover, Jardine Securities holds considerable value for both you personally and for the Hongkong Land Group. I think this company is very much worth considering for acquisition.

If you’re not personally interested, perhaps we could negotiate the acquisition with Hongkong Land as the buyer?” Ma Shimin was quite surprised by Lin Haoran’s cool attitude toward Jardine Securities.

Ma Shimin had actually wanted to intervene just now. As a former senior executive of Jardine Matheson, he had a good understanding of Jardine Securities.

Perhaps Jardine Securities didn’t have many fixed assets, but its real value lay in the signboard it had built up over many years, as well as the numerous industry talents within the company.

These were the keys to Jardine Securities’ ability to dominate the Hong Kong market.

Of course, the backing of Jardine Matheson & Co. was also indispensable.

It was only because Lin Haoran had shown no interest that Ma Shimin kept quiet. If he had spoken up, Simon Keswick might have thought Hongkong Land was interested, which would have made price negotiations difficult.

But as soon as Simon Keswick left, Ma Shimin couldn’t help but speak his mind.

“Mr. Ma, I have my own ideas. Don’t get too involved with Jardine Securities. Very soon, you’ll see what I want to do!” Lin Haoran said with a mysterious smile.

To think they would try to use public opinion to frame him for no reason—Lin Haoran would not let go of this grudge so easily.

He, Lin Haoran, was not someone who could be bullied so casually anymore.

Although the government had fined Jardine Matheson & Co. five hundred million, that was the government’s punishment.

He, Lin Haoran, had yet to get his revenge!

Originally, he was still considering how to deal with Jardine Matheson, perhaps by targeting their overseas assets.

Unexpectedly, Simon Keswick had delivered himself right to his door.

The moment Simon Keswick revealed that Jardine Matheson intended to sell Jardine Securities, an idea slowly began to form in Lin Haoran’s mind.

He would use this opportunity to retaliate fiercely against Jardine Matheson & Co.!

He would not only protect his own interests but also make Jardine Matheson pay for their actions.

Since Jardine Matheson & Co. was determined to withdraw completely from Hong Kong, Lin Haoran was preparing to deal them another heavy blow before they left.

He, Lin Haoran, was not one to be trifled with.

Chapter 467: Cutting the Ground from Under Them

Through Simon Keswick’s recent move to sell Jardine Securities’ equity, both Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin had realized that Jardine Matheson & Co. was planning a full withdrawal from the Hong Kong market.

Jardine Matheson & Co., the former King of the Foreign Firms, seemed about to exit the Hong Kong stage, a thought that couldn’t help but evoke a sense of lament.

Seeing that his boss was unwilling to elaborate, Ma Shimin didn’t press the matter further.

“By the way, what’s the current office occupancy rate at Connaught Centre? Do you have any specific data on that? Let me see it,” Lin Haoran said after a moment’s thought.

“Boss, I only have the leasing information up to the end of last year. For the latest detailed data, I’ll have to check with the property management department,” Ma Shimin replied.

“Alright, show me last year’s data for now,” Lin Haoran nodded.

Ma Shimin quickly pulled a folder from the bookshelf behind him and handed it to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran flipped through the documents, quickly getting a grasp of Connaught Centre’s occupancy situation.

The number of floors used by the company itself in Connaught Centre was relatively small; Jardine Matheson & Co. and its subsidiaries occupied only a dozen or so floors, while the rest were primarily for lease.

After all, Hongkong Land Group’s main business was real estate, so most of its employees were spread across various districts in Hong Kong. The proportion of staff at the headquarters was not particularly high.

As the former tallest building in Hong Kong and currently the second tallest, Connaught Centre was undoubtedly a city landmark—arguably the most dazzling iconic building in Central.

Consequently, numerous overseas institutions, corporate offices, branch companies, and even regional headquarters had chosen to establish their presence there.

“An occupancy rate of 98%?” Lin Haoran was somewhat surprised when he saw this figure. This rate was much higher than he had imagined.

Connaught Centre had a total of 52 floors. Based on this occupancy rate, nearly 51 floors of office space were either leased or owner-occupied.

In other words, the total vacant office space in the entire Connaught Centre amounted to only about one floor?

“I was planning to move Universal Investment Company’s office over here. It seems I’ll have to find another place now,” Lin Haoran said, closing the folder with a slight frown.

“Boss, you want to move Universal Investment Company to Connaught Centre?” Ma Shimin asked curiously, a smile on his face.

“Yes. I used to go to Wanqing Building often, which is why I set up Universal Investment Company’s office there. Now I come to Connaught Centre frequently, so I thought about moving the company here too,” Lin Haoran replied with a nod.

As Hongkong Land Group was now the company with the highest market capitalization under Lin Haoran, he naturally preferred coming here.

In contrast, his visits to Wanqing Building had been gradually decreasing recently.

This could be considered favoritism, but it was normal. After all, a person’s energy and focus are finite, especially for a boss like Lin Haoran who wore many hats and managed a vast commercial empire.

“From what I know, Universal Investment Company isn’t that large at the moment. A company on the 37th floor of Connaught Centre just moved out, and the vacant space should be enough for them. Do you think it’s not enough, Boss?” Ma Shimin asked, a little puzzled.

“That’s right. In the past, Universal Investment was indeed limited in scale, often functioning purely as an investment firm. But now, I see its potential for a major leap. I hope to use this opportunity to make it a leader in Hong Kong’s securities investment sector. Soon, Universal Investment’s staff might exceed a thousand people, or even more. So, this little space definitely won’t be enough,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Ma Shimin was a sharp man; in that instant, many things clicked into place for him.

“Boss, are you planning to absorb the employees from Jardine Securities?” Ma Shimin couldn’t help but ask, a flicker of curiosity in his eyes.

“Precisely. I didn’t expect you to figure it out so quickly!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

“Actually, while you were on your business trip to the United States, I discussed this with Mr. Dai from Universal Investment Company and suggested they move their office here. Mr. Dai said he would wait for your return to make a decision. To be honest, if Universal Investment really does move in, we have more than enough office space. Hongkong Land Group and its subsidiaries currently occupy only 16 floors, and we’ve actually reserved two to three extra floors as backup office space!” Ma Shimin continued.

Previously, during the acquisition of the Hongkong Telephone Company, Universal Investment had assisted Hongkong Land and demonstrated remarkable stock trading skills that had deeply impressed even the experienced Ma Shimin.

That was why he had come up with the idea of having Universal Investment move to Connaught Centre, so that Hongkong Land could receive more convenient and powerful support from them in future corporate acquisitions. After all, they were all one family.

Besides, technically speaking, Universal Investment Company was the holding company of Hongkong Land Group. When Lin Haoran had acquired Hongkong Land, he had done so under the name of Universal Investment Company.

It was just that neither Su Zhixue nor Dai Shi had the authority to boss Hongkong Land Group around.

“Originally, I considered handling this myself, using my personal influence to privately contact the senior executives at Jardine Securities. I would have used Jardine Matheson’s plan to sell off Jardine Securities as an opportunity to attract some, or even most, of their teams to our side. But on second thought, Mr. Ma, as a former senior executive at Jardine Matheson & Co., you are more familiar with the internal structure and personnel of Jardine Securities. It would be much more appropriate for you to handle it. Therefore, I’ve decided to entrust this important task to you. Since Jardine Matheson is determined to pull out of the Hong Kong market by selling off Jardine Securities, we’ll cut the ground from under them by secretly offering better terms to poach their talent. That way, it’ll be difficult for Jardine Matheson to sell off their shares smoothly. What do you think? Are you up for the task?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Right now, the senior executives at Jardine Securities were probably still in the dark.

If someone were to tell them now that Jardine Matheson & Co. was about to abandon them, would they remain loyal to the company?

Lin Haoran didn’t believe they would.

Once Jardine Securities was cast off by Jardine Matheson & Co., without its backer, its available resources would surely be greatly diminished. If it ended up with a new owner of average influence, Jardine Securities’ performance was bound to plummet.

And Lin Haoran’s influence in Hong Kong, under the current circumstances, was far greater than Jardine Matheson’s.

If they were willing to come over to Lin Haoran, their future income would certainly be no less than before, and possibly even more.

This was why Lin Haoran was confident he could lure away the talent from Jardine Securities.

The most valuable asset Jardine Securities had right now was its people.

Without that talent, Jardine Securities would collapse in an instant.

At that point, Jardine Securities wouldn’t be worth one and a half billion Hong Kong dollars—it might not even be worth one hundred fifty million Hong Kong dollars!

As for the influence Jardine Securities had built up over the years?

In Lin Haoran’s eyes, while the influence Jardine Securities had accumulated over many years was not to be underestimated, it ultimately depended on the professional competence and network of its core team.

Once these key talents were absorbed into Universal Investment Company, Jardine Securities’ “golden signboard” would lose its luster and become an empty shell.

Before, if Jardine Matheson & Co. hadn’t been willing to give up Jardine Securities, Lin Haoran might not have been able to do anything to them. But now, their Taipan had actually come to him seeking an acquisition. How could he not take full advantage of such an opportunity?

“Boss, isn’t that a bit too ruthless? If the poaching is successful, Jardine Matheson’s losses will be severe. They’re already on the hook for a five hundred million Hong Kong dollar fine. If Jardine Securities’ stock price plummets on top of that, their total losses this time will be at least over one billion!” Ma Shimin lamented.

“Mr. Ma, you must understand, they came after me first. They wanted to make me the villain of Hong Kong’s real estate industry. Since they started this and tried to retaliate against us through unscrupulous means, we don’t need to show any mercy,” Lin Haoran’s expression turned grim.

“Jardine Matheson & Co. thought I would buy Jardine Securities, hoping to make me a sucker before they left Hong Kong. They never expected to give us such an opening. They want to sell off Jardine Securities? Well, we’ll just have to show them that this piece of meat isn’t so easy to chew. Talent is the core competitiveness of a modern enterprise. Without talent, even the biggest name is just an empty facade.”

Lin Haoran stood up, walked to the window, and gazed at the bustling scenery of Hong Kong outside. He continued, “Universal Investment Company won’t just take in the talent from Jardine Securities; it will also use this opportunity to grow stronger and become the bellwether in the securities investment field in Hong Kong, and even all of Asia. Mr. Ma, as the key figure in this operation, your responsibility is immense. You must not only ensure the success of the poaching but also make sure that these newly joined team members integrate quickly into our side and perform to their fullest potential. After this is over, I plan to place the Hong Kong operations of Universal Investment Company under the management of Hongkong Land Group as well.”

Both Universal Investment Company and Hongkong Land Group were now Lin Haoran’s private enterprises.

Therefore, which one was subordinate to the other didn’t really matter.

In any case, Lin Haoran was the real boss!

As for Universal Investment Company, it was obvious that neither Su Zhixue nor Dai Shi had the ability to manage a large corporation.

So, although Hongkong Land Group was nominally acquired by Universal Investment Company, Lin Haoran had never granted them any management rights over the acquired company.

But Ma Shimin was different. He was a true top-tier management talent. Lin Haoran felt at ease leaving things under his management.

Plus, Ma Shimin’s loyalty score of a full 90 made Lin Haoran even more comfortable delegating authority to him.

After speaking, Lin Haoran turned to look at Ma Shimin, waiting for his response.

“This is indeed a bit underhanded, and you’re a former senior executive of Jardine Matheson. If you’re unwilling to do it, I won’t force you,” Lin Haoran added after a moment’s thought.

“No, Boss. I work for you now. My past identity and experience will not be obstacles to carrying out your orders. On the contrary, they will allow me to understand the internal workings of Jardine Securities more deeply and better complete this poaching mission. I am willing to accept this challenge and contribute my strength to the future development of Hongkong Land Group.”

Chapter 468: Specializing in Poaching Talent

In the blink of an eye, two days passed, and it was now January 6th.

It seemed that after the Government House announced its penalty, public discussion on the matter gradually began to die down.

The Government House had made its announcement, and Jardine Matheson & Co. had taken no further action, indicating their acceptance of the punishment.

At this point, there seemed to be little left to discuss.

However, in the aftermath of this incident, Jardine Matheson & Co.’s influence in Hong Kong took another major hit.

Lin Haoran’s influence, on the other hand, had soared because of it.

A year ago, Jardine Matheson & Co. was a towering presence that looked down on all of Hong Kong. Who could have imagined that just one year later, it would fall to such a state?

Over the past two days, Lin Haoran had Cui Zilong keep a close watch on Jardine Matheson & Co.’s movements.

As expected, after failing to get the desired outcome from Lin Haoran, Jardine Matheson & Co. did not give up. In the past two days, Simon Keswick had paid multiple visits to Li Jiacheng, Michael Sandberg, and others. He had even called on Citibank, but it appeared that Jardine Matheson & Co. had not received a favorable result.

The securities industry was unique compared to other sectors.

A company like Jardine Securities, in particular, had been able to handle so much business in the past not only because of its own influence but, more importantly, because of the business brought in by its parent company, Jardine Matheson & Co.

Therefore, while no one could deny that Jardine Securities was a high-quality asset in the industry, these tycoons felt it wasn’t worth the price if it were to be acquired at its market capitalization.

And Jardine Matheson & Co. was clearly unwilling to accept a lower price.

As a result, despite Simon Keswick visiting several tycoons, he ultimately failed to achieve a positive outcome.

At nine o’clock on the evening of the 6th, just as Lin Haoran was about to get some rest, a series of urgent rings from the telephone shattered the quiet. He picked up the phone and was greeted by Ma Shimin’s excited voice.

“Boss, I have good news! Over the last two days, I’ve secretly met twice with a key figure at Jardine Securities, my good friend, Mr. Allen, the company’s Deputy General Manager.

“After some in-depth discussions and the promise of a pay raise and other tangible benefits, Mr. Allen was finally persuaded. He is willing to privately bring over the entire team he manages. These people account for about one-third of Jardine Securities’ core elite!” Ma Shimin’s voice was filled with excitement.

Lin Haoran was also very pleased to hear Ma Shimin’s words, but he asked with some surprise, “Mr. Ma, the Deputy General Manager of Jardine Securities is a friend of yours?”

Lin Haoran was naturally looking to poach the most elite talent. As for the ordinary employees at Jardine Securities, he was certainly not as concerned about them.

Ma Shimin understood this very well, so he had decisively targeted only the elite at Jardine Securities.

“That’s right. When I was a senior executive at Jardine Matheson & Co., Jardine Securities was actually one of the businesses under my purview, and it was I who personally promoted Mr. Allen three years ago,” Ma Shimin replied.

“Hmm, one-third of their elite talent is not bad, but it would be even better if we could get more!” Lin Haoran frowned, not entirely satisfied.

“Boss, the current senior management structure at Jardine Securities is quite complex. Fortunately, Mr. Allen and I are on very good terms, so if we want to persuade more people to jump ship to our side, we can start with him.

“If we have enough time, with Mr. Allen’s assistance, we have a good chance of convincing more senior executives to join our ranks. These executives can often bring their entire teams with them when they leave.

“However, Boss, there is one issue I need to bring to your attention. When they joined the company, to prevent them from jumping to competitors, their contracts typically include a penalty clause for breach of contract.

“Take Mr. Allen and his team, for example. There are about two hundred people. If we want to poach all of them, we may need to pay a total penalty of over ten million Hong Kong dollars.

“And if we want to recruit the majority of Jardine Securities’ mid-level elites, that figure would have to climb to at least thirty million Hong Kong dollars,” Ma Shimin reported in detail.

“Thirty million Hong Kong dollars? No problem, just go ahead and do it,” Lin Haoran said, unfazed.

Based on Jardine Securities’ current market capitalization, it would take at least five to six hundred million Hong Kong dollars to acquire the shares held by Jardine Matheson & Co.

By poaching their talent, he could obviously save that money.

Although poaching them would certainly require promising higher salaries, that amount was nothing compared to five or six hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Currently, an elite trader earned around ten thousand Hong Kong dollars a month. How much more would a raise in their base salary cost?

And thirty million Hong Kong dollars was even less significant when compared to five or six hundred million.

“Also, there’s another problem. Right now, I’ve only been in contact with Mr. Allen. Once he privately discusses this with his team members, although he can persuade most of them, some employees will inevitably report the news to other senior executives at Jardine Securities, or even to Jardine Matheson & Co. So, a leak will be unavoidable by then!” Ma Shimin raised another concern.

“So, Mr. Ma, do you have a good solution?” Lin Haoran asked.

“I have a strategy,” Ma Shimin continued. “The day after tomorrow, on the morning of January 8th, Jardine Securities will release its financial report for the previous fiscal year.

“If we can cleverly leak the news that Jardine Matheson & Co. might be giving up on Jardine Securities before then, the stock price of Jardine Securities is bound to take a hit, and the company will be thrown into turmoil.

“In such an environment, with everyone feeling insecure, it will be the perfect opportunity for us to poach their talent. But there’s a risk. Once the news gets out, Jardine Matheson & Co. will likely point the finger of suspicion at you, Boss.

“After all, Mr. Simon Keswick met with you just two days ago to sell Jardine Securities to you. If the news spreads now, it will be hard for them not to connect it to you. So, while this strategy could bring greater returns, it also comes with considerable risk.”

“Mr. Ma, you can rest assured,” Lin Haoran said with a laugh, confident of success. “According to the information I have, Mr. Simon Keswick hasn’t just been talking to me these past two days; he’s also visited several other business tycoons.

“However, based on current intelligence, both Simon Keswick and Henry Keswick appear very worried, which clearly indicates their negotiations are not going well.

“Therefore, quite a few people now know that Jardine Matheson & Co. intends to sell Jardine Securities. Even if we do secretly release the news, we won’t be the only suspects. After all, in the business world, such news tends to spread quickly, and it’s often difficult to trace it back to a specific source.”

Hearing this, Ma Shimin’s worries eased considerably.

He nodded in agreement. “Your analysis is spot on, Boss. This gives us much more flexibility. However, to ensure everything is foolproof, I will still meticulously plan the leak to make it seem more like an accidental market rumor rather than something originating from us.”

“Excellent, Mr. Ma. I greatly appreciate your cautious approach,” Lin Haoran said with an approving nod, encouraging him, “Go ahead and do what you need to do. You have my unconditional support.

“In fact, you don’t need to worry too much about this. Even if Jardine Matheson & Co. realizes it was our doing, so what? We already have an irreconcilable grudge with the financial group behind them. Even if we buy Jardine Securities, they won’t make peace with us.

“Besides, with my current strength and status, I have no need to fear Jardine Matheson & Co. True, they are backed by a behemoth like the Rothschild family, but the Rothschilds’ investment in Jardine Matheson is just one of many in their portfolio.

“They are unlikely to go out of their way to target an Eastern businessman like me over Jardine Matheson’s affairs. I am confident I can handle any challenge,” Lin Haoran said, full of self-assurance.

Currently, Lin Haoran’s key investments were focused on the Asia-Pacific region, which included Asia and America.

In contrast, he had very few investments in Europe.

Although he had been organized by the Government House to go on a business delegation to Britain and had promised to invest there, he could completely withdraw his investments if he encountered vicious competition.

For now, the Asia-Pacific market was more than enough for his development.

He was confident that in ten years, his strength would completely surpass that of world-class financial groups like the Rothschild family.

“Alright, I understand. I’ll start preparations tonight. If all goes well, by tomorrow morning, the news that Jardine Matheson & Co. is planning a sell-off of Jardine Securities will be all over Hong Kong!” Ma Shimin continued.

“Good. I’ll be waiting for your good news. I hope to hear that we’ve poached the main force of Jardine Securities as soon as possible!” Lin Haoran laughed.

Poaching the main force of Jardine Securities would not only be a sharp blow of retaliation against Jardine Matheson & Co., but it would also allow Universal Investment Company to grow even further. It was a matter of killing two birds with one stone.

At present, Universal Investment Company’s business was relatively specialized, focusing primarily on trading.

However, financial magnates like Jardine Securities and Wardley had much broader business scopes, covering not only core services like securities brokerage, financial advisory, and privatization, but also securities underwriting, proprietary trading, asset management, and a variety of other investment businesses.

In terms of comprehensive strength, Universal Investment Company indeed had a significant gap when compared to firms like Jardine Securities and Wardley.

This gap was evident not just in the breadth of their business operations, but also in areas like brand influence, client base, capital strength, and risk management.

However, if Universal Investment Company could successfully integrate the core business departments of Jardine Securities, it would be a major strategic opportunity.

By absorbing the high-quality resources and professional teams from Jardine Securities, Universal Investment Company could rapidly enhance its overall competitiveness, achieving business diversification and a comprehensive leap in strength.

Chapter 469: The President of Nintendo

On the morning of January 7th, as the first rays of dawn touched Hong Kong, a piece of bombshell news swept through the entire city.

Jardine Matheson & Co., a corporate giant known to all in Hong Kong, was selling off its most crucial subsidiary in the city—Jardine Securities—and was actively looking for a new owner.

The source of this news was a matter of speculation; no one knew where it had originated.

But regardless, it became the talk of the town overnight.

Even more surprisingly, the rumors explicitly mentioned that Jardine Matheson’s current Taipan, Simon Keswick, had already visited several industry titans, including Lin Haoran, Li Jiacheng, Michael Sandberg, Schreyer, and the general manager of Citibank’s Hong Kong branch.

In the end, no deal was reached due to disagreements over the price, and Jardine Matheson was now urgently searching for a buyer for Jardine Securities.

This wasn’t just baseless speculation. Photos of Simon Keswick entering Connaught Centre, the China Building, the HSBC Building, Swire House, and others had been sent to various media outlets.

The news was painted so vividly, as if witnessed firsthand, that it was hard not to lend it some credence.

Furthermore, Jardine Matheson had previously announced its intention to move its headquarters out of Hong Kong, a fact confirmed by Simon Keswick himself in an interview.

With this new rumor, everyone guessed that Jardine Securities was planning to completely abandon the Hong Kong market.

At 9:30 in the morning, the stock price of Jardine Securities plummeted in response.

This news was a devastating blow to the company.

After all, everyone knew that Jardine Securities’ current stock price was almost entirely propped up by its performance.

Once Jardine Securities changed hands, no one could predict what its future performance would be.

If its performance dropped drastically, it was obvious that its current market capitalization would be unsustainable.

So, why wouldn’t shareholders sell off their stocks now? What were they waiting for?

Panic quickly spread among investors, causing the company’s stock price to fall below a key psychological price point in just a few minutes. The trading floor was filled with an atmosphere of tension and unease.

Traders scrambled to execute sell orders, and phones rang incessantly as everyone tried to save themselves from the sudden storm.

At Jardine Securities, employees were also abuzz with discussion after arriving at work. Many even went directly to their immediate superiors to ask if the rumors were true, as it directly concerned their own interests.

However, among the senior executives of Jardine Securities, besides Deputy General Manager Allen, probably only the general manager, Martin, knew the truth.

Allen himself had only found out when Ma Shimin approached him; otherwise, he would have been in the dark as well.

As for Martin, a loyal subordinate of the Keswick family, he didn’t have to worry about his position even if Jardine Securities was sold. Jardine Matheson & Co. had already arranged a new role for him.

Inside the general manager’s office at Jardine Securities, Allen faced Martin, feigning complete ignorance. “Mr. Martin, are the rumors circulating outside true?” he asked.

Martin smiled helplessly and admitted frankly, “Since it’s impossible to hide anymore, I won’t conceal it. Yes, Jardine Matheson does intend to sell Jardine Securities. It’s part of the group’s business restructuring.

The reason we didn’t tell you before was mainly to maintain stability within the company. After all, if such news leaked prematurely, it could cause unnecessary panic and upheaval.

Allen, as my capable deputy, I have always had high expectations for your abilities. Even if the new owner makes adjustments to the senior management of Jardine Securities, you can rest assured that I will help secure another position for you within Jardine Matheson & Co.”

Allen sneered inwardly. If this hadn’t been made public, he would have likely been kept in the dark indefinitely.

But he showed no trace of it on his face, instead displaying a look of gratitude. “Thank you so much, Mr. Martin. However, I am still a little worried. After all, we’ve poured so many years of our heart and soul into Jardine Securities. It’s truly unsettling to hear it’s being sold.”

Martin patted Allen’s shoulder comfortingly. “I understand how you feel, but the business world is unpredictable. What we must do is adapt to these changes and strive to remain competitive amidst them.

By the way, Allen, there will be a lot of work to do next, including reassuring the staff and handling the business handover. Although Mr. Keswick hasn’t found a new buyer yet, it won’t be long. As the Deputy General Manager, you will need to shoulder this heavy responsibility.”

“Rest assured, Mr. Martin. I will do my utmost to calm the employees and ensure the company’s stability,” Allen pledged with seeming sincerity.

Deep down, however, he couldn’t help but smile smugly.

This change at Jardine Securities was, for him, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

A few days ago, his former boss, Ma Shimin, had extended an olive branch. If he could successfully poach the elite talent from Jardine Securities, he would receive a handsome commission.

What tempted Allen even more was Ma Shimin’s promise to cover any contractual penalties incurred from the poaching, which removed his biggest obstacle.

He calculated that if he could lure all of Jardine Securities’ top talent over to the Hongkong Land Group, he would not only make a smooth career move but also earn a substantial bonus.

He had been planning how to entice more people away, and unexpectedly, the news of Jardine Securities’ sale had spread like wildfire today, causing widespread panic among the employees.

For him, this was a golden opportunity.

He held considerable prestige within Jardine Securities and had already persuaded several of his subordinates.

At this thought, a glint of excitement appeared in Allen’s eyes.

He had already begun to silently map out a new “talent migration” plan, intending to leverage his influence and extensive network of connections to bring it to fruition step by step.

…

Although Lin Haoran was paying attention to the matter of Jardine Securities, he was not directly involved.

He had full confidence in Ma Shimin to handle it.

Despite this, he came to Connaught Centre early in the morning.

On the 51st floor of Connaught Centre, an office of over three hundred square meters was gradually being emptied under the direction of the staff.

It was right next to Ma Shimin’s office.

He intended to move his private reception room from Wanqing Building over here.

The location of this office was exceptional. One side faced the shimmering Victoria Harbour, while the other overlooked the bustling expanse of Central East.

Although the architectural style of Connaught Centre prevented the installation of floor-to-ceiling glass windows, a row of large, circular windows took their place, cleverly capturing the beauty outside and allowing the interior and exterior scenery to complement each other.

Compared to Wanqing Building, the view here was undoubtedly more expansive and captivating.

At this moment, Lin Haoran held a blueprint in his hand, showing what the office would look like in the future.

A construction team would come over the weekend and renovate the space in a very short amount of time.

Afterward, Lin Haoran would be able to work or meet guests in this private reception room-cum-office.

As he stepped out of the empty office, Ma Shimin was just returning from outside.

Behind him, a man in his fifties, dressed in a sharp suit, followed closely.

“Mr. Ma, who is this?” Lin Haoran asked with some curiosity.

“Boss Lin, allow me to introduce you,” Ma Shimin said quickly. “This is the current president of Nintendo of Japan, Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi.”

“Mr. Lin, hello! I have long heard of your great name. I am Yamauchi Hiroshi of Nintendo. It is a pleasure to meet you.” Before he had even finished speaking, Yamauchi had already greeted Lin Haoran in English and extended his right hand, eager to shake his.

“Hello, Mr. Yamauchi. I have long heard of your great name as well!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

The current president of Nintendo?

Lin Haoran was, of course, familiar with Nintendo. They were arguably the world’s most impressive video game company.

Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon, Metroid, Fire Emblem, Kirby…

These games covered a wide range of genres and styles, from action-adventure to role-playing, from racing to simulation. Nintendo’s creations had won the hearts of players worldwide with their unique creativity, rich gameplay, and profound depth.

As he recalled, Nintendo had begun to make its mark in the 1980s, gradually establishing its position as a giant in the global video game industry.

Although Lin Haoran didn’t know the specifics of Nintendo’s early development, it didn’t stop him from recognizing the extraordinary strength and influence the company would wield in the future.

“To think that Mr. Lin knows of me, I am truly honored!” A smile blossomed on Yamauchi Hiroshi’s face.

“I know a little about Nintendo. You focus on the development of video game hardware and software, am I right?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

He didn’t actually know Yamauchi Hiroshi, but he believed that anyone living in the 21st century would recognize the video game giant Nintendo.

“Perfectly correct. For Mr. Lin to summarize our business so accurately proves that you truly know something about us.” At this, Yamauchi Hiroshi’s smile grew even wider.

“Boss, Mr. Yamauchi, please, let’s go inside and sit down. We can talk in more detail,” Ma Shimin said, gesturing toward the office as he saw the two of them exchanging pleasantries in the hallway.

Chapter 470: An Opportunity to Enter the Japanese Market

The three of them entered Ma Shimin’s office. After sitting down, Lin Haoran asked curiously, “What brings Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi here?”

In his view, Hongkong Land Group and Nintendo were not in the same industry. Yamauchi Hiroshi seeking them out felt like an odd pairing.

Besides, as far as he knew, Nintendo’s products were already being sold in Hong Kong.

Before Yamauchi Hiroshi could speak, Ma Shimin took the initiative to explain, “Boss, allow me to introduce them. Nintendo—from what was just said, it’s clear you already know a bit about them. They are a formidable video game company, currently the second-largest in the world, second only to the American industry giant, Atari.

“Although they’re ranked second, the gap between them and Atari is still quite significant. Last year, Nintendo launched a portable game console called the Game & Watch. In less than a year, it sold over five million units in Japan alone—an outstanding achievement. This has given Nintendo hope of surpassing Atari.

“However, in the international market, especially compared to Atari, Nintendo is still falling a bit short. Particularly in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, their sales have not met expectations.

“Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi’s personal visit to our Hongkong Land Group this time isn’t actually about Hongkong Land itself, but about you. They’ve taken note of the immense influence of your businesses in Hong Kong and even throughout Southeast Asia.

“Your commercial empire now encompasses numerous well-known sales channels, such as Dairy Farm International’s Wellcome supermarkets, Hongkong Electric Group’s Fortress Electronics, convenience stores, and more. You effectively control the most extensive sales network in Hong Kong and even have a solid foothold in Southeast Asia.

“Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi’s first stop after leaving Japan was Hong Kong. He hopes to cooperate with us and leverage your powerful distribution network to further boost the sales of Nintendo’s products.

“Originally, Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi came to Hong Kong intending to partner with Jardine Matheson & Co. But since we have taken over most of Jardine Matheson’s former sales channels in Hong Kong, he now wants to work with us.

“Next, he will also be traveling to Singapore, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and other places to seek more strong partners, hoping to further increase their product sales.”

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran had a moment of sudden realization.

But a sliver of doubt rose in his mind. “This Atari company… if I remember correctly, shouldn’t they be running into trouble soon? Is Nintendo really still being overshadowed by a company that’s on the verge of a crisis?”

Lin Haoran wasn’t completely up-to-date on the dynamics of the video game industry, so he wasn’t entirely clear on the competitive landscape between Nintendo and Atari.

His knowledge of Nintendo’s situation in the eighties and nineties was merely pieced together from fragmented information he had come across on the internet in his previous life.

“Mr. Lin, I have come here today with the utmost sincerity. To make this partnership happen, we at Nintendo have prepared an extremely generous offer.”

Yamauchi Hiroshi continued in a sincere tone, “As long as you can sell one hundred thousand units of our product in the Hong Kong market, your commission will be calculated at 20% of the retail price. If sales reach two hundred thousand units, the commission increases to 22%; at three hundred thousand units, it will be 24%, with a maximum possible commission of 30%!

“Although the Hong Kong market is small, its consumer potential is enormous, with many consumers who have strong purchasing power. Therefore, Nintendo has always placed great importance on the Hong Kong market. We look forward to achieving great success with you.

“Furthermore, the same terms can apply to Mr. Lin’s sales channels in Southeast Asia, though each market will need to be calculated separately.”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran scoffed inwardly.

Indeed, there were many people in Hong Kong who could afford it.

But with Hong Kong’s population base of five million, the target demographic for this game console was mainly concentrated in the ten to thirty-year-old age group.

That age bracket only consisted of a little over one million people.

And it would be an incredible feat if even one-tenth of them actually bought a game console.

Therefore, reaching a sales volume of one hundred thousand units would already be an exaggerated figure, let alone two or three hundred thousand.

And a single console currently sold for several hundred Hong Kong dollars.

Even if they managed to sell two hundred thousand units in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran knew that based on Nintendo’s proposed commission rates, the profit his companies would receive wouldn’t be particularly substantial.

Moreover, while his companies’ sales channels in Southeast Asia were decent, the local distribution networks there were also fiercely competitive, and his channels didn’t hold a significant advantage.

Thus, Lin Haoran didn’t have high expectations for the sales volume this partnership might generate.

Lin Haoran was able to keenly perceive that Yamauchi Hiroshi’s true purpose in visiting Hong Kong and Southeast Asia was to expand his sales channels and increase Nintendo’s product sales, thereby gaining a more advantageous position in the competition against Atari.

Seeing Lin Haoran remain silent, Yamauchi Hiroshi slowly took a game console out of his briefcase, placed it gently in front of Lin Haoran, and said, “Mr. Lin, this is Nintendo’s latest product, the Game & Watch. It achieved tremendous success in the Japanese market just a few months after its launch, which made me profoundly aware of its market potential.

“Admittedly, from your personal perspective, this may not be a large-scale collaboration. But for Nintendo, it is incredibly significant. We believe that by joining forces, we can create long-term development opportunities for both parties.

“As long as you are willing to give this collaboration a chance, Mr. Lin, Nintendo will never forget it. I confidently predict that Nintendo will become the global leader of the video game industry in the near future.

“And you, Mr. Lin, will forever be our cherished partner and friend. We hope to witness and participate in this historic process together with you.”

The video game console industry was no longer a niche market. In North America alone, annual revenue had reached nearly three billion US dollars. Adding the European and Asian markets, it was already a market worth close to ten billion dollars.

And with Nintendo being the industry’s number two, it was no wonder they were so eager to claim the top spot.

Lin Haoran picked up the Game & Watch from the table, carefully examining the small and exquisitely crafted game console.

He lightly pressed a button, watching the game’s visuals flash across the screen.

It already had the rudimentary form of the handheld gaming devices of later generations.

He smiled, placed the console back on the table, and didn’t answer the other party’s proposal. Instead, he countered with a question, “Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi, may I ask, is Nintendo a publicly listed company?”

Lin Haoran’s words immediately caught Yamauchi Hiroshi off guard.

“What do you mean by that question, Mr. Lin? Nintendo went public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1962.” Yamauchi Hiroshi couldn’t understand why Lin Haoran was asking if Nintendo was a publicly listed company.

Lin Haoran nodded and continued, “In that case, as the president of Nintendo, have you ever considered financing for the company? I am very optimistic about your company’s future!”

“Ah, to be honest, Mr. Lin, we are not short of cash at the moment, so we have no plans for financing whatsoever. If you wish to own shares, you can acquire them through the stock market,” Yamauchi Hiroshi said, shaking his head.

The Yamauchi family’s control over Nintendo was absolute, so they weren’t worried about anyone threatening their executive power.

Therefore, Yamauchi Hiroshi could generously allow Lin Haoran to accumulate shares through the stock market.

“No, no, no, Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi, I think you’ve misunderstood. I’m not talking about financing Nintendo with capital, but rather with technology!” Lin Haoran laughed.

Lin Haoran’s knowledge of the video game industry was indeed limited, confined to the gameplay of a few classic titles.

And in Hong Kong, talent in the gaming industry was scarce, which was another reason he had no intention of entering the field himself.

However, he didn’t mind sharing in the future growth dividends of a future video game giant like Nintendo by becoming a shareholder.

Furthermore, his various companies had performed well last year, bringing in good revenue.

Now, the time for releasing their financial reports was approaching.

Once the financial reports were out, he would know exactly how much available capital he had.

He didn’t know the exact amount yet, but he was certain it would be substantial.

In fact, Lin Haoran was already planning to enter the Japanese market this year.

After all, he knew just how crazy the Japanese market was in the 1980s.

Entering the Japanese market at this time would be absolutely perfect.

As far as he knew, by the late 1980s, eight of the world’s top ten financial firms by market capitalization were Japanese.

This alone showed how frenzied the Japanese economy was in the eighties.

Therefore, he absolutely could not miss out on the Japanese market.

As long as he pulled out of Japan before the economic crisis hit, he could make a huge profit during this period.

But the Japanese market was insular, and it would be very difficult for him to enter it just like that.

So, he would definitely need a network of connections in Japan.

And Nintendo’s influence in Japan was not insignificant. If he could establish a good partnership with them now and use it as an opportunity to enter the Japanese market, then investing in Nintendo would be an excellent idea.

Lin Haoran’s idea sounded quite novel to Yamauchi Hiroshi. He was slightly taken aback, but then a look of interest appeared on his face.

“Financing in the form of technology? Mr. Lin, could you please explain what you mean in more detail?”

He really couldn’t figure out what technology Lin Haoran could possibly have.

After all, in his eyes, Lin Haoran was just a layman.

He mulled it over but truly couldn’t comprehend the meaning behind Lin Haoran’s words.

What kind of technology could a layman possibly possess in the field of video games? It sounded like a joke.

But given Lin Haoran’s prominent status, he couldn’t just say something disrespectful.

Chapter 471: Second-largest shareholder of the Bank of East Asia

“To be honest, I have quite a few game ideas that I believe could be global hits. But I’d need to register the patents first. We could discuss this in more detail when we have the chance,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He really didn’t know much about the gaming industry of this era. In his past life, he had mostly played major games like Honor of Kings, Peacekeeper Elite, and Genshin Impact.

His most vivid memory of gaming in this era was probably the early game consoles, where a single cartridge could let you play many games.

However, that was something that became popular after the turn of the twenty-first century.

Still, he knew the gameplay of many classic mini-games—timeless gems like Tetris, Super Mario, Contra, Battle City, Street Fighter, Pac-Man, Snow Bros., Bubble Bobble, Bomberman, and more.

He remembered a surprising number of these mini-games, and most importantly, none of them had been released yet in this era.

Imagine, these games would become popular worldwide in the future, and even in the twenty-first century, they wouldn’t be obsolete despite the changing times. This alone was a testament to their value.

Moreover, given their simplicity, developing them wouldn’t be difficult. Not registering patents for them would be a terrible waste.

Across from him, Nintendo’s president, Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi, was clearly taken aback. He thought Lin Haoran was joking.

Game ideas?

When it came to game ideas, he believed Japan was number one, with no one coming in a close second, not even the United States.

The reason Japan’s gaming market had risen so suddenly was precisely because of its wealth of creative game ideas.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s claim now, he thought it was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard.

He didn’t believe Lin Haoran could possibly have any brilliant game ideas, let alone offer them as a way to invest in the company.

“Mr. Lin, to be frank with you, Nintendo has no shortage of game ideas. Every day, our company receives all sorts of game design proposals, but very few are truly outstanding enough to be adopted and developed into a game.

If you are very confident in your game concept, I can help you with a preliminary review. However, Mr. Lin, I must remind you not to get your hopes up.” If it weren’t for the need to be courteous to Lin Haoran, Yamauchi Hiroshi would have almost laughed out loud.

It wasn’t that he looked down on Lin Haoran, but as a top tycoon in the video game industry, he simply couldn’t believe that Lin Haoran, despite being far more powerful in the business world, could come up with any idea that would impress him.

Lin Haoran wasn’t particularly bothered by what was essentially a direct refusal.

After all, it was just an idea that had occurred to him on the spur of the moment.

It was just Nintendo. Whether he invested in it or not didn’t really matter.

As he thought about it, Lin Haoran suddenly changed his mind. It would be a huge loss to just hand these games over to Nintendo as a capital investment.

Since Nintendo was a listed company, if he wanted to invest, he could just use some money to buy shares. Nintendo’s stock price probably wasn’t very high at this time; there was no need to trade these game ideas for equity.

It would be better to find people to develop these games himself and then partner with Nintendo or other video game hardware companies. He would get paid for every copy sold. If he sold tens of millions of copies, he’d make a considerable amount of money.

When he first met the current president of Nintendo, he had thought he didn’t know much about the gaming industry of this era.

But at this moment, Lin Haoran had a change of heart. With his current wealth, why bother investing with technology as capital?

Since he could recall the gameplay of so many mini-games, he could just do it himself!

If Hong Kong lacked talent in this area, he could find it in Japan. He already planned to make a major push into the Japanese market anyway.

If you asked which economy would grow the fastest and be the most impressive in the next decade, some might say the United States, but that wasn’t true. It was Japan!

By the late 1980s, Japan’s economy was at the peak of its bubble, and the wealth accumulated by its people had reached unprecedented heights.

In his previous life, Lin Haoran had read an article stating that in 1989, the value of a piece of land in Tokyo’s Ginza district was higher than the value of all the land in the entire state of California. There was even a saying that “selling Tokyo could buy the entire United States.”

This just went to show how insane Japan’s economic development was in the 1980s.

And now, it was only the early 1980s. Japan’s economy was already rising rapidly, but it hadn’t reached the later frenzy.

This period was definitely a great time for investment.

Perhaps it was time to take a trip to Japan.

The last time, he had a layover in Tokyo on his way back from the United States, but he hadn’t left the airport and had flown directly back to Hong Kong.

“Well, if Mr. Yamauchi isn’t interested, let’s just drop it,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, what are your thoughts on our proposed channel sales partnership?” Yamauchi Hiroshi asked, his heart pounding. He was worried that his earlier words might have offended Lin Haoran and now feared a direct rejection.

However, Lin Haoran just laughed heartily and said, “I agree with your proposal in principle. As for the specific details of the cooperation, you can discuss them further with Mr. Ma Shimin, Mr. Chen Shoulin, and the others. I won’t be too involved.”

Hearing this, Yamauchi Hiroshi breathed a huge sigh of relief.

In Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia, Jardine Matheson & Co. used to have incredibly strong sales channels.

But now, almost all of those channels were in Lin Haoran’s hands.

For this reason, Yamauchi Hiroshi knew he absolutely could not miss the opportunity to partner with Lin Haoran.

After all, the Hongkong Land Group’s current market influence was no longer limited to Hong Kong; its reach and strength in Southeast Asia were not to be underestimated.

“Thank you, thank you so much, Mr. Lin. If you ever have the time, please visit us at Nintendo’s headquarters in Kyoto. I will be sure to give you a grand reception!” Yamauchi Hiroshi said, standing up excitedly and giving Lin Haoran a deep bow.

“Of course. If I have the time, I’ll pay you a visit. You are a tycoon in the video game world, and there is much I can learn from you!” Lin Haoran laughed.

After that, Lin Haoran didn’t continue the detailed discussion and left the office.

Standing at the door, Lin Haoran thought for a moment and decided to head over to the Wanqing Building.

The matter of relocating Universal Investment Company needed to be settled as soon as possible.

Ma Shimin had told him that he could free up two floors for Universal Investment Company at any time.

Given Universal Investment Company’s current number of employees, half a floor would be more than enough, let alone two.

However, Jardine Securities had many industry elites waiting to be integrated, so moving over now was perfect.

Once the staff expanded, they would also take over many of Jardine Securities’ markets.

A dozen or so minutes later, Lin Haoran arrived at the Wanqing Building.

He first went to Burton’s office, but learned from another senior executive that Burton had left on a business trip that morning. He had gone somewhere quite far—Bangkok.

After a brief inspection of the Wanqing Group headquarters, paying particular attention to the loyalty of the mid-to-senior level executives and finding no issues, Lin Haoran took the elevator up to the 31st floor.

In the office, every employee was immersed in their work, busy and focused.

Universal Investment Company’s Hong Kong office currently had a total of about a hundred employees, which was indeed much quieter than before.

Even so, since they began handling external securities trading, their workload had increased significantly, and everyone seemed exceptionally busy.

As Lin Haoran passed the front desk, he asked the receptionist to inform Dai Shi to come to his office, then walked straight into his own workspace.

A few moments later, Dai Shi hurried into Lin Haoran’s office.

“Boss, you were looking for me?” Dai Shi asked respectfully.

“Yes, something important. You seem busy. Have you come across a good opportunity?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Yes, you’ve guessed it, Boss. There’s been unusual activity with the Bank of East Asia’s stock today. An unidentified shareholder is selling off a large number of shares, which is a perfect opportunity for us.

So, I’ve organized a team to closely monitor the Bank of East Asia’s stock and discreetly accumulate shares. An opportunity like this is fleeting and can’t be missed,” Dai Shi reported in detail.

Before leaving for the United States, Lin Haoran had already conceived the idea of acquiring a local bank in Hong Kong, and the Bank of East Asia had become his target.

However, acquiring the Bank of East Asia was no easy feat. It was almost completely controlled by the Li Peicai family, making it even more complex than acquiring other companies.

Most importantly, the trading volume of the Bank of East Asia’s stock was not as frequent as stocks in sectors like real estate, which undoubtedly made accumulating its shares more difficult.

However, Lin Haoran was in no hurry and didn’t mind the slow pace of the acquisition.

He was currently in the phase of gradually increasing his shareholding in the Bank of East Asia because he knew very well that the real estate crisis set to erupt in over a year would ripple through the banking sector. That would be the perfect opportunity for him to take control of the Bank of East Asia.

Of course, if he could take control earlier, that would be even better.

“I see. What’s the current percentage of Bank of East Asia shares we hold secretly?” Lin Haoran asked.

Chapter 472: Over Seven Hundred People Resign en Masse!

“In that case, I won’t take up any more of your time. I came to see you mainly to have you prepare for the company’s office move to Connaught Centre in the next couple of days. You can contact Mr. Ma Shimin for the specific arrangements; I’ve already discussed it all with him. When the time comes, the company will have two floors of office space in Connaught Centre!” Lin Haoran stated his purpose concisely.

“Two floors? That’s fantastic!” A flash of pleasant surprise appeared in Dai Shi’s eyes.

Working out of Connaught Centre would certainly mean coming into contact with more clients.

For Universal Investment Company, the pros definitely outweighed the cons. In fact, one could say there were no cons at all.

“Alright, go on and get busy. The team still needs you to oversee the overall situation. We can’t miss such a good opportunity to increase our shareholding,” Lin Haoran continued with a smile.

“Understood, Boss. I’ll take my leave now!” Dai Shi said before respectfully exiting the office.

Watching Dai Shi’s departing figure, Lin Haoran slowly rose to his feet and strolled over to his private reception room, carefully observing his surroundings.

This place had been specifically renovated by his subordinates on his orders after he acquired the Federation Building, tracing back to February of last year.

Now, less than a year later, he was preparing to move again.

The speed of this change was a direct reflection of his business’s rapid expansion.

Each change of office location was a testament to his journey of development, chronicling every step and constant evolution along the way.

However, Lin Haoran firmly believed that his private reception room in Connaught Centre would not be his final destination either.

Some time ago, he had unexpectedly won a bid to purchase five prime core plots of land from the government for three billion Hong Kong dollars. One of them was adjacent to Connaught Centre, and he planned to build a new building there that would be Hong Kong’s tallest.

Once this skyscraper was erected, he would naturally move his private reception room there to continue witnessing the glory and evolution of his career.

Standing by the window of his private reception room, Lin Haoran’s gaze pierced through the bustling cityscape, as if he could already see the future tallest building in Hong Kong standing tall by the shore.

His heart couldn’t help but fill with infinite longing for the future.

Standing before the massive floor-to-ceiling glass window, Lin Haoran stared at the prosperous scene outside, his heart filled with a thousand emotions.

However, he did not linger for long before turning and leaving the office.

In the blink of an eye, two more days passed, and it was the evening of January 9th.

Lin Haoran had just finished dinner at home. Guo Xiaohan had come over again tonight.

He didn’t mind, though. It was just a matter of setting an extra place at the table.

“Brother Haoran, I’m going on a business trip to Southeast Asia with my Uncle next Monday. This time, it’s mainly to go back and handle some family business matters. I might be there for more than half a month, or even a full month,” Guo Xiaohan said, sitting on the sofa in the living room. She turned her head to look at Lin Haoran, a hint of reluctance in her eyes.

It was only then that Lin Haoran had a sudden realization. So that was why Guo Xiaohan had made a special trip to see him a few days ago—it was because she was about to return to Southeast Asia.

He was well aware that the Guo family originated from Malaysia in Southeast Asia, with deep family roots planted there.

Although Guo Henian now placed more importance on the Hong Kong market, there was no denying that the Guo family’s main business was still concentrated in Southeast Asia.

Therefore, it was perfectly reasonable for Guo Xiaohan to go back with Guo Henian to handle business matters.

“Yes, learn well from your Uncle. He is truly an entrepreneur of great wisdom. Being able to learn even a fraction of his skills will be of immense help to your future growth,” Lin Haoran encouraged with a smile.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Guo Xiaohan said, her eyes shining with a determined light. “I’m going to properly absorb his business experience so that when I marry you in the future, I can better help share your burden!”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

They had clearly agreed to talk about these topics again in two years, yet Guo Xiaohan always brought it up from time to time, as if she were constantly reminding him.

Lin Haoran didn’t continue on this topic and instead chatted about other things.

As they talked, it was suddenly eight o’clock in the evening.

“It’s getting late. You should head back and get some rest,” Lin Haoran said, glancing at his watch before turning to Guo Xiaohan.

If Rosamund Kwan were here right now, he might have already ended up in bed with her.

But Guo Xiaohan’s status was special, so he chose to exercise restraint for the time being.

“Alright, I’ll get going then,” Guo Xiaohan said with a nod, though she was a bit reluctant to leave.

As she was about to leave, she once again took the initiative to approach and give Lin Haoran a passionate kiss.

Lin Haoran, for his part, was already used to it.

To ensure her safety, as Guo Xiaohan drove away, Lin Haoran once again arranged for Li Weidong to drive behind and escort her home.

Afterward, he went straight back to the third floor.

He had just gone upstairs, taken a set of pajamas out of the closet, and was about to take a shower when the phone in the study suddenly rang.

Putting down the pajamas, Lin Haoran walked into the study and answered the phone.

“Boss, it’s Ma Shimin. I have important news for you!” Ma Shimin’s excited voice came from the other end of the line.

“Oh? Tell me the details,” Lin Haoran replied directly.

“It’s about Jardine Securities. Three days ago, under your instruction, I secretly spread the news that Jardine Matheson & Co. was planning to sell Jardine Securities. This caused a huge uproar in Hong Kong, as you are well aware, Boss.

Over the past three days, Jardine Securities’ stock price has fallen continuously. At first, Jardine Matheson & Co. tried to deny and hide the matter, but a reporter beat them to it and interviewed several industry tycoons, who confirmed that Mr. Simon Keswick had indeed personally pitched Jardine Securities to them. This made it impossible for Jardine Matheson & Co. to cover it up any longer.

Because of this, the employees inside Jardine Securities became restless and worried about their future. The Deputy General Manager, Mr. Allen, seized this opportunity. After successfully persuading his own team, he went on to win the support of many other colleagues.

Tempted by high salaries, these people have secretly signed contracts with us, with us assuming all liability for any contractual penalties. Just tonight, the last batch of over a hundred employees also signed their contracts.

So far, more than seven hundred core employees from Jardine Securities have signed contracts with us. This means that nearly four-fifths of Jardine Securities’ elite staff will be lost!” Ma Shimin reported excitedly.

Over seven hundred people?

Even Lin Haoran was surprised, and at the same time, very pleased.

Over seven hundred people resigning as a group… that was probably unprecedented in the history of Hong Kong!

Jardine Securities had thousands of employees, but aside from non-core and auxiliary staff, the number of those classified as elite employees was only around one thousand.

These employees were mainly responsible for securities brokerage, financial advisory, privatization, securities underwriting, proprietary trading, asset management, insurance, and diversified investment services.

It could be said that by poaching these teams, Universal Investment Company had essentially acquired their complete operational capabilities directly.

With this, Universal Investment Company’s business would no longer be limited to just trading listed companies, but would become diversified, covering almost all financial services outside of banking!

“Well done!” Lin Haoran praised.

“Actually, Mr. Allen’s ambitions are even greater. He originally intended to poach the entire team from Jardine Securities. But the scale of this operation was too large. A couple of days ago, Mr. Allen only approached people he could trust, but today he began his large-scale operation. Inevitably, some were unwilling to switch, and they disclosed the matter to the general manager of Jardine Securities.

So now the matter has been exposed, and the senior executives at Jardine Securities and Jardine Matheson & Co. are in chaos. Mr. Allen can’t go back to Jardine House now either,” Ma Shimin continued his report.

“Hmm, persuading over seven hundred people is already an unexpected gain. It’s enough to show how capable and influential this Mr. Allen is. We can let him manage the company in the future. However, the contractual penalty in his contract must be high enough. Otherwise, if something similar happens next time and he poaches our team, it would be a huge loss,” Lin Haoran said with a laugh.

“Don’t worry, Boss. I’ve already considered all of that. The contractual penalty for all employees who signed on is ten times higher than what they had at Jardine Securities. So it’s almost impossible for them to resign en masse again!” Ma Shimin said with a confident smile.

Ever since Lin Haoran proposed putting Universal Investment Company under the management of the Hongkong Land Group, Ma Shimin had been full of motivation.

“Good. What are your plans next?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Tomorrow happens to be the weekend, so it’s the perfect time for Universal Investment Company to move over to the Hongkong Land Group. I’ve already discussed it with Mr. Allen and Mr. Dai,” Ma Shimin continued.

After Lin Haoran had told Dai Shi about the move two days ago, Dai Shi had also actively worked to implement it, carrying out a series of handovers with Ma Shimin.

However, since it was during work hours, moving was inconvenient. So, scheduling the move for the weekend was the most suitable time!

“Alright, you just handle this matter,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

“Also, the news about us poaching a large number of Jardine Securities employees already spread this afternoon. I’ve received interview requests from several media outlets, but considering the matter isn’t exactly glorious, I declined their interviews,” Ma Shimin continued.

As a former senior executive of Jardine Matheson & Co., he knew that overseeing something so detrimental to his former employer would inevitably lead to gossip behind his back.

However, he wasn’t particularly concerned about it; otherwise, he wouldn’t have followed Lin Haoran’s arrangement and personally taken charge of this task.

Despite this, Ma Shimin also knew that accepting interviews would be taking it too far.

“I understand your predicament. It doesn’t matter whether you accept interviews or not. But you can’t blame us for this. They were the ones who were unjust first; we were merely unrighteous in response. So, Mr. Ma, you can rest easy!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

Chapter 473: Traitors, All of Them Traitors!

The night was deep, and the skyscrapers on both sides of Hong Kong’s harbor gradually faded into darkness. Even the sparse traffic on the streets had dwindled.

However, on the thirty-second floor of Jardine House in Central, the lights remained as bright as day.

On the office floor lay a vase smashed to pieces and scattered documents—a complete mess, indicating that a storm had just passed through here.

Henry Keswick stood by the window, his face livid. His gaze pierced through the night, as if trying to penetrate all the way to Connaught Centre, the headquarters of the Hongkong Land Group.

His tightly clenched fists trembled slightly, betraying the fury within him.

This was too much, absolutely too much!

“How could this have happened?! Over seven hundred people! They actually poached over seven hundred of our elite employees!” Henry Keswick spun around angrily, roaring at his younger brother, Simon Keswick, and the general manager of Jardine Securities, who stood before him.

Simon Keswick’s face was ashen, and he remained silent.

Although he was the current Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., in front of his older brother and the former Taipan, Henry Keswick, he still seemed to lack confidence.

After all, Henry Keswick had run Jardine Matheson & Co. for many years, had deep roots, and was a major contributor to the company’s rise.

Most importantly, Henry Keswick was the current leader of the Keswick family. Simon Keswick owed his position as Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. entirely to Henry’s backing.

For the past few days, Simon Keswick had been running around, trying to find a suitable new owner for Jardine Securities.

But who could have imagined that while he was busy looking for a buyer, their home base would be raided?

Without these seven hundred-plus elite employees, it was obvious that Jardine Securities might now struggle to even maintain normal operations.

Next, what awaited them was likely a sharp drop in stock prices, an inability to complete business, and sky-high contractual penalties.

At this point, let alone selling for five or six hundred million Hong Kong dollars, it was questionable whether Jardine Securities could even fetch one hundred million.

The general manager looked terrified, his head bowed. His voice trembled as he replied, “Yes… Yes, Mr. Simon. It all happened too suddenly. Deputy General Manager Allen… he secretly planned all of this.”

“Allen! That traitor!” Henry Keswick said through gritted teeth.

He never would have thought that the Deputy General Manager of Jardine Securities would betray him at such a critical moment.

“What do we do now? Can our business still operate normally?” Henry Keswick asked.

The general manager was silent for a moment before answering cautiously, “I’m afraid… I’m afraid it will be quite difficult. These employees who resigned are the backbone of our company. Their departure will deal a severe blow to our business.”

Hearing this, Simon Keswick’s expression grew even uglier. He knew that this incident was not just a simple loss of talent, but a major blow to Jardine Securities and the entire Jardine Matheson & Co. If they didn’t take action soon, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Just then, the office door was suddenly pushed open, and a middle-aged man in a suit rushed in.

He was the legal counsel for Jardine Matheson & Co. Two hours ago, he had gone to Connaught Centre on behalf of the company to negotiate, but his face now wore the same grave expression.

It was clear that the negotiation had not gone well.

“Mr. Henry, Mr. Simon, I met with Mr. Ma Shimin and Mr. Allen at Connaught Centre. Their response was to let us sue them if we want. They will pay the contractual penalty for those people. It’s impossible for them to stop poaching!”

“Traitors, all of them traitors!” Henry Keswick once again grabbed a stack of files from the bookshelf and threw them to the ground.

Ma Shimin, former Executive Director of Jardine Matheson & Co.

Allen, current Deputy General Manager of Jardine Securities.

And now, they had joined forces to poach most of the elite staff from Jardine Securities.

What was the most valuable asset of Jardine Securities? It was these core elite employees!

Without them, how could Jardine Securities possibly continue to operate?

The atmosphere in the office instantly dropped to freezing point. Every face was etched with gravity and despair.

Henry Keswick panted heavily, his eyes bloodshot, like an enraged lion pacing back and forth in the confined space.

“We absolutely cannot just sit here and wait to die!” Henry Keswick finally stopped, calmed himself slightly, and looked at his younger brother. “Simon, immediately contact all the employees we can still reach. See if they will give up on leaving. We can promise them a raise. Whatever Hongkong Land is offering, we’ll match it. I think they won’t leave for the same salary.”

Under Simon Keswick’s management, Jardine Matheson & Co. had become a mess in just two or three months. At this moment, Henry Keswick was already considering retaking control of the company.

He couldn’t help but regret his decision to oust Newbiggin.

Back then, he should have retaken the reins of Jardine Matheson & Co. himself. But out of consideration for cultivating a family successor, he had entrusted this heavy responsibility to his younger brother, Simon Keswick.

He had originally expected Simon to grow quickly and be able to hold his own, lightening his own burdens within the family and the company.

But what was the result?

He had asked them to frame Lin Haoran as revenge, but they failed, causing Jardine Matheson & Co. not only to be fined five hundred million Hong Kong dollars, but also to lose a great deal of face.

He had asked them to sell Jardine Securities, but they didn’t even know when their home base was being gutted.

Looking at Simon Keswick, he felt a sting of disappointment in someone for not living up to expectations.

He thought back to when he was in charge of Jardine Matheson & Co., how glorious the company had been in Hong Kong, how even HSBC had to bow its head to them.

But in the years since he had stepped down, under Newbiggin’s leadership, Jardine Matheson & Co. had lost Kowloon Wharf, the Hongkong Land Group, and more.

Just a few months ago, Lin Haoran had even seized the controlling stake.

Although he eventually used his connections to force Lin Haoran to relinquish control of Jardine Matheson & Co., the company had suffered heavy losses.

And now, they were being forced to withdraw from Hong Kong completely.

Unwilling. Henry Keswick was truly unwilling to accept this.

As the controlling shareholder of Jardine Matheson & Co., the Keswick family had always regarded the company as their own, not allowing anyone else to touch it.

But now, there was no point in blaming anyone. The most important thing was to solve the problem at hand.

Perhaps his biggest regret now was ever thinking of selling Jardine Securities.

But, like an arrow that has left the bow, once released, it can only fly forward, with no turning back.

Before Simon could speak, the legal counsel who had just returned shook his head and said, “Mr. Henry, as for contacting those employees and getting them to change their minds, you can forget about it!”

Henry Keswick immediately looked at him and asked, “Why?”

“Those seven hundred-plus employees have all signed new contracts with Universal Investment Company. The contractual penalty is ten times that of their contracts with Jardine Securities. This means if we want to poach them all back, not only would we have to offer a significant salary increase, but we would also have to bear an enormous amount in contractual damages.

“That penalty alone would exceed three hundred million Hong Kong dollars. Clearly, they were prepared for this,” the legal counsel said with a wry smile.

As soon as he finished speaking, the room fell eerily silent.

Ruthless. The other side had been absolutely ruthless!

Henry Keswick’s face darkened again, his eyes flashing with a cold glint.

He never expected that the other side had laid such a meticulous trap, not only poaching his people but also having them sign contracts with exorbitant penalties.

“Three hundred million Hong Kong dollars…” he repeated the number in a low voice, his tone filled with resentment and fury. “How dare they! How dare they treat Jardine Matheson & Co. like this!”

The legal counsel shook his head helplessly. “Mr. Henry, the situation is very unfavorable for us right now. The Hongkong Land Group and Universal Investment Company clearly came prepared. They knew the elite employees of Jardine Securities couldn’t resist the temptation of high salaries. What worries us more now is that there are still over two hundred elite employees left in the company. If they all leave, then we might as well declare Jardine Securities closed for business.”

Simon Keswick had completely run out of ideas. He looked to his older brother, hoping he could come up with a solution.

However, Henry Keswick just clenched his fists tightly, his eyes fixed on the floor, as if deep in thought.

At this moment, it never occurred to them that if they hadn’t tried to get revenge on Lin Haoran, he would never have dealt with them so ruthlessly.

Originally, Lin Haoran hadn’t thought much of Jardine Securities. When the Keswick family was trying to buy back Jardine Matheson & Co. and negotiating with him, he had only asked for The Oriental Hotel, the Kwai Chung container terminals, and a few other assets.

He never even mentioned Jardine Securities, because he felt its high market capitalization was entirely dependent on the backing of Jardine Matheson & Co., which kept its performance strong and its stock price high. Its core value lay in the professional skill of its employees.

But now, with its core employees almost completely poached, what was the actual value of Jardine Securities?

At this point, even if Jardine Matheson & Co. wanted to sell off Jardine Securities, no one would be interested.

Although there were many people employed in Hong Kong’s financial industry, elites were not so easy to recruit, and they were basically all working for the major financial firms.

Unless they did what the Hongkong Land Group just did and poached people from Wardley, Baoyuan Investment, and others with high salaries.

But that was clearly unrealistic.

They were already trying to sell Jardine Securities; how could they possibly spend a fortune poaching people?

Most importantly, if they did that, they would completely offend the other firms.

There was no solution. It was simply an impossible situation!

Chapter 474: Li Jiacheng: Provoke Anyone But Lin Haoran!

The night passed just like that.

Lin Haoran couldn’t be bothered with how furious Jardine Matheson & Co. was.

Who told them to try and get revenge on him first?

If they hadn’t started this, Lin Haoran would never have intended to take such measures.

It was the weekend, but Lin Haoran still woke up early, just as he did on weekdays.

Last night, Ma Shimin had told him that news of their operation had leaked in the afternoon.

So he was also eager to see how the media was reporting it.

He went downstairs, and the servant brought the prepared breakfast and newspapers to him.

Forgetting his breakfast, Lin Haoran eagerly picked up the newspapers and began to read.

The headlines of every major newspaper were all focused on the unprecedented wave of employee defections from Jardine Securities. The sensational titles and intense language seemed determined to paint this business battle as a “seismic event” in the financial world.

The Oriental Daily News led with “Sudden Upheaval at Jardine Securities, Seven Hundred Elites ‘Migrate’ to Hongkong Land Subsidiary Overnight,” providing a detailed account of the spectacular brain drain. The exaggerated wording made it seem as if the reporter had witnessed this bloodless war firsthand. The article not only mentioned the enormous number of employees who had left but also boldly predicted that this move would deal a “devastating blow” to the future of Jardine Securities and even the entire Jardine Matheson & Co.

Ta Kung Pao took a more academic approach with the headline, “The War for Talent: The Brain Drain at Jardine Securities and the Undercurrents of the Capital Market.” It delved deep into the business logic and strategic considerations behind the event, pointing out that this was not merely a simple talent migration but a silent contest between two titans. Between the lines, it revealed a profound anxiety for the future of Jardine Matheson.

Ming Pao focused more on the human element. By interviewing several employees who had confirmed their departure, it told the story from a first-person perspective, narrating their internal struggles and decisions, as well as their complex feelings when faced with such a lucrative offer. It humanized the business event, allowing readers to feel the weight behind every choice.

The Hong Kong Economic Times featured the eye-catching headline, “Jardine Securities Faces a ‘Talent Winter,’ Market Cap Evaporation May Exceed One Billion,” directly highlighting the potential financial impact of the event. Through data analysis, it predicted the dual-pronged attack Jardine Securities might face: massive compensation claims and a crisis of market confidence.

As a professional media outlet for the financial sector, the Hong Kong Securities Daily analyzed the impact of the defections on Hong Kong’s financial market from a professional standpoint. Its headline, “Jardine Securities in Peril as Hongkong Land Group Seizes the Opportunity; Hong Kong’s Financial Landscape May Be Reshaped,” hinted at a deeper industry reshuffle underlying this war for talent.

And the South China Morning Post, with its international perspective, placed the event in the context of the global financial market. Under the headline, “Mass Defection from Jardine Securities Shakes Hong Kong’s Financial Circle, Attracting International Investor Attention,” it explored the potential long-term effects on the international image and investor confidence in Hong Kong and even the broader Asian financial market.

Each newspaper, in its own unique way, depicted the mass exodus from Jardine Securities as a magnificent spectacle, a veritable carnival for the financial world. And in this carnival, Jardine Matheson & Co. was undoubtedly the most conspicuous “fallen noble.”

Lin Haoran sat at the dining table, flipping through the reports one by one, a faint smile unconsciously tugging at the corners of his lips.

As far as he was concerned, he and Jardine Matheson were now locked in an unbreakable conflict, a feud that had begun the moment they tried to use public opinion to retaliate against him.

This wave of employee defections was merely a climax in the contest between them, his response to Jardine Matheson’s revenge.

It was also a warning to everyone that he, Lin Haoran, was not someone to be trifled with.

So what if it was Jardine Matheson & Co.?

While Lin Haoran was carefully reading each newspaper, the citizens of Hong Kong were also passionately discussing the affair in the city’s streets and alleys.

They showed not a shred of sympathy for the so-called “victim,” Jardine Matheson.

After all, it wasn’t long ago that Jardine Matheson’s actions had nearly pushed Hong Kong’s property industry into an abyss from which it could not recover.

“Jardine Matheson really bit off more than they could chew this time. What goes around comes around!” an old man remarked, sitting in a corner of the teahouse with a newspaper in hand, shaking his head with relish.

“That’s right! I heard those employees who left got really generous offers from Hongkong Land Group. It makes you green with envy!” a young customer chimed in, his eyes full of admiration.

“This Lin Haoran really makes extraordinary moves. He’s worthy of being the richest man at such a young age. Poaching so many elites from Jardine Securities in one go… even Mr. Pao Yue-kong couldn’t have pulled that off, right?” another middle-aged man said thoughtfully after taking a sip of tea.

“Hmph, Jardine Matheson brought this on themselves. They used to be so arrogant in Hong Kong, throwing their weight around. They’ve finally met their match,” a plainly dressed elder interjected, his tone tinged with satisfaction.

“No matter what, this business war is thrilling to watch. For us common folk, sitting here in the teahouse and enjoying the show is pretty good,” a smiling old man concluded, drawing a round of laughter.

“I had some Jardine Securities stock myself. Luckily, I sold it as soon as I heard the first rumor. Otherwise, I’d be facing a huge loss right now!” a young man said with a hint of relief.

“You were smart. I’m still holding on to a lot of Jardine Securities stock. A few days ago, it was worth over thirty thousand Hong Kong dollars. By the next trading day, it probably won’t even be worth ten thousand. And worst of all, I can’t even sell it. It’s truly heartbreaking!” another shareholder lamented with a long face, sighing heavily.

In the teahouses and on the streets, the citizens’ discussions rose and fell.

They were not only following the progress of this business war but also, deep down, feeling gratified by Jardine Matheson’s comeuppance.

After all, they had all been affected, to varying degrees, by Jardine Matheson’s past actions. Seeing the company in trouble now naturally brought them a sense of satisfaction.

More importantly, Lin Haoran, like them, was unequivocally Chinese.

In the past, it was all too common for Hong Kong locals to be looked down upon by Westerners.

Now, the tables had turned. A foreign-owned enterprise was being beaten so badly by a Chinese-owned enterprise that it couldn’t even fight back. They couldn’t help but feel a surge of elation.

It didn’t matter that the affair had little to do with them directly.

They still felt great.

Although a portion of shareholders were heavily impacted, those holding Jardine Securities stock were ultimately a minority and did not represent the general public.

If it weren’t a Saturday, one could be certain that Jardine Securities’ stock price would have taken another major dive.

And this time, the fall might be even more severe.

This was no longer just about the possibility of Jardine Matheson selling off Jardine Securities; the company had been fundamentally wounded.

Everyone could already imagine how miserable Jardine Securities’ shareholders would be when Monday arrived.

Deep Water Bay, the Bao family villa.

Pao Yue-kong gently set down his newspaper. His gaze was profound, a smile of approval playing on his lips as he thought to himself, “The younger generation is formidable. Truly a favored son of the era!”

He still had fresh memories of the harrowing Kowloon Wharf takeover battle from two years ago.

In that commercial struggle, although he had ultimately won control of Kowloon Wharf, it had come at the heavy cost of nearly two billion Hong Kong dollars in debt, leaving his family enterprise greatly weakened.

Since then, Pao Yue-kong had adopted a much lower profile, and the Bao family had entered a period of dormancy to focus on recovering its strength.

In these two years, the name Lin Haoran had risen like a brilliant new star in Hong Kong’s business world. Not only had he replaced Pao as the new richest man, but he had also stirred up the entire landscape with his extraordinary methods and wisdom, single-handedly elevating the power of Hong Kong’s Chinese-owned enterprises to surpass that of the British-owned ones.

Pao Yue-kong felt not a trace of jealousy toward Lin Haoran’s achievements, only a deep sense of gratification.

Although Pao Yue-kong had acquired British citizenship, deep in his heart, he never forgot his Chinese heritage—an inseparable connection to his roots.

The vigorous rise of the Chinese-funded conglomerates was, to him, undoubtedly something worth celebrating. It symbolized the growing strength of the Chinese entrepreneurial community, which was gradually carving out a place for itself in Hong Kong and on the wider world stage.

Pao Yue-kong knew very well that no matter how much success he achieved in business, to the deeply entrenched British-funded conglomerates, he would always be seen as an “outsider.”

Although HSBC had given him considerable support in the past, that support was based more on his own strength and the value he could bring.

The reason HSBC had been able to triumph over Jardine Matheson, ushering Hong Kong into the HSBC era, was largely thanks to Pao Yue-kong’s victory in the crucial battle for Kowloon Wharf.

Without him weakening Jardine Matheson, HSBC might have been a notch below them.

In a villa not far from the Bao family’s residence, Li Jiacheng, who had just woken up, was also filled with shock.

Although he had received some intelligence yesterday, he couldn’t be certain.

But now, these newspaper reports had thoroughly confirmed the truth of the matter.

After acquiring Hutchison Whampoa, Li Jiacheng had firmly secured a place in the top five of Hong Kong’s business world, even having the potential to break into the top three. His strength was not to be underestimated.

But when facing a long-established British-owned tycoon like Jardine Matheson, he always maintained sufficient caution and reverence, never making an enemy of them lightly.

In contrast, Lin Haoran had brazenly challenged Jardine Matheson’s authority, even to the point of becoming its mortal enemy. This audacity and spirit left Li Jiacheng feeling both admiration and awe.

In Lin Haoran, Li Jiacheng saw a kind of reckless, forward-charging spirit that he himself lacked.

He had come to realize that Lin Haoran’s rapid rise to become Hong Kong’s new richest man was no accident.

This man was decisive in his actions, brilliant in his methods, and unafraid of powerful adversaries. Even he wouldn’t dare to provoke such an opponent lightly.

What seemed like a reckless move was perhaps a testament to Lin Haoran’s confidence in his own strength.

Therefore, a firm conviction took root deep in Li Jiacheng’s heart: Lin Haoran was a person he absolutely could not afford to offend. He could provoke anyone, but he must not provoke Lin Haoran.

Once he made an enemy of him, the consequences would be unimaginable. He would surely face fierce and reckless retaliation.

Having navigated the business world for many years, Li Jiacheng knew very well that his current achievements were built not only on outstanding ability but also on the wisdom to assess situations, knowing when to advance and when to retreat to avoid getting himself into trouble.

Chapter 475: This is What Happens When You Offend Lin Haoran!

It wasn’t just Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng who were shocked; all the top tycoons in Hong Kong were utterly stunned.

What Lin Haoran had done this time was far too ruthless.

He had practically gutted Jardine Securities from the inside out!

At this moment, a single thought crossed everyone’s mind: this young man is too ruthless. He must not be provoked, absolutely not!

A listed company with a market capitalization of over one billion had been essentially crippled by his actions.

No one knew how many years it would take for it to return to its peak.

Jardine House, the ground floor lobby, was currently swarming with people.

Normally, it being a Saturday, very few people should have been at work, but the scene was anything but normal.

On one side were the security guards of Jardine House, desperately trying to hold back the crowd outside.

On the other side were reporters from all over Hong Kong. A quick glance revealed at least two or three hundred of them, all trying to storm into the building.

“Let us in! If you can’t, then call Mr. Simon down for an interview!”

“Exactly! Jardine Securities is a listed company. You at Jardine Matheson & Co. owe the shareholders an explanation!”

“We represent the voice of the broader investing public! The stock price of Jardine Securities has crashed. This isn’t just a financial loss; it’s a loss for the investors. Doesn’t Jardine Matheson & Co. have any response at all?” a reporter holding a microphone shouted emotionally. His voice echoed through the crowd, drawing more calls of support.

“We demand transparent information! What exactly led to this situation? As the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., shouldn’t Mr. Simon come forward and give the public a reasonable explanation?” another female reporter added.

“And what about the security of Jardine Securities’ clients’ assets? How do you plan to handle that? Is there a specific compensation plan to protect the interests of us small shareholders?” someone in the crowd loudly questioned.

“We demand that Jardine Matheson & Co. hold an immediate press conference and have the senior executives answer our questions face-to-face, instead of hiding in this building and letting speculation and panic spread!” As these words fell, the reporters began to push more aggressively, trying to break through the security line.

The scene was chaotic, something that would have been unimaginable in the past.

Hong Kong’s reporters had always been known for their professionalism and restraint when dealing with major British-owned corporations. Rarely would they so impulsively try to storm a company with such a deep foundation and powerful influence as Jardine Matheson & Co.

After all, in the past, they would never have dared to offend Jardine Matheson.

If they did, and Jardine Matheson targeted them directly, even mainstream media outlets, let alone smaller ones, wouldn’t be able to handle the pressure.

However, the Jardine Matheson of today was like a setting sun, its glory faded.

Their reputation and influence had been severely damaged in a recent series of events, and even the reporters no longer feared their power and status as they once did.

In the reporters’ eyes, Jardine Matheson was no longer an entity that could manipulate and bully them at will.

Their main concern now was getting more news stories that could attract public attention and spark heated discussion.

“Why haven’t the police arrived yet?” Frank, the head of security, stared out at the sea of heads, breaking into a cold sweat despite the January weather.

His orders from the senior executives were to temporarily prevent these people from entering the building. They were holding a board meeting upstairs and had no time to deal with reporters.

“They said they’d send people over as soon as possible, but there’s a large gathering of a triad society near Garden Road that seems intent on causing trouble, so it might take some time for them to get here. Boss, I think they’re deliberately stalling. It’s broad daylight, which triad would have the guts to cause a large-scale disturbance in Central? It’s clearly an excuse!” a subordinate guard reported with a look of resignation.

In the past, whenever Jardine Matheson encountered such an emergency, the police would undoubtedly be on the scene within three minutes to maintain order.

But now, a full ten minutes had passed since the call, and not a single police officer was in sight.

The security guards at Jardine House were all aware of the reason behind this.

Jardine Matheson’s influence with the Government House had waned significantly. They could no longer mobilize police forces to protect them as they pleased.

The guard’s words plunged everyone present into silence. The Jardine Matheson of today was no longer the King of the Foreign Firms that could command the wind and rain and do as it pleased.

Anyone could see that Jardine Matheson’s status and influence in Hong Kong were gradually dissipating.

“I really don’t get it. Why did the senior management have to provoke Lin Haoran? They were just asking for trouble. Now that Jardine is about to move, the future for us is looking bleak!” a security captain grumbled as he watched dozens of his colleagues struggling to hold back the reporters.

“Leon, shut your mouth!” The head of security quickly nudged him and warned in a low voice, “Mr. Simon already told me that even if Jardine moves to Britain, Jardine House won’t be sold. We can still work here. And if we want, we can even follow them back to Britain. If the higher-ups hear what you just said, you’ll lose your job for sure!”

After hearing that, the security captain silently swallowed his complaints and said no more.

His job was indeed quite comfortable. All he had to do was supervise his subordinates and ensure they did their daily duties, and the pay was excellent.

The thought that he might lose this job because of a careless word sent a shiver of fear through him.

Just then, the head of security’s walkie-talkie crackled with Simon’s voice: “Frank, tell the reporters to calm down. In twenty minutes, we will hold a press conference downstairs and answer their questions!”

Hearing this, Frank let out a deep sigh of relief.

He quickly walked over to the reporters and made the announcement loudly.

Twenty minutes later, on the ground floor of Jardine House, a temporary and somewhat simple press conference venue had been hastily set up.

Henry Keswick, Simon Keswick, and other senior management from Jardine Matheson & Co. were all present.

Notably, even Michael Sandberg, the Taipan of HSBC, was in attendance. He sat to the side, his expression as calm as still water.

After all, as one of Jardine Matheson’s major shareholders, although HSBC normally didn’t interfere in Jardine’s affairs, the current situation undoubtedly affected their direct interests. Naturally, they couldn’t just stand aside and do nothing.

It was clear they had already had an in-depth discussion and reached a conclusion.

Below the stage, the numerous reporters were ecstatic. The crucial moment had finally arrived.

Jade Channel was even running a live television broadcast, planning to show this hastily arranged press conference to all the citizens of Hong Kong.

At the Lam family villa on Severn Road, Lin Haoran, who was just about to head out, received a call from Cui Zilong.

“Boss, Jardine Matheson is holding a press conference, and Jade Channel is broadcasting it live. If you’re interested, you can turn on the TV and have a look,” Cui Zilong reported over the phone, his voice tinged with a smile.

“Got it. You did a great job. Thank you for your hard work,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile, pleased with Cui Zilong’s quick thinking.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran casually walked to the first-floor living room and turned on the television.

On the screen, just as he expected, Jade Channel was broadcasting live footage of Henry Keswick, Simon Keswick, Michael Sandberg, and the others.

Lin Haoran crossed his legs and watched the broadcast with great interest.

“Friends from the press, I am Simon Keswick. I am here to announce several important decisions.

First, after careful consideration by the senior management of Jardine Matheson & Co., we have decided to suspend the plan to sell Jardine Securities.

Second, regarding the unfair competition practices of the Hongkong Land Group and Universal Investment Company, Jardine Matheson & Co. will take legal action to resolutely protect its own rights and interests.

Third, I ask all investors and clients to rest assured. The temporary fluctuation in Jardine Securities’ stock price is only a short-term phenomenon. We promise that Jardine Matheson & Co. will remain committed to the stable operation of Jardine Securities and ensure that the interests of every investor and client are not harmed.

Finally, I would like to announce that Jardine Matheson & Co. plans to move its headquarters to London, Britain, at the end of this month, which marks our increased focus on our internationalization strategy.

With Jardine Matheson’s deep foundation and extensive network, we are confident that we will achieve even greater success in our future development. We ask all investors of Jardine Matheson & Co. to continue to place your trust and support in us. Thank you!”

After speaking, Simon Keswick gave a deep bow to the reporters present.

This was an unimaginable scene in the past. The senior executives of Jardine Matheson often carried themselves with an air of arrogance and would never easily show such deference to reporters.

However, after experiencing one challenge and setback after another, even they had to let go of their pride and face the public with humility.

They had also tried to seek help from the Government House, hoping it would intervene.

However, this time, in their attempt to retaliate against Lin Haoran, they had tried to drag Hong Kong’s entire real estate industry down with them. This had crossed a line and infringed upon the interests of the Hong Kong Government House, which had to pay a considerable price to prevent the property market from falling into crisis.

Under these circumstances, how could the Government House possibly help Jardine Matheson?

Thus, they could only reap what they had sown and face the predicament they had created themselves.

Lin Haoran was not surprised by Jardine Matheson’s decision to cancel the sale of Jardine Securities.

After all, if things went as expected, Jardine Securities’ stock would face a true collapse next Monday. No one dared to imagine how low the price would fall.

By halting the sale now, they were merely trying to salvage some investor confidence and prevent the stock from plummeting too drastically.

However, whether Jardine Securities was sold or not no longer mattered to Lin Haoran.

Even if Jardine Matheson decided not to sell, after their headquarters moved, a Jardine Securities without its powerful backer and suffering from a severe talent drain would be unable to make any significant waves.

As for Jardine Matheson suing him through legal channels?

Lin Haoran cared even less.

In the end, the most he would have to pay was compensation for the employees he poached. For a compensation sum of just over thirty million Hong Kong dollars to acquire so many elites from the financial industry, Lin Haoran really wasn’t concerned.

It was worth it. Absolutely worth it.

Just then, the phone in the study rang again with a clear, crisp tone.

Lin Haoran paid no more attention to the television screen and walked straight into the study.

“Boss, it’s Ma Shimin. Mr. Allen just reported some important news to me. This morning, over one hundred more employees from Jardine Securities contacted him, expressing their desire to jump ship to our side.

Right now, there are fewer than a hundred elite employees left at Jardine Securities who are unwilling to leave!” Ma Shimin’s voice was filled with unconcealed excitement, even trembling slightly.

He naturally understood the immense significance behind this news.

It meant they had successfully absorbed nearly the entire core strength of Jardine Securities.

Once Universal Investment Company fully integrated these resources, coupled with Lin Haoran’s backing in Hong Kong, it was almost certain that this new Universal Investment Company would soon rank among the giants of Hong Kong’s securities firms.

How could such a prospect not excite Ma Shimin?

“Excellent. You’ve all done an outstanding job. Give me half an hour, I’m heading to Connaught Centre right away!” Lin Haoran was in high spirits as well, his tone filled with praise.

He never expected that while the senior executives of Jardine Matheson were holding a press conference, such a thing would be happening behind the scenes at Jardine Securities.

He imagined that when Henry Keswick and the others finished the press conference and learned of this, they would surely be furious but utterly helpless.

This is what happens when you offend him, Lin Haoran!

Chapter 476: Galaxy Securities, Aiming for the Top Spot in Hong Kong!

Twenty minutes later, Lin Haoran was already inside the Connaught Centre.

Today, the Connaught Centre was much quieter than on a weekday, but there was still a fair amount of foot traffic.

As the second tallest building in Hong Kong at the time, more than two-thirds of the floors in the Connaught Centre were leased out to tenants like financial firms, law offices, and the regional headquarters of multinational corporations, all of which were housed within this building.

And not all businesses observed weekend breaks; for some companies, getting two days off a month was already considered quite good.

Lin Haoran, accompanied by his bodyguards, took the elevator and quickly arrived at the 51st floor of the Connaught Centre.

When he entered the office, Ma Shimin, Dai Shi, and Mr. Allen were already there waiting for him.

“Boss.” The three men stood up and greeted Lin Haoran in unison.

Although Allen was still in an awkward position, he had already accepted Lin Haoran as his new boss.

At this moment, Lin Haoran could even see Allen’s loyalty: 78!

A loyalty of 78 was definitely on the lower end among the many senior executives in the companies under Lin Haoran.

However, Lin Haoran was already quite satisfied.

Most importantly, Allen’s role in this matter was simply immense.

Without him, they wouldn’t have been able to poach so many elite talents, nor would Lin Haoran have been able to retaliate against Jardine Matheson & Co. so smoothly again.

As for this ‘loyalty’ thing, Lin Haoran had more or less figured it out.

As long as he showed his approval of Allen and entrusted the company to his management, Allen’s gratitude would cause his loyalty to rise.

“Mm, thank you for your hard work. Please, sit down. Mr. Allen, could you please report on the specifics of the situation over there?” Lin Haoran said, turning his gaze to Allen, the key contributor to this success.

Without him, the Deputy General Manager of Jardine Securities, this operation to poach so many talented individuals would not have gone so smoothly.

“Of course, Boss. This morning, I received several calls, all from representatives of elite employees from Jardine Securities who have yet to formally join us.

According to them, the senior executives at Jardine Securities called them last night, attempting to retain them with offers of salary increases and promotions.

However, many are well aware of Jardine Securities’ current predicament and believe there is no future for them even if they stay. Therefore, they are more inclined to follow the majority and jump ship to our side.

These calls represent the intentions of at least another one hundred and fifty people. Adding them to the more than seven hundred who have already signed contracts with us, the total number of employees deciding to leave Jardine Securities for our company now exceeds nine hundred.

These nine hundred-plus individuals are the backbone of Jardine Securities. Once they make the switch and are fully integrated into our company, we will even be able to indirectly control a significant amount of their business resources. I have already arranged for them to be here before ten o’clock this morning to sign their new contracts collectively,” Allen reported.

Lin Haoran glanced at his watch. It was already nine-thirty in the morning, not long before the ten o’clock meeting Allen mentioned.

Once the contracts were signed, there would be no fear of them backing out. Therefore, signing these employees was the most important task at hand.

However, with half an hour to spare, there was no need to rush.

“Mr. Allen, you’ve done an excellent job!” Lin Haoran responded with an approving nod.

After a moment of thought, he turned to Dai Shi and asked, “What is the progress on Universal Investment Company’s move to the Connaught Centre?”

“Boss, we don’t actually have that much to move. Currently, Mr. Ma Shimin has already reserved the 38th and 39th floors of the Connaught Centre for us, and the office space is already being reconfigured.

The main task of the move is to transfer all the account books from the Wanqing Building. Other than that, there are no major issues. At the current pace, the move is expected to be completed within the next two days.

We should be able to start working directly from the Connaught Centre next week. I already notified all employees before the end of work yesterday,” Dai Shi replied.

Lin Haoran nodded, then turned his gaze to Ma Shimin and continued, “Mr. Ma, after careful consideration last night, I’ve concluded that Universal Investment Company’s current model of independent operation is no longer suitable.

Therefore, I have decided that the Universal Investment Company in Hong Kong and the one in New York will be officially separated and will no longer be part of the same entity.

The New York Universal Investment Company will remain under my direct management, while the Hong Kong branch, after this personnel expansion, will be officially merged into the Hongkong Land Group as one of its subsidiaries.

Furthermore, regarding the name of the new company, after careful thought, I have decided to name it ‘Galaxy Securities’. I propose that you, Mr. Ma, serve as Chairman, Mr. Allen as general manager, and Mr. Dai Shi as Executive Deputy General Manager.

Do any of you have any objections to this arrangement?”

After speaking, Lin Haoran looked at the three men again.

The primary business of the New York Universal Investment Company was to secretly accumulate shares of major blue-chip listed companies in the United States. These were his personal investments, and he naturally wouldn’t hand them over to Ma Shimin to manage.

As for the Universal Investment Company here in Hong Kong, apart from the secret stock accumulation of the Bank of East Asia, its other business was no longer much of a secret. Most of its acquisitions had already been made public.

Therefore, there was no longer a need for the Hong Kong branch of Universal Investment Company to maintain its independent operational model.

He had discussed these points with Ma Shimin before.

It was just that now, the details were more concrete.

Ma Shimin, Allen, and Dai Shi were slightly taken aback by Lin Haoran’s decision, but they quickly regained their composure.

“Boss, ‘Galaxy Securities’ is an excellent name. It sounds better than any other securities firm’s name. Rest assured, I will do my utmost to manage the new Galaxy Securities well, leveraging the powerful backing of the Hongkong Land Group.

On top of that, we have absorbed nearly the entire core strength of Jardine Securities. I am extremely confident that within a year, I can make Galaxy Securities one of the top three firms in the Hong Kong industry. And in the future, aiming for the number one spot is by no means an unattainable dream!” Ma Shimin assured Lin Haoran with a confident smile, patting his chest.

Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction. He had faith in Ma Shimin’s abilities.

“Boss, I will definitely manage Galaxy Securities well. Although I was only the Deputy General Manager at Jardine Securities, I am very clear on the responsibilities of a general manager. I will not let you down!” Allen also said, full of confidence.

The general manager is, in fact, the direct manager of a company, so Allen’s future role at Galaxy Securities would be crucial.

He had jumped ship from Jardine Securities with a promise from Ma Shimin, but only now, with the announcement coming from the boss, Lin Haoran, did it feel truly official.

At that moment, Lin Haoran could see that, because of his announcement, Allen’s loyalty had jumped directly from 78 to 84.

A loyalty of 84 was already a decent number.

At the very least, Lin Haoran could now completely trust Allen.

Lin Haoran gave Allen a satisfied nod and turned his gaze back to Dai Shi.

Dai Shi showed no dissatisfaction at not being made the general manager.

In fact, his loyalty hadn’t even dropped because of it.

This was because Dai Shi was also aware of his own capabilities.

In the past, when Universal Investment Company was just a small firm with over a hundred people, he might have been able to manage it.

But now, the new Galaxy Securities was about to set sail, aiming for the top spot in Hong Kong’s securities industry. Its future scale was bound to be immense.

A company of that magnitude was simply not something he, Dai Shi, was capable of managing, because he lacked the ability to do so.

He was already very content to be the Executive Deputy General Manager and learn from Allen and Ma Shimin.

In the future, once his professional skills were up to par, a promotion to general manager wouldn’t be impossible.

“Boss, I have no objections either. It’s just that with the company’s sudden expansion, I’m worried my abilities might be limited. If I fall short in any way, I hope Mr. Ma and Mr. Allen will be patient with me and offer their guidance,” Dai Shi said with a touch of humility.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran patted Dai Shi’s shoulder and encouraged him with a broad smile, “Dai Shi, I have always been very satisfied with your past performance. I’m confident you can handle the position of Executive Deputy General Manager. Don’t worry, just go for it!”

Upon hearing this, Dai Shi’s tense expression relaxed, and he couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.

And just like that, the formation of the new company, Galaxy Securities, was decided.

Not long after, Ma Shimin’s secretary knocked on the door to report that over one hundred former Jardine Securities employees had arrived. They were currently waiting in the new employee training room on the 42nd floor to sign their new contracts.

“Let’s go. We’ll stop talking for now; there will be plenty of time for that later. We shouldn’t keep them waiting!” Lin Haoran said with a wave and a smile.

With that, the three of them left the office and prepared to take the elevator down to the 42nd floor.

Upon arriving at the new employee training room, Lin Haoran saw that it was indeed filled with people.

His gaze swept across the room. There were indeed more than one hundred and fifty people. Of them, two-thirds were Chinese, and one-third were Westerners.

At this moment, expressions of anxiety and uncertainty were visible on all their faces.

Lin Haoran wasn’t surprised to see so many Westerners.

After all, working in the finance industry was considered a high-end, desirable job in Hong Kong.

He had quite a few Westerners among his employees, so he had no issue with it.

Even Ma Shimin, standing right before him, was a Westerner.

Talent is hard to find, and top-tier talent is even harder!

As long as they could make money for him, that’s all that mattered.

What was that saying again? It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice, it’s a good cat.

It was the same for these employees. It didn’t matter if they were Chinese or Westerners; as long as they could make money for him, they were good employees.

Of course, in the future, he still preferred to cultivate more Chinese employees.

Chapter 477: Too Late for Regrets

The group of Jardine Securities employees successfully signed new contracts with the Hongkong Land Group.

Once the contracts were signed, it signified that they had completely relinquished their identities as employees of Jardine Securities.

With that, Jardine Securities was, for the time being, crippled.

Just a few days ago, Jardine Securities had been considered the leader of Hong Kong’s securities industry.

As such, it managed a multitude of business operations.

Now, with over nine hundred of its thousand-strong core staff gone, leaving fewer than a hundred people, how could it possibly cope with such a large volume of business?

Once Jardine Securities became unable to manage these operations, it would be met with a barrage of accountability claims and even demands for compensation.

Today was Saturday, and the former Jardine Securities employees who had just signed with the Hongkong Land Group were on their day off.

Most of them had signed these contracts behind Jardine Securities’ back.

Therefore, even after they had signed with Hongkong Land, Jardine Matheson & Co. was still completely in the dark.

Although Jardine Matheson had held a press conference in an attempt to minimize the impact, it had been futile. The reporters were no longer afraid of the now-declining conglomerate and dared to say and report anything.

Consequently, the weekend papers were filled with all sorts of sensational stories.

Most surprisingly, HSBC, as one of Jardine Matheson’s major shareholders with a 6% stake, made no move to help the company.

On Sunday, another bombshell dropped: a fierce internal power struggle had erupted among the senior executives at Jardine Matheson.

The management, centered around the Keswick family, saw their executive power gradually weakening due to the Jardine Securities incident.

Meanwhile, the Rothschild family appeared to be circling like a predator, waiting for an opportunity to seize a controlling stake in the company.

Although the Keswick family had managed to increase their shareholding in time to narrowly maintain their advantage during the last acquisition of Lin Haoran’s shares, the situation remained precarious.

Of course, these were all just rumors circulating outside the company, and their authenticity had yet to be confirmed.

However, from this incident, it wasn’t hard to see that the Keswick family was indeed in a very difficult position.

In the blink of an eye, it was January 12th.

Today was Monday.

Lin Haoran woke up early, had a simple breakfast, and left the house just after eight o’clock.

His destination was the 38th floor of the Connaught Centre.

Upon arrival, Lin Haoran found the Connaught Centre already bustling with activity.

On a normal day, nearly ten thousand people bustled through the building, either as employees of Jardine Matheson or as staff of the various companies that rented office space there.

But now, with the addition of over nine hundred elites from Jardine Securities and a hundred more talented individuals from the relocated Universal Investment Company, the building’s population had instantly grown by nearly a tenth, adding a new layer of vibrant energy.

As the elevator doors opened, Lin Haoran immediately saw a reception desk. Affixed to it were the gold-gilded words ‘Galaxy Securities’.

“Boss.”

“Good morning, Boss!”

“Morning, Boss!”

“Good morning, boss!”

…

The moment he stepped out of the elevator, Lin Haoran was greeted by a chorus of voices.

He smiled and nodded in response to each of them.

Hearing the commotion, Ma Shimin, Allen, and the others also came out of their offices.

“How are the preparations coming along?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Boss, everything is ready. We’re just waiting for nine o’clock to officially start. Also, I’ve invited TVB and the Oriental Daily News to cover our company’s opening,” Ma Shimin replied, pointing to several reporters a short distance away, carrying cameras and holding microphones.

Lin Haoran turned to look and saw that they were indeed reporters from TVB and the Oriental Daily News.

Since they were on friendly terms, Lin Haoran gave them a slight nod.

A company needs a reputation.

If no one knows who you are, how can you do business?

Therefore, media coverage was quite necessary.

The new Galaxy Securities could be called a new company, or it could be said to have been renamed from Universal Investment Company; there wasn’t much of a difference.

“Boss, you’ll go up to give a speech first. Is that alright?” Ma Shimin added, pointing to a podium that had been set up in the lobby, complete with a microphone.

“Alright, I’ll go up and say a few words then!” Lin Haoran nodded, not refusing the request.

The importance of the financial industry in Hong Kong was only going to grow, so the future of Galaxy Securities was very promising.

In fact, the financial sector had already become a pillar of Hong Kong’s economy.

Otherwise, Hong Kong wouldn’t attract so many financial enterprises.

If Galaxy Securities could become number one in the securities industry, it could also become a corporate giant in its own right.

As the clock struck nine, everyone gathered in the lobby.

Lin Haoran walked to the microphone, and the entire hall instantly fell silent.

Everyone’s respect for Lin Haoran was now tinged with a deep sense of awe.

After all, his recent move had hit Jardine Matheson so hard, causing them devastating losses.

It was only natural for them to feel a sense of awe towards such a boss.

Lin Haoran cleared his throat and began his speech into the microphone.

“Good morning, colleagues and honored guests! Today is a day to remember, for our Galaxy Securities officially sets sail from here.

I want to thank every colleague who has joined our big family from Jardine Securities. Your arrival has injected new vitality into Galaxy.

At the same time, I want to thank our colleagues from Universal Investment Company. It is your hard work and perseverance that have laid a solid foundation for Galaxy.

Finally, I hope that Galaxy Securities will flourish, and that everyone’s income will grow higher and higher. Thank you all!”

Instantly, a wave of enthusiastic applause erupted from the crowd, lasting for more than a minute before gradually subsiding.

While Galaxy Securities was celebrating the start of its new journey, a completely different scene was unfolding just a few hundred meters away in Jardine House, at the offices of Jardine Securities.

At this moment, the office of Jardine Securities was dead silent, devoid of its usual hustle and bustle.

As the senior figure in Hong Kong’s securities industry, Jardine Securities employed several thousand staff, with nearly a thousand working in its headquarters.

But at this moment, there were fewer than one hundred and fifty people in the vast office.

Excluding clerks, miscellaneous staff, and middle and senior management, there were fewer than eighty core employees.

Many of the big shots from Jardine Matheson were present, including Henry Keswick and Simon Keswick.

Their faces darkened as they took in the state of the office.

“What’s going on? Didn’t only seven hundred-odd people leave? Where is everyone else?” Henry Keswick roared.

“Mr. Henry, we don’t know what happened either! On Friday night, we clearly contacted all the employees who hadn’t left and promised them a raise. They all agreed over the phone, but who knew that only this many people would show up for work today!” Jardine Securities’ general manager, Martin, looked just as bewildered.

“Then why aren’t you calling them to find out?” Henry continued to roar.

“I’ve already instructed the personnel department to make the calls,” Martin said, aggrieved.

At this moment, they were still unaware that their company had been almost completely gutted of its employees.

They had originally thought that with over two hundred core employees remaining, they could hire another batch through headhunters and perhaps barely pull Jardine Securities through this crisis.

But now, it seemed the situation was far worse than they had imagined.

Martin wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his heart filled with anxiety.

He knew very well that if this crisis at Jardine Securities wasn’t handled properly, it could lead to devastating consequences.

A short while later, the head of the personnel department hurried over, his face pale as he reported, “Mr. Henry, Mr. Simon, Mr. Martin, we contacted the families of the employees who didn’t come in. They said… they said they’ve already found new jobs with much better pay than what we offer, so… so they’re not coming back.”

“What!” Henry Keswick’s eyes widened, unable to believe what he was hearing.

He slammed his fist on the table in fury. “These ungrateful wretches! Weren’t we at Jardine Matheson good enough to them? How could they betray us so easily!”

Simon Keswick’s face was also grim. This incident was no longer a simple case of employees job-hopping. There had to be someone pulling the strings from behind the scenes, with the aim of destroying Jardine Securities and, by extension, weakening the overall strength of Jardine Matheson.

Without a second thought, they knew exactly where these people had gone.

Other than the Hongkong Land Group, who else would be willing to pay a higher price to poach their employees?

“Did they go to the Hongkong Land Group?” Simon Keswick asked in a low voice.

“Yes… yes, I made several calls, and their families all said they’ve moved to the Hongkong Land Group and have already started working there this morning,” the head of the personnel department continued to report, stammering.

Facing the Taipan of Jardine Matheson, he, a low-level middle manager from a subsidiary, was naturally terrified.

Upon hearing the report, the faces of the Jardine Matheson senior executives present grew even more somber.

Ruthless. This move was utterly ruthless! Their opponent wasn’t leaving them even a sliver of a chance to survive.

Over the past few days, the internal competition within Jardine Matheson had intensified because of these events, and the Keswick family had barely managed to hold onto their leadership positions through painstaking effort.

Both Simon and Henry Keswick were mentally and physically exhausted.

If this continued, how could Jardine Securities possibly survive?

At that moment, a wave of regret washed over Henry Keswick.

He should never have thought of getting revenge on Lin Haoran in the first place.

If he hadn’t gone to the media to frame Lin Haoran, Jardine Securities would never have ended up in this situation, would it?

Chapter 478: Misfortunes Never Come Singly, the Collapse of Jardine Securities

“Taipan, Mr. Henry, what we’re worried about now is that when the new workday begins, many of our business units will face a crisis of being left unattended,” general manager Martin’s voice echoed in the office.

“Take our core business, securities brokerage, for example. We have very few brokers left, not nearly enough to meet the massive demand from our clients.

“Furthermore, in business areas like asset management, investment advisory, financial advisory, funds, and futures, most of the key staff have also resigned. Those who remain are not strong enough to handle such a heavy workload.

“We have already reached out to major headhunting firms, hoping to recruit more staff as soon as possible, but it’s incredibly difficult to hire a large number of core employees for these key positions on short notice.

“After all, the scale we had before was built up over a long period.”

As the general manager finished speaking, the entire meeting room fell into a dead silence.

Henry Keswick’s brow was tightly furrowed, his eyes revealing deep frustration and helplessness.

With his Older Brother present, Simon Keswick, the current Taipan, remained silent.

The massive loss of employees was undoubtedly a severe blow to the company, and at the moment, there seemed to be no good solution.

If this were the old Jardine Matheson & Co. at its peak, they wouldn’t have worried about this at all. They could have simply transferred some employees from other companies under the Jardine Matheson umbrella.

But now, Jardine Matheson & Co. had very few business operations left in Hong Kong; most had been swallowed up by Lin Haoran.

Under these circumstances, where could they possibly find employees to transfer?

As for Jardine Matheson’s overseas employees, the firm had no financial subsidiaries abroad, so that option was a non-starter.

“What do you think? Could we borrow staff from HSBC? HSBC is a major shareholder of ours. Now that Jardine Securities is in crisis, they should lend us a helping hand!” Martin continued.

“Forget it, Mr. Martin. I’ve already asked Mr. Michael Sandberg, but they refused. As they see it, they’d rather Jardine Securities go bankrupt. That way, Wardley would become number one in the industry!” Simon Keswick replied with a wry smile.

Back when Pao Yue-kong was fighting with Jardine Matheson & Co. for the controlling stake in Kowloon Wharf, HSBC didn’t help Jardine Matheson. Instead, it helped a Chinese man like Pao Yue-kong, naturally because HSBC wanted to become the number one enterprise in Hong Kong.

Now that Wardley had another chance to become number one in its industry, how could they possibly extend a helping hand to Jardine Securities?

Just as everyone was at their wits’ end, a panicked voice came from outside the office door: “The net asset value of several of our major funds has fluctuated drastically! Investors are starting to redeem their shares one after another, and the financial pressure is immense.”

This news was a bolt from the blue, making the already silent meeting room feel even more oppressive.

Large-scale redemption requests meant the company would face enormous financial pressure. For them, it was a case of the roof leaking during a storm—misfortunes never come singly.

“How is that possible?” Henry Keswick asked in disbelief. “Our funds have always had stable performance. How could there suddenly be so many redemption requests?”

“I don’t know either, Mr. Henry.” The director of the fund business shook his head bitterly. “I’ve had my people look into it, but there’s no definite news yet.”

“Whatever the reason, we must respond as quickly as possible,” Simon Keswick said in a low voice. “Martin, immediately organize an emergency team to handle these redemption requests. At the same time, we need to strengthen communication with our clients to calm them down and prevent the situation from worsening.”

“But we can’t spare anyone,” Martin said with a wry smile.

The director of the financial advisory department also looked helpless. “Our financial planning services can’t be provided to clients in a timely manner due to staff shortages. Some clients are already considering switching to other companies.”

“After the stock market opened, our share price plummeted. It’s been less than twenty minutes, and our market capitalization has already shrunk to less than five hundred million Hong Kong dollars. If it keeps falling like this, our stock price will likely crash. I suggest we immediately apply to the four major stock exchanges to suspend trading to stabilize the situation!” The director in charge of stock market management reported anxiously.

“Our business is continuously draining away. One client reported that they followed their original account manager and switched to Galaxy Securities!” Another manager burst into the office to report hurriedly.

“The funds in our HSBC account have fallen below the three hundred million Hong Kong dollar mark. This is far from enough to meet the concentrated redemption demands. Once this money is gone, we will lose all sources of funding, and HSBC has already stopped providing us with loans!” The manager responsible for bank liaison walked over, his expression grim.

One disaster after another struck, leaving the senior executives present overwhelmed and at their wits’ end.

All signs pointed to the fact that Jardine Securities was collapsing.

Meanwhile, the floors of Hong Kong’s four major stock exchanges were bustling with people.

As the new trading day began, everyone was eagerly anticipating the stock market’s performance.

However, a portion of the shareholders wore worried expressions.

They all held shares of Jardine Securities, to varying degrees.

Hong Kong’s four major securities companies were like a four-way powerhouse, and many large listed companies would choose to list on all four exchanges simultaneously to maximize the liquidity of their shares.

Not long after the opening bell rang, many people noticed that the stock price of Jardine Securities had begun to fall continuously.

Last Monday, the total market capitalization of Jardine Securities was still around one and a half billion Hong Kong dollars.

But ever since the rumor spread that Jardine Securities was about to be sold off by Jardine Matheson & Co., people grew concerned about the company’s future. The rumor was later confirmed, and many chose to sell.

So, by last Friday, the market capitalization of Jardine Securities was already less than eight hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Then, the rumors about the mass exodus from Jardine Securities began to circulate on Friday afternoon, and by the weekend, people knew even more.

Furthermore, although Jardine Matheson & Co. had promised not to sell off Jardine Securities, they had taken no actual measures to rescue the market.

Therefore, many people already knew that the stock price of Jardine Securities was basically a lost cause.

Less than an hour after the market opened, the stock price of Jardine Securities had fallen by more than half, and its market capitalization was not even worth four hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

The reason for this was natural: there were only sell orders on the market, no buy orders.

Basically, every transaction represented a new low.

The most ridiculous part was that while the price had dropped several-fold, the trading volume was minimal.

Panic was spreading among the shareholders.

It wasn’t until ten o’clock in the morning that all the shareholders breathed a sigh of relief.

The four major stock exchanges had received an application from Jardine Securities requesting to suspend trading.

Following the submission of the application to suspend trading, the four major stock exchanges responded quickly and began to review the request.

Once the suspension was approved, it would at least temporarily halt the frantic decline of the stock price, giving everyone some breathing room to calm down and assess the situation.

Just then, an even more explosive piece of news suddenly spread: Jardine Securities had fewer than a hundred core employees left. Almost all the others had jumped ship to the newly established Galaxy Securities, a subsidiary of the Hongkong Land Group.

When this news broke, it shocked all the shareholders.

If Galaxy Securities were a listed company, its stock price would surely be soaring due to these rumors.

However, Galaxy Securities was currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hongkong Land Group, so there was no way for people to get a piece of the action.

At eleven o’clock in the morning, the newly established Galaxy Securities released another piece of news.

They announced to the public that they would fully take over all of Jardine Securities’ business lines, including securities brokerage, asset management, investment advisory, and financial advisory, and promised to provide clients with better and more efficient services.

This news hit like a hurricane, quickly stirring up waves in Hong Kong’s financial world.

This wasn’t just poaching talent; they were now trying to move out all the furniture and appliances from inside the house!

Didn’t that mean that the current Galaxy Securities was, in effect, the old Jardine Securities?

This move undoubtedly put even more pressure on Jardine Securities. The senior management, already overwhelmed by the massive loss of employees and the difficulty of maintaining operations, now had to face fierce competition from Galaxy Securities. Their mood could only be described as adding frost to snow.

In Connaught Centre, the offices of Galaxy Securities were a hive of activity.

Two hours had passed since the company was officially established, and everyone was already deep into their work.

The newly hired employees were busy familiarizing themselves with the business, liaising with clients, and even processing the files of old clients transferred from Jardine Securities.

They knew full well that to establish themselves in this new company, they had to perform well.

And poaching clients from their old company was the simplest and most direct method.

Once they handled it well, not only would they secure their positions in the new company, but their performance would also be excellent.

Lin Haoran sat in the general manager’s office of what had been Jardine Securities, looking out the window at the busy scene below, and couldn’t help but smile.

At this rate, it seemed it wouldn’t be long before Galaxy Securities could almost completely replace Jardine Securities and become a leader in Hong Kong’s securities and finance industry.

The business of his old Universal Investment Company was too monotonous. Even though he continuously used Universal Investment Company to acquire major enterprises, he couldn’t change the fact that it was just a tiny company, too small to be significant. It could only help him acquire companies covertly, unable to touch other sectors of the financial industry.

But now, after absorbing the essence of Jardine Securities, that situation had completely changed.

Chapter 479: Good News: A Hugely Profitable Year; Bad News: Not Much Available Cash!

Without enough employees, Jardine Securities was already struggling to operate.

Compounded by the powerful assault from Galaxy Securities, the company’s business situation went from bad to worse.

The funds under the company’s control were successively withdrawn, and the once-glorious Jardine Securities found itself in a precarious position just two days after Galaxy Securities was established.

And this was far from the end of Jardine Securities’ troubles.

While Galaxy Securities was continuously siphoning off its lifeblood, other major securities and investment firms in Hong Kong also smelled blood in the water and joined the brutal competition.

Wardley, Baoyuan Investment, Sun Hung Kai Securities, and others—all renowned enterprises in the Hong Kong stock market—also began to squeeze and prey on Jardine Securities.

Wardley, in particular, as an industry tycoon that could almost go head-to-head with Jardine Securities, would not miss this opportunity to become the industry leader.

Leveraging its substantial capital and extensive market influence, it launched a fierce attack on Jardine Securities.

Not only did it poach a large number of Jardine Securities’ clients, but it also maliciously spread rumors to damage the company’s reputation.

Following Wardley’s lead, other investment firms followed suit, and Jardine Securities found itself besieged on all sides.

In just a few days, Jardine Securities’ business was almost completely carved up by its Hong Kong peers.

Among them, the biggest beneficiary was naturally Galaxy Securities. Leveraging the “defections” of former employees, it brought many of Jardine Securities’ original clients over to the new company, absorbing the majority of its resources.

Wardley was not to be outdone. After absorbing a portion of Jardine Securities’ resources, its market capitalization soared, and it vaulted into the position of the new leader in Hong Kong’s securities and investment industry.

Baoyuan Investment, Sun Hung Kai Securities, and others also grew considerably stronger.

In less than a month, the landscape of Hong Kong’s securities and investment industry had undergone a seismic shift.

On January 15th, Jardine Matheson & Co. held another press conference.

At the conference, a resigned Simon Keswick announced that Jardine Securities was officially bankrupt!

An era had come to a somber end.

Although Jardine Matheson & Co. was wealthy, Jardine Securities was just one of its subsidiaries, and they only held a 40% stake. They were naturally unwilling to bear any further losses that Jardine Securities might bring them.

Therefore, at this juncture, declaring bankruptcy was clearly the most appropriate choice.

The bankruptcy of Jardine Securities was like a giant stone thrown into a calm lake, creating ripples that spread far and wide.

Once, it had been the crown jewel of Hong Kong’s securities and investment industry, the trusted choice of countless investors.

Now, it was just a footnote in the pages of history.

Simon Keswick’s resigned announcement at the press conference felt like a silent protest against the changing times.

His eyes revealed deep regret and unwillingness, but reality was cruel and offered no room for reprieve.

When the news broke, all of Hong Kong was in a state of shock.

The citizens of Hong Kong discussed the rise and fall of Jardine Securities, lamenting the ruthlessness and unpredictability of the market.

The investors who had weathered storms with Jardine Securities were heartbroken, unable to accept the harsh reality.

However, the laws of the market are just that cruel.

In the midst of fierce competition, only the fittest survive.

While the bankruptcy of Jardine Securities was lamentable, it also brought new opportunities and challenges to Hong Kong’s securities and investment industry.

The surviving companies would now place a greater emphasis on risk control and business innovation to cope with future market volatility.

The bankruptcy of Jardine Securities became a turning point in the development of Hong Kong’s securities and investment industry.

And amid all this, Lin Haoran’s name was frequently mentioned.

It was precisely because of their feud with Lin Haoran that Jardine Matheson & Co. had suffered such vicious retaliation.

As a result, not only were they forced to pay five hundred million Hong Kong dollars in compensation to the government, but they also saw an important subsidiary—Jardine Securities, a corporate giant once worth over 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars—driven to bankruptcy.

Lin Haoran was not to be trifled with. This had become the general consensus in Hong Kong’s business community.

When Lin Haoran learned that Jardine Matheson & Co. had officially announced the bankruptcy of Jardine Securities, he was in the President’s office at the Hongkong Electric Group building.

Even Lin Haoran was surprised that Jardine Matheson & Co. had given up on Jardine Securities just like that.

When he had suddenly decided to poach talent from Jardine Securities, he never imagined that the final outcome for the company would be outright bankruptcy.

In his view, the most he expected was for Jardine Securities to suffer heavy losses.

However, whether Jardine Securities went bankrupt or not had little direct impact on him.

After all, he had already reaped the greatest benefits from the company’s demise.

He had gained the most, both in terms of the talent Jardine Securities had cultivated for him and the business he had pulled over from them.

These benefits were worth at least five to six hundred million Hong Kong dollars, perhaps even seven to eight hundred million or more!

And the price he paid was merely a little over thirty million Hong Kong dollars in contractual penalties for the core employees, plus an increase in their salaries.

Saving so much money, the slight increase in wages was truly nothing.

Chen Shoulin, sitting opposite him, had also just returned.

“Boss, I just came from the Finance Department. Last year’s annual report is out. The data from Hong Kong and China Gas Company isn’t consolidated since they operate independently. This report contains only the standalone financial data for Hongkong Electric Group. Please take a look.” Chen Shoulin sat across from Lin Haoran and handed him the annual report.

Lin Haoran nodded, took the report, and began to read it carefully.

Hongkong Electric Group not only controlled all the original business of the Hongkong Electric Company but was also the major shareholder of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company.

Coupled with rapid business growth over the past two years, it had now expanded beyond Hong Kong and entered the Southeast Asia market.

As a result, the current strength of Hongkong Electric Group was more than double what it was when Lin Haoran acquired it two years ago.

For instance, the market capitalization of Hongkong Electric Group had now reached a staggering 6.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, a roughly fourfold increase compared to two years ago.

Lin Haoran meticulously examined the figures on the report.

The entire report was composed of current assets, fixed assets, intangible assets, and so on.

He skimmed past many of the figures, finally focusing on the total assets and profit.

In the whole of last year, the electricity sales business alone generated a profit of 421 million Hong Kong dollars; the subsidiary Fortress Electrical Company earned 156 million Hong Kong dollars from appliance sales; the real estate division brought in 859 million Hong Kong dollars; and other businesses such as financial services, advertising, and technical services also profited by 296 million Hong Kong dollars.

These figures were all after costs.

In other words, for the entire year, the profit was an astounding 1.732 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Among these, the real estate division had leaped to become the most profitable business.

Previously, Hongkong Electric Group’s most profitable business had been electricity sales.

The reason the real estate division earned so much last year was mainly because after Lin Haoran acquired Hongkong Electric Group, he had it use its funds to hoard land.

And at the end of last year, when Lin Haoran had Wanqing Group, Hongkong Land Group, and others sell off their real estate projects and land plots, Hongkong Electric Group followed suit.

This was the biggest reason why Hongkong Electric Group had made so much money.

Having earned so much, a market capitalization of 6.2 billion Hong Kong dollars for Hongkong Electric Group was not at all excessive.

Of course, Lin Haoran also knew that the success in real estate was a stroke of luck last year.

He couldn’t expect similar figures this year.

He also noted that the overseas business was currently in the investment phase, so profits were not to be expected for now.

Furthermore, although Hongkong Electric Group’s profits last year were high, its current available funds were only around 600 million Hong Kong dollars.

The reason was that loan interest rates in Hong Kong were high, and most of Hongkong Electric Group’s cash flow was being managed by Capital Finance Company, which currently had over 1.1 billion Hong Kong dollars loaned out.

“Boss, would you like to issue a dividend? If so, after setting aside one hundred million Hong Kong dollars as a reserve fund, we estimate that we can mobilize five hundred million Hong Kong dollars for shareholder dividends,” Chen Shoulin asked as Lin Haoran put down the financial report.

Five hundred million Hong Kong dollars. He held a 49.9% stake, which meant he would only get a little over two hundred million. It was uninteresting.

Lin Haoran shook his head and said, “Forget it, let’s not issue dividends for now. Let me know when more funds from Capital Finance Company have been recovered. Also, don’t use that capital for lending anymore.”

Lin Haoran truly wasn’t interested in the ten-plus percent interest from loans.

“Understood, Boss!” Chen Shoulin nodded.

“Is the financial report from Hong Kong and China Gas Company not out yet?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

Lin Haoran didn’t have high hopes for Hong Kong and China Gas Company, but he still wanted to know how much money the company he had acquired had made last year.

“It’s out. I’ll have them fax a copy over right away,” Chen Shoulin said, then used the fax machine to make a call.

Not long after, another annual financial statement was placed in front of Lin Haoran.

Profit: 862 million Hong Kong dollars. Available funds: 438 million Hong Kong dollars.

The remaining funds had mostly been used for investments.

These figures were already quite good. To earn so much profit in a year would rank it among the top ten in all of Hong Kong.

Even for magnates like HSBC and Swire & Co., despite their massive size, their profits were not necessarily large, and it was quite normal for them to even incur losses sometimes.

However, Lin Haoran still sighed. Even if this money were used for dividends, it was still uninteresting.

The equity structure of Hong Kong and China Gas Company was a bit complex. When he acquired it, Lin Haoran had Hongkong Electric Group become its major shareholder, with a 20% stake.

Wan’an Real Estate Company held a 12.3% stake.

Universal Investment Company held a 17.6% stake. All together, Lin Haoran controlled 49.9% of the shares.

Chapter 480: The Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs

Hongkong Electric Group’s annual financial statement had already been released, but Hongkong Land Group’s had not.

The reason, naturally, was that Hongkong Land Group was much larger than Hongkong Electric Group, and its financial structure was far more complex.

“After deducting the necessary emergency reserves and investments needed for overseas market expansion, set aside the remaining surplus funds from Hongkong Electric Group for now. I’m earmarking this money for subsequent shareholder dividends,” Lin Haoran added after a moment of thought.

Although Hongkong Electric Group and the Hong Kong and China Gas Company were both businesses with guaranteed profits, they were public utility listed companies, so Lin Haoran couldn’t completely privatize them.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was more inclined to take the profits from these two companies and pay them out as dividends. That way, the money would belong entirely to him, and he could then use it for other investments.

As for putting it in the bank for a loan, even with an annual interest rate of over ten percent, he honestly couldn’t be bothered with such a paltry sum.

With a good investment, wasn’t it easy to see a company’s value multiply several times over in a single year?

“Understood, Boss!” Chen Shoulin nodded without objection.

After all, it was perfectly normal for shareholders to want a dividend payout.

Besides, he was now a minor shareholder in Hongkong Electric Group himself, having invested most of his earnings into buying the company’s stock on the market.

As the person in charge of Hongkong Electric Group, Chen Shoulin knew exactly how high-quality and profitable the company had become.

Holding Hongkong Electric Group stock was a sure-fire way to make money!

Just as Lin Haoran and Chen Shoulin were discussing company matters, his beeper started to chime.

Lin Haoran picked it up and glanced at it, then, without giving it much thought, dialed the number back from Chen Shoulin’s office phone.

“Haoran, it’s me, Uncle Pao. I’m not interrupting, am I?” A hearty laugh came from the other end of the line.

“Uncle Pao, a call from you is never an interruption. As the old saying goes, you don’t visit without a purpose. Is there something you need?” Lin Haoran was a little surprised, as the call was from Pao Yue-kong.

Pao Yue-kong had kept a much lower profile ever since he had acquired Kowloon Wharf.

Not only that, but his company, World-Wide Shipping, had been aggressively selling off its ships.

To most people, this seemed like a desperate move, a sign that Pao Yue-kong had suffered heavy losses in the battle for Kowloon Wharf and was forced to sell his fleet.

Lin Haoran, however, knew the truth. Pao Yue-kong had foreseen the coming downturn in the global shipping industry, and selling off his ships now was a brilliant move.

“It’s nothing too special, actually. Today is my grandson’s first birthday, and I’ve invited a few friends from the business world to celebrate. I was wondering if you were free tonight. If it’s convenient, I’d hope you and your parents could join us at my home for his first birthday banquet. The festivities start before seven in the evening. Of course, it’s no problem if you’re too busy!” Pao Yue-kong explained his reason for calling.

“An invitation from Uncle Pao is one I would never turn down. As long as I’m in Hong Kong, I’ll make time no matter how busy I am. Don’t worry, I will be there on time tonight to celebrate your grandson’s first birthday!” Lin Haoran replied readily.

“Then it’s settled. I’ll see you tonight! I won’t keep you any longer; I still have others to call!” Pao Yue-kong said with a laugh before hanging up.

After ending the call, Lin Haoran glanced at the time. It was still early, just past two in the afternoon.

Pao Yue-kong had indeed provided him with a great deal of help as his career developed, and that help had been immensely significant to Lin Haoran.

Looking back, if it hadn’t been for Pao Yue-kong’s assistance, his plan to purchase crude oil might not have gone so smoothly.

Therefore, even though his personal wealth now surpassed Pao Yue-kong’s, Lin Haoran still held a deep sense of respect for the veteran business magnate.

Basically, whenever he returned to his parents’ home in Deep Water Bay and stayed the night, he would always find time to pay Pao Yue-kong a visit.

“Boss, was that Mr. Pao from Kowloon Wharf?” Chen Shoulin, sitting opposite him, asked curiously.

Besides Pao Yue-kong, Chen Shoulin couldn’t think of anyone else Lin Haoran would call “Uncle Pao.”

“That’s right. It’s his grandson’s birthday banquet. Would you like to go? Uncle Pao has probably invited many big shots. It would be a good opportunity for you to network with them,” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Chen Shoulin thought for a moment before shaking his head. “Boss, Mr. Pao didn’t invite me, so it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to show up unannounced. Besides, Hongkong Electric Group is now one of the top magnates in Hong Kong, so I already have plenty of opportunities to interact with the city’s various tycoons.”

This was no lie. Hongkong Electric Group was now genuinely the third-largest listed company in Hong Kong by market capitalization.

Companies like Swire & Co., Hutchison Whampoa, Wheelock, and Cheung Kong Holdings all ranked below Hongkong Electric Group.

The only listed companies ahead of Hongkong Electric Group were the two banking giants, HSBC and Hang Seng Bank.

Hongkong Land Group had originally been ranked second and could have even contended for the top spot, but it had since been delisted, making its market capitalization impossible to estimate.

As for the other giant, Jardine Matheson & Co., its market capitalization had plummeted ever since Lin Haoran had fleeced it. From a peak of over nine billion, it had been falling continuously.

Now, having failed to even hold on to Jardine Securities, Hong Kong’s largest securities and financial firm, Jardine Matheson & Co.’s market capitalization had fallen even further to just over five billion Hong Kong dollars, placing it behind Hongkong Electric Group.

“Alright, if you don’t want to go, then let’s forget it,” Lin Haoran nodded, unconcerned.

After chatting with Lin Haoran for a little longer, Chen Shoulin went back to his work.

Lin Haoran made another call, this time to his parents.

Lin father answered the phone. Lin Haoran explained the situation, telling them not to cook dinner, as he would come back to take them to Pao Yue-kong’s home.

His father did not object.

The Lin family and the Bao family were neighbors, after all.

In the past, due to their different social standings, their interactions were limited to polite nods, and they rarely associated with one another.

But things were different now. As Lin Haoran’s status continued to rise, his parents’ interactions with the Pao family had become more frequent, and the two families had grown closer.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran remained at the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters building until three in the afternoon before leaving.

Upon leaving, Lin Haoran didn’t go to the Connaught Centre or Wanqing Building. Instead, he had Li Weidong drive him directly back to his villa in Deep Water Bay.

On the way, they passed by a large shopping mall owned by the Hongkong Land Group. Lin Haoran went inside and bought a pair of pure gold children’s bracelets as a birthday gift for Pao Yue-kong’s grandson.

It was a bit old-fashioned, but one had to bring a gift to this kind of banquet.

The last time he had been home was on New Year’s Day. Another two weeks had passed, so it was about time he went back to see his parents.

With the car window slightly lowered, Lin Haoran could occasionally overhear passing citizens discussing Jardine Securities’ bankruptcy announcement.

Even on the car radio in his Rolls-Royce, the host of Hong Kong Radio was providing further reports on the matter.

Clearly, the news of Jardine Securities declaring bankruptcy had a massive impact.

When he arrived home, Lin Haoran saw his father enjoying a leisurely game of chess in the courtyard with a neighbor, another gentleman from a wealthy family. His mother was taking their gentle golden retriever for a pleasant stroll along the path around the villa.

The moment they saw Lin Haoran return, both Lin father and Lin mother immediately stopped what they were doing.

It wasn’t until a little after six in the evening that Lin Haoran left the house with his parents.

The distance from the Lin family villa to the Bao family villa was just over two hundred meters, so there was no need to drive; they could easily walk there.

As they arrived at the Bao family villa, Lin Haoran saw that it was already brilliantly lit and bustling with activity.

At the entrance, one of Pao Yue-kong’s daughters and her husband were welcoming guests. Upon seeing Lin Haoran and his parents, they immediately came forward with warm enthusiasm.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Lin Senior, Madam Lin, please come in. My dad is already waiting for you in the backyard!” Pao Yue-kong’s daughter said with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded, handed over his gift, and exchanged a few pleasantries with them before leading his parents into the Bao residence.

He had been to the Bao family home many times before and was very familiar with the place.

After entering and crossing the main hall, Lin Haoran saw Pao Yue-kong sitting in the backyard, chatting with several middle-aged and elderly men. Among them were some very familiar faces, including Hong Kong business magnates like Michael Sandberg and Li Jiacheng.

When they saw Lin Haoran walk in, everyone present stood up in unison.

Lin Haoran’s wealth was now at its zenith, and his status in the Hong Kong business world had risen with the tide. His precise strikes against Jardine Matheson & Co., in particular, had filled his peers in the Hong Kong business community with a sense of awe and reverence.

Many of the tycoons secretly marveled that even the deeply-rooted Jardine Matheson & Co. had suffered repeated setbacks and heavy losses at Lin Haoran’s hands. Naturally, they wouldn’t dare to underestimate this young and promising business prodigy.

“Uncle Pao, I’m not late, am I?” Lin Haoran said with a smile, speaking first.

“Not at all, it’s still early. Haoran, and Brother Wan’an, come and have a seat!” Pao Yue-kong said enthusiastically.

As for Lin mother, she had already gone off to join Mrs. Pao and the other ladies.

Li Jiacheng, Michael Sandberg, and the others also greeted Lin Haoran with smiles, shaking his hand and exchanging words.

Excluding Lin Haoran and Lin Wan’an, there were eight other people present.

However, Lin Haoran only recognized seven of them: Pao Yue-kong, Michael Sandberg, Li Jiacheng, and his three sons-in-law. There was another middle-aged man wearing glasses whom he didn’t recognize at all.

Anyone who could be at the Pao residence was certainly no simple figure.

And Lin Haoran knew all of Hong Kong’s top tycoons.

Yet, he had no impression of this middle-aged man whatsoever.

Clearly, he had never met him before.

“And this gentleman is?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

Chapter 481: Different Words for Different People

“The Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs?” Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

This position was equivalent to Japan’s foreign minister. A figure of his stature was actually attending one of Pao Yue-kong’s small family dinners?

At that moment, Lin Haoran deeply understood the extent of Pao Yue-kong’s international influence.

He truly lived up to his reputation as the foremost World Shipping Magnate.

In comparison, although his own wealth had already surpassed Pao Yue-kong’s, his influence clearly still lagged far behind.

Before Lin Haoran could speak, the Japanese Foreign Minister proactively extended his right hand and said with a smile, “Mr. Lin, hello. I have long admired your reputation. I am very pleased to meet you. I look forward to our acquaintance!”

Lin Haoran shook his hand and said with a smile, “It is my honor to meet you as well, Mr. Foreign Minister.”

Mr. Tanaka smiled and nodded, his attitude friendly and humble.

In the social circles of business and politics, he clearly had a firm grasp of Lin Haoran’s current standing in Hong Kong and even the global business world.

Although Lin Haoran’s influence had yet to match that of the World Shipping Magnate Pao Yue-kong, judging by his rapid rise over the past two years and his business arrangements in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and even the United States, Mr. Tanaka understood that Lin Haoran was destined to become a top-tier global entrepreneur—a figure capable of influencing the direction of world commerce.

Lin Haoran then exchanged greetings with Michael Sandberg, Li Jiacheng, and the others.

Facing Lin Haoran, Michael Sandberg, a seasoned veteran of the business world, couldn’t help but reveal a complex expression.

A business giant like Jardine Matheson & Co., in such a short time, had been manipulated by Lin Haoran as easily as a child, suffering one heavy loss after another and was now forced to flee Hong Kong. Not even their own HSBC possessed that kind of power.

Of course, Michael Sandberg wasn’t so intimidated as to fear Lin Haoran.

After all, the forces behind HSBC were deeply entrenched and intricate, involving far more financial groups than Jardine Matheson & Co., including support from top financial groups in Britain, the United States, and elsewhere.

Moreover, as the bank with note-issuing authority in Hong Kong, HSBC was the most central financial institution in the territory. Its importance to the British Hong Kong government far exceeded that of Jardine Matheson.

Regardless of anything else, their HSBC was the undisputed leader of Hong Kong’s financial sector. In Michael Sandberg’s view, no matter how formidable Lin Haoran became, he could not shake that position.

“Mr. Lin, your actions these past few days have been a real eye-opener! Not only have you been swift and decisive in the business world, forcing a giant like Jardine Matheson & Co. to beat a steady retreat, but every one of your decisions has been impeccably accurate. I must say, I’m truly impressed,” Michael Sandberg said with a measure of emotion.

Lin Haoran smiled in response. “Mr. Michael Sandberg, I must actually thank you for that. Because you kept HSBC from getting involved, I was able to handle Jardine Matheson & Co. so smoothly.

“As you know, I am not one to proactively stir up trouble. If Jardine Matheson hadn’t provoked me first, I wouldn’t have taken such measures. I much prefer open and honest competition over underhanded schemes.”

His words were very direct: if anyone wanted to move against him, they had better think carefully about the consequences.

“Although HSBC is a shareholder of Jardine Matheson, we have never interfered in its internal affairs. Their targeted actions against you, Mr. Lin, were done entirely on their own. I knew nothing about it.

“As you know, Mr. Lin, apart from the real estate companies themselves, no one wishes for stability in Hong Kong’s property market more than we banks do. When the property sector thrives, our business rises with the tide.

“But if a crisis hits the property market, the impact on the banking industry is considerable!” Michael Sandberg clarified with a smile.

In the past, Michael Sandberg wouldn’t have bothered to explain himself.

But times had changed. Lin Haoran was now his an equal, perhaps even more powerful than HSBC itself.

Therefore, while Sandberg wasn’t afraid of Lin Haoran, he was unwilling to offend him.

Of course, this was only because an opportunity to deal with Lin Haoran had not yet presented itself. Once such an opportunity arose, Sandberg wouldn’t let it slip by.

After all, in the dog-eat-dog world of business, maintaining one’s power and position sometimes required taking any means necessary.

But for now, having found no weakness in Lin Haoran, a head-on confrontation was clearly not a wise move.

“Of course I know this matter had nothing to do with HSBC. Our cooperation has always been excellent. Besides, I am also a shareholder in HSBC, and I look forward to the Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and Wanqing Group under my name continuing to maintain their good cooperative relationship with HSBC!” Lin Haoran replied with a smiling nod.

“Mr. Lin, although I am many years your senior, in business, I must learn from you. You are the pride of Hong Kong’s Chinese merchants!” Li Jiacheng chimed in with a cheerful smile.

Recently, Lin Haoran’s success had dealt one blow after another to Li Jiacheng, making this real estate tycoon, who had been feeling quite pleased with himself after acquiring Hutchison Whampoa, feel an involuntary sense of defeat when facing Lin Haoran.

A year ago, he might have been amazed by the speed of Lin Haoran’s growth, but he would have also been full of confidence, believing he could one day surpass him.

Now, however, his thinking was completely different.

Even a Hong Kong giant like Jardine Matheson, with the backing of major British financial groups, had fallen at Lin Haoran’s hands.

In contrast, he had merely acquired Hutchison Whampoa, a British-owned firm far weaker than Jardine Matheson, and had only succeeded with HSBC’s help. With his own strength alone, could he have ever acquired Hutchison Whampoa?

The gap between them was clear at a glance.

Lin Haoran was like an insurmountable mountain standing before him, robbing him of the courage to even try to surpass him.

Now, Li Jiacheng only wanted to manage his own business well; he had already abandoned any thought of becoming the overlord of Hong Kong’s business world.

“Mr. Li, you praise me too much. You are a doyen of Hong Kong’s business community. I, Lin Haoran, am merely a rising star with much to learn from you,” Lin Haoran responded humbly.

Li Jiacheng smiled and said, “Mr. Lin, you are too modest. In the business world, it’s natural that the new generation surpasses the old. Your achievements are plain for all to see.”

The men exchanged pleasantries.

Soon after, a few more business tycoons arrived, all of whom were on good terms with Pao Yue-kong.

Lin Haoran had now become the object of everyone’s compliments.

Hong Kong’s business community seemed large, but at present, no one could match Lin Haoran’s financial power.

That was why he was being flattered.

Everyone wanted to build a good relationship with Lin Haoran. No one wanted to offend this ruthless figure of the business world, who, when provoked, didn’t even think twice about taking on Jardine Matheson.

During the conversation, Lin Haoran learned the reason for the Japanese Foreign Minister’s attendance at this small banquet.

It turned out that the Japanese Foreign Minister was in Hong Kong to attend a summit for Asian diplomats, and Pao Yue-kong’s World-Wide Shipping Group had extensive cooperative projects in Japan.

For instance, during the oil crisis of the last two years, Pao Yue-kong’s assistance had been invaluable. Pao Yue-kong had excellent relationships with figures in Japan’s shipping industry and shipbuilding merchants. Most of his ships were leased to the Japanese, often complete with their crews.

It was precisely with Pao Yue-kong’s help that Japan was able to alleviate its urgent need for oil; otherwise, the impact of the oil crisis on Japan would have been much greater.

Furthermore, Pao Yue-kong’s cooperation with Japan began in 1961, when he signed his first shipbuilding contract there. Since then, over ninety percent of the ships in his fleet had been built by Japanese shipyards.

This close cooperative relationship not only ensured that Pao Yue-kong could acquire high-quality vessels in a timely manner but also saved him significant time and money.

At the same time, Pao Yue-kong’s relationship with Japanese banks was also very cordial. HSBC’s support for him was, to a large extent, thanks to the trust he had established with Japanese banks.

One could say that although Pao Yue-kong was a Hong Kong merchant, he also possessed an extensive network of connections in Japan, and business cooperation between the two sides was extremely frequent.

When Pao Yue-kong visited Japan, even the Prime Minister treated him as a guest of honor.

Therefore, it was not surprising that Mr. Tanaka had been invited here.

Although this was just a banquet for his grandson, Pao Yue-kong clearly took it very seriously. Nearly twenty tycoons from the worlds of business and politics came and went.

If the villa hadn’t been on the smaller side, he likely would have invited even more guests.

It was evident that even though Pao Yue-kong had kept a much lower profile in the two years since acquiring Kowloon Wharf, his influence had not diminished in the slightest.

Pao Yue-kong had no sons, only four daughters, so his grandsons were, in effect, his only grandsons.

Perhaps because his sons-in-law were from different countries, and many of the invited guests were Westerners, tonight’s banquet was not a traditional chinese banquet but a Western-style buffet.

Holding a glass of red wine, Lin Haoran moved through the crowd, conversing with the various business tycoons.

He discovered that tonight’s banquet was not just a celebration of Pao Yue-kong’s grandson, but also a grand occasion for business networking.

While chatting with Lin Haoran, many of the tycoons couldn’t help but bring up the recent incident with Jardine Matheson & Co.

Evidently, the fact that Jardine Securities had fallen from grace in less than a month, going from an industry titan to being forced to declare bankruptcy, was a development that had thoroughly shocked everyone.

“Mr. Lin, I was wondering, what are your views on the current economic development of our country, Japan?” As soon as a Hong Kong business magnate finished speaking with Lin Haoran, Mr. Tanaka approached, clinked his wine glass against Lin’s, and asked with curiosity.

Lin Haoran smiled, took a light sip of his red wine, and then said, “Mr. Tanaka, Japan’s economic development in recent years has been truly remarkable, attracting worldwide attention. The manufacturing and technology sectors, in particular, are at the forefront globally. Your country’s achievements in industries like automobiles, electronics, and steel have not only turned heads around the world but have also earned Japan the reputation of an ‘economic miracle.’ It’s something unparalleled anywhere else. I am very optimistic about the trajectory of Japan’s economic development.”

Speak to men as a man, and to ghosts as a ghost.

Chapter 482: Take All the Money, Leave All the Debt to Japan!

Upon hearing this, a look of pride appeared on Mr. Tanaka’s face.

He smiled, nodded, and said humbly, “Mr. Lin, you flatter me. Indeed, Japan has poured countless amounts of heart and soul into its development in recent years and has been fortunate enough to achieve some remarkable results. However, the path of economic development is never smooth sailing, especially with the current intricate and complex global economic environment where challenges and opportunities coexist. We are actively seeking new breakthroughs in hopes of continuing our steady advance in the future. At the same time, Japan always has its arms open, warmly welcoming entrepreneurs from all over the world to invest and establish businesses, especially outstanding entrepreneurs like yourself, Mr. Lin. On behalf of the Japanese government, I would like to extend our most sincere invitation to you, Mr. Lin, and I wholeheartedly hope you will have the opportunity to visit Japan to discuss development and achieve win-win cooperation.”

Lin Haoran was somewhat surprised to hear the Foreign Minister’s invitation, but he smiled inwardly.

Investing in Japan on his own initiative and being invited by the Japanese government to visit and invest were two completely different concepts.

The former meant a unilateral exploration and attempt on his part, which could present many unknown challenges and difficulties.

The latter, however, meant he had the recognition and support of the Japanese government, which would undoubtedly smooth over many obstacles on his investment path. For him, this was undoubtedly great news.

In fact, he already had the idea of making Japan his next key investment destination. The goal, naturally, was to make more money.

After all, the 1980s was the well-known era of Japan’s bubble economy. That decade was considered a golden age when it was easiest to amass enormous fortunes.

Even Japanese tycoons had once boasted that they had enough money to buy all the land and property in the United States and then rent it back to the Americans at high prices.

In the 1980s, Japanese society was permeated by a festive atmosphere of feasts and revelry—a prosperous scene of dazzling lights and endless parties, where ornate goblets overflowed, golden jars were constantly raised, and music played every night.

All of Japan firmly believed that the prices of stocks and real estate would continue to rise forever.

At that time, extravagance was rampant in Japan. The prosperity of capitalism had reached unprecedented heights; perhaps this was the very picture of capitalism at its most lavish extreme.

In such an environment, it was almost impossible to lose money on any business in Japan. It was the kind of place where you could make money with your eyes closed.

Take the Japanese stock market, for example. During the bubble economy, you could basically pick any stock with your eyes closed and still make a considerable amount of money.

He loved making money off the Japanese the most.

As he recalled, Japan’s bubble economy began in the mid-1980s, and it was only the early 1980s now.

This meant he had ample time to plan and prepare.

Lin Haoran had already decided. He was going to enter the Japanese market in a big way before it went into a complete frenzy, acquiring land on a massive scale to develop real estate while also dabbling in the stock market. After all, another key growth point of the bubble economy was the unrestrained surge in stock prices.

When the bubble economy truly began, even he wouldn’t know how crazily his assets would appreciate.

The land and stocks that already seemed astronomically priced would become worth a fortune.

He probably couldn’t even imagine the kind of wealth and status he would possess at that time.

Moreover, Lin Haoran planned to slowly withdraw from the Japanese market just before the economic bubble was about to burst, taking all the money with him and leaving Japan with all the debt.

As a transmigrator, he understood perfectly well that Japan’s bubble economy was ultimately just an illusory prosperity. When everything returned to reality, all that would be left was devastation and debt.

But what did that have to do with him?

He just needed to enjoy the feast to its fullest and then withdraw at the right moment.

This was the biggest reason why Lin Haoran intended to invest heavily in Japan.

Currently, the main markets for his Hongkong Land Group, Wanqing Group, and Hongkong Electric Group were primarily in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

As for Japan, only a few subsidiaries of the Hongkong Land Group had some minor operations there, but not many.

Therefore, the Japanese market was still a largely unfamiliar territory for him.

After his unexpected encounter with the president of Nintendo, he had been planning to leverage Nintendo’s influence to enter the Japanese market.

Now, with an official invitation from the Japanese government, this opportunity was far better than trying to enter the market through Nintendo.

“Thank you very much for your invitation, Mr. Foreign Minister. It is my honor. Visiting Japan is something I have long looked forward to,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, his tone filled with anticipation. “I have always been interested in the Japanese market, especially now, when Japan is in a period full of opportunities. I believe that through this visit, I can gain a deeper understanding of Japan’s market environment and thus make thorough preparations for my upcoming investments there.”

“Excellent. It’s wonderful that you have such intentions, Mr. Lin. Japan’s doors will always be open to outstanding entrepreneurs like you. Before you plan your visit, please be sure to inform me in advance. I will do my utmost to arrange the most thoughtful reception for you!” Mr. Tanaka said solemnly.

With that, he took a business card from his suit pocket and presented it to Lin Haoran with both hands.

Lin Haoran accepted it with a smile, examined it carefully, and then respectfully placed it in his own pocket.

He then took out his own business card and politely handed it to Mr. Tanaka.

The banquet didn’t end until around nine o’clock at night.

Lin Haoran, along with his parents, bid farewell to Pao Yue-kong’s family before turning to leave the Pao residence on foot.

Outside, Li Weiguo, Li Weidong, and the others were already waiting.

Although the Deep Water Bay villa area was where the wealthy lived and seemed safe, it wasn’t absolutely secure.

Otherwise, an incident like the kidnapping of Superman Li’s son would never have happened.

Therefore, even for a short distance of just over two hundred meters, the necessary protection was essential.

Though Lin Haoran was currently riding high in the business world, he had also offended quite a few people.

It was even possible that people he hadn’t offended wished for his downfall.

Everyone is capable of jealousy, and not everyone wanted to see Lin Haoran basking in his success.

After leaving the Pao residence, Lin Haoran and his party were safely escorted back to their own home by Li Weiguo and the others.

Tonight, he wouldn’t be returning to the villa on Severn Road.

After all, he had made a special trip back here; it wouldn’t be right to not even stay the night.

The most unexpected reward from this trip to the Pao residence was meeting the Japanese Foreign Minister, Mr. Tanaka.

With this, he now had connections within the Japanese government.

Moreover, as Japan’s Foreign Minister, Mr. Tanaka was a powerful and influential figure in the country.

The Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs—a position also simply called the Foreign Minister—is one of the most important in the Japanese Cabinet. The post is a Minister of State who oversees Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is typically held by a powerful Member of Parliament from the ruling party.

He had to admit, this Uncle Pao was truly his lucky star.

Every interaction with Pao Yue-kong seemed to bring him unexpected opportunities and rewards.

This time, meeting the Japanese Foreign Minister, Mr. Tanaka, through Pao Yue-kong’s introduction had undoubtedly opened a crucial door for his business plans in Japan.

Back home, after going up to his attic room, Lin Haoran didn’t rush to shower and sleep.

He opened the study he hadn’t used in a long time, sat down in the lounge chair, and began to think.

Although he rarely used this study anymore, the room was spotless, a clear sign that it was cleaned regularly.

Lin Haoran gradually closed his eyes in the lounge chair, but his mind was exceptionally active.

He had already been planning to invest in Japan.

However, he had no connections in Japan. And on top of that, the Japanese market was inherently insular.

For example, in the automotive sector, most Japanese people bought cars from domestic brands like Nissan, Toyota, and Honda.

Even if foreign car brands had better quality or more innovative designs, it was very difficult for them to gain a foothold in the Japanese market.

This insularity was common across many industries, undoubtedly adding significant difficulty for foreign investors.

Therefore, he had always maintained a cautiously optimistic attitude about entering the Japanese market.

But now, with his connection to Mr. Tanaka, entering the Japanese market no longer seemed so complicated.

“Back in Hong Kong, it doesn’t really matter whether I’m here or not. The Hongkong Land Group, the Hongkong Electric Group, and the Wanqing Group are all in a state of stable, high-speed growth. Perhaps I can take this opportunity to consider developing in Japan. Over there, if I plan things well, it will be like picking up free money for years to come. In comparison, while Hong Kong’s economy is also growing fast, its market is just too small. But Japan has a population of over one hundred million and a developed economy. The future of a market that is both populous and prosperous is something a small place like Hong Kong can’t compare to. It’s settled, then!” Lin Haoran’s eyes snapped open as he muttered to himself.

As for the United States, he barely had to think about it. All he needed to do there was quietly invest in some listed companies with promising futures. With Universal Investment Company in the United States, he hardly had to worry about the market there.

But Japan was different. Its development model was somewhat similar to Hong Kong’s, with real estate companies developing at a frantic pace. This was incomparable to a place like the United States, with its vast land and sparse population.

Therefore, the best course of action in Japan right now was to focus on developing the real estate sector.

In the future, the rate of return from the real estate industry would surely be astounding.

However, he would have to start from scratch in Japan.

And he knew that establishing a firm foothold in the Japanese market would be no easy task.

However, this wouldn’t stump him.

The Hongkong Land Group was, after all, the largest real estate company in Hong Kong.

As long as he brought an elite real estate team from the Hongkong Land Group over to serve as the foundation for development, things would naturally go much more smoothly.

Chapter 483: Building the World’s Tallest Skyscraper in Central!

A night passed in the blink of an eye.

The next morning, after sharing a warm breakfast with his parents at home, Lin Haoran bid them farewell and left the Deep Water Bay villa.

When he arrived at the Connaught Centre and walked into Ma Shimin’s office, he saw that Ma Shimin was on the phone.

Lin Haoran didn’t disturb him, simply taking a seat in a nearby chair and waiting quietly.

A few minutes later, Ma Shimin hung up the phone.

“Boss, I received some news. The management at Jardine Matheson & Co. has decided to move out of Hong Kong today. Also, it seems Simon Keswick was jointly ousted by shareholders like the Rothschild family and HSBC. Henry Keswick is serving as the interim Taipan for now, but his position isn’t stable either. Once he’s back in Britain, there will likely be another intense struggle!” Ma Shimin said with some emotion.

Evidently, Simon Keswick had become the scapegoat for this incident.

Of course, Simon did bear the greatest responsibility, as it all happened on his watch.

In just half a month, Jardine Matheson & Co.’s losses amounted to at least a billion Hong Kong dollars.

This included the five hundred million Hong Kong dollar fine from the Government House and the losses incurred from Jardine Securities.

After all, Ma Shimin had spent many years at Jardine Matheson & Co. and had once been a senior executive, so his feelings on the matter were still quite complicated.

“Without Jardine Securities, they don’t have much business left in Hong Kong, do they? It makes no sense for them to stay. They can’t make it here anymore, anyway!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, not at all surprised that Jardine Matheson & Co. was in such a hurry to leave.

In Hong Kong, Jardine Matheson & Co. had offended even the Government House, and with their primary business gone, it was safe to say they had no lingering attachment to the city.

“They still have a little. For example, they have a few commercial buildings in Hong Kong, which are worth a good two to three billion Hong Kong dollars at current market prices. Besides that, there’s Jardine Motors and other businesses that are doing reasonably well. It’s just that compared to their former operations, what’s left now really doesn’t amount to much,” Ma Shimin said with a nod.

Jardine Motors was the largest car distributor in Hong Kong, representing luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce as their official distributor for the region.

However, Hong Kong’s population was ultimately too small, and the number of cars on the road wasn’t very high. So, even for the largest car distributor, the annual sales figures and profits were, in Lin Haoran’s view, quite ordinary and not worth mentioning.

“The once-glorious King of the Foreign Firms has fallen. It truly makes you think!” Lin Haoran remarked with a sigh.

“By the way, Boss, the Finance Department will be releasing last year’s annual report this afternoon!” Ma Shimin added as a reminder.

“Alright, I understand. Mr. Ma, I also have something to discuss with you,” Lin Haoran nodded and said.

“Please, Boss!”

“Mr. Ma, what are your thoughts on the prospects of the Japanese market?” he asked with a smile.

“The Japanese market is indeed massive. Second only to the United States, it’s a rare, high-quality, large-scale market. During my time serving at Jardine Matheson & Co., the company had intended to make large-scale investment arrangements in Japan, hoping to develop it as a market for our products.

“Regrettably, however, we were never truly accepted by the Japanese market. The Japanese people have a characteristic: they prefer to support domestic products and buy things made in Japan.

“As a result, Jardine Matheson’s market share in Japan remains limited to this day, leading to a situation where the investment and returns were not proportional. Helpless, Jardine Matheson had to withdraw many of its operations from Japan to avoid greater losses.

“As for our Hongkong Land Group, being a former subsidiary of Jardine Matheson, we faced the same situation. Currently, only our Dairy Farm International company has a small amount of business in Japan, but not much. Why do you ask, Boss? Are you thinking of entering the Japanese market?” Ma Shimin asked curiously.

“That’s right. I plan to enter Japan’s real estate industry. After all, unlike consumer goods, real estate is a basic necessity, so it’s unlikely to face such nationalistic rejection. As long as we can successfully acquire land and develop it smoothly, the profits will naturally follow,” Lin Haoran explained with a smile.

“Boss, I’m afraid that won’t be easy. Even if Hongkong Land Group enters the Japanese market, we’ll likely be jointly pushed out by local property companies. Although Japan’s market has huge potential, it’s also a tough nut to crack,” Ma Shimin said with a frown, expressing his concern.

“Don’t worry. Prepare a team for me. I plan to head to Japan sometime soon, and I’ll take this team with me. I had an unexpected meeting with Japan’s Foreign Minister last night. He invited me to visit Japan on behalf of the Japanese government, hoping I would invest there. I think this could be an excellent opportunity!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

It was a moment of sudden realization for Ma Shimin. No wonder the Boss suddenly brought up the Japanese market.

Although Hongkong Land Group was the largest real estate company in Hong Kong, it had always focused exclusively on the local property sector, rarely investing in overseas markets, with the exception of some investments in Macau.

Of course, now that Lin Haoran had taken control, Hongkong Land Group was already making arrangements in Southeast Asian markets like Singapore.

He was treating Singapore, in particular, with the same importance as the Hong Kong market.

This was because Lin Haoran knew very well just how formidable Singapore’s future development would be.

Perhaps no one could imagine that the future Singapore would completely surpass Hong Kong in terms of total economic output, financial center status, industrial structure and diversification, and investment in innovation and technological strength.

After all, in the present day, Hong Kong was leading Singapore by a significant margin.

In the eyes of many, although Singapore was similar to Hong Kong in many ways, it was at most a junior partner.

“Alright, Boss, no problem. I will do my best to select some outstanding members from our management to form a team. If you have connections within the Japanese government, entering their business world will indeed be much smoother!” Having connections with high-level Japanese officials made things much easier, so Ma Shimin was very supportive.

After all, according to their current thinking, Hong Kong’s property industry might fall into a crisis, though it was uncertain when that would begin.

Therefore, Hongkong Land Group had temporarily halted large-scale investments in Hong Kong’s property sector.

Only a selection of high-quality operations was being maintained.

“Excellent. I’m planning to leave this month. I’m very optimistic about Japan’s future market. If we develop it well, creating another Hongkong Land from scratch would be entirely possible!” Lin Haoran continued.

Relying solely on the small market of Hong Kong, Hongkong Land Group had managed to grow to its current scale. One could only imagine how powerful the company would become in the future once it began to expand overseas!

“By the way, Boss, regarding the plot of land in Central that we recently won at auction, I’ve already contacted the renowned American architectural design firm, Gensler. The plan is to have them design the world’s tallest building on that site.

“I’ve already consulted with the Government House on this matter, and they also support us building the world’s tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong. In the end, including the funds from the auction, the total investment might be between three and four billion Hong Kong dollars. Do you have any objections?” Ma Shimin continued.

With its current ample funds, Hongkong Land Group had absolutely no problem constructing the world’s tallest building.

“Oh? The Government House was that agreeable?” Lin Haoran said in surprise.

The Government House had lost quite a bit of money because of Hongkong Land Group this time. Although it had been unavoidable, they were surely displeased with the company.

Lin Haoran had even been preparing for the possibility that the Government House would make things difficult for his businesses at every turn.

“Boss, the Government House has been doing everything it can to prevent a property crisis from erupting in Hong Kong. Building the world’s tallest skyscraper would obviously help raise Hong Kong’s international profile and continue to drive the development of the local property industry. So they have no reason to stop us. Besides, it’s not their money being spent!” Ma Shimin explained with a smile.

“That’s true. I have no objections. You can handle it as you see fit,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

Currently, the world’s tallest building was the Sears Tower in Chicago, completed in 1974, with a total height of 442.3 meters, reaching 527.3 meters including its antennas.

The last time Lin Haoran was in Chicago, he had stayed in the hotel at the Sears Tower, and the experience had indeed been impressive.

According to the historical developments he remembered from his previous life, the Sears Tower held the title of the world’s tallest building until 1998.

However, if a skyscraper surpassing the Sears Tower were to be built in Hong Kong, then that piece of history would be changed.

Although Hong Kong was a coastal region, constructing a building four to five hundred meters tall was still feasible.

In the world he had transmigrated from, Hong Kong’s tallest building was 484 meters high.

And unlike the Sears Tower, it had no antenna on its roof; its height was solid.

“Good, Boss. With your approval, I can rest easy,” Ma Shimin said with a smile.

Previously, they had discussed building Hong Kong’s tallest building, something that would just surpass the current Hopewell Centre in Wan Chai.

But Ma Shimin felt that if they were going to build something, they might as well build the world’s tallest. He was very optimistic about Hong Kong’s future development; even if a property crisis was imminent, it would only be temporary.

Moreover, as long as the world’s tallest building was named after Hongkong Land Group, the company’s fame would spread across the globe.

Ma Shimin now had a new goal. He wanted to develop Hongkong Land into one of the world’s top enterprises, and he, Ma Shimin, would become one of the world’s most elite professional managers.

Although based on its current financial strength, Hongkong Land Group could already be considered part of this echelon.

Ultimately, however, it was still just a regional company, well-known only in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Outside of this region, it was virtually unknown.

Chapter 484: Taking 4 Billion Hong Kong Dollars to Japan

Lin Haoran stayed at the Connaught Centre until the afternoon.

During that time, some media outlets wanted to interview him, but he turned them all down.

Recently, he had been locked in a sharp, life-or-death struggle with Jardine Matheson & Co., and in the end, it was Jardine Matheson that had been defeated.

Now, the matter was considered over, but it was clear that public discussion wouldn’t die down so quickly.

After all, Jardine Matheson & Co. was a corporation that had grown alongside Hong Kong’s colonial history. For it to be suddenly driven out by Lin Haoran—how could such a thing quiet down so soon!

Therefore, Hong Kong’s major media outlets were still keen on reporting the latest developments concerning Jardine Matheson & Co., as well as the various grievances between them and Lin Haoran.

In the afternoon, Lin Haoran finally got to see the financial report for the Hongkong Land Group.

Lin Haoran took the financial report, sat down in his chair, and began to read.

The chief financial officer stood respectfully to one side, ready to provide explanations for his Boss at any moment.

The Hongkong Land Group of today was no longer a listed company, but a bona fide private enterprise.

Though it was difficult to estimate the market capitalization of the privatized Hongkong Land Group, no one could deny its strength.

Compared to the company before Lin Haoran took control, the current Hongkong Land Group had not only seized assets like the Kwai Chung container terminals and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel from Jardine Matheson, but it had also acquired the Hongkong Telephone Company. Now, with the integration of Galaxy Securities, its power had grown once again.

Thus, the Hongkong Land Group had undergone a monumental transformation. It was no longer the real estate-focused enterprise it had been under Jardine Matheson’s control, but a thoroughly diversified conglomerate.

The Hongkong Land Group’s financial report was now much more comprehensive, incorporating the revenue, profits, and other data from all its subsidiaries before presenting the final financial data for the entire group.

As the chief financial officer provided explanations, Lin Haoran flipped through the report, gaining a more complete understanding of Hongkong Land’s financial situation.

“The company currently holds 12.184 billion Hong Kong dollars in cash, with debts totaling 4.82 billion Hong Kong dollars. Of that debt, 1.82 billion is due in February, and the remaining 3 billion needs to be repaid in three installments over the next eight months.” Lin Haoran looked at this last figure.

12.184 billion Hong Kong dollars… what an immense figure.

Even after subtracting the 4.82 billion Hong Kong dollars in debt, the Hongkong Land Group still had a net cash reserve of 7.364 billion Hong Kong dollars.

And that didn’t even include the value of the Hongkong Land Group itself.

His acquisition of the Hongkong Land Group was an incredible bargain.

Jardine Matheson & Co.’s loss of over a billion Hong Kong dollars was nothing in comparison.

Their greatest loss was losing the Hongkong Land Group.

He would definitely need to bring a sum of capital with him on his trip to Japan, but funds were also needed here in Hong Kong, as development was necessary in both Hong Kong and Singapore.

In particular, Ma Shimin was currently planning to build the world’s tallest building in Central, and there were several other plots of land ready for development, all of which required significant upfront investment.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was a bit conflicted about how much money he could take with him.

Lin Haoran used a calculator on his desk to run the numbers and was stunned by the final figure.

If he really wanted to, he could mobilize at least 16 billion Hong Kong dollars, combining the reserve funds of the Hongkong Land Group, the Hongkong Electric Group, and the Wanqing Group.

“Mr. Ma, I’d like to know the scale of funds that the Hongkong Land Group needs to reserve for this year. As you know, I’m planning to invest in real estate in Japan,” Lin Haoran posed the question to Ma Shimin.

After a moment of thought, Ma Shimin replied, “Boss, for the Hongkong Land Group, we need to reserve at least 10 billion Hong Kong dollars as a financial cushion. Next month in Singapore, we plan to participate in a government land auction. We’re preparing to bid on a few desirable plots, which is expected to require over 3 billion Hong Kong dollars for the auction and subsequent construction of commercial buildings. At the same time, we have over thirty ongoing projects that will require an investment of at least 2 billion Hong Kong dollars within the next year. Furthermore, if we start construction on the five recently acquired plots of land this year, the initial expenditure will be around 1 billion Hong Kong dollars. Additionally, subsidiaries like Dairy Farm International and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel also need funds for further expansion. I’ve budgeted about 2 billion Hong Kong dollars for this. Then there’s the 1.82 billion Hong Kong dollar debt that’s coming due soon; we absolutely must set aside money for that. As for the remaining 3 billion Hong Kong dollars in debt, we can gradually allocate funds from other company channels later. We have two property developments that will soon go on sale, which should bring in a wave of capital.”

Lin Haoran listened, a mix of amusement and exasperation on his face. Just a moment ago, he thought 12.184 billion was an enormous sum of money.

But after Ma Shimin’s breakdown, how much would actually be left?

He had been planning to take a fortune to Japan to splurge on land and commercial buildings in Tokyo’s core districts.

As it turned out, the most he could draw from the Hongkong Land Group was about 2 billion Hong Kong dollars?

After some thought, he decided to let it go. 2 billion Hong Kong dollars wasn’t a small amount, and besides, he had already mobilized 2 billion from the Wanqing Group.

All in all, he would be able to go to Japan with 4 billion Hong Kong dollars, which was enough to make a substantial investment.

If it really wasn’t enough money, he would just have to earn more once he was in Japan!

Lin Haoran didn’t argue with Ma Shimin any further about the allocation of funds.

“Alright, let’s settle it then. I’ll take 2 billion Hong Kong dollars from the group. You can allocate the remaining funds!” With that thought, Lin Haoran spoke directly to Ma Shimin.

“Yes, Boss!” Ma Shimin also breathed a sigh of relief. As the man in charge of the Hongkong Land Group, he had to consider the bigger picture. A shortage of money would be a major problem.

Although with the Hongkong Land Group’s current strength, getting a loan would be a trivial matter.

However, it was not advisable to take on loans before the impending property crisis came.

In the future, when the property crisis hit and real estate prices plummeted, that would be the time to use bank loans for a massive buying spree.

After reviewing the Hongkong Land Group’s financial report, Lin Haoran fell into deep thought.

For now, Lin Haoran had no plans to take dividends from the funds at the Hongkong Electric Group.

As for the Wanqing Group, after setting aside funds for development, he had already confirmed he could withdraw about two billion Hong Kong dollars.

Because Green Island Cement, a subsidiary of the Wanqing Group, had developed extremely rapidly in the past two years, earning him well over a billion Hong Kong dollars during that time. Coupled with the recent sell-off of land plots and other assets, which had brought in another sum in the billions, it had earned him a total of more than three billion Hong Kong dollars in the last two years.

However, last year, Lin Haoran had withdrawn several hundred million Hong Kong dollars from the Wanqing Group to repay loans, including a 290 million Hong Kong dollar loan from Bumiputra Finance, a 45 million Hong Kong dollar loan from Hang Seng Bank, and a 50 million loan from HSBC.

In addition, the Wan’an Group had borrowed 130 million Hong Kong dollars to buy land, and all of these loans had been paid off.

Therefore, the final amount of available funds was approximately 2.5 billion Hong Kong dollars.

As for Kowloon Motor Bus, the cash dividend he could receive was negligible in Lin Haoran’s eyes. Its true value lay in its idle land reserves, for which development partnerships had already been established with Wan’an Real Estate Company.

Lin Haoran’s original reason for acquiring Kowloon Motor Bus was precisely to claim those land reserves as his own.

The Wanqing Group needed to retain several hundred million Hong Kong dollars for its own development; it was impossible to take all the cash.

Thus, withdrawing two billion Hong Kong dollars from the Wanqing Group was already a considerable sum.

Additionally, he still owed HSBC 2.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, which needed to be repaid in a lump sum in July of this year.

There was an even larger debt, a loan from Citibank, requiring a repayment of a hefty 3.3 billion Hong Kong dollars. Repaying this loan was less urgent, as it was not due until November of this year.

In other words, these two private debts, totaling a substantial 5.5 billion Hong Kong dollars, did not require immediate attention.

By this calculation, his available capital was 4 billion Hong Kong dollars!

To be honest, 4 billion Hong Kong dollars was by no means a small sum.

However, Lin Haoran knew that if he wanted to invest in Japan, he would have to start in Tokyo.

And land prices in Tokyo were by no means cheaper than those in Hong Kong.

Most importantly, he would certainly prioritize investing in core locations.

And core locations were synonymous with being expensive!

Therefore, 4 billion Hong Kong dollars was neither a large nor a small sum—it all depended on how he used it.

“Boss, what kind of team will you need for your trip to Japan? I’ll do my best to arrange suitable candidates for you within a week!” Ma Shimin asked, seeing the frown on Lin Haoran’s face relax.

“Mainly elites from the real estate and securities industries. A few dozen people will be enough to start. We can hire the rest once we get to Japan. In the future, if there are other needs, I can always dispatch people from Hong Kong, so the initial team doesn’t need to be too large!” Lin Haoran said after some thought.

He understood that relying entirely on employees from Hong Kong wouldn’t work. He would need some local staff to get things done more effectively.

“Alright, then I’ll primarily select people from Hongkong Land’s own Hongkong Land Property Company and Galaxy Securities. When are you planning to depart?” Ma Shimin asked.

Experts from the property company had rich experience in land assessment and project development, while elites from Galaxy Securities were skilled in market analysis and investment decisions.

This would indeed be enough to form a preliminary team.

“The departure date isn’t set yet, but it will be sometime this month,” Lin Haoran replied, shaking his head.

He had just met Japan’s Foreign Minister last night. Although he had already decided to expand into Japan, this meeting was a very important opportunity.

Therefore, he was determined to seize this opportunity.

Since his acquaintance with Mr. Tanaka was still fresh, the man would likely place more importance on him.

If too much time passed, who knew what could change?

So, after returning from Pao Yue-kong’s home, he decided to head to Japan as soon as possible to start laying the groundwork.

Besides, when it came to establishing a presence in Japan, the sooner, the better. The longer he waited, the higher the cost would be!

Chapter 485: Better to Provoke King Yama’s Wrath Than to Vex Haoran!

Just as Ma Shimin had heard, Jardine Matheson & Co. held a farewell ceremony that day, facing all of Hong Kong’s media outlets.

Tycoons from various foreign firms, including Mr. Michael Sandberg, the Taipan of HSBC; Schreyer of Swire & Co.; John Marden of Wheelock and Company; and Lawrence Kadoorie of CLP Holdings, all attended the farewell ceremony.

Surprisingly, not a single Chinese business tycoon attended, and even Governor Sir Murray MacLehose was absent.

Apparently, Jardine Matheson had either not invited them, or some, like Governor MacLehose, would not have attended even if they had been.

As for Lin Haoran, Jardine Matheson’s mortal enemy, an invitation was out of the question.

Of course, Lin Haoran had no desire to attend their farewell ceremony anyway.

Ever since they had tried to retaliate against him, Lin Haoran had lost all feeling for Jardine Matheson. Even a clay Bodhisattva has a temper, let alone a living person.

To him, Jardine Matheson’s withdrawal was simply the disappearance of a business rival.

It was rumored that at the farewell event, Henry Keswick grandly proclaimed Jardine Matheson’s many contributions to Hong Kong, as if their departure was an irreplaceable loss for the city.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran, seen as the key figure who indirectly drove Jardine Matheson away, was baselessly accused by some of being the “culprit.”

Lin Haoran had long grown accustomed to Jardine Matheson’s usual tactics and paid them no mind.

He couldn’t be bothered to pay much attention to a company that was already leaving Hong Kong.

No matter how much mud they slung, they couldn’t change Lin Haoran’s current standing in the Hong Kong business world.

And Jardine Matheson’s complete departure from Hong Kong once again plunged the entire city into heated discussion.

Jardine Matheson was founded in 1832 and had a history of 149 years.

Although it was initially established in Guangzhou, it truly became a dominant force in the business world while in Hong Kong.

Jardine Matheson played a pivotal role in Hong Kong’s early development, giving rise to the saying, “Before there was Hong Kong, there was Jardine.”

One could say that Jardine Matheson was a founder of Hong Kong’s economy and trade, and a driving force behind its infrastructure and urban development!

As a microcosm of Hong Kong’s capitalist development, Jardine Matheson was both an engine of globalization and modernization and a complex symbol of colonial heritage.

The evolution of its role reflected Hong Kong’s transformation from a colonial port to an international metropolis.

Over the years, Jardine Matheson had indeed played an enormous role in propelling Hong Kong to become an international center for trade and commerce, participating in its modernization, and integrating it into the global economic system.

Of course, where there were positives, there were also negatives.

As a representative of colonial capital, Jardine Matheson had long monopolized resources and exacerbated social inequality. Its historical original sin, such as its involvement in the opium trade, was undeniable.

The decline of Jardine Matheson was like a sudden storm that swept through Hong Kong’s business community, striking a chord with countless people.

Those who had grown up under its wing or had intricate ties to it couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.

The older generation recalled Jardine Matheson’s former glory, and the stories of how it had led Hong Kong to prosperity seemed to still echo in their ears. But in the blink of an eye, it had all become smoke of the past.

For the younger generation, Jardine Matheson’s departure signified the end of an era.

Jardine Matheson’s flight represented the complete decline of the British-funded conglomerates in Hong Kong and the definitive rise of Chinese-owned enterprises!

Some lamented the cruel and unforgiving nature of business competition, while others saw hope in the rise of new powers.

Thus, the older generation of Hong Kongers had very complex feelings about Jardine Matheson.

In its heyday, Jardine Matheson was inextricably linked to everyone’s daily lives.

Now, in less than three years, this magnate, once at its zenith, had collapsed, tumbling from the high peak down to the mid-levels.

First, losing Kowloon Wharf dealt them a severe blow.

Then, one after another, they lost Hongkong Land Group and most of their major subsidiaries in Hong Kong.

Now, even Jardine Securities had been brought to ruin.

How could this not make people sigh with a thousand emotions!

Moreover, apart from Kowloon Wharf, all of Jardine Matheson’s subsequent failures were related to Lin Haoran.

Even in the case of Kowloon Wharf, Lin Haoran had been involved. If he hadn’t secretly acquired a large number of Kowloon Wharf shares and then suddenly sold them to Pao Yue-kong, making Pao’s advantage even more pronounced, Kowloon Wharf would not have been taken over so quickly by early 1979, even if it was eventually acquired.

In the world before Lin Haoran transmigrated, Pao Yue-kong’s successful acquisition of Kowloon Wharf didn’t happen until after June 1980.

Thus, a saying began to circulate among the people of Hong Kong: Better to incite seven parts of King Yama’s wrath than to cause three parts of Haoran’s vexation.

In the blink of an eye, it was January 20th.

In the morning, as soon as Lin Haoran got out of bed, he noticed that the temperature was significantly colder than the previous morning.

Stretching lazily, he threw on a jacket and walked over to the wall calendar. It turned out to be the day of Great Cold.

He casually switched on the radio, where the host was reporting that a Siberian cold snap had reached Hong Kong today.

The temperature yesterday morning had been close to twenty degrees Celsius, but it had plummeted to around ten degrees this morning. Such a drastic drop was naturally very noticeable.

Stepping out onto the terrace, Lin Haoran could feel the howling north wind under a gloomy, overcast sky.

Most villas in the Mid-Levels and on The Peak were built facing north, and the one on Severn Road was no exception. After all, these villas were designed primarily to showcase the magnificent views of both sides of Victoria Harbour—that was their main selling point.

Several days had passed since Jardine Matheson’s departure from Hong Kong. They had left only a relatively small subsidiary in the city to manage their remaining local assets.

As for Jardine Matheson’s senior management, they had all relocated to London, Britain.

As time went on, Jardine Matheson’s few remaining businesses in Hong Kong would gradually fade from public view. Its glorious history would perhaps only be mentioned occasionally, and its influence in Hong Kong would inevitably diminish.

Of course, as the saying goes, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse. Although Jardine Matheson had lost most of its businesses in Hong Kong, over seventy percent of its assets were overseas. Therefore, its strength was still not to be underestimated.

Otherwise, the Rothschild family would never have taken an interest in Jardine Matheson.

Even without its Hong Kong enterprises, Jardine Matheson remained a company with international influence.

In the newspapers, reports about Jardine Matheson were becoming fewer and fewer.

The company had moved away, so even if the public was buzzing about it, the discussion wouldn’t last long.

During this period, the major news media outlets had reported on practically everything about Jardine Matheson, from its founding to the present day.

From now on, continuing to report on them wouldn’t unearth much news that could capture public attention.

Putting down the newspaper, Lin Haoran glanced at his nearly finished breakfast on the table. He wiped the sandwich crumbs from the corner of his mouth with a napkin, then stood up and walked to the window. Gazing at the gloomy sky outside, his mind was filled with a myriad of thoughts.

Just then, the ring of a telephone came from the first-floor study nearby.

Lin Haoran snapped out of his reverie, walked quickly into the study, and picked up the telephone receiver.

“Hello, this is Lin Haoran.”

“Boss, I’m calling to let you know that the team for Japan you requested has been assembled. It consists of sixty-eight key personnel from the real estate and securities industries. They are all very keen to go to Japan with you, Boss, to break new ground for Hongkong Land Group. I’ve told them to be ready to depart for Japan at a moment’s notice!” Ma Shimin’s voice came from the other end of the line.

“That was fast. You didn’t just grab random people, did you?” Lin Haoran joked.

“Please rest assured, Boss. The people I’ve selected are the elite of the elite. After all, this investment in Japan will bring immense benefits to Hongkong Land Group in the future. I certainly wouldn’t be careless about it!” Ma Shimin immediately assured him.

Although Lin Haoran wasn’t usually involved in the management of his various companies, his fame in Hong Kong had reached a terrifying level.

In Hong Kong, from eighty-year-old seniors to three-year-old children, almost everyone knew of Lin Haoran, the young entrepreneur who had risen to prominence so suddenly two years ago.

Therefore, he had naturally become an idol for many young people in Hong Kong.

So, it was easy to understand how Ma Shimin could have assembled this team for him so quickly.

Lin Haoran had been considering his strategy for Japan even before he acquired Hongkong Land Group.

After all, a businessman’s purpose is to make money, and Japan would present a wealth of opportunities over the next ten years. He certainly wasn’t going to miss out.

After taking over Hongkong Land Group, Lin Haoran was even more eager to set this plan in motion.

Initially, he had planned to continue being a hands-off manager and have Ma Shimin handle the investment strategy for Japan directly.

However, considering Hongkong Land Group’s current situation, it was clearly not suitable for Ma Shimin to be away from Hong Kong for an extended period.

Hongkong Land Group was at a critical juncture in its development. Having taken over so many of Jardine Matheson’s businesses, the group was far more powerful than the old Hongkong Land, and Ma Shimin naturally didn’t have much time to leave Hong Kong.

Therefore, from the very beginning, Lin Haoran never intended for Ma Shimin to go to Japan. This great talent was needed at the Hong Kong headquarters to oversee the overall situation.

Coupled with the personal invitation from the Japanese Foreign Minister, he ultimately decided to go himself.

He would lead the team there, but in any case, it would be his subordinates doing most of the work for him.

“Alright, I’ll be over in a bit!”

“However, I haven’t decided which senior executive should accompany you to Japan to assist with the investments. I think it would be best if you made that decision yourself, Boss,” Ma Shimin added, raising another point.

“Okay, I understand. I’ll discuss it with you when I get there. Thanks for your hard work!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“It is my duty!” Ma Shimin replied.

Chapter 486: The Japanese Market, We Are Determined to Win!

Connaught Centre, 51st floor, General Manager’s Office.

Lin Haoran strode into the office. Ma Shimin put down his work and rose to greet him.

Not far away, Lin Haoran’s future private reception room had been completed after two days of renovations over the weekend.

However, he was not in a hurry to move in and use it.

Although genuine materials had been used, it was still necessary to open the windows and air it out.

“Boss, should I gather everyone in the conference room to wait for you now?” Ma Shimin asked.

“Alright, go ahead and call them!” Lin Haoran nodded in agreement.

“Okay, I’ll make a call then.” After speaking, Ma Shimin returned to his desk, picked up the phone, and started dialing.

A minute later, Ma Shimin looked up and said, “Boss, they will be in the conference room up here within five minutes.”

Lin Haoran nodded.

He thought for a moment, then looked at Ma Shimin and asked, “How is Galaxy Securities doing now?”

He hadn’t paid much attention to the situation there for the past few days, so he wasn’t sure how his own securities firm was faring after Jardine Securities announced its bankruptcy and closure.

“Galaxy Securities is currently experiencing strong growth momentum,” Ma Shimin replied. “Although Galaxy Securities was established not long ago, with the business volume we acquired from Jardine Securities, we have already ranked among the top three in Hong Kong.

It’s a pity that some resources were taken by companies like Wardley and Baoyuan Investment. Otherwise, we could have completely taken over the entirety of Jardine Securities’ strength. However, as long as we can gradually integrate Jardine Securities’ resources, we will be fully capable of competing with Wardley for the a leading position in the industry in the future.”

“Very good, that’s excellent performance! We need not fear an opponent like HSBC. Just compete with them head-on!” Lin Haoran encouraged with a smile.

He was naturally aware of HSBC’s nature. Although Michael Sandberg was very friendly towards him now and the two seemed to be close partners, he knew better.

However, the moment he showed any weakness, HSBC would surely spare no effort in attacking him.

The marketplace is a battlefield—competition is cruel and ruthless, and interests always come first!

Therefore, Lin Haoran was not at all concerned about Galaxy Securities becoming a competitor to HSBC’s subsidiary, Wardley.

“Rest assured, Boss. I know what to do!” Ma Shimin said with a nod.

The two chatted in the office for a while longer. When they heard footsteps in the corridor outside, they knew the employees had arrived.

So, after another brief chat, they walked out of the office together.

They entered a conference room a few meters away. When Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin walked in, the room was already full.

This conference room was usually where the mid-to-high-level management of Hongkong Land Group held their meetings.

It was no trouble to accommodate these 68 people.

Ma Shimin counted the attendees before turning to Lin Haoran. “Boss, all 68 people are here!”

Lin Haoran nodded and activated his special ability.

As his gaze swept across the room, each person’s loyalty level appeared above their head.

Because Ma Shimin had screened all of them, Lin Haoran had not been involved in the process at all.

So, before he came, he had thought that the loyalty levels of this group might be uneven.

But now, their loyalty levels left him astonished.

Of the 68 people, not a single one had a loyalty score below 80!

The highest even reached 90!

Although their loyalty only indicated their dedication to Hongkong Land Group and not to him personally, it was enough.

After all, what he needed was for these people to be loyal to the group.

Setting aside whether they were truly the elite of the elite from their respective departments as Ma Shimin claimed, just seeing these loyalty scores was enough to make Lin Haoran very satisfied!

“Good morning, Boss!” When Lin Haoran stood on the dais, a cry of unison in Cantonese rang out from everyone, including the Westerners among them.

Lin Haoran smiled and nodded, then said, “Everyone, since Mr. Ma has selected you, I believe you already understand the purpose of this trip. That’s right, Hongkong Land Group is planning a large-scale entry into the Japanese market, and you are our vanguard.

Therefore, you carry a heavy responsibility. Whether Hongkong Land Group can carve out a new world in Japan will depend crucially on your efforts. I hope you will not let me down!”

“Boss, we will not fail our mission!”

“Please rest assured, Boss, we will absolutely not disappoint you!”

“The Japanese market, we are determined to win!”

…

This time, they couldn’t speak in unison, as all sorts of different phrases burst forth from the various members.

However, although their words were not uniform, Lin Haoran could feel their confidence from their voices.

“The main purpose of this meeting is to meet you all in advance and have a preliminary discussion. I will notify you of the specific departure date for Japan later.

After all, going to Japan is a long-term plan that requires you to work there for an extended period. This is no small matter. Therefore, I hope that in the next few days, you will all properly handle your family affairs.

If anyone has any doubts or second thoughts during this process, please communicate with Mr. Ma in a timely manner. Once the list is finalized in a few days, we will not be able to accept any more changes.

This is not a game, and I hope everyone will take it seriously and think it through. If anyone truly does not want to go, please let us know as soon as possible, and I will have Mr. Ma prepare for personnel adjustments,” Lin Haoran said in a serious tone, his gaze sweeping over every employee in the conference room.

He was very satisfied with this group.

Although there were only 68 people, it should be enough for him to set up a new company in Japan.

Now, all he lacked was a senior management member who could assist him and handle everything without him having to worry.

After the brief meeting, Lin Haoran had them return to their respective posts.

Having just formed the team, it was impossible to send them off so quickly.

After all, this was not a simple business trip; it required a long-term stay in Japan.

Therefore, Lin Haoran would naturally give them ample time to prepare.

After all 68 people had left the office, Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin returned to the general manager’s office.

After they sat down, Lin Haoran said with a smile, “Mr. Ma, the group you’ve selected is excellent. I’m very satisfied!”

Although Ma Shimin didn’t understand why the Boss was satisfied with these employees after only a few minutes of interaction, he didn’t raise any questions.

He was naturally unaware that his boss possessed an invincible golden finger that allowed him to see employee loyalty.

“It’s what I ought to do, Boss!” Ma Shimin replied with a nod.

“Do you have any suitable candidates to recommend for the senior executive who will lead this group to Japan?” Lin Haoran asked again.

Although he had met all of Hongkong Land’s senior executives, his contact with them had been limited, so his understanding of them was not deep.

Most of these senior executives were part of Hongkong Land Group’s original team. After taking over the group, Lin Haoran had not made any major changes to the senior management, only going all the way to Singapore to invite Ma Shimin, a former senior executive at Jardine Matheson & Co., to be the general manager of Hongkong Land Group.

Later, a few Chinese professional managers were hired through a headhunting firm, but Ma Shimin had personally handled these matters, and Lin Haoran hadn’t paid much attention to such minor details.

So, if he were to choose a senior executive from Hongkong Land to assist him, he really didn’t know who to pick.

Most importantly, the senior executives at Hongkong Land were mostly from the old guard. While most of them were loyal to Hongkong Land Group, they were definitely not loyal to him, Lin Haoran.

If not for the fact that replacing these people in a short period would cause severe losses to Hongkong Land Group and that it was impossible to find so many top management talents all at once, he would have already had Ma Shimin replace them all.

Of course, he had already secretly instructed Ma Shimin to find people through headhunting firms. Once a suitable candidate was found, a reason would be manufactured to replace a certain senior executive.

This was why those few Chinese professional managers had joined Hongkong Land Group.

And the criteria for selecting a manager to oversee operations in Japan would certainly be extremely strict.

First and foremost, loyalty to him was paramount!

He couldn’t possibly bring a turncoat senior executive with him.

This wasn’t difficult for him, as he could cheat and see the person’s loyalty.

But loyalty alone was far from enough. The person needed to have comprehensive management talent to be able to oversee a region.

Someone whose talents were too lopsided, for instance, only excelling in managing a specific field, would not be suitable.

Although he planned to withdraw from the Japanese market before the economic bubble burst, that wouldn’t happen until 1992, which meant there were at least ten years from now.

That was enough time to build another Hongkong Land Group in Japan.

In fact, simply creating another Hongkong Land Group was far from Lin Haoran’s goal.

How could Lin Haoran be satisfied without making tens of billions, or even a hundred billion US dollars, from Japan!

And the current Hongkong Land Group had an actual market capitalization of at most just over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars, which was not even ten billion in US dollars.

Therefore, this candidate was extremely important.

Ma Shimin thought for a moment and said, “Boss, to be honest, I know that this senior executive who will accompany you is very crucial, so I dare not choose someone casually. How about this: I’ll go to the personnel department, get the files of all the senior executives, and let you review them carefully to see who is more suitable. What do you think?”

“Alright, let’s do that!” Seeing that Ma Shimin had no suitable candidate in mind, Lin Haoran nodded.

Ma Shimin then stood up and left the office, leaving Lin Haoran alone, crossing his legs and turning to look out the window at the bustling streets of Hong Kong, which remained vibrant despite the overcast sky.

A few minutes later, Ma Shimin returned to the office.

This time, he was holding a folder.

Chapter 487: You Can’t Force Love

Taking the personnel files from Ma Shimin, Lin Haoran began to look through them carefully.

Meanwhile, Ma Shimin returned to handling company matters.

As the largest real estate enterprise in Hong Kong and now its largest non-listed company, the Hongkong Land Group had an extremely vast amount of work to deal with every day.

Although many minor matters had already been delegated to his subordinates, some major decisions still required Ma Shimin, the one in charge, to make the final call.

Therefore, Ma Shimin was very busy.

Lin Haoran, on the other hand, flipped through the files in his hands, page by page.

Although he knew most of the senior executives at the Hongkong Land Group, it was only by name; he didn’t understand their specific circumstances.

At the Hongkong Land Group, a formerly British-owned company, the number of high-level Chinese executives was not large.

When the group was still a listed company, there were over a dozen directors with shares, executive directors, and the like, not to mention the top-tier management executives.

And now, with the Hongkong Land Group privatized by Lin Haoran, those former directors and executive directors had been dismissed and no longer had any connection to the group.

However, even so, the number of senior executives at the Hongkong Land Group was still substantial, including the general manager, deputy general managers, various directors and their deputies, totaling forty-eight people.

This didn’t even include the senior management of its major subsidiaries like Dairy Farm International, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, and Kwai Chung International Terminal.

Given the immense scale of the Hongkong Land Group, it naturally required a large number of management talents.

These dozens of senior executives were not considered many relative to the group’s size.

Lin Haoran glanced through the files and found that among the forty-eight people, thirty-six were Westerners, while only twelve were Chinese.

Among them, six had been senior executives before Lin Haoran’s acquisition of the Hongkong Land Group, while the other six had been recruited later through a headhunting firm.

He examined the files of these twelve Chinese senior executives more closely, but unfortunately, the reason they had become executives at the Hongkong Land Group was mainly due to their outstanding talent in a specific field. Most of them held positions like Deputy Director.

The important general management positions, however, were almost all occupied by Westerners.

Lin Haoran wanted to find a senior executive with strong comprehensive abilities to serve as his deputy in Japan, but the files before him presented a dilemma.

Aside from Ma Shimin, the Westerner he had personally invited, he was not very familiar with the others, making it difficult to establish sufficient trust.

Although he could use his special ability to see each executive’s loyalty, that didn’t represent everything. Lin Haoran didn’t know them well and could only familiarize himself with them through their files. If their talent proved insufficient, they would be of little help in opening up the Japanese market, and he could lose a great deal of money in an instant.

Therefore, the importance of selecting this person was paramount.

Faced with dozens of candidates, Lin Haoran suddenly found it difficult to make a choice.

He looked for a full half-hour, and the more he looked, the less he knew who to choose. He didn’t even feel like summoning any of them to meet him.

He closed the file, placed it on the desk, and couldn’t help but rub his temples with both hands.

“Boss, it seems you’re having a hard time choosing!” Ma Shimin paused his work at that moment and looked up to speak.

“Indeed. The Japanese market is broader than Hong Kong’s. If I invest heavily, the scale of assets under my control there will likely surpass the Hongkong Land Group here very quickly, yet you can hardly leave Hong Kong for long periods. Therefore, the person chosen to manage the branch company must possess outstanding comprehensive abilities and also have my complete trust!” Lin Haoran nodded in agreement.

“That’s also why I didn’t dare to casually recommend anyone. Although you’re going to Japan to set up a branch of the Hongkong Land Group, which is developing a new market for the group, with your ambition and plans, this is more than just establishing a branch. It’s almost like creating another Hongkong Land Group in Japan. For such a heavy responsibility, the candidate must be chosen with extreme caution. I can’t bear that responsibility,” Ma Shimin added with a serious expression.

Today, the Hongkong Land Group was Lin Haoran’s private enterprise, not a listed company.

So, although Ma Shimin was the one in charge of the company, he sometimes had his concerns.

“I understand!” Lin Haoran nodded and fell into deep thought.

Perhaps he didn’t necessarily have to pick someone from the Hongkong Land Group’s senior management!

This thought suddenly appeared in Lin Haoran’s mind.

After a moment, he handed the personnel files back to Ma Shimin and said, “You can take these files back for now. I’ll consider this matter carefully. I’ll let you know when I have a decision. I’m going out for a bit.”

“Okay, Boss!” Ma Shimin nodded and took the file from Lin Haoran.

Leaving Ma Shimin’s office, Lin Haoran went down to the 39th floor.

This was the office of Galaxy Securities, where Dai Shi and Allen were.

The office was a hive of activity, with many employees either busy with their work or on the phone.

Compared to the former Universal Investment Company, the current Galaxy Securities had clearly undergone a world-shaking transformation.

Under Allen’s guidance, he briefly inspected the various departments of Galaxy Securities and listened to some of his reports before taking the elevator down to the underground parking lot.

“To the Hongkong Electric Group headquarters building!” Lin Haoran said to Li Weidong after getting into the car.

“Yes, Boss.”

The car started and slowly drove away from the Connaught Centre.

Behind them, three ordinary sedans immediately followed.

Twenty minutes later, the four cars drove into the underground parking lot of the Hongkong Electric building.

After he got out of the car, a patrolling security guard in the underground garage respectfully pressed the elevator button for him.

Soon, he arrived at Chen Shoulin’s office.

“Oh, Boss, you’re here.” Seeing Lin Haoran, Chen Shoulin stood up from his seat and came out to greet him.

“Yes. By the way, how is Kin-ning doing in the company now?” Lin Haoran asked.

That’s right, he was thinking of asking Fok Kin-ning to go to Japan with him.

However, he wasn’t sure if Fok Kin-ning would be willing to go.

Previously, after the negotiations with the British-funded conglomerate had concluded, Lin Haoran had mentioned to Fok Kin-ning about moving him to the Hongkong Land Group.

However, at the time, Fok Kin-ning felt that having been at the Hongkong Electric Group for less than a year, frequent transfers were not suitable for his career development, so he had refused.

Everyone has their own plans and ideas. If the other party was unwilling, Lin Haoran would not force them.

After all, you can’t force love!

The last time he saw Fok Kin-ning was when he had asked him to be his negotiation assistant. At that time, they were negotiating with the British-funded conglomerate, and in the end, Lin Haoran not only successfully privatized the Hongkong Land Group but also took a huge bite out of Jardine Matheson & Co.

Fok Kin-ning’s assistance in that negotiation had been a great success.

Now, several months had passed.

Although he would occasionally visit the Hongkong Electric Group, he had never inquired about Fok Kin-ning.

“Boss, Mr. Fok is currently the Deputy Director of our group’s Finance Department. His contributions to the company are already enough to warrant a promotion. With his professional ability and performance, he is fully qualified to serve as the chief financial officer of the Hongkong Electric Group. However, I am more inclined to promote him to assistant to the group president. I remember in December, during the negotiations with the Bangkok government for the hydroelectric power station project, it was all thanks to Mr. Fok that the task was completed brilliantly. His work has shown remarkable progress. He’s incredibly talented. Confining him to a senior management position in a single department is truly a waste of his abilities. I believe he should be more involved in the important management affairs of the Hongkong Electric Group. This young man is both talented and capable. I am considering grooming him as my successor. Boss, your decision to recommend him to the Hongkong Electric Group was truly wise.” When speaking of Fok Kin-ning, Chen Shoulin was full of praise.

Chen Shoulin, in his late fifties and approaching sixty, was well aware that even if he continued to work at the Hongkong Electric Group, it wouldn’t be for many more years. The future belonged to the young.

And he, from the bottom of his heart, liked Fok Kin-ning, which was why he had this idea.

Chen Shoulin’s words did not surprise Lin Haoran.

After all, Fok Kin-ning himself was an extraordinarily talented individual.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been worth a personal invitation from him.

This year, Fok Kin-ning was thirty years old. Though young in the business world, he had surely accumulated a great deal of experience during his time at the Hongkong Electric Group.

In his memory, in his past life, Fok Kin-ning had become a director of Hutchison Whampoa in his early thirties.

Regardless of whether the world had changed due to his transmigration, a management talent like Fok Kin-ning wouldn’t change much. Talent, after all, is innate.

Einstein once said: Genius is ninety-nine percent perspiration and one percent inspiration.

And Fok Kin-ning was not only talented but also extremely hardworking. If he didn’t succeed, who would?

“I see. Is he in the company now?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“He should be? I haven’t paid attention. Recently, the Finance Department has needed to go to various subsidiaries to audit their finances, so they’re quite busy right now. Boss, shall I go over to the Finance Department and check?” Chen Shoulin finished speaking and was about to get up and go out.

“No need, I’ll go over myself,” Lin Haoran shook his head, stopping Chen Shoulin.

With that, he stood up and walked out the door.

The corridor was very quiet. This floor housed the administrative offices of the Hongkong Electric Group, so there were fewer people.

Before long, he arrived at the Finance Department’s office.

He immediately spotted Fok Kin-ning in the office, holding a stack of documents and talking with another manager from the Finance Department.

Someone had already noticed Lin Haoran and greeted him, instantly drawing the attention of everyone in the office.

Lin Haoran smiled and acknowledged them one by one, while saying to Fok Kin-ning, “Kin-ning, come with me for a moment.”

“Boss, just a moment. Let me put these documents down first,” Fok Kin-ning said, then hurried back to his post to put the documents away.

Then, he followed Lin Haoran out, leaving the people in the Finance Department with envious looks.

Everyone knew that Fok Kin-ning had a very good relationship with the Boss and a boundless future.

If only they could have such treatment!

Chapter 488: The Long-Unseen Liu Luanxiong

In the Hongkong Electric Headquarters Building, Lin Haoran walked into an empty conference room. Fok Kin-ning followed closely behind and closed the door.

He knew the Boss must have something he wanted to tell him.

“Have a seat, don’t just stand there,” Lin Haoran said with a smile when he saw Fok Kin-ning standing.

Fok Kin-ning nodded, pulled out a nearby chair, and sat down.

“Boss, is there something you needed to see me about?” Fok Kin-ning asked, full of curiosity.

Fok Kin-ning was filled with gratitude for his Boss.

“How have you been doing lately?” Lin Haoran didn’t rush to state his purpose, starting with some small talk instead.

“Very well. Hongkong Electric Group is a major corporation in Hong Kong, and I’ve been exposed to many things here that I never could have been before. I feel I’ve made great progress, and Director Chen has also taken very good care of me.” Fok Kin-ning was quite satisfied with his current situation.

“It’s good that you’re satisfied. I’ve seen your progress over the past year or two. The real reason I sent you to Hongkong Electric Group was for you to gain experience. I have something more important for you to do. I believe the time is right now, but I also respect your choice. If you’re unwilling, you can continue to stay with Hongkong Electric Group. This is why I came to see you today.” Lin Haoran’s tone was filled with seriousness.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, the previously calm Fok Kin-ning was visibly moved.

The Boss’s words carried immense weight; he was being valued so highly.

He couldn’t help but feel a surge of gratitude.

“Please tell me, Boss. I will definitely consider it carefully,” he replied solemnly.

“You should have some understanding of the Japanese market, right? I’m extremely optimistic about Japan’s future development potential, so I’m planning to make large-scale investments there. I’ve already put together a preliminary team to go to Japan with me, but right now, I urgently need a capable assistant to help me. And Kin-ning, I believe you are the most suitable candidate. You have a background in finance, excellent negotiation skills, and significant management talent. You must have also learned a great deal of management experience during your year at the Hongkong Electric Group. This trip to Japan involves a huge amount of capital—an initial investment of four billion Hong Kong dollars. There’s absolutely no room for error. I don’t trust anyone else, but I have complete confidence in you. Therefore, I hope you will come with me to Japan to build a new world there together. This is my purpose for seeking you out today.”

After speaking, Lin Haoran looked at Fok Kin-ning, awaiting his reply.

The words, ‘I don’t trust anyone else, but I have complete confidence in you,’ echoed endlessly in Fok Kin-ning’s mind.

At that moment, an unprecedented sense of excitement and responsibility surged through Fok Kin-ning.

He even had the thought of dedicating his entire life to serving his Boss, until his dying day.

Lin Haoran suddenly noticed that Fok Kin-ning’s Loyalty score had, at that very moment, risen again from 96 to 98. It was now just a hair’s breadth away from a perfect 100.

He hadn’t expected that a few simple words could raise Fok Kin-ning’s Loyalty once more. This was an unexpected result for Lin Haoran.

He knew very well that a stat like Loyalty became progressively harder to increase.

An unexpected gain, truly an unexpected gain!

Although it wasn’t 100 yet, there was hardly any difference.

At this moment, he felt an even greater urgency to bring Fok Kin-ning to Japan and have him take charge of the company there.

Although Fok Kin-ning had never worked at Hongkong Land Group, he wasn’t completely ignorant of the real estate industry.

Both his previous employer, Green Island Cement Company, and his current one, Hongkong Electric Group, had real estate departments under them.

Furthermore, for this trip to Japan, Ma Shimin had already selected an outstanding team for him. With this team assisting Fok Kin-ning, it wouldn’t even matter if he knew nothing about the real estate industry.

In essence, business management principles are largely universal.

As for Fok Kin-ning, at this moment, he felt a complex mix of excitement and hesitation.

After a moment, Fok Kin-ning finally spoke: “Boss, I am extremely grateful that you think so highly of me, but I’m afraid I can’t handle such a great responsibility. I’m still too young.”

“No, I believe you have the ability. Just tell me, are you willing or not?” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

Although the assets of the future branch company in Japan would certainly surpass those of the one in Hong Kong, all of that would require development.

This period would also be a stage for Fok Kin-ning’s rapid growth.

Hearing his Boss’s words, Fok Kin-ning couldn’t help but lower his head.

Clearly, he was deep in thought.

Although this was a great opportunity for him, he hadn’t let it go to his head.

Fok Kin-ning was well aware that he needed to consider whether his abilities were up to the task.

If, by some chance, his lack of ability led to heavy losses, he would have to bear the responsibility.

But his Boss trusted him so much; if he refused, he would be letting his Boss down.

Besides, this was a massive opportunity for him. It was like a carp leaping over the dragon gate—if he succeeded, he might just transform into a great dragon.

He gritted his teeth, raised his head, and looked at Lin Haoran. “Boss, I am willing!”

“Good! I knew I wasn’t mistaken about you!” A smile appeared on Lin Haoran’s face as he patted Fok Kin-ning’s shoulder.

“Boss, when do we leave? I need to hand over my work at Hongkong Electric Group.” Now that he had made his decision, Fok Kin-ning no longer felt conflicted.

“Sometime this month, as soon as possible. By the way, Kin-ning, you aren’t married yet, are you?” Lin Haoran asked.

It was already January 20th, leaving only eleven days in the month.

“No, my mind is mainly focused on work right now. I haven’t considered romance,” Fok Kin-ning said, shaking his head.

Lin Haoran nodded.

“Alright. If you don’t have any other questions, get ready as soon as you can,” he continued.

“Yes, Boss. I’ll head back now and let you know when I’m ready.” With that, Fok Kin-ning respectfully left the conference room.

Watching Fok Kin-ning’s retreating figure, a smile also appeared on Lin Haoran’s face.

With Fok Kin-ning going with him, he felt even more confident about his ventures in Japan.

After sitting for a while, Lin Haoran finally stood up and left the conference room.

“What? Boss, I was grooming Mr. Fok as my successor! You’ve poached him without even discussing it with me. This puts me in a very difficult position!” In Chen Shoulin’s office, upon hearing what Lin Haoran had to say about Fok Kin-ning, Chen Shoulin was vehemently opposed.

“Director Chen, in my opinion, you are managing Hongkong Electric Group extremely well. There’s no need to consider a successor in the short term. At your age, I’d say you could manage for another ten years without any problem. I believe in you!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily, not getting angry at Chen Shoulin’s opposition.

After all, Fok Kin-ning was a rare managerial talent. Losing him was a great loss for Hongkong Electric Group, so Chen Shoulin’s opposition was perfectly normal.

The Boss had already made his decision. Although Chen Shoulin was strongly against it, he knew his opposition wouldn’t change anything. He sighed and said, “Alright, since you’ve decided, Boss, I won’t say anything more.”

At noon, Lin Haoran was planning to just grab lunch at the Hongkong Electric Group’s cafeteria when his beeper went off.

After returning the call, Lin Haoran learned it was from Liu Luanxiong, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Haoran, are you free right now? I’d like to treat you to a meal,” Liu Luanxiong asked over the phone.

“Sure, where?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Speaking of which, it had indeed been a very long time since he’d seen Liu Luanxiong.

He hadn’t seen this business partner since selling his shares in the Evergo Company.

“How about Joyful Abundance Restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui? I know that place is one of your properties,” Liu Luanxiong said over the phone.

“Alright, it’ll take me about half an hour to get there. Wait for me,” Lin Haoran replied.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran said goodbye to Chen Shoulin and left the Hongkong Electric building.

Half an hour later, he was in a private room at Joyful Abundance Restaurant.

Joyful Abundance Restaurant was a famous high-end restaurant in Hong Kong and a relatively inconspicuous little property under the Hongkong Land Group.

In the private room, Liu Luanxiong greeted Lin Haoran warmly as he entered.

After Lin Haoran pulled his investment, Liu Luanxiong, while appearing to compete with the Carrian Group on the surface, had secretly sold off his Evergo Company shares at a high price.

He had already successfully cashed out long ago, making a huge profit in the process. Although he might not have earned as much as Lin Haoran, he was already very satisfied.

“There hasn’t been much news about you in Hong Kong lately. Where have you been?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“After selling off the Evergo Company shares, I took a trip to the United States. Haoran, I really have to thank you for showing me the magic of capital. Compared to the hard work of running a traditional business, stock market investments seem much more profitable. This trip to the United States made me feel this even more deeply. I noticed that the junk bond market over there is developing rapidly, and merger and acquisition deals are incredibly active. Through some of those cases, I learned a lot, such as the use of financial leverage. Over these few months, I’ve closely observed capital operations in the United States and found that Hong Kong’s are indeed a bit behind in comparison. This has further convinced me that my decision to sell Evergo Company and cash out was the right one. I’ve also heard about your outstanding performance here in Hong Kong recently. It’s truly admirable! Everything you’ve done is on par with the classic cases of capital maneuvering in the United States. In the Hong Kong business world, it’s as if you’re operating from a higher dimension, completely outclassing those in the lower one. No wonder you’ve achieved such brilliant success in such a short time!” Liu Luanxiong said, his expression filled with deep emotion.

Lin Haoran’s recent series of actions had indeed left a deep impression on Liu Luanxiong.

In comparison, Liu Luanxiong felt that his old way of earning money by dutifully running a traditional business was far, far too slow.

This… Lin Haoran was the real capitalist.

Chapter 489: Liu Luanxiong’s Investment Invitation

“Xiong, besides just catching up, you must have something else in mind for asking me here, right?” After the dishes arrived, Lin Haoran raised his glass to clink it with Liu Luanxiong’s and asked with a smile.

“I knew I couldn’t hide it from you. I do have something I’d like to ask your advice on,” Liu Luanxiong admitted straightforwardly.

“Alright, feel free to speak your mind. We’re old friends, after all,” Lin Haoran said while picking up a piece of roast goose to eat.

“I’ve been back in Hong Kong for a few days now, and I’ve been at home studying everything that’s happened in the last two or three months. I’ve realized that your sell-off of property projects and land plots must be for reasons other than just a lack of cash. There must be another reason.

You know, I followed your advice and spent several hundred million Hong Kong dollars on land and properties. Their combined value has at least tripled by now. I’m very grateful to you for that, but I also want to know if you’ve learned something. Why the sudden massive sell-off of your land plots?

Don’t tell me it’s just about money. I’ve known you long enough to know you wouldn’t sell off valuable assets so easily, even if you were short on cash!” Liu Luanxiong said, looking at Lin Haoran earnestly.

Lin Haoran looked at Liu Luanxiong, a little surprised.

This guy is really something else. How could he deduce so much from that?

Truly worthy of being one of Hong Kong’s top ten tycoons.

He fell silent for a moment. He hadn’t originally planned to tell Liu Luanxiong the truth, but since he’d asked, it wouldn’t be right to refuse. After all, Liu Luanxiong was now a friend in the business world and something of a protégé.

Although he could now be called the richest man in Hong Kong, he couldn’t afford to be arrogant and alienate everyone. It was still a good idea to cultivate some business allies.

While Liu Luanxiong wasn’t a top-tier businessman in Hong Kong yet, his talent for business promised a great future.

Lin Haoran picked up a hot, damp cloth from the side to wipe his mouth, then said, “Since you’ve studied my moves so carefully, you should know that I’m selling off assets that are relatively ordinary to me, in locations that aren’t exactly prime.

I’m doing this for two reasons. First, I do need the capital. I’ve acquired many companies recently, and selling some property projects helps lower my debt ratio;

“Second, it’s to mitigate risk. I feel that Hong Kong’s property industry has been developing too quickly these past two or three years. There’s a high chance of a property surplus. If a real estate crisis like the one in 1973-1974 were to happen, the property sector could take a massive hit.

“So, I’m reducing my own risk. That’s why I’m selling off these property projects and land plots. This is all just my personal opinion, an unproven guess, so you don’t need to read too much into my actions.”

After listening to Lin Haoran, Liu Luanxiong nodded.

After a moment of thought, Liu Luanxiong asked, “Then do you think I should also sell the land I’ve stockpiled? After all, I invested in a lot of it following your lead, and the value of the land and property I hold now is substantial.

“But after hearing you say that, I’m a bit worried. If a real estate crisis really does happen like you predict, wouldn’t my assets depreciate significantly?”

Lin Haoran smiled and shook his head. “Xiong, that’s a decision you have to make for yourself. Everyone’s situation is different. My decisions are based on my own financial status and market judgment.

“As for you, you first need to consider your cash flow and debt situation, and whether you can withstand potential market fluctuations. Second, you need to think about the location of your land plots and their future development potential. Is the risk really that great?

“Finally, you have to consider your own risk tolerance. Can you accept potential losses?

“To be blunt, this is a gamble on future market trends. If you think the risk is too great, selling for peace of mind isn’t a bad idea.

“If you believe your land has value and are willing to bear the risk, then hold onto it. The key is to assess the risks properly. Don’t blindly follow the crowd, but don’t be so conservative you miss opportunities.

“Besides, this doesn’t sound like the confident, triumphant you I know, leaving such an important decision to me. I can’t bear that responsibility!”

“No, Haoran. In all of Hong Kong, I trust you the most. Without you, I’d probably still be the owner of a small workshop. Two years ago, I could never have imagined my net worth would exceed two billion Hong Kong dollars today.

“You are my benefactor. Without you, I wouldn’t be where I am today. And you can rest assured, no matter how the business world in Hong Kong changes in the future, I will stand firmly by your side. That is my promise!” Liu Luanxiong said solemnly.

Liu Luanxiong had always firmly believed that it was his chance meeting with Lin Haoran, and subsequently becoming his partner, that had built his fortune today.

Therefore, his heart was filled with gratitude for Lin Haoran.

Coupled with Lin Haoran’s outstanding and virtually undefeated record in Hong Kong’s business world, Liu Luanxiong’s trust and reliance on him were further solidified.

“All I can say is, if you’re satisfied with your current gains, you should consider how to balance your asset portfolio, not just focus on property. The property industry certainly has its inherent value, especially in a place like Hong Kong where land is scarce. But as I mentioned, every industry has its cycles.

“Right now, we might be at the peak of a cycle, and an adjustment could be coming. This doesn’t mean property will collapse, but it does mean we need to be more cautious in our investment direction and strategy.”

Liu Luanxiong nodded. Although Lin Haoran hadn’t given him a direct answer in the end, he understood what he meant.

“I know what to do now. Regardless, thank you, Haoran!” Liu Luanxiong said with a look of gratitude.

“It’s nothing. We’re good friends, aren’t we!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Haoran, I’ve been researching the investment industry lately, and I have an idea. I want to start an investment company specializing in sniping blue-chip companies to maximize profits. If you have confidence in me, I’d like to invite you to buy in!” Liu Luanxiong said suddenly.

Liu Luanxiong could be considered a cash king now. After selling off his shares in Amigo Company, he had acquired nearly one billion Hong Kong dollars.

If he then sold off the land and properties he had stockpiled, it was safe to say Liu Luanxiong was not short on funds at all!

He just hoped he could continue to ride Lin Haoran’s coattails.

“Oh? An investment company? What’s the investment method?” Lin Haoran asked with a hint of interest.

He was well aware that the future Liu Luanxiong would be known as a great predator of the stock market, with countless success stories achieved through capital operations.

From the owner of a small workshop to a super-rich tycoon with a net worth in the hundreds of billions, Liu Luanxiong had built it all himself, without any help from his family.

All of this was enough to show just how strong Liu Luanxiong’s investment abilities were.

Therefore, Lin Haoran didn’t mind cooperating with him again.

In the end, it was just another way of making money through Liu Luanxiong.

Although he could make more money by deciding which companies to invest in himself, Lin Haoran liked to diversify his investments.

Most importantly, it was only two hundred million Hong Kong dollars. To him, this was a very small sum, nothing to lose sleep over.

“For this investment company, I plan an initial total investment of five hundred million Hong Kong dollars. I’ll invest three hundred million, and you invest two hundred million. I’ll take sixty percent of the equity, and you’ll take forty percent. What do you think? Don’t worry, you can send someone to oversee the company’s finances!” Liu Luanxiong finished, looking at Lin Haoran.

“Alright, it’s a deal then. How about this: when you have time, come by the Connaught Centre and sign the contract with Galaxy Securities. I’ll also have Galaxy Securities transfer the funds to the corporate account!” Lin Haoran agreed immediately without a second thought.

As for the equity split, Lin Haoran didn’t really care.

So what if he had sixty percent of the shares? The reason he was willing to invest was simply that he was very optimistic about Liu Luanxiong’s future and knew he would definitely make money for him.

“Haoran, you trust me that much?” Liu Luanxiong’s feelings were a little complicated.

After all, in the world of capital investment, he was at best a newcomer. He hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to trust him so completely.

“Xiong, if I hadn’t trusted you back then in Aberdeen, I wouldn’t have decided to invest in your Amigo Company. Facts have proven that my judgment was correct. I’m very satisfied with the return on that investment. In the future, I’m just as confident that you will continue to bring me even greater returns!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

“Haoran, please believe me, I will never let you down!” Liu Luanxiong said with a solemn expression, the sense of responsibility and pressure in his heart growing.

The two chatted for a long time afterward, with Liu Luanxiong mostly talking about his own affairs.

From Liu Luanxiong’s words, Lin Haoran also learned of his plans.

Amigo Company was, after all, his heart and soul. Although he had sold off all his stock at its peak, Liu Luanxiong was very clear that because of the massive surge in its performance, Amigo Company’s stock price was bound to plummet in the future.

Carrian Group couldn’t possibly maintain Amigo Company’s high market capitalization forever.

So he had already decided to secretly start accumulating shares after Amigo Company’s stock price collapses, as he planned to regain control of the company in the future.

Lin Haoran, for his part, didn’t care.

The Amigo Company of today was worthless to him. He had no intention of getting involved.

He had already extracted enough value from Amigo Company.

His initial investment of over one million Hong Kong dollars had been more than worth it!

As for Liu Luanxiong, although Lin Haoran had, to a certain extent, used him to create wealth for himself, it was undeniable that a mutually beneficial and supportive relationship had formed between them.

However, after both of them sold their shares in Amigo Company, that relationship came to an end.

Now, only the friendship from the early days remained.

“Plan your future well. I believe there will definitely be a place for you among Hong Kong’s top tycoons in the future!” After they had eaten and drunk their fill and their conversation was winding down, Lin Haoran stood up, patted Liu Luanxiong on the shoulder, and said with a smile.

Chapter 490: The Strong Backing for His Sisters

Unknowingly, a few more days passed, and it was January 25th.

During these few days, under Lin Haoran’s instructions, Galaxy Securities successfully signed a contract with Liu Luanxiong on his behalf, making him the second-largest shareholder of the investment company.

Meanwhile, Fok Kin-ning smoothly completed his handover at Hongkong Electric Group and was now ready to follow Lin Haoran to Japan.

Fok Kin-ning’s parents did not oppose his move to Japan. After all, everyone in Hong Kong knew that working for Lin Haoran meant a boundless future; it was a rare opportunity.

As parents, Fok’s father and mother naturally had no reason to interfere with their son’s promising career.

Originally, Lin Haoran had planned to lead the team to Japan as soon as Fok Kin-ning finished his handover.

However, after persuasion from his parents, he decided to wait until after the New Year to leave Hong Kong.

February 4th would be New Year’s Eve.

That was less than ten days away.

Since that was the case, there was no rush to go over.

A few days earlier or later would make little difference to his investments in Japan.

Moreover, he also had to consider the feelings of the employees accompanying him.

While some of them were Westerners, many were Chinese, and Chinese people place great importance on the Spring Festival.

Therefore, Lin Haoran ultimately decided to depart on February 7th, the third day of the Lunar New Year.

During this era, Hong Kong companies had short New Year holidays, basically from New Year’s Eve to the second day of the Lunar New Year, with work resuming on the third.

After all, Hong Kong was still governed by Westerners, who placed more importance on Christmas.

Time flew by, and soon it was February.

The Spring Festival was drawing ever closer.

The festive atmosphere in the streets and alleys of Hong Kong grew thicker by the day.

After February 1st, Lin Haoran moved back to the Deep Water Bay villa to spend more time with his parents.

He wasn’t sure how long this trip to Japan would last.

Seeing Lin Haoran back home, the smiles on his parents’ faces were visibly more frequent.

On February 2nd, Guo Henian, his wife, and Guo Xiaohan paid a personal visit.

With the New Year approaching, they were scheduled to fly back to Southeast Asia on February 3rd to celebrate with their family.

Before their return, they visited the Lin family, which could be considered an early New Year’s greeting.

“Uncle Guo, I should have been the one to visit you. As a junior, how could I trouble you to come personally?” Lin Haoran said as he accepted Guo Henian’s gift.

“It’s too difficult to get a personal visit from you; we don’t see a trace of you all year. And this girl, Xiaohan, she insisted on seeing you before we returned to Southeast Asia, so I just came along for the ride!” Guo Henian said jokingly.

Guo Xiaohan, standing nearby, immediately blushed crimson.

Although their relationship had not yet been formally established, it was clear that Guo Xiaohan had long since made up her mind.

With a young man as outstanding as Lin Haoran, what other man could possibly catch her eye?

“Uncle Guo, Auntie Guo, Xiaohan, please come in and have a seat.”

The group walked into the Lin family villa together.

Standing at the entrance, Guo Henian turned to look at the sea view outside—the blue sky, the white sandy beach. It was completely free of the city center’s hustle and bustle, incomparably quiet, with a style entirely different from the villa area on The Peak.

“I recently bought a few villas in the Deep Water Bay villa area myself, for investment purposes. Besides, I’m planning to move over here. This area is more suitable for us Chinese to live in. Over in the villa area on The Peak, nine out of ten residents are Westerners. I’m just not used to living there!” Guo Henian said with a smile.

“Brother Henian, you should come over then. There are quite a few super-rich people living here. For example, about two hundred meters to the east is Mr. Pao Yue-kong’s residence, and a little over a hundred meters to the southeast is Mr. Li Jiacheng’s. In my opinion, this area is in no way inferior to the villa area on The Peak,” Lin Wan’an added with a smile.

“Alright, after the New Year, I’ll move over as soon as I’m back in Hong Kong. When I have time, I’ll come find you for a game of chess, Brother Wan’an. I hear your Chinese chess skills are quite famous in this area. As for the place on Severn Road, I’ll just leave it for Xiaohan to live in!” he said meaningfully.

For tycoons of their caliber, a villa worth three to five million Hong Kong dollars was not a significant investment.

Therefore, giving a villa to his niece for her sole use was truly nothing.

Entering the living room, they all sat down and began to chat casually.

“Haoran, you’ve hardly paid any attention to our project in Sheung Wan. As the boss, you’ve been a bit derelict in your duties!” Guo Henian said in a teasing tone in the Lin family villa’s living room.

Previously, Lin Haoran and Guo Henian had jointly invested five hundred million Hong Kong dollars to successfully acquire a prime plot of land in Sheung Wan, with plans to build a large commercial plaza.

In this investment, Lin Haoran held 49.9% of the shares, while Guo Henian held 50.1%.

Regarding this project, Lin Haoran had indeed not been very involved in its management.

He smiled and replied, “Uncle Guo, I have one hundred percent trust in you. I feel completely at ease leaving everything in your hands!”

Although the Lin and Guo families had not yet been joined by marriage, their relationship had certainly grown closer over the past two years.

Lin Haoran had provided the Guo family with some assistance here in Hong Kong, while the Guo family had given Lin Haoran even greater help in Southeast Asia.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was quite grateful to Guo Henian.

Without the Guo family, his companies like Hongkong Electric Group and Wanqing Group would not have been able to expand into the Southeast Asian market so smoothly.

The group chatted for several hours and had dinner together at the Lin residence before departing.

As they left, Guo Xiaohan’s eyes were filled with reluctance.

She knew she didn’t know when they would see each other again.

During their conversation, Guo Xiaohan had learned that Lin Haoran was preparing to invest in Japan.

“Brother Haoran, if you stay there too long, I’ll come to Japan to find you,” Guo Xiaohan whispered in Lin Haoran’s ear just before she left.

After saying this, she departed reluctantly.

In front of the elders, she wasn’t bold enough to offer him a kiss.

Watching Guo Xiaohan’s departing figure, Lin Haoran felt a mix of emotions, his heart somewhat complex.

This girl was indeed his ideal wife.

Not only was she a good match in terms of social standing, well-mannered and educated, but she was also beautiful and deeply affectionate towards him.

The only reason he hadn’t formalized their relationship was that he knew the world after marriage was completely different from the world before.

Two more days passed in a flash.

February 4th, the thirtieth day of the twelfth lunar month, was New Year’s Eve.

The Lin family home was exceptionally lively today.

Not only had Older Brother Lin Haoning returned with his wife and children, but Second Sister and Third Sister had also come over with their families.

Second Brother-in-law and Third Brother-in-law were both doing very well for themselves. They had started to branch out from their own family clans to run their own businesses.

This, of course, was with Lin Haoran’s help.

Back when Lin Haoran had not yet made his fortune, his second and third sisters had been very kind to him.

People are sentimental; no matter what, if someone treats you well, you naturally repay their kindness.

That evening, after New Year’s Eve dinner, the living room of the Lin family home was brightly lit, filled with the ebb and flow of laughter and conversation.

This was likely the happiest day of the year for Lin father and Lin mother.

Lin Haoran sat among his relatives, soaking in the rare warmth of the family reunion.

Second Sister and Third Sister chatted with Lin mother, occasionally casting concerned glances at Lin Haoran.

“Haoran, you’re not getting any younger. We’re all hoping you’ll settle down and start a family soon,” Second Sister finally couldn’t help but urge him.

Her tone was partly joking, but mostly filled with sincere concern.

Third Sister chimed in, “That’s right, Haoran. You’re successful in your career now, you don’t lack anything except someone to care for you. Look at that girl, Xiaohan, she’s wonderful. She’s pretty and sensible. You shouldn’t make her wait too long.”

Everyone in the family had long known about the matter between Guo Xiaohan and Lin Haoran.

They were all very pleased with the Guo family. After all, the Guos were the family of Southeast Asia’s richest man, a perfect match for their Lin family.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran smiled and shook his head, though he felt a bit helpless.

He was, of course, aware of his family’s expectations and knew that Guo Xiaohan was a good girl and an excellent match for him, but he always had some reservations, worried that marriage would tie him down.

“Second Sister, Third Sister, please stop pushing me. I know what I’m doing. I’m not even thirty yet, I’m still young. I’ll think about it seriously, you don’t need to worry about me,” Lin Haoran said, trying to keep his tone light, but the helplessness was evident in his eyes.

“Still young? You’ll be 27 after the New Year, which is 28 by traditional East Asian age reckoning. Your Dad here got married at 18!” Lin Wan’an, who was sitting nearby, couldn’t help but add.

The whole family was eager for Lin Haoran to get married, yet he himself was not in the slightest hurry, which left Lin father feeling rather exasperated.

“Alright, I get it. I’ll consider it seriously. You can all stop worrying now,” Lin Haoran said helplessly.

The feeling of being pressured to marry was truly unpleasant.

In his previous life, he had been pressured by his parents to get married.

In this life, he was still being pressured by his parents.

It seemed this was a curse he couldn’t escape.

The family enjoyed a harmonious time together.

As night fell, around nine o’clock, Second Sister, Third Sister, and their families said their goodbyes and slowly departed.

They were married into other families, and after all, they were now wives in other households.

If not for Lin Haoran’s current illustrious reputation in the business world, their husbands’ families would probably not have so easily permitted them to return to their parents’ home on New Year’s Eve.

For a wealthy family, having their son and daughter-in-law spend New Year’s Eve at the wife’s parents’ home would be a great loss of face if word got out.

But in the face of a super-rich tycoon like Lin Haoran, it was clear that his second and third sisters’ in-laws did not dare to voice a single objection.

Now, Lin Haoran had become the strong backing for his two sisters. In their marital homes, no one dared to slight them in the least.

In the past, these two families had been a good match for the Lin family in terms of social standing, with comparable strength.

Chapter 491: An Unexpected Reception at the Airport

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the family gathered at home, and the atmosphere was lively and joyous.

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, the Lam family began to receive visits from numerous business tycoons.

Among them were important figures from British-owned companies, such as John Marden of Wheelock and Company.

Last year, when Newbiggin implemented the Jardine-Land cross-shareholding plan for Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group, he had transferred all the Wheelock and Company shares held by Jardine Matheson to Hongkong Land.

These shares were equivalent to 11.8% of Wheelock’s total assets and 7.4% of the voting rights, making Hongkong Land the third-largest shareholder of Wheelock and Company.

As for the largest shareholder, it was not the helmsman John Marden, but the very low-profile Zhang family.

The Federation Building, which Lin Haoran had previously purchased from Wheelock and Company, had once belonged to the Zhang family.

Later, Wheelock and Company acquired the Zhang family’s real estate firm, including the Federation Building, and thus the Zhang family became a major shareholder of Wheelock.

However, they had never challenged the John Marden family for the controlling stake.

Therefore, with the Hongkong Land Group now being one of Wheelock’s major shareholders, John Marden naturally needed to maintain a good relationship with Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran was now considered the most formidable tycoon in Hong Kong’s business circle. Even Michael Sandberg of HSBC had to treat him with courtesy. He was no longer the business newcomer who needed to flatter others; instead, others now needed to flatter him.

In the evening, Lin Haoran took his usual walk to Pao Yue-kong’s home to pay his respects to the elder who had helped him on numerous occasions.

Although his financial power now indeed surpassed Pao Yue-kong’s, the help Pao Yue-kong had given him multiple times was enough for him to remember it forever.

In the turbulent world of business, favors and gratitude are more precious than money.

In the blink of an eye, it was February 7th, the third day of the Lunar New Year.

A little past eleven in the morning, after having his last New Year’s meal at home, Lin Haoran left Deep Water Bay with his bodyguards, much to the reluctance of his father and mother.

That’s right, he was heading to Japan.

The car navigated the winding mountain roads, reached Causeway Bay, entered the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, and finally arrived at Kai Tak International Airport.

At the airport, Lin Haoran quickly met up with Fok Kin-ning and the others.

This time, quite a number of people were going.

From the Hongkong Land Group, in addition to the originally confirmed sixty-eight members, another senior executive was joining them.

This executive was a veteran of the real estate industry named Zhao Xin.

Although his name sounded quite Chinese, Zhao Xin was in fact a pure-blooded white man.

He had chosen this Chinese name simply because he thought it sounded cool.

It was worth mentioning that despite his foreign ancestry, Zhao Xin was a Hong Kong native, born and raised on this land. His ancestors had settled in Hong Kong over a century ago.

Zhao Xin had studied abroad in Britain during his university years. After graduation, he easily joined the Hongkong Land Group thanks to his British heritage.

To date, he had served at Hongkong Land for over twenty years and had an ingrained understanding of Hong Kong’s real estate industry.

Ma Shimin had specifically assigned Zhao Xin to Fok Kin-ning, hoping he would become Fok Kin-ning’s right-hand man.

Given Ma Shimin’s understanding of Lin Haoran, he had long guessed that even if the Boss stayed in Japan for an extended period during the initial investment phase, he would not get too involved in the company’s daily operations.

And while Fok Kin-ning was exceptionally intelligent, he was still on the rise in his career.

Therefore, dispatching an experienced senior executive like Zhao Xin could provide invaluable guidance and support when encountering difficult problems, ensuring the team could handle various challenges with ease.

Naturally, Lin Haoran would not refuse this; it was a good thing.

As for Lin Haoran’s party, besides himself, all fifteen bodyguards were accompanying him.

So, including Fok Kin-ning, a total of eighty-six people were traveling to Japan this time.

“Boss, it’s time to board. We’ll get on the plane first,” Zhao Xin said to Lin Haoran at the airport after checking his watch.

“Alright, you go ahead. I’m counting on you to lead the employees,” Lin Haoran said with a smiling nod.

That’s right, they were traveling in two separate groups this time.

Zhao Xin and the sixty-eight employees would take a Cathay Pacific international flight to Tokyo, Japan.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran would be flying on a private jet with Fok Kin-ning and his fifteen bodyguards.

The idea of purchasing a private jet had already crossed Lin Haoran’s mind back when he was in the United States.

As his commercial empire continued to expand, it wasn’t just him; his core senior executives, his top lieutenants like Ma Shimin, Burton, Chen Shoulin, and Cui Zilong, also frequently needed to travel from Hong Kong to Southeast Asia, Europe, and even North America for business.

Having a dedicated private business jet would undoubtedly and significantly enhance their comfort and work efficiency during long business trips.

Therefore, upon his return from the United States, Lin Haoran immediately instructed Ma Shimin to handle the matter.

Buying a private jet was certainly not a difficult task; it was something money could easily solve.

It didn’t take long for Ma Shimin to sort it out for Lin Haoran.

Now, this luxury private jet, purchased from the American manufacturer Hawker Beechcraft, had already made several trips over the past two months. Its performance was stable, and it was extremely safe.

Although it was purchased with funds from the Hongkong Land Group, all of Lin Haoran’s key senior executives were permitted to use it.

Not long after Zhao Xin’s group boarded their flight, Lin Haoran also boarded his private jet.

The fuselage of this private jet was made from the most advanced composite materials, which both reduced weight and increased stability, ensuring every flight was as smooth as walking on level ground.

The exterior was painted with the Hongkong Land Group’s logo, exuding an extraordinary air of understated class.

Stepping into the aircraft, the first thing that met the eye was the spacious and bright cabin area.

The interior was decorated with high-end custom materials. From the soft wool carpets to the exquisite wood paneling, every detail showcased luxury and taste.

The seats were ergonomically designed and upholstered in top-grade leather, providing both comfort and ample support, ensuring passengers had the best possible experience even on long-haul flights.

The cabin was divided into several functional zones, including a dedicated rest area equipped with beds that could be adjusted to a fully flat position, allowing passengers to enjoy a peaceful sleep as if at home, even at an altitude of ten thousand meters.

Lin Haoran looked at the interior of the jet with great satisfaction.

With such luxurious decorations, what did first class on a commercial airliner even count for?

No wonder the tycoons Lin Haoran knew of in his past life were so keen on buying private jets. The experience was simply incredible.

This was the life of the truly wealthy!

At one o’clock in the afternoon, the private jet, somewhat smaller than a regular passenger plane, took off smoothly from Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport.

Lin Haoran sat in his spacious seat, watching the central district of Hong Kong shrink outside the window, then turned to chat with Fok Kin-ning, who was seated to his right.

Two days prior, he had already called Mr. Tanaka, the Japanese Foreign Minister, to inform him that he would be departing today.

As for the application for a private flight route, the Japanese government had taken care of it for Lin Haoran long ago.

A flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo normally takes a little over four hours.

So, by a little after five in the afternoon, the plane was already circling in the skies above Tokyo.

After receiving clearance from the control tower, the plane landed smoothly at Tokyo International Airport.

Lin Haoran noticed that the plane was ultimately guided to a parking apron where a red carpet had been laid out.

And outside the apron, a large crowd had gathered, including many reporters carrying cameras.

He was a little surprised. There was a welcoming ceremony? Why was it so grand?

In his memory, this kind of treatment was usually reserved for visiting foreign leaders, wasn’t it?

He never expected that he, a mere businessman, would warrant such a reception.

Putting aside his previous prejudices against the Japanese, Lin Haoran had to admit that Japan indeed had many admirable qualities.

To treat an entrepreneur with such great importance.

With a hint of curiosity, Lin Haoran slowly walked from the aircraft’s interior to the airstairs that had been set up.

On both sides of the red carpet, the crowd applauded enthusiastically, and the reporters’ camera flashes went off one after another. At that moment, he felt as if he had become an important leader.

Just as he disembarked, Lin Haoran saw Mr. Tanaka, the Japanese Foreign Minister whom he had met before the New Year.

As for the others, Lin Haoran didn’t recognize any of them.

After all, he had never visited Japan before and rarely paid attention to matters there.

Lin Haoran, along with Fok Kin-ning and the bodyguards, descended the stairs, and Mr. Tanaka was already walking up to greet them.

“Mr. Lin, welcome to Japan!” the Japanese Foreign Minister said with a warm, beaming smile.

“I am truly honored that you came to welcome me in person, Mr. Foreign Minister!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile as they shook hands.

“Your arrival is of great importance to us, Mr. Lin. Come, let me introduce you. This is Mr. Kitayama Kazuyuki, the president of the Japan External Trade Organization, and this is Mr. Matsuda Nao, the Vice Mayor of Tokyo.”

Mr. Tanaka made the introductions as he led Lin Haoran toward the two important Japanese figures waiting nearby.

Lin Haoran shook hands with each of them. He learned through the introductions that the Japan External Trade Organization was a non-profit organization under the Japanese government, aimed at fully promoting Japan’s trade.

Its main responsibilities included providing market and industry information, introducing service providers, and connecting relevant channels to promote trade and investment between Japan and overseas, as well as strengthen business cooperation between companies, with a particular focus on enhancing business collaboration in the East Asian region.

After learning about its background, Lin Haoran understood why its president had come to greet him.

Wasn’t this just the equivalent of an investment promotion agency, specifically targeting foreign investors?

And Mr. Tanaka’s invitation for him to come to Japan was simply because he hoped that he, the richest man in Hong Kong and even Asia, would invest and develop in Japan!

Although Japan had become a developed country with rapid economic growth back in the nineteen seventies.

Chapter 492: A Long-Term, Ten-Billion-Dollar Investment

“Mr. Lin, may I ask if you will be investing in Japan during this visit?”

“Mr. Lin, what are your views on Japan’s current economic situation?”

“Mr. Lin, I understand you have significant investments in the United States. In your opinion, which country—Japan or the United States—has better economic development?”

After exchanging pleasantries with Mr. Tanaka and the others, the reporters swarmed in, eager to ask their questions.

The news of Lin Haoran’s activities in the United States, including his decision to sell his shares and cash out after Apple Inc.’s IPO, had quickly reached Japan.

Therefore, as members of the media, they were all aware of Lin Haoran’s situation.

Although Lin Haoran had risen to prominence only recently, he was already a world-renowned figure in business. While his influence might not yet match that of Pao Yue-kong, he was no longer a minor player.

This was the impact of his series of maneuvers in the business circles of Hong Kong and the United States.

Faced with a barrage of questions, Lin Haoran smiled and raised a hand, signaling for everyone to calm down.

His eyes revealed a calm confidence; he was clearly at ease in such situations.

It was just a press interview. He had lost count of how many he had given in Hong Kong.

Even in the United States, reporters frequently sought him out for interviews.

“Thank you all for your warm welcome and questions,” Lin Haoran began in fluent English, then turned to a reporter who seemed to be in charge. “First, I must say that I am deeply honored to receive such a gracious reception from the Japanese government and friends from all sectors.

As for the purpose of my visit, I have indeed come to Japan at the invitation of Mr. Tanaka, with a mindset of exploration and cooperation. As a global economic powerhouse, Japan has made outstanding achievements in many fields, including technology, manufacturing, and culture, all of which I deeply admire.”

He paused for a moment, looked around, and continued, “As for whether I will invest in Japan, that is a question that requires careful consideration. My team and I plan to spend the next few days conducting an in-depth study of Japan’s market environment, policy support, and potential opportunities for collaboration.

If Japan’s investment environment satisfies me, I will invest over ten billion Hong Kong dollars in the short term, and potentially as much as ten billion US dollars in the long term. I believe that through in-depth discussions, we can find points of cooperation for mutual benefit.

After all, both Hong Kong and Japan are part of Asia’s vibrant economic circle. Our shared vision for development and open market attitudes form the foundation of our cooperation.”

Regarding his views on the Japanese economy, Lin Haoran paused for a moment, appearing particularly cautious. “The Japanese economy has a profound foundation and unique advantages, especially in innovation, quality, and efficiency, which have a significant impact on the world.

The United States, as another economic superpower, has its own strengths. It’s difficult to make a simple comparison. Each country has its unique development path and challenges. What’s important is how to adopt appropriate strategies to promote economic growth and social welfare based on its own circumstances.”

A long-term investment of ten billion US dollars?

This statement immediately caused a stir among the reporters.

That was no small sum.

Japan’s GDP last year was only about one trillion US dollars.

And Lin Haoran was claiming he would invest over ten billion US dollars in Japan in the future?

It seemed a bit exaggerated.

However, Lin Haoran did control a considerable number of enterprises.

The market capitalization of Hongkong Land Group alone was estimated to be in the billions of US dollars.

Although Hongkong Land Group was now privatized, its current market capitalization could be roughly estimated based on its value when it was publicly listed.

And Hongkong Land Group was just one of the companies under Lin Haoran’s control.

He also controlled Hongkong Electric Group, Wanqing Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Kowloon Motor Bus, and others. The market capitalization of these companies was clearly not low either.

All things considered, Lin Haoran’s net worth was truly unbelievable.

A young man was in control of such immense wealth.

It was indeed not an exaggeration to call him the richest man in Asia, as not even in all of Japan could one find a tycoon with such wealth.

Despite this, the reporters didn’t believe Lin Haoran would invest ten billion US dollars in Japan. In their view, no matter how rich he was, he couldn’t possibly have that much money, could he?

However, Lin Haoran didn’t care whether they believed him or not.

In fact, he himself wasn’t sure how much he would ultimately invest in Japan.

This time, he had only brought four billion Hong Kong dollars with him.

Even so, it was a huge sum of money.

To “reap the leeks” in Japan on a large scale later on, a significant initial investment was necessary.

Lin Haoran’s investment in Japan was not for the sake of bringing economic prosperity; it was purely to make money off the Japanese.

He might not be able to pull off a “getting something for nothing” scheme, but investing to make a profit was certainly possible.

It was just like in his previous life, when Japan made large-scale investments in Mainland China in the eighties and nineties.

For example, in terms of manufacturing investment, the mid-1980s saw the first wave of Japanese investment in China, primarily focused on the home appliance industry.

At that time, Japanese companies like Panasonic and Hitachi established numerous joint ventures in Mainland China to produce cars, color TVs, refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing machines.

In the mid-1990s, the second wave of Japanese investment in China peaked, concentrating on textiles, general merchandise, food, digital electronics, and machinery.

And Japanese corporate investment in the mainland was not limited to the manufacturing industry; it also involved infrastructure and basic industries.

Their investment goal, of course, was also to make money, to harvest wealth from Mainland China.

Lin Haoran’s purpose for investing in Japan was the same. He wanted to harvest Japan’s wealth, especially from the untamed economic growth during Japan’s economic bubble.

Of course, regardless of the motive, investment was a complementary process.

Lin Haoran’s investment in Japan now would also boost domestic employment and the economy. Although it was a drop in the bucket for Japan as a whole, it was still beneficial for the country at present.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t be treating him with such courtesy.

The larger the investment in Japan, the higher the rate of return would naturally be.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had no fixed upper limit for his investment in Japan.

He planned to acquire as many Japanese assets as possible before the economic bubble arrived.

By doing so, when the bubble burst, it would surely bring him a massive surprise.

Whether he could become the world’s largest hidden billionaire in the future depended on how much wealth he could harvest during Japan’s economic bubble.

Lin Haoran was full of anticipation for this!

After a brief interview, Lin Haoran, led by Mr. Tanaka, left the airport in an official car.

That evening, he was treated to a grand reception. In attendance were not only Mr. Tanaka, Kitayama Kazuyuki, the president of the Japan External Trade Organization, and the Vice Mayor of Tokyo, but also many of Japan’s business tycoons.

At the banquet, the lights were dazzling, and the atmosphere was warm and friendly.

Lin Haoran, dressed in a custom-tailored dark suit, carried himself with elegance. His conversation revealed an extraordinary business acumen and foresight, causing every Japanese business leader present to see him in a new light.

Because Japan’s business world was already highly developed—one of the most advanced in the world—they were naturally somewhat wary of outsiders like Lin Haoran.

But this time, he had the government’s support, so even if they were resistant to foreign investors, these entrepreneurs showed Lin Haoran a great deal of favor, each expressing their hope for a chance to cooperate with him.

This also served as a good opportunity for him to get to know the big shots of Japanese business.

It was past nine in the evening when a slightly tipsy Lin Haoran checked into the Tokyo Imperial Hotel.

The other employees of Hongkong Land Group had also been settled in.

Although Hongkong Land Group did not have many properties in Japan, it wasn’t without any presence.

In fact, the group had established an office in Japan a long time ago.

With the arrival of the Hongkong Land employees, the local office had already arranged all aspects of their reception, including securing their accommodation and transport.

Naturally, these were matters Lin Haoran did not need to concern himself with.

Over the next two days, under the arrangement of the Japanese government, Lin Haoran conducted a business tour of the Tokyo metropolitan area.

On the third day, he was even received by the Prime Minister of Japan, with whom he held a meeting.

Meanwhile, Fok Kin-ning, Zhao Xin, and their team of employees settled in Tokyo.

They immediately began to lay the preliminary groundwork in the city.

Back in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran had already discussed a great deal with Fok Kin-ning, so Fok Kin-ning was aware of his boss’s investment vision for Japan.

The investment in Japan would primarily focus on the real estate industry, with the main target areas being top-tier cities like Tokyo and Osaka, especially Tokyo.

Evidently, in an economic bubble, real estate offered the simplest and highest rate of return, so it was their key investment sector.

Of course, when dealing with the Japanese government, Lin Haoran would not say he was only investing in real estate. He would mention investments in other sectors like services and manufacturing as well.

If he were to invest solely in the property sector, he probably wouldn’t be so welcome.

With four billion Hong Kong dollars in hand, Hongkong Land Group had a vast array of possibilities to explore.

Although Japan was a populous country and Tokyo was its capital, Hong Kong’s property prices were actually slightly higher than Tokyo’s.

Overall, in 1981, property prices in Hong Kong were higher than in Tokyo.

This was likely related to factors such as the economic conditions, population density, and land resources of the two places.

As one of the world’s financial centers, Hong Kong not only had a highly developed economy but also high population density and relatively scarce land resources. These factors combined to drive up property prices.

Especially in the last two years, prices had already doubled or tripled.

Tokyo, on the other hand, was not as scarce in terms of land resources.

Furthermore, Japan had not yet entered its economic bubble phase, and its economy had not yet begun its period of blind growth.

For this very reason, while property prices in Tokyo were high, they were not excessively so.

This presented a golden opportunity for Hongkong Land Group to invest in Japan.

Chapter 493: Securing the First Skyscraper in Tokyo!

In the Central Ward of Tokyo, Japan, Lin Haoran, Fok Kin-ning, and Zhao Xin were seated in an office inside a nineteen-story building.

This was the office of the Hongkong Land Group in Japan. It was not large, only a little over two hundred square meters.

In Hong Kong, this office was smaller than Lin Haoran’s personal reception room.

However, Hongkong Land Group’s business in Japan had been limited until now, and with only about twenty employees in the Tokyo office, there was no need to rent a large space.

Now that they were preparing for a massive expansion in Tokyo, coupled with a surge in personnel, they would definitely need to find a new location.

The Central Ward was considered the most prosperous core district in Tokyo, and it was also the city’s CBD.

This office was located on the sixteenth floor. Through the glass window, Lin Haoran could see the Tokyo Imperial Palace a kilometer away, with a panoramic view of the city center.

The hustle and bustle of the Central Ward seemed to be sealed off by the glass, leaving only a sense of tranquility and grandeur.

Lin Haoran’s gaze swept from the golden roofs of the Tokyo Imperial Palace to the dense cluster of low and mid-rise buildings surrounding it, a touch of emotion welling up inside him.

In Lin Haoran’s view, Tokyo’s urban development paled in comparison to Hong Kong’s.

The reason was simple. Although Tokyo was an international metropolis, it didn’t lack land. As a result, there weren’t many high-rise buildings, especially in the city center.

At present, Asia’s tallest skyscraper, the Sunshine 60 building, was indeed in Tokyo, but it wasn’t located in the traditional core of the city. Instead, it was in the Ikebukuro commercial district in the northwestern part of Tokyo.

Conversely, near Tokyo’s famous Ginza commercial district, there were not many tall buildings.

It was for this very reason that Lin Haoran and the others had such an expansive view from just the sixteenth floor.

Tokyo’s urban planning and development philosophy at the time focused more on blending tradition with modernity, unlike Hong Kong, which saw large-scale, concentrated construction of high-rise buildings.

In the seventies and eighties, Hong Kong’s economy was booming. The population was dense, and land was a place where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold.

To meet housing and office demands, high-rise buildings sprang up like mushrooms after the rain in Hong Kong.

Because of this, Tokyo’s skyline was far less spectacular than Hong Kong’s during the same period.

Despite this, Tokyo still had its unique characteristics.

Yesterday afternoon, Lin Haoran had met with the Prime Minister at his official residence. The Japanese leader extended a warm welcome to Lin Haoran, stating that Japan was an excellent place for investment.

Lin Haoran, in turn, expressed that his two-day visit had given him a much deeper understanding of Japan. After his inspection, he had decided to make large-scale investments in areas such as infrastructure, trade, the manufacturing industry, and the financial sector.

The Prime Minister also promised to provide certain conveniences for his investments.

In recent years, Japan’s economic growth had clearly slowed down.

Especially since the oil crisis, starting from 1978, Japan’s economy had become complex and volatile.

Japan’s economic growth rate had slowed compared to previous years, mainly due to a combination of factors, including changes in the international economic environment, domestic industrial restructuring, and policy adjustments.

At the same time, factors such as inflation, a slowdown in export trade growth, increased fiscal pressure, and escalating trade wars had led to a domestic economy that was less vibrant than it had been in the seventies.

Moreover, the decrease in export growth and the decline in factory operating rates had led to many factories laying off workers, causing a sharp increase in the unemployment rate.

All these factors combined meant that Japan’s economy, while not terrible, had been facing difficulties for the past two or three years.

It was for this reason that Japan was now very welcoming of foreign investment. It would not only bring more jobs and reduce the unemployment rate but also stimulate the Japanese economy.

Coupled with Lin Haoran’s status in the business world and his boundless future prospects, it was clear why the Japanese government placed such importance on his visit.

The Prime Minister even stated that if Lin Haoran encountered any problems in Japan, he could call him at any time, and he would surely help Lin Haoran resolve any difficulties he faced!

Such a promise was somewhat surprising to Lin Haoran.

It was just like his experience in Britain. When he visited Britain, the British government had also regarded him with great importance.

In contrast, Lin Haoran had not received such treatment when he was in the United States.

During his time in the United States, not a single government official had met with him.

The conversation had been amicable, and they had ultimately reached a preliminary letter of intent for investment, signaling the official start of Hongkong Land Group’s large-scale investment plans in Japan.

With the backing of the Japanese government, Lin Haoran felt even more confident about his investments in Japan.

“Boss, after two days of on-site inspections and reviewing the detailed information provided by the Hongkong Land Group office, my plan is to first purchase a building here to serve as the headquarters for our Hongkong Land Group.

After in-depth communication and screening with several real estate agencies, I have finally zeroed in on a twenty-eight-story building near Ginza in Tokyo. The owner of this building made his fortune in foreign trade but has suffered heavy losses in the last two years, forcing him to sell it.

This skyscraper is quite prominent in the Ginza area, with its height being top-tier. It is currently on the market, and the price is relatively reasonable. The initial offer is around sixteen billion Japanese yen, but I estimate there is still room for further negotiation to lower the price.

It is worth noting that the average property price in Tokyo is currently about half of ours in Hong Kong. And according to what you said, Boss, the future trend of Tokyo’s property prices will be no worse than Hong Kong’s. If that’s the case, then this undoubtedly provides us with a rather favorable investment environment.”

Fok Kin-ning handed the relevant documents to Lin Haoran as he spoke, providing a detailed explanation on the side.

Currently, the exchange rate between the Hong Kong dollar and the Japanese yen was approximately 1:40.

This meant that the four billion Hong Kong dollars Lin Haoran brought was worth around one hundred sixty billion Japanese yen.

This sum had already been converted into Japanese yen through the operations of Citibank’s Hong Kong branch and transferred to Citibank’s Tokyo branch.

Lin Haoran looked at the photograph in the document. The skyscraper didn’t look old; on the contrary, it was quite new, having been completed in 1975, only about six years ago.

Although the building was on the edge of the Ginza commercial district, it was still within the Ginza area.

And a skyscraper like this was only going for sixteen billion Japanese yen, with room for negotiation.

Sixteen billion Japanese yen was only about four hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

If this skyscraper were located in Central, Wan Chai, or Causeway Bay in Hong Kong, it would be worth at least one billion Hong Kong dollars.

It was a bargain, a real bargain.

As he recalled, the areas with the highest future property prices in Tokyo would likely be the Central and Minato Wards.

And Ginza was the core of the core.

If he secured this place, how much would its value skyrocket when the economic bubble began? He couldn’t even imagine.

What investment could be simpler than buying property and waiting for its value to appreciate?

Probably none.

“Such a prime location, listed for over a month, and at a reasonable price, yet there are no suitable buyers?” Lin Haoran was a little surprised as he looked at the listing date shown on the document.

It seemed that while Japan’s economy was very developed during this period, its performance was completely different from what it would be after 1986.

Lin Haoran guessed that most people couldn’t imagine how fiercely Japan’s economy would grow in the future. Therefore, during the current economic downturn, no one dared to make a move easily, even for a prime property like this skyscraper.

“Boss, I learned from the real estate agency that there are several potential buyers for this building, all well-known Japanese corporations, but most of them feel the price is too high and have failed to reach an agreement. Of course, this is just the agent’s side of the story, so I’m not sure if it’s true.

Also, there’s another crucial piece of information: the owner of this building is now eager to sell. If the price is right, the closing period can be very, very short,” Fok Kin-ning said.

Lin Haoran nodded, thought for a moment, and said, “In that case, let’s take it. Of course, it would be better if we can get a lower price. If others think the price is high, we can’t be suckers either. After all, every city has different property and commodity prices, so we can’t always compare Tokyo to Hong Kong.

Also, it’s time to establish the Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch. Once we secure this skyscraper, we’ll start preparing for the company’s establishment. When the time comes, I will organize a grand opening ceremony and invite many prominent Japanese figures. That will also be your time to make a public appearance.

I can’t stay in Japan forever. Whether we succeed here will largely rest on your shoulders. Getting to know the political and business tycoons of Japan will also be beneficial for your future development here. I have high expectations for you, and I hope you won’t disappoint me!”

Hearing this, Fok Kin-ning nodded with a solemn expression. “Boss, you can rest assured. I will give it my all to develop Hongkong Land Group’s business in Japan. This is not just for the group, but for myself as well. I understand how precious this opportunity is.”

Lin Haoran looked at Fok Kin-ning with satisfaction. He knew that this young man possessed a rare foresight in the business world and was a top-tier business talent, which was why he valued him so much.

He gently patted Fok Kin-ning’s shoulder in encouragement and continued, “Very good, I believe in you. By the way, about the negotiations for that skyscraper, you will be personally in charge. If necessary, you can appropriately display our sincerity and strength. It would be best to close the deal at the most cost-effective price possible.”

Fok Kin-ning’s greatest strength was his exceptional negotiation skills.

On this point, Lin Haoran had complete confidence in him.

And sure enough!

Two days later, on February 11th, Lin Haoran received a call from Fok Kin-ning. The excitement in Fok Kin-ning’s voice was palpable.

“Boss, great news! After two days of intense negotiations with the property owner, we’ve successfully secured the skyscraper for thirteen point eight billion Japanese yen!”

Hearing this, a satisfied smile crept onto Lin Haoran’s lips.

13.8 billion Japanese yen, converted at the current exchange rate, was about 345 million Hong Kong dollars. This price was far below the initial offer and also lower than the average transaction price for similar skyscrapers on the market.

Fok Kin-ning had indeed not disappointed him. His negotiation skills were truly impressive. Not only had he sealed the deal in just two days, but he had also saved 2.2 billion Japanese yen.

Although that was only a saving of a few tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars, which wasn’t a huge sum for Lin Haoran.

But with one negotiation after another, if every deal could be more favorable to their Hongkong Land Group, the money saved over a year would be substantial.

That would be a matter of much more than just a few tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

Securing this skyscraper also marked the official start of Hongkong Land Group’s journey in Tokyo.

The reason Lin Haoran didn’t establish a completely new company here, but instead chose to invest under the name of a Hongkong Land Group branch company, was actually quite simple.

Hongkong Land Group was now his private enterprise, which meant that however much money Hongkong Land Group made in the future would all belong to him, Lin Haoran.

Furthermore, with two top lieutenants like Ma Shimin and Fok Kin-ning, Lin Haoran was very confident about the future of Hongkong Land Group!

Chapter 494: Preparing the Branch Company, an Invitation from the President of Nintendo

The building transaction was a great success.

Not long after receiving the call, Lin Haoran, in a cheerful mood, went to visit the skyscraper.

Over the past two days, Lin Haoran had not only bought a villa in a famous high-end residential area in the Central Ward, freeing him from the need to stay in hotels, but he had also, with the assistance of the relevant authorities, successfully secured firearm licenses for all fifteen of his bodyguards.

With this, his safety during his stay in Japan was much more secure.

Here in Japan, top-tier bodyguards were generally permitted to carry firearms; it was just that the application process for the license was rather difficult.

However, they did not make things difficult for Lin Haoran. Instead, they relaxed all the conditions for him.

This was because the Japanese government was well aware that although Japanese society was relatively safe under normal circumstances, it was also home to the world’s largest violent triad society, the Yama-kou Group.

In addition, other violent triad societies, like the Zhuji Association and the Inamura Association, were also formidable.

For a tycoon of Lin Haoran’s stature, if even his bodyguards were unarmed, his personal safety could certainly not be guaranteed.

And if a renowned tycoon like Lin Haoran were to be endangered while investing in Japan, it would have a significant negative impact on the country.

It was for this very reason that Lin Haoran’s bodyguards obtained their firearm licenses so smoothly.

These fifteen bodyguards had undergone professional training, and their capabilities were already on par with the world’s top special forces soldiers.

Therefore, with their protection, Lin Haoran felt very safe, even in Japan.

The only trouble now was that these men were extremely unfamiliar with the streets of Tokyo, and they also faced a language barrier.

However, these were not major issues. After they spent some time here, they would naturally become accustomed to it all.

Those selected to be Lin Haoran’s bodyguards would not have poor adaptability; in fact, it could be said that their adaptability was outstanding.

In Tokyo’s Ginza commercial district stood a twenty-eight-story skyscraper, quite conspicuous in the vicinity.

After his motorcade entered the building’s underground parking garage, Lin Haoran made a point of walking out onto the street to look up and carefully admire the building’s exterior.

Although the exterior was not particularly outstanding or ostentatious, it exuded an indescribable sense of power, like a silent giant standing quietly in the heart of the Ginza commercial district.

The first to fifth floors of the building were commercial levels, their outer walls covered with assorted billboards. These five floors were mainly for retail leasing, and judging by the foot traffic in the shops on the ground floor, it was clearly an excellent place for business. The rent would certainly not be low.

The sixth to twenty-eighth floors were primarily office spaces. According to the documents Lin Haoran had reviewed, the occupancy rate was also quite good, at almost over ninety percent.

For the whole of last year, the rental income from this building reached 1.3 billion Japanese yen. Based on the recent transaction price, the investment could be recouped in about ten years just by collecting rent.

Outside the building, the streets teemed with people. The Ginza area was practically the most prosperous part of all of Tokyo; the one thing it didn’t lack was people.

Many tourists from outside Tokyo, and even from overseas, would almost certainly come to Ginza for a look around after arriving in Japan.

Because of this, Lin Haoran could see that on the bustling street outside the building, although the crowd was predominantly Japanese, blond-haired, blue-eyed Westerners appeared from time to time, and in considerable numbers.

To think that he had bought this building, located on such a bustling street, for just over three hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

A bargain. What an absolute bargain.

In the future, Lin Haoran estimated that this building would be worth at least several billion Hong Kong dollars.

And that didn’t even include the rental income and other profits earned during his ownership.

In the future, the rental prices here would surely skyrocket along with property values.

By then, a single year’s rental income might even be enough to recover the initial investment.

Of course, all that was in the future. With the current slowdown in Japan’s economy, it was certainly impossible now.

If it were truly so profitable, Lin Haoran wouldn’t have been able to acquire the building at such a low price.

Fok Kin-ning was already aware of Lin Haoran’s arrival.

Thus, he was already waiting at the reception desk near the elevator bank on the ground floor.

Beside him stood the former head of the Hongkong Land Group’s Tokyo branch office.

This manager was a Tokyo native and quite familiar with the area. With his assistance, many things were handled very smoothly.

Led by Fok Kin-ning and the branch office manager, Lin Haoran briefly toured the first five floors of the building.

Then, they returned to the elevators.

“Boss, our temporary office is set up in a vacant unit on the 23rd floor. Let’s go up and talk,” Fok Kin-ning said after pressing the elevator button.

Lin Haoran nodded.

The group then went up to the 23rd floor together.

“This floor of offices was originally leased by a single company, but they chose not to renew after their lease expired last December. It’s been vacant for over a month now. Plus, the owner has been trying to sell the building for the past month, so he wasn’t interested in leasing it out again,” Fok Kin-ning explained as they walked into the empty office space.

Lin Haoran glanced around. The necessary office desks were still there; clearly, they had been abandoned when the lease ended.

The entire floor spanned over one thousand square meters.

It was certainly large enough for the Hongkong Land Group’s temporary use.

“In that case, let’s use this as our branch company’s headquarters for now. Make the preparations for the company’s grand opening as soon as possible. I’ll try to invite as many of Japan’s social elites as I can. You can use this as a great opportunity to get acquainted with them,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, sitting in a chair by the floor-to-ceiling window and looking down at the bustling street below.

Last time, when Foreign Minister Mr. Tanaka held a dinner party for him, a good number of social elites had attended.

Among them were business tycoons as well as political heavyweights.

At the banquet, Lin Haoran had exchanged business cards with all of them, which served as a preliminary introduction to this network.

Although the relationships were still shallow, having exchanged cards meant they were now acquainted.

The business tycoons who were able to attend that banquet were clearly also hoping to meet Lin Haoran and explore potential business cooperation.

Therefore, if Lin Haoran invited them, they were unlikely to refuse.

“Yes, Boss. The company has already been registered. As for the grand opening, I will prepare for it as quickly as possible,” Fok Kin-ning said with a nod.

“Boss, I’ve also been keeping a close eye on Tokyo’s real estate market dynamics. There’s going to be a government-organized auction next week. Several well-located plots of land will be up for sale, including some in the Central Ward, Minato Ward, and Shinjuku Ward. I think this is a good opportunity for us to launch our business,” Zhao Xin chimed in.

Back in Hong Kong, Zhao Xin was the Deputy Director of the Hongkong Land Group’s Marketing Department. He was relatively low on the executive ladder, but to hold the position of Deputy Director, his abilities were naturally not to be underestimated.

“Good. You and Kin-ning can discuss this. Once the Hongkong Land Group Japan Branch is established, Kin-ning, you will serve as the President of the Japan Branch. Zhao Xin, you will be the Vice President. In addition, Mr. Sato, you will be the company’s marketing director. As for the other vacant positions, Kin-ning and Zhao Xin, you two can gradually build a team by recruiting from here in Japan. Do any of you have any objections?” Lin Haoran asked, looking at the three men present.

The former head of the Hongkong Land Group’s Tokyo branch office was named Sato Shimono. He had been responsible for the business in the Japanese market.

At this moment, Lin Haoran could see Mr. Sato’s loyalty level displayed above his head.

A loyalty of 78 wasn’t high, but for an ordinary employee, it was quite decent.

He was usable.

Moreover, as a local powerhouse, Sato’s role was clearly significant.

This was why Lin Haoran had appointed him as the marketing director.

Over the past period, he had been assisting the Hongkong Land Group with matters here. While his abilities weren’t top-tier, they weren’t bad either.

Therefore, giving him the position of marketing director was perfectly fine.

In the future, if Hongkong Land’s business expanded and his abilities proved insufficient, he could simply be replaced.

Lin Haoran’s words made Mr. Sato very excited.

After all, although he had been the head of the Tokyo branch office, his presence had been minimal.

Now, things were different. The boss was planning to develop the business in Japan vigorously, which naturally meant his role would become much more important.

Although he was no longer the head, becoming a director was still a promotion.

“Thank you, Boss! I will definitely work hard and not let down your support!” Sato Shimono said, bowing deeply to Lin Haoran.

At that moment, Mr. Sato was filled with ambition.

When he first learned that the Hongkong Land Group was going to open a branch company in Japan and develop it aggressively, Sato had actually been quite worried.

After all, once a large company was established, the future of his small branch office would clearly not be integrated into this new branch.

At that point, his position could be eliminated, and he might even face the possibility of being fired.

That was why, when the Hongkong Land Group had called and informed him about opening the branch company, asking him to handle the preliminary work, Sato had worked with exceptional diligence, hoping to make a good impression on the boss and avoid being fired.

Now, hearing the boss’s words, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. Not only was he not getting fired, but he was also getting a promotion.

The head of a small branch office, despite being in charge of the business here, operated on too small a scale.

It was like a village chief; no matter how powerful, he could never compare to a bureau director in a city.

Just then, Lin Haoran also noticed that Mr. Sato’s loyalty had risen from 78 to 85.

Promotions and pay raises could increase a person’s loyalty. Lin Haoran had known this for a long time, and it was a tried-and-true method.

Now, upon learning he was to become a key executive in the branch company, the former head of the Hongkong Land Group’s Tokyo branch office indeed showed an increase in loyalty.

He had not been disappointed.

In response, Lin Haoran gave Sato a satisfied nod, which left Sato across from him bewildered, wondering why the boss was smiling at him.

Afterward, the group spent a long time in the office discussing the preparations for the new branch company.

That evening, Lin Haoran received a call from an acquaintance: Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi, the president of Nintendo.

“Mr. Lin, I heard you’ve come to Japan. I happen to be at Nintendo’s Tokyo branch and would like to invite you to a banquet. I wonder if you would do me the honor?” Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi, the president of Nintendo, said with a laugh over the phone.

“I would never refuse an invitation from Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi. Just tell me the time and place, and I will be there on time,” Lin Haoran agreed immediately, without the slightest hesitation.

If the Hongkong Land Group wanted to grow in Japan, building more connections was crucial.

Chapter 495: Unprovoked Criticism, the Owner of 7-Eleven?

In a quiet villa complex near Ginza, in Tokyo’s Central Ward.

Just then, Lin Haoran put down the phone, a little surprised that the president of Nintendo would invite him to some kind of celebratory banquet for distributors.

However, strictly speaking, he was indeed a Nintendo distributor, and the sales channels under his control did in fact sell Nintendo’s products.

It turned out that sales of Nintendo’s new product released last year, the portable Game & Watch, had surpassed five million units. This was a new record for a single model of a game console in Nintendo’s history.

But because of this, Nintendo’s president, Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi, had developed the ambition to aim for ten million units.

This was also the reason he had been traveling to Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and other places to expand his sales channels.

In the world of video games, although Nintendo was developing rapidly, the American company Atari was still far ahead.

The sales of the Game & Watch, however, gave him hope of catching up to Atari.

After returning from Southeast Asia, Mr. Yamauchi decided to hold a celebratory banquet in Tokyo to thank the distributors for their strong support.

Although Nintendo’s headquarters was not in Tokyo but in Kyoto, the Tokyo metropolitan area was clearly Nintendo’s largest sales region.

The Tokyo metropolitan area had made the greatest contribution to Nintendo’s new product breaking the five-million-unit mark.

He happened to see in the newspaper that Lin Haoran had arrived in Japan, so he used his personal connections to get Lin Haoran’s phone number and called to invite the famous Hong Kong tycoon.

Lin Haoran walked out of his study and onto the terrace outside.

The Central Ward was bustling, but this villa complex was very quiet. On the road outside the villa, security guards could be seen patrolling with flashlights from time to time.

Lin Haoran had spent nearly eighty million Japanese yen to buy this place as a temporary residence. Converted to Hong Kong dollars, it was only about two million, which was quite cheap.

If this were twenty or thirty years in the future, it would be worth at least one billion Hong Kong dollars.

After all, although Japan would experience an economic bubble in the 1990s and housing prices would plummet, this was still Tokyo. Even if prices fell, they wouldn’t fall too drastically. This was still the core area of downtown Tokyo, not much different from the Central district in Hong Kong.

The villa was close to the Tokyo Imperial Palace, right on the border between the Central and Chiyoda Wards, separated from the palace by just a single street. The security was excellent, and no violent triad societies dared to cause trouble in the vicinity.

This was why Lin Haoran had chosen to set up his temporary residence here.

The villa was five stories high, with ten rooms and an elevator. It was more than enough to accommodate Lin Haoran’s fifteen bodyguards.

Standing on the terrace, Lin Haoran could clearly see the Tokyo Tower, three kilometers away.

At this time, the Tokyo Skytree, famous in later years, had not yet appeared, so the Tokyo Tower was the landmark of Tokyo City.

Lin Haoran took a deep breath of the cool night air, and his mood gradually calmed.

He gazed at the flickering lights of the Tokyo Tower in the distance before turning and returning to his bedroom.

The night passed in deep sleep, and in the blink of an eye, it was the next day, February 12th.

In the morning, led by Sato Shimono, the head of Hongkong Land Group’s branch office in Japan, Lin Haoran inspected several of the group’s properties in Tokyo.

Through the inspection, Lin Haoran found that the Hongkong Land Group indeed had few properties here.

Three Wellcome supermarkets, one trade transit station, and five Mannings beauty and convenience chain stores. That was it.

In other words, Hongkong Land Group’s previous business in Japan was basically limited to the retail trade industry.

“Boss, actually, more than ten years ago, besides the retail trade, Hongkong Land Group in Japan was also involved in the financial industry, logistics, and real estate brokerage. However, because we couldn’t compete with local rivals, we had to shut them down one after another, leaving only these few supermarkets and beauty convenience stores,” Sato explained, standing inside a Wellcome supermarket in the Shinjuku commercial district.

Perhaps because it was morning, Lin Haoran noticed that the foot traffic in this Wellcome supermarket was average at best.

“Does this supermarket make money?” Lin Haoran asked as he was led to the general manager’s office.

“Of course, Boss. Last year, our business here in Japan had a profit of about two hundred million Japanese yen. The three Wellcome supermarkets accounted for over one hundred thirty million yen of that. Our supermarkets get a lot of foot traffic in the evenings, especially on holidays,” Sato explained.

Two hundred million Japanese yen was actually only about five million Hong Kong dollars.

With such a small annual profit, it was no wonder Hongkong Land had only maintained a branch office here and hadn’t even bothered to set up a full branch company.

Lin Haoran nodded and continued his tour.

The Wellcome supermarkets of this era were not much different from the supermarkets of later generations. They were self-service, and the variety of goods was plentiful.

To make big money with a chain store, one had to expand its scale to control costs and gain bargaining power. Only then would the final profits be higher.

But Hongkong Land’s supermarkets in Japan were too few in number. With just these few, it was already impressive that they were profitable. Making big money was simply impossible.

However, now that Hongkong Land Group was planning to expand significantly in Japan, scaling up was a definite must.

Real estate alone was not enough.

The retail consumer industry had to be covered as well.

Nintendo’s celebratory banquet for its distributors was scheduled for seven o’clock that evening.

At six in the evening, Lin Haoran, along with Fok Kin-ning, Sato Shimono, and Zhao Xin, took a private car to a commercial plaza in the Ikebukuro commercial district.

The address Mr. Yamauchi had given was there.

Since his bodyguards were not yet familiar with the roads here, after buying the villa, he had also asked Sato Shimono to hire a few local drivers for him, retaining them only after confirming their loyalty was not an issue.

Therefore, getting around Tokyo was no longer a problem.

“Mr. Lin, welcome. It is an honor to see you again!” Nintendo’s president, Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi, was quite enthusiastic upon seeing Lin Haoran.

“It is my honor to receive Mr. Yamauchi’s invitation,” Lin Haoran replied with a polite smile.

Led by Mr. Yamauchi, Lin Haoran eventually arrived at a high-end sushi restaurant.

“Mr. Lin, tonight’s banquet will not disappoint you. I’m sure you will love it!” Mr. Yamauchi said mysteriously.

“Oh? Then I shall look forward to it!” Lin Haoran responded with a smile.

In truth, he was unimpressed.

It’s just sushi. No matter how high-end it is, what new trick can they pull?

At most, the ingredients would just be more expensive.

To Lin Haoran, sushi wasn’t of much interest.

He had come mainly to give Fok Kin-ning and the others a chance to interact with and get to know these top Japanese businessmen.

The sushi restaurant was indeed lavishly decorated, clearly an upscale establishment. The people who could afford to eat here were obviously either rich or noble.

Lin Haoran was led to a private room that was over a hundred square meters in size.

At the moment, more than a dozen people were gathered in the room. They were likely Nintendo’s main distributors in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

These distributors showed little enthusiasm for Lin Haoran’s arrival. No one even bothered to greet him. Instead, they continued their own conversations, leaving him to the side.

Lin Haoran didn’t mind. His reputation here was not prominent. It was unlike Hong Kong, where his influence was so great that almost everyone would flatter him.

As for Japan, at the government’s reception banquet a few days ago, those businessmen were probably only so courteous to him out of respect for the government.

“Hey, look at that ‘great man’ who came all the way across the sea from Hong Kong. Instead of staying in Hong Kong, he just had to come meddle in our great Empire of Japan. His business in Japan is just a few insignificant little supermarkets, yet Mr. Yamauchi actually graced him with an invitation. How surprising.”

As Lin Haoran sat leisurely on his chair, laughing and talking with Fok Kin-ning and the others, this deliberately articulated sarcastic remark in English drifted over from a nearby group. It was like the cackling of a clown, doing nothing to dampen their cheerful mood.

Then, the people in that circle burst into loud laughter.

From time to time, some even glanced over at Lin Haoran with self-evident smirks.

Aside from Lin Haoran and his group, everyone else in the private room was Japanese. They had been speaking Japanese earlier, but now they suddenly switched to English and spoke of having only a few unremarkable supermarkets. Clearly, this remark was aimed specifically at Lin Haoran.

Upon hearing this, Fok Kin-ning, Sato, and the others frowned, about to retort, but were stopped by a gentle wave of Lin Haoran’s hand.

Lin Haoran’s face still wore a calm smile, as if completely unaffected by the provocative words.

He was actually puzzled. He didn’t think he had offended anyone here, so why the unprovoked taunt?

Clearly, this was not instigated by the president of Nintendo, who was still outside greeting guests.

He looked at Sato and asked, “Mr. Sato, do you know the man who just spoke?”

“Boss, that is Mr. Ito, the owner of the Ito-Yokado department store company. Our two Wellcome supermarkets in Koto Ward and Shinjuku Ward compete with their Ito-Yokado department stores. We even had a price war two years ago, and we came out on the losing end,” Sato Shimono explained in a low voice.

It dawned on Lin Haoran. So they were competitors. No wonder.

However, he was not familiar with any Ito-Yokado department store company and assumed it was just an ordinary retail company in Japan.

But Sato’s next words gave Lin Haoran a new guess about this Ito-Yokado.

“Their company is one of the top retail companies in Japan. They are not only involved in department stores; their business also includes convenience stores, large-scale hypermarkets, supermarkets, specialty stores, and discount stores. Among them, their 7-Eleven convenience store chain surpassed one thousand stores just two months ago, making them the company with the most convenience stores in Japan,” Sato continued to explain.

7-Eleven convenience store?

Suddenly, Lin Haoran had a certain understanding of this Ito-Yokado department store company.

7-Eleven… That was a global convenience store tycoon, the world’s largest convenience store chain brand. Before Lin Haoran had traveled through time, he had seen news reports that 7-Eleven had over eighty thousand stores worldwide.

That was a terrifying number.

“If I remember correctly, 7-Eleven originated in the United States and was acquired by a Japanese company in the 90s. That was a very famous merger and acquisition case.”

Chapter 496: So Perverted, Such Intense Tastes!

Lin Haoran was naturally very familiar with 7-Eleven convenience stores.

In his past life, there had been a 7-Eleven right below his apartment complex, and he often went in to buy drinks and snacks, simply because it was convenient.

He just hadn’t expected to run into the future true owner of 7-Eleven here, and for the man to deliberately provoke him, an outsider.

He frowned, naturally displeased.

In Hong Kong, which of the business tycoons didn’t have to give him face?

And now, at an ordinary banquet like this, someone he had never even dealt with before was deliberately provoking him.

He didn’t show much on the surface, but he made a mental note of it.

Soon, evening arrived, and Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi, the president of Nintendo, finally walked in from outside.

By now, there were well over twenty people in the private room.

Originally, Lin Haoran had planned to bring Fok Kin-ning and the others to get acquainted with these tycoons of the Japanese retail industry.

But now, it seemed there was no need.

Judging by the laughter from just now, it was clear these people were, intentionally or not, ostracizing him as an outsider.

When Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi came in, they had already stopped talking about Lin Haoran.

They obviously didn’t want Yamauchi Hiroshi to see, as Lin Haoran was, after all, a guest he had personally invited.

To mock Lin Haoran in front of Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi would be a true sign of disrespect to Nintendo.

At this time, Nintendo’s influence in Japan was quite significant.

“Everyone, thank you for coming…” Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi stood before the crowd and offered some pleasantries.

Then, he clapped his hands, and the door to the private room opened.

Immediately, three tables were wheeled in.

What shocked Lin Haoran the most was that on each of the three mobile tables lay a young woman. And these three young women were completely naked, with sushi placed near the intimate areas of their bodies. The scene couldn’t help but evoke certain inappropriate associations.

Although Lin Haoran was not ignorant of the world—he had indeed heard of the so-called controversial “body sushi feast” online before—seeing it in person still left him utterly shocked and uncomfortable.

Such intense tastes.

In his past life, he’d even heard a rumor that some of these feasts went so far as to use female corpses as serving platters.

However, Lin Haoran carefully observed the young women lying there and noticed that although their eyes were closed, their eyelashes would twitch from time to time. Only then did he feel relieved.

“Mr. Lin, you’ve surely never tried this before, have you? This is a unique way of dining exclusive to our Japan. It’s a clever combination of humanity, nature, art, and cuisine. They must be virgins, with good looks, smooth, fair skin, little body hair, and well-proportioned figures. Their blood type is preferably A. And they’ve all undergone a physical examination before being served. Please, enjoy without worry!” Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi explained proudly.

At this moment, on the three mobile dining tables, the naked young women lay supine, their bodies adorned with delicacies like sushi and sashimi. The distributors had already gathered around them, some even wearing lewd smiles.

What “clever combination of humanity, nature, art, and cuisine” was this?

It was clearly a pornographic performance disguised in cultural garb!

Although he felt repulsed inside, Lin Haoran didn’t show it.

“Japanese culture is truly profound and extensive!” Lin Haoran replied, as if in deep agreement.

“Of course. This is a culture with a long history, passed down since the Edo period, for several hundred years. Only our nation of Japan has such a dining culture. You won’t even find it in China’s culinary world. Mr. Lin, please find a spot and enjoy. Eat as much as you like. When it’s gone, the waiters will add more!” Yamauchi Hiroshi said with a chuckle.

“Boss, these Japanese people are really perverted!” Fok Kin-ning, who was beside him, could no longer hold back and whispered to Lin Haoran in Cantonese.

“I think so too. But, Kin-ning, let’s just do as the Romans do. We just won’t attend next time,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Fok Kin-ning nodded. It was the only thing to do.

Anyway, the one lying up there wasn’t a Chinese girl, but a young Japanese woman.

Although there were over twenty people present, the three dining tables were large enough that there were fewer than ten people around each one.

Lin Haoran led Fok Kin-ning, Zhao Xin, and Sato Shimono to one of the tables.

Sato Shimono seemed completely unfazed, already excitedly picking up a pair of chopsticks and starting to eat sushi.

Lin Haoran and the other two, though a bit uncomfortable, also picked up their chopsticks and took sushi from some of the less sensitive areas.

As for the distributors at the same table, some had already started deliberately picking sushi from sensitive areas, causing brief moments of exposure.

However, a nearby waiter would quickly add more sushi on top.

But these distributors never tired of it, specifically picking sushi from these sensitive areas, with lewd and delighted expressions on their faces.

The young women chosen to be serving platters were clearly handpicked. The one in front of Lin Haoran, while not a world-class beauty, was the demure and lovely type—a very pretty girl.

At this moment, she just lay on the dining table, letting the customers pick food off her body with their chopsticks. Some even deliberately teased her with their chopsticks.

“Boss, I can’t take it anymore. They’re too perverted.” Fok Kin-ning watched the actions of those few lecherous men, having long lost his appetite.

Although he was thirty, Fok Kin-ning came from a wealthy family. On top of that, he had become a senior executive at a young age and naturally wasn’t short on money. If he wanted to find a woman, it would be all too easy.

Therefore, he naturally disdained such behavior.

Zhao Xin, on the other hand, the Hong Konger in a Westerner’s skin, was eating sushi with great interest. However, he didn’t do anything too outrageous, perhaps because his boss was right beside him.

“Just bear with it. After the banquet is over, we’ll go get another meal,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, patting Fok Kin-ning’s shoulder.

Fok Kin-ning nodded. It was the only thing he could do.

Lin Haoran barely touched his chopsticks. Even though the woman before him was a virgin, with so many lecherous men around, he had long since lost his appetite. He just wished for time to pass more quickly.

He understood the principle of doing as the Romans do. The invitation from Nintendo’s president was a gesture of goodwill, and in their culture, this might be a completely normal way of dining. So, he didn’t react excessively.

However, he had already decided that if he ever encountered such a banquet again, he would have to ask clearly in advance. If it was this kind of feast, he would have to refuse.

He certainly wouldn’t mind simply appreciating a beautiful woman. The problem was the few men nearby with their lewd expressions, which made him very uncomfortable.

In a situation like this, how could one have any appetite?

The banquet finally ended at eight o’clock.

During this time, Lin Haoran had barely moved his chopsticks, only picking up a piece of sushi as a token gesture when Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi came over.

“Mr. Lin, were you satisfied with this evening’s banquet? There were many guests, so please forgive me if my hospitality was lacking!” Yamauchi Hiroshi said to Lin Haoran with a smile as the banquet concluded.

“It was quite good. It certainly was an eye-opening experience. Thank you for your generous hospitality, Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi!” Lin Haoran replied politely with a smile.

“I heard that Mr. Lin will be making large-scale investments in Japan. You’ll likely be staying in Japan for a long time. I’m usually in Kyoto, so if you come to Kyoto, you must let me know in advance. I look forward to a private meeting with you, Mr. Lin!” Yamauchi Hiroshi continued.

“Of course. I also look forward to more opportunities for cooperation with you, Mr. Yamauchi Hiroshi!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile and a nod.

After leaving the commercial building, Fok Kin-ning finally seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Boss, how can Japan have such a bizarre dining culture? It’s simply unheard of!” Fok Kin-ning couldn’t help but complain again once they were in the car.

“Yeah, it’s bizarre and intense, but I thought it was very exciting!” Zhao Xin said in agreement.

Lin Haoran just smiled, not continuing the topic. He said, “Let’s go. We’ll get some late-night supper.”

“Boss, I’ll pass. I ate a lot just now, so I’m already full.” Zhao Xin, beside him, naturally knew his boss hadn’t eaten much, but he himself had eaten quite a bit, so he didn’t plan on joining them.

“Alright. Once we’re back near Ginza, I’ll drop you off, and you can head back on your own,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

Hongkong Land Group had currently leased multiple monthly-rental apartments in an apartment building near Ginza, to temporarily house the employees coming over from Hong Kong.

However, after a month, these people would need to find their own places to live. This month was considered a period for them to adapt to life in Tokyo.

Both Zhao Xin and Fok Kin-ning were staying in that apartment building.

Lin Haoran had originally asked Fok Kin-ning to stay at his villa temporarily, but Fok Kin-ning had refused.

Lin Haoran didn’t insist.

After returning to Ginza, Lin Haoran and Fok Kin-ning had another dinner at a Chinese restaurant nearby before heading back to the villa.

It was already around ten o’clock at night by the time he got home.

At home, Lin Haoran made a phone call to Cui Zilong, who was far away in Hong Kong.

Tokyo time was one hour ahead of Hong Kong time, so when it was ten o’clock in Tokyo, it was only nine o’clock in the evening in Hong Kong.

The call was answered quickly.

“General Manager Cui, it’s Lin Haoran.”

“Boss, you’re calling me at night. Do you have any instructions?” Cui Zilong asked.

“Yes, I need you to investigate something for me. Do you know about the 7-Eleven convenience stores from the United States? I need detailed information on them. Get it ready for me as soon as possible,” Lin Haoran stated his purpose directly.

“Understood, Boss. I’ll start the investigation tonight and get back to you as soon as I can,” Cui Zilong readily agreed.

Chapter 497: Preventing 7-Eleven from Becoming a Japanese Brand!

Putting down the phone, Lin Haoran sat back in his lounge chair and began to ponder.

The Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group currently possessed the strongest sales channels in all of Hong Kong, especially Hongkong Land’s subsidiary, Dairy Farm International.

Outside of Hong Kong, however, their sales channels were lacking, with only a little influence in Southeast Asia.

That was why, when he was in the United States, he had specifically invested in Walmart, the future number one retail enterprise in the world.

Now, not only had he invested fifteen million US dollars into the still-developing Walmart, but he had also secretly instructed the Universal Investment Company to continue accumulating its shares.

His goal wasn’t just to capitalize on Walmart’s future stock price surge; he also wanted to have a certain degree of say in the company that would become the world’s top retailer.

With control over such a powerful retail channel, he wouldn’t have to worry about the sales of many of his future products.

After all, although manufacturing and retail were different industries, they were closely intertwined.

As the critical link connecting production and consumption, innovation in the retail industry could expand consumption, foster the growth of the domestic market, and thereby promote the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry.

But laying the groundwork with only Walmart was clearly not enough.

After all, Walmart was primarily focused on supermarkets and hypermarkets.

Another crucial retail channel was, of course, convenience stores.

Having traveled back from the 21st century, Lin Haoran knew very well just how extensive the coverage of convenience stores was in that era.

And 7-Eleven was a supergiant with a presence all over the world.

The company must be quite formidable now, too. I just wonder how much it would cost to acquire it?

In the 21st century, 7-Eleven was a Japanese company, but at this point in time, it should still be an American one.

That was why, when that man from Japan had inexplicably provoked him, Lin Haoran had set his sights on 7-Eleven.

Today’s 7-Eleven might not be as incredible as its 21st-century counterpart, but it was likely still a major player in the industry.

However, the convenience store industry probably hadn’t garnered much attention yet.

This was a great opportunity for Lin Haoran.

At that moment, the helmsman of the Ito-Yokado department store company had no idea that his own words had brought about this misfortune. Originally, Lin Haoran wouldn’t even have thought of targeting 7-Eleven.

After all, there were far too many companies in the world that could become industry giants.

But because the man had inexplicably mocked him, Lin Haoran had suddenly become interested in 7-Eleven.

Although Lin Haoran didn’t know the specific development history of 7-Eleven, since the Japanese branch was controlled by the Ito-Yokado department store company, it was clear that the people in charge of the company in the 1990s, after tasting the sweet fruits of wealth brought by 7-Eleven, had eventually acquired its parent company.

However, in this world, the Ito family clearly wouldn’t get that chance.

7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Lawson, C-Store, Tianfu, Meiyijia, Furong Xingsheng…

After organizing the limited knowledge he had about convenience stores, Lin Haoran washed up and went to bed early.

The next morning, Lin Haoran was woken up by a phone call.

He glanced at the time; it wasn’t even eight o’clock in the morning yet.

Yawning, he got up and picked up the telephone receiver from the nightstand.

“Boss, I’ve already gathered a lot of information on the 7-Eleven convenience store you asked me to investigate, including its history from its founding to the present. 7-Eleven is a relatively well-known company in the United States, so it was easy for us to find the information. Do you have a fax machine over there? If you do, I’ll send the files to you!” Cui Zilong’s voice came from the other end of the line.

“Thank you for your hard work. I have a fax machine in my study. I’ll head there now, please wait a moment,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He was clearly extremely satisfied with this subordinate.

He had given the order just last night, and by the time he woke up, it was already done.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran, still in his pajamas, went directly to the study next door.

Then, he used his fax machine to call Cui Zilong’s.

Once the connection was established, Lin Haoran quickly received a document.

It wasn’t long, only a few pages, but it was enough for Lin Haoran.

His main purpose was simply to understand the current situation of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain.

With the document in hand, Lin Haoran sat down in his study and began to read.

7-Eleven originated in 1927, initially as the Southland Ice Company, with its main business being the retail of ice, milk, and eggs.

In 1946, the Southland company renamed its “Totem” stores to 7-Eleven, and its company name also changed from the Southland Company to the Southland Corporation.

It began offering franchises in 1964.

In the 1970s, Japan entered a period of rapid development and urbanization. Suzuki Toshifumi, then a director at Ito-Yokado, discovered this new type of business, the 7-Eleven convenience store, during a study tour in the United States.

In 1973, Ito-Yokado signed an agreement with the American 7-Eleven to form a joint venture and established the first 7-Eleven franchise store in Japan. The Southland Corporation controlled the logistics system, while Ito-Yokado held the operating rights for the stores.

In just seven years, under Ito-Yokado’s development, the number of 7-Eleven stores in Japan surpassed one thousand, making it the most powerful convenience store giant in the country.

Ito-Yokado, in turn, became one of Japan’s retail giants.

The current Ito-Yokado company was not only involved in the convenience store business but also in large department stores, supermarkets, specialty stores, and discount stores.

In 1979, 7-Eleven entered the Taiwan market, forming a joint venture with Uni-President Enterprises Corporation to create the President Chain Store Corporation.

…

Lin Haoran put down the document. He now had a very deep understanding of 7-Eleven.

Although the current 7-Eleven originated in the United States, it actually only had just over a thousand stores there. In contrast, the expansion speed of 7-Eleven in Japan was terrifying, and it was clear that surpassing the number of American stores would be an effortless task.

Moreover, the document also showed that the number of stores in Japan was still expanding rapidly.

It seemed this Suzuki Toshifumi was truly capable.

Suzuki Toshifumi was actually just a professional manager for the Ito-Yokado company; the company was controlled by the Ito family behind the scenes.

Additionally, Lin Haoran noted that 7-Eleven’s parent company, the Southland Corporation, was not yet a listed company.

Compared to the 7-Eleven of the 21st century, the current iteration was clearly far behind.

This might be his opportunity.

After some thought, Lin Haoran made another phone call.

This time, he called Su Zhixue, who was far away in New York, United States.

At this time, it was seven o’clock in the evening in New York. Knowing Su Zhixue as a family man, Lin Haoran figured he would be at home with his wife and children.

So, he dialed the number to Su Zhixue’s home in the United States.

Before long, the call was answered.

It was Su Zhixue’s Wife who picked up the phone.

Upon learning that it was the Boss calling, Su Zhixue’s Wife quickly called out for her husband.

It wasn’t just Su Zhixue who was deeply grateful to Lin Haoran; his entire family, including his Wife, felt the same way.

After all, they could well imagine what their family’s situation would be like now if not for Lin Haoran.

Back then, they had to borrow money from everywhere to treat their son’s illness, almost reaching a dead end.

Who would have thought that after meeting a boss like Lin Haoran, their family’s circumstances would change so drastically?

“Boss, do you have any instructions for me?” Su Zhixue’s voice soon came through the phone.

“Yes, there is indeed something I need you to handle for me. How are you finding things over there? How is the company doing?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Boss, I’ve adjusted very well to life here. My wife and children are with me, so it makes no difference to me whether I’m in Hong Kong or the United States…”

Next, Su Zhixue reported on the company’s progress in accumulating shares of various enterprises, including Walmart, Intel, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, Citibank, and Chevron.

Lin Haoran paid special attention to Walmart. Currently, in addition to his original 10% stake from the capital investment, Universal Investment Company also held 8.7% of the shares.

This meant Lin Haoran effectively controlled 18.7% of Walmart’s shares.

He also learned from Su Zhixue that after receiving Lin Haoran’s fifteen million US dollar investment, Walmart had launched an acquisition of the BigK department store chain, and it had been very successful.

After successfully acquiring the BigK department store chain, Walmart became the second-largest department store company in the United States, with over 350 stores, second only to the Kmart Corporation.

These were not convenience stores but large supermarkets, and expanding each one was very difficult.

Therefore, even though Walmart currently had just over 350 stores, it was far more powerful than 7-Eleven’s parent company, the Southland Corporation.

After the merger and acquisition of the BigK department store chain, Walmart’s stock price had risen, so the cost of accumulating its stock was now much higher than at the beginning. This was unavoidable, and Lin Haoran understood.

Besides Walmart, the progress of stock accumulation for Intel, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil, Citibank, and Chevron varied.

The process was particularly slow for the two oil companies, ExxonMobil and Chevron.

After all, American oil companies were currently making a huge profit from the oil crisis, naturally attracting a large number of shareholders.

However, Lin Haoran didn’t mind. It didn’t matter how much they accumulated. The investments in the United States were mainly long-term, and these things couldn’t be rushed.

On the other hand, the acquisition of Coca-Cola stock was going rather smoothly. To date, they had gained control of 2.35% of Coca-Cola’s shares.

Though it was only 2.35%, Coca-Cola’s market capitalization was currently as high as four billion US dollars. The 2.35% of shares in Lin Haoran’s hands were worth nearly one hundred million US dollars at market price.

One could say that 10% of Walmart’s current market cap was less valuable than 1% of Coca-Cola’s.

Lin Haoran was not at all worried about Coca-Cola’s stock price. This stock was incredibly resilient, even during a stock market crash, and it continued to grow rapidly.

For example, by the end of 1987, even after the stock market crash in October of that year had caused many other stocks to plummet, Coca-Cola’s market capitalization continued to rise, reaching 14.1 billion US dollars by then.

Moreover, Coca-Cola’s annual dividends were also very generous.

This was perhaps one of the reasons its stock price kept rising. As a giant in consumer goods, Coca-Cola’s sales rarely dropped, no matter how bad the public’s living conditions were.

Of course, compared to Coca-Cola, Walmart’s growth potential was clearly greater.

Therefore, Lin Haoran placed more importance on Walmart’s stock.

Buying stocks wasn’t just about blindly purchasing; one had to watch the market trends and avoid being noticed by others.

After listening to Su Zhixue’s report, Lin Haoran was very satisfied.

With a subordinate like Su Zhixue, who had 100% loyalty, he naturally had no worries about the situation at Universal Investment Company.

“Boss, I’ve reported pretty much everything I needed to,” Su Zhixue said finally.

“Alright. The reason I called, besides checking on your situation, is that I have another task for you. Do you know of the Southland Corporation in America? It’s the parent company of 7-Eleven,” Lin Haoran stated his purpose.

He was going to acquire the Southland Corporation directly, acquire 7-Eleven, and prevent the company from ever becoming a Japanese brand!

Chapter 498: Hiring a Personal Female Secretary

“Southland Corporation? Boss, I’ve heard of them. And 7-Eleven convenience stores are all over New York,” Su Zhixue replied.

“Good. In that case, I need you to do something for me. Go find Mr. Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank, and commission them to help us acquire Southland Corporation for a suitable price. Notify me immediately as soon as there are any new developments,” Lin Haoran continued.

The current market capitalization of Southland Corporation was certainly far less than Walmart’s, so in Lin Haoran’s view, acquiring it shouldn’t be too difficult or expensive.

Even Walmart’s market cap was only around two hundred million US dollars at this time.

It would be difficult for Su Zhixue to negotiate directly with Southland Corporation, as that wasn’t his area of expertise.

But if Citibank stepped in, things would be much simpler. It would only cost an extra service fee in the end, and Citibank was a professional in this field.

Furthermore, his relationship with Mr. Walter Wriston was quite good. Given the large sum of money he currently had deposited with Citibank, Wriston would surely do his utmost to handle this matter well to maintain their relationship.

It wasn’t a free job anyway; Citibank would collect a handsome commission upon completion.

Having a corporation like Citibank, which excelled at capital manipulation, handle the task would yield twice the result with half the effort.

This was why Lin Haoran had asked Su Zhixue to approach Citibank for the negotiations.

“Alright, I understand, Boss. But Boss, Southland Corporation is not a listed company, so its value is difficult to assess. Do you have a target price in mind?” Su Zhixue asked.

“Have Citibank assess their value first, then have them proceed with the negotiations. As long as the value doesn’t exceed one hundred million US dollars, it’s negotiable,” Lin Haoran said after a moment of thought.

Currently, Walmart’s market capitalization was only about two hundred million US dollars. Surely Southland Corporation wasn’t worth half as much as Walmart, right?

Lin Haoran vaguely remembered an article from his past life stating that 7-Eleven’s market capitalization was over two hundred billion yuan.

Compared to other companies, this market cap wasn’t particularly high, but Lin Haoran valued its distribution channel strength as much as its monetary worth.

Controlling this convenience store giant was equivalent to controlling an entire sales channel.

“Understood, Boss. I’ll handle this for you as soon as possible,” Su Zhixue said with a nod.

In this matter, he was merely acting as a guarantor, representing Lin Haoran and delegating a task to Citibank.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran returned to his room, freshened up, and changed into a formal suit.

He was still going to the office today.

After breakfast, Lin Haoran left the house.

Most of the newspapers here were in Japanese, with only a few in English. Since he couldn’t read Japanese, Lin Haoran couldn’t be bothered to read the papers at home.

By the time he arrived at the company, it was already nine-thirty in the morning.

The employees were already deep in their work.

Their business here had to be built almost from scratch, so the employees’ workload was currently immense.

Although the company hadn’t officially launched yet, Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch was already registered.

“Boss, there’s something I wanted to discuss with you. I was thinking of renaming the building to Hongkong Land Tower. What do you think?” Fok Kin-ning said, standing up from his seat as Lin Haoran walked into the office.

“Good. Since we’ve acquired this building, it’s only natural that we change its name to our own. Please take care of this as soon as possible,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

Changing a building’s name might seem like a small thing, but it must be handled with care as it requires an application to the relevant authorities.

A building’s name is closely linked to maps, especially for a landmark. Frequent name changes can cause confusion for map navigation and make it difficult for the public to find.

However, as long as the proper procedures were followed, it wasn’t a problem.

“Also, tomorrow afternoon, Mr. Zhao Xin and I will be attending an auction to secure a few plots of land we’ve been eyeing. Would you like to join us, Boss?” Fok Kin-ning continued.

“An auction? It’s fine, you can make the decisions. I won’t be attending,” Lin Haoran replied, shaking his head.

He was already aware of the auction; in fact, he was the one who had designated those specific plots to be acquired.

His presence at the auction wouldn’t necessarily make a difference, so he didn’t plan on going.

“Additionally, there’s one more thing. I’ve noticed that our Wellcome supermarkets are actually performing quite well here in Tokyo. The problem is that we have too few stores—only three at the moment. The costs are relatively high here, so profits are low. Therefore, I plan to expand the Wellcome supermarket chain.

“I also plan to expand Mannings. Japan’s consumer market is massive, with high population density mostly concentrated in large cities. The rent here is slightly lower than in Hong Kong, so the cost of opening stores isn’t too high. My strategy is to seize the market quickly,” Fok Kin-ning continued.

Apparently, it wasn’t just Lin Haoran who was annoyed with Mr. Ito from the previous night; Fok Kin-ning now also had ideas about focusing on the retail sector.

“Yes, I agree with rapidly seizing the market, but we can’t expand blindly. Site selection must be done with extreme care. We don’t want to end up with a lot of stores that are losing money. That would be pointless,” Lin Haoran offered his opinion.

“Rest assured, Boss. Not only have I been closely monitoring the Tokyo real estate market, but I’ve also conducted in-depth research on Japan’s consumer market. I plan to hire a seasoned local industry expert to specifically manage the operations of Wellcome and Mannings.

“They are more familiar with the Japanese market. Based on that, we can assemble a professional site selection team focused on precision. This way, we can expand our business rapidly while effectively mitigating the risks of disorganized expansion,” Fok Kin-ning said, having clearly given the matter thorough consideration.

“Good. If you have a plan, feel free to implement it. Though the Hongkong Land Group’s business in Japan is just starting, our advantage is that we have ample capital. These four billion Hong Kong dollars are more than enough for you to make your mark here. I trust you won’t disappoint me,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Just then, the phone in Fok Kin-ning’s office rang.

He picked up the telephone receiver, spoke for a few moments, and then put it down.

“Boss, that was Mr. Sato. He said that the Ito-Yokado department stores near our three Wellcome supermarkets in Tokyo are running another big promotion. This time, it’s clearly targeting our supermarkets.

“Aside from the Ito-Yokado stores near our three Wellcome locations, none of their other stores are running this promotion. Based on their sale prices, if our Wellcome supermarkets match them, we won’t make any money.

“But it’s a different story for Ito-Yokado. They have over a dozen department stores in Tokyo and control over a thousand 7-Eleven convenience stores across Japan, so their procurement costs are extremely low,” Fok Kin-ning turned and explained to Lin Haoran.

“This Ito is truly relentless,” Lin Haoran said with a frown.

Even if Wellcome had engaged in price wars with them before, that was just normal business competition. Was there a need to be so targeted?

He couldn’t understand it. All he did was attend a Nintendo banquet. It was one thing for the other party to be unwilling to associate with him, but why were they specifically targeting him?

After a moment’s thought, Lin Haoran said, “Don’t match their prices. Let them cut their prices if they want. It’s inevitable that business will be slow for a few days, but I already have a countermeasure. I’ll tell you about it when I have more news in a couple of days.”

He was, of course, referring to the acquisition of Southland Corporation. Once that was successful, he would have a way to deal with the Ito family.

It was only three Wellcome supermarkets. Even if they lost money for a year, it wouldn’t cost him much, so Lin Haoran wasn’t particularly concerned for the time being.

“Understood, Boss!” Although Fok Kin-ning didn’t know what plan Lin Haoran was referring to, since his boss said he had a solution, he naturally believed him.

In Fok Kin-ning’s eyes, his boss was an absolute prodigy, possessing more business talent than anyone else in the world.

After chatting with Fok Kin-ning for a while, Lin Haoran left him to his work.

The Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch was still in its early stages in Tokyo, and Fok Kin-ning had far too much to handle.

Next to Fok Kin-ning’s office, Lin Haoran had also set aside a personal office for himself.

Although he didn’t have much work to do here, he couldn’t just linger in Fok Kin-ning’s office and disrupt his work.

Moreover, he could also use the office to receive important figures who came to visit.

During this time, Lin Haoran also noticed a steady stream of people coming in for interviews.

The team brought over from Hong Kong was far from sufficient.

The company here was in dire need of talented people.

Naturally, top-tier talent was interviewed by Fok Kin-ning himself.

“Boss, I just interviewed a senior executive who recently resigned from Mitsui Fudosan. He knows the Japanese real estate industry like the back of his hand. He decided to resign after he saw no hope for promotion there. After the interview, I was very impressed with him. I plan to appoint him as the head of the property department,” Fok Kin-ning came over to report to Lin Haoran after interviewing a middle-aged man.

“Alright. Since you believe he is capable, you can make the decision,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

Lin Haoran was, of course, very familiar with Mitsui Fudosan. It was a mogul in the Japanese real estate world. Its parent company, the Mitsui Group, along with the Mitsubishi Group and the Sumitomo Group, were known as the Three Great Economic Groups of Japan.

Anyone who could be a senior executive at Mitsui Fudosan was undoubtedly highly capable.

“By the way, help me hire a female secretary. It doesn’t matter if she speaks Chinese, but she must be fluent in English, highly educated, and have a good appearance. I’ll conduct the final interview,” Lin Haoran added after some thought.

Back in Hong Kong, he had no need for a secretary, as all his work was handled by his subordinates. Hiring a female secretary for him would have been redundant.

But in Japan, it was a completely different story. He knew nothing about the country, couldn’t even read Japanese, and could only speak English and Chinese when he was out and about, which was extremely inconvenient in Japan.

Therefore, it was necessary for him to hire a personal female secretary to follow him and handle various matters.

“Of course, Boss. I’ll inform the headhunting firm. They should be able to find a suitable candidate for you very quickly,” Fok Kin-ning agreed.

Lin Haoran stayed at the company until evening before leaving.

The social order here was rather complex, so he naturally wouldn’t wander around aimlessly when he had nothing to do. There was no need.

Chapter 499: Akina Nakamori, A Plan to Cultivate a Young Star

Night fell, yet the streets near Ginza only grew more lively.

The area downstairs from the building the Hongkong Land Group had just acquired was no exception.

Outside the main entrance of the building, the sidewalks were packed with people, bustling and vibrant, like a flowing ribbon of color shimmering under the glow of the neon lights.

The illuminated signs of the shops competed for attention, adorning the street with an air of both prosperity and modernity.

Tonight, Lin Haoran was in no hurry to leave by car. Instead, he walked out onto the main street.

Li Weidong and Li Weiguo flanked him, vigilantly scanning their surroundings.

A dozen shadow guards were dispersed among the crowd, ready to respond to any sudden incidents.

A Japanese driver who could speak English also followed behind Lin Haoran, serving as a temporary translator.

As he had not yet found a personal secretary, this would have to do for now.

However, to be honest, although several media outlets had reported on his visit to Japan in the first few days and his name had appeared in the newspapers, not many people in Japan actually recognized him.

After all, Lin Haoran’s influence had not yet reached this far.

The businesses under his name had very little presence in Japan.

Therefore, practically no one paid him any attention.

Most people simply saw him as an ordinary young man.

Thus, he was quite safe.

The prosperity of Tokyo’s Ginza was somewhat reminiscent of the lively atmosphere of Hong Kong’s Mong Kok, but the goods here were primarily high-end luxury items, which should have made it comparable to the opulent ambiance of Central.

However, unlike the towering skyscrapers of Central, the main buildings in Ginza were mostly low-rises of a few to a dozen stories, presenting a unique urban landscape.

Walking along the streets of Ginza, Lin Haoran soon noticed a restaurant specializing in Chinese cuisine. From the outside, the interior decoration looked quite luxurious, clearly a high-end Chinese establishment.

This was a rare sight.

He hadn’t actually noticed it before.

Tokyo’s Chinatown was in Ikebukuro, so most Chinese restaurants were concentrated there.

This era was unlike the 21st century when Chinese restaurants could be found in every district of Tokyo.

So, Lin Haoran led his bodyguards inside.

Lin Haoran, Li Weidong, and Li Weiguo sat at one table, while the other shadow guard bodyguards took a few tables of their own.

Lin Haoran had long ago instructed his bodyguards that wherever he ate when they were out, they were to eat at the same restaurant. He would reimburse all their expenses.

He treated his bodyguards as equals, without any special treatment, which in turn made them more dedicated to their duties.

Although the restaurant was luxuriously decorated, there were not many customers.

The sudden arrival of more than a dozen guests prompted the owner to come out and greet them personally.

“Boss, where are you from?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile in Chinese.

Hearing the familiar language, the restaurant owner warmed up.

The owner was a young man who looked to be under thirty.

In their conversation, Lin Haoran learned that the man’s ancestral home was in Northeast China. His father’s generation had moved here to do business decades ago and, over the years, had accumulated a certain amount of wealth.

Given the fierce competition among the many Chinese restaurants in the Ikebukuro area, the young owner had spared no expense to open his restaurant in the bustling district of Ginza.

However, business had never been as good as he had hoped. While it wasn’t losing money, the profits were quite limited, making him regret his initial decision.

It turned out that the main clientele in Ginza consisted of business elites, the wealthy, and foreign tourists. The number of Chinese tourists was relatively small, and they were mostly from Hong Kong and Taiwan. When they wanted Chinese food, they tended to go to Ikebukuro, where the Chinese community was more concentrated.

This was why business at this Chinese restaurant was only mediocre.

Lin Haoran ordered a few dishes from Northeast China, and they were truly delicious.

The restaurant was less than a hundred meters from the Hongkong Land branch office. In the future, if he craved Chinese food, he could come here for a change of pace.

After dinner, Lin Haoran left the restaurant and was about to head back to the building.

Just then, a young girl busking on the roadside with a guitar caught his attention.

The girl had a pure and lovely appearance, her long, soft hair swaying gently in the wind as she immersed herself in her song.

Not many passersby stopped to listen, mainly because although her voice was sweet, it was somewhat immature, and the song she had chosen did not suit her age.

There were many street performers in Ginza, but this particular girl drew his attention because her face was so familiar to him.

Akina Nakamori, who would become one of Asia’s most influential female singers in the future.

She was a goddess in the eyes of many!

And here she was now, playing a guitar and busking on the streets of Ginza?

From her appearance, she looked no older than eighteen.

However, Lin Haoran couldn’t be entirely sure if the girl before him was actually Akina Nakamori.

What if she just bore a striking resemblance?

Lin Haoran stood in front of the street performer, carefully observing the young girl.

Her features were exquisite, as if carved from jade. Her gentle smile revealed charming dimples, adding a touch of sweetness and tenderness to her look.

With her waterfall of black hair and lightly parted pink lips, her face possessed a kind of refined and ethereal beauty, fragile and delicate, that one couldn’t help but feel a desire to protect.

Even though he had met many beautiful women in Hong Kong—for instance, Rosamund Kwan, a peerless beauty of Hong Kong, was now his woman—the girl before him possessed a different kind of beauty.

It was a stunning sight.

After finishing a song, the girl finally noticed that a young man with an extraordinary air had appeared before her at some point.

Lin Haoran smiled, took a one-thousand-Japanese-yen bill from his pocket, and gently placed it in the iron box in front of her. He followed this with a round of applause, a gesture of his appreciation.

The act brought an instant, joyous smile to the girl’s face. She quickly stood up and bowed repeatedly to Lin Haoran in thanks.

Although others had tipped her, the highest denomination in her box had been a one-hundred-yen coin. A sudden one-thousand-yen tip—how could she not be excited?

“Can you ask her what her name is?” Lin Haoran said to the English-speaking driver beside him.

He wanted to confirm if this was the ‘national goddess’ he thought he knew.

The driver immediately began speaking with the young girl. Soon, he reported back, “Boss, the girl’s name is Akina Nakamori. She’s a student.”

The driver’s words finally confirmed it for Lin Haoran. He hadn’t been mistaken.

Compared to the mature charm of the future Akina Nakamori, the present one possessed an innocent beauty.

As a transmigrator, and a super-rich one at that, Lin Haoran could have almost anything he wanted.

As a normal man, he had a natural interest in women who were both famous and beautiful.

The Akina Nakamori before him was clearly one of them.

However, as it was the early 1980s, there were very few female stars in Hong Kong who currently piqued his interest.

Many of the future Hong Kong film goddesses like Vivian Chow, Joey Wong, and Michelle Reis were still too young.

And Zhao Yazhi, a goddess of Hong Kong film, was already married.

This was why, of the many Hong Kong film goddesses, he had only taken Rosamund Kwan so far. He felt rather helpless about it.

In a few more years, he would have plenty of opportunities for romance.

Holding control of the Oriental Daily News and being a major shareholder of TVB, Lin Haoran was undoubtedly a powerful figure in the Hong Kong entertainment industry.

With his status, if he took a fancy to a particular artist, he probably only needed to give a slight hint to get what he wanted.

The problem was, Lin Haoran didn’t speak Japanese, and this future superstar, this ‘national goddess’, clearly didn’t speak Chinese or English, making it difficult for them to communicate.

“Ask her why she’s busking here,” Lin Haoran continued to instruct the driver.

The driver once again spoke with Akina Nakamori.

Soon, Lin Haoran learned the reason.

It turned out that Akina Nakamori had dreamed of being a singer since she was a child. Her family was very poor; she had two older siblings and a younger sister. To improve her family’s financial situation, she was determined to become a singer from a young age.

At thirteen, she participated in a variety show audition, Nippon Television’s “Star Tanjō!”, but the judges eliminated her, feeling the song was inappropriate for her age.

At fifteen, Akina Nakamori entered the competition again but was once more defeated, with the judges deeming her performance not in line with her age.

Unwilling to give up, Akina Nakamori came up with the idea of busking at night. It allowed her to practice her singing and also earn a little money on the side, like a part-time job.

Now, at sixteen, Akina Nakamori was determined to persevere and was preparing to try out for the show again in a few months.

After learning about Akina Nakamori’s current situation, Lin Haoran had a moment of a sudden realization.

The girl before him absolutely had the potential to be a superstar; the future had already proven that.

But who could have imagined that a future national goddess would have had such a difficult path before her debut?

Short on money?

That made things simple.

At that moment, he had an idea—a plan to cultivate a young star.

To become a legendary pop queen and superstar, Akina Nakamori clearly had immense talent in this area.

Even if Lin Haoran weren’t taken with her beauty, he knew how valuable she was.

Sign her. He had to sign her. If he nurtured her, then this future goddess would be under his control.

And nurturing her? Wouldn’t that be easy?

“Tell her that our Hongkong Land Group has a long-term part-time job for a print ad model. If she’s interested, she can come find me at the office tomorrow. I’ll arrange it for her,” Lin Haoran said to his temporary translator.

Tomorrow was Saturday, so he figured she should have the time.

As the driver translated Lin Haoran’s words, a look of delight appeared on Akina Nakamori’s face.

Chapter 500: Seventy Million US Dollars to Acquire the Parent Company of 7-Eleven!

Nowadays, the Hongkong Land Group’s office building was something of a landmark in the Ginza area.

Besides, Akina Nakamori’s location was only a few dozen meters from the building; he just had to point, and she knew where it was.

Therefore, upon learning that Lin Haoran’s company was in that building, Akina Nakamori had no fear of being deceived.

Besides, she felt that given her family’s circumstances, there was nothing for anyone to deceive her out of.

This young woman, inexperienced with the ways of the world, accepted Lin Haoran’s invitation just like that.

After bidding her farewell, Lin Haoran didn’t linger. He returned to the building’s underground parking garage, got in his car, and drove back to his residence.

In the blink of an eye, another night passed.

Today was February 14th, Valentine’s Day.

By his calculations, it had been a week since he had come to Japan.

However, since neither Rosamund Kwan nor Guo Xiaohan was in Japan, the day was just an ordinary one for Lin Haoran.

Although it was a Saturday, the employees of the Hongkong Land Group were all at work today.

With almost all their operations under development, their workload was immense. If they followed a two-day weekend schedule every week, it would undoubtedly be very detrimental to the Hongkong Land Group’s growth here.

When Lin Haoran arrived at the company, Fok Kin-ning and the others were already deep into their intense work.

Seeing Lin Haoran enter the office, Fok Kin-ning put down his work to greet him.

“Boss, regarding your request to hire a personal secretary, I’ve already spoken with the headhunting firm. They will screen candidates and recommend the shortlisted ones to our company for an interview. Once they find suitable candidates, I will notify you immediately so you can interview them personally!” Fok Kin-ning continued after the greeting.

Lin Haoran nodded. “This needs to be done as soon as possible!”

His biggest obstacle in Japan was the language barrier.

Although the English-language proficiency rate was high due to Japan’s rapid economic development, he occasionally encountered people who didn’t speak English, which made communication difficult.

As for finding a Japanese person who could speak Chinese, that was even more difficult.

“Yes, Boss, I understand. Rest assured, this headhunting firm is the largest in Japan and has the country’s most extensive human resources. A position like a secretary isn’t hard to find. We should have a list of candidates in two or three days!” Fok Kin-ning said with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded. After chatting with Fok Kin-ning in the office for a few moments, he left not to disturb his work and returned to his own office.

At ten in the morning, Lin Haoran finally received a call from Su Zhixue.

At that time, it was already evening in the United States.

After two days, there was finally news about the attempt to acquire Southland Corporation, the parent company of 7-Eleven convenience store.

As expected, as soon as the call connected, Su Zhixue eagerly reported, “Boss, after receiving your instructions, I immediately contacted Mr. Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank, and entrusted the acquisition matter to him.

“Mr. Walter was very willing to assist us and promised to do his utmost to make it happen. As for the commission, they considered their multiple collaborations with you and initially intended to waive it. However, following your wishes, I negotiated a commission of one percent of the transaction price, to be paid upon completion of the deal.

“Subsequently, Citibank reported that the owner of Southland Corporation initially had no intention of selling, but after their persuasion, the other party was willing to sell for a price of eighty million US dollars.

“I personally believe this price is a bit high, as Citibank’s valuation of Southland Corporation is between sixty and seventy million US dollars. Therefore, Citibank’s negotiations with Southland Corporation are still ongoing.

“And just a short while ago, I received another call from Citibank. They told me that Southland Corporation is now willing to sell for seventy million US dollars. I called you immediately to hear your opinion and see if this price is acceptable.”

Seventy million US dollars?

This price was much lower than Lin Haoran had imagined.

Converted to Hong Kong dollars, it was only a little over three hundred million.

Evidently, people did not yet understand the potential of convenience stores.

To be able to acquire the convenience store tycoon of this era at such a low price was wonderful news!

“Good, I agree to this deal. As soon as possible, sign the acquisition agreement with Southland Corporation in the name of Universal Investment Company. Are the funds sufficient? If not, I’ll have the finance department transfer more to the company’s account,” Lin Haoran said.

The person in control of Southland Corporation was clearly reluctant to sell. He just didn’t know what methods Citibank had used to persuade the other party.

However, Lin Haoran couldn’t be bothered with that. For him, acquiring Southland Corporation was all that mattered; the rest was irrelevant.

By now, 7-Eleven convenience store had already taken shape, with stores covering the United States, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, and other places, totaling over three thousand outlets.

Although its scale was still small compared to the more than eighty thousand 7-Eleven stores of later generations, it was already a behemoth among convenience store brands of this era.

Most critically, Lin Haoran placed great importance on 7-Eleven’s powerful logistics system.

The reason 7-Eleven was able to expand so rapidly in Japan was not only due to the Japanese social environment being extremely suitable for convenience stores, but more importantly, the outstanding capability its logistics system demonstrated in Japan.

If not for that, Ito-Yokado Company alone would have struggled to capture the market so quickly.

Its core competitive advantage lay in that highly efficient logistics system; otherwise, with such high costs, 7-Eleven would have found it difficult to maintain such a rapid pace of expansion.

And both the naming rights for 7-Eleven and its logistics system were controlled by the American Southland Corporation.

Therefore, once Lin Haoran acquired Southland Corporation, he would not only control numerous self-operated 7-Eleven convenience stores but also its logistics system and even all of its patents.

“Yes, Boss, the company’s current financial situation is very robust, you can rest assured. Several companies we invested in last year performed exceptionally well, with dividend income alone reaching several million US dollars.

“Combined with the capital reserve you personally left in Universal Investment Company and the funds from the previous sale of Apple Inc. equity, our financial health remains very strong, even after the recent stock accumulation.

“Currently, the company has over one hundred million US dollars in its accounts. Acquiring Southland Corporation is not a problem at all. If we face a funding gap later, I will report to you immediately.

“As for Southland Corporation, I will accelerate the acquisition process and strive to sign the contract with them as soon as possible to gain full control of the company!” Su Zhixue responded swiftly.

As a private company, the acquisition process for Southland Corporation was more direct and efficient than for a listed company.

As long as the other party agreed to sell, the subsequent steps would be relatively simple.

“Mm, very good. I’ll leave this matter entirely in your hands. I look forward to your good news!” Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction, then hung up the phone.

Lin Haoran already had a plan for the future of 7-Eleven convenience store.

He intended to first move the headquarters to Japan to accelerate 7-Eleven’s development here.

Once 7-Eleven’s development in Japan had matured, he would then move the company headquarters to Hong Kong, making Hong Kong its base.

Moving the 7-Eleven headquarters to Hong Kong at this stage would certainly be detrimental to the company’s future development.

After all, Hong Kong didn’t even have a single 7-Eleven store yet, and 7-Eleven already had many competitors in Japan.

As for the United States, the development potential for convenience stores was clearly not as great as in East Asia and Southeast Asia.

Otherwise, the number of 7-Eleven stores in Japan wouldn’t be on the verge of surpassing the count in the US so quickly.

Lin Haoran himself was surprised at how smoothly the acquisition of Southland Corporation was proceeding.

Indeed, having a capital magnate like Citibank as an important part of his personal network was a great advantage.

Otherwise, even if he had sent Fok Kin-ning to negotiate, they might not have been able to secure the deal.

After all, Lin Haoran guessed that the ultimate reason the person in control of Southland Corporation chose to sell was entirely as a favor to Citibank.

If his own people had gone to negotiate, it would not have gone so smoothly unless he had been willing to offer a price far above market value.

At this moment, Ito-Yokado Company here in Japan probably couldn’t imagine that the owner of the 7-Eleven brand had quietly changed.

And Ito-Yokado Company’s hopes of acquiring the 7-Eleven brand were now doomed to fail.

Not long after he hung up, a front desk employee knocked and entered.

“Boss, there’s a young lady here to see you. She says you asked her to come.”

This female receptionist was a local hire, recruited from another company. She was fluent in English and skilled at dealing with people.

However, while her talents and insights might be outstanding among ordinary people, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, she was still lacking.

That was why Lin Haoran didn’t think she was suitable to be his personal secretary; otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of recruiting someone else.

As for the young lady the receptionist mentioned, it was obvious that it had to be Akina Nakamori.

“Yes, show her in,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

Soon, Akina Nakamori was brought into the office.

“You stay here as well and help me translate for now,” Lin Haoran said, stopping the receptionist just as she was about to leave.

She was taken aback for a moment and stopped in her tracks.

Meanwhile, Akina Nakamori, who had just entered, was feeling a little anxious.

She had already found out that this company was the owner of the entire building.

In Akina Nakamori’s view, what kind of powerful boss owned a whole building like this?

She could hardly imagine it!

However, she was ultimately a girl inexperienced with the world. Though she was nervous, her eyes couldn’t help but wander around, taking in Lin Haoran’s office.

When she saw the young man from last night, she couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

It turned out that this young man, who was clearly not Japanese, hadn’t deceived her last night.

Chapter 501: A Successful 52 Billion Bid

Lin Haoran sat in his chair, gazing at the vibrant, youthful girl before him, his heart filled with a myriad of emotions.

Even he hadn’t expected to be so fortunate as to run into Akina Nakamori before her debut, just by casually strolling down the street.

Her beauty was truly undeniable.

No wonder Akina Nakamori’s looks were so widely recognized in his past life. Seeing her in person, one could more clearly perceive her delicate, melancholic, and innocent qualities, which were enough to make anyone want to cherish her.

Her face was like a finely carved piece of jade. Her features were exquisite; her eyes, though not large, had beautifully shaped double eyelids. Her brows were set wide apart, her nose had a smooth, elegant line, and her lips were full. The overall impression was that of a fragile porcelain doll.

In the entertainment industry, good looks were clearly a way to get one’s foot in the door.

Otherwise, why would the entertainment industry be filled with so many beautiful women?

“Ask her if her dream is to become a famous star,” Lin Haoran said, looking at the receptionist and smiling as he asked her to translate.

In his previous life, Lin Haoran had seen an interview with Akina Nakamori where she mentioned that her childhood dream was to become a singer and enter the entertainment industry. Her mother had told her it was a way to make a lot of money and change their family’s impoverished situation.

The fact that Akina Nakamori was busking last night to save up for another variety show audition, as well as working part-time, showed that she was completely focused on getting into the entertainment industry. It also indicated that her family’s financial situation was still very poor.

The receptionist faithfully translated her boss’s words into Japanese for Akina Nakamori.

After listening, Akina Nakamori nodded emphatically and said in Japanese, “That is my dream. I hope to become a top singer!”

“You probably don’t know who I am, do you? If I told you I could turn you into one of Japan’s top singers, would you believe me?” Lin Haoran continued with a smile.

After the receptionist translated, Akina Nakamori was taken aback for a moment.

This young boss in front of her could turn her into one of Japan’s top singers?

Her first reaction was disbelief.

Lin Haoran saw her expression and knew what she was thinking.

But it didn’t matter. There was no rush.

In truth, upon seeing this top superstar of Asian entertainment from his past life, he simply felt the desire to control her.

Men, after all, generally had the same interests: a love for money and beautiful women.

Akina Nakamori was, without a doubt, a first-class beauty.

As it was, he had more money than he could spend in a lifetime, even if he never worked again.

So, he couldn’t just keep making money forever. That would be too boring. He had to find something interesting to do.

And now, controlling this future goddess of Asia seemed like an interesting endeavor.

Besides, Akina Nakamori wouldn’t be the last.

“You’ll learn about my identity in due time, so let’s set that topic aside for now.

Last night, I mentioned that I want you to be a long-term print ad model for our company. Since you’re here today, you must be interested in the position, or you wouldn’t have come.

Our company is headquartered in Hong Kong. We’re a highly diversified enterprise involved in many industries. I even have newspapers and a television station under my control.

The company has just entered the Japanese market, focusing on real estate and retail for now. These sectors require a great deal of advertising.

And I believe your image perfectly fits my criteria for a print ad model, which is why I extended this invitation to you.

As for compensation, I’ll give you two options. First, you can become a signed artist for our company with a monthly salary of two hundred thousand Japanese yen. You would only need to come to the company for a certain amount of time each week;

Second, you can work as a freelance model, participating only when there’s a photoshoot. For each session, I’ll pay you the standard market rate for print models.

You can think it over carefully, or perhaps discuss it with your parents. This building you’re standing in currently belongs entirely to our company, so you don’t have to worry about me deceiving you,” Lin Haoran added with a smile.

Two hundred thousand Japanese yen wasn’t much—only about five thousand Hong Kong dollars.

But for a girl from a poor family like Akina Nakamori, it was an incredibly tempting offer.

Lin Haoran had been in Japan for some time and was already familiar with the salary situation in Tokyo.

As a developed city, Tokyo’s wages were decent, but they were still slightly lower than in Hong Kong.

Currently, the average salary in Tokyo was only around one hundred and fifty thousand Japanese yen, and men often earned more than women.

And for recent graduates entering the workforce, if they went to work in a factory, their salary would only be around one hundred thousand Japanese yen.

Therefore, a monthly salary of two hundred thousand Japanese yen was highly enticing, especially for a girl like Akina Nakamori, who hadn’t even graduated and came from a modest background. Lin Haoran was confident she would take the bait.

Once she signed this contract, Akina Nakamori would basically be in the palm of his hand.

The receptionist looked surprised.

She never thought the boss would place so much importance on this young girl.

Her own salary was only two hundred thousand Japanese yen, and that was due to her extensive professional experience.

In contrast, from what was just said, she understood that the girl before her hadn’t even graduated from school yet.

So, she now wore a very envious expression.

Despite her envy, she faithfully translated every word of the boss’s offer to Akina Nakamori.

And when she heard the figure of two hundred thousand Japanese yen, Lin Haoran could clearly see the unconcealable shock and excitement in Akina Nakamori’s eyes.

Just as Lin Haoran had observed, Akina Nakamori felt as if she were in a dream.

She had never imagined that a chance encounter could bring her such a huge opportunity.

Two hundred thousand Japanese yen was an astronomical sum for a girl like her, who came from a poor family and had yet to make her debut.

This money could drastically improve her family’s financial situation.

Her family was already of modest means, and with many sisters, their annual tuition fees alone were a heavy burden.

Failing to advance after two consecutive attempts at the variety audition show had indeed been a major blow to her.

But she hadn’t given up on her dream, because she felt that show was her only chance to debut. She was planning to try again in a few months.

But now, faced with the figure of two hundred thousand Japanese yen, her heart was stirred. This was a sure thing!

In comparison, trying to stand out in a variety audition show was far too difficult.

Right now, her only uncertainty was whether she would have any potential for future growth if she agreed to this young man’s offer and became a signed artist for his company.

Because she knew nothing about Lin Haoran’s background.

Lin Haoran wasn’t very well-known among the general public in Japan, let alone to a student like Akina Nakamori, who didn’t pay much attention to the news media.

“By the way, if you want to know more about me, you can look for the newspapers from February 8th, like the Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, or Mainichi Shimbun. There should be reports about me in them. After you’ve read them, you’ll probably believe me. I can see you’re still hesitant, so why don’t you go home and discuss it with your parents first? There’s no need to rush a decision. When you’ve made up your mind, you can come find me anytime,” Lin Haoran continued with a smile.

On the day he arrived in Tokyo, these famous Japanese media outlets had followed the Foreign Minister to greet him at the airport and had briefly interviewed him.

The next day, February 8th, these news outlets all reported on his arrival, and some newspapers even provided a special introduction to his background.

“Okay, I will go home and think about it carefully!” Hearing that she didn’t have to decide right away, Akina Nakamori breathed a sigh of relief.

This was indeed a major decision for her, and she needed to go back and discuss it with her parents.

After Akina Nakamori left, Lin Haoran didn’t give it much more thought.

For an ordinary family, two hundred thousand Japanese yen, while not a huge sum, was definitely enough to provide significant help.

Lin Haoran was confident that Akina Nakamori’s parents wouldn’t be able to refuse this temptation either.

Akina Nakamori was not yet eighteen. Even if he cajoled and tricked her into agreeing, a contract signed without her parents’ consent wouldn’t mean much.

This was why he had told her to go home and discuss it with her parents.

At two in the afternoon, Fok Kin-ning, Zhao Xin, and Sato Shimono all went out. They were heading to a very important auction.

Several excellent plots of land were up for auction, plots that Lin Haoran coveted. If they could acquire them, in ten years, the value of the land alone could increase dozens of times over.

Therefore, they had to be secured!

However, Lin Haoran did not go with them.

Even if he went, he would just be a spectator and couldn’t provide any actual help to the company.

So, there was no need for him to attend. He could just wait for the results.

The auction lasted for over an hour.

It was already five in the afternoon when Fok Kin-ning and the others returned.

As soon as they got back to the company, they went to Lin Haoran’s office to report.

Before they even spoke, Lin Haoran knew the auction had been a great success because their faces were all wreathed in smiles.

“Boss, we successfully acquired a total of four plots of land, all at prices slightly below market value. There weren’t many real estate developers participating, so their bidding wasn’t very aggressive. After we bid several times, we secured the deals. The four plots cost a total of fifty-two billion Japanese yen, which is a little less than we expected!” Fok Kin-ning reported quickly.

Fifty-two billion Japanese yen, which converted to just one point three billion Hong Kong dollars, had secured four prime plots of land in the core areas of the Central, Minato, and Shinjuku Wards. It was worth it, absolutely worth it.

The location and size were comparable to places like Central and Wan Chai in Hong Kong.

If these plots were auctioned in Hong Kong, they would definitely fetch over two billion Hong Kong dollars right now.

Before attending the auction, they already knew that the market value of these plots was between fifty-five and sixty billion Japanese yen.

There were appraisals for these things.

Acquiring them now for less than market price was indeed a pleasant surprise.

“Yes, well done. This lays a solid foundation for our Hongkong Land Group in Japan!” Lin Haoran said, nodding in satisfaction.

Right now, Japan’s economy was severely affected by the oil crisis. The unemployment rate had soared, and everyone was clutching their wallets, afraid to spend.

As a result, the real estate industry wasn’t booming like it was in Hong Kong; in fact, it had stagnated.

This was the reason for the lackluster enthusiasm at the land auction.

Chapter 502: You Must Seize This Opportunity!

The madness of Japan’s real estate development over the next ten years would be far more incredible than Hong Kong’s.

Because, although Hong Kong’s property market was also developing wildly at present, it was set to plunge into a property crisis in two years.

After that, the crisis would last for another two years before Hong Kong’s real estate sector began to recover.

And even after the recovery, Hong Kong’s property development would face numerous ups and downs. While the general trend would still be upward, it would still fall short compared to Tokyo during Japan’s bubble economy.

This was why Lin Haoran had begun to focus on developing real estate as soon as he arrived in Japan.

Having secured these four plots of land, the next step was naturally to plan how to develop their property projects in Tokyo.

There was a great deal of preliminary work, requiring significant investment in capital, manpower, and resources—none of which could be lacking.

Lin Haoran did a quick calculation. He had brought four billion Hong Kong dollars with him, equivalent to one hundred sixty billion Japanese yen. Just purchasing the building and these four plots of land had already cost him sixty-five point eight billion Japanese yen.

Money certainly didn’t last long!

Although he still had over ninety billion Japanese yen left, Lin Haoran knew very well that at his current rate of investment, the money wouldn’t last long.

He had no intention of investing slowly and waiting for returns.

While this four-billion-Hong-Kong-dollar investment could potentially yield a return of dozens of times over in a decade…

…he was not satisfied with just that. Far from it.

The ten-year-long madness of Japan’s bubble economy was a rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rake in money.

Now that he had traveled back to the years just before Japan’s bubble economy began, how could he not lay out a grand plan?

And the simplest plan was to invest more!

He wondered if there were any opportunities to make some fast cash here in Japan.

But he couldn’t touch his funds in Hong Kong for the time being, as his businesses there also needed to grow.

As for his funds in the United States, he couldn’t touch those either. The blue-chip stocks he had purchased were all intended for long-term investment, not short-term trading.

“Boss, there is one more thing I need to report to you. Yesterday, the revenue of our three Wellcome supermarkets was a full seventy percent lower than usual. The Ito-Yokado department store company is playing dirty.

There are so many competitors in the retail industry, yet they are only targeting us. I really can’t figure it out! We were the ones who chose the locations for these Wellcome supermarkets first; they were the ones who came later!” Sato Shimono reported helplessly from the side.

Normally, while the revenue of the Wellcome supermarkets wasn’t outstanding, it was still decent.

But under Ito-Yokado’s vicious price war, Wellcome’s business was naturally hit hard.

“Don’t worry about them. Let them be arrogant for a few days. I already have a way to strike back,” Lin Haoran said with a slight smile, not looking particularly concerned.

Ito-Yokado?

They probably had no idea that their own headquarters, the 7-Eleven convenience store, had already been ambushed by him, did they?

After Fok Kin-ning and the others returned to their respective offices, Lin Haoran sat in his own, lost in thought.

Tokyo, in a ramen shop in Koto Ward.

This ramen shop was the one run by Akina Nakamori’s parents.

Akina Nakamori’s parents had originally run a butcher shop, but with business being average, they later switched to a ramen shop. Business was still just average.

However, although the ramen shop didn’t make much money, it was at least less work than running a butcher shop.

At this moment, there wasn’t a single customer in the ramen shop.

However, Akina Nakamori and her parents were all extremely excited.

On a dining table lay several newspapers.

These were not today’s papers, but ones from February 8th, including major publications like the Asahi Shimbun, the Yomiuri Shimbun, and the Mainichi Shimbun.

Akina Nakamori had bought them with great difficulty, visiting multiple newsstands after leaving the Hongkong Land Group.

The reason, of course, was that she had taken Lin Haoran’s words to heart and wanted to find out his identity.

The very first paper she bought had already revealed Lin Haoran’s identity. It contained not only an interview from when he arrived in Tokyo but also a detailed personal introduction and a photograph.

The young Chinese man in the photo was the very same Boss she had met today.

She never imagined she would have the chance to interact with someone like him.

So, suppressing her excitement, she went on to find several more newspapers from February 8th.

This was a super-rich man with a net worth of hundreds of billions of Japanese yen. Even in Japan, it would be difficult to find an individual wealthier than him, wouldn’t it?

So, clutching the newspapers, she impatiently took the bus back to the ramen shop her parents ran.

“Akina, are you really sure the Boss you met is the same one in these newspapers?” Akina Nakamori’s mother asked, her voice trembling slightly.

A net worth of hundreds of billions of Japanese yen… a person like that was in a completely different world from them.

And now, her own daughter actually had an opportunity to come into contact with such a figure.

To her, it was simply an unbelievable thing.

“Yes, Mom, I’m absolutely sure!” Akina Nakamori said, nodding emphatically.

“This is your chance. You must seize it, Akina! Listen to me, if you seize this opportunity, our family will never have to worry about money again!” Akina Nakamori’s mother continued, gripping Akina’s shoulders with both hands.

Her father, who was standing to the side, said nothing, but his expression was enough to show that he shared his wife’s thoughts.

Although they both hoped Akina could become a big star—which was why her mother had sent her and her sister to learn ballet at the age of four, to build a good foundation for the future.

When Akina was in her teens, her mother had actively encouraged her to participate in talent search variety shows, all in the hope that her daughter could become an entertainer and change their family’s living conditions.

With six children in the family, their monthly expenses were enormous. Relying solely on the ramen shop, they were barely scraping by.

In their minds, becoming an entertainer meant a very, very high salary. When that happened, they would no longer have to worry about money.

This was why they so desperately wanted their daughter to become an entertainer.

But her two failures had been a major blow to Akina’s parents.

Although Akina hadn’t given up, her parents had already lost most of their hope.

Now, learning that their daughter had such a great opportunity, they felt as if they were dreaming, finding it hard to believe it was real.

However, their daughter’s certain tone gradually convinced them. They knew Akina didn’t usually lie; they understood her character.

What they valued wasn’t the monthly salary of two hundred thousand Japanese yen, but the connection to this young tycoon.

Two hundred thousand yen was indeed a lot of money; their ramen shop barely made that much in profit each month, and it was just enough to support the whole family.

But Akina’s parents had realized that latching onto this tycoon’s coattails was the greatest prize of all.

After all, in their view, a mere print ad model wasn’t important enough for a super-rich man like him to handle the recruitment personally.

Clearly, he had other motives.

And their daughter’s beauty was something they had always been proud of.

Therefore, the Boss’s intentions were self-evident.

However, Akina’s parents were not repulsed by this idea.

They didn’t see it as pushing their daughter into an abyss, but rather as a golden opportunity for her to ascend into high society!

They had been poor their whole lives and were sick of it.

Naturally, they hoped their family could one day live a good life.

And now, this was a golden opportunity!

In that instant, Akina’s parents’ minds raced with thoughts.

That was why they appeared so excited now.

“So, Mom, Dad, are you supporting me signing with them?” Akina, on the other hand, hadn’t thought that far ahead. She was purely captivated by the two hundred thousand yen.

“Yes, agree to it. You must agree. Besides, you’ll be graduating after this semester, which is only a little over three months away. Once you graduate, you can focus all your energy on the company. Whether our family’s financial situation can improve is all up to you!” At this point, Akina’s mother was completely lost in her fantasies.

“Akina, I’ll go with you to the company tomorrow. I need to confirm whether this Boss is really the super-rich man from Hong Kong in the newspapers. If he is, we’ll sign. If not, we’ll need to reconsider,” her father said, still showing a bit of caution.

“I’ll listen to you,” Akina said obediently.

“Honey, you watch the shop. I’m going out to talk to Mr. Muraguchi!” Akina’s father untied his apron and started to head out of the shop.

The Mr. Muraguchi he mentioned was a good friend of his who kept up with current events. Akina’s father felt that he would surely know more about Lin Haoran.

“Alright, you go. Akina and I will watch the shop, everything will be fine!” Akina’s mother was still immersed in her excited daydreams.

She was already fantasizing about her daughter latching onto the super-rich man’s coattails, allowing their family to finally escape the clutches of poverty.

This was the helplessness of the poor.

Even in developed countries like the United States and Japan, wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few, and there was no shortage of poor people.

At most, they wouldn’t starve, but their lives had no real quality to speak of.

Everyone hoped for their family’s circumstances to improve, and Akina’s parents were no different.

As for Akina Nakamori, she was ultimately too young and innocent to consider all these implications.

She too was incredibly excited, but only because she was thinking about how she would be able to earn two hundred thousand Japanese yen a month. With that money, she could lessen her family’s burden, improve their lives, and no longer worry about the tuition and living expenses for her older and younger siblings.

Chapter 503: The Reason Ito Targeted Wellcome Supermarket

Lin Haoran was, of course, unaware of the various reactions of Akina Nakamori’s parents.

However, even if he had known, he would not have found it strange.

The Akina Nakamori of today was, after all, just an ordinary girl, not the future megastar who would wield immense influence.

Her parents, on the other hand, were solely focused on improving their family’s circumstances so they could live a better life.

Therefore, they had never had the chance to interact with a super-rich individual like Lin Haoran. It was only natural for them to want to seize such an opportunity when it presented itself.

Meanwhile, in a commercial tower in Minato Ward, Tokyo.

This was the headquarters of Ito-Yokado.

At this moment, Mr. Ito, the president of Ito-Yokado, was in his office, sitting across from Suzuki Toshifumi, a member of Ito-Yokado’s board of directors and the CEO of the 7-Eleven convenience store’s Japanese branch company.

On the surface, Ito-Yokado’s greatest contributor was President Ito, but in reality, it was Suzuki Toshifumi.

Without Suzuki Toshifumi, Ito-Yokado would never have introduced 7-Eleven convenience stores to Japan, nor would it have achieved its current success.

Thus, Suzuki Toshifumi could be considered the founder of 7-Eleven’s Japanese branch company.

“Mr. President, the trading of 7-Eleven’s stock was a bit strange today, much higher than usual. By the time the stock market closed this afternoon, the trading volume was more than five times the normal amount. I’m not sure if someone is deliberately targeting our 7-Eleven convenience stores!” Suzuki Toshifumi reported to the president, his brow furrowed.

Two years ago, in 1979, after discussions with the Southland Corporation, the two parties had separately listed the 7-Eleven Japan branch on the Second Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange to further strengthen the company’s capital power.

Now, after two years of development, their chain had grown to over one thousand stores. This was enough for them to apply for a listing on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. According to their plan, they would apply for the First Section listing this year to enhance the company’s market position.

In Japan, newly listed companies typically start on the Second Section. After a period of development, when a company meets stricter standards, it can apply to be moved to the First Section.

Established giants like Toyota, Sony, and Toshiba were basically all listed on the First Section.

Companies listed on the Second Section were mostly medium-sized enterprises representing the new forces of capital, and their influence was much lower than those on the First Section.

However, in the face of Suzuki Toshifumi’s concerns, President Ito did not take them seriously.

Ito said with a smile, “Mr. Suzuki, please rest assured. When we went public, we only offered thirty percent of our shares for fundraising. Both Ito-Yokado and the American Southland Corporation currently hold thirty-five percent of the shares each. Even if a financial group were to buy up a large number of 7-Eleven shares, it wouldn’t threaten our position. In fact, this might even expand the influence of our 7-Eleven convenience stores!”

Listing the 7-Eleven convenience stores was merely a way to increase their influence.

Besides the American Southland Corporation, no one could threaten Ito-Yokado’s position in 7-Eleven’s Japanese branch company.

And the Southland Corporation had no reason to threaten Ito-Yokado’s position; after all, the entire 7-Eleven brand belonged to Southland, and they also controlled the logistics system.

Therefore, Ito was genuinely unconcerned about the fluctuations in the stock market.

Seeing the president’s response, Suzuki Toshifumi did not press the matter further.

He changed the subject, asking curiously, “Mr. President, I heard you’ve been targeting Wellcome supermarket recently? Are you trying to push out this newcomer from Hong Kong? They only have three stores in Tokyo, while our Ito-Yokado has twelve department stores of similar scale. Wellcome supermarket poses no threat to us at all, does it?”

Although Suzuki Toshifumi was currently managing the 7-Eleven Japan branch company, he still served as a director for Ito-Yokado, so he remained very concerned about the company’s affairs.

It was just that he usually focused his energy on running 7-Eleven.

“You must be aware of Wellcome supermarket’s background. It’s from Hong Kong, and the super-rich man behind it has assets that far exceed ours at Ito-Yokado. To be honest, in terms of wealth, we are not in the same league.

“Moreover, I’ve heard that this Mr. Lin Haoran intends to make a major push into the Japanese market. Once his retail businesses expand, Ito-Yokado will certainly face a significant impact.

“So, I discussed it with a few of our peers, who are also competitors in the supermarket industry, and we decided that we cannot allow Hongkong Land Group’s retail business to expand smoothly in Japan.

“We want to push them out, make them back down in the face of difficulty, and make them understand that the Japanese market is not something outsiders like them can easily bite off. For the last two or three days, we’ve had the Ito-Yokado department stores closest to the Wellcome supermarkets start a price war. The effect has been obvious; foot traffic at those three Wellcome supermarkets has plummeted.

“Although we’ve incurred some losses these past few days, it’s only the losses from three stores. Besides, our costs are lower than theirs, so we can hold out.

“Our goal is to let them know that in the supermarket business, having money doesn’t guarantee success!” Ito explained to his capable subordinate with a smile, holding nothing back.

Although Ito knew he could hardly compare to that foreign super-rich man in terms of assets, he was confident in his Ito family’s position in the Japanese retail industry.

After all, Ito-Yokado was currently one of the major players in Japan’s retail sector, while Hongkong Land Group’s retail operations in Japan were still in their infancy.

If they could make them retreat in the face of these difficulties, that would be for the best.

“So that’s the reason!” Suzuki said with sudden realization.

“Furthermore, I just received news that Hongkong Land Group acquired four core plots of land in a row at an auction today, for a total transaction price of fifty-two billion Japanese yen. From this, you can see just how powerful their finances are.

“Right now, the development of Japan’s real estate industry is average at best. Under these circumstances, they are still willing to spend so much money to enter the Japanese property market. This shows just how great their ambitions are.

“If they were to truly expand aggressively in the retail industry, I’m sure you can imagine the consequences!” Ito continued with a sigh.

“Fifty-two billion Japanese yen?” Suzuki Toshifumi took a deep breath.

The market capitalization of their Ito-Yokado was just a little over ten billion Japanese yen.

The money they casually spent on a few plots of land far exceeded his company’s total market value.

The gap was too vast.

“Indeed, they have such deep pockets. Hongkong Land Group’s main business is real estate, which is clearly a very profitable industry. It’s a pity that Japan’s current real estate environment isn’t thriving, and it would be difficult for us to free up a large amount of capital to get involved,” Ito’s words carried a hint of envy.

“Mr. President, we should focus on developing our existing fields. Although the retail industry’s growth is slow, it has the advantage of being stable. In comparison, while the real estate industry may seem highly profitable, the risks are equally high.

“As long as we proceed steadily, with the advantage of 7-Eleven convenience stores, Ito-Yokado has every chance of becoming a global retail giant in the future!” Suzuki Toshifumi advised earnestly.

“Don’t worry, I just think about it from time to time. I understand the principle,” Ito said with a laugh.

“Last year, 7-Eleven’s expansion was very successful. If we continue to develop at this pace, our 7-Eleven stores will definitely surpass two thousand by the end of this year. By then, we might become the number one convenience store brand in Japan,” Suzuki Toshifumi continued.

“I hope so. Convenience stores have great potential in Japan. We have you to thank for introducing 7-Eleven to Japan back then. Otherwise, how would Ito-Yokado have its current standing? I’ll be counting on you for 7-Eleven!” Ito said seriously.

“Please rest assured, Mr. President. I will not let you down!” Suzuki Toshifumi replied solemnly.

“Alright, it’s getting late. 7-Eleven is preparing to expand into Hiroshima next, right? That’s FamilyMart’s territory. Competing with them won’t be too difficult. You’ve worked hard. Go home and get some rest!” Ito glanced at his watch and then looked up to speak.

“Yes, Mr. President. I’ll take my leave now!” Suzuki Toshifumi bowed deeply before leaving the office.

Watching Suzuki Toshifumi’s departing figure, Ito’s mind once again drifted to Lin Haoran, the man he had met from Hong Kong at that banquet two days ago.

“I hope we can successfully make him back down in the retail sector,” Ito murmured to himself.

…

In reality, the reason for the sudden surge in 7-Eleven Japan’s stock trading volume today was quite simple: Lin Haoran was pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

After obtaining information on the Southland Corporation and 7-Eleven from Cui Zilong, Lin Haoran began his preparations.

In addition to having Su Zhixue enlist Citibank’s help in acquiring the Southland Corporation, he wasn’t going to let the 7-Eleven joint venture here in Japan go either.

Since it was a publicly listed company, things were much simpler: he could make a move directly on the stock market.

When he came to Japan, Lin Haoran had not only brought elites from the real estate industry but also some top talents from the securities sector of his bank. The purpose, naturally, was to use them in the Japanese stock market.

And sure enough, after reviewing the information, he knew the opportunity to use his traders had come.

The Southland Corporation already held thirty-five percent of 7-Eleven Japan’s shares. By having its Securities Department secretly accumulate more, surpassing Ito-Yokado’s stake would not be difficult.

Who would have thought that the Southland Corporation itself would change hands?

Moreover, once he became the true controller of 7-Eleven, his advantages would be even greater. For instance, his greatest leverage was that the logistics system was in Southland Corporation’s hands.

Ito-Yokado, on the other hand, although it currently controlled the operations of over one thousand 7-Eleven convenience stores, most of these were actually franchises. The number of stores fully owned by Ito-Yokado was only about one hundred.

This was the biggest reason why 7-Eleven had expanded so rapidly in Japan.

Chapter 504: Any Normal Person Would Make This Choice!

On the morning of February 15th, Lin Haoran arrived at the office early as usual.

As soon as he got there, Fok Kin-ning excitedly reported, “Boss, the relevant departments have approved our request to rename the building to Hongkong Land Tower. I plan to have the sign on top of the building changed in the next couple of days!”

“Good. Since it belongs to us now, it’s only right to change it to our name. It’ll be great advertising, too!” Lin Haoran said with a smiling nod.

At ten in the morning, Lin Haoran received another call from Su Zhixue.

“Boss, we’ve successfully acquired Southland Corporation. The person in control has already handed the company over to our Universal Investment Company. When would you like to arrange for a manager to go over and take charge?” Su Zhixue asked over the phone.

Lin Haoran asked, “What’s the current situation at Southland Corporation?”

“Southland Corporation’s CEO is a professional manager. He’s currently in charge, and everything is running normally,” Su Zhixue replied.

“Good. Give me the CEO’s contact information. You don’t need to worry about the rest,” Lin Haoran said, satisfied.

Southland Corporation was based in Texas, United States. He had already considered this issue during the acquisition.

Although the American market was currently Southland Corporation’s most important one, Lin Haoran knew very well that the biggest future market for 7-Eleven convenience stores was in East Asia, not in America.

Before Lin Haoran transmigrated, Japan had over twenty thousand 7-Eleven convenience stores. Even the small island of Taiwan had more than five thousand stores, while the United States had only half as many as Japan.

This showed that the convenience store market in Japan was clearly better than the one in the United States.

After Su Zhixue gave him the work number for Southland Corporation’s CEO, Lin Haoran immediately dialed the number, which connected to Texas in the United States.

“Mr. Anton Allison?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile after the call connected.

“Yes, this is Anton. And you are?” a puzzled voice came from the other end.

“I am Lin Haoran, the new boss of Southland Corporation. I assume you are aware of who I am,” Lin Haoran continued.

“Hello, Mr. Lin. If you hadn’t called, I was planning to call you. I’d like to know what your plans are for Southland Corporation now that you’ve acquired it,” Anton Allison asked, getting straight to the point that concerned him most.

“Come to Tokyo, Japan. I’ll be waiting for you here. How about it? I need to talk with you. Consider it a business trip. However, before you leave, I expect you to make temporary arrangements for your work at the company. I don’t want anything to go wrong in just a few days,” Lin Haoran stated his purpose for the call directly.

He intended to temporarily move Southland Corporation’s headquarters to Japan, because Japan was the most important place for 7-Eleven’s future development!

Otherwise, a change in ownership from an American company to him, a Chinese man, might affect 7-Eleven’s expansion efforts.

In the future, once 7-Eleven became the number one convenience store giant in Japan, he could move the headquarters to Hong Kong. By then, even if there was some impact, it wouldn’t matter, because 7-Eleven’s dominant position would already be a fact.

As for the United States, 7-Eleven’s influence there was still considerable. Cities like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco had good coverage, and the brand was already well-established. Besides, American consumers weren’t like the Japanese, who preferred to support domestic products. Therefore, even if Southland Corporation moved out of the United States, the impact wouldn’t be significant.

After all, the United States was a melting pot of nationalities, not a homogenous nation-state like Japan.

Lin Haoran’s words left him almost no room for refusal.

If he didn’t come, Lin Haoran wouldn’t mind replacing him.

Anton Allison was silent for a moment before saying, “Alright, Mr. Lin. I’ll take a flight to Tokyo first thing tomorrow morning.”

It was morning in Tokyo, but already evening in the United States, so for Anton Allison to come over, it would indeed have to be the next morning, US time.

“Excellent, Mr. Anton Allison. I’ll be waiting for you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran was in a very good mood.

7-Eleven was destined to become the world’s most powerful convenience store giant. Although his intervention might change its future landscape, he didn’t believe its future would be any worse.

After all, he was no ordinary person. He knew exactly where the main markets for convenience stores would be in the future.

Perhaps under his control, 7-Eleven’s development might even be faster than in his previous life.

Furthermore, it was time for 7-Eleven to enter the Hong Kong and Singapore markets.

He recalled that in his past life, 7-Eleven in Hong Kong was controlled by Jardine Matheson & Co. and that Southland Corporation had granted them the franchise rights this very year.

However, now that he had driven Jardine Matheson & Co. out of Hong Kong and 7-Eleven had become his own company, the landscape for 7-Eleven in Hong Kong would naturally be different.

This matter was perfect for Dairy Farm International to handle.

Dairy Farm International was currently focused on the retail industry.

“Boss, yesterday’s numbers are out. Wellcome supermarket’s revenue yesterday was down eighty percent from the usual, even less than the day before,” Sato Shimono said with a sigh, handing a report to Lin Haoran.

“Yes, I see,” Lin Haoran said calmly.

“Boss, are we really not going to take any countermeasures? If nothing else, we should cut our prices too. Even if we take a small loss, at least we can protect our market share. Otherwise, if this goes on for too long, customers will form new shopping habits. Even if the competitor raises their prices back, they might not return to our Wellcome supermarkets!” Seeing his boss’s unconcerned expression, Sato Shimono grew anxious.

After all, he had been the one managing Wellcome supermarket before. He had put a lot of effort into ensuring its three stores in Tokyo could survive. This was Sato Shimono’s heart and soul.

“Look at you, getting so worked up. Don’t worry. In two days at most, the other side won’t be able to continue this price war,” Lin Haoran said, quite pleased with Sato Shimono’s reaction.

Sato Shimono’s anxiety showed he cared about Wellcome supermarket. This was the kind of subordinate he wanted.

Since Lin Haoran still said the same thing, Sato Shimono could only wait, even though he didn’t understand what his boss had planned.

He would see in two days if Ito-Yokado department store company would really stop its price war.

“Boss, Miss Nakamori is here again. Her father is with her,” the receptionist came in to report.

“Alright, show her in. Mr. Sato, you may leave first,” Lin Haoran said, looking at the two of them.

“Yes, Boss,” the two replied in unison.

A short while later, led by the receptionist, Lin Haoran saw Akina Nakamori again.

Behind her was indeed a middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties. This must be Akina Nakamori’s father.

The receptionist didn’t leave, as she knew she would likely have to continue acting as the translator today.

The moment Akina Nakamori’s father walked in, he furtively sized up Lin Haoran.

Just as he expected, he looked exactly like his picture in the newspaper!

At that moment, Akina Nakamori’s father confirmed that the man before him was indeed the famous super-rich man from Hong Kong.

Yesterday afternoon, he had gone to see a friend who enjoyed reading international news and learned more about Lin Haoran from him.

After returning home and discussing it with his wife, they became even more determined. If this man truly was that super-rich man from Hong Kong, their daughter Akina Nakamori absolutely had to seize this opportunity. Even if she could just form a slight connection, the Nakamori family would benefit endlessly.

Lin Haoran looked at Akina Nakamori’s apprehensive father and at Akina herself, who seemed more cheerful today, and asked with a smile, “So, what have you decided?”

The receptionist at his side promptly translated his words into Japanese for them.

“Mr. Lin, after discussing it with my parents, I’ve decided to sign the contract with your company. I brought my father along today to sign it with you,” Akina Nakamori replied.

Her father nodded an affirmation beside her.

“Alright. In that case, take a look at this contract and see if there are any issues. If not, you can sign it,” Lin Haoran said, taking out two copies of the contract from a cabinet.

The contract, naturally, had been prepared in advance.

After all, he had seen long ago that there was no way Akina Nakamori would be willing to give up such a good opportunity.

Even if she successfully passed the auditions for the variety show, it was no guarantee she would become a big star. Moreover, she had already failed twice, and the probability of failing a third time was high.

But this monthly salary of two hundred thousand Japanese yen was real and tangible.

Any normal person would make this choice.

The very reason she wanted to become an artist was to improve her family’s living conditions.

Now, an extra two hundred thousand Japanese yen a month was more than enough to change their family’s living conditions.

Akina Nakamori’s father examined the contract carefully, afraid his daughter might be deceived.

After reading it for a long time and confirming there were no problems, he said something to Akina Nakamori.

Akina Nakamori nodded and finally signed her name on it.

And as her guardian, her father also signed his name after hers.

Looking at their signatures, Lin Haoran broke into a smile.

Akina Nakamori wasn’t getting away.

After the contract was signed, Akina Nakamori’s father hurriedly left with one copy.

After all, his purpose for coming today was simply to confirm whether Lin Haoran’s identity was what Akina Nakamori had described.

Now that it was confirmed, he was naturally relieved.

As for Akina Nakamori, she was now an employee of Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch, so she naturally had to stay.

“Boss, is there anything I need to do now?” Akina Nakamori asked nervously, standing in Lin Haoran’s office.

Chapter 505: An Unqualified CEO

On the morning of February 17th, a plane slowly descended at Tokyo International Airport.

A middle-aged white man disembarked.

This man was Anton Allison, the CEO of the American Southland Corporation.

He sighed and strode into the arrivals hall.

This trip to Japan was fraught with uncertainty.

The sale of Southland Corporation had been far too sudden; by the time he found out, his previous owner had already sold the company.

What was done was done. There was nothing he could do to change it.

Now, all he wanted to know was what his new owner had in store for his future.

In the arrivals hall, someone was holding a sign with his name on it.

He walked over quickly and introduced himself. “Hello, I’m Anton Allison.”

“Mr. Allison, I was sent by Mr. Lin Haoran to pick you up. Please, come with me,” said the young man who had come to meet him.

Anton Allison nodded and followed the young man out of the arrivals hall in silence, soon reaching the airport parking lot.

The car quickly left the airport and headed for the city center. He could see 7-Eleven convenience stores on almost every street.

Although the number of 7-Eleven stores in Japan was not yet as high as in the United States, in terms of density, it had long surpassed its American counterpart.

In this respect, the Japanese market was indeed ahead of the American market.

As Southland Corporation’s most important market, Anton Allison had been to Japan many times and was no stranger to the place.

After a thirty-minute drive, the car pulled into a private open-air parking space beside a twenty-something-story building.

He was familiar with the area—Ginza, Tokyo’s most famous and bustling commercial district.

He looked up and saw the characters for “Hongkong Land Tower” on the roof of the building, with the Hongkong Land Group’s logo next to them.

He couldn’t read the Chinese characters, but he recognized the Hongkong Land Group’s logo.

After all, he had spent the last few days researching his new owner, Lin Haoran, and the Hongkong Land Group was one of the man’s most significant assets.

So, he recognized the logo at a glance.

“Our boss is upstairs. I’ll take you up,” the young man informed him after parking the car.

“Thank you for your trouble,” Anton Allison said with a nod, his expression unreadable.

They took the elevator to the 23rd floor, the offices of the Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch.

At that moment, Lin Haoran was in his office, looking through a stack of documents.

They contained information about the Japanese stock market, collected recently by employees of Galaxy Securities, a subsidiary of the Hongkong Land Group.

Among the 68 employees who had come from Hong Kong, a dozen were from Galaxy Securities. They had now established a Japanese branch of the investment bank and securities company, also under the Hongkong Land Group.

Besides focusing on real estate, Lin Haoran had also set his sights on the Japanese stock market.

Compared to real estate, making money from the stock market was easier.

However, Lin Haoran had a habit of diversifying his investments, and for his businesses to grow, relying solely on the stock market wasn’t enough.

The documents in Lin Haoran’s hands contained detailed information on Japan’s current industry tycoons.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Toyota, Honda, Nintendo, Sony, the Industrial Bank of Japan, Mitsubishi Estate, Tokyo Electron—these were all listed companies that Lin Haoran was paying close attention to.

He was particularly interested in several bank stocks.

Currently, the share prices of these companies were not particularly high. In ten years, it would be no problem for them to rise by a dozen or even several dozen times.

If long-term holdings were best suited for the future behemoths in the American market, then for short-term gains, Japanese listed companies were undoubtedly the right choice.

Just how glorious would Japan be in ten years?

In 1990, eight of the world’s top ten companies by market capitalization were Japanese, occupying the first through seventh spots. It wasn’t until eighth place that an American company, IBM, appeared.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, the Industrial Bank of Japan, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank, Toyota Motor, Fuji Bank of Japan, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank of Japan, IBM, Sanwa Bank, and ExxonMobil!

This was the ranking of the world’s top ten companies by market capitalization in 1990.

And 1990 was considered the absolute peak of Japan’s bubble economy.

This just went to show how exaggerated the Japanese economy was at the time.

No wonder some Japanese people claimed they could buy the entire United States.

In such a booming economic environment, how could they not become inflated with confidence?

But at the end of 1990, it all came to an abrupt halt.

Truly, “All good things must come to an end.”

Everything had seemed so wonderful, yet in late August 1990, the situation took a sharp turn, and the stock market began to plummet.

By 1991, property prices followed suit, and Japan plunged into a thirty-year period of economic recession.

Lin Haoran knew all of this from his past life, thanks to the internet.

So, aside from real estate, he was also extremely focused on Japan’s stock market.

Just then, a knock sounded at the office door.

Lin Haoran put down the documents and looked up. “Come in.”

The door opened, and a middle-aged white man and a young Chinese man appeared at the entrance.

“Boss, Mr. Anton Allison has arrived,” the employee who picked him up said respectfully to Lin Haoran.

“Alright, thank you for your hard work. You can go back to your duties,” Lin Haoran said, rising from his chair.

“I’ll be on my way, Boss!” the young man said before helping to close the office door, leaving the middle-aged white man behind.

Lin Haoran walked quickly to the door and shook hands with the man, a smile on his face. “Mr. Allison, you just got off the plane. Do you need to rest for a while?”

“No, Mr. Lin, I’m not tired. I’d like to speak with you now,” Anton Allison said, shaking his head.

What he wanted to know most right now was how this young boss planned to deal with him.

He hadn’t had a single good night’s sleep since he learned that Southland Corporation had a new owner.

He had worked at Southland Corporation for over twenty years, rising from junior management to the head of the company. He had a deep emotional attachment to both Southland and the 7-Eleven brand.

But in the end, he was just a professional manager. If the new boss really wanted to fire him, there was nothing he could do.

“Come in and have a seat. We really should have a good talk,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, gesturing to a chair in his office.

Anton Allison nodded, walked straight over, and sat down.

Lin Haoran returned to his own chair.

“Mr. Lin, I wish to know if you plan to have me resign or if you intend for me to continue serving as the company’s CEO,” Anton Allison said, breaking the silence that had settled between them.

“Let’s not talk about that for now,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile. “What are your thoughts on the future of 7-Eleven?”

“7-Eleven is Southland Corporation’s core business and has always been our development focus. It has successfully expanded into an internationally renowned brand with branches in multiple countries and regions.

“However, I believe the convenience store industry in the United States is currently facing a development bottleneck. Most people in the US prefer to shop at large supermarkets once a week. If we continue to expand blindly, we may find ourselves in a loss-making situation.

“Considering the vast cash flow Southland Corporation has accumulated from its many convenience stores, I believe diversified development is imperative. This cash flow is the crucial support for implementing our diversification strategy!

“In other words, in the US, we can pursue diversified development, while in overseas regions like Japan, which are very suitable for convenience stores, we can rapidly expand the number of stores,” Anton Allison explained earnestly.

He knew this new owner was testing him, so he laid out his future plans for Southland Corporation.

Lin Haoran nodded. He now had a general understanding of the Southland CEO and knew what to do with him.

In another world, Southland Corporation had filed for bankruptcy in 1987—just six years from now. The reason for the bankruptcy was the company’s blind pursuit of diversified development, which ultimately led to massive losses, resulting in its acquisition and absorption by Japan’s Ito-Yokado.

Diversified development was fine; in fact, Lin Haoran strongly supported it for his own companies.

But even so, he would never agree to blind investment, especially in industries with little future or those he was unfamiliar with.

It was clear that Southland Corporation should have been doing very well by relying on the global expansion of the 7-Eleven brand.

But the head office had been foolish enough to insist on blind diversification, diverting the funds earned from 7-Eleven to fund its expansion. When those investments failed, they had no money to cover the losses.

At that point, bankruptcy was the only option.

Clearly, if Lin Haoran were to continue entrusting Southland Corporation to such a CEO, he wouldn’t be able to rest easy.

After all, he often delegated authority to his subordinates, and the main reason for doing so was his trust in their abilities.

And the middle-aged white man before him was clearly incompetent. Unqualified.

However, now was not the time to fire him. He had just acquired Southland Corporation and had no connections within the company. Firing Anton Allison now would have a significant short-term impact on the company.

Therefore, the priority was to keep him calm.

Once he had complete control of Southland Corporation, he could gradually push Anton Allison out.

“Mr. Allison, you are the soul of Southland Corporation. Firing you would be a great loss to the company. So, naturally, I hope you will continue to serve as Southland’s CEO. The only question is, is Mr. Allison willing to stay on?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Anton Allison let out a huge sigh of relief. The anxious and gloomy expression on his face vanished, replaced by a smile he hadn’t worn in a long time.

He truly did see himself as the soul of Southland Corporation.

In his view, after working for over two decades, rising from a junior manager to the person in charge, how could he have done it without ability?

Even his previous owner had trusted him completely, giving him full authority over the company’s decisions.

Moreover, 7-Eleven’s entry into the Japanese market was accomplished under his leadership. He felt he deserved the most credit for that.

So, when his new boss, Lin Haoran, called him the soul of Southland Corporation, he accepted it wholeheartedly.

However, he had no idea that his new boss had already written him off.

The marketplace is a battlefield. Those with ability are promoted; those who are incompetent step down.

A corporation is not a charity. It doesn’t operate on sentiment, only on strength.

Chapter 506: A United Front Against Hongkong Land Group’s Expansion in the Retail Sector

“Boss, you called me over for more than just this, didn’t you?” Anton Allison asked, looking at Lin Haoran with a serious expression.

At that moment, Anton Allison’s form of address had even changed. It was no longer “Mr. Lin,” but “Boss.”

“That’s right. As the new boss of Southland Corporation, I certainly have some plans for this newly acquired company. You know I spent a great deal of money to acquire Southland Corporation. I’m not just playing around,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Please continue, Boss,” Anton Allison said, puzzled, hoping Lin Haoran would elaborate.

“Southland Corporation’s most important business is the 7-Eleven convenience store brand. And as you can see, the number of 7-Eleven stores in Japan is about to surpass that in the United States, even though 7-Eleven has only been developing in Japan for a few years!

“So, I share your view that Japan is poised to be 7-Eleven’s biggest market in the future. That’s why I plan to move 7-Eleven’s headquarters to Tokyo, to better support its development in Japan!

“And if the core business moves to Japan, the headquarters of Southland Corporation should naturally follow. This is my purpose for calling you here today.

“In the Japanese convenience store industry, besides 7-Eleven, there are several competitors, such as Lawson, and the local Japanese brand, FamilyMart.

“Therefore, I want Southland Corporation’s future development to focus primarily on the Japanese market. Of course, expansion in other countries and regions, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Europe, South Korea, Mexico, and even the United States home market, cannot be halted.

“My goal is to make the 7-Eleven brand the number one convenience store brand in the world. The convenience store industry is still far from its peak, and we shouldn’t be diverting our energy into any sort of diversified development.

“Instead of focusing on diversification, we should accelerate 7-Eleven’s growth!

“That’s my plan. If you have any objections, you can raise them now. But Mr. Allison, I must say, my purpose in acquiring Southland Corporation was for 7-Eleven, not for its other businesses,” Lin Haoran stated, explaining his thoughts all at once.

Diversified development?

In Lin Haoran’s eyes, Southland Corporation was 7-Eleven!

So, Southland Corporation just needed to focus on developing its convenience stores, which it was already doing quite well.

As for diversified development, they shouldn’t get too involved.

There was no need for it.

Lin Haoran’s words directly overturned the development strategy Anton Allison had just been contemplating for Southland Corporation.

After listening to Lin Haoran, he fell silent for a moment, processing his new boss’s vision.

He wanted to object.

Although 7-Eleven was doing well in the United States, in Anton Allison’s view, it was ultimately a minor business.

No matter how well it developed, it could never become a global magnate.

This was why he and the former owners had planned to steer the company toward diversified development.

He believed that only through diversification, by entering more industries, would Southland Corporation have the opportunity to become stronger.

But the thought of his own position made him sigh inwardly.

In the end, he was just a professional manager.

After some deliberation, he decided to submit for now.

Otherwise, facing this new boss, his only option might be to resign.

“Boss, your insight is both unique and profound. I was indeed considering a path of diversified development for Southland Corporation, but after your explanation, I realize that at this current stage, focusing on our core business, 7-Eleven, and building it into the global leader in the convenience store sector, is the wisest choice.”

He paused for a moment before continuing, “7-Eleven’s rapid growth in the Japanese market has already demonstrated its immense potential. Moving the headquarters to Tokyo will undoubtedly bring us closer to the market’s forefront, allowing us to respond quickly to consumer needs and further consolidate and expand our market share.

“At the same time, maintaining steady expansion in other important markets to ensure 7-Eleven’s brand influence grows steadily across the globe is a strategy with great foresight and feasibility.

“Of course, I believe that diversified development is beneficial for spreading risk and finding new growth points. However, since you disagree with diversification, Boss, I think we can adopt a more flexible strategy.

“While maintaining the rapid development of our core convenience store business, we can moderately explore areas that are related to or can mutually promote our convenience store operations, such as creating our own private label products, developing financial loan services, and so on,” Anton Allison said in a single breath.

Lin Haoran’s face showed a hint of surprise upon hearing this.

The CEO of Southland Corporation was not as stubborn as he had imagined.

He had learned how to flatter and endorse his ideas so quickly?

He had thought Anton Allison would directly oppose his decision.

Indeed, to be able to rise from a junior manager to the head of the company, the man had some ability.

Lin Haoran was also quite pleased to hear it.

However, even so, Lin Haoran had no intention of letting him remain CEO indefinitely.

The fact that he could drive Southland Corporation into bankruptcy was enough to show that even if he was capable, he wasn’t fit to lead the future king of the convenience store industry, 7-Eleven.

“In that case, does this mean you’re willing to move and work here in Japan?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“I am willing!” Anton Allison agreed without hesitation.

He was worried that if he refused, he might have to resign.

Resigning from Southland Corporation was not something he was considering at the moment.

At nearly fifty years old, he knew very well that during the current oil crisis, with severe inflation and stagnant economic growth in the United States and around the world, many industries were struggling, with only a few exceptions.

If he were to resign now, he would likely find it difficult to secure such a good job again.

“That simplifies things. You can first contact the head of the Japan branch company, Suzuki Toshifumi, and inform him that you will visit the 7-Eleven Tokyo branch office tomorrow morning for a meeting. I will be there as well.

“However, don’t mention that I’ll be with you. For now, keep my acquisition of 7-Eleven confidential. Do not reveal it to him.

“You must be tired from your flight. After you make the call, go to your hotel and get some rest. I’ve already booked a room for you at the Accor Hotel next to Hongkong Land Tower,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Yes, Boss. I know what to do. I’ll just borrow your phone, if I may,” Anton Allison said, gesturing to the telephone on the desk.

“Be my guest,” Lin Haoran said with a welcoming gesture.

And so, Anton Allison immediately made the call.

Five minutes later, in the Japan branch headquarters of 7-Eleven in Chiyoda Ward, several kilometers away, Suzuki Toshifumi hung up the telephone receiver with a look of confusion.

“Why would Mr. Anton Allison come to Japan so suddenly? There was no advance notice,” Suzuki Toshifumi muttered to himself.

Just moments ago, he had received a call from the CEO of Southland Corporation, telling him that he had already arrived in Tokyo and would be coming to the company for a meeting tomorrow.

“No, this is definitely strange. I must tell the president myself,” Thinking this, Suzuki Toshifumi hurriedly left his office, preparing to take a car to the Ito-Yokado headquarters in Minato Ward.

The 7-Eleven headquarters in Tokyo was not located with Ito-Yokado, but in Nibanchi, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo.

A little over twenty minutes later, his Toyota had arrived at the Ito-Yokado headquarters building.

He rushed up to the office, only to be told by an employee that the president had gone out for a meeting at nine in the morning and had not yet returned.

With no other choice, he could only wait there.

After waiting for about half an hour, he finally saw Mr. Ito coming up from downstairs.

“Suzuki-kun, is there something important?” Ito asked, curious to see Suzuki Toshifumi.

“Yes, I have something important to discuss with you. Let’s go into the office first,” Suzuki Toshifumi said with a nod.

Once inside the office, Suzuki Toshifumi recounted the details of Anton Allison’s sudden visit.

“There was absolutely no prior notice of his visit. For him to suddenly call only after arriving in Tokyo… it’s indeed strange,” Ito frowned after hearing Suzuki Toshifumi’s report.

However, after a moment’s thought, he smiled and said, “Suzuki-kun, Mr. Allison’s visit is probably not a bad thing. He comes for an inspection every year, doesn’t he? Perhaps he just forgot to notify us in advance. Don’t overthink it.”

“I suppose that’s all we can do for now. We have no way of knowing his true purpose for coming. By the way, President, I heard you went out for a meeting at nine this morning and only just returned. What was so important that it required such a long meeting?” Suzuki Toshifumi asked curiously.

It was already twelve o’clock noon, meaning the president had been out for well over two hours.

“What else could it be but that major affair with the Hongkong Land Group? Three days ago, Hongkong Land Group splashed out fifty-two billion Japanese yen to acquire four prime plots of land in Tokyo. The news caused a huge stir once it was reported.

“The real estate industry in Japan is in a slump right now, yet they dared to invest such a colossal sum. It just shows how financially powerful the Hongkong Land Group is. If they were to make a full-scale entry into the Japanese retail industry, the impact on us would be immense.

“Ito-Yokado alone lacks the strength to stop their advance, so I contacted several of Tokyo’s major retail companies to discuss a joint strategy to collectively resist Hongkong Land Group’s expansion in the retail sector.

“What worries me most is whether Hongkong Land Group will enter the convenience store industry. After all, it’s clear to everyone that this emerging convenience store industry is perfectly suited to thrive in Japan. If Hongkong Land Group not only develops in the supermarket sector but also enters the convenience store business, the impact on us will be enormous.”

Chapter 507: A Plea for Help from the Mainland, a Need for Mass Manufacturing

February 18th, early morning.

Lin Haoran woke up earlier than usual. Although the room was heated, he could feel that it was colder today.

Looking out the window, he saw that the world was covered in a blanket of white—a rare snowfall.

Snowflakes dancing in the February air was truly a rare sight.

Especially in Hong Kong, where he had lived since his transmigration, a place that never saw snow. Thus, the snowflakes had become a wonder to behold.

Wearing a padded jacket, Lin Haoran stepped out onto the balcony. A gust of cold wind laced with snowflakes blew against him, carrying a refreshing, biting chill that made him shiver involuntarily.

The light snowflakes touched his clothes, instantly melting into tiny droplets of water.

Returning inside, the cold vanished at once.

After breakfast, Lin Haoran left with his bodyguards.

Today, he would be accompanying Anton Allison to the 7-Eleven convenience store’s Japan headquarters.

Since Ito-Yokado wanted to suppress the Hongkong Land Group in the retail sector, he didn’t mind snatching back the controlling stake in 7-Eleven in Japan.

It was already nine o’clock in the morning when he arrived at the Hongkong Land Tower.

Anton Allison hadn’t arrived yet, but that wasn’t a problem, as their meeting was scheduled for ten.

Walking into Fok Kin-ning’s office, Fok Kin-ning quickly stopped his work to greet Lin Haoran.

“Boss, regarding your request to hire a new secretary, the headhunting firm has created a preliminary shortlist of three candidates. They are scheduled to come in for an interview at three this afternoon,” Fok Kin-ning reported.

“Alright, I understand,” Lin Haoran replied with a slight nod.

After chatting with Fok Kin-ning in his office for a few minutes, he left so as not to disturb him.

These days, the workload at Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch was growing heavier. If nothing else, just establishing the various new departments and recruiting more talent required Fok Kin-ning to oversee the overall situation.

Lin Haoran’s investments in Japan were growing larger and larger. The sixty-eight employees he had brought over from Hong Kong were, naturally, far from enough.

Back in his own office, Lin Haoran leaned back in his chair, looking down at the bustling streets of Tokyo below.

The foot traffic in Ginza was indeed immense. Even though it was now morning and many people were already at work, the streets were still teeming with crowds.

It truly lived up to its name as the most prosperous area in Japan.

Just then, the phone rang.

Lin Haoran was a little surprised. He rarely received calls here.

However, he didn’t overthink it. He swiveled his chair toward the desk and picked up the telephone receiver.

“Is that you, Boss? This is Yang Mingyi. I’m calling to report something important.” The voice of Yang Mingyi, the former general manager of the Wan’an Group, came through the phone.

Lin Haoran was surprised. Wasn’t Yang Mingyi in Mainland China?

Two years ago, Lin Haoran had sent Yang Mingyi to Guangdong Province in the Mainland to lay the groundwork for future development there.

However, as it was still the early days of the reforms, many things couldn’t be done yet. So, Yang Mingyi’s work in the Mainland mostly consisted of acquiring plots of land, developing some simple industries, constructing buildings, and fostering good relations with the Mainland authorities, or occasionally recruiting a batch of retired soldiers for Lin Haoran.

Besides that, Yang Mingyi had no other important tasks.

After all, some things were difficult to do right now, even if he wanted to.

With policies yet to be fully implemented, much of the work was impossible.

His current purpose was simply to acquire large plots of land in key areas, preparing for the Mainland’s future rise.

Therefore, for the past year or two, Lin Haoran had barely been in contact with Yang Mingyi.

“This is Lin Haoran. General Manager Yang, what can I do for you?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Boss, I finally reached you! I had to call Mr. Burton at the Wanqing Group to find out you were in Japan. I have something very important to report. Please wait a moment, let me drink some water. This will take a while.” Yang Mingyi’s voice continued from the other end.

Lin Haoran grew even more curious.

It had to be about the Mainland, he thought.

Judging by Yang Mingyi’s tone, it seemed very important.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have bypassed Burton to report directly to him, the big boss.

The sound of someone drinking water came from the phone, and then Yang Mingyi’s voice returned.

“Boss, it’s like this. As you know, it’s been over two years since the Mainland began its reforms, and places like Shenzhen have become special economic zones. The government is determined to attract foreign investors to focus on developing the Mainland’s economy.

However, over the past two years, not many foreign investors have actually come. The response has been lukewarm. Although many Hong Kong businessmen and overseas Chinese investors have responded positively, the results thus far have been very average.

I’ve felt this deeply during my two years here. Guangdong Province needs more external forces to accelerate its development.

In fact, our Wanqing Group’s Mainland Branch is already considered the largest foreign investor here. That’s because even when other foreign investors do invest, they don’t dare to invest too much with the policies still unclear. It’s more of a symbolic investment.

Meanwhile, your development over the past two years has been obvious to all, Boss. You’ve successively acquired several listed companies in Hong Kong, demonstrating immense strength. Now you’ve even taken over an old British-owned company like the Hongkong Land Group. This has caused quite a stir among the Mainland government.

So, after this Spring Festival, the government approached me. They hope I can contact you and ask you to visit the Mainland in person again. They have something very important to discuss with you!” Yang Mingyi said methodically over the phone.

“I’m in Japan right now, as you should know. I likely won’t be going back anytime soon. What is it they want from me? Just tell me directly. If I can do it, I will. There’s no need for me to go there in person,” Lin Haoran said with a frown.

What was happening in Japan was related to his plans for the economic bubble, and its importance was self-evident. Although he didn’t have to do much himself—his subordinates handled most of it—he still needed to be here to oversee things. After all, only he knew how crazy Japan’s future economic bubble would be; others didn’t.

So, he had no plans to return to Hong Kong in the short term. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have bought a villa here to live in.

However, he couldn’t treat the Mainland market lightly either. After all, Chinese blood ran in his veins, and deep down, he was eager to see the Mainland flourish.

Moreover, this was mutually beneficial for him.

The larger his investments in the Mainland and the more he helped promote its economic development, the higher his rate of return would be.

This win-win situation was exactly what he was pursuing.

“They’ve actually discussed the details with me. The Mainland’s current development focus is on creating a large number of jobs to help a portion of the population become wealthy.

Right now, although cities in the Pearl River Delta like Shenzhen have brought in some factories, most are small-scale, high-pollution, and offer limited employment, like chemical plants and small workshops. These don’t provide a strong impetus for the local economy.

What they really need in the Pearl River Delta area—places like Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Dongguan—are more large-scale manufacturing plants. This would drive longer industrial chains and, consequently, create more job opportunities.

As for our Wanqing Group, although we’ve made achievements in various fields, we aren’t prominent in manufacturing. Currently, we only have the cement business, and we’ve already opened a branch factory in the Mainland to meet infrastructure needs, but its contribution to job creation is limited.

Although Hongkong Electric Group produces electronics, its market is mainly in Hong Kong. Competition in Southeast Asia is fierce, so sales aren’t high. Even if we moved the Fortress Electronics factories under the Hongkong Electric Group to the Mainland, the scale wouldn’t be very large.

As for the Hongkong Land Group, while it’s massive and powerful, manufacturing isn’t its main business.

The reason the government contacted me is that they understand your wealth and influence are now at the top tier globally, and you have access to a wider range of resources and technologies.

They hope you can use your resources and influence to bring more manufacturing enterprises to the Mainland, especially in high-tech industries where the Mainland is not yet self-sufficient.

They are eager to connect with the international community and import advanced technology and management experience. That’s more or less the core of their request,” Yang Mingyi explained in detail.

After hearing Yang Mingyi’s explanation, Lin Haoran had a sudden realization and understood the Mainland’s true intentions.

It was true. At present, what the Mainland—especially Guangdong Province, the forefront of reform—needed most was tangible manufacturing, not industries that looked glorious but were difficult to convert into large-scale economic benefits immediately.

Industries like the financial industry, high-end catering, healthcare, customized services, information technology, and real estate, despite their promising futures, could only play a limited role in promoting development at the Mainland’s current stage.

The most crucial thing for the Mainland right now was to lift more people out of poverty.

And while wages in manufacturing wouldn’t be very high, a large number of manufacturing jobs could save more people from the plight of having no money for food, help them escape a life of material scarcity, and gradually move towards a moderately prosperous society.

As a Transmigrator, an experienced person, and someone who had lived in the Mainland for over thirty years in his past life, Lin Haoran naturally understood all this.

He felt a bit emotional, not expecting that his mission had now grown to such a scale.

However, he was now a super-rich individual, arguably second to none in Hong Kong and even globally. Coupled with his considerable investments in the Mainland, he had left a very good impression there.

Under these circumstances, it was perfectly reasonable for the Mainland to turn to him for help, hoping he would contribute more to the development of its manufacturing sector.

Previously, he hadn’t paid much attention to the manufacturing industry.

In his view, manufacturing made money too slowly.

How could it compare to the speed of real estate or the stock market?

If he had focused on manufacturing after transmigrating, he would never have achieved what he had today.

He might have even struggled to become a hundred-millionaire.

Now, however, he could consider making a bigger push into the manufacturing industry.

Chapter 508: The Man Who Would Lead 7-Eleven to Become the World’s Number One Convenience Store Titan

“I understand, General Manager Yang. Please let them know that I will do my best to help with Mainland China’s goal of vigorously developing its manufacturing industry,” Lin Haoran said after a moment of contemplation. “However, I first need to understand the current specific policies and incentives for foreign investment in the mainland.

“After all, I need to ensure that the companies I bring in can genuinely meet the mainland’s needs, take root and flourish there for long-term development, and not have my personal interests harmed by policy impacts.”

He was unwilling to put himself at risk simply because of a momentary burst of enthusiasm or blind patriotism.

In the memories from his past life, he had seen many cases of enthusiastic entrepreneurs returning to their hometowns to invest, only to suffer heavy losses in the end due to various complex factors.

These lessons taught him that investments require caution, especially when the mainland’s policies were still underdeveloped. A comprehensive assessment was necessary to avoid repeating past mistakes.

Of course, he also understood that in the current special period, coupled with his own social status and influence, it was highly unlikely that anyone would deliberately make things difficult for him or create obstacles.

On the contrary, he would likely receive support and assistance from all sides, getting green lights all the way to ensure the smooth progress of his investment projects.

But as the old saying goes, it’s better to be safe than sorry!

It was still necessary to communicate this to the mainland authorities in advance.

“Yes, Boss. I have noted your points and will relay them to the mainland government as soon as possible, requesting more detailed information and policy clarifications,” Yang Mingyi replied from the other end of the line.

“Alright. If anything else comes up, you can contact me directly. I don’t expect to leave Japan in the short term. Even if you can’t reach me, you can also contact Mr. Fok Kin-ning,” Lin Haoran said directly before hanging up.

“Understood, Boss!”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran leaned back in his chair and began to think.

Given the current situation in Mainland China, a large manufacturing base was indeed needed to drive economic development.

And manufacturing happened to be one of his weak spots.

Among all the industries under his name, only Green Island Cement, Fortress Electrical Company, and a few others were in manufacturing.

Even if he were to expand these few businesses vigorously in the mainland, their impact would be limited.

However, speaking of which, now that he had just acquired the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, wasn’t this a perfect opportunity for him to enter the manufacturing industry?

Beverages, retail goods, electronics, and even food processing—these were all manufacturing sectors closely related to convenience store chains.

With 7-Eleven under his control, sales would hardly be an issue.

Moreover, besides the 7-Eleven retail channel, he also controlled Dairy Farm International, Hong Kong’s largest retail enterprise, which also had some influence in Southeast Asia.

These retail businesses covered electronic products, electrical appliances, clothing, food, furniture, machinery, and even telecommunications, automobiles, and more.

For most of these, he acted as a distributor and agent, rarely manufacturing the products himself.

These retail channels under his control were the resources and confidence behind his potential foray into manufacturing.

However, starting a manufacturing business from scratch would be far too complicated and time-consuming.

The simplest method was, without a doubt, mergers and acquisitions!

This had always been his simplest and most direct approach.

Otherwise, he could not have achieved what he had today in just over two years.

With this thought, Lin Haoran knew what his next step should be.

Acquisitions were, for him, exceedingly simple.

But acquisitions shouldn’t be made blindly. He had to set targets, preferably acquiring some internationally renowned brands directly, especially fast-moving consumer goods like food, beverages, personal care products, and cleaning supplies.

The hallmark of these goods was their high frequency of purchase and high rate of repeat customers.

Although the unit price of these items was low, the demand was enormous!

And high demand would create a large number of jobs.

Coca-Cola was a prime example of a high-demand product.

However, it was almost impossible for him to acquire Coca-Cola.

Currently, as one of the largest fast-moving consumer goods brands in the United States, a substantial portion of Coca-Cola’s equity was firmly held by tycoons like the Squid financial group.

Lin Haoran had indeed instructed Su Zhixue to make Coca-Cola one of the targets for stock accumulation, but he never entertained the thought of a full takeover.

He was well aware that acquiring a giant like Coca-Cola was a near-impossible task. Even if it were theoretically possible, the required capital would be astronomical.

At present, Coca-Cola’s market capitalization was already over four billion US dollars, placing it among the top fifty publicly listed companies in the United States. This valuation was more than double that of the Hongkong Land Group before it was delisted.

Therefore, for Lin Haoran, the idea of acquiring Coca-Cola could essentially be ruled out.

At least with his current financial strength and under the present market conditions, he could not pull off such a feat.

As for Procter & Gamble, another company with exceptionally high brand recognition, he could basically forget about it as well.

Because Procter & Gamble’s market capitalization was even more outrageous, now exceeding six billion US dollars. Converted to Hong Kong dollars, that was a behemoth worth over thirty billion, ranking it around 20th among listed companies in the United States.

To acquire such a company, even just to become the controlling shareholder, would require him to commit all his resources.

He had no intention of exhausting all his resources for such an acquisition.

Rather than squandering so much capital, he would be better off increasing his investments in the technology sector.

Microsoft, Intel… which of them didn’t have a brighter future than these consumer goods companies?

However, this didn’t mean Lin Haoran would abandon his plans in the consumer goods sector.

On the contrary, he would focus more on finding companies with potential that had not yet risen to prominence. Through investment, cooperation, and other means, he would gradually build up his own consumer goods supply chain.

These would likely not require massive investments.

Besides consumer goods, he had no plans to give up on the electronics, machinery, or automotive industries either.

There was still great potential in manufacturing. Most importantly, it could help Mainland China while allowing him to boost his presence and play the good guy there.

Just as he was pondering this, a knock came from the door.

“Come in,” Lin Haoran called out.

The office door opened, and the person who entered was Anton Allison, the current CEO of the American Southland Corporation.

“Boss, I’m here!” Anton Allison’s tone was very respectful; he had clearly submitted to his new boss, Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran glanced at the time. Unknowingly, it was already almost ten in the morning.

“In that case, let’s get going!” Lin Haoran stood up and said with a smile.

The two men left the Hongkong Land Tower, one after the other, and went down to the underground parking garage.

Anton Allison got into the same car as Lin Haoran.

After arriving in Japan, Lin Haoran, just as he had in Hong Kong, had acquired four cars for himself.

One was his personal car, a Rolls-Royce, which, like his private car in Hong Kong, was fitted with bulletproof glass and armor.

The other three were ordinary Toyota cars for his thirteen shadow guards, all equipped with local drivers.

After giving the driver the address of 7-Eleven’s Japan headquarters, the car quickly left Hongkong Land Tower and headed straight for Chiyoda Ward.

The distance from Ginza to Chiyoda Ward was not far; the Central Ward and Chiyoda Ward were adjacent, only a few kilometers apart.

So, in less than twenty minutes, the car pulled up in front of a seven-story building.

The building was extremely ordinary, no different from any other common building on the streets of Tokyo, but the 7-Eleven logo on it was very eye-catching.

“I’ve been here many times and am very familiar with the place. Please, follow me, Boss!” After getting out of the car, Anton Allison looked up at the building and said to Lin Haoran with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded and followed Anton Allison into the building.

The ground floor of the building was actually a 7-Eleven convenience store. This store was very large, several hundred square meters, and was luxuriously and comfortably decorated. There were quite a few customers shopping inside; it was clearly the flagship 7-Eleven store in Japan.

Anton Allison did not enter the convenience store but instead walked towards a separate staircase to the left of it.

After climbing the stairs to the second floor, Lin Haoran finally saw a reception desk.

Evidently, this was the entrance to the 7-Eleven company headquarters.

“Hello, Mr. Allison. Our President is already waiting for you in his office. I’ll take you there!” The Japanese receptionist clearly recognized Anton Allison and had been instructed by Suzuki Toshifumi, so her attitude was very respectful.

As for Lin Haoran, she did not recognize him. She glanced at him and simply assumed he was Anton Allison’s subordinate.

Anton Allison nodded and was about to move behind his boss, but Lin Haoran shook his head at him.

So, Anton Allison continued to walk in front, following the receptionist further upstairs.

The building did not have an elevator.

Upon reaching the third floor, the receptionist did not continue upward but entered the third-floor area, walked down a corridor, and finally stopped in front of an office door, which she then knocked on.

Apparently, this was Suzuki Toshifumi’s office.

The door opened, and a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses, who looked to be around fifty, came out.

So this is Suzuki Toshifumi, the future leader who will make 7-Eleven the number one convenience store giant in the world?

Lin Haoran stood behind Anton Allison, observing the unremarkable-looking middle-aged man with a hint of curiosity.

“Mr. Allison, welcome to Tokyo. Please, come in!” Suzuki Toshifumi shook Anton Allison’s hand warmly, paying little attention to Lin Haoran behind him.

After all, any normal person would assume that since this young man, Lin Haoran, was following behind Anton Allison, he must be his subordinate.

Therefore, he didn’t bother to take a close look at Lin Haoran at all.

If he had, he would have recognized Lin Haoran’s identity immediately.

Chapter 509: Suzuki Toshifumi’s Wariness, Even Good Wine Fears a Deep Alley!

Once they were in the office, Suzuki Toshifumi continued, “Mr. Allison, our president had originally planned to meet with you personally, but an urgent matter came up this morning, so he is temporarily unavailable. I will be receiving you in his stead. I hope you can forgive us, Mr. Allison.”

“That’s quite all right. Your presence here is just as well, Mr. Suzuki. In fact, you are the one we primarily came to see,” Anton Allison said with a smile.

“Oh?” A flash of doubt crossed Suzuki Toshifumi’s face, and his brow furrowed slightly.

As the CEO of 7-Eleven’s Japanese branch, Suzuki Toshifumi was well aware that on all of Anton Allison’s previous visits to Japan, he had been received personally by President Ito. After all, Ito was the boss of Ito-Yokado.

He, on the other hand, usually only accompanied Ito to these meetings.

“Mr. Suzuki, please allow me to introduce you. This is the new owner of our Southland Corporation, Mr. Lin Haoran. He is now the new master of the 7-Eleven convenience store brand,” Anton Allison said, stepping aside to introduce Lin Haoran, who had been standing behind him.

At that moment, Suzuki Toshifumi’s gaze finally settled on the young man beside Anton Allison. But the sight struck him like a bolt of lightning. He froze on the spot, his eyes wide with utter disbelief.

“Mr. Lin Haoran?” Anton Allison’s words were like a clap of thunder, ringing in Suzuki Toshifumi’s ears, while his eyes remained locked on Lin Haoran’s young, confident face.

Suzuki Toshifumi’s mind was in turmoil. Though he wasn’t intimately familiar with Lin Haoran, he certainly knew who he was.

Recently, President Ito had been wracking his brain over this wealthy man from Hong Kong, even viewing him as a potential competitor and fearing his arrival would impact the Ito family’s growth.

After all, the fact that the Hongkong Land Group had spent fifty-two billion Japanese yen to acquire four plots of land was simply too shocking.

An outside force with such deep pockets was the greatest cause for concern.

And the lifeblood of the Ito family was the retail industry!

To prevent Lin Haoran from delivering a severe blow to the Ito family in the retail sector, Ito had even contacted several major retail tycoons in Tokyo to jointly resist the Hongkong Land Group’s expansion into Japan’s retail industry.

And yet, now he was being told that this very person—the one who had put so much pressure on the president—had become the new owner of the 7-Eleven brand, the business the Ito family now relied on most?

Suzuki Toshifumi’s mind went blank. It felt as if all his thoughts had been drained away. He just stared blankly at Lin Haoran, his usually sharp and steady eyes now unfocused, filled with shock and confusion.

It was too sudden. So sudden he couldn’t process it.

After all, as the CEO of 7-Eleven’s Japanese branch, he knew better than anyone how crucial the convenience store chain was to Ito-Yokado.

Ito-Yokado was still busy building its defenses on the perimeter, yet the enemy had already silently infiltrated their inner sanctum and seized the family’s most core asset.

In other words, all of the president’s plans had just been rendered utterly meaningless.

For this reason, Suzuki Toshifumi’s emotions were a complex mess. For a moment, he couldn’t even pull himself together.

“Mr. Suzuki, hello. I have long heard of your great name,” Lin Haoran’s voice was gentle yet firm. He smiled and extended a hand, breaking the silence in the room.

Suzuki Toshifumi snapped back to reality as if waking from a dream. He jolted, and his hands rose involuntarily to grip Lin Haoran’s, but his grasp still carried an undeniable tremor.

At this moment, he began to worry about Ito-Yokado’s fate.

After all, Ito-Yokado had launched an attack against Hongkong Land Group’s Wellcome supermarket chain these past few days. It was impossible for the young man before him not to know about it.

Suddenly, a possibility formed in Suzuki Toshifumi’s mind.

Could it be that the president’s sudden move against Wellcome had provoked a tit-for-tat response, leading them to acquire Southland Corporation?

If that were the case, he wondered if the president would be filled with regret when he learned the truth.

But in the end, he was merely a professional manager. His current role was CEO of 7-Eleven’s Japanese branch.

As for Ito-Yokado’s affairs, he could do little. He wasn’t the one in charge over there.

Still, he had worked at Ito-Yokado for over twenty years and held a great deal of affection for the company.

That was why he had looked so shocked when he heard that Lin Haoran had taken control of Southland Corporation.

“Mr. Lin, I didn’t expect to see you here. I have long heard of your great name. Please, have a seat,” Suzuki Toshifumi said, his expression complicated.

“Actually, I have long admired your talent, Mr. Suzuki. Since Mr. Ito isn’t here, why don’t we have a good chat? What do you say?” Lin Haoran said with a smile, his eyes filled with approbation as he looked at Suzuki Toshifumi.

If anyone were to ask who deserved the most credit for 7-Eleven’s rise to become the world’s largest convenience store chain, the answer was undoubtedly Suzuki Toshifumi.

He was the one who brought 7-Eleven to Japan. From the very first store that opened in the country until decades into the future, he served as its CEO.

One could say that 7-Eleven’s ascent was accomplished under his leadership.

Lin Haoran naturally wanted such a talented individual on his side.

If asked who was most suited to take charge of 7-Eleven, the answer was, without a doubt, Suzuki Toshifumi.

After all, his management genius was plain for all to see in the future.

As for Anton Allison, he would have to be passed over.

As a transmigrator, Lin Haoran knew full well that in the future of the convenience store industry, 7-Eleven would firmly hold the top spot globally.

Amidst fierce competition from numerous convenience store brands, Suzuki Toshifumi’s excellent leadership allowed 7-Eleven to stand out and become a top global brand, fully demonstrating his extraordinary talent.

However, he had done his research. The man had come from Ito-Yokado and felt a deep loyalty to it. He wasn’t confident he could persuade him.

But he had to try.

Otherwise, if he handed 7-Eleven over to someone else to manage, he had no idea what its future achievements would be. Everything would be uncertain.

Lin Haoran’s words put Suzuki Toshifumi on high alert.

What did this wealthy Chinese man want?

Faced with that intense gaze, Suzuki Toshifumi, a man approaching fifty, felt a flicker of panic.

However, the thought that 7-Eleven in Japan was a separately listed company, currently managed by its parent company, Ito-Yokado, brought him a small measure of relief.

After sitting down, Lin Haoran took a look around the office.

It was a very ordinary office, only a few dozen square meters in size, with no luxurious decorations whatsoever.

“Mr. Suzuki, I’d like to inform you of an important decision. I plan to reclaim the operating rights for the 7-Eleven convenience store brand from Ito-Yokado and move Southland Corporation’s headquarters to Tokyo.

In the future, I am even considering taking the Japanese 7-Eleven company private,” Lin Haoran announced, dropping another bombshell.

The original decision to have the 7-Eleven Japanese branch go public independently was mainly to obtain more capital support.

The resources of Southland Corporation and Ito-Yokado alone were insufficient to meet the demands of 7-Eleven’s rapid expansion in Japan.

Since the Japanese branch went public, the pace of its convenience store expansion had increased significantly.

In the past, adding a few dozen new stores a year was considered a great achievement. But now, with the backing of capital, the number of new stores had reached nearly two or three hundred per year for the last two years, and the momentum was only growing stronger.

This was the clear advantage that capital brought.

But now that Lin Haoran had acquired Southland Corporation, did he still need capital?

He did not.

Because Lin Haoran himself was a formidable source of capital!

After hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Suzuki Toshifumi’s brow furrowed tightly once again.

The worst news imaginable had arrived.

“Mr. Lin, your words are truly a huge shock to me. 7-Eleven is a vital part of Ito-Yokado, and a change in its operating rights is no small matter. The Ito family will never agree.

Furthermore, 7-Eleven Japan is a public company with a complex equity structure. The path to privatization will not be easy; it will require time and meticulous planning. I believe maintaining the status quo might be more prudent for all parties.

Regarding the recent stir caused by Ito-Yokado department store’s price promotions, I am deeply sorry and am willing to do my best to have Mr. Ito extend his sincerest apologies to you. After all, while business competition is fierce, maintaining harmonious coexistence within the industry is equally important.

Mr. Lin, I implore you to consider this: for the continued prosperity of the 7-Eleven brand, it would be unwise to rashly change its established development trajectory. 7-Eleven is currently on an upward trend, and any major strategic adjustments could bring unpredictable risks.

I hope we can resolve our current differences in a more peaceful and rational manner, working together to guide 7-Eleven toward an even more brilliant future,” Suzuki Toshifumi said, sincerely expressing his views in an attempt to persuade Lin Haoran to abandon his plan.

But could a few words really change Lin Haoran’s mind?

Clearly, Suzuki Toshifumi was being too optimistic.

Originally, before coming to Japan, he hadn’t considered acquiring Southland Corporation, the parent company of 7-Eleven.

It was purely because the Ito family had targeted him for no reason that the idea of acquiring Southland Corporation had taken root.

While his initial motive for the acquisition might have contained a hint of retaliation for the Ito family’s unprovoked attack, the phone call from Yang Mingyi that morning had undeniably made him value the 7-Eleven brand even more.

Yang Mingyi had conveyed the Mainland Chinese government’s hope that he would vigorously develop the country’s manufacturing industry. This prompted Lin Haoran to realize that if he wanted to develop fast-moving consumer goods, a convenience store brand with a vast network of chain stores was an indispensable asset.

7-Eleven had extensive urban coverage in countries like the United States and Japan, enabling new products to be brought to market quickly. At the same time, its powerful supply chain and logistics system ensured timely delivery, which was crucial for the fast-moving consumer goods industry.

Once he controlled a prime asset like 7-Eleven, any fast-moving consumer goods brand he launched in the future would be practically guaranteed high sales volumes. He wouldn’t have to worry about sales at all.

Without sufficient sales channels, even the best product cannot be sold.

Even good wine fears a deep alley. Without enough sales channels, customers can’t buy the product even if they want to.

Chapter 510: Coercion, the Life and Death of Ito-Yokado!

At this moment, Anton Allison stood to the side, unable to get a word in edgewise.

He was clearly the general manager of the Southland Corporation, yet at this moment, he didn’t know what to say.

Just then, Lin Haoran suddenly turned to Anton Allison with a smile. “Mr. Allison, given that I’ve decided to move the Southland Corporation to Tokyo, perhaps you could return to the Hongkong Land Tower first to start the preliminary preparations for the move. What do you think? The relocation will be a formidable task, and the initial prep work is sure to be extensive. I’ll have to trouble you with all of it!”

He intended to send Anton Allison away, as there were certain things he didn’t want him to hear.

However, Anton Allison was unaware of Lin Haoran’s thoughts. He simply nodded and said, “In that case, I’ll head back now.”

“Yes, just have the driver take you back. I’d like to continue my conversation with Mr. Suzuki Toshifumi. This concerns the future development of 7-Eleven convenience stores in Japan, and I wish to learn more from him,” Lin Haoran continued.

Anton Allison then bid farewell to both of them and left the office.

Instantly, only the two of them remained.

The reason for sending Anton Allison away was that Lin Haoran wanted to poach talent from Ito-Yokado—to headhunt the great mind that was Suzuki Toshifumi.

Although he wasn’t overly confident, he had to at least try.

He wasn’t entirely comfortable entrusting the management of 7-Eleven to anyone else; there were too many variables.

But if Suzuki Toshifumi continued to manage 7-Eleven, then the chances of the convenience store chain becoming the global industry leader in the future would be very high!

This was Lin Haoran’s goal.

The reason he acquired the 7-Eleven brand was, naturally, that he hoped it could achieve the same level of success it had in his previous life.

If Anton Allison had remained, some things would have been inconvenient to say.

The office fell silent for a moment before Suzuki Toshifumi finally spoke again. “It seems, Mr. Lin, that you are unwilling to bury the hatchet with Ito-Yokado?”

“Mr. Suzuki, in your opinion, whose financial strength is greater, mine or the Ito family’s?” Lin Haoran didn’t answer Suzuki Toshifumi’s question, asking one of his own instead.

“Naturally, Mr. Lin’s financial strength is greater. With your resources, even in Japan, few financial groups could compare. The Ito family’s wealth is worlds apart from yours!” Suzuki Toshifumi said truthfully after a moment of silence.

The Ito family’s fortune amounted to tens of billions of Japanese yen at most.

Such a net worth would make them a rather ordinary hundred-millionaire in Hong Kong, let alone in Japan, where powerhouses were a dime a dozen.

Therefore, comparing the current Ito family to Lin Haoran was truly no comparison at all.

“Then, Mr. Suzuki, I have never once provoked the Ito family, yet they have launched an unprovoked attack against me. What reason, in your view, do I have to reconcile with them? I came here at the invitation of your country’s Foreign Minister to visit and invest, not to be wronged.

If any random person can bully me, then why would I travel thousands of miles to come to Japan? I could be thriving on my own turf.

Since the Ito family chose to provoke me, they must pay the price. And I will respond through legitimate business competition. That is perfectly fair and reasonable!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, his tone carrying an unshakeable resolve.

Suzuki Toshifumi sighed. He knew it was impossible to persuade the other party to resolve their grievances with the Ito family.

At this point, the only way forward was to have the president, Mr. Ito, come over. This was a situation that a professional manager like himself could no longer handle.

Thinking of this, Suzuki Toshifumi said to Lin Haoran, “Mr. Lin, please have a seat for a moment. I will call Mr. Ito and ask him to come speak with you. How about that?”

“No, Mr. Suzuki. Please, stay seated. I’d like to continue our chat,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Hearing this, Suzuki Toshifumi had no choice but to abandon his intention to make the call.

“Mr. Suzuki, what are your thoughts on the future prospects of convenience stores?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

“I believe the convenience store industry is far from reaching its peak; it is still in its nascent stages. This is precisely why I decided to introduce the convenience store model from the United States seven years ago.

Just as I predicted, the momentum of convenience stores has been extremely strong. In just a few short years, 7-Eleven has grown rapidly in Japan, successfully surpassing one thousand stores by the end of last year. This was achieved despite facing multiple challenges, such as a shortage of funds and an increase in competitors.

If we had more abundant capital, I believe 7-Eleven’s expansion in Japan would have been even faster.

I firmly believe that the convenience store industry will become a crucial part of the global retail sector in the future. Although I haven’t conducted in-depth research on all other regions, for Japan and its surrounding areas—such as Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore—these places are extremely well-suited for the development of convenience stores due to their high population densities and advanced economies.

7-Eleven has the full potential to expand on a massive scale in these regions and quickly capture the market!” Suzuki Toshifumi expressed his views after careful consideration.

Suzuki Toshifumi didn’t elaborate further, but his words made it clear that he had a deep understanding of convenience stores.

In the future, places like Japan, Korea, and Taiwan would indeed become regions where convenience stores flourished.

He truly was the key figure who would lead 7-Eleven to become a global bellwether.

Lin Haoran was even more pleased with the talented middle-aged man before him.

I must poach him. I have to get him, by any means necessary!

Otherwise, if 7-Eleven didn’t have Suzuki Toshifumi, he truly wouldn’t know who to entrust the company to.

At this thought, Lin Haoran’s gaze upon Suzuki Toshifumi grew even more intense.

This look was almost too much for Suzuki Toshifumi to bear.

“Mr. Suzuki, I must tell you plainly that I will be taking back all operating rights for 7-Eleven. This can be considered a reasonable response to Ito-Yokado’s unprovoked actions.

As for you, Mr. Suzuki, I very much hope that you will stay on as the CEO of 7-Eleven and continue to lead the brand’s development. I have great confidence in your management talent in this industry. What are your thoughts on this?” Lin Haoran stated his intentions with a smile.

It dawned on Suzuki Toshifumi. No wonder Lin Haoran’s tone had been a little strange from the very beginning.

So he wanted to keep him on.

Deep down, Suzuki Toshifumi was secretly pleased.

This was tantamount to being acknowledged by the super-rich man before him.

However, he still shook his head decisively and said, “Mr. Lin, my identity is first and foremost an employee of Ito-Yokado, and only then the CEO of 7-Eleven’s Japan branch company. Without Ito-Yokado, I would not be where I am today. Therefore, if you intend to take back the operating rights for 7-Eleven from Ito-Yokado, it is impossible for me to remain with the company!”

“Mr. Suzuki, don’t be so quick to refuse. Let me ask you a question. If Ito-Yokado were to go bankrupt, what would you do then?” Lin Haoran pressed.

“Ito-Yokado will not go bankrupt. Even without the 7-Eleven business, Ito-Yokado still has supermarkets, department stores, specialty stores, and discount stores. It will continue to do very well in these retail sectors!” Suzuki Toshifumi said with absolute certainty.

“However, Ito-Yokado’s actions have now angered me. If the Ito family loses the core pillar that is their convenience store business, their overall strength will be significantly weakened.

Under such circumstances, if I were to compete with Ito-Yokado with all my strength, how long do you think it could last?

I only need to use a mere ten billion Japanese yen to open similar retail stores around Ito-Yokado’s properties and sell at more attractive, lower prices. How long do you think Ito-Yokado could hold out?

Furthermore, I must have you understand, Mr. Suzuki, that ten billion Japanese yen is a drop in the bucket for me. But for the Ito family, it is perhaps an unbearable burden that would require all their effort to amass.

You should be able to sense the stakes in what I’m saying, shouldn’t you, Mr. Suzuki?” Lin Haoran’s words carried a clear threat.

Suzuki Toshifumi fell silent.

He knew very well that what Lin Haoran said was true.

The man truly had that kind of power.

At this moment, all he could do was sigh. Why did the president have to provoke such a figure?

If Ito-Yokado had exercised restraint from the start and not initiated this conflict, perhaps the situation would not have become so dire.

However, it was too late for regrets now.

The other party’s attitude was crystal clear; he clearly had no intention of letting this go.

“Even if Ito-Yokado goes bankrupt, I could never cooperate with you, Mr. Lin. After all, I am indebted to the Ito family. Without Ito-Yokado, I would not be where I am today!” Suzuki Toshifumi said, still shaking his head, his tone extremely solemn.

“Mr. Suzuki, what if I told you that if you agree to stay with 7-Eleven, I could forgo taking extreme measures against Ito-Yokado Company? What would you choose in that situation?” Lin Haoran suddenly asked with a smile.

Hearing this, Suzuki Toshifumi was instantly stunned into silence.

The life and death of Ito-Yokado was now in his hands?

If he refused, Ito-Yokado would face heavy retribution, most likely ending in forced bankruptcy, just as Lin Haoran had described.

Now that Lin Haoran had put it this way, he was truly torn.

At this moment, he deeply understood the ruthlessness of the young man before him.

Ruthless. Absolutely ruthless!

Suzuki Toshifumi naturally had deep feelings for Ito-Yokado.

After all, from starting as an ordinary employee to rising through the ranks to his current position, he had invested a great deal and learned much at the company.

Although he wasn’t the owner of Ito-Yokado, merely a professional manager, he couldn’t bear to watch it go bankrupt, especially when he was the one to make the decision.

And yet, he was unwilling to be forced into acceptance like this.

It was an incredibly difficult choice.

Chapter 511: A Stick and a Carrot

The reason Lin Haoran dared to pressure Suzuki Toshifumi so forcefully was simple: Ito-Yokado did not have a particularly strong background at this time.

In Hong Kong, the Ito family would be considered no more than an ordinary, minor powerhouse, much like the Lam family when Lin Haoran had first arrived.

In contrast, Lin Haoran’s financial power, even in Japan, was in the absolute top tier.

It was like asking: three years ago, would Michael Sandberg of HSBC have given Lin Wan’an the time of day?

The answer, naturally, was no.

And that was precisely how Lin Haoran viewed the Ito family at this moment.

If his opponents this time were the Mitsubishi Group, Mitsui Group, Sumitomo Group, or Fuyo Group, Lin Haoran would have no way of threatening them.

To put it bluntly, if he truly offended these local powerhouses, he, who had yet to establish a firm foothold in Japan, would find it very difficult to get by.

However, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, the current Ito family was hardly a local powerhouse. He wasn’t the least bit worried about their ability to retaliate.

Besides, the Ito family was the one in the wrong for targeting him first.

Suzuki Toshifumi’s fingers tapped on the desk before him, his brow furrowing from time to time. It was clear he was wrestling with an intense internal struggle.

Lin Haoran waited quietly for Suzuki Toshifumi’s answer. He didn’t rush him, because he knew that for Suzuki, this was indeed a very difficult matter.

If he refused, Ito-Yokado would likely be unable to withstand Lin Haoran’s retaliation and would ultimately, as Lin Haoran had said, decline.

But if he agreed, he could preserve Ito-Yokado’s peace for the time being, but he would be betraying his principles and his loyalty.

“Mr. Lin, could you give me some time to consider?” Suzuki Toshifumi finally spoke, his voice tinged with exhaustion and helplessness.

Lin Haoran was not surprised by his words.

The man was, after all, a seasoned professional approaching fifty. It was nearly impossible to persuade him so easily with just a few sentences.

Lin Haoran smiled, not intending to end the conversation there. Instead, he raised a question: “Mr. Suzuki, don’t be in such a hurry. Why don’t we explore this a bit further? Let’s assume I hadn’t acquired Southland Corporation, and the 7-Eleven convenience store maintained its current development trajectory. How do you think your career would evolve?”

Suzuki Toshifumi pondered for a moment before answering sincerely, “The 7-Eleven convenience store is undoubtedly a business with tremendous growth potential. It has a unique business model and a strong ability to adapt to the market. I realized that when I first went to the United States.

“However, for me personally, even if 7-Eleven were to become a leader in the global retail industry, my role and position likely wouldn’t change much.

“After all, I am only the manager of the 7-Eleven Japan branch company, a manager dispatched here by Ito-Yokado, not a senior executive at Southland Corporation. My duty is to ensure the smooth operation and continued expansion of this brand in Japan.

“Of course, with the success of 7-Eleven, Ito-Yokado, as a partner, would certainly reap considerable benefits, which in turn would fuel its own growth.

“As for me, the most likely path would be to return to Ito-Yokado headquarters after achieving significant success with the 7-Eleven project, take on a more important senior management position, and continue to contribute to Ito-Yokado’s development.”

Lin Haoran nodded, showing his appreciation for Suzuki Toshifumi’s candor and pragmatism.

At this point, no one could have imagined that if Lin Haoran hadn’t acquired Southland Corporation, the company would have gone bankrupt a few years later.

Therefore, Suzuki Toshifumi naturally wouldn’t have thought that, without Lin Haoran’s intervention, Ito-Yokado would have had the opportunity to acquire Southland Corporation and take ownership of the 7-Eleven brand.

That unpredictable future made Suzuki Toshifumi understand very clearly that as long as Ito-Yokado didn’t acquire Southland Corporation, the parent company of 7-Eleven would always be Southland, not Ito-Yokado!

So, no matter how well he ran the 7-Eleven Japan branch company, Southland Corporation had nothing to do with him.

“Hasn’t Mr. Suzuki ever thought of becoming one of the world’s top CEOs? Like Jack Welch, Andy Grove, or Robert Noyce, or even your own Mr. Akio Morita from Japan?”

Jack Welch was the CEO of General Electric. He implemented the “number one or number two” strategy, making GE one of the largest diversified service companies in the world, and Jack Welch himself became one of the most famous professional managers of this era.

As for Andy Grove and Robert Noyce, they were both from Intel and were now world-renowned professional managers. It was safe to say that everyone in the business world knew who they were.

And Japan’s own Mr. Akio Morita was the current head of Sony. Hailed as the “Sage of Management,” he spearheaded Sony’s global expansion and the R&D of several important products, including the Walkman portable cassette player launched in 1979, which made “Made in Japan” synonymous with high-quality electronics.

These men were essentially idols to many professional managers and held immense influence in the business world.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Suzuki Toshifumi shook his head with a wry smile. “Of course. Who wouldn’t want to become someone like that? But with my current situation, it’s simply impossible.”

Ito-Yokado was, after all, just a company in Japan that wasn’t particularly well-known or powerful. If the company wasn’t impressive, how could he be?

What’s more, he was already forty-nine years old. He didn’t know how many years he had left in his professional career.

“What if I could provide you with such an opportunity? Mr. Suzuki, if you are willing to join my team, I am willing to give you the position of CEO of Southland Corporation. All you would need to do is push the 7-Eleven convenience store brand to the pinnacle of the global convenience store industry.

“When countless 7-Eleven convenience stores line the streets of major cities around the world, you will naturally join the ranks of the world’s top professional managers.

“If 7-Eleven were to rely solely on the original Southland Corporation’s strength to seek rapid development, it would undoubtedly be fraught with difficulties, as their financial resources are not substantial.

“But now that Southland Corporation is under my command, this predicament is solved with ease. When it comes to financial strength, I believe Mr. Suzuki knows a thing or two about me, so I need not say more.

“Once the 7-Eleven Japan branch company is successfully delisted, I will increase my investment in Southland Corporation. And you, Mr. Suzuki, as the company’s CEO, must already be confident of success when it comes to accelerating the development of 7-Eleven.

“With you and me working together in a union of powerhouses, it is only a matter of time before 7-Eleven becomes the bellwether of the global convenience store industry,” Lin Haoran continued, a smile on his face.

Lin Haoran’s words were filled with temptation.

He believed that unless Suzuki Toshifumi was a fool, he would accept.

Relying on threats alone might have a high chance of persuading him to join his team.

But even if he joined, he would not be loyal.

Therefore, sufficient temptation and sincerity were necessary to make Suzuki Toshifumi serve him willingly.

Lin Haoran understood the principle of offering a stick and a carrot.

Though he was speaking, Lin Haoran continuously observed Suzuki Toshifumi’s expression.

Sure enough, as he listened to Lin Haoran’s words, the look in Suzuki Toshifumi’s eyes gradually changed. It was a look of yearning and desire for the future.

He was clearly captivated by the blueprint Lin Haoran had painted. The allure of becoming a top global CEO was undoubtedly immense for him.

Moreover, Lin Haoran truly possessed such financial power.

In contrast, by staying with a company like Ito-Yokado, which wasn’t a major enterprise, the limits of his potential achievements were almost plain to see.

Seeing that expression, Lin Haoran knew the man was tempted.

And being tempted was good.

“Mr. Lin, I would like to know, why do you trust me so much?” After a moment of silence, Suzuki Toshifumi finally asked.

“While conducting in-depth research on Southland Corporation, I paid particular attention to the history of 7-Eleven’s development in Japan, and your outstanding contributions were irreplaceable.

“You keenly perceived the immense potential of this new convenience store model in Japan and successfully led its growth and expansion, which fully demonstrates your extraordinary talent in the retail sector. Therefore, I have full confidence in you!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, his gaze full of praise for Suzuki Toshifumi.

Suzuki Toshifumi was slightly taken aback, then he voiced another doubt in his mind: “But, Mr. Lin, what about Southland Corporation’s original CEO, Mr. Anton Allison? He has been with the company for many years and has a deep understanding of its business. Isn’t he a more suitable candidate?”

Lin Haoran shook his head gently and explained patiently, “Mr. Anton Allison is undoubtedly an experienced manager with profound insights into the company’s operations. The fact that he could serve as CEO of Southland Corporation naturally means he is a talented man.

“I had an in-depth discussion with him earlier. He mentioned that the current room for growth for 7-Eleven is limited and believes the company should explore diversified development paths, leading Southland Corporation to become a stronger enterprise in other fields.

“In my view, however, the development potential of the 7-Eleven convenience store has yet to be fully tapped, and the room for growth is still enormous. From my conversation with Mr. Allison, I sensed that his views on the future direction of 7-Eleven differ from my own.

“I believe that what 7-Eleven needs is to continue expanding within the convenience store industry. In my opinion, the current number of 7-Eleven stores is still too small, so there is no need to rush into other sectors.

“This is precisely why we at Southland Corporation need you, Mr. Suzuki. Your successful practices in the Japanese market and your unique insights into the convenience store industry are the key to leading 7-Eleven to break through its existing framework and advance to a position of global leadership.

“Therefore, I firmly believe that with you as the CEO of Southland Corporation, you will be able to lead 7-Eleven to create an even more brilliant future and achieve unprecedented success.”

Chapter 512: Red Bull, Budweiser, Heineken, Carlsberg, Nestlé—Acquire Them All!

To persuade Suzuki Toshifumi, Lin Haoran didn’t hesitate to reveal his intention to replace Anton Allison.

He wasn’t worried that Suzuki Toshifumi would inform Anton Allison beforehand, as doing so would bring Suzuki no benefit.

After saying this, he said no more.

He had said all that needed to be said. If Suzuki Toshifumi still refused, Lin Haoran would truly feel he had misjudged the man.

He wasn’t surprised that Ito-Yokado had such a loyal subordinate. After all, he had his own loyal subordinates as well.

Now, in order to poach this loyal subordinate from Ito-Yokado, he had taken the rare step of speaking with him at such length.

With anyone else, he wouldn’t have given them nearly this much attention.

He was only doing so because Suzuki Toshifumi possessed a talent worthy of his serious consideration.

The office fell silent. It was clear that although Suzuki Toshifumi was tempted, he was still struggling internally.

He lowered his head, and Lin Haoran could not see his expression.

After a long while, Suzuki Toshifumi finally raised his head again, looked at Lin Haoran, and said, “Mr. Lin, I have thought it over. I am willing to join your team and dedicate myself wholeheartedly to managing the 7-Eleven company for you. However, I hope you will spare the Ito-Yokado Company and no longer retaliate against it!”

“Of course. As long as Ito-Yokado doesn’t provoke me again, I can promise you that I won’t target the Ito-Yokado Company. But if they continue to court disaster, then you can’t blame me for what happens!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

It was good that he had agreed.

This brilliant talent, the man who would make 7-Eleven the world’s largest convenience store brand, was finally his to command. It hadn’t been easy!

“Rest assured, Mr. Lin. I will persuade Mr. Ito. He is a boss who is willing to listen. The Ito-Yukado department store will soon cease its actions against your companies,” Suzuki Toshifumi said solemnly.

“Also, Mr. Suzuki, it would be best if you could persuade the Ito family to sell me the shares Ito-Yokado holds in the 7-Eleven Japan branch company. I am willing to acquire them at market price. After all, this is just one of 7-Eleven’s markets. If he refuses to sell, I wouldn’t mind having the 7-Eleven Japan branch company temporarily halt its store expansion and instead shift its focus to expanding in other overseas markets. For instance, the neighboring markets of Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong seem quite promising,” Lin Haoran continued.

Now that things had come to this, the next step was to bring the 7-Eleven convenience store completely under his control.

If the Ito family continued to hold shares in 7-Eleven Japan, wouldn’t they become the ultimate beneficiaries once 7-Eleven reached its peak development in Japan?

Naturally, Lin Haoran could not allow such a situation to arise.

“Please rest assured, Mr. Lin. I will do my best to persuade Mr. Ito!” Suzuki Toshifumi did not argue with Lin Haoran’s words and instead agreed.

“In that case, I won’t disturb you any longer. I look forward to your good news. I hope our future collaboration will be a smooth one!” Lin Haoran stood up and extended his right hand.

Suzuki Toshifumi also extended his right hand. The two hands clasped, signifying that their partnership was now officially sealed.

However, since Suzuki Toshifumi had not yet resigned from Ito-Yokado, Lin Haoran could not see his loyalty level.

Having discussed everything, there was no need to stay any longer.

So, after bidding Suzuki Toshifumi farewell, Lin Haoran went downstairs.

Downstairs, he didn’t leave in a hurry. Instead, he walked with interest into the 7-Eleven flagship convenience store on the first floor.

This flagship store was called a convenience store, but Lin Haoran felt it could actually be described as a small supermarket.

It offered a wide variety of products with a logical layout. Every section was arranged in perfect order, stocking everything from snacks, drinks, and stationery to daily necessities. Customers moved through the aisles, selecting the items they needed.

Lin Haoran strolled through the store, occasionally stopping to carefully observe the product displays and the customers’ purchasing behavior.

He noticed that despite the constant flow of people, every employee appeared well-trained, offering quick and accurate service with a smile. This efficient yet welcoming atmosphere was perhaps one of the key reasons 7-Eleven had won the affection of its customers.

Lin Haoran nodded to himself, satisfied with his acquisition of the 7-Eleven brand.

In the future, the countless 7-Eleven convenience stores around the world would become a sales channel under his control.

It was a channel even stronger than Dairy Farm International.

Although Dairy Farm International’s position in Hong Kong’s retail industry was far ahead of its competitors, its influence dropped significantly outside of Hong Kong.

Therefore, the acquisition of 7-Eleven was an excellent supplement.

After spending more than ten minutes in the flagship convenience store, Lin Haoran left the headquarters of the 7-Eleven Japan branch company with his bodyguards.

He should know the outcome of Suzuki Toshifumi’s negotiations with Ito very soon.

In the current situation, the Ito family had no choice, so to speak.

After all, he had already acquired the entire Southland Corporation. Even if Ito-Yokado wanted to resist, it had no way to do so.

Find a backer?

Useless.

After all, the core business of Ito-Yokado was now the 7-Eleven Japan branch company.

And the 7-Eleven brand itself had already fallen into Lin Haoran’s hands.

What was the use of finding other backers?

Therefore, he wasn’t at all concerned that Ito-Yokado would reject his terms.

After a simple lunch at a nearby Western restaurant, Lin Haoran left Chiyoda Ward.

Taking the car, Lin Haoran returned smoothly to the Hongkong Land Tower in the Ginza business district of Central Ward.

The streets in front of the building were as bustling as ever, with an endless stream of traffic.

The prosperous scene had not diminished in the slightest.

At some point, the snowfall had quietly ceased. And the snow on the streets, embraced by the midday sun, had completely melted away.

The car came to a steady stop in a parking space in the underground garage. A bodyguard opened the door, and Lin Haoran stepped out. He quickly took the elevator back to his office on the 23rd floor.

He saw Anton Allison on the phone in a vacant office, clearly communicating with senior executives at Southland Corporation’s US headquarters, making preparations for the relocation.

However, Lin Haoran paid him no mind and walked directly into the office of the Galaxy Securities Japan branch.

As for Anton Allison, the current CEO of Southland Corporation, Lin Haoran certainly had no intention of letting him continue in that role. However, if he was willing to become Suzuki Toshifumi’s deputy, Lin Haoran would still let him have the position.

After all, setting other things aside, being the CEO of Southland Corporation was enough to prove he knew the company’s current situation like the back of his hand.

If he was unwilling, then he couldn’t blame Lin Haoran for being ruthless and removing him directly.

He absolutely could not be allowed to remain the person in charge of the 7-Eleven convenience store.

At the Galaxy Securities Japan branch, Lin Haoran reviewed the morning’s progress.

The trading volume for the 7-Eleven Japan stock was not high in Japan.

After all, it was a company listed on the Second Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. This so-called “Second Section” was actually similar to the New Third Board in later-generation China, both serving small and medium-sized enterprises.

The only difference was that the Second Section used a traditional auction trading method similar to the main board, but with wider price fluctuation limits.

In reality, shareholders preferred to buy shares of companies listed on the First Section—those were the truly large corporations in Japan.

So, as expected, for the 7-Eleven Japan stock’s pending orders, the sell orders far outnumbered the buy orders.

In just two days, Galaxy Securities had gained control of as much as 8.24% of 7-Eleven Japan’s stock.

Combined with the 35% stake held by Southland Corporation, Lin Haoran wasn’t the least bit worried about Ito-Yokado launching a counterattack on the stock market.

“This afternoon, accelerate the accumulation. I want our holdings to exceed 15% by the end of the day—the more, the better!” Lin Haoran ordered directly.

The market capitalization of the 7-Eleven Japan branch company was only about eight billion Japanese yen. 15% of the shares would convert to only about thirty million Hong Kong dollars.

For such a small amount of money, Lin Haoran didn’t care if they drove the stock price up. Of course, it couldn’t be driven too high—he wasn’t a sucker, after all.

“Yes, Boss!” As an employee from Universal Investment Company, the person in charge understood his boss’s needs perfectly.

After talking with him for a while, Lin Haoran left the office of the Galaxy Securities Japan branch.

He glanced at Fok Kin-ning’s office, but it was empty. He figured he must have gone out on business.

Lin Haoran didn’t concern himself with where Fok Kin-ning had gone. Instead, he returned to his own office, took out a notebook and a fountain pen, and began to write.

Red Bull, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Pampers, Tide, Nivea, Huggies, Colgate, Lay’s, Nescafé, L’Oréal Paris, Dove, Head & Shoulders, Olay, Crest, Safeguard, Gillette, Maybelline, Estée Lauder, Shiseido, Master Kong, Yakult, Lancôme, Avon, Oreo, Snickers, Budweiser, Heineken, Danone, Kraft Heinz…

One after another, famous FMCG brands from his previous life appeared on the paper before him.

To become world-famous FMCG giants, these brands obviously had their own exceptional qualities.

Now, holding 7-Eleven—the future’s strongest global convenience store brand—and factoring in Mainland China’s demand for a stronger manufacturing industry, Lin Haoran decided to enter the FMCG market in full force.

FMCG products were only one part of the manufacturing industry. He wouldn’t overlook other sectors like electronics, appliances, machinery, or even automobiles, but one must walk the path step by step. And FMCG products were clearly a better fit for a sales channel like the 7-Eleven convenience store.

Therefore, Lin Haoran now planned to start his expansion into manufacturing with the FMCG sector!

More and more famous brands filled the page, all of them household names in his previous life.

However, he was unclear about the current status of these brands.

He was most familiar with Coca-Cola, the FMCG giant, because Universal Investment Company was already secretly accumulating its shares.

He had known for a long time that acquiring a company like Coca-Cola was beyond his capabilities at present.

But besides Coca-Cola and Pepsi, there was a myriad of other FMCG brands.

He would write these brands down and then just have his subordinates investigate them.

Chapter 513: Peacefully Being a Hands-Off Manager

On a sheet of white paper, hundreds of FMCG brand names were densely written.

These were all brands Lin Haoran had racked his brain to come up with.

They were all FMCG brands he was familiar with from his previous life, including famous names in food, beverages, personal care products, household cleaning supplies, alcohol, and more. However, he wasn’t clear on the current status of these brands.

But he was certain that, in this era, the brand value of most of them was still quite average.

In other words, if he wanted to acquire them, apart from a select few, the rest wouldn’t cost him much at all.

Lin Haoran put down his fountain pen and glanced over the brand names on the paper, very satisfied.

Even if these brands weren’t famous yet, he could significantly boost their sales through 7-Eleven convenience stores.

After all, 7-Eleven already had over three thousand stores.

And that was the situation before he took control.

Now that he was in charge of the Southland Corporation, the next natural step was massive expansion.

Expanding the 7-Eleven brand to ten thousand stores within a year or two was not an unattainable dream for him.

Imagine if a product was sold in every 7-Eleven store. As long as the product itself was decent, its sales would be anything but small.

And how bad could a product be if it was destined to become a famous brand in the future?

This was why Lin Haoran wanted to acquire those renowned FMCG brands.

After the acquisitions, a surge in sales would naturally require an expansion of production.

Places like Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Guangzhou were clearly ideal for building numerous manufacturing plants.

Cheap labor, favorable export policies, and a market with huge potential—these were all significant advantages of choosing locales like Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Guangzhou for manufacturing sites.

Moreover, these cities were all close to Hong Kong, making them easier to manage.

Fast-moving consumer goods would be his first step into the manufacturing industry.

Lin Haoran picked up the telephone receiver next to him and made a call to Cui Zilong, who was far away in Hong Kong.

After explaining his purpose, he faxed the list of brands over, asking Cui Zilong to investigate their current status.

Once that was settled, Lin Haoran called Ma Shimin.

The line was busy, indicating that Ma Shimin was on another call.

A few minutes later, Ma Shimin called Lin Haoran back.

“Boss, is there something you need?” On the other end of the line, it was clear Ma Shimin knew immediately who was calling him.

Although Ma Shimin had not come to Japan, he was kept in the loop regarding the Hongkong Land Group’s branch company here. Fok Kin-ning was coordinating with him.

Therefore, Ma Shimin knew the progress in Japan like the back of his hand.

“Yes, I called because there are a few things I’d like to discuss with you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Please go ahead, Boss!”

“Have you heard of 7-Eleven convenience stores?” Lin Haoran continued.

“Of course, Boss. I know 7-Eleven is one of the world’s leading convenience store chains. In fact, Dairy Farm International has been in discussions with the American Southland Corporation for the past two years, aiming to collaborate and secure the agency rights for the 7-Eleven brand in Hong Kong.”

“The convenience store model has been developing very well in Japan these past few years, and I believe it can flourish in Hong Kong just as it has in Japan.”

“Over the past two years, the two parties have had many in-depth discussions. Last year, after I took over management of Hongkong Land Group, I also represented Dairy Farm International in a new round of talks with Southland Corporation’s CEO, Mr. Anton Allison.”

“Moreover, the negotiations are basically settled. 7-Eleven will officially enter the Hong Kong market this year, and it’s almost certain that we, Dairy Farm International, will obtain the agency rights.”

“After all, when it comes to influence in the Hong Kong retail industry, Dairy Farm International has few rivals. Southland Corporation’s options are quite limited. Boss, why did you suddenly bring up 7-Eleven?” Ma Shimin asked, a hint of confusion in his voice.

Lin Haoran’s acquisition of the Southland Corporation had been too abrupt—so abrupt that he hadn’t told anyone. Even Fok Kin-ning wasn’t very clear on the matter, only knowing that Anton Allison was a senior executive under Lin Haoran.

As for Ma Shimin, who was all the way in Hong Kong, it was even more impossible for him to know.

In fact, in another world, 7-Eleven had indeed entered Hong Kong in 1981, and its partner was Jardine Matheson & Co.’s subsidiary, Dairy Farm International.

7-Eleven had even entered the Mainland China market through Dairy Farm International.

However, Dairy Farm International was now in the hands of the Hongkong Land Group and thus had no relationship with Jardine Matheson & Co. anymore.

Despite this, it wouldn’t change Dairy Farm International’s development strategy in the slightest. What was meant to be a collaboration would still be a collaboration.

“Let me tell you something. The 7-Eleven brand is mine now. In fact, I’ve acquired the entire Southland Corporation, and I’ve summoned that Mr. Anton to Tokyo,” Lin Haoran said with a laugh.

“Boss, although 7-Eleven’s market capitalization isn’t high right now, its future potential is considerable. Its brand recognition is much greater than its market value; it’s quite a well-known brand. Acquiring it couldn’t have been easy, could it? You actually managed to take it down?” Ma Shimin was somewhat astonished.

Among the many companies the Boss had acquired, Southland Corporation was certainly not the most prominent. But it wasn’t a Hong Kong company; it was an American company, which naturally made the acquisition much more difficult.

In terms of market capitalization, Southland Corporation wasn’t a particularly formidable enterprise at present. If it were in Hong Kong, it wouldn’t even rank in the top one hundred.

However, Ma Shimin could see the value of the 7-Eleven brand, and he knew its value would only increase in the future.

That was why Ma Shimin was very supportive of Dairy Farm International obtaining the agency rights for 7-Eleven.

While Hong Kong’s streets and alleys were full of corner stores and grocery shops, convenience stores were an entirely different concept.

Corner stores primarily focused on snacks, drinks, and other small bites, with a relatively limited product range, and they often had very casual decor and product displays.

Convenience stores, on the other hand, are small retail outlets that primarily sell goods and services for immediate consumption, satisfying the need for convenience. They typically offer daily necessities, food, and beverages to meet the everyday needs of consumers of all ages.

Although there was some overlap in the types of goods sold at convenience stores and corner stores, their positioning and target customers were different.

Corner stores were more focused on the sale of snacks, while convenience stores offered a wider range of everyday items and food.

Therefore, even though Hong Kong already had numerous corner stores, the introduction of the convenience store model was sure to be a promising venture.

“Difficult to acquire? It wasn’t exactly a small feat, but it wasn’t that büyük either. By the way, I have a question. With Dairy Farm International’s influence in Hong Kong, since you want to go with the convenience store model, why not create your own convenience store brand instead of seeking to franchise 7-Eleven?” Lin Haoran voiced his doubt.

It was perfectly normal for Ito-Yokado to get the agency rights for 7-Eleven. After all, Ito-Yokado wasn’t a particularly powerful company in Japan.

But Dairy Farm International was different. It was Hong Kong’s top retail enterprise, and with the backing of a giant like Hongkong Land Group, it should have been easy to establish its own convenience store brand in Hong Kong.

Furthermore, Hongkong Land Group’s financial strength was dozens of times greater than that of the Southland Corporation.

Yet, whether it was Dairy Farm International in the Newbiggin era or the current Ma Shimin era, they both chose to obtain 7-Eleven’s agency rights rather than creating their own convenience store brand.

This was what made Lin Haoran curious.

“Boss, the reason is actually quite simple. As a well-known American convenience store brand, 7-Eleven has decades of history and has already accumulated a mature operating model, supply chain management technology, and brand influence.”

“While Dairy Farm International, as a retail tycoon in Hong Kong, has experience in multiple areas like supermarkets and drugstores, the meticulous operational requirements of the convenience store format are extremely high.”

“Acting as an agent for the 7-Eleven brand allows us to directly inherit its standardized store management, product selection strategies—such as having fresh food make up 40% of offerings—and its efficient co-distribution system. This helps us avoid the costs and risks of starting from scratch.”

“For example, in Japan right now, 7-Eleven uses a shared economy model to integrate the resources of manufacturers, logistics providers, and franchisees, forming an asset-light operating system. This model is extremely attractive to Dairy Farm International.”

“Moreover, 7-Eleven employs a regional authorization model globally, which allows local enterprises to adjust their strategies based on regional characteristics. This model preserves brand uniformity while giving regional operators autonomy. Dairy Farm International wouldn’t have to rely entirely on headquarters’ decisions and can balance efficiency with adaptability through local innovation.”

“Additionally, as a member of the Hongkong Land Group, Dairy Farm International’s business covers multiple sectors, including retail and food and beverage, such as Wellcome supermarket, Mannings drugstore, and Maxim’s Cakes. Acting as an agent for 7-Eleven can create synergy with our existing businesses. For example, we can share supply chain resources, lower procurement costs, and enhance our overall competitiveness through a multi-brand matrix.”

“It’s safe to say that the benefits of obtaining the agency rights for 7-Eleven are far greater than those of creating our own convenience store brand!” Ma Shimin patiently explained to Lin Haoran.

After hearing Ma Shimin’s explanation, Lin Haoran had a sudden realization. As it turned out, he had been thinking about some things too simply.

“This is why I’m not suited to manage companies. It’s best I interfere as little as possible with each company’s management. It’s not so bad to just be a hands-off manager!” Lin Haoran couldn’t help but mock himself inwardly.

If he were managing the company, his first thought would probably have been to create his own convenience store brand.

In that case, the most likely outcome would have been a massive increase in costs and an equally significant increase in the possibility of losses.

Chapter 514: Ito-Yokado’s Years of Hard Work, Ruined in an Instant

The reason the 7-Eleven convenience store chain could stand out among so many other brands was undoubtedly its unique operating model and brand value. These were the very things Dairy Farm International valued and hoped to introduce to the Hong Kong market.

Top professional managers like Newbiggin and Ma Shimin naturally considered far more.

Although Lin Haoran was a transmigrator with extensive knowledge, he had too little business experience. Furthermore, he had never conducted an in-depth study of Dairy Farm International, so it was normal for him not to understand.

“Boss, now that you’ve acquired Southland Corporation, it’s even better. This will make it much simpler for 7-Eleven to enter the Hong Kong market,” Ma Shimin said with a laugh.

“It is indeed time to accelerate 7-Eleven’s entry into Hong Kong. I will instruct Mr. Anton Allison to represent Southland Corporation in reaching a cooperation agreement with you as soon as possible, to get 7-Eleven into the Hong Kong market quickly.

However, I didn’t call you for such a small matter. I have a plan for you to carry out a major merger and acquisition of FMCG brands. The Mainland China government hopes that I will continue to increase my investment in the manufacturing industry there. I’m quite interested in this, so I plan to start with the FMCG sector. Plus, I now own the 7-Eleven retail chain and have Dairy Farm International’s sales channels…” Lin Haoran laid out his plan for Ma Shimin in detail.

Ma Shimin was the most suitable person to implement this plan, and Lin Haoran certainly wouldn’t handle it personally.

Currently, the most outstanding professional manager under him was definitely Ma Shimin.

Chen Shoulin, Burton, Cui Zilong, and the others still had some way to go compared to Ma Shimin.

As for Fok Kin-ning, his future talent would definitely not be inferior to Ma Shimin’s, but he was still growing.

Furthermore, with Hongkong Land Group’s tremendous financial strength, it was most appropriate for him to be in charge of this matter.

“Boss, the plan you’ve described is truly excellent. With a platform like 7-Eleven, as long as the quality of our FMCG products is good, we really won’t have to worry about sales,” Ma Shimin said, his interest piqued after hearing Lin Haoran’s plan.

“This can be handled by Dairy Farm International. I’ve already instructed Mr. Cui Zilong to investigate some suitable brands for acquisition. Once the investigation is complete, I will discuss with you which brands are most suitable to acquire!” Lin Haoran continued.

For an FMCG company to grow strong, mergers and acquisitions were the best way.

The FMCG giants he was familiar with from his past life, such as Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Nestlé, L’Oréal, Anheuser-Busch InBev, and Diageo, had all essentially grown through continuous acquisitions. Relying solely on organic growth wasn’t impossible, but it was too difficult and time-consuming; there was simply no need for it.

Therefore, acquisition was the best method.

And Dairy Farm International already possessed a complete and solid foundation. Maxim’s, Mannings, and Wellcome were all well-known brands in Hong Kong.

Having Dairy Farm International acquire those FMCG brands was, therefore, the most fitting course of action.

However, Lin Haoran did not plan to merge the 7-Eleven convenience store brand into Dairy Farm International; instead, he intended for it to operate independently.

7-Eleven’s success lay not only in its unique operating model and brand value but also in its flexibility and market responsiveness as an independent brand.

Integrating 7-Eleven into a large retail group like Dairy Farm International might constrain its decision-making and execution, causing it to lose its original agility and innovative spirit.

Therefore, Southland Corporation would always remain the parent company of 7-Eleven.

Southland Corporation would handle the sales channels, while Dairy Farm International would be responsible for the products. The two collaborating would be a perfect match.

“Understood, Boss. I’m aware of the matter now. I fully support your idea of entering the FMCG market. As it happens, I have some knowledge in this area. I’ll go speak with Mr. Allison about the 7-Eleven partnership first, so I won’t disturb you any longer!” Ma Shimin could hardly wait to bring 7-Eleven to Hong Kong.

“Alright, go on!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran looked at the list of well-known FMCG brands in his hands and couldn’t help but smile.

FMCG brands were just his first target.

Next, he planned to enter industries such as appliances, machinery, electronics, pharmaceuticals, textiles, equipment, and chemicals.

After all, these were all related to manufacturing.

Since Mainland China was showing a strong demand for manufacturing, Lin Haoran decided to do his utmost to meet this demand.

This would not only solidify his good relationship with the Mainland but also bring considerable profits to his enterprise.

More importantly, this move would help narrow the technological gap between the Mainland and the rest of the world, promoting its faster integration with the international community.

Currently, one of the biggest challenges facing the Mainland was the technology gap.

To address this, Lin Haoran planned to commit to raising the level of civilian technology in the Mainland, laying a solid foundation for it.

Therefore, manufacturing only FMCG products would certainly not be enough to satisfy the Mainland.

Only by introducing advanced technology, strengthening independent R&D, and cultivating high-quality talent could the Mainland’s technological strength be fundamentally enhanced.

Thus, in the future, he would need to do things like establishing R&D centers in cooperation with Mainland enterprises, introducing advanced international production equipment and technology, and conducting technical and talent training to comprehensively improve the Mainland’s capacity for technological innovation.

If Lin Haoran lacked the ability, he certainly wouldn’t overreach and attempt such things.

But with his current standing in the business world, he felt it was necessary for him to help promote the Mainland’s development.

He believed that through these efforts, the Mainland would be able to integrate with the world more quickly and achieve leapfrog development in the technology sector.

In any case, these efforts would not be for nothing.

This was an opportunity to gain both fame and fortune.

Lin Haoran understood that promoting the development of the Mainland’s manufacturing industry was not just a social responsibility but also a huge business opportunity.

With the rapid growth of the Mainland’s economy and the improvement of people’s living standards, consumer demand for high-quality, high-tech products was growing stronger by the day.

His current investment could be repaid tenfold, or even a hundredfold, by the Mainland market in the future.

Just as Lin Haoran was contemplating his future plans, at the Ito-Yokado headquarters in Minato Ward a few kilometers away, the office was unusually quiet.

Inside the president’s office, two men sat facing each other: Mr. Ito, the president of Ito-Yokado, and Suzuki Toshifumi, the president of 7-Eleven’s Japanese branch company.

After promising Lin Haoran he would persuade President Ito, Suzuki Toshifumi had driven from the 7-Eleven office to see Ito with a heavy heart.

He had already recounted the matter to Ito in full detail.

Ito’s face was expressionless, but inside, his heart was like a volcano, erupting continuously.

Southland Corporation had been acquired by Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran wanted to take back the 7-Eleven operating rights from the Ito family.

Lin Haoran wanted Suzuki Toshifumi to resign from Ito-Yokado and move to Southland Corporation.

If they refused, he would compete with the Ito family in business until Ito-Yokado went bankrupt.

…

One by one, the facts fell from Suzuki Toshifumi’s lips, and each was difficult for him to accept.

But what could he do if he didn’t?

Since its establishment, Ito-Yokado’s development had been relatively steady, lacking any significant breakthroughs.

That was until Suzuki Toshifumi traveled to the United States for an inspection and witnessed firsthand the immense potential of the 7-Eleven convenience store’s innovative model.

After returning to Japan, he went through great hardship to finally convince President Ito to successfully introduce this model to the country.

Facts proved that Suzuki Toshifumi’s foresight was correct. The 7-Eleven business model brought unprecedented development opportunities to Ito-Yokado, leading to a quantum leap in its business.

However, now, as Suzuki Toshifumi spoke of the matter with Lin Haoran, his words were like sharp blades, each one stabbing deep into the hearts of Ito-Yokado’s senior executives.

Ito understood the meaning behind these facts all too well.

They meant that Ito-Yokado’s years of hard work and innovative exploration in the convenience store sector had ultimately just paved the way for Lin Haoran, as if they were meticulously preparing a wedding gown for him.

The experience Ito-Yokado had accumulated, the capital it had invested, and the effort it had expended would all seemingly become the cornerstone of Lin Haoran’s success. How could this not fill him with pain and indignation?

But what use was any of that now?

He could only blame himself. Why did he have to provoke Lin Haoran for no reason?

If time could go back to the night of the Nintendo president’s banquet, he would never have deliberately provoked Lin Haoran, nor would he have let his Ito-Yokado department stores start a price war with Wellcome supermarket.

But there was no medicine for regret in this world. It was useless to regret now; it was all too late.

“Mr. Lin is truly ruthless. To get revenge on me, he actually went and bought Southland Corporation directly!” Ito clutched his chest, a dull pain spreading through it.

“President, in the business world, it’s better to make more allies and fewer enemies!” Suzuki Toshifumi sighed, not knowing how to comfort the president he had followed for over twenty years.

“Suzuki, what are your thoughts?” Ito suddenly looked at Suzuki Toshifumi and asked seriously.

In Ito’s eyes, Suzuki Toshifumi was his greatest asset. Even if he lost the 7-Eleven brand, he could still create a new convenience store brand. After all, having operated 7-Eleven for these years, they already had a thorough understanding of the industry.

Although losing the 7-Eleven brand was a major loss for Ito-Yokado, it wouldn’t lead to bankruptcy.

But Suzuki Toshifumi had always been in charge of 7-Eleven’s Japanese branch. Without him, even if Ito-Yokado wanted to create a new convenience store brand or franchise another one, it would be difficult to replicate its former glory.

“President, you should give up. Given the current situation, it is not wise for Ito-Yokado to develop too deep a grudge with Mr. Lin.

“The gap in strength between you and Mr. Lin is just too vast. Going head-to-head will do us no good. I genuinely don’t want to see Ito-Yokado fall into decline because of this conflict,” Suzuki Toshifumi said, his tone laced with helplessness and sincerity.

Chapter 515: A Double Loss, The Personal Secretary Interviews!

Upon hearing this, President Ito’s expression was complicated. He naturally knew that Suzuki Toshifumi was speaking the truth.

He had originally believed that Ito-Yokado’s years of heritage would be enough to weather any storm, but reality had dealt him a heavy blow.

Lin Haoran, this outsider, had taught him a profound lesson.

Suzuki Toshifumi’s meaning was already very direct: he was advising Ito to agree to all of Lin Haoran’s proposed conditions.

If they agreed, Ito-Yokado might still have a glimmer of hope for a comeback. After all, selling their equity in the Japanese branch of 7-Eleven would allow them to recoup a large sum of capital.

But if they refused, it would mean a complete break with the business tycoon Lin Haoran.

Ito-Yokado could forget about having anything to do with 7-Eleven Japan. After all, Lin Haoran had already acquired Southland Corporation, and with Lin Haoran’s financial power, the Ito family was in no position to confront him head-on.

If he refused, although Suzuki Toshifumi would still be his capable general, a fierce counterattack from the Hongkong Land Group would be unavoidable. When that time came, he might truly have to watch Ito-Yokado fall.

And if he agreed, he would lose Suzuki Toshifumi, his right-hand man.

“Suzuki, I understand everything you’re saying, but I am unwilling to accept this! Our Ito-Yokado also started from nothing, taking one step at a time to get where we are today. How can we so easily bow our heads to someone else? Especially you—you are the partner I rely on most!” President Ito clenched his fists, his eyes filled with unwillingness.

Suzuki Toshifumi understood President Ito’s feelings, but he was even more aware of the harshness of reality.

Moreover, what Lin Haoran had said later had genuinely moved him.

Specifically, Lin Haoran could offer him a bigger platform.

This was something Ito-Yokado could not provide.

“President, I understand how you feel, but please, calm down and think about it. This isn’t just a matter of bowing our heads; it’s a question of how Ito-Yokado can survive and develop in the face of adversity.

“Since Mr. Lin has proposed these conditions, it shows that he isn’t trying to completely cut off Ito-Yokado’s path. After selling the equity in 7-Eleven Japan, you will still have a considerable amount of capital. This capital will be enough to give Ito-Yokado a new lease on life.

“I am very grateful for the cultivation you have given me over the years, allowing me to grow in the business world. I also very much wish to stay with Ito-Yokado Company, but the current situation is out of my hands. I am not willing to watch the company I’ve worked at for over twenty years collapse. President, please forgive my selfishness!” After speaking, Suzuki Toshifumi stood up and gave Ito a solemn, deep bow.

President Ito was silent for a long time before finally nodding slowly. “You’re right. I can’t act on impulse. Go and make the arrangements. I want to meet with Mr. Lin in person.”

Hearing this, Suzuki Toshifumi felt a sense of relief.

“Yes, President. I will arrange it as soon as possible. Mr. Lin thinks highly of me. I believe that as long as you don’t pull any tricks, Mr. Lin will not make things difficult for you, for my sake!” Suzuki Toshifumi continued.

Hearing Suzuki Toshifumi’s words, Ito’s heart grew even heavier.

This operation against Wellcome supermarket was a complete loss, a disastrous failure!

It truly lived up to the saying: suffering a double loss.

Not only had he lost his most crucial convenience store business, but even his most important top lieutenant, Suzuki Toshifumi, was about to leave him.

People who were both talented and loyal to Ito-Yokado were far too few.

But now, given the situation, the Ito family’s strength was simply not enough to change anything.

Lin Haoran’s sudden acquisition of Southland Corporation had completely upended the Ito family’s plans.

He had originally thought that even if Lin Haoran was financially powerful, this was Japan, after all. Even if Ito-Yokado joined forces with other retail giants to exclude Lin Haoran, there was nothing he could do.

Only now did he realize how naive he had been.

If the other party hadn’t acquired Southland Corporation, his plan to ally with Tokyo’s major retail giants to exclude him might indeed have created a significant obstacle to his entry into the Japanese retail industry.

But now, by acquiring Southland Corporation, Lin Haoran had not only rapidly expanded his market share in Japan but had also demonstrated powerful resource integration capabilities and strategic vision.

One had to remember that convenience stores had only been developing in Japan for a few years, and 7-Eleven had already become the leading enterprise in the Japanese convenience store market.

Although it had competitors in Japan, 7-Eleven was currently in the leading position.

This made President Ito realize that simply relying on a coalition of local retail enterprises to exclude him would no longer be effective.

More profoundly, it made him understand that in the era of globalized commercial competition, complacency and short-sighted strategies would ultimately lead to failure.

At this moment, the fifty-something Ito seemed to have aged a great deal.

In another parallel world, the Ito family had successfully taken control of the 7-Eleven brand by acquiring the near-bankrupt Southland Corporation, thereby securing a pivotal position in the Japanese business world.

However, in this world, with their complete loss of control over 7-Eleven’s operations, the Ito family’s future had become complicated and confusing, filled with uncertainty.

The most likely outcome was that the Ito family would gradually fade, becoming an ordinary family of merchants, never again able to reach the glorious achievements they had in that other world.

This was the consequence of offending Lin Haoran.

Soon, it was three o’clock in the afternoon.

After handing over the investigation and acquisition tasks for the FMCG brand to Cui Zilong and Ma Shimin, Lin Haoran once again had nothing to do for the time being.

This was the benefit of being a hands-off manager; there was no need to worry too much.

The prerequisite was that his subordinates were capable and trustworthy.

And with his “Golden finger”—the ability to check loyalty—none of this was a problem for Lin Haoran.

Just as he was looking down at the bustling commercial district of Ginza below, a knock came from the door.

“Come in,” Lin Haoran called out, snapping back to the present.

The office door opened. It was the receptionist who had previously acted as his translator.

“Boss, there are three ladies here for an interview. They were recommended by the headhunting firm and are waiting outside now,” the receptionist said respectfully.

That morning, Fok Kin-ning had told him that the headhunting firm had already screened three candidates for the secretary position for him to interview.

The time had now come.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, signaling for the receptionist to bring the three candidates in.

In Hong Kong, he didn’t need a secretary.

But this was Japan, a completely different situation. Language was the first problem, so it was now very necessary for him to have his own secretary—and one who would be with him 24/7 at that.

A short while later, three beautiful women in professional attire, each with a different temperament, walked into the office one by one. They stood before Lin Haoran’s desk and gave a slight curtsy.

Lin Haoran’s gaze swept over the three of them, a faint smile on his lips. His first impression of all three was quite satisfactory.

But that was to be expected. After all, they had been pre-screened by a headhunting firm, which was already well aware of his requirements.

He didn’t ask them for their resumes, but spoke directly, “Welcome to the interview. Please start with a brief self-introduction. We’ll begin with the lady on the left.”

The woman on the left took a step forward, lifted her head confidently, and said in a crisp voice, “Hello, Mr. Lin. My name is Kinoshita Yuzuki. I graduated from the University of Tokyo with a degree in Economics. I previously worked in the administrative department of a medium-sized enterprise, where my main responsibilities included document processing, meeting arrangements, and external communications. I am meticulous and organized, with strong communication skills, and I believe I am well-suited for the position of secretary.”

Lin Haoran nodded and turned his gaze to the woman in the middle. “Please, go ahead.”

The woman in the middle gave a charming smile and introduced herself, “Mr. Lin, I am Shimada Satomi. I graduated from Kyoto University and worked in the president’s office of a well-known multinational corporation for three years.

“I am proficient in all secretarial duties, skilled at drafting various business documents, and have accumulated extensive experience in handling urgent matters and coordinating relationships. I very much hope to join your team and contribute to your success.”

However, after finishing her introduction, she seemed to feel it wasn’t enough to capture Lin Haoran’s attention. She deliberately made a rather inappropriate gesture, attempting to pull down her collar to reveal the pale curve of her cleavage.

But in Lin Haoran’s eyes, this move seemed quite frivolous. He frowned slightly, his gaze not lingering for long.

This woman named Shimada Satomi was indeed very beautiful, but judging from her forward behavior, it was clear she had long been accustomed to such unspoken rules at her previous company.

Lin Haoran, however, found it distasteful and had already mentally disqualified her.

He estimated that at her former company, she must have engaged in such under-the-table dealings with her boss in the office countless times.

His gaze shifted to the last girl.

Compared to the poise and maturity of the first two candidates, this girl seemed a little nervous. She also looked younger and didn’t display the same professional ease as the other two.

To Lin Haoran’s surprise, she was able to introduce herself in fluent Cantonese. “Mr. Lin, my name is Yamada Keiko. I am a fourth-year student at the University of Tokyo, currently in my internship period, majoring in Finance.

“I am very familiar with Japan’s financial market. During my studies, I noticed the rapid development of Hong Kong, so I chose to learn Cantonese as my second foreign language.

“I know I don’t have the advantage of work experience compared to my two seniors, but I have a strong ability to learn and adapt. I am confident that I can quickly integrate into the team and contribute my efforts to you and your company, Mr. Lin.

“Furthermore, I participated in several financial research project groups during my time at university. My understanding of the Japanese financial market might be able to provide a different perspective for your decision-making.”

Previously, among the recruitment requirements Lin Haoran had given the headhunting firm, while he emphasized the importance of experience, he had also clearly stated that if a candidate could speak fluent Cantonese or Mandarin, the experience requirement could be relaxed.

Evidently, it was Yamada Keiko’s fluent Cantonese that had allowed her to pass the headhunting firm’s initial screening.

Chapter 516: The Dust Settles

After listening to the three women’s self-introductions, Lin Haoran had a preliminary impression of them.

He leaned back in his chair, his gaze shifting between the three of them. After a moment of thought, he spoke slowly, “Next, I’d like to give you a scenario-based question to test you.

“Suppose I need an urgent analysis report on the trends in the Japanese retail market for the next six months, and I need it completed by ten o’clock tomorrow morning. As my secretary, how would you coordinate resources and arrange the work to ensure the task is completed on time?”

Kinoshita Yuzuki frowned slightly. After thinking for a moment, she said, “Mr. Lin, I would first ask internally if any colleagues are familiar with the Japanese retail market to see if they can provide some basic data and viewpoints.

“At the same time, I would contact some industry research institutions to try and obtain the latest market reports. Then, I would create a detailed schedule, rationally allocating time for data collection, analysis, and report writing to ensure the task is finished before the deadline.”

Shimada Satomi gave a charming laugh and said, “Mr. Lin, I would first use my personal connections to find some influential figures in the retail industry and see if I can get some inside information from them.

“Then, I would hire a professional writer to help draft the report. I would supervise them to ensure the quality of the report. As for the schedule, I’m confident that with my coordination skills, I can definitely get it done on time.”

Yamada Keiko took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, and continued in fluent Cantonese, “Mr. Lin, I would first establish a temporary working group within the company, selecting colleagues who have researched the retail market to join.

“I would clearly define each person’s role; for instance, someone would be responsible for collecting industry data, someone for analyzing market dynamics, and others for writing different parts of the report.

“Simultaneously, I would contact external professional research firms to obtain more comprehensive market information. Throughout the entire process, I would set detailed deadlines, regularly check progress, and promptly resolve any issues that arise to ensure the report is completed on time and to a high standard.”

After hearing the three responses, Lin Haoran had a much clearer judgment.

Kinoshita Yuzuki’s answer was rather conventional. Shimada Satomi was too reliant on her connections and others. As for Yamada Keiko, although she had no work experience, her answer demonstrated strong organizational and coordination skills, a sense of teamwork, and a clear thought process for tackling problems.

Lin Haoran had already mentally eliminated Shimada Satomi during her self-introduction.

Kinoshita Yuzuki was indeed a very standard professional secretary. From a conventional standpoint, she was the most suitable choice.

After all, she had extensive administrative experience and would likely handle all sorts of tasks with ease.

However, the secretary Lin Haoran needed wasn’t a standard, by-the-book professional assistant.

He wasn’t a corporate executive in the traditional sense, bogged down daily by tedious administrative tasks.

Although Yamada Keiko had no work experience, the fact that she could speak Cantonese was a definite plus.

Moreover, from her answer, Lin Haoran could clearly sense that this girl, who had yet to graduate, was exceptionally talented despite her nervousness during the interview.

Her approach to the problem was methodical, and the solution she proposed was both comprehensive and practical, allowing Lin Haoran to see her unlimited potential.

Besides, being his secretary wouldn’t involve a heavy workload. After all, he was used to being a hands-off manager and rarely got involved in the company’s management.

The most important aspects of being his secretary would be acting as his translator and handling his various personal affairs.

“Please leave your resumes. Through our conversation just now, I have a preliminary understanding of each of you. To avoid taking up more of your time, I will have someone call you tonight with the interview results. You can go home and wait for the news,” Lin Haoran said after glancing at them.

The three women nodded, placed their resumes neatly on the table, then stood up, bowed to Lin Haoran in thanks, and left the office one by one.

Watching their retreating figures, Lin Haoran had already made his decision.

Looking at the resumes on the table, Lin Haoran pulled out the one at the bottom of the pile.

He opened it to find Yamada Keiko’s more detailed information.

Twenty-three years old, sweet-looking, speaks Cantonese, decisive in handling work.

She perfectly matched his hiring requirements.

As for the young woman named Kinoshita Yuzuki, she was also very outstanding, but Lin Haoran felt she wasn’t a good fit to be his secretary, but would be a good fit for Fok Kin-ning.

With this thought, Lin Haoran picked up Kinoshita Yuzuki’s resume, stood up, and walked out of his office to the one next door.

Fok Kin-ning had returned at some point and was now at his desk, handling business matters.

Seeing Lin Haoran enter, Fok Kin-ning put down his work and greeted his boss.

“Kin-ning, working like this isn’t sustainable. You need to find someone to share the load. Take a look, what do you think of this young woman?” Lin Haoran said with a smile, handing Kinoshita Yuzuki’s resume to Fok Kin-ning.

People like Ma Shimin, Burton, and Chen Shoulin all had their own secretaries or assistants.

Now, as the person in charge of Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch, Fok Kin-ning really needed a secretary to help him with his work.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Fok Kin-ning subconsciously took the resume and asked, puzzled, “Boss, weren’t you looking for a secretary for yourself? How did it turn into finding one for me?”

“I’ve already found a suitable candidate for myself. I also think this woman is a rare talent, and I don’t want to let her go to waste. Your workload is only going to increase, so it’s about time you found an assistant for yourself.

“After interviewing her, I believe this woman, Kinoshita Yuzuki, is very suitable to be your assistant. Of course, you can interview her again yourself. If she’s not a good fit, you can find someone else,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Fok Kin-ning rubbed his forehead. It was true; he had been getting busier and busier lately.

However, having never been the person in charge, he liked to be hands-on with everything.

Ma Shimin, back in Hong Kong, had actually suggested he hire an assistant to help him with his work.

But he had been too embarrassed to bring it up with Lin Haoran.

He knew that this approach was too exhausting, but his lack of experience made him worry that finding an assistant for himself would give his boss a bad impression of him.

He never expected that his boss would take the initiative to find an assistant for him.

This moved him deeply.

“Kin-ning, you’re not in mid-level management anymore. You are the person in charge of Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch. Your responsibilities are heavy. You need to learn to delegate, to hand over trivial matters to the right people so you can free up more energy to plan the company’s grand strategy,” Lin Haoran said earnestly.

Fok Kin-ning nodded heavily. “Boss, I understand. I’ll arrange a time to interview Miss Kinoshita Yuzuki.”

“That’s more like it. By the way, of the three I interviewed today, aside from Miss Yuzuki, I was quite satisfied with the other one, Yamada Keiko. Have the headhunting firm call all three of them tonight. Tell them that aside from Shimada Satomi, who isn’t a good fit, the other two should come in for a second interview tomorrow morning. It will be a good chance for you to see if Miss Kinoshita Yuzuki is suitable to be your assistant!” Lin Haoran continued.

“Yes, Boss. I’ll call the person in charge at the headhunting firm shortly!” Fok Kin-ning nodded.

“Alright, you get back to work. I won’t disturb you any longer.” Lin Haoran smiled as he glanced at the pile of documents on Fok Kin-ning’s desk.

“Take care, Boss!”

Lin Haoran came out of Fok Kin-ning’s office. The entire office was a hive of activity, making him seem like the only idle person.

Over the past few days, the number of staff had grown. It was no longer just the few dozen people from the beginning.

A glance across the office revealed that there were now at least three hundred regular employees.

Many of them had been hired in the last few days.

However, this number of staff was still far from enough.

Back in his office, just as Lin Haoran was about to look through the resume of the girl who had tried to tempt him with her looks, the phone on his desk suddenly rang.

He picked up the telephone receiver, and Suzuki Toshifumi’s voice immediately came from the other end.

“Is this Mr. Lin Haoran?”

“This is Lin Haoran. Mr. Suzuki, for you to be calling me at this hour, you must have some good news to tell me, right?” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

“That’s right, Mr. Lin. I’ve persuaded Mr. Ito. He wishes to speak with you privately again to hash out the specific details,” Suzuki Toshifumi replied.

“Excellent. In that case, have Mr. Ito come to my office tomorrow at two in the afternoon. Have him bring his legal counsel, and we’ll settle everything. Oh, and you should come along as well!” Lin Haoran said, very satisfied.

He had originally thought that Mr. Ito would hesitate for a long time before making a decision.

But unexpectedly, after just three or four hours, Suzuki Toshifumi had successfully persuaded him.

This was for the best, as it saved him a lot of trouble.

He had been worried that Mr. Ito would be exceptionally stubborn, which would have forced him to expend unnecessary energy dealing with the situation.

“Yes, Mr. Lin. I will be there on time with Mr. Ito to see you!” Suzuki Toshifumi said solemnly.

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodbye!”

“Goodbye.”

After hanging up the phone, a smile couldn’t help but spread across Lin Haoran’s face.

The matter of the 7-Eleven convenience store was finally settled.

For him, acquiring the 7-Eleven convenience store brand was truly a pleasant surprise.

Originally, he had never even considered acquiring the Southland Corporation.

Now, it seemed to have turned into a wonderful thing.

Not only had he secured a convenience store brand that was famous in his previous life, but he had also gained an enormous sales channel, allowing him to confidently enter the fast-moving consumer goods industry.

Chapter 517: Keiko, oh Keiko, you’re truly shameless

The next morning, Lin Haoran conducted a second interview with the Japanese girl who could speak Cantonese.

The interview results were very satisfactory, and he immediately hired Yamada Keiko, a senior at the University of Tokyo.

When he asked her why she had the courage to apply despite her lack of experience, Yamada Keiko replied that her family needed money, and she hoped to help them.

A very simple and straightforward answer.

Through inquiries, it turned out that Yamada Keiko’s family had originally been doing very well financially. Her family was in business, which was the biggest reason why Yamada Keiko was able to study at the University of Tokyo.

You should know that in this era, the University of Tokyo is the most desired university for all Japanese students.

The vast majority of students who can study at the University of Tokyo have received a good education since childhood. As for the matter of talented people emerging from poor families, it is not that there are none, but the proportion is very small.

Originally, Yamada Keiko’s parents ran a clothing company with several independent brands and garment factories. However, due to insufficient research and preparation, they blindly carried out diversified expansion and large-scale investments, which eventually led to a broken capital chain at the end of last year, ultimately leading to bankruptcy.

Now, not only has the original family company been forcibly auctioned off by the court, but they also owe hundreds of millions of Japanese yen in debt.

Faced with this sudden family change, Yamada Keiko did not choose to escape or sink, but with extraordinary courage and resilience, she took on the burden of the family.

After learning about this well-paid position from the headhunting firm, Yamada Keiko decided to cherish this opportunity no matter what.

After all, it was Lin Haoran’s secretarial work, so he initially offered a monthly salary of six hundred thousand Japanese yen, which is actually about fifteen thousand Hong Kong dollars.

Although wages in Japan are not low these days, a monthly salary of six hundred thousand Japanese yen for a secretarial position is indeed very attractive.

This is why career veterans like Kinoshita Yuzuki and Shimada Satomi hoped to be hired.

Although she knew that she had no prior work experience and was definitely at a disadvantage among her competitors, she had to grasp even the slightest hope.

When she learned about the situation of her competitors, she was once greatly discouraged, thinking that she basically would not pass.

Unexpectedly, that night, she received a call for a second interview, which surprised her greatly.

“Starting today, your job responsibilities will include arranging schedules, handling documents, assisting with meetings, external communication, daily life care, and necessary translation work. This means that you need to be on call twenty-four hours a day to provide me with work. Can you accept this?” Lin Haoran further clarified the work requirements after confirming that Yamada Keiko’s situation and attitude were satisfactory to him.

What he wanted to hire was not only an ordinary secretary, but in addition to assisting with work, she also had to serve his daily life. He had mentioned these points when providing recruitment requirements to the headhunting firm.

“Mr. Lin, I fully understand and accept these requirements. The headhunting firm has explained them to me in detail,” Yamada Keiko replied respectfully with excitement.

Now, after learning that she had been officially hired by this young Boss, she almost couldn’t help but shed tears of excitement.

After having the personnel department sign an employment contract with Yamada Keiko, Lin Haoran also saw Yamada Keiko’s Loyalty: eighty-six.

A very good number.

This Loyalty was enough for him to have enough trust in this Japanese girl.

At the same time, he also completely ruled out that Yamada Keiko was not a spy sent by someone.

At this moment, Lin Haoran carefully looked at the Japanese girl in front of him.

Yamada Keiko had a light and well-proportioned figure. Her appearance had the freshness and refinement of a young girl. Her eyes were big and bright, her brown hair was long and straight, and it was draped over her shoulders as smoothly as silk. Her lips were painted with light pink lipstick, which complemented the overall makeup, making her lips even redder and her teeth whiter, making her look delicate and charming.

After careful observation, Lin Haoran found that the girl in front of him was really good-looking, not worse than some popular female stars.

She had looks, talent, and education. Such a girl was very suitable to be his personal secretary.

At this moment, although Yamada Keiko knew that she had officially passed the interview, she was still slightly nervous when facing Lin Haoran.

However, while Lin Haoran was looking at her, she also secretly observed this Boss.

To be honest, if her family was still well-off as before, she would not have applied for the position of personal secretary. After all, she also knew that it was normal for this position to have unspoken rules.

Investment companies, securities companies, and the like were her goals.

But now that such a big thing had happened to her family, even if a senior student like her found a suitable job, the salary would not be very high. Some classmates found jobs where they didn’t even get paid.

Even if she got her diploma, she couldn’t expect a very high salary with her current confidence. A monthly salary of one hundred thousand Japanese yen would already be very good.

But now this job with a monthly salary of six hundred thousand Japanese yen, so what if there were unspoken rules?

With this kind of job, there would basically be no other expenses in daily life, which means that her salary could be saved.

This salary was still a big difference compared to her family’s debt of hundreds of millions of Japanese yen, but it could also provide some help.

What’s more, the Boss in front of her was different from the stereotypical image of middle-aged and paunchy men.

He was a young and handsome Boss with a well-maintained figure, exuding a unique vitality and charm.

In this way, even if there were unspoken rules, she felt that she would be willing.

Yamada Keiko thought about some things she had never experienced, that might happen with this Boss, and her face couldn’t help but blush.

But she immediately scolded herself in her heart: “Keiko, oh Keiko, you are truly shameless, don’t think wildly…”

Lin Haoran was originally looking at Yamada Keiko, but at this moment, he suddenly saw the change in her face and immediately found it interesting.

He thought it was because he was looking at her that caused her to be nervous. After all, the person in front of him could be considered a newcomer to the workplace.

“Don’t be nervous. Since you will be my personal secretary in the future, let’s start with getting to know each other,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, his tone carrying a hint of warmth and encouragement, trying to ease Yamada Keiko’s nervousness.

On the other side, Fok Kin-ning also interviewed Kinoshita Yuzuki. After the interview, this experienced old-timer in the workplace also officially became Fok Kin-ning’s assistant.

Lin Haoran specially went over to check her Loyalty, because as Fok Kin-ning’s assistant, this position would touch many key secrets. If the Loyalty was not enough, it would definitely not be acceptable.

After looking at it, the Loyalty was eighty, which was not bad, and naturally qualified for Lin Haoran.

At two o’clock in the afternoon, Mr. Ito, the president (of a newspaper/agency) of Ito-Yokado, and Suzuki Toshifumi arrived as scheduled.

In addition, they also brought two legal counsel and two senior executives from Ito-Yokado.

As soon as he arrived at Hongkong Land Group’s office, Mr. Ito formally apologized to Lin Haoran.

This couldn’t help but surprise Lin Haoran.

This Mr. is truly adaptable; knowing when to yield and when to stand firm. Usually, it is this kind of person who has a high probability of achieving great things.

Of course, in this world, it would be difficult for the Ito family to rise again after being attacked by Lin Haoran this time.

After several hours of negotiations, they finally reached an agreement.

First, Ito-Yokado sold the thirty-five percent equity / shares of the 7-Eleven convenience store Japan Branch company it held to Lin Haoran for two billion eight hundred million Japanese yen (seventy million Hong Kong dollars).

Second, the retail company under Hongkong Land Group shall not engage in a price war with the retail company under Ito-Yokado Company.

Third, Suzuki Toshifumi officially resigns from Ito-Yokado Company and officially becomes an employee of Southland Corporation.

…

In the end, as many as a dozen items were negotiated, which can be said to be all in favor of Lin Haoran’s side.

This was simply a humiliating contract.

However, what surprised Lin Haoran even more was that Ito’s face was as usual and did not look ugly because of these contracts.

Obviously, he had accepted these facts.

It was useless not to accept it, this was the end of offending Lin Haoran.

After Lin Haoran’s surprise acquisition of Southland Corporation, Ito was very clear that if he did not agree, the Ito family’s future would be full of worries.

The gap between the two sides was too great.

In Ito’s eyes, Southland Corporation was very powerful.

But such an enterprise was casually acquired by the other party in a very short period of time.

Faced with such strength, he no longer had any thoughts of resistance.

On the 7-Eleven convenience store side, he at least recovered two billion eight hundred million Japanese yen in funds. With this money, Ito-Yokado could still continue to develop.

The only thing he was most reluctant to give up was probably Suzuki Toshifumi, the most trusted subordinate he had.

After signing the agreement, Ito looked at Suzuki Toshifumi reluctantly.

This excellent old subordinate who had worked hard in Ito-Yokado for more than twenty years was directly given to his opponent because of his own wrong decision.

Ito’s mood was very complicated!

“Mr. Ito, please rest assured that as long as you do not breach the contract, I will not target you. The business world is so big that no one can monopolize it. I believe that your Ito-Yokado will one day become a big company!” After the talk, Lin Haoran smiled and shook hands with Ito.

When Mr. Ito heard this, a wry smile appeared on his face, but it soon turned into a firm look.

In this business competition, although he had lost, it did not mean that everything was over.

After determining that Lin Haoran would not carry out destructive targeting of Ito-Yokado, Itō believed that Ito-Yokado still had a chance to stage a comeback.

“Mr. Lin, your magnanimity makes me deeply admire you. Regarding the equity / shares certificate of 7-Eleven convenience store, once the funds are received, I will personally deliver it to you. It’s getting late, so I won’t bother you any longer. I’ll take my leave first,” Ito said with a hint of loneliness in his words. Obviously, he had no intention of staying in this sad place any longer.

A month ago, he was still an triumphant entrepreneur full of longing for the future.

However, the world is unpredictable. Now, he had to face a series of humiliating treaties, which greatly impacted his heart.

Chapter 518: Nurturing a Tiger to Cause Future Trouble?

After Mr. Ito left, Suzuki Toshifumi did not leave with him.

He stayed behind and signed a personal contract with Lin Haoran.

The contract stipulated that he must serve Southland Corporation and the 7-Eleven convenience store brand in the future. Should he wish to resign, he would have to pay a sky-high compensation fee.

Of course, his salary was also increased accordingly.

With this, both parties were satisfied.

Regarding Suzuki Toshifumi’s position, he was temporarily appointed as the Vice President of Southland Corporation.

As for Anton Allison, he couldn’t be fired just yet, as he was still very useful.

If he were to be fired or demoted so abruptly, it could cause considerable disruption within Southland Corporation.

Therefore, Anton Allison would continue to serve as the CEO of Southland Corporation.

What he didn’t know, however, was that his time in this position was running short.

The moment he showed any dereliction of duty, Lin Haoran could find an excuse to demote him.

If he was willing to serve as Suzuki Toshifumi’s deputy, Lin Haoran wouldn’t mind letting him remain at Southland Corporation.

If he was unwilling, then his only option was to resign.

After signing the contract, Suzuki Toshifumi went with Anton Allison to discuss the matter of relocating the headquarters.

Lin Haoran also took a moment to check Suzuki Toshifumi’s loyalty.

He had originally thought that the loyalty of this new subordinate, whom he had essentially forced to join him, would be extremely low. He was already mentally prepared for it.

But to his surprise, Suzuki Toshifumi’s loyalty had reached a staggering 90.

This level of loyalty seemed somewhat unreasonable.

However, after thinking it over, Lin Haoran understood why his loyalty was so high.

Generally speaking, this loyalty was mostly directed towards the company, not toward him personally—unlike the subordinates who served him directly.

And the 7-Eleven convenience store brand was clearly very important to Suzuki Toshifumi.

Moreover, after introducing 7-Eleven to Japan, he had always served as the CEO of the 7-Eleven Japan branch company. It was only natural that he held the company in high regard.

Now that his position had been elevated from the Japan branch of 7-Eleven to its parent company, Southland Corporation, it was perfectly normal for his loyalty to remain at its original level.

Having figured this out, Lin Haoran felt relieved.

This was an unexpected bonus.

With Suzuki Toshifumi’s loyalty being so high, he felt even more at ease entrusting him with the management of Southland Corporation.

Back in Lin Haoran’s office, Yamada Keiko, who had been by his side the entire time, now had an even clearer understanding of her new boss’s power.

After all, as a finance student from the University of Tokyo, she had a certain degree of knowledge about a publicly listed company like Ito-Yokado.

Yet now, this household name of a company had been forced to sign so many humiliating clauses when faced with her boss.

Of course, as a finance major from the University of Tokyo, she already had some knowledge of Hong Kong’s securities and financial industry, so she was naturally aware of Lin Haoran, this newly-risen business tycoon from Hong Kong.

Furthermore, she was fluent in Cantonese, which gave her a deeper understanding of the situation in Hong Kong compared to other Japanese people.

“Boss, are we just letting Mr. Ito go so easily? Aren’t you worried he might become a threat to us in the future? Mr. Ito was able to remain calm and agree so readily even when faced with that incredibly insulting contract. He is clearly a man of extreme forbearance.

My father once warned me that such people are often the most terrifying. When dealing with them, the strategy is to either avoid making them an enemy or ensure they are crushed in a single blow, leaving no room for recovery.

Based on the agreements you reached with him, I am deeply concerned. I worry that the moment he gets a chance, he will tear up the agreement and retaliate against you even more fiercely.”

Seeing that only she and Lin Haoran remained in the office, Yamada Keiko could no longer hold back her questions.

Lin Haoran looked at this new subordinate, with whom he had only worked for a few hours, with a hint of surprise. He hadn’t expected her to be so perceptive.

Normally, that would indeed be the case.

However, Lin Haoran wasn’t really worried about an Ito who had lost 7-Eleven.

After all, he had recently become very familiar with the development history of Ito-Yokado.

The company’s history spanned several decades.

If they hadn’t stumbled upon the opportunity that was 7-Eleven, they never would have reached their current scale.

In recent years, Ito-Yokado had earned substantial profits from the 7-Eleven brand, which allowed its own strength to grow. The key figure in all of this was Suzuki Toshifumi.

In other words, if Suzuki Toshifumi hadn’t introduced 7-Eleven to Japan, Ito-Yokado’s current strength would be much more ordinary.

Now that Ito-Yokado had completely lost the agency rights to 7-Eleven, Lin Haoran didn’t think there was any way for them to make a comeback.

Moreover, and most importantly, the gap between them was simply too vast—so vast that perhaps even the Ito family from his other world had never achieved what he possessed now.

Besides, in ten years, before Japan’s economic bubble burst, he planned to liquidate most of his Japanese assets and get out.

Given all this, he was even less concerned about whether letting the Ito family go would be a case of nurturing a tiger to cause future trouble.

“Don’t worry. The business circle is only so big. His every move is within my grasp. If he truly shows any signs of rising again, I will be the first to know and will formulate a counter-strategy accordingly,” Lin Haoran said with a brief smile, without elaborating on his thoughts.

“Indeed. With your immense financial power, Boss, a mid-sized company like Ito-Yokado is hardly a threat,” Yamada Keiko said after a moment of reflection, feeling that her previous concerns had been somewhat needless.

The boss before her was by no means comparable to an ordinary businessman like her father.

Just then, there was a knock on the office door.

It was Suzuki Toshifumi who entered.

“Mr. Suzuki, is there something you need?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile at his newly subdued top lieutenant.

“Boss, 7-Eleven Japan is a publicly listed company. Now that Ito-Yokado has sold its shares back to Southland Corporation, we need to make a public announcement. Also, since you want to privatize 7-Eleven Japan, we need to submit the application materials to the Tokyo Stock Exchange as soon as possible,” Suzuki Toshifumi replied respectfully.

“Alright. You and Mr. Anton can handle these matters,” Lin Haoran said nonchalantly.

“Additionally, Mr. Anton and I have discussed holding a press conference in Japan. First, to announce Southland Corporation’s buyback of shares from Ito-Yokado Company; second, to address the privatization; and third, to announce that Southland Corporation will be moving its headquarters from the United States to Tokyo, Japan. Do you need to attend this press conference?” Suzuki Toshifumi inquired.

“You two can manage the press conference. As for moving Southland Corporation’s headquarters to Tokyo, there should be corresponding preferential policies from the government, right?” Lin Haoran shook his head after a moment’s thought, then asked.

“There are indeed preferential policies. Tokyo is currently promoting a ‘Headquarters Program’ to attract major global companies to establish their headquarters here. If Southland Corporation chooses to relocate to Tokyo, the most direct benefit will be in taxation. For the next three years, the headquarters tax will be halved, which will save the company a significant amount of money.

Furthermore, there are several other preferential policies. If you’re interested, Boss, I can provide you with a detailed explanation,” Suzuki Toshifumi answered in great detail, having clearly researched the matter beforehand.

“Good, I understand. I’ll look into it when I have time. You must be very busy right now, so go back to your work. Please get the headquarters relocation sorted out as soon as possible. Thank you for your hard work!” Lin Haoran said with a chuckle, not asking him to stay and explain further.

“Then I’ll be on my way,” Suzuki Toshifumi said, then respectfully left the office.

From now on, the focus of 7-Eleven’s development would be in Japan.

However, as the boss, he was not Japanese. Being familiar with Japan’s national character, he knew very well that this was not conducive to 7-Eleven’s continued expansion in the country.

By relocating the headquarters and temporarily making the company a Japanese one, this problem would naturally be solved.

Therefore, moving Southland Corporation’s headquarters from the United States was quite necessary.

In the future, before the economic bubble burst, 7-Eleven’s expansion in Japan should have reached a terrifying scale. In other words, 7-Eleven would be firmly established in Japan. At that point, he would move the headquarters to Hong Kong.

As for the 7-Eleven Japan branch, he could take it public separately at that time or sell the agency rights to a Japanese financial group. By doing so, he could harvest another large sum of capital.

These were Lin Haoran’s plans.

He glanced at the time. Unknowingly, it was already past six in the evening.

He then turned to Yamada Keiko and said, “Let’s go. Time to head back. I’ll also show you where you’ll be living in the future.”

As his private personal secretary, she would naturally be staying with him at the villa.

“Boss, I’d like to go home first to get some clothes and toiletries,” Yamada Keiko said, a little nervous.

“Keiko, you don’t need to worry about clothes and toiletries,” Lin Haoran said with a smile and a wave of his hand. “I’ve already had new ones prepared for you. When we get to the villa, you’ll first receive a few sets of casual clothes. Later, a professional tailoring company will measure you for custom work attire. All the toiletries are provided as well. You can just move right in.”

As his personal secretary, her appearance couldn’t be too casual. When meeting with other tycoons from the business and political worlds, Yamada Keiko, as his secretary, also represented his public image. Therefore, her attire had to be proper and befitting of her status.

Hearing this, a warmth spread through Yamada Keiko’s heart. She hadn’t expected her boss to be so thoughtful.

Chapter 519: I Want the Number of 7-Eleven Stores to Exceed Ten Thousand Within This Year!

Two days later, the Southland Corporation held a grand press conference in Tokyo, Japan.

At the conference, when Southland Corporation’s CEO, Anton Allison, announced that the company’s headquarters would be relocating to Tokyo and revealed major decisions such as the privatization of 7-Eleven’s Japan Branch, the news immediately sent shockwaves through the media.

Although the 7-Eleven Japan Branch wasn’t particularly large in terms of market capitalization and wasn’t considered a major corporation among Japan’s many enterprises, this change still garnered widespread attention.

The ubiquitous presence of 7-Eleven convenience stores across Tokyo and other cities gave the brand far greater influence than many companies of a similar size.

In the Tokyo metropolitan area, for instance, it was rare to find someone who didn’t know of the 7-Eleven brand.

Since 7-Eleven entered the Japanese market, a number of competitors had indeed emerged. These included local Japanese brands like FamilyMart and Kitos Convenience Store, as well as another American brand, Lawson, among others. The competition was quite fierce.

However, 7-Eleven had consistently maintained a leading position in Japan. For example, at the end of last year, it became the first convenience store chain in Japan to surpass one thousand locations, making it the brand with the most chain stores in the country.

Nevertheless, brands like FamilyMart and Lawson were in hot pursuit, and more new convenience store brands like Mini Stop were appearing all over Japan. Many people had recognized the potential of convenience stores; the retail model was perfectly suited for Japan.

These days, when Japanese people were looking to buy a home, they would often prioritize properties with a convenience store nearby. The presence of one had become a primary consideration.

During this period in Japan, both white-collar and blue-collar workers were exceptionally diligent, and working late into the night had become the norm.

By that time of night, many other shops and supermarkets were already closed.

The emergence of convenience stores greatly alleviated the shopping troubles of these frequent overtime workers.

They no longer had to worry about having nowhere to shop after a late night at work. They could simply walk into a convenience store and easily find a meal or a can of beer to soothe their hungry stomachs after a long day.

Among the numerous convenience store chains, 7-Eleven was currently the most famous in Japan. After all, it was the first to enter the Japanese market, kicking off the convenience store era in the country.

Therefore, 7-Eleven’s brand recognition in Japan was extremely high.

After the press conference concluded, the Tokyo Stock Exchange also approved the application from the 7-Eleven Japan Branch to suspend trading of its shares.

Subsequently, the Southland Corporation entrusted the privatization process to Japan’s top securities firm, Nomura Securities.

Currently, the Southland Corporation actually controlled over ninety percent of the shares in the 7-Eleven Japan Branch. Coupled with the fact that it was only a medium-sized enterprise listed on the Second Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, delisting was not a particularly surprising event.

Companies were delisted from the Second Section almost every year. Many of these enterprises were forced to delist from the exchange due to poor business performance.

The 7-Eleven Japan Branch, however, was completely different. It wasn’t delisting due to poor performance, but because it was no longer short of funds.

Going public was a way to attract more external capital for better development.

But now, with Lin Haoran’s support, funding was no longer a weakness for 7-Eleven.

Delisting now, while its market capitalization was still not high, was the most opportune moment.

Time quickly moved into March.

The weather in Tokyo in March was still rather cold.

During this period, the Southland Corporation smoothly relocated its headquarters to Japan. Ultimately, the headquarters was temporarily set up on the 22nd floor of the Hongkong Land Tower, right below the offices of the Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch.

Originally, another company, a tenant, occupied the 22nd floor. However, due to poor business performance, they were planning to reduce their rented space.

So, Lin Haoran simply had them move to other vacant offices downstairs, and the 22nd floor was naturally repurposed as Southland Corporation’s new office.

At this moment, in a conference room in Southland Corporation’s new headquarters, more than a dozen of the company’s senior executives were seated.

Among them, besides Lin Haoran and Suzuki Toshifumi, were three executives who had come over from the United States. The rest were all new, locally hired senior executives recruited through a headhunting firm.

Lin Haoran knew very well that to make 7-Eleven grow rapidly in Japan, localizing the management was essential.

In reality, the so-called headquarters relocation didn’t involve much relocating at all.

The original headquarters in the United States would remain as the headquarters for the North American region, and its workload would still be substantial.

Apart from a few senior executives willing to move to Japan for their careers, the rest of Southland Corporation’s mid-level and senior management would continue to work in the United States.

The United States, in particular, was still 7-Eleven’s largest market, with over one thousand five hundred stores.

However, this number was expected to be surpassed by the Japanese market this year.

Besides the over one thousand five hundred stores in the United States, Mexico was also one of 7-Eleven’s major markets.

In fact, the company had entered the Mexican market even earlier than the Japanese market; the Southland Corporation began its expansion into Mexico in 1971.

Currently, the number of stores there had also exceeded five hundred, making it 7-Eleven’s third-largest market for the time being.

As for Canada, due to its relatively small population, the number of stores to date was not large, numbering only a few dozen.

Apart from these four markets—the United States, Mexico, Japan, and Canada—the only other presence was in Taiwan, where the Uni-President Group was the authorized agent.

However, 7-Eleven’s current development in Taiwan was not going very smoothly.

Last February, the first 7-Eleven, the “Chang’an Store,” had its grand opening on Chang’an East Road in Taipei. To this day, there was still only one 7-Eleven in all of Taiwan.

These were all of 7-Eleven’s current markets.

The total number of stores was just over three thousand, mainly distributed across the United States, Japan, and Mexico.

Even so, it already held a leading position among all convenience store brands.

At this moment, Lin Haoran sat in the spacious conference room, listening to Anton Allison, the CEO of Southland Corporation, report on the current status of all 7-Eleven markets.

“Regarding the development plan for 7-Eleven this year, our goals are as follows: to add six hundred new chain stores in Japan, two hundred in the United States, one hundred in Mexico, and twenty in Canada. At the same time, we will add ten new stores in the Taiwan region.

“Furthermore, we plan to enter two new markets—Hong Kong and the Philippines. In the new market of Hong Kong, based on the recommendation of our new agent, Dairy Farm International, we plan to open at least fifty stores within the year.

“As for the Philippine market, our current target is relatively conservative, aimed at steady development. Overall, the growth target for 7-Eleven’s global store count this year is to add one thousand new stores!”

Finally, Anton Allison announced these goals with great passion. This was the most aggressive and rapid expansion since 7-Eleven’s founding, so he was particularly excited at this moment.

7-Eleven had been established for decades, yet it only had just over three thousand stores.

Now, to aim for one thousand new stores in a single year was, in Anton Allison’s view, a truly grand objective.

However, after listening to Anton Allison’s words, Lin Haoran furrowed his brow.

This was the goal they had set after all this time?

This goal was too small.

Anton Allison was still using the old Southland Corporation mindset to set goals.

But the Southland Corporation of today had a boss with deep pockets like Lin Haoran backing it. To continue managing it with the old way of thinking was naturally unacceptable.

Putting other things aside, 7-Eleven had entered far too few markets.

Key future markets for convenience stores, such as Korea, Britain, Sweden, France, and even Southeast Asia, had not yet been touched.

If 7-Eleven didn’t enter these markets, other brands would.

After a brief frown, Lin Haoran’s gaze swept over every senior executive in the conference room.

“Mr. Anton, your plan seems very sound, but I think we need to be bolder in our outlook,” he said slowly.

Instantly, everyone, including Anton, Suzuki Toshifumi, and the others, turned their attention to Lin Haoran, their boss.

This goal had clearly been discussed among Anton, Suzuki Toshifumi, and the others, and everyone had been in strong agreement.

But now, the biggest plan they had ever devised in the history of 7-Eleven was still not enough in their boss’s eyes?

“First, regarding the expansion targets for existing markets, I believe they should be moderately increased. You are all experts in this industry, and you should be well aware that in our traditional markets like Japan, the United States, and Mexico, if we don’t expand, our competitors are constantly expanding.

“I can understand why the old Southland Corporation, limited by its parent company’s funds, had a slow pace of expansion and a low number of new stores each year.

“But now, our capital is no longer an issue at all. So why should we be so conservative?

“The market is right there. If we don’t seize it, our competitors will. I think everyone understands this principle!”

The atmosphere in the conference room instantly grew tense with Lin Haoran’s words. All eyes were focused on him, awaiting his next instruction.

“Second, new market expansion cannot be limited to just Hong Kong and the Philippines. We must adopt a broader vision and include Korea, Australia, Britain, Italy, West Germany, Sweden, France, and Southeast Asia in our strategic blueprint.

“These regions are not only economically prosperous, but their consumer habits also highly align with our market positioning. Convenience store culture is in a period of rapid development, especially in Korea, which is close to Japan. Its rapid urbanization and fervent demand for a convenient lifestyle undoubtedly make it the next key market we must conquer with all our strength.”

Chapter 520: Hasty for Quick Success? Not a Chance!

Lin Haoran now considered the 7-Eleven convenience stores his most important sales channel.

Last month, he had Cui Zilong investigate the situation of several FMCG brands. It didn’t take long for the results to come in.

Red Bull, Pampers, Tide, Nivea, Huggies, Colgate, Lay’s, Nescafé, Master Kong, Yakult, Lancôme, Avon, Oreo, Snickers, Budweiser, Heineken, Danone, Kraft Heinz, and so on…

Just as Lin Haoran had thought, aside from a few exceptions, the vast majority of these brands were not large at this point in time.

In other words, acquiring many of these brands wouldn’t cost much at all.

For example, Red Bull, which would become world-famous in the future, had only been launched a few years ago. The product had not even made its way out of Thailand yet.

Therefore, after receiving this information, Dairy Farm International, a subsidiary of the Hongkong Land Group, began a campaign of large-scale mergers and acquisitions.

Dairy Farm International’s finances were independent of the Hongkong Land Group. They had a large cash flow, so for these M&A activities, they didn’t even need to involve their parent company.

Dairy Farm International directly established an acquisitions department specifically to handle acquisition negotiations with these FMCG companies.

In early March, Lin Haoran received some good news. In a short period, Dairy Farm International had successfully acquired two relatively famous future FMCG brands: Red Bull and Asahi Beer.

As for which other brands they could acquire, no one knew. It would be a slow process.

However, Lin Haoran was not in a hurry.

Besides, he wasn’t exclusively targeting major international brands of the future. Some major food companies in Hong Kong, such as Vitasoy, had also become targets for Dairy Farm International.

After acquiring these brands, the importance of 7-Eleven convenience stores would grow even more.

After all, with ten thousand 7-Eleven stores, think of how high the sales volume for Dairy Farm International’s FMCG products would be!

Therefore, they needed more FMCG products, and the number of 7-Eleven stores also needed to increase!

In addition, other retail channels under Dairy Farm International, such as the Wellcome supermarket and Mannings drugstore chains, would also have to expand.

Back in the conference room, a commotion erupted when everyone heard Lin Haoran’s grand objective.

Over ten thousand stores by the end of this year?

One had to remember that the current total number of 7-Eleven convenience stores was just over 3,200.

And the plan now being proposed was to add 6,800 new stores this year, bringing the total to ten thousand?

This colossal figure far exceeded the expectations of everyone present.

Even the usually calm and composed Suzuki Toshifumi couldn’t help but frowning at this moment. He looked at Lin Haoran with concern and said, “Boss, isn’t this pace of expansion a bit too rushed? We could face enormous operational pressure and potential risks of losses.”

“Mr. Suzuki, let me ask you, why was last year the year with the largest expansion of stores since we entered the Japanese market? Even though you didn’t have much capital,” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Boss, we manage each individual store according to 7-Eleven’s unified model. Small, self-operated retail businesses, like small grocery stores or liquor stores, are converted into 7-Eleven stores under our company’s guidance after receiving a license from 7-Eleven Japan. We then provide our unique, standardized sales techniques to each store and determine their product assortment.

“As an emerging retailer, the 7-Eleven chain is particularly popular with the younger generation, which led to our rapid expansion. This is why we were able to increase our expansion speed despite the lack of funds.

“However, even at such a rapid pace, we only added a little over three hundred new stores in all of last year. That is a huge gap compared to your target of nearly seven thousand,” Suzuki Toshifumi said with a wry smile.

“In other words, the number of self-operated stores belonging to the 7-Eleven Japan Branch company is very small, correct?” Lin Haoran continued to ask with a smile.

“That’s right. Among the more than one thousand 7-Eleven convenience stores in Japan today, only a little over a hundred are our company’s self-operated convenience stores. The rest are operated under a franchise model,” Suzuki Toshifumi did not deny it.

“Very good. Mr. Suzuki, I appreciate your honesty.” Lin Haoran nodded in approval. “Well then, let’s talk about how to achieve this seemingly impossible goal in a more efficient way.”

He stood up and slowly walked to the front of the conference room, his gaze sweeping over everyone present. “First, we must recognize that traditional expansion models, whether self-operated or franchise-based, have their limitations.

“Self-operated requires a massive investment of capital and resources, while franchising, though it eases the financial pressure, is prone to problems with management and quality control. This is perhaps why you are so cautious about rapid expansion. Therefore, we need an innovative model that allows for rapid expansion while ensuring quality and efficiency.”

As soon as he said this, the senior executives present immediately focused their attention, eager to hear the boss’s brilliant ideas.

They didn’t dare underestimate this young boss before them.

After all, being able to leverage Citibank’s influence to acquire Southland Corporation in an almost coercive manner was something few people could achieve.

During this period, these senior executives had also gradually learned about their new boss’s background.

The more they learned, the more shocked they became.

Who could imagine that in less than three years, Lin Haoran had amassed assets of such a scale?

Was this something an ordinary person could do?

In any case, they had never heard of anyone who could rise so quickly to become a world-class business tycoon.

As for the idea that Lin Haoran had relied on luck, that was even more impossible.

They all knew that one might make a small fortune through luck, but never a great one.

Those who truly made great fortunes must possess real skills in addition to luck.

“My vision is to adopt a triple model of ‘franchising + strategic cooperation + mergers and acquisitions’,” Lin Haoran paused, seemingly giving everyone time to digest his words.

“In terms of franchising, we will further optimize the process, lower the entry barrier, and at the same time, provide more training and support to ensure that every franchise store meets 7-Eleven’s standards.

“As for strategic cooperation, we will seek out retailers who already have a certain scale and influence in their local markets. Through equity partnerships or exclusive supply agreements, we can convert their stores into 7-Eleven convenience stores or set up dedicated sections within our stores to sell their products.

“This way, we can rapidly expand our market share while leveraging our partners’ resources and experience to reduce operational risks.

“As for mergers and acquisitions, I think everyone knows what that means, right? To put it bluntly, we directly acquire other convenience store brands. This will allow for even faster expansion!

“In addition, we must enter multiple markets simultaneously—markets like Korea, Britain, Sweden, France, and even Southeast Asia, which I mentioned earlier. We need to secure partners in these places as soon as possible. By doing so, our goal of adding six or seven thousand new stores, when spread across various markets, will no longer seem so overwhelming.

“Furthermore, this month, I will inject forty billion Japanese yen into Southland Corporation. This capital will be used for the expansion of self-operated stores. With this, I believe everyone here should have more confidence, right?” As he said this, Lin Haoran looked at the expressions of everyone present.

Sure enough, when Lin Haoran mentioned that he would inject forty billion Japanese yen into Southland Corporation within the month, the room erupted in an uproar.

Forty billion Japanese yen was by no means a small sum.

Converted to Hong Kong dollars, it was a full one billion Hong Kong dollars.

Previously, Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Southland Corporation had only cost seventy million U.S. dollars, which was less than four hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Yet now, Lin Haoran was directly injecting one billion Hong Kong dollars of capital into Southland Corporation. How could they not be shocked?

“Currently, the 7-Eleven convenience store brand has a blank slate in the markets of many countries and regions. However, it’s not as if those markets have no convenience store brands entering, or that local convenience store brands are not emerging.

“In my opinion, now is a golden era of development for convenience stores. If we seize this opportunity, we can become the unrivaled leader in the convenience store industry. If we fail to seize it, then we will be forced to compete head-to-head with numerous other brands in a difficult struggle.

“Would you rather see us as the sole dominant player, or would you prefer to be neck and neck with countless other convenience store brands? I don’t think I need to explain this any further, do I?” Lin Haoran said a great deal in one breath.

Hasty for quick success? Completely out of the question!

Normally, he indeed wouldn’t personally manage the development decisions of his various companies, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t paying attention.

If he felt something was unreasonable, he would correct it.

It was now the early 1980s, and the golden age of convenience store development was precisely the eighties and nineties.

Southland Corporation had been acquired by him, meaning he had already altered the course of its history.

If he didn’t seize this opportunity to develop it properly, then even he himself wouldn’t know what the future held for the 7-Eleven convenience store.

Seeing that everyone was still processing his words, Lin Haoran took a sip of water and continued, “Do you think Southland Corporation is successful now? In my opinion, it is far from successful!

“Once 7-Eleven has expanded to a certain number of stores, I will take it public. At that time, our Southland Corporation will certainly have a very impressive market capitalization, provided that we first make the 7-Eleven brand famous throughout the world.

“Imagine arriving in any city in the world and seeing one of our 7-Eleven convenience stores. Only then, in my eyes, would Southland Corporation be considered a successful company.

“From my words, I think you should be able to see that I have very high expectations for Southland Corporation, and I am full of confidence in our team’s abilities.”

At that moment, the room was completely silent. Everyone was contemplating the boss’s words.

The reason Lin Haoran had reacquired the equity of the Japanese Branch company was that he felt 7-Eleven in Japan was still in its initial development stage, far from the time to be ‘reaping the leeks’.

At this juncture, keeping the Japanese Branch company publicly listed was undoubtedly unwise.

Therefore, he had to take it private before he could carry out a large-scale expansion of 7-Eleven.

Once the number of 7-Eleven convenience stores grew to tens of thousands, he would then take Southland Corporation public again, retaining only a controlling stake.

After all, the convenience store business did have its risks.

For instance, before he transmigrated, 7-Eleven had faced a crisis. At that time, there were even rumors online that the Ito family was considering selling their controlling stake in 7-Eleven.

If they hadn’t encountered a financial crisis, as the future global leader in convenience stores, it would have been unthinkable for the Ito family to sell their controlling stake in 7-Eleven.

Chapter 521: An Opportunity to Make Money from the Japanese

After hearing Lin Haoran’s analysis, none of the Southland Corporation executives present thought his goal of reaching ten thousand stores by the end of the year was a pipe dream.

Lin Haoran’s ambition was immense because he possessed the power and financial resources to back it up.

If the old Southland Corporation had tried to expand like this, it would have been a reckless overestimation of its own abilities, a textbook case of seeking quick success.

Lin Haoran’s words were like an invisible force, inspiring everyone in the room.

They felt as if they were standing at a historic turning point, with an opportunity to personally shape the future of the retail industry right before their eyes.

“Boss, your plan is exhilarating.” Anton Allison was the first to break the silence, unable to resist flattering Lin Haoran. “I believe that under your leadership, 7-Eleven will achieve an unprecedented leap forward. We are willing to give our all to meet this challenge.”

The other senior executives also voiced their support. Infected by Lin Haoran’s ambition and dominance, their hearts swelled with anticipation and confidence for the future.

“Very good. It seems everyone is quite confident. Seeing your determination brings me great relief.” Lin Haoran nodded with a slight smile. “Remember, we aren’t just expanding the number of stores; we’re building a global retail brand. Quality, service, and innovation—these three are indispensable.”

After a moment of thought, Lin Haoran continued, “Also, you must remember that although I will inject 40 billion Japanese yen into Southland Corporation, the site selection for company-owned stores must be done with caution. I don’t want my capital injection to be wasted by you. If I find out it has been, you will be held accountable. I don’t need to explain this any further.”

As for the franchise stores, the risk did not lie with their company, so Lin Haoran naturally did not mention them.

“Rest assured, Boss. Southland Corporation has been developing for many years and possesses a wealth of experience and a dedicated team for site selection. When it comes to our company-owned stores, we will certainly not expand haphazardly due to the pressure you’ve created for us,” Anton Allison guaranteed.

For now, Anton Allison was still the CEO of Southland Corporation, so he was the one making most of the decisions.

However, Anton Allison had no idea that he wouldn’t be holding this position for much longer.

“Since that’s settled, I’ve said what I needed to say. You can continue discussing the company’s expansion. As you all should know, I rarely interfere with management, but my non-interference doesn’t mean I will let you do as you please. My expectations for Southland Corporation are very high. I hope you won’t disappoint me!” After speaking, Lin Haoran left the conference room with his secretary, Yamada Keiko, who had been standing by his side the whole time, leaving the group of Southland executives to continue their meeting.

Leaving the Southland Corporation office, Lin Haoran and Yamada Keiko went up to the 23rd floor, to the offices of the Hongkong Land Group.

Compared to February, the office now had many more employees. Just looking at the general office staff, there were at least over five hundred people.

This floor was gradually becoming too crowded.

Moreover, the office was a hive of activity—people were making phone calls, processing documents, and discussing plans.

All this indicated that Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch was in a phase of rapid development.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, the employees all greeted him.

And Lin Haoran responded to each of them with a smile.

During this time, Yamada Keiko had smoothly settled into her role as secretary.

She was also well aware that the foremost principle of a secretary’s job was confidentiality.

She came into frequent contact with all sorts of matters related to her boss, and she was able to strictly maintain secrecy, which was a fundamental part of her duties.

In handling daily work tasks, Yamada Keiko assisted her boss, Lin Haoran, in dealing with various matters with great competence.

In his personal life, she was also able to arrange everything for Lin Haoran perfectly. Lin Haoran grew more and more satisfied with this Japanese girl.

Lin Haoran treated her very well and didn’t subject her to the coercive “unspoken rules” she might have expected from a boss. Thus, without her realizing it, her loyalty had already increased from the initial 86 to 88.

Therefore, Lin Haoran also trusted her greatly.

Fok Kin-ning’s office was still empty; he was clearly out inspecting projects again.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran returned to his own office.

Sitting down in his chair, Lin Haoran gestured to Yamada Keiko.

Instantly, the perceptive young woman moved behind Lin Haoran and began to massage his shoulders.

A monthly salary of six hundred thousand Japanese yen certainly didn’t come so easily.

Yamada Keiko didn’t feel it was hard work; on the contrary, she worked diligently without complaint. She cherished this job immensely.

This was a well-known super-rich man, and not just anyone could work by his side.

Moreover, her family was in dire need of money right now, and she didn’t want to lose this job.

Under Yamada Keiko’s soft fingers, the tension in Lin Haoran’s shoulders and neck gradually eased, and he closed his eyes to rest.

In reality, his mind was deep in thought.

He had brought four billion Hong Kong dollars, approximately one hundred sixty billion Japanese yen, with him to Japan.

However, in less than a month, he had already discovered that one hundred sixty billion Japanese yen didn’t go very far.

First, buying the Hongkong Land Tower had cost 13.8 billion Japanese yen.

Then, participating in auctions and buying four plots of land in excellent locations had cost another 52 billion Japanese yen.

For Southland Corporation, the acquisition of 7-Eleven Japan’s shares, the privatization, and other costs were also drawn from this one hundred sixty billion Japanese yen. This required about six billion Japanese yen, of which over five billion had already been spent.

Galaxy Securities’ Japan Division had been covertly acquiring shares in some publicly listed Japanese companies, such as Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Toyota, Honda, Nintendo, Sony, the Industrial Bank of Japan, Mitsubishi Estate, and Tokyo Electron. To date, this had cost nearly four billion Japanese yen.

In addition, the company’s recent expansion and new project initiations had successively cost nearly seven billion Japanese yen.

And just now, he had promised Southland Corporation that he would inject 40 billion Japanese yen into the company. This amount also needed to be set aside.

Calculating it all, of the one hundred sixty billion Japanese yen, in the short twenty-odd days he had been in Japan, his available funds had dwindled to less than forty billion Japanese yen.

Forty billion Japanese yen was about one billion Hong Kong dollars. It wasn’t a small amount, but it wasn’t large either.

If the first three billion Hong Kong dollars hadn’t lasted, the remaining one billion certainly wouldn’t.

“This money really disappears so fast!” Lin Haoran lamented inwardly.

Fortunately, the funds for acquiring Southland Corporation in the United States and the acquisitions of FMCG brands were not drawn from this four billion Hong Kong dollars. Otherwise, the money he had brought would be nearly gone.

It seemed he needed to find a way to make some money.

Although he came to Japan to invest, which certainly required a lot of capital, his companies in Hong Kong, like Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group, also needed to grow.

Therefore, he wouldn’t ask them for money unless absolutely necessary.

So, he now faced a problem: how to quickly earn a large sum of money?

A loan?

That was perhaps the quickest way for him to acquire more funds now.

However, Lin Haoran currently had no plans to take out a loan.

He was more inclined to find a business opportunity to make money from the Japanese.

Sighing, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but rub his brow.

Compared to Hong Kong, where he at least knew about money-making avenues like buying Kowloon Wharf shares, he really didn’t know much about Japan.

He might have known a few things, but without a specific target in mind, he had no idea which opportunities were available.

Although his memories from his past life were very clear due to his transmigration, it was like retrieving data from a computer—he needed a specific target to search for.

Right now, he had no target at all.

“Boss, is something troubling you?” Seeing Lin Haoran rubbing his brow, Yamada Keiko, who was massaging his shoulders, couldn’t help but ask.

“You studied finance. Have you noticed any major changes in Japan’s domestic securities market recently?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Today, Yamada Keiko was wearing a white blouse, a black pencil skirt, and black stockings.

Such attire was very common among Japanese female office workers at the time.

However, Yamada Keiko’s clothes were all custom-made by a professional high-end clothing company, so they fit her perfectly.

And Yamada Keiko as a whole was very pleasing to the eye.

Having such a beautiful Japanese woman by his side was quite a nice experience.

Lin Haoran had gradually gotten used to it over this period.

Compared to Rosamund Kwan and Guo Xiaohan, Yamada Keiko possessed a unique beauty of her own.

At this moment, Yamada Keiko stopped her massage and began to think deeply.

She took this as a test from her boss.

However, for Yamada Keiko, this was not a difficult question.

She didn’t have to think for long before she quickly answered.

“Boss, I recently noticed something. Japan and the United States are currently negotiating automobile trade. There’s no news yet, but when the outcome is announced, it might have a significant impact on Japan’s automotive stocks.

“Furthermore, the media has reported that Sony will soon announce the global sales figures for the Walkman portable cassette player. This might also affect Sony’s stock price.”

Yamada Keiko’s words made Lin Haoran’s eyes light up.

If he had been without a target before, now, after Yamada Keiko’s reminder, he instantly knew how to make a fortune in the short term.

Lin Haoran indeed knew little about this period in Japan.

However, in his past life, he had read many articles about the second oil crisis.

And the US-Japan auto trade negotiations were a key example within them.

Now that Yamada Keiko had brought up the US-Japan auto trade negotiations, the background of this event instantly became crystal clear in his mind.

As it turned out, in the early 1980s, Japan’s car production surpassed that of the United States to become number one in the world, while the American auto industry began to decline. Against this backdrop, automobile trade friction between the US and Japan intensified.

Combined with the impact of the oil crisis, which caused the US domestic unemployment rate to soar, the government tried every means to secure benefits from abroad to improve domestic conditions. The United States believed that Japanese car exports had caused severe damage to the American auto industry and therefore demanded that Japan restrict its car exports.

In 1981, after the Reagan administration came to power, it exerted even greater pressure on Japanese car exports.

Japan, being highly dependent on the United States for its markets and security, ultimately agreed to implement voluntary restraints on its car exports to America to avoid even harsher sanctions.

During the negotiation period, due to expectations of adjustments to export quotas, Toyota’s stock price experienced significant volatility.

Investors’ expectations of Toyota’s future profitability changed, leading to a monthly stock price volatility as high as thirty percent.

Japan agreed, under the guidance of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, to voluntarily limit the total number of passenger cars exported annually.

This measure had a certain impact on the Japanese auto industry, but it also prompted Japanese automakers to accelerate local production in the United States.

Chapter 522: A Plan for Toyota and Sony

During the negotiation period, from March to May 1981, Toyota’s stock price fluctuated significantly.

As expectations grew that US pressure would lead to restricted Japanese exports, Toyota’s stock fell in the early stages of the negotiations.

However, after the agreement was reached, because the export restrictions were less severe than the market had anticipated—the actual limit was 1.68 million vehicles instead of the feared 1.6 million, and the restriction period was only three years—Toyota’s stock price rebounded swiftly after the agreement was signed in May 1981. In the short term, it soared by as much as 30%.

The outcome of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations was expected to be announced in May.

It was now March, the very beginning of the negotiations.

If he were to make his move, he would have a window of over two full months.

As long as Lin Haoran finished building a position before May, the profits after the negotiations concluded would be very substantial indeed.

At this moment, Lin Haoran knew how he was going to make money.

And this time, he might just earn a considerable sum, solving his problem of lacking capital!

His goal was a bit ambitious. Relying solely on the employees of Galaxy Securities’ Japan branch would make it difficult to accumulate so many shares in just over two months.

The best way was to find a brokerage firm to help.

However, he didn’t know many brokerage firms in Japan. The scale of the stock purchase he envisioned was large, and if word got out, the impact on Toyota’s stock would be immense.

Therefore, he had to find a reliable firm.

And it would be best if this firm had an incredibly strong network.

After all, he needed to accumulate a significant number of shares.

Perhaps he could ask Citibank.

Right now, the financial institution he had the best working relationship with was Citibank.

Citibank’s strength in Japan was also formidable. Most importantly, they had an extensive network and excellent confidentiality practices.

Although it would be best to approach a local Japanese financial magnate for this matter, the problem was that Lin Haoran was not familiar with any. If he cooperated with one of them, the news would very likely leak.

Once it did, Toyota’s stock price would definitely be greatly affected, altering its original trajectory!

Therefore, he absolutely could not cooperate with any of Japan’s local financial tycoons on this.

In that instant, a great many thoughts ran through Lin Haoran’s mind.

“Go get me the stock price charts for Toyota and Sony for the last three months,” Lin Haoran said after a moment of thought.

“Yes, Boss. I’ll go ask the Securities Department,” Yamada Keiko replied before leaving the office.

Toyota and Sony stocks had long been targets for Galaxy Securities’ Japan branch. The shares they had already accumulated included those of Toyota and Sony.

Therefore, the Securities Department had very detailed data on the stock price trends of these two companies.

About ten minutes later, Yamada Keiko returned to the office.

This time, she held two charts in her hand.

One was for Toyota, the other for Sony.

“The staff in the Securities Department needed to organize the data, so it took a bit longer,” Yamada Keiko explained from the side.

“It’s fine. You can continue massaging my shoulders!” Lin Haoran said without looking up.

His attention was already completely focused on the two stock price reports.

Yamada Keiko resumed massaging her boss’s shoulders.

Sony’s market capitalization at this time was as high as 1.3207 trillion Japanese yen?

And Toyota Motor’s market capitalization was even higher at 1.686 trillion Japanese yen?

Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

The market caps of these two companies were higher than he had imagined.

In Hong Kong, the company with the highest market capitalization, HSBC, was currently worth just over twenty-three billion Hong Kong dollars.

Converted to Japanese yen, that was a total market cap of just over nine hundred billion yen, less than one trillion yen.

Yet both Sony and Toyota had market caps higher than HSBC’s.

On second thought, it was understandable. Japan’s economy was second only to the United States in scale, with a market size not far behind. Moreover, both Sony and Toyota were highly internationalized by this point, so it was normal for their market capitalizations to be high.

As for HSBC, although it was actively pursuing internationalization, its progress wasn’t that smooth. Its current market cap of over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars was already a result of the rapid rise in Hong Kong’s stock prices over the past two years.

Lin Haoran recalled that at the end of 1979, HSBC’s market cap was only about thirteen billion Hong Kong dollars.

However, a high stock price was also beneficial for him.

At the very least, the capital involved in his plan to accumulate Toyota shares was substantial. If Toyota’s market cap were too low, his operation might be difficult to execute.

But now, with Toyota’s market cap much higher than he had imagined, he naturally had more room to maneuver.

Toyota’s stock price had been very volatile recently, mostly trending downwards, which didn’t surprise Lin Haoran.

Based on articles he had read in his previous life, it was documented that the negotiation period had caused panic among Japanese shareholders.

At the time, the US government hoped Japan would voluntarily restrict its car exports to the United States to alleviate pressure on the American auto industry.

However, the Japanese side was not convinced by the measures proposed by the US, believing that the American government’s auto aid plan was not strong enough to prompt Japan to take voluntary action to limit its car exports.

Shareholders were afraid that when the result was announced, it would invariably be bad news.

Therefore, Toyota’s stock price had declined to some extent during this period.

However, after a series of negotiations and gamesmanship, on May 1st, 1981, the Japanese government announced that it would voluntarily restrict car exports to the US market for a period of three years.

Such an agreement, with export restrictions lower than market expectations, immediately restored shareholders’ confidence, and they drove the stock price right back up.

This was the change that would happen to Toyota over the next two to three months.

It seemed he needed to find some time to talk to the head of Citibank’s Japan region.

Lin Haoran studied the stock charts carefully, a smile gracing his features. He had realized that the US-Japan auto trade negotiations were not just a political and economic event, but also a golden investment opportunity. The fluctuation in Toyota’s stock price provided him a chance to capitalize on market sentiment by buying low and selling high.

At this moment, Lin Haoran already had a plan.

In addition, Sony’s stock also had some room for maneuvering. Although the profits would be far less than with Toyota, its advantage was the shorter time frame.

He recalled that as soon as Sony’s Walkman sales figures were announced, its stock would surge by 20% in the short term. If he played his cards right, he could make a lot of money there as well.

Moreover, Sony’s announcement of its sales data should be coming soon. He had to buy in before they made it public, or he would miss the opportunity.

“Boss, my mother called today and wants me to go home tomorrow, so I’d like to request a day off,” Yamada Keiko said nervously as Lin Haoran was preparing to leave a little after five in the afternoon.

“No problem, go ahead. You still have two days of leave this month,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, not minding at all.

According to the contract Yamada Keiko had signed, she was entitled to two days off each month.

It was very little vacation time, but Yamada Keiko hadn’t objected.

And since starting her job, she had never once taken a day off.

“Thank you, Boss.” However, Yamada Keiko didn’t look happy at all; instead, her face was filled with worry.

The call from home was not good news.

Chapter 523: Borrowing a Hen to Lay an Egg

The next morning, Lin Haoran paid a visit to the Citibank Japan branch headquarters.

Before he left, he made a point of calling Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank, to inform him that he had a major business deal he wanted to collaborate on with the Citibank Japan branch and that he would need an introduction.

Walter Wriston then gave Lin Haoran the phone number of the Japan branch’s general manager and told Lin Haoran that he would instruct the man to provide his full assistance.

After all, Walter Wriston was well aware that when Lin Haoran mentioned a “major business deal,” it was certain to be no small matter.

Citibank had collaborated with Lin Haoran on numerous occasions and naturally understood how to satisfy this key, long-standing client.

Yamada Keiko did not accompany him today; she was on leave and had returned home.

The car finally stopped in front of a dozen-story-tall building in Tennozu, Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo.

The headquarters of Citibank’s Japan branch was located here.

Citibank had entered the Japanese market as early as 1902, and its presence here was far more substantial than its branch in Hong Kong.

In the plaza in front of the building flew the national flags of Japan and the United States, as well as a flag with the Citibank logo. It was clear that the entire building belonged to Citibank.

In contrast, the Citibank in Hong Kong merely rented office space in a commercial tower under the Hongkong Land Group.

From this alone, one could see that Citibank clearly placed greater importance on the Japanese market.

This was hardly surprising. Although Hong Kong was a vital city, even with its proximity to the Mainland China market, it simply couldn’t compare to the Japanese market in this era.

The other bodyguards remained downstairs, while only Li Weidong and Li Weiguo entered the building with him.

As soon as he stepped inside, a receptionist respectfully led him to an elevator, which took them directly to the 12th floor.

They walked through a winding corridor and finally arrived at an office with a plaque that read “President.”

In Japan, the title of “President” typically signifies the highest position in a company.

At that moment, the office door was open, and a middle-aged Japanese man with gold-rimmed glasses and a somewhat scholarly air was already standing at the entrance, waiting.

“Mr. Lin, good day. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Igawa Yasuya. Welcome to Citibank Japan,” the middle-aged man said respectfully, extending his right hand and greeting Lin Haoran in fluent English.

Evidently, he had already been notified by Citibank’s Chairman, Walter Wriston.

Even the Chairman was exceedingly polite to Lin Haoran, so there was no need to mention his own status as a mere general manager of a branch company.

“Hello, Mr. Igawa,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, shaking his hand.

“Please come in, Mr. Lin. We can talk inside,” Igawa Yasuya said, making a welcoming gesture.

The two men entered the office, and Igawa Yasuya closed the door behind them. They walked to the guest area, where he poured Lin Haoran a glass of water.

After they were both seated, Igawa Yasuya got straight to the point. “Mr. Lin, Walter Wriston has already spoken with me. I will do my utmost to meet your needs and offer you the most favorable rates. Please, feel free to tell me what kind of collaboration you have in mind.”

Lin Haoran smiled and said, “Mr. Kawai, before we discuss our collaboration, I’d like to ask you about something. I’ve heard that Sony is planning to announce the global sales figures for the Walkman portable cassette player soon. I imagine Citibank would know the specific date, correct?”

As one of the world’s top financial groups, Citibank had investments in many major listed companies around the globe, including several large corporations here in Japan. Therefore, Lin Haoran surmised that Citibank must have already known the date of Sony’s announcement.

The vague news circulating in the media was likely intended to test the reaction of investors or to generate some market buzz before the official announcement.

This second oil crisis indeed showed many differences compared to the first.

During the first oil crisis, economies worldwide suffered severe blows, and stock markets generally fell into a slump, entering a prolonged bear market.

However, during the second oil crisis, although national economies were once again seriously affected, the performance of the stock markets was completely different.

Among the world’s major stock exchanges, with the exception of the West German market, which experienced a sharp decline due to special factors, other major markets such as Japan, Hong Kong, the United States, and Britain all ushered in a bull market.

The market capitalization of many companies in these markets grew significantly during these two years, as investors flocked to the market, pushing stock prices ever higher.

Japan’s stock market performance during this period was largely similar to that of Hong Kong and the United States, exhibiting strong growth momentum.

Consequently, Sony’s market capitalization had also more than doubled in these two years.

“Mr. Lin, are you suggesting that Sony’s stock price will surge after they announce the global sales data for the Walkman?

I must remind you, rumors of the Walkman’s impressive sales figures have been circulating for three days now, but the market’s reaction has been quite tepid, not at all the enthusiastic response one might expect. Therefore, I would advise you not to pay it too much attention.

As for the specific announcement date, according to my latest information, the Sony Board of Directors has officially decided to release its latest financial report on March 15th, at which time they will also reveal last year’s global sales data for the Walkman portable cassette player,” Igawa Yasuya replied, his tone a mixture of surprise and caution.

March 15th?

It was currently March 5th, which meant there were still ten days left, and only seven trading days.

Lin Haoran had a plan.

He knew for a fact that after Sony officially announced the Walkman’s global sales figures, its stock price had soared by over 20% on that very day. Although he had learned this information by chance while browsing related reports in his previous life, he was certain of it.

However, because he had noticed this market shift relatively close to the announcement date, he didn’t expect to make a massive profit from it.

Lin Haoran’s primary target remained Toyota Motor’s stock.

This matter could be handled by the staff at Galaxy Securities; his question to Igawa Yasuya was merely to confirm the date.

With this in mind, Lin Haoran smiled at Igawa Yasuya and said, “Thank you very much for your earlier advice, Mr. Igawa, but my visit today is not about Sony.

In fact, I have a large-scale transaction plan that I intend to entrust to your bank. But before we proceed, I must emphasize that every detail of this transaction must be kept strictly confidential.

Citibank and I have a long-standing partnership, and I have always held it in the highest confidence. That is why, even though I am in Japan, I did not consider local giants like Nomura Securities, Daiwa Securities, or SMBC Nikko Securities, but chose Citibank directly.”

Here, his tone turned serious. “Although my trust in Citibank is unwavering, given the sensitive nature of the transaction, I feel it is necessary to remind you once again of the importance of confidentiality!”

Igawa Yasuya nodded grimly. “Rest assured, Mr. Lin. You are familiar with Citibank’s service principles. Our commitment to confidentiality is absolute; it is the very foundation of our global presence.

We will implement the highest level of security measures for your transaction plan to ensure the information is secure. If a leak were to occur, and it was confirmed to have originated from our side, we would provide you with satisfactory compensation, Mr. Lin. All of this is stipulated in the contract.

So, please, entrust your project to us with complete confidence!”

Seeing this, Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction.

Securities firms generally have very strict confidentiality agreements and measures to ensure client information security. As a leading global financial institution, Citibank’s confidentiality system was at the apex of the industry.

This was why Lin Haoran felt so at ease with Citibank.

At this point in time, Citibank had not yet been swallowed by the Squid financial group. He had great confidence in the current Citibank.

“In that case, I’ll be direct. I need Citibank’s Securities Department to discreetly and quickly carry out stock accumulation of Toyota Motor shares before May, with the goal of acquiring a 10% stake.

I also need this process to be managed so as not to cause excessive volatility in the market price. May I ask if Citibank can meet this request?” Lin Haoran said with a smile, getting straight to his purpose.

Lin Haoran had stated an incredibly audacious figure.

After all, Toyota Motor’s current market capitalization was a staggering 1.686 trillion Japanese yen. A 10% stake, based on the current market value, would be worth 168.6 billion Japanese yen.

Converted to Hong Kong dollars, that was approximately 4.2 billion Hong Kong dollars.

This was an enormous sum of money.

In truth, Lin Haoran was well aware that this figure was too high. To quietly accumulate so many Toyota shares in just over a month was nearly impossible.

He was merely aiming high; as for how much Citibank could actually acquire, he would be satisfied with their best effort.

And the funds?

He planned to borrow a hen to lay an egg—he wouldn’t put up a single cent of his own money.

He would have Citibank front the funds. In the end, all he would have to pay was some interest.

It was no different from a loan, only more flexible.

He knew that Toyota Motor’s stock price was bound to skyrocket.

In other words, it was a guaranteed profit.

Given his current net worth, Citibank would not only not oppose this, but would be highly supportive.

If it were anyone else, they would worry about the person’s ability to repay the debt, but Lin Haoran was completely different.

He owned too many businesses, and he had collaborated with Citibank many times. Both parties knew each other inside and out, so having Citibank advance the funds was not a problem at all.

The only issue was negotiating the interest rate Lin Haoran would pay.

As for how Lin Haoran would repay the money?

That was simple.

Once he sold the Toyota shares, he would naturally have the funds.

Toyota Motor was an exceptionally high-quality company. Even after a 30% short-term surge, its stock price was unlikely to fall much. Instead, it would continue its upward trend.

If he didn’t need the cash, he might not even have to sell the shares after buying them.

“10%?” Just as Lin Haoran had expected, even Igawa Yasuya, as the top executive of Citibank’s Japan branch, was stunned by this figure.

Toyota Motor was no small enterprise; it was a multinational giant whose market capitalization ranked among the top in the world.

If Toyota Motor’s market cap were compared to listed companies in the United States, it would rank in the top twenty.

Just last year, in 1980, Toyota exported as many as 1.91 million vehicles, ranking second among global automakers, with Volkswagen of Germany in first place.

One could imagine just how powerful Toyota Motor already was.

This was the source of Igawa Yasuya’s shock.

“What’s the matter, is Citibank unable to handle it? Is a 10% stake too much?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“It is indeed a lot, but that doesn’t mean Citibank can’t procure that much. In fact, we might even be able to get more than 10% of Toyota’s shares. We still have over a month until May, which is more than enough time for us. It’s just that…”

Chapter 524: Citibank’s Solution

Lin Haoran was quite surprised to hear what he said.

They could get more than ten percent of Toyota’s shares?

And without causing any ripples in the stock market.

How was that possible?

“However?” Lin Haoran suppressed his curiosity and asked directly, “Mr. Kawai, please don’t hesitate to speak your mind.”

“It’s just that, why would you want to acquire Toyota shares at this particular time, Mr. Lin? Are you not aware that the stock prices of all of Japan’s car brands have been falling recently?

“Although I very much hope to close this deal with you on behalf of Citibank, as your important partner, I must remind you that the global economy is currently suffering from the effects of the oil crisis. National economies are in a downturn, and the automotive market is shrinking.

“Since the 1970s, Japanese cars have rapidly captured the American market with their high cost-effectiveness and fuel efficiency. By 1980, our market share reached twenty-two percent. It’s safe to say that the market share of Japanese cars in the United States has been increasing almost every year, causing a huge impact on the American domestic auto industry.

“American auto giants like General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have suffered heavy losses, leading to mass unemployment. This is what led to the current US-Japan auto trade negotiations.

“The United States has demanded that Japan voluntarily restrict its car exports to the US, threatening to impose import quotas or legislate them by force. As a result, there is widespread panic among all of Japan’s auto companies. Investors, shareholders, and even top investment institutions are all deeply worried about the future of Japan’s auto industry.

“No one believes that Japan can gain an advantage in negotiations with the United States. After all, everyone is aware of the US government’s domineering ways.

“Moreover, recent pressure from the United States has heightened expectations of export restrictions on Japan, causing the stock prices of auto companies, including Toyota, Honda, and Nissan, to fall continuously. Therefore, Mr. Lin, I believe it is a very unwise move for you to be purchasing Toyota stock right now.” Kawai Yasuya gave Lin Haoran a detailed analysis of the current market situation and potential risks.

When Kawai Yasuya received the call from Chairman Walter Wriston, Mr. Wriston had made it clear that when doing business with Lin Haoran, he must act with sincerity. Regardless of the outcome, he had to demonstrate Citibank’s professionalism and respect.

After all, Lin Haoran was now a very important client of Citibank, and he didn’t want any friction from their collaboration in Japan to cause the bank to lose such a high-value customer.

Therefore, even though Kawai Yasuya was eager to close the deal, he still provided the most detailed and objective market analysis possible, hoping Lin Haoran would make a decision that was in his own best interest, rather than being left in the dark.

The last thing Kawai Yasuya wanted was for Lin Haoran to suffer a major loss, blame Citibank, and create a grudge between them that would result in the bank losing this important client.

It was the consensus among everyone, including most of Japan’s top investment institutions, that Japan was at a complete disadvantage in the negotiations with the United States.

Therefore, everyone believed the outcome of the negotiations would be far from good.

No one thought that Japan could defeat the United States in these talks.

Anyone who thought otherwise would be considered incredibly naive.

One could only imagine the devastating blow it would be to Japanese automakers if they lost the American market.

This was why even numerous investors were so deeply concerned.

“Thank you, Mr. Kawai, for your detailed analysis. Your insights are very pertinent and profound and have given me a clearer understanding of the current market environment.” Lin Haoran nodded slightly, his expression unchanging. He was not swayed in the slightest by Kawai Yasuya’s well-intentioned warning.

“However, Mr. Kawai, my decision to acquire shares in Toyota at this moment was not made without considering the risk factors you’ve mentioned. Although Toyota’s development may face obstacles in the short term, I am more optimistic about its future.

“The fact that Toyota’s stock price has fallen due to the US-Japan auto negotiations is, in my opinion, an excellent opportunity. As long as I control ten percent or even more of Toyota’s shares, I will become a major shareholder.

“In the future, as Toyota grows, I will undoubtedly profit from it. I naturally understand the risks involved in investing, but I have my own investment philosophy and judgment. So please, Mr. Kawai, don’t worry about me. I will act with caution, and I look forward to a smooth collaboration with Citibank.

“But I would like to know, how can Citibank help me accumulate ten percent or more of Toyota’s shares without causing any shock to the stock market?”

Kawai Yasuya had fulfilled his duty of providing a warning. Since the other party was already aware of the risks, he naturally wouldn’t try to persuade him further.

After all, a deal for over ten percent of Toyota’s shares was a huge one. Just by brokering it, Citibank stood to earn a substantial amount. He, of course, hoped the transaction would proceed smoothly as well.

“Mr. Lin, as I mentioned earlier, investment institutions are currently very pessimistic about the future of the Japanese auto market, and that includes Toyota.

“Therefore, many investment institutions, both in Japan and abroad, are now considering liquidating their holdings in Japanese auto companies. From what I know, several top fund companies are planning to or have already begun reducing their shares in Japanese automakers.

“Citibank has excellent relationships with many fund and investment companies. If you wish to purchase Toyota stock, Mr. Lin, we don’t need to go through the stock market at all. Instead, we can buy directly from these fund or investment companies that are willing to sell their Toyota shares.

“This approach not only avoids the stock price volatility that would be caused by making large purchases on the open market but also ensures that you can smoothly acquire the shares you need. Moreover, we can likely negotiate a purchase price for you that is more favorable than the current market price.

“You mentioned wanting to reach over ten percent by May. We still have about fifty days, which is more than enough time for us.” Kawai Yasuya said confidently.

As one of the four largest financial groups in the United States, Citibank certainly had capital to be proud of.

Furthermore, given their status, their network of connections naturally spanned the globe, which was one of their greatest advantages in business.

“Oh? That does sound like an excellent method.” Lin Haoran’s eyes lit up. He hadn’t expected Citibank to have such resources and channels.

It seemed his goal of owning more than ten percent of Toyota’s stock was very much within reach!

In Japan at that time, Toyota was undoubtedly a top-tier, premium company.

For Lin Haoran, the more shares, the better.

Of course, he understood perfectly well that gaining a controlling stake in Toyota was impossible. The Japanese financial groups and government would never allow such a thing to happen, especially not when Toyota’s financial reports were so outstanding.

“So, Mr. Lin, do you have any other requirements for the acquisition of Toyota shares? We can discuss them in detail and write them into the contract. You are one of Citibank’s most valued clients, so we will also offer a very favorable commission rate. We can take our time discussing this and will certainly arrive at a price that satisfies both parties,” Kawai Yasuya continued with a smile.

A stake of over ten percent involved a sum of over one hundred and sixty billion Japanese yen. Even for him, the person in charge of Citibank’s Japan branch, it was rare to handle a transaction of such a massive scale. Once the deal was done, the commission alone would be a huge income.

Of course, they earned it through their own capabilities.

“My goal is the more, the better, with no upper limit. In other words, if it’s possible to acquire more than ten percent of Toyota’s stock, that would be even better. Of course, the price must not be higher than the market price. I believe you should be able to manage that. In fact, if the final negotiated price is lower than the current market price, I am willing to pay an additional commission.

“Also, for certain reasons, my funds are temporarily unavailable for a few months. Therefore, I will need Citibank to front the money for the purchase of the Toyota stock. I will not short you on the interest required. Once my funds are available, I will settle all the fees, including your commission and interest. What do you think?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

It wasn’t that his funds were unavailable; he was completely unwilling to spend a single penny of his own.

Of course, he would never say that to the other party.

However, with his current net worth, he certainly had the ability to pull off this “borrowing a hen to lay an egg” maneuver.

After all, his numerous industries in Hong Kong, combined with his several successful collaborations with Citibank, had earned him a very high credit limit with the bank.

Kawai Yasuya was momentarily stunned upon hearing this, but he quickly composed himself and mulled it over.

He hadn’t expected to earn interest on top of the commission. This was indeed a surprise.

For a financial institution, as long as a deal was absolutely secure, the more business, the better.

Effectively, Lin Haoran’s proposal was now two deals in one.

One was to act as an agent for the stock acquisition; the other was a short-term loan.

However, this matter was beyond his authority.

So, Kawai Yasuya quickly continued, “Mr. Lin, due to the large amount of capital involved, my authority is not sufficient to approve this cooperation directly. I will need to submit an application to Chairman Walter Wriston and obtain his approval. This is a necessary procedure, and I ask for your understanding.”

Lin Haoran nodded in complete understanding, “Of course, that’s as it should be. To ensure our cooperation proceeds smoothly, I can agree to temporarily hold the acquired shares with Citibank, but the ownership of the shares must be clearly registered under my account. I hope you can understand and confirm this point, Mr. Kawai.”

Kawai Yasuya smiled in response, “Rest assured, Mr. Lin. That is a matter of course. We will ensure that all operations comply with legal and financial regulations and that your rights are protected. Once the Chairman approves our cooperation, we will immediately proceed to the next stage of negotiations to finalize everything as soon as possible and close this deal with you!”

Chapter 525: Chowa Real Estate Company

Things proceeded with remarkable smoothness. Building on the excellent cooperative foundation between Lin Haoran and Citibank, as well as the bank’s deep understanding of Lin Haoran’s financial situation, its chairman, Mr. Walter Wriston, naturally accepted the proposed transaction.

Immediately after, that same morning, following the conclusion of the preliminary framework discussion, Lin Haoran promptly contacted a highly trusted and loyal employee from Galaxy Securities, along with his private legal counsel, to join the detailed negotiations with Citibank.

After all, this was a massive deal worth several billion Hong Kong dollars. Even for someone as consistently prudent as Lin Haoran, he dared not be careless; every single detail was crucial.

He was, of course, well aware that in the financial markets, a minor oversight could lead to enormous losses, especially when dealing with such a colossal flow of capital.

Even with his excellent history of cooperation with Citibank, Lin Haoran worried that if the stakes were high enough, the bank might just double-cross him.

Therefore, no matter how much he trusted Citibank, he had to be fully prepared.

In the world of business, even the most solid partnerships could become fragile in the face of immense profit.

In addition, Lin Haoran also made a direct phone call to instruct the staff in the Securities Department to suspend their accumulation of other companies’ shares and instead focus all their efforts on acquiring Sony stock before the 15th.

After all, since everyone believed that Sony’s stock wouldn’t see a significant rise even after releasing its data, it presented a good opportunity for Lin Haoran.

He still had nearly forty billion Japanese yen in available funds. This was a considerable sum, and in the seven remaining trading days, he would acquire as many shares as he could. In any case, he would secure a profit first.

After Sony announced the global sales data for its Walkman portable cassette player, a single-day increase of over 20% would be quite good.

Although it couldn’t compare to Toyota Motor Corporation, its advantage lay in the short timeframe—results would be seen in ten days.

Therefore, in the coming days, the employees of Galaxy Securities’ Japan Branch would halt all stock accumulation for companies like Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Toyota, Honda, Nintendo, the Industrial Bank of Japan, Mitsubishi Estate, and Tokyo Electron.

They would instead focus all their efforts on acquiring Sony’s shares—as many as they could, on the condition that it did not interfere with the normal fluctuations of the stock price.

Meanwhile, at the headquarters of Citibank’s Japan Branch.

The two parties ultimately reached an agreement. Citibank would act as the financial advisor for Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Toyota Motor Corporation shares, with a commission set at 1% of the total transaction value.

If Citibank could negotiate and acquire shares below the market price, it would also receive an additional tiered bonus commission based on the amount saved.

Furthermore, Citibank agreed to provide bridge financing for the acquisition, with the term tentatively set at six months and a preferential total interest rate of 2.5%.

If the financing was repaid early, the interest would be reduced proportionally.

Regarding the number of shares to be acquired, the agreement set no specific upper or lower limit but included a special clause: if the final proportion of shares acquired was less than 10%, the interest rate on the financing provided by Citibank would be reduced to 2%.

This series of seemingly stringent terms was ultimately finalized, which indirectly reflected Citibank’s high confidence in successfully acquiring at least 10% of Toyota Motor Corporation’s shares within a month.

In terms of the interest rate, Citibank was indeed being very generous.

During this period, property prices in Japan had not been driven up as crazily as in Hong Kong; in fact, transaction volumes were rather sluggish, which was why Lin Haoran had been able to easily acquire those four plots of land.

In early 1981, Japan’s benchmark annual lending rate was 7.25%. However, due to fewer borrowers and intense competition, the rates offered by various banks were often slightly lower than the benchmark.

Under normal circumstances, an annual interest rate between 6% and 7% was the mainstream rate for many Japanese banks at the time.

A six-month loan at a 2.5% rate was equivalent to a 5% annual lending rate. The rate Citibank offered Lin Haoran was indeed a very preferential condition, based not only on their excellent past cooperation but also on Citibank’s recognition of Lin Haoran’s strength and credibility.

If Lin Haoran had approached a local Japanese bank, he would have never received such favorable treatment.

This was also why he prioritized collaborating with Citibank, even after coming to Japan.

After the contract was signed, the Galaxy Securities employee who had accompanied him for the negotiation would be stationed at Citibank to supervise the collaboration and report back to Lin Haoran at any time.

By the time all this was settled, it was already past three in the afternoon.

A transaction involving over one hundred billion Japanese yen was concluded in just a few short hours.

After all, the two parties had cooperated many times before and naturally had a high degree of mutual understanding and a foundation of trust.

With the deal done, Lin Haoran left the headquarters of Citibank’s Japan Branch in high spirits.

Returning to the Hongkong Land Tower in the Central Ward, Lin Haoran finally caught sight of Fok Kin-ning.

This busy man was rarely in the office these days, spending most of his time out and about.

New projects, new investments, new markets—as the person in charge of Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch, Fok Kin-ning was busy expanding their footprint in the new market of Japan.

“Boss, your timing is perfect. I’ve recently been looking into several FMCG brands in Tokyo.” As soon as Fok Kin-ning saw Lin Haoran, he greeted him enthusiastically and began reporting his new findings nonstop. “Although acquiring them outright would be a bit difficult, I have an idea. Our Hongkong Land Group could consider becoming a major shareholder by investing in them.

“This way, not only can we help our subsidiary, Dairy Farm International, enter the fast-moving consumer goods sector more quickly, but we can also share in the resources and markets of these brands.”

Lin Haoran listened to Fok Kin-ning’s report, nodding slightly to indicate he should continue.

“Also, there’s more good news.” A glint of excitement shone in Fok Kin-ning’s eyes. “Tokyo’s Chowa Real Estate Company has a broken capital chain due to its previous aggressive expansion and has now fallen into insolvency.

“The Tokyo court is preparing to auction off all its real estate projects and properties next month. A specific date hasn’t been announced yet, but they’ve released the news to generate some interest.

“I think this is an absolutely golden opportunity for our Hongkong Land Group! If we can seize this chance to acquire Chowa Real Estate, our group’s expansion in Japan will be able to bypass many steps.”

Chowa Real Estate?

Lin Haoran had never heard of it, so he asked, “Do you have specific information on this company?”

“I do. I’ll get it for you right away,” Fok Kin-ning said, turning to retrieve a folder from the bookshelf behind him.

“Please have a look, Boss.”

Lin Haoran nodded and, after taking the folder, sat down in a chair to read it.

It turned out that this Chowa Real Estate Company could rank among the top 50 private real estate enterprises in Japan. While there was a huge gap between it and Japanese real estate tycoons like Mitsui Fudosan, Mitsubishi Estate, and Sumitomo Realty & Development, it was still considered a major real estate company.

Before the oil crisis hit, Japan’s real estate industry was booming. At that time, Chowa Real Estate Company was preparing to go public and, in its quest for a high market capitalization, had expanded blindly. Many of its real estate projects were mortgaged for loans to acquire more land for the next development, right after being developed themselves.

Then, the oil crisis struck suddenly, triggering an economic recession in Japan. The quality of life for its citizens declined, and real estate transaction volumes plummeted.

Although property prices in Japan didn’t fall, the sharp drop in sales volume rendered the stable prices useless. It was a classic case of a market with prices but no buyers.

As a result, Chowa Real Estate Company met with misfortune. Not only did its IPO fail, but burdened by the numerous real estate projects it had taken on, it finally collapsed after struggling for two years and had no choice but to file for bankruptcy.

And so, this led to the current scene of Chowa Real Estate Company’s assets being put up for auction.

Lin Haoran frowned slightly after reading through the documents, weighing the risks and opportunities in his mind.

Of course, in Lin Haoran’s view, there was actually no risk at all.

After all, once Japan’s economic bubble arrived, all of this would turn into cold, hard cash!

He could imagine that if he took over all of Chowa Real Estate’s property projects and assets now, they would surely earn him an immense amount of money down the line.

He looked up at Fok Kin-ning and asked, “What is the company’s current debt situation? If we take over, how much capital would we need to revive it?”

Fok Kin-ning was prepared and answered immediately, “According to my investigation, Chowa Real Estate’s liabilities are around two hundred billion Japanese yen, but the actual value of their assets is only about one hundred and fifty billion yen. However, selling them at that market price in the short term is impossible, which is why they had no choice but to file for bankruptcy.

“This auction includes all of Chowa Real Estate’s assets, especially some prime plots and commercial real estate projects in downtown Tokyo, which are extremely valuable. And once we win the auction, we won’t have to assume the debt.

“This auction was actually initiated by the creditors through the court, which means that if we win the bid, Chowa Real Estate’s debts will have nothing to do with us.

“If we can win these assets at a reasonable price, and then through effective operation and management, it’s entirely possible to turn a profit in a short time once Japan’s real estate economy recovers in the future.”

“In other words, if we participate in the auction, we can basically acquire this company for less than one hundred and fifty billion Japanese yen, right?” Lin Haoran asked, putting down the file and looking up.

“Yes. According to the estimate of a Japanese real estate expert I hired, it would be beyond imagination if the final bid exceeds one hundred and thirty billion Japanese yen. For the past two years, all the major real estate companies in Japan have slowed their pace of development. No real estate company would be willing to bid at market price,” Fok Kin-ning replied quickly.

Lin Haoran nodded, having gained a more detailed understanding of the company’s situation.

However, even one hundred and thirty billion Japanese yen was no small sum.

Chapter 526: Yakult, Shu Uemura, Kao, and Kosé

The biggest problem he was currently facing was a lack of funds.

Although the Hongkong Land Group’s Hong Kong headquarters had substantial funds available—taking out a few billion Hong Kong dollars wouldn’t be an issue—that branch also had its own development needs. Furthermore, it was currently focused on acquiring FMCG brand companies and had several loans to repay in the future.

Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, Lin Haoran was unwilling to touch the funds from Hong Kong.

The plan for the Japan branch was to see how far it could develop on its own with a starting capital of four billion Hong Kong dollars.

Even he couldn’t produce 130 billion Japanese yen right now.

Take out another loan?

Better not. He had just signed a new contract with Citibank today, adding a few billion Hong Kong dollars to his debt.

However, if the plan targeting Toyota’s stock went smoothly, he would be able to make a significant amount of money.

For now, it seemed he could only play it by ear and figure things out after winning the bid.

With this in mind, Lin Haoran asked, “Do you know the payment rules for the auction?”

“I know a little,” Fok Kin-ning replied. “The Tokyo courts have handled similar auctions for bankrupt companies before. Usually, the successful bidder needs to pay a deposit of about ten percent of the final price, with the remaining balance due within a year.

“If the payment isn’t completed within this period, not only will the auctioned assets be forcibly repossessed, but the ten percent deposit will also be forfeited.

“For a high-value auction like Chowa Real Estate, the court will likely grant a fundraising period of at least one year. In fact, if you wish to extend the settlement period, you can even negotiate with the creditors.

“Some creditors, hoping to earn interest, might agree to extend the payment deadline. But it’s important to note that until the balance is fully paid, the auctioned assets will be under supervision and cannot be traded in any way.”

A one-year fundraising period?

If that was the case, he no longer had to worry about a shortage of funds.

Raising that sum within a year would be a simple matter for him.

Thinking of this, Lin Haoran nodded and said, “Alright, you’ll participate in the auction then. Do your best to win it.”

The Hongkong Land Group was, after all, a major conglomerate focused on real estate. Yet, its property portfolio in Japan currently consisted of only the Hongkong Land Tower and the four plots of land he had won at auction.

This was hardly fitting for a major real estate company.

But if they could acquire Chowa Real Estate Company, the Hongkong Land Group would have a solid foundation in Japan’s property sector.

Building on that foundation, Lin Haoran was confident he could develop the Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch to a satisfactory level before the Japanese economic bubble burst.

“Yes, Boss. I’ll do everything I can to win the bid!” Fok Kin-ning grew excited upon receiving his boss’s approval.

He understood the immense significance of this auction for the Hongkong Land Group’s development in Japan.

Next, Fok Kin-ning gave Lin Haoran a detailed report on the few FMCG brands he had been eyeing.

Yakult, Shu Uemura, Kao, and Kosé.

Lin Haoran was somewhat surprised. He hadn’t expected the brands Fok Kin-ning was looking at to be the very same major FMCG brands that would become household names in his past life.

Yakult needed no introduction; he had often drunk its lactobacillus drinks in his previous life, and it was a well-known brand among consumers in Mainland China.

Shu Uemura had carved out a niche in the Mainland Chinese market with cosmetics like its cleansing oil and its hard formula eyebrow pencil.

Kao held a significant position in the Mainland Chinese market with its daily chemical products, such as shampoos and conditioners.

Kosé’s Sekkisei product line enjoyed a prestigious reputation among consumers in Mainland China.

According to Fok Kin-ning, of these brands, only Shu Uemura presented a real opportunity for acquisition. The other three had long histories and were controlled by their founding families. Acquiring them would likely require an offer far exceeding their market value.

Moreover, these brands were common FMCG products in all of Japan’s major retail stores.

“Acquire them if we can. If not, we’ll invest. Now that I control 7-Eleven, that’s a bargaining chip. If they want their products to get favorable treatment in 7-Eleven stores, they’ll have to reduce the amount of financing we provide. That’s a must!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The 7-Eleven convenience store chain was indeed his trump card.

There were already over one thousand 7-Eleven stores in Japan, and he was confident that by the end of the year, that number would exceed three thousand.

By then, 7-Eleven would undoubtedly be an entity that FMCG brands would want to curry favor with.

Acquisition, a controlling stake, or even becoming a major shareholder were all acceptable outcomes.

As long as he had a certain degree of say in the company, he could push it to invest in Mainland China.

This would, in turn, accelerate the development of Guangdong Province and fulfill his commitments to the Mainland.

Of course, a direct acquisition was the best-case scenario, making him the controlling shareholder or even the sole owner. That would give him complete control.

He planned to build Dairy Farm International into an FMCG giant with a massive portfolio of brands, similar to P&G or Unilever.

Naturally, his goal was to create an FMCG conglomerate even larger than giants like P&G and Unilever, hopefully becoming the top dog in the global FMCG industry.

Combined with the retail channels like supermarkets and convenience stores that he was currently establishing, he would be virtually invincible in the industry.

After chatting with Fok Kin-ning, Lin Haoran was about to head to the Southland Corporation office on the 22nd floor when he unexpectedly noticed Akina Nakamori.

She was sitting at an employee’s desk, completely absorbed in a book.

Today, she was dressed in a more girlish, refreshingly elegant outfit that exuded a unique and captivating beauty.

Curious, Lin Haoran walked closer and saw that Akina Nakamori was holding a book for learning English.

The pages were densely filled with various notes. Her handwriting was neat and elegant, showing how serious and dedicated she was to her studies.

Akina Nakamori was a rather unique employee at the Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch.

Since she still had three months of school left, she wasn’t required to work the nine-to-six schedule like other employees.

She had previously offered to drop out of school immediately.

However, Lin Haoran had told her to finish the last three months, since graduation was so close.

Although Akina Nakamori was now a print ad model for the Hongkong Land Group and had already shot several print ads for the group’s supermarkets, Lin Haoran still intended for her to pursue a career as a singer.

Recently, whenever he had some free time, Lin Haoran had been planning to acquire an entertainment company. Then, just as in his previous life, he would groom Akina Nakamori into a Japanese superstar, allowing her to become who she was meant to be: a superstar diva, dazzling on stage and beloved by fans worldwide.

Since he was developing his business in Japan, his products would inevitably need a spokesperson to accelerate brand recognition.

And Akina Nakamori already possessed the innate talent of a top star. He was merely helping her reclaim the status she was destined for.

For Lin Haoran, acquiring an entertainment company was just for fun, a side project. But since he had decided to do it, he would do it to the best of his ability.

In any case, acquiring an entertainment company wouldn’t cost much.

He didn’t expect the company to make him a lot of money; the most important thing was to have fun.

Just then, Akina Nakamori evidently realized someone was standing beside her. She looked up abruptly and saw that it was the Boss.

Akina Nakamori immediately stood up and greeted Lin Haoran.

“Oh? Your English has improved so much?” Lin Haoran asked, surprised.

Although Akina Nakamori had only said a couple of sentences of greeting in English, Lin Haoran could tell that her proficiency had made significant progress.

Akina Nakamori could only half-understand Lin Haoran’s English sentence, but when she tried to answer, she stumbled over her words. It was clear she had only caught a few words.

Still, such great progress was enough to show that Akina Nakamori had indeed put a lot of effort into learning English recently.

A female employee sitting next to Akina Nakamori took the initiative to translate for her.

Through their conversation, Lin Haoran learned that Akina Nakamori had recently enrolled in an English training class specifically to improve her English.

As for Cantonese, it was too much of a niche language in Japan. Forcing her to learn it would likely yield little result in the short term, so learning English was the fastest way forward.

Because with Japan’s economic development, the environment for learning English was actually quite good. The prevalence of higher education meant many young people could speak English, and the large number of foreigners in Japan created an excellent language environment.

If she was willing to put her mind to it, she could indeed make significant progress in a short time.

Lin Haoran carefully studied the young woman before him. She was beautiful, but a pity she was still a bit young, only sixteen.

At her age, he couldn’t bring himself to make a move.

He patted Akina Nakamori’s shoulder and said with a smile, “Keep it up. Study hard. I’m looking forward to the day you and I can have a conversation on our own.”

“I will not let you down!” Akina Nakamori said solemnly.

“In the company, everyone except the security guards and cleaning staff speaks English. You can ask your older brothers and sisters here for help. You have to be bold and not afraid to speak!” Lin Haoran encouraged her before leaving the 23rd-floor office.

Ever since meeting Akina Nakamori, he had indeed developed a strong interest in this future international superstar destined for greatness.

Men, after all, are driven by either money or women; it’s a perfectly normal mentality.

Akina Nakamori was not only incredibly famous but also possessed stunning beauty. It was only natural for Lin Haoran to be attracted to her.

It would be a problem if he wasn’t attracted to her.

Chapter 527: Seductive Temptation

After inspecting the offices of Southland Corporation, Lin Haoran left the Hongkong Land Tower.

During his last meeting with Southland Corporation’s senior executives, he had promised to inject forty billion Japanese yen into the company to facilitate the rapid expansion of 7-Eleven convenience stores.

However, he needed his funds to purchase Sony stock for now, as he planned to make a quick profit first.

Therefore, he initially allocated only four billion Japanese yen to Southland Corporation. In any case, that amount would be enough for them to use for a while.

By the time Southland Corporation had spent that money, he would have already made a fortune from Sony’s stock.

Southland Corporation was now a well-known enterprise, so its headquarters’ relocation to Tokyo was certainly welcomed by the government. On the day of the move, even the mayor of Tokyo made a special appearance, bringing along numerous reporters to cover the event.

Clearly, this was a method they used to attract foreign investment and a way to boost national pride.

The Japanese government was also very pleased with Lin Haoran’s move.

After all, Southland Corporation was originally a purely American company. For it to now move its headquarters to Tokyo—didn’t that just prove that Japan’s economic climate was now on par with that of the United States?

However, no one knew that in Lin Haoran’s mind, moving the headquarters to Japan was only temporary. It was merely a strategy to promote the expansion of 7-Eleven convenience stores in the country.

In the future, once 7-Eleven’s position in Japan was unshakeable, he would move the headquarters to Hong Kong.

Hong Kong was his true base of operations.

Just like those British-funded conglomerates, weren’t they also trying to find ways to move their headquarters to Britain?

After leaving the Hongkong Land Tower, Lin Haoran didn’t go anywhere else and returned directly home.

He didn’t know many people in Japan, and many Japanese businessmen were now wary of him, so he had very little social life. He basically either went to the company or went home—a simple, two-point routine.

There wasn’t much to see in downtown Tokyo. After being in Japan for a month, he had already visited all the places he wanted to see.

During this time, he had even been to Kanagawa, Chiba Prefecture, and Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo. He had taken a tour of Mount Fuji and had even made a trip to Osaka.

Thus, there weren’t many places left that were worth visiting.

Furthermore, Tokyo was teeming with gangs. Although he had more than a dozen bodyguards, he wasn’t willing to take the risk.

Just yesterday, he had read in the newspaper that a gang war had broken out on a street in Tokyo in the early morning, resulting in over twenty deaths.

This was far more serious than the gangs in Hong Kong.

In Hong Kong, at least, not as many gang members carried guns.

But in Japan, it was estimated that most gang members had firearms, which sent the danger level soaring.

Since he was back early, Lin Haoran decided to have an early dinner.

After dinner, he sat in the hanging basket on the fifth-floor terrace, watching the sun gradually set.

A taxi stopping at the villa’s main gate caught his attention.

He got out of the hanging basket, walked to the wall, and looked down. The person getting out was Yamada Keiko.

Today was her day off. Lin Haoran had thought she wouldn’t be back until tomorrow, but she had returned in the evening.

Even from the fifth floor, Lin Haoran could see that Yamada Keiko didn’t look well. Something unpleasant must have happened back home.

“Boss.” Yamada Keiko looked up and saw Lin Haoran on the floor above.

The setting sun shone on Yamada Keiko, making her look very beautiful.

Today, Yamada Keiko was not in her usual work attire but in a white one-piece dress.

The afterglow of the sunset draped over her shoulders like fine golden satin, adding a soft, warm radiance to her already outstanding features.

The pure white one-piece dress was impeccably tailored, accentuating her graceful figure while maintaining an air of dignity and elegance, as if it were a work of art made just for her.

The hem of the dress swayed gently with the breeze, seeming to make the very air around her feel fresher.

However, her weary expression and the faint, forced smile revealed that she was not in good spirits.

“Mm, you haven’t eaten, have you? I’ll have the kitchen heat up something for you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Lin Haoran’s words carried a certain warmth and concern, causing a wave of warmth to surge through Yamada Keiko’s heart.

She shook her head gently, forcing a smile. “Thank you, Boss, but there’s no need. I ate at home. I’m just… a little tired and want to rest early.”

“Alright, then go get some rest,” Lin Haoran nodded and returned to sit in the hanging basket.

Only when the sun had completely set and night gradually fell, causing the temperature to drop sharply, did Lin Haoran return to his study.

The dozen or so bodyguards and the few villa housekeepers all lived on the first three floors. The fourth and fifth floors were Lin Haoran’s private space.

As his personal secretary, Yamada Keiko was moved into the villa, and Lin Haoran had arranged a room for her on the fourth floor.

She was a young woman, after all. He couldn’t have her living with a group of male bodyguards on the first three floors.

Soon, it was past nine o’clock at night.

Lin Haoran had washed up and was wearing his pajamas, sitting on the sofa in the living room and about to turn on the television.

Just then, a knock came from the door.

In this villa, aside from the main living room on the first floor, the floors from the second upwards had private sitting rooms instead, emphasizing privacy.

Therefore, there was a door separating this sitting room from the outside. Even people from downstairs needed to pass through this door to come up.

Lin Haoran stood up, walked to the door, and looked through the peephole. It was Yamada Keiko.

That girl, what is she doing here so late?

Lin Haoran opened the door to see Yamada Keiko standing outside in a one-piece nightgown. Seeing the door open, she seemed at a loss for what to do.

“Come in and sit.” Though he was unclear about why she was looking for him, Lin Haoran gestured towards the sofa.

Yamada Keiko nodded, entered the living room, and closed the door behind her before walking further inside.

Sitting on the sofa, Lin Haoran waited for her to speak.

However, Yamada Keiko looked like she wanted to say something but couldn’t, appearing hesitant and anxious.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran took the initiative to break the silence. “Keiko, if something’s wrong, just say it. Don’t hold it in.”

At his words, Yamada Keiko finally mustered her courage, stood up, and walked in front of Lin Haoran.

Suddenly, she took off her nightgown, instantly revealing her graceful body underneath.

She was wearing nothing, completely naked, standing right before Lin Haoran.

A pleasant body fragrance wafted into Lin Haoran’s nostrils, making him instinctively take a deep breath.

Her fair skin, her boundless allure, was completely unveiled.

Lin Haoran was momentarily stunned. He had not expected Yamada Keiko to do something like this.

Yamada Keiko’s face was slightly flushed, her eyes shimmering with determination and a plea. “Boss, I… I hope you can do me a favor. I’m willing to do anything for you, Boss.”

Lin Haoran was secretly astonished by her actions, and he also realized that things were probably not that simple. No wonder he had noticed she was in a bad mood.

He tried his best to keep his tone calm. “Keiko, put your clothes back on first. Let’s sit down and talk things through.”

Yamada Keiko bit her lip and did not heed his words, remaining naked before him, her eyes filled with stubbornness.

She was naturally beautiful and had an excellent figure. It would be a lie to say Lin Haoran wasn’t moved.

However, he needed to know what was driving her to do this.

So, Lin Haoran didn’t press her further and said resignedly, “Just tell me what’s wrong. If I can help, I will.”

He never forced anyone, which was why, even though Yamada Keiko had been living in the villa for over ten days, he had never made any coercive advances towards her.

He was very satisfied with this beautiful Japanese woman.

Not only was she highly educated and beautiful, but she was also very competent in her work, and her loyalty was not low.

A secretary like her would not be easy to find a second time.

If she was in some kind of trouble, as long as it wasn’t too excessive, he was willing to help.

At this moment, with a perfect body standing before him, it was impossible for him to remain indifferent, especially since he was in the prime of his youth, full of vigor.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, a flicker of gratitude flashed in Yamada Keiko’s eyes, but she still didn’t move. She just said in a low voice, “Boss, I would like to borrow a sum of money from you. Forty million Japanese yen.

“You may already know something about my family’s predicament. A debt of forty million Japanese yen has come due. To make my parents pay, the creditors have been constantly coming to our door to harass them, causing my parents immense suffering. They’re at their wits’ end, to the point of wanting to jump off a building to commit suicide.

“I swear, if you agree, I will work hard to repay this money to you. I am willing to do anything for you. I know I am not worthy of you, Boss, but please rest assured, I have never had a boyfriend, I have never experienced… that kind of thing. My body is still clean.

“As long as you don’t mind, I ask for no status. I am willing to slave away for you, to serve you for the rest of my life… I truly have no other choice, which is why I’m begging you. I know it’s outrageous to ask for such a thing after only working for you for a little over ten days, but I have no other options. I can’t just stand by and watch my parents take their own lives over debt.”

As she finished speaking, tears began to stream down Yamada Keiko’s face.

Forty million Japanese yen was not a large sum to Lin Haoran; it was only about one million Hong Kong dollars.

But to Yamada Keiko, it was a huge amount. After all, her family was in debt for over one hundred million yen due to their business, a fact Lin Haoran was already aware of.

After all, as his secretary, she would be exposed to many secrets. Even with the ability to see her loyalty, he would have had her entire background thoroughly investigated.

Only then could he feel at ease appointing her to this position.

Chapter 528: The Fourth Person with 100 Loyalty is Born!

Forty million Japanese yen was indeed a small sum to Lin Haoran. He could help Yamada Keiko without a second thought.

He was mulling over one thing: whether he should take this opportunity to make Yamada Keiko his.

He wasn’t some saint who could remain unmoved with a beauty in his arms. To turn down a woman who offered herself so freely—only a deity could do that, and he was no deity.

However, she was, after all, forced into this situation because of family matters.

If he went ahead and slept with Yamada Keiko tonight, it would feel a bit like taking advantage of her predicament.

However, he wanted to know if her loyalty would increase again if he took her.

That was just one reason.

Besides, Lin Haoran was, after all, a man in his twenties. Back in Hong Kong, he could occasionally have Rosamund Kwan come over to relieve some of his needs.

He had been in Japan for nearly a month now without a woman by his side, which was not ideal.

Furthermore, Yamada Keiko was now his secretary. If he made her his, she might serve him with single-minded devotion in the future.

And if he didn’t make her his and simply lent her the money, it would seem too casual of him.

At this thought, Lin Haoran’s eyes scanned the naked beauty before him.

His gaze didn’t cause Yamada Keiko to put up any defenses; instead, her face grew even redder.

Lin Haoran was handsome to begin with, and at such a young age, he was already a business tycoon. This kind of man was the dream of countless women.

Yamada Keiko was no exception.

She had originally thought that after becoming Lin Haoran’s personal secretary, she would soon fall prey to the unspoken rules.

She had already mentally prepared herself for it.

But to her surprise, although the Boss would occasionally take some minor liberties, like having her give him a shoulder rub, he had always treated her with respect, which moved Yamada Keiko deeply.

Now, offering herself to him was something she was doing willingly.

At this moment, she felt a mixture of anticipation and unease.

If the Boss rejected her, she really wouldn’t know how to face him in the future.

Now, she felt as if she were awaiting a judge’s verdict, nervous yet hopeful for a favorable outcome.

Lin Haoran suddenly smiled and stood up from his chair. To Yamada Keiko’s激动又紧张的眼神中, he lifted the naked Yamada Keiko by her waist, slung her over his shoulder, and strode towards the bedroom.

Yamada Keiko seemed to realize what was happening. She didn’t resist, simply lying limply over Lin Haoran’s shoulder. Although there was panic in her heart, there was also a trace of inexplicable anticipation.

She closed her eyes tightly, her long eyelashes trembling gently, as if she had become a flower quietly waiting to be plucked, awaiting every gentle touch and caress Lin Haoran would give.

Just as Yamada Keiko had said, she was indeed inexperienced with men, and her actions were very clumsy.

Under Lin Haoran’s guidance, she completed the transition from a girl to a woman.

On the spacious bed, the pristine white sheets were dotted with specks of red.

…

“When you get to the company tomorrow, I’ll transfer forty million Japanese yen to you. Don’t worry about your family’s problems. From now on, just work hard for me, and I won’t treat you unfairly,” Lin Haoran said with a satisfied smile.

Yamada Keiko lay on the bed, her face still flushed.

She nodded gently, her voice as faint as a mosquito’s buzz, “Thank you, Boss. I will do my best to work for you and live up to your expectations.”

At that moment, Lin Haoran noticed that Yamada Keiko’s loyalty had, without him realizing, risen from 88 to 100.

She was now the fourth subordinate to have a loyalty of 100.

This special ability of his had existed for over two years, but in all that time, only three people had broken through to 100 loyalty.

Even Fok Kin-ning, whose loyalty was as high as 98 and infinitely close to 100, had not yet reached the mark.

This just showed how difficult it was to achieve 100 loyalty.

The first to reach 100 loyalty was Su Zhixue, who was now in charge of Universal Investment Company for him in the United States, secretly accumulating shares in publicly listed companies like Coca-Cola, Intel, Citibank, Chevron, and ExxonMobil, laying the groundwork for his future.

The second and third were the brothers Li Weiguo and Li Weidong, to whom he entrusted his safety.

He had originally thought the fourth person to reach one hundred loyalty would be Fok Kin-ning, since his loyalty was just a step away from 100.

But now, someone had beaten Fok Kin-ning to the punch, which was truly beyond Lin Haoran’s expectations. And to his surprise, this fourth person was Japanese.

Although the method used to make her loyalty reach 100 was somewhat… special.

Originally, he was just giving it a try.

It seemed he had completely conquered this Japanese girl.

This was good too. By helping her with a small problem, he had gained a completely loyal Japanese subordinate and a beautiful woman. It was killing two birds with one stone.

Lin Haoran thought to himself, a smug smile unconsciously forming on his lips.

“Boss, I want to cut out this piece of the sheet, may I?” Yamada Keiko said, her face flushed with shyness as she mustered the courage to look up at Lin Haoran.

Clearly, she placed a great deal of importance on her chastity.

“Mm, go ahead. And change the sheets while you’re at it,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

As he spoke, Lin Haoran got up, took the duvet, and tossed it onto a nearby armchair.

Yamada Keiko, meanwhile, fetched a pair of scissors and carefully cut out a small piece of the sheet dotted with red, then folded it neatly and put it away.

…

In the blink of an eye, more than a week passed.

During this time, Lin Haoran focused mainly on the stock market situation.

He paid particular attention to the stock prices of Sony and Toyota.

On the Sony side, under the trading of Galaxy Securities’ employees, they had been continuously accumulating Sony shares during this period without alarming the market.

Although the stock price had risen slightly, it wasn’t by much.

Apparently, the upcoming announcement of sales data hadn’t really caught the shareholders’ attention.

In just over a week, the employees of Galaxy Securities had bought nearly twenty-eight billion yen worth of Sony stock, averaging over four billion yen in accumulated shares per day.

However, Sony stock itself was a popular one for trading. Even in the past, its daily trading volume exceeded ten billion yen, sometimes even reaching tens of billions.

After all, it was a behemoth with a market capitalization of over one trillion yen.

Therefore, the actions of Galaxy Securities’ traders did not alarm any shareholders.

Lin Haoran was just waiting for Sony to announce the global sales figures for its Walkman portable cassette player. He hoped his judgment was correct.

Of course, even if Sony’s stock didn’t rise as he expected after the sales data was released, he wouldn’t lose much—at most, it would just be a lot of effort for nothing.

As for Toyota, there was also continuous good news.

On the third day after signing the contract with Citibank, the bank had acquired 2.32% of Toyota’s shares for him from a fund company, and the acquisition price was 1% lower than the market price.

On the eighth day, Citibank successfully negotiated with an investment company and secured another 3.15% of Toyota’s shares. Although the price wasn’t much lower than the market price, it was still slightly less.

There had been no further successes since then, but Lin Haoran knew that Citibank was currently in negotiations with two fund companies and an investment bank. He believed good news would come soon.

Citibank was truly capable; no wonder they were so confident.

At this rate, it seemed 15% was possible, let alone 10%.

Lin Haoran was increasingly satisfied with his partnership with Citibank.

If he had entrusted this to a local Japanese securities firm, the news would have likely leaked by now.

But as it stood, the fact that he was the person behind the scenes acquiring Toyota’s shares had not gotten out. Clearly, Citibank was keeping his identity confidential in its negotiations and had not disclosed it to any party.

Everyone probably assumed that Citibank itself was responsible.

Citibank was a financial giant in its own right and had provided financing to many publicly listed companies. In Japan, for instance, Citibank held shares in numerous public companies.

Therefore, Citibank’s actions did not cause much of a stir in the investment community.

However, many people couldn’t quite understand Citibank’s strategy.

After all, everyone knew that in negotiations between Japan and the United States, Japan was always at a disadvantage; there was unlikely to be any good news.

Many foreign investment magnates even believed that to develop its domestic auto industry, the United States would force Japan to give up a large portion of the American car market this time.

In that case, the future of Toyota was clearly not looking bright.

Yet, Citibank was aggressively acquiring Toyota shares at this very moment, which undoubtedly perplexed many.

But despite their confusion, no one followed suit.

After all, even a financial giant can make a bad call.

Many believed that Citibank’s judgment this time was a huge mistake.

Believing Japan would get good news from the US-Japan auto negotiations?

You might as well believe that dogs don’t eat poop.

Lin Haoran was very satisfied with Citibank’s confidentiality and professionalism.

For now, Citibank was serving as a scapegoat for him.

No one knew that the person behind the scenes truly acquiring Toyota’s stock was a super-rich magnate from Hong Kong.

He knew that this kind of partner was essential to ensure the smooth execution of his plan.

If the news of his acquisition of Toyota got out, it would not only attract attention but might also drive up the stock price.

The reason was simple: no one would dare to deliberately inflate the stock price in front of a seasoned investor like Citibank.

But Lin Haoran was different. In many people’s eyes, even though he was already famous, he was still a lone wolf, not a large financial group with extensive connections.

Someone might just deliberately drive up the stock price, hoping to make a quick buck off him.

Chapter 529: Earning 10.6 Billion Japanese Yen in 10 Days

March 15th was a very special holiday for Japan: the Cherry Blossom Festival.

The Japanese people believe that cherry blossoms embody the spirit of elegance, resilience, graceful simplicity, and independence.

As such, vast groves of cherry blossom trees could be seen in many places throughout Japan.

During the Cherry Blossom Festival, people would take their families and friends to places where the blossoms were in full bloom. They would admire the flowers while enjoying delicious food and fine wine—truly one of life’s great pleasures.

At this moment, in a suburban park on the outskirts of Tokyo boasting a vast expanse of cherry blossom trees, many citizens sat with their families or friends beneath the sakura.

Many had even brought radios, listening to music from the broadcast stations while chatting about their lives, enjoying themselves immensely.

The time came to twelve noon. After announcing the top of the hour, many radio stations began their midday news broadcasts.

“One hour ago, Sony Corporation officially released its fiscal year 1980 earnings report. The data shows significant growth in both group revenue and net profit. At the same time, Sony also announced that it will be distributing dividends to all its shareholders within the next month.

The most dazzling highlight of this earnings report is undoubtedly the market performance of the revolutionary product—the Walkman portable cassette player.

As the world’s first portable music player, this TPS-L2 model, born in 1979 with a debut price of 33,000 Japanese yen, was officially released last year. It took the market by storm in its first year, with global sales exceeding two million units and contributing over 66 billion Japanese yen in revenue from this single product.

Sony co-founder Akio Morita, with his precise insight into the consumerization of technology, has been hailed by the international media as the ‘Father of the Walkman.’ The success of this phenomenal product has not only reshaped the way people listen to music but has also allowed the innovative spirit of ‘Made in Japan’ to shine on the world stage, becoming a footnote of our era’s national technological prowess.

At this moment, let us applaud Sony’s innovative courage and take pride in Japan’s technological achievements!…” On the radio, the news host reported the news with excitement and pride.

Since the 1960s and 70s, Japan’s economy had developed rapidly, and its technological level had continuously improved. Homegrown tech companies like Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Konka, Yaskawa Electric, Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric, FANUC, and Fujitsu quickly expanded beyond Japan’s borders.

In this era, these companies were not only technological leaders but also held important positions in the global market, truly playing a crucial role in promoting technological development.

At this moment, under the cherry blossom trees, many young Japanese people were listening to the news on their radios. Taking out the Sony Walkman they had purchased, a sense of pride swelled within them.

The news continued to echo through the air, each word like a stone cast into a calm lake, creating ripple after ripple.

The very air seemed to be infected by this wave of enthusiasm, becoming exceptionally vibrant.

Some older citizens also joined the discussion, reminiscing about Sony’s journey from a small enterprise to the global tech giant it was today, their words filled with emotion and admiration.

“It’s truly incredible. Sony has achieved such brilliant results,” an middle-aged woman in a kimono lamented, clutching a small Walkman in her hand, her eyes shining with memories and pride.

“Indeed. I used one of their old cassette recorders back in the day. Even then, I thought their product quality was excellent. Now, Sony has shown the world that our Japanese technology is the most advanced. The fact that it can sell so well worldwide is proof enough of this product’s success,” an old man with graying hair chimed in.

As the news spread, all of Tokyo, and indeed all of Japan, was immersed in fervent discussions and praise for Sony’s glorious achievement.

As the world’s first-ever revolutionary portable music player, even Sony itself had not anticipated such astonishing success when it was initially launched.

Now, with first-year sales exceeding two million units and revenue reaching a staggering 66 billion Japanese yen, these figures undeniably proved that Sony’s product had won the enthusiastic adoration and love of consumers worldwide.

This was not just an affirmation of Sony’s innovative capabilities, but also a splendid showcase for “Made in Japan” on the global stage.

Although today was Sunday and the stock market was not open, Sony’s achievement was enough to shake the entire market.

People everywhere predicted that once the stock market reopened, Sony’s share price would inevitably experience a massive surge.

By nightfall, Japan’s major television networks were all providing in-depth coverage of the matter, tapping into national sentiment and pushing the wave of public opinion to an even greater peak.

The news reports not only reviewed the entire process of the Walkman from R&D to its market launch but also showed how it had changed the way people listened to music, becoming a perfect fusion of fashion and technology.

These reports not only informed more people about Sony’s product but also ignited their love and admiration for the Sony brand.

After watching the reports, many viewers expressed their intention to buy a Walkman to experience its unique musical charm.

After all, this was something truly worthy of their pride.

And so, the number of people discussing it grew even larger.

In a villa complex on the border of Central Ward and Chiyoda Ward, Lin Haoran sat on the sofa, watching the report on the television.

Although he couldn’t understand what the host was chattering on about, Yamada Keiko was by his side to translate for him.

“They’ve finally announced the sales figures, and with so much media coverage, it should create quite a buzz throughout Japanese society. I just wonder how high it will push the stock price,” Lin Haoran thought to himself as he listened to Yamada Keiko’s explanation.

He didn’t have very high expectations for Sony’s stock—just a small profit. The real prize was Toyota.

However, the advantage of Sony’s stock was the short timeline; he had only been building his position for ten days.

He just didn’t know how much money these ten days would earn him.

Lin Haoran was somewhat looking forward to Sony’s stock price tomorrow.

Today, he had already inquired with Mr. Kawai Yasuya, the general manager of Citibank’s Japan branch. Kawai had assured him that Sony’s earnings report, especially the global sales figures for the Walkman, had ignited a sense of national pride in many Japanese people.

As a financial tycoon with roots in Japan for nearly eighty years, Citibank naturally had very strong intelligence sources here, especially concerning a business giant like Sony.

Therefore, they were already well aware of this minor matter.

After learning this, Lin Haoran knew that Sony’s stock price would definitely skyrocket tomorrow.

Beside him, Yamada Keiko, dressed in a thin nightgown, snuggled against Lin Haoran, allowing his restless hands to roam freely.

After becoming Lin Haoran’s woman, perhaps as a way to express her gratitude, the girl had become very proactive in everything, never needing Lin Haoran to instruct her.

Especially now that her family’s debt crisis was temporarily resolved and her parents had been granted some breathing room, no longer hounded by creditors to the point of suicide, a genuine smile had returned to her face.

As for the remaining sixty million Japanese yen in debt, Yamada Keiko said they had over a year to raise the funds. Her parents had ample time and should be able to gather the money, so she wouldn’t trouble her Boss.

Lin Haoran didn’t give it much thought.

Whether it was forty million or sixty million Japanese yen, to him, it was an amount so small it couldn’t be smaller.

Of course, what satisfied Lin Haoran the most was that for a mere forty million Japanese yen, he had gained a subordinate with 100% loyalty, who even promised to pay him back.

Lin Haoran couldn’t care less whether she repaid it or not.

What he cared about was whether Yamada Keiko would create greater value for him.

If she could create greater value, he wouldn’t care about forty million Japanese yen, let alone four hundred million or even more.

Given Yamada Keiko’s own qualities, Lin Haoran believed that she would definitely be able to help him create more value in the future.

That alone was enough.

Soon, the night passed, and it was March 16th.

Today was Monday, a stock market trading day.

Lin Haoran slept in late, only getting out of bed when the clock on the wall showed it was already past nine in the morning.

Last night, tended to by Yamada Keiko, he hadn’t gone to sleep until after midnight.

Now, after waking up, he felt refreshed and full of energy.

Yamada Keiko was not in the room; she had clearly gone downstairs.

Just as Lin Haoran finished washing up, Yamada Keiko walked in from outside.

“Boss, you’re awake. I’ll have the maids prepare breakfast for you right away,” Yamada Keiko said.

“Mm, go ahead.”

After breakfast, Lin Haoran left the villa with Yamada Keiko and his bodyguards, heading straight for Hongkong Land Tower.

Meanwhile, at the Tokyo Stock Exchange and securities firms all over the country, the atmosphere was electric.

Today, the most-watched stock was undoubtedly Sony.

Yesterday, after Sony released its latest financial report, the company itself became a hot topic.

Consequently, many shareholders believed that Sony’s stock price was bound to surge.

Furthermore, Sony Corporation’s announcement of an upcoming new round of shareholder dividends made it an even more attractive target for speculation.

As soon as the market opened, Sony’s stock price began to climb continuously.

By the midday close, Sony’s stock had already risen by a full 18.6% compared to the previous trading day.

In the afternoon, Sony’s upward momentum didn’t stop. Driven by the shareholders’ enthusiasm, it continued to climb toward even higher prices.

In the office of the Galaxy Securities Department at Hongkong Land Tower, Lin Haoran had already visited several times today.

He wasn’t surprised by the rise in Sony’s stock price.

After all, he had known all along that this stock would go up.

However, he couldn’t possibly know exactly how much it would rise.

Moreover, over the past ten days, the Galaxy Securities Department had accumulated 28.5 billion Japanese yen worth of Sony stock. While not a huge amount, it already represented over two percent of Sony’s shares.

This meant that the amount of actively traded Sony stock on the market had decreased.

Under these circumstances, it would inevitably cause an abnormal fluctuation in Sony’s stock price, which would surely differ from the Sony stock price in the world of his previous life.

Time passed, drop by drop.

“Boss, should we sell now?” the head of the Galaxy Securities Department asked respectfully before the afternoon session began.

“No need. Just keep an eye on it,” Lin Haoran said with a shake of his head and a smile.

A rise today didn’t mean the price would fall tomorrow.

The Japanese stock market was currently in a bull market, so Sony’s stock price would most likely continue to rise tomorrow. However, after today’s explosive surge, tomorrow’s increase would be much smaller.

Holding over two percent of Sony’s shares, if he sold now, it might slow down the stock’s appreciation.

Therefore, the best method was to sell slowly and gradually recover the funds.

In the blink of an eye, it was three-thirty in the afternoon, the closing time for the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

In the end, Sony’s stock had risen by a full 36.6% compared to the previous trading day, which was quite a bit higher than the over 20% he remembered from his past life.

This, perhaps, was the chain reaction.

Because he had positioned himself in Sony ahead of time, the floating stock in the market was reduced, thus pushing the share price even higher.

“Boss, after our calculations, if we sell at the closing price, we can make a profit of 10.64 billion Japanese yen,” the department head reported excitedly after the market closed.

Chapter 530: An Apology from Kawai Yasuya

Most of the employees from the Galaxy Securities department who had accompanied Lin Haoran to Japan this time were veteran staff from the Universal Investment Company. The person in charge was even one of the company’s third-batch employees.

Thus, many of them had witnessed Lin Haoran’s brilliant achievements in the world of investment.

From earning a massive seventy million Hong Kong dollars with Kowloon Wharf at the very beginning to the low-investment, high-return success with Apple Inc., all these achievements made them firmly believe in their boss’s reputation as a “financial oracle” in the investment world.

Although their operation with Sony stock wasn’t the largest they had ever been a part of, his precise judgment and keen market intuition once again filled them with admiration for Lin Haoran.

Before this, no one had imagined that Sony’s stock price would skyrocket.

Most importantly, the media had fanned the flames, and even the state media had gotten involved.

Perhaps not even the senior executives at Sony had anticipated this.

They had already released the news beforehand to gauge the investors’ reactions.

But who would have thought the reaction would be so lukewarm, as if even high sales figures wouldn’t attract much attention?

After the official announcement, an increase of a few percentage points would have been considered a good outcome.

This was why, after their initial probing, not many people were targeting Sony’s stock.

But with the media’s assistance, the level of attention became shockingly high for everyone.

And today, after the market closed, the stock price had soared by a staggering 36.6%.

Such a result was terrifying.

One must remember that Sony’s market capitalization was already over one point three trillion Japanese yen. Now, in just a single day, its market capitalization had shot past one point eight trillion Japanese yen, temporarily surpassing another giant, Toyota Motor Corporation.

This was an absolute miracle.

At the beginning of the month, Toyota’s stock price had been affected by the US-Japan auto negotiations, falling from a peak market capitalization of over one point nine trillion Japanese yen to around one point six trillion before finally stabilizing.

Even so, Toyota’s market capitalization was among the top-ranked technology and manufacturing enterprises in Japan.

No one had ever expected Sony to surpass Toyota.

That a single earnings announcement could elevate Sony’s standing in Japan’s business world was something no one had foreseen.

This included Lin Haoran, who was also very surprised.

However, this was a good thing.

The more it rose, the more he earned!

Unfortunately, the time he had to position himself was too short.

If he had been given over a month to prepare, as he had with Toyota, he definitely could have earned a fortune from this opportunity.

However, Lin Haoran quickly came to terms with it. Money, after all, was something one could never finish earning.

He had only made a small profit from Sony, but he could still make a large one from Toyota.

Sony had always been one of his targets. Besides the stock accumulation of over twenty-eight billion Japanese yen, the Galaxy Securities department had also acquired a considerable amount before.

After all, by the year 2000, this company’s market capitalization would reach a terrifying 125 billion US dollars. Compared to its current scale of just a few billion US dollars, the potential for growth was immense.

However, Lin Haoran had other uses for his funds at the moment, so he planned to sell off the majority of his Sony stock first.

Recouping his funds to invest in more worthy places was what he needed to do.

On the Toyota front, Citibank had also sent good news. Their negotiations with one of the fund companies were in the final stages, and if all went well, the deal could be finalized within the next two days.

This was naturally good news as well. The fund companies and investment firms they were currently negotiating with generally held over 2% of Toyota’s shares.

Any fund company targeted by Citibank was certainly no small player.

And with its consistently rising annual performance, Toyota had always been a key investment for many fund companies.

So, this situation had, in an ironic twist, made it much more convenient for Citibank to acquire Toyota shares for Lin Haoran.

That evening, Lin Haoran received a call from Kawai Yasuya, the general manager of Citibank’s Japan branch company.

He was calling to apologize.

“Mr. Lin, I am so sorry for causing you such a great potential loss. I previously advised you against investing in Sony. Based on the research of industry experts, we believed that even after announcing its performance, Sony’s stock price would not see a significant increase.

“However, the actual situation far exceeded our expectations, and I was deeply surprised by it. In the financial sector, our judgments usually hold a certain reference value, but Sony’s sharp rise in stock price this time was truly an exception.

“We later learned that all mainstream media outlets received instructions from the government that day to give this extensive publicity, which led to the sudden surge in discussion about Sony stock, causing the price to soar.

“I am truly sorry that my advice caused you to miss this investment opportunity.” On the other end of the line, Kawai Yasuya’s voice was filled with sincere apology.

He had to make this call because he had indeed tried to persuade Lin Haoran against it.

Moreover, he had no idea that after his persuasion, Lin Haoran had turned around and ordered his subordinates to continue accumulating Sony stock.

Therefore, Citibank was unaware that Lin Haoran had been targeting Sony stock all along.

“It’s alright, Mr. Kawai, please don’t worry. I don’t blame you. As long as you handle the Toyota matter for me, I’ll be more than satisfied!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“I guarantee I will not disappoint you, Mr. Lin. I will deliver the best possible results for you!” Kawai Yasuya promised over the phone.

It was only now that Lin Haoran learned that the reason the global sales data for Sony’s Walkman portable cassette player had caused such a stir in Japan was actually at the behest of the Japanese government.

No wonder all the media outlets, including the state media, had reported on it so extensively.

It reminded him of something from his past life.

A certain AI was suddenly reported on heavily by the media, its exposure skyrocketing. Consequently, this AI became the pride of the nation, boosting national self-esteem.

Perhaps this was a similar situation?

After it became famous, the stock prices of listed companies related to this AI also rose significantly.

However, such a significant technological breakthrough in the country was indeed something the entire nation could be proud of.

Another day passed. As expected, although Sony’s stock price did not rise as sharply as the day before, it didn’t fall either. Instead, it rose another two points. Not much, but still good.

On the third day, the stock price rose another point.

At this point, Sony’s stock price had already risen by more than 40% compared to before the earnings announcement.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran knew that, barring any surprises, the growth should return to normal.

Thus, Lin Haoran directly instructed the staff at the Galaxy Securities department to begin slowly selling off their shares.

The stock, originally worth over twenty-eight billion Japanese yen, was now valued at more than forty point seven billion Japanese yen.

This meant that in just over ten days, an investment of seven hundred million Hong Kong dollars had earned him three hundred million Hong Kong dollars. While not a huge fortune, the rate of return was very high.

Over forty billion Japanese yen worth of stock was a large enough volume that selling it all at once would have a significant impact on the stock price.

But if it was sold off slowly over a few days, it wouldn’t be a problem at all. As long as Sony’s stock price didn’t fall, everything would be fine.

However, Lin Haoran wasn’t worried in the slightest, because Sony had not yet paid out its dividends.

He predicted that before the dividend payout, even if Sony’s stock price were to fall, it wouldn’t fall by much.

So, he could take his time selling it off. He was in no hurry.

Next was the time to recoup his funds.

Lin Haoran sat in his office, taking stock of his current financial situation, and the results were satisfying.

After allocating four billion Japanese yen to the Southland Corporation and spending over twenty-eight billion Japanese yen on this deal, he had very little available capital left.

Now, with tens of billions of Japanese yen finally flowing back in, he could breathe a sigh of relief.

He had no other sources of funding until the US-Japan auto negotiations concluded.

However, with the end of the negotiations in May drawing closer—only about forty days away—the tens of billions of yen he had would be more than enough.

In April, if Fok Kin-ning successfully won the bid for the Chowa Real Estate Company, he would need to pay a 10% deposit. If all went as expected, it would probably be over ten billion Japanese yen.

Subtracting that from the forty-plus billion Japanese yen, he would still have around thirty billion Japanese yen left to use, which was sufficient for the time being.

“Boss, it’s no wonder you’ve achieved such a high status at such a young age. Your foresight is something others simply can’t replicate,” said Keiko, who stood beside him, completely in awe.

He had predicted that Sony’s stock would soar, even when everyone else was pessimistic.

Most importantly, this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened.

“It was just luck. Honestly, I never expected Japan’s state media to personally step in to support Sony,” Lin Haoran said with a shake of his head and a smile.

He knew Sony’s stock would rise, but he didn’t know it would rise that much.

On March 20th, another piece of good news finally arrived from Citibank.

They had successfully negotiated with another fund company, acquiring a full 2.98% of Toyota’s shares from them. Moreover, the final agreed price was a full 2% lower than the market price.

With this, Citibank had secured a total of 8.45% of Toyota’s shares for Lin Haoran, bringing him just one step away from his original 10% target.

And 8.45% of the stock already made him Toyota’s fourth-largest shareholder.

If this news were to be made public, it would undoubtedly shock all of Japan.

Toyota was the pride of Japan. It had successfully broken into the European and American markets, driving Western auto brands into a steady retreat. It had become the world’s second-largest auto exporter, second only to Germany’s Volkswagen, and was now vying for the top spot.

However, misfortunes never come singly. No one could have predicted that just as Toyota was at its zenith, it would encounter the threat of US sanctions against Japanese cars.

Chapter 531: The Triumphant Advance of 7-Eleven Convenience Stores

Toyota’s fourth-largest shareholder?

This piece of news was delivered in a personal phone call from Kawai Yasuya, the general manager of Citibank’s Japan branch.

Lin Haoran put down the telephone receiver, an involuntary smile spreading across his face.

Toyota Motor Corporation. A behemoth in the automotive industry. At its peak, its market capitalization had reached over three hundred billion US dollars, hadn’t it?

Moreover, Toyota would remain a top contender well into the 2020s. In fact, in the era right before Lin Haoran’s transmigration, Toyota’s sales figures had consistently held the number one spot.

And now, he had somehow become the company’s fourth-largest shareholder, with the potential to hold even more shares later on.

Unfortunately, the money used to buy the stock wasn’t his.

This operation was purely for short-term profit.

He was short on cash right now and couldn’t afford to hold the shares for the long term.

Another thing that was a bit of a shame was that he could never acquire Toyota.

Although the company was publicly listed, it was considered a brand of national pride in Japan.

An acquisition would only be possible if the company faced a corporate crisis so severe it was on the brink of collapse.

Otherwise, neither Japan’s financial groups nor the Japanese government would ever allow him to purchase it.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had never entertained the idea of acquiring Toyota.

Right now, he was just hoping Citibank could get him as many Toyota shares as possible. The more, the better. The more he had, the more he could earn from this opportunity.

The massive surge in Sony’s stock price gave him immense confidence in what was to come for Toyota’s stock.

Furthermore, Lin Haoran already knew the final outcome of the US-Japan automotive trade negotiations. Such a major historical event was unlikely to change just because he had traveled through time.

Thus, a sharp rise in Toyota’s stock price was a certainty.

More than ten days passed in the blink of an eye.

It was now April.

Lin Haoran had been in Japan for two months.

Over the past ten-odd days, he had successfully sold off his Sony stock. The funds he recovered were slightly more than expected, totaling 41.3 billion Japanese yen.

Although Sony’s stock price would continue to rise slowly, and he wouldn’t have lost money by holding on, he was in dire need of cash at the moment. It was impossible for him to continue holding these shares.

Money had to be spent where it mattered most.

For example, he was currently planning the global expansion of 7-Eleven convenience stores, as well as the expansion of his real estate and other businesses in Japan, all of which required capital.

There were too many ways to make money; he had to manage the pace and direction of his spending carefully. Sometimes, you had to let go of something to gain something greater in return.

Nearly a month had passed since he took over the Southland Corporation. With his investment and full support, the expansion speed of 7-Eleven convenience stores had indeed accelerated significantly.

In the Japanese market alone, over the past month, the number of new franchise agreements signed and company-owned stores that had secured locations and were under renovation reached a staggering three hundred eighty-two. Adding that to the existing one thousand one hundred thirty-five stores, once all these new locations opened, the total number of 7-Eleven stores in Japan would exceed one thousand five hundred.

This figure had already put them firmly ahead of competing brands like FamilyMart, C-Store, and Lawson. While these brands were also expanding rapidly in Japan, they each currently had only a few hundred chain stores.

It was safe to say that 7-Eleven now held a commanding lead in Japan.

A year ago, increasing the store count by that much in a single month would have been impossible.

In the entirety of last year, 7-Eleven had only added a little over three hundred new stores in Japan.

Now, in less than a month, the growth had already surpassed that of the entire previous year.

This was the remarkable result of a large injection of capital combined with an optimized franchising policy.

As a transmigrator, Lin Haoran wasn’t an expert in corporate management.

However, he knew very well that in the retail industry, scale and speed were two of the key factors that determined victory.

Right now, his goal was to have 7-Eleven rapidly dominate the market.

The old model of slow and steady development was clearly no longer suitable.

If he moved too slowly, his competitors would catch up.

This industry was not a monopoly; it was one that was very easy to replicate.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t be so many convenience store brands.

Of course, 7-Eleven had its own unique advantages.

As one of the longest-running convenience store chains in the world, 7-Eleven possessed the most refined business model and the most impressive logistics system—strengths that other brands found difficult to imitate and surpass.

Under Lin Haoran’s support and guidance, the well-funded 7-Eleven was not only advancing triumphantly in its home market of Japan but was also performing exceptionally well in international markets.

In Hong Kong, for example, after striking a partnership with Dairy Farm International in early March, 7-Eleven stores began appearing in Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok, and Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon, as well as Central, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, and Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island, all within a month. The total number of stores, both operational and under renovation, had already reached thirteen.

The Hongkong Land Group itself owned a vast amount of property in Hong Kong, so handing over prime commercial spaces to Dairy Farm International to operate as 7-Eleven stores was an exceedingly simple matter.

After a standardized renovation, the stores could quickly become operational under the 7-Eleven logistics system.

Therefore, Dairy Farm International’s goal of setting up fifty 7-Eleven stores in Hong Kong’s city center within a year was not difficult at all.

Moreover, the convenience store model was still a novelty in Hong Kong. Boosted by promotion from media outlets like TVB and the Oriental Daily News, 7-Eleven quickly became a sensation in the city.

After a period of operation, while the initial hype for 7-Eleven gradually subsided, it successfully found its target customer base, with many office workers becoming regular patrons.

Additionally, Lin Haoran had specifically called Ma Shimin to tell him that for a business like convenience stores, it was best to seize the market as quickly as possible, especially in a place like Hong Kong.

Otherwise, other brands, upon seeing the profitability of convenience stores, would also follow suit and enter the Hong Kong market.

In fact, his intelligence indicated that Lawson was already in contact with local Hong Kong enterprises, hoping to find a partner to bring the Lawson brand into the city.

So, when it came to the market, if you didn’t conquer it first, another brand would.

In the initial stages, you couldn’t even think about making a profit.

Besides Hong Kong, 7-Eleven had officially entered several Southeast Asian markets through Dairy Farm International’s channels. The brand’s presence was already beginning to be felt in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand.

Dairy Farm International already had its own sales channels in these regions, and with the support of the Guo family, extending 7-Eleven’s coverage was not very difficult.

But that wasn’t all. Southland Corporation, 7-Eleven’s parent company, had already set its sights beyond the Asia-Pacific region to the distant continent of Europe.

In mid-March, Southland Corporation established its European branch company directly in London, Britain. In the future, 7-Eleven stores would gradually appear in major European cities.

Furthermore, several major cities in Australia had also become targets for the Southland Corporation.

With sufficient funding, 7-Eleven was no longer expanding at a sluggish pace as it had before.

…

“Boss, the rules for the auction of Chowa Real Estate Company have been released. It’s scheduled for three in the afternoon next Friday. Are you really not going to attend?” In an office in the Hongkong Land Tower, Fok Kin-ning asked Lin Haoran with a smile.

After a period of publicity, the auction date for Chowa Real Estate Company was finally set for the afternoon of April 10th.

If the Hongkong Land Group could acquire Chowa Real Estate Company, it would certainly be beneficial to its strategic layout in Japan.

During this time, Lin Haoran had reviewed more detailed information about Chowa Real Estate Company, including where their property developments were located in Japan. He had even gone to inspect them himself.

The undeveloped land and the developments where construction had been halted were all in excellent locations.

Therefore, even Lin Haoran was taking this very seriously. He was quite hopeful that the Hongkong Land Group would be able to acquire Chowa Real Estate.

After discussing it with Fok Kin-ning, he had already decided that they would acquire Chowa Real Estate’s assets even if the final auction price reached 150 billion Japanese yen.

Because such a good opportunity was rare.

Although Japan’s property market was currently mediocre, prices had not collapsed; on the contrary, they were still rising slowly. While sales volume was average, most real estate companies were not at risk of bankruptcy. Only companies like Chowa Real Estate, which had expanded blindly, faced the risk of a broken capital chain.

For this very reason, the chance to encounter another real estate company like Chowa Real Estate being auctioned was a rare opportunity that was hard to come by.

Therefore, Lin Haoran advocated for striving to win it.

Of course, if the price became absurdly high, exceeding the market value, they would stop bidding.

There would be no need to continue.

If they had to pay more than the market price to win the auction, he would be better off targeting a higher-quality listed real estate company and initiating a covert acquisition. Why bother buying Chowa Real Estate Company?

So, the absolute upper limit for bidding on this company was one hundred fifty billion Japanese yen.

However, based on their judgment of the Japanese real estate market, their probability of successfully acquiring the company was over ninety percent.

Therefore, both Lin Haoran and Fok Kin-ning were full of confidence about the auction for Chowa Real Estate Company.

“Forget it, I won’t get involved. I feel at ease with you going,” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

“I’ve learned from the auction organizers that the starting bid for this auction is set at one hundred billion Japanese yen. There are a total of seven financial groups or companies participating in the bidding, so the competition will be quite fierce. It’s still uncertain whether we can successfully acquire it for one hundred thirty billion Japanese yen.

“Furthermore, the payment rules are largely consistent with what I understood before. Participating companies must pay a registration fee of one billion Japanese yen, which will be refunded if the bid is unsuccessful.

“Once the bid is successful, ten percent of the winning bid amount must be paid within one week. As for the remaining balance, just as I anticipated, they have given a one-year period to raise the funds.

“After all, this is a massive sum of over one hundred billion Japanese yen. Even for a top-tier company, it would be difficult to raise such an amount in a short time,” Fok Kin-ning added.

Lin Haoran nodded. That was for the best.

Although his plan for the Japanese real estate industry was a long-term one, attempting to grow slowly and organically was certainly not a viable method.

After all, no matter how long the plan was, the overall property prices in Japan were currently rising, albeit slowly.

Chapter 532: The Secret in the Safe

On April 4th, another piece of good news came from Citibank.

They had successfully concluded negotiations with another investment firm, acquiring 1.66% of Toyota Motor Corporation’s shares.

With this, the Toyota shares controlled by Lin Haoran now exceeded 10%, reaching 10.11%.

According to the shareholder information disclosed by Toyota Motor Corporation, this share percentage officially made him the Third-largest shareholder, only 0.38% away from the second-largest.

Citibank had also fulfilled its minimum acquisition target.

Because Citibank had conducted all its negotiations with these fund and investment companies in secret, even though some people were aware that Citibank was increasing its holdings in Toyota, no one knew exactly how many shares it now held.

Coupled with Citibank’s usual investment practices, nobody was aware that its holdings had already surpassed 10%.

Moreover, since Citibank had not joined Toyota’s Board of Directors, there was no need to publicly disclose its shareholding information at all.

Under normal circumstances, a shareholder holding a certain percentage of shares would proactively disclose it to maximize their interests.

However, Lin Haoran was the true owner of these shares, and he had no intention of making it public. Therefore, no one knew that Toyota’s shareholding structure had undergone such a massive change.

Time flew by, and the day of the auction soon arrived.

Lin Haoran arrived at Hongkong Land Tower in the afternoon and sat in his office, waiting for news from Fok Kin-ning.

This deal involved over one hundred billion Japanese yen and was a crucial part of Hongkong Land Group’s future layout in Japan. Therefore, no matter how hands-off Lin Haoran usually was, he took this matter very seriously.

Time ticked by, and it wasn’t until nearly five in the afternoon that Fok Kin-ning finally hurried back.

A broad smile was spread across his face.

Without Fok Kin-ning having to say a word, Lin Haoran already guessed that he had good news.

As expected, they had won Chowa Real Estate Company.

Sure enough, the moment Fok Kin-ning stepped into Lin Haoran’s office, he eagerly reported, “Boss, the auction process was much smoother than we expected. Although seven companies participated in the bidding, the prices they ultimately offered weren’t that high.

“It seems that the financial groups and companies participating were all hoping to snag a bargain, and not a single one was genuinely interested in acquiring Chowa Real Estate Company.

“As a result, our winning bid was locked in at 129.8 billion Japanese yen. After that, no other company bid against us. This price is about thirteen percent lower than the market value!

“From today onward, the local Japanese real estate enterprise, Chowa Real Estate Company, will be officially merged into Hongkong Land Group—and it’s an asset-only merger, so their liabilities are not our concern!”

Fok Kin-ning’s voice was filled with excitement.

By acquiring the assets of Chowa Real Estate Company, Hongkong Land Group was no longer just a property company with only four plots of land in Japan, but a major Japanese real estate enterprise with multiple development projects under construction.

More importantly, most of Chowa Real Estate Company’s employees would also become part of Hongkong Land Group.

Aside from a few employees who chose to leave, the majority were currently awaiting proper placement by the government.

The real estate industry was currently sluggish, and Chowa Real Estate Company had several thousand employees, including construction workers, civil engineers, structural engineers, plumbing and electrical engineers, and landscaping engineers. It was a very complete workforce.

Even if they left, many would find it difficult to quickly find a satisfactory new job.

This was undoubtedly a great convenience for Hongkong Land Group. To them, this was a valuable human resource that would be of immense benefit to their development.

After all, Hongkong Land Group’s real estate business still lacked a deep foundation in Japan.

If it wanted to grow, human resources were an indispensable element.

Hiring an entirely new team would not only be time-consuming and labor-intensive but also quite difficult.

Now, having directly inherited the majority of the workforce from a large real estate company like Chowa, Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch was saved a great deal of effort.

Chowa Real Estate Company’s employee structure was quite comprehensive, which meant that after the acquisition, Hongkong Land Group could continue its operations seamlessly.

“Well done. You didn’t disappoint me!” Lin Haoran was also very pleased to hear the news.

He couldn’t begin to imagine the multiple-fold returns this investment of over one hundred billion Japanese yen would bring him when the economic bubble arrived.

That evening, after leaving Hongkong Land Tower, Lin Haoran returned home.

He walked into the study on the fifth floor and took a small notebook out of a safe.

This notebook contained his ten-year plan for Hongkong Land Group!

It was a plan he had gradually perfected after consulting with several financial professionals.

Lin Haoran had not revealed this to anyone; it was his secret. Not even Yamada Keiko knew about it.

Fok Kin-ning only knew about the initial stage of the plan. As for the subsequent stages, Lin Haoran would tell him when the time was right.

After all, as the leader of Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch, Fok Kin-ning couldn’t be kept completely in the dark. The development of Hongkong Land still relied on him.

Initially, Fok Kin-ning had raised objections.

Such a plan was too risky. As an accountant by training, Fok Kin-ning knew very well what severe consequences would follow if Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch developed in this way and its capital chain were to break.

However, Lin Haoran eventually convinced him, and Fok Kin-ning chose to trust the boss whom he considered his benefactor.

Simply put, this plan was divided into three steps!

Phase One: Laying the Foundation.

Phase Two: The Bubble Frenzy.

Phase Three: The Great Escape!

He wanted to learn from the methods of tycoons from his previous life, like Li Jiacheng and a certain property magnate, adopting their good ideas while discarding their pitfalls.

During periods when the property market was flat or even in crisis, he would hold tightly onto plots of land and property developments.

Once real estate prices surged, he would then sell off these assets one by one, thereby achieving massive capital appreciation.

Patience and foresight were key in real estate investment. Since he knew that Japan would experience an economic bubble in the near future and that real estate would see savage growth, he naturally wouldn’t build and sell properties now.

Therefore, before the economic bubble, Lin Haoran had no intention of selling properties. Instead, he would hold and rent!

Of course, this had a significant drawback: during this period, it would be all investment, and the speed of capital return would be too slow. It was impossible to make a huge profit relying solely on collecting rent.

Other companies would never dare to do this. No matter how strong their cash flow, they could never be certain when property prices would surge.

But Lin Haoran was different. He knew very well that Japan’s economic bubble period would begin in 1985, peak in 1989, and begin to burst in the early 1990s.

It was now 1981, only four years until the start of the economic bubble. Many property projects took three to four years to build.

Therefore, this was not a long time for Lin Haoran.

He just needed to patiently continue expanding his company’s real estate portfolio in Japan.

Of course, relying solely on his own funds would obviously make it difficult to grow faster. To that end, he had already formulated a detailed plan.

From 1981 to 1985 would be the stage of laying the foundation!

During this period, he would hoard massive amounts of land!

Right now, the average price of commercial land in Tokyo was only 500,000 Japanese yen per square meter, but by 1990, the peak would reach a terrifying 36.5 million Japanese yen per square meter. Therefore, he needed to hoard a large amount of land before the bubble arrived. As for development? That could come slowly!

As for capital, relying solely on his own funds for investment was clearly too slow. The best method was to cooperate with banks, using a land-for-loan model. By mortgaging land to borrow from banks, then using the loan to purchase new land, which he would then mortgage again, he could create a cycle that would expand his asset scale by five to eight times his own investment within three years.

For example, if he had originally invested one trillion Japanese yen in the Japanese real estate industry, after such operations, his capital could reach a scale of five trillion Japanese yen or even more.

All of this required cooperation with Japan’s political and business circles. On the political side, he would, for example, sponsor pro-construction Members of Parliament from the Liberal Democratic Party to gain advance knowledge of policy trends such as the “Capital Redevelopment Plan” and the “Comprehensive Regional Development and Maintenance Act.”

This would allow him to understand the direction of Tokyo’s urban development, enabling him to purchase the most suitable plots of land and reap the highest profits.

On the business side, he naturally needed to build good relationships with banks, such as Citibank. In addition, he needed to establish primary banking relationships with local institutions like Sumitomo Trust and the Industrial Bank of Japan to secure special credit lines that would value land at 20% or more above its appraised value.

With this, his funding would no longer be a problem.

To expand rapidly, it was impossible to rely solely on one’s own capital.

He had to learn from the likes of the Carrian Group and other major conglomerates.

Simply put, he had to expand by any means necessary!

Of course, he was different from a company like the Carrian Group. He wasn’t worried about his capital chain breaking. His assets in Hong Kong were his greatest resources and confidence.

As long as he could hold out until the bubble period, none of this would be an issue.

The second phase, from 1985 to 1989, was the bubble frenzy!

During this stage, he would use capital to attract more funds to the Japan branch. At the same time, he would begin to use Japanese funds for cross-border capital arbitrage, such as acquiring the Rockefeller Center in New York!

The third phase: The Great Escape!

Finally, before the bubble came to an end, he would begin asset liquidation, such as gradually transferring his real estate assets to obtain large amounts of cash, thereby cashing out.

For assets that were difficult to sell, he would use other methods, such as injecting them into Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group.

Ultimately, through this series of maneuvers, Lin Haoran planned to earn a return of at least several dozen times his investment in Japan.

Chapter 533: Toyota Motor’s Largest Shareholder

In April, Citibank continued its protracted negotiations with several fund companies and investment firms.

Ten percent of Toyota Motor’s shares was not Lin Haoran’s ultimate goal, nor was it Citibank’s highest target.

Among the many business tycoons, Lin Haoran’s debt ratio was by far the lowest.

Because of this, Citibank believed Lin Haoran had the capability not just to acquire a portion of Toyota Motor’s shares, but even to launch a full takeover of the company.

Therefore, Citibank was not at all worried that Lin Haoran would ultimately be unable to pay.

Naturally, the larger the deal, the better.

On April 15th, another piece of news came from the United States.

For the Japanese market, this was unequivocally bad news.

The US-Japan auto trade negotiations, which had been ongoing for over a month, had failed to make any substantial progress, as neither side was willing to compromise.

This stalemate had garnered widespread attention from the global auto industry for over a month. For companies seeking to expand their influence in the US and Japanese markets, any final outcome of the negotiations would undoubtedly have a profound impact on their future strategies.

Then, at three o’clock in the afternoon on the 15th, US local time, the Speaker of the US Congress held a press conference.

At the conference, the Speaker emphasized that Japanese cars had seriously disrupted the American auto market. He pointed out that Japan’s car exports to the United States far exceeded US exports to Japan, creating a trade imbalance that had led to a sharp decline in American auto production and massive job losses.

The Speaker called on the US government to take tougher measures, including but not limited to raising tariffs and setting import quotas, to protect domestic automakers from the harm of unfair competition.

If Japan did not voluntarily limit its car exports to the United States, then America would pass legislation to forcibly restrict Japanese car imports!

As soon as this news broke, it once again sent a wave of panic through the Japanese auto industry.

The stock prices of Japanese car companies like Toyota, Honda, and Nissan, which had been stable, began to fall again. Although the broader market didn’t drop significantly, the matter had already become a deeply-held worry for many shareholders.

In contrast, the stock prices of major American car companies such as Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler all soared.

This press conference by the US Congress was clearly a move related to the US-Japan auto trade negotiations.

With the talks at a standstill, they obviously couldn’t let the situation continue, so now they had resorted to direct threats against Japan.

At this moment, Japanese shareholders held an even more pessimistic view of the future of their domestic car brands.

Originally, some had held onto the hope that because of Japan’s good relationship with the United States, the final outcome might not be as severe as imagined.

But now, with the US Congress issuing direct threats, how good could the consequences possibly be?

The fund companies and investment firms that had sold their Toyota shares early on were now breathing a deep sigh of relief.

On the other hand, the few fund and investment firms that had been dragging out negotiations with Citibank were now in a panic.

They all proactively contacted Citibank, hoping to resume discussions, afraid that if they delayed, Citibank would no longer be a buyer.

This, of course, also gave Citibank leverage, and they began to push the price down.

These fund and investment firms dared not sell their holdings on the secondary market.

During this period, for the stocks of Japan’s major car companies, there were far more sell orders than buy orders.

If these companies tried to sell on the market, they might not be able to offload their shares smoothly unless they set an even lower price.

But doing so would quickly drag down the company’s stock price.

This was completely different in nature from when Lin Haoran had the employees of Galaxy Securities’ Securities Department sell off Sony shares.

Sony’s stock price, buoyed by various positive news, had high trading volumes and was rising steadily. Therefore, even selling off tens of billions of yen worth of stock would have no impact on the price, as long as it wasn’t all dumped in a day or two.

In contrast, with Japan’s major auto brands now under the shadow of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations, shareholders were afraid to buy, fearing they would be left holding the bag.

It was fortunate that there weren’t any shareholders selling off at low prices at all costs; otherwise, there was no telling how far the stock prices of these Japanese car companies would have plummeted.

Therefore, it was extremely difficult for these fund companies to sell through the stock market.

“Mr. Lin, are you sure you want to continue acquiring Toyota shares? It’s not too late to stop now. You must be aware of the news from the United States, and I believe you can imagine the consequences.

If you wish to halt the acquisition, I will have Citibank’s negotiation team immediately stop the talks with those fund or investment firms.

But if you still wish to continue, I will use this opportunity to try and negotiate a lower price for you!” As the fund and investment firms were all proactively contacting Citibank, Citibank’s general manager, Kawai Yasuya, called Lin Haoran to inquire.

“Continue acquiring. The more shares, the better! Of course, with such a good opportunity, I do hope Citibank can negotiate a more satisfactory price for me. The previous deals, while slightly below market price, weren’t actually that much lower, as you know!” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

For him, the press conference by the Speaker of the US House was practically an assist.

Since settling the last deal with a fund company, there had been no real good news from Citibank. Although they were in talks with a few firms, the prices they offered didn’t satisfy Lin Haoran. These companies wanted to trade at or above market price, which Lin Haoran naturally refused.

Originally, Lin Haoran had thought he would ultimately have to buy these shares at a higher price, but he never expected such a surprising turn of events.

Excellent. This was simply excellent.

The actions of these fund companies revealed just how desperate they were.

“Rest assured, Mr. Lin. I will do my utmost to secure the most favorable price for you,” Kawai Yasuya promised confidently over the phone.

With Lin Haoran’s clear instructions, he now had a solid footing and knew how to maneuver in the talks with those fund and investment firms.

“By the way, Mr. Kawai, I’d like to know the total number of shares held by the fund and investment firms that have proactively contacted Citibank to sell their Toyota shares?” Lin Haoran asked after a moment of thought.

At a time like this, those who made proactive contact would, barring any surprises, most likely close the deal.

He wasn’t sure if more would follow, but knowing this figure would give him a baseline for how many Toyota shares he could ultimately control.

“Mr. Lin, it has been over a dozen hours since the announcement from the US. During this time, a total of three fund companies and one investment firm have contacted us. These four companies hold a combined 7.96% of Toyota Motor’s shares,” Kawai Yasuya quickly provided the specific figures.

“Good. I’ll leave it to you, then. I look forward to your good news!”

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but smile.

Previously, Citibank had already secured 10.11% of Toyota’s shares for him.

And now, the companies that had proactively contacted Citibank to sell their shares held a combined 7.96% stake.

This meant that if Citibank successfully acquired the shares from these four companies, Lin Haoran’s stake in Toyota Motor would reach a staggering 18.07%!

Lin Haoran knew very well what this percentage of shares represented.

After placing the telephone receiver back on the cradle, Lin Haoran took a file from his desk drawer and flipped to a page in the middle.

Listed on it were Toyota Motor’s current major shareholders.

The fund companies, investment firms, and others that had been negotiating with Citibank during this period were all on this list.

The largest shareholder was the Toyoda family, the founding family of Toyota Motor, which currently held 15.32% of the shares.

The second-largest shareholder was controlled by the Mitsui family, which held 10.49% of Toyota’s shares. The Mitsui family was one of the top three financial magnate families in Japan, possessing immense power.

To Lin Haoran, these figures were extraordinarily significant.

They meant that once Citibank successfully acquired the Toyota shares from those four fund and investment firms for him, he would leapfrog to become Toyota Motor’s largest shareholder.

With extremely strict confidentiality measures, known only to a very select few within Citibank, Lin Haoran was about to quietly become the largest shareholder of Toyota Motor—the national brand of which the Japanese people were so proud.

Once this matter came to light, it would surely cause a massive uproar throughout Japan and shock the entire world.

However, Lin Haoran had no intention of letting this news leak.

He was well aware of his objective; this entire maneuver with Toyota was purely to make a quick buck.

In other words, he was only holding these shares temporarily and had no real intention of acquiring Toyota Motor.

Moreover, he was also keenly aware that even if he became a major shareholder, he wouldn’t be able to control the Toyota corporation. The other shareholders would band together to oppose him, giving him no opportunity whatsoever. Even the Japanese government would absolutely intervene to block his acquisition.

He still had other plans to execute in Japan before the economic bubble burst. He certainly wouldn’t offend the entire country from top to bottom; the gains would not be worth the losses.

Therefore, he had no intention of getting involved in this complex conflict and felt it was unnecessary to take the risk.

For him, keeping a low profile and steadily profiting from the eventual surge in Toyota’s stock price was enough.

Chapter 534: The News Leaks, Let Citibank Take the Heat!

Once Citibank confirmed that Lin Haoran wanted to continue acquiring Toyota shares, they resumed negotiations with the four companies.

On the afternoon of the day after his call with Lin Haoran, Citibank delivered some great news.

The first fund company finally relented, selling their entire 2.42% stake in Toyota at a price 5% below market value.

On the evening of the fourth day, an investment company also caved, selling its entire 1.62% stake in Toyota, also at a 5% discount to the market price.

On the fifth and eighth days, the remaining two fund companies finally gave in as well, each selling all the shares their companies held.

With this, Lin Haoran’s holdings increased by a total of 7.96%, bringing his actual stake in Toyota to 18.07% and truly making him the company’s largest shareholder.

For this acquisition, Citibank had spent a total of 289.46 billion Japanese yen, which converted to around 7.2 billion Hong Kong dollars.

This was undoubtedly the company he had invested the most acquisition capital in over the past two or three years.

Even when he acquired Hongkong Land Group, the funds Lin Haoran spent had not reached such a scale.

In fact, during the process of acquiring Hongkong Land, his personal direct investment was less than five billion; the rest, naturally, was acquired by getting something for nothing.

Seven point two billion Hong Kong dollars, only to secure less than 20% of the shares—it was a testament to just how high Toyota’s market capitalization was.

Yet, the price Lin Haoran paid was already significantly lower than the market price.

When Lin Haoran first began his move on Toyota, its total market capitalization was as high as 1.686 trillion Japanese yen, which would be about 42.1 billion Hong Kong dollars. A market cap of that size was already equivalent to two HSBCs.

Now, after more than a month, Toyota’s stock price had fallen considerably, especially after the speech given by the US Speaker of the House on April 15th, which caused it to drop even further.

Although the stock price occasionally recovered under the manipulation of Japan’s financial groups, it was now only around 1.633 trillion Japanese yen, a drop of more than fifty billion yen compared to a month ago.

“Mr. Lin, we did not disappoint. Citibank has finally secured all the shares from those companies,” Kawai Yasuya said with a smile to Lin Haoran, who was visiting the Citibank Japan headquarters today.

“That’s precisely why I came here today. Citibank has truly proven to be my best partner, and you haven’t let me down. This has been a very pleasant collaboration. I was wondering, are there any other acquisition targets available?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, you’re already Toyota’s largest shareholder. Are you still not satisfied? Don’t tell me you’re actually planning on acquiring the entire company?” At that moment, Kawai Yasuya was once again shocked.

Originally, he had thought that after securing this 18.07% stake, Lin Haoran would be satisfied, and Citibank would have successfully completed its mission.

He never expected that his client was still not content.

“Of course not. I’m simply optimistic about Toyota’s future. I have no intention of launching a takeover. I just want to use this opportunity, while Toyota’s stock price isn’t too high, to increase my holdings as much as possible,” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

Although Kawai Yasuya was the general manager of Citibank’s Japan branch, he was also Japanese and naturally understood Toyota’s stature in Japan.

If Lin Haoran tried to acquire Toyota, he would most likely fail.

But Lin Haoran’s insatiable ambition truly shocked him.

After a moment of thought, he shook his head and said, “Mr. Lin, to be honest with you, the fund and investment companies willing to sell have basically all sold. You have Toyota’s shareholder register; you should know that we have now acquired holdings from nearly a third of the major shareholders on that list. There are a few other fund companies that have no intention of selling. Besides them, the remaining shareholders are either major financial groups or powerful magnate families. There’s no way they would sell.”

“In that case, let’s forget about it. However, I’d like Citibank to continue accumulating shares for me on the stock market. Without driving up the price, I’d like my holdings in Toyota to reach 20% before May. That’s not too much to ask, is it?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Citibank had already acquired an 18.07% stake for him. The gap to 20% was merely 1.93%. With many pending sell orders and few buy orders on the secondary market, increasing his shareholding by that amount would be incredibly easy.

“Twenty percent?” Kawai Yasuya mumbled, repeating the number.

“That’s right. Once it reaches 20%, I’ll stop increasing my holdings. My goal will have been achieved,” Lin Haoran said with a confident smile.

He knew very well how Toyota would develop in the future; there was no need to worry.

Therefore, as far as Lin Haoran was concerned, the more shares of Toyota he held, the better.

However, considering various factors, he ultimately set his maximum target at 20%.

Now that there were no more fund companies to negotiate with, Lin Haoran naturally turned his attention from these companies to the secondary market.

Today was already April 23rd, just a week away from May.

There wasn’t much time left for his plan.

Since there was still a little time, he might as well put it to good use and continue to increase his stake in Toyota through the secondary market.

Initially, when Lin Haoran had discussed this deal with Citibank, he had even considered completing the entire acquisition through the secondary market.

Fortunately, Citibank’s network in Japan had not disappointed him. They had managed to increase his holdings by acquiring shares from fund and investment companies, all without affecting Toyota’s stock price.

Kawai Yasuya thought for a moment and finally agreed to Lin Haoran’s request.

There wasn’t much difference between an 18.07% stake and a 20% stake. Since the client had made the request, there was no reason to refuse.

“Alright, Mr. Lin. I will ensure our team gets your shareholding to 20% before May!” Kawai Yasuya said solemnly.

“I’ll have to trouble your company, then!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

His decision to build a good relationship with Citibank back then had been an exceptionally wise one.

Without Citibank’s help, his plans in the United States and Japan would not have proceeded so smoothly.

After chatting with Kawai Yasuya for nearly half an hour, Lin Haoran took his leave.

Originally, Lin Haoran thought he would just have to wait smoothly until May to reap his rewards.

But the day after he left Citibank’s Japan headquarters, Lin Haoran received some bad news.

As the saying goes, paper can’t wrap up fire.

No matter how confidential Citibank tried to be, they couldn’t stop the fund companies that had sold their shares from leaking the information.

Toyota’s senior executives eventually found out about Citibank’s frenzied acquisition of Toyota shares over the past month.

Upon learning of this, Toyota’s top brass was shaken. They quickly contacted their major public shareholders one by one.

They ultimately discovered that eight fund companies, private equity firms, and investment companies had already sold their shares to Citibank.

And the total shares involved amounted to a staggering 18.07%!

Did that mean Citibank had secretly become Toyota’s largest shareholder?

An inquiry call soon reached Kawai Yasuya’s office.

Hearing their questions, a wry smile appeared on Kawai Yasuya’s face.

In the contract Lin Haoran had signed with Citibank, it was stipulated that Citibank must keep the matter confidential.

But now, the paper had failed to contain the fire, and the news had gotten out.

On one hand, he couldn’t disclose a client’s private information; on the other, this was a mess Citibank couldn’t take the fall for.

The matter was of great significance, far beyond what he, a mere general manager of a branch company, could decide on his own.

He quickly called Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank, and explained the leak in full detail.

After some thought, Walter Wriston said directly, “Discuss this matter with Mr. Lin. Unless it’s absolutely necessary, you cannot reveal Mr. Lin’s identity. Otherwise, our future cooperation with Mr. Lin will be severely impacted, and our credibility will suffer as well. Do you understand what I mean?”

Kawai Yasuya immediately replied, “Yes, Mr. Walter, I understand. I will communicate with Mr. Lin as soon as possible to see his thoughts on this matter.”

After hanging up, Kawai Yasuya immediately contacted Lin Haoran. He told him that Toyota’s senior executives already knew about Citibank’s acquisition of shares and that Citibank was now under pressure from several Japanese financial groups.

After listening, Lin Haoran fell silent for a moment, then said, “This is indeed a bit tricky, Mr. Kawai. How about this: you help me keep this under wraps for now. It won’t be for long—one week will be enough. How does that sound? After one week, you can reveal that I am the person behind the scenes!”

In the multiple rounds of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations, the two sides had disagreed.

In the end, it concluded with Japan proactively making concessions and the United States also making appropriate concessions. The final agreement was to be announced on May 1st.

Now, there were only six days left.

Therefore, having Citibank keep his secret for one week was more than enough time.

Once the final negotiation results were announced, he could begin to slowly sell off his shares.

At that point, what would it matter if the financial groups behind Toyota found out that he was the person behind the scenes?

For now, it wasn’t suitable to make it public. He didn’t want his own affairs to cause Toyota’s stock price to deviate from its expected trajectory.

At this moment, maintaining a low profile was the most important thing.

In any case, he had a heavyweight like Citibank taking the heat up front.

Chapter 535: Authorized by the US Government?

Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

This was the headquarters of Toyota Motor Corporation.

In a conference room within the headquarters’ office building, over a dozen senior executives of Toyota were currently seated. Among them were representatives from the Mitsui Group, the Mitsubishi Group, Kawano Securities, and other financial corporations.

Toyota’s ownership structure was quite complex. Basically, all of Japan’s major banking groups and financial magnates held shares in the company.

The Mitsui Group, in particular, harbored ambitions of controlling Toyota Motor Corporation, and their stake had been increasing year by year.

In contrast, the founding Toyoda family, while still the largest shareholder on paper, had seen their equity decline annually due to various financing rounds. It was becoming clear they would not hold onto their position as the largest shareholder for much longer.

Of course, even if they lost their position as the largest shareholder, the Toyoda family would remain the actual controllers of Toyota. Their voting rights on the Board of Directors far exceeded their actual controlling stake.

Therefore, the Toyoda family had never been overly concerned about whether they could continue as Toyota’s largest shareholder.

However, just as everyone assumed that the Mitsui Group would replace the Toyoda family as Toyota’s largest shareholder within a few years, a piece of news arrived that sent shockwaves through the entire senior management.

Citibank had become a major shareholder of Toyota Motor Corporation!

In fact, Toyota did have some American shareholders, all of them renowned financial groups like the Morgan Group and the State Street Group.

However, the shares these American groups held were not significant—at most, only one or two percent.

As for Citibank, it had never held any Toyota shares before.

While Citibank’s influence in Japan was not on par with local banks like the Bank of Mitsubishi, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Sumitomo Bank, or Mitsui Bank, as one of the four major financial groups in the United States and one of the largest banks in the world, it had always been a force to be reckoned with in Japan.

As a foreign entity, Citibank had a history of nearly eighty years in Japan and had long since established a solid foundation. Consequently, even powerful groups like Mitsui did not dare to easily offend Citibank, unless they had no intention of expanding their business beyond Japan.

And yet, this foreign bank, which had previously had no relationship with Toyota Motor Corporation, was suddenly rumored to be attempting a takeover of Toyota?

This news truly shocked Toyota’s senior executives, who also knew that handling this matter would be extremely difficult.

“Gentlemen, I have personally called Mr. Kawai of Citibank multiple times to inquire about the specific purpose of their acquisition of Toyota shares, but I have yet to receive a clear answer.

They only stated that Citibank has no intention of acquiring the entire company. As for the specific reason for their shareholding, they said it was inconvenient to disclose as it involved corporate business intelligence.

I even tried to understand the situation indirectly by approaching Citibank’s Chairman, Walter Wriston, through the Morgan Group, but I failed to get a direct response there either. This matter is no small affair; it could have a profound impact on the future landscape of Toyota.

Clearly, this series of actions by Citibank is by no means a simple financial investment. We must stand firmly united and discuss a counter-strategy together to see how we can resolve this problem,” said Toyota Eiichi, the president of Toyota, his expression grave.

After speaking, he looked around at everyone present, hoping someone would propose an effective solution.

The US-Japan auto trade negotiations were still ongoing, and the fate of Japanese cars in the United States had yet to be determined. Now, Toyota was facing this. It was truly one problem after another.

Moreover, the crucial point now was that it was virtually certain the Toyota shares Citibank had acquired recently were enough to make them the company’s largest shareholder.

In other words, if the other party wanted to meddle in Toyota’s internal affairs, they now had the standing to do so. And with the equity they controlled, they would have a significant final say.

If they were to continue increasing their shareholding, it would be uncertain whether Toyota’s future could remain in Japanese hands.

In recent years, Japan’s economy had developed rapidly, and the United States had gradually become an important market for Japanese companies.

They had, one could say, made a huge profit in the United States.

But they had never imagined that an American company would set its sights on Toyota Motor Corporation.

All of this left them utterly baffled.

The amount of capital invested was by no means a small sum, even for a top global financial group like Citibank.

If they weren’t planning to acquire Toyota, why would they increase their shareholding by so much?

This was something they couldn’t figure out.

“Is it possible they received authorization from the US government? Toyota’s market share in the United States has been rising year after year, and it has long posed a threat to America’s domestic car brands. This is the very reason for the US-Japan auto trade negotiations.

But the negotiations have been going on for nearly two months, and neither Japan nor the US is willing to back down. We haven’t reached an agreement. A few days ago, the US Congress even directly threatened us with more severe sanctions.

For Citibank to suddenly acquire a massive amount of Toyota’s shares at a time like this… it forces us to make a connection,” a senior Toyota executive said, standing up to voice his thoughts.

As soon as the executive finished speaking, the atmosphere in the conference room instantly grew more tense.

For something like this to happen during the US-Japan auto trade negotiations, it was indeed easy to suspect that Citibank was acting on the US government’s instructions.

The representative from the Mitsui Group frowned deeply and said in a solemn voice, “If Citibank’s actions are indeed at the behest of the US government, then our situation is extremely difficult. This isn’t just about the future of Toyota; it’s about the fate of the entire Japanese auto industry.”

The representative from the Mitsubishi Group also expressed his concern: “Indeed, the stalemate in the auto trade negotiations has put immense pressure on both sides. If the US government truly intends to intervene through Citibank, then we must be prepared.”

The representative from Kawano Securities posed a more practical question: “How should we respond? Do we confront Citibank directly, or do we seek a compromise?”

Toyota Eiichi took a deep breath, stood up, and continued, “First of all, we must not panic. Although it’s highly likely Citibank has become our largest shareholder, they have not directly participated in the company’s operations, nor have they even applied for a seat on the Board of Directors. Our voting rights on the board remain secure. That is our bottom line.”

He went on, “Secondly, we need to entrust the Japanese government to strengthen communication with the US government and the American auto industry to understand their true intentions. If Citibank’s actions are indeed under instructions from the US government, then we must resolve this through diplomatic channels. At that point, it will be beyond our control.”

With the other party’s objective unstated, they could only opt for the most prudent response for now.

If the other party was truly aiming to acquire Toyota, they had to at least have a countermeasure ready.

In the end, the meeting did not result in any useful decisions. After all, with the enemy’s objective unclear, they couldn’t formulate a suitable response.

For now, they could only remain on the defensive.

After the meeting, the representative from the Mitsui Group promptly reported the contents of the meeting to the Mitsui Group’s Board of Directors.

In Japan, the Mitsui Group was one of the four traditional financial magnates, second only to the Mitsubishi Group.

Over the years, the Mitsui Group had successively gained control over several major Japanese corporations, effectively increasing its strength.

As Japan’s largest automobile company, Toyota had long been one of their targets. Their goal, naturally, was to absorb Toyota, incorporating it into the Mitsui Group’s vast system to further consolidate and enhance their own position.

The four major financial groups appeared amicable on the surface but competed fiercely in private. The Mitsui Group not only wanted to surpass the Mitsubishi Group but also needed to prevent the Sumitomo and Yasuda Groups from overtaking them.

Therefore, whether or not they could gain control of Toyota Motor Corporation had become crucial for the Mitsui Group. Even if they couldn’t supplant the Mitsubishi Group, it would solidify their own strength.

The Mitsui Group’s ambitions for Toyota were known to almost everyone in Japan and had become a tacitly accepted fact. Even the Mitsubishi Group had not vied with them for it.

But who would have thought that a Citibank would appear out of nowhere, shattering the existing state of affairs?

Upon receiving the report, the Mitsui Group’s Board of Directors immediately convened an emergency meeting to discuss a counter-strategy.

“Citibank’s actions are undoubtedly a huge threat to our Mitsui Group. We must take action. We cannot sit by and watch them gradually take over Toyota. With Citibank’s resources, if they want to acquire Toyota, it’s very possible for them to succeed.

Although they deny wanting to hold a controlling stake in Toyota, Americans have always been full of lies. Their words cannot be trusted. Right now, the shares we control are far from enough to take over Toyota. Does anyone have a good way to deal with this?” the president of the Mitsui Group asked, looking gravely at the senior executives present.

The Mitsui Group had been laying the groundwork for its move on Toyota for a very long time.

According to their original plan, in just a few more years, they would have become Toyota’s largest shareholder, thereby incorporating it into the Mitsui Group.

As for whether the final say in the company’s affairs remained with the Toyoda family, they couldn’t care less.

“We cannot let all our efforts go to waste. We have been planning our move on Toyota for years and we are determined to succeed. Even if the Japanese auto industry completely loses the US market, we still have a vast global market. Therefore, Toyota’s future is still very much worth controlling.

For the glory of the Mitsui Group, I propose that we take advantage of the current impact of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations on Toyota’s stock price and continue to increase our shareholding in the company!” At this moment, an elder decision-maker from the Mitsui family stood up and spoke with an air of absolute authority.

Chapter 536: The Negotiation Results Are Out, the Stock Price Soars!

The matter of Citibank concealing Lin Haoran as the man behind the acquisition gradually began to circulate among the major powers in Japan.

An undercurrent surrounding the future control of Toyota Motor Corporation was quietly set in motion.

And Lin Haoran, naturally, was unaware of this.

He had no foundation of his own in Japan and had only been there for two months.

Therefore, he was completely oblivious to what was happening in the upper echelons of Japan’s business circles.

It took Citibank only four days to secure a 20% stake for him.

However, on the third day, news came from Citibank that the trading volume of Toyota Motor Corporation shares had inexplicably surged, and that was without even including the shares Citibank itself was accumulating.

Because of this, Lin Haoran specifically had Galaxy Securities’ Securities Department monitor Toyota’s stock price. As it turned out, even before the results of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations were out, the stock price had inexplicably started to rise, and the trading volume had also begun to increase for no apparent reason.

This surprised Lin Haoran. Weren’t the shareholders supposed to be pessimistic about Japanese cars?

Could it be that someone already knew the results of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations in advance?

However, with only two or three days left until May 1st, it would be perfectly normal if a Japanese financial group had found out. After all, besides the governments, representatives from all major Japanese auto companies should have been involved in the US-Japan auto trade negotiations.

Besides, he had already secured 20% of Toyota’s shares. How Toyota’s trading volume behaved before the negotiation results were announced had little to do with him.

Lin Haoran never would have thought that his actions had plunged the Japanese financial groups into a state of crisis.

At noon on April 30th, Lin Haoran and Fok Kin-ning arrived at Tokyo International Airport.

Not long after, a middle-aged Westerner walked towards the arrivals area.

This was none other than Ma Shimin, the President of Hongkong Land Group.

After acquiring Chowa Real Estate Company, Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch had grown significantly in strength, and Fok Kin-ning’s workload became increasingly heavy.

But he was, after all, still too inexperienced. When it came to handling matters, he certainly couldn’t compare to an old-timer like Ma Shimin.

Although Fok Kin-ning would call Ma Shimin for advice on major issues, the sudden increase in business meant that many tasks needed to be reorganized.

Thus, Ma Shimin decided to take a week to travel to Japan on business, which could also be considered a trip to guide his younger colleague, Fok Kin-ning.

Moreover, although Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch operated independently, it was ultimately a subsidiary of Hongkong Land Group. Its growth would also benefit the parent company.

“Mr. Ma, long time no see!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily as he embraced Ma Shimin.

“Boss, it has indeed been a long time. Since I took my post at Hongkong Land Group, this is the first time you’ve been away from Hong Kong for so long,” Ma Shimin said with some emotion.

“In any case, with you in Hong Kong, I have nothing to worry about!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, looking at the 92 loyalty points above Ma Shimin’s head.

If the loyalty was only in the sixties or seventies, Lin Haoran certainly wouldn’t be at ease.

But with a loyalty score over 90, what was there to worry about?

Lin Haoran’s reply touched Ma Shimin. To be trusted so deeply by his boss made him feel that joining Hongkong Land Group was truly worthwhile.

“President Ma, welcome to Japan,” Fok Kin-ning said with a smile as he shook Ma Shimin’s hand.

Although Fok Kin-ning and Ma Shimin weren’t well-acquainted before joining Hongkong Land Group, since coming to Japan to lead the Japan Branch, Fok Kin-ning had frequently contacted Ma Shimin by phone to ask for advice on work-related difficulties.

As a result, the two of them were now quite familiar with each other.

After exchanging a few pleasantries at the airport, they got into a car and left for the Ginza Hongkong Land Tower.

With Ma Shimin’s arrival, Lin Haoran felt even more at ease.

Although he had great faith in Fok Kin-ning’s talent, he was still young, only thirty years old, and his biggest weakness was his lack of experience.

During his year at Hongkong Electric Group, Fok Kin-ning had indeed learned a lot, but Hongkong Electric was, after all, just a regional Hong Kong company, and he had only served in a mid-level management position there.

Now, coming to Japan to serve as President of Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch was a huge change and a great challenge for Fok Kin-ning.

“Kin-ning, learn well from Mr. Ma. He was an Executive Director at Jardine Matheson & Co., so his abilities are beyond question. Now that he’s in Japan, you two must have a good exchange of ideas this week,” Lin Haoran said with a smile in Fok Kin-ning’s office.

“Yes, Boss. I will definitely cherish this opportunity and ask for Mr. Ma’s guidance,” Fok Kin-ning replied earnestly.

He was naturally well aware that Ma Shimin, as the President of Hongkong Land Group and a former Executive Director of Jardine Matheson, possessed not only rich business experience and keen market insight but also the ability to handle complex business environments with ease—all skills he urgently needed to improve.

Previously, when he was at Hongkong Electric Group in Hong Kong, he had Chen Shoulin to guide him.

But here in Japan, as the person in charge of the branch company, he was essentially fighting alone, facing unprecedented challenges and opportunities.

Although he had his deputy, Zhao Xin, to assist him, Zhao Xin’s abilities were ultimately conventional. He was powerless in the face of more complex issues.

And while Ma Shimin could provide remote guidance, many things were better understood in person.

Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction and continued, “The development of Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch is crucial; it’s a vital part of Hongkong Land Group’s globalization. My goal is for the overall strength of the Japan Branch to one day rival that of the Hong Kong headquarters!”

Lin Haoran had stressed this point to Fok Kin-ning and Ma Shimin many times before. Now, facing both of them at once, he emphasized it again.

Lin Haoran was full of confidence and determination regarding his plans for Japan. After all, the impending Japanese economic bubble was the greatest opportunity he faced, so he was determined to seize it.

After chatting with the two of them for a while, Lin Haoran left the office. His presence would only be a distraction for them.

Although Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch had taken on the business and assets of a large real estate company like Chowa Real Estate Company, with Ma Shimin now on site, Lin Haoran felt at ease.

Therefore, his focus now shifted to Toyota Motor Corporation.

Tomorrow was May 1st. If all went as expected, Japan and the United States should reach an agreement.

Lin Haoran’s anticipation grew.

That evening, Lin Haoran hosted a welcome dinner for Ma Shimin at a lavish restaurant and arranged for him to stay in a luxury hotel near the Hongkong Land Tower.

In the blink of an eye, the night passed, and it was May 1st.

In the morning, the Japanese government officially announced that it had formally reached an agreement with the United States government.

The agreement stipulated that Japan would accept “voluntary export restraints,” limiting its annual car exports to the United States to 1.68 million vehicles for a period of three years.

This was a reluctant concession from Japan to avoid even stricter trade sanctions from the United States.

And the United States, seeing that its protégé Japan knew how to play ball, naturally understood not to push too hard. Thus, they set the term for three years instead of an indefinite period.

Furthermore, the vehicle limit was much higher than the figures proposed in the early stages of the negotiations.

Last year, in 1980, Japan exported a total of 1.91 million vehicles to the United States, which was also the highest number in its history.

Now, limited to 1.68 million vehicles, it was only 230,000 fewer than the previous year.

Most importantly, the sanction period was only three years.

This result could be said to be far better than what everyone had expected.

Before this, some pessimistic media outlets had even speculated that the United States, in its own self-interest, might very well completely ban Japanese cars from the American market.

But now, not only could they continue to export 1.68 million vehicles to the United States annually, but the agreement was also short-term, with a duration of only three years.

For the Japanese auto market, while this wasn’t exactly great news, it was a profound sigh of relief.

This export restriction was far below market expectations. When the news spread throughout Japan via the media, all professionals and supporters of the Japanese auto industry cheered.

They had been worried for nearly three months, and now they could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Although Japan ultimately had to bow to the United States, and sanctions were imposed, the final outcome was much better than imagined.

The senior executives of Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Mazda, Suzuki, Subaru, Daihatsu, and others also breathed a deep sigh of relief.

This agreement had worried them for so long. Now that the result was finally out, they no longer needed to worry.

Although the export numbers were limited, which still had a significant impact on Japanese car companies—especially for Honda, Toyota, and Nissan, which had very high export ratios—the impact was ultimately manageable and not a major blow to the companies as a whole.

Moreover, as long as they got through these three years, they would still be going strong after that.

The three-year term of the treaty made everyone understand that the United States’ pressure on Japanese automakers to voluntarily limit exports was merely a move to get through the difficult period of the oil crisis.

Once the results were announced, the stock prices of Japan’s major auto companies all rose.

As Japan’s largest automaker, Toyota’s stock price rebounded sharply after the agreement was signed, with its gains outpacing other car brands.

“Boss, the stock price is rising so fast! In just ten minutes, Toyota’s stock price has jumped more than 10% compared to yesterday’s closing price. The trading volume in these ten minutes is already more than the entire volume from yesterday!” the head of Galaxy Securities’ Securities Department reported to Lin Haoran over the phone from his office.

A 10% rise in ten minutes?

That was indeed a bit exaggerated. He just wondered how much it would ultimately rise by the end of the day.

Lin Haoran’s anticipation grew.

He had invested a huge amount of capital in Toyota’s stock. Although it was fronted by Citibank, it ultimately had to be repaid.

Therefore, how much he could ultimately profit from Toyota depended critically on how much the stock price increased.

“Keep a close eye on it!” Lin Haoran instructed with a smile.

He knew very well that the rise in Toyota’s stock price wasn’t a one or two-day affair. The short-term surge would last for a while. Although the subsequent gains wouldn’t be as frantic as the first day’s, it would still keep trending upwards.

Chapter 537: Toyota’s Market Capitalization Surpasses Two Trillion

Lin Haoran wanted to see just how much Toyota’s stock price would rise today.

Therefore, Lin Haoran spent the entire day in the offices of Galaxy Securities’ Securities Department, waiting for the market to close.

Since coming to Japan in February, the staff of the Securities Department had grown from just over a dozen to more than seventy by May.

During this period, several elites from Japan’s securities industry were hired. All these employees were screened for their loyalty by Lin Haoran, and anyone with a loyalty score below sixty was rejected.

This hiring standard was slightly lower than the one in Hong Kong, but this was Japan, after all, not Hong Kong, so a slightly lower requirement was necessary.

Galaxy Securities even had employees permanently stationed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Therefore, even from the office, they could receive real-time updates on the stock market’s fluctuations.

At half-past three in the afternoon, the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed, and the final results were in.

During this trading day, Japan’s entire automotive sector became the one with the largest gains.

Basically, any automotive company involved in exports, or any listed company related to the supply chain, saw its stock rise to varying degrees.

Automakers like Toyota and Honda saw their stock prices soar, leaving others far behind.

In the twentieth century, Japan’s auto industry underwent a transformation from non-existence to imitation and then innovation. It expanded from a domestic foothold to overseas markets. After more than half a century of development, it successfully rose to the forefront of the global auto industry, reshaping the worldwide automotive landscape.

In this process, the international competitiveness of Japanese cars continuously improved, while American automakers gradually declined due to challenges such as industrial upgrading bottlenecks, the oil crisis, and labor disputes.

By improving the durability of their sedans and introducing low-emission, safe, and fuel-efficient models, the Japanese auto industry further accelerated its international expansion.

As production scales continued to grow, Japan’s sedan exports also climbed steadily.

By the mid-1970s, Japan had surpassed Germany to become the world’s largest automobile exporter.

By the early 1980s, Japan’s automobile production had exceeded that of the United States, earning it the crown of the “Kingdom of Cars.” Nearly half of its cars were exported to the American market, capturing over twenty percent of the market share and making Japan the largest source of imported cars for the United States.

These had always been the proudest achievements of the Japanese auto industry.

However, from the news in February that the United States intended to sanction Japanese auto companies, to the start of US-Japan auto trade negotiations in March, and now to May, more than two months had passed.

During this time, Japanese automakers had a difficult time.

Although the drop in stock prices was not substantial, many people were pessimistic about the future of Japan’s auto industry.

The market was worried about potential export restrictions and declining profits for Japanese car companies.

The US market had long been the largest export market for Japanese cars, accounting for nearly half of their sales. If Japanese automakers were to lose the US market, the loss would be incalculable, and it would be a blow that the industry could not withstand.

This was why so many in Japan had been so pessimistic about their domestic auto industry recently.

But now, the negotiation results were out, and they were far less terrible than imagined. This, in turn, became good news.

Therefore, it was obvious to everyone that the outcome of the negotiations was positive news for the major auto companies.

The stock market, as a barometer of the economy, reacted swiftly to this positive signal.

This was the reason for the sharp rise in the stock prices of major auto-related listed companies.

“Boss, Toyota Motor’s market capitalization has officially surpassed two trillion Japanese yen. As of the final trade, the stock price has risen by a staggering 26.8% compared to yesterday’s closing price, making it the top performer among all auto companies…” As soon as the final results were out, the head of the Securities Department quickly reported to Lin Haoran.

Hearing this, a wide smile immediately spread across Lin Haoran’s face.

Over the past month, for this twenty percent stake in Toyota, Citibank had invested around 319.8 billion Japanese yen on his behalf, which converted to nearly eight billion Hong Kong dollars.

And now, with the release of the negotiation results, in less than half a day, his investment had already surged to over four hundred billion Japanese yen. In other words, the Toyota shares he held were already worth ten billion Hong Kong dollars.

Even after deducting commissions, interest, and other costs, his profits were certainly substantial.

Most importantly, during this whole time, Lin Haoran had not spent a single cent of his own money; Citibank had fronted it all for him.

Not only that, but Citibank had also handled all the work for him.

And Lin Haoran, who had merely given the instructions, ultimately became the biggest beneficiary.

Moreover, Lin Haoran knew very well that this surge was definitely not the end of it. He had no clear idea how much more room there was for the stock to rise, but he knew it would be far more than imagined.

The reason was simple: he now held twenty percent of the shares, which meant that only eighty percent of Toyota’s shares did not belong to him.

After subtracting the shares held by shareholders who would never sell, one could imagine that the remaining tradable shares were far, far fewer than in his previous life.

It was just like when he had acquired Sony shares before. His actions had significantly reduced the number of shares on the secondary market, causing Sony’s stock, which should have risen by about twenty percent under normal circumstances, to jump by more than thirty percent. In the end, his gains even exceeded forty percent.

And now, although most of his Toyota shares were not accumulated from the secondary market but acquired from fund companies and investment companies, both types of firms could sell off their holdings at any time if they chose to.

Therefore, in this world, influenced by his early acquisition of so many Toyota shares, the twenty percent stake he held would ultimately earn him even more.

The financing from Citibank was for a maximum of six months, and only two months had passed. He could slowly sell off his shares over the next few months without alarming the market at all.

The surge in auto stocks, including Toyota Motor and Honda Motor, created a sense of euphoria in the Japanese stock market.

Many shareholders regained confidence in the future of Japanese automobiles and began to increase their investments in the automotive sector. A mood of optimism permeated the entire market.

Inside and outside the Stock Exchange, people were excitedly discussing the positive impact of the negotiation results and their bright expectations for the future of the Japanese auto industry—a complete reversal of the pessimism that prevailed before the results were announced.

At the headquarters of the Citibank Japan Branch, when the stock market closed and he learned that Toyota’s market capitalization had broken two trillion, the general manager of Citibank Japan, Kawai Yasuya, wore a look of utter disbelief.

In fact, Kawai Yasuya was already stunned this morning when Japan announced that it had reached and signed the US-Japan auto trade agreement.

After all, for the past month, Lin Haoran had been using Citibank to aggressively acquire Toyota shares, an operation that he had personally supervised and executed.

But when they signed the proxy acquisition contract with Lin Haoran, no one was optimistic. Even Citibank’s most professional Chartered Financial Analysts were pessimistic about Japan’s auto industry. They did not believe that Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Toyota shares would yield any benefit.

They even assumed that Lin Haoran’s true goal was to take over Toyota.

After all, as a bank that had worked with Lin Haoran many times, Citibank knew him extremely well and was aware of his passion for acquiring companies.

It was for this reason that in less than three years, this very important client of Citibank had already become the boss of several major corporations.

They had never considered that Toyota’s stock price would skyrocket in May.

Kawai Yasuya’s feelings were extremely complicated. He had finally witnessed how formidable Lin Haoran was.

With such investment prowess, what did that famous stock market guru in the United States even amount to?

Could it be luck? Did Lin Haoran just stumble into this by a stroke of luck?

This was the only way Kawai Yasuya could rationalize it now.

He immediately called Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank in New York, and reported Toyota’s performance on the stock market today to his immediate superior in full detail.

Walter Wriston’s reaction, after hearing Kawai Yasuya’s report, was completely different from Kawai’s.

Kawai Yasuya was incredulous and shocked.

Walter Wriston, however, was filled with emotion, and it further solidified his long-held belief in maintaining a good relationship with Lin Haoran.

After all, as the Chairman of Citibank in the United States, Walter Wriston had already had several major collaborations with Lin Haoran. Particularly with gold futures, Lin Haoran had directly made over a billion US dollars. His subsequent investment in Apple Inc. further demonstrated how strong Lin Haoran’s investment acumen was.

If one or two such investments could be attributed to luck, making such massive, unexpected returns multiple times went far beyond the realm of chance.

“Mr. Kawai, please remember that Mr. Lin is currently making large-scale investments in Japan. As the head of Citibank’s Japan Branch, you must do everything in your power to maintain our bank’s relationship with Mr. Lin.

“We must ensure that Mr. Lin feels that we are his most trustworthy partner, and we must do our utmost to meet all of his collaboration needs!” Walter Wriston said sternly to Kawai Yasuya after careful consideration.

The more he worked with Lin Haoran, the more Walter Wriston felt that he possessed extraordinary talent and keen insight in the field of investment.

Therefore, Walter Wriston knew very well that an investor like Lin Haoran was an invaluable and rare asset for a bank.

Chapter 538: The Market’s Cheers

In the blink of an eye, another day passed.

May 2nd was a Saturday, so the stock market was closed.

However, the market was still abuzz with the results of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations.

Everyone was filled with hope for the future of Japanese automobiles.

This was especially true for Toyota Motor, Japan’s largest auto brand. It was a national brand for the Japanese people, and had always been a symbol of their pride.

The public widely expected that, following the results of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations, Toyota Motor would soon regain its former glory and continue to make its mark on the globalized market.

In a luxurious villa district on the border of Chiyoda and Central Wards, gentle sunlight flooded the fifth-floor master bedroom window.

The warm sunlight gently caressed Lin Haoran’s face. His eyelids twitched, and he slowly opened his eyes.

Glancing at the clock on the wall, he saw it was already eight-thirty in the morning.

Lin Haoran yawned and turned to see Yamada Keiko sleeping soundly beside him, a smile gracing his lips.

Because Toyota Motor’s stock price had soared, Lin Haoran was in an excellent mood. So last night, he had called Yamada Keiko up from the fourth floor to the fifth, where they engaged in a two-hour-long fierce battle, not sleeping until well after midnight.

On one hand, Toyota Motor was making money for him; on the other, a pretty Japanese girl was eager to please him. This kind of life made Lin Haoran feel incomparably comfortable and satisfied.

This satisfaction wasn’t just on a material and physical level; it extended to the spiritual level as well.

He got up quietly, not wanting to wake the sleeping Yamada Keiko. He tiptoed to the window, drew open the curtains, and let more sunlight spill into the room.

He took a deep breath of fresh air and gazed at the bustling Tokyo scenery in the distance, his mood growing even more pleasant.

By May, Tokyo’s temperature had begun to rise gradually. Even in the morning, it was around seventeen or eighteen degrees Celsius.

The bright sunlight eventually woke Yamada Keiko. She rubbed her eyes, a trace of drowsiness in her sleepy gaze, and looked out at the radiant sun before turning her gentle eyes to Lin Haoran.

“Good morning, Haoran-kun.” Her voice, soft and sweet in the morning, seemed capable of melting one’s heart.

Then, she threw back the blanket, her flawless, naked body instantly exposed to the air.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran was immediately aroused. He casually pulled the curtains shut and, with a wicked grin, jumped back onto the bed.

Another fierce battle commenced.

However, unlike last night’s roughness and passion, this time every one of Lin Haoran’s movements was filled with tenderness and finesse.

It wasn’t until ten o’clock in the morning that a fully satisfied Lin Haoran got out of bed again.

Yamada Keiko, in turn, gently helped him dress and comb his hair.

Ever since her family’s crisis had been temporarily averted, Yamada Keiko’s service made Lin Haoran feel as if he were living the comfortable life of an ancient emperor.

In comparison, Rosamund Kwan was clearly far inferior to Yamada Keiko when it came to serving him.

Perhaps this was an innate talent of Japanese girls.

Today was the weekend, so Lin Haoran had nothing important to attend to for the time being. He planned to head over to the Hongkong Land Tower after lunch.

After breakfast, Lin Haoran took a stack of newspapers and went with Yamada Keiko to the terrace outside the fifth floor.

He basked in the warm sunlight while having Yamada Keiko read the news from the Japanese papers to him.

It couldn’t be helped; he didn’t understand Japanese.

Although there were English newspapers available, there weren’t many, and they weren’t the mainstream ones. As for Chinese newspapers, that was out of the question.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had gradually gotten used to having Yamada Keiko read the news to him every morning.

The sunlight spilled onto the terrace, filling the originally cool morning with warmth.

The reports from Japan’s major mainstream media outlets on the results of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations were all brimming with the joy of victory and confidence in the Japanese auto industry.

One by one, Yamada Keiko translated the important news from the mainstream papers into Cantonese and read them to Lin Haoran.

Lying on a lounge chair, Lin Haoran squinted his eyes, contentedly listening to Yamada Keiko’s not-quite-fluent Cantonese.

The Asahi Shimbun, on its front-page headline, ran the big title “US-Japan Auto Trade Negotiations Successful, Dark Clouds Over Japanese Auto Industry Disperse,” detailing the positive impact of the negotiations on the Japanese auto industry and the significant rise in the stock prices of carmakers like Toyota, Honda, and Nissan.

The article also cited analyses from several auto industry experts, who believed that these negotiations not only eased the export pressure faced by Japanese auto companies but also paved a new path for their future internationalization.

The Mainichi Shimbun focused more on the public’s reaction, reporting: “As soon as the negotiation results were out, the Japanese public’s confidence in the auto industry soared. Discussions about the bright future of Japanese cars could be heard on every street corner.”

The paper also interviewed several loyal Toyota Motor customers, who all expressed their confidence in the quality of Toyota cars and looked forward to the company achieving even greater success in the US market and other emerging global markets.

The Sankei Shimbun analyzed the impact of the negotiations on Japan’s overall economy from an economic perspective, believing that the success of these talks would drive the development of upstream and downstream enterprises in the Japanese automotive industry chain, injecting new vitality into the Japanese economy.

The article also predicted that with the conclusion of the negotiations, confidence in the Japanese auto industry would surely recover, and employment opportunities in related sectors would also increase.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun took a deeper dive into the political and economic gamesmanship behind the negotiations, arguing that the success of the talks was not only a result of mutual compromise between the two governments but also a reflection of the Japanese auto industry’s long-term efforts and strength.

The paper also reminded Japanese companies to cherish this opportunity, strengthen technological innovation and brand building, and prepare for even fiercer market competition in the future.

Meanwhile, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported on the stock market’s celebratory frenzy in a light and humorous tone, stating: “Inside the Tokyo Stock Exchange, investors were cheering wildly, as if they had just won the World Cup.”

The article was also accompanied by several photos of post-closing celebrations in the stock market, showcasing the investors’ optimistic expectations for the future of the Japanese auto industry.

…

After Yamada Keiko finished reading the main news from the last newspaper, Lin Haoran opened his eyes.

From these reports in the Japanese media, Lin Haoran could already imagine that when the stock market opened next Monday, Toyota Motor’s stock price was bound to rise sharply again.

The entire market’s public opinion was developing in a positive direction.

This was great. The more it rose, the better. The more it rose, the more he would earn.

This wouldn’t be a waste of the arrangements he had made more than a month in advance.

“Haoran-kun, you’re amazing! To think you were able to predict that Toyota Motor’s stock would soar!” Placing the newspapers on the round table beside her, Yamada Keiko looked at Lin Haoran, her eyes filled with adoration.

As someone with a background in finance, Yamada Keiko naturally had her own judgment. She was well aware that almost no one had been optimistic about the future prospects of the Japanese auto industry before this.

After all, the United States auto market was Japan’s largest export market, accounting for nearly half of all exports during this era.

If they were to truly lose the US market, anyone could imagine how devastating the blow to Japanese automobiles would be.

Yet, at a time when everyone was filled with pessimism, Lin Haoran went against the tide. Relying on his keen insight and in-depth analysis of the market, he accurately seized the opportunity hidden behind the US-Japan auto trade negotiations.

How could such foresight not make Yamada Keiko adore him!

Upon learning that Lin Haoran was planning to acquire a massive amount of Toyota Motor shares, Yamada Keiko had even felt a little regretful for mentioning the US-Japan auto trade negotiations to her Boss in the first place.

This was because she had later specifically consulted her advisor at the University of Tokyo, who had stated with great certainty: “At the negotiating table with the United States, Japan is at a clear disadvantage. Furthermore, the Japanese side’s negotiating stance is tough, and neither side is willing to back down. Such a stalemate will only exacerbate the situation.

“As for what kind of sanctions the United States will ultimately impose on Japan, it’s currently hard to predict. One must remember that Japan’s rapid development in the sixties and seventies was largely due to American support.

“Taking all these factors into account, Japan will likely have to compromise in the end, and the Japanese auto industry could very well lose a large chunk of its US market share as a result. Therefore, the future prospects for the Japanese auto industry are grim.”

After receiving this response from her advisor, Yamada Keiko had tried to persuade Lin Haoran to change his mind, terrified that her Boss would suffer heavy losses.

However, how could Lin Haoran possibly listen to her?

Speaking of which, whether it was the Sony stock or the Toyota Motor stock, the person Lin Haoran should really be most grateful to was Yamada Keiko.

If Yamada Keiko hadn’t mentioned Sony’s earnings announcement and the US-Japan auto trade negotiations back then, Lin Haoran would never have thought to make a play on these two stocks, and naturally, he wouldn’t be reaping the rewards today.

But of course, Lin Haoran wouldn’t mention any of this to Yamada Keiko.

In any case, this girl was his woman now, and her Loyalty was at one hundred percent. He had completely conquered her, body and soul, and she would likely never escape from the palm of his hand in this lifetime.

So in the future, he would just have to compensate her slowly.

Gazing at Yamada Keiko’s adoring expression, Lin Haoran smiled slightly and said, “The political contests between nations involve many complex and ever-changing factors. Initially, when I heard the news of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations, I also didn’t have much confidence in Toyota Motor’s future.

“But then, I carefully considered a crucial factor—the diplomatic relationship between Japan and the United States. For the past twenty to thirty years, the relationship between the two countries has been quite close. Japan even became a developed nation with America’s help, and the United States, in turn, needs Japan to counter hostile blocs.

“Given this, I believed the United States would have some reservations and wouldn’t act too decisively, so as not to alienate your country. Therefore, I was inclined to think that the outcome of the US-Japan negotiations wouldn’t be overly harsh.

“Although I may not be as professional as you in economic gamesmanship, I have my own unique perspective.”

Lin Haoran casually gave an explanation that he felt was quite reasonable.

Chapter 539: The Major Financial Groups Have Smelled Blood

However, in the face of the sudden surge in stock price, while everyone else was celebrating, one party was fraught with worry.

They were the people of the Mitsui Group.

Because Citibank had, for some inexplicable reason, potentially become a major shareholder of Toyota Motor Corporation and had, for the past week, been unwilling to disclose their purpose for acquiring Toyota’s shares, the Mitsui Group found itself in a predicament.

After all, they had been plotting to take control of Toyota with the goal of incorporating it into the Mitsui Group’s vast system, thereby further consolidating and elevating their own position.

In the past, their plans had proceeded smoothly; even the Mitsubishi financial magnates had eventually made concessions.

Just when they thought they would become Toyota Motor’s major shareholder within a few years according to plan, an unexpected competitor—Citibank—appeared out of nowhere.

Therefore, a few days ago, they had been forced to enter the secondary market. Their goal, naturally, was to increase their shareholding, not wanting the equity controlled by the Mitsui Group to fall too far behind.

This was also why Citibank had noticed a sudden and significant increase in the trading volume of Toyota’s stock over those few days.

But before a few days had passed, Toyota’s stock price began to soar due to the US-Japan auto trade negotiations.

With such a massive jump in price, how could they continue to increase their holdings?

The cost had skyrocketed in an instant.

This was not an increase of one or two points, but a sudden jump of more than a quarter in price.

The president of the Mitsui Group sat in his office, frowning as he read the news articles in the papers that were furiously hyping up the future of Japanese automobiles.

Japan had clearly been forced to make concessions in the auto trade negotiations with the United States. Logically, this was not good news. No matter how light the sanctions were, they were still sanctions.

Yet, despite being sanctioned, the stock price had actually surged, as if Japanese cars had completely conquered the American market.

Most importantly, with the stock price rising so much, how could he continue to accumulate Toyota’s shares?

Whether acquiring from the secondary market or from other shareholders, the cost of increasing their holdings at this time would undoubtedly be substantial.

Moreover, anyone could see that in the trading of Toyota’s stock, buy orders significantly outnumbered sell orders.

After all, at this point, many people had abandoned the idea of a sell-off.

As a result, the Mitsui Group’s efforts to increase their shareholding in Toyota were clearly obstructed.

“Is there still no news from Citibank? What is their purpose for acquiring Toyota’s shares? Could it be that they really just received advance information from the United States government?” the president of the Mitsui Group asked, looking up at his capable assistant.

“President, we continued our talks with Citibank today but still received no response. Citibank continues to maintain its silence. I suggest we have the president request the Japanese government to intervene. As a brand of national pride, I believe the Japanese government cannot stand by and watch Toyota fall into the hands of an American financial group!” the assistant said in a low voice.

“Request the Japanese government to intervene…” Hearing this, the president fell into deep thought.

“But requesting government intervention means we have to bring the battle for control of Toyota out into the open.” The Mitsui Group’s president tapped his fingers on the desk, the sandalwood grain glinting coldly in the evening sun. “The Mitsubishi Group would smell blood immediately. Those old-timers from Sumitomo and Yasuda would also seize the opportunity to stir up trouble. When that happens, we’ll likely be facing more than just Citibank as an opponent.”

Although Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, and the others seemed to have given up on Toyota Motor for now—as their stakes in the company were not high—it was only because the Mitsui Group’s holdings were far in the lead. If they wanted to continue competing with Mitsui, their chances of winning were almost nil.

Once the government intervened, Citibank would very likely back down from Toyota out of respect for the Japanese government. But there was a crucial point: it was public knowledge that the shares Citibank had acquired this time exceeded 18.07%!

At this juncture, if the Mitsubishi Group, Sumitomo Group, Yasuda Group, and others made a move to snatch the Toyota shares held by Citibank, and succeeded, the Mitsui Group’s advantage in Toyota would be completely wiped out.

Would these financial groups pass up such a golden opportunity?

Impossible!

Besides, Japan had more than just its four major financial magnates.

As the Japanese economy developed, more and more emerging financial groups were on the rise, such as the Fuyo Group, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, and the Sanwa Group, all of which showed signs of catching up.

These emerging powers were all eyeing the positions of the four major financial magnates.

Even among the big four, while they appeared cooperative and harmonious on the surface, only their senior executives knew how fierce the competition was behind the scenes.

These financial groups were eager for an opportunity to swallow one another to augment their own strength.

Fortunately, Citibank had not yet announced its purpose for acquiring Toyota’s shares. Otherwise, that bunch of old-timers might have already made their move.

The president of the Mitsui Group sighed, instinctively rubbing his slightly aching forehead.

They had considered requesting government intervention before but ultimately decided against it, precisely because it would involve far too many complications.

They had originally thought they could salvage the situation by slowly acquiring shares from the secondary market or other shareholders, gradually increasing their holdings in Toyota.

But who would have known that the stock price would surge before they had increased their holdings by much? With the market in such a frenzy, the cost of increasing their stake would only grow.

A single misstep could even push the stock price to a more absurd level.

Thus, the Mitsui Group was now in an awkward position, caught between a rock and a hard place.

“President, I suggest we ask our venerable president, the old statesman, to come out of retirement. He could meet personally with Citibank’s Chairman, Mr. Walter Wriston, and ascertain the real reason for their holding of Toyota shares.

“Our president and Citibank’s Chairman had a good relationship in the past and can be considered old friends. I believe Citibank’s Chairman will grant our president a favor,” the assistant continued in a low voice.

He was well aware that Citibank’s silence on the matter must have been an order from their headquarters.

Therefore, approaching the general manager of the Citibank Japan Branch was completely useless.

It would be better to go directly to Citibank’s Chairman.

The president of the Mitsui Group was its former president. Although he had retired to a less active role, his authority and influence remained immense.

The president was silent for a moment before nodding. It was the only way.

He had been the president of Mitsui for two years, but his influence was still far inferior to that of the venerable president.

“In that case, you will come with me to the president’s residence. We will jointly request that he handle this matter,” the president said directly.

“Yes!”

While the Mitsui Group was scheming to uncover the true reason for Citibank’s investment in Toyota, Japan’s other financial groups—including the Sumitomo Group, Mitsubishi Group, and Yasuda Group—were indeed eyeing Toyota, just as the Mitsui president had suspected.

In the past, because the Mitsui Group had positioned itself early, its shareholding in Toyota was far ahead, which had forced the others to give up on pulling Toyota into their own systems.

But now, Citibank had quietly and potentially become a major shareholder of Toyota. Wasn’t this an excellent opportunity for them?

If they could get their hands on the Toyota shares Citibank had recently acquired, they would leapfrog to become Toyota’s largest shareholder.

This was a rare opportunity to strengthen their power.

Consequently, they too sought opportunities to get a response from Citibank, but were similarly met with silence.

This only made the major financial groups more convinced that behind Citibank’s actions lay a deeper strategic consideration, not merely a simple financial investment.

Citibank’s move was by no means accidental.

Citibank’s choice to buy a large volume of Toyota shares during the sensitive period of March and April most likely meant they had foreseen the outcome of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations or had received some form of inside information.

If that was the case, it seemed unlikely that Citibank’s goal was to acquire Toyota.

The Mitsui Group didn’t dare ask the Japanese government to approach Citibank. But who could have imagined that while they were unable to get the real reason from Citibank, another financial group had already gone directly to the Prime Minister, hoping he would help uncover the true purpose of Citibank’s acquisition of Toyota shares.

And so, on the first weekend of May, Citibank successively received multiple inquiries from powers such as the Mitsui Group, Mitsubishi Group, Sumitomo Group, Yasuda Group, Fuyo Group, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, and the Sanwa Group. Not only that, but even the Japanese government sent them a formal letter of inquiry.

The situation was growing increasingly complex.

Faced with this, the general manager of the Citibank Japan Branch could no longer withstand the pressure and contacted Lin Haoran again.

Previously, Lin Haoran had told Kawai Yasuya to help him keep things under wraps for a week.

Now that nearly a week had passed, Kawai Yasuya no longer wanted to be the scapegoat.

He had been under immense pressure this past week, receiving visits from a large number of top Japanese business tycoons every day.

The head office of the Citibank Japan Branch had never been so bustling since he had taken the post.

But in the end, he was just a regional head. Facing Japan’s most elite business tycoons, he was simply powerless to cope. He could only bluff his way through each encounter, hoping the week would pass quickly.

Now, the week was over, and he was eager to announce to the world that Lin Haoran was the driving force behind Citibank’s investment in Toyota.

However, before taking action, he realized he had to discuss it with Lin Haoran himself to avoid violating Chairman Walter Wriston’s instructions to maintain their relationship.

Although the agreed-upon week had passed, if he simply leaked the information to the public on his own, it might displease Mr. Lin.

Chapter 540: The Japanese Government Intervenes

Lin Haoran was a little surprised when he received Kawai Yasuya’s call.

But when he learned the reason for the call, he had a sudden realization.

He had actually almost forgotten about it.

After all, the pressure from the major financial groups was not on him, but on Kawai Yasuya.

Should they really make an announcement?

Lin Haoran really didn’t want to.

After all, he preferred to slowly sell off his shares in the secondary market.

If they made it public, wouldn’t everyone know he held a large number of Toyota Motor shares?

What if that dragged the stock price down?

However, he had previously promised the other party he would only ask them to conceal it for a week. Now that a week had nearly passed, it was perfectly reasonable for them to no longer want to be the scapegoat.

After a moment’s thought, Lin Haoran said, “Mr. Kawai, you can make an announcement, but for the time being, you cannot reveal that I am the buyer. How does that sound?”

Hearing this, Kawai Yasuya felt a wave of relief. Lin Haoran’s proposal seemed to solve a thorny problem for him.

He quickly considered it and felt the plan was the best of both worlds. It would provide the public with some information, alleviating the pressure on Citibank, without immediately exposing Lin Haoran as the true person behind the scenes.

“Alright, I’ll get back to it then, Mr. Lin. We’ll talk again when you’re free!” Kawai Yasuya was clearly impatient to respond to those financial groups.

Even without experiencing it firsthand, Lin Haoran could imagine from the haste in Kawai Yasuya’s voice just how immense the pressure on him must have been during this past week that Citibank had taken the blame for him.

But since the pressure wasn’t on him, he didn’t pay it much mind.

“Are these Japanese financial groups afraid that I’ll acquire Toyota Motor?” Lin Haoran mused after hanging up the phone.

If these people knew I already own twenty percent of Toyota Motor’s shares, they would surely be stunned, wouldn’t they?

At this thought, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but smile.

In a flash, the weekend was over.

Over the weekend, the buzz surrounding the US-Japan auto trade negotiations had not only failed to die down but had actually stirred up even greater public debate.

It wasn’t just the newspapers; major television networks also began providing in-depth reports on the matter.

The two days of quiet reflection only made the stock market for the coming week all the more filled with possibilities.

The time soon came to Monday, May 4th.

In the morning, Lin Haoran woke up early. After making breakfast at home, he took Yamada Keiko to Hongkong Land Tower.

He, too, wanted to see how Toyota Motor’s stock would perform today.

As expected, as soon as the Tokyo Stock Exchange opened, Toyota Motor’s stock price once again experienced a frenzied surge.

Toyota Motor’s market capitalization climbed higher and higher along with its stock price.

By the time the market closed for lunch, Toyota Motor’s total market cap had already exceeded 2.2 trillion Japanese yen. This meant that in the two and a half hours of trading that morning, its stock price had risen by more than ten percent compared to the previous trading day.

In the afternoon, the stock price continued to rise, and it still had plenty of momentum. The final closing price also exceeded Lin Haoran’s expectations.

By the time the market closed for the day, Toyota Motor’s market capitalization had reached the staggering figure of over 2.392 trillion Japanese yen.

This was equivalent to a nearly twenty percent increase over Friday’s closing price in a single day.

In two days, it had actually grown by about forty-six percent.

This had completely surpassed the “over thirty percent” growth rate mentioned in the articles Lin Haoran had read in his previous life.

Looking at the data his subordinate handed him, even Lin Haoran was a little shocked.

Could this be the chain reaction caused by his acquisition of that twenty percent stake?

It was quite possible.

After all, the shares he held were a full twenty percent—a massive proportion.

Originally, he would have been quite satisfied even if the final increase was only thirty percent.

Though the percentage increase was small, the base amount was huge!

But now that the increase was much larger than he had imagined, it was naturally even better.

Moreover, judging from today’s trading, the stock price would likely rise quite a bit more tomorrow.

Looking at the frantic trading data for the day, even Lin Haoran was somewhat astonished.

As expected of Japan. It truly is on a different level from Hong Kong.

The trading volume in Hong Kong was still too small.

He casually picked up the calculator on his desk and started pressing the keys.

Soon, a number appeared on the screen: 4784.

This figure represented how much his current holdings in Toyota Motor were worth.

Citibank had only invested 319.8 billion Japanese yen for him, and now that investment had transformed into a market value of 478.4 billion Japanese yen.

Subtracting the cost, a remainder of 158.6 billion Japanese yen was left.

Even after deducting the commission, interest, and other fees owed to Citibank, he would still have nearly 150 billion Japanese yen.

That was equivalent to 3.75 billion Hong Kong dollars!

This wave was an absolutely massive profit.

Who would believe that a strategic plan laid out over a little more than a month had directly earned him several billion Hong Kong dollars?

Of course, that was all contingent on him being able to successfully sell off his Toyota Motor shares at a high price.

“It seems I need to think carefully about how to transfer these Toyota Motor shares off my hands,” Lin Haoran mused, crossing his legs and lightly tapping his chin with his right index finger, lost in thought.

Lin Haoran knew very well that although Toyota Motor’s soaring stock price had brought him enormous profits on paper, they were just numbers until they were sold. The real return would only come when the stocks were converted into cash.

But the key was how to cash out smoothly when the stock price was at its peak.

He needed to consider not only the timing of the transfer but also the method, as well as how to minimize the impact on the market to prevent the stock price from plummeting due to his sell-off.

After all, this was twenty percent of the company’s shares—far too large a proportion.

He began to devise several possible strategies: one was to gradually release his shares into the market through分散 transactions, which could avoid the drastic price fluctuations caused by a one-time large-scale sell-off.

A second was to let Citibank handle it. They could assist with the transfer of the shares, using their market influence and client network to complete the transaction in a more discreet and efficient manner.

A third was to consider private negotiations with potential industrial investors or strategic partners to see if they were interested in taking over his stake. This could ensure a reasonable price and also bring a stabilizing force to Toyota Motor’s future development.

What Lin Haoran didn’t know at this moment was that the covert competition among the financial groups had already turned his twenty percent stake into a hot commodity in their eyes.

Just as he was preparing to leave the office, the phone rang again.

“Hello, Lin Haoran speaking.”

“Mr. Lin, this is Kawai Yasuya from Citibank. I’m sorry to bother you again. If possible, I hope you can come to the Citibank office. By the way, the Minister of State from Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry is currently here with me,” Kawai Yasuya said in a solemn tone on the other end of the line.

The Ministry of International Trade and Industry, which would later become the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, was a first-tier ministry of the Japanese central government. It was responsible for enhancing the vitality of the private economy, promoting foreign economic relations, ensuring stable economic and industrial growth, and securing an efficient supply of mineral resources and energy.

Kawai Yasuya’s last sentence was clearly a signal to Lin Haoran that the one looking for him this time was not Kawai Yasuya, but the Minister of State from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out their objective. They were undoubtedly coming for him, and the reason was clearly his shares in Toyota Motor.

“Alright, I understand. I’ll be there in half an hour,” Lin Haoran agreed after a moment’s thought.

Ultimately, the man represented the Japanese government; he couldn’t refuse to give them this favor.

Lin Haoran frowned, the excitement from Toyota Motor’s market cap surge gradually fading.

He never thought the Japanese government would actually intervene.

Lin Haoran didn’t blame Kawai Yasuya for revealing his involvement. Since the Japanese government had stepped in, it would be impossible for Citibank to keep it a secret.

No matter how powerful Citibank’s Japan branch was, it was still doing business on Japanese soil. Under such circumstances, cooperation with the Japanese government was a must.

He just didn’t know what their true reason was.

However, Lin Haoran wasn’t particularly worried.

After all, all his actions were nothing more than normal commercial market behavior.

As a listed company, Toyota Motor could not prevent its shares from being purchased by anyone in the world.

Leaving Hongkong Land Tower, Lin Haoran’s mind was racing as he sat in his private car.

He knew that a direct dialogue with the Japanese government, for whatever reason, would be a delicate game.

He had to proceed with caution, protecting his own interests while avoiding unnecessary conflict.

Upon arriving at Citibank, Lin Haoran navigated his way with ease to Kawai Yasuya’s office.

Kawai Yasuya was already waiting for him. Beside him sat a middle-aged man in a formal suit with a stern expression—the Minister of State from Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

“Mr. Lin, I’m glad you could take the time to come,” the official said, standing up to greet him, his tone carrying a mix of official courtesy and authority.

“You’re too kind, Minister of State. It is my honor to have the opportunity to speak with you,” Lin Haoran replied with a polite smile, though he was on high alert.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the meeting officially began.

The official got straight to the point. “Mr. Lin, we are aware that you have recently made a large-scale increase in your shareholding of Toyota Motor. This has attracted widespread attention from the government and the industry. I believe it is necessary for us to have an in-depth discussion about this matter.”

Lin Haoran feigned surprise, but he was already prepared. “Oh? So that’s the reason. I simply made the corresponding investment based on my market judgment and personal investment strategy. I believe this is in compliance with market rules.”

Kawai Yasuya interjected at the right moment, attempting to ease the atmosphere. “Indeed, Mr. Lin’s actions were conducted entirely within the legal framework. We at Citibank have also conducted a strict compliance review.”

The Minister of State nodded slightly, his sharp gaze fixed on Lin Haoran. “Mr. Lin, we understand and respect the market behavior of individual investors. However, Toyota Motor is not only one of Japan’s economic pillars but also an important representative of our national automobile industry.”

“The stability and development of Toyota Motor have a crucial impact on the Japanese economy. Therefore, your investment decision may have a long-term impact on Toyota Motor and the entire Japanese auto industry.”

“So, I hope Mr. Lin can clearly state what your specific purpose is in investing in Toyota Motor. Is it with the intention of acquiring the company, or are there other considerations…?”

Chapter 541: Lin Haoran Wants to Acquire Toyota Motor?

The man’s words sent Lin Haoran into a thoughtful pause.

He couldn’t very well say he was just in it to buy low and sell high, could he?

Although it was all just business, the amount of capital involved was far too great. In the end, it would be the Japanese shareholders who would foot the bill for his profits.

After careful consideration, Lin Haoran smiled and began to speak. “Mr. Minister of State, you should be aware that I came to visit Japan at the invitation of your country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs. After surveying your market, I concluded that its prospects are immense, which deeply attracted me.”

“Coupled with your country’s preferential policies for foreign investment, I saw great potential. Therefore, I have decided to make Japan a key investment market for my future endeavors.”

“As a key official in the Japanese government, I believe you are aware of my investments here. Even when Japan’s real estate industry was underperforming, I still spent a great deal of money to bid on land parcels and acquire Chowa Real Estate Company. I even moved the headquarters of Southland Corporation, a well-known enterprise in the United States, to Tokyo. The reason for all this is simply that I am very optimistic about Japan’s future development!”

“As for my acquisition of Toyota Motor shares, that was back in March and April, during the most pessimistic period for the Japanese auto market. At the time, even Citibank advised me not to be impulsive, yet I still entrusted them to spend a huge sum to acquire the shares.”

“I think you understand very well that my decision to invest in Toyota Motor under such circumstances was for a very simple reason!”

“As a world-leading automaker, its technical prowess and brand influence have earned my deep admiration. The fact that even the United States government felt compelled to intervene further convinced me that even if Toyota Motor faces short-term difficulties, its future is still incredibly bright. That is why I invested in Toyota Motor!”

“Of course, I also fully understand the Japanese government’s high regard for Toyota Motor and its concerns for the future of the Japanese auto industry. I promise that my investment activities will always adhere to market rules and respect Toyota Motor’s operational autonomy. I will not interfere with its normal business decisions.”

“At the same time, I will not increase my shareholding in Toyota Motor for the time being. I can assure you that if I ever intend to increase my stake, I will report it to the government in advance!”

Although Lin Haoran didn’t explicitly state whether his goal was to acquire Toyota Motor, his answer was clever enough to convey his position and intentions. It showcased both his deep understanding of and optimism for the Japanese market, while also expressing his high valuation of Toyota Motor.

As for an acquisition?

He had no such intention.

The fact that an official of such high rank had come to see him personally spoke volumes about Toyota Motor’s status and influence in Japan.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s response, the Minister of State nodded in satisfaction.

He understood that this foreign investor was acting on his strong confidence in Japan’s economy, which was why he was investing on such a large scale. It wouldn’t do to offend him too much.

Now that he had the information he wanted, he had no reason to press the matter further.

“Mr. Lin, thank you for your cooperation. I won’t disturb you any longer. I must return to my work. When I have time, I will extend a private invitation to you, so we might discuss more about the Japanese market and the potential for future collaboration,” the Minister of State said with a smile, his tone friendly yet formal.

“I would be honored. Please, take care on your way out!”

Lin Haoran and Kawai Yasuya escorted the minister to his car. After watching the official vehicle drive away, they returned to the office.

“Mr. Lin, I am truly sorry. The Japanese government sent inquiries before, and I managed to put them off with various excuses. But I never expected the Minister of State from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry to show up in person. I had no choice but to reveal that you were the acquirer behind the scenes. Please forgive me,” Kawai Yasuya said apologetically.

“It’s fine, I understand. By the way, since the government already knows, I don’t see any need to keep it a secret anymore. In that case, you can go ahead and announce it publicly,” Lin Haoran said after a moment’s thought.

There was little point in trying to hide it any longer.

If the government knew, it meant the financial groups would soon receive the news as well.

That being the case, it was better to bring it out into the open.

Besides, no one knew his true goal was to profit from the price difference.

As long as that secret was kept, it was enough.

If worse came to worst, he could slowly sell off his 20% stake without alarming the market. That way, it likely wouldn’t disrupt Toyota Motor’s stock price.

In any case, the shares he held were not founder’s shares, so there were no restrictions requiring advance disclosure.

After chatting with Kawai Yasuya for another ten minutes or so, Lin Haoran took his leave.

Once Lin Haoran was gone, Kawai Yasuya personally began making calls to the heads of the major financial groups.

He had been in a difficult position for the past week.

Now that he could finally cast off this burden, his mood lightened considerably.

At last, he was free from the daily interrogations by the big shots.

And that wasn’t all. After calling the main tycoons, he also submitted a statement to the Tokyo Stock Exchange on behalf of Citibank’s Japan branch.

As a result, in less than an hour, the news that Lin Haoran had become a major shareholder in Toyota Motor had spread throughout Japan’s entire investment community.

“What? The force secretly acquiring Toyota Motor shares wasn’t Citibank, but Lin Haoran, and his stake is as high as 20%?” Nearly every tycoon Kawai Yasuya informed was left utterly stunned.

The leaders of the Mitsui Group, Mitsubishi Group, Sumitomo Group, Yasuda Group, Fuyo Group, Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, Sanwa Group, the Toyoda family, and other powerful entities all had complex feelings upon hearing the news.

Who would have thought that the one coveting Japan’s number one auto brand was not Citibank, but Lin Haoran, a tycoon from Hong Kong?

Before this, no one had connected Lin Haoran to the matter at all.

Immediately, these financial groups began leveraging their intelligence networks to gather information on him.

A series of stunning acquisitions—including Green Island Cement, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Hong Kong Telephone, Kowloon Motor Bus, Oriental Press Group, Hongkong Land Group, and even the historic Jardine Matheson & Co. and the American Southland Corporation—were soon laid out before the tycoons.

Each of these mergers and acquisitions involved enormous sums of money. Even in a highly developed economy like Japan, any one of them would have been a major event, capturing public attention and sparking widespread discussion.

What was even more astonishing was that these acquisitions had all been completed in a concentrated period of just over two years. Even Japan’s top financial groups would find it difficult to match such speed and scale.

Yet, the driving force behind this series of buyouts was not a business titan or a top-tier financial group as one might imagine, but merely a seemingly ordinary rich scion—Lin Haoran.

In the process of researching Lin Haoran, the heads of the various financial groups all discovered an amazing commonality: Lin Haoran had an almost obsessive passion for acquiring companies.

Take Jardine Matheson, a well-known multinational British-owned company in Hong Kong. If not for the intervention of various other powers, that company would already belong to Lin Haoran today.

So, for him to suddenly target Toyota Motor and secretly become its largest shareholder with a terrifying 20% stake, his objective was self-evident.

If he wasn’t aiming to acquire Toyota Motor, why would he spend a fortune to invest in the company while the Japanese auto industry was facing sanctions from the United States?

The only possibility was that he had set his sights on Toyota Motor and wanted to acquire the automotive brand that they, the Japanese, were so proud of.

A 20% stake represented a truly colossal amount of money.

Many of the tycoons who had previously entertained ideas about Toyota Motor were now frowning, contemplating how to deal with this new situation.

Let Lin Haoran acquire Toyota Motor?

That was absolutely impossible.

If that were to happen, the Japanese business community would lose all face.

If the interested party were a top American financial group, it might be acceptable.

But Lin Haoran was merely a Hong Kong businessman.

His identity made it difficult for them to stomach the idea that Toyota Motor was about to be acquired by him.

Therefore, the most important thing now was to stop Lin Haoran’s designs on Toyota Motor. They could not allow this great Japanese enterprise to fall under the control of someone from Hong Kong.

Toyota Motor Corporation promptly called for an emergency board meeting.

After all, a businessman they were unfamiliar with had become the company’s major shareholder. The slightest misstep could plunge the company into a battle for control.

This was happening just as investor confidence was returning to Toyota Motor following the conclusion of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations. Naturally, they took the matter very seriously.

The atmosphere in Toyota Motor’s boardroom was grave and tense.

The senior executives and directors wore stern expressions, their eyes fixed on the documents before them—the latest news about Lin Haoran becoming a major shareholder, along with his public profile.

“Everyone, this Mr. Lin has now become a major shareholder in our company and may even be planning to acquire us. How should we respond to this situation?” Toyota Motor’s current president, Toyota Eiichi, asked in a deep voice as he scanned the faces of all the senior executives in the room.

The matter was of great importance. A single misstep could cause the Toyoda family to lose control of Toyota Motor, which was something they could not accept.

If a Japanese financial group became a major shareholder, the Toyoda family wouldn’t worry, as those large groups rarely vied for control of companies.

This was why they hadn’t been concerned even as the family’s own stake had dwindled over the years.

But with Lin Haoran, the situation was completely different.

Chapter 542: An Unknown Faction Comes Calling

“President, our priority right now is to figure out if the other party is actually aiming to acquire Toyota Motor, and also, whether he has the capability to do so. Only after we’ve clarified these points can we discuss a proper response. Otherwise, we can’t formulate an effective strategy,” a senior executive offered his opinion.

“Colleagues, based on my deep understanding of the Hong Kong business world, I have a fairly thorough understanding of Mr. Lin’s situation. He appeared out of nowhere in 1978. Although his father was only the head of an ordinary real estate company, Mr. Lin has undoubtedly surpassed his father, a case of the student exceeding the master.

“The source of his funds for every acquisition has always been mysterious and unpredictable. However, what is beyond doubt is that his financial reserves are extremely substantial. Take the Hongkong Land Group under his control, for example. Before he acquired and privatized it, its market capitalization had already exceeded four hundred billion Japanese yen. And the market capitalization of every company he controls is not to be underestimated.

“Therefore, the scale of Mr. Lin’s assets is immense. I would even go so far as to say that his wealth is comparable to one of our country’s four great financial groups.

“Regarding this current incident, he has spent a fortune to acquire 20% of Toyota Motor’s shares. Even calculated at last month’s stock price, this transaction is worth over three hundred billion Japanese yen. Such a massive investment is far beyond what an ordinary financial group could afford.

“What’s more, during this sensitive period of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations, when market confidence is generally low, Mr. Lin dared to make such a large-scale investment in Toyota Motor. This undoubtedly demonstrates his formidable strength and the potential ability to acquire Toyota Motor.

“In conclusion, I believe Mr. Lin has sufficient strength to acquire our Toyota Motor. We must face Mr. Lin Haoran’s capabilities and intentions head-on and ensure our response strategy is both comprehensive and effective,” the head of Toyota Motor’s Marketing Department said, standing up and speaking in a solemn tone.

The department head’s words immediately sparked a heated discussion among everyone in the conference room.

Although Toyota Motor’s shareholding structure was dominated by domestic Japanese shareholders, it would be difficult for Lin Haoran to gain a controlling stake even if he held 40% of the shares.

But no one knew if, should Lin Haoran truly decide to launch an acquisition, he could persuade some shareholders to sell their own shares to him.

“Since we know he really does have the capability to acquire Toyota Motor, the most critical question we now face is: is he actually here to acquire Toyota Motor Corporation?” another executive said, standing up.

“Everyone, since Mr. Lin is now a major shareholder, why don’t we invite him to join Toyota Motor’s Board of Directors? We can probe his true intentions through direct communication with him. There’s no need to speculate here. Besides, even if Mr. Lin really does want to acquire Toyota Motor, the ones who should be most worried are the people at Mitsui Group, right?” a senior executive gave his opinion.

Today’s meeting was an emergency meeting for Toyota Motor Corporation, attended almost exclusively by Toyota Motor’s senior management.

Representatives from the likes of Mitsui Group were not present.

This was why the executive dared to speak so bluntly.

In reality, everyone was well aware of this matter; they just didn’t usually say it out loud.

As soon as he said this, the atmosphere in the office lightened considerably.

As the old saying goes, the emperor isn’t worried, but the eunuchs are. The major financial groups above them would certainly find a way to stop Lin Haoran from coveting Toyota Motor. Why should they be here worrying for nothing?

“In that case, let’s invite Mr. Lin to join the Toyota Motor Board of Directors first. Owning 20% of Toyota Motor’s shares, he is certainly qualified,” Toyota Eiichi said, nodding.

In the end, his Toyoda family was still too small. Although they had the final say within Toyota Motor, this was ultimately because the company was founded by their family.

Over the years, while the Toyoda family had gradually grown stronger by relying on Toyota Motor Corporation, they were still leagues behind the top-tier financial groups.

“A brilliant decision, President. Inviting Lin Haoran to the Board of Directors will not only allow us to understand his intentions directly but also serve as a check on him to some extent, preventing him from taking any overly aggressive actions,” the head of the Marketing Department immediately chimed in, secretly relieved that his suggestion had been approved by the president.

And so, the hastily convened meeting was temporarily adjourned.

But while some were worried that Lin Haoran was going to acquire Toyota Motor, other financial groups saw an opportunity.

Powerful, top-tier Japanese financial groups like the Mitsubishi Group, Sumitomo Group, Yasuda Group, and Fuyo Group had immense financial strength; they simply lacked the opportunity.

If an opportunity arose now that allowed them to spend money to acquire 20% of Toyota Motor’s shares in one go, thus becoming its largest shareholder, they would be absolutely delighted.

And wasn’t this the perfect opportunity?

Therefore, after receiving the news from Citibank, all the major financial groups began holding emergency meetings to discuss how to gain the greatest advantage from the situation.

For instance, in the head office of the Mitsubishi Group, the leader of the group was currently in discussion with his subordinates.

“Given Toyota Motor’s prominent position in the Japanese business world, it’s highly unlikely that Mr. Lin could succeed in an acquisition, regardless of his true intentions. Even if we don’t intervene, the government will certainly get involved for various reasons.

“Therefore, I see this as an excellent opportunity for us. If we can acquire the shares from Mr. Lin before the Mitsui Group does, then Toyota Motor could join the ranks of our Mitsubishi Group.

“By then, the Mitsubishi Group’s position will be even more secure, and our strength will be greatly enhanced. As for longtime rivals like the Mitsui Group and Sumitomo Group who harbor ambitions of surpassing us, this will be the perfect chance to utterly crush them!”

The Mitsubishi president’s mood at this moment was completely different from Toyota Eiichi’s complex and somewhat worried state of mind. His eyes were filled with opportunity and anticipation.

“A brilliant idea, President. Why don’t we go find Mr. Lin tomorrow and discuss the possibility of acquiring his Toyota Motor shares?” a subordinate chimed in.

“No, no, I suggest we contact Mr. Lin immediately, tonight. President, if we can think of this, the other financial groups surely can as well. If we’re late, we’ll miss this golden opportunity!” another subordinate at his side said, shaking his head.

“Nakata is right. We must contact Mr. Lin as soon as possible. Otherwise, if another power gets there first, we’ll have to pay a much greater price to make up for this mistake.

“I will personally call Mr. Lin in a little while to express our Mitsubishi Group’s respect and sincere desire to cooperate. At the same time, we must also prepare a detailed cooperation proposal to show Mr. Lin our sincerity.” The Mitsubishi president made a decisive call.

“President, in that case, we need to think carefully. What price should we offer to persuade Mr. Lin? We must be fully prepared. Otherwise, even if we contact Mr. Lin, we might not be able to convince him,” one subordinate said, shaking his head.

“What price would be appropriate?”

This question instantly hung in the minds of everyone present.

“I suggest we start by offering the market price. Trying to take advantage of him or get him to sell at a lower price is impossible right now. In fact, it might just anger him.

“Mr. Lin is young and spirited, and he’s achieved so much at such a young age. We absolutely cannot underestimate him just because he’s young!” the subordinate who had suggested contacting Lin Haoran immediately proposed again at the opportune moment.

“Tanaka has a good point. Even if we don’t reach an agreement the first time, we must show him our goodwill. Alright, I’ll have someone find out where Mr. Lin is right now. Let’s contact him as soon as possible. I hope we can meet with him before the Mitsui Group does. It’s decided!” With a wave of his hand, the Mitsubishi president settled the matter.

As Japan’s largest financial group, Mitsubishi naturally had its own highly effective intelligence agencies.

Since Lin Haoran was not making any serious effort to hide his tracks, it truly wasn’t difficult for Mitsubishi to find out where he was.

At this very moment, there were several other powers, just like the Mitsubishi Group, who wanted to acquire the shares in Lin Haoran’s hands.

They too were all using their own intelligence departments to begin investigating Lin Haoran’s current whereabouts.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran had already left the head office of Citibank’s Japan branch. He glanced at his watch—it was already past six o’clock in the evening.

At this hour, there was no need to go back to Hongkong Land Tower.

So, he instructed his driver to take him directly to a high-end restaurant in the Central Ward.

He had already arranged with Ma Shimin and Fok Kin-ning in the afternoon to have dinner with them at this Chinese restaurant tonight.

After all, Ma Shimin wouldn’t be in Japan for much longer; he was heading back to Hong Kong in another three or four days.

He had no idea that at this very moment, numerous factions were trying to contact him.

This high-end restaurant was a fusion establishment that served not only Western and Japanese cuisine but also Chinese food. The dining environment was excellent.

When he arrived at the restaurant, one of his subordinates had already booked a private room for him.

Before long, Ma Shimin and Fok Kin-ning arrived together.

“Order whatever you like!” Lin Haoran said with a smile after they were all seated.

Recently, Toyota Motor’s stock price had been continuously rising, which meant the profits from his current play were also continuously rising. So, he was naturally in a very good mood.

Although the Japanese government’s intervention had forced him to disclose the news, overall, it was no great harm.

“The boss is treating, so I’ll have to take you for all you’re worth!” Ma Shimin joked with a laugh, then picked up the menu and started ordering.

Soon, everyone had ordered two or three dishes each. After ordering, they took the opportunity to chat while they waited.

The food arrived quickly.

The group ate and talked.

Just then, the door to the private room was gently pushed open. A waiter came in and whispered a few words in Lin Haoran’s ear.

After hearing what was said, Lin Haoran’s expression changed slightly, but he quickly regained his composure.

The waiter told him that some important people wished to pay him a visit.

People who could investigate his whereabouts were clearly no simple characters.

In a situation like this, it was best to see them.

“Let them in!” Lin Haoran said after a moment’s thought.

There were a few bodyguards in the private room, and more of his bodyguards in another private room outside, so he wasn’t worried about his safety.

Chapter 543: As Expected of Japan’s Largest Financial Group, Truly Magnanimous!

Soon, a middle-aged man and several young men walked in.

From their attire and movements, Lin Haoran could tell at a glance that the young men were bodyguards, and their skills were not to be underestimated.

As for the middle-aged man, Lin Haoran recognized him the moment he appeared.

This man was none other than Mimura Yohei, the current president of the Mitsubishi Group.

Although Lin Haoran had never crossed paths with him, as the leader of Japan’s largest financial group, Mitsubishi, he had seen the man’s photograph in the news countless times.

He was also frequently interviewed on television.

One could say that Mimura Yohei was an absolute leading figure in the Japanese business world, much like Michael Sandberg’s status in Hong Kong.

“Mr. Lin, please forgive my sudden intrusion.” Mimura Yohei stepped into the room with a gentle yet polite smile. His voice carried the authority and grace of someone long accustomed to a position of power.

As he spoke, Mimura Yohei walked slowly toward Lin Haoran, his hands lightly clasped in front of him, and bowed slightly as a sign of respect.

Faced with such a prominent figure, Lin Haoran naturally couldn’t remain seated.

Although he wasn’t sure why the man was seeking him out, the Mitsubishi Group was, after all, a behemoth in Japan. This was a power he couldn’t afford to offend, or his plans in Japan would surely be obstructed.

Lin Haoran stood up and replied with a smile of his own, “It is my honor to have President Mimura visit in person. I imagine you haven’t had dinner yet, President Mimura? Please, have a seat. We can talk while we eat.”

“Then I won’t be a stranger!” Mimura Yohei nodded and smiled.

Lin Haoran was somewhat surprised. This man before him was the leader of Japan’s largest financial group, yet he was so humble in his presence.

It seemed the other party had come with a request.

With that thought, a myriad of possibilities instantly flashed through Lin Haoran’s mind.

Other than the Toyota Motor shares, Lin Haoran couldn’t think of any other reason for the visit.

In other words, he was almost certainly here for the Toyota Motor shares.

However, as far as he knew, although Mitsubishi was also an investor in Toyota Motor, their stake wasn’t very large, was it?

Why would its leader come to see him personally?

Furthermore, they had even used an intelligence agency to track his whereabouts and find him.

Normally, investigating someone would surely be unwelcome, yet the other party was doing it so openly. Lin Haoran felt there might be some unknown secret or a sense of urgency hidden within this situation.

Just as Lin Haoran had thought, after Mimura Yohei sat down, he spoke apologetically, “Mr. Lin, I am very sorry. Because the matter was urgent, we had no choice but to investigate you. I hope you can forgive us.”

Upon hearing this, although Lin Haoran felt a slight displeasure, he maintained a calm smile. He nodded in understanding, gesturing for Mimura Yohei to continue.

Mimura Yohei glanced at the others in the private room and said, “Mr. Lin, I would like to speak with you privately. What are your thoughts on this?”

“Rest assured, President Mimura, everyone here is a confidant of mine. If you are here regarding Toyota Motor, you can speak directly. Of course, if the matter is too sensitive, we can meet again privately tomorrow!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Besides a few bodyguards, Ma Shimin, Fok Kin-ning, and his personal secretary, Yamada Keiko, were also present.

These people were indeed his confidants. If Mimura Yohei was here for the Toyota Motor shares, Lin Haoran felt there was no need to hide it from them.

Seeing this, Mimura Yohei had no choice but to continue.

He couldn’t wait until tomorrow to find Lin Haoran. His hope now was to leverage the fact that he had found Lin Haoran before the Mitsui Group and persuade him to sell the shares.

“Mr. Lin is as perceptive as they say. You’ve guessed correctly. I am indeed here regarding the Toyota Motor Corporation. As I understand it, you currently hold a twenty percent stake, but Toyota Motor has a rather complex and special status in Japan.

“As a foreigner, Mr. Lin, if you wish to acquire Toyota Motor and become its controlling shareholder, it is absolutely impossible. Putting other things aside, the Japanese government itself will intervene.

“I have come to you today hoping to acquire the Toyota Motor shares you hold. We at Mitsubishi will offer a price that will satisfy you, Mr. Lin!” Mimura Yohei continued.

Just as I thought, Lin Haoran said to himself.

It seemed that the competition among Japan’s financial groups was quite fierce.

He was well aware that besides the founding Toyoda family, the financial group with the largest shareholding should be the Mitsui Group.

Yet now, the Mitsubishi Group had secretly approached him to discuss Toyota Motor, clearly not wanting the Mitsui Group to know.

However, on second thought, Lin Haoran understood. It was just like the British-funded conglomerates in Hong Kong. Although they appeared harmonious and united on the surface, the competition behind the scenes was just as intense.

The secret rivalry between Jardine Matheson & Co. and HSBC was a prime example.

Lin Haoran smiled faintly and said slowly, “President Mimura, your proposal is indeed very attractive. However, the Toyota Motor shares I hold are not just an investment to me; they are part of my strategic plan for the future of the automotive industry.

“I am very optimistic about Toyota’s technological innovation and market prospects. The reason I invested in Toyota Motor was with the intention of holding the shares long-term. Therefore, I have no plans to let them go easily, unless President Mimura can offer terms that are tempting enough.”

Mimura Yohei didn’t seem surprised to hear this; he had anticipated Lin Haoran’s reaction.

He continued, “Mr. Lin, I completely understand your position. But please allow me to elaborate. The Mitsubishi Group is not just a simple investor. We have deep roots and extensive resources in the Japanese business world.

“If you are willing to make this deal with us, not only will you receive a substantial financial return, but more importantly, you will gain the friendship of our Mitsubishi Group. In the future, if you have any collaborations with us at Mitsubishi, we will certainly support you with all our strength.

“Judging by your actions over the past two months, I believe you intend to make long-term, large-scale investments in the Japanese business world. With the help of our Mitsubishi Group, your ventures in Japan will undoubtedly be much easier!”

Mimura Yohei’s offer was indeed a trump card.

Lin Haoran knew very well that with the help of a power like the Mitsubishi Group, his business plans in Japan would proceed much more smoothly.

In addition, he could sell his shares without going through the secondary market, which was undoubtedly killing two birds with one stone.

At that moment, Lin Haoran was truly tempted.

His investments in Japan were bound to be enormous.

Especially before the economic bubble arrived, he wanted to set up industries on a large enough scale to reap greater benefits from the bust.

Partnering with the Mitsubishi Group in the business world would indeed be a very worthwhile affair.

However, if nothing unexpected happened tomorrow, Toyota Motor’s stock price should continue to rise sharply, especially after the news of his shareholding spread, which would surely have a significant impact on the market.

For a moment, Lin Haoran was truly hesitant.

“Then I wonder what kind of price President Mimura can offer? You must be aware, President Mimura, that shareholders across Japan have regained their confidence in the future of Japanese automobiles. As Japan’s number one auto company, I believe Toyota Motor’s stock price will experience a sustained period of explosive growth after languishing for a full three months. In other words, this investment of mine will become more and more valuable,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, a hint of probing in his words.

Hearing this, Mimura Yohei felt a bit conflicted.

Before coming, he had planned to negotiate based on today’s final closing price.

But before he could even name a price, the other party had already laid the expectation of future stock price growth on the table, which undoubtedly increased the difficulty of the negotiation.

Mimura Yohei frowned slightly but quickly regained his composure.

As the president of Japan’s largest financial group, he knew very well that in business, negotiation was often a psychological battle. Whoever could remain calm would gain the upper hand.

“Mr. Lin is right. Toyota Motor’s stock price does have enormous potential for growth,” Mimura Yohei said slowly. “But as I mentioned before, as a foreigner, you face many difficulties in trying to gain complete control of Toyota Motor.

“Investment doesn’t have to be fixated on the auto industry. There are many other sectors that can bring you considerable returns, Mr. Lin. And the Mitsubishi Group, as a top-tier local financial group in Japan, has deeper roots and a more extensive network of connections to help you mitigate those risks.”

At this point, Mimura Yohei paused for a moment, as if observing Lin Haoran’s reaction.

Seeing that the other party showed no signs of impatience, he continued, “As for the price, we can provide a fair and reasonable offer based on the current market value, combined with Toyota Motor’s future growth potential.

“On top of today’s final closing price, our Mitsubishi Group is willing to offer an additional five percent. You should be well aware, Mr. Lin, that although the stock price will continue to rise, if you try to sell through the secondary market, the increasing influx of shares will eventually curb Toyota Motor’s stock price gains.

“By selling directly to us, you won’t have this concern at all. Our offer is already very fair.”

Mimura Yohei knew that he couldn’t be indecisive in his negotiations with Lin Haoran; otherwise, the Mitsubishi Group would miss this excellent opportunity.

Normally, he would need to discuss this with the Mitsubishi Group’s Board of Directors and make a final decision through a vote to determine the price Mitsubishi should offer.

But now, time was of the essence. He had to be decisive. As for the Board of Directors, he was confident he could persuade them later.

To be honest, at that moment, Lin Haoran was very tempted.

An additional five percent on top of today’s stock price!

He knew that after the market closed today, Toyota Motor’s market capitalization had reached a staggering figure of more than 2.392 trillion Japanese yen.

A five percent increase on that market cap meant that Mitsubishi was willing to strike a deal with him at a total valuation of 2.5116 trillion Japanese yen for Toyota Motor.

And with his twenty percent stake, that meant his shares were now worth over five hundred billion Japanese yen.

As expected of Japan’s largest financial group, truly magnanimous!

Not only would he receive a return that satisfied him, but he could also build a relationship with a power like Mitsubishi. This was indeed a very worthwhile deal.

Lin Haoran was even on the verge of agreeing right away.

Although he knew Toyota Motor’s stock would continue to rise, he had no idea how high it could go.

After all, in his previous life, he remembered Toyota Motor’s stock only rising by just over thirty percent in the short term.

Now, Toyota Motor’s actual increase had already far surpassed that of his past life.

In this world, his interference had led to a more exaggerated rise for Toyota Motor, but there had to be a limit to the exaggeration, right?

This was the main reason Lin Haoran was so tempted.

He felt that no matter how much more Toyota Motor’s stock price rose, it probably wouldn’t be by much more—ten percent at most.

Lin Haoran took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down.

He began to carefully analyze the pros and cons of this deal.

Making a deal with the Mitsubishi Group meant he could quickly obtain a large amount of cash flow, which would be a huge boost for the larger-scale investment plans he was about to launch in Japan.

Moreover, the resources and connections of the Mitsubishi Group would undoubtedly pave the way for his development in Japan.

On this point, Lin Haoran believed the Mitsubishi Group would not break its promise to him.

After all, he was not some minor power, and Lin Haoran believed the Mitsubishi Group would not want to offend him either.

However, on the other hand, he also knew that once he sold his Toyota Motor shares to the Mitsubishi Group, it meant giving up potentially greater returns from future stock price increases.

Although he felt that Toyota Motor’s stock price was close to its peak, the stock market was always full of variables, and no one could accurately predict future trends.

Lin Haoran couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.

Seeing this, Mimura Yohei’s heart leaped with joy.

With his years of experience, he could clearly see that this young business tycoon seemed to be tempted.

Chapter 544: Numerous Factions Converge, Holding Out for a Better Price!

Upon witnessing this, a bad premonition welled up in Mimura Yohei’s heart, but he remained composed, his gaze fixed on Lin Haoran, awaiting his reaction.

After hearing the waiter, Lin Haoran’s expression showed a hint of surprise, but he quickly regained his composure.

He turned to Mimura Yohei and said with a smile, “President Mimura, my apologies, a small matter has come up that I need to attend to. Please wait a moment.”

Although Mimura Yohei was curious, he showed no sign of it on his face, merely nodding with a smile. “Please, go ahead, Mr. Lin.”

Lin Haoran then said to Ma Shimin and Fok Kin-ning, “You two entertain President Mimura well for me.”

“Don’t worry, Boss,” Ma Shimin said with a smile.

Fok Kin-ning also nodded. As the President of Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch, he would certainly be dealing with people like Mimura Yohei in the future, so this was indeed an opportunity.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran gave a satisfied smile and left the restaurant.

Just now, the waiter had informed him again that another important figure had arrived to see him. This time, the waiter directly stated the person’s identity: Ando Taro, the president of the Sumitomo Group.

Although Lin Haoran had no prior contact with the Sumitomo Group, he was well aware that its power was not much less than that of the Mitsubishi Group.

If the economic bubble game a few years from now was the product of a nationwide frenzy in Japan, then financial group magnates like Mitsui Fudosan, Mitsubishi Estate, and Sumitomo Realty & Development were undoubtedly the super players within it.

The Sumitomo Group was an absolutely vital character in this drama.

Therefore, when Lin Haoran learned that Ando Taro had come to see him, ripples of thought spread through his mind.

Lin Haoran no longer had to guess the purpose of his visit.

It was undoubtedly the same as Mimura Yohei’s—he was here for the Toyota Motor shares.

For this very reason, Lin Haoran had no intention of letting him into the same private room.

If Mimura Yohei and Ando Taro were to meet, an awkward scene would surely unfold, and it could even lead to unnecessary conflict and misunderstandings, which was something Lin Haoran wished to avoid.

So, he had already decided to have the president of the Sumitomo Group go to the adjacent private room.

In the hallway outside the private rooms, Lin Haoran saw the president of the Sumitomo Group, Ando Taro, who was around sixty years old.

“President Ando, hello. It’s an honor to meet you!” Lin Haoran proactively smiled and shook his hand.

“Mr. Lin, I’m terribly sorry to disturb your meal,” Ando Taro said apologetically.

“It’s no problem. President Ando, please follow me into the private room. We can talk inside,” Lin Haoran said, opening another private room.

Inside the room were Lin Haoran’s bodyguards, who were currently in the middle of their meal. They all stood up the moment they saw Lin Haoran enter.

“It’s alright, you can all sit down and continue eating!” Lin Haoran gestured with his hand, speaking to them in Chinese.

At this moment, however, Ando Taro frowned.

He had clearly seen Lin Haoran emerge from the adjacent private room, yet now he was being led into a different one.

Could it be that there was someone in that room just now?

Was he not the first to seek out Lin Haoran?

Before coming, Ando Taro had thought he would be the first to personally visit Lin Haoran.

He knew full well that being the first to arrive had its advantages.

For this very reason, upon receiving the news, he, like the Mitsubishi Group, had swiftly mobilized his intelligence network to find Lin Haoran’s whereabouts.

“President Ando, what can I do for you?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile after the two had taken their seats.

“Mr. Lin, may I be so bold as to ask if my old friends are next door? For instance, old friends from Mitsubishi, Mitsui, or Yasuda?” Ando Taro did not directly answer Lin Haoran’s question, instead voicing his own concern.

If someone had truly gotten here ahead of him, his situation would be somewhat unfavorable.

Witnessing this, a wry smile appeared on Lin Haoran’s face, and he answered frankly, “It seems I can’t hide anything from you, President Ando. That’s right, President Mimura from Mitsubishi is next door. We were just discussing some matters when President Ando arrived unexpectedly.

I believe your purposes are likely the same, but I wasn’t sure what would happen if you two met. So, to avoid any unpleasantness between you, I could only arrange for President Ando to come here.”

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Ando Taro thought to himself, “Just as I expected.”

He originally thought he had found Lin Haoran ahead of everyone else, but it turned out that fellow Mimura had beaten him to it.

“In that case, let’s go over there. Mr. Mimura and I are old friends, so naturally, nothing unpleasant will happen!” Ando Taro said, standing up abruptly.

Japanese business magnates like Ando Taro and Mimura Yohei were on the same level as figures like Michael Sandberg and Newbiggin in Hong Kong. Therefore, Lin Haoran didn’t want to offend either of them.

He hadn’t expected his twenty percent stake in Toyota Motor to be such a hot commodity in the eyes of these top Japanese financial groups; Lin Haoran was somewhat surprised.

He had previously assumed that only the Mitsui Group would have designs on Toyota Motor, and Mitsui Group held slightly over ten percent of the shares, so under normal circumstances, these financial groups wouldn’t compete with each other.

Therefore, his shares shouldn’t have attracted the attention of other groups.

But now, it seemed reality was completely different from what he had imagined.

However, this was also good. At the very least, selling his twenty percent stake was becoming easier and easier.

At that moment, he felt fortunate that he hadn’t immediately agreed to Mimura Yohei’s terms.

Since Toyota Motor’s shares were so attractive, he naturally had to hold out for a better price. Whoever paid the most would get them.

After all, wasn’t the purpose of his trip to Japan to make money off the Japanese?

With this thought, Lin Haoran smiled and said, “In that case, President Ando, please follow me to the room next door!”

And so, the two stood up again, left the private room, and returned to the one next door.

When the door to the private room opened and Ando Taro and Mimura Yohei’s eyes met, Lin Haoran could feel the awkwardness in the atmosphere.

However, Mimura Yohei and Ando Taro were both wily old foxes of the Japanese business world. They quickly adjusted their expressions, replacing them with proper smiles.

“Well, if it isn’t Ando-kun? What a coincidence. I never expected to run into you here,” Mimura Yohei was the first to break the silence. His tone was polite, yet it concealed an indiscernible wariness.

Ando Taro responded with a smile, “Mimura-kun, it’s been a while. I heard you were also discussing a collaboration with Mr. Lin. It seems our goals happen to align.”

The dining table in the private room was large enough, so Ando Taro’s addition didn’t make it feel crowded.

However, just as Lin Haoran was thinking about how to handle the situation, a waiter entered again and whispered a few words to him.

Lin Haoran’s expression became very rich, a mix of amusement and exasperation. He then turned directly to Ando Taro and Mimura Yohei and said, “Presidents, another old friend of yours has arrived.”

After speaking, he personally went to the door. Standing outside was none other than the current president of the Mitsui Group, Yahiro Toshiro.

Just as Yahiro Toshiro was about to greet Lin Haoran, Lin Haoran smiled and said directly, “President Yahiro, President Mimura and President Ando are already waiting for you in the private room.”

Hearing this, a flash of surprise crossed Yahiro Toshiro’s face, but he quickly composed himself. He smiled, nodded, and followed Lin Haoran into the room.

Inside the private room, Mimura Yohei and Ando Taro sat stiffly, their eyes revealing both surprise and vigilance.

When they saw Yahiro Toshiro walk in, their expressions became even more subtle.

“Well, if it isn’t Yahiro-kun? How rare. For the three of us to meet here today,” Mimura Yohei said, feigning a relaxed tone in an attempt to ease the tense atmosphere in the room.

Yahiro Toshiro responded with a smile, “President Mimura, President Ando, it’s been a while. I hear you’re all discussing a collaboration with Mr. Lin. I wonder what sort of collaboration you two are discussing with Mr. Lin?”

Among Japan’s four major financial groups, it was basically an unspoken rule that Toyota Motor would be controlled by the Mitsui Group in the future.

Therefore, in the past, neither the Mitsubishi Group, the Sumitomo Group, nor the Yasuda Group had ever made a move on Toyota Motor.

After all, Japan had more than one car company. The likes of Honda, Nissan, and even Mitsubishi Group’s own Mitsubishi Motors were only slightly inferior to Toyota Motor.

Faced with Yahiro Toshiro’s question, Mimura Yohei and Ando Taro glanced at each other, a complex look flashing in their eyes.

They both knew that today’s situation was rather delicate. Everyone’s goal was Toyota Motor’s shares, but no one had expected to simultaneously encounter representatives from two other major financial groups here.

“Hehe, President Yahiro, we were just exploring some possibilities for business collaboration with Mr. Lin,” Mimura Yohei said with a smile, his words somewhat vague and evasive.

Ando Taro chimed in, “That’s right, President Yahiro. We were just chatting casually. We didn’t expect you to come too. It seems everyone is quite interested in collaborating with Mr. Lin.”

Everyone was well aware of each other’s purpose; they just didn’t want to lay their cards on the table.

Watching these three big shots of the Japanese business world probe each other, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a little amused.

He understood that while this scene was awkward, it was precisely what his Toyota Motor shares had caused.

It looked like a deal would definitely not be struck today, but that was fine. If he sold too hastily, his returns would surely not be maximized.

And now that so many factions had their eyes on his twenty percent stake, he naturally had to seize the opportunity and get as much as he could.

Under these circumstances, he had no intention of continuing to consider any “friendship” from the Mitsubishi Group.

No matter how willing they were to cooperate with him now, they wouldn’t do business at a loss.

At most, he could make use of their connections.

And now, the other two factions present were not much weaker than the Mitsubishi Group.

What Lin Haoran didn’t expect was that several more factions would arrive one after another, including the Yasuda Group, the president of Toyota Company, and the Fuyo Group.

Who would have thought that on this night, Japan’s top business powers would gather in an ordinary private room?

Even the owner of the restaurant was now shivering with fear.

He couldn’t afford to offend a single one of the big shots inside.

The restaurant immediately stopped accepting other customers and had all its supervisor-level staff and above act as waiters.

Chapter 545: Fame in Japan, Stock Price Continues to Soar

With so many factions gathered, the meeting naturally ended without a resolution.

As far as Lin Haoran was concerned, since the shares he held were such a hot commodity, he was unwilling to sell them off so easily to just any single party.

So, in the end, no one got what they wanted.

As this “gathering” of representatives from Japan’s top financial groups broke up in a somewhat tense atmosphere, Lin Haoran understood that the twenty percent stake in Toyota Motor he held had become the core bargaining chip in a fierce commercial power play.

And this game had only just begun.

In the private room, Toyota Eiichi, the current president of Toyota Motor, had even invited Lin Haoran to join the Toyota Motor Board of Directors on behalf of the company.

However, Lin Haoran rejected him on the spot.

From his perspective, he had no intention of acquiring Toyota Motor, so there was no need to join any board of directors.

Lin Haoran’s refusal immediately sparked speculation among the tycoons present.

At the same time, he expressed his thoughts regarding the Toyota Motor shares. Everyone present was a big shot in Japan’s business world, and as an outsider, he was unwilling to offend any faction. He hoped they wouldn’t rush to approach him. If they truly wanted to acquire the shares he held, it would be best for them to go back, discuss, and come up with suitable terms before engaging in detailed talks with him. Otherwise, there was little point.

After bidding farewell to the various Japanese business tycoons, Lin Haoran left the restaurant with Yamada Keiko and the others.

This scene was covertly photographed by the Japanese paparazzi waiting outside the restaurant.

Japan’s major business leaders, all gathered in one restaurant—this was naturally a news story that would easily attract public attention.

After all, a gathering of so many tycoons was a rare sight.

In the blink of an eye, a night passed, and it was May 5th.

After waking up and having breakfast, Yamada Keiko began her routine of reading the news to Lin Haoran.

In today’s news, Lin Haoran had become the headline story for all the major media outlets. The reason was simple: the news that he held a twenty percent stake in Toyota Motor, making him its largest shareholder, had leaked out yesterday, and the media had been the first to learn of it.

Toyota Motor Corporation! This was a national brand for the Japanese people.

But now, it was as if their home had been burgled. A car brand they took such pride in now had such a significant portion of its shares controlled by a tycoon from Hong Kong, who had become the largest shareholder. This undoubtedly caused an uproar in the Japanese business world and throughout society.

Although becoming the largest shareholder did not immediately make him the controlling shareholder of Toyota Motor Corporation, all signs pointed to the high possibility that he intended to acquire Toyota Motor in the future.

Lin Haoran had secretly acquired Toyota Motor shares and become the largest shareholder without anyone knowing. So, what was his objective?

Did he want to take control of Japan’s number one car brand?

Or was it purely for investment?

Why, when no one was optimistic about the future of Japanese cars, would this tycoon from Hong Kong dare to invest a huge sum to acquire Toyota Motor shares?

The reports from the Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, and others were all extremely sensational.

In reality, Lin Haoran mostly paid attention to these few mainstream Japanese publications; he didn’t care much for the tabloids.

“SHOCKING! Mysterious Hong Kong Tycoon Lin Haoran Secretly Becomes Toyota’s Major Shareholder, 20% Stake Triggers Earthquake in Japan’s Business World!”

“Super-Rich Man from Hong Kong Secretly Becomes Toyota’s Major Shareholder, Is His Goal a Takeover?”

“Hong Kong Capital Tycoon’s ‘Toyota Blitz’: Do Lin Haoran’s Holdings Conceal Ambitions of Industrial Restructuring?”

“Invasion of Foreign Capital: Toyota Hunted by Hong Kong Tycoon, Japan’s Financial Groups Must Reflect!”

“Leaders of Numerous Financial Groups Gather at a Restaurant in the Central Ward, Including the Long-Unseen President of the Mitsubishi Group. What Was Their Purpose?”

“During the US-Japan Negotiations, While Major Japanese Financial Groups Remained Pessimistic About the Auto Industry’s Future, a Tycoon from Hong Kong Alone Showed Confidence in Its Prospects. Foreign Acquisition of a 20% Stake in Toyota Warrants Deep Reflection!”

“Toyota Belongs to Japan! It is Our Nation’s Pride! We Will Never Allow a Foreign Takeover!”

…

Article after article was filled with skepticism, shock, and discontent, pushing Lin Haoran into the eye of the storm.

The appearance of these articles was bound to set public opinion ablaze and stir up public emotion, sparking a major debate across Japan about foreign control of domestic national enterprises.

At that point, some might worry that this was a precursor to the hollowing out of Japanese industry, while others would call on the government to take measures to protect domestic companies from excessive foreign penetration.

Putting down the newspaper, Yamada Keiko’s face was filled with worry. “Haoran-kun, this media coverage is clearly ill-intentioned. They’re deliberately stirring up nationalist sentiment. Please be careful.”

Lin Haoran, however, was completely unconcerned. The media reports were merely guiding readers to believe that his purpose in acquiring Toyota Motor shares was to take over the company.

Yet, from start to finish, he had never considered acquiring Toyota Motor.

How could he not understand the media’s petty tricks?

If nothing else, back in Hong Kong, he had been targeted by the media multiple times—they spread rumors, manipulated public opinion, and so on.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was already used to the media’s tactics.

Just as Lin Haoran had thought, these media reports did indeed trigger nationwide attention and discussion.

Throughout the morning, discussions raged everywhere. On street corners, on television programs, and on radio stations, the event was being hotly debated.

Public sentiment was complex and varied, a mix of anxiety over a domestic brand being controlled by foreign capital and curiosity and speculation about the mysterious tycoon, Lin Haoran.

In the eyes of some conservatives and nationalists, Lin Haoran’s actions were undoubtedly an infringement on Japan’s economic sovereignty. They worried it would accelerate the hollowing out of Japanese industry and weaken Japan’s position in the global economy.

They called for the government to take immediate action, to restrict foreign penetration into key industries, and some even proposed that legislation should be passed to protect domestic companies from such “raids.”

However, a segment of liberal thinkers and economists held a different view.

They argued that in today’s globalized world, the flow of capital was inevitable. Moreover, the introduction of foreign investment often brought new technologies, management expertise, and market channels, which was not necessarily a bad thing for the long-term development of domestic enterprises.

They felt that as an internationally renowned brand, a more diverse ownership structure might bring new development opportunities to Toyota Motor and enhance its competitiveness in the global market. The invasion of foreign capital was not a bad thing.

In this great debate, Lin Haoran’s name was mentioned repeatedly, and his every move tugged at the heartstrings of countless people.

At that moment, Lin Haoran’s fame in Japan shot up to the point where he was almost universally recognized.

Just a day before, very few people knew who Lin Haoran was.

But now, Lin Haoran’s photo was in all the major newspapers and on television.

Everywhere, there were reports about Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Toyota Motor shares.

Everywhere, people were discussing Lin Haoran.

Under these circumstances, it was hard for the Japanese not to know who Lin Haoran was!

In other words, Lin Haoran was now thoroughly famous in Japan.

Meanwhile, discussions within investor circles were even more intense.

Everyone reached a consensus: the end of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations had brought good news for the Japanese auto industry, and Toyota Motor’s stock price had indeed soared for two consecutive trading days, just as everyone had expected.

However, now that the foreign shareholder Lin Haoran seemed likely to acquire even more Toyota Motor shares, any future countermeasures from the major financial groups or continued share accumulation by Lin Haoran would likely trigger a fierce battle for control of Toyota’s equity.

As a result, Toyota Motor’s stock price was bound to be significantly impacted. A continued surge was inevitable.

Therefore, as soon as the stock market opened today, Toyota Motor’s stock price took off like a sports car, racing upwards.

Although the stock prices of car companies like Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Mazda, and Suzuki also rose, after the first hour of trading, their share prices had only increased by less than two to three percent.

In that same hour, Toyota Motor’s stock price had once again risen by a terrifying figure of over ten percent.

It could be said that Toyota Motor’s stock price was leading by a mile!

After finishing the newspapers, Lin Haoran took Yamada Keiko to Hongkong Land Tower.

He went straight to the Galaxy Securities Department to watch the rise of Toyota Motor’s stock price.

Even Lin Haoran was surprised by such a surge; it completely exceeded his imagination.

Lin Haoran mused with some emotion that the Japanese stock market was truly incredible!

There were simply too many rich people here.

Even though the oil crisis had brought great economic losses to Japan and the unemployment rate had soared, you couldn’t see any of that in the stock market.

After all, Japan’s population base was enormous. With over one hundred million people, even if the wealthy were a minority, their numbers were still vast.

By noon, just before the market close, the pace of Toyota Motor’s stock price increase finally slowed considerably, and it even dipped back occasionally.

Even so, after one morning of trading, Toyota Motor’s stock price had risen by a staggering 15.8% compared to the previous day’s closing price.

This increase was a terrifying figure.

In comparison, the gains of other car brands like Honda, Nissan, and Mitsubishi were far behind Toyota Motor’s.

Besides Toyota Motor, the biggest gainer was Honda Motor, and even so, its increase was only 4.6%.

The reason Toyota Motor’s stock had risen so wildly, apart from it being Japan’s top-exporting car brand, was largely due to the influence of Lin Haoran becoming its largest shareholder.

Additionally, there was another important reason: because of Lin Haoran’s involvement, the fund companies and investment companies that had originally planned to sell or reduce their holdings of Toyota stock had now sold those shares to Lin Haoran, leading to a significant reduction of available stock on the secondary market.

These were the reasons why Toyota Motor’s stock continued its frantic rise on the third trading day after the conclusion of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations.

“Boss, the security guard downstairs reports that several reporters wish to interview you. Will you see them or not?” After reviewing the morning’s trading situation, Lin Haoran had just walked out of the Galaxy Securities Department’s office when Fok Kin-ning came over to report.

Chapter 546: Lin Haoran’s Proposal

What he disliked most was dealing with media outlets that would do anything for traffic.

From the morning’s reports, it was clear that these media outlets were deliberately trying to incite hostility toward him, an outsider.

But he didn’t care about it now, because he never had any intention of taking control of Toyota Motor from the very beginning.

Without that goal, once he sold off his Toyota shares in the future, these media reports wouldn’t affect him in the slightest.

“Alright, I’ll have the head of security respond and tell them to leave Hongkong Land Tower.” After speaking, Fok Kin-ning took a walkie-talkie and went to relay the message.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran took Yamada Keiko to the company canteen for lunch.

Lin Haoran had originally thought that quite a few tycoons from the financial groups would seek him out again in the morning.

But to his surprise, not a single faction contacted him all morning.

It seemed that with so many factions eyeing the twenty percent stake, the financial groups were taking a very cautious approach to making an offer.

After all, no one wanted to reveal their hand so easily in this complex game, much less pay an exorbitant price due to a moment of impulse.

However, Lin Haoran wasn’t concerned.

Even if the financial groups ultimately didn’t buy, he could still sell off the shares slowly through the stock market.

Would it cause a huge impact in the short term?

Then he would just sell them off slowly over the long term.

In any case, he was in no hurry to sell.

If the financial groups didn’t present him with a satisfactory offer, he wouldn’t agree so easily.

The current situation was that he was in an unassailable position, completely unfazed.

After lunch, Lin Haoran returned to his office.

Yamada Keiko, at his side, began to brew tea for him.

The Japanese, like the Chinese, enjoy drinking tea.

The difference was that here, steamed green tea was the primary choice.

Sipping his tea leisurely while gazing at the bustling streets of Tokyo outside his window, Lin Haoran contemplated his next move.

Although it seemed he held the advantage for now, the business world was like a battlefield—ever-changing. The slightest oversight could reverse the situation.

One couldn’t be too passive in anything they did.

“Keiko, what do you think the financial groups’ next move will be?” Lin Haoran suddenly asked with a smile, looking up at Yamada Keiko, who was massaging his shoulders.

Yamada Keiko paused for a moment, then began to think seriously. “Haoran-kun, I think they will probably test our bottom line first, to see if we’re truly willing to sell the shares and what price range we’re expecting. At the same time, they’ll also assess their own strength and the movements of other competitors, looking for the best time to make their move.”

Lin Haoran nodded. Last night, he had actually discussed the price with Mimura Yohei, the president of the Mitsubishi Group, and had even come close to accepting his offer.

However, the subsequent arrival of numerous other financial group tycoons prevented him from continuing the conversation on that topic.

Besides, seeing that everyone was gathered together, the tycoons were unwilling to continue the discussion and reveal their own hands.

Thus, even though everyone had come with the intention of acquiring Lin Haoran’s shares, the event ultimately devolved into an exchange of pleasantries.

By the time Lin Haoran left, no one had brought up the matter of acquiring his Toyota Motor shares again.

However, based on everyone’s cordial attitude from the previous night, Lin Haoran could tell that only three people were truly keen on acquiring his shares: Mimura Yohei of the Mitsubishi Group, Yahiro Toshiro of the Mitsui Group, and Ando Taro of the Sumitomo Group.

As for the other major financial groups, like the Yasuda Group and the Fuyo Group, it felt like they were just there to stir up trouble. They didn’t want to see the Mitsui and Mitsubishi Groups grow stronger, adopting an attitude of ‘we’ll buy if we can, but we don’t care if we can’t.’

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Lin Haoran sat up a little straighter and called out, “Come in.”

Yamada Keiko stopped massaging him and went to stand by his side.

The person who entered was none other than Fok Kin-ning.

“Boss, sorry to bother you, but more and more reporters are gathering downstairs. There are over fifty of them now. The security guards told them to leave, but they all said they won’t go until they see you,” Fok Kin-ning said with a wry smile.

“Why are reporters everywhere like this?” Lin Haoran frowned and said with a sense of resignation.

The reporters back in Hong Kong were the same; if they couldn’t get an interview, they wouldn’t leave.

Now here in Japan, the reporters were acting the same way.

“Boss, it looks like you’ll have to see them,” Fok Kin-ning continued.

“In that case, I’ll meet with them. Have the security guards organize them and set up a simple, temporary press conference. I’ll go down to see them shortly,” Lin Haoran said after some thought.

Letting this continue would only cause trouble for the staff at Hongkong Land Tower.

He was also well aware of why these reporters were looking for him. Since that was the case, there was no harm in meeting them.

“Alright, Boss. I’ll go down and make the arrangements. You can come down in about twenty minutes,” Fok Kin-ning said before leaving the office.

Watching Fok Kin-ning’s departing figure, Lin Haoran fell into thought.

The reporters wanted to interview him for one simple reason: to confirm whether he was truly aiming to acquire Toyota Motor.

By now, Japan’s top powers knew that it was impossible for Lin Haoran to acquire Toyota Motor. It was only these reporters and the general public who remained suspicious.

Since that was the case, he might as well openly admit that he wouldn’t be acquiring Toyota Motor.

As for whether it would affect Toyota’s stock price, he knew that even if he said nothing, the stock’s recent surge couldn’t last much longer anyway.

He was already very satisfied with the current gains, which had exceeded his expectations.

Soon, twenty minutes had passed, and Lin Haoran stood up.

Yamada Keiko straightened his clothes and fixed his hair, and only then did Lin Haoran walk out of the office.

He took the elevator and quickly arrived at the building’s lobby.

A simple, temporary press conference had already been set up in the lobby.

Dozens of security guards were maintaining order.

As for the reporters, Lin Haoran took one look and saw far more than fifty people. There were at least a hundred.

There were many media offices nearby, so it was likely they all came over after hearing that Lin Haoran would be holding a press conference.

Lin Haoran’s appearance instantly quieted the scene. All cameras and eyes focused on him. After a brief moment of silence, a clamor quickly erupted again.

“Everyone, please be quiet,” Fok Kin-ning said into a microphone.

The reporters gradually fell silent once more.

Then, Fok Kin-ning handed the microphone to Lin Haoran.

“Friends from the Japanese media, hello everyone. I am Lin Haoran. I know you all have many questions for me, and today, I am here to give you a clear answer,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, standing before the crowd.

“First, I want to clarify one thing. I hold a twenty percent stake in Toyota Motor, but this does not mean I intend to acquire the company. I have never had such an idea, nor have I ever taken any action to achieve that goal.” Lin Haoran’s words were firm and resolute, causing the reporters present to look at each other in surprise.

“In that case, Mr. Lin, what is your purpose for holding so many shares?” a reporter shouted out, breaking the brief silence.

Lin Haoran smiled faintly and replied, “I hold these shares purely for investment reasons. Toyota Motor is an outstanding company, and I believe in its future growth potential.

A few months ago, everyone was full of concern about the future of the Japanese auto industry, and stock prices were consequently at a low point. In my view, this was an investment opportunity. I believed that Toyota Motor’s future would not be affected in any way by the US-Japan auto trade negotiations.

As it turns out, my investment decision was very wise, even more so than I had imagined. I originally thought Toyota’s stock price would go through a long period of decline, and I was prepared to hold the shares long-term. But unexpectedly, as soon as the negotiation results were out, Toyota’s stock price soared, which was a very pleasant surprise. Of course, stock price fluctuations are market behavior, and I cannot fully predict them, but I remain confident in Toyota Motor’s long-term growth prospects.”

“But, Mr. Lin, your investment has drawn widespread attention and concern in the Japanese business community. Some are even worried that you will use your shares to launch a hostile takeover of Toyota Motor or interfere with its operations. What are your thoughts on this?” another reporter pressed, his tone sharp.

“On that point, if you had interviewed Mr. Toyota Eiichi, the president of Toyota Motor Corporation, you would know that I declined his invitation to join Toyota’s Board of Directors. That in itself should represent my stance.

I respect Toyota Motor’s independence and the decisions of its management team. I have never had any intention of a hostile takeover or of interfering with its operations. I am simply a shareholder who is optimistic about Toyota’s future and hopes to receive a reasonable return on investment. That is all,” Lin Haoran responded calmly.

“Mr. Lin, weren’t you worried before that if the US-Japan auto trade negotiations resulted in severe sanctions from the United States against Japan, Toyota’s stock price would plummet and you would lose your entire investment?” another reporter threw out a pointed question, trying to dig into the deeper considerations behind Lin Haoran’s decision.

“That’s a good question. Actually, I am not at all concerned about the results of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations having any impact on Toyota Motor. Even if the consequences were severe, I wouldn’t be worried, because I have my own proposal for Toyota’s development.

I believe that if Toyota’s senior executives were to adopt this proposal, then the future of Toyota—and even other Japanese auto brands like Honda, Mitsubishi, and Mazda—would not be affected by the negotiation results!” Lin Haoran stated calmly.

Lin Haoran’s words immediately sparked a heated discussion among the reporters.

What kind of proposal could allow Japanese cars to be immune to US sanctions?

Even the top experts in their auto industry hadn’t figured out how to solve this issue.

This was the reason the Japanese auto industry had been so pessimistic lately.

But now, Lin Haoran was actually saying he had a way to counter the US sanctions on the Japanese auto industry?

They couldn’t wait to find out what Lin Haoran’s solution was.

Lin Haoran observed the reporters’ reactions, smiled faintly, and continued, “It’s actually very simple. The reason the United States is sanctioning the Japanese auto industry is nothing more than the massive import of Japanese cars leading to a sharp decline in sales for domestic American vehicles. This has had a huge impact on workers in the American auto industry, with many even being laid off.

And the solution to this problem is simple: localize the Japanese auto brands in the United States. For example, Japanese brands like Toyota and Honda could build factories in the US, achieving local production and bringing more jobs to America. If they do that, the United States will naturally have no reason to sanction Japanese cars!”

In fact, a year later, companies like Toyota and Honda did exactly that. Because of the sanctions, their exports to the United States were indeed affected.

Therefore, to break the impasse, they eventually had no choice but to go and build factories in the United States.

Lin Haoran wasn’t proposing this now to genuinely help the Japanese auto industry; he was merely causing the strategy to appear ahead of its time, perhaps to make Toyota’s stock price rise even further.

The moment his voice fell, a wave of gasps and murmurs erupted from the crowd.

Chapter 547: A Move Devised on the Spur of the Moment

Lin Haoran’s proposal was a real eye-opener for many of the reporters.

Previously, with the United States’ sudden implementation of targeted policies, the Japanese auto industry was instantly plunged into a panic. Everyone believed that once sanctions were imposed, Japanese car brands would most likely face a swift decline.

This was the primary reason why brands like Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, and Nissan had been met with such pessimism from nearly everyone between February and April.

After all, the United States was the world’s largest market and the most crucial export destination for Japanese products.

In fact, of all Japan’s car exports, the number sent to the United States accounted for nearly half the total volume.

One could only imagine how devastating the loss of half their exports would be to Japanese car brands.

This was why the Japanese auto industry had been so pessimistic before the results of the US-Japan auto trade negotiations were announced.

“Why didn’t anyone think of this idea before?”

“Exactly! If they move part of their production to the United States, the problem will naturally be solved. Although production costs in the US are slightly higher than in Japan, once you factor in the savings on tariffs, transportation costs, and so on, the total cost should actually be lower!”

“In that case, even if the United States imposes severe sanctions on our Japanese auto industry, as long as they establish branch factories in America, our brands won’t be significantly affected. At worst, we’ll just lose some jobs here in our own country.”

…

In an instant, the reporters erupted into a flurry of discussion. Lin Haoran’s proposal felt like a moment of sudden enlightenment.

“Everyone, I believe that even if you aren’t experts in the auto industry, you can intuitively feel that Japanese brands like Toyota Motor and Honda Motor have already built a strong reputation in the American market and accumulated a large base of loyal users.

Otherwise, the United States wouldn’t have specifically targeted Japanese cars with sanctions. This all happened because Japan’s growing market share in the US made America panic.

Beyond the obvious advantages, I believe there are many deeper benefits. For instance, by localizing production, companies can effectively circumvent high tariffs and trade barriers, significantly reducing logistics costs.

At the same time, shortening the supply chain cycle means that automotive products can respond more quickly to market demand, allowing them to seize market opportunities.

Furthermore, to attract the return of the manufacturing industry, the US government is offering a series of preferential policies, such as tax relief and infrastructure support, which will undoubtedly further enhance corporate profitability.

More critically, building factories locally in the United States can significantly boost brand trust in the eyes of consumers, thereby expanding market share.

And having a diversified production base layout can also reduce dependence on a single market, effectively mitigating the impact of external risks like geopolitical fluctuations and natural disasters on the supply chain.

Of course, these are just a few simple thoughts from a ‘layman’ like myself. I’m sure industry insiders can perceive even more profound value.” Seeing the on-site discussion heating up, Lin Haoran added with a smile.

He said all this merely to get the reporters to change the subject; he truly didn’t want to answer too many questions about himself.

It now seemed that the topic had been successfully shifted.

Building branch factories in the United States was something the Japanese auto industry would do sooner or later. He had just brought the matter to light a little earlier. By that logic, these Japanese auto companies ought to be grateful to him.

Little did they know, they would have come up with this plan themselves in just over a year. So even if Lin Haoran hadn’t said anything, these Japanese auto companies would have soon taken this path anyway.

As an island nation in an earthquake zone, Japan experiences too many natural disasters. Earthquakes, tsunamis, and the like are common occurrences, and it was perfectly normal for finished cars to be lost and suffer heavy damages due to such events.

Every word of Lin Haoran’s was recorded verbatim by the reporters.

At that moment, the entire tone of the interview had been reversed.

Since Lin Haoran had already promised not to actually acquire Toyota Motor and had offered the Japanese auto industry a very good proposal, it would be a bit much to continue targeting him.

“Everyone, I have other matters to attend to, so let’s conclude our chat for today,” Lin Haoran said, smiling and nodding to the reporters. Then, surrounded by his bodyguards, he quickly left the interview area and entered a nearby elevator.

The reporters had wanted to swarm him with more questions, but they were stopped by security guards and had no choice but to give up.

However, they had reaped a good harvest today, so the reporters all left the Hongkong Land Tower and returned to their companies.

The once-bustling scene was instantly quiet again.

Sitting in his office and watching the media vehicles drive away from the Hongkong Land Tower below, the corners of Lin Haoran’s mouth curled up slightly into an almost imperceptible smile.

His heart was not filled with the simple kindness of giving the Japanese auto industry a friendly reminder.

He was, after all, currently facing the tricky situation of multiple financial groups coveting his shares and trying to buy them.

And today’s seemingly casual act of “offering advice” to the Japanese auto industry was, in fact, a move he had intentionally devised on the spur of the moment.

Lin Haoran understood very well that only by making top-tier Japanese financial groups like Mitsubishi and Mitsui clearly see the vast future prospects of the Japanese auto industry and the enormous profits hidden within would they become even more determined to acquire the shares he held.

After all, if the Japanese auto industry developed in the direction he had guided—for example, by successfully building factories in the US and expanding their overseas markets—it would lead to an immeasurable increase in wealth.

And driven by profit, these financial groups, in order to get a piece of the pie from this feast of wealth, would naturally try to acquire his shares at any cost. This would allow them to better participate in the distribution of dividends brought by this industry transformation in the future, rather than quibbling with him over the asking price just to reduce their investment.

Furthermore, this proposal would also boost shareholders’ confidence in the domestic auto industry, preventing the stock price growth of the major auto companies from losing momentum.

What Lin Haoran didn’t know was that the news of his interview at the Hongkong Land Tower, and its content, spread to the major financial groups and auto companies with incredible speed.

Before long, the senior executives of Japanese auto companies like Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, and Nissan also began paying close attention to the event.

They each convened emergency meetings to discuss Lin Haoran’s proposal and its potential impact.

In a spacious conference room at Toyota Motor’s headquarters, the atmosphere was both tense and heated. The company’s senior executives sat around a long table, engaged in a fierce discussion about Lin Haoran’s proposal.

“Everyone, what are your thoughts on Mr. Lin Haoran’s proposal to establish branch factories in the United States?” Toyota Eiichi asked in a deep voice, his gaze sweeping over the twenty-plus senior executives in the room.

“I think we can consider this proposal. The American market is simply too important for us,” a Toyota executive said, breaking the silence. He pushed up his glasses and continued, “Moreover, diversifying our production bases can also reduce the risks we face. Just like the earthquake in South Izu, Shizuoka, seven years ago, which triggered a tsunami that dealt a devastating blow to our vehicle depot in Tokyo. The losses were catastrophic. It’s a cautionary tale.”

“That’s right. And once we move part of our production to the US, their export restrictions on us will lose any real substance,” another Toyota executive added.

“Be that as it may, we cannot become completely dependent on the American market.” A senior Director at Toyota frowned, a hint of worry in his tone. “Lin Haoran’s proposal sounds tempting, but we must also consider the various challenges we might face building a factory in the US, such as cultural differences, labor issues, and changes in local policies.”

“This isn’t a question of dependence. Are you suggesting we give up on the American market? It’s too important to us right now. And by building a branch factory there, our share of the US market might expand even further!” another senior executive retorted.

“Mr. Lin’s proposal is truly excellent. I never thought someone who isn’t an industry insider could come up with such an insightful suggestion. President, Mr. Lin is now our Major shareholder. If he were to join Toyota Motor, he might be able to provide us with even more good advice,” a senior executive suggested.

“Don’t even think about it. I personally invited him to join the Board of Directors last night, and he refused!” Toyota Eiichi said with a helpless sigh.

Meanwhile, in a luxurious conference room at Honda Motor, the atmosphere was similarly tense and charged.

“Mr. Lin’s proposal is very forward-thinking. Moving a portion of our production to the United States will not only allow us to avoid high tariffs but also enhance our competitiveness in the local market,” a middle-aged senior executive said excitedly, waving a report in his hand. “Furthermore, the preferential policies offered by the US government to attract the manufacturing industry back are a rare opportunity for us.”

“But what about the cost?” another Honda executive questioned. “Production costs and land lease prices in the United States are not low. We need to consider how to balance cost and revenue.”

In a conference room at Mitsubishi Motors, the discussion was just as intense.

“I believe this is a direction worth exploring,” said one of Mitsubishi’s market strategists. “By building a factory in the United States, we can get closer to local consumers, understand their needs, and adjust our product strategy accordingly. Our export volume can’t compare to Honda’s or Toyota’s, so we have all the more reason to catch up.”

“However, we can’t ignore the potential of other markets either,” another Mitsubishi executive added. “Places like South Asia and Europe are all directions we can expand into in the future. And establishing branch factories there is also an excellent path forward, one that could win us the support of local governments.”

In a conference room at Nissan Motor, senior executives were also having an in-depth discussion about Lin Haoran’s proposal.

“This proposal is indeed very attractive, but we need to evaluate it cautiously,” said one of Nissan’s financial analysts. “Besides considering costs and benefits, we also need to pay attention to the competitive landscape in the US market, as well as potential legal and policy risks.”

“That’s right, we can’t just blindly follow the trend,” Nissan’s CEO concluded. “We need to formulate a plan that aligns with our company’s actual situation and strategic goals—one that serves our current interests while also being beneficial for long-term development.”

Chapter 548: Mimura Yohei Visits Again

Lin Haoran never expected that a suggestion he made offhandedly would plunge Japan’s major automobile manufacturers into unprecedentedly deep thought and heated discussion.

The financial groups, too, became even more optimistic about the future of the Japanese auto industry.

Certain news, fanned by interested parties, spread to the ears of shareholders with extreme speed.

At 12:30 PM, the Tokyo Stock Exchange officially ended its lunch break.

At that moment, some bewildered shareholders suddenly discovered that the afternoon surge of automobile brands continued to lead the pack by a wide margin.

And this time, it wasn’t just Toyota Motor surging dramatically. The stock prices of companies like Honda, Nissan, and Mazda had also risen more than they had in the morning.

It was madness. The stock market had gone mad, and so had the shareholders.

Backed by a wave of positive news, many shareholders jumped on the bandwagon, buying shares in Japanese auto companies, terrified of missing this rare money-making opportunity.

The Stock Exchange was in an uproar. Traders busily typed on their keyboards, and the constantly flashing numbers on the simple electronic screen outside the main hall showed the soaring stock prices.

Last year, in 1980, the Tokyo Stock Exchange had already adopted an electronic trading system, which greatly facilitated stock market transactions, making the buying and selling of stocks faster and more efficient.

Now, amid this frenzy of rising auto stocks, the advantages of the electronic trading system were being fully leveraged.

“It’s up, it’s up again! Toyota Motor’s stock price has hit a new high!” a shareholder shouted excitedly, his face beaming with a thrilled smile.

“Yeah, and Honda’s rise is just as fierce. It looks like the Japanese auto industry is really about to see some major development!” another shareholder chimed in, equally excited.

As the stock prices continued to climb, a fervent atmosphere permeated the entire Stock Exchange.

Shareholders felt as if wealth was beckoning to them, and they all increased their investments, hoping to get a piece of the pie in this stock market feast.

And those shareholders who had been on the sidelines could no longer contain their excitement when they saw the Japanese auto industry’s stock prices soaring like this.

Some shareholders who had originally focused on other industries now turned their attention to the auto sector.

A bull market for automotive companies was dawning.

“Boss, the stock market is absolutely insane today! We initially thought Toyota Motor’s stock price would slow its rise or even show signs of decline in the afternoon, but unexpectedly, it bounced back again. It’s only been half an hour since the market opened, and it’s already up another four points. That’s just outrageous!” In the office of the Galaxy Securities Department, the department head excitedly reported to Lin Haoran, who had just walked in.

The trading hours of the Tokyo Stock Exchange were different from those of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

In Hong Kong, post-lunch trading began at 1:00 PM.

But the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s lunch break was from 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM, meaning post-lunch trading started at 12:30 PM.

Hmm?

Hearing the report from the head of the Galaxy Securities Department, Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

Had the press conference he just held taken effect so quickly?

He hadn’t expected the suggestion he made offhandedly to so quickly become like a huge boulder thrown into a calm lake, creating ripple after ripple. It not only plunged the senior executives of the Japanese auto industry into deep thought but also triggered an unprecedented frenzy in the stock market.

He had thought that even if it did affect the stock market, it would need some time to ferment.

It seemed someone was definitely fanning the flames from behind the scenes!

For example, the major players holding numerous shares of auto companies.

For these people, the higher the stock prices of these auto companies rose, the better.

“Up another four points? What’s the market capitalization now?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

In the morning, Toyota Motor had already soared by an incredible 15.8%.

And in the afternoon, just half an hour after the market opened, instead of falling, it had risen another four points. Lin Haoran was very curious about how astonishing Toyota Motor’s market capitalization had become.

“Toyota Motor’s total market capitalization has reached about 2.87 trillion Japanese yen. This is also the highest market cap in Toyota’s history, setting a new record for its stock price,” the department head quickly reported.

Lin Haoran nodded.

2.87 trillion Japanese yen. Since he held 20% of the shares, on paper, his stake in Toyota Motor was now worth 574 billion Japanese yen.

Converted to Hong Kong dollars, that was about 14.3 billion Hong Kong dollars.

In that case, had the return on his investment nearly doubled?

Citibank had only helped him invest 319.8 billion Japanese yen, and now that investment had transformed into a market value of 574 billion Japanese yen.

He wondered if Toyota Motor’s stock price could double in the short term.

Lin Haoran grew even more expectant.

And from the looks of it, there were still three hours of trading time left in the afternoon. The final increase might yet bring him another surprise.

The shock the Japanese shareholders gave him was far greater than that of the Hong Kong shareholders.

Incredible, truly incredible.

Investing in Toyota Motor back then was simply brilliant.

Rise, keep rising. The more it rises, the better!

As long as he didn’t sell, any increase in Toyota Motor’s stock price was good news for him.

Lin Haoran couldn’t help but glance at Yamada Keiko standing beside him. If she hadn’t mentioned the US-Japan auto trade negotiations that day, he would never have thought of making a move on Toyota Motor.

Looking at it this way, Yamada Keiko was simply his lucky star!

Yamada Keiko saw her boss look over, and though she was a little perplexed, she offered a lovely smile.

“Boss, President Mimura Yohei of the Mitsubishi Group is here to visit. Should I say you’re not in?” At that moment, Fok Kin-ning’s assistant walked over quickly and asked.

This assistant, as it happened, had originally applied for the position of Lin Haoran’s secretary.

But later, Lin Haoran found her to be exceptionally talented and made her Fok Kin-ning’s assistant instead.

“Mimura Yohei? No need, just say I’m here!” Lin Haoran replied without a second thought.

After all, the man was the current leader of the Mitsubishi Group. He definitely had to see him.

However, they hadn’t come in the morning but chose to come now. Could it be that they had already reconsidered their offer?

Last night, Mimura Yohei had come to see him at the first opportunity, which was enough to show how desperately the Mitsubishi Group wanted these Toyota Motor shares.

Although the Mitsubishi Group owned Mitsubishi Motors, the gap between Mitsubishi Motors and Toyota Motor was still significant.

So, it was understandable why the Mitsubishi Group, despite already owning Mitsubishi Motors, still wanted to compete with the Mitsui Group for Toyota Motor.

“Understood. I’ll have the front desk reply to them immediately,” the assistant said and then hurried out of the Galaxy Securities Department office.

Lin Haoran, for his part, prepared to go back to his own office.

But just as he was about to walk out the door, he turned back and said to the head of the Galaxy Securities Department, “If there are any major changes in Toyota Motor’s stock, like a big surge or a steep drop, report to me immediately!”

“Yes, Boss,” the department head said with a respectful nod.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction, then left the Galaxy Securities Department office with Yamada Keiko and headed for the elevators.

After all, the visitor was the leader of the Mitsubishi Group; he had to show some respect.

Before long, the elevator doors opened, and several people walked out, among them the current president of the Mitsubishi Group, Mimura Yohei.

“President Mimura, hello. Welcome to the Hongkong Land Group.” Lin Haoran smiled and extended a hand to shake Mimura Yohei’s, his attitude neither servile nor overbearing.

“Mr. Lin, please forgive my impudence in disturbing you again,” Mimura Yohei said. At this moment, he sounded less like the head of Japan’s largest financial group and more like an extremely polite guest toward Lin Haoran, a businessman from Hong Kong.

After all, the man had a favor to ask of Lin Haoran, so he wasn’t surprised.

If he didn’t need the Toyota Motor shares, the man probably wouldn’t be adopting such a humble posture.

Lin Haoran smiled and waved his hand. “President Mimura, you’re too kind. Please, come to my office.”

The group entered Lin Haoran’s office. After everyone was seated according to their roles as host and guests, Yamada Keiko served fragrant tea. The aroma wafted through the air but could hardly conceal the faint, tense atmosphere.

Mimura Yohei took a light sip from his teacup. After setting it down, his gaze fell directly on Lin Haoran, and he got straight to the point. “Mr. Lin, I’ve come today regarding the matter of the Toyota Motor shares.”

Lin Haoran’s heart stirred, but his expression remained impassive. He raised an eyebrow slightly and asked, “Oh? And what price is President Mimura offering this time?”

Mimura Yohei slowly raised a hand, paused it in mid-air, and then said in a steady tone, “Mr. Lin, our Mitsubishi Group is willing to acquire the Toyota Motor shares you hold at a reasonable price of 5% above the market’s closing price this morning.

“I’m sure you’re aware that although auto stock prices are still climbing, the increase is somewhat extraordinary. A trend like this carries the risk of a sudden drop at any moment.

“As far as I know, your cost of acquiring the Toyota Motor shares was not particularly high, and you have already reaped a bountiful harvest. Of course, I am well aware that this is a return you deserve, earned through your precise insight into Toyota Motor’s development prospects.”

Lin Haoran listened to him with a blank expression.

Five percent above the morning’s closing price?

That was about the same as the stock price he had just seen.

The corners of his mouth suddenly curved upward into a meaningful smile. “President Mimura, Toyota Motor’s stock price is indeed rising, and impressively so.

“As for your mention of a possible drop at any time, that’s just the normal risk of market fluctuations. But I have full confidence in Toyota’s future and don’t believe it will fall so easily.

“In fact, I have no intention of selling my Toyota Motor shares in the short term. In my view, Toyota Motor has a bright future. Even if it occasionally encounters some crises, it will overcome them quickly. Therefore, holding on to Toyota Motor shares long-term is the best investment.”

Chapter 549: The Initiative is in His Hands

“In that case, Mr. Lin, let’s be direct. Why don’t you name a price? Deals are made through negotiation. If you don’t tell us your target price, it will be difficult for us to proceed. An investment is an investment, no matter the industry.

“Although Toyota Motor’s future prospects are excellent, other industries are just as open to investment. I believe that liquidating your shares in Toyota Motor wouldn’t be unacceptable to you. After all, capital creates more value when it’s flowing.

“You’ll have to sell to someone eventually. As the largest financial group in Japan, Mitsubishi possesses the most extensive resources and influence in the country. Mr. Lin’s status in Hong Kong is somewhat similar to our position here in Japan. A deal for the Toyota Motor shares would only be the beginning of our cooperation.

“I believe that you and Mitsubishi will have many more cross-regional collaborations in the future. A smooth transaction will be the key to opening a long-term, friendly relationship between us.

“Furthermore, regarding your Toyota Motor shares, I suggest you make a decision as soon as possible. Based on last night’s events, you should understand that quite a few financial groups are after the shares you hold.

“While you could hold out for a better price, the longer you drag this on, the more people you’ll actually offend. As things stand now, you’ve reached a point where you have to sell your Toyota Motor shares even if you don’t want to.

“Perhaps they could do nothing to you if you had no plans to expand in Japan. But judging by your investments, I believe you hope to make your mark in the Japanese market. Therefore, my advice is to act decisively.

“Sell the shares before everyone else has a chance to react. That way, they’ll be left with no recourse. After all, none of them made you an offer last night!”

Mimura Yohei didn’t get angry at Lin Haoran’s refusal. Instead, as if he had anticipated this reaction, he spoke at length, a faint smile on his face as he tried to persuade him.

After all, business was never that simple.

Lin Haoran fell silent in the face of Mimura Yohei’s rhetorical questions.

To be honest, Lin Haoran didn’t really have a price in mind.

Initially, when he had secretly tasked Citibank with acquiring Toyota Motor shares, his ultimate goal was a thirty to forty percent gain, which he would have been very satisfied with.

But now, compared to his initial investment, the stock price had nearly doubled.

So, the current stock price had already far exceeded his expectations.

Now, the explosive rise of Toyota Motor’s stock price left him somewhat conflicted.

He definitely had to sell. After all, the fundamental reason for investing in Toyota Motor was his current need for cash.

And the sooner he sold, the sooner he could make his mark here in Japan.

Besides, Mimura Yohei was right. As Japan’s number one financial group, the Mitsubishi Group possessed the most powerful connections and resources.

If Lin Haoran could build a good relationship with them, it would indeed be beneficial for his own businesses to gain a foothold in Japan.

At the same time, the longer he dragged it out, with everyone making offers, the more likely he was to offend the other players, especially the Mitsui Group and the Sumitomo Group.

The former, aside from the Toyoda family and himself, was the financial group that currently held the most shares in Toyota Motor.

The latter was one of the four major financial groups, intent on surpassing the Mitsui Group.

At this moment, Lin Haoran was lost in thought.

Mimura Yohei didn’t interrupt him, simply sipping his tea by himself.

He truly believed Lin Haoran’s purpose in acquiring Toyota Motor shares was to hold them long-term, or even to take over the company.

Therefore, to be honest, Mimura Yohei wasn’t very confident he could persuade Lin Haoran and close the deal.

Should he use the Mitsubishi Group’s status as Japan’s top financial group to pressure him?

Mimura Yohei knew that certainly wouldn’t work.

It might be different if the other party were just an ordinary businessman.

But this man’s wealth was among the top tier in the entire world. His personal fortune was comparable to one of Japan’s top financial groups.

While his assets certainly couldn’t compare to the entire Mitsubishi Group’s, the crucial point was that his assets belonged to one person. In contrast, many of the assets controlled by the Mitsubishi Group were merely controlling stakes, and a financial group was completely different from an individual. The Mitsubishi Group was, in reality, a coalition of multiple powers.

As for Yamada Keiko, his personal secretary, she didn’t even dare to make a sound in this situation, merely refilling the two men’s teacups.

Who would have thought that the most powerful business tycoon in Japan, the leader of the Mitsubishi Group, would be so humble and cautious in front of her boss? This revelation caused Yamada Keiko’s estimation of her boss to rise yet again.

Lin Haoran contemplated deeply, his fingers tapping a rhythmic beat on the desk unconsciously.

After a long while, Lin Haoran suddenly looked up and said to Mimura Yohei, “President Mimura, you’re right. I did originally plan to hold the Toyota Motor shares long-term, with the aim of reaping greater profits. At the end of the day, it’s all about making money.

“Therefore, as long as the price is right, selling sooner or later makes little difference to me. Since that’s the case, I’ll give you one firm price. For my shares in Toyota Motor, I’m asking for six hundred billion Japanese yen. What do you think?

“I don’t think this is an exorbitant demand. Just ten minutes ago, Toyota Motor’s total market capitalization reached two trillion, eight hundred and seventy billion Japanese yen. Based on the real-time market price, my twenty percent stake is equivalent to five hundred and seventy-four billion Japanese yen. I believe President Mimura is aware of this. With Toyota Motor’s growth potential, I don’t think it will take long for its market cap to break three trillion!”

Asking for six hundred billion Japanese yen for a twenty percent stake in Toyota Motor effectively pushed the company’s total market capitalization to the three-trillion-yen mark.

And just moments ago, as far as Lin Haoran knew, Toyota Motor’s market cap was still around two trillion, eight hundred and seventy billion Japanese yen. Given Toyota’s enormous size, a further rise of about four and a half percent would push it past three trillion yen.

Was it an outrageous price? Lin Haoran didn’t think so.

After all, they were the ones begging to buy, not him begging to sell!

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Mimura Yohei’s brow furrowed tightly. The offer was clearly beyond his expectations.

Six hundred billion Japanese yen was twenty to thirty billion yen higher than his target price.

“Mr. Lin, although the share prices of major auto companies have indeed continued to rise this afternoon, I believe Toyota Motor’s stock has risen enough in the past few days. Even if it continues to climb, it’s not likely to go up much further. Once shareholders become more rational, the price will inevitably fall.

“Mr. Lin, why don’t we each meet in the middle? Five hundred and eighty billion Japanese yen, how about it? If you agree, I can sign the transaction agreement with you on behalf of the Mitsubishi Group immediately!” Mimura Yohei said directly.

For a massive financial group like Mitsubishi, the most powerful in Japan, twenty billion Japanese yen was a sum they could produce at any time, but it was by no means a small amount. They would naturally save it if they could.

In the long run, Toyota Motor’s value would certainly rise, but as for when it would break the three-trillion-yen market cap—whether it would be a short time or a long one—truthfully, even Lin Haoran couldn’t be sure.

Thus, he hesitated.

However, Lin Haoran quickly remembered that the initiative was in his hands; their roles should not be reversed.

An extra twenty billion was no small sum to him.

After all, that was nearly five hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

If he could make an extra five hundred million Hong Kong dollars, he certainly hoped to do so.

His stance had to be firm. How could he let the other party persuade him so easily?

What’s more, he didn’t think the price he had quoted was all that outrageous.

With this in mind, Lin Haoran shook his head slightly, his expression firm as he said, “President Mimura, I don’t feel my offer is excessive in any way. Look at the current situation. The world is mired in an oil crisis, yet Toyota Motor’s export volume continued to rise last year.

“The real impact of the United States’ sanctions on Japan is far less severe than imagined. Moreover, as long as Toyota Motor shifts some of its production capacity to the United States, the sanctions will make little to no difference.

“This means Toyota Motor’s upward momentum is a sure thing. Its stock price will only continue to climb. It makes me wonder, is Toyota Motor really not worth three trillion Japanese yen?

“In my opinion, its value is far greater than that; it could be even higher! I know the Mitsubishi Group might find this price hard to accept, but I believe either the Sumitomo Group or the Mitsui Group would be willing to pay it.

“Therefore, I don’t think I’m making an exorbitant demand. This is a very reasonable price. If you can’t even meet this price, then I believe it’s in my best interest to continue holding onto the shares.

“Of course, as you just said, if I do decide to sell, I would still prefer to cooperate with the Mitsubishi Group! That’s on the condition that you accept my reasonable offer. This price is my bottom line.

“If President Mimura is not satisfied with this offer, you can take some more time to consider it. You could even go back and discuss it further. Rest assured, if I do reach an agreement with the Sumitomo Group or the Mitsui Group, I will certainly inform you in advance!

“Furthermore, this price is only for the present moment. If we don’t reach an agreement in the short term, the negotiation price will also change with any movements in the market price. If President Mimura believes Toyota Motor’s stock will fall, then you are welcome to wait!”

Hearing this, Mimura Yohei was somewhat speechless. How was this a negotiation? He had basically set a fixed price.

However, he did not speak immediately, instead pondering how to continue the conversation.

“Get me another cup of hot tea,” Lin Haoran said, turning to Yamada Keiko as he emptied the cup of tea that had long since gone cold.

Chapter 550: Six Hundred Billion, It’s a Deal!

Normally, when it was just Lin Haoran and Yamada Keiko, she would affectionately call him “Haoran-kun,” her tone carrying a hint of intimacy and casualness.

However, as soon as anyone else was present, Yamada Keiko would instantly switch her address, respectfully calling him “Boss,” demonstrating her professionalism and sense of propriety.

Just then, the telephone on the desk began to ring.

The sound pulled Mimura Yohei, still lost in thought, back to reality.

His gaze immediately shot to the phone.

Lin Haoran had already reached out, picked up the telephone receiver, and answered the call.

“Hello, this is Lin Haoran. May I ask who is calling?”

“Ah, so it’s President Yahiro. You say you’d like to pay me a visit? Of course, you can, President Yahiro. I’m free anytime. Just come whenever you’re ready. I’ll be waiting for you at the company!”

…

The caller was none other than Yahiro Toshiro, the president of the Mitsui Group and one of the Mitsubishi Group’s main rivals in the business world.

When Mimura Yohei, president of the Mitsubishi Group, heard that the caller was Yahiro Toshiro, his expression instantly turned grim, a flicker of vigilance and unease flashing in his eyes.

A sense of urgency made him realize the gravity of the situation at once.

Mimura Yohei knew full well that Yahiro Toshiro’s call to Lin Haoran at this moment was no simple courtesy visit. His purpose was the same as his own: to acquire the Toyota Motor shares.

From the phone call, he gathered that Yahiro Toshiro was most likely at Mitsui’s headquarters, and it would take about twenty minutes to get here from there.

If he, Mimura Yohei, wanted to secure the Toyota Motor shares in Lin Haoran’s possession, he had better finalize the deal with Lin Haoran within those twenty minutes.

Otherwise, if he missed this opportunity, the Mitsubishi Group might have to pay an even higher price.

After all, Lin Haoran had just said that if the Mitsubishi Group offered six hundred billion, the deal would be done.

At this moment, Mimura Yohei’s usually calm heart began to race.

It was rare for someone of his status to experience such complex emotions.

But facing this super-rich man from Hong Kong, Lin Haoran, he felt an uncharacteristic sense of helplessness.

If it were one of Japan’s ordinary financial groups or tycoons, why would he ever need to make such a concession? He could simply suppress them through business tactics.

Fairness?

There was never any such thing as absolute fairness in this world, especially in the brutal arena of business competition.

But Lin Haoran’s status was different. His assets were on par with Japan’s top financial groups.

Furthermore, his primary assets were not in Japan.

Trying to pressure him before a deal would only annoy him and cause the deal to fall through.

This was why Mimura Yohei had been so humble and polite during his meeting with Lin Haoran.

After Lin Haoran put down the telephone receiver, Mimura Yohei’s eyes met his once again.

“President Mimura, you heard. President Yahiro will be here shortly. I believe he’s a friend of yours, isn’t he? You two will have a chance to catch up,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He could, of course, understand Mimura Yohei’s state of mind.

However, as long as a deal hadn’t been struck, both Mimura Yohei and Yahiro Toshiro were merely potential partners in his eyes, and he would treat them with impartiality.

As for how anxious Mimura Yohei felt, that was his own affair.

He had already laid his cards on the table. Whether the other party was willing to accept was entirely up to their decision.

“Mr. Lin, please allow me some time to think. I will give you an answer as soon as possible!” Mimura Yohei said in a deep voice.

“Of course, please do!” Lin Haoran laughed.

After a moment’s thought, Mimura Yohei continued, “May I use your telephone? I’d like to consult with the Board of Directors.”

“Naturally. How about this? I’ll step out for a bit. Please, President Mimura, take all the time you need to discuss!” Lin Haoran stood up with a smile and led Yamada Keiko out, leaving the office to Mimura Yohei.

This office contained no documents; it was more like a personal lounge for Lin Haoran.

After all, he never got too involved in the management of his companies.

Therefore, even with Mimura Yohei alone in the office, he wasn’t worried about him sniffing out any corporate business intelligence.

He glanced at the time. It had flown by. Half an hour had already passed since Mimura Yohei’s arrival.

He wondered how the stock market was doing.

With this thought, Lin Haoran headed directly for the Galaxy Securities Department office.

The office was still a hive of activity.

Lin Haoran walked straight up to the person in charge and asked, “How is Toyota Motor’s stock price performing?”

“Boss, as of right now, Toyota Motor’s market capitalization has reached about 2.92 trillion. The upward trend is still strong. In fact, some experts are speculating that Toyota’s stock market value might break the three trillion Japanese yen mark today. Market sentiment is very optimistic,” the person in charge quickly reported.

Lin Haoran nodded. In half an hour, it had risen by another fifty billion Japanese yen or so, without the dip he had expected.

It seemed Toyota Motor’s stock price was enjoying a very healthy rise.

Japan itself had been in a bull market for the past two years.

And in Toyota Motor’s case, Lin Haoran’s acquisition of a full 20% of the shares had significantly reduced the number of shares available for active trading on the market.

To put it simply, if Toyota Motor had originally issued ten thousand shares, and nearly half of them were held long-term and rarely traded, Lin Haoran’s sudden acquisition of two thousand shares meant that the number of actively traded shares might have dropped from five thousand to three thousand.

Under these circumstances, coupled with a constant stream of positive news, it would have been strange if Toyota Motor’s stock price didn’t soar!

“Get me the trading data for Toyota Motor from this morning until now,” Lin Haoran said after a moment’s thought.

“Yes, Boss. Please wait a moment while I compile it,” the person in charge replied and got to work.

A few minutes later, Lin Haoran was holding a stock market trading report for Toyota Motor.

He didn’t linger in the office but left the Galaxy Securities Department directly.

Passing by his own office, Lin Haoran noticed that Mimura Yohei was still in the middle of a heated discussion. He decided not to go in, instead slipping the documents into his breast pocket. Before he knew it, he had arrived at Fok Kin-ning’s office.

Fok Kin-ning was in his office, and across from him sat Ma Shimin, who had traveled all the way from Hong Kong.

Lin Haoran knocked and walked in.

“Am I interrupting anything?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Not at all, Boss. Your timing is perfect. After discussing with Mr. Ma, there’s something we’d like to run by you. Since we merged with Chowa Real Estate Company, our Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch has established a fairly comprehensive real estate business in Tokyo.

“However, Chowa Real Estate Company’s business is mainly concentrated in the Tokyo metropolitan area. If we were to use our existing assets as collateral to expand rapidly, the Hongkong Land Group’s funds in Japan wouldn’t be so tight.

“As for Chowa Real Estate Company, since the payment hasn’t been fully settled, we can’t use its assets for transactions yet, so we can set that aside for now. But just those four plots of land and this Hongkong Land Tower alone can secure a substantial amount of capital.

“Therefore, we propose to expand our real estate business externally. I believe major Japanese cities like Osaka, Yokohama, and Nagoya could all be included in our expansion plans.” Seeing his boss, Fok Kin-ning quickly relayed the matter he had just been discussing with Mr. Ma.

Previously, Lin Haoran had already discussed his development plans for Japan with Fok Kin-ning in detail, especially regarding the real estate sector, for which he had long had a thorough strategy.

The entire plan was divided into three steps: Step one, Laying the Foundation; Step two, The Bubble Frenzy; and Step three, The Great Escape.

The key to the first step was to continuously hoard plots of land and commercial buildings.

However, if he were to rely solely on his own capital for development, even with four or five years before the bubble burst, he wouldn’t be able to expand his assets to a scale that satisfied him.

Therefore, he decided to cooperate with banks and adopt a land-for-loan model. That is, he would first mortgage land to borrow money from a bank, then use that money to buy new land, mortgage the new land to get more loans, and so on, in a repeating cycle.

Only in this way could his real estate business in Japan expand at a much faster rate!

Lin Haoran had not yet mentioned the matter of the economic bubble to Fok Kin-ning, Ma Shimin, and the others, but he had communicated the initial groundwork plan to Fok Kin-ning.

Therefore, what Fok Kin-ning was suggesting now was precisely the foundation Lin Haoran had envisioned earlier.

Since the boss had such intentions for expansion, Fok Kin-ning naturally believed it was time for Hongkong Land Group’s real estate business to move beyond the Tokyo metropolitan area.

While the Tokyo metropolitan area had immense development potential, it also meant the competition was exceptionally fierce.

Therefore, if the Hongkong Land Group wanted to increase its scale, it couldn’t put all its investment eggs in the Tokyo basket. After all, they weren’t the only real estate company in Tokyo.

Major cities like Osaka, Yokohama, and Nagoya logically became the targets for the Hongkong Land Group’s business expansion.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran nodded and said, “I naturally support this. It’s part of my plan. You two can proceed as you see fit. Also, regarding Chowa Real Estate Company, I think its assets can be released from mortgage soon. When that happens, you can also use them as collateral!”

“Boss, you’ve already raised over one hundred billion Japanese yen so quickly?” Fok Kin-ning asked in surprise.

After all, acquiring Chowa Real Estate Company had cost nearly one hundred thirty billion Japanese yen.

That was an absolutely enormous sum of money!

“Yes. Barring any surprises, it should be soon!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Indeed, once the Toyota Motor shares were successfully sold, coming up with that sum would be no difficult feat, and he would even have plenty left over.

“That’s fantastic! This way, we’ll be able to borrow even more capital!” Fok Kin-ning exclaimed, thrilled.

Just then, Yamada Keiko walked in briskly.

“Boss, President Mimura is looking for you!” Yamada Keiko whispered in Lin Haoran’s ear.

Lin Haoran nodded. It seemed Mimura Yohei had made his decision.

He glanced at the time. More than ten minutes had passed. If he didn’t make a decision soon, the Mitsubishi Group’s competitor would be arriving.

He wondered if the other party would ultimately agree to his terms.

Lin Haoran was a little curious.

He said a few words to Fok Kin-ning and Ma Shimin, then left the room and headed back to his own office.

As soon as he stepped inside, Mimura Yohei said impatiently, “Mr. Lin, we have finished our discussion and have decided to accept your offer. However, I hope Mr. Lin will honor his promise and not discuss this matter with any other parties.”

“So, you are willing to acquire the 20% of Toyota Motor shares I hold for six hundred billion Japanese yen?” Lin Haoran asked, a smile playing on his lips.

Chapter 551: The Unresigned President of Mitsui

Hearing Mimura Yohei agree so readily, Lin Haoran was quite thrilled.

After all, this was six hundred billion Japanese yen!

Based on his initial projections when he first laid out his plan, securing over four hundred billion Japanese yen would have already been a great outcome.

Now, it had far exceeded his expectations, so of course, he was excited.

On the surface, however, Lin Haoran simply maintained a smile, showing no outward signs of his excitement.

Mimura Yohei’s eagerness to agree was clearly due to pressure from the Mitsui Group.

If not for that phone call from Yahiro Toshiro, Mimura Yohei would surely still be hesitating, perhaps even trying to negotiate further.

Additionally, the continued rise of the stock market was another factor.

When Mimura Yohei was on the phone with the Mitsubishi Board of Directors just now, they must have informed him about the afternoon’s rise in Toyota Motor’s share price.

The combination of these two reasons forced him to finally agree to this price.

“Excellent. President Mimura, you are indeed straightforward. Then let’s consider this deal settled!” Lin Haoran said with a hearty laugh.

“Mr. Lin, why don’t we sign the contract first? I’ve already prepared it. Please, have a look!” Mimura Yohei said, taking out two copies of the contract.

He then took out a fountain pen and filled in the amount of six hundred billion Japanese yen on both copies.

Lin Haoran was a little surprised. This must have been prepared in advance. It seemed this president of Mitsubishi had already planned on signing the contract when he came over.

He took the contract and gave it a cursory look. The entire document was written in English, so Lin Haoran had no trouble reading it.

The terms of the contract were clear and concise, with all details listed comprehensively. It meant that everything except for the price, which had been left blank, was already laid out, and the conditions were all acceptable to Lin Haoran.

Evidently, Mimura Yohei’s side had put in considerable effort and was just waiting for his nod.

“President Mimura, you’ve really prepared thoroughly. It seems you were determined to win this deal when you came over,” Lin Haoran commented with a smile, though he secretly admired Mimura Yohei’s decisiveness and thorough preparation.

Hearing this, Mimura Yohei also laughed heartily and said, “Mr. Lin, opportunities like this are rare, so I must naturally give it my all. Besides, I believe that collaborating with you will bring even greater development to Mitsubishi.”

Lin Haoran nodded and said, “Please wait a moment. I’ll have the company’s legal counsel come and take a look.”

Although he had read it himself, this was, after all, a deal worth six hundred billion Japanese yen. So even if he felt there were no issues, he needed a professional to double-check and ensure everything was foolproof.

Mimura Yohei expressed his understanding, nodding with a smile as he sat to one side, waiting patiently.

Soon, a man in a very formal business suit walked in.

“Boss, Mr. Mimura,” the man greeted Lin Haoran and Mimura Yohei respectfully.

“Mr. Okawa, please take a look at this contract and see if there are any problems,” Lin Haoran said, handing a copy of the contract to the dedicated legal counsel hired by Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch.

“Of course, Boss. Please give me a moment,” he replied and began to examine it carefully.

When he saw the transaction amount of six hundred billion Japanese yen, the legal counsel’s expression changed.

However, he quickly regained his composure.

As a professional legal counsel, he naturally understood that some things had to be kept to himself; this was corporate business intelligence.

The legal counsel was extremely thorough, especially when he saw that it was a six hundred-billion-yen deal, fearing he might miss a single detail.

He read the contract’s clauses word for word, occasionally jotting down key points on a piece of paper. When he encountered clauses that might pose a risk, he would reconsider them repeatedly.

Time ticked by, and the office was so quiet that only the rustling of paper could be heard.

Lin Haoran and Mimura Yohei waited silently, the atmosphere slightly tense.

Just then, a knock on the door shattered the tense atmosphere in the room.

“Come in,” Lin Haoran called out.

“Boss, the building’s front desk said that Mr. Yahiro Toshiro of the Mitsui Group has arrived downstairs,” said the person who entered. It was Fok Kin-ning, who had clearly received the message from the front desk and had come to report to Lin Haoran personally.

Lin Haoran glanced at his watch. More than twenty minutes had passed since he received Yahiro Toshiro’s call, so it was normal for him to have arrived by now.

He nodded and said, “Alright, I understand. I’ll go out to greet him now.”

At this, Mimura Yohei grew anxious, fearing any last-minute changes. He said directly, “Mr. Lin, why don’t you sign the contract before you go? I think your counsel here is just about finished.”

After all, without a signed contract, it was merely a verbal agreement that could change at any moment. Only by signing the contract would the matter be truly settled.

Lin Haoran naturally understood Mimura Yohei’s concern. He looked at the legal counsel, Mr. Okawa, and asked, “Mr. Okawa, how does the contract look? Are there any issues?”

Mr. Okawa looked up, adjusted his glasses, and said, “Boss, the overall terms of the contract are rigorous. I haven’t found any problems so far.”

Lin Haoran nodded, aware of Mimura Yohei’s anxiety.

Since they had already reached an agreement, there was no point in dragging it out. It was a good opportunity to leave a positive impression on the other party; there might be other collaborations in the future.

In Japan, the Mitsubishi Group was an absolute behemoth, involved in virtually every industry and a magnate in each of them.

For example, Bank of Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Securities, Meiji Mutual Life Insurance, Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsubishi Estate, Kirin Brewery, Mitsubishi Paper Mills, Mitsubishi Oil, Mitsubishi Motors, Mitsubishi Chemical, Mitsubishi Electric, Mitsubishi Real Estate, Mitsubishi Chemical Engineering, and so on.

Basically, in every industry the Mitsubishi Group was involved in, it managed to achieve a top position.

If Lin Haoran wanted to expand in Japan, it was inevitable that he would have more interactions and potential collaborations with the Mitsubishi Group.

Signing this contract smoothly with Mimura Yohei was undoubtedly an excellent start.

Lin Haoran looked at Mimura Yohei and said with a smile, “President Mimura, since Mr. Okawa has said there are no issues, let’s sign the contract.”

A look of relief washed over Mimura Yohei’s face. He quickly said, “Excellent, excellent! Mr. Lin, it’s a pleasure working with you!”

The two men picked up their pens again and solemnly signed their names on the contracts.

After signing, they both stood up and shook hands warmly.

Lin Haoran put away one copy of the contract and said, “President Mimura, President Yahiro should have arrived. I’ll go and greet him first.”

“I’ll go with you!” Mimura Yohei said with the air of a victor. He also wanted to take this opportunity to announce to Yahiro Toshiro that the deal was settled.

Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback, then nodded with a smile, “Alright, let’s go together.”

Just as Lin Haoran stepped out of his office, the elevator doors happened to open.

Several men walked out, among them Yahiro Toshiro.

Upon seeing Mimura Yohei, a shadow of gloom flashed across Yahiro Toshiro’s face.

It seemed he was a step behind again!

He could only hope that the other man had also just arrived and that a deal had not yet been reached…

At that moment, Yahiro Toshiro’s heart was a tangle of complex emotions.

But he quickly regained his calm and composed demeanor.

Lin Haoran extended a hand to shake Yahiro Toshiro’s, saying with a smile, “President Yahiro, your personal visit brings honor to my humble office.”

Yahiro Toshiro forced a smile, shook Lin Haoran’s hand, and said, “Mr. Lin, I hope you’ll forgive my sudden intrusion.”

At the same time, he turned to Mimura Yohei and said, “President Mimura, what a coincidence. I didn’t expect to run into you here.”

Mimura Yohei’s lips curved into a smug smile as he said, “President Yahiro, your timing is perfect. Mr. Lin and I have just completed a major transaction.”

As he spoke, he deliberately brandished the signed contract in his hand.

Yahiro Toshiro’s gaze was instantly drawn to the contract. His heart sank, and the smile vanished from his face.

Mimura Yohei had reached a deal with Lin Haoran. He naturally understood what that meant.

Unquestionably, this deal had to be for the Toyota Motor shares.

In other words, he was too late after all.

He had actually wanted to come and talk to Lin Haoran in the morning, but the Mitsui Board of Directors couldn’t agree on a reasonable price. Some wanted to offer a higher price to act decisively, while others were unwilling to pay too much.

In the end, their discussion dragged on until noon before they finally settled on their psychological price for the negotiation.

But now, because of the morning’s delay, Mimura Yohei had beaten him to it.

Still, he forced himself to remain calm and face reality, asking with feigned curiosity, “Oh? It seems President Mimura moves quickly. I wonder what price you offered to make Mr. Lin sign the contract so readily.”

“I don’t mind telling you, I offered six hundred billion Japanese yen!” Mimura Yohei said with a smile.

This wasn’t a secret and would be made public eventually, so Mimura Yohei stated it directly.

“President Mimura is truly a man of great resolve!” Upon hearing Mimura Yohei’s words, Yahiro Toshiro said this, but his tone was filled with bitterness and resignation.

No wonder Lin Haoran had agreed.

That price was already slightly higher than the current market price, and even a bit higher than the maximum price their Mitsui Board of Directors had approved.

Faced with such a resolute competitor, no amount of unwillingness would make any difference.

They at the Mitsui Group had been dealt a great hand, but they had played it terribly.

At this moment, Yahiro Toshiro no longer had any desire to stay.

He managed a faint smile and said, “Congratulations to President Mimura and Mr. Lin on closing this important deal. It seems our Mitsui Group was not fated for it this time. Mr. Lin, I hope we’ll have a chance to cooperate in the future.”

Lin Haoran could sense Yahiro Toshiro’s disappointment. He smiled and said, “The Mitsui Group is exceptionally strong. I also look forward to collaborating with you.”

Yahiro Toshiro nodded. “Then I’ll take you at your word, Mr. Lin. I won’t disturb you two any longer. I’ll be taking my leave.”

With that, he turned and led his entourage toward the elevator.

Watching Yahiro Toshiro’s retreating figure, Mimura Yohei felt even more grateful for his own decisiveness.

Six hundred billion Japanese yen wasn’t such an outrageous price after all!

If he had hesitated, he might have missed out on this deal entirely, or even if they had eventually secured it, the cost might have been much higher.

Chapter 552: The Biggest Investment Return Since Transmigration, A Profit of 6.81 Billion Hong Kong Dollars

Now that the contract was signed, the subsequent transaction with the Mitsubishi Group was even simpler.

With Citibank’s assistance, Lin Haoran quickly completed the massive transaction with the Mitsubishi Group.

Once the funds from the Mitsubishi Group arrived in Citibank’s account, Lin Haoran settled the accounts with the bank.

Previously, Lin Haoran and Citibank had reached an agreement:

Citibank would act as the financial advisor for Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Toyota Motor shares, with the commission set at one percent of the total transaction price—the purchase price, specifically.

If Citibank could negotiate a purchase price below the market rate, they would also receive an additional tiered commission bonus based on the amount saved.

Furthermore, Citibank agreed to provide financing for the acquisition, with a provisional term of six months and a preferential total interest rate of 2.5 percent.

If the financing was repaid early, the interest would be reduced proportionally.

From the start of March to the present day in May, a little over two months had passed. Lin Haoran, being straightforward, decided to round it up to three months, settling the interest at 1.25 percent.

Citibank had spent a total of three hundred nineteen point eight billion Japanese yen to help him acquire the twenty percent stake in Toyota Motor.

In the end, Citibank earned a total of seven point eight billion Japanese yen in interest, commission, and bonuses.

This meant that from the six hundred billion Japanese yen Lin Haoran received from the deal, he had to subtract the cost of three hundred nineteen point eight billion and the seven point eight billion in fees, for a total of three hundred twenty-seven point six billion Japanese yen.

Lin Haoran was left with a final profit of two hundred seventy-two point four billion Japanese yen.

It was a joyous outcome for both parties.

Although Citibank only earned seven point eight billion Japanese yen, the transaction took just over two months. For them, it was quick money.

As for the large sum Lin Haoran earned, that was entirely due to his own capabilities, as he had taken on a significant risk.

As the intermediary, Citibank was naturally pleased with the result. After all, if Lin Haoran had similar large-scale transactions in the future, they would still have the opportunity to cooperate and continue to profit.

After settling the accounts with Citibank, Lin Haoran breathed a long sigh of relief when the two hundred seventy-two point four billion Japanese yen landed in his account.

The success of this transaction not only represented a huge leap in his personal wealth but also made him a renowned figure in the Japanese business world.

It was practically an overnight success!

The deal Lin Haoran had struck with the Mitsubishi Group had been announced by them just yesterday.

For the Mitsubishi Group, becoming the largest shareholder of Toyota Motor was excellent news.

Therefore, they were naturally eager to announce it.

Although this didn’t give the Mitsubishi Group a controlling stake in Toyota Motor—that power was still firmly in the hands of the Toyoda family—a twenty percent equity stake was enough to make Toyota Motor a nominal member of the vast Mitsubishi Group ecosystem.

As for the Mitsui Group, unless they managed to acquire a larger stake than Mitsubishi, they were more or less out of the game.

When the Mitsubishi Group announced the deal, it sent shockwaves through the entire Japanese business community.

Major media outlets ran it as their headline story. Lin Haoran’s name, already famous in Japan since he became a major shareholder in Toyota Motor, once again spread through the streets and alleys of the country.

If you tried to find someone in Japan who didn’t know Lin Haoran now, it would be quite a challenge.

The sheer size of the transaction was astounding, large enough to shock all of Japan.

Consequently, many reporters wanted to interview Lin Haoran over the past few days.

However, he had avoided them all. Knowing that the reporters were camped out at Hongkong Land Tower, he simply stayed away for a few days. He only made one trip to the Citibank Japan Branch headquarters; the rest of the time, he just lazed around at home, not doing anything.

In any case, with the beautiful Yamada Keiko attending to him, his days were far from boring.

The gains from this endeavor were enormous, far beyond his own expectations.

From laying the groundwork in early March to May, the entire process took just over two months.

While it couldn’t be called getting something for nothing, he truly hadn’t expended much effort.

The capital was provided by Citibank; he hadn’t put up a single cent.

Citibank had also handled the acquisition of the shares.

All he had done was negotiate the acquisition with the general manager of the Citibank Japan Branch and then negotiate the sale with the president of the Mitsubishi Group.

In the end, the profits were absolutely staggering.

Two hundred seventy-two point four billion Japanese yen!

Converted to Hong Kong dollars, that was 6.81 billion Hong Kong dollars!

This was the single largest return on investment he had made since he transmigrated!

Neither stockpiling oil during the oil crisis nor trading gold futures had earned him this much.

From gold futures, he had made approximately 5.744 billion Hong Kong dollars. Now, it was a staggering 6.81 billion Hong Kong dollars!

This was definite progress.

And perhaps the most satisfying part was that this time, he had earned it from the Japanese.

When he came to Japan in February, he had only brought four billion Hong Kong dollars with him, equivalent to one hundred sixty billion Japanese yen.

Even he wouldn’t have imagined that in just over three months, he would have earned so much in Japan.

Earlier, with Sony, he had made twelve point eight billion Japanese yen. Although that was nothing compared to his earnings from Toyota Motor, it was still a considerable amount.

Including the returns from his stock investments in Sony and Toyota Motor, and not even counting the assets of Chowa Real Estate Company, his assets in Japan now amounted to over ten billion Hong Kong dollars.

Making money like this was indeed thrilling!

Adding the funds recovered from the Sony stock, he now had available funds of up to three hundred billion Japanese yen.

He knew exactly what this meant: he wouldn’t be short on capital for a long time to come!

Even after deducting the one hundred twenty billion Japanese yen auction funds still owed to Chowa Real Estate Company, he still had over one hundred eighty billion Japanese yen on hand.

With money in hand, his heart was at ease!

Lin Haoran contentedly enjoyed this rare moment of leisure. While the media was still reporting on him extensively, he had no intention of making more public appearances.

Another week passed quickly, bringing the date to May 20th.

Today was an extremely ordinary day.

In his past life, he would have sent his girlfriend a “520” red envelope.

But in this era, what significance did it hold? It was just a perfectly ordinary Wednesday.

As usual, Lin Haoran enjoyed his breakfast served by Yamada Keiko and listened to her read the newspaper news.

Today, there was basically no mention of him in the papers.

Even the news about the Mitsubishi Group’s transaction had gradually died down.

After all, so many things happened in Japan every day; the world couldn’t revolve around a single event forever.

“Haoran-kun, are you going out today?” Yamada Keiko asked, putting down the newspaper.

“Yes, of course. Let’s head out now!” He glanced at his watch. It was already nine in the morning. He smiled and replied.

“Great, we can finally go out!” Yamada Keiko was a little excited.

For the past week, the Boss had hardly left the house.

As his personal secretary, she naturally hadn’t gone out either, instead attending to Lin Haoran’s daily needs at home.

She had even given up her usual one day off per week.

Yamada Keiko’s parents knew their daughter was with such an important figure and wished she could stay by Lin Haoran’s side every single day.

When he arrived at Hongkong Land Tower, as expected, the reporters who had been a constant presence were gone.

Lin Haoran smoothly made his way to Fok Kin-ning’s office.

Ma Shimin had already left Japan a week ago and returned to Hong Kong.

After all, with the Hongkong Land Group in Hong Kong being the headquarters, there were numerous matters to attend to, and Ma Shimin couldn’t be away for too long.

“Boss, you’re here!” Fok Kin-ning said, a little surprised to see Lin Haoran.

“What is it? Is there something important you needed me for?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Nothing major, but I wanted to report to you that yesterday I finalized the mortgage loan details with Mr. Kawai from Citibank. They’ve given us very favorable loan interest policies, and we’ll be engaging in deep cooperation. These are the terms we agreed upon, please take a look!” After speaking, Fok Kin-ning handed a document with the cooperation terms to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran skimmed through it before handing it back.

Judging from the terms in the document, the preferential policies offered by Citibank were indeed much lower than the market rates.

Although Lin Haoran wasn’t short of cash now, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t take out loans.

Cash was his foundation of confidence.

And cooperation with Citibank was the key to accelerating his development in Japan’s real estate sector.

After all, while his cash on hand seemed substantial now, it wouldn’t last long according to his investment plans!

After chatting with Fok Kin-ning for a while, Lin Haoran paid a visit to the Galaxy Securities Department.

Finally, he went to the Southland Corporation office.

Inside the office, Suzuki Toshifumi was busy at work, but Anton Allison was nowhere to be seen.

“Boss, good morning!” Upon seeing Lin Haoran, Suzuki Toshifumi quickly stood up to greet him.

“Yes, good morning, Mr. Suzuki. Where is Mr. Anton?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“Boss, Mr. Anton went back to the United States on a business trip the day before yesterday,” Suzuki Toshifumi replied.

Lin Haoran nodded and continued, “How has 7-Eleven convenience store been developing recently?”

“With your capital injection, our development speed has been excellent. At this current pace, barring any surprises, we should be able to reach your goal of ten thousand chain stores by the end of the year. This is a summary of our progress during this period. Please have a look, Boss!” Suzuki Toshifumi said, handing a document to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran took the document and began to look through it.

“Also, Boss, there is one more thing I’d like to report to you,” Suzuki Toshifumi continued.

“Go ahead,” Lin Haoran said without looking up.

Chapter 553: Lawson Has Come to Seize the Market

“In the Japanese convenience store industry, our 7-Eleven convenience stores are the absolute leader. However, there’s one company that has always been imitating us—Lawson. You should be aware of this, Boss, right?” Suzuki Toshifumi continued.

Lin Haoran nodded. He was, of course, very clear on this point.

If one were to ask who 7-Eleven’s biggest competitor was, it was unquestionably Lawson.

Whether in the United States or Japan, Lawson was like a constant challenger, following them like a shadow.

This was true now, and it was true in the 21st century of the world Lin Haoran had come from.

Since acquiring the Southland Corporation in the United States, Lin Haoran had gained a very deep understanding of the convenience store industry.

For example, in the current Japanese convenience store market, Lawson was the second-largest brand. Its number of chain stores was second only to 7-Eleven. When 7-Eleven broke the one thousand store mark, Lawson also surpassed seven hundred, almost nipping at its heels.

And by the end of last year, while 7-Eleven had over three thousand stores globally, Lawson had over two thousand.

7-Eleven was the target Lawson was constantly trying to catch up to.

“What’s this about? Does it have to do with Lawson?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“Would you like some water, Boss?” Suzuki Toshifumi didn’t answer right away, asking a question of his own.

“No, thank you. I was just planning to look around and leave. I just wanted to see how 7-Eleven was developing,” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

“In that case, Boss, please listen as I explain. I’ll tell you about the history between our 7-Eleven and Lawson,” Suzuki Toshifumi said with a smile.

“Alright, take your time.” Lin Haoran crossed his legs, waiting for Suzuki Toshifumi to continue.

Suzuki Toshifumi took a sip of water from his cup and went on.

“Lawson originated in the United States and officially entered the Japanese market six years ago. At the time, they signed a franchise agreement with the Japanese retail magnate, The Daiei, Inc. Its entry model was quite similar to how Ito became the agent for 7-Eleven.

However, after entering the Japanese market, Lawson encountered a completely different fate than 7-Eleven, finding itself struggling to adapt. For the first three years, Lawson was almost constantly operating at a loss.

In the United States, Lawson used an operating model of ‘one region, one store, with an American product structure.’ The United States is vast, and its population is relatively spread out, so one or two convenience stores can meet the daily needs of an entire community.

Due to the vast territory, the distance between stores is quite large. However, the mature supply chain system in the United States plays an important role. Even with stores far apart, it can ensure that goods are restocked in a timely manner, thus guaranteeing the stores’ profitability.

But Japan is an island nation with a small land area and a highly concentrated population. In such an environment, if convenience stores are too far apart, they lose the very convenience they’re supposed to offer.

Moreover, Japan’s retail industry is dominated by department stores and hypermarkets, which generally adopt a model of large-scale advance procurement and subsequent sales for a single store. They lack the kind of logistics and distribution system needed to support convenience store operations.

Additionally, there are significant differences between American and Japanese eating habits. Americans prefer foods like hot dogs, pizza, steak, and milk, so American convenience stores mainly feature products like hot dogs and pizza. Americans can easily buy these items on their way to work, which is very convenient.

Lawson, which started with a focus on food, quickly encountered its first problem after entering the Japanese market. Its product structure, centered on American-style hot dogs and pizza, was not popular among Japanese consumers, who preferred rice balls and bento boxes. Sales were poor.

And so, 7-Eleven, which was operating so successfully in Japan, naturally became Lawson’s best model to learn from.

7-Eleven was the first to introduce products like rice balls and bento boxes, which are deeply loved by the Japanese. Lawson quickly followed suit, incorporating rice balls and bento boxes into its product line. 7-Eleven implemented an operating model of dense store openings in specific areas and small-batch deliveries, and Lawson copied that as well.

This model made customers truly feel Lawson’s convenience and helped Lawson achieve single-store profitability and scale expansion. Furthermore, this model also effectively reduced marketing and logistics costs, improved the utilization of store employees, and increased brand awareness.

You could say that Lawson Japan’s success today is a direct result of constantly imitating 7-Eleven Japan.”

Suzuki Toshifumi recounted the entire history between 7-Eleven and Lawson in one go.

“They can develop their way, and we’ll develop ours. Even without Lawson, other competitors would appear. What you wanted to tell me today isn’t just this, is it?” Lin Haoran said, puzzled.

Although he wasn’t an expert on Lawson’s development, he knew that the convenience store industry could never be a monopoly.

Competition was normal.

Being imitated was also normal.

The fact that they could be imitated proved that 7-Eleven was very successful.

It proved that in this industry, 7-Eleven was the absolute leader.

“However, Lawson won’t be content with just being an imitator forever. Their goal has always been to surpass 7-Eleven.” Suzuki Toshifumi changed his tone and continued, “Boss, what I have to report to you is, of course, more than just this.”

“Mm, go on,” Lin Haoran nodded.

“Since receiving your financial support, Boss, our 7-Eleven’s expansion speed has indeed been much faster than before. By May, our number of chain stores in Japan had already exceeded 1,700. Now, one month of expansion is almost equivalent to a whole year in the past. We can basically break the two thousand store mark in the Japan region by early June.

However, Lawson has also made its move. At the end of April, they somehow obtained a large sum of capital and began to lay out a large-scale presence in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

In terms of franchising, Lawson has offered more favorable policies than us, even providing subsidies. Some potential franchisees who were originally planning to join us at 7-Eleven were ultimately persuaded by Lawson to join them instead. This has completely affected the speed of our expansion.

This month, we originally estimated that we could add two hundred and fifty to three hundred new stores. But with Lawson’s unscrupulous methods, our expansion has slowed down noticeably. The final estimated increase will only be between two hundred and two hundred and fifty.

According to our current strategy, company-owned stores account for thirty percent, and franchise stores account for seventy percent, so the expansion speed of franchises is particularly important. But if we expand at any cost like Lawson, it will have an extremely negative impact on our profitability.

Moreover, once this kind of vicious competition starts, it could destroy the ecological balance of the entire convenience store market, resulting in a mutually destructive outcome for everyone.”

“So, what are you thinking?” Lin Haoran asked curiously after hearing the full story from Suzuki Toshifumi.

Vicious competition was all too common in the business world.

For example, he had encountered it many times when he was in Hong Kong.

Fortress Electrical Company, for instance, had been targeted by Jardine Electrical City with vicious competition, attempting to use public opinion to bring the company down.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was not surprised by Lawson’s actions.

After all, if you had to name 7-Eleven’s lifelong rival, it was definitely Lawson.

The development histories of the two convenience store chains were almost identical.

“Boss, with Lawson’s current unscrupulous strategy, they will only tarnish their own brand. We at 7-Eleven cannot blindly lower our franchise policies, raise costs, use capital for subsidies, or even squeeze our suppliers just to capture the market. That is absolutely out of the question. Our 7-Eleven will absolutely not follow such practices.

But if we do that, it will slow down our expansion speed. You’ve said it yourself, Boss: the market is there for the taking. If we don’t take it, someone else will. So, our expansion speed cannot slow down either.

Therefore, on behalf of the Southland Corporation, I would like to apply for an increase in investment capital from you to increase the proportion of our company-owned stores. This way, although the risk we undertake will increase, our standards will not be lowered. Our brand will not be damaged. On the contrary, we can further consolidate our market position through steady development,” Suzuki Toshifumi continued.

Clearly, Suzuki Toshifumi knew that Lin Haoran had made a huge amount of money from his Toyota Motor stock.

That was no secret in Japan.

Lin Haoran didn’t respond right away, but began to think.

Increasing capital for the Southland Corporation was already part of his plan.

After all, the entire Southland Corporation was now a company in which he held a one hundred percent controlling stake, meaning it was his personal asset.

In the eyes of Suzuki Toshifumi and the others, 7-Eleven’s current expansion speed was not slow, but in Lin Haoran’s view, it was still too slow.

Especially in the Japanese market. If they didn’t establish a wider presence now and solidify their position, how could they make a killing during the economic bubble?

Wait until after the 1990s to expand on a large scale, like the original 7-Eleven?

That would be too much of a waste.

He was currently having Dairy Farm International continuously acquire well-known FMCG brands precisely to integrate them with his retail stores, forming an ecosystem chain that he could firmly control from the ground up to sales.

This way, not only would the sales of these FMCG brands increase, but he would also make more money.

By the time the economic bubble arrived, his convenience stores would be densely distributed in major Japanese cities. That would be the time to make a fortune.

After all, the economic bubble period would last for five or six years.

During that time, the Japanese people would be earning so much money, and their spending power would be at an all-time high. As a business format that met people’s immediate daily needs, convenience stores were bound to enter a golden age of development.

Lin Haoran was well aware of this, so he had already planned to increase capital to expand the scale of company-owned stores. Suzuki Toshifumi’s proposal was exactly what he wanted.

Chapter 554: The Relentless Jardine Matheson & Co.

So, the best way was…

Amidst Suzuki Toshifumi’s anticipation, Lin Haoran looked up at him.

“Do you know who the source of Lawson’s funding is?” Lin Haoran asked.

He wanted to see who was stirring up trouble behind the scenes.

If this had just started, Lin Haoran would have certainly thought the force behind them was the Mitsui Group.

After all, Lin Haoran had only just sold his Toyota Motor shares to the Mitsubishi Group, causing the Mitsui Group to lose any chance of controlling Toyota Motor.

But Suzuki Toshifumi said the funds had started coming in at the end of April. In that case, the force injecting the capital definitely wasn’t the Mitsui Group.

After all, at that time, he hadn’t offended any major Japanese powers.

“Boss, the source of this capital for Lawson’s Japan branch is very mysterious. I’ve asked around my contacts in the industry, but I haven’t received any useful information. Also, Lawson seems to have abandoned the company-owned store model and is going all-in on developing its franchise model,” Suzuki Toshifumi said, shaking his head.

Lin Haoran nodded, thought for a moment, and said, “Wait for me here. I’m going to make some inquiries.”

With that, he left Suzuki Toshifumi’s office and walked towards his own.

Although he hadn’t been operating in Japan for long and had almost no intelligence network here, he had his own personal connections!

For a company like Lawson Japan, which wasn’t exactly a top-tier enterprise, their dealings were basically an open book to the major powers in Japan.

Lin Haoran’s method was simple: just ask one of those major powers.

He directly called Kawai Yasuya, the general manager of the Citibank Japan Branch.

After learning the reason for the call, Kawai Yasuya replied, “Mr. Lin, I don’t pay much attention to companies like Lawson, which aren’t particularly strong. If you want to inquire about this matter, I’ll need to ask around. Please wait a moment!”

Out of respect for Lin Haoran, he had to help with such a small matter.

Besides, the Chairman, Mr. Walter Wriston, had specifically instructed him to maintain a good relationship with Lin Haoran.

Especially recently, Lin Haoran had earned over two hundred billion Japanese yen from Toyota Motor stocks, which made Citibank value him even more.

One successful investment after another had already won the admiration of even a power like Citibank.

Compared to Lin Haoran, what was the stock market guru Warren Buffett?

“Alright, I’ll have to trouble you then, Mr. Kawai,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“No trouble at all, it’s a small matter. Mr. Lin, I’ll hang up first then,” Kawai Yasuya said before ending the call.

Lin Haoran sat in his chair, waiting for news.

For a major power like Citibank, investigating such a trivial matter was effortless.

Citibank, after all, had been developing in Japan for nearly eighty years.

Eighty years was more than enough time for them to infiltrate every industry in Japan with their intelligence network.

This was something Lin Haoran couldn’t compare to.

Ultimately, Lin Haoran had entered the Japanese market far too late.

Although the Hongkong Land Group already had some presence in Japan, those minor businesses barely made a ripple.

The Hongkong Land Group’s real development in Japan had, at most, only started after he arrived in February.

Sitting in his office chair, Lin Haoran waited for the return call while looking down at the bustling streets below.

His thoughts, however, had already drifted far away. He pondered the intricate complexities of Japan’s business landscape and his every move in this grand game of chess.

About ten minutes later, the phone rang. Lin Haoran quickly answered it, and Kawai Yasuya’s voice came from the other end. “Mr. Lin, I’ve found out. The one who injected capital into Lawson’s Japan branch is actually an old acquaintance of yours, Jardine Matheson & Co.”

Hearing Kawai Yasuya’s words, Lin Haoran was momentarily stunned.

Jardine Matheson & Co.?

Did he hear that right?

He had thought it would be a powerful local Japanese financial group that had set its sights on the convenience store sector.

But to his surprise, it was his defeated opponent, Jardine Matheson & Co.

He had already driven Jardine Matheson & Co. out of the Hong Kong market. Could they still be so incorrigible?

“Mr. Kawai, are you sure? Is it really Jardine Matheson & Co.?” Lin Haoran asked, somewhat in disbelief.

“Yes, Mr. Lin, it is indeed Jardine Matheson & Co. I obtained this information through Citibank’s intelligence network from a senior executive at The Daiei, Inc., the agent company for Lawson’s Japan branch. Originally, neither The Daiei, Inc., nor Lawson’s parent company, Consolidated Foods Corporation, was particularly strong. In the last two months, Lawson’s competitor, 7-Eleven, suddenly began expanding on a massive scale. Naturally, Lawson wanted to keep up, as 7-Eleven has always been their model to imitate. However, Lawson itself was not well-funded. With their own resources, they couldn’t support the kind of frantic expansion that 7-Eleven was undertaking. So, they came up with a plan to attract investment.

“They sought out many major business powers in Japan, but these powers were either not interested in a small sector like convenience stores, or their terms were unacceptable to The Daiei, Inc., Lawson’s Japanese agent.

“But The Daiei, Inc., was unwilling to just watch the gap between Lawson and 7-Eleven grow wider and wider. So, they eventually turned their sights to overseas financial groups.

“Somehow, they managed to connect with Jardine Matheson & Co.

“Jardine Matheson has been looking for investment opportunities all over the international market recently. Seeing the development potential of Lawson in the Japanese market, they decided to inject four billion Icelandic króna in exchange for a thirty percent stake in Lawson’s Japan branch,” Kawai Yasuya explained in detail.

Lin Haoran sneered inwardly as he mulled over the information.

Jardine Matheson & Co. was truly a relentless pest. After being soundly defeated by him in Hong Kong, they were now running to Japan to stir up trouble.

However, he wasn’t afraid.

After listening to Kawai Yasuya, even though the information was not complete, Lin Haoran could roughly piece together the entire story.

Lin Haoran had beaten Jardine Matheson & Co. so badly in Hong Kong that they were left with no way to fight back, forced to abandon the entire Hong Kong market and retreat to their home base in Britain.

But Jardine Matheson & Co. had its pride. They were certainly unwilling to accept their devastating losses in Hong Kong and were determined to charge back into the Asian market to regain their standing.

And Japan, as a major economy in Asia, naturally became one of their targets.

Coupled with the old grudge between Jardine Matheson and Lin Haoran, their choice to invest in Lawson was undoubtedly an attempt to create trouble for Lin Haoran and disrupt his business plans.

Moreover, if one were to say who understood Lin Haoran best, Jardine Matheson & Co. would definitely be among them. They knew very well that although Lin Haoran was their mortal enemy, he possessed an unusually keen eye for investment.

Since even Lin Haoran was interested in the convenience store industry, Jardine Matheson & Co. naturally believed that it had a promising future.

But four billion Japanese yen was only equivalent to about one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. It wasn’t a huge amount, but it wasn’t insignificant either.

After receiving the four billion Japanese yen injection, what could Lawson do if the funds were still insufficient to keep pace with 7-Eleven?

Their only option was to divert all the funds originally meant for developing company-owned stores to their franchise stores. This would not only reduce the expenditure needed for each new store but also minimize costs to the greatest extent possible.

So, Lawson could now only act as a spoiler in the convenience store market, constantly disrupting market order and attempting to expand rapidly through the franchise model to compete with 7-Eleven. While causing endless trouble for Lin Haoran’s businesses, they would also enhance their own strength.

In that instant, Lin Haoran understood everything.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Lin, are you still there?” Kawai Yasuya asked when he heard a long silence on the other end of the line.

Lin Haoran snapped back to his senses and said with a smile, “My apologies, Mr. Kawai. I was just thinking about something. Thank you very much for the information. I won’t disturb you any longer. I’ll treat you to a meal when I have the time!”

“It’s what I should do. Since there’s nothing else, Mr. Lin, I’ll hang up now,” Kawai Yasuya replied.

“Alright, bye!”

“Bye.”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran pondered as he walked back to the Southland Corporation office.

Now that he knew who was behind Lawson’s funding, it was time to plan how to deal with Jardine Matheson’s move.

It seemed his acquisition of Southland Corporation had not only completely changed the fate of 7-Eleven but had also indirectly altered the fate of its competitor, Lawson.

Fate was truly a curious thing.

He had never imagined that Jardine Matheson & Co. would appear before him in Japan.

If the force behind Lawson had been one of Japan’s major financial groups, like Mitsubishi, Mitsui, or Sumitomo, it would have indeed been a troublesome affair. After all, these groups were deeply entrenched in Japan with immense power. Dealing with them would undoubtedly require enormous energy and resources.

Furthermore, this was their home turf. As an outsider, he wasn’t even certain he could win in a head-to-head confrontation.

However, with Jardine Matheson & Co. now behind the scenes, it was a completely different story.

Although Jardine Matheson & Co. once had a glorious history in Asia, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, they were now merely a defeated opponent.

They were crushed by him in Hong Kong, and now they were running over to Japan to cause a stir. This was simply courting death.

Lawson?

At that moment, a rough plan had already formed in Lin Haoran’s mind.

Shortly after, he returned to Suzuki Toshifumi’s office.

“Boss, did you find out the source of the funds? How much did they inject?” Suzuki Toshifumi asked impatiently upon seeing Lin Haoran reappear.

The Daiei, Inc., had kept a tight lid on the news, leaving Suzuki Toshifumi completely in the dark about Lawson’s current situation.

Chapter 555: What I Want Is Control of Lawson’s Supply Chain!

Lin Haoran told Suzuki Toshifumi everything he had learned from Citibank.

After hearing what his boss said, Suzuki Toshifumi let out a deep sigh of relief.

“Boss, if they’re only injecting four billion Japanese yen, then it’ll be manageable. While that’s not a small sum, their current business model generates almost no profit. They barely even collect franchise fees, which means that even with rapid expansion, they won’t be able to recoup much capital in the short term. Once they burn through this money, their expansion will grind to a halt.

“Furthermore, although Lawson convenience stores are currently investing heavily in the Tokyo metropolitan area to compete with us for franchisees, their main sphere of influence is still in the Kansai region, around the Osaka metropolitan area.

“Our 7-Eleven convenience stores, on the other hand, have been developing in the Kanto region for years. We now have far more stores in Tokyo than Lawson does. Their supply chain in the Kanto region is still incomplete, so their investment costs here are much higher than in the Kansai region.

“However, we can’t afford to be complacent. Lawson has been imitating our 7-Eleven convenience stores for years; their business strategies are nearly identical, but they’ve never been able to surpass our foundational strength.

“But now, with financial support from Jardine Matheson & Co., there’s no guarantee they won’t resort to desperate measures and make some drastic moves. My only worry is that after they spend this money, Jardine Matheson & Co. will just keep pouring more in,” Suzuki Toshifumi said, frowning with a hint of concern in his voice.

Lin Haoran, however, was not the least bit concerned.

He said with a smile, “Given Japan’s current level of urbanization, the number of convenience stores is still far from sufficient. Right now, the total number of convenience stores in all of Japan is probably less than ten thousand, right?”

“Yes, Boss. A research organization conducted a survey last year and found that there were fewer than four thousand convenience stores in the entire country, and our 7-Eleven convenience stores accounted for a quarter of them.

“However, since you acquired 7-Eleven this year, our expansion has been extremely fast. Coupled with the accelerated expansion of other brands like Lawson and FamilyMart, the total number has probably reached about five thousand by now,” Suzuki Toshifumi continued.

Only five thousand?

That was a huge gap compared to the peak number of convenience stores in Japan.

If he remembered correctly, the number of convenience stores in Japan in the twenty-first century was as high as sixty thousand.

Therefore, this market was far from saturated; its potential was as vast as the deep ocean.

“The convenience store market is indeed a big enough pie to accommodate the coexistence of multiple brands. But since I have the strength now, why should I let other brands keep pace with us?” Lin Haoran said suddenly.

“Boss, what do you mean?” Suzuki Toshifumi was confused.

“Is the Lawson Japan branch company a publicly listed company?” Lin Haoran asked.

“No, it isn’t. The Lawson Japan branch was previously co-owned by the American company, Consolidated Foods Corporation, and The Daiei, Inc. But since Jardine Matheson & Co. has now financed the Lawson Japan branch, it means it currently has three shareholders,” Suzuki Toshifumi replied.

Lin Haoran nodded and declared magnanimously, “In that case, I’ll just acquire the Lawson brand itself!”

He currently had about three hundred billion Japanese yen in available funds in Japan.

That being the case, why not just acquire Lawson’s American parent company directly?

Lin Haoran’s idea was to simply replicate the model he used to acquire Southland Corporation and buy out Consolidated Foods Corporation.

Alternatively, if Consolidated Foods Corporation was unwilling to sell, he could also acquire only the Lawson convenience store brand separately.

Lawson’s overall strength was not as great as 7-Eleven’s, which meant its market capitalization was definitely lower than Southland Corporation’s.

Back then, he had only spent seventy million US dollars to acquire Southland Corporation and the 7-Eleven brand. Including the separate branch company in Japan, the total cost was only about one hundred million US dollars.

And in the convenience store industry, whether in the United States or Japan, Lawson was weaker than 7-Eleven.

That meant if he wanted to acquire it, the final cost, no matter how high, probably wouldn’t exceed what he paid for Southland Corporation.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Suzuki Toshifumi’s eyes lit up, and he grew excited.

If Southland Corporation acquired Lawson, although the number of convenience stores under their control wouldn’t double, it would still increase by more than two thousand stores!

In the Japanese market, that meant an immediate increase of over a thousand stores!

With that, their market share in Japan would reach fifty percent.

Previously, Lin Haoran had secretly acquired Southland Corporation, leading to Ito-Yokado’s complete defeat.

“But Boss, the Lawson Japan branch is different from the 7-Eleven Japan branch. The 7-Eleven Japan branch was listed separately, which is why you could so easily force Ito-Yokado to withdraw from it.

“The Lawson Japan branch is different. Since Jardine Matheson & Co. invested for a 30% stake, even if you acquire Consolidated Foods Corporation, Lawson’s parent company, Jardine Matheson & Co. and The Daiei, Inc. could join forces in the Japanese branch, and you might not be able to win back the controlling stake!” Suzuki Toshifumi raised a concern.

“I never planned on acquiring the Lawson Japan branch company in the first place!” Lin Haoran said with a laugh.

“Oh? Why is that, Boss?” Suzuki Toshifumi didn’t quite understand.

“The logistics and supply chain for the convenience stores in the Lawson Japan branch—they’re controlled by Consolidated Foods Corporation, right?” Lin Haoran asked in return.

“That’s right, Boss. The situation with Lawson is similar to 7-Eleven’s. Although both granted agency rights to companies in Japan, the American parent companies have always kept a tight grip on the supply chain. That was one of the main clauses when Ito-Yokado signed the contract with Southland Corporation, and it’s the same for The Daiei, Inc.,” Suzuki Toshifumi responded quickly.

A confident smile spread across Lin Haoran’s face. “That’s enough. All I need is control over the Lawson brand and a controlling stake in the brand’s supply chain. I don’t really care whether The Daiei, Inc. is willing to sell its equity in the Lawson Japan branch. They can continue to act as Lawson’s agent.

“Once I’ve taken over Consolidated Foods Corporation, I’ll merge the Lawson convenience stores into Southland Corporation, making it another one of Southland’s sub-brands.

“I’ll handle the acquisition of Lawson. As for the competition between Lawson and 7-Eleven here in Japan, you don’t need to take any major countermeasures for now. We don’t want to tip them off.”

In the convenience store industry, the later stages of the business relied mainly on the franchise model, profiting from franchise fees and control over the franchisees’ supply channels.

Therefore, the operational control of the Lawson Japan branch wasn’t actually that critical.

With Lin Haoran’s explanation, Suzuki Toshifumi had a sudden realization.

With the boss personally handling it, there was naturally nothing to worry about.

At this moment, the vicious competition from Lawson no longer seemed like a problem in his eyes.

He even began to look forward to the spectacular expressions his competitors would have when they learned that their own brand had been acquired by his boss.

“Understood, Boss. I know what to do!” Suzuki Toshifumi’s earlier anxiety was completely gone.

“By the way, has Mr. Anton made any serious mistakes recently?” Lin Haoran asked after a moment of thought.

He had previously promised Suzuki Toshifumi that he would find an opportunity to either oust or demote Anton Allison, thereby allowing Suzuki Toshifumi to become the person in charge of Southland Corporation.

This was one of the conditions he had promised Suzuki Toshifumi to make him stay.

Lin Haoran certainly hadn’t forgotten about it.

Anton Allison’s corporate management skills were not bad, but his foresight was insufficient for him to manage the future growth of Southland Corporation.

Hearing Lin Haoran bring this up, Suzuki Toshifumi was a little touched. The boss hadn’t gone back on his promise.

However, he still answered honestly, “Boss, Mr. Anton hasn’t made any mistakes. In fact, on all decisions, he takes the initiative to discuss them with me before making a final call.”

Lin Haoran nodded. It seemed Anton Allison had really changed a lot and was no longer as autocratic as before, likely out of fear of losing his job.

After some thought, he said, “Since I’m already planning to acquire the Lawson brand, once the acquisition is complete, I will appoint Mr. Anton as the head of Lawson. That way, you can become the President of Southland Corporation, and it would be perfectly justifiable.”

This arrangement was also a considerable gesture of respect toward Anton Allison.

After his conversation with Suzuki Toshifumi, Lin Haoran left the Southland Corporation office and returned to his own.

He then made another call to Mr. Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank in the United States.

His purpose, naturally, was to commission Citibank to help acquire Consolidated Foods Corporation, the parent company of Lawson convenience stores.

Hearing that the call was from Lin Haoran, Walter Wriston was extremely enthusiastic.

After all, Citibank had recently witnessed another of Lin Haoran’s huge successes in the investment field. In Citibank’s eyes, Lin Haoran was now an investor of immense capability and vision. Maintaining a good cooperative relationship with him was nothing but beneficial for Citibank.

Upon learning Lin Haoran’s objective, Walter Wriston agreed without a second thought.

To a behemoth like Citibank, Lawson’s parent company, Consolidated Foods Corporation, was just an insignificant enterprise.

In fact, even before Lin Haoran acquired Southland Corporation, Consolidated Foods Corporation was already the weaker of the two.

“Mr. Walter Wriston, I’ll leave everything to you. Once the matter is settled, I’ll pay you the commission, just as I did for the Southland Corporation acquisition!” Lin Haoran said with a smile as their conversation drew to a close.

Chapter 556: Boss, We Need You to Return to Hong Kong

After handing over the acquisition of Lawson to Citibank, Lin Haoran breathed a sigh of relief.

With Citibank’s capabilities, persuading the owner of Consolidated Foods Corporation to sell the company shouldn’t be too difficult. All he had to do was wait for their good news.

Consolidated Foods Corporation did not have a strong background.

It was even less impressive than Southland Corporation.

In fact, later on, Consolidated Foods Corporation would, much like Southland Corporation, fall into a financial crisis and be forced to sell the Lawson convenience store chain to Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation. Ultimately, the Lawson brand, just like 7-Eleven, would transform from an American brand into a Japanese one.

However, in this world, whether it was 7-Eleven or Lawson, once Lin Haoran set his sights on them, it was virtually impossible for them to be acquired by a Japanese company.

Three days passed in a flash, and it was now May 23rd.

That day, not long after he finished breakfast, Lin Haoran received a call from Fok Kin-ning.

On the phone, Fok Kin-ning informed him that Citibank was looking for him.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran guessed that Citibank had probably settled the Lawson matter for him. Even if it wasn’t completely settled, there must have been significant progress.

So, he called Walter Wriston directly from his home.

Just as he expected, Lin Haoran learned from Walter Wriston that after three days of relentless pressure from Citibank’s negotiation team, the owner of Consolidated Foods Corporation had finally relented and was willing to enter into in-depth talks regarding the sale of the company.

After negotiations, Consolidated Foods Corporation had tentatively agreed to sell everything related to the Lawson convenience store brand for sixty million US dollars, but they were not willing to sell Consolidated Foods Corporation itself.

Walter Wriston was calling this time to ask if Lin Haoran would accept this condition.

To this, Lin Haoran naturally agreed immediately.

What he was interested in was the Lawson convenience store brand and its chain of over two thousand stores.

As for Consolidated Foods Corporation?

What would he do with it?

It was just an ordinary food company.

If it hadn’t gotten lucky by creating the Lawson brand and successfully imitating 7-Eleven, Lin Haoran wouldn’t have given it a second thought.

After receiving Lin Haoran’s approval, Citibank’s negotiation team continued their talks with Consolidated Foods Corporation.

Finally, a few hours later, Lin Haoran received the latest update.

After further negotiation, Consolidated Foods Corporation finally agreed to the deal for the sum of fifty-five million US dollars.

Fifty-five million US dollars was not an outrageous price for this transaction.

Coincidentally, Anton Allison, the President of Southland Corporation, was still in the United States handling the company’s affairs in North America. So, Lin Haoran contacted Anton Allison directly and had him handle the handover with Consolidated Foods Corporation, with Southland Corporation taking charge of merging with Lawson.

As for the transaction funds, Anton Allison naturally didn’t have to worry. Lin Haoran’s finance team would coordinate with Citibank to sort it out.

Learning that his boss had once again, without a sound, acquired Lawson, 7-Eleven’s main competitor, even Anton Allison was thoroughly shocked.

It reminded Anton Allison of how his boss had quietly acquired Southland Corporation, and he, the company’s general manager, only found out after the acquisition was complete.

Anton Allison couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe. This young Chinese boss was simply too powerful, too capable!

At this moment, he still had no idea that he was about to give up his position as the head of Southland Corporation.

With the deal finalized, the number of convenience stores under Lin Haoran’s actual control had already surpassed seven thousand.

Among them, as of early May, the number of 7-Eleven stores worldwide had reached over four thousand, rapidly approaching five thousand.

And the number of Lawson convenience stores worldwide had also broken the three-thousand mark.

Added together, the total was heading straight for eight thousand.

From this perspective, Lin Haoran’s previous goal of reaching ten thousand stores within the year was not far off.

Of course, ten thousand chain stores was far from Lin Haoran’s ultimate goal.

After all, the global market was enormous, and the convenience store industry was still in its early stages of development, with massive potential for growth.

“Mr. Suzuki, once Anton Allison returns to Japan, I will make him the general manager of the Lawson brand. You, on the other hand, will become the President of Southland Corporation, in charge of both the 7-Eleven and Lawson convenience store brands!” Lin Haoran said with a smile to Suzuki Toshifumi in his office.

Although Suzuki Toshifumi had long anticipated this, he was still incredibly excited to hear Lin Haoran say it.

After all, every employee dreams of a promotion and a raise!

After acquiring the Lawson brand, although Southland Corporation’s overall strength hadn’t quite doubled, it had taken a qualitative leap forward.

It could be said that no other convenience store brand in the world could now compete with Southland Corporation in this industry.

The term “miles ahead” was a perfect fit for Southland Corporation.

After all, while there were already quite a few convenience store brands around the world, very few had truly grown large and powerful.

7-Eleven and Lawson were already leaders in the convenience store industry.

Now that the two convenience store tycoons had merged, other brands were even less equipped to compete with them.

For example, Japan’s third-largest convenience store chain, FamilyMart, only had several hundred stores to date.

FamilyMart was still a long way behind both Lawson and 7-Eleven.

Now, with the merger of the two, the gap between FamilyMart and Southland Corporation was even wider. The number of FamilyMart stores was not even one-tenth of the convenience stores under Southland Corporation.

“Thank you, Boss! Thank you for this opportunity! I will not disappoint you!” At this moment, Suzuki Toshifumi seemed to have completely abandoned his loyalty to Ito-Yokado.

At the same time, Lin Haoran noticed that Suzuki Toshifumi’s loyalty, which was originally at 90—a very high number—had risen again.

This loyalty was to the 7-Eleven Japan branch company, not necessarily to him, Lin Haoran.

But Lin Haoran didn’t care about that.

Loyalty to his enterprise was enough.

But now, the number had actually risen again. Lin Haoran watched his loyalty increase from 90 to 95.

With this level of loyalty, Lin Haoran was confident enough to entrust the management of Southland Corporation to him.

With him in charge of Southland Corporation, overseeing both 7-Eleven and Lawson, there would be no problems at all. The man would absolutely never do anything to betray Southland Corporation.

“Don’t get too excited just yet. I have some requirements!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Boss, please state your requirements. Anything I can do, I will do to the best of my ability!” Suzuki Toshifumi promised solemnly.

“My requirements are simple. Now that Southland Corporation has merged with Lawson, bringing the number of convenience stores under its control to nearly eight thousand, I hope that by the end of July, without resorting to blind expansion, the number will reach ten thousand. And by a the end of this year, the number will reach fifteen thousand. I wonder if you can achieve this?

As for funding, you don’t need to worry. You should know that I’m not short on cash right now!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Without resorting to blind expansion” was the key point.

It wasn’t just about opening stores. The newly added chain stores had to be of high quality, able to establish a firm foothold in the local market and achieve profitability.

Otherwise, what was the use of opening a bunch of unprofitable stores due to poor location selection, no matter how many there were?

In reality, Lin Haoran’s request wasn’t that outrageous.

He had previously required that the global number of 7-Eleven stores reach ten thousand within the year.

And now, after acquiring Lawson, the target had only increased by five thousand.

Lawson itself already had over two thousand chain stores worldwide. With more than half a year left, adding another two thousand-plus stores was not difficult at all.

Thinking of this, Suzuki Toshifumi said with great solemnity, “Boss, I am confident I can complete this task. I will be meticulous at every stage, from market research and site evaluation to personnel training, to ensure that we maintain quality while increasing quantity!”

“Good, that puts my mind at ease!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

At this moment, neither The Daiei, Inc. nor Jardine Matheson & Co. had any idea that the Lawson convenience store brand had already changed hands.

A short while ago, Lin Haoran had called Anton Allison. Once he finished handling the handover with Consolidated Foods Corporation, he would return to Japan.

Then, right here in Tokyo, the news of Southland Corporation’s merger with Lawson convenience stores would be announced.

After finishing his work discussion with Suzuki Toshifumi, Lin Haoran did not disturb him any further.

Southland Corporation had just merged with Lawson. Although the matter had not yet been made public, Suzuki Toshifumi certainly had many things to prepare in advance.

Returning to his own office, Lin Haoran sat and thought about how the convenience stores under his control had already become a global behemoth.

When the number of convenience stores reached tens of thousands, the influence of his retail empire would radiate to every corner of the globe.

As he was fantasizing, the ringing of the telephone brought him back to reality.

Lin Haoran picked up the telephone receiver, and Dai Shi’s voice came from the other end.

“Boss, I have some bad news for you,” Dai Shi said, his tone somewhat grave.

“Oh? What is it? Just tell me,” Lin Haoran asked, puzzled.

“It’s about the Bank of East Asia. You may need to make a trip back to Hong Kong,” Dai Shi continued.

The Bank of East Asia was Lin Haoran’s acquisition target in Hong Kong.

Chapter 557: Away for Several Months, Hong Kong Remains as Prosperous as Ever

Back in January, Dai Shi had reported to Lin Haoran that Galaxy Securities had already secretly acquired a full 7.84% of the Bank of East Asia’s shares on his behalf.

Now, Galaxy Securities had been spun off from the original Universal Investment Company, and its business in Hong Kong was managed by the Hongkong Land Group.

With Fok Kin-ning keeping an eye on things, Lin Haoran had always been quite at ease about Galaxy Securities’ affairs.

In the blink of an eye, four months had passed.

Since arriving in Japan, he had not even spoken to Dai Shi once over the phone.

Now, however, Dai Shi was telling him in a grave tone that there was bad news regarding the Bank of East Asia and that he needed to make a trip back to Hong Kong.

This could not help but make him even more curious.

“Dai Shi, explain it to me in detail. What exactly is going on?” Lin Haoran asked directly.

“Our secret acquisition of the Bank of East Asia has been exposed. The Li family wishes to negotiate with you. As for how the news was leaked, I’ll explain it to you slowly, Boss.

“Over the past few months, we’ve been systematically accumulating shares in secret and have very smoothly become the second-largest shareholder of the Bank of East Asia, second only to the Li Peicai family. So far, we hold 18.34% of the shares, but we’re still a long way from the Li Peicai family’s 32.3% stake.

“In the last two months, our progress has started to slow as our shareholding percentage has increased. The Bank of East Asia’s stock price has also risen by nearly 10% in the past six months.

“This was all within our expectations. But a week ago, a member of the Bank of East Asia’s Board of Directors publicly announced that he needed money urgently and would be selling his 3.3% stake in the bank in the short term. I thought it was an opportunity at the time, but I didn’t rush to contact him.

“Then, two days ago, I learned through intelligence from Mr. Cui Zilong that the other party had decided to sell at 5% below market price because they couldn’t find a suitable buyer. So, after getting Mr. Ma’s approval, I secretly contacted them.

“But I never expected that this Bank of East Asia shareholder didn’t actually want to sell his shares at all. It was because our continuous accumulation of stock from the secondary market over the past six months had reduced the number of sell orders for the bank’s stock, making them worry that someone was targeting the Bank of East Asia. So, they used this shareholder to put out false news and set a trap to lure us in.

“As soon as our people made contact and expressed their intention to acquire the shares, the other party suddenly said they were raising the price by 20%, which was completely different from the news he had released. It didn’t seem like he wanted to sell the shares at all.

“I just thought he had changed his mind at the last minute and didn’t pay it much mind. But to my surprise, Mr. Li Guobin, the leader of the Li Peicai family, personally called me today. They wanted to use this to sound out our background and intentions, and also to test our bottom line on the acquisition.

“However, I didn’t tell him how many shares of the Bank of East Asia we currently control. He asked me to report to you that he wants to talk with you.

“Boss, the biggest responsibility for this matter lies with me. You gave me full authority over the secret acquisition of the Bank of East Asia, but in the end, I messed it up. I’ve failed to live up to your expectations. When you return, I’m willing to take a voluntary demotion and accept any punishment from the company,” Dai Shi said, his face filled with guilt and his voice low.

Lin Haoran said calmly, “It’s too early to talk about that now. The most urgent task is to resolve the problem at hand. We can discuss the demotion and punishment later. First, tell me, what are your thoughts on negotiating with the Li family?”

Dai Shi took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. “Boss, I think this negotiation is both a crisis and an opportunity for us. Before calling you, I just discussed this with Mr. Ma. He thinks that although our acquisition has been exposed, we already hold a certain percentage of the shares, which gives us the leverage to negotiate with them.”

Lin Haoran nodded. After some thought, he said, “Alright, I understand. I’ll be back in a couple of days. Don’t feel guilty about this for now. I’ll handle it when I get back!”

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran sat in his chair and fell into deep thought.

The Li Peicai family.

This top-tier Hong Kong family, one of the Four Great Families of Hong Kong, was in no way inferior to the Lee family in terms of strength.

Among Hong Kong’s many Chinese-owned banks, the Bank of East Asia had become the leader ever since Hang Seng Bank was acquired by HSBC.

The Bank of East Asia not only had numerous branches in Hong Kong but also had a considerable market presence overseas. For example, it opened a branch in New York in 1968, officially entering the United States market, and in 1972, it established branches in places like London and Singapore to serve cross-border trade and investment.

In this regard, it was far ahead of other Chinese-owned banks in Hong Kong.

The foundation for the Bank of East Asia’s development could be said to be very solid, yet its market capitalization was still less than three billion Hong Kong dollars.

In other words, the cost for Lin Haoran to acquire the Bank of East Asia would not be very high.

This was also the reason why Lin Haoran had set his sights on the Bank of East Asia.

Originally, he had been thinking about whether he could secretly and slowly swallow up the Bank of East Asia. Now, it seemed he had been a bit too optimistic.

The main reason was that the largest shareholder of the Bank of East Asia, the Li Peicai family, controlled too many shares—a full 32.3%. Add to that the 5.99% held by Société Générale and the 3.82% held by China Construction Investment (Hong Kong) Limited, and the shares of these three major shareholders already exceeded a 42% stake.

And then there was the 18.34% that Galaxy Securities had secretly accumulated over the past six months.

This meant that the holdings of just these four major shareholders had surpassed 60%.

Adding the holdings of the other shareholders on the Bank of East Asia’s board, it would be quite good if retail investors in the secondary market held even 30% of the shares.

Under these circumstances, it was really not surprising that old-timers like the Li family would notice something was amiss.

All in all, this could not be entirely blamed on Dai Shi. However, since the job was not done well, there ought to be a punishment. He would think about that after he got back.

Given that the major shareholders held so many shares, managing to acquire an 18.34% stake before being discovered by the Li family was actually quite impressive.

The Bank of East Asia was crucial to him. He really should make a trip back.

Over the past few months in Japan, Lin Haoran had often received calls from Rosamund Kwan and Guo Xiaohan. Speaking of which, he really did miss them.

Coincidentally, he had just finished dealing with the Toyota Motor matter in Japan. As for the Southland Corporation’s affairs, he could confidently leave them to Suzuki Toshifumi to handle.

After all, he had already acquired Lawson, so Suzuki Toshifumi only needed to handle the finishing touches.

As for Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch, Lin Haoran had already given Fok Kin-ning all the necessary instructions. Fok Kin-ning would now proceed step-by-step to develop the branch and continuously expand its market share.

Moreover, he had been in Japan for four months already. It was time to go back to Hong Kong for a bit. At least for now, he did not need to worry about things in Japan.

With nearly three hundred billion Japanese yen in cash to support development, coupled with the backing of Citibank, there should not be any major problems with the development in Japan for the time being.

Since he had decided to return to Hong Kong in two days, Lin Haoran spent that time having in-depth discussions and communication with his top lieutenants like Fok Kin-ning and Suzuki Toshifumi.

On the morning of May 24th, Anton Allison returned to Hong Kong from the United States.

He also brought the person in charge of Lawson convenience stores back with him.

That afternoon, the Southland Corporation, which had already made preparations, specially invited numerous media reporters and formally announced that it was officially acquiring Lawson convenience stores.

When this news reached The Daiei, Inc., they could not even believe it was real.

They had just started receiving a capital injection and were preparing to compete with 7-Eleven for franchisees, only to find that their own base had been raided?

The Lawson convenience store brand now belonged to their competitor 7-Eleven’s parent company, the Southland Corporation. How were they supposed to compete with 7-Eleven for franchisees now?

Lawson USA not only held 35% of the shares in Lawson Japan, but even the convenience store’s supply chain was firmly controlled by Lawson USA.

And now, after the Southland Corporation acquired Lawson, this 35% stake and the entire Lawson convenience store supply chain were naturally transferred to the Southland Corporation.

With one of their biggest supports suddenly changing hands, the senior executives at The Daiei, Inc. were thrown into chaos.

They hurriedly convened a meeting to discuss countermeasures, but the situation was already out of control. The strategy they had previously formulated to compete with 7-Eleven instantly lost its foundation.

Now, their only option was to sit down and have a serious talk with the Southland Corporation to discuss future development.

Lawson had become a subsidiary of the Southland Corporation. It was completely inappropriate for them to continue their previous strategy of vicious competition.

In their current situation, they had no choice but to bow their heads.

Otherwise, once the agency rights expired, the Southland Corporation could forcibly reclaim the agency rights for Lawson convenience stores.

At that point, The Daiei, Inc. would truly have nothing to show for all their efforts.

Over at Jardine Matheson & Co., they were even more incredulous when they heard the news.

They had just invested in Lawson Japan, only to have it be directly acquired by their arch-nemesis, Lin Haoran.

Their original plan was to support Lawson in its competition against 7-Eleven, making money while also frustrating Lin Haoran.

But now that Lawson had been acquired by Lin Haoran, the competition naturally ceased to exist.

Jardine Matheson was faced with two choices: either withdraw their investment or hold on to their shares.

But holding on to the shares was tantamount to collaborating with Lin Haoran.

The senior executives at Jardine Matheson probably could not stand that; they had hated Lin Haoran’s guts for a long time.

Lin Haoran did not pay too much attention to all this. He was not particularly concerned with either Jardine Matheson or The Daiei, Inc. at the moment.

He had already had a detailed discussion with Suzuki Toshifumi, who naturally knew how to handle the relationship with Lawson Japan.

After Anton Allison returned to Japan, Lin Haoran had a private talk with him. In the end, although Anton was somewhat reluctant, he still agreed to take over all of Lawson convenience store’s operations, while the Southland Corporation would be left in Suzuki Toshifumi’s charge.

With everything settled, Lin Haoran could return to Hong Kong with peace of mind.

At 10 a.m. on May 26th, a private jet took off from Tokyo International Airport.

On this trip back to Hong Kong, Yamada Keiko did not go with him but stayed behind in Japan.

Although Yamada Keiko wanted to go with him, Lin Haoran had no such intention. If he brought her back, wouldn’t it just make Rosamund Kwan and Guo Xiaohan jealous?

After a flight of more than four hours, the plane landed smoothly at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport.

Chapter 558: Just Because He’s Lin Haoran?

“Boss, you’re finally back. This must be the longest you’ve ever been away from Hong Kong!” said Cui Zilong, who had come to pick him up at the airport, his voice laced with emotion.

“Yes, it’s definitely the longest I’ve been away from Hong Kong since I entered the business world,” Lin Haoran said with a smiling nod.

Previously, whether he went to the United States or Britain, the longest he ever stayed was a month.

This time, however, he had been in Japan for as long as four months.

What’s more, if Dai Shi hadn’t called him, he wouldn’t even have had any short-term plans to return to Hong Kong.

The biggest reason, naturally, was that his investments in Japan were so colossal that even he had to give them his full attention.

In contrast, his businesses in Hong Kong were already running smoothly, with capable generals like Burton, Ma Shimin, Chen Shoulin, and Cui Zilong at the helm, which set his mind at ease.

Moreover, in the Hong Kong business world, both the British-funded conglomerates and the Chinese-funded conglomerates had recognized his prowess over the past two or three years and dared not make an enemy of him lightly.

This was why he had been so comfortable staying in Japan to oversee matters personally.

“I’ll take you to Connaught Centre first. Also, I had your private cars brought over. I had them all checked before coming here, and they’re in perfect condition,” Cui Zilong continued.

Lin Haoran nodded.

Just then, two shuttle buses pulled up beside Lin Haoran’s group.

The dozen or so people boarded the shuttles, which then headed toward the airport parking lot.

Several months ago, when he left Hong Kong, Lin Haoran had left his private cars in the airport parking lot and instructed Cui Zilong to have them driven back to the company for regular maintenance.

After all, he wasn’t sure how long he would be in Japan. If the cars were left exposed to the wind, rain, and sun in Kai Tak International Airport’s open-air lot for months, they would surely develop problems.

Seated in his familiar Rolls-Royce, Lin Haoran continued chatting with Cui Zilong.

They discussed everything from the Oriental Press Group to the recent situation at the Universal Security Consulting Company.

Along the way, Lin Haoran gazed at the bustling streets and heavy traffic of downtown Hong Kong.

After being away for months, his return was filled with a special kind of warmth.

In just a few short months, Hong Kong had already undergone considerable changes.

In Tsim Sha Tsui, for instance, he saw several newly completed high-rises that, in his memory, were still half-finished construction sites.

The transformation was even more striking on the journey through the Hung Hom Cross-Harbour Tunnel, past Causeway Bay and Wan Chai, and on to Central.

Compared to the Kowloon Peninsula, the changes on the northern side of Hong Kong Island were clearly more significant.

The real estate crisis had not yet arrived, so Hong Kong’s property sector was still booming.

The convoy drove smoothly into the underground parking garage of Connaught Centre.

Meanwhile, in a high-rise building not far from the HSBC Main Building, Li Guobin, the President of the Bank of East Asia, sat in his office with a grave expression.

Across from him sat Li Fushu, the chairman of the Bank of East Asia and Li Guobin’s father.

Li Guobin was the successor groomed by Li Fushu. As he grew older, Li Fushu had gradually handed over most of the management responsibilities to his eldest son.

This year, Li Fushu had directly promoted Li Guobin to President, a clear sign of his high regard for his eldest son.

The Li family was a major power in Hong Kong.

The Bank of East Asia was founded by Li Guobin’s great-grandfather, Li Peicai, and had a history of sixty-three years, ranking it among the older Chinese-owned banks in Hong Kong.

Because the Li family had always held a firm controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia, one of Hong Kong’s banking giants, their position as one of the Four Great Families had never wavered.

To facilitate growth, the Bank of East Asia, under the Li family’s direction, had successfully gone public in the early 1970s. This raised more capital and accelerated the bank’s development.

However, taking the Bank of East Asia public had its definite downsides, namely the continuous dilution of the Li family’s shares.

Now, a decade after its IPO and following several rounds of financing and occasional share sales by the family to cash out, the Li family’s holdings in the Bank of East Asia had dwindled, now standing at only 32.3 percent.

Even so, the Li family was very comfortable with this stake, completely unafraid of losing control of the Bank of East Asia.

After all, 32.3 percent of the shares was still an absolute force to be reckoned with within the Bank of East Asia. The other shareholders’ holdings were too dispersed for them to unite and mount a challenge.

Furthermore, as the founding family of the Bank of East Asia, which had never been outside their control since its inception, the Li family wielded deep-rooted influence and say. They had placed a large number of family confidants in the bank’s decision-making and management echelons.

Everything seemed to suggest that no power could wrest control of the Bank of East Asia from the Li family.

And for years, this had indeed been the case.

With the Bank of East Asia developing so well, it naturally attracted covetous eyes.

Over the years, not only Chinese-funded conglomerates but also many foreign powers had entertained the idea of acquiring the bank.

But in the end, without exception, they all failed.

One could say that the Li family had the Bank of East Asia firmly in its grasp, even as their shareholdings continued to decrease.

But since the beginning of this year, they had gradually noticed that something was amiss with the trading of the bank’s stock.

As the controlling shareholders, they knew the stock market situation of the Bank of East Asia like the back of their hand.

Although Galaxy Securities’ acquisition of shares was covert, secrets don’t stay secret for long, and the Li family eventually picked up on the clues.

Dai Shi and his team had been quietly accumulating so many shares that trading volume remained high while pending sell orders became increasingly scarce. This made the Li family realize that someone had their sights set on the Bank of East Asia.

So, they had a shareholder leak some information to test the waters, wanting to see which formidable entity was orchestrating things from behind the scenes. Even if they didn’t believe anyone had the ability to acquire the Bank of East Asia, they wanted to know who was pulling the strings.

As expected, their test flushed out the interested party.

But the result sent the Li family into a panic.

They had never imagined that the power coveting the Bank of East Asia would be Lin Haoran.

If Li Fushu had to name the one person in Hong Kong’s business world one absolutely could not afford to offend in recent years, it would not be the British-funded conglomerates, but Lin Haoran!

After all, he had driven even Jardine Matheson & Co. directly out of Hong Kong, a testament to his immense power.

So, upon learning that Lin Haoran was the force behind it all, the Li family panicked.

What was the most terrifying thing about Lin Haoran?

It was undoubtedly his acquisition ability.

Over the past three years, Lin Haoran had successively acquired Green Island Cement Company, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas Company, Oriental Press Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Telephone Company, and more.

Which of these wasn’t a household name in Hong Kong?

In fact, several of these companies had market capitalizations that rivaled the Bank of East Asia’s before they were acquired.

Under these circumstances, it would be strange if the Li family didn’t panic.

Everyone in Hong Kong knew that Lin Haoran had almost no record of defeat in the city.

His only “defeat,” perhaps, was the failed acquisition of Jardine Matheson.

But even then, Lin Haoran had controlled Jardine Matheson for a time, and the British-funded conglomerate had to pay a steep price to regain control.

It could be said that if Lin Haoran hadn’t voluntarily given up Jardine Matheson, the British-funded conglomerate might never have had the chance to take it back.

And now, their family enterprise, the Bank of East Asia, was in Lin Haoran’s sights.

This was a disaster!

“Dad, I asked Mr. Dai this morning. He said Mr. Lin Haoran will be back in Hong Kong soon to handle the Bank of East Asia matter. Do we really have to just give in to Mr. Lin?” Li Guobin asked, his voice filled with unwillingness.

In his heart, Li Guobin had always considered the Bank of East Asia to be his family’s legacy.

Yet his father had said he planned to welcome Lin Haoran.

This filled Li Guobin with deep resentment.

After all, once his father retired, the Bank of East Asia would be completely under his control.

As Hong Kong’s largest Chinese-owned bank, excluding powerful foreign banks like Standard Chartered Bank and Citibank, the Bank of East Asia’s strength in Hong Kong was second only to HSBC and Hang Seng Bank.

Their Li family was an absolute tycoon in Hong Kong’s financial industry.

And the formidable strength of the Bank of East Asia was the primary reason they were one of the Four Great Families.

But once Lin Haoran entered the Bank of East Asia, the Li family’s power within the bank would certainly be weakened.

This was the source of Li Guobin’s greatest resentment.

“Guobin, do you think we can compete with Lin Haoran? Even though we hold 32.3 percent of the Bank of East Asia’s shares, we don’t know how many shares Mr. Lin has already acquired. You must have noticed that the sell orders for the bank are becoming scarcer and scarcer. This means his holdings must be substantial.

In this situation, if we go head-to-head with Lin Haoran, do you think our Li family has the financial strength to match him? Compared to Lin Haoran’s vast assets, we would be like an egg against a rock. Hongkong Land Group alone, which is now his privatized company, is worth many Bank of East Asias.

Besides Hongkong Land Group, Lin Haoran controls many other companies. With the combined assets of all those enterprises, what do you think our Li family can use to compete against him?” Li Fushu said with a sigh.

“But as long as we hold over fifty percent of the shares, what does it matter how rich Lin Haoran is?” Li Guobin retorted unwillingly.

Their Li family currently held 32.3 percent of the shares, which meant they only needed to increase their shareholding by another 18 percent to reach that goal.

Chapter 559: If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them!

Looking at his son’s resentful expression, Li Fushu had mixed feelings.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to maintain the family’s absolute controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia, but reality left no room for wishful thinking.

“Guobin, you’re thinking too simply. Since Lin Haoran dares to make a move on the Bank of East Asia, he must have come prepared. Do you think increasing our shareholding is that easy?

“First, let’s not even talk about whether we have enough funds to increase our stake by eighteen percent in a short period. Even if we did, could we acquire the necessary shares in time?

“Most of the Bank of East Asia shares circulating on the market are in the hands of small shareholders. If they find out that Lin Haoran has his sights set on the bank, the stock price will surely skyrocket. They won’t sell their shares to us easily.

“Moreover, Lin Haoran’s side is definitely keeping a close eye on the market. The moment we make any move for a large-scale increase in our holdings, he will certainly take measures to stop us,” Li Fushu explained patiently.

Li Guobin fell silent for a moment after hearing his father’s words, but he still said, unwilling to give up, “Dad, we can’t just sit here and wait for our doom. Are we really going to watch as Lin Haoran enters the Bank of East Asia, or even takes control of it, completely weakening our Li family’s power?

“Given Lin Haoran’s character, I think everyone in Hong Kong knows that when he targets a company, he almost always aims for an absolute controlling stake. If that happens, our Li family might lose control of the Bank of East Asia in the near future. Then, the bank will no longer bear the Li name, but the Lin name!”

Li Fushu stood up and walked to the window, gazing out at the bustling streets of Hong Kong, his mind a torrent of thoughts.

After a while, he turned to face his son and said with deep sincerity, “Guobin, you still lack experience. With your current business acumen, I’m not yet confident enough to hand over the Bank of East Asia to you completely.

“You need to understand that in the business world, sometimes taking a step back opens up a whole new world. Lin Haoran’s strength is plain to see. If we fight him head-on, it will only result in a mutually destructive outcome. If he really wants to surpass our shareholding, he just needs to throw money at it. He has that kind of capital, do we?

“Besides, even if we managed to hold on to our controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia, with Lin Haoran’s methods, he has countless ways to make our lives at the bank difficult.

“Instead of that, why don’t we take the initiative to show goodwill and cooperate with him? It might even bring new development opportunities for our Li family. Of all the banks in Hong Kong, which one wouldn’t want to build a relationship with a wealthy and powerful man like Lin Haoran, the richest man in Hong Kong?

“Look at HSBC. Didn’t they actively court Lin Haoran, even offering him financing at a rate below market value to get him to invest, making him a shareholder and even a board member of HSBC?

“Compared to HSBC, what is our Bank of East Asia? If we can ride this tailwind, the Bank of East Asia’s future standing in Hong Kong’s financial world, and even internationally, could reach a new level.

“This is why I’m asking you to negotiate with him. Our Li family’s demands aren’t high. As long as we maintain our controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia, that’s enough. As for Lin Haoran, if he wants to be the major shareholder, we can just give him the title!”

His son had an astonishing talent for management and was a highly educated graduate of Cambridge University. Since joining the senior executive team to assist him in managing the Bank of East Asia, the bank’s progress had been visible to the naked eye.

To dramatically improve efficiency, Li Guobin had been the first to propose computerizing the bank’s operations to drive business development, which put the Bank of East Asia ahead of other banks in terms of processing capabilities.

But despite his talent for managing a business, when faced with a corporate crisis, he ultimately lacked sufficient experience in handling it.

Did Li Fushu really want to let Lin Haoran in?

He also wanted the Li family to control the Bank of East Asia for generations.

Therefore, he understood why his son was acting irrationally in the face of Lin Haoran’s encroachment.

But the reality was, against a capitalist like Lin Haoran, the Li family had no power to resist.

Li Guobin frowned, still finding it difficult to accept his father’s point of view. “But, Dad, our Li family is a respected name in Hong Kong, one of the Four Great Chinese Families. If we bow down to Lin Haoran just like that, how can we maintain our standing in Hong Kong in the future?”

“The Four Great Families? That’s ancient history, Guobin. Do you think, with our Li family’s current financial strength, we can still be considered one of the Four Great Families? In truth, whether it’s our Li Peicai family, or the Ho Kai-tung family, the Chow Wing-toi family, or the Lee Hysan family, we all began to decline in the sixties and seventies.

“Look at the emerging powers, like Lin Haoran, Pao Yue-kong, Li Jiacheng, Kwok Tak-seng, Li Zhaoji, Cheng Yu-tung… which one of them isn’t far stronger than us?

“In their presence, all we have left is the title of the Four Great Families. To put it nicely, we’re the Four Great Families. To put it bluntly, we’re just old ships struggling to stay afloat in the tides of a new era.

“The business world in Hong Kong today has long been a scene of rapid change, with the new rich rising and the old families declining. If we cling to that empty title, I’m afraid we won’t even be able to protect the foundation we have left.”

Li Fushu had the deepest understanding of this transformation. Twenty or thirty years ago, their Li family was indeed at the pinnacle of the Chinese business community. Back then, Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng were just starting out in Hong Kong’s business world.

But with the changing times, the Four Great Families had long been falling behind. They were no longer the families at the top of the business world.

Li Fushu walked over to his son and gently patted his shoulder, his eyes filled with gravity and helplessness.

“Guobin, you must understand, the business world is like a battlefield, and victory and defeat are common occurrences. Bowing your head for a moment is so you can stand taller in the future. Lin Haoran’s momentum is unstoppable right now. Clashing with him head-on is undoubtedly like an egg against a stone.

“Instead of a fight to the bitter end, it’s better to go with the flow and use his momentum for our own development. I’m not entirely sure why he’s after our Bank of East Asia, but based on his past management style, I don’t think we’re without a chance to keep our controlling stake.

“After all, only our Li family understands the Bank of East Asia best. Only we can accurately grasp the complex web of business relationships and potential risks.

“Besides, even if Lin Haoran becomes the major shareholder, the actual operations of the bank will still depend on people like us who are familiar with the business. As long as we can demonstrate our value during the negotiations, he won’t easily kick us out. Guobin, you need to take a longer view and not just focus on the immediate gains and losses.”

Listening to his father’s words, the resentment in Li Guobin’s heart gradually faded, replaced by a sense of calm and reflection.

He was no fool. On the contrary, the reason he was being groomed by Li Fushu as his successor was not just because he was the eldest son, but more importantly, because he truly possessed exceptional wisdom and keen insight in business management.

At this moment, he understood his father’s painstaking efforts and clearly recognized the severity of the current situation.

In recent years, the Government House had relaxed restrictions on banking licenses, allowing powerful foreign banks to set up branches in Hong Kong, putting immense pressure on Chinese-owned banks. Many Chinese-owned banks had collapsed as a result.

The Bank of East Asia was able to become a tycoon among Chinese-owned banks not only due to its strong foundation but, more importantly, because it had already established a vast overseas network and implemented diversified operations. This allowed its banking business to continuously expand, enabling the bank to thrive even in adversity.

Li Guobin’s contribution to this was actually very significant.

Having studied in Britain, his perspective was much broader than that of many local Hong Kong businessmen.

He understood the potential of overseas markets and the importance of diversified operations in helping a bank withstand risks.

Therefore, after returning from Britain and joining the Bank of East Asia, he actively promoted the expansion of the bank’s overseas business, establishing cooperative relationships with financial institutions in multiple countries and regions, managing trust funds for private clients, and allowing the Bank of East Asia to gradually make its mark on the international financial stage.

Over the years, under Li Guobin’s direction, the Bank of East Asia had collaborated with financial institutions in Britain, the United States, France, Canada, Switzerland, and other countries. It had also established four branches in New York, Toronto, the Cayman Islands, and Singapore to develop its international business, turning the Bank of East Asia into a highly influential Chinese-owned bank with a foothold in Hong Kong and a global reach.

Taking the bank public in the early 1970s was an absolutely brilliant move, giving the Bank of East Asia access to more resources and support in the capital market.

But now, Lin Haoran’s aggressive momentum was a major threat. If not handled properly, all this could be reduced to nothing.

After all, even Hang Seng Bank, which was more powerful than the Bank of East Asia, couldn’t escape the fate of being acquired and controlled by HSBC, could it?

“Dad, you should be the one to handle the negotiations with Lin Haoran. I’m still inexperienced, and I’m afraid I’ll lose my composure at the negotiating table and jeopardize the family’s future,” Li Guobin said sincerely after a moment of thought.

Li Fushu nodded slightly, a trace of relief in his eyes. “Guobin, it’s good that you can recognize your own shortcomings. These negotiations are indeed crucial. They concern the future of our Li family and the fate of the Bank of East Asia. If I go myself, it will also show them our sincerity and how seriously we’re taking this.

“You can accompany me and take the opportunity to learn more about negotiation skills. Your dad is getting old. The future of the Li family will ultimately rest on your shoulders.”

Before them, the suddenly risen Lin Haoran was like an insurmountable mountain, exuding an awe-inspiring presence.

Even the mighty Jardine Matheson & Co. had been driven out of Hong Kong by Lin Haoran. What did their Bank of East Asia amount to?

But Li Fushu understood that for the continuation of his family and the future of the Bank of East Asia, he had to muster his courage and face this difficult negotiation head-on.

Perhaps they would face the worst-case scenario, but it wasn’t as if they had no chance at all.

“Please don’t worry, Dad. I will listen carefully and learn with all my heart. I won’t disappoint you,” Li Guobin said solemnly.

“‘If you can’t beat them, join them!’ This is a form of wisdom in itself.” Li Fushu nodded slightly, let out a sigh, and stood up, looking out at the skyscraper-filled district of Central.

Chapter 560: Progress on the World’s Tallest Building

This was a compromise, yet it was also a way to break the deadlock.

Navigating the treacherous waters of business sometimes requires learning to retreat in order to advance.

The gradual decline of their Li Peicai family was caused by the relentless tide of the times.

New powers like Pao Yue-kong and Lin Haoran, with their keen business acumen, decisive leadership, and vast capital, had risen as swiftly as a squall across Hong Kong, constantly eroding the territory of the old families.

It was like an ancient dynasty; even one that was once glorious and commanded respect from all corners could not guarantee its hold on power for generations.

In the ebb and flow of the business world, rise and fall were the norm.

For merchant families like theirs, decline was to be expected in the face of the great currents of the era.

Li Fushu was quite philosophical about this.

Meanwhile, less than a kilometer away on the 51st floor of the Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran had returned to his private office.

Although Connaught Centre was no longer Hong Kong’s tallest building, it was still the most stunning sight in Central, its status unshakable.

Looking at the familiar furnishings in his office, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but smile faintly.

This was his turf.

After dropping him off at Connaught Centre, Cui Zilong had left.

“Boss, I honestly didn’t expect this to be a trap set by the Li family. I share some of the responsibility for this,” said Ma Shimin, who was sitting opposite him, with a wry smile.

Ma Shimin had recently been to Japan to help Fok Kin-ning handle matters he couldn’t resolve, and he had only been back in Hong Kong for a few days.

“It’s fine, just a small matter. I’ll handle it. Since they want to negotiate with me, I’ll have a good talk with them!” Lin Haoran said dismissively.

Two years ago, the Li Peicai family would have seemed like a behemoth in his eyes.

But he was no longer the man he was two years ago. Now, in Hong Kong, only a few financial groups and powers like HSBC, Swire Group, and Pao Yue-kong were worthy of his serious attention.

So what if the Li family found out about his designs on the Bank of East Asia ahead of time?

In the face of absolute power, all schemes and plots were nothing but paper tigers.

Knock, knock, knock. A knock came from the office door.

“Come in,” Lin Haoran called out.

“Boss, it’s me,” said Dai Shi, who walked in and spoke respectfully.

“Mm, what’s the situation with the Bank of East Asia?” Lin Haoran nodded and asked.

“To prevent the Li Peicai family from increasing their shareholding in the Bank of East Asia, we’ve been monitoring the stock market. We also had General Manager Cui pay special attention to the bank’s key shareholders to prevent any private transactions. However, to our surprise, the Bank of East Asia’s stock has remained calm. Additionally, we haven’t received any news from General Manager Cui’s side. It seems the Li family has not increased their shares in the past few days!” Dai Shi reported.

“Oh? So it seems they have no intention of battling me over the shares?” Lin Haoran was somewhat surprised.

After all, the Li Peicai family held 32.3% of the shares, which was a very high stake for a largest shareholder in many publicly listed companies.

Therefore, the Li family had a significant advantage.

Yet, after learning of Lin Haoran’s interest in the Bank of East Asia, they hadn’t moved to consolidate their position by increasing their shareholding. This truly puzzled Lin Haoran.

“Boss, in my opinion, the Li family probably wants to compromise. You hold all the cards, Boss,” Ma Shimin said with a smile.

“Boss, this is the latest intelligence report on the Bank of East Asia that I had General Manager Cui’s team compile. Please take a look,” Dai Shi said, handing over a file.

Lin Haoran calmly took the file, his fingers lightly flipping through the pages.

The report detailed the current shareholding ratios of the Bank of East Asia’s major shareholders, recent major policy decisions, and other information.

Lin Haoran gently set the file down. After a moment of thought, he said to Dai Shi, “Dai Shi, send them a reply. Tell them I’m available at ten tomorrow morning and that they’re welcome to come to Connaught Centre for a detailed discussion. Make sure your reply is polite. After all, the Li family are respected seniors in Hong Kong’s business community.”

“Yes, Boss. I’ll contact them right away,” Dai Shi responded respectfully.

After Dai Shi left, Lin Haoran fell into deep thought.

As for the Bank of East Asia, he already had a preliminary plan in mind from the moment he learned the Li family wanted to negotiate.

The final terms of the negotiation would depend on the Li family’s sincerity.

If the Li family was willing to make certain concessions on shares and management control, he wouldn’t mind allowing them to save some face. After all, in the business world, having one more friend was always better than having one more enemy.

Besides, the Li family was indeed skilled at managing a bank.

He wasn’t willing to drive away such excellent corporate managers.

After all, even if he completely acquired the Bank of East Asia, he wouldn’t be able to manage it himself.

Forget the Bank of East Asia, he was a hands-off manager even with a behemoth like the Hongkong Land Group, let alone a bank with a market capitalization of less than three billion Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Haoran stood up and walked to the circular window, gazing at the scenery on both sides of Victoria Harbour.

Suddenly, he noticed that construction had begun on one of the plots of land he’d had the Hongkong Land Group bid for. In fact, several floors had already been built.

That was the planned site of the world’s tallest building.

Speaking of which, it was Government House that had begged him to bid on those plots of land back then.

They did it to prevent Hong Kong’s land prices from collapsing and to avert a property crisis in the city.

As a result, he had managed to swoop in and get a great deal.

Now, he hadn’t even settled the payment for the land auction, and Government House had already agreed to let him postpone the settlement for three years.

“Huh, construction has started this quickly?” Lin Haoran asked in surprise.

He recalled that it was only two months ago that Ma Shimin had faxed him the design blueprints, which he had been very satisfied with at the time.

Ma Shimin had already come to stand beside him.

“Boss, when Government House learned that we were going to build the world’s tallest building, they offered a great deal of support. After completing the surveys, design, and other processes, and with ample funding, we naturally started construction. We estimate it will be completed in about three years. By then, the title of the world’s tallest building will be ours!” Ma Shimin said with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded. He was also looking forward to this building.

As for why Government House was so supportive, he understood completely.

The reason Hong Kong’s land prices had skyrocketed over the past few decades was entirely due to the behind-the-scenes push from Government House.

After all, what was the quickest way to make money? Selling land, of course.

Moreover, with negotiations imminent, the future of Hong Kong was complicated and confusing. Even Britain was unsure of what it held.

Therefore, their goal was to make more money from Hong Kong.

And if Hong Kong had the world’s tallest building, it would undoubtedly enhance the city’s image and influence, attract more international capital, and cause land prices to rise accordingly.

For Government House, this was undoubtedly a win-win situation with no downsides.

Among the plots auctioned before, two were in Central. One was the site where the world’s tallest building was already under construction.

Looking at the other plot, Lin Haoran saw that construction had also begun there.

The difference was that this plot was still in the foundation-laying stage.

Both plots were in Central and not far from Connaught Centre, so Lin Haoran could see them clearly.

“Boss, that plot is closer to the sea, and its area is smaller than the one on the right, so it’s not suitable for building too high. After surveys and design, the height of this building was set at 283.7 meters. Once completed, it will be the second tallest building in Hong Kong and will become another important commercial project for the Hongkong Land Group,” Ma Shimin explained, seeing where Lin Haoran’s gaze had fallen.

Lin Haoran nodded.

He shifted his perspective, looking towards Sheung Wan.

He saw that the plot of land acquired last year in partnership with Guo Henian was now under construction. A large shopping mall would be built there.

Sheung Wan currently lacked a large-scale commercial plaza. Once this mall was completed, it would become one of Sheung Wan’s major landmarks.

In addition to these, the Hongkong Land Group had many other projects under construction on Hong Kong Island and in areas like Tsim Sha Tsui.

Lin Haoran’s anticipation grew. Once all these buildings were finished, Hong Kong’s skyline would be completely reshaped by the Hongkong Land Group’s projects, and the group would certainly leave a brilliant and indelible mark on Hong Kong’s business empire.

This was something he, Lin Haoran, had changed.

Under his influence, Hong Kong was becoming better and better.

Although a real estate crisis would hit Hong Kong next year, it would not affect the construction of these projects at all.

By the time these projects were completed, Hong Kong’s property crisis would be long over.

After chatting with Ma Shimin in his office for over an hour, he didn’t go to see his other top lieutenants, nor did he inspect any of the companies.

He checked the time; it was already past three in the afternoon.

So, he bid farewell to Ma Shimin and left Connaught Centre in his private car.

“Back to the Deep Water Bay villa,” Lin Haoran said to Li Weidong from his seat in the Rolls-Royce.

It had been so long; it was time to go back and see his parents.

His mother had been calling him frequently over the past few months.

Chapter 561: Older Brother, What Are You Thanking Me For?

At the Deep Water Bay villa, when Lin mother saw Lin Haoran suddenly appear, she could hardly believe her eyes.

Aside from a few people, Lin Haoran hadn’t told anyone about his return this time, including his parents.

At this moment, her son, who was supposed to be in Japan, had suddenly appeared at their doorstep. How could Lin mother not be overwhelmed with joy and surprise?

“Haoran, you… why are you back? You didn’t even say anything beforehand!” Lin mother’s voice trembled slightly, and her eyes glistened with tears. She hurried forward and gripped Lin Haoran’s hands tightly, as if afraid he would vanish again if she let go.

The achievements Lin Haoran had made over the past few years felt like a dream to her.

In the past, within the circle of wealthy families, she had been at the bottom of the pecking order. It was usually she who had to take the initiative to connect with the other wealthy wives.

But now, thanks to her son’s meteoric rise to become the richest man in Hong Kong, those very same wives were clamoring to curry favor with her. Her social circle had instantly risen several tiers.

Their doorstep was practically worn thin from visitors, and invitation cards flew in like a blizzard, all inviting her to high-end gatherings and charity galas.

All these changes often made Lin mother feel as if she were in another world.

The people who used to give her the cold shoulder now greeted her with smiles and flattery. This stark contrast filled her with both emotion and gratification, and the source of all this glory was the son standing before her, a source of immense pride.

Seeing his mother’s emotional and sentimental expression, Lin Haoran smiled and said, “I wanted to give you a surprise. I just got back from Japan today. By the way, is Dad not home?”

“Him? Who knows what social engagement he’s run off to. Ever since he recovered, he can’t sit still for a moment. He invested in a movie earlier. Although it didn’t lose money, it didn’t make much either, but he just loves to stay busy.

“And now, he’s planning a new film with his friends. I hear the total investment is over three million Hong Kong dollars, and he’s boasting that he’ll create an epic blockbuster that will stun all of Hong Kong. He’s so busy he barely touches the ground. But at least he’s always home before seven every evening.”

Although her words carried a hint of complaint, her eyes were filled with pride. After all, with such a successful son, she felt proud no matter what his father did.

Lin Haoran nodded. he understood Lin Wan’an. After having toiled in the business world for his entire life, now that his health was restored, it was only natural that he couldn’t remain idle.

If it weren’t for his health problems, Lin Wan’an would never have divided the family assets between his two sons so early, in his early sixties.

Now, after two years of recuperation, his health had gradually recovered. He certainly wasn’t going to just sit back and enjoy his retirement; he was always thinking of starting a new venture to prove that he was still sharp.

“Haoran, since you’re back, I’ll have to tell the kitchen to add a few more dishes. And your bodyguards need an extra meal too; they’ve worked hard protecting you. Also, your older brother came back last month and said he wanted to talk to you. I’ll call him over now. You go sit in the living room first.” As Lin mother spoke, she was about to get up and make the arrangements.

Lin Haoran watched her bustling about with a smile and didn’t stop her.

Lin mother had always been robust and seemed perfectly healthy, and she had annual check-ups.

So he was quite confident about the state of her health.

Lin Haoran walked into the villa and soon went up to the attic on the top floor.

The room was spotless, as if untouched by dust, clearly cleaned regularly by the maids.

Lin Haoran stepped out onto the terrace. The flowers there were as brilliant as ever, especially the bougainvillea, which was in full, fiery bloom, its vibrant colors seeming to set the entire terrace ablaze.

A gentle breeze rustled through, causing the flowers to sway lightly and release waves of fragrance, which put Lin Haoran in a particularly good mood.

Lin Haoran lay on the lounge chair, enjoying the afterglow of the sunset.

Soon, it was past six in the evening. Just as he was about to doze off, Lin Haoran heard the sound of a car engine from downstairs.

He rubbed his eyes, got up, and walked to the wall to look down.

A brand-new Rolls-Royce was parked in the space outside the villa, and his older brother, Lin Haoning, stepped out of the back seat.

Over the past two years, with Lin Haoran’s advice, Lin Haoning had also made a huge profit.

First, he had his fan factory abandon the highly competitive Middle Eastern market to instead develop the less-noticed North American market, which earned him a great deal of money.

Then, at Lin Haoran’s suggestion, he invested all his earnings into buying plots of land and real estate properties.

In the past two years, these plots of land and properties had at least doubled or tripled in value.

As a result, although Lin Haoning’s assets were far from rivaling Lin Haoran’s, his net worth was now at least close to one billion Hong Kong dollars, making him a prominent figure in all of Hong Kong.

Lin Haoning looked up and happened to see Lin Haoran standing by the wall. A brilliant smile instantly spread across his face. He strode into the villa, shouting as he walked, “Haoran, you’re finally back! Come on down and chat with your older brother!”

“Alright, I’m coming down now,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

His older brother, Lin Haoning, wasn’t a bad person at his core, so he didn’t really mind some of the things he did during the fight for the family inheritance.

Besides, even if he hadn’t ultimately inherited Wan’an Group, his father would have still given him a very generous portion of the family assets; it just might not have been as much as the group’s assets.

When he got downstairs, Lin Haoning was already waiting for him on the sofa in the living room.

“Did sister-in-law and Jianbin not come back?” Lin Haoran walked over and sat down across from Lin Haoning.

“Jianbin is participating in an international primary school piano competition in Vancouver, Canada. Your sister-in-law went with him. I don’t think it’s necessary, but since Jianbin likes it, I’ll just let them do as they please,” Lin Haoning said nonchalantly.

“Oh? I didn’t know Jianbin had a talent for piano,” Lin Haoran said, genuinely surprised.

In his memory, his nephew had always been a bit mischievous; it was hard to associate him with a piano. Who would have thought he’d actually enjoy playing it?

“That kid says he wants to be a pianist in the future. I have this huge business waiting for him to inherit, but he has no interest in business at all. He just fiddles with that piano all day. It’s such a headache,” Lin Haoning grumbled, but a flash of barely perceptible fondness crossed his eyes.

The two brothers exchanged pleasantries for a long while before the sound of another car engine came from outside.

Lin Haoran glanced at the time; it was almost seven in the evening.

If he wasn’t mistaken, his father, Lin Wan’an, must be home.

Both brothers stood up and walked out of the living room. Looking outside, they saw it was indeed their father’s private car. A servant was opening the gate to let the car into the front yard parking space.

Lin Wan’an stepped out of the car in a sharp suit. Though over sixty, he was hale and hearty, with a steady gait.

This was the result of his early retirement to focus on his health. Two years ago, before he retired, his health had been nothing like this; back then, his body seemed to be riddled with minor ailments.

Seeing his two sons, Lin Haoning and Lin Haoran, Lin Wan’an’s eyes filled with surprise, and his pace quickened.

That evening, the family had a lavish dinner.

After dinner, as was customary, the two brothers and their father went into the ground-floor study.

Lin Haoning took the initiative to brew some tea.

“Haoran, how long are you planning to stay in Hong Kong this time? I heard you nearly acquired Toyota Motor a while back. That caused quite a stir!” Lin Wan’an said with some emotion, his face beaming with pride.

As an Asian economic hub, Hong Kong receives news from around the world very quickly. Any major global event would soon be known to the Hong Kong media.

And in the Toyota Motor incident, Lin Haoran, a super-rich tycoon from Hong Kong, was the main character.

Therefore, the matter had also created a huge sensation in Hong Kong at the time, with the news media providing follow-up reports for several days straight.

“Dad, I haven’t decided yet. I’m mainly back to handle some business affairs. There’s not much going on in Japan for the time being, so I might be staying in Hong Kong for quite a while,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

In reality, the flight was only a little over four hours. For Lin Haoran, such a distance was no problem at all; where he stayed was entirely up to his mood.

As for the matter of acquiring the Bank of East Asia, it hadn’t been leaked yet, and Lin Haoran didn’t bring it up.

“Good. Now that you’re back, spend more time with your mother. She talks about you all day long, just hoping you’ll come back. Also, you need to take care of your health while you’re out there working hard. Don’t overwork yourself. Don’t be like I was, nearly running my body into the ground. Although I’ve recovered now, I’m not what I used to be. There are many things I want to do that I no longer have the energy for,” Lin Wan’an said earnestly.

“Dad, I heard from mother that you’re just like you used to be, leaving early and coming back late, as busy and happy as can be. That doesn’t sound like someone who’s losing his energy,” Lin Haoran teased with a smile.

Lin Wan’an let out a hearty laugh and said, “I just can’t sit still. I’m always looking for something to do.”

“By the way, Haoran, Older Brother really needs to thank you for something,” Lin Haoning, who had just finished brewing and pouring tea for everyone, chimed in.

“Oh? Older Brother, what are you thanking me for?” Lin Haoran asked, puzzled.

“Well, at the beginning of the year, I asked for your advice on whether I should sell my plots of land and properties. You advised me to sell, so I took advantage of the good market prices at the time and sold off almost all the plots of land and properties I had accumulated over the past two or three years to liquidate my assets.

“I later discovered that by March or April, Hong Kong’s real estate market really did start to have problems. Housing prices stagnated, transaction volumes dropped, and there were fewer successful land auctions.”

Chapter 562: Ma Shimin’s Mysterious Gift

Lin Haoran stayed at home for one night, and his Older Brother, Lin Haoning, also stayed over.

The next morning, at a little past eight, Lin Haoran headed out early.

Since he had already scheduled a meeting and negotiation with the Li family of the Bank of East Asia for ten o’clock in the morning, he naturally wouldn’t keep them waiting.

Moreover, since they were coming to him this time, he was considered the host.

He had just arrived at Connaught Centre during the peak of the morning rush. Along the way, numerous employees were surprised to see him, and all greeted him warmly.

When he had come by the day before, everyone had been busy with their work, so very few had noticed that their Boss had returned to Hong Kong.

But now, seeing the Boss who had recently made several major headlines in Japan return to Hong Kong so quietly, the employees were absolutely stunned.

The news spread as if it had grown wings, flying from Connaught Centre to all the major news media companies in Hong Kong.

In an instant, many learned a piece of bombshell news: that man who maneuvered skillfully and commanded the winds and clouds in the business world, was back!

Walking into Ma Shimin’s office, he saw Ma Shimin looking over information gathered by the group’s intelligence department.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, Ma Shimin immediately stood up from his seat.

“Boss, I have already arranged the conference room for your negotiation with Li Peicai’s family today. I will accompany you to the meeting later,” Ma Shimin said with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded. He glanced at the time; it was just nine in the morning, so there was no rush.

“The reason I’m targeting the Bank of East Asia is because of my current situation. Holding such a vast amount of capital, including the massive cash flow in the hands of the Hongkong Land Group, we shouldn’t be constrained by others. Therefore, the financial sector must be vigorously expanded. This negotiation with the Li family is especially critical. If we successfully acquire the Bank of East Asia, we will gain a firm foothold in the financial sector and have a more powerful platform for capital operations,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Ma Shimin, of course, understood this point very well.

“Also, there’s something I didn’t report to you yesterday. I’ve been keeping a close eye on the development of Hong Kong’s property market. Early this year, there was a noticeable decline in property transaction volume in Hong Kong. This is particularly true for industrial land, where prices have fallen slightly compared to the end of last year.

Commercial land prices, on the other hand, are still maintaining a slow upward trend because the major property developers are still expanding aggressively. However, the transaction volume has slowed. All of this indicates that Hong Kong’s property sector is undergoing a shift.

Furthermore, influenced by the oil crisis, economies around the world have been severely affected over the past two or three years. International trade protectionism is on the rise, and since the beginning of this year, many countries have increased tariffs to limit imports and protect their domestic industries.

As a major hub for international trade, Hong Kong has inevitably been affected. Its export trade has been hampered to a certain extent. Many export-reliant factories have seen a sharp drop in orders and are facing operational difficulties. It’s also clear that consumption in Hong Kong is declining.

Some subsidiaries under our group are also involved in the export business, and their performance has been affected to varying degrees. The cargo volume at the Kwai Chung terminals, in particular, has seen a significant drop compared to last year.

All of this shows that Hong Kong’s property sector cannot continue its unchecked rise like it did in the previous two years. We’re lucky we cleared out many of our property projects early. Otherwise, if a property crisis were to really hit Hong Kong, the debt pressure on our Hongkong Land Group would be immense!” Ma Shimin continued his report.

Lin Haoran was not surprised by Ma Shimin’s words.

The night before, Lin Haoning had mentioned something similar, expressing relief that he had sold off his property investments early.

In truth, all the signs were there. It was just that the major property developers in Hong Kong, still deeply caught up in the property bubble, had not paid much attention to these details.

Even Li Jiacheng’s Cheung Kong Holdings was still investing heavily in the property sector at this moment.

People like Ma Shimin and Lin Haoning had discussed these matters with Lin Haoran, and Lin Haoran had offered his own view: that the current rise in Hong Kong’s property prices had completely surpassed their intrinsic value and was being propped up by a bubble. Once that bubble burst, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Therefore, both Ma Shimin and Lin Haoran paid particularly close attention to every development in the property industry.

Ma Shimin, especially, had already realized when he was an Executive Director at Jardine Matheson & Co. that the pace of Hong Kong’s property development was a bit too frantic. Behind the constantly climbing prices lay a massive crisis.

However, when he mentioned these thoughts to Newbiggin, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. at the time, the latter always thought he was having groundless fears, believing that Hong Kong’s property market would continue to prosper, given its unique geographical location and booming economy.

Many people were blinded by immediate profits and simply wouldn’t listen.

Seeing that he couldn’t convince Newbiggin and that they held differing views, Ma Shimin, though feeling a bit helpless, could only choose to leave Jardine Matheson & Co.

After joining the Hongkong Land Group, he devoted even more energy to researching and analyzing Hong Kong’s property industry.

“This was all to be expected. Right now is probably the property industry’s last hurrah of the past few years. In my opinion, in about a year and a half at most, the property sector will accelerate its downward trend.

When that time comes and this bubble is burst, all the major property developers will get hurt. Mr. Ma, you are the person in charge of the Hongkong Land Group, and I trust in your abilities. The group’s business focus needs to be shifted more quickly,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“Rest assured, Boss. Currently, aside from the Hongkong Land Group’s core property projects, our focus is on diversified development. On your recommendation, the Hongkong Land Group now controls Dairy Farm International and has launched mergers and acquisitions of many major international FMCG brands.

In just two months, we have successfully acquired more than thirty brands. Moreover, the integration and operation of these brands are proceeding in an orderly fashion. We are retaining their original brand characteristics and market channels while implementing unified resource allocation and management optimization.

The partnership with 7-Eleven, in particular, has provided a solid guarantee for the sales of the products we’ve acquired. Now, you’ve also facilitated 7-Eleven’s acquisition of Lawson convenience stores, greatly increasing the number of stores and creating a broader sales network, which forms a complete closed business loop.

We expect to see more significant results in the market in the second half of the year, which will bring considerable returns to the group,” Ma Shimin said with full confidence.

“Yes. The most important thing for FMCG brands is to ensure quality. Once a brand’s reputation collapses, it will be difficult to sustain it in the long run, even with sales channels. Therefore, during the integration and operation process, quality control must not be relaxed.

We need to establish a strict and comprehensive quality supervision system. Every stage, from raw material procurement and production processing to transportation and sales, must be strictly controlled,” Lin Haoran instructed earnestly.

Ma Shimin nodded in agreement. “You’re right, Boss. We are already in the process of building such a system. We have arranged for a professional quality supervision team to regularly inspect and evaluate the production processes of each brand to ensure that product quality meets standards.

Moreover, we are also strengthening cooperation with our suppliers, screening for high-quality and reliable partners to guarantee quality from the source. Here is a list of the FMCG brands we have already acquired. Please have a look.”

As he spoke, Ma Shimin handed over a document.

Lin Haoran took the document and scanned it casually.

On it were brands he was very familiar with, such as Red Bull, Heineken, L’Oréal Paris, and Carlsberg, as well as some he didn’t recognize.

Many of the brands Lin Haoran had suggested were impossible to acquire. Naturally, Ma Shimin’s team couldn’t rely solely on the list provided by the Boss. If they came across other good FMCG brands, they could acquire them as well.

The reason these brands declined or disappeared in later generations was often not due to the products themselves, but rather a combination of factors such as flawed business strategies, incorrect market positioning, a broken capital chain, or being squeezed out by powerful competitors.

Now that the Hongkong Land Group had the chance to intervene, it was entirely possible for it to use its own resources and advantages to breathe new life into these brands.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had no objection to Dairy Farm International acquiring some FMCG brands that he didn’t recognize but were relatively well-known in this era.

Putting down the document, Lin Haoran was about to say something more when Ma Shimin stood up.

“Boss, I have a gift for you!” Ma Shimin said, taking a box from the cabinet behind him and handing it to Lin Haoran.

“Oh? What’s this?” Lin Haoran asked, taking the box in surprise.

“Boss, you’ll know once you open it,” Ma Shimin said with a smile.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran could only suppress his curiosity and open the box.

Inside, was it actually a ‘big brother’ mobile phone?

Looking at the phone, which was nearly the size of half a brick, Lin Haoran was somewhat surprised.

“Have mobile phones already been put into commercial use in Hong Kong?” he asked, looking up.

Last year, under Lin Haoran’s direction, the Hongkong Land Group had acquired Hong Kong Telephone.

Afterward, during a trip to the United States, Lin Haoran had taken the opportunity to negotiate with the Motorola Company. He had successfully brokered a partnership between Motorola Company and the Hongkong Telephone Company to make Hong Kong the first city in the world to commercialize mobile phones.

Now, more than half a year had passed, and he hadn’t asked about the matter since.

“Not yet. But with the assistance of the Motorola Company, the cellular mobile communications network now covers the core areas of Hong Kong Island, such as Central, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, and North Point.

It’s currently in the mobile phone testing phase. Due to some gaps in coverage, the signal is occasionally interrupted, but making and receiving calls is generally not a problem in areas with signal coverage.”

Chapter 563: After All, High-Tech Is More Profitable!

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran smiled. “This is a good thing. High-tech is Hong Kong’s weak point. This device right here is a rarity. If we can master its technology, not only can we cultivate a large number of tech talents in a short time, but in the long run, we can also carve out a brand-new high-tech industry track for the group.”

The mobile phone was just the beginning. In the future, Lin Haoran hoped that Hong Kong could flourish across the board in the high-tech sector.

Amidst the global tide of rapid technological development, Hong Kong could not limit itself to the traditional industries of finance, real estate, and trade. It had to keep pace with the times and secure a place in the high-tech domain.

The previous plan to acquire FMCG brands was just a small part of Lin Haoran’s overall strategy.

As the manufacturing industry in Mainland China grew, driving its economy, relying solely on fast-moving consumer goods manufacturing would not be enough. They had to advance toward high-tech manufacturing.

And naturally, Lin Haoran would not miss out on the frontiers of high-end manufacturing, such as semiconductors, communications, electronic information, and automobile manufacturing.

However, he had to take it one step at a time. For now, developing FMCG brands would allow him to accumulate experience, cultivate talent, and expand market channels, thereby building a solid foundation for the subsequent push into high-end manufacturing.

Even if he had the money now to enter all industries at once, it would be like building a skyscraper on a beach—lacking a stable foundation, it would be unable to withstand the storms of the market.

“Boss, why don’t you give it a try?” Ma Shimin suggested.

Lin Haoran nodded, taking the new product from the Motorola Company—the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X—out of the box. He didn’t rush to make a call, but instead examined it carefully.

Its overall shape was relatively slender, with a white main body and clean, smooth lines that gave it a solid, robust feel.

The mobile phone was equipped with a long antenna extending from the top of the device to enhance signal reception.

The screen was relatively small, located near the top of the front face. Its display area was limited, mainly used for showing basic information like dialed numbers and incoming call numbers.

Below the screen was the keypad area, with neatly arranged physical buttons marked with numbers and letters.

Although the overall design was rather bulky, it was an extremely advanced and fashionable communication device for its time, symbolizing a major breakthrough in mobile communication technology.

“Motorola actually completed the R&D for this product long ago. They just lacked a suitable environment for commercial use, so its release was delayed. According to Motorola’s original plan, this product was supposed to be officially released in 1983, by which time some major cities in the United States should have had mobile signal coverage. However, since we signed the cooperation agreement with them, they decided to bring this product to market ahead of schedule,” Ma Shimin explained as Lin Haoran carefully examined the device.

Lin Haoran nodded. He had always known that Motorola had achieved the technological breakthrough long ago.

After all, as early as 1973, they had been the first to unveil a similar product. It was only because the mobile signal environment was not yet mature that it couldn’t be commercialized.

Now, with the Hongkong Telephone Company and Motorola working together to create the world’s first city to achieve mobile phone communication, there was naturally no need to keep this product under wraps any longer.

Previously, during a conversation with Mr. Robert Galvin, the president of Motorola, Lin Haoran had made a point of persuading him: “If Motorola doesn’t bring this product to market soon, the title of the world’s first company to commercialize mobile phones might fall into the hands of others. After all, mobile phone technology is not exclusive to Motorola’s R&D; other companies are also pushing forward at full steam.”

This might have been one of the reasons why Mr. Robert Galvin ultimately agreed to Lin Haoran’s proposal to choose Hong Kong as the trial city for commercial use.

Holding it felt substantial; it weighed at least 750 grams.

Compared to the smartphones he had used in his previous life, the product before him was practically an antique.

Not only was it cumbersome, but its functions were also limited to making and receiving calls, and a stable signal was not even guaranteed.

But in this era, it was the most advanced gadget available, so new that it hadn’t even become widespread. Only a select few would have the privilege of experiencing its magic.

A wave of emotion washed over Lin Haoran. He understood that the emergence of this product wasn’t just the birth of a phone; it was a major revolution in the history of human communication.

He could imagine the amazement of the people of Hong Kong when the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X appeared on the city’s streets.

Those bosses who once could only be reached by landline could now make and receive calls anytime, anywhere, never missing a single business opportunity. This would undoubtedly boost their commercial efficiency and competitiveness.

For middle-class citizens, this mobile phone would also bring unprecedented convenience.

Whether seeking help in an emergency or communicating instantly with friends and family far away, everything would become effortless.

This convenience and efficiency would completely change people’s way of life.

Lin Haoran dialed a number. Soon, a series of beeps came from the mobile phone, and then the call connected.

“This is the Modern Girl Fashion Store. Who is this?” Rosamund Kwan’s voice came from the other end.

Last year, after Lin Haoran had successfully taken over the Hongkong Land Group, he had specially selected a shop for Rosamund Kwan spanning over three hundred square meters in The Landmark, near Hang Fung Building in Central, for her to run a high-end clothing business.

Not only that, but he also arranged for her to directly franchise a much-watched high-end clothing brand under the Hongkong Land Group, ensuring that all supplies were handled by a specialized subsidiary of Hongkong Land, which was both worry-free and efficient.

Rosamund Kwan didn’t have to pay any rent or franchise fees, only the cost of inventory.

In his past life, Rosamund Kwan had been forced into the entertainment industry because of her father’s debts.

But now, as Lin Haoran’s woman, she was naturally free from the hardships and helplessness of her previous life.

Therefore, the Rosamund Kwan of this world was already destined to have no ties with the entertainment circle.

“It’s me. Come to the Severn Road villa tonight. I’ll be waiting for you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Ah, Brother Haoran, you’re back in Hong Kong? That’s wonderful! I’ve missed you so much!” An excited voice came from the other end of the line.

Clearly, after not seeing him for a few months, Rosamund Kwan had missed Lin Haoran dearly.

“Yes. I’ll be waiting for you tonight. I’m busy right now, so I have to go,” Lin Haoran replied.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran thought for a moment and then called the butler at the Severn Road villa to have them arrange for dinner.

He then made a few more calls.

Putting down the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia. He finally felt a touch of the modern era.

The reason he had wanted to approach Motorola in the first place was due to the limitations of the era; the absence of mobile phones often caused him to miss crucial calls. That feeling of being unable to contact anyone at a moment’s notice once he left the office or home was terrible.

Now, he had indirectly influenced the technological development of this era, pushing forward the commercialization of mobile phones.

Of course, that was only a small part of the reason. The most important reason was that he also wanted to get involved in high-tech, to help Hong Kong stand at the forefront of technology and become a globally renowned center for technological innovation.

After all, high-tech is more profitable!

Hong Kong might not currently have a natural environment suitable for high-tech development, but what did that matter?

The soil could be cultivated and improved.

Seeing Lin Haoran put down the mobile phone, Ma Shimin asked with a smile, “Boss, how does it feel?”

“Fantastic!” Lin Haoran answered succinctly.

“The first time I used it to make a call, I was completely blown away by its magic. Just think, in the future, we won’t have to look for a landline every time we go out. We can contact anyone, anytime, anywhere. This is truly a world-changing invention!” Ma Shimin laughed heartily.

Lin Haoran nodded in deep agreement.

In his past life, he wouldn’t have given such an antique a second glance.

But in this era, it represented the cutting edge of technology, a coveted artifact that countless people dreamed of possessing.

“When can it be officially commercialized?” Lin Haoran asked after a moment of thought.

Ma Shimin quickly reported in detail, “Currently, the densely populated areas in the northern part of Hong Kong Island, such as Central, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, and North Point, already have mobile signal coverage. Fortunately, Government House is extremely supportive of building the cellular mobile communication network. With the help of the relevant government departments, our signal construction is progressing rapidly.”

“Right now, the cellular communication signal engineering team is working intensively on setting up base stations and debugging mobile signals in densely populated areas of the Kowloon Peninsula like Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok, Hung Hom, and Kwun Tong.”

“At this rate, we expect these areas to have full mobile signal coverage in two to three months. By then, the entire central area of Hong Kong will be able to use mobile phones. We are currently building and testing the communication signals simultaneously.”

“We plan to make an official announcement in August, making Hong Kong the first city in the world to commercialize mobile phones. Mr. Robert Galvin, the president of Motorola, has already confirmed that he will personally fly in from the United States on the day of the official announcement.”

August?

That was just over two months away.

“Isn’t the timeline a bit tight?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“Don’t worry, Boss, there’s plenty of time. Our testing on Hong Kong Island has been going on for over two months, and the results have been quite good. This decision was also made after consulting with Motorola.”

“Besides, we’re beating the rest of the world to be the first to commercialize mobile phones. Even if a few minor problems crop up later, that’s perfectly normal. Only by getting more users involved in testing can our path to commercialization become smoother!” Ma Shimin said with a confident smile.

Lin Haoran nodded and was about to say more when a knock came from the door.

“Come in,” Ma Shimin called out.

The person who entered was Ma Shimin’s assistant.

“Boss, Mr. Ma, Mr. Li Fushu, the Chairman of the Board of the Bank of East Asia, has arrived,” the assistant reported respectfully, bowing to Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin.

Lin Haoran glanced at his watch. Unconsciously, the hour hand was already approaching ten in the morning.

Chapter 564: Is There Really No Room for Negotiation?

Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin walked out of the office and soon met with Li Fushu, the Chairman of the Board of the Bank of East Asia, and his son, Li Guobin.

Although Lin Haoran had never worked with them before, both Li Fushu and Li Guobin were considered leading figures in Hong Kong’s business world. He would occasionally see them in the newspapers or on television.

Furthermore, Li Fushu was also one of the vice-presidents of The Chinese General Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. When Lin Haoran joined, he had exchanged a few words with him.

The reason he had never cooperated with the Bank of East Asia in the past was simply that, compared to foreign-funded banks like HSBC and Citibank, the Bank of East Asia held no advantages whatsoever.

After his business had grown, he required massive loans, easily in the billions of Hong Kong dollars. Only major international banks like HSBC and Citibank possessed such strength and resources.

As one of Hong Kong’s larger banks, the Bank of East Asia did indeed have substantial capital reserves.

However, they were extremely cautious in their use of capital, not daring to mobilize too much of it for fear of repeating a past disaster and facing a bank run.

Just like Hang Seng Bank, which had once fallen into a liquidity crisis due to a bank run and was ultimately forced to sell a 51% stake to HSBC. HSBC gradually increased its shareholding to 62.14%, and Hang Seng Bank could only become a subsidiary under its control.

Lin Haoran had previously investigated the Bank of East Asia in detail. Last year, in 1980, its total deposit funds amounted to 6.4923 billion yuan. This figure accounted for 6.22% of Hong Kong’s total bank deposits at the time. Among banks registered locally in Hong Kong, the Bank of East Asia’s deposit amount was third, behind only HSBC and Hang Seng Bank.

Though it ranked third, it was actually a very distant third.

HSBC, for instance, had total deposits last year reaching as high as 131.2 billion Hong Kong dollars.

The Bank of East Asia’s total deposits were only just over 6.4 billion. If Lin Haoran were to truly request a loan of two to three billion, it would be equivalent to taking out half of their deposit base. Would the bank dare to take that risk?

Naturally, it wouldn’t.

Therefore, if Lin Haoran needed to borrow several billion, he would not consider the Bank of East Asia in the first place.

The reason he wanted to acquire the Bank of East Asia was because a bank of this moderate size was a better fit for his acquisition goals.

Moreover, the Bank of East Asia had a certain foundation overseas, giving it an edge over most local Hong Kong banks.

As for a tycoon like HSBC, even if he had the money, he would find it difficult to gain control easily.

“Elder Li, welcome to the Hongkong Land Group!” Lin Haoran said with a broad smile, proactively shaking Li Fushu’s hand.

Li Fushu was nearly seventy years old, even older than his father, Lin Wan’an, and was a renowned doyen in Hong Kong’s business community.

Therefore, even though Lin Haoran’s wealth now far surpassed that of the entire Li Peicai’s family, he maintained an attitude of humility and respect.

“Mr. Lin, it’s been a while, and you look more impressive than ever!” Li Fushu responded with a smile. His face showed no trace of resentment over Lin Haoran’s designs on the Bank of East Asia; instead, it was filled with admiration. “Please forgive our unannounced visit today, Mr. Lin.”

“Not at all, Elder Li. You’re a senior in Hong Kong’s business world; it should have been me paying you a visit,” Lin Haoran replied with pleasantries.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Lin Haoran then shook hands with Li Guobin.

He was well aware that the man before him was Li Fushu’s successor.

“Boss, Mr. Li, let me take you to the meeting room. We can talk there!” Ma Shimin suggested with a smile.

Although the acquisition of the Bank of East Asia was not directly related to the Hongkong Land Group and was Lin Haoran’s personal decision, the matter had been entrusted to Galaxy Securities, which was now a subsidiary of the Hongkong Land Group.

Now that the acquisition attempt had been leaked, Ma Shimin felt a degree of responsibility, so he naturally had to assist his Boss.

Moreover, since the Hongkong Land Group was Lin Haoran’s private company, his acquisition of a bank would be of great benefit to the group in the future.

For this reason, Ma Shimin was very supportive when he learned of his Boss’s plan to acquire the Bank of East Asia.

Led by Ma Shimin, the group arrived at a relatively small meeting room.

They took their seats as host and guests at an oval conference table. An assistant served hot tea before closing the meeting room door.

Instantly, only the four of them remained.

This was a preliminary negotiation. For the time being, neither Lin Haoran nor Li Fushu wanted to escalate the matter, so both sides preferred to keep it from too many people.

“Mr. Lin, I would like to know your intentions for accumulating shares of the Bank of East Asia on the secondary market,” Li Fushu said, lifting his teacup and taking a delicate sip. His sharp gaze fell on Lin Haoran as he cut straight to the chase.

Lin Haoran was already prepared. He smiled faintly and spoke with composure, “My purpose is quite clear, and I’m sure you have an idea, Elder Li. To be honest, I had planned to acquire the shares gradually and covertly, but I didn’t expect you to notice so quickly. Truly, experience comes with age.”

“I’ll be blunt. With the vast scale of assets I now control, I’m genuinely concerned about the safety of keeping my funds in other banks, and it’s also very inconvenient when it comes to capital allocation. If I could acquire a bank of my own, all these worries would naturally vanish.”

He paused, looking at Li Fushu with sincerity. “The Bank of East Asia has solid foundations in Hong Kong and has always had a good reputation. Although it’s currently cautious in its use of capital, that’s precisely the kind of stability I value. I am also very optimistic about the bank’s international diversified development.”

“My acquisition of the Bank of East Asia’s shares is driven by the hope of using its excellent platform to achieve a deep and efficient integration of my assets with banking resources.”

“Now that you are aware of the situation, Elder Li, I would like to formally present my acquisition request to the Li family. I wonder if you would be willing to sell the Bank of East Asia to me? After the acquisition, it would be a win-win situation for both me and the bank.”

“I can bring broader business channels and strong financial support to the Bank of East Asia, helping it shine even brighter on the international financial stage. In the future, it wouldn’t be a problem for the Bank of East Asia’s strength to surpass that of Hang Seng Bank.”

“And the Bank of East Asia can provide more stable, convenient, and efficient financial services for my industries, further consolidating and expanding my business empire.”

Li Fushu seemed to have anticipated Lin Haoran’s words and showed no surprise.

After all, judging from Lin Haoran’s past acquisitions, any listed company he targeted was usually for a full buyout.

Now, he was secretly accumulating shares of the Bank of East Asia on the secondary market over a long period. This was far too similar to his previous takeovers.

Li Fushu set down his teacup, his fingers tapping lightly on the tabletop. After a moment of thought, he said, “Can you disclose how many shares of the Bank of East Asia you currently hold, Mr. Lin?”

Without a disclosure from Lin Haoran, the Li family had no way of finding this out.

Not knowing the other party’s position made even an old-timer like Li Fushu feel that the situation was tricky.

He naturally understood that in a business negotiation, information was paramount. At this moment, the number of Bank of East Asia shares Lin Haoran held was like a key bargaining chip hidden in the fog.

A confident smile touched the corners of Lin Haoran’s mouth. “Elder Li, the shares of the Bank of East Asia I currently hold are enough to give me a certain say in this acquisition. As for the specific number, I will disclose it at the appropriate time. For now, I would rather discuss the feasibility of the acquisition and future development plans with you.”

Li Fushu nodded. He knew that Lin Haoran wouldn’t reveal this crucial information easily. He had only been probing, and he wasn’t surprised that the question went unanswered.

He gazed at Lin Haoran with deep eyes and said, “Mr. Lin, the Bank of East Asia is the heart and soul of several generations of my Li family. We will not easily give up our controlling stake. Furthermore, the bank’s many shareholders will not simply agree to an acquisition.”

“Selling the Bank of East Asia completely to you, Mr. Lin, is certainly out of the question. Since my grandfather’s generation, our Li family has put far too much into the bank.”

“However, we at the Bank of East Asia would also like to cooperate with you, Mr. Lin. Having you as a shareholder is a development opportunity for us. Therefore, we can make you the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, to jointly participate in the bank’s major decisions and push the Bank of East Asia to new heights. What do you think, Mr. Lin?”

Hearing Li Fushu’s words, Lin Haoran’s heart stirred slightly, but his expression remained calm.

He gently shook his head and said, “Elder Li, becoming Vice Chairman of the Board was not my initial intention. My true goal is to control a bank and leverage the immense synergistic effect that deep integration with my industries can bring. Simply being the Vice Chairman of the Board of the Bank of East Asia is not enough to satisfy me.”

Though becoming Vice Chairman would allow him to participate in decisions, it was a far cry from his original goal of gaining full control over the Bank of East Asia and achieving deep resource integration.

However, Lin Haoran was unwilling to let relations with the Li family become too hostile, because he also needed them to manage the bank for him.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t even bother negotiating. With the shares he currently controlled and the capital at his command, he could launch a takeover, and the Li family would be powerless to stop him.

But, in the short term at least, too much upheaval among the senior executives of the Bank of East Asia would definitely not be a good thing for the bank.

Li Guobin frowned from the side. “Mr. Lin, your appetite is a bit too large. Our Bank of East Asia has operated in Hong Kong for many years and has its own well-established system and strategy. We can’t just be easily acquired by you.”

“Moreover, it’s hard to say what specific benefits this ‘deep integration’ you speak of could bring us.”

“Do you perhaps think I’m incapable of completing the acquisition? Elder Li should know in his heart that the market capitalization of the Bank of East Asia is truly nothing in my eyes. Take the current third-largest shareholder, Société Générale—I am fully confident that I can persuade them to transfer their shares to me.”

“As for the other Hong Kong shareholders, to be honest, even though they seem close to the Li family now, do you think they could resist the immense temptation if I were to increase the acquisition price?”

“In the face of tangible benefits, how much weight does so-called friendship truly carry? I believe Elder Li, as a senior in Hong Kong’s business world, should understand this better than anyone,” Lin Haoran stated calmly.

Li Fushu was silent for a moment before he said in a deep voice, “Is there really no room for negotiation?”

Chapter 565: I Want the Controlling Stake, You Can Have the Management Rights

At that moment, Ma Shimin, seated beside Lin Haoran, also spoke up, “Mr. Li, you know our Boss’s personality. When he sets his sights on a publicly listed company, it rarely escapes being acquired. You might as well name a price. Knowing our Boss’s usual style, he privatizes the companies he acquires whenever possible.”

In reality, this was merely Ma Shimin testing the waters for his boss.

Although listed banks in Hong Kong could be privatized just like any other ordinary listed company, Lin Haoran had never considered privatizing the Bank of East Asia. After all, it wasn’t necessary.

Looking across the globe, almost all well-developing banks were publicly listed companies. Banks that had grown solely through a single individual or a private financial group were nearly impossible to find.

Since he had decided to acquire the Bank of East Asia, Lin Haoran naturally hoped it would flourish and become a bank with global influence. Therefore, maintaining its listed status was, in fact, crucial.

Hearing Ma Shimin’s words, Li Fushu’s heart tightened slightly. He was, of course, aware of Lin Haoran’s methods in the business world; most companies he targeted were destined to be acquired.

Li Guobin, at his side, wanted to say something, but Li Fushu tugged on his sleeve, and Li Guobin immediately fell silent.

“Mr. Lin, I understand Mr. Ma may be joking, but hearing those words makes us a little uneasy. The Bank of East Asia is the life’s work of several generations of our Li family, representing our family’s glory and honor. Your proposal to privatize the Bank of East Asia is something we can never accept. To be blunt, I don’t know how many shares of the Bank of East Asia you hold, but I am certain that our Li family holds far more. Therefore, even with your substantial capital, we have sufficient means to block an acquisition. However, I contacted you proactively because I genuinely hope to discuss a partnership. If you are sincere, we can sit down and discuss the specific details of our cooperation to plot the future development of the Bank of East Asia. But the prerequisite is that our Li Peicai family’s control over the Bank of East Asia absolutely must not fall into other hands. As for you wanting to fully acquire the Bank of East Asia and delist it from the stock market, that is even more impossible!”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran understood his counterpart’s bottom line.

He smiled and said, “Elder Li, I’m not that overbearing. Why don’t we each take a step back? How about it?”

Hearing this, Li Fushu asked, “What do you mean, Mr. Lin?”

“I will hold a controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia, but I’ll leave the management rights to your Li family. This way, it’s a happy outcome for all!” Lin Haoran stated his idea.

Li Fushu’s brows furrowed, and he immediately retorted, “Mr. Lin, how is that each of us taking a step back? The controlling stake and management rights should not be so easily separated. A controlling stake means having a decisive influence on the bank’s major decisions. If you hold the controlling stake, even if we retain management rights, we will be constrained at critical moments. You could even seize the management rights at any time. Our Li family has run the Bank of East Asia for many years; we have a mature management system and a professional team. The management rights are something we have always held fast to, and the controlling stake is the very foundation of our family. It cannot be given up so easily.”

Lin Haoran didn’t rush to continue the conversation on this topic. Instead, he turned to Ma Shimin and asked, “How much cash do we have in the Hongkong Land Group’s accounts right now?”

“Boss, the main account of our Hongkong Land Group currently holds over six billion Hong Kong dollars. These funds do not include the money submitted from the sub-accounts of our various branch companies. Dairy Farm International, in particular, had over two billion Hong Kong dollars in its account last month; Hongkong Telephone Company also has five hundred million Hong Kong dollars in cash. As for subsidiaries like the Hongkong Land leasing company, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Galaxy Securities, the Kwai Chung container terminals, and so on, I won’t even mention them!” Ma Shimin immediately understood his boss’s intention and replied with a smile.

Before Lin Haoran went to Japan at the beginning of the year, the Hongkong Land Group had over 12 billion Hong Kong dollars on its books. However, Lin Haoran had taken out four billion Hong Kong dollars for investments in Japan, and a bank debt of over one billion Hong Kong dollars was repaid in February.

Over the past few months, although the Hongkong Land Group had been continuously investing in FMCG brands through Dairy Farm International, many of these brands didn’t actually cost much. The capital spent on acquiring over thirty brands was only a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars. For instance, the acquisition of Red Bull, a brand that would become world-famous in the future, cost only a few million Hong Kong dollars at this time, as it had not yet expanded beyond Thailand or built its reputation.

Additionally, other investments, such as property development and the acquisition of diversified businesses, had also consumed a significant amount of capital.

But where there were expenditures, there were also revenues. Sales for some of the Hongkong Land Group’s property projects were strong, bringing in a considerable amount of capital. After acquiring and integrating diversified businesses, some operations had also become profitable.

Furthermore, subsidiaries like the Kwai Chung terminals, Dairy Farm International, property leasing, hotels, and financial securities were constantly generating profits for the Hongkong Land Group.

So, all things considered, the group’s accounts still maintained a relatively abundant amount of cash.

“Elder Li, as far as I know, your Bank of East Asia’s current total deposits are just over six billion Hong Kong dollars. Meanwhile, my Hongkong Land Group, just this one company alone, commands cash well beyond that amount, not to mention the many other enterprises under my name like Wanqing Group, Hongkong Electric Group, Oriental Press Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, and Hong Kong and China Gas. If the cash flow from all my companies were to pass through the Bank of East Asia, and all the funds were deposited there, and I used my influence in the business world to attract more clients from other banks to the Bank of East Asia, do you think it’s possible for the Bank of East Asia to surpass Hang Seng Bank and become the second-largest bank in Hong Kong, second only to HSBC, after I take control?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

As for surpassing HSBC, let’s not even mention it. To surpass it would be impossible in the short term, especially with the full support it received from the Government House. HSBC’s strength was simply too formidable; it could rank in the top ten worldwide. Deposits of over one hundred billion Hong Kong dollars were no joke. Moreover, HSBC’s interests were also tied to those in Britain. For Lin Haoran to use the Bank of East Asia to fight alone against HSBC was a battle he had no chance of winning.

However, if it could surpass Hang Seng Bank, that would be excellent news.

For decades, Hang Seng Bank had been the number two bank in Hong Kong, even surpassing foreign banks like Standard Chartered and Citibank. Even after the bank run that led to its opportunistic acquisition by HSBC, its position as number two remained unshakable.

But with the Hong Kong enterprises Lin Haoran now controlled, if all of them were to partner with the Bank of East Asia and channel their cash flow through it, combined with Lin Haoran’s influence in Hong Kong, it would truly be no problem for the Bank of East Asia to surpass Standard Chartered and Hang Seng Bank to become the second-largest bank in Hong Kong in a short period of time.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Li Fushu couldn’t help but feel a ripple of excitement. Even Li Guobin, standing beside him, was tempted.

Surpassing Hang Seng Bank, surpassing Standard Chartered Bank—this was undoubtedly an extremely tempting prospect for the Bank of East Asia.

In terms of customer deposits, the Bank of East Asia was currently ranked behind only HSBC and Hang Seng Bank among Hong Kong’s local banks. But if foreign banks were included, the Bank of East Asia only ranked fourth. Although Standard Chartered’s main business was in Britain, it, like HSBC, had the right to issue currency in Hong Kong and had a history of over a hundred years in the city, thus having numerous clients.

Hang Seng Bank’s position in Hong Kong’s financial world was pivotal. In the Hong Kong region, its customer deposits surpassed even Standard Chartered, second only to HSBC. If the Bank of East Asia could surpass it, it would reach a whole new level.

However, the issue of the controlling stake remained like a fishbone stuck in the throat.

Without the controlling stake, even if the Bank of East Asia became the largest bank in Hong Kong, it would be as if the Li family had worked hard only for someone else’s gain. The glory would not be enough to hide their sense of loss and unwillingness.

“Mr. Lin, if we no longer have the controlling stake, even if the Bank of East Asia becomes the number one bank in Hong Kong, what does that have to do with us?” Li Fushu said in a low voice.

“Elder Li, you might want to look at the example of Hang Seng Bank. It was acquired by HSBC as early as 1965, but the management rights have always been firmly in the hands of Mr. Ho Sin Hang, and the position of Chairman of Hang Seng Bank has always been held by Mr. Ho Sin Hang. This shows that even after losing the controlling stake, HSBC did not strip Mr. Ho Sin Hang of his management rights over Hang Seng Bank. If you agree to this, Mr. Li, I can not only guarantee that your Li family will continue to control the management of the Bank of East Asia, but the shares you hold will also continuously appreciate in value with the injection of capital and cooperation from my various enterprises.

“You see, the current market capitalization of the Bank of East Asia is less than three billion Hong Kong dollars. But once I inject capital and become the controlling shareholder, its development will be driven by my resources and influence. The Bank of East Asia’s market capitalization could very likely rapidly surpass the ten-billion mark, or even climb higher. By then, the value of the shares held by your Li family will naturally rise with the tide. You would only be losing the controlling stake but would still hold equity in the Bank of East Asia. When the Bank of East Asia surpasses Hang Seng Bank, the benefits for your Li family will be innumerable. How can you say it has nothing to do with you?

“Moreover, I can tell you very clearly right now that if I were to launch a compulsory acquisition of the Bank of East Asia, I don’t think your Li family has the financial strength to stop me. The only reason I chose to negotiate with you is out of respect for us both being Chinese-funded conglomerates. If it were a British-funded conglomerate, I wouldn’t give them any face at all. I think your Li family should be very clear about the example of Jardine Matheson & Co.” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Lin Haoran’s words, laced with both sincerity and confidence, sent Li Fushu deep into thought.

Chapter 566: Practically Unrivaled

As a doyen of Hong Kong’s business world, Li Fushu knew the landscape like the back of his hand. He understood all too well that Lin Haoran wasn’t just bluffing. With Lin’s power and influence in Hong Kong, the Li family would indeed be hard-pressed to resist a hostile takeover.

A Hong Kong giant like Jardine Matheson & Co. had been driven out by Lin Haoran. Compared to the British-funded conglomerate behind Jardine Matheson, what did Li Peicai’s family amount to?

The family’s glory was gradually showing signs of fatigue amid the tides of the new era.

Once, by meticulously managing the Bank of East Asia, Li Peicai’s family had carved out a place for themselves in Hong Kong’s business world, even becoming recognized as one of the Four Great Families of Hong Kong. Those were days of boundless glory.

But now, with the rapid rise of new powers, the Li family had begun to decline. Although they still held a certain degree of prestige and connections in Hong Kong’s business circles, their former brilliance was a thing of the past. The gap between them and the emerging financial groups was growing ever wider.

While Li Fushu was still lost in thought, Li Guobin, standing beside him, was growing increasingly tempted by Lin Haoran’s words.

If the market capitalization of the Bank of East Asia were to really exceed ten billion, the value of the shares held by their Li Peicai family would more than triple!

For their family, this was an absolutely incredible opportunity.

If they were to develop the bank on their own, even he, the President of the Bank of East Asia, couldn’t predict when its market capitalization would ever exceed ten billion.

Especially in the last two years, as the Government House continued to issue more operating licenses to foreign banks, competition in Hong Kong’s banking sector had intensified. Many local banks had even been forced into bankruptcy after losing market share.

Li Fushu glanced at the excited expression on Li Guobin’s face and sighed to himself.

The bait Lin Haoran had dangled looked tempting, but it concealed a hidden hook.

Even if Li Peicai’s family could retain management rights during his generation, it was uncertain whether the next generation could hold onto this inheritance.

What’s more, in Li Fushu’s eyes, Lin Haoran was a man of immense ambition. If he got his way, Li Peicai’s family would, sooner or later, completely lose control of the Bank of East Asia.

His original intention before this meeting had been to retain their controlling stake while bringing Lin Haoran onto the Board of Directors, working together to develop the Bank of East Asia. The Li family was even prepared to pay a certain price for this.

After all, the Bank of East Asia was the culmination of generations of his family’s heart and soul. It was the foundation of their standing in Hong Kong’s business world and could not be allowed to change hands so easily.

But now, he found Lin Haoran’s stance to be far more unyielding than he had ever imagined.

Initially, the man had even wanted a full takeover of the Bank of East Asia. If that had happened, the Li family would have been completely severed from the bank.

Now, even after their family’s firm refusal had made him abandon the full takeover, he still demanded a controlling stake.

It left him feeling as if he were riding a tiger—unable to dismount.

Li Fushu knew very well that once they relinquished the controlling stake, the Li Peicai family’s influence over the Bank of East Asia would be severely diminished, and their family’s future would become uncertain.

He didn’t want to stand by and watch the empire built by his ancestors be handed over to someone else, but reality was so cruel.

“Mr. Lin, even if you agree that the management rights of the Bank of East Asia will belong to me now, and later to my son Guobin, who can guarantee that after my son and I have grown old and retired, the reins of the bank will still remain firmly in the hands of the Li family?” Li Fushu said with a grave expression, speaking each word deliberately.

Hearing this, a meaningful smile touched the corners of Lin Haoran’s lips.

He gently set down his teacup, his gaze as sharp as a torch fixed on Li Fushu. “Elder Li, the business world is like a battlefield, constantly changing. Who can predict the future?

But I can promise you this: as long as I, Lin Haoran, am here, the development of the Bank of East Asia will not stagnate. As for management rights, we can sign a detailed agreement. As long as the Li family makes no major mistakes in its leadership, I can ensure you will maintain significant influence over the bank for a considerable time to come.

As for the distant future, I think you’re looking too far ahead, aren’t you, Elder Li? Who can guarantee that any family can stand forever? The Hong Kong business world is in constant flux. Today’s giants can become tomorrow’s has-beens. Though I, Lin Haoran, am powerful today, I dare not claim that my descendants for generations to come can hold onto this inheritance.

If your younger generation lacks ability, I can’t just let them run the Bank of East Asia into the ground, can I? Elder Li, you should understand that I, Lin Haoran, am a businessman. I pursue maximum profit, but I am not a man without a bottom line.

If we can truly join forces, I will give it my all. The best outcome is for the Lin and Li families to develop together. Living in the present is the attitude we businessmen should have.

Instead of worrying about the uncontrollable variables of the future, let’s seize the present and push the Bank of East Asia to new heights. If we do, even the spirit of your grandfather, the venerable Mr. Li Peicai, would be gratified.”

Lin Haoran’s words made Li Fushu fall silent once again.

In this negotiation with Lin Haoran, it seemed the Li family had very little leverage.

At that moment, Li Guobin, standing beside Li Fushu, spoke up. “Mr. Lin, Mr. Ma, how about you let us discuss this privately for a moment? I’d like to talk with my Dad!”

Li Fushu glanced at his son, understanding that Li Guobin probably had something he wanted to say in private.

He nodded slightly and said to Lin Haoran, “Mr. Lin, Guobin has a point. We father and son do need to discuss this further. After all, this concerns the future direction of our family.”

Lin Haoran nodded in understanding and stood up. “Of course. Elder Li, Mr. Li, take your time. We won’t disturb you. When you’re done, just have someone find us. We’ll be waiting in our office!”

With that, he and Ma Shimin left the office, leaving the father and son in the conference room.

As Ma Shimin closed the conference room door behind him, the room quickly fell silent.

“Guobin, what did you want to say?” Li Fushu asked, turning to face his son.

“Dad, I think this could be the opportunity for our Li family to rise again!” Li Guobin said eagerly, his face flushed with excitement. “Lin Haoran’s terms certainly have risks, but the opportunities they hold are limitless.

Just think about it, if the Bank of East Asia’s market cap really breaks ten billion, or even higher, won’t our family’s wealth rise with the tide? That would be an immeasurable fortune!

Furthermore, with a tycoon like Lin Haoran, who dominates the business world, backing us, the Bank of East Asia is sure to make new waves in Hong Kong. Our family can seize this chance to restore its former prestige.

Dad, you were right. We may still be one of the Four Great Families of Hong Kong in name, but it’s just an empty title. That’s an achievement from our ancestors’ time. We know our current situation all too well.

They call us one of the Four Great Families, but there are plenty of Chinese-owned families in Hong Kong with more assets than us now. If they were to choose the Four Great Families again today, our family wouldn’t stand a chance. We can’t keep clinging to past glories. We have to bravely seize this golden opportunity!”

Previously, upon learning that Lin Haoran wanted to acquire the Bank of East Asia, Li Guobin had been very resistant to negotiating and even wanted to challenge him.

But his father, Li Fushu, had told him that the Li family was already in decline. To act so impulsively would be like an egg against a stone, courting their own destruction.

While the family still had some prestige and connections, in the ever-changing business world of Hong Kong, it was all empty talk without real power to back it up.

A direct confrontation with Lin Haoran would only lead the family to ruin. It was better to hear his terms first before deciding anything.

When Li Guobin calmed down and thought it over, he realized his father was right.

The family’s position in the business world was becoming increasingly difficult. If they didn’t seize this chance, they might truly never have another opportunity to recover.

“Dad, I was too impulsive before. Thinking about it now, we really can’t let our pride dictate our actions. Lin Haoran may be ambitious, but the partnership he’s proposing is a rare opportunity for our family.

If we can work with him, using his capital and resources, there’s a very high probability that we can take our family’s power to the next level, and even restore our former glory,” Li Guobin said sincerely.

“Although it is an opportunity, the risk is immense. With the controlling stake in Lin Haoran’s hands, he could take back our management rights with effortless ease. Once that happens, we’ll have no say at all in the Bank of East Asia.

At that point, we’d be nothing more than shareholders. What’s the point of that? After I’m gone, how could I ever face your grandfather and your great-grandfather?” Li Fushu sighed deeply, his face etched with worry.

“Dad, no, no, it’s the exact opposite of what you’re saying. Think about it, what is Mr. Lin Haoran’s position in Hong Kong’s business world today?” Li Guobin asked with a smile, the corners of his mouth turning up.

Before they came, it had been Li Fushu persuading Li Guobin.

Now, the tables had turned, and Li Guobin had to persuade Li Fushu.

Li Fushu narrowed his eyes slightly and, after a moment of thought, said, “He controls Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong Telephone, Hong Kong and China Gas, Kowloon Motor Bus, Green Island Cement, and a host of other industries. The cash flow he commands is astonishingly huge.

His power in Hong Kong’s business world is practically unrivaled. He’s an unstoppable force. Because of him, the power of Chinese-funded conglomerates has completely surpassed the British-funded conglomerates. Even HSBC can’t get the upper hand against him!”

Chapter 567: So What If We Become Lin Haoran’s Vassal?

“Dad, since you’re aware of Mr. Lin Haoran’s strength, you should understand that cooperating with him does our Li family more good than harm. He’s keen on developing the Bank of East Asia with us, which means he’ll definitely invest a great deal of capital and effort. With a business tycoon like him backing us, the Bank of East Asia will surely reach new heights.

“Think about it. With Lin Haoran’s current power and influence, if he wanted to take full control of the Bank of East Asia, his chances of success are far higher than ours. Our Li family may look impressive now, but in reality, we’re stretched thin. If we were to go all out and fight him for it, our odds of winning are truly slim.

“He’s proposing a partnership and is even willing to grant us certain management rights. This shows that he values the experience and connections our Li family has accumulated in the banking industry over many years.

“So, as long as we agree to cooperate, our relationship with Lin Haoran will inevitably be close in the short term. In the future, once we’ve helped the Bank of East Asia achieve greater success, it will be even less likely for him to kick us out.

“Besides, anyone who knows Lin Haoran knows that he doesn’t like to manage his companies personally. You must be aware of this, Dad. Take TVB, for example. Although Lin Haoran is the major shareholder, the management rights were given to the second-largest shareholder, Mr. Shao Yifu. You really don’t have to worry so much.

“As for the future, as long as we hold a certain amount of equity in the Bank of East Asia, we’ll still have supervisory rights even if we lose management rights. Our Li family will also have no shortage of seats on the Board of Directors,” Li Guobin patiently explained.

Li Fushu fell silent for a moment before speaking slowly, “That may be so, but the human heart is hard to predict. Lin Haoran is ambitious. Who can guarantee that he won’t go back on his word and move against our Li family in the future?

“Once the controlling stake is handed over, it’s like putting the hilt of a knife in someone else’s hand. I can’t so easily risk the heart and soul of several generations of our Li family.”

Seeing his father so fixated on the possibility of losing the controlling stake, Li Guobin couldn’t help but feel a mix of amusement and exasperation.

It was clearly his father who had earnestly advised him to be pragmatic and strategic. Why was his dear old dad now being so stubborn and unable to let this go?

He couldn’t help but say, “Dad, let me be blunt. Even if we went back twenty or thirty years, to our family’s most glorious days, do you think we could have been called the most powerful in Hong Kong’s business world?”

Li Fushu replied honestly, “Not really. Although we held a high position in Hong Kong back then, it was only within the Chinese business community, where we were known as one of the Four Great Families. Among the British-owned companies, there were quite a few stronger than us, like Jardine Matheson & Co., HSBC, Swire & Co., Hutchison & Co., and so on.”

The Four Great Families referred to the four most influential families among the Chinese-funded conglomerates and did not include the even more powerful British-funded conglomerate families.

“And Lin Haoran’s current position in the Hong Kong business world—is it not almost unrivaled, with perhaps only HSBC able to contend with him? That’s a fact, isn’t it?” Li Guobin continued.

Li Fushu nodded, tacitly agreeing with his son’s statement.

“In my eyes, Lin Haoran is like an emperor in Hong Kong’s business world today. In the past, our Li family had no opportunity to work with him, and thus couldn’t latch onto this towering tree. But now, the opportunity is right in front of us.

“Once we seize this chance, we can leverage his power. Our Li family might just be able to usher in an era of unprecedented glory. Surpassing our peak is not just a dream.

“In ancient times, there were high-ranking ministers who wielded great power in their respective eras and built their own empires. The Hong Kong business world today is like the imperial court of old. Lin Haoran already stands at the pinnacle. If our Li family can join hands with him, it would be like an ancient courtier meeting an enlightened ruler. How could we fail to realize our grand ambitions?” Li Guobin went on.

“Are you suggesting our Li family become Lin Haoran’s vassal?” Li Fushu asked, his brow tightly furrowed.

“Dad, you’ve told me before that the whole ‘Four Great Families’ thing is a thing of the past. If that’s the case, why can’t our Li family let go of our old pride and embrace new opportunities with a fresh attitude?

“As long as we can cling to a powerhouse like Lin Haoran, so what if we become his vassal? As long as we show him our loyalty, we can rely on his support to grow our wealth rapidly, surpass more of Hong Kong’s financial groups, and rewrite the glorious chapter of our Li family.

“Look at Hong Kong now—the situation is changing in a flash. New business forces are sprouting like mushrooms after spring rain.

“Pao Yue-kong, Li Jiacheng, Cheng Yu-tung, Li Zhaoji, Kwok Tak-seng, Lin Haoran, Guo Henian, Chen Songqing… these emerging powers are developing rapidly one after another, and the gap between them and old powers like us is only growing wider.

“How easy do you think it is for us to make our mark in this fierce competition? If we don’t change the status quo, our Li Peicai’s family will gradually be squeezed out of Hong Kong’s top business circle. Even this empty title of one of the Four Great Families that we fought for will eventually be lost.

“Partnering with Lin Haoran is the perfect opportunity for our Li family to break through our current predicament and achieve leapfrog development. He has formidable financial strength and an outstanding business mind—things our Li family currently lacks.

“Moreover, we won’t be completely dependent on him. In this partnership, we can still maintain a degree of independence and autonomy. Our Li family’s years of experience and connections in the banking industry are an asset that no one can ignore.

“We can use these advantages to collaborate with Lin Haoran and jointly promote the development of the Bank of East Asia. Once the bank achieves greater success through our combined efforts, the status of our Li family will also rise with the tide.

“At that point, not only will we secure our place in Hong Kong’s business world, but we might even become the leading Chinese-owned enterprise family in Hong Kong, second only to Lin Haoran.” As he spoke, Li Guobin picked up the glass of water on the conference table and drank it all in one go.

At that moment, Li Fushu was still deep in thought, head bowed, contemplating his son’s words.

When he saw Li Guobin stop, he finally looked up and said, “Mm, continue!”

“Dad, times have changed. We can’t keep looking at things with an old perspective. That’s what you taught me. In this highly competitive era, only by constantly adapting to change and seizing opportunities can we survive and grow.

“Partnering with Lin Haoran is the key step for our Li family to adapt to the times and seize this opportunity. I know you’re worried about the controlling stake, but we can safeguard our family’s interests through a cooperation agreement. We can clearly stipulate our equity ratio, management rights, supervisory rights, and so on in the agreement to ensure we don’t easily lose control over the Bank of East Asia.

“Besides, as long as we maintain a good cooperative relationship with Lin Haoran, he has no reason to move against our family.

“Dad, think about it carefully. This is the best time for our Li family to rise again. If we miss this opportunity, finding such a good partner in the future will be extremely difficult.

“Especially with the competition in Hong Kong’s banking industry being so fierce, it’s even harder for us to make progress. Our only path is to do our best to hold onto our current market share while vigorously developing overseas markets.

“And with Lin Haoran’s current wealth, his international investments in the future will surely be vast. For instance, he’s currently making large-scale investments in Japan. Our Bank of East Asia can ride his coattails, follow in his footsteps, and expand our overseas business together.”

Li Guobin paused for a moment, then continued, “Imagine, with Lin Haoran’s international influence, resources, and connections, our Bank of East Asia could open more branches in Japan, South Asia, and even Europe and America, constantly expanding our business footprint.

“This would not only cause the Bank of East Asia’s asset scale to grow exponentially but also allow our Li family to make our mark in the international financial world. Becoming a top transnational bank in the future wouldn’t be just a dream.

“By then, our Li family’s position in Hong Kong’s business world will be rock-solid. Those forces who want to see us decline and try to squeeze us out will have to see us in a new light.

“Furthermore, as our overseas business expands, we will also meet more international business titans and accumulate a wider network of resources. This will be of immeasurable benefit to our Li family’s future development.

“Dad, I know you’ve been worried that our Li family will be in a passive position in this partnership, led by the nose by Lin Haoran. But think about it—our family has toiled and struggled through hardships in the banking industry for so many years. We have a deep foundation and a wealth of experience.

“Our partnership with Lin Haoran is a union of powerhouses, not a simple dependency of one party on another.”

Li Guobin spoke eloquently for a long time before finally falling silent.

The atmosphere in the conference room gradually settled into silence.

The meteoric rise of new powers had led countless people to covet the positions of the Four Great Families, scheming to pull them down from their pedestals.

Some media outlets had even published articles stating bluntly that with their current strength, the old Four Great Families could hardly hold on to their lofty positions.

Therefore, the Li Peicai’s family was actually in a rather awkward position in Hong Kong’s business world.

Li Fushu frowned slightly, lost in thought, trying to digest what his son, Li Guobin, had just said.

After what felt like a long time, Li Fushu slowly raised his head, a new resolve in his eyes.

Looking at his son, he felt a gratifying sense that the student had surpassed the master.

All along, he had hoped his son could hold his own and carve out a place for himself in the complex business world. Now, not only did his son have a clear understanding of the situation, but he could also persuade him so patiently, analyzing the pros and cons. This level of wisdom and eloquence truly made him see his son in a new light.

He looked at Li Guobin and suddenly smiled. “Guobin, you have a point. For years, our Li family has seemed prosperous, but in reality, in this ever-changing business world of Hong Kong, every step we take is like treading on thin ice.

“The situation now is even more complex and volatile. New powers are constantly rising. If we remain complacent and refuse to change, we will sooner or later be eliminated.”

He paused, then continued, “Lin Haoran is indeed a rare talent. His strength and influence are there for all to see. Cooperating with him might truly be a turning point for our Li family. Perhaps… becoming his subordinate is our best option!”

At that moment, he had made his decision internally.

The long-standing anxiety and confusion about the family’s future that had weighed on his heart seemed to be swept away in an instant.

The steady decline of the Li family’s position in the business world over the years had taught him a lesson: in this rapidly changing era, clinging to old concepts and status was like sailing against the current—if you don’t advance, you fall back.

And what Lin Haoran represented was not just a powerful business partner, but a chance for the Li family to break through its current bottleneck and climb to a higher level.

Chapter 568: The Li Family’s Pledge of Loyalty and Submission

They were like the dukes and marquises of old who, despite declaring fealty to the emperor on high, still held a revered position, second only to one and above ten thousand.

And their Li Peicai family did not seek to become the most formidable family in all of Hong Kong. They only wished to remain within the most exclusive inner circle of Hong Kong’s business world, to carry on the glory of a noble and powerful clan for generations, just like the dukes and marquises of old.

Perhaps, at this moment, only Lin Haoran could help them achieve that.

After his son Li Guobin’s persuasion, the worries in Li Fushu’s heart gradually dissipated.

He gazed out the window at the bustling yet turbulent Hong Kong, thinking to himself that their Li Peicai family’s legacy had been passed down for nearly a century, only to now face gradual decline due to the changing times. Naturally, he was unwilling to accept this fate.

Now, his son’s analysis was perfectly logical. Lin Haoran did indeed possess the ability to change the Li family’s destiny. If he stubbornly clung to his own views, he might truly cause the Li family to miss this rare opportunity.

“So be it. Guobin, we will do as you say. We will cooperate with Lin Haoran and cede the controlling stake of the Bank of East Asia to him. From now on, our Li family will follow Lin Haoran’s lead.” Li Fushu sighed deeply, his eyes filled with both anticipation for the family’s future and a trace of lingering apprehension he could not let go of. “But this cooperation is no small matter. Every clause, every detail must be deliberated over and over again to ensure that our Li family’s interests are not compromised.”

Following that, the two discussed many more details.

Meanwhile, in Lin Haoran’s office, Ma Shimin knocked gently on the door before walking in with a steady gait.

Lin Haoran glanced at his watch and was slightly taken aback to find that Li Fushu and his son had been deliberating in the conference room for nearly a full hour.

He couldn’t help but wonder if the father and son had run into a disagreement during their discussion.

After Ma Shimin sat down, Lin Haoran smiled and said, “Mr. Ma, what do you think? Will the Li family ultimately agree to our terms?”

Lin Haoran’s proposal to take absolute control of the Bank of East Asia left no room for ambiguity.

An absolute controlling stake at the decision-making level generally meant a shareholding percentage of over fifty percent.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s goal was to hold fifty-one percent of the Bank of East Asia’s shares. This way, as long as he didn’t actively sell his shares, the bank would remain forever in his grasp.

Although the Securities Commission had previously implemented a new policy lowering the threshold for triggering the Takeovers and Mergers Code from fifty percent to thirty-five percent—meaning one would have to issue a mandatory takeover offer to all shareholders upon accumulating more than thirty-five percent of the shares—it was not impossible for him to increase his shareholding to fifty-one percent while keeping the company listed.

According to the detailed provisions in the latest Takeovers and Mergers Code, there were three situations where the Securities Commission could grant an exemption from the mandatory offer obligation.

First, independent shareholder approval: This involved disclosing the transaction details to minority shareholders and obtaining approval through a special resolution at a shareholders’ meeting (requiring over seventy-five percent support and no more than ten percent opposition).

Second, financial rescue exemption: If the target company was facing a financial crisis, the acquirer could gain a controlling stake through a capital injection.

Third, scheme of arrangement: This allowed for restructuring the equity through a court-approved agreement, bypassing the mandatory offer requirement.

Regarding the first condition, independent shareholder approval, as long as he could persuade Li Peicai’s family to cooperate in facilitating his takeover of the Bank of East Asia, there would be significant room to maneuver.

Once his shareholding reached thirty-five percent, adding the 32.3 percent held by the Li family and the shares of some other Directors on the current board, achieving seventy-five percent support would not be difficult at all.

As for whether there would be more than ten percent of votes in opposition?

Any fool could see that Lin Haoran taking control of the Bank of East Asia would be a massive boon for the bank.

Under such circumstances, who would possibly object?

Besides, while he had no intention of privatizing the Bank of East Asia, it didn’t mean he lacked the power to do so.

Across from him, Ma Shimin heard this, thought for a moment, and said, “Boss, in my opinion, your acquisition of the Bank of East Asia is more beneficial than detrimental to Li Peicai’s family, who hold a substantial 32.3 percent of the shares.”

“The Li family is in decline. Although they are still a prominent family in Hong Kong, their position in the complex and ever-changing business world here is precarious. By cooperating with you and leveraging your resources and influence, the Li family might be able to stage a comeback and re-enter the core circle of Hong Kong’s business community.”

“Moreover, the terms of cooperation you’ve proposed fully consider the Li family’s interests. They have no reason to refuse.”

Lin Haoran nodded. He was determined to succeed in acquiring the Bank of East Asia.

If the Li family cooperated willingly, he wouldn’t mind giving them a hand, helping them regain their footing in Hong Kong’s business world and share in the glory.

After all, having one more ally was always better than having one more enemy.

Furthermore, the Li family did indeed have extraordinary experience and connections in the banking industry.

These intangible assets would undoubtedly make him even more powerful when it came to controlling the Bank of East Asia and expanding his business empire in the future.

But if the Li family rejected his terms of cooperation, then they couldn’t blame him for being ruthless. He would seize even their management rights.

A sharp glint flashed in Lin Haoran’s eyes. He naturally understood that in the world of business, one sometimes had to display a hard line.

If the Li family refused to cooperate, he had plenty of ways to make them regret it.

After all, once he successfully acquired the Bank of East Asia, he didn’t necessarily need the Li family. He could easily poach top-tier professional managers from other banks.

Of course, unless absolutely necessary, he still hoped to use the Li family to help him manage the Bank of East Asia.

Even in the twenty-first century, this family would sit firmly at the top of Hong Kong’s banking families, which was a testament to their deep foundation and outstanding abilities in managing a bank.

Lin Haoran knew that if he could harness these strengths of the Li family for his own use, he wouldn’t have to worry too much about the Bank of East Asia’s affairs in the future.

Just then, a knock sounded on the door again.

The person who entered was Ma Shimin’s assistant.

“Boss, Director Ma, Mr. Li’s side is finished with their discussion. He asked me to come and get you,” the assistant said respectfully.

“In that case, let’s go over. I’m also curious to see what conclusion they’ve reached after nearly an hour of discussion,” Lin Haoran said to Ma Shimin with a smile.

Ma Shimin nodded, stood up with Lin Haoran, and they walked out of the office toward the conference room.

Inside the conference room, only Li Guobin and Li Fushu remained.

After the two entered, Ma Shimin closed the door behind them.

“Elder Li, Mr. Li, I trust you’ve discussed things thoroughly? What is your decision?” Lin Haoran asked as soon as he sat down.

At his words, Li Fushu’s expression turned solemn. He said in a deep voice, “Mr. Lin, after careful and in-depth discussion, my son and I have decided to accept your conditions. You will hold the controlling stake of the Bank of East Asia, while our Li family will continue to be responsible for the bank’s management rights.”

“However, this matter is of great significance to both our Li family and you, Mr. Lin. We must carefully consider the numerous subsequent details to ensure that the interests of both parties are protected to the greatest extent possible.”

Hearing this, a gratified smile appeared on Lin Haoran’s face. “Elder Li, your sagacity is truly a wise move. I will certainly do my utmost to protect the interests of the Li family. If we work together, we can surely take the Bank of East Asia to new heights.”

The Li family had not disappointed him.

Since Li Peicai’s family had agreed, the Bank of East Asia was basically in the palm of his hand.

Otherwise, if the father and son had refused to cooperate, even though he would most likely have won in the end, the cost in capital and effort would certainly have been substantial.

Now, the Li family had proven that he who understands the times is a great man.

Seeing that his father had stated their position, Li Guobin quickly leaned forward, his eyes full of sincerity, and said, “Mr. Lin, I, Li Guobin, would like to declare my stance. From this day forward, our Li Peicai family will follow your lead.”

“In the business world of Hong Kong, our Li family has had its glory, but we also understand that a single log cannot support a great structure. You possess extraordinary business acumen and a vast network of resources. To be able to cooperate with you is our Li family’s good fortune.”

“No matter what happens in the future, as long as you give the word, our Li family will do everything in our power! We will also do our absolute best to manage the Bank of East Asia and ensure its continued growth and success!”

Li Fushu nodded slightly and added, “Mr. Lin, Guobin is right. Although our Li family has some experience and connections in the banking industry, times have changed. To continue moving forward in this complex sea of commerce, we must rely on a new tycoon like yourself.”

“Guobin and I have just given this deep thought. We are willing to tie the fate of the Li family closely to yours and become a solid pillar of support for your business empire. From now on, all of the Li family’s actions in Hong Kong’s business world will proceed from your interests. We will advance and retreat with you.”

When Li Fushu finished speaking, both Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin were utterly astonished.

The Li father and son were pledging loyalty to him?

This was one of the four families publicly acknowledged as the Four Great Families of Hong Kong.

And now, the Li family was telling him that from now on, they would follow his lead?

This truly exceeded his imagination.

Originally, he had thought that the Li family agreeing to his terms was already a very good outcome.

He had never expected that the Li family would intend to submit to him completely.

Especially Li Fushu, this man in his seventies, calling him “Mr. Lin” with such deference, was so overly respectful that it gave Lin Haoran goosebumps.

Although the Li family was indeed in gradual decline compared to the rising powers, they were still a lean camel bigger than a horse, possessing an influence in Hong Kong’s business world that could not be ignored.

For them to adopt such a humble posture now truly left Lin Haoran feeling overwhelmed by the unexpected favor.

Chapter 569: A Good Match, a Marriage Alliance?

Although inwardly ecstatic, Lin Haoran wore a wry smile on his face. “Elder Li, you’re a veteran of the business world. If you don’t mind, just call me Haoran. Hearing you address me so formally feels a bit strange.”

To be honest, having an old statesman in his seventies address him with such formality made him feel as if he were shortening his own life.

It was unnecessary, even if the man were just an ordinary elder.

Li Fushu nodded and said with a smile, “In that case, I’ll call you Haoran from now on. With our two families, Li and Lin, joining hands, we can surely carve out a piece of the world for ourselves, not just in Hong Kong but globally.

I, Li Fushu, have toiled and struggled through hardships in the business world for decades and have seen many rising stars, but a young man as composed and capable as you is truly a rare find. Our two families’ cooperation will certainly allow us to complement each other’s strengths and create even more business miracles!”

“That goes without saying. The Li family has deep roots and an extensive network in Hong Kong, especially in the banking sector, where you hold a position of great importance. And I, Lin Haoran, have some influence here in Hong Kong myself. Our families joining forces will be like a tiger growing wings, destined to stand out in the fierce market competition!” Lin Haoran said with a nod and a smile.

The Li family was one of the legendary Four Great Families. Even though they were in decline, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse. The fact that they were now offering to align themselves with him prompted a shift in Lin Haoran’s attitude toward them.

“Haoran, I have a suggestion, though I’m not sure if I should bring it up,” Li Fushu said suddenly.

“Please speak freely, Elder Li,” Lin Haoran said, his curiosity piqued.

“You’re not married yet, are you? At your age, it’s the perfect time to be thinking about marriage. I have a granddaughter who is twenty-two this year and will be graduating from the University of California, Berkeley in two months. She is as beautiful as she is talented.

Why don’t I betroth her to you? This would certainly make the relationship between our two families even more intimate and seamless. Besides, given the status of our families, it would be a good match in terms of social standing!” Li Fushu said with a smile.

Li Guobin, who was beside him, also nodded in agreement. The idea had been his, to begin with.

If it succeeded, the Li family could leverage Lin Haoran’s current influence in Hong Kong and worldwide to reach new heights. Even if they couldn’t hold on to their position as one of Hong Kong’s Four Great Families in the future, they would not fall far.

Moreover, after the marriage alliance, sharing resources and complementing each other’s strengths would present limitless future prospects for the Li family.

They could even expand into industries beyond banking.

In recent years, as competition in Hong Kong’s banking industry grew increasingly fierce, the Li family had come to realize that their decline was primarily due to their focus on a single sector.

They greatly envied new powers like Li Jiacheng and Li Zhaoji, who were flourishing in the real estate industry, constantly expanding their business empires while the wealth gap between them and the Li Peicai’s family steadily widened.

However, he had never dared to venture into other fields rashly.

But with Lin Haoran’s support, he would have no such worries and could boldly make the attempt.

Ma Shimin, who was by Lin Haoran’s side, heard this and smiled to himself. It was clearly not his place to comment on such a matter.

Ma Shimin had come to Asia in the sixties and had worked at Jardine Matheson & Co. for fourteen years, so naturally, he could speak Cantonese.

Therefore, although his working language was usually English, he could actually understand and speak Cantonese. As an Englishman, he simply spoke English more often.

He understood perfectly the marriage alliance proposed by the Li family.

He gave his boss a meaningful look, curious to see how he would respond.

A marriage alliance?

Interesting.

At that moment, Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback, not expecting the conversation to suddenly take such a turn.

The marriage alliance proposed by the Li family was indeed very tempting and would be of great benefit to the development of both families, but it was impossible for him to agree.

After all, there was already the Guo family.

Having spent so much time with Guo Xiaohan, he had long known that her feelings for him were genuine and not driven by personal gain.

During his months in Japan, Guo Xiaohan had called him almost every week, eagerly awaiting his return to Hong Kong.

She had even planned to come to Japan to find him.

Moreover, the Guo family was far more powerful than the Li family. After all, they were the family of Southeast Asia’s richest man.

In contrast, while the Li family was ranked among the old Four Great Families of Hong Kong, it was now a title in name only. Their actual strength could no longer live up to their reputation, making it impossible for them to carry that title forward with confidence.

More importantly, he, Lin Haoran, was not so fickle as to need a marriage alliance to pave his way.

Guo Xiaohan was completely different. He was very fond of the girl, and her deep affection for him, coupled with their two years of frequent interactions, had allowed feelings to quietly blossom between them.

Therefore, his relationship with Guo Xiaohan was pure and sincere, completely unrelated to any marriage alliance.

But he had never even met the granddaughter Li Fushu mentioned, let alone shared any emotional foundation with her. Thus, he would certainly not agree to this marriage.

“Elder Li, to be honest, I already have a girl in mind. I’m very sorry,” Lin Haoran said with a wry smile.

“Oh? If I may be so bold as to ask, who is this girl?” Li Fushu was stunned and couldn’t help but ask.

He had thought that arranging a marriage alliance would not be difficult.

After all, in Hong Kong’s business world, marriage alliances between powerful families were a perfectly normal affair.

So, when he proposed it, he was very confident.

He never expected Lin Haoran to refuse him outright.

Could it be that he was just making an excuse to put him off?

If it was an ordinary girl, their Li family might still have a chance. That was why he wanted to know who the girl he mentioned was.

Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan’s relationship had never been officially confirmed, so no one in Hong Kong knew about it, which naturally included the Li family.

Lin Haoran hesitated for a moment, then decided there was no harm in telling them. His future wife would, in all likelihood, be Guo Xiaohan. Although they had not even confirmed their relationship yet, judging by her behavior over the past few months, it was almost certain he would not be able to refuse her.

Most importantly, his feelings for Guo Xiaohan were not based on a cold calculation of benefits; he was genuinely attracted to her kindness, deep affection, intelligence, and independence.

Every time he was with Guo Xiaohan, he felt an unprecedented sense of peace and reassurance, as if the entire world had become simple and beautiful.

This feeling had never been as strong with either Yamada Keiko or Rosamund Kwan.

With both Yamada Keiko and Rosamund Kwan, he felt it was more about conquest and carnal attraction—a purely physical release. Their beauty and charm certainly moved him, but on a spiritual level, there was always a veil between them, making it difficult to touch the depths of his soul.

So he said candidly, “Her name is Guo Xiaohan, the daughter of the Guo family of Southeast Asia. We have known each other for a long time, we understand each other well, and our feelings are very deep.”

“The Guo family of Southeast Asia? Could it be the Guo family of the Kerry Group?” Li Fushu asked, his brow furrowed.

“That’s right. Guo Xiaohan’s own uncle is the renowned Chairman of the Kerry Group, Guo Henian,” Lin Haoran confirmed with a nod.

Li Fushu and Li Guobin exchanged glances, their eyes filled with disappointment and helplessness.

Their Li family, while certainly a powerhouse among powerful families and a good match for Lin Haoran in terms of social standing, was only so when compared to other families.

But compared to the Guo family, the Li family still fell short.

After all, the Guo family belonged to Southeast Asia’s richest man.

And Lin Haoran was now the recognized richest man in Hong Kong.

One, the richest man in Hong Kong, the other, the family of Southeast Asia’s richest man—that was a true match of social standing.

In this potential “marriage game,” their Li family was clearly at a disadvantage.

“No wonder your businesses have been developing so smoothly in Southeast Asia these past two years!” Li Fushu sighed, his eyes full of regret.

He naturally understood that given Lin Haoran’s current identity and status, choosing the Guo family was undoubtedly the wiser and more beneficial decision.

“Indeed. I’m very grateful for the Guo family’s help!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Haoran, since your heart is already set, we won’t insist. However, even though the marriage alliance is off the table, you can’t let our Li family’s sincerity go to waste. I hope you will put your full effort into our families’ business cooperation, and my Li family will definitely follow your lead!” Although Li Fushu was somewhat dejected, he quickly adjusted his mindset and steered the conversation back to their partnership.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran smiled and said, “Elder Li, please rest assured. I, Lin Haoran, always keep my word. Since I’ve decided to cooperate with you, as long as you don’t let me down, I won’t let you down. The matter of a marriage alliance is a private affair and will not affect the bigger picture of our families’ cooperation.”

“In that case, let’s continue discussing the details of our partnership!” Li Fushu smoothly brought the conversation back on track.

“Elder Li, before we talk, there is one thing I hope you will agree to,” Lin Haoran said directly.

“Feel free to speak your mind, Haoran,” Li Fushu responded.

“Until my shares reach thirty-five percent, I hope you can keep this news under tight wraps, even from the Bank of East Asia’s Board of Directors. After all, while I can afford the rising stock price, I don’t want to be a sucker for no reason,” Lin Haoran said, a slight smile playing on his lips.

“Of course. However, one of my business partners is already aware of this, which you probably know, but I will make sure he does not disclose it,” Li Fushu readily agreed.

Since he was determined to latch onto the towering tree that was Lin Haoran, he naturally had to show his utmost sincerity.

Li Fushu thought to himself, planning to do everything in his power to help Lin Haoran.

Chapter 570: Successfully Acquiring 34.9%, Officially the Largest Shareholder

“About twenty percent!” Hearing the question, Lin Haoran chose not to hide it this time and responded calmly.

Now that they had agreed to cooperate, mutual trust was crucial.

Besides, since the Li family had agreed, Lin Haoran wasn’t worried they would dare to go back on their word.

When Dai Shi had called him in Japan, Galaxy Securities already held 18.34%. Several days had passed since then, and Galaxy Securities had been discreetly increasing its holdings, so reaching twenty percent was not surprising.

Twenty percent?

Upon hearing this figure, Li Fushu and his son, Li Guobin, couldn’t help but exchange a glance.

It was close to what they had predicted.

“In that case, we’re still about fifteen percent short of thirty-five percent. I have a way to help you quickly increase your stake to thirty-five percent. After that, we can hold a vote at the Board of Directors and, with the Securities Commission’s approval, increase your share to a controlling stake,” Li Fushu said seriously.

“Oh? If that’s the case, that would be wonderful. Rest assured, Elder Li, I will never forget this favor!” Lin Haoran’s eyes lit up.

After all, the Bank of East Asia’s current market capitalization was nearly three billion Hong Kong dollars. If news of his acquisition attempt were to leak, the impact on the stock market would be immense.

The Bank of East Asia’s share price could skyrocket in a short time, which was something he wanted to avoid.

However, if he could increase his holdings to thirty-five percent in a short period with Li Fushu’s help and without anyone noticing, he could definitely save a lot of money.

“Haoran, you’re aware that in the last two or three years, the Government House has been issuing more banking licenses. Banks in Hong Kong are springing up like mushrooms, especially with the large influx of foreign banks. The Hong Kong market is only so big, yet the number of banks keeps climbing, making the competition increasingly fierce.

“On top of that, there are many finance companies operating like banks without a license, making the whole market even more chaotic. Take our Bank of East Asia, for example. Our deposits in the Hong Kong market have seen a slight decline in the past two years. Many people have moved their money to banks offering ridiculously high interest rates just for that little extra return.

“Fortunately, the Bank of East Asia had the foresight to begin expanding into the international market over a decade ago. We now hold a certain share of the international market, which has saved us from being pushed into a completely passive position in this brutal competition,” Li Fushu explained.

Lin Haoran nodded. He had already thoroughly investigated this after deciding to acquire the Bank of East Asia.

The banking industry in Hong Kong was indeed becoming fiercely competitive. One look at Bumiputra Finance was enough to know. In their desperation to issue loans, they were completely led by the nose by the Carrian Group.

Speaking of which, the Carrian Group was on the verge of collapse. By next year, they would no longer be able to cover the massive hole they had dug.

At that time, Bumiputra Finance would be the first to be dragged down, unable to recover billions in funds and falling into a financial crisis.

Therefore, Lin Haoran wanted nothing to do with Bumiputra Finance at this point.

He had long since repaid the money he had borrowed from them. Even if Bumiputra Finance was implicated by the Carrian Group’s collapse, it would have nothing to do with him!

Li Fushu paused for a moment before continuing, “So, although our Bank of East Asia’s stock price has risen in the past two years, the increase is quite small compared to other publicly listed companies.

“This has led to considerable resentment from many shareholders, fund companies, and investment companies. They feel that the Bank of East Asia’s growth prospects are not very optimistic, especially with so many foreign banks pouring in, fearing that our market share will be further squeezed in the future.

“As a result, some shareholders and fund companies have entertained the idea of selling their shares. We can seize this opportunity to approach these shareholders privately and buy their shares at a reasonable price.

“With me making the introductions, it won’t be difficult to persuade them. These investors or fund companies have all had some contact with me, more or less, after investing in the Bank of East Asia, even if they didn’t join the Board of Directors.

“During this process, I will act as the guarantor, introducing them to you. You won’t have to reveal your identity; just have someone represent you to negotiate the details. This way, you can quickly raise your shareholding to thirty-five percent without alarming the stock market or other shareholders.

“Once your stake reaches thirty-five percent, we can quietly convene a board meeting. I believe the members of the Bank of East Asia’s Board of Directors will be very pleased to see you become the controlling shareholder!”

Having said his piece, Li Fushu stopped and picked up the glass of water on the table, taking a large gulp.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran grew increasingly excited.

Thankfully, the Li family had taken the initiative to yield to him. Otherwise, if he had tried to increase his holdings on his own, the cost would have been substantial, even if he had eventually succeeded in reaching thirty-five percent.

But if he followed Li Fushu’s plan, the cost of increasing his stake would be much, much lower, saving him at least several hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Moreover, if he could really raise his stake to thirty-five percent quickly without alerting the market and other investors, as Li Fushu suggested, he would be one step closer to his goal of controlling the Bank of East Asia.

“Elder Li, with your help, I feel much more at ease. I will never forget this kindness!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Li Fushu put down his glass and smiled faintly. “Haoran, since my Li family has decided to follow your lead, I will naturally spare no effort to help you achieve control of the Bank of East Asia as soon as possible.

“I am also eagerly looking forward to the collaboration between all your enterprises and the Bank of East Asia. When that happens, it will be hard for our bank not to thrive.

“Next, I will quickly compile a list of shareholders and fund companies interested in selling their shares. I’ll negotiate the terms with them privately and then arrange an opportune moment for your people to meet with them.

“As for the price, I will help you consider it carefully. It needs to be fair to them without putting you at a disadvantage. Although it will be difficult to close the deal below market price, I will do my best to secure it at market price. This will keep the cost of increasing your shareholding within a reasonable range, thereby maximizing your profits!”

“In that case, I’ll have to trouble you, Elder Li!” Lin Haoran nodded solemnly.

If the Li family successfully helped him gain control of the Bank of East Asia this time, he wouldn’t mind fanning the flames of their status in the business world, giving them more support and resources.

Business is business, and cooperation for mutual benefit is the only way to long-term success.

Following this, the two parties continued to discuss more detailed matters of their cooperation in the meeting room.

Finally, after reaching a general consensus, they signed a series of cooperation agreements.

After all, a verbal promise is never as reliable as an agreement in black and white.

After signing the agreements, they shared a smile, a newfound sense of certainty and trust between them.

Once everything was settled, Li Fushu and Li Guobin hurriedly left the Connaught Centre.

Over the next few days, Li Fushu proved to be a man of his word.

He successfully persuaded several shareholders and fund companies holding significant stakes in the Bank of East Asia.

Lin Haoran, in turn, arranged for people from Galaxy Securities to negotiate with those willing to sell their Bank of East Asia shares, all while keeping their identities concealed.

On the third day after his return to Hong Kong, the media began to report extensively on his comeback.

The man who maneuvered skillfully and commanded the winds and clouds in the business world had returned!

Suddenly, Lin Haoran, who had been absent from Hong Kong for several months, once again became a hot topic among the public.

His recent profit of several billion Hong Kong dollars from Toyota Motor could not be kept under wraps. After it was reported by the Hong Kong media, the citizens were both shocked and proud.

After all, Lin Haoran was born and raised in Hong Kong, yet he had gone to Japan to wield great power and influence. Such a legendary experience, combined with the fact that many of the older generation in Hong Kong had lived through the Second Sino-Japanese War and held a deep-seated hatred for the Japanese, made his feat all the more impressive.

Although Lin Haoran never publicly disclosed how much he had invested in Toyota Motor stock, the media had already calculated his earnings based on the stock price before its rise. They concluded that Lin Haoran had made between six and seven billion Hong Kong dollars from the transaction.

This figure was quite accurate. In this investment, Lin Haoran had earned a total of 272.4 billion Japanese yen, which was approximately 6.81 billion Hong Kong dollars.

How could a man from Hong Kong going to Japan and earning so much money from the Japanese not inspire admiration and pride?

On the eighth day after his return from Japan, Dai Shi finally delivered good news: his stake had reached 34.9%, officially surpassing Li Peicai’s family to become the Bank of East Asia’s largest shareholder!

This share percentage was at the critical threshold that would trigger the new takeover regulations!

If he increased his holding by even a little more, he would be required to publicly announce a full takeover of the Bank of East Asia.

Of course, if he obtained the approval of independent shareholders—that is, by disclosing the transaction details to minority shareholders and getting a special resolution passed at a shareholders’ meeting (requiring over 75% of votes in favor and no more than 10% against)—he could apply to the Securities Commission for an exemption from the mandatory takeover offer obligation.

If the Securities Commission approved it, he could then increase his stake to fifty-one percent without making a full takeover bid for the Bank of East Asia, thereby gaining an absolute controlling stake in the bank.

On June 3rd, in a meeting room at the Bank of East Asia headquarters, several of the bank’s shareholders, including Lin Haoran, Li Fushu, and Li Guobin, were gathered around an oval conference table.

This shareholder meeting was initiated by Chairman Li Fushu.

Throughout this period, the Li family had indeed kept the matter of Lin Haoran becoming a major shareholder in the Bank of East Asia under wraps.

At this moment, apart from one shareholder representative who was already aware of the situation, the rest of the shareholders present looked completely bewildered.

They were particularly astonished to see the famous super-rich Lin Haoran appear at their Bank of East Asia shareholders’ meeting.

When did Lin Haoran become a shareholder of the Bank of East Asia?

How could they have known nothing about this beforehand?

Chapter 571: The Shareholders’ Shock

As the Chairman of the Board of the Bank of East Asia, Li Fushu presided over this shareholders’ meeting.

Looking at the bewildered faces of the shareholders present, Li Fushu smiled.

During this time, they had gradually come to accept the fact that the Li family was now aligned with Lin Haoran.

Thinking about it carefully, he felt there was nothing wrong with submitting to Lin Haoran.

It was all for the sake of the family’s development.

A great man knows when to yield and when to stand firm. As long as it was beneficial to the future of the Li family, what did it matter if they bowed their heads to a young man like Lin Haoran?

If you don’t keep up with the trends of the times, you will sooner or later be eliminated.

What was more important: the family’s development or the Bank of East Asia?

If the Li family had to choose between the two, they would certainly choose the family.

Although the Bank of East Asia and the Li family had always been closely linked, as inseparable as blood relatives, necessary trade-offs were inevitable in the face of the grand blueprint for the family’s long-term development.

Even without the Bank of East Asia, if the family could seize this opportunity to develop even better, it would be a worthy exchange.

What’s more, for now, they were only about to lose their controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia; it didn’t mean that the Li Peicai family would be completely disconnected from the bank.

On the chessboard of business, every move required careful consideration, and every “sacrifice” was made for a greater “gain” in the future.

For now, the Bank of East Asia was not in crisis despite the increasingly fierce competition in Hong Kong’s banking sector, but who could guarantee that this situation would last forever?

Most importantly, he, Li Fushu, was old. He was over seventy, and he didn’t know how much time he had left.

He did not want to see the Li family being ruthlessly cast aside by the torrent of the times, reduced to forgotten debris in the tumultuous sea of commerce.

The few uninformed shareholders present were all whispering among themselves, discussing this bafflingly convened meeting.

“Colleagues, you must all be very curious about the purpose of this shareholders’ meeting, and why Mr. Lin Haoran is here. Next, I will give you a brief explanation. Also, at the end, there will be a very important vote that requires everyone’s participation,” Li Fushu said in a deep voice, his eyes sweeping across the meeting room.

Instantly, the room fell silent.

They all wanted to know the true purpose of this meeting.

Those summoned by Li Fushu for this shareholder meeting held at least two percent of the shares, so there weren’t many people present. Excluding Lin Haoran and the Li Peicai family, there were only five others.

As the founding family of the Bank of East Asia, the Li Peicai family’s stake had been decreasing over the years, down to its current level of 32.3%.

However, as a company that had always been controlled by the Li family, although their equity had been reduced, their voting rights were much higher than their share percentage. To this day, they still held as much as forty-five percent of the voting rights!

Therefore, although the combined shares of all the shareholders present did not reach seventy-five percent, their voting rights exceeded that threshold.

As long as the voting rights present were sufficient, Lin Haoran could increase his shareholding to fifty-one percent without launching a formal takeover bid for the Bank of East Asia.

And Li Fushu already knew that the shareholders present had no intention of selling their shares in the Bank of East Asia and had long been staunch supporters of the Li Peicai family.

Among them, the shareholder representative from China Construction Investment (Hong Kong) Limited had been an especially consistent supporter of the Li family’s management and operation of the bank.

In other words, everyone present could be considered an insider.

This was why the Li family had not contacted them to discuss the sale of shares beforehand.

It was worth mentioning that the original second-largest shareholder of the Bank of East Asia, Société Générale, had already sold its 5.99% stake to Lin Haoran at Li Fushu’s persuasion.

This was the main reason why Lin Haoran was able to increase his shareholding from twenty percent to nearly thirty-five percent in just six or seven days.

This 5.99% stake played a crucial role; otherwise, it would have been difficult for Lin Haoran to reach his current level of shareholding in such a short period without anyone knowing.

As for the other relatively important shareholder, China Construction Investment (Hong Kong) Limited, which held 3.82%, Lin Haoran did not ask Li Fushu to contact them.

After all, the company’s name alone revealed its background.

The support of a mainland Chinese state-owned enterprise would undoubtedly be of great benefit to the Bank of East Asia in the future.

Their stake was not large, but it served as a channel for communication.

Li Fushu paused, then continued, “Everyone must be curious as to why Mr. Lin Haoran has appeared at our shareholder meeting. I am here to solemnly announce to you all that Mr. Lin Haoran has already become the largest shareholder of the Bank of East Asia!”

As soon as these words were spoken, the faces of the few shareholders present showed expressions of shock. The sound of murmuring instantly grew louder, and an atmosphere of disbelief filled the entire meeting room.

After all, there had never been any news that Lin Haoran was planning to acquire the Bank of East Asia.

To be suddenly told that Lin Haoran was already the bank’s largest shareholder—how could they not be shocked?

“How… how is this possible? Given the Bank of East Asia’s equity structure, to become the largest shareholder, one would need to hold more than 32.3%. Unless Chairman Li actively reduced his holdings, this is a nearly impossible task!”

One shareholder couldn’t help but exclaim, his eyes filled with doubt and confusion. His gaze shifted back and forth between Li Fushu and Lin Haoran, trying to find an answer in their expressions.

The other shareholders strongly agreed with what this shareholder had said.

The shareholders present once again broke into private discussions.

After all, the Bank of East Asia’s equity structure was actually very healthy. A delicate balance had always been maintained among the major shareholders, which no single party could easily disrupt.

“President Liu, I can tell you with certainty that our Li family has not sold any shares of the Bank of East Asia to date. We still hold 32.3%, and Mr. Lin’s current shareholding has indeed surpassed ours.

The Bank of East Asia was founded by our Li Peicai family and has been under our family’s control since its establishment. As the Chairman of the Bank of East Asia, I, Li Fushu, would not joke about such matters. Moreover, this is a shareholders’ meeting, such an important occasion. I am even less likely to speak irresponsibly!” Li Fushu said, looking at the shareholder who had raised the question.

Before the other party could reply, Li Fushu turned to face everyone in the room and said with a smile, “In any case, with Mr. Lin being the most dynamic entrepreneur in Hong Kong today, having him become a major shareholder is good news for our Bank of East Asia, isn’t it?”

As soon as he said this, the shareholders’ previously doubtful attitude instantly transformed into excitement.

That’s right, Lin Haoran was currently the most powerful businessman in Hong Kong! If the Bank of East Asia received his support because of his investment, then its future development would surely become even more powerful.

Moreover, from Chairman Li Fushu’s tone, it was clear that the current leader of the Li family was also very supportive of Lin Haoran becoming a shareholder.

This meant there would be no takeover battle between the Li family and Lin Haoran. This was nothing but a signal of stability and growth for the Bank of East Asia, with no downsides.

Excitement and anticipation gradually appeared in the shareholders’ eyes. It was as if they could already see the magnificent sight of the Bank of East Asia reaching new heights with Lin Haoran’s help.

“None of this is the main reason for holding this shareholders’ meeting. As for what that reason is, please allow our Mr. Lin to tell you himself. Let us all welcome Mr. Lin to our Bank of East Asia family!” After Li Fushu finished speaking, he led the applause.

Instantly, the room erupted in enthusiastic applause.

Although there weren’t many people, the shareholders were extremely excited.

They could imagine that with Lin Haoran now being the largest shareholder of the Bank of East Asia, it meant that the richest man in Hong Kong would surely have numerous collaborations with the bank in the future. All of this signified that the Bank of East Asia’s prospects would undergo massive changes due to Lin Haoran’s investment, and its stock price was bound to skyrocket.

As shareholders of the Bank of East Asia, their own fortunes would naturally rise with the tide, and their net worth would soar.

At this thought, the shareholders’ faces beamed with unconcealable joy, and they clapped even more vigorously.

Only then did Lin Haoran rise from his seat and look at the shareholders before him.

To be honest, the few shareholders present could all be considered influential figures in Hong Kong’s business world, all of them tycoons with net worths in the hundreds of millions.

But of all the people present, only the Li family was worthy of his attention.

However, he still needed these people’s support to continue increasing his stake in the Bank of East Asia. So, at this moment, Lin Haoran also wore a smile, his attitude humble and amiable. He gave a slight bow to acknowledge the shareholders present.

Seeing Lin Haoran stand up, the applause gradually died down. Everyone waited for him to speak.

“Everyone must be wondering why I have suddenly become a major shareholder of the Bank of East Asia, and why I wanted to invest in it.

To tell you the truth, I was able to become a major shareholder of the Bank of East Asia largely thanks to Elder Mr. Li’s support. It was his support that allowed me to smoothly acquire 34.9% of the Bank of East Asia’s shares, becoming its largest shareholder.

As for why I wanted to invest in the Bank of East Asia, the reason is simple. I want to acquire the Bank of East Asia and become the person with an absolute controlling stake in it!” Lin Haoran did not hide anything, dropping this bombshell directly.

Instantly, everyone’s gaze snapped towards the father and son duo, Li Fushu and Li Guobin.

Lin Haoran wanted to gain absolute control of the Bank of East Asia, and the Li Peicai family had actually agreed to such an outrageous condition?

This news was simply unbelievable!

Chapter 572: A Calming Balm

Everyone knew that Li Peicai’s family had always treated the Bank of East Asia as a family enterprise, firmly holding the controlling stake since its founding.

But now, they seemed perfectly willing to hand over this control, a change that was truly baffling.

The shareholders present mostly had deep ties with the Li family and the Bank of East Asia, which made it even harder for them to understand what was going on.

Sensing the crowd’s bewildered gazes, Li Fushu smiled faintly, stood up, and explained, “Everyone, times are changing. In the turbulent sea of business, only the fittest survive.

While our Li family has always controlled the Bank of East Asia, we are keenly aware that in the face of today’s complex and ever-changing financial market, we alone cannot lead the bank to greater heights.

For the future of our family, and for the future of the Bank of East Asia, bringing in a stronger partner to jointly break new ground is undoubtedly the wisest choice.

Mr. Lin Haoran is a leader in Hong Kong’s business community. His strength and vision are plain for all to see. That is why, on behalf of the Li family, I have decided to transfer the controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia to Mr. Lin.

We believe that under Mr. Lin Haoran’s leadership, the Bank of East Asia will see an even more brilliant tomorrow.”

Li Fushu’s words left the shareholders present both shocked and lost in thought.

They never expected the Li family to have such nerve. This decision to let go and adapt to the times was truly admirable.

After all, this was equivalent to completely handing over the Bank of East Asia!

They asked themselves, and if they were in the Li family’s shoes, they could never let go so freely.

After all, the Bank of East Asia was the heart and soul of several generations of Li Peicai’s family, starting from a small, unknown bank and weathering countless storms to achieve its current influential status in Hong Kong’s financial world.

And these few shareholders, with the exception of China Construction Investment (Hong Kong) Limited, had followed the Li family in running the Bank of East Asia since their fathers’ or even grandfathers’ time. As such, they fully endorsed the Li Peicai family’s control over the bank.

But now, the Li family was planning to hand over their controlling stake, which was indeed something none of the shareholders present had expected.

After Li Fushu finished speaking, Lin Haoran added, “Everyone here holds an important position at the Bank of East Asia and has been a great contributor to its development.

I’m sure you are all aware that the Bank of East Asia is currently facing many difficulties. Competition in the Hong Kong market is growing fiercer, and the battle in overseas markets is even more brutal.

In its current state, it is no easy task for the Bank of East Asia to even maintain its existing market share, let alone further expand its business and enhance its international influence.

In the field of banking, you are the experts. I am, at best, a layman. I am certain that everyone present understands this better than I do.”

As Lin Haoran spoke, he looked at the people present and saw them all nodding involuntarily, clearly in agreement with what he was saying.

After all, the fact that Galaxy Securities had previously approached those shareholders and acquired shares from them was proof enough that the investors who sold their shares were not optimistic about the Bank of East Asia’s future.

And while the shareholders at this meeting had no intention of selling, they were still very clear about the bank’s current situation.

Lin Haoran smiled faintly and continued, “Once I become the controlling shareholder of the Bank of East Asia, I will fully support its development. In the future, my businesses in Hong Kong and internationally can engage in deep cooperation with the Bank of East Asia, allowing us to rapidly expand its business landscape.

Whether it’s financial support, sharing client resources, or exploring new financial sectors, I will spare no effort to help!

For instance, to give the simplest example, my company, the Hongkong Land Group, currently has cash reserves—including the cash held by its subsidiaries—exceeding ten billion Hong Kong dollars. If this enormous sum were transferred from other banks to the Bank of East Asia, the boost to the bank’s liquidity and capital strength would be immense.

Furthermore, I have extensive connections and resources in the international financial sphere. For example, I have a good working relationship with Citibank, and I can facilitate cooperation between Citibank and the Bank of East Asia. This will help the Bank of East Asia expand its overseas business, open the door to international markets, and make its name resonate more loudly on the global financial stage!”

The shareholders in attendance grew incredibly excited as they listened to Lin Haoran’s words.

After all, which of Lin Haoran’s companies wasn’t a top-tier corporation in Hong Kong?

Hongkong Land Group, Dairy Farm International, Green Island Cement, Hong Kong and China Gas, Kowloon Motor Bus, Wanqing Group, Hong Kong Telephone, and so on—almost all were top enterprises in their respective Hong Kong industries.

If these companies were to deeply integrate their transactions, capital flows, and other business with the Bank of East Asia, it would be incredible news for the bank. Doubling or even tripling the Bank of East Asia’s strength would not be a problem at all!

Moreover, with Lin Haoran’s current financial power and international connections, it was indeed possible for the Bank of East Asia to expand massively in the international market.

If a partnership with major international banks like Citibank could truly be established, it would certainly bring more advanced management experience, innovative financial products, and service models to the Bank of East Asia, helping it secure a place in the global financial market.

Cooperation between banks is nothing new. A union of powerhouses often creates even greater value.

Just as some renowned international banks have previously achieved significant results through cooperation, expanding their business scope, diversifying risks, and sharing resources.

Although Lin Haoran would be taking control of the Bank of East Asia, he would still need the support of other banks for his international investments, such as Citibank. Therefore, he couldn’t just abandon Citibank after becoming the controlling shareholder of the Bank of East Asia.

In the future, Lin Haoran and Citibank would remain very important partners. If he wanted to promote cooperation between the Bank of East Asia and Citibank, Citibank would likely grant him the favor, and it wouldn’t be too difficult.

All of this was simply all benefits and no harm for the Bank of East Asia!

Setting aside international cooperation, the growth from the Hong Kong market alone would be enough for the Bank of East Asia’s future market share to surpass that of Standard Chartered Bank’s Hong Kong branch, or even Hang Seng Bank!

As for surpassing HSBC? No one dared to even think about it.

In Hong Kong, HSBC’s power was simply invincible.

Last year, a professional agency reported that HSBC and its subsidiary, Hang Seng Bank, together held a market share of up to sixty percent in Hong Kong! And there were hundreds of banking brands and financial institutions that couldn’t obtain a banking license and had to operate as finance companies!

This meant that these hundreds of banks or finance companies could only compete for the remaining market share of less than forty percent.

Therefore, it was almost impossible for the Bank of East Asia to surpass HSBC.

But even the prospect of surpassing Hang Seng Bank, Hong Kong’s second-largest bank, was enough to make everyone’s heart race and blood boil with excitement.

At this moment, how could these shareholders not be excited?

This meant that the Bank of East Asia was on the verge of an unprecedented development opportunity. The price of the shares they held was highly likely to skyrocket, and as major shareholders, the benefits they stood to gain would be immeasurable!

Just as almost every shareholder was immersed in this atmosphere of excitement and anticipation, a slightly hesitant voice suddenly came from a corner: “Mr. Lin, your plan for taking control of the Bank of East Asia sounds very appealing, but I have a question I’d like to ask.

Once you successfully gain control of the Bank of East Asia, will there be major changes to the bank’s management structure? For example, will the Li family’s influence in the Bank of East Asia be significantly weakened?

Also, how much say will we, the long-standing shareholders, retain in the bank’s decision-making process? After all, as far as I know, and as you yourself have said, you are indeed an outsider in the professional field of banking, Mr. Lin.”

Hearing this question, the other shareholders also turned their gazes toward Lin Haoran.

Indeed. Lin Haoran taking control of the Bank of East Asia certainly had many benefits, but he was ultimately a layman in the banking industry. If he were to wield sole authority and make decisions detrimental to the bank, they would be virtually powerless against his absolute controlling stake.

On this point, a clear explanation was indeed necessary.

Lin Haoran heard the slightly pointed question and looked calmly toward the shareholder who had asked it, his face still holding a gentle smile.

Zhang Qingshan?

“Haoran, this is Director Zhang, the representative from China Construction Investment (Hong Kong) Limited!” At that moment, Li Fushu, who was beside him, explained.

Lin Haoran had a moment of sudden realization. So, it was a representative from Mainland China.

Before Lin Haoran could respond, Li Fushu turned to the representative from China Construction Investment (Hong Kong) Limited and said, “Director Zhang, regarding that point, I can explain on Mr. Lin’s behalf.

Even after Mr. Lin Haoran becomes the controlling shareholder, my Li family will still firmly hold the management rights of the Bank of East Asia. In other words, there will be no change whatsoever to Guobin’s and my positions and responsibilities at the bank in the future.

In fact, Mr. Lin Haoran and I have already signed several detailed secret agreements, so everyone can rest assured!”

Hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

While they welcomed Lin Haoran taking control of the Bank of East Asia, it didn’t mean they wanted him to monopolize its management authority.

Now, they were at ease.

They figured the Li family wouldn’t have handed over the controlling stake so easily without complete confidence and thorough arrangements.

Li Fushu’s words were like a calming balm, allowing the shareholders’ anxious hearts to finally settle.

Chapter 573: The Cheapest and Fastest Method

Just then, Lin Haoran continued, “Everyone, I’m sure you are all aware that I currently hold 34.9% of the Bank of East Asia’s shares. My next step is to increase my shareholding to 51%.

“However, this requires your support. After all, if I cannot gain your assistance, my only other option is to launch a mandatory takeover offer for the Bank of East Asia.

“But I believe that all of you look forward to sharing in the immense commercial dividends that the Bank of East Asia is about to receive with me. I’m certain none of you wish for it to come to a full takeover.

“According to the latest Hong Kong Takeovers and Mergers Code, as long as I obtain the approval of the independent shareholders—that is, by fully disclosing the details of the transaction to the minority shareholders and securing a special resolution at a shareholders’ meeting, which requires over 75% of the votes in favor and no more than 10% in opposition—I can apply to the Securities Commission for an exemption from the obligation to make a mandatory takeover offer.

“Therefore, I ask you all to cast your precious votes. Please indicate whether you support my application to the Securities Commission for an exemption from the mandatory takeover offer obligation!”

Having said his piece, Lin Haoran looked at everyone present.

Although deep down he was very confident that everyone would support him, no conclusion could be drawn until the results were in. The shareholders’ reactions were crucial. He truly did not want to take the path of a forced privatization unless he had absolutely no other choice.

The room fell into a brief silence.

At that moment, Li Fushu took the lead and raised his hand.

Immediately after, Li Guobin also raised his hand.

This signified that both the company’s Chairman and President supported Lin Haoran in becoming the Bank of East Asia’s controlling shareholder.

As Li Guobin’s hand went up, others followed suit, raising their hands one by one.

A moment later, everyone present had cast a vote of approval!

Seeing this, both Lin Haoran and Li Fushu breathed a sigh of relief.

After all, Lin Haoran becoming a major shareholder of the Bank of East Asia was now an unchangeable fact. That being the case, the only thing the Li family could do was support him to the end, as this was what best served their interests.

A satisfied smile spread across Lin Haoran’s face. He stood up once more and addressed the crowd in a clear voice, “Thank you for your full support. I, Lin Haoran, will certainly not let you down. Now, all you need to do is wait for the Bank of East Asia’s period of dividends to arrive. Consider it a gift from me!”

As Lin Haoran finished speaking, the room erupted into another round of enthusiastic applause.

His taking control of the Bank of East Asia was now an inevitable trend!

At this point, Li Fushu produced an application for exemption from the mandatory takeover offer obligation. He was the first to sign his name, then passed it to Li Guobin, and so on, until everyone present had signed the document.

Only after this was completed did the vote officially take effect.

And with that, the shareholders’ meeting came to a close!

After the shareholders had dispersed, Lin Haoranand Li Fushu went to the Chairman’s office at the Bank of East Asia, while Li Guobin left to handle some company matters.

The office was not far from the HSBC headquarters building, less than a hundred meters away. Through the office window, one could clearly see the HSBC headquarters, as well as the headquarters of numerous other banking institutions in the vicinity, such as Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank, and Hang Seng Bank.

But frankly, the Bank of East Asia’s headquarters was not at all conspicuous amidst the forest of skyscrapers.

The reason was that the Bank of East Asia’s headquarters was a forty-six-year-old building, completed in 1935. With a total of fourteen floors, it had been a landmark in Hong Kong when it was first built.

It was around that time that Li Peicai’s family began its ascent to become one of Hong Kong’s top magnates, one of the Four Great Families.

However, as history progressed, the once landmark building now appeared somewhat old and outdated against the backdrop of the surrounding modern high-rises.

The traces of time crept across the building’s exterior walls, with bits of paint peeling off, and the window panes glinted with an aged luster.

This building, which bore the glory and history of the Li family, represented the deep foundation of the Bank of East Asia.

“Haoran, I’ll submit this application to the Securities Commission as soon as possible. Based on past practice, they should complete the approval process within three working days. You’ll be able to proceed with your next step then!” Li Fushu said to Lin Haoran with a smile, sitting in his office chair.

Lin Haoran was brought back to the present and nodded.

However, after a moment’s thought, he asked, “Although I now hold nearly thirty-five percent of the shares, there’s still a large gap to fifty-one percent. It will be extremely difficult to accumulate enough from the stock market. Under these circumstances, how can I increase my shareholding quickly and reliably? Elder Li, you have a wealth of business experience; I’m sure you must know of other ways.”

At present, excluding the major shareholders, the shares of the Bank of East Asia available on the secondary market accounted for less than thirty percent.

In this situation, if he tried to accumulate shares from the secondary market, it would not only be extremely difficult but would also drive up the stock price, further increasing his acquisition cost.

Therefore, he did not intend to take this path.

Li Fushu tapped his fingers lightly on the desk, pondering for a moment before replying, “Haoran, besides accumulating shares from the secondary market, there are several other avenues to consider.”

“First, you could engage in private negotiations with other shareholders who hold a certain amount of shares and acquire their holdings at a premium.”

“However, this path is now extremely difficult for you. You’ve already used this method during your initial accumulation phase. The remaining major shareholders were basically all present at the meeting just now.”

“And these shareholders know that the Bank of East Asia’s stock price will at least double in the near future, so they certainly won’t be willing to sell their shares unless you offer a price attractive enough to them. But that would make your costs far too high!”

Lin Haoran nodded. This method was basically unworkable now.

“Second, we could consider a discounted issuance of new shares, allowing you to provide financing to the Bank of East Asia. This way, you could increase your shareholding at a very reasonable price.”

“This financing can be controlled. The new shares would be issued at a discount to the total market capitalization, so your financing costs won’t be very high.”

“However, while you increase your stake, the shares of us existing shareholders will be diluted. Furthermore, this method also requires the approval of the Board of Directors and the Securities Commission!”

Lin Haoran nodded. This method was the best, but it would mean diluting the other shareholders’ equity and would also cause a temporary drop in the stock price.

He hadn’t expected Li Fushu to be willing to propose such a solution.

One had to understand, this was tantamount to harming the Li family’s own interests.

Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a greater sense of admiration for Li Fushu. He naturally understood that this was Li Fushu’s way of showing him the utmost goodwill to facilitate his smooth takeover of the Bank of East Asia.

“Elder Li, this method is indeed feasible, but it would affect the interests of your family and the other shareholders. I would feel bad about that,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

These were, of course, pleasantries. If he could save money, he would certainly choose the money-saving option.

Li Fushu waved his hand and laughed heartily. “Haoran, don’t overthink it. Since the Li family has chosen to support you, we have made the necessary preparations.”

“Besides, we believe that with you on board, the Bank of East Asia will create even greater value in the future. Everyone’s interests will be guaranteed in the end. Sacrificing a little benefit now is for the sake of more long-term development.”

“What’s more, although our equity will be diluted after the additional share issuance, if my Li family wishes to maintain our current stake, we can simply increase our holdings!”

“As for the stock price, if everyone knows that you, Haoran, are the one providing the financing, the price won’t fall at all. It will only rise. After all, this is good news!”

“What about the other shareholders? Will they agree?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Don’t worry, they understand the bigger picture. If my Li family can accept it, what can’t these smaller shareholders accept? Moreover, if you don’t become the controlling shareholder of the Bank of East Asia, you won’t transfer all your business to the bank. In that case, their hopes for a surge in the stock price will come to nothing. They know very well how to weigh their options!” Li Fushu explained with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded and continued, “Elder Li, with your reassurance, I feel much more at ease. I wonder, do you have any other methods?”

His previous company acquisitions had all been very direct.

He would either have Universal Investment Company acquire shares covertly or directly buy out other shareholders. Once he reached a certain threshold, he would simply privatize the company. The equity structure of the Bank of East Asia was far more complex.

“Additionally, we could use the bank’s profits for a share buyback. By repurchasing shares, we can reduce the number of shares in circulation on the market, thereby increasing your shareholding percentage.”

“However, a share buyback would send a signal to the market of our confidence in the bank’s future development, which would cause the stock price to rise,” Li Fushu continued.

Hearing this method, Lin Haoran shook his head.

How was this any different from him buying shares from the secondary market himself?

Seeing Lin Haoran’s reaction, Li Fushu said with a smile, “So, Haoran, the best method among these is the second one. Once you bring massive performance to the Bank of East Asia, you will be its greatest contributor!”

“Issuing new shares for you, at a discount to allow you to provide financing… I believe not just us shareholders, but even the retail shareholders would agree! After all, if you don’t hold a controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia, you won’t transfer the majority of your enterprise’s financial transactions to us!”

“Alright, then I’ll have to trouble you, Elder Li!” Lin Haoran didn’t hesitate and agreed directly.

After all, this was likely the cheapest and fastest method for him to increase his shareholding to fifty-one percent.

Chapter 574: A Visit to Pao Yue-kong

The Bank of East Asia was a Chinese-owned bank, and since the controlling Li family had already agreed to the matter, the Securities Commission naturally wouldn’t have any objections.

If it had been a bank like HSBC that Lin Haoran wanted to acquire, it would have been absolutely impossible.

“Excellent. In that case, I will await the good news!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

For the time being, Lin Haoran didn’t need to worry about the Bank of East Asia anymore.

With the support of Li Peicai’s family, he just needed to wait for the results.

After discussing some further details with Li Fushu, Lin Haoran bid him farewell and left the Bank of East Asia headquarters.

Sitting in the back of the Rolls-Royce, Lin Haoran glanced back at the old building, which was forty or fifty years old, and felt a wave of emotion.

The fact that Li Fushu had taken the initiative to propose a discounted issuance of new shares was a clear sign that the Li family was sincere about aligning themselves with him.

After all, a discounted issuance was equivalent to “selling off” shares cheaply. The equity of existing shareholders would be diluted, and under normal circumstances, the stock price would fall.

Since they were so sincere, Lin Haoran naturally wouldn’t treat the Li family unfairly. In the future, he would simply have to support them more in the business world.

Gazing at the skyscrapers lining both sides of the road, Lin Haoran’s thoughts drifted further away.

A series of car horns blaring brought Lin Haoran back to his senses.

He looked at the road ahead; for some reason, there was a traffic jam.

With the rapid development of Hong Kong’s economy, the number of cars on the road increased year by year. Traffic jams were especially common in Central, the very heart of Hong Kong’s financial and commercial district.

After a few minutes, the cars hadn’t moved an inch.

Li Weiguo simply got out of the front passenger seat, intending to go ahead and see what was going on.

“Boss, there’s been a serious traffic accident up ahead. A medium-sized truck hit a private car, and the car was knocked over sideways, completely blocking all three lanes. It probably won’t be cleared anytime soon,” Li Weiguo reported after returning a few minutes later.

Lin Haoran rubbed his brow. He hadn’t expected to run into something like this.

He looked out the window and saw a very familiar building: Prince’s Building in Central. It was one of the properties under the Hongkong Land Group, located on Chater Road in Central.

The building was twenty-seven stories tall. The first five floors were a shopping mall, primarily selling luxury goods, while the remaining floors were offices.

Additionally, the headquarters of the World-Wide Shipping Group, as well as Pao Yue-kong’s private reception room, were also in this building.

Back during the battle to increase shareholding in Kowloon Wharf, Jardine Matheson & Co. had negotiated with Pao Yue-kong, hoping he would sell his Kowloon Wharf shares in exchange for properties owned by Hongkong Land Company on Hong Kong Island.

At the time, Pao Yue-kong had proposed an exchange for Golden Gate Tower, Swire House, and Prince’s Building.

Among these three commercial buildings, Swire House and Prince’s Building were the most valuable properties in the Central District. Prince’s Building was also the headquarters of the World-Wide Shipping Group.

The value of these three buildings was clearly far greater than the Kowloon Wharf shares Pao Yue-kong held at the time.

Therefore, Jardine Matheson & Co. naturally rejected Pao Yue-kong’s offer and countered with a proposal to exchange Golden Gate Tower on Harcourt Road in Admiralty, Star House in Kowloon, and some residential properties in Mid-Levels.

The properties proposed by Jardine Matheson & Co. were, of course, far less valuable than those in the Central District.

Thus, in the end, the two sides couldn’t agree on the terms of the exchange and parted on bad terms.

Unexpectedly, in less than two years, Hong Kong had undergone earth-shattering changes.

The once-mighty Jardine Matheson & Co. had been driven out of Hong Kong by Lin Haoran.

And Pao Yue-kong, who had successfully acquired Kowloon Wharf, had been greatly weakened during the shareholding battle with Jardine Matheson & Co. For the past two years, he had rarely appeared in public, quietly recovering his strength, as if silently licking the wounds left by that campaign.

As for Prince’s Building, it still stood in the heart of Central, witnessing the ever-changing tides of Hong Kong’s business world. Only its owner had changed flags in the undercurrents of business warfare.

The building still belonged to the Hongkong Land Group.

However, this behemoth, the Hongkong Land Group, no longer belonged to Jardine Matheson & Co., but to him, Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran gazed at Prince’s Building, a sense of nostalgia welling up inside him.

He thought for a moment, then said to Li Weiguo in the front passenger seat, “Weiguo, hand me the mobile phone.”

“Yes, Boss,” Li Weiguo replied, handing the mobile phone to Lin Haoran.

This mobile phone, which would later be known as a ‘big brother’ brick phone, weighed a full 750 grams and was quite large. When he went out, Li Weiguo was responsible for carrying it for him, and only when he needed it would he ask for it.

As the signal coverage was not yet complete, it couldn’t be used in Kowloon yet. It was only usable in the core urban areas on the south shore of Victoria Harbour.

However, for Lin Haoran, this was sufficient for the time being.

After all, his main areas of activity in Hong Kong were Central, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, and their surroundings.

It had been a full eight days since he returned to Hong Kong from Japan, and he had only been to the Kowloon Peninsula twice.

Lin Haoran took the mobile phone and dialed a number. Soon, a series of beeps came from the phone, followed by Pao Yue-kong’s voice.

“Hello, who is this?” Pao Yue-kong asked.

“Uncle Pao, it’s me, Haoran. I hope I’m not disturbing you,” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Oh, it’s Haoran! If you’re looking for me, I’d make time no matter how busy I was. Besides, I’m not doing much right now. What’s up? Do you need something?” Pao Yue-kong’s hearty laughter came through the phone.

“It’s nothing in particular. My car happens to be downstairs from your office, so I thought I’d pay you a visit!” Lin Haoran explained.

His car was stopped right at the corner to turn into Prince’s Building. Since he was stuck in traffic with no end in sight, he decided to visit Pao Yue-kong, this business world veteran.

In any case, over the past three years, Pao Yue-kong had given him a great deal of help, and he was the person Lin Haoran respected most in Hong Kong’s business community.

So, even though his own assets now surpassed Pao Yue-kong’s, Lin Haoran still maintained the respect and courtesy he was due.

Moreover, Lin father’s villa was not far from the Bao family villa. Whenever there was a holiday, as long as Lin Haoran was in Hong Kong, he would take the initiative to visit this business world veteran.

At that moment, Pao Yue-kong, who was in his office, heard this, and holding the telephone receiver in one hand, walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window. Looking down, he immediately spotted Lin Haoran’s conspicuous Rolls-Royce.

He responded with a smile, “I see your car. Come on up. I’ll have tea ready for you!”

“Then please wait a moment, Uncle Pao. I’m hanging up now.” After speaking, Lin Haoran hung up and instructed Li Weidong to turn the car and head for the underground parking garage of Prince’s Building.

And so, four cars drove into Prince’s Building.

The security guards of his subsidiary companies were very familiar with the license plate of Lin Haoran’s Rolls-Royce. So, upon seeing his car, they simply saluted and let it pass, leaving the many drivers still stuck in traffic to look on with envy.

After passing the security post, Lin Haoran saw a familiar store—a 7-Eleven convenience store.

Its familiar decor was right there on the ground floor of Prince’s Building, facing Chater Road.

Since Lin Haoran acquired 7-Eleven, the world’s largest convenience store chain had quickly partnered with Dairy Farm International, a subsidiary of the Hongkong Land Group. By now, they had already opened more than twenty stores in Hong Kong, with plans to open over fifty by the end of the year.

Adding over fifty convenience stores in the small city of Hong Kong within a single year was quite impressive.

Lin Haoran had even arranged for Lawson, which he had also recently acquired, to open stores in Hong Kong. He planned to give the operating rights for Lawson in Hong Kong to the Wanqing Group, a matter he had already mentioned to Suzuki Toshifumi.

Why would he bring 7-Eleven’s competitor to Hong Kong? The reason was simple. Since both convenience store brands now belonged to him, letting them engage in healthy competition in the Hong Kong market could stimulate their respective potential and further expand their market share.

Furthermore, different convenience store brands had different operating strategies and specialty products, which could satisfy the diverse needs of Hong Kong consumers.

Most importantly, having two convenience store brands enter Hong Kong would allow them to capture more of the market more quickly.

The market was right there. If you didn’t seize it, someone else would.

Although Prince’s Building was a Hongkong Land Group property, the entire building was actually mainly for leasing.

Aside from the Hongkong Land property management company, employees and visitors from other companies frequently came and went, and security was quite strict.

After Lin Haoran’s group smoothly entered the building, they took an elevator directly to Pao Yue-kong’s floor.

The elevator doors opened, and just as Lin Haoran stepped out, he saw Pao Yue-kong’s secretary already waiting by the elevator.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Pao is waiting for you in the reception room. Please follow me,” the secretary said with a smile, leading Lin Haoran down a long corridor.

Inside the reception room, Pao Yue-kong was sitting at an antique-style tea table, upon which a delicate tea set was already arranged, its fragrant steam gently rising.

Seeing Lin Haoran enter, he stood up to greet him and said with a laugh, “Haoran, you’ve come at the perfect time. Try some of this tea I’ve just brewed.”

Lin Haoran quickly stepped forward, shook his hand, and smiled, “Uncle Pao, you’re too kind!”

After they were both seated, Pao Yue-kong asked, full of curiosity, “Haoran, did you just call me using one of those mobile phones that are about to be commercially launched?”

The collaboration between Hongkong Telephone Company and Motorola Company in Hong Kong had been widely reported by the media and was already the talk of the town.

After all, with the official commercial launch approaching, Hongkong Telephone Company had naturally started its promotional campaign early to build hype.

Chapter 575: Hard Times for Ship King Pao

Lin Haoran heard this and replied with a smile, “Uncle Pao, you’ve guessed correctly. However, the mobile signal coverage isn’t perfect yet, and the related infrastructure is still under construction. The one I have is a test model, and for now, I can only make calls in the Central and Causeway Bay areas.

“My visit today was a last-minute decision, so I didn’t bring one for you. When I get back, I’ll ask Hongkong Telephone Company for one and deliver it to you personally!”

Pao Yue-kong’s eyes lit up instantly. For the average person, a mobile phone might not be that useful.

But for business figures like them, the convenience of a mobile phone was incredibly appealing; its utility was not to be underestimated.

If an important company matter arose, the losses from a missed call could be disastrous.

He laughed heartily and said repeatedly, “Excellent, excellent! Then I won’t stand on ceremony. I’ll get to enjoy this legendary new technology early, thanks to you!”

“It’s just a small thing, not worth mentioning,” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

The two continued their conversation while sipping tea.

“You know, Haoran, life is truly something to reflect on. I still remember meeting you on the beach at Deep Water Bay three years ago. Back then, you were just an unknown young man.

“Who would have thought that in less than three years, you would achieve so much? Today, your wealth and power are even greater than mine. What amazes me most is that you went to Japan for only a few months and made so much money from the Japanese. On this point, your Uncle Pao here has to admire you!” Pao Yue-kong said with a touch of emotion.

Three years ago, he had met Lin Haoran on the beach. Even then, he could tell from the young man’s eloquence that he was destined for greatness, so he made a point of befriending him.

But Lin Haoran’s subsequent performance completely exceeded his imagination.

Not only did he make tens of millions from the battle for an interest in Kowloon Wharf between the Bao family and Jardine Matheson & Co., but during the later oil crisis, he showed incredible foresight by stockpiling massive amounts of oil. When the crisis hit, he made a huge profit. The money he earned from the hoarded oil alone was enough to make even Pao Yue-kong envious—it was several billion Hong Kong dollars!

But who could have guessed that one event after another would continue to shock him?

By now, it seemed to him and the rest of Hong Kong’s people that no matter what company Lin Haoran acquired or how much money he made, it was all perfectly normal.

As for Pao Yue-kong himself, although he had successfully wrested the controlling stake of Kowloon Wharf from Jardine Matheson & Co., the price had been unimaginable.

The Bao family had not only exhausted nearly all their funds but also taken out a loan of 2.1 billion Hong Kong dollars from HSBC to finally secure Kowloon Wharf.

Now, more than a year had passed, but the Bao family had yet to recover. Over the past year, they had been continuously selling off their second-hand supertankers. After selling so many vessels, his title as the World’s number one shipping magnate was starting to feel undeserved.

Lin Haoran had acquired Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and others. Was any of them inferior to Kowloon Wharf in terms of market capitalization or difficulty of acquisition?

No!

Yet, every time Lin Haoran made an acquisition, he never seemed to suffer heavy losses. Instead, his wealth only grew.

In contrast, Pao Yue-kong’s acquisition of Kowloon Wharf had nearly taken half the life out of the Bao family.

It would be a lie to say he didn’t envy Lin Haoran.

However, Pao Yue-kong did not regret his decision one bit. After all, the assets Kowloon Wharf owned were considerable. Harbour City alone was immensely valuable, with huge potential for future growth.

Moreover, the Bao family’s sale of their ships was not just due to the debt from the Kowloon Wharf acquisition.

More importantly, the Bao family had foreseen the coming slump in the shipping industry, especially the potential impact of oil price volatility on the market.

Selling off a portion of their fleet in advance to raise capital would allow them to mitigate debt risks.

By selling their ships, the Bao family optimized its asset structure, creating a buffer for future market fluctuations. Even Lin Haoran greatly admired this decision.

After all, they had already planned on “Abandoning the ships to come ashore” in the late 1970s. Back then, who in the shipping industry, besides the Bao family, would have predicted that the sector was on the verge of a downturn?

Most importantly, the Bao family was the World’s number one shipping magnate at the time. To be able to relinquish such an honorable title required immense courage and foresight.

That kind of decisiveness was not something an ordinary person could possess.

The more he thought about it, the more Pao Yue-kong admired the junior before him.

It was just as the old saying goes: the new generation surpasses the old, and each generation is stronger than the last!

Hearing Pao Yue-kong’s praise, Lin Haoran paused slightly.

He had learned a great deal from the Bao family’s business philosophy of “Better to earn less than to take risks.”

Lin Haoran had also received considerable help from Pao Yue-kong to achieve so much in such a short time. Speaking of which, it was he who should be thanking Pao Yue-kong.

“Uncle Pao, I can take praise from anyone else, but coming from you, I’m truly flattered. My achievements today would not have been possible without your support and guidance back then.

“As for the Toyota Motor affair in Japan, that was just good luck. To be honest, I was originally just optimistic about Toyota Motor’s future. I happened to have a lot of capital to invest in Japan, and I saw that Toyota’s stock price was being affected by the US-Japan auto trade negotiations. Not only were there many sell orders, but the price was also quite low, so I decided to secretly acquire a large number of their shares.

“I never expected the negotiations to turn out the way they did. Toyota’s stock not only soared, but the financial groups were even scrambling to buy my shares.

“Seeing as how I could make so much profit after investing for only two months, I had no choice but to sell the shares to the Japanese financial groups!” Lin Haoran said with a half-joking smile, attributing everything to luck.

After hearing this, Pao Yue-kong gave a meaningful smile. “Haoran, you’re being far too modest with this talk of ‘luck.’ In the business world, how can there be so much pure luck?

“The way I see it, it was your unique vision, your extraordinary courage, and a bit of perfect timing that led to your success today.”

He paused, then continued, “It’s like when I entered the shipping industry back in the day. I also saw an opportunity and fought my way up to where I am now. And you, with the oil crisis, the gold futures, and your investments in Japan—which one of these wasn’t a result of precise judgment and decisive action? That’s not something an ordinary person can do.”

Lin Haoran was amused by Pao Yue-kong’s words. He waved his hand with a smile, “Uncle Pao, please don’t praise me anymore. Any more and my head will be in the clouds. In fact, there is still much I need to learn from you.

“For example, your courage and determination during the Kowloon Wharf battle, and your foresight now in selling ships to optimize your asset structure—these are things I could only hope to catch up to.

“So, no matter what, Uncle Pao, you will always be the business senior I, Lin Haoran, admire most!”

At present, the shipping industry had not yet entered a severe downturn, but as the oil crisis worsened, many were gradually beginning to see the signs.

Even so, many shipping companies were still expanding blindly.

For example, Hong Kong’s other World Shipping Magnate, the Tung family, was currently expanding its fleet.

And many of the new ships they were adding were, surprisingly, purchased from Pao Yue-kong’s World-Wide Shipping Group.

This showed that not every shipping tycoon possessed Pao Yue-kong’s mettle—the ability to decisively pull back before a crisis, optimize asset structure, and even be willing to give up the title of World’s number one shipping magnate.

Blind expansion like the Tung family’s might seem glorious, but in reality, it was just testing the waters at the edge of danger. One wrong step, and the consequences would be severe.

“Let’s not just sit here praising each other. Let’s talk about something else!” Pao Yue-kong couldn’t help but say when Lin Haoran turned the praise back on him.

“Alright then, Uncle Pao. I heard you’ve sold quite a few more cargo ships recently. The debt from Kowloon Wharf must be nearly paid off, right?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

This was, strictly speaking, a private matter, but Lin Haoran asked out of concern for Pao Yue-kong. If he needed help, Lin Haoran wouldn’t mind lending the Bao family a hand.

Pao Yue-kong let out a wry smile. “How could it possibly be paid off so quickly? After acquiring Kowloon Wharf, our family basically took over the bottomless pit that is Harbour City. We have to pay off the debt on one hand while pouring massive funds into Harbour City’s construction on the other. To this day, Kowloon Wharf hasn’t earned me a single cent!”

Harbour City was located in Tsim Sha Tsui. The first phase had actually opened back in the 1960s when Kowloon Wharf relocated its warehouses to Kwai Chung and built a shopping mall, Ocean Terminal, on the original site.

In the 1970s, facing skyrocketing land prices, Kowloon Wharf initiated the Harbour City project.

However, it was because of this project that although Kowloon Wharf collected substantial rent from its properties each year, all the profits were sunk into the bottomless pit of Harbour City. This led to Kowloon Wharf having almost no profit annually, causing its stock price to fall again and again, which in turn attracted the covetous eyes of Li Jiacheng and Pao Yue-kong.

After Pao Yue-kong took over Kowloon Wharf, he too felt deeply just how massive the investment in Harbour City was.

Relying on Kowloon Wharf’s own annual profits to quickly complete Phase Two of Harbour City was simply impossible.

Therefore, even after Pao Yue-kong’s acquisition, Kowloon Wharf’s own funds still couldn’t help him solve his debt problem, because any profits generated by Kowloon Wharf had to be reinvested into the construction of Harbour City.

“Uncle Pao, does this mean you’ll be unable to make any moves for the next few years?” Lin Haoran said in surprise.

Kowloon Wharf couldn’t provide Pao Yue-kong with any help, and on the World-Wide Shipping Group’s side, they were facing a downturn in the shipping industry. In that case, the Bao family was indeed in for some difficult years.

Chapter 576: Targeting Wheelock and Company? A Share Swap with Kowloon Wharf?

Some in the media mocked Pao Yue-kong’s acquisition of Kowloon Wharf, calling it a case of “the Ship King winning a costly victory, while Hongkong Land cut its losses with a smile.”

The meaning was that although Pao Yue-kong had emerged victorious, the price he paid was far too great. Hongkong Land, on the other hand, might have lost Kowloon Wharf, but by secretly selling all its shares when Pao pushed the price up to one hundred and five Hong Kong dollars per share, it had walked away with an enormous profit.

However, even in the face of such media derision, Pao Yue-kong offered no response. He remained focused on quiet development, conserving his energy and silently recuperating.

A man as ambitious as Pao Yue-kong would hardly be satisfied with acquiring just Kowloon Wharf.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s question and considering Lin’s acquisition record over the past two or three years, Pao Yue-kong couldn’t help but sigh.

If only he could be like Lin Haoran, acquiring one major corporation after another, each time quickly regaining the strength to pursue the next target.

But for now, Kowloon Wharf had temporarily constrained his ambitions.

No, it would be more accurate to say that Harbour City had constrained his ambitions.

However, Harbour City was so crucial to Kowloon Wharf that it could be considered the core of its future business.

So, he could only bite the bullet and continue to pour his efforts into the Harbour City project, hoping it would become a dazzling jewel in the Bao family’s business empire and justify the immense cost of acquiring Kowloon Wharf.

And in the future, Harbour City did indeed become Kowloon Wharf’s biggest cash cow. Well into the 2020s, it remained one of the Kowloon Wharf Group’s most vital assets.

“This is what I admire most about you. When you acquired Hongkong Electric Group, Hongkong Land Group, and those other companies, it seemed like you were never seriously weakened by the acquisitions. If only I could be like you,” Pao Yue-kong sighed deeply.

“Uncle Pao, if there’s anything I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to ask. As long as it’s within my power, I will do my best!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Pao Yue-kong paused as an idea suddenly flashed in his mind.

With his current standing, Lin Haoran had become the most sought-after entrepreneur in Hong Kong. His strength had long surpassed Pao’s, and the gap between him and the Bao family was only widening.

If he could bring Lin Haoran into the Kowloon Wharf fold, it might significantly accelerate the company’s growth.

Most importantly, Pao Yue-kong had his eyes on another company—Wheelock and Company!

And Hongkong Land Group held 11.8% of Wheelock’s shares, making it the third-largest shareholder, behind only the Zhang family and Wheelock’s leader, John Marden.

If he could get Lin Haoran to swap his Wheelock shares for Kowloon Wharf shares, not only would Lin Haoran become a shareholder in Kowloon Wharf, but it would also lay the groundwork for Kowloon Wharf to acquire Wheelock and Company in the future.

In Pao Yue-kong’s view, Wheelock and Kowloon Wharf had similar business operations, mainly focusing on property investment, shipping, retail, and trade.

If Kowloon Wharf acquired Wheelock, it would shore up its own business weaknesses, transforming it into a large, diversified, and comprehensive enterprise group.

In fact, Pao Yue-kong had set his sights on Wheelock and Company right after he successfully acquired Kowloon Wharf.

However, Wheelock was firmly in the hands of John Marden. Furthermore, after the successful but costly acquisition of Kowloon Wharf, Pao was burdened with debt and lacked the capacity to make a move on Wheelock.

But if Kowloon Wharf could acquire the Wheelock shares held by Hongkong Land Group, it would bring Pao Yue-kong multiple benefits.

First, if Lin Haoran, the new richest man in Hong Kong, became a major shareholder of Kowloon Wharf, the resources and benefits Kowloon Wharf would gain from the shared connection would be substantial.

Second, Hongkong Land held a significant stake in Wheelock. In the future, even after Pao Yue-kong had recovered his strength and wanted to make a move on Wheelock, he would struggle to succeed if Lin Haoran also happened to be interested.

Third, if Lin Haoran agreed, the shares of Wheelock and Company would belong to Kowloon Wharf. In that case, a future acquisition of Wheelock and Company would be a matter of course. When conditions are right, success will naturally follow, greatly reducing the difficulty and obstacles of the takeover.

As for whether Lin Haoran becoming a shareholder would pose a threat to the Bao family, Pao Yue-kong was not at all worried.

After all, the Bao family currently held 49% of Kowloon Wharf’s shares.

If the acquisition threshold hadn’t been just under 50%, his family would have already increased their shareholding to a controlling 51%.

Therefore, Pao Yue-kong was very confident that Lin Haoran could not wrest control of Kowloon Wharf from him.

The more Pao Yue-kong thought about it, the more feasible the plan seemed. He looked at Lin Haoran with a burning intensity and said slowly, “Haoran, I have an idea I’d like to discuss with you.

“As you know, Hongkong Land Group holds a considerable number of shares in Wheelock and Company. I was thinking, perhaps you could use Hongkong Land’s stake in Wheelock to swap for shares in Kowloon Wharf and become a shareholder.

“If we work together, I’m certain we can carve out an even greater territory for ourselves in the business world.”

Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback. He hadn’t expected Pao Yue-kong to propose such an idea.

However, he quickly understood Pao Yue-kong’s intentions.

After all, the two biggest moves Pao Yue-kong made in the 1980s were acquiring Kowloon Wharf and, later, Wheelock and Company.

The acquisition of Wheelock and Company, however, was supposed to happen in the mid-1980s. It was around that time that Pao Yue-kong, having finally regained his strength, would ambitiously set out to expand once more.

So, Lin Haoran wasn’t surprised that Pao Yue-kong was targeting Wheelock.

What surprised him was that Pao wanted him to become a shareholder in Kowloon Wharf.

To be honest, he wasn’t particularly interested in Wheelock and Company.

The reason was that, over the past few years, Wheelock had been continuously selling off the group’s plots of land and properties, demolishing and rebuilding, and cashing in at the peak of the real estate market. It then used the funds to aggressively expand its shipping business, ordering a large number of bulk carriers to grow its fleet.

In fact, a portion of the ships sold by the Bao family’s World-Wide Shipping Group in the past two years had been sold to Wheelock and Company.

Wheelock’s chairman, John Marden, was doing this because he lacked confidence in Hong Kong’s future. Worried that Hong Kong would sooner or later be returned to China, he implemented a strategic transfer of assets to keep them “afloat on the high seas” as a safeguard.

Unfortunately, this very strategy would cause Wheelock and Company to become increasingly indebted during the subsequent downturn in the shipping industry.

This was why Lin Haoran had little interest in the current Wheelock and Company.

In his previous life, it was precisely at this time that Pao Yue-kong, having regained his strength, seized the opportunity to successfully acquire the company, ultimately making Wheelock an important piece of the Bao family’s business empire.

But now, faced with Pao Yue-kong’s proposal, Lin Haoran, despite his reservations, knew this was a collaborative opportunity he couldn’t afford to miss.

Even if he was lukewarm about Wheelock, the potential benefits and influence of becoming a Kowloon Wharf shareholder were too compelling to refuse.

Because while he looked down on Wheelock and Company, he was very interested in Kowloon Wharf, especially its subsidiary, Harbour City.

In his past life, Lin Haoran had once read a news article about Harbour City.

The content was simple enough: it stated that Harbour City, the core shopping mall under the Kowloon Wharf Group, had generated revenues of 9.1 billion Hong Kong dollars in 2024, with a profit of 7.11 billion Hong Kong dollars.

In other words, the profit this single mall brought to Kowloon Wharf was staggering.

And in the previous year, 2023, Harbour City’s profits were nearly identical to those in 2024.

Making over seven billion Hong Kong dollars in profit a year just by collecting rent meant tens of billions over a decade, and it had managed to thrive for decades. This showed just how astonishingly profitable this asset was for Kowloon Wharf.

After all, Harbour City’s prime location was the foundation of its enduring success.

It commanded a core view of the stunning Victoria Harbour and was surrounded by convenient transportation. After it opened, it would become a hub for numerous high-end brands and various specialty shops, catering to the needs of consumers at all levels, whether for shopping, dining, or entertainment.

Lin Haoran naturally understood that once he became a shareholder of Kowloon Wharf, he would have the opportunity to participate deeply in the development of Harbour City and share in its immense commercial dividends.

Truth be told, Lin Haoran had been coveting Harbour City for a long time.

However, back when Pao Yue-kong was acquiring Kowloon Wharf, Lin Haoran had no power to speak of. Even the money he used for stock trading was from a loan.

In fact, he had earned his first pot of gold by playing the fisherman while Pao Yue-kong and Jardine Matheson were fighting.

So, at that time, he had no right to covet Kowloon Wharf.

By the time he was powerful enough, Pao Yue-kong had already gained the upper hand in the battle for control. Even if he had entered the fray then, he would have come away with nothing.

Not only that, but if he had tried to force his way in, he would have ended up offending two major powers: Pao Yue-kong and Jardine Matheson.

After Pao Yue-kong completely took control of Kowloon Wharf, he knew that his window of opportunity had closed entirely.

And so, he could only regretfully let Kowloon Wharf slip through his fingers.

Now, he never imagined that Pao Yue-kong would take the initiative to invite him to become a shareholder.

Although, given Kowloon Wharf’s current equity structure, he had no chance of gaining a controlling stake.

However, becoming a major shareholder was an excellent proposition.

Furthermore, Kowloon Wharf’s current stock price had plummeted by more than tenfold compared to the price during the bidding war between Pao Yue-kong and Jardine Matheson!

At the time, the Pao family’s acquisition of Kowloon Wharf had pushed the price to between thirty-six and one hundred ten Hong Kong dollars per share, causing Kowloon Wharf’s market capitalization to briefly surpass that of Hongkong Land Group.

Of course, everyone knew that stock price was severely inflated.

Because of this, after the Kowloon Wharf acquisition battle ended, the company’s stock price rapidly declined, falling again and again!

To this day, it had dropped to just six Hong Kong dollars per share.

If he had secretly started buying Kowloon Wharf stock before this, he might have incurred Pao Yue-kong’s displeasure.

After all, with every company whose shares he had acquired in large amounts, he had either privatized it directly or seized an absolute controlling stake.

If he had really made a move on Kowloon Wharf’s stock, Pao Yue-kong would definitely have grown suspicious.

Given his relationship with Pao Yue-kong, he certainly didn’t want any misunderstandings.

After all, Pao Yue-kong was, in a sense, his benefactor in the business world.

But now that Pao Yue-kong was inviting him to invest, it was a legitimate and perfect opportunity for him to become a major shareholder in Kowloon Wharf!

Moreover, he had another idea, but it was a matter of great importance and would require Pao Yue-kong’s consent.

Chapter 577: You’ll Hold 51% of the Shares, I’ll Hold 49%

When Lin Haoran remained silent for a long while without responding to his suggestion, Pao Yue-kong couldn’t help but ask again, “What is it, Haoran? Are you not interested in this offer? Don’t worry, the share swap can be valued entirely based on current stock prices. You absolutely won’t be at a disadvantage.

“Besides, don’t be fooled by the fact that Kowloon Wharf doesn’t seem to turn a profit each year. In reality, that’s because all the earnings are being reinvested into the construction of Harbour City. Once the second phase of Harbour City is complete, Kowloon Wharf will enter a season of bountiful harvest. Becoming a shareholder in Kowloon Wharf is definitely not a bad thing!”

Pao Yue-kong assumed Lin Haoran was hesitating.

For the past few years, Kowloon Wharf’s annual financial reports had indeed looked quite poor.

The returns from Kowloon Wharf’s property investments, shipping, retail, and trade weren’t bad, but they weren’t particularly strong either.

This was because Kowloon Wharf’s property investments were primarily focused on collecting rent.

In other words, relying solely on rent collection, it would take at least a decade to recoup the initial investment.

On top of that, the profits earned each year were immediately funneled back into construction.

As a result, it seemed as though Kowloon Wharf worked from the beginning of the year to the end and ended up with nothing left, sometimes even in debt.

The consequence was that Kowloon Wharf basically paid no dividends year after year; the company simply had no money.

Therefore, after the bidding war between Pao Yue-kong and Jardine Matheson & Co. ended, Kowloon Wharf’s stock price quickly fell, and its current market capitalization was completely unremarkable.

Pao Yue-kong’s question brought Lin Haoran back from his thoughts.

Seeing Pao Yue-kong’s confusion, Lin Haoran knew he had been misunderstood.

He spoke up, “Uncle Pao, it’s not that I’m not interested. I’m not actually that concerned about the Wheelock and Company shares. I was considering something else. Kowloon Wharf’s stock price is quite low right now, while Wheelock and Company’s is not. If we swap based on market value, I’d be at a loss. But if we don’t, I feel that wouldn’t be right either. So, I was thinking about how we could conduct this share swap in a more reasonable way that protects your interests without putting me at a disadvantage.”

Hearing this, Pao Yue-kong smiled. “I’m already almost the controlling shareholder of Kowloon Wharf, so I don’t really care how much equity you hold. Since you’ve agreed to the swap, Haoran, we can discuss the method separately. Uncle Pao will definitely not let you suffer a loss!”

At the same time, Pao Yue-kong was secretly thrilled.

Once he truly had his hands on Lin Haoran’s Wheelock shares, Kowloon Wharf would have set the stage for a major play against Wheelock.

Wheelock was still continuously purchasing ships. In Pao Yue-kong’s view, when the shipping industry slump reached its worst point, such a strategy would sooner or later plunge Wheelock into a massive financial crisis.

At that time, Kowloon Wharf could leverage its Wheelock shares to become a significant shareholder in Wheelock and Company, or even go a step further to gain a controlling stake and acquire the company entirely.

But if the Hongkong Land Group remained a major shareholder of Wheelock and Company, then even if Wheelock faced a financial crisis, it would be difficult for him to make a move.

Now, Lin Haoran’s words meant he had agreed to the swap.

The more Pao Yue-kong thought about it, the brighter the future seemed. He could almost see the scene of Kowloon Wharf reaping huge benefits from Wheelock and Company.

Lin Haoran saw the light glinting in Pao Yue-kong’s eyes and naturally understood his calculations.

However, he had his own ideas.

Lin Haoran took a slight breath and continued, “Uncle Pao, I have an idea, but it concerns the future direction of Kowloon Wharf. I’m a bit hesitant about it, and I’m not sure if I should say it. If you think it’s inappropriate, please don’t take it to heart or get angry with me.”

“Oh? Haoran, if you have an idea, just say it. I’m not a petty person, Uncle Pao,” Pao Yue-kong’s interest was piqued, his eyes filled with curiosity.

“Since you’ve invited me to become a shareholder of Kowloon Wharf, Uncle Pao, I have an idea: why don’t we just privatize Kowloon Wharf? When we do, you, Uncle Pao, will hold 51% of the shares, and I’ll hold 49%. You’ll still be the company’s controlling shareholder, and I’ll get to share in Kowloon Wharf’s future dividends.

“I know you’re a bit tight on funds right now because of your debts, Uncle Pao, but increasing your stake from 49% to 51%, especially with Kowloon Wharf’s current low stock price, shouldn’t be too much of an added burden. What do you think, Uncle Pao?” Lin Haoran proposed with a smile.

Kowloon Wharf’s stock price was definitely severely undervalued; otherwise, why would Pao Yue-kong have set his sights on it in the first place?

The value of Kowloon Wharf’s fixed assets alone was far greater than the total market capitalization of its stock.

The properties owned by Kowloon Wharf—including piers, warehouses, hotels, buildings, trams, and the Star Ferry along the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront in Kowloon, as well as in the New Territories and on Hong Kong Island—made for an incredibly strong asset base.

Otherwise, Jardine Matheson & Co. wouldn’t have fought a life-or-death battle with Pao Yue-kong over Kowloon Wharf.

It was only because Kowloon Wharf had continuously reinvested its profits into projects like the second phase of Harbour City that its books seemed to show poor profitability, causing its stock to be undervalued.

And in Lin Haoran’s view, this low stock price and lack of investor confidence was the perfect opportunity to privatize Kowloon Wharf.

However, this would require Pao Yue-kong’s agreement.

The reason was simple: Pao Yue-kong had spent an enormous amount of money—several billion Hong Kong dollars—to acquire Kowloon Wharf.

At Kowloon Wharf’s current market capitalization, if Lin Haoran were to acquire a 49% stake for a relatively small sum, he worried that the Shipping Magnate Pao before him might feel it was unfair.

Pao Yue-kong did not answer immediately but fell deep in thought.

Privatizing Kowloon Wharf was a major undertaking, and he had to be cautious.

As for the cost, Lin Haoran was overthinking it. The previous surge in stock price to one hundred and ten Hong Kong dollars per share had been severely inflated.

But at that time, he had no choice. To secure a controlling stake in Kowloon Wharf, he had to bite the bullet and engage in that fierce acquisition war with Jardine Matheson.

Now that the stock price had fallen, it actually presented him with an excellent opportunity to further consolidate his control over Kowloon Wharf at a relatively low cost.

Moreover, privatizing Kowloon Wharf meant freeing it from the many constraints of the stock market and the pressure for short-term performance.

He could plan Kowloon Wharf’s long-term development with more ease, focusing his energy on enhancing the company’s core competitiveness and expanding its business empire.

The more Pao Yue-kong thought about it, the more feasible the idea seemed.

In any case, Lin Haoran would be the main one funding the privatization of Kowloon Wharf. The Bao family only needed to increase their stake by another 2%. Even with their current financial difficulties, they could certainly afford that amount.

Most importantly, although Harbour City was in a prime location, he wasn’t completely certain that it would draw the massive crowds and generate the expected revenue after its second phase officially opened.

Even though he had always been optimistic about the Harbour City project, who could say for sure that he hadn’t misjudged?

After privatization, he could single-mindedly follow his plan to turn Harbour City into a super landmark of Hong Kong commerce, without being constrained by short-term performance metrics and shareholder doubts.

Crucially, Lin Haoran was willing to share the risk with him, which made him a trustworthy and powerful partner.

Furthermore, with the Bao family holding a 51% stake, he would never have to worry about Lin Haoran trying to wrestle away control, as long as he didn’t reduce his own shareholding.

Therefore, at this moment, Pao Yue-kong felt that Lin Haoran’s proposal offered him far more advantages than disadvantages.

“Haoran, your idea is very bold, but it’s also very farsighted. I’ve thought it over carefully, and I think it’s feasible!” Pao Yue-kong lifted his head, a smile of excitement on his face. “Let’s do it. We’ll privatize Kowloon Wharf. With you on board, I believe Kowloon Wharf’s future will be even more brilliant!”

Hearing Pao Yue-kong’s affirmative reply, the weight in Lin Haoran’s heart lifted.

It was just an idea he had come up with on the spot. He hadn’t expected Pao Yue-kong to be so bold and agree so decisively.

Did this mean that in the future, he would have a share in Kowloon Wharf, this golden goose?

And it was 49%, a figure representing nearly half the shares.

Pao Yue-kong wanted the controlling stake simply for the management rights.

Those management rights were of no use to him.

He didn’t need the final say; he only wanted Kowloon Wharf’s future dividends.

Even if he had acquired Kowloon Wharf himself, he would have needed to find a professional manager to run it for him.

Manage it himself? Forget it.

He didn’t even care about the management rights for a company like the Hongkong Land Group, let alone Kowloon Wharf.

After responding to Lin Haoran, Pao Yue-kong found himself thinking more and more that privatizing Kowloon Wharf was a brilliant idea.

It meant that once he and Lin Haoran joined forces to privatize the company, the Bao family and the Lam family would be closely linked, managing Kowloon Wharf together.

He could already foresee a privatized Kowloon Wharf, freed from its many shackles, becoming like a fearless giant ship. It would ride the wind and cleave the waves in the turbulent seas of commerce, forging ahead toward an even more glorious shore.

For a moment, his excitement was palpable. Pao Yue-kong suddenly burst into a violent coughing fit that lasted for more than a minute.

He drank several cups of tea one after another, but it did nothing to ease it.

Lin Haoran, watching from the side, couldn’t help but frown with concern. “Uncle Pao, your health is important. Please take it easy and don’t get too excited.”

Pao Yue-kong waved his hand, gasping for breath. “It’s nothing, just an old problem. It’ll pass in a moment. Haoran, I’m very interested in this privatization of Kowloon Wharf. We must discuss the details thoroughly.”

Pao Yue-kong’s voice had become somewhat hoarse; it was clear the prolonged coughing had strained his throat.

Chapter 578: A Warning for the Shipping Magnate

Pao Yue-kong was born in 1918 and was now sixty-three years old, truly qualifying as an elderly man.

At this moment, Lin Haoran’s thoughts weren’t on the matter Pao Yue-kong had raised, but on something else that had suddenly occurred to him.

An influential figure like Pao Yue-kong, who commanded the winds and clouds, was a household name.

Therefore, in his previous life, Lin Haoran knew quite a few of Pao Yue-kong’s legendary stories.

Otherwise, he never would have been able to make his first pot of gold from the battle for Kowloon Wharf.

And according to records, if events unfolded as they should, Pao Yue-kong would be diagnosed with lung cancer in 1983.

In 1983, while Pao Yue-kong was busy traveling between Britain and China, he was informed by his doctors that he had lung cancer.

Although the surgery was a success and he remained energetic, humorous, and optimistic in public, he began to quietly arrange his affairs when he was alone.

Afterward, upon successfully acquiring Wheelock and Company, Pao Yue-kong gradually handed over management of his businesses to his sons-in-law.

The reason was that, due to the lung cancer, his health had greatly declined, and he could no longer devote himself to his business with the same energy as before.

And now, Pao Yue-kong was saying his cough was just an old ailment.

What did this mean? It meant that these were all early symptoms and warning signs!

Lin Haoran sighed inwardly. Pao Yue-kong had commanded the business world his entire life and made indelible contributions to Hong Kong’s economic development, but in the end, he couldn’t escape the clutches of illness.

Coupled with the help Pao Yue-kong had given him before, this old statesman was, no matter what, definitely worthy of his respect.

Especially now that he was about to join forces with Pao Yue-kong to privatize Kowloon Wharf, which meant that in the future, he would need Pao Yue-kong to manage Kowloon Wharf for him and generate more dividends.

And he, for his part, just wanted to lie back and make money.

Therefore, no matter what, he didn’t want Pao Yue-kong to fall to his illness so soon.

With this in mind, Lin Haoran asked with a serious expression, “Uncle Pao, I’d like to ask you a few personal questions.”

Seeing Lin Haoran’s grave expression, Pao Yue-kong, though puzzled, still replied with a chuckle, “Haoran, with our kind of friendship, just ask whatever you want. No need to be so formal!”

Lin Haoran took a deep breath and asked with a look of concern, “Uncle Pao, when you cough, do you ever see streaks of blood or blood spots in your phlegm, or occasionally cough up small amounts of blood? Also, do you get pneumonia recurrently, without much improvement even after taking antibiotics? Do you ever feel a dull ache in your chest that gets worse when you cough? And do you sometimes find it hard to breathe?”

Most of these were early symptoms of lung cancer. Lin Haoran just wanted to confirm his inner suspicions.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s questions, the smile on Pao Yue-kong’s face gradually faded, replaced by a hint of surprise and confusion.

He frowned slightly, looked at Lin Haoran, and after a moment of silence, he spoke slowly, “Haoran, why the sudden questions? It’s just an old ailment I’ve had for years. When you’ve been coughing for a long time, some symptoms are inevitable. It’s not as serious as you’re making it sound.”

Hearing his nonchalant reply, Lin Haoran knew that his suspicions had essentially been confirmed.

Cancer doesn’t just appear in its late stages. It usually has a latent period in its early stages. Lin Haoran figured that even if Pao Yue-kong had annual check-ups, they probably didn’t include in-depth screenings for lung cancer. Or perhaps the early symptoms were so well-hidden that a regular physical couldn’t detect them.

That was why he didn’t find out he had cancer until a test in 1983.

But finding out then was obviously much too late.

Drawing on the vast amount of popular science knowledge he had acquired from the internet in his previous life, Lin Haoran knew very well that for a disease like cancer, the earlier it was discovered and treated, the higher the chance of a successful cure.

If there was a long delay before discovery, even if the eventual surgery was successful, there was a high probability of recurrence and metastasis later on.

Clearly, if the Uncle Pao before him could have noticed the abnormalities in his body sooner and undergone a comprehensive, in-depth examination, perhaps his condition wouldn’t have progressed to the severe state it reached in his previous life.

However, Lin Haoran was torn and felt a sense of conflict.

He pondered how he should bring this up with Pao Yue-kong in a way that would make him take it seriously.

Telling him directly, “You might have cancer, you should go get it checked,” was clearly inappropriate. Such a blunt statement would likely make Pao Yue-kong resistant, and he might even think Lin Haoran was being an alarmist.

Lin Haoran’s brow furrowed as he rapidly searched his mind for the right words.

After a moment, a warm and concerned smile appeared on his face, and he said softly, “Uncle Pao, you might not know this, but when I was studying in Britain, a classmate of mine had a rather serious lung disease. He didn’t pay much attention to it at first, and later the situation became quite tricky. That’s why I’m particularly sensitive about this now. The symptoms you just mentioned—the cough, chest pain, and difficulty breathing—are quite similar to what my classmate experienced. So, I can’t help but worry about you. How about you find some time to go to the hospital for a comprehensive lung check-up? Just do it to put my mind at ease, so I can work with you on the Kowloon Wharf matter without any worries.”

After hearing Lin Haoran’s words, the confusion on Pao Yue-kong’s face didn’t completely disappear, but his expression had clearly softened.

He gently patted Lin Haoran’s shoulder and said, “Haoran, I appreciate your concern, but I know my own body. I’ve been fine for so many years; it’s not like a major problem would just pop up. Besides, things are at a critical juncture for both World-Wide Shipping Group and Kowloon Wharf right now. I really can’t spare the time to go to the hospital.”

Clearly, Pao Yue-kong was somewhat dismissive.

In his view, he had a physical every year with the best medical team in Hong Kong. If there were a real problem, it would have been discovered long ago.

Seeing that Pao Yue-kong was still hesitant, Lin Haoran quickly said, “Uncle Pao, I know you’re devoted to your work, but health is the foundation of everything. The Kowloon Wharf business is important, but if your health collapses, then none of it will mean anything. As for work, it can wait. From what I know, your sons-in-law are all exceptionally capable men. Under your careful guidance, they can already hold their own. Why don’t you take this opportunity to hand over some of your duties to them for now? You can also make time for a check-up at the hospital, for your own peace of mind and for ours. Besides, Uncle Pao, think about it: if the check-up shows you’re perfectly fine, you can give full play to your talents and push the Kowloon Wharf project forward without any lingering concerns. And if they do find some minor issue, we can detect it early and treat it early, nipping the illness in the bud. Doesn’t that make sense?”

Pao Yue-kong fell into deep thought as he listened to Lin Haoran.

He looked at the young man before him, his eyes filled with sincerity and concern, and he couldn’t help but feel moved.

He had no blood relation to the young man, yet it was rare for an outsider to be so attentive and concerned about his health.

This show of friendship truly touched Pao Yue-kong’s heart and filled him with gratitude.

What an excellent young man!

It was a pity his four daughters were already married.

Otherwise, if Lin Haoran could become his son-in-law, he would even feel that he had found an incredibly reliable successor, ensuring his legacy would continue.

Pao Yue-kong understood that Lin Haoran was acting out of kindness, and his coughing spells did seem to have become more frequent recently, with his breathing also feeling a bit strained.

Perhaps it was time to get a more comprehensive and detailed examination. It would indeed give him greater peace of mind.

Having built such a vast empire of wealth, no one wanted to fall prematurely and see their life’s heart and soul go to waste.

After a moment of silence, Pao Yue-kong slowly nodded and said, “Haoran, you have a point. I have been so busy with work all these years that I’ve rarely paid attention to my health. Since you insist, I’ll listen to you and find some time to go to the hospital for a full check-up.”

Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a little gratified upon hearing this.

If his warning allowed Pao Yue-kong to discover his illness in time and receive effective treatment, then he would have done a great deed.

If cancer could be detected in its early stages and treated promptly and effectively, the success rate was very high.

And for someone of Pao Yue-kong’s stature, he would surely have the best doctors treat him with the most advanced treatment plans.

That would increase the success rate even more.

So, if it was truly discovered early, Pao Yue-kong’s life might be rewritten.

At that point, Lin Haoran’s status in Pao Yue-kong’s eyes would undoubtedly rise.

This meant that in the future Hong Kong business world, he would have an extremely reliable and powerful ally.

Although his current wealth had indeed surpassed Pao Yue-kong’s, the influence and network Pao Yue-kong possessed were far beyond his reach.

After all, Pao Yue-kong’s influence and network were built over a lifetime of hard work.

He, on the other hand, was purely an upstart. Both his global influence and his network of connections still needed to be accumulated.

Lin Haoran thought this to himself, but he didn’t let any of it show on his face.

He simply smiled and said, “Uncle Pao, you’ve got the right idea. When your health is good, everything is good!”

“I’ll have my assistant arrange for the physical. Let’s not talk about it for now. I’ll tell you when the results are out. Let’s get back to what we were discussing earlier—about you swapping your Wheelock shares for Kowloon Wharf stock, and about us privatizing Kowloon Wharf together—I think we should settle these matters as soon as possible. We…” Pao Yue-kong couldn’t stop himself from coughing again before he could finish.

Lin Haoran guessed that Pao Yue-kong was in such a hurry because he was afraid Lin Haoran would change his mind later.

Thus, he couldn’t help but offer a wry smile and advise, “Uncle Pao, your health is already in this state. You should stop worrying about work for a bit. Your health is what’s crucial. It’s not too late for us to sit down and discuss things slowly after your check-up. Don’t worry, Uncle Pao, surely you know my character by now? I won’t go back on something I’ve promised.”

Pao Yue-kong waved his hand and, suppressing his cough, said, “It’s fine, it’s fine. It’s an old ailment. I won’t be collapsing anytime soon. This Kowloon Wharf matter can’t be delayed. Let’s continue our talk.”

Pao Yue-kong’s words filled Lin Haoran with emotion. He truly was a renowned workaholic! In contrast, Lin Haoran felt completely out of place compared to these Hong Kong business tycoons.

Chapter 579: I’ll Buy All the Bonds You Issue!

Seeing this, Lin Haoran had no choice but to continue the conversation with Pao Yue-kong.

As for the matter of a medical check-up, he had taken note of it, and it wasn’t something that needed to be rushed this very second.

Lin Haoran asked, “Uncle Pao, Kowloon Wharf shouldn’t have any treasury shares at the moment, right? And from what you just said, all the profits have been invested in the construction of Harbour City, so it’s clear Kowloon Wharf doesn’t have the funds itself to acquire the Wheelock shares I hold. How do you plan to have Kowloon Wharf exchange shares for my Wheelock equity?”

Hearing this, Pao Yue-kong first calmed his breathing, which had become ragged from the intense coughing spell. After catching his breath, he frowned slightly in thought for a moment before saying, “Kowloon Wharf indeed has no treasury shares. Under Jardine Matheson’s management over the years, Kowloon Wharf’s profits were either exploited by Jardine Matheson or funneled into new projects. There simply were no funds to buy back shares from the market. Moreover, Kowloon Wharf’s stock price is low right now. Even if its actual value is severely underestimated, I can’t just evaluate it based on market value, as that wouldn’t be fair to you. And the market capitalizations of Kowloon Wharf and Wheelock are completely mismatched at the moment. If we were to issue new stock for the swap, we’d have to issue far too many new shares, which is also unsuitable. Let me think for a moment about a reasonable way to carry out this equity swap.”

With that, Pao Yue-kong fell into deep thought.

A normal equity swap is generally done through a capital increase for a share swap, a treasury stock swap, or an asset swap, but none of these conventional methods were viable for Kowloon Wharf right now.

This was because, in Pao Yue-kong’s view, Kowloon Wharf’s assets—the wharves, warehouses, hotels, buildings, trams, and the Star Ferry—were all high-quality fixed assets. Using them for a share swap would undoubtedly be like cutting off his own flesh. Furthermore, the interests tied to these assets were intricate and complex, making such an operation extremely difficult.

Pao Yue-kong’s brow was tightly furrowed. As a top tycoon in Hong Kong, his eyes betrayed a hint of anxiety. It seemed he would have to go back and discuss this thoroughly with his think tank.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran roughly guessed the tycoon’s inner thoughts. He suddenly smiled and said, “Uncle Pao, I have an idea that can solve the share swap problem without Kowloon Wharf having to give up any of its assets.”

“Oh? Haoran, tell me,” Pao Yue-kong immediately stopped pondering and looked up at Lin Haoran, asking curiously.

“Here’s what I’m thinking. Since Kowloon Wharf has no treasury shares, it can issue bonds to raise funds and then initiate a share buyback from the shareholders. That way, it can gather enough shares for the equity swap with me. Moreover, this method wouldn’t involve disposing of any of Kowloon Wharf’s high-quality fixed assets, and it would also avoid the dilution of equity from issuing a large number of new shares,” Lin Haoran explained his idea clearly and methodically.

“Issuing bonds might not raise that much capital. With my influence, perhaps two years ago I wouldn’t have had to worry about finding buyers after an issuance, but now, it’s not so certain,” Pao Yue-kong said, shaking his head.

Two years ago, in order to take over Kowloon Wharf, besides taking out a two point one billion Hong Kong dollar loan from HSBC, he had also issued a large number of bonds through his World-Wide Shipping Group.

These bonds came with considerable interest payments, and the interest rate he had promised at the time to attract investors was not low.

But now, two years later, all of Hong Kong knew that Pao Yue-kong had practically leveraged himself to the hilt to acquire Kowloon Wharf. Although Kowloon Wharf was now developing steadily under his control, the outside world still harbored doubts about its and his own financial situation.

Market capital had also become more cautious, and investors were much stricter in their selection of bonds. One could only imagine the difficulty of successfully issuing a large number of bonds again to raise sufficient funds.

Furthermore, Hong Kong’s stock market had boomed over the past two years, entering a bull market. Many companies had seized this opportunity to finance their expansions. Although the supply of capital in the market seemed abundant, the competition was also exceptionally fierce.

Numerous blue-chip companies had rolled out various attractive financing plans, giving investors more options. For Kowloon Wharf to stand out among so many competitors and attract investors to buy its bonds was no easy feat.

This was why Pao Yue-kong felt that issuing bonds was not a suitable solution for this matter.

“Uncle Pao, don’t worry about buyers. I’ll buy all the bonds you issue! And you don’t need to offer a high interest rate. Just consider it my contribution to this equity swap, and a show of my confidence in you and the future development of Kowloon Wharf,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Currently, Wheelock and Company had a market capitalization of around two point two billion Hong Kong dollars. The Hongkong Land Group, under his control, held 11.8% of Wheelock’s shares, which at the current market price, were worth approximately two hundred sixty million Hong Kong dollars.

To Lin Haoran, this sum was not considered a large amount of money.

As for how many Kowloon Wharf shares this 11.8% stake could be exchanged for, Lin Haoran himself wasn’t sure before they had negotiated it.

Pao Yue-kong’s eyes lit up when he heard this.

If Lin Haoran was willing to step in, then all of Kowloon Wharf’s problems would be solved.

Over two hundred million Hong Kong dollars… for someone of Pao Yue-kong’s status as the former richest man in Hong Kong, it was indeed not much. But he was currently saddled with debt, and the profits from his various subsidiaries were all being used to pay it off. Every single fund had to be meticulously managed, so even if it was just issuing bonds worth over two hundred million Hong Kong dollars—not a huge sum for him—he couldn’t easily come up with it at the moment.

He quickly weighed the pros and cons in his mind, his expression a mixture of relief and complexity. He said, “Haoran, you’ve truly solved my most pressing problem. However, regarding the interest, I can’t let you take too much of a loss.”

Lin Haoran waved his hand and laughed heartily. “Uncle Pao, since I’ve decided to do this, I naturally have my own considerations. I believe that under your leadership, Kowloon Wharf has limitless future potential. Consider this two hundred-odd million Hong Kong dollars as my early contribution to Kowloon Wharf’s development, and a cornerstone for our further cooperation. As for the interest, let’s just go with the standard market rate. You don’t need to be so formal with me.”

“Alright, in that case, I won’t stand on ceremony. For you, the capital for these bonds is indeed not a large sum. Once all these plans are settled, I will immediately announce a public buyback of Kowloon Wharf shares. However, during this buyback process, I’ll have to ask for your full cooperation. After all, the slightest rumor in the market could affect the progress of the entire plan. As for the specific details, we can discuss them further. Rest assured, I absolutely will not let you get the short end of the stick!” Pao Yue-kong said with great solemnity.

Lin Haoran nodded and said, “Uncle Pao, rest assured, I will cooperate fully on my end. I also hope this equity swap proceeds smoothly so we can both have a successful partnership. When I get back, I’ll hand this matter over to Mr. Ma Shimin to handle. I will brief him clearly. After that, Uncle Pao, you can also have your people negotiate the specifics of the swap with Mr. Ma Shimin. Once an agreement is reached, we can sign the contract.”

Pao Yue-kong smiled in satisfaction. “Good. Haoran, with your assurance, I’m relieved. Mr. Ma Shimin is also an elite in the business world; I trust in your team’s professional capabilities. I will also arrange for capable people on my end to liaise with Mr. Ma Shimin as soon as possible.”

The two bosses mainly discussed the broad strokes. When it came to signing a contract and finalizing the deal, there would be many details to sort out, such as how many Kowloon Wharf shares to exchange, how many bonds to issue, and so on.

These were not matters they could decide in a short time. They had to be comprehensively considered based on various factors, including the interests of both parties, market conditions, and the actual operating situations of Kowloon Wharf and Wheelock and Company.

Following that, the two men discussed some broad directions for cooperation and potential issues.

Drawing on his rich business experience, Pao Yue-kong shared many insights on market trends and corporate management with Lin Haoran. Lin Haoran listened very attentively, raising his own questions and ideas from time to time. They had an enjoyable conversation in a very amicable atmosphere.

After talking for over an hour, Lin Haoran noticed Pao Yue-kong breaking into another fit of violent coughing from time to time, and decided not to stay any longer.

He stood up and said to Pao Yue-kong, “Uncle Pao, let’s leave it here for today. I’ll go back and discuss this matter with Mr. Ma. As for you, I suggest you get a thorough physical examination as soon as possible, especially your lungs. This kind of thing can be either minor or serious. It would be best if it’s nothing, but if there really is a problem, it’s better to discover and treat it early. After all, health is the foundation of everything!”

Pao Yue-kong nodded slightly and said with a smile, “Alright, Haoran, that’s thoughtful of you. Once I’ve made the arrangements for this equity swap with you, I’ll go to the hospital for a proper check-up.”

“Then I’ll be going now. I’ll visit you again some other day!”

“Alright, take care!” Pao Yue-kong stood up to see him off, walking him all the way to the elevator. Watching the doors slowly close, Pao Yue-kong sighed softly, a seed of worry about his own health now planted in his mind.

After what Lin Haoran had said, the initial feeling of indifference in his heart had dissipated somewhat, replaced by a faint sense of anxiety.

After returning to his office, Pao Yue-kong immediately convened a meeting with his think tank and recounted his conversation with Lin Haoran in full detail.

After listening, the members of the think tank all fell into deep thought before launching into a heated discussion.

Meanwhile, after concluding his discussion with Pao Yue-kong, Lin Haoran left the Prince’s Building with his bodyguards.

They got into the car and headed straight for the Connaught Centre.

The road, which had been terribly congested due to a traffic accident earlier, was now clear.

The Prince’s Building and the Connaught Centre were not far from each other, so a few minutes later, Lin Haoran arrived at the Connaught Centre.

Taking the elevator, he soon arrived at the 51st floor—Ma Shimin’s office.

Chapter 580: Michael Sandberg Panics

“The matter with the Bank of East Asia is settled. All the shareholders have agreed. Old Mr. Li Fushu will handle the rest for me. All I have to do is wait to pay up,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Whether it was holding 51% of the shares or providing financing to the Bank of East Asia, both required the approval of the Securities Commission.

Therefore, on the Bank of East Asia front, Lin Haoran really just had to wait for the results.

“Congratulations, Boss! Soon you’ll be in control of a formidable bank!” Ma Shimin laughed heartily.

Once he controlled the Bank of East Asia, the benefits for Lin Haoran would indeed be numerous.

Most importantly, his funds could be mobilized anytime, anywhere, no longer constrained by the cumbersome procedures and potential restrictions of other financial institutions.

Whether it was expanding into new businesses, making large-scale investments, or responding to sudden market changes, having his own bank would allow Lin Haoran to be much quicker and more efficient in his decision-making and execution.

Lin Haoran’s original intention in acquiring the Bank of East Asia was also due to the vast network of high-quality clients and rich experience in financial services that the bank had accumulated in Hong Kong and internationally over many years.

Its comprehensive financial services system covered savings, credit, investment, international business, and many other areas.

For Lin Haoran, this not only meant securing a stable source of funding but also integrating the Bank of East Asia’s resources to provide comprehensive financial support for his other enterprises like the Hongkong Land Group, the Hongkong Electric Group, and the Wanqing Group.

Now, he was just one step away from having an absolute controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia, just waiting for news from Li Fushu.

“Mr. Ma, I came here today for another, more critical matter, regarding Kowloon Wharf…” Lin Haoran then told Ma Shimin the entire plan he had agreed upon with Pao Yue-kong, holding nothing back.

Given that the Hongkong Land Group held 11.8% of Wheelock and Company’s shares and Ma Shimin was the President of Hongkong Land, it was undoubtedly the most appropriate arrangement to have him handle the negotiations with Kowloon Wharf.

Now that he and Pao Yue-kong had established the general direction, Lin Haoran didn’t need to worry too much about the details.

After hearing Lin Haoran’s account, Ma Shimin was slightly surprised.

The matter involved two highly influential companies, Kowloon Wharf and Wheelock and Company, and the entangled interests and potential risks were not to be underestimated.

However, after a moment of thought, he said, “Boss, Kowloon Wharf’s current stock price is indeed severely undervalued. Investing in Kowloon Wharf is certainly a much better prospect than being a shareholder in Wheelock and Company. Under normal circumstances, I would be very much in favor of this.

But the interests involved are substantial, so we must consider every aspect thoroughly, especially the potential internal conflicts within Kowloon Wharf and the attitudes of other market players towards them. How about I have the team conduct an evaluation of this matter?”

“Good. Go ahead with the investigation and evaluation. This is a major issue, so please get it done as soon as possible. I’m very optimistic about Kowloon Wharf’s prospects, including Harbour City, which is currently under construction. It has a very promising future.

If we can successfully get involved with Kowloon Wharf, become a major shareholder, or even join forces with Mr. Pao to privatize it, it will provide an immeasurable boost to the future development of our Hongkong Land Group.

As for Wheelock and Company, to be honest, John Marden’s current frenzy of buying ships is, in my opinion, a path to ruin. It will sooner or later lead to a collapse of Wheelock’s capital chain. By then, Wheelock will be heavily in debt, and the 11.8% of shares we hold could depreciate significantly.

Right now, Wheelock and Company’s stock price is still decent. We should take this great opportunity to swap our high-priced Wheelock shares for low-priced Kowloon Wharf shares. For us, there are only upsides and no downsides!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“I understand, Boss. I’ll go convene the think tank to discuss this right away!” Ma Shimin finished speaking and called his assistant, asking her to arrange a meeting with the relevant personnel.

Watching Ma Shimin’s busy figure, Lin Haoran sat in his chair and fell into thought.

He had only been back in Hong Kong for a short while, yet so many things had already happened.

Before returning from Japan, he had worried that the Li Peicai family would fight him to the bitter end, and that he might have to pay a steep price to take over the Bank of East Asia.

Unexpectedly, the Li family had no intention of engaging in a business war with him at all. They conceded directly, even taking the initiative to align with him.

The acquisition of the Bank of East Asia was now proceeding smoothly. With the cooperation of the Li Peicai family, he had become the bank’s largest shareholder and was now just one final step away from having an absolute controlling stake.

Now, Pao Yue-kong had even approached him, hoping to swap Kowloon Wharf shares for his Wheelock and Company shares. This gave him the opportunity to become a shareholder in Kowloon Wharf, a future golden goose.

And his proposal to Pao Yue-kong to privatize Kowloon Wharf had been agreed to.

If successful, he would directly control 49% of Kowloon Wharf’s shares, sharing its future dividends with Pao Yue-kong.

Most importantly, since the end of the battle between Pao Yue-kong and Jardine Matheson & Co., Kowloon Wharf’s stock price had fallen again and again, becoming one of the worst-performing listed companies on the Hong Kong stock market in the last two years.

This meant that whether Lin Haoran was swapping Wheelock and Company shares for Kowloon Wharf shares, or later joining forces with Pao Yue-kong to privatize it, the cost would not be very high.

He could acquire a stake nearly equal to Pao Yue-kong’s at a much, much lower cost.

Although Pao Yue-kong would ultimately have the final say in Kowloon Wharf by holding 51% of the shares, so what? He didn’t care about having the final say.

In fact, he might even have the opportunity to completely acquire Kowloon Wharf in the future!

Good things, all good things!

This trip back to Hong Kong had brought far more good news than expected.

Could it be that because he’d fleeced the Japanese financial groups in Japan, it counted as a successful act of resistance, and so his ancestors were blessing him?

At this thought, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but chuckle, finding his reasoning somewhat absurd yet strangely comforting.

He was, of course, well aware that the business world is like a battlefield. Behind every opportunity lay countless challenges and risks. The so-called ancestral blessing was just a bit of self-deprecating humor. What had truly brought him to this point was his own financial strength and decisiveness.

Without this financial strength, the Li family would have had no power to resist him and could only submit obediently.

Without his decisive actions and knowledge of events from his past life, how could he have seized the fleeting opportunities in the complex business landscape to bring quality assets like the Bank of East Asia and Kowloon Wharf under his banner?

Seeing that Ma Shimin had gone to confer with the think tank, Lin Haoran didn’t linger at Connaught Centre but returned directly to his Severn Road villa.

That evening, Guo Xiaohan came over again.

She had already visited once since Lin Haoran’s return.

Tonight, she came over by herself again. It was no wonder Guo Henian couldn’t help but say to Lin Haoran, “You can’t keep a grown daughter at home!”

In the blink of an eye, another day passed.

The Securities Commission had not yet approved the two matters submitted by Li Fushu regarding the Bank of East Asia, but the news had already spread quickly to the heads of major financial institutions in Hong Kong.

After all, information channels among the Westerners were always both discreet and swift, especially when it concerned changes in the equity of a major financial institution like the Bank of East Asia.

The heads of British-owned banks, including HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank, were all aware of the matter.

Evidently, someone from the Securities Commission had deliberately leaked the information.

Michael Sandberg, in particular, found it incredible when he heard the news.

Lin Haoran was actually taking the initiative to enter the banking industry?

Among Lin Haoran’s many enterprises, most of them worked with HSBC, with a smaller portion cooperating with Citibank.

In other words, the financial operations of these companies were mostly intertwined with HSBC.

Now, Lin Haoran wanted to acquire the Bank of East Asia. If he succeeded, it would undoubtedly be a huge loss for HSBC.

After all, once he had complete control of the Bank of East Asia, Lin Haoran would definitely transfer all these financial operations from HSBC to his own bank!

The funds involved would amount to at least ten to twenty billion Hong Kong dollars!

Sitting in his luxurious office at HSBC, Michael Sandberg’s brows were tightly knitted, a hint of worry in his eyes.

Lin Haoran moving all his financial business to the Bank of East Asia wouldn’t be a fatal blow to HSBC. Although they would suffer heavy losses, he was more concerned about something else.

Michael Sandberg was well aware of Lin Haoran’s ambition and strength. Once Lin Haoran controlled the Bank of East Asia, he would very likely use its resources to further expand his business and compete with HSBC for market share.

Although HSBC was currently the absolute hegemon in Hong Kong’s market, the financial markets were ever-changing, and no one could guarantee what the future held.

Once Lin Haoran had the trump card of the Bank of East Asia in his hand, it would be like a tiger growing wings, capable of challenging HSBC’s position at any moment.

Back then, if Hang Seng Bank hadn’t encountered a bank run that broke its capital chain, it might have become HSBC’s biggest competitor today.

Therefore, Michael Sandberg would not underestimate the Bank of East Asia just because HSBC was Hong Kong’s current financial hegemon.

But even the Li Peicai family, the controllers of the Bank of East Asia, had agreed to cede their controlling stake to Lin Haoran. What right did he, the leader of HSBC, have to stop someone else from acquiring it?

In the beginning, to win Lin Haoran over, he had spared no expense, allowing HSBC to let Lin Haoran buy in as a shareholder and even a board member at an extremely low price.

After that, Lin Haoran’s enterprises had indeed maintained a very good cooperative relationship with HSBC. Although some business was transferred to Citibank, it wasn’t a significant amount.

He had thought this excellent cooperation would continue, but who could have imagined that Lin Haoran would have such great ambition as to acquire the Bank of East Asia?

Michael Sandberg had to admit that at this moment, he was panicking.

Especially since even their old rival, Jardine Matheson & Co., had been driven out of Hong Kong by Lin Haoran.

Chapter 581: Facing a Formidable Enemy, Restless and Uneasy

“This won’t do. I must find a way to minimize the impact of this on HSBC!” Michael Sandberg muttered to himself, staring at the fax from the Securities Commission.

From the moment Lin Haoran drove Jardine Matheson & Co. out of Hong Kong, Michael Sandberg knew that Lin Haoran’s rise was unstoppable.

After all, when HSBC had secretly vied with Jardine Matheson for the position of Hong Kong’s dominant British-owned conglomerate, they had been forced to resort to all sorts of schemes.

Even then, HSBC had only managed to suppress Jardine Matheson slightly, without causing any substantial damage to its overall strength.

Although Pao Yue-kong had taken over Kowloon Wharf with HSBC’s help, Jardine Matheson had seized the opportunity to sell its Kowloon Wharf shares at an inflated price, reaping a handsome return.

Therefore, in its struggle against HSBC, Jardine Matheson had only suffered a minor setback, not a crippling blow.

But when Lin Haoran made his move, the situation became entirely different.

He had precisely identified Jardine Matheson’s weakness. Taking advantage of the complex cross-shareholding between Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land, he seized control of the Hongkong Land Group with lightning speed and used it to turn the tables on Jardine Matheson.

If various powerful parties hadn’t intervened and forced Lin Haoran to relinquish his control over Jardine Matheson, both Jardine Matheson and the Hongkong Land Group would have long since been in his pocket.

Although the British-funded conglomerates eventually succeeded in redeeming Jardine Matheson, the price they paid was exorbitant. Lin Haoran took the opportunity to successfully privatize the Hongkong Land Group, and the British conglomerates were forced to buy back the Jardine Matheson shares he controlled at a price far above the market rate.

Faced with such a powerful and cunning opponent, the masters behind Jardine Matheson had completely lost heart, choosing to withdraw from Hong Kong, the very land that had brought them their riches.

This was something that even HSBC could not have accomplished, yet Lin Haoran had done it!

This proved that Lin Haoran was a cut above HSBC!

And Lin Haoran’s strength and strategic mind made Michael Sandberg deeply apprehensive.

Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, Michael Sandberg had no desire to make an enemy of Lin Haoran.

But now, Lin Haoran was on the verge of taking control of the Bank of East Asia. This was tantamount to setting up a cannon at HSBC’s doorstep, one that could shatter their long-standing financial hegemony at any moment.

Of course, given HSBC’s current position as the absolute hegemon in Hong Kong, it would be no easy task for the Bank of East Asia to challenge it.

The gap between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC today was as wide as heaven and earth. In the short term, he wasn’t worried that the Bank of East Asia would pose a substantial threat to HSBC.

But Michael Sandberg knew in his heart that Lin Haoran was ambitious and his methods were extraordinary. Just because he couldn’t challenge them now didn’t mean he couldn’t in the future.

Once he successfully integrated the resources of the Bank of East Asia and was given time to develop it, he would inevitably become a grave threat to HSBC.

If HSBC did nothing, it would be sitting back and waiting for its doom, watching as the Bank of East Asia grew ever stronger under Lin Haoran’s control, only to eventually be devoured.

At that moment, Michael Sandberg paced back and forth in his office, contemplating how to respond to the challenge from the Bank of East Asia.

Traditional suppression tactics were already useless against Lin Haoran; Jardine Matheson was the best proof of that.

Michael Sandberg’s brows furrowed, and he couldn’t help but sigh.

He recalled how triumphant he had felt when he used Pao Yue-kong to make Jardine Matheson lose Kowloon Wharf.

At that time, he had briefly believed that HSBC had become the absolute ruler of Hong Kong’s entire business world.

But Lin Haoran’s rapid ascent made him realize that the dream of HSBC becoming the sole hegemon of Hong Kong’s business community was now impossible.

The enemy he was most reluctant to face was, without a doubt, Lin Haoran.

“Go on the offensive? Trigger another bank run on the Bank of East Asia? Make them end up like Hang Seng Bank, with a broken capital chain, forced to turn to us at HSBC for help?” Michael Sandberg muttered to himself.

A fierce glint flashed in his eyes, but it quickly faded.

He understood perfectly well that Lin Haoran was no ordinary man; the same trick was unlikely to work on him a second time.

The precedent set by Hang Seng Bank was tempting, but Lin Haoran was not Mr. Ho Sin Hang. The two men were completely different.

Everyone knew that Lin Haoran commanded vast capital. Trying to create a panic and cause a massive run on the Bank of East Asia might have little effect, even if it succeeded.

He didn’t know the exact figure for the Bank of East Asia’s customer deposits, but he had a rough idea.

With total deposits of over six billion Hong Kong dollars and over three billion in loans and investments, a bank run would mean the Bank of East Asia would be utterly incapable of producing over six billion Hong Kong dollars. For the old Bank of East Asia, this would indeed have been a crisis.

But now, Lin Haoran, Hong Kong’s newly minted richest man with immense capital, was fully capable of injecting a large amount of funds at the start of a bank run to stabilize the situation. He could even turn the tables, using the crisis to further consolidate his own position within the Bank of East Asia while simultaneously damaging HSBC’s reputation.

Several billion might be a vast sum for Li Peicai’s family, but for Lin Haoran, it was an amount he could produce with ease.

If that happened, the Bank of East Asia would make a name for itself overnight, convincing everyone that their money was safest there. This would trigger a wave of new customers switching over, and HSBC’s scheme would backfire spectacularly.

“No, I can’t use the old methods anymore.” Michael Sandberg shook his head and sat back down at his desk. Tapping his fingers lightly on the tabletop, he sank into deep thought.

Use the Governor’s Office against Lin Haoran?

The thought flashed through his mind but was just as quickly dismissed.

While the Governor’s Office held supreme administrative power in Hong Kong, it had always maintained a cautious approach to intervening in business affairs, especially when it involved business tycoons like Lin Haoran, who had deep roots and extensive connections in the city.

Rashly pushing the Governor’s Office to act would not only risk a series of unpredictable political consequences but could also put HSBC in an even more precarious position.

From his understanding of Sir Murray MacLehose, the Governor would only consider using administrative power to intervene in a business dispute if HSBC was truly facing a life-or-death crisis. Even then, he would act with extreme caution, balancing the interests of all parties, and would never allow himself to become a weapon in anyone’s hands.

It was clearly impossible for HSBC to manipulate the Government House.

After a long period of contemplation, Michael Sandberg’s gaze fell on a report on his desk. It was a detailed report from April about HSBC’s failed overseas expansion, an effort that had been in vain.

It was truly one problem after another!

Within Hong Kong’s financial world, HSBC was indeed the absolute hegemon.

But outside of Hong Kong, its reputation was greatly diminished. Its international business was a tiny fraction of its operations, and compared to the multinational financial giants, it was like a dwarf meeting a giant.

Three years ago, HSBC had reached an agreement with the American Marine Midland Bank, successfully acquiring 51% of its equity, and the bank was renamed.

This was HSBC’s first true step into the international arena. They had hoped to use it to open the doors to the global market, but reality dealt them a heavy blow.

Marine Midland Bank’s performance in the international financial market was mediocre, failing to achieve the expected results. Instead, due to cultural differences, conflicts in management style, and other issues, its operating costs rose and profits declined.

Marine Midland Bank was the thirteenth largest bank in the United States, which sounded impressive, but it had been losing money for years; otherwise, its owners would never have sold a 51% controlling stake.

After the successful acquisition, HSBC was forced to inject capital into Marine Midland Bank multiple times. The bank had, in fact, become a burden.

However, facing Hong Kong’s uncertain future, Michael Sandberg, as the Taipan of HSBC, still chose to continue exploring the path of internationalization.

He understood that Hong Kong’s financial market was facing unprecedented changes, and that internationalization and professionalization had become an unstoppable trend.

Therefore, three months ago, under his direction, HSBC made another move.

This time, HSBC’s target was the Royal Bank of Scotland in Britain.

The significance of this acquisition was clearly far greater than that of Marine Midland Bank.

If the acquisition succeeded, forty percent of HSBC’s shares would be held by overseas owners, allowing HSBC to successfully transfer half of its assets abroad. It would be an opportunity for HSBC to completely transform itself into a top-tier international multinational bank.

From this, one could see the sheer scale of Michael Sandberg’s ambitions.

However, HSBC had a powerful competitor: Britain’s Standard Chartered Bank!

But with the intervention of the British government, HSBC, despite its greater financial strength, lost out to Standard Chartered Bank.

The British government and financial establishment did not want to see a major institution like the Royal Bank of Scotland fall under the control of a colonial entity like HSBC.

In the end, due to interference from various parties, even with Michael Sandberg personally overseeing the acquisition battle in Britain and offering a price far above the market rate, HSBC still failed to take over the Royal Bank of Scotland. All their efforts had been in vain, and they returned in defeat.

For HSBC, this was undoubtedly a heavy blow.

And just over a month after the failed acquisition of the Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC was hit with more bad news.

Michael Sandberg wouldn’t have been worried at all if anyone else had taken control of the Bank of East Asia.

But with Lin Haoran in charge, Michael Sandberg felt as if he were facing a formidable enemy; he was restless, unable to sit or stand still.

Putting down the documents, he couldn’t help but rub his brow.

Thinking about Lin Haoran’s journey over the past three years, he found it incredible.

He had watched Lin Haoran’s meteoric rise. Before he had become a true power, Sandberg had even shown him goodwill on behalf of HSBC.

If he had known back then that Lin Haoran would grow so powerful so quickly, he would have most certainly intervened to stop him before he could.

Chapter 582: Shipping Magnate Pao’s Bad News and Good News

With its international expansion faltering and formidable rivals circling on its home turf in Hong Kong, HSBC was currently in a difficult position, beset by troubles both internal and external.

He gazed out the window at the bustling yet turbulent Hong Kong, Michael Sandberg’s heart filled with mixed feelings.

Perhaps it was time for a proper talk with Lin Haoran!

At this thought, Michael Sandberg picked up the phone and made a call.

The person he was calling was none other than Lin Haoran.

Receiving Michael Sandberg’s call, Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, to what do I owe the pleasure of your sudden call?” he asked with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, I wonder if you have a moment? I’d like to pay you a visit!” Michael Sandberg stated his purpose directly.

“To meet with you, Mr. Sandberg, I would have to make time even if I were at my busiest,” Lin Haoran laughed heartily. “When do you intend to come? I’d like to prepare in advance to avoid any discourtesy.”

Michael Sandberg’s heavy mood lightened. Lin Haoran’s words had given him plenty of face and added a friendlier atmosphere to their upcoming meeting.

“You’re too kind, Mr. Lin. Would three o’clock this afternoon be convenient for you? I’ll be there on time,” said Michael Sandberg.

Lin Haoran glanced at his watch. It was only eleven-thirty in the morning, and he likely had no other work scheduled for the afternoon.

So, he replied directly, “Very well, Mr. Michael Sandberg. I will await you in the reception room at Connaught Centre!”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran was actually quite emotional.

In the past, whenever he met with Michael Sandberg, regardless of who initiated the meeting, it was always he who went to HSBC’s Taipan office to meet him.

But now, the other man had taken the initiative to visit him at Connaught Centre. This was undoubtedly a deeply significant change.

The fact that Michael Sandberg would swallow his pride and come to visit reflected HSBC’s current predicament and highlighted the immense importance of this meeting to him.

Lin Haoran was aware that HSBC’s attempt to acquire the Royal Bank of Scotland in Britain had ended in failure; he had heard the news even while he was in Japan.

Cui Zilong would fax him important details, including news concerning HSBC, so he was generally aware of what was happening.

Now, Michael Sandberg had taken the initiative to visit him at this critical juncture, just as he was about to secure a controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia. It was clear that this visit had something to do with the Bank of East Asia; he would not believe otherwise.

Although he had kept his plans for the Bank of East Asia under wraps, it was normal for a powerhouse like HSBC with its powerful intelligence network to find out.

For the Bank of East Asia to grow, it would sooner or later have to face the behemoth that was HSBC.

Since Michael Sandberg wanted a proper talk, he might as well take this opportunity to sound him out and secure a more advantageous position for himself and the Bank of East Asia.

…

Meanwhile, in a laboratory at Queen Mary Hospital on Pok Fu Lam Road, Hong Kong, a doctor stared at the test results in his hand. Even with the office air conditioning on, cold sweat beaded on his forehead.

That morning, Queen Mary Hospital had received a very important person: the renowned Shipping Magnate Pao, Mr. Pao Yue-kong.

Very few people knew about this.

The reason for Pao Yue-kong’s visit was a lung examination.

After his meeting with Lin Haoran, although he had immediately tasked his think tank with an in-depth discussion on jointly privatizing Kowloon Wharf with Lin Haoran and the matter of a share swap between Kowloon Wharf and Lin Haoran, Lin Haoran’s warning to him had left him deeply unsettled.

That hidden concern for his health hung over him like a dark cloud.

So, that very night, he had his secretary contact the director of Queen Mary Hospital and arrange a medical examination for the following morning.

Pao Yue-kong tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep, Lin Haoran’s well-intentioned reminder replaying in his mind.

He was well aware that his old ailment had started two years ago, with frequent coughing, chest pain, and shortness of breath.

However, he had always believed it was just a normal old problem that came with age.

But Lin Haoran’s warning was like a thorn in his side, impossible to ignore.

After working so hard to build such a vast fortune, he was unwilling to be so easily defeated by illness.

At the crack of dawn, still groggy from a restless night, Pao Yue-kong quietly arrived at Queen Mary Hospital.

Thanks to the director’s discreet arrangements, his visit for the a medical check-up was extremely low-key, with only a handful of people knowing the truth.

After the examination, he left without lingering and went straight back to his company. Someone would, of course, inform him of the follow-up test results.

And now, in the laboratory, the doctor sweating profusely was panicking. He truly was.

Early-stage lung cancer?

He even thought his test might have been mistaken, so he carefully re-checked every piece of data and every test indicator, but the result mercilessly pointed to those four words.

The doctor’s hand began to tremble uncontrollably. He understood Mr. Pao Yue-kong’s immense influence in Hong Kong’s business community and society as a whole. Once this result leaked, it would undoubtedly cause a massive uproar.

He frantically picked up the phone, intending to call the hospital director, but his finger hovered over the dial pad for a long time before he put the receiver down.

The director was probably busy with other important matters, and he didn’t know how to convey such momentous news concisely and accurately over the phone.

After some thought, he decided to go to the director’s office in person.

His steps were hurried and flustered on the way, his mind racing as he thought about how to report this to the director and the series of problems that might follow.

When he reached the director’s office, he took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself, then knocked gently on the door.

“Come in,” came the director’s steady voice from inside.

The doctor pushed the door open and walked in, feeling a bit light-headed.

“Director, Mr. Pao Yue-kong’s test results are out. It’s… it’s early-stage lung cancer,” he said, his voice trembling slightly.

In the office, a Westerner in his fifties, the hospital director, paused the hand that was flipping through documents. He slowly raised his head and looked at the doctor with a grave expression. “Are you certain the results are correct?”

The doctor nodded forcefully. “I’ve checked them repeatedly. All indicators are consistent with the characteristics of early-stage lung cancer.”

The director was silent for a moment, then stood up and began pacing back and forth in his office.

He knew how sensitive this news was. If not handled properly, it would not only affect the hospital’s reputation but could also trigger turmoil in Hong Kong’s business world.

“Don’t say a word about this for now. Give me the report. I’ll communicate with Mr. Pao myself,” the director said.

“Yes, Director. I promise not to tell anyone!” the doctor pledged as he handed a file folder to the director.

The director immediately opened the folder and began to read it carefully.

As the director of Queen Mary Hospital, he was naturally a highly skilled physician. One look at the report was all he needed to understand the situation.

Thankfully, it was only early-stage lung cancer. If it were late-stage, the situation would be unmanageable.

He couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. One could say Mr. Pao was unlucky to have contracted lung cancer, but he was also lucky that it had been discovered in its early stages.

After placing the report back in the folder, the director said to the doctor, “You may return to your work. Remember, you must not reveal this to anyone. If this news gets out before Mr. Pao is willing to disclose it, the consequences for our hospital would be unimaginable, and it would cause Mr. Pao immense distress.”

The doctor nodded quickly and repeated solemnly, “I understand, Director. I’ll be tight-lipped.”

He had realized the gravity of the situation the moment he got the test results.

After all, Pao Yue-kong’s influence in Hong Kong, and indeed the global business world, was simply too great.

And such a magnate, only in his sixties, had been diagnosed with cancer!

Watching the doctor leave, the Westerner director composed himself, then picked up the phone and dialed.

A moment later, the phone rang.

“Mr. Pao, this is Moore from Queen Mary Hospital. Is this a convenient time? I’d like to pay you a visit and bring your medical report over,” the director said in a calm tone.

At that moment, Pao Yue-kong had just returned from a meeting. Hearing Director Moore’s voice on the line, his heart tightened, and an ominous premonition washed over him.

“Director Moore, you’re calling me personally. Is there a problem with my medical results?”

Director Moore hesitated for a moment before saying, “Mr. Pao, the situation is a bit special. I think it would be better to discuss it with you in person. Do you have time now? I can come to your office.”

Pao Yue-kong took a deep breath, trying to keep his voice steady. “Alright, Director Moore. Please come. I’ll be waiting for you at my office.”

After hanging up, Pao Yue-kong appeared calm on the surface, but his mind was in turmoil.

Although the director hadn’t given any details, his few words were enough for Pao Yue-kong to know that the report contained news that was extremely unfavorable to him.

At this point, he was even bracing himself for the worst.

He slowly walked to the massive floor-to-ceiling window and looked down at the bustling streets of Hong Kong, his heart filled with mixed feelings.

He had fought his entire life, starting with a small cargo ship and overcoming countless obstacles to build the vast commercial empire he had today.

Before long, the director of Queen Mary Hospital arrived at Pao Yue-kong’s office.

“Director Moore, thank you for coming.” Although Pao Yue-kong had prepared himself for the worst news, when the director actually sat across from him and slowly pushed the medical report toward him, his hand still couldn’t help but tremble slightly.

Even though he had weathered countless storms in the business world, in the face of life and death, even a powerful figure like him couldn’t help but show a vulnerable side.

“Mr. Pao, I have some good news and some bad news for you,” the director said slowly.

Pao Yue-kong was slightly taken aback, an indescribable mix of emotions welling up inside him. He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, his voice low but firm. “Director Moore, tell me the bad news first. I can take it.”

The director nodded, his expression grave. “The bad news is, after detailed examination and analysis by our hospital’s top medical team, you have been diagnosed with lung cancer.”

Hearing the director’s words, Pao Yue-kong felt as if his world had been instantly shrouded in darkness.

He knew what lung cancer meant.

“And the good news?” he asked urgently, his eyes fixed on the director.

“The good news,” the director quickly replied, “is that the tests show your lung cancer is in its early stages. With the world’s most advanced medical technology today, the chances of a full recovery are extremely high!”

Chapter 583: A Life-Saving Debt, Michael Sandberg Seeks Cooperation

After listening to the hospital director’s explanation, Pao Yue-kong gradually calmed down.

Now that things had come to this, worrying was useless.

The director’s phrase, “the possibility of a cure is extremely high,” also put him slightly at ease.

“Director Moore, I want to know, what is the successful cure rate for my condition? How much longer can I live?” After composing himself, Pao Yue-kong asked thoughtfully.

This was perhaps the question every cancer patient wanted to know most, and a business magnate like Pao Yue-kong was no exception.

“Mr. Pao, I must say, you are quite fortunate. According to the various parameters in our test report, you are in the early stages of lung cancer. Based on numerous international cases, as long as the patient undergoes surgical resection, there is a nearly ninety percent probability of a complete cure.

Even if there’s a chance of recurrence later, the ten-year survival rate is still close to ninety percent. With your personal resources, Mr. Pao, you can get the best treatment in the world, which will make this probability even higher!

It’s also fortunate that you discovered it in time. If this had been delayed by another year or two, your lung cancer would have certainly progressed to an advanced stage. At that point, even with a successful surgery, you might only have a few years left to live, and your quality of life would be greatly diminished. Various complications would follow one after another, and living for an extra five or six years would be considered a good outcome.

So, this is why I said you are quite fortunate. You don’t need to worry too much. With the current level of medical technology, since you are in the early stages of lung cancer, as long as you actively cooperate with the follow-up treatment, the hope for recovery is very high.

Our hospital has a medical team that is top-tier by global standards. They have rich experience and outstanding techniques in the field of lung cancer treatment. Next, we will formulate a detailed and personalized treatment plan for you as soon as possible.

However, before the surgery, you will need to undergo some necessary physical conditioning to get your body into optimal shape. This will help you better cope with the trauma of the surgery.

Of course, if you don’t trust our hospital, you can also contact the top medical teams from Europe and America to come and assist with the surgery. You don’t need to worry about that!” the director explained in detail to Pao Yue-kong.

After hearing the director’s words, the sense of panic in Pao Yue-kong’s heart gradually dissipated.

So, it seemed he really was lucky.

He was naturally aware that once lung cancer reached an advanced stage, there weren’t many years left.

Moreover, under normal circumstances, most people only find out they have cancer when it’s already in the late stages.

Thus, it was clear that he was indeed very fortunate.

“Alright, I will contact the experts at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in the United States to assist your hospital. At that time, you will work together. I’m counting on you!” Pao Yue-kong said, bowing deeply to Director Moore.

The MD Anderson Cancer Center, located in Houston, Texas, is a world-renowned specialized cancer hospital. It is home to many of the world’s top experts in the field of oncology. With their medical team assisting, he could feel more at ease.

While Queen Mary Hospital was also good, it was ultimately a local Hong Kong hospital. He couldn’t completely entrust his life to it.

The director of Queen Mary Hospital, however, did not get angry because of Pao Yue-kong’s lack of trust. After all, anyone diagnosed with cancer would do everything in their power to seek the best possible treatment.

Director Moore nodded with a smile and said, “Mr. Pao, please rest assured. We completely understand your thoughts. The MD Anderson Cancer Center is indeed a world-leading cancer treatment institution. Their assistance will certainly be of great help to your treatment.

Our hospital will also cooperate fully and work with them to create the most suitable treatment plan for you.”

“Yes, Director Moore. Also, I must ask you to keep this matter confidential. I don’t want my situation to cause a stir all over Hong Kong!” Pao Yue-kong added after a moment of thought.

“Please rest assured, Mr. Pao. We will definitely maintain confidentiality!” the director promised solemnly.

After Director Moore left, Pao Yue-kong sat back in his chair, staring blankly into space.

He held the medical report tightly in his hand.

At this moment, he suddenly felt very lucky.

If it weren’t for Lin Haoran’s reminder, he might have continued to think it was just an old ailment, thereby missing the optimal time for treatment.

The thought of the consequences of delaying treatment gave him the feeling of having survived a great ordeal.

Thankfully, it was still in the early stages.

“Haoran, oh Haoran, you truly saved my life!” Pao Yue-kong murmured to himself, looking at the medical report in his hand.

A debt for saving one’s life is like being reborn. No matter what, he owed Lin Haoran this favor.

After some thought, Pao Yue-kong picked up the telephone receiver and dialed a number.

A moment later, the call was connected.

“Haoran, thank you!” Pao Yue-kong didn’t say much more.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran already guessed what Pao Yue-kong meant.

It seemed that he had gone for a thorough examination of his lungs, and the result was likely just as he had suspected.

“Uncle Pao, please take good care of your health. I still hope to continue working with you for a long time!” Lin Haoran didn’t ask too many questions, but offered his sincere blessings.

“Yes, I will. I still have many things to attend to, so I’ll hang up now!” Pao Yue-kong said little else.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

From Pao Yue-kong’s brief words, he had guessed that the situation had not yet reached its worst.

In other words, his reminder would most likely change Pao Yue-kong’s fate and extend his life.

With a man of principle and feeling like Pao Yue-kong, this incident would most likely gain Lin Haoran a most reliable ally in Hong Kong.

This would further solidify his position in Hong Kong, allowing him to focus on expanding into the international market with peace of mind.

Time quickly passed to three o’clock in the afternoon, and Michael Sandberg arrived on schedule.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, please have a seat.”

“Thank you for having me.”

After both men were seated, Michael Sandberg carefully observed Lin Haoran’s reception room.

It was, in fact, his first time here.

The overall decor of the reception room was simple yet luxurious. From the high ceiling, a massive crystal chandelier cast a soft, bright light, illuminating the entire space.

A few abstract art paintings hung on the walls, their colors bold and dynamic, adding an artistic touch to the room.

The floor was laid with high-quality marble, its natural, smooth grain faintly glistening under the light.

On the wall directly ahead hung a world map, adorned with several photos of Lin Haoran with international political figures. Among them, Michael Sandberg even spotted photos of the Queen of Britain and the Prime Minister.

By comparison, his own office seemed rather modest.

Michael Sandberg felt a pang of envy.

Connaught Centre, formerly Hong Kong’s tallest building, occupied the best location in Central. Even though it had lost its title as the tallest, it remained Hong Kong’s most famous landmark.

Even HSBC coveted this building.

Unfortunately, the Hongkong Land Group was later privatized by Lin Haoran.

And since Connaught Centre was a wholly-owned property of the Hongkong Land Group, it meant the building had become Lin Haoran’s private property.

After the assistant served hot tea, she closed the doors to the reception room.

For a moment, the room was as quiet as a lake on a silent night, with only the rhythmic ticking of the wall clock.

Lin Haoran didn’t speak first, waiting for Michael Sandberg to begin.

Michael Sandberg picked up his teacup and took a gentle sip. The tea’s fragrance spread across his tongue but failed to dispel the complex emotions in his heart.

He set the cup down and was the first to break the silence: “Mr. Lin, I have come today to seek cooperation!”

“Oh? What kind of cooperation is Mr. Michael Sandberg referring to?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Has Mr. Lin considered increasing his shareholding in HSBC?” Michael Sandberg asked directly.

In fact, Lin Haoran currently held about 3.12% of HSBC’s shares. One percent of that was from financing he had secured at a very low price in the past; in an effort to win him over, Michael Sandberg had allowed Lin Haoran to finance the acquisition at half the market price.

The other nearly two percent of HSBC shares had been secretly accumulated for him by the former Universal Investment Company. This had remained unknown to everyone.

However, since the end of last year, he had stopped accumulating HSBC shares.

To this day, even Michael Sandberg only believed that Lin Haoran held one percent of HSBC’s shares.

“I’m sorry, but HSBC’s current stock price is really too high. My interest in increasing my holdings is quite limited!” Lin Haoran shook his head slightly, a faint smile playing on his lips.

During the bull market of the past two years, although HSBC’s stock price hadn’t seen the most dramatic increase, it was undoubtedly in the limelight of the Hong Kong stock market. Its total market capitalization had surged ahead, leaving it with virtually no rivals.

Especially after the Hongkong Land Group was privatized by Lin Haoran, HSBC had no competitor that could challenge its market capitalization, firmly securing its leadership position in Hong Kong’s financial sector.

Today, HSBC’s market capitalization had soared to 23.8 billion Hong Kong dollars, towering above all others in Hong Kong’s financial world.

Hang Seng Bank, which ranked second, had a market capitalization of about 15.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, a noticeable gap compared to HSBC.

As for third-ranked Hutchison Whampoa and fourth-ranked Hongkong Electric Group, their market capitalizations hovered between 7 and 8 billion Hong Kong dollars, making them unable to compete with HSBC and Hang Seng Bank.

Furthermore, Hang Seng Bank was a subsidiary controlled by HSBC.

This demonstrated that HSBC’s position in Hong Kong’s financial sector was indeed of crucial importance.

However, the scale of assets controlled by Lin Haoran was also not to be underestimated, and he was in no way inferior to the HSBC Group.

Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Kowloon Motor Bus, and Hong Kong Telephone—these publicly listed companies controlled by Lin Haoran were all basically ranked within the top twenty on the Hong Kong capital market.

Their combined total market capitalization even surpassed that of Hang Seng Bank.

Not to mention, there was also the Hongkong Land Group, a former capital behemoth.

Before its privatization last year, Hongkong Land Group’s market capitalization had already exceeded ten billion Hong Kong dollars.

If it had remained a publicly listed company, given market trends, its development after being acquired by Lin Haoran, and its almost negligible debt ratio, its current market capitalization would surely have surpassed Hang Seng Bank’s and could have even chased after HSBC’s.

Additionally, if the Wanqing Group were to go public, with its business strength and growth potential, its market capitalization could easily rank among the top ten in Hong Kong.

Chapter 584: An Incensed Michael Sandberg, HSBC Declares War!

“No, no, no, Mr. Lin. I’m not asking you to provide cash financing for HSBC,” Michael Sandberg said, shaking his head.

“Oh? Then how do you propose we cooperate?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“It’s simple. I know you’re already a Major shareholder in the Bank of East Asia, Mr. Lin, and are even on the verge of securing an absolute controlling stake. My idea is for HSBC to acquire the Bank of East Asia through a share swap.

In doing so, you could become HSBC’s Third-largest shareholder. I would even propose at a Board of Directors meeting that you be made the Vice Chairman of the Board of HSBC!” Michael Sandberg’s words were filled with temptation.

Before coming over, he had already gathered HSBC’s senior executives for a discussion.

If they successfully persuaded Lin Haoran to merge the Bank of East Asia into HSBC via a share swap, not only would HSBC further solidify its position as Hong Kong’s financial hegemon, but it would also eliminate Lin Haoran as a competitor in the financial sector. At the same time, the financial transactions of Lin Haoran’s other businesses would continue to go through HSBC!

This visit was, one could say, a way to kill three birds with one stone. It was all benefits and no harm for HSBC.

As for becoming Vice Chairman of the Board or the third-largest shareholder, it was completely useless.

Group strategy required a vote, and every Director had a certain number of votes. Forget becoming the third-largest shareholder; even if Lin Haoran became the Largest shareholder, he still wouldn’t be able to control HSBC.

The reason was simple: HSBC had too many British shareholders, and they were all in it together, set to share in the glory. For Lin Haoran to have the absolute final say at HSBC, his voting power would first have to surpass that of this entire bloc of British-funded conglomerates.

Was that possible?

It was nearly impossible!

Vice Chairman of the Board?

Hearing this, Lin Haoran was utterly dismissive.

The entire HSBC was in the hands of British-funded conglomerates. Even if he truly became the third-largest shareholder and the so-called Vice Chairman of the Board, so what?

To put it bluntly, they were just nominal positions.

At that moment, Lin Haoran finally understood Michael Sandberg’s true intentions.

The talk of cooperation was false; the real goal was to seize the opportunity to swallow the Bank of East Asia!

Did he really think Lin Haoran was a pushover!

Lin Haoran sneered inwardly but kept his expression neutral. He leaned back in his chair, fingers tapping lightly on the armrest, and looked at Michael Sandberg calmly. “Mr. Michael Sandberg,” he said slowly, “your idea is quite novel.

“However, I’ve put a great deal of effort into getting the Bank of East Asia to where it is today. For you to casually suggest an acquisition by HSBC through a share swap and expect me to simply hand it over… isn’t that a bit too easy?”

Seeing that Lin Haoran hadn’t rejected him outright, Michael Sandberg thought there was still room for negotiation and quickly said, “Mr. Lin, this is a rare opportunity for you.

“By becoming HSBC’s third-largest shareholder and Vice Chairman of the Board, your status in Hong Kong’s financial world will be elevated to another level. Moreover, HSBC has a profound financial background and immense capital strength. Cooperating with the Bank of East Asia would allow for resource sharing and complementary advantages. It would be all benefits and no harm for the Bank of East Asia’s development.

Just look at Hang Seng Bank. Although it was acquired by us, it shares resources and complements its advantages with HSBC, and today it remains the second-largest bank in Hong Kong.

“HSBC will continue to expand into overseas markets next. Our future prospects are incredibly vast. If you can join forces with HSBC, Mr. Lin, and leverage our overseas channels and resources, it would be a great thing for you personally as well!”

Lin Haoran shook his head and said bluntly, “If the purpose of your visit is to merge the Bank of East Asia with HSBC, then let’s just forget it. I have absolutely no intention of doing so, and there’s no need for you to continue on this subject, Mr. Michael Sandberg.”

To put it bluntly, the market capitalization of the Bank of East Asia was only about one-tenth of HSBC’s.

If he really allowed HSBC to acquire them in a stock-for-stock merger, even with his 51% stake in the Bank of East Asia, it would only convert to about 5% of HSBC’s shares.

Gaining an additional 5% of HSBC’s shares in exchange for losing his controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia?

Did Michael Sandberg really take him for a fool?

When Michael Sandberg heard Lin Haoran’s decisive refusal, he couldn’t quite maintain his composure. His smile gradually stiffened, and a flash of displeasure crossed his eyes.

Still, he forced himself to hold back and tried to continue his persuasion. “Mr. Lin, please don’t be so quick to refuse. Think it over again. This is an opportunity that many people only dream of.

“HSBC’s influence in the international financial sphere is unparalleled by ordinary banks. Once the merger is successful, your position within HSBC will be greatly enhanced. From then on, whether you’re expanding your business or engaging in new collaborations, your path will be smooth. It’s a win-win situation.”

Lin Haoran let out a cold laugh, a sharp glint in his eyes. “Mr. Sandberg, you paint a pretty picture, but anyone with eyes can see that this is nothing more than HSBC’s ambition to further control Hong Kong’s financial market.

“Although Hang Seng Bank seems to have developed well after being acquired, in reality, it has to follow HSBC’s arrangements on many decisions, having lost much of its autonomy.

“I acquired the Bank of East Asia to have a bank that I could completely control, allowing me to manage my capital more effectively. I have no desire to see my Bank of East Asia follow in Hang Seng Bank’s footsteps and become a mere vassal of HSBC.”

At this point, Lin Haoran had essentially laid his cards on the table, showing the other man no face at all.

To be honest, Lin Haoran truly didn’t want to offend HSBC. He had hoped the two sides could continue to coexist peacefully.

However, since the other party had pushed things this far, if he didn’t take a firm stand, Michael Sandberg would really think he was a pushover!

Two years ago, he wouldn’t have dared to offend Michael Sandberg, not unless he wanted to be driven out of Hong Kong.

But times had changed. He was no longer the small-time player who could be pushed around at will.

After two years of toiling and struggling in the business world, he had accumulated enough strength and connections to have the resources and confidence to challenge HSBC.

Seeing Lin Haoran spell things out so clearly, Michael Sandberg’s expression turned even uglier.

He shot up from the armchair, his gaze fixed on Lin Haoran. “Mr. Lin, aren’t you going a bit too far? I came here today with sincerity to cooperate. How did that become ‘ambition’ in your mouth?”

Lin Haoran met his gaze without flinching and also rose to his feet. “Mr. Michael Sandberg, let’s not mince words. Sincerity? I don’t see any of it. All I see is a plan to annex the Bank of East Asia!

“I’m not afraid to tell you, I spent a whole year planning for the acquisition of the Bank of East Asia. Now that I’m on the verge of success, there is no way I will merge it with HSBC, no matter what!”

Michael Sandberg became infuriated. His usual elegant demeanor gradually vanished as his face flushed red. He shouted, “Lin Haoran, don’t do things the hard way! HSBC’s influence in the Hong Kong financial world is beyond your imagination. If you insist on refusing to cooperate, life won’t be easy for the Bank of East Asia in Hong Kong.”

Lin Haoran sneered. “Mr. Sandberg, is that a threat? I, Lin Haoran, have never been afraid of threats. The Bank of East Asia has its own path for development and doesn’t need to rely on HSBC. I’d like to see what HSBC can do to me.”

By now, both Michael Sandberg and Lin Haoran had dropped all pretenses.

Seeing his threat had failed, a sinister look flashed in Michael Sandberg’s eyes. He gritted his teeth and said, “Fine, Lin Haoran. Since you’re so obstinate, don’t blame me for what comes next. HSBC has its ways. I will make you pay a terrible price for your decision today.”

Lin Haoran crossed his arms, his expression cold. “Mr. Sandberg, I’ll be waiting to see your ‘ways.’ However, I must also remind you that Hong Kong is no longer a place where HSBC can call all the shots.

“Since I, Lin Haoran, dare to stand here and refuse you, I have enough resources and strength to face anything.”

Michael Sandberg snorted coldly, turned, and strode quickly towards the door, leaving Lin Haoran’s reception room without a backward glance.

The visit had officially ended in failure.

And Lin Haoran and HSBC now stood as official adversaries.

The fact that Lin Haoran was a board member of HSBC was completely meaningless.

One only had to look at Jardine Matheson & Co. Years ago, Jardine Matheson and HSBC had swapped shares, resulting in HSBC holding 6% of Jardine Matheson’s shares and Jardine Matheson holding 3% of HSBC’s.

The two parties seemed to have a close relationship.

Yet, in order to pull Jardine Matheson down from its top position in Hong Kong, HSBC directly supported Pao Yue-kong’s acquisition of Kowloon Wharf.

As a result, Jardine Matheson suffered the bitter loss of Kowloon Wharf, and HSBC successfully rose to become the number one financial group in Hong Kong!

So, all talk of cooperation was fake. Everything was for one’s own benefit!

When one’s own interests were at stake, even close friends could be sold out!

This was the world of business—a place that devoured people whole.

Lin Haoran knew this well. He held no illusions that HSBC would show him mercy just because he was a board member.

On the contrary, he knew he had to be fully prepared to counter the torrential assault that HSBC was about to unleash.

Watching Michael Sandberg’s departing figure, Lin Haoran sighed. He knew in his heart that a fierce storm was on the horizon.

But he had no intention of backing down.

He really didn’t want to make an enemy of HSBC, but since they had already revealed their intentions, he wasn’t afraid of a fight.

Besides, he had always known that in acquiring the Bank of East Asia, a direct confrontation with HSBC was inevitable.

As the absolute hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial world, HSBC had always maintained a powerful grip on the market.

The original Bank of East Asia might have been insignificant in HSBC’s eyes, but once Lin Haoran took control, it would be as if new life had been injected into it, giving it limitless potential.

And for that very reason, HSBC would naturally not stand by and watch the Bank of East Asia rise. They would try to nip that possibility in the bud.

However, when Michael Sandberg had arrived, he probably never imagined that Lin Haoran’s attitude would be so uncompromising.

During their conversation, Lin Haoran’s unyielding resolve had caused Michael Sandberg to gradually lose his usual composure. Impulsive emotions had crept in, ultimately leading to the current tense, sword-drawn situation.

To be honest, Lin Haoran’s original plan was to let Li Peicai’s family continue to manage the Bank of East Asia after the acquisition, allowing the bank to continue its low-profile development.

Chapter 585: Rosamund Kwan’s Ambition

However, Michael Sandberg’s parting declaration of war meant that it was no longer possible for Lin Haoran to allow the Bank of East Asia to continue its low-key development.

As the saying goes, one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers.

The Hong Kong market was not exactly large, but it wasn’t small either.

HSBC had been that tiger for far, far too long.

For ages, HSBC had firmly occupied the top seat in Hong Kong’s financial world, relying on its deep foundation, extensive business network, and formidable capital strength. It enjoyed the bountiful profits that came with its monopoly.

It had come to view the Hong Kong market as its own private garden, to be cultivated as it pleased. Whenever a threatening rival appeared, it would employ various means to crush them in their infancy.

In the past, many local and foreign banks that tried to rise forcefully in Hong Kong’s financial sector had either retreated in defeat under HSBC’s intense pressure, retained only a small fraction of their business, or been merged and acquired.

The most famous example was Hang Seng Bank.

Hang Seng Bank had developed very well in the 1950s and 60s, becoming the strongest Chinese-owned bank in Hong Kong. Although its strength was far from matching HSBC’s, if it had continued to grow at that pace, it might have one day been able to challenge HSBC.

However, a rumor suddenly spread through the market, claiming that banks, including Hang Seng Bank, had insufficient deposits due to lending large sums to property developers.

In reality, Hang Seng Bank’s business practices had always been very conservative.

But all sorts of rumors flared up, spreading like wildfire through the entire market. Panicked depositors began to withdraw their savings in massive numbers. According to news reports, the queue of citizens waiting to withdraw money stretched from Hang Seng Bank’s headquarters in Central all the way to Connaught Road near the Star Ferry pier.

Ultimately, under the severe bank run, Hang Seng Bank could no longer hold on and had to turn to HSBC for help. And HSBC seized this opportunity to swallow up the largest Chinese-owned bank in Hong Kong.

Some media outlets speculated that for a quality bank like Hang Seng Bank to be hit by such rumors, someone must have been deliberately manipulating things from behind the scenes. All signs pointed to HSBC.

After all, Hang Seng Bank’s rise posed a potential threat to HSBC’s monopoly, giving HSBC more than enough motive to suppress its competitor.

Now, Michael Sandberg’s parting declaration of war had made Lin Haoran and the Bank of East Asia the new thorn in HSBC’s side.

Lin Haoran sighed. At this point, he had no idea how HSBC would launch its attack on the Bank of East Asia. All he could do was take things as they came.

HSBC was the hegemon of Hong Kong’s banking industry. Although the Bank of East Asia, which he was about to acquire, was quite strong, the gap between it and HSBC was simply too vast.

Therefore, it was somewhat unrealistic for the Bank of East Asia to initiate an attack.

For now, he could only defend passively and counter their moves as they were made.

Lin Haoran was naturally aware that passive defense was not a long-term solution, but he hadn’t even secured the controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia yet. The most important thing now was to gain absolute control of the bank as quickly as possible.

Other matters could wait.

Besides, it would take some time for HSBC to prepare its machinations against the Bank of East Asia.

As for the two matters of using Wheelock and Company shares to invest in Kowloon Wharf and then privatizing Kowloon Wharf with the Bao family, Lin Haoran had already handed them over to Ma Shimin to coordinate. Thus, he didn’t need to worry too much about them.

Time flew by, and soon it was June 5th.

In the morning, Lin Haoran was awakened by the piercing sunlight. He rubbed his eyes and sat up in bed.

Beside him, Rosamund Kwan was also roused by his movement. She threw back the duvet, and her perfect, naked body was revealed in its entirety.

Aroused, Lin Haoran pounced on her.

For a time, the room was filled with sounds unfit for young ears.

More than an hour passed before the commotion gradually subsided.

The two lay lazily in bed, savoring the moment of tenderness.

Rosamund Kwan gently caressed Lin Haoran’s chest and said in a sweet voice, “Brother Haoran, I have something to tell you.”

“Oh? What is it? You can tell me anything,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, turning to look at her.

“The Modern Girl Fashion Store at The Landmark has been doing really well ever since it opened. Plus, you helped me by waiving the rent, so the monthly profits are very high. In less than a year, I’ve already saved up over two million Hong Kong dollars.

“So I’m planning to open a second branch in Connaught Centre. But don’t worry, I’ll pay the rent myself this time; you don’t have to waive it for me. I plan to build up the business and aim to open a chain of over ten stores within three years!” Rosamund Kwan said proudly.

With only one store so far, planning to open ten in three years showed that Rosamund Kwan’s ambition was indeed not small.

Earning over two million Hong Kong dollars in less than a year was certainly a significant achievement.

This huge sum was something even her father, Kwan Shan, couldn’t have produced, even before his capital chain snapped.

So, Rosamund Kwan truly had the resources and confidence to be proud.

Of course, she was also very clear that she owed all her success to Lin Haoran.

Without Lin Haoran providing her with a shop of over three hundred square meters rent-free at The Landmark, and allowing her to franchise a high-end clothing brand under the Hongkong Land Group, she would never have been able to start this business, let alone accumulate a fortune that ordinary people would struggle to amass in a lifetime.

Therefore, her heart was naturally filled with gratitude for Lin Haoran. Leaning against his chest, she said softly, “Brother Haoran, I’m really, truly grateful to you. Without you, I wouldn’t have anything I have now.”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran gently stroked her hair and said with a smile, “That’s great. I support you. Keep up the good work. Who knows, you might become a fashion queen one day. As for thanks, there’s no need. You’re my woman, so isn’t it only right that I help you?”

At the same time, a trace of emotion stirred in Lin Haoran’s heart.

In his past life, that famous actress from the Hong Kong entertainment circle had her life’s trajectory completely rewritten by him in this world.

Freed from the heavy shackle of her father’s debts, not only would she not step into the complicated world of entertainment, but she had instead plunged into the world of business.

However, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, Rosamund Kwan’s ventures in the commercial world were nothing more than trivial matters.

To him, over two million Hong Kong dollars was just a drop in the bucket; it didn’t even count as small change.

Even if she ended up losing it all, it would be a minor issue for him.

But he also knew that everyone should have their own career and ambitions.

Although it was a foregone conclusion that she was his woman, if she were content to be just a pretty vase, he felt he would probably lose interest in her within a few years.

Rosamund Kwan didn’t usually live at the Severn Road villa, but in the apartment in the HSBC Main Building.

That apartment was also the first property Lin Haoran had ever bought. At the time, he had made a lot of money from the battle for Kowloon Wharf and bought the flat, which could serve as both a bedroom and an office.

Today, he had long since looked down on that apartment, but it had become Rosamund Kwan’s usual residence.

The HSBC Main Building was actually right next to The Landmark, making it very convenient for Rosamund Kwan to commute to and from work.

Only when Lin Haoran wanted to let off some steam would he call her back to Severn Road.

It was ten in the morning before the two of them left.

Rosamund Kwan went to her fashion store, while Lin Haoran, instead of going to Connaught Centre, went directly to the Bank of East Asia’s headquarters.

The previous night, Li Fushu had called him with good news: the Securities Commission had approved his proposal to take an absolute controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia, as well as the matter of its financing.

In truth, even if the Securities Commission wanted to block such a thing, it had no grounds to do so, especially since the Bank of East Asia’s original controlling shareholders, the Li family, had agreed. Furthermore, Lin Haoran’s status was rather special.

Although they would secretly pass information to the British-funded conglomerates, that didn’t mean they wanted to openly provoke Lin Haoran.

Even if they looked down on Chinese merchants, they had to be wary when someone reached a certain level of status.

Lin Haoran’s influence in the Hong Kong business world, and indeed worldwide, was growing daily, and the network of interests behind him was intricate and complex. The Securities Commission would not easily make an enemy of him.

Arriving at the Bank of East Asia’s headquarters, Lin Haoran went straight to find Li Fushu, who was in the Chairman’s office.

“Haoran, this is the approval letter from the Securities Commission. We can hold a press conference to announce the matter of your financing for the Bank of East Asia!” Seeing Lin Haoran arrive, Li Fushu handed him a response letter.

Looking at the large official seal of the Securities Commission at the bottom, Lin Haoran nodded.

“Elder Li, I’ll have to trouble you to arrange this matter. As for the funds, they’re already prepared!” Lin Haoran said after a quick look, handing the letter back to Li Fushu.

After being publicly listed for ten years and undergoing several rounds of financing, the Bank of East Asia had issued a total of 105 million shares.

And just yesterday, Lin Haoran had Galaxy Securities continue to increase his holdings to 36.75 million shares, officially raising his stake from the previous 34.9% to the 35% threshold.

For his equity in the Bank of East Asia to rise to 51%, the bank would need to issue approximately 34.28 million new shares.

Lin Haoran had already discussed and agreed upon all of this with the Li family and the other board members of the Bank of East Asia.

Furthermore, given the many benefits Lin Haoran’s investment would bring to the Bank of East Asia, if calculated at the current market share price, he would need to invest around 868 million Hong Kong dollars into the bank. However, in reality, Lin Haoran only needed to inject a sum of exactly 500 million Hong Kong dollars. This had been unanimously agreed upon by all members of the Board of Directors.

Chapter 586: Officially Taking Control of the Bank of East Asia, Market Capitalization Doubles!

After the share increase, Li Peicai’s family’s holdings in the Bank of East Asia would also fall from the original 32.3% to around 24.34%.

As for the other shareholders, their ownership percentages would also decrease accordingly, an unavoidable consequence of issuing new shares.

“Alright, I’ll go arrange it right now!” Li Fushu agreed immediately.

That morning, after finalizing the details, Lin Haoran personally signed an investment agreement with the Bank of East Asia.

Once the agreement was signed, Lin Haoran had his finance department transfer five hundred million Hong Kong dollars to the Bank of East Asia.

With that, he officially took control of the Bank of East Asia, holding 51% of its shares and becoming its absolute controlling shareholder.

The Securities Commission had stipulated that Lin Haoran could only hold up to 51% of the shares and could not increase his holdings any further; otherwise, he would be required to launch a privatization takeover of the Bank of East Asia.

Lin Haoran didn’t mind this condition.

Li Peicai’s family would certainly never let him privatize the Bank of East Asia, so 51% of the shares was enough. One shouldn’t be too greedy.

Although the stock price was bound to rise after he took control, and he could have made a profit by buying and selling if he were allowed to increase his holdings, he wasn’t too bothered by the restriction.

Being able to hold 51% of the shares was already an unexpected turn of events.

So what if the Bank of East Asia’s stock price doubled, tripled, or even more?

Compared to the profits he had made from Toyota Motor, the gains from the Bank of East Asia, even if it doubled or tripled in value, were negligible.

Besides, even if he did increase his holdings, he wouldn’t normally sell the shares. So, after securing an absolute controlling stake, the stock price was no longer that important to him.

Subsequently, at 12:30 PM, the Bank of East Asia held a press conference at its headquarters.

At the conference, in front of dozens of reporters from Hong Kong’s mainstream media, Li Fushu solemnly announced the news of the Bank of East Asia’s new financing and that Lin Haoran had officially become the bank’s absolute controlling shareholder.

The moment this news was made public, the scene erupted.

After Hang Seng Bank was acquired by the British-owned bank HSBC, the Bank of East Asia, a historic Chinese-owned bank, had once again reclaimed its position as the largest Chinese-owned bank.

Therefore, the Bank of East Asia held significant influence in Hong Kong.

But now, the bank’s founding family had announced that Lin Haoran had become the majority shareholder, holding a 51% stake. All the reporters found this incredible, as if it were some preposterous tale.

The reporters began whispering amongst themselves, camera flashes flickered incessantly, and a barrage of questions was directed at Li Fushu.

“Mr. Li, may I ask why your Li family was willing to give up its controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia? Is there an inside story to this?” a reporter from the Hong Kong Commercial Daily asked first.

Li Fushu frowned slightly, but his expression remained calm and composed. He cleared his throat and said, “Everyone, there is no so-called inside story. Mr. Lin is an entrepreneur with extraordinary strategic vision and business strength. His entry will bring new development opportunities and broad market prospects to the Bank of East Asia. After careful consideration, our Li family believes that cooperating with Mr. Lin to jointly promote the development of the Bank of East Asia is in the bank’s long-term interests.”

“Mr. Lin Haoran has little prior experience in the financial industry. On what grounds can he lead the Bank of East Asia to stand out in Hong Kong’s fiercely competitive financial market?” another reporter asked sharply.

Li Fushu replied with a calm smile, “While Mr. Lin may not have a deep background in the traditional financial industry, he has outstanding achievements and rich experience in the business world, which I believe everyone here recognizes. The industries under his name span multiple sectors, and he possesses extensive resources and connections. If nothing else, once Mr. Lin’s companies partner with the Bank of East Asia, it will bring enormous business volume and ample capital to the bank. This alone is enough to elevate the Bank of East Asia to a whole new level from its current foundation!”

Li Fushu’s answer made many reporters in the audience nod in spite of themselves.

Indeed, Lin Haoran’s assets in Hong Kong were immense: Hongkong Land Group, Hong Kong Telephone, Hongkong Electric Group, Wanqing Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, Hong Kong and China Gas, and so on.

Any one of these enterprises was a behemoth in its own right.

And once Lin Haoran became the controlling shareholder of the Bank of East Asia, he would certainly prioritize directing the financial business of his own companies to cooperate with the bank.

“Mr. Li, in that case, won’t your family be in a passive position at the Bank of East Asia? Will future management rights be decided by Mr. Lin?” a reporter from the Hong Kong Securities Daily followed up.

“I can tell you all that although Mr. Lin will be the majority shareholder of the Bank of East Asia, our Li family has already come to an agreement with him. The future management of the Bank of East Asia will continue to be handled by us, and Mr. Lin will not interfere much in the bank’s affairs!” Li Fushu continued to answer.

Lin Haoran, who was sitting beside him, also stood up and said, “Just as Mr. Li Fushu said, I, Lin Haoran, will not interfere much with the future management of the Bank of East Asia. I am well aware of the principle of letting professionals handle professional matters. I have taken control of the Bank of East Asia in the hope of using my own resources and influence to create better external conditions for the bank’s development. As for the specific internal operations and management, we must rely on an experienced and highly professional team like Mr. Li’s.”

Lin Haoran’s gaze swept across the room as he continued, “Although I haven’t been deeply involved in the financial industry in the traditional sense, I believe that a company’s success depends not only on experience in a single field but more so on resource integration and strategic vision. I will provide ideas and support for the Bank of East Asia in terms of strategic planning and business expansion, but I will absolutely not overstep my bounds and interfere with the bank’s normal management order.”

His answer also gave Li Fushu sufficient face, preventing him from appearing too awkward in public after losing the controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia.

After all, giving up the controlling stake that their Li Peicai’s family had held completely would be seen as a joke in the eyes of some prominent families, and even be considered a symbol of the family’s decline.

Lin Haoran’s reply immediately drew a wave of enthusiastic reactions from the reporters on site.

Next, the reporters asked several more questions, and the press conference officially concluded half an hour later.

At the same time, although this news had not yet been reported by the media, there were too many people present. After the press conference ended, the news of Lin Haoran’s acquisition of the Bank of East Asia spread rapidly.

As the news spread further, the entire Hong Kong financial community was shaken.

The major financial institutions and investment banks that received the news first began to re-evaluate the Bank of East Asia’s value and potential.

Some market makers who had previously taken a wait-and-see attitude toward the Bank of East Asia were also itching to make a move, trying to get a piece of the pie in this capital feast.

And it was impossible for these market makers to conceal the matter even if they wanted to.

Therefore, it wasn’t long before the news began to spread rapidly among shareholders.

Those who were quick on their feet had already started to aggressively buy up shares of the Bank of East Asia.

Some shareholders who wanted to withdraw their pending sell orders were too late.

Soon, the Bank of East Asia’s stock price rose rapidly. Its original total market capitalization of just over two point six billion soared, breaking its own records.

Two point seven billion, two point eight billion, two point nine billion, three billion…

Less than half an hour after the press conference had ended, the total market capitalization of the Bank of East Asia surpassed the three billion Hong Kong dollar mark.

And this was far from the limit of the Bank of East Asia’s rise.

After all, everyone knew that once Lin Haoran’s companies partnered with the Bank of East Asia, the improvement for the bank would be plain for all to see and its potential would be limitless.

As long as the financial business of Lin Haoran’s companies was transferred to the Bank of East Asia, in terms of deposits alone, the Bank of East Asia might even surpass Hang Seng Bank!

And Hang Seng Bank currently had a market capitalization as high as fifteen point two billion Hong Kong dollars.

Right now, the gap between the market caps of the Bank of East Asia and Hang Seng Bank was enormous, which further illustrated that the Bank of East Asia’s future market value was very promising.

In everyone’s eyes, this was an excellent opportunity.

Once the financial businesses of behemoths like Hongkong Land Group, Hong Kong Telephone, and Hongkong Electric Group were injected into the Bank of East Asia, its cash flow, customer resources, and business landscape would all experience a quantum leap.

The market makers naturally understood that if they didn’t act now, when would they?

Relying on their keen market sense and substantial capital, they began to sweep up shares in the market, further pushing up the Bank of East Asia’s stock price.

Inside the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, traders were incredibly busy. Telephones rang one after another, and the sound of keyboards clacking was incessant.

On the big screen, the chart of the Bank of East Asia’s stock price looked like a steep, straight line climbing ever upward.

“Quick, buy another five million shares of Bank of East Asia!” a market maker shouted into the phone to the trader on the other end.

“I can’t, Boss. The buying pressure in the market is too intense right now. It’s hard to buy that many,” the trader replied anxiously.

“No matter what, do everything you can to buy them for me. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!” the market maker said urgently.

At the same time, some retail investors were also attracted by the hot market and followed the trend, buying in.

“Haha, I made the right call. The Bank of East Asia’s stock is a super bull stock!” one retail investor said excitedly to a friend beside him.

“So lucky! I’ve been holding ten thousand shares of Bank of East Asia. Thank goodness I didn’t sell them to buy other stocks. When I think about the Bank of East Asia’s market cap breaking ten billion Hong Kong dollars in the future, my ten thousand shares could make me at least hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong dollars. I feel like I’m going to be rich!” another well-off, middle-class citizen couldn’t hold back his excitement.

He clenched his fists tightly, as if he could already see wealth beckoning to him.

After breaking the three billion Hong Kong dollar mark, the rate of increase in the Bank of East Asia’s market capitalization did not slow down; instead, it began to accelerate.

Three point one billion, three point five billion, four billion, four point five billion…

Chapter 587: HSBC’s Stock Price Plummets

The surge in the Bank of East Asia’s stock price sent the entire stock market into a frenzy.

As the saying goes, where there is joy, there is also sorrow.

While shareholders of the Bank of East Asia were ecstatic, shareholders of another stock were experiencing the complete opposite.

That stock was HSBC!

The reason was simple.

Although not all of Lin Haoran’s Hong Kong enterprises conducted their financial business with HSBC, they accounted for at least sixty to seventy percent of it.

For instance, Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong Telephone, and Kowloon Motor Bus all handled the majority of their capital flows through HSBC. The companies’ cash deposits were also largely held at HSBC.

Now that Lin Haoran had successfully taken control of the Bank of East Asia, everyone understood what that meant.

Therefore, just as the Bank of East Asia’s performance was expected to rise dramatically with Lin Haoran at the helm, it was natural that another bank’s business would decline as a result.

Clearly, HSBC, which had the most extensive collaboration with Lin Haoran’s companies, would be the first to bear the brunt of the impact.

According to data published by a Hong Kong survey company last year, HSBC’s total deposits amounted to 131.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, a figure that dominated the entire Hong Kong financial industry.

The Bank of East Asia’s total deposits, on the other hand, were only 6.4 billion Hong Kong dollars. The gap between the two banks was undeniably immense.

And of HSBC’s 131.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, Lin Haoran’s companies contributed at least over twenty billion.

Now, with Lin Haoran becoming the absolute controlling shareholder of the Bank of East Asia, his companies’ financial operations would certainly be transferred over.

As a result, the Bank of East Asia’s total deposits were bound to increase substantially this year, further strengthening its financial power.

Meanwhile, HSBC’s total deposits would suffer a severe decline after losing the business of top Hong Kong tycoons like Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and the Hongkong Telephone Company.

Adding to this was HSBC’s failed attempt two months prior to acquire the Royal Bank of Scotland in Britain, which signified a setback in its overseas market expansion.

When all these factors were combined, HSBC’s future looked to be shrouded in a thick shadow.

Thus, a scene like this unfolded in the stock market.

After the news of the Bank of East Asia’s soaring market capitalization spread, HSBC’s stock price began to plummet.

What had been a relatively stable stock trend suddenly became precarious. Investors rushed to sell off their HSBC shares, turning instead to the seemingly limitless prospects of the Bank of East Asia.

At the market opening that morning, HSBC’s total market capitalization was as high as 23.8 billion Hong Kong dollars, towering over all other listed companies in Hong Kong.

But as shareholders engaged in a massive sell-off, HSBC’s stock price fell drastically.

23.7 billion, 23.5 billion, 23 billion, 22.7 billion…

By the time the Bank of East Asia’s total market capitalization broke 5.2 billion Hong Kong dollars at the closing bell, HSBC’s stock had taken a severe beating. It crashed through the 20 billion Hong Kong dollar barrier, falling back into the nineteen-billions. Its final market capitalization dropped to 19.732 billion Hong Kong dollars!

This was undoubtedly HSBC’s bleakest trading day in nearly twenty years, with a staggering drop of a horrifying 24.6%, a shocking sight to behold.

In stark contrast, the Bank of East Asia’s market capitalization had managed the magnificent feat of doubling in a single day.

The performance of the two banks on the stock market was like night and day.

When Lin Haoran heard about this, he found it somewhat incredible.

However, although the Bank of East Asia’s stock price had doubled, it didn’t have much to do with him, as he had no intention of selling his shares.

What he was considering was what action HSBC would inevitably take to deal with this sudden crisis.

Most importantly, Michael Sandberg had given him some harsh words after his failed attempt to have the Bank of East Asia merge with HSBC.

So, if nothing unexpected happened, he or the Bank of East Asia would likely face a fierce counterattack or some tricky behind-the-scenes challenges from HSBC.

He thought for a moment and made a call to Cui Zilong.

“General Manager Cui, please do me a favor and investigate the detailed records of HSBC’s business warfare incidents over the years. I have a use for them. Also, keep a close watch on any new developments at HSBC,” Lin Haoran stated his request directly as soon as the call connected.

Cui Zilong immediately replied, “Yes, Boss. Please wait a moment for the information. I will compile it for you within half an hour. I will also pay close attention to HSBC. We have a mole within their senior management. If there’s any sign of trouble, I will be the first to know and will inform you immediately.”

“Excellent. Thank you for your hard work, General Manager Cui. I’ll be waiting for your good news,” Lin Haoran said before hanging up.

Gathering information on HSBC’s business warfare was not difficult; most of it was readily available and just needed to be compiled.

About twenty minutes later, Lin Haoran received a file from Cui Zilong via fax machine.

He sat in his office, carefully poring over the documents.

As the financial hegemon of Hong Kong, HSBC had naturally weathered numerous intense business wars in its history of over one hundred years; otherwise, it would not have achieved its current status.

The file documented over a dozen of HSBC’s most significant business warfare cases since its founding. These included traditional financial competition as well as “high-stakes games” involving geopolitics, feng shui, and even the use of force.

Among them was a case Lin Haoran was very familiar with: HSBC’s acquisition of Hang Seng Bank.

HSBC’s successful acquisition of American Marine Midland Bank three years ago—which was later renamed Haitong Bank—and the case of its failed acquisition of the Royal Bank of Scotland were also included.

Lin Haoran meticulously read through each case, one by one, finishing only after more than half an hour.

After reading, he had a summary of HSBC’s business warfare strategies.

In its years of development, HSBC had inevitably engaged in business warfare to expand its own interests and consolidate its industry position.

Judging from past cases, HSBC’s commonly used strategies in business warfare included:

First, information and intelligence warfare.

HSBC placed extreme importance on intelligence gathering. They would plant informants within their rivals or obtain key information through cooperation with other financial institutions. For example, during the acquisition of Hang Seng Bank, HSBC learned in advance of the divided opinions among Hang Seng’s senior executives regarding the acquisition, which allowed them to formulate a precise takeover strategy and ultimately succeed.

Second, public opinion and PR warfare.

HSBC was adept at using the media and public opinion to influence market trends. During the acquisition of Haitong Bank (formerly American Marine Midland Bank), they heavily publicized the bright prospects following the acquisition through the media, stabilizing market confidence and ensuring a relatively smooth process.

And when the acquisition of the Royal Bank of Scotland failed, they quickly used PR tactics to blame the failure on uncontrollable external factors, minimizing the damage to their reputation.

Third, financial gamesmanship.

HSBC would employ various financial tools and methods to suppress competitors. For instance, in competition with smaller banks, they would attract customers by lowering lending rates and raising deposit rates, while simultaneously increasing their opponents’ financing costs, thereby weakening their competitiveness.

Fourth, leveraging their network of connections.

Having operated in Hong Kong for many years, HSBC had accumulated a deep network of connections. They would use these personal connections in business warfare to maintain good communication with government departments and regulatory agencies, striving for a favorable policy environment and regulatory support.

To put it in a single sentence: HSBC’s history of business warfare revealed a tendency to be unscrupulous in achieving its goals, coupled with an over-reliance on political connections and the pursuit of short-term gains.

Lin Haoran had already keenly sensed that HSBC would most likely resort to its old tricks to suppress the Bank of East Asia.

However, among these strategies, his biggest worry was whether HSBC would persuade the Government House to get involved.

If the Government House were to forcibly demand that he abandon the acquisition of the Bank of East Asia, there would be nothing he could do.

Of course, the probability of that happening was very low.

This was because the current Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, placed a greater emphasis on acting within the rules.

Lin Haoran’s acquisition of the Bank of East Asia was legal and compliant, completed entirely within the established framework. Governor MacLehose had no reason to interfere forcefully.

But HSBC had operated in Hong Kong for many years, and its inextricable links with the political world were not to be underestimated. There was no guarantee they wouldn’t use some underhanded tactics to influence the Government House’s decisions.

Given HSBC’s past conduct, this was not impossible.

Although it was still unclear how HSBC would retaliate, he had to be prepared for various scenarios.

In addition to having Cui Zilong gather intelligence on HSBC, Lin Haoran also quickly contacted Li Fushu, the current Chairman of the Bank of East Asia, to have him prepare for what was to come.

The Li family had controlled the Bank of East Asia for so many years that they must have had numerous dealings with HSBC. HSBC had likely coveted the Bank of East Asia, this long-standing Chinese-owned bank in Hong Kong, in the past.

The fact that the Li family had always managed to weather the storms proved they had their own unique countermeasures and a deep foundation.

As for Lin Haoran, he was an outsider to the financial industry. He truly didn’t know much about financial warfare and certainly couldn’t fight HSBC himself.

Furthermore, since he was still letting the Li family handle the management of the Bank of East Asia, Li Fushu and his son would be the main force dealing with the impending financial battle, no matter what.

All he could do was ensure that as Li Fushu and his son charged forward on the front lines, they had solid support in the rear, such as the necessary connections and resources.

Although he had read many of HSBC’s business warfare case studies, Lin Haoran understood that the real battlefield was far more complex and unpredictable than any case on paper.

Chapter 588: The Battle with HSBC Begins!

The Bank of East Asia’s market capitalization had doubled in a single day, a fact Li Fushu found somewhat surreal. Even now, he was still immersed in his excitement.

After all, a doubling of the Bank of East Asia’s market value meant that the Li family’s wealth was also skyrocketing.

Although Lin Haoran’s financing had diluted the Li family’s shares, the reduction was nothing compared to the surge in the stock price.

Therefore, he now had absolutely no regrets about handing over the controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia to Lin Haoran.

On the contrary, he was more certain than ever that he had made the right decision.

With the support of a super-rich tycoon like Lin Haoran, it was not impossible for the Bank of East Asia to surpass Hang Seng Bank, or even HSBC, in the future.

At this moment, Li Fushu was completely lost in a beautiful vision of the future. Though he was on the phone with Lin Haoran, his thoughts had already drifted far away, his mind constantly sketching out glorious scenes of the Bank of East Asia’s future.

Meanwhile, in a conference room at the HSBC Main Building, the headquarters of HSBC, Michael Sandberg was holding a meeting with a group of senior executives.

The atmosphere in the room was extremely tense; anxiety and anger were etched on every face.

HSBC’s stock market capitalization had plummeted by 24.6 percent in a single day. The news struck every senior executive at HSBC like a heavy club.

If this matter was not handled properly, they would have to face the towering rage and harsh questioning of their shareholders. It could even trigger a chain reaction, leading to widespread panic within the bank and a massive loss of clients.

Most importantly, they now faced a challenge from the Bank of East Asia.

While the gap between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC still seemed immense, what about in the long run?

They certainly couldn’t ignore the matter; they had to formulate a response.

“Everyone, the transfer of financial services from Lin Haoran’s companies, such as Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group, from our bank to the Bank of East Asia is now a sure thing.

“Right now, we need to carefully consider how to respond to the challenge from the Bank of East Asia and how to stabilize HSBC’s stock price. This is the most difficult problem we face.

“If any of you have ideas, speak freely. Let’s put our heads together, share our views, and find a way through this crisis.” Michael Sandberg’s gaze slowly swept across everyone in the conference room.

Although HSBC’s stock price had been rising for the past two years, it had taken at least half a year for its market capitalization to grow from over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars to more than twenty-five billion.

Now, in a single day, the stock price had fallen back to where it was half a year ago.

What was the most important job for professional managers like them?

It was to secure more profits for the company and ensure the company’s stock price looked good.

The current plunge in HSBC’s stock price was undoubtedly a major crisis in their careers.

Although Michael Sandberg held almost absolute power at HSBC, with even the shareholders behind the scenes having to listen to him, his position would inevitably be shaken if the bank suffered a major setback. He might even be directly removed from his position as Taipan.

Just like Newbiggin, the former Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. who was once his equal, hadn’t he already vanished from the business world?

Those shareholders didn’t care about his past glorious achievements; they only cared about whether their own interests were harmed.

That was the reality!

Previously, he had secretly pitied Newbiggin.

Now, if the competition between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia was mishandled, he might face the same fate. A chill ran through Michael Sandberg’s heart.

But he was, after all, a seasoned veteran. He quickly composed himself and looked at the crowd once more.

John Bao, the Vice Chairman of HSBC, was the first to break the silence, a ruthless glint in his eyes. “Taipan, I don’t think we can just sit and wait for death. The Bank of East Asia has strong momentum right now, but we at HSBC are no pushovers.

“We can fall back on our old tricks and focus our efforts on intelligence gathering. The transfer of financial services from Lin Haoran’s companies must involve some internal decision-making processes and key individuals.

“We have informants planted in the Bank of East Asia, so we can know their every move in advance. As long as we carefully gather information on their weaknesses, we can definitely formulate targeted strategies.”

John Bao’s words immediately won the approval of many senior executives.

The intelligence network HSBC possessed in Hong Kong was comparable to that of the Government House; they had long since placed their underground contacts in many important places.

It was only natural that HSBC would have such contacts planted within a competitor in the same industry like the Bank of East Asia.

Another Vice President in charge of financial services nodded and added, “Mr. Bao is right. We might be able to find their weaknesses. In addition, we must also intensify our efforts on the financial front.

“We can unite with other financial institutions to corner the Bank of East Asia financially, driving up their financing costs. At the same time, we can launch more attractive financial products and services to persuade their clients to switch sides.

“This way, even if all of Lin Haoran’s companies move their financial services to the Bank of East Asia, it will be difficult for them to attract more capital from the market. This would effectively cut off their path forward!”

They had done this sort of thing many times before. Leveraging their status as the leader of the financial industry, they often rallied other foreign banks to besiege their targets.

In the end, these targets were either acquired or suffered a significant loss of market share. In severe cases, they were forced into restructuring or even bankruptcy, vanishing into the long river of Hong Kong’s financial history.

After the Vice President finished speaking, another executive stood up and said, “Taipan, we can’t neglect public opinion and PR warfare either. We can find some media outlets to spread unfavorable news about the Bank of East Asia.

“For example, that their risk management has problems, or that their business expansion is overly aggressive. This will create market doubt about the Bank of East Asia, thereby affecting their stock price and customer confidence.”

However, as soon as this proposal was made, John Bao shot up from his seat and flatly rejected it. “Organizing a PR offensive against Lin Haoran is completely useless. He controls Hong Kong’s largest newspaper, the Oriental Daily News, and is also a major shareholder of TVB.

“With these two media outlets backing him, he is practically invincible in a PR war. Jardine Matheson & Co. tried to use a media campaign against Lin Haoran’s companies before, but they all ended in failure.

“So there’s no need for us to even try this method. If we implement it rashly, we might even end up reaping what we sow!”

John Bao’s words instantly silenced the entire conference room.

Indeed, a PR war?

Although HSBC had excellent relationships with many media outlets, they were just good relationships.

Lin Haoran, on the other hand, directly controlled two mainstream media outlets.

In this situation, trying to use public opinion to fight Lin Haoran was like throwing an egg against a stone—they had no chance of winning.

The room fell into silence as everyone pondered other feasible solutions.

After a while, another senior executive finally stood up and said, “We can discuss with the decision-makers at the Securities Commission, the Chief Secretary’s Office, and other agencies to impose some policy restrictions on the Bank of East Asia.

“For instance, we can create some trouble for them in areas like business approvals and regulatory inspections. With multiple strikes against him, what can Lin Haoran do? The position of financial hegemon in Hong Kong will forever belong to us, HSBC!”

The method proposed by this executive was a common tactic for them, and it had proven effective time and again. Many past competitors had seen their development severely hampered by such policy pressure, eventually being forced to submit or withdraw from the market.

Listening to everyone’s opinions, Michael Sandberg was very satisfied.

These men, truly his trusted and capable aides, had proposed solutions that, though varied in focus, were all sound.

However, Sandberg knew in his heart that every suggestion was a double-edged sword: used well, it could harm the enemy; used poorly, it could harm themselves.

Most importantly, their current competitor was different from those of the past.

Although Lin Haoran was a Chinese-owned enterprise tycoon, he was now the richest man in Hong Kong.

Crucially, he controlled top Hong Kong companies like Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group.

Even if HSBC used various means to deal with the Bank of East Asia, they couldn’t crush it. At most, they could only cause some trouble and slow its development.

Moreover, if their methods were too aggressive and provoked a strong counterattack from Lin Haoran, HSBC could find itself in an even more passive position.

He carefully considered the proposals from his trusted aides, trying to find a strategy that could effectively deal with Lin Haoran and the Bank of East Asia.

Although each suggestion seemed to have its merits, Michael Sandberg knew full well that they could not act blindly.

Lin Haoran’s influence in Hong Kong was already deeply entrenched. His business empire not only spanned key sectors like real estate, retail, export trade, and finance, but through a series of shrewd investments and acquisitions, he had also extended his reach overseas, building a vast and complex commercial empire.

Take, for instance, the incident last month where Lin Haoran made several billion Hong Kong dollars from Toyota Motor stock—something even HSBC was completely incapable of doing.

What made Sandberg even more wary was Lin Haoran’s deep personal connections in both the political and business spheres. As far as he knew, when Lin Haoran was in Britain, the female Prime Minister’s attitude toward him was unlike her attitude toward other Chinese entrepreneurs, and he had even been granted an audience with the Queen.

If Lin Haoran was valued by the British government, then any action against him could pull one hair and move the whole body, leading to unpredictable consequences.

Chapter 589: William Purves’s Vicious Scheme!

“Mr. Purves, what are your thoughts on how to handle this crisis brought on by the Bank of East Asia?” Michael Sandberg’s gaze fell upon a senior executive seated not far from him, who had remained silent until now.

William Purves was currently an Executive Director at HSBC, but he held an even more crucial identity: he was the next-generation successor that Michael Sandberg was meticulously grooming.

This was practically an open secret within HSBC.

The current Vice Chairman of HSBC, John Bao, was about the same age as Chairman of the Board Michael Sandberg; both were nearing retirement age.

Therefore, John Bao had virtually no chance of advancing further.

If all went as expected, Purves would soon take over John Bao’s position as Vice Chairman of the Board. Then, once Michael Sandberg stepped down as Chairman of the Board, he would assume Sandberg’s role, officially taking the helm of this tycoon that held a decisive position in the financial industry.

To become the next successor, one naturally had to possess extraordinary abilities and keen business insight.

Purves, who had been lost in thought, came back to his senses and spoke calmly, “Mr. Sandberg, and all my colleagues, based on the suggestions everyone has just raised, I have an initial idea. It might be able to deal a significant blow to the Bank of East Asia while solidifying and expanding HSBC’s dominant position. As for whether it can completely turn the current competitive situation around, I can only say it offers a reference point.”

Everyone looked at him with anticipation, and the conference room instantly fell silent.

“Oh? Mr. Purves, please, tell us. What is your idea?” Michael Sandberg’s interest was piqued.

He highly approved of Purves’s abilities; otherwise, the man would never have become an Executive Director at HSBC.

Moreover, in the years since Michael Sandberg had become the Taipan of HSBC, he had continuously boosted the bank’s performance. This was, of course, not something he could achieve alone; his team played a significant role, and Purves was an exceptionally dazzling “rising star” among them, repeatedly demonstrating a unique vision in crucial decisions.

It was precisely because of this that Purves gradually became the successor he was grooming.

In another world, six years later, when Michael Sandberg stepped down from his position as Chairman of the Board, his successor was indeed Purves.

Purves cleared his throat, adjusted his posture, and after his gaze swept across everyone in the conference room, he began to speak slowly, “After careful consideration, I have a preliminary idea.

The preparatory work for our Hong Kong Association of Banks has progressed to this point; it must be nearing completion, right? With the Bank of East Asia now in deep crisis, this might be an opportunity for us to leverage.

Although the Bank of East Asia was originally planned to be a member of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, times have changed. Since they’ve gotten into this mess, we might as well, in our capacity as the inaugural chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, unite the other banks to expel them from the association.

Next, using the association as a platform, we will join forces with Hang Seng Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Hang Lung Bank, The Ka Wah Bank, Wing Lung Bank, Chase Manhattan Bank, American Express, and other major banks in Hong Kong to send a clear signal to the market: all clients must choose between the member banks of the Hong Kong Association of Banks and the Bank of East Asia.

In other words, if clients wish to continue doing business with us, the member banks of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, they must cease all transactions with the Bank of East Asia.

Given our connections and deterrent effect in Hong Kong, I believe Mr. Sandberg should be able to persuade the bosses of the various banks!

Once we succeed, with the combined influence of so many of our banks in Hong Kong’s financial industry, clients will naturally weigh their options and know how to choose.

In this way, the Bank of East Asia will inevitably be left isolated and helpless.

Furthermore, we can guide public opinion to create a crisis of confidence in the Bank of East Asia, thereby triggering a new bank run.

This public opinion won’t be ordinary. Even if Lin Haoran controls the mainstream media, he will find it difficult to turn things around. After all, even without our guidance, everyone knows how to choose.

I believe very few people would risk being completely cut off from all other banks just to maintain a financial relationship with the Bank of East Asia. As a result, the Bank of East Asia’s existing clients will surely withdraw their deposits one after another.”

Purves paused here.

The Hong Kong Association of Banks, established in accordance with the Hong Kong Association of Banks Ordinance formulated by the Hong Kong Legislative Council, was in fact founded at the decision of HSBC after discussions with the Hong Kong Treasury. It was a comprehensive upgrade in structure and function based on the original Hong Kong Exchange Banks’ Association.

According to its founding principles, once established, it would not only be the key organization for self-regulation and coordination in Hong Kong’s banking industry but would also have a decisive say in many core financial areas such as currency issuance, interest rate setting, and financial supervision.

The association was originally scheduled to be established in July of this year, which was next month, so the preparations were mostly complete.

Now, moving the establishment forward would not be difficult.

Most importantly, in the initial stages of its establishment, the association’s rules would be imperfect and riddled with loopholes. Purves, clearly, intended to use this soon-to-be-established association to sanction the Bank of East Asia.

Coupled with HSBC’s influence in Hong Kong’s financial industry, the other banks would certainly not want to offend HSBC. So, it wouldn’t be difficult for Michael Sandberg, the head of HSBC, to persuade the other banks to agree to this matter.

After all, it was a case of better them than us. The sanction was against the Bank of East Asia, so what did it have to do with the other banks?

Moreover, if successful, the Bank of East Asia’s business might flow to other banks, allowing them to get a piece of the pie.

As for government bodies like the Treasury and the Legal Department, they already favored British-funded conglomerates like themselves. They would naturally turn a blind eye and not interfere too much!

Purves’s idea was extremely vicious, directly turning what was originally a one-on-one fight between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia into a group beatdown!

With HSBC’s status in Hong Kong’s financial world, no one would dare to offend it, unless they no longer wanted to do business in Hong Kong.

This was why Purves was so confident.

The room was silent as everyone contemplated the method Purves had described.

Purves picked up the water glass on the conference table, took a sip to wet his throat, and continued, “Although Lin Haoran has deep pockets, and it might not be realistic to completely crush the Bank of East Asia with a bank run alone, it will definitely make them suffer greatly. A crippling blow is certain.

After this operation, not only will the Bank of East Asia’s reputation be damaged, but its business volume will also shrink drastically, and its position in the Hong Kong financial market will become precarious.

From then on, the Bank of East Asia will only be able to handle internal business for Lin Haoran’s companies, like Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group, with very little external business left!

And the Bank of East Asia, having lost the support of the broad external market, would be like an eagle with its wings clipped. Even with Lin Haoran’s industrial empire as its last refuge, it will pose no threat to us at HSBC. Thus, HSBC’s greatest crisis will be resolved.

As for the Bank of East Asia, it can only struggle to survive in its small circle. The risks brought by business singularization will follow it like a shadow. The moment Lin Haoran’s own industries experience operational fluctuations, or the winds of the financial market shift slightly, the Bank of East Asia could be plunged into an abyss from which it can never recover.

In contrast, HSBC will not only have successfully suppressed a competitor but will also establish an even more powerful and authoritative image in the Hong Kong financial market.

After witnessing our methods and strength, the other banks’ reverence for HSBC will only grow day by day. This will undoubtedly pave the way for our future business expansion and industry resource integration.

The Hong Kong market will forever be HSBC’s backyard. No one will be able to easily shake our foundations, let alone stand toe-to-toe with us. This way, we can also focus more of our energy on our strategic layout for overseas market expansion!”

Having said this, Purves stopped speaking. Although he had more to say, he needed to let everyone digest what he had just laid out.

Why was HSBC on such high alert, so deeply guarded against the Bank of East Asia after Lin Haoran took control?

The reason was actually not complex. The core of it was their deep-seated fear that the Bank of East Asia, under Lin Haoran’s command, would leverage his powerful influence to achieve explosive business growth, and in turn, begin to wildly take over the market share of HSBC and Hang Seng Bank.

Ever since his rise, Lin Haoran had become renowned in the business world. His extensive network of connections, high-level business tactics, and precise strategic vision were there for all to see.

Once he took control of the Bank of East Asia, it was highly likely he would rapidly integrate various resources and inject new developmental vitality into the bank.

He would use his personal influence to attract a large number of high-quality clients and projects, driving the Bank of East Asia to achieve leapfrog development in core business areas like loans, deposits, and investments.

When that time came, the market share that HSBC and Hang Seng Bank had painstakingly built over many years would surely face the risk of being severely squeezed.

Furthermore, Lin Haoran’s own industries were closely tied to HSBC’s business. Companies under his umbrella, like Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group, had massive business dealings with HSBC, involving huge capital flows and cooperation on a variety of financial products.

Although these companies had not yet ceased their business with HSBC, even an ordinary citizen knew that it was only a matter of time before their business with HSBC was transferred to the Bank of East Asia. Otherwise, why would Lin Haoran have bothered to acquire a bank?

And once companies like Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group withdrew their capital and business from HSBC and moved into the arms of the Bank of East Asia, HSBC’s business scale would suffer a severe blow, and its profit margins would shrink significantly.

Chapter 590: Sowing Discord and Shattering the Alliance Between Li Peicai’s Family and Lin Haoran!

In the short term, it was certainly impossible for the Bank of East Asia to threaten HSBC’s position.

But in the long term?

No one knew what the future held.

HSBC had to nip this potential threat in the bud!

Ultimately, what HSBC truly feared was not the Bank of East Asia itself, but Lin Haoran, the man behind it.

Lin Haoran was like a “disruptor” with immense power in the financial market. Every decision, every move he made, could trigger a chain reaction, completely altering the existing competitive landscape.

Moreover, their stock price had plummeted because of the Bank of East Asia.

Given all these concerns, there was no way HSBC could sit back and watch the Bank of East Asia grow and strengthen under Lin Haoran’s leadership.

They had to take the initiative and implement a series of powerful measures to safeguard their dominance in Hong Kong’s financial market.

And if William Purves’s plan succeeded, this threat would indeed cease to exist.

Furthermore, after this matter, HSBC’s stock price would rise again, which would be a satisfactory account to give the shareholders.

The conference room was so quiet that one could hear the breathing of everyone present, as they all mulled over William Purves’s words.

Suddenly, in the oppressive silence, a sharp “clap” broke the stillness, like a stone tossed into a calm lake, sending out ripples.

The applause came from none other than HSBC’s Taipan, Michael Sandberg.

He clapped his hands together forcefully, his eyes filled with praise and approval. A gratified smile appeared on his face as he looked at William Purves, his gaze holding both satisfaction at his successor’s growth and conviction in the plan’s feasibility.

Michael Sandberg’s applause was like the sounding of a charge.

Immediately after, more than a dozen pairs of hands shot up throughout the conference room, springing up like mushrooms after rain. A wave of applause erupted, each clap filled with high approval for the solution William Purves had proposed.

The method was undeniably ruthless, but for HSBC, as long as it benefited the bank’s interests and long-term development, it was worth going all in.

After all, the financial market had always been a battlefield where the strong preyed on the weak, with no room for sentimentality.

The world of business was cruel. HSBC had reached its current position by relying on decisive, ruthless action in every crisis and unscrupulous maneuvering in every competition.

Over the years, many rivals had attempted to challenge HSBC’s dominance, but they all ended up defeated on this smokeless battlefield, becoming mere footnotes in HSBC’s glorious history.

Now, faced with the enormous potential threat of Lin Haoran behind the Bank of East Asia, how could they possibly be merciful?

Michael Sandberg gently raised his hand, signaling for the applause to cease, and the conference room instantly fell silent again.

He cleared his throat and began, “Mr. Purves’s proposed plan is indeed far-sighted and hits the nail on the head!

Hang Seng Bank is a subsidiary under HSBC’s control. Although we have always maintained a position of respect and trust, promising not to interfere with Mr. Ho Sin Hang’s autonomy in managing Hang Seng Bank’s daily operations.

But now, with a great enemy before us, a matter concerning the very foundation of HSBC’s dominance in Hong Kong’s financial market, he must cast aside all reservations at this critical juncture and stand with us unconditionally, fully supporting our actions.”

He paused, picked up his coffee, took a light sip, and continued, “As for Standard Chartered Bank, being another British-owned financial tycoon, they share a deep bond of interest with us.

From what I know of them, they will certainly not stand by and watch the Bank of East Asia rise and threaten their own position in Hong Kong. Therefore, as long as we explain the stakes and make clear the principle of mutual dependence, we can surely persuade Standard Chartered Bank to join hands with us to face this crisis together.”

“As for Hang Lung Bank, The Ka Wah Bank, Wing Lung Bank, Chase Manhattan Bank, American Express, and the other major banks in Hong Kong—while this group includes both Chinese-owned and American-owned banks, most of them are limited in scale and do not have a firm footing in Hong Kong’s financial market.

If they know what’s good for them and are willing to stand with us, then all the better;

But if any bank remains obstinate, tries to stay out of it, or even secretly colludes with the Bank of East Asia, then HSBC will not be merciful.

With our deep foundation and immense power in Hong Kong’s financial circles, we are fully capable of using a series of precise and ruthless business tactics to force them out of the Hong Kong market, or even drive them directly into bankruptcy and liquidation.

These banks must surely know the consequences of choosing not to support HSBC!

When the time comes, let’s see who dares to defy our will and refuse to support our actions!” His tone carried an unquestionable dominance.

HSBC was just that domineering in Hong Kong.

This was the resources and confidence, the authority, that they had accumulated over more than a century of toiling and struggling through bloody battles in the fertile financial ground of Hong Kong.

From their initial establishment under the protection of British interests to later gaining a firm foothold and dominating Hong Kong’s financial industry through shrewd business strategies and bold competitive tactics, they had walked a path paved with the “corpses” of countless rivals, holding the absolute say in Hong Kong’s financial market.

Michael Sandberg stood up, placed his hands on the conference table, leaned forward slightly, and scanned the room. “Gentlemen,” he continued, “our ability to wield great power and influence in Hong Kong’s financial market in the past has relied on this very decisiveness and ruthlessness.

Now, Lin Haoran and the Bank of East Asia are trying to shatter this long-standing order. How can we allow him to run rampant!”

Michael Sandberg’s words had essentially sealed the matter.

HSBC might not be able to do anything about Lin Haoran in other industries, but the financial industry was their absolute domain—a field where they maneuvered skillfully, where their foundations ran deep. It was their “private preserve” and “trump card,” honed over a century of trials and tribulations.

Here, they possessed unparalleled resources, connections, and experience, and would never permit any outside force to challenge their authority.

Not even Lin Haoran, the recognized richest man in Hong Kong, would be allowed to!

They had absolute faith in their own strength within Hong Kong’s financial industry.

Just when everyone thought the matter was settled, William Purves spoke up again.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, and all my colleagues, I haven’t finished,” he said, rising to his feet with a smile.

Seeing everyone approve of his proposed plan, William Purves was naturally delighted. This meant his position as the successor was further solidified.

Without any accomplishments, how could he win over the other senior executives, even with Mr. Michael Sandberg’s grooming?

This situation was clearly the perfect opportunity for him to win everyone over and to rack up achievements.

Instantly, all eyes in the room focused on William Purves once more.

Even Michael Sandberg looked at William Purves with curiosity, anticipating what other good ideas he might have.

William Purves paused before continuing, “We all know that the Li family is the most crucial reason the Bank of East Asia has developed to its current state. Mr. Li Fushu, in particular, has made significant contributions. They are one of the cornerstones of the bank’s stable operations.

The Li family has deep connections and extensive resources in Hong Kong’s business community. Over the years, they have worked tirelessly to expand the Bank of East Asia’s business and build its reputation. Now that the bank is attempting a resurgence under Lin Haoran, the role of the Li family cannot be underestimated.

If we merely target the Bank of East Asia itself and Lin Haoran while ignoring the key factor of the Li family, I’m afraid we won’t be able to completely eliminate the threat. If the Li family finds a way to counter our move, it will cause us a great deal of trouble.”

William Purves’s words made many people in the room nod frequently in agreement.

As a long-established Chinese-owned bank, the Bank of East Asia had naturally had its share of business friction and competitive clashes with HSBC over the years. Yet, under the Li family’s management, it had always stood firm. The key, of course, was Li Peicai’s family.

Failing to deal with the Li family would be like planting a time bomb at the foundation, one that could detonate at any moment and fatally disrupt HSBC’s plans.

Michael Sandberg narrowed his eyes, a thoughtful glint in them. He tapped lightly on the tabletop, motioning for William Purves to continue.

William Purves cleared his throat and continued with confidence, “We might as well take a two-pronged approach. On one hand, as mentioned before, we use the opportunity of establishing the Hong Kong Association of Banks to unite with other banks and isolate the Bank of East Asia, forcing customers to choose one or the other, thereby causing the Bank of East Asia to lose a large number of clients.

At the same time, we’ll create public pressure in the financial markets, hinting at the dire consequences of the Bank of East Asia losing market share after this choice is forced upon customers. This will trigger a crisis of confidence among investors, prompt a rapid outflow of funds, and strip the Bank of East Asia of its future growth potential.”

He paused, glanced around, and seeing that everyone was listening intently, he went on, “On the other hand, we must adopt a strategy of divide and conquer against the Li family. That is, to completely destroy the alliance between the Li family and Lin Haoran, and even force Li Peicai’s family to exit the Bank of East Asia entirely!

We have previously investigated this. The reason Lin Haoran was able to become the person with absolute control of the Bank of East Asia is that he began laying the groundwork a long time ago. In other words, when he was making his moves, the Li family was unaware. Therefore, the Li family must have held a grudge against Lin Haoran.

Afterward, Lin Haoran used various incentives to finally persuade the Li family to give up their controlling stake, allowing him to successfully take control of the Bank of East Asia. Everyone here should be very clear on this point.

The reason the Li family agreed to Lin Haoran, ultimately ceding their controlling stake and even allowing him to increase his equity to fifty-one percent through financing, was because Lin Haoran promised them many benefits!

Under normal circumstances, if we didn’t target the Bank of East Asia, its future development would indeed be very promising. In the Li family’s original expectations, by leveraging Lin Haoran’s capital strength, the Bank of East Asia could not only further solidify its leading position among Chinese-owned banks.

It might even have been able to break the long-standing monopoly of British-owned banks in Hong Kong’s financial market, bringing the Li family even more substantial financial returns and greater social prestige. This was the most crucial reason they ultimately agreed to let Lin Haoran take control of the Bank of East Asia!”

Chapter 591: The Plan was Too Perfect!

The entire conference room was silent, everyone waiting for William Purves to continue.

William Purves’s gaze swept across the room, a faint, almost imperceptible smile playing on his lips. He continued, “Li Peicai’s family has only been allied with Lin Haoran for a short time. Their foundation is still shallow.

“The bond of interest between them, which appears tight and unbreakable, is in fact incredibly fragile, like a meticulously built house of cards. With the slightest external force, it will come crashing down. And we are going to be that external force.

“On one hand, Mr. Michael Sandberg will personally and discreetly approach Li Fushu to discuss the grim situation the Bank of East Asia is currently facing. Under HSBC’s comprehensive, full-scale suppression, the Bank of East Asia will have no future prospects.

“I believe the Li family is also aware that once the Bank of East Asia is isolated by the entire Hong Kong financial community, it will have to rely solely on the business from Lin Haoran’s companies, while almost all other clients will flee. Its twenty branches in Hong Kong will eventually have to close down one by one due to a lack of business. The family’s reputation will suffer a severe blow, and they might even fall into an abyss from which they can never recover.

“The most crucial point is that Lin Haoran now holds a controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia. Although he has seemingly left the management rights with the Li family, it is only because they still have value to him. Once Lin Haoran no longer needs them in the future, it is highly likely he will kick them out. I believe this is something the Li family is definitely worried about.

“Of course, we won’t just show the Li family the risks; we must also make them an extremely tempting promise.

“As long as the Li family is willing to cooperate with us, completely sever ties with the Bank of East Asia, and even provide us with certain support at critical moments—for instance, by helping us obtain sensitive internal information from the Bank of East Asia or using their influence to hinder some of Lin Haoran’s actions.

“Then in the grand chess game of Hong Kong’s future financial market integration, we will certainly reserve a place for them, giving them the status and benefits they deserve.

“Whether it’s participating in major financial projects or getting a piece of the pie in the new financial landscape, I believe that after so many years in the banking industry, the Li family is unwilling to be mere managers living under someone else’s roof.

“Furthermore, as you’ve all seen, the Bank of East Asia’s market capitalization doubled today. For the Li family, this is undoubtedly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“If they can seize this market trend and decisively sell their shares in the Bank of East Asia while the stock price is high, they will acquire a staggering amount of wealth.

“These funds would be enough for them to establish a new major bank. With their years of experience in the banking industry, I believe this would not be a bad path for them to take.

“However, if they insist on joining forces with Lin Haoran, what awaits them is a bank with a capped ceiling. Lin Haoran has risen too quickly. If one day his business falters and his capital chain breaks, the Bank of East Asia will be directly affected and suffer a complete market crash!

“Considering all these factors, I have every reason to believe that the probability of persuading the Li family to completely abandon the Bank of East Asia is much greater than we might imagine.

“Once the Li family publicly announces a complete break with the Bank of East Asia, it would be nothing short of disastrous news for the bank.

“Losing the Li family, its crucial soul and core pillar, the Bank of East Asia would be like a giant that has lost its backbone. Even if it still appears massive on the outside, it would quickly lose its direction in the brutal competition of the financial market and teeter on the brink of chaos and collapse.”

William Purves recounted the plan in detail, providing a thorough analysis of how to shatter the alliance between Lin Haoran and Li Peicai’s family.

After William Purves finished speaking, a subtle, heavy silence still hung in the conference room. Everyone was immersed in the conception of his brilliant strategy, mulling over its deeper implications.

After a moment, it was Michael Sandberg who broke the silence. “Mr. Purves, I have to say, your plan is indeed intricately linked and strikes at the heart of the matter. However, I still have some doubts.

“Li Fushu is no ordinary man. He is a seasoned veteran of the business world, a deep thinker. How can we ensure that he will be easily swayed to abandon his cooperation with Lin Haoran after just hearing our analysis of the pros and cons?”

William Purves seemed to have anticipated this question. He responded calmly, “What you say is true, Mr. Michael Sandberg. Li Fushu is indeed a formidable opponent, but for that very reason, we must plan even more meticulously and advance cautiously.

“To make him waver, we need to be better prepared. When you meet with him, Mr. Michael Sandberg, in addition to stating the Bank of East Asia’s current difficulties and future risks, you can also bring up some risks that the Li family may not have noticed.

“For example, Lin Haoran’s rise has been astonishingly fast, and his business style is aggressive. He has inevitably made many enemies during his expansion.

“Take Jardine Matheson & Co., for instance. They have now become Lin Haoran’s arch-nemesis. Although they were forced to abandon their business in Hong Kong, their power remains intact. Backed by numerous powerful financial groups, they might seek revenge against Lin Haoran in the future.

“As the Bank of East Asia becomes more deeply tied to him, the Li family will inevitably be drawn into these complex conflicts of interest and whirlpools of risk, possibly even becoming a target for various forces. The Li family may not have fully anticipated these potential crises. If we point them out now, it will surely plant a seed of doubt in his heart.”

Upon hearing this, Michael Sandberg’s eyes filled with admiration. He stood up, applauding, and said, “Gentlemen, Mr. Purves’s plan is comprehensive and meticulous. He has considered all possible risks and countermeasures. I believe his plan is feasible!”

After Michael Sandberg finished, the executives present also began to applaud.

This signified that all the HSBC executives in the room approved of William Purves’s proposal.

And so, an operation targeting Lin Haoran and the Bank of East Asia was set in motion.

Next, Michael Sandberg and John Bao had a great deal of work to do. They needed to act separately and schedule meetings with the ultimate owners of various banks.

Especially with Li Fushu of the Bank of East Asia, Michael Sandberg needed to prepare thoroughly if he wanted to persuade him.

After all, Li Fushu was in an alliance with Lin Haoran. If he disagreed and revealed this information to Lin Haoran, then Lin Haoran would have ample time to prepare.

By the time everything had been discussed and decided, it was already evening.

Back in his office, Michael Sandberg sat in his chair, lost in thought.

He had known Lin Haoran for nearly three years now and had watched him grow from an ordinary wealthy man to his current status step by step.

Therefore, Michael Sandberg had never once dared to underestimate Lin Haoran. Though the man was young, he was not short on methods.

He did not want to see HSBC end up like Jardine Matheson & Co., not only defeated by Lin Haoran but also driven out of Hong Kong by him.

If that truly happened, his tenure as the Taipan of HSBC would be over.

At the same time, the influence he had built over the years would be completely destroyed, his reputation in the Hong Kong financial world would plummet, and he would become a laughingstock and a cautionary tale for casual conversation.

If it weren’t absolutely necessary, he really did not want to be Lin Haoran’s enemy.

After all, the man had built such a vast fortune on his own in just three short years. In this regard, HSBC paled in comparison.

A business prodigy like him would be hard to find anywhere else in the world.

But now, HSBC was facing a life-or-death situation. If HSBC truly ignored the Bank of East Asia, then given Lin Haoran’s rapid expansion and the deep ties between the Bank of East Asia and him, HSBC’s market share in Hong Kong would inevitably be further eroded.

In an already fiercely competitive business environment, the Bank of East Asia, leveraging Lin Haoran’s resources and power, would launch a strong offensive, leaving HSBC constrained at every turn.

Although in the short term, the Bank of East Asia could not possibly shake HSBC’s position.

But allowing them to develop unchecked was no different from slow suicide for HSBC.

Naturally, Michael Sandberg did not want to see such a scenario unfold, which was why he had tried to persuade Lin Haoran to merge the Bank of East Asia into HSBC through a share swap.

Unfortunately, he had failed in the end.

And this war, it had to be fought!

To be honest, when he left Lin Haoran’s reception room, he had slightly regretted being so impulsive at the time.

But thinking about it now, given Lin Haoran’s character, even if he had lowered his stance, made repeated concessions, and offered more sincere terms, Lin Haoran would likely not have easily agreed to this seemingly “win-win” stock-swap merger.

He would never be willing to hand over the Bank of East Asia empire he had worked so hard to build, nor would he be content to be subordinate to HSBC, becoming an ordinary shareholder.

Michael Sandberg could sense that Lin Haoran’s ambition was even greater than HSBC’s. He had felt it since the forceful acquisition of the Hongkong Land Group, which led to the reverse takeover of Jardine Matheson & Co.

Such a business war would be considered a classic case study, both spectacular and devastating, even on a global scale.

Lin Haoran’s daring, ruthlessness, and unconventional approach in the business world were like a sharp, unpredictable dagger that could deliver a fatal blow to an opponent at any moment.

Now, that dagger was pointed at HSBC, and Michael Sandberg could not afford the slightest bit of complacency or hesitation.

Therefore, if he didn’t want to watch HSBC’s market share inexplicably decline, declaring war directly was the best option.

And now, after hearing the plan proposed by William Purves, his confidence was growing.

They just needed to unite the Hong Kong financial industry into a solid bloc to besiege the Bank of East Asia, forcing all Hong Kong citizens and businesses to draw a clear line between the HSBC-led alliance and the Bank of East Asia.

Especially those leading enterprises that held the economic lifelines of Hong Kong. Besides Lin Haoran’s own companies, Michael Sandberg refused to believe that any other enterprise would dare to single-handedly defy the entire banking consortium of Hong Kong.

And by poaching the core of the Bank of East Asia—Li Peicai’s family—the bank would be like a strong man who has lost a kidney, strong in appearance only.

The plan was too perfect!

Chapter 592: The Li Family’s Betrayal? An Opportunity to Privatize the Bank of East Asia

The day after the Bank of East Asia’s stock price surged was a Saturday.

Therefore, the stock market was closed.

On this day, Hong Kong’s mainstream media was almost entirely focused on the Bank of East Asia and HSBC.

Everyone was speculating about when Lin Haoran would begin transferring his companies’ business from HSBC to the Bank of East Asia.

And how HSBC would deal with this crisis.

Discussions among the public could be heard on every street corner.

However, neither the Bank of East Asia nor HSBC responded to reporters’ requests for interviews; their senior executives remained silent.

HSBC had begun to move in secret.

And Lin Haoran was also waiting for HSBC’s move.

Uncertain of how HSBC planned to deal with the Bank of East Asia, his top priority was to prepare himself so he could handle whatever came his way.

Soon, Li Fushu personally received a home visit from Michael Sandberg.

No one outside knew what the two of them had discussed.

Meanwhile, the bosses of other major banks also began receiving personal visits from HSBC’s senior executives.

However, all of this was done secretly by HSBC, with no information being disclosed to the public.

On Saturday night, Lin Haoran received a fax from Cui Zilong at home.

The intelligence in the document was not extensive.

But it was enough to let Lin Haoran know that HSBC had finally made its move.

The intel included news of Michael Sandberg’s personal visit to Li Fushu, as well as his visits to other bank bosses.

Sandberg’s visit to Li Fushu had happened that morning, but by evening, Li Fushu had still not called Lin Haoran to mention it.

From this, it wasn’t hard for Lin Haoran to deduce that Li Fushu, who had previously been firm in his decision to follow him, was starting to have a change of heart.

Although he didn’t know what Michael Sandberg and Li Fushu had discussed or what benefits had been promised, the terms offered by HSBC must have been tempting enough.

Lin Haoran sighed.

Originally, he had been thinking of letting Li Fushu help him manage the Bank of East Asia.

But now, it seemed that idea might not come to fruition.

Lin Haoran now held a controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia, and it was clearly impossible for the Li family to reclaim it, even with HSBC’s help.

The most likely scenario was that Li Fushu intended to collude with HSBC, delivering a fatal blow to the Bank of East Asia at a critical moment. At the same time, he would lead his management team away, plunging the bank into temporary management chaos and disrupting business continuity.

At such a sensitive juncture in the financial markets, this kind of chaos could easily trigger a series of chain reactions, further shaking investor confidence, causing stock price volatility, and even sparking a panic-driven bank run among customers, severely damaging the reputation and market share the Bank of East Asia had worked so hard to build.

Lin Haoran’s eyes grew cold, his fingers tapping lightly on the desk as he pondered his countermeasures.

The promise to pledge allegiance to the Lam family now seemed rather laughable.

However, this was all just speculation for now. With no way to investigate further, his only option was to make adequate preparations.

For instance, if Li Peicai’s family completely abandoned the Bank of East Asia, he would need to find a successor.

If Li Fushu was truly convinced by HSBC to abandon the Bank of East Asia, it would indeed be a difficult problem for Lin Haoran in the short term.

He knew nothing about steering the banking industry. If Li Fushu left with the entire senior executive team, the damage to the Bank of East Asia would be significant.

The urgent task now was to find a counter-strategy—one that could both guard against Li Fushu’s potential betrayal and lay the groundwork for the bank’s long-term development.

As for Michael Sandberg’s purpose in visiting the other bank bosses, he was also temporarily in the dark.

Lin Haoran rubbed his temples and sighed.

These were truly troubled times.

Facing a competitor like HSBC was certainly not easy.

In comparison, Jardine Matheson & Co. was clearly a much easier opponent to deal with.

He thought for a moment and then called Ma Shimin.

Ma Shimin should be home at this hour, so he dialed his home number directly.

Sure enough, it was Ma Shimin who answered the phone.

“Boss, is there something you need?” It was already past eight in the evening, so Ma Shimin was a little surprised to hear from Lin Haoran at this hour.

“Yes, something very important,” Lin Haoran said, then proceeded to relay the intelligence he had received from Cui Zilong, along with his own speculations.

Among his many top lieutenants, Ma Shimin’s abilities were undoubtedly the strongest.

After all, Ma Shimin managed a massive enterprise like the Hongkong Land Group with perfect order, and its performance was flourishing. His business acumen, management skills, and crisis management capabilities were all top-notch.

“Boss, do you mean that Li Peicai’s family might abandon the Bank of East Asia, and you want me to prepare for a rainy day by getting an interim team ready to take over the Bank of East Asia at a moment’s notice, should it be left without its senior executives?” Although Lin Haoran hadn’t stated this idea, Ma Shimin quickly grasped it.

Lin Haoran said grimly, “Mr. Ma, you’re as quick-witted as ever. Yes, that is my concern. Li Fushu’s failure to mention Michael Sandberg’s visit this morning is an early sign of a shift in his attitude.

“Furthermore, he didn’t go to the Bank of East Asia’s office at all today. If he truly colludes with HSBC and pulls out at a critical moment, the Bank of East Asia will be thrown into chaos.

“We have to prepare in advance for the unexpected. I know nothing about this field, so I can only rely on you.”

Lin Haoran had acquired the Bank of East Asia under the name of Universal Investment Company, so there was no direct relationship between the bank and the Hongkong Land Group.

However, the Hongkong Land Group was now essentially Lin Haoran’s private company, so it was perfectly normal for him to ask Ma Shimin for help at this time.

Ma Shimin was silent for a moment before replying, “Boss, rest assured, I will contact a few senior executives skilled in the financial industry tomorrow morning and discuss this with them in secret. Also, we are already prepared to withdraw our funds and business from HSBC at any time.”

“Good. Then I’ll have to trouble you with this, Mr. Ma!”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran sat on the sofa, lost in thought.

If things were as he suspected and Li Peicai’s family was going to abandon the Bank of East Asia, he wasn’t exactly panicked, just that he couldn’t find a suitable successor on such short notice.

He would find out HSBC’s plan sooner or later. For now, he could only wait for news from Cui Zilong.

The senior executive Cui Zilong had bribed was not a core member of the top brass and would be excluded from some important meetings.

Therefore, he only knew the general outline of events.

“If the Li family really betrays the Bank of East Asia, could I use this opportunity to privatize the bank?” The thought suddenly occurred to Lin Haoran.

Previously, because it was impossible for the Li family to completely give up the Bank of East Asia, he hadn’t considered privatizing it.

But now, he didn’t know what HSBC had said to the Li family to make them consider betraying the bank.

If so, could he really manage to completely privatize the Bank of East Asia?

By Sunday, Li Fushu still hadn’t made any calls to Lin Haoran.

In the study of the Li Peicai family villa, Li Fushu, Li Guobin, and several other core members of Li Peicai’s family were seated around an antique round table made of zitan wood. The atmosphere was solemn and oppressive.

“Dad, are we really going to agree to HSBC’s terms and cooperate with them?” Li Guobin asked in a low voice.

He had been the one to propose pledging allegiance to the Lam family.

At the time, his father had agreed.

But now, after Michael Sandberg’s visit, his father, Li Fushu, was having a change of heart.

“No matter how capable Lin Haoran is, he can’t hold up alone against the combined effort of all of Hong Kong’s banks to isolate him. The conditions HSBC has offered are an excellent opportunity for our family to escape our current predicament and reach a higher level.

“Although we made a promise to Lin Haoran before, it was all for the sake of利益. Lin Haoran forcibly seized the Bank of East Asia. The reason we submitted was simply that we were no match for him and were just lying low for the time being.

“Now that the situation has changed and HSBC has extended an olive branch, wouldn’t we be missing a golden opportunity if we didn’t take it?” Li Fushu said with great gravity.

The other core members of the Li family nodded frequently.

Although they had gradually come to accept the idea of relying on the Lam family, that was based on the belief that with Lin Haoran’s help, the Bank of East Asia could surpass Hang Seng Bank or even HSBC in the future.

But now, HSBC was planning to stop the Bank of East Asia’s development in its tracks. If they foolishly followed the Lam family all the way down this dark path, they might be met with the accelerated collapse of the Li family’s century-old foundation.

Lin Haoran had other industries and could afford the loss.

But the Li family’s main business was in banking. If they didn’t pull out and the Bank of East Asia lost the business war against HSBC, the Li family couldn’t afford the consequences!

Li Guobin was still hesitant.

Michael Sandberg had visited yesterday morning.

However, the Li family hadn’t agreed yet, precisely because Li Guobin hadn’t made up his mind.

“Guobin, do you really think Lin Haoran can take on the entire Hong Kong banking industry with just the Bank of East Asia? Give up that idea! We can’t afford the consequences if we continue to follow Lin Haoran!” Li Fushu sighed.

“That’s right. HSBC has promised us that they’ll launch their attack after we’ve finished selling off our shares. This way, we’ll have a chance to sell our stock at a high price, which maximizes the returns for our Li family.

“Although selling so many shares at once might cause the price to drop, we can at least recoup one billion Hong Kong dollars, or even more. For us, this is already a good option.”

Chapter 593: Haoran, I’ve Let You Down!

Tomorrow was Monday, so if they chose to exit the Bank of East Asia, the decision had to be made today.

That way, they could begin secretly selling off their shares in the Bank of East Asia during tomorrow’s trading day.

HSBC had promised them that if the Li Peicai family was willing to withdraw from the Bank of East Asia, they would delay the public announcement of the news for as long as possible.

This would give them enough time to sell off the shares they held.

Moreover, with the Bank of East Asia’s stock being so popular right now, it was the perfect time for a sell-off.

Once HSBC’s decision was made public, the Bank of East Asia’s stock would no longer be so sought-after. What would follow would be a drop in the stock price, possibly even a crash.

“Dad, we’ve signed many cooperation agreements with Lin Haoran. If we choose to listen to Michael Sandberg, we’ll essentially be breaking those contracts. We’d be completely offending Lin Haoran, and it would be difficult for us to continue operating in Hong Kong!” Li Guobin pointed out a major difficulty.

Whether it was HSBC or Lin Haoran, the Li family could not afford to offend either of them.

This was an undeniable fact.

So what if the Bank of East Asia, controlled by Lin Haoran, lost to HSBC?

Lin Haoran’s primary business wasn’t banking.

If they offended him and he decided to retaliate, it would be an incredibly simple matter for him.

“So, what I’m considering is how not to offend either side. We can’t stay in the Bank of East Asia, but Lin Haoran is, after all, the top dog among the Chinese-funded conglomerates. We must try to minimize the degree to which we offend him and find a relatively balanced solution,” Li Fushu said with a sigh.

He didn’t want to provoke either side.

Although their Li family was considered a top-tier tycoon family in Hong Kong, and even one of the Four Great Families, their strength in the business world was leagues apart from Lin Haoran’s.

The Lee family had already established a good relationship with Lin Haoran two years ago.

If their Li Peicai family were to fall out with Lin Haoran at this moment, even if the Bank of East Asia was eventually brought down by HSBC, it would be difficult for them to continue operating in Hong Kong.

After all, though Lin Haoran was young, no one considered him a pushover.

He had even forced Jardine Matheson & Co. to helplessly withdraw from the Hong Kong market. If such a person were a pushover, the law of the jungle, where the strong prey on the weak, would have long vanished from Hong Kong’s business world.

At this moment, Li Guobin knew that the Li family’s exit from the Bank of East Asia was inevitable.

He paced back and forth in the study for a long time before stopping. “Dad, right now it’s HSBC seeking our support, not just asking us to take sides. Since that’s the case, there’s room for negotiation. We can’t just do whatever HSBC tells us to do!

My idea is this: HSBC wants us to cause trouble internally while simultaneously exiting the Bank of East Asia. We absolutely cannot agree to this condition in its entirety.

Can we choose to only exit the Bank of East Asia, and then secretly confess to Lin Haoran that we were forced into this? Lin Haoran would have no reason to blame us.

At the same time, we can take this opportunity to terminate our contracts with Lin Haoran, which would be a dignified parting of ways for both sides.

That way, we wouldn’t offend either party. And after we cash out, we’ll have enough capital. We don’t have to be stuck in the banking industry. Perhaps this is the best time for us to change sectors.

Once our capital is freed up, combining our years of savings with the cash from the shares, we can come up with at least one to two billion Hong Kong dollars. Besides founding a new bank, the remaining funds will be enough for us to start fresh and enter a new industry!”

They were certainly unwilling to abandon their original line of work. After all, they possessed a vast network of connections, a solid reputation, and other assets in the financial industry that money couldn’t buy.

In the past, because the Bank of East Asia’s market share had not only been surpassed by Hang Seng Bank but had actually declined, their family had to devot all their energy to the bank. Coupled with their unfamiliarity with other industries, they had never dared to pursue diversified development.

But now, with the burden of the Bank of East Asia gone, they could perfectly seize this opportunity to try diversifying.

As soon as Li Guobin finished speaking, the core members of the Lee family present exchanged glances.

That’s right. Although HSBC had proposed several conditions, especially wanting them to stir up trouble within the Bank of East Asia, they didn’t have to agree to all of them.

Right now, it was HSBC that needed help from the Li family, not the other way around.

They weren’t fools. They had long understood that HSBC’s plan was to target the Bank of East Asia with a two-pronged approach, both internally and externally, to launch a business war.

And once their Li family withdrew from the Bank of East Asia, it would indeed have a significant internal impact on the bank.

It would definitely have a considerable short-term impact, even if not a long-term one.

Li Fushu was also a decisive man. After some careful consideration, he said directly, “Alright, we’ll proceed according to Guobin’s plan. As for Michael Sandberg, we can enter into a second round of negotiations with them to minimize the impact on us as much as possible.

As for Lin Haoran, I will meet him personally. I’ll be as candid as I can be and confess to him. HSBC wants to deal with Lin Haoran, and it’s possible he already knows. If we don’t say anything, he might find out through other channels, which would make it seem like we were deliberately hiding it, creating more suspicion.

How about this, Guobin, we’ll split up. You contact Mr. Michael Sandberg and personally continue the negotiations. With your steady personality, I believe you can secure the maximum possible leeway for our Li family. And I will go see Lin Haoran myself!”

“Okay, Dad. Leave HSBC to me,” Li Guobin took on the task.

This would be the second meeting with HSBC, so it was sufficient for Li Guobin, the President of the Bank of East Asia, to go.

But as for Lin Haoran, if they only sent Li Guobin to meet him, Lin Haoran would surely feel that their Li family did not value him.

If time permitted, they could have convinced HSBC first and then gone to see Lin Haoran together.

But there wasn’t enough time now, leaving no room for repeated mediation.

Therefore, after careful consideration, Li Fushu chose to meet Lin Haoran personally to explain that the Li family’s withdrawal from the Bank of East Asia was truly a matter of last resort.

As for causing trouble within the Bank of East Asia, he had no intention of doing so.

However, he would definitely have to take his trusted aides with him.

Even if he didn’t, Lin Haoran probably wouldn’t trust them to remain at the Bank of East Asia anyway.

Soon, Lin Haoran, who was at the Oriental Press Group, received a call from Li Fushu.

“Haoran, I have something important to discuss with you, but I hope we can meet somewhere private!” Li Fushu said gravely over the phone.

“Then come to the Fan Wah Building here in Wan Chai. There’s an office on the 19th floor. We can meet there,” Lin Haoran said after a moment’s thought.

“Alright, I’m on my way!” Li Fushu said and hung up.

Holding the mobile phone, Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

Could it be that the Li Peicai family’s talks with Jardine Matheson & Co. had fallen through, and Li Fushu had decided not to betray the Bank of East Asia after all?

Just this afternoon, he had gone to Cui Zilong’s office, where Cui Zilong had gathered some interesting intelligence.

Unexpectedly, not long after he had arrived, Li Fushu, who he thought might have already turned traitor, actually called him, even requesting a private meeting place.

So, Lin Haoran thought of the Fan Wah Building near the Oriental Press Group headquarters. This building was a property under the Hongkong Land Group.

It used to be an internal club for Jardine Matheson & Co.’s senior executives, but after the Hongkong Land Group was acquired by Lin Haoran, the place had been temporarily shelved.

In any case, he was somewhat relieved that Li Fushu was seeking him out personally. At least things weren’t as bad as he had imagined.

If the Li family did not abandon the Bank of East Asia, he would become even more powerful in his competition with HSBC.

Settle internal affairs before dealing with external threats, after all.

Half an hour later, Lin Haoran met Li Fushu on the 19th floor of the Fan Wah Building.

“Haoran, I’ve let you down!” was the first thing Li Fushu said upon seeing him.

“Oh? Elder Li, what do you mean by that?” Lin Haoran asked curiously, pretending to know nothing.

“To be honest with you, Mr. Michael Sandberg approached me yesterday. He promised our Li family many benefits, hoping we would cause trouble within the Bank of East Asia, hand over some confidential information to them, and completely sell off our shares in the bank. I didn’t agree at the time.

Also, there’s something I must tell you, but I hope you won’t leak it. HSBC is planning to rally all the banks in Hong Kong to isolate the Bank of East Asia by using the establishment of the Hong Kong Association of Banks to exclude it. At the same time, they will force clients to choose: any client who does business with the Bank of East Asia will be uniformly banned from cooperating with all other banks.

This tactic is extremely vicious. Once implemented, the Bank of East Asia will be isolated and helpless in Hong Kong’s financial world, facing an exodus of clients, business restrictions, and other bad news.

After careful consideration, on behalf of the Li family, I have decided to withdraw from the Bank of East Asia. We do not intend to get involved in the business disputes between you, but we absolutely have no intention of stabbing you in the back.

I came to see you today hoping to lay everything on the table to prevent greater animosity from growing between our two families. I hope you can understand our family’s actions.” After speaking, Li Fushu let out a sigh.

Originally, their Li family had thought that Lin Haoran taking control of the Bank of East Asia might be an opportunity for them to advance further in the banking industry.

But they never expected that HSBC would come up with a countermeasure so quickly, and that their opening move would be a killer.

Chapter 594: The Li Family’s Massive Stock Sell-Off

After hearing Li Fushu’s words, Lin Haoran fell silent for a moment.

He had originally thought that Li Fushu had come this time because his talks with HSBC had broken down and he intended to come clean with him, suggesting they join forces against HSBC.

To his surprise, Li Fushu’s intention was to avoid offending either side and to part ways with him instead.

However, in the process, he learned a piece of information he hadn’t been aware of before.

HSBC was planning to use the Hong Kong Association of Banks against him.

This was something Lin Haoran had not considered.

Ever since the news of him taking control of the Bank of East Asia spread, he knew HSBC would not let him go, because he knew Michael Sandberg was afraid of him.

Sandberg was wary of the immense capital behind him, his keen business acumen, and his growing influence in Hong Kong’s business community. In Lin Haoran’s hands, the Bank of East Asia could very well become a powerful force that could disrupt the existing financial landscape in Hong Kong, threatening HSBC’s dominant position.

But he hadn’t expected HSBC to be so ruthless.

This was a move to completely sever the Bank of East Asia’s external business, imposing a comprehensive blockade from financial cooperation and capital flows to client resources, to push the bank into a desperate and isolated situation!

He was, of course, aware of the Hong Kong Association of Banks. After acquiring the Bank of East Asia, Li Fushu had discussed it with him.

In the soon-to-be-established Hong Kong Association of Banks, the Bank of East Asia was originally supposed to be a council member.

But now, it seemed they wouldn’t even be a council member; HSBC intended to exclude the Bank of East Asia from the association entirely, not even granting it membership. This was undoubtedly a tactic of cutting the ground from under someone, aiming to completely isolate the Bank of East Asia at the level of industry regulations.

However, Lin Haoran guessed that the Li family’s reason for not wanting to offend HSBC was probably because the controlling stake of the Bank of East Asia was now in his hands, so the Li family no longer valued it as much.

“In any case, thank you, Elder Li, for being so candid. So, what does your Li family plan to do?” Lin Haoran asked in a deep voice.

Although Li Fushu intended not to join forces with him to face the challenge from HSBC, the fact that he had shared this information meant that Lin Haoran now owed him a favor, no matter what.

“We plan to sell off all our shares in the Bank of East Asia. Also, I will be stepping down from my position at the bank. But don’t worry, Haoran, I won’t cause any internal trouble. I will handle a proper handover.

“Furthermore, I’ll only be taking our Li family’s trusted aides with me. The remaining professional managers will stay with the Bank of East Asia, so its management won’t completely lose control,” Li Fushu stated his plan.

He didn’t ask Lin Haoran if he wanted to buy the Li family’s shares, because there was no need.

Given the Bank of East Asia’s current situation, once HSBC announced its move, it would definitely have a major impact on the bank’s stock.

A sharp drop in the share price would be unavoidable.

If he sold to Lin Haoran, he wouldn’t know how to set a high price.

If the price was too high, Lin Haoran wouldn’t be a sucker and accept it.

If it was too low, the Li family would be the ones to lose out.

Therefore, unless Lin Haoran made the offer himself, Li Fushu would not bring it up.

Lin Haoran nodded. The Li family’s actions could be considered fair to him.

Although fleeing at a critical moment was no different from being a traitor, the Li family ultimately owed him nothing.

“Haoran, what are your thoughts?” Li Fushu couldn’t help but ask when he saw Lin Haoran remain silent.

“Since you want to withdraw from the Bank of East Asia, then so be it. The alliance we previously discussed is now void!” Lin Haoran said directly.

Hearing this, Li Fushu’s anxious heart finally relaxed.

He had settled things on Lin Haoran’s end.

“Haoran, since that’s the case, I won’t disturb you any longer. I hope we’ll have a chance to cooperate in the future,” Li Fushu said as he stood up.

“Alright, Elder Li. Let’s leave it at that for now. Take care!” Lin Haoran nodded, but did not get up to see him out.

A chance to cooperate in the future?

That was impossible.

A single betrayal was enough to shatter the foundation of trust. Even if there were greater temptations in the future, Lin Haoran knew that joining hands with the Li family again would be like trying to piece together already-cracked porcelain. It might look whole, but it would be utterly fragile.

However, for him, wasn’t this a good opportunity to privatize the Bank of East Asia?

Originally, knowing that the Li family would never completely give up on the Bank of East Asia, and considering that very few private banks in the world had managed to become powerful, he had never intended to privatize the bank.

But now, faced with this situation, he had to consider privatizing the Bank of East Asia completely.

Even if it relied solely on his own industries, the Bank of East Asia could live very comfortably in the future.

That being the case, why should he worry about the threat from HSBC?

The financial business of his companies alone was enough to keep the Bank of East Asia well-fed.

Although its future potential might be somewhat limited by being isolated by the entire Hong Kong banking industry, Hong Kong wasn’t the only market. HSBC could isolate the Bank of East Asia in Hong Kong, but could it do the same internationally?

Besides, his purpose for acquiring a bank was only for his own convenience. He had never intended to focus on the banking industry.

Hongkong Land Group, Wanqing Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and his overseas investments—these were his priorities!

“The Li family, oh, the Li family. I was originally planning to help you develop, but it seems your family isn’t so fortunate,” Lin Haoran murmured to himself.

He truly had hoped to have an ally in Hong Kong like the Li family, who were skilled in managing banks. But since they chose to give up, he had no intention of trying to keep them.

Isolate the Bank of East Asia?

Lin Haoran had never been afraid.

Even if all its clients were lost, so what?

Besides, he was not without the power to fight back.

After all, he was now recognized as the richest man in Hong Kong.

HSBC could isolate him in the financial industry, but could it do the same in other industries?

Hongkong Electric Group, Hongkong Land Group, and others all had extensive collaborations with other companies.

Would these companies, which had business ties with him, so easily abandon the opportunity to cooperate with the vast business empire of the richest man in Hong Kong just because of a little pressure from HSBC?

He had seen plenty of these “choose one of two” tricks in his previous life.

Like the “Cat and Dog War,” the “3Q War,” the “yellow robe versus JD delivery choice,” and so on.

HSBC thought things would go so smoothly, but the final outcome wouldn’t be as perfect as they imagined.

This time, HSBC had well and truly shattered all pretenses with him.

Although he didn’t have a good countermeasure for the time being.

But so what?

At this moment, Lin Haoran was exceptionally calm, perhaps because he had never expected the Bank of East Asia to earn him much money in the first place!

Watching Li Fushu’s departing figure, Lin Haoran sighed.

At this moment, he finally understood deeply that in the business world, there were no true allies.

The essence of the business world was simply that interests came first!

Lin Haoran took a light sip of tea. The bitterness spread across his tongue, but it also made him more clear-headed.

He put down the teacup, his gaze gradually sharpening. Since HSBC wanted to flip the table, he would play along to the end and see who would have the last laugh in this war without smoke.

The banking industry was not his primary business. He could afford to gamble. Even if he failed, as long as he didn’t fall, the Bank of East Asia could live comfortably relying on his many other industries.

But it was different for HSBC. If it won, the gains wouldn’t be that high.

But if it lost, it would be a fatal blow to HSBC!

…

Time quickly passed, and another day went by. It was now June 8th.

And today was a Monday.

A new trading day on the stock market had arrived.

The news of HSBC’s impending move against the Bank of East Asia had not been leaked, as someone had deliberately suppressed it.

Therefore, as soon as the stock market opened today, the share price of the Bank of East Asia continued to rise, just as it had on the previous trading day. The enthusiasm of the shareholders was extremely high.

However, the rise didn’t last long before it stalled.

Because everyone noticed that there seemed to be more sell orders today.

Behind this, of course, was the Li family making their move.

They owned too many shares. Selling them off bit by bit would take forever.

Therefore, in order to offload them as quickly as possible without causing excessive market panic and a stock price crash, the Li family arranged for a team of professional traders to gradually sell off the shares in batches and at different price points.

But even so, such a large-scale sell-off inevitably caused subtle changes in the market.

So, the stock price of the Bank of East Asia did not skyrocket as many shareholders had imagined. Instead, it showed a slight downward trend.

Despite this, many shareholders still believed that the future market capitalization of the Bank of East Asia would soar as Lin Haoran transferred the business of his companies over.

The current stock price was definitely still low.

So, even with the Li family’s sell-off, there were still plenty of people willing to be the bag holders.

In Connaught Centre, at Galaxy Securities, Lin Haoran sat in his office, watching everything coldly.

He did not interfere with the Li family’s selling of their stocks.

Ever since the idea of privatizing the Bank of East Asia came to him, he had decided to let the Li family sell their shares smoothly for the time being.

Since HSBC would sooner or later announce their battle against him, the stock price was bound to fall back down.

He would make his move then.

The financial operations of companies like Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group had not yet been transferred from other banks to the Bank of East Asia. This matter was ultimately his decision. Those shareholders who thought the bank’s stock would soar because of this transfer were being too naive.

When the time came, he would begin to privatize the Bank of East Asia. Wouldn’t that make things even smoother?

As for these shareholders who were about to become leeks, they could only blame HSBC.

Chapter 595: Crashing the Market, the Stock Price Returns to a Low Point

In the blink of an eye, three days passed.

Today was June 11th, a Thursday.

For the past three days, the stock market had been in a very strange state.

The media had been hyping up the Bank of East Asia to an extreme degree, yet there was an incredible volume of both buy and sell orders. Most importantly, the stock price failed to rise; in fact, it had dropped quite a bit.

Last Friday, the Bank of East Asia’s market capitalization had once soared to 5.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, setting a new record for the bank and even pushing it into the top ten listed companies in Hong Kong.

But from Monday to Wednesday this week, its market capitalization had fallen back to just over four billion Hong Kong dollars.

This was somewhat incongruous with the rosy future everyone had predicted for the bank.

The main reason was that Li Peicai’s family had dumped over ten million shares onto the market in just three short days.

Some of the major players who had received inside information, as well as the few shareholders who followed the Li family’s lead, had also started selling.

One could only imagine how frenzied the trading volume for Bank of East Asia stock had been these past few days.

With such a massive volume, it was impossible to maintain a share price that kept the market cap above five billion Hong Kong dollars, no matter how miraculously the bank’s future was portrayed. The fact that the decline had been so slow was already unexpected.

During these three days, the Bank of East Asia had operated as usual. Both Li Fushu and Li Guobin were seen at the company, but anyone familiar with the bank would have noticed several new senior executives.

These executives had been dispatched by Ma Shimin from the Hongkong Land Group and were handling the transition with the Li family during this period.

Since Li Peicai’s family and Lin Haoran had not turned hostile, the handover between the two parties was proceeding smoothly.

At nine in the morning, Hong Kong once again entered its fast-paced workday.

The stock market was set to open in half an hour.

At this moment, in Li Fushu’s office, the father and son were discussing a certain matter.

“Dad, are we really going to crash the market? The Bank of East Asia’s stock price could plummet!” Li Guobin was hesitant about the plan they were about to execute.

“HSBC only gave us four days. Tomorrow, they will officially declare war on the Bank of East Asia. The bank’s stock price is bound to fall then anyway. What difference does it make if we sell now or later? If we truly believed Lin Haoran could beat HSBC, we wouldn’t be pulling out of the Bank of East Asia in the first place. Over the past three days, we’ve already sold off more than half of our shares, and the capital we’ve recovered is more than we imagined. From now on, we’ll sell as much as we can. Even if we don’t sell, Old Huang and the others, along with a few market makers who already know HSBC’s plan, will definitely sell!” Li Fushu sighed.

“But there has to be a bottom line. No matter how much HSBC targets the Bank of East Asia, it’s still valuable. We can’t just sell off our shares with no limit, can we?” Li Guobin said with a frown.

Although the prices from the past three days’ sales had left the Li family very satisfied, having recouped nearly five hundred million Hong Kong dollars, the selling price for the remaining shares couldn’t possibly be as high.

“Guobin, yesterday afternoon, while you were leading the team to prepare for the new bank, your second uncle and I discussed this privately. We feel that as long as the price is above 26 Hong Kong dollars per share, we can sell. If it falls below that, we can contact Lin Haoran and see if we can sell the shares to him. Knowing Lin Haoran’s character, I think he’s probably planning to take the Bank of East Asia private anyway!” Li Fushu said with a smile.

The price of 26 Hong Kong dollars per share was, in fact, the price before Lin Haoran took control of the Bank of East Asia.

By setting this as his bottom line, Li Fushu would not incur a loss.

Li Guobin pondered for a moment before nodding in agreement with the decision.

On Sunday, Li Guobin and Michael Sandberg had their second discussion regarding the Bank of East Asia, and they ultimately managed to negotiate terms favorable to the Li family.

To summarize, the Li family would not interfere in the business war between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia. In return, HSBC would give the Li family four days to sell their shares. During this period, although HSBC would be making moves behind the scenes, they would not publicly announce their plans.

Furthermore, after the Li family completely withdrew from the Bank of East Asia, they would immediately establish a new bank. The newly formed Hong Kong Association of Banks would then be required to reserve a council member position for their Li Peicai family.

It seemed as though the Li family was not paying any price, but in reality, HSBC’s main objective was simply to have the Li Peicai family withdraw entirely from the Bank of East Asia.

In Michael Sandberg’s view, without the Li Peicai family, the Bank of East Asia was like a body without a soul.

But if the Li Peicai family joined forces with Lin Haoran, the fight would become much more difficult for HSBC.

Therefore, HSBC ultimately chose to make a concession.

However, they couldn’t wait indefinitely for the Li family to sell off their shares. After negotiations, both sides agreed to give the Li Peicai family four days to sell.

The Li Peicai family held nearly thirty-four million shares of the Bank of East Asia, which, even after the new financing, still accounted for 24.34% of the total shares.

Thus, it was simply impossible to sell them all off perfectly at a good price in just four days.

Nevertheless, in the first three days, they had successfully sold more than half.

Now, on the final trading day, they decided to crash the market with a massive sell-off.

Besides the Li family, several other powerful groups with inside knowledge were also selling.

These major players, especially those in the financial industry, had been operating in Hong Kong’s financial sector for many years, some for generations. They were well aware of HSBC’s absolute dominance.

Once HSBC officially declared war on a company, its methods were ruthless and its resources vast, often leaving its opponents with no ability to fight back.

Although Lin Haoran’s power in Hong Kong’s business world was on par with HSBC’s, they were now competing in the banking industry.

And in banking, Lin Haoran was undoubtedly a newcomer.

Under these circumstances, no one believed Lin Haoran could win this competition.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that Lin Haoran was strong enough to drive out Jardine Matheson & Co.; after all, Jardine Matheson itself had once lost to HSBC.

Although Lin Haoran’s control of the Bank of East Asia meant it would be backed by the capital and business of companies like the Hongkong Land Group, his rise had been too short. He hadn’t been tested by the market over a long period or weathered complex games of strategy. No one could be sure if he could maintain his current momentum.

As the saying goes, the bird that sticks its head out gets shot. In the eyes of many of Hong Kong’s top tycoons, Lin Haoran was that bird. He seemed impressive, but he was actually surrounded by hidden risks. One wrong move could lead to utter defeat and plunge him into a state of irreparable ruin.

Under pressure from HSBC, the Bank of East Asia’s business would gradually decline. In this way, the bank’s fate was tied to Lin Haoran’s other enterprises.

If one day his capital chain broke, or he even went bankrupt and had to sell off assets, then the Bank of East Asia would become worthless!

HSBC’s dominance was deeply ingrained in people’s minds, leading them to believe that Lin Haoran had no advantage in this fight and that his other businesses might even be dragged down with him.

Li Fushu and the others shared this view.

Compounded by the pressure from HSBC for their family to completely exit the Bank of East Asia, they had no intention of holding on to any shares and only wanted to sell them all off as soon as possible.

Continuing to hold Bank of East Asia stock was just too risky.

Half an hour later, Hong Kong’s four stock exchanges officially opened, and the trading volume for Bank of East Asia stock was as massive as ever.

There were huge numbers of both buy and sell orders.

Shareholders seemed to have grown accustomed to this rhythm.

Meanwhile, another stock, HSBC’s, saw its trading volume plummet over the past few days.

This was because HSBC had made no public announcement of any counter-strategy.

To outsiders, it looked like HSBC had conceded defeat.

However, the decline wasn’t as terrifying as it had been on Friday.

Even so, HSBC’s market capitalization had stabilized at around 19 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Even without major clients like the Hongkong Land Group, HSBC’s position in Hong Kong’s financial world remained unshakable.

Therefore, no one believed that HSBC’s market capitalization would continue to shrink drastically and that it would fall from grace.

After the market opened, the Li Peicai family’s private trading team began selling off shares in a controlled manner.

The decline of the Bank of East Asia’s stock price was kept within a manageable range.

Although they planned to crash the market, they wouldn’t dump all their shares at once unless it was the last resort.

The Bank of East Asia’s market capitalization was steadily dropping, but the decline wasn’t rapid. Occasionally, it even showed signs of recovery.

This was the result of the trading team deliberately pushing the price up at times to create a false impression that the stock price still had support. This was done to calm some of the uninformed small and medium-sized investors and prevent a large-scale panic sell-off, which would cause the price to plummet and make it difficult for them to sell their remaining shares at a desirable price.

Time quickly passed, and soon it was 3:30 in the afternoon.

This meant there was only half an hour left before the stock market closed.

“Sell!” In a secret trading office, Li Fushu calmly instructed the person in charge.

They had sold over five million more shares today, meaning the Li Peicai family had sold over twenty-one million shares in the past four days.

With less than thirteen million shares left, they would get whatever they could from crashing the market.

At the traders’ command, a large number of buy orders were quickly filled.

In just ten minutes, the Li Peicai family sold another three million-plus shares. At this point, they held less than ten million shares of the Bank of East Asia.

The Bank of East Asia’s stock price came to a halt at 26 Hong Kong dollars per share.

The shareholders who were in the dark, along with some major investment groups who were unaware of the inside story, were all dumbfounded.

What on earth was happening with the Bank of East Asia?

Wasn’t everyone optimistic about its future development?

Chapter 596: Lin Haoran’s Confidence

And after the stock price fell to 26 Hong Kong dollars per share, the trading volume suddenly plummeted.

The shareholders were clueless as to why trading in Bank of East Asia’s stock had become so bizarre.

However, they knew enough to be afraid.

For the Bank of East Asia to be hit by such a massive sell-off, it was almost certain that there was some inside information they weren’t privy to.

Ordinary shareholders have almost all experienced being “reaped like leeks.”

The Bank of East Asia had announced good news on Friday, followed by a sudden surge where its stock price even doubled.

But come Monday, the trading volume remained high.

Today, it was even hit with a massive sell-off.

From Monday to Wednesday, although the trading volume was also high, the stock ultimately saw a significant drop, though the price was occasionally pulled back up.

But now, such a massive dump of shares had stunned everyone.

This scene was so reminiscent of all the previous times they had been reaped like leeks!

And so, a wave of panic quickly spread among the shareholders.

No one knew why this was happening or what had transpired.

But it was obvious that something was very wrong.

The small and medium shareholders who had been hesitating about whether to sell could no longer sit still. They all joined the selling frenzy, not caring that the price was already painfully low.

More and more sell orders were being placed, but the trading volume was shrinking, and the backlog of pending orders was growing.

However, no one was willing to list their shares at too low a price; 25 Hong Kong dollars was already their psychological limit.

Yet, their pending orders were useless. At this moment, the Bank of East Asia’s trading volume had instantly dropped from tens of thousands or even millions of shares per minute to barely ten thousand shares traded in a whole minute.

This situation panicked the shareholders even more.

Most of them were just ordinary shareholders with limited knowledge. They wouldn’t consider what Bank of East Asia’s true market capitalization was; all they knew was that they were now the “leeks” being reaped. At this point, they just wanted to run for the hills as fast as possible, hoping to minimize their losses.

But they couldn’t just keep lowering their prices to sell, could they?

…

At the Connaught Centre, inside Galaxy Securities, Lin Haoran was also keeping a close eye on the fluctuations of the Bank of East Asia’s stock price.

For these four days, he had come over during the day to check on the situation with the Bank of East Asia.

Today, especially, he had been staring intently at it for the entire trading day.

Although Li Fushu had become a traitor, he was decent enough to have told Lin Haoran that HSBC had given the Li family four days.

Therefore, seeing the Bank of East Asia’s stock price continuously falling actually made him very happy.

Since he had already decided to privatize the Bank of East Asia, the Securities Commission’s restriction that he could not hold more than 51% of the shares had naturally become a mere formality.

The lower the stock price, the better!

That way, the cost of his privatization would be lower.

“Boss, the pending orders for Bank of East Asia stock between 25 and 26 Hong Kong dollars have already exceeded six million shares and are still piling up. Should we buy in?” Dai Shi asked, putting down the phone and turning to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran glanced at the wall clock. It was already 3:50 PM, meaning the market was about to close.

If he gave the order now, those six million shares would be his for the taking.

However, Lin Haoran thought for a moment and ultimately shook his head.

“No rush. Let’s just watch quietly,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Just the massive sell-off alone had brought the Bank of East Asia’s stock price back to where it was before he took control.

So, once HSBC and the other banks joined forces to announce the isolation of the Bank of East Asia, wouldn’t its stock price fall even further?

Most importantly, he still hadn’t announced that he would be transferring the financial operations of his subsidiaries, like the Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group, to the Bank of East Asia.

He held that initiative firmly in his hands.

With these companies not confirming the transfer of their financial business, coupled with the coordinated attack from HSBC and other banks, how much would the Bank of East Asia’s market capitalization be worth?

Therefore, he was not at all worried that someone would try to make a huge profit off him with the Bank of East Asia’s stock.

Right now, any faction with a bit of strength was staying as far away as possible.

Clang, clang, clang~

As the closing bells rang at the major stock exchanges, trading for the day came to a halt.

The final closing price for the Bank of East Asia was 25 Hong Kong dollars per share.

Although the trading volume in the last ten minutes was minuscule and most people had pending sell orders at 26 Hong Kong dollars, the small number of shareholders selling at 25 Hong Kong dollars was enough to drag the price down.

The inexplicable crash of the Bank of East Asia’s stock had become a hot topic of discussion for the entire city.

Those shareholders who had bought in at the peak were filled with regret.

They knew they had once again become bona fide leeks.

And what’s more, they had become leeks without even knowing why.

To this day, they still had no idea what had happened.

Why would the stock of the Bank of East Asia, which had been so highly regarded, experience something like this?

As a major shareholder, the Li family was indeed required to publicly announce any intention to sell their shares.

However, the timing of this announcement was very flexible. They only needed to give written notice to the other major shareholders in advance and obtain their consent; they didn’t need to announce it to the public beforehand.

And now, besides Lin Haoran, the other major shareholders were basically in the same camp as the Li family.

While the Li family was selling off their shares, the others had already started selling theirs as well.

And Lin Haoran had long since approved their sale.

Therefore, there were no obstacles whatsoever to the sale of shares by the Li family and the other major shareholders.

“I wonder how the Li family’s sell-off is going?” Lin Haoran mused.

This was a secret for the Li family, so he hadn’t asked about it these past few days.

However, just as he was thinking about this, the mobile phone beside him rang.

“Haoran, it’s me.” Li Fushu’s voice came from the other end of the line.

From his tone, Lin Haoran could tell that he was in a cheerful mood.

“Elder Li, it seems you’ve had quite a harvest in the stock market, haven’t you?” Although Lin Haoran wasn’t sure why he was calling, he still asked politely.

“Indeed, it went very smoothly. But I still have quite a few shares of the Bank of East Asia in my hands. I’m calling to ask if you have any interest in acquiring my remaining shares. Don’t worry, we’ll give you a good price,” Li Fushu said with a hearty laugh.

“Oh? How many shares are left? What price are you looking for? If the price is right, I don’t mind taking them off your hands,” Lin Haoran asked.

“9.32 million shares. If you want to acquire them, Haoran, I can make the decision to sell them to you at a price of 25 Hong Kong dollars per share!” Li Fushu said.

They knew that selling at 26 Hong Kong dollars was a bit unrealistic.

Most importantly, HSBC had informed them last night that they had already persuaded the majority of banks in Hong Kong.

As of last night, according to Michael Sandberg, practically every bank in Hong Kong—be it foreign or Chinese-owned—had been convinced by HSBC, with the exception of Citibank and a few foreign banks with limited operations in the city.

The isolation of the Bank of East Asia was a done deal.

It couldn’t be changed.

So, after discussing it, the Li father and son decided to sell at 25 Hong Kong dollars.

“That’s too high!” Lin Haoran rejected him outright.

“Haoran, I know your next step is definitely to privatize the Bank of East Asia. In that case, the shares we hold are essential. If you don’t acquire our shares, you won’t be able to successfully privatize the bank, will you?” From the Bank of East Asia’s headquarters, Li Fushu said with a frown.

“While that’s true, you and I both know that HSBC is likely preparing to declare war on the Bank of East Asia. You chose to pull out, so I imagine you’re not optimistic about the bank’s future, are you?

Furthermore, barring any surprises, the Bank of East Asia’s stock price will continue to fall tomorrow. Right now, not many of the major powers in Hong Kong’s business world have faith in me, I’m self-aware enough to know that.

Given all that, how much do you think the Bank of East Asia’s stock is still worth? Also, I’ll be honest with you: I have no intention of transferring the business of companies like the Hongkong Land Group to the Bank of East Asia until after the privatization is successful.

Elder Li, I’m not afraid to tell you, now that things have come to this, why should I continue to let everyone take advantage of me?” Lin Haoran finally played a highly intimidating “trump card.”

This was the source of his confidence.

After all, companies like the Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group were all his properties. He could transfer their financial business if he wanted to, and if he didn’t, there was nothing anyone could do about it.

This wasn’t business that the Bank of East Asia had earned on its own; it was his, Lin Haoran’s, personal business.

The other end of the line fell into a brief silence. Li Fushu was clearly caught off guard by Lin Haoran’s direct and precise analysis.

If Lin Haoran didn’t transfer the business from the Hongkong Land Group and his other companies to the Bank of East Asia after its isolation, then in Li Fushu’s eyes, the bank wouldn’t have much value left.

“By the way, there are dozens of reporters gathered downstairs. In a little while, I’ll be revealing to them that the Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group have temporarily not transferred their business. Once this news spreads throughout Hong Kong, I think you can imagine just how far the Bank of East Asia’s stock price will fall!” Lin Haoran continued.

The Li family was no longer his ally. Since that was the case, he naturally had no reason to be polite.

Besides, what he was doing couldn’t be considered stock manipulation.

If HSBC isolating him wasn’t considered stock manipulation, then there was no justice in the world.

Now, he, Lin Haoran, was the true chess player in this game with the Bank of East Asia. The initiative was firmly in his grasp.

As for how he would deal with the joint isolation from HSBC and the rest of Hong Kong’s financial industry, that was a matter for after he successfully privatized the bank.

For now, he wasn’t thinking that far ahead.

Upon hearing this, Li Fushu’s cheerful mood instantly plummeted as if he’d been thrown into an ice cellar. His hand unconsciously tightened around the phone.

At this moment, he felt a pang of regret. He regretted setting the lower limit for his stock sale at 26 Hong Kong dollars.

He had always believed that Lin Haoran would certainly want to privatize the Bank of East Asia.

That would have given him a certain degree of initiative.

But now, it seemed, what initiative did he have?

These nine million-plus shares had instead become a burden.

If he had known, he would have sold off as many as possible just now.

But it was too late for regrets.

“Mr. Lin, then what price are you willing to offer for the shares I hold?” Li Fushu’s way of addressing Lin Haoran had already changed, no longer so familiar.

Chapter 597: This Richest Man Lin Seems to Be in a Lot of Trouble!

Previously, the Li Peicai’s family had decided to align themselves with the Lam family and completely pledge their allegiance to Lin Haoran.

However, not even a month had passed before the Li family went back on their word and reneged on their decision.

In the face of profit, the so-called spirit of the contract vanished in an instant.

Since the Li family had acted this way, Lin Haoran naturally wouldn’t show them any mercy.

He could understand the Li Peicai’s family’s actions.

But understanding did not mean acceptance.

In this world where the strong prey on the weak, profit was like a giant magnet, attracting countless people to commit acts of treachery.

The Li family naively thought that by simply ending their cooperation with Lin Haoran, they could preemptively extricate themselves from the conflict between him and HSBC. It was nothing but indulging in wishful thinking!

However, the price of 20 Hong Kong dollars per share offered by Lin Haoran left Li Fushu extremely dissatisfied.

At 5 Hong Kong dollars less per share, they would lose over forty million Hong Kong dollars!

So, Li Fushu rejected the offer without a second thought.

“Mr. Lin, this is impossible. No matter how low the Bank of East Asia’s stock is sold for, it could never be worth only 20 Hong Kong dollars per share,” Li Fushu said angrily.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran chuckled. “Mr. Li, I’ve already given you a chance. I’ve done all I can. Don’t come crying to me later saying that Lin Haoran doesn’t care about old ties. Since that’s the case, Mr. Li, you can sell your shares on the secondary market!”

The two of them parted on bad terms.

Since the other party refused, Lin Haoran wouldn’t insist. The initiative was now in his hands.

Over nine million shares, even at 20 Hong Kong dollars per share, could still be sold for nearly two hundred million Hong Kong dollars. If the Bank of East Asia’s stock price continued to fall, he didn’t believe they could hold on to their shares forever.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran stood up from his chair and looked down at the bustling streets of Central below.

HSBC’s deterrent effect in the financial industry was truly immense, so much so that even an old-timer in banking like Li Fushu didn’t dare to oppose it!

But so what? He, Lin Haoran, dared to challenge it.

At this moment, Dai Shi, who was sitting at a desk nearby writing a summary, also stopped what he was doing.

“Mr. Dai, go and tell the reporters downstairs to get ready. I’ll be down in ten minutes. I have something to reveal to them,” Lin Haoran said after a moment’s thought.

“Yes, Boss. I’ll go right away.” After saying this, Dai Shi hurriedly left the office.

This group of reporters hadn’t just shown up today; they had been here every day for the past few days.

It was said to be the same over at the Bank of East Asia’s headquarters, but Li Fushu and other senior executives had refused to be interviewed. As a result, many reporters had split into two groups, hoping to gather some useful information from Lin Haoran.

After all, the massive trading volume of Bank of East Asia’s stock in recent days and its stagnant price had everyone wondering what the cause was.

And the fact that the Bank of East Asia had remained silent only intensified everyone’s curiosity.

Today, in particular, the Bank of East Asia’s stock market performance was even more abnormal. Someone had directly crashed the market, pushing the share price back to last Thursday’s level.

And last Thursday, the news of Lin Haoran taking control of the Bank of East Asia hadn’t yet been leaked. That was when the bank’s stock price was at its normal level.

Now, the entire affair was complicated and confusing, making it impossible for anyone to guess what had happened in the meantime.

Ten minutes later, Lin Haoran left the Galaxy Securities office and took the elevator down to the lobby of the Connaught Centre.

By now, more than fifty reporters, kept in order by security guards, were waiting expectantly, holding cameras, microphones, or notepads and pens.

When Lin Haoran appeared, a commotion broke out among the reporters.

However, with more than twenty security guards present, the crowd quickly quieted down again.

Lin Haoran glanced over and saw that representatives from all of Hong Kong’s major media outlets were present, including the Oriental Daily News, the Hong Kong Securities Daily, and the Hong Kong Commercial Daily.

Although the Oriental Daily News was one of his own, Lin Haoran had not revealed any information to them beforehand.

“Everyone, I know what you want to ask. But first, let me make it clear that I am not here to accept interviews. I am here mainly to reveal a few things to you.

“First, regarding the Bank of East Asia’s fluctuating stock price and whether there’s any inside story, I can tell you all right now that it has nothing to do with me. You can go ask HSBC.

“Second, concerning the financial operations of the companies under my umbrella, such as the Hongkong Land Group and the Hongkong Electric Group, the Bank of East Asia is currently in a period of turmoil. It is unsuitable for me to transfer all business to it. Therefore, I have no plans to transfer these financial operations at this time. You shouldn’t hold high expectations.

“Third, after discussing it with me, the Li Peicai’s family has decided to withdraw from the management of the Bank of East Asia. Although I tried to persuade them to stay, I won’t force the issue. Therefore, I will gradually have my people take over the management rights of the Bank of East Asia.

“That’s all I have to say. If you have any questions, you can ask Mr. Michael Sandberg and Mr. Li Fushu. I won’t say any more. Goodbye!”

After speaking, Lin Haoran decisively left the scene.

He left behind dozens of reporters, who could only look at each other in dismay.

Now that he planned to privatize the Bank of East Asia, how could he maximize his profit?

The natural course of action was to let the bank’s stock price fall to a low-price range, or better yet, to have it crash completely.

That way, he could privatize the Bank of East Asia more easily and at a lower cost.

In any case, the responsibility for this matter could not be placed on Lin Haoran.

Because, under normal circumstances, he was supposed to be the biggest victim!

HSBC, as the hegemon of the financial industry, had forced other banks to isolate the Bank of East Asia, which was a violation of the principle of fair competition in the financial market.

Meanwhile, the Li Peicai’s family had taken advantage of their advance knowledge to sell off their shares. In later years, this would be considered the crime of insider trading or manipulating the securities market.

Currently, stock market regulations were not yet fully developed. Even if the Securities Commission were to hand out a punishment, it wouldn’t be too severe. Moreover, HSBC must have made some promises to the Li family, which was why they dared to seize this opportunity to take a huge bite out of the shareholders and attempt to retreat unscathed.

So, what did any of this have to do with Lin Haoran?

He was the “victim,” just like the shareholders!

The Bank of East Asia, once the pride of Chinese-owned banks, was now being bullied by HSBC in collusion with other banks. As the controlling shareholder, shouldn’t he, Lin Haoran, be the biggest victim?

Therefore, Lin Haoran was delighted with the current situation.

He wanted the Li Peicai’s family and HSBC to take all the blame. As for himself, he was the underdog in the financial industry; the shareholders’ losses couldn’t be blamed on him.

This was only natural.

Although Lin Haoran didn’t say much, nor did he go into great detail, his words were enough for everyone to glean several bombshell revelations.

First, the massive sell-off of Bank of East Asia’s stock might be directly related to HSBC.

Second, since the Li Peicai’s family was completely withdrawing from the Bank of East Asia, it meant the bank no longer had any connection to the Li family.

These two points alone were explosive enough.

Everyone now wanted to know the more detailed inside story.

However, they already understood that whatever the inside story was, it was definitely not good news for the Bank of East Asia—it was bad news.

From Lin Haoran’s cold expression just now, a stark contrast to the usual broad smile he wore when facing reporters, they could sense something was deeply wrong.

This Richest Man Lin seemed to be in a lot of trouble!

And so, while sending people back to their offices, the reporters also headed toward HSBC.

They had never imagined that this matter would involve HSBC.

This was truly beyond any of the reporters’ expectations.

Could it be that HSBC was the real culprit behind the steep drop in the Bank of East Asia’s stock price?

The Connaught Centre and the HSBC Main Building were not far from each other, less than a kilometer apart.

Soon, a tide of reporters flooded into the lobby of the HSBC Main Building.

The staff in the lobby were startled by the sudden commotion and cast surprised glances their way.

The reporters swarmed forward, surrounding the front desk until it was impenetrable, and began firing off questions all at once.

“Is HSBC involved in the sharp fall of the Bank of East Asia’s stock price?”

“Has HSBC reached some kind of agreement with the Li Peicai’s family? Why is the Li family withdrawing from the Bank of East Asia?”

“What is HSBC’s motive for doing this?”

The front desk staffer was dizzy from the barrage of questions and didn’t know how to respond, only able to repeat, “Please wait, I’ll report this to my superiors.”

Soon, Michael Sandberg, in his office on the fifth floor, learned that a group of reporters wanted to interview him. The questions they were asking were relayed to his ears.

“Hmm? Who leaked this?” Michael Sandberg muttered to himself.

He had already spoken with the heads of almost every bank in Hong Kong. Most of them had yielded to HSBC’s deterrent effect and had no choice but to agree to isolate the Bank of East Asia with him.

Although a few bank leaders had not agreed, he figured they wouldn’t proactively leak the information either.

However, he had no intention of meeting with these reporters.

He said to his assistant, “Have someone respond to these reporters. Tell them that press invitations have already been sent to their companies regarding the establishment of the Hong Kong Association of Banks with the major banks of Hong Kong tomorrow at nine in the morning.

“Everything they want to know will be answered at the press conference. For now, tell them to go back and not to gather in the lobby and disrupt the bank’s normal business.”

“Yes, Taipan.” The assistant respectfully exited the office.

A moment later, the reporters reluctantly left the HSBC building.

However, they now knew for certain that something had definitely happened between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC.

Chapter 598: Michael Sandberg, Oh Michael Sandberg, Don’t You Blame Me for My Betrayal!

As for Michael Sandberg, he had received a definitive answer as early as last weekend about the establishment of the Hong Kong Association of Banks. It was set for nine o’clock tomorrow morning, Friday, June 12th.

Four days were given for Li Peicai’s family to conduct their sell-off, thereby severing the Li family’s core role in the Bank of East Asia and indirectly dealing it a heavy blow.

Once those four days were up, on Friday, the Hong Kong Association of Banks would be formally established.

And HSBC would officially announce its declaration of war against the Bank of East Asia to the public.

He had been holding it in for days. Watching HSBC’s stock price fall while being unable to say anything had left him burning with anxiety. After all, the major foreign financial groups behind HSBC had called him multiple times to express their dissatisfaction.

Shareholders don’t care about your plans; they only ever care about two things: one is performance dividends, and the other is the rise and fall of stock prices.

But to ensure the entire plan could proceed smoothly, he could only suppress his antsy feelings.

Now that the agreed-upon time with Li Peicai’s family had passed, he naturally wouldn’t hold back any longer.

Originally, he had been waiting for Lin Haoran to transfer the business of companies like the Hongkong Land Group to the Bank of East Asia.

Even if he was unwilling, he had to agree to this, because to obstruct it would be to destroy HSBC’s credibility.

So, even if Lin Haoran really made that move, he could only pinch his nose and cooperate.

However, what he hadn’t expected was that, to this day, the other party had not taken action. The existing business between companies like the Hongkong Land Group and the Hongkong Electric Group and HSBC was still proceeding as normal, with no sign of any intention to transfer.

Michael Sandberg even wondered to himself, what medicine was Lin Haoran selling in his gourd?

Did he have other plans, or was he trapped by the current situation, not daring to make a rash move?

Or perhaps, had he already decided to admit defeat?

If Lin Haoran truly admitted defeat, Michael Sandberg wouldn’t mind mending their relationship.

As long as Lin Haoran stayed out of the banking industry, HSBC’s biggest threat would be gone.

In that case, not only could HSBC continue to securely occupy the top seat in Hong Kong’s financial world, but it would also have no worries about being toppled from its dominant position in the future.

However, this was a hope he was fated never to see fulfilled.

And although the feud between HSBC and Lin Haoran had not spread among the general public.

Basically everyone in Hong Kong’s top business circles was already aware of the matter.

Including Li Jiacheng, Pao Yue-kong, Chen Songqing, Li Zhaoji, and others—they had all, through their own intelligence networks, learned more or less of the inside story.

However, their thoughts on the matter were all different.

These individuals had even begun to take sides in their hearts.

HSBC, along with all the members of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, would announce something shocking: all Hong Kong clients, including tycoons from the very top of the business world, must choose between the Hong Kong Association of Banks and the Bank of East Asia. They could either work exclusively with the banks in the Association or exclusively with the Bank of East Asia.

Without a doubt, if these people were forced to choose, the majority would pick HSBC.

Their enterprises were, for the most part, already cooperating with HSBC.

Otherwise, HSBC’s market share in Hong Kong would not be so enormous.

Li Jiacheng, in particular, had been able to take over Hutchison Whampoa entirely because of HSBC’s support. Without HSBC, his attempt to acquire Hutchison Whampoa would have been like a snake trying to swallow an elephant—virtually impossible.

At this moment, in a high-end recovery room at Queen Mary Hospital, Pao Yue-kong looked at the intelligence report his subordinate had personally delivered. After reading it, his feelings were extremely complicated.

Ever since he was diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer, he had quickly used his network to contact the top lung cancer experts at the MD Anderson Cancer Center.

After all, now that it had been discovered, the sooner the surgery, the higher the chance of a cure.

If he continued to delay, it might metastasize. By then, progressing from an early stage to an intermediate or even late stage would be a tragedy.

So, he first handed over all his work to his sons-in-law and then began preparations for the surgery.

Now, the experts from the MD Anderson Cancer Center were already on their way.

And he had already checked into Queen Mary Hospital to rest before the operation. The surgery would have a higher chance of success if his body was in its best possible condition.

“Michael Sandberg, oh Michael Sandberg, you’ve really created a huge problem for me!” Pao Yue-kong sighed, putting down the report.

He had worked with HSBC for many years. It could be said that without his partnership with HSBC, he, Pao Yue-kong, would not have achieved what he had today.

Even during the Kowloon Wharf acquisition battle, if not for HSBC’s help at the final moment, he would not have acquired Kowloon Wharf so successfully.

Although the price was enormous, it had all been worth it.

Therefore, he felt a sense of gratitude towards HSBC.

Even though all their interactions had been nothing more than business cooperation.

But it was undeniable that HSBC had contributed greatly to his career.

To be honest, he really didn’t want to offend HSBC.

But now, Lin Haoran was his benefactor, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a life-saving grace.

Without Lin Haoran’s reminder, he would never have known that he had cancer.

Under these circumstances, HSBC’s decision to force a choice between the two was undoubtedly putting him in a difficult position!

Normally, his companies’ business was already with HSBC. If he were to continue as usual, it would be fine, and no one would blame him.

But, in his heart, he couldn’t get over that hurdle.

“If Haoran is truly in deep trouble and I just stand by and watch, my conscience will trouble me for the rest of my life. When that time comes, Michael Sandberg, oh Michael Sandberg, don’t you blame me for my betrayal!” After some thought, Pao Yue-kong had made his decision.

If the competition between HSBC and Lin Haoran was a back-and-forth affair, and the Bank of East Asia wasn’t hit too hard, then he would bide his time and continue to cooperate with HSBC.

But if the Bank of East Asia was pushed into a desperate situation because of HSBC, with the one-time dragon head of Chinese-owned banks in Hong Kong clearly being forced to the brink of survival, then he, Pao Yue-kong, would have to step in and give Lin Haoran a hand, no matter what.

Immediately, he picked up the mobile phone from the small table beside his hospital bed and made a call to his second son-in-law, Wu Guangzheng, who was at the Kowloon Wharf headquarters.

This mobile phone had been personally delivered to him by Lin Haoran.

Ever since he received this mobile phone, which was still in its testing phase, the device was rarely more than two meters away from him. He had gradually come to appreciate the convenience of owning a mobile phone.

The call connected quickly.

“Guangzheng, come to Queen Mary Hospital. I have something to tell you!” After hearing Wu Guangzheng’s voice on the line, Pao Yue-kong said directly.

“Yes, Father-in-law. I’ll be right over!”

…

At the Carrian Group Chairman’s office, Chen Songqing’s eyes lit up as he looked at the report that had been handed to him, but at the same time, he felt a pang of regret.

If he had known about the internal turmoil at the Bank of East Asia a few days earlier, he definitely would have taken advantage of it. For example, the simplest thing would have been to short the Bank of East Asia’s stock, which would have earned him a handsome sum.

Today, Chen Songqing was long past the towering ambition he had shown last year.

Because, since the beginning of this year, he had felt that Hong Kong’s real estate prices could rise no further.

And how had he, Chen Songqing, managed to build such a vast commercial empire in just three or four years with only a few hundred thousand to a million Hong Kong dollars?

Others might not know, but how could he not know himself?

All of it was built upon the Hong Kong property bubble, achieved through high leverage, high risk, bribery, and even all sorts of unscrupulous operational methods.

However, a bubble is bound to burst one day. The current weakness in the Hong Kong property market made him sense that a crisis was approaching.

So, while on the surface Chen Songqing was still that new real estate tycoon of Hong Kong, inwardly he was very anxious.

Especially recently, with multiple loans from institutions including Bumiputra Finance and Hong Kong’s Bank of Communications about to mature.

And with property becoming increasingly difficult to sell, recouping funds was getting harder and harder.

If he couldn’t come up with any money, the Carrian Group would face a crisis of a broken capital chain.

Money. He needed money. He wanted to get money by any means, even if it was unscrupulous!

Otherwise, once the bubble burst, everything he now possessed would be reduced to nothing!

This was, naturally, something Chen Songqing was unwilling to see.

However, for financial institutions like Bumiputra Finance or Hong Kong’s Bank of Communications, which had worked with him many times, his cumulative debt with them was already approaching ten billion Hong Kong dollars.

He even understood that he had, in fact, become the biggest “King of Debt” in all of Hong Kong.

Under these circumstances, trying to get more loans from these banks, even if he used bribery and tried by any means necessary, would be extremely difficult.

Therefore, he had to go out and seek new banking partners, hoping to obtain more funds from them.

In the past, HSBC and his Carrian Group had cooperated, but HSBC was clearly much more rational, so their partnership was not extensive.

But now, wasn’t this “choose one of two” situation a perfect opportunity to build a good relationship with HSBC?

As long as he took the initiative to pledge his loyalty, supported HSBC, and transferred some of the Carrian Group’s banking business from Hong Kong’s Bank of Communications to HSBC, then perhaps Michael Sandberg would engage in a deeper level of cooperation with him, allowing him to obtain more loans from HSBC.

He was already more than proficient in these methods.

At this thought, Chen Songqing couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief.

He had already dug out several billion Hong Kong dollars from Bumiputra Finance alone. Trying to dig out more from them now was a difficult prospect.

But, as long as he could suck blood from HSBC, his crisis would naturally be averted for the short term.

As for long-term matters, he wasn’t about to consider them that much.

_head

Chapter 599: The Guo family will back you to the very end.

On the surface, the Carrian Group was a real estate tycoon with limitless potential and rapid growth.

In reality, only Chen Songqing and a few others knew that the Carrian Group was in a precarious situation.

If their capital chain broke, the consequences would be unthinkable.

Therefore, what Chen Songqing wanted most right now was to drag HSBC down with him.

As long as he could secure enough funding from HSBC, he could temporarily cover up the Carrian Group’s financial crisis and continue to maintain a façade of prosperity.

He had to seize any chance of survival, no matter how slim.

And now, with HSBC about to engage in business warfare with the Bank of East Asia, Chen Songqing saw it as the perfect opportunity to curry favor with HSBC. By finding enough loopholes, he might even be able to strike a series of cooperation agreements and find new funding.

As for the Bank of East Asia, he believed it had no chance of winning against HSBC in the banking industry, even with Lin Haoran’s abundant capital. Besides, Lin Haoran seemed to dislike him; his repeated friendly gestures had been met with no positive response, and he even sensed a hint of being targeted.

Thus, from the very beginning, Chen Songqing had never considered cooperating with the Bank of East Asia.

To deceive HSBC’s auditing mechanism, he needed sufficient proof of assets.

However, many of the Carrian Group’s properties were mortgaged with Bumiputra Finance and Hong Kong’s Bank of Communications.

Still, Chen Songqing was not without a plan. He came up with a feasible scheme.

Drag Yang Changdao, the general manager of Bumiputra Finance, down with him!

Yang Changdao’s contribution to the establishment of his Carrian Group commercial empire was undoubtedly the greatest!

Without Yang Changdao’s greed, he wouldn’t be where he was today.

Now, Yang Changdao was tied to the same boat. If he went down, Yang Changdao wouldn’t fare any better.

So, if he could get Yang Changdao to take out all the mortgaged assets, and even use Bumiputra Finance’s official seal to forge some additional asset-proof documents for him, he might be able to create the illusion that the Carrian Group was financially sound and had high-quality assets.

Before Lin Haoran took control of the Hongkong Land Group, even Hongkong Land had been completely fooled by Chen Songqing, partnering with him on numerous development projects. It wasn’t impossible to deceive HSBC as well.

Thus, a rough plan gradually took shape in Chen Songqing’s mind.

Since he had already squeezed Bumiputra Finance and Hong Kong’s Bank of Communications dry, it was now time to milk HSBC, the largest bank in Hong Kong.

…

Although HSBC’s plan had not been formally announced, many people were already aware of it.

The news obtained by reporters from Lin Haoran and HSBC, in particular, caused the matter to spread rapidly throughout the business community.

As the news continued to spread, some observant individuals conducted their own investigations based on the available clues and quickly pieced together the entire story.

Tycoons from all corners of the business world began to scheme, contemplating how to profit from this potential storm, or which side to choose.

Lin Haoran wasn’t overly concerned about the matter.

His top priority now was to figure out how to successfully privatize the Bank of East Asia, the largest Chinese-owned bank in Hong Kong, at a very low cost.

Perhaps, with the Bank of East Asia being isolated by HSBC and other allied banks, many clients would transfer their accounts. Coupled with the complete departure of Li Peicai’s family, the bank would suffer heavy losses.

However, even if the Bank of East Asia lost billions of Hong Kong dollars in business, he remained unfazed, as he was already prepared for it.

Besides, it was impossible for all customers to leave.

He, Lin Haoran, believed he still held some influence in Hong Kong.

Furthermore, with the Bank of East Asia’s mature and extensive financial channels, its good reputation built over sixty years, and its team of several thousand professional banking elites, privatizing it was much better than starting a new bank from scratch.

To avoid offending him, Li Peicai’s family had already promised that, apart from taking thirty-odd of their trusted aides, they would not poach any other employees.

After all, having reached an alliance with Lin Haoran, their midway retreat was already, to some extent, a violation of their unspoken cooperative understanding. If they were to cause trouble with personnel on top of that and completely infuriate Lin Haoran, they would likely find it difficult to navigate the Hong Kong business world in the future.

In Li Fushu’s view, although Lin Haoran couldn’t possibly win against HSBC in the banking sector, he remained an absolute hegemon in other industries, at least in the short term.

Therefore, Li Fushu was unwilling to offend either HSBC or Lin Haoran.

After the reporters left, he departed from Connaught Centre and returned to his Severn Road villa.

Kerry Group, Guo Henian’s office.

At this moment, Guo Henian was also looking at the intelligence report about HSBC’s impending move against Lin Haoran.

Beside him was his niece, Guo Xiaohan.

After Guo Henian finished reading, he handed the report to Guo Xiaohan.

Guo Xiaohan grew anxious after reading it.

“Uncle, you must help Haoran. These British-owned banks are just too despicable, ganging up on him like this. They’re clearly trying to use their accumulated advantages to suppress the Bank of East Asia.

Haoran has toiled and struggled to get where he is today in the Hong Kong business world. We can’t let them scheme against him so easily,” Guo Xiaohan said, her fine brows knitted together, her eyes full of worry and indignation.

Over the past decade, the Guo family’s investments in Hong Kong had grown increasingly large.

Especially in recent years, Guo Henian had decided to settle in Hong Kong and was planning to gradually shift his business interests there.

So, although the Guo family was known as Southeast Asia’s richest, their assets in Hong Kong were by no means small.

However, most of their funds were still deposited with HSBC, the largest bank in Hong Kong.

In fact, the majority of large companies in Hong Kong partnered with HSBC.

This was because their funds were safer, and HSBC’s professionalism, credibility, and vast financial network in the banking sector were unmatched by other banks.

Seeing Guo Xiaohan’s anxious expression, Guo Henian couldn’t help but sigh again, “You can’t keep a grown daughter at home!”

He was well aware of Guo Xiaohan’s feelings.

“Uncle, please help Haoran. It’s not like we rely on HSBC for our business,” hearing Guo Henian’s comment, Guo Xiaohan’s cheeks reddened, and she whined playfully.

Perhaps because Guo Xiaohan was exceptionally talented in business, and because her parents had entrusted him with her care, Guo Henian had always doted on her, raising her almost as his own daughter.

“Alright, alright, don’t worry. If Haoran really needs help later, I’ll immediately transfer all our company’s funds and business from HSBC to the Bank of East Asia.” Guo Henian raised his hand and glanced at his watch. It was already past six in the evening. “It’s getting late. We’ll pay Haoran a visit on our way.”

Over the past two years, the Guo family and Lin Haoran had already become the closest of allies.

Compared to that, what did HSBC matter?

Others might fear HSBC, but their Guo family did not.

After all, the Guo family was Southeast Asia’s richest man, with an incredibly strong network of connections and power in Southeast Asia. If HSBC dared to make a move against them, they could obstruct HSBC’s business in Southeast Asia at every turn, making them suffer the consequences.

Therefore, even though Guo Henian intended to gradually shift the family’s business focus to Hong Kong, he was not the least bit afraid of offending HSBC.

This was the source of the Guo family’s confidence.

Under normal circumstances, he naturally wouldn’t want to offend a dominant force like HSBC. But if he had to choose one of two, he would definitely choose to support Lin Haoran.

Upon hearing this, Guo Xiaohan’s face lit up with a smile.

So, Guo Henian first called Lin Haoran to inform him of their impending visit. After confirming that Lin Haoran was at home, he and Guo Xiaohan left the Kerry Group’s Hong Kong headquarters.

At the Severn Road villa, Lin Haoran put down his mobile phone, feeling a bit surprised.

He hadn’t expected Guo Henian to propose a visit at this time.

Could it be related to his conflict with HSBC?

Without thinking too much, he instructed the butler to add a few more dishes to tonight’s dinner.

At the same time, he also called Rosamund Kwan and told her not to come over tonight.

He had originally arranged for Rosamund Kwan to come over after she got off work.

However, with Guo Henian coming, Guo Xiaohan would surely come too. There was no telling how late they would talk. If Rosamund Kwan came over, it would be quite awkward.

Half an hour later, outside the Lin family villa, a Rolls-Royce parked in a space.

The arrivals were none other than Guo Henian and Guo Xiaohan.

“Haoran, we hope our sudden visit isn’t disturbing you,” Guo Henian asked with a smile.

“Uncle Guo, Xiaohan, you’ve come at the perfect time. Come on in, I’ve already arranged for dinner. As long as I’m home, you’re welcome anytime. How could you be a disturbance!” Lin Haoran said with great enthusiasm, stepping aside to let them in.

The Guo family had helped him a lot in Southeast Asia, so in the business world, the Guo family was the closest to him.

At the dinner table, they didn’t discuss work, but instead chatted about everyday matters.

Although the meal was lavish, they finished in about half an hour.

After dinner, Lin Haoran led Guo Henian and Guo Xiaohan to the study on the first floor. Like the lady of the house, Guo Xiaohan proactively and skillfully began to brew tea.

“Uncle Guo, you must have come over to discuss something, right?” Lin Haoran looked at Guo Henian and asked with a smile.

“Haoran, I’m already aware of the matter between you and HSBC. How do you plan to handle it? Are you confident?” Guo Henian asked seriously.

Lin Haoran wasn’t surprised to hear this; it was more or less what he had suspected.

When Guo Henian had called, he had already guessed that he was likely coming because of this matter.

“Uncle Guo, to be honest, I’m not entirely confident I can win against HSBC. After all, HSBC is the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry, while I’m just a novice in this field. So for now, I plan to take things as they come, but I will not compromise!” Lin Haoran thought for a moment and answered truthfully.

“Haoran, don’t worry. If you need it, the Guo family will back you to the very end. Just say the word, and we can transfer our funds and business from HSBC at any time!” Guo Henian promised solemnly.

Adding flowers to a brocade is not as good as providing a godsend.

Guo Henian might not be optimistic about Lin Haoran’s ability to withstand the pressure from HSBC in the banking sector, but he was optimistic about Lin Haoran’s potential in other industries.

In fact, Lin Haoran’s wealth and power were already on par with the Guo family’s. Therefore, Guo Henian’s decision was primarily based on a deep consideration of Lin Haoran’s personal abilities and future prospects.

As for doing it for Guo Xiaohan? That was impossible. Even if it was a factor, it was only a very small one.

In business, acting on emotion is the biggest taboo.

But at his age, Guo Henian was shrewd and calculating; he was certainly not acting on emotion.

Having weathered the storms of the business world for many years, Guo Henian knew that true allies were not defined by temporary gains or losses, but by their determination and actions to stand together through thick and thin.

Chapter 600: Citibank’s Refusal

“Uncle Guo, Xiaohan, take care. Come visit again when you have time!” Outside the Lin family villa, Lin Haoran saw the two Guo family members off.

“Alright. It’s late, Haoran, you shouldn’t stay out long either. Go back inside!” Guo Henian waved to him and got into the car with Guo Xiaohan.

It was already past nine o’clock in the evening.

The three of them had talked for a long time in the study.

This time, Guo Henian had come with sincerity.

With Guo Henian’s support, Lin Haoran felt an inexplicable sense of relief.

Currently, the Guo family’s investments in Hong Kong already amounted to several billion Hong Kong dollars.

And there would be even more in the future!

Once he completely privatized the Bank of East Asia, besides the business from his own companies like the Hongkong Land Group and the Hongkong Electric Group, gaining the financial business support of the Guo family in Hong Kong was undoubtedly tremendous news.

“This is what a true ally is!” Lin Haoran remarked with some emotion as he watched the taillights of the Rolls-Royce gradually recede into the distance.

Compared to the Li family, who had previously decided to be his ally only to skip town midway, the Guo family was the kind of truly trustworthy and solid partner he could fight alongside.

Under this test, the true colors of human nature and friendship were laid bare.

Back then, the Li family, in a bid to protect themselves, had abandoned their alliance and withdrawn at a critical moment, leaving Lin Haoran to face the precarious situation alone. Such an act revealed their selfishness and shortsightedness.

But the Guo family now stood steadfastly by his side, demonstrating through their actions what it meant to share weal and woe. This friendship also made him see more clearly who was truly worth his trust.

An impending business war had, conversely, become a touchstone for Lin Haoran to identify his reliable allies.

Lin Haoran stood in place, his gaze still following the distant car, his mind swirling with thoughts.

Only when the taillights had completely vanished did he turn and walk back into the villa.

He knew very well that the upcoming business war with HSBC would be a tough fight, but with the support of a major power like the Guo family, he felt much more confident.

One Guo family was worth thousands upon thousands of ordinary customers.

Time flew, and in the blink of an eye, the night passed. It was now June 12th.

At a little past eight in the morning, on the 15th floor of a commercial building next to the HSBC headquarters building, several hundred people had gathered.

Among them were chairmen and general managers from Hong Kong’s local banks, as well as representatives from foreign banks.

Such as HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Hang Seng Bank, Dah Sing Bank, Banque de l’Indochine, The Ka Wah Bank, Hang Lung Bank, Wing On Bank, Wing Lung Bank, Hong Nin Bank, and others.

Basically, most of the banks with operations in Hong Kong had sent a representative.

In addition, the major finance companies that did not have banking licenses had also mostly sent representatives.

Besides these individuals, reporters from dozens of Hong Kong’s major media outlets had also arrived.

They had received an invitation card from HSBC the previous night, and combined with what Lin Haoran had told reporters in the afternoon, every media company knew they were in for a good show.

This was the office of the soon-to-be-established Hong Kong Association of Banks, and they would officially announce its formation here today.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, according to our count, Citibank, Hong Kong’s Bank of Communications, and Nanyang Commercial Bank have not sent anyone!” As Michael Sandberg was mingling with other banking tycoons, an assistant came over and whispered in his ear.

Hearing this, Michael Sandberg’s brow furrowed tightly.

Citibank really wasn’t planning to get involved in this.

A few days ago, he had personally called Mr. Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank in faraway New York, hoping that Citibank’s Hong Kong branch would join HSBC in isolating the Bank of East Asia, and he had promised many benefits.

At the time, Mr. Walter Wriston had not given a definite answer, only saying that they would consider it.

Afterward, he kept asking the general manager of Citibank’s Hong Kong branch for the result, but never received a reply.

Now, there was no need to wonder anymore. They had rejected HSBC.

Citibank was a world-renowned international bank with branches all over the globe. Although HSBC was powerful, it couldn’t compare to Citibank in terms of internationalization.

Therefore, Citibank indeed had the resources and confidence to refuse HSBC.

He just couldn’t understand why they still refused after he had offered so many benefits.

He knew that Lin Haoran had considerable collaborations with Citibank, but in Michael Sandberg’s view, once Lin Haoran had his own major bank, his need for cooperation with external banks would surely decrease significantly.

This was the reason he believed he could persuade Citibank.

But in the end, they still chose to stay out of it.

A wave of frustration washed over Michael Sandberg, but he quickly suppressed it.

The Hong Kong Association of Banks was about to be established, and he couldn’t let this minor hiccup affect the bigger picture.

Little did he know that from Mr. Walter Wriston’s perspective, the benefits promised by HSBC were nothing.

Citibank had collaborated with Lin Haoran many times and had even watched him rise. They knew exactly how strong Lin Haoran’s money-making ability was.

Every time he worked with Citibank, the bank was able to earn a hefty commission.

Under these circumstances, why would they offend a benefactor they had spent so much effort cultivating?

Although Lin Haoran was now planning to run his own bank, Mr. Walter Wriston had investigated over the past few days and found that while the Bank of East Asia had started international operations, its market share was not very large.

Therefore, as long as Citibank maintained its good relationship with Lin Haoran, his future international capital cooperation would still fall to them.

As for the refusal from Hong Kong’s Bank of Communications and Nanyang Commercial Bank, Michael Sandberg was not surprised. It was only to be expected.

Because both Hong Kong’s Bank of Communications and Nanyang Commercial Bank were Chinese-funded banks.

Simply put, the controller behind these two banks was the north. There were political factors involved, and HSBC didn’t dare to offend them too much!

So, he wasn’t disappointed by their non-participation.

What disappointed him was that Citibank had ultimately refused.

Citibank’s refusal did indeed displease Michael Sandberg. After all, in his opinion, so what if Citibank was a global powerhouse? This was Hong Kong, and here, HSBC was the boss!

Although he was very displeased, it was impossible for him to actually move against Citibank, unless HSBC no longer wanted to pursue internationalization, especially in the United States market.

Right now, they were relying on Haitong Bank, their newly acquired vanguard, to do everything they could to increase their market share in the United States.

Offending Citibank would clearly be a very unwise move.

Thus, Michael Sandberg could only let it go for now.

However, looking at the large crowd gathered here, Michael Sandberg was suddenly filled with soaring ambition.

By coming here, they had already pledged to join the Hong Kong Association of Banks alliance. With so many banks and finance companies united, forcing all of Hong Kong’s customers to choose one of two, he refused to believe that anyone would choose to continue cooperating with the Bank of East Asia.

At this moment, he could almost see it: the Bank of East Asia, having lost all its customers, its twenty Hong Kong branches desolate and deserted, with clients few and far between, ultimately forced to close down one by one.

At this thought, Michael Sandberg couldn’t help but smile.

In his view, he didn’t care about other industries, but the banking sector was HSBC’s private preserve. He was unwilling to see a potential threat like Lin Haoran continue to expand on Hong Kong’s financial map.

He wanted to completely remove this “thorn in one’s side,” the Bank of East Asia, leaving HSBC with not a single lingering concern.

The time soon arrived at nine o’clock in the morning. The representatives of the various banks took their seats one after another.

There were name cards at each seat. In the middle of the front row were seats for the head of Hong Kong’s Treasury and HSBC’s Taipan, Michael Sandberg.

Originally, Michael Sandberg had invited the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Murray MacLehose.

However, considering that this was a competition between two commercial entities, Sir Murray MacLehose deemed it inappropriate for him to appear and thus declined the invitation.

Even so, the head of Hong Kong’s Treasury still came.

This was because the Hong Kong Association of Banks was itself established under the joint leadership of Michael Sandberg and the Hong Kong Treasury.

At this moment, the dozens of mainstream media outlets and over a hundred reporters all fell silent.

They were waiting to see what other major announcement Michael Sandberg would make, aside from the establishment of the Hong Kong Association of Banks.

Why wasn’t Citibank here?

Why had Lin Haoran said those things?

Why was Li Fushu, the great banking magnate, also absent?

Was HSBC involved in the sudden rise and fall of the Bank of East Asia’s stock price?

Many things remained a complete mystery.

Chapter 601: Michael Sandberg Openly Declares War

At that moment, the venue fell silent.

Gathered here today were nearly all the big shots of Hong Kong’s financial world.

If Li Fushu and the general manager of Citibank’s Hong Kong branch had also attended, it would have been an unprecedented gathering in the city’s financial history, a rare summit of the industry’s most influential figures.

Unfortunately, neither Li Fushu nor Citibank’s Hong Kong head was present, casting a slight shadow of regret over the grand occasion.

Citibank’s absence was self-explanatory, and Li Fushu’s reason for not attending was also quite simple. Although HSBC had promised him a seat as a Council member once he established his new bank, Li Fushu had not yet officially resigned from the Bank of East Asia. He was still in a transitional period of handing over his duties, meaning he was, for the time being, still representing the Bank of East Asia.

Therefore, it was highly inappropriate for Li Fushu to appear here today.

Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary slowly rose to his feet, straightened his suit, adjusted the microphone, and began to speak in a solemn tone befitting an English gentleman. “Ladies and gentlemen, friends from the media, good morning. Today, we gather here to witness a truly significant moment: the official establishment of the Hong Kong Association of Banks.”

“The financial industry is the lifeblood of Hong Kong’s economy, bringing endless prosperity and opportunity to our city. The founding of this association is of profound importance.”

“It will serve as a key platform for communication, cooperation, and self-regulation within the banking sector. By standardizing market operations and elevating service levels, it will undoubtedly contribute to the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong’s financial landscape.”

“On a personal note, I would like to extend my warmest congratulations on the establishment of the Hong Kong Association of Banks. I also sincerely hope that all parties will work hand in hand to guide Hong Kong’s financial industry toward new heights of brilliance.”

“Now, I will turn the floor over to Mr. Michael Sandberg. As the president of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, Mr. Sandberg will lead the industry on a new journey.” With that, he gave a slight bow, and the room erupted in polite yet enthusiastic applause.

Michael Sandberg also stood up from his seat and shook hands with the Financial Secretary.

To the surprise of everyone present, after a brief, private conversation away from the microphone, the Financial Secretary waved to the crowd, left his seat, and departed from the press conference.

If Lin Haoran had been there, he would have certainly guessed that the official had left after a few words to deliberately avoid the interview session, and by extension, to avoid HSBC’s declaration of war on the Bank of East Asia.

Although Sir Murray MacLehose was not present, the Financial Secretary’s position was far too sensitive.

And next, Michael Sandberg would sound the horn, declaring “war” on the Bank of East Asia.

HSBC had always regarded itself as the hegemon of the financial industry. By deciding to rally other banks to suppress the Bank of East Asia at the inauguration ceremony of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, it was openly trampling on the principle of fair competition in the financial market.

In the unique environment of Hong Kong at the time, the British were seen as first-class citizens, a cut above the rest. The Chinese, on the other hand, were relegated to the status of second-class citizens. It was an open secret that the colonial government favored Westerners, a fact that people had long grown accustomed to.

However, if the Financial Secretary had remained at the event, he would have undoubtedly become the target of a media scrum.

Once a reporter raised a sharp, controversial question, such as whether the government supported the joint action of Hong Kong’s major banks against the Bank of East Asia, the Financial Secretary would have been caught in a dilemma, unable to give a reply that would satisfy all parties.

That was why, during his speech, he had specifically emphasized that his attendance was in a personal capacity, not as a representative of the Treasury or the Governor’s Office.

Choosing to leave early allowed him to cleverly sidestep the reporters’ relentless barrage of questions.

Clearly, this Secretary was a seasoned old hand in politics and naturally knew how to handle such situations.

Though it smacked of wanting to have it both ways, in the intricate arena of political maneuvering, balancing superficial decorum with practical interests was a high art for these officials. Anyone who became a high-ranking official in the Government House was certainly no simpleton.

After the Financial Secretary’s departure, Michael Sandberg began his address.

Now, this was his home turf.

After all, as the president of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, coupled with HSBC’s absolute dominance in the city’s financial sector, what appeared to be a professional association was, in reality, an alliance of cliques under his command. With this new status, HSBC’s position in Hong Kong was even more unshakable.

It was undeniable that Lin Haoran now wielded considerable influence in Hong Kong’s business world. But if the scope was narrowed to the financial industry, in Michael Sandberg’s eyes, Lin Haoran was merely a fledgling who still needed to be tempered.

Although Lin Haoran had achieved remarkable success in various fields with his keen business acumen and decisive leadership, on the capital-intensive and rule-laden battlefield of finance, he still needed time and experience to build his foundation and influence.

And now, HSBC was setting the board in advance, preparing to use the power of the Hong Kong Association of Banks to further consolidate its financial hegemony while encircling the Bank of East Asia, leaving it with no place to stand in Hong Kong!

“Esteemed colleagues, the establishment of the Hong Kong Association of Banks today is undoubtedly a major milestone for our industry as it ascends to new heights. As the Chairman of the Board of HSBC, I am delighted to see our peers in Hong Kong’s banking sector so united.”

“I am sure you have all noticed that the Bank of East Asia is not present at this grand event today. There is a simple reason for this. In recent years, the Bank of East Asia has repeatedly deviated from established industry norms in its business strategies. In some of its operations, it has even shown signs of regulatory violations. This not only harms the vital interests of its customers but also poses a hidden threat to the overall stability of Hong Kong’s financial market.”

Michael Sandberg’s expression was solemn, his words seemingly backed by solid proof, but in reality, he was speaking without evidence. These so-called “crimes” were fabricated on the spot, with no proof to speak of.

He paused, his gaze sweeping across the audience, then continued, “We all know that a stable and orderly financial market depends on the self-discipline and adherence to rules of every participant. But the Bank of East Asia’s current actions are trampling on this industry’s bottom line. As the president of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, I feel the weight of my responsibility and must stand up and champion the long-term, healthy development of our industry.”

“Here, I state unequivocally that the Hong Kong Association of Banks will not permit a bank with potential compliance risks like the Bank of East Asia to become a member of our great family. This is why you do not see them here today.”

Isolating the Bank of East Asia simply required a trumped-up excuse. As for proof? They weren’t the Police Department or a court of law; they couldn’t care less about evidence.

The moment Michael Sandberg finished speaking, an uproar swept through the reporters in the audience.

The Bank of East Asia was engaged in improper operations? Harming customers’ interests?

Everyone knew that the Bank of East Asia had an excellent reputation in Hong Kong. Otherwise, how could it have become the leader among Chinese-owned banks? To capture a significant market share in a city with a developed financial sector like Hong Kong was proof enough that the Bank of East Asia was worthy of the citizens’ trust.

But Michael Sandberg’s words at this moment were deeply meaningful and thought-provoking.

Hadn’t Lin Haoran and HSBC always been on good terms? In fact, everyone knew that Lin Haoran had become a shareholder and board member of HSBC early last year. Now, for Michael Sandberg to be targeting Lin Haoran’s Bank of East Asia so pointedly—what was going on?

Some reporters keenly sensed the “gunpowder” in the air. Whispering among themselves, they speculated that a fierce battle in the financial world was brewing behind this inauguration ceremony.

Combining this with what Lin Haoran had said to reporters the day before, it was now crystal clear to everyone that this was a sign of escalating conflict between HSBC and Lin Haoran. The Bank of East Asia was merely being dragged down because of its owner. A clash of titans in the financial sector had evidently begun.

No wonder the Bank of East Asia’s stock price had risen steadily for a few days only to plummet afterward. So many undercurrents and conflicts of interest were at play.

Some reporters wanted to ask questions, but Michael Sandberg gave them no opportunity. He gestured for silence and continued.

“On this occasion, in my capacity as the president of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, I would like to make a formal announcement: Effective immediately, all Hong Kong customers must choose between the member banks of the Hong Kong Association of Banks and the Bank of East Asia.”

“In other words, if customers wish to continue their business with the member banks of our association, they must cease all transactions with the Bank of East Asia. Otherwise, if discovered, they will be permanently blacklisted by the Hong Kong Association of Banks, and all member banks will refuse to provide them with any financial services!”

Michael Sandberg’s voice echoed through the hall, carrying an unyielding and forceful tone.

The statement dropped like a bomb, and the venue instantly erupted.

This move was ruthless.

Reporters raised their hands in droves, like a school of sharks that had scented blood, desperate to ask questions.

Some owners or representatives of finance companies who were not privy to the inside story also showed looks of astonishment, murmuring among themselves. They had not expected Michael Sandberg to be so resolute as to unleash such a “trump card.”

Finance companies were those that couldn’t obtain a banking license, so they were not eligible to become members of the Hong Kong Association of Banks. They had been invited merely as guests.

“Mr. Sandberg, isn’t your decision overly tyrannical? Won’t this ‘choose one of two’ approach undermine the environment of free competition in Hong Kong’s financial market?” a spirited young reporter from the Oriental Daily News was the first to stand and challenge loudly.

Since his boss was being targeted, he naturally had to stand up for him.

Michael Sandberg cast a cold gaze at the reporter and replied unhurriedly, “This is to maintain the stability and fairness of Hong Kong’s financial market. The Bank of East Asia’s improper conduct has already posed a potential threat to the market.”

Chapter 602: A Bank Run, A Plummeting Stock Price, and the Perfect Opportunity to Privatize!

Michael Sandberg’s words were undoubtedly a formal declaration of war on the Bank of East Asia. Moreover, his aim was to completely crush it.

As the undisputed king of Hong Kong’s financial industry, HSBC was now facing off against the Bank of East Asia, which was backed by the famous, newly-crowned richest man in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran. Before this, the two parties had always appeared to be on excellent terms in front of the media.

Yet now, Michael Sandberg, representing HSBC and even the vast majority of banks in Hong Kong, was declaring war on the Bank of East Asia!

No one had ever imagined that the two would become sworn enemies.

The media present already knew there would be some major news today.

But this scoop was beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.

“But what evidence do you have to prove that the Bank of East Asia has the problems you mentioned? It seems unreasonable to ask customers to make such a difficult choice based solely on your side of the story, doesn’t it?” After Michael Sandberg answered the question from the Oriental Daily News reporter, a reporter from TVB immediately followed up.

Michael Sandberg frowned slightly, cursing inwardly at how difficult these reporters under Lin Haoran’s banner were.

But on the surface, he remained calm. “We have already gathered some preliminary leads and are currently investigating further. Before the truth is uncovered, we must take precautionary measures to prevent more customers from suffering potential harm.

“Furthermore, this serves as a warning to the Bank of East Asia. We hope they will face their problems and actively rectify them.”

By ten in the morning, the Hong Kong Association of Banks’ press conference had concluded, and the reporters were asked to leave the premises.

As for the tycoons present, they naturally continued their private meeting.

With the reporters’ departure, news of what had happened at the event spread outwards with incredible speed.

Hong Kong isn’t large to begin with, so it didn’t take long for the news to spread everywhere.

Many shareholders now understood that the establishment of the Hong Kong Association of Banks had turned into a stage for criticizing the Bank of East Asia. Michael Sandberg’s “warning” and “precautionary measures” were like giant boulders thrown into a calm lake, creating massive waves. The whirlpool of public opinion quickly engulfed the Bank of East Asia.

After all, the Bank of East Asia had been acquired by Lin Haoran.

And now, HSBC had publicly declared war on the Bank of East Asia. Everyone knew what this meant.

It meant that the two titans of Hong Kong’s business world had officially broken ties!

And the financial industry was the very field where HSBC excelled.

On top of that, nearly every bank in Hong Kong had joined the Association of Banks. In this situation, did the Bank of East Asia even stand a chance?

Moreover, when facing reporters last night, Lin Haoran had said he had no immediate plans to transfer the financial operations of his companies, like the Hongkong Land Group, to the Bank of East Asia.

At the same time, the Li Peicai family would also be exiting the Bank of East Asia!

So, under these circumstances, what advantages did the Bank of East Asia have left?

What hope was there for its future?

Pushed by those with a vested interest, the news of what happened at the Hong Kong Association of Banks’ founding ceremony spread far too quickly.

The shareholders on Hong Kong’s four stock exchanges, in particular, learned of the matter almost instantly.

In Hong Kong, most powerful major companies would list on all four stock exchanges. This was done to broaden financing channels, enhance brand visibility, increase stock liquidity, and attract the attention of investors from all over Hong Kong.

This situation made the four stock exchanges seem somewhat redundant, which was one of the reasons they were later merged into a single stock exchange.

Hong Kong was small, yet it had four separate exchanges, which, to some extent, led to a dispersion of resources and disorderly competition.

Vying for premium listings, the exchanges competed by lowering listing thresholds and loosening regulatory standards, causing the market to become a mixed bag where speculation was rife.

Now, with the Bank of East Asia caught in a vortex of public opinion and an industry-wide siege, the attitudes and actions of the four stock exchanges would undoubtedly add more variables to the crisis.

For a time, citizens all over Hong Kong were talking.

Many people sympathized with Lin Haoran and the Bank of East Asia’s plight, seeing it clearly as unfair competition.

However, sympathy was one thing, but making a rational choice was another!

Now, with HSBC leading most of Hong Kong’s other banking institutions to isolate the Bank of East Asia, everyone knew that while Lin Haoran was powerful in the business world, the banking sector was definitely his weak point.

In this situation, when asked to choose between the Bank of East Asia and other banks, they naturally knew what to do.

Therefore, when the shareholders learned of this, they knew the Bank of East Asia’s stock price was bound to plummet.

As a result, the Bank of East Asia’s stock price began to fall steadily.

24 Hong Kong dollars, 23 Hong Kong dollars, 22 Hong Kong dollars, 21 Hong Kong dollars…

By twelve noon, the Bank of East Asia’s stock had dropped below 20 Hong Kong dollars, hitting 19.5 Hong Kong dollars per share.

However, this was definitely not the bottom.

Nearing noon, under the covert operations of an intelligence agency controlled by Michael Sandberg, an extremely inflammatory rumor spread like a virus among the citizens of Hong Kong: “The Bank of East Asia is now being isolated by all the other banks in Hong Kong. Its capital chain is in jeopardy, and it’s only a matter of time before its reserves are completely withdrawn.

“If you’re too slow to move your money, the Bank of East Asia might run out of ammunition, with no cash left to transfer.

“Although Lin Haoran is the Bank of East Asia’s major shareholder and his financial strength is not to be underestimated, the bank is still a listed company.

“Even if depositors withdraw all their cash, causing its capital chain to break, Lin Haoran is under no obligation to inject more capital.

“By then, any funds you can’t withdraw might be lost forever, vanishing into thin air and becoming an unbearable nightmare for countless families and individuals!”

This rumor spread rapidly through streets and alleys, tea houses and pubs, and office buildings, causing widespread panic wherever it went.

Customers who were already worried about the bank’s future were now scared witless by the rumor.

Consequently, long queues of citizens began to form at the Bank of East Asia’s twenty branches across Hong Kong.

A long line had already formed outside a Bank of East Asia branch in Central. Depositors looked anxious and were murmuring amongst themselves.

“What are we going to do? Wasn’t the Bank of East Asia always financially sound? How did we suddenly hear that it’s about to collapse? All my money is in there, I can’t just lose it like this,” a middle-aged woman said, her face fraught with worry, tightly clutching her passbook.

“Exactly! I heard that too. HSBC is ganging up on the Bank of East Asia with so many other banks. There’s no way they can win. We should take our money out now. I’ll only feel safe when it’s in my own hands,” an old man next to her chimed in, his eyes full of fear.

As the rumors spread further, the queues grew longer.

Some citizens who were at work even hurriedly asked for leave from their companies to join the nearest queue to withdraw cash.

At some branches, the lines stretched for hundreds of meters—a spectacular yet grim sight, reminiscent of the disastrous bank run that hit Hang Seng Bank over a decade ago. An atmosphere of panic hung over Hong Kong’s financial world like a dark cloud.

As a local Hong Kong bank second only to HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank, the Bank of East Asia, while not strong enough to take on HSBC head-to-head, was by no means a pushover.

For instance, last year, the Bank of East Asia’s total deposits amounted to over six billion Hong Kong dollars.

Not much time had passed since last year, so logically, even with some fluctuations, its deposit base shouldn’t be facing a crisis of a breaking capital chain.

But at this moment, the raging bank run was like a ferocious beast, mercilessly battering the bank’s seemingly solid defenses.

Who would have thought that the always financially sound Bank of East Asia, backed by a tycoon like the richest man in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran, would face such a situation?

The Bank of East Asia headquarters building.

Li Fushu looked at the reports his subordinates brought him and was suddenly filled with regret.

Why hadn’t he agreed to sell to Lin Haoran for 20 Hong Kong dollars per share yesterday?

Given the current situation, forget 20 Hong Kong dollars; by the afternoon, the price might even drop below 10!

Lin Haoran was sitting right across from him.

At that moment, he desperately wanted to offer his shares to Lin Haoran again.

“Mr. Lin, are you just going to sit back and do nothing about the Bank of East Asia’s situation? My handover is almost complete. After today, I’ll have no connection to the bank.

“You know how much capital the bank has on its books. A bank run like this will eventually bankrupt it, and all the money you’ve invested will go down the drain.” Li Fushu finally couldn’t hold back any longer, his voice laced with an undeniable anxiety and reluctance.

He had originally planned to see if he could sell his remaining shares on the market, but he never expected the situation to take such a sharp downturn. Now, with the Bank of East Asia deep in the mire, even though he had mostly divested himself, he still had mixed feelings watching the institution he had poured his heart and soul into face ruin.

Plus, he still held a significant number of shares, which made him desperate for Lin Haoran to take action and save the Bank of East Asia.

The Bank of East Asia had over six billion Hong Kong dollars in customer deposits, but more than three billion of that had been loaned out. This meant that the actual cash on the bank’s books was less than three billion Hong Kong dollars.

The money that had been loaned out couldn’t be recalled at a moment’s notice; it all had fixed terms.

Facing this bank run, the Bank of East Asia’s funds would sooner or later be completely withdrawn.

Then, there would naturally be no money left to withdraw.

In that scenario, anyone could imagine the bank’s fate.

“No rush. The money hasn’t all been withdrawn yet, has it? We’ll talk after it’s all gone!” Lin Haoran, however, just smiled calmly.

He was, of course, fully aware of what had happened with the Hong Kong Association of Banks.

But in the face of being isolated by nearly every bank in Hong Kong, he wasn’t the least bit flustered.

Because this way, he could completely privatize the Bank of East Asia at a very low cost.

Let the stock price fall. The more it falls, the better.

HSBC’s attack was, without a doubt, helping him privatize the Bank of East Asia.

Once the privatization was successful, he would naturally rescue the market for the Bank of East Asia and begin to counter the challenge from the so-called Hong Kong Association of Banks.

Lin Haoran had a plan all along. This storm, which seemed like a crisis, was actually a golden opportunity for him to privatize the Bank of East Asia.

Michael Sandberg was making a move, and so was he.

If he started to aid the Bank of East Asia now and rescue the market, wouldn’t that just drive the stock price back up?

Chapter 603: I Gave You a Chance, But You Proved Useless!

In Li Fushu’s mind, Lin Haoran was bound to do everything in his power to counter the war instigated by HSBC.

If that were the case, the Bank of East Asia’s stock price couldn’t possibly fall too drastically.

That was why yesterday, when Lin Haoran proposed to acquire his remaining shares at twenty Hong Kong dollars per share, he had decisively refused.

But now, it seemed Lin Haoran had no intention of rescuing the market at all!

Didn’t that mean the Bank of East Asia’s share price was destined for an endless decline?

Even without a bank run, the stock had already fallen below twenty Hong Kong dollars.

Now, with the outbreak of a bank run, the impact on the bank’s stock was undoubtedly making a bad situation worse. It would likely plummet, breaking through any psychological support level the market could imagine.

The more Li Fushu thought about it, the more anxious he became. Fine beads of sweat dotted his forehead, and his hands unconsciously rubbed the surface of the desk.

He had originally thought Lin Haoran would take immediate measures to stabilize the stock price and reverse the bank’s unfavorable position in public opinion and the industry. He never expected Lin Haoran to be so calm, as if everything was under his control, or as if the life and death of the Bank of East Asia had little to do with him.

“What on earth is he planning?” Li Fushu muttered to himself, his eyes filled with confusion and unease.

He already regretted refusing Lin Haoran’s twenty-dollar offer yesterday.

If he had agreed then, he could have at least sold at a relatively reasonable price, instead of watching helplessly as the value of his shares evaporated with the plummeting stock price.

At this point, getting Lin Haoran to buy his shares for twenty Hong Kong dollars apiece was clearly impossible.

He had considered selling on the stock market this morning, but there had been far too many sellers all morning, and very few shares had actually been traded. It had only served to drive the price down further.

Therefore, the number of shares they held now was virtually the same as yesterday; only their value was now as precarious as a candle in the wind.

“Haoran, I agree to sell all of the Li family’s shares in the Bank of East Asia to you at twenty Hong Kong dollars per share.” After a period of inner conflict, Li Fushu mustered his courage and tried to make the offer.

His form of address for Lin Haoran had become intimate again—no longer “Mr. Lin”—an attempt to evoke their past friendship and gain some leverage in the negotiation.

However, Lin Haoran refused without a moment’s hesitation, showing no intention of discussing the matter further.

He said coolly, “Mr. Li, it looks like the Bank of East Asia’s stock is about to crash. I’m actually glad you didn’t agree to this price last night. Otherwise, I would have lost quite a bit more.”

I gave you a chance, but you proved useless. Who was there to blame?

From the moment Li Peicai’s family had decided to remain neutral, personally tearing up their alliance, Lin Haoran had decided not to grant them any more favors.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s slightly mocking words, Li Fushu’s face turned deathly pale. His lips trembled slightly, wanting to retort but not knowing where to begin.

He had never imagined that Lin Haoran, with whom he’d had a decent business relationship and had always treated with mutual respect, would now speak so heartlessly.

However, he no longer intended to try and sell his shares to Lin Haoran.

No matter what, the Li family was one of Hong Kong’s Four Great Families, and he, Li Fushu, was a man of status.

Lin Haoran’s reply was a humiliation.

Just then, a knock came from the door. The person who entered was Li Guobin, the President of the Bank of East Asia.

However, he would soon be resigning from that position.

“Dad, Mr. Lin,” Li Guobin’s gaze swept lightly over the two men before he continued, “I’ve completed the entire handover process with the people you sent, Mr. Lin. From this moment on, I believe our Li family can completely bid farewell to the Bank of East Asia.”

Li Guobin’s expression as he looked at Lin Haoran was somewhat complicated.

He had actually wanted to continue working with Lin Haoran, but since his father and uncles had decided to break the alliance to preserve the family’s strength, he could only obey the family’s arrangement.

But facing Lin Haoran now, memories of them planning for the Bank of East Asia’s future together flooded his mind, and a wave of melancholy inevitably washed over him.

Upon hearing this, Li Fushu stood up directly, sighed, and said to Lin Haoran, “Since the handover is complete, our Li family will no longer hold any positions at the Bank of East Asia. Mr. Lin, take care of yourself!”

With that, he glanced around the office, his face full of reluctance.

The Bank of East Asia was the foundation built by his grandfather’s generation.

Now, due to the changing times and the family’s calculated decision, he had to part with it, however painful.

But how could the deep emotions accumulated over so many years be severed so easily?

Li Fushu’s eyes reddened, and a mist began to form. His Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat, as if a thousand-ton weight of words was stuck there, impossible to utter.

After he was gone, when he was under the Yellow Springs, he truly didn’t know how he would face his ancestors.

Would he have to say to his grandfather, full of guilt, “Grandpa, it was my incompetence. I handed over the Bank of East Asia you built with your own hands to someone else”?

At this thought, Li Fushu’s mood grew heavier and more complex, like a tangled mess of hemp in his heart—impossible to cut, impossible to sort out.

Lin Haoran watched Li Fushu quietly, his expression calm and unruffled.

He slowly rose to his feet, gave a slight nod, and said, “Mr. Li, thank you for the Li family’s many years of contribution to the Bank of East Asia. Business is like a game of chess; once a move is made, there is no regret. I hope the Li family has a smooth path ahead.”

Li Fushu didn’t argue. He nodded and said, “Now that it has come to this, I also wish Mr. Lin the best of luck in turning the tide against HSBC’s challenge. It’s just that this Bank of East Asia… it will never be the same again.”

With his speech concluded, he straightened his slightly stooped back and slowly walked out of the office with Li Guobin.

At this moment, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, the nearly seventy-year-old Li Fushu seemed to have aged even more.

However, he felt no pity, nor did he have the extra energy to dwell on this fleeting moment of sentimentality.

The marketplace is ruthless. It’s survival of the fittest, leaving no room for the slightest bit of softheartedness or hesitation.

From the moment the Li family had decided to stop cooperating with him, they had become strangers.

While they wouldn’t become enemies, the close camaraderie of their previous collaboration was gone forever.

Right now, the Bank of East Asia was in turmoil. His focus needed to be on the bank.

As for Li Peicai’s family, what did they have to do with him?

The moment all the members of the Li family left the Bank of East Asia headquarters, it signified a complete break between the bank and the family. They had utterly lost all management rights over the Bank of East Asia!

Only now did the Bank of East Asia truly and completely belong to Lin Haoran.

After Li Fushu and Li Guobin left the headquarters with their trusted aides, Lin Haoran called a middle-aged Westerner into the office.

This middle-aged Westerner was named James, though he had given himself a Chinese name, Da Shan. He was a senior executive at Hongkong Land Group and had been working there for nearly ten years.

Before joining Hongkong Land, he had worked at Barclays Bank in Britain for over a decade. Since coming to Hongkong Land, he had always been in charge of the group’s financial affairs and possessed a wealth of experience in the financial industry.

When Lin Haoran took over the Bank of East Asia, Ma Shimin had helped him assemble a small team from Hongkong Land, all of whom were knowledgeable about the banking industry. This man, James, was the team’s leader.

Over half of the Bank of East Asia’s senior executives had been confidants of Li Peicai’s family. With their departure, more than half of the bank’s senior management was suddenly gone.

The remaining executives were certainly unable to keep the entire bank running smoothly, especially in these troubled times. The joint isolation from other Western and Chinese-owned banks in Hong Kong, orchestrated by HSBC and others, made it even more difficult.

And so, the role of the senior management team temporarily dispatched from Hongkong Land Group became crucial.

For the past few days, the team had been working with Li Guobin and the original management team to complete the handover.

“Boss, I was just coming to see you about something as well,” James said as soon as he entered.

At the moment, he did not look well.

The Bank of East Asia’s current situation was anything but good.

Not only had the main management team left, but the Hong Kong Association of Banks had united to isolate the bank, and now it was even facing a bank run.

Even for someone like him, who had toiled and struggled through the financial sector for many years and had vast experience, this situation felt like a mountain of pressure.

So, James had a massive headache right now.

Putting everything else aside, the most important thing at this moment was how to deal with the sudden bank run.

“Alright, Mr. James, don’t panic. Take your time,” Lin Haoran said, remaining perfectly calm.

He smiled and gestured for James to sit down, even personally pouring him a cup of tea. His steady demeanor helped to slightly soothe James’s agitated heart.

James took the tea, had a sip, and took a deep breath. “Boss, the bank run is coming on menacingly. Depositors are swarming in, demanding to withdraw their savings. Although our cash reserves are still adequate, they won’t last long at this rate.

“Moreover, some unknown forces are fanning the flames from behind the scenes, constantly spreading news unfavorable to us and causing more depositors to panic. We must restore our customers’ confidence as soon as possible. Only then can we successfully overcome this bank run.”

The bank run had only just begun less than an hour ago, so the Bank of East Asia’s funds were certainly sufficient for the short term. But if this continued, the bank’s funds would surely be depleted in a matter of days. At that point, the situation would spiral completely out of control.

This was why James was so frantic.

Although he was only temporarily in charge of the Bank of East Asia, he wanted to achieve results. Otherwise, how would the boss see him?

Chapter 604: Outrageous, the Stock Price Plummets to 5 Hong Kong Dollars per Share!

But facing the current situation at the Bank of East Asia, Da Shan felt a sense of powerlessness, like a clever housewife trying to cook without rice. He had strength but nowhere to apply it.

The only way out was with the help of an external power, such as his boss’s other enterprise, the Hongkong Land Group.

As a senior manager of the Hongkong Land Group’s financial projects, he knew its current financial situation like the back of his hand and was well aware of the group’s abundant capital and stable operations.

With the Hongkong Land Group’s strength, rescuing the Bank of East Asia would be a simple matter.

After all, the predicament the Bank of East Asia currently faced was merely a temporary inability to recall some funds that had been disbursed as loans; it wasn’t burdened with billions in massive debt.

Therefore, even if the Hongkong Land Group were to provide financial aid to the Bank of East Asia, it would not be taking any risks. On the contrary, it could even earn interest income from it.

However, the boss had already stated that for the time being, he would not consider transferring the financial operations of his other companies to the Bank of East Asia.

Thus, Da Shan was at a loss in this situation. He could only hope for a new turn of events from his boss, or perhaps strive for even a sliver of more flexible support.

Lin Haoran, however, just smiled.

A bank run was not a problem for him at all.

With his current financial power, he could temporarily transfer three billion from the Hongkong Land Group, and the Bank of East Asia’s bank run crisis would be solved with ease.

As for customers leaving, that was even less of a concern.

As long as he transferred the financial operations of companies like the Hongkong Land Group and the Hongkong Electric Group, the Bank of East Asia would be living comfortably.

Coupled with Guo Henian’s promise to transfer HSBC’s business to the Bank of East Asia if necessary, Lin Haoran already had plenty of confidence.

HSBC was the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry, and it would indeed be difficult for him to have the Bank of East Asia surpass it in overall strength in the short term.

But through this series of measures, he could first stabilize the Bank of East Asia’s precarious situation and then gradually plan for its development. It was not impossible to carve out a new world in the complex financial landscape of Hong Kong.

Customers were just customers. Even if they left now, they could return later. None of these were problems.

As for the unknown force fanning the flames from behind the scenes, everyone was well aware that it had to be HSBC pulling the strings.

“Mr. Da Shan, just do as I say. For the time being, your core mission is to do everything you can to handle the customer bank run. Salvage as many customers as you can, and if they really want to withdraw, do your best to process it for them. Let’s make sure our service is impeccable. Don’t be distracted by anything else. I already have other plans in motion,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

After a brief pause, he continued with his instructions: “Immediately issue a formal public announcement in the name of the Bank of East Asia. The content is that effective immediately, Li Fushu, Li Guobin, and the others will no longer hold any related positions at the Bank of East Asia.

“After the announcement is released, it must be disseminated quickly. Put special emphasis on the stock market. You personally call and coordinate with the four stock exchanges, requesting that they post this announcement in the most conspicuous locations of the exchanges. It is imperative that all investors see it at the earliest possible moment!”

Lin Haoran knew that HSBC was determined to see him fail, so why not use the situation to his advantage and proactively create a “storm”?

This way, the Bank of East Asia’s stock price would plummet like a kite with a broken string in the afternoon.

After all, at this critical moment of the bank’s life and death, a figure like Li Fushu, who was seen by the outside world as the soul of the company, choosing to “exit” would be a blow to market confidence and the Bank of East Asia. It would be like adding frost to snow; the severity of the impact was self-evident.

And for him, if he wanted to privatize the Bank of East Asia easily and at a low cost in a short period, this was undoubtedly a golden opportunity.

The more the stock price fell, the lower the cost of privatization would naturally be.

So right now, not only would he not take any measures to stabilize the stock price, but he would also go with the flow and fan the flames.

Although such an operation hinted at manipulating the stock market, it was all just acting according to the situation, based on a realistic assessment of the current circumstances.

In any case, HSBC was the source of it all. The shareholders couldn’t possibly blame him.

Seeing his boss say this, Da Shan chose to obey.

Although he didn’t understand why his boss not only wouldn’t rescue the market but would even make such a startling move at a juncture that seemed like adding fuel to the fire, since it was his boss’s choice, he could only choose to trust and execute it unconditionally.

“Alright, Boss, I will follow your instructions and do my best. If you have no other matters, I will go down to oversee the work. The number of customers queuing to withdraw cash at the various branches is increasing, and I’m afraid there might be trouble!” Da Shan said with a hurried expression.

The sudden bank run posed a great challenge to the entire Bank of East Asia. For example, some branches had insufficient cash reserves and needed to transfer funds from other banks.

For another example, some employees, facing the surging crowds, were under immense psychological pressure, leading to operational errors and emotional fluctuations, which reduced service efficiency and bred customer dissatisfaction.

Furthermore, some media outlets with ulterior motives took the opportunity to sensationalize the Bank of East Asia’s plight, creating an atmosphere of panic and causing more depositors who believed the rumors to join the queues.

Therefore, as the current interim head of the Bank of East Asia, Da Shan had to deal with far more than just fund allocation and customer appeasement.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, his gaze carrying a hint of reassurance. “Go, Da Shan. To hold tight and proceed according to plan. Report to me immediately if any unexpected situations arise.”

Upon receiving his boss’s response, Da Shan didn’t dare to delay for a second. He immediately turned and left with brisk strides.

After Da Shan left, Lin Haoran looked at the time. It was almost one o’clock in the afternoon.

This meant that the lunch break was about to end, and the stock market was about to reopen.

For now, there was nothing for him to do at the Bank of East Asia. With the senior executive team that had stayed behind from the bank, as well as the team from the Hongkong Land Group, he wasn’t worried about any major chaos.

Lin Haoran had also checked the loyalty of the senior executives who remained at the Bank of East Asia. They were mostly between seventy and eighty-something, all capable people.

With this in mind, Lin Haoran left the Bank of East Asia headquarters and headed for the Connaught Centre.

Since he planned to privatize the Bank of East Asia, his biggest concern now was naturally its stock price.

Everyone knew the Bank of East Asia’s stock would plummet, but no one, including Lin Haoran himself, could guess how low it would go.

After returning to the Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran didn’t rush to the Galaxy Securities office. Instead, he took his bodyguards to the group’s cafeteria for a simple lunch before leisurely making his way to the Galaxy Securities office.

At this time, in the most prominent places of the four stock exchanges, the announcement from the Bank of East Asia was posted.

Effective immediately, Li Fushu would no longer serve as Chairman of the Board of the Bank of East Asia, and Li Guobin would no longer serve as President of the Bank of East Asia…

The places where the announcement was posted immediately attracted crowds of onlookers.

Gasps and murmurs rippled through the crowd.

“My goodness, this news is so sudden! Li Fushu is the soul of the company. What will the Bank of East Asia do now that he’s gone!” said an elderly shareholder with graying hair. He adjusted his glasses with trembling hands, his eyes filled with shock and worry, as if he were watching his life savings about to go up in smoke.

The series of appointments and dismissals was like a bombshell, and the investors in the exchange instantly erupted.

Although Lin Haoran had mentioned this when facing reporters the day before, the matter had not yet been finalized.

Without an official announcement, the news could have been false.

But now, the announcement was out, stamped with the Bank of East Asia’s official seal. The matter was a sure thing, with no leeway.

Panic spread through the crowd like a plague.

In the morning, various rumors had already spread throughout Hong Kong, leading to bank runs at various Bank of East Asia branches.

Now, this notice of appointments and dismissals was like a heavy hammer, smashing down on the already frayed nerves of the investors, instantly bringing the market’s panic to a boiling point.

“I knew it! The previous rumors weren’t not without basis. With both Li Fushu and Li Guobin gone, plus the pressure from HSBC, the Bank of East Asia is definitely done for. What about my stocks? I can’t sell them!” a shareholder holding a significant number of Bank of East Asia shares lamented, his heart filled with regret and anxiety.

“From the looks of it, even if Lin Haoran had god-like powers, he couldn’t save the Bank of East Asia. Besides, it doesn’t look like he plans to. This Bank of East Asia stock will be worthless paper sooner or later. I don’t care anymore, I’ll sell it for whatever I can get. At least I can get some capital back. I need to sell it off at a lower price as soon as possible, that way it’ll be more…” An impulsive young man had already lost his patience to wait any longer.

The shareholders in the exchange were thrown into extreme chaos.

The most direct manifestation of this was that the stock price of the Bank of East Asia kept getting lower, and the prices at which shareholders were selling kept dropping.

When the market closed in the morning, the stock price was still around 19.5 Hong Kong dollars per share.

But now, as various pieces of bad news about the Bank of East Asia reached everyone’s ears, the stock price slid as if on a chute, plummeting all the way down.

18 Hong Kong dollars, 15 Hong Kong dollars, 12 Hong Kong dollars… The price continued to fall at an almost frantic pace, each refresh accompanied by a sigh of despair.

Those shareholders who had harbored a sliver of hope that the price would stop falling and rebound were now utterly desperate.

Soon, the stock price broke through 10 Hong Kong dollars per share.

However, that was far from the end of the decline.

9 Hong Kong dollars, 8 Hong Kong dollars, 7 Hong Kong dollars, 5 Hong Kong dollars…

Less than an hour after the market opened in the afternoon, the Bank of East Asia’s stock price had actually fallen to 5 Hong Kong dollars per share.

However, at this point, the price finally began to stabilize. For the time being, no one was placing pending orders at an even lower price.

After all, there were gamblers everywhere.

Some people believed in the high-risk, high-reward philosophy. Even with the Bank of East Asia in such a precarious situation, they still harbored fantasies of the stock hitting rock bottom and then rebounding, allowing them to make a huge profit. They began to quietly accumulate shares at low prices.

For many shareholders, the appearance of buy orders was like a source of confidence.

They naturally hoped to sell their stocks at a higher price.

However, this was ultimately the thinking of only a small minority. Faced with the enormous volume of pending orders on the market, this small amount of stock accumulation was like an ant trying to shake a tree or a drop in the ocean, having a negligible effect on the overall situation.

Meanwhile, in an office of the Li Peicai’s family, Li Fushu listened to a report from his subordinate over the phone, wanting to cry but having no tears.

His family still held nearly ten million shares of Bank of East Asia stock. Yesterday, they had a chance to sell at 20 Hong Kong dollars per share, and now they were only worth 5 Hong Kong dollars per share?

Regret. A wave of regret flooded over Li Fushu, completely submerging him. His face was as pale as paper, and the hand holding the phone trembled uncontrollably.

On the other end of the line, his subordinate was still chattering on about the disastrous aftermath of the stock market crash, but he couldn’t hear a single word. His mind kept replaying the phrase “now they’re only worth 5 Hong Kong dollars per share,” as if countless sharp needles were piercing his nerves.

The Li family was not super-rich like Lin Haoran; their net worth was only about one billion Hong Kong dollars.

But now, the nearly ten million Bank of East Asia shares the family still held, originally worth several hundred million Hong Kong dollars, had seen their market capitalization plummet to less than fifty million, and it was highly likely they’d be left holding the bag, unable to sell them at all.

This enormous disparity was like a series of heavy blows to his heart, making it impossible for him to accept this cruel reality.

“Why… why didn’t I agree to sell to Lin Haoran last night!” Li Fushu clutched his head with both hands, his voice filled with pain and self-reproach. He looked as if he had aged ten years in an instant.

Chapter 605: HSBC’s Malicious Tactic

In Central, on Queen’s Road Central, inside the HSBC headquarters, in the Chairman of the Board’s office.

At this moment, after listening to his subordinate’s report, Michael Sandberg couldn’t help but frown.

He had originally thought that after facing HSBC’s intense pressure, Lin Haoran would quickly start to counterattack.

Logically, what Lin Haoran should have been doing right now was not just watching the Bank of East Asia’s clients continuously drain away, but shoring up client confidence and actively taking measures to turn the situation around.

At the very least, the Bank of East Asia should have made some sort of tough stance in response to HSBC’s offensive, sending a signal to the market and its clients that it wouldn’t give in so easily.

However, the situation reported by his subordinate was completely beyond his expectations.

It seemed Lin Haoran hadn’t made any significant moves. The Bank of East Asia was still operating as usual, with no large-scale promotional campaigns, no emergency client briefings, and certainly no counterattack of any kind against HSBC.

On the contrary, at this critical moment, he had actually taken the initiative to publicize the departure of Li Fushu and the others from the Bank of East Asia.

Wasn’t this tantamount to adding fuel to the fire of the Bank of East Asia’s already turbulent situation, making outsiders even more pessimistic about its future?

Michael Sandberg’s brows were tightly furrowed, his eyes filled with confusion and bewilderment.

Li Fushu and the others were no nobodies. They were quite influential in the financial circle and had inextricable links with many major clients. Moreover, the Li family was the founding family of the Bank of East Asia and had been the managing family since its establishment. Their control over the Bank of East Asia was very stable and far-reaching.

If not for Lin Haoran’s forceful takeover, the controlling stake in the Bank of East Asia would likely have remained in the Li family’s hands.

“What in the world is this Lin Haoran up to?” Michael Sandberg muttered to himself, his fingers unconsciously tapping lightly on the desk.

As the absolute ruler of Hong Kong’s financial world, HSBC possessed a very powerful intelligence department.

Therefore, he found everything that had happened with the Bank of East Asia today to be rather strange.

“Mr. John, have Hongkong Land Group and Lin Haoran’s other companies contacted HSBC about transferring their funds yet?” Michael Sandberg asked John Bao, the Vice Chairman of the Board responsible for fund management.

“Not at all. To date, none of the companies have discussed this matter with us!” John Bao said, shaking his head.

From the moment Lin Haoran took control of the Bank of East Asia, they had already prepared for the financial services of his various companies to be transferred.

They had no intention of causing trouble over this matter; instead, they planned to cooperate.

Although the transfer would indeed be a heavy loss for HSBC, if they were to obstruct it for various reasons, it would backfire. The public would criticize HSBC for being petty and bullying, which would damage the bank’s reputation.

Why was HSBC able to become the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial world?

It was because of the good reputation they had built over more than a hundred years!

So, for HSBC, it was better to suffer a short-term pain than a long one. It was better to accept it gracefully, maintain their hard-won reputation, and then make up for the losses from other business sectors later.

But now, with no sign of Lin Haoran’s companies transferring their funds, it felt like an undercurrent was surging beneath the calm surface, making the unease in Michael Sandberg’s heart grow heavier.

Michael Sandberg stood up and paced back and forth in his office, pondering the purpose behind Lin Haoran’s actions.

“Mr. John, with Lin Haoran making no moves, do you think he’s preparing for something big? He didn’t hide the departure of Li Fushu and the others; instead, he actively publicized it. There must be a deeper meaning behind this that we haven’t seen through yet!

Right now, the Bank of East Asia’s stock price has plummeted several-fold, and clients have completely lost faith in it. This situation will only exacerbate the bank run. Yet he remains unperturbed, with no intention of even making an appearance. Does he really have an ace up his sleeve to resolve this crisis?” Michael Sandberg stopped pacing and looked at his old partner.

All of the Bank of East Asia’s current behavior seemed to be good news for HSBC.

If the Bank of East Asia continued on this path, within a month, it would likely be completely marginalized by the market, becoming an insignificant entity in Hong Kong’s financial world.

As for the Bank of East Asia, Michael Sandberg never thought that after a bank run, it would be acquired by HSBC like Hang Seng Bank was.

Because he knew just how formidable Lin Haoran’s financial strength was.

Saving a bank like the Bank of East Asia wouldn’t be very difficult for Lin Haoran.

What he was doing was merely intended to make the Bank of East Asia lose all its clients in Hong Kong.

This way, the Bank of East Asia’s reputation would plummet. Even if Lin Haoran invested a large sum of money to revive it later, trying to win back the hearts of its clients and restore its former glory would be as difficult as climbing to the heavens.

And HSBC, in this war without smoke and fire, could firmly secure its throne as the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial world, nipping this potential threat in the bud.

However, Lin Haoran’s current actions, which seemed like self-abandonment, gave Michael Sandberg a faint feeling that things were far from as simple as he had imagined.

Because he had never underestimated Lin Haoran.

Underestimate someone who was already the recognized richest man in Hong Kong?

He wasn’t that foolish.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, I don’t know what Lin Haoran is planning, but since he’s just watching the Bank of East Asia step into the abyss without doing anything, why don’t we add more fuel to the fire and completely accelerate the process.” A hint of ruthlessness shone in John Bao’s eyes.

“Oh? Mr. John, tell me quickly, what good idea do you have?” Michael Sandberg’s interest was piqued.

By now, he felt he had already played all his cards: forcing clients to choose one of two, extracting the soul of the Bank of East Asia—the Li Peicai family—and spreading rumors to incite panic among the Bank of East Asia’s clients, thereby causing a bank run.

Currently, these strategies were all progressing smoothly, and everything was proceeding according to their plan.

But Lin Haoran’s completely unresponsive posture was like a stone tossed into a deep pool, causing only a few ripples before disappearing without a trace. It left him feeling completely uncertain.

So when John Bao proposed a new method, he was naturally eager to hear it.

“My idea is very simple, Mr. Michael Sandberg. You should still remember Jardine Securities under Jardine Matheson & Co., right? Back then, how did Jardine Securities go from a listed company with a market capitalization of over a billion Hong Kong dollars to bankruptcy and collapse in just one month?” John Bao said with a smile.

Michael Sandberg’s eyes lit up upon hearing John Bao’s words.

He certainly knew how Jardine Securities had collapsed.

Jardine Matheson & Co. was preparing to sell off Jardine Securities. Lin Haoran seized upon this vulnerability and used public opinion to make Jardine Securities’ shareholders and clients grow increasingly worried about the company’s future.

As a result, Jardine Securities’ stock price plummeted, and many of its clients began to leave.

At that time, Lin Haoran manipulated Galaxy Securities, a subsidiary of Hongkong Land Group, to start poaching talent from Jardine Securities, luring away many of its key pillars.

The final result was that Jardine Securities completely collapsed, and even Jardine Matheson & Co. was powerless to prevent its bankruptcy.

Just like that, a large listed company with a market capitalization originally exceeding one point five billion Hong Kong dollars could only declare bankruptcy in the end.

Michael Sandberg gently stroked his chin, saying thoughtfully, “You mean, we should emulate the tactics Lin Haoran used against Jardine Securities and cut the ground from under the Bank of East Asia? Attack them on two fronts—talent and clients—to completely throw them into disarray?”

John Bao nodded emphatically, a crazed look in his eyes. “Right now, under our pressure, many of the Bank of East Asia’s clients are lining up to withdraw their money. According to the feedback from our various branches, our deposit business at HSBC has increased since noon. Obviously, these new deposits have been transferred from the Bank of East Asia.

In other words, the Bank of East Asia is now in urgent need of a large number of staff to handle its business, especially to deal with the bank run and to calm its wavering clients.

In fact, at this moment, it’s not just the Bank of East Asia’s clients who are worried, but its employees are also concerned about their own future. And this is the perfect opportunity for us to poach their talent.

As long as we poach those experienced and highly capable employees from the Bank of East Asia, they will fall into a state of staff shortage and operational chaos, completely unable to cope with this crisis.

At that point, the Bank of East Asia’s collapse will accelerate. The reputation and market position it has built up over many years will crumble as quickly as a falling skyscraper.

And we, HSBC, can then sit back and reap the rewards, completely eliminating this potential threat. When that time comes, even if Lin Haoran has god-like abilities, it will be difficult for him to save the Bank of East Asia.”

The more John Bao spoke, the more excited he became, as if he could already see the scene of the Bank of East Asia collapsing with a thunderous crash.

“That’s not a bad idea, but poaching on a large scale will take quite some time. Especially an operation like this that needs to be done covertly—the slightest misstep could lead to a leak.

Once Lin Haoran finds out, he will certainly be on guard and might even turn the tables on us. Moreover, the cost of poaching is not to be underestimated. To attract the top employees from the Bank of East Asia to switch sides, we’ll have to offer extremely competitive salaries and benefits, which will also place considerable pressure on our bank’s finances.”

Michael Sandberg frowned slightly, calmly analyzing the potential problems.

Although he was quite tempted by John Bao’s proposal, his reason prompted him to weigh the pros and cons first.

Once companies like Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group withdraw their funds from HSBC, HSBC will face immense pressure on its capital chain.

After all, the funds that companies like Hongkong Land Group stored in HSBC amounted to nearly twenty billion Hong Kong dollars.

Chapter 606: Acting with Impunity, Above the Law!

Even though there were no signs of fund transfers from Lin Haoran’s companies yet, if he were to suddenly make a move during the crucial period of their talent poaching operation, HSBC could find itself in the difficult position of being attacked from both front and back.

HSBC had numerous external investments, including those overseas like Marine Midland Bank in the United States. Since its acquisition, not only had it failed to make any money for HSBC, but it also required constant capital injections from HSBC to cover its losses.

Furthermore, as the largest bank in Hong Kong, the amount of capital HSBC had loaned out was a terrifying figure.

Just because HSBC had total deposits of 131.2 billion Hong Kong dollars last year didn’t mean it currently had that much cash on hand.

Take the Bank of East Asia, for example. Of its more than six billion Hong Kong dollars in deposits last year, it actually had less than three billion in cash on its books.

Naturally, this was because the bank had used the funds for investments to generate profit.

Whether it was investing in businesses or issuing loans, the objective was always to make money.

Otherwise, if these customer deposits simply sat on HSBC’s books, the bank would only incur greater losses.

After all, they still had to pay interest to their depositors.

And if a bank couldn’t generate sufficient profits through effective investment and lending operations to cover these interest payments and operating costs, its financial situation would deteriorate rapidly.

The core principle for HSBC to maintain its operations, generate profits, and ensure a stable capital chain was to safely deploy its funds and achieve steady, considerable returns.

Therefore, the amount of cash on HSBC’s books was not as large as one might imagine.

Although the withdrawal of cash by companies like the Hongkong Electric Group wouldn’t be fatal to HSBC, it would certainly have an impact—one they could still tolerate.

As a result, Michael Sandberg was becoming increasingly cautious in approving company expenditures.

John Bao responded confidently, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, I’ve considered all of your concerns. Regarding the timing, we can proceed in phases, starting discreetly with some key positions and core talent. Once these people are poached, the impact on the Bank of East Asia will be immense.

“In terms of cost, while the initial investment will be significant, our gains will far exceed these expenses once the Bank of East Asia collapses. Think about it: once this potential threat is completely eliminated, our position in Hong Kong’s financial industry will be even more secure. The future profits from our other business sectors will be more than enough to cover this cost.

“Besides, Mr. Michael Sandberg, have you forgotten about Li Fushu and his people? Li Fushu has now completely left the Bank of East Asia, which means they must be in the process of setting up their new bank.

“As far as I know, they only took thirty-something people with them from the Bank of East Asia. That’s clearly not enough to establish a new large-scale bank, so they must also be hoping to acquire a large number of human resources from there.

“Li Peicai’s family controlled the Bank of East Asia for many years and knows its talent structure like the back of their hand. As the former boss, many employees surely still hold some affection and trust for him.

“We can absolutely take the initiative to contact Li Fushu and express our interest in cooperating. We can work together in secret to poach talent from the Bank of East Asia. This way, with the Li Peicai’s family’s involvement, we can not only speed up the process but also diversify the risk and reduce the likelihood of being detected by Lin Haoran.

“For us, a partnership with Li Peicai’s family offers all benefits and no harm.”

Upon hearing this, Michael Sandberg felt a sense of sudden clarity.

John Bao’s proposal was indeed very suitable for them.

Michael Sandberg nodded slightly, a hint of approval flashing in his eyes. “Mr. Bao, your idea certainly has merit. Cooperating with Li Peicai’s family would not only allow us to leverage their influence within the Bank of East Asia but also help share the pressure and mitigate risks.

“However, working with them won’t be easy. Li Peicai’s family has always been shrewd. We’ll have to plan carefully to ensure we maintain the upper hand in this partnership and aren’t led by the nose.”

Previously, they had intended to make the Bank of East Asia agree to many conditions.

In the end, however, they had to reluctantly accept the terms proposed by Li Peicai’s family: they would only exit the Bank of East Asia and would not agree to any other conditions detrimental to their interests.

On the contrary, it was HSBC that had to promise Li Peicai’s family many benefits before finally reaching an agreement.

So, the Li family was indeed difficult to deal with.

“Let’s give it a try. If they don’t agree, we’ll just have to act on our own. HSBC is also skilled at poaching talent. Besides, our bank has always been the most desired employer for professionals in Hong Kong’s banking industry. Given the Bank of East Asia’s current predicament, I believe poaching will be even easier,” John Bao suggested.

“Alright, let’s do it. I’ll personally arrange a meeting with Mr. Li Fushu tonight!” Michael Sandberg was a decisive man and settled the matter right away.

In his view, now was the perfect time to kick a man while he’s down.

Otherwise, he feared something unexpected might happen with the Bank of East Asia.

After all, his current opponent was no simple figure—he was a formidable adversary who had thoroughly defeated even Jardine Matheson & Co.

HSBC had only recently surpassed Jardine Matheson, and in terms of real strength, it wasn’t much stronger than Jardine Matheson had been before its downfall.

Therefore, he wouldn’t rest easy until the Bank of East Asia was completely defeated.

Meanwhile, outside Bank of East Asia branches all over Hong Kong, the queues of people grew longer and longer.

A flood of bad news had amplified the public’s panic, making everyone fear that the Bank of East Asia would run out of cash, causing them to lose their entire investment.

Such a scene had not occurred in Hong Kong for over a decade.

And this time, besides the Bank of East Asia, no other bank was experiencing this.

HSBC leading other Hong Kong banks in a joint boycott against the Bank of East Asia was a rare sight anywhere in the world.

After all, this kind of unfair competition is strictly regulated and restricted in all countries. The slightest misstep could trigger turmoil in the financial markets and severe sanctions from regulators.

However, in the unique environment of Hong Kong, coupled with HSBC’s absolute dominance in the financial industry and the deliberately ambiguous attitude of relevant government agencies, this boycott was being carried out in broad daylight.

This would be absolutely unimaginable in any other region.

After all, even if HSBC held the top position, it was not a government institution. It had no authority to dictate market rules at will, much less to baselessly accuse and criticize a peer company without any evidence. Such actions amounted to wantonly suppressing a competitor.

“Acting with impunity, disregarding all laws”—these words could perfectly describe HSBC right now.

But in Hong Kong, with the Government House unwilling to intervene and clearly favoring them, there was nothing to be done.

Who could complain when this was currently a British colony, and HSBC was a British-owned company?

Inside the four stock exchanges, shareholders were in a state of panic.

From a peak of 52 Hong Kong dollars per share just a few days ago, the price had now plummeted to 5 Hong Kong dollars per share—a drop of nearly ten times.

It was hard to imagine that a single stock could undergo such a drastic change in such a short period.

The Bank of East Asia’s stock price had fallen off a cliff, causing countless shareholders to lose their entire investment. Anger and despair spread rapidly throughout the exchange floors.

Yet they couldn’t blame Lin Haoran. After all, this was initiated by HSBC, and Lin Haoran, as the largest shareholder of the Bank of East Asia, was the biggest victim.

As for HSBC, they knew they couldn’t afford to offend them.

Therefore, their only option was to find a way to sell their shares in the Bank of East Asia.

But now, the Bank of East Asia’s stock was impossible to sell.

After dropping to 5 Hong Kong dollars per share, almost no one was willing to lower their price further.

Occasionally, someone would drop their price to just over four dollars a share.

But there weren’t many.

Many had bought in at the peak, when the price was between forty and fifty Hong Kong dollars per share.

Now, the stock was at 5 Hong Kong dollars per share.

It could be said they had truly lost their entire investment. For those investors who bought Bank of East Asia shares at a high price, the anger and unwillingness in their hearts burned like a raging fire.

They complained to each other on the exchange floor, sighing heavily, their eyes filled with despair and helplessness.

The trading volume for the Bank of East Asia’s stock dwindled. Even at five Hong Kong dollars, or even lower, there were still very few transactions.

The reason was simple: there were only sell orders and very few buy orders.

Those willing to take a huge risk for a potentially huge reward were, after all, a minority.

Moreover, the major players, faced with the Bank of East Asia’s situation, saw no possibility of a turnaround. They all avoided it like the plague, afraid of getting stuck with this “hot potato” and suffering losses themselves.

Lin Haoran was indeed a powerhouse in the business world, but in everyone’s opinion, banking was not a game a newcomer like him could master, especially when HSBC had united almost every bank in Hong Kong to maliciously target the Bank of East Asia. The bank’s development prospects seemed nonexistent.

This was why, despite the stock price being so low, very few people were willing to buy.

Time ticked by.

Soon, the closing bell rang at the four stock exchanges, signaling the official end of today’s stock market trading.

The Bank of East Asia’s stock price was frozen at 4.78 Hong Kong dollars per share.

However, if anyone had calculated it, they would have found that the total trading volume for the Bank of East Asia for the entire day was less than five hundred thousand shares.

A volume of five hundred thousand shares was insignificant compared to the total of over one hundred fifty million shares.

This meant that the trading volume for the Bank of East Asia was too small—so small it could hardly affect the overall situation.

“We should demand that the Securities Commission intervene on our behalf! HSBC’s behavior should not be tolerated!” shouted an investor in the exchange hall, his face flushed with emotion.

He held over five thousand shares of the Bank of East Asia, and most importantly, he had bought them at a very high price.

At the time, he had spent over two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, believing that the Bank of East Asia’s stock price would surely rise like Hang Seng Bank’s, reaching a total market capitalization of over ten billion Hong Kong dollars, or even more.

But now, his initial investment of over two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars was worth less than a tenth of its original value.

How could he possibly accept such a situation?

This investor’s proposal quickly garnered a response from many others.

“Right, we need to gather more shareholders to go together! There’s strength in numbers! The Securities Commission can’t ignore us!” another investor shouted at the top of his lungs.

Soon, under their call to action, hundreds of people began marching majestically towards the headquarters of the Hong Kong Securities Commission.

The news spread like wildfire to the other stock exchanges.

In an instant, more and more investors began to converge on the Securities Commission from all directions. The crowd grew larger and larger, and their momentum became more and more powerful.

Chapter 607: Just a Bunch of Unruly Commoners, What Explanation Do They Need?

Around the head office of the Securities Commission in Central, as news spread, the number of arriving investors surged, quickly surpassing a thousand.

The crowd was bustling and vast, blocking even the normally spacious six-lane main road until it was completely impassable.

Last Friday, the news of Lin Haoran taking control of the Bank of East Asia had spread like wildfire.

In an instant, numerous investors who had previously held no interest in the stock also followed the trend and bought shares in the Bank of East Asia.

Meanwhile, many major market players and large shareholders who had received inside information beforehand took the opportunity to continuously sell off their Bank of East Asia shares, turning many small investors into bag holders.

This week especially, the Li Peicai’s family had secretly sold off a massive number of shares, causing a sharp increase in the number of retail investors in the Bank of East Asia.

Although the number of investors gathered here in such a short time seemed large, they were, in fact, only a small fraction of all the investors involved.

After all, the Li Peicai’s family alone had sold off over twenty million shares in just a few days.

As time went on, more and more investors converged on the Securities Commission’s office in Central. Including onlookers, the crowd soon exceeded five thousand people.

Inside an office at the Securities Commission, Miles, the Hong Kong Securities Commissioner and Chairman of the Committee on Takeovers and Mergers, sat in his chair. He looked through the glass at the teeming, clamorous scene below, his brow furrowed into a deep frown.

He had already received a call from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange before these people arrived, so he had the security guards lock the doors early on. Then he called the police, intending to have them disperse these unruly commoners.

The police did come, but they were just local patrol officers, only about a dozen of them. What could they do against a crowd of several thousand investors?

The officers stood at the edge of the crowd, batons in hand, trying to maintain order, but the investors were emotional and paid no heed to the police presence.

The crowd surged forward like a tide, wave after wave. The police were pushed around, and their cordon was broken and scattered.

The event was gradually spiraling out of control. A tense and oppressive atmosphere permeated the air.

The investors’ shouts and curses rose and fell, as if they were about to tear down the office building.

“Give us back our hard-earned money!” “The Hong Kong Association of Banks violated the principle of fairness!” “The Securities Commission must take responsibility!” Various slogans echoed deafeningly. Many investors even began to shove the police, trying to break through the line and storm the Securities Commission building.

If this continued, the building housing the Securities Commission would sooner or later be breached by these investors.

Locking the doors was utterly useless.

At Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran, who had just returned from the Bank of East Asia headquarters, stood in an office on the 51st floor. He could clearly see the crowd gathered at the Securities Commission building.

Even without his subordinates reporting to him, he could guess why these investors were gathered there.

The decline in the Bank of East Asia’s stock price was indeed related to him. As the new boss of the Bank of East Asia, he had not responded to anything, nor had he expressed his views or proposed any measures, which had further exacerbated the situation.

But what did that have to do with him? He had just taken control of the Bank of East Asia. Logically, as the major shareholder, he was the biggest victim!

Therefore, this was the source of Lin Haoran’s confidence to stay out of the matter, and indeed, no ordinary investors were causing him trouble.

In fact, from the public opinion polls conducted by his intelligence sources, Lin Haoran could see that many citizens even felt he was pitiful, having suffered heavy losses due to unfair competition from HSBC.

“Let them protest. The bigger the commotion, the better!”

Watching the surging crowd over there, Lin Haoran smiled, not the least bit troubled by the predicament the Bank of East Asia was facing.

His gaze shifted back to the Securities Commission building.

“Commissioner Miles, even the police can’t control the situation now! Many investors downstairs are shouting to see you, saying you must give them an explanation,” his secretary rushed into the office anxiously, her forehead beaded with sweat.

Miles’s expression grew even darker. He stood up and paced back and forth in his office, contemplating his next move.

“These investors have been driven mad by market fluctuations and won’t listen to reason. But if this isn’t handled well, the credibility of the Securities Commission will be severely damaged,” he muttered to himself.

He was well aware that the actions of HSBC and the newly formed Hong Kong Association of Banks were a blatant trampling of the principles of fair competition in the financial market.

Under normal circumstances, he should indeed intervene to stop this.

However, this time the Hong Kong Association of Banks represented the majority of banks in Hong Kong, and the matter was initiated by HSBC. Their government agency was intrinsically linked to these British-funded conglomerates, with countless ties between them.

Therefore, Miles had no intention of getting involved, planning to delay for as long as possible.

Furthermore, there were no relevant laws or regulations that could quickly and precisely handle such a violation, which was complicated by the intertwining of multiple powerful parties and new financial manipulation techniques. He truly planned to do nothing, to play dumb.

However, he hadn’t expected these investors to actually come and cause a scene at the Securities Commission, making it impossible for him to hide.

Continuing to remain silent would only make the situation more uncontrollable. He and the Securities Commission would be pushed into the eye of the storm, becoming the target of public criticism.

“Haven’t the police department sent reinforcements yet?” Miles looked up and asked his secretary.

“Commissioner Miles, the investors have caused a massive traffic jam along Queen’s Road Central and Des Voeux Road Central. The surrounding areas are also getting more congested. The police department’s main force is stuck on Queensway. They had to park a kilometer away and are coming on foot. It’s estimated they’ll need at least another ten minutes to get here!” the secretary replied quickly.

Ten minutes? Given the investors’ current mood, how could they possibly wait ten more minutes?

“Go, make preparations. I will go down and talk to the investors myself,” Miles gritted his teeth and made this difficult decision.

“Commissioner Miles, I suggest you speak to them from a second-floor window. Given their current emotional state, if you go downstairs, I’m worried you might be in danger,” the secretary suggested.

Miles couldn’t help but give her an appreciative look. Indeed, he wasn’t about to risk his own life.

Soon, Miles arrived at a window on the second floor, pushed it open, and held a megaphone in his hand.

Below the window were the agitated investors.

A scene of this magnitude had long attracted the attention of media from all sides.

Reporters, carrying cameras and holding microphones, struggled through the crowd or were squeezed out at the periphery. They all shared a common goal: to capture the most explosive footage and exclusive interviews.

Camera flashes went off intermittently, and the sound of shutters was incessant, pushing the already heated atmosphere to another climax.

As Miles leaned out of the window, the sea of investors below immediately spotted him. The initially noisy crowd fell silent for a moment, then erupted into even more intense shouts.

“Commissioner Miles, you’ve finally shown your face! The Securities Commission must give us an explanation today!”

“Because of HSBC, our hard-earned money has all gone down the drain! Is the Securities Commission going to do anything about it or not!”

…

The investors all spoke at once, making the scene even more chaotic.

After all, the decision to gather here was spontaneous, so there was little cohesion among them; most were just venting their own frustrations.

Miles took a deep breath, brought the megaphone to his lips, and said loudly, “My dear investor friends, please calm down and listen to me for a moment!”

The noise from the crowd subsided slightly, but many people were still whispering to each other, their faces full of indignation.

Miles cleared his throat and said with feigned sincerity, “I understand how everyone feels right now. Regarding the matter of the Bank of East Asia, our Securities Commission has been paying close attention and has already launched an investigation.”

“An investigation? The Hong Kong Association of Banks announced this so openly, and yet we haven’t heard a peep from you. What have you been doing!” an investor at the very front shouted at the top of his lungs, immediately drawing a chorus of agreement from those around him.

Miles quickly waved his hands and explained to the crowd below through the megaphone, “Financial market investigations are inherently complex, involving numerous links and a vast amount of data. It takes time to unravel the threads. Moreover, there may be some complex operations behind this incident, so we cannot act rashly.

But rest assured, I will arrange to speak with the key figures in this incident, Mr. Michael Sandberg and Mr. Lin Haoran, as soon as possible, and provide you with a reasonable direction for the investigation and preliminary findings.

So, please disperse for now. Don’t gather here and cause a disturbance. It not only affects traffic but also doesn’t help solve the problem. The Securities Commission will uphold the principles of fairness and transparency and give you a satisfactory answer.”

However, as soon as Miles finished speaking, a wave of doubt rose from the crowd.

“Don’t try to fool us with that official-speak! We’ve waited this long, and all we get are your excuses?” a middle-aged investor shouted angrily. His voice resonated with the crowd, and many began to chime in.

“Exactly! If we leave, no one will care about us anymore! You’ll just go back to playing dumb!” another investor yelled, his emotions running high.

Miles wore a look of impatience. If there weren’t so many people here, he would have stormed off long ago.

In Miles’s view, Hong Kong’s government agencies existed to serve the British.

Just a bunch of unruly commoners, what explanation do they need?

Just then, he suddenly saw a group of police officers emerge from the right side of the crowd, numbering at least several hundred.

These officers were clearly the reinforcements sent by the Hong Kong Police Department.

Instantly, Miles’s confidence returned.

He straightened up, brought the megaphone closer to his mouth, and raised his voice a few notches, “Fellow citizens, the police are here to maintain order. It’s pointless to continue this protest.

I promise again that the Securities Commission will produce a result as soon as possible. Now, please cooperate with the police and leave the area in an orderly fashion.”

A few thousand people were, in the end, a disorganized group. Though unwilling, faced with the police driving them away with guns drawn, the investors had no choice but to leave the scene reluctantly.

Miles’s plan was simply to stall for time. He never had any intention of seriously resolving this matter. In the end, it would just fizzle out.

Make him issue a punishment to HSBC? That was impossible.

The unfair competitive practices carried out by British-funded conglomerates like HSBC and Jardine Matheson & Co. over the years were too numerous to count!

Chapter 608: The Li Family Rejects HSBC’s Poaching Partnership

Miles knew exactly what was going on, but he could never admit it out loud.

Watching the shareholders gradually disperse, he breathed a silent sigh of relief, but the gloom on his face had not entirely vanished.

“HSBC, oh HSBC,” he thought, “I can pretend I don’t see what you’re doing, but you can’t expect me to clean up your mess!”

With that, Miles decided to call Michael Sandberg.

Because quite a few major shareholders and market makers with inside information had sold off their Bank of East Asia shares ahead of time, many small shareholders had been left as bag holders.

That was why so many shareholders were involved, leading to the current intractable situation.

At the Connaught Centre, after watching the thousands of people gradually disperse under the direction of the police, Lin Haoran returned to his office.

“Boss, there were a lot of pending sell orders this afternoon. If you had bought them, you could have quickly increased your shareholding at an average cost of five Hong Kong dollars per share. Why didn’t you plan to buy them?” Ma Shimin came into his office and asked curiously.

Lin Haoran wanted to privatize the Bank of East Asia, and as his most trusted top lieutenant, Ma Shimin was naturally aware of this.

So, from Ma Shimin’s perspective, that afternoon had been a golden opportunity to privatize the bank.

According to statistics, by the time the market closed, there were pending orders for over thirty million shares of Bank of East Asia stock at under eight Hong Kong dollars per share—a stake of more than 20 percent!

If Lin Haoran had accumulated all these shares, combined them with his existing holdings, and acquired the nearly ten million shares remaining from Li Peicai’s family, he could have rapidly increased his stake to over 80 percent.

At that point, he could have applied for a compulsory privatization.

However, Lin Haoran shook his head.

“Mr. Ma, I can’t do that. If I do, my intentions will be too obvious. Everyone will think I orchestrated this whole affair. What would all those shareholders think of me then?” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

Privatizing the Bank of East Asia was his next move, but he did not want to do it in such a conspicuous and controversial manner.

Just looking at the fury on the faces of the shareholders gathered outside the Securities Commission building was enough to tell how unwilling they were to accept their losses.

After all, no one could accept seeing the shares they held lose so much value in just a few short days.

It could practically be described as losing one’s entire investment.

If he were to start privatizing the Bank of East Asia now, everyone would undoubtedly believe that he had intentionally waited for the stock price to plummet so he could buy it out at a low price, solidifying his infamy for “maliciously harvesting.”

When that happened, forget about a smooth privatization; even his existing business reputation would likely be destroyed.

Although he wasn’t overly concerned with his reputation, this was Hong Kong, after all. His business foundations and headquarters were rooted here, so naturally, he didn’t want his name on this land to become too tarnished.

As things stood, he was unequivocally the victim of this incident. Why would he be foolish enough to step forward and take the blame for HSBC, to bear this monstrous infamy?

Given the Bank of East Asia’s current state, honestly, if he didn’t step in to save it, the bank had no chance of a comeback.

Therefore, it was impossible for the Bank of East Asia’s stock price to rise again.

For this reason, Lin Haoran was in no hurry to privatize the bank.

Although the Bank of East Asia was now facing considerable difficulties, it would still take several days for customers queuing up to withdraw the nearly three billion Hong Kong dollars in cash.

During these few days, all he needed was for the bank to maintain its service. That would be enough.

As for what to do after all the cash was withdrawn, he would naturally have his next plan by then.

Ma Shimin was no fool. After Lin Haoran’s explanation, he understood his boss’s thinking.

…

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, regarding the partnership you proposed, I’m very sorry, but the Li family has no intention of participating. Besides, we haven’t started our new bank yet and don’t have a large demand for employees. But rest assured, I can guarantee on behalf of Li Peicai’s family that I will not reveal what you’ve said to anyone!”

When Michael Sandberg met with Li Fushu and proposed that they join forces to poach talent from the Bank of East Asia, he was surprised to find that Li Fushu rejected him outright, without a moment’s hesitation.

Li Fushu did indeed want those employees from the Bank of East Asia. After all, they were part of the talent system that the Li family had painstakingly built, one that had cost the family countless drops of their heart and soul, not to mention resources.

But Li Fushu understood that HSBC’s methods in the Bank of East Asia affair were less than honorable. If they got involved, the Li family would likely be dragged into a quagmire from which it would be difficult to escape.

What Li Peicai’s family needed now was to remain neutral, to extricate themselves from this increasingly chaotic and perilous financial storm.

To put it bluntly, Li Peicai’s family couldn’t afford to offend HSBC, but they couldn’t afford to offend Lin Haoran either.

Moreover, they had already promised Lin Haoran that they would only take their thirty-odd trusted aides.

If they were to now join forces with Michael Sandberg to poach talent from the Bank of East Asia, Li Peicai’s family would be directly tearing up the delicate, tacit understanding and implicit promise they had with Lin Haoran. This would undoubtedly place Li Peicai’s family in the dangerous position of making enemies on both sides.

Although Lin Haoran couldn’t compare to HSBC in the financial industry, it didn’t change the fact that he was still a business tycoon in Hong Kong, nor did it change his status as Hong Kong’s current richest man.

And poaching talent was something that could not be kept secret; Lin Haoran would find out sooner or later.

Currently, although tearing up their alliance midway and withdrawing from the Bank of East Asia had displeased Lin Haoran, their relationship had merely shifted from allies to something akin to strangers. At the very least, the Li family had not become his outright enemy.

But if Li Fushu agreed to Michael Sandberg’s proposal, becoming mortal enemies with Lin Haoran would be inevitable.

Therefore, Li Fushu rejected it without a second thought.

In his view, with the Bank of East Asia under the combined pressure of HSBC and other banks, its branches would soon have to be downsized due to a sharp decline in business volume.

At that time, many employees would be laid off.

The Li family still held some influence over these employees. If Li Peicai’s family were to establish a new bank at that point, these laid-off employees, remembering past loyalties and the Li family’s reputation, would most likely come to them on their own accord.

This way, they could avoid a direct confrontation with Lin Haoran now, while also absorbing talent in a more stable manner to rebuild their family’s financial empire.

Why would they risk completely offending Lin Haoran to cooperate with HSBC and do something that could draw fire upon oneself?

Li Fushu’s decisive refusal was indeed beyond Michael Sandberg’s expectations.

On his way over, he had thought it would not be difficult to persuade him.

But now it seemed the other party wasn’t even giving him a chance to continue the conversation.

Michael Sandberg’s expression soured slightly.

However, he knew he couldn’t afford to offend Li Fushu too much. Otherwise, if Li Fushu had a change of heart and went back to join forces with Lin Haoran, not only would his plan fail, but HSBC would be put in an even more passive position.

Suppressing his displeasure, Michael Sandberg forced a smile that looked worse than a grimace. “Mr. Li, since the Li family has no intention of cooperating at this time, I certainly won’t insist. Since our partnership won’t be moving forward, I’ll take my leave. There are many matters at the company waiting for me to handle.”

“Please see yourself out, Mr. Michael Sandberg. We’ll talk again when we have the chance!” Li Fushu said with a wave and a smile.

After Michael Sandberg left, the smile on Li Fushu’s face vanished.

“HSBC has a clever little scheme. If we were to assist them, the Bank of East Asia’s personnel structure would surely collapse even faster. What a pity. I never had any such intention from the beginning. If I wanted to poach them, why would I need to cooperate with you?” Li Fushu muttered to himself.

As for Michael Sandberg, although Li Fushu’s refusal meant their plan could not be executed perfectly, they still had their own channels and backup plans for poaching talent. They were not entirely reliant on the Li family.

Soon, that evening, people began to secretly contact the experienced and highly capable employees of the Bank of East Asia.

The operation was extremely clandestine.

With its powerful intelligence network, HSBC had easily obtained the personnel files of the Bank of East Asia.

In the blink of an eye, the weekend arrived.

Today, Lin Haoran did not go out, even though all of Hong Kong was in an uproar over the Bank of East Asia affair.

On street corners and in alleyways, in tea houses and restaurants, people were discussing it animatedly. The topics invariably revolved around HSBC forcing citizens to choose one of two, the collapse of Bank of East Asia’s stock, the bank run as customers lined up to withdraw cash, and small shareholders losing their entire investments.

Who would have thought that the Bank of East Asia, a fixture in Hong Kong for so many years, would encounter something like this?

It was the weekend, so all the Bank of East Asia branches were closed, which gave the bank some breathing room.

According to Da Shan’s report, the Bank of East Asia originally had 2.93 billion Hong Kong dollars in its accounts, but nearly four hundred million Hong Kong dollars had been withdrawn in a single day yesterday.

This meant that even at yesterday’s rate, the cash reserve of nearly three billion Hong Kong dollars would only last for about a week.

If the bank run continued and intensified when the work week began, the Bank of East Asia would likely soon face a severed capital chain and a desperate situation.

Lin Haoran ate his breakfast while reading the newspaper.

He already knew everything the papers were reporting, but seeing it in print gave it a different feel.

Most newspapers were painting a bleak picture of the Bank of East Asia’s future.

The Oriental Daily News did not report along these lines, but everyone knew that Lin Haoran was its boss. Thus, even if the Oriental Daily News spoke highly of the bank’s future, no one would believe it.

Chapter 609: An Account Manager Sells a Tip

“Boss, I’d like to arrange for the Oriental Daily News to do an exclusive interview with you. What do you think?” The call was from Cui Zilong.

“An exclusive interview? Alright. I’ll be at my office in the Connaught Centre around ten this morning. You can have the reporter come then. I’m still at home right now,” Lin Haoran replied after a moment of thought.

Over the past few days, many reporters had wanted to interview him, but he had them all turned away.

For instance, quite a few reporters were currently milling about downstairs at the Connaught Centre, hoping for a chance encounter with Lin Haoran. This way, they might get information no one else had, allowing them to take the lead in the next day’s newspaper sales.

The Oriental Daily News was his own paper, which naturally gave him more peace of mind. At the very least, he would have more of a say in the report’s slant and content control. He could also use this exclusive interview to convey some key information and stabilize the somewhat turbulent situation.

“Excellent, Boss. I’ll make the arrangements,” Cui Zilong said, relieved.

As the President of the Oriental Press Group, he naturally hoped the Oriental Daily News would seize this opportunity to boost its sales and make a significant splash in Hong Kong’s media circle.

Moreover, the fact that Lin Haoran was personally granting an exclusive interview to his own newspaper was a highly newsworthy item in itself. If handled properly, newspaper sales were certain to see a surge.

Putting down his mobile phone, he returned his attention to the newspaper.

At nine in the morning, Lin Haoran slowly made his way out.

However, on the road, he received another call.

It was from Da Shan, the current interim President of the Bank of East Asia.

“Boss, there’s an urgent matter I need to report to you. If it’s convenient, it would be best for you to come to the Bank of East Asia headquarters,” Da Shan’s voice was tense with anxiety and gravity.

“Alright, wait for me in your office. I’ll be there in a few minutes,” Lin Haoran replied directly.

His car was already approaching the Connaught Centre, but since Da Shan said he had something important to report, he naturally had to change his route.

The Connaught Centre and the Bank of East Asia headquarters were not far from each other. With his private car already on the road and a smooth journey ahead, a few minutes would be more than enough time.

“Change course for the Bank of East Asia headquarters,” Lin Haoran said to Li Weidong, who was driving, after hanging up.

“Yes, Boss!”

The car quickly merged from the access road onto the main thoroughfare, heading towards the Bank of East Asia headquarters.

A few minutes later, four cars were parked in the underground garage of the Bank of East Asia headquarters.

The office building was quiet. Since it was the weekend, most of the staff were off, with only a small number of employees holding down the fort at their duty posts.

Walking briskly, Lin Haoran took the private elevator directly to the floor of the president’s office where Da Shan was.

Soon, he saw Da Shan.

Standing next to Da Shan was a young man of about thirty.

“Good morning, Boss!” Da Shan and the young man stood up and greeted Lin Haoran in unison.

Lin Haoran nodded, his gaze turning curiously to the young man.

He didn’t recognize him, but the loyalty rating of 62 that appeared above the young man’s head was not high; in fact, it could be considered quite low.

He’d never noticed such a person before, but if he had, he would have definitely had Da Shan fire him.

However, since a loyalty rating appeared at all, it was enough to indicate that the young man was an employee of one of his companies.

“Boss, let me introduce you. This is Zhang Lei, an Account Manager at the Bank of East Asia’s Causeway Bay branch. I called you over because Zhang Lei has something important to report to you,” Da Shan hurriedly explained.

Lin Haoran frowned slightly and gestured for Zhang Lei to sit down and speak.

Although Zhang Lei was nervous in the presence of a magnate like Lin Haoran, he quickly calmed himself by thinking of his goal.

Just as his loyalty rating suggested, he felt little sense of belonging to the Bank of East Asia; instead, he spent his days scheming about how to make money.

As an Account Manager at the Bank of East Asia’s Causeway Bay branch, Zhang Lei was considered mid-level management within the bank’s hierarchy.

Because of this, he had received inside information about Lin Haoran taking control of the Bank of East Asia much earlier than the general public.

Sensing a business opportunity, he decided to go for broke, hoping to strike it rich.

Without hesitation, he invested his entire life savings, painstakingly accumulated over the years, into the Bank of East Asia’s stock.

Not only that, but he also used his position as an Account Manager to take out a loan of one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars from the Bank of East Asia.

At the same time, using his connections in the financial circle, he managed to secure another loan of one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars from HSBC.

Adding that to his own savings of over one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, he cobbled together more than three hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars and bet it all on the Bank of East Asia’s stock.

Like other shareholders, he firmly believed that once Lin Haoran’s companies moved their financial operations to the Bank of East Asia, its market capitalization would skyrocket. At that point, the bank’s stock price could easily rival that of Hang Seng Bank.

To Zhang Lei, this was no different from picking up free money.

If he’d had more time, he would have even tried to secure more funds from other banks to pour in.

Naturally, Li Peicai’s family didn’t reveal their secret sell-off of shares over the past few days to people like him.

So, by the time the Bank of East Asia’s stock price plummeted, it was too late for him to sell.

Although his entry price was much lower than that of many ordinary shareholders, his cost was still nearly 30 Hong Kong dollars per share.

Now, each share was worth less than 5 Hong Kong dollars, and even then, he couldn’t find a buyer.

In other words, not only had he lost all his principal, but he was also now in debt to both the Bank of East Asia and HSBC.

For someone like him, who had always been a meticulous planner focused on profit, this was undoubtedly a crushing blow.

It meant that the wealth he had worked so hard to accumulate over the years had been reduced to nothing in a short period, leaving him saddled with heavy debt and plunging him into an unprecedented crisis.

“Boss, I have a very important piece of information to sell to you. This information will definitely be useful to you. It’s about HSBC,” Zhang Lei said, mustering his courage to lay out his plan.

Since his stock market losses were irreversible, HSBC had conveniently presented him with an opportunity.

So he decided to use this opportunity, treating this “important information” as a bargaining chip, to try and get some tangible benefits from Lin Haoran.

Ideally, he hoped to recover his stock market losses and even make a small profit, alleviating his current predicament, which had him feeling like an ant on a hot pan.

“Oh? What information? Tell me first. If it’s truly useful to me, I don’t mind giving you a generous reward,” Lin Haoran said with great interest, sitting in his chair with his legs crossed.

“This is definitely useful to you, but I’m afraid that if I tell you and you don’t honor your end of the deal, I’ll be at a huge loss. Boss, could you perhaps give me a promise first, or sign some kind of agreement, just to give me some peace of mind?” Zhang Lei gritted his teeth and finally voiced his concern.

He understood that he was in a very passive position. If Lin Haoran went back on his word later, there would be nothing he could do.

Lin Haoran’s eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at Zhang Lei with a faint, unreadable smile. “Mr. Zhang, I, Lin Haoran, am not someone who goes back on his word. If the information is truly valuable, I certainly won’t treat you unfairly. But if you try to fool me with false information, you should be well aware of the consequences.”

Zhang Lei thought for a moment. Remembering he still had important evidence in his possession, he gritted his teeth and decided to take the gamble.

“HSBC is trying to poach talent from the Bank of East Asia, and it looks like they’re planning to do it on a large scale. Last night, not long after I got home, I received a call from Paul Harvey, the President of HSBC’s personnel department.

“This leader from HSBC’s personnel department invited me to meet at a nearby coffee shop for a detailed discussion. I had a good idea of what they were up to, so I prepared a recording pen beforehand and recorded our entire conversation,” Zhang Lei said, pausing here.

“Why did you stop? Continue,” Lin Haoran prompted, raising an eyebrow.

Zhang Lei swallowed and continued, “In the coffee shop, Paul Harvey laid his cards on the table. He said HSBC highly values my work experience and client resources at the Bank of East Asia and was willing to offer me three times my current salary, plus additional bonuses and promotion opportunities, as long as I could bring my client base over to HSBC.

“The more detailed content is all on the recording. I wonder if you think this information is worthy of a guarantee from you?” Zhang Lei stared intently at Lin Haoran, his eyes filled with a mixture of anxiety and hope.

By now, Lin Haoran knew that what the man was saying was most likely true.

What he hadn’t expected, however, was that HSBC would resort to such a scheme. Wasn’t this the very same tactic he had used against Jardine Securities?

Ruthless. HSBC was indeed ruthless enough.

The Bank of East Asia was already in such a state, yet HSBC refused to let up, attempting to completely shatter it from within. It was a well-played scheme indeed.

This was the HSBC he was familiar with!

However, Lin Haoran found one thing strange. A triple salary was a huge temptation. And given the man’s loyalty rating, he was definitely not someone fiercely loyal to the Bank of East Asia. Why would such a person turn down an opportunity like this?

Thinking of this, Lin Haoran asked with a smile, “Mr. Zhang, why did you turn HSBC down when they offered you such excellent terms? Don’t tell me you’re fiercely loyal to the Bank of East Asia. I won’t believe that.”

A flash of embarrassment crossed Zhang Lei’s face, but he quickly composed himself and said, steeling his resolve, “Boss, you’re right. My loyalty to the Bank of East Asia doesn’t run that deep.

“The offer from HSBC was indeed tempting, but I also know that switching jobs carries significant risks. I’ve built up some connections and resources during my years at the Bank of East Asia, and I guess that’s what HSBC values in me.

“But what if I go over there, get used as a pawn, and then get fired once they’ve squeezed all the value out of me? I’d end up displeasing both sides, and that would be a disaster.

“But if I sell this information to you, I’m sure I can get a good reward. Compared to working for HSBC, this offers a much better return for me!”

Zhang Lei had no intention of revealing that he had taken out loans to buy Bank of East Asia stocks, only to end up as a freshly-cut “leek.” It was, after all, an embarrassing matter.

This was the most important reason he hadn’t switched jobs. If he hadn’t suffered disastrous losses in the stock market, this “selling of information” would never have happened.

And in his view, whether he mentioned it or not made little difference.

Chapter 610: Turning the Tables

HSBC never would have dreamed that the poaching plan they had diligently set in motion just last night would be laid bare before Lin Haoran this very morning.

In truth, HSBC’s poaching operation was highly targeted.

They had investigated each target thoroughly, weighing and assessing them repeatedly. Only when they believed they had a surefire chance of success did they officially launch the operation.

Moreover, the terms they offered were exceptionally generous; under normal circumstances, few would refuse.

As for this Zhang Lei, they had investigated his background completely. They knew he wasn’t the type to be a die-hard loyalist to the Bank of East Asia, and they had also learned that he was solely focused on profit, often operating in the gray areas of the financial world to get what he wanted.

That was why Paul Harvey, the President of HSBC’s personnel department, had personally taken the initiative, attempting to poach Zhang Lei, an Account Manager with considerable connections and resources at the Bank of East Asia’s Causeway Bay branch.

HSBC’s self-serving plan was to gradually disintegrate the Bank of East Asia from within, one branch at a time.

Through their intelligence, they had indeed identified Zhang Lei’s true nature.

They also knew that Zhang Lei had recently taken out a short-term loan of one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars from HSBC.

This meant Zhang Lei must be short on cash.

Therefore, they believed persuading him would be no problem at all.

And just as the team in HSBC’s personnel department had meticulously analyzed, Zhang Lei accepted their poaching offer almost without hesitation.

But for all their careful calculations, they had never anticipated that Zhang Lei, in a moment of sheer obsession, had recently sunk a large amount of money into buying Bank of East Asia stock.

Now, he was consumed with anxiety, with those short-term loans hanging over him like a heavy mountain, leaving him breathless.

Although the benefits offered by HSBC were indeed tempting, the money was just a drop in the bucket compared to the pressing weight of his short-term loans. It couldn’t solve his fundamental problem.

After thinking it over and over, Zhang Lei finally decided to use this opportunity to maximize his own gains.

On the surface, he feigned eager acceptance of HSBC’s olive branch, but secretly, he had already devised a plan to cash in.

The next morning, he rushed to the Bank of East Asia and went directly to Da Shan, who was now in charge of related matters. With a look of extreme urgency, he asked Da Shan to help him contact his Boss, Lin Haoran, saying he had something incredibly urgent to discuss in person.

Lin Haoran was skeptical of Zhang Lei’s story but didn’t press the matter.

As long as the information was true, why the man had rejected HSBC’s generous offer was of no concern to him.

“So, what are your terms?” Lin Haoran continued.

“My price is three hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars. I’ll give you the audiotape. I believe this information is definitely worth that much!” Zhang Lei stated a number he considered quite reasonable.

Once he had that three hundred thousand, he could completely cover his losses from the stock market. He might even turn a profit and escape his financial crisis.

The only price was leaving Hong Kong, which he could accept.

After speaking, he stared intently at Lin Haoran, trying to gauge his reaction from the changes in his expression.

Lin Haoran furrowed his brow. Three hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars was not a large sum to him; in fact, it was almost trivial.

And in his view, this information was indeed very useful.

Seeing Lin Haoran’s knitted brow, Zhang Lei’s heart tightened, thinking that Lin Haoran found his price too high.

So, he quickly spoke again, “Boss, if you think the price is too high, we can still negotiate. It can be less!”

However, Lin Haoran just smiled and said, “Play the tape first. Let me hear the contents, and then I’ll decide what it’s worth.”

Zhang Lei had no other way out. He had to bite the bullet and take a cassette tape out of his bag.

At this point, he had said most of what he had to say. Before Lin Haoran, he was like a shucked clam, with no secrets left to hide. He could only pray Lin Haoran was a man of his word.

In reality, Lin Haoran had no intention of cheating him out of his intelligence.

To him, three hundred thousand was a small sum.

Da Shan had already taken the tape to a cassette player in the office, inserted it, and pressed the play button.

The recording was very clear, and the voices of both parties were easily distinguishable.

Just as Zhang Lei had said, the conversation on the tape was indeed about Paul Harvey from HSBC poaching Zhang Lei. The generous terms mentioned were something no normal person could refuse.

“Boss, that voice… it’s definitely Paul Harvey, the President of HSBC’s personnel department!” Da Shan said quickly after the recording finished playing.

As the President of the personnel department, he controlled key matters like recruitment, transfers, and promotions for the entire HSBC system. He was a core senior executive at HSBC, and his every move could have a significant impact on the bank’s development.

So, it wasn’t surprising that Da Shan recognized him.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, sat down in his chair, and fell into deep thought, his right index finger tapping rhythmically on the desk.

The tap, tap, tap was exceptionally clear in the quiet office, each sound landing like a heavy hammer on Zhang Lei’s heart, making him increasingly anxious.

At this moment, he had laid all his cards on the table. If Lin Haoran suddenly went back on his word and refused to pay him, he would be completely helpless. Not only would he not get any reward from Lin Haoran, but if the matter leaked, HSBC would never let him off the hook.

In fact, he had already considered this before coming. Once he received a handsome reward from Lin Haoran, he would take his family and flee Hong Kong to live in anonymity.

After all, he knew how terrifying HSBC could be. Once HSBC found out he had betrayed them, he would undoubtedly face their frenzied revenge. He’d be lucky to escape with his life.

So, before coming over, he had actually told his family to pack their things, ready to skip town at a moment’s notice.

He knew clearly that offending HSBC was like pulling a tooth from a tiger’s mouth in the financial world. The consequences would be unimaginable.

Seeing his anxious expression, Lin Haoran smiled and said, “Three hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars… I can give it to you. But I need you to come forward and testify against them personally!”

A plan was already slowly forming in Lin Haoran’s mind.

So, HSBC wants to poach my people?

Fine. On the surface, we’ll let them.

In reality, he would have Da Shan secretly start a preemptive check for any wavering personnel within the company while using Zhang Lei as a key card to turn HSBC’s own plan against them.

Then, next week, he would start reducing the staff at various branches to slow down the speed of customer withdrawals.

And HSBC would become the main culprit for this slowdown.

He wanted to make HSBC’s business reputation plummet.

This way, it wouldn’t just be the shareholders causing a fuss; the depositors would be in an uproar too.

The bigger the commotion, the better.

That way, the Bank of East Asia’s stock would become even more worthless!

And that would be all the more beneficial for his plan to privatize the Bank of East Asia.

Once the customers took their complaints to the government, he would then expose HSBC’s forceful poaching tactics.

From HSBC’s perspective, poaching some key employees would slow down the Bank of East Asia’s withdrawal speed, which would inevitably damage its reputation. At the same time, they could use the poached employees to swallow up a large portion of the Bank of East Asia’s business.

But from Lin Haoran’s perspective, this was a golden opportunity to turn things around and turn the tables on them.

Moreover, now that he knew about this in advance, Da Shan would have ample time to prepare.

This way, the Bank of East Asia could minimize its losses in this poaching incident.

HSBC thought they had laid an inescapable trap to gradually take over the Bank of East Asia, but they had no idea they were about to become Lin Haoran’s scapegoat.

However, when Zhang Lei heard Lin Haoran’s condition, he broke out in a cold sweat.

He was desperate to escape this mess, not get deeper into it. Testifying against them? He’d have to have a death wish.

This was HSBC! If he dared to testify during the day, he might meet a violent end that very night.

He treasured his life and feared death; how could he possibly agree to such a condition?

Zhang Lei’s lips trembled, his face went pale, and beads of sweat as large as beans rolled down his forehead.

He stammered, “B-Boss… T-that won’t work. If I testify against HSBC, they’ll never let me go. I… I have a family. I can’t drag them into this.”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran laughed.

“You don’t have to worry about that. You can have your family leave Hong Kong right now. As for yourself, you stay behind. After I have you testify, I guarantee you can leave Hong Kong safely. With my influence in Hong Kong, a small matter like this is well within my power,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Although Zhang Lei was no longer as panicked upon hearing this, he was still hesitant. After all, this was a gamble with his life!

Seeing that he was still considering, Lin Haoran said, “If you’re unwilling to testify, that’s fine too. It’s just that the reward will have to be reconsidered. I’ll only give you one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars. In my opinion, one hundred thousand for such a piece of information isn’t a bad deal for you.”

His meaning was direct. Two paths lay before Zhang Lei: either choose to stay and testify against HSBC to get an extra two hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, with Lin Haoran guaranteeing his safety;

Or just take the one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars and leave, having nothing more to do with the matter.

The audiotape was evidence enough.

But if Zhang Lei, as the person involved, came forward to testify, the effect would be completely different.

The impact on public opinion and the credibility with the public would be magnified exponentially by the personal account of a key figure like Zhang Lei.

At that point, HSBC would face an irreversible public relations disaster, which would be a tremendous help to Lin Haoran’s plan to privatize the Bank of East Asia.

Chapter 611: What’s the Harm in Taking a Gamble?

After hearing what Lin Haoran said, Zhang Lei found himself torn.

On one hand, he understood that coming forward to expose HSBC meant enormous risk. This was the bank with the deepest roots and greatest power in Hong Kong’s business world. Offending them, even with Lin Haoran’s protection, was still risky; there was no one-hundred-percent guarantee he could retreat unscathed.

On the other hand, the lure of three hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars was simply too great. This money could not only cover his losses in the stock market but also allow him and his family to live a stable and comfortable life abroad for some time.

After all, when leaving Hong Kong for an unfamiliar place, the most important thing was to have money. In a place with no money and no connections, you couldn’t get anywhere.

Furthermore, if he chose the one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars, it was still a considerable sum, but it wouldn’t do much for him. The difference compared to three hundred thousand was huge; one hundred thousand couldn’t even cover his debts. He was truly unwilling to give up that extra two hundred thousand.

He also knew that he had no bargaining chips left, as they were already on the table.

Besides, a man of the other party’s stature had already done more than enough.

Therefore, he was now faced with choosing one of two options, not trying to negotiate further with Lin Haoran.

Soon, Zhang Lei came to terms with it.

He had always been a gambler.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so bold as to take out a loan to buy stocks.

Life was nothing but a high-stakes gamble.

Lin Haoran had promised to protect him and even secretly help him leave Hong Kong, which already significantly improved his safety.

On top of that, his family could leave Hong Kong ahead of time.

Since that was the case, what was the harm in taking a gamble for three hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars?

Thinking of this, Zhang Lei asked directly, “Boss, can you really guarantee my safety and help me leave Hong Kong after I expose them?”

“Naturally. To you, this is a major event, but in my eyes, it’s a trivial matter. You can rest assured. Once you agree, I can transfer the money to you immediately!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Alright, I agree!” Zhang Lei gritted his teeth, a flicker of resolve in his eyes, as if he had cast all his worries aside.

“Good. In that case, Mr. Da Shan, you will be responsible for handling this matter. I will inform you when it’s time for Mr. Zhang to come forward. Contact me directly if anything comes up.

As for you, Mr. Zhang, I’ll give you half a day to go home, say goodbye to your family, and arrange your affairs. Afterward, we will arrange for you to stay in a hotel. You are not to have excessive contact with the outside world to avoid leaking the news.

By the way, Mr. Zhang, don’t even think about taking the money and skipping town. I’ll have people watching you. I hope you won’t get any funny ideas. I think you can imagine the consequences,” Lin Haoran said solemnly, looking at the two men.

“Rest assured, Boss. I will make all the necessary arrangements,” Da Shan nodded in agreement.

“Boss Lin, I understand. Since I’ve agreed, I will definitely see it through. I won’t entertain any crooked thoughts,” Zhang Lei said. He hadn’t considered any funny business; after all, the man before him was the famous richest man in Hong Kong. Trying to pull a fast one right under his nose would be like an egg against a stone.

After making the arrangements, Lin Haoran bid them farewell and prepared to head to the Connaught Centre.

In the car, he called Cui Zilong. “Postpone the interview with the Oriental Daily News. I have something for you to do. I need you to investigate whether HSBC is secretly poaching talent from the Bank of East Asia on a large scale…”

Lin Haoran explained the situation at the Bank of East Asia to Cui Zilong in detail.

After that, he didn’t need to worry about how the investigation would be carried out.

After all, if they had to investigate without any leads, it would be like searching in the dark.

But now that they knew what was happening, a targeted investigation would be much simpler.

“Understood, Boss. I’ll arrange it right away and get you the results as soon as possible!” Cui Zilong understood the gravity of the situation and didn’t press further about the interview.

In the blink of an eye, it was afternoon. Cui Zilong went to Lin Haoran’s office in person to deliver the results of his investigation.

“According to our investigation, in just one night last night, HSBC secretly contacted over thirty employees of the Bank of East Asia. These employees are all key personnel at various branches of the bank.

Furthermore, we can confirm that without exception, every person they contacted accepted the terms offered by HSBC and is preparing to switch jobs.

Someone like that Zhang Lei is probably the only exception. He appeared to agree on the surface, but who would have thought he would secretly leak the news to you, Boss.

If it weren’t for this ‘accident’ with Zhang Lei, you might not have learned of this for a long time, Boss. By then, the Bank of East Asia would probably have been hollowed out by HSBC, completely drained of talent,” Cui Zilong said with a sigh.

HSBC was definitely imitating their previous tactic against Jardine Securities.

Back then, Lin Haoran had his subordinates poach employees from Jardine Securities. It was precisely because the preliminary work was done with such secrecy that by the time Jardine Matheson & Co. found out, it was already too late.

This time, HSBC had clearly grasped the essence of this covert poaching strategy and planned to use it against the Bank of East Asia, cutting the ground out from under them.

But for all their calculations, they never accounted for the variable that was Zhang Lei. That move went awry, allowing Lin Haoran to prepare in advance.

Now that he knew HSBC was poaching talent on a large scale, Da Shan had already begun secretly meeting with some core personnel, analyzing the downsides of switching to HSBC one by one. The most important thing was to steady their resolve.

As for the lower-level staff, losing some of them was of no great consequence; they could be replaced at any time. For now, they would let HSBC be smug about it.

Time flew by, and it was Monday morning, June 15th.

Long queues had already formed outside every branch of the Bank of East Asia before they even opened for business.

Some people, in order to withdraw their money as early as possible, had even stayed up all night waiting outside the bank.

Over the weekend, as the media frenzy escalated and Lin Haoran remained silent on the matter, coupled with HSBC’s continued secret manipulation of public opinion against the Bank of East Asia, the bank’s customers grew increasingly panicked. They worried whether the Bank of East Asia was truly in crisis and if its capital chain would break.

HSBC seized the opportunity to fan the flames, arranging for paid shills to spread rumors on various occasions, making people even more restless.

Therefore, today’s bank run was even more ferocious than the one last Friday.

The queues snaked like long dragons, stretching from the entrance of each branch far down the street. People’s faces were filled with anxiety and unease as they whispered among themselves.

Da Shan, in his capacity as the President of the Bank of East Asia, had issued a public notice to reassure everyone, but it had no effect whatsoever.

…

At the HSBC headquarters, Michael Sandberg was in his office, listening to a report from Executive Director William Purves.

Next door to the HSBC headquarters was a branch of the Bank of East Asia. From their office window, they could see the long queue of people waiting to withdraw cash.

The plan to strike at the Bank of East Asia was, one could say, orchestrated single-handedly by William Purves, so he was in full charge of the matter.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, over the past three days, we have proactively initiated a poaching operation against the Bank of East Asia. We have successfully contacted a total of 68 people, most of whom are key employees from various branches, and even some from the main office.

For those employees who haven’t yet agreed to switch, we’ve used cash as an incentive to have them all sign confidentiality agreements, ensuring they won’t disclose this matter to the public. this allows our poaching operation to continue discreetly.

In addition, those key employees who have already agreed to come over have used their special status and connections within the Bank of East Asia to act as go-betweens for us, poaching over one hundred more people.

So, as of now, the total number of Bank of East Asia employees confirmed to be switching to HSBC has exceeded one hundred and fifty. This will undoubtedly cause a huge shock and major problems for the Bank of East Asia.

However, it’s a bit of a pity, really. Time was simply too tight. If we’d had a week, I’m confident we could have poached even more core employees. By then, the Bank of East Asia’s internal structure would have likely collapsed completely.

Moreover, according to reliable sources, it’s highly likely that even more customers will be queuing to withdraw cash from the Bank of East Asia today. The bank run is bound to be more intense.

Now that the Bank of East Asia has lost so many branch employees, I’d like to see how they’ll handle this thorny situation!” William Purves reported in detail while letting out a sigh of feigned regret.

But his face showed not a hint of pity; it was filled with unconcealable pride and excitement. The slight upward curve of his lips was enough to show his current elation.

These were all accomplishments. If they ultimately succeeded, it would be an immeasurable boost to his future prospects of succeeding Michael Sandberg.

“Mr. Purves, you’ve done an excellent job. My efforts in grooming you have not been in vain. This operation against the Bank of East Asia was meticulously planned and forcefully executed. The initial results are very promising. I’m very satisfied,” Michael Sandberg said with a smile of approval, leaning back in his chair.

“Once the Bank of East Asia’s severe loss of personnel causes a sharp decline in the efficiency of its withdrawal services, leading to infinitely longer queues for customers, it will surely provoke dissatisfaction and complaints from those waiting in line.

Meanwhile, the plunge in the Bank of East Asia’s stock price has already made numerous shareholders frantic and full of grievances. A couple of days ago, there was even a farce where they mobbed the Securities Commission.

I have already secretly arranged for people. When the time is right, with just a little guidance, we can channel all the anger of the shareholders and customers straight towards the Bank of East Asia’s management, blaming it all on their incompetence and negligence.

As long as the tide of public opinion continues to surge and the public’s anger is completely ignited, the Bank of East Asia will be plunged into a state of irreparable ruin.

At that point, without lifting a finger, we can drag it into an even deeper crisis, or even dismantle it directly. From then on, this grave threat, the Bank of East Asia, will completely disappear from the Hong Kong business world!”

Chapter 612: It’s Chaos, Total Chaos!

After the incident where shareholders blockaded the Securities Commission building, Miles had called Michael Sandberg.

During the call, Miles had told Sandberg that as long as he wasn’t caused any trouble, he would turn a blind eye to the matter between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia.

Therefore, Sandberg’s instruction to William Purves was that they could no longer direct those shareholders toward government departments. If such a situation arose, they were to immediately shift public focus onto Lin Haoran.

Most importantly, their operations had to be more covert and cautious, so as not to give Miles any leverage, which would put him in a difficult position, and also to avoid attracting unnecessary regulatory attention.

With Miles’s promise, HSBC became even more unscrupulous in its dealings against the Bank of East Asia.

Soon, as opening hours arrived for the various branches of the Bank of East Asia.

All employees of the major branches arrived, but among them were many who had already been poached by HSBC.

At this moment, they still came to work at the Bank of East Asia, but only to hide their true intentions from the bank, allowing them to secretly transfer client data in final preparation for their job switch to HSBC.

Furthermore, HSBC had instructed them to secretly cause trouble when dealing with customer withdrawals. The time they previously took to serve four or five customers would now be used to serve just one. This way, there would be evidence that the Bank of East Asia was deliberately delaying withdrawals.

With some covert guidance from them, unsuspecting customers would assume that the Bank of East Asia’s capital chain was tight and its service was collapsing, thus exacerbating the panic and intensifying the bank run.

At that point, the customers’ dissatisfaction with the Bank of East Asia would naturally surface. With a little more guidance, they could unite with the shareholders to exert pressure on the Bank of East Asia together.

HSBC’s plan was truly ruthless. Not only did they poach talent, but they also manipulated these people to stir up trouble within the bank, attempting to shatter the Bank of East Asia from the inside and cause it to collapse under the dual pressure of public opinion and practical reality.

Little did they know that, thanks to Cui Zilong’s investigation, Lin Haoran’s side had already obtained a long list of names. The Bank of East Asia was aware of most of those who had betrayed them and agreed to switch to HSBC—they even had evidence against many of them!

Inside the branches, the poached employees pretended to work diligently, while in reality, they were slacking off, finding excuses to delay customer transactions.

A middle-aged customer, holding a withdrawal slip, stood anxiously at the counter. He had been waiting for nearly an hour, yet only a handful of people ahead of him had been served.

“Your efficiency is abysmal! I urgently need this money, when is it going to be my turn?” the middle-aged customer complained, tapping impatiently on the counter.

“Sir, I’m terribly sorry. We have an unusually high volume of transactions today, and we’re processing them as fast as we can. Please be patient for a little while longer,” the poached teller placated him with false sincerity, though his hands moved as slowly as ever.

Scenes like this were playing out almost simultaneously across all twenty branches of the Bank of East Asia.

The employees bribed by HSBC executed their delay tactics with a tacit understanding, deliberately creating the illusion that the Bank of East Asia’s services were paralyzed, all in coordination with HSBC’s demands.

The result was growing dissatisfaction among the ever-increasing number of customers in line.

At the Bank of East Asia’s Tsim Sha Tsui branch.

The queue was like a long, winding dragon, snaking all the way down Nathan Road to The Peninsula Hong Kong, with no end in sight.

The sound of complaints from the crowd was like a surging tide, each wave higher than the last. It was as if water had been splashed into a wok of boiling oil, instantly exploding into a cacophony of discontent that echoed throughout the bank’s vicinity.

It was June, and the temperature in Hong Kong was already high. Compounded by the slow service, the resentment of the people in line grew more intense.

“Don’t tell me the Bank of East Asia has run out of money and is deliberately stalling?”

“Exactly! I queued overnight outside the bank. There were only five people ahead of me. The bank’s been open for two hours, and it’s still not my turn! There must be hundreds of people behind me. At this rate, they won’t even serve a handful of people all day. What on earth is the Bank of East Asia playing at?”

Just then, a sharp-looking middle-aged man frowned and demanded loudly, “Does your bank have any money or not? Has your capital chain broken? If you’re out of cash, just say so. Don’t make us wait here for nothing!”

As soon as he spoke, the crowd erupted, and a cacophony of speculation and doubt filled the air.

“Could they really be out of money? Is our money still safe?”

“What are we going to do? I don’t want to lose my entire investment!”

Watching the chaotic scene, the poached tellers put on anxious expressions and repeatedly apologized to the customers, “Everyone, we’re very sorry. We want to process your transactions quickly, but it seems there’s a problem with the system today. It’s running extremely slow. We’ve already contacted the technicians for repairs. Please, just wait a little longer.”

The Bank of East Asia had introduced a computerized system for business management since the late 1970s to improve efficiency and service precision. Now, it was being used as an excuse by these ill-intentioned employees to delay business.

However, their explanation did not quell the customers’ anger. Instead, it made them even more suspicious that the bank was using system issues as a deliberate stalling tactic.

“A system problem? Isn’t your bank’s system usually fine? Why would it suddenly have a problem today of all days? I think you’re just making excuses!” a short-tempered customer roared.

“That’s right! Our passbooks have our deposit amounts written in black and white! You have to give us a straight answer today. Can we withdraw our money or not!” another gray-haired old man shouted, his face flushed with excitement as he waved his passbook.

“Zhang Zhiyong, what’s going on? Why is your service so slow today?” The branch manager, Wang Mingyuan, strode briskly to the counter, his gaze fixed sternly on Zhang Zhiyong, one of the poached tellers.

The teller’s heart tightened, and cold sweat instantly beaded on his forehead. But he quickly composed himself and stammered, “Mana… Manager, it seems the system is glitching today. It’s processing transactions very slowly. There’s nothing we can do.”

Wang Mingyuan’s brow furrowed. He keenly sensed that something was amiss.

As the branch manager, he knew the bank’s system like the back of his hand. Although minor issues occasionally occurred, they would never cause such a drastic slowdown in service.

This was especially true given that the computer systems of this era, still in a relatively primitive stage of development, could be operated in a semi-manual, semi-automated fashion. The computers were more of an aid than a necessity.

He glanced around, observing the poached employees who looked busy but were actually slacking off. He understood what was happening.

He had already met with Da Shan and knew that HSBC was poaching talent from the Bank of East Asia.

It was now clear that these people had already been bought.

However, Da Shan had also told him to act as if he knew nothing.

As for what came next, the higher-ups already had a plan.

The manager did not expose their actions. Instead, he stood before the customers and said loudly, “Everyone, please calm down. Our bank has sufficient funds; there is no issue with our capital chain. We will process your transactions and resolve your issues as quickly as possible.”

When the employees heard the manager’s speech, their hearts leaped with joy. They all thought he hadn’t noticed anything unusual. Their hands, however, maintained the same unhurried, perfunctory pace as they planned to continue acting out their “roles” according to HSBC’s instructions.

Similar incidents were occurring at all twenty branches.

It was worth noting that HSBC had not managed to poach a single branch manager this time. And all these managers had been secretly instructed by Da Shan to cooperate with the head office’s overall strategy: to feign ignorance of the internal personnel changes and bide their time, waiting for the right moment.

At this moment, both Lin Haoran’s side and HSBC’s side were proceeding with their plans step-by-step.

With the cooperation of Lin Haoran’s people, HSBC’s plan appeared to be going exceptionally smoothly.

When the news reached HSBC, William Purves was pleasantly surprised.

It was all too easy.

Near noon, at the HSBC headquarters, in William Purves’s office.

“Mr. Purves, it’s chaos, total chaos! The customers queuing at the various Bank of East Asia branches are growing more and more agitated, like a volcano on the verge of eruption. With just a little guidance from us, the situation will completely spiral out of control.

“Furthermore, on the stock market, the price of Bank of East Asia’s stock has plummeted to three Hong Kong dollars per share, yet the market is as still as death, with barely any trading volume.

“The shareholders are filled with resentment and their complaints are everywhere. Many are even calling for everyone to go to the Bank of East Asia’s headquarters to demand an explanation. I believe the time is ripe. We should act!”

A subordinate responsible for gathering market intelligence reported excitedly to Mr. Purves, the Executive Director of HSBC.

The action he referred to was to guide the shareholders and the customers queuing for withdrawals to stage a massive protest, pushing the Bank of East Asia completely into the eye of the storm. Ideally, it would trigger a harsh intervention from the regulators, causing the bank to collapse under the immense pressure.

The government agencies in Hong Kong would give favor to British-owned companies like them, but they certainly wouldn’t give the same favor to a Chinese-owned enterprise!

Currently, although the Bank of East Asia’s stock price was ridiculously low, basically no one dared to gamble on it anymore. Such people were becoming fewer and fewer.

The end result was that even though the stock price kept falling, the trading volume simply wouldn’t pick up.

William Purves sat in his chair, crossing his legs, as if everything was under his control.

His expression was composed as he calmly said to his subordinate, “Good. Then let’s begin!”

“Yes, sir! I’ll get on it right away!” After receiving his orders, the subordinate hurried out of Purves’s office.

“Let the show begin!” Purves took a cigar from his drawer, lit it, took a deep drag, and slowly exhaled a cloud of smoke. His eyes were filled with triumph and cunning.

Things were going far more smoothly than he had imagined.

Originally, Purves had thought that the employees’ slacking would surely attract the attention of the various branch managers. Although they might not trace it back to HSBC, the Bank of East Asia would surely take some action.

But now, it seemed that the senior executives at the Bank of East Asia had not taken any substantial countermeasures. Everything was proceeding according to their script.

Chapter 613: A Massive Protest, Governor MacLehose Intervenes!

Following HSBC’s actions, both the shareholders in the stock market and the increasingly impatient customers queuing for cash at various branches were systematically instigated.

A storm of protest against the Bank of East Asia quickly began to brew.

Shareholders from the four stock exchanges and customers from twenty Bank of East Asia branches, incited by public opinion, continuously converged on the bank’s head office.

All they wanted was an explanation.

Hong Kong’s city center was not large to begin with, and the locations of the four stock exchanges and the twenty Bank of East Asia branches were all in prime commercial districts.

Therefore, it didn’t take long for the large number of citizens to gather at the Bank of East Asia’s head office.

In just about an hour, over ten thousand citizens had gathered outside the Bank of East Asia headquarters building, and the crowd was still growing.

In front of the Bank of East Asia headquarters, the crowd surged like a tide. Shareholders waved their stock certificates, chanting slogans like, “Bank of East Asia, give me back my hard-earned money!”

Customers who had failed to withdraw their cash held up signs that read, “Service has collapsed, no way to withdraw money,” and emotionally demanded an explanation from the bank.

The scene was chaotic, and the police had to dispatch additional officers to maintain order and prevent the conflict from escalating further.

This time, the citizens didn’t all appear at once as they had at the Securities Commission building a few days ago.

So, when the first wave of citizens arrived, Da Shan had already requested assistance from the Hong Kong Police Department.

Even the Hong Kong Police Department dared not act rashly in the face of such a riot. If a major incident involving bloodshed were to occur, it would have an immeasurable negative impact on Hong Kong’s social stability and international image.

Upon receiving the request for help, the Police Headquarters quickly activated its emergency plan. A large number of officers were dispatched to the scene, setting up multiple cordons around the Bank of East Asia headquarters to separate the protesters from the bank building. At the same time, officers were arranged to patrol within the crowd, closely monitoring the situation to prevent any violent clashes.

Lin Haoran was not at the scene. Instead, he stood in his office on the fifty-first floor of the Connaught Centre, a few hundred meters away, looking down at the situation.

This development was something they had anticipated.

They had guessed HSBC’s objective that morning when the already-poached employees at various branches put on a display of slacking off, causing resentment among the queuing customers.

Therefore, neither Da Shan, the new interim President, nor Lin Haoran, the ultimate owner, felt any sense of panic or helplessness.

On the contrary, they methodically implemented the emergency plan they had prepared long ago.

Did HSBC really think they had everything under control?

Lin Haoran quietly watched the ever-growing crowd gathering at the distant Bank of East Asia headquarters, a cold smile touching his lips.

Did HSBC believe this was enough to completely crush the Bank of East Asia, to utterly destroy its reputation and prevent it from ever recovering?

Lin Haoran had already figured out their next move the moment he learned they were poaching his employees.

Now, it was time to counterattack.

At the Bank of East Asia headquarters, as the number of gathered citizens grew, the scale of the protest was already several times larger than the one at the Securities Commission building.

A mix of various factions—those genuinely there for their own interests, curious onlookers, and agents planted by HSBC to stir up trouble—made the scene resemble a chaotic pot of boiling porridge. A cacophony of noise and curses rose and fell, making one’s eardrums ache.

The scene was far more frenzied than any concert. A concert, at least, had some semblance of order, with audience members following the basic procedure of entering, finding their seats, and watching the performance.

But here, the crowd surged without any order, like a pack of wild beasts driven by an invisible force, focused only on venting their anger and dissatisfaction.

Moreover, HSBC had planted numerous informants with the primary task of instigating trouble, causing all sorts of rumors to fly. The citizens’ discontent grew ever more intense, like a volcano on the verge of eruption, ready to break through the shackles of reason at any moment and trigger even more severe chaos.

Reporters had long since smelled blood and swarmed to the scene.

Even TVB and Rediffusion Television, Hong Kong’s two major television stations, were broadcasting live from the scene, showing the unfolding events to all of Hong Kong.

Before the TVB news team was dispatched, Shao Yifu had called Lin Haoran to ask if he was okay with a live broadcast.

After all, although Lin Haoran didn’t involve himself in TVB’s affairs, he was its largest shareholder and the nominal Vice Chairman of the Board.

Therefore, if Lin Haoran didn’t want TVB to report on the matter, Shao Yifu would have given him that favor, forgoing such a prime news story and ratings opportunity.

However, to Shao Yifu’s surprise, Lin Haoran’s reply was direct: “Go ahead and broadcast it live!”

On camera, the chaotic scenes, agitated citizens, and waving placards constantly frayed the viewers’ nerves, enveloping all of Hong Kong in a tense and restless atmosphere.

As time went on, the crowd swelled towards twenty thousand people and beyond. The atmosphere grew increasingly tense, as if a single spark could detonate this massive “bomb.”

Inside a conference room equipped with a television at the HSBC headquarters building, Michael Sandberg, John Bao, William Purves, and other senior executives were gathered, watching the live broadcast from Rediffusion Television with triumphant smiles on their faces.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, Lin Haoran still hasn’t shown up. It seems he’s completely out of options. Hmph, the Bank of East Asia is in a desperate situation now. Look at this chaos! I’d like to see how they can possibly recover from this!” John Bao laughed heartily.

“Indeed. Lin Haoran seems to think he’s invincible in Hong Kong just because he took down Jardine Matheson & Co. He doesn’t realize that we at HSBC are not incompetent fools like them.” William Purves crossed his arms, a mocking curve on his lips. “Once the Bank of East Asia completely collapses this time, Lin Haoran’s ambitions of entering the banking industry should be thoroughly extinguished.”

They understood Lin Haoran’s true power in the business world, so they never deluded themselves into thinking that merely crushing the Bank of East Asia would crush Lin Haoran himself. That was unrealistic.

However, in their view, as long as they could extinguish Lin Haoran’s ambitions to enter the banking industry, they would have won this round.

Lin Haoran was already a formidable force in the business world, so they were now guarding the financial sector, especially banking.

As long as Lin Haoran was kept out of banking, HSBC could continue to sit firmly in the industry’s top seat and enjoy the immense profits of its monopoly, relying on its deep roots in Hong Kong’s financial world and its absolute market share.

“What I don’t understand is why Lin Haoran hasn’t transferred the funds from his other companies, like Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group, to the Bank of East Asia. If he did, even with citizens choosing to withdraw their money, it shouldn’t have caused such a severe bank run. But it’s been a while, and it’s as if he’s forgotten about it!” John Bao’s smile faded as he voiced his doubt.

When Lin Haoran announced he had become the controlling shareholder of the Bank of East Asia, they had already mentally prepared for such a move.

Yet, to this day, they had not seen any of Lin Haoran’s companies apply to HSBC for a fund transfer.

“Lin Haoran is, after all, just a shareholder of the Bank of East Asia, and it’s still a listed company. I suspect that after Li Fushu and the others left, Lin Haoran lost faith in the bank and is planning to abandon it. He hasn’t intervened much in its affairs so far, so this possibility is very high,” William Purves offered his opinion.

This explanation was met with agreement from everyone present.

The Bank of East Asia, under HSBC’s multiple attacks, was now finding it difficult to recover.

Even its good reputation, built over decades, would gradually be eroded. It wasn’t impossible that Lin Haoran would truly decide to abandon it.

Furthermore, as far as they knew, Lin Haoran’s total investment in the Bank of East Asia was only a little over one billion.

With the assets he controlled, that was a loss he could completely afford.

“Thankfully, we have Mr. Purves’s plan. Otherwise, crushing the Bank of East Asia wouldn’t have been so easy. Now that it has lost the Li Peicai’s family, it is like a body without a soul. On top of that, with the employees we poached creating chaos in the branches, its insides are already riddled with holes. With capable men like you, why should HSBC worry about not being able to continue dominating the Hong Kong financial world?” Michael Sandberg looked at the group with satisfaction, his eyes filled with greed and ambition.

Although HSBC had been trying to expand into overseas markets for years, its progress had been slow.

This meant that Hong Kong was their core interest, the foundation of HSBC’s survival and growth.

They would absolutely not allow anyone to shake this foundation. Lin Haoran’s takeover of the Bank of East Asia, if ignored, represented a future threat to HSBC.

Thus, in HSBC’s eyes, the Bank of East Asia was the biggest “tumor” that had to be removed.

Doing so would deal a heavy blow to Lin Haoran, making him understand that in Hong Kong’s financial world, HSBC was the undisputed hegemon, and no challenge would be tolerated. It would also make him give up any ideas of touching the banking pie.

Just then, a knock came from the door.

A moment later, Michael Sandberg’s assistant walked in and reported to the group, “Gentlemen, we’ve just received news. To prevent the situation from worsening, the Governor has decided to intervene and is on his way in his official car.”

Michael Sandberg and the others were not very surprised by this news; it was entirely within their expectations.

After all, if a gathering of this scale was mishandled, the consequences would be severe. It could even escalate into an uncontrollable riot, one that could only be quelled by deploying the army.

Events like the 1956 Double Ten Riot and the 1967 Hong Kong riots had left indelible scars on Hong Kong’s social stability and economic development. The Governor would certainly not stand by and watch the Bank of East Asia incident escalate into a large-scale social conflict.

Otherwise, it would undoubtedly leave a serious negative mark on his record, becoming an irremovable stain on his political career.

“Now, the real show begins. I’d like to see how the Bank of East Asia is going to handle this,” Michael Sandberg laughed heartily.

The others in the room joined in his laughter.

Although Sir Murray MacLehose was considered one of the more fair and just governors, given the crisis the Bank of East Asia was facing, the Government House would most likely put pressure on the bank to appease the public’s anger and prevent further collapse of social order, thereby demonstrating its resolve to solve the problem.

And that was precisely the outcome Michael Sandberg and his colleagues wanted to see. They could already envision the Bank of East Asia teetering on the verge of collapse under pressure from multiple sides.

Pressure from shareholders, pressure from depositors, pressure from the Government House…

At that moment, they felt as if they could see the Bank of East Asia falling into a state of irreparable ruin, just as they had wished!

At the same time, all across Hong Kong, nearly every major figure was watching the news on television, following the developments.

Pao Yue-kong, Li Jiacheng, Chen Songqing, Cheng Yu-tung, Kwok Tak-seng, Li Zhaoji, Guo Henian, and others—they all wanted to see how Lin Haoran would handle this.

Some believed that under HSBC’s fierce assault, Lin Haoran was gradually giving up on the Bank of East Asia.

Others, however, still believed that Lin Haoran was secretly plotting, waiting for the perfect opportunity for a dramatic counterattack that would deliver a fatal blow to HSBC.

After all, Lin Haoran had always been known in the business world for his resourcefulness and decisive action, and he had never known failure.

To some, Lin Haoran’s silence in the face of this crisis did not mean he had truly given up.

As the situation continued to escalate, more and more people, driven by their own self-interest, swarmed towards the Bank of East Asia headquarters like a frantic tide.

Under the immense pressure of their huge losses, many had lost all rationality, like cornered beasts that had lost their way.

That was why they were so easily swayed and manipulated by the informants HSBC had secretly planted, becoming mere pawns in someone else’s conspiratorial game.

The Governor’s convoy, protected by a police escort, soon arrived at the Bank of East Asia headquarters.

Da Shan and the other current senior executives of the Bank of East Asia quickly came out to greet the Governor.

Mr. Governor Sir Murray MacLehose slowly stepped out of his official car. His expression was not pleasant; after all, an incident like this in Hong Kong was a challenge for him as well.

The protest sparked by the Bank of East Asia had already attracted widespread public attention. If it wasn’t handled properly, it would not only affect Hong Kong’s international image but could also trigger a chain reaction, causing immeasurable damage to Hong Kong’s future development.

If that happened, it would be a dereliction of his duty as Governor. His political opponents in the Westminster Parliament in Britain would surely seize upon this as an excuse to launch fierce attacks against him, potentially affecting his future political career.

With the appearance of Governor MacLehose, the noise at the scene seemed to diminish for a moment. Everyone turned their attention to this key figure who held the fate of Hong Kong in his hands.

“Hello, Mr. Governor. I am James, the President of the Bank of East Asia.” Da Shan led a group of bank executives to MacLehose.

MacLehose nodded but did not reply, his gaze instead sweeping over the assembled crowd.

Mr. MacLehose surveyed the chaotic scene, his brow furrowed tightly as he mentally formulated a plan.

Just then, a police officer handed him a megaphone.

He took the megaphone and moved closer to the gathered citizens.

“Everyone, please be quiet!” MacLehose said in less-than-perfect Cantonese.

Instantly, the scene began to quiet down.

MacLehose had been the Governor of Hong Kong for a full decade. During his tenure, he had implemented a series of policies and reforms that had a profound impact on Hong Kong’s development.

It was during his term that Chinese was established as one of the official languages, a move that promoted the parallel use of both Chinese and English in Hong Kong.

To better govern Hong Kong and communicate with its people, Murray MacLehose had also spent years learning and mastering a good deal of Cantonese in order to interact with the local residents.

A scene like this was the perfect moment to showcase the results of his efforts.

He understood that he needed to address these emotional citizens with a demeanor that was both authoritative and reassuring.

“I am aware of all your demands. On the premise of not violating the law and financial order, the government will do its best to facilitate a solution. But please, everyone, remain calm. Violence and chaos will not truly solve the problem; they will only make the situation worse, and in the end, it is your interests that will be harmed.”

MacLehose’s voice, amplified by the megaphone, carried clearly to every corner of the scene. The once raucous crowd gradually fell silent, their ears pricked to hear what kind of solution the Governor would offer.

“The Bank of East Asia, as an important member of Hong Kong’s financial system, has always contributed to Hong Kong’s economic development. The government will conduct a comprehensive and in-depth investigation into this incident to ensure it is handled fairly and justly.

“Next, I will personally meet with Mr. Lin Haoran and ask him for a definitive answer to completely resolve this matter. At the same time, I hope everyone can give the Bank of East Asia some time and space to solve the problem and give you all a satisfactory response.”

Throughout his speech, MacLehose never once mentioned HSBC, the instigator of the whole affair.

If it weren’t for HSBC, the Bank of East Asia would never have found itself in this situation. In fact, the benefits brought by Lin Haoran’s takeover would have made the bank’s future even brighter.

However, HSBC was, after all, a British-owned bank. The Government House and the British-funded conglomerates shared a relationship of mutual prosperity and common interests.

Amidst the complex web of political and economic interests, the Government House could not easily challenge HSBC. It could only temporarily focus the conflict on the Bank of East Asia, attempting to quell the storm by coordinating with all parties.

As soon as MacLehose finished speaking, different reactions rippled through the crowd.

Some citizens felt that with the Governor’s intervention, there might be a chance for a turnaround, and their emotions slightly eased.

But some of the more radical individuals were not buying it. They believed this was just a stalling tactic by the Governor, just like when they had gathered in front of the Securities Commission building. What Commissioner Miles had said was all nonsense, and he had been unable to truly solve their problems afterward. Thus, they began to shout loudly again.

“Mr. Governor, we can’t wait that long! Our hard-earned money is in the Bank of East Asia! They are stalling and won’t let us withdraw it. What if their capital chain is really broken? What are we supposed to do then?”

“Exactly! The Bank of East Asia must give us an explanation right now! They can’t just keep dragging this out!”

Facing these shouts of protest, MacLehose remained composed. He raised the megaphone again and said, “I understand everyone’s concerns, but solving problems takes time. It cannot be done in a moment.

“I promise you all that I will give you a satisfactory answer in the shortest possible time. For now, please disperse in an orderly manner. Do not continue to gather here, to avoid any accidents.

“Otherwise, I will have no choice but to call in the army to maintain order. If some unfortunate scenes occur then, don’t blame us for being impolite.” MacLehose’s words carried an unquestionable authority and firmness. The commotion in the crowd gradually died down.

Since Governor MacLehose’s arrival, the police presence had already doubled, and the Governor’s own guard was standing by, creating a powerful deterrent.

Under these circumstances, many people had already begun to disperse on their own.

The authority the Government House had built up over many years instilled a sense of awe in many citizens, making them reluctant to directly confront officials. Even though they were still worried about their money, they no longer dared to brazenly challenge the Governor’s authority.

As for those who wanted to stay and cause trouble, seeing others leaving one by one, they didn’t want to be the ones to stick their necks out, so they had no choice but to leave as well.

Ultimately, this was just a group of ordinary people worried about the safety of their hard-earned money, not a mob of intentional rioters.

And so, a crisis was gradually defused by a few words from Governor MacLehose.

Twenty minutes later, the once crowded, noisy street, filled with tension and anger, gradually returned to its usual calm. All that remained were the figures of police officers leaving in an orderly fashion and the occasional sound of scattered conversation.

Far away in the Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the scene gradually calm down.

He had watched the entire process on the Jade Channel. He had to admit, Governor MacLehose’s prestige and crisis management skills in Hong Kong were truly admirable. This was all within his expectations.

However, although the time for a counterattack had arrived, he had also feared that if the situation at the scene spiraled out of control and the citizens stormed the Bank of East Asia headquarters, the damage to the bank would have been immense.

Fortunately, things had been handled smoothly by the Government House, just as he had hoped.

Just then, his mobile phone rang.

To his surprise, it was Governor MacLehose himself.

“Mr. Lin, if you are free, would you come to the Bank of East Asia headquarters? I will wait for you here.” MacLehose’s tone with Lin Haoran was still quite polite.

After all, MacLehose knew the cause and effect of the entire matter and understood that it had little to do with Lin Haoran, the investor.

“Alright, Mr. Governor. Give me ten minutes, I’m on my way. By the way, could you also please ask the reporters at the scene to stay? Since you want me to resolve this matter, I’d like to do it in front of the press. How does that sound?” Lin Haoran replied directly.

Lin Haoran knew that the reporters were still there, waiting for more valuable news content.

So, he planned to make use of them as well.

Next, Lin Haoran intended to give a live speech in front of TVB, Rediffusion Television, and many other news media outlets.

He was going to present all the evidence and plunge HSBC into a unique crisis of public opinion and trust, using the aftershocks of the Bank of East Asia incident to deliver a heavy blow.

Since HSBC wanted to target the Bank of East Asia, they should be mentally prepared for severe retaliation.

He, Lin Haoran, was not someone who could be easily pushed around.

Chapter 614: Announcing the Privatization of the Bank of East Asia!

As the gathered crowd gradually dispersed, traffic around Central began to flow smoothly once more.

Lin Haoran’s car traveled unimpeded from the Connaught Centre to the Bank of East Asia headquarters.

When he stepped out of the car, he saw numerous reporters still waiting outside the building.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, the reporters immediately tried to surge forward for an interview.

However, dozens of the bank’s security guards were already prepared to intercept them.

Since taking control of the Bank of East Asia, Lin Haoran had directly replaced the security systems at all branches, including the head office.

The replacements were, naturally, guards from his own Universal Security Consulting Company. It was more reassuring when they were your own people.

The headquarters, in particular, was staffed by the elites of his security force.

“Boss, the Governor is waiting for you in the VIP reception room.” Da Shan had already approached the car and personally opened the door for Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran nodded and, with a smile, briefly addressed the reporters trying to interview him, “Friends from the press, please wait a moment. I’ll go in and speak with the Governor first. We will hold a press conference afterward. Please be patient!”

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, the reporters who were still trying to break through the security line immediately quieted down.

Lin Haoran hurried into the bank’s headquarters and soon arrived at a reception room on the fifth floor.

Ordinarily, only those with business dealings of at least ten million Hong Kong dollars with the Bank of East Asia were qualified to meet here.

When Li Peicai’s family still controlled the Bank of East Asia, Li Guobin, or even Li Fushu himself, would personally meet with these important clients here to discuss collaborations.

Therefore, this negotiation room was exceedingly luxurious.

The decor exuded nobility and elegance. A crystal chandelier cast a soft, bright light that reflected off the exquisite carpet and carved wooden furniture. Every detail showcased extraordinary taste and style.

On the walls hung several priceless works of art, adding a touch of cultural sophistication.

As Lin Haoran stepped inside, Governor MacLehose, who had been sitting on the sofa, rose to his feet and shook his hand.

“Mr. Lin, it’s been a while!” MacLehose said with a smile.

“It has been a while,” Lin Haoran replied, feeling a bit emotional himself.

Come to think of it, a considerable amount of time had passed since their last meeting.

From his business trip to Japan before the New Year until his return today, half a year had flown by in the blink of an eye.

After they sat on separate sofas and exchanged some pleasantries, MacLehose finally brought the conversation to the main topic.

“Mr. Lin, regarding the current situation at the Bank of East Asia, as its current boss, you can’t just let things continue this way. Do you have a solution?” MacLehose asked, looking Lin Haoran directly in the eyes with a straightforward tone.

“Mr. Governor, you must be aware that this matter was instigated by HSBC. Their mandatory ‘choose one of two’ ultimatum clearly violates the principles of fair competition and has caused significant damage to market order and client interests.

I wonder, what is your view on HSBC’s actions? Will the government be taking any further regulatory action or show a particular stance? In dealing with HSBC’s move, I also hope to collaborate closely with the government to jointly maintain the stability and healthy development of Hong Kong’s financial market,” Lin Haoran said, turning the tables on him.

Originally, Lin Haoran had just wanted to be a quiet, ultimate owner, letting Li Fushu and the others continue to manage the Bank of East Asia for him, coexisting peacefully with HSBC.

But not only did HSBC provoke the Bank of East Asia, they dealt a vicious blow, attempting to completely drive the bank out of the fiercely competitive market.

And yet, from beginning to end, the Government House had never made its stance clear.

Lin Haoran naturally understood the reason. After all, the Government House and the British-owned companies were in league with each other. Britain had relied on HSBC to extract an untold fortune from Hong Kong, so their bias toward HSBC was only to be expected.

Weren’t colonies meant for exploitation and plunder?

It was just something nobody said out loud.

“Mr. Lin, I understand your difficulties. However, there are no explicit Hong Kong laws prohibiting such competitive tactics between banks. Although HSBC’s methods are aggressive, they can still justify their actions on the surface.

In terms of regulation, the government must also operate within the existing legal framework and act with caution to avoid unnecessary legal disputes and international media pressure. Therefore, it is not appropriate for us to interfere too much in this matter.

However, as the Governor of Hong Kong, I do not wish to see the financial sector in such a disorderly and contentious state. I can invite Mr. Michael Sandberg to sit down with you, and we can all have a proper discussion. What do you think, Mr. Lin?”

MacLehose frowned slightly, his tone seemingly tinged with a hint of helplessness, yet it also revealed the official position.

Lin Haoran sneered inwardly. He understood that MacLehose’s words were merely an excuse. The law might have gray areas, but the government’s attitude was the key.

Strictly speaking, HSBC’s actions weren’t exactly a loophole; there were surely regulations to penalize such things. Behind it all, the government’s ambiguous stance was undoubtedly a form of tacit approval.

If a Chinese-owned enterprise had initiated such unfair competition against a British-owned company, the Government House would have intervened long ago.

However, he did not refute him directly. Though he was in the right, trying to make the Government House change its mind and be truly fair and impartial would undoubtedly be asking for trouble.

Expecting fairness in the business world?

That was impossible.

He smiled and said, “Mr. Governor, I understand the government’s predicament. That’s why I haven’t asked for your help since HSBC launched its unfair competition. After all, the business world is like a battlefield, and competition is the norm. It’s just that HSBC’s methods this time were excessively malicious, far exceeding the bounds of normal business competition.

However, I also understand that the government has its own considerations and rules. If the government were to intervene rashly now, it could not only get entangled in complex legal disputes but also lead outsiders to question its neutrality in commercial competition.

In the current situation, I don’t think there’s anything to discuss with Mr. Michael Sandberg. I have not initiated any unfair competition against him. Even if we were to sit down and talk, it would only result in me being forced to make concessions.

Mr. Governor, to be honest with you, after facing such a torrential assault of unfair competition from HSBC, I had actually considered giving up on the Bank of East Asia, especially when Mr. Li Fushu said he was leaving.

Hong Kong’s financial market may seem prosperous and lively, but in reality, HSBC holds absolute power. This is why I have taken no action regarding the Bank of East Asia. As the bank’s largest shareholder, I am also the one with the most to lose. The shareholders are protesting, but don’t you think I want to protest alongside them?

So, Mr. Governor, when you ask what I can do to rescue the market, honestly, I have nothing. If we’re talking about saving the Bank of East Asia’s current situation, I think the simplest solution would be for HSBC and the Hong Kong Association of Banks to cease their unfair competition. Once that happens, the present predicament will naturally be resolved.”

MacLehose currently wanted to solve two problems: the protesting Bank of East Asia shareholders and the protesting depositors.

As for the competition between Lin Haoran and HSBC, it was clear that he had no intention of getting involved. Even if the Bank of East Asia was beaten to a pulp by HSBC, he wouldn’t lift a finger. That was the reality of the situation.

“I wonder if Mr. Lin has any intention of selling the Bank of East Asia? If so, I can make a decision and have HSBC acquire it. That would also resolve the matter,” MacLehose said directly.

“My apologies, Mr. Governor, but I have no intention of selling my shares in the Bank of East Asia. I can afford to lose the investment of over one billion Hong Kong dollars. After how HSBC has treated me, why would I let them acquire it?

The Bank of East Asia is not my private company; it’s a publicly listed company. Even if it goes bankrupt, I won’t have to bear unlimited liability. So, even if the Bank of East Asia ultimately fails, I do not intend to sell my equity!” Lin Haoran shook his head and refused directly, his words full of deeper meaning.

How could he not see what MacLehose was thinking? But there was no way he would let HSBC get everything they wanted.

What he wanted was for MacLehose to take the initiative and suggest that he privatize the Bank of East Asia.

Only then could the Bank of East Asia be free from its many constraints, and only then would he launch a counterattack against HSBC.

Right now, he was merely the bank’s controlling shareholder. It was impossible for him to expend too much energy fighting HSBC while other shareholders reaped the benefits.

But of course, this was something he couldn’t say out loud.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s reply, MacLehose felt a wave of frustration.

He had already promised the protesting citizens that he would resolve the issue as soon as possible. But if Lin Haoran didn’t solve it, those protesters would sooner or later gather again, and the scale would likely be even larger than before.

By then, public pressure and political risks would surge toward him like a tide, making his position as Governor precarious.

Now, Lin Haoran was unyielding, clearly unwilling to spend too much time and energy on the Bank of East Asia, and certainly not willing to hand it over to HSBC so easily. This put MacLehose in a difficult position.

MacLehose narrowed his eyes slightly, a trace of displeasure showing, but there was nothing he could do about Lin Haoran’s intentions.

If it were an ordinary businessman, he could use his status as Governor to apply pressure and intimidate them.

But Lin Haoran was no small fry. He not only controlled several major Hong Kong corporate tycoons but also wielded considerable influence in the city’s business world. He even had vast investments overseas. All of this forced MacLehose to be cautious.

He sank into thought, carefully replaying what Lin Haoran had just said.

Suddenly, he remembered Lin Haoran saying that the Bank of East Asia was not his private company, which was why he didn’t plan to invest too much in it. Coupled with Lin Haoran’s past tendency to privatize companies he acquired whenever possible, an idea struck him.

If Lin Haoran privatized the Bank of East Asia, wouldn’t the shareholder issue be solved?

Furthermore, after the bank was privatized, he would definitely have to resolve the depositors’ withdrawal problems.

So, how could he get Lin Haoran to privatize the Bank of East Asia?

As long as Lin Haoran privatized the Bank of East Asia, everything would be resolved.

After a moment, he looked up at Lin Haoran and said, “Mr. Lin, since you have no intention of selling your shares, I believe the Bank of East Asia is not without value. From what I know, it has excellent potential for overseas development.

With your capabilities, Mr. Lin, even if the Bank of East Asia is in trouble due to competition, if you were to privatize it, you could carry out bold reforms and adjustments, fully tapping its overseas potential to achieve long-term growth.

Moreover, after privatization, you would have absolute control over the bank’s decisions and operations, no longer constrained by the various limitations of a publicly listed company or pressure from external shareholders. This might not be a bad thing for you.”

MacLehose paused, observing Lin Haoran’s reaction, then continued, “From the government’s perspective, we do not wish to see a bank with such history and scale as the Bank of East Asia decline.

If you are interested in privatization, the government can, within the scope of policy, provide certain support and conveniences to help you complete the process smoothly. This way, the problems of the Bank of East Asia might be more thoroughly resolved, the concerns of shareholders and depositors could be eliminated, and the financial market could return to stability.”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran smiled to himself. He had been guiding MacLehose to suggest privatization all along, and he hadn’t expected him to take the bait so quickly.

If he had initiated the privatization of the Bank of East Asia himself, it would have seemed far too deliberate.

It would have certainly caused immense dissatisfaction and resistance among Hong Kong’s many investors, possibly even triggering a new wave of public outcry, with people questioning his motives and accusing him of deliberately suppressing the stock price to swallow the “fat prize” of the Bank of East Asia for a low price.

But with Governor MacLehose proposing it and hinting at government support, the situation was completely different.

This would cleverly deflect suspicion about his motives while also leveraging the government’s influence to pave the way for the privatization process, reducing many unnecessary obstacles.

Lin Haoran feigned deep thought, his fingers tapping lightly on the armrest of the sofa.

After a moment, he spoke slowly, “Mr. Governor, the idea you’ve proposed is quite novel and certainly worth considering. If the Bank of East Asia can be privatized, I would indeed be willing to pay a greater price for it. It would also allow me to act freely and reshape this bank according to my own vision.

However, privatization is no small matter. Due to HSBC’s unfair targeting, I hadn’t considered this before. It involves many steps and vested interests. I will need some time to carefully weigh the pros and cons.”

Seeing this, MacLehose knew there was a chance and pressed on, “Mr. Lin, the Bank of East Asia’s stock price isn’t high right now. If you were to privatize it, the cost wouldn’t be very great.

And in the long run, under your leadership, a privatized Bank of East Asia will surely be revitalized with new life and vigor. This is a rare opportunity for both you and the bank.

As long as you agree now, I will immediately have the relevant government departments fully cooperate with you. Within the framework of policies and regulations, we will simplify procedures and provide conveniences to ensure the privatization process goes smoothly.”

“Very well. Since you’ve put it that way, Mr. Governor, I will grant you this favor and begin the process of a full acquisition of the Bank of East Asia. However, I have one concern that I must state frankly.

If I were to proceed with the acquisition on my own, the shareholders would certainly become suspicious, thinking I was deliberately suppressing the stock price for personal gain.

When that happens, with the power of public rumor, I really can’t bear such a baseless bad reputation!” Lin Haoran said with a solemn expression, voicing his concerns without reservation.

He wanted MacLehose to step forward. That way, his privatization of the Bank of East Asia wouldn’t be seen as his own deliberate action, but as a request from the Government House.

In the court of public opinion, he would be able to stand on solid ground, and the shareholders couldn’t pin all the blame on him.

Upon hearing this, MacLehose let out a long sigh of relief. A faint, almost imperceptible smile appeared on his face as he quickly said, “Rest assured, Mr. Lin. I will certainly come forward to clarify things for you. The reporters are all outside right now. I can explain this matter clearly when I face them. What do you think?”

“Excellent. With your word, Mr. Governor, I have no more lingering concerns,” Lin Haoran nodded slightly, a subtle smile playing on his lips. This was exactly what he had been waiting for.

The two briefly discussed the arrangements for the subsequent press conference to ensure the information was conveyed accurately and to avoid any new misunderstandings or turmoil.

Then, Lin Haoran stood up and had Da Shan arrange the press conference.

At the same time, he called Dai Shi and told him to assemble a team to acquire all Bank of East Asia shares trading below six Hong Kong dollars as quickly as possible!

It was already past three in the afternoon, and the stock market was nearing its closing bell.

There were far too many pending orders for Bank of East Asia shares. If news of his privatization plan got out, many people might start canceling their orders to wait and see, or even raise their prices before selling. Therefore, he had to race against the clock to accumulate as many low-priced shares as possible before the official announcement.

In any case, the Government House had requested the privatization, so he could now act with complete justification.

As for the shareholders’ losses, that was no longer his concern. If they had to blame someone, they could blame HSBC.

Later, he would reveal all of HSBC’s vile schemes one by one!

He wanted to completely tarnish HSBC’s reputation in Hong Kong.

Although it might not have a huge impact on HSBC’s performance, Lin Haoran could use this opportunity to position himself on the side of justice.

And HSBC would be the villain.

He didn’t feel guilty about taking advantage of these shareholders. He never intended to privatize the bank in the first place. Reaching this point, Lin Haoran felt he had been forced into it.

And so, with the traders at Galaxy Securities at their posts, Lin Haoran increased his holdings by another thirty million shares of the Bank of East Asia before the press conference even began.

With this, his total holdings of Bank of East Asia stock exceeded one hundred million shares, and his ownership stake broke through seventy percent.

The protest at noon had been a massive affair, so investors hadn’t canceled their pending orders just because of Governor MacLehose’s speech.

Many shareholders who had just returned to the stock exchanges saw the sudden spike in trading volume and were completely baffled, unable to react.

No one knew what was happening.

Pending orders above six Hong Kong dollars weren’t being filled, so many people began to cancel their orders, hoping to relist at a higher price.

The traders at the four stock exchanges became busy once again.

However, their actions were destined to be in vain.

Outside the Bank of East Asia headquarters, more reporters had arrived during the time Lin Haoran had been inside.

Now, there were two to three hundred reporters present. Essentially every major news outlet in Hong Kong had sent someone.

After all, the situation had become a major event that the entire city was watching. They all naturally hoped to get the scoop.

Twenty minutes later, at a temporary press conference set up in the building, Lin Haoran and MacLehose emerged side by side. The flashes of cameras went off incessantly, and the sound of shutters filled the air.

TVB and Rediffusion Television also began their live broadcast.

Countless citizens were watching the live feed at that moment.

“Friends from the press, I have good news for everyone. After my discussion with Mr. Lin just now, I have successfully found a solution. At my persuasion, Mr. Lin has decided to privatize the Bank of East Asia.

This will effectively resolve the issue of shareholders being unable to sell their stocks. Furthermore, with Mr. Lin’s personal capital injection, the depositors’ withdrawal needs can also be met.” MacLehose stood before the reporters, a smile on his face as he took credit for the achievement, his words full of confidence and certainty.

The moment MacLehose finished speaking, the scene erupted in an uproar.

Lin Haoran was going to privatize the Bank of East Asia?

This…

No one had even considered this possibility before.

It was truly a surprise to everyone.

Because the press conference was being broadcast live, the news quickly reached the stock exchanges.

Only then did everyone realize that Lin Haoran was planning to privatize the Bank of East Asia.

Instantly, the retail investors who were stuck with low-priced shares, hoping for a rebound, and had pending orders above six Hong Kong dollars, clung to this news like a lifeline. The light of hope was rekindled in their eyes.

Meanwhile, the shareholders whose shares had just been snapped up by Galaxy Securities were beating their chests and stamping their feet, slapping their thighs in regret.

They felt as if they had been ruthlessly played by an invisible hand, exploited by someone who had taken advantage of the situation.

In their minds, someone must have had inside information to have been able to buy up shares so precisely just before the announcement, causing ordinary investors like them to suffer a huge loss.

For a moment, the trading floor was filled with complaints and sighs as people fretted over this sudden turn of events.

The scene was chaotic.

By now, MacLehose had handed the microphone to Lin Haoran.

Chapter 615: The Counterattack, a Bombshell Revelation, HSBC is the Mastermind!

Lin Haoran glanced at the Governor, knowing full well what he was hoping for.

Wasn’t it just for him to announce the privatization of the Bank of East Asia?

Once he made the announcement, all the pressure on Government House would vanish, because Lin Haoran would have willingly taken the heat.

“Everyone, if you’ve seen the Bank of East Asia’s latest financial report, you should know that if the bank suffers a bank run, the capital shortfall could be as high as three billion Hong Kong dollars. These funds have been invested by the Bank of East Asia through loans, corporate investments, and other means, and cannot be recouped in the short term. Therefore, the bank’s current situation is extremely critical. This is why I was reluctant to get involved with the Bank of East Asia’s affairs.

It hasn’t even been a month since I became the major shareholder, and I’ve already encountered something like this. Not only am I facing all sorts of external pressure, but even the core figures, the Li family, have left. This almost made me decide to give up on the Bank of East Asia and let nature take its course. I’ve already lost over a billion Hong Kong dollars on the bank, and I was just hoping to cut my losses in time.

However, at Mr. Governor’s request, and knowing that with great power comes great responsibility, I have ultimately decided to step up and shoulder this burden, which shouldn’t have been entirely mine to bear.

To prevent the signboard of this time-honored Chinese-owned bank from disappearing, I have indeed decided to privatize the Bank of East Asia. But as you all know, the bank’s current condition is not good. HSBC’s unscrupulous competition has left it in ruins.

Especially now, with the bank run, its existing funds are far from sufficient to withstand this crisis. This means that if I privatize the Bank of East Asia, I will have to use my own money to fill this hole.

Therefore, I cannot offer too high a price to acquire the Bank of East Asia’s shares. I hope everyone can understand.”

What Lin Haoran wanted was to stand on the moral high ground.

At this moment, countless citizens across Hong Kong were watching the live broadcast.

In particular, the halls of the four stock exchanges had televisions playing the event.

Thus, Lin Haoran’s words struck like a heavy hammer, instantly silencing those shareholders who had hoped to drive up the price and take advantage of the crisis during the acquisition.

Once Lin Haoran privatized the Bank of East Asia, the price he would have to pay would be enormous.

He was already shouldering so much pressure and risk; under these circumstances, why should he have to raise the price to complete the acquisition?

His resolute decision to acquire this company, which the public had already lost faith in, was already the epitome of benevolence.

They still wanted to take advantage of the crisis for personal gain?

“Mr. Lin, what price do you intend to offer to privatize the Bank of East Asia?” a reporter in the front row asked.

“I have already considered this question carefully. I will entrust the privatization to Galaxy Securities, a subsidiary of the Hongkong Land Group. The price will be no more than 6 Hong Kong dollars per share. Only after the bank is fully privatized will I inject capital to help it overcome this bank run crisis.”

This was a price Lin Haoran had already deliberated on.

If the offer were too high, he would certainly be unwilling.

But if it were too low, it would be inappropriate.

The fact that pending orders below 6 Hong Kong dollars could be snapped up by Galaxy Securities, amounting to over thirty million shares, indicated that this price was acceptable to most.

Therefore, there was nothing wrong with offering this price.

Currently, there were about fifty million shares left on the market, including the nearly ten million shares held by Li Peicai’s family.

In round numbers, he would only need to put up another 300 million Hong Kong dollars to completely privatize the Bank of East Asia.

Adding the roughly 1.3 billion Hong Kong dollars he had previously spent to secure a 51% stake, the total cost for Lin Haoran to fully privatize this venerable bank would be around 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars.

When he first set his sights on the Bank of East Asia, its market capitalization was already around 2.6 billion Hong Kong dollars, and at that time, Li Peicai’s family had no intention of giving it up. Thus, there was simply no opportunity to privatize the bank.

Now, he had spent only about 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars and used the threat from HSBC to completely privatize the Bank of East Asia.

It was, one could say, a completely unexpected boon.

Was the Bank of East Asia still worth 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars now?

In Lin Haoran’s opinion, it was worth it—it was a super bargain, in fact.

Its well-established operating system and profound customer base alone held immeasurable potential value.

Having weathered the years, the Bank of East Asia had long since built a solid reputation in Hong Kong’s financial sector, and its brand influence was not something that could be easily measured.

Furthermore, the Bank of East Asia also had a certain business presence and resource network overseas. These foreign assets and business channels were like treasures hidden in the deep sea; once properly developed and utilized, they would bring new development opportunities to the bank.

Although the Bank of East Asia was currently facing the severe test of a bank run and joint exclusion by HSBC and other Hong Kong banks, as long as it successfully navigated this crisis, it would not be difficult for it to be revitalized, thanks to its years of accumulated industry experience, professional talent, and numerous branches throughout Hong Kong.

At that point, let alone 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars, in Lin Haoran’s view, it would be no problem at all for the Bank of East Asia’s strength to surpass that of Hang Seng Bank.

And right now, Hang Seng Bank’s market capitalization was as high as 15.2 billion Hong Kong dollars!

Therefore, spending over a billion Hong Kong dollars to completely privatize this time-honored bank was something Lin Haoran felt was very worthwhile.

As for whether the shareholders would agree to the privatization at 6 Hong Kong dollars per share, Lin Haoran didn’t care. They would have to agree, whether they liked it or not.

Moreover, once his shareholding reached a certain level, he could apply to the Securities Commission for a compulsory privatization. At that point, those people would only have two options: sell, or hold a pile of worthless paper.

Sir Murray MacLehose had promised him that the government departments would cooperate with his privatization of the Bank of East Asia and that everything would be simplified, meaning they hoped he could complete the privatization as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, in the Mid-Levels villa area, Li Fushu, Li Guobin, and the others watched the live broadcast. When they heard Lin Haoran’s answer of 6 Hong Kong dollars, they were on the verge of tears.

Just a few days ago, out of respect for the Li family, Lin Haoran had been willing to offer 20 Hong Kong dollars per share for their stocks.

But they had refused.

And now, he was only willing to offer 6 Hong Kong dollars per share?

That meant the shares they held were now worth less than sixty million Hong Kong dollars.

This was no small loss.

But Li Fushu understood that the current Lin Haoran no longer gave them any face. Trying to negotiate a better price with him?

That would just be asking for trouble.

From the moment the Li family decided to abandon the Bank of East Asia, Lin Haoran had gradually distanced himself from them.

It was the Li family who had wronged him first.

Thinking of this, Li Fushu sighed.

“Dad, are we really going to sell to him at 6 Hong Kong dollars per share?” Li Guobin asked.

“What else can we do? After today’s mass protest, it’s clear that what Government House wants most is for Lin Haoran to successfully complete the privatization. That way, the problem of no one buying the shares will be solved, and the shareholders will stop protesting.

Furthermore, with Lin Haoran’s capital injection, the bank run will be quelled as customers will no longer worry about their money, the queues will shrink, and the crisis will naturally be resolved.

So, even if we stubbornly refuse to sell, Lin Haoran can initiate a compulsory takeover. By then, even if we want to hold onto our shares, it won’t be up to us. We’ll still be forced to sell, and the price will still be 6 Hong Kong dollars a share, not a cent more.

Instead of being forced out later, utterly disgraced and losing all face, it’s better to agree decisively now. At least we can retain some dignity.” Li Fushu shook his head helplessly, his eyes filled with regret.

A single decision had cost their Li family over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. To say he didn’t regret it would be a lie.

But who could they blame but their own greed?

Li Fushu had already called Lin Haoran privately once, and the conversation had ended on bad terms.

If he were to approach him again now, the outcome would be no better.

At the Bank of East Asia headquarters building.

Governor Sir Murray MacLehose was very satisfied with Lin Haoran’s answer.

Lin Haoran had said he was willing to privatize the Bank of East Asia, but only at the Governor’s persuasion.

This was enough to show that he had orchestrated the entire matter, which was undoubtedly a shining political achievement for him.

Successfully facilitating the smooth transition of a time-honored but crisis-stricken Chinese-owned bank to privatization not only demonstrated his ability to resolve crises but also showed the public his determination to maintain financial stability. It also fulfilled the promise he had made that afternoon to the assembled citizens.

As for how much Lin Haoran was paying to privatize the Bank of East Asia, what did that have to do with him?

Sir Murray MacLehose smiled and nodded slightly, a look of approval for Lin Haoran in his eyes.

Just then, his assistant hurried to his side and whispered a few words in his ear.

Sir Murray MacLehose’s brow furrowed. He then stood up from his seat and said to Lin Haoran, “Mr. Lin, as for the matter of the compulsory privatization of the Bank of East Asia, we at Government House will do our best to cooperate and give you the green light on everything. You can rest assured on that point. I have an important matter to attend to back at Government House, so I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Lin Haoran had already personally announced his decision to privatize the Bank of East Asia via live broadcast, so he was no longer worried about the crowds gathering to cause trouble.

“In that case, please take care, Mr. Governor!” Hearing that Sir Murray MacLehose was leaving, Lin Haoran was a little surprised, yet also pleasantly so.

With Sir Murray MacLehose here, he couldn’t fully speak his mind.

But with him gone, he could execute his plans and methods with much more freedom.

Next, it was time to expose all of HSBC’s crimes.

Since HSBC wouldn’t let the Bank of East Asia off easy, he would make sure HSBC suffered too!

After the Governor’s figure disappeared from the conference room doorway, Lin Haoran didn’t rush to continue speaking. Instead, he turned to Da Shan, who was beside him, and said, “Have someone bring Mr. Zhang Lei up!”

“Yes, Boss!” Da Shan nodded and quickly left the scene.

Zhang Lei was the Account Manager from the Bank of East Asia’s Causeway Bay branch who had voluntarily told Lin Haoran about HSBC’s secret poaching efforts.

Originally, Lin Haoran thought he would have to wait a while before he could make use of him.

He hadn’t expected to need him so soon.

This was good, too. Exposing HSBC’s malicious behavior earlier would allow the public to see its true colors sooner, gaining more public support for the Bank of East Asia and turning the current unfavorable situation around.

A short while later, Da Shan returned with Zhang Lei.

Zhang Lei looked a little nervous. After all, he knew that once he appeared here, it meant he had completely offended HSBC.

If he couldn’t leave Hong Kong safely, a terrible fate awaited him.

But things had come to this point, and he could only bite the bullet and see it through. He could only hope that Lin Haoran could really protect his life!

At this moment, everyone on site was completely bewildered.

They didn’t understand why Lin Haoran was bringing a strange young man onto the stage.

“Mr. Zhang, don’t worry. After this is over, I’ll arrange for you to leave Hong Kong. HSBC won’t have any chance to get to you!” Seeing the paleness of Zhang Lei’s face, how could Lin Haoran not know what he was thinking?

Hearing this, Zhang Lei’s nervousness eased slightly. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.

Then, Lin Haoran pushed the microphone in front of him.

“Hello everyone. I am an Account Manager from the Bank of East Asia’s Causeway Bay branch. If any of you have done business at the Causeway Bay branch, you might recognize me. I am here today because I have something very important to make public!” Zhang Lei took a deep breath and said slowly.

Instantly, the reporters on site grew excited. They keenly sensed that a major bombshell was about to be dropped.

The live broadcast camera lenses of TVB and Rediffusion Television also focused on Zhang Lei, broadcasting the young man to television audiences all across Hong Kong.

At that moment, in a conference room at the HSBC headquarters, senior executives like Michael Sandberg, John Bao, and William Purves did not recognize Zhang Lei on the television screen. They had no idea that trouble was about to land on their doorstep.

However, just because they didn’t recognize him didn’t mean Paul Harvey, HSBC’s head of personnel, didn’t.

After all, he had personally met with Zhang Lei, and at the time, Zhang Lei had agreed to join HSBC.

But now, with Zhang Lei appearing on this live broadcast, the implication was already crystal clear.

He couldn’t understand it. The offer he had made was one he thought no one could resist. Why would Zhang Lei suddenly change his mind and even choose to side with Lin Haoran?

“Everyone, our plan may have been exposed. This young man is one of the people I met with!” he said, standing up and speaking gravely to the room.

Everyone he personally approached was strictly vetted. For something like this to happen, he knew the severity of the situation.

However, upon hearing his words, Michael Sandberg and the others were dismissive.

Poaching talent between companies was perfectly normal. One person coming forward to speak out posed no threat to HSBC.

On the television screen, Zhang Lei continued, “I was previously invited by the head of HSBC’s personnel department to switch jobs to their bank. And as far as I know, HSBC is currently poaching a large number of employees from the Bank of East Asia. I am just one of them.

Their goal isn’t simply to poach talent, but to create trouble for the Bank of East Asia, and even for its customers, by making it difficult for them to withdraw their money. In fact, the gathering and protest by Hong Kong citizens today was the result of HSBC’s machinations!”

As soon as he said this, the reporters on site erupted, and the entire conference room was instantly filled with a clamor of discussion.

Viewers watching the live broadcast widened their eyes in disbelief at what they were hearing.

HSBC, a titan in Hong Kong’s financial world, was being accused of such despicable acts. This was undoubtedly a bombshell, instantly sending shockwaves through Hong Kong’s financial circles and the whole of society.

Although HSBC had previously joined other banks in forcing a ‘choose one of two’ ultimatum, everyone knew that was common in business warfare.

But this, instigating an incident and causing citizens to gather and protest, was of a completely different nature.

The relaxed expressions on the faces of Michael Sandberg, John Bao, William Purves, and the other HSBC senior executives instantly froze, replaced by shock and fury.

Michael Sandberg slammed his hand on the table, shot up, and pointed at Zhang Lei on the television screen, too angry to speak.

“Mr. Zhang, this is a serious matter. Do you really have evidence to prove what you’re saying?” a reporter immediately pressed.

“Of course!” Zhang Lei said with a determined look, slowly pulling a cassette tape from his pocket. “I have a recording here that captures the entire conversation between myself and Mr. Paul Harvey, the head of HSBC’s personnel department. This recording is enough to prove that what I said about being poached by HSBC is absolutely true.

Moreover, after I pretended to agree to Mr. Paul Harvey’s offer, he not only asked me to secretly persuade more core employees of the Bank of East Asia to join them, but he also instructed those employees who had already secretly signed transfer agreements to deliberately find excuses to delay processing transactions and treat customers with a terrible attitude when the Bank of East Asia faced a bank run. This was to make the customers increasingly dissatisfied with the bank.

This is all on tape, with solid proof! There must be people here who are familiar with Mr. Paul Harvey and his voice.

HSBC’s goal in doing this was to create huge trouble for the Bank of East Asia, to completely ruin its reputation, and to make more people intensely dissatisfied with it.

You all saw the scene this afternoon with tens of thousands of people gathering to protest. That is the best evidence. Next, I will have the staff play this recording!”

In reality, Lin Haoran’s side already had a backup of the tape.

Having Zhang Lei take it out of his own pocket now was more persuasive and would allow the public to feel the authenticity of the matter more directly.

The atmosphere on site instantly grew heavy. All eyes were fixed on that cassette tape.

Soon, a staff member took the tape, placed it in a tape recorder on site, and pressed the play button.

A conversation lasting over ten minutes echoed clearly in every corner of the conference room and, through the live television broadcast, reached thousands of households across Hong Kong.

Everything Zhang Lei had said was fully reflected in the recording.

Even after it finished playing, the entire scene remained silent, still absorbing the contents of the tape.

No one had imagined that HSBC could be so ruthless. To completely crush the Bank of East Asia, they had deliberately made their customers’ withdrawal processes difficult, making them dissatisfied and inciting them to protest. Such behavior was simply appalling!

The reporters on site looked at each other, their eyes filled with shock and indignation. Their pens and cameras were in constant motion, recording this scandal that was enough to shake the entire Hong Kong financial world.

A reporter with pro-HSBC leanings spoke up at this moment, “Mr. Zhang, a single recording is not enough to prove that this was a conspiracy orchestrated by HSBC. After all, recordings can be faked. Do you have any other, more compelling evidence?”

The reporter was trying to salvage the situation for HSBC, but his voice sounded weak amidst the uproar.

Zhang Lei couldn’t respond to this, but his role was already fulfilled.

“Mr. Zhang, you can step down now. I’ll arrange for someone to secretly send you out of Hong Kong immediately,” Da Shan said softly, coming to Zhang Lei’s side.

Zhang Lei was overjoyed. All he wanted now was to escape Hong Kong as quickly as possible.

After Zhang Lei left, Lin Haoran walked back to the microphone.

Instantly, everyone’s attention shifted back to Lin Haoran.

“Everyone, you want more evidence? As it happens, I have some right here,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Following his words, a staff member brought out a stack of A4 paper and began distributing it to the reporters on site.

The reporters took the papers, bewildered. Each packet was several pages long, covered in a dense list of names.

Upon closer inspection, the list had over one hundred fifty names. Next to each name was their job title.

To their astonishment, they discovered that over half of the people on the list were bank tellers from various branches of the Bank of East Asia.

At this point, none of them understood the meaning of this list or how it could be considered evidence.

Soon, Lin Haoran provided the answer.

“Everyone, this list I’m holding contains 158 names. All of them have been secretly persuaded by HSBC and have successfully agreed to switch jobs. However, right now, these individuals are still working at their posts in various branches of the Bank of East Asia.

And just this afternoon, the head office of the Bank of East Asia confirmed with all branch managers that it was precisely these poached employees who were secretly causing trouble.

Although I had previously considered giving up on the Bank of East Asia, I had also explicitly instructed senior management that before our reserve funds were depleted, all branches must provide good service and do their best to meet customers’ withdrawal needs. I never had any intention of deliberately obstructing them.

In fact, the Bank of East Asia’s current reserve funds are temporarily very sufficient, far from the point of being unable to pay out. Therefore, delaying customers’ withdrawal times is completely unnecessary for us.

Furthermore, I have collected a significant amount of evidence regarding these employees, enough to prove they have signed transfer agreements with HSBC. I will make this evidence public at an appropriate time.

At the same time, the Bank of East Asia will file a lawsuit against these employees. Their malicious actions have severely tarnished the bank’s reputation, and they will surely face legal consequences!

As for what to do next, I don’t think I need to say more. Everyone should know in their hearts.” Lin Haoran faced the crowd, explaining in a calm and steady tone.

The people who had been protesting earlier that afternoon were now glued to the live television broadcast.

Only now did they have a sudden realization: they had become pawns, easily manipulated in HSBC’s hands.

In other words, their entire commotion that morning was them being used as a weapon by HSBC, played for fools.

HSBC was creating a terror incident. If not for Governor Sir Murray MacLehose’s intervention, the consequences would have been unthinkable, perhaps even leading to serious bloodshed.

So, Government House was unwilling to move against HSBC? Fine. He would make all the information he had collected public. He was going to drag Government House into this mess.

This matter was destined to escalate. He wanted to see just how Government House could stay out of it!

Back when the Hong Kong Association of Banks was formed, Michael Sandberg’s reason for targeting the Bank of East Asia was that its business strategies repeatedly deviated from established industry norms and harmed customer interests—and this was without a shred of evidence.

But now, Lin Haoran had ample evidence to prove that HSBC was the true main culprit stirring up trouble behind the scenes, harming customer interests, and destroying industry order.

For its own private gain, HSBC had unscrupulously poached talent, maliciously sabotaged a rival bank’s operations, and even used innocent citizens to create chaos. Its actions were appallingly vile.

He wanted to see how HSBC would handle things now that he had laid it all out in the open.

Chapter 616: This is an Overt Scheme!

The moment HSBC entered the fray intending to destroy the Bank of East Asia, Lin Haoran had, in effect, become their arch-nemesis.

Anyone else who offended HSBC would have no choice but to admit fault.

After all, HSBC’s dominance in Hong Kong was long-renowned, and the bank never showed mercy to those who dared to cross it.

It possessed a mature and vicious set of retaliatory measures. First, it would leverage its influence within the financial system to sever the opponent’s capital chain, leaving them to struggle in a state of financial distress.

Next, through the manipulation of media and public opinion, it would spread negative news detrimental to the opponent, trampling their reputation into the dust.

Finally, as the opponent teetered on the brink of collapse, HSBC would launch an all-out acquisition offensive, seizing the rival’s enterprise or business in a bloody act of capital plunder.

But Lin Haoran was different. Given his current standing in Hong Kong’s business world and his discreet international arrangements, he had no reason to fear HSBC.

This time, HSBC had initiated the business war. If Lin Haoran didn’t rise to the challenge, he would be seen as far too timid.

Previously, Lin Haoran had exercised restraint because he had not yet privatized the Bank of East Asia and was naturally unwilling to invest too much.

The exit of Li Peicai’s family had presented him with a perfect opportunity to privatize the bank, but to avoid being cornered by public opinion, he chose not to take the initiative.

But now, at Governor Sir Murray MacLehose’s “request,” he was “forced” to privatize the Bank of East Asia, so the matter was settled.

Therefore, he could now launch a full-scale counterattack against HSBC without holding back.

Just as everyone was reeling in shock from Lin Haoran’s strike, he showed no signs of stopping.

“Everyone should still remember the Hang Seng Bank run in 1965. I’m sure you all know how that ended. That’s right, Hang Seng Bank was ultimately forced into an acquisition by HSBC. The bank that was once on its way to becoming the largest Chinese-owned bank in Hong Kong was taken over by HSBC.

“I, Lin Haoran, did not experience the process myself, so I won’t say too much. But when I was looking through old newspapers, I came across this commentary: ‘For a bank that was developing so rapidly, was so well-managed, whose service was so loyal, and whose reputation was so esteemed, to be destroyed by rumors like this—it caused every discerning person in Hong Kong to sigh with regret and sorrow for its fate!’

“Today, the crisis facing the Bank of East Asia is so similar to what Hang Seng Bank went through back then, perhaps even more severe. If I don’t inject capital into the Bank of East Asia, there are only two possible outcomes: one, it declares bankruptcy and is taken over by the government; two, it is acquired by another bank!”

His words, broadcast across Hong Kong through the two major television stations, caused the citizens watching live to recall the bank run from over a decade ago.

The acquisition of Hang Seng Bank by HSBC was undoubtedly a source of regret for many Chinese people.

After all, if Hang Seng Bank had been allowed to develop steadily back then, it might have one day caught up to HSBC.

But just as Hang Seng Bank was at the zenith of its power, it was inexplicably brought down by despicable means, becoming a painful chapter in Hong Kong’s financial history.

Now that the Bank of East Asia was facing a similar desperate situation, a sensitive chord was struck deep within the hearts of the public. They grew more worried about the bank’s fate and increasingly resentful of HSBC’s actions.

At the headquarters of Hang Seng Bank, in the Chairman’s office.

Watching Lin Haoran on the television screen bring up the events of the past, Ho Sin Hang, now in his eighties, felt a slight tremor run through his body. A complex mix of emotions—reminiscence, and heartache—flickered in his cloudy eyes.

Back then, the loss of Hang Seng Bank, which he had painstakingly built for nearly thirty years, became the greatest regret of his life and that of the bank’s other founders. Ho Sin Hang had even cried for two whole nights over it.

Although HSBC had left the management rights of Hang Seng Bank with Ho Sin Hang after the acquisition, his role had fundamentally changed. He had gone from being the Boss to a professional manager. The difference between the two was, of course, night and day.

On the surface, Ho Sin Hang still seemed to be overseeing the overall situation at Hang Seng Bank, but behind every decision, every strategic deployment, it felt as though the invisible hand of HSBC was in control.

He was like a marionette. He appeared to stand in the spotlight on stage, basking in glory, but in reality, he had long lost any true autonomy.

Countless times, late at night, he would sit alone in his office, gazing at the bustling yet unfamiliar nightscape of Hong Kong, recalling Hang Seng Bank’s former glory and freedom. Tears would often blur his vision.

Now, Lin Haoran’s mention of this past event was like a sharp knife, piercing his already-shambled heart once again.

He had collaborated with Lin Haoran before, and with Lin Wan’an being a friend of his, Ho Sin Hang had a genuine fondness for this member of the younger generation in the business world.

Having experienced being pushed to a dead end by a British-funded conglomerate himself, he was delighted to see the rise of Chinese-owned enterprises.

He also understood that the crisis the Bank of East Asia was facing was a reenactment of Hang Seng Bank’s tragedy.

At eighty-one years old, he was suddenly torn. He didn’t want to stand by and watch another excellent Chinese-owned bank suffer the same fate, but as the Chairman of Hang Seng Bank, he didn’t know how to choose between his position and his principles.

If he were to voice support for the Bank of East Asia, the consequences were obvious. HSBC would be utterly furious.

HSBC had always acted with impunity in Hong Kong’s financial industry. How could it tolerate such an act of “betrayal” from Ho Sin Hang? They would undoubtedly retaliate swiftly, and the most direct method would be to oust him.

When HSBC took control of Hang Seng Bank, it had acquired a 51% stake.

Over the past decade, to further tighten its grip, HSBC had made another move in 1978, gradually increasing its shareholding from 51% to 61%!

Thus, Hang Seng Bank was now an absolute controlling subsidiary of HSBC. No matter how much influence Ho Sin Hang wielded within the bank, under HSBC’s iron-fisted control, he was merely a small boat struggling in stormy seas.

A single Board of Directors resolution from HSBC was all it would take to easily remove him from the position into which he had poured his heart and soul.

Ho Sin Hang knew this well. His withered fingers gently caressed a yellowed photograph on his desk, taken at the founding of Hang Seng Bank. In the picture, his partners were in high spirits—himself, Lin Bingyan, Liang Zhiwei, and the other founders, all dreaming of Hang Seng Bank’s future.

It was his fondest memory, but now, things were no longer the same. Although he was still at Hang Seng Bank, the company no longer belonged to them.

His gaze flickered between determination and confusion, the conflict in his heart a tangled mess.

“Sigh!” A single sigh conveyed all his current helplessness and world-weariness.

He desperately wanted to help Lin Haoran, unwilling to watch a Chinese-owned bank like the Bank of East Asia be crushed by HSBC. But he was fraught with worry, treading on thin ice with every step.

Ho Sin Hang slowly rose to his feet and walked to the window. He gazed at the bustling traffic and towering skyscrapers of Hong Kong, but his thoughts drifted to the distant past.

“Perhaps, I can’t help Lin Haoran openly, but I can offer him some advice in private.”

With this thought, Ho Sin Hang decided to meet with Lin Haoran later in the evening. No matter what, he did not want to see the Bank of East Asia follow the same tragic path as Hang Seng Bank.

Having spent his entire life in Hong Kong’s financial industry, he was well aware of HSBC’s dominance and power. He didn’t believe Lin Haoran could win this business war.

Not far from Hang Seng Bank’s headquarters, at the HSBC headquarters, the atmosphere was starkly different from the somber mood in the Hang Seng Chairman’s office. It was thick with a mixture of rage and arrogance.

Lin Haoran had exposed HSBC’s despicable tactics over the recent period in front of all of Hong Kong, and with conclusive evidence no less. It was undoubtedly a vicious slap across HSBC’s face, thoroughly enraging its senior executives.

The atmosphere in the conference room was so oppressive it was hard to breathe.

The cold light from the massive crystal chandelier illuminated a sea of sullen faces.

Michael Sandberg stood up and paced back and forth, his face contorted with fury.

If HSBC remained silent, its prestige in Hong Kong’s financial sector, and indeed in the entire court of public opinion, would surely take a heavy blow.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, no matter what, we just have to deny it all. I don’t think the Government House can just stand by and watch HSBC get swept up in this storm of public opinion. After all, HSBC has an inextricable link with the Government House and Britain on both economic and political levels,” John Bao said, suddenly sounding very calm despite his own anger.

Michael Sandberg gradually composed himself. He nodded and said to John Bao, “Prepare our counter-statement. The reporters will definitely come rushing to us to ask about this. We need to give a response that the public can’t find major fault with and that also upholds HSBC’s reputation.

“As for me, I’m going to the Government House immediately. I hope to get Mr. MacLehose’s support. Only if the Government House sides with us completely can we gain the absolute upper hand in this media war and crush the Bank of East Asia for good.” A ruthless glint shone in Michael Sandberg’s eyes. As he spoke, he grabbed his jacket and strode out of the conference room.

At this moment, he had no heart to continue watching the press conference.

The moment Lin Haoran presented the various pieces of evidence against HSBC, Michael Sandberg knew that if they mishandled this, it would have a major impact on HSBC. It might even allow the Bank of East Asia to turn the tables and reverse its currently passive situation.

He had to act quickly and mobilize all available resources to hold HSBC’s position tight.

Most importantly, if they secured the support of the Government House, HSBC would be invincible.

That, combined with HSBC’s long-standing influence and absolute market share, was the source of their resources and confidence.

Faced with Lin Haoran’s counterattack, they certainly couldn’t remain idle.

The very reason they had wanted to completely eliminate the Bank of East Asia from Hong Kong’s financial chessboard the moment Lin Haoran took control was their fear that under his leadership, the bank would become a future threat to HSBC.

After all, though they were the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial world, they were up against the richest man in Hong Kong, a man with immense capital.

None of this could be taken lightly.

At the Government House, Sir Murray MacLehose had just returned when he received a report from his subordinate.

After watching the rest of Lin Haoran’s speech, he knew that the situation was escalating.

Originally, he thought that by having Lin Haoran privatize the Bank of East Asia, all problems would be solved. The Government House could stay out of it, allowing HSBC to deal with the Bank of East Asia as it pleased without their intervention.

But now, it seemed that Lin Haoran’s evidence and his subsequent words had dragged the Government House directly into the mess.

It would be impossible for the Government House to remain on the sidelines.

If this matter was mishandled, even he, the Governor, could be implicated.

Sir Murray MacLehose’s brow furrowed tightly. He paced back and forth in his office, contemplating his next move.

He had underestimated this young man, Lin Haoran.

Indeed, how could someone who had built such a massive enterprise in just three short years be simple?

In an instant, the pleasant mood Sir Murray MacLehose had felt, thinking the matter was resolved, vanished without a trace, replaced by deep anxiety and gravity.

He could see that the situation was now a tangled mess. “Pull one hair and the whole body moves.” He had to make his decisions with extreme caution.

He would rather see HSBC hold absolute power and act wantonly in Hong Kong’s financial sector than see it defeated in a business war against the Bank of East Asia.

After all, HSBC had inextricable ties with the Government House and Britain on economic and political levels. If HSBC were to fall, the resulting chain reaction could shake the very foundations of the Government House’s rule in Hong Kong and even directly affect Britain’s interests.

But the evidence in Lin Haoran’s hands was conclusive, and he had exposed HSBC’s various actions to the public. If the Government House openly sided with HSBC, it would surely trigger strong public discontent, thereby damaging its own credibility.

Every single move the Government House made in this affair was being watched by everyone.

At this thought, he quickly called Michael Sandberg.

Lin Haoran’s speech sent many of Hong Kong’s tycoons into deep thought and strategic recalculation.

The business world was a complex web of interwoven interests. This war between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia was like a giant stone thrown into a calm lake, creating ripples that forced all parties to re-evaluate the situation and adjust their own positions and strategies.

The scene returned to the press conference.

At that moment, Lin Haoran, facing a crowd of reporters, was still speaking滔滔不绝 about HSBC’s malicious acts.

Since the war had officially begun, he was not holding back. He intended to expose all of HSBC’s misdeeds to the light of day, allowing all of Hong Kong to see its true face and winning public sympathy and support for the disadvantaged Bank of East Asia.

After all, although the Bank of East Asia could live comfortably with the financial business support of his own companies like Hongkong Electric Group and Hongkong Land Group after he successfully privatized it, this was only a temporary form of stability.

Without external business, the Bank of East Asia would be nothing more than an “isolated island” of internal capital circulation, a situation he was unwilling to see.

Since he had acquired the Bank of East Asia, he wanted to see it develop and thrive!

Therefore, if he could win the battle of public opinion against HSBC and retain those clients, it would undoubtedly be of profound significance for the bank’s future development.

In the financial industry, besides substantial capital strength, public trust and support are equally crucial. Market share is even more important. Relying solely on the business of one’s own enterprises was no different from closing the door and playing among yourselves.

Thus, facing an all-out assault from HSBC, his goal was to reclaim as much of the market as possible in his counterattack.

“Friends from the press, HSBC presents itself as a titan of Hong Kong’s financial world, yet its actions are no different from those of a robber. It uses its dominant position to arbitrarily suppress competitors, destroying the environment of fair market competition.

“The Bank of East Asia is merely a bank that adheres to the principle of honest business operations, dedicated to providing quality financial services to the citizens of Hong Kong. Yet, it has suffered unprovoked, malicious attacks from HSBC. This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated!” Lin Haoran’s words were impassioned, his eyes filled with immense anger.

The reporters below raised their cameras and microphones, capturing this highly impactful moment.

They understood that this business war was no longer just a struggle between two banks; it concerned the future direction of Hong Kong’s financial market and the public’s trust in the financial system.

Lin Haoran had deliberately brought up the story of Hang Seng Bank’s acquisition by HSBC, which was triggered by a bank run caused by mysterious rumors. He was trying to shape public opinion, to make everyone believe that HSBC was the mastermind behind what happened to Hang Seng Bank back then.

Although he had no way of knowing the actual truth, at this critical juncture, the truth itself was perhaps no longer important. What mattered was fanning the flames of public opinion higher, to thoroughly ignite the doubt and anger in people’s hearts.

First Hang Seng Bank, now the Bank of East Asia. Time and again, HSBC had used its hegemonic power to manipulate Hong Kong’s financial industry. This would surely foster public resentment.

HSBC used its dominant position in the financial world, particularly by colluding with other banks to ostracize the Bank of East Asia with a “choose one of two” ultimatum, and then employed other despicable tactics against it.

In the past, if such tactics were used against other banks, success was practically guaranteed.

Now, under the “choose one of two” scenario, even if the Bank of East Asia had sufficient funds, many people, to avoid being completely cut off from HSBC and most other banks, had no choice but to withdraw their financial dealings with the Bank of East Asia.

This was the primary reason for the bank run on the Bank of East Asia.

As the HSBC system controlled over sixty percent of the business in Hong Kong, being blacklisted by HSBC was almost equivalent to being shut out of the mainstream financial circle. It meant encountering numerous troubles when conducting business in the future, a fact everyone understood.

“HSBC’s actions during this period, especially manipulating ordinary citizens to create panic and cause a bank run, controlling former employees to create conflicts with citizens trying to withdraw money, and then guiding them to stage large-scale demonstrations in an attempt to drag the Bank of East Asia into a vortex of public opinion and operational despair—such conduct is simply insane and completely deviates from the bottom line and principles of commercial competition.

“They thought these vile tactics would make the Bank of East Asia submit, that the Hong Kong financial world would henceforth follow their lead. But they’ve miscalculated.

“I, Lin Haoran, will absolutely not sit by and watch the Bank of East Asia be bullied like this. I will not only demand justice for the Bank of East Asia, but I will also fight for the fairness and justice of Hong Kong’s financial market.

“I have already arranged for a professional investigation team to collect evidence of HSBC’s malicious competition in a comprehensive manner. From their internal documents about colluding with other banks to sideline the Bank of East Asia, to the specific operational procedures for manipulating public opinion and creating panic, not a single detail will be overlooked.

“Their actions have broken the law. I will proceed to gather more information and submit it all to the Hong Kong financial regulatory authorities and relevant law enforcement agencies.

“I firmly believe that in a society governed by the rule of law, any action that violates the principles of fair competition and disrupts the order of the financial market will be severely punished.” Lin Haoran’s voice was steady and powerful, each word landing heavily on the hearts of everyone present.

Since the incident involving the Bank of East Asia began, Lin Haoran had remained silent, allowing public opinion to ferment amidst widespread speculation.

Many believed he was intimidated by HSBC’s power and dared not confront them head-on.

But they had no idea that Lin Haoran was secretly gathering his strength, waiting for the right moment to deliver a fatal blow to HSBC.

With this, it was now absolutely impossible for the Government House to stay out of the matter.

Now that he had escalated the situation to such a degree, it meant it would garner worldwide attention.

As one of the world’s top three financial centers and the hub of Asia, if this matter was not handled properly, it would not only severely damage Hong Kong’s international financial reputation but also trigger global investors’ doubts about the stability and fairness of its financial market.

A large amount of international capital could rapidly flee Hong Kong, leading to violent fluctuations in the stock and currency markets. Numerous financial institutions would face operational crises, and Hong Kong’s economy would suffer a severe blow, plunging into a long-term recession.

If the Government House continued to choose silence and evasion, it would be a dereliction of duty, an irresponsible act towards the people of Hong Kong and global investors.

At that point, the tide of international condemnation would be overwhelming, and the credibility of the Government House would be completely destroyed.

Lin Haoran’s move was an overt scheme!

The press conference lasted for a full hour before concluding.

As it was broadcast live across Hong Kong, the impact of this turmoil was destined to be extremely far-reaching from the very beginning.

So, the moment the live broadcast ended, the real “storm” of this turmoil had just begun to rage.

Just as Michael Sandberg had anticipated, as the reporters left the Bank of East Asia headquarters, they sent people to rush the materials back to their offices while they themselves hurried towards HSBC.

They wanted to know: in the face of Lin Haoran’s fierce accusations, what kind of response would HSBC give?

Standing high in the towering building, Lin Haoran gazed quietly through the bright glass window at the reporters leaving the Bank of East Asia one after another. His heart was like a surging tide, unable to find calm.

He had decisively launched a counterattack against HSBC, but even now, he wasn’t entirely confident of achieving victory in this fierce confrontation.

After all, HSBC’s roots ran deep, and its power was deeply rooted and intertwined. Even more troublesome was the “powerful backer” of the Government House behind it, which could intervene at any moment. These two forces were not to be trifled with and certainly not easily shaken.

If a behemoth like HSBC could be toppled by a few scattered pieces of evidence, the British would have been driven out of Hong Kong long ago.

Just as he was lost in thought about the day’s events, the mobile phone beside him rang with a crisp tone.

Lately, he had grown increasingly accustomed to using this mobile phone. Over time, almost every prominent and powerful tycoon in Hong Kong knew his number.

Lin Haoran pressed the answer button. As soon as the call connected, before the other party could speak, he said, “Hello, this is Lin Haoran.”

“Haoran, it’s Ho Sin Hang. I’d like to talk to you. Are you free right now?” From the other end of the line came Ho Sin Hang’s slightly aged voice.

Lin Haoran was genuinely surprised. He never would have expected the caller to be Ho Sin Hang of Hang Seng Bank.

Why was he looking for him?

Thanks to his father, Lin Wan’an, his relationship with Ho Sin Hang was quite good.

The Wan’an Group had been a key partner of Hang Seng Bank in the past.

But since he had risen to prominence, especially after establishing a good relationship with Citibank, he hadn’t had any collaborations with Hang Seng Bank.

Chapter 617: Poaching the Founder of the Hang Seng Index?

“Oh, it’s Uncle He. I’m always available for you. How about this: we meet tonight at six-thirty at the Joyful Abundance Restaurant in Central. What do you think?” Although he was unsure why the man was calling him, Lin Haoran agreed immediately.

In any case, Ho Sin Hang had been a very good business partner of his father, Lin Wan’an.

Moreover, before his own rise, he had taken out a loan from him. Although the loan had long been repaid, the favor remained.

He just didn’t understand. This Uncle He was the Chairman of Hang Seng Bank, and Hang Seng Bank was a subsidiary of HSBC.

Yet, just as he officially declared war on HSBC, the man reached out to him.

Could it be that he was sent by Michael Sandberg as an intermediary to persuade him to give up his fight against HSBC? Or did he have some other ulterior motive?

Though his mind was filled with questions, Lin Haoran didn’t voice them over the phone.

“Alright. In that case, let’s meet at the Joyful Abundance Restaurant at six-thirty! Oh, and Haoran, it would be best if you booked a private room with good privacy. I’d rather not be seen for the time being,” Ho Sin Hang said over the phone.

“You can rest assured on that point, Uncle He. I’ll make the arrangements!” Lin Haoran laughed.

The Joyful Abundance Restaurant was an asset of the Hongkong Land Group, and he was the Boss of the Hongkong Land Group. Arranging for a private room with excellent privacy was a trivial matter.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran personally called the restaurant manager and gave instructions, ensuring that the private room’s environment and service would be of the highest standard and that strict confidentiality would be maintained.

The Joyful Abundance Restaurant currently had five branches in Hong Kong. Not many, but they were definitely the most high-end restaurants in Hong Kong, combining Chinese and Western cuisine.

For instance, the Joyful Abundance Restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui, which used to be Lin Wan’an’s favorite, was one of them.

The Joyful Abundance Restaurant in Central had actually just opened last year. Located in The Landmark, it had already become the most popular restaurant in the Central area since its opening.

Now, under the management of Ma Shimin, the Joyful Abundance Restaurant was preparing for a large-scale expansion, dedicated to building the Joyful Abundance brand into a multinational catering group.

He glanced at the time. It wasn’t even five in the afternoon, so it was still early.

And the Bank of East Asia headquarters was only about a ten-minute journey from The Landmark.

So, he was in no hurry to leave.

Returning to the Chairman’s office at the Bank of East Asia, Lin Haoran called Dai Shi to check on the status of the bank’s stock that day.

“Boss, as per your instructions, we moved quickly to accumulate shares after the market opened this afternoon. We snapped up about thirty-one million shares in one go. The prices for these shares ranged from four to six Hong Kong dollars, with a final average acquisition cost of 5.2 Hong Kong dollars per share.

“After we stopped buying, the retail investors mistakenly thought the Bank of East Asia’s stock price still had room to grow, so it was instantly pulled up, even rising back to around ten Hong Kong dollars at one point.

“However, this rally didn’t last long. After you announced the privatization of the Bank of East Asia at a price no higher than six Hong Kong dollars, the stock price slid right back down to six Hong Kong dollars per share, and trading volume nearly came to a halt.

“As the market was about to close at four o’clock, I took a closer look and found that more than twenty million shares had appeared on the market at six Hong Kong dollars per share. I couldn’t miss this opportunity, so I quickly arranged for our people to sweep this batch of shares into our pockets before the closing bell.

“With that, we now control one hundred twenty-four million, eight hundred thousand shares of the Bank of East Asia, bringing our shareholding to over eighty percent.

“Additionally, I’ve already contacted Li Peicai’s family. From what I understand, they didn’t sell any shares today and are still holding over nine million shares. After negotiations, they’ve agreed to sell them to us. And what’s strange is that Mr. Li Fushu didn’t haggle at all.

“Now, as long as we can acquire the shares they’re holding, our stake will shoot up to ninety percent.

“Also, before the market closed, I sent someone to the Securities Commission. We’ve already obtained the privatization permit. Boss, at this rate, the successful privatization of the Bank of East Asia is just around the corner!”

Dai Shi’s face was lit with excitement as he reported all the good news to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran nodded. He wasn’t surprised that the subsequent share increase went so smoothly.

After all, he had made it clear during the live television broadcast that if the compulsory privatization process were initiated, the maximum offer price would be six Hong Kong dollars. Furthermore, he would not inject any capital into the Bank of East Asia before the privatization was complete, and business from companies like the Hongkong Land Group would not be transferred to the Bank of East Asia for the time being.

Adding to that, Governor Sir Murray MacLehose had publicly supported his privatization of the Bank of East Asia, even emphasizing that all related procedures would be simplified to facilitate the privatization as quickly as possible.

Under these circumstances, the Bank of East Asia’s stock price had lost all room for imagination.

Whether its stock price could rise in the future depended entirely on whether Lin Haoran would inject capital into it and on market expectations of high-quality businesses like the Hongkong Electric Group and Hongkong Land Group being transferred to the bank.

With the direction of privatization clear and the price ceiling set, the retail investors and some shareholders who had hoped to profit from price fluctuations naturally lost their confidence to hold on and chose to sell off.

Selling at six Hong Kong dollars was definitely a huge loss for many who had bought in at a high price.

But in the current situation, they had no choice but to take the loss.

If they didn’t sell, they would be subject to compulsory privatization at the same price.

It was better to sell early and cash out.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran was in a good mood.

There were no more uncertainties or obstacles to the privatization of the Bank of East Asia; everything was proceeding according to his plan.

Next, he could focus all his efforts on the business competition with HSBC.

He had already made his moves. Now, he just had to wait and see what HSBC would do next.

Lin Haoran had no concerns that HSBC might secretly cause trouble or use underhanded tactics during the Bank of East Asia’s privatization process.

After all, this privatization had been personally endorsed by Governor Sir Murray MacLehose during a live television broadcast. Not only was the process greatly simplified, but all procedures were also compliant and legal.

If HSBC tried to interfere, it would be a blatant challenge to Governor MacLehose’s authority, a public show of disrespect. They wouldn’t be foolish enough to do something like that.

What’s more, he already held over eighty percent of the Bank of East Asia’s stock.

Once he successfully acquired the nine million-plus shares from Li Peicai’s family, his stake would soar to ninety percent.

Such a high percentage of ownership was like an iron wall. Even if HSBC racked its brains and exhausted its means, it could hardly stir up any trouble in this privatization process. Everything was under his control.

With Galaxy Securities handling the privatization of the Bank of East Asia, Lin Haoran had no more lingering concerns.

At the same time, within the twenty branches of the Bank of East Asia, and even at the head office, many employees were in a state of panic.

With conclusive evidence, these employees had clearly signed contracts to switch jobs to HSBC but had remained at the Bank of East Asia to secretly cause trouble. This led unsuspecting customers to believe that the Bank of East Asia was deliberately delaying things, which in turn triggered today’s massive protest march. This had already crossed potential legal and professional ethical red lines related to commercial fraud, disturbing public order, and workplace loyalty.

If HSBC didn’t stand by them, they would become sacrificial pawns, facing not only fines but possibly even jail time.

The Bank of East Asia certainly wouldn’t be lenient with these troublemaking employees.

A very comprehensive list of their names had already been compiled through a covert investigation. This list had now even been made public, and basically every major media outlet had a copy!

Since it was public, there was no need for further tolerance.

After the press conference, the Bank of East Asia’s temporary president, Da Shan, began instructing the branch managers to launch a cleanup operation against these confirmed traitors.

Employees were fired on the spot, and the evidence was submitted to the police and financial regulatory authorities.

These matters were known throughout Hong Kong, and the protesting customers of the Bank of East Asia, in particular, loathed these people.

If it weren’t for the covert sabotage by these employees poached by HSBC, why would they have wasted their time and energy to get involved in this unwarranted protest march?

Now that the truth was out, the public’s anger had a target. So what if HSBC was behind these people?

The list had been completely publicized, meaning all of Hong Kong was watching. If the police let these employees off the hook to favor HSBC, the credibility of the police force would suffer an unprecedented blow, and the public’s trust in the fairness of the law would be destroyed.

At that point, a wave of public opinion would surely surge forward, pushing the police and even the entire Hong Kong judicial system into the eye of the storm.

Therefore, the police had no choice but to start dispatching officers to arrest these individuals.

Those fired employees were now in a state of extreme panic.

They had originally thought that with HSBC backing them, they would be safe even if things came to light. They never expected HSBC to remain silent at this critical moment, completely ignoring them.

Clearly, HSBC had already cast them aside as sacrificial pawns.

HSBC was not short of staff to begin with. Poaching them was merely because they were useful—a means to throw the Bank of East Asia into chaos faster, even to cause a market crash, thereby gaining an upper hand in the competition.

Now that they had lost their usefulness and become a source of trouble, HSBC certainly wouldn’t waste any effort on them.

Thus, the fate of this group of people was destined to be tragic.

Even if they avoided jail time, their careers in Hong Kong were over because of this incident.

After all, being a turncoat has always been a major taboo in the workplace, especially in the financial industry, where integrity and loyalty are considered fundamental.

Now that their actions had become known throughout Hong Kong and their reputations were in tatters, what bank would dare to hire them?

Once labeled as “commercial traitors,” their professional lives were effectively ruined.

Meanwhile, those Bank of East Asia employees who had also considered switching jobs now breathed a secret sigh of relief. They were thankful they hadn’t acted impulsively and had held their bottom line at the critical moment, refraining from colluding with HSBC to harm the interests of the Bank of East Asia.

Otherwise, they might have been the ones caught in panic and desperation right now.

Within the Bank of East Asia, a purge of the internal “traitors” was proceeding in an orderly fashion.

Following the instructions of temporary president Da Shan, the branch managers acted quickly, clearing out the employees on the list one by one.

In the offices, the faces of the dismissed employees were pale. They hastily packed their belongings and left the Bank of East Asia under the strange gazes of their colleagues.

At the Bank of East Asia headquarters in particular, several mid-to-high-level management staff were even led away in handcuffs by the police.

Naturally, Lin Haoran didn’t need to worry about these things.

Around ten past six, he left the Bank of East Asia headquarters and headed to The Landmark ahead of time.

Led by the general manager of the Joyful Abundance Restaurant, he was soon shown to a very luxurious private room.

Not long after, Ho Sin Hang, also led by the restaurant’s general manager, arrived punctually at the private room.

Ho Sin Hang was dressed in a well-tailored dark suit, his hair impeccably combed. Although he was over eighty, he was hale and hearty, his steps steady.

Lin Haoran knew a fair amount about this old gentleman.

The famous Hang Seng Index was created under the leadership of Ho Sin Hang.

As he recalled, he was supposed to have passed away in the year of Hong Kong’s handover to China.

This meant the old statesman still had sixteen years left. He would pass away at the age of ninety-seven, which meant he had a long life.

Lin Haoran looked at Ho Sin Hang, a legendary figure in Hong Kong’s financial world. Even at his age, he still exuded an aura that was not to be underestimated.

If one were to ask who the leader of the Chinese financial community in Hong Kong was, it was undoubtedly Ho Sin Hang!

“Uncle He, please have a seat,” Lin Haoran said with a slight bow, gesturing with his hand.

Ho Sin Hang smiled and nodded, then sat down.

“Haoran, when I saw you more than two years ago, I never imagined you could achieve such brilliant success in such a short time.” Ho Sin Hang looked at Lin Haoran, his eyes filled with emotion. “You were just beginning to show your talent back then, but the financial world is ever-changing. Who could have predicted you would be in this position today? Lin Wan’an raised a fine son!”

“You’re too kind, Uncle He. My father often told me of your legendary feats in the financial world and told me to take you as my role model. Please, see what you’d like to eat.” Lin Haoran replied with a smile as he handed the menu to Ho Sin Hang.

The restaurant’s general manager stood by to personally take their order, pen and paper in hand, waiting for them to decide.

Although Lin Haoran still had no idea what this tycoon of the financial world wanted to discuss with him, he had no intention of asking proactively.

The two casually ordered a few dishes.

It was clear that neither intended to get to the main topic until the food was served.

So, they chatted about the Hong Kong business world while sipping tea.

The Bank of East Asia was a competitor of Hang Seng Bank, so Ho Sin Hang’s understanding of it was second only to Li Fushu himself.

Several head chefs were cooking for them personally, even during the busiest dinner hour.

This was one of the perks of owning the restaurant.

Consequently, the few dishes they ordered were all served within a dozen minutes, brought in personally by the general manager.

Since Ho Sin Hang didn’t want to be seen here, Lin Haoran naturally made the meeting as private and discreet as possible.

“Uncle He, please try this dish. It’s a specialty of our Joyful Abundance. The head chef’s skills have won praise from many business tycoons,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, trying to create a relaxed atmosphere.

“Haoran, I’m sure you must be very curious about why I sought you out this time, aren’t you?” Ho Sin Hang didn’t rush to eat.

Lin Haoran nodded.

Indeed, he still couldn’t figure out why the man had sought him out.

Although the man was a senior in Hong Kong’s Chinese-owned business circle, Hang Seng Bank was now part of the British-owned company, HSBC.

And he, Lin Haoran, was currently engaged in fierce business competition with HSBC. The situation between them was tense, with swords drawn.

Under such circumstances, Ho Sin Hang’s initiative to meet with him was truly puzzling.

Ho Sin Hang put down his chopsticks, his gaze calm and profound as he looked at Lin Haoran. He said slowly, “Haoran, although I am now the Chairman of Hang Seng Bank, its roots are in Chinese-owned enterprise.

“In my life, I have witnessed the rise and fall of Hong Kong’s financial world, and I know well the difficulties Chinese-owned enterprises face in this field. I did not seek you out today at Michael Sandberg’s request to be his intermediary and persuade you to give up your fight with HSBC, nor am I here to mediate between you two.”

Lin Haoran’s eyebrows raised slightly. Though still puzzled, he waited quietly for Ho Sin Hang to continue.

“As a British-owned company, HSBC has always dominated Hong Kong’s financial sector. They have an aggressive style and often look down on Chinese-owned enterprises.

“Seeing the Bank of East Asia targeted by HSBC reminds me of when Hang Seng Bank was acquired by them. At that time, under my management, Hang Seng Bank was developing rapidly with a bright future.

“However, a inexplicable smear campaign plunged Hang Seng Bank into a bank run. Left with no choice, Hang Seng Bank eventually became a subsidiary of HSBC.

“From then on, Hang Seng Bank’s development was restricted at every turn, with many decisions being constrained by HSBC. Although Hang Seng Bank is still prosperous today, as a subsidiary of HSBC, it can never surpass HSBC.”

As Ho Sin Hang spoke, a trace of melancholy and unwillingness flickered in his eyes, as if the pain of the past was still etched in his heart.

Lin Haoran listened quietly, feeling a greater sense of understanding and sympathy for Ho Sin Hang’s experience.

At the same time, he was somewhat surprised. The acquisition of Hang Seng Bank had happened sixteen years ago, yet the man still hadn’t let it go. It seemed that past event was indeed an indelible mark for him.

In Hong Kong’s financial world, it was already incredibly difficult for Chinese-owned enterprises to compete with British-owned ones. Hang Seng Bank’s experience was just a microcosm of the difficult situation faced by many Chinese-owned enterprises.

He never expected Ho Sin Hang to have such thoughts. It seemed that although HSBC had acquired Hang Seng Bank, and Ho Sin Hang was now, strictly speaking, a professional manager under the HSBC Group, he held no affection for HSBC at all!

This was completely different from what he had imagined. He had thought the man was most likely here to negotiate on behalf of Michael Sandberg.

Now it seemed that was not the case at all.

He looked at Ho Sin Hang earnestly and said, “Uncle He, you mean…”

“Haoran, you weren’t familiar with Hong Kong’s financial sector before, so you’re not aware of HSBC’s hegemonic practices and various unfair tactics.

“Relying on their vast capital and deep connections, they arbitrarily suppress Chinese-owned enterprises and monopolize market resources. Many promising and innovative Chinese-owned financial institutions have struggled to survive under their malicious competition, some even having to exit the stage quietly.

“Do you think that with your substantial financial backing, the Bank of East Asia can easily weather this storm?” Ho Sin Hang paused here.

Lin Haoran nodded. At this point, he indeed didn’t have many worries about the Bank of East Asia’s future, even with HSBC, the financial hegemon that held absolute power in Hong Kong, as his opponent.

Ho Sin Hang continued, “To be honest, Haoran, HSBC’s methods go far beyond what you’ve seen so far. You must not let your guard down and think you have victory in your grasp.

“I watched the entire live broadcast this afternoon. Although your evidence was conclusive, it caused no substantial damage to HSBC. Their foundations are deep. This little storm is merely a ripple on a lake; it will soon calm down.

“They have enough connections, resources, and means to resolve the crisis, even turn it to their advantage, and reverse the unfavorable situation.

“Faced with a choice between the two, even if customers feel sympathy for the Bank of East Asia, they will most likely still choose HSBC in the end. After all, HSBC has operated in Hong Kong for many years. Its brand influence is deeply rooted, and customer trust in it is extremely high.

“This trust wasn’t built overnight, nor can it be easily shaken by a bit of public opinion campaign in a short time.”

Lin Haoran listened, but he wasn’t convinced.

He understood everything Ho Sin Hang was saying.

In the short term, the Bank of East Asia might lose all its customers, but so what?

He hadn’t forgotten that the assets he now controlled were more than enough to take on any British-funded conglomerate.

The Hongkong Land Group alone was worth tens of thousands of customers.

However, he still asked curiously, “Then what good advice do you have, Uncle He?”

“I’ve toiled and struggled in Hong Kong’s financial industry for many years; I couldn’t be more familiar with the situation here. Haoran, in my opinion, if you want to protect the Bank of East Asia’s financial business in Hong Kong and not watch the market share it spent decades of heart and soul building go down the drain, there’s only one path left—cooperate with Citibank.

“Citibank didn’t even participate in the Hong Kong Association of Banks meeting this time. That’s a clear sign they don’t take HSBC seriously.

“Right now, HSBC is focused on internationalization, and Citibank is a powerhouse in the international financial arena, second to none in global reach and holding top-tier market share worldwide.

“If HSBC wants to make its mark on the international stage, it absolutely cannot bypass Citibank. If the Bank of East Asia can form a partnership with Citibank, HSBC will certainly feel immense pressure.

“It might even be forced to abandon its unfair ‘choose one of two’ competitive tactic and even make concessions to the Bank of East Asia in certain business areas.

“After all, Citibank has deep connections and powerful influence in the international market. At a critical moment, it is fully capable of throwing a wrench in HSBC’s internationalization plans.

“Only by doing this is there a chance HSBC will bow its head, and the Bank of East Asia can use this opportunity to gain a firm footing in its fierce confrontation with HSBC,” Ho Sin Hang slowly revealed his thoughts.

In reality, Ho Sin Hang didn’t know that the reason Citibank didn’t participate in that Hong Kong Association of Banks meeting wasn’t out of disrespect for HSBC, but out of respect for Lin Haoran!

However, at this moment, Lin Haoran paid no mind to Ho Sin Hang’s suggestion.

Cooperating with Citibank was already part of his plan; he didn’t need Ho Sin Hang to bring it up.

But that wasn’t what was on his mind now.

At this moment, an idea suddenly struck him.

Since Ho Sin Hang felt no sense of belonging to HSBC, and his equity in Hang Seng Bank was gradually diminishing, why not poach Ho Sin Hang for the Bank of East Asia?

Although Ho Sin Hang was still the Chairman of the current Hang Seng Bank, it was no longer controlled by the He family.

Once he passed away, it would be impossible for the He family to inherit the management rights of Hang Seng Bank.

Ho Sin Hang’s capabilities were there for all to see. He was absolutely the number one Chinese banker in Hong Kong.

Leading the creation of the “Hang Seng Index” was alone enough to earn him a significant and brilliant achievement in Hong Kong’s financial history!

His professional expertise, industry insight, and the deep network of connections he had accumulated in the financial world were all invaluable assets that the Bank of East Asia desperately needed right now.

If he could be recruited to the Bank of East Asia, it would undoubtedly be a powerful shot in the arm for the bank. He could then rest assured about its future development.

Having lost Li Peicai’s family, the Bank of East Asia was now in need of a core leader who could command the overall situation and plan strategy from behind the scenes. Ho Sin Hang was undoubtedly the perfect candidate to fill this void.

With him on board, the Bank of East Asia would surely be able to face HSBC’s challenges with more composure and formulate more forward-thinking and targeted strategies.

Since HSBC poached my people, it’s only fair I poach theirs, right?

As for whether he could persuade Ho Sin Hang, although he wasn’t one hundred percent confident, it wasn’t impossible.

Especially considering that in the Bank of East Asia’s current predicament, the man had taken the initiative to approach him and offer advice on how to compete with HSBC.

Chapter 618: The Shameless HSBC, a Wager

Just as Lin Haoran was contemplating how to persuade Ho Sin Hang to leave Hang Seng Bank and take up a position at the Bank of East Asia, a knock came from outside the door.

It was immediately followed by the voice of the restaurant’s general manager.

“Come in,” Lin Haoran called out.

A moment later, the restaurant’s general manager walked in.

“Boss, I have something to report. We just received news that HSBC will be holding a press conference in a few minutes. I thought you might be interested, so I came in specially to turn on the television for you,” the general manager said respectfully.

Lin Haoran was a little surprised. He hadn’t expected the general manager of the Joyful Abundance Restaurant in Central to be so perceptive.

“Yes, thank you for the trouble,” he replied with a nod.

“It’s my pleasure.” After speaking, the general manager proceeded to turn on the television.

As a high-end restaurant, especially in a private room like this, a television was naturally a standard amenity.

Soon, the television screen lit up and switched to Rediffusion Television, displaying a live broadcast of the press conference.

On the dais, John Bao, William Purves, and a group of other senior executives sat with stern expressions, their postures rigid.

However, HSBC’s Taipan, Michael Sandberg, was nowhere to be seen.

But Lin Haoran already knew from Cui Zilong’s intelligence that someone had seen Michael Sandberg at Government House while the Bank of East Asia was holding its own press conference.

Therefore, it was perfectly normal for Michael Sandberg to be absent now.

Before long, John Bao, as the vice-chairman of HSBC, began to speak: “We solemnly declare that the actions of the former employees of the Bank of East Asia during their time there were entirely their personal conduct and bear no relation whatsoever to HSBC. Nor was there any instigation or condoning on our part.

“Poaching talent is a common phenomenon in business competition, but the improper conduct of these former Bank of East Asia employees this time in no way represents the position or attitude of HSBC.

“We have always conducted our business based on the principles of fairness, justice, and legality. We absolutely will not tolerate such actions that damage the industry’s reputation and disrupt market order.

“In light of the behavior of these employees, we have decided to terminate the onboarding process for these former Bank of East Asia employees who have already signed employment contracts, and we will launch an internal review of our entire recruitment process to prevent such incidents from happening again.”

John Bao’s words sounded righteous and stern, but to Lin Haoran, they reeked of hypocrisy.

He was all too familiar with HSBC’s underhanded tactics. This rush to distance themselves was merely an attempt to cover up their actions, which only made them more obvious. It was a perfect display of their shamelessness, but this was one of their usual tricks.

“Here, I also call upon our friends in the media to view this matter with an objective and rational attitude, and not to be misled by certain malicious rumors. HSBC is willing to actively cooperate with the investigation by the relevant authorities to clear our name,” John Bao continued.

Lin Haoran let out a cold laugh. He understood perfectly that HSBC was afraid of being exposed and was trying to strike first, shifting all the blame.

And those former Bank of East Asia employees they had persuaded had become scapegoats. Not only had they lost the high salaries and benefits they were promised, but they couldn’t even become HSBC employees. They were ruthlessly abandoned on the fringes of this storm.

As for cooperating with the authorities’ investigation?

Aren’t Government House and HSBC in cahoots? Lin Haoran scoffed inwardly.

Given the intricate web of interests between HSBC and Government House, the so-called “cooperation with the investigation” was just for show, a way to give the public an explanation.

Even with conclusive evidence, the outcome of the investigation would be just as HSBC wished, with the matter being glossed over lightly.

Even if the general public didn’t believe the results, as time passed, the heat of the issue would gradually cool down until it was forgotten in the flood of information.

Lin Haoran knew the ins and outs of this all too well. In the gray areas of finance and politics, the game of power had always been played this way.

“Haoran, once you’ve seen enough of this kind of thing, you get used to it. For us Chinese-funded conglomerates, the odds of winning a fight against HSBC are truly slim. Perhaps you think that because you got the upper hand in your battle with Jardine Matheson & Co., you can do the same with HSBC? But reality isn’t like that.

“In the current situation, Jardine Matheson & Co. has withdrawn from Hong Kong, and major British-owned industries like Hutchison Whampoa, Hongkong Land Group, Hong Kong Telephone, and Kowloon Wharf have been acquired by Chinese capital one after another. The major British-funded conglomerates are in decline. While the strength of the Chinese-funded conglomerates is gradually surpassing them, HSBC’s standing with Government House has only grown more solid.

“In the eyes of Government House, HSBC’s importance is far greater than it was before. They will absolutely not stand by and watch anything happen to HSBC!” said Ho Sin Hang from the side, having likely guessed Lin Haoran’s thoughts. He spoke slowly, his eyes fixed on the live press conference on the television.

Lin Haoran was well aware that what Ho Sin Hang said was true.

Government House relied on British-owned tycoons like HSBC to plunder Hong Kong’s economic resources and control its financial lifeline, thereby maintaining their interests in Hong Kong.

HSBC might not be looked upon favorably in Britain, but that was definitely not the case with the Hong Kong Government House.

HSBC was a crucial pawn in the hands of Government House, and they would naturally protect it with all their might.

However, letting HSBC off the hook just like that was not at all in his character.

He didn’t go out of his way to provoke people, but if someone provoked him, he would not let it slide.

On the television, John Bao’s speech was almost entirely focused on deflecting responsibility. In Lin Haoran’s view, there was nothing more worth listening to.

Just as Ho Sin Hang had said, they were likely planning to use Government House to quell this storm and shift the focus of public opinion away from HSBC.

However, it wouldn’t be easy for them to shrug off the blame.

By now, everyone in Hong Kong knew that what had happened at the Bank of East Asia was tied to HSBC.

Even if the government stepped in and tried to forcibly change the direction of public opinion, they might not succeed.

After all, the public’s eyes are sharp. They are more willing to believe the signs they see before them than an officially polished narrative.

Besides, Lin Haoran had no intention of doing nothing!

The evidence they had gathered was enough to keep HSBC trapped in the vortex of public opinion.

Furthermore, while he might not be able to do much to them within Hong Kong, he could strike from the outside.

With his current network and business arrangements in Japan, the United States, and Southeast Asia, he could have forces in those places exert targeted pressure on Government House. That would certainly make life difficult for HSBC.

But those were matters for later.

His primary task now was to fully privatize the Bank of East Asia.

And now, another task had been added: to persuade the man before him, the pioneer of Hong Kong’s Chinese-funded financial world, Mr. Ho Sin Hang, to leave Hang Seng Bank and switch to the Bank of East Asia.

The difficulty was certainly not small.

After all, as the founder of Hang Seng Bank, Ho Sin Hang had never left since its establishment. Even after Hang Seng Bank was reluctantly acquired by HSBC, he had remained, serving as its Chairman.

Hang Seng Bank was ultimately his life’s heart and soul. Even though it had been acquired by HSBC, he found it difficult to let go.

However, how would he know if he didn’t try?

Lin Haoran thought to himself, his face betraying none of his thoughts. He raised the teacup before him and took a light sip, using the moment to compose himself. Then, he set the cup down and looked at Ho Sin Hang with sincere eyes.

“Uncle He, there’s something I’d like to ask you, but I don’t know if I should,” Lin Haoran said, choosing his words carefully.

Ho Sin Hang was slightly taken aback, then he put down his teacup and laughed heartily. “Haoran, just say whatever is on your mind. My relationship with your father might not make us the closest of friends, but we’ve known each other for over a decade. Our cooperation over the years has been very close, and we know each other quite well.

“I’ve practically watched you grow up. You don’t need to be so reserved in front of me.”

Lin Haoran nodded, then said, “Uncle He, do you think the current Hang Seng Bank has any chance of surpassing HSBC?”

“That’s absolutely impossible. Before the acquisition, I believed Hang Seng Bank had a great chance of surpassing HSBC. But ever since the acquisition, that possibility has dropped to zero.

“As the parent company, HSBC would never allow a subsidiary to outshine it. Hang Seng Bank will be constrained in many ways, from strategic planning to resource allocation.

“Today, Hang Seng is merely a pawn in HSBC’s financial map of Hong Kong. It can only act according to HSBC’s will. How could there be any possibility of independent development, let alone surpassing HSBC?” Ho Sin Hang sighed softly, his eyes filled with helplessness and disappointment.

As the founder of Hang Seng Bank, he had witnessed its arduous journey from nothing to something, from small to large. Every decision, every breakthrough, had been infused with his immense effort.

Now, watching the bank that was once filled with infinite dreams and hopes gradually lose its vitality and autonomy under HSBC’s control, his heart was filled with bitterness and resentment, yet he was powerless to change it.

After all, as the controlling major shareholder of Hang Seng Bank, HSBC could completely control every aspect of it, including personnel appointments, business expansion direction, and even the minute details of daily operations.

The pioneering and innovative spirit that Hang Seng Bank once had was now worn away under HSBC’s restrictive framework.

“Then, Uncle He, do you think that without you at the helm, the current Hang Seng Bank could still achieve such glorious success?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

As Hong Kong’s second-largest bank, with a market capitalization exceeding fifteen billion Hong Kong dollars, Hang Seng Bank’s current achievements could indeed be considered glorious.

Although HSBC was always looming over it, one couldn’t deny that Hang Seng Bank’s strength was not to be trifled with.

“Naturally. The current Hang Seng Bank has already entered a stage of stable development. Even without me, it would continue to operate according to its established model and trajectory. Maintaining its current business scale and market position would not be difficult.

“To be honest, with HSBC holding it back, there is now very little difference whether I am at Hang Seng Bank or not.

“Besides, I’m already 81 years old. I’ve been planning to submit my resignation to the Board of Directors in another two years so I can finally go and do some things I enjoy,” Ho Sin Hang revealed, sharing something rather confidential.

In fact, in another world, Ho Sin Hang did indeed officially step down from his position as Chairman of Hang Seng Bank in 1983, two years from now.

At this moment, he was not lying to Lin Haoran.

The reason he was planning to resign from the chairmanship early was not due to his age or lack of energy.

In fact, Lin Haoran could see that the current Ho Sin Hang was in very robust health. Although old, his spirit was clearly abundant.

The biggest reason was likely that Hang Seng Bank had stabilized, and his presence made little difference.

Furthermore, he no longer had much equity in Hang Seng Bank, and under HSBC’s suppression, it was difficult for the bank to achieve any breakthrough development. He couldn’t see any more room for growth. Continuing in that position was, for him, merely a matter of maintaining the status quo, which he found uninteresting and dull.

The passion he once had for building Hang Seng Bank had long since been worn away by the daily constraints and limitations.

Hearing Ho Sin Hang’s words, Lin Haoran was overjoyed.

This meant the probability of poaching Ho Sin Hang had just increased.

He continued to ask, “Then, Uncle He, in your opinion, is there still hope for the Bank of East Asia’s development?”

Ho Sin Hang pondered for a moment before speaking slowly, “In my view, now that you’ve taken over and acquired the Bank of East Asia, and with the financial and business support from companies like Hongkong Land Group, there are certainly opportunities for future development.

“But within the current structure of Hong Kong’s financial market, and under HSBC’s unfair ‘choose one of two’ strategy, the Bank of East Asia must make a critical choice.

“The competition in the Hong Kong financial market is incredibly fierce. The British-owned banks have deep roots, with HSBC firmly holding the top spot. There are also industry tycoons like Hang Seng Bank and Standard Chartered Bank. With development in the Hong Kong market being so difficult, the Bank of East Asia must accurately position itself and clarify its direction for development.

“In my opinion, this position is the international market. In Hong Kong, the Bank of East Asia is suffering from an unfair siege led by HSBC in conjunction with other banks. Its room for growth is extremely limited.

“But the international market is a vast world filled with infinite possibilities. The Bank of East Asia can leverage its flexible business model and sharp market insight to actively expand overseas.

“Coupled with the substantial overseas assets you hold and your considerable network and resources internationally, if you were to develop in the international market and take the path of mergers and acquisitions, it would not be difficult for the Bank of East Asia to become a renowned multinational bank in the future.”

Ho Sin Hang paused and took a sip from the teacup on the table.

Lin Haoran didn’t interrupt him, but remained silent, waiting for him to continue.

“As for the Hong Kong market, given the current situation, the Bank of East Asia can only break through HSBC’s siege if it gets the support of an established international multinational bank like Citibank. However, the difficulty in that is considerable.

“Established international multinational banks like Citibank have always been meticulous in the financial field. They have their own strategic plans and interests, and they won’t easily get embroiled in the fierce competition between local Hong Kong banks.

“I know you have some dealings with Citibank, which is why I suggested you approach them when I came over. But I’m not sure if you can persuade them to support you. A major international bank like Citibank values profit above all else. Once they feel there’s a profit to be made, cooperation is naturally not a problem.

“Once you successfully persuade Citibank to stand on your side, the Bank of East Asia’s predicament in Hong Kong will be solved with ease!

“Once the restrictions on the Bank of East Asia in the Hong Kong market are broken, with your current influence and international market expansion, it’s not an unreachable goal for the Bank of East Asia’s future strength to surpass HSBC’s.

“Of course, all of this is contingent on successfully breaking the deadlock. If you can’t break the stalemate in the Hong Kong market, the Bank of East Asia can only find another path and focus all its efforts on expanding its overseas market.” Ho Sin Hang said a great deal this time in one breath.

Lin Haoran listened quietly to Ho Sin Hang’s analysis, marveling inwardly. The advice Ho Sin Hang gave was truly far-sighted, and many of his ideas surprisingly agreed with his own. Thoughts that had been a tangled mess in his mind now gradually became clear.

However, the most pressing matter in his heart right now was not to continue planning the future development blueprint for the Bank of East Asia, but how to persuade this doyen of the financial world, Ho Sin Hang, to join the bank.

Although Da Shan was temporarily holding things down at the Bank of East Asia, Lin Haoran felt that he was ultimately not the most suitable candidate.

And someone like Ho Sin Hang, the founder of Hang Seng Bank, who had led it to become the second-largest bank in Hong Kong, was ample proof of his outstanding leadership and financial wisdom.

If he could recruit Ho Sin Hang, the Bank of East Asia would undoubtedly become even more powerful. It would surely be able to cut through all obstacles on its future journey in the financial market.

Compared to Mr. Li Fushu, Lin Haoran felt that Ho Sin Hang’s abilities were even stronger!

Losing one Li Fushu but gaining an even stronger Ho Sin Hang, coupled with the development resources he could provide, would surely bring about a qualitative leap for the Bank of East Asia.

Clap, clap, clap! Lin Haoran began to applaud.

“Uncle He, your analysis is brilliant. Every sentence hits the nail on the head. It has given me a much clearer understanding of the path the Bank of East Asia should take,” he said sincerely, standing up.

But Ho Sin Hang shook his head and said, “I was just giving a simple analysis. It’s just my humble opinion. A more in-depth analysis would involve much more than this.

“As the Boss of the Bank of East Asia, how you develop it must be carefully considered and prudently decided based on the actual situation. The financial market is unpredictable. The slightest carelessness could lead to losing the entire game. There is no room for sloppiness.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly. “Uncle He, you’re absolutely right. I am well aware of the stakes, which is why I was so eager to seek your guidance.

“You’ve toiled and struggled through the financial world for so many years. Your experience and knowledge are vast. Every word you say is like a treasure to me. I also understand that building up the Bank of East Asia is not something that can be achieved overnight, nor can it be realized through armchair strategy alone.”

Seeing Lin Haoran’s sincere demeanor, Ho Sin Hang couldn’t help but feel a sliver of admiration.

“At the same time, I have a bold request. I would like to invite you, Uncle He, to come to the Bank of East Asia and become its Chairman. I know you are resentful of how Hang Seng Bank is being stifled by HSBC, and the Bank of East Asia can provide you with a stage where you can unleash your talents without too many constraints.

“Here, you can reignite the passion you once had for the financial industry and achieve the financial ambitions you were never able to fulfill.” Lin Haoran’s eyes burned with intensity, his words earnest, every syllable filled with sincerity.

Ho Sin Hang was slightly stunned. He hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to actually try to poach him.

This was truly unexpected.

However, he soon shook his head directly. “Haoran, your Uncle He is already eighty-one. At this age, my energy and spirit are not what they used to be. Even if I prepare to leave Hang Seng Bank, I have no intention of continuing to battle it out in the financial industry.

“This line of business may seem glamorous, but in reality, there’s a constant undercurrent of pressure. When I was young, I could rely on my drive to overcome obstacles, but these old bones of mine really can’t take that kind of turmoil anymore.

“I’d much rather spend the rest of my life peacefully, doing things I’ve always wanted to do but never had the chance to, and just enjoy life.”

Lin Haoran wasn’t surprised by Ho Sin Hang’s refusal.

However, he had no intention of giving up after just one attempt.

Lin Haoran looked at Ho Sin Hang with sincere eyes. “Uncle He, I completely understand your desire to enjoy your golden years. But the wisdom and experience you’ve accumulated from toiling and struggling in the financial world for so many years are priceless treasures! To have them simply sealed away by the years would be a great loss to the financial industry.

“Hang Seng Bank is constrained by HSBC; its ceiling has been set by them. But the Bank of East Asia is different. It’s about to be completely privatized by me. Once I succeed, I’ll be the one calling the shots, and I can entrust all management rights of the Bank of East Asia to you, Uncle He. I have full confidence in your abilities.

“With you on board, I have confidence that the Bank of East Asia can become a top-tier bank in the world. It’s not even impossible for it to become one of the top ten multinational banks globally!

“At that time, you will be one of the top legends in the global financial industry. Your name will be forever engraved in the long river of financial history, revered and studied by countless successors.

“The ambitions you were unable to fully realize at Hang Seng Bank due to various restrictions can all be achieved at the Bank of East Asia.”

The grand vision Lin Haoran painted was undeniably huge—so huge that Ho Sin Hang simply didn’t believe it.

“Haoran, it’s not that I don’t believe what you’re saying. It’s just that I feel you can’t even break the deadlock in the Hong Kong market right now, let alone become a top multinational bank. Besides, with these old bones of mine, who knows how many more years I have left to live!” Ho Sin Hang sighed.

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran suddenly smiled. “Uncle He, although you’re over 80, given your current physical condition, I think living to a hundred is no problem at all. By that calculation, you have at least nearly 20 years left. How can you say you don’t have time?

“As for the Bank of East Asia’s current situation, Uncle He, why don’t we make a wager?”

“Oh? What kind of wager?” Ho Sin Hang’s interest was piqued.

“If I can resolve the Bank of East Asia’s awkward situation in Hong Kong, you will come and help me at the Bank of East Asia, how about it? When that time comes, I can double the compensation you receive at Hang Seng Bank!

“But if I can’t resolve it, I naturally won’t have the face to invite you, nor will I come to disturb your peaceful retirement again. What do you think of this wager?”

Lin Haoran’s eyes burned brightly as he stared directly at Ho Sin Hang.

Ho Sin Hang was momentarily stunned, then he burst into hearty laughter. “Haoran, oh Haoran, you rascal, you certainly know how to pose a difficult problem for me. Still, this wager is interesting. I accept. If you can really do it, I will certainly give you my full support.”

Evidently, he didn’t at all believe that Lin Haoran could solve the predicament the Bank of East Asia currently faced in Hong Kong.

But if Lin Haoran could truly solve this problem, which Ho Sin Hang viewed as completely unsolvable… well, what was wrong with giving it one last fight at his age?

To Ho Sin Hang, it felt less like a job offer and more like a stimulating adventure—a final, brilliant firework that might just bloom in the twilight of his years.

Chapter 619: The Successful Privatization of Bank of East Asia, and the Second Wave of Counterattacks!

Just as Ho Sin Hang had said, the Hong Kong Police Department published a notice in the newspapers the very next day. Its wording was explicit: there was currently no conclusive evidence to suggest that HSBC was behind the actions of the former employees of the Bank of East Asia.

At the same time, the Securities Commission followed suit with its own announcement, stating that after a thorough and detailed investigation, HSBC was found not to have engaged in any violations or misconduct in the incident.

In other words, HSBC was forcibly “cleared” of any improper connection to the incident by government agencies, even though all evidence pointed to HSBC being the mastermind behind the former Bank of East Asia employees.

That’s right, government agencies just so casually exonerated HSBC.

Such an act undoubtedly sent a signal to the public—HSBC had the backing of Government House. Even if its actions were highly suspicious, it could remain unscathed under the government’s protection.

What was even more surprising was that of all the content from the press conference Bank of East Asia held the previous day, only the Oriental Daily News and a few other papers reported on it. The rest, without exception, gave their headlines over to HSBC’s press conference, which refuted the rumors.

It was obvious that these newspapers had either been secretly bought off or heavily pressured by HSBC, choosing to suppress public opinion on the matter. Before long, the whole affair would likely fizzle out.

On the surface, the Police Department’s announcement and the newspapers’ biased reporting seemed to have temporarily stabilized HSBC’s position.

However, when Lin Haoran held the press conference at the Bank of East Asia yesterday, it was broadcast live by Hong Kong’s two major television stations. Many people across the territory watched the entire event.

Coupled with the coverage from the Oriental Daily News, a newspaper with a commanding sales lead and enormous influence in Hong Kong, HSBC’s attempt to completely suppress public opinion by leveraging its dominant position was nothing short of a pipe dream.

The Oriental Daily News was solely owned by Lin Haoran. No matter how powerful HSBC was, it could not interfere with the paper’s reporting.

And while the government departments currently favored HSBC, perhaps due to a warning from Governor Sir Murray MacLehose, they hadn’t resorted to any dirty tricks against media outlets like the Oriental Daily News.

Therefore, the voice of public opinion did not die down.

On the contrary, many citizens began to stand up for Lin Haoran.

With the firing of those employees, the various branches of the Bank of East Asia began to experience staff shortages.

However, after Lin Haoran announced his move to privatize the Bank of East Asia, many citizens became less anxious about withdrawing their money.

In their view, as long as the Bank of East Asia received a capital injection from Lin Haoran, the safety of their funds was solidly guaranteed.

Moreover, the Hong Kong Association of Banks had set a clear deadline, allowing citizens to choose a new bank before July. As long as they transferred their funds out of the Bank of East Asia before the July deadline, they would not be blacklisted.

Because of this, although long lines still formed in front of the various branches, the number of people was significantly smaller than before.

Ultimately, the unfair “choose one of two” competition still led many people to give up on the Bank of East Asia. Although they pitied the bank’s plight, when faced with their own interests and convenience, the scales of reality tipped.

After all, in a financially active and fiercely competitive place like Hong Kong, citizens were accustomed to making the optimal choice between stability and convenience. The Hong Kong Association of Banks represented most of Hong Kong’s banking institutions, including HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, and Hang Seng Bank, holding over ninety percent of the market share. If they chose the Bank of East Asia and gave up all the others, it would clearly be irrational.

HSBC, in particular, with its vast business network and long-accumulated customer base, was still able to attract the majority of citizens by playing the “safety card,” even as it was being questioned during this storm of public opinion.

Basically, of the citizens who withdrew cash during this bank run, more than half ultimately chose to transfer their funds to HSBC.

They supported the Bank of East Asia with their words, but voted with their feet, moving large amounts of their money to HSBC.

This was reality.

Faced with this situation, Lin Haoran was not in a hurry.

For now, it was enough for him to keep the public opinion heated.

He would make his real move once the Bank of East Asia was successfully privatized.

On June 22nd, Kowloon Wharf, in conjunction with Hongkong Land Group, released a major announcement.

The announcement stated that Kowloon Wharf had successfully raised 260 million Hong Kong dollars in cash by issuing bonds.

Of course, the reason Kowloon Wharf was able to raise this capital so easily was that the entire sum came from Hongkong Land Group, making Hongkong Land Kowloon Wharf’s creditor.

Subsequently, these funds were swiftly invested in the secondary market to acquire an equivalent value of Kowloon Wharf shares.

Immediately after, Kowloon Wharf used these acquired shares to reach a key agreement with Hongkong Land Group: Hongkong Land would offer up its 11.8% stake in Wheelock for a share swap with Kowloon Wharf.

Once the share swap was complete, Hongkong Land Group officially held a 26% stake in Kowloon Wharf.

This outcome was a win-win situation, achieved after more than a week of negotiations between Hongkong Land Group and Kowloon Wharf.

From this transaction, acquiring a 26% stake for 260 million Hong Kong dollars effectively valued Kowloon Wharf’s market capitalization at one billion Hong Kong dollars.

This deal was one where everyone came out happy.

And Hongkong Land Group officially became Kowloon Wharf’s second-largest shareholder.

Meanwhile, the Bao family officially increased its shareholding to 51% through the stock market and announced that it would privatize Kowloon Wharf.

As for the remaining shares, the Bao family naturally stopped acquiring them; instead, they were to be acquired by Hongkong Land Group.

After all, Lin Haoran and Pao Yue-kong had previously agreed that the Bao family would hold 51% and Hongkong Land Group would hold 49%.

Once announced, this matter drew some attention, but the impact was not significant.

At the moment, everyone’s focus was still on the rivalry between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia. In the face of this contest, the privatization of Kowloon Wharf seemed rather uneventful, like a stone dropped into a deep pool—it created some ripples, but they were quickly drowned out by the roar of the financial behemoths.

After all, ever since Pao Yue-kong had gained control of Kowloon Wharf, the company had been disliked by many shareholders for its perennial lack of dividends and unprofitable financial reports.

Therefore, Kowloon Wharf’s stock price did not rise because of the joint announcement with Hongkong Land Group.

According to the plan, once Hongkong Land Group acquired enough shares, Kowloon Wharf would enter compulsory privatization, at which point Hongkong Land would acquire all remaining shares.

Lin Haoran learned from Pao Yue-kong’s son-in-law, Wu Guangzheng, that Pao was currently recuperating in preparation for a major surgery and was refusing all visitors.

Lin Haoran knew very well what the surgery was for.

Pao Yue-kong was in the early stages of lung cancer, and the chances of a cure were very high.

He also knew that Pao Yue-kong had invited the world’s most authoritative experts to Hong Kong to perform the operation.

Therefore, he did not disturb him.

In the blink of an eye, a few more days passed, bringing the date to June 25th.

On this day, Lin Haoran finally received some good news: the Securities Commission had approved the successful privatization of the Bank of East Asia.

After selling their remaining shares to Lin Haoran, the Li Peicai family took the funds and focused on creating their new bank, preparing to carve out their own domain in the financial market once again, armed with the connections they had built over the years and ample capital.

With this, Lin Haoran’s stake in the Bank of East Asia officially exceeded 90%.

Combined with shares acquired through the secondary market, his holdings gradually reached 93%.

Although he only held about 93% of the shares, with the cooperation of the Securities Commission, it was enough to proceed with compulsory privatization.

Now, the citizens who still held shares of the Bank of East Asia could either sell them to Galaxy Securities at a price of 6 Hong Kong dollars per share or be left holding a worthless piece of paper.

This was because the shares of the remaining shareholders would be forcibly canceled. Those shareholders could only passively take their stock certificates to the Bank of East Asia’s branches or Galaxy Securities to exchange them for cash.

Once the Bank of East Asia was officially privatized, Lin Haoran was no longer silent.

First, the companies under his control that had remained inactive—Hongkong Land Group, Wanqing Group, Hongkong Electric Group, Oriental Press Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Kowloon Motor Bus, Hong Kong Telephone, and others—all published announcements in the papers. Effective immediately, all of their financial services would be transferred from HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, and others to the Bank of East Asia.

HSBC and the other major banks were quite cooperative. This was a matter of their financial reputation; if they failed to cooperate, who would dare entrust them with their business?

Thus, though unwilling, the major banks had no choice but to follow the rules and assist these enterprises in a smooth transition of their financial services.

The biggest loser was, without a doubt, HSBC.

This time, the total value of business HSBC lost exceeded eighteen billion Hong Kong dollars—a devastating blow.

Hang Seng Bank also lost nearly two billion Hong Kong dollars.

Other banks, to varying degrees, also suffered significant losses.

Although this move caused quite a stir in Hong Kong, many people were already mentally prepared for it, so no one was overly surprised.

These were all enterprises controlled by Lin Haoran. Now that the Bank of East Asia was privatized by him, it was perfectly reasonable for his own companies to entrust their financial business to a bank he controlled.

During this period, the bank run on the Bank of East Asia gradually subsided.

To Lin Haoran’s surprise, the number of customers who chose to leave the Bank of East Asia and withdraw their funds to move to other banks was not as high as he had expected.

In the end, of the original sixty-plus billion Hong Kong dollars in depositor funds, 2.08 billion Hong Kong dollars remained. This meant that the Bank of East Asia lost about 4.2 billion Hong Kong dollars in funds from depositors and some corporate clients, who had transferred or withdrawn their money to other banks.

Although only a third of the original amount remained, it was enough to prove that even under the unfair “choose one of two” condition, there were still citizens who chose to support the Bank of East Asia.

This was, after all, a good sign.

Although HSBC’s “choose one of two” tactic had caused the Bank of East Asia to suffer heavy losses, after the business from Hongkong Land Group and other companies was moved to the bank, its actual capital business volume had officially surpassed that of Hang Seng Bank.

After all, whether it was Hongkong Land Group, Wanqing Group, or Hongkong Electric Group, each was a top-tier enterprise in Hong Kong with enormous assets. Each group was worth countless ordinary customers.

Under these circumstances, the Bank of East Asia had in fact surpassed Hang Seng Bank to become the second-largest bank in Hong Kong.

Although its position as the second-largest bank was almost entirely propped up by Lin Haoran’s own companies, and its retail customer base was far inferior to that of Hang Seng Bank or Standard Chartered Bank, that didn’t stop it from being the bona fide number two.

After all, if these banks had to choose between ordinary customers and large corporate clients, they would all prioritize the large corporate clients.

The Bank of East Asia’s portfolio of high-quality clients was enough to make other banks burn with envy.

Connaught Centre, 51st floor, Lin Haoran’s office.

At this moment, besides Lin Haoran, there were several others in his office.

They included Cui Zilong, Da Shan, Ma Shimin, Burton, Chen Shoulin, David, and other heads of the various companies under Lin Haoran.

During this time, although the feud between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC remained a hot topic thanks to reports from the Oriental Daily News and other media, Lin Haoran had taken no further action.

This led everyone to mistakenly believe that Lin Haoran had given up on confronting HSBC head-on and was instead focusing on integrating the internal resources of the Bank of East Asia to consolidate his newly acquired position.

In other words, people thought that Lin Haoran had conceded defeat in this contest.

Although the Bank of East Asia was now in an invincible position thanks to the financial business from companies like Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group, with no worries about its performance, it was ultimately too reliant on internal resources. Its external resources were now severely limited. The fact that two-thirds of its customers had fled was a clear sign that the Bank of East Asia’s foundation in the external market had been completely shaken.

As it stood, most of the Bank of East Asia’s twenty branches were no longer necessary.

With the shrinking external market and a sharp decline in customer volume, maintaining so many branches seemed wasteful.

The financial collaborations between companies like Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group and the Bank of East Asia were conducted through the head office, with no need for these branches.

This was HSBC’s goal.

They couldn’t stop Lin Haoran’s companies from transferring their business, but as long as the Bank of East Asia struggled to gain more of the external market in Hong Kong, it would never threaten HSBC’s position.

By doing this, although they had completely offended Lin Haoran, they had also completely neutralized this threat.

They would rather lose important clients like Hongkong Land Group than see the Bank of East Asia pose even the slightest threat to them.

If they hadn’t intervened and had allowed the Bank of East Asia to develop normally, they worried that with a powerful backer like Lin Haoran, the bank would one day surpass HSBC’s market share in Hong Kong and pull it down from its pedestal.

This was something they would never allow.

The current situation of the Bank of East Asia, while worse than they had imagined—it was surprising that so many customers had stubbornly chosen to stay—was still largely within HSBC’s expectations.

However, just as everyone, including HSBC, thought that Lin Haoran had given up on a direct confrontation, he was at that very moment planning to launch his second wave of counterattacks.

The last time, despite the powerful evidence Lin Haoran presented at the press conference, HSBC had weathered its greatest crisis with the help of government agencies.

Any discerning person could see that both HSBC and the government agencies were telling blatant lies.

Even though many people were outraged, and even though the Oriental Daily News kept the issue hot, given enough time, people’s attention would eventually be captured by new headlines, and the tide of public opinion would gradually recede.

Although it was a pity, Lin Haoran knew that a behemoth like HSBC could not be defeated so easily.

Therefore, he was not angered by the government’s favoritism.

As Britain’s representative in Hong Kong, it was only natural for Government House to favor a British-owned company.

If it weren’t for the fact that Lin Haoran had already become a formidable power, the government would probably have come after him openly.

“Boss, we’ve collected most of the dirt on HSBC’s unscrupulous methods over the years—suppressing competitors, manipulating the market, and forced acquisitions. The evidence is all here.”

“This includes manipulating public opinion to cause a bank run on Hang Seng Bank, which ultimately forced its sale to HSBC. It covers, but is not limited to, malicious setups, market manipulation, fabricating evidence, tax evasion, and trumped-up charges. Some of these wrongdoings are so egregious that even Government House would find them intolerable. Once exposed, they will surely cause a massive uproar.”

As the number one top lieutenant in charge of news, public opinion, and intelligence, Cui Zilong handed over the materials collected during this period to Lin Haoran.

Everyone present had a loyalty of 90 or higher, so Lin Haoran was not worried that what happened here would be leaked.

Lin Haoran nodded, took the file, and briefly flipped through it.

Everyone thought he had tacitly accepted that he was powerless against HSBC, but he had been secretly plotting all along.

The information and evidence inside were very comprehensive; Cui Zilong’s people had clearly expended considerable effort to investigate.

Among the files was evidence on the acquisition of Hang Seng Bank that could never have been leaked to the public—things that perhaps even Ho Sin Hang himself did not know.

If Ho Sin Hang were to see this evidence, how would his perception of HSBC change, and how would he react?

Closing the file, Lin Haoran said, “General Manager Cui, your next task is to report on all this material through the Oriental Daily News and business media in Southeast Asia, the United States, and Japan. I want HSBC to become the focus of the global financial world, with nowhere for its scandals to hide.”

“Rest assured, Boss. I know what to do!” Cui Zilong replied respectfully.

Lin Haoran looked at his other subordinates, his gaze finally settling on Da Shan.

“Mr. Da Shan, your next move is to raise the bank’s deposit interest rate to double that of HSBC. I want to see just how many people can resist that temptation!” Lin Haoran continued.

Currently, the annualized deposit interest rate for major banks in Hong Kong was around 2.5%. Some smaller banks, in order to attract deposits, would raise their rate to around 3%.

By ordering Da Shan to double HSBC’s rate, Lin Haoran was offering a 5% interest rate.

“Boss, isn’t this rate too high? With the cooling of the Hong Kong real estate market, property lending has decreased. This month, the rate is only around 12%, and the volume of loans is not large.”

“In other words, it’s becoming harder to make money through lending. While we want to compete with HSBC, a 5% interest rate is a tactic that amounts to killing a thousand enemies at the cost of eight hundred of your own men.”

Da Shan didn’t understand the deeper reasoning behind Lin Haoran’s move, but as the current interim head of the Bank of East Asia, he voiced his concerns.

Although lending rates were much higher than deposit rates, with the property market’s uncertainty, many banks were finding it difficult to lend out their funds. Money just sitting in the bank was a constant loss.

He assumed his boss was resorting to such a drastic measure to win back the market.

Lin Haoran smiled. He needed a large amount of capital in Japan right now. If the Bank of East Asia could use this opportunity to attract a large volume of deposits to fund his pre-bubble economy plans in Japan, a mere 5% annualized rate was a trivial cost.

This was far cheaper than taking out a loan.

Moreover, this move would also help him capture more of the market.

Although the “choose one of two” ultimatum had forced many citizens to move their deposit business out of the Bank of East Asia, if the rewards were great enough, they might reconsider depositing their funds back.

After all, in the financial market, capital always chases higher returns. This was an immutable law.

However, he did not explain further for the time being. Da Shan was, in his mind, only the interim head. Da Shan’s current role was to maintain the normal operations of the Bank of East Asia.

The person he envisioned as the helmsman of the Bank of East Asia was Ho Sin Hang.

So, he said, “Mr. Da Shan, just do as I say. I have my own considerations. While 5% is not a small amount, with my financial resources, it won’t put any pressure on me. What you should be considering now is how to attract more customers, not worrying about the interest.”

Hearing this, Da Shan asked no more questions and simply nodded, “Yes, Boss. I will do as you command!”

Then, Lin Haoran turned to the heads of the remaining groups and companies.

“Your next task is to meet with your group’s and company’s business partners, especially those who rely on us. They must transfer all their financial business to the Bank of East Asia. Otherwise, we won’t hesitate to find new partners!” Lin Haoran continued.

This was a ruthless move.

His companies—Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong Telephone, and others—were all number one or number two behemoths in Hong Kong.

It could be said that many companies depended on them for survival.

Once this policy was implemented, these enterprises would have no choice but to transfer all their financial business to the Bank of East Asia.

This tactic was remarkably similar to the “choose one of two” scheme cooked up by HSBC.

He was eager to see just how much market share HSBC would lose this time!

Chapter 620: HSBC Panics

Everyone present was filled with admiration for Lin Haoran’s idea.

Leaving aside everything else, just Hongkong Land Group alone supported a countless number of businesses.

These included Hongkong Land Group’s building material suppliers, its furniture and appliance partners, the merchants in its commercial properties like The Landmark, and the partners of Dairy Farm International.

These businesses orbited the commercial giant that was the Hongkong Land Group like a constellation of stars, interdependent and collectively forming a vast and complex business ecosystem.

Relying on Hongkong Land Group, they had stable business and a steady source of income.

But if they were to leave Hongkong Land Group, they would face an unprecedented survival crisis and numerous difficulties. Not only would they have to search for new partnership opportunities, but they would also have to confront many thorny problems.

It was much like why the United States dared to launch a trade war against the entire world.

Because the United States was a major consumer nation that imported the vast majority of its goods, it could leverage its status as a trade deficit country to control nations that relied on exporting products to America.

By imposing tariffs and setting up trade barriers, it could force the other party to make concessions in trade negotiations to secure more economic benefits and political leverage for itself.

Take Vietnam in Southeast Asia, for example. As one of the United States’ important export partners, a steady stream of labor-intensive industrial products like textiles, footwear, and furniture were shipped to the American market.

Once the United States wielded the cudgel of a trade war and imposed high tariffs on related Vietnamese products, the order volumes for numerous Vietnamese companies that relied on the American market would plummet instantly.

Factories would be forced to downsize production, a large number of workers would face the risk of unemployment, and once smoothly operating production lines would grind to a halt, dealing a heavy blow to the entire industrial chain.

Under such circumstances, Vietnam would be forced into a difficult, passive, and defensive position in trade negotiations, having to grit its teeth and accept many unfavorable terms.

The situation for these companies that relied on Hongkong Land Group was similar to that of countries like Vietnam affected by the US trade war.

Hongkong Land Group was like their stable “American market,” providing a continuous stream of business and revenue.

But if Hongkong Land Group decided to target these dependent companies, they would find themselves in a difficult position, just like the Vietnamese companies facing the American trade war.

At that point, if Hongkong Land Group demanded they transfer all their financial services from other banks to the Bank of East Asia, these companies would naturally have no choice but to comply.

And although Wanqing Group and Hongkong Electric Group were not as powerful as Hongkong Land Group, they were each renowned enterprises in Hong Kong with a significant number of dependent businesses of their own.

Once all these fully dependent companies or key partners transferred their financial services to the Bank of East Asia, the bank’s business volume would experience explosive growth, its customer base would expand, and its strength would increase.

Simultaneously, other banks in Hong Kong, such as HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank, would lose a large number of clients as a result.

HSBC, in particular, as the uncrowned king of Hong Kong’s financial sector, held the largest market share.

Under these circumstances, the impact on HSBC would be especially severe.

The loss of a large number of clients would not only mean a sharp contraction in HSBC’s basic business, such as deposits and loans, but would also cause immeasurable damage to its market share and standing in the financial market.

It was a brilliant move, truly brilliant!

Once successfully implemented, the Bank of East Asia’s market share would expand even further.

Compared to that, the small market share lost previously would seem insignificant.

“Boss, rest assured. As soon as I get back, I’ll start preparing for the meetings. I’ll strive to get the main companies that depend on us to transfer their financial services to the Bank of East Asia within a week. They have no room to refuse!” Chen Shoulin said with a smile.

The others nodded in agreement.

In reality, although this method was somewhat coercive, it didn’t cause any real loss for those companies; it was merely a matter of switching to a different partner bank.

“Boss, your idea has deeply inspired me. It led me to think of a plan that could help the Bank of East Asia expand its business.”

At this moment, Ma Shimin, who had been silent, spoke up.

“Oh? Mr. Ma, please tell us,” Lin Haoran asked with great interest.

The others also turned their gazes to Ma Shimin.

“Let’s take our Hongkong Land Group as an example. The number of our own employees plus dispatched workers is nearly one hundred thousand. And that’s not even counting your other enterprises like Hongkong Electric Group and Wanqing Group.

“Taking all of them into account, the number of employees who directly or indirectly rely on our companies for their livelihood is not far off two hundred thousand, if not more.

“Currently, there are two main ways these employees are paid: either directly in cash or by cheque. Everyone should be well aware of this. Under this model, we can’t guide employees to work with a specific bank.

“But I’ve learned that some banks in the United States and Europe have already started experimenting with paying salaries via bank transfer.

“I think if the Bank of East Asia wants to increase its business volume, it could completely change the salary payment method for companies like Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and Wanqing Group to bank transfer.

“This way, for any employee to receive their salary smoothly, they will have no choice but to partner with the Bank of East Asia. This would undoubtedly bring a massive new customer base to the bank, and the amount of depositor funds at the Bank of East Asia would also see a certain increase,” Ma Shimin stated his idea directly.

As the controller of Hong Kong’s largest financial group, the number of employees in the companies under Lin Haoran had already grown to a terrifying figure over the past two or three years of continuous acquisitions.

As Hong Kong’s largest real estate company, Hongkong Land Group had a considerable number of employees, from construction workers on its sites to sales agents and logistics personnel.

Not to mention, Hongkong Land Group also had subsidiaries like Dairy Farm International, Hong Kong Telephone, Galaxy Securities, and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Each of these subsidiaries was a behemoth in its own right, with employees ranging from a few thousand to over ten thousand.

Besides the companies in the Hongkong Land conglomerate, Lin Haoran also had the Wanqing Group conglomerate, the Hongkong Electric Group conglomerate, the Oriental Press Group, and more.

It could be said that a significant number of people in Hong Kong now depended on Lin Haoran for their livelihood.

While two hundred thousand might be a bit of an exaggeration, it was certainly over one hundred thousand.

These employees were scattered across every corner of Hong Kong, engaged in different jobs, but all relied on the salaries provided by the group to live.

At present, most companies and employers in Hong Kong were accustomed to paying wages in cash. On payday, financial staff would prepare wage packets containing the full amount in cash for each employee.

Employees would collect the packets directly from their employer or the finance department and count the money on the spot.

This method was relatively direct and convenient. Employees received tangible money immediately, which was more acceptable for those unfamiliar with banking operations or without a bank account.

As for employees with higher salaries, such as senior executives like Ma Shimin, Burton, and Chen Shoulin, their monthly salaries were at least several hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars. With good performance and dividends, their pay could be even higher!

In such cases, paying in cash was obviously impractical. They couldn’t be expected to carry sack bags to hold the money, could they?

Therefore, they were generally paid by cheque.

After receiving the cheque, the employee would need to go to a bank to cash it or deposit it into their own bank account.

Cheque payments were relatively safer than cash, as the cheque clearly stated the payee and amount and had to go through the bank’s cashing process.

As for why bank transfers were not a popular method for paying salaries in Hong Kong at the time, the reason was quite simple.

The bank transfer process in this era was rather cumbersome and required a certain amount of time to process. For large volumes, it was difficult to complete all transfers in a timely manner, and it was easy to make data entry errors, leading to delays or incorrect salary payments.

Moreover, the distribution of bank service outlets in Hong Kong was not widespread enough at the time. It was highly inconvenient for employees in some remote areas to go to a bank to handle their affairs. The procedures for opening accounts and linking them also consumed a great deal of time and energy, which, to a certain extent, hindered the promotion of bank transfers for salary payments.

However, these difficulties were not insurmountable. On the contrary, solving them was both a challenge and an excellent opportunity for the Bank of East Asia.

Furthermore, these were all things that could be learned from the advanced financial systems in Europe and America.

If it could successfully overcome these hurdles, not only would it be able to smoothly implement the salary bank transfer model, but it would also use this to distinguish itself in the Hong Kong financial world, winning more market share and customer trust.

The moment Ma Shimin finished speaking, everyone present applauded in approval.

Once this plan was put into action, the Bank of East Asia’s business volume could skyrocket. The customers lost due to HSBC’s unfair “choose one of two” policy could be immediately replenished, and the result might be even better.

After all, the Bank of East Asia did not have over a hundred thousand ordinary customers before.

The entire population of Hong Kong was only five million at the time.

In terms of households, according to last year’s data, there were only 1.13 million.

Each of the employees under Lin Haoran basically represented a household, serving as the family’s pillar.

Once the finances of these one hundred thousand-plus families were transferred from other banks to the Bank of East Asia, it would be another significant blow to those other banks.

After all, once their salaries were linked to the Bank of East Asia, these employees would gradually adapt to using its various financial services. Demands for savings, consumer credit, and wealth management would follow.

The Bank of East Asia would not only gain a massive base of customers but could also deeply tap into their potential value, further expanding its business territory.

One shouldn’t underestimate the financial capacity of these customers. After all, being an employee of a large corporation like Hongkong Land Group or Hongkong Electric Group was considered quite successful in Hong Kong.

Although the Bank of East Asia was previously ranked fourth in Hong Kong, its actual market share was only about 3%.

There were hundreds of banks and finance companies in Hong Kong, and the competition was unimaginably fierce.

Last year, HSBC and Hang Seng Bank alone accounted for a full 60% of the market!

This meant that the remaining hundreds of banks and finance companies could only carve up the remaining 40% of the market.

For the Bank of East Asia to capture 3% of the market amidst hundreds of financial industry enterprises was already a remarkable achievement; otherwise, it would not have become Hong Kong’s fourth-largest bank.

Therefore, if the funds of these hundred thousand-plus families were all handled by the Bank of East Asia, it would represent another milestone leap for the bank.

The more they thought about it, the more excited everyone became.

From this perspective, HSBC was not invincible.

Last year, the HSBC conglomerate still held 60% of the market.

But after the successive strategies implemented by the Bank of East Asia, it was uncertain how much market share the HSBC conglomerate could still retain.

One had to realize that simply transferring the financial business of companies like Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group to the Bank of East Asia had already brought over 20 billion Hong Kong dollars in financial business to the bank.

Last year, the Bank of East Asia’s total financial business amounted to only about 6.2 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Now, by adding the requirement forcing businesses dependent on Lin Haoran’s companies to bank with the Bank of East Asia, as well as directing his employees’ salaries through the bank, the extent to which the Bank of East Asia’s market share would ultimately reach was simply unimaginable.

Even if it couldn’t surpass HSBC, the gap between them would certainly shrink.

After all, most of the financial business from Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, the companies dependent on Lin Haoran’s empire, and his employees had previously been with HSBC.

One was plummeting, while the other was soaring.

At that point, the Bank of East Asia would have the strength to challenge HSBC directly.

And at this moment, HSBC and the whole of Hong Kong still believed that Lin Haoran had given up on a direct confrontation with HSBC, thinking he had conceded defeat in this competition.

Little did they know that HSBC was about to face the most ferocious counterattack yet!

Everyone present was an elite top lieutenant under Lin Haoran with excellent strategic vision. They all shared their opinions, and soon, the details were ironed out one by one.

Although Burton, Chen Shoulin, Ma Shimin, and others had no direct affiliation with the Bank of East Asia, they were all Lin Haoran’s top lieutenants. The strong development of the Bank of East Asia would benefit their own companies as well.

Furthermore, as Lin Haoran’s professional managers, it was their duty to help their boss solve problems and devise strategies, even if it wasn’t part of their job description.

After reaching an agreement, everyone had their tasks. They divided the labor and began to take action.

This time, Lin Haoran didn’t stay idle either.

He placed great importance on the Bank of East Asia.

Therefore, he decided to personally travel to the United States for a few days to discuss an important partnership with Mr. Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank, to secure Citibank’s full support for the Bank of East Asia in Hong Kong.

As long as there were profits to be made, anything was negotiable.

The greed and profit-seeking nature of American capital had always been the most powerful engine driving business cooperation.

Lin Haoran knew this well. His trip to the United States had a very clear objective: to cooperate with Citibank in other areas. He had already devised this plan when HSBC was targeting the Bank of East Asia.

Lin Haoran and Citibank had already engaged in several major collaborations, and both sides had been very satisfied each time. It could be said that Lin Haoran had long become a very important client for Citibank.

Therefore, negotiating a partnership would not be difficult.

Although Lin Haoran had now acquired the Bank of East Asia, which meant he had entered the banking industry, the Bank of East Asia was ultimately a regional bank with its main market in Hong Kong.

For international financial cooperation, especially in the United States, Lin Haoran would still choose to continue working with Citibank, at least until the Bank of East Asia developed into a global bank.

Therefore, Citibank would not cease to value him just because he had acquired a Hong Kong bank.

Forget the Bank of East Asia; even HSBC was not considered a competitor by Citibank outside of Hong Kong.

In the international financial market, the two were on completely different levels.

And once Lin Haoran and Citibank successfully negotiated the cooperation he had planned, getting Citibank’s unreserved support for the Bank of East Asia in Hong Kong in return would be a trivial matter.

After all, Citibank’s market share in Hong Kong was not very high. Although they valued the Hong Kong market, it was clearly much less important compared to markets in Southeast Asia and Japan.

In the blink of an eye, two days passed, and it was June 27th.

Early this morning, many Hong Kong citizens habitually bought a copy of the Oriental Daily News.

As the long-reigning champion of newspaper sales, the Oriental Daily News had a daily circulation of over one hundred thousand copies.

When there was explosive news, it was common for sales to reach three or four hundred thousand copies.

Recently, the Oriental Daily News had been reporting on HSBC’s unfair competition and its manipulation of former Bank of East Asia employees. Many people stood up for the Bank of East Asia, but with other newspapers remaining silent and a statement from government agencies, everyone was well aware that the matter would likely fizzle out.

Even the citizens who had been conned into participating in the protests found their anger gradually dissipating over time, and the incident effectively came to nothing.

However, today’s front-page headline in the Oriental Daily News was like a bombshell, setting off a great disturbance in Hong Kong’s financial sector and society at large.

The headline blared: “Bombshell News: The Appalling Scandals of HSBC, Conclusive Evidence!”

The entire headline, in bold black font, immediately caught the attention of citizens buying newspapers.

Some who had originally intended to buy other papers immediately changed their minds upon glimpsing the enlarged headline of the Oriental Daily News, choosing to purchase it instead.

As a result, the sales of today’s Oriental Daily News began to surge.

A day earlier, Cui Zilong had anticipated that publishing these stories would trigger a sales frenzy.

Therefore, he had directly ordered that 500,000 copies of today’s edition of the Oriental Daily News be printed!

On the front page, three major scandals were laid bare like three sharp blades stabbing at HSBC’s heart, exposing the financial giant’s long history of unscrupulously suppressing competitors, manipulating the market, and executing hostile takeovers.

The first exposé was the under-the-table dealings behind HSBC’s unscrupulous acquisition of Hang Seng Bank, a story that Cui Zilong’s intelligence department had unearthed after expending immense effort and resources, and countless undercover interviews and maneuvers.

In fact, these exposed scandals were merely the tip of the iceberg of what Cui Zilong had.

Due to limited page space, the newspaper could only disclose the most critical information first. The rest of the even more shocking evidence and inside stories were prepared for daily follow-up reports, determined to completely tear away HSBC’s veil of secrecy.

Moreover, the revelations were all backed by conclusive evidence. The Oriental Daily News was not fabricating rumors, so even the government could do nothing to them.

Although HSBC’s past actions were part of business warfare, and it was normal to be unscrupulous for one’s own benefit, every one of HSBC’s scandals had crossed the bottom line of the law.

It was just that each time, HSBC had acted so covertly that it was difficult for anyone to obtain evidence.

Coupled with government agencies stepping in to back them or downplay the situation each time, it always ended with HSBC profiting.

This allowed HSBC to stand tall in the Hong Kong financial world for a long time, becoming even more arrogant.

Now, with the intelligence agency under Cui Zilong’s control investing great effort into investigations, a lot of evidence had been uncovered one by one.

With conclusive evidence, it immediately sparked widespread discussion among the citizens.

This series of reports from the Oriental Daily News undoubtedly pushed HSBC into the eye of the storm of public opinion and ignited the public’s desire for fairness and transparency in wrinklers financial industry.

As the newspaper circulated widely, discussions about HSBC’s scandals filled the streets and alleys of Hong Kong.

A tide of public anger surged, and voices of anger and condemnation against the old British-owned bank’s scandals were heard everywhere.

On the streets, in tea restaurants, and in offices, people’s conversations all revolved around HSBC’s past scandals.

Hang Seng Bank, Chairman’s office.

Ho Sin Hang had arrived at the office early in the morning. He brewed a cup of tea and prepared to read the day’s newspaper while sipping it before work began.

This was a habit he had cultivated over many years.

When he saw the news in the Oriental Daily News about how Hang Seng Bank had inexplicably become the subject of negative public opinion back then, leading to a bank run and its eventual acquisition by HSBC, Ho Sin Hang was visibly stunned.

At the time, HSBC’s manipulation of public opinion had been so covert that, until now, Ho Sin Hang had no idea that the mastermind behind the incident was his current owner, HSBC.

A photo of an acquisition plan letter, personally signed by the HSBC Taipan of that time, was printed in the Oriental Daily News.

Ho Sin Hang was very familiar with that signature; he could tell if it was real or fake at a glance.

At this moment, his trembling hands were enough to show that his heart was not calm.

Everything became clear. He had thought the incident back then was caused by natural market fluctuations, that his Hang Seng Bank had been unlucky.

He never expected it to be a meticulously planned conspiracy by HSBC.

Ho Sin Hang had mixed feelings, but mostly, he felt the anger of being deceived.

To think that for so many years, he had been helping his enemy manage Hang Seng Bank…

Meanwhile, at HSBC, located near the Hang Seng Bank headquarters, Michael Sandberg had also learned of the matter early in the morning.

He hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to actually launch a counterattack.

“Gentlemen, what should we do about this?” Michael Sandberg frowned.

Although these were past events, their publication would undoubtedly have a significant impact on HSBC.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, with the government’s support, no matter what Lin Haoran does, it will only tarnish our reputation a bit. In the end, we won’t suffer any major losses,” John Bao said with a smile.

Clearly, he wasn’t very concerned about the matter.

The other senior executives felt the same way.

Just like last time, when they manipulated the former Bank of East Asia employees, didn’t that also fizzle out?

After all, Hong Kong was their turf.

However, at that moment, a subordinate rushed in to report: this news was not only being reported in Hong Kong but had also begun to appear in business newspapers in Japan, the United States, and several European countries.

Instantly, the previously nonchalant atmosphere in the room changed.

Many of the senior executives panicked.

Hong Kong was their turf, but that didn’t mean the international market was.

And right now, they were planning a full-scale expansion into the international market.

Chapter 621: Shorting HSBC!

Since the nineteen-seventies, in response to the changing political and economic environment in Hong Kong, HSBC had begun to accelerate its internationalization strategy, for which a comprehensive plan had already been largely formulated.

Privately, they called this plan “The Empire’s Homecoming.”

The meaning of “The Empire’s Homecoming” was simple: to gradually shift the center of gravity of the HSBC commercial empire back to their home country, Britain.

This plan was entirely spearheaded by HSBC’s current leader, Michael Sandberg.

Their goal was ambitious: to expand their market to Asia, Europe, and America!

Hong Kong was HSBC’s core market, the origin of their success. They would not abandon it unless they had no other choice.

But Hong Kong’s future was full of variables. Not even the senior executives of HSBC, or even the British government, knew what the future held for Hong Kong.

They still remembered how, thirty years ago, HSBC’s operations in Mainland China were forcibly shut down. Therefore, HSBC’s top brass dared not gamble on Hong Kong’s future.

Furthermore, HSBC’s development in Hong Kong had already reached a bottleneck. Their current achievements were already incredibly impressive.

So, the best way for them to break through this bottleneck was to pursue internationalization.

Thus, they devised their internationalization strategy.

Backed by the Hong Kong market, one of the world’s top three financial centers, they had plenty of resources and confidence.

In particular, their massive cash reserves provided HSBC with ample ammunition to advance its internationalization strategy.

If the internationalization strategy succeeded, not only could they transfer their Hong Kong assets out and reduce the risk of remaining, but they could also use this opportunity to expand their territory on the global financial map.

For HSBC, opening up overseas markets was now a matter of great urgency.

First, in 1978, HSBC took the lead by venturing into the United States, successfully reaching an agreement with the American Marine Midland Bank and ultimately acquiring fifty-one percent of its shares, making HSBC the bank’s controlling shareholder.

Not counting HSBC’s small-scale operations in Southeast Asia, this was the first time HSBC had truly entered a mature and fiercely competitive international financial market on a large scale and with strategic intent.

The United States, as the absolute core of global finance, possessed a financial system with a depth, breadth, and regulatory complexity far beyond that of Hong Kong and Southeast Asian markets.

As it turned out, the acquisition was very smooth. HSBC successfully took control of the American Marine Midland Bank and renamed it Haitong Bank.

However, as Haitong Bank had been incurring losses for years, it required continuous capital injections from HSBC, becoming a heavy burden.

In the early stages of the acquisition, HSBC had high hopes for Haitong Bank, expecting to use its influence in the American market to open doors for the group’s internationalization strategy, but reality proved far more complicated than anticipated.

Despite this, HSBC did not halt its overseas expansion because of Haitong Bank’s losses.

And so, they set their sights on Britain.

As a British-owned company, HSBC naturally felt a strong attachment to Britain.

Otherwise, their plan would not have been called “The Empire’s Homecoming.”

Unfortunately, their attempt to acquire the Royal Bank of Scotland a few months ago ultimately ended in failure.

Even so, HSBC’s senior executives did not give up on their plan.

So, despite the failure, they were still waiting for a more suitable opportunity.

Many business tycoons secretly engage in behavior similar to HSBC’s dark past.

You can’t make money without a dark heart.

This was especially true for companies that grew into giants. They had often navigated countless risks and opportunities in complex and ever-changing business environments, sometimes having to adopt strategies that seemed extremely aggressive or unacceptable to outsiders.

As long as it was done discreetly and the truth was never exposed, it was not a problem.

But now, HSBC’s past deeds were being published in major newspapers across Europe and America, which would undoubtedly pose a huge obstacle to their future overseas expansion.

These negative reports were like stones thrown into a calm lake, creating ripples that would not only cause potential partners in European and American markets to seriously question HSBC’s credibility but also attract close attention from regulatory agencies.

They could indeed hold absolute power in Hong Kong, but outside of Hong Kong, they lost that absolute control and had to face much stricter and more diverse market rules and public scrutiny.

So, it was not difficult to understand why HSBC’s senior management was in a panic over this matter.

If public opinion continued to ferment, it would have a very serious impact on HSBC’s overseas expansion plans.

At this moment, in the entire meeting room, the senior executives of HSBC no longer wore their usual composed expressions.

What followed was a stifling silence, as if the very air had frozen.

The executive in charge of intelligence stepped out to take a call. When he returned, his face was as black as ink.

“Gentlemen, our sources at the Oriental Daily News have informed us that they possess a great deal of evidence unfavorable to HSBC. Today’s reports are just one part of it. They plan to release reports every day from now on. Not only that, but some major media outlets in Europe and America will do the same!” The executive delivered the even worse news.

In Hong Kong, with the government’s favoritism, public opinion could not bring them down.

But in Europe and America, they had no one to back them.

Most importantly, the Government House had now also expressed its dissatisfaction with them. Sir Murray MacLehose had even personally called Michael Sandberg this morning. Some of their past criminal activities, which they had hidden from the Government House, had likely been partially discovered, which undoubtedly made a bad situation worse for HSBC.

If even the Government House abandoned them, it would be like adding frost to snow.

“I never thought Lin Haoran would be this hard to deal with!” John Bao sighed.

In the end, they had all underestimated this young Chinese man who had only risen to prominence in the last two or three years.

“That old man, Ho Sin Hang, won’t hold a grudge against us because of what’s been reported, will he?” a senior executive asked worriedly.

“We don’t need to worry about Mr. Ho. Hang Seng Bank is stable now, with or without him. Even if he learns the truth, so what?” another executive said dismissively.

The others nodded in agreement.

Indeed, as the bank that was once the second largest in Hong Kong—though with the successive transfer of business from Hongkong Land Group and other companies under Lin Haoran to the Bank of East Asia, Hang Seng Bank’s market share had now fallen to third place—its business had been rock-solid for years, with deep foundations.

Over the years, it had weathered storms and honed its operations, accumulating numerous stable and reliable partners. Even if Ho Sin Hang were no longer involved, how much of an impact could it have on Hang Seng Bank?

They weren’t worried about the Hong Kong market; they were worried about their reputation overseas.

HSBC’s entry into the European and American markets was already bound to face resistance from local competitors.

Now, with all this scandalous material, establishing a foothold in those markets would be even more difficult.

The local banks were already watching foreign competitors like hawks. With this negative press, they would likely band together to boycott HSBC and even use various means to pressure regulators, making any future acquisitions by HSBC extremely difficult.

“We must come up with a countermeasure as quickly as possible to stop Lin Haoran from messing around like this, otherwise the door to overseas markets will be completely closed to us,” William Purves said.

“Mr. Bao, you and I should go see Sir Murray MacLehose. Ask him to arrange a meeting with Lin Haoran. With Sir Murray MacLehose stepping in, Lin Haoran will have to give him some face,” Michael Sandberg said calmly.

At this point, this was their only option.

They knew that within Hong Kong, with their years of cultivated connections and methods, they could still barely handle any storm.

But in Europe and America, they were like a kite with a broken string—utterly without foundation, completely defenseless against the overwhelming negative publicity and suppression from their peers.

If they didn’t want the overseas market, they wouldn’t care. The problem was, they were currently planning to go all out in expanding overseas to escape the potential unknown risks and existing development bottlenecks of the Hong Kong market. The overseas market was a critical part of their plan for future survival and prosperity, and they absolutely could not give it up.

John Bao nodded.

Lin Haoran was more troublesome than they had imagined. If they could turn back time, they would even regret targeting the Bank of East Asia.

Even if the Bank of East Asia posed a threat to HSBC after Lin Haoran took control, that was still a matter for the future.

If their overseas expansion had been successful, so what if the Hong Kong market shrank a little in the future?

But now, it was too late. It was no exaggeration to say that they and Lin Haoran had reached a point where reconciliation was nearly impossible.

After all, everything both sides had done before had been aimed at destroying the other.

Even having Sir Murray MacLehose intervene was merely a stopgap measure to temporarily ease the tense situation and buy some breathing room. To completely resolve this crisis would be far from easy.

Michael Sandberg and John Bao dared not delay and immediately set off for the Government House to see Sir Murray MacLehose.

Meanwhile, at the Connaught Centre, a few hundred meters from the HSBC headquarters building, Lin Haoran was on the phone.

It was a long-distance call to New York, United States.

“Mr. Walter Wriston, are you saying you plan to go to Singapore in two days?”

“Yes, Mr. Lin. Citibank places great importance on the Southeast Asian market, and Singapore is the center of that market. This time, Citibank is involved in an important acquisition, so I have to go and personally oversee things in Singapore.”

“That’s perfect. I happen to have something important to discuss with you, Mr. Wriston. With you coming to Asia, I won’t have to make the long trip to the United States.”

“How about this, Mr. Lin? I also have something to discuss with you. Plus, it’s been a while since I inspected Citibank’s Hong Kong branch. I’ll make a trip to Hong Kong on July fourth. We can talk in detail then. How does that sound?”

“That would be wonderful. I will await your arrival in Hong Kong.”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran was genuinely surprised.

Originally, to secure a partnership with Citibank, he had planned to fly to the United States himself and, while there, inspect the Universal Investment Company personally led by Su Zhixue.

He hadn’t expected the other party to be coming to Asia, and even to Hong Kong.

This saved him from having to travel back and forth. Lin Haoran put down the phone, a subtle smile touching the corners of his lips.

This unexpected call had certainly added a layer of convenience to his plans.

Now was a critical time to strike back at HSBC. If it weren’t for securing Citibank’s cooperation, he wouldn’t want to leave Hong Kong.

It was June twenty-seventh; July fourth was only a week away.

A trip to the United States would have taken him two days.

Walking out of his office, Lin Haoran looked through the window and saw Ma Shimin on the phone in the office of the President of the Hongkong Land Group not far away.

So, he walked over and knocked on the door.

Ma Shimin, holding the telephone receiver in one hand, saw it was his boss and nodded at him, continuing his call.

Lin Haoran walked into the office, casually pulled up a chair, and sat down.

About a minute later, Ma Shimin finished his call and put down the receiver.

“Boss, over the past two days, I’ve spoken with the bosses of all the companies that are heavily dependent on us. I’ve instructed them to move their financial services to the Bank of East Asia. All of them agreed, and they will begin transferring their funds soon.”

“Faced with the Hongkong Land Group, these companies that rely on us to survive have no room to object. Besides, it’s just a transfer of financial services, which doesn’t cause them any loss. So all of them were very compliant!” Ma Shimin said with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded, a hint of satisfaction in his eyes. “Well done, Mr. Ma.”

“Also, regarding the matter of employee salaries, since it involves a very large scale, we need to take it step by step. First, the Bank of East Asia needs to resolve all the shortcomings of the transfer process before they can fully integrate with our Finance Department.”

“Mr. Da Shan said that this process might take a month. Therefore, until the Bank of East Asia is completely ready, we will continue to pay salaries using the old procedure,” Ma Shimin continued.

“There’s no rush on that. As long as these employees work for the Hongkong Land Group, their financial business will come to us sooner or later. Let’s do it step by step. Hitting them with everything at once would be too big a blow for HSBC; we don’t want them to do something desperate,” Lin Haoran laughed.

Once all these plans were perfectly implemented, they would be able to tear away a huge chunk of the market from other banks. HSBC, in particular, would bleed the most severely. It could even be said that they were cutting HSBC’s main artery!

Putting other things aside, companies like Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group had basically conducted their business with HSBC before Lin Haoran’s acquisition of the Bank of East Asia.

Most companies and individuals in Hong Kong were actually similar.

From this, one could see just how terrifying HSBC’s market share in Hong Kong was.

He never thought he could seize HSBC’s market share in just a few days; that would be unrealistic.

“By the way, Boss, I just heard some news. As soon as the stock market opened today, HSBC’s stock price plummeted,” Ma Shimin said, gloating.

The last time HSBC’s stock had plunged was when Lin Haoran announced he had become the major shareholder of the Bank of East Asia.

Everyone knew that once Lin Haoran took control of the Bank of East Asia, the business of companies like Hongkong Land Group would be moved from HSBC, which would have a significant impact on HSBC.

At that time, HSBC’s market capitalization once fell below twenty billion Hong Kong dollars, dropping to around 19.7 billion Hong Kong dollars.

However, after the establishment of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, HSBC’s stock price gradually recovered quite a bit.

After all, in everyone’s view, HSBC had essentially cornered the Bank of East Asia under those circumstances, making it difficult for them to grow through the external market.

Coupled with the bank run on the Bank of East Asia, many customers had fled to HSBC.

Therefore, the recovery of HSBC’s stock price was quite normal.

Moreover, HSBC’s Board of Directors would not allow its stock price to continue to fall.

“Oh? Interesting!” Lin Haoran was also pleased to hear it.

The more miserable his enemies were, the happier he was.

“I feel sorry for them for provoking you, Boss!” Ma Shimin chuckled.

Ma Shimin was also a participant in the Bank of East Asia’s upcoming plans, so he knew them clearly.

Therefore, Ma Shimin could already imagine how miserable HSBC would be in two months.

A severe loss of market share, a continuously plummeting stock price, a sharp decline in customer trust, and widespread panic among its employees—this series of chain reactions would sweep over HSBC like a tidal wave, leaving its seemingly indestructible commercial empire teetering on the brink of collapse.

For a moment, he even felt a twinge of pity for HSBC, but that pity was quickly replaced by the excitement of witnessing his opponent’s downfall.

HSBC, that once-invincible behemoth in Hong Kong’s financial world, was now walking step by step into the web of crisis they had woven with their own hands.

The thought that he had personally participated in this gave Ma Shimin a full sense of accomplishment.

Witnessing commercial empires crumble one by one under his boss’s strategies and schemes, this wonderful feeling of participating in the making of history made Ma Shimin’s heart surge.

“Boss, should we step up our efforts and hit HSBC with another blow in the media? Now is HSBC’s most vulnerable moment. A violent storm of public opinion could make them even more miserable at any time.”

“Although the Government House calls the shots in Hong Kong and ultimately won’t let anything serious happen to HSBC, as long as we make them struggle in the whirlpool of public opinion for a while longer before they come up with a countermeasure, we can greatly weaken their vitality and gain more initiative for our subsequent actions!”

Ma Shimin’s eyes sparkled with excitement. He couldn’t wait to see the moment HSBC was defeated by the Bank of East Asia.

Previously, HSBC had manipulated public opinion to cause serious damage to the Bank of East Asia.

Now, they would do the same, using public opinion to create more trouble for HSBC. It was nothing more than giving them a taste of their own medicine.

“Good. If you have any ideas, you can discuss them with General Manager Cui. I support anything that can strike at HSBC. By the way, don’t leave any loose ends. Make sure our actions are within a legal and compliant framework. We absolutely cannot leave them any excuse to counterattack. I’m heading to the Galaxy Securities office!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Rest assured, Boss. This time, since we’ve uncovered so many of HSBC’s vulnerabilities, we naturally know they’ll be investigating us. General Manager Cui will certainly know what to do, and I will remind him as well,” Ma Shimin said with a nod.

After chatting with Ma Shimin for a few more moments, Lin Haoran left the office and soon arrived at Galaxy Securities.

Galaxy Securities had now gradually replaced the former Jardine Securities, occupying a significant market share in Hong Kong’s securities industry.

As a result, the office was a hive of activity.

When the employees looked up and saw it was their boss, Lin Haoran, they all greeted him respectfully.

Lin Haoran nodded back to each of them and finally arrived at Dai Shi’s office.

Since the successful privatization of the Bank of East Asia, he had not given Galaxy Securities any new tasks, letting them develop on their own.

Most of Jardine Securities’ former business had been taken over by Galaxy Securities, so the company was certainly not lacking in business now.

“Good morning, Boss,” Dai Shi greeted.

“Yes, I heard that HSBC’s stock plummeted right at the open today? How is it now?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Boss, I was just monitoring it. Before the market opened this morning, HSBC’s market capitalization was around 22.68 billion Hong Kong dollars. But because of the scandal in the Oriental Daily News today, HSBC’s stock was hit by a sell-off from many shareholders as soon as the market opened, causing the price to keep falling.”

“So, many shareholders started selling off as soon as the market opened, afraid that if they were too slow, they would be ‘reaped like leeks’ again.”

“It’s been just over an hour since the market opened, and HSBC’s stock has fallen to a market capitalization of around twenty billion Hong Kong dollars. All the effort HSBC put into jacking up the stock price these past few days has been for nothing.”

“However, HSBC’s stock price seems to have stabilized for now. Someone is propping up the market on their end; it must be HSBC making a move. They don’t want to see their stock price fall too dramatically either!” Dai Shi was also pleased to see this.

Over the past few days, as the business from Lin Haoran’s companies like Hongkong Land Group was transferred to the Bank of East Asia, many banks like HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank had suffered losses to varying degrees, so it was normal for their stock prices to fall.

Now, with the emergence of numerous scandals, it was also normal for HSBC’s stock to plummet.

Lin Haoran nodded.

For a listed company, its stock price was absolutely vital.

A continuous plunge in stock price would not only severely affect the company’s market capitalization and reduce its financing capabilities in the capital market, but also trigger a series of chain reactions, damaging the company’s reputation and customer trust.

For a company as critically important in the financial world as HSBC, a market crash-like decline in its stock price would undoubtedly be a heavy blow.

However, Lin Haoran knew that twenty billion Hong Kong dollars was definitely not the floor for HSBC’s stock price.

Especially as his series of strategies against HSBC unfolded, its market share would suffer greater and greater losses over the next two months.

At that time, even he could hardly imagine how low HSBC’s stock price could fall.

Thinking of this, he suddenly had an idea. Since HSBC’s stock price was going to fall significantly in the next two months, why not have Galaxy Securities secretly short HSBC?

Chapter 622: Pressure from Government House

As the listed company with the highest market capitalization in Hong Kong, HSBC’s shares were exceptionally dispersed.

Countless financial groups and brokerage firms held its stock. In addition to local British-funded conglomerates in Hong Kong, there were a significant number of financial groups spread across the United States and Europe.

For this very reason, no single financial group could hold a controlling stake in HSBC.

This was also why Michael Sandberg, a professional manager at HSBC, was able to wield such immense power within the bank.

The entire Board of Directors practically listened to him.

It was only when HSBC faced severe losses, such as being dragged down by Haitong Bank, that he would be criticized by shareholders at the annual shareholders’ meeting.

Even so, his position was difficult to shake.

After all, losses were inevitable when expanding into overseas markets.

For Lin Haoran, however, the excessive dispersion of HSBC’s shares presented a golden opportunity.

It would be a terrible waste to pass up a chance for a guaranteed profit.

With this in mind, Lin Haoran said to Dai Shi, “Go and lock the office door. I have a task for you.”

Dai Shi, upon hearing this, didn’t ask too many questions. He stood up, quickly walked over to lock the door, and then returned to his seat, awaiting his boss’s instructions.

“Is short-selling HSBC stock allowed? Is there such a thing as malicious short-selling?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Boss, it’s allowed. Currently, the Securities Commission permits short-selling for all listed companies in the Hong Kong stock market. There are no restrictions; it’s considered normal financial securities investment. As for malicious short-selling, there are no regulations concerning it at the moment. However, here in Hong Kong, if you want to short a stock, the funds will enter your account after the sale, but they will be temporarily frozen and cannot be withdrawn. The funds will only be unfrozen after you buy back the shares and return them to the lender!” Dai Shi answered without hesitation.

In reality, Hong Kong’s stock market only began to implement measures restricting malicious short-selling during the Asian financial crisis in 1998.

During the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, the Hong Kong stock market came under fierce attack from international speculators, including massive short-selling of Hong Kong stocks and the Hong Kong dollar.

In September 1998, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) jointly introduced measures to completely ban “naked short-selling” (the practice of short-selling shares that have not been borrowed beforehand) and reinstated the uptick rule for short sales.

These measures aimed to prevent market manipulation and stop short-selling from exacerbating panic-driven market declines.

But now, in the early 1980s, securities laws were still imperfect. Thus, even if there were suspicions of malicious short-selling in the current stock lending market, it was completely legal and compliant.

Lin Haoran nodded, his worries instantly assuaged.

He had been concerned that after all the hard work of shorting HSBC, the profits would be confiscated by the Securities Commission in fines. Wouldn’t that be working for nothing?

Now that he knew it was legal, what was there to fear?

Thus, he continued, “Over the next three days, I want you to apply for securities lending from brokerage firms that have HSBC shares in their own stock pools. At the same time, apply for stock loans from institutions and HSBC shareholders. The term doesn’t need to be long; three to six months will be enough. The more, the better—no upper limit!

“Also, to speed things up, you can negotiate with Citibank regarding HSBC’s shareholders in Europe and America. Let them handle that business. Citibank will have a much easier time borrowing stock from those shareholders in Europe and America. You can just focus on Hong Kong.

“This way, we can borrow the maximum number of HSBC shares in the shortest amount of time.”

Under normal circumstances, shareholders, brokerage firms, and investment banks would agree to lend their stock for short-selling.

After all, they had no intention of selling the shares themselves. Left in their hands, the shares were merely static assets.

By lending out the shares, they could not only earn additional interest income but also activate this part of their assets without losing their equity.

So, from their perspective, it was a worthwhile deal.

If they could earn a handsome interest by lending out their stock, it was undoubtedly a guaranteed profit for them.

Moreover, stock lending was a common practice in the financial market with manageable risks. As long as the borrower had sufficient credit and collateral, they naturally had no reason to refuse.

“Boss, the current interest rate for securities lending in Hong Kong is quite high. Are you sure you want to short HSBC?” Dai Shi asked, afraid his boss might not understand the unspoken rules and potential risks of Hong Kong’s short-selling market.

“What’s the interest rate now?” Lin Haoran smiled.

“Currently, the standard annualized interest rate for securities lending in Hong Kong is about 12% of the stock’s current market value, which means the monthly interest rate is around 1%. If you plan to short for half a year, after adding in handling fees and other costs, HSBC’s stock will need to fall by at least 7% for you to make a profit,” Dai Shi replied.

Dai Shi had not been present in Lin Haoran’s office when he, Ma Shimin, Cui Zilong, Chen Shoulin, and the others were discussing how to deal with HSBC.

After all, Dai Shi was ultimately just the general manager of a subsidiary, not on the same level as Ma Shimin and the others.

Therefore, Dai Shi did not know what Lin Haoran had planned for HSBC next.

Otherwise, he would not have had these concerns.

“A monthly rate of 1%? Can we sign a flexible agreement? For example, we sign for six months, but if we close the position in one month, we pay one month’s interest, and if we close in three months, we pay three months’ interest?” Lin Haoran asked after a moment’s thought.

A monthly interest rate of 1% was indeed not low, but he wasn’t sure when HSBC’s stock would hit its lowest point.

Although he could make a rough guess based on his plans, the exact timing was impossible to fix.

“According to the conventions of our Hong Kong securities lending market, a plan like the one you’re proposing can indeed be negotiated with the stock lender. However, if the maximum term is set at six months, we would have to pay at least three months of interest. Simply put, even if we return the stock one month after signing the agreement, we still have to pay three months’ interest. In the end, it all depends on whether the stock lender agrees. As long as both parties can sit down and discuss it, everything can be worked out. It’s not a big problem,” Dai Shi replied earnestly after some thought.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran nodded. That was acceptable.

He just didn’t want to pay too much interest to these HSBC shareholders.

He wasn’t sure how much HSBC’s stock price would fall, but it would definitely be a significant amount.

Furthermore, HSBC’s stock price was bound to take a major hit as their plans were implemented one by one.

As long as the plan proceeded smoothly, it was only a matter of time before the stock price drop far exceeded the cost of borrowing the shares.

“Can this be done discreetly?” Lin Haoran thought for a moment and asked again.

“Boss, it’s almost impossible to short HSBC on a large scale without them noticing. Especially when it involves large transactions. As a major financial institution, HSBC not only has a mature monitoring system but also a powerful intelligence network that can track abnormal trading activities and share data with regulatory agencies. Besides, the shareholders who hold HSBC shares are more or less connected to HSBC’s senior management. Even if we sign confidentiality agreements with them, it will be useless. People will find ways to leak the information to HSBC’s senior executives in exchange for certain benefits or to avoid potential risks.”

Dai Shi frowned slightly, a hint of helplessness on his face as he spoke truthfully.

“Alright, I understand. In that case, I’ll give you three days. During this time, borrow as many HSBC shares as you can. For every batch you borrow, have the traders sell them off covertly right away. HSBC’s stock price is still high, so it’s a good time to short it. However, the selling operations must be as dispersed as possible to avoid attracting too much market attention, lest HSBC notices our large-scale sell-off in advance. Also, don’t we hold 3% of HSBC’s shares? Sell all 3% of them. There’s no point in keeping them!” Lin Haoran instructed carefully.

Back then, 1% of those shares had been sold to him by HSBC at a low price, making him not just a shareholder but also a board member.

Moreover, there were no restrictions attached at the time.

Now that the two sides had fallen out completely, there was naturally no need for him to hold on to HSBC’s shares.

At a market capitalization of twenty billion, 3% of the shares could be sold for 600 million Hong Kong dollars.

Fortunately, the extra 2% he had accumulated earlier wasn’t a loss. Back then, HSBC’s market cap was only just over ten billion. Lin Haoran had no intention of entering the banking industry, but he knew that if HSBC followed its normal development trajectory, it would inevitably become one of the top ten banks in the world, with its market cap exceeding a trillion sooner or later.

It was for this reason that he had increased his shareholding.

But now, as the boss of the Bank of East Asia, it was as the saying goes: one mountain cannot hold two tigers. Under the assault of the Bank of East Asia’s various tactics, HSBC’s market share was bound to plummet. In other words, the HSBC of this world would certainly not have as glorious a future as the HSBC of his previous life.

Since that was the case, why would he hold on to HSBC’s shares?

He might as well cash out and invest in other, more valuable companies!

“Yes, Boss. I will follow your instructions and get it done. I’ll report any progress to you immediately!” Dai Shi replied respectfully.

“Good, do it well. You’ll be in charge of this entire operation. I’ll speak with Mr. Allen and have him cooperate fully with your work!” Lin Haoran stood up, patted Dai Shi on the shoulder, and offered a word of encouragement.

He had great confidence in Dai Shi.

Although his loyalty score of 92 couldn’t compare to Su Zhixue’s, his loyalty was absolutely not an issue.

Moreover, Dai Shi was among the first group of people to follow him. His ability to get things done was clear for all to see, and he had demonstrated excellent execution and adaptability in numerous past affairs. Otherwise, Lin Haoran wouldn’t have appointed him as the Deputy General Manager of Galaxy Securities.

Lin Haoran was confident that Dai Shi could brilliantly complete a task as important and complex as shorting HSBC.

After giving his instructions, Lin Haoran immediately called Chen Shoulin, Ma Shimin, and the others, telling them to instruct the companies affiliated with them to temporarily delay transferring their funds to the Bank of East Asia.

Although Chen Shoulin, Ma Shimin, and the others didn’t understand the purpose of this move, they still said they would notify those bosses immediately.

Fortunately, it was still early, and those companies had not yet begun transferring their funds. After all, transferring such a large amount of money was not something that could be done in a short period. Otherwise, this short-selling operation would not have been so easy to execute.

Furthermore, HSBC was currently overwhelmed by the scandalous news Lin Haoran had released and had no time to spare for other matters. They certainly wouldn’t detect the various actions Lin Haoran was secretly orchestrating against them in the short term.

However, time was running out for Dai Shi. Even if the bosses of these companies kept quiet for now, it couldn’t be concealed for long.

That was why Lin Haoran had only given him three days.

He would borrow as many shares as he could.

Once some of their plans leaked, HSBC’s stock price would plummet before they could even finish shorting it. At that point, there would be little need to short HSBC anymore.

Currently, with Galaxy Securities’ reputation, it was not difficult to borrow stock from those brokerage firms and shareholders, so it wouldn’t take long.

The only question was how many shares they could borrow.

At four o’clock in the afternoon, Lin Haoran specifically checked in with Galaxy Securities about HSBC’s stock price.

Surprisingly, instead of falling, HSBC’s stock price had risen, climbing back to around 21 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Based on the trading activity, one trader judged that this was likely the work of HSBC headquarters. They were using brokerage firms under their control to prop up HSBC’s stock price, thereby giving shareholders enough confidence to prevent the stock from collapsing due to the public outcry.

Meanwhile, under the direction of Galaxy Securities’ traders, while HSBC was propping up the price, Lin Haoran opportunistically sold nearly half of his 3% stake in HSBC, cashing out almost three hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

After receiving his task from Lin Haoran, Dai Shi had already begun negotiations with various brokerage firms and investment banks across Hong Kong.

Backed by the powerful financial resources of the Hongkong Land Group, Galaxy Securities hardly needed to negotiate. Basically, all the brokerage firms, shareholders, and investment banks were willing to lend their HSBC shares to Galaxy Securities.

After all, in the financial market, who wouldn’t want a deal that offered a steady interest income and activated assets without losing equity?

By five o’clock in the afternoon, Dai Shi called Lin Haoran to report that in just a few hours that afternoon, he had already finalized deals with five brokerage firms and three shareholders, securing 7.8% of HSBC’s shares.

In addition, by coordinating with the branch manager of Citibank’s Hong Kong branch, Dai Shi had connected with Citibank and handed over the task of borrowing shares from HSBC’s shareholders in Europe and America to them.

Although it would cost a portion in commission and fees, leveraging Citibank’s extensive network and resources in Europe and America would greatly increase the efficiency and scale of borrowing shares. It was undoubtedly an extremely worthwhile trade.

At six o’clock in the evening, just as Lin Haoran returned to his Severn Road villa, he received a call from Government House.

“Mr. Lin, pardon the interruption. I hope you can come to Government House right now. I have already prepared dinner and am awaiting your esteemed presence!” Sir Murray MacLehose’s tone was very polite, but it also carried an undeniable air of authority.

Lin Haoran was not surprised by the call from Government House.

It was undoubtedly because of the dirt on HSBC he had leaked to the media, forcing Michael Sandberg to seek help from Government House and have Sir Murray MacLehose personally intervene.

However, he was the person in charge in Hong Kong, after all. No matter what, he had to show some respect.

Therefore, Lin Haoran replied directly, “Mr. Governor, I just got home. Give me twenty minutes, and I’ll be right over.”

“Thank you for your trouble!” Sir Murray MacLehose said with a chuckle.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran didn’t delay. He got back in the car and instructed Li Weidong to drive to Government House.

About ten minutes later, the car arrived smoothly outside Government House.

He was relatively familiar with Hong Kong’s Government House, so he didn’t need a staff member to guide him. He quickly made his way to Sir Murray MacLehose’s office.

Sure enough, in the Governor’s office, Lin Haoran saw another big shot: the Taipan of HSBC, Mr. Michael Sandberg.

HSBC’s second-in-command, John Bao, was also there.

At that moment, the expressions on Michael Sandberg’s and John Bao’s faces were not good, especially when they saw Lin Haoran appear.

The two of them had come to Government House together at noon.

As it turned out, Governor Sir Murray MacLehose had gone to inspect the New Territories that day.

Sir Murray MacLehose did not return until after four in the afternoon.

Afterward, the two of them had a secret meeting with Sir Murray MacLehose that lasted over an hour.

Michael Sandberg and John Bao had attempted to explain to Sir Murray MacLehose the predicament HSBC was currently facing and the potentially massive impact of Lin Haoran’s secret maneuvers, hoping that Sir Murray MacLehose would intervene and resolve this potential crisis.

As for some of the illegal activities they had carried out in the past without the knowledge of Government House, Michael Sandberg had straightforwardly admitted fault on behalf of HSBC and promised to pay a hefty fine to Government House.

Sir Murray MacLehose couldn’t just stand by and watch HSBC’s path to overseas expansion be blocked by this scandal. So he finally agreed to invite Lin Haoran over and try to get him to stand down and make peace, or at least stop fanning the flames with scandalous reports that would plunge HSBC into an even deeper quagmire.

“Mr. Lin, thank you for coming!” Upon seeing Lin Haoran, Sir Murray MacLehose personally came to the door to greet him and shook his hand.

“As a citizen of Hong Kong, I must naturally obey the Governor’s summons. Besides, a personal invitation from you, Mr. Governor, is my honor,” Lin Haoran responded with a smile.

His tone was neither fawning nor impolite.

“Mr. Lin, please come in and have a seat. The kitchen is still preparing dinner. Let’s chat first,” Sir Murray MacLehose said, gesturing toward the sofa in the meeting area.

Lin Haoran nodded and followed Sir Murray MacLehose to the sofa.

Michael Sandberg did not greet Lin Haoran, and Lin Haoran returned the favor.

After all, due to the Bank of East Asia affair, the two sides had completely fallen out.

It could be said that they couldn’t even be bothered to maintain a semblance of politeness.

“Mr. Lin, I’m sure you’re well aware of the reason I’ve invited you here, so I won’t beat around the bush. I am here as a guarantor to mediate the conflict between you and HSBC,” Sir Murray MacLehose said, getting straight to the point.

“Mr. Governor, as the Governor of Hong Kong, you must also be very aware that HSBC started this. They targeted me and my businesses without any reason, using vicious and domineering methods. I am merely defending myself and counter-attacking within reasonable and legal bounds,” Lin Haoran said, unafraid even in the face of Sir Murray MacLehose.

“Then what are your terms for ceasing the malicious reports against HSBC? Mr. Lin, please speak freely. As long as it’s within a reasonable scope, I will do my best to facilitate a reconciliation between the two parties,” Sir Murray MacLehose said, looking at Lin Haoran with a sincere gaze, attempting to ease the tense, with-swords-drawn atmosphere.

Malicious reports?

Lin Haoran almost laughed inwardly.

If this was called malicious reporting, then what were HSBC’s series of strategies against the Bank of East Asia called?

However, he did not immediately refute this slightly absurd characterization. Instead, he narrowed his eyes slightly and continued, “It’s not difficult to get me to stop. HSBC and the Hong Kong Association of Banks behind it must withdraw their malicious suppression of the Bank of East Asia. Furthermore, Mr. Michael Sandberg must publicly apologize to the citizens of Hong Kong for the Bank of East Asia’s treatment on television. These are my only demands. Otherwise, I will not stop!”

As soon as Lin Haoran’s voice fell, both Michael Sandberg and John Bao shot up from their seats in anger.

It was already difficult for them to accept having the Hong Kong Association of Banks withdraw its pressure on the Bank of East Asia, as it meant their previous plans had all gone up in smoke.

But on top of that, he wanted Michael Sandberg to apologize to the Bank of East Asia in front of all of Hong Kong?

The consequence of that would be a severe blow to HSBC’s reputation in Hong Kong. Michael Sandberg’s personal image would plummet, and he would lose all face in the financial world. It was something they could not tolerate.

Who was Michael Sandberg? He was the Chairman of the Board of HSBC.

They couldn’t help but remember that a year ago, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., Newbiggin, had also been forced to apologize to Lin Haoran on a live television broadcast.

And what happened? Not long after, Jardine Matheson & Co. was driven out of Hong Kong by Lin Haoran.

Michael Sandberg’s face turned ashen, veins bulging on his forehead. He pointed a finger at Lin Haoran and roared, “Lin Haoran, don’t push it! HSBC will not be coerced by you like this! Your so-called ‘self-defense and counter-attack’ is nothing but disrupting Hong Kong’s financial order. And you want us to apologize? You’re dreaming!”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran smiled. “In that case, what else is there for us to talk about?”

Lin Haoran’s expression was calm, a faint smile playing on his lips. He slowly stood up, his gaze fixed on Michael Sandberg, and said, word by word, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, I came here with the intention of solving the problem. But since you are so stubborn, I have nothing more to say. The situation HSBC is now facing is something you’ve brought entirely upon yourselves. I, Lin Haoran, have always been one to repay kindness with kindness and enmity with enmity. You made the first move against me, so don’t blame me for being impolite.”

Sir Murray MacLehose rubbed his brow, a headache coming on. He had already guessed that things wouldn’t be resolved so easily when he called Lin Haoran over.

As expected, with neither side willing to back down, there was no possibility of reaching an agreement.

Yet he couldn’t just watch as HSBC’s overseas expansion was thwarted.

Sir Murray MacLehose’s expression darkened slightly. With a touch of authority in his eyes, he looked at Lin Haoran and said in a slightly firmer tone, “Mr. Lin, I understand your dissatisfaction with HSBC, but the financial stability of Hong Kong is of utmost importance. HSBC is a vital part of Hong Kong’s financial system. If it falls into too deep a crisis, it won’t just affect HSBC itself; the entire financial market of Hong Kong could suffer a severe blow, and the interests of countless ordinary citizens will be implicated. I hope you can consider the bigger picture and make appropriate concessions. Otherwise, don’t blame Government House for taking necessary measures to maintain financial order.”

Lin Haoran sighed inwardly. As expected, HSBC was, after all, a British-owned company, in it together with Government House.

“It’s not entirely impossible for me to stop using the media to retaliate against HSBC. But Government House must make a promise: from now on, you will no longer interfere in the competitive affairs between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC. Moreover, you must issue a public written commitment to all of Hong Kong, clearly guaranteeing that Government House will not interfere in this competition in any way, whether directly or indirectly,” Lin Haoran retorted forcefully.

On his way here, he had already anticipated that Government House would pressure him, so he was mentally prepared and had carefully considered his response.

In fact, using the media to expose their dirty laundry was only one part of his plan. Even if this part were to stop, it would not be a major setback for him.

Chapter 623: HSBC Defends Its Stock and Drives Up the Price!

Under normal circumstances, Sir Murray MacLehose had always acted according to established rules. His handling of various affairs in Hong Kong was considered fair and just, earning him considerable recognition from the citizens of Hong Kong. He was regarded as a relatively competent Governor.

However, in a situation that threatened Hong Kong’s largest British-owned company, the Government House would often lean towards protecting British interests. The political and economic considerations behind this were intricate and complex.

As the Governor of Hong Kong, given his political philosophy, Sir Murray MacLehose would have preferred not to get involved in the tangled competition between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia.

But in the unique landscape of Hong Kong, the political structure and economic lifelines were tightly interwoven. British-owned companies had long held a position of crucial importance; they were not just economic pillars but also extensions of political influence under British colonial rule.

As Hong Kong’s largest British-owned bank, HSBC’s stability and development were tied to the interests of numerous British-owned entities. Any turmoil could easily trigger a series of chain reactions, impacting the political and economic order that Britain had meticulously constructed in Hong Kong.

Sir Murray MacLehose was naturally aware that although he held the esteemed title of Governor and seemingly possessed supreme power, he was in fact constrained by many factors.

Britain’s colonial policy for Hong Kong had a strict framework and direction, and safeguarding the interests of British-owned companies was considered a vital part of consolidating colonial rule.

Faced with the escalating competition between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia, a situation that could even threaten HSBC’s position, he could not handle it from a purely commercial standpoint.

Therefore, he had to step in now, even going so far as to change his usual style of relative neutrality and minimal interference in free market competition. He began to deeply involve himself in the commercial rivalry between HSBC and Lin Haoran, even adopting a tough stance towards Lin Haoran.

The moment Lin Haoran finished speaking, both Sir Murray MacLehose and Michael Sandberg were astonished.

That’s his only demand?

They had originally thought that even if Lin Haoran eventually agreed, the conditions he proposed would be highly disadvantageous to HSBC.

After all, Lin Haoran’s power was now well-established. With his current assets, if pushed into a corner, he could withdraw his investments from Hong Kong and still live a carefree life elsewhere.

Moreover, both Sir Murray MacLehose and Michael Sandberg knew that Lin Haoran had already invested substantial funds in places like Japan and the United States.

In other words, Lin Haoran already possessed enormous assets overseas.

As the current richest man in Hong Kong, controlling enterprises like the Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, and Hong Kong Telephone, Lin Haoran’s influence on the Hong Kong business community was immense.

If he chose to withdraw his capital due to dissatisfaction with the business environment, it would not only deal a massive blow to Hong Kong’s business world but could also trigger a chain reaction.

As a free trade port, the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong’s economic system largely depended on the flow of international capital and the vigorous development of local enterprises.

Therefore, Sir Murray MacLehose was actually unwilling to offend Lin Haoran too much. His harsh words just now were spoken out of necessity.

But they had not expected Lin Haoran’s second demand to be so much lower.

Sir Murray MacLehose and Michael Sandberg exchanged a glance, both seeing the surprise in each other’s eyes.

Could it be that Lin Haoran had bowed his head just because of Sir Murray MacLehose’s tough stance?

The two of them clearly considered this possibility, and subtle smiles appeared on their faces.

For the government to announce its non-intervention in the competition between the two parties was not a complicated matter for Sir Murray MacLehose; it was just a matter of a single official document.

And for Michael Sandberg, as long as Lin Haoran didn’t use their past leverage to stir up trouble overseas, he was not worried that HSBC would lose to the Bank of East Asia in a normal commercial competition.

This was Hong Kong, and HSBC was the king of its financial world!

Yet, Sir Murray MacLehose still harbored doubts. Was there a deeper plot hidden behind Lin Haoran’s easy lowering of his demands?

At this moment, they had no idea what was going through Lin Haoran’s mind.

On his way over, Lin Haoran already knew that given the complex relationship between the Government House and British-owned companies, especially HSBC, it was only a matter of time before the Government House intervened.

Just like before, during the business competition with Jardine Matheson & Co., it was ultimately the Government House that stepped in, forcing him to give up on taking control of Jardine Matheson.

Therefore, he didn’t expect them to agree to all of his demands.

Agreeing to give up the threat of exposing their dirt was no loss for Lin Haoran.

Especially since he was currently planning to short HSBC, he couldn’t let its stock price fall too dramatically for now.

Otherwise, the whole point of shorting HSBC would be lost.

Furthermore, from ancient times to the present, it has been an eternal truth that merchants do not fight with officials. This was especially true in a land under British colonial rule like Hong Kong, where the line between politics and business was blurred, and the connection between British-owned companies and the Government House was inextricable.

So, Lin Haoran was also unwilling to offend Sir Murray MacLehose too much.

However, taking this opportunity to make Sir Murray MacLehose promise not to interfere in his competition with HSBC was definitely a perfect moment.

After all, he was very confident in his upcoming counterattack against HSBC.

No matter which move he made, it would cause HSBC to suffer heavy losses.

And once the Government House issued a notice stating it would not interfere in their commercial competition, Lin Haoran would be able to unleash his plans and give full play to his talents.

Seeing that neither Michael Sandberg nor Sir Murray MacLehose had spoken, Lin Haoran said with a smile, “What’s the matter, Mr. Governor? Is my request too excessive?”

Sir Murray MacLehose finally snapped back to reality.

After some thought, he said, “Mr. Lin, thank you for your concession in consideration of the bigger picture. I can certainly agree to your request. On behalf of the Government House, I can promise you, Mr. Lin, that as long as there are no illegal, irregular, or other extremely malicious acts in the commercial competition between your two parties, the Government House will not interfere.

However, I also hope that Mr. Lin will keep his promise and no longer use those improper means overseas to suppress HSBC. This is a highly unethical act that could disrupt Hong Kong’s business ecosystem and throw the entire business community into a state of anxiety and chaos.”

The reason HSBC was so afraid of Lin Haoran’s slick move was that they were in the most critical stage of their overseas expansion, and many core business layouts and acquisition strategic plans were in a sensitive period.

The evidence of HSBC’s scandals that Lin Haoran possessed was enough to cause a severe setback to HSBC’s overseas progress, and could even trigger investigations by international regulatory agencies, leading to the complete grounding of their overseas expansion plans.

And they were naturally unwilling to be trapped in the small market of Hong Kong forever. Therefore, expanding HSBC beyond Hong Kong into the broader overseas market was their most important strategic goal at the moment.

Right now, what HSBC feared was Lin Haoran’s influence abroad.

They already knew that Lin Haoran had a strong network of connections and business feelers in places like the United States and Japan.

Once Lin Haoran utilized these overseas relationships to launch an offensive against HSBC, especially by making trouble at critical junctures of HSBC’s overseas deployment, HSBC would face endless trouble in its subsequent overseas expansion process.

But as long as Lin Haoran didn’t stir up trouble overseas, Michael Sandberg felt that HSBC was confident in maintaining its leading position in the ensuing competition.

This was Hong Kong, after all. The influence and deterrent effect they had accumulated here over the past century were far greater than Lin Haoran’s.

Even if the Government House promised not to interfere in their competition with Lin Haoran, Michael Sandberg felt that HSBC had a better chance of winning.

Therefore, being able to make Lin Haoran give up attacking HSBC with negative press and scandals without having to cancel the “choose one of two” strategy was already the optimal solution under the current circumstances.

Michael Sandberg secretly felt fortunate. Thank goodness for the Governor’s support; otherwise, if HSBC had faced this alone, they probably would have had to promise the other party numerous benefits.

“Alright, since Mr. Governor has agreed, let’s sign an agreement. As soon as the agreement is signed, I will immediately have my people cancel the cooperation with mainstream media overseas and stop mentioning any negative news related to HSBC.

Of course, there is a premise here. If HSBC launches a media war against the Bank of East Asia, we will still take necessary measures to defend our own rights and interests. I hope Mr. Governor and Mr. Michael Sandberg can understand this point,” Lin Haoran added.

“I have no problem with that,” Michael Sandberg assured from the side.

Next, since a consensus had been reached, handling the subsequent matters became much smoother.

The three of them put pen to paper and signed a binding agreement.

The agreement clearly stipulated that the Government House promised not to intervene in the normal commercial competition between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia from then on, and would issue a formal public announcement the next day to clarify its position to all sectors of society.

At the same time, Lin Haoran was required to immediately issue an order to terminate all further exposure of HSBC’s scandals through mainstream media, both in Hong Kong and overseas.

Michael Sandberg also solemnly promised on behalf of HSBC that they would not launch a media attack on the Bank of East Asia.

“Mr. Lin, now that the agreement has been signed, why don’t you make the call now? I don’t want to see any more unfavorable negative reports about HSBC in tomorrow’s newspapers.”

Michael Sandberg’s gaze was locked on Lin Haoran, his tone laced with a sense of urgency. Clearly, he was eager to see Lin Haoran fulfill his promise and dispel the current cloud of negative public opinion hanging over HSBC.

“Mr. Lin, you may use the landline on my desk,” Sir Murray MacLehose also gestured with a slight wave of his hand.

Lin Haoran nodded and, without deliberately delaying, walked briskly to Sir Murray MacLehose’s desk. He picked up the Governor’s office’s exclusive telephone and made a call to Cui Zilong.

As Lin Haoran’s exclusive intelligence chief, Cui Zilong now naturally owned his own mobile phone.

Therefore, even if Cui Zilong was most likely not in the office at the moment, Lin Haoran could easily reach him.

The call connected quickly.

Lin Haoran concisely stated his identity and intention, demanding that Cui Zilong immediately terminate all negative exposure plans concerning HSBC, and that cooperation with all media outlets, both local in Hong Kong and overseas, be halted at once.

“Don’t worry, Boss, I’ll arrange it right away! The final draft for the Oriental Daily News will also be revised!” Cui Zilong replied directly.

In fact, when Cui Zilong and Lin Haoran were planning this strategy against HSBC, they had already considered that Governor MacLehose would intervene. Therefore, neither Lin Haoran nor Cui Zilong felt very surprised or resentful.

Exposing the scandals was just an insignificant little tactic in their plan. In reality, its effect had completely exceeded their imagination.

They hadn’t expected HSBC to react so strongly.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran turned around, gave Sir Murray MacLehose and Michael Sandberg a slight smile, and said, “Gentlemen, it’s all arranged. I believe you will see the results you want to see tomorrow.”

Sir Murray MacLehose and Michael Sandberg looked at each other, the satisfaction in their eyes palpable.

Sir Murray MacLehose nodded slightly, his tone softening a little. “Mr. Lin is indeed straightforward. I hope that both parties will abide by the agreement in the future and jointly maintain the stability of Hong Kong’s business environment. The dinner at the Government House should be ready. Shall we move to the dining room and have dinner together?”

Lin Haoran shook his head and said, “Mr. Governor, due to a sudden change in my company’s development strategy, I need to return to the company immediately for an emergency meeting to deploy the upcoming business adjustments.

It’s really not convenient for me to stay long today. I hope you can forgive me, Mr. Governor. Once my affairs are settled, I will personally visit to apologize to you and make up for this dinner.”

In reality, he had no interest in staying for dinner at this moment.

After all, the two men before him tonight had essentially been targeting him. Even if they were cordial on the surface, this meal would surely be as uncomfortable as having a fishbone stuck in his throat.

He had no time for feigned pleasantries. Besides, the Western food at the Government House wasn’t to his liking; he’d rather go back and have a good meal on his own.

Seeing that Lin Haoran was determined to leave, Sir Murray MacLehose did not show any displeasure. He was only slightly surprised, but quickly regained his composure.

After all, Sir Murray MacLehose was very clear that his actions today were not very proper.

However, as the British-appointed Governor of Hong Kong, he had to first consider the foundation of British rule and the interests of the British Empire in Hong Kong in all matters.

In order to maintain the influence of the British financial power behind HSBC in Hong Kong, he had to make such a seemingly impersonal move.

Sir Murray MacLehose stood up, his face still wearing that perfectly appropriate smile, and said, “Since Mr. Lin has important matters to attend to, it would naturally be inappropriate for me to insist you stay.

I just hope that Mr. Lin will not harbor any resentment over today’s events. The future of Hong Kong’s business community will still need elite talents like you to drive its development. We may yet have opportunities to work together on many matters.”

Lin Haoran sneered inwardly but remained expressionless on the surface. He bowed slightly and replied in a manner that was neither servile nor overbearing, “You flatter me, Mr. Governor. I have always prioritized the bigger picture and will not let a single incident affect my expectations for the development of Hong Kong’s business community.

However, the company’s affairs are extremely urgent and cannot be delayed. I hope you understand, Mr. Governor.”

Sir Murray MacLehose nodded and personally escorted Lin Haoran to the door.

Sitting in the back seat of his Rolls-Royce, Lin Haoran mentally replayed the recent confrontation with Michael Sandberg and Sir Murray MacLehose, a subtle curve forming on his lips.

Perhaps Michael Sandberg thought he had completely compromised?

Little did he know, a much fiercer storm was about to descend upon HSBC.

Meanwhile, inside the Government House, Michael Sandberg and John Bao, who were about to have dinner with Sir Murray MacLehose, suddenly received a report from HSBC: Galaxy Securities, a subsidiary of the Hongkong Land Group, was borrowing a large number of HSBC shares in an attempt to short the bank.

Upon receiving this intelligence, neither Michael Sandberg nor John Bao was in the mood to stay for dinner at the Government House.

Thus, both had to take their leave from Sir Murray MacLehose and hurriedly left the Government House.

A sumptuous dinner had been prepared at the Government House, but there was no one to enjoy it.

Sir Murray MacLehose gazed at the gradually cooling delicacies, his brow slightly furrowed, his heart filled with mixed feelings.

Time passed quickly, and another night went by.

In the morning, many citizens who enjoyed reading newspapers went to the newsstands as usual, immediately asking the vendor for a copy of the Oriental Daily News.

Yesterday, the content published by the Oriental Daily News had indeed shaken all of Hong Kong. Citizens were buzzing about HSBC’s various past “dark secrets,” and everyone was waiting to see if there would be even more explosive revelations.

Because the newspaper had written that from now on, more of HSBC’s scandals would be reported every day.

The citizens had already accumulated a bellyful of resentment towards HSBC yesterday. How could such an unscrupulous company become the overlord of Hong Kong’s financial world?

They stood up for Hang Seng Bank, who had been wronged. They couldn’t tolerate HSBC’s overbearing arrogance, yet they also understood that their own power was as insignificant as an ant’s. They could only gather in groups of three or five in tea restaurants and street corner pavilions, riding the wave of public opinion stirred up by the newspaper’s exposé, venting their dissatisfaction with HSBC in impassioned Cantonese.

“Those scandals really make your blood boil. HSBC always calls itself the industry leader, but behind the scenes, all they do is this self-serving, harmful stuff!”

“Exactly! Hang Seng Bank was doing honest business, and HSBC just gobbles them up unscrupulously. Is there any fairness left in this world?”

“Now the papers say there’ll be new dirt every day. Let’s see how long HSBC can take it. Once their reputation is ruined, someone will definitely deal with them!”

Yesterday, the streets and alleys of Hong Kong had been very lively.

The five hundred thousand copies of the Oriental Daily News printed were completely sold out.

Normally, they would only sell one or two hundred thousand copies.

The sales figures alone showed what a tempest the Oriental Daily News’s exposé on HSBC’s scandals had stirred in the hearts of Hong Kong’s citizens.

Therefore, everyone wanted to know: what major scandal about HSBC would the Oriental Daily News report today?

Many citizens were waiting in anticipation.

This was also why the Oriental Daily News was being snatched up as usual early this morning.

However, to everyone’s surprise, today’s edition of the Oriental Daily News did not continue from where it left off with more scandals about HSBC. The front-page headline was actually an announcement from the Government House.

The content of the announcement was simple: the Government House declared that as long as the commercial competition between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC did not violate any laws or regulations, the Government House would not interfere with either party in any way.

Apart from this announcement from the Government House, where were the reports on HSBC’s scandals?

Many citizens were first stunned after getting the newspaper, then their faces filled with disappointment as they mumbled, “What’s going on? Where’s today’s exposé?”

Some refused to give up, quickly flipping through the paper, trying to find even the slightest clue of a scandal related to HSBC in some corner, but they ultimately found nothing.

“It must be HSBC that made the Government House step in, forcing the Oriental Daily News to stop reporting on them,” a citizen guessed, frowning.

“That’s very possible. HSBC is so powerful in Hong Kong, and the Oriental Daily News’s actions have caused great damage to HSBC’s reputation. If they continued reporting like this every day, how could HSBC save face? It’s normal for the Government House to step in and stop it,” another citizen chimed in.

“At the end of the day, it’s all about protecting the interests of these British-owned companies like HSBC. What do the voices of us common folk count for in their eyes!” a middle-aged man said indignantly, crinkling the newspaper in his hand.

“Sigh, it’s true. The sky over Hong Kong is ultimately controlled by those Westerners and the powers they back,” an old man next to him sighed helplessly, his eyes full of desolation.

What did the actions of the Oriental Daily News represent?

In everyone’s eyes, it meant that the Oriental Daily News had finally been forced to yield under the intervention of the Government House.

Someone called the Oriental Daily News customer service and received the response that due to force majeure, the relevant report had been suspended.

This response undoubtedly confirmed the citizens’ speculations and intensified their feelings of injustice and oppression represented by HSBC and the forces behind it.

At the HSBC headquarters, in a conference room.

An emergency meeting was currently underway.

“Everyone, I have good news for you. The intelligence we’ve received shows that not only in Hong Kong, but also in the mainstream media in Japan, the United States, and Europe, they have all successively stopped their reports on our HSBC,” Michael Sandberg stood up and reported to the senior executives present.

Instantly, a thunderous round of applause erupted.

In their view, HSBC had won again.

“Additionally, there is one matter that requires everyone’s discussion. According to the latest information we have, Lin Haoran’s Galaxy Securities is currently shorting our HSBC shares. How should we respond?” Michael Sandberg continued.

The moment he finished speaking, the room was filled with discussion.

Shorting HSBC?

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, do they think our HSBC’s stock price will definitely plummet?” another senior executive asked.

“Based on our current situation at HSBC, the bank’s stock price has already passed its low point and is set to rebound. So, I also don’t believe our stock price will plummet!” Michael Sandberg answered directly.

The businesses of companies like Hongkong Land Group had already been transferred to the Bank of East Asia, and their stock had already taken a hit.

Under these circumstances, it meant their difficult period was over.

At this point, HSBC’s stock would drop significantly?

They didn’t believe it!

Unless Lin Haoran’s Bank of East Asia could seize a large market share from HSBC, but how was that possible?

The conference room was immediately filled with continuous discussion.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, and everyone else, last night, with the help of the Government House, we successfully forced Lin Haoran’s side to halt their media scandal campaign against our bank. This is undoubtedly a positive signal, meaning the greatest crisis we previously faced has been resolved.

Lin Haoran’s foolish attempt to short HSBC must have been based on the belief that our stock price would continue to fall under the impact of negative media reports. However, the situation has now been reversed, and their self-serving plan has completely failed.

Furthermore, according to reliable sources, Galaxy Securities has already borrowed a large number of our bank’s shares. Seeing this golden opportunity, I propose that we immediately launch an action to defend our stock price. We should use our bank’s own funds to buy back shares on a large scale in the market, thereby jacking up the stock price and ensuring that Lin Haoran and his people suffer a crushing blow in this game.”

Chapter 624: The Enemy Does a Huge Favor, All the Stocks are Sold!

Although HSBC had promised Lin Haoran that they would no longer use public opinion to target the Bank of East Asia, John Bao was highly confident he could manipulate some rumors to spread among the public without Lin Haoran ever finding out.

Even if he did, there would be no evidence to prove that it was HSBC’s doing.

In his view, the court of public opinion was like a misty forest where truth and falsehood were hard to distinguish. As long as they acted covertly and not in the open, it wouldn’t count as a breach of their agreement.

John Bao’s proposal immediately sparked a heated discussion in the conference room.

A flicker of excitement crossed the eyes of some senior executives, who saw this as an excellent opportunity for a counterattack. It would not only give Lin Haoran a taste of his own medicine but also allow HSBC’s stock price to continue its strong rally.

As professional senior executives of HSBC, a rise in the company’s share price was one of their performance metrics, directly impacting their salaries and bonuses. It would also give them more resources and confidence when reporting at the shareholders’ meeting.

Other senior executives worried that Lin Haoran might have something up his sleeve or a countermeasure. After all, a person who could become the richest man in Hong Kong in just three short years and even drive Jardine Matheson & Co. out of the city was no ordinary character.

However, their investigations had thus far revealed no special plans or crisis-response strategies from the Bank of East Asia.

After a vote by all the senior executives, Michael Sandberg made the final decision to adopt John Bao’s proposal.

And so, after the meeting, they began to take action.

Some were responsible for propping up the price, while others secretly manipulated rumors.

In short, the senior executives at HSBC currently couldn’t see what their competitor, the Bank of East Asia, was capable of that could cause HSBC’s stock to plummet.

Therefore, they concluded that the reason Galaxy Securities dared to short HSBC was that Lin Haoran’s confidence came from his ability to attack HSBC through the media.

After all, they already knew that Galaxy Securities had initiated its short-selling plan during the day yesterday.

It wasn’t until the evening that Lin Haoran was forced to agree to stop reporting scandalous material about HSBC through the media.

Thus, they decided to teach Lin Haoran a profound lesson.

You want to short HSBC and make our stock price plummet?

Then we at HSBC will let you, Lin Haoran, know that the financial market of Hong Kong is not a place where a Chinese man like you can run wild!

And so, before the stock market opened, rumors that Lin Haoran had been forced to bow his head in defeat once again spread through the streets and alleys like a plague.

This implied that Lin Haoran had lost another round in his competition with HSBC.

And what did that mean? Naturally, it meant it was good news for HSBC!

As a result, as soon as the market opened, HSBC’s stock price began to climb steadily.

Part of this was HSBC propping up the price, part was shareholders aiming to buy low and sell high, but most were just followers jumping on the bandwagon.

In just one hour after the opening bell, HSBC’s market capitalization soared from around 21 billion Hong Kong dollars at the previous day’s close to 23 billion Hong Kong dollars.

This was not far off from HSBC’s peak market capitalization of 23.8 billion.

After losing the financial business of Hong Kong corporate giants like the Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and Hong Kong Telephone, HSBC’s own market share had already shrunk considerably.

Now, for it to jump back to 23 billion Hong Kong dollars was a clear sign of an inflated price.

However, with HSBC itself entering the fray to prop up the price, combined with the numerous shareholders, market makers, and investors who trusted the rumors on the street and had personally witnessed the Oriental Daily News being forced to cease its reports on HSBC—all of this seemed to be a shot in the arm for HSBC’s stock. It made them even more convinced that HSBC was on the verge of regaining its former glory.

HSBC’s senior executives were immersed in this false prosperity. John Bao, in particular, got carried away, brazenly trumpeting his “achievements” in his office as if he had already crushed Lin Haoran and the Bank of East Asia, leaving them with no chance of recovery.

Time flew by, and soon it was twelve o’clock, signaling that the stock market was temporarily entering its lunch break.

Connaught Centre, Galaxy Securities office.

At this moment, Ma Shimin, Lin Haoran, and Allen were all in the general manager’s office.

As for Dai Shi, he was still out trying to borrow more shares from HSBC shareholders and brokerage firms.

“Boss, the 7.8% of HSBC shares we borrowed yesterday have all been sold off, generating 1.76 billion Hong Kong dollars. I didn’t expect the trading volume for HSBC to be so massive today. For us, this is simply a golden opportunity!

“Based on the market’s trading volume, our team speculates that besides the unfavorable rumors about us circulating in the market, the biggest reason for HSBC’s huge turnover is that HSBC itself has entered the market to prop up its stock price. This is also why we were able to sell our shares so easily,” Allen reported with a sigh.

In a single morning, the total transaction value of HSBC’s stock had reached a staggering 2 billion Hong Kong dollars. The bulk of this volume came from their covert selling, which was a boon for Galaxy Securities. In just one morning, they had effortlessly sold off all the HSBC shares they had borrowed the day before.

Even for Hong Kong’s number one stock, under normal circumstances, a full day’s trading volume for HSBC would be considered good if it reached a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Today, the trading volume hit 2 billion Hong Kong dollars in a single morning, which showed just how exaggerated the trading of HSBC’s stock was.

Propping up the price wasn’t just about blindly buying to drive it up. It required precise timing and skillful use of capital, creating buy orders for support at key price points and leveraging market herd mentality to use relatively little capital to trigger larger trading volumes, thereby pushing the stock price in their desired direction.

Therefore, in reality, the ones buying HSBC stock were mostly those shareholders and some investment banks, not HSBC, the entity propping up the price.

Of course, HSBC’s core customer base was so enormous that the capital they had to commit to prop up the price was certainly not small.

“Good. All the borrowed shares must be sold as quickly as possible. If HSBC gets wind of our subsequent plans, it won’t be so easy for us to continue trading!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

This was the first piece of great news he had heard all morning.

Ma Shimin also broke into a smile.

They all knew the Bank of East Asia’s next move and were certain that HSBC’s stock price was about to plummet.

Originally, they had been worried about how to quickly sell the borrowed shares and convert them into cash. They never expected HSBC to provide an assist, allowing them to effortlessly sell off the borrowed stock at a very good price.

“Also, I’ve just received confirmed news from Citibank. As of this morning, Hong Kong time, Citibank has successfully partnered with financial groups, brokerage firms, and some shareholders in the United States and Europe who hold HSBC shares, securing a total of 12.5% of the shares.

“Mr. Dai has already arranged with Citibank for them to borrow these shares and simultaneously sell them off through the London Stock Exchange, the Paris Stock Exchange, and the New York Stock Exchange. Currently, nearly a quarter of the shares have been sold, and about 750 million Hong Kong dollars have been credited to our account.

“If all the shares are sold, assuming HSBC’s stock price doesn’t fluctuate wildly in the near future, Citibank estimates they can raise about 3 billion Hong Kong dollars for us.

“However, I’ve also learned that Citibank has already contacted all relevant shareholders in Europe and America, and they have all agreed to the securities lending. This means we won’t be able to borrow any more HSBC shares from the European and American markets,” Allen continued his report.

Besides being listed on the four stock exchanges in Hong Kong, HSBC was also listed in multiple overseas locations, including the London Stock Exchange, the Paris Stock Exchange, and the New York Stock Exchange.

At first glance, 12.5% of HSBC’s shares seemed like a substantial amount. But when spread across major exchanges like London, Paris, and New York, the percentage in each exchange was not particularly eye-catching and was not enough to immediately cause excessive alarm and reaction in the market.

It was worth mentioning that the scandalous material about HSBC that Lin Haoran had arranged to be published in several mainstream overseas media outlets yesterday didn’t have as large an impact on HSBC’s stock price as expected. This was because these markets were not HSBC’s home turf, and its name recognition in these regions was limited.

The reason HSBC was so fearful was the concern that if this continued long-term, the negative news would snowball.

Even if the impact in overseas markets was currently limited, once sharp-witted peers sensed something was amiss, it would be difficult for HSBC to expand in overseas markets in the future.

That was why Michael Sandberg and the other senior executives at HSBC were so desperate to stop Lin Haoran from continuing to expose scandalous material about them overseas.

As for Hong Kong, Michael Sandberg and the others had the Government House as their backer, so they were less worried.

In their view, even if the citizens had issues with HSBC, they would only be angry but not dare to speak out. In the end, they would still have to come to HSBC for their financial services.

Lin Haoran nodded. 12.5% from Europe and America, plus the 7.8% secured in Hong Kong yesterday, meant they had borrowed a total of over 20% of HSBC’s shares.

Borrowing shares to short was that simple. After all, as long as the shareholders were willing to lend, nothing was a problem.

Although it was a pity they couldn’t borrow more shares from Europe and America, Lin Haoran was already very satisfied.

“How many more HSBC shares can Dai Shi borrow locally in Hong Kong?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Boss, Mr. Dai is currently in talks with a brokerage firm and two investment banks. Together, these three institutions hold about 5.3% of HSBC’s shares.

“They didn’t reach an agreement yesterday because these three institutions never intended to hold the shares long-term. With the stock price fluctuating so much yesterday, they were worried it would drop sharply and even considered selling, though they ultimately held on.

“But with HSBC’s stock soaring today, Mr. Dai told me that these three institutions are now optimistic about HSBC’s future and are likely planning to hold for the long term. Therefore, there’s a good chance he can seal the deal!” Allen continued to report in an orderly manner.

Lin Haoran nodded. By this calculation, the number of HSBC shares he could borrow for his short-selling operation was not small at all.

He had already borrowed 7.8% in Hong Kong, Citibank helped borrow another 12.5% in Europe and America, and if he could secure the 5.3% from these next three institutions, he would have borrowed a total of 25.6% of HSBC’s shares.

This was by no means a small figure.

Next, if he could successfully sell them at a high price, he would definitely make a fortune this time.

At this thought, a satisfied smile appeared on Lin Haoran’s face.

He could snatch market share from HSBC through the Bank of East Asia while also making a huge profit by shorting HSBC’s stock. It was killing two birds with one stone!

However, Ma Shimin and the others had ultimately called some of their clients, who now knew they were going to move their funds to the Bank of East Asia.

Therefore, this news certainly wouldn’t stay secret for long.

He just hoped they could successfully sell off all the shares before the news leaked.

That way, Lin Haoran could maximize his profits.

25.6%. Even if sold at a market capitalization of 20 billion, Lin Haoran could get over 5 billion Hong Kong dollars in cash from these shares.

Once HSBC’s stock price plummeted, he could buy back the shares at a low price. The profit from the price difference would be incalculable.

Lin Haoran could almost see countless fortunes rolling toward him, and a smile spread across his face.

HSBC would surely find out about them shorting its stock.

HSBC thought that by propping up the price and guiding shareholders and institutional investors to drive up the stock, they would put him in a passive position. Little did they know, they were doing him a huge favor.

In fact, the surge in HSBC’s stock price in Hong Kong would also have a certain supporting and linkage effect on its stock price in the London, Paris, and New York stock exchanges, allowing Lin Haoran to get a relatively better price when selling the shares overseas.

Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible to sell off so many shares so quickly.

But now, thanks to HSBC’s own price-propping actions and market rumors, the trading activity for its stock was at an all-time high. This undoubtedly provided the perfect opportunity for Lin Haoran’s sell-off plan.

“Boss, there are a lot of rumors in the market badmouthing the Bank of East Asia. Should we counterattack? Many citizens are very supportive of us right now and can’t stand HSBC’s arrogant attitude. With a little guidance from us, public opinion will swing in our favor,” Cui Zilong called to say.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran replied with a smile, “General Manager Cui, don’t worry about this for now. Keep an eye on the trends and focus your main energy on advancing our own business and preparing for our subsequent plans. As for the storms in the court of public opinion, let HSBC have their fun for the time being.”

Right now, he needed HSBC’s stock price to remain high so he could sell at a good price. Naturally, he wouldn’t do anything that might suppress it, not even a verbal counterattack.

In his view, HSBC thought its plan was working and was basking in the false prosperity of a rising stock price, which was a great help to him.

“Alright, Boss. I know what to do!” Cui Zilong responded.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran and his top lieutenants had a simple lunch at the company and then returned to the office, waiting for news from the stock market and from Dai Shi.

Around one o’clock in the afternoon, Dai Shi finally rushed back.

“Boss, Director Ma, Mr. Allen, good news! I didn’t let you down. I’ve successfully finalized securities lending agreements with three more institutions and borrowed about 5.3% of HSBC’s total shares.

“The terms are the same as those agreed upon with the other institutions and shareholders: a six-month loan period with interest calculated monthly at 1% of the shares’ value. If the loan period is less than three months, interest will be calculated for the full three months. The minimum interest cannot be less than 3%!” As soon as he returned to the office, Dai Shi, face flushed with excitement, eagerly reported to Lin Haoran and the others.

Lin Haoran smiled, clapped Dai Shi on the shoulder, and said, “Dai Shi, well done. My high hopes for you were not misplaced.”

This meant that the 25.6% target he had envisioned this morning had been fully achieved.

Although there were no more shares to borrow after this, what they had was already a substantial amount.

Next, it was a matter of seeing what price these 25.6% of shares could ultimately be sold for.

Once they were sold, their plan could be implemented openly.

“Boss, this is all part of my job. And it’s thanks to the joint efforts of everyone on the team that this task was completed smoothly,” Dai Shi said modestly, though he couldn’t hide the pride on his face.

“Mm, you deserve the most credit for this. When this is over, I’ll have the finance department give you a handsome bonus. As for the shares borrowed today, Mr. Allen, please organize the traders to continue selling them. HSBC’s stock price won’t last long; it’s bound to fall. The trading volume this afternoon should still be very high. Sell as many as you can!” Lin Haoran continued.

“Yes, Boss. I’ll go arrange for the traders to proceed with the sell-off right away,” Allen responded promptly, then stood up and strode quickly towards the trading floor.

If the 7.8% borrowed yesterday could be sold in a single morning, then selling 5.3% in the afternoon would certainly not be difficult.

At the very least, judging by the current trend of HSBC’s stock price, the afternoon session should continue the morning’s momentum.

HSBC was a hot commodity on the stock market right now. 5.3% of shares, based on the current market capitalization, was worth a little over 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Given today’s trading volume, the afternoon’s turnover was guaranteed to exceed that amount.

Although the news reported by the Oriental Daily News yesterday had made many Hong Kong citizens resentful of HSBC, resentment was one thing, and making money from its stock was another. These people, in the end, couldn’t escape the temptation.

On the Hong Kong side, thanks to HSBC’s price propping, there was no worry about being unable to sell the shares.

Lin Haoran’s main concern was the shares in Europe and America.

Of the HSBC shares borrowed from shareholders and institutions in Europe and America yesterday, only a quarter had been sold, leaving three-quarters remaining.

However, although HSBC was listed in multiple locations and couldn’t have a unified stock price, the trends of its rise and fall were still the same.

Therefore, news from Hong Kong would quickly spread to Europe and America. By then, HSBC’s trading volume and stock price on the London, Paris, and New York stock exchanges would likely mirror those in Hong Kong.

Barring any surprises, the shares Citibank helped borrow shouldn’t be difficult to sell.

In the afternoon, after the stock market opened, HSBC’s trading volume, just as they had expected, did not decrease.

Buy orders kept increasing, and Galaxy Securities seized the opportunity to sell off the newly borrowed shares.

HSBC, the Taipan’s office.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, we’ve found that as we try to push the price higher, someone is constantly selling off shares, which is slowing our progress significantly. It looks like it will be quite difficult to push the stock to a total market cap of 25 billion today,” the senior executive in charge of propping up the price reported to Michael Sandberg.

“It must be the work of Galaxy Securities. They borrowed 7.8% of the shares yesterday, so they probably didn’t finish selling this morning. Once they’re done and the sell orders decrease, with a little guidance from our end, the stock price should accelerate much faster,” John Bao said from the side.

They already knew how many HSBC shares Galaxy Securities had borrowed yesterday through those shareholders and institutions.

7.8% was indeed not a small amount.

However, the three institutions that had just reached a securities lending agreement with Dai Shi today were the kind that only intended to hold the shares for a short term. They didn’t have deep ties with HSBC, so they didn’t proactively inform HSBC about the matter.

Therefore, they were completely unaware that Galaxy Securities had acquired another 5.3% of the shares.

At the same time, the operations in Europe and America were being handled by Citibank, so HSBC was even more in the dark about Lin Haoran targeting them overseas with a short-selling operation.

Otherwise, HSBC would not have continued to drive up the price. Instead, they would be wondering why Lin Haoran, after promising not to attack HSBC with scandalous material in the media, would still dare to increase the number of shares he was borrowing. They would wonder if he truly had a plan in store that could cause HSBC’s stock to plummet.

Michael Sandberg frowned slightly and said in a deep voice, “No matter what, we cannot let the upward momentum of the stock price be broken. It’s only 7.8% of the shares. They should have sold most of it this morning, so there shouldn’t be much left for the afternoon. We will continue to increase our capital investment to prop up the price. We must show the market the strength and determination of HSBC.

“This way, those shareholders will follow our lead and continue to push HSBC’s stock price up. As long as our stock price sets a new record, the dirt the Oriental Daily News threw at us will naturally be self-evidently false, and HSBC’s influence will be restored.”

“Yes, Mr. Michael Sandberg!” The senior executive in charge of propping up the price quickly took his leave and went out of the office.

And so, the traders at Galaxy Securities were surprised to find that in the afternoon, the stock price began to rise again. The trading volume not only didn’t decrease but actually showed signs of increasing.

How could they not seize such a great opportunity?

Consequently, the HSBC shares they had just borrowed at noon began to be sold off continuously.

As time ticked by, the HSBC shares held by Galaxy Securities continued to dwindle.

At 3:45 in the afternoon, Dai Shi once again came to Lin Haoran’s office to report.

“Boss, all of the HSBC shares have been sold. The funds currently frozen in our margin account have reached 3.03 billion Hong Kong dollars!” Dai Shi reported, handing a data sheet to Lin Haoran.

This 3.03 billion Hong Kong dollars did not include the 12.5% of HSBC shares borrowed with Citibank’s help. It was purely from the 13.1% of shares borrowed by Galaxy Securities itself.

“Good, very well done!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

At the same time, in a conference room in the HSBC building just a few hundred meters away, a burst of enthusiastic cheers also erupted.

As it turned out, after their efforts to prop up the price, HSBC’s market capitalization had soared to 25 billion Hong Kong dollars, setting a new historical high.

However, they would never have dreamed that it was this series of actions on their part that allowed Galaxy Securities to not only sell off all the previously borrowed HSBC shares at an astonishing speed but also at a considerably high price.

Chapter 625: The News Has Leaked

Based on the previous trend of HSBC’s stock price, as long as the price was stabilized, it would continue to rise afterward.

After all, ever since the oil crisis began, the mainstream stock markets in Hong Kong and even the entire world had surprisingly welcomed a bull market, and this bull market had not yet ended.

If it weren’t for Lin Haoran taking control of the Bank of East Asia, which would cause financial services from his companies like the Hongkong Land Group to be transferred from HSBC and other banks to the Bank of East Asia, HSBC’s stock would not have fallen sharply at all. Instead, it would have continued to ride the bull market, its market capitalization steadily increasing.

Now, the impact of companies like the Hongkong Land Group transferring their funds had gradually dissipated.

Therefore, in the eyes of Michael Sandberg and the others, as long as the Bank of East Asia didn’t pull any tricks later on, HSBC’s stock price would only continue to rise from its current foundation. A future market capitalization of thirty billion, or even forty billion Hong Kong dollars, was not just a dream.

This was also why they dared to personally step in to prop up the price now.

As long as they pushed the price up, the shareholders would continue to drive HSBC’s stock price higher, just as they had in the past.

As professional managers, increasing the company’s market capitalization was one of their core responsibilities; it was not as simple as just meeting performance targets.

And since Lin Haoran wanted to short HSBC and had now sold his HSBC shares, the higher HSBC’s stock price went, the more money Lin Haoran would lose!

This was the “revenge” script they had envisioned.

At this moment, the senior executives of HSBC in the conference room had already learned from their shareholders in Hong Kong about the securities lending contracts signed between Galaxy Securities and those shareholders and institutions.

According to the contracts, the shortest term could be three months.

In that case, if HSBC’s stock price in three months was significantly higher than it was now, Lin Haoran would definitely pay a heavy price.

Although, given Lin Haoran’s wealth, even if the stock price doubled, it would only cause him to lose one or two billion Hong Kong dollars (at this moment, they still thought Lin Haoran had only borrowed 7.8% of the shares), and it would be difficult to bring Lin Haoran down, but it would at least be a crippling blow.

After all, this was one to two billion Hong Kong dollars in cash!

As the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry, prestige and credibility were equally important.

Lin Haoran’s move to short HSBC was undoubtedly a provocation to HSBC’s authority. If they could not deliver a powerful counterattack, HSBC’s position in the market would surely be shaken.

In the eyes of Michael Sandberg and the others, although Lin Haoran was the richest man in Hong Kong and the boss of several important Hong Kong enterprises, he was merely a newcomer in the financial industry.

Allowing an industry newcomer to challenge HSBC’s authority was something Michael Sandberg and his colleagues absolutely could not tolerate. If there was an opportunity to retaliate against Lin Haoran and let HSBC’s market capitalization rise in the process, they would naturally be delighted.

In the blink of an eye, another day passed.

Today was June 30th, the last day of June.

Hong Kong had long since entered the sweltering summer. The temperature climbed steadily, and pedestrians on the street hurried along, all eager to escape into cool indoor spaces.

At nine in the morning, Lin Haoran arrived at the Connaught Centre as usual.

Inside Lin Haoran’s private office in the Connaught Centre, Dai Shi came straight up to report his work as soon as he learned the Boss had arrived.

Dai Shi, dressed in a sharp suit, rushed into the office with a hurried expression, beads of sweat still on his forehead. It was clear he had jogged all the way there.

“Boss, I have good news to report. I received a message from Citibank this morning. The HSBC shares they borrowed through securities lending have been successfully sold on the three major overseas stock exchanges. In the end, these 12.5% of HSBC shares earned us a total of 2.98 billion Hong Kong dollars, which is much more than we expected!” Dai Shi reported eagerly as soon as he closed the office door.

“Oh? It actually sold for such a good price?” Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

For Lin Haoran, the higher HSBC’s stock price, the better.

“Boss, due to the distance, the news here in Hong Kong can’t be synchronized with the overseas stock exchanges in real-time, but the information delay is very short. By the time the three major overseas exchanges opened, the situation in Hong Kong had already been transmitted.

Those overseas shareholders or institutions that bought HSBC stock have their own information channels, so what happened here in Hong Kong also triggered a chain reaction on the New York, London, and Paris stock exchanges.

Although overseas investors were a bit delayed in getting the information, the market’s nose for opportunity is incredibly sharp. They quickly sensed the potential for HSBC’s stock price to rise.

Sure enough, after the three exchanges opened, HSBC’s stock price soared, rising until it was about the same as the price here in Hong Kong before its ascent gradually slowed down.

Thanks to this situation and with Citibank’s help, the shares we borrowed were successfully sold on the three exchanges. We sold them all.” Dai Shi reported the reasons in detail to Lin Haoran.

HSBC was listed on the three major overseas stock exchanges. Although its stock price couldn’t be identical to that in Hong Kong, it was still the stock of the same company, so their price trends were inevitably closely linked.

Therefore, the final prices would not differ by much.

And while 12.5% of HSBC’s shares was a significant amount, when spread across three major overseas stock exchanges, it was not as much as one might imagine. Adding to that the quarter that had already been sold the previous day, Citibank’s professionalism in securities trading, and the good news from HSBC headquarters, it was not surprising that they were all sold off within a single trading day.

Lin Haoran nodded upon hearing this.

Regardless, this was good news.

Based on the current situation, HSBC clearly wanted to raise the price, probably to set a trap for him.

He had actually wanted to wait for HSBC’s stock price to get even higher before selling. That way, when HSBC’s stock plummeted in the future, he would earn more.

But Lin Haoran knew he couldn’t do that, because time was not on his side.

HSBC would surely find out about their next move at any moment.

After all, those subordinate bosses of companies like the Hongkong Land Group had already been notified by Ma Shimin and others to transfer all of their companies’ financial services to the Bank of East Asia—and it was mandatory.

Although the matter was temporarily postponed due to Lin Haoran’s reminder, the news had ultimately been delivered to these bosses.

If these bosses didn’t proactively spread the word, it would be impossible for HSBC to find out in the short term.

But who knew if a certain someone might let it slip one day? Once it slipped, the news would spread like wildfire. HSBC would definitely figure out Lin Haoran’s intentions and adjust their strategy, causing his plan to for all one’s efforts to be in vain.

Therefore, the borrowed HSBC shares had to be sold quickly. The faster they were sold, the more advantageous it would be.

Now that the shares had been successfully sold, and with an assist from HSBC’s side no less, the matter had gone so unbelievably smoothly for Lin Haoran.

The enemy was aiding the enemy!

He just wondered what Michael Sandberg’s reaction would be when he found out about this.

At this thought, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but reveal a smile.

The 13.1% of shares borrowed by Galaxy Securities were sold for 3.03 billion Hong Kong dollars, while the 12.5% of shares from Citibank were sold for 2.98 billion Hong Kong dollars.

In other words, by shorting HSBC, the 25.6% of borrowed shares ultimately netted 6.01 billion Hong Kong dollars, which was nearly one billion more than the expected figure of just over five billion Hong Kong dollars.

This was a truly unexpected delight.

Of course, the biggest reason for this was the assist from HSBC.

If it were based on the original market capitalization of just over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars, it would have been impossible to sell for so much money.

But who would have thought that HSBC would continuously push its own stock price up, directly pulling it to twenty-five billion Hong Kong dollars.

Although Lin Haoran’s side couldn’t sell their shares at a market capitalization of twenty-five billion Hong Kong dollars, they had genuinely enjoyed the dividends of this price surge, selling the shares at a price far exceeding their expectations.

However, this enormous sum of money was currently still frozen.

The 3.03 billion Hong Kong dollars in Hong Kong would be gradually unfrozen by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after the contractually stipulated settlement period and transferred to the account designated by Galaxy Securities according to the established process.

As for the shorting business entrusted to Citibank, the 2.98 billion Hong Kong dollars would be temporarily frozen by Citibank. Only after the borrowed shares were returned would Citibank unfreeze the funds.

This was all just standard procedure; even the best of partners operated this way.

However, Lin Haoran wasn’t worried about any of this. The money wasn’t going anywhere.

As for how much he would ultimately earn from this shorting plan, it was currently unclear. After all, he didn’t know how low HSBC’s price would eventually fall.

With the 25.6% of shares targeted for shorting already sold, Lin Haoran was now completely free of lingering concern.

In a private room of a high-end morning tea restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Yang Fugui, the boss of Haitian Doors and Windows Company, was currently discussing a business deal. Sitting opposite him was a Deputy General Manager from Cheung Kong Holdings, who was also his university classmate.

Although their relationship as classmates was average, they had shared their school days, and coupled with their business interests, it was naturally not difficult to arrange a meeting.

The Haitian Doors and Windows Company was a large-scale door and window company in Hong Kong, with business covering production, installation, and more. They were also a major door and window partner of the Hongkong Land Group. In previous years, business from Hongkong Land accounted for 60% to 70% of Haitian Doors and Windows’ business.

Relying on the Hongkong Land Group, Haitian Doors and Windows had naturally thrived and was now even planning to go public.

However, since the end of last year, the Hongkong Land Group had sold off numerous real estate projects, leading to a reduction in the scale of its ongoing construction projects. Correspondingly, the demand for building materials like doors and windows had also decreased.

As a company that depended on the Hongkong Land Group for survival, Yang Fugui shrewdly sensed the potential risk.

He didn’t know why the Hongkong Land Group was reducing its real estate development, but he understood that if he didn’t adjust his business structure and broaden his client base in time, the company’s future development would be severely constrained.

Therefore, this meeting with his old classmate was not just a business negotiation for him, but also a crucial step in whether Haitian Doors and Windows could reduce its dependence on the Hongkong Land Group.

Despite this, no matter what, the Hongkong Land Group was Haitian’s most important source of business.

When Ma Shimin called and asked him to transfer all of the company’s financial services to the Bank of East Asia, he agreed without any hesitation.

He just found it inexplicable when Ma Shimin called him again later and asked him to postpone the plan.

“President Liu, I’m sure you are aware of the quality of our Haitian Doors and Windows. The fact that we have earned the long-term favor of the Hongkong Land Group is enough to prove our strength. I’ve heard that Cheung Kong Holdings’ door and window partner, Yihe Doors and Windows, has received complaints from property owners and seems to be having some issues with product quality control. This is why I have taken the liberty of asking you to consider us, Haitian Doors and Windows.

“Our Haitian Doors and Windows not only has rich production experience and mature technical processes, but we have also always adhered to the principle of customer first in after-sales service.

“If we can reach a cooperation with your esteemed company, we will certainly do our utmost to provide the highest quality door and window products and services for all of Cheung Kong Holdings’ projects,” Yang Fugui said sincerely.

“I’m naturally aware of this. However, whether we cooperate with Haitian Doors and Windows is not something I can decide on my own. At most, I can only make a recommendation to the higher-ups. Whether the cooperation can succeed will depend on the decisions of the company’s senior executives and its suitability with our overall business plan.

“However, since you’ve brought it up, General Manager Yang, I will be sure to report the advantages and sincerity of Haitian Doors and Windows in detail to them and fight for this opportunity for you,” Deputy General Manager Liu from Cheung Kong Holdings responded with a smile.

Yang Fugui quickly offered tea in thanks: “Then thank you so much, President Liu. Regardless of the final result, I am very grateful that you could give us this opportunity.”

As the two chatted, the conversation turned to the Bank of East Asia.

“General Manager Yang, you are one of the Hongkong Land Group’s partners, and Mr. Lin Haoran is the boss of both Hongkong Land and the Bank of East Asia. I imagine you must know something about the Bank of East Asia, right?

“The financial circles have been quite lively recently because of the matter between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC,” President Liu picked up his teacup, took a light sip, and asked with seeming nonchalance.

“Yes, that’s right. Who could have expected that a business titan like Lin Haoran would venture into the banking industry? In the past, tycoons like Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng, despite their immense power, never set foot in the banking sector.

“I never thought Mr. Lin would take control of the Bank of East Asia so quietly, and now he’s even moving to privatize it directly. It’s no wonder HSBC is targeting it so fiercely.

“Judging from Lin Haoran’s past style and trajectory, if he continues on this normal pace, he might really carve out a world of his own, and maybe even break Hong Kong’s existing financial landscape,” Yang Fugui said with a slight nod, full of emotion.

Currently, Hong Kong’s financial landscape was simple. Although there seemed to be many banks, HSBC was the absolute hegemon, and no other bank could threaten its dominant position.

However, with Lin Haoran taking control of the Bank of East Asia, this landscape might actually change. Otherwise, HSBC wouldn’t be acting as if facing a formidable enemy, even going so far as to personally enter the fray to engage in this financial game with Lin Haoran.

“Oh? Could it be that General Manager Yang thinks the Bank of East Asia has a chance of threatening HSBC’s position?”

President Liu raised his eyebrows slightly, a hint of curiosity in his eyes. He put down his teacup and fixed his gaze on Yang Fugui, clearly very interested in his viewpoint.

“Of course. The Bank of East Asia has already secured the business of the Hongkong Land Group and other companies, so it’s already in an invincible position. I’m sure you’re well aware of this, President Liu!” Yang Fugui said with a smile.

Casual chat could enhance their friendship, and Yang Fugui didn’t mind sharing a few more of his views. After all, his old classmate before him had a certain say in Cheung Kong Holdings. If he could use this opportunity to deepen their relationship, it might be more beneficial for future cooperation.

“Think about it, President Liu. The Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, Wanqing Group, and so on are all of crucial importance in Hong Kong’s real estate world. Each major group has numerous projects under its belt, and the scale of their financial services is enormous.

“Now that the Bank of East Asia has acquired the business of companies like the Hongkong Land Group, it’s like having a sturdy tree to lean on. The influx of funds and business transactions these companies bring will make the Bank of East Asia’s capital chain more abundant and further broaden its business scope.”

As Yang Fugui spoke, he gently fiddled with the teacup in his hand.

“Everyone knows this. But with just this, the Bank of East Asia can at most secure a certain position in Hong Kong’s banking industry. They were already the fourth largest bank in Hong Kong.

“Relying on the financial business of companies like the Hongkong Land Group to jump from fourth to second is already their limit. To say they can threaten HSBC’s position seems a bit premature, don’t you think?” President Liu frowned slightly, raising his doubts.

“President Liu, you might not be fully aware! The Bank of East Asia is by no means simply transferring the financial business of the Hongkong Land Group and other enterprises to itself. They’ve got another move up their sleeve.

“Once this move is successfully executed, the market share of other banks in Hong Kong like HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank will definitely shrink again. Especially HSBC, as the bank with the highest market share in Hong Kong, the losses they’ll suffer will be enormous.

“And what about the Bank of East Asia? It will surely seize this golden opportunity to swallow up more market share, further closing the gap with HSBC!” Yang Fugui lowered his voice, speaking with an air of mystery.

“Oh? Could it be that you have some inside information, General Manager Yang?” President Liu’s heart skipped a beat. He knew he might be about to obtain some key information.

After all, he knew that Yang Fugui had been cooperating with the Hongkong Land Group for over a decade. It would be normal for him to know some secrets that outsiders didn’t.

The corners of Yang Fugui’s mouth lifted slightly, revealing a barely perceptible hint of pride. After another cautious glance around, he spoke mysteriously, “Mr. Ma Shimin, the President of the Hongkong Land Group, asked me to keep this news confidential for the time being. I’m only telling you because you’re my old classmate. You must not spread it around!”

“Rest assured, General Manager Yang. We were classmates. Even though we haven’t been in touch much since graduation, there’s still that much trust between us. I guarantee that I won’t leak a single word of what you tell me today,” President Liu patted his chest, promising solemnly.

Yang Fugui nodded with satisfaction, then proceeded to explain in detail how Ma Shimin had requested him to move all of his company’s financial services from HSBC to the Bank of East Asia.

The more President Liu listened, the more shocked he became.

He never expected the Bank of East Asia to have such a move.

“President Liu, I’m sure you can guess that since Mr. Ma Shimin asked me to do this, then the other enterprises that depend on the Hongkong Land Group will definitely be required to do the same. Just look at the Hongkong Land Group alone—countless companies rely on it for their survival.

“And under Lin Haoran’s control, it’s not just the Hongkong Land Group. Companies like Hongkong Electric Group and Wanqing Group must have partner companies who will be asked to transfer their financial services to the Bank of East Asia, just like me.

“As a result, the scale of financial business absorbed by the Bank of East Asia will experience explosive growth. This is by no means a simple leap from fourth to second place. The bosses of those companies affiliated with Lin Haoran’s enterprises will certainly not refuse such a small request.

“After all, for these companies, it’s just a transfer of financial services; there’s no loss. But for the Bank of East Asia, it’s an unprecedented feast of business expansion.

“Once the financial services of all these enterprises are fully transferred to the Bank of East Asia, it will rapidly accumulate an even larger customer base and capital reserves, and its business landscape will be greatly expanded.

“At that point, the Bank of East Asia’s position in the Hong Kong banking industry will surely rise with the tide. In this situation, the Bank of East Asia will have begun to build the capacity to challenge HSBC.

“After all, in this world, performance and market share are the key indicators for measuring a bank’s strength and status. Although HSBC has always held the top seat in Hong Kong’s banking industry, faced with such a rapid and targeted business expansion from the Bank of East Asia, I’m afraid they won’t be able to rest easy,” Yang Fugui said with a sigh.

Even he was now astonished by Lin Haoran’s maneuver.

Under the circumstances where HSBC was leading other banks to besiege the Bank of East Asia, Lin Haoran was still able to make clever arrangements, retreating in order to advance and leveraging the situation. Such courage and strategy were truly admirable.

He was indeed worthy of being the new richest man in Hong Kong!

At this moment, across from him, President Liu, while shocked, already knew that this was one of his opportunities.

As one of the top-ranking real estate companies in Hong Kong, the Cheung Kong Holdings Group had many senior executives. Although he was a respected senior manager, in a large group like Cheung Kong Holdings, the competition was extremely fierce.

Every decision, every opportunity, could become a key weight in elevating his status within the group.

The news revealed by Yang Fugui was undoubtedly extremely valuable information.

After all, everyone in Hong Kong knew that his boss, Li Jiacheng, had a very close relationship with HSBC.

One could even say that without HSBC, there would be no Li Jiacheng today.

Back then, with Li Jiacheng’s resources, it would have been impossible for him to acquire Hutchison Whampoa, but in the end, it was Li Jiacheng who successfully did so!

As a senior executive of the Cheung Kong Holdings Group, President Liu naturally knew some secrets that were not widely known.

It was obvious that HSBC was not yet aware of the things Yang Fugui had mentioned; one could guess as much from HSBC’s current stock market performance.

Therefore, he was very clear that once this news was passed on to his boss, Li Jiacheng, it would certainly be of considerable use to him.

And he, in turn, would be able to make a good impression on his boss, and his chances of a successful promotion would increase greatly.

Thinking of this, President Liu suppressed the excitement in his heart, his face still maintaining a calm and steady expression as he continued to chat with Yang Fugui.

Chapter 626: A Furious Michael Sandberg, Doubling the Number of Branches!

In the Chairman’s office at the headquarters of Cheung Kong Holdings Group, located in the Chinese Building.

After listening to the report from his subordinate, President Liu, Li Jiacheng understood the gravity of the situation.

While the matter was not directly related to him, it involved HSBC, so he had to take it seriously. After all, his ties with HSBC were deep, their business interests were closely intertwined, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that HSBC was his backer.

Otherwise, with his previous strength, it would have been impossible for him to acquire Hutchison Whampoa.

One could say that Li Jiacheng’s acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa was akin to a snake swallowing an elephant. At the time, Hutchison Whampoa’s market capitalization was far higher than that of Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

Yet, Li Jiacheng had managed to take the crucial 22.4% stake in Hutchison Whampoa from HSBC for an extremely low price. Without that 22.4% stake, it would have been virtually impossible for him to take over Hutchison Whampoa.

The reasons behind it were indeed complex, but at its core was the strong support HSBC had given Li Jiacheng at a critical moment and the agreement reached between them. This support was not just financial; it was also rooted in a complex web of interests and a bond of trust.

HSBC was Li Jiacheng’s backer, and naturally, he didn’t want anything to happen to his backer. Although this incident was not directly related to him, if HSBC were to fall into trouble because of it, he, as an ally, would lose his greatest support. That was a scenario Li Jiacheng was unwilling to see.

“President Liu, you did an excellent job with this report. This information is extremely critical to me. Once it’s verified, I will be sure to reward you for your contribution!” Li Jiacheng’s expression was calm, but his tone carried an unquestionable composure.

President Liu quickly bowed slightly, his face full of gratitude. “Boss, you’re too kind,” he said hastily. “It’s my duty to serve the group. It’s just that the future of this HSBC matter is truly complicated and confusing. We must plan our response in advance.”

“Mm, I’m aware. You don’t need to worry about this for now. You may leave. I will handle it properly,” Li Jiacheng said, waving his hand dismissively for President Liu to leave.

Since taking control of Hutchison Whampoa, his prestige and influence within the group had grown daily, and his style had become increasingly steady and decisive.

After President Liu left the office, Li Jiacheng’s previously calm expression instantly turned grave.

His relationship with Lin Haoran wasn’t particularly close, but because they were both top Chinese merchants, they often met at various business and social events, and their relationship was reasonably good.

However, if he had to choose one of two—to support HSBC or the Bank of East Asia—he would undoubtedly choose HSBC without a moment’s hesitation.

After all, his Cheung Kong Holdings Group was, in fact, a competitor of the Hongkong Land Group. One was his backer, the other his rival; it was impossible for him to support his competitor, the Bank of East Asia.

Moreover, the intricate web of interests between him and HSBC had long bound them tightly together. With HSBC now deep in crisis, if he stood by and did nothing—thinking of the worst-case scenario—he would not only lose this powerful backer, but many of his own ventures in his business empire might also collapse.

Therefore, Li Jiacheng didn’t hesitate for a moment. He quickly picked up the encrypted telephone on his desk and dialed Michael Sandberg’s number.

After confirming that Michael Sandberg was at the HSBC headquarters, he grabbed his suit jacket from the coat rack, shrugging it on as he walked with quick strides out of the office. At the same time, he said to his bodyguard and driver, “Get the car ready. I’m going to the HSBC headquarters to speak with Mr. Michael Sandberg in person.”

Half an hour later, Michael Sandberg had learned the news from Li Jiacheng.

It was actually very easy to investigate whether this information was true or false.

After all, according to the boss of Haitian Doors and Windows, the close partners of Lin Haoran’s companies, such as the Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group, had basically already been notified to transfer their corporate financial services to the Bank of East Asia.

The number of companies involved was enormous. It would be all too simple for them to confirm if such a thing was happening.

Thus, it wasn’t long before Michael Sandberg received the definitive results of the investigation.

Looking at the report in his hand, his face was as dark as the sky before a storm.

The report indicated that close partners of Lin Haoran’s companies—the Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, Wanqing Group, and others, especially those business owners highly dependent on them—had indeed received the relevant notices.

However, these companies had later received instructions to suspend their plans, for reasons unknown to the public.

But while others might be mystified, how could Michael Sandberg, a key party involved, not understand the inside story?

These companies had paused their plans for no other reason than to buy more time to short HSBC’s stock.

“Good, Lin Haoran, what a brilliant move!” Michael Sandberg laughed in fury, a bone-chilling coldness hidden within his smile. The report in his hand crinkled under his grip. “Does he think he can shake HSBC this easily? What a pipe dream!”

However, whether he admitted it or not, he already understood that HSBC’s move to raise its stock price over the past two days had played right into Lin Haoran’s hands, allowing him to smoothly sell off a large number of shares at a high price.

Next, as long as the Bank of East Asia proceeded as planned, HSBC’s stock price would certainly take a hit. Lin Haoran’s scheme to short HSBC was likely to succeed!

Right now, HSBC’s stock price seemed as solid as a rock, but that was only because they had forcefully pushed it up.

Once the Bank of East Asia’s plan got out, it was obvious that HSBC’s stock price would plummet like water bursting through a dam.

At that point, not only would HSBC’s market capitalization shrink significantly, but its reputation and standing in the market would also suffer a serious blow. It could even trigger a chain reaction, jeopardizing the stability of the entire financial system.

Most importantly, after companies like the Hongkong Land Group transferred their funds, HSBC’s market share would once again be drastically reduced!

The last time, it had already caused HSBC’s deposits to fall by nearly twenty billion Hong Kong dollars.

This time, if they went through with it, the scale of capital outflow from HSBC would likely be even more terrifying.

If he allowed the situation to develop like this, the foundation HSBC had painstakingly built over many years would be shaken. Regaining market share and restoring its former glory in the future would be as difficult as reaching for the sky.

And yet, did they have any reason to stop it?

Those businesses relied on companies like the Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group to survive. The Hongkong Land Group and others had absolute commercial influence to sway the choices of their partners.

“Mr. Li, thank you for telling us. Although it’s a bit late, it’s better than being kept in the dark. I won’t entertain you any further; I need to call a senior executive meeting immediately!” Michael Sandberg said solemnly.

“It’s what I should do. In any case, I am also a board member of HSBC. Mr. Michael Sandberg, you can rest assured that Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings Group will be HSBC’s most solid support!” Li Jiacheng promised.

Michael Sandberg’s expression softened slightly, but he didn’t continue chatting with Li Jiacheng. After a few more words, he hurriedly left the office.

Last year, HSBC’s total deposits were just 131.2 billion Hong Kong dollars.

This year, because the oil crisis was still ongoing and the development of Hong Kong’s real estate industry had slowed since the beginning of the year, their business was barely on par with last year’s.

And after companies like the Hongkong Land Group transferred all their financial services, HSBC’s total deposits had dropped by a full twenty billion Hong Kong dollars.

This meant HSBC’s actual total deposits had already fallen to just over 110 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Although the “choose one of two” policy had caused a bank run on the Bank of East Asia, allowing HSBC to seize a significant portion of their market share, the amount involved was only a little over three billion Hong Kong dollars.

The gap between twenty billion and three billion Hong Kong dollars was clear at a glance.

Normally, following the development trend of Hong Kong’s economy, HSBC would gradually recover from this loss.

However, before they could even begin to recover, a new crisis had arrived.

If they couldn’t properly resolve this storm brought on by Lin Haoran, HSBC could forget about making up for its losses; it would likely struggle to even maintain its existing business.

One had to realize, far too many companies depended on the Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and others for their survival!

It was like a mobile phone brand with hundreds or even thousands of suppliers in its upstream supply chain. While the financial needs of each individual supplier might not seem large, together they represented a volume that could not be ignored.

Companies like the Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group were like that mobile phone brand. With a single order, the businesses that depended on them for survival could only comply and shift their financial services to the Bank of East Asia.

As for the volume of financial services involved and how much HSBC stood to lose, while it couldn’t be estimated now, it was obvious that it would be a colossal figure that HSBC would find difficult to bear.

The loss could even be no less than what HSBC suffered when Lin Haoran’s companies, like the Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group, previously moved their financial services to the Bank of East Asia!

At this thought, Michael Sandberg quickened his pace.

“Notify all senior executives to be in the conference room in ten minutes. We have an urgent matter to discuss. There can be no delays!” Michael Sandberg instructed the secretary by his side as he walked, his voice filled with a sense of urgency.

The secretary dared not delay for a second. She immediately picked up the phone and began notifying the senior executives one by one.

As for Li Jiacheng, he naturally had no intention of staying at HSBC. He had already done what he needed to do.

As for what came next, he trusted Michael Sandberg to handle it properly. As an ally, he also needed to continue monitoring the situation and be ready to provide support at any time.

Back in the car, Li Jiacheng leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes in thought, continuously sorting through the entire situation in his mind.

First it was Jardine Matheson & Co., and now HSBC. It was as if Lin Haoran was born to be the nemesis of British-owned companies.

“Our Chinese community has truly produced a remarkable figure!” Li Jiacheng sighed.

Just as the senior executives of HSBC were entering an emergency meeting, in the Chairman’s office at the Bank of East Asia headquarters, just over a hundred meters from the HSBC headquarters building, Lin Haoran and Da Shan were also discussing important matters.

After receiving Dai Shi’s report that all the HSBC shares borrowed through Citibank had been sold at a high price, he didn’t stay long at the Connaught Centre and came directly to the Bank of East Asia headquarters.

“How have things been at the Bank of East Asia these past few days? Is everything normal?” Lin Haoran asked, sitting in his office chair and looking at Da Shan, the current interim President of the Bank of East Asia.

“Boss, these past few days haven’t been much different from before. After the business from the Hongkong Land Group and other companies was transferred to the Bank of East Asia, our business volume has increased greatly. We’ve even hired quite a few new people recently to handle the workload.

“However, our 20 branches have become increasingly deserted. Take the Tsim Sha Tsui branch, for example. It used to serve dozens of customers a day, but now it averages about a dozen. The situation is similar in other branches.

“HSBC’s ‘choose one of two’ strategy is having a more and more obvious impact on our branch business! Some branch managers have reported that many employees are very worried that the branches might be closed due to the reduced business volume,” Da Shan reported.

Although the transfer of business from companies like the Hongkong Land Group had increased the Bank of East Asia’s business volume several times over, these corporate accounts were handled directly by the head office and rarely trickled down to the individual branches.

Meanwhile, HSBC forcing Hong Kong citizens to “choose one of two” had caused a large portion of the Bank of East Asia’s original customers to move to HSBC or other banks.

This led to a sharp decline in business at the branch level. Employees’ workloads were significantly reduced, and the once-bustling branch lobbies were now deserted. Although the staff remained at their posts, their faces inevitably showed a hint of dejection and worry.

After all, the decrease in business volume was directly related to their income and career development. No one wanted to see the bank they worked for go into decline.

Lin Haoran nodded. This was all within their expectations.

“How are we progressing on tackling the drawbacks of paying salaries via bank transfer?” Lin Haoran continued to ask.

“Currently, the biggest problem we face is that our existing computer transfer system is not perfect. If companies use bank transfers to pay salaries, they still have to rely heavily on manual operations. This would require us to hire a large number of auditors, which would significantly increase the bank’s internal costs.

“Moreover, manual operations are not only inefficient but also prone to errors, which would have a huge negative impact on our bank’s reputation and customer trust.

“However, we have been actively learning from the advanced experience of banks in European and American countries. The United States, for example, launched the ACH system back in 1974, which can efficiently process bulk electronic payments. Companies can easily perform batch transfers using the ACH network.

“European countries also have many mature systems, such as Britain’s BACS and Germany’s ECPS, which all support companies in paying wages electronically in batches. Some countries have even achieved inter-bank transfers through their networks.

“Fortunately, the payroll transfers the Bank of East Asia is about to implement don’t require inter-bank transfers, so the difficulty of implementing electronic batch transfers is relatively small.

“After some tough negotiations, our Bank of East Asia’s Britain branch office has reached a cooperation agreement with Britain’s BACS system. In a few days, they will send professional personnel to install the BACS system in our major branches.

“The installation and preliminary debugging are expected to be completed in about half a month. After that, we can start small-scale testing. At the current pace, we can definitely achieve large-scale internal transfers at the Bank of East Asia by August!” Da Shan reported the progress in a detailed and orderly manner.

At the same time, he handed Lin Haoran a copy of the cooperation contract with the British BACS system company.

Lin Haoran nodded, took the contract, and gave it a quick look.

He didn’t ask why they chose Britain’s BACS system over America’s ACH system. This was, after all, still a British colony. Choosing the British system might indeed offer more advantages in terms of communication, coordination, subsequent maintenance, and adapting to the local financial environment.

Moreover, Britain’s financial system was mature, and the BACS system had a certain reputation and application base both in Britain and internationally, making it a safe choice.

In other words, there were basically no more obstacles to the payroll transfer matter. Now they just had to wait for the BACS system to be installed and put to the test.

“Boss, there’s another important matter I need to report to you in detail,” Da Shan said, leaning forward slightly with a solemn expression.

“Mm, go on,” Lin Haoran said, putting down the document in his hand and looking at Da Shan.

“I plan to double the number of Bank of East Asia branches, but this is a major undertaking and requires your support first,” Da Shan said with sincerity.

Currently, the Bank of East Asia had 20 branches. Doubling that would mean increasing the number to 40.

“Oh? Why is that? The business volume at the branches has dropped sharply, and many employees are idle. Why the sudden need to increase the number of branches?” Lin Haoran frowned slightly, his eyes full of confusion.

“It’s true that the workload at each branch has greatly decreased due to the reduction in business. However, after August, once companies like the Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and Wanqing Group start paying salaries via transfer through the Bank of East Asia, we will gain over a hundred thousand new individual customers.

“To face so many new customers, our current 20 branches will definitely not be enough. If we don’t increase the number of branches in advance, we might face customer dissatisfaction and complaints due to inefficient service and long waiting times, which would in turn affect the Bank of East Asia’s reputation and market competitiveness.”

Da Shan’s expression was serious as he clearly and logically explained his thoughts to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran frowned slightly, lost in thought.

Adding more branches was indeed a major decision, involving capital investment, recruitment, site leasing, and many other aspects that required careful consideration.

But in the long run, as the payroll transfer business was implemented, and with the expansion of business and the increase in customer numbers, the existing number of branches would indeed be far from sufficient to meet future demands.

After all, after receiving their salaries, those employees weren’t just going to let the money sit in the bank. They would need to withdraw it if they wanted to use it.

At that time, the demand for cash withdrawals, balance inquiries, and other related financial services would inevitably increase sharply.

If the number of branches was insufficient, the customer experience would inevitably suffer. In the long run, even if the payroll transfer business brought in a large number of customers, they might be lost due to inadequate follow-up services.

Lin Haoran stood up from his chair and paced back and forth in his office.

This was a problem he hadn’t considered before; after all, he wasn’t a professional.

“Your considerations have some merit.”

Lin Haoran spoke slowly, his fingers tapping lightly on the desk. “However, adding branches is no small matter. Funding is not the biggest issue, but recruitment and training take time, and site leasing and renovation also require a certain period.

“From preparation to official opening, will we have enough time to complete this series of processes?”

Da Shan was prepared. He quickly replied, “Boss, I’ve already made a preliminary plan. For recruitment, we can post job openings in advance and prioritize candidates with finance-related majors. At the same time, we can select some promising employees from our existing branches for key training to become the core strength of the new branches.

“As for leasing, I’ve already had the administration department start looking for suitable locations in various districts, and we are also cooperating with the Hongkong Land Group and others. We already have some alternative options.

“As for renovations, we can adopt a standardized design to speed up construction. By my estimates, if we start preparing now, opening 10 new branches before August should be no problem. We can then gradually add more based on the actual situation.”

The Hongkong Land Group owned the most commercial properties in Hong Kong, all in prime business locations, so finding sites would not be a problem by cooperating with them.

Lin Haoran nodded and agreed directly, “Alright, I approve this matter!”

It was already June 30th, and tomorrow would be July.

This meant there was only one month left before their planned implementation of salary payments via bank transfer in August.

Therefore, once the decision to add branches was made, they had to race against time to push forward with all the work, ensuring the new branches could open and be operational before the payroll transfer business was fully rolled out.

“Boss, please sign here.”

Da Shan handed a proposal for increasing the number of branches to Lin Haoran. It detailed the budget, site selection plans, recruitment and training plans, and other content.

Lin Haoran took the proposal, quickly scanned through it, and after confirming that the arrangements were reasonable and feasible, he picked up a pen and signed his name at the end of the document.

“By the way, how many branches does HSBC have in Hong Kong?” Lin Haoran suddenly looked up and asked.

“Currently, HSBC has a total of 36 branches in Hong Kong!” Da Shan replied.

“Doesn’t that mean that in the future, the Bank of East Asia will have more branches in Hong Kong than HSBC?” Lin Haoran said in surprise.

Da Shan smiled slightly, his eyes revealing confidence and ambition. “Boss, that’s exactly the effect I want to achieve. The number of branches not only represents a bank’s coverage and service capacity but is also an important reflection of customer trust and market competitiveness.

“Moreover, once the affiliated companies of the Hongkong Land Group and others move their financial services to the Bank of East Asia, and we also capture their employees’ business, then as long as we proceed steadily, in the near future, while the Bank of East Asia’s market share might not surpass HSBC’s, it will be possible to get close to it.

“The reason HSBC currently has only 36 branches in Hong Kong is that they don’t have business related to payroll transfers. Their services are more focused on large corporations and high-net-worth clients.

“But if our Bank of East Asia can leverage the payroll transfer business to attract a large number of individual customers, and then gradually expand our business scope and improve service quality, we will form an advantage in the number of branches and our service network. Our market share will naturally rise with the tide.

“At that time, our advantage in branch numbers will be further highlighted, becoming an important trump card in our market competition. And the ‘choose one of two’ plan that HSBC and the Hong Kong Association of Banks they manipulate cooked up against us will naturally crumble on its own.”

A hint of approval flashed in Lin Haoran’s eyes. Da Shan’s strategic vision and planning ability left him gratified.

Chapter 627: An Engagement? And a Disloyal Scoundrel

“Before I came here, I had already arranged for Mr. Ma Shimin, Mr. Chen Shoulin, and the others at Connaught Centre to have the businesses that rely on Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and other companies for their survival continue transferring their financial services to the Bank of East Asia.

“Mr. Da Shan, you and the Bank of East Asia need to prepare in advance. Over the next few days, the increase in business volume for the Bank of East Asia will likely be no less than the scale of the transfers from Hongkong Land, Hongkong Electric, and the others!” Lin Haoran advised.

Now that the arrangements to short HSBC were complete, there was no need to hide it from them any longer. The plan could be executed openly.

He could hardly wait to see HSBC’s performance plummet once again.

In any case, Sir Murray MacLehose had already announced in the name of the Government House that he would no longer interfere in the competition between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC.

Would they go back on their word?

Lin Haoran wasn’t afraid.

The Government House had already interfered once.

If they were to interfere again and again, he wouldn’t mind using his international influence to spread the word and let international financial groups see just how unfair the investment environment in Hong Kong was.

At worst, he would just move his headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore.

After all, Singapore’s future potential was in no way inferior to Hong Kong’s; it might even surpass it.

Da Shan heard this, nodded, and replied, “Rest assured, Boss. The Bank of East Asia is ready.”

After chatting with Da Shan about the upcoming arrangements for the Bank of East Asia, Lin Haoran didn’t linger. Instead, he planned to visit the Kerry Group’s Hong Kong headquarters.

As his most reliable and close ally in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran had not yet paid a personal visit to Guo Henian since returning to the city.

In contrast, Guo Henian had personally visited him, even stressing that he was ready to provide financial support and business synergy to the Bank of East Asia at any time. Lin Haoran had always kept this kindness in his heart.

The Kerry Group’s Hong Kong headquarters was still temporarily located in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, so Lin Haoran had to pass through the Cross-Harbour Tunnel to get there.

The Tsim Sha Tsui area was also currently testing its cellular mobile signals, so his mobile phone should work there under normal circumstances, though the signal might not be very strong.

Half an hour later, Lin Haoran appeared at the ground floor of the Kerry Group’s headquarters building.

The building wasn’t tall, only a dozen or so stories, which seemed inconsistent with the Guo family’s status as the wealthiest in Southeast Asia.

In reality, the number of projects the Guo family had under construction and the amount of capital they had invested were by no means small.

To name a few, there were the Shangri-La Hotel project in Tsim Sha Tsui East, the commercial complex project in Sheung Wan, and the commercial tower project in Tsim Sha Tsui East.

However, as an outside force, the Guo family had entered the Hong Kong market too late, and core business districts like Central had already been largely carved up.

Therefore, the Kerry Group’s main development area was now south of the Kowloon Peninsula, especially in the newly reclaimed areas of Tsim Sha Tsui and Hung Hom.

To Lin Haoran’s surprise, Guo Henian had personally come down to the front desk to welcome him. Beside him was the elegant and poised Guo Xiaohan.

Guo Xiaohan’s eyes were full of affection as she looked at Lin Haoran.

“Uncle Guo, I hope I’m not disturbing you,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, shaking Guo Henian’s hand.

“Not at all. You’re a rare guest. You can count the number of times you’ve been here in the past two years on one hand. How could you be a disturbance? Alright, let’s go up before we talk. This isn’t the place for a chat,” Guo Henian said, noticing many employees looking their way.

Guo Henian regarded the young Lin Haoran as both a peer and a junior, and his admiration for him was written all over his face.

The group took the elevator straight to the top floor. Guo Henian’s office was spacious and bright. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, one could overlook the bustling scenery of Tsim Sha Tsui, with the shimmering waters of Victoria Harbour in the distance adding a touch of magnificence to the scene.

Although the building wasn’t tall, its location was excellent, right behind The Peninsula Hong Kong.

Lin Haoran made himself at home, sitting on the sofa. Guo Xiaohan was already brewing them hot tea.

“Haoran, your Bank of East Asia and HSBC have been fighting quite a spectacular battle recently. The entire Hong Kong business community is talking about it. Are you feeling the pressure?” Guo Henian asked with a smile, crossing his legs.

“It would be a lie to say there’s no pressure. After all, my opponent is the renowned HSBC. To be honest, I wouldn’t want to confront them head-on if I didn’t have to.

“But in the sea of business, if you don’t advance, you fall behind. Since HSBC is pressing relentlessly and targeting the Bank of East Asia, I can only rise to the challenge and do my best to fight back,” Lin Haoran replied, picking up his teacup and taking a light sip.

“My financial business here can be transferred to the Bank of East Asia at any time. We originally partnered with HSBC, but since you two tigers are fighting, I’ll naturally support you with all my might. How about it? Do you need me to arrange it now?” Guo Henian said with a smile.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran put down his teacup and said seriously, “Uncle Guo, I, Lin Haoran, will never forget this kindness. However, the Bank of East Asia has just taken on the business transferred from Hongkong Land, Hongkong Electric, and others. Our business volume has surged, and our internal teams are working at full capacity to handle it.

“Moreover, I have other plans in motion, and the Bank of East Asia’s business will increase even further. The scale of the Kerry Group’s financial operations is massive. If it were transferred now, I’m afraid it would put considerable pressure on both our teams.

“How about this? Your Kerry Group can bide its time for now. Once things stabilize at the Bank of East Asia, we can gradually transfer the business over according to the situation. What do you think?”

In reality, he had no intention of having the Kerry Group transfer its business over just yet. In his view, the Kerry Group’s business was a trump card that had to be played at the most critical moment to have a decisive effect.

Although the Bank of East Asia was facing fierce competition from HSBC, the situation was not yet completely clear. HSBC had not yet made its next counter-move. Having the Kerry Group transfer its business too early might reveal his own ace in the hole and put his opponent on guard.

After all, the funds involved with the Kerry Group amounted to several billion Hong Kong dollars, making it a matter of no small importance.

If the Kerry Group were to transfer its business at a critical moment, it could potentially deliver a fatal blow to HSBC, completely disrupting their strategy and plunging them into an even deeper crisis without any warning.

Guo Henian laughed heartily. “I thought you came here today to ask me to transfer all my financial business in Hong Kong to the Bank of East Asia. I didn’t expect you would want to keep it hidden for now.”

“Uncle Guo, our opponent is HSBC, after all. I previously used the power of the media to expose some of HSBC’s past scandals, intending to do so over the long term to bog them down in a public relations nightmare, forcing them to be on the defensive, which would severely damage their reputation and business in the financial markets.

“But as you saw, HSBC had the Government House intervene directly, forcing me to halt that plan. However, the Government House has since stated it will no longer interfere in our competition, which is a silver lining.

“Now, as long as the Government House stays out of it, the battle between me and HSBC can unfold under relatively fair rules. Even so, I need to be cautious with my plans and advance carefully, without a hint of carelessness,” Lin Haoran said with a sigh.

“To be honest, Haoran, you’ve already made me see you in a new light. At such a young age, facing a behemoth like HSBC, not only have you shown no signs of retreat, but you’ve also been able to calmly analyze the situation and formulate such a meticulous counter-strategy.

“Such courage and wisdom are likely unmatched among the younger generation in Hong Kong. If our Guo family were to face HSBC head-on in Hong Kong, we wouldn’t stand a chance.

“You, on the other hand, while not guaranteed to win, are certainly capable of inflicting heavy losses on HSBC. Being able to snatch so much market share from them is already a victory.

“After this incident, HSBC’s dominant image in Hong Kong is bound to be greatly diminished. You’ve truly brought honor to us Chinese!” Guo Henian’s eyes were filled with praise, his tone sincere.

Guo Xiaohan remained silent at the side, but listening to her uncle praise Lin Haoran, she felt as if he were praising her, and a proud expression unconsciously appeared on her face.

Noticing this, Guo Henian couldn’t help but tease, “Xiaohan, look at you. Anyone who didn’t know better would think you’re even more excited than Haoran!”

Guo Xiaohan’s cheeks turned slightly red, and she said coquettishly, “Uncle, please don’t tease me. Brother Haoran is naturally talented. I just admire his abilities. Besides, he has faced so many difficulties along the way without flinching. That spirit is truly worthy of admiration.”

Lin Haoran didn’t feel awkward because of Guo Henian’s joke. After all, it was just a form of affectionate teasing from an elder to a junior.

He took an exquisite box out of his briefcase and handed it to Guo Henian. “Uncle Guo, I came here today mainly to give you a small gift, as a token of my gratitude for your support.”

“Oh? What kind of small gift would you deliver in person?” Guo Henian took the gift box with curiosity. Inside was a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X mobile phone.

Guo Henian was not out of touch. Over the past two to three months, the Hongkong Telephone Company had already invested heavily in advertising. Basically, all of Hong Kong’s citizens knew that the city was about to become the first in the world to commercialize mobile phones, so many business people were already looking forward to it.

Upon seeing the mobile phone in his hand, he was quite surprised.

He picked it up and examined it closely, asking, “Haoran, can this really make calls without a phone line?”

“Why don’t you try?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Guo Henian dialed a number, and a moment later, the landline in the office began to ring.

“This is truly magical. It’ll be so much more convenient when I’m out and about.” After hanging up, Guo Henian couldn’t put the mobile phone down.

In later generations, mobile phones were nothing special, but in this era, a mobile phone was definitely a piece of ultra-high-tech gadgetry, since it had not yet been truly commercialized.

Therefore, even as Southeast Asia’s richest man, Guo Henian was incredibly surprised and delighted by this gift.

“This is a trial model. Currently, the areas in Hong Kong covered by the mobile signal are mainly on the northern side of Hong Kong Island, such as Central, Causeway Bay, Sheung Wan, and North Point. On the Kowloon Peninsula, the signal now covers the area from Tsim Sha Tsui to Mong Kok, but it’s still being adjusted. As for places like Kwai Chung, Kowloon Tong, and Kwun Tong, coverage won’t be available until the end of this month,” Lin Haoran reminded him.

“That’s more than enough. I’m mostly active in the southern part of the Kowloon Peninsula and the northern part of Hong Kong Island. Haoran, I love this gift. Thank you!” Guo Henian laughed heartily.

“I’m glad you like it, Uncle Guo,” Lin Haoran laughed in return.

So far, he had only given out two phones—one to Pao Yue-kong, and now this one.

He hadn’t even given one to Governor MacLehose yet.

He had originally planned to, but the Government House’s favoritism towards HSBC had left a bad taste in his mouth, so he had temporarily shelved the idea.

Both Pao Yue-kong and Guo Henian had been of great help to him in the business world, and both were his elders, deserving of his respect and gratitude.

“Haoran, I’ve met with your father a few times this year. Every time, he tells me how he hopes you can settle things with Xiaohan soon. The way I see it, after this storm between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC calms down, you and Xiaohan should get engaged.

“My Xiaohan isn’t young anymore; she’s at the age for marriage. And I can tell from the bottom of my heart that this girl only has eyes for you. You absolutely must not let down her deep affection,” Guo Henian said with a solemn expression and a heartfelt tone.

Lin Haoran didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Well, the topic had certainly changed quickly.

However, he knew that Guo Henian was right.

Although he wasn’t yet thirty, he had already built an entire commercial empire, yet he didn’t even have a wife and children.

To put it bluntly, if something unexpected were to happen to him, there would be no successor to his family fortune.

Previously, he had made a two-year agreement with Guo Xiaohan. If, after two years, Guo Xiaohan hadn’t changed her mind, he would marry her.

Now, although the two years were not yet up, more than a year had already passed.

And Guo Xiaohan’s deep affection for him had remained constant, without a hint of wavering.

Based on this point alone, it was difficult for him to evade this relationship any longer.

Moreover, Guo Xiaohan was not only beautiful but also intelligent and sensible, with a decent talent for business. She was a good match for him in many ways, and they got along exceptionally well.

Once he married Guo Xiaohan, she would definitely not be a vase like Rosamund Kwan. Instead, she could provide him with solid support in his career and become his capable and supportive wife.

Thinking of this, he said solemnly to the two of them, “Uncle Guo, Xiaohan, rest assured. After this matter is over, I will definitely give Xiaohan a proper commitment!”

Upon hearing this, Guo Xiaohan’s cheeks instantly flushed crimson. Her eyes sparkled with happiness, and the corners of her mouth turned up unconsciously in a shy yet sweet smile.

She lowered her head slightly, her hands twisting the corner of her clothes, as if to hide her inner excitement and joy.

Seeing this, Guo Henian burst into hearty laughter, his voice echoing through the spacious and bright office.

“Good, good, good! With your words, I can be at ease. Haoran, this child, Xiaohan, doesn’t easily change her mind once she’s set on someone or something. In the future, you two can support each other, and I can rest easy.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, his gaze soft as he looked at Guo Xiaohan.

Just as he was about to say more, a knock came from the door.

“Come in,” Guo Henian said to the person outside.

He thought it would be a Kerry Group employee, but to his surprise, it was Li Weiguo who entered.

“Boss, there’s a call for you,” Li Weiguo said, handing the mobile phone to Lin Haoran.

The phone weighed nearly two pounds, so when he was out, Li Weiguo usually carried it for him.

Lin Haoran took the mobile phone, nodded, and said to Guo Henian, “Uncle Guo, I need to take this call.”

With that, he stepped aside and pressed the answer button.

“Boss, it’s Cui Zilong. I have something to report to you,” Cui Zilong’s voice came from the other end of the line.

“Go ahead,” Lin Haoran said.

“Boss, we just received an urgent report from our inside source at HSBC. This morning, HSBC headquarters held an emergency senior executive meeting. Almost all the senior leaders from the headquarters were present.

“It was because of the high level and broad scope of this meeting that our source was lucky enough to be included, allowing him to access some key information.

“According to the source, HSBC has learned that we are pushing the businesses that rely on Hongkong Land, Hongkong Electric, and other companies to transfer their financial services to the Bank of East Asia. They’ve also keenly sensed the targeted intention behind our recent series of actions.

“Currently, they are intensively discussing countermeasures internally, but as of now, it seems they haven’t found a particularly effective solution,” Cui Zilong reported in a detailed and urgent tone.

“I see. So they know. It was bound to get out eventually. What I’m curious about is, where did they get the information?” Lin Haoran asked with some curiosity, not at all flustered.

Now that the securities lending plan was complete, all that was left was to wait for HSBC’s stock price to plummet.

Therefore, the leak of this information no longer had any impact on him.

Cui Zilong responded, “According to the information from our source, HSBC learned of the situation apparently because Mr. Li Jiacheng disclosed it. This morning, many HSBC employees saw Mr. Li Jiacheng go to the HSBC headquarters.

“Not long after, Mr. Michael Sandberg urgently convened a meeting. From this, I deduce that Mr. Li Jiacheng must have learned the news from some channel. Considering that Cheung Kong Holdings Group and HSBC have always been close partners, he then informed Mr. Michael Sandberg.”

Lin Haoran was not surprised to hear this. If it was Li Jiacheng who knew, it wasn’t strange.

After all, both Hongkong Land Group and Cheung Kong Holdings were among the top real estate companies in Hong Kong.

And among the companies that depended on Hongkong Land for survival, it was normal for some to have partnerships with Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

Fortunately, Li Jiacheng’s notification was too late.

If it had been a day earlier, it might have had some impact on his plan.

“Can you investigate who told Cheung Kong Holdings Group? It would be best if you can find out. If not, then let it go,” Lin Haoran thought for a moment before telling Cui Zilong.

He had already instructed Ma Shimin and the others to tell those bosses not to disclose this matter, but some people still couldn’t help but talk.

Although it no longer had any impact on them, Lin Haoran still felt a bit displeased.

These people, who survived by relying on the groups under him, were biting the hand that fed them. They really needed to be taught a lesson.

“Boss, rest assured. There are many clues in this matter, including the high probability that the information came from Li Jiacheng’s side. So, it shouldn’t be difficult to find out who leaked it. Just give me a little time, and I’ll try to give you an answer today!” Cui Zilong replied.

“Alright, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. This matter has limited impact on me now, but it would be best if you could find out. Just handle it systematically. Report to me as soon as you have news, but if you can’t find out, let it go. There’s no need to pay too high a price,” Lin Haoran said.

“Understood, Boss. I know what to do. I’ll go make the arrangements now.”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran handed the phone back to Li Weiguo.

“What’s wrong? Do you have something important to handle? If so, go back and take care of your business first!” Guo Henian asked.

“No, it’s just a small matter, not very important. Uncle Guo, let’s continue chatting. Let’s have lunch together in a bit!” Lin Haoran shook his head and said with a smile.

Hearing this, Guo Henian didn’t ask any more questions. After all, it was someone else’s private corporate matter.

At noon, Lin Haoran had a sumptuous lunch with Guo Henian, Guo Xiaohan, and others at the nearby Joyful Abundance Restaurant.

Afterward, they inspected the Shangri-La Hotel project and the Sheung Wan commercial complex project together before Lin Haoran bid them farewell.

At just after four in the afternoon, in his private office at Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran received another call from Cui Zilong.

“Boss, we’ve found out! It was Yang Fugui from Haitian Doors and Windows Company who leaked the news. Haitian has been working with Hongkong Land for many years, and about forty percent of Hongkong Land’s door and window business went to them.

“But this year, Hongkong Land has cut back on a lot of its real estate projects, so businesses like Haitian that rely on Hongkong Land have seen their business shrink. That guy Yang Fugui, in order to get more business, set his sights on the fast-growing Cheung Kong Holdings Group and sold us out.

“Our people spent a lot of effort and followed many leads to confirm it was him,” Cui Zilong said in detail over the phone, his tone audibly relaxed now that the task was completed.

Although Lin Haoran had said the matter wasn’t important, since the order had been given, Cui Zilong still hoped to complete the task his boss had assigned.

“Alright, I understand. Thanks for your trouble!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Since Cui Zilong’s side had confirmed that Haitian Doors and Windows Company was behind it, the matter was definitely related to that Yang Fugui.

Thinking of this, Lin Haoran went straight to Ma Shimin’s office and told him the whole story.

At the end, his eyes sharpened, and his tone turned cold. “In the future, a disloyal company like Haitian Doors and Windows is not qualified to partner with our Hongkong Land Group anymore!”

Chapter 628: Making an Example of Them

Hongkong Land Group never stopped its partners from seeking cooperation with other companies—it wasn’t that domineering. But the prerequisite for everything was that the interests of Hongkong Land Group must not be harmed.

Clearly, this Haitian Doors and Windows Company had severely crossed the line and stepped on Hongkong Land Group’s bottom line. Such behavior could not be tolerated.

In its attempt to collaborate with another company, Haitian Doors and Windows had used Hongkong Land Group’s secrets to trade for the opportunity. This action reflected its shortsightedness and lack of business ethics.

Although this secret no longer affected Lin Haoran’s subsequent plans, it didn’t mean he could tolerate it. It was the perfect opportunity to make an example of Haitian Doors and Windows Company to remind his other partners and, in doing so, set a clear precedent for the entire business community.

After the bosses of other partner companies learned of this, they would have to think twice about the consequences if they ever considered biting the hand that fed them or doing anything to wrong his groups.

Ma Shimin’s expression darkened upon hearing this. He nodded and said, “Boss, rest assured, I know what to do. I’ll immediately arrange for someone to communicate with Haitian Doors and Windows Company and terminate our partnership. At the same time, we’ll issue a formal public announcement disclosing their actions. That should teach them a profound lesson!”

Making it public was undoubtedly the harshest punishment.

Once the matter was announced, any other company wanting to work with Haitian Doors and Windows would have to consider the risks of collaborating with a company that lacked commercial credibility and ethical standards.

Haitian Doors and Windows Company would not only lose Hongkong Land Group, an important client, but its reputation in the industry would also be ruined, creating huge obstacles for its future business expansion.

“Yes. The most important thing is to send a clear signal to all of Hongkong Land Group’s partners: Hongkong Land Group will not tolerate any behavior that harms the group’s interests or violates business ethics.

We value the trust in our partnerships, but this trust must be built on mutual respect, fair trade, and mutual reliability.

For any partner who attempts to challenge this principle, Hongkong Land Group will take firm and decisive measures to protect the group’s reputation and long-term interests,” Lin Haoran said sternly.

To Lin Haoran, this was a trivial matter.

And this Haitian Doors and Windows Company wasn’t a particularly critical partner among his companies’ collaborators; it was the kind that could easily be replaced.

However, since Haitian Doors and Windows had dared to do such a thing, it provided Lin Haoran with the perfect opportunity to make an example of them.

As for the consequences for Haitian Doors and Windows, they had brought it upon themselves.

This incident would not only serve as a warning to Hongkong Land’s partners but also to the partners of Lin Haoran’s other groups, such as Hongkong Electric Group and Wanqing Group.

After chatting a bit more with Ma Shimin about the internal development of Hongkong Land Group and some recent issues, Lin Haoran bid him farewell and returned to the Severn Road villa.

Ma Shimin, on the other hand, went to handle the matter concerning Haitian Doors and Windows Company.

Meanwhile, in an industrial park in North Point, Yang Fugui, the boss of Haitian Doors and Windows Company, was on the phone in his office.

On the other end of the line was his university classmate, a Vice President Liu from Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

Since returning to the company in the morning, Yang Fugui had been waiting for Vice President Liu’s call.

But by dusk, there was still no call from Cheung Kong Holdings.

Therefore, Yang Fugui couldn’t wait any longer and wanted to ask his classmate Liu about the progress.

As a partner of Hongkong Land Group, Haitian Doors and Windows Company was considered a top-tier enterprise in this industrial park, owning a total of six industrial buildings.

However, as Hongkong Land Group’s business volume decreased, the company’s original 24-hour, two-shift production schedule had gradually slowed down, switching to only a day shift and canceling the night shift.

Although the current business from Hongkong Land Group was still enough for him to earn a hefty sum each month, he had grown accustomed to the previous flood of orders and was naturally unwilling to accept the decline.

Thus, he could only seek more business opportunities elsewhere, and his classmate, the senior executive at Cheung Kong Holdings, became his target to curry favor with.

“General Manager Yang, I’ve already reported your matter to our boss, Mr. Li Jiacheng. Our boss said he will carefully consider the cooperation between Haitian Doors and Windows Company and Cheung Kong Holdings Group. As soon as there’s any news, I will inform you immediately!”

On the other end of the line, Vice President Liu’s voice was tinged with perfunctory politeness, yet it also revealed a certain slickness, not wanting to completely offend his old classmate.

Hearing this, Yang Fugui, though burning with impatience, could only suppress his anxiety and force a few dry laughs. “President Liu, thank you so much! Please put in a few good words for me with Boss Li. We at Haitian Doors and Windows are truly sincere.

If we have the chance to cooperate, we will give it our all and will definitely not disappoint your group. Also, once the deal is done, I, Yang Fugui, will definitely not forget your generosity. I’ll make sure you’re well taken care of.”

“Alright, alright, I understand, General Manager Yang. My boss is calling us for a meeting soon, so we can’t talk for long. I’ll notify you as soon as there’s news, so don’t you worry. That’s all for now, I’m hanging up. Bye!” Before Yang Fugui could say more, Vice President Liu hastily hung up the phone.

In reality, collaborations like this were basically decided by Li Jiacheng himself, leaving this Vice President Liu with little say.

Even if he had the right to recommend, Cheung Kong Holdings Group would be more inclined to work with companies that were long-term, trustworthy partners.

Yang Fugui’s hope of relying on this Vice President Liu was undoubtedly a fruitless effort, like drawing water with a bamboo basket. Not only was it unlikely to result in a partnership, but it could also put him in a more passive position.

But at this moment, Yang Fugui was completely oblivious, still lost in his own fantasy, eagerly anticipating more business from Cheung Kong Holdings Group.

Just then, the telephone on his desk rang.

Thinking it was Vice President Liu calling back, Yang Fugui eagerly picked up the telephone receiver. But the voice on the other end was urgent and tinged with panic. “Boss, it’s bad! Hongkong Land just sent a formal notice to terminate our partnership. They also said they’re going to announce to all of Hong Kong that we leaked their secrets!”

Yang Fugui felt his head buzz, as if struck by a heavy hammer, and he froze on the spot.

After a long moment, he asked in a trembling voice, “How… how is that possible? Is the information accurate?”

“President Chen from Hongkong Land, the one in charge of dealing with distributors, called our sales department personally. It’s absolutely true, Boss! President Chen’s attitude was very firm. He said you leaked information and damaged their interests, and that there’s no room for negotiation. The official termination notice will be sent over in writing shortly.”

The voice of the sales department employee on the other end was choked with sobs. As a confidant of the boss, he naturally understood how devastating this would be for Haitian Doors and Windows Company and was clearly terrified by the sudden news.

The telephone receiver in Yang Fugui’s hand clattered onto the desk. He slumped into his chair, his eyes vacant, as if all his strength had been drained.

He never imagined that Hongkong Land Group would act so quickly, so decisively.

“It’s over, it’s all over…” Yang Fugui muttered to himself, his mind replaying the company’s past glory.

Haitian Doors and Windows Company had grown from a small workshop to what it was today, owning six industrial buildings and being a well-known name in the Hong Kong door and window industry. All of this was thanks to years of support from Hongkong Land Group.

But now, because of a moment of greed and shortsightedness, he had personally pushed the company into the abyss.

He knew exactly why Hongkong Land Group had canceled his partnership.

After all, Ma Shimin had personally called to warn him not to leak the information.

But that morning, he had gambled, thinking that even if he said something, Hongkong Land had so many partners that the chances of them tracing it back to him were slim.

As long as he could secure the deal with Cheung Kong Holdings Group, it would all be worth it.

But now, the partnership with Cheung Kong Holdings was still up in theair, while Hongkong Land had already severed their ties and planned to publicize his disgraceful act of leaking secrets. This had pushed him into a state of irreparable ruin.

Yang Fugui shot up and paced frantically around his office, clutching his head and muttering, “How could this happen? How could this happen? How could Hongkong Land find out so quickly that it was me? Could it be that Cheung Kong Holdings told Lin Haoran themselves…? How could I have been so foolish!” His eyes were filled with terror and despair.

At that moment, he finally understood how formidable Hongkong Land’s intelligence network was.

He had leaked the information in the morning, and it had been discovered by the afternoon.

At this moment, all he felt was deep regret.

“No, I have to call Mr. Ma. I’ll tell him it was a misunderstanding, that I let it slip unintentionally. I’ll beg him to give me one more chance!” Grasping at the last straw, Yang Fugui frantically searched his desk for Ma Shimin’s phone number.

His hands trembled so violently that it took him a great effort to finally dial the number.

Ma Shimin’s calm and cold voice came from the other end. “General Manager Yang, what can I do for you?”

Yang Fugui suppressed the fear and anxiety in his heart, his voice choked with sobs as he said, “Mr. Ma, it’s me, Yang Fugui. I want to explain. I didn’t mean to reveal that we were moving our funds from HSBC to the Bank of East Asia. I was chatting with an old classmate and it just slipped out. I absolutely did not intend to leak Hongkong Land Group’s secrets!

Please be magnanimous and give me one more chance. I promise I will never make such a mistake again.”

Ma Shimin sneered. “General Manager Yang, do you think I’d believe such an excuse? I’ve already investigated what you said to the senior executive at Cheung Kong Holdings Group. I clearly warned you not to leak any information, yet you deliberately ignored it. Don’t you think it’s too late to call it a misunderstanding now?”

Yang Fugui continued to plead, “Mr. Ma, I know I was wrong, I really know I was wrong. For the sake of our many years of cooperation, please be lenient and spare me this once. I’m willing to compensate Hongkong Land Group, whatever the amount may be.”

Ma Shimin said coldly, “Compensation? Do you think Hongkong Land Group cares about your paltry compensation? We value commercial credibility and the loyalty of our partners.

Your actions have seriously damaged the interests of Hongkong Land Group and destroyed the trust between us. The only thing you can do now is accept the decision to terminate our partnership. Don’t waste your time with pointless struggles.”

With that, Ma Shimin hung up.

Listening to the dial tone, Yang Fugui collapsed to the floor, his eyes empty and filled with despair.

He knew that all his years of hard work had been destroyed in this single moment.

One might even say there was no longer a place for him in Hong Kong.

After all, the confidentiality of business secrets between collaborating enterprises was the crucial bond that maintained trust and ensured a fair competitive environment.

Once this bond was recklessly broken, the business ecosystem would descend into a mire of chaos and suspicion.

As long as Hongkong Land Group made this public, could he, Yang Fugui, still do business in Hong Kong?

It was basically impossible. No one would work with him, or they would have to consider the risk of being betrayed.

After all, in the business world, a damaged reputation is like a broken mirror, impossible to piece back together.

His only way out now was perhaps to sell off his assets and leave the country.

Yang Fugui sat slumped on the floor in a daze, this thought replaying in his mind.

But selling his assets was easier said than done. Most of the company’s assets were related to its business with Hongkong Land Group, or were real estate properties. With the partnership terminated, the value of those assets was bound to plummet. Coupled with the recent slowdown in Hong Kong’s real estate transactions, it would be even more impossible to sell those industrial buildings for a good price.

Moreover, to expand production last year, the company had taken on a large amount of debt from banks and suppliers. Even if he sold the assets, there might be little left after paying everything off.

Gone. Everything was gone.

He never thought that what he considered a trivial matter would come at such a high price.

Hongkong Land Group couldn’t care less about Yang Fugui’s fate. They had finally caught someone they could make an example of, and they certainly wouldn’t pass up this perfect opportunity to establish industry rules and strengthen the group’s prestige.

Ma Shimin quickly assembled the group’s public relations team and legal department to discuss how to maximize the impact of this incident for the best warning effect.

First, he ordered the PR team to issue a formal statement to the media and television stations, detailing Haitian Doors and Windows Company’s breach of contract and the damage it caused to Hongkong Land Group.

At the same time, it would emphasize Hongkong Land Group’s firm stance on business ethics and partner loyalty, sending a clear signal to the entire industry.

It was not possible to hold Haitian Doors and Windows Company accountable through the legal department, as Ma Shimin’s warning to Yang Fugui and other partners had only been verbal.

However, publicizing the matter through the media and canceling all cooperation with Haitian Doors and Windows Company was more than enough to teach them the lesson they deserved.

The PR team moved quickly. A series of tasks, from drafting the text to contacting the media and scheduling television appearances, was carried out in an orderly fashion.

Within an hour, a rigorously worded and detailed statement was ready.

The statement not only described in detail the unethical act of leaking trade secrets by Haitian Doors and Windows Company but also listed actual losses they had caused in the past, including project delays and reputational damage. These minor issues had been overlooked before but were now being brought up to hold them accountable.

At the same time, the statement emphasized Hongkong Land Group’s commitment to business ethics and its strict requirements for partner loyalty, making it clear that any act that harmed the group’s interests or violated business ethics would be met with severe sanctions.

However, Cheung Kong Holdings Group was not explicitly named, nor were the specific details of the incident.

If anyone with an interest were to investigate and find out which company it was, it wouldn’t be difficult.

That being the case, there was no need to name them.

Basically, once this announcement was released, there would be no room for Haitian Doors and Windows Company to survive in Hong Kong.

This十几-year-old door and window company’s time on the Hong Kong business stage had come to a complete end. Its former glory, like a phantom bubble, had vanished without a trace.

Afterward, the statement was copied multiple times and sent to major business media outlets in Hong Kong.

Business newspapers would certainly be very interested in a statement like this.

After all, it was coming from Hongkong Land Group, one of Hong Kong’s top magnates. The inside story behind it was bound to attract a lot of attention.

The “certain large company” mentioned in the statement would also fuel public speculation.

Although the main focus of public interest recently had been the struggle between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia, any single topic, if it dragged on without new developments, would eventually become tedious.

The storm between Hongkong Land Group and Haitian Doors and Windows Company would undoubtedly capture the attention of many.

At the headquarters of Cheung Kong Holdings Group, Li Jiacheng, who was just about to pack up and go home, frowned upon hearing his subordinate’s report.

The role Cheung Kong Holdings Group played in this affair was not a good one. If word got out, it would be tantamount to placing him in direct opposition to Lin Haoran.

A miscalculation. He should have just informed Michael Sandberg over the phone instead of going in person.

At this point, he had already guessed that his appearance at the HSBC building was how Hongkong Land’s investigation had uncovered the leak.

As the boss of a major corporation, he had his own professional intelligence department. He naturally understood that a giant like Hongkong Land definitely had a powerful intelligence department of its own and even suspected that the intelligence capabilities controlled by Hongkong Land were likely stronger than his own.

Li Jiacheng grew inwardly vigilant, realizing that he might have acted too rashly this time, without fully considering the potential chain reactions.

However, it was too late for regrets now.

Besides, for figures of their stature, this wasn’t a major issue.

All of Hong Kong knew that his relationship with HSBC had always been close. This intersection with Hongkong Land Group on the level of business intelligence, though somewhat unexpected, was not enough to make him panic. At most, it would just make his relationship with Lin Haoran slightly delicate.

He wasn’t keen on offending Lin Haoran either, but between HSBC and Lin Haoran, he had no choice.

Moreover, Li Jiacheng felt that with his current status, he no longer had to bow to anyone in the business world, aside from HSBC.

Although there was a significant wealth gap between him and Lin Haoran, his confidence had skyrocketed ever since he acquired the controlling stake in Hutchison Whampoa, and he faintly felt he had the resources and confidence to challenge for the top position in Hong Kong’s business world.

In his view, the addition of the commercial behemoth Hutchison Whampoa had drastically increased his influence in Hong Kong’s business empire, enough to support him in dealing with some seemingly tricky situations.

With that thought, he dismissed the matter from his mind.

Time flowed like a gentle stream, and overnight, the hours slipped away.

The month of June quietly came to a close.

The height of summer, July, gracefully arrived.

A glance showed the calendar had already turned to July 1st.

Early in the morning, the owners of Hong Kong’s major newsstands began their busy day as usual, neatly stacking newspapers and calling out to passersby.

“Boss, a copy of the Oriental Daily News. Let’s see if there’s any explosive news about Bank of East Asia and HSBC,” a citizen said, hurrying up to a newsstand in Causeway Bay and handing over the money.

“Right you are, here you go,” the owner said, deftly handing over a copy of the Oriental Daily News.

The citizen took the paper, his eyes immediately drawn to the striking headline. He couldn’t help but stand right there at the newsstand, engrossed in reading.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment. After an unknown while, the ordinary citizen slowly looked up, his face full of regret.

He couldn’t help but sigh, “This Haitian Doors and Windows was a reasonably well-known company. The boss must be completely muddle-headed. Partnering with Hongkong Land Group is an opportunity so many people would kill for, but what does he do? He insists on pulling such a dirty trick.”

“Isn’t that the truth! Cooperating with Hongkong Land Group is what so many people in Hong Kong’s business circle dream of. This guy surnamed Yang didn’t know how to cherish it. You reap what you sow; he deserves to end up like this!”

Another citizen nearby, also reading a newspaper, immediately chimed in upon hearing this, his tone filled with disdain and contempt.

The news, reported by Hong Kong’s mainstream media, quickly became a topic of casual conversation.

Although it wasn’t as captivating as the competition between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia, it still garnered the attention of many citizens.

“This well-known large company mentioned in the paper—which one is it?” a customer in a tea restaurant asked those around him, his eyes glued to the article about Yang Fugui leaking information, his face full of curiosity.

“This morning, I heard from some customers that it was Yang Fugui, the boss of Haitian Doors and Windows. In order to get connected with Cheung Kong Holdings and start a partnership, he apparently spilled all of Hongkong Land’s confidential information. Isn’t that just jumping into a fire pit?” a waiter at the tea restaurant chattered with the customer while wiping a table.

“So it was Cheung Kong Holdings. That makes sense. Cheung Kong Holdings is one of the real estate giants in Hong Kong right now, with countless property projects. It’s only natural that Haitian Doors and Windows would want to work with them,” a customer sipping tea nearby said, experiencing a sudden realization after hearing the waiter.

“That may be true, but there have to be some principles in business. It’s fine for Yang Fugui to want to cooperate, but he can’t go around making deals that harm the interests of Hongkong Land Group.

Haitian Doors and Windows only grew to its current scale because of the business from Hongkong Land. Without Hongkong Land, Yang Fugui would be nothing.

And now look at him. Instead of being grateful, he’s like an ungrateful wretch, repaying kindness with enmity. Well, serves him right. His company is finished, and he probably has no future left in Hong Kong,” the customer said, putting down his teacup in agreement.

…

As Hongkong Land Group officially announced the termination of its partnership with Haitian Doors and Windows Company, the scandal of the latter leaking trade secrets spread rapidly throughout Hong Kong’s business circles.

In particular, the numerous partner companies of Lin Haoran’s groups, including Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and Wanqing Group, were plunged into an unprecedented state of fear.

For a time, large, medium, and small enterprises with business ties to Lin Haoran’s groups all took action.

Some strengthened their internal management and improved their systems for protecting trade secrets.

Others proactively communicated with partners like Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and Wanqing Group, expressing their emphasis on business ethics and partnership principles.

The Haitian Doors and Windows Company leak incident directly triggered a wave of profound reflection on commercial credibility and ethical standards in the Hong Kong business community.

Most importantly, it made all of the partner companies of Lin Haoran’s groups deeply realize just how severe the consequences of violating business ethics could be!

At the Hongkong Land Group headquarters, Ma Shimin looked at the report submitted by his subordinate regarding the reactions of various partner companies, a satisfied smile on his face.

He reported the matter directly to Lin Haoran: “Boss, your tactic of making an example of them was remarkably effective. All our partners are on edge now, strengthening their management and adherence to our bottom line.”

Chapter 629: The Bank of East Asia Is Worth Half an HSBC

Lin Haoran, as the boss, was naturally very satisfied with the effect of making an example of them.

His original reason for targeting Haitian Doors and Windows Company was to give a warning to the other businesses that depended on his companies for survival.

Now, the outcome was just as he had expected. The Haitian Doors and Windows affair had served as a powerful deterrent.

Those companies that had been watching from the sidelines, harboring wishful thinking, all reined in their ambitions after seeing what happened to Haitian Doors and Windows. They no longer dared to do anything that would harm the interests of Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, or other such companies.

As for the role Li Jiacheng played in this business war, Lin Haoran didn’t feel much anger.

After all, he had always been clear that he and Li Jiacheng were not on the same path. Their philosophies and methods were starkly different, like two parallel lines that would never intersect.

If he had traveled back to this era a few years earlier, when the situation at Hutchison Whampoa was not yet clear and the various factions had not fully infiltrated it, he would have laid his plans and schemed meticulously to incorporate Hutchison Whampoa into his business empire.

How could he have allowed Li Jiacheng to come from behind and stir up trouble?

Meanwhile, as Galaxy Securities’ plan to short HSBC was put into action and the borrowed HSBC shares were all sold, it was time to let the companies that relied on Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group for a living transfer their financial services from other foreign firms to the Bank of East Asia.

After the Haitian Doors and Windows incident, these companies that relied on Lin Haoran’s enterprises like Hongkong Land and Hongkong Electric didn’t dare to delay in the slightest. They all pushed forward with the transfer of their financial services at the fastest possible speed.

The Haitian Doors and Windows affair was enough to show these bosses how severe the consequences of non-compliance would be.

In fact, these company owners not only moved their corporate financial services to the Bank of East Asia but also directly stated that their own family funds and deposits would also be transferred from other foreign firms to the Bank of East Asia.

This was another piece of great news for the Bank of East Asia.

After all, aside from their company assets, the personal and family assets of most of these bosses represented a considerable fortune.

When they decided to move their funds and deposits to the Bank of East Asia, it undoubtedly brought a huge influx of capital, greatly bolstering the bank’s capital reserves.

Thus, in just a few short days, as these companies and their owners transferred their financial services from other foreign firms to the Bank of East Asia, the bank’s deposit business, capital turnover, credit services, and various intermediary services all saw explosive growth.

In terms of deposits, the influx of a large amount of new capital caused the Bank of East Asia’s deposit scale to climb rapidly.

The originally spacious vaults of the Bank of East Asia now seemed somewhat “crowded” due to the reserves of cash and valuable assets. The bank had to urgently plan for an expansion of its vault space while upgrading its security systems to ensure the safety of the funds.

In terms of capital turnover, since most of the fund transfers for these companies’ daily operations were now conducted through the Bank of East Asia, the bank’s capital flow efficiency improved significantly.

In the credit services sector alone, the Bank of East Asia welcomed an unprecedented development opportunity.

As these companies established deep cooperation with the Bank of East Asia, the bank gained a more in-depth understanding of their operating conditions, financial status, and creditworthiness.

Based on this informational advantage, the Bank of East Asia could more accurately assess credit risks and provide these enterprises with tailored credit products and services.

Some companies that had previously struggled to obtain sufficient credit support from other banks received reasonable loan amounts and preferential interest rates from the Bank of East Asia, resolving the capital bottlenecks that had hindered their development.

At the same time, the expansion of its credit business brought substantial interest income to the Bank of East Asia, further enhancing its profitability.

Currently, the situation at the Bank of East Asia was still unstable, so Lin Haoran was not in a hurry to mobilize its funds for investment in Japan.

Therefore, it was still very necessary for the Bank of East Asia to continue its own lending business, especially with the shrinking mortgage market.

Other intermediary services also reaped handsome rewards.

The Bank of East Asia had long been prepared for this surge in business volume.

Even so, faced with such rapid and large-scale business growth, the Bank of East Asia still felt a certain amount of pressure and challenges.

The load on the business processing system increased sharply. Despite previous upgrades and optimizations, minor issues constantly cropped up under the impact of the massive volume of transactions.

Human resources also became strained.

The continuous influx of new business significantly increased the workload for every position, and employees working overtime became the norm.

Although many new employees had been hired in advance, the time was ultimately too short. Many were still in the training phase when they were thrown into handling huge volumes of work.

Thus, the Bank of East Asia set its sights on the employees of other banks, especially those from HSBC and Hang Seng Bank.

Poach them. Poach them aggressively. Poach as many of their elite employees as possible!

Worried about moles?

With Lin Haoran’s special ability to see loyalty, they had nowhere to hide!

For newly hired staff, a new employee meeting would be held every so often. Lin Haoran would appear in person, which served two purposes: one, to encourage everyone, and two, to use his special ability to check for any informants. It was killing two birds with one stone.

Before, HSBC had secretly poached people from the Bank of East Asia. This time, the Bank of East Asia was secretly poaching their people. It was a case of turnabout is fair play.

The effect of this corporate financial service transfer was, one could say, even more immediate and far-reaching than when Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group had previously moved their financial business to the Bank of East Asia.

Moreover, the companies that could depend on enterprises like Hongkong Land for survival were basically of very high quality, with few at-risk clients.

Take the former Haitian Doors and Windows Company, for example. If not for the “informant incident,” it would have been a very high-quality enterprise with assets worth tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

And among Hongkong Land’s partner companies, Haitian Doors and Windows could at best be considered a lower-to-mid-tier enterprise.

This gives a glimpse of the high overall quality of the companies associated with Hongkong Land and the others.

Now that they were collectively transferring their financial services to the Bank of East Asia, it brought not only a surge in business volume but also a powerful boost to the bank’s reputation and industry standing.

At this moment, HSBC’s so-called mandatory “choose one of two” policy became a colossal joke. Not only did it fail to stop the Bank of East Asia’s market expansion, but it actually allowed its market share to grow continuously, to the point where today, it possessed the strength to threaten HSBC.

As for the other banks in Hong Kong, the sudden large-scale transfer of funds and financial services by these enterprises and their owners naturally caused their business volumes to decline to varying degrees.

The impact was particularly significant for HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank, originally the top three foreign firms in Hong Kong.

HSBC bore the brunt. Its stock price continued to fall after news of the business loss spread. Shareholders grew anxious, questioning management’s ability to handle the crisis.

However, HSBC could not come up with a good way to stop the decline in business volume.

Previously, under HSBC’s efforts to support and drive up the price, its market capitalization had once risen to a terrifying 25 billion Hong Kong dollars. Although they stopped propping it up later, the stock price was still able to rise slowly.

But as the Bank of East Asia’s market share skyrocketed, and as some media outlets gradually revealed the inside story of the Haitian Doors and Windows incident, the matter of the companies affiliated with Hongkong Land and others transferring their financial services to the Bank of East Asia could no longer be concealed.

Consequently, while HSBC’s market share was constantly decreasing, its stock price also continuously fell over the past few days, and the extent of the drop was unprecedented.

In just the five days from the 2nd to the 7th, HSBC’s market capitalization dropped from over twenty-five billion Hong Kong dollars to just over sixteen billion, a fall of a full nine billion Hong Kong dollars, shocking all of Hong Kong.

And this was with HSBC doing its best to support the market, plus the fact that the 4th and 5th were a Saturday and Sunday when the stock market was closed. Otherwise, HSBC’s market cap would have fallen even more drastically!

Everyone knew that if HSBC still failed to show any good performance, it would be difficult to maintain even its current stock price.

Many people were already predicting that HSBC’s stock would continue to fall tomorrow.

If Hongkong Land Group hadn’t been privatized and delisted from the stock market after being acquired by Lin Haoran, its position as Hong Kong’s number one stock might have been taken by now.

Hong Kong’s number one stock actually performed so poorly in the face of Lin Haoran’s counterattack. This was something many people had not expected.

HSBC, the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial world, had always been a domineering presence.

Now, it was being beaten back step by step by the Bank of East Asia. This huge contrast not only made HSBC’s shareholders feel like they were sitting on pins and needles but also caused an uproar throughout Hong Kong’s entire financial industry.

The once-invincible hegemon appeared so fragile under the Bank of East Asia’s sharp assault. This undoubtedly sent a strong signal to the market: the landscape of Hong Kong’s financial industry was quietly changing.

Within HSBC, the management had fallen into unprecedented chaos and anxiety over the past few days.

Normally, when faced with an inability to suppress a rival force, HSBC would definitely call on its backer, the Government House, to put pressure on the competitor, or even directly use administrative means to intervene in the market.

In the past, HSBC had relied on such tactics time and again, winning every battle and eventually becoming the top hegemon in Hong Kong’s financial and even business circles.

But this time, they could no longer use the Government House to interfere with the Bank of East Asia’s actions, because the Government House had previously issued a statement to all of Hong Kong that it would not interfere in the competition between the two parties.

If the Government House were to get involved now, it would completely lose its credibility and become a laughingstock in Hong Kong’s business community and among the public for abusing power and showing favoritism.

The Government House and Murray MacLehose naturally understood that in an era of rapid information flow and gradually awakening public democratic consciousness, any decision that violated fairness and justice would undoubtedly cause a great disturbance. It would not only affect the foundation of their rule in Hong Kong but also attract criticism from the international community.

This was an especially sensitive period, with Britain and Mainland China in negotiations over the future of Hong Kong. The focus of international public opinion was already on Hong Kong, and any sign of trouble could be infinitely magnified.

If the Government House were to favor HSBC at this time, it would undoubtedly give others leverage, leading the outside world to question the fairness and transparency of British governance in Hong Kong, which in turn would have an unpredictable impact on the negotiation situation.

At this moment, Michael Sandberg knew all too well why Lin Haoran had previously proposed the condition that the Government House could no longer interfere in the competition between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC in front of Governor Murray MacLehose.

This was entirely a setup by Lin Haoran, a move made well in advance for this very day.

Although he understood that this was all Lin Haoran’s scheme, Michael Sandberg’s heart was still full of resentment and unwillingness.

He knew very well that this time, HSBC was already at a disadvantage in the competition, and the situation was extremely unfavorable.

Inside HSBC, the atmosphere was so oppressive it was hard to breathe.

The executives sat around the oval conference table, each with a grave expression and furrowed brows.

Michael Sandberg sat in the main seat, his eyes betraying anxiety and helplessness.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, everyone, in the past few days, our bank’s capital reserves and business volume have continued to decline. The capital reserves, in particular, are getting tighter. If this continues, even if our bank isn’t at risk of a market crash, we will still be utterly humiliated in the Hong Kong financial market and become the laughingstock of the industry,” a senior executive reported, standing up from his chair.

His words made the already heavy atmosphere in the conference room even more somber, as if a giant stone was weighing on everyone’s heart.

Another senior executive couldn’t help but slam his hand on the table and say emotionally, “This Bank of East Asia is simply too arrogant! That rascal Lin Haoran must have planned this long ago, pushing us into this desperate situation step by step. We absolutely cannot sit and wait for death. We must find a way to fight back!”

In fact, they had held countless meetings over the past few days, but each time, they failed to come up with a feasible solution, and the meetings ended fruitlessly amidst arguments and helplessness. At this moment, the executive’s words once again ignited the long-suppressed anger in everyone’s hearts, and the conference room instantly erupted.

“Fight back? How do we fight back? The Government House has clearly stated it won’t interfere. What other means do we have?” a slightly weary executive said, spreading his hands helplessly, his tone full of defeat.

“Are we just going to watch the Bank of East Asia walk all over us? HSBC has been in Hong Kong for so many years. When have we ever been humiliated like this!” another young and fiery executive’s face turned red as he slammed his fist heavily on the table.

Watching the chaotic scene before him, Michael Sandberg felt a wave of annoyance.

He rapped his knuckles hard on the table and said loudly, “Everyone quiet! Will arguing solve the problem? What we need now is to think calmly and find a countermeasure.”

In reality, he was the most frustrated person in the room.

After all, he was the current head of HSBC.

If anything happened to HSBC, he would be the first to bear the responsibility.

Just like Newbiggin, the former Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co. After Jardine Matheson lost in its competition with Lin Haoran, he, the Taipan, was directly dismissed.

The same would absolutely hold true for HSBC.

Once HSBC lost the competition against the Bank of East Asia, he, the Taipan of HSBC, would likely not escape the fate of being held accountable and removed from his position.

At this thought, Michael Sandberg felt a chill run down his spine, and beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

In the past, he had indeed made countless outstanding contributions to HSBC. With his keen market insight and decisive decision-making, he had led HSBC through all obstacles in the Hong Kong financial world, securing its position as the hegemon.

But now, facing this “storm” carefully orchestrated by Lin Haoran and the Bank of East Asia, he felt an unprecedented sense of powerlessness and defeat.

He had been looking forward to a glorious retirement from his position as the head of HSBC in just a few years, enjoying the leisure and respect that came with a successful career. But the current situation was like a sudden storm, shattering his beautiful vision to pieces.

Michael Sandberg took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. His gaze slowly swept over every senior executive present, his voice low but with an unquestionable authority, “Gentlemen, I understand how you all feel right now—anger, anxiety, unwillingness. These emotions are all normal.

“But anger won’t solve problems, and anxiety will only make us lose our composure. HSBC didn’t get to where it is today by luck, but by the wisdom and hard work of every one of our colleagues. Now is the time for us to once again show our unity and wisdom.”

A senior executive frowned, his face weary, and said, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, we all understand the principle, but in this situation, where can we possibly find a breakthrough? The Bank of East Asia’s series of moves are all interlinked, leaving us with no way to fight back.”

These words made all the executives present nod inwardly.

Faced with such a situation, they felt completely helpless.

Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and others were all Lin Haoran’s enterprises. It was only natural for Lin Haoran to transfer the financial business of these companies to the Bank of East Asia, which was also one of his assets. There was nothing they could do about it.

Now, those same companies under Lin Haoran were having the enterprises that depended on them for survival also move their financial services to the Bank of East Asia. There was even less they could do to stop it.

One could say they were doing it openly and honorably; this was Lin Haoran’s own strength.

Hong Kong’s financial industry wasn’t small, but in reality, it had already been carved up by the major banks and finance companies.

Especially their own HSBC, which, relying on itself and its subsidiary Hang Seng Bank, had previously captured sixty percent of the market.

However, with the transfer of financial business from companies like Hongkong Land and Hongkong Electric, and now with the dependent companies following suit, the business volume of HSBC and its subsidiary Hang Seng Bank had fallen again and again.

Seeing their expressions, Michael Sandberg sighed and had no choice but to pin his hopes on the successor he was grooming, the current HSBC Executive Director, Mr. Purves, hoping he could offer some useful advice.

Never mind the others, he himself didn’t have any good ideas. How could he blame anyone else?

“Mr. Purves, do you have any thoughts? Everyone is waiting to hear them,” Michael Sandberg said, his gaze turning to William Purves, a hint of expectation and urgency in his eyes.

William Purves, who had not intended to speak, was slightly taken aback when Michael Sandberg called on him. He then stood up, adjusted his collar, and said with a solemn expression, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, colleagues, the current situation is indeed severe, but it is not without a chance for a turnaround.

“First, we must be clear that the Bank of East Asia’s success this time is largely due to the resource integration and strategic planning of Lin Haoran’s own enterprises.

“On this point, we effectively have no way to counterattack. It is a reflection of Lin Haoran’s own strength. The only thing we can do now is to maintain our existing business, prevent the Bank of East Asia from continuing to take over our market share, and at the same time, look for new growth points to reverse the current decline.

“Actually, there’s no need for everyone to be overly pessimistic. We are still the leader of Hong Kong’s financial industry. Although our market share with Hang Seng Bank has dropped from the original sixty percent to just over forty percent—less than fifty percent—there is still a considerable gap for the Bank of East Asia to catch up to us.

“Therefore, I suggest we could start from two areas to continue expanding our strength and re-establish the distance between us and the Bank of East Asia.”

Here, William Purves paused.

At the beginning of this year, HSBC’s capital reserves were as high as around 130 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Due to the transfer of funds from Lin Haoran’s companies like Hongkong Land, it had already dropped to around 110 billion Hong Kong dollars.

The transfer of funds in the past few days from the companies that depended on Hongkong Land and Hongkong Electric, as well as their owners, had caused HSBC’s capital reserves to fall again, from about 110 billion to about 90 billion Hong Kong dollars.

In less than a month, HSBC’s capital reserves had dropped by nearly 40 billion Hong Kong dollars.

This was also the first time in several years, after raising its capital scale above one hundred billion Hong Kong dollars, that it had fallen back below that mark.

Based on the Bank of East Asia’s previous size, HSBC had effectively lost the equivalent of six to seven Bank of East Asias in just one month. This was undoubtedly an extremely painful loss.

Despite this, the combined market share of HSBC and Hang Seng Bank still held a very powerful final say.

The current market scale of the Bank of East Asia had reached approximately 46 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Its capital composition was actually very simple.

It included about 3 billion Hong Kong dollars of its own customer share from before, nearly 40 billion transferred from HSBC, and nearly 3 billion transferred from Hang Seng Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and others.

In other words, if HSBC didn’t include Hang Seng Bank, the current Bank of East Asia was already worth half of HSBC.

Keep in mind, previously, HSBC was more than twenty times the size of the Bank of East Asia.

With one falling and the other rising, the gap between the two had rapidly narrowed to a ratio of 1-to-2.

Such a heaven-and-earth change in just one month was truly lamentable.

During this period, morale at HSBC had continuously dropped. Seeing the almost defeatist expressions on the faces of the senior executives present, one could tell just how low their morale had fallen.

Faced with this situation, William Purves knew that he had to present a practical and feasible plan to stabilize the ranks and boost HSBC’s morale.

After all, if he wanted to become the true successor of HSBC, he definitely needed to demonstrate his abilities with impressive achievements and effective strategies.

Although William Purves didn’t actually have a way to deal with the Bank of East Asia, he believed that simply reviving HSBC’s morale would be enough.

The others, including Michael Sandberg, couldn’t help but have their eyes light up.

Some even complained inwardly, If you had a plan, Purves, you should have brought it up sooner. What’s the point of hiding it?

HSBC was already at a moment of life and death. Right now, everyone would clutch tightly to any last straw of hope.

Therefore, they were all waiting expectantly to hear what brilliant strategy William Purves had.

Chapter 630: Plundering Small and Medium-Sized Banks

Seeing how anxious everyone was, William Purves knew he couldn’t keep them in suspense any longer.

He cleared his throat, his gaze sweeping across the people in the conference room, and continued, “The first method is to take the initiative and seize the market share of other banks in Hong Kong.

“Right now, the Hong Kong financial market is in turmoil due to the rise of the Bank of East Asia. Many small and medium-sized banks and finance companies are facing the dilemma of losing business and customers. This is the perfect opportunity for HSBC to expand its territory, reclaim the market share lost to the Bank of East Asia, and solidify our leading position.

“It’s undeniable that the Bank of East Asia’s success this time is largely due to the integration of resources and strategic planning from Lin Haoran’s enterprises. Therefore, it’s basically impossible for us to win back the market share they’ve taken.

“However, we can seize the market share of other banks. If we can’t touch the Bank of East Asia, can’t we still deal with other banks?

“Take those small and medium-sized banks, for instance. What do they rely on? They rely on high interest rates to snatch a portion of the market share from larger banks! In other words, the market share of these smaller banks is actually very unstable.

“In addition, the Hong Kong property market has already begun to show clear signs of cooling down, and the demand for loans continues to fall. Even if they attract deposits, they will find it difficult to profit by lending that money out. This will drastically increase their cash flow pressure and operational risks.

“This is the perfect time for HSBC to flex its muscles. We can leverage our immense capital strength, extensive customer base, and mature business network to launch a series of competitive financial products and services.

“We can formulate a series of targeted marketing strategies, such as offering more attractive deposit rates, more flexible loan plans, and superior customer service.

“At the same time, we can use HSBC’s deep roots and extensive connections in the Hong Kong financial world to actively approach these small and medium-sized banks and finance companies to discuss the possibility of cooperation or acquisition. Through these means, we can rapidly expand our market share and enhance our own competitiveness.”

William Purves’ words immediately made everyone’s eyes light up.

That’s right. They couldn’t do anything about the Bank of East Asia’s market share, but couldn’t they deal with these small and medium-sized banks and finance companies that were already struggling?

It was like a piece of “fatty meat” laid out right before their eyes, just waiting for HSBC to feast on it.

Even Michael Sandberg couldn’t help but cast an appreciative glance at William Purves.

After hearing Purves’ words, Michael Sandberg realized that he had indeed been on the wrong track recently. He had been under the impression that HSBC could only reclaim its lost market share from the Bank of East Asia, but he had never considered taking it from other banks.

Among the hundreds of large and small banks and finance companies in Hong Kong, honestly, with HSBC’s strength and status, they truly didn’t care about any of them except for a few like Standard Chartered Bank and Citibank, which they wouldn’t dare to provoke.

Now that HSBC was bleeding heavily after being drained by the Bank of East Asia and helpless to do anything about it, why not “suck some blood back” from these smaller banks?

The more Michael Sandberg thought about it, the more feasible the plan seemed. The frustration over the continuous decline in market share seemed to dissipate like a wisp of smoke at that moment.

He truly is the successor I chose for myself. Michael Sandberg felt increasingly proud of his own judgment.

Michael Sandberg sat up a little straighter, his voice carrying a hint of excitement. “William Purves is absolutely right. Once you open up this line of thinking, HSBC’s situation changes completely. We were indeed too fixated on the Bank of East Asia before, overlooking other potential breakthroughs.

“Next, we need to plan the specific execution strategy carefully. We must seize more market share from other small and medium-sized banks to once again widen the gap with the Bank of East Asia!”

The other senior executives couldn’t help but get excited. Someone even started to clap, as if HSBC had already seized a large market share from other banks and re-established its distance from the Bank of East Asia.

William Purves bowed slightly and responded modestly, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, colleagues, this is just my initial idea. I know this process will not be smooth sailing and will inevitably encounter various forms of resistance and challenges. But as long as we are united and hold fast to our beliefs, we will surely overcome these difficulties and achieve our goals.”

The atmosphere in the conference room gradually became more animated. The senior executives began to whisper amongst themselves, discussing the plan Purves had proposed.

Although some still had doubts in their hearts, more were infected by Purves’ courage and determination and began to seriously consider the feasibility of the plan.

Besides, even Mr. Michael Sandberg endorsed this method. Even if they thought it was too simplistic, they wouldn’t voice their objections.

Right now, nobody knew how to deal with the Bank of East Asia. To step out and find fault at this moment would be no different from seeking death.

“What about the second method?” Michael Sandberg asked eagerly, his eyes filled with anticipation.

William Purves smiled faintly and continued, “The second method is actually something we’ve been implementing all along: expanding into the international market. However, our pace of overseas market expansion has been too slow in recent years. We must accelerate our internationalization.

“Currently, our most successful international market expansion is the acquisition of Marine Midland Bank in the United States. In addition, we also have a certain market share in Southeast Asia.

“But our expansion in the British market failed. I know this was a huge blow to everyone.

“However, there’s an old Chinese saying: failure is the mother of success. Although our bid to acquire the Royal Bank of Scotland has completely failed, the world doesn’t just consist of the Royal Bank of Scotland. We cannot stop our overseas expansion because of this one failure.

“Relying solely on the acquisition of one American bank and possessing a small market share in Southeast Asia is not enough to make HSBC an international bank.

“It can be said that we are still a long way from being a true international bank, let alone comparing ourselves to an international giant like Citibank.

“Although the Hong Kong financial market is large, it is ultimately limited. To truly become a world-class financial tycoon, we must step outside of Hong Kong and expand into overseas markets.”

William Purves’ statement indeed resonated with many people.

Back in April, when HSBC’s acquisition of the Royal Bank of Scotland completely failed, the senior executives at HSBC were indeed hit hard.

Their overseas market expansion had been far too difficult in recent years.

Although the acquisition of Marine Midland Bank in the United States was successful, the bank was losing money every year and required capital subsidies from HSBC. This led to a significant reduction in HSBC’s annual profits, and sometimes even resulted in losses.

Consequently, some senior executives had even pessimistically suggested that since the overseas market was so difficult to develop, they might as well focus on managing the Hong Kong market.

As long as they maintained their dominant position in the Hong Kong market, HSBC would still be a very strong bank.

However, as a leader with great ambition, Michael Sandberg naturally would not allow such thinking within the group. Any senior executive who proposed such an idea would eventually be gradually pushed aside.

Over time, no senior executive dared to bring up the matter again.

William Purves paused for a moment and continued, “In recent years, with the acceleration of globalization and the opening of financial markets, the international financial market has provided us with vast room for development.

“Of course, the process of internationalization cannot be achieved overnight. It requires long-term investment and effort. But as long as we persevere, we will certainly be able to gain a firm foothold in the international financial market and lay a solid foundation for the long-term development of HSBC.

“As long as our Hong Kong and overseas markets expand further, the threat from the Bank of East Asia will naturally cease to exist!”

The atmosphere in the conference room reached a climax, with senior executives expressing their approval and support for the plan proposed by William Purves.

Michael Sandberg also strongly agreed with Purves’ latter words.

In fact, ever since he took office, he had been vigorously promoting HSBC’s internationalization strategy.

Now, what Purves said was exactly what he wanted to hear!

Michael Sandberg stood up from his chair and declared loudly, “Mr. Purves is right! HSBC must get a piece of that big cake, the overseas market. And it must be a bigger, sweeter piece!

“We cannot shrink back because of a few setbacks. We at HSBC have never been cowards.”

As soon as Michael Sandberg’s voice fell, a wave of enthusiastic applause erupted throughout the conference room.

At that moment, it was as if the crisis facing HSBC had been completely resolved.

Next, the meeting turned to discussing how to further plunder the market of small and medium-sized banks in Hong Kong and how to accelerate HSBC’s internationalization pace.

Hang Seng Bank, Chairman’s office.

Ho Sin Hang finished reading the documents his subordinate had handed him and was filled with emotion.

“Lin Haoran, this young man, is truly remarkable!”

He couldn’t help but recall the scene last month when Lin Haoran had invited him to become the head of the Bank of East Asia.

At that time, he had even thought that the Bank of East Asia could at best scrape by under HSBC’s fierce assault, and he had dismissed Lin Haoran’s words.

Looking at it now, he had underestimated this young man.

During this period, Hang Seng Bank’s market share had also been affected by the Bank of East Asia, and the impact was not small.

The amount of deposits alone had decreased by nearly three billion Hong Kong dollars.

One had to know that Hang Seng Bank’s total deposits were previously just over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars.

As the second-largest bank in Hong Kong, that was already a very impressive achievement.

But now, a direct loss of three billion Hong Kong dollars in market share was naturally a significant blow to Hang Seng Bank.

However, ever since the Oriental Daily News had reported the detailed process of how HSBC had unscrupulously acquired Hang Seng Bank back in the day, his once-deep sense of belonging to the bank had gradually faded.

Those buried memories, those underhanded tactics used by HSBC, were like thorns piercing his heart, making him feel lost about Hang Seng Bank’s future within the HSBC system.

“Chairman Ho, the Bank of East Asia’s momentum is fierce right now, and they’ve seized so much of our market share. Are we at Hang Seng Bank just going to sit here and wait for death?” the general manager of Hang Seng Bank standing beside him asked anxiously, his eyes filled with worry.

Ho Sin Hang leaned back in his chair, his fingers tapping lightly on the desk as he sank into thought.

For Lin Haoran to enable the Bank of East Asia to rise so quickly in such a short period, his methods and abilities were certainly not to be underestimated.

“Even HSBC can’t do anything, so what can Hang Seng Bank do? For now, we can only take things as they come. Let’s see what HSBC comes up with, and we’ll just follow their lead!” Ho Sin Hang said nonchalantly.

His words left the general manager of Hang Seng Bank speechless.

The general manager of Hang Seng Bank was a Westerner, and also an important chess piece placed in Hang Seng Bank by HSBC, named Smith.

Smith had always been loyal to HSBC. Hearing Ho Sin Hang’s passive remarks, alarm bells immediately went off in his mind.

He naturally understood that if Hang Seng Bank continued to respond so passively, not only would it be unable to withstand the impact from the Bank of East Asia, but it could also bring tangible losses to its parent company, HSBC.

Moreover, this was not at all like Ho Sin Hang’s style of handling things!

In the past, if there was even the slightest problem with Hang Seng Bank’s business, he would be as anxious as an ant on a hot pan, running around and trying every possible way to solve the problem.

But now, facing such a strong competitive stance from the Bank of East Asia, with HSBC’s business shrinking severely, he was choosing to bide his time. What was he thinking?

“Chairman Ho, I understand your current concerns, but waiting for doom is by no means a wise choice.” Smith cleared his throat, trying to make his tone sound sincere. “Our Hang Seng Bank also holds a decisive position in the Hong Kong financial world. We cannot give up resisting just because of temporary difficulties.

“Besides, although the Bank of East Asia is powerful, it is not invulnerable. We can completely engage in differentiated competition with them in certain areas, or find new partners to jointly face the challenge from the Bank of East Asia.”

“Mr. Smith, it seems you have a lot of ideas. How about this? As the general manager of Hang Seng Bank, I will entrust you with full authority to handle the crisis our bank is facing. Let’s see if you can find a way to break this stalemate for Hang Seng Bank.

“You know, I, Ho Sin Hang, am already eighty-one years old. I won’t be doing this for much longer. If you can really handle this matter beautifully, I will definitely recommend you strongly on the Board of Directors.

“Who knows, perhaps in the future, the chairman’s seat of Hang Seng Bank will be yours to sit on!” Ho Sin Hang laughed heartily, but an inscrutable glint flashed in his eyes.

Ever since learning the true story of how Hang Seng Bank was acquired by HSBC, Ho Sin Hang no longer managed the bank with the same attentiveness and enthusiasm as before.

He understood that Hang Seng Bank was merely a pawn in HSBC’s vast financial empire. All his years of hard work and dedication were perhaps, in the eyes of HSBC’s senior executives, just a necessary means to keep the pawn functioning properly.

Now, facing the powerful rise of the Bank of East Asia, he felt a faint sense of relief, even a touch of schadenfreude.

However, for the time being, he couldn’t just walk away from Hang Seng Bank on a whim.

After all, this was his life’s work. To just leave like this was easier said than done.

But at this moment, he felt that perhaps he should start learning to let go of Hang Seng Bank.

When Smith heard Ho Sin Hang’s words, his heart leaped with joy.

He had always longed for a greater voice within Hang Seng Bank. If he could use this opportunity to showcase his abilities and gain Ho Sin Hang’s recommendation on the board, he would be much closer to his goal of advancing within the HSBC system.

The position of Chairman of the Board of Hang Seng Bank was the throne he had dreamed of sitting on.

He could almost see himself sitting in that chair, a symbol of power and status, receiving the admiring gazes of all Hang Seng Bank employees.

“Chairman Ho, rest assured, I will do my utmost and not disappoint your expectations!” Smith’s eyes sparkled with excitement as he spoke solemnly.

Ho Sin Hang nodded slightly and waved his hand. “Go on, plan it well and come up with a feasible plan. I’m sure you can do it!”

Watching Smith’s departing figure, Ho Sin Hang curled his lip, completely unfazed.

Even HSBC couldn’t find a workable solution for the time being. What good ideas could Smith possibly have?

Having worked with Smith for several years, he already knew Smith’s abilities and style like the back of his hand.

Although Smith was loyal to HSBC and diligent in carrying out the orders given by HSBC, Ho Sin Hang had always had reservations about his ability to handle complex corporate situations.

However, Ho Sin Hang was more than happy to pass this hot potato to Smith.

On one hand, he was genuinely lost about the future direction of Hang Seng Bank and, at the same time, didn’t know how to face this company that had been acquired by HSBC through improper means.

On the other hand, he also wanted to use this opportunity to see what Smith was capable of. If Smith could really create a miracle, he could step down with a more peaceful mind. If Smith failed, it would just confirm his own pessimistic judgment about Hang Seng Bank’s prospects, and perhaps it would be time to let go.

At the same time, he couldn’t help but think of the bet he had with Lin Haoran.

The bet was that Lin Haoran had to break the so-called “choose one of two” unfair clause initiated by HSBC, which forced all Hong Kong people to choose either the Bank of East Asia or other banks.

Now, although Lin Haoran hadn’t managed to get HSBC’s “choose one of two” unfair clause lifted through his own means, he had actually done something even better!

After all, as the Chairman of Hang Seng Bank and a board member of HSBC, he was well aware of the current shift in market share between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia.

In this situation, one could say that the other party had effectively already won the bet, or one could say he hadn’t completely won it yet.

After all, in the strictest sense, the “choose one of two” clause had not been formally abolished. The Bank of East Asia had merely used its own strength and strategy to tear open a gap in the market structure, making HSBC’s monopoly position no longer unassailable.

Therefore, at this moment, Ho Sin Hang’s heart was filled with complex emotions, but he was also happy for Lin Haoran.

What was complex was that Hang Seng Bank, his life’s work, was now losing a significant market share to the Bank of East Asia.

What made him happy was that Lin Haoran, this young man he admired, possessed such boldness and ability to stir up such waves in the Hong Kong financial world, breaking HSBC’s long-held dominance.

“Perhaps, if I become the helmsman of the Bank of East Asia, and cooperate with this young man Lin Haoran’s business resources, it might really be possible for the Bank of East Asia to surpass HSBC in the future. And I, because of the rise of the Bank of East Asia, will become a world-renowned banking magnate!”

Unconsciously, this thought lingered in Ho Sin Hang’s mind, growing stronger and stronger.

Although he understood this was just a bold and risky idea, at this moment, the rapid development of the Bank of East Asia and the extraordinary ability displayed by Lin Haoran were attracting him like a magnet, allowing this seemingly unreachable thought to take root and sprout.

Ho Sin Hang’s thoughts began to drift. He imagined the Bank of East Asia becoming the largest bank in Hong Kong, and himself standing at the top of its headquarters, looking down at the prosperous scene of the entire Hong Kong financial world.

He could almost see himself working hand in hand with Lin Haoran, building the Bank of East Asia into a top global financial institution in a glorious future.

This vision was so alluring that he almost forgot he was still the Chairman of Hang Seng Bank and the severe challenges the bank was facing.

Once upon a time, he had a dream: to become a figure like Citibank’s Chairman Walter Wriston or Morgan bank’s founder John Pierpont Morgan.

These were the true top-tier banking magnates of the world!

However, ever since Hang Seng Bank was acquired by HSBC and became a subsidiary, his dream had been like a candle flame in a fierce storm, flickering and nearly extinguished.

He had thought that for the rest of his life, he might only be able to guard this small corner of the world that was Hang Seng Bank within the HSBC system, living out his remaining years.

But it seemed that heaven had seen his unwillingness to resign to fate, giving him such an opportunity even as he entered his eighties.

Why did people like Walter Wriston and John Pierpont Morgan become icons in the banking world? Why did they become some of the greatest bankers in the world?

The reason was naturally that they led the banks under their control to become leaders in the global financial field, creating business legends that attracted worldwide attention.

With their outstanding strategic vision, extraordinary leadership skills, and fearless spirit of innovation, they pushed their respective banks to the pinnacle of the industry, not only bringing huge wealth to shareholders but also having a profound impact on the entire world’s financial landscape.

Ho Sin Hang had always believed that his own strategic vision and leadership abilities were no less than those of Walter Wriston or John Pierpont Morgan. What he lacked was simply a stage where he could fully display his talents and realize his grand ambitions.

Before its acquisition, Hang Seng Bank was a good platform.

But after being acquired by HSBC, Hang Seng Bank lost its autonomy in decision-making and space for independent development, becoming a pawn in HSBC’s strategic layout. He, the Chairman, was constrained at every turn, unable to exercise his skills according to his own will.

To put it bluntly, even if Hang Seng Bank did develop, it would only be paving the way for HSBC.

Yet, even under HSBC’s suppression, Hang Seng Bank was able to securely hold its position as the second-largest bank in Hong Kong before the rise of the Bank of East Asia. This alone was enough to show that Ho Sin Hang’s abilities were truly formidable.

Now, the rise of the Bank of East Asia and the potential shown by Lin Haoran made him feel as if he was seeing that long-lost stage again, and the fire in his heart began to burn fiercely once more.

“How can I, Ho Sin Hang, so easily abandon my dream in life to guard this shrinking little world? So what if I’m eighty? I can still fight!” he muttered to himself, his eyes shining with a firm and fervent light.

Chapter 631: A Great Gift, Willingly Delivered

Connaught Centre, 51st floor.

Lin Haoran sipped his tea leisurely, gazing out at Victoria Harbour through the circular glass window. The vast, magnificent sea shimmered with golden light under the sun.

In the distance, ships shuttled back and forth, their horns sounding one after another as if narrating the prosperity and vitality of Hong Kong.

Over the past few days, with the significant rise in the Bank of East Asia’s performance, Lin Haoran’s mood had become increasingly wonderful.

To put it bluntly, the Bank of East Asia was now beginning to possess the authority to challenge HSBC.

Most importantly, he hadn’t even used all his tricks yet!

Watching HSBC’s market share steadily decline, Lin Haoran’s lips curved into a faint smile, revealing a confidence that was determined to win.

To be honest, given his assets and the companies under his control, he would not have feared the combined counterattack from the complex forces behind HSBC if not for the Government House watching closely from the sidelines.

The existence of the Government House was like a Sword of Damocles hanging high above, forcing him to act with a degree of caution.

After all, in a place like Hong Kong, the Government House held great power over many policies and the allocation of resources. If he angered it, even with the Bank of East Asia’s current strong momentum, he could face unforeseen crises.

He held a very deep affection for Hong Kong, so unless absolutely necessary, Lin Haoran was unwilling to move his commercial base camp elsewhere.

Now, with the Government House’s promise not to interfere in the competition between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC, he had more room to maneuver and more confidence, even if he couldn’t yet counterattack completely unrestrained.

Lin Haoran naturally knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He had to seize it firmly and strike while the iron is hot to further squeeze HSBC’s room for survival.

In his hand was a market share analysis sheet that Da Shan had just faxed over from the Bank of East Asia.

The sheet showed that after the two planned transfers of financial services were fully completed, the Bank of East Asia’s market share had skyrocketed from about 3% to around 22%.

This figure brought a flash of pleased surprise to Lin Haoran’s eyes, but he quickly regained his calm and composure.

This was the smallest the gap between a Chinese-owned bank and a British-owned bank had ever been.

In the past, no other Chinese-owned bank had ever managed to achieve such a feat. It was something to be proud of.

But it wasn’t enough. This market share was far from sufficient!

HSBC alone was equivalent to two of the current Bank of East Asia in terms of market share, and that wasn’t even counting the share of its absolute controlling subsidiary, Hang Seng Bank.

Moreover, although there had been no news of an effective counter-plan from HSBC in the past few days, he knew very well that given HSBC’s historically domineering behavior, it would absolutely not sit and wait for death. It was bound to launch a counterattack.

If HSBC gave up so easily, it wouldn’t hold its dominant position today.

Lin Haoran set down the analysis sheet, his fingers tapping lightly on the desk as he fell into deep thought.

Just then, the mobile phone on his desk rang.

Lin Haoran snapped out of his reverie and picked up the mobile phone to answer.

To his surprise, the caller was none other than Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank.

Last month, Lin Haoran had originally planned to visit Walter Wriston in the United States personally, but he happened to learn that Walter Wriston would be visiting Singapore and planned to come to Hong Kong to meet him on July 4th. Thus, he was spared the long journey to the United States to find him.

However, on July 4th, just as Lin Haoran was prepared to welcome Walter Wriston, he received a call from him.

Walter Wriston informed Lin Haoran over the phone that because Citibank’s acquisition plan in Singapore was not going as smoothly as expected, his visit to Hong Kong would need to be delayed by a few days.

As it happened, Lin Haoran was not in a hurry to cooperate with Citibank, so he didn’t mind.

Now, receiving another call from Walter Wriston, he figured that the problem in Singapore must have been resolved.

Sure enough, Walter Wriston’s voice came through the phone: “Mr. Lin, the acquisition negotiations here in Singapore are basically concluded. In two days, on July 10th, I will come to Hong Kong to visit you in person. I apologize for not being able to make our scheduled appointment.”

“Mr. Walter Wriston, there’s no need to be so formal. In business, it’s common for plans to be disrupted by unforeseen circumstances. I completely understand.”

Lin Haoran responded with a smile, his tone carrying just the right amount of enthusiasm and composure. “I am very much looking forward to our meeting on July 10th. I believe we will have many opportunities for in-depth discussion and cooperation.”

Walter Wriston laughed heartily on the other end of the line. “Mr. Lin, it is with great sincerity and anticipation that I wish to discuss cooperation with you. For the past two to three years, Mr. Lin has been one of our most esteemed clients at Citibank. I believe there are vast prospects for collaboration between us in the future.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly. Although the other party couldn’t see it, his gesture exuded confidence. “Mr. Walter, I firmly believe that as well. I have numerous business ventures internationally, and Citibank has abundant resources and experience in the global financial sector. If we can join forces, it would be a tremendous boost for both of us. I look forward to exploring how we can integrate our resources to achieve mutual success.”

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, they ended the call.

Placing the mobile phone back on his desk, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but become lost in thought.

He had learned the specifics of Citibank’s acquisition in Singapore through the intelligence network Guo Henian had in Southeast Asia.

Citibank’s ambitions were indeed great. As one of the world’s top multinational banks, Citibank had never ceased its expansion.

In the seventies and eighties, Southeast Asia’s development was extremely rapid. The entire region’s economy surged, with countries like Thailand and Malaysia boasting some of the highest growth rates in the world.

Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines were even dubbed the “Four Little Tigers” for this reason.

And Singapore, another country in the region, was known as one of the “Four Little Dragons.”

Therefore, it was no surprise that Citibank valued the Southeast Asian market.

However, none of this had much to do with Lin Haoran.

Of course, it wasn’t completely unrelated.

In fact, very few people knew that Lin Haoran’s Universal Investment Company in the United States had been secretly accumulating Citibank’s shares.

In the future, he even planned to thwart the Squid financial group’s control over Citibank.

Although his current stake in Citibank wasn’t large—over the past year or so, he had only acquired about 4% of the shares—he wasn’t in a hurry.

After all, the merger between Citibank and Travelers Group wouldn’t happen until after 1998. After the merger, Citibank would gradually fall under the complete control of Squid Capital.

It was only 1981 now, with a full seventeen years until 1998.

During this time, he had more than enough time to continuously increase his shareholding in Citibank, potentially gaining a very powerful say in the bank’s shareholder meetings in the future.

Although he knew the United States government would never let him gain full control of Citibank, changing the bank’s development direction as a major shareholder shouldn’t be a problem.

By then, with a major say in Citibank in the United States and the Bank of East Asia in Hong Kong, the two financial fortresses could support each other, building a vast and stable financial network.

This would not only provide a solid financial backbone for his commercial empire but also secure him a place in the global financial landscape.

The Citibank pie was too big, so big that he found it unbearable to merely have a small taste.

“Boss, turn on Rediffusion Television. HSBC is making an important announcement!” Just then, Lin Haoran received a call from Cui Zilong.

“Alright, I got it.” Although he didn’t know what announcement HSBC would make, he figured it was likely a counterattack to address the threat from the Bank of East Asia, an attempt to reclaim lost market share.

At this moment, Lin Haoran was also very curious to see exactly how HSBC planned to win back its market share.

He had a color television in his office. Picking up the remote, Lin Haoran quickly turned it on and changed the channel to Rediffusion Television’s Home Channel.

This channel was Rediffusion Television’s free-to-air Chinese general entertainment channel, which began broadcasting in 1963. It primarily aired dramas, variety shows, and news programs in Cantonese and was the network’s flagship channel, as well as the biggest competitor to TVB’s Jade Channel.

However, ever since Shao Yifu took control of TVB, coupled with the many suggestions Lin Haoran, a major shareholder, had provided to boost viewership ratings, TVB’s ratings had consistently surpassed Rediffusion Television’s.

Finally, this past March, British Rediffusion, which had become completely disillusioned with Lai Television, sold 61% of its shares to an Australian financial group, and British Rediffusion no longer managed Rediffusion Television in Hong Kong.

After the Australian financial group took over, a new injection of capital followed. Over the past few months, Rediffusion Television had put up a fight, attempting to reclaim its share of the Hong Kong television market by launching a series of new programs and reform initiatives.

But so far, the effects had yet to fully materialize.

TVB’s channels, with their wealth of high-quality content and a leading market share for the past year, had steadily increased audience loyalty.

As a result, Rediffusion Television’s counterattack had been almost negligible.

But right now, Lin Haoran had no time to worry about Rediffusion Television’s next moves. His attention was completely glued to the television.

Normally, a major announcement from a bank would be delivered by its press spokesperson.

But to Lin Haoran’s surprise, the person on the screen was not HSBC’s spokesperson, but Michael Sandberg himself, the head of HSBC!

Lin Haoran grew even more curious, his brow furrowing slightly as he locked his gaze on the screen.

For Michael Sandberg to make the announcement personally, it was clear that HSBC’s move was no small matter.

Michael Sandberg stood before the camera, his posture erect, his expression stern, his eyes sharp.

He cleared his throat and, surprisingly, spoke in somewhat halting Cantonese.

It was well known that Michael Sandberg always spoke English, no matter the occasion.

As a proud Briton, Michael Sandberg had rarely used Cantonese in public before. This change undoubtedly sent a strong signal, indicating HSBC’s high regard for and active effort to integrate into the local Hong Kong market.

From this, it was clear that Michael Sandberg was panicking in the face of HSBC’s shrinking market.

In order to attract new potential customers in Hong Kong, he was now swallowing his pride, changing his usual style, and delivering his speech in Cantonese.

This was not like him at all.

Michael Sandberg had come to Hong Kong in 1948. He had been in the city longer than Lin Haoran, a local, had been alive. He was practically half a native, so Lin Haoran wasn’t the least bit surprised that he could speak Cantonese.

If nothing else, even Governor Murray MacLehose spoke fluent Cantonese.

The fact that Michael Sandberg’s was not very fluent was actually what surprised Lin Haoran a little.

But at this moment, how could he not understand that his opponent was trying to win over the Hong Kong Chinese!

On the television, Michael Sandberg’s Cantonese, though not perfectly standard, was perfectly understandable to the citizens of Hong Kong: “To all the citizens and friends in the business community of Hong Kong, I am Michael Sandberg, Chairman of the Board of HSBC. Today, I have an important matter to announce to everyone.

“Recently, the financial market of Hong Kong has been in a state of flux, and the competitive landscape has become increasingly fierce. As a vital member of Hong Kong’s financial sector, HSBC has always been committed to providing the highest quality and most considerate financial services to its citizens and businesses.

“We are deeply aware that in the current economic environment, every citizen and business owner wishes for their funds to be better appreciated and protected.

“To give back to our valued customers for their long-term trust and support in HSBC, and to further promote the prosperous development of Hong Kong’s financial market, HSBC has, after careful research and deliberation, decided to adjust our deposit interest rate policy.”

At this point, Michael Sandberg paused slightly, his gaze sweeping across the camera as if making eye contact with every viewer, trying to convey HSBC’s sincerity and determination.

“Effective immediately, HSBC will raise the interest rate for one-year fixed deposits from the original 2.5% to 3.5%, and the interest rate for five-year fixed deposits will be raised from the original 2.8% to 3.8%.

“This measure is not only highly competitive in the current Hong Kong financial market but is also a testament to HSBC’s commitment to its customers. We hope that by increasing deposit rates, we can provide more wealth appreciation opportunities for the general public and business owners, allowing everyone to deposit their funds with HSBC with peace of mind and share in the fruits of Hong Kong’s economic development. We welcome all new and existing customers to visit HSBC branches for consultation. Thank you, everyone!”

After hearing Michael Sandberg’s words, how could Lin Haoran not understand HSBC’s objective?

Since they couldn’t reclaim their market share from the Bank of East Asia, they were planning to snatch it from the other banks in Hong Kong!

Lin Haoran had already familiarized himself with the deposit interest rates of the major banks in Hong Kong during this period.

Currently, the annualized interest rate for one-year fixed deposits at major Hong Kong banks was around 2.5%. Some smaller banks, in order to attract deposits, would raise their annualized rate to around 3%.

Though the annualized rate might not seem high, it actually placed immense pressure on those small and medium-sized banks.

A bank, after all, is just an intermediary for depositors’ funds and lending. Its core profitability lies in the spread between deposit and loan interest rates.

When deposit rates rise, if loan rates cannot be increased in tandem, the bank’s profit margin is significantly compressed.

Small banks, with their limited capital, narrower business channels, and weaker risk resistance, were already struggling to support a 3% deposit rate.

Especially now, with the trend of Hong Kong’s real estate boom cooling down, the pressure on all major banks in Hong Kong had increased dramatically, including a giant like HSBC.

If property transactions in Hong Kong declined, it meant fewer loans were being issued by banks. The funds sitting in the bank were incurring huge interest expenses daily.

Although HSBC had a wide range of businesses and many other ways to make money besides lending, lending was definitely its core business.

Therefore, HSBC was also beginning to feel the impact of the decrease in mortgages.

And yet now, they actually dared to raise the one-year fixed deposit rate from 2.5% to 3.5%. This was enough to show that HSBC, under pressure from the Bank of East Asia, was truly getting desperate.

After all, a shrinking market also meant a shrinking stock price, which was a massive blow to HSBC.

As the most powerful bank in Hong Kong, HSBC had been implementing a 2.5% deposit rate for the past two years. After all, as the bank with the largest market share, they never had to worry about a lack of customers.

As for the smaller banks, since they carried the risk of collapse or even skipping town with the money, even with a 3% interest rate that was higher than the major banks, they only attracted a portion of more daring customers. Not everyone was that brave.

Therefore, most customers still primarily kept a majority of their savings in large banks like HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and the Bank of East Asia.

But now, HSBC was raising its one-year rate from 2.5% to 3.5%. For those small and medium-sized banks, this was nothing short of a massive shock.

Originally, these smaller banks could attract a portion of customers with their slightly higher rates. Now, HSBC’s sudden rate adjustment was undoubtedly going to devour a large chunk of their customer base.

One could imagine that if HSBC’s plan succeeded, the small and medium-sized banks of Hong Kong would face a genuine wave of collapses.

Small banks with no background or unique advantages would be the first to bear the brunt of this interest rate storm, their room for survival squeezed to the extreme.

Oh, so they can’t bully the Bank of East Asia, and now they’re turning to bully the small and medium-sized banks?

Lin Haoran wasn’t shocked by HSBC’s strategy; instead, he found it amusing!

Yes, amusing!

Previously, he had already discussed with Da Shan the idea of raising the Bank of East Asia’s one-year fixed deposit rate from the original 2.5% to 5%. By doing so, they could plunder the market share of other banks in Hong Kong, especially HSBC’s!

HSBC’s strategy unexpectedly agreed without prior consultation with the plan they had been secretly plotting. It was truly surprising!

However, Lin Haoran had already calculated whether the Bank of East Asia could withstand the pressure of attracting funds with such high interest rates.

As for whether HSBC could maintain its profit levels after raising its deposit rates, Lin Haoran had no intention of digging deeper.

But he wasn’t worried about the Bank of East Asia at all.

He already had a plan in mind: to invest a portion of the funds in the Japanese market!

By making his move now, before Japan’s economic bubble became apparent, the future returns would absolutely be substantial.

Compared to the enormous profits he would gain from investing in Japan in the future, a 5% annualized interest rate was really not high. In fact, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, it was ridiculously low.

After all, for the past two years, loan interest rates had been rising in many places around the world, including Japan and Hong Kong.

Taking the current bank interest rates in Japan and Hong Kong as an example, if he wanted to invest in Japan by taking out loans from other banks, the annualized interest rate would be over 10%.

In comparison, a 5% interest rate was very, very low indeed.

It was undeniable that the Hongkong Land Group was already making large-scale investments in Japan.

But Lin Haoran felt it was far from enough!

At this moment, if the Bank of East Asia used these high-interest deposits for investment, there was no need to worry about losing money.

Even the so-called “choose one of two” strategy of the Hong Kong Association of Banks would be difficult to enforce in the face of high interest rates.

After all, when tempted by cold, hard cash, customers tend to make the choice that best serves their own interests.

However, the Bank of East Asia had recently been pushing forward several strategic initiatives in quick succession.

First, it successfully prompted large corporations like the Hongkong Land Group to transfer all their financial services to the Bank of East Asia system. Then, it guided the upstream and downstream enterprises affiliated with core companies like Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group to also move their financial services to the Bank of East Asia.

This series of operations caused the Bank of East Asia’s business volume to surge seven or eightfold in a short period, drastically increasing the pressure on its operational capacity.

Under these circumstances, the Bank of East Asia’s internal operations were already stretched to near capacity, with various business processes and system resources facing severe tests.

If they were to rashly announce an increase in deposit rates at this time, with all the new business piling up at once, it would inevitably stimulate customer deposit demand even further, leading to another sharp increase in business volume.

The branches of the Bank of East Asia might become paralyzed due to the overwhelming volume, severely affecting service quality and customer experience.

Therefore, although the plan to raise deposit rates had long been a strategic consideration, it had been temporarily put on hold due to the current operational bottleneck.

You have to take things one step at a time. Trying to do too much too quickly, you’re bound to trip yourself up.

Both Lin Haoran and Da Shan, the interim President of the Bank of East Asia, understood this principle well. They needed to find a balance, to push their plans forward step by step without throwing the Bank of East Asia into chaos.

A playful smile touched Lin Haoran’s lips as he calculated in his mind.

Now, with the first two plans perfectly executed, the Bank of East Asia’s internal operations had gradually adapted to the current business volume.

At this point, if they were to increase the deposit interest rates, causing another surge in the Bank of East Asia’s deposit business, it would be within the manageable limits of the bank’s gradually optimized operational system.

Moreover, this would not only further solidify the Bank of East Asia’s position in the Hong Kong financial market but also stockpile sufficient funds for future investments in the Japanese market.

HSBC’s move, which seemed clever, was in fact paving the way for the Bank of East Asia.

Originally, if the Bank of East Asia were to inexplicably raise its fixed deposit rate from 2.5% to 5%, it would definitely attract regulatory intervention on the grounds of disrupting the market.

But now, it was HSBC that had started it. It wasn’t the Bank of East Asia that initiated the interest rate war.

This gave the Bank of East Asia a more reasonable justification and market context to follow up with a rate hike, and the pressure from regulators would be much less.

If the regulatory authorities wanted to intervene, they would have to penalize HSBC first.

Otherwise, it would be a double standard, difficult to justify to the public, and would violate the previous statement issued by the Government House.

He had been contemplating how to further expand the Bank of East Asia’s market share at the lowest possible cost, and he never expected HSBC to willingly deliver this “great gift” to him.

Thinking of this, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but laugh.

HSBC, oh, HSBC, I never thought you’d have a day where you’d be so shortsighted and panic-stricken.

Chapter 632: He’s Mad, Lin Haoran is Absolutely Mad!

The moment Michael Sandberg finished his speech, the interim President of the Bank of East Asia, Da Shan, called.

Da Shan’s voice came through the phone: “Boss, this is an emergency. Michael Sandberg from HSBC just announced that they will raise…”

“I already saw his live broadcast. I know about it,” Lin Haoran interrupted coolly.

“In that case, Boss, I believe it’s time for us to proceed with the next step of our plan,” Da Shan said directly upon hearing this.

The plan Da Shan referred to was, of course, for the Bank of East Asia to raise its deposit interest rates and compete head-to-head with HSBC.

“Yes, I was thinking the same thing. But before that, I want to confirm, is the Bank of East Asia prepared to handle another surge in business volume?” Lin Haoran asked directly.

Da Shan responded swiftly from the other end of the line: “Boss, after continuously optimizing our internal operational processes and upgrading system resources recently, the Bank of East Asia’s business processing capacity has significantly improved.

“Collaboration between departments is more efficient, and the staff are mentally prepared to handle an increased workload.

“Plus, we’ve been recruiting more employees and opening new branches recently.

“Most importantly, the plans to migrate all financial services of major enterprises like the Hongkong Land Group to the Bank of East Asia system, and to guide the upstream and downstream companies affiliated with core enterprises like Hongkong Land and Hongkong Electric to transfer all their financial business to us, have been implemented very successfully and are basically complete.

“With the completion of these business transfers, the workload at our branches has been reduced, and the current volume is mainly concentrated at the head office.

“Therefore, there is absolutely no problem with starting to raise deposit interest rates now to compete for Hong Kong’s deposit market!”

Da Shan’s answer was resolute.

Lin Haoran nodded. “In that case, you should get ready. Tonight, I will give a speech on TVB’s Jade Channel, similar to Michael Sandberg’s.

“Since the Bank of East Asia and HSBC are now sworn enemies, there’s no need to be coy. A direct confrontation is a true test of character.

“Notify the public relations team to start preparing a speech immediately. It must highlight the Bank of East Asia’s advantages, such as more flexible services, a more considerate customer experience, and our comprehensive preparations for future business growth.

“At the same time, emphasize that our decision to raise deposit interest rates is not an impulsive act, but one based on a precise grasp of market trends and a deep understanding of customer needs. Our goal is to share the fruits of our development with our customers and achieve a win-win.”

He believed that once the Bank of East Asia announced its deposit interest rates, HSBC would be left in the dust.

It was time for the Bank of East Asia to win back all the customers it had previously lost. And not just win them back, but win even more!

If you play dirty, don’t blame me for being ruthless!

Da Shan’s blood boiled with excitement on the other end of the line. He quickly replied, “Understood, Boss. I’ll make the arrangements right away. I will personally supervise the public relations team to ensure the speech is both professional and inspiring, so all of Hong Kong’s citizens can feel the Bank of East Asia’s determination and strength.

“However, based on the interest rate plan Mr. Michael Sandberg just proposed, I think we need to slightly adjust the plan we briefly discussed earlier.”

“Oh? How so?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“Boss, you only mentioned a 5% interest rate for a one-year fixed deposit and didn’t consider longer terms. I believe five-year deposits are more important to our bank than one-year ones.

“And a 5% rate for a one-year fixed deposit is a bit too outrageous. Therefore, I think a better plan would be to set the one-year fixed deposit rate at 4.5% and the five-year fixed deposit rate at 5%,” Da Shan replied.

“Will they match it? If they do, we’ll lose our advantage completely!” Lin Haoran asked, frowning.

“Boss, rest assured. Based on my understanding of Hong Kong’s major banks, it’s impossible for any bank to set their deposit interest rate at 4% or higher. Doing so would only risk losses.

“HSBC’s rash decision to raise short-term deposit rates might attract some customers, but in the long run, their profit margins will be dragged down.

“Although HSBC has many other investments, such as securities operations, financial market investments, and wealth management, they even invest in some companies, like their previous shareholding in Hutchison Whampoa, which was one of their investments.

“However, while they saved Hutchison Whampoa when it was in crisis, they didn’t make any money off the company.

“Therefore, HSBC’s many investments don’t necessarily turn a profit. Coupled with their shrinking cash deposits, under these circumstances, they wouldn’t dare take such a big risk to do something that loses money.

“Boss, if you hadn’t sworn that you could make money with these deposits, I would have tried to stop you from raising the interest rate to 5%!” Da Shan explained patiently.

“Very good. Let’s proceed with this plan then. You also need to finalize the specific details for the interest rate hike as soon as possible, including the adjustment margins for different deposit terms and the implementation timeline. Everything must be thoroughly considered.

“We need to ensure that after the speech tonight, we can act swiftly starting tomorrow morning to seize the market initiative,” Lin Haoran added.

It was already afternoon. In less than an hour, the major banks would be closing for the day.

Therefore, although Michael Sandberg’s televised speech would attract a lot of attention, any real movement of funds wouldn’t happen until the banks opened the next day.

This brief interval was the golden window for the Bank of East Asia to prepare and build momentum.

By then, HSBC wouldn’t just fail to poach deposits from smaller banks; they might even face the risk of their own customer base being devoured by the Bank of East Asia.

“Yes, Boss. We already have a preliminary framework for the plan. I will convene the heads of the relevant departments shortly to finalize and refine it, making sure it’s foolproof,” Da Shan replied with confidence.

“Also, don’t forget to mention our deep partnerships with major corporations like the Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group in the speech. This will not only enhance public trust in our bank’s stability and strength but is also one of our key advantages over other banks,” Lin Haoran reminded him.

Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong Telephone, and others were all behemoths in Hong Kong. With these companies as its backers, the Bank of East Asia naturally wouldn’t have to worry about its capital chain, which in turn would give depositors greater peace of mind.

“Don’t worry, Boss. I’ll highlight all of this in the speech. Our partnerships with these corporations not only bring a stable source of funds to the bank but also build a solid bulwark for the stability of our cash reserves. This is a major highlight for us,” Da Shan responded.

“Good. Since that’s settled, go get it done. It’s not long until evening!” Lin Haoran said, glancing at his watch.

“Alright, Boss. I’ll get right to it then,” Da Shan said before hanging up.

Lin Haoran, however, did not rest. He picked up the phone again and dialed another number.

Before long, an elderly man’s voice came from the other end. It was the renowned “Movie Mogul” of Hong Kong, Shao Yifu.

However, since becoming the Chairman of the Board of TVB, Shao Yifu had gradually shifted his focus from the Shaw Brothers Film Company to Wireless Television.

The constant attacks from his old rival, Golden Harvest, and the rising powerhouse, Cinema City, in the Hong Kong film industry had gradually diminished Shao Yifu’s passion for movies. He began to concentrate more on the development of the television media sector.

As the bellwether of Hong Kong’s television industry, TVB’s influence was growing by the day, providing a new stage for Shao Yifu to display his talents.

“Sixth Uncle, there’s another matter I need to trouble you with,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Haoran, with our relationship, just tell me what you need. There’s no need to talk about trouble,” Sixth Uncle laughed heartily.

“Sixth Uncle, I’ll get straight to the point then. I need you to arrange ten to twenty minutes for me on the Jade Channel at seven o’clock tonight. I need to make a speech to all of Hong Kong,” Lin Haoran said, getting straight to the point.

“Oh? Are you planning to announce the Bank of East Asia’s new plan?” Shao Yifu immediately guessed Lin Haoran’s intention.

After all, Michael Sandberg had just finished his speech on the rival Rediffusion Television, and now Lin Haoran was calling him. The intent was self-evident.

“Exactly. Since HSBC is putting so much pressure on my company, wouldn’t it make me look too weak if I didn’t fight back? Sixth Uncle, there shouldn’t be any problem with the station, right?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Although he was TVB’s largest shareholder, Shao Yifu was the one currently in charge. It was only right to get his consent.

After all, this could be considered a private matter for Lin Haoran.

Under normal circumstances, Shao Yifu would grant him this favor.

As expected, Shao Yifu laughed and said, “Of course, that’s fine. Don’t worry, I’ll arrange it for you right away. We’ll just postpone tonight’s seven o’clock drama.

“Haoran, as a public figure in Hong Kong, you command a lot of attention. And the competition between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC is a very hot topic right now.

“Your appearance on the Jade Channel tonight will definitely attract a lot of viewers. For the Jade Channel, it’s not a loss at all—it’s a gain!”

For television stations, just like for newspapers, traffic is king.

Any content that could attract viewership ratings was highly sought after by the station.

The contest between Lin Haoran and HSBC was undoubtedly the hottest topic in Hong Kong’s financial world at the moment, and the public was full of curiosity and interest.

Shao Yifu, knowing this well, was naturally happy to help, as it would also bring higher ratings and buzz to TVB.

What’s more, as TVB’s major shareholder, he was happy to do Lin Haoran a favor, both for the sake of their relationship and for professional reasons.

“Sixth Uncle, you’re so wonderfully reasonable. In that case, I’ll head over to the station later. Thank you for making the arrangements,” Lin Haoran said gratefully.

“Haha, Haoran, just come on over. It’s a small matter. I’ll personally oversee it to make sure everything is arranged properly. All you need to do is prepare your speech and let all of Hong Kong’s viewers witness the boldness and determination of the Bank of East Asia. I’d also like to see HSBC squirm,” Shao Yifu’s laughter boomed.

With everything arranged, Lin Haoran finally felt at ease.

His next move would undoubtedly be a massive blow to HSBC.

It would not only cause HSBC’s recently implemented plan to fail completely, but they would also have to figure out how to mitigate the impact of customer attrition.

How much would the Bank of East Asia’s market share increase this time?

Lin Haoran grew more and more expectant.

He would show no mercy to HSBC.

After all, HSBC’s previous tactics were aimed at driving the Bank of East Asia to its grave.

Night fell, and the city lights came on. The bustling metropolis of Hong Kong was still immersed in a lively and clamorous atmosphere.

Lin Haoran had arrived at TVB’s Jade Channel studio.

Around five in the afternoon, he had received the first draft of the speech from Da Shan via fax machine.

Lin Haoran reviewed it carefully, weighing every word, and after confirming there were no issues, he finalized that version of the manuscript.

Coupled with his near-photographic memory, he wouldn’t need to read from a script during the evening’s speech; he could deliver it from memory.

It was seven o’clock in the evening, prime time for the Jade Channel.

At this time, most families in Hong Kong were gathered in front of their televisions, waiting for tonight’s drama to air.

Tonight’s show was The Phoenix, starring Chow Yun-fat, Dodo Cheng, and Shek Sau. Since its debut, the drama had quickly captivated a large audience, its viewership ratings soaring, becoming a great contributor to TVB’s lead over Rediffusion Television.

However, just as everyone was anticipating The Phoenix’s theme song, “Destiny,” sung by Jenny Tseng, the person who appeared on screen was TVB’s popular female host, Jaime Chik.

This year, the host was only nineteen years old. A graduate of the tenth term of Wireless Television’s artist training class, she smoothly became a signed artist with TVB upon graduation. She hosted the show Enjoy Yourself Tonight and quickly became one of TVB’s most popular female hosts.

She was young and beautiful, with a sweet smile and a crisp, pleasant voice. Her appearance immediately caught the audience’s attention.

“Good evening, dear viewers! At this time, when the exciting drama The Phoenix is usually broadcast, we have a special arrangement for you tonight.”

Jaime Chik smiled, her tone light and cheerful. “Tonight, we are honored to have invited an important figure from the Bank of East Asia—Mr. Lin Haoran. He will be delivering a speech of great significance.

“I believe everyone is very interested in the competition between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC. So now, let’s turn our time over to Mr. Lin Haoran.”

As soon as she said this, the eyes of the viewers glued to their televisions were captivated.

Many even called their friends and family, luring over viewers who were watching Rediffusion Television and some who weren’t watching TV at all.

The Jade Channel’s viewership ratings soared. If there were a tool to see real-time ratings, it would show the numbers shooting up like a rocket, instantly leaving other channels’ programs in the dust.

After all, although Michael Sandberg’s speech on the Home Channel that afternoon wasn’t during prime time and didn’t have a massive audience, two or three hours had passed since then. News of HSBC’s latest fixed deposit interest rates had already spread throughout Hong Kong.

And now, Lin Haoran, the new boss of the Bank of East Asia, was appearing on the Jade Channel during prime time, with the host explicitly mentioning the competition between the two banks.

This was like dropping a bombshell into a calm lake, creating ripples that made everyone wait with bated breath to hear what shocking words Lin Haoran would utter.

Lin Haoran walked out from behind the curtain onto the stage with a steady stride.

He wore a well-tailored dark suit with an elegant tie, looking energetic and full of confidence.

His gaze was firm and sharp, as if it could pierce through the screen and reach into the heart of every viewer.

When he stood at the center of the stage and waved to the audience with a smile, every viewer looked on with anticipation.

“Good evening, citizens of Hong Kong!” Lin Haoran’s voice was loud and clear, transmitted by television signals to every corner of the city. “I am Lin Haoran. I am standing here today to talk to you about our Bank of East Asia, and the future of Hong Kong’s financial market.”

“As everyone knows, since I took control of the Bank of East Asia, it has faced numerous crises. The Bank of East Asia has been targeted by certain hegemonic institutions, which have even used a series of unfair competitive practices in an attempt to squeeze us out of the Hong Kong financial market.

“But I want to tell everyone that the Bank of East Asia will not be easily defeated. We have unwavering信念 and tenacious perseverance, and we will definitely continue to take root and grow here in Hong Kong…”

Lin Haoran’s voice spread to every corner of Hong Kong.

At that moment, the bosses and heads of HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Hang Seng Bank, Dah Sing Bank, Wing Lung Bank, and others were all watching this sudden speech.

When Michael Sandberg received the news that Lin Haoran would be giving a live speech on the Jade Channel, he had already felt an ominous premonition.

Now, he was sitting in a conference room at the HSBC headquarters, watching Lin Haoran’s speech on the television screen before him. His face was so dark it looked like water could drip from it.

Clearly, this was a conspiracy, a conspiracy against HSBC.

That afternoon, after announcing the increase of fixed interest rates to 3.5% and 3.8%, he had been looking forward to HSBC creating a storm in the Hong Kong financial market, poaching a huge amount of deposits and ruthlessly plundering the smaller banks and finance companies.

As for the big banks like Standard Chartered, they were strong enough to raise their interest rates to match HSBC’s level to avoid market loss.

So, Michael Sandberg’s target from the very beginning had been the hundreds of small and medium-sized banks and finance companies in Hong Kong.

Deposit rates of 3.5% and 3.8%—it was like playing a game of Dou Dizhu where HSBC had just thrown down a bomb, leaving the other banks with no cards to play.

When his speech ended, he was already fantasizing about HSBC using this tactic to absorb massive cash deposits from those smaller banks, thereby widening the gap in market share between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia once again.

But he never expected Lin Haoran to respond so quickly, and to choose to give a speech on the Jade Channel during prime time. This made him deeply uneasy.

This was a direct response to his speech that afternoon.

On the television, Lin Haoran was still speaking.

“Dear viewers, the Bank of East Asia has always been committed to providing our customers with the best service and the most flexible financial solutions.

“Today, I am here to announce that, in order to reward our customers for their support and trust, the Bank of East Asia has decided to adjust the interest rates for one-year and five-year fixed deposits, effective tomorrow.

“The interest rate for one-year fixed deposits will be raised to 4.5%, and the rate for five-year fixed deposits will be as high as 5%! This adjustment is a decision we have made based on our precise judgment of market trends and a deep understanding of our customers’ needs.

“As for the question of whether it is safe to raise the interest by so much, I think everyone knows that my companies, Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and others, have enormous cash flow. This is the foundation of the Bank of East Asia’s confidence.

“The deep cooperation between these large enterprises and the Bank of East Asia not only brings a stable and considerable source of funds to the bank but also provides us with a solid fallback plan to face various future challenges.

“So, you have absolutely no need to worry about the safety of your funds. Depositing your money in the Bank of East Asia means choosing peace of mind and security.”

As soon as he said this, the audience in front of their televisions erupted in an uproar.

For ordinary citizens, an increase in deposit interest rates directly affected their personal interests. The Bank of East Asia’s move was undoubtedly a bombshell dropped on the Hong Kong financial market.

The 5% interest rate for a five-year term, in particular, was extremely attractive to investors seeking stable returns.

If HSBC had played a four-of-a-kind bomb in the afternoon, then Lin Haoran had just played a pair of jokers—the ultimate killer move—leaving all other powers with no cards to play.

“He’s mad! Lin Haoran is absolutely mad! A 5% interest rate? How does he dare?” Michael Sandberg shot up from his seat, slamming his hands heavily on the conference table, causing the papers on it to rustle.

His face was ashen as he glared at Lin Haoran on the screen, gritting his teeth. “He wants a fight to the bitter end with us at HSBC! With such a high interest rate, how long does he think the Bank of East Asia can last? This is sheer suicide!”

The moment Lin Haoran played this card, it declared that the “bomb” HSBC had played that afternoon had instantly lost its power.

HSBC had originally thought that by raising deposit rates, it could quickly seize the initiative in the Hong Kong financial market, absorb a large number of deposits, and further consolidate its market position.

But Lin Haoran’s unexpected counterattack had completely shattered HSBC’s self-serving plan.

However, Michael Sandberg racked his brain but could not for the life of him figure out where Lin Haoran got the confidence to raise deposit rates so boldly.

Could he really be completely disregarding the massive losses the Bank of East Asia might face? Did he have no fear of dragging down blue-chip companies like Hongkong Land and Hongkong Electric, plunging them into a mire and a state of irreparable ruin?

He knew that with a 5% deposit interest rate, under the bank’s existing business model and cost structure, the profit margin was almost completely squeezed out. There was no room left for profit.

In Michael Sandberg’s view, the Bank of East Asia’s move was undoubtedly cutting off its own fallback plan, engaging in a loss-making business. It was pure suicide, a complete gamble with the future of the Bank of East Asia and the fate of those blue-chip companies.

Michael Sandberg was not Lin Haoran, not a transmigrator, so he naturally had no idea how exaggerated Japan’s impending economic bubble would be.

Therefore, HSBC’s investments were more conventional.

Although they often used unscrupulous means to make money, under normal circumstances, they followed the same stable and conservative investment strategies as other banks, seeking returns while keeping risks under control.

Chapter 633: I Just Love to Kick a Man While He’s Down!

Lin Haoran’s speech on the Jade Channel went viral.

It instantly set all of Hong Kong ablaze.

This was television’s primetime slot, and the number of people watching was enormous.

It was unlike Michael Sandberg’s live speech in the afternoon. That was a weekday afternoon when most people were still busy with work and had no time to pay attention to financial news on TV.

The moment Lin Haoran chose was the golden hour when families gathered to enjoy their leisure time together, so the viewership ratings were naturally in a completely different league.

In Hong Kong, where television ownership was exceptionally high, almost every household turned on their TV at this time. Even families without a TV would go to a neighbor’s house or down to the corner store to watch.

In an era without mobile phones or computers, television was the primary window for people to get information about the outside world and enjoy entertainment.

Since last year, the sell-off of property developments by Hongkong Land Group and others had triggered a wave of panic among the public, leading them to believe that Hong Kong’s real estate market was about to enter a harsh winter.

However, at the request of the Government House and with the assistance of Hongkong Land Group, that panic was successfully navigated.

But this was, after all, unsustainable.

Since the beginning of this year, many of Hong Kong’s property developers had discovered that land and housing prices were no longer rising as wildly as before.

The public’s fervor for buying and flipping properties was also gradually cooling down amid a wait-and-see attitude.

The scenes of people fighting tooth and nail over a property, willing to enter the market with high leverage, were now a rare sight.

Hong Kong’s real estate market seemed to have been put on pause, entering an unprecedented period of calm.

Although some aggressive developers were still recklessly expanding, defying the risks.

However, the decline in real estate transactions, coupled with an oil crisis that had been ongoing for over two years, made consumer sentiment increasingly rational.

Even though Hong Kong’s stock market had been very lively for the past two years, experiencing a rare bull market, stock investors still only made up a portion of the public.

Furthermore, the stock market crash of 1973 was still fresh in many people’s minds. Who knew how long the current bull market would last?

What if it suddenly turned from a bull to a bear market? Wouldn’t they be trapped in their stocks?

During the infamous “1973 stock market crash,” the Hang Seng Index plummeted by over ninety percent. One can only imagine how惨烈 the stock market was back then; people who lost their entire fortunes could be found all over Hong Kong.

Therefore, most ordinary citizens remained very cautious, adopting a conservative, wait-and-see attitude.

In the eyes of many, stocks were a dangerous and high-stakes game.

Consequently, many chose to save their money to cope with potential economic fluctuations and uncertainty.

For the past six months, an atmosphere of caution and observation had often permeated the streets of Hong Kong.

When citizens gathered, they no longer talked about which new property development had skyrocketed in price, but rather which bank offered higher interest rates and what savings methods were more secure.

The result was that the mortgage market became less active, making it harder for banks to make money. Some banks, in order to cut costs, had to start lowering their deposit interest rates.

Originally, when Michael Sandberg announced in the afternoon that HSBC would raise its deposit rates to 3.5% and 3.8%, it had already been a pleasant surprise for some viewers who had watched the live broadcast.

But now, they heard even more explosive news: the Bank of East Asia was raising its five-year fixed deposit interest rate to 5%!

In comparison, HSBC’s rate hike to 3.8% for a five-year deposit seemed lackluster and had completely lost its appeal.

With the Bank of East Asia raising its deposit rates so high, would citizens hesitate due to risk?

On the contrary, no one worried that the current Bank of East Asia would suddenly go bust.

If it were the old Bank of East Asia under the management of Li Peicai’s family that had suddenly raised interest rates so drastically, people would certainly have been suspicious and worried it might collapse.

But now, the Bank of East Asia had a new owner; it had become an enterprise under Hong Kong’s new richest man, Lin Haoran.

As a business titan who owned numerous powerful companies like Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Kowloon Motor Bus, and Wan’an Group, with a business empire spanning critical sectors such as real estate, finance, energy, transportation, and public services, Lin Haoran’s influence and credibility in the Hong Kong business world were second to none.

The public naturally understood that with so many corporate giants as backers, and given Lin Haoran’s immense wealth, excellent business acumen, and steady management style, the Bank of East Asia would never easily face risks like a capital chain rupture under his leadership.

Moreover, the timing of the Bank of East Asia’s sudden interest rate hike was crucial.

In the afternoon, HSBC had just announced its significant rate increase to all of Hong Kong. In the evening, Lin Haoran made his speech on the Jade Channel. Coupled with the current hostile relationship between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC, many believed that the bank’s announcement of a higher interest rate was clearly aimed at HSBC, and certainly not due to any sudden crisis like a capital chain rupture or impending collapse.

Not only was there no suspicion of it going bust, but in the citizens’ eyes, it seemed like a move made out of pique, yet brimming with a determined-to-win dominance.

Therefore, no matter what, the Bank of East Asia was a very trustworthy bank, and there was no need to worry about any danger.

The news spread like wildfire through the streets and alleys of Hong Kong in an instant.

Citizens who had originally planned to move their savings from other banks to HSBC after learning of its rate hike now changed their minds without hesitation.

Compared to a 3.8% interest rate, the allure of 5% was simply too great.

After Lin Haoran finished his speech, many citizens had already secretly decided to rush to a Bank of East Asia branch first thing in the morning to deposit their savings or transfer funds from other banks.

The speech was over. Lin Haoran left the studio in a cheerful mood.

He could already imagine Michael Sandberg must be fuming right now!

And the bosses of Hong Kong’s other banks were probably on pins and needles, like ants on a hot pan.

As for the impending crisis facing the other banks, Lin Haoran couldn’t be bothered.

To be frank, even if the Bank of East Asia hadn’t announced a rate hike, the other small and medium-sized banks would have been plunged into crisis by HSBC’s actions anyway.

The fixed deposit rates offered by HSBC were already beyond what a small or medium-sized bank could bear.

The Bank of East Asia’s move now was merely intensifying the situation.

The main culprit was HSBC, not their Bank of East Asia.

He believed everyone in Hong Kong understood this.

Such a high deposit interest rate was absolutely unprecedented in Hong Kong.

After all, raising interest rates so much meant the profit pressure and potential risks for a bank would increase exponentially.

Ordinary banks wouldn’t dare to venture into such a “high-interest” domain. The slightest misstep could lead to operational difficulties, or even trigger a bank run, culminating in bankruptcy and closure.

In the past, for those small and medium-sized banks to survive in Hong Kong, adjusting their one-year fixed deposit rate to 3% was already a move of last resort.

Even so, they struggled to attract significant funds due to risk concerns.

It was precisely because of this that Hong Kong’s entire financial system currently had no laws to strictly limit the ceiling on bank deposit rates, giving each bank a certain degree of autonomy in pricing.

The financial system in Hong Kong during this period had a flavor of unregulated growth, and supervision was not strict.

So, strictly speaking, the Bank of East Asia had not violated any relevant regulations. It had merely taken a bold and impactful step under these seemingly loose rules.

If it were truly not allowed, Da Shan would have stopped Lin Haoran’s plan long ago, and HSBC would never have thought of using such a method to harvest smaller banks in an attempt to widen the gap with the Bank of East Asia.

“Haoran, isn’t this deposit interest rate a bit too high?” in the TVB Chairman’s office, Sixth Uncle Shao Yifu asked with a puzzled expression.

He had, of course, watched the entire live broadcast.

Even though he wasn’t in the financial industry, Sixth Uncle understood very well how much pressure a 5% deposit interest rate would put on a bank. So he couldn’t figure it out, thinking that Lin Haoran had made the decision on impulse to counter the Bank of East Asia.

“Sixth Uncle, don’t you worry. I have my own plans, and I’m very confident I won’t lose money. You know that my companies like Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group are massive, and many of them have corresponding debt ratios to varying degrees.

The interest rates for their bank loans are very high. Who they borrow from doesn’t matter, right? So, rather than letting other banks earn that profit, it’s better for the Bank of East Asia to take on this business.

That way, companies like Hongkong Land Group can obtain financial support at relatively more suitable rates, and the Bank of East Asia can have stable, high-quality loan clients, creating a synergistic effect and achieving a win-win situation,” Lin Haoran explained with a smile, leaning back on the sofa.

This explanation, of course, was not the real reason. He certainly wouldn’t say he planned to take the money to invest in Japan.

Since Hongkong Land Group had been privatized, it no longer needed to publicly disclose its financial data.

Therefore, if the terrifyingly low debt ratio of Hongkong Land Group were to be announced now, it would definitely shock all of Hong Kong.

After all, almost all real estate companies in Hong Kong currently had very high debt ratios.

Especially in recent years, the unregulated growth of Hong Kong’s property industry had led many real estate companies to take on high leverage to acquire land and develop projects, causing their debts to snowball.

Therefore, even Sixth Uncle believed that a large real estate company like Hongkong Land Group must have a high debt ratio, and needing loans was perfectly normal.

So, Sixth Uncle believed Lin Haoran’s explanation.

“By the way, Haoran, since HSBC is treating you this way, as your partner, I naturally can’t just watch you get bullied like this. So I’m also planning to move all the financial business of our Shaw Brothers Film Company, TVB, and my other companies from HSBC to the Bank of East Asia. Although my assets may not be much in your eyes, consider it a token of my support,” Shao Yifu said suddenly with a serious expression, a sense of loyalty in his eyes.

Of course, Lin Haoran understood that there was no pure loyalty in business. Besides expressing support, Shao Yifu’s move was also an investment in him, a gesture of goodwill.

However, Lin Haoran would naturally accept this favor.

Although Shao Yifu said his assets were nothing, as Hong Kong’s Movie Mogul, his net worth had to be at least one billion Hong Kong dollars. This would be a significant boost for the Bank of East Asia.

Counting this, besides Shao Yifu, Guo Henian, Southeast Asia’s richest man, had already clearly stated his support and was ready to move all his financial business and funds from HSBC to the Bank of East Asia at any time.

These two men could be considered his secret weapons.

Revealing these two trump cards at a critical moment would surely bring unexpected gains.

He suddenly realized that he seemed to have more and more cards to play, and no longer felt that sense of being overwhelmed.

Thinking of this, Lin Haoran secretly calculated in his heart, but his face remained impassive. He simply smiled and expressed his gratitude to Shao Yifu, “Sixth Uncle, I, Lin Haoran, will remember this gesture. How about this: when I need it, you can transfer the business over then. What do you think?”

Although Shao Yifu didn’t understand why Lin Haoran had such a plan, he knew the young man might be plotting something.

So, he readily agreed, “Alright, Haoran. Whenever you need it, just contact me. I’ve worked with HSBC for many years, but I don’t owe them any favors. Moving the business is just a matter of a single sentence. As long as it’s to support you, I will fully cooperate.”

Lin Haoran nodded. At this moment, he finally understood the importance of connections and resources.

Right now, although only Shao Yifu and Guo Henian had offered their support, these two men alone were worth countless ordinary customers.

The power that a network could unleash at a critical moment was far beyond imagination.

He had gained a few more chances of winning in this commercial battle.

After chatting with Shao Yifu in his office for a few minutes, Lin Haoran bid him farewell.

Shao Yifu understood that Lin Haoran’s mind was entirely on the Bank of East Asia now, so he didn’t try to keep him for long.

He personally walked him to the elevator, patted his shoulder, and said earnestly, “Haoran, the business world in Hong Kong is treacherous and unpredictable. This journey won’t be easy, but I believe in your ability and courage.

If there’s anything you need Sixth Uncle’s help with, just ask. Don’t be a stranger. I may not be a top tycoon in Hong Kong, but I can still offer you my humble support.”

Lin Haoran knew how rare it was to have a friend like Shao Yifu who would genuinely help in Hong Kong’s intensely competitive and ever-changing business world. Regardless of whether the other party was investing in him or had other motives, he would accept this friendship.

Without further pleasantries, Lin Haoran said his goodbyes and hurriedly left the TVB Headquarters building, planning to make a trip to the Bank of East Asia head office.

At this time, Da Shan and the other senior executives of the Bank of East Asia were definitely still working overtime.

After all, the coming period was a critical moment for the Bank of East Asia.

Whether they could capture a larger market share depended on this wave.

Sure enough, when Lin Haoran arrived at the Bank of East Asia headquarters, Da Shan and a dozen other senior executives had not gone home. They were busy preparing for the tough battle ahead.

Seeing their boss arrive, all the senior executives stood up and applauded, cheering for Lin Haoran’s brilliant speech earlier.

The applause was warm and lasting, echoing in the spacious and bright office. Everyone’s face was filled with excitement and anticipation.

Before long, everyone returned to the work at hand.

And Da Shan followed Lin Haoran into his office.

“Are you all ready?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Of course, Boss, you can rest assured. We’ve been working overtime and have put all the preparatory work in place. Notices of the deposit rate adjustments have been posted at all branches, the promotional plans are ready, and the staff at each branch have undergone emergency training. We’re just waiting for the official announcement tomorrow morning and to welcome the customers.”

Da Shan responded with full confidence, his eyes revealing a determination to win this “battle.”

“Good, that puts my mind at ease. I hope you all don’t drop the ball!” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

“Boss, although our Bank of East Asia’s rate adjustment will surely trigger an unprecedented deposit boom, we must also be prepared. We will inevitably become a thorn in the side of every bank in Hong Kong.

In my opinion, this deposit frenzy won’t last too long. The Government House will most likely intervene. After all, if this is left unchecked, Hong Kong’s financial industry will be turned upside down and suffer a heavy blow.” Da Shan had not been carried away by the impending business boom; his mind remained clear.

Lin Haoran naturally understood what Da Shan was saying.

To put it bluntly, if the Bank of East Asia’s strategy were implemented long-term, it would inevitably cause many banks to suffer capital chain ruptures due to bank runs, eventually leading to a bankruptcy crisis.

The Government House would certainly not allow such a situation.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had no intention of letting the Bank of East Asia continue this indefinitely.

His plan was to take advantage of the still-imperfect financial legal system in Hong Kong, and with HSBC as a shield for being the first to propose high interest rates, for the Bank of East Asia to fight a quick and decisive battle. They would absorb as much capital as they could. Even if they were stopped after absorbing just a few billion more Hong Kong dollars in deposits, it would be well worth it.

Especially with HSBC, Lin Haoran hoped that the larger the proportion of funds transferred to the Bank of East Asia came from them, the better.

After all, he just loved to kick a man while he’s down.

“Mr. Da Shan, you’re right. We do need to be prepared for all possible scenarios,” Lin Haoran said, sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed, a look of deep thought in his eyes.

“However, we can’t be timid because of it. This time, by raising the deposit rates, we are fighting a swift battle. We will use the window of opportunity while Hong Kong’s financial legal system is still developing to quickly attract capital and lay a solid foundation for the long-term development of the Bank of East Asia.”

“Boss, I understand,” Da Shan said solemnly.

…

In the blink of an eye, a night passed.

As the news spread further, early the next morning, major banks across Hong Kong were met with long queues.

It wasn’t just the Bank of East Asia. HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Hang Seng Bank, as well as numerous foreign banks and local small and medium-sized banks, all saw an unprecedentedly bustling scene at their branches.

It was understandable that the Bank of East Asia would see a rush of people queuing up; that was entirely expected.

The reason other banks were also seeing long queues was simple too: their depositors were withdrawing cash, preparing to move their funds to the Bank of East Asia for its higher interest rates.

For a moment, the entire financial circle of Hong Kong was in an uproar.

At HSBC’s Causeway Bay branch, a long queue had formed early in the morning, many of them elderly people.

Young people had to work, but these seniors were mostly retired and had considerable savings. As Hong Kong’s largest bank, HSBC was the first choice for many citizens’ deposits.

But now, the Bank of East Asia’s 5% interest rate on a five-year fixed deposit was like a bombshell, creating tumultuous waves in Hong Kong’s financial market. It forced these elderly people, who had been content to keep their money in HSBC, to re-evaluate their financial choices.

HSBC was reliable, but the Bank of East Asia was just as reliable.

Since they had decided to queue up to transfer their funds, they had naturally thought it through overnight.

Therefore, the objective of these queuing customers was very clear: withdraw all their funds from HSBC and then deposit them at the Bank of East Asia.

The general manager of HSBC’s Causeway Bay branch saw this scene. Although he was mentally prepared, facing such a massive wave of withdrawals, he couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat, his heart filled with anxiety.

He naturally understood that if this trend continued, HSBC would suffer a heavy blow. A massive outflow of funds would have an immeasurable impact on the bank’s operations and reputation.

Although time was tight, HSBC had urgently summoned all its branch managers for a meeting last night to discuss countermeasures.

However, in the face of the Bank of East Asia’s aggressive interest rate adjustment, HSBC could not come up with an immediately effective solution.

In the end, Michael Sandberg could only instruct the branch managers to act according to the circumstances and do their best to persuade and dissuade customers from making withdrawals.

But they all knew that while they could try to persuade, if the customers insisted on withdrawing their cash, they had no choice but to comply.

Otherwise, HSBC’s credibility would collapse instantly.

The branch manager looked at the three long queues at the bank’s service windows. He estimated there were at least forty to fifty people already.

And this was during work hours, when many people were still at their jobs, so the queues were mainly composed of retired elderly people or unemployed middle-aged individuals.

He couldn’t imagine how much the number of people in the queue would surge when office workers took their breaks.

“General manager, what do we do now? Our attempts to persuade them are completely useless. The customers all give basically the same answer: unless HSBC also raises its deposit rates to match the Bank of East Asia’s, they won’t change their minds no matter what we say.

The number of customers withdrawing cash is growing, and our branch’s cash reserves are already getting tight,” a bank employee reported anxiously as he hurried over.

The general manager took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. He wished he had a useful solution. The problem was, if he could think of one, he would have already done it.

The current situation was like a tangled mess of yarn, getting messier the more one tried to sort it out.

“Don’t panic yet. Continue to follow the head office’s instructions and do your best to appease the customers. I’ll report our branch’s current cash reserves and withdrawal pressure to my superiors right now,” the manager said with a frown and a deep voice.

At the moment, he really couldn’t think of any better solution.

Chapter 634: Harvesting 1.1 Billion Hong Kong Dollars on the First Day

The scenes at the Bank of East Asia’s branches today were strikingly similar to the situation when HSBC had previously banded together with several other Hong Kong banks to ostracize it, forcing customers into a “choose one of two” dilemma.

At that time, under this malicious pressure, the Bank of East Asia’s customers had fallen into a state of extreme panic.

Fearing for the safety of their funds and worried about being blacklisted by the other banks, they had flocked to the bank’s branches to withdraw their cash. In an instant, a bank run had swept over them like a torrential tide, plunging the Bank of East Asia into an unprecedented crisis.

And Lin Haoran had used that opportunity to completely privatize the Bank of East Asia.

Now, the bank was once again facing a similarly “lively” scene, with long queues forming at all of its branches.

However, this time, the customers queuing outside the bank were not there to withdraw money, but were scrambling to make deposits.

Faced with such tempting high returns, the customers had long forgotten the so-called “blacklisting” by the Hong Kong Association of Banks.

To them, tangible benefits were what truly mattered.

For these depositing citizens, the Bank of East Asia’s market share was constantly climbing, and its security level was rising with the tide.

In such a situation, what was there to worry about?

At this moment, every single branch of the Bank of East Asia was a hive of activity.

Standing before the floor-to-ceiling windows on a high floor of the Bank of East Asia headquarters, Lin Haoran looked down at the bustling crowds on the street below. The queues snaked out beyond the street, and a pleased smile touched the corners of his lips.

Every person in those queues had a bag, some large, some small, but Lin Haoran knew that inside each of those bags was cash!

In this era, while inter-bank transfers were not impossible, the procedures were cumbersome, and the transfers were slow. Only a handful of banks like HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank offered this service. For most ordinary citizens, they were more accustomed to handling their business with cash, which gave them a greater sense of security.

So, even with the deposit business booming like this, they were willing to go through the trouble of bringing cash and queuing up.

Watching these scenes of people queuing with cash in hand, Lin Haoran felt a wave of emotion.

This time, he was going to win back the entire retail customer market that the Bank of East Asia had lost due to the unfair competition of the “choose one of two” incident.

Not only that, he was going to take even more!

Previously, the Bank of East Asia had lost over three billion Hong Kong dollars in deposits. This time, he wondered, how much could he bring in?

Lin Haoran was filled with anticipation.

Cui Zilong would call him from time to time to report on the current situation at the major banks.

Therefore, at this moment, he knew the situation like the back of his hand.

By noon, powerful foreign banks such as Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays Bank, American Express, Credit Suisse, Citibank, and Japan’s Bank of Mitsubishi all issued announcements raising their deposit interest rates.

However, they didn’t raise them to the Bank of East Asia’s level of 5%. Instead, they directly copied HSBC, raising their one-year and five-year deposit rates to 3.5% and 3.8% respectively.

Although this couldn’t completely prevent the outflow of capital, it could help them hold on to a portion of their customers who hadn’t planned to move all their funds to the Bank of East Asia.

Moreover, aside from Standard Chartered Bank, the Hong Kong operations of these foreign banks did not primarily rely on retail customer deposits. Their focus was on high-value-added areas like large-scale corporate financing, international financial trade settlements, and high-end wealth management.

Therefore, the interest rate war launched by Lin Haoran did not have a significant impact on these foreign banks.

The ones most affected were the local large, medium, and small banks, as well as foreign-owned banks like HSBC and Standard Chartered, which were more reliant on deposit services.

Especially the small and medium-sized banks. They couldn’t even dream of matching the Bank of East Asia’s deposit rates, and they didn’t have the courage to match HSBC’s 3.5% and 3.8% either.

But not having the courage to follow suit meant that their funds would continuously drain away.

Some customers, even in the middle of their fixed deposit terms, were willing to forfeit the interest they had already accrued to make premature withdrawals, just so they could transfer their funds to the Bank of East Asia for the higher interest rates.

One could imagine just how attractive the Bank of East Asia’s fixed deposit rates were.

A 5% deposit interest rate was an extremely competitive figure, not just in the Hong Kong of this era, but even in Mainland China in later years.

In the current landscape of Hong Kong’s financial market, the Bank of East Asia’s ridiculously high fixed deposit interest rate was like a giant magnet, continuously drawing in funds from all directions.

“Boss, I have something to report.” Just as Lin Haoran was leisurely watching the long queue below, Da Shan knocked and entered.

“Yes, go ahead.” Lin Haoran snapped back to reality and turned to face Da Shan.

He was actually very satisfied with Da Shan’s performance during this period.

He was particularly pleased with his execution ability.

However, Lin Haoran felt that Da Shan was still lacking in keen market insight and strategic planning for the financial market. These were the key factors that made Da Shan unsuitable to be the long-term person in charge of the Bank of East Asia.

Of course, until the true successor for the Bank of East Asia arrived, Da Shan would remain his most capable assistant at the bank.

If, in the future, he could successfully invite Ho Sin Hang, the founder of Hang Seng Bank, to become the Chairman of the Bank of East Asia, he wouldn’t mind letting Da Shan continue as President. His title would remain the same; he would simply be the second-in-command.

“According to feedback from our tellers at various branches, many customers who came to deposit money reported that at their original banks, the tellers there tried to stall for time. Some tellers even deliberately made things difficult and refused to cooperate with withdrawal requests, trying to prevent customers from transferring their funds to our Bank of East Asia,” Da Shan reported.

Lin Haoran nodded. This was all within his expectations.

After all, no bank could stand idly by and watch a massive exodus of its customers.

“So, is the new customer acquisition at our branches still going well?” Lin Haoran asked.

“There are long queues at every branch, and our tellers are overwhelmed. The reason is that there are too many banks in Hong Kong. Even if those banks try every trick to stop the customer outflow, if even a small fraction of customers from so many banks flows to our Bank of East Asia, it’s still a considerable volume.

“Currently, the number of new customers is showing a steady upward trend, and the customer base is becoming more widespread. In particular, a significant number of customers have flowed over to us from HSBC!” Da Shan’s eyes gleamed with excitement.

HSBC, the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial world.

Who could have imagined that through their efforts, they were siphoning away customers from the financial hegemon of Hong Kong.

Such a large number of customers was undoubtedly a powerful blow to HSBC’s authority.

“So, you’re saying that the other banks’ obstructions haven’t affected our Bank of East Asia, is that right?” Lin Haoran smiled.

“Yes, there hasn’t been any impact so far. All our branches have long queues. In a way, their attempts to obstruct customers have actually prevented our branches from becoming overcrowded and the situation from getting out of control. From a certain perspective, it has become an opportunity for us to promote ourselves and attract more customers.

“When customers see our bank handling the situation in an orderly manner and our service remaining efficient, their trust in us deepens,” Da Shan added quickly.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly. The Bank of East Asia still had far too few branches. The lack of branches was slowing down transaction processing, leading to long wait times for customers.

Although the pressure was partially alleviated by the “obstruction and diversion” from other banks, it wasn’t a long-term solution.

Even though tellers at all branches had increased their efficiency in handling deposit transactions, and branches had added more service windows, there were simply too few branches. No matter how many windows they added, it was difficult to meet the rapidly surging customer demand.

Unfortunately, the branch expansion had only just begun. Although they planned to increase the number of branches to thirty or even forty within the next month, the plan had been in effect for less than ten days. The new branches were still under intense preparation and construction and wouldn’t be operational anytime soon to share the workload of the existing branches.

For now, no matter how anxious he was, he could only proceed with the construction step by step while looking for other ways to alleviate the current pressure.

Meanwhile, at the HSBC headquarters, in Michael Sandberg’s office.

At this moment, several crumpled intelligence reports and business analysis documents were scattered on the floor. Michael Sandberg’s face was grim. With his arms crossed, he paced back and forth in his office, his leather shoes slightly sinking into the carpet with each step.

“This move by the Bank of East Asia is pushing us to the brink. It has completely disrupted our plan to harvest the small and medium-sized enterprises. Not only that, we ourselves are now constantly facing customer and capital outflow.” Michael Sandberg’s brows were tightly knitted, his eyes filled with anger and anxiety.

From last night to this afternoon, he had already held several senior executive meetings to discuss how to respond to the challenge from the Bank of East Asia.

But not a single meeting had produced an effective solution.

In the past, HSBC had never faced such a tricky situation, no matter who the competitor was.

Even the failure to acquire the Royal Bank of Scotland was just a failed acquisition; the loss to HSBC itself was not that great.

And in the past, most opponents were either weak or had one-dimensional strategies, easily suppressed with a little effort from HSBC.

But this time, the Bank of East Asia’s counterattack was like a blow to HSBC’s Achilles’ heel, leaving them unable to exert their strength.

In fact, he had felt this sense of powerlessness against Lin Haoran time and time again.

“That Lin Haoran is truly the nemesis of our HSBC. No, he’s the nemesis of all British-owned companies!” Thinking of the fate of British-owned companies like Jardine Matheson & Co., Hongkong Electric Group, Green Island Cement, and Hong Kong Telephone, the anger in Michael Sandberg’s heart flared. His hands clenched unconsciously, his knuckles turning white from the force.

He understood that if he couldn’t come up with a countermeasure soon, HSBC’s dominant position in the Hong Kong financial world would be in jeopardy.

HSBC could also raise its interest rate to 5% and compete head-to-head with the Bank of East Asia, but he knew the Board of Directors would never agree.

After all, that would be forcing HSBC to do business at a loss.

With the slowdown in HSBC’s primary business, mortgage lending, the bank’s cash reserves were actually quite ample.

However, cash sitting in the bank meant adding to the bank’s costs every day, because it had to pay interest on customer deposits and so on.

If they were to drastically increase the deposit interest rate to 5%, the profit margin would be severely compressed, possibly even leading to a deficit, which would be extremely detrimental to HSBC’s long-term development.

Most importantly, deposit interest rates were a long-term commitment, not a short-term one.

Once they opened this floodgate, HSBC would have to pay high interest costs every year until the contracts expired. This would undoubtedly be a heavy burden, dragging HSBC into a long-term state of negative profit, and could even affect its performance in the capital markets and investor confidence.

In that case, he could forget about being the Chairman of the Board of HSBC.

“I can’t just sit here and wait for death.” Michael Sandberg stopped abruptly, strode to his desk, picked up the phone, and called the Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose.

“Mr. Governor, the Bank of East Asia’s actions are having a huge impact on Hong Kong’s financial industry. I hope you can intervene.

“Through the unfair competitive practice of raising deposit interest rates, they have severely disrupted the normal order of Hong Kong’s financial market. Many small and medium-sized banks are facing a major existential crisis. If this continues, the financial stability of Hong Kong will be seriously threatened.”

As soon as the call connected, Michael Sandberg eagerly poured out his grievances to MacLehose, trying to put the Bank of East Asia in the eye of the storm of public opinion and regulation, seeking the governor’s help to turn the tables.

Inside Government House, upon hearing Michael Sandberg’s words, MacLehose couldn’t help but purse his lips.

If the person on the other end wasn’t the Chairman of the Board of HSBC, MacLehose would have started mocking him already.

The whole of Hong Kong knew that HSBC was the first to use the unfair competitive practice of raising deposit interest rates!

If Michael Sandberg hadn’t given a speech on Home Channel in the afternoon, attempting to use high-interest rates to harvest Hong Kong’s small and medium-sized banks, would Lin Haoran have responded by announcing an interest rate hike on behalf of the Bank of East Asia that night, igniting this financial war?

Now, the Bank of East Asia was just giving them a taste of their own medicine, and HSBC couldn’t take it anymore. They even audaciously tried to pin the blame on the Bank of East Asia. How utterly ridiculous.

When Michael Sandberg had announced his plan, Government House had made no official statement, but they were already displeased with HSBC.

After all, the development of Hong Kong’s financial market to its current prosperous state was inseparable from his, Sir Murray MacLehose’s, efforts during his decade in office.

It could be said that MacLehose had made a significant contribution to Hong Kong becoming one of the world’s top three financial centers.

And HSBC’s unilateral decision to raise interest rates to a level unbearable for smaller banks, in an attempt to harvest the market through unfair competition, was undoubtedly undermining the financial stability he had painstakingly built over many years.

MacLehose would naturally not be easily swayed by Sandberg’s one-sided account.

However, as the Governor of Hong Kong, MacLehose could not completely disregard Michael Sandberg’s face or HSBC’s status in the Hong Kong financial world.

He cleared his throat and said in a calm yet authoritative tone, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, Hong Kong’s financial market has always been one of free competition. As long as banks operate within the legal and regulatory framework, the government generally does not intervene excessively.

“The Bank of East Asia raising its deposit interest rates is also one of its business strategies. Currently, there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that they are engaging in unfair competition.

“However, I will monitor the developments in Hong Kong’s financial market to ensure its stable development.”

MacLehose’s meaning was clear: they had no plans to interfere for now.

In reality, MacLehose knew very well that intervention in Hong Kong’s financial sector was inevitable, otherwise the industry would truly collapse.

However, the situation was still within a controllable range, so MacLehose decided not to intervene for the time being. Firstly, it would serve to suppress HSBC, which had been acting with disregard for the Government House. Secondly, it would allow him to observe the final outcome of this financial game between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC, to see in which direction things would develop under free market competition.

This would provide a valuable reference for him in formulating future financial policies for Hong Kong and maintaining the stability of the financial market.

Moreover, during this period, HSBC had done many things to deal with the Bank of East Asia that even the Government House found excessive, and each time they expected the Government House to clean up their mess. MacLehose had long been bottling up a great deal of resentment.

This time, he planned to use this opportunity to let HSBC have a taste of its own medicine and understand that the Government House was not at its beck and call.

Did they really think the Government House existed solely to serve HSBC?

Upon hearing this, Michael Sandberg was furious, but he dared not vent his anger at the Governor.

He now understood MacLehose’s attitude and realized that his plan to seek government intervention had failed.

Since he couldn’t get help from the Governor’s office…

After hanging up, Michael Sandberg slammed the phone down on the desk in a fit of rage. The telephone set bounced a few times before toppling over to one side.

A miscalculation, a true miscalculation.

Originally, they had thought that harvesting the deposits of Hong Kong’s small and medium-sized banks would be a piece of cake. By then, not only could they widen the gap with the Bank of East Asia again, but they could also intimidate the entire Hong Kong financial community, letting everyone know who the real decision-maker was.

However, no one in HSBC’s entire senior management team had ever imagined that Lin Haoran and the Bank of East Asia would be so aggressive as to directly raise the deposit interest rate to 5%.

Michael Sandberg slumped into his chair, his head in his hands, his eyes filled with regret and unwillingness.

He understood that this time, HSBC had fallen into an unprecedented predicament, and it was all because they had underestimated the strength of the Bank of East Asia’s counterattack.

…

Today in Hong Kong, all the major banks were extremely busy. No matter which bank it was, there were queues, a situation that lasted until five o’clock in the afternoon.

This was the normal closing time for the major banks.

At this moment, the tellers at the various bank branches all breathed a deep sigh of relief.

But the Bank of East Asia did not end its business hours. Instead, it temporarily extended its operating hours from the usual five o’clock in the afternoon to seven o’clock in the evening.

Because both Lin Haoran and Da Shan knew that this situation might not last long.

Therefore, they had to seize this golden period to attract as many customer funds as possible, to further consolidate and expand the Bank of East Asia’s share of the Hong Kong financial market.

As night fell and the city lights came on, the branches of the Bank of East Asia were still brightly lit and crowded with people.

Customers were still queuing, waiting patiently to be served.

The tellers were busy without a moment’s rest, verifying information, entering data into the system, and printing receipts. Every action was skilled and swift, striving to complete transactions for customers in the shortest possible time.

Although the extension was supposed to be until seven o’clock, in reality, most branches didn’t close their doors until around eight o’clock.

Normally, suddenly being asked to work overtime would surely lead to complaints from the tellers. But this time, the bank directly offered triple the hourly wage to those working overtime. With that, all complaints vanished without a trace.

Who would argue with money!

Lin Haoran had spent almost the entire day at the Bank of East Asia’s head office. Today was the first day of the interest rate hike, and he was very curious about what the final results would be.

After a simple dinner in the company canteen, Lin Haoran returned to his office.

With twenty branches working tirelessly all day, with extended hours and various other factors, he had no real idea how much in deposits they could attract.

After all, everyone’s deposit amount was different, some large, some small; it was impossible to estimate.

“Boss, the data has just been compiled. I’m here to report. The amount of new deposits we received today has exceeded one billion Hong Kong dollars. The specific figure is one billion, one hundred thirty-eight million, five hundred eighty thousand Hong Kong dollars.”

Da Shan’s expression was filled with irrepressible joy as he walked steadily into the office and reported to Lin Haoran, “Among them, there are 87 customers who deposited over one million Hong Kong dollars. The customer with the largest deposit put in five million Hong Kong dollars.”

In other words, in just one day, they had harvested over a billion Hong Kong dollars in market share from other banks!

Lin Haoran nodded slightly. The number was within his expectations, but hearing it for real still sent a jolt of excitement through him.

Excellent, truly excellent. This was already an exaggerated figure.

“Good, everyone did a great job!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

“Unfortunately, we still don’t have nearly enough branches. When the branches closed, there were still many customers waiting in line. But working overtime constantly isn’t a solution; the employees have limited energy, and their bodies won’t be able to take it in the long run.”

Da Shan continued, his eyes filled with both pride for today’s achievements and deep regret over the current shortage of branches that made it difficult to meet customer demand. “To ensure that these customers who queued for so long didn’t make a wasted trip, we have issued priority service cards to all of them.

“They can use these cards to get priority service tomorrow. This is a small compensation and a gesture of our sincerity to the customers. We hope it will make these potential customers more satisfied with our service and more willing to choose our Bank of East Asia in the future.”

“Yes, that’s an excellent way to handle it! Very thoughtful.” Lin Haoran patted Da Shan’s shoulder in affirmation.

However, this also prompted him to ponder a problem.

Currently, the method of attracting customers with high-interest rates was effective, but he also knew that if it continued for too long, it would lead to the collapse of the Hong Kong financial system, with many banks facing bankruptcy.

Therefore, this strategy could certainly not last long before the Government House intervened.

So, the problem that needed to be solved now was how to maximize the consolidation of the Bank of East Asia’s advantage and secure more funds during this window of opportunity.

By then, even if the Government House stepped in, these customers, whose situations would have become a foregone conclusion, would be firmly in the Bank of East Asia’s grasp and would not be easily lost.

So, how to further tap into market potential and attract more funds when the Bank of East Asia’s new branch construction was not yet complete and the number of branches was limited, became the key issue that Lin Haoran urgently needed to solve.

He wanted the corporate financial business, and he wanted the retail customer market as well!

This matter needed to be resolved as soon as possible!

Chapter 635: Acquiring Dao Heng Bank

Although mobile phone services in Hong Kong had not yet been officially commercialized and were still in the construction and testing phase, as the boss of the Hongkong Telephone Company, Lin Haoran was naturally already making use of the resources.

Thus, the heads of the major groups and companies under Lin Haoran, such as Ma Shimin of Hongkong Land Group, Chen Shoulin of Hongkong Electric Group, Burton of Wanqing Group, and Cui Zilong of Oriental Press Group, had each been equipped with a mobile phone.

In just over ten minutes, Lin Haoran had contacted all of his key subordinates.

Even though it was nighttime and supposed to be a time for rest, everyone was willing to do their boss a favor and would not refuse his summons.

About half an hour later, they had all arrived at the Bank of East Asia headquarters and gathered in a conference room.

“Everyone, I’ve troubled you to come at this hour because I have something very important that I need your advice on. Let’s brainstorm, and I hope you can give me a way to break this deadlock!” Lin Haoran said directly once everyone was seated.

Instantly, they all focused their attention, waiting for their boss to present the problem.

“Mr. Da Shan, please explain the situation to everyone,” Lin Haoran said, looking at Da Shan.

“Of course, Boss. It’s like this…” Da Shan stood up and explained in great detail the problems the Bank of East Asia was currently facing.

With the construction of new branches not yet complete and a limited number of locations, how to utilize existing resources to accelerate the absorption of cash from prospective depositors had become a difficult challenge for the bank.

After hearing the explanation, everyone fell silent and began to think.

A brief silence descended upon the conference room, broken only by the low hum of the air conditioner.

The problem Da Shan presented was not complicated: how could they maximize the absorption of the surging wave of deposits, given the limitation of having too few branches?

Ma Shimin was the first to break the silence. He tapped his fingers lightly on the table and said, “Boss, branch construction is a long-term effort that can’t be rushed. However, the core of attracting deposits lies in ‘convenience’ and ‘trust.’

The biggest problem facing both the Bank of East Asia and its customers right now is that the bank is overwhelmed, and customers have to wait in long lines.

Therefore, my suggestion is to launch ‘mobile banking services.’ We can urgently refit a fleet of large buses, equipping them with basic security, cash-counting equipment, and communication systems to form a ‘mobile banking fleet.’

We can dispatch these fleets to densely populated areas far from our existing branches, such as the entrances of large housing estates, industrial parks, or even bustling market streets. This would allow customers to handle their deposits right at their doorstep or on their way to work!

This would not only greatly alleviate the pressure on our current branches but also cover areas our network hasn’t reached, proactively bringing our services to potential customers.”

Cui Zilong’s eyes lit up, and he immediately added, “I think Mr. Ma’s idea is excellent. The key to mobile banking is efficiency and coverage, but it’s crucial to note that security is also a major concern. We can dispatch elite security forces from the Universe Security Company to provide armed escort and protection throughout the process, ensuring the safety of the cash and staff, and preventing desperate criminals from targeting these mobile banks.”

Lin Haoran nodded. Mobile banking was indeed a viable solution. The Bank of East Asia headquarters had already hired many bank tellers in preparation for the new branches. These tellers had previously worked at other banks, especially HSBC, so they were very proficient.

However, just as everyone was warming up to the idea, Chen Shoulin, the President of Hongkong Electric Group, offered a different perspective.

“Boss, everyone, in my opinion, while Mr. Ma’s proposal seems feasible, I don’t believe it’s the best solution!”

“Oh? Director Chen, please, tell us what better idea you have,” Lin Haoran said with a curious smile, looking at the leader of Hongkong Electric Group, who was in his sixties.

The others also turned their gazes to Chen Shoulin.

“‘Mobile banking’ is indeed a highly innovative measure that could quickly alleviate the problems of insufficient branches and long queues.

However, as General Manager Cui worries, there are significant security risks. As I recall, on the fourth of last month, a serious robbery occurred at the North Point branch of Wing On Bank.

Two armed thugs, in broad daylight, openly took control of an armored car crew on a cash transport mission right outside the branch, successfully making off with over one million Hong Kong dollars in cash.

Although the robbers were eventually brought to justice, this incident is enough to show that the exposure of large amounts of cash can easily tempt criminals to take desperate risks.

Moreover, compared to a regular bank branch, a mobile bank presents a greater temptation. After all, a proper branch is equipped with comprehensive protective measures like bulletproof glass, whereas a mobile bank has far more security vulnerabilities.

Therefore, I believe that using mobile banks carries a significant risk. Even with elite security personnel from Universe Security Company providing full protection, it would be difficult to make it foolproof.” Chen Shoulin stated slowly.

His words made everyone in the room nod in agreement.

Indeed, these so-called mobile banks would definitely be high-risk, especially since they would be out in the open. Even with protection, it would be hard to deter the greed of criminals.

“Furthermore, considering the current state of the financial market, the Bank of East Asia’s strategy of raising deposit interest rates is destined to have a huge impact on the entire Hong Kong financial industry.

This strategy will likely push many small and medium-sized banks into a liquidity crisis, even facing the risk of collapse.

Since that’s the case, why doesn’t the Bank of East Asia seize this perfect opportunity to acquire some of the banks that were originally well-managed and had excellent credentials but are now in trouble due to the pressure from interest rates, and do so at a low cost?

By doing this, the Bank of East Asia can not only expand its branch network at the fastest possible rate but also absorb a pool of experienced and highly skilled financial professionals. At the same time, it can effectively solve its current business expansion difficulties. It would be killing multiple birds with one stone.”

Chen Shoulin laid out his thoughts in one smooth delivery.

Acquiring some quality banks?

Lin Haoran couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.

Acquiring companies—that was something he was very familiar with.

He had lost count of how many companies he had acquired over the past two years.

But thinking about it carefully, it was indeed an excellent idea. The Bank of East Asia wanted to increase its branches, but that was difficult to achieve in a short period.

At this juncture, if they didn’t speed up the process of absorbing those deposits, the Government House might put a stop to it at any moment.

Over one point one billion Hong Kong dollars in cash deposits in a single day, and that was with an insufficient number of branches. If the number of branches increased, how much cash could they absorb?

Time and tide wait for no man!

With that thought, Lin Haoran had already made his decision.

At that moment, Da Shan, the interim President of the Bank of East Asia, also spoke up, “Boss, I think Mr. Chen’s idea is very feasible.

We currently have six branches whose locations have been confirmed and are under construction. It will take at least another twenty-some days for these branches to become operational.

But if we acquire other banks, we can gain multiple branches in the shortest amount of time.

Given the ever-increasing business volume and market share of the Bank of East Asia, I believe we could handle fifty or sixty branches, or even more. Extensive branch coverage would be a fantastic boost to our reputation and strength in Hong Kong.

Furthermore, the owners of those banks facing a capital chain rupture will surely choose to sell to us to avoid drowning in debt. And given the current state of the financial industry, we can definitely push the price down. This is an excellent opportunity for us.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly. He hadn’t initially considered the acquisition route. Now, after Chen Shoulin’s reminder, he felt that acquiring other banks was indeed a shortcut to rapidly expanding the Bank of East Asia’s territory and enhancing its strength.

While Ma Shimin’s mobile banking plan was innovative, it was limited by the backward technology of the era. The computers in bank branches were already stretched thin; if mobile banks were put into practice, they would have to rely entirely on manual operations, which would inevitably lead to a higher error rate.

When dealing with large sums of money, even the slightest mistake could trigger a crisis of confidence among customers, leading to a large number of disputes. The gains would not make up for the losses.

In comparison, acquiring those banks with originally strong credentials that had fallen into difficulty due to a capital chain rupture was undoubtedly a more stable and effective method.

A break in the capital chain didn’t mean the bank itself was worthless or poorly managed.

On the contrary, some banks had a solid foundation and excellent qualifications and were previously operating quite well.

They had absorbed a large amount of capital and loaned it out to generate returns.

It was just that in the short term, the increase in deposit interest rates had slowed the return of funds, leading to a tight capital chain.

If the Bank of East Asia could acquire such banks, it would not only quickly make up for its own shortcomings in branch layout but also absorb the other party’s existing high-quality customer base and mature business systems.

In this way, the two sides would complement each other’s strengths, certainly achieving a synergistic effect where one plus one is greater than two.

“In that case, the acquisition plan is settled. General Manager Cui, I’ll trouble you to immediately arrange for personnel to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the list of banks in Hong Kong that have been impacted by this bank run and are at risk of a capital chain rupture. Focus on understanding their operating conditions, asset quality, and potential acquisition prices. The information must be exhaustive.

This report needs to be delivered to the Bank of East Asia as soon as possible. Time is of the essence, the faster the better. However, acquisition is not about blind pursuit of quantity or speed. We must strictly control for quality. Those banks with poor asset quality and numerous hidden dangers are absolutely not to be considered, no matter how tempting the acquisition price!” Lin Haoran said to Cui Zilong, his tone firm and decisive.

After speaking, he turned his gaze to Da Shan. “Mr. Da Shan, you will monitor the progress of General Manager Cui’s investigation. As soon as a suitable target emerges, the Bank of East Asia must act immediately. You will personally lead the formation of an M&A negotiation team and swiftly begin acquisition talks. You must push this forward with the utmost speed!”

Acquiring these small and medium-sized banks wouldn’t cost much.

Although the Bank of East Asia’s market share was growing, it couldn’t rely solely on corporate finance. Personal banking was also an indispensable and important sector.

And acquiring these high-quality small and medium-sized banks in distress would undoubtedly quickly shore up the Bank of East Asia’s weaknesses in the personal finance sector.

Personal finance wasn’t just about deposits; it also included a rich variety of services such as loans, wealth management, credit cards, and insurance agencies.

These services were crucial for expanding the customer base, enhancing customer loyalty, and increasing the bank’s overall profitability.

Although these small and medium-sized banks might not be large in scale, many had deep roots in the local market, accumulating a large number of individual customers and forming a mature personal financial services model.

As long as the Bank of East Asia could successfully complete the acquisitions and handle the integration well, it could transform these valuable resources into its own driving force for development.

In the Chairman of the Board’s office at HSBC, a subordinate was reporting the newly compiled data to Michael Sandberg. “Taipan, today, a total of 565 million Hong Kong dollars was withdrawn from HSBC’s thirty-six branches. Over at Hang Seng Bank, a total of 78 million Hong Kong dollars in deposits was lost. The two banks lost a combined total of 634 million Hong Kong dollars in deposits!”

Listening to his subordinate’s report, a shadow fell over Michael Sandberg’s face.

He understood, of course, that all these lost funds had flowed directly to the Bank of East Asia.

This meant that the market share of HSBC and Hang Seng Bank was further shrinking, while the Bank of East Asia’s was growing.

Originally, they had intended to use the strategy of harvesting small and medium-sized banks to widen the gap with the Bank of East Asia.

Who knew that the Bank of East Asia would do the exact opposite, launching a deposit war with a high-interest rate strategy, not only stabilizing its own position but also taking a huge bite out of the two giants.

Michael Sandberg’s fingers tapped unconsciously on his desk, his eyes revealing deep worry and unwillingness.

HSBC and Hang Seng Bank were indeed large and powerful, and they could withstand today’s losses.

But this wasn’t a one- or two-day affair. They could accept one day’s loss, but what about five days, ten days, or even longer?

Was he to just sit back and watch his market share continuously dwindle?

The more Sandberg thought about it, the more agitated he became. He stood up and paced back and forth in his office, trying to clear his thoughts and find a counter-strategy.

Stopping the outflow of funds from HSBC wasn’t difficult, in theory. He could simply raise interest rates to match the Bank of East Asia’s level.

But could HSBC do that? Absolutely not!

Although HSBC’s deposit volume last year was enormous, reaching a staggering 131.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, nearly half of which were fixed-term deposits.

In reality, even without accounting for the capital spent bailing out Haitong Bank, HSBC’s total profit for the entire previous year was less than one billion Hong Kong dollars.

At that time, HSBC’s interest rate for a one-year fixed deposit was only 2.5%, and for a five-year fixed deposit, it was just 2.8%. But if HSBC were to raise its five-year fixed deposit rate to 5%, it would mean paying out an extra one to two billion Hong Kong dollars in interest each year. Over five years, that could lead to a loss of tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars!

In other words, HSBC would be running a losing business.

Even if he, Michael Sandberg, wanted to do it, the shareholders would never agree.

Raising it to 3.8% might be acceptable, but 5%?

Sandberg naturally understood this logic. Raising interest rates could temporarily halt the outflow of funds and even attract more of the market, but the more they attracted, the bigger the financial loss would be!

It would be akin to drinking poison to quench thirst, dragging HSBC into a state of irreparable ruin.

A scene similar to the one at HSBC was playing out in the chairman’s offices of major banks across Hong Kong.

Almost every bank had lost a significant amount of cash deposits to varying degrees.

They also wanted to stop their customers from withdrawing, but if customers insisted on taking out their cash, there was nothing they could do.

It was just like Hang Seng Bank over a decade ago. It was such a high-quality bank, yet because of a bank run, its capital chain eventually broke, allowing HSBC to swoop in and take control of the destiny of what was originally the largest Chinese-owned bank.

Now, the storm of high deposit interest rates stirred up by the Bank of East Asia had once again plunged Hong Kong’s banking industry into a similar crisis, only this time, the Bank of East Asia had become the “catfish” stirring up the waters.

If this situation continued, many banks were very likely to follow the same path as Hang Seng Bank.

Thus, an atmosphere of panic had already started to permeate Hong Kong’s financial circles.

On the very first day, many banks were greatly weakened. If this continued for a long period, the consequences would be unimaginable!

At this moment, many bank bosses were filled with resentment toward HSBC.

In their view, if HSBC hadn’t tried to harvest the small and medium-sized banks, igniting this financial storm by being the first to raise deposit interest rates, they wouldn’t be trapped in such a passive and difficult situation.

And so, HSBC became the “main culprit” in everyone’s eyes, universally condemned.

Over the following days, the bank run on Hong Kong’s various banks continued to escalate, becoming more intense and organized.

Many depositors who originally had no intention of making fixed-term deposits also joined the army of people withdrawing cash, fearing that their small or medium-sized banks would collapse due to a broken capital chain.

As a result, the impact on all small and medium-sized banks began to fully manifest on the second day.

On the afternoon of the second day, Lin Haoran received a call from Cui Zilong. They had already identified a very high-quality bank—Dao Heng Bank.

This bank had a long history in Hong Kong, with its origins tracing back to 1921.

Dao Heng Bank’s predecessor, Dao Heng Exchange, was founded in 1921. It initially focused on remittance and money exchange services, establishing good business relationships with its clients, with its early operations primarily in Mainland China.

In 1948, Dao Heng Bank entered a transitional period, shifting its focus to the growing customer base in Hong Kong and making it the center of its development.

According to the information, the bank had 50% of its equity acquired by the British-owned Crindlays Bank in 1970, and it gradually became a wholly-owned subsidiary.

However, because Dao Heng Bank’s business volume in Hong Kong did not meet Crindlays Bank’s expectations, and with the future of Hong Kong being uncertain, Crindlays Bank had long intended to sell Dao Heng Bank.

It was just that, to this day, they had not found a suitable buyer.

Currently, the bank had a total of twelve branches in Hong Kong, and its deposit assets last year were around 800 million Hong Kong dollars. While this was a far cry from the former Bank of East Asia, it was still a considerable entity in Hong Kong’s financial circle.

Its business covered various fields including personal savings, corporate loans, and foreign exchange trading, and it had a relatively stable customer base.

However, under the dual impact of the current bank run and the Bank of East Asia’s high deposit interest rate strategy, Dao Heng Bank was facing an extremely tight capital chain.

According to their investigation, in just one day yesterday, Dao Heng Bank had lost nearly 200 million Hong Kong dollars. With twelve branches, its customers were able to withdraw cash even faster.

Of course, not all of that 200 million Hong Kong dollars flowed into the Bank of East Asia. After all, the Bank of East Asia had a limited number of branches at present, and many people who wanted to deposit money couldn’t even get in.

But 200 million Hong Kong dollars had definitely severed a major artery for Dao Heng Bank.

Although Dao Heng Bank’s deposit assets had previously been as high as 800 million Hong Kong dollars, much of that capital had been used for investments and loans; the bank’s own reserves were less than 400 million Hong Kong dollars.

Losing 200 million on the first day meant that if the second day was like the first and they lost another 200 million, then on the third day, Dao Heng Bank would likely face the dire situation of a complete capital chain rupture.

Once the capital chain broke, the bank would be unable to operate normally. The bank run would only intensify, and Dao Heng Bank’s collapse would be just a matter of time.

Thus, Dao Heng Bank became the perfect target for the Bank of East Asia. Cui Zilong’s team began to closely monitor the bank’s internal situation.

After all, with twelve branches, if Dao Heng Bank were acquired, the Bank of East Asia’s branch count would leap from twenty to thirty-two. Its network coverage would be greatly expanded, its presence in the Hong Kong financial market would be more complete, and its competitiveness would be significantly enhanced.

Although a few of the branches overlapped with the Bank of East Asia’s existing locations, these overlapping branches could be optimized and integrated later. Their functions could be re-planned based on the business needs and customer traffic of different areas to maximize resource utilization.

So, the impact was minimal.

In fact, even if the Bank of East Asia hadn’t set its sights on Dao Heng Bank, this long-standing Hong Kong institution would have been acquired next year, in 1982, by the Guoco Group, a subsidiary of the Hong Leong Group of Malaysia.

Now, facing the sudden bank run, the already precarious bank was teetering on the brink of collapse.

Sure enough, the queues at Dao Heng Bank’s various branches that day were even longer than the day before.

By noon, several branches had run low on cash and posted notices suspending withdrawal services.

This news was a bombshell that exploded among Dao Heng Bank’s customers, and panic spread rapidly.

Depositors who had been holding onto a sliver of hope were now completely frantic, rushing to other branches in an attempt to withdraw their savings.

Inside Dao Heng Bank’s headquarters, the atmosphere was suffocatingly oppressive.

General Manager Wang Yangyan held his head in his hands, his eyes filled with exhaustion and helplessness. He knew that Dao Heng Bank had reached a critical moment of life and death.

If they couldn’t find a solution quickly, the bank’s collapse would be inevitable.

He had already called their parent company, the British-owned Crindlays Bank. At this point, only they could save Dao Heng Bank.

However, they had only said they would hold a meeting to discuss the matter and then there was no further news.

“What do we do now? Although our head office still has tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars in cash reserves, once distributed to the branches, it won’t make much of a difference. At the current rate of withdrawals, this money will be gone in half a day, and then the situation will completely spiral out of control!” a senior executive said anxiously.

“What can I do? Our bank is now trying to make bricks without straw. We can only hope that the parent company provides a solution soon, or that a new buyer is willing to take over. Otherwise, the situation is truly beyond salvation,” the general manager sighed, his face a mask of bitterness.

As the general manager of Dao Heng Bank, he was well aware that the parent company, Crindlays Bank, had been trying to sell the bank for the past two years.

But he was very clear that if Dao Heng Bank couldn’t be sold before the bank run, it was even less likely to be sold now that it was on the verge of collapse.

While Dao Heng Bank was in a state of widespread panic and in a terrible fix, the Bank of East Asia had already quietly made its move.

That evening, after getting a clear picture of Dao Heng Bank’s situation, Da Shan quickly assembled a professional M&A team, with members comprising elites from finance, law, accounting, and other fields.

Chapter 636: Racing Against Time, 4.47 Billion Hong Kong Dollars in Three Days!

As a long-standing commercial bank, Dao Heng Bank wasn’t top-tier in Hong Kong, but it could certainly be considered a medium-to-large-sized institution.

A bank like this had already built up a considerable reputation and brand recognition in Hong Kong.

If not for the fact that nearly the entirety of Hong Kong was under HSBC’s thumb, forcing other banks to survive in the cracks, Dao Heng Bank might very well have flourished.

Moreover, according to investigations by the intelligence agency under Cui Zilong, Dao Heng Bank’s internal structure was exceptionally sound.

They were indeed facing a crisis due to the bank run, but the funds they had invested and loaned out were all solid, quality assets. As long as they could weather this storm, they still had great potential for future growth.

Therefore, at the right price, having the Bank of East Asia acquire Dao Heng Bank would be a very profitable investment.

Essentially, one party wanted to sell, and the other wanted to buy; it was a perfect match.

Thus, that very evening, the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank began negotiations.

The Chairman of Dao Heng Bank’s parent company, Crindlays Bank, went so far as to authorize Dao Heng’s general manager, Wang Yangyan, to seize this opportunity and sell the bank as quickly as possible.

After all, Dao Heng Bank had been a decent asset, but a suitable buyer had never been found.

Now, Dao Heng Bank was caught in the throes of a bank run, and the cash in its vaults was dwindling.

Under these circumstances, if Britain’s Crindlays Bank did not inject capital into Dao Heng Bank, it would soon collapse from its inability to handle the massive withdrawals.

At that point, not only would the brand value accumulated over many years be destroyed, but all of Crindlays Bank’s previous investments would be lost. They could also become bogged down in a series of legal disputes and a reputational crisis triggered by the bank’s collapse.

Have Britain’s Crindlays Bank inject capital?

That was impossible.

Crindlays Bank had long given up on this Hong Kong bank, even beginning to see it as a nuisance.

In that case, it was better to take this opportunity to offload Dao Heng Bank as quickly as possible.

This way, Dao Heng Bank’s bank run would no longer be their problem. Furthermore, they could at least recover a considerable sum of money, avoiding a total loss and mitigating some of their past investment losses.

Dao Heng Bank opened with a selling price of 100 million Hong Kong dollars.

The Bank of East Asia countered with an acquisition offer of 10 million Hong Kong dollars.

This huge price difference instantly plunged the atmosphere at the negotiating table to freezing point.

However, thanks to one party’s desire to sell and the other’s to buy, both sides managed to restrain their emotions and prevent the talks from breaking down at the very beginning.

After more than three hours of arduous negotiations, with the Bank of East Asia’s side holding firm, the two parties finally agreed on a price of thirty million Hong Kong dollars.

In other words, Dao Heng Bank’s parent company, Crindlays Bank, would no longer have to bear the pressure of the bank run, but it would only recover thirty million Hong Kong dollars. Compared to its previous investments, this was undoubtedly a massive loss. However, for a Crindlays Bank eager to sell, it was a silver lining in a dark cloud.

Before the bank run, Dao Heng Bank had been trying to sell for 300 million Hong Kong dollars.

Although this price was considered the market rate, a suitable buyer had never materialized.

Unexpectedly, it could now only be sold at the low price of thirty million Hong Kong dollars, a truly lamentable outcome.

However, given the situation Dao Heng Bank was facing, if it wasn’t sold this time, it would most likely face a swift collapse.

Once its capital chain completely snapped and it could no longer meet the frantic demands of depositors, bankruptcy and liquidation would be inevitable.

At that point, its reputation would be in ruins, and it would be utterly worthless. Forget selling it; people might not even take it for free.

Now, they could at least get back thirty million Hong Kong dollars.

Of course, the deal wasn’t that simple. Both parties signed a series of agreements to ensure the smooth execution of the merger and acquisition, as well as a stable transition afterward.

The agreements were detailed and comprehensive, covering many key aspects.

One of the most crucial clauses concerned the transition period. Since the handover would take time, Dao Heng Bank needed to maintain basic operations to protect depositors’ interests and financial stability. Therefore, both parties clearly defined the management responsibilities and risk allocation for this period.

Regarding management responsibility during the transition, Dao Heng Bank’s existing management would continue to oversee daily operations under the supervision and guidance of professionals from the Bank of East Asia. This included, but was not limited to, handling deposits and withdrawals, keeping bank branches open, and ensuring a normal working order for employees.

The most important point was that during the transition, Dao Heng Bank’s deposit interest rates would be aligned with those of the Bank of East Asia, meaning a 4.5% annual interest rate for one-year fixed deposits and 5% for five-year fixed deposits.

As soon as the Bank of East Asia publicly announced its acquisition of Dao Heng Bank and implemented the same deposit rates, the bank run crisis at Dao Heng would naturally be resolved.

At that point, Dao Heng’s depositors wouldn’t just stop withdrawing their money; they would be eager to deposit even more.

By the time the negotiations concluded, it was already past eleven o’clock at night.

Both sides breathed a sigh of relief.

Throughout the entire process, Dao Heng Bank’s general manager, Wang Yangyan, had been on the phone almost constantly with the parent company, Crindlays Bank. After all, the final agreed price required their approval.

Severn Road, Lin family villa.

Just as Lin Haoran was about to go to sleep, he received a call from Da Shan.

“Boss, mission accomplished! We finally closed the deal. The final price is thirty million Hong Kong dollars!” Da Shan’s voice was filled with excitement on the other end of the line.

During the negotiations, Da Shan had called Lin Haoran to update him on the progress. At the time, Lin Haoran had replied that anything under fifty million Hong Kong dollars was acceptable.

Now, the final price of thirty million Hong Kong dollars had exceeded Lin Haoran’s expectations.

“Mr. Da Shan, well done. I’ll credit you for this accomplishment!” All sleepiness vanished from Lin Haoran as he spoke with a smile.

Although a few tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars wasn’t a huge sum to him, every penny saved was a penny earned. He wasn’t one to squander wealth; every dollar had to be spent wisely. Closing this acquisition at such a low price was, in a way, saving him money.

After all, the Bank of East Asia was entirely his.

“Boss, with the crisis they were facing, they were like fish on a chopping block. It’s only natural we could negotiate this price. However, the subsequent transition period will be the real battle. We must ensure Dao Heng Bank integrates smoothly into our system without any hitches,” Da Shan said calmly, clearly already thinking about the challenges ahead.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly. Dao Heng Bank was a well-known institution, and now he had acquired it for the small price of thirty million Hong Kong dollars. It represented a strategically significant piece placed on the chessboard of Hong Kong’s financial world, broadening his future possibilities.

“Since the acquisition contract has been signed, have your people contact an advertising company immediately. Have new Bank of East Asia signboards made overnight and hung up at all twelve Dao Heng Bank branches before they open tomorrow. At the same time, post acquisition notices to inform all visiting customers and the surrounding public of this major news.

“The world needs to know that although Dao Heng Bank has gone through turmoil, it now has a more solid backing and will continue to serve the public with a brand-new look,” Lin Haoran issued his instructions swiftly.

It was too late to rely on television or newspapers for publicity.

Right now, attracting more deposits was the Bank of East Asia’s top priority, and time was of the essence.

Therefore, Lin Haoran knew he had to make full use of existing resources and channels to get the news of the acquisition to the public as quickly as possible, both to calm depositors and attract new funds.

This meant that starting tomorrow, they would begin drawing in deposits through these newly acquired banks.

If they were to wait until the entire handover was complete before starting business, they would undoubtedly miss the golden window of opportunity to stabilize depositors and attract funds.

Even Lin Haoran didn’t know when Government House would intervene.

What if they interfered before the handover was complete?

Although Government House had promised not to intervene in the competition between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC, the current fallout clearly involved more than just HSBC; it was affecting all the banks in Hong Kong.

So, the most important thing now was to race against time, seizing every second to stabilize Dao Heng Bank’s depositor base and attract new inflows of cash.

With the number of branches increasing from twenty to thirty-two, the amount of capital absorbed daily would surely be much greater than in the previous two days.

Da Shan responded on the other end, “Understood, Boss! I was thinking the same thing. I’ll arrange for people to handle it right away. I guarantee that by tomorrow morning, all Dao Heng Bank branches will have a fresh look, and the acquisition news will be communicated accurately.”

“Alright, thank you all for your hard work tonight!”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran no longer felt like sleeping. He got out of bed and went to his study.

The Bank of East Asia’s acquisition of Dao Heng Bank, while seemingly minor, was a brilliant move with profound strategic significance for his future plans.

Throughout the day, the Bank of East Asia had absorbed a total of 1.246 billion Hong Kong dollars in fixed deposits, with five-year term deposits accounting for sixty percent of that!

Adding the 1.138 billion Hong Kong dollars from the first day, the Bank of East Asia had raked in 2.384 billion Hong Kong dollars in fixed deposits in just two days—an undoubtedly exhilarating figure.

This was with the limitation of having only twenty branches. If there were more, the scale of deposits would have been even more astonishing.

Now, with the acquisition of Dao Heng Bank, he had instantly added twelve proper branches.

He had to race against the clock and make the most of this period to attract more deposits before Government House stepped in to stop him.

After all, every extra dollar gave him a greater advantage in his overseas ventures.

Although this money belonged to the depositors, not the Bank of East Asia, let alone Lin Haoran personally, the bank could use it to generate more wealth. This was especially true for his long-planned large-scale investments in Japan ahead of its economic bubble.

He wouldn’t be satisfied with using only the Hongkong Land Group to invest in Japan.

In the future, the capital absorbed from the public would flow back into his investment empire, multiplied by several, ten, or even dozens of times, bringing him immeasurable wealth.

As a transmigrator, although he hadn’t experienced personally just how insane Japan’s economic bubble was, he could glean some of it from books, online resources, and his financial knowledge from his past life.

It was an era of rampant speculation, where asset prices soared to absurd levels. Real estate prices bolted like wild horses, and the stock market was bullish to the heavens. It seemed as if one could simply invest capital and wait for wealth to come pouring in like a tidal wave.

The Bank of East Asia’s investment in Japan didn’t need to be complex like Hongkong Land’s ventures into real estate and various industries. It could simply establish an investment company in Japan and focus solely on stocks.

After all, the Nikkei index had risen from under ten thousand before the bubble to nearly forty thousand. The index alone had quadrupled, not to mention the performance of outstanding listed companies.

With the right stock picks, returns of four times were just the beginning; ten or twenty times were also possible.

Especially after the Plaza Accord was signed in 1985, the Japanese yen appreciated rapidly against the US dollar, and the Bank of Japan began cutting interest rates and expanding credit to stimulate domestic demand…

During this period, even a fool could invest in Japan and make a fortune, let alone someone like Lin Haoran, who possessed memories and financial knowledge from the future.

Considering all this, what was an annual interest rate of 5%?

…

In the blink of an eye, the night passed.

After a night of preparations, many early-rising citizens passing by Dao Heng Bank branches were surprised to find that above the original signs, four striking golden characters—“Bank of East Asia”—had been added. They glistened in the morning sun, standing alongside the original “Dao Heng Bank” logo, yet cleverly designed to visually emphasize the identity of the new owner.

At the entrance of each branch, a huge acquisition announcement was posted, detailing the Bank of East Asia’s acquisition of Dao Heng Bank and promising to maintain service quality and adopt the Bank of East Asia’s standard deposit interest rates. The text was filled with respect and consideration for its customers.

Citizens stopped to watch, their discussions buzzing.

“Hey, what’s going on? Dao Heng Bank was acquired by the Bank of East Asia?” a middle-aged man exclaimed, pointing at the announcement to his companion with a look of astonishment.

His companion leaned in for a closer look, eyes widening. “It’s true! This news came out of nowhere. Just yesterday, my friend was worried about his money in Dao Heng Bank. A lot of us thought Dao Heng was about to go under. I can’t believe so much has changed in just one night.”

“The announcement says Dao Heng Bank will merge with the Bank of East Asia, and the deposit interest rates will be exactly the same as theirs—4.5% for one year, 5% for five years. Does that mean I don’t have to queue at the Bank of East Asia anymore?” a citizen who had planned to deposit money at the Bank of East Asia that day said excitedly.

There were no Bank of East Asia branches in this area, so the Dao Heng Bank branch perfectly filled that service gap.

For him, this was undoubtedly great news.

He had been dreading the long trip and queue at a Bank of East Asia branch just for the higher interest rate. Now he could get it done at the Dao Heng Bank branch right on his doorstep, saving time and effort.

“Exactly! This is great. We don’t have to worry about Dao Heng Bank collapsing and our money going down the drain, and we get the same interest rates as the Bank of East Asia. It’s like killing two birds with one stone,” another citizen chimed in.

As the news spread rapidly among the public, more and more depositors became aware of the situation.

The Dao Heng Bank depositors, who had been in a state of widespread panic due to the bank run, gradually calmed down.

Now, there was no longer any need to worry about Dao Heng Bank collapsing.

Not only were there announcements at all Dao Heng branches, but the Bank of East Asia branches also posted notices, informing customers that if the queues were too long, they could make fixed deposits not just at other Bank of East Asia branches, but also at any Dao Heng Bank branch.

And so, before the city’s banks had even opened for the day, the news of the Bank of East Asia’s acquisition of Dao Heng Bank had spread throughout Hong Kong.

Immediately, numerous media outlets rushed to the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank for confirmation.

The answer they received was, of course, affirmative.

Some had doubted the authenticity of the news, but the resolute responses from both banks instantly dispelled all skepticism.

The news landed like a bombshell, sending an uproar through Hong Kong’s financial circles and the wider community.

At the HSBC headquarters, Michael Sandberg had just arrived at his office when he received the call. He was instantly furious.

He understood the Bank of East Asia’s objective perfectly: to use more branches to absorb more deposits from the public.

And as the most powerful bank in Hong Kong, HSBC was clearly the biggest loser in this situation.

He was furious, yet helpless.

The situation at HSBC over the past few days had already made the Board of Directors extremely dissatisfied.

If he couldn’t stop this and allowed HSBC and Hang Seng Bank’s market share to be further eroded, his position as Chairman of the Board of HSBC might be in jeopardy.

Yesterday, HSBC and Hang Seng Bank had lost nearly 700 million Hong Kong dollars in deposits, with the amount increasing day by day. For HSBC and Hang Seng Bank, it was like a chronic illness, watching helplessly as it steadily corroded their foundation with no effective remedy in sight.

“No, since Government House won’t step in to help, I must unite the other banks to increase our influence and force them to intervene!” Pacing back and forth in his office, Michael Sandberg finally decided he couldn’t sit still. He planned to use his position as president of the Hong Kong Association of Banks to summon all its members and devise a strategy to counter the Bank of East Asia’s “expansionist offensive.”

After all, besides HSBC and Hang Seng Bank, other banks were also victims.

Although it was HSBC that had first raised interest rates with the intention of harvesting from other banks, they had ultimately failed to achieve that goal.

Therefore, even though Michael Sandberg knew that the other banks resented HSBC, they were now all like grasshoppers on the same rope. Faced with the Bank of East Asia’s aggressive expansion, their only chance of survival was to huddle together for warmth.

With that, Michael Sandberg acted swiftly.

Meanwhile, on this new day, long queues continued to form at all major banks, just as they had on the previous two days.

The queues at the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank were, naturally, for making deposits.

The queues at other banks, however, were mainly composed of depositors withdrawing funds or those worried about the safety of their money, seeking information about future arrangements.

A tense and delicate atmosphere permeated Hong Kong’s entire financial sector.

The employees of Dao Heng Bank found it hard to believe that one day they were worried about losing their jobs, and the next they were employees of a subsidiary of the Bank of East Asia.

But it was precisely because of this change that these employees worked with even greater diligence.

Time passed quickly, and soon it was five o’clock in the afternoon.

However, tonight, the bank tellers at the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank continued to work overtime until eight o’clock, just as the Bank of East Asia tellers had for the past two days.

Motivated by triple pay, the tellers had no complaints and were full of energy.

After all, an opportunity like this was rare.

Who doesn’t work for a higher salary?

As the roller shutters of the thirty-two branches slowly descended, each branch began the tense work of tallying its figures. The data from all branches were eventually consolidated at the Bank of East Asia headquarters for final tabulation.

After a period of intense and meticulous accounting, the lights in the conference room at the Bank of East Asia headquarters burned brightly. All senior management personnel held their breath in anticipation.

As the numbers were tallied one by one, an exhilarating figure gradually emerged—today, the Bank of East Asia and the newly incorporated Dao Heng Bank branches had jointly absorbed over two billion Hong Kong dollars in fixed deposits, reaching a staggering 2.086 billion Hong Kong dollars!

Although the total hadn’t doubled after the acquisition, the rate of growth was enough to astonish the senior executives of the Bank of East Asia, as well as Lin Haoran.

The previous day’s total was 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars; today it was over 2 billion.

Using thirty million Hong Kong dollars to leverage 800 million Hong Kong dollars in a single day was an incredibly profitable move!

“Boss, we’ve noticed that the work efficiency at Dao Heng Bank is in no way inferior to ours. We speculate that after their employees learned their jobs were secure and that they had a more solid backing for the future, their enthusiasm and proactivity were fully mobilized,” Da Shan reported to Lin Haoran.

“Mm, this shows that acquiring Dao Heng Bank was a brilliant move. Are there any other suitable banks for acquisition?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Not at the moment. According to the intelligence from General Manager Cui, the banks currently facing collapse and considering a sale are all small to medium-sized, and none of them are quality assets. Therefore, I wouldn’t recommend acquiring them,” Da Shan said.

“Alright, in that case, we’ll hold off on expansion for now,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

Over three days, the banks under his banner had increased their depositor funds by 4.47 billion Hong Kong dollars. Lin Haoran was already very satisfied.

He hoped this momentum could continue for a while longer.

If he could raise over ten billion Hong Kong dollars, it could help him earn several tens of billions, or even a hundred billion, Hong Kong dollars in Japan in the future.

And all it would cost him was a negligible amount of interest.

This was why he had thought of acquiring a bank.

Relying solely on companies like the Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group, while still immensely profitable, would not generate the capital needed for his large-scale overseas ventures, especially for making precise investments during Japan’s economic bubble and investing in key companies in Europe and America.

A bank’s ability to absorb capital had undoubtedly opened a much wider gate to wealth for him.

He certainly wasn’t short on cash now, especially after earning several billion Hong Kong dollars from the Toyota stock deal.

But Lin Haoran was never one to think he had too much money.

If he could continue to attract more capital to provide even stronger financial backing for his overseas investment plans, that would be for the best.

Chapter 637: We Hope the Government House Will Uphold Justice!

Another day passed, and a new workday began.

While the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank were busy absorbing deposits from other banks, a new trading day dawned at Hong Kong’s four stock exchanges. Inside, the faces of many shareholders were grim.

The bull market was clearly not over, yet the Hang Seng Index was being dragged down, its gains far smaller than before, and it was even beginning to fall.

On one hand, the major event of the Bank of East Asia acquiring Dao Heng Bank had brought new changes to the financial market landscape. The market shares of traditional giants like HSBC and Hang Seng Bank were being further eroded, causing the stock prices of the publicly listed companies behind them to fluctuate. Companies that had relied on credit support from HSBC and other major banks now faced concerns about a changing financing environment. Investors began to re-evaluate the future profit expectations of these companies, selling off related stocks and causing their prices to drop.

On the other hand, the interest rate competition among banks also spilled over into the securities market. The Bank of East Asia’s higher deposit rates attracted a large inflow of funds, diverting capital that might have otherwise entered the stock market. Seeing how tempting the bank interest rates were, especially the high rates for long-term fixed deposits, many shareholders began to hesitate, considering whether to pull their funds out of the stock market and deposit them in banks for stable returns. This shift in capital flow further suppressed the stock market’s upward momentum.

The banks that were publicly listed were, in fact, all quite strong. HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, Wing Lung Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Wing Hang Bank, Hang Lung Bank, and Kwong On Bank all had capital scales of at least several hundred million, and most were backed by powerful benefactors.

For example, Hang Lung Bank was backed by the real estate tycoon Hang Lung Properties. Even when facing competitive pressure from the Bank of East Asia, it possessed a certain degree of risk resistance and resource allocation flexibility. Hang Lung Properties’ formidable financial strength and diversified business layout could, to some extent, provide liquidity support and credit endorsement for Hang Lung Bank, preventing it from falling into too passive a position amid the financial market’s fluctuations.

However, even without an immediate risk of collapse, they ultimately suffered significant stock price drops due to the loss of market share.

Basically, all listed bank stocks in Hong Kong were a sea of red (in the Hong Kong stock market, green represents a price increase, while red represents a price decrease)!

Among them, the most conspicuous was HSBC.

Under pressure from shareholders and investors, HSBC’s senior executives had always been forced to maintain an ever-increasing stock price. Under normal circumstances, if a major price drop occurred, they would even step in to support the market and jack up the price.

But ever since Lin Haoran had Galaxy Securities openly short HSBC, the bank had been unable to maintain its stock price, despite trying every method possible.

The reason was simple: its market share was constantly shrinking. It would be strange if the price were still rising. Although there were many naive retail investors among the shareholders, they were not fools. Under these circumstances, would anyone still expect HSBC’s stock price to rise? It was better to sell off early to mitigate their losses.

HSBC could rely on propping up the market to maintain an upward trend in the short term, but this method of forcibly supporting the stock price with external funds was akin to drinking poison to quench one’s thirst. On one hand, supporting the market required a huge amount of capital, which was undoubtedly a heavy financial burden for HSBC, whose revenue was already affected by the loss of market share. Every time they jacked up the stock price, it was like pumping water from an already drying pool of funds. In the long run, the bank’s internal capital chain would become increasingly strained.

On the other hand, market investors were not ones to follow blindly; they were well aware of the real difficulties HSBC was facing. Even if the stock price was forcibly pulled up in the short term, a rise lacking performance support would ultimately be unsustainable. Investors’ confidence in HSBC was not truly restored by the market propping; instead, they became more vigilant, worried that this artificial intervention was only temporary. Once the funds ran out, the stock price would face an even more violent decline.

After the news broke that subordinate companies of Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group were transferring their financial services to the Bank of East Asia, HSBC’s stock price had already fallen to a market capitalization of sixteen billion Hong Kong dollars. This was about the same as its market capitalization in the middle of last year, meaning HSBC’s gains over the past year had been completely wiped out.

Just when everyone thought HSBC’s stock price would stabilize at around sixteen billion Hong Kong dollars, the Bank of East Asia announced it was raising its maximum deposit rate to 5%. As Hong Kong’s largest bank, HSBC lost the most market share. Because of this, its stock price began to plummet once again.

In just three days, HSBC’s market capitalization fell from over sixteen billion Hong Kong dollars to just over thirteen billion.

Now, the company with the highest market capitalization in Hong Kong was no longer HSBC, but Hongkong Electric Group! With a market capitalization of 16.3 billion Hong Kong dollars, Hongkong Electric Group had become the largest listed company in Hong Kong.

Of course, everyone knew that even though its market capitalization had surpassed HSBC’s, Hongkong Electric Group’s true strength was still far from matching HSBC’s. As the leader of Hong Kong’s financial industry, HSBC’s current stock plunge was merely a temporary trough after a series of shocks and changes. But this trough sent tremors through the entire Hong Kong financial market.

A month ago, HSBC’s market capitalization had reached a terrifying twenty-five billion, even twenty-six billion Hong Kong dollars. In a short period, HSBC had experienced a dramatic rise and fall, dropping back to just over thirteen billion Hong Kong dollars. This huge gap was like a heavy hammer smashing into the hearts of HSBC’s senior executives and shareholders.

And this was not the bottom.

Today, HSBC continued to fall. The market had just opened in the morning, and shareholders who had already received the news of the Bank of East Asia’s acquisition of Dao Heng Bank were in a state of widespread panic. Waves of sell-offs came one after another like a surging tide. On the simple electronic trading screens, HSBC’s stock code flashed continuously, and trading volume surged. Every sell order was like a sharp blade, cutting away at HSBC’s remaining stock price.

In the short half-hour after the market opened, HSBC’s stock price fell another 5%, and its market capitalization shrank further, dropping to just over twelve billion Hong Kong dollars.

In the main hall of the Stock Exchange, shareholders discussed anxiously. Some beat their chests in regret for not selling earlier; others looked bewildered, not knowing what to do next. Those investors who had held onto a last shred of hope for HSBC now completely lost confidence and joined the selling frenzy.

Connaught Centre, Galaxy Securities office.

“Boss, HSBC has dropped quite a bit more. Should we start accumulating its stock now?” Dai Shi asked Lin Haoran respectfully.

They had previously borrowed 25.6% of HSBC’s shares through securities lending, selling them for 6.01 billion Hong Kong dollars. Now, HSBC’s stock price had fallen by nearly half. This meant that if they secretly accumulated the stock and returned the shares to the shareholders, brokerage firms, and investment companies, Lin Haoran would have made a direct profit of nearly 3 billion Hong Kong dollars in just half a month!

Shorting a listed company with advance inside information was indeed one of the most profitable methods. Although they had to pay a small amount of interest to the parties who lent them the shares, as well as some transaction fees, these costs were negligible compared to the colossal profit of nearly 3 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Lin Haoran stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the bustling streets below, a confident look in his eyes. He turned around, smiled slightly at Dai Shi, and said, “No hurry. Although HSBC’s stock has fallen a lot, the market’s panic hasn’t been fully released yet. There’s still room for the price to fall further. Besides, you should know that we still have another move we haven’t used. We’ll wait a bit longer, wait for it to fall to a more suitable price, and then we’ll start accumulating.”

The follow-up move Lin Haoran mentioned was to have all employees of his companies, including Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and Wanqing Group, receive their salaries via bank transfer through the Bank of East Asia. This move could attract at least a hundred thousand families as customers, and the amount of money involved would be considerable.

The BACS system company from Britain had already arrived in Hong Kong with their system equipment, having traveled thousands of miles. They had already begun installations at various branches. Even the six branches still under renovation and not yet open for business were having the systems installed and tested. Before August, Britain’s most advanced bank transfer system would be officially in service for the Bank of East Asia.

Once this strategy was implemented, it would be another massive boost for the Bank of East Asia. As the current largest bank in Hong Kong, HSBC would inevitably suffer another heavy blow, its market share would be further eroded, and its stock price would likely face another round of sharp declines.

Moreover, besides this move, he had another one. That was getting Guo Henian, Shao Yifu, and others to move their corporate financial business to the Bank of East Asia. Both of them had already promised to do so. The funds from just these two men amounted to billions of Hong Kong dollars, making their support incredibly significant.

Besides these two, Lin Haoran believed that many others in Hong Kong would support him. After all, he was now the businessman with the most assets in Hong Kong’s business world, so many people would naturally give him face. While it was true that almost no one in the financial world dared to disrespect HSBC, the tycoons in other industries were a different story.

That would be the best time for them to step in and accumulate HSBC’s stock. Under a series of blows, Lin Haoran refused to believe that the current price was HSBC’s bottom.

Lin Haoran was no novice; he naturally understood that the fluctuations of the financial market were like tides, with ebbs and flows. A true hunter always strikes at the optimal moment to reap the most bountiful harvest.

He continued speaking to Dai Shi, “You see, the market’s confidence in HSBC has been severely damaged. Investors are like startled birds, scrambling to sell at the slightest rumor. If we rush to accumulate now, not only will the cost be relatively high, but we might also alert the market, exposing our plan prematurely.”

Dai Shi nodded repeatedly, his reverence for Lin Haoran growing even deeper. Who could earn billions of Hong Kong dollars in just half a month? Dai Shi had never seen anyone except his boss, Lin Haoran.

Dai Shi had followed Lin Haoran since the end of 1978. Over these few years, he had witnessed his boss grow from the owner of a small cement factory into a major figure who could wield great power and influence in Hong Kong’s business world. Dai Shi had seen all the storms and upheavals along the way, and he knew that Lin Haoran’s achievements today were no accident, but the result of extraordinary courage, keen insight, and relentless effort. It was a feat unparalleled anywhere in the world.

“Boss, I understand. We’ll continue to bide our time and wait for the best moment to strike,” Dai Shi responded respectfully, his eyes filled with admiration and trust. At the same time, he felt even more fortunate to have met a boss like Lin Haoran, to be able to follow him closely in this turbulent business world, sharing in the glory and opportunities.

Compared to Lin Haoran, what was the so-called stock market guru Warren Buffett? In Dai Shi’s mind, Lin Haoran was the true, ultimate stock market guru. He still remembered the Kowloon Wharf battle back then, when his boss, with no capital of his own, had still easily made tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

The market capitalization of the major listed companies on the stock market was constantly shrinking. Meanwhile, deposits at the major banks were constantly draining away, eventually flowing into the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank. With the addition of twelve branches, the speed of capital absorption, while not doubled, had clearly increased significantly.

While the branch halls were bustling, a crowd of nearly two hundred people gathered in the square outside Government House! These people were the bosses and heads of Hong Kong’s major banks. Leading them was Michael Sandberg, the Taipan of HSBC. He scanned the group and was surprised to find that Ho Sin Hang of Hang Seng Bank was not among them.

Last night, the Hong Kong Association of Banks had convened an emergency meeting and ultimately decided to come to Government House together at 10 a.m. today to pressure Governor Sir Murray MacLehose. Since Government House had refused to give HSBC face this time, shouldn’t it at least give an explanation to all the major banks in Hong Kong?

A 5% deposit interest rate—not a single bank dared to match it. To follow suit now was death, and not to follow was also death. But they couldn’t just stand by and watch the Bank of East Asia gradually take over the market share they had worked so hard to build. If they didn’t take action, the landscape of Hong Kong’s banking industry might be completely rewritten, and the years of effort by these traditional major banks would be ruined.

Therefore, the only person who could change this situation now was Governor Sir Murray MacLehose. They hoped that by applying collective pressure, they could get Government House to intervene and restrict the Bank of East Asia’s vicious competition through high interest rates, thereby maintaining the stability and fair competitive environment of Hong Kong’s banking industry.

“Go ask Mr. Ho why he isn’t here yet,” Michael Sandberg said to his subordinate.

“Yes, Taipan,” the subordinate replied, hurrying back to the car to make a call on the car phone.

Although mobile phones had not yet been commercialized in this era, car phones were already very mature. A prominent figure like Michael Sandberg naturally had a car phone equipped in his official vehicle. However, not many people in Hong Kong could afford one. The expensive cost meant that even the wealthy might not be willing to use it. Thus, it was not very widespread in Hong Kong and was mainly used by a few important figures.

Of course, compared to a true mobile phone, a car phone had many inconveniences. It was limited to the vehicle’s range; once you left the car, you couldn’t maintain continuous communication. But even so, in this era, a car phone was already a symbol of status and an indispensable communication tool in business activities.

The subordinate quickly finished the call and returned, leaning in with a somewhat flustered expression to whisper in Michael Sandberg’s ear, “Taipan, Mr. Ho’s side said that Hang Seng Bank will not be participating in this action for now. They have other considerations.”

Michael Sandberg’s brow furrowed, and a wave of displeasure rose within him. Everything had been agreed upon last night. Although Ho Sin Hang hadn’t spoken up at the time, in Michael Sandberg’s view, he had tacitly agreed that Hang Seng Bank would act in unison with the Bank of East Asia. For Hang Seng Bank to retreat at this critical moment would undoubtedly weaken their pressure campaign. After all, Hang Seng Bank was one of the top three commercial banks in Hong Kong. Even though it had been surpassed by the Bank of East Asia, it still held a very important position in Hong Kong.

Now, this entity he considered a vassal had chosen to act alone at this juncture. How could Michael Sandberg not feel angry and disappointed? He took a deep breath, trying to calm his emotions, and thought to himself, “After I get back from Government House, I’ll make sure Ho Sin Hang knows who really controls Hang Seng Bank!”

However, looking at the nearly two hundred bosses and heads of various small and medium-sized banks around him, Michael Sandberg’s confidence returned. The absence of one Hang Seng Bank would not affect the overall situation.

At this moment, the situation in the square in front of Government House had naturally been reported to Sir Murray MacLehose by his staff. Upon learning of it, MacLehose understood why these people had come. He had previously just wanted to give Michael Sandberg a slap on the wrist, to teach them that Government House was not HSBC’s backyard, to be manipulated at will. But now, with so many senior bank executives gathered at Government House, they clearly came with immense pressure and demands. If not handled properly, it could trigger even greater turmoil in Hong Kong’s financial market. After all, the bank bosses gathered here represented the power of more than half of Hong Kong’s financial circle.

Sir Murray MacLehose pondered for a moment and decided to meet with these bank leaders in person. He straightened his attire and walked briskly from his office, down the long corridor, out the main gate of Government House, and into the square in front.

At that moment, the bosses and heads of the various banks, led by Michael Sandberg, were about to have a staff member go inside to report. When they saw Governor MacLehose appear, the originally noisy discussions instantly fell silent, and all eyes focused on him.

“Mr. Governor, we have come today to discuss with you the severe situation currently facing Hong Kong’s banking industry,” Michael Sandberg stepped forward first, bowing slightly, his tone laced with a hint of urgency and dissatisfaction. “The Bank of East Asia’s vicious competition with a deposit rate as high as 5% has seriously disrupted the normal order of Hong Kong’s banking industry. If no intervention is made, the entire Hong Kong financial system will descend into chaos, and many banks will face a crisis of survival. We hope the Government House can step forward to uphold justice.”

Sir Murray MacLehose’s expression was calm. His gaze swept over the crowd as he slowly said, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, and everyone, I can understand your feelings. But market competition has its own rules. While the Bank of East Asia’s move is aggressive, it is being carried out within a legal and compliant framework. If Government House were to intervene rashly, I’m afraid it would be unfair and could lead to other problems.”

“Mr. Governor, this is by no means normal market competition!” a boss of a small to medium-sized bank shouted excitedly. “Such a high interest rate is completely unsustainable in the long run. The Bank of East Asia is unscrupulously seizing market share. If this continues, the entire industry will be dragged down, countless employees will face unemployment, and Hong Kong’s economy will suffer a heavy blow!”

The crowd murmured in agreement, and the scene became somewhat chaotic.

Sir Murray MacLehose raised his hand to signal for quiet. After the scene calmed down a little, he continued, “I understand everyone’s concerns, but as a free economy, Hong Kong has always advocated for free market competition. However, I will seriously consider the situation you have described. How about this: the representatives from HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Hang Seng Bank, Wing Hang Bank, Hang Lung Bank, Kwong On Bank… will stay. The representatives from the other banks may go back for now. Our Government House is not large enough to accommodate so many people. I will contact Mr. Lin Haoran and ask him to come over, to discuss a proper solution with all of you.”

Sir Murray MacLehose named over a dozen banks, which basically represented the mainstream banks in Hong Kong. Hearing the Governor’s arrangement, another low murmur of discussion rose from the crowd. At this moment, Michael Sandberg stepped forward and said, “You can all go back for now. We will handle this and fight for your interests!”

Instantly, everyone nodded and began to leave the scene. For Michael Sandberg, the goal of using the crowd to pressure Government House had already been achieved. That being the case, the presence of these small and medium-sized bank bosses was no longer crucial. Leaving behind the heads of the mainstream banks would allow them to concentrate their efforts in the key negotiations with Government House and the Bank of East Asia, while also avoiding an overly chaotic scene.

Not long after, Lin Haoran, who was at Connaught Centre monitoring the situation with the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank, as well as HSBC’s stock price, received a personal call from Governor Sir Murray MacLehose. He was already mentally prepared for a call from Government House. But wasn’t this a little early?

Lin Haoran put down the phone, frowning. This was only the second day after his acquisition of Dao Heng Bank, and the fourth day of using the 5% fixed deposit rate to attract public deposits. Was Government House already stepping in?

For Lin Haoran, this was a bit fast. Although he was prepared for it, when the moment finally arrived, a ripple of unease still stirred within him. However, even with Government House getting involved, he might not be without opportunities to secure more benefits for himself. After all, the Bank of East Asia had been acting legally and compliantly from the very beginning, and this matter had been initiated by HSBC in the first place.

For now, he could only take things as they come. Thinking too much at this moment was useless.

So, he gave a few simple instructions to Dai Shi, telling him to continue closely monitoring market dynamics, especially the changes in HSBC’s stock price. Then, he left with his bodyguards and drove to Government House.

Along the way, Lin Haoran closed his eyes to rest, his mind constantly sorting through the potential topics and response strategies for the upcoming meeting. He understood that while Government House advocated for free competition, it would not sit idly by and watch Hong Kong’s banking industry fall into excessive chaos. The key was to find a balance between maintaining market fairness and protecting his own interests.

Chapter 638: Why Should I Continue to Be Tolerant and Yield?

When Lin Haoran arrived at Government House, the bank bosses who had gathered earlier in the square were gone. Only a dozen or so luxury cars remained parked quietly, testaments to their owners’ statuses.

He straightened his suit and walked calmly into Government House.

Inside, the atmosphere was solemn and slightly tense.

Governor Sir Murray MacLehose was already waiting in the conference room, accompanied by Michael Sandberg, the Taipan of HSBC, a representative from Standard Chartered Bank, and the heads of more than a dozen other major Hong Kong banks.

The moment Lin Haoran entered, all eyes focused on him.

He offered a faint smile, nodded to Governor MacLehose, and then took his designated seat.

The gazes of the bank heads present were complicated as they looked at Lin Haoran.

Who could have imagined that Lin Haoran, a newcomer to the financial industry, would manage to turn the entire Hong Kong financial sector upside down?

Indeed, when you thought about it, although Lin Haoran had achieved a high standing in Hong Kong’s business world after driving out Jardine Matheson & Co., he was still an out-and-out novice in the financial industry. It had only been about a month since he took control of the Bank of East Asia.

Michael Sandberg, in particular, had never considered that the outcome would be so disastrous when he decided to move against the Bank of East Asia.

Originally, the entire senior executive team at HSBC believed that Hong Kong’s financial circle was their own private preserve. They thought that a little pressure from them, backed by HSBC’s deep-rooted influence and vast resources in the Hong Kong financial world, would be more than the Bank of East Asia could handle. The bank would inevitably be ostracized by the entire industry.

Ostracized it was, but even when facing exclusion from the majority of Hong Kong’s banks, the Bank of East Asia did not collapse and rapidly decline as they had imagined. Instead, it single-handedly took on almost the entire Hong Kong banking industry and thrashed it.

That included HSBC, the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial sector!

And how long had it been?

HSBC’s market share had plummeted again and again.

In contrast, the Bank of East Asia’s market share had not only failed to drop but had grown steadily.

Every decision the Bank of East Asia made seemed to tear another piece of flesh from the other banks, especially HSBC.

At this rate, it wouldn’t be impossible for the Bank of East Asia’s market share to surpass the reigning hegemon, HSBC.

When that time came, how could HSBC even speak of its dominant position in Hong Kong’s financial world?

It would likely suffer the same fate as Jardine Matheson & Co., forced to leave Hong Kong!

As Michael Sandberg pondered this, his expression grew darker. His eyes, fixed on Lin Haoran, were filled with vigilance and resentment.

He had, after all, underestimated Lin Haoran.

But if you were to ask him if he regretted launching the “choose one of two” offensive against the Bank of East Asia, one could guess the answer from his tightly pressed lips and stubborn expression—he had no regrets.

His long career of wielding great power and influence at HSBC had accustomed Michael Sandberg to controlling situations from a position of strength. Even with the Bank of East Asia’s sudden rise, the pride in his bones would not allow him to admit that his initial decision had been a mistake.

Besides, Michael Sandberg knew that even if he hadn’t initiated the unfair competition, allowing the Bank of East Asia to develop freely, the final outcome would have been the same as it was now.

The only difference was that now, they had all dropped their pretenses.

The expressions of the other bank representatives were even more complex as they looked at Lin Haoran.

As members of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, they had also participated in the campaign to ostracize the Bank of East Asia.

At this moment, they were both wary of Lin Haoran’s capabilities and methods and worried that the Bank of East Asia would one day settle scores for their past actions. They also harbored a faint concern about their own banks’ survival in the face of the Bank of East Asia’s powerful rise.

Governor Sir Murray MacLehose cleared his throat, breaking the slightly oppressive silence in the conference room. “I have summoned you all here today in the hope that we can have a frank discussion about the current state and future of Hong Kong’s financial market.

“Since Mr. Lin acquired the Bank of East Asia, the landscape of Hong Kong’s financial market has changed significantly. This presents both a challenge and an opportunity. I hope you will all prioritize the overall development of Hong Kong’s financial industry. We should be working together to elevate it to new heights, not engaging in infighting.”

Michael Sandberg was the first to speak, his tone tinged with provocation. “Mr. Lin, the Bank of East Asia’s decision to raise its deposit interest rate to 5%, far exceeding the market average, is undoubtedly malicious competition.

“Attracting deposits with such high interest may bring in a large amount of capital in the short term, but in the long run, it will surely destabilize Hong Kong’s financial market and disrupt the financial order. I hope Mr. Lin can give us all an explanation!”

Michael Sandberg’s words immediately found support among the others present. A low murmur ran through the conference room, and many bank representatives nodded slightly, their gazes filled with doubt and dissatisfaction as they looked at Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran remained calm, his eyes sweeping slowly over the crowd. He spoke in a steady voice, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, I do not agree with your assertion that attracting deposits with high interest destabilizes the market. Everyone here should know that it was your HSBC that first initiated this high-interest-rate war, not our Bank of East Asia!

“As for why HSBC started this rate war, I believe everyone here is well aware. HSBC’s move was nothing more than an attempt to harvest the depositor funds of Hong Kong’s major banks, pushing other banks to the brink to consolidate HSBC’s absolute hegemony in the financial industry.

“Now, our Bank of East Asia is merely giving you a taste of your own medicine, using a higher interest rate to attract depositors and return the market to a state of fair competition. How can you call this malicious competition?

“Moreover, in a market economy, interest rates are a crucial tool for regulating the supply and demand of capital. The Bank of East Asia raised its deposit interest rate based on a precise understanding of market demand.

“Right now, there is a large amount of capital in the Hong Kong market seeking better returns. We are simply following this trend, providing depositors with more choices and securing more benefits for the citizens.”

“And,” Lin Haoran paused, his tone becoming more forceful, “this is not malicious competition, but active market competition. Competition pushes every bank to continuously improve its service quality and innovate financial products. The ultimate beneficiaries are the vast number of customers and the entire Hong Kong financial industry.

“If we blindly maintain a state of low interest rates and low competition, how can Hong Kong’s financial industry compete with other financial centers on the international stage?”

Instantly, the way many people in the room looked at Michael Sandberg changed subtly.

They were all well aware of HSBC’s recent actions.

However, they had followed HSBC’s lead in dealing with the Bank of East Asia.

But in the blink of an eye, when HSBC saw its market share being devoured by the Bank of East Asia and could do nothing about it, it had turned its fangs on its own “allies,” trying to snatch back its lost market share from Hong Kong’s small and medium-sized banks by raising interest rates, thereby shifting its own losses onto them. This had secretly infuriated many of the bank representatives.

It was a good thing that the banks present were all major players with relatively solid foundations. If the heads of the smaller banks were here, Lin Haoran’s words would have likely filled them with a bone-deep hatred for Michael Sandberg and HSBC.

HSBC’s behavior was simply that of a beast in human form, a classic case of discarding an ally once their purpose is served!

Michael Sandberg’s face darkened, and he was about to retort when Brown, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank, spoke first. “Mr. Lin, be that as it may, raising the deposit interest rate so drastically has completely disrupted the interest rate pricing system of Hong Kong’s financial market.

“And the interest rate your Bank of East Asia is offering is simply unsustainable for the other banks. If this continues, won’t your bank end up with a complete monopoly over Hong Kong’s deposit market?

“This runs contrary to the principle of fair competition we all speak of and may even create a new monopoly. The numerous Hong Kong banks affected will face a wave of bankruptcies. Mr. Lin, have you considered these consequences?”

Taipan Brown was, without a doubt, one of the most influential figures in Hong Kong’s banking world, second only to Michael Sandberg.

In fact, Brown had been very displeased with Michael Sandberg’s unilateral decision to announce HSBC’s interest rate hike on television.

Such actions not only dealt a heavy blow to small and medium-sized banks but also had a significant impact on banking tycoons like themselves.

After all, the deposit market had been largely stable.

HSBC’s arbitrary rate hike had forced banks like Standard Chartered to follow suit, leading to a substantial increase in their costs and a sharp compression of their profit margins.

Although Taipan Brown was critical of Michael Sandberg’s move, he had never voiced his opinion publicly due to the delicate relationship among British-owned banks.

Now, he was using the topic Lin Haoran raised to subtly express his dissatisfaction.

Of course, although HSBC and Standard Chartered were competitors in Hong Kong, as representatives of British-owned banks, the two institutions also displayed a subtle understanding and cooperation when their common interests were at stake.

At this moment, Taipan Brown’s question not only represented his personal stance but also, to some extent, reflected the hidden worries of many bankers present.

“Mr. Brown, I cannot agree with your statement. If you’re saying our Bank of East Asia is suspected of monopolizing, then what was HSBC in the past?

“Everyone knows that with its acquisition of Hang Seng Bank through unconventional means, HSBC’s market share in Hong Kong’s banking industry once exceeded seventy percent. Even a month ago, it was still over sixty percent.

“Our Bank of East Asia’s market share is currently less than thirty percent. Why didn’t any of you say that HSBC posed a monopoly threat to Hong Kong’s financial industry back then?

“Now that the Bank of East Asia is merely showing some vitality in market competition and seeking reasonable room for growth, you are all quick to slap the label of monopoly on us. Isn’t that a bit unfair?” Lin Haoran looked directly at Taipan Brown, his words sharp but not without grace.

“What do you mean ‘unconventional means’? Lin Haoran, what hidden meaning are you implying? Are you trying to slander HSBC?!” Michael Sandberg could no longer contain himself. Burning with rage, he slammed his palm heavily on the conference table. He shot to his feet with a swoosh, his eyes wide as he glared at Lin Haoran.

“Whether it’s slander or fact, I believe everyone here knows full well. The sordid things HSBC did back then have likely been the talk of Hong Kong for a long time. There’s no need for me to waste my breath explaining,” Lin Haoran glanced at Michael Sandberg, a disdainful smile playing on his lips, his tone dripping with contempt.

It had come to this; he no longer needed to show the other party any courtesy.

Before he had risen, he certainly wouldn’t have dared to offend Michael Sandberg.

But now, his strength was in no way inferior to HSBC’s. Why should he continue to be tolerant and yield?

A wave of heroic pride surged in Lin Haoran’s heart. In any industry, strength was what mattered. If you were strong, people would naturally fawn over you; if you were weak, you would be bullied.

On this battlefield of Hong Kong finance, he, Lin Haoran, now had the resources and confidence to openly defy HSBC.

Furthermore, HSBC had provoked him first, making it even less likely that he would tolerate it.

Seeing Lin Haoran publicly and mercilessly rebuking Michael Sandberg, the rest of the people present adopted the posture of spectators, taking a detached, “it’s none of my business” attitude, quietly waiting to see how this “confrontation” would end.

Governor MacLehose frowned slightly at the sight. He thought to himself that if he allowed this tense, sword-drawn situation to continue, not only would today’s meeting fail to achieve its original goal of promoting the healthy development of Hong Kong’s financial industry, but it might also exacerbate the conflicts and opposition among the banks.

HSBC had learned its lesson. It was time for him to step in and regulate the financial market. Things could not go on like this.

Thus, he cleared his throat, trying to calm the tense atmosphere. “Gentlemen, we have gathered here today to discuss the long-term development of Hong Kong’s financial market, not to quarrel over who is right or wrong for a moment or to engage in a war of words.

“What Mr. Lin, Mr. Michael Sandberg, and Mr. Brown have said all have their merits, but we should all focus on the bigger picture and prioritize the overall prosperity of Hong Kong’s financial industry.”

As soon as MacLehose spoke, the room fell silent, including Michael Sandberg, who had been ready to continue arguing with Lin Haoran.

Continuing to argue at this point would be a direct slight to the Government House.

The ostracism and suppression he faced when acquiring the Royal Bank of Scotland in Britain, and the cold shoulder and disregard he received from Governor MacLehose this time when he sought help from the Government House—these incidents, one after another, were like heavy hammer blows that had brutally awakened Michael Sandberg.

In the past, HSBC had sat securely on its throne as the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial world. That arrogant posture had gradually made him lose himself, even leading him to the delusion that the Government House was within his sphere of control and would unconditionally bend to his will.

Michael Sandberg took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the churning anger and resentment in his heart, and slowly sat back down in his chair.

He knew very well that continuing to argue with Lin Haoran in the conference room of Government House would only make him a laughingstock and bring no benefit to HSBC.

Moreover, deep down, he understood that HSBC was, after all, a British-owned bank representing Britain’s interests. The Government House would ultimately favor them.

Seeing Michael Sandberg temporarily stand down, Lin Haoran’s lips curved upward slightly, revealing a barely perceptible smile.

But he also knew that this contest with HSBC was far from over. Today’s verbal sparring in the conference room was just a minor episode in their long confrontation.

Seeing the atmosphere in the room ease slightly, Governor MacLehose continued, “The stability and prosperity of Hong Kong’s financial market concern the vital interests of every citizen and also affect Hong Kong’s position on the international financial stage.

“Mr. Lin’s acquisition of the Bank of East Asia has brought new vitality and competition, which is certainly a good thing. But competition should also be conducted within a reasonable and orderly framework.”

He paused, his gaze sweeping over every bank head present before continuing, “Continuing to argue here today is meaningless. Mr. Lin, the Bank of East Asia’s 5% interest rate certainly cannot continue. The impact is too great, it involves too many levels, and it could easily trigger a chain reaction in the market, disrupting the entire financial ecosystem.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, Mr. Brown, and everyone else present must also understand that it is our common responsibility to maintain the healthy and orderly development of Hong Kong’s financial market. Next, I hope we can all calmly discuss a proper solution.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, his expression serene. “The Governor is absolutely right. The Bank of East Asia’s intention in raising the deposit interest rate was not to maliciously disrupt the market, but to seek development through fair competition.

“However, since the Governor believes this move has had too great an impact, the Bank of East Asia is willing to cooperate and jointly discuss a plan that satisfies both sides—one that can both ensure market stability and give every bank room to grow.

“But I was not the one who started this. I can’t be the one to bear all the losses. After all, our Bank of East Asia has done nothing illegal or irregular; we have won our market share through our own strategies and strength in a competitive market.

“If we are to adjust our interest rate strategy, the other banks must also show sincerity and contribute to the stability of Hong Kong’s financial market. Otherwise, if the Bank of East Asia takes all the losses, wouldn’t I become a sucker?”

Michael Sandberg snorted coldly. Although still resentful, with the Governor present, he had to restrain himself. “Since the Governor has spoken, we at HSBC are naturally willing to cooperate. However, Mr. Lin must also take practical action. He cannot just seek short-term gains and throw the entire Hong Kong financial market into chaos.

“Your Bank of East Asia can make reasonable demands. As long as they are within a reasonable range, we at HSBC will consider them carefully. But if you make an exorbitant demand, attempting to use this opportunity to suppress your peers, then we will not sit and wait for death.”

The reason for Michael Sandberg’s softer tone was simple.

HSBC urgently needed the Bank of East Asia to stop its 5% interest rate. If this continued, even with HSBC’s vast resources, having too many deposits drawn away could risk breaking their capital chain.

HSBC’s current investments were by no means small.

Those investments tied up a great deal of capital.

Therefore, despite being extremely annoyed with Lin Haoran, Michael Sandberg could only suppress his anger for now and take a step back to seek a more appropriate counter-strategy later.

Seeing this, Taipan Brown of Standard Chartered Bank quickly chimed in, “The Governor is absolutely right. The stability of Hong Kong’s financial market requires the joint efforts of all parties.

“Mr. Lin, the Bank of East Asia’s increase in deposit interest rates has indeed triggered many chain reactions. I hope you will yield a little for the sake of the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong’s financial market. We at Standard Chartered are also willing to discuss a solution with everyone, provided it maintains market stability.

“However, this solution must take into account the interests of all parties and cannot allow one bank to monopolize the benefits.”

Seeing the Governor mediate and with both HSBC and Standard Chartered having stated their positions, the other bank representatives also nodded in agreement, expressing their willingness to participate in the discussion to jointly maintain the stability of Hong Kong’s financial market.

Governor MacLehose felt a sense of relief seeing everyone’s attitude soften. He then said, “Since everyone is willing to work together for the stability of Hong Kong’s financial market, let’s now discuss a specific solution.

“Mr. Lin, why don’t you first share the Bank of East Asia’s thoughts on adjusting the interest rate strategy and subsequent market development.”

All eyes turned to Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Governor, and everyone present, I believe you are all well aware that from beginning to end, our Bank of East Asia has been the one maliciously targeted. Especially that Hong Kong Association of Banks—they acted in collusion, joining forces to suppress the Bank of East Asia, making it incredibly difficult for us to expand our business and acquire market resources.

“If I didn’t have a few tricks up my sleeve, the Bank of East Asia, a bank with a deep foundation and rich history, would have likely crashed and gone bankrupt in this storm. How should we settle this score?” Lin Haoran’s gaze was piercing as he brought up old grievances.

“Mr. Lin, as the president of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, I solemnly promise you: as long as you cancel the 5% fixed deposit interest rate policy, the Hong Kong Association of Banks will immediately cancel the ‘choose one of two’ policy. Not only that, but we will also cordially invite the Bank of East Asia to join the association and grant it a supervisor’s seat!” Michael Sandberg got straight to the point.

The moment he spoke, the atmosphere in the conference room instantly became delicate.

Everyone’s eyes darted back and forth between Lin Haoran and Michael Sandberg, wondering how Lin Haoran would respond.

Lin Haoran narrowed his eyes slightly, a faint, almost imperceptible smile gracing his lips. He felt a touch of disdain.

With the Bank of East Asia’s current market share in Hong Kong, he couldn’t care less about a supervisor’s seat, let alone the position of vice-president.

What’s more, the so-called “choose one of two” policy had completely lost its effectiveness after the Bank of East Asia raised its fixed deposit interest rate to 5%.

The customers who were originally constrained by the policy had, under the allure of such high interest, flocked to the Bank of East Asia.

The policy was now just an empty shell with no real binding power.

Thus, Michael Sandberg’s so-called concession was, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, utterly worthless.

Lin Haoran said slowly, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, your promise sounds tempting, but don’t forget, when the Hong Kong Association of Banks joined forces to suppress the Bank of East Asia, you didn’t give us the slightest chance to breathe.

“Now that the Bank of East Asia has established a firm foothold through its own strength, you suddenly want to cancel the ‘choose one of two’ policy and invite us to join the association. Isn’t this change of heart a bit too fast?

“Besides, I’m sure you know in your heart that even if all these conditions you mentioned were met, they would have little effect on the Bank of East Asia. They are far from any kind of substantive compensation.

“The success the Bank of East Asia has achieved in the market today was accomplished by breaking through your siege with our own strength, not by relying on handouts from your banking association.”

Michael Sandberg’s face turned shades of green and white. He hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to be so blunt, publicly refuting his proposal.

But he understood that he couldn’t lose his temper now. He could only force down his anger and say, “Mr. Lin, it is true that the banking association mishandled things in the past, but one must always look forward.”

Chapter 639: A Five-Day Deadline, A Letter of Resignation!

Seeing this, Lin Haoran remained composed and slowly said, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, since you’ve made your stance clear, I’ll be blunt as well. Getting the Hong Kong Association of Banks to abolish the unfair ‘choose one of two’ policy, so that the Bank of East Asia can compete with other banks on a level playing field, is merely the most basic first step.

“Furthermore, regarding the 5% deposit interest rate, it is absolutely impossible to stop it immediately. I need a one-month buffer period. After one month, I will naturally adjust the interest rate back down.

“Consider this one-month buffer as a small compensation for the losses the Bank of East Asia suffered due to the unfair treatment.”

He was intentionally making an exorbitant demand.

In reality, forget one month—even with half a month, HSBC and the other major banks in Hong Kong would likely have their deposits drained completely.

By then, even if the policy were stopped, the Bank of East Asia would have already achieved a monopoly in the retail deposit market.

The other banks, possibly including HSBC, would be mired in various crises like bank runs and capital shortages.

Lin Haoran certainly knew that one month was impossible.

But he also understood that negotiation was a game of psychology and strategy. By proposing this seemingly harsh condition, he was actually seizing more initiative and room for maneuver in the subsequent talks.

If his terms were too simple, wouldn’t others think he was a pushover?

In that case, not only would he fail to secure the compensation the Bank of East Asia deserved, but he might also make other banks think it was weak and easy to bully, leading to even more aggressive suppression in the future.

As soon as Lin Haoran finished speaking, Michael Sandberg could no longer contain himself. He slammed his hand on the table, his eyes wide with fury, and roared, “Lin Haoran, don’t push your luck! A one-month buffer period? Are you trying to turn the entire financial market of Hong Kong upside down? Do you take everyone present for fools you can manipulate as you please?”

He had already decided to discontinue the “choose one of two” policy and could accept that, but one month?

He had no idea how Lin Haoran thought the Bank of East Asia could attract deposits with a 5% interest rate without losing money, but that wasn’t his concern at the moment.

All Michael Sandberg knew was that he had to stop the Bank of East Asia as soon as possible, or HSBC could genuinely be finished.

Retail deposits were the core business of every major bank. Once they lost that market, they would even have difficulty mobilizing capital.

The heads of the other banks were also displeased with Lin Haoran’s exorbitant demand and joined the chorus of condemnation.

“Mr. Lin, your condition is truly excessive. A one-month buffer period will completely unbalance the flow of capital in Hong Kong’s financial market, and numerous banks will suffer a massive impact. This is something we can never accept,” a bank executive said, his face filled with resentment and his words sharp.

“Indeed, Mr. Lin. Perhaps we handled the previous matter improperly, and I admit the actions of the Hong Kong Association of Banks were unfair. But you are clearly using this as an opportunity for retaliation. You’re not negotiating in good faith,” another executive chimed in, his eyes full of dissatisfaction and accusation.

Even Governor Sir Murray MacLehose found Lin Haoran’s condition too excessive. He spoke up, “Mr. Lin, I understand your demands. The Bank of East Asia has suffered unfair treatment and should be compensated, but a one-month buffer period would indeed have an unpredictable impact on Hong Kong’s financial market.

“The stability of the financial market concerns the vital interests of every citizen and affects Hong Kong’s standing on the international financial stage. We must weigh this carefully.”

Lin Haoran inclined his head slightly, showing respect to the Governor, before speaking in a calm, unhurried tone, “Mr. Governor, I understand your concerns. But you are also aware that the losses the Bank of East Asia sustained under the oppressive ‘choose one of two’ policy cannot be remedied overnight.

“This one-month buffer period is not meant to disrupt the market, but to allow the Bank of East Asia to gradually recover and regain its footing in a relatively fair environment.”

Lin Haoran’s words made many people in the room curse him for his despicableness.

Recover?

The old Bank of East Asia, though ranked fourth in Hong Kong, only held about 3% of the market share.

And the Bank of East Asia now? It was approaching 30%. With one more push, wouldn’t it surpass the behemoth HSBC?

If that was considered a heavy loss, what did that make the losses of their banks?

Michael Sandberg’s face grew as dark as storm clouds. He clenched his fists tightly, suppressing the rage boiling within him, and ground out through his teeth, “Lin Haoran, stop trying to confuse the public and distort the truth!

“Didn’t the Bank of East Asia’s market share skyrocket these past few days because of this 5% high-interest deposit scheme? To my knowledge, in just three short days, the Bank of East Asia’s deposits have surged by several billion Hong Kong dollars. This amount has long surpassed any losses your bank suffered after the Hong Kong Association of Banks implemented the ‘choose one of two’ policy.

“And you still妄图 to use a one-month buffer to solidify this illegitimate advantage? That is nothing but wishful thinking and wild fantasy! Mr. Governor, I strongly recommend that the Legislative Council immediately introduce a policy to enforce a cap on deposit interest rates to stop this quasi-monopolistic behavior from the Bank of East Asia!”

Lin Haoran, however, remained completely unmoved. His expression was still tranquil as his gaze swept across the room. He said slowly, “Everyone, the condition I’ve proposed is not without basis. You are all well aware of the unfair treatment the Bank of East Asia has suffered.

“This one-month buffer is a reasonable compensation for our losses and is also meant to allow the market to gradually return to the track of fair competition. If you are unwilling to grant even this small compensation, then how can you speak of fairness and justice?”

Michael Sandberg was trembling with rage. He pointed a finger at Lin Haoran, almost speechless.

Lin Haoran smiled faintly and continued unhurriedly, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, why are you so agitated? You think the Bank of East Asia is being excessive now, but have you ever considered when you used unfair means to block our development and push us into a corner? Did you show even a shred of pity or fairness then?

“The unfair ‘choose one of two’ policy was like a sharp blade thrust straight into the heart of the Bank of East Asia. How many clients were lost? How much business was halted? How can those losses be measured by mere numbers?

“So it’s okay for you to start a fire, but not for us to light a lamp? Where is the logic in that? Now that the Bank of East Asia is merely using legitimate means to salvage the situation, you are all jumping in agitation and repeatedly accusing us of disrupting the market. Don’t you find that laughable?”

“Alright, alright, everyone calm down. Let’s each say one less word. If we continue to argue like this, not only will we fail to reach a resolution, but the conflict will only intensify. For the entire financial industry of Hong Kong, this would undoubtedly be a huge disaster.”

Seeing the tension with both sides with swords drawn, the atmosphere so thick it felt like it could explode at any moment, Governor Sir Murray MacLehose quickly stepped in to mediate, trying to quell the impending “storm.”

Once the room quieted down again, so silent you could hear a pin drop, and all eyes were focused on him, MacLehose cleared his throat and continued, “Mr. Lin, this one-month buffer period you’ve proposed, to be honest, is indeed a bit beyond what everyone can accept. Look, in order to facilitate these negotiations, perhaps you could make more concessions.

“And Mr. Michael Sandberg, on your side, for the sake of the stable and healthy development of Hong Kong’s financial industry, you also need to show some sincerity and make certain concessions. What do you all think?”

Michael Sandberg snorted heavily and turned his head away, but his chest was still heaving, a clear sign his anger had yet to subside.

Lin Haoran, on the other hand, was calm, his gaze meeting Sandberg’s without flinching.

Taipan Brown also stood up at this moment, his hands spread wide and a gentle smile on his face. “Mr. Governor is right. We’ve gathered here today to solve problems, not create new ones.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Michael Sandberg, we all understand each other’s positions and demands. Why don’t we each take a step back and find a middle ground? How about that?”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly and said, “Mr. Brown, I am not an unreasonable person, but the unfair treatment the Bank of East Asia suffered must be properly addressed.

“I do believe that a one-month buffer is a reasonable compensation period. However, since everyone feels the time is too long, I am willing to make some concessions.”

Hearing that Lin Haoran was willing to compromise, Michael Sandberg’s expression softened slightly. He said, “Three days. We will give the Bank of East Asia a maximum of three days to adjust its interest rates. After three days, you must immediately return them to a reasonable market level. Otherwise, we will not compromise any further!”

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but chuckle. He shook his head gently and said, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, three days? That’s a bit of a joke, isn’t it? In three days, the Bank of East Asia can barely complete basic operational adjustments and client communications, let alone allow the market to gradually adapt to the interest rate change. That is absolutely impossible. Fifteen days. I am willing to cut the time in half. You can consider this a sign of my sincerity.”

“Impossible! In half a month, the Bank of East Asia will have sucked up all the deposits in Hong Kong!” Michael Sandberg shot to his feet, his hands pressed on the table, his eyes filled with rage. “Lin Haoran, don’t push it! HSBC and the many other banks in Hong Kong can’t withstand this kind of torment. To us, fifteen days and one month are essentially both fatal. What kind of sincerity is that?”

…

After a round of tense and fierce negotiations, with Governor Sir Murray MacLehose mediating and all parties repeatedly haggling, both sides finally reached a compromise: a five-day buffer period would be the core term of the agreement.

Behind the scenes, this result was achieved after MacLehose explained the stakes to Lin Haoran and applied some pressure, while also patiently persuading and placating Michael Sandberg’s side.

It is worth mentioning that these five days did not include the day of the negotiations. This meant that, starting from the day after the agreement took effect, the Bank of East Asia would effectively have a six-day buffer period to make its operational adjustments.

Overall, Government House was definitely biased towards HSBC, but Lin Haoran was actually very satisfied with the agreed-upon buffer time.

At least it wasn’t an immediate stop. With today included, there were six days left, which was enough for the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank to attract a considerable amount of retail deposits.

In addition, the meeting reached another important consensus.

After the buffer period ended, Hong Kong’s financial industry would introduce new regulations to strictly limit the maximum deposit interest rates for all banks.

Specifically, for client funds with a deposit size exceeding one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, the interest rate for both one-year and five-year fixed-term deposits could not exceed 3%.

For small and medium-sized bank clients with deposits under one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, the maximum deposit interest rate would be set at 3.5%.

This measure aimed to pull the currently distorted market, caused by high-interest competition, back to a relatively stable and reasonable state, allowing small and medium-sized banks to find space for survival and development under the competitive pressure of large banks.

Moreover, after the legislation, chaotic situations like vicious competition through attracting deposits with high interest rates would no longer exist. Each bank could focus more on improving service quality, innovating financial products, and expanding diversified businesses. This was of great significance for the long-term, healthy development of Hong Kong’s financial industry.

Lin Haoran had no complaints about this.

At the very least, this outcome was much better than he had imagined.

Following the clear trend, the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank could attract at least another ten billion Hong Kong dollars in depositor funds over the next five or six days. For the Bank of East Asia, this was already an extremely fruitful result.

He had never fantasized about using high interest rates to completely destroy HSBC.

“Mr. Governor, I have a proposal,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, looking at Sir Murray MacLehose after everyone had signed the agreement.

“Lin Haoran, what else do you want?” Michael Sandberg looked at Lin Haoran with some vigilance.

The five or six-day extension of the high interest rates had just been settled, and their HSBC would lose at least several billion Hong Kong dollars in depositor funds, which was already hard for him to accept.

Therefore, he was on full alert against Lin Haoran, afraid that he would propose some new, harsh demand that would make a bad situation worse for HSBC.

Sir Murray MacLehose raised his hand slightly, signaling for Sandberg to be patient, then turned to Lin Haoran and said, “Mr. Lin, feel free to share your proposal. As long as it is beneficial to the stability and development of Hong Kong’s financial industry, we can discuss it together.”

Lin Haoran bowed slightly and said, “Mr. Governor, this incident was actually started entirely by the so-called Hong Kong Association of Banks. Under the control of HSBC, this association has effectively become their tool for suppressing competitors and maintaining their own monopoly.

“I propose that the government should intervene in the Hong Kong Association of Banks, carry out a comprehensive reform, and redraft its charter to ensure that it operates justly, fairly, and openly, truly serving all banks in Hong Kong instead of becoming the ‘private tool’ of one or a few banks.

“Only when the Hong Kong Association of Banks is led by the government can we do our best to guarantee a fair competitive environment for Hong Kong’s financial industry, prevent unfair policies like ‘choose one of two’ from reappearing, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of all banks.”

At these words, a slight stir once again went through the room.

Michael Sandberg’s expression instantly became extremely ugly. The Hong Kong Association of Banks could be said to have become a tool for HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, and other major Ginza firms to protect their interests.

Now, Lin Haoran was openly suggesting that the oversight of the Hong Kong Association of Banks be handed over to the Hong Kong government. This was undoubtedly an attempt to shake the industry structure they had painstakingly built over a long period.

He was just about to speak in rebuttal but was stopped by a look from Sir Murray MacLehose.

“Mr. Lin’s proposal is a good one. I believe it is feasible. I will discuss this matter with the Secretary of the Hong Kong Financial Authority later,” Sir Murray MacLehose said directly.

For Government House, Lin Haoran’s proposal had only benefits and no drawbacks, so he naturally agreed without hesitation.

Michael Sandberg glared fiercely at Lin Haoran but was helpless.

He was actually aware that HSBC’s actions during this period had thrown Hong Kong’s financial industry into chaos, which had already displeased Government House.

Now, Government House was merely taking this opportunity to reform the Hong Kong Association of Banks to further regulate the financial industry and reduce the occurrence of destabilizing factors. How could he possibly stop it?

This mediation session had lasted for nearly three hours.

After leaving Government House, Lin Haoran went directly to the Bank of East Asia and told the person in charge, Da Shan, about the matter.

Although Da Shan felt it was a pity that the Bank of East Asia could only continue for five more days, he also knew that this was already a very ideal outcome.

“Boss, rest assured. In the remaining few days, I will give it my all to attract as many depositor funds as possible for the Bank of East Asia and lay a solid foundation for the bank’s long-term development,” Da Shan said solemnly.

“Mm, keep it up. I believe in you!” Lin Haoran patted Da Shan’s shoulder and smiled.

Meanwhile, at the HSBC headquarters building.

Back in his office, Michael Sandberg grew angrier the more he thought about it. Although today’s outcome had ultimately made Lin Haoran bow his head, HSBC had also paid a considerable price.

That five-day buffer period was enough for the Bank of East Asia to act like a greedy glutton and devour a significant amount of depositor resources.

On top of that, HSBC would likely lose its control over the Hong Kong Association of Banks in the future. How could he swallow this?

“Bang!” Michael Sandberg slammed his fist on his desk, causing the documents on it to jump.

His face was so dark it looked like it could drip water, his eyes filled with rage and unwillingness.

“Lin Haoran, Bank of East Asia, I will settle this score with you sooner or later!” Michael Sandberg roared in a low, teeth-gritting voice.

The more he thought, the angrier he became. Suddenly, he smacked his forehead, just now remembering that Ho Sin Hang, the Chairman of Hang Seng Bank, had not gone with them to Government House to put pressure on Sir Murray MacLehose.

This meant that Ho Sin Hang had not followed HSBC’s lead at all.

This realization made the flames of anger in Michael Sandberg’s heart leap even higher.

Although Hang Seng Bank was nominally independent, it was in reality constrained by HSBC in many ways and had to act according to HSBC’s pleasure in many matters. To put it bluntly, it was a subsidiary of HSBC.

For Ho Sin Hang to act this way now was a blatant disregard for him, Michael Sandberg, the Helmsman of HSBC!

Thinking of this, Michael Sandberg immediately summoned his secretary. “Get Ho Sin Hang over here. I have something to discuss with him.”

“Yes, Taipan. I’ll call Mr. Ho’s secretary right away,” the secretary said respectfully before leaving the office.

On the other side, at Hang Seng Bank’s headquarters.

Ho Sin Hang had received the final results from Government House as soon as the talks concluded.

He was not surprised by the outcome.

However, at this moment, his heart was extremely conflicted.

Back when he met with Lin Haoran in private, they made a bet: as long as the Hong Kong Association of Banks canceled the so-called “choose one of two” policy against the Bank of East Asia, he, Ho Sin Hang, would go to the Bank of East Asia to become its head.

Now, that bet was clearly in effect. He, Ho Sin Hang, had to seriously consider whether to fulfill his promise.

Ho Sin Hang sat in his office chair, his fingers tapping lightly on the desk, his eyes filled with hesitation and struggle, as if a fierce tug-of-war was raging inside him.

On one hand, he felt an inseparable attachment to Hang Seng Bank.

After all, this bank was the crystallization of his countless heart and soul; he had founded it with his own hands.

Even after it was acquired by HSBC, under his meticulous management over the years, Hang Seng Bank had always maintained its unique operating style and development trajectory. Every brick and tile, every blade of grass and tree here, carried his memories and emotions.

But on the other hand, the vigorous development of the Bank of East Asia under Lin Haoran’s leadership was like a giant magnet, deeply attracting him.

The future blueprint for the Bank of East Asia that Lin Haoran had described was filled with infinite possibilities and opportunities, making him feel as though he was witnessing the rise of a brilliant new star in the financial world.

As long as he could become the head of the Bank of East Asia, coupled with the resources of Lin Haoran, the richest man in Hong Kong, he believed he could give full play to his talents on this vast stage.

Perhaps one day, he could also become a figure who left a significant mark on financial history, like Citibank’s Chairman Walter Wriston or Morgan Bank’s founder John Pierpont Morgan.

To become a world-class banker was his dream.

However, with the acquisition of Hang Seng Bank, the flame of this dream had gradually been extinguished.

But at this moment, that long-extinguished flame had surprisingly flared up again.

“Mr. Ho, Mr. Michael Sandberg’s secretary called. He said Mr. Michael Sandberg would like you to come over,” Ho Sin Hang’s secretary said softly after knocking and entering.

Ho Sin Hang frowned slightly, thinking to himself, “This Michael Sandberg, summoning me now, must be to call me to account for the negotiations.”

“Alright, I know. I’ll head over in a bit. You can leave now,” Ho Sin Hang said to his secretary.

As the secretary gently closed the office door, the room plunged into a sudden silence, so quiet he could hear his own slightly hurried breathing.

Ho Sin Hang propped his hands on the edge of his desk, his head slightly lowered, his eyes wandering over the tabletop. His mind was like a lake roiled by a fierce wind, turbulent with conflicting emotions.

After a long while, as if gritting his teeth, he suddenly straightened up and picked up a clean sheet of white paper from the desk.

His fingers unconsciously stroked the edge of the paper. He took a deep breath, picked up his fountain pen, but as the nib touched the paper, his hand began to tremble uncontrollably.

He composed himself and began to write, stroke by stroke. Each character seemed to drain all his strength, as if he were pouring all of his past into it. In the end, he had filled the entire page.

When the last character was written, he slowly put down the pen, carefully folded the paper, and solemnly placed it into a new envelope.

Then, he picked up the pen again and slowly wrote three powerful, yet somewhat heavy, characters on the envelope: Letter of Resignation!

Ho Sin Hang’s hand, holding the fountain pen, trembled slightly. The moment the three words were written, he had mixed feelings.

After so many years of operation and management, Hang Seng Bank had long become an indispensable part of his life. Yet, the hopeful future of the Bank of East Asia was like a flame, constantly searing his heart.

He stood up and paced back and forth in his office, his eyes frequently falling on the letter of resignation.

The envelope lay quietly on the desk, as if bearing the full weight of his conflict and resolve.

“I, Ho Sin Hang, have toiled and struggled in the financial world my entire life. Am I to be trapped in this small world of Hang Seng Bank forever? Lin Haoran has given me an opportunity, a chance to possibly realize greater ambitions. Isn’t this also me giving myself a chance?

“I don’t have many years left in my life. If I don’t fight for it now, am I supposed to enter my coffin with regrets?” he murmured to himself, as if giving himself a pep talk.

At this thought, Ho Sin Hang finally made up his mind. He took his suit from the coat rack, put it on, and then placed the letter into the suit’s pocket.

Chapter 640: A One-Year Term? Only a Fool Would Choose That!

Michael Sandberg sat in his office in the HSBC headquarters building, gazing out at the bustling streets of Central. Though the sky outside was clear and bright, his expression was as dark as the heavens before a storm.

HSBC’s losses concerning the Bank of East Asia were simply too great.

Worse, it was a continuous, successive loss of market share.

Over the next five or six days, he knew without even thinking that HSBC was bound to lose several billion more Hong Kong dollars.

He wanted to stop it, but how?

Raise the interest rate on fixed-term deposits to five percent?

It wasn’t impossible, but he dared not rashly bear the consequences such a move would bring upon HSBC.

He knew full well that if HSBC raised its fixed-term deposit interest rate to five percent, it could indeed stabilize its market share and prevent the further outflow of funds.

At that point, HSBC could even attract a large amount of capital from other banks, just as the Bank of East Asia was doing, achieving an inflow and growth of funds.

But the consequences of this action had to be carefully considered and thought through.

Once the interest rate hike was implemented, HSBC’s existing depositors—with fixed-term deposits amounting to tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars—would inevitably replan their savings arrangements and switch to the five percent interest plan.

This meant that in the future, HSBC would have to continuously pay high interest costs for these tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars in fixed-term deposits, which would place immense pressure on the bank’s profits and operations.

Therefore, HSBC simply did not dare to take this step.

They could only watch helplessly as the Bank of East Asia continued to “siphon off” customers and funds from HSBC and its subsidiary, Hang Seng Bank, over the next few days, as if it were sucking their blood.

The feeling of wanting to stop it but being unable to was truly agonizing!

The more he thought about it, the angrier Michael Sandberg became, and once his temper flared, he couldn’t control himself.

Thus, some of the documents in his office became the victims of his fury.

Michael Sandberg abruptly stood up and swept the documents from his desk to the floor with a powerful shove of his hands. The papers fluttered through the air, drifting down like helpless snowflakes.

His chest heaved violently, his eyes burning with anger and unwillingness, like a fierce beast trapped in a cage, letting out a low, suppressed roar.

As the Taipan of HSBC, helming this behemoth of Hong Kong’s financial world, his status was revered. Even Governor Sir Murray MacLehose was his equal.

With such a status, when had he ever been so provoked?

But ever since Lin Haoran took control of the Bank of East Asia, he had been repeatedly forced into such dire straits.

The Bank of East Asia was like a ferocious beast, constantly tearing at HSBC’s market share, ripping its once-solid financial territory to shreds.

Panting heavily, Michael Sandberg leaned on his desk, his body slightly forward, his eyes locked on the scattered documents on the floor, as if they were Lin Haoran and the Bank of East Asia.

Before this, HSBC had been at the zenith of its power in Hong Kong’s financial sector, towering above all others. Other banks couldn’t shake it in the slightest. How could it be compared to its current, wretched state?

Outside, Michael Sandberg’s secretary heard the thunderous noise from within the office and flinched, nearly dropping the files in her hands.

She cautiously approached the door and peeked through the crack. The sight of the utter mess and Michael Sandberg’s furious expression made her heart pound with fear.

As the person in charge of HSBC, Mr. Michael Sandberg had always presented a refined and gentle demeanor. When had he ever been so irascible?

Still, she eventually mustered her courage and knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Michael Sandberg said, regaining some of his composure.

The secretary pushed the door open and entered, bowing her head respectfully. “Taipan, Mr. Ho Sin Hang has arrived. He is downstairs.”

Michael Sandberg snorted coldly. “Let him come up!”

Glancing at the messy documents on the floor, he added, “Wait. Help me clean up these papers first.”

The secretary quickly agreed and, with nimble movements, knelt to rapidly organize the documents on the floor.

She moved as gently as possible, careful not to make too much noise, afraid of upsetting Michael Sandberg again.

Soon, the documents were mostly tidied up. The secretary stacked them neatly on the desk before slowly backing out of the office.

Not long after, Ho Sin Hang arrived at Michael Sandberg’s office.

Entering the room, Ho Sin Hang saw Michael Sandberg’s face, so dark it looked like water could drip from it. He guessed the reason but kept his expression neutral.

He greeted with a smile, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, you were looking for me.”

Hearing Ho Sin Hang’s words, Michael Sandberg’s anger flared up again like dry wood set ablaze.

In the past, while not exactly deferential, he had always shown Ho Sin Hang great respect. After all, Ho Sin Hang was quite skilled at managing Hang Seng Bank and had contributed significantly to the HSBC system.

But now, with a series of blows one after another, the Bank of East Asia pressing in relentlessly, and market share continuously eroding, Ho Sin Hang had dropped the ball at a critical moment like the negotiations. This was something he found hard to accept. All his pent-up frustration found an outlet, and he just wanted to unleash it all at once.

At this moment, Ho Sin Hang was undoubtedly the most suitable “scapegoat” in his eyes.

Michael Sandberg’s gaze was sharp as he stared at Ho Sin Hang and said with a cold snort, “Mr. Ho, do you have any idea why you were absent from today’s negotiations? Do you still have HSBC in your eyes? Hang Seng Bank is merely a subsidiary of HSBC and should act in unison with us. But you? You decided to play a disappearing act at a critical moment.”

Michael Sandberg’s tone was full of accusation and anger, every word seemingly laced with gunpowder.

In truth, even if Ho Sin Hang had been there today, he wouldn’t have made much of a difference.

Right now, Sandberg was just looking for a pretext to vent all his frustration and rage.

Ho Sin Hang lowered his head slightly, walked over to a chair, pulled it out, and sat down. Then, with a calm expression, he replied, “Mr. Sandberg, although I wasn’t present at the negotiations today, Hang Seng Bank is swamped with internal affairs. As you know, there are too many people withdrawing cash from our various branches, which can easily lead to chaos. I needed to be there to manage the situation and prevent trouble in the rear.

“Besides, I have faith in your ability, Mr. Michael Sandberg, to handle these negotiations properly. Hang Seng Bank is a subsidiary controlled by HSBC. Hasn’t HSBC always represented Hang Seng Bank’s position and attitude externally?

“So whether I go or not doesn’t change HSBC’s overall decision-making direction or power distribution at the negotiating table, does it?”

Michael Sandberg’s brow furrowed, the fire in his eyes burning even brighter. “Hmph, you’re just making excuses for your own dereliction of duty! Hang Seng Bank’s affairs are certainly important, but these negotiations concern HSBC’s position and future in Hong Kong’s financial world. As the head of Hang Seng Bank, you should have given your full support instead of hiding in the back and watching from the sidelines!”

“Alright, Mr. Michael Sandberg, let’s not dwell on this. You know I’m getting old and my energy is limited. Even at Hang Seng Bank, most of the work has been handed over to the general manager, Mr. Smith. I’m just a figurehead, occasionally overseeing things.

“It was indeed inconsiderate of me to miss the negotiations. It was my dereliction of duty. To make up for my mistake, and for the better development of Hang Seng Bank within the HSBC system, I have, after deep consideration, decided to resign from my position as Chairman of Hang Seng Bank.”

After speaking, Ho Sin Hang looked at Michael Sandberg with a calm gaze, as if he were stating the most ordinary of matters.

At the same time, he took a prepared Letter of Resignation from his pocket and placed it on Michael Sandberg’s desk.

The matter had to be handed to Sandberg and required the approval of the Board of Directors.

However, since he no longer had any intention of staying at Hang Seng Bank, no amount of persuasion from the board would be of any use.

Hearing this, Michael Sandberg’s eyes widened in shock and disbelief. He shot up from his seat, pointing a finger at Ho Sin Hang, his voice trembling with anger. “Mr. Ho, you… what did you say? You want to resign? Do you have any idea what nonsense you’re spouting!”

HSBC had, in fact, long had a succession plan for Hang Seng Bank. Ho Sin Hang’s retirement was only a matter of time.

But now, due to the bank run and other issues, both HSBC and Hang Seng Bank were in a state of turmoil.

For Ho Sin Hang to propose resigning at this juncture would be a devastating blow to Hang Seng Bank, making a bad situation worse.

Panic was already spreading within Hang Seng Bank. With customers making runs on the bank and capital flowing out, they desperately needed a leader who could stabilize morale and turn the tide.

As the soul of the company, Ho Sin Hang had accumulated immense prestige and a wealth of management experience over the years. His departure would undoubtedly throw Hang Seng Bank into greater chaos.

Employees would lose faith in the bank’s future, and customers would become even more panicked, accelerating their withdrawal of funds.

Therefore, Ho Sin Hang’s resignation at this time was nothing short of an earthquake for the entire HSBC system.

Michael Sandberg understood the stakes. He suppressed the rage in his heart, trying to calm himself, but his trembling hands betrayed his current emotional state.

He began to regret venting his anger on Ho Sin Hang.

“Mr. Ho, this is irresponsible behavior!” Michael Sandberg’s eyes were wide with fury. “Hang Seng Bank is in the midst of a storm right now. As the Chairman, instead of thinking about how to lead everyone through this difficult time, you choose to abandon your post and walk away. What will the employees of Hang Seng Bank think? What will HSBC think? What will the entire Hong Kong financial community think? I do not approve of your resignation!”

Ho Sin Hang stood up, his expression calm yet firm. “Mr. Michael Sandberg, I am not talking nonsense. I made this decision after careful consideration.

“Over the years, I have poured my heart and soul into Hang Seng Bank. But the current situation facing HSBC and Hang Seng Bank makes me feel powerless. I should have retired long ago. I was only holding on because I couldn’t let go.

“But now, it seems my presence hasn’t brought any substantial help to Hang Seng Bank. In fact, my slow decision-making might have caused the bank to miss the best opportunities to handle the crisis.

“My departure might bring a new turning point for Hang Seng Bank, allowing younger, more energetic people to lead it out of this predicament. Mr. Smith is quite good. I believe that after he takes over my position, he will be able to lead Hang Seng Bank through this ordeal with his professional skills and innovative thinking.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, there is no need to try and keep me. My mind is made up. Even if you don’t agree, you cannot stop my resolve. I will follow the proper procedures to submit my resignation application to the Board of Directors and will actively cooperate to complete the handover, ensuring that Hang Seng Bank’s operations are not significantly affected.”

Michael Sandberg’s face turned ashen with rage. He hadn’t expected Ho Sin Hang to be so resolute, leaving him no room for maneuver.

But at this point, he knew that any further attempts to retain him would be useless.

He had actually thought that Ho Sin Hang was truly planning to retire because of his age.

After Ho Sin Hang left, Michael Sandberg couldn’t help but sweep the documents off his desk again. This time, the sound of scattering paper was particularly piercing in the quiet office, as if it were the uncontainable eruption of his inner fury.

He braced his hands on the edge of the desk, his knuckles white from the force, his eyes filled with rage.

“This Ho Sin Hang, he always seems so steady, but he pulls a stunt like this on me at such a critical moment!” Michael Sandberg gritted his teeth.

He understood that Ho Sin Hang’s resignation would not only throw Hang Seng Bank into chaos but could also trigger a chain reaction, affecting the entire HSBC system.

After pacing back and forth in his office for a long time, Michael Sandberg’s mood still hadn’t calmed.

He realized that the most urgent task was to find a countermeasure as soon as possible, fill the vacancy left by Ho Sin Hang, and stabilize the situation at Hang Seng Bank and HSBC.

He sat back down in his chair, picked up the phone, and dialed the number of the secretary to the Board of Directors. “Notify all directors immediately to convene an emergency board meeting to discuss Ho Sin Hang’s resignation and the current crisis facing Hang Seng Bank. The sooner, the better!”

After hanging up, Michael Sandberg leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, his mind racing through possible solutions.

Meanwhile, Ho Sin Hang, having left Michael Sandberg’s office, checked the time on his watch. It was already past five in the afternoon.

So, he decided not to return to his office and instead gave Lin Haoran a call.

After confirming that Lin Haoran was at the Bank of East Asia headquarters, he drove there directly.

The HSBC headquarters and the Bank of East Asia headquarters were not far apart. In fact, most of the bank headquarters in Hong Kong were clustered in this small area.

Therefore, in less than ten minutes, Ho Sin Hang arrived at the Bank of East Asia headquarters.

Ho Sin Hang was a renowned tycoon in Hong Kong’s financial community. There wasn’t an employee at the Bank of East Asia who didn’t recognize him.

Moreover, after receiving Ho Sin Hang’s call, Lin Haoran had already arranged for someone to welcome him downstairs and escort him to a reception room.

It wasn’t that Lin Haoran didn’t want to greet him personally, but he was in the middle of listening to Da Shan’s report on the day’s situation and simply couldn’t get away.

After hurriedly finishing the report, Lin Haoran rushed to the reception room.

He already had some inkling of Ho Sin Hang’s purpose for visiting, but he couldn’t be certain.

“Mr. Ho, my sincerest apologies for making you wait so long,” Lin Haoran said with a smile as soon as he entered the room.

In reality, he had only kept Ho Sin Hang waiting for a few minutes.

Ho Sin Hang stood up and waved his hand. “It’s only been a few minutes, that’s not a long wait. It was my sudden visit that disrupted your schedule. I should be the one apologizing.”

Lin Haoran quickly motioned for Ho Sin Hang to sit down and took a seat on the sofa opposite him. He then waved for his assistant to brew two cups of fine tea.

After the secretary left the room, he asked, “Mr. Ho, you must have come today for an important matter?”

Though he already had a good guess and was very much looking forward to it.

It was best to let Ho Sin Hang say it himself!

Ho Sin Hang picked up his teacup, took a light sip, and slowly set it down. He looked directly at Lin Haoran and said, “Haoran, to be honest with you, I have already submitted my resignation to HSBC. I plan to step down from my position as Chairman of Hang Seng Bank.”

A flash of surprise crossed Lin Haoran’s face, but it was quickly replaced by a tide of irrepressible joy.

He stood up excitedly, his eyes filled with excitement and anticipation. “Mr. Ho, I’ve been waiting for this news day and night! The Bank of East Asia’s doors are always open for you. As long as you’re willing to come over, I’ll immediately arrange for you to become the Chairman of the Bank of East Asia.

“You should know that the Bank of East Asia’s market share is rising steadily. Surpassing HSBC in the future is a certainty. I believe that with a senior of your noble character, high prestige, and rich experience joining us, the Bank of East Asia will have a brilliant future. It’s not even impossible for us to become a top international bank like Citibank!”

Previously, when Lin Haoran proposed the bet, he was very confident he would win. He just wasn’t sure if Ho Sin Hang would ultimately honor it.

After all, it was just a non-binding wager. To put it simply, it could have been treated as a joke.

Now, he had forced HSBC and the Hong Kong Association of Banks behind it to cancel the unfair “choose one of two” policy that had been in effect for less than a month, which meant he had won the bet.

He hadn’t expected Ho Sin Hang to be so straightforward and to make the decision to join the Bank of East Asia so quickly.

This undoubtedly made Lin Haoran even more confident in the Bank of East Asia’s future.

“Haoran, it will take a few days for me to come over to the Bank of East Asia as I need to handle the handover at Hang Seng Bank. Once everything is properly arranged, I can officially join,” Ho Sin Hang said. Seeing how much Lin Haoran respected him, he felt relieved and had no regrets about his decision to leave Hang Seng Bank.

At Hang Seng Bank, although he was the Chairman, he was still constrained by HSBC.

But here at the Bank of East Asia, he believed Lin Haoran would not interfere with his work.

After all, Lin Haoran’s character in corporate management was well-known throughout Hong Kong’s business community.

Many people were even shocked that Lin Haoran dared to place so much trust in his professional managers.

This was definitely a rarity among Chinese entrepreneurs.

But who could have guessed that the reason Lin Haoran dared to be so trusting was entirely because he had a Golden Finger that allowed him to see loyalty.

With this Golden Finger, he could know who would betray him, naturally minimizing risks and daring to give his subordinates full trust and authority.

The two discussed the details of Ho Sin Hang taking over, after which Lin Haoran personally invited him to dinner at the nearby Joyful Abundance Restaurant.

After seeing Ho Sin Hang off, Lin Haoran returned to the Bank of East Asia.

By now, it was past eight in the evening.

Despite the late hour, the Bank of East Asia headquarters building was still brightly lit.

The twenty Bank of East Asia branches and the twelve Dao Heng Bank branches had only just stopped working at eight o’clock.

“Boss, today’s deposit results are in. Throughout the day, the Bank of East Asia and the newly incorporated Dao Heng Bank branches attracted over two billion Hong Kong dollars in fixed-term deposits, reaching a high of 2.293 billion Hong Kong dollars. That’s two hundred million more than yesterday!

“Over four days, we’ve accumulated a total of 6.763 billion Hong Kong dollars in deposits. In the next five days, we are confident that our Bank of East Asia’s capital scale will increase by more than eleven billion Hong Kong dollars in this interest rate war!” As soon as Lin Haoran entered Da Shan’s office, Da Shan excitedly reported the day’s achievements.

Dao Heng Bank had been fully acquired by Bank of East Asia. Although the two operated independently and hadn’t fully merged, it was perfectly reasonable for Bank of East Asia to include Dao Heng Bank’s performance in its results. After all, in terms of equity structure and actual control, Dao Heng Bank was already an important piece of the Bank of East Asia’s empire.

It was a good thing that Dao Heng Bank was not a publicly listed company and was one hundred percent owned by Britain’s Grindlays Bank. Otherwise, acquiring it would not have been possible in a single night.

Lin Haoran nodded. He was quite satisfied with these results.

Even if they only attracted ten billion Hong Kong dollars over the next five days, plus the sixty-plus billion they had now, they would have increased their deposit funds by more than one hundred sixty billion Hong Kong dollars from this interest rate war.

With this capital, he would have even more ammunition for his investments in Japan.

Lin Haoran calculated silently, a confident smile appearing on his face.

With this sum of money, he could easily turn it into hundreds of billions of Hong Kong dollars by multiplying it a few times.

And that was a conservative estimate.

In comparison, a mere five percent annual interest was really nothing.

“Also, Boss, there’s one more thing to report. Although our fixed-term deposits increased by 2.293 billion Hong Kong dollars today, the one-year fixed-term deposits actually accounted for sixty percent of that, which is the opposite of yesterday,” Da Shan reported with a frown.

Yesterday, their attracted funds had exceeded two billion Hong Kong dollars for the first time, and five-year fixed-term deposits had accounted for over sixty percent.

Unexpectedly, it was the other way around today.

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran’s lips curved into a confident smile. “You don’t need to worry about that. Although we can’t use the five percent interest rate to attract new deposits after five days, the customers who have already signed contracts are not subject to this restriction.

“When the time comes, we can simply negotiate with the customers who signed one-year deposit contracts to change the term to five years.

“I think most citizens will be scrambling to revise their deposit contracts with us to continue enjoying the high interest rate. While it might not be realistic to have everyone switch to a five-year term, I think getting ninety percent of the customers to sign for five years won’t be difficult to achieve.”

After hearing this, Da Shan nodded slightly. He felt that Lin Haoran’s reasoning was sound. His furrowed brow instantly relaxed, and the worry in his heart vanished completely.

Besides, the news from the Government House about canceling the unfair policy and adjusting interest rates couldn’t be kept secret.

Based on the current situation, the news would probably spread throughout every street and alley of Hong Kong like wildfire by tomorrow morning.

Once everyone learned that the five percent fixed-term deposit interest rate offer would be canceled in five days, then for the next few days, anyone who wasn’t a fool would undoubtedly choose the five-year term without hesitation.

A one-year term?

Hmph, only a fool would choose that!

Chapter 641: Walter Wriston Arrives in Hong Kong, Bank of East Asia’s Deposits Skyrocket Again!

In the blink of an eye, a night had passed.

This morning, an announcement was posted at the entrance of every branch of the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank.

The gist of the announcement was: At the government’s request, to ensure the stable development of Hong Kong’s financial industry, the promotional policy previously introduced by the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank—offering 4.5% interest on one-year fixed deposits and 5% interest on five-year fixed deposits—would end on July 14th.

Starting from July 15th, the two banks’ deposit interest rates would return to their previous levels, namely 2.5% for one-year fixed deposits and 3% for five-year fixed deposits.

Today was already July 10th, which meant there were only five days left to take advantage of the high-interest deposits.

The announcement spread like wildfire throughout Hong Kong.

Before the branches of the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank had even opened for the day, the news had already caused an uproar in Hong Kong’s financial circles and among the general public.

In restaurants and tea houses, on streets and in alleyways, everyone was discussing the impending end of the high-interest deposit promotion.

Those who had been hesitant before were now in a panic, afraid of missing this rare high-interest opportunity.

In a breakfast shop in Tsuen Wan, several men in shirts and ties, who looked like office workers, were gathered around a table. One middle-aged man frowned and said, “Have you heard? Bank of East Asia is ending its high-interest deposits.

This announcement came out of nowhere. I was waiting to see if HSBC would match the rate, and now look, there are only five days left. If I don’t deposit now, the chance will be gone!”

Although the Bank of East Asia’s market share had soared during this period thanks to its high-interest policy, the truth was that most citizens still preferred HSBC.

The bank, with its history of over a century and its long-standing dominance in Hong Kong’s financial world, remained a symbol of stability and reliability in the eyes of the public.

For the Bank of East Asia to change the public’s long-held impressions in a short time was undoubtedly a daunting task.

Moreover, not all customers were keen on fixed deposits; most preferred current accounts so they could access their funds flexibly at any time.

Thus, even though the Bank of East Asia had raised its interest rates to a level HSBC couldn’t possibly match, causing it to lose quite a few customers, many people still trusted HSBC more and kept their savings there.

Even so, because the high-interest policy had attracted a large number of fixed deposit customers from other banks, Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank had still sent a huge shockwave through Hong Kong’s entire banking industry. Other banks were forced to face a series of problems, including customer attrition and changes in their capital structure.

This might seem contradictory, but it profoundly reflected the complex considerations of Hong Kong citizens when making financial decisions and the diverse ecosystem of the city’s financial market.

It was precisely for this reason that Governor Sir Murray MacLehose had remained so calm during this period.

He knew that while the Bank of East Asia’s actions had thrown the entire Hong Kong financial industry into disarray, the impact wouldn’t be enough to shake the foundations of Hong Kong’s financial system in the short term.

Meanwhile, HSBC’s loyal customers had been waiting for the bank to match the Bank of East Asia’s deposit rates.

Unfortunately for them, that day would never come.

As ordinary citizens, they were naturally unaware that the banking industry had its own red lines. Crossing those lines could lead a bank into losses, which was why it was fundamentally impossible for HSBC to follow suit.

Another middle-aged man frowned and chimed in, “Exactly! The economy is unstable right now, so an interest rate of 4.5% or 5% is a rare thing! You couldn’t even dream of it in the past. I was planning to wait until after I got this month’s salary to think about it, but now it looks like I’ll have to deposit the money ahead of time.”

At this moment, a slightly older man with some gray in his hair spoke up slowly, “You young people are just too impulsive. The interest is high, yes, but you also have to consider your own liquidity. What if there’s a family emergency and you need the money? If you withdraw it early, the interest will be greatly reduced.”

The first middle-aged man heard this and quickly waved his hand. “Uncle, you have a point, but this opportunity is too good to miss. I did the math—if I deposit two hundred thousand, I could live off the interest alone for a year! If there’s a family emergency, I can just borrow from relatives and friends. If I miss this high interest, it’s really gone for good.”

The middle-aged man’s words won the approval of many others present.

After all, ever since the oil crisis, even though the stock market and some industries seemed to be showing signs of recovery, ordinary citizens were still struggling.

Prices rose from time to time, job opportunities were not as stable, and income growth was slow.

It was safe to say that the unemployment rate in the past two years was much higher than in previous years.

Under these circumstances, many citizens would downgrade their consumption and prefer to keep their money in the bank to reduce unnecessary expenses and obtain a stable income to hedge against unknown risks.

The high-interest policy of the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank was like throwing a match on a pile of dry wood, instantly igniting the saving enthusiasm of many citizens.

Another young man interjected, “My Dad left me an inheritance. I was originally planning to put it in a one-year fixed deposit, but now I’ve decided to go for five years. Otherwise, the interest will go back to the original rate after a year, and that would be a loss.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m thinking the same thing.”

“After this announcement, who would still go for a one-year fixed deposit? It’s either a current account or a five-year fixed deposit!”

“The Government House is really being meddlesome. Isn’t what Bank of East Asia is doing just normal business?”

“The way I see it, you can’t blame the Government House for this. It must be interference from banks like HSBC. After all, they’re not willing to raise their interest rates, but they can’t just sit back and watch Bank of East Asia suck away all the funds from other banks. So HSBC and the others are the ones to blame.”

“Anyway, I’m not going to use HSBC anymore. Bank of East Asia is also a long-established bank, and with a capital magnate like Lin Haoran backing it, what’s there to be afraid of? With Hongkong Land Group alone, there’s no need to worry about Bank of East Asia collapsing.”

“That’s true. HSBC might seem more established, but at the end of the day, it’s a British-owned bank. Since a Chinese-owned enterprise entrepreneur like Lin Haoran has risen, shouldn’t we, as Chinese people, support our own!”

“Speaking of HSBC, it just makes me angry. I was queuing to withdraw cash at HSBC yesterday. I started in the afternoon and waited until closing time, and it still wasn’t my turn. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to get my money out today. Sigh!” a middle-aged man in a black suit said indignantly.

Although the major banks couldn’t stop customers from withdrawing their money, they could slow down the service speed to delay the pace of capital outflow to some extent.

The once-efficient business processes became sluggish. The operating speed of the counter staff slowed noticeably, as they repeatedly verified information for every transaction and engaged in lengthy confirmations with customers.

Fortunately, customers were withdrawing cash from almost every bank in Hong Kong, so even with the deliberately slowed efficiency of these banks, the branches of Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank were still extremely busy and completely overwhelmed.

Therefore, even if those banks deliberately did this, it didn’t have much of an impact on the Bank of East Asia.

The announcement from the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank sparked heated discussions throughout Hong Kong, with the repercussions growing ever larger.

Because of this announcement, the queues at major banks like HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank were even longer than before.

And the delay tactics employed by the major banks only made the customers more dissatisfied. Some people even started causing trouble inside the banks.

Of course, that was a story for later.

…

Twelve o’clock noon.

At Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport, an airplane circled twice overhead. After receiving approval from the control tower, it finally landed smoothly on the runway.

At this moment, Lin Haoran was already waiting in the arrivals hall with a group of bodyguards.

Anyone who Lin Haoran would personally come to welcome was certainly no small figure.

It was none other than the Chairman of Citibank, Mr. Walter Wriston.

Mr. Walter Wriston had been in Singapore for some time now.

In fact, the originally scheduled meeting time with Lin Haoran had already been changed once.

This morning, Walter Wriston had personally called Lin Haoran to inform him of his arrival time in Hong Kong.

Although Lin Haoran’s collaboration with Citibank had only been for a little over two years, the two parties had always had a very pleasant and tacit cooperation.

Citibank’s influence in the international financial arena was immense, and Lin Haoran also needed to leverage Citibank’s resources and connections for his overseas expansion.

Lin Haoran provided the capital, and Citibank provided the resources. It was a situation where everyone is happy—a win-win scenario.

Wasn’t Mr. Walter Wriston’s special trip to Hong Kong this time also meant to consolidate the cooperative relationship between the two parties?

“Mr. Walter Wriston, long time no see!” In the bustling arrivals hall, Lin Haoran’s sharp eyes spotted Citibank’s Chairman Walter Wriston walking over from a distance with a bodyguard. A warm smile immediately spread across his face as he quickened his pace to greet him.

“Mr. Lin, thank you so much for coming to pick me up personally!” Walter Wriston replied with a broad smile, his voice carrying a warmth like that of greeting an old friend.

The two men quickly approached each other and shook hands, like two old friends who hadn’t seen each other in a long time.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, they headed to the airport parking lot together, escorted by their bodyguards.

Citibank also had a branch in Hong Kong, so under normal circumstances, the head of Citibank’s Hong Kong branch would have been the one to pick him up.

However, given that this was a special visit from Mr. Walter Wriston and that Lin Haoran had a close working relationship with him, picking him up personally was a greater show of sincerity and importance.

Along the way, Lin Haoran and Walter Wriston had a very pleasant conversation.

He also arranged for Walter Wriston to stay at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Central, fulfilling the hospitality of a host.

After lunch at the Joyful Abundance Restaurant, Walter Wriston bid farewell to Lin Haoran for the time being to inspect Citibank’s Hong Kong branch.

As for their discussion, it was scheduled for the next morning at Lin Haoran’s private reception room.

After parting with Walter Wriston, Lin Haoran didn’t rush back to his office. Instead, he made a trip to Queen Mary Hospital.

A few days ago, Lin Haoran had learned from Pao Yue-kong’s son-in-law that Pao Yue-kong had undergone major surgery at the beginning of the month.

The surgery was very successful, and now that more than a week had passed, he figured it was probably a good time to visit.

As one of his closer elders in the Hong Kong business community, it was only right for Lin Haoran to pay him a visit.

In a premium recovery room at Queen Mary Hospital, Lin Haoran finally saw Pao Yue-kong, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time.

At this moment, Pao Yue-kong’s face was a little pale, a state of weakness following major surgery, but his spirits were quite good.

He was half-reclining on the hospital bed, with a few business magazines beside him, which he was flipping through listlessly.

Led by Pao Yue-kong’s son-in-law, Wu Guangzheng, Lin Haoran gently pushed open the door, his footsteps light.

Hearing the sound, Pao Yue-kong slowly looked up. When he saw it was Lin Haoran, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly into a faint smile.

“Haoran, what are you doing here? You didn’t have to make a special trip,” Pao Yue-kong’s voice was a bit hoarse from the surgery, but his tone was full of warmth.

After all, he had just undergone a major surgery not long ago. It was impossible to regain his vitality in such a short time.

Despite this, Lin Haoran could see that Pao Yue-kong was in very good spirits.

To Pao Yue-kong, Lin Haoran was now his benefactor who saved his life.

If it hadn’t been for Lin Haoran’s warning, he might never have known he had cancer.

Even with his annual check-ups, they weren’t targeted, so detecting it wouldn’t have been easy.

The thought of what might have happened if he had found out only when it was already in the late stages, instead of discovering it early, sent a shiver down Pao Yue-kong’s spine.

He knew very well what late-stage cancer meant.

At that point, no amount of money would have helped; he would only be able to watch his life slip away.

Lin Haoran’s warning had undoubtedly bought him precious time for treatment. Late-stage cancer was incurable, but early-stage cancer was.

What’s more, with Pao Yue-kong’s status, it was a simple matter to assemble the world’s top doctors in the field to perform his surgery and treatment.

Being in the early stages and having access to the world’s most advanced treatment, Pao Yue-kong was naturally full of confidence in his recovery.

Seeing Lin Haoran now, his heart was filled with gratitude.

“Uncle Pao, congratulations. I heard your surgery was a great success. I’ve been wanting to come and see you, but I was afraid of disturbing your rest. I wish you a speedy recovery,” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he walked quickly to the bedside and gently placed the flowers and fruit basket he was holding on a nearby table.

Pao Yue-kong nodded slightly, his eyes filled with gratification. “Haoran, you’re too thoughtful.”

They didn’t chat for long, as Lin Haoran knew that what Pao Yue-kong needed most right now was quiet rest.

Before he left, Pao Yue-kong smiled at Lin Haoran and said, “Haoran, I know your Bank of East Asia is competing with HSBC right now. Don’t worry, when the time is right, I’ll lend you a hand!”

“Then I’ll have to thank you, Uncle Pao,” Lin Haoran laughed, though he didn’t take it too seriously.

After all, he knew that Pao Yue-kong and HSBC had a long-standing alliance.

One could say that Pao Yue-kong’s rise to become the World Shipping Magnate was inseparable from HSBC’s support.

Of course, both parties were acting in their own interests; it wasn’t as if HSBC’s support was selfless. So, their relationship was much like Lin Haoran’s current relationship with Citibank—a very close partnership.

Therefore, Lin Haoran believed that no matter what, Pao Yue-kong would probably not offend HSBC for his sake.

In that case, there likely wasn’t much help Pao Yue-kong could offer him.

This was Lin Haoran’s inner thought. From the beginning, he had never held out any hope that Pao Yue-kong could provide any significant help to the Bank of East Asia.

The reason he had warned Pao Yue-kong earlier was partly out of respect for this business senior who had helped him several times, and also because Pao Yue-kong had invited him to invest in Kowloon Wharf. He hoped that Pao Yue-kong would continue to manage Kowloon Wharf for the long term, so that as a major shareholder of Kowloon Wharf, he could naturally make money while lying down.

After all, he was slated to control forty-nine percent of Kowloon Wharf’s shares in the future.

Although he hadn’t reached that point yet, the process was already underway.

With the cooperation of a major shareholder like Pao Yue-kong, it wouldn’t be difficult for the two of them to privatize Kowloon Wharf.

The assets of Kowloon Wharf were solid fixed assets, and its market capitalization was severely undervalued.

Therefore, by being able to hold forty-nine percent of Kowloon Wharf’s shares at an extremely low price, Lin Haoran had swooped in and gotten a great deal.

It was already evening by the time he left Queen Mary Hospital.

Only then did Lin Haoran go directly to the Bank of East Asia.

He had been busy all day, first receiving the Chairman of Citibank, Mr. Walter Wriston, and then visiting Pao Yue-kong. It had been a very full day.

When he arrived at the Bank of East Asia headquarters, many people had already gone home for the day, but the headquarters was still a hive of activity.

During this period, almost all employees of the Bank of East Asia were working overtime.

After all, opportunities to seize market share were hard to come by.

If they didn’t seize such a great opportunity, there would be no regrets later if they missed it.

Lin Haoran stepped into the Bank of East Asia headquarters. The lobby was brightly lit, and employees were hurrying about. The ringing of telephones and the sound of discussions mingled together, creating a scene of busy and orderly work.

He walked straight to the president’s office. Da Shan was at his desk, holding a pen in one hand and pressing down on a piece of paper with the other, writing something. When he saw Lin Haoran enter, he quickly put down his work, stood up, and came forward to greet him. “Boss, you’re here.”

“Yes. How did things go today? Tell me about it,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, pulling up a chair and sitting down.

“Yes, Boss. This morning, after we posted the notice about the five-day deadline, it caused a huge sensation throughout Hong Kong. Afterward, I heard that the number of people withdrawing cash from the major banks surged. Some citizens even took leave from work just to withdraw their money so they could deposit it in our bank.

Also, the number of people queuing to deposit money at our thirty-two branches has increased very significantly. Our employees have also sped up their processing of transactions. Although it’s not time to tally up yet, if all goes as expected, our deposit volume today should be much higher than yesterday’s,” Da Shan reported.

“Yes, I saw that too. The queue at the branch downstairs from the head office stretched for several hundred meters,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Previously, when he had come over, the line had been long, but only a hundred meters or so.

Today’s queue was indeed much longer in comparison.

This was perfectly normal. Before, there was no deadline, so many people were not in a hurry.

But now, things were different. There were only five days left for the high-interest offer. Those citizens who had been watching from the sidelines or hesitating were now in a panic, afraid of missing this rare high-interest opportunity. Naturally, they all flocked to the bank, wanting to deposit their funds before the deadline.

“Also, I heard that there were conflicts in the banking halls of many banks today. Some citizens became emotional due to the long waiting times and slow service, leading to arguments and even physical altercations with bank staff. Even HSBC had this happen at many of its branches. The sound of police sirens could be heard on the streets from time to time.

Although our bank is also under tremendous pressure, thankfully, our employees have handled it well, and no similar incidents have occurred so far,” Da Shan continued, a hint of relief in his voice.

“Serves them right for deliberately slowing down their service speed!” Lin Haoran said, gloating a little.

The more chaotic HSBC’s operations became, the more advantageous it was for the Bank of East Asia.

Those citizens who were full of resentment at other banks due to inefficient service and cumbersome withdrawal processes were very likely to develop a growing fondness for the Bank of East Asia, driven by their disappointment and anger.

By acting this way, weren’t these banks personally destroying the good reputation they had worked so hard to build?

He was very clear about what these banks were doing.

After all, when the Bank of East Asia had faced a bank run before, although they had used similar tactics of delaying withdrawals, it hadn’t been a direct order from the bank’s senior executives.

In reality, HSBC had secretly poached people from the Bank of East Asia and then instructed these poached employees to deliberately delay withdrawal services to tarnish the Bank of East Asia’s name.

When the Bank of East Asia became aware of this situation, they simply decided to go with the flow and turn someone’s own trick against them.

By doing so, they not only logically delayed some customers’ withdrawal times and eased the financial pressure, but they also successfully distanced themselves from the issue, making it difficult for outsiders to directly blame the Bank of East Asia’s management.

Once this matter became public, those who had been criticizing the Bank of East Asia naturally had no reason to persist, and some of the negative perceptions of the bank gradually subsided as the truth became clear.

Time flew by, and soon it was past eight o’clock in the evening.

When the bank’s statistics came out, even Lin Haoran was very surprised.

He hadn’t expected that the new funds added today would be more than just a simple increase from yesterday.

Over the course of the entire day, the fixed deposits absorbed by the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank had even exceeded three billion Hong Kong dollars, reaching three billion, one hundred twenty-two million!

The day before, it had been a mere two billion, two hundred ninety-three million Hong Kong dollars.

In other words, without any increase in the number of branches, deposits had increased by over eight hundred million Hong Kong dollars today.

And most importantly, of these three billion, one hundred twenty-two million Hong Kong dollars in fixed deposits, a staggering three billion and eighty-one million Hong Kong dollars were for five-year fixed deposits, while the amount for one-year fixed deposits was only forty-one million Hong Kong dollars.

This statistical difference was extremely significant, fully demonstrating that when faced with the temptation of high interest rates, most citizens preferred to choose long-term, stable deposit methods to lock in the current high rates and obtain more substantial interest returns.

Furthermore, the fact that the high-interest deposit promotion by Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank would officially end in five days was the most important reason prompting people to opt for five-year fixed deposits.

Lin Haoran looked at the data report, a satisfied smile on his face.

Such a huge influx of funds not only brought ample capital reserves to the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank but also further enhanced their status and influence in the Hong Kong financial market.

It also meant that the Bank of East Asia’s strategy of launching a high-interest deposit policy this time had been a resounding success, successfully attracting a large number of customers and dealing a powerful blow to competitors like HSBC.

He had expected the fixed-term funds to increase today, but he hadn’t expected them to increase by this much.

Even Da Shan, the President of the Bank of East Asia, had not anticipated this.

From this perspective, Lin Haoran was even more eager to see how much more capital the Bank of East Asia could attract in the remaining four days.

Chapter 642: An Unexpected Surprise, Becoming Citibank’s Major Shareholder?

How did the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank manage to see a surge in deposits without increasing the number of their branches?

The reason was actually quite simple. Besides the faster service from the bank tellers, the most important factor was the significant increase in large-sum deposits that day.

According to statistics from both the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank, the largest single deposit of the day was as high as twenty million Hong Kong dollars, and the number of high-value deposits exceeding one million Hong Kong dollars was several times greater than usual.

While the total number of customers served didn’t increase much, the amount per deposit climbed substantially, which undoubtedly became the key factor behind the surge in deposit funds.

It turned out that after the announcement, citizens, business owners, and small-time investors who already had some capital reserves realized that the window for high-interest deposits was about to close.

Consequently, they began to consolidate funds that were previously scattered across other banks or investment channels and deposit them into the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank to earn higher interest returns.

For them, in an uncertain market economy, other investments could easily lead to losses.

Therefore, it was better to deposit their money in a bank. The high interest offered by the Bank of East Asia was a rare opportunity for wealth appreciation that could not be missed.

Even the owners of some small and medium-sized enterprises, considering the uncertainty of the current economic environment, felt it was better to deposit their funds in a bank, which guaranteed both the safety of their capital and a considerable interest income, rather than investing in riskier projects.

They consolidated their companies’ idle funds and deposited them into the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank as large-sum fixed deposits, adding a layer of stability to their corporate financial management.

There were also some small-time investors who had dabbled in the stock market, mutual funds, and other markets, but recent market volatility had resulted in unsatisfactory returns.

After seeing the high-interest deposit policies of the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank, they decisively withdrew their funds from these markets and shifted them to the banks’ fixed deposits.

In their view, this stable method of earning returns was more reliable in the current market environment.

In the past, for clients depositing several million or even tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars, the interest rate was not low; exceeding 4% was normal.

This was because Hong Kong’s real estate industry had been booming, with high transaction volumes and a large mortgage business. Under such circumstances, attracting large sums of money naturally meant preferential treatment and higher interest rates.

But times have changed. The development of the real estate industry had begun to slow, transaction volumes were declining, and the mortgage business had shrunk accordingly.

The demand for funds for mortgage loans at many banks was no longer as urgent as before, and the high-interest strategies previously set to attract large deposits to support the mortgage business were adjusted accordingly.

Therefore, within Hong Kong’s banking industry, basically all major banks had adjusted their deposit interest rates, and the preferential treatment for large deposits was gradually being eliminated.

At this moment, an interest rate of 5% was enough to attract those large deposits to transfer to the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank.

These factors all contributed to the sudden, massive increase in deposits at the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank today.

Regardless, this was a good thing for the Bank of East Asia.

After all, in just five days, they had attracted a full 9.885 billion Hong Kong dollars in deposits, nearly 10 billion Hong Kong dollars!

This was even with the first two days being before the acquisition of Dao Heng Bank, when the Bank of East Asia’s 20 branches alone simply couldn’t handle the volume.

After the acquisition of Dao Heng Bank, the effects of resource integration and business synergy between the two began to manifest, injecting new momentum into the further growth of deposit funds.

Now, there were only four days left to attract deposits. If the next four days were like today, with daily deposits exceeding three billion Hong Kong dollars, then in just nine days, the total deposits attracted by the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank would easily break the 20 billion Hong Kong dollar mark.

It was hard to imagine that a simple strategy of raising interest rates could bring so much new capital to the banks under his control.

Unfortunately, it was ultimately restricted. Otherwise, given the enthusiastic response from customers to high-interest deposits and the current flow of capital in the market, the scale of deposits attracted by the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank would be far greater.

Still, Lin Haoran was very satisfied.

If his goal was achieved, then of these twenty billion Hong Kong dollars in deposits, at least over fifteen billion would have come from HSBC and Hang Seng Bank. This was undoubtedly a beautiful and extremely damaging “heavy punch” in his fight to seize HSBC’s market share.

Today, the relationship between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC had almost reached a life-or-death stage.

This move could both increase the Bank of East Asia’s market share and decrease HSBC’s, thereby narrowing the gap between the two. It was truly killing two birds with one stone.

In the blink of an eye, the night passed.

The date was now July 11th.

In the morning, Lin Haoran awoke from a deep sleep to find Rosamund Kwan sleeping beside him.

The girl had been turning into a career woman lately. She had founded her own high-end women’s clothing brand, opening one chain store after another. She said she wanted to build a commercial empire of her own and make a name for herself in the fashion retail industry.

Lin Haoran was naturally supportive of this. In any case, it was unlikely Rosamund Kwan would ever leave him.

The shops Rosamund Kwan had opened were almost all located in some of the high-end commercial buildings under the Hongkong Land Group, such as The Landmark, Connaught Centre, Alexandra House, and the Prince’s Building.

To build a high-end brand, she inevitably had to rely on these premium commercial properties with their considerable foot traffic.

Besides, even if she achieved greater commercial success, could she ever surpass him?

Lin Haoran’s movement as he got up clearly woke Rosamund Kwan.

She groggily opened her eyes and looked at Lin Haoran, who was sitting up beside her. Her voice carried a hint of laziness and flirtatious complaint, “Brother Haoran, good morning.”

Lin Haoran smiled, turned his head, and gently pinched her cheek. “I woke you. If you’re still tired, go back to sleep. I’m heading out in a bit. You can drive yourself to the office when you get up.”

The two had been wildly passionate late into the night. Even now, a crimson flush remained on Rosamund Kwan’s cheeks. Although last night’s pleasure had left her physically and mentally satisfied, the fatigue in her body now made her burrow back under the covers.

“Brother Haoran, I’ll just sleep a little longer then. You go do what you need to do, don’t tire yourself out too much,” Rosamund Kwan said, turning onto her side to sleep again, though her eyes would occasionally flutter open to watch Lin Haoran getting up and dressed.

Rosamund Kwan rarely stayed over at the Severn Road villa. Generally, unless Lin Haoran specifically asked her to, she would return to her apartment in the Hang Fung Building.

Yesterday, the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank had attracted over three billion Hong Kong dollars in deposits, putting Lin Haoran in an excellent mood, so he called Rosamund Kwan and asked her to come to the Severn Road villa for the night.

Rosamund Kwan naturally obeyed without question, and in her heart, she also hoped to spend more time with Lin Haoran.

After getting up and quickly washing up, Lin Haoran went downstairs for breakfast.

As for Rosamund Kwan, her clothing chain had been growing steadily, and she had long since hired numerous employees.

Not only was each store equipped with a professional manager, but she had also established a dedicated clothing brand company to oversee and manage the affairs of all the stores.

She served as the Chairman and had hired a general manager to assist with daily management. As a result, she no longer needed to worry too much about the many aspects of the stores’ operations.

When out and about, people had to address her as Chairman Kwan!

These days, Rosamund Kwan’s main work consisted of inspecting the various branches to understand their operational status, or scouting for new locations to continue expanding the number of stores and further grow the brand.

Rosamund Kwan was stunningly beautiful. Her exquisite features, combined with a perfect figure and an age of less than 20, made her a natural magnet for admirers.

However, her business was in women’s fashion, and moreover, the tycoons in the industry were now basically all aware of her identity, so no one dared to make a move on her.

Trying to steal Lin Haoran’s woman?

Only a madman would do something so suicidal.

Lin Haoran ate his breakfast while reading the newspaper.

The high interest rates at the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank, as well as the bank runs at various other banks, were still the top headlines in many newspapers.

However, an article in the Hong Kong Commercial Daily caught his attention.

“Yesterday, a bombshell dropped in the financial world. A major personnel change has occurred in the senior management of Hang Seng Bank. It is reported that Ho Sin Hang, Chairman, founder of Hang Seng Bank, and the lead compiler of the Hang Seng Index, has formally submitted his letter of resignation to the Board of Directors.

It is rumored that he had long planned to retire, but his resignation at such a critical moment has caught many by surprise. Once the news broke, it immediately caused an uproar in the industry.

According to reliable sources, the HSBC Board of Directors currently intends to arrange for its Executive Director, Mr. Purves, to temporarily take over Ho Sin Hang’s duties, while the position of Hang Seng Bank’s general manager, Mr. Smith, will remain unchanged.

Currently, Mr. Ho Sin Hang is busy with the handover of his duties, and the subsequent developments are being closely watched by the market.”

He hadn’t expected the news to leak so quickly.

Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

But not overly so.

Though Ho Sin Hang’s resignation leaking ahead of time was unexpected, it was also understandable. After all, the financial world was a place where information traveled fast and complexities abounded.

Logically, Ho Sin Hang’s departure would definitely have a significant impact on Hang Seng Bank, especially now that competition in Hong Kong’s banking industry was white-hot, and the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank were constantly sucking blood from other banks with their high interest rates.

It could be said that as the former second-largest bank in Hong Kong, Hang Seng Bank had lost a huge amount of market share during this period.

Hang Seng Bank was at a critical juncture in its development. The departure of a core figure like Ho Sin Hang would undoubtedly leave people at Hang Seng Bank feeling unsettled, and its strategic direction might also waver.

One could imagine that once Ho Sin Hang left, many clients would become suspicious, and their confidence in Hang Seng Bank would be greatly shaken.

Clients who had chosen Hang Seng Bank based on their trust in Ho Sin Hang’s personal ability and reputation might now reconsider their financial arrangements.

In that case, another portion of their funds might end up flowing into the Bank of East Asia!

However, at the moment, everyone still thought that Ho Sin Hang was resigning simply because of his age. No one would have guessed that the real reason for his resignation was to switch jobs to a competitor, the Bank of East Asia.

If this news were to break, it would absolutely cause a massive sensation in Hong Kong.

After all, this was Ho Sin Hang!

This legendary figure in Hong Kong’s financial world had single-handedly built Hang Seng Bank’s glory and was the lead compiler of the Hang Seng Index. His influence had long surpassed the bank itself, and he held a decisive position throughout the entire financial sector.

Every decision he made, every move he took, tugged at the heartstrings of countless people.

Although Hang Seng Bank had been forced to be acquired by HSBC due to the bank run back then, Ho Sin Hang’s status hadn’t been significantly shaken. He still held a great deal of influence at Hang Seng Bank and was highly respected throughout the entire Hong Kong financial industry.

If he truly switched to the Bank of East Asia now, it would undoubtedly be like dropping a bombshell on a calm lake. The entire Hong Kong financial community would be shaken to its core.

Lin Haoran was getting more and more excited, wondering if Michael Sandberg and the others’ jaws would drop when the Bank of East Asia announced Ho Sin Hang as its new Chairman.

After reading the newspaper, he glanced at the wall clock. The hour hand pointed to eight-thirty, so he left for Connaught Centre.

Yesterday, he had finalized a meeting with Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank. The two had agreed to meet today at nine in the morning in Lin Haoran’s private reception room at Connaught Centre, for a meeting with this legendary figure renowned throughout the global financial industry.

At nine o’clock in the morning, Walter Wriston, led by a staff member from Connaught Centre, arrived punctually at his reception room.

“Mr. Walter Wriston, how are you enjoying your time in Hong Kong?” Lin Haoran shook his hand and said with a smile.

“Very much, Mr. Lin. Thank you for your hospitality. Hong Kong is a very prosperous city, quite similar to New York. I like it very much,” Walter Wriston replied with a hearty laugh.

In fact, Lin Haoran had initially wanted to visit Walter Wriston in the United States personally. His purpose was to get the Bank of East Asia and Citibank to cooperate, and incidentally, to use Citibank’s prestige in the industry to force HSBC to scrap that unfair “choose one of two” agreement.

However, when he later learned that Walter Wriston would be visiting Asia and would be stopping in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran abandoned his plan to go to the United States.

By now, the Bank of East Asia had, through its own strength, not only beaten HSBC soundly but had also proactively forced the cancellation of the unfair “choose one of two” agreement.

Therefore, Citibank no longer played a crucial role for the Bank of East Asia now.

But establishing a deep cooperative relationship with a bank of such crucial importance in the global financial arena would undoubtedly be a huge boost to the Bank of East Asia’s future internationalization.

In addition, Lin Haoran’s previous collaborations with Citibank had all been very pleasant.

Therefore, he still intended to pursue a deep cooperation with Citibank.

For the market here in Hong Kong, he no longer needed to rely on any bank. But internationally, Citibank’s usefulness to him was still undeniable.

After all, while the Bank of East Asia was indeed quite strong in Hong Kong, its foundations on the international stage were still too weak, and its influence was still very small.

For the Bank of East Asia to achieve the same global influence as Citibank would take who knows how many years.

After all, even Citibank had taken over a century of development to build its current solid foundation and secure a place on the global financial map.

If the Bank of East Asia wanted to catch up, it still had a very long road ahead. Therefore, for a long time to come, he would still need to rely on Citibank to do things that he couldn’t do himself or that would be too difficult.

“I heard that Mr. Lin recently acquired a bank. Not only that, but you also beat the local financial hegemon into submission. The younger generation is truly formidable. It seems the financial world is about to welcome a new star!” he said with a congratulatory smile after a female assistant served Walter Wriston a cup of hot coffee and left, closing the door behind her.

“You’re too kind, Mr. Walter Wriston. It’s just a local bank in Hong Kong. Even HSBC is nothing to speak of on the international stage. Only international financial tycoons like Citibank are truly worthy of admiration and study,” Lin Haoran responded humbly.

This was indeed the truth. Walter Wriston wasn’t the least bit worried about this important partner of his suddenly entering the banking industry.

After all, Walter Wriston didn’t really think much of Hong Kong’s banks.

Although Hong Kong had a tycoon like HSBC, once HSBC left Hong Kong, it had almost no presence.

While HSBC had acquired an American bank a few years prior, that Haitong Bank was merely the thirteenth largest bank in the United States. The gap in strength between it and Citibank was practically night and day.

To say nothing of the even weaker Bank of East Asia.

From Walter Wriston’s perspective, it wouldn’t be so simple for the Bank of East Asia to develop into a renowned international bank.

Therefore, on the international stage, as long as they maintained their previous relationship, the cooperation between Citibank and Lin Haoran would remain unchanged.

As for the business here in Hong Kong?

Citibank’s Hong Kong branch had never accounted for a large proportion of Citibank’s overall business, and the Hong Kong branch hadn’t collaborated with Lin Haoran many times, so there was no need to be overly concerned.

Moreover, to some extent, Lin Haoran stirring things up in Hong Kong’s banking sector might even bring some new business opportunities for Citibank in Hong Kong.

“Mr. Lin, I came to Hong Kong this time because I have something very important to discuss with you.” Before Lin Haoran could even propose a collaboration between the Bank of East Asia and Citibank, Walter Wriston spoke first.

“Oh? Mr. Walter Wriston, please, go ahead.” Lin Haoran was instantly curious about the important matter the other party mentioned.

“Mr. Lin, the situation is this: Citibank is currently planning a new round of financing. We will be offering 10% of our equity to cooperate with three important financial groups from California, Texas, and Britain.

The pricing for this financing is quite favorable, about half of the current market price. Given your formidable financial strength, Mr. Lin, and your long-standing close relationship as an important client of Citibank, I would like to, on behalf of Citibank, sincerely invite you to become a shareholder of Citibank and a member of the Board of Directors. What do you think of this, Mr. Lin?” Walter Wriston extended the invitation solemnly.

Lin Haoran was very surprised to hear that the important matter Walter Wriston mentioned was an invitation to become a shareholder of Citibank.

He couldn’t help but ask, “Mr. Walter Wriston, as far as I know, Citibank shouldn’t be short of funds, should it? Why is there a plan for financing?”

As one of the world’s foremost international banks, the scale of assets controlled by Citibank was unimaginably vast.

For such a powerful bank to be conducting a new round of financing?

This was truly beyond Lin Haoran’s expectations.

“Mr. Lin, Citibank is indeed well-funded, but the key to becoming the world’s largest multinational bank is that we have always valued deep cooperation with major global financial groups.

By bringing various financial groups into our shareholder ranks, we build a solid community of interests, making our cooperation more stable, long-lasting, and in-depth, and further solidifying Citibank’s leading position in the world.

This financing plan is based on precisely such a strategic layout,” Walter Wriston explained with a smile.

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran had a sudden realization.

That explained it.

The strategic vision and planning behind why Citibank was able to consistently maintain its leading position globally were indeed worth deep study.

Walter Wriston’s words had undoubtedly revealed a corner of Citibank’s secret to success for Lin Haoran.

Wasn’t HSBC employing the same kind of strategy as Citibank?

Back when Lin Haoran had just risen to prominence, Michael Sandberg had invited him to become a shareholder of HSBC.

He also knew that HSBC’s shareholders were spread all over the world, involving many important global financial groups.

And now, his own financial strength was such that he could be ranked among the global financial groups.

In addition, Lin Haoran had cooperated with Citibank many times, and he had long become one of Citibank’s important clients.

Lin Haoran’s status and connections were enough for Citibank to include him in its new shareholder lineup to further solidify their cooperative relationship and strengthen Citibank’s global position.

Faced with Walter Wriston’s invitation, Lin Haoran, though surprised, agreed very straightforwardly.

“Mr. Walter Wriston, I am very pleased to accept your invitation. How much equity can I acquire?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Su Zhixue and his team were currently in New York, secretly accumulating shares of several very promising stocks for him, including Citibank’s.

However, accumulating Citibank shares was not easy at all. After more than a year, they had only managed to acquire 4% of Citibank’s shares.

Therefore, to be able to acquire more Citibank shares through this opportunity, and at half the market price at that, was undoubtedly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that Lin Haoran would certainly not miss.

“Mr. Lin, this financing plan is still in its preparatory stages. However, given your long-standing, close, and positive cooperative relationship with Citibank, as well as the outstanding achievements and extraordinary influence you have in the business world, on behalf of Citibank, I have decided to offer you a 3% share of the total equity for this financing round.

But there is one crucial condition that must be stated upfront: this 3% stake will be frozen for ten years, during which time you cannot resell it.

If you can accept this condition, Mr. Lin, we can sign the relevant agreements immediately.” Walter Wriston looked at Lin Haoran with a sincere and focused gaze, his eyes full of anticipation as he calmly awaited his reply.

3%?

Lin Haoran was pleasantly surprised.

The Universal Investment Company led by Su Zhixue had taken over a year to accumulate 4% of Citibank’s shares. One could imagine how difficult it was to acquire Citibank’s shares without being discovered.

Now, an instant increase of 3% meant that his stake in Citibank would reach a high of 7%. This was a leap forward.

As far as he knew, the current largest shareholder of Citibank only held 6.72% of the shares, right?

Citibank’s shareholders were too numerous and too dispersed, so even 7% was a significant figure.

Didn’t this mean that once he participated in Citibank’s financing, he would become its largest shareholder?

An unexpected surprise, truly.

Of course, Lin Haoran also knew that this shareholding definitely could not be revealed for the time being.

Chapter 643: Nearly Twenty-Five Billion Hong Kong Dollars in Deposits

As the largest financial giant in the United States and even the world, Citibank’s market capitalization was anything but low.

Therefore, acquiring three percent of Citibank’s equity at half its market price was an absolutely fantastic deal.

Though the ten-year lock-up period might make some financial groups hesitate and weigh their options carefully.

After all, ten years was an eternity in the ever-changing financial markets, filled with countless variables. Having capital locked up for so long, unable to be flexibly allocated, was a major concern.

If a significant market fluctuation or a new, highly attractive investment opportunity arose, they could only watch it pass by. For financial groups that pursued high liquidity and quick returns, this was undoubtedly a huge potential loss.

Moreover, no one could predict what issues might befall Citibank over a decade. If problems did arise, the investment would certainly be a total loss.

But for Lin Haoran, a mere ten years was no problem at all!

He knew perfectly well that as long as Citibank developed normally, it would remain one of the world’s top banks, both now and decades later.

Furthermore, having Chen Zhixue’s team secretly accumulate Citibank shares was part of his broader strategy.

The current Citibank was not yet truly under the control of the Squid financial group. It was run purely by its Board of Directors, especially its current Chairman, Walter Wriston. As a professional manager, he had been at the helm of Citibank for over a decade.

And this renowned global financial tycoon was not a member of the Squid financial group. Even Walter Wriston’s successor, John Reed, was not affiliated with them.

It could be said that, at present, Citibank was one of the few financial giants in the United States not controlled by the Squid financial group.

However, this situation would come to an end in 1998.

At that time, after Citibank merged with Travelers Group, the boss of Travelers Group, in his capacity as a major shareholder, gradually took control of Citibank.

And the boss of Travelers Group was a member of the Squid financial group.

Lin Haoran had no good feelings toward the Squid financial group whatsoever.

Back when he had acquired a logistics company in Britain, he was ultimately forced by the Squid financial group to sell it.

Fortunately, Lin Haoran had managed to make a hefty profit from the situation, so it was not a loss but a massive gain.

But regardless, both his knowledge of the Squid financial group from his past life and his direct confrontations with them in this one had made Lin Haoran deeply aware of their greed and domineering nature.

They were like voracious beasts, plundering wantonly in the global commercial market. Wherever they went, businesses were squeezed to the breaking point, and industry order was thrown into chaos.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was strongly opposed to them. If he could prevent the Squid financial group from taking control of Citibank, he wouldn’t hesitate to use any legal and effective means.

Admittedly, as a non-American, it was impossible for him to control Citibank. Even if he did it legally, the United States government would intervene.

However, while he couldn’t control it, he could at least secure a degree of influence on the Board of Directors.

After all, it was Walter Wriston himself who was now inviting him to become a shareholder and board member of Citibank.

This way, he would become a member of Citibank’s Board of Directors openly and legitimately.

And with more equity comes greater voting power.

In the future, he could use his voting rights to place significant obstacles in the path of the Squid financial group’s expansion plans within Citibank.

Moreover, as a major shareholder of Citibank in the future, the bank could also provide considerable help with his own global expansion.

With a foothold in Hong Kong through the Bank of East Asia and a global presence through Citibank, Lin Haoran had already sketched out a grand blueprint for a financial empire in his mind.

Although the Bank of East Asia would also eventually pursue internationalization—since Hong Kong’s market was too small and would easily hit a development ceiling, much like HSBC, forcing it to seek overseas expansion—succeeding on the international stage was no easy task.

There were far too many financial institutions around the world, scattered like stars across various global financial centers, each one glittering with ambition and desire.

The global financial industry was far more fiercely competitive than one could imagine.

If the Bank of East Asia wanted to carve out its own niche in this world teeming with powerhouses, the challenges it faced were like towering mountains. Every step of the climb would require immense effort and cost.

The Bank of East Asia’s counterattack in Hong Kong seemed effortless, but it was all thanks to Lin Haoran’s support. Hong Kong giants like the Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group had provided the bank with significant assistance.

Without these backers, the Bank of East Asia would have collapsed long ago when it was targeted by HSBC.

Hong Kong was Lin Haoran’s home turf, where the Bank of East Asia could leverage his influence to grow.

But could the Bank of East Asia do the same on the international stage?

The answer was, of course, no.

Transforming the Bank of East Asia into a world-class financial giant was not that simple.

This was why Lin Haoran was not betting everything on the Bank of East Asia, but was also laying the groundwork with Citibank.

Lin Haoran and Walter Wriston chatted for a whole morning.

Especially after Lin Haoran agreed to become a shareholder and board member, Walter Wriston became even more enthusiastic.

Citibank’s predecessor, the City Bank of New York, was founded in 1816 and had a history of 165 years.

Its growth into the world’s largest bank was clearly supported by numerous financial groups.

Just like now, with Walter Wriston as Chairman, absorbing a wealthy Chinese magnate like Lin Haoran was also a great boost for Citibank.

Throughout its development, Citibank had made such strategic acquisitions of shareholdings many times before.

In the past, with its keen business acumen and flexible capital operations, it had continuously brought in powerful shareholders with diverse backgrounds to consolidate its position in the global financial arena.

These shareholders came from different industries and regions, bringing their unique resources, connections, and ideas to Citibank, injecting it with a constant stream of vitality.

This was the key secret to Citibank’s ability to stand firm and continue to grow in the ever-changing financial market.

Every change and introduction of a shareholder was like a move in a chess game—seemingly ordinary, yet concealing profound implications that would influence Citibank’s future direction.

Lin Haoran and Walter Wriston had a very pleasant conversation.

Towards the end, Lin Haoran brought up the Bank of East Asia’s hope to form an alliance with Citibank.

Although banks appear to be competitors, there are in fact many areas where they can cooperate, such as joint investments, inter-bank transfers, international business agency services, inter-bank lending, co-branded credit cards, and so on.

In reality, the opportunities for collaboration were numerous.

Of course, as a regional bank, the Bank of East Asia forming an alliance with Citibank was admittedly a case of punching above its weight.

However, Walter Wriston clearly stated that he would fully support this partnership, though the matter would still need to be approved at a senior executive meeting.

With Walter Wriston’s assurance, there would naturally be no obstacles to the cooperation between the Bank of East Asia and Citibank!

After all, Walter Wriston’s position at Citibank was of crucial importance. His word was practically law, much like Michael Sandberg’s at HSBC. He could make many major decisions on his own, and the so-called senior executive meeting vote was merely a formality.

The two talked for a full three hours in the reception room, ultimately reaching a number of consensuses and cooperative intentions.

After lunch and a short break, witnessed by a crowd of reporters, Lin Haoran and Walter Wriston signed the agreement for Lin Haoran to become a shareholder in Citibank.

The camera flashes were relentless, capturing this momentous occasion.

Citibank wanted the matter publicized to showcase its determination and strength in attracting high-quality shareholders and expanding its network of cooperation.

Lin Haoran also wished for it to be made public. Firstly, it would enhance his reputation and influence in the global financial world. Secondly, it would pave the way for deeper cooperation with Citibank and the internationalization of the Bank of East Asia.

In Michael Sandberg’s office at HSBC.

At that moment, Sandberg received news of the alliance between the Bank of East Asia and Citibank, and his mood soured considerably.

As the Taipan of HSBC, he had previously considered cooperating with Citibank.

After all, despite being the financial hegemon of Hong Kong, HSBC, for all its strength, still had a considerable gap to close when compared to a behemoth like Citibank in the global financial industry.

Sandberg had tried to establish contact with Citibank several times to explore the possibility of cooperation, but for various reasons, he had never succeeded.

Now, seeing the Bank of East Asia, a rival he had once dismissed as a “minor player,” successfully form an alliance with Citibank, the feeling in his heart was complex and difficult to describe.

“Bank of East Asia, Lin Haoran…” Michael Sandberg muttered to himself, a shadow crossing his eyes.

They had all underestimated Lin Haoran.

Jardine Matheson & Co. had underestimated Lin Haoran, and the foundation they had built in Hong Kong over many years was destroyed.

Now, HSBC had underestimated Lin Haoran, and their market share was being continuously devoured by the Bank of East Asia.

“Taipan, the matter of Mr. Ho Sin Hang’s resignation is all over the media. The number of customers making withdrawals from Hang Seng Bank today is much higher than yesterday.

“The word on the street is that without Mr. Ho Sin Hang, Hang Seng Bank has lost its backbone, its soul. People are saying the bank will only get worse and that it’s risky to keep money there.

“Customers are getting nervous and worried about the safety of their money, so they’re rushing to withdraw it. To make matters worse, several Hang Seng Bank branches have been overwhelmed by the number of withdrawals, slowing down service and causing customers to make a scene. Mr. Purves hasn’t come up with an effective solution!” a subordinate reported to Michael Sandberg.

Hearing his subordinate’s report, Michael Sandberg felt a wave of frustration. His brows furrowed tightly as annoyance surged within him.

…

Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, four more days had gone by, and it was the evening of July 14th.

As of today, the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank were forced to end their high-interest deposit-attracting campaigns.

Though it was a reluctant move, they had to accept reality.

At this moment, Lin Haoran was sitting in Da Shan’s office, waiting for the statistical results.

The previous three days of the remaining four had been excellent, with daily deposits exceeding three billion Hong Kong dollars. On the best day, the figure reached a terrifying 3.872 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Now, they just needed to tally today’s data to calculate the total amount of deposits the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank had attracted over these nine days.

As time ticked by, it soon reached ten-thirty in the evening.

Da Shan, President of the Bank of East Asia, hurried in from outside, clutching a document. His face was filled with irrepressible excitement.

Before he even reached Lin Haoran, his joyous voice rang out: “Boss, the data is in!”

The reason it was so late was that tonight was the final night of the high-interest fixed deposit campaign. All branches had arranged for employees to work overtime to handle all the customers still waiting in line.

After all, after midnight tonight, the high-interest promotion could no longer continue.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, rose, and took the document from Da Shan, his gaze fixed on it as he listened attentively to Da Shan’s report.

“Boss, because today was the last day of the campaign, the queues at our thirty-two branches were much longer than ever before. All the bank tellers gave it their all, processing transactions for customers at top speed.

“In the end, we set an all-time high for this period. The new deposits for both banks today broke through four billion Hong Kong dollars, reaching 4.143 billion.

“Over these nine days, the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank have attracted a total of 24.963 billion Hong Kong dollars in deposits. Of this, five-year fixed deposits account for seventy percent, with the remaining thirty percent in one-year fixed deposits.

“Over the past few days, quite a few customers have come in to inquire about changing their previous one-year deposits to five-year ones. Our lobby managers have explained to them that they can amend the deposit term later, so these inquiries didn’t slow down our deposit accumulation.”

As Da Shan reported, his voice was filled with unrestrained excitement.

This was nearly twenty-five billion Hong Kong dollars in deposits! It was almost five billion more than the twenty billion Hong Kong dollars they had anticipated.

This had far exceeded their estimates.

Was it a pity they didn’t exceed twenty-five billion Hong Kong dollars?

Lin Haoran certainly didn’t feel any regret.

After all, it was very close, and besides, he disliked the number 250.

Lin Haoran gently closed the document, a gratified smile playing on his lips. He said slowly, “Da Shan, these results have far exceeded our expectations. They’re quite brilliant!

“Our high-interest campaign has been remarkably effective. Not only did we successfully attract a massive amount of deposits, but we’ve also firmly established the names of the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank in the market, laying a solid foundation for future business expansion.

“Everyone has been working their hearts out during this time. It’s been tough on all of you. This month, in addition to the usual overtime pay, all employees who worked overtime, from the frontline tellers to the senior executives, will receive an extra month’s base salary as a token of appreciation for their hard work.”

Upon hearing this, Da Shan quickly said, “Thank you, Boss! Everyone has worked hard, but seeing these results makes it all worthwhile. With this bonus, everyone will definitely be even more motivated!”

“Also, your performance during this time has been very satisfactory. Therefore, I’ve decided to make your status as President permanent. After this, you will not need to return to the Hongkong Land Group but will remain at the Bank of East Asia as its President,” Lin Haoran continued.

At the same time, Lin Haoran glanced at Da Shan’s loyalty: 89.

Not the highest, but not low either.

He was a Westerner, after all. To have such a high loyalty score was already excellent and trustworthy.

The moment Lin Haoran finished speaking, Da Shan was overcome with a pleasant surprise. Lin Haoran also noticed Da Shan’s loyalty rise from 89 to 90.

At the Hongkong Land Group, Da Shan was just a department executive. Although he could handle daily affairs independently, his decision-making power and influence were ultimately limited within the group’s massive structure.

But at the Bank of East Asia, the situation was completely different. He had transformed into a core figure, second in command to only one person, a person of crucial importance at the decision-making level.

The difference between the two positions was like night and day.

Moreover, the Bank of East Asia was now advancing triumphantly in the Hong Kong financial market, gaining an ever-larger market share. Its importance and influence were growing daily, already on par with the Hongkong Land Group.

From a long-term development perspective, being the President of a financial giant, holding real power, and controlling the overall situation offered far more in terms of resources, connections, and sense of achievement than being a department head at the Hongkong Land Group.

During this period, he had actually been secretly worried that once the Bank of East Asia’s operations stabilized, he would be transferred back to the Hongkong Land Group, returning to that relatively limited position.

Now, he could finally put his heart at ease.

His temporary position had been made permanent. This meant he had officially become a person of crucial importance in Hong Kong’s financial world. In the future blueprint of the Bank of East Asia, he would be a significant and brilliant achievement.

Da Shan took a deep breath, trying to calm his excitement, and bowed solemnly to Lin Haoran. “Boss, thank you for your trust and cultivation! I will not disappoint you. I will lead the Bank of East Asia to overcome all obstacles and achieve even more brilliant results in the future!”

Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction and continued, “There is another matter you need to prepare for. Mr. Ho Sin Hang will officially become the Chairman of the Bank of East Asia on July 16th. At that time, as the President, you will need to cooperate with him to steadily advance all of the bank’s affairs and work together to plan for its development.”

Da Shan was slightly taken aback. Ho Sin Hang was switching jobs to the Bank of East Asia?

Lin Haoran hadn’t mentioned this to anyone before. After all, Ho Sin Hang had been busy with his resignation and handover for the past few days.

And Ho Sin Hang did not want his job switch to become a media circus before he had successfully resigned.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had not even told Da Shan, respecting Ho Sin Hang’s wishes.

But now, the matter was settled. Ho Sin Hang had called him today to say that he had completed the handover at Hang Seng Bank and could finalize his resignation procedures tomorrow.

That being the case, it was time to inform Da Shan.

Da Shan felt a little uncomfortable inside.

Originally, with him as President and only Lin Haoran, the hands-off boss, above him, he was one of the de facto helmsmen of the Bank of East Asia, with decision-making power almost entirely in his own hands.

But with Ho Sin Hang’s arrival, everything would change.

After all, there was hardly anyone in Hong Kong who didn’t know Ho Sin Hang.

This was a tycoon of the financial world. Compared to him, Da Shan really didn’t amount to much.

However, Da Shan quickly thought things through.

He knew that he indeed lacked the capability to fully manage the increasingly massive Bank of East Asia.

On the contrary, Ho Sin Hang, a senior in the financial world with rich experience and outstanding leadership, would undoubtedly bring new vitality and broader development prospects to the Bank of East Asia.

If he could learn by his side and absorb his experience, it would be greatly beneficial for his own professional growth.

Besides, Ho Sin Hang was already over eighty. Even if he took the helm of the Bank of East Asia, how long could he possibly a helm it for?

Meanwhile, he himself was only in his forties or fifties, with plenty of time and infinite possibilities ahead.

Perhaps in a few years, after Ho Sin Hang retired, as long as he performed well, the top position at the Bank of East Asia would still be firmly in his grasp.

Moreover, working with Ho Sin Hang would also help him accumulate more experience, connections, and resources. It was all benefits and no harm to his future career development.

With this thought, Da Shan quickly adjusted his mindset. A sincere smile returned to his face as he said, “Boss, I understand. Mr. Ho Sin Hang is renowned in the financial world. His arrival will certainly make the Bank of East Asia even more powerful. I will fully cooperate with Mr. Ho to jointly push the Bank of East Asia to new heights.”

Lin Haoran looked at Da Shan, satisfied with his change in attitude, and nodded. “It’s good that you think that way. Mr. Ho Sin Hang has a profound industry background and extensive connections. His joining will not only enhance the Bank of East Asia’s professional image but also bring us more cooperation opportunities. With the two of you working together, I believe the Bank of East Asia’s future will be even brighter.”

Da Shan nodded emphatically.

“Alright, it’s very late. You should head back and get some rest. You’ve worked hard recently. Once Mr. Ho has settled in for a while, I’ll approve a vacation for you,” Lin Haoran said, glancing at his watch. It was already eleven o’clock at night.

“Boss, I’ll take my leave then. You should also get some rest,” Da Shan said, bowing once more to Lin Haoran before turning and leaving the office.

In the office, Lin Haoran sat alone in his chair, his gaze drifting through the window to the many darkened skyscrapers outside, his mind filled with a myriad of thoughts.

The Bank of East Asia had absorbed nearly twenty-five billion Hong Kong dollars in deposits in just nine days. This was undoubtedly a huge success.

Combined with the financial market share they had already secured, the Bank of East Asia’s capital strength was drawing ever closer to that of HSBC.

Although there was certainly still a considerable gap, he still had more moves he had yet to play.

Chapter 644: Misfortunes Never Come Singly, One Problem After Another

It was a new day, and Hong Kong’s financial markets gradually returned to calm.

The Bank of East Asia and its subsidiary, Dao Heng Bank, officially ended their policy of attracting deposits with high interest rates, much to the regret of many Hong Kong citizens who hadn’t managed to deposit their funds in time.

At the same time, this move brought a collective sigh of relief from the other banks.

Looking back on the past nine days, the major banks had endured a truly agonizing time, with every day feeling like a year.

After all, a massive amount of deposits was being withdrawn daily and flowing into the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank. The pressure of this capital outflow had every bank executive on pins and needles.

Now that this “financial storm” had finally subsided for the moment, they could at last catch their breath.

In total, the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank had increased their deposits by 24.963 billion Hong Kong dollars.

This meant that the other banks in Hong Kong had lost an equivalent amount of deposits.

Although Hong Kong’s financial industry was renowned for its development, the entire capital market of the industry at this time was only just over two hundred billion Hong Kong dollars.

In a mere nine days, the Bank of East Asia had absorbed nearly one-tenth of the total deposits. It was not hard to imagine how devastating the losses were for the other banks.

HSBC and Hang Seng Bank, in particular, as the original number one and number two banking giants in Hong Kong, suffered even more massive capital outflows.

It could be said that most banks in Hong Kong had suffered heavy losses.

In the end, it was the Bank of East Asia and the newly acquired Dao Heng Bank that had reaped the benefits.

Through this strategy of attracting deposits with high interest rates, the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank not only rapidly bolstered their own capital strength but also established a powerful brand influence in the market.

Many citizens began to speculate: just how large was the Bank of East Asia’s market share in Hong Kong’s banking sector now?

How much had the gap with HSBC narrowed?

Was it possible for the Bank of East Asia to surpass HSBC in the future?

These questions undoubtedly became the focus of heated public discussion.

After all, HSBC’s sudden targeted measures against the Bank of East Asia early last month were clearly driven by the fear that Lin Haoran’s control would pose a serious threat to its market share.

However, contrary to their expectations, HSBC’s series of actions not only failed to curb the Bank of East Asia’s market expansion but also left HSBC itself greatly weakened in this fierce “battle for funds,” losing many of its loyal customers.

It could be said that HSBC had suffered one defeat after another in this business war.

The Bank of East Asia, on the other hand, seized the opportunity to rise, making gains in the Hong Kong financial market time and again. By “snatching food” from HSBC and other banks, it continuously strengthened itself. As one side waned and the other waxed, the other banks, especially the financial hegemon HSBC, were greatly weakened.

However, due to a lack of detailed and authoritative data, everyone remained unclear about the specific market share the Bank of East Asia currently held.

Similarly, how much of the market the HSBC group now retained in Hong Kong had also become a mystery.

Just over a month ago, HSBC and its subsidiary Hang Seng Bank had been glorious, commanding a market share of up to sixty percent, their dominant position as steady as a rock.

But now, after just over a month, the market landscape had changed dramatically.

The once seemingly indestructible HSBC group was quietly losing market share at an astonishing rate.

On street corners and in alleyways, the topics of casual conversation among citizens gradually shifted from celebrity gossip to the latest developments at the various banks.

The Bank of East Asia had truly made a name for itself in a single battle!

Meanwhile, the founding Li Peicai’s family of the original Bank of East Asia was now filled with endless regret.

If they hadn’t chosen to withdraw from their alliance with Lin Haoran midway through, but had instead stood resolutely by his side to protect the Bank of East Asia and face the unfair competition from HSBC together.

Then their family would naturally be sharing in the glory of the Bank of East Asia’s brilliant victory in this fierce market competition, getting a piece of the pie.

After all, if they hadn’t pulled out, the Bank of East Asia would still be managed with their family’s participation, and they would still hold a significant number of shares.

The Bank of East Asia of today was a world away from what it once was.

In terms of asset scale, it was now countless times stronger than before.

If the old Bank of East Asia was just a large and well-established enterprise in the financial sector, then the current Bank of East Asia had transformed into a giant in the industry, capable of going toe-to-toe with the hegemon HSBC and holding a decisive position in the market.

Unfortunately, there’s no medicine for regret.

Li Fushu knew in his heart that by hastily pulling out when the Li Peicai’s family and the Bank of East Asia faced a crisis, they had effectively severed their close ties with the bank.

Now, they had completely parted ways with the Bank of East Asia and had no chance of ever reboarding the “financial giant ship” helmed by Lin Haoran.

As the high-interest policy ended, the 32 combined branches of the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank also gradually returned to calm. The ridiculously long queues that stretched for hundreds of meters were gone.

Despite this, the branches of the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank remained popular.

After the excitement of attracting deposits with high interest rates, many citizens had gradually come to recognize the Bank of East Asia’s status.

In the eyes of many, the Bank of East Asia was now no inferior to HSBC.

Moreover, the Bank of East Asia was a Chinese-owned bank. As Hong Kong was a city with a predominantly Chinese population, this identity as a local Chinese-owned enterprise resonated more deeply with many citizens on an emotional level.

Many felt that supporting the Bank of East Asia was not just choosing a financial services institution, but also a form of support for a local Chinese-owned enterprise, a boost for the rise of Hong Kong’s own financial power.

Particularly over the past month, HSBC’s various actions had already displeased many Hong Kong people.

It leveraged its dominant position to wantonly suppress competitors with unfair means. Such an arrogant attitude truly angered many.

Hang Seng Bank, Chairman’s office.

After Ho Sin Hang had completely handed over his work to his successor, the former HSBC Executive Director Mr. William Purves, it was time for him to formally part ways with Hang Seng Bank.

Looking at the familiar surroundings of his office, Ho Sin Hang had mixed feelings.

This was the place where he had poured his sweat and effort. Every object held memories of his past at Hang Seng Bank.

The performance commendation certificates on the wall, the professional books on the shelf, and the landline phone on his desk that had accompanied him through countless days and nights—they all seemed to be telling stories of the past.

From Hang Seng Bank’s founding on March 3rd, 1933, to today, July 15th, 1981, forty-eight years had passed in a flash.

He had personally witnessed Hang Seng Bank from its very birth to its rise to fame and achievement of glory.

He had weathered the tumultuous waves of the bank run, which led to the reluctant acquisition.

And then, through its own strength, it rose step by step to become the second-largest bank in Hong Kong.

Now, he was about to bid farewell to the world he had fought in for so many years. It could be said that he had poured the heart and soul of the latter half of his life into Hang Seng Bank.

Now, at over eighty-one years of age, he was about to formally leave this place filled with countless memories.

Ho Sin Hang’s heart was full of reluctance. Every corner, every memory, played back in his mind like a movie, making it difficult for him to let go.

He walked slowly to the window and looked down at the bustling streets of Hong Kong, with its endless stream of traffic and people.

The financial pulse of this city continued to beat, yet he was about to leave the stage where he was once so familiar and held such an important position.

Knock, knock, knock. A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.

The person who entered was none other than the new Chairman of Hang Seng Bank, Mr. Purves.

“Mr. Ho, the handover has been completed smoothly. I will now officially begin my work. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for all the heart and soul you have dedicated to Hang Seng Bank over the years. The doors of Hang Seng Bank will always be open for you. You are welcome to come back and visit anytime.”

A seemingly cordial smile appeared on Mr. Purves’s lips, but his eyes held an unmistakable formality and distance.

He slowly extended his hand and shook Ho Sin Hang’s lightly. The grip was neither too firm nor too soft, but it left Ho Sin Hang with mixed feelings.

How could Ho Sin Hang not understand the implied meaning behind Purves’s words?

This was clearly a polite way of showing him the door.

In fact, after he submitted his letter of resignation, representatives from HSBC’s senior management, led by Michael Sandberg, had proposed at a high-level meeting that he continue to serve as Hang Seng Bank’s honorary chairman.

They felt that this might slightly mitigate the negative impact of his departure. After all, Ho Sin Hang had been with Hang Seng Bank for many years and held immense prestige. His departure would inevitably cause restlessness within the bank, and the outside world would foster much speculation about Hang Seng Bank’s future.

However, Ho Sin Hang had decisively refused.

After all, his mind was as clear as a mirror. This resignation was not about truly retiring to enjoy his later years. It was about joining the Bank of East Asia to chase the dream he couldn’t achieve at Hang Seng Bank, to fight one last battle.

At eighty-one years of age, he didn’t know how much time he had left.

But no matter what, he only hoped to have fewer regrets in this life. He was unwilling to give up easily as long as there was a sliver of hope.

And the momentum the Bank of East Asia was showing now was far from just a glimmer of hope; it was filled with infinite possibilities, on the verge of a great rise!

Moreover, Lin Haoran trusted him so much, so he couldn’t let such an opportunity pass.

Whether he could carve his name into the annals of global financial history depended on this final struggle.

At this thought, the lingering reluctance he felt for Hang Seng Bank instantly vanished.

He turned his head for one last look around the office, then opened the door and left the Hang Seng Bank headquarters building without looking back.

Along the way, many employees greeted him. Even knowing he was leaving, their eyes were still full of respect and reluctance.

After all, the name Ho Sin Hang had long been inextricably intertwined with Hang Seng Bank, becoming an indelible mark on its history.

Just as Ho Sin Hang stepped out of the Hang Seng Bank headquarters building, he saw a Rolls-Royce parked by the roadside.

Lin Haoran rolled down the car window and smiled, waving at the approaching Ho Sin Hang.

He had spoken to Ho Sin Hang on the phone half an hour ago and had learned that the handover was basically complete and the final resignation procedures were done.

Starting tomorrow, he would have another top lieutenant he could rely on, which naturally put Lin Haoran in a very good mood.

A great reputation is never unearned. As the founder of Hang Seng Bank, the renowned creator of the Hang Seng Index, and one of Hong Kong’s top financial experts, Ho Sin Hang’s professional ability and industry influence were beyond doubt.

With him on board, Lin Haoran was even more confident about the future of the Bank of East Asia.

Although Ho Sin Hang was already 81, under normal circumstances, this old statesman could live to be 97.

And he was still in very robust health.

Therefore, contributing to the Bank of East Asia for another ten years was not a problem at all.

Moreover, Lin Haoran appointed Ho Sin Hang as Chairman of the Bank of East Asia, not President, precisely because he wanted him to step back from the complicated day-to-day affairs and not have to handle everything personally.

Normally, Lin Haoran, as the Boss, could have taken the position of Chairman himself, but he had no intention of doing so, choosing to save the position for Ho Sin Hang.

As Chairman, Ho Sin Hang could leverage his profound industry experience and keen market sense to focus on strategic planning and decision-making, accurately steering and navigating the long-term course of the Bank of East Asia.

Meanwhile, Da Shan, as the President of the Bank of East Asia, could take full responsibility for the bank’s daily operations and management, ensuring the efficient running of all business activities.

At that moment, Li Weiguo got out of the front passenger seat and opened the car door for Ho Sin Hang.

“Haoran, thank you for coming to pick me up personally,” Ho Sin Hang said with a smile as he got into the back seat.

“Mr. Ho, the Bank of East Asia will have to rely on you as our stabilizing pillar from now on. It’s only right that I come to pick you up myself,” Lin Haoran responded with a smile.

In Lin Haoran’s eyes, after Ho Sin Hang joined the Bank of East Asia, his status was almost on par with Ma Shimin’s; he was one of his most trusted top lieutenants.

After all, if the Bank of East Asia could truly develop, its future status would be no less than that of the Hongkong Land Group. It might even be possible for it to surpass Hongkong Land in the business world.

And as the helmsman of the Bank of East Asia, Ho Sin Hang’s importance was naturally no less than Ma Shimin’s.

The Rolls-Royce slowly drove away from the Hang Seng Bank headquarters building, heading towards the nearby Bank of East Asia headquarters.

Since Ho Sin Hang was starting at the Bank of East Asia tomorrow, it was natural to have the Chairman and the President, Da Shan, meet in advance to get acquainted and jointly discuss the future development plans for the bank.

At the same time, Ho Sin Hang taking control of the Bank of East Asia was of great significance and had to be done with great ceremony.

After all, this old statesman had an extremely high standing in Hong Kong’s financial industry. His joining would undoubtedly cause a stir throughout the entire Hong Kong financial circle, bringing unprecedented attention and influence to the Bank of East Asia.

For an enterprise to grow, besides having strong financial resources and an excellent management team, it also needed to build a good brand image and reputation in the market, and win the trust and support of customers.

This scene was witnessed by the security guard at the vehicle entrance and exit of Hang Seng Bank.

The security guard stared at the departing Rolls-Royce, his eyes full of confusion.

Just now, if he wasn’t mistaken, the person who rolled down the window was Lin Haoran, wasn’t it?

In Hong Kong, Lin Haoran was already so famous that everyone knew him, more well-known than even the biggest movie stars. Therefore, this Hang Seng Bank security guard naturally recognized him.

Thus, this scene was quickly reported by the security guard via his walkie-talkie, and the news eventually reached the ears of Hang Seng Bank’s new Chairman, William Purves.

When he heard this, Purves could hardly believe it was true.

Ho Sin Hang had just left the Hang Seng Bank building one moment and got into the car of his competitor, the Bank of East Asia’s Boss Lin Haoran, the next. What did this mean?

A dreadful thought quickly spread through Purves’s mind. He frowned deeply, his eyes revealing unease and suspicion.

Ho Sin Hang had worked at Hang Seng Bank for many years and enjoyed a distinguished reputation. He was like a towering mountain in Hong Kong’s financial world, and his every move affected the market’s nerves, potentially having an immeasurable and profound impact on the financial industry.

Now, he had just stepped out of Hang Seng Bank’s doors and immediately got into a competitor’s car. How could such a situation not lead to much speculation and let one’s imagination run wild?

Could it be that Ho Sin Hang was going to join the Bank of East Asia?

If that were truly the case, it would undoubtedly be a resounding slap in the face for HSBC, utterly humiliating them in the Hong Kong financial world.

The more Purves thought about it, the more serious he realized the matter was.

He naturally understood Ho Sin Hang’s status and influence in Hong Kong’s financial circle. If he really joined the Bank of East Asia, it would be a huge threat to Hang Seng Bank and the entire HSBC group.

He didn’t dare to delay for a second. He immediately picked up the phone and reported the situation to Michael Sandberg, the Chairman of the Board at the HSBC headquarters.

If this was true, it would pose a huge threat to HSBC in the future.

Ho Sin Hang had been the Chairman of Hang Seng Bank for a long time, and HSBC had acquired Hang Seng Bank over a decade ago. It could be said that HSBC’s senior management had an extremely deep understanding of Ho Sin Hang.

Even with HSBC’s intentional or unintentional blood-sucking, Hang Seng Bank was still able to become the second-largest bank in Hong Kong on its own strength. This demonstrated Ho Sin Hang’s outstanding abilities and brilliant methods.

They were naturally aware that Ho Sin Hang not only had profound attainments in the professional field of finance, with keen market insight and excellent decision-making abilities, but had also accumulated a deep network of connections in the Hong Kong financial world.

Once he joined the Bank of East Asia, with his past prestige and influence, he could very likely attract many clients and partners who originally did business with Hang Seng Bank or even the HSBC group to switch to the Bank of East Asia.

The Bank of East Asia was already a handful with the presence of Lin Haoran, the richest man in Hong Kong.

Now, with the addition of a legendary figure in the financial world like Ho Sin Hang, it was like giving a tiger wings. The competitive pressure faced by the HSBC group would increase exponentially.

Upon receiving the urgent report from Purves, Michael Sandberg’s expression instantly turned grim.

However, the matter had not been confirmed yet; for now, it was all just speculation.

Sandberg suppressed the anxiety in his heart and said in a low voice, “Don’t make a fuss for now. Keep a close watch on Ho Sin Hang’s next moves. At the same time, send someone to investigate if Ho Sin Hang has been in frequent contact with Lin Haoran before. We cannot afford to throw ourselves into confusion before the matter is confirmed.”

At this moment, he still held a sliver of wishful thinking, believing it was just a coincidence, or that the security guard had been mistaken.

Even if the guard wasn’t mistaken, perhaps Lin Haoran had just specially sought the advice of Ho Sin Hang, this tycoon of Chinese finance, hoping to learn from his experience.

If it was just that, then it wouldn’t pose too great a threat to HSBC.

His greatest fear was that Ho Sin Hang had directly joined the Bank of East Asia.

After receiving his orders, Purves immediately arranged for a secret investigation into Ho Sin Hang.

As for Sandberg, he paced back and forth in his office, his brow furrowed, a thousand thoughts racing through his mind.

If Ho Sin Hang really joined the Bank of East Asia, it would undoubtedly be a huge disaster for HSBC.

Lin Haoran alone had already left HSBC in a terrible fix and struggling to cope. Now, to add a legendary giant of the financial world like Ho Sin Hang…

It was truly a case of misfortunes never coming singly; one problem after another.

A host of difficult matters came one after another, making Sandberg increasingly agitated. These past few days, he had been tossing and turning, unable to sleep at night.

When Ho Sin Hang resigned as Chairman of Hang Seng Bank, he did not sign any non-compete agreement.

After all, given Ho Sin Hang’s age, no one would have thought he would go on to found another bank or anything of the sort, much less that he would switch jobs to another bank.

After all, if Ho Sin Hang had really wanted to switch jobs or start a new bank, he should have done so more than a decade ago when HSBC first acquired Hang Seng Bank, not at his current age.

So, out of respect for Ho Sin Hang, HSBC did not require him to sign a non-compete agreement.

In their view, this veteran of the financial world, already in his twilight years, would simply enjoy his retirement after leaving his post and was unlikely to pose any substantial threat to HSBC.

“I hope this is all just a false alarm,” Sandberg muttered to himself.

At this moment, where was his usual composure and calmness?

Anxiety and unease followed him like a shadow.

This period was the most stressful he had ever experienced as the Taipan of HSBC.

The previous failure to acquire the Royal Bank of Scotland in Britain had already caused dissatisfaction among the many financial groups behind HSBC.

Afterward, in the fierce competition with the Bank of East Asia, HSBC’s market share continued to decline, putting him under immense pressure at shareholder meetings.

When the roof is leaking, it rains all night. HSBC’s stock price had been plummeting, and some shareholders were even entertaining the idea of impeaching Sandberg.

Some financial group leaders had even bluntly warned that if HSBC’s decline continued, Sandberg’s position might be in jeopardy.

Although anyone would have been helpless against the Bank of East Asia’s business moves, the shareholders didn’t care about that. They only cared about results, staring only at the numbers on the balance sheet and the changes in market share.

No matter how high Sandberg’s prestige was at HSBC, he was, in the end, nothing more than a professional manager.

Chapter 645: A Shock to All of Hong Kong!

On the morning of July 16th, in the first-floor lobby of the Bank of East Asia headquarters building.

Although it was not yet nine o’clock, the lobby was already teeming with people.

Yesterday, after Lin Haoran had brought Ho Sin Hang to the Bank of East Asia headquarters, he and Da Shan had arranged for Ho to assume the role of Chairman today.

One of the most crucial parts of this arrangement was inviting Hong Kong’s mainstream media to today’s press conference.

That’s right, the first-floor lobby had already been set up for a press conference.

Reporters from mainstream media outlets such as the Oriental Daily News, Hong Kong Commercial Daily, South China Morning Post, Ta Kung Pao, Sing Tao Daily, and TVB had arrived early. They set up their long-lensed cameras and flashes, waiting in battle formation.

No one knew exactly what Bank of East Asia intended to announce.

However, this did not curb everyone’s curiosity; instead, it made the atmosphere on-site even more tense and fervent.

Too much had happened recently to this long-standing Chinese-owned bank.

First, Lin Haoran had forcefully taken control of the Bank of East Asia. Then, like a predator sensing a crisis, HSBC launched a sudden, targeted assault.

However, the Bank of East Asia reacted swiftly, launching a sharp counterattack.

This series of tight and intense maneuvers was like a magnificent financial drama, leaving the citizens of Hong Kong dazzled and their eyes wide open.

In the past, if anyone had claimed that a bank could defeat HSBC in the financial hotbed of Hong Kong, it would have been dismissed as preposterous, and no one would have believed it.

After all, HSBC’s roots in the Hong Kong financial industry ran deep, its strength formidable, like an unshakeable financial behemoth.

But now, the Bank of East Asia, with astonishing poise, had achieved victory after victory in direct confrontations with HSBC.

Not only that, the Bank of East Asia had cleverly used the opportunity to draw nourishment from HSBC, continually strengthening itself. HSBC, on the other hand, was greatly weakened with each clash, declining day by day.

It had to be said that the financial war playing out in the Hong Kong market during this period was far more spectacular than people could have imagined, a true clash of titans in the financial world.

Therefore, when the major media outlets received the invitation card from the Bank of East Asia, they all keenly sensed that a major story, one big enough to shake Hong Kong’s financial circle, was hidden behind it.

At this moment, the door to the Chairman’s office on an upper floor of the Bank of East Asia was already open.

Inside, besides Lin Haoran, Ho Sin Hang, and Da Shan, others such as Burton, Chen Shoulin, and Ma Shimin had also arrived one by one.

Any one of these individuals was a famous figure in Hong Kong.

Gathered here today, they were naturally here to back the Bank of East Asia.

After all, they all served the same Boss. Although their companies were not subordinate to one another, they could be considered sister companies.

Moreover, as the Bank of East Asia’s power continued to swell, companies under Lin Haoran like Hongkong Land Group, Wanqing Group, and Hongkong Electric Group would also find more opportunities for synergistic development.

For any enterprise, capital was the lifeblood of development!

And the Bank of East Asia, as a financial institution, had a unique advantage. It could become the central hub for the flow and allocation of funds among its sister companies.

This Chairman’s office had been vacant ever since Li Fushu and everyone from Li Peicai’s family had left the Bank of East Asia.

After all, although Lin Haoran often came by, he would go directly to the President’s office, which was Da Shan’s office.

Now, with Ho Sin Hang’s appointment, this office finally welcomed its new master.

Gazing around the office, Ho Sin Hang couldn’t help but recall his office at Hang Seng Bank.

The location was different, the decor was different, but perhaps the only thing that remained the same was his title as Chairman and the dream in his heart—a dream that he had never been able to realize at Hang Seng Bank, which now had a chance of coming true here.

At this thought, Ho Sin Hang couldn’t help but clench his fists, his eyes burning with a fiery fighting spirit.

So what if he was eighty-one years old?

The acquisition of Hang Seng Bank by HSBC had not brought new momentum for development; instead, it felt like being fettered by a heavy shackle.

This shackle tightly bound Hang Seng Bank’s hands and feet, preventing innovation and growth, causing many once-promising ideas to be aborted before they could be put into practice.

Not only that, Hang Seng Bank had been reduced to a “blood supply station” for HSBC, constantly drained of its resources and left greatly weakened.

In contrast, the situation here at the Bank of East Asia was completely different.

The Bank of East Asia didn’t just have one backer; it had a solid “network of backers”!

Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, Wanqing Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, Hong Kong and China Gas, Hong Kong Telephone, and many other enterprises were all powerful supporters of the Bank of East Asia.

After all, these enterprises belonged to the same boss as the Bank of East Asia. As sister companies, they would naturally prioritize deep cooperation with the bank in their financial dealings, advancing together.

This vast and intricate network of resources was like a tightly woven net, continuously injecting momentum into the Bank of East Asia’s development and building a solid foundation of security.

If the Bank of East Asia still couldn’t develop into a major multinational bank under such favorable conditions, it would be a true waste of such an excellent foundation.

For this reason, Ho Sin Hang was filled with confidence, to the point of being determined to win.

He resolved to build the Bank of East Asia into a world-renowned international bank, one on par with the prestigious Citibank.

And when the Bank of East Asia achieved fame and success, he, Ho Sin Hang, would become a top global banker.

In that case, even after he passed away, his legendary story would live on in the world.

Thinking of this, Ho Sin Hang felt as if he had regained twenty years of youth, his blood racing, his body filled with vigor.

“Mr. President, Mr. Walter Wriston, Chairman of Citibank, has arrived. The front desk supervisor is accompanying him up in the elevator,” a voice, slightly crackly but still clear, came through the walkie-talkie on Da Shan’s hip.

“Understood,” Da Shan replied briefly into the device before turning his gaze to Lin Haoran and the others.

Everyone present had naturally heard the message from the walkie-talkie.

“Let’s go. We’ll welcome Mr. Walter Wriston together!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, his voice bright.

After arriving in Hong Kong a few days ago, Mr. Walter Wriston had stayed for two days before leaving.

However, he did not rush back to the United States. Instead, he made a trip to Beijing in Mainland China.

As early as 1902, Citibank had opened its first branch in Shanghai, becoming the first American bank to enter the mainland market.

However, after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, due to the complex political and economic situation at the time, all foreign banks withdrew from the mainland, and Citibank was no exception.

Despite being forced to leave this market, Citibank had never forgotten the vast and endlessly potential-filled land of Mainland China.

As a financial institution with a global footprint and immense influence, the long-term blank space in Mainland China on Citibank’s business empire map was a nagging issue.

It was like an incomplete puzzle to a person with obsessive-compulsive disorder—no matter how you looked at it, it just felt wrong and was truly hard to bear.

In recent years, with the acceleration of Mainland China’s reform and opening-up, the international financial community’s attention towards the mainland market has grown daily, and Walter Wriston was naturally no exception.

This time, taking the opportunity of his visit to Hong Kong, he made a special trip to Beijing to explore the possibility of re-establishing ties with the mainland’s financial sector.

Walter Wriston spent three days visiting Beijing before heading south again, returning to Hong Kong.

Coincidentally, the Bank of East Asia was now preparing to hold a significant press conference to announce that Ho Sin Hang—the former founder of Hang Seng Bank—would formally assume the position of Chairman.

Lin Haoran saw this as an excellent opportunity and sincerely invited this leading figure in the global financial industry to attend, adding a heavyweight endorsement to the event.

The group soon arrived at the elevator bank.

Just then, the elevator doors slowly opened, and the first person to come into view was none other than Mr. Walter Wriston.

This Chairman of Citibank was an undisputed top magnate in the global financial arena, his status revered and his influence profound, second to none in the industry.

Through his multiple collaborations with him, Lin Haoran had gradually earned the friendship of this doyen of the financial world.

Now, he could invite his esteemed presence for what was just an ordinary press conference.

In Hong Kong, only the Bank of East Asia had such an honor and favor.

If HSBC were to extend an invitation, Wriston probably wouldn’t even give them the time of day!

“Mr. Walter Wriston, welcome to the Bank of East Asia.” Lin Haoran smiled and shook his hand warmly, then made the introductions. “Let me introduce you. This is the new Chairman of the Bank of East Asia, Mr. Ho Sin Hang. This is the President of the Bank of East Asia, Mr. Da Shan. This is the President of Hongkong Land Group, Mr. Ma Shimin…”

“Mr. Ho, I have long heard of your great name! The creator of the Hang Seng Index is a renowned figure in the global financial world. I was under the impression that you were still deeply rooted at Hang Seng Bank. I never expected Mr. Lin to invite you to the Bank of East Asia. This is truly a surprise.”

Admittedly, Ho Sin Hang’s status had not yet reached the world-class level, but the influence of the Hang Seng Index in the global financial field was not to be underestimated.

Therefore, it was quite normal for Walter Wriston to know of Ho Sin Hang.

This circle, on one hand, was indeed vast, crisscrossing financial centers worldwide and encompassing countless complex interests and professional fields.

But from another perspective, it was pitifully small. The world’s top financial figures could be counted on one’s fingers, and they were either closely connected through business cooperation or acquainted through industry events.

Ho Sin Hang had made a name for himself in the financial world over the years with the Hang Seng Index. Although he was still considered a second-tier leading figure in global finance, he had successfully entered the field of vision of global financial giants like Walter Wriston.

After they exchanged pleasantries for a few moments, a subordinate came over to remind them that it was time for the press conference.

“In that case, let’s all proceed to the press conference downstairs!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

And so, the large group made their way towards the press conference venue downstairs.

In the first-floor lobby, the reporters had been waiting for a long time.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran and the others descend, the atmosphere instantly ignited. The sound of camera shutters and flashing lights intertwined as reporters surged forward like hungry wolves, raising their equipment to capture every valuable moment.

With a smile on his face, Lin Haoran walked at the forefront with a steady pace, followed closely by Ho Sin Hang, Da Shan, Walter Wriston, and the others.

They passed through the crowd and walked straight to the dais of the press conference.

When the crowd caught sight of Ho Sin Hang, an uproar immediately swept through the venue.

Wait, why would Mr. Ho Sin Hang, the Chairman of Hang Seng Bank, appear at a press conference for the Bank of East Asia?

Although everyone knew that Ho Sin Hang had applied to resign from Hang Seng Bank, there had been no news of him switching jobs to the Bank of East Asia.

At that moment, Ho Sin Hang was undoubtedly the most dazzling focal point of the event, with all eyes fixed on him.

In contrast, Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank, seemed to have been temporarily “snubbed,” not drawing much attention.

Undeniably, Walter Wriston was a top magnate in the global financial industry, but he was not a local Hong Kong figure, after all, and his exposure in the city was not high.

Most of the reporters present were not insiders of the financial industry. Even if many might have recognized this financial heavyweight upon closer inspection, their attention was naturally diverted by the blinding light emanating from Ho Sin Hang.

Once everyone was seated, Lin Haoran strode steadily to the center of the dais, microphone in hand. He scanned the audience with a calm gaze and announced in a clear voice, “I imagine everyone has many questions right now, so I won’t keep you in suspense. I’ll make it brief.

“Effective immediately, Mr. Ho Sin Hang will formally serve as the Chairman of the Board of the Bank of East Asia, overseeing all matters related to the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank. I would also like to extend our immense gratitude to Mr. Walter Wriston, Chairman of Citibank, for joining us as a guest at this press conference.”

As soon as Lin Haoran finished speaking, the venue erupted in thunderous applause and a chorus of astonished gasps.

Reporters turned to whisper amongst themselves, discussing this major personnel change.

At the same time, it was only then that everyone noticed the elderly caucasian man sitting next to the dais.

“It really is Mr. Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank! He was there during that important event when Mr. Lin bought into Citibank a few days ago. I can’t believe this tycoon of the financial world is actually here. It looks like he’s here to back the Bank of East Asia!” one reporter exclaimed in amazement.

Walter Wriston was a household name in the financial world.

If Michael Sandberg was the undisputed “ceiling” of Hong Kong’s financial industry, then Walter Wriston was at the very top of the pyramid of the global financial world.

One could wield great power and influence in Hong Kong’s financial circles, while the other maneuvered skillfully on the global financial stage. Although both represented the pinnacle of the financial domain, in terms of geographical reach and the depth and breadth of their influence, they were worlds apart.

At this moment, Walter Wriston’s appearance at the Bank of East Asia’s press conference undeniably injected the event with unparalleled international influence and authority.

The atmosphere was instantly ignited, and the crowd looked towards the dais with eyes full of shock and anticipation.

Ho Sin Hang becoming the Chairman of the Bank of East Asia was, in itself, enough to create an uproar in the financial world and become a piece of bombshell news.

For Citibank’s Chairman, Walter Wriston, to personally endorse the Bank of East Asia was an even rarer spectacle in financial circles, an event that, on its own, could spark widespread public debate.

Who could have imagined that these two major events, each capable of shaking the financial world, would miraculously coincide today?

What exactly did this signify?

It undoubtedly sent a strong signal: the Bank of East Asia had perhaps gained the powerful support of Citibank!

Under such circumstances, would the Bank of East Asia still need to fear HSBC?

Admittedly, HSBC held a dominant position in Hong Kong’s financial sector, with immense power that was not to be underestimated.

But if one broadened their perspective to the global stage, HSBC’s influence seemed to be stretched thin.

In contrast, Citibank was a top-tier banking giant, ranked among the very best in the global financial arena.

With Citibank backing it, why would the Bank of East Asia need to worry about the petty tricks and dirty moves HSBC might pull?

The press conference did not last long and soon concluded.

After all, the core matters that needed to be announced to the public were not complex. The most critical and attention-grabbing news was undoubtedly the bombshell of Ho Sin Hang officially taking office as the Chairman of the Bank of East Asia.

Before the reporters and media could even finish drafting and publishing their reports, in the few short hours after the press conference ended, the news of Ho Sin Hang’s appointment as Chairman of the Bank of East Asia swept through the streets and alleys of Hong Kong like a powerful whirlwind.

From the bustling commercial districts to the quiet residential areas, people were fervently discussing this major event that had shaken the financial world.

In Hong Kong’s major financial institutions, executives put aside their work to hold emergency meetings, discussing the potential impact of this personnel change at the Bank of East Asia.

“When Ho Sin Hang was at Hang Seng Bank, he demonstrated outstanding leadership and keen market insight. The Hang Seng Index he created became an important benchmark for the global financial market. Now that he’s in charge of the Bank of East Asia, its competitiveness in the financial market will likely rise to a new level,” a senior financial analyst said with a worried expression during a media interview.

Among the ordinary citizens of Hong Kong, this move by the Bank of East Asia also won widespread praise.

Many citizens expressed that the Bank of East Asia had always been a financial institution they trusted, and now, with a major figure like Ho Sin Hang at the helm, their confidence in the bank’s future was even stronger.

“I’ve always done my banking with the Bank of East Asia, and I feel their service has always been great. Now that Mr. Ho Sin Hang is here, I believe the Bank of East Asia will develop even better. I’ll continue to support them in the future,” said a customer handling business at the bank, his face beaming with pride.

The impact of Ho Sin Hang switching jobs to the Bank of East Asia was absolutely beyond imagination.

As the news spread further, the Bank of East Asia’s reputation soared like a rocket.

The most direct effect was that customers of Hang Seng Bank, upon seeing that even the bank’s founder had jumped ship to the Bank of East Asia, began to waver. Many clients started to re-evaluate their financial asset allocation, considering moving their funds from Hang Seng Bank to the Bank of East Asia.

After all, Ho Sin Hang’s reputation and influence in the financial world were tangible. His move to join the Bank of East Asia was seen by many as a significant signal of the bank’s immense future potential.

It could be said that Ho Sin Hang deserved the most credit for Hang Seng Bank’s development to its current state; many chose the bank because of his name and credibility.

Now that he had resolutely turned to join the Bank of East Asia, Hang Seng Bank was like a body that had lost its backbone; its once-solid foundation began to teeter.

The scales in the customers’ minds slowly began to tip.

This situation was just like the renowned JD e-commerce platform from Lin Haoran’s previous life.

Back then, when its founder was forced to sell his shares and leave the core leadership for various reasons, the platform’s market share plummeted like water from a broken dam.

Later, out of desperation, they had to invite that founder surnamed Liu back to take charge just to barely stabilize the situation.

This showed that a company’s founder acts as a stabilizing pillar, having a decisive impact on the enterprise’s success or failure.

And so it was with Hang Seng Bank now. The founder was gone, and what’s more, he had gone to a competitor. One can only imagine the extent of the damage to the bank!

For a time, the various branches of the Bank of East Asia were bustling with people, with an endless stream of customers coming to do business.

HSBC headquarters building, Chairman of the Board’s office.

Michael Sandberg also received this news at the fastest possible speed.

When the matter was confirmed, he simply couldn’t believe it.

Ho Sin Hang had really switched jobs to the Bank of East Asia.

“This… How is this possible!” Sandberg collapsed into his chair, his hands trembling uncontrollably, his eyes filled with utter disbelief.

Just yesterday, Ho Sin Hang had officially completed his departure procedures from Hang Seng Bank.

But who could have imagined that after just one night, he would appear so openly at the Bank of East Asia today, and what’s more, he had transformed into its Chairman!

To HSBC, this news was undoubtedly a resounding slap, delivered mercilessly across its face!

Yesterday, when the news from William Purves was laid before him, Sandberg’s first reaction was disbelief.

He secretly speculated that Ho Sin Hang had probably just been invited by Lin Haoran to offer some guidance to this younger Chinese generation member.

Or perhaps the security guard had been mistaken, and the person who picked up Ho Sin Hang wasn’t Lin Haoran at all.

In his view, Ho Sin Hang was advanced in years. Having resigned from Hang Seng Bank, he should rightfully be enjoying his retirement, not throwing himself back into the fray of the financial industry.

Even so, Sandberg harbored doubts and arranged for someone to investigate Ho Sin Hang.

However, it was impossible to obtain any valuable leads in such a short time.

Moreover, the number of private meetings between Ho Sin Hang and Lin Haoran could be counted on one’s fingers. The information fed back by the investigators was scant, with no substantive evidence to indicate that Ho had any intention of switching jobs.

So, until the news of Ho Sin Hang’s appointment as Chairman of the Bank of East Asia arrived, Sandberg had clung to a sliver of hope, stubbornly believing that Ho would never jump ship.

But now, the matter was confirmed. The glimmer of hope in his heart shattered like a bubble, and Sandberg felt the world spin, as if everything had collapsed at that very moment.

He had never imagined his judgment could be so ridiculously wrong. Ho Sin Hang had really switched to the Bank of East Asia and had taken the Chairman’s seat.

As someone who had been Ho Sin Hang’s superior for many years, he naturally understood that Ho’s abilities in the financial industry were in no way inferior to his own.

In fact, HSBC had always been wary of Ho Sin Hang. Otherwise, with Ho’s personal capabilities, it wouldn’t have been impossible for him to climb to the position of HSBC’s Chairman.

Therefore, Sandberg knew that Ho Sin Hang joining the Bank of East Asia was an enormous threat to HSBC.

The Bank of East Asia was already gaining momentum, holding its own in multiple clashes with HSBC. Now, with an experienced and exceptionally capable financial tycoon like Ho Sin Hang at the helm, its future development would be limitless.

“Traitor! Ho Sin Hang is a traitor!” Sandberg’s face turned crimson with rage, veins bulging on his forehead. He slammed his hands on the desk, causing the documents and teacup on it to jump.

“How could he do this! Has he forgotten his identity as the founder of Hang Seng Bank? Has he forgotten who supported him, who gave him the opportunity to show his skills when he was at Hang Seng Bank? Look at him now, turning around and defecting to the Bank of East Asia. Isn’t this a blatant move to oppose us at HSBC!”

Sandberg paced back and forth in his office, the flames of anger in his heart burning ever brighter.

What concerned him most was the appearance of Chairman Walter Wriston of Citibank at the Bank of East Asia’s press conference.

It could be said that in front of Citibank, HSBC was merely a regional financial power. Even if its roots were deep and it reigned supreme in Hong Kong, when compared to a behemoth like Citibank that maneuvered skillfully across the global financial map, the gap was still as wide as a chasm.

Therefore, HSBC never dared to easily offend Citibank, especially with their own ambitions for globalization. Offending an international giant like Citibank was out of the question.

But now, the Bank of East Asia had somehow latched onto a powerful backer like Citibank, and this filled Sandberg with an unprecedented sense of pressure and unease.

Chapter 646: Financial Market Share Has Reached 32 Percent

Ho Sin Hang’s appointment as Chairman of the Bank of East Asia had indeed generated tremendous public discussion and plunged HSBC into an unprecedented crisis.

At this moment, Michael Sandberg was consumed by worry, even faintly sensing that he was treading the same path as Newbiggin, the former Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co.

The similarity between their situations was simply astounding.

Initially, Jardine Matheson & Co. had launched an offensive against the companies under Lin Haoran, only to be met with a powerful counterattack. The two sides were subsequently embroiled in a business war of unprecedented scale.

In the end, Jardine Matheson’s market share was gradually chipped away, and they even faced the crisis of a covert takeover by Lin Haoran.

Although Jardine Matheson exhausted every means to force Lin Haoran to abandon his acquisition attempt, they ultimately lost core assets like the Hongkong Land Group.

Defeated in the market, Jardine Matheson grew disheartened, losing the will to remain in Hong Kong. They chose to completely withdraw, moving their headquarters back to London, Britain.

The former Taipan, Newbiggin, unfortunately became the scapegoat for this failure. He bore the greatest responsibility and was kicked out of Jardine Matheson’s management team.

And now, the parallels between HSBC and the Jardine Matheson of the past were uncanny.

First, HSBC had made a move against the newly acquired Bank of East Asia under Lin Haoran, only to be met with a forceful counterattack that triggered a massive business war.

Consequently, HSBC’s market share was continuously eroded, and it suffered extremely heavy losses.

Although HSBC had only reached this point, who could say for certain that its fate wouldn’t follow Jardine Matheson’s?

Most importantly, while both HSBC and Jardine Matheson were British-owned companies, there was a significant fundamental difference between them.

Jardine Matheson had begun its overseas expansion decades ago. After years of development, the scale of its overseas assets had long surpassed those in Hong Kong.

For this reason, even though Jardine Matheson’s withdrawal from the Hong Kong market was a heavy blow, it was not enough to shake its foundations.

HSBC’s situation, however, was completely different.

Although HSBC had been seeking to expand its overseas markets in recent years, sparing no expense to find acquisition opportunities abroad to reduce its reliance on the Hong Kong market, its path to overseas expansion had not been smooth.

Despite investing enormous sums, the acquired overseas assets failed to generate the expected returns. On the contrary, due to mismanagement, cultural differences, and unfamiliarity with market environments, these large investments did not turn a profit. Instead, they required continuous capital injections from the parent company, becoming a heavy burden for HSBC.

The most typical example of this was Marine Midland Bank in the United States.

This left HSBC’s overseas presence struggling and unable to become a new source of growth.

To this day, the Hong Kong market remained the core of HSBC’s business. Losing it would be a devastating blow.

Therefore, HSBC simply could not afford to withdraw from Hong Kong as nonchalantly as Jardine Matheson had.

At least for now, it was absolutely impossible.

Comparing the plights of the two companies only made Michael Sandberg more agitated.

If this continued, forgetting HSBC’s fate for a moment, he himself would sooner or later follow in Newbiggin’s footsteps. He would become a casualty of this crisis, ruthlessly kicked out of management, his reputation in the industry in tatters.

The thought sent a chill down his spine, and beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

Yet, facing a competitor like the Bank of East Asia, he was at a loss, unsure how to respond.

Ultimately, it was indeed his own strategic miscalculation as the Taipan of HSBC that had led the bank step by step into its current difficult predicament.

His rash move against the Bank of East Asia after Lin Haoran’s acquisition was intended to suppress a rival and expand market share. He never expected to hit a wall, triggering this intractable business war.

However, if he hadn’t made a move back then, HSBC would have simply faced a slow death.

As Lin Haoran continued to consolidate resources and expand his business empire, the Bank of East Asia, as an important piece in his hands, was destined to become a powerful force disrupting Hong Kong’s financial landscape.

As the Bank of East Asia grew stronger under Lin Haoran, its business scope would continuously encroach upon HSBC’s market share and poach its customer base.

By then, even if HSBC could hang on, it would gradually lose its advantage in the day-to-day competition and ultimately be mercilessly eliminated by the market.

As its market share was steadily eaten away by the Bank of East Asia, he no longer felt confident that HSBC would forever be the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry.

In the end, it wasn’t that Sandberg was incompetent, but that Lin Haoran was too powerful.

Complaining and regretting were useless now. The urgent task was to find a way to break the deadlock.

Michael Sandberg locked himself in his office. His desk was piled high with documents and reports. Through a haze of smoke, his eyes alternated between confusion and flashes of ruthlessness.

…

Meanwhile, on the 19th floor of a commercial building in Causeway Bay, there was an office.

The office wasn’t particularly spacious, just over two hundred square meters, and there were only a few dozen employees.

However, the company was renowned in the industry.

It was Hong Kong’s famous Universal Research Company, whose main business focused on market research, market surveys, marketing research, and satisfaction surveys.

According to the definition of the global association of market researchers, a market research company undertakes commissions from clients to carry out a series of professional research activities to obtain information needed for decision-making.

These activities included specifying the information required for relevant issues, designing information collection methods, managing and executing the data collection process, analyzing research results, and drawing conclusions while clarifying their significance.

And Universal Research Company was just such a company.

However, upon entering the 1980s, Hong Kong’s research industry experienced an unprecedented wave of change.

With the rapid economic development and increasingly fierce market competition, companies demanded ever-higher levels of accuracy and timeliness from market information, and traditional research methods gradually failed to meet these needs.

Although Universal Research Company was quite well-known in the industry, it also felt immense pressure.

On one hand, new research technologies were springing up like mushrooms. Computer technology, data analysis software, and the like started to be widely applied in the field of market research.

Some small but innovative research firms, by quickly mastering and applying new technologies, rapidly made their mark in the market, snatching some of Universal’s client resources.

These smaller companies could provide research reports at a lower cost and a faster speed, gradually weakening Universal’s traditional advantages.

On the other hand, Hong Kong’s business environment became increasingly complex, and the research needs of companies of different industries and sizes varied greatly.

Large enterprises required comprehensive, in-depth macroeconomic analysis and strategic planning research, while small and medium-sized enterprises were more focused on the dynamics of niche markets and consumer behavior studies.

Universal seemed somewhat out of its depth in coping with these diverse needs, and its business model gradually exposed its rigidity.

Therefore, their most urgent task now was to win back their market.

And the simplest way to win it back was to build a name for themselves!

In the recent business competition between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC, Yu Zhize, the boss of Universal Research Company, saw a great opportunity to do just that.

Over the past few days, whenever Yu Zhize was out, he would hear citizens gathered in discussion, and the common topic they frequently mentioned was the current state of the Bank of East Asia.

Many citizens were speculating: what was the Bank of East Asia’s current market share in the Hong Kong banking industry?

How much had the gap between it and HSBC narrowed?

Some even boldly wondered if the Bank of East Asia could surpass HSBC in the future.

These questions had become the focus of public debate.

The public was curious, but they had no answers.

The reason was simple: these market share figures generally only became available with any accuracy at the beginning of each year when companies released their annual reports.

So now, even the major media companies, though they wanted to be the first to unearth key information about the market shares of the Bank of East Asia and HSBC, could only wait anxiously for the annual reports at the start of the year.

After all, these media companies were not professional research firms and found it difficult to judge market trends and the specific share dynamics of the two banks based on existing data.

However, this information lag created a perfect opportunity for Universal Research Company.

Yu Zhize keenly sensed the enormous business opportunity hidden behind this.

If Universal Research Company could conduct an in-depth study on the changes in the two banks’ market shares, their competitive dynamics, and future trends, and release an authoritative and forward-looking report, it would surely cause a sensation in Hong Kong’s financial sector and even the entire business world. This would make Universal Research Company famous and help them reclaim their lost market share.

Therefore, Yu Zhize had sprung into action two days ago.

With their company’s network in Hong Kong, it was not difficult to obtain some key data, analyze it, and ultimately derive a rough trend of the market share changes.

At this moment, inside the company, a research and analysis team of over thirty people was racing against time to analyze the data collected by the survey team. They had been at it all afternoon.

The atmosphere in the research and analysis team’s office was so tense it felt like it could ignite the air, yet it was also filled with a fervent energy.

The crisp, rapid clatter of keyboards, the rustle of turning pages, and the low murmurs of discussion among team members intertwined to form a unique “symphony of struggle.”

Everyone was completely absorbed, their eyes locked on the rudimentary Apple II computer screens or focused on the reports in their hands, not missing a single detail. They were trying to dig out valuable information from the dense jungle of data that could determine the company’s fate.

As for the boss, Yu Zhize, he had long since lost count of how many times he had paced back and forth in the corridor outside the office. His footsteps echoed in the silent hallway, each one laden with anticipation and anxiety for the results.

Finally, the head of the research and analysis team, his face beaming with excitement and a report clutched tightly in his hand, hurriedly pushed open the door and strode over to Yu Zhize.

He reported excitedly, “Boss, the analysis results are fresh out of the oven! Based on the data we currently have and our model projections, the Bank of East Asia’s market share growth has been terrifying during the intense business wars of the past month or so.”

“In just two months, the Bank of East Asia has skyrocketed from its original 3% to about 32% now. As for HSBC, if you combine its market share with its subsidiary, Hang Seng Bank, it has dropped from 61% last year to 43.6%. The gap between the two has narrowed to 11.6%.”

“If we exclude Hang Seng Bank’s share and compare HSBC’s own market share with the Bank of East Asia’s, the difference is even smaller, just a few percentage points.”

“A deeper analysis of the current trend shows that the Bank of East Asia’s market share is still rising steadily, and the momentum has become even stronger since Mr. Ho Sin Hang became Chairman.”

“In contrast, HSBC and its subsidiary face the risk of further decline in market share. If this trend continues, as long as the Bank of East Asia can keep snatching more market share from HSBC, its future surpassing of HSBC is a sure thing!”

Hearing this, Yu Zhize took the report with trembling hands. As he read, an irrepressible look of delight spread across his face, his lips curling into a smile, his eyes shining with excitement.

He quickly scanned the data and conclusions on the report, his fingers gently stroking the key numbers as if to etch the information into his mind.

“Good! Excellent!” Yu Zhize suddenly looked up, his eyes filled with excitement and exhilaration. “This is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for! Once this report is released, it will undoubtedly set off a storm in Hong Kong’s financial world, and the name of Universal Research Company will once again resonate throughout the entire industry!”

Hearing his boss’s affirmation, the head of the research and analysis team also beamed with pride. He quickly added, “Boss, to ensure the accuracy and authority of this report, our team repeatedly verified the data and ran multiple simulations.”

“Next, we can further refine the analysis based on this report, creating more intuitive and persuasive charts and case studies, so that the outside world can see the competitive landscape between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC at a glance.”

Yu Zhize nodded in approval and patted the team leader’s shoulder. “You’ve done an outstanding job! Proceed as you’ve suggested. Finalize the report as soon as possible. At the same time, contact the major media outlets, leak some teasers to get their attention. We need to create the biggest sensation possible when the report is released!”

“Understood, Boss! I’ll get on it right away,” the leader said, taking his leave.

Watching the back of the departing team leader, the smile on Yu Zhize’s face grew even wider.

Every industry has its giants.

In the business world, the research industry was a small track.

When Yu Zhize returned from overseas, he hadn’t liked fiercely competitive industries. It was precisely because he saw this inconspicuous little track that he resolutely threw himself into it and founded Universal Research Company.

He was full of passion and ambition, determined to carve out a world of his own in this seemingly unremarkable field and make Universal a leader in the research industry in Hong Kong and even globally.

However, the path of entrepreneurship is never smooth.

In its early days, Universal Research Company faced numerous difficulties and challenges.

Lack of funds, shortage of talent—each problem was like a great mountain weighing down on Yu Zhize.

But with his tenacious perseverance and keen market insight, he led the company forward one step at a time.

From small-scale business at the beginning to gradually making a name in the industry, Universal Research Company had put in countless hours of effort and sweat.

Now, facing the impact of new research companies and a complex and ever-changing business environment, Universal Research Company had once again arrived at a crossroads of destiny.

And this spectacular business war between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC undoubtedly provided Universal with an excellent opportunity to turn things around.

Yu Zhize could already imagine that this report on the market shares and competitive dynamics of the two banks would be the key to Universal Research Company’s resurgence.

Universal Research Company might not be the top company in Hong Kong’s research industry, but it was at least a first-tier player.

However, he was far from satisfied with the status quo; he harbored a much grander vision.

As long as he seized this opportunity to make Universal Research Company’s name thoroughly known, business would surely come pouring in like a tide.

By then, Universal Research Company would not only solidify its position in the Hong Kong market but could also expand its business throughout Asia, and even go global, becoming an internationally renowned research magnate.

Compared to financial giants like HSBC and the Bank of East Asia, Universal Research Company was but a mayfly to a behemoth, so small as to be almost negligible.

But this did nothing to deter Yu Zhize’s determination. He had keenly realized that the business war between the two giants was like a storm.

And if Universal Research Company could cleverly ride the momentum, it might be able to soar on the winds of this storm.

He planned to use the opportunity of HSBC being greatly weakened and battered in this business war to make Universal Research Company famous.

He would use this to find more development opportunities and carve out a place for himself in the business world.

Under Yu Zhize’s direction, Universal Research Company quickly mobilized.

The research and analysis department worked through the night to perfect the report, presenting the data on market share changes and competitive dynamics between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC with intuitive charts and detailed case studies. They strove to make every detail withstand scrutiny and every conclusion irrefutably authoritative.

Meanwhile, the company’s marketing team was not idle either.

They communicated frequently with major media outlets, cleverly leaking news about the impending blockbuster report, which sparked widespread attention and speculation in the media world.

For a time, an air of anticipation filled Hong Kong’s financial and business circles, with everyone guessing what astonishing information Universal Research Company had in its possession.

Even Lin Haoran, the richest man in Hong Kong, heard about the matter and was instantly intrigued.

“This Universal Research Company has some nerve, daring to stir the pot during a business war between two financial giants. I’m curious to see what they can come up with.”

Lin Haoran sat in his spacious and bright office in the Connaught Centre, his fingers tapping gently on the desk in a steady rhythm, his eyes revealing a hint of curiosity and amusement.

Speaking of which, this Universal Research Company seemed to have a fateful connection with him.

His own Universal Investment Company, which he had founded from scratch, shared a similar-sounding name with Universal Research Company. Although the characters were different, they were homophones and both carried the grand meaning of “the world” or “the entire world,” as if there was some subtle, destined link between them.

The matter had no negative impact on him; in fact, it would likely bring even greater influence to the Bank of East Asia.

So, while Lin Haoran was curious about the company that was about to release the report, he didn’t pay it too much mind, treating it as a small episode in this business war.

He was more focused on the Bank of East Asia’s subsequent strategic layout and how to further consolidate and expand its position in Hong Kong’s financial market.

Ever since Ho Sin Hang had come on board, Lin Haoran had been secretly visiting many people.

These included the Lee Hysan family, one of the Four Great Families, the Ho Sai family, and others.

The goal, naturally, was to poach from HSBC.

Many of Hong Kong’s financial groups actually worked more with HSBC; otherwise, HSBC could not have previously captured over sixty percent of the market share in Hong Kong.

And the financial business of a single major conglomerate was worth that of countless ordinary customers.

Lin Haoran naturally understood the enormous influence these conglomerates had on Hong Kong’s financial market. If he could win over even a few of them to cooperate with the Bank of East Asia, the bank’s market share would surely take another leap forward.

The bad news was that some conglomerates had rejected his invitation. After all, HSBC had deep roots in Hong Kong, with over a century of history and long-standing, stable relationships with many of them.

Out of loyalty to their traditional partner and fear of the risks associated with changing, these conglomerates chose to continue working with HSBC.

However, out of respect for Lin Haoran, they all promised not to disclose the matter.

The good news was that many Chinese-funded conglomerates showed great interest in his proposal and were willing to further explore the possibility of cooperating with the Bank of East Asia.

Most of these conglomerates had a good relationship with Lin Haoran, such as Li Mingze, the leader of the Lee Hysan family, and Liu Luanxiong.

His protégé, Liu Luanxiong, in particular, had unhesitatingly pledged his full support to the Bank of East Asia upon learning of Lin Haoran’s intentions.

The Liu Luanxiong of today held over one billion Hong Kong dollars in cash, and wasn’t just a conglomerate that only possessed fixed assets.

With the support of these people, the Bank of East Asia could rise to another level in the future. Surpassing HSBC’s market share was just a matter of time!

On the other side, Michael Sandberg, the Chairman of HSBC, was in a terrible fix.

He naturally understood that the report Universal Research Company was about to release would definitely have a significant negative impact on HSBC.

Once the report’s contents proved unfavorable to HSBC, market confidence would be severely damaged, and a chain reaction of customer loss, falling stock prices, and other consequences would follow.

Especially the stock price. Recently, HSBC’s stock price had either been inching up slightly or plummeting drastically.

It had fallen all the way from a market capitalization of over 26 billion Hong Kong dollars to less than 14 billion Hong Kong dollars today.

Chapter 647: The Era of Two Hegemons

July 19th, 10 a.m. on a Sunday.

In the first-floor lobby of a building in Causeway Bay, more than a hundred media outlets had gathered.

This was the building where Universal Research Company had its offices.

The news had been circulating for two days, and the effect was significant. The media from all over Hong Kong had been drawn in.

Therefore, Yu Zhize, as a tenant, had applied to the building’s property management to use the ground-floor lobby as a temporary venue for a press conference.

Considering the attention and influence this press conference might bring, the property management naturally agreed.

Inside the lobby, bright lights shone down. A flurry of cameras and lenses glinted coldly. Reporters held microphones, their eyes filled with anticipation and excitement, whispering amongst themselves about the contents of the soon-to-be-released report.

Over the past two days, the news leaked by Universal Research Company was enough to pique the curiosity of everyone in Hong Kong.

Everyone was guessing: What was the Bank of East Asia’s market share now?

And how much market share did the financial hegemon, HSBC, have left?

How far behind was the Bank of East Asia from HSBC?

With the information released by Universal Research Company, these questions had successfully captured everyone’s attention, becoming a hot topic of conversation on every street corner.

As one of the most professional research firms in Hong Kong, Universal Research Company had a very good reputation in the industry. No one believed they would fabricate data just to make a name for themselves. Even if they gained fame that way, it would be notoriety. What good would that do them?

Therefore, everyone had a high degree of confidence in the report Universal Research Company was about to release, and they all looked forward to gleaning useful information from it.

It’s often said that Chinese people love a good spectacle. As part of the Chinese cultural sphere, the people of Hong Kong were naturally intrigued by this “clash of titans” over banking market share.

After all, whether it was HSBC, the Bank of East Asia, or Lin Haoran behind it, they were all extremely influential figures and institutions in Hong Kong’s business world.

Especially in the few years since Lin Haoran’s rise, he had been like a legend, continuously acquiring numerous British-owned and Chinese-owned tycoons.

Even the former “King of the Foreign Firms,” Jardine Matheson & Co., had been beaten back step by step in its business competition with Lin Haoran, ultimately ending with its withdrawal from the Hong Kong market.

And now, the showdown between HSBC, the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry, and Lin Haoran, this rising new king—who wouldn’t want to watch such a good show?

Yu Zhize stood on the stage, looking at the eager reporters below, and took a deep breath.

He knew that once the contents of this report were announced today, by tomorrow, Universal Research Company’s name would be known throughout Hong Kong. This was of crucial importance to their company!

At the thought of Universal Research Company taking this opportunity to reach new heights, Yu Zhize couldn’t suppress his excitement.

Although Universal Research Company was a very good company in its industry, the research market wasn’t that large. Even if it was one of the best in its field, it was just an inconspicuous small company among the other corporate giants.

Therefore, facing more than a hundred news organizations, Yu Zhize was still a bit nervous. After all, this kind of treatment was usually reserved for press conferences held by top-tier corporations.

Yu Zhize gently tapped the microphone to signal for quiet. In his right hand, he held a report with a title written in large characters: “Deep Dive Analysis Report on the Hong Kong Financial Industry’s Market Share.”

He raised his left hand slightly, and once the venue quieted down, he began to speak slowly, “Good morning, friends from the media! Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to be here. Today, we will unveil the mystery of the market share in Hong Kong’s financial industry.”

The lobby fell silent, with only the faint whirring of cameras to be heard.

Yu Zhize opened the report, his gaze sweeping over the audience below. He continued, “Over the past few days, our Universal Research Company has invested a great deal of manpower and resources to conduct a comprehensive, in-depth study of Hong Kong’s financial industry, especially focusing on the two main players currently under discussion, HSBC and the Bank of East Asia. Now, I will present the results of our research.”

“Let’s first talk about the Bank of East Asia. Since Mr. Lin Haoran completed the acquisition and privatization of the bank, its market share has begun a steady climb, thanks to the powerful support of the vast business empire behind him.

“Recently, the Bank of East Asia made a major move by significantly raising its fixed deposit interest rates to a maximum of 5%. This highly attractive measure acted like a giant magnet, drawing a large number of customers to switch their accounts to the Bank of East Asia.

“Not only that, the Bank of East Asia’s successful acquisition of Dao Heng Bank was a strategic move that injected powerful momentum into its own development. Based on the detailed data we currently possess and calculated using professional models, after the union of the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank, their combined capital size has officially broken the 75 billion Hong Kong dollar mark.

“From the perspective of the overall market environment, combined with the growth trends from previous years and the impact of the current oil crisis on Hong Kong’s economy, which has led to a slowdown in overall economic growth…

“However, even in such a complex economic situation, we predict that the total size of Hong Kong’s financial market will see a slight increase from around 230 billion Hong Kong dollars last year to about 235 billion. Against this backdrop, the Bank of East Asia, with its series of proactive measures, has achieved a market share of 32% of all of Hong Kong!”

As soon as he said this, a commotion erupted among the reporters below. They quickly bowed their heads to take notes, their eyes filled with astonishment.

This rate of growth far exceeded many people’s expectations. After all, this was 32%!

What did that mean?

It meant that the combined market share of the Bank of East Asia and its newly acquired Dao Heng Bank was already nearly one-third of the entire Hong Kong banking industry.

While this figure shocked many, they slowly came to accept it.

This was because many experts had previously analyzed just how much the Bank of East Asia had gained in each of its business skirmishes with HSBC.

Previously, several economic experts had conducted relevant analyses on a television finance program.

Before the Bank of East Asia raised its deposit rates, experts analyzed, based on the information they had, that the bank had already gained over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars in capital from the business brought in by Lin Haoran’s companies like the Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and Wanqing Group.

Not only that, but Lin Haoran later took measures to compel companies affiliated with Hongkong Land and Hongkong Electric to transfer their financial business to the Bank of East Asia.

This move caused the Bank of East Asia’s capital to swell again, successfully absorbing over another twenty billion Hong Kong dollars.

Taking into account the Bank of East Asia’s original deposit base and Lin Haoran’s personal assets, some experts boldly speculated that even before the interest rate hike, the bank’s capital had already surpassed fifty billion Hong Kong dollars.

However, these figures were ultimately just the words of experts, so their credibility wasn’t very high.

And now, in just nine short days, the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank had absorbed over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars in deposits. At first glance, the figure was astonishingly exaggerated.

But when one recalled the bustling scenes of people queuing up to make deposits at every branch of the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank, it all seemed quite plausible.

Looked at this way, it was no longer an exaggeration for the two banks’ combined capital to reach seventy-five billion Hong Kong dollars.

The release of the Bank of East Asia’s data caused an uproar.

However, everyone soon became even more curious about how much market share HSBC had left.

After all, with the Bank of East Asia’s capital soaring, HSBC was undoubtedly the one who suffered the most.

But HSBC would certainly not release these figures themselves—at least not before their annual report next year.

After all, as the traditional hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial world, HSBC had always paid great attention to its image and market position. Before the situation was clear, it would not rashly publicize data that could affect its stock price and market confidence.

If it weren’t a publicly listed company required to publish an annual financial statement, HSBC would probably not even release a report, or it would obscure the data to maintain its hegemonic status in the financial market.

Looking at the eager faces of the reporters below, Yu Zhize thought to himself that the impact of this press conference would likely far exceed his expectations.

He cleared his throat and continued, “Next, let’s turn our attention to HSBC. As the undisputed veteran hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry, HSBC has been in an unassailable position in the market for many years, holding a decisive position.”

“However, the financial market is ever-changing. New competitors are springing up like mushrooms, and especially in the face of the suddenly rising Bank of East Asia, HSBC is also facing unprecedented challenges.”

“According to our detailed and rigorous research data, affected by the Bank of East Asia, the total capital of HSBC and its subsidiary, Hang Seng Bank, has seen a significant decline in the past two short months, falling from approximately 145 billion Hong Kong dollars to about 102.5 billion.”

“Its market share has also shrunk significantly, plummeting from about 61% two months ago to only 43.6% today—less than half.”

“Excluding Hang Seng Bank, HSBC’s own capital has suffered an even more severe blow, falling from the original approximately 130 billion Hong Kong dollars all the way down to about 87 billion, with a market share of around 37%.”

The moment Yu Zhize finished speaking, the reporters below instantly erupted.

If this data was true, didn’t it mean that the HSBC group had lost a third of its market share directly to the Bank of East Asia in just two short months?

Tragic. It was simply too tragic.

Before this, HSBC had been so glorious.

Relying on HSBC and its subsidiary Hang Seng Bank, they held the first and second largest market shares in Hong Kong’s banking sector. They were in the limelight, and their word was law in the financial world. Almost no one dared to offend them; they were the undisputed financial hegemon of Hong Kong.

And because of the special status of the financial industry in the business world, HSBC held the most final say of any enterprise in all of Hong Kong’s commerce.

When making major business decisions, many companies had to first gauge HSBC’s attitude, fearing that one misstep would anger this financial hegemon, leading to a broken capital chain and failed projects.

But now, what goes around, comes around. The Bank of East Asia, under Lin Haoran’s leadership, had burst onto the scene, forcibly snatching a huge chunk of market share from HSBC’s jaws and knocking it from its pedestal. This huge drop made the reporters present both excited and emotional.

Although HSBC was still number one in Hong Kong’s financial industry with its current market share, as the Bank of East Asia’s share rose dramatically, gradually catching up and narrowing the gap, HSBC’s hegemonic position was already in jeopardy.

It could even be said that Hong Kong’s financial industry had now effectively entered an era of two hegemons.

After all, the Bank of East Asia and its subsidiary Dao Heng Bank alone occupied nearly one-third of the market share.

And while HSBC was still ahead of the Bank of East Asia, its lead was no longer as overwhelming as it once was. The gap between the two was constantly shrinking, and the future landscape of Hong Kong’s financial industry was full of suspense.

After finishing his speech, Yu Zhize distributed more detailed analysis reports to the media representatives present.

For Yu Zhize, the purpose of this press conference was not to make money, but to make a name for his company!

Therefore, even if it was a losing venture financially, he felt it was worth it.

After all, if Universal Research Company could use this opportunity to rise to the next level in Hong Kong’s research industry and become a benchmark, the future business value would be immeasurable.

The simple press conference came to an end.

However, its impact was inestimable.

Even before the media had time to report on it, the general content of the press conference spread throughout Hong Kong at lightning speed.

Hong Kong wasn’t very large, and it wasn’t difficult for a sensational piece of news to spread throughout the city, especially the small main urban area.

Thus, a few hours later, Hong Kong’s major tea houses, restaurants, food stalls, and cafes all became venues for citizens to heatedly discuss the contents of the press conference.

Many reporters flocked to HSBC and the Bank of East Asia to ask for their views and responses to the press conference, trying to get more exclusive information to prepare for subsequent in-depth reports.

When reporters swarmed the HSBC headquarters, trying to coax some answers about the accuracy of the market share figures from senior executives, they were driven away by security guards.

Although they didn’t get any answers from HSBC’s senior management, their reaction told everyone what they needed to know. While the data released by Universal Research Company certainly couldn’t be one hundred percent accurate, it was likely very close. Otherwise, HSBC’s executives wouldn’t have been so secretive, even going so far as to drive away reporters.

After all, if the data was far from the actual situation, HSBC could have taken the opportunity to step forward and clarify, thereby saving face.

Their evasive attitude, however, undoubtedly confirmed the credibility of Universal Research Company’s report from the side.

Over at the Bank of East Asia, the new Chairman, Mr. Ho Sin Hang, graciously accepted interviews from the reporters.

During the interview, Mr. Ho Sin Hang revealed that while there was a small discrepancy between Universal Research Company’s data and the actual figures, the error was not large!

Ho Sin Hang’s confirmation made everyone believe the data released by Universal Research Company without a doubt.

At HSBC, Michael Sandberg sat in the chairman’s seat in the conference room, his expression dark.

Previously, Michael Sandberg had keenly foreseen that once Universal Research Company released that report, the impact on HSBC would be significant.

So, he had hastily ordered his subordinate to threaten them: “If the press conference proceeds as planned, HSBC will completely terminate all future cooperation with Universal Research Company,” in an attempt to force them to cancel it.

But how could Yu Zhize, the helmsman of Universal Research Company, give up such a golden opportunity to make a name for himself?

In his eyes, this was an excellent chance to take his company to a whole new level, and he absolutely could not back down due to HSBC’s pressure.

It was undeniable that Universal Research Company had taken on business from HSBC before, but the sums involved were not large. In other words, the profits HSBC brought them were not high.

In his opinion, HSBC’s decline was inevitable. So what if HSBC blacklisted them in the future?

Thanks to this event, Universal Research Company’s reputation would be firmly established. The future commercial returns and rise in industry status would be far greater than any benefits from cooperating with HSBC!

If previously Universal Research Company was only well-known within the industry, after this, the company would have a certain degree of fame throughout Hong Kong, even among the general public!

This was undoubtedly a quantum leap for Universal Research Company.

Yu Zhize naturally no longer paid any mind to Michael Sandberg’s threat.

None of the HSBC senior executives present looked happy either.

Too much had happened in the last two months, so much that the executives present found it hard to accept.

The sharp decline in market share, the precipitous drop in stock price, the closing in of a competitor, Ho Sin Hang’s defection…

A series of events hung like dark clouds over the heads of HSBC’s senior management. The atmosphere in the conference room was so oppressive it was hard to breathe.

Michael Sandberg’s brow was tightly furrowed, the lines on his forehead deep. In the past, he would have slammed the table and risen to his feet, cursing the executives present as a bunch of incompetents.

But now, the successive heavy blows had been like a blunt knife, slowly grinding away his explosive temper.

At this moment, he knew deep down that losing his temper with his subordinates would be useless. The top priority was to quickly figure out a way to deal with the challenge from the Bank of East Asia.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, colleagues, according to our secret investigations, Lin Haoran has been frequently contacting several of HSBC’s heavyweight clients recently, trying to persuade them to transfer their funds to the Bank of East Asia.”

“Although we have learned that most clients have explicitly refused, it is certain that some have already agreed to his request. If this comes to pass, it will undoubtedly be a devastating blow to HSBC.”

“Once these core clients are lost, the bank’s capital will shrink further, and our market share will continue to decline. At that point, the situation will become even harder to control!” said a senior executive in charge of intelligence, dropping another terrifying piece of information in the conference room.

Lin Haoran had been working non-stop these past few days, visiting at least twenty or thirty business tycoons.

Although the tycoons who had turned him down had sworn they would never let the matter get out, the business world is like a battlefield. People’s hearts are hard to read, and those who say one thing to your face and do another behind your back are everywhere.

Lin Haoran also knew that he couldn’t keep this from HSBC. If he had really wanted to achieve his goal by stealth, he wouldn’t have cast his net so widely and openly.

As soon as the executive finished speaking, the conference room exploded. Everyone started whispering and discussing animatedly.

Although Universal Research Company’s report had generated some negative press for HSBC, the actual damage wasn’t that severe.

However, if what their intelligence suggested was true, then HSBC’s market share was about to fall again and again.

This was absolutely unacceptable to them.

After all, the Bank of East Asia’s current market share was very solid; HSBC couldn’t poach their clients.

But HSBC’s market share was a different story. Those clients were already wavering. They would choose whichever bank offered them the greatest benefits. Now, with Lin Haoran personally stepping in to persuade them, it would undoubtedly accelerate the loss of HSBC’s market share.

HSBC had already lost a large amount of deposit funds during this period, which was gradually emptying its coffers.

Once these heavyweight clients switched to the Bank of East Asia, HSBC would be pushed into an even more passive position and might even face a crisis of a broken capital chain.

Michael Sandberg’s face grew darker.

Ruthless. Lin Haoran was simply too ruthless.

His actions, one after another, had already caused HSBC to suffer heavy losses.

But he hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to have no intention of letting HSBC off the hook.

If this continued, it wasn’t just a matter of time before the Bank of East Asia surpassed them. If their capital fell to a certain point, HSBC would face a break in its capital chain.

After all, although it seemed that HSBC and Hang Seng Bank still had over one hundred billion Hong Kong dollars in reserve funds, in reality, at least half of that had been invested.

For example, acquiring banks overseas, investing in enterprises, or providing ordinary corporate and mortgage loans—it was difficult to quickly recoup funds from these investment projects. If they encountered a large number of client runs or capital flight, HSBC’s capital chain would come under immense pressure and could snap at any moment.

“This Lin Haoran is so ruthless!” HSBC’s Vice Chairman of the Board, John Bao, who was sitting next to Michael Sandberg, muttered.

His voice wasn’t loud, but it carried throughout the conference room.

Everyone strongly agreed with this sentiment.

It was as if Lin Haoran had grasped their Achilles’ heel. Every move was precise and fatal, leaving HSBC’s executives on pins and needles, yet utterly helpless.

“Perhaps, our initial decision to take the initiative was a mistake. If we hadn’t provoked him, maybe Lin Haoran would have shown us some consideration and not been so merciless!” a senior executive said in despair.

Chapter 648: This company is pretty good. Let’s buy it!

The senior executive’s words completely enraged Michael Sandberg.

After all, he, Michael Sandberg, was the one who had decided to target the Bank of East Asia first!

Although he had gotten the approval of every senior executive present, wasn’t this man’s comment a veiled accusation against him, the head of HSBC?

Michael Sandberg slammed his hand on the table. The loud crack was especially piercing in the silent, oppressive meeting room. The discussions instantly ceased, and all eyes snapped to focus on him.

Sandberg’s face was dark, his eyes wide with fury. Veins bulged on his forehead and his chest heaved, a clear sign that his anger had reached its peak.

“Mr. Cohen, what is the meaning of this? What’s the use of being a Monday morning quarterback now? The decision to move against the Bank of East Asia was unanimous. Now that we’ve run into difficulties, you want to pin all the blame on me?

“Besides, even if we hadn’t taken the initiative, given Lin Haoran’s past behavior, do you really think he would have entered the financial industry and refrained from making a move against HSBC?

“Don’t be naive! This is the business world, and I assume you, Mr. Cohen, understand that the business world is like a battlefield. Don’t forget what happened to Jardine Matheson & Co.!” Each word seemed to be squeezed through Michael Sandberg’s gritted teeth.

This Mr. Cohen was one of the very few people present who dared to openly defy him.

He was the representative of a certain financial group backing HSBC. Faced with someone of such a background, even a Taipan like Michael Sandberg could only swallow his frustration, helpless.

When HSBC was thriving, a person like this would never have dared to challenge his authority so brazenly.

In the past, HSBC was at the zenith of its power in the financial world, its various businesses flourishing. As the head of the bank, he, Michael Sandberg, was decisive and firm, leading HSBC through fierce market competition, overcoming all obstacles to win countless accolades and immense wealth.

Even those senior executives with financial groups behind them were respectful and awed. If they had any dissatisfaction, they could only hide it and wouldn’t dare to show it.

Now, however, the situation was completely different.

HSBC had encountered major difficulties in its campaign against the Bank of East Asia. Not only had it failed to crush its opponent as quickly as expected, but it had also become mired in a swamp of its own.

Business was obstructed, the capital chain was strained, and its market reputation had taken a hit.

At this critical juncture, characters like Cohen began to stir, attempting to use the opportunity to suppress him, even trying to shift all the responsibility onto his shoulders to gain greater benefits for themselves within the bank.

“We all approved it, but weren’t you the one who proposed it? In the past, which decision wasn’t made by you? We were just following your lead. Now that there’s a problem, you want to wash your hands of it? It’s not that easy!” Mr. Cohen shot back, not giving an inch, a provocative smile on his face.

HSBC’s recent situation had already caused a great disturbance among its many major shareholders, sparking their intense dissatisfaction. This naturally included the faction behind Mr. Cohen.

In their eyes, regardless of the opponent’s strength, HSBC’s market share was now shrinking drastically and its stock price was in free fall. As the helmsman of the bank, Michael Sandberg was the one primarily responsible.

After all, with HSBC in such a mess, if he didn’t take the main responsibility, who could?

Michael Sandberg clenched his fists in anger. In the past, his word was law at HSBC. Although decisions were nominally made by the Board of Directors, he, Michael Sandberg, always had the final say.

Over the past few years, with his outstanding leadership and precise market insight, he had defeated numerous rivals, including the “King of the Foreign Firms,” Jardine Matheson & Co., creating a brilliant track record for HSBC. He had helped the bank continuously expand its financial territory, securing its position as the霸主 of Hong Kong’s business world.

Which one of the shareholders and senior executives who had fought alongside him and planned grand strategies hadn’t enjoyed generous returns under his leadership, with dividends flowing in like a tide, making every one of them rich?

But now, the moment the bank hit a few bumps, these people had turned on him without mercy, dumping all the responsibility on his shoulders, completely disregarding their past relationship. Such a thankless betrayal truly chilled his heart!

Just as Michael Sandberg was about to launch into another fierce clash with him, the Vice Chairman of the Board, John Bao, couldn’t watch any longer.

John Bao spoke up, “Everyone, now is not the time to argue. Arguing won’t solve anything; it will only create more chaos internally. HSBC is in a precarious situation right now. We should be working together to overcome this difficulty.”

But Cohen just sneered dismissively and said in a snide tone, “Mr. John Bao, that’s easy for you to say. In the last two months, we’ve had almost as many board meetings as we usually do in a whole year. But which one has actually solved the problem?

“Aren’t we getting crushed by the Bank of East Asia every time, with our market share continuously shrinking? Someone has to take responsibility for this. Are you suggesting we should all go down with Mr. Michael Sandberg?”

If this were in the past, Michael Sandberg’s supporters would have certainly stepped up to rebut Mr. Cohen.

But now, his was the only voice in the room. No other senior executive came forward to stop or refute him.

This showed that the senior management of HSBC was no longer a solid bloc. People were unsettled, and an undercurrent was brewing.

This truly proved the old saying: In good times, everyone raises a glass in celebration; in bad times, they all scurry to hide their cups.

When you stand at the peak in all your glory, the whole world seems to smile at you, full of flattery and sycophancy.

But once you fall to the bottom, disgraced and defeated, even the empty echoes seem to carry a tone of mockery and scorn.

Look at the world of reality—it is just that cruel and direct.

At this moment, in this meeting room, the minds of most people had already strayed from the path.

They were no longer focusing their energy on racking their brains to find a way to solve HSBC’s current predicament. Instead, they were scheming how to completely absolve themselves of any responsibility in this crisis.

Just as the atmosphere reached a tense, deadlocked stalemate, William Purves, the newly appointed Chairman of Hang Seng Bank, stepped up to help Michael Sandberg out of his jam.

Although Purves was now the Chairman of the Board of Hang Seng Bank, his position as an Executive Director at HSBC had not been rescinded.

Purves knew in his heart that no matter what difficulties HSBC was facing, he owed his current position entirely to Mr. Michael Sandberg.

Mr. Michael Sandberg had long designated him as his successor, carefully cultivating and teaching him everything he knew over the years. He would never forget the gratitude of being recognized for his true worth by a superior.

Moreover, if Sandberg were to fall, his own situation within HSBC would become precarious, as he was seen as part of Sandberg’s faction.

How could those forces who already harbored resentment toward Sandberg and were now seizing the opportunity to cause trouble possibly let him, a key figure of the “Sandberg camp,” off the hook?

So, at this moment, William Purves stood up.

Instantly, the room fell silent. Everyone wanted to see what he had to say.

He was reluctant to take the lead, as he had already proposed several strategies before that had ultimately yielded poor results.

If Sandberg was the one with the primary responsibility, then Purves was surely the second.

But he also knew that given HSBC’s current situation, uniting against the external threat was the only way out.

If they continued to let internal disputes fester, the Bank of East Asia wouldn’t even need to make another move; HSBC would disintegrate from within.

William Purves took a deep breath, his gaze sweeping over everyone present before he spoke slowly, “Gentlemen, I understand how everyone is feeling right now. HSBC is in trouble, and everyone is under pressure and feeling dissatisfied.

“However, things cannot go on like this. Since Lin Haoran is once again trying to snatch our business, if we continue like this, we will only lose more and more clients!

“Therefore, our most important task right now is to maintain our current market share, especially our major clients. We must secure them. Since Lin Haoran can privately visit those major clients, why can’t we visit them in person as well?

“I believe our standing is certainly higher than Lin Haoran’s. Once we make an appearance, promise them numerous benefits, and sign long-term cooperation agreements, we can at least secure an unbeatable position!

“People like Mr. Li Jiacheng of Hutchison Whampoa, Mr. Pao Yue-kong, Mr. Schreyer of Swire & Co., Mr. John Marden of Wheelock, and Mr. Lawrence Kadoorie of China Light & Power… these are all our long-term partners, with deep business ties and intertwined interests with us.

“Why don’t we organize a senior executive delegation, led personally by Mr. Michael Sandberg, Mr. John Bao, and myself, to visit these important clients one by one.

“During these visits, we should not only express our gratitude for their long-term support but also explain in detail that HSBC’s current difficulties are temporary. We have the confidence and ability to overcome them and will provide them with even better and more stable financial services.

“At the same time, we can tailor cooperation plans to the needs of different clients, such as offering more favorable loan interest rates, more flexible repayment terms, or engaging in deep cooperation in some emerging business areas to jointly develop the market.”

Purves’s point was simple. Their most important task was to stabilize their existing major client base to prevent a massive loss of customers under the competitive pressure from the Bank of East Asia. This would stabilize HSBC’s market share and buy them time and opportunity to turn the situation around later.

Otherwise, HSBC’s senior management would only get bogged down in endless internal strife while the external market was devoured by the Bank of East Asia. When that happened, the once-glorious financial edifice of HSBC would surely come crashing down.

Listening to Purves, Michael Sandberg’s anger subsided slightly. He naturally understood the truth in his words.

He couldn’t let Cohen’s provocations get the better of him; he had to prioritize the bigger picture.

He nodded slightly, then rose to his feet and said in a steady voice, “Mr. Purves is absolutely right. HSBC has grown to its current scale thanks to the staunch support of these major clients.

“In contrast, those ordinary customers are just involved in small, scattered businesses and have no loyalty to speak of. They are like grass on a wall, swaying with the wind, flocking to whichever bank offers a higher interest rate.

“The Bank of East Asia’s strategy of attracting customers with high interest rates is no longer sustainable. On this point, they can no longer pose a substantial threat to us.

“Therefore, we must now focus our efforts on these major clients. Lin Haoran has already recognized their importance. If we continue to sit back and do nothing, we can only watch as our clients slip away.

“Now that our group is facing difficulties, we should cast aside our differences and unite to protect the foundation we have worked so hard to build.”

The major financial groups in Hong Kong were undoubtedly the solid foundation upon which HSBC had stood for a century.

Now, Lin Haoran had already begun to pry at these foundation stones. If HSBC remained indifferent and failed to reinforce them in time, then being ruthlessly eliminated by the market would be something they had only brought upon themselves.

John Bao also chimed in, “That’s right. This isn’t the time for accusations. Mr. Cohen, perhaps there’s some logic to your thinking, but simply shifting blame won’t solve the problem. We should focus our energy on how to deal with the current crisis.”

Seeing that the others’ attitudes had softened, Cohen knew it was not wise to press the matter further.

He let out a cold snort and said, “I hope your plan works. Otherwise, you won’t be able to escape responsibility.”

“By the way, gentlemen, there’s also that Universal Research Company, which dared to offend us! In my opinion, simply refusing to do business with them is far from enough. I suggest we issue a public statement to completely blacklist Universal Research Company.

“Let the word out that anyone who dares to cooperate with Universal Research Company is making an enemy of HSBC! We must make this audacious company pay a painful price!”

William Purves ignored Cohen’s earlier harsh words and instead turned his aim toward Universal Research Company, a ruthless glint flashing in his eyes.

“Good, I’m all for it! HSBC is indeed in deep trouble and we need to focus all our efforts on dealing with challenges from all sides, but we are not to be trifled with so easily. For some Tom, Dick, or Harry of a company to jump out and oppose us is simply courting death—they don’t know what’s good for them!”

Michael Sandberg had long been displeased with this company. Hearing Purves’s suggestion, he decisively agreed.

No one else objected.

After all, who among them wasn’t seething with anger these days?

And Universal Research Company had dared to add fuel to the fire. How could any of the senior executives present swallow that insult?

The atmosphere in the meeting room became subtle again. The suppressed anger in everyone’s hearts seemed to have found a new outlet, and they were all eager to make a move.

And so, the meeting concluded.

Meanwhile, in the market, the latest financial industry report released by Universal Research Company was creating an even bigger stir in Hong Kong. In less than half a day, it had spread throughout the entire city. Even in remote little fishing villages, many villagers were discussing the topic.

After all, both HSBC and the Bank of East Asia were well-known in Hong Kong.

Admittedly, the Bank of East Asia’s market share used to be only around three percent, but as a well-established Chinese-owned bank with roots in Hong Kong for over sixty years, it was famous and known to all.

Now, with a series of precise and bold strategies, the Bank of East Asia was making huge waves in Hong Kong’s financial market.

Its market share was skyrocketing, visibly eating into the territory of established banks like HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank. It looked like it was on the verge of being equally matched with HSBC.

How could such a stunning development not leave people speechless?

And how could it not cause a great disturbance in Hong Kong’s financial world, sparking heated discussions everywhere?

Moreover, the Bank of East Asia had pure Chinese capital in its veins; it was a bona fide local Chinese-owned bank, fundamentally different from British-owned banks like HSBC.

Back then, when Hang Seng Bank was forced to be acquired by HSBC, countless old Hong Kong citizens sighed in their hearts, but they could only watch helplessly, powerless to do anything.

After all, Hong Kong was still under the shadow of colonial rule. The voices of ordinary people were insignificant, and they had no power to change the cruel reality. They could only silently swallow their bitterness and accept the painful outcome.

Westerners were first-class citizens, and Chinese were second-class citizens. In colonial Hong Kong, the strict hierarchy was like an insurmountable chasm in the heart of every Chinese person.

They were resentful but helpless.

For this very reason, when the Bank of East Asia rose to prominence, it wasn’t hard to imagine how many ordinary citizens of Hong Kong were delighted to see it!

Connaught Centre, 51st floor, in Lin Haoran’s office.

Sitting opposite Lin Haoran at this moment was Cui Zilong, the President of the Oriental Press Group.

“Boss, the mercenary group we formed in the Philippines accepted an invitation from the local Chinese Four Seas Gang this month and participated in a secret military operation. Their performance was outstanding. With the minimal cost of one death and four injuries, they successfully annihilated a large local gang that had been entrenched on Luzon Island for years, brilliantly completing the client’s mission.

“This battle not only earned us a very handsome commission but also made our name famous throughout the mercenary world in Southeast Asia. Our reputation has soared.

“Just yesterday, the richest man in Thailand personally called me, hoping to hire two elite bodyguards from us to handle his security!

“And here in Hong Kong, Mr. Li Zhaoji himself contacted me, interested in hiring personal bodyguards from us!” Cui Zilong’s face was all smiles, his excitement palpable.

“Oh? That’s great news. They did an excellent job!” A flicker of appreciation crossed Lin Haoran’s eyes, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly in praise.

This was his private force. The stronger this mercenary group became, the more resources and confidence he would have in business negotiations and when dealing with potential threats.

Moreover, as their reputation grew, their business in high-end security would only get better!

For instance, now even the richest man in Thailand wanted to hire bodyguards from them. It was clear that their security prowess had been thoroughly recognized by these tycoons.

This was naturally a good thing.

Since they were in the security business, a strong reputation was essential.

This wasn’t their first time cooperating with the Four Seas Gang, and they had come to understand the organization very well.

For Universal Security Consulting Company, this was just business. They could train their troops, make money, and build their reputation—killing several birds with one stone.

As for the local government?

They couldn’t care less about the drama between gangs and triad societies.

The police force in the Philippines was relatively weak with limited control over society, so triads were rampant there.

The local Philippine government itself wished for these societies to tear each other apart. Why would they meddle in disputes and violent clashes between them?

As long as it didn’t affect the interests of high-level government officials or trigger large-scale public riots, they mostly chose to turn a blind eye.

Cui Zilong continued, “Boss, the success of this mission has expanded our business footprint in Southeast Asia. Many local Chinese Chambers of Commerce have proactively contacted me, hoping to establish long-term partnerships with us in areas like security and intelligence gathering. This is an excellent opportunity for us to expand our business and enhance our influence.”

Lin Haoran nodded.

The overseas training base in the Philippines was of extraordinary significance to Universal Security Consulting Company.

Undeniably, the company had invested a great deal of manpower, resources, and capital in that land, but now, those investments were beginning to bear abundant fruit.

In less than two years, Universal Security Consulting Company had, by virtue of its outstanding strength and precise market positioning, expanded its business throughout the entire Southeast Asia region.

For a newly established security consulting firm, such a rate of development was nothing short of a miracle, enough to make all its industry peers sit up and take notice.

Now, members of Universal Security Consulting Company in Hong Kong would be selected in batches to go there for training at regular intervals.

Those who returned were basically elites who had seen blood.

This, in turn, naturally made Lin Haoran’s businesses in Hong Kong all the more secure!

As the two chatted, the topic inevitably shifted back to Hong Kong.

“By the way, Boss, in my opinion, this Universal Research Company is really something. To be able to make such accurate deductions from limited data is impressive. And they’ve got guts, daring to provoke HSBC.

“From what I hear, they’ve already been blacklisted by HSBC. I wonder if they’ll regret it.”

When the conversation turned to Universal Research Company, Cui Zilong spoke with the air of a spectator, but he clearly admired the actions of its boss.

In Hong Kong, besides Lin Haoran, who else would dare to offend HSBC?

Even though HSBC had lost a lot of market share to the Bank of East Asia, its formidable reputation was still intact.

But Yu Zhize, the boss of Universal Research Company, was just that headstrong. To make a name for himself, he had dared to offend a behemoth like HSBC.

It seemed they had succeeded. Their fame had skyrocketed, and although they were a small company, they had already become a well-known enterprise in Hong Kong.

The only question was whether Universal Research Company could withstand the retaliation of a vengeful entity like HSBC.

“Indeed, this company is very good,” Lin Haoran said with a chuckle.

“Boss, their research and analysis capabilities are truly outstanding. If they could collaborate with our intelligence department, it would greatly enhance our overall effectiveness,” Cui Zilong said with some feeling.

Lin Haoran tapped his fingers lightly on the desk, pondered for a moment, and then smiled. “Since that’s the case, let’s just buy the company!”

Chapter 649: Unfazed by Life or Death, Ready for a Fight!

To Lin Haoran, the Universal Research Company was an insignificant player. Acquiring it would likely pose no difficulty.

Since it could bring him numerous benefits, it was worth making a move.

Besides, the funds required would probably be a small sum.

But if it could truly serve his purposes, then the money would be well spent.

After all, the monthly expenses for maintaining the Oriental Press Group’s intelligence network were already considerable.

Without a willingness to invest, how could one expect generous returns?

Hearing this, Cui Zilong’s eyes lit up with pleasant surprise. He quickly said, “Boss, that’s a brilliant idea! If we can bring the Universal Research Company under our wing, our intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities will surely rise to a new level. It would also be a great help to our public relations efforts.

“After all, everyone has seen their professional strength in intelligence and public opinion.”

The public clamor and influence generated by the Universal Research Company this time were something no ordinary company could achieve. Their ability to seize opportunities with such precision was not a common skill.

In Hong Kong, the research company industry was a small track that few paid attention to, but there were still dozens of them!

However, they were the only one that could keenly spot an opportunity and boldly act on it.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly and continued, “Alright, you handle this. See what kind of terms the Universal Research Company offers for an acquisition. If we can buy it, we will.”

In Lin Haoran’s view, acquiring a company like Universal Research was a minor matter, something that could be done with ease.

Therefore, he hadn’t even considered the possibility of failure.

“Yes, Boss,” Cui Zilong agreed.

Lin Haoran suddenly thought of the rankings from his previous life, such as the Forbes World’s Billionaires List, the Hurun Global Rich List, and the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

These lists held immense influence worldwide.

He recalled that the first Forbes rich list was launched in 1982 and had an unprecedented global impact.

It was now 1981, which meant that no such influential lists had yet appeared.

This could be a perfect opportunity for the Oriental Press Group.

Although the Oriental Press Group currently owned the Oriental Daily News, Hong Kong’s best-selling newspaper, it was still just a regional media outlet.

If they could create something like the Forbes rich list and release it before Forbes did, they would have a chance to create a global sensation.

This way, the Oriental Press Group could potentially join the ranks of globally influential media companies.

And its intelligence department, riding on the coattails of the Oriental Press Group’s expanding influence, would gain broader development opportunities and resource support.

The intelligence department was already set to be greatly enhanced by the addition of the Universal Research Company. If it could ride the wave of the Oriental Press Group becoming a global media giant, its intelligence network would spread across the globe like a spider’s web.

In short, the benefits were numerous!

Although it was just a spur-of-the-moment idea, the more Lin Haoran thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.

“After we successfully acquire the Universal Research Company, I have an extremely important job for you. If it’s done well, the Oriental Press Group’s reputation might become world-renowned because of it!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, the corners of his mouth turning up.

“Oh? Boss, what kind of job is it? Don’t keep me in suspense, please!” Cui Zilong’s curiosity was instantly piqued. He stared at Lin Haoran, eagerly pressing for an answer.

“It’s a secret for now. We’ll talk after you’ve successfully completed the acquisition,” Lin Haoran said, deliberately putting on a mysterious air.

Cui Zilong felt as if a kitten were scratching at his heart; he couldn’t rein in his curiosity.

However, the mystery only made him more expectant. What kind of project could possibly give the Oriental Press Group a chance at global fame?

Cui Zilong held genuine admiration for his boss.

Although the Boss didn’t seem to manage the company much on a day-to-day basis, whenever he made a move, he always managed to seize key opportunities and make decisions that left people in awe.

It wasn’t just Cui Zilong; Ma Shimin, Chen Shoulin, Burton, and the others all felt the same way.

After briefly discussing work matters at the Oriental Daily News with Cui Zilong, Cui Zilong bid farewell to Lin Haoran and left Connaught Centre.

Lin Haoran also got up and took the private elevator down to the 50th floor, arriving at the offices of Galaxy Securities.

The office was a hive of activity.

With the acquisition of the Bank of East Asia, some of its securities business had been merged into Galaxy Securities.

Coupled with the recent surge in the Bank of East Asia’s business, a significant amount of work had also flowed to Galaxy Securities.

It was safe to say that if one were to rank the securities firms in Hong Kong by strength, Galaxy Securities now had the power to claim the top spot.

As Lin Haoran stepped into the office, the busy employees greeted him one after another. He nodded slightly in acknowledgment and walked straight to Dai Shi’s office.

The general manager of Galaxy Securities was Mr. Allen, but Lin Haoran preferred to have Dai Shi, the Deputy General Manager, report to him. This was because Allen didn’t speak Cantonese, and Dai Shi was a veteran employee who had been with him for nearly three years.

“Boss, you’re here.” Seeing Lin Haoran enter the office, Dai Shi quickly stood up and pulled out a chair for him.

“Yes, just dropping by,” Lin Haoran said with a slight smile and a nod.

He hadn’t assigned any new acquisition tasks to Galaxy Securities recently. The only thing he was keeping a close watch on here was probably when to start accumulating shares of HSBC.

After all, he had meticulously laid out a plan to short HSBC.

To this end, he had borrowed 25.6% of HSBC’s shares through various channels.

Not only that, but when the stock price was at its peak, he had decisively sold those shares, cashing out 6.01 billion Hong Kong dollars.

However, this massive sum of money was currently frozen and could not be used for other purposes.

But as long as he bought back all the shares he had borrowed and previously sold at a high price, this huge fund would be unfrozen for him to use.

Currently, HSBC’s market capitalization had plummeted from a peak of 26 billion Hong Kong dollars to less than 13 billion Hong Kong dollars.

This meant that HSBC’s market value had been cut in half in just two months.

It was said that many of the financial groups that had lent him shares were now regretting it, but since the contracts were signed, their regret was useless.

Since the Universal Research Company released its devastating investigation report, the bank’s stock price had plunged drastically once more, like water bursting through a dam.

However, Lin Haoran had been busy with various matters today and hadn’t had a chance to check just how far HSBC’s stock had fallen.

“Boss, I have something important to report. HSBC’s market capitalization once fell below the eleven billion Hong Kong dollar mark today, but it was later pushed back up to fluctuate around twelve billion Hong Kong dollars.

“There are numerous pending sell orders right now. If we plan to buy, we can do so at any time,” Dai Shi reported hurriedly.

Lin Haoran’s expression was calm. He nodded slightly, showing no surprise at the news of HSBC’s renewed stock plunge.

After all, HSBC had been hit by one disaster after another recently.

If one were to value HSBC based solely on its share of the financial market, it would still be worth 20 billion Hong Kong dollars.

But what people were worried about was HSBC’s future.

Therefore, it was only natural for the stock price to plummet so drastically.

In the past, even in the face of so much negative news, HSBC’s stock price would not have fallen so disastrously.

However, Lin Haoran had previously given the order to dump all 25.6% of the borrowed shares onto the stock market at once, significantly increasing the number of shares in circulation.

This created an imbalance in market supply and demand. The selling pressure far outweighed the buying pressure, leaving those trying to prop up the price powerless to reverse the situation. The stock price could only continue its downward slide, unable to stop or recover.

Dai Shi was essentially asking Lin Haoran when they should start buying.

At the current price, if they were to secretly buy back the shares, even at an average valuation of 12 billion Hong Kong dollars, it would only cost them 3.07 billion Hong Kong dollars.

In other words, excluding additional fees, he could make a direct profit of nearly 3 billion Hong Kong dollars from this short-selling operation.

This was such easy money!

Although he had earned more from Toyota’s stock, Lin Haoran would never consider 3 billion Hong Kong dollars a small sum.

However, Lin Haoran thought for a moment and shook his head. “No rush. HSBC’s market share can fall further.”

Ever since Governor Sir Murray MacLehose had intervened and forced the Bank of East Asia to stop its high-interest deposit campaign, Lin Haoran had been constantly thinking about how to bring down HSBC.

The double standards of the British were truly disgusting to him.

Yet he couldn’t confront the British head-on. After all, they held many levers of power in Hong Kong, and a single misstep could mean losing the entire game.

Now, in his business warfare against HSBC, he had to watch the Government House’s reaction with every move, constantly probing their bottom line.

As long as he didn’t cross the red line that the Government House absolutely would not tolerate, Lin Haoran planned to continue advancing cautiously in this business war, pushing HSBC into a corner.

From the moment HSBC took the initiative to target the Bank of East Asia, he had been determined to make them pay a heavy price.

So what if it was a major British-owned firm?

He was unfazed by life or death and ready for a fight if they challenged him!

If he could really push HSBC to the point where its capital chain broke, one could only imagine how tragically its stock price would fall.

Although it would be difficult, it was not without hope.

If he could truly achieve this, Lin Haoran knew he would earn even more from shorting HSBC this time.

In any case, he was guaranteed to make a profit; it was just a matter of how much.

Therefore, Lin Haoran dared to gamble.

Just then, an employee knocked and entered to report to Lin Haoran.

“Boss, there’s a call from the front desk downstairs. They say Mr. Liu Luanxiong has arrived,” the receptionist from Galaxy Securities reported softly.

“Understood. Have the front desk bring him directly to my office,” Lin Haoran said calmly. He wasn’t surprised by Liu Luanxiong’s visit.

An hour earlier, Liu Luanxiong had called him to say he would be stopping by later.

So, Lin Haoran had told him to come directly to Connaught Centre.

This young man, who had been running just a small workshop two years ago, had now become a renowned tycoon with assets over one hundred million in Hong Kong, thanks to Lin’s attention and support.

Of course, Lin Haoran knew that even without him, Liu Luanxiong would have risen to prominence eventually.

However, with his help, Liu’s development had greatly accelerated, allowing him to make his mark in the Hong Kong business world and enter the ranks of the elite much earlier.

He certainly hadn’t helped for free. He had invested in Liu Luanxiong with the idea of having him make money for him.

The initial investment was only 1.2 million Hong Kong dollars, and the return exceeded 2 billion Hong Kong dollars. A deal like that was hard to find anywhere in the world.

Unlike other hundred-millionaires, whose wealth was mostly tied up in fixed assets or inflated stock valuations, Liu Luanxiong had a solid one to two billion in cash.

Because of this, he had already firmly established himself among Hong Kong’s wealthy elite, becoming a much-watched new star.

After the receptionist left to reply to the front desk, Lin Haoran left the Galaxy Securities office and took the elevator back up to his own office.

About ten minutes later, Lin Haoran finally saw the partner he had once worked with.

After selling his shares in the Amigo Company, Liu Luanxiong had formed a new investment company and invited Lin Haoran to join.

The investment company was initiated by Liu Luanxiong with a total investment of 500 million Hong Kong dollars.

Liu Luanxiong invested 300 million for a 60% stake, while Lin Haoran invested 200 million for a 40% stake, with Lin Haoran’s people overseeing the company’s finances.

After injecting the capital, Lin Haoran had paid little attention to it.

Over the past year, Liu Luanxiong had been constantly experimenting, and his investment skills had been steadily improving.

Perhaps it was an innate talent for investing. In less than a year, Liu Luanxiong had turned that 500 million Hong Kong dollars into 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Recently, Liu Luanxiong had also set his sights on Japan and the United States, making frequent moves.

Although they had made money, Lin Haoran was in no hurry to have Liu Luanxiong pay out a dividend.

Instead, he let him continue to use the funds to seek out more promising investment opportunities worldwide.

Liu Luanxiong was deeply grateful for Lin Haoran’s trust and support, which further strengthened his resolve to carve out a name for himself in the investment world.

In fact, anyone who knew Liu Luanxiong’s history would trust his investment methods.

A man who could be called the “King of Financial Hunts” surely had investment acumen and decision-making abilities that were not to be underestimated.

Lin Haoran knew this well, which was why he gave Liu Luanxiong full trust and the freedom to operate as he saw fit.

A few hundred million Hong Kong dollars was not a critical sum for him.

That being the case, he might as well just leave it there.

Perhaps Liu Luanxiong would give him a pleasant surprise in the future.

In any case, all he had to do was provide the money; he didn’t need to manage anything else.

In less than a year, the capital had grown from 500 million to 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars.

If this money continued to grow for another five or ten years, it was hard to imagine what kind of figure it would become.

Perhaps one day in the future, the funds from this venture could provide him with unexpected help!

“Xiong, long time no see!” Lin Haoran personally went to the door and greeted him with a broad smile, shaking his hand.

“Haoran, you’re the one living the good life, owning the largest property in Central, with the world’s tallest building still under construction. I’m truly envious!” Liu Luanxiong laughed heartily, his eyes full of admiration.

Dressed in a well-tailored suit, he walked briskly into the office, seemingly radiating an air of being in high spirits.

“It’s nothing. If you wanted to buy a building, with the funds you have now, it would be a simple matter,” Lin Haoran said with a shake of his head and a smile after gesturing for him to sit.

Liu Luanxiong had obtained over a billion Hong Kong dollars from the Amigo Company.

Coupled with the capital he gained from liquidating hoarded land plots and commercial buildings, his personal assets had long surpassed two billion Hong Kong dollars.

In Hong Kong, this was a force not to be underestimated.

With his current financial power, purchasing a commercial building in Central was indeed not a difficult task.

Although he had since co-founded an investment company with Lin Haoran, he had only personally invested 300 million Hong Kong dollars.

The remaining sum, over a billion Hong Kong dollars, had been left untouched.

“You’re the one who said not to touch real estate for the next two or three years. Of course I’d listen to you. We can talk about buying a building later,” Liu Luanxiong said with a wave of his hand and a smile.

It went without saying that Liu Luanxiong admired Lin Haoran, and his gratitude was equally apparent.

In his heart, he attributed most of his current fortune to Lin Haoran.

If it weren’t for Lin Haoran’s continuous support and advice, he felt he would most likely still be running that small workshop, an unknown small-time boss.

“Assets in Central are very scarce. If you see something you like, you can actually buy it at any time. Even if the price drops, it will eventually rise again. That’s why I never sold the Federation Building I acquired back then,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Property in Central would only become scarcer. Once sold, it might not be possible to buy it back.

It wasn’t that it was impossible, but it would come at a much higher price, which he was unwilling to pay.

Therefore, he hadn’t sold any of his properties in Central, whether it was the Federation Building he acquired earlier or the properties belonging to the Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group.

As for properties in other areas, selling them now and buying them back in the future wouldn’t be difficult. For example, he had already sold the International Building, which he had purchased at the same time as the Federation Building.

“I’ll take a look first. If I find something suitable, I might make a move,” Liu Luanxiong nodded.

“By the way, you must have come for a reason, right?” Lin Haoran asked after pouring Liu Luanxiong a cup of tea.

In fact, he had visited Liu Luanxiong just last week, precisely to ask him to move his funds to the Bank of East Asia.

Currently, most of Liu Luanxiong’s funds were held at HSBC.

As Hong Kong’s largest financial institution, Liu Luanxiong felt that keeping his money in HSBC was obviously safer and more reliable.

Because of this, Liu Luanxiong had become one of HSBC’s most esteemed clients.

However, given the current relationship between Lin Haoran and Liu Luanxiong, Liu naturally agreed without hesitation to move his funds from HSBC.

But the amount of money involved was simply too large, and Liu Luanxiong had been busy with an investment in the United States recently. Since Lin Haoran wasn’t in a hurry either, the matter had not yet been finalized.

“Can’t I come find you for tea if I don’t have business to discuss?” Liu Luanxiong teased with a smile.

If Lin Haoran had approached him with the motive of using him to make money, then Liu Luanxiong definitely saw Lin Haoran as a brother.

He knew in his heart that the help and support Lin Haoran had given him far exceeded what could be measured by a simple exchange of benefits.

He held this friendship dear to his heart.

“Of course, you can. When have I ever refused to see you?” Lin Haoran took a sip of his tea and smiled calmly.

Liu Luanxiong also picked up his teacup, took a light sip, and then spoke slowly, “But I did come to talk to you about two things today.

“First, I’ve recently noticed that the Amigo Company’s stock price has dropped significantly, and there are more and more pending sell orders. I suspect the Carrian Group might have already sold off a lot of shares, so I’m thinking about slowly and secretly accumulating them.

“If you’re interested too, we can use the investment company’s name to acquire them. If you’re not interested, I’ll use my own funds.”

When the Carrian Group acquired the Amigo Company, their goal was to use it to drive up their own stock price and harvest money from shareholders.

However, after buying the Amigo Company, the Carrian Group discovered that they seemed to have been duped.

The Amigo Company, which had previously been earning several hundred million Hong Kong dollars a year, suddenly saw its annual profit drop to just ten or twenty million Hong Kong dollars due to market saturation in North America.

This meant they had suffered a huge loss on their purchase of the Amigo Company.

However, the Carrian Group never dared to make this public, because if the news leaked, the Carrian Group’s stock price would undoubtedly be severely affected.

So, for the past year, Lin Haoran knew that the Amigo Company had been issuing false earnings reports.

Of course, he hadn’t intervened in the matter. After all, he had already sold his shares, so what happened to the Amigo Company was none of his business.

However, Liu Luanxiong was different. As the founder of the Amigo Company, he had a deep emotional attachment to it and had long been thinking of buying it back.

Now that the Amigo Company’s stock price was starting to fall, Liu Luanxiong naturally had the idea of bringing it back under his control.

“I heard that the Carrian Group just finalized a deal with HSBC last month and managed to get a loan of three billion Hong Kong dollars. It seems they aren’t short on cash for the time being, which is why they’re in a hurry to get rid of this ‘hot potato,’ the Amigo Company.

“But based on my knowledge of the Carrian Group, their selling of Amigo shares right now is most likely to alleviate financial pressure. Besides, the Carrian Group is perfectly clear that the Amigo Company is not worth its inflated price; the previous stock value was just an illusion.

“If you’re really planning to buy back the Amigo Company, now would be a good time,” Lin Haoran analyzed slowly, his eyes narrowed slightly.

This was, of course, intelligence reported to him by Cui Zilong’s team.

However, he had no partnership with the Carrian Group. He had no desire to get too involved with that collapsing commercial empire; it was purely a jinx.

As for the Amigo Company, he hadn’t paid it much mind either.

Though he was once the boss of the Amigo Company, he held no emotional attachment to it.

“As for me, I’ll stay out of it,” Lin Haoran added after a brief pause.

In his eyes, the Amigo Company no longer had any growth potential, so it didn’t hold a shred of interest for him.

“Alright, then I’ll handle it myself,” Liu Luanxiong nodded.

“By the way, what was the other thing?” Lin Haoran asked immediately.

Chapter 650: HSBC Has Been a Great Help Again

Hearing Lin Haoran’s question, Liu Luanxiong didn’t hesitate. “At two o’clock this afternoon, senior executives from HSBC paid me a sudden visit. Among them were Mr. Michael Sandberg, Mr. John Bao, and Mr. William Purves, the three top figures at the bank.”

Liu Luanxiong paused, saying no more.

However, Lin Haoran already understood the purpose of their sudden visit.

It seemed his actions over the past few days had been noticed.

Still, he wasn’t flustered. With the sheer number of visits he had made, keeping it a secret was impossible to begin with.

Although those people had promised on the surface not to speak of the matter, it was only a matter of time before they did something behind his back.

Just like Liu Luanxiong now. HSBC had just visited him, and in the next moment, he had leaked the news to Lin Haoran.

This was the world of business. Interests were paramount; what was a verbal promise worth?

“Xiong, what kind of tempting conditions did they offer you?” Lin Haoran asked, raising an eyebrow with a hint of curiosity.

“The small benefits are pointless to mention. You know as well as I do that in Hong Kong, aside from the financial groups, if we’re only talking about individuals, no one has more cash on hand than me, except for you.

“Those people from HSBC secretly promised me that as long as my funds remained with them, I would earn four percent annual interest without needing a fixed-term deposit.

“At first glance, that condition is indeed tempting,” Liu Luanxiong said, a faint smile playing on his lips, his eyes filled with disdain for HSBC’s offer.

“But how could they possibly understand the life-and-death bond, the rock-solid partnership between us? To think they could sway my position with such a small favor—it’s nothing but wishful thinking.”

Lin Haoran nodded.

The scale of the funds Liu Luanxiong now controlled was not to be underestimated.

Setting aside the nearly two billion Hong Kong dollars in his personal cash reserves, the investment company he had co-founded with Lin Haoran alone held over a billion Hong Kong dollars in capital.

All told, that was a sum of over three billion Hong Kong dollars.

Although the funds in the joint investment company were mostly used for short-term investments, Liu Luanxiong’s sharp, unique investment vision and decisive魄力 allowed the capital to snowball with each successfully completed investment cycle.

That was why five hundred million Hong Kong dollars had grown to one and a half billion in less than a year.

Because of this, the amount of capital Liu Luanxiong personally controlled was now enough to rank among the top ten financial groups in Hong Kong in terms of cash on hand.

In contrast, the seemingly vast funds of Hong Kong’s other renowned financial groups mostly belonged to their companies.

Allocating those funds often required a tedious review process by the Board of Directors, which greatly reduced decision-making efficiency.

Liu Luanxiong, however, was completely different. He held absolute autonomy over his funds, unfettered by lengthy decision-making procedures, allowing him to seize fleeting investment opportunities.

This was the most significant difference between him and those major financial groups.

Undeniably, the funds Liu Luanxiong controlled were a far cry from Lin Haoran’s, but in Hong Kong, they were a force to be reckoned with.

“Just a few days ago, the Government House introduced new regulations for the financial industry. For customer deposits exceeding one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, the interest rate for both one-year and five-year fixed-term deposits cannot exceed three percent.

“For customers of small and medium-sized banks with deposits under one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, the interest rate cap is set at three and a half percent.

“It’s only been a few days, and HSBC is already secretly offering you a four percent annual interest rate on a demand deposit. They really don’t take Hong Kong’s new financial regulations seriously, do they?” Lin Haoran remarked with some emotion.

To retain deposits, HSBC was truly pulling out all the stops.

However, Lin Haoran knew that even if the Government House found out, as long as HSBC didn’t make its violations public, they would most likely turn a blind eye and pretend not to see a thing.

“Haoran, do you think I should report this to the financial regulators? It might get HSBC in serious trouble and land them a penalty,” Liu Luanxiong asked tentatively, frowning.

Lin Haoran waved his hand gently, his expression calm. “Let’s not. There’s no need. If you do that, you’ll have a complete falling-out with HSBC and become their mortal enemy.

“Besides, HSBC is a major British-owned firm with deep roots. Even if you expose this, the Government House will most likely turn a blind eye. They won’t really do anything to them.”

Liu Luanxiong was, after all, still too young and had had little dealing with these major British-owned firms. He had no understanding of the double standards the Government House applied to British-owned firms versus Chinese-owned enterprises.

To think a small matter like this could get a government agency to punish HSBC?

It was simply impossible.

Having dealt with the British-funded conglomerates so many times, Lin Haoran was all too familiar with the subtle relationship they had with the Government House.

Those British-funded conglomerates had operated in Hong Kong for many years. Their roots were deeply rooted and intertwined, and their interests were intricately entangled with the Government House.

In many cases, when handling matters involving British-funded conglomerates, the Government House would act with reservation, even showing them favoritism behind the scenes.

After all, in their eyes, the British-owned companies were their own people.

As for the Chinese-owned enterprises, they were merely outsiders.

“By the way, I plan to transfer the funds to the Bank of East Asia next week. To prevent HSBC from using various excuses to block it, I’m going to first transfer the funds to a bank in the United States under the guise of an investment, then transfer them back to the Bank of East Asia,” Liu Luanxiong continued.

“Good idea, Xiong. I’ll remember this token of appreciation!” Lin Haoran nodded with a smile.

After a brief chat with Lin Haoran about his upcoming investment plans, Liu Luanxiong bid him farewell and left Connaught Centre.

…

Meanwhile, in an office on the 19th floor of a commercial building in Causeway Bay.

Cui Zilong walked into a reception room. Across from him sat Yu Zhize, the boss of the Universal Research Company, who had recently been in the spotlight.

After Universal Research Company held its press conference, its fame had spread like wildfire across Hong Kong in a very short time.

As a result, Yu Zhize was now brimming with pride and success, filled with ambition and ready to give full play to his talents.

He planned to ride this wave of momentum to expand his company’s business in all directions, not only to solidify its position in Hong Kong but also to venture into broader markets.

He had already sketched out a grand blueprint in his mind, intending to extend his business feelers into Southeast Asia.

After all, Southeast Asia had a large Chinese population, and both HSBC and Bank of East Asia had a certain reputation there. Moreover, all sorts of information from Hong Kong had always spread quickly in the region.

Once Universal Research Company made a name for itself in Hong Kong, it would surely gain some recognition in Southeast Asia as well, which was undoubtedly an excellent opportunity for expansion.

Upon learning that the renowned President of the Oriental Press Group, Mr. Cui Zilong, had come to visit, Yu Zhize was somewhat puzzled by his purpose but still received him with great respect.

After all, the Oriental Press Group was now considered the number one in Hong Kong’s newspaper industry. Although Universal Research Company had made a name for itself this time, its foundation was still shallow. Establishing a connection with such a large company could bring unexpected benefits.

Besides, the other party was certainly representing the Oriental Press Group, which was Lin Haoran’s enterprise.

If he could connect with Lin Haoran, it would be like a tiger gaining wings for the Universal Research Company.

While Yu Zhize secretly speculated about the purpose of Cui Zilong’s visit, he maintained a warm yet measured smile on his face.

“Mr. Cui, your esteemed presence today truly graces my humble place with your presence,” Yu Zhize said as he stood up and personally poured Cui Zilong a cup of fragrant tea, his posture deferential.

Cui Zilong also smiled and extended his hand to shake Yu Zhize’s. “Boss Yu, you’re too kind. What Universal Research Company has accomplished recently has earned my admiration.”

“I wonder what brings Mr. Cui to visit me in person today?” Yu Zhize couldn’t hold back his curiosity and asked directly.

“Boss Yu, in that case, I’ll be direct. We at the Oriental Press Group are very optimistic about you personally and your Universal Research Company. Therefore, we are interested in acquiring it. Name your price. As long as it’s reasonable, we at Oriental Press will not haggle,” Cui Zilong said, looking directly at Yu Zhize, his tone filled with undeniable confidence.

A small company like Universal Research Company would be considered highly valued at a few million Hong Kong dollars.

After all, it was just a small enterprise with a few dozen people and no real fixed assets.

Research was ultimately a small niche. If Universal Research Company didn’t expand its market, it would be difficult for it to become a truly large corporation, and it wouldn’t be worth much.

Hearing this, Yu Zhize’s teacup paused mid-air. A flicker of astonishment crossed his eyes, but he quickly regained his composure.

He set down his teacup, a meaningful smile gracing the corners of his mouth, and said slowly, “Mr. Cui, your words are both a pleasant surprise and a shock. It is a great honor for Universal Research Company to be recognized by a large corporation like the Oriental Press Group.

“However, Universal Research Company’s achievements today are the result of the joint efforts of my team and myself. I naturally have high hopes for it. Therefore, I have no intention of selling.”

Cui Zilong seemed to have anticipated this. He nodded slightly in understanding. “Boss Yu is right. My purpose for coming here was indeed a bit abrupt. However, the reason the Oriental Press Group is interested in Universal Research Company is precisely because we see your company’s professionalism and potential in the market research field.

“Any deal can be negotiated. Boss Yu, don’t be so quick to refuse. As far as I know, the reason you chose this sector was to avoid the fierce competition in other fields.

“If Universal Research Company merges with the Oriental Press Group, you will gain access to broader resources and a larger platform, allowing you to go further and more steadily in the market research sector.

“The Oriental Press Group has been deeply rooted in Hong Kong and even Southeast Asia for many years. We have a huge and stable client base, extensive media channels, and strong brand influence. If these resources are combined with the professional capabilities of Universal Research Company, it will surely produce a powerful synergistic effect.

“We believe that by integrating our resources, Universal Research Company can reach a new height, and even gain a foothold in the international market.

“Moreover, I can promise that if you agree to sell, and if you are willing, you can continue to manage Universal Research Company in the future!”

Cui Zilong’s offer was undeniably tempting. After all, Yu Zhize was not from a wealthy family; his family’s financial status was at best middle-class in Hong Kong.

Furthermore, the sector he had chosen was a niche one, with limited prospects for major growth in the future.

Therefore, having Universal Research Company acquired by a large corporation, with Yu Zhize receiving a substantial sum of money while continuing to be in charge of the company he founded, was actually an excellent option.

However, Yu Zhize had his own calculations.

Although Universal Research Company was still a small company, its reputation was now firmly established—a level of renown that even some large companies lacked.

And with the reputation he had built in Hong Kong, he had every opportunity to expand his business into broader markets and achieve greater commercial ambitions.

Although selling the company now for a large sum of money was tempting, compared to the broader possibilities of the future, he was more inclined to seize this rare development opportunity and personally build Universal Research Company into an industry tycoon with international influence.

“Mr. Cui, I am deeply impressed by your sincerity, and the terms offered by the Oriental Press Group are indeed extremely attractive. But to me, Universal Research Company is not just a company; it is the crystallization of my heart and soul over many years, carrying my dreams and aspirations.

“I long to lead it to a more glorious future myself, not to hand it over just as it is beginning to make its mark,” Yu Zhize said with a steady gaze and a sincere tone.

Cui Zilong frowned slightly. He hadn’t expected Yu Zhize to refuse so resolutely.

From his perspective, such conditions were a godsend for a small company.

That was why he had been very confident about the acquisition before he came.

But now, the other party’s repeated refusals were unexpected.

He hadn’t thought that the boss of this small company would possess such firm conviction and lofty ambitions. It made him see the man in a new light.

However, Cui Zilong did not give up.

He understood that Universal Research Company was of great significance to the Oriental Press Group’s future business layout, especially in the field of information gathering and analysis, where it could provide solid and powerful support for the press group.

In business competition, the value of intelligence was self-evident to a boss.

Moreover, he had already boasted to his boss, confidently assuring him that he would successfully acquire Universal Research Company.

To return empty-handed now would be letting his boss down.

“Boss Yu, I understand your deep feelings for Universal Research Company, and I respect your decision. But allow me to say one more thing: the market is ever-changing. Sometimes, choosing a powerful partner can help you achieve your dreams faster.

“The Oriental Press Group can not only provide Universal Research Company with funds, resources, and market channels, but more importantly, we can explore new business models and open up new market areas together. For Universal Research Company, this is undoubtedly a chance to leap forward.”

Cui Zilong’s words were filled with sincerity and allure, an attempt to sway Yu Zhize once more.

Yu Zhize smiled slightly, his eyes revealing a sense of calm composure. “Mr. Cui, I understand what you mean. But in my view, true growth should be based on one’s own strength and continuous learning and progress.

“Universal Research Company may be small at present, but we have a professional, efficient, and innovative team. This is our most precious asset.

“I believe that as long as we stay true to our original aspirations and persist in innovation, we will surely be able to carve out a niche for ourselves in the market research field.”

At this point, Yu Zhize paused for a moment, his gaze becoming even more determined. “Moreover, I also hope that Universal Research Company can become an independent, autonomous, and influential enterprise, not just an appendage of some large company.

“Such a goal may require more time and effort, but I am willing to strive for it.”

Hearing this, Cui Zilong couldn’t help but feel a greater sense of respect for Yu Zhize.

At the same time, he knew that this acquisition had likely already failed.

Cui Zilong sighed inwardly.

The other party couldn’t even be bothered to name a price, which showed that he truly had no intention of selling the company.

He stood up, adjusted his suit, and handed the other man a business card, a polite smile still on his face. “Boss Yu, your ambition and determination have my heartfelt admiration. Since you are so firm, I won’t insist further.

“However, the doors of the Oriental Press Group will always be open to you and the Universal Research Company. If you change your mind in the future, or have any ideas for collaboration, you can contact me anytime. This is my mobile phone number.”

Yu Zhize also stood up and shook hands with Cui Zilong, a sincere smile on his face. “Mr. Cui, thank you for your understanding and respect. Although Universal Research Company is not interested in being acquired at the moment, I look forward to cooperating with the Oriental Press Group in certain areas in the future to achieve mutual benefits.”

Cui Zilong nodded and said, “Of course. I hope we will have opportunities to cooperate in the future. That’s all for today. I won’t disturb your work any longer.”

With that, Cui Zilong took his leave from the reception room.

Watching Cui Zilong’s departing figure, Yu Zhize’s mind was filled with a myriad of thoughts.

He was naturally aware of the Oriental Press Group’s strength and influence, but his confidence was at an all-time high. How could he possibly sell his company?

Moreover, the other party’s attitude had shown him the future potential of Universal Research Company.

He was now even more steadfast in his conviction to lead Universal Research Company onto a grander stage.

Just as he was imagining the future, a subordinate knocked on his office door, looking unwell.

“A Xing, what is it?” Yu Zhize asked with a smile.

“Boss, it’s bad,” A Xing said anxiously, fine beads of sweat on his forehead.

“Don’t worry, speak slowly. What happened?” Yu Zhize’s brow furrowed, an ominous premonition creeping into his heart.

His subordinate took a deep breath, trying to compose himself. “Boss, we just got word. HSBC has officially issued a public announcement blacklisting our company. Any client who continues to cooperate with Universal Research Company will be considered a commercial enemy by HSBC,” he said in one breath, his face filled with worry.

Yu Zhize’s face turned white in an instant. He had never expected HSBC to act so swiftly and harshly.

It was true that HSBC had been losing ground in its competition with the Bank of East Asia recently, but its influence and deterrent effect in Hong Kong were deeply ingrained in people’s minds.

Once blacklisted by HSBC, who in Hong Kong would dare to cooperate with Universal Research Company?

Hong Kong was their headquarters and their only area of operation at the moment.

Losing the support of the Hong Kong market would be a devastating blow to Universal Research Company’s development. All their previous efforts and accumulated reputation could come to nothing overnight.

Yu Zhize felt a wave of dizziness wash over him. His body swayed, and he nearly lost his balance.

Seeing this, his subordinate A Xing quickly stepped forward to support him, crying out anxiously, “Boss, are you alright?”

Yu Zhize took a few deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down. He waved his hand and said, “I’m fine. Don’t panic yet.”

But his slightly trembling hands betrayed his inner turmoil.

“Boss, what are we going to do? HSBC is so powerful in Hong Kong. If we’re really blacklisted by them, our company is finished,” A Xing said, his face etched with worry, his eyes filled with despair.

Yu Zhize gritted his teeth, forcing himself to think calmly. “It’s alright. You can go out for now. I need to think.”

After his subordinate left the office, he slowly walked to the window. Gazing at the bustling street scene of Causeway Bay outside, his mind was a whirlwind of thoughts.

He knew he couldn’t lose his composure now; he had to come up with a countermeasure as soon as possible.

But what countermeasure could he possibly have against a behemoth like HSBC?

Previously, when HSBC had threatened to blacklist Universal Research Company from doing any business with them, he had been dismissive, thinking that if that was their only threat, he couldn’t care less.

Although Universal Research Company had taken on projects from HSBC, their business dealings were not extensive. Even without HSBC’s business, a strong reputation would still attract numerous other clients, and they could even officially become the number one in the research industry.

However, he had never imagined that HSBC would be so ruthless as to announce a complete ban, even implicating their clients. This was undoubtedly a move to push Universal Research Company into a corner.

Yu Zhize’s brows were tightly knitted as his mind raced, desperately searching for a glimmer of hope.

If he truly lost all his business, it would be no less than a total catastrophe for him. Not only would years of his heart and soul be wiped out, but he wouldn’t even know how to pay the salaries of his dozens of employees.

At that point, he could only declare bankruptcy and dissolve the company, and he would be left with nothing.

The thought of this consequence made Yu Zhize’s heart race, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead.

He thought of the President of the Oriental Press Group, Mr. Cui Zilong, who had just left.

Perhaps, the only one who could save him now was the Oriental Press Group.

The boss of the Oriental Press Group had now become HSBC’s arch-nemesis, so they certainly wouldn’t be afraid of HSBC’s retaliation.

But if he wanted their help, the ultimate result would be selling Universal Research Company to them.

To sell or not to sell?

If he sold, he would lose his autonomy. Years of his heart and soul, and his dreams, would be handed over to someone else. Even if he could stay on to manage the company, it would no longer be his own.

But if he didn’t sell, the company was on the verge of collapsing under HSBC’s ban. His employees would lose their jobs, and his years of hard work would be for naught.

Yu Zhize paced back and forth by the window, his brow furrowed, his mind in a state of tumultuous waves as he wrestled with an intense internal struggle.

He knew very well that the choice he faced was incredibly difficult. Each option had completely different consequences, like two divergent paths leading to an unknown future.

After a long while, he slowly stopped pacing. His gaze fell upon the business card on his desk.

After much hesitation, he finally reached out. With slightly trembling fingertips, he gently pressed the string of numbers that now felt incredibly heavy.

In his car, Cui Zilong suddenly heard his mobile phone ring.

He pulled the car over to the side of the road before answering.

“Hello, this is Cui Zilong. Who is this?”

“Mr. Cui, it’s Yu Zhize. You haven’t gone far, have you? If not, I’d like to ask you to come back to my office.” The voice on the phone was that of Yu Zhize, the boss of Universal Research Company.

“Boss Yu?” Cui Zilong was slightly taken aback, then a smile curved his lips. “Of course not. Has Boss Yu changed his mind?”

“Mr. Cui, it’s hard to explain over the phone. Please come back so we can talk in person,” Yu Zhize’s voice was tinged with urgency and helplessness.

“Alright, Boss Yu. Please wait a moment. I’ll be right back.” Cui Zilong hung up, started the car again, turned it around, and headed back towards the Universal Research Company.

Chapter 651: Li Jiacheng Has Entered the Fray!

“Boss, I’ve successfully acquired Universal Research Company.” Before long, Lin Haoran received a call from Cui Zilong.

“Good, I understand. You did a great job!” Lin Haoran praised him without reservation.

“Boss, I can’t take all the credit. Actually, the main reason was that HSBC gave us a helping hand!” On the other end of the line, Cui Zilong couldn’t help but laugh heartily.

“Oh? HSBC assisted us? That’s a surprise. Tell me what happened,” Lin Haoran said, his interest piqued and his voice carrying a hint of confusion.

“That’s right, it was HSBC’s assist. Originally, the boss of Universal Research Company was unwilling to sell. I was already prepared for the acquisition to fail.

But unexpectedly, just an hour ago, HSBC issued an announcement declaring a complete boycott of Universal Research Company throughout Hong Kong. News of this quickly reached the other party.

Boss, you can imagine how severe the consequences would be for a small enterprise like Universal Research Company if it were truly blacklisted by HSBC. They have absolutely no power to resist.

Therefore, the boss of Universal Research Company ultimately had no choice but to sell the company to us. I’ve already negotiated with their boss, Yu Zhize, and signed the acquisition contract. Oriental Press Group has fully acquired Universal Research Company for three million Hong Kong dollars and has hired Yu Zhize to continue serving as the company’s general manager.

In the future, Universal Research Company will operate independently as a subsidiary of Oriental Press Group, while also assisting our intelligence department with tasks we can’t handle.” Cui Zilong explained the matter concisely.

Lin Haoran was also a little surprised to hear Cui Zilong’s words.

This was quite dramatic, a real stroke of luck!

It was undeniable that Universal Research Company was not large, but if utilized properly, the support it could provide would be immeasurable.

Take this time, for example. He had witnessed the capabilities of Universal Research Company firsthand.

With only a small amount of data and in a very short time, they had managed to predict the market shares of the two major banks, Bank of East Asia and HSBC, with near-perfect accuracy.

This was no easy feat, especially when the assistance available from computer technology was very limited.

The credit for such a precise prediction undoubtedly belonged to the team at Universal Research Company.

This was the biggest reason why he had been so fixated on this team and wanted to acquire it.

Spending three million now would bring him returns a hundred, even a thousand or ten thousand times greater in the future!

Therefore, not acquiring such a team, and overlooking it simply because of its small scale, would be a colossal waste of a treasure and a major strategic misstep.

In today’s world where the business world is like a battlefield, every valuable resource could become the key to turning things around.

The team at Universal Research Company was undoubtedly such a hidden treasure.

They not only possessed keen market insight but also had the incredible ability to transform limited data into precise forecasts. In an era of information explosion where truth was hard to distinguish from falsehood, this was undoubtedly a sharp sword that could strike at the heart of the market, paving a shortcut to success for the various companies under his banner.

For instance, the intelligence department established by Oriental Press Group had already provided him with a great deal of help over the past two years.

…

In Queen’s Road Central, inside the Chairman’s office of Cheung Kong Holdings Group in the Chinese Building, Li Ka-shing personally saw Michael Sandberg to the elevator. It was only after the elevator doors slowly closed that he turned and returned to his seat.

However, his heart found it difficult to calm down.

Michael Sandberg’s visit this time was not as simple as his visit to Liu Luanxiong, where he was seeking to have Liu Luanxiong continue his financial business with HSBC.

After all, even though the intricate relationship between the two parties had not been made public, everyone in the circle was well aware that Li Ka-shing and HSBC were deeply and inextricably linked.

Back then, Li Ka-shing, through a highly strategic operation, had acquired the crucial 22.4% stake in Hutchison Whampoa from HSBC at an extremely low price, subsequently completing the takeover of the company.

Behind this transaction, naturally, came the signing of a series of deep cooperation agreements.

For instance, the financial businesses of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings Group were explicitly restricted to cooperating only with HSBC.

HSBC’s decision to support a Chinese partner was by no means a rash one; it was undoubtedly the result of careful consideration and evaluation from multiple angles.

Therefore, if one were to say which important client HSBC was least worried about “skipping town,” it wasn’t the British-owned companies, but the enterprises under Li Ka-shing, such as Cheung Kong Holdings Group and Hutchison Whampoa Group.

These two major groups were both ranked among the top fifteen publicly listed companies in Hong Kong today, with Hutchison Whampoa holding the high rank of fifth place.

Thus, the greater Li Jiacheng’s future achievements, the more stable and substantial the returns would be for HSBC.

Michael Sandberg’s visit this time was mainly to ask Li Jiacheng to stabilize his partners and prevent the partners of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong from transferring their financial business from HSBC to the Bank of East Asia or other banks.

After all, HSBC had seen too much capital outflow recently. If this continued, HSBC’s senior executives were worried that a shortage of funds would lead to a break in their capital chain.

When Lin Haoran had the affiliated companies of Hongkong Electric Group, Hongkong Land Group, Wanqing Group, and Hong Kong Telephone transfer their financial business to the Bank of East Asia, it had directly increased the Bank of East Asia’s funds by over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars.

Although the companies under Li Jiacheng were considerably smaller than Lin Haoran’s enterprises, the funds involved still amounted to several billion Hong Kong dollars.

Li Jiacheng gazed out the window at the bustling scenery of Central, his mood growing more complex.

He was deeply tied to HSBC, so he naturally couldn’t watch it fall.

After all, if HSBC were to collapse, he would easily be dragged down with it.

The funds of Hutchison Whampoa, Cheung Kong, and his other companies were all stored in HSBC’s vaults.

Once HSBC’s capital ran into problems, his commercial empire would face an unprecedented storm.

Projects that relied on HSBC’s capital chain would likely grind to a halt due to a lack of funds, the trust of partners would crumble, stock prices would plummet, and a debt crisis would follow. The business empire he had painstakingly built over many years could fall apart in an instant.

Such consequences were unimaginable.

Although he didn’t think HSBC would fall easily, the business world was unpredictable. Anything was possible, and no one could guarantee that HSBC could maintain its dominant position in the financial industry forever.

Just like Jardine Matheson & Co. a year ago, who could have imagined that the “King of the Foreign Firms” would be forced by Lin Haoran to not only lose most of its assets in Hong Kong but also to helplessly withdraw from the Hong Kong market?

“This young man, Lin Haoran, is truly remarkable. The new generation surpasses the old, leaving them washed up on the shore!” Li Jiacheng murmured with a touch of emotion.

He still remembered when he had set his sights on the Green Island Cement Company, only to find out after entering the market that this largest cement producer in Hong Kong had already been taken by Lin Haoran, a young man with no reputation in the business world.

Moreover, the other party had even managed to persuade a tycoon like Pao Yue-kong to plead on his behalf, hoping he would give up his plan to acquire Green Island Cement.

Now, two years later, the young man had done one shocking thing after another.

Did Li Jiacheng regret being so deeply tied to HSBC?

Of course not, because he knew that before taking control of Hutchison Whampoa, although he, Li Jiacheng, was considered a wealthy man in Hong Kong, Cheung Kong Holdings alone was not enough to be considered one of Hong Kong’s top financial groups.

It was only after successfully taking control of Hutchison Whampoa that he officially joined the ranks of Hong Kong’s top financial groups, possessing the strength and confidence to stand toe-to-toe with the other top players.

HSBC played a crucial role in this. Without that key helping hand from HSBC back then, his path to becoming a top tycoon would have been much more arduous and long.

Although he admired this member of the younger generation, Lin Haoran, as an ally of HSBC, he was destined not to maintain a good relationship with him now that HSBC and the Bank of East Asia had become arch-nemeses.

Thinking of this, Li Jiacheng picked up a pen and paper from his desk and began to write.

“A Letter to All Partners of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong!

Dear Esteemed Partners,

Greetings!

I am Li Jiacheng.

It is with a sincere and earnest heart that I write this letter, hoping to discuss with you the current financial situation we all face, and the necessity of us working together to navigate it.

As you all know, Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong have overcome all obstacles in the business world to achieve what we have today, and this would not have been possible without the staunch support and trust of all our partners.

We have weathered the ups and downs of the market together. Every collaboration has been a condensation of everyone’s heart and soul and wisdom. It is precisely these collaborations that have allowed us to gain a firm foothold in the fiercely competitive business world and to continue to grow and develop.

HSBC has always been our closest and most reliable financial partner.

Looking back, HSBC provided us with critical support at key moments in our development.

However, you must have heard about the rapidly changing situation in the financial markets recently.

HSBC is facing unprecedented pressure from capital outflow. A large amount of funds is being transferred out of HSBC. If this continues, it is highly likely that HSBC will fall into difficulties due to a lack of funds.

Once HSBC is in trouble, our closely connected business chain will also suffer a severe blow.

… … … … … …

Finally, thank you once again for your continuous support and trust in Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong.

Let us join hands and strive for our shared future!

Wishing you business prosperity!

Li Jiacheng

July 20th, 1981.”

Due to his extensive experience in reviewing documents, Li Jiacheng wrote extremely quickly.

In less than half an hour, a flowing text of several hundred words was presented on a few sheets of white paper.

After reading it over and finding no issues, Li Jiacheng folded the papers, called his secretary in, and asked him to make several hundred copies of the letter and deliver them to the heads of their various partner companies.

The secretary took the letter and said respectfully, “Mr. Li, I’ll go arrange it now. I guarantee the letters will be delivered to the heads of our partner companies as quickly as possible.”

Li Jiacheng nodded slightly, a hint of gravity still on his face. “This matter is of the utmost importance. There can be no mistakes. After the letters are delivered, you are to follow up and see what feedback they have, and report back to me immediately.”

“Yes, Mr. Li, I understand,” the secretary replied, then hurriedly left the office to make the arrangements.

Li Jiacheng sat back down in his chair, his hands clasped in front of him, his eyes gazing at the prosperous yet turbulent streetscape of Central outside the window, his mind filled with a myriad of thoughts.

After ousting the Taipan Willie from Hutchison Whampoa, he had gradually taken complete control of the behemoth.

With Hutchison Whampoa in hand, plus the real estate magnate Cheung Kong Holdings, Li Jiacheng was full of confidence for his future.

Therefore, he had to ensure that HSBC would not fall, would not drag him down.

Otherwise, if something happened to HSBC, the commercial edifice he had painstakingly built for years would teeter on the brink of collapse, and all his grand business plans would come to nothing.

A few hours later, the heads or owners of the major partners of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong began to receive the letter personally written by Li Ka-shing.

The contents of this letter, as if on wings, spread among the major media companies at an astonishing speed.

After all, the letter was sent to a wide range of enterprises, making it nearly impossible to keep it completely confidential.

And a copy of the letter also found its way into Lin Haoran’s hands.

Looking at the letter, Lin Haoran was only slightly surprised, but he didn’t find it too incredible.

After all, Li Jiacheng and HSBC were allies. It was only natural for allies to help each other.

Lin Haoran gently put the letter down, his fingers tapping a rhythm on the desktop, a thoughtful light in his eyes.

“Li Jiacheng’s move may seem like he’s stabilizing his partners, but in fact, he’s also sending a signal to the outside world, showing his determination to advance and retreat with HSBC,” Lin Haoran murmured to himself.

He was naturally aware that Li Jiacheng, having toiled and struggled through hardships in the business world for many years, was no ordinary person. This move was both steady and ruthless.

Just the enterprises under Li Jiacheng and those that depended on them for survival could stabilize more than ten billion Hong Kong dollars in financial business.

Moreover, among them, the financial business of some partners was not originally with HSBC, as Li Jiacheng had not previously insisted that his partners must work with HSBC.

This new move would also bring more funds to HSBC.

Although this amount was not much compared to the new funds at the Bank of East Asia, it was ultimately a good thing for HSBC.

And this maneuver by Li Jiacheng would also give a psychological suggestion to HSBC’s other clients, making them feel that HSBC still had strong financial support. Even if it had lost a lot of capital, HSBC was still the undisputed leader of Hong Kong’s financial industry, prompting them to choose to keep their funds with the bank.

This would play a significant role in stabilizing HSBC’s current capital situation.

Furthermore, besides an ally like Li Jiacheng, HSBC had many others.

For example, the Swire Group, Wheelock financial group, the Kadoorie financial group, and so on. Most of the financial business of these foreign-owned enterprises in Hong Kong still leaned towards cooperating with HSBC.

Although Lin Haoran had acquired many major British-owned companies in the past two or three years, causing the power of foreign financial groups in Hong Kong to shrink significantly, their strength was still not to be underestimated.

Lin Haoran understood that with the deep foundation and support from numerous allies that HSBC had accumulated over many years, it would indeed be very difficult for the Bank of East Asia to defeat HSBC in the short term and ascend to the throne of Hong Kong’s financial industry.

His most recent goal, if it could drive HSBC to the point of a capital chain rupture, would be for the best.

If that couldn’t be achieved, having the Bank of East Asia’s market share surpass the combined total of HSBC and Hang Seng Bank would also be good.

“Since Li Jiacheng has chosen to advance and retreat with HSBC, then I’ll see just how capable you all are,” Lin Haoran said softly, the corners of his mouth turning up in a confident smile.

He wasn’t panicked at all about Li Jiacheng personally entering the fray to support HSBC.

This was just a tactic he himself had used before.

If HSBC could rally many supporters, his Bank of East Asia could do the same!

In the blink of an eye, a night passed, and it was July 21st.

Today, many mainstream newspapers published Li Jiacheng’s letter to his partners in prominent positions.

The headlines were eye-catching and sensational, such as “Li Jiacheng Backs HSBC, Calls on Partners to Overcome Difficulties Together” and “Li Jiacheng’s Personal Letter Exposed, Guaranteeing Stability of HSBC’s Capital Chain,” instantly causing a great disturbance throughout Hong Kong.

Citizens eagerly discussed the letter. Some thought Li Jiacheng’s move was wise, standing with his ally at a critical moment and demonstrating strong business cohesion and a sense of responsibility.

Others felt that as a Chinese-owned enterprise, even if he supported HSBC, he shouldn’t do it so openly.

After all, as a financial institution with a deep British-owned background, HSBC would inevitably spark some controversy regarding the relationship between national capital and foreign powers in Hong Kong’s complex political and economic environment.

Looking at the wall-to-wall coverage in the newspapers, the moods of Michael Sandberg and other senior executives at HSBC instantly brightened. The gloom that had hung over their hearts recently seemed to be swept away.

“Mr. Li truly understands the ways of business. He acts decisively and with great魄力!” Michael Sandberg sat in his office at the HSBC headquarters, tightly holding that day’s newspaper, his gaze fixed on the striking headlines. A long-lost smile finally appeared on his face.

He had truly not expected that Li Jiacheng would personally write such a detailed letter to his partners.

He recalled that when he met with Li Ka-shing yesterday, although they had a pleasant conversation, Li Ka-shing had not mentioned a word about taking such action.

This unexpected assist undoubtedly increased Michael Sandberg’s gratitude towards Li Jiacheng.

“Isn’t that the truth? Our choice of Mr. Li as the Chinese ally we supported was simply a case of having a discerning eye. It was the absolute right choice. Mr. Michael Sandberg, it was you who insisted on selecting Mr. Li back then!” John Bao, who was sitting opposite him, laughed heartily.

Hearing John Bao’s complimentary words, Michael Sandberg felt even more pleased.

He waved his hand and said with feigned modesty, “Mr. John, you can’t put it like that. The choice of Mr. Li was made after considering many factors. Mr. Li’s own ability and vision are the key. We were just acting according to the situation.”

Although he said this, the expression on Michael Sandberg’s face betrayed his inner smugness.

For some time now, bad news had been pouring in for HSBC one after another. The capital outflow was like a bursting dam, difficult to contain. The senior executives were worried day and night, their brows furrowed in frustration.

Now, they finally had some good news.

“Speaking of which, Mr. Pao was the first Chinese entrepreneur we supported. Mr. Li has done so much, yet we haven’t seen any action from Mr. Pao. I’m truly a bit disappointed in him,” John Bao continued.

At the mention of Pao Yue-kong, Michael Sandberg fell silent for a moment.

They had proposed a meeting with Pao Yue-kong to the Bao family yesterday, but to their surprise, Pao Yue-kong’s son-in-law had directly refused.

Moreover, they were somewhat helpless about the reason for the refusal. Shipping Magnate Pao’s son-in-law, Wu Guangzheng, stated directly that his Father-in-law was currently recuperating from a major illness and was not fit to receive guests. All matters were temporarily being handled by him and several other sons-in-law.

But regarding matters related to HSBC, he was not in a position to comment at the moment, and a decision would be made after his Father-in-law had recovered.

Although these words were polite, they carried a hint of distance and coldness, leaving both Michael Sandberg and John Bao feeling a bit uncomfortable.

“Don’t worry about him. The Bao family still owes us over a billion Hong Kong dollars. They can’t possibly move their industrial and financial business away from HSBC, can they?” Michael Sandberg waved his hand dismissively.

“Mr. Pao and Lin Haoran are said to have a very good relationship, so it’s understandable that he doesn’t want to speak out. Well, let’s not talk about him. If he doesn’t want to speak, so be it. It’s not like he can leave HSBC anyway!” John Bao deeply agreed.

Pao Yue-kong’s history of cooperation with HSBC was too long, starting in 1956. At that time, Pao Yue-kong used a single ship as collateral for a loan from HSBC. He received approval from the then HSBC Taipan, Saunders, and obtained a small loan to purchase the second cargo ship under his name, the “Golden Oriole.” This was the beginning of his lending relationship with HSBC.

Since then, the two parties had maintained a very close relationship. HSBC even held a considerable stake in the Bao family’s World-Wide Shipping Group.

Although in such collaborations, neither party was indispensable to the other, HSBC indeed played a crucial role in providing financial support during the development of Pao Yue-kong’s shipping empire.

Over so many years, the two sides had been closely linked in their financial dealings. The scale of the Bao family’s financial accounts, loan business, and other dealings with HSBC was enormous, and it would not be easy to cut ties.

Therefore, they didn’t believe Pao Yue-kong would betray them.

“Also, Mr. Michael Sandberg, I’ve heard from the Securities Department that our HSBC stock price has risen today. And this time, it wasn’t because we were supporting the market to drive up the price!” John Bao shared another piece of good news.

It was only ten o’clock in the morning, so the stock market hadn’t been open for long.

However, if a stock’s price showed significant fluctuation in the early stages of trading, it often foreshadowed an unusual trend for the entire day.

Hearing this news, Michael Sandberg’s eyes instantly lit up, and his relaxed posture unconsciously straightened.

“Oh? The stock price has risen? That’s a rare good omen!” Michael Sandberg laughed heartily.

Chapter 652: Counterattack, Support from Older Brother Lin Haoning

Besides the bank’s performance, what shareholders cared about most was the stock price.

After all, if the stock price was high, the shareholders’ wealth would rise with the tide. If they wanted to cash out, they could do so at a more ideal price and reap handsome profits.

Therefore, the continuously falling stock price placed enormous pressure on HSBC’s senior executives.

If Li Jiacheng’s support alone could cause HSBC’s stock price to rise, it naturally made Michael Sandberg very happy.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, in my opinion, Mr. Li Jiacheng’s strong support has already started to boost HSBC’s stock price. If our other partners could follow suit, make positive statements, or engage in some deep cooperation with us, the stock price might rise even more!

By then, the shareholders’ confidence in our bank will surely soar. Our clients will also have more faith in us, and we can at least prevent another large-scale fund transfer due to a lack of client confidence!

Take Swire & Co., for instance. They have always had various strategic cooperation with us. It shouldn’t be difficult for us to get them to publicly stand with us. And there’s China Light & Power, our cooperation with them is currently going very smoothly. If these business titans all voice their support, the entire financial market will be shaken!”

John Bao grew more excited as he spoke, his eyes gleaming. He gestured animatedly in the air, clearly having tasted the sweet benefits of the stock price surge brought on by Li Jiacheng’s support.

Although HSBC had indeed been drained significantly by the Bank of East Asia during this period, it was still a behemoth.

Today, the combined capital of HSBC and Hang Seng Bank still amounted to over one hundred billion Hong Kong dollars.

Therefore, they still had plenty of resources and confidence.

Although the Bank of East Asia had risen strongly, its foundation was ultimately not strong enough. It would not be an easy task to shake HSBC’s foundations in the Hong Kong financial industry in a short time.

Both Michael Sandberg and John Bao knew that as long as they could stabilize the current situation and gradually take measures, HSBC might still have a chance to retain its dominant position.

“Mr. John, what you said makes perfect sense. Let’s do it!” Michael Sandberg was also a decisive man. Since they had already tasted the public relations benefits that came from a major power’s endorsement of HSBC, they naturally had to press their advantage and push this favorable tide of public opinion to new heights.

“We will begin preparations immediately. Let’s start with Swire & Co. and arrange a high-level meeting. I will go personally to explain to them the challenges and opportunities our bank is currently facing, as well as the long-term significance of their public support for our mutual cooperation.

Swire & Co.’s influence in the Hong Kong business community is not to be underestimated. Their statement will undoubtedly be a shot in the arm for our stock price. With Swire & Co. taking the lead, many other powers in Hong Kong that support us will naturally follow suit, creating a formidable wave of positive sentiment.

This way, not only can we effectively boost market confidence, but we can also invisibly build a solid line of defense against the pressure from our competitor, the Bank of East Asia.” Michael Sandberg paced around his office as he spoke, his eyes flashing with resolve and determination.

“In that case, let’s get to it. There’s an old Chinese saying, ‘press home the advantage.’ We must seize this momentum to deploy our strategy swiftly and precisely, and let the market see that HSBC not only has a solid foundation but is also full of vitality and foresight,” John Bao added, his eyes burning with motivation.

And so, they decided to act separately.

A lean camel is still bigger than a horse, not to mention that the current HSBC was not dead, just temporarily ill. It still possessed immense capital and a deep network of connections.

A day later, the citizens of Hong Kong discovered that the newspapers featured not only Li Jiacheng’s support for HSBC, but also statements from major British-owned and Chinese-owned enterprises, all speaking out in favor of HSBC.

Swire & Co. was the first to publish a statement in the financial section, sincerely expressing its affirmation of the fruitful years of cooperation with HSBC and its anticipation for deepening their collaboration in the future. It emphasized that HSBC’s professional capabilities and sound management in the financial sector made it a trustworthy partner.

China Light & Power, not to be outdone, released news through several mainstream media outlets, mentioning successful collaborations with HSBC on energy finance projects. They praised HSBC’s efficiency and professionalism in providing capital support and financial services, stating they would continue to work hand-in-hand with HSBC to contribute to Hong Kong’s economic development.

This series of endorsements was like a string of bombshells, setting off a huge commotion in the Hong Kong financial market.

When HSBC’s shareholders saw so many business titans backing the bank, their hearts, which had been hanging in suspense due to the falling stock price, were instantly put at ease. They began snapping up HSBC’s stock.

In an instant, HSBC’s stock price shot up like a runaway horse. It looked as if it would climb back to a market capitalization of fifteen billion Hong Kong dollars in a single morning, setting a new recent high.

Sitting in his Severn Road villa, Lin Haoran read the reports in the newspaper without the slightest ripple in his heart, appearing incredibly calm.

In reality, these statements of support published in the mainstream media wouldn’t bring much new capital to HSBC, as these entities were already partners with the bank.

All of this was nothing more than superficial prosperity.

Over the past few days, Ho Sin Hang had reported to him that although the high-interest rates had to be discontinued, the number of customers at the Bank of East Asia was still constantly increasing.

The Bank of East Asia had battered HSBC until it was almost powerless to retaliate, filling many of Hong Kong’s Chinese citizens with pride. Therefore, even without the high-interest rates, the Bank of East Asia continued to attract new users.

After all, not all citizens used fixed-term deposits; the number of customers with demand deposits was also considerable.

Now, when these customers needed financial services, the probability of them choosing the Bank of East Asia had increased significantly.

Coupled with the previous controversy over the unfair “choose one of two” clause, although HSBC eventually rescinded it under public pressure, it had already planted a seed of dissatisfaction in the hearts of some customers.

These customers might not transfer their funds immediately, but their trust in HSBC would undoubtedly be greatly diminished in future financial decisions.

So, at this moment, HSBC’s stock price was rising, but its market share was not growing at all. In fact, it was still being gradually eroded.

The current surge in HSBC’s stock price was more like a false celebration.

HSBC’s plan was indeed a good one. If not for stabilizing their business, it at least stopped the stock price from falling day after day as it had before.

But would Lin Haoran let them have their way?

Naturally, that was impossible!

After all, he still owed the HSBC shareholders 25.6% of the company’s shares, which he would have to buy back and return to them sooner or later.

Therefore, the lower HSBC’s stock price, the lower his cost to buy back the shares, and the more he would profit!

“I’ve let HSBC feel pleased with themselves for two days. It’s time to throw some cold water on them again!” Lin Haoran murmured with a smile.

This time, he would place another brilliant chess piece on the board against HSBC, causing this seemingly spectacular stock price feast to cool down in an instant, and perhaps even trigger a deep reflection on HSBC’s true value.

The reason he hadn’t acted sooner was the fear that HSBC would collapse too quickly, prompting Government House to intervene.

If that happened, his plan to slowly take over HSBC might come to nothing.

Above Lin Haoran’s head, Government House had always been like an invisible mountain, its attitude and movements constantly tugging at the sensitive nerves of Hong Kong’s financial world.

Lin Haoran understood that although Government House did not directly interfere in the daily operations of banks, at critical moments, a single policy adjustment or public statement from them was enough to drastically change the market’s direction.

Therefore, he had to act with caution, ensuring that every move he made did not cross Government House’s bottom line, while cleverly using market rules to achieve his goals.

But now, HSBC appeared to have stabilized its position with support from various parties, but in reality, it was strong on the outside and weak on the inside. This was the perfect time for him to make his move.

With this thought, Lin Haoran sat on the sofa on the third floor of the villa and started making calls with his mobile phone.

Although the Mid-Levels and The Peak villa areas were sparsely populated, the residents here were all rich or noble, and they were all potential customers of the Hongkong Telephone Company.

Therefore, mobile signal coverage had naturally already been extended to this area.

Lin Haoran first called Guo Henian. They spoke for less than five minutes before hanging up.

The reason was, of course, that the conversation went very smoothly. After all, Guo Henian was now considered his ally and was naturally very supportive of him.

Next, Lin Haoran called Sixth Uncle, Shao Yifu. On the phone, after learning of Lin Haoran’s intentions, Sixth Uncle directly stated that he would cooperate with Lin Haoran’s plan.

After hanging up with Sixth Uncle Shao Yifu, he didn’t stop. He then called Li Mingze, Liu Luanxiong, and others.

He made over a dozen calls in a row, which took nearly two hours. Finally, he called Ho Sin Hang and told him to prepare to welcome more funds into the Bank of East Asia. Only then did he finish.

Putting down his mobile phone, a broad smile spread across Lin Haoran’s face.

These were the tycoons he had previously visited who had agreed to move their financial business to the Bank of East Asia. They were also his most important network resources in Hong Kong.

Now, it was time to implement this step.

The reason he had asked them not to transfer their funds for the time being was that he was worried HSBC would take too many hits at once and collapse, which would ultimately lead to Government House’s intervention. That was the only reason he had them temporarily hold off.

Now, with so many Hong Kong powers coming out to support HSBC and causing its stock price to briefly recover, adding more fuel to the fire to make HSBC feel the real pressure was the perfect move.

Lin Haoran calculated in his mind, a confident smile playing on his lips.

He was well aware that the influence of these tycoons he had contacted was not to be underestimated. Once their financial businesses began to transfer to the Bank of East Asia, it would undoubtedly be a major blow to HSBC.

He had already calculated that once the funds from these dozen or so business tycoons and their companies were transferred to the Bank of East Asia, the bank’s capital would increase by another twenty-odd billion Hong Kong dollars!

Most importantly, 90% of the funds from these dozen or so business magnates were held at HSBC.

This meant that once the transfer was complete, HSBC’s capital would decrease by another twenty-odd billion Hong Kong dollars!

Liu Luanxiong alone, including his personal funds and the funds of the investment company he co-owned with Lin Haoran, accounted for over three billion Hong Kong dollars!

Not to mention Guo Henian, whose funds exceeded a staggering five billion Hong Kong dollars.

The other tycoons had anywhere from a few hundred million to over a billion Hong Kong dollars. For example, Sixth Uncle controlled over a billion Hong Kong dollars in funds. Although it couldn’t compare to Guo Henian’s or Liu Luanxiong’s, it was still a sum that could not be ignored.

Once all these funds were transferred from HSBC or other banks to the Bank of East Asia, it would be enough to stir up a considerable storm in Hong Kong’s financial world.

Once completed, the Bank of East Asia’s capital scale would directly surpass the combined capital scale of HSBC and Hang Seng Bank, and might even break through the one hundred billion dollar mark!

After all, the current capital scale of the Bank of East Asia and its subsidiary Dao Heng Bank had already reached about seventy-five billion Hong Kong dollars. With another twenty-odd billion, it truly had a chance to surpass the one hundred billion Hong Kong dollar mark!

At that point, Lin Haoran wanted to see how HSBC could still claim to be the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry.

Once this was over, the blow to HSBC would be absolutely immense.

At that time, it was even possible that HSBC’s market capitalization would drop below ten billion.

After all, even after losing twenty billion Hong Kong dollars in capital, HSBC would still have a full eighty billion.

Logically, even with that much capital remaining, a market capitalization of twenty billion Hong Kong dollars would not be unreasonable.

But don’t forget, the stock market doesn’t equate to actual strength!

For example, when HSBC’s capital scale exceeded 130 billion Hong Kong dollars, its peak market capitalization was only just over twenty billion.

In contrast, its subsidiary, Hang Seng Bank, had a capital scale that peaked at just over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars, yet its market capitalization once reached as high as sixteen billion, which was more than half of HSBC’s!

The rise and fall of the stock market are often influenced by many complex factors, with market confidence, investor expectations, and public opinion playing crucial roles.

HSBC’s stock price seemed to be recovering now, but it was just the effect of good news. Once major bearish news broke, market confidence could collapse in an instant, and a sharp drop in the stock price was not impossible.

And Lin Haoran’s move was intended to be the last straw that broke the back of HSBC’s stock price.

Surpassing the HSBC group in terms of capital scale had already achieved his most basic objective. Therefore, Lin Haoran could proceed with the next phase of his plan: to further consolidate the Bank of East Asia’s position in the Hong Kong financial world while delivering a fatal blow to HSBC.

Even if Government House were to intervene at this point, it could not stop the Bank of East Asia from overtaking HSBC and ascending to the throne of Hong Kong’s financial world!

After making those dozen or so calls, he sat quietly on the sofa, his mind running through the various possibilities that lay ahead.

He had no intention of going out for the time being. Ma Shimin, Cui Zilong, and others had called to tell him that many reporters were waiting at places like Connaught Centre, wanting to interview him.

However, Lin Haoran had no plans to accept any interviews for now.

These reporters surely wanted to ask him what he planned to do in the face of HSBC’s counterattack.

He couldn’t be bothered to engage in such a war of words; it was somewhat beneath him.

In his view, it was better to prove the Bank of East Asia’s strength through actions rather than engage in a verbal sparring match with HSBC in front of the media.

Lin Haoran stood up and walked to the terrace on the third floor of the villa, looking out over the skyscrapers of Central and Wan Chai, and even the magnificent view of Victoria Harbour in the distance.

Boats moved back and forth in the harbor, and waves gently lapped at the shore. Everything seemed so full of life, yet it concealed the treacherous and unpredictable undercurrents of the financial market.

Just then, Lin Haoran’s mobile phone rang.

He picked it up and looked at the number. It was unfamiliar.

Although he was a bit puzzled, anyone who knew his mobile number was clearly not a simple person.

So, he pressed the answer button.

“Hello, this is Lin Haoran.”

“Haoran, it’s me, your Older Brother.” To Lin Haoran’s surprise, the voice on the other end was that of his older brother, Lin Haoning.

His brother rarely contacted him. They usually just chatted about recent events in the study when the family gathered for dinner back at the Deep Water Bay villa.

Perhaps due to their past competition, neither Lin Haoran nor Lin Haoning usually initiated contact with each other.

Now that Lin Haoning was calling him at this particular moment, he didn’t think too much of it, just wondered why he was calling.

After all, although they were brothers, they had no business cooperation between them.

Even considering their blood ties, Lin Haoran had only given Lin Haoning a few reminders occasionally.

And each time, Lin Haoning had taken his advice to heart and made a huge profit from it.

Take the suggestion to have Lin Haoning’s fan factory enter the North American market. Lin Haoning adopted it without hesitation and successfully made a considerable fortune in North America.

Later, when Lin Haoran suggested he invest all his capital in the property market, Lin Haoning did the same, pouring all his earnings into real estate.

Later still, Lin Haoran reminded him to sell off his properties while the market was at its peak, and Lin Haoning acted decisively, making a huge profit.

Because of this, Lin Haoning had accumulated a substantial fortune and was a low-key but not-to-be-underestimated figure in the Hong Kong business world.

However, even though Lin Haoning had profited greatly from Lin Haoran’s advice, the two brothers were usually busy with their own affairs and did not communicate much. Lin Haoning’s sudden call now sparked a trace of doubt in Lin Haoran’s mind.

“Older Brother, what can I do for you?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Haoran, I’ve been following the situation between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC. I’ve read all the reports in today’s papers. I know my own abilities are meager, but as your older brother, I feel it’s necessary to support you.

I currently have over nine hundred million Hong Kong dollars in cash. This money has always been deposited with HSBC. Now that HSBC has become your competitor, Haoran, I certainly can’t keep my funds there. I plan to transfer all of this nine hundred million-plus to the Bank of East Asia. Consider it my contribution to your enterprise.” Lin Haoning replied.

Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback, a warm feeling welling up inside him.

Although the brothers didn’t communicate much on a daily basis, at this critical moment, his older brother had stood by his side without hesitation.

This bond of blood, thicker than water, made him feel incredibly warm.

“Older Brother, thanks,” Lin Haoran said, momentarily at a loss for words.

When others supported him, like Guo Henian or Sixth Uncle, he didn’t feel this moved.

After all, his relationship with them was one of mutual cooperation; their support was more about giving him face.

But Lin Haoning’s support, though it could be seen as a matter of course, touched Lin Haoran’s heart in a different way.

Perhaps this was the power of family—no matter how little contact there was, it always provided the most solid support in critical times.

“What’s the need for pleasantries between brothers?” Lin Haoning laughed heartily. “You’ve carved out a piece of the sky for yourself in the Hong Kong financial world, and I, as your older brother, also share in the glory.

Now that you’re facing a powerful enemy like HSBC, while I can’t help you much with business decisions, I can at least provide this bit of financial support.

Besides, I believe in your abilities. Under your leadership, the Bank of East Asia will definitely get better and better.”

“In any case, thanks. You haven’t been home to visit in a while. Let’s have a good drink at home another day, and we won’t stop until we’re drunk!” Lin Haoran said slowly after a moment of silence.

“Sounds good! Father’s birthday is coming up. The whole family can get together at home then, and we brothers can take the opportunity to have a good long chat,” Lin Haoning laughed heartily.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran stood on the terrace, gazing into the distance, a thousand thoughts running through his mind.

Over nine hundred million Hong Kong dollars, close to a billion. Even though Lin Haoning had spoken of it lightly as if it weren’t a large sum, it was by no means a small amount of money.

After all, these funds were currently deposited at HSBC.

Once this money was transferred from HSBC to the Bank of East Asia, the swing—a reduction for one and an increase for the other—would create a gap of nearly two billion Hong Kong dollars between the two banks’ capital scales.

In any case, he certainly appreciated Lin Haoning’s gesture. His previous reminders had not been in vain!

Originally, Lin Haoran thought that would be the end of it.

Unexpectedly, he then received successive calls from his second and third brothers-in-law.

Back when Lin Haoran and Lin Haoning were still vying to be the heir of the Wan’an Group, neither his Second Sister nor his Third Sister had been optimistic about his chances, believing he couldn’t win against his Older Brother, Lin Haoning.

Despite this, when he was short on funds, both sisters gave him their personal savings.

And Lin Haoran would naturally not treat these sisters who had supported him so staunchly poorly.

Although Lin Haoran’s two brothers-in-law came from wealthy families, they were not the direct heirs.

Later, as Lin Haoran gradually began to make his mark and his reputation grew, he began to help his two brothers-in-law develop independently.

He encouraged and assisted them in establishing their own business empires, not only providing valuable advice on key decisions but also generously offering numerous resources and substantial support.

Under his careful guidance, both brothers-in-law overcame all obstacles in their respective business fields and forged ahead, both achieving remarkable success.

Today, the personal net worth of both brothers-in-law had reached several hundred million Hong Kong dollars, and they had carved out their own niches in the business world.

“When you drink water, don’t forget the one who dug the well.” He had always remembered those who had lent him a helping hand and supported him in his times of difficulty, never forgetting their kindness.

Chapter 653: HSBC’s Executives Go From Joy to Sorrow, and an Assist from Liu Luanxiong!

If the saying goes “a mother’s status rises with her son’s,” then Lin Haoran’s two sisters were the quintessential examples of “a sister’s status rising with her brother’s.”

Both sisters had married into wealthy families, and on the surface, they were considered a good match in terms of social standing.

However, when Lin Haoran’s Second Sister and Third Sister married, their husbands’ families were actually far wealthier than the Lam family of the past.

Furthermore, neither of their husbands was a direct heir in their respective families, so the power they could rely on was naturally not as stable or strong.

Although both of their brothers-in-law cared for them deeply and doted on them, their status within their own families was ultimately unremarkable.

However, ever since Lin Haoran’s meteoric rise, the situation had become completely different.

With Lin Haoran as a powerful backer, the families his two sisters had married into now treated the Lam family with an attitude completely different from the past.

They could only look up to the Lam family, even showing subtle hints of wanting to curry favor.

Because of this, both Second Sister and Third Sister now lived extremely comfortable and carefree lives in their marital homes. Their status was in no way inferior to that of the family matriarch, and they had considerable influence in family affairs. Even the head of the family had to give them a certain degree of respect.

Moreover, in the last two or three years, both brothers-in-law had set up their own businesses with Lin Haoran’s assistance.

Thanks to Lin Haoran’s support, their personal assets grew rapidly, and they had long since far surpassed the wealth of their original families.

Such achievements were enough for the two brothers-in-law to gradually begin to make their mark in their families. Even though they were not direct heirs, they could now qualify to inherit the position of family head, becoming prominent figures in their clans.

In truth, Lin Haoran had not actively asked Lin Haoning or his sisters and brothers-in-law to transfer their funds to the Bank of East Asia.

After all, while he had provided his relatives with some support and help, it wasn’t to the point where he had to make such a request.

Besides, if he had to ask even his own family, he would feel that he had failed somewhere along the line.

Now that his relatives were coming to him one after another to express their support, Lin Haoran felt a sense of gratification.

With so many people backing him, Lin Haoran suddenly felt that dealing with HSBC was perhaps no longer such a distant and insurmountable challenge.

At this moment, he also felt the intangible yet powerful force behind his network, like a tightly woven web that could exert an unexpectedly immense effect at critical moments.

HSBC had a powerful network of connections, but so did he.

What’s more, HSBC’s most important network of British-funded conglomerates had been continuously devoured by him over the past few years, and their once-vast power was now greatly diminished.

For example, Hong Kong Telephone, Hongkong Electric Group, Hongkong Land Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Green Island Cement, and more—with the loss of support from these major powers, HSBC’s strength had been steadily weakening.

Not to mention that Lin Haoran had also swallowed up Chinese-owned enterprises of considerable strength, such as Kowloon Motor Bus.

The July weather in Hong Kong was like a fickle girl. One moment, the sun was scorching hot, melting the asphalt on the roads, and the next, dark clouds would gather, and bean-sized raindrops would come crashing down.

Lin Haoran turned and walked back into the sitting room from the terrace. He sat on the sofa and casually turned on the television.

Jade Channel was broadcasting the noon news.

On the screen, the anchorwoman’s crisp voice came through: “Today’s stock market movements are attracting a great deal of attention. Supported by statements from various major companies, the trading volume of Hong Kong’s financial tycoon, HSBC, saw an unusually large increase in the morning session.

According to relevant data, in just two and a half hours, its trading volume has already reached three times that of the entire day yesterday, and its stock price has shown a peculiar upward trend amid fluctuations.

Sir John Cowperthwaite, former Financial Secretary of Hong Kong and now an international advisor to Hong Kong investment banks, believes that this unusual stock market activity for HSBC might be a positive market reaction after a re-evaluation of its future prospects.

Sir John pointed out that as a long-established financial institution, HSBC has a deep foundation. Although it has faced some challenges recently, it may be undergoing strategic adjustments. This surge in stock trading volume could be a sign of investor approval for the results of these adjustments.

However, Sir John also warned investors that the current business competition between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC has too many variables. He advises investors not to follow the trend blindly and to prudently assess their own risk tolerance before making investment decisions.

In addition, our reporter also interviewed economist Mr. Steven Cheung. Mr. Steven Cheung believes that HSBC’s actions will help stabilize its market share, which is very good news for the bank. HSBC’s stock price is currently at a low…”

The television screen showed the bustling scene inside the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, with many shareholders crowding the counters.

The simple electronic display showed that HSBC’s stock price had already risen by more than 10% today.

Even Hang Seng Bank, HSBC’s subsidiary, was affected, rising by more than 5%.

Lin Haoran smiled, a look of disdain in his eyes.

These ordinary shareholders were just like this, like leeks, easily harvested by the market time and time again, blindly following trends without any regard for the underlying risks.

However, that was just mass psychology; no one was really to blame.

Lin Haoran knew full well that HSBC was exploiting this herd mentality to create this seemingly prosperous illusion in the stock market.

What did pique his interest, however, was the reporter’s interview with Sir John Cowperthwaite on the television.

To be honest, the fact that Lin Haoran had the confidence to compete with HSBC in the business world today was truly thanks to this old British man.

Sir John Cowperthwaite served as Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary from the 1960s to the early 1970s. During his tenure, he steadfastly implemented a “laissez-faire” policy.

Not only did he maintain a low-tax policy to stimulate market vitality, but he also significantly reduced government intervention in the market, creating a relatively relaxed and free environment for development.

His economic philosophy was inherited and further expanded by subsequent Financial Secretaries, laying a solid foundation for the Hong Kong government’s future policies of “positive non-interventionism,” prudent financial management, and a free market. This powerfully drove Hong Kong’s rapid economic growth, paving the way for the economic boom of the 1970s and 1980s.

This was also one of the key cornerstones that enabled Hong Kong to become one of the world’s top three financial centers. In such an economic environment, Hong Kong’s financial market developed rapidly, with various financial institutions springing up like mushrooms, creating a competitive yet vibrant landscape.

Lin Haoran was, of course, very clear that it was precisely this environment, where the Hong Kong government adhered to a policy of minimal intervention, that gave the Bank of East Asia the opportunity to rise and gave him the courage to confront HSBC head-on.

Only then could Lin Haoran rely on the power of Chinese-owned enterprises to go head-to-head with HSBC.

Just imagine, if Hong Kong were still using the policies of the 1940s and 50s, it would have been indulging in wishful thinking for Lin Haoran, as a Chinese entrepreneur, to challenge a British-owned giant like HSBC.

Before he could even fight back, he would likely have been crushed by the power of the Government House, let alone compete with them in the business world.

But times had changed, policies had changed, and Hong Kong’s business environment had been completely transformed, giving Chinese entrepreneurs like Lin Haoran unprecedented opportunities.

British-owned companies were continuously being acquired by Chinese-owned enterprises, and the once-glorious British-funded conglomerates were steadily declining.

He had no interest in the rest of the news report on the screen.

Lin Haoran picked up the remote and turned off the television.

He stood up and walked to the window, gazing at the lush trees on Victoria Peak outside, which looked even more vibrant and green after being washed by the rain. Raindrops slid down the veins of the leaves, as if nature was playing a fresh melody.

Hong Kong’s oppressive heat also seemed to find temporary relief from the downpour, and the air was filled with a fresh, cool scent.

Lin Haoran took a deep breath of the fragrant, rain-filled air, an indescribable sense of invigoration surging through him.

In a conference room in the HSBC headquarters building, less than two kilometers in a straight line from the Severn Road villa, the atmosphere was lively, and the senior executives were all smiles.

For the past two months, it had been rare to see a smile on the faces of HSBC’s top brass.

Suppressed by the Bank of East Asia time and again in competition, with market share constantly eroding and the stock price remaining sluggish, they had been under immense pressure, haunted by anxiety and frustration.

For the past two months, it seemed as if HSBC was in a perpetual state of meetings.

And almost every meeting ended without a resolution.

Every meeting, apart from arguments and buck-passing, was filled with sighs, pervaded by a negative and oppressive atmosphere.

The senior executives accused each other of strategic errors, but few could propose practical solutions. The entire bank seemed trapped in a vicious cycle with no hope of a turnaround in sight.

But today, the abnormal movement in the stock market was like a ray of light cutting through endless darkness, instantly igniting the spark of hope that had long been dormant in their hearts.

In just one morning, HSBC’s stock price had risen by over 10%. This dazzling figure was like a lifeline, which the senior executives clutched tightly.

The once lifeless and oppressive conference room was now filled with elation and excitement, the atmosphere so intense it felt like it could explode.

In the past two days, Chinese-owned and foreign firms like Hutchison Whampoa, Cheung Kong Holdings, China Light & Power, Swire & Co., and Wheelock and Company had successively declared their positions. This series of actions led HSBC’s senior executives to mistakenly believe that the situation had already begun to shift in their favor.

They could almost see the customers they had lost lining up to return, and their long-depressed stock price was soaring back up like an untamed horse, giving them an unprecedented surge of confidence.

“Once this stock price rises, our bank’s morale will follow suit!” one senior executive exclaimed, waving his arm excitedly. “Those clients who lost faith in us might reconsider coming back.”

“That’s right, our decline is finally coming to an end! As long as we hold on to our current market share, HSBC will still be the top dog in Hong Kong’s financial industry. It’s just a pipe dream for the Bank of East Asia to try and surpass us!” another executive chimed in.

Deputy Chairman John Bao also wore a broad smile. “Exactly. And we have to strike while the iron is hot. With the momentum of this rising stock price, we should quickly launch some new wealth management products and run some promotions to attract all those clients who are still on the fence.”

“Right, and we can’t relax on the publicity front either. Contact all the major media outlets. From now on, we’ll bombard everyone with news about our rising stock price and the support from major companies. Let all of Hong Kong know that HSBC is still as solid as a rock,” said a senior executive from the Marketing Department, his voice filled with excitement, as if he could already see the glorious scene of HSBC returning to its peak.

Building hype, manipulating public opinion, and the like were tactics that HSBC had long since done with ease due to familiarity.

They naturally understood that on the smoke-free battlefield of the financial market, the power of public opinion was sometimes more potent than real money.

For instance, look at how well Hang Seng Bank was developing back then. But with just a small trick, they manipulated public opinion and directly caused a bank run, ultimately acquiring the bank when its capital chain broke.

Michael Sandberg sat in the main seat, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly in a confident smile. “You’ve all made excellent points. This time, we must seize the opportunity to completely suppress the Bank of East Asia. However, we cannot let our guard down. That rascal Lin Haoran is not easy to deal with.”

At the mention of Lin Haoran, many of the senior executives present gritted their teeth. They hated this young Chinese man to the bone.

Their HSBC had been established in Hong Kong for over a hundred years. When had they ever suffered such a severe blow?

Who would have thought that their HSBC would be pushed into such a sorry state by a fledgling Chinese kid who had just started out?

This was definitely their disgrace, and the greatest disgrace in their history.

They wished they could crush Lin Haoran and his Bank of East Asia immediately to wash away this colossal humiliation.

The atmosphere in the room grew increasingly feverish.

However, just then, a series of urgent knocks came from the conference room door.

Normally, while they were in a meeting discussing important matters, a subordinate would never dare to disturb them unless it was an extremely urgent situation.

The knocking now clearly indicated that something extremely important had come up, forcing an interruption of the meeting for an immediate report.

The room instantly became so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The senior executives all turned their gazes to the door.

Michael Sandberg raised his eyes slightly and gave a look. His secretary understood the unspoken question and hurried forward to pull the door open.

Standing outside was a mid-level manager. His expression was solemn as he said in a low voice from the doorway, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, leaders, I have something extremely important to report to you!”

Michael Sandberg’s brow furrowed slightly, an ominous premonition welling up inside him, but he remained calm and composed. “Come in. Whatever it is, say it quickly.”

The mid-level manager walked briskly into the conference room, his steps slightly hurried. He took a deep breath and said, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, senior executives, we just received a message from the head office’s business manager. Mr. Liu Luanxiong, the boss of Far East Investment Company, has formally requested to transfer all of his funds out of HSBC. This matter is of great importance, so I had to come and disturb you!”

Far East Investment Company was the investment firm co-founded by Liu Luanxiong and Lin Haoran. However, very few people knew that Lin Haoran was also a partner; Liu Luanxiong handled all the investment operations.

As soon as he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the conference room instantly dropped to freezing point. The soaring enthusiasm and excitement were extinguished in an instant, as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped over their heads.

The smiles on the faces of the senior executives froze, replaced by shock, bewilderment, and disbelief.

Liu Luanxiong had risen to prominence even more recently than Lin Haoran, having been on the scene for less than two years.

He had initially made a name for himself in Hong Kong by orchestrating the IPO of the Amigo Company.

However, despite his short time on the scene, among HSBC’s many clients, Liu Luanxiong’s importance was definitely in the top ten!

The reason was simple: Liu Luanxiong controlled a huge amount of capital, something many large corporations could not do.

He controlled over three billion Hong Kong dollars. If a behemoth like HSBC were to suddenly lose such a massive sum, it would feel the pinch. It could even have a definite impact on the bank’s liquidity and business operations.

In truth, Michael Sandberg and the others had already prepared for this, as all of Hong Kong knew that Lin Haoran and Liu Luanxiong had a very good relationship.

For this reason, they had specifically made time to visit Liu Luanxiong together, promising him numerous benefits. They believed that no matter how good the relationship was, if the benefits were sufficient, Liu Luanxiong would not easily withdraw his funds from HSBC.

But they had never imagined that even after offering so many tempting conditions, Liu Luanxiong was still determined to transfer his funds.

Michael Sandberg’s face darkened instantly, a flash of anger in his eyes, but he quickly regained his composure.

He knew that at this critical moment, any panic or anger would be useless.

“Did he say why he suddenly wants to transfer his funds?” Michael Sandberg asked in a deep voice after calming down.

The mid-level manager looked hesitant. After a moment’s pause, he spoke cautiously, “Mr. Liu said that he plans to invest in a large project in the United States and urgently needs to use all his funds. Therefore, he must first transfer the funds out of our bank, deposit them into a Swiss bank as a transition, and then transfer them from the Swiss bank to the United States.”

However, which of the senior executives present wasn’t a shrewd person? Who would believe such a flimsy excuse?

This was clearly a pretext Liu Luanxiong had fabricated to transfer his funds. To bring this up at this critical juncture—any discerning person could see what he was up to. It was nothing more than a plan to move his money to the Bank of East Asia.

Everyone in the room understood that Lin Haoran was undoubtedly involved in this.

“Hmph, what big project in America? It’s just an excuse,” a senior executive said resentfully, his face filled with vexation.

“Exactly. This Liu Luanxiong is too ungrateful. We offered him so many benefits, yet he still chose to side with Lin Haoran,” another executive chimed in, his tone dripping with reluctance.

Michael Sandberg sat in the main seat, his fingers tapping lightly on the tabletop as he fell into deep thought.

Although everyone was well aware of Liu Luanxiong’s true intentions, as a banking institution, they knew that even if he didn’t fabricate any excuses, HSBC had to cooperate with him according to regulations to complete the fund transfer process.

After all, guaranteeing the freedom of clients’ fund mobility was an unshakable fundamental principle of the banking industry, and it was even more critical to the bank’s credibility and reputation.

Even with so many hidden machinations and calculations behind it, they found it truly difficult to forcibly stop it.

However, watching such a huge amount of capital drain away from their own bank, the senior executives present felt as if their hearts had been struck by a heavy hammer, waves of unwillingness and indignation surging within them.

At this moment, they hated Lin Haoran even more.

If it weren’t for Lin Haoran, why would these funds be flowing out of HSBC?

Every bit of market share was an empire they had conquered through countless days and nights of arduous effort and toil. Now, because of this interloper Lin Haoran who had appeared out of nowhere, they faced the crisis of being gradually taken over.

The withdrawal of Liu Luanxiong’s massive fund was undoubtedly another vicious stab at their already riddled defense line, making a bad situation worse.

The joy brought by HSBC’s soaring stock price vanished without a trace at this moment.

HSBC’s capital scale had already dropped from a peak of 130 billion Hong Kong dollars to 87 billion Hong Kong dollars. Now, losing another three billion, which would certainly be added to the Bank of East Asia’s side, would narrow the gap between them and the Bank of East Asia once again. This was something the HSBC executives present found hard to accept.

“Joy turns to sorrow” was the most fitting description for them.

If this news got out, it would undoubtedly deal another blow to HSBC.

“We still have to think of a way to stop Mr. Liu’s fund transfer. Even if we can only delay it for a while, that would be good,” a senior executive said with a frown, his face full of anxiety.

Another senior executive, looking utterly helpless, sighed and said, “But what can we do? It’s a clear rule that clients have the freedom to transfer their funds. We can’t just forcibly hold onto someone’s money, can we?

Once this gets out, HSBC’s reputation will be completely ruined. If Mr. Liu reports this to the financial regulatory authorities, we’ll get into serious trouble that we can’t handle.

And what’s more, who would dare to deposit their funds with our bank in the future? The reputation we’ve built over more than a hundred years would be destroyed in an instant. The consequences are something we simply cannot afford!”

The conference room fell into dead silence once more, the atmosphere so oppressive it was hard to breathe.

Michael Sandberg’s face was so grim it looked like water could drip from it. He understood that if Liu Luanxiong’s fund transfer was not handled properly, it would bring an immeasurable negative impact to HSBC.

Therefore, the only thing HSBC could do now was to cooperate with Liu Luanxiong in transferring his funds. There was no other way.

And Michael Sandberg also knew that they had already paid him a visit. Since the other party still insisted on transferring the funds, going to negotiate with him again would be useless, merely making them a laughingstock.

“Forget it. Follow the procedures,” Michael Sandberg gritted out the words, each one seemingly filled with endless resentment and unwillingness.

The senior executives looked at each other. Although their hearts were full of reluctance, they knew there was no other choice.

“Yes, Mr. Michael Sandberg. I’ll go down now and have someone cooperate with Mr. Liu on his fund transfer.”

Chapter 654: 27.3 Billion in Funds to Be Transferred, HSBC’s Sky is Falling!

“How infuriating!” After the mid-level manager left, John Bao couldn’t help but slam his fist on the table, causing the teacups to rattle and splash a few drops of tea.

“This Lin Haoran is a relentless curse, opposing us at every turn. Now he’s even won over Liu Luanxiong. If this continues, HSBC will be ruined by his hands sooner or later!”

A senior executive frowned, his face full of disapproval, and retorted, “Mr. Bao, even without Liu Luanxiong’s three billion-plus Hong Kong dollars, HSBC’s leading position in Hong Kong’s financial industry is still secure. How could Lin Haoran possibly ruin us!”

“Enough!” Michael Sandberg slapped the conference table hard, the sound echoing loudly in the quiet room.

His brow was furrowed as his sharp gaze swept across the room. “Are you going to start arguing again? As if things aren’t troublesome enough?”

Intimidated by Sandberg’s presence, the senior executive immediately fell silent, not daring to utter another word.

Sandberg took a deep breath, trying to calm his inner turmoil. He slowly sat down, gently rubbing his temples.

After a moment, he said gravely, “This is not the time for finger-pointing, blind optimism, or pessimism. Liu Luanxiong’s fund transfer is just the beginning. I’m worried that this is part of a grander scheme orchestrated by Lin Haoran, and that more trouble is on its way.”

In just two short months, Lin Haoran’s successive strategies had left Sandberg feeling as if he were sitting on pins and needles, unable to eat or sleep in peace.

Every time they thought the storm had passed, Lin Haoran would unexpectedly make another move, causing HSBC’s market share to shrink continuously.

Thus, the current Sandberg was deeply wary of Lin Haoran and no longer dared to underestimate him in the slightest.

John Bao gritted his teeth, suppressing his anger. “Mr. Michael Sandberg, what should we do now? We can’t just sit and wait for death. This is a huge deal; there’s no way to hide it. It’s bound to get out sooner or later!

“In fact, Lin Haoran and the Bank of East Asia are probably dying to see us make a fool of ourselves. They might even be fanning the flames in secret to make the news spread faster and wider.”

A hint of resolve flashed in Sandberg’s eyes. “Activate the emergency plan immediately. On one hand, assign a team to coordinate with Liu Luanxiong’s side regarding the fund transfer. Ensure the process is compliant and smooth. We cannot afford any more mistakes at this stage that would give the public something to talk about.

“On the other hand, the PR department must prepare a press release at once. The moment the news truly gets out, we will issue our statement, emphasizing that HSBC has ample capital reserves and that Liu Luanxiong’s fund transfer is merely a normal allocation of capital by an individual client, which will have no substantial impact on the bank’s operations.”

“But Mr. Michael Sandberg, market sentiment is already very sensitive. How effective can such a press release be?” a senior executive asked worriedly.

Sandberg glanced at him and said coldly, “Let’s not discuss its effectiveness for now. At the very least, we must show our stance and stabilize morale. Also, notify the risk control department to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the bank’s current financial situation, especially liquidity risk, and formulate a contingency plan for further capital outflow.”

“Understood, Mr. Michael Sandberg,” the group nodded in unison, preparing to get busy.

However, the situation developed far worse than they had imagined.

Just as the HSBC senior executives were about to leave the conference room to urgently implement countermeasures, another mid-level manager rushed into the room, his face as pale as a sheet.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, several companies under Mr. Guo Henian have just submitted applications to transfer their funds, involving an amount of over five billion Hong Kong dollars,” the mid-level manager said, his voice trembling.

Sandberg’s face instantly turned deathly white. He propped himself up with both hands on the conference table, leaning forward slightly, his eyes filled with disbelief. “Guo Henian? Why him too…”

The other senior executives were in an uproar, whispering amongst themselves in shock and panic.

The already tense atmosphere was now like a fully drawn bowstring, ready to snap at any moment.

As Southeast Asia’s richest man, Guo Henian’s wealth was considerable.

In recent years, he had been gradually increasing his investments in Hong Kong, even planning to make the city the future headquarters for the Guo family.

Therefore, the capital behind Guo Henian was by no means small.

Since entering the Hong Kong market, Guo Henian had always worked with HSBC. Their cooperative relationship had been maintained for over a decade.

Unexpectedly, today he had also decided to pull out, which was undoubtedly another heavy blow to HSBC.

“This… How is this possible? Guo Henian has been working with us for many years, and our relationship was solid. Why would he suddenly make such a decision?” one senior executive said, his face a mask of disbelief, his voice trembling slightly.

John Bao’s face was flushed with anger. He slammed the table again and roared, “Lin Haoran! It must be Lin Haoran pulling strings behind the scenes again! He’s trying to drive us to our death!”

Before Sandberg and the others could recover from the shock of Guo Henian’s fund transfer, another mid-level manager burst into the conference room, looking flustered and hurried.

Without even knocking, he cried out anxiously, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, this is bad! Mr. Shao Yifu of Shaw Brothers Film Company, along with his film companies and associated enterprises like Wireless Television, have all decided to transfer their funds out of our bank. The preliminary estimate is around one and a half billion Hong Kong dollars!”

Mid-level managers came knocking one after another, each bringing worse news than the last.

John Bao shot up from his seat, kicked the chair behind him, and bellowed, “Have they all gone mad? Did Lin Haoran feed them some bewitching potion?”

By now, the senior executives in the conference room were in complete chaos. Some were cursing angrily, some paced back and forth anxiously, while others sat slumped in their chairs, their eyes vacant, as if they had lost their souls.

Lin Haoran’s series of unexpected moves came down like heavy hammers, leaving them dazed and utterly unprepared.

If things continued to develop this way, HSBC would undoubtedly be plunged into an abyss of irreparable ruin.

And they, the bank’s senior executives, had long been bound to HSBC in a community of shared destiny, rising and falling together.

Once HSBC collapsed, the status and reputation they had painstakingly built in the financial world over many years would burst like a bubble in an instant.

After all, in the brutally competitive financial industry, who would dare to re-employ a senior executive who ran a giant bank into the ground?

Originally, Liu Luanxiong’s fund transfer had already left them in a terrible fix. Now, with influential figures in Hong Kong’s business community like Guo Henian and Shao Yifu following suit, it was like adding frost to snow, plunging HSBC into an unprecedented crisis.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, what do we do now? With so much capital being transferred simultaneously, our capital chain will be severely impacted,” a senior executive said, his face etched with despair.

Once all these funds were transferred from HSBC to the Bank of East Asia, HSBC’s next concern wouldn’t be maintaining its supremacy in Hong Kong’s financial industry, but how to deal with a broken capital chain!

Sandberg took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

He knew he couldn’t panic now. If he lost his composure, HSBC would truly be finished.

“Hold tight. Don’t throw yourselves into confusion,” Sandberg’s voice was deep and firm. “Activate the emergency plan immediately. Assess the specific impact of these transfers on our bank, and at the same time, communicate with relevant departments to see if we can replenish our funds through other channels.”

“Here at Hang Seng Bank, we currently have nearly ten billion Hong Kong dollars on our books. We can provide assistance to HSBC at any time!” said William Purves, who had just recently taken over as Chairman of Hang Seng Bank.

In this fund transfer storm, most of the capital was flowing out of HSBC. Hang Seng Bank seemed to be a “lucky” bystander, largely unaffected.

However, at this moment, both Sandberg’s reassuring words and Purves’s pledge of aid seemed pale and feeble.

The senior executives knew as clear as day that a wave of fund transfers on this scale couldn’t be resolved with just a few words.

What plunged them into an icy despair was the realization that the transfer applications from Liu Luanxiong, Guo Henian, and Shao Yifu were just the beginning, not the end of this “catastrophe.”

Over the next half hour, the conference room door was knocked on again and again. Subordinates rushed in one by one to report that over a dozen Chinese business owners or representatives from Hong Kong’s commercial sector were arriving in succession, all with the same startling demand—to transfer their corporate or personal funds out of HSBC.

Among them were Lin Haoran’s older brother, Lin Haoning, and his two brothers-in-law.

HSBC’s sky was falling.

For Sandberg and the others, it was as if the sky had truly caved in.

They tallied the total amount of funds to be transferred and arrived at the figure of 27.3 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Everyone present knew exactly what this meant.

HSBC’s capital base, which was originally around 87 billion Hong Kong dollars, was about to shrink by nearly a third, falling to less than 60 billion Hong Kong dollars.

As senior executives of HSBC, they knew that despite the tens of billions in capital on the books, these funds were allocated for investments, loans, daily operational reserves, and capital deposits for joint projects with other financial institutions.

The actual liquid capital that could be mobilized at a moment’s notice to cope with sudden outflows was far less abundant than the numbers on the balance sheet suggested.

Now, with a sudden outflow of 27.3 billion Hong Kong dollars, the bank’s liquidity was instantly in a precarious position.

It could be said that once this sum of over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars was transferred out, HSBC would have very little real liquid capital left.

At that point, HSBC’s day-to-day operations would face enormous problems. There would be capital shortages for issuing short-term loans, settling daily transactions, paying employee salaries, and more.

When that happened, the slightest rumor could trigger a break in the capital chain, not to mention the very real possibility of a bank run.

Once a bank run occurred, HSBC would be plunged into a state of irreparable ruin, just like Hang Seng Bank back then. In the end, it would either be acquired or go bankrupt, leaving a painful mark in the annals of Hong Kong’s financial history.

It could even be eliminated from the market, becoming a topic of casual conversation and a classic case study of what not to do in business.

Everyone could already imagine the severity of the consequences.

They might have the backing of the British-funded conglomerates, but much of their capital was currently tied up in external investments and loans that couldn’t be recalled at a moment’s notice.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, we can’t just wait here!” John Bao paced anxiously in the conference room, hands on his hips. “We have to think of a way to keep those funds from being transferred, even if it’s just a portion.”

Sandberg’s brow was tightly furrowed; he could no longer maintain his composure. “The clients have already made up their minds. Persuading them to stay will be easier said than done, but we have to try.

“Mr. Bao, I want you to contact these clients, especially those with long-term relationships with our bank. See if you can understand their real demands through negotiations. Offer them certain preferential terms, like higher deposit interest rates or waiving some handling fees, and try to get them to change their minds.”

John Bao nodded. “Alright, I’ll get on it. But Mr. Sandberg, even if we can retain a portion, there’s still so much capital being transferred out. Our capital chain will still be in serious trouble.”

“Everyone, don’t panic too much. Even in the worst-case scenario, we still have Haitong Bank. If it comes down to it, we can apply for financial aid from Haitong Bank to help us get through this crisis!” a senior executive suggested.

“Get help from Haitong Bank? The Haitong Bank Board of Directors would be the first to refuse, and American financial regulators would never allow it. You can forget about that idea,” another person immediately vetoed the suggestion with a shake of his head.

In 1978, they had reached an agreement with the American Marine Midland Bank to acquire a 51% stake for 341 million US dollars.

After taking control of Marine Midland Bank, HSBC renamed it Haitong Bank.

Today, Haitong Bank was the thirteenth-largest bank in the United States, with total assets of 25.5 billion US dollars, roughly equivalent to HSBC’s assets at its peak when converted to Hong Kong dollars.

Despite its high asset value, Haitong Bank had been losing money year after year.

Even after HSBC took control, it had been forced to inject capital into Haitong Bank multiple times. It could be said that, in the short term, acquiring this American bank was a burden on HSBC.

This was why they were able to take control for a mere 341 million US dollars—the original shareholders couldn’t handle the losses anymore.

If it hadn’t been losing money for years, the acquisition price would have been much higher.

A bank that consistently lost money would naturally be a key focus for American financial regulators, who would have extremely strict oversight of its capital flows and business operations. This was especially true for situations involving capital flowing overseas; the approval process was cumbersome, and the success rate was extremely low.

If HSBC wanted to draw funds from Haitong Bank to Hong Kong to deal with this crisis, it would not only face heavy resistance from Haitong Bank’s Board of Directors but also have to overcome the nearly insurmountable wall of American financial regulatory agencies.

After all, although HSBC held a controlling stake in Haitong Bank, it didn’t mean they could do whatever they wanted with it.

Those twenty-odd billion US dollars in assets belonged to American citizens. How could American financial regulators allow HSBC, a foreign financial institution, to move them so easily?

Any improper handling could cause turmoil in the American financial market, leading to total ruin for both HSBC and Haitong Bank, and could even trigger an international financial dispute.

In other words, getting help from Haitong Bank, their newly acquired controlling interest, was completely impossible.

And Haitong Bank was their biggest hope overseas. With this path blocked, the HSBC senior executives felt nothing but darkness ahead, without a glimmer of light.

Besides Haitong Bank, HSBC’s other major overseas bank investments included the Mercantile Bank and The British Bank of the Middle East.

However, it was even more impossible for HSBC to get help from these two banks.

First, the Mercantile Bank. It was originally a British-Indian bank and, for a long time, held the privilege of issuing currency in Hong Kong. HSBC acquired it in 1959.

However, as the Mercantile Bank’s role diminished, it ceased issuing currency in 1974. Today, it had virtually no presence in Hong Kong and had been reduced to a small bank with negligible capital.

As for The British Bank of the Middle East, it primarily operated in the Middle East, providing financial support for local trade and economic activities. It was also acquired by HSBC in 1959 and served as the foundation for the HSBC Group’s expansion in the Middle East.

However, The British Bank of the Middle East continued to face various challenges, including regional political instability, economic fluctuations, and increased competition in the banking sector. Placing any hope in The British Bank of the Middle East was equally futile.

Faced with this desperate situation where external aid was unavailable and their internal capital chain was on the verge of collapse, Sandberg felt his temples throb. Every nerve in his body was stretched to its limit.

“Are we really just going to watch HSBC decline?” Sandberg repeatedly asked himself. He was unwilling to accept it. HSBC was the pride of the British in Hong Kong and a landmark of the city’s financial sector. It absolutely could not be destroyed by Lin Haoran.

“Everyone, we are far from the end of our rope. If we truly reach a desperate point, we will seek support from other powers, such as Standard Chartered Bank. We are all important members of Hong Kong’s financial industry. I don’t think they would want to see a Chinese-owned bank dominate and suppress us.

“Besides, I believe the Government House will not sit idly by and watch HSBC fall. After all, HSBC holds a decisive position in Hong Kong’s financial system. If it collapses, the impact on Hong Kong’s economy would be immeasurable,” Sandberg said, his gaze slowly sweeping across the room, his voice tinged with an undisguised weariness.

Three or four months ago, they had been complacent and confident, wholeheartedly planning the acquisition of Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland, hoping to gradually shift HSBC’s main battleground from Hong Kong to Britain.

At that time, they felt as if they were in the spotlight on the world’s financial stage, full of ambition, believing they could use this opportunity to further expand their territory and solidify their position in the global financial world.

Reality, however, had dealt them a heavy blow.

Britain’s domestic financial industry was full of discrimination and obstruction towards them. All sorts of overt and covert tactics were used, and the acquisition plan ultimately ended in failure.

Even so, HSBC at that time was still at the zenith of its power in Hong Kong’s financial circle, an arrogant tycoon in everyone’s eyes, exuding an air of dominance with every move.

But who could have predicted that in just three months, the situation would change so dramatically?

Lin Haoran, like a suddenly rising star, had entered the fray with the Bank of East Asia, launching a fierce offensive that forced HSBC into a continuous retreat, leaving them powerless to fight back.

Today, HSBC was already on the brink of collapse, its former glory and splendor feeling like a distant dream.

This huge disparity was like a bucket of cold water, brutally extinguishing the flames of hope in the hearts of the senior executives in the conference room.

They felt as if plunged into an ice cellar, their hearts filled with bitterness and despair. Their beautiful aspirations for the future had all turned to bubbles, leaving behind only endless confusion and fear.

However, after hearing Sandberg’s words, a glimmer of hope rekindled in the eyes of the senior executives.

“Yes, yes, we haven’t reached our breaking point yet. Mr. Michael Sandberg is right. Standard Chartered Bank has always had business with us; perhaps they’d be willing to lend a hand. And there’s the Government House. They will surely weigh the pros and cons and won’t let HSBC fall just like that,” a senior executive hastily agreed, as if clutching at a last straw.

Just then, the secretary rushed into the conference room, flustered, and said loudly, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, this is terrible! Many unfavorable rumors about our bank are circulating in the market, saying we are facing a major crisis and our capital chain is about to break.

“Many customers have seen the news and are calling to inquire about the situation. Some have even started queuing at our branches to withdraw their money.”

This news was a bombshell, adding frost to snow for the already precarious HSBC.

“Lin Haoran! It’s definitely Lin Haoran’s doing! He must have instructed people to spread these rumors, with the goal of inciting a bank run and completely crushing HSBC!” John Bao’s eyes were wide with rage, the veins on his forehead bulging, his words filled with hatred.

Sandberg’s expression was so dark it looked like it could drip water. He naturally knew that once a bank run took hold, HSBC would be utterly defenseless.

The transfer of 27.3 billion Hong Kong dollars was already giving him a massive headache.

If a bank run were to happen on top of this, the consequences would be unimaginable.

This was the first time in HSBC’s history of over a hundred years that it had come so close to a life-and-death struggle.

Sandberg took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. He knew that any panic now would only worsen the situation.

“Immediately activate the bank run emergency plan. Notify all branches to increase cash reserves and arrange enough staff to handle customer withdrawal requests. At the same time, the PR department must issue a statement immediately to clarify the rumors, emphasizing that our bank has sufficient funds and is capable of ensuring the safety of our customers’ assets.

“Mr. Purves, your Hang Seng Bank should be ready to mobilize funds to assist HSBC at any time. Mr. Bao, you go report this matter to Mr. Governor and strive to get the support of the Government House.

“As for me, I will head to Standard Chartered Bank at once to discuss cooperation with their Taipan, Mr. Brown, to see if we can obtain financial aid from them to solve this pressing crisis.” Sandberg quickly issued his orders.

Chapter 655: Billions of Hong Kong Dollars, Small Change to Lin Haoran?

Central, Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

At this moment, the exchange was bustling with activity, yet the atmosphere was so oppressive it was suffocating.

On the simple electronic screen in the trading hall, HSBC’s stock price was in a near-vertical freefall. The red numbers flashed relentlessly, searing the eyes of every investor present.

Cries of alarm and curses erupted from the crowd from time to time. The investors’ faces were pale, their eyes filled with fear and despair. They clutched their trading slips so tightly they crumpled, as if they were the last straw they could clutch at.

“How could this be! HSBC is the leader of Hong Kong’s financial world! The news can’t be true!” an elderly investor exclaimed, his hands trembling as he stared at the glaring numbers on the screen, his eyes full of disbelief.

In today’s newspapers, numerous business tycoons who partnered with HSBC, such as Swire & Co., China Light & Power, Hutchison Whampoa, Cheung Kong Holdings, Carrian Group, and Wheelock and Company—giants with excellent relationships with the bank—had all published statements of support.

Additionally, many economic experts had come forward to voice their backing, claiming that HSBC’s foundations were solid and its operations sound. They argued that the current stock price fluctuation was merely an overreaction driven by short-term market sentiment, that the Bank of East Asia could inflict no fatal damage, and that HSBC’s position as Hong Kong’s number one bank would not be shaken in the slightest. They asserted that HSBC’s stock was currently undervalued and would soon stabilize and rebound.

Relying on this information, and filled with trust in HSBC and expectations of future profits, numerous small and medium-sized investors had poured in more money, some even borrowing funds to enter the market. They were all convinced they could make a fortune in what seemed like a surefire investment.

As a result, in just one morning, HSBC’s market capitalization had risen from under thirteen billion Hong Kong dollars to fifteen billion.

It was good news, absolutely good news.

If they didn’t seize this opportunity, how could they ever make money on the stock market?

Many shareholders had even begun to fantasize: if they bought in now, by the time HSBC’s stock returned to its peak of twenty-six billion Hong Kong dollars, their investment would double!

However, reality struck like a heavy slap across the faces of these investors.

After just one lunch break, the entire situation changed.

The market was suddenly flooded with rumors. For instance, Liu Luanxiong was supposedly pulling over three billion Hong Kong dollars out of HSBC, Guo Henian was moving several billion, Shao Yifu was withdrawing over a billion, and so on.

Each piece of news was detailed and vivid, making it sound entirely plausible.

These rumors spread like a plague among investors, instantly triggering even greater panic.

Initially, people didn’t believe it. After all, in their eyes, how could Lin Haoran single-handedly stir up such tumultuous waves?

But then a reporter happened to snap photos of numerous business tycoons, including Liu Luanxiong, Guo Henian, and Shao Yifu, entering the HSBC headquarters. This forced everyone to believe. The rumors now seemed to have concrete “proof,” and the panic instantly spiraled out of control like a broken dam.

Because of this, when the market reopened in the afternoon, HSBC’s stock price, instead of stabilizing and rebounding as the experts had predicted, went into a freefall with no signs of stopping.

Less than ten minutes after the afternoon session began, HSBC’s market capitalization had already fallen back below thirteen billion Hong Kong dollars. By two o’clock, it was worth less than ten billion.

This was HSBC’s lowest market capitalization in recent years!

Panic spread through the four stock exchanges and various securities firms like a catastrophic storm.

Many tried calling HSBC’s clients or going to the HSBC head office in person for information. However, the head office’s phone lines were already overwhelmed by anxious investors; the line was perpetually busy, like a helpless sigh from HSBC in the midst of the crisis.

Meanwhile, the investors who went to the head office surrounded the building until it was impassable. The crowd surged like a relentless tide, wave after wave, but they received no explanation from HSBC’s senior executives. The security guards tried their best but could barely maintain order.

At HSBC’s dozens of branches, customers had already begun to form queues, planning to withdraw their funds as early as possible. They were terrified that HSBC would truly face a bank run, making it impossible to get their money out later.

After all, the scenes of other banks experiencing bank runs were still fresh in their minds. They had no choice but to worry about the safety of their cash.

Even a giant like HSBC might not be able to escape unscathed if it fell into a bank run crisis.

Moreover, more and more rumors were spreading rapidly through the crowds, piercing the investors’ already fragile nerves like poisoned thorns.

Some said HSBC was hiding massive bad debts that had been concealed by senior management.

Some said HSBC was running low on cash, and other funds could not be recalled quickly.

Others rumored that a major overseas investment project by HSBC had completely failed, resulting in a total loss of capital.

It was impossible to tell if these stories were true or false, but they were like bombshells, setting off explosions in the investors’ minds.

The queues grew longer and longer, and panic spread like wildfire, leaving everyone restless and on edge.

Investors who had been clinging to a sliver of hope were now crushed by the overwhelming negative news and fell into a state of utter panic.

Inside the branches, the lines for withdrawals snaked like long dragons, winding so far that one couldn’t see the end.

The customers looked anxious, constantly standing on their tiptoes to check the progress of the queue ahead while muttering complaints under their breath.

“Who would have thought that even a financial behemoth like HSBC would end up in such a state,” one customer in the line sighed.

“Tell me about it!” the person next to him quickly agreed.

“Do you think those rumors are true?” someone else asked, his face full of suspicion.

“Who knows! In any case, I’ll only feel at ease once I get my money out. Otherwise, I won’t be able to sleep at night!” a middle-aged man said urgently.

“That’s right. That young man, Lin Haoran, is really something else. To think he could push HSBC to the brink like this,” another person remarked with emotion.

“I heard those shareholders who were chasing highs this morning are regretting it so much right now. They’re all crying their eyes out.”

“Thank goodness I never touch the stock market, or I’d be suffering right along with them!” someone said, patting his chest in relief.

These scenes were so uncannily similar to the bank runs that various other banks, large and small, had suffered before!

Bank of East Asia, headquarters building.

Chairman’s office.

Lin Haoran stood by the window, looking down at the swarming crowds outside the HSBC headquarters building not far away, and couldn’t help but smile.

Beside him, Ho Sin Hang was also smiling.

“Haoran, it had to be you. To think you could drive HSBC into such a desperate situation. Your methods, your boldness… it’s truly something an ordinary person could never achieve,” Ho Sin Hang said, his eyes filled with admiration, the curve of his lips carrying a hint of satisfaction.

Even after more than a decade, Ho Sin Hang would still occasionally recall the scene when Hang Seng Bank had faced its own bank run.

He had been so desperate back then.

In the end, he had no choice but to sell Hang Seng Bank to HSBC.

But HSBC had hidden the truth from him for over ten years.

If Lin Haoran hadn’t revealed the evidence from back then, he would still be unaware that the rumors that caused the bank run at Hang Seng Bank were actually orchestrated by HSBC.

So, upon seeing HSBC experiencing a similar scene today, the resentment and unwillingness that had been suppressed in Ho Sin Hang’s heart for years finally found a moment of sweet release.

Although he was only skilled in running a banking business and not in the undercurrents of financial games, he had learned enough over the years to understand that this financial battle was far from settled.

HSBC would not be defeated so easily.

However, after this incident, it was almost certain that their Bank of East Asia would surpass HSBC to become the bank with the largest market share in Hong Kong’s financial industry.

“Uncle He, I told you with confidence before that if you joined the Bank of East Asia, I would surely give it the foundation to become a top global bank. I always keep my word!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily, his voice ringing with confidence and pride.

When he had forcefully invited Ho Sin Hang to join, Lin Haoran knew that what could move this veteran of finance was not a vulgar display of money or power, but a grand vision that would allow him to realize his lifelong ambition and reshape the financial landscape.

At that moment, a fervent light shone in Ho Sin Hang’s eyes—a light of hope for the future and trust in Lin Haoran.

“Haoran, don’t you worry. After this business competition between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC is over, I will begin expanding into overseas markets. With the Bank of East Asia’s solid market position and your enterprises as our backers, we will definitely carve out a place for ourselves abroad.”

At eighty-one years old, a resolute fighting spirit ignited in Ho Sin Hang’s heart. He just wanted to go all in.

He was perfectly clear that his remaining time was like the fine sand in an hourglass, running out.

In the limited time he had left, he yearned to push the Bank of East Asia into the ranks of the world’s top ten banks.

When that day came, he, the helmsman of the Bank of East Asia, would surely become renowned in the global financial world, writing his own legend and leaving his footprint on the history of global finance!

Under the previous rule of Li Peicai’s family, achieving this goal would have been a fool’s dream, almost impossible.

But now, since Lin Haoran had taken control, the Bank of East Asia had been completely transformed, undergoing a revolutionary change.

It was no longer just an ordinary bank with a mere three percent market share in Hong Kong, ranking fourth. It was now a budding financial magnate, brimming with infinite potential and powerful competitiveness, possessing the formidable resources and confidence to compete on the global stage.

Just then, Lin Haoran’s mobile phone rang.

He glanced at the number. It was Dai Shi calling. He answered directly, not bothering to step away from Ho Sin Hang.

“Boss, I have something to report. HSBC’s market capitalization has dropped below nine point five billion Hong Kong dollars!” On the other end of the line, Dai Shi’s voice, tinged with irrepressible excitement, came through the receiver clearly.

“Below nine point five billion?” Lin Haoran murmured.

After a moment’s thought, he replied, “Dai Shi, have the traders start secretly acquiring the low-priced shares. Keep a close eye on market changes. You control the pace of the acquisition!”

He wasn’t sure how low HSBC’s stock price would ultimately go, but with the market cap already below ten billion Hong Kong dollars, compared to before, if he could buy all the shares at a price reflecting a market cap under ten billion, his return on shorting HSBC would have already far exceeded his expectations.

Therefore, it was time to make a move.

“Understood, Boss. I’ll decide on the scale of our purchases based on whether HSBC’s stock continues to plunge or starts to rise. You can count on me!” Dai Shi responded.

“Good. Contact me immediately if anything comes up!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

After hanging up, Ho Sin Hang said with a smile, “Haoran, congratulations. You’re about to make another fortune.”

By now, many people in Hong Kong knew that Lin Haoran had borrowed a large number of HSBC shares when their price was high.

With HSBC’s stock having fallen so dramatically, Lin Haoran would naturally reap a massive profit from this short-selling operation.

Lin Haoran waved his hand dismissively and chuckled, “It’s just some small change, not even worth mentioning!”

If these words were to get out, they would undoubtedly cause a massive stir.

Billions of Hong Kong dollars, yet in Lin Haoran’s mouth, it was just small change?

Could he even be serious?

Just then, the phone rang again.

This time, it was Cui Zilong calling. “Boss, do you have a television there?”

“Yes, why?” Lin Haoran asked, puzzled.

“Turn on Lai Television’s Home Channel right away. I think you’ll be interested in what’s about to be broadcast!” Cui Zilong said urgently from the other end.

“Alright, I got it!” Lin Haoran nodded, his expression calm, not pressing for more details.

After he hung up, Ho Sin Hang had already quickly retrieved the TV remote and handed it to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran took the remote, gently pressed the power button, and soon tuned to the Home Channel.

The image that appeared before Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang was none other than the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Murray MacLehose!

He was dressed in a crisp suit, sitting solemnly before the camera. Behind him was his office in the Government House, making the whole scene appear exceptionally formal.

And standing beside him was another famous tycoon of the financial industry, John Bao, the Vice Chairman of the Board of HSBC!

Seeing this, both Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang knew that Governor MacLehose was about to step in and back HSBC.

They exchanged a glance, unsurprised by this turn of events.

It was all within their expectations.

After all, the Government House couldn’t just stand by and watch HSBC fall into a bank run. If that were to happen, Hong Kong’s financial industry would likely suffer an unprecedented earthquake, with a chain reaction powerful enough to shake the entire Hong Kong economic system to its core.

On the screen, MacLehose cleared his throat lightly, looked directly into the camera, and began to speak in a calm but solemn tone: “To all the citizens and investors of Hong Kong, I am Governor MacLehose.

“Today, I am here to speak with you all. The financial stability of Hong Kong is our shared responsibility and our common goal.

“HSBC, as a key pillar in Hong Kong’s financial community, has a stable operation that is of crucial importance to the continued prosperity of Hong Kong’s economy.

“However, the market is currently filled with much negative news about HSBC. I hereby solemnly assure everyone that the Government House will absolutely not allow a situation where HSBC is unable to meet its cash obligations.

“We will do everything in our power to ensure HSBC’s normal operations. The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau has over ten billion Hong Kong dollars in reserves and is ready at any time to provide HSBC with the necessary liquidity support to address any potential risk of a bank run.

“At the same time, I sincerely call upon all investors to remain calm and rational. Do not be misled by baseless rumors. Let us work together to maintain the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong’s financial market.”

MacLehose’s words were steady and powerful, each syllable seeming to carry an unquestionable authority as it was broadcast across every corner of Hong Kong.

Beside him, John Bao gave a timely, slight bow. His face showed a hint of relief, yet he forced a composed expression, nodding gently at the camera as if to send a signal to investors that “everything is under control.”

Simultaneously, in the lobbies of HSBC’s various branches, staff quickly projected the Governor’s speech onto television screens for the anxious, queuing customers to see.

The halls of the four stock exchanges also synchronously broadcast the scene of the Governor supporting HSBC.

The news that the Government House was personally stepping in to back HSBC was like a calming balm dropped into the tumultuous waters of Hong Kong’s financial market, instantly sending out ripples.

The investors who had been shrouded in panic, scared witless, began to experience a subtle shift in their emotions.

HSBC’s stock price gradually stabilized. Although it struggled to regain its upward momentum, it was no longer plummeting like a runaway horse.

Many people’s tense nerves finally relaxed, and they let out long sighs of relief.

The queues at HSBC’s branches also shortened considerably.

This scene brought a sigh of relief to the staff at all of HSBC’s branches.

The Government House really came through. Without Governor MacLehose’s intervention, the consequences would have been simply unthinkable.

MacLehose’s speech was not long, but it was enough to gradually quell the public’s panic.

“A bit of a pity,” Ho Sin Hang remarked with a smile in the office.

“It doesn’t matter. Besides, even if the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau uses that ten billion-plus Hong Kong dollars for support, HSBC may not necessarily survive this crisis!” Lin Haoran said with a calm and indifferent expression.

They had already anticipated that Governor MacLehose would personally intervene; it was entirely expected.

HSBC represented the interests of the British-owned conglomerates. In Hong Kong, the business empire of the British-owned companies was deeply rooted and intertwined. Pull one hair and the whole body moves.

If HSBC were to truly collapse, the resulting chain reaction would be enough to shake the very foundations that the British-owned conglomerates had painstakingly built in Hong Kong.

For example, most of the major British-owned companies currently kept their funds in HSBC. If HSBC’s capital ran into trouble, it wouldn’t just be HSBC’s problem. The companies that had deposited their money with the bank would instantly face a crisis of a broken capital chain.

The operations of numerous business giants like Swire & Co., China Light & Power, and Hutchison Whampoa, along with their many business segments, all relied on the stable financial support of HSBC.

From raw material procurement to production and operations, and then to sales and payment collection, every link was closely connected to HSBC’s financial services.

If HSBC could not operate normally and its capital chain broke, the cash flow of these companies would grind to a halt. Projects would be obstructed, order deliveries delayed, which would in turn trigger a series of default risks, damage the companies’ commercial reputation, and could even lead to the collapse of some business segments.

Moreover, the commercial network of the British-owned conglomerates in Hong Kong was intricate and complex, with countless cooperative relationships among the various enterprises.

As one of the core nodes of this network, HSBC played a vital role in capital allocation and credit guarantees.

Its downfall would shatter the balance of the entire commercial network and trigger a crisis of confidence.

Other companies would become wary of the increased risks of collaborating with British-owned conglomerates, leading them to reduce or even terminate their partnerships. This would further exacerbate the predicament of the British-owned conglomerates in Hong Kong.

Therefore, no matter what, the Government House could not just stand by and watch HSBC collapse.

Although there was a faint sense of regret, Lin Haoran did not fall into frustration or disappointment.

At the very least, once Liu Luanxiong, Guo Henian, Shao Yifu, Lin Haoning, and the others moved their funds to the Bank of East Asia, the scale of his bank’s capital would achieve a quantum leap, thoroughly surpassing HSBC.

At that time, the Bank of East Asia would truly be able to sit firmly in the top seat of Hong Kong’s banking industry, becoming the undisputed number one bank!

At this thought, an overwhelming sense of pride surged within Lin Haoran!

Just as Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang were about to discuss their next steps in more detail, Lin Haoran’s mobile phone rang again, breaking the tranquility of the office.

He glanced at the caller ID and was slightly taken aback. The caller was none other than Mr. Brown, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong.

He didn’t have many business dealings with Standard Chartered, but he had long since memorized this tycoon’s phone number.

“Mr. Lin, I wonder if you are available right now? There is something I’d like to discuss with you in person,” Mr. Brown’s voice came through, steady and direct.

Though Lin Haoran was unsure of the other party’s intentions, he laughed heartily and replied, “With a personal invitation from Mr. Brown, I am of course at your disposal anytime. How about this, why don’t you come directly to my office at the Bank of East Asia? We can talk over a drink, what do you say?”

“Mr. Lin, I need a private place to meet. I do not wish for our meeting to be known to the outside world prematurely. I was wondering if you could arrange a more confidential location?” Mr. Brown’s tone was tinged with caution.

Lin Haoran paused for a moment. Brown’s words sparked a slight suspicion in his mind.

For him to seek a meeting at such a sensitive time… his purpose must be related to HSBC!

Could it be that with the Bank of East Asia and HSBC locked in conflict, Standard Chartered wanted to be the oriole that reaps the benefits?

Despite his suspicions, Lin Haoran did not press further. Instead, he smiled and said, “In that case, Mr. Brown, why don’t you come to my residence on Severn Road? It’s quiet there, and under normal circumstances, we won’t be disturbed.”

Chapter 656: Standard Chartered’s Ambition, Bank of East Asia Wants Banknote-Issuing Rights

After telling Mr. Brown the detailed address of his Severn Road residence, Lin Haoran hung up the phone.

Ho Sin Hang, standing to the side, frowned slightly and asked, “Haoran, Mr. Brown from Standard Chartered Bank is suddenly looking for you and requesting a secret meeting. Could he have some other motive?”

Lin Haoran folded his arms and pondered for a moment before saying, “Whatever his motive is, we’ll know once we see him. With HSBC in trouble and the Hong Kong financial landscape in turmoil, a long-established institution like Standard Chartered Bank certainly wants to profit from this shift.

“Perhaps he wants to cooperate with us to deal with HSBC, or maybe he has something else in mind. We should just wait and see how things develop.”

Ho Sin Hang nodded. “Alright, but we still need to be careful. After all, Standard Chartered Bank is no pushover.”

Lin Haoran smiled. “Don’t worry, Uncle He, I know what I’m doing. By the way, Uncle He, why don’t you come with me to meet this Taipan of Standard Chartered? After all, you’ll be managing the Bank of East Asia’s affairs from now on. If he’s looking for me, it’s most likely about HSBC.”

“Alright, let’s go then!” Ho Sin Hang nodded.

After giving Da Shan a few brief instructions, Ho Sin Hang left the Bank of East Asia headquarters with Lin Haoran and headed for the residence on Severn Road.

Meanwhile, Brown, the Hong Kong Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank, was driving his Mercedes-Benz, repeatedly mulling over the upcoming meeting with Lin Haoran.

For this secret meeting, he was shouldering a heavy responsibility assigned by the senior executives of Standard Chartered Bank. Amidst the turmoil in Hong Kong’s financial sector, Standard Chartered could not sit by and let this opportunity slip away.

In terms of internationalization, Standard Chartered was undoubtedly far stronger than HSBC. During this period, HSBC could not yet be considered a global bank, but Standard Chartered definitely was.

Unlike HSBC, whose headquarters was currently in Hong Kong, Standard Chartered was a foreign bank with its headquarters in London.

However, it also had a very long history in Hong Kong, having established a branch there in 1859, making it one of the first foreign banks to enter the city.

In 1862, Standard Chartered began issuing Hong Kong dollar banknotes, becoming one of the three early banknote-issuing banks in Hong Kong.

During this period, Standard Chartered primarily served the trade between China and Britain, providing financing for commodities like opium and tea, and gradually building a business network that covered Asia.

Over its more than one-hundred-year history, Standard Chartered had always been one of the most important foreign banks in Hong Kong. Since Hang Seng Bank was acquired by HSBC, only Standard Chartered had the strength to even remotely rival HSBC in Hong Kong’s financial world.

For example, last year, Standard Chartered Bank’s capital in Hong Kong was just over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars, with a market share of nearly ten percent, almost on par with Hang Seng Bank.

They also wanted to grow, but in a market almost monopolized by HSBC, increasing their market share by even a single percentage point was incredibly difficult.

HSBC, with its deep local roots, vast customer base, and close partnerships with numerous enterprises, firmly controlled many core businesses in the Hong Kong financial market.

Although Standard Chartered had a profound heritage and a leading degree of internationalization, it had always struggled to break through the defenses built by HSBC in Hong Kong. The growth of its market share was as slow as a snail’s crawl.

Because of this, Standard Chartered’s development in Hong Kong had been a constant struggle just to maintain its existing market share, making it difficult to achieve any substantial breakthroughs.

However, at noon that day, Michael Sandberg had paid him a personal visit to seek financial support.

This action made him keenly aware that this might be the perfect opportunity for Standard Chartered Bank to break the current stalemate and achieve a leap forward in development.

He made a swift decision and immediately contacted the senior executives at Standard Chartered’s London headquarters.

After in-depth discussions, everyone unanimously agreed that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that could not be missed.

If they could seize this chance to acquire HSBC in one fell swoop, Standard Chartered’s position in Hong Kong would undergo a seismic change.

This was the first such golden opportunity in Standard Chartered’s history of over one hundred years. To fail to grasp it would be a colossal waste of a treasure.

When Michael Sandberg had come to request a loan, Brown had表面上 said he needed approval from headquarters. In reality, immediately after conferring with the senior executives, he contacted Lin Haoran.

After all, any attempt to acquire HSBC would inevitably involve its current rival, the Bank of East Asia.

And to get the Bank of East Asia to cooperate, it was certainly a given that some benefits would have to be conceded.

But compared to acquiring HSBC, what were a few concessions?

In the eyes of the British financial group backing Standard Chartered, HSBC was merely a colonial bank. How could it compare to the nobility of a British domestic bank like theirs?

So, when HSBC had failed in its bid to acquire the Royal Bank of Scotland, the senior executives at Standard Chartered had secretly sneered, feeling that HSBC had overestimated itself. The idea that a colonial financial institution would try to swallow up British domestic financial resources was simply indulging in wishful thinking.

And now, with HSBC in deep trouble and unable to fend for itself, the senior executives at Standard Chartered saw this as the perfect opportunity to completely acquire HSBC and ascend to the throne of Hong Kong’s financial hegemon.

Once they successfully acquired HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, previously acquired by HSBC, would naturally fall under Standard Chartered’s banner.

At that time, combined with Standard Chartered’s original market share in Hong Kong, their territory in the Hong Kong financial market would expand dramatically, easily occupying half of it.

As Brown drove, scenes from the impending meeting with Lin Haoran repeatedly flashed through his mind.

He was well aware that he had to proceed with caution in this meeting. He needed to display Standard Chartered Bank’s sincerity and strength while skillfully probing the Bank of East Asia’s bottom line.

He didn’t dare underestimate Lin Haoran. How could someone who had pushed a hegemon like HSBC to the brink of desperation be simple?

Those who had underestimated Lin Haoran had all been utterly defeated, like Jardine Matheson & Co., and now, HSBC.

Brown took a deep breath, trying to calm himself, and parked his car steadily at the entrance of the Severn Road residence.

At this moment, Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang had already arrived a few minutes earlier.

“Mr. Brown, welcome!” Lin Haoran stood at the door with a smile, shaking hands with Brown as he got out of the car.

Following that, Ho Sin Hang also greeted him.

Ho Sin Hang and Brown had worked in the Hong Kong financial industry for many years and could be considered old acquaintances.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. He, let’s go inside first. I don’t want this important meeting to attract too much outside attention,” Brown said with a perfectly measured smile, though his eyes betrayed a hint of caution as he scanned the surroundings, as if worried that news of his visit to Lin Haoran would be discovered by others.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly and gestured with a “please” motion. “This way, Mr. Brown. Refreshments have been prepared inside.”

The three of them walked into the study on the first floor and sat down on the sofa.

A servant brought in tea and snacks, then closed the study door, finally easing the atmosphere in the room.

“Mr. Brown, I wonder what brings you here in person? Please, speak freely,” Lin Haoran said, lifting his teacup and gently blowing on the hot steam, his eyes fixed on Brown.

Brown nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over Ho Sin Hang, who was sitting next to Lin Haoran. He silently considered the situation but didn’t suggest that Ho Sin Hang leave.

After all, Ho Sin Hang’s status was nothing like it was before. He had transformed from the Chairman of Hang Seng Bank to the Chairman of the Bank of East Asia. He probably guessed the purpose of his visit, or else he wouldn’t have brought Ho Sin Hang along.

With this in mind, Brown cleared his throat and said, “Mr. Lin, to be honest, I’ve come here today to seek a partnership!”

“A partnership? Mr. Brown, feel free to be direct,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, in that case, I’ll be blunt. We at Standard Chartered Bank want to acquire HSBC, and we need your cooperation. As for what conditions you require, please state them directly!” Brown laid all his ambitious cards on the table.

Under normal circumstances, with the support of Government House, a commercial empire like HSBC would not collapse so easily.

Furthermore, HSBC itself had a deep foundation and was deeply rooted in the Hong Kong financial world. Its vast network of assets, complex web of interests, and years of accumulated credibility gave it a certain resilience against external shocks.

Moreover, HSBC held many investment shares, such as their six percent stake in Jardine Matheson & Co. Although Jardine Matheson had withdrawn from the Hong Kong market, they could still sell off their shares.

HSBC also held varying amounts of shares in many of Hong Kong’s major conglomerates.

As long as they liquidated these shares, HSBC could raise tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars in a short period.

Even in its current predicament, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse. It would be no easy feat for the Bank of East Asia to defeat it so simply.

But what if Standard Chartered Bank were to stab it in the back?

While Government House advocated for a free financial market, the financial industry was tied to British interests, and they would never allow a Chinese person like Lin Haoran to occupy too much market share.

Therefore, Government House would not allow the Bank of East Asia to become the sole dominant player. Instead, it would do everything in its power to support HSBC and help it through its difficulties.

However, if Standard Chartered were to intervene with the intention of taking over HSBC’s British-owned interests, Government House would certainly not object and might even welcome it.

After all, Standard Chartered was a long-established British-owned bank with its headquarters in London and deep-seated capital and political backing in Britain, making its interests more aligned with those of Government House.

One could say that in the eyes of Government House, Standard Chartered Bank was one of their own.

With Standard Chartered stabbing HSBC in the back, coupled with tacit support from Government House, Brown believed that if they could secure Lin Haoran’s cooperation, it was entirely possible to completely topple HSBC and complete the acquisition.

Keep in mind, Standard Chartered’s current market share in Hong Kong was less than ten percent. For them, a successful acquisition of HSBC would undoubtedly be a huge leap forward in their development in Hong Kong!

This would be another major step up in strength for Standard Chartered’s entire overseas expansion.

Furthermore, HSBC’s overall strength was not inferior to Standard Chartered’s. If Standard Chartered could successfully acquire HSBC at a low cost, their own strength would be doubled.

Moreover, Brown and the other senior executives at Standard Chartered had already conducted detailed calculations in secret.

Once Standard Chartered successfully acquired HSBC, its market share in Hong Kong would very likely surpass that of the Bank of East Asia.

Even with Guo Henian, Shao Yifu, Liu Luanxiong, and others planning to transfer their funds—amounting to over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars—to the Bank of East Asia, Standard Chartered was confident that this acquisition would enable them to overtake them in market share.

In that case, wouldn’t they, Standard Chartered Bank, become the true hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry?

Just the thought of it made Brown’s heart race with excitement.

Lin Haoran put down his teacup, his fingers gently tracing the rim. A meaningful smile played on his lips. “Mr. Brown, your idea is certainly bold. However, acquiring HSBC is no small matter. What makes you think I will cooperate with you?

“You know, if there were a real opportunity to acquire HSBC, I would want to do it myself. Why would I give this opportunity to you?”

Brown was slightly taken aback, a flicker of surprise in his eyes, but he quickly composed himself.

He swiftly regained his composure, his smile deepening as he said, “Mr. Lin, you are a shrewd man, naturally you can see the pros and cons here. Let’s be frank. HSBC’s foundation is solid. Even in its current predicament, it’s no easy task for the Bank of East Asia alone to completely bring it down and acquire it.

“Besides, Mr. Lin, you are well aware that it’s almost impossible for the Bank of East Asia to succeed in acquiring HSBC. It’s like when you used the Hongkong Land Group to attempt a reverse takeover of Jardine Matheson & Co. In the end, didn’t you have to reluctantly give up control of Jardine?

“The key reason for that, Mr. Lin, you must be well aware of yourself. You are not British, and you cannot represent British interests!

“In Hong Kong’s financial and business sectors, British influence is deeply rooted and intertwined. Government House and numerous British-owned entities are like an invisible net, tightly controlling key industries and core interests.

“As the former hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial world, HSBC has a complex British-owned background and network of interests that a Chinese-owned enterprise like the Bank of East Asia cannot easily touch.

“The British government would never allow a Chinese-owned bank to monopolize Hong Kong’s financial system. That is a situation they absolutely cannot tolerate.

“Mr. Lin, now look at us, Standard Chartered Bank. The situation is completely different. Our headquarters is in London, we have deep roots in Britain itself, and we are backed by several of Britain’s top financial groups. Our network of connections is as vast as the stars.

“We have close and seamless cooperation with Government House and numerous British-funded conglomerates. Our network is complex yet tightly knit. If we at Standard Chartered Bank were to make a move to acquire HSBC, Government House would undoubtedly give us their full support, and might even provide us with many conveniences behind the scenes to help the acquisition proceed smoothly.”

“If we can’t acquire it, then why should we support your acquisition of HSBC? Wouldn’t that just be setting up another powerful competitor for the Bank of East Asia?” Lin Haoran asked with a calm smile.

Taipan Brown was prepared for this. He spoke with a sincere tone, “Mr. Lin, please don’t be so quick to refuse. This is why I just said, whatever conditions you have, bring them up. As long as we at Standard Chartered Bank can meet them, we will do our best.

“Cooperation, naturally, benefits both parties. We at Standard Chartered Bank would never expect the Bank of East Asia to get nothing in return for cooperating with our acquisition of HSBC. We are self-aware enough to know that.

“We know that this cooperation requires careful consideration from the Bank of East Asia’s perspective, but in the long run, it will be of great benefit to both sides.”

Lin Haoran frowned slightly, thought for a moment, and then said, “Mr. Brown, this partnership you’ve proposed is very sudden for us. Mr. He and I need to discuss it in private. What do you think?”

Brown nodded slightly, a polite smile on his face. “Of course. Mr. Lin and Mr. He, please take your time to discuss. I will wait here.”

Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang stood up and walked slowly to the other side of the study, deliberately creating some distance from Brown.

“Haoran, what do you think of this partnership proposal from Standard Chartered?” Ho Sin Hang was the first to break the silence, his brows tightly furrowed.

He hadn’t expected Standard Chartered to be so ambitious as to want to backstab HSBC and acquire it while it was in crisis.

This was beyond their expectations.

Before they came, they had considered that Standard Chartered might want to profit from HSBC’s situation, but they never imagined their appetite was so large as to want to swallow it whole.

Lin Haoran’s gaze was deep as he gently tapped his fingers on the windowsill. “Standard Chartered’s move is indeed unexpected,” he said in a low voice, “but on second thought, it’s logical. With HSBC in deep trouble, this is a golden opportunity for them.

“If they succeed in the acquisition, their position in the Hong Kong financial market will be greatly enhanced, possibly even surpassing our Bank of East Asia. Everyone wants to be the top dog in Hong Kong’s financial world. It’s only normal for them to have this idea.”

Ho Sin Hang’s brows furrowed with worry. “If we really let them succeed, we’ll have another formidable competitor. Standard Chartered’s overall strength is in no way inferior to HSBC’s. Their retail banking business in emerging markets like Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East is thriving, and their influence in Europe far exceeds HSBC’s.

“In terms of internationalization, HSBC and Standard Chartered are not even on the same level. Once Standard Chartered acquires HSBC, its strength will inevitably take a qualitative leap.

“At that point, life for us in the Hong Kong financial market will become much more difficult. Not only will we have to face a stronger opponent, but we might also lose our current advantage in market share.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly and said with a smile, “Uncle He, I understand everything you’ve said. But if we look at it from another angle, if we can cooperate with Standard Chartered, we might also be able to gain enormous benefits.

“Standard Chartered will have to pay a huge price to acquire HSBC, both in terms of capital and resources. During this process, we can propose some conditions that are favorable to us. As long as the benefits we gain are sufficient, what does it matter if we let them acquire HSBC?”

How had the Bank of East Asia been able to rise so quickly under his leadership?

The most important reason was his control over several corporate giants in Hong Kong, such as Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and Hong Kong Telephone.

These alone were enough to make the Bank of East Asia invincible.

So, in Lin Haoran’s view, whether it was HSBC or Standard Chartered, it was all the same. So what if he had a different competitor?

Just as Brown had said, Lin Haoran also knew that it was impossible for him to acquire HSBC.

This meant that in Hong Kong, he could never achieve the kind of monopoly over the financial industry that HSBC once had.

Since that was the case, why not take this opportunity to seek more benefits for himself?

If handled correctly, Standard Chartered’s acquisition of HSBC could become an opportunity for the Bank of East Asia to reach an even higher level.

After hearing this, Ho Sin Hang’s frown gradually relaxed. He thought for a moment and said, “Haoran, your idea is indeed bold and very forward-thinking. Since you’re considering cooperation, then we need to think about what conditions to propose!”

The two of them fell silent.

This situation had happened too suddenly. They hadn’t considered it before, and for a moment, they really didn’t know what conditions to propose to best protect the interests of the Bank of East Asia.

The sunlight outside the window scattered through the mottled leaves, casting patches of shifting light on the study floor, but it couldn’t illuminate the somewhat heavy thoughts of the two men.

Lin Haoran paced slowly in the study, his mind racing through various possible conditions.

Suddenly, he stopped, his eyes lit up, and he turned to Ho Sin Hang. “Uncle He, I’ve thought of a condition. First, Standard Chartered has a certain influence in the international market. We can demand that they establish a strategic cooperative partnership with the Bank of East Asia for our overseas business expansion.

“For example, in expanding into some emerging markets, we can support each other, share resources, and jointly develop overseas markets. This would be a huge boost to the Bank of East Asia’s internationalization.”

What the Bank of East Asia lacked most right now was experience and resources in the international market.

Once things in Hong Kong had settled down, the Bank of East Asia’s next step would be to consider how to internationalize.

Although they had previously reached a cooperation agreement with Citibank, relying solely on Citibank was far from enough to support the Bank of East Asia’s comprehensive and deep entry onto the international stage.

While Citibank was powerful, their cooperation might have certain limitations and might not fully align with the Bank of East Asia’s development needs in many business areas and in pioneering new markets.

On the other hand, Standard Chartered had been deeply involved in the international market for many years and had unique channels and resources. Partnering with them on overseas expansion would undoubtedly open more doors to the world for the Bank of East Asia.

And although the Bank of East Asia had achieved remarkable success in Hong Kong, it still had a long way to go to begin to make its mark on the international financial stage.

Establishing a strategic cooperative partnership with Standard Chartered for overseas business expansion was undoubtedly a shortcut to rapidly enhance its internationalization.

Ho Sin Hang nodded slightly, saying thoughtfully, “That’s a good condition. It would allow us to leverage Standard Chartered’s existing advantages in the international market to quickly accumulate experience, expand our network, and build up resources, laying a solid foundation for the Bank of East Asia to gain a firm foothold on the international stage. However, this one condition is not enough. We still need to fight for benefits in more key areas.”

Lin Haoran continued, “That’s right, Uncle He. We can demand that Standard Chartered provide the Bank of East Asia with a certain amount of financial compensation during the acquisition process. After all, we’ve also invested considerable resources and effort to deal with the potential competition from HSBC.”

Ho Sin Hang’s eyes suddenly lit up, and he added with a smile, “Also, we might as well be bold and demand that Standard Chartered use its own connections and influence in the Hong Kong financial world to secure banknote-issuing rights for the Bank of East Asia.

“You know, banknote-issuing rights are an important symbol of a bank’s status and strength. As one of the top financial giants in Hong Kong, if the Bank of East Asia doesn’t even have the right to issue banknotes, how can we demonstrate our dominant position in Hong Kong’s financial sector and our considerable market influence!”

Chapter 657: An Exorbitant Demand

In Hong Kong, the right to issue banknotes was a very special privilege.

Since the city’s rise, banknote-issuing rights had always been held by British-owned banks. The purpose was to serve the needs of Britain’s colonial trade and seek the greatest possible benefit for the nation; naturally, such power could not be held in anyone else’s hands.

For instance, when Standard Chartered Bank obtained its banknote-issuing qualification in 1862, it primarily served to finance trade between China and Britain. This arrangement reflected Hong Kong’s colonial economic structure as a trading hub in the Far East.

Throughout Hong Kong’s more than one-hundred-year colonial history, only three banks had ever held banknote-issuing rights: HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, and Mercantile Bank.

Both Standard Chartered Bank and Mercantile Bank received the authority to issue Hong Kong dollar banknotes in 1862, just twenty-one years after Hong Kong became a port.

As for HSBC, a local bank founded only in 1865, it obtained its banknote-issuing rights in that same year.

However, as a bank headquartered in Hong Kong, HSBC quickly received the greatest support and gradually became the city’s largest bank.

Mercantile Bank was acquired by HSBC in 1959. Due to its continued poor performance and decline, its banknote-issuing rights were revoked by the Hong Kong government in 1974.

In other words, to this day, only two banks in Hong Kong still held the right to issue banknotes.

The benefits of possessing banknote-issuing rights were countless.

Take the cost of funds, for example. By issuing currency, a banknote-issuing bank could directly obtain interest-free or low-interest liabilities, namely the cash in circulation.

This was equivalent to opening a channel for the bank to acquire low-cost capital, greatly reducing its operational costs.

From a credit perspective, a banknote-issuing bank could not print money at will. Its issuance had to be backed by solid reserve assets (such as foreign exchange, gold, etc.), and the entire process was under the strict supervision of a central bank or monetary authority.

This mechanism essentially bound the bank’s credit tightly to that of the nation or region.

Taking Hong Kong as an example, banknote-issuing banks must have US dollar reserves to issue Hong Kong dollars, meaning the currency’s credit was directly equivalent to the stability of Hong Kong’s linked exchange rate system.

As a result, the bank’s own international credit rating would naturally rise with the tide, and its status and influence in the international financial market would also be significantly enhanced.

Furthermore, as the entity responsible for currency issuance, a banknote-issuing bank needed to maintain close collaboration with the central bank or monetary authority.

In this process, the bank could gain the “right to know” and the “right to advise” on policy formulation, allowing it to anticipate policy directions, plan for its own development, and even influence policy-making to a certain extent, creating a more favorable environment for itself.

One could say that once a bank possessed banknote-issuing rights, it was like obtaining a golden key to success, with a multitude of benefits.

Banks like HSBC and Standard Chartered had always enjoyed high market shares and status in Hong Kong, and their banknote-issuing rights played a crucial role in this.

Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible for the Bank of East Asia to obtain banknote-issuing rights!

After all, the Bank of East Asia was not a British-owned bank and did not have deep ties with the British-dominated financial landscape of Hong Kong.

For a long time, the banknote-issuing rights in Hong Kong had been firmly controlled by British-owned banks. This was an economic privilege system left over from the colonial era, designed to protect Britain’s colonial interests and trade advantages in Hong Kong.

As a representative of Chinese-owned banks, the Bank of East Asia had already begun to make its mark in Hong Kong’s financial world, but the difficulty of breaking this traditional structure was imaginable.

However, if they could leverage the profound background and powerful influence of Standard Chartered Bank, the Bank of East Asia might have a very high chance of obtaining banknote-issuing rights in Hong Kong.

Standard Chartered Bank was a top-tier financial institution in Britain, and the financial group behind it wielded immense power in both British politics and business.

If the financial group behind Standard Chartered were willing to step in and mediate at the British government level, the matter of banknote-issuing rights for a bank in a colony like Hong Kong would not be a difficult affair.

Once things were settled on the British side, it would only take a single directive from the Hong Kong Government House to finalize it.

After all, although Government House had a degree of independence, it primarily followed directives from Britain. On major issues involving the core economic interests of the colony, such as a bank’s banknote-issuing rights, it was very difficult for Government House to go against the will of the British government.

Lin Haoran nodded, expressing his strong support for the suggestion Ho Sin Hang had proposed.

Once the Bank of East Asia obtained banknote-issuing rights, the benefits would be immense.

“Also, Haoran, there’s something else I’d like to discuss with you. I hope you can take this opportunity to acquire Hang Seng Bank. Hang Seng Bank is my life’s work. Although I’ve already resigned from my position there, it was still a bank that I watched grow step by step. I have a very deep emotional attachment to it.

“Moreover, Hang Seng Bank has always had an excellent reputation in Hong Kong. Acquiring it would definitely not be a loss for the Bank of East Asia. It would only make us stronger.

“I always felt a great sense of regret watching it slowly get infiltrated by British capital and eventually acquired, turning it from a purely Chinese-owned bank. Now that HSBC’s own situation is a bit precarious, this might just be the perfect time for us to make a move!” Ho Sin Hang suggested again with sincerity.

Hearing Ho Sin Hang’s words, Lin Haoran smiled.

How could this old statesman possibly let go of his obsession with Hang Seng Bank so easily?

Therefore, Lin Haoran understood his proposal very well.

Since that was the case, he might as well fulfill the old man’s wish. Besides, acquiring Hang Seng Bank did indeed have numerous potential benefits for the Bank of East Asia.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, his gaze firm yet gentle. “Uncle He, I understand your feelings,” he said. “Hang Seng Bank is the culmination of your life’s work. With HSBC’s current precarious situation, this is indeed a rare opportunity. Taking this chance to acquire Hang Seng Bank would not only strengthen the Bank of East Asia but also fulfill a long-held wish of yours. I will naturally give it my full support.”

A hint of relief and gratitude flashed in Ho Sin Hang’s eyes.

If the Bank of East Asia really did successfully acquire Hang Seng Bank, it would be as if Hang Seng Bank was once again under his, Ho Sin Hang’s, stewardship. For him, this would be akin to mending a regret in his heart.

A slight smile touched the corners of Ho Sin Hang’s mouth. “Haoran, with those words, I can rest easy. Although Hang Seng Bank isn’t as large as HSBC or the Bank of East Asia today, it has unique advantages in financial services for small and medium-sized enterprises and its local customer base.

“As long as we integrate it properly after the acquisition, we can definitely achieve a result where one plus one is greater than two. Hang Seng Bank is like my child; I know every inch of it. After the acquisition, I will certainly help the Bank of East Asia integrate it perfectly to realize its even greater value.”

“Uncle He, I believe you!” Lin Haoran smiled. This short sentence was enough to make Ho Sin Hang feel his complete trust.

“However, we’re proposing so many conditions. Standard Chartered won’t agree to all of them. They have their own considerations, after all. But as long as we can seize upon the interests they care about most, there will be room for negotiation,” Ho Sin Hang continued his analysis, frowning slightly with a solemn expression.

Lin Haoran nodded. The conditions they had come up with were already numerous, and each was more outrageous than the last. It was possible that Standard Chartered’s Taipan would be so incensed he’d start fuming and storm out on the spot.

Of course, everyone knew that negotiations were a war of attrition. It required sufficient patience and strategy to gain the maximum benefit in this game.

Moreover, neither side was fully prepared this time; it was merely a preliminary probe. There would inevitably be more in-depth confrontations to follow.

No one would reveal their bottom line right away, and Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang were well aware of this.

“The banknote-issuing rights and the acquisition of Hang Seng Bank must be our bottom line. We can’t retreat a single step. As for the other conditions, we can be flexible. If Standard Chartered won’t even budge on these two points, then there’s no need to continue the discussion.

“I think they should also carefully calculate the interests at stake here. If they stubbornly refuse to concede, hmph, I would rather let HSBC remain independent than give them any chance to get their hands on it!” Lin Haoran said with a slight curl of his lips.

When Ho Sin Hang heard Lin Haoran make the acquisition of Hang Seng Bank a necessary condition, he couldn’t help but look at him with gratitude.

As long as Hang Seng Bank could break away from HSBC and return to Chinese ownership, he felt that his years of regret would be remedied.

Having come to an agreement, the two returned to Taipan Brown.

Lin Haoran looked composed as he spoke first. “Mr. Brown, after some discussion, we do have some thoughts on this collaboration. If Standard Chartered Bank can meet our conditions, we wouldn’t mind joining hands with you to advance your acquisition of HSBC.”

Brown’s eyes lit up. He leaned forward slightly and said eagerly, “Please, Mr. Lin, tell me. As long as it is within our power, Standard Chartered Bank will do its utmost to meet your conditions.”

Lin Haoran smiled faintly, his expression calm and confident as he spoke in a methodical manner. “First, regarding overseas business expansion, we hope Standard Chartered Bank can form a strategic cooperative partnership with the Bank of East Asia.

“In the layout of business in promising emerging markets such as Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East, our two sides should advance hand in hand, support each other, and share resources to help the Bank of East Asia achieve its internationalization smoothly.”

Brown frowned slightly, rubbing his chin gently. After a moment of thought, he slowly said, “Mr. Lin, we can certainly take this proposal into consideration. Standard Chartered Bank has been cultivating the international market for many years and has indeed accumulated certain resources and channels. We don’t have major objections to sharing resources.

“However, the competitive landscape in these emerging markets is complex. Specific details of the cooperation, such as the business model, profit distribution, and risk allocation, will require further in-depth discussion to ensure that the interests of both parties are fully protected.”

Although Standard Chartered Bank had a certain strength and foundation in overseas markets like South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa, the financial landscape in these regions was complex. They were not in a position of absolute dominance and faced many strong competitors.

Therefore, the Bank of East Asia’s entry into these markets would not cause them any substantial loss of interest. On the contrary, they might be able to leverage the Bank of East Asia’s strength to jointly develop the market and achieve mutual benefits.

Lin Haoran nodded and continued, “Second, during the acquisition process, Standard Chartered Bank must provide the Bank of East Asia with a certain amount of financial compensation. After all, the Bank of East Asia has invested considerable resources and effort to deal with the potential competition from HSBC.”

Brown’s expression turned a little grave. Although no specific figure had been mentioned for the financial compensation, it was bound to be a substantial sum. But he also understood that the opportunity to acquire HSBC was rare. If successful, Standard Chartered’s position in Hong Kong would be greatly enhanced.

He hesitated for a moment before saying, “Mr. Lin, I will need to report the matter of financial compensation to our headquarters, but I will do my best to fight for it.”

The corners of Lin Haoran’s mouth lifted into a confident smile. “Third, and most crucially, Standard Chartered Bank must use its connections and influence in the political and business circles of Britain and Hong Kong to secure banknote-issuing rights for the Bank of East Asia.”

Hearing this condition, Brown couldn’t help but draw a sharp breath.

Banknote-issuing rights had always been a core privilege in Hong Kong’s financial sector, firmly held by British-owned banks.

Although Standard Chartered was influential in British political and business circles, securing this right for the Bank of East Asia would be no easy feat.

He said with a wry smile, “Mr. Lin, this condition is extremely difficult. The banknote-issuing rights involve the stability of Hong Kong’s financial system and the balance of interests of all parties. The British government and the Hong Kong financial authorities may not agree so easily.”

Lin Haoran had anticipated Brown’s reaction. He said calmly, “Mr. Brown, we understand the difficulty of this condition, but it is also one of our bottom lines for this cooperation.

“If Standard Chartered Bank cannot even secure banknote-issuing rights for us, then the significance of this cooperation for the Bank of East Asia will be greatly diminished. After all, you are very well aware of how much your bank stands to gain if you successfully acquire HSBC. Naturally, our Bank of East Asia must also gain sufficient benefits.”

Brown fell into deep thought. He understood the importance of this cooperation to Standard Chartered, but the conditions Lin Haoran proposed were indeed harsh.

After weighing the pros and cons for a long time, he finally spoke. “Mr. Lin, I will report your conditions to headquarters exactly as you’ve stated. However, I hope your bank can also consider our position and show some flexibility and concession in our cooperation.”

Lin Haoran nodded. “That’s natural. Cooperation is a process of mutual compromise and mutual achievement. As long as Standard Chartered shows sufficient sincerity, our Bank of East Asia will make corresponding adjustments.”

Brown stood up and shook hands with Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang respectively. “Mr. Lin, Mr. Ho, thank you for your frankness. I will communicate with headquarters as soon as possible and strive to give you a reply at the earliest date.”

“Don’t be in such a hurry, I’m not finished yet!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Hearing this, Brown’s expression soured.

The first few conditions were enough to show him Lin Haoran’s exorbitant demands, but he didn’t expect the other party to still be unsatisfied after proposing them!

He suppressed his inner displeasure, forced a smile, and said, “Mr. Lin, please continue. I’m all ears.”

Lin Haoran spoke calmly and unhurriedly, “Fourth, you can have HSBC for your acquisition, but we want Hang Seng Bank!

“Mr. Brown, you must be aware that Hang Seng Bank was founded single-handedly by Mr. Ho Sin Hang. Back then, it was acquired by HSBC through some unsavory means.

“Now, Mr. Ho Sin Hang wishes for Hang Seng Bank to return to his own fold. This is merely taking back what was rightfully his. It’s not an excessive demand, whether by reason or sentiment, is it?”

Brown’s brows furrowed tightly, and he cursed inwardly.

Hang Seng Bank was an important part of HSBC. Especially as HSBC’s market share continued to shrink, Hang Seng Bank’s market share became even more crucial.

Now that Lin Haoran was proposing to hive off Hang Seng Bank to the Bank of East Asia, it was undoubtedly like carving a piece of flesh from HSBC, and it would greatly diminish the strength of Standard Chartered after the acquisition.

Brown took a deep breath, trying to keep his tone calm. “Mr. Lin, Hang Seng Bank occupies an important position in HSBC’s business system. If it is separated, it will have a huge impact on the integration and development after the acquisition. This condition… I’m afraid headquarters will find it very difficult to agree to.”

Lin Haoran had expected this. The corners of his mouth curved up into a relaxed smile as he said slowly, “Mr. Brown, I completely understand the difficulties you face. But for Mr. Ho Sin Hang, Hang Seng Bank is the fruit of his life’s heart and soul; its significance is beyond words.

“For us at the Bank of East Asia, it is also a key part of strengthening our own power and perfecting our business layout. Moreover, without this condition regarding Hang Seng Bank, our motivation and enthusiasm for this cooperation will certainly be greatly reduced.

“Once our side loses interest and the will to push the cooperation forward, I’m afraid your bank’s plan to acquire HSBC will be very difficult to carry out successfully.”

In fact, that was true. Given HSBC’s current situation, saving it could be decided with a single word from Lin Haoran.

If he intended for HSBC to continue to survive independently, then no matter what tricks, obstacles, or even backstabbing Standard Chartered employed, they would never succeed in acquiring it.

Not only that, but such actions would only turn the potential partnership between HSBC and Standard Chartered into an irreconcilable rivalry between arch-nemeses!

Ho Sin Hang also spoke up from the side. “Mr. Brown, Hang Seng Bank is my life’s work. I have always been unwilling to accept its improper acquisition by HSBC back then. Now that the Bank of East Asia and Standard Chartered have an opportunity to cooperate, I hope to use it to get Hang Seng Bank back on the right track.”

Brown frowned, thought for a moment, then said, “Mr. Lin, Mr. Ho, I will also report this condition in detail to headquarters, but I really cannot guarantee whether they will accept it.

“Moreover, even if headquarters agrees, the process of separating and handing over Hang Seng Bank during the acquisition will involve many complex legal and financial issues that will require joint negotiation and resolution by both parties.”

Lin Haoran nodded. “Mr. Brown, rest assured. As long as your bank is sincere about cooperating, we can sit down and discuss these specific issues slowly.

“Our Bank of East Asia has always upheld the philosophy of cooperation and mutual benefit. I believe that as long as both sides are frank with each other, we will definitely find a solution acceptable to both.”

Brown stood up and shook hands with Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang again. “Mr. Lin, Mr. Ho, thank you for your frankness and patience. I will report all the conditions to headquarters as soon as possible and strive to give you a clear answer in the shortest possible time.”

“Mr. Brown, why don’t you stay for dinner? I’ve already asked the kitchen to prepare a meal,” Lin Haoran said with a smile upon seeing him about to leave.

“No, thank you, Mr. Lin. Thank you for your hospitality. I need to get back immediately and report to headquarters, so I won’t stay any longer. I will definitely visit again as soon as I have definite news,” Brown declined, a hint of urgency in his eyes. He clearly wanted to convey the situation here to the London headquarters as soon as possible.

Lin Haoran didn’t insist. He nodded slightly. “Very well, Mr. Brown. I won’t keep you then. I hope your bank will carefully consider our conditions. I also believe that Standard Chartered would not want to miss such a good opportunity to rise. I look forward to our future cooperation.”

After shaking hands with Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang once more, Brown left in a hurry.

Watching Brown’s departing figure, Lin Haoran frowned and said, “Uncle He, do you think Standard Chartered will agree to our conditions? Especially the one about Hang Seng Bank. They seemed very troubled by it.”

Although Hang Seng Bank’s market share had also suffered considerably due to the Bank of East Asia’s expansion, its capital was still over ten billion Hong Kong dollars. Coupled with its reputation and influence in Hong Kong, it was not something that could be easily discarded.

What’s more, Standard Chartered’s acquisition of HSBC was aimed at expanding its own territory in the Hong Kong financial market. Hang Seng Bank was undoubtedly a crucial piece in this grand chess game. How could they give it up so easily?

If Hang Seng Bank remained in HSBC’s hands, then after successfully acquiring HSBC, Standard Chartered would very likely surpass the Bank of East Asia in market share, thereby making a comeback and becoming the Dragon Head Boss of Hong Kong’s financial world!

This was the fundamental reason why they were so concerned about losing Hang Seng Bank.

Giving up Hang Seng Bank meant that Standard Chartered would practically be giving up the title of Hong Kong’s number one in finance, which was already within their grasp.

Ho Sin Hang narrowed his eyes slightly, his expression calm but brimming with confidence. “Haoran, it’s inevitable that they’re concerned, but that just goes to show the importance of Hang Seng Bank in our negotiations.

“If Standard Chartered wants to acquire HSBC smoothly, they must make concessions on this matter. Our conditions may be harsh, but they are not without reason. If they want to achieve cooperation and mutual benefit, they must weigh the pros and cons.”

Lin Haoran nodded, but still said, “That may be so, but I’m still worried the negotiations will reach a stalemate. If Standard Chartered ultimately refuses, we’ll have wasted such a good opportunity.”

A confident smile appeared on Ho Sin Hang’s lips. “Haoran, you can set your mind at ease. They won’t refuse. They will definitely nod and agree in the end.”

“Oh? Uncle He, why are you so confident?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“If they don’t agree, it means they will miss this golden opportunity to acquire HSBC for nothing. In that case, their market share in Hong Kong will most likely remain lukewarm like it is now. They might even see their market share further eroded under the steady pressure from our Bank of East Asia.

“I don’t think they are so shortsighted as to not see the stakes involved. Besides, even if Standard Chartered doesn’t agree to our terms in the end, it’s not like we won’t have other chances to reacquire Hang Seng Bank.

“You know this too, Haoran. We have plenty of moves left to increase our market share. When that time comes, the market shares of both HSBC and Standard Chartered will surely shrink further. Who knows, HSBC might even come knocking on our door, begging us to be lenient!” As he spoke, Ho Sin Hang couldn’t help but laugh heartily.

Chapter 658: A Capital Scale of 100 Billion Hong Kong Dollars, 44% Market Share!

The terms proposed by the Bank of East Asia were extremely demanding, like a lion opening its great maw, and there was absolutely no way Standard Chartered Bank would agree to them easily.

Given the situation, it was highly unlikely that the two sides would reach an agreement in just a day or two.

However, Lin Haoran was not the least bit concerned.

In his view, neither HSBC nor Standard Chartered currently possessed the strength to compete with the Bank of East Asia in Hong Kong’s financial industry.

Therefore, even if Standard Chartered truly did acquire HSBC, he wouldn’t worry in the slightest.

The Bank of East Asia’s confidence stemmed from him, the richest man in Hong Kong. Backed by the multitude of companies under his name, the Bank of East Asia was already steady as a rock, in an invincible position.

Conversely, HSBC, despite once commanding the winds and clouds in the financial world and dominating Hong Kong, was ultimately beaten by the Bank of East Asia until it couldn’t even fight back.

Since HSBC had already fallen victim to his schemes, even if Standard Chartered acquired it and took its place, the Bank of East Asia could still rely on Lin Haoran’s power—which was at its zenith in Hong Kong’s business world—to maintain a firm grip on the vital throat of the city’s financial industry and occupy a crucial position.

Lin Haoran knew very well that the Government House would never allow him to monopolize Hong Kong’s financial industry; a monopoly was out of the question.

As such, Standard Chartered taking over HSBC’s market was merely adding a new piece to the chessboard of Hong Kong’s financial sector.

This new piece might stir up some waves and create a temporary storm, but as long as Lin Haoran, the richest man in Hong Kong, stood firm with a solid foundation, the Bank of East Asia’s position would be as unshakable as a great boulder, steady as a rock.

…

In the blink of an eye, two days passed, and it was now July 25th.

Today was Friday, and the stock market opened as scheduled.

Although the Government House had intervened in a timely manner, temporarily halting the sharp decline of HSBC’s stock price, without any substantial positive news to support it, the price struggled to gain any significant upward momentum.

Therefore, HSBC’s market capitalization was now fluctuating around nine billion Hong Kong dollars. Compared to its peak of over twenty-six billion Hong Kong dollars, it had shrunk to about a third of its former glory.

Due to Standard Chartered Bank’s sudden intervention, although no decision had been made yet, Lin Haoran knew that they would never miss this opportunity.

When the time came, if everything went as expected, Standard Chartered would use some other tactic to make HSBC crash completely, then seize the opportunity to acquire it.

At that point, the stock price would certainly collapse further.

For this reason, Lin Haoran had temporarily ordered Dai Shi to halt the plan to accumulate HSBC shares.

Despite this, Galaxy Securities had already accumulated about 3.2% of HSBC’s shares.

However, this small loss was trivial to Lin Haoran, and he didn’t care about it at all.

In any case, the purchase price for that 3.2% stake wasn’t particularly high.

In those short two days, although the Government House’s assistance had gradually calmed HSBC’s customers and people began to believe the bank would not face a capital chain rupture, thereby quelling the bank run, many customers still chose to transfer all their funds out of HSBC as a precaution.

After these funds were withdrawn, customers naturally preferred to deposit their money into the bank they considered the safest—the Bank of East Asia.

As a result, the Bank of East Asia’s various branches welcomed a new wave of customers. Savings deposits continued to climb, and its business showed steady growth.

On this day, Hong Kong’s financial industry unexpectedly fell into a rare state of tranquility.

As Lin Haoran read the day’s newspaper in the morning, he pondered silently.

With the exception of the Oriental Daily News, which continued its independent reporting and tracked developments related to HSBC, all other major media outlets seemed to have reached a tacit agreement to no longer mention HSBC.

Any discerning person could see that HSBC must have spent a huge sum of money on connections to suppress the news and silence the media.

After all, although HSBC had always acted domineeringly, how could it make so many major media outlets collectively choose silence and stop digging into the story without sufficient financial incentive?

As for the Oriental Daily News, everyone in Hong Kong knew its boss was Lin Haoran, so it was impossible for it to be bought off by his competitor.

After finishing breakfast and reading the newspaper, Lin Haoran took a car to the Bank of East Asia headquarters.

While passing through Des Voeux Road Central, Lin Haoran noticed a storefront on the ground floor of The Landmark undergoing intensive renovation. The sign was already installed, bearing the name “Bank of East Asia.” It was clearly a new branch preparing to open.

In front of the storefront were numerous neatly stacked boxes that had just arrived, filled with various banking machines and equipment, including advanced BACS transfer system devices from Britain.

Currently, all of the Bank of East Asia’s branches had successfully completed the installation of the BACS transfer system.

However, since the system had not yet undergone comprehensive testing, the transfer function was not yet available to the public.

But it was foreseeable that once the system passed testing, the Bank of East Asia would be able to provide convenient transfer-based salary payment services for the employees of Lin Haoran’s major companies.

At that time, the Bank of East Asia would gain another large wave of new customers.

Although some employees might initially feel a bit dissatisfied with this “mandatory” transfer method, over time, they would develop a sense of reliance and belonging to the Bank of East Asia.

After all, the Bank of East Asia today was no longer the bank it once was. As it gradually replaced HSBC, it would surely give these employees a greater sense of security.

Over time, these customers would naturally become loyal supporters of the Bank of East Asia.

And as the bank’s market share grew, the original number of branches was clearly becoming severely inadequate.

Although Dao Heng Bank had been acquired, the main business was still concentrated at the Bank of East Asia.

Therefore, the number of Bank of East Asia branches needed to be increased urgently.

The car finally came to a steady stop in the underground parking lot of the Bank of East Asia building.

Taking the elevator, Lin Haoran soon arrived at the Chairman’s office.

Inside, Ho Sin Hang was engrossed in writing something with a fountain pen.

Seeing Lin Haoran enter, he looked up and put down his pen.

“Haoran, you’ve come at the perfect time. Let me tell you some good news!” Ho Sin Hang laughed heartily.

“Oh? Let me guess, has Standard Chartered finally made a move?” Lin Haoran asked with a slight smile and a hint of playfulness.

“Haha, you guessed wrong this time! I won’t hide it from you. Mr. Guo Henian, Mr. Liu Luanxiong, Mr. Shao Yifu, and a host of other business tycoons, as well as your older brother—the funds from their companies and personal accounts have all been safely transferred from HSBC to our Bank of East Asia.

In just these past two days, our bank’s capital scale has surged by 28.64 billion Hong Kong dollars! Barring any surprises, our Bank of East Asia’s capital scale in Hong Kong has now certainly surpassed HSBC’s.

Even if you include Hang Seng Bank, the combined capital scale of those two wouldn’t be able to compete with us!” Ho Sin Hang laughed with excitement, his eyes filled with pride.

“Oh? I remember the figure being 27.3 billion Hong Kong dollars, if I’m not mistaken?” Lin Haoran frowned slightly, a flicker of confusion in his eyes.

“That’s right, the total funds from those dozen or so business tycoons who transferred their money was indeed 27.3 billion Hong Kong dollars,” Ho Sin Hang quickly explained, a confident smile on his face.

“However, HSBC has been hit pretty hard by this whole affair. Many of its customers grew worried and chose to withdraw their funds from HSBC and deposit them with us. In the last two days, these customers have brought in over a billion Hong Kong dollars in new funds for our bank!

And HSBC didn’t dare to stop these transfers. They’re in a sensitive period right now. If they were to refuse a customer’s transfer request, it would likely trigger another market panic, causing the bank run to return with a vengeance. The situation would spiral completely out of control.

So they could only watch helplessly as a large amount of capital flowed out, powerless to do anything about it,” Ho Sin Hang said with a shrug, a look of schadenfreude on his face.

Upon hearing this, a look of understanding flashed in Lin Haoran’s eyes.

“So, what is the current total capital scale of our Bank of East Asia?” Lin Haoran asked, somewhat curious.

“Including Dao Heng Bank, our capital scale has broken through one hundred billion Hong Kong dollars, reaching about 104.17 billion Hong Kong dollars. We can be said to be towering over the entire Hong Kong financial world!” Ho Sin Hang said with a smile as he handed Lin Haoran a data report.

“It’s already broken a hundred billion Hong Kong dollars!” Lin Haoran exclaimed, taking the report from Ho Sin Hang, feeling a great sense of pleasure.

The data report clearly displayed the Bank of East Asia’s most detailed financial situation, including total capital scale, loan volume, investments, cash reserves, and more.

The last financial data report on Hong Kong released by the Universal Research Company had shown that the Bank of East Asia’s capital scale had broken through seventy-five billion Hong Kong dollars.

In reality, the precise figure at that time was around 75.53 billion Hong Kong dollars.

The fact that the Universal Research Company could infer a figure so close to the real one based on limited data was a testament to its astonishing professionalism and keen insight in the field of financial data research.

If this were the twenty-first century, it wouldn’t be surprising for a research firm to achieve such accurate results using advanced tools like supercomputers and AI data models.

However, this was the early 1980s, a time when computer technology was still relatively backward, and data research relied more on the close cooperation of professional teams and traditional technical means.

It was for this reason that Cui Zilong had shown such a strong interest in the Universal Research Company at the time.

Lin Haoran naturally had no objection to an acquisition and decisively had Cui Zilong begin the process of acquiring the company.

The final result was that the Universal Research Company was acquired for a mere three million Hong Kong dollars.

From then on, the Universal Research Company became a subsidiary of the Oriental Press Group.

“Indeed. Who would have thought that our Chinese-owned bank could break the one hundred billion Hong Kong dollar capital scale mark, surpassing HSBC, the long-standing, deeply entrenched hegemon that has occupied the top seat in Hong Kong’s financial world for years.

Even now, I still feel like this is a dream. I can hardly believe it’s real!” Ho Sin Hang said, his face full of emotion and his tone filled with wonder.

In Hong Kong’s financial industry, especially banking, HSBC was practically a monopoly.

There were hundreds of banking enterprises in Hong Kong’s financial world, and the competition was exceptionally fierce.

But despite this, just two months ago, HSBC and its subsidiaries held a staggering 60% market share. The other several hundred financial companies combined were no match for HSBC!

One could imagine just how high HSBC’s standing in Hong Kong used to be.

Whenever finance was mentioned, the first thing that came to mind was HSBC.

But now, the Bank of East Asia had surpassed it. It was simply preposterous, truly unbelievable!

“I wonder what HSBC’s capital scale is down to now?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“They haven’t released their data, so we don’t know for sure. However, based on the data for HSBC in the last report from the Universal Research Company, we can make a rough guess. The current capital scale of HSBC and its subsidiary banks should be less than seventy-five billion Hong Kong dollars!

In other words, we have completely left HSBC behind, achieving a major breakthrough for Chinese-owned banks in the history of Hong Kong finance,” Ho Sin Hang’s voice was full of emotion and pride, as if he had personally witnessed the birth of a legend.

Lin Haoran nodded gently, his gaze profound, seemingly contemplating the more distant future.

“Indeed, this leap is not just a victory in numbers, but an affirmation of our Bank of East Asia’s strength and strategy! Next, if we can successfully bring Hang Seng Bank under our banner, our capital scale will surely reach new heights.

At that point, even if Standard Chartered succeeds in acquiring HSBC, they will be no match for us. Then, the Bank of East Asia’s position in the top seat of Hong Kong’s financial world will be a sure thing!” Lin Haoran laughed.

Although Standard Chartered Bank had yet to respond, it was clear they were struggling with the decision.

Lin Haoran’s side naturally wouldn’t rush them, as that would only make them appear anxious and desperate, causing them to lose the upper hand.

He knew that in business games, patience and composure were often the keys to victory.

As for the possibility of Standard Chartered choosing not to cooperate with them?

Neither Lin Haoran nor Ho Sin Hang thought it was possible.

If Standard Chartered wanted to acquire HSBC, they simply couldn’t bypass the Bank of East Asia.

Because, unless HSBC was at the brink of life and death, the forces behind it would never sell the bank.

Moreover, if Standard Chartered wanted to backstab HSBC and cause it to suffer heavy losses, it would be impossible to succeed without the Bank of East Asia’s cooperation.

This was also why Standard Chartered had taken the initiative to seek a meeting with Lin Haoran and request cooperation.

It could be said that the Bank of East Asia was now in an unassailable position, simply waiting for Standard Chartered to make its choice.

And no matter how Standard Chartered weighed the pros and cons, it would ultimately be unable to escape its destined entanglement with the Bank of East Asia.

Ho Sin Hang sat behind his large desk, his fingers tapping gently on the tabletop, his eyes revealing the confidence of a master strategist.

At this moment, he was happy with his decision to join the Bank of East Asia.

It was definitely a wise choice.

Managing a bank with a capital scale of over one hundred billion Hong Kong dollars was something he wouldn’t have dared to dream of before.

At its peak, his former Hang Seng Bank had a capital scale of just over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars.

Now, the scale of the bank he managed had multiplied several times over.

Although no organization had compiled statistics, with a capital scale this large, it should rank among the top thirty in the world!

And, based on his current understanding of the Bank of East Asia, this capital scale was only going to grow!

Whether it was the highly probable future acquisition of Hang Seng Bank or the implementation of salary payments via bank transfer, these were all methods that could further increase the Bank of East Asia’s capital scale.

“Standard Chartered’s headquarters in Britain must be arguing themselves blue over this acquisition, probably countless times by now. I really hope they can make a decision soon. We have no chance of acquiring HSBC; the Government House would never approve it.

That being the case, we might as well leverage Standard Chartered’s ambition to secure more tangible benefits for ourselves. I’m just hoping for a result soon. I’ve already made all the necessary preparations for the acquisition of Hang Seng Bank!” Ho Sin Hang couldn’t help but sigh.

He had founded and painstakingly managed Hang Seng Bank himself. If he could regain control, the joy he would feel would be indescribable, and he would naturally push for the acquisition with all his might.

Although Lin Haoran, not he, would be the ultimate boss of Hang Seng Bank even after the acquisition, he, as a professional manager, would be very happy to be able to continue managing it.

Lin Haoran smiled faintly, his eyes filled with certainty. “Go ahead and prepare for the Hang Seng Bank matter with full confidence. The Bank of East Asia is well-funded and powerful now; acquiring Hang Seng Bank is not a problem at all.

As for Standard Chartered, I don’t think they’ll drag it out for too long. They know that if they miss this opportunity, it will be incredibly difficult to make a mark in Hong Kong’s financial industry later on.”

Just as he was speaking, Lin Haoran’s mobile phone suddenly rang.

Lin Haoran checked the number; it was Cui Zilong.

“Hello, General Manager Cui, what is it?” Lin Haoran answered directly in front of Ho Sin Hang.

“Boss, there’s a matter here that requires your approval, so I’m reporting it to you,” Cui Zilong said.

“Mm, go ahead.”

Cui Zilong reported in a clear and organized manner: “It’s like this. General Manager Yu of the Universal Research Company, based on previously obtained data and combined with recent developments at the Bank of East Asia and HSBC, led his team to conduct another in-depth analysis and has come up with the latest market share analysis.

As you know, HSBC previously blacklisted Universal Research, forcing them to sell the company to us, so General Manager Yu holds a grudge against HSBC.

He plans to release another report on Hong Kong’s financial industry, partly to retaliate against HSBC’s past suppression and partly to use this opportunity to boost Universal Research’s reputation in the industry.

General Manager Yu believes the report will deeply analyze the current shifts in Hong Kong’s financial market landscape, especially the ebb and flow between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC.

He thinks the era of two dominant players is over, and we are now in a new pattern of one superpower, one major power, and many weaker ones. This content is sure to spark widespread discussion, and HSBC will inevitably suffer another heavy blow, while our Bank of East Asia can ride the wave to enhance our industry prestige.

This time, we don’t plan to hold a press conference. Instead, we’ll publish the report in the Oriental Daily News, which will also boost newspaper sales and give the Oriental Daily News greater influence.

However, publishing such a report may cause controversy and potential risks, especially regarding whether to disclose data about the Bank of East Asia. This requires your decision. So, I’m seeking your opinion first.”

Hearing this, a flicker of interest instantly appeared in Lin Haoran’s eyes, his curiosity piqued.

This General Manager Yu was quite an interesting person.

“Let’s not rush this. First, fax me a copy of their latest report so I can take a look. I’ll discuss it with Uncle He and get back to you!” Lin Haoran said with a smile after a moment of thought.

“Alright, Boss. I’ll fax it over to you right now!” Cui Zilong responded.

A few minutes after hanging up, Lin Haoran received a document sent by Cui Zilong via fax machine.

Ho Sin Hang had been listening on the side the whole time, so he naturally knew what was going on.

At this moment, he was also very curious to see what results the Universal Research Company had deduced without having been given the specific data.

He also wondered if their assessment of HSBC was similar to their own rough guess.

Holding the document, the two men eagerly began to read.

“It is projected that the total capital scale of the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank is approximately 103.8 billion Hong Kong dollars, occupying about 44.2% of the market share in Hong Kong’s banking industry;

The total capital scale of HSBC and Hang Seng Bank is approximately 73.9 billion Hong Kong dollars, occupying about 31.5% of the market share in Hong Kong’s banking industry.”

This was the final conclusion reached by the Universal Research Company. As for the specific process, the two men naturally didn’t have time to study it in detail.

“103.8 billion Hong Kong dollars… To be able to project with this level of accuracy without knowing the real data is already very impressive!” Ho Sin Hang exclaimed with emotion.

Lying on the desk was a data report showing the capital scale of the Bank of East Asia and its subsidiary Dao Heng Bank at 104.17 billion Hong Kong dollars. The margin of error was less than 400 million Hong Kong dollars!

“In that case, the margin of error for HSBC probably isn’t very large either. We’ve actually surpassed HSBC by so much!” As the boss, Lin Haoran was naturally in an exceptionally good mood. The corners of his mouth turned up unconsciously into a confident and pleased smile.

So, he could be considered a Hong Kong financial tycoon now, couldn’t he!

“The rise of the Bank of East Asia has been nothing short of astonishing!” Ho Sin Hang sighed with a smile.

“Indeed. Our bank’s market share has already risen to 44%. To think that when I first became a shareholder, its market share was only around 3%,” Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a sense of wonder.

It all felt like a dream.

At this moment, Ho Sin Hang was also full of confidence. He felt that this was another major step forward for the Bank of East Asia in its journey to becoming an international banking giant!

“Uncle He, what do you think? Should we let the Oriental Daily News publish this?” Lin Haoran asked.

Chapter 659: Standard Chartered Bank’s Bottom Line

If the fact that the Bank of East Asia had now surpassed HSBC was not made public, in the perception of the average citizen, HSBC would still be the number one bank in Hong Kong.

In the business world, factors like reputation, influence, and public perception are like invisible assets that can bring a company unexpectedly rich benefits.

These intangible values not only concern a company’s brand image but can also be tangibly converted into practical benefits such as business expansion, customer trust, and increased market share.

Now that the Bank of East Asia had become Hong Kong’s number one bank through its own strength, wasn’t letting HSBC continue to hold that title simply giving them a free ride?

Ho Sin Hang had been in charge of Hang Seng Bank for many years, weathering many storms in the sea of commerce, so he naturally understood the rules of the industry.

He was perfectly clear that he absolutely could not allow HSBC to continue enjoying the many benefits and dividends of its former title as the top bank after it had already lost its market advantage.

At this moment, he no longer had any feelings for HSBC, only a heart full of hatred.

He remembered how Hang Seng Bank’s development had been at its zenith, with unstoppable momentum, only to be unscrupulously and forcefully acquired by HSBC.

After the acquisition, HSBC still appointed Ho Sin Hang as Chairman, not out of kindness, but because they understood his crucial importance to Hang Seng Bank!

Ho Sin Hang was like the spiritual pillar of Hang Seng Bank; only with him there could the bank continue to operate.

After all, Hang Seng Bank was the crystallization of his life’s heart and soul. Even after being acquired, he couldn’t let it go and only wanted to continue managing it well.

However, over the years, HSBC had been like a greedy vampire.

Whenever Hang Seng Bank showed signs of reaching a new level or achieving a major breakthrough, HSBC would use its deeply rooted position as the financial hegemon in Hong Kong and its status as the parent company to unscrupulously suppress it, brazenly squeezing profits from Hang Seng Bank and ruthlessly cutting off its hopes for further development time and time again.

Otherwise, with Ho Sin Hang’s abilities, how could Hang Seng Bank have been confined to the small market of Hong Kong for so long?

“We must let the market and the public know that a new order has formed in Hong Kong’s financial world, and the Bank of East Asia is the undisputed leader!

“Why has HSBC been number one for so many years, attracting so many citizens to entrust their funds and business to it? Isn’t it mainly because they think HSBC is the largest bank, and such a large bank is bound to be more reliable?” Ho Sin Hang continued.

Lin Haoran nodded. He understood what Ho Sin Hang meant.

In the business world, it was not good for a company to develop in a low-key manner. Instead, it should show its hand at the right time and publicize its strengths and achievements.

After all, in an era of information explosion, even the finest wine is feared when hidden deep in an alley.

If a company were to always hide its strengths, no matter how powerful it was, it might be drowned out by the noise of the market, unable to gain the recognition and returns it deserved.

For the past two months, the business warfare between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia had been a hot topic. Although this conflict had shown many people the growing strength of the Bank of East Asia, and the bank had gained a lot of recognition as a result, this recognition was ultimately short-term.

Once the hype from the business war faded, in the public’s subconscious, the Bank of East Asia would still be considered inferior to HSBC.

This deeply rooted perception had a huge impact. If they didn’t take the initiative to publicize the facts, it would be difficult to change the public’s inherent mindset. Therefore, the Bank of East Asia had to act and correct the citizens’ perception.

It was like when consumers buy certain products. Even if they know that big-name products are expensive, they still prioritize the big brands.

This is because, in their minds, a big brand means more reliability, better quality assurance, more thoughtful after-sales service, and so on!

Now that the Bank of East Asia had taken the throne as Hong Kong’s number one bank, why should they continue to hide it?

“Uncle He, you’ve really hit the nail on the head! The Bank of East Asia has risen strongly and become the new hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial world. We should generously spread this news through every street and alley, making it clear to everyone that Hong Kong’s financial landscape has been turned upside down!

“Now is not the era of British-funded conglomerates dominating and calling the shots. It’s the time for our Chinese-funded conglomerates to hold our heads high and lead the way!

“We need to show the citizens of Hong Kong that Chinese-owned banks are also incredibly strong and fully qualified to sit on the throne of Hong Kong’s number one bank!

“In terms of strength and management ability, our Chinese-owned banks are top-notch, even more reliable and trustworthy than those self-proclaimed extraordinary major British-owned firms!” Lin Haoran said, letting out a hearty laugh.

Back when Lin Haoran first took control of the Bank of East Asia, HSBC had used unfair means against them, which once pushed the Bank of East Asia into a bank run.

Now, it was finally time to hold their heads high. Naturally, they had to settle old scores and let HSBC have a taste of being shunned by the market and criticized by public opinion.

Although most mainstream newspapers had been temporarily bought off by HSBC and had greatly reduced negative reports about it, this was merely a stopgap measure.

Lin Haoran naturally understood that HSBC could not maintain this kind of bribery for long.

After all, Lin Haoran was the largest shareholder of Hong Kong’s number one television station, Wireless Television. Although he wasn’t in charge of the station, he still had a certain voice. Chairman Shao Yifu couldn’t possibly not give him favor!

And the Oriental Daily News, Hong Kong’s best-selling newspaper, was also Lin Haoran’s private property.

So, even if all other media outlets went silent, HSBC couldn’t dream of continuing to hide the sky with one hand in the public opinion sphere.

Besides, how could those other media outlets willingly watch the Oriental Daily News monopolize the market’s traffic and be in the limelight?

Such behavior could not last long.

The media, by its very nature, survives on traffic. Without traffic, what kind of media would it be? How could it sustain its operations, attract advertisers, and ensure the livelihood of its employees?

Therefore, HSBC’s attempt to manipulate public opinion by buying off a few mainstream newspapers was nothing more than drinking poison to quench thirst.

Take today, for example. While the major newspapers were silent about HSBC’s negative news, it unexpectedly made a star out of the Oriental Daily News, causing its sales to soar and allowing it to make a huge profit from all the traffic.

Looked at this way, the move HSBC thought was so clever had instead given the Oriental Daily News quite a few benefits. It was truly a plan that backfires spectacularly.

Lin Haoran placed the report on his desk, picked up his mobile phone, and called Cui Zilong back.

Since the decision had been made, there was no need to delay. It was better to reply to them sooner so they could prepare.

“Boss.”

“Yes. Since Universal Research Company is going to release a report on Hong Kong’s financial industry, then let them release it. Uncle He and I both support you. The Bank of East Asia can also take this opportunity to expand its influence!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Okay, Boss, I understand. I’ll make the arrangements right away. If all goes well, tomorrow morning’s Oriental Daily News will feature this detailed report on Hong Kong’s financial industry in the form of multiple articles!” Cui Zilong said, a little excited.

“Alright, go ahead!”

After hanging up, the office fell silent for a moment.

After a while, Ho Sin Hang spoke slowly, his voice tinged with emotion, “Haoran, I have to thank you!”

Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback, then replied with a smile, “Uncle He, what are you saying? I should be the one thanking you. Thank you for being willing to come to the Bank of East Asia and lend me a hand!”

“I am thanking you for giving me, at the age of 81, the opportunity to be in charge of Hong Kong’s most powerful bank, allowing me to see the dawn of my lifelong dream!” Ho Sin Hang’s eyes shone, as if he had returned to the passionate years when he fought for his career in finance.

At 81, he should have been enjoying his retirement.

But a fire still burned within him. How could he just give up?

Hang Seng Bank was like a long and complicated bond that had consumed the later half of his life’s energy, yet it had failed to fulfill his heart’s desire.

Now, having painfully bid farewell to Hang Seng Bank, he was shocked to find that the drive in his bones had not been worn away by the years. Instead, on the new stage of the Bank of East Asia, it burned hotter than ever, like a raging fire!

Now, the Bank of East Asia had surpassed HSBC to become the number one bank in Hong Kong.

Not only that, but he even had a good chance of using the Bank of East Asia to acquire Hang Seng Bank.

All of this was simply unimaginable just two months ago.

…

Britain, The City of London. Opposite the Bank of England headquarters stood a skyscraper more than twenty stories high.

This building was the headquarters of Standard Chartered Bank, a name known to everyone in Hong Kong.

Although its headquarters was in London, Britain, Standard Chartered Bank was, in fact, a well-established international bank!

From its inception, it had pursued a path of globalization. In the 19th century, it had already opened markets in South Asia, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Japan, Africa, and other places. Over the following century, through a series of mergers and acquisitions, its business had spread to dozens of countries, covering almost all five oceans. It was a veritable multinational player.

When it came to internationalization, HSBC was at best a primary school student in front of it!

At this moment, in a luxurious and spacious conference room in the building, a heated discussion was underway.

Over the past two or three days, five or six meetings had already been held in this conference room.

But each time, they failed to reach a decision that satisfied all the senior executives.

Regarding the cooperation with the Bank of East Asia, they could not reach a consensus on their bottom line.

Without a consensus on their bottom line, it was difficult to negotiate with the Bank of East Asia.

After all, they themselves had not yet clarified the boundaries of what they were willing to concede and what they would stand firm on in the cooperation. Rushing into negotiations would likely lead to chaos and disorder, and might even allow the Bank of East Asia to exploit their weaknesses, putting them in a passive position in the subsequent partnership.

But the senior executives of Standard Chartered Bank were very clear in their hearts that this was a once-in-a-lifetime golden opportunity.

If they missed it, it would undoubtedly be an incalculable loss for Standard Chartered Bank.

As one of the most important financial centers in Asia and even the world, Hong Kong’s financial market held a key position and immense influence in the global economic landscape. The senior executives of Standard Chartered Bank were naturally well aware of this.

One could get a glimpse of this just from HSBC’s past capital scale.

In fact, the total capital scale of Standard Chartered Bank was roughly equivalent to the capital scale of HSBC, including its subsidiary Hang Seng Bank, in Hong Kong.

However, HSBC’s main market was limited to the corner of Hong Kong, while Standard Chartered Bank’s business footprint was spread across the globe.

The comparison made the difference obvious.

With just the small market of Hong Kong, HSBC had managed to achieve a capital scale and business volume that could rival the market share Standard Chartered Bank had accumulated in dozens of countries.

In the past, if Standard Chartered Bank had dreamed of acquiring HSBC, it would have been nothing short of overreaching.

But now, with HSBC mired in crisis, although the Government House had stepped in to try and stabilize the situation, Standard Chartered Bank, as one of the most important banks in Hong Kong’s financial sector, was perfectly clear about the situation.

As long as they found the right moment to deliver a fatal blow to HSBC from behind, HSBC would inevitably fall into a real capital chain rupture.

At that time, acquiring HSBC at a very low price would be anything but a fool’s dream.

But the conditions proposed by the Bank of East Asia were like sharp thorns, stabbing deep into the hearts of Standard Chartered’s senior executives and making them feel extremely troubled.

Whether it was demanding they hand over the international resources painstakingly accumulated over a hundred years to the Bank of East Asia, or demanding an astonishingly high amount of severance pay;

Whether it was asking them to use their influence to help the Bank of East Asia obtain the strategically significant banknote-issuing rights in Hong Kong, or proposing to hand Hang Seng Bank over to the Bank of East Asia, every condition was a core interest that Standard Chartered Bank found hard to part with. Each one was like a heavy boulder, crushing Standard Chartered’s senior executives and leaving them breathless.

And the Bank of East Asia had thrown out these four conditions at once. This was nothing short of making an exorbitant demand, how could Standard Chartered’s senior executives easily agree!

They wanted to make a move on HSBC without involving the Bank of East Asia, but everyone knew that was completely unrealistic. The current financial hegemon in Hong Kong was the Bank of East Asia. If they tried any tricks, the Bank of East Asia could foil their plans at any time.

Since they couldn’t avoid them, they could only cooperate and bring the Bank of East Asia in as a partner.

“These conditions are simply trying to push our Standard Chartered Bank to a dead end!” a senior executive slammed the table angrily, his face filled with rage and helplessness.

“Exactly. Our international resources are the foundation of our foothold in the global financial market, accumulated through years of hard work. The Bank of East Asia wants to use this opportunity to make us share our international resources, which is practically nurturing an international competitor for ourselves!” another senior executive said with a wry smile.

“And then there’s the condition of severance pay. Given their tendency to make exorbitant demands, they probably won’t be satisfied with anything less than one billion Hong Kong dollars. But once we at Standard Chartered try to acquire HSBC, even if we suppress HSBC to lower the acquisition cost, it will still be a considerable sum of money. At that point, our own funds will be insufficient. How will we have the money to compensate them!” a senior executive lamented.

The last two conditions were even more difficult, and they didn’t even mention them. But the first two alone were already hard for them to accept.

Securing banknote-issuing rights in Hong Kong for the Bank of East Asia—objectively speaking, Standard Chartered Bank did have the ability to do this.

After all, Standard Chartered Bank had deeply rooted and intertwined connections in Britain’s business and political circles, wielding considerable influence.

As long as they were willing to pay a sufficient price, getting banknote-issuing rights for a local bank in a colony wasn’t exactly preposterous.

However, the prerequisite was “sufficient付出,” and this “付出” (price) was precisely what they were most reluctant to part with.

In the end, this was a world where interests came first.

And for them to have to cede HSBC’s subsidiary, Hang Seng Bank, while secretly planning to acquire HSBC itself was as painful as having their heart cut out.

After all, in Hong Kong’s current financial market, Hang Seng Bank’s capital scale was comparable to the scale of Standard Chartered Bank’s business in Hong Kong.

Without the subsidiary Hang Seng Bank, even a successful acquisition of HSBC would be a huge loss for Standard Chartered Bank!

The atmosphere in the conference room grew heavier. The air seemed to have solidified, so oppressive it was hard to breathe.

The senior executives spoke one after another, but they could never find a solution that satisfied both sides.

“Are we really going to give up this golden opportunity to acquire HSBC just because of these harsh conditions from the Bank of East Asia?” a senior executive asked, his face full of unwillingness, his eyes revealing deep anxiety.

“HSBC is now a spent force. They don’t have much capital left on hand. If we just stab them in the back a few times, we can secure it at a very low price. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for us to expand our Hong Kong market and enhance our status in the Asian financial world. A market worth tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars is within our grasp!”

“But the Bank of East Asia’s conditions are too harsh. If we agree, it will be like crippling ourselves. The losses would be severe. We might even face a capital chain rupture ourselves before we’ve even finished digesting HSBC’s market,” another senior executive said with a frown, his voice full of worry.

“International resources, a huge amount of severance pay, banknote-issuing rights, and Hang Seng Bank. Which of these isn’t one of our core interests? Once we give any of them up, our Standard Chartered Bank will be in an extremely disadvantageous position in future competition,” an elderly man said.

The Chairman of the Board of Standard Chartered Group was Lord Derek Barber. This ultimate boss, who could be called the “helmsman” of Standard Chartered Bank, had taken the scepter from the former Chairman, Sir Cyril Hawker, shouldering the heavy responsibility of leading Standard Chartered Bank forward.

During his tenure, Lord Derek Barber held great responsibility, overseeing and formulating Standard Chartered Bank’s long-term strategic plans.

He was far-sighted, establishing the strategic direction for Standard Chartered Bank to increase its focus on overseas commercial banking as its core business, laying a solid foundation for the bank’s layout in the global financial market.

However, Lord Derek Barber was significantly different from HSBC’s Michael Sandberg.

Michael Sandberg had great autonomy at HSBC and could often make decisions quickly based on his personal judgment.

But Lord Derek Barber found it difficult to act with such freedom.

Standard Chartered Bank had a more complex and rigorous decision-making mechanism and considered multiple interests. Every decision required extensive deliberation and discussion.

This was why an issue could be discussed in meetings for two or three days without a precise decision being reached.

Lord Derek Barber looked at the chaotic mess in the conference room and sighed.

Now that the Standard Chartered Bank branch in Hong Kong had such an opportunity to expand its market share, he certainly did not want to miss it.

Even though HSBC had already had half its market gradually taken over by the Bank of East Asia, as the saying goes, “a lean camel is still bigger than a horse.” Its foundation and heritage remained.

As long as Standard Chartered Bank could successfully complete the acquisition of HSBC, its position in Hong Kong’s financial sector would surely see a qualitative leap, and it would have an immeasurably positive impact on the overall development of the Standard Chartered Group.

Although HSBC’s current capital scale had shrunk significantly compared to two months ago, the capital volume involved through its existing partners still amounted to tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars.

Even though most of these funds were currently outflowing as investments, loans, and other forms, leaving HSBC’s capital chain in a precarious state and unable to recall funds in the short term, forcing it to hope for help from external forces like Standard Chartered Bank and the Government House, as long as Standard Chartered Bank could grit its teeth through this difficult period, its future development prospects would surely be bright once the funds gradually flowed back, and it could hope to advance further in the financial markets of Hong Kong and beyond!

And a step further would put them on par with giants like Citibank.

Therefore, no one present wanted to miss this opportunity.

But if they agreed to all four conditions, the risk for them at Standard Chartered Bank was too great.

Their acquisition of HSBC was already a bit of a stretch, and the price they would have to pay would certainly not be small.

If they paid even more on the Bank of East Asia’s side, then Standard Chartered Bank was very likely to get bogged down in HSBC’s subsequent quagmire, and could even be dragged down.

“Everyone!” Lord Derek Barber suddenly spoke.

Instantly, the noisy discussions in the conference room came to a halt, and everyone’s eyes focused on Lord Derek Barber.

He slowly stood up, placed his hands on the conference table, and his gaze swept over every senior executive present.

“I understand everyone’s concerns. These four conditions are indeed like hot potatoes, making it difficult for us to choose. However, this is also a chance for our Standard Chartered Group to soar, one we have waited over a hundred years for. I don’t think anyone wants to miss it!” Lord Derek Barber said slowly.

As soon as he said this, many senior executives nodded unconsciously.

On this point, a consensus had already been reached among the senior executives.

Now, they were just worried that if they conceded too much, their Standard Chartered Group would also fall into crisis.

“Four conditions are indeed unacceptable to us, especially if we have to agree to all four. That’s something we absolutely cannot agree to. A single misstep could lead our Standard Chartered Bank to the same irreparable ruin as HSBC.

“But if you all keep arguing like this, you won’t reach a unified opinion. And HSBC won’t wait. What if HSBC finds a way to solve its capital chain rupture? Then our Standard Chartered Group will have missed such a great opportunity to rise!

“In that case, why don’t we try to communicate and negotiate further with the Bank of East Asia to see if we can make some compromises and adjustments on these conditions? Continuing to argue here won’t lead to a unified opinion!” Lord Derek Barber continued.

“Lord Derek Barber, please continue!” a trusted aide said at this moment.

“We absolutely cannot agree to all four conditions. But if we only agree to two of them, that concession should be within our acceptable range. It shouldn’t lead to a situation where, after we’ve given our all to acquire HSBC, a competitor seizes the opportunity to drag us into an abyss of irreparable ruin.

“And since all four conditions are causing everyone distress, making it hard to decide what to concede, why don’t we just give the decision-making power to the Bank of East Asia and let them choose two? That way, both sides can be considered to have made a concession. This bottom line, I think everyone should be able to accept, right?” Lord Derek Barber said, his eyes scanning the room.

As soon as he spoke, the people present started discussing among themselves.

“I’ll give everyone ten minutes to consider. After ten minutes, we’ll vote. The minority is subordinate to the majority!” Lord Derek Barber said again.

Time was waiting for no one, and Lord Derek Barber was unwilling to continue arguing like this.

Chapter 660: A New Hegemon Ascends the Throne, the Bank of East Asia is Officially Crowned Hong Kong’s Number One Bank!

Ten minutes passed quickly in the tense and oppressive atmosphere. The senior executives in the conference room whispered amongst themselves, weighing the pros and cons.

Most of Standard Chartered Bank’s senior executives represented the interests of the shareholders behind them.

Because of this, each executive essentially embodied the will of a major power.

After ten minutes, Lord Derek Barber cleared his throat. His gaze swept across the room as he announced, “Time is up. Let the voting begin.”

The executives raised their hands one by one to express their decisions.

Some directly supported Lord Derek Barber’s proposal, believing it to be the most viable solution at present.

Others appeared hesitant but ultimately followed the majority and raised their hands.

After a tally, the majority of the senior executives agreed with Lord Derek Barber’s proposal to let the Bank of East Asia choose two of the four conditions as the basis for their cooperation.

Lord Derek Barber nodded slightly, a small sense of relief washing over him. “Good. Since we’ve reached a consensus, we will proceed with this plan in our communications and negotiations with the Bank of East Asia. We must advance this matter as quickly as possible and not let this opportunity slip through our fingers.”

For Standard Chartered Bank, a delay of two or three days was already a waste of time.

Soon, the decision from Standard Chartered’s headquarters was relayed to Taipan Brown, head of the Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong Branch, far away in Hong Kong.

July 26th, morning.

Lin Haoran slept until he woke up naturally.

He glanced at the alarm clock on his bedside table. It was already eight-thirty in the morning.

He stretched his arms and got out of bed.

After brushing his teeth and washing his face, the servant had already prepared breakfast and the newspaper for him.

Lin Haoran first picked up the Oriental Daily News. His eyes were instantly drawn to an extremely prominent headline.

“A New Hegemon Ascends the Throne, the Bank of East Asia is Officially Crowned Hong Kong’s Number One Bank!”

In the detailed report, the financial industry analysis published by the Universal Research Company was laid out on the page.

Relying on detailed data and penetrating analysis, the report accurately dissected and predicted the current market share landscape between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC from multiple dimensions.

Below this headline were several other articles, all based on the data from the Universal Research Company’s report, offering in-depth analysis and further discussion.

“Capital Exceeds the Hundred Billion Hong Kong Dollar Mark, Bank of East Asia Powerfully Ushers in a New Era of Dominance for Chinese-Owned Banks!”

“Market Share Soars to 44%, Bank of East Asia Crushes HSBC with Lightning Speed, Hong Kong’s Financial Landscape Undergoes a Profound Reshaping!”

“The Dual-Hegemon Structure Lasted Only a Few Days Before Bank of East Asia Surged Again, Leaving HSBC Far Behind!”

Lin Haoran quickly scanned the contents of the newspaper, a smile unconsciously forming on his lips.

As expected, the Bank of East Asia’s ascension to the top spot as Hong Kong’s number one bank would inevitably stir up tumultuous waves across the city.

With a new hegemon taking the throne, the old one could only be toppled from its high perch.

He put down the newspaper, had a simple breakfast, and then took a car to Connaught Centre.

Lately, occupied with matters concerning the Bank of East Asia, he had been spending less time at Connaught Centre, staying mostly at the Bank of East Asia headquarters during the day.

Along the way, the Oriental Daily News was displayed in the most conspicuous position at the newsstands by the roadside. Many pedestrians stopped to buy it, and murmurs about the Bank of East Asia becoming the new hegemon could be faintly heard on the streets.

Just as he had thought, at this moment, the entire city of Hong Kong was engulfed in an unprecedented wave of financial discussion because of this news.

As it was an exclusive report, today’s edition of the Oriental Daily News experienced an unparalleled buying frenzy.

Although Cui Zilong had anticipated that the news would cause a sensation and had specifically instructed the printing plant to print a full five hundred thousand copies, he hadn’t expected them to be completely sold out at all newsstands before noon.

Seeing this, many newsstand owners hurriedly placed additional orders, afraid to miss out on this golden opportunity to make money.

The printing plant was also incredibly busy. Machines roared as workers put in overtime for emergency reprints to meet market demand.

This was a chance to break newspaper sales records, so naturally, they wouldn’t stop just because the first batch was sold out.

This demonstrated that the citizens of Hong Kong showed an unimaginably high level of enthusiasm and attention for the Bank of East Asia’s ascension to the top.

Meanwhile, the owners and heads of Hong Kong’s other mainstream media outlets felt a whirlwind of complex emotions, as if they had knocked over a bottle of five-flavored spices.

They watched with envy as the Oriental Daily News raked in profits and saw its reputation and sales soar thanks to this exclusive story, their hearts filled with regret and unwillingness.

If they continued to avoid reporting on matters related to HSBC, wouldn’t they just be watching the Oriental Daily News monopolize the traffic day after day, attracting both readers and advertisers?

At this thought, many editors-in-chief and owners of mainstream media outlets no longer hesitated. With a wave of their hands, they decisively dispatched their own teams and paparazzi in full force.

They scurried everywhere, trying every conceivable method to unearth inside stories and hot topics related to HSBC and the Bank of East Asia, attempting to get a piece of the pie in this news feast and salvage some of their lost face and market share.

As for giving HSBC face?

HSBC was no longer the untouchable hegemon it once was. That being the case, why bother with old courtesies?

As long as they could dig up a big scoop, attract public attention, boost their own media’s visibility and influence, and raise advertising fees, who had time to worry about anything else?

For a time, the teams and paparazzi of these mainstream media outlets were active on the streets and alleys of Hong Kong, both inside and outside financial institutions.

They disguised themselves in various roles, mingling in financial gatherings and business negotiations, their ears pricked and eyes wide, not missing any detail that could become a news lead.

Some paparazzi staked out the HSBC headquarters building, watching everyone who entered and exited, trying to catch any clue about the bank’s current situation from their expressions and actions.

Others blended in with the Bank of East Asia’s clientele, indirectly probing them for their views on the bank becoming number one and whether they would increase their cooperation with it in the future.

Inside the HSBC headquarters building, in Michael Sandberg’s office.

Michael Sandberg stared intently at the newspaper in his hands, rage burning in his chest, the veins on his forehead bulging.

This report from the Oriental Daily News was practically roasting HSBC over an open fire!

Originally, HSBC planned to act low-key, gradually seeking financial support while scaling back loans and investments, trying to find ways to slowly bring outside capital back in. This way, they might have weathered the crisis safely.

What did it matter if their market share decreased a little? As long as they could stabilize their foundation, they would still be one of the giants of the financial world.

But now, the Oriental Daily News report had once again made HSBC the focus of public opinion, its popularity soaring, turning it into a topic of casual conversation for everyone.

Michael Sandberg felt a rush of blood to his head, so furious he almost lost his senses.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, there are a lot of reporters downstairs, all clamoring to interview you!” his secretary reported softly, knocking cautiously before entering, her eyes filled with worry.

“No interviews! I’m not seeing anyone! Throw them all out!” Enraged, Michael Sandberg swept his hands across his desk, sending a pile of documents to the floor. The papers fluttered down like his currently chaotic thoughts.

In the China Building, at the headquarters of Cheung Kong Holdings, in the Chairman’s office.

Li Jiacheng’s eyes were locked on the striking headline in the newspaper, his brow furrowed so deeply it formed three vertical lines. Anxiety churned within him like a rising tide.

Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa, these two business titans, were already tightly bound to HSBC.

The flow of his companies’ capital relied entirely on HSBC, the “heart” that kept them running, like blood vessels.

As a top tycoon who could wield great power and influence in Hong Kong’s business world, and a board member of HSBC, the information Li Jiacheng possessed was naturally far beyond that of ordinary citizens.

For this reason, he knew better than anyone that the current HSBC was like a behemoth ship teetering on the verge of collapse in a storm, beset by crises.

On one side was an ally of many years whom he had to support.

On the other was a time bomb that could collapse at any moment, dragging him down into the abyss.

This left Li Jiacheng in an impossible dilemma.

He was acutely aware that if he continued to be deeply tied to HSBC, and HSBC’s capital chain snapped, the years of business planning and hard-earned accumulation of Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa could be reduced to nothing in an instant. All his years of effort would go down the drain.

But if he were to unilaterally break those contracts and try to move his funds, would HSBC simply agree?

Furthermore, given HSBC’s currently strained capital chain, even if he wanted to transfer his funds, he might not be able to withdraw a sufficient amount smoothly.

After all, every large-scale capital movement could be like a massive stone thrown into a calm lake, triggering a series of unpredictable chain reactions.

“Sigh!” Only Li Jiacheng’s long, helpless, and worried sigh remained in the office, echoing in the air for a long time.

If HSBC truly fell, the impact on him would undoubtedly be immense.

In the Swire & Co. headquarters building, in the Taipan’s office.

Schreyer stared at the newspaper in his hands, his brow also tightly furrowed.

Although Swire & Co. did not keep all its funds with HSBC, the amount held there was the largest.

Moreover, Swire & Co. and HSBC had deep collaborations on several large-scale projects, from shipping financing to real estate development, with intricate financial dealings.

Schreyer knew that if HSBC collapsed, Swire & Co.’s investments in these projects would likely be a total loss, which could even affect the company’s overall capital chain and business layout.

“How on earth did HSBC suddenly end up in this state?” Schreyer muttered to himself, slamming the newspaper onto his desk.

HSBC’s market share was down to around 31.5%? At its peak, it was as high as sixty percent!

This meant that in the last two months, HSBC had lost fully half of its market share.

As someone well-versed in the rules of the financial industry and market fluctuations, Schreyer knew very well that such a massive loss of market share had certainly plunged HSBC into serious financial difficulties.

Although the Governor had expressed his full support, how much of a substantial effect could the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau’s ten-billion-plus Hong Kong dollars really have on HSBC?

He stood up and paced back and forth in his office, contemplating a course of action.

He picked up the phone and dialed his chief financial officer.

“It’s me, Schreyer. I need you to immediately conduct a comprehensive review of Swire & Co.’s financial dealings and cooperative projects with HSBC and assess our current risks.

“At the same time, look into how we can minimize our losses if HSBC really does run into trouble,” Schreyer commanded in a serious tone.

“Yes, Taipan. I’ll get people on it right away,” the CFO on the other end of the line replied.

After hanging up, Schreyer fell back into deep thought.

Then, he put on the suit jacket hanging on the coat rack, preparing to make a trip to HSBC to have a talk with Michael Sandberg!

John Marden of Wheelock and Company, Lawrence Kadoorie of China Light & Power, and others were all gripped by a strong sense of crisis because of this newspaper.

As partners of HSBC, their interests were all intricately linked with the bank.

They even held a certain amount of each other’s shares.

HSBC, once a seemingly indestructible financial fortress, was now teetering, sending a chill down their spines.

They knew that moving their funds out would eliminate this worry, but was it really that easy?

The head of each major firm knew very well that HSBC was now struggling to protect itself, and its supervision of capital flows would surely become stricter. Small amounts could naturally move freely, but any large withdrawal of funds could be seen as a “betrayal,” triggering a series of chain reactions.

This was why they had all been forced to voice their support for HSBC earlier.

They had no choice. If HSBC fell, it would be bad for everyone.

Unexpectedly, the Oriental Daily News had now ripped off this veil of secrecy, exposing HSBC’s dire situation for all to see.

HSBC was no longer Hong Kong’s number one bank, and the gap between it and the Bank of East Asia was only growing larger!

Now, market confidence would surely take a heavy blow. HSBC’s situation would only become more difficult, and they, its partners, were like being dragged into the eye of a storm, at risk of being swallowed at any moment.

This newspaper not only sparked concern among numerous business tycoons but also caused a great disturbance among ordinary citizens.

On the streets, in alleys, and in tea restaurants, people gathered in groups, their conversations invariably revolving around the Bank of East Asia and HSBC.

“Look at this Oriental Daily News. The Bank of East Asia has become the number one bank in Hong Kong. HSBC used to be so mighty, but it’s not anymore,” an old man in a vest, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan, said to his old friend beside him.

His friend nodded in agreement. “That’s right. Everyone used to think it was safe to deposit money in HSBC, but now it’s hard to say. I heard HSBC has been having problems with a lot of its businesses lately, and their funds are very tight.”

A young man nearby chimed in excitedly, “I’ve long thought the Bank of East Asia had potential. Look how fast they’re growing; their capital has already broken a hundred billion Hong Kong dollars. They’ll definitely get better and better. I’m planning to move my savings over to the Bank of East Asia.”

The old man quickly waved his hand, advising, “Young man, don’t be rash. With banks, things can change in an instant. It’s better to wait and see.”

The young man, however, disagreed. “Sir, you’re just too conservative. The situation is so clear now. The Bank of East Asia is definitely more reliable than HSBC. Besides, the Bank of East Asia has Lin Haoran as its backer. What does HSBC have? The Governor can support them for a while, but can he support them forever?”

Discussions like this were taking place in every corner of Hong Kong.

Ordinary citizens began to re-evaluate their savings and investment choices. Many started leaning towards transferring their funds from HSBC to the Bank of East Asia or other financial institutions that seemed more stable.

At HSBC’s various branches, the number of customers coming in for business had noticeably decreased, while the number of those inquiring about withdrawals or bank transfers gradually increased.

The bank staff were terribly busy, trying to both appease the customers’ anxieties and handle the task of stabilizing funds assigned by their superiors.

“Sir, please don’t rush to withdraw your money. HSBC has a deep foundation and formidable strength. We will definitely overcome this difficult period,” a bank teller patiently explained to a customer demanding a withdrawal.

The customer, however, looked impatient. “Don’t give me that. It’s all in the papers. Your bank is number two now. My friends all say you’re at risk of a capital chain rupture. I’m worried my money isn’t safe here. It’s better to take it out to be safe.”

The teller, helpless, could only process the withdrawal according to regulations.

Watching the customer hurry away with the money, the teller’s heart filled with worry.

If this continued, HSBC would sooner or later face a bank run.

At the branches of the Bank of East Asia, however, it was a completely different scene.

Customers flocked in to open accounts and inquire about services. The staff were happily swamped with work.

“Hello, welcome to the Bank of East Asia. How may I help you?” a smiling staff member warmly greeted each customer.

“I’d like to open an account and transfer all my money from HSBC over here,” a customer said.

The staff member quickly guided the customer to a service counter, processing the paperwork while introducing the various advantages and services of the Bank of East Asia.

“Sir, you’ve made the right choice in choosing our Bank of East Asia. Our bank has strong capital, excellent service, and many innovative financial products that will surely meet your needs,” the staff member said.

The customer nodded in satisfaction. “I chose your bank precisely because of its strength and growth prospects. From now on, I’ll be keeping all my money here.”

With the actions of ordinary citizens, a subtle shift began to occur in Hong Kong’s financial market.

Funds gradually flowed out of HSBC and into the Bank of East Asia and some other financial institutions.

HSBC’s capital chain became increasingly strained, while the Bank of East Asia, riding this wave of capital inflow, further solidified its position in Hong Kong’s financial market.

Inside the Bank of East Asia headquarters building, in the Chairman’s office.

Ho Sin Hang stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, his gaze passing through the glass to the HSBC branch across the street.

The branch was currently bustling with people, a scene of lively chaos, completely different from its usual calm and orderly state.

A meaningful smile touched the corners of his lips.

He knew very well that these customers were not flocking there for ordinary deposit services. Nine times out of ten, they were there to withdraw cash.

And given the current situation, a large portion of that withdrawn money would eventually find its way into the coffers of the Bank of East Asia.

Knock, knock, knock. At that moment, a knock came from the door.

“Come in,” Ho Sin Hang said, turning his attention from the window.

The person who opened the door was Ho Sin Hang’s assistant.

“Mr. He, there are many reporters outside who want to interview you. Should we accept?” the assistant asked respectfully.

“Reporters? Let’s meet them. Have security maintain order, and don’t let them cause any chaos in the bank,” Ho Sin Hang said after a moment’s thought.

He knew exactly why these reporters wanted to interview him; it was undoubtedly because of the articles in the Oriental Daily News.

After all, this was just the media’s voice. The Bank of East Asia’s ascension to the top of Hong Kong’s financial industry had not yet been confirmed by the involved parties, the Bank of East Asia or HSBC. These reporters were here simply to get a definite confirmation from him, the Chairman of the Bank of East Asia, and to dig up some exclusive content to gain an edge in the news war and boost their own media’s influence.

This time, the Universal Research Company did not hold a press conference but instead gave the financial report directly to the Oriental Daily News for publication. This left these reporters with many pent-up questions, and they were all hoping to find a breakthrough with him.

Ho Sin Hang had already planned for this. It was an opportunity to showcase the Bank of East Asia’s image and further stabilize market confidence, so there was no reason to refuse.

Soon, under the orderly guidance of security personnel, the reporters were brought into a spacious lobby.

Ho Sin Hang walked into the lobby with steady steps and a gentle smile, instantly quieting the somewhat noisy room.

The reporters all focused their attention on him, the sound of camera shutters clicking incessantly.

“Mr. He, hello! I’m a reporter from Ming Pao. Can you confirm if the Oriental Daily News report about the Bank of East Asia being officially crowned Hong Kong’s number one bank is true? Can you give us a definite answer?” a female reporter asked first, her eyes full of anticipation.

Ho Sin Hang nodded slightly, his calm gaze sweeping across the room. His voice was sonorous and clear, “Thank you all very much for your interest in the Bank of East Asia. I can state unequivocally here that the data presented in the financial industry report published by the Universal Research Company is highly consistent with the Bank of East Asia’s actual figures.

“Although I am not familiar with the specific data from HSBC’s side, I imagine there won’t be a significant deviation. Therefore, considering key indicators such as market share and capital scale, the Bank of East Asia has indeed now ascended to the position of Hong Kong’s number one bank.”

As soon as he said this, a wave of soft gasps and murmurs spread through the room.

The reporters excitedly exchanged whispers, their pens flying across their notebooks.

This meant that the Bank of East Asia, as an involved party, had now officially confirmed its hegemonic status in Hong Kong’s financial world. This was undoubtedly a bombshell that would cause even stronger tremors across Hong Kong’s financial, commercial, and even social spheres.

Chapter 661: News from Japan

The Bank of East Asia’s market share had surpassed HSBC’s, and most of this market share had been seized from clients that HSBC had lost.

This meant that the Bank of East Asia’s rise to the top was built upon the “cornerstone” of HSBC’s former glory.

HSBC, once a towering mountain in the financial sector, had long dominated the market with its deep heritage, extensive client base, and outstanding brand reputation.

Its stable business strategy and diversified financial services had earned the trust of countless clients, who entrusted it with their funds and confidence.

However, the tides of the era were surging, and the situation in the financial market was unpredictable.

With Lin Haoran taking control of the Bank of East Asia, HSBC had launched the first move in a business war, intending to leverage its own advantages to suppress its rival and prevent it from becoming a threat.

But unexpectedly, in just two months, the financial world of Hong Kong had undergone an earth-shattering transformation.

This change shocked everyone, akin to a massive earthquake in the business community.

Most people in Hong Kong found it hard to believe that the once steady-as-a-rock HSBC could be caught up to and even surpassed by the Bank of East Asia in such a short period.

When Ho Sin Hang accepted an interview and confirmed the truth of the matter, it immediately triggered an even greater uproar throughout Hong Kong.

Not long after the interview ended, Ho Sin Hang received Mr. Brown, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank, who had come to visit him in his office.

No one knew what they discussed, only that the two of them talked in the office for nearly two and a half hours.

At this moment, Lin Haoran was at Connaught Centre, on the phone with Fok Kin-ning, who was far away in Japan.

Three months had passed in the blink of an eye since Lin Haoran returned to Hong Kong from Japan; time flies.

During these three months, Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch had developed with unstoppable, ferocious momentum.

After all, with the backing of the 272.4 billion Japanese yen (approximately 6.81 billion Hong Kong dollars) that Lin Haoran had earned from Toyota stocks, the well-funded Japan Branch of Hongkong Land Group was naturally even more powerful, its development speed increasing dramatically.

During these three months, Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch made frequent moves, successively winning bids for multiple plots of land in areas where property prices were expected to rise in the future, such as Central Ward, Minato Ward, Shibuya Ward, and Shinjuku Ward.

With Japan’s real estate market currently in a slump, Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch made its move at a time when acquisition costs were extremely low.

In addition, Galaxy Securities’ Japan Branch was also constantly active, continuing its stock accumulation of potential high-growth stocks whose prices were set to soar during the future economic bubble period, such as Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, Toyota, Honda, Nintendo, Industrial Bank of Japan, Mitsubishi Estate, and Tokyo Electron.

Thanks to a diversified investment layout and adherence to a steady and progressive investment strategy, Galaxy Securities’ Japan Branch appeared relaxed and handled its investment game with ease.

Hit by the oil crisis, Japan’s economy was now in a downturn.

However, the companies Lin Haoran had included in his investment portfolio were all premium choices, possessing formidable technical strength and strong market competitiveness.

These were all things he had arranged before returning to Hong Kong from Japan.

Once the economic situation improved, especially during Japan’s economic bubble in the coming years, it was almost foreseeable that these stock prices would climb significantly.

“Boss, when are you coming to Japan again?” Fok Kin-ning asked after finishing his work report.

“What, did you run into some tricky problem you can’t handle?” Lin Haoran teased with a smile.

“Not at all. If there was really something I couldn’t handle, I would definitely consult Mr. Ma Shimin. Mr. Ma even came over for two days last month and helped me solve a lot of difficult problems. I also learned a lot of business management knowledge that I hadn’t been exposed to before.

It’s just that our investment scale in Japan is growing, and we often get received by local government officials. If you, Boss, could come over and oversee things personally, our Hongkong Land Group would certainly have more resources and confidence in Japan!

Also, I’ve had some deep impressions during my half-year in Japan, and I have some ideas I’d like to discuss with you in person. It just doesn’t feel as satisfying talking over the phone,” Fok Kin-ning explained with a smile.

Lin Haoran didn’t press further. After all, Fok Kin-ning’s loyalty was as high as 99, and his business talent was exceptional; there was really no need for him to worry too much.

Although Fok Kin-ning was still young, with a seasoned veteran of the business world like Ma Shimin always available to provide careful guidance over the phone, Lin Haoran had always been at ease entrusting Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch to his care.

As things stood, the Japan Branch was developing rapidly, and everything was progressing steadily on the track he had envisioned without any errors. He was very satisfied with this.

After a moment of thought, Lin Haoran slowly said, “I’m not sure of the specific time yet. Matters with the Bank of East Asia here are not yet settled. Once things here come to a close, I’ll consider going to Japan.”

Hearing this, Fok Kin-ning nodded slightly and said no more.

After a moment of silence, he couldn’t help but speak up, “Boss, Miss Yamada Keiko mentioned to me that she misses you very much, but she’s afraid of disturbing your work and hasn’t dared to contact you.”

The moment Fok Kin-ning said this, the image of Yamada Keiko instantly surfaced in Lin Haoran’s mind.

This woman of his, his personal secretary in Japan, he hadn’t contacted her even once since returning to Hong Kong due to his busy schedule.

And although Yamada Keiko had Lin Haoran’s phone number, she felt her status was too humble and never dared to dial it on her own initiative, afraid of disturbing him.

Now, she held a special position in Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch. As Lin Haoran’s secretary, she shouldered the heavy responsibility of helping him supervise his industries in Japan.

If a problem arose at work, she would naturally report it immediately.

But if all was calm, she really couldn’t find a suitable reason to contact Lin Haoran on her own initiative.

Lin Haoran’s businesses in Japan were all developing well without any issues, and she hadn’t noticed any problems, so Yamada Keiko naturally had no reason to contact him, as she was worried about bothering him.

Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up as a wave of warmth spread through his heart.

Yamada Keiko’s gentle and graceful image became clearer in his mind, instantly relaxing his tense nerves.

This young lady’s loyalty to him was unreserved and wholehearted. When he was in Japan, she had managed his daily life and work in perfect order.

But during this period, he had been completely absorbed in the contest between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC and had neglected her. A sense of guilt washed over Lin Haoran.

“This girl, always so sensible and cautious,” Lin Haoran murmured softly, his eyes full of tenderness.

He understood that although Yamada Keiko was his secretary and his woman, deep down she always felt her status was humble. Even if her longing was like a tide, she wouldn’t dare to disturb him easily.

“I know. I’ll give her a call in a bit,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Alright, Boss. I won’t disturb you then,” Fok Kin-ning said with a laugh.

After they hung up, Lin Haoran didn’t delay for a moment. He immediately dialed the familiar international number—it was the number for his office in Japan, where Yamada Keiko had been working since he left.

The phone rang only a few times before it was answered. Yamada Keiko’s gentle yet professional voice came from the other end: “Hello, this is Mr. Lin Haoran’s office. I am his secretary, Yamada Keiko. How may I help you?”

“Keiko, it’s me.” Lin Haoran’s voice instantly softened, full of affection.

Although he had initially slept with her partly due to her beauty, after spending time together, feelings had unknowingly grown.

“Haoran-kun!” Yamada Keiko’s voice changed pitch with excitement, and she nearly let out a cry of surprise.

She clutched the telephone receiver tightly with both hands, as if Lin Haoran would slip away through the phone line if she let go. “You… why did you suddenly call me?”

“I heard that someone has been missing me terribly,” Lin Haoran teased with a smile.

Yamada Keiko felt her cheeks burn, and her heart felt like a lively rabbit was trapped inside, charging wildly in her chest.

She bit her lower lip gently, her voice barely a whisper, “Haoran-kun, I really miss you, but I was afraid of disturbing your work, so I never dared to contact you.”

“Silly girl, when have you ever been a bother to me? You’ve helped me manage so many things in Japan so well. You’ve worked hard, and I haven’t even properly thanked you for it.” Lin Haoran said with a gentle tone and a smile on his lips.

If it hadn’t been for Yamada Keiko’s reminder, he might have missed the chance to earn so much money from Sony and Toyota Company.

Therefore, in his heart, Lin Haoran was very grateful to Yamada Keiko. Even though she was a young Japanese lady, so what? Conquering a pretty Japanese girl was an honor!

Besides, Yamada Keiko had already been conquered by him, body and soul.

“It’s not hard work. I’m very happy to be able to do things for you,” Yamada Keiko quickly replied, her voice full of sincerity. “Besides, Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch, Galaxy Securities’ Japan Branch, and the 7-Eleven company are all developing smoothly. This is all because you planned things out so well before.”

“Hmm, to be honest, I miss you a little too. How about this, find some time to come to Hong Kong. I’ll be waiting for you in Hong Kong!” Lin Haoran said after a brief thought.

After all, they had spent months together day and night in Japan, and he truly missed this gentle and lovely young lady.

He couldn’t get away to go to Japan at the moment, but it was very convenient for Yamada Keiko to come to Hong Kong.

He had plenty of houses in Hong Kong; he could just pick one for her to stay in temporarily.

Upon hearing this, Yamada Keiko’s heart was instantly filled with ecstasy, but it was quickly followed by a trace of hesitation. She said softly, “Haoran-kun, will I… will my coming over disrupt your work schedule and delay your business?”

“Don’t worry, you know my style. I’ve always liked to give my subordinates full authority. It was like that in Japan, and it’s no exception in Hong Kong.

How about this, I’ll call Mr. Fok Kin-ning right now and have him arrange the plane ticket and other trivial matters for you. Let’s set it for tomorrow. I’ll be waiting for your arrival in Hong Kong tomorrow!

I’ll have everything arranged perfectly here. You just come over with peace of mind. Think of it as taking a short vacation for yourself, and you can also experience the unique scenery of Hong Kong.” Lin Haoran said with a smile, the corners of his mouth turning up.

Yamada Keiko lowered her eyes slightly, lost in brief thought. The longing for Lin Haoran in her heart surged like a tide, finally breaking through the dam of hesitation.

She nodded gently, her voice soft yet firm, “Okay, Haoran-kun, I will follow all your arrangements.”

“Good, I will be waiting for you in Hong Kong,” Lin Haoran responded gently, his eyes crinkling with a smile.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran wasted no time and immediately called Fok Kin-ning, instructing him concisely, “Kin-ning, have your men book a plane ticket to Hong Kong for Yamada Keiko. Book it for tomorrow.”

Immediately after, Lin Haoran called Suzuki Toshifumi.

Currently, Suzuki Toshifumi, as the President of the Southland Corporation, was steering the two major international convenience store brands, 7-Eleven convenience store and Lawson convenience store, for him.

From the current market perspective, in the eyes of international retail giants, these two convenience store brands might just be small-scale operations, and despite their considerable size, they still appeared nascent in terms of market capitalization.

But Lin Haoran knew in his heart that they would unleash astonishingly powerful potential in the future.

What Lin Haoran valued most was the vast sales channel established by these two convenience store brands.

With this channel, his various fast-moving consumer products could quickly penetrate the market and achieve efficient sales.

After all, these convenience store businesses were a crucial part of his current retail commercial layout.

Through his call with Suzuki Toshifumi, Lin Haoran also learned about the general situation of the Southland Corporation.

Since the merger and acquisition of the Lawson convenience store brand, the number of convenience stores controlled by the Southland Corporation had directly reached over seven thousand, approaching a scale of eight thousand.

Whether in terms of internationalization or the number of chain stores, the Southland Corporation was clearly far ahead of its competitors in the global convenience store brand market.

After all, other convenience store brands were considered impressive with several hundred chain stores, whereas the Southland Corporation was already aiming for ten thousand.

It could be said that the Southland Corporation was now the sole tycoon in the convenience store industry!

This advantage of scale not only solidified the foundation of Lin Haoran’s Commercial Empire but also gave him a unique head start in his layout of the fast-moving consumer goods market.

“Boss, in these three months, the Southland Corporation has developed rapidly, continuously expanding into overseas markets. Especially here in the Japanese market, without Lawson as a competitor, the expansion of both 7-Eleven convenience store and Lawson convenience store has been even faster.

At the beginning of the month, the total number of global chain stores for both convenience store brands was the first to break ten thousand, and now it’s nearly eleven thousand. Besides the Japanese market, the Southeast Asian and European markets have contributed the most!” Suzuki Toshifumi was somewhat emotional as he reported.

Ten thousand chain stores! While other chain store brands were painstakingly trying to add a few or a dozen new stores each month, the Southland Corporation had already broken through ten thousand. With such terrifying numbers, it was indeed no problem to call the Southland Corporation the sole hegemon in the convenience store sector.

The gap was too large. In the same industry, the Southland Corporation’s two convenience store brands had become giants, while other convenience store chain brands were still in their infancy.

“Mr. Suzuki, it seems you’ve exceeded the target I set for you. But you’re not just expanding blindly, are you?” Lin Haoran joked.

Of course, he knew that Suzuki Toshifumi would never do such a thing; otherwise, he wouldn’t have invited him to be the President of the Southland Corporation.

When the Southland Corporation acquired Lawson convenience store, Lin Haoran had set a target for Suzuki Toshifumi: to reach ten thousand convenience stores under Southland’s control by the end of July, without blind expansion.

Furthermore, by the end of this year, the number of controlled convenience stores should reach fifteen thousand.

Now, the first target had clearly been completed, and it was even better than the target he had given.

“Boss, please rest assured. I, Suzuki Toshifumi, have always been meticulous in my work. This is by no means blind expansion. Our site selection team is very experienced. Every new convenience store is established only after detailed market research and site assessment.

We not only considered local population density and purchasing power but also analyzed the surrounding competitive landscape and potential market demand.

Take the Japanese market for example. After acquiring our competitor Lawson, with vicious competition eliminated, we did accelerate our expansion pace, but it was done on the premise of ensuring store profitability and service quality,” Suzuki Toshifumi replied in a solemn tone.

Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction. Although they were on the phone, he could feel Suzuki Toshifumi’s confidence and professionalism.

His initial decision to poach Suzuki Toshifumi, the greatest contributor to 7-Eleven, was based on his knowledge of Suzuki’s unique talent in convenience store industry management.

Clearly, he had not poached the wrong person!

“Mr. Suzuki, I have always had unwavering faith in your abilities. This time, the Southland Corporation has not only met the target ahead of schedule but has also exceeded it. You are the greatest contributor! I am now really full of anticipation, wondering how many stores we will ultimately have this year,” Lin Haoran laughed heartily, his laughter filled with relief and expectation.

“Boss, I have more good news! As our scale continues to grow, we have plenty of resources and confidence when it comes to negotiating prices for goods. Our say is getting stronger and stronger, and profits are naturally soaring. Compared to the old Southland Corporation, profits are expected to increase by about 10%!

Moreover, as our scale expands further, we have a greater advantage in negotiating payment cycles with suppliers. We can extend the original one-month payment cycle to three months.

This allows us to retain more funds for expansion. We can continue large-scale development based on our own resources, without needing any additional investment from you, Boss!” Suzuki Toshifumi’s excitement was palpable as he hurried to report.

Although Dairy Farm International, a subsidiary of Hongkong Land Group, was currently acquiring many major international FMCG brands, and the number of controlled FMCG brands was increasing daily, matters such as resource integration and the transfer of management rights were complicated and required time to handle.

Therefore, for the time being, there hadn’t been any major changes to the supplier systems of 7-Eleven and Lawson convenience stores.

“Well done!” Lin Haoran praised without hesitation upon hearing the news.

“Boss, this is what I should do. I also have to thank you for providing me with such a huge platform!” Suzuki Toshifumi said with sincere gratitude.

If Suzuki Toshifumi were still at the Ito-Yokado Company, it would have been impossible for him to achieve such rapid development for 7-Eleven convenience stores by relying on Ito-Yokado’s resources.

Therefore, he was very fortunate to have agreed to switch jobs back then; otherwise, he would have truly missed such a great opportunity.

After hanging up the phone, a smile unconsciously crept onto Lin Haoran’s lips, and he felt exceptionally pleased.

Over in Japan, everything was developing steadily along the path he had envisioned.

Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch was making precise layouts, successively acquiring high-quality plots of land in areas with potential, and its investment scale was constantly increasing;

Galaxy Securities’ Japan Branch was following closely, strictly adhering to his plan, and the potential stocks it was accumulating were like treasures buried deep underground, gathering strength to break through the soil and soar into the sky;

The Southland Corporation, under the outstanding leadership of its business helmsman Suzuki Toshifumi, was even more unstoppable, overcoming all obstacles along the way.

He leaned back comfortably in his chair, his fingers tapping a rhythmic beat on the desk, his thoughts immersed in the content of the phone calls he had just made, savoring the heartening good news.

Just then, a shrill ringing of the phone shattered the tranquility of the office.

Lin Haoran picked up his mobile phone. The number displayed on the monochrome LCD screen was clearly from Ho Sin Hang’s office.

He quickly pressed the answer key and said with a smile, “Uncle He, what’s up?”

On the other end of the line, Ho Sin Hang’s voice carried a hint of urgency as he asked directly, “Haoran, are you free right now?”

“I am, Uncle He. Please, go ahead,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“I have an important matter regarding Standard Chartered Bank to report to you in person. Are you still at Connaught Centre? Should I come over and find you?” Ho Sin Hang said directly.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran quickly said, “Uncle He, please don’t trouble yourself. I happen to be free right now. I’ll head over to the Bank of East Asia Building to see you. Please take good care of your health, don’t overwork yourself.”

He knew in his heart that the development of the Bank of East Asia was inseparable from this stabilizing pillar, Ho Sin Hang, and naturally did not want the old statesman to overexert himself.

After all, he was already eighty-one years old. Although he looked strong and healthy, time waits for no man, and his physical functions were no longer what they used to be.

Lin Haoran didn’t want this respected elder of noble character and high prestige to suffer any mishaps over some minor issue.

“Alright then, I’ll trouble you to make the trip,” Ho Sin Hang said, his voice full of gratification.

Hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran quickly stood up, tidied his clothes with deft movements, grabbed his jacket, and strode hastily out of his exclusive personal office on the 51st floor of Connaught Centre.

As expected, there must be new developments regarding the cooperation that Standard Chartered Bank had previously discussed with them to deal with HSBC.

A flicker of anticipation arose in Lin Haoran’s heart as he secretly guessed what kind of outcome Standard Chartered Bank had negotiated.

Whether it was the banknote-issuing rights, Hang Seng Bank, or the other two conditions, he wanted them all.

However, he was also well aware that Standard Chartered Bank was not one to compromise easily; it was impossible for them to agree to these conditions readily.

From the tone in Ho Sin Hang’s call, it was not hard to tell that Standard Chartered Bank had clearly engaged in a sharp verbal exchange with him.

As for the final outcome of the negotiation, it still required his, the Boss’s, approval.

Chapter 662: A Joint Venture to Carve Up HSBC

Connaught Centre was not far from the Bank of East Asia headquarters.

Thus, it didn’t take long for Lin Haoran to arrive at Ho Sin Hang’s office.

Walking into the office, he was surprised to find Mr. Brown, the taipan of Standard Chartered Bank, was also there.

Lin Haoran had thought Mr. Brown would have left long ago, never expecting him to still be around.

“Mr. Lin, congratulations!” Mr. Brown said with a smile, extending his hand to shake Lin Haoran’s. But no matter how Lin Haoran looked at it, he felt the smile concealed a hint of bitterness and strain.

Lin Haoran was, of course, well aware of what Brown meant.

He was congratulating him on the Bank of East Asia’s market share surpassing HSBC’s, claiming the throne as the largest bank in Hong Kong.

Standard Chartered Bank had an even longer history in Hong Kong than HSBC; it was among the first foreign banks to enter the city and had obtained its banknote-issuing rights many years ago.

However, despite its commendable development in Hong Kong, Standard Chartered Bank had always been overshadowed by HSBC.

Now, Standard Chartered Bank had seen an opportunity to acquire HSBC. If successful, they thought they could use this chance to ascend to the position of Hong Kong’s largest bank.

However, when Brown saw the estimated figures published in the Oriental Daily News, his heart sank.

He realized with clarity that even if Standard Chartered Bank successfully acquired HSBC, and even if they counted Hang Seng Bank’s market share as their own, they still wouldn’t be able to surpass the Bank of East Asia.

Two months ago, Standard Chartered Bank’s market share had indeed been close to ten percent. But in those two months, while HSBC’s and Hang Seng Bank’s market shares continued to fall, Standard Chartered’s had also been shrinking.

This, naturally, was the result of the Bank of East Asia siphoning off their business.

Today, Standard Chartered Bank’s capital in Hong Kong was only around 15 billion Hong Kong dollars, a figure even smaller than Hang Seng Bank’s.

Coupled with the mighty rise of the Bank of East Asia, if one were to rank the banks in the Hong Kong region by market size now, Standard Chartered Bank could only settle for fourth place, behind the Bank of East Asia, HSBC, and Hang Seng Bank.

What’s more, if Standard Chartered Bank wanted to acquire HSBC now, it was highly likely they wouldn’t be able to hold on to Hang Seng Bank.

In that case, it would be a fool’s dream for Standard Chartered Bank to think of surpassing the Bank of East Asia.

In other words, even if Standard Chartered Bank successfully merged with HSBC, they would have to be content with being “number two.”

So, it was no wonder Brown was feeling a mix of emotions at this moment.

Of course, this “number two” position was still a significant improvement compared to Standard Chartered Bank’s past standing.

After all, HSBC’s market share was not small. Adding Standard Chartered’s own share to it, as long as they avoided any strategic blunders, securing the top seat among British-owned banks in Hong Kong would not be difficult for them.

After greeting him, Lin Haoran was pulled aside by Ho Sin Hang.

“Haoran, Mr. Brown and I have more or less ironed out the details. From the current situation, I think the outcome is quite ideal. We’re just waiting for you to make the final call!” Ho Sin Hang said, a satisfied smile on his face.

“Oh? Uncle He, please tell me the specifics!” Lin Haoran’s eyes were full of curiosity as he spoke quickly.

“Mr. Brown came with instructions from Standard Chartered Bank’s senior executives. They’re worried that delays might bring unexpected trouble, so they want to finalize the cooperation with us as soon as possible. The reason he’s still here is to wait for our final decision.

“Sure enough, he laid his bottom line on the table as soon as he arrived. Of the four conditions we proposed earlier, they straightforwardly agreed to let us pick any two.

“After two hours of negotiation and their communication with their headquarters, the current result is this: HSBC will assist us in obtaining banknote-issuing rights in Hong Kong.

“Additionally, they are willing to let us acquire Hang Seng Bank. After they successfully acquire HSBC, they will sell HSBC’s shares in Hang Seng Bank to us at market price.

“Furthermore, they are willing to share their international market resources in South Asia, Africa, and South America with us.

“However, they are not willing to share their market resources in Japan, Southeast Asia, Europe, or the Middle East.

“I’ve considered it carefully, and I think we can agree to this. After all, cooperation is mutually beneficial, and we can’t push them too hard.

“If they get angry and decide to support HSBC financially, then nobody will come out ahead in the end!” Ho Sin Hang explained the negotiation results quickly and clearly.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, well aware that this was the current state of affairs.

If Standard Chartered Bank attempted to acquire HSBC alone, the Bank of East Asia had the capacity to interfere and help HSBC resolve the crisis.

After all, if the Bank of East Asia was willing to loan a sum of money to HSBC, no matter what tricks Standard Chartered Bank pulled behind the scenes, HSBC could safely weather the storm.

Similarly, if Standard Chartered Bank weren’t harboring ulterior motives and secretly plotting to acquire HSBC, but instead genuinely offered financial assistance, then no matter how tight HSBC’s capital chain was, a single injection of funds would allow it to survive for a while. It could then gradually recover its hard-to-collect external funds, and the crisis would naturally dissipate.

After all, HSBC’s foundation was still intact; it was just temporarily plagued by cash flow problems.

The Hong Kong market was just one of many for Standard Chartered Bank. If they were determined to support HSBC, it wouldn’t be difficult to mobilize funds from other markets.

But now, both banks coveted HSBC. As such, HSBC’s fate was certainly imaginable—it would be tragic.

At this moment, HSBC was like a fish on the chopping block, left to be carved up at will by Standard Chartered Bank and the Bank of East Asia.

“It seems they’re reluctant to hand over those lucrative markets!” Lin Haoran said with a faint smile.

Regions like Japan, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe were either highly developed economies with vibrant commercial activity or possessed enormous market potential and broad development prospects.

Clearly, Standard Chartered Bank had its own calculations and was unwilling to let the Bank of East Asia use their strength to so smoothly enter these markets and establish a firm foothold.

In contrast, places like Africa, South America, and South Asia were a big step down in terms of economic development. Their market maturity and profit margins were relatively limited, which was likely why they were willing to share them.

“Exactly. Their intentions are clear to any discerning eye. But I was thinking, Haoran, you’re thriving in Japan right now. With your help, it shouldn’t be too difficult for the Bank of East Asia to enter the Japanese market.

“The same goes for the Southeast Asian market. Your businesses there are flourishing, and you have a close relationship with Guo Henian, Southeast Asia’s richest man. It’s like holding a golden key to the Southeast Asian market. We can establish a solid presence without relying on cooperation with other banks.

“So, even if they don’t share the markets in Japan and Southeast Asia, it’s not an unbearable loss for us.

“As for the Middle Eastern and European markets, we currently have Japan, Southeast Asia, Africa, and South Asia waiting to be developed. Our energy is limited, so consolidating our position in these markets first is the priority.

“Even if they were willing to share more market resources, we wouldn’t be able to expand across the board in the short term. We might even spread ourselves too thin and end up failing everywhere. It’s better to proceed steadily, one step at a time. So I agreed to their terms!”

Lin Haoran nodded.

“So they’re not even willing to give us a financial subsidy? If they really manage to acquire HSBC, they’ll be reaping all the benefits!” Lin Haoran said with a teasing curve of his lips.

“Mr. Brown made it very clear. To help us secure banknote-issuing rights in Hong Kong, they’ll have to spend a large sum of money on kickbacks and smoothing over connections in Britain. That’s no small amount.

“Moreover, losing Hang Seng Bank will greatly diminish the benefits they get from this acquisition. Plus, to get a controlling stake in HSBC, they’ll have to spend at least several billion Hong Kong dollars, maybe even tens of billions.

“This will put a strain on Standard Chartered’s own cash flow. If they were to fork over another huge sum to compensate us, they might end up following in HSBC’s footsteps and falling into a capital crisis.

“Mr. Brown laid all this out on the table when he was discussing it with me. I’ve been toiling in the financial industry for so many years, and I can tell he wasn’t lying.

“Although Standard Chartered Bank is powerful, spending so much capital at once does indeed pose a considerable risk for them,” Ho Sin Hang explained patiently.

Lin Haoran sat down and sank into thought.

He knew he could never seize HSBC’s market share.

Neither the British-funded conglomerates nor the Government House would allow him to.

So, even if he didn’t give it to Standard Chartered Bank, it would just remain with HSBC.

He was very clear on this point.

Being able to carve off Hang Seng Bank from HSBC was already a good result.

Combined with the additional banknote-issuing rights and cooperation in sharing some overseas market resources, this situation was already an extremely attractive outcome for the Bank of East Asia.

Lin Haoran knew that in the complex game of finance, one couldn’t be too greedy. One had to know when to quit while ahead to secure a long-term footing.

If he didn’t let Standard Chartered Bank acquire HSBC, then HSBC would simply continue to exist, and the Bank of East Asia wouldn’t gain as many benefits.

As for the banknote-issuing rights, without Standard Chartered Bank relying on their network in Britain, it was a rare resource that money couldn’t buy.

The fact that Standard Chartered was willing to help the Bank of East Asia obtain this key position was already a sign of great sincerity.

And acquiring Hang Seng Bank, an influential bank in Hong Kong’s financial circle, would undoubtedly allow the Bank of East Asia to further increase its market share!

Moreover, Hang Seng Bank’s reputation and status held significant meaning in the world of Hong Kong Chinese, which would help the Bank of East Asia attract more Chinese customers and solidify its foundation in the Hong Kong Chinese financial market.

Furthermore, this acquisition of Hang Seng Bank would deepen Ho Sin Hang’s gratitude towards him, prompting Ho Sin Hang to assist him even more diligently in managing the Bank of East Asia.

It was important to remember that Hang Seng Bank was founded by Ho Sin Hang himself. In his heart, Hang Seng Bank held an irreplaceable position; this emotional bond was not something that could be easily severed.

If the Bank of East Asia could acquire Hang Seng Bank, it would be a continuation of his past heart and soul for Ho Sin Hang, and it would also make him even more grateful to Lin Haoran for making it happen.

After a moment of thought, Lin Haoran slowly raised his head and said with a smile, “In that case, let’s agree to their terms. Since they’re being so straightforward, we can’t appear petty.

“Besides, in the long run, this cooperation brings many benefits to the development of the Bank of East Asia. There’s no need for us to be penny wise and pound foolish.”

After acquiring HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank’s strength in Hong Kong would indeed increase significantly, but there would still be a certain gap between it and the Bank of East Asia.

What’s more, after the Bank of East Asia acquired Hang Seng Bank, its strength would rise once again, and the gap between Standard Chartered and the Bank of East Asia would only grow larger.

Today, Chinese-funded conglomerates were booming while British-funded conglomerates were in decline. This was an unstoppable trend of the times!

Although Standard Chartered Bank would be an important representative of the British-funded conglomerates in Hong Kong in the future, wanting to surpass the Bank of East Asia was a fool’s dream; there was simply no chance.

Unless the British-funded conglomerates could re-emphasize the Hong Kong market and pour in massive amounts of capital at any cost.

But now, the global economic landscape had undergone profound changes, and the Hong Kong market was a world of difference from what it once was. It was almost impossible for the British-funded conglomerates to make such a decision.

Since the 1960s, many British-owned companies had been taking the large sums of money they earned in Hong Kong and leaving—selling companies, dumping industries, and offloading properties in a constant stream of actions.

By the 1970s and 80s, the tide of withdrawal grew even stronger. Many British-owned companies, like startled birds, scrambled to flee Hong Kong.

This seemingly decisive withdrawal, however, created vast room for Chinese-funded conglomerates to develop, allowing them to rise and grow rapidly.

Now that the capital had already been taken out of Hong Kong, they wanted them to bring it back?

That was absolutely a fool’s dream, with no possibility of realization.

This showed that the decline of the British-funded conglomerates was an inevitable trend of the times, a choice made entirely after weighing the pros and cons!

Therefore, Lin Haoran was not at all worried that Standard Chartered Bank, after acquiring HSBC, would replace HSBC and become the new hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry.

After Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang reached an agreement to accept the terms of cooperation proposed by Standard Chartered Bank, the two returned to Mr. Brown.

Sitting on the sofa opposite Brown, Lin Haoran’s lips curved up slightly. With a probing look in his eyes, he asked with a smile, “Mr. Brown, I’ve always had a question in mind that I’d like to ask you.”

“Mr. Lin, please feel free to speak. In the future of Hong Kong’s financial industry, we will advance hand in hand and carve up the market. I am particularly looking forward to more in-depth cooperation between Standard Chartered Bank and the Bank of East Asia!” Brown laughed heartily.

His eyes seemed to be full of anticipation, but whether it was genuine or not, Lin Haoran didn’t care.

Lin Haoran crossed his arms, a curious look in his eyes, and asked, “I’m very curious to know, if we reach an agreement, how exactly does Standard Chartered Bank plan to ‘make a move’ behind HSBC’s back to push them into a complete crisis, so that your bank can smoothly take advantage of their weakness?”

“Ah, about that. There’s no need for me to hide anything from you, Mr. Lin, or Mr. Ho. Before I came, I had an in-depth private conversation with the Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose.

“Mr. Governor has given Standard Chartered Bank a clear promise. As long as we have the strength to acquire HSBC, the Government House will fully support us. The previously promised support of over ten billion Hong Kong dollars for HSBC will naturally be withdrawn!” Mr. Brown leaned back slightly, a look of self-satisfaction on his face as he spoke slowly.

Lin Haoran nodded. This was not unexpected.

The Government House’s support for HSBC was a matter of necessity. They were also afraid of that huge sum of over ten billion Hong Kong dollars. The current HSBC was like a hopeless case, dragging the Government House down time and time again.

But what could they do? HSBC’s identity was special. It was the representative of British-owned companies in Hong Kong. If it crashed, the impact on Hong Kong’s financial industry would be enormous.

However, if Standard Chartered Bank was willing to acquire HSBC, then the outcome would be completely different.

Although Standard Chartered Bank was not a local Hong Kong company, it was a genuine British enterprise, representing the interests of Britain itself. Their interests were aligned.

Therefore, the Government House was naturally more inclined to support Standard Chartered Bank in taking over this “hot potato” that was HSBC.

This way, they could maintain the position of British-owned companies in Hong Kong’s financial industry and prevent the Government House from being dragged further into HSBC’s bottomless pit of capital. It was killing two birds with one stone.

Brown didn’t stop there but continued to talk with ease, “As for pushing HSBC to the brink of a broken capital chain, that’s as easy as turning over my hand. You may not know this, Mr. Lin, but just in the last two days, Mr. Schreyer of Swire & Co. and Mr. Lawrence Kadoorie of China Light & Power both came to me for help.

“They are deeply worried, afraid that HSBC will fall into an even more severe crisis. They hope our Standard Chartered Bank can step in to lend HSBC a hand, provide some support, and save it from the fate of a broken capital chain, thereby avoiding being dragged down themselves.

“They even stated that if HSBC can successfully navigate this crisis, they are willing to transfer half of their financial business from HSBC to our Standard chartered Bank.

“So, now, faced with these two magnates of Hong Kong’s business world, Swire & Co. and CLP Holdings, I just need to hint subtly and have them publicly propose to withdraw all their financial business from HSBC. I don’t think they will refuse.

“You see, these two companies are of crucial importance in Hong Kong’s financial world. HSBC has always valued their cash flow greatly. Once they really propose to move their business, HSBC will inevitably face a huge capital shortfall.

“At that time, you can certainly imagine HSBC’s end, Mr. Lin. Unless HSBC can raise twenty to thirty billion Hong Kong dollars in a very short time, no one will be powerless to reverse the situation. They can only watch as it heads towards desperation!”

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang exchanged a look.

They hadn’t expected so much to have happened behind the scenes.

Right now, Swire & Co. and CLP Holdings were definitely HSBC’s two most important remaining partners.

Swire & Co. needs no further introduction. As one of the traditional Four Big Hongs in Hong Kong, it held an extremely crucial position in the city’s business empire. Its business was extensive, covering shipping, trade, real estate, and other fields. It had strong financial resources and a long-standing, deeply intertwined cooperation with HSBC.

As for CLP Holdings, being the giant of Hong Kong’s power supply, it controlled the city’s energy lifeline. Its stable cash flow and massive business scale also made it a high-quality client that HSBC heavily relied on.

Once these two companies decided to move their financial business from HSBC, it would be tantamount to taking a vicious swipe at HSBC’s already fragile capital chain.

Coupled with HSBC losing the support of over ten billion Hong Kong dollars from the Government House, the financial difficulties it faced would become as unstoppable as an avalanche.

Even if the giant financial magnates in Britain had the power to save HSBC, they wouldn’t act, because there was no benefit in it!

Who would dare to take over such a mess?

Business is business. Why would those shrewd capitalists do something with no profit to be made?

If Standard Chartered Bank and the Bank of East Asia joined forces against HSBC, then HSBC would be a spent force!

At that point, even if an external force wanted to rescue it, they would have to weigh the pros and cons repeatedly. Which sucker would have both the strength and the willingness to risk so much to save a teetering British-owned bank?

Lin Haoran narrowed his eyes slightly and said after a moment of thought, “Mr. Brown’s plan is brilliant. Using the business transfers of these two giants to deal HSBC a fatal blow will indeed push them to the brink.

“However, could there be any variables? After all, these two companies have cooperated with HSBC for many years. Won’t such a sudden decision cause some unnecessary trouble?”

Ho Sin Hang also looked at Brown, waiting to see his answer.

Before Lin Haoran’s arrival, Brown’s discussion with Ho Sin Hang had been more about negotiating the interests between their two sides, so he naturally hadn’t asked about these things.

A confident smile appeared on Mr. Brown’s face, and he said slowly, “Mr. Lin, you are indeed thoughtful, but you need not worry.

“The people at Swire & Co. and CLP Holdings are extremely shrewd businessmen. They are perfectly clear that HSBC is now terminally ill and a spent force.

“If even our Standard Chartered Bank is determined to deal with HSBC, who else has the ability to save it?

“Staying tied to HSBC is, for them, like holding a time bomb that could explode at any moment. It will only bring them greater risk.

“But once our Standard Chartered Bank successfully acquires HSBC, the merged entity will be even stronger. Their funds in HSBC will naturally be safe and sound, and the risk will vanish completely.

“With such an obvious benefit right in front of them, there’s no reason for them not to cooperate with us.

“As for the variables you’re worried about, as long as we plan properly and operate skillfully, we can completely avoid them in advance.

“I have already reached a preliminary cooperative intention with them. Now, we just need to give things a little push, and they will follow our plan.

“And besides, I think HSBC’s other major clients must all be on pins and needles right now. As long as our Standard Chartered Bank proactively contacts them during HSBC’s most difficult time, it wouldn’t be surprising for them to become ‘traitors’ to protect themselves.

“After all, who would dare to risk offending Standard Chartered Bank and the Bank of East Asia to continue supporting a terminally ill HSBC that we have jointly targeted?”

“Mr. Brown, I’ve decided. The Bank of East Asia agrees to cooperate with Standard Chartered Bank!”

Chapter 663: Counter Every Move, Block Every Blow!

After the Bank of East Asia and Standard Chartered Bank reached an agreement on their cooperation, the legal departments and key senior executives from both sides convened swiftly in a conference room at the Bank of East Asia’s headquarters to formally negotiate the details of the contract.

Throughout the process, Standard Chartered Bank was particularly proactive.

After all, a cooperative opportunity like this was truly rare—a once-in-a-century chance.

If Standard Chartered missed this golden opportunity, they would likely never get another chance to devour HSBC.

After more in-depth negotiations, the contract specified the concrete terms of the partnership, the responsibilities and obligations of both parties, the distribution of profits, and other details.

In truth, the contract’s contents were primarily composed of concessions made by Standard Chartered Bank.

For instance, the contract explicitly stipulated that Standard Chartered Bank must assist the Bank of East Asia in obtaining banknote-issuing rights within three months. If they failed, Standard Chartered would have to compensate the Bank of East Asia with three billion Hong Kong dollars.

This substantial penalty clause was something Lin Haoran had specifically proposed to prevent Standard Chartered from backing out after successfully acquiring HSBC, or from deliberately delaying and failing to deliver on their promise.

Initially, Mr. Brown was vehemently opposed to this clause. After all, three billion Hong Kong dollars was no small sum. If the penalty were triggered, it would be a heavy financial burden for Standard Chartered Bank.

However, Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang were unyielding in their stance.

They both understood that the financial markets were ever-changing. If Standard Chartered truly intended to play games and deliberately default on their promise, wouldn’t the Bank of East Asia suffer a massive loss?

Therefore, this penalty clause was crucial to safeguarding the interests of the Bank of East Asia and could not be easily compromised.

Although a bank’s credibility and reputation are fundamental to its market standing, these agreements were ultimately just business arrangements.

Even if Standard Chartered ultimately failed to fulfill its obligations, it wouldn’t necessarily create a major stir in public opinion.

But a compensation clause signed in black and white in a contract was of a completely different nature.

If Standard Chartered Bank truly failed to fulfill the relevant clauses, they would genuinely owe the Bank of East Asia a debt of three billion Hong Kong dollars—a sum Standard Chartered couldn’t possibly evade.

Left with no choice, Mr. Brown had to call Standard Chartered Bank’s head office in Britain.

To his great surprise, after a brief discussion, the senior management at Standard Chartered headquarters agreed without hesitation.

According to Mr. Brown, Standard Chartered seemed confident of success in helping the Bank of East Asia obtain banknote-issuing rights. That was why they ultimately agreed to this term; after all, as long as the condition was met, the compensation would naturally become an empty promise that never needed to be fulfilled.

Furthermore, the contract stipulated that if Standard Chartered successfully acquired HSBC, it must immediately transfer the Hang Seng Bank shares held by HSBC to the Bank of East Asia.

Initially, Standard Chartered planned to sell these shares at the stock market price, but Lin Haoran felt this was inappropriate.

After all, Hang Seng Bank’s stock price was severely inflated.

At its peak, for example, HSBC’s market capitalization was about twenty-six billion Hong Kong dollars, but Hang Seng Bank, its subsidiary, had a market capitalization of over fifteen billion Hong Kong dollars during the same period.

Keep in mind, at that time, HSBC’s capital scale exceeded 130 billion, while Hang Seng Bank’s was only around twenty-five billion Hong Kong dollars. The stark contrast between their capital scales and market capitalizations was enough to show that Hang Seng Bank’s stock price was inflated.

Now, the entire Hong Kong banking industry felt as if it was being “drained of its blood” by the Bank of East Asia. The stock prices of major Hong Kong-listed banks like HSBC and Hang Seng Bank continued to fall.

Even so, Hang Seng Bank’s current market capitalization was still around seven billion Hong Kong dollars.

HSBC currently held 62.14% of Hang Seng Bank’s shares. If Lin Haoran were to acquire them at this price, wouldn’t he have to shell out 4.35 billion Hong Kong dollars?

He would never agree to that. He had no intention of being such a sucker.

Lin Haoran proposed to acquire the 62.14% stake in Hang Seng Bank for one billion Hong Kong dollars.

In the office, the two sides engaged in a long and heated negotiation over the price, both dissatisfied with the figure proposed by the other.

Lin Haoran was resolute and refused to budge an inch, making it clear that if they couldn’t reach an agreement on the price, their cooperation would have to be terminated.

In the end, both sides took a step back and successfully reached a deal. Once Standard Chartered successfully acquired HSBC, the Bank of East Asia would acquire HSBC’s 62.14% stake for 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars. This condition was also written into the contract.

Additionally, other contract terms related to the sharing of international financial resources were left for Ho Sin Hang to oversee.

The entire agreement signing process was long and arduous. Representatives from both sides went back and forth, engaging in a war of words that lasted nearly three hours before they finally reached a result that satisfied both parties.

And so, while HSBC’s senior management remained in the dark, completely unaware, the Bank of East Asia and Standard Chartered Bank had quietly completed their arrangement, carving up HSBC cleanly.

Who could have predicted that HSBC, once a dominant force that commanded the winds and clouds in Hong Kong’s financial industry and even its entire business world, was now like fish on a chopping block, at the mercy of the Bank of East Asia and Standard Chartered Bank?

Of course, how Standard Chartered would stab HSBC in the back, and how they would force the financial groups behind HSBC to relinquish it—these were Standard Chartered’s own “methods” and had nothing to do with the Bank of East Asia.

In this game, the Bank of East Asia only needed to cooperate with Standard Chartered at the right moment and apply the necessary pressure on HSBC.

Lin Haoran was more than happy to do so. After all, he was currently shorting HSBC’s stock and still owed quite a few shares to some of HSBC’s shareholders.

The lower HSBC’s stock price fell, the lower his cost to buy them back, and thus, the more he would earn.

Once HSBC was hit by various negative factors, its stock price was bound to plummet further, and his profits in the short-selling market would be extremely generous.

Every “stab” Standard Chartered delivered to HSBC was like handing Lin Haoran a sharp “blade,” helping him sweep through the battlefield of shorting HSBC and reap enormous wealth.

Once the contract was signed, the atmosphere in the conference room instantly became relaxed and harmonious.

Mr. Brown slowly rose to his feet, a sincere smile on his face. He proactively extended his hand to shake with Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang respectively.

At the same time, he said enthusiastically, “Mr. Lin, Mr. Ho, I sincerely hope that our cooperation this time can proceed smoothly and achieve a wonderful situation of mutual benefit. In the future of Hong Kong’s financial world, if we work together, we can surely achieve brilliant results.”

Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang also quickly stood up, shaking Mr. Brown’s hand firmly with smiles on their faces.

Lin Haoran responded with a smile, “Mr. Brown, we too are full of anticipation for a deeper and long-term cooperation with Standard Chartered Bank. I believe that with our joint efforts and collaboration, we can certainly achieve even more bountiful returns for both parties in Hong Kong’s financial industry.”

Ho Sin Hang nodded with a smile, “That’s right. This cooperation is of great significance. I hope all subsequent matters proceed smoothly as planned.”

After Mr. Brown left, Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang sat down again. They exchanged a smile, both very satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations.

Standard Chartered had made one concession after another, which showed just how anxious they were about this matter.

Once they swallowed up HSBC, Standard Chartered’s market share in Hong Kong would increase dramatically!

It could be said that Lin Haoran and his team had grasped Standard Chartered’s weak spot, which was why Standard Chartered had been forced to make so many concessions in this negotiation.

“Haoran, we’ve really gotten the better of Standard Chartered this time, got them right where we want them,” Ho Sin Hang said, leaning back in his chair with a smile. “But we can’t let our guard down.

“For Standard Chartered to have remained standing in Hong Kong’s financial world for so many years, they must have a few tricks up their sleeve. They might be scheming something nasty. Of course, they probably won’t dare to act recklessly before they’ve completely secured HSBC.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, a faint smile playing on his lips. “I’ve dealt with British-owned companies quite a few times. I’m perfectly clear about their little tricks.

“So, I never considered Standard Chartered a true ally. This cooperation is just a temporary arrangement for our mutual benefit. Uncle He, you were at HSBC for so many years; you must know more about the operational style and hidden tactics of British-owned companies than I do.

“Next, you’ll need to arrange for a few capable people to keep a close eye on Standard Chartered’s every move in acquiring HSBC, especially the content of their communications with the financial groups behind HSBC and the terms of the transaction. We can’t let Standard Chartered pull any fast ones behind our backs and harm our interests.”

As the saying goes, one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers.

Once Standard Chartered successfully completed its merger and acquisition of HSBC, its ambitions would surely grow like weeds, and it would attempt to dominate Hong Kong’s financial world.

At that time, it would unscrupulously tear pieces of “market flesh” from the Bank of East Asia, trying every means to gradually take over the Bank of East Asia’s business landscape, and then truly surpass it to firmly occupy the top seat in Hong Kong’s financial industry.

Moreover, given Standard Chartered’s influence in Hong Kong and its complex network of interests behind the scenes, it was possible that the Government House would secretly pave the way for it, providing certain policy advantages or other conveniences.

None of this was conjecture without basis; it was all highly likely to happen.

Ho Sin Hang’s expression turned grave as he said in a deep voice, “Haoran, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Ever since Hang Seng Bank was acquired by HSBC, I became a board member of HSBC. I couldn’t be clearer about the sneaky and unscrupulous tactics of British-owned companies.

“They act all prim and proper on the surface, but behind the scenes, they’ll do whatever it takes to achieve their goals. What I never expected was that Hang Seng Bank was acquired through such means as well. I remember it all so vividly.

“I will personally select some trustworthy, sharp, and reliable people to keep a close watch on Standard Chartered’s every move. The slightest rumor, and they’ll report to me immediately.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, a confident smile touching the corners of his mouth. “I’ll also have General Manager Cui arrange for people to keep a tight watch on Standard Chartered. As long as we successfully secure the Hang Seng Bank shares and the banknote-issuing rights, no matter what tricks Standard Chartered tries to pull, we can counter every move and block every blow!”

…

A day passed in a flash, and it was the morning of July 27th.

HSBC, headquarters building, Michael Sandberg’s office.

At this moment, Michael Sandberg, John Bao, William Purves, and other core senior executives of HSBC were seated on the sofa.

None of them looked particularly well.

A few days ago, in a show of support for HSBC, the Government House had high-profiledly announced that it would temporarily deposit over ten billion Hong Kong dollars from the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau’s reserves with HSBC, thereby helping the bank avoid a capital chain rupture.

However, while Mr. Governor had made the announcement, the funds had never arrived. This undoubtedly added frost to snow for HSBC’s already precarious financial situation.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, our vaults now have less than three billion Hong Kong dollars in cash reserves. If this continues, it won’t be long before our funds are completely depleted. Moreover, Standard Chartered Bank keeps making excuses and stalling, refusing to give us a straight answer about whether they will grant us a loan.

“Our funds have been draining away this whole time. Although the rate of outflow has slowed, we’re still losing two to three hundred million Hong Kong dollars every day. If this continues, our HSBC will be in a huge crisis!” John Bao said with a long sigh, his face full of worry.

“The situation at Hang Seng Bank is not optimistic either. We’ve been dragged down by HSBC’s predicament, and our funds are also continuously flowing out. Therefore, the financial support Hang Seng Bank can offer HSBC is extremely limited; we can’t be of much help at all!” William Purves added, his brows tightly furrowed with concern.

Originally, according to the plan, after successfully obtaining support from the Government House and securing a loan from Standard Chartered Bank, combined with the normal recovery of monthly loan payments, HSBC would only need to endure for a year or so.

As more funds were recovered, they would have been able to overcome this crisis and completely escape the danger of a broken capital chain.

However, the ideal was beautiful, but reality was incredibly cruel.

Michael Sandberg paced anxiously back and forth in his office, his brow deeply furrowed. Two dark circles under his eyes were particularly noticeable, a clear sign that he hadn’t had a peaceful night’s sleep in a long time.

The attitude of the Government House was simply too strange.

Logically, since Mr. Governor had already made a public announcement, all that was needed was for the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau to cooperate and have HSBC liaise about the funds. The cash should have arrived quickly, rapidly replenishing HSBC’s vaults.

But now, so many days had passed, and the other side still hadn’t signaled for HSBC to come and arrange the transfer, as if they were deliberately stalling. This made Michael Sandberg both anxious and deeply puzzled.

“I will go to the Government House again this afternoon. Also, I have entrusted Wardley to help us sell off some of the shares we hold in other companies to try and recover more funds.

“As for Standard Chartered, I’ll call their Chairman of the Board, Lord Derek Barber, later. No matter what, they have to give us a clear answer. If it really doesn’t work out, I’ll contact other banks, but I’m afraid that will be very difficult.

“HSBC has always worked most closely with Standard Chartered. If even they are unwilling to give us a loan, it’s even less likely that other banks will agree,” Michael Sandberg said with a long, helpless sigh.

Having operated in Hong Kong for many years, HSBC had excellent relationships with all the major tycoons, such as Swire & Co., Wheelock and Company, Jardine Matheson & Co., and World-Wide Shipping Group.

At the same time, HSBC held a certain number of shares in these companies, a form of cross-shareholding intended to deepen their cooperation.

For example, HSBC previously held a 6% stake in Jardine Matheson & Co.

However, before Jardine Matheson withdrew from Hong Kong, HSBC had already sold off its shares to minimize losses.

Despite this, they still held a considerable number of shares in many of Hong Kong’s major British-owned companies. If all these shares were sold, raising several billion Hong Kong dollars would not be a problem at all.

These were HSBC’s trump cards, their “last resort.”

However, selling these shares was not something that could be done overnight. It required the right timing and the right buyer. Otherwise, a hasty sell-off might not only fail to fetch a good price but could also trigger market turmoil and negatively impact HSBC’s own reputation.

Michael Sandberg knew this well, which was why he had been reluctant to touch these shares.

But now, the situation was forcing his hand. If he didn’t take action, HSBC might not hold out for much longer.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, selling shares can solve an immediate crisis, but in the long run, it’s not a sustainable solution. HSBC’s position in Hong Kong cannot be so easily shaken,” John Bao said with great concern.

He understood what selling the shares meant: a weakening of both HSBC’s strength and influence.

At the same time, once the shares were sold, HSBC would no longer have that special cross-shareholding relationship with these companies. They would face numerous uncertainties in future business cooperation and resource sharing, and it could even trigger a chain reaction, causing HSBC’s position in the Hong Kong financial world to decline further.

Michael Sandberg stopped pacing and looked at John Bao. He slowly said, “Don’t I know the drawbacks of selling our shares? But the situation is critical, and we don’t have many choices. Let’s first survive the current crisis and protect HSBC’s foundation. We can find ways to recover and rebuild our relationships with all parties later.”

William Purves also nodded. “Mr. Michael Sandberg is right. The most urgent task now is to solve the funding problem. Otherwise, everything is just empty talk. It’s just that once the news of us selling shares gets out, the market’s reaction could be very unpredictable. We must be prepared to handle all sorts of unexpected situations.”

Michael Sandberg took a deep breath, his expression grave. “Indeed. Wardley will do its best to sell the shares discreetly, but this will inevitably slow down the process, and the funds recovered will be greatly reduced.

“However, when the time is right, we will also consider accelerating the sell-off. I will have the PR department prepare a comprehensive contingency plan in advance to minimize the market impact of the share sale.

“If the situation becomes so dire that we have no other choice, we will even have to sell our overseas assets. After all, only by first preserving HSBC’s foundation in Hong Kong can we plan for long-term development and have a future!”

They did not want anyone to know about this, so they did not dare to approach wealthy market makers or financial groups, which would have made selling much easier.

Therefore, the best method was to sell slowly and discreetly, gradually recovering their funds.

Despite saying this, everyone present knew very well that even if they sold off all their overseas investments, it wouldn’t raise much money.

For example, HSBC had spent 341 million US dollars to acquire a 51% stake in Marine Midland Bank. Converted to Hong Kong dollars, that was only just over one billion. Moreover, finding a bag holder would not be easy, as Marine Midland Bank’s profit and loss situation was common knowledge in the American financial and investment circles.

Under these circumstances, if HSBC wanted to sell its stake in Marine Midland Bank, it would have to sell at an even lower price to have any chance of finding a buyer.

As for other assets, such as the Mercantile Bank and The British Bank of the Middle East, they were worth even less. Selling them all might not even fetch one billion Hong Kong dollars.

Compared to HSBC’s enormous funding gap, the proceeds from selling these overseas assets were merely a drop in the bucket, unable to fundamentally solve the predicament HSBC was facing.

“I learned something from Britain. The Blair family was originally planning to call a shareholders’ meeting to have you removed, Mr. Michael Sandberg. They feel that you are entirely responsible for the situation HSBC is now facing.

“Fortunately, Mr. Ivar Moltke intervened and stopped the meeting from being convened. But if HSBC’s situation doesn’t improve over the next month, Mr. Michael Sandberg, and I, will probably both end up as scapegoats!” John Bao said in a lowered voice, revealing a little-known secret.

Both the Blair family and Mr. Ivar Moltke were the true backers behind HSBC—in other words, major shareholders.

As for Michael Sandberg, John Bao, William Purves, and the others, they were merely professional managers.

HSBC’s early shareholders actually included British, American, German, Danish, Jewish, and Indian Parsi people. These factions formed HSBC’s complex early shareholder structure, like an intricate web tightly wound around the bank.

Due to its complex network of personal connections, HSBC gained access to abundant resources and developed rapidly since its establishment.

However, in the years that followed, all shareholders except for the British financial groups gradually exited, and HSBC evolved into a bank controlled by the British.

Leveraging their deep foundation and powerful influence, the British financial groups firmly controlled HSBC’s development direction and major decisions.

Upon hearing this news, Michael Sandberg’s face instantly turned deathly pale, and beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

HSBC was facing a major crisis, and he was already doing his utmost to turn the tide. Yet these financial groups, resting comfortably in the background, were not only failing to provide substantial support but were also thinking of dismissing him to shirk responsibility. This made him feel incredibly disheartened and furious.

“Hmph! Do they think that by removing me, HSBC will be saved? What wishful thinking!” Michael Sandberg’s eyes were wide with anger, the veins on his temples throbbing slightly. His voice trembled with emotion.

“This situation is clearly due to the overwhelming strength of our rivals. No matter who was in charge, it would be difficult to handle such a predicament. How can they blame it all on me!”

John Bao sighed helplessly, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, saying this now is of no use. We still need to find a way to resolve the current crisis first. If HSBC really collapses, we professional managers will certainly lose our jobs, but those financial groups will also suffer heavy losses.”

The few people present naturally understood HSBC’s current predicament. Mr. Michael Sandberg simply could not bear this blame, nor was it his fault alone.

It was just that the Bank of East Asia’s rise had been too swift, faster than anyone could have imagined. By the time they reacted, they had already been caught completely off guard.

But how would the financial groups behind them bother to investigate these reasons?

Chapter 664: HSBC’s Market Cap Plummets to Under Three Billion

Just as the three of them were in the office discussing how to resolve HSBC’s current crisis, a knock came at the door.

They immediately stopped their conversation.

“Come in!” Michael Sandberg called out.

His assistant entered.

At that moment, however, the assistant’s face was panicked. He twisted the doorknob and rushed in, shouting, “Something terrible has happened.”

“What’s got you so flustered? Calm down and tell me,” Michael Sandberg said, slightly displeased.

The assistant took a deep breath, trying to steady his ragged breathing. With trembling hands, he passed a document to Michael Sandberg, his words tumbling out in a rush, “Just now, Swire & Co. issued a public announcement. They declared that within one week, they will transfer all their financial services to Standard Chartered Bank!”

As soon as he said this, Michael Sandberg, who had just reached out for the document, flinched as if his fingers had been burned. The papers instantly slipped from his rigid hand and fluttered to the floor.

A deathly silence fell over the office; the very air seemed to freeze.

The other two senior executives stared wide-eyed, their faces etched with disbelief.

Swire & Co. was one of HSBC’s most important partners. The funds they held with HSBC amounted to at least ten billion Hong Kong dollars!

As a British-owned company with over a century of history, Swire & Co. was one of the Four Big Hongs in Hong Kong. Its business empire was vast, with extensive involvement in real estate, aviation, hotels, industry, and shipping—a diversified commercial titan spanning land, sea, and air.

Among the British-owned enterprises in Hong Kong, Swire & Co. had always held a position of crucial importance, its market capitalization consistently ranking in the top ten of all publicly listed companies in Hong Kong.

In the past two years, with the privatization and delisting of the Hongkong Land Group, Jardine Matheson & Co.’s withdrawal from the Hong Kong market, and the sharp decline in HSBC and Hang Seng Bank’s stock prices due to the blood-sucking rise of the Bank of East Asia, Swire & Co.’s market capitalization ranking had soared. It was now firmly in the top five listed companies in Hong Kong, an undisputed giant of the Hong Kong business world.

The renowned Cathay Pacific, for instance, was one of the industries under the Swire Group’s umbrella.

For such a company to terminate its partnership with HSBC was, without a doubt, a destructive storm.

The withdrawal of tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars in funds was like a vicious slash across HSBC’s already fragile capital chain, certain to trigger a series of chain reactions.

This was especially true now, with the funds from the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau yet to arrive.

Michael Sandberg was the first to break free from his stunned stupor. He reacted instantly, crouching down and snatching up the fallen document with eager hands. He flipped through the pages rapidly, trying to dig out a sliver of hope or a hidden clue from the seemingly ordinary announcement.

However, it was just a standard announcement, nothing more.

The content was concise and direct, clearly stating that out of consideration for the security of Swire & Co.’s funds, and after careful deliberation by all senior executives, Swire & Co. would terminate its financial services partnership with HSBC and shift its focus to another major British-owned firm, Standard Chartered Bank.

Swire & Co. was one of HSBC’s most crucial partners.

Over the years, their relationship had become deeply entangled, far exceeding the scope of a typical financial partnership.

In the realm of investment, they had achieved a state of deep integration, even holding shares in each other, their interests tightly interwoven.

Yet now, Swire & Co. had so quietly and without any warning issued a public announcement, unilaterally declaring this momentous decision without so much as a hint of discussion with HSBC beforehand.

This sudden turn of events struck everyone present like a heavy sledgehammer. Despair spread through the office like a dark cloud.

Betrayal. This was absolute betrayal!

At HSBC’s most critical moment, Swire & Co.’s action was tantamount to stabbing them in the back, adding frost to snow for their already difficult situation.

Michael Sandberg’s face was terrifyingly grim. He gripped the announcement so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

He knew this was not the time for anger or complaints. He had to devise a countermeasure as quickly as possible, or HSBC could collapse completely in this crisis.

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, hurry up and call Mr. Schreyer and ask him what on earth is going on,” John Bao said in a low voice, having quickly regained his composure.

Michael Sandberg nodded.

He swiftly picked up the phone from his desk, his fingers rapidly dialing the numbers, each press seeming to carry his current anxiety and fury.

The busy tone buzzed from the other end, each sound like a hammer blow to Michael Sandberg’s heart, making him increasingly agitated.

Finally, the call connected.

Michael Sandberg suppressed his anger, trying to keep his voice calm. “Mr. Schreyer, I just saw the announcement from Swire & Co. You plan to transfer all your financial services to Standard Chartered Bank within a week.”

“I want to know what this is all about. We have been partners for many years. Why would you make such a sudden and unannounced decision without even discussing it with us?”

There was a moment of silence on the other end, then Schreyer spoke slowly, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, this was a decision made by our senior management after careful consideration. The Hong Kong financial market has been in a rapidly changing situation recently, and we are well aware of the crisis HSBC is facing. To ensure the safety of Swire & Co.’s funds, we had to make this adjustment. I hope you can understand.”

Michael Sandberg trembled with rage, raising his voice. “Understand? Mr. Schreyer, although HSBC is currently facing some difficulties, we are far from a point of no return.”

“For Swire & Co. to pull out at this time is undoubtedly pushing us into a desperate situation. Is our partnership of so many years really that fragile?”

Schreyer sighed. “Mr. Michael Sandberg, the business world is like a battlefield. We are also acting in our own interests. I am very sorry!”

“Mr. Schreyer, let me be blunt. Even if Swire & Co. insists on moving your funds, HSBC simply doesn’t have that much cash on hand right now. Your actions will only push both of us into a corner, leading to a mutually destructive outcome!”

Michael Sandberg’s voice trembled with emotion. “Once HSBC collapses, the entire Hong Kong financial market will be thrown into turmoil. As a renowned giant in Hong Kong’s business community, isn’t Swire & Co. afraid of being swept into this storm and suffering incalculable losses?”

The line fell silent again. After a moment, Schreyer’s voice returned, tinged with an unyielding firmness, “Mr. Michael Sandberg, at the end of the day, Swire & Co. is merely a client of HSBC.”

“What you should be worrying about now is how to gather our funds. As for how you do it, that is HSBC’s problem!”

Michael Sandberg wanted to say more, but he heard the disconnected tone buzzing in his ear.

Swire & Co. already knew that HSBC’s capital chain was on the verge of breaking. Their request to transfer funds at this time was indeed impossible to fulfill.

However, Swire & Co. wasn’t worried at all, because they knew that once Standard Chartered Bank successfully acquired HSBC, their funds at HSBC would naturally be safe.

With a grim expression, he placed the telephone receiver back in its cradle without a word.

It was over. It was all over.

Beside him, John Bao and William Purves exchanged glances. The atmosphere in the office was so oppressive it was hard to breathe.

John Bao’s lips moved as if he wanted to say something to console Michael Sandberg, but he didn’t know where to start, ultimately just letting out a heavy sigh.

HSBC was already facing an intractable crisis. Now, Swire & Co.’s actions were like a vicious kick to an already teetering tower, threatening to bring the precarious financial edifice crashing down at any moment.

“No wonder Standard Chartered Bank has been ignoring our loan requests recently. So it was all premeditated. They’ve been colluding with Swire & Co. behind our backs. Also, I suspect they’ve already talked it over with Government House!” William Purves murmured.

Once Swire & Co.’s announcement was released, it was easy to imagine the consequences.

A more ferocious bank run would surge like a bursting dam, stock prices would plummet like a kite with its string cut, and client trust would collapse like a falling skyscraper… A series of crises, like a tidal wave, rushed towards HSBC.

In such a precarious state, battered by wind and rain, who could possibly lend HSBC a hand and save it from the abyss?

At this moment, the three men in the room were filled with despair, tempted to abandon this riddled-with-holes mess and just walk away.

After a long silence, Michael Sandberg finally spoke. “Mr. Purves, you go and call HSBC’s major shareholders and inform them of our current situation. Mr. John Bao, you find a way to have our colleagues in Britain discuss loan matters with Barclays Bank, Lloyds Bank, and others. We can’t miss even the slightest glimmer of hope. As for Standard Chartered, it’s clear we can’t have any illusions. They are definitely after our market share. As for me, I’ll make a trip to Government House first to see what their attitude is.”

The two men nodded. Just as they were about to attend to their respective tasks, another knock came at the door.

This time, it was John Bao’s assistant who entered.

“Just moments ago, Wheelock and Company officially issued an announcement that they will terminate their partnership with HSBC and will also be partnering with Standard Chartered Bank,” the assistant said as he handed over a document.

The three men’s eyes widened again, as if struck by a bolt from the blue. The despair that had just begun to subside flooded back like a raging tide.

It was truly one wave after another, and when the roof is leaking, it rains all night.

Michael Sandberg felt the world spin. His body swayed, and he nearly lost his footing.

John Bao and William Purves were also deathly pale, their lips colorless, their eyes filled with terror and helplessness.

“This… this is impossible!” John Bao’s voice trembled.

As one of Hong Kong’s Four Big Hongs, Wheelock and Company was a top player in fields like real estate and shipping trade. Though not as powerful as Swire & Co., it was still a formidable giant.

Originally, all Four Big Hongs were important partners of HSBC. After Jardine Matheson withdrew from Hong Kong and its subsidiaries like the Hongkong Land Group were taken over by Lin Haoran, HSBC still had three of the Big Hongs as partners.

But now, with Swire & Co. and Wheelock and Company successively announcing the termination of their cooperation, HSBC was left with only Hutchison Whampoa.

The funds involved with Wheelock and Company also amounted to several billion Hong Kong dollars.

At this moment, the same thought crossed all three of their minds: “HSBC is finished.”

How could they possibly save it now?

The successive betrayals by Swire & Co. and Wheelock and Company had pushed HSBC into a chasm of irreparable ruin.

Unsurprisingly, every HSBC branch in Hong Kong was likely seeing long queues forming as a bank run erupted.

In this situation, even if Government House brought out the ten-billion-plus Hong Kong dollars from the Treasury, it wouldn’t be enough to save them.

A crisis of confidence had completely erupted, spreading through Hong Kong’s financial industry like a rampant plague. Everywhere it went, there was widespread panic, and every shadow looked like a threat.

Michael Sandberg walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked down. He saw that the head office branch below was already swarmed with people, and more were rushing over from all directions, some by car, some on foot.

Clearly, everyone had already received the news.

Michael Sandberg steadied his faltering body, his eyes filled with defiance and unwillingness to yield. He gritted his teeth and said, “We can’t just give up. Even if there’s only a sliver of hope, we must fight with all our might.”

His voice trembled slightly, but it was filled with determination.

Even if HSBC truly couldn’t be saved this time, he had to try.

John Bao took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. “That’s right. Now is not the time for despair. Purves, you contact the shareholders first and see if their connections can offer us any help. I’ll go arrange the communications with the banks in Britain right away.”

William Purves nodded heavily. The three of them moved quickly. Though their hearts were filled with gloom, they now had to shoulder the heavy responsibility of saving HSBC.

Michael Sandberg walked out of the office with heavy steps, heading for Government House.

Along the way, his mind was consumed by the announcements from Swire & Co. and Wheelock and Company and the impending catastrophe facing HSBC.

He passed several HSBC and Hang Seng Bank branches, all in a state of chaos. Crowds of customers were jammed outside, shouting loudly to withdraw their money. The staff were terribly busy, but they were powerless to quell the public’s panic.

As a subsidiary of HSBC, Hang Seng Bank was inevitably implicated.

Michael Sandberg’s brow furrowed, his anxiety deepening.

As HSBC’s subsidiary, Hang Seng Bank was fated to share in the glory and the ruin.

Now that HSBC was in a desperate situation, Hang Seng Bank could not escape unscathed. The destructive force of this storm was far beyond his imagination.

…

Meanwhile, the announcements from Swire & Co. and Wheelock and Company had spread throughout Hong Kong at lightning speed.

Hong Kong’s entire financial industry exploded. On streets and in alleys, in teahouses and restaurants, people were fervently discussing the impending collapse of HSBC.

The major media outlets also sprang into action, dispatching reporters to HSBC branches and other relevant locations to capture firsthand news.

HSBC’s customers rushed to the branches from all corners, worried about the funds they had deposited in the bank.

At this moment, any attempt by HSBC’s senior executives to reassure the public seemed pale and powerless.

Everyone knew that the commercial empire of HSBC might truly be about to fall.

Who could possibly save HSBC?

This caused many customers who hadn’t yet withdrawn their money to panic. Many even had to take leave from work to hurry to HSBC branches and join the long withdrawal queues.

Their faces were anxious, their eyes filled with fear and unease. Many citizens muttered incessantly, “What are we going to do? If I really can’t get my money out, all my savings will be gone!”

Inside Hong Kong’s four stock exchanges, it was even more chaotic.

HSBC’s stock was plummeting like a kite with its string cut on the simple LED screens of the trading floor. Each price drop tugged at the hearts of countless investors.

Traders shouted themselves hoarse, trying to complete transactions amidst the turmoil, but panic had completely taken over. Buy and sell orders flew like snowflakes, but it was difficult to form effective trades.

“Sell! Sell now!” one investor roared wildly at his broker, his eyes red. His voice was particularly shrill in the noisy trading hall.

The last time, with successive statements of support from various Hong Kong business titans and a subsequent statement from Government House, HSBC’s stock price had gradually stabilized.

Some investors had even gambled that HSBC would rise again in the future, entering the market to buy at the bottom.

However, the recent announcements from Swire & Co. and Wheelock and Company acted like a sharp dagger, completely shattering these investors’ illusions.

If they didn’t sell now, when would they?

If HSBC went bankrupt, would they have to be “buried” along with it?

Investors were frantic. The wave of selling grew higher and higher. HSBC’s stock price hit rock bottom in a short period, setting a new historical low.

Fortunately, the Hong Kong stock market did not have a limit-down mechanism at the time; otherwise, these shareholders might not even have had the chance to sell today.

Bank of East Asia Headquarters, Chairman’s office.

Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang were sitting on the sofa in the office.

News of the situation outside had, of course, reached them immediately.

“Standard Chartered is really fast!” Ho Sin Hang couldn’t help but exclaim, his tone filled with amazement.

“Isn’t it? They just signed the contract with us yesterday, and today they’re already making a move on HSBC. That was a ruthless and decisive blow, pushing HSBC to the brink and leaving it with no chance of recovery!” Lin Haoran nodded in agreement.

As a fellow British-owned company, Standard Chartered showed no mercy in its attack on HSBC.

It was a sobering reminder that in the face of profit, things like friendship and camaraderie are utterly worthless.

“Watching HSBC, the former hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry, collapse with a thunderous crash, I truly feel that the cruelty of the business world far exceeds my imagination,” Ho Sin Hang sighed.

At that moment, the old man’s eyes were filled with complex emotions: regret for the fading glory of HSBC, a subtle satisfaction at seeing its downfall, and a deep understanding of the brutal competition in the financial market.

Even after a lifetime of operating in Hong Kong’s business circles, he still found HSBC’s current situation unbelievable.

Previously, HSBC had wielded great power and influence in Hong Kong’s financial sector. Countless businesses and individuals took pride in partnering with them.

But now, it had fallen to such a state. Truly, the ways of the world are unpredictable.

“It’s what they deserve!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

“Haoran, if you think about it, you’re the one who indirectly brought HSBC to this point. Without you, Standard Chartered would never have had the chance to kick a man while he’s down,” Ho Sin Hang said with emotion.

It was the Bank of East Asia’s step-by-step blood-sucking from HSBC that had further destabilized its already shaky foundation, giving Standard Chartered this opportunity.

Otherwise, with Standard Chartered’s strength, they might have never had the chance to acquire HSBC in their entire existence.

“They were the ones who provoked the Bank of East Asia. Otherwise, if they had let the Bank of East Asia develop slowly, HSBC’s market would have certainly weakened, but it wouldn’t have come to this. So, I say they deserved it!” Lin Haoran said, crossing his legs.

Just then, Lin Haoran’s mobile phone rang.

He picked it up and pressed the answer key.

The call was from Dai Shi, the Deputy General Manager of Galaxy Securities. “Boss, reporting in. In just half an hour, HSBC’s market capitalization has plummeted from around nine billion Hong Kong dollars at the market open to less than three billion Hong Kong dollars.”

“The stock price is still falling. You could say there are only sell orders and very few buy orders, causing the price to drop in a practically straight line. Additionally, Hang Seng Bank’s stock has been dragged down and has already fallen to around two billion Hong Kong dollars.”

“Oh? Have the trading team begin operations in secret immediately. No one can know about this. Slowly accumulate the low-priced shares in the dark, both HSBC and Hang Seng Bank!” Lin Haoran heard this and gave a decisive order.

He knew that as soon as Standard Chartered announced its acquisition of HSBC, the stock prices of both HSBC and Hang Seng Bank would soar again.

After all, with Standard Chartered’s financial backing, HSBC’s crisis would naturally cease to exist.

Although it would be demoted to a subsidiary of Standard Chartered, this would undoubtedly lead to a huge revaluation compared to the miserable state after the stock crash.

Hang Seng Bank, being closely related to HSBC, was implicated in its stock fluctuations. If HSBC was acquired, Hang Seng Bank’s stock would also rebound as market expectations for its future improved.

Therefore, although Lin Haoran knew that both stocks would normally continue to fall, he couldn’t wait for them to hit the absolute bottom before making a move.

“Alright, Boss, I’ll go arrange it immediately!” Dai Shi said and went to carry out the order.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran leaned back on the sofa.

Shorting HSBC had been a small, spur-of-the-moment decision.

At the time, he thought that if HSBC’s market cap dropped to ten billion Hong Kong dollars, he would have made a considerable profit.

Who knew it would fall so much!

This meant that his profits from shorting HSBC were getting higher and higher, far beyond his imagination.

Speaking of which, the reason there were so many shareholders dumping HSBC stock in the market now was because of Lin Haoran’s earlier sell-off.

It was he who had dumped the entire 25.6% stake he had borrowed onto the stock market, dramatically increasing the number of retail shares.

Now, these retail shares were like a bursting flood, carrying a wave of panic as they tore through the market, smashing HSBC’s stock price into the abyss.

Chapter 665: Li Jiacheng Descends into Panic

Hutchison Whampoa, headquarters.

Li Jiacheng stared at the intelligence report, his mind instantly went blank.

As a Director of HSBC, he knew how much capital the bank currently had on its books. That was why he had been on pins and needles for the past few days.

However, due to agreements signed with HSBC, both Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings were bound to partner exclusively with HSBC for their financial dealings. Thus, he couldn’t simply withdraw a large amount of funds or terminate their cooperation, no matter how worried he was. He could only force a calm facade and maintain the appearance of their partnership.

Besides, although HSBC was in crisis, it still had money in its accounts and could hold on. He also trusted that Michael Sandberg, a titan of finance, would be able to resolve HSBC’s difficulties.

But now, Swire & Co. and Wheelock and Company had successively announced their intention to transfer all their financial operations from HSBC to Standard Chartered Bank. This meant that HSBC, betrayed by these British-owned companies, would truly be pushed to the brink of a complete capital chain rupture.

Moreover, the resulting chain reaction would deal a fatal blow to HSBC. This included triggering a bank run, a stock price collapse, a sharp credit rating downgrade, and deterring any other company from daring to work with them.

Once a bank run erupted, a massive number of depositors would flood HSBC, demanding to withdraw their savings. The bank’s existing capital reserves would be completely insufficient to meet such an enormous demand.

A credit rating downgrade meant HSBC’s reputation in the financial market would be in tatters. Other financial institutions would keep their distance, unwilling to conduct business with them. This would create immense difficulties for HSBC in acquiring capital and conducting credit operations, further exacerbating its funding shortage.

At that point, the bank would be forced to sell off assets at fire-sale prices to raise funds, which in turn would intensify market panic, driving more people to join the bank run and creating a vicious cycle.

In other words, HSBC might already have no funds left to give.

The problem was, the liquid capital for both Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings Group was all deposited in HSBC!

The daily cash flow of these two major Hong Kong corporations, like a vast and intricate financial network, relied entirely on HSBC. The huge sums of money flowing back from property development sales, the monthly rental and sales income from properties, and Hutchison Whampoa’s business turnover—spanning real estate, insurance, hotels, shipping, docks, warehouses, and import-export trade—all passed through HSBC. From large payments to suppliers down to miscellaneous daily operational expenses, there were no exceptions.

In terms of salaries alone, the tens of thousands of employees at Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings likely required payments of over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars every month.

These two corporations were among the top ten listed companies in Hong Kong, so their cash flow was naturally substantial. The amount of money flowing through their HSBC accounts was at least in the realm of ten billion Hong Kong dollars!

If HSBC’s capital chain were to break with such a colossal amount of money at stake, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Li Jiacheng felt a wave of dizziness, as if he had been punched squarely in the chest, and he nearly lost his footing. He quickly grabbed the corner of his desk, taking several deep breaths to try and calm himself, but how could the anxiety in his heart be so easily quelled?

A rupture in HSBC’s capital chain was effectively a rupture in their own.

If worse came to worst, perhaps he could only sell the investment stocks held by the company. The thought had just flashed through Li Jiacheng’s mind when he shook his head violently, forcibly suppressing the impulse.

Right now, the company’s funding gap was too large. Relying on selling off investment stocks to fill it would be tantamount to drinking poison to quench thirst. After all, most of their funds had already been depleted during the acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa shares.

For the past year, he had been completely devoted to consolidating his hard-won control over Hutchison Whampoa, leaving him no time to consider investments in other companies. For example, although Hutchison Whampoa’s original Taipan, Willie, had been driven out by Li Jiacheng, the current management team was still the one Willie had left behind, including people like Richard Lee, Simon Hall, and Peter Wei. For Li Jiacheng, the most urgent task now was to cultivate his own confidants within Hutchison Whampoa and gradually push out the management team left behind by Willie.

It wasn’t that there were no solutions to the funding problem. For instance, he could mortgage his personal shares in Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa for a loan, which would certainly solve the short-term cash crunch.

The problem was, those shares were his personal assets. Both Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa were publicly listed companies. Li Jiacheng knew very well that if he used his personal shares as collateral for a loan to solve the company’s financial problems, the web of interests involved was incredibly complex. The slightest misstep could trigger a series of unforeseen consequences.

From the company’s perspective, the shareholders were already highly concerned about the safety and operational status of the company’s funds. If they learned that Li Jiacheng was using his personal stocks to secure a loan to cover the company’s funding gap, they would inevitably speculate whether the company was at the end of its rope. This would trigger a panic sell-off, causing the stock price to plummet.

For Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa, two publicly listed companies of crucial importance in Hong Kong, this would undoubtedly be a heavy blow. It would not only harm the interests of numerous shareholders but also cause the company’s reputation in the market to plummet.

From a personal standpoint, these shares were the fruit of his years of hard work and wise investments, a vital pillar of his business empire. Mortgaging them meant putting these assets at risk. If there were problems with the subsequent capital return and he couldn’t repay the loan on time, he could lose control over these shares, thereby affecting his status and influence in both companies.

Therefore, he was unwilling to take this path unless it was his absolute last resort.

Mortgaging the company’s assets could also alleviate the financial pressure. But no matter what, it couldn’t fundamentally eliminate the potential risks brought about by this crisis, and this step itself had many disadvantages.

After all, with nearly ten billion Hong Kong dollars sitting in HSBC, if the bank went bankrupt due to a broken capital chain, wouldn’t that massive sum under his two companies be a total loss?

Once that nearly ten billion Hong Kong dollars was gone, both Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings Group would be plunged into an unprecedented crisis. Their debt ratio could soar to two or three times their actual assets, and then it would truly be over. How long would it take for Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings to earn nearly ten billion Hong Kong dollars in profit to pay off that debt?

Moreover, once the financial reports showed a deficit, widespread panic would erupt within the companies, not to mention other consequences. Employees would worry about not being paid on time, and their motivation would plummet. Some key technical personnel and business leaders might even start secretly looking for new job opportunities, fearing they would be left unemployed if the company collapsed.

Suppliers would also start calling one after another, demanding early settlement of payments in a harsh tone, otherwise, they would halt supplies. The once stable supply chain could become instantly precarious.

The importance of this nearly ten billion Hong Kong dollars in liquid capital to Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings was simply too great.

At the thought of the consequences, Li Jiacheng could no longer remain calm.

He had worked so hard to build his current enterprise, starting from a small plastics factory to taking control of two business titans, Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings. Only he knew the hardship and effort involved. Every decision, every struggle, was crystallized from his heart and soul and wisdom. Was it all to be ruined now because of HSBC’s crisis? How could he accept that?

But looking at HSBC’s current situation, there seemed to be no possibility of a comeback.

Li Jiacheng’s brows were tightly furrowed as he paced back and forth in his office. His steps were hurried and heavy, each one seeming to land on his own anxious heart.

Outside the window, the bustling scenery of Hong Kong remained, with its endless traffic. But at this moment, he was in no mood to appreciate it. His mind was consumed by the potential catastrophe that HSBC’s crisis could bring upon Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings.

No, I have to go see Michael Sandberg and find out what’s going on. I can’t just sit here and wait for death!

Just as he thought this and was about to pick up his suit jacket to leave, a knock came from the door.

He paused his movements and called out, “Come in.”

The office door opened, and a subordinate in charge of intelligence entered.

“Mr. Li, we’ve just received news. Hopewell Holdings, South Union Holdings, Associated Holdings, and several other major listed Hong Kong giants have announced, just like Swire & Co. and Wheelock and Company before them, that they are applying to transfer their funds from HSBC. Their destination is also Standard Chartered Bank!” The subordinate reported eagerly as soon as he entered.

At the same time, he handed a detailed intelligence report to Li Jiacheng.

Hopewell Holdings, South Union Holdings, Associated Holdings—these were all large corporations ranked in the top thirty in Hong Kong by market capitalization, with the lowest valued at over a billion Hong Kong dollars. And now, they were all making such announcements at this critical time.

Moreover, they obviously knew that even if they made the announcement, HSBC would be unable to produce the money. Yet, so many of HSBC’s corporate partners were declaring this one after another.

It went without saying that Standard Chartered Bank was behind this, plotting to swallow up HSBC’s market share.

Who would have thought that the first to strike at HSBC wouldn’t be its rival, the Bank of East Asia, but rather a fellow British-owned bank, Standard Chartered Bank. This was something Li Jiacheng had not anticipated either.

Li Jiacheng knew very well that HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank had always been on very good terms. They often collaborated on investments and were considered good partners. Yet, at this crucial moment, Standard Chartered had been the first to stab HSBC in the back.

But he truly didn’t understand. Even if Standard Chartered wanted to absorb HSBC’s market, if the funds couldn’t be transferred out of HSBC, how could Standard Chartered actually take over its market smoothly? Wouldn’t such actions just plunge the entire Hong Kong business community into chaos? What could Standard Chartered possibly gain from this?

“Is there any movement from Government House?” Li Jiacheng asked with a frown.

Logically, given HSBC’s current situation, the repercussions were too great. If HSBC were truly allowed to collapse completely, it would drag down a large part of Hong Kong’s business world with it. Government House should be taking action by now.

However, his subordinate shook his head and said, “Mr. Li, our people have been keeping a close eye on Government House, but there’s no word of any substantive action. It seems Government House is still waiting and seeing, or perhaps discussing response strategies internally. They haven’t made any public statements about intervening in HSBC’s current crisis.”

Hearing this, Li Jiacheng’s expression grew even darker. Government House biding its time undoubtedly made the situation more difficult. He had been pinning his hopes on the government stepping in to coordinate, stabilize market confidence, and prevent HSBC’s complete collapse. But now, it seemed that idea was a bit too naive.

“What about the Bank of East Asia? Any movement there?” Li Jiacheng continued to ask.

The subordinate still shook his head. “Mr. Li, not only have our people been closely monitoring Government House, but we also haven’t relaxed our watch on the Bank of East Asia and Lin Haoran. Since the Bank of East Asia announced it had become Hong Kong’s largest bank, there haven’t been any major follow-up moves. However, their various branches are very lively now, with long queues at the doors. But it’s completely different from the pathetic bank run at HSBC. Most of the people lining up at the Bank of East Asia and its subsidiary, Dao Heng Bank, are depositors busy transferring money from other banks. It seems the Bank of East Asia’s position in Hong Kong’s financial industry is becoming more and more solid and unshakable!”

“The Bank of East Asia and Lin Haoran haven’t made any moves?” Li Jiacheng’s brows knitted even tighter, finding it all the more incomprehensible.

“Yes, our people found out that many reporters went to both Connaught Centre and the Bank of East Asia’s headquarters, but they were all denied interviews,” the subordinate continued.

“Continue to closely monitor every move of Government House, the Bank of East Asia, Standard Chartered Bank, and other powers. Report any sign of trouble to me immediately,” Li Jiacheng ordered in a low voice.

The subordinate nodded and was about to turn and leave the office. However, he remembered he had something else to report, so he turned back to his boss. “Mr. Li, there is one other thing I need to report. The stock prices of Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa have also started to plummet, affected by HSBC. We need to find a way to stop the decline.”

Hearing this, Li Jiacheng felt even more agitated.

He nodded and said, “I know.”

“I’ll be leaving then,” the subordinate said, respectfully exiting the office.

At this moment, Li Jiacheng had lost any desire to go see Michael Sandberg. HSBC’s senior executives were likely in a state of chaos, each scrambling to deal with the sudden storm of massive fund withdrawals. If he went now, he might not get any real help, and Michael Sandberg probably wouldn’t even have time to see him. And even if he did, what solution could he offer?

Sinking back into his chair, a thought suddenly struck Li Jiacheng: “In its current state, perhaps only Lin Haoran can save HSBC, right?”

After all, HSBC didn’t actually have a high debt ratio; it was just that its invested capital and loans couldn’t be recalled in a short period. So, what HSBC desperately needed now was a huge infusion of liquid capital to solve its immediate crisis, cope with the sudden large-scale withdrawals, stabilize market confidence, prevent the bank run from worsening, and ultimately avoid collapse.

Lin Haoran’s Bank of East Asia was currently riding a wave of success in Hong Kong’s financial world. It was financially powerful and had an excellent reputation among the public and the business community. Furthermore, as the richest man in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran controlled several major Hong Kong corporate giants and had immense capital. If he were to lend a hand and inject funds into HSBC under suitable conditions, he might truly be able to bring it back from the dead.

However, the Bank of East Asia and HSBC were arch-nemeses. With Lin Haoran’s character of seeking revenge for the smallest grievance, Li Jiacheng didn’t think he would be willing to help HSBC.

At this moment, Li Jiacheng had no idea that the Bank of East Asia and Standard Chartered Bank had already secretly joined forces to carve up HSBC.

“Notify all senior executives to convene a meeting immediately. I’ll be in the conference room in five minutes!” Li Jiacheng called his secretary directly.

“Yes, Mr. Li,” the secretary replied.

After hanging up, Li Jiacheng felt a wave of agitation, even a hint of panic in his heart. This was something he had never experienced since entering the business world.

Li Jiacheng had been in business for decades, and his journey could be considered mostly smooth sailing. From the plastic flower market, he pivoted to real estate, then gradually built up Cheung Kong Holdings Group by acquiring properties at low prices during the property crisis. Although he failed in the acquisition battle for Kowloon Wharf, he unexpectedly got the chance to acquire Hutchison Whampoa, which, in Li Jiacheng’s view, was a far more valuable asset than Kowloon Wharf. So, while Li Jiacheng had certainly faced setbacks in his business career over the years, none had ever thrown him into a state of panic.

But now, he felt genuine panic. It was like a cold tide, slowly submerging him. HSBC’s crisis was like a bomb about to detonate. Once it exploded, the nearly ten billion Hong Kong dollars of his two companies would be reduced to nothing. The two business titans, Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, would suffer a devastating blow, and the commercial empire he had painstakingly built over many years might collapse.

At this moment, he suddenly felt regret. He regretted tying himself to the same boat as HSBC. Perhaps he should have been like Pao Yue-kong and maintained a good relationship with Lin Haoran. But because of HSBC, especially after he had presumptuously published a statement in the newspapers supporting HSBC, it was already impossible for him and Lin Haoran to be good friends.

“What’s the use of saying this now? It’s too late for regrets,” Li Jiacheng muttered to himself, his voice filled with helplessness and remorse.

…

At this moment, the four stock exchanges in Hong Kong were in a state of near chaos.

The stocks of HSBC’s major partners, such as Hutchison Whampoa, Cheung Kong Holdings, Swire & Co., an Wheelock and Company, all began to fall to varying degrees. As a financial institution, HSBC was dragging down numerous business giants.

Many shareholders were plunged into panic.

On the electronic screens, the Hang Seng Index, affected by the turmoil, plummeted as if falling off a cliff. The flickering numbers seemed like a death knell rung by the grim reaper, each flash tugging at the hearts of shareholders. The red numbers indicating the decline grew larger and larger, like a surging tide, completely drowning market confidence.

Inside the exchange, the sounds of shouting, cursing, and crying mingled together, like a chaotic symphony. This was a situation the Hong Kong stock market had rarely seen since the oil crisis. After all, the past two years had been hailed as a bull market.

Usually, the sharp fall of one or two listed companies wouldn’t cause the entire Hang Seng Index to drop. But now, too many listed companies were implicated by HSBC. Hang Seng Bank, Swire & Co., Hutchison Whampoa, the Cross-Harbour Tunnel Company, Swire Properties, Cheung Kong Holdings, Asia Airlines, Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company…

Every one of them was a major corporation familiar to the citizens of Hong Kong, but now, all were affected by HSBC, their stock prices falling to different extents.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call this day Black Tuesday.

Galaxy Securities also took this opportunity to secretly accumulate shares whose prices had been driven down by the panic. The acquisition process was so smooth that it surprised their team.

HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, Cheung Kong Holdings, Hutchison Whampoa, Swire & Co., and others were all targets for Galaxy Securities’ stock accumulation. After all, Lin Haoran knew very well that the current plunge in these stocks was only temporary.

So, seeing the prices of these stocks plummeting, he decisively instructed Dai Shi and his team to accumulate not only HSBC and Hang Seng Bank shares but also those of others like Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings!

As a key player in this event, Lin Haoran naturally knew that the crisis for all these companies was merely temporary. Standard Chartered Bank had not yet announced its intentions, so everyone, including Li Jiacheng, was unaware that its actual goal was to acquire HSBC.

Once HSBC was successfully acquired by Standard Chartered, their crisis would automatically resolve itself. Since Standard Chartered wanted to acquire HSBC, it would naturally have to resolve the difficulties HSBC was currently facing. In this way, the stock prices of companies affected by HSBC, whether it was Hang Seng Bank, Cheung Kong Holdings, or Hutchison Whampoa, were very likely to rebound quickly.

Therefore, Galaxy Securities was seizing this opportunity to make a massive profit from this stock crisis. Just shorting HSBC wasn’t enough.

At Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran stayed at Galaxy Securities until two-thirty in the afternoon. Watching the trading team smoothly acquire a large number of shares, he couldn’t help but smile with satisfaction. He was not short of money right now. That being the case, why not start buying at the bottom!

Most of these publicly listed companies were blue-chip companies. As long as they didn’t face a crisis of a broken capital chain, their stock prices would only get higher and higher. Therefore, an opportunity for such a massive crash was extremely rare.

Especially with Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings. Seeing that he was gradually gaining control of a considerable number of shares in these two companies, a meaningful smile appeared on his face.

Lin Haoran glanced at his watch, said a quick word to Dai Shi, then got up and left the Galaxy Securities office. He was heading to Kai Tak International Airport. The flight carrying Yamada Keiko was about to arrive in Hong Kong. This beautiful Japanese woman was his woman. She had traveled thousands of miles from Japan to Hong Kong just to see him, so it was only right that he should go and greet her personally.

Chapter 666: Can’t Wait a Moment Longer!

At Kai Tak International Airport’s arrival hall.

Lin Haoran, specially disguised with a pair of sunglasses, had Li Weidong and Li Weiguo following behind him.

For him, such a simple disguise was an effortless task.

After all, as a major celebrity in Hong Kong, he would have almost no private life to speak of if he appeared openly in public every time.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s appearance at the airport this time drew no one’s attention.

From a distance, Lin Haoran saw Yamada Keiko dragging a suitcase by herself, walking toward them.

Today, Yamada Keiko was dressed in a white连衣裙, the hem of her dress swaying gently with her steps, like a lily blooming in summer—fresh and elegant.

Lin Haoran raised his hand to greet her, instantly catching the attention of the approaching Yamada Keiko.

“Haoran-kun.” Yamada Keiko dropped her suitcase and hurried over to Lin Haoran, her face filled with excitement.

“Alright, let’s leave first. This isn’t the place to catch up,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Yamada Keiko followed obediently behind him, while Li Weiguo had already stepped forward to help with the suitcase.

Sitting next to Lin Haoran, Yamada Keiko looked out the window at the towering skyscrapers of Hong Kong, feeling a sense of novelty and excitement. “Haoran-kun, Hong Kong is just as prosperous as I imagined. These tall buildings are so magnificent.”

Tokyo, Japan, also had plenty of tall buildings, but because downtown Tokyo was much larger than Hong Kong, the skyscrapers weren’t as concentrated as they were here.

For Yamada Keiko, who was visiting Hong Kong for the first time, everything felt wonderfully new.

After passing through the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, Lin Haoran finally settled Yamada Keiko into a villa in the Mid-Levels.

He had already arranged for people to clean the villa in advance.

The reason he didn’t have Yamada Keiko stay at the Severn Road villa was that Guo Xiaohan had been visiting him there from time to time recently, acting as if she were his girlfriend and showing up without even calling ahead.

If the two of them were to run into each other, Lin Haoran would inevitably feel a bit awkward.

For wealthy men, having several women around was a common affair, but Lin Haoran couldn’t exactly flaunt Yamada Keiko in front of Guo Xiaohan.

Take Guo Henian, for example. He had a legally wedded wife in Southeast Asia, and here in Hong Kong, he also had a partner whom he regarded as legitimate.

It was for this very reason that Lin Haoran never arranged for Rosamund Kwan and Guo Xiaohan to meet.

In reality, however, Guo Xiaohan had long known about the existence of Rosamund Kwan in Lin Haoran’s life.

After all, Hong Kong wasn’t a large place. Within its entire upper-class social circle, Rosamund Kwan’s status as Lin Haoran’s woman was no longer a secret.

For the Guo family, being Southeast Asia’s richest man, finding out about such matters was naturally not difficult.

It was just that everyone had a tacit understanding and never brought it up.

He had people keeping an eye on things at the Bank of East Asia and Galaxy Securities, and they would report any important matters to him.

Therefore, he could relax and enjoy showing Yamada Keiko around Hong Kong.

In a not-so-large but luxuriously decorated villa in the Mid-Levels villa area, Lin Haoran sat on the sofa and turned his head to look at Yamada Keiko’s face, flushed with excitement. She was clearly overjoyed to see the man she loved again after more than three months apart.

This was the third floor of the villa, and there was no one else upstairs. At this moment, the space belonged only to them.

“Keiko, you must be tired from the journey,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Haoran-kun, I missed you so much,” Yamada Keiko said, gently nestling into Lin Haoran’s embrace. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her warm breath carrying a faint floral scent that lingered at the tip of his nose.

Lin Haoran pulled her closer, his fingers gently stroking her long, smooth hair, saying nothing.

Their faces were inches apart, and their breaths could be heard clearly intermingling, exceptionally distinct in the quiet space.

Lin Haoran leaned in and kissed her directly. The kiss was as passionate as a sudden squall, instantly igniting the longing and desire that both had suppressed for so long.

Yamada Keiko’s eyes widened slightly before she slowly closed them, her hands unconsciously gripping Lin Haoran’s shoulders as she responded to the fiery kiss.

Lin Haoran’s hand glided down Yamada Keiko’s back, resting on her slender waist and pulling her tightly against him, as if trying to merge her into his own body.

Yamada Keiko’s body trembled slightly, her cheeks growing hotter. Her shy yet intoxicated expression made it even harder for Lin Haoran to control himself.

After what felt like an eternity, the two slowly pulled apart, both breathing a little heavily.

Yamada Keiko panted softly, her eyes filled with a hazy look of infatuation and longing.

Lin Haoran was her first man. When he had taken her, he had left a deep imprint on her—not just a physical one, but an indelible mark on the depths of her soul.

At this moment, Yamada Keiko was as gentle as water.

Under normal circumstances, Lin Haoran would have already carried her to the bedroom.

However, Yamada Keiko had just left Tokyo this morning and traveled thousands of kilometers to Hong Kong. She was weary from the journey, and what she needed most right now was to rest.

“Go take a shower first. It will wash away the fatigue,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, pointing to the bathroom.

Yamada Keiko nodded obediently, took some clothes from her suitcase, and walked lightly into the bathroom.

A short while later, the sound of trickling water came from the bathroom.

Lin Haoran sat on the sofa and casually picked up a magazine to flip through.

Just then, his mobile phone rang.

The call was from Cui Zilong.

“Boss, is there a television around you right now?” Cui Zilong asked.

“Yes.”

“Turn on the Jade Channel now. I think you’ll be interested in what’s about to be broadcast.”

“Alright, I got it.”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran picked up the remote and turned on the Jade Channel.

On the screen, a reporter was broadcasting from inside the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The exchange was packed with people, a scene of clamorous noise and chaos.

Lin Haoran subconsciously glanced at his watch. It was already past four in the afternoon; the stock market had closed.

He had gone to pick up Yamada Keiko a little after three, so it being past four now was normal.

The market had clearly closed, yet the exchange was still crowded with a large number of shareholders, which was not normal.

Moreover, the shareholders’ expressions were not good. Some even looked ferocious, cursing and swearing under their breath, their emotions so agitated they seemed about to break through the roof of the exchange.

The television was showing a live broadcast, meaning this was happening in real-time.

The reporter held a microphone, trying to raise her voice to conduct an interview, but the shareholders’ cacophony of discussions and emotional shouts intertwined, completely drowning out her words.

From the chaotic din, Lin Haoran could feel the anger of these shareholders.

Black Tuesday had brought immense losses to so many of them.

For the past two years, many shareholders had long grown accustomed to the wealth growth brought by the bull market. With the stock market soaring, everyone seemed to be in the midst of a never-ending feast of fortune.

Many had even quit their stable jobs to devote themselves entirely to stock trading, fantasizing about riding the market’s tailwinds to get rich overnight.

The newspapers were filled with “wealth myths” of shareholders eating shark fin rice and driving luxury cars. The exaggerated headlines and descriptions convinced more people that the stock market was an inexhaustible gold mine.

But now, this sudden crash was like a merciless storm, instantly shattering the beautiful dreams of wealth they had so carefully constructed.

Those who had bet their entire fortunes on the stock market were now plunged into an abyss of despair.

The sudden collapse of HSBC had an impact that was far, far too great.

The listed companies implicated accounted for more than a third of all public companies.

This showed that HSBC’s former position as the market hegemon was indeed a well-deserved reputation!

And this was after the Bank of East Asia had snatched away many of HSBC’s partners over the past two months. Otherwise, at least half of all listed companies would have been affected!

It was too noisy inside the Stock Exchange. Left with no choice, the female reporter had to stand outside the entrance, the clamor of the surrounding crowd still pounding against her eardrums like a surging tide.

She raised her voice, speaking to the camera: “Good afternoon, viewers. I’m TVB host Hu Peishan, and I’m reporting live from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

As you can see, even though the market has closed, the area is still jam-packed with angry shareholders. From their agitated expressions and furious words, it’s not hard to feel the immense impact this stock market crash has had on them.”

The camera panned across a group of shareholders. One of them, a slightly portly middle-aged man with a flushed face, was waving his arms and shouting, “What kind of world is this! We put our hard-earned money into the stock market, hoping to improve our lives, and now it’s all gone! HSBC is a scourge! When it went down, it took our entire family savings with it!”

Beside him, an old man with graying hair, trembling with anger, chimed in, “Exactly! I’ve been trading stocks for so many years and finally saved up a little for retirement. Now it’s all gone down the drain! Isn’t the government going to do anything? Are they just going to watch us small shareholders suffer?”

In the crowd, a young man with a look of despair had red-rimmed eyes. “I quit my job to trade stocks and even borrowed a lot of money. Now that the market has crashed, how am I going to pay it back? How am I supposed to live my life from now on!”

Seeing this, Hu Peishan hurried forward and held the microphone out to the middle-aged man. “Sir, please calm down. Can you tell us more about your situation?”

The middle-aged man took a deep breath, his emotions calming slightly, but his voice was still laced with anger. “My name is Chen Dayong. I’ve worked hard in a factory in North Point for half my life and only saved a hundred thousand or so.

Seeing how well the market was doing and that everyone was making money, I was tempted. I invested all my savings and even borrowed some money from relatives and friends. I was hoping to make a big profit and give my family a better life, but I never thought… I never thought it would turn out like this!”

Hu Peishan nodded and turned to the old man. “Sir, what about you? How long have you been trading stocks?”

The old man sighed heavily. “I’ve been trading for over ten years, always very carefully, just hoping to save up some retirement money during the bull market. With HSBC’s trouble this time, the stocks I’m holding have all dropped several-fold. Years of my heart and soul have gone to waste.

The government has to give us an explanation, or how are we small shareholders supposed to survive!”

Just then, someone in the crowd suddenly shouted, “We can’t just sit here and wait for death! We need to go to the Government House and protest! Make the government take our problem seriously and give us a solution!”

As soon as he said this, he received an immediate response from many other shareholders.

“Yes, let’s go protest!”

“We want to demand justice!”

The shouts rose and fell, one after another, as the crowd’s emotions grew more and more agitated.

Hu Peishan looked at the impassioned shareholders and turned back to the camera. “From the looks of it, the shareholders are extremely agitated. Some have already proposed organizing a spontaneous protest march to the Government House to express their demands.

This turmoil, triggered by the stock market crash, seems to be escalating. We will continue to follow the situation and bring you further reports.”

Back in the villa, Lin Haoran watched the report on TV, his brow tightly furrowed.

The shareholders were already starting to protest. It seemed the Government House would soon have to intervene.

He already knew from Standard Chartered Bank that the Government House had shifted its support from HSBC to Standard Chartered.

However, since Standard Chartered hadn’t yet negotiated the acquisition with the financial groups behind HSBC, nothing had been announced.

And as long as HSBC wasn’t at the end of its rope, Standard Chartered hadn’t taken the final step.

After all, Standard Chartered knew full well that only by letting HSBC fall into absolute desperation could they complete the acquisition on the most favorable terms and maximize their profits.

But with the shareholders so agitated now, even showing signs of protesting, the situation was likely to spin out of control ahead of schedule.

If that happened, Standard Chartered’s plan to acquire HSBC would likely be exposed early.

Once the news was out, it would actually be good news for the shareholders, and their anxiety would be greatly alleviated.

After all, if Standard Chartered successfully took control of HSBC, HSBC’s stock price, even if it continued to fall, would certainly not drop to the point of being worthless. There would be no bankruptcy.

HSBC’s clients would have even less to worry about.

Because once Standard Chartered completed the acquisition, it would have to assume responsibility for the funds of HSBC’s corporate clients.

In that case, the financial crises of those listed companies would naturally be solved with ease.

However, for Lin Haoran, this was not good news.

He was currently in the process of secretly acquiring shares of various tycoons.

He was worried that Galaxy Securities had not yet accumulated enough shares.

Once Standard Chartered’s ambition was made public so soon, the market sentiment would shift in an instant. The stocks of those major Hong Kong tycoons, which had plummeted in price due to the panic surrounding HSBC’s collapse, would inevitably experience a strong rebound.

Lin Haoran had carefully laid his plans, intending to use the market chaos and widespread sell-off to quietly accumulate a large number of shares at extremely low prices, thereby securing a certain amount of influence and reaping huge profits in the future.

But if Standard Chartered’s acquisition of HSBC was exposed early, his gains might not be as great as he had anticipated.

Major institutions and investors would react quickly, realizing that the value of these Hong Kong tycoon stocks was about to recover. They would stop selling off and might even start buying them up.

The stock prices would soar, and Lin Haoran’s plan to accumulate shares at a low price would be completely ruined.

After a moment of thought, he called Dai Shi.

“Report today’s results to me,” Lin Haoran said bluntly as soon as the call connected.

“Yes, Boss. As of the market close at four p.m., Galaxy Securities has achieved remarkable results. We have accumulated a total of 13.8% of HSBC’s shares, 8.28% of Hang Seng Bank’s shares, 5.72% of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares, 6.32% of Cheung Kong Holdings’ shares, 6.17% of Swire & Co.’s shares, 5.81% of Asia Airlines’ shares, and 4.23% of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel Company’s shares…” Dai Shi quickly began to report in detail to Lin Haoran.

Judging from Dai Shi’s report, Galaxy Securities’ achievements today were nothing short of brilliant.

The benefits Black Tuesday brought him were far greater than he had imagined!

In this market turmoil, the prices of all these stocks had plummeted. The smallest drop was more than two-fold, and many had fallen by several multiples.

Take HSBC, for example. Its total market capitalization had plummeted from nine billion Hong Kong dollars before the market opened to just over one billion. Hang Seng Bank had dropped from over six billion to less than one billion.

So, although Galaxy Securities had accumulated a considerable number of shares, the total funds spent today were only around 1-point-something billion Hong Kong dollars.

It was no exaggeration to say that the operations on this single day of Black Tuesday had already yielded a bountiful harvest.

“Did you get discovered acquiring so much?” Lin Haoran asked.

He remembered that when he left Galaxy Securities, although he hadn’t checked the accumulation status, it didn’t seem so exaggerated.

Today’s results were truly astonishing to him.

It was beyond his imagination!

Especially the HSBC shares. In a single trading day, they had actually managed to accumulate a staggering 13.8% of the shares.

That was a bit of an exaggeration.

One had to know that this 13.8% stake was worth at least 3.5 billion when HSBC’s stock price was at its peak.

But now, it had only cost a little over three hundred million…

So cheap, so satisfying.

Dai Shi quickly replied, “Boss, we operated with extreme caution, using multiple scattered accounts and accumulating in batches at different times, all to minimize the risk of attracting market attention and alerting other forces.

Moreover, about half of these shares were actually bought in the last ten minutes. In the last ten minutes, we noticed a sudden surge in low-priced pending orders. It was clear many investors were worried that if they didn’t get out today, they wouldn’t be able to get out at all. So, we seized the opportunity and increased our accumulation efforts.

The market panic was at its peak then. Many small shareholders and some institutions were panic selling, and even some market makers chose to sell off. There were just too many pending orders, and we took the opportunity to buy up a large volume.

But don’t worry, Boss. Even though the trading volume increased in the last ten minutes, we strictly adhered to the principles of using scattered accounts and batch operations to avoid causing abnormal market fluctuations. So far, it doesn’t seem to have attracted any special attention.”

Lin Haoran nodded and continued, “How many HSBC shares do we hold in total now?”

Before the stock price completely crashed, Galaxy Securities had also accumulated a small number of HSBC shares, but Lin Haoran had stopped them since it wasn’t much.

That was because Standard Chartered had approached him, which made him see the possibility of HSBC’s stock price falling even further.

“We currently hold a total of 16.2% of HSBC’s shares. Based on our expenditures, we’ve spent 501 million Hong Kong dollars on HSBC,” Dai Shi quickly reported.

“Good, I understand. Thank you for your hard work. I’ll tell you how to proceed with accumulation tomorrow morning,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He was very satisfied with Galaxy Securities’ results today.

Next, he just had to see when Standard Chartered’s ambition would be exposed.

Even if it was exposed tonight, he didn’t care anymore. He had already earned a lot from this wave.

He was still short 9.4% of HSBC’s shares to cover the shares he’d borrowed when he shorted the bank.

Tomorrow, he had to acquire enough to cover it, no matter what. That was the guaranteed minimum.

Otherwise, if he waited any longer, his profits would be smaller.

Although Lin Haoran already had a lot of money, who would complain about having too much?

Ten minutes ago, he was worried that Galaxy Securities had acquired too little.

Now, that worry was gone.

He had now become a major shareholder in all the major tycoon enterprises of Hong Kong. If he wanted to become a board member of these companies and have a certain final say, it would be no problem at all.

And the cost of this accumulation was extremely, extremely low.

Afterward, he wouldn’t need to sell these shares. Holding onto them might bring unexpected benefits.

Like the Hang Seng Bank shares. Once Standard Chartered successfully acquired HSBC, they would have to sell HSBC’s 62.14% stake to the Bank of East Asia. Adding the 8.28% that Galaxy Securities accumulated today, he would effectively hold over 70% of Hang Seng Bank’s shares.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran leaned back on the sofa, a faint smile playing on his lips.

Although the early exposure of Standard Chartered’s acquisition of HSBC might introduce some variables, given Galaxy Securities’ current accumulation results, he had already secured an advantageous position in this financial storm.

Just then, the sound of water from the bathroom stopped, and Yamada Keiko walked out wrapped in a bath towel, her hair still wet.

She saw Lin Haoran’s grave expression and asked with concern, “Haoran-kun, did something happen? You look worried.”

Lin Haoran shook his head and said with a smile, “It’s nothing. Come here, let me hold you.”

Yamada Keiko obediently walked over to Lin Haoran and nestled into his embrace. Her warm body temperature radiated through the towel, carrying the light, fresh scent of shower gel.

Beneath the towel was a perfect figure.

However, Lin Haoran was in no hurry to pull it off. After holding her for a while, he smiled and said, “Go dry your hair first. I’ve already ordered the kitchen to prepare a welcome dinner for you.”

Yamada Keiko planted a light kiss on Lin Haoran’s cheek and said softly, “Thank you, Haoran-kun.”

Then, she stood up gracefully and walked back toward the bathroom with light steps, intending to use the hairdryer inside to dry her hair.

Lin Haoran’s gaze unconsciously fell on her graceful, perky bottom wrapped in the towel, and a fire of passion quietly ignited within him.

This Japanese woman was outstanding in every way, from her slender and graceful figure to her exquisite and captivating looks.

Lin Haoran had always been an extremely picky person. Even after becoming a super-rich magnate worth tens of billions, he only had three women by his side.

He had money, but he wasn’t the type to be easily carried away by desire and indulge himself recklessly. He wasn’t the kind to pounce on any woman he saw.

Just then, Yamada Keiko, having dried her hair, changed into a light blue silk nightgown and slowly walked to Lin Haoran’s side.

She seemed to see the desire in his eyes. She took the initiative to untie her robe and said, “Haoran-kun, I missed you.”

Originally, Lin Haoran had been thinking of letting Yamada Keiko rest for a bit and finding a more romantic moment tonight to properly enjoy this tender moment with her.

But with her taking the initiative like this, that fire of passion instantly spread like a wildfire.

His Adam’s apple bobbed. He looked at Yamada Keiko with a fiery gaze, placed his hands gently on her shoulders, and said in a somewhat hoarse voice, “Keiko, do you have any idea what a temptation it is for me when you’re this proactive?”

Yamada Keiko’s cheeks flushed crimson, her eyes filled with love and shyness. She lowered her head slightly and said softly, “Haoran-kun, ever since I’ve been with you, my heart has been filled with nothing but you. Right now, I just want to be closer to you. I can’t wait a moment longer.”

Chapter 667: Good News from the Government House

While Lin Haoran was lost in blissful intimacy, a crowd of citizens had gathered before the Government House, less than two kilometers away from the Mid-Levels villa area as the crow flies.

A careful count would put their number at over a thousand.

In addition to the assembled citizens, numerous media reporters had also arrived, including journalists from Hong Kong’s two major television stations. They were currently on the outskirts of the crowd or interviewing the gathered citizens.

Most of these citizens were ordinary shareholders who had suffered devastating losses in the recent stock market crash. Many had even been utterly ruined.

After all, the bull market of the past two years had given countless shareholders a taste of how effortless it was to make money in the stock market.

The more they earned, the more their greed swelled.

A great number of them had gotten carried away by their desires. Some borrowed money from relatives and friends, others mortgaged their properties for loans, and still others used leverage to trade stocks, employing every means possible to invest far more capital into the market than they could ever afford to lose.

When the stock market plummeted, their worlds collapsed like a house of cards.

In truth, all these shareholders understood that gathering at the Government House would likely be useless.

After all, everyone knows the saying, “The stock market is risky; invest with caution.”

Since they had chosen to take the risk, they should have been prepared to bear the losses, not just reap the profits.

But now, as the wealth that had once seemed so easily obtained shattered like a soap bubble, as their hopes for the future were ruthlessly crushed, the despair and fury in their hearts erupted like a volcano, and they could no longer be bothered with reason or consequences.

Among them was a middle-aged man in a suit and tie who once had a happy and fulfilling family. During the frenzy of the bull market, he watched the numbers in his account climb relentlessly, and greed grew like a weed in his heart.

Without his wife’s knowledge, he secretly mortgaged their home and borrowed a large sum of money from relatives and friends, pouring it all into the stock market.

Now, however, he stood before the Government House in a daze, his eyes empty and vacant. The crumpled stock certificates in his hand displayed glaring loss figures that felt like sharp blades stabbing straight into his heart.

He thought of his wife’s gentle smile and his child’s innocent face, and tears streamed down his cheeks uncontrollably.

“It’s over… everything’s over… How can I face them?” he muttered to himself, his body trembling uncontrollably as if he had fallen into a bottomless abyss.

Beside him stood a young man who had graduated from university just a few years ago. Full of bright hopes for the future, he had dived headfirst into the stock market.

He had trusted the recommendation of a so-called “expert,” who claimed that HSBC’s stock price had hit rock bottom and that it was a good time for buying at the bottom.

So, he took the savings he had accumulated over several years of work, supplemented it with a high-interest loan, and, believing that HSBC still had great potential for a comeback when its market capitalization fell below nine billion Hong Kong dollars, he invested everything into its stock.

A few days ago, following the Governor’s televised speech and public statements of support from many corporate tycoons, HSBC’s stock price had not only stabilized but had even risen slightly.

Although the increase was modest, it had been enough to thrill him, making him feel he had found a shortcut to wealth.

However, the rapidly changing situation in the stock market far exceeded his imagination. When major players like Swire & Co. and Wheelock and Company suddenly changed their tune, announcing their intention to move their financial operations from HSBC to Standard Chartered Bank, a sudden crash caused his account to shrink several times over in an instant.

When he bought in, HSBC’s market capitalization was over eight billion Hong Kong dollars. Now, it was barely over one billion. It was easy to imagine how severely his principal had shrunk.

At this moment, his face was filled with remorse. He clutched his hair with both hands and cried out in a hoarse voice, “Why? Why did it turn out like this! I’m still young, my life has just begun…”

The surrounding shareholders were moved by his words, casting sympathetic glances his way.

But when they remembered their own similar circumstances, their sympathy quickly turned to anger. A tide of fury began to spread through the crowd.

“We demand an explanation from the Government House!”

“Mr. Governor misled us! He made us believe in HSBC, and what’s the result?”

“Save us poor shareholders!”

“Where’s the Governor? We pay so much in taxes, and now that we’re in trouble, the Government House can’t just ignore us!”

Someone’s shout instantly resonated with everyone, and cries rose one after another: “Government, rescue the market! Government, rescue the market!”

The shouts from the crowd rose and fell, and the air was thick with anger and despair.

They waved their stock certificates as if they were their last hope.

Inside the Government House, Governor Sir Murray MacLehose sat in his office. He looked through the window at the emotionally charged and agitated crowd outside, his brow tightly furrowed and his face grave.

His fingers tapped lightly on his desk in a slightly hurried rhythm, betraying his inner turmoil.

In a way, he was not without blame for the shareholders’ heavy losses.

After all, he had once solemnly declared in a live television broadcast that the Government House would fully support HSBC and not let it collapse. He had even announced that the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau would temporarily lend over ten billion Hong Kong dollars of government reserves to HSBC, which had served as a reassurance to the shareholders.

However, the reality was that he had blatantly gone back on his word.

Not only had he later changed his mind and secretly switched his support to Standard Chartered Bank, but not a single cent of the promised ten billion Hong Kong dollars from the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau had ever reached HSBC.

So, he felt a sense of guilt.

However, his duty was as the Governor of Hong Kong, and all interests were centered on those of the British.

Besides, if the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau had really invested that ten billion Hong Kong dollars into HSBC, it might have been lost forever.

Therefore, for the sake of the bigger picture, he had been forced to make this seemingly treacherous yet helpless decision.

The clamor from outside continuously reached his ears. MacLehose knew full well that if this was not handled properly, the disturbance would escalate into an uncontrollable social crisis.

“Mr. Governor, the pressure from public opinion is mounting, and the media is watching this closely. If we don’t provide a reasonable explanation soon, I’m afraid it will lead to more severe consequences,” his secretary reminded him anxiously.

MacLehose stopped pacing and sighed heavily. “Do you think I don’t know how serious this is? But my support for Standard Chartered was based on various considerations. Who could have predicted such a chain reaction?”

When he had given his televised speech, he had never imagined that Standard Chartered Bank, a British-owned bank of comparable strength to HSBC, would dare to set its sights on HSBC with the intention of a merger and acquisition.

Upon learning of Standard Chartered’s intentions, he quickly reported the situation to the British government. After careful consideration of Hong Kong’s complex financial landscape, he ultimately decided to secretly support Standard Chartered instead.

This had led to the current awkward situation.

He also hadn’t expected these shareholders to gather and cause a scene at the Government House.

In fact, the problem would be solved as soon as these shareholders learned that Standard Chartered intended to acquire HSBC, thereby resolving the crises facing HSBC and other banks.

However, he had previously promised Standard Chartered that he would not disclose this information without authorization, as they had their own plans for the acquisition of HSBC.

If Governor MacLehose revealed the matter, it would disrupt Standard Chartered’s strategic deployment and could even trigger a series of unpredictable business disputes and fluctuations in international relations, ultimately causing Standard Chartered’s acquisition of HSBC to fail.

With the situation now extremely urgent, MacLehose knew he absolutely could not stand by and watch Standard Chartered’s acquisition of HSBC fail.

After all, if Standard Chartered didn’t step in to save HSBC, was the Government House supposed to do it?

But the Government House simply didn’t have enough funds to fill such a massive hole!

MacLehose paced back and forth in his office a few times before deciding to call Brown, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong.

Mr. Brown was clearly aware of the trouble at the Government House. After answering the phone and hearing the reason for the call, he said directly, “Mr. Governor, I am terribly sorry to have put you in such a difficult position. Our financial group at Standard Chartered is already in private contact with HSBC’s major financial groups in Britain, and we are striving to reach an agreement within the next two days. Before that, could I trouble you, Mr. Governor, to find a way to help us stabilize the situation for the time being? This news cannot be leaked prematurely. My apologies!”

Standard Chartered had instructed British-owned companies like Swire & Co. and Wheelock and Company to make their announcements, but only the key figures knew Standard Chartered’s true objective, and they would not leak critical information.

So, although several major British-owned tycoons had successively announced they were moving their funds to Standard Chartered, no one else knew the real reason behind it.

The reason Standard Chartered was unwilling to disclose the matter before a deal was successfully negotiated was simple.

On one hand, the business world is like a battlefield. If news of the acquisition leaked before the dust settles, Standard Chartered’s international competitors might catch wind of it and take various measures to sabotage the deal.

If the acquisition plan was disrupted, the substantial human, material, and financial resources that Standard Chartered had invested would all go to waste, and all their previous efforts would come to nothing.

On the other hand, HSBC’s internal situation was complex, with numerous shareholders whose opinions were difficult to unify.

Leaking the acquisition news prematurely could cause chaos within HSBC.

Some shareholders might deliberately drive up the stock price for their own benefit, increasing the cost of the acquisition.

Others might become concerned about the company’s future and rush to sell off their shares, leading to sharp price fluctuations and creating immense uncertainty for the acquisition.

Standard Chartered needed time for in-depth communication and negotiation with HSBC’s major shareholders to persuade them and ensure the acquisition could proceed smoothly.

Therefore, Standard Chartered was unwilling to reveal its ambitions until a deal was reached.

After a moment of silence, MacLehose said, “Fine. I will give you two more days at most. If you still can’t sort it out within two days, then the Government House will have to reconsider its support for Standard Chartered’s acquisition of HSBC.”

“Please rest assured, Mr. Governor. We will do our utmost. We will give you an answer by tomorrow evening at the latest!” Brown, sensing MacLehose’s displeasure, hastily made a solemn promise, his voice tinged with urgency and sincerity.

Governor MacLehose hung up the phone, his expression grim.

Standard Chartered had truly handed him a difficult problem.

Just then, his secretary hurried in, looking panicked. “Mr. Governor, the crowd outside is getting more and more agitated. A few radicals are even trying to break through the police cordon. The police are doing their best to maintain order, but the situation is not optimistic. The media is also pressing us for a clear response as soon as possible.”

MacLehose took a deep breath, trying his best to calm down. Then he said, “Go out and tell everyone that I’m currently inspecting work in Tuen Mun and won’t be back for a while. Once I return, I will definitely give them an explanation.”

For now, a delaying tactic was the only option.

“Yes, Mr. Governor. I’ll go right away,” the secretary replied, hastily exiting the office.

About ten minutes later, through the window, the Governor could see the citizens gradually dispersing.

Although many shareholders were unwilling to leave, the Governor wasn’t even there. It was useless for them to protest.

Since they had been promised a response as soon as possible, they had no choice but to believe it.

At this point, it seemed they were out of options.

Seeing the citizens finally leave, MacLehose let out a sigh of relief.

Although the Government House was protected by guards and the citizens couldn’t force their way in, he still worried that some of the angrier ones might resort to extreme actions, potentially leading to a bloody incident, which was not something he wanted to see.

Though MacLehose was relieved, his unease had not completely dissipated.

He knew that this delaying tactic was only temporary. If he couldn’t provide a satisfactory answer to the shareholders within the promised time, the situation could spiral out of control again at any moment.

For now, everything depended on Standard Chartered’s progress.

“That rascal Lin Haoran really has thrown the entire Hong Kong financial industry into utter chaos!” MacLehose mused, thinking about the root of the problem.

A financial hegemon like HSBC, which had seemed as solid as a rock in everyone’s eyes, was now teetering on the brink of collapse in just over two months.

And the architect of it all, Lin Haoran, now seemed to be completely detached from the situation.

Of course, he also knew that he couldn’t blame Lin Haoran for this. After all, it was HSBC that had brought this upon itself by initiating the business war against the Bank of East Asia.

HSBC’s current predicament could be described as them reaping what they sowed.

At that moment, Lin Haoran, the man on Governor MacLehose’s mind, was still fighting hard.

The bedroom was filled with a sensuous air.

It wasn’t until dusk that the panting in the bedroom gradually subsided.

Lin Haoran sat on the bed, while Yamada Keiko’s eyes were filled with pure satisfaction.

The longing of the past three months had been fully released in that moment.

After a short rest, and with Yamada Keiko’s help, Lin Haoran took a bath, changed his clothes, and finally walked out of the bedroom into the living hall.

He checked his mobile phone and saw several missed calls from Cui Zilong.

Before taking Yamada Keiko into the bedroom, he had intentionally left his mobile phone in the hall to avoid being disturbed.

He figured Cui Zilong must have had something urgent to report, so he immediately dialed him back.

A moment later, Cui Zilong answered.

“Boss, I have something to report. A thousand citizens gathered in front of the Government House, but ultimately nothing happened. Someone from the Government House came out and said that Mr. Governor is currently in Tuen Mun and asked them to go home for now, promising an explanation upon his return. The crowd has now gradually dispersed.

However, according to our people, Mr. Governor did not leave the Government House today. His official car is also there. Clearly, Mr. Governor did not go to Tuen Mun,” Cui Zilong reported.

Lin Haoran couldn’t help but smile upon hearing this.

Governor MacLehose was evidently unwilling to reveal Standard Chartered’s objective just yet, which was a huge help to him.

His stock accumulation of HSBC shares was not yet complete; he was still quite a bit short.

If the Government House had revealed the truth tonight, then Galaxy Securities’ acquisition costs would have increased tomorrow.

But now, he could rest easy.

Since the Government House was staying silent, Galaxy Securities would be able to easily continue increasing its shareholding in major Hong Kong-listed giants, including HSBC, at a low cost tomorrow.

As for why Governor MacLehose was temporarily unwilling to disclose the matter, he could guess the reason.

After all, Standard Chartered Bank was now his partner, and he had a general idea of their progress.

“General Manager Cui, thank you for your trouble,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“It is what I should do,” Cui Zilong said respectfully.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran temporarily put these matters aside.

After dinner, Lin Haoran and Yamada Keiko sat on the terrace of the villa’s third floor, overlooking the bustling night view of Central.

The scenery here was obviously not as good as the view from the Severn Road villa. The difference in altitude meant that the lower you were, the more limited your view.

However, at that moment, neither Lin Haoran nor Yamada Keiko cared about such things. They were immersed in a rare moment of peace and warmth.

The moonlight, like water, spilled over them, creating a serene and romantic atmosphere.

Lin Haoran’s feelings for Yamada Keiko weren’t deep, but they had been intimate for some time, and her loyalty to him was at a hundred percent.

He naturally cherished such a woman.

Though she was a Japanese girl, he didn’t mind.

A woman who could bring him physical and mental pleasure and was unconditionally loyal—what did it matter if she was Japanese?

In the blink of an eye, the night passed quietly.

The next morning, at just past seven, Lin Haoran slowly awoke from his slumber.

He turned his head slightly and saw Yamada Keiko still sound asleep beside him.

It was no wonder. The previous day, she had endured a nearly three-thousand-kilometer journey and was physically and mentally exhausted. On top of that, she had engaged in intimate and vigorous exercise with Lin Haoran at night, so it was only natural that she was deep in dreamland.

Carefully lifting the blanket, he revealed half of Yamada Keiko’s perfect and truly tempting body.

Lin Haoran covered her back up and then cautiously got out of bed.

Although it was the height of summer, the air conditioning filled the room with a pleasant coolness, dispelling the summer heat and maintaining a comfortable temperature indoors.

Lin Haoran tiptoed out of the bedroom, washed up, changed his clothes, and then walked out into the living hall.

He made a call downstairs, and not long after, a maid brought up a breakfast tray and several newspapers.

Lin Haoran ate his breakfast while flipping through the newspapers, which were filled with reports about yesterday’s stock market crash and the shareholders’ protest at the Government House.

He was just about finished with his breakfast when he saw a still-drowsy Yamada Keiko emerge from the bedroom in her pajamas.

“Haoran-kun, good morning,” Yamada Keiko said, her face breaking into a lovely smile as if seeing him had instantly woken her up.

“You haven’t slept enough. Go back and sleep some more. When you’re hungry, just go downstairs and have the maids prepare breakfast for you. I have something to do and need to go out for a bit. When I get back, I’ll take you out,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The few maids here were brought over from the Severn Road villa by his bodyguards. Their loyalty was trustworthy, so he was very much at ease.

“Mm, Haoran-kun, you can just go. Don’t worry about me. I’ll wait for you here,” Yamada Keiko said obediently.

He checked the time; it was almost eight-thirty in the morning.

So, he said his goodbyes to Yamada Keiko, left the Mid-Levels villa with his bodyguards, and headed for the Connaught Centre.

About ten minutes later, Lin Haoran was already downstairs at the Connaught Centre.

Taking the elevator, he didn’t go to his own office but went directly to the offices of Galaxy Securities.

Although the stock market hadn’t opened yet, the employees were already at work.

After all, their work required advance preparation.

“Good morning, Boss.”

“Morning, Boss!”

…

As soon as he walked into the Galaxy Securities office, employees greeted Lin Haoran warmly all along the way.

He responded to each of them with a smile. In the employees’ eyes, their boss was a very easygoing person.

Among them were many Western faces, most of whom had been poached from Jardine Securities.

Of course, the majority were still of Chinese descent.

However, regardless of whether they were Westerners or Chinese, Lin Haoran had checked their loyalty. Anyone with a loyalty level below seventy would not be here. Therefore, he was at ease with everyone, no matter who they were.

Arriving at Dai Shi’s office, he found him busy preparing materials.

Seeing his boss, Dai Shi respectfully greeted him, “Morning, Boss.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, a smile on his face. “Today, your core mission remains the same: continue the stock accumulation of our designated targets.

Especially the shares of HSBC and Hang Seng Bank. I need you to complete our target volume as much as possible before the morning session ends!”

At this point, he was less concerned about having slightly more or fewer shares in companies like Hutchison Whampoa or Cheung Kong Holdings.

But the amount of HSBC and Hang Seng Bank stock he currently held was far from enough.

He felt uncertain, not knowing when HSBC’s major financial groups would reach an agreement with Standard Chartered Bank.

Once the two sides reached an agreement, the news of Standard Chartered’s acquisition of HSBC would surely be impossible to hide.

Therefore, the safest approach was to complete the set target before noon.

Chapter 668: The Return on Shorting HSBC: 5.3 Billion Hong Kong Dollars!

At nine o’clock in the morning, the doors of every HSBC and Hang Seng Bank branch were shut tight.

Many customers who had come to queue could only gather helplessly outside.

A notice was posted on the bank’s entrance, which read: “Due to a technical failure in the banking system, services must be suspended for emergency repairs.”

In reality, anyone with a discerning eye could see that HSBC’s capital chain had likely snapped, and they had run out of money.

The so-called technical failure was just an excuse.

It was common knowledge that although the major banks in Hong Kong had adopted various computerized banking systems, these systems were still relatively primitive due to the limitations of computer technology at the time. Many transactions still primarily relied on manual processing.

Wardley was indeed helping HSBC sell off its stock holdings. However, in the current dire situation, HSBC’s major partners were also suffering, their stock prices plummeting.

Giants like Swire & Co., CLP Holdings, and Wheelock and Company, which had cross-shareholding arrangements with HSBC, had been dragged down by the bank’s crisis. Their market capitalizations had fallen several-fold.

At this point, even if they sold off all their shares in these partners, how much capital could they possibly raise?

Moreover, a large number of customers had been applying for withdrawals every day in recent days, making the situation increasingly severe.

To make matters worse, British-owned companies like Wheelock and Company and Swire & Co. had also “turned against them,” publicly announcing their intention to move their funds elsewhere.

HSBC was now in an extremely difficult and awkward position.

Its cash reserves were nearly depleted, the amount of capital that could be recovered in the near future was pitifully small, and selling stocks wasn’t raising much money. All the while, it was facing a relentless bank run, with major clients showing up to “force an abdication”…

Trapped in this desperate situation with troubles both internal and external, the entire senior executive team at HSBC was in a terrible fix.

Michael Sandberg, the Taipan of HSBC, had simply “disappeared.” The official story was that he had gone to Britain to raise funds, but in reality, he was representing the financial group behind HSBC in negotiations with Standard Chartered Bank.

Under these circumstances, even if the bank opened its doors, what business could it possibly conduct?

Therefore, the senior executives of HSBC and Hang Seng Bank directly instructed all branch managers to suspend all operations. All junior staff were told to stay home and await further notice.

After all, the banks were short on cash, and nearly every customer who came in wanted to withdraw money. This had created an unbreakable vicious cycle.

For now, they could only resort to delaying tactics.

News of HSBC and Hang Seng Bank’s actions quickly spread throughout Hong Kong.

At 9:30 AM, the four stock exchanges of Hong Kong opened on time.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange was still packed with people.

But not a single person looked excited or thrilled.

After all, there was still no good news in the market.

Far from good news, the announcement that HSBC and Hang Seng Bank branches had closed their doors was like a bombshell dropped on the crowd.

The already tense atmosphere grew even heavier, and a palpable sense of panic filled the trading floor.

Investors exchanged glances and began whispering to one another, a buzz of discussion rising and falling.

“HSBC has shut down. How are we supposed to play this market?”

“It’s over, it’s over. Is all my money going to go down the drain?”

“In this situation, what can Government House possibly do to rescue the market?”

“HSBC is probably done for. Companies like Swire & Co., Cheung Kong Holdings, Hutchison Whampoa, and China Light & Power are likely to be severely affected and fall into an unprecedented crisis. Their stock prices will definitely plummet. The shares we’re holding are probably going to become worthless paper.”

As these worries spread through the crowd, panic ignited like wildfire, fueled by endless concerns and speculation.

Yesterday, Government House had responded that Mr. Governor would give everyone an explanation after he returned, and people had held on to that hope.

But now, no one present could imagine how Government House could possibly rescue the market.

Could the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau’s funds really save HSBC?

Many investors began frantically selling off their shares in these related companies. Even though the prices were absurdly low, they didn’t care anymore, wanting only to cash out as quickly as possible and minimize their losses.

On the trading floor, the numbers on the big screen, already deep in the red, were now falling at an astonishing rate.

The staff were overwhelmed, constantly answering phones and processing orders, yet they couldn’t keep up with the flood of sell orders pouring in.

Meanwhile, in a small office at Galaxy Securities in Connaught Centre, it was a hive of activity.

Upon learning of the sheer number of low-priced pending orders, Dai Shi’s eyes lit up.

With so many people selling off, completing the task his boss had given him would not be difficult.

The traders had their telephone receivers pressed to their ears, engaged in tense and rapid communication with the traders at the Stock Exchange.

“Place an order for me. A massive buy for Swire & Co. shares. As long as the price is below 3.1 Hong Kong dollars per share, buy them all!”

“Cheung Kong Holdings, below 5.4 Hong Kong dollars a share. Buy as many as you can get, don’t hesitate!”

“HSBC, below 8.2 Hong Kong dollars a share. Buy everything available!”

…

Dai Shi paced back and forth, his eyes fixed on the latest updates from his subordinates, issuing commands and reminders from time to time.

“Watch the rhythm. Don’t drive the price up too high. We’re here to sweep up cheap stocks,” he said calmly, though his heart was pounding at this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

At this point, inside the Stock Exchange, the investors who had been frantically selling their shares gradually noticed something strange.

They realized that the low-priced shares they listed were being snapped up in a short amount of time, and the trading volume was getting larger and larger.

“What’s going on? Who’s buying in such large quantities?” a middle-aged investor asked the person next to him with a frown.

“No idea. The market’s in chaos. Who would be bold enough to buy now?” another person replied, looking just as confused.

The news spread quickly through the exchange, and a thread of curiosity and speculation began to weave through the panic.

Some investors who had been determined to sell began to hesitate, worried that they might have misjudged the situation in their panic.

However, some shareholders who hadn’t sold yet tried to list their shares at a higher price, but there were no takers.

Only when they listed at a low price were the shares bought up quickly.

For a moment, many shareholders were caught in a fierce internal struggle.

Should they continue to hold and take a gamble, or should they cut their losses now?

In the end, a portion of them surely decided to take the risk and hold off on selling.

But many others, worried that the stock price would fall even further, thought that since someone was willing to buy now, they should seize the opportunity to sell. If they missed this chance and no one was buying later, their losses would be immense.

And in the office of Galaxy Securities, Dai Shi watched the constantly climbing trading volume, a faint, almost imperceptible smile playing on his lips.

However, one of the traders noticed that the actual number of HSBC shares being accumulated was much lower than the number of pending orders.

Clearly, someone else was accumulating shares just like they were. This was quickly reported to Dai Shi.

Following this, Dai Shi went to the office next door.

Inside, Lin Haoran was sitting at the coffee table, leisurely sipping his tea.

“Boss, besides us, there must be other parties buying up stock. Like us, they haven’t raised the price, so they haven’t drawn much attention,” Dai Shi said in a low voice, leaning close to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran narrowed his eyes slightly. After a moment of thought, he said, “It doesn’t matter who they are. We stick to the original plan. Maintain the pace of sweeping up cheap shares, and accumulate as many as we can. Since they aren’t raising the price, we won’t either. No price war!”

There were, of course, a few tycoons who knew that Standard Chartered Bank was planning to acquire HSBC.

Schreyer of Swire & Co., for example, must have already known about it.

It wasn’t surprising that someone else was making similar moves.

However, few of these tycoons would be as bold as him, buying up shares so aggressively.

After all, even though they knew about Standard Chartered’s acquisition plans, they still had their concerns.

If the acquisition fell through halfway, or if some unforeseen complication arose causing the deal to fail, HSBC’s situation would only worsen. In that case, all the money they invested would be lost.

Therefore, although these people were secretly accumulating related stocks to varying degrees, they lacked the confidence of Galaxy Securities, which had no fear of the acquisition failing.

After all, for Lin Haoran, even if Standard Chartered’s acquisition of HSBC ultimately failed, his own Bank of East Asia had the capability to acquire HSBC if the situation allowed.

If the situation spiraled out of control to an irreversible point, how could Government House not allow the Bank of East Asia to acquire HSBC in order to prevent further deterioration?

Of course, Lin Haoran knew in his heart that this extreme scenario was highly unlikely. Barring any surprises, the final result would inevitably be HSBC being acquired by Standard Chartered Bank.

After finishing his report, Dai Shi hurried back to oversee the trading team on-site.

At twelve noon, the Stock Exchange took its lunch break, and trading ceased.

At ten past twelve, Dai Shi arrived at Lin Haoran’s office with a few sheets of A4 paper.

“Boss, we haven’t failed our mission. We’ve completed the task you assigned—in fact, we’ve exceeded it!” Dai Shi said excitedly, handing the A4 papers to Lin Haoran.

“Good work,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, taking the documents and starting to read.

“HSBC: accumulated 10.26 percent for 152 million Hong Kong dollars. Galaxy Securities now holds a total of 26.47 percent of HSBC shares, with a total expenditure of 653 million Hong Kong dollars.”

“Hang Seng Bank: accumulated 12.12 percent for 125 million Hong Kong dollars. Galaxy Securities now holds a total of 20.4 percent of Hang Seng Bank shares, with a total expenditure of 282 million Hong Kong dollars.”

“Hutchison Whampoa: accumulated 4.87 percent for 185 million Hong Kong dollars. Galaxy Securities now holds a total of 10.59 percent of Hutchison Whampoa shares, with a total expenditure of 392 million Hong Kong dollars.”

…

The data was listed clearly, line by line.

For HSBC in particular, they had already completed the set target of 25.6 percent, and even slightly exceeded it.

“We can stop accumulating HSBC stock for now,” Lin Haoran said with satisfaction.

The cost of acquiring these shares was simply too low, so low that even Lin Haoran found it absurd.

At the same time, he truly felt the extent of HSBC’s influence in Hong Kong.

When HSBC ran into trouble, it managed to have such a massive impact on the entire city.

So many tycoons were implicated because of HSBC.

It truly deserved its former title as Hong Kong’s hegemon!

Based on the current situation, after Standard Chartered Bank successfully acquires HSBC, HSBC’s main partners—especially the British-owned corporate giants—will almost certainly shift their business to Standard Chartered. Therefore, any future increase in HSBC’s stock price will be limited.

So, there was no need to accumulate too much more. Just enough to return to the shareholders was sufficient.

He estimated that the parties who had lent him the stock were now filled with regret. Under these special circumstances, their shares were already lent out, and with the contract period not yet over, they had no way of demanding them back from Lin Haoran.

In other words, even if HSBC really went bankrupt, these original shareholders could only watch helplessly as their interests were damaged.

“Understood, Boss. I will stop the acquisition of HSBC shares this afternoon,” Dai Shi said respectfully.

“How did the acquisition of Hang Seng Bank stock go so fast?” Lin Haoran asked, looking at the data with some surprise.

They had actually accumulated a full 12.12 percent of Hang Seng Bank in a single morning. He knew that HSBC itself held 62.14 percent of Hang Seng Bank’s shares.

And Ho Sin Hang, the founder, had sold off all his shares in the bank long ago.

Even so, there were still a few other major shareholders. This meant that, excluding them, only 37.86 percent of Hang Seng Bank’s stock was on the market.

Yet in just two days, Galaxy Securities had managed to accumulate a full 20.4 percent of Hang Seng Bank’s shares.

To Lin Haoran, this seemed a bit outrageous.

“Boss, it was likely a major HSBC shareholder selling off a large block of stock, combined with the massive sell-off from smaller shareholders. This resulted in a huge number of low-priced pending orders for Hang Seng Bank, but almost no one was buying. So we reaped the rewards. When I saw so many pending orders, I just had the traders keep buying,” Dai Shi reported.

Lin Haoran nodded upon hearing this.

The shareholders of Hang Seng Bank were definitely the unluckiest, having been dragged down so brutally by HSBC.

Hang Seng Bank’s own operations were actually quite good, and it had always enjoyed a solid reputation in Hong Kong. That’s why, even while being bled dry by HSBC, it could still maintain its position as the second-largest bank, with many local Chinese preferring to deposit their money there.

But as a subsidiary of HSBC, when the parent company faced a crisis, its first thought was to extract a large amount of capital from Hang Seng Bank.

This led to a situation where, when HSBC’s capital chain broke, its subsidiary Hang Seng Bank’s capital chain broke as well.

Holding 62.14 percent of the shares, HSBC could do as it pleased; the other shareholders of Hang Seng Bank had no power to object.

So now, Hang Seng Bank’s branches, just like HSBC’s, were all temporarily closed.

Under these circumstances, it wasn’t hard to understand why Hang Seng Bank’s stock was being sold off on a massive scale.

Hang Seng Bank’s position was particularly awkward. As HSBC’s subsidiary, most people believed HSBC still had a chance of being saved, but the same couldn’t be said for Hang Seng Bank.

Right now, all eyes were on HSBC. As its subsidiary, Hang Seng Bank’s fate seemed to be shrouded in a thick shadow, with few people paying attention to where it was headed.

The shareholders were only focused on dumping their stocks in a panic, as if every second they held on would result in greater losses.

Lin Haoran sat in his office, fingers tapping lightly on the desk. He then spoke, “Dai Shi, do you think it’s possible that HSBC itself is selling off Hang Seng Bank stock?”

“Boss, I don’t think it’s HSBC!” Dai Shi said, shaking his head.

“Oh? What’s your reasoning?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“First, it’s common knowledge that HSBC holds shares in many companies, including giants like Swire & Co. and Wheelock and Company. Now, these companies have successively announced that they will no longer partner with HSBC.

As such, there’s little practical value for HSBC to hold on to their shares. So, if they were to sell off stock, they would most likely prioritize selling shares in these companies.

Hang Seng Bank, on the other hand, is crucial to HSBC’s future. If HSBC can be saved and Hang Seng Bank remains under its umbrella, HSBC’s future strength cannot be underestimated.

Therefore, they wouldn’t easily sell off Hang Seng Bank stock unless they were absolutely desperate and had no other choice. Boss, this is just my humble opinion. Please don’t blame me if I’m wrong,” Dai Shi explained with ease and confidence.

“That makes a lot of sense, Dai Shi. I didn’t expect you to have such insight!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

Lin Haoran strongly agreed with Dai Shi’s analysis.

“Let’s go. We’ll grab some food first. You’ve worked hard, and you have to keep fighting this afternoon!” Lin Haoran stood up and patted Dai Shi on the shoulder.

“Boss, it’s my duty. It’s not hard work at all,” Dai Shi said, a little flattered.

The two of them went to the canteen in Connaught Centre and had lunch there.

In the afternoon, the stock market remained gloomy.

The shareholders’ moods were as heavy and anxious as the oppressive weather.

An indescribable tension filled the trading floor, and worry and unease were written on everyone’s face.

Over at Galaxy Securities, all the employees had returned to their posts.

Although they were no longer accumulating HSBC stock, the traders at Galaxy Securities continued to acquire shares of business giants like Hang Seng Bank, Cheung Kong Holdings, Hutchison Whampoa, Swire & Co., and CLP Holdings.

Thus, the office was just as busy as it had been in the morning.

For Lin Haoran, he couldn’t have too many shares of giants like Cheung Kong Holdings, Hutchison Whampoa, and Swire & Co.!

After all, these companies were only being dragged down by HSBC, causing temporary capital chain problems. In reality, their internal operations were very healthy.

It could be said that at such low prices, the more he bought, the more he earned.

That being the case, he would naturally acquire as much as he could.

As for junk stocks like those of the Carrian Group, he naturally didn’t touch them.

He didn’t want the shares of every company that appeared powerful.

A company like Carrian Group was on the verge of collapse. If he were to acquire its stock, he would simply be courting disaster.

Now that he had bought back the HSBC shares, there was naturally no need for Lin Haoran to stay at Galaxy Securities for the afternoon.

For him, the HSBC shares he now held were enough to return to the shareholders who had lent them to him. The most basic goal had been accomplished.

Any other shares he could acquire at a low price after this were just a bonus.

Lin Haoran made a quick calculation: previously, he had borrowed and sold 25.6 percent of HSBC’s stock, receiving a staggering 6.01 billion Hong Kong dollars. Now, he had spent only 653 million Hong Kong dollars to buy 26.47 percent of the bank’s shares.

This meant that even after returning 25.6 percent of the stock to his lenders, he would still net 5.357 billion Hong Kong dollars from this shorting operation.

Even after deducting handling fees, Citibank’s commission, and other expenses, his final profit would still exceed 5.3 billion Hong Kong dollars!

To invest just over six hundred million Hong Kong dollars to sell for 6.01 billion, resulting in a profit of over 5.3 billion Hong Kong dollars—such a rate of return was fantastically astonishing, almost unbelievable.

After roughly estimating the rate of return, even Lin Haoran himself was stunned by his own scheme.

A whopping 883% rate of return—if news of this got out, it would be enough to shock the entire global financial world.

Of course, Lin Haoran wouldn’t let the specific figures leak. There was no need.

Although everyone already knew he was shorting HSBC, no one outside could possibly know how much he had invested or how much he had earned unless he announced it himself.

Hongkong Land Group, President’s Office.

Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin were in the office chatting about the development of Hongkong Land Group, letting out hearty laughs from time to time. At this moment, it seemed as if the two of them were completely unaffected by the turmoil in the financial industry outside.

Hongkong Land Group had long since moved its funds to the Bank of East Asia, so unlike companies such as Hutchison Whampoa and Swire & Co., it wouldn’t face capital chain problems because its liquid capital was tied up in HSBC.

Therefore, Hongkong Land Group was currently completely unaffected by external events.

If Hongkong Land Group hadn’t been delisted and privatized early on, its stock price would likely be at a staggering figure right now. In short, a market capitalization of over thirty billion Hong Kong dollars would be no problem at all.

As for another of Lin Haoran’s giants, Hongkong Electric Group, it had taken the top spot as Hong Kong’s most valuable company ever since HSBC fell from its number one position.

Currently, Hongkong Electric Group’s market capitalization had surpassed twenty billion Hong Kong dollars, reaching a terrifying 22.3 billion.

Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, and Hong Kong Telephone—these companies that Lin Haoran had not privatized—were now absolute outliers in the Hong Kong stock market.

The other top fifty stocks had all been affected by HSBC to some degree, causing their prices to plummet.

But Lin Haoran’s companies, having already moved their financial operations away from HSBC, were completely unscathed. On the contrary, with Lin Haoran as their backer, their stock prices were constantly rising, with many of them surging into the top ten.

Chapter 669: Langwei Group, the Future Hegemon of the FMCG Sector!

While the outside world was in turmoil over HSBC, Lin Haoran’s focus was elsewhere.

Inside the president’s office at Hongkong Land Group, Ma Shimin was excitedly reporting to Lin Haoran on the acquisition progress at Dairy Farm International.

“Boss, over the past six months, Dairy Farm International has aggressively expanded in the international market, successfully acquiring more than twenty brand companies that you carefully selected, such as Red Bull, Heineken, L’Oréal Paris, Carlsberg, Kraft Heinz, Snickers, and so on. It has gradually built a multinational fast-moving consumer goods group of considerable scale.

“Although the acquisition of these FMCG brands has cost Dairy Farm International about three billion Hong Kong dollars so far, the money was absolutely well spent!

“The various acquisitions have now entered the resource integration phase. The coordination with Wellcome supermarket and Mannings beauty chain has been quite smooth. As soon as the products were launched in Wellcome supermarkets and Mannings beauty stores, they were quickly accepted by the public, and sales have been excellent.

“Therefore, we can complete the sales channel integration with newly acquired convenience store chains like 7-Eleven and Lawson at any time. Once the integration is successful, the sales of these FMCG brands will surely surge,” Ma Shimin reported.

Lin Haoran nodded in approval.

Ma Shimin continued, “Furthermore, once the integration is complete, we will have created a complete and highly competitive closed-loop industrial chain, from the source to sales.

“Upstream, with the acquisition of these globally renowned FMCG brands, we have a firm grip on high-quality product sources, laying a solid foundation for future development.

“In the midstream, during the resource integration process, we can deeply optimize and upgrade the production processes of each brand. For the factories of different brands, we can introduce advanced international production technology and management models to significantly improve production efficiency and ensure stable and reliable quality for every product.

“Downstream, after successfully integrating with sales channels like 7-Eleven, Lawson, and Wellcome, these brand products will be rapidly distributed to all stores.

“These convenience stores and supermarkets have extensive and dense store networks with massive daily customer traffic, allowing our acquired FMCG brands to reach a huge number of consumers in the shortest possible time.

“Moreover, we can tailor personalized marketing strategies based on the characteristics of different sales channels and the diverse needs of consumers.

“For example, at 7-Eleven, we can launch promotions for Red Bull energy drinks targeting young office workers, such as ‘buy two, get one free’ or bundling them with breakfast combos.

“In Wellcome supermarkets, we can set up exclusive counters for L’Oréal Paris and arrange for professional beauty consultants to provide advisory services, attracting household consumers to stop and buy.

“Additionally, during the trial operation of this closed-loop chain, we discovered that it enables efficient data flow and in-depth utilization. We can collect detailed data on consumers’ purchasing behavior and preferences from our sales terminals and provide precise feedback to the production side, allowing us to adjust product strategies and R&D directions in a timely manner.

“For instance, if we find that consumer demand for a certain flavor of Snickers is trending upward, we can quickly notify the factory to increase production of that flavor. Based on Red Bull’s sales data in different regions, we can conduct in-depth analysis of market demand differences and then carry out targeted marketing campaigns.

“I have to say, Boss, your decision to acquire these brands was incredibly far-sighted and wise!”

Ma Shimin said with a smile, his eyes filled with admiration.

Whether it was acquiring the various FMCG brands or chains like 7-Eleven and Lawson, it was all decided by his boss, Lin Haoran. Given the current progress, this strategic layout would, barring any surprises, have a massive impact on the world in the future.

Especially since the number of convenience stores under his boss’s name now exceeded ten thousand. If all ten thousand-plus stores sold these products, one could imagine the terrifying surge in sales these FMCG products would experience.

“Oh? Not bad. Let’s get them integrated with 7-Eleven and Lawson as soon as possible. After all, these two major brands are still mainly selling other companies’ products. Most of the money is being made by others, and that doesn’t sit well with me!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

7-Eleven and Lawson were expanding at a blistering pace, averaging nearly a thousand new stores per month, and were rapidly growing in places like Japan, the United States, Mexico, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, and Europe.

As a result, the total daily revenue of 7-Eleven was already a terrifyingly large number.

However, 7-Eleven was not an enterprise under Hongkong Land Group. Although both were Lin Haoran’s private companies, they operated independently. For Hongkong Land Group to integrate with them, it had to negotiate with Southland Corporation.

Therefore, initially, Dairy Farm International focused on integrating the products of these acquired brands through its own channels like Wellcome and Mannings.

“Boss, I have already negotiated with Mr. Suzuki Toshifumi and we have basically finalized the cooperation details. In August, our FMCG products will be collaborating with Southland Corporation, and by then, we will be able to cover all the convenience store chains under them.

“However, I’ve noticed that as the number of acquired brands increases, it’s becoming a bit bloated to have Dairy Farm International manage them all.

“After all, Dairy Farm International’s primary business is sales channels, like Wellcome supermarkets, the Hong Kong 7-Eleven stores, and the Mannings beauty chain, which are more sales-oriented.

“Now, with brands like Red Bull, Heineken, L’Oréal Paris, Carlsberg, and Snickers, these are all FMCG brands. While having Dairy Farm International manage them facilitates resource integration, as the brand matrix grows, the complexity of the management structure is increasing exponentially.

“Furthermore, from a supply chain perspective, the procurement of raw materials, production and processing, and logistics and distribution vary greatly among different FMCG products.

“Carlsberg beer requires specific raw materials like malt and hops, and its production process has strict requirements for temperature and hygiene.

“Snickers, on the other hand, has unique standards for the quality of cocoa beans and the ratio of sugar, and requires controlled temperature and humidity during storage and transportation.

“The existing supply chain system of Dairy Farm International can meet the needs of some products within its own sales channels, but it’s somewhat overwhelmed by the wide variety of newly acquired FMCG brands.

“If we don’t optimize the supply chain in time, it could lead to a series of problems like rising costs, unstable product quality, and delivery delays, which would in turn affect the brands’ reputation and market competitiveness,” Ma Shimin said, taking a sip of hot coffee.

Lin Haoran nodded but didn’t interrupt, waiting for Ma Shimin to continue.

“In addition, the talent structure is another major challenge. Most of Dairy Farm International’s current management team and employees have experience in operating and managing sales channels, but they may have gaps in their knowledge and skills when it comes to the comprehensive operation of FMCG brands, especially in areas like brand building, market insight, and product innovation.

“To manage so many FMCG brands in different fields, we need a team with diverse professional backgrounds and rich industry experience. Our current talent pool is clearly unable to meet this demand. If we don’t recruit and cultivate talent in time, these newly acquired brands may not be able to realize their full potential.

“Moreover, the acquisition of FMCG brands has also slowed down the development of Dairy Farm International’s core business in sales channels. The overseas expansion of brands like Wellcome and Mannings has been too slow, mainly because it’s being held back by the development of the FMCG brands. The senior executives at Dairy Farm International are stretched too thin.

“Therefore, I am considering spinning off these acquired FMCG brands from Dairy Farm International to be directly managed by Hongkong Land Group. We can form a multinational group focused on FMCG products and poach management talent from top international FMCG giants like P&G and Nestlé. This way, each can develop more effectively.

“As for resource integration, Hongkong Land Group, as the parent company, will take the lead to maximize its effectiveness. Boss, what do you think of my plan?” Ma Shimin laid out his plan and handed over a proposal.

Lin Haoran took the proposal but didn’t open it immediately. He tapped his fingers lightly on the desk, lost in thought for a moment, before speaking slowly, “Mr. Ma, your idea is extremely forward-thinking. Go ahead and push forward with it boldly. You have my full support. But, have you thought of a name for this FMCG group after the split?”

He had a massive and grand vision for his FMCG business, aiming to surpass industry giants like P&G and Nestlé to reach the global pinnacle.

Therefore, spinning off the FMCG business into an independent entity would indeed be more beneficial for its own development.

That was why, upon hearing Ma Shimin’s plan, Lin Haoran agreed on the spot without the slightest hesitation.

Ma Shimin smiled and said, “Boss, I think it would be more appropriate for you to name it. After all, with our meticulous planning in the FMCG sector, this group is destined to become the most renowned FMCG group in the world. Having you name it would be exceptionally meaningful.”

Lin Haoran didn’t decline. He began to ponder.

After a moment, he looked up and said, “How about we just call it Langwei Group? ‘Lang’ conveys the bright and crisp quality of the products, like beverages, instant foods, and cosmetics. ‘Wei’ implies ‘maintaining quality of life.’ The name is catchy and easy to pronounce, suitable for multilingual environments.”

It was a name he came up with on the spot, but upon further reflection, he thought it was quite good.

Ma Shimin’s eyes lit up, and a smile of approval spread across his face. He quickly said, “Langwei Group! Boss, that name is absolutely brilliant!

“The word ‘Lang’ immediately brings to mind products that are full of vitality, fresh, and bright. It’s like our Red Bull energy drink—one sip instantly leaves you feeling refreshed and full of energy. And Snickers chocolate—one bite, and that rich, sweet flavor fills your mouth, also giving a bright, pleasant feeling.

“And the word ‘Wei’ is even more ingenious. Maintaining quality of life—this perfectly captures the positioning of our FMCG products. Aren’t our products meant to enhance the quality of consumers’ daily lives? To let them feel convenience and joy amidst their busy lives by using our products, thereby maintaining a high-quality state of living.”

He grew more excited as he spoke, pacing back and forth in the office.

Then he continued, “And the name is catchy and easy to pronounce. It will be easy to say and remember in any language, whether in the domestic or international market. This will be a huge advantage for us in promoting our brand globally and attracting consumers from different countries and regions.

“Imagine, in the future, on streets and alleys all over the world, whenever people mention Langwei Group, they will think of a series of high-quality FMCG products. What a magnificent scene that would be!

“Boss, your naming skill is truly worthy of a visionary business leader. I firmly believe that under your leadership, Langwei Group will surely surpass P&G and Nestlé to become the leader of the global FMCG industry!”

Lin Haoran was amused by Ma Shimin’s string of compliments and burst out laughing. He waved his hand and said, “You’re too kind, Mr. Ma. But since you think the name is good, let’s settle on it.

“Next, implement your plan and push forward with the formation of Langwei Group with all your might. From talent recruitment to resource integration, every step must be strictly controlled to ensure Langwei Group can launch smoothly and carve out its own territory in the FMCG sector.”

“Yes, the tenant on the 36th floor of Connaught Centre is moving out this month. We’ll set up Langwei Group’s headquarters there. I will communicate with the senior executives at Dairy Farm International to spin off the FMCG business as soon as possible!” Ma Shimin said with a nod.

“Develop it well. I have plans to take this FMCG group public through financing in the future and attract some international financial groups. So, before the financing, I hope Langwei Group can acquire as many high-quality FMCG brands as possible, and aim for an IPO in a few years!” Lin Haoran continued.

As someone who had traveled back from the future, Lin Haoran knew very well that although he could afford to maintain 100% sole ownership of this FMCG group, once it became enormous, it would easily encounter various problems.

If he took the company public, there would be others to share the pressure.

Most importantly, global competition in the FMCG industry would become increasingly fierce. If Langwei Group continued to rely on him alone, it would sooner or later be ganged up on by others. The FMCG sector was not that simple.

He could withstand sieges from other forces in Hong Kong with his own strength, but that didn’t mean he could do the same on a global scale.

Having more financial groups behind him would provide immeasurable help for its global development, and many problems would be easily solved.

Therefore, from the moment he decided to enter this field, Lin Haoran had intended to take it public in the future.

Furthermore, when a company gets too big, it can easily run into trouble, especially in a highly competitive industry.

The FMCG industry was definitely an extremely competitive one.

Take Nestlé, for example. As one of the world’s largest FMCG giants, it was also facing difficulties. From 1975 to last year, the deteriorating global economic environment led to slower economic growth and reduced consumer purchasing power. Demand for consumer goods like food was affected, putting pressure on Nestlé’s product sales.

In addition, coffee beans and cocoa were important raw materials for Nestlé’s products. During that period, coffee bean prices tripled, and cocoa prices doubled. The sharp rise in raw material costs squeezed Nestlé’s profit margins, leading to a decline in corporate profitability.

During this period, Nestlé underwent an era of frantic expansion, extending its business from dairy and coffee to seasonings, ice cream, vegetarian food, and water, and even venturing into non-food sectors like mining, hotels, and catering. Excessive diversification dispersed corporate resources and increased management complexity. In the face of intensified market competition, it was difficult to concentrate on the challenges of its core business, which affected overall performance.

Coupled with fierce industry competition, other food companies constantly launched new products and marketing strategies to seize market share, putting immense competitive pressure on Nestlé and causing its performance growth to slow down.

This series of problems led to the Nestlé Group’s current stagnant growth crisis. Revenue growth over the past five years was only 4.3%, and its profit margin continued to fall, leaving almost no profit to speak of, which caused Nestlé’s stock price to stagnate.

This was also the biggest reason why Lin Haoran had put Nestlé Group on his acquisition list—he knew that Nestlé would soon overcome its difficulties.

If he could acquire Nestlé while it was in trouble, or become one of its major shareholders, it would be extremely beneficial for his future.

After all, Nestlé was, and would remain for decades, one of the kings of the FMCG sector.

If he could acquire Nestlé now, the strength of his Langwei Group would definitely be taken to the next level.

However, acquiring Nestlé would certainly be much more difficult than acquiring brands like Red Bull, Heineken, L’Oréal Paris, Carlsberg, Kraft Heinz, or Snickers.

Many of the other brands had not yet fully developed or were independent brands with a relatively small scale, making them easier to acquire.

But Nestlé, after so many years of mergers and acquisitions, was already immense, with some very powerful financial groups behind it. Acquiring Nestlé would be a challenge.

That was why Dairy Farm International had not yet made a move on Nestlé, choosing to start with brands that were easier to acquire.

His initial reason for entering the FMCG sector was very simple: the north hoped he could bring more industry to the Pearl River Delta, and FMCG factories were clearly the most suitable for the region at this time.

Currently, the north was striding into a new era of Reform and Opening-up, fully promoting the development of the Pearl River Delta region.

As things stood, what the north lacked was not labor but the most basic industrial support, such as the FMCG industry.

Fast-moving consumer goods were characterized by rapid sales and high market demand. Once a market was opened, orders would pour in continuously.

With an increase in orders, productivity could be fully and effectively utilized, which in turn would drive the vigorous development of related industries, truly allowing a portion of the people in Mainland China to get rich first.

For Lin Haoran, this was undoubtedly a mutually beneficial situation.

On one hand, he could earn substantial profits in the FMCG market.

On the other hand, by actively responding to and assisting the development in the north, he would leave a good impression.

This would make his business ventures in the north smoother, and his future development prospects would be even broader.

And for the north, Lin Haoran’s initiative could push the Pearl River Delta region onto a faster development track ahead of schedule, allowing the fruits of Reform and Opening-up to take root more quickly and effectively.

So, in the beginning, he hadn’t actually thought about making a lot of money from FMCG brands.

They certainly weren’t as profitable as the financial or real estate industries.

It was just that, as he laid out his plans, he also incorporated convenience stores.

Thus, the current situation had emerged.

“Go public? I understand, Boss. I will devote a certain amount of energy to Langwei Group and ensure it develops as quickly as possible,” Ma Shimin’s eyes lit up.

He naturally knew what it meant to take a global giant public.

In fact, as a professional manager, he preferred taking a company public over privatizing it. an IPO meant more capital, broader development space, and higher brand recognition.

It was undeniable that Hongkong Land Group was not short of funds at the moment.

However, the significance of going public went far beyond just capital. It was a strategic move, a crucial step for Langwei Group to become a top global FMCG giant.

Otherwise, this soon-to-be-born Langwei Group would never be able to become the number one in the global FMCG sector!

“By the way, how are things with Hongkong Land Group in the Pearl River Delta?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

His initial foray into the FMCG sector was prompted by a request from the government in the north, as well as his recognition of the development potential of the Pearl River Delta.

Now, his plans in this area were beginning to bear fruit.

But for a while, he had been focused on the Japanese market. After returning to Hong Kong, he was busy dealing with matters related to HSBC and hadn’t had a chance to pay attention to the situation in the north.

Currently, his Wanqing Group had been deeply involved in the Pearl River Delta for nearly two years.

After being acquired, Hongkong Land Group also followed in Wanqing Group’s footsteps and entered the Pearl River Delta.

After all, the initial investment costs for doing business there were not high.

Land prices were low, and the local governments not only offered great incentives but also fully cooperated with the progress of various projects.

Because of this, Wanqing Group’s presence in the north was already very well-established.

However, Hongkong Land Group entered the market later than Wanqing Group, so its development progress was naturally not as fast.

“Boss, our Hongkong Land Group has already purchased a substantial amount of land in core areas of the Pearl River Delta like Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Chancheng.

“The local governments are extremely supportive of us. We are warmly welcomed everywhere we go, and various formalities and procedures have been given the green light all the way, greatly simplifying the process.

“As per your request to encourage our acquired FMCG brands to build factories in the Pearl River Delta, we have already planned and initiated the construction of several large-scale industrial parks in these core cities.

“However, the construction cycle for the park’s factory buildings is relatively long, requiring at least one to two years, so our own FMCG brands cannot move into self-built parks just yet.

“Fortunately, the local governments had already built some industrial parks two or three years ago, and Wanqing Group has also developed relevant parks. Therefore, we can immediately utilize these existing factory resources to allow the FMCG brands’ factories to quickly take root in Mainland China.

“Moreover, Guangdong Province has promised us a five-year tax exemption policy, and product exports are also tax-free. Based on these favorable conditions, we plan to build several factories in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Dongguan within this year, with plans for a Red Bull factory, a Snickers factory, a Heineken brewery, and others.

“We will strive to have all our acquired FMCG brands establish production bases in the Mainland by next year!” Ma Shimin replied, reporting in an orderly manner.

Chapter 670: HSBC’s Last Straw Has Snapped

Lin Haoran had always placed great importance on his strategic layout in Mainland China.

As a transmigrator who had lived for decades in the future, he was naturally aware of the immense potential for economic development in the Mainland.

Although the Mainland’s economy was still relatively underdeveloped, its overall economic landscape was like a blank canvas awaiting a magnificent blueprint.

However, beneath this seemingly empty surface lay countless business opportunities and limitless potential for growth.

Moreover, as a Chinese man, he harbored a deep and sincere hope for the Mainland to flourish and prosper.

“Boss, a few days ago, we received an invitation from Beijing asking me to visit on behalf of the Hongkong Land Group. I was planning to pick a suitable time to go, but I’m swamped with work at the moment and can’t really get away. I reckon it’s because our Hongkong Land Group has been investing heavily in Guangdong Province, which has caught Beijing’s attention. Who knows, after this visit, we might even set up a branch company there!” Ma Shimin said with a smile.

“Then you must go! When you get there, have a good talk with them. The Hongkong Land Group really needs to establish a presence in Beijing. As the capital, Beijing’s future development potential is limitless. It will definitely become a place where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold. We can’t just focus on the Pearl River Delta; places like Beijing and Shanghai must be part of our industrial layout. By the way, after Hongkong Land sets up its branch company in Beijing, use the group’s name to purchase a few more courtyard houses for me. If you can get your hands on something like a prince’s mansion, that would be even better. Maybe I’ll go and stay there occasionally to soak in the atmosphere of Beijing,” Lin Haoran responded with a smile.

Courtyard houses. In the future, a well-maintained one in a good location in Beijing would be priced in the hundreds of millions.

These were rare fixed assets with excellent potential for value preservation and appreciation.

In any case, the Hongkong Land Group was a company he had fully privatized. For Lin Haoran, Hongkong Land buying courtyard houses was no different from buying them himself.

Hearing this, Ma Shimin nodded and made a mental note of his boss’s request. As someone who had lived in Hong Kong for many years and was practically half a local, Ma Shimin was well-versed in Chinese culture and naturally knew what a courtyard house was.

Just then, the office phone suddenly rang.

“Boss, I’ll get the phone first,” Ma Shimin said, looking at Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran nodded.

Ma Shimin reached for the phone and glanced at the unfamiliar number on the display. After a moment’s thought, he gently pressed the answer button.

“Hello, this is Ma Shimin,” Ma Shimin said first.

“Mr. Ma, hello. This is Wu Guangzheng from Kowloon Wharf,” a clear, steady voice came from the other end.

Ma Shimin was slightly taken aback, surprised that Wu Guangzheng, the future successor of Kowloon Wharf, would call him at a time like this. He quickly composed himself and said with a smile, “Mr. Wu, hello. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Mr. Ma, I have some good news for you. After this period of careful maneuvering, our joint stock accumulation of Kowloon Wharf shares with your Hongkong Land Group has been a success. Our combined holdings have now surpassed ninety percent. According to Hong Kong’s takeover regulations, we can now initiate a compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares. It won’t be long before we can completely and successfully privatize Kowloon Wharf,” Wu Guangzheng said cheerfully over the phone.

The privatization of Kowloon Wharf was undoubtedly a major benefit for both the Hongkong Land Group and the Bao family.

Although Kowloon Wharf’s annual profits didn’t seem particularly high on the surface, this was because most of its earnings were reinvested into new ventures, especially the expansion and construction of Harbour City Phase Two. Furthermore, Kowloon Wharf’s current business was mainly rent collection. While the return cycle was relatively long, its debt ratio was extremely low, and its financial position was very stable.

What’s more, Harbour City Phase Two was about to open for business. When it did, it would undoubtedly become another “golden goose that lays golden eggs” for Kowloon Wharf, bringing in a continuous stream of substantial income.

Currently, both Lin Haoran and the Bao family had high expectations for Harbour City’s future.

Lin Haoran and Pao Yue-kong had joined forces to privatize Kowloon Wharf, with Wu Guangzheng taking full responsibility for the matter and Hongkong Land providing assistance. From the announcement of Kowloon Wharf’s privatization at the beginning of June, over a month, nearly two months, had passed. The progress had indeed been smoother than imaginable.

Hearing this news, a smile also appeared on Ma Shimin’s face. Although Hongkong Land was only the second-largest shareholder, owning forty-nine percent of the shares in the future still represented a “large slice of the pie” with immense potential and value for the company.

He responded with a smile, “Mr. Wu, you’ve worked hard during this time. I’ll pay you a personal visit another day, and we can discuss the details then.”

Wu Guangzheng laughed heartily. “You’re too kind, Mr. Ma. This is the result of our joint effort. Besides, both Mr. Lin and my father-in-law are far-sighted and set this strategy in motion early on. We’re just carrying out the plan. The compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares is procedurally simple, but we can’t let our guard down. We still need to coordinate everything properly.”

After they hung up, Lin Haoran already knew the content of their conversation without needing Ma Shimin to report it, because Ma Shimin had put the call on speakerphone.

“Boss, does Harbour City really have that much potential?” Although he had heard Lin Haoran’s analysis before, Ma Shimin was still not entirely sure.

After all, the southern end of Tsim Sha Tsui, especially Tsim Sha Tsui East, was still under development, and foot traffic wasn’t particularly heavy.

The privatization of Kowloon Wharf was a joint effort between Pao Yue-kong and Lin Haoran; Ma Shimin and Wu Guangzheng were merely the executors.

“Of course. Harbour City’s location alone gives it an unparalleled advantage.” Lin Haoran’s gaze was profound as he spoke slowly, “It’s situated in the heart of Hong Kong with excellent transportation links, easily accessible to both local residents and tourists. Don’t be fooled by the fact that Tsim Sha Tsui East is a construction site due to recent land reclamation. Once the entire southern Tsim Sha Tsui commercial district takes shape, it will surely become the most high-end commercial area on the Kowloon Peninsula, attracting a large number of affluent customers. Moreover, as Hong Kong’s economy continues to grow and the consumer market evolves, the demand for high-quality commercial complexes is increasing. Harbour City is not only grand in scale, but its planning and layout are also scientifically sound, capable of meeting the diverse needs of different groups. Therefore, I’ve long concluded that, even decades from now, it will be one of Hong Kong’s most profitable commercial districts. Owning it means you can sit back and collect substantial rent every year. Being a landlord is much more enjoyable than toiling away.”

Ma Shimin nodded slightly, saying thoughtfully, “Now that you put it that way, Boss, I understand. However, the commercial competition in Hong Kong is also very fierce. Once Harbour City Phase Two opens, it will probably take some effort to stand out among the many competitors.”

“We must have faith in Mr. Pao’s vision and business acumen. The fact that he could become the World Shipping Magnate and then have the audacity to shift his focus from sea to land is a testament to a level of courage and foresight that ordinary people simply do not possess. Besides, our Hongkong Land Group is no slouch either. We have accumulated a wealth of experience in commercial operations. Our partnership with the Bao family is a union of powerhouses,” Lin Haoran said, expressing great admiration for the business senior, Pao Yue-kong.

Meanwhile, at Queen Mary Hospital on Pok Fu Lam Road, the atmosphere in a quiet and well-equipped high-end recovery room was exceptionally peaceful.

Just then, Wu Guangzheng slowly put down the telephone receiver, his gaze naturally turning to his father-in-law, Pao Yue-kong, who was sitting on the sofa.

Pao Yue-kong sat upright, holding an intelligence report, his eyes intently scanning its contents. As he read, the corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up, and a faint smile appeared.

At the beginning of the month, Pao Yue-kong had undergone major surgery. Fortunately, the operation was a great success. To ensure a peaceful recovery, he had been staying at this high-end convalescent home affiliated with Queen Mary Hospital ever since. The environment here was tranquil, and very few people could disturb him. Unless he personally invited them, it was impossible for others to see him.

Over the past month, Michael Sandberg of HSBC had repeatedly tried to arrange a meeting with Pao Yue-kong, but each time Wu Guangzheng had politely declined with the excuse that his “father-in-law just had major surgery and needs rest.” As a result, HSBC had been unable to get a meeting with Pao Yue-kong.

“Father-in-law, I’ve already spoken with Mr. Ma Shimin,” Wu Guangzheng reported.

“That young man, Haoran, is truly astonishing,” Pao Yue-kong said, filled with emotion, not directly responding to Wu Guangzheng’s topic but gently setting down the report.

“Yes, who could have predicted it? Someone who was basically an outsider in the financial circle has managed to pull HSBC, that financial hegemon, from its throne. In the past, this would have been preposterous. Who could have imagined it! Father-in-law, all of Hong Kong is in an uproar about this. HSBC really picked on the wrong person this time. If they’d known, perhaps they wouldn’t have provoked the Bank of East Asia in the first place and ended up in this state. They truly reaped what they sowed,” Wu Guangzheng said, nodding in strong agreement.

“I had originally planned to lend the Bank of East Asia a hand at a critical moment if they couldn’t withstand HSBC’s siege. I was going to move some of our Bao family’s corporate funds to them. But who would have thought? Before we even had to make a move, HSBC was beaten so badly they couldn’t even fight back!” Pao Yue-kong lamented.

This time, they were truly and deeply shocked. HSBC, which in their eyes had always been invincible, had been defeated by the Bank of East Asia time and again. It was simply unbelievable.

Now, HSBC had even lost its status as the number one bank, its market share reduced to half of what it was at its peak, and it was even facing a potential crisis of a broken capital chain. Who could have foreseen such a situation?

Before Pao Yue-kong went into surgery, he had specifically instructed Wu Guangzheng that if the Bank of East Asia ran into trouble, the Bao family should help if they could. After all, in Pao Yue-kong’s heart, Lin Haoran’s earlier warning was equivalent to saving his life!

Though HSBC was a long-time partner and could be considered an ally, Pao Yue-kong’s situation was completely different from Li Jiacheng’s.

Over the years, HSBC had indeed become a major shareholder in World-Wide Shipping Group, a fact that could not be denied. However, HSBC had no right to meddle in the Bao family’s other industries. Even in World-Wide Shipping, Pao Yue-kong alone called the shots. At most, HSBC held a seat on the board, but the real control always remained firmly in Pao Yue-kong’s hands.

As for the Bao family’s other assets, like Kowloon Wharf, although HSBC had lent the Bao family over two billion Hong Kong dollars to help Pao Yue-kong take control, it was nothing more than a normal loan cooperation. The bank lends, the company borrows; one earns interest, the other gets capital for development. It was a standard, mutually beneficial business transaction. With Pao Yue-kong’s business reputation and strength, he could have easily secured a loan with similar or even better terms from other banks, such as Japanese commercial banks.

Therefore, Pao Yue-kong’s deep cooperation with HSBC was limited to World-Wide Shipping. There weren’t many complex entanglements with the Bao family’s other industries.

Now, Pao Yue-kong had already shifted the focus of his business from shipping to other sectors, with the newly acquired Kowloon Wharf being one of his key development areas. As for World-Wide Shipping, he was already secretly selling off ships to mitigate the impact of the impending shipping industry recession. He understood that due to the oil crisis, the shipping industry was highly cyclical. If he didn’t adjust his strategy in time, the years of hard work the Bao family had put in could all be for naught.

Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng had completely different styles. When the Li family took over Hutchison Whampoa, their own strength was still weak, yet they attempted a “snake swallowing an elephant” acquisition. Left with no choice, the Li family signed a series of unequal contracts with HSBC before taking control. These contracts were like heavy shackles, binding Li Jiacheng and HSBC tightly together. From then on, Li Jiacheng had to fully support HSBC at all times, and his businesses were required to cooperate with the bank.

Pao Yue-kong had worked with HSBC for many years, and their bond was deep, but he was not bound by any contracts. Although abandoning HSBC in its most difficult time could, on some level, be seen as a betrayal, in the ever-changing sea of business, interests were paramount. Once the situation changed, he could decisively shift the majority of his financial operations to the Bank of East Asia out of consideration for his interests. This was by no means an emotional decision.

Previously, he might have held the attitude of “help if I can,” but now, the situation was clear, and he planned to transfer his funds as soon as possible. As a tycoon who had toiled and struggled through hardships in the business world for many years and had a close relationship with HSBC, he could naturally sense that HSBC was now in a precarious position.

Moreover, Lin Haoran had a life-saving debt to him. Both logically and emotionally, his desire to move his assets to the Bank of East Asia was perfectly normal and beyond reproach.

“Now that the Kowloon Wharf matter is settled, and with Hongkong Land as a shareholder second only to us, it’s clearly inappropriate for Kowloon Wharf’s financial business to remain with HSBC. Besides, given HSBC’s current predicament, it has no future. There’s no need for us to continue supporting them.” Pao Yue-kong took off his reading glasses and said to Wu Guangzheng with a smile.

As a board member of HSBC who closely followed its internal affairs, Pao Yue-kong already knew about Standard Chartered Bank’s plan to secretly acquire HSBC through his high-level informants. Therefore, he was not worried that his own corporate assets would be dragged down by HSBC.

“Father-in-law, if we do this, will people see us as traitors to HSBC? After all, we’ve cooperated with them for so many years. To suddenly give them ‘a knife in the back’ at this critical juncture might not be good for our reputation,” Wu Guangzheng said, his brow furrowed with concern.

“Guangzheng, our decision now to announce the transfer of Kowloon Wharf’s funds to the Bank of East Asia is completely justifiable. Haoran is already a major shareholder in Kowloon Wharf. As one of the owners, it’s perfectly normal for Kowloon Wharf’s financial business to be handled by the Bank of East Asia. Besides, our World-Wide Shipping Group is still cooperating with HSBC, isn’t it? But now, even our funds can’t operate normally because of their situation. We’ve become the collateral damage. What right do they have to accuse us of betrayal? It’s undeniable that we borrowed a considerable sum from HSBC when we acquired Kowloon Wharf, but we have always made our payments on time and have never been overdue. We will continue to repay the remaining debt on schedule. Therefore, Kowloon Wharf owes HSBC no favors!” Pao Yue-kong said calmly with a smile.

Wu Guangzheng nodded and said, “In that case, should we also issue a public announcement like Swire & Co. and Wheelock and Company? That would also be a show of support for the Bank of East Asia.”

Pao Yue-kong nodded. “Do it. Issue it today. That young man Haoran has helped me so much, yet I haven’t been able to help him at all. I feel guilty about it. Since no other major companies have announced their support for the Bank of East Asia recently, let Kowloon Wharf be the first to formally step up and back it.”

A little over an hour later, the Kowloon Wharf Group, without any warning, issued a blockbuster announcement. The announcement clearly stated that, given Lin Haoran was one of Kowloon Wharf’s major shareholders, the board had unanimously voted to change its primary financial services provider from HSBC to the Bank of East Asia.

Although the announcement had not yet spread through the streets of Hong Kong via newspapers, within the relatively small circle of the Hong Kong business community, it was like a giant stone dropped into a calm lake, quickly creating ripples. The news spread like wildfire.

…

London, Britain.

At the headquarters of Standard Chartered Bank, more than a dozen Westerners were seated around an oval conference table in a meeting room of nearly one hundred square meters.

If Lin Haoran had been there, he would have recognized Mr. Michael Sandberg, the Taipan of HSBC, among them. In addition to Sandberg, there were several representatives of the financial groups behind HSBC.

They had been negotiating with Standard Chartered Bank for a full two days about a capital injection to save HSBC, but they had yet to reach an agreement.

It wasn’t that Sandberg hadn’t approached other banks for aid, but none of them had any interest in cooperating. Everyone knew that HSBC was now rotten to the core. With companies like Swire & Co. successively announcing their partnership with Standard Chartered Bank, what other bank would take the initiative to clean up this mess? It wasn’t worth it, not at all.

So now, their only option was to negotiate with Standard Chartered.

And Standard Chartered’s demand was simple: to acquire fifty-one percent of HSBC’s shares. In other words, if this condition was met, HSBC would become a direct subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank.

However, the HSBC side believed that despite the defections of Swire & Co. and others, they still had the firm support of companies like Cheung Kong Holdings, Hutchison Whampoa, Kowloon Wharf, and World-Wide Shipping. They still had some foundation and hadn’t reached the point of a complete sell-off. At most, they would only part with no more than thirty percent of their shares.

Thus, the two sides were locked in a stalemate. The shareholders of HSBC and Taipan Michael Sandberg held firm to their bottom line, unwilling to let HSBC become a mere vassal.

The people at Standard Chartered were also frustrated. Government House in Hong Kong was already pressuring them. If they couldn’t sort this out soon, Government House would withdraw its support for Standard Chartered.

Michael Sandberg’s brows were tightly furrowed, his eyes filled with unwillingness. His tense expression seemed to silently convey his inner struggle. He knew better than anyone that although Standard Chartered’s terms were incredibly harsh, given HSBC’s current perilous situation, it was undoubtedly the last straw they could clutch at.

However, giving up fifty-one percent of the shares meant HSBC would completely lose control of itself. The heart and soul he had poured in over many years would be handed over just like that. At this thought, Sandberg’s heart felt as if it had been struck by a heavy hammer; he simply could not accept such an outcome. Moreover, he knew that if this happened, he would become a pariah at HSBC, falling from a once-revered great contributor to a reviled sinner. This immense fall from grace was something he could not bear under any circumstances.

Looking at the other key HSBC shareholders present, they were all descendants of families who had been major shareholders since the bank’s inception. They had a deep, almost blood-like emotional connection to HSBC, an attachment that was bone-deep and impossible to sever. Therefore, they were also unwilling to just stand by and watch HSBC become a subsidiary of Standard Chartered.

At this moment, they hated Michael Sandberg. In their view, the fact that HSBC had fallen into such a crisis in just two or three months was entirely the fault of this Taipan.

But what good would hate do? Things had already come to this. How to save HSBC had become their most urgent priority, leaving no room for delay or resentment. Therefore, Michael Sandberg still had his uses.

The meeting room seemed to be filled with the smell of gunpowder, clearly having just concluded a heated argument. However, the result of the argument was unsatisfactory for both sides. No one was willing to give an inch.

Lord Derek Barber, the Chairman of the Board of the Standard Chartered Group, glanced at Sandberg and his contingent with irritation. Mr. Brown had been relaying pressure from the Hong Kong Government House, forcing him to find a way to conclude the negotiations as soon as possible. At this rate, today would likely be another fruitless day.

Just then, a knock came from the door, and everyone in the room instantly fell silent. In an important meeting like this, no one would interrupt unless something critical had happened.

“Come in,” Lord Derek Barber said.

The door was gently opened. Standing outside was Lord Derek Barber’s secretary.

“Gentlemen, apologies for the interruption. I have an urgent matter to report. Just a moment ago, important news arrived from Hong Kong: the listed company Kowloon Wharf Group has followed in the footsteps of Swire & Co. and Wheelock and Company. They have officially announced that they will be moving their financial business from HSBC to the Bank of East Asia, becoming yet another business tycoon to sever ties with HSBC,” the secretary reported quickly and clearly.

“No, impossible! How could Kowloon Wharf make such an announcement? Absolutely impossible!” Sandberg exclaimed, his face a mask of disbelief as he shot up from his chair.

In his mind, both Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng had been supported and nurtured by HSBC. They should have stood by the bank through thick and thin. How could they commit such a “treacherous” act at this time?

Sandberg’s face turned ghastly pale, his body trembling uncontrollably. “No,” he stammered, “you must be lying. You’re using this lie to deceive us, to persuade us!”

In that instant, this news was like HSBC’s last straw to clutch at, utterly snapped.

Chapter 671: This Uncle Pao, He’s Doing Me a Favor!

Although he was still stubbornly insisting that Standard Chartered Bank was spreading false rumors, Michael Sandberg knew in his heart that it was most likely true.

He was simply unwilling to face the facts.

In Michael Sandberg’s view, if this were true, Pao Yue-kong’s action was nothing less than a naked betrayal of HSBC!

Michael Sandberg had always felt that without HSBC’s staunchest support, Pao Yue-kong could never have achieved such brilliant success.

After all, without HSBC’s help, how could the World-Wide Shipping Group have leaped to become the world’s leading shipping fleet?

And how could Pao Yue-kong have become the world-renowned Number One Ship King?

But who could have imagined that the very man who had received so much favor from HSBC would, at the bank’s most difficult moment of crisis, ruthlessly stab it in the back?

Michael Sandberg found it utterly unbelievable!

“Mr. Michael Sandberg, if you really don’t believe it, you might want to call Hong Kong and ask. The news has probably spread throughout the business community there. It’s just a matter of making a phone call to verify; there’s no need for me to deceive you. It would be meaningless for me to do so.”

The secretary who had come to report the news was not flustered by Michael Sandberg’s questioning. Instead, he spoke unhurriedly with a smile on his face.

The moment he finished speaking, the conference room fell deathly silent, like a deep pool that had frozen solid after a boulder was thrown into it. The silence was terrifying.

Everyone’s breathing was clearly audible, and it felt as if the very air had stopped flowing, bound tight by the heavy atmosphere.

The faces of Michael Sandberg and the other HSBC representatives turned ashen, as if all life had been drained from them, their eyes filled with despair and disbelief.

On the other hand, the people from Standard Chartered Bank all wore excited expressions.

For Standard Chartered, this was simply fantastic news.

The reason Michael Sandberg and the others had maintained such a hard-line stance, refusing to back down, was their underlying belief that HSBC still had staunch allies like Hutchison Whampoa and Kowloon Wharf.

They calculated that as long as they could solve the urgent crisis of their broken capital chain and survive this difficult period, HSBC would sooner or later escape its predicament and return to its former glory once its investments and loans were repaid.

However, reality had dealt them a heavy blow.

Now, HSBC had lost the support of another important client, which was undoubtedly making a bad situation worse and a huge blow to the bank.

Under such circumstances, HSBC could naturally no longer hold on.

Kowloon Wharf was once one of Jardine Matheson & Co.’s most important associated holding companies, and its overall strength was not to be underestimated.

Back in the day, Jardine Matheson & Co. valued Kowloon Wharf no less than its other associated holding company, the Hongkong Land Group.

Therefore, when Pao Yue-kong set his sights on Kowloon Wharf and attempted a takeover, Jardine Matheson & Co. was instantly on high alert. Like a great dragon whose reverse scale had been touched, it threw everything it had into a counterattack.

It mobilized all sorts of resources, fought fiercely on the stock market, and allied with other powers, trying to maintain its controlling stake in Kowloon Wharf.

Unfortunately, the business world is like a battlefield, where the situation changes in an instant.

Despite Jardine Matheson & Co.’s desperate efforts, it ultimately fell short in this fierce battle.

It could only watch, full of unwillingness and helplessness, as the “juicy prize” that was once Kowloon Wharf fell into the Bao family’s hands.

Kowloon Wharf possessed an extremely rich portfolio of properties, including numerous terminals, warehouses, hotels, and buildings along the waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, as well as in the New Territories and on Hong Kong Island. It also controlled businesses like the tramways and the Star Ferry. Its assets were massive, and its strength was formidable.

However, that wasn’t its most striking feature.

Crucially, in Tsim Sha Tsui, where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold and commercial value is extremely high, Kowloon Wharf owned vast tracts of waterfront land.

On this land, immensely valuable mixed-use properties like Ocean Terminal, Ocean Centre, and Harbour City were successively built.

If the Hongkong Land Group was the undisputed largest property owner in Central, then Kowloon Wharf was the foremost land king of Tsim Sha Tsui!

This demonstrated that the Kowloon Wharf Group was, in fact, an entity of exceptionally high quality.

Moreover, Kowloon Wharf operated numerous businesses that acted like powerful cash-generating machines, ensuring the entire group had abundant liquid capital.

Though not as substantial as Hutchison Whampoa’s, its capital still amounted to three to four billion Hong Kong dollars, a force not to be underestimated.

Yet, who could have imagined that Kowloon Wharf Group, this important client that once worked so closely with HSBC, would choose to openly “betray” it at its most critical moment of crisis by publicly announcing its withdrawal from their partnership?

This act undoubtedly put HSBC in an extremely awkward position, leaving it with no way to save face.

The faces of several HSBC shareholders were as dark as ink. They pursed their lips and remained silent.

If the rumors were true, then the HSBC shares they held so tightly seemed to have lost much of their value and significance.

At that moment, Michael Sandberg took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil within, and turned to Lord Derek Barber. “Your Lordship, I would like to borrow your phone, if you would be so kind.”

Although he already knew that Kowloon Wharf’s withdrawal was most likely true, a lingering unwillingness in his heart drove him to confirm it himself, refusing to accept his fate just yet.

Therefore, he was desperate to make a call to Hong Kong and personally verify the authenticity of this news.

“Of course, no problem. Mr. Mondi, please take Mr. Sandberg to the office next door,” Lord Derek Barber said to his secretary with a calm smile.

Mr. Mondi nodded slightly, then turned sideways and gestured with his hand.

Led by Mondi, Michael Sandberg walked with a slightly hurried pace and was soon brought to an adjacent office.

Soon, the voice of the operator at the HSBC headquarters came through the line.

Michael Sandberg gripped the telephone receiver so tightly that his knuckles turned white. After a few brief but heavy exchanges, the last glimmer of hope in his heart was mercilessly extinguished, like a candle flickering in the wind.

From the urgent yet certain tone of the secretary in Hong Kong, he knew for certain that the matter was irrefutable, with no room for doubt!

Michael Sandberg’s hand began to tremble uncontrollably, and it took a great deal of effort to slowly put the receiver down.

His vision went dark, as if the entire world were collapsing around him.

Michael Sandberg knew it was over. Everything was over. HSBC, the once glorious financial empire, was now truly on the verge of complete collapse and ruin.

Even if Standard Chartered Bank’s capital injection saved HSBC and allowed it to eke out an existence, the future HSBC would be nothing more than a subsidiary of Standard Chartered, completely stripped of its former independence and the glory of commanding the winds and clouds.

Its past splendor and honor would all come to nothing in this turmoil, becoming a lamentable chapter in financial history.

Michael Sandberg sat dazedly in the office chair, his mind replaying HSBC’s various glorious moments from the past.

Who could have predicted that the once incomparably magnificent HSBC would meet its downfall at his hands?

Previously, he had scoffed at Newbiggin, believing it was Newbiggin who had led Jardine Matheson & Co. to its decline, even forcing it to withdraw from the Hong Kong market, making him a disgraced Taipan condemned by Jardine Matheson’s history.

But now, his own situation was even more tragic than Newbiggin’s.

Although Jardine Matheson & Co. had also suffered a heavy blow and immense losses, it had deep roots and a powerful foundation. Even after withdrawing from the Hong Kong market, it could still live comfortably and prosperously with its overseas businesses.

HSBC, on the other hand, would probably only be able to survive under the protection of Standard Chartered, reduced to a corporation with no independence or autonomy.

It would be like an eagle with broken wings, no longer able to soar freely through the vast sky of finance.

Furthermore, Michael Sandberg was well aware that once HSBC was acquired and its capital gradually recovered, allowing its important clients to regain access to their funds, nine out of ten of them would switch to Standard Chartered Bank.

By then, what remained of HSBC would be nothing but a group of scattered, small-time clients with extremely low loyalty, plus a pile of troublesome bad debts and non-performing assets.

What Standard Chartered Bank truly coveted were HSBC’s high-quality clients and its huge market share.

If these clients’ funds weren’t still trapped within HSBC, and if HSBC hadn’t fallen into a liquidity crisis, Standard Chartered probably wouldn’t even have bothered with an acquisition.

But as things stood, if Standard Chartered wanted to secure all these premium clients, acquiring HSBC was the only way.

Otherwise, the liquid capital of clients like Swire & Co. and Wheelock and Company could never be smoothly withdrawn from HSBC.

If HSBC were to collapse, they would inevitably be dragged down and suffer devastating losses.

At this moment, Michael Sandberg’s heart felt as though it were completely shrouded in the haze of unwillingness and despair.

As expected, once the dust settles on this matter, he would certainly not be able to continue in his position as the Taipan of HSBC.

Moreover, although he had always possessed considerable business talent, after this incident, finding a satisfactory job in the future would be as difficult as ascending to heaven.

After all, having managed HSBC from its peak to a state of a broken capital chain, even facing the desperation of being sold off—with such a terrible reputation, which company would dare to hire him?

After sitting in a daze in the office for a while, he finally stood up.

He had to face what was coming; there was no escape.

When he returned to the conference room, all eyes immediately focused on him.

The several important shareholders of HSBC, in particular, still had a faint glimmer of hope in their eyes, clinging to one last fantasy.

Their families had controlled HSBC for over a century; they were truly unwilling to give it up now.

However, the moment Michael Sandberg gave a slight nod, the light of hope in the eyes of those financial group leaders was instantly extinguished, and they plunged into the abyss of despair.

Half an hour later, after some difficult negotiations, the two sides finally reached an agreement.

After weighing the pros and cons, HSBC’s major financial groups decided to sell their shares to Standard Chartered Bank for a relatively reasonable price.

After all, they knew in their hearts that continuing to hold on to HSBC’s stock was now meaningless and would only increase their losses.

…

Hong Kong, Connaught Centre.

Lin Haoran learned of the matter the moment Kowloon Wharf Group released its announcement.

When he first heard, he even found it a bit hard to believe.

Admittedly, he was now a shareholder of Kowloon Wharf, but he was not the controlling shareholder, and he rarely interfered in the group’s affairs.

But Lin Haoran had never considered asking for Kowloon Wharf’s financial business to be transferred to the Bank of East Asia.

He knew that doing so would put Pao Yue-kong in a difficult position.

Lin Haoran, who was familiar with Pao Yue-kong’s business history, understood very well that the relationship between Pao Yue-kong and HSBC was deeply rooted and intertwined, too close to be easily separated.

Asking Pao Yue-kong to move his companies’ financial business to the Bank of East Asia would have put him in an extremely awkward position.

For Lin Haoran, gaining or losing a single client like Kowloon Wharf didn’t make a significant difference.

After all, with the Bank of East Asia’s current massive capital scale of over one hundred billion Hong Kong dollars, he had plenty of resources and confidence.

Therefore, although Lin Haoran had previously visited numerous Hong Kong business tycoons to sincerely request they transfer their funds to the Bank of East Asia, he had never made a similar request to Pao Yue-kong.

The deep bond of friendship between Pao Yue-kong and HSBC was a trust and understanding forged over a long commercial journey, solid as a rock and not easily shaken.

How could Lin Haoran do something that would put him in a difficult spot?

However, he never expected that the Bao family would now release such an announcement without any discussion with him, which truly caught him by surprise.

Furthermore, the announcement explicitly named the Bank of East Asia as the destination for the transfer, which was basically a great advertisement for the bank.

No matter what, Pao Yue-kong was the richest man in Hong Kong before Lin Haoran’s rise, the famous World Shipping Magnate!

Although the Bank of East Asia had already become the largest bank in Hong Kong, the new hegemon, and wasn’t lacking in fame, an announcement like this was enough to highlight its reliability.

“It seems this Uncle Pao is doing me a favor!” Lin Haoran murmured to himself.

The impact of Pao Yue-kong’s decision on HSBC would be absolutely unimaginable.

Before, the announcements from various large corporations about transferring their financial business were already enough to break HSBC’s capital chain.

Now, this announcement from the Kowloon Wharf Group had completely eliminated any chance for HSBC to maneuver.

The senior executives at HSBC were probably furious by now!

However, this news would undoubtedly greatly accelerate Standard Chartered Bank’s acquisition of HSBC, which was excellent news for Lin Haoran.

After all, once Standard Chartered successfully acquired HSBC, his Bank of East Asia could more quickly secure a controlling stake in Hang Seng Bank from Standard Chartered.

Although Galaxy Securities had covertly acquired over 20% of Hang Seng Bank’s shares, HSBC held 62.14% of them.

Even if Galaxy Securities bought up all the remaining shares on the secondary market, it would be far from enough to seize a controlling stake in Hang Seng Bank.

Therefore, the only way to control Hang Seng Bank was to acquire the shares from HSBC.

Before long, a call came from Ho Sin Hang.

“Haoran, in my opinion, we should be hearing some good news from Standard Chartered very soon,” Ho Sin Hang’s voice on the other end of the line was filled with irrepressible excitement.

After all, if Standard Chartered could successfully negotiate the acquisition with HSBC, then their own acquisition of Hang Seng Bank would take a huge step forward.

“Haha, Uncle He, I’ve been looking forward to this day for a long time. I can’t wait to start the process of acquiring Hang Seng Bank. When the time comes, I’ll have to trouble you to work harder, Uncle He. As our business scale grows, the burden on your shoulders will certainly be heavier,” Lin Haoran said, though his words were filled with an unconcealable smile.

“The bigger the scale, the more I like it. Haoran, don’t mind my old age. With my years of experience in the financial industry, even if the scale multiplies several times over, I’m confident I can keep it firmly under control.”

Ho Sin Hang was full of heroic spirit, his laughter sounding particularly hearty over the phone. “Besides, once we get our hands on Hang Seng Bank, our Bank of East Asia’s hegemon status in the Hong Kong financial world will be even more solidified. Even after swallowing HSBC, Standard Chartered won’t be our match. Then, we can fully focus our sights on the overseas market!”

Ho Sin Hang was already eager to give full play to his talents in the global financial market, planting the flag of his financial enterprises in every corner with potential.

This would bring him one step closer to the goal he had when he switched jobs to the Bank of East Asia.

“Uncle He, I naturally have faith in your abilities. I’ll be waiting!” Lin Haoran laughed.

“By the way, Haoran, on August 1st, the Bank of East Asia will be opening 15 branches simultaneously. Also, the BACS transfer system has been performing extremely stably during testing recently. Next month, major corporations will be able to officially use this system to transfer salaries to their employees.

“At that time, whether it’s the Bank of East Asia, Dao Heng Bank, or Hang Seng Bank which we’re about to acquire, we can mass-produce bank cards or passbooks for these employees. We have already recruited a large number of staff for this, and all preparations are in place!” Ho Sin Hang said with a smile.

The payroll transfer plan had originally been set for August, and with August just a few days away, the time was near.

“Yes, Uncle He, that’s indeed good news. However, the number of employees involved is enormous. Can we really handle such a huge workload?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

He didn’t have a background in finance. Although he knew that in the society of a few decades later, it was commonplace for companies to pay employees via bank transfer, this wasn’t the 21st century yet, and technology was still very backward. Thus, Lin Haoran was completely clueless about these operational procedures.

Ho Sin Hang replied with a smile, “It’s not actually that difficult to operate. Take the Hongkong Land Group, for instance. Once we’ve issued bank cards to all the employees in their various branch companies, they’ll submit an employee payroll sheet to us. We’ll have dedicated staff to verify, approve, and carry out batch fund transfers, trying to avoid any possible mistakes.

“However, just as you mentioned, Haoran, the number of employees in your various companies is simply too large, and the workload is massive. Moreover, we don’t have enough experience in this area. To prevent too many loopholes and avoid serious consequences, this is something I wanted to discuss with you.

“I think it’s best not to launch the payroll transfer business on a large scale in August. We can test the waters by cooperating with a few companies first. It won’t be too late to expand once we’ve accumulated enough experience.

“After all, our Bank of East Asia already firmly holds the top spot in market share. HSBC can’t make any big waves anymore, and Standard Chartered Bank is unlikely to be our rival for the time being. So, there is no need to be in such a hurry to use payroll transfers to attract more customers.”

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran decisively made a decision, “Uncle He, I fully support your line of thinking. We have no practical experience with large-scale transfers. Rushing to a full rollout could indeed easily lead to all sorts of mistakes.

“When we were competing with HSBC, my mind was consumed with how to increase market share, so I had to speed things up. Now that HSBC is no longer a threat, there’s naturally no need to push this matter so urgently.

“How about this, I’ll discuss it with Mr. Ma Shimin right away. We’ll have the Hongkong Land Group select a portion of its subsidiaries to interface with the Bank of East Asia first. Once we’ve gained enough experience, we’ll gradually expand, first covering the entire Hongkong Land Group, and then bring in the Wanqing Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and the others! Anyway, that market share isn’t going anywhere!”

“Good, Haoran. Then it’s settled!”

After hanging up the phone with Ho Sin Hang, Lin Haoran also broke into a smile.

With Ho Sin Hang, the Father of the Hang Seng Index, overseeing the bank, he felt very reassured.

Switching everyone to salary transfers all at once was indeed a bit eager for quick success and instant benefits.

It was better to be steady with this matter.

As the bank’s Chairman, Ho Sin Hang’s considerations were indeed more comprehensive.

Afterward, Lin Haoran brought up the matter with Ma Shimin, who had just walked into the office.

Ma Shimin nodded slightly upon hearing it and said, “This matter isn’t difficult to handle. We can proceed in stages. We can start a pilot program by transferring salaries to all mid-level and senior management employees first.

“The number of mid-level and senior employees is relatively limited, so I believe the Bank of East Asia should have no problem handling it. Afterward, we can gradually expand the scope to cover lower-level management, then contract employees, and finally all dispatched employees.

“By proceeding in this gradual manner, the pressure on the Bank of East Asia won’t be too great.”

“Mr. Ma, that’s an excellent suggestion!” Lin Haoran nodded with a smile.

One had to know that the mid-level and senior employees of the Hongkong Land Group were definitely considered members of Hong Kong’s middle and upper classes.

Making these clients customers of the Bank of East Asia first was of extraordinary significance to the bank.

These mid-level and senior employees often had higher incomes and stable careers. Their financial consumption needs were not only diverse, but they also possessed strong spending power and financial management awareness.

Once they became customers of the Bank of East Asia, the bank would have the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of this group’s financial needs, allowing it to introduce more personalized financial products and services tailored to them.

Previously, Lin Haoran had not imposed such mandatory requirements on his mid-level and senior management.

But now that he owned his own bank, it was time to enforce it.

Chapter 672: Shocking: Becoming the Second-Largest Shareholder of Numerous Listed Giants!

At four o’clock in the afternoon, the closing bells rang at Hong Kong’s four stock exchanges.

However, the expressions on the shareholders’ faces today were no different from yesterday’s.

There was no good news from HSBC.

And today, Kowloon Wharf Group had also released that kind of announcement.

This meant that even Pao Yue-kong, the World Shipping Magnate and a long-time ally of HSBC, was no longer maintaining their ironclad alliance.

As a result, the share prices of listed companies associated with HSBC fell once again.

As for HSBC itself, its market value had dropped to just over one billion Hong Kong dollars. It had fallen as low as it could go; no one was willing to sell at a lower price.

Therefore, HSBC’s stock price did not fall much today.

However, the trading volume was clearly much lower than yesterday’s.

Lin Haoran had acquired enough HSBC stock. He wasn’t very interested in HSBC’s shares, so once he had bought enough to cover what he had borrowed, there was no need to buy more.

Rather than buying HSBC stock, he was better off buying more shares in listed companies like Swire & Co., Hutchison Whampoa, Lane Crawford, China Light & Power, and Hang Seng Bank.

The stock prices of these Hong Kong-listed giants were essentially guaranteed to skyrocket in the future.

And now, with their share prices having fallen to a miserable state, it was an excellent opportunity for either investment or for making strategic moves against certain companies in the future. Lin Haoran would certainly not miss it.

No matter how rich he was, he wasn’t one to turn his nose up at money.

The market had closed, and now, many shareholders were once again discussing going to Government House to demand an explanation, just as they had yesterday.

When they went yesterday, they were told that the Governor was not in, so they had to leave.

But if he wasn’t in again today, it would mean he was deliberately avoiding them, and they were determined to get an explanation no matter what.

Now, these big suckers of shareholders had pinned their only hopes on Governor Sir Murray MacLehose, as if only he could help them now.

Thus, shareholders pouring out of the major stock exchanges formed a vast procession, heading towards Government House by car or on foot.

Moreover, the number of people going today was clearly much larger.

The news of yesterday’s gathering of shareholders had been reported by all major news outlets today.

Therefore, more shareholders were encouraged. Filled with indignation and unwillingness to accept their losses, they joined the ranks of the procession heading to Government House.

The procession snaked through the streets of Hong Kong like an angry dragon, drawing stares and whispers from passersby who were witnessing the unprecedented spectacle.

The bustling streets were thrown into some chaos by the surging crowd. Drivers honked their horns in frustration but could only wait patiently as the slow-moving procession advanced.

Some small vendors also put down their work, standing at their shop entrances to watch curiously, wondering what consequences this large-scale gathering would bring.

By the time the main body of the crowd finally arrived in front of Government House, the area was already jammed solid and impassable.

It was now past five in the afternoon. The setting sun cast its golden rays over Government House, a scene that should have been breathtakingly beautiful.

However, the demonstrators gathered here all wore faces of indignation and anxiety, without the slightest mood to appreciate the scenery.

Many shareholders chanted a unified slogan outside Government House, their cries rising and falling: “Government, rescue the market! Government, rescue the market!”

Many media outlets, like cats drawn to the smell of fish, had already caught wind of the situation and quickly secured the best spots for filming and reporting.

Moreover, a closer look revealed a swarm of reporters, including many holding equipment bearing the logos of major international media outlets. Renowned names like The New York Times, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, and The Times had all sent people.

Recently, the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index’s uncharacteristic and continuous plunge had long attracted the attention of numerous mainstream overseas media.

For a single bank’s capital chain crisis to implicate more than half of Hong Kong’s listed companies, causing their stock prices to plummet collectively, was such a rare event that it naturally drew significant attention from numerous overseas media outlets.

Governor Sir Murray MacLehose stood by the window, his brow furrowed, a headache brewing as he gazed at the distressing scene outside.

By a rough estimate, the number of people gathered was at least three times that of yesterday, which meant there were at least three thousand people.

Furthermore, when he looked into the distance, he could see a continuous stream of people heading in their direction.

He knew that many of them might just be there to watch the spectacle, but regardless, the larger the crowd, the heavier the pressure on his shoulders, weighing down on him like an invisible mountain until he could barely breathe.

Moreover, it was possible that there were quite a few people looking to fish in troubled waters, people who wished ill upon Government House and might stir up trouble, causing a major incident.

Yesterday, he could have his subordinate make the excuse that he was in Tuen Mun to get by.

But today, it was clear that he could not continue like this.

“Mr. Governor, our people have just received reliable intelligence that there might be many triad society members mixed in with the crowd,” his secretary said anxiously, hurrying to Sir Murray MacLehose’s side.

Sir Murray MacLehose nodded slightly. He knew perfectly well what the triad members were planning and what their purpose was in being here.

At this moment, he couldn’t help but feel a wave of irritation.

Standard Chartered Bank had yet to give a definite answer, which prevented him from going out and giving everyone an explanation.

But if he kept delaying, making up all sorts of reasons and excuses, the situation would likely spiral further out of control. A bloody conflict might even break out, and that would be difficult to clean up.

Although Government House was equipped with over a dozen fully armed Governor’s Bodyguards, and the Central Police Station where Government House was located, along with the Hong Kong Police Headquarters, would coordinate daily security, with multiple police cars on standby outside and the ability to call for more reinforcements at any time.

In a dire emergency, he even had the authority to mobilize the British Forces Hong Kong to help maintain order. With such layers of protection, his personal safety was not a concern.

However, if riots were to break out in Hong Kong, a world-famous international metropolis, the negative impact would be devastating. The city’s image would undoubtedly suffer a severe blow, and its international reputation would plummet.

Sir Murray MacLehose couldn’t help but recall the “Double Ten Riot” in Hong Kong in 1956. Although he wasn’t in Hong Kong at the time, as the Governor, he was naturally aware of past events in the city.

The “Double Ten Riot” of 1956 was a heart-wrenching catastrophe.

At that time, the riot quickly spun out of control, leading to tragic consequences. Approximately 443 people were injured, and 59 unfortunately lost their lives. Even the police force, tasked with maintaining order, suffered 107 injuries.

This incident had a huge impact on Hong Kong.

Economically, during the riots, Hong Kong’s transportation network was paralyzed, and business activities came to a virtual standstill, as if the entire city had hit the pause button.

At that time, Hong Kong was flourishing as an international trade transit port due to its unique geographical location. The riot was undoubtedly a cold shower on its economic development, causing incalculable losses.

On the international stage, the “safest city” image that Hong Kong had cultivated was severely damaged.

The international community began to question Hong Kong’s stability and security. Some foreign companies, out of safety concerns, began to reconsider their investment plans in the territory. Tourists also grew worried about Hong Kong’s stability, which to some extent affected its tourism industry and international exchanges.

Furthermore, the Hong Kong of this era was worlds apart from the Hong Kong of the 1950s; it had undergone a world-changing transformation.

In the fifties, Hong Kong was still in its early stages of development, not yet an international metropolis in the true sense, and its influence on the world stage was relatively limited.

However, by the early eighties of today, Hong Kong was a world of difference.

It had not only joined the ranks of international metropolises but had also become one of the top three financial centers in the world. Its every move was watched globally, and it held a position of crucial importance in the world economic order.

So, times have changed. The Hong Kong of today holds a much more important position and has a far wider influence.

Sir Murray MacLehose could easily imagine that if these people were to start another riot, the consequences would be unimaginable and extremely severe.

If a serious riot were to break out here, global investors would surely have strong doubts about Hong Kong’s stability and security.

Foreign investors who had intended to invest in Hong Kong might halt their plans due to concerns about the situation.

Trade would also face numerous obstacles, and previously unobstructed commercial channels would be ruthlessly blocked.

The once prosperous and vibrant financial market would be plunged into an unprecedented downturn in an instant.

Numerous companies would face a life-or-death crisis of bankruptcy due to broken capital chains and shrinking markets.

A large number of employees would lose their jobs, the unemployment rate would soar, and countless families would fall into economic hardship.

Social order would also descend into chaos, with frequent public security problems and people losing their peace of mind.

Such a situation was definitely not what he, the Governor, wished to see.

Moreover, if such an incident were to occur, the outside world would inevitably push him, the Governor, into the eye of the storm for his “inaction.”

This would undoubtedly have an incalculable and devastating negative impact on his future political career, dealing a heavy blow to his official path and possibly even ending it.

In the rules of promotion within British politics, an official’s reputation and achievements were the two core elements, like the two wings of a bird or the two wheels of a cart—neither could be dispensed with.

As a crucial overseas colony of Britain, Hong Kong’s stability and development had always been a key focus of the British government, with its every move affecting the nerves of Britain’s top leaders.

If Sir Murray MacLehose handled this incident improperly, leading to a large-scale riot that pushed Hong Kong’s economy to the brink of collapse and plunged society into a deep abyss of turmoil, then public opinion in Britain would surely launch a fierce attack on him, with condemnations in speech and print being incessant.

At that point, his credibility within the British government would plummet, and his path to promotion would be ruthlessly cut off.

He might even face the tragic fate of being held accountable and stepping down in disgrace.

Therefore, Sir Murray MacLehose was very clear about the gravity of the current situation.

Right now, he had to give the shareholders a reasonable and convincing explanation as soon as possible to quell the raging fire of anger in their hearts.

Otherwise, with so many people gathered, each filled with indignation, they were like a pile of dry firewood needing only a spark for their emotions to instantly spiral out of control.

Once the situation completely lost control, the consequences would be unthinkable, and the prosperous international city of Hong Kong would likely be plunged into chaos and disaster.

And those triad members…

As the Governor of Hong Kong, he knew better than anyone that in this bustling city of deeply rooted and intertwined interests, there were always some people who sought to create chaos in order to fish in troubled waters and make ill-gotten gains.

He snapped back to his senses, strode to the phone, and once again called Mr. Brown, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong.

This time, he still didn’t hold out much hope, but he had to make this call.

If the other party told him to delay again, he would absolutely not agree.

However, after the call connected, just as he was about to question Mr. Brown, the other party excitedly said to Sir Murray MacLehose, “Mr. Governor, I have good news for you. We at Standard Chartered Bank have reached an agreement with HSBC’s senior executives. They have agreed to our acquisition plan!”

Upon hearing this, Sir Murray MacLehose’s anxious heart instantly settled, and his tense nerves relaxed. The tight muscles on his face slowly eased, and a flash of surprise and relief appeared in his eyes.

He had thought that this call, like the previous ones, would end with Standard Chartered still not having reached an agreement with HSBC.

But now, before he could even speak, he was greeted with such good news.

His mouth fell slightly open, seemingly unable to process the sudden good news for a moment. After a pause, he hurriedly said, “This… This is wonderful! Mr. Brown, this news couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s like sweet rain after a long drought!”

On the other end of the line, Mr. Brown’s voice was still filled with excitement, “Mr. Governor, everyone at our bank is also very excited. We were able to finalize this acquisition plan thanks to the efforts of all parties, and especially thanks to your strong support, Mr. Governor.

Please rest assured, Mr. Governor. Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC will hold a joint press conference tomorrow to officially announce the acquisition agreement we have signed.”

“In that case, I won’t hide it any longer. I’m sure you’ve heard, Mr. Brown, that a massive crowd has gathered outside my Government House. At this rate, if I keep them in the dark, I’m afraid they might just tear the place down!” Sir Murray MacLehose was in high spirits now, the corners of his mouth turning up as he made a lighthearted joke.

“Mr. Governor, I am terribly sorry for causing you so much trouble. Please feel free to tell me anything. How about this, I will head to Government House right away. I will be there on behalf of Standard Chartered Bank to provide you with strong testimony!”

“That would be for the best. I will be waiting for your arrival at Government House!” Hearing this, Sir Murray MacLehose felt even more at ease, and the smile on his face widened.

At the same time, the worried heart that had been hanging in suspense finally settled completely.

After hanging up the phone, Sir Murray MacLehose let out a long sigh, feeling as if a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

He turned to look out the window. The dense crowd outside Government House was still restless, but his heart was no longer in the same state of panic and helplessness as before.

If all went as expected, once the good news of the acquisition deal was announced, the many shareholders gathered here should be able to leave with their minds at ease.

Standard Chartered Bank’s acquisition of HSBC would provide HSBC with financial support in a short period.

Even though HSBC’s stock price was not destined to rise significantly, the situation for companies like Swire & Co. and Hutchison Whampoa, which had been affected by the incident, would be entirely different.

Since these companies no longer faced the potential risk of a broken capital chain, their share prices would inevitably see a substantial rebound.

Conservatively, it would be no problem for them to rise back to their pre-fall levels.

Even if some shareholders didn’t fully understand these economic principles, the newspapers had been reporting on related news extensively these past few days.

And even for the many citizens who couldn’t read, the topic came up so frequently in conversations that the situation was already widely known among the populace.

Besides, those who had come to protest were most likely the ones who were unwilling to accept their losses and were still holding onto their stocks.

Those who sold their shares early were mostly the timid type; they wouldn’t dare participate in such a public disturbance.

As long as he could handle this group outside, the current crisis of public assembly would naturally be solved with ease.

Half an hour later, Governor Sir Murray MacLehose stood on the square outside Government House, holding a megaphone and delivering a speech to the thousands of shareholders.

During his speech, Sir Murray MacLehose intentionally took credit for Standard Chartered Bank’s acquisition of HSBC, claiming that he had spared no effort and paid a great price to facilitate the acquisition in order to save HSBC from a capital chain rupture and protect Hong Kong’s many businesses from a financial crisis.

Seeing this, Mr. Brown, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong, who was standing beside him, naturally had to give Sir Murray MacLehose this favor and immediately spoke up to confirm the truth of his words.

At this, the thousands of shareholders in the crowd finally let their anxious hearts rest, completely relieved.

They were filled with relief, secretly thinking how lucky they were not to have panic-sold their stocks these past few days. Otherwise, they’d be kicking themselves and regretting it to their core right now.

The faces that had been as taut as bowstrings with worry now slowly relaxed. People began to gather in small groups, whispering to each other, their faces blooming with the joy of having survived a great ordeal.

The scene instantly erupted in cheers. Shareholders praised the Governor for his wise and far-sighted decision.

In the crowd, a middle-aged man in a long gown, his face flushed with excitement, waved his hat vigorously and shouted, “Mr. Governor is truly the guardian angel of Hong Kong! With you here, we can all rest easy!”

The people around him nodded in agreement. Applause and cheers rose and fell, lasting for a long time.

Sir Murray MacLehose smiled and waved to the crowd, not blushing in the slightest for taking the credit.

Then, he urged everyone to leave as soon as possible, “Everyone, please disperse. Tomorrow, Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC will hold a press conference, and there will be more collective information then.”

As the crowd gradually dispersed, the public assembly crisis was finally resolved.

The scene shifts to Connaught Centre.

At this moment, Lin Haoran was sitting in a chair in the office of Galaxy Securities.

On the desk in front of him lay a report detailing the “spoils of war” from the past few days, which meticulously listed the stock accumulation and corresponding capital expenditure for Hong Kong-listed giants such as HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, Cheung Kong Holdings, Hutchison Whampoa, and Cathay Pacific.

“Boss, now that Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC have finalized the acquisition agreement, I don’t think it’s suitable for us to continue accumulating shares tomorrow. Given the current situation, if nothing unexpected happens, the Hang Seng Index is bound to rise sharply tomorrow.

At that point, the related stocks affected by these events will see a surge. The shareholders have been like springs wound to their absolute limit; their pent-up emotions and demand have been suppressed for too long. Once released, the energy will be immeasurable, like a long-dormant volcano whose eruption will be unstoppable.

Moreover, those institutions, market makers, and financial groups will definitely not miss this opportunity and will further push up the stock prices.

Perhaps it won’t be long before the share prices of the other companies, besides HSBC and Hang Seng Bank, return to their pre-fall levels,” Dai Shi said, standing to the side and articulating his views clearly.

Lin Haoran looked at the figures on the report and said with a smile, “It’s enough. Starting tomorrow, halt the accumulation of all other stocks, but continue to acquire shares of Hang Seng Bank!”

The strings of numbers on the report were like bombshells. If made public, they would certainly cause a great disturbance throughout Hong Kong.

“Regarding HSBC, Galaxy Securities currently holds a cumulative 26.47% of its shares, making it HSBC’s largest apparent shareholder (not counting Standard Chartered Bank, which is about to become HSBC’s holding company).”

“As for Hang Seng Bank, Galaxy Securities now holds a total of 24.3% of its shares, successfully becoming Hang Seng Bank’s second-largest shareholder.”

“In the case of Hutchison Whampoa, Galaxy Securities currently holds 18.71% of its shares, becoming its second-largest shareholder.”

“For Cheung Kong Holdings, Galaxy Securities currently holds a total of 16.25% of its shares, ascending to the position of its second-largest shareholder.”

“Within Swire & Co., Galaxy Securities currently holds 13.22% of its shares, becoming its second-largest shareholder.”

“Regarding Wheelock and Company, Galaxy Securities currently holds a cumulative 19.18% of its shares, firmly securing its position as Wheelock’s second-largest shareholder.”

…

Who would have thought that in less than a week, Galaxy Securities had already become the second-largest shareholder of all these major listed giants.

Chapter 673: Just Like That, He Made 26 Billion Hong Kong Dollars?

As one of the world’s three major financial centers, Hong Kong, despite being a small market with a population of only a few million, had given birth to many business titans thanks to its superior geographical location.

HSBC, Jardine Matheson & Co., Hang Seng Bank, Hongkong Electric Group, Hongkong Land Group, Swire & Co., Kowloon Wharf, China Light & Power, Hutchison Whampoa, and more.

Even if taken to the United States or Europe, each of these enterprises would be considered a business titan of crucial importance.

They had diligently cultivated their respective fields, distinguishing themselves in fierce market competition through outstanding management, keen market insight, and a pioneering spirit of innovation. They not only dominated the local Hong Kong market but had also begun to make their mark on the international stage.

But ever since Lin Haoran’s rise, Green Island Cement and Hongkong Land Group had been successively privatized by him directly.

Other listed giants like Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Kowloon Motor Bus, and Hong Kong Telephone were also brought under Lin Haoran’s controlling portfolio, one after another.

And then there was Jardine Matheson & Co., which once commanded the winds and clouds. Merely for offending Lin Haoran, its industries in Hong Kong were gradually taken over until almost nothing was left, forcing it to make a bleak exit from the Hong Kong market.

The former King of the Foreign Firms vanished from the long river of Hong Kong’s history like a shooting star.

To this day, even the former financial hegemon of Hong Kong, HSBC, had been pushed to the brink of bankruptcy by Lin Haoran’s relentless pressure, ultimately forced to part with what it cherished and sell to Standard Chartered Bank.

And now, on the document before him, was a list of nearly twenty companies in which Galaxy Securities, a company under Lin Haoran, held shares. It covered almost all of Hong Kong’s major giants.

HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, Swire & Co., China Light & Power, Hutchison Whampoa, Cheung Kong Holdings, New World Development, Swire Properties, Cross-Harbour Tunnel, Wheelock and Company, Hutchison Properties, Lane Crawford, and so on.

Each one of these, taken alone, was a brilliant star in Hong Kong’s business empire, commanding its respective field, controlling the lifeblood of its industry, and influencing the direction of the market.

Before this, the market capitalization of these companies had consistently ranked them among the top twenty listed enterprises in Hong Kong.

Yet now, Lin Haoran had essentially become the second-largest shareholder of all of them!

In particular, with Hang Seng Bank, Lin Haoran had now secretly accumulated a full 24.3% of its shares.

And one must not forget, HSBC currently held a 62.14% stake in Hang Seng Bank. After Standard Chartered successfully acquired HSBC, this portion of shares had to be sold to the Bank of East Asia, which was under Lin Haoran.

This meant that once the transaction was complete, adding to his existing 24.3%, Lin Haoran would soon hold over 86% of Hang Seng Bank’s shares!

According to Hong Kong’s takeover code, once a shareholding ratio reaches 90%, one has the right to initiate a compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares.

Thus, if Lin Haoran could quietly increase his stake in Hang Seng Bank to around 28% before HSBC transferred its 62.14% stake to the Bank of East Asia, he could immediately initiate the compulsory acquisition process for the remaining shares as soon as the transfer was complete.

After deciding to acquire Hang Seng Bank, Lin Haoran had already resolved to privatize it.

With his current financial strength, privatizing Hang Seng Bank no longer posed any capital pressure. Maintaining its status as a listed company, on the other hand, would incur additional compliance costs.

After all, a listed company needs to disclose financial data and is constrained by shareholder decisions. Privatization would allow for more flexibility in implementing long-term strategies.

Furthermore, most of the business of the banks under him relied on financial transactions within his own enterprises. This business alone was enough for the banks to make a fortune.

He had plans to list a bank in the future, but it definitely wouldn’t be Hang Seng Bank. It would be either the Bank of East Asia or Dao Heng Bank.

After successfully acquiring Hang Seng Bank, he would have three major banks under his command—Bank of East Asia, Dao Heng Bank, and Hang Seng Bank—making his position as Hong Kong’s financial hegemon more unshakeable than ever.

Although Standard Chartered Bank was about to complete its acquisition of HSBC, based on the current situation, even if Standard Chartered and HSBC merged smoothly, their market share would be dwarfed by comparison to the market share occupied by the banks under Lin Haoran. The gap was enormous.

In the short term, it would be preposterous for Standard Chartered Bank to even think about surpassing Lin Haoran’s banks in market share; it was simply impossible.

Lin Haoran looked at the data, his eyes resting on Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings.

“Holding 18.71% of Hutchison Whampoa Group’s shares.”

“Holding 16.25% of Cheung Kong Holdings Group’s shares.”

As he read these figures, the corners of his mouth curled up involuntarily, and a faint smile appeared on his face.

One had to remember that the legendary business figure known as “Superman Li” in his previous life had not only been repeatedly preempted by Lin Haoran in this world, who snatched away numerous opportunities, but now, he probably couldn’t even dream that Lin Haoran had quietly become the second-largest shareholder of his two major holding companies.

Although both were titans of Hong Kong’s business world, Lin Haoran had had very little contact with Li Jiacheng over the past three years, and they barely knew each other.

Consequently, they had few business collaborations and rarely worked together.

When Lin Haoran had privatized Green Island Cement, Li Jiacheng’s decision to concede was not a favor he owed Lin Haoran. Li Jiacheng had only done it as a favor to Pao Yue-kong.

However, the situation changed drastically later on.

After Lin Haoran successfully acquired the Bank of East Asia, HSBC launched an aggressive campaign to suppress it, and Li Jiacheng, without hesitation, threw his full support behind HSBC.

Since then, the two could not even be considered ordinary business friends.

Lin Haoran simply couldn’t find it in himself to forgive someone who stood by his business rival and helped them suppress him. He admitted he wasn’t that magnanimous.

Regardless of whether Li Jiacheng had been forced into it or had other reasons, even if he wanted to ease the tension with Lin Haoran, Lin Haoran would never agree.

As a fellow Chinese entrepreneur, not only did the other party not help one of his own, but he openly stood on the opposite side to cause trouble for the Bank of East Asia even though Lin Haoran had never offended him. Such behavior truly angered Lin Haoran.

But no matter what, this was a man he knew from his past life as a towering figure in the business world, akin to Mount Tai and the Big Dipper, who had long held the title of the richest Chinese man.

Now, to be able to quietly become the second-largest shareholder of his two companies gave Lin Haoran a strange sense of satisfaction.

Who knew, this status as the second-largest shareholder might come in handy in the future!

Unfortunately, Li Jiacheng’s business style was extremely prudent and seasoned.

He directly held over 40% of the shares in Cheung Kong Holdings precisely to prevent others from targeting it.

As for Hutchison Whampoa, although he controlled it through Cheung Kong Holdings’ stake, this indirect shareholding also exceeded 40%.

Such a high shareholding ratio made it incredibly difficult for Lin Haoran to launch an acquisition battle.

Even with his immense financial resources, as long as Li Jiacheng was determined not to sell his shares, the acquisition battle would be deadlocked from the very beginning.

Lin Haoran knew that Li Jiacheng, having navigated the business world for many years, had an extremely strong desire for control over his enterprises and would never easily give up the business empire he had worked so hard to build.

And trying to secretly accumulate shares through the stock market was even more impossible.

Li Jiacheng’s think tank specialized in studying the equity structures and market dynamics of Hong Kong’s major listed companies, maintaining a high degree of sensitivity to any sign of trouble.

As far as Lin Haoran knew, Cheung Kong Holdings Group had established a rigorous monitoring system that tracked every large transaction in real time, especially share movements related to core assets like Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa.

Buying a large number of shares directly from the open market would be tantamount to declaring war on Li Jiacheng, and it would quickly trigger his defense mechanisms.

Of course, Lin Haoran wasn’t afraid of declaring war on Li Jiacheng, but the problem was that if he couldn’t gain control of the company, declaring war would be pointless. It would only prompt Li Jiacheng to increase his own shareholding!

Once Li Jiacheng’s stake exceeded 50%, what was the point of Lin Haoran even trying to acquire the company…

And what about accumulating shares on a small scale?

Doing so could indeed conceal his identity for a short time, preventing Li Jiacheng’s side from noticing.

But once the trading volume of Hutchison Whampoa or Cheung Kong Holdings stock on the secondary market decreased, Li Jiacheng’s think tank would, like keen-scented hounds, sniff out the anomaly.

So, a secret acquisition was also nearly impossible.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had no plans to acquire these two companies under Li Jiacheng for the time being.

However, holding so many shares might seem useless now, but it could prove to have its uses in the future.

In any case, he had no intention of making these holdings public!

Although going public would shake the whole of Hong Kong and could further enhance Lin Haoran’s status in the business world.

But Lin Haoran felt it was completely unnecessary.

He was already widely recognized as the richest man in Hong Kong. What difference would it make to go one step further?

It was better to hold the shares secretly. Who knew, they might be able to serve their purpose in the future!

“By the way, Dai Shi, help me calculate the value of the dozen or so stocks we’ve accumulated these past few days. Figure out how much these shares were worth when these companies’ market caps were at their peak. Oh, and you don’t need to include HSBC,” Lin Haoran said to Dai Shi after a moment of thought.

The reason he excluded HSBC was that he knew its stock price might rise tomorrow, but the increase would be limited.

After all, HSBC had lost a large number of customers. Even after the acquisition by Standard Chartered resolved its capital issues, it might retain many loyal customers thanks to years of accumulated goodwill.

But compared to its peak, it was a different story altogether. The current HSBC was on a definitive decline.

In his opinion, if HSBC’s market capitalization could rise to a few billion Hong Kong dollars in the near future, it would already be quite impressive. To think it could return to a market cap of over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars? Preposterous.

As for the other stocks, once freed from HSBC’s drag, they would surely rebound to their original market caps very quickly.

“Right away, Boss! Give me ten minutes, I’ll calculate it for you right now!” Dai Shi responded, taking the data sheet to the side. He pulled out a few more relevant documents from the bookcase and his fingers flew across the calculator, the clack-clack-clack sound echoing endlessly.

As a professional in the financial industry, Dai Shi was extremely sensitive to stock price data. Moreover, the company had a wealth of such data on hand, so calculating the result was a simple task for him.

About ten minutes later, the white paper in front of Dai Shi was filled with dense numbers.

He then quickly took another sheet of white paper, carefully drew a table, and filled it in with key data such as company name, shareholding amount, acquisition cost, and estimated peak market value.

“Boss, I’ve got the results. According to my calculations, excluding our spending on HSBC, we’ve invested a total of 3.82 billion Hong Kong dollars in other stocks during this period.

“I based my calculations on the market capitalization data of the various companies before HSBC’s capital chain crisis. My conclusion is that, for the dozen or so stocks we hold, based on our shareholding ratio, as long as their stock prices can return to their original market value levels, the total value of the shares in our hands will be around 25.67 billion Hong Kong dollars. The deviation won’t be too large!”

Dai Shi explained in detail as he handed the hand-drawn table to Lin Haoran.

An investment of 3.82 billion Hong Kong dollars, and this didn’t even include the funds used to purchase shares of HSBC and Kowloon Wharf.

It could be said that Galaxy Securities’ recent operations in the stock market accounted for at least half of the market’s trading volume, perhaps even more.

If Galaxy Securities hadn’t been secretly and continuously accumulating various stocks, the Hong Kong stock market would have been even more dismal during this period, the Hang Seng Index would have fallen further, and the stock prices of listed companies would have plunged even more sharply!

“Mm, thank you for your hard work,” Lin Haoran said without looking up, his eyes fixed on the data.

He did a quick mental calculation. As long as the market caps of Hong Kong business titans like Cheung Kong Holdings, Swire & Co., Hutchison Whampoa, and China Light & Power returned to their pre-crash levels, then even without counting the profits from shorting HSBC, he would make over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars this time!

25.67 billion minus 3.82 billion equals 21.85 billion Hong Kong dollars!

Astounding. It was simply astounding.

And from shorting HSBC, he had made 5.3 billion Hong Kong dollars!

That sum could naturally be included as well.

In other words, in this wave of business competition with HSBC, he had, through precise planning and decisive action, raked in a massive profit of over 26 billion Hong Kong dollars!

At this moment, even Lin Haoran felt that this money had come almost too easily.

26 billion Hong Kong dollars. Even for him, it was an amount so staggering it was hard to believe.

But the facts were right in front of him.

Such an achievement was enough to leave a significant and brilliant mark on the annals of global financial history.

A slight smile played on Lin Haoran’s lips. Incredible. Truly incredible.

At this moment, he even admired himself!

“You must be absolutely tight-lipped about this matter. Only you can know. Not a single shred of information can be leaked. Understand?” Lin Haoran’s expression turned serious as he looked at Dai Shi with a piercing gaze.

Lin Haoran was well aware that if word of this operation got out, it would undoubtedly cause tumultuous waves in the market.

In essence, this was a harvest of the broad masses of shareholders!

Although the entire process was within the framework of law and regulations, and fully compliant, it was ultimately contrary to business ethics.

Once the shareholders learned the truth, their opinion of him would inevitably plummet, and it could even bring him a host of unforeseen troubles.

Dai Shi, now looking at Lin Haoran with eyes full of worship, nodded heavily. “Don’t worry, Boss, I’m very tight-lipped. I definitely won’t leak a single word!” Dai Shi promised, patting his chest with a look of absolute certainty.

Dai Shi had personally witnessed the series of astounding “divine operations” that his boss, Lin Haoran, had carried out in the stock market over the past three years.

In his heart, if a true stock market guru were to be named, it would have to be Lin Haoran. He was the insurmountable peak of the stock market.

In contrast, that famous Warren Buffett from the United States, while having made considerable achievements in the investment field, was a long way off when compared to his own boss’s brilliant results.

It was just that his boss had always been low-key and disliked showing off.

Otherwise, who else but him could claim the title of stock market guru?

Lin Haoran nodded slightly. He had always had complete trust in Dai Shi.

After all, the loyalty value of 95 above Dai Shi’s head was like a calming balm, allowing Lin Haoran to entrust numerous critical and important matters to him without any worries.

Ever since Su Zhixue had been sent to the United States by Lin Haoran to secretly accumulate shares in promising American listed companies, Dai Shi had become Lin Haoran’s most important and trusted subordinate in the Hong Kong securities field.

Even Allen, the general manager of Galaxy Securities, was not considered one of Lin Haoran’s trusted aides.

In the evening, just as Lin Haoran was preparing to head home, he received a phone call from Mr. Brown, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank.

“Mr. Lin, I presume you’ve heard the news that Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC have reached an acquisition agreement?” Brown asked, a smile playing on his lips.

At this moment, Brown was flushed with success and in high spirits.

After all, by successfully acquiring HSBC, although Standard Chartered’s market share in Hong Kong was still no match for the Bank of East Asia, it was a complete transformation compared to the old Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong branch.

In the future, Standard Chartered might not be able to ascend to the throne of Hong Kong’s true financial hegemon, but they had already become the industry giant second only to the Bank of East Asia.

Moreover, among the British-owned companies, they would surely prioritize cooperation with Standard Chartered Bank in the future.

From this operation, Standard Chartered Bank had gained immense benefits.

And as the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong, his own status would rise with the tide as the bank’s market share in Hong Kong grew significantly.

The only regret was not being able to seize this opportunity to become the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry.

“Congratulations, Mr. Brown,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He thought Brown was calling to inform him of this matter.

However, Brown changed the subject. “Mr. Lin, I’m actually calling because there’s something I’d like to ask for your help with.”

“Oh?” Lin Haoran raised an eyebrow, a hint of curiosity on his face. “Please, Mr. Brown, feel free to speak.”

“Mr. Lin, it’s like this. We at Standard Chartered have reached an agreement with HSBC’s senior executives to acquire a 51% equity stake in the bank. However, a situation has arisen. Many shareholders have reported that some of their shares were lent to Citibank, while another portion was lent to you.

“So, I’m hoping you could be lenient, Mr. Lin, and return their shares ahead of schedule. Otherwise, I’m afraid this transaction between us and HSBC will be very difficult to complete successfully,” Brown finally revealed his true purpose.

Previously, Lin Haoran had gone to great lengths to meticulously set up his plan to short HSBC.

On one hand, he borrowed shares directly from HSBC shareholders here in Hong Kong. On the other, he cleverly used Citibank’s name to borrow even more shares from Britain.

Although his series of operations were secretive, they couldn’t escape the notice of shrewd people like Brown, with their extensive connections in the financial circle.

Besides, Lin Haoran’s intention to short HSBC was no longer a secret in Hong Kong.

Especially now, after so much time had passed, those people had long since realized that Lin Haoran was the one behind the scenes when Citibank borrowed HSBC shares.

Now, if Lin Haoran didn’t return this portion of HSBC shares, it would be almost impossible for Standard Chartered Bank to acquire a 51% stake in HSBC.

According to the original agreement, the return period was set for within three months, but there was still a long time before the deadline.

However, the acquisition deal between Standard Chartered and HSBC had reached a critical juncture.

For the final step of the transaction to be completed smoothly, the shares in Lin Haoran’s hands had become an unavoidable “hurdle.” He absolutely had to return them early.

Otherwise, even with a signed acquisition agreement, it would be nothing more than a pipe dream, a castle in the air, unable to truly take root and become effective.

Standard Chartered was full of hope to use this acquisition to make a big splash in the Hong Kong financial market and expand its territory.

However, if this crucial portion of shares was missing, subsequent efforts to integrate HSBC’s various resources and accurately control its operational direction would become extremely difficult, and they might even fall into a stalemate where they couldn’t effectively manage the situation.

So, Mr. Brown had no choice but to bite the bullet and come to Lin Haoran for help.

With their shrewdness and years of experience toiling in the financial circle, they could naturally deduce that Lin Haoran must have been quietly buying back a lot of HSBC shares over the past few days. He might already have a substantial amount of HSBC shares in his hands.

In fact, over the past few days, Standard Chartered hadn’t been idle either. They had also been secretly and intensively accumulating HSBC shares.

After all, they knew they couldn’t pin all their hopes on obtaining shares from the financial groups behind HSBC. They were well aware that those groups simply didn’t have enough shares to meet their demands.

Therefore, the most prudent strategy was a two-pronged approach:

On one hand, they would secretly accumulate some HSBC shares themselves.

On the other hand, they would try to acquire another portion from the shareholders behind HSBC.

It was not so easy for Standard Chartered Bank to acquire a 51% stake.

Although they had the support of the financial groups behind HSBC, they couldn’t rely solely on them to gather the full 51%.

As for why they didn’t just acquire all the shares from the secondary market, the reason was obvious.

First, the liquidity in the secondary market was limited; it was impossible to accumulate a sufficient number of HSBC shares.

Second, and more crucially, they intended to use this acquisition as an opportunity to completely clear out the deeply rooted and intertwined old powers behind HSBC.

Only by doing so could Standard Chartered, after successfully taking control of HSBC, avoid having those “old guards” meddling and impeding their actions from behind the scenes.

Chapter 674: Exploiting Standard Chartered Bank’s Weakness

When Lin Haoran heard Brown explain the whole story in such detail, he already understood why the man was looking for him this time.

The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, revealing a subtle smile.

Then, Lin Haoran spoke in a somewhat troubled tone, “Mr. Brown, I understand your predicament, but returning shares early is no small matter. Besides, the time to return the shares hasn’t arrived yet. Your sudden request for me to return them early has certainly put me in a difficult position.

“I admit, I have a great deal of HSBC’s stock on hand, but I have my own plans. For you to suddenly ask me to return the shares early, aren’t you making things difficult for me?”

In reality, he could return the shares at any time. After all, he had already made his money, and he had no intention of selling the shares, so holding onto them served no purpose.

However, since Standard Chartered was making such a request, he certainly wouldn’t agree so easily, not without getting some benefits first!

Don’t be fooled by the fact that Standard Chartered Bank and the Bank of East Asia appeared to be allies at the moment; Lin Haoran had never considered Standard Chartered an ally.

This alliance was merely temporary.

Once Standard Chartered completed its acquisition of HSBC, Standard Chartered and the banks under Lin Haoran’s control would become bona fide competitors.

Competitors as allies?

What a joke. Just look at the previous relationship between HSBC and Standard Chartered. On the surface, things looked great, with them frequently collaborating on overseas investments.

But when Standard Chartered saw an opportunity to devour HSBC, it bared its fangs without hesitation, casting their so-called alliance to the winds.

Now that Standard Chartered needed something from Lin Haoran, he would naturally seize the opportunity to secure the greatest possible benefits for himself.

At the very least, he wouldn’t agree so easily.

On the other end of the line, when Brown heard that Lin Haoran hadn’t rejected him outright, a flicker of hope ignited in his heart.

He quickly said, “Mr. Lin, we know this is a difficult request, but the acquisition is truly at a critical juncture. We hope you can appreciate our predicament.

“Moreover, Mr. Lin, we are partners now. Only after our bank successfully takes control of HSBC can our future collaborations proceed smoothly, such as selling Hang Seng Bank to you and requesting banknote-issuing rights for the Bank of East Asia. I believe you are also eager for these matters to progress smoothly.”

Lin Haoran laughed inwardly. Brown, that wily old fox, was already starting to use these things as bargaining chips.

He deliberately remained silent for a moment, creating the impression that he was deep in thought, before slowly saying, “Mr. Brown, the collaborations you mentioned are indeed very important to me, but let’s handle one thing at a time.

“Returning the shares early will still have a significant impact on me. You know I have my own plans. In the financial markets, timing and planning are crucial. This disruption means I’ll have to readjust many of my arrangements.”

Brown hastily replied, “Mr. Lin, we understand your concerns. How about this? On top of what we’ve already promised, if you return the shares early, we can give you another 5% discount on the acquisition price of Hang Seng Bank.

“This is the biggest concession Standard Chartered can make. After all, Hang Seng Bank is an extremely valuable asset.”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but smile faintly.

Standard Chartered was being quite generous, which proved they couldn’t wait another moment.

Under normal circumstances, once the three-month deadline he had signed with the HSBC shareholders was up, he would definitely have to return the shares.

But it was clear they were unwilling to wait.

However, to Lin Haoran, a 5% discount made Standard Chartered seem a bit stingy.

The price Lin Haoran had previously negotiated with Standard Chartered was one and a half billion Hong Kong dollars for the 62.14% stake held by HSBC. A 5% discount would still require 1.425 billion Hong Kong dollars, a reduction of only seventy-five million.

In truth, seventy-five million Hong Kong dollars was already a painful sum for Standard Chartered.

They weren’t wealthy and powerful like Lin Haoran, who had raked in over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars in just three months.

At this moment, Standard Chartered was mired in the dual pressures of financial strain and acquisition competition.

In terms of strength, Standard Chartered was even slightly weaker than HSBC had been at its peak.

Now, not only did it have to spend billions to acquire HSBC’s shares, but after successfully taking control, it would also have to come up with an additional twenty to thirty billion Hong Kong dollars to help HSBC resolve its capital chain crisis.

Although this money could be recouped in the long run, Standard Chartered’s capital chain would be stretched to its limit in the meantime.

The slightest misstep could trigger a series of chain financial risks, and they might even follow in HSBC’s footsteps and suffer a capital chain rupture of their own.

It could be said that Standard Chartered had to be meticulous with every dollar it spent. Seventy-five million Hong Kong dollars was a considerable sum for them, a concession they had gritted their teeth to make after much internal deliberation.

They were so desperate to finalize the deal with the financial groups behind HSBC partly because they hoped to gain control of the bank as soon as possible, thereby significantly increasing Standard Chartered’s market share in Hong Kong and strengthening the bank’s overall power.

More crucially, however, they worried that delays may bring trouble.

After all, although Standard Chartered had signed contracts with HSBC’s senior management and the financial groups backing it, as long as the controlling stake was not truly in their hands, the bank would remain on pins and needles.

It was well known that Hong Kong’s financial sector held a certain status globally, with various forces deeply rooted and intertwined.

Besides the local powers in Hong Kong, many foreign forces were also eyeing the “big cake” of the Hong Kong financial market with avarice.

At this critical moment, no one could predict if a new, powerful capital player might suddenly intervene and turn the seemingly settled acquisition on its head.

Lin Haoran was naturally aware of the stakes, which was why he was in no hurry to compromise. Instead, he planned to apply more pressure on Standard Chartered to secure more benefits for himself.

In truth, the benefits themselves were perhaps not particularly attractive to him.

After all, Lin Haoran had acquired an immense amount of capital in the past six months; he had so much that he truly didn’t lack money.

For example, there were the funds earned from Sony and Toyota Motor, the profits from shorting HSBC, and the low-priced accumulation of shares in Hong Kong’s major listed tycoons, which he could cash out at any time when their prices surged.

But putting pressure on Standard Chartered now, making their development in Hong Kong more difficult, held crucial strategic value for his future competition with them in the Hong Kong financial market.

Otherwise, if Standard Chartered’s life was too comfortable, they might get it into their heads to try and snatch market share from his banks again.

He said slowly, “Mr. Brown, I understand Standard Chartered’s current difficulties, but I have my own considerations. The impact of returning the shares early cannot be compensated by a mere 5% discount.

“The business layout of my banks will be disrupted by this change, and it will require a great deal of manpower and resources to replan everything. Mr. Brown, a 5% discount really doesn’t compensate for the losses I will incur by returning the shares early.

“You know that my布局 in the financial market is a case of ‘pull one hair and the whole body moves.’ An early change will trigger a chain reaction that seventy-five million Hong Kong dollars cannot possibly measure.”

On the other end of the line, Brown was so anxious that his forehead broke out in a sweat. He hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to be so difficult.

He suppressed his anxiety and said, “Mr. Lin, Standard Chartered has truly offered its utmost sincerity. This 5% discount is the result of repeated discussions among our senior management. Any further concessions will be very difficult for us to explain to the Board of Directors.”

Lin Haoran slightly narrowed his eyes, a subtle curve playing on his lips.

He spoke with a laugh, “How about this? I’ll give you two options, Mr. Brown. What do you think?”

“Please, go on, Mr. Lin!” Hearing this, Brown’s spirits were instantly lifted.

“First, Standard Chartered will offer a 10% discount on the acquisition price of Hang Seng Bank,” Lin Haoran said slowly.

“And the second?” Brown did not get angry but asked in a deep voice.

Lin Haoran gently caressed the teacup on the table, a glint of amusement in his eyes.

He spoke slowly, “Second, Standard Chartered must promise that, for three years after successfully taking control of HSBC, neither Standard Chartered nor HSBC will launch any new financial products or services in the Hong Kong market that directly compete with the core business of the Bank of East Asia.

“At the same time, after successfully acquiring HSBC, Standard Chartered will need to transfer HSBC’s controlling stake in The British Bank of the Middle East to the Bank of East Asia.”

When Brown heard Lin Haoran’s second option, his mind went completely blank. It took him a while to come back to his senses.

His voice trembled slightly, “Mr. Lin, that second condition is far too harsh! Restricting us from launching competing products and services for three years would cause our market share in Hong Kong to shrink drastically, severely affecting our bank’s strategic layout and profitability.

“Moreover, The British Bank of the Middle East is an extremely strategically valuable asset under HSBC. It plays a key role in Standard Chartered’s business expansion and resource integration after we take control. It’s impossible to transfer it to the Bank of East Asia. You are putting me in an impossible position!”

The British Bank of the Middle East was not actually worth a great deal. Converted to Hong Kong dollars, its value was less than one hundred million. The amount HSBC had spent to acquire it was not large either, but it held extraordinary strategic significance for HSBC.

The British Bank of the Middle East had deep roots and an extensive business network in its region, serving as an important springboard for HSBC to expand its financial services in the Middle East.

Through it, HSBC could establish close cooperative relationships with major financial groups and enterprises in the Middle East, gaining access to rich resources and huge business opportunities.

Now that Standard Chartered was about to acquire HSBC, it was naturally unwilling to part with this important asset easily.

Brown had long known how difficult Lin Haoran could be. After all, to convince him to agree to the merger with HSBC, Standard Chartered had already given up many benefits and suffered heavy losses.

Facing someone as difficult as Lin Haoran, Brown felt a massive headache coming on.

Lin Haoran chuckled and said, “You have already gained unimaginable benefits from acquiring HSBC. You can’t have every advantage for yourselves. Mr. Brown, your bank is in a hurry to seal this deal and take control of HSBC. You know the stakes involved better than I do.

“By returning the shares early, I am providing you with a great convenience, and you are well aware of that. If we followed the normal procedure, you would have to wait for some time longer, and a lot of variables could arise during that period.”

Brown was silent for a moment. He knew Lin Haoran had a point, but he couldn’t accept either of the two conditions.

However, after some thought, he decided to pass this difficult problem on to Standard Chartered’s head office and its Board of Directors.

Whatever they decided was not something a regional head like him could determine.

With this in mind, Brown said, “Mr. Lin, I will relay your conditions to our headquarters, but I really cannot guarantee the final outcome. You know that the interests involved are complex and tangled. It’s not something I can decide on my own.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly and said with a smile, “I understand your difficulty, Mr. Brown. However, I hope your headquarters will consider this carefully. This is compensation for my early return of the shares, which I feel is very reasonable.

“Of course, I suggest Standard Chartered could just wait another two months. By then, my share-lending contracts with those financial groups will have expired, and I will need to return the shares to them. Your bank will naturally not have to pay any price at all.”

Hearing these words, Brown’s heart skipped a beat, and fine beads of sweat instantly appeared on his forehead.

He understood that Lin Haoran was exploiting Standard Chartered’s weakness. Waiting another two months would be a nightmare for the bank, which was desperate to take control of HSBC to stabilize the situation and expand its business.

The Hong Kong financial market changed in an instant. Every extra day of waiting could bring countless variables, potentially rendering all their previous efforts useless.

At this moment, Brown’s feelings were extremely complicated, a mix of helplessness and anger towards Lin Haoran.

However, he knew he couldn’t show his anger.

Otherwise, given what he knew about Lin Haoran’s “a grudge must be repaid” personality, the idea of getting him to return the shares early would be completely out of the question. It could even further deteriorate the already delicate cooperative relationship between the Bank of East Asia and Standard Chartered, bringing unpredictable negative consequences to a series of subsequent plans.

One only had to look at the consequences for Jardine Matheson & Co. and HSBC to understand.

After offending Lin Haoran, Jardine Matheson & Co. not only lost most of its assets in Hong Kong but was also forced to retreat from the Hong Kong market in disgrace.

As for the consequences of HSBC offending Lin Haoran, they were even more tragic. Now, they were on the verge of being acquired by Standard Chartered.

Brown took a deep breath, trying to make his voice sound calm and sincere, “Mr. Lin, the conditions you have proposed do present a great challenge for us, but I will do my best to relay your sincerity and our urgent needs to headquarters.

“I believe headquarters will seriously consider your proposal and find a solution that is acceptable to both parties. Mr. Lin, I need to relay this message as soon as possible. I will have a reply for you by this evening at the latest. I will not continue our conversation for now. Goodbye.”

At this moment, Brown didn’t want to talk to Lin Haoran for another second.

Lin Haoran hung up the phone with a smile on his face. He knew this would displease the senior executives at Standard Chartered, but he didn’t care.

After all, his banks in Hong Kong were now Standard Chartered’s biggest competitors.

When dealing with a competitor, even if he made a gesture of goodwill, the other party might not appreciate it.

What’s more, one was a British-owned company, and the other a Chinese-owned enterprise. Unless one party submitted to the other, the competitive tension between them would only intensify in the future, with no possibility of reconciliation.

It was better to state his bottom line and attitude from the very beginning, making it clear to the other side that in this financial game, he, Lin Haoran, was no soft persimmon to be pushed around.

In the world of business, everything was for the sake of profit.

Many people formed alliances for their mutual benefit.

True friendship?

It wasn’t that it didn’t exist, but it was just too rare in this world of finance, filled with the stench of money and calculation.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had no intention of giving Standard Chartered any face from the start.

It was better to make things difficult for them and slow down their pace of development in Hong Kong.

After composing himself, Lin Haoran and his bodyguards quickly left Connaught Centre and sped towards his villa in the Mid-Levels.

Yamada Keiko had come all the way from Japan to see him, yet he had been so entangled with business that he couldn’t even find the time to properly accompany her. Lin Haoran felt truly guilty and apologetic.

However, his career was at a critical juncture, with numerous matters waiting to be dealt with like a tangled mess. His focus naturally had to be entirely on his work; he was simply spread too thin to attend to anything else.

Back at the villa, the sound of the car engine broke the evening’s tranquility.

Hearing the noise, Yamada Keiko, who had been on the third floor, came running down like a joyful little deer.

She was wearing a white dress, and under the soft, warm golden light of the setting sun, the hem of her skirt fluttered gently. She seemed to be glowing with a faint halo, looking exceptionally gentle, charming, and utterly beautiful.

“Haoran-kun, you’re back!” Yamada Keiko, as considerate as an affectionate young wife, helped Lin Haoran take off his suit jacket.

Yamada Keiko could speak Cantonese, and quite fluently at that.

Lin Haoran nodded and said with a smile, “It should be time for dinner. After we eat, I’ll take you out.”

Upon hearing this, Yamada Keiko’s eyes filled with anticipation and surprise.

She had stayed in the villa all day. With Lin Haoran gone, she didn’t want to go anywhere.

After all, this was her first time in Hong Kong. Although she had chosen Cantonese as her second foreign language during her university days in Japan, everything here felt so unfamiliar that she naturally didn’t dare to wander around.

Yamada Keiko gently took Lin Haoran’s arm, a shy blush appearing on her cheeks. Her voice was as sweet as honey, “Really, Haoran-kun? Where are we going to have fun?”

Looking at her adorable expression, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but reach out and gently tap her nose, saying dotingly, “First, let’s go see the night view at Victoria Harbour. The night view there is one of Hong Kong’s greatest sights. The brilliant lights reflecting on the sea are unbelievably beautiful.

“After that, I’ll take you to the Central Ferry Piers to ride a yacht. We’ll take it for a spin on the sea, feel the sea breeze, and experience the unique charm of Hong Kong’s waters. If we’re lucky, we might even see dolphins leaping out of the water.”

Hearing this, Yamada Keiko’s voice was filled with excitement, “Wow, Haoran-kun, your plan is absolutely fantastic! I’ve never been out to sea on a yacht before. This will definitely be the most unforgettable experience of my trip to Hong Kong!”

Just then, the butler walked over and said respectfully, “Mr. Lin, dinner is ready. As per your instructions, we have prepared some of Hong Kong’s more special dishes.”

Lin Haoran nodded, then turned to Yamada Keiko with a smile and said, “Come on, let’s go wash our hands, then we’ll eat together!”

Yamada Keiko nodded obediently.

After washing their hands, the two went to the dining room, where they saw a table laden with exquisite dishes.

There was tender steamed grouper, drizzled with fragrant soy sauce and sprinkled with vibrant green scallions.

There was bright red typhoon shelter crab, exuding a rich aroma of garlic and crab.

There were also translucent shrimp dumplings, with soft, chewy skins and plump fillings that revealed the sweet freshness of shrimp.

And there was a steaming hot claypot rice, the golden, crispy crust at the bottom of the pot giving off an enticingly toasted fragrance.

Yamada Keiko’s eyes lit up as she looked at the feast on the table. She couldn’t help but swallow gently and exclaimed, “Haoran-kun, these dishes all look so delicious. I feel like I want to try every single one.”

Lin Haoran smiled as he pulled out a chair for her, saying, “Hurry and sit down to try them. Hong Kong cuisine is very distinctive. See if it suits your taste.”

Yamada Keiko sat down gently, picked up her chopsticks, and carefully lifted a shrimp dumpling, placing it in her mouth.

The fresh, tender shrimp meat melted on her tongue. She closed her eyes in satisfaction and gave him a thumbs-up, “Haoran-kun, this shrimp dumpling is so delicious, it’s so fresh I almost swallowed my own tongue!”

Lin Haoran was amused by her expression. He picked up a piece of fried crab and placed it in her bowl, saying, “Try this fried crab too, its flavor is also very good.”

…

After dinner, Lin Haoran took Yamada Keiko to Victoria Harbour.

By this time, night had completely fallen, and the city lights were just coming on. Victoria Harbour was adorned with brilliant lights, making it look like a dreamscape.

The neon lights on the skyscrapers flickered, intertwining with their reflections on the sea surface, creating a magnificent and colorful panorama.

Standing on the shore, Yamada Keiko was deeply captivated by the beauty before her. She couldn’t help but exclaim, “Haoran-kun, this place is truly beautiful, just like a fairy tale! I’ve never seen such a beautiful night view before.”

Although Tokyo in this era was also prosperous and developed, its skyscrapers were too dispersed, causing its city skyline to be completely incomparable to Hong Kong’s compact and dazzling night scenery.

Hong Kong’s lights seemed to have been carefully woven, each one fitting perfectly into the night, outlining the unique and charming silhouette of the city.

Yamada Keiko was lost in this beautiful scenery, accompanied by the man she loved, her eyes filled with adoration.

She gently linked her arm with Lin Haoran’s, leaned her head slightly on his shoulder, and murmured, “Haoran-kun, if only time could stop at this moment forever.”

Chapter 675: Boss, This… This is Too Incredible

Lin Haoran took the mobile phone and unhesitatingly pressed the answer button.

At present, mobile signal coverage was limited, with signals available only in the city center and some affluent residential areas.

The southern shore of Victoria Harbour, being one of Hong Kong’s core districts, naturally had a strong signal.

Lin Haoran glanced at the incoming number. It was an unfamiliar one, so he spoke first, “Hello, this is Lin Haoran.”

“Mr. Lin, this is Brown from Standard Chartered Bank.” A voice that Lin Haoran found very familiar came from the other end of the line.

Hearing the voice, Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback, his heart filled with surprise.

What’s going on?

Could Standard Chartered Bank have already made a decision so quickly?

He had just received a call from Brown in the evening. All told, less than three hours had passed, yet here was another call.

Sure enough, Brown’s voice came through the phone: “Mr. Lin, after I relayed your request to the Standard Chartered Bank headquarters, they responded swiftly, immediately convening a meeting for discussion. After a vote among the senior executives, Standard Chartered Bank has decided to accept the first option you proposed.

“Once we successfully acquire HSBC, we will immediately sell Hang Seng Bank to you. Furthermore, as per the previously signed contract, we will reduce the selling price by ten percent from the original price.

“If it’s convenient for you, Mr. Lin, you can come to Standard Chartered Bank now to sign a new agreement. The previous selling price of one point five billion Hong Kong dollars will be voided!”

Hearing this, the corners of Lin Haoran’s mouth curved up, and he couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.

Standard Chartered Bank really is in a hurry.

That ten percent reduction in the selling price amounted to a direct saving of one hundred fifty million Hong Kong dollars!

Although one hundred fifty million Hong Kong dollars wasn’t a colossal sum that would qualitatively change the scale of his assets, its significance should not be underestimated.

After all, in all of Hong Kong, any family with a net worth exceeding one hundred million Hong Kong dollars was considered to have entered the ranks of the wealthy elite.

And last year, the total profit of the Standard Chartered Group, when converted, was less than one hundred million British pounds.

This one hundred fifty million Hong Kong dollars, even on Standard Chartered Bank’s annual financial statement, was definitely a figure that could not be ignored.

What’s more, Standard Chartered Bank was in need of funds for everything at the moment, with financial pressure weighing on them like a heavy mountain. Every single expenditure had to be repeatedly weighed and carefully calculated.

Forcing them to fork out an extra one hundred fifty million Hong Kong dollars would be like taking a vicious slash at their already fragile capital chain, tantamount to taking half their life.

Yet, surprisingly, less than three hours after their last call, Standard Chartered Bank had made a swift decision and agreed to his terms decisively, without even attempting to negotiate or get him to lower his demands.

This showed just how eager Standard Chartered Bank was to acquire HSBC. Their determination to win and impatience were all but written on their faces.

As for why Standard Chartered Bank didn’t choose the second option, the reason was simple.

No rational person would choose the second option.

Lin Haoran had only proposed the second option to give himself more leverage at the negotiating table, making Standard Chartered Bank more keenly aware of the “value proposition” of the first option when weighing the pros and cons.

Lin Haoran was already very satisfied with saving one hundred fifty million Hong Kong dollars.

Especially since they were his biggest future competitor in Hong Kong’s financial world, Lin Haoran was naturally unwilling to let Standard Chartered Bank’s acquisition of HSBC proceed too smoothly and without any obstacles.

“Mr. Brown, your bank is truly straightforward in its dealings. It’s admirable! How about this, I’ll arrange for Mr. Da Shan, the President of our Bank of East Asia, and our legal team to represent me and come to your bank to sign the new contract.

“By tomorrow morning at the latest, I will have someone return all the HSBC shares to their respective shareholders!” Lin Haoran said with a hearty laugh.

The reason he didn’t have Chairman Ho Sin Hang handle it was due to Ho Sin Hang’s advanced age; there was no need to trouble the old statesman with such administrative matters late at night.

As the President of the Bank of East Asia, Da Shan had both the seniority and the capability to handle the matter properly on the bank’s behalf.

As for himself, he was currently with a woman right now; there was even less need for a big boss like him to handle such a minor affair personally.

A flicker of pleasant surprise crossed Brown’s eyes. He quickly said, “That would be wonderful, Mr. Lin! I will await Mr. Da Shan’s arrival in my office at Standard Chartered Bank!”

After hanging up with Brown, Lin Haoran immediately called Da Shan.

He first dialed the office number, but there was no answer. After a moment’s thought, he dialed Da Shan’s home number. This time, Da Shan’s familiar voice finally came through.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Lin Haoran methodically explained the matters concerning Standard Chartered Bank to Da Shan.

Once that was arranged, he wasted no time in calling his dedicated lawyer to go over the legal matters that required attention.

Only after everything was thoroughly arranged did Lin Haoran hand the mobile phone back to Li Weidong.

“Haoran-kun, you seem so busy. If you really have a lot to deal with, why don’t we do this another day and head back for now?” Yamada Keiko, naturally aware of how vast Lin Haoran’s business empire was and how complicated his daily affairs must be, suggested considerately.

“No need, let’s continue. You’ve come all the way to Hong Kong, so I have to properly fulfill the hospitality of a host. No matter how busy work gets, it can’t get in the way of our time together.” A gentle smile played on Lin Haoran’s lips as he reached out and gently took Yamada Keiko’s hand.

To be honest, most of the time, Lin Haoran was probably just coveting Yamada Keiko’s beauty; it couldn’t be said that there was much genuine love involved.

He was a man, after all. What was so abnormal about fancying a beautiful woman’s body?

However, given her one hundred percent loyalty to him, Lin Haoran was willing to treat her exceptionally well.

And having spent more than three months with her day and night in Japan, Lin Haoran had gradually developed some different feelings for Yamada Keiko.

While not as intense or pure as love, there was an added layer of natural intimacy.

At that moment, Yamada Keiko felt the warmth from Lin Haoran’s palm, and a blush instantly crept onto her cheeks.

Her eyes were a mixture of shyness and joy. “Haoran-kun, thank you. I’m so happy just being with you.”

The corners of Lin Haoran’s mouth lifted as he smiled and gently pinched her cheek. “I’m glad you’re happy. I’ll keep you this happy from now on.”

For Lin Haoran, life wasn’t just about business and money.

There should also be women.

Women were like the spice of his life, making his world richer and more colorful.

The two strolled along the southern shore of Victoria Harbour. The sea breeze blew, gently lifting Yamada Keiko’s hair.

She tilted her head up slightly, closed her eyes, and savored the pleasant and romantic moment.

The gentle sea breeze seemed to carry wisps of sweetness, instantly sweeping away the boredom she had felt cooped up in the villa all day.

Having just had her first taste of love, she was always so easily contented.

Soon, Lin Haoran led Yamada Keiko by the hand to the Central Ferry Piers, where they boarded his luxurious private yacht.

This private yacht had a unique story.

Back when Lin Haoran had successfully taken control of the Hongkong Land Group, Ma Shimin was conducting a major overhaul of the group’s subsidiaries and came across a poorly managed tourism company.

So, when Ma Shimin reported the matter to Lin Haoran, Lin Haoran had simply requisitioned the luxury yacht for his own use.

The yacht slowly pulled away, heading into Victoria Harbour.

At this time, the lights on both shores resembled a brilliant river of stars, spreading wantonly across the night, casting a dreamlike glow over the entire harbor.

The neon lights on the skyscrapers flickered and changed—fiery red, rosy pink, dreamy blue—weaving together a magnificent tapestry that adorned the harbor in a fantastical display.

Yamada Keiko stood on the yacht’s deck, her hands resting on the railing, her eyes wide with amazement and intoxication.

…

In the blink of an eye, another night passed.

Early in the morning, Lin Haoran woke from his sleep and checked the time. It was only seven o’clock.

He threw back the comforter, and Yamada Keiko’s perfect, naked body was revealed to him.

Last night, the two had experienced another wild night.

Being Japanese, although Yamada Keiko had never been with a man before meeting Lin Haoran, it didn’t mean she was clueless.

As the saying goes, just because you haven’t eaten pork doesn’t mean you’ve never seen a pig run.

Growing up in Japan, although Yamada Keiko had no personal experience with intimacy, various films, novels, and the casual chatter of others had given her a certain understanding of the close relationship between men and women.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had had a very comfortable night.

This was an experience he couldn’t get from Rosamund Kwan.

Indeed, every woman had her own unique charm.

Rosamund Kwan was passionate and fiery, like a burning flame that could instantly ignite the passion in Lin Haoran’s heart, but that heat always seemed to lack a certain delicacy and gentleness.

Yamada Keiko, on the other hand, was like a babbling brook in spring—soft and soothing, with a reserved tenderness, yet also an unimaginable openness that slowly seeped into Lin Haoran’s heart.

At this moment, Lin Haoran looked at Yamada Keiko beside him, his eyes filled with doting affection.

He gently reached out, caressing her smooth skin. The delicate touch sent a ripple through his heart.

Yamada Keiko seemed to sense his movement and slowly opened her eyes. Seeing Lin Haoran looking at her so affectionately, her cheeks instantly flushed a shade of crimson, like the brilliant clouds at dawn.

“Good morning, Haoran-kun,” Yamada Keiko said softly, her voice tinged with a hint of laziness and shyness.

Lin Haoran felt his throat tighten, his gaze locked on her alluring curves as an irrepressible urge surged within him.

In his twenties, at the peak of his virility and desire, Lin Haoran felt the flame inside him instantly ignite, making his whole body burn with heat.

He couldn’t help but lean closer to Yamada Keiko, planting a kiss on her smooth forehead. He then trailed kisses down past her eyes, over the tip of her nose and her cheeks, finally lingering on her voluptuous, moist lips.

Yamada Keiko closed her eyes slightly, her hands gently wrapping around Lin Haoran’s neck, responding to his passion.

Their morning exercise began.

For a time, the bedroom was filled with a sensuous atmosphere.

Over an hour later, the sounds of panting in the room gradually subsided.

Feeling refreshed, Lin Haoran took a shower. With Yamada Keiko’s help, he changed into a formal suit, then called the maid downstairs and instructed her to bring breakfast and the newspapers to the third-floor sitting room.

As expected, yesterday’s gathering in front of Government House, Mr. Governor’s personal address, and the testimony of Taipan Brown from Standard Chartered Bank had all become headline news for the major media outlets.

Many newspapers boldly predicted that the stock market would see a massive surge today.

In truth, even without these predictions, anyone with a bit of economic sense could have figured out that after the capital chain crises of the major business tycoons were resolved, there was no way their stock prices and market capitalizations would remain low!

The Hong Kong Business Journal even listed publicly listed companies expected to see huge gains, with giants like Cheung Kong Holdings, Hutchison Whampoa, Swire & Co., Wheelock and Company, Swire Properties, China Light & Power, and the Cross-Harbour Tunnel prominently featured.

In reality, even without the media reports, given these companies’ statuses in their respective industries and their positive development prospects after their capital chain crises were resolved, their stock prices were bound to rise sharply today.

Now, with the media fanning the flames so vigorously, it was obvious that the gains for these stocks today would be unimaginably insane.

“Keiko, later I’ll assign a maid to accompany you and arrange a car with a bodyguard and driver to take you around Hong Kong’s interesting places. I have important business to attend to today. I’ll take you out somewhere else to have fun tonight,” Lin Haoran said, putting down the newspaper and turning to Yamada Keiko.

With the Hong Kong business world in such a state of rapid change and excitement, it was a critical time. He naturally couldn’t spend all his time on romantic affairs.

“Haoran-kun, I want to go with you, may I? Don’t forget, I’m your secretary,” Yamada Keiko said, taking a deep breath and mustering her courage.

Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback, truly not expecting Yamada Keiko to make such a request.

It was obvious that here in Hong Kong, Yamada Keiko just wanted to stay close to him.

It was undeniable that she was indeed his secretary, but that was in Japan, where she served as both secretary and translator.

Back in Hong Kong, his home turf, there wasn’t really much for her to do.

In Hong Kong, he was a hands-off manager, delegating everything to his subordinates.

However, after a moment of thought, Lin Haoran agreed.

It was perfectly normal for a big boss like him to have a secretary by his side.

“Alright, since you want to come along, I’ll have someone buy you a well-fitting business suit,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

Yamada Keiko’s face lit up with childlike excitement. She jumped to her feet and said, “Haoran-kun, no need to buy one! I have my business suit with me in my luggage. It’s the one you gave me back in Japan. I’ll go change right now.”

With that, she cheerfully ran into the bedroom to rummage through her suitcase.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran smiled and shook his head, waiting for her on the sofa.

Ten minutes later, Lin Haoran left with Yamada Keiko, heading straight for Connaught Centre.

It wasn’t yet time for the Bank of East Asia’s acquisition of Hang Seng Bank.

That acquisition had to wait until Standard Chartered Bank took control of HSBC.

Therefore, there was nothing important for him to do at the Bank of East Asia right now.

He might as well go directly to the Galaxy Securities office in Connaught Centre.

He wanted to see just how lively the Hong Kong stock market would be today.

The groundwork he needed to lay had mostly been completed some time ago. From now on, he didn’t have many more arrangements to make at Galaxy Securities.

Arriving at Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran, along with his bodyguards and Yamada Keiko, took the private elevator, first making a stop at his own office on the 51st floor.

The stock market hadn’t opened yet, so there was no rush to go down to the Galaxy Securities office.

Just as he stepped out of the elevator, he saw Ma Shimin.

Ma Shimin glanced curiously at Yamada Keiko beside Lin Haoran but quickly averted his gaze.

“Mr. Ma, let me introduce you. This is my secretary, Keiko,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Ma Shimin nodded slightly, a polite smile on his face, acknowledging Yamada Keiko with a greeting.

Yamada Keiko, however, recognized Ma Shimin, as he had previously gone to the Hongkong Land branch company in Japan to assist the person in charge there, Fok Kin-ning.

Stepping into the office, Yamada Keiko’s gaze was instantly captivated by her surroundings, her eyes filled with curiosity and amazement.

Lin Haoran’s private office was connected to a reception room, and the entire space was decorated in a lavish style.

Every detail was meticulously crafted, from the expensive solid wood furniture to the dazzling crystal chandeliers, all showcasing extraordinary taste and prestige.

The weather was particularly clear today, and sunlight streamed in through the enormous circular glass window.

Standing before the window, one could take in the entire magnificent vista of Victoria Harbour, the sparkling sea, and the boats crisscrossing its surface forming a dynamic tableau.

Looking north, the landscape of the Kowloon Peninsula was also clearly visible, the bustling cityscape blending with natural scenery in a breathtaking display.

“Boss, it’s so beautiful here!” Yamada Keiko couldn’t help but exclaim softly, her voice filled with irrepressible excitement and her eyes shining with wonder. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen such a spectacular sea view. And the Kowloon Peninsula, it’s like a giant painting slowly unfolding before my eyes. By the way, Boss, this floor of the office building must be very expensive, right?”

The feeling of looking down at the scenery from a high place was completely different from looking up at tall buildings from the ground.

So, even though Yamada Keiko had already strolled along Victoria Harbour with Lin Haoran last night and admired Hong Kong’s brilliant nightscape, being here now presented a completely different experience. Coupled with the clear, cloudless sky, the impact of the view was even more stunning than last night’s.

Outside, Yamada Keiko naturally wouldn’t address Lin Haoran as Haoran-kun. She was well aware of the appropriate etiquette. So, even though her heart was filled with affection, she now respectfully called him “Boss.”

“Miss Keiko, this entire building is a property of the Hongkong Land Group, and Hongkong Land is now privately owned by the Boss. So, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that this building is the Boss’s private property,” said Ma Shimin, who had sat down to leisurely drink tea with Lin Haoran. He explained patiently with a gentle smile on his lips.

Hearing this, Yamada Keiko’s admiration for Lin Haoran grew even deeper.

At the same time, she gained a more profound understanding of Hongkong Land’s power.

In Japan, although she was Lin Haoran’s secretary, Hongkong Land didn’t have a significant presence there. So even though she knew the group was financially formidable, it was hard for her to imagine its true strength.

Now, standing in the bustling commercial heart of Central, where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold, and witnessing this entire magnificent building belonging to Hongkong Land, which was Lin Haoran’s private company, Yamada Keiko felt her heart pound with shock.

She already knew that property prices in Hong Kong were much higher than in Tokyo!

Her mouth was slightly agape, her eyes filled with disbelief. She murmured softly, “Boss, this… this is too incredible.”

At that moment, a sense of inferiority washed over her without warning. She suddenly became acutely aware of the chasm-like difference in status between herself and Lin Haoran.

Perhaps, being able to become Haoran-kun’s woman was, for her, a tremendous fortune earned through lifetimes of arduous cultivation.

…

Meanwhile, across Hong Kong, the areas outside the major stock exchanges were already jam-packed with people.

Although it wasn’t yet time for the market to open, the shareholders could no longer contain their eagerness. They were all rubbing their hands together, eagerly anticipating a chance to grab a hefty piece of the pie in the impending stock market feast.

They gathered in small groups, talking animatedly, their faces beaming with excitement and anticipation, their eyes burning with a fervent desire for wealth.

The frustration and regret they felt for missing yesterday’s opportunity had long been cast to the winds.

At this moment, who among them still had any thoughts of regretting entering the stock market?

Right now, many large listed companies had a considerable number of low-priced stocks available, like tempting treasures laid out before them.

If they were quick enough to snatch up some of these low-priced stocks, the prices could multiply several times in minutes. It would be as easy as turning over one’s hand!

As for the shareholders who had already sold their stocks, they were now the most regretful of all.

Clutching the last of their money, they stood at the edge of the crowd, their eyes full of remorse and disappointment, muttering incessantly, “I have to grab some low-priced stocks as soon as the market opens!”

At nine-thirty in the morning, as the opening bells rang at the four stock exchanges, the clamorous crowd fell silent for an instant, then erupted into deafening cheers and shouts. The shareholders surged toward the trading counters like a tidal wave.

With the market’s opening, the stock prices of listed companies like Cheung Kong Holdings, Hutchison Whampoa, Swire & Co., Wheelock and Company, Swire Properties, China Light & Power, and the Cross-Harbour Tunnel shot up like runaway horses, rocketing forward relentlessly.

The constantly rising red numbers on the electronic display screens, like burning flames, instantly ignited a frenzied atmosphere throughout the stock exchange.

The shareholders, as if injected with stimulants, were all red-faced, shouting at the top of their lungs.

The most direct manifestation of this was the Hang Seng Index, which shot upwards like a rocket taking off.

Chapter 676: The Dust Settles, Michael Sandberg’s Tragic End!

It was madness. The entire stock market was caught in a frenzied vortex.

The surging tide was like a runaway beast, mercilessly sweeping up everyone in its path.

Whether they were profit-seekers blinded by greed or懵懂無知 investors who were simply following the trend, all were pushed forward by this irresistibly powerful force, like puppets on a string, completely at its mercy.

At the same time, in the trading halls of the Four Stock Exchanges, the television sets that had been sitting quietly in the corners flickered to life in unison, as if by a silent command.

The image that appeared on screen was the Home Channel’s live broadcast. Behind the screen, the words “Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC Joint Press Conference” were prominently displayed.

In an instant, the clamorous roar within the Four Exchanges was seized by an invisible hand, falling silent for a brief moment.

However, this tranquility was like the ripple from a stone thrown into a deep pond, swallowed up in the next moment by an even more frantic wave.

Although the press conference had not yet officially begun, given the Governor’s speech at Government House the previous day and the series of confirmations from Mr. Brown, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank, everyone had already reached a conclusion about the final outcome.

And that was enough to ignite their frenzy.

At this moment, who had the time or inclination to pay attention to the long-winded speeches at a press conference?

They were all like ants on a hot pan, anxiously trading, thinking only one thing: Faster, faster! If I’m too slow, I won’t even get the scraps!

The Hang Seng Index soared along with the public’s frenzy, as if all the losses from the past few days were to be recouped today.

Connaught Centre, Galaxy Securities office.

Lin Haoran was in Dai Shi’s office.

Looking at the soaring market, Lin Haoran didn’t appear particularly excited; he was already mentally prepared.

The stocks that he had instructed Galaxy Securities to accumulate during this period were now all in the green. Just half an hour after the market opened, the worst performers had already doubled in value.

The best performers, like Swire & Co., had seen their market capitalization surge from just over two billion Hong Kong dollars to more than seven billion.

Of course, everyone knew that this was not Swire & Co.’s peak.

After all, a month ago, its market capitalization had been over ten billion Hong Kong dollars.

“It’s risen so much in just half an hour. At this rate, these stocks might recover to their previous levels by the end of the day!” Lin Haoran remarked with a touch of emotion.

“Exactly, Boss. The shareholders have been holding back for so long. It’s like a spring compressed to its limit. Now, with even a little good news, the rebound is ferocious. Besides, I suspect many of the companies themselves are quietly supporting their stock prices.

“What company doesn’t want a good market cap? Without the drag from the HSBC affair, they can all return to their normal valuation tracks. Naturally, they’ll seize this momentum to perform well!” Dai Shi, the professional, explained meticulously from the side.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly and looked at HSBC’s data.

Just as he had predicted, HSBC’s stock price was also rising, but among the stocks he had accumulated, it had the smallest gain.

So far, its price had only doubled, bringing its market capitalization to just over three billion Hong Kong dollars.

One had to remember that HSBC’s peak market capitalization had once been as high as twenty-six billion Hong Kong dollars!

Unfortunately, Standard Chartered Bank was not listed in Hong Kong but in London. Otherwise, it would have likely been the stock with the most frantic gains in this rally.

After all, it was about to acquire HSBC!

In the eyes of outsiders, this was undoubtedly a classic “snake swallowing an elephant” scenario.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

It was Mr. Allen, the general manager of Galaxy Securities.

“Boss, the representatives from the financial groups and shareholders who lent us the HSBC shares are all waiting in the conference room,” Allen said with a smile.

Last night, Lin Haoran had arranged for Da Shan and Standard Chartered Bank to sign a new contract to purchase Hang Seng Bank shares at a 10% discount.

After that, he had instructed Galaxy Securities to contact the “lenders” who had lent them the shares, asking them to come to Connaught Centre this morning to sign the contract terminations and settle the interest on the securities lending.

As for the shares borrowed from Citibank, they would be returned directly to Citibank, who would then handle the arrangements with the original lenders.

With this completed, the shorting of HSBC’s stock would be officially over.

As for the funds, the 6.01 billion Hong Kong dollars from the previous sale should now be unfrozen!

Once unfrozen, this sum would belong entirely to Lin Haoran to use as he pleased.

Originally, when he first decided to short HSBC’s stock, Lin Haoran would have been satisfied with a profit of a billion or so Hong Kong dollars.

But the final result was a staggering profit of over 5.3 billion Hong Kong dollars.

He had sold a total of 6.01 billion Hong Kong dollars worth of HSBC stock, yet he had only spent 653 million Hong Kong dollars to acquire 26.47% of the bank’s shares—slightly more than the 25.6% he had borrowed.

“Alright, have someone return all the shares to them. Calculate the interest properly; don’t short them a single cent!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Understood, Boss. I’ll take care of this right away,” Allen replied respectfully before exiting the office.

Dai Shi was now focused on stock market matters, so he didn’t need to be involved in the specific operations of returning shares.

Having Allen, the general manager, handle it was more than sufficient.

In a conference room at Galaxy Securities, more than a dozen people were seated.

These were all representatives from well-known financial institutions, fund companies, and major shareholders in Hong Kong.

It was from them that Galaxy Securities had borrowed a substantial number of shares.

During this period, the representatives of these institutions had been wrestling with complex feelings, as if a bottle of five flavors had been overturned within them.

Because they had lent their HSBC shares to Galaxy Securities, they had completely lost control of their holdings during HSBC’s precipitous stock price collapse. They could only watch helplessly as the price plummeted.

When HSBC’s stock price was at its lowest, its market capitalization had shrunk to just over one billion Hong Kong dollars.

If these entities had still held onto their shares at that time, they might have panicked and sold them all off.

However, they now felt somewhat fortunate.

At least HSBC’s stock price was now starting to rebound.

Although it was impossible for it to return to its peak, compared to those who sold at a loss at the very bottom, their losses weren’t the worst!

Before long, these representatives left Connaught Centre with melancholic expressions.

Their securities lending relationship with Galaxy Securities was now officially over.

Of course, when they later sold their shares to Standard Chartered Bank, it certainly wouldn’t be at the market price; it would have to be somewhat higher.

Otherwise, Standard Chartered Bank couldn’t have so smoothly persuaded so many of HSBC’s shareholders.

However, these matters no longer had anything to do with Lin Haoran.

The content of the press conference held by Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC was exactly as Mr. Governor had said the day before. The senior management of HSBC had reached an agreement with Standard Chartered Bank. The financial group behind HSBC would cooperate with Standard Chartered to allow HSBC to become a controlled subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank.

This highly anticipated press conference was jointly hosted by Mr. Brown, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong, and Mr. John Bao, the Vice Chairman of the Board of HSBC.

As for Michael Sandberg, who once held a decisive position at HSBC, he was now far away in Britain, with no need to return.

At the joint press conference, a letter of dismissal jointly signed by HSBC’s shareholders officially announced the end of Michael Sandberg’s tenure as Taipan.

With that, Michael Sandberg followed in Newbiggin’s footsteps, becoming a loser in this financial game.

This professional manager, who had once made numerous contributions to HSBC, exited the stage grimly, leaving behind a somewhat lonely silhouette on the stage of Hong Kong’s financial history.

Learning of this, Lin Haoran felt no schadenfreude.

In Lin Haoran’s view, Michael Sandberg was genuinely capable.

After all, HSBC’s golden age was single-handedly created by him.

Unfortunately for him, he encountered Lin Haoran, who had just entered the financial industry, and he made the first move.

Otherwise, even if HSBC gradually lost market share to the Bank of East Asia, it would have remained the hegemon among British-owned companies in Hong Kong.

After all, under normal circumstances, British-owned enterprises like Swire & Co., Wheelock and Company, and China Light & Power, as well as Li Jiacheng’s Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, would not have moved their funds and business away from HSBC.

In that situation, Standard Chartered Bank would have had no opportunity to make its move so easily in this financial chess game, let alone to secure HSBC and achieve its magnificent “snake swallowing an elephant” feat.

It could be said that the moment Michael Sandberg decided to become Lin Haoran’s enemy, his fate was sealed.

This was truly a plan that backfired spectacularly.

Lin Haoran stood before the circular window of his 51st-floor office in Connaught Centre, gazing down at the bustling streets of Hong Kong, his mind awash with thoughts.

The smoke of this financial war had gradually cleared, and he and Standard Chartered Bank had emerged as the final victors.

And HSBC, the behemoth that had once proudly stood at the pinnacle of Hong Kong’s financial world, had been reduced to a subsidiary under Standard Chartered’s control.

Like a great ship battered by a fierce storm, it had not sunk but was covered in scars, forced to sail into a new channel and embark on an unknown journey.

“Newbiggin, Michael Sandberg,” Lin Haoran murmured the two names.

Even in his previous life, these names had been as renowned as thunder in Hong Kong’s financial circles.

But now, these two British Taipans who once commanded the winds and clouds of Hong Kong had been defeated by him, one by one.

He hadn’t heard the name Newbiggin for a long time. It was said that after leaving Jardine Matheson & Co., he had taken a director’s position at a mid-sized listed company in Germany.

As for Michael Sandberg, he probably wouldn’t be returning to Hong Kong either. At most, he might come back to deal with his assets before saying a final goodbye to the city, and the city would gradually erase all traces of him.

They who had once wielded great power and influence in Hong Kong’s financial world were now like meteors streaking across the sky, leaving only a brief and dim trail of light.

Lin Haoran sighed softly, a mix of emotion for his defeated opponents and a profound understanding of the cruelty of the financial battlefield.

On this battlefield without smoke, the victor is king, the loser is outlaw. Every decision, every move could determine life or death.

At the same time, he gained a deeper understanding of himself.

He realized he had already become this powerful.

At this thought, a smile couldn’t help but spread across Lin Haoran’s face.

Standing beside him, Yamada Keiko was captivated by the sight, feeling that at this moment, Haoran-kun was exuding an indescribably handsome charm!

…

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was August.

As August arrived, Hong Kong had just been hit by a category 12 typhoon.

The typhoon had raged across the Pearl River Delta’s east bank, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

As the direct target of the typhoon, Hong Kong also suffered heavy losses.

On the streets, billboards were blown askew, and many trees were uprooted, lying haphazardly by the roadside. Floodwater rose past people’s ankles, and vehicles struggled through the water, sending up high splashes.

However, none of this could stop the frenzy of the shareholders.

In just two or three days, the market capitalization of the companies affected by the HSBC incident not only returned to their peak levels but even began to climb higher.

As the second-largest shareholder of these companies, Lin Haoran’s terrifyingly large holdings were not revealed, and he continued to hide this special identity.

Of course, these soaring companies did not include HSBC and Hang Seng Bank.

Needless to say, HSBC had suffered a massive loss of market share and was forced to become a subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank. Its former position as hegemon was gone forever.

And Hang Seng Bank, as HSBC’s subsidiary, was naturally dragged down with it.

Therefore, Hang Seng Bank’s market capitalization, like HSBC’s, had only symbolically doubled before stagnating.

The reason was simple: there was no reason to speculate on it.

Moreover, there were not many shares of Hang Seng Bank left in circulation.

After all, HSBC itself held 62.14% of Hang Seng Bank’s shares. In addition, Lin Haoran had secretly accumulated another 24.3% of the shares a few days ago. Together, they held a total of 86.44% of Hang Seng Bank.

Taking advantage of the stagnant stock price, Lin Haoran had Galaxy Securities secretly acquire another 7.28% of the shares.

As a result, Lin Haoran’s actual holdings in Hang Seng Bank had exceeded 30%, reaching a terrifying 31.58%. Even fewer of its shares were now floating on the market.

According to the new regulations, as long as a holding did not reach 35%, it did not need to be disclosed.

Therefore, Lin Haoran’s current stake remained a secret, unknown to anyone.

Next, as long as he successfully acquired the 62.14% stake from HSBC, Lin Haoran could proceed with a compulsory privatization of Hang Seng Bank.

After the typhoon, although the streets of Hong Kong were a mess, the weather had changed from torrential storms to clear blue skies.

The typhoon had moved northwest and was gradually weakening, no longer posing a threat to Hong Kong.

Kai Tak International Airport had also returned to its usual bustling state.

The roar of massive airplanes filled the air as flights took off and landed one after another, carrying passengers and cargo from all over the world, once again weaving the intricate transportation network that connected Hong Kong to the globe.

“Haoran-kun, I’ll miss you. I really hope you can come to Japan soon,” Yamada Keiko said, tightly clutching the corner of her dress and looking at Lin Haoran with reluctance. Her voice was tinged with a sob.

Her eyes were red and brimming with tears, which finally couldn’t be held back and streamed down her cheeks.

But she knew in her heart that she had to go back.

If she stayed, she was afraid she would become overly dependent on him, which might interfere with Haoran-kun’s work.

These past few days with Haoran-kun by her side, she felt as if she were floating on a cloud of happiness, the luckiest woman in the world.

But now, having to part with her beloved, Yamada Keiko’s heart felt as if it were being squeezed by an invisible hand, an indescribable pain.

“Silly girl, don’t cry. Once I’ve handled things here, I’ll fly to Japan to find you. Be good and wait for me! Besides, if you miss me, you can come to Hong Kong anytime,” Lin Haoran said, gently raising his hand to wipe the tears from her eyes, a doting smile on his lips.

His planned investments in Japan were no small sum; they were on a massive scale.

Especially in the near future, the vast funds from his Bank of East Asia, Dao Heng Bank, and Hang Seng Bank would quietly flow into Japan, paving a path of guaranteed profit ahead of the impending Japanese economic bubble.

He was brimming with determination to make a huge splash in this economic feast and rake in massive profits from the Japanese market!

Here in Hong Kong, as a business hegemon, he had more or less set up all the necessary pieces.

Therefore, for the next few years, the Japanese market would be his most important area of focus, with far more capital invested there than in the United States.

Lin Haoran gently comforted Yamada Keiko while rapidly calculating the details of his strategy for the Japanese market.

“Keiko, you’re my representative in Japan now. You have to help me supervise my businesses there!” Lin Haoran said jokingly.

In reality, Yamada Keiko didn’t need to do much supervision. Her position at Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch was merely a nominal one.

However, Yamada Keiko nodded seriously and said, “Haoran-kun, don’t worry, I will definitely help you look after your companies!”

The two embraced for a while longer until the announcement for Yamada Keiko’s flight boarding came over the loudspeaker.

Lin Haoran gently patted her back and said, “Go on, let me know you’ve arrived safely in Japan.”

Yamada Keiko walked towards the security gate, looking back every few steps. Lin Haoran stood in place, smiling and waving until her figure disappeared from view.

After leaving the airport, Lin Haoran had Li Weidong drive him directly to the Bank of East Asia headquarters.

It was Saturday, and the stock market was closed, but all the major banks in Hong Kong were open as usual.

Normally, weekends were a time of rest for most banks, but with the recent drastic changes in the financial sector and the undercurrents in Hong Kong’s financial market, no bank dared to relax.

As a result, the competition among Hong Kong’s major banks had become fiercely competitive. They worked a full day on Saturday and were also open on Sunday morning, only closing on Sunday afternoon for a unified break.

The car stopped steadily in front of the Bank of East Asia headquarters. As Lin Haoran got out, he saw the bank lobby bustling with people.

Although it was not a weekday, the Bank of East Asia had now become the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry, and its business volume was naturally immense.

In particular, many customers couldn’t find time to go to the bank on weekdays and could only do so on weekends.

Now that the Bank of East Asia was open on Saturdays, it provided these citizens with a perfect opportunity.

In the lobby, an elderly man with white hair held a passbook, cautiously consulting a staff member about deposit interest rates and investment plans, his eyes full of hope for preserving and growing his assets.

A young entrepreneur, clutching a folder of documents, hurried to negotiate a loan with a bank manager, seeking more capital for his business.

A young couple with their child waited patiently in line, quietly discussing how to save for their child’s future education funds.

Such a scene might have only been seen at HSBC in the past.

But now, all of this belonged to the Bank of East Asia.

As for HSBC, with its customer base greatly reduced, its numerous branches had become a burden. Many branch halls would be lucky to see even a few customers in a single day.

Lin Haoran walked quickly to the elevator and soon arrived at the floor where the Chairman’s office was located.

Through the glass window, Lin Haoran could see inside the Chairman’s office.

Ho Sin Hang was wearing his reading glasses, head bowed, engrossed in reviewing the mountain of documents on his desk.

These documents covered recent progress reports on various bank operations, risk assessments, and market trend analyses. Each one was critically important and allowed for no carelessness.

Especially with the Bank of East Asia’s recent surge in market share, becoming the bank with the largest market share in Hong Kong, the workload had naturally increased significantly.

Although he had the assistance of President Da Shan, and many tasks didn’t require the Chairman’s attention, the number of important matters that landed on Ho Sin Hang’s desk was still substantial.

Hearing a knock, Ho Sin Hang finally looked up from his work. Seeing it was Lin Haoran, a warm and pleasantly surprised smile appeared on his face.

“Haoran, you’re here.正好我有事想跟你说.” Ho Sin Hang said with a smile, taking off his reading glasses and looking warmly at Lin Haoran.

“Oh? Uncle He, whatever it is, just tell me. Don’t keep me in suspense,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile, walking to the desk and casually pulling up a chair to sit down.

Although the Bank of East Asia’s strength had grown immensely, vaulting it to the position of hegemon in Hong Kong’s financial industry, it hadn’t descended into chaos due to its rapid expansion of market share.

Ho Sin Hang deserved enormous credit for this.

With him at the helm, the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank were running in an orderly fashion, like a massive, precision-engineered machine with all parts working together seamlessly.

It proved that Lin Haoran’s decision to invite Ho Sin Hang to take charge of the Bank of East Asia had been absolutely brilliant!

Ho Sin Hang picked up the water glass on his desk, took a small sip to wet his throat, and then slowly began to speak. “Just about ten minutes ago, Mr. Brown from Standard Chartered Bank called me. He said that after a series of corporate maneuvers, they now officially hold a 51% stake in HSBC.

“This means that Standard Chartered Bank’s acquisition of HSBC has officially come to a close. The dust has settled!”

Chapter 677: Taking Control of Hang Seng Bank, Hang Seng Group to Be Established!

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but laugh. “Then it’s about time they sold us Hang Seng Bank’s shares.”

“Yes, Haoran. Mr. Brown already told me over the phone that the shares of Hang Seng Bank can be traded at any time,” Ho Sin Hang said with a nod.

“Uncle He, what are we waiting for? The sooner we get Hang Seng Bank in our hands, the better. If it stays with them for too long, who knows what kind of trouble HSBC might stir up!” Lin Haoran said.

“There’s no rush for now. I’ll personally make a trip to Standard Chartered Bank’s Hong Kong headquarters later. Before that, Haoran, I have an idea I’d like to discuss with you,” Ho Sin Hang said, changing the subject.

“Uncle He, please go ahead. I’m all ears,” Lin Haoran said, his curiosity piqued.

Ho Sin Hang picked up the water glass on his desk and took another sip before continuing, “The acquisition of Hang Seng Bank is a done deal. Once this is complete, you, Haoran, will have three banks under your banner: Hang Seng Bank, Bank of East Asia, and Dao Heng Bank. You will have become the unshakeable number one financial group in Hong Kong.

“I think it’s time to integrate our resources and establish a banking group, just like HSBC has the HSBC Group behind it, and Standard Chartered Bank has the Standard Chartered Group. Bank of East Asia, Dao Heng Bank, and Hang Seng Bank shouldn’t be subordinate to one another; they should be equals. Only then can we create a powerful synergistic effect and achieve an advantage in the market where 1+1+1 is far greater than 3.”

Lin Haoran nodded in agreement.

Indeed, after acquiring Hang Seng Bank, making Bank of East Asia its parent company was not suitable.

For one thing, Hang Seng Bank’s reputation in Hong Kong was definitely stronger than Bank of East Asia’s.

After all, the Hang Seng Index alone had become the core indicator of the Hong Kong stock market’s performance, establishing a high degree of authority and professionalism in the minds of investors over many years.

And the Hang Seng Index was directly affiliated with Hang Seng Bank, compiled and managed by Hang Seng Indexes Company Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the bank.

It was precisely through these closely related financial services that Hang Seng Bank had accumulated a profound reputation and a broad customer base in the market.

Forcibly placing Hang Seng Bank under the Bank of East Asia would not only risk causing dissatisfaction and loss of Hang Seng Bank’s existing customers but could also weaken its unique position and brand value in the market.

Seeing that Lin Haoran had no objections, Ho Sin Hang continued, “After establishing the banking group, we can fully streamline and integrate the business operations of the three banks.

“We can organically combine Hang Seng Bank’s professional advantages in lending to small and medium-sized enterprises, Bank of East Asia’s rich experience in cross-border financial services, and Dao Heng Bank’s deep roots in the retail banking business.

“In terms of risk management, we will create a unified, group-level risk prevention and control system to monitor and accurately assess all types of risks in real time, ensuring the stability of the group’s overall operations.

“At the same time, we’ll integrate the technological resources of the three banks, increase investment in fintech, and enhance our computerized data services to provide customers with more convenient, efficient, and personalized financial products and services.

“On the talent management front, we’ll break down the barriers between the three banks, establishing an internal talent mobility mechanism and training system. This will allow outstanding personnel to be trained and grow in different business areas and positions, building a sufficient talent pool for the group’s long-term development.

“Through this resource integration and strategic planning, we are confident that we can build the newly established banking group into a leader in the Hong Kong and even global financial markets.”

Having said this, Ho Sin Hang finally paused.

Lin Haoran fell into thought.

Everything Ho Sin Hang said was indeed very reasonable.

After a moment, Lin Haoran looked up and said with a smile, “Alright, Uncle He, I agree to establish a financial group to manage Hang Seng Bank, Dao Heng Bank, Bank of East Asia, and any other banks we might acquire in the future. Once the group is formed, you, Uncle He, will be the Chairman. You can make all the arrangements.”

“Haoran, I have one more request. I hope the group can be named Hang Seng Group. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not because I’m the founder of Hang Seng Bank that I want to use this name.

“Rather, I believe that thanks to the Hang Seng Index, Hang Seng Bank has a certain degree of recognition in the global financial industry. This way, when we expand into overseas markets in the future, we’ll get twice the result with half the effort.

“Starting with the name ‘Hang Seng’ is like raising a battle flag that is highly recognizable on the global financial battlefield. When we enter the international market under the name Hang Seng Group, overseas investors will hear ‘Hang Seng’ and immediately associate it with the professionalism, authority, and stability that the Hang Seng Index represents.

“This will make it easier for us to gain the approval of local regulatory agencies, the trust of customers, and the favour of partners when we expand our business overseas.

“We can leverage the golden signboard of ‘Hang Seng’ to quickly set up branches in international financial centers like New York, London, and Singapore.

“In New York, we can compete with Wall Street’s top investment banks. With our integrated capital strength and diversified business, we can participate in the mergers and acquisitions of large global corporations and take a slice of the international capital operations pie.

“In London, we can leverage its status as a global foreign exchange trading center to vigorously develop cross-border foreign exchange services, providing efficient and precise trading services to clients worldwide and increasing our influence in the international foreign exchange market.

“In Singapore, we can use its advantage as the financial hub of Southeast Asia to cultivate the Southeast Asian market, providing customized financial solutions for local small and medium-sized enterprises, while also attracting surplus capital from the region to achieve two-way capital flow and optimal allocation.

“Moreover, under the name Hang Seng Group, it will be easier for us to attract top international financial talent. Those elites who have worked for years in renowned overseas financial institutions will have heard of the Hang Seng Index and Hang Seng Bank. They’ll be more willing to join a group with international recognition and broad development prospects.

“With these outstanding talents on board, we can continuously improve the group’s international operational standards and management capabilities, providing solid intellectual support for our global strategy.”

“Hang Seng Group,” Lin Haoran repeated the name softly.

Undeniably, it was a much better name than Bank of East Asia.

The name “East Asia” seemed rather restrictive, confined only to the East Asia region.

But “Hang Seng” was different. Since the 1960s, the Hang Seng Index had been the core indicator of the Hong Kong stock market’s performance.

As Hong Kong became one of the world’s top three financial centers, the Hang Seng Index embraced an unprecedented development opportunity, its influence reaching its zenith.

It not only became an important window for global investors to understand the Hong Kong stock market but also a crucial bridge connecting Hong Kong’s finances with the world’s.

As global economic integration deepened, more and more international capital flowed into the Hong Kong stock market, and the importance of the Hang Seng Index, as the core measure of the market’s performance, became increasingly prominent.

Therefore, the name “Hang Seng” was indeed more suitable for the new group. It represented not just a simple name, but a key step for Lin Haoran’s banking group to advance onto the international financial stage and formulate its long-term strategic layout.

Lin Haoran had no particular preference for naming things. If a name was good, he would continue to use it; there was no need to change it.

Just like with Hongkong Land Group, Green Island Cement, and Hongkong Electric Group—after acquiring them, he chose to retain their original names, continuing to leverage their existing deep foundation and widespread recognition.

In any case, he was the real boss, the real shareholder. The name might have been chosen by someone else, but it didn’t really matter. The one who truly profited was him!

“Alright, Uncle He, I agree. Let’s use the name Hang Seng Group!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Ho Sin Hang was a little surprised. He hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to agree so easily.

He was momentarily stunned, but his expression quickly returned to normal, a gratified smile spreading across his face. “Haoran, your straightforward nature is truly admirable. With your firm support, our efforts to establish Hang Seng Group will proceed much more smoothly.”

Lin Haoran spread his hands and replied with a relaxed smile, “Uncle He, we’re in the same boat with the same goal. As long as a decision benefits the group’s development, I will naturally give it my full support!”

“Haoran, rest assured. For the trust you’ve placed in me, I will work my fingers to the bone to build Hang Seng Group into a global financial tycoon. I will absolutely not let you down!” Ho Sin Hang said with a solemn expression and a resonant voice.

At this moment, he felt more than ever that his decision to resign as Chairman of Hang Seng Bank and follow Lin Haoran was absolutely correct.

After all, even Hang Seng Bank was about to return to his control.

Ho Sin Hang then continued to share some of his ideas and future development plans for the soon-to-be-established Hang Seng Group.

At noon, the two of them, along with Da Shan, had a simple meal at the company canteen.

After lunch, Ho Sin Hang, burning with impatience, hurried to Standard Chartered Bank with his legal team.

On the surface, Ho Sin Hang appeared calm and unhurried about the acquisition of Hang Seng Bank.

But in reality, only he knew that his heart was churning like boiling water, eager to get the executive power of Hang Seng Bank back in his hands.

After all, he had founded Hang Seng Bank and personally helmed it for decades. His feelings for it were as deep as those for his own son.

After Ho Sin Hang left, Lin Haoran also left the Bank of East Asia building and headed for Connaught Centre.

To be honest, with Yamada Keiko having been by his side for the past few days, her sudden return to Japan left Lin Haoran feeling a little empty.

Her gentle and melodious voice, her lively and playful demeanor, would often pop into his mind. She always knew the right moment to hand him a hot cup of tea when he was busy.

When he was troubled by a decision, she would offer some unique insights with her delicate thoughts. Though they weren’t always the final word, they were like a spring breeze, gradually clearing his mind.

This was perhaps the unique charm of Yamada Keiko as a secretary. She had quietly integrated herself into Lin Haoran’s work and life in a way that was subtle and silent.

These were things Rosamund Kwan couldn’t do.

Although Rosamund Kwan was currently busy with her clothing chain, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, she was more like a decorative vase, providing more visual pleasure than anything else.

She could hardly offer him the right comfort and inspiration when he was stuck at work, his thoughts in a tangle.

Of course, this didn’t mean he disliked Rosamund Kwan.

…

In the blink of an eye, the clock hands quietly pointed to two in the afternoon.

Lin Haoran was sitting in his office, comfortably gazing out the window, mesmerized by the clear, sun-drenched weather after the typhoon.

Just then, the crisp ring of a mobile phone abruptly shattered the tranquility.

He instantly came back to his senses, turning his chair with a gentle push. With a “whirr” of the wheels, the chair stopped steadily in front of the desk.

He quickly reached out, picked up the phone, and decisively pressed the answer button.

“Haoran, it’s me! I have fantastic news for you! We’ve successfully signed the share acquisition contract for Hang Seng Bank with Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC. Next, as soon as we transfer the funds to HSBC’s corporate account, the deal will be officially complete!” On the other end of the line, Ho Sin Hang’s voice was filled with irrepressible joy.

Lin Haoran and Standard Chartered Bank had already finalized all the terms for the acquisition of Hang Seng Bank.

So when Ho Sin Hang went over, there was no need for renegotiation. He simply had the legal team draft a contract agreeable to both parties, and once it was signed and stamped, the deal was basically a sure thing.

For this reason, it didn’t take Ho Sin Hang long to eagerly call Lin Haoran with the good news.

“Great. Thank you for your hard work, Uncle He. Please arrange for the finance department at Bank of East Asia to transfer them the money as soon as possible!” Lin Haoran said with a smile upon hearing the news.

With the contract signed, the acquisition of Hang Seng Bank was finally secure.

“Yes, Haoran. Taking over Hang Seng Bank is not complicated for me. I’ll strive to secure control of the bank as quickly as possible and also expedite the establishment of Hang Seng Group. I’m thinking of establishing Hang Seng Group the day after tomorrow. That will make it easier to manage the three banks. What do you think, Haoran?” Ho Sin Hang continued.

“The day after tomorrow? Uncle He, isn’t that a bit rushed?” Lin Haoran asked, somewhat surprised.

“Don’t worry, Haoran, it’s not rushed at all. Establishing Hang Seng Group is just a necessary formality. I can have all the relevant procedures and preparations properly arranged at any time.

“In terms of personnel structure, we’ll draw elite key personnel from the three banks to quickly build an efficient management team. The business plan is also clear: we’ll use Bank of East Asia’s existing operations as the core, integrating the resource advantages of Bank of East Asia and Hang Seng Bank to create a comprehensive, diversified financial services platform.

“As soon as the group is established, it can immediately start operations and give full play to its talents in the financial market,” Ho Sin Hang said, his voice brimming with excitement and confidence.

“Alright, then you’ll have your hands full for the next few days, Uncle He. Also, since Hang Seng Group is being established, it needs a suitable headquarters. Keeping it in the Bank of East Asia building or the Hang Seng Bank headquarters building doesn’t seem to fit the group’s future development.

“How about this? I’ll clear out a floor in Connaught Centre for Hang Seng Group to use as its head office for now. This will also make it more convenient for Hang Seng Group to communicate and cooperate with companies like Hongkong Land Group. We can move later when we find a more suitable location,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Given Hang Seng Group’s current strength, especially its remarkable market share, having its own dedicated headquarters building was certainly feasible.

However, Lin Haoran felt there was no need to rush it.

Right now, transaction volumes in Hong Kong’s property market were declining sharply. If things went as expected, the real Hong Kong property crisis would arrive in less than a year.

By then, Hong Kong’s real estate sector would plunge into an unprecedented winter. A large number of property developments would be unsellable, land prices would plummet, and countless property developers would face broken capital chains, with sounds of bankruptcy filling the air.

When that time comes, he could look for a suitable building for sale in the Central district and have Hang Seng Group purchase one.

Hongkong Land Group owned many commercial buildings, such as Alexandra House and Prince’s Building.

But those were Hongkong Land Group’s properties. There was no need to give one of Hongkong Land’s commercial buildings to Hang Seng Group.

Although they were both companies under Lin Haoran, they operated independently with different development positioning and strategic plans. Rashly assigning a commercial building from Hongkong Land to Hang Seng Group would not only disrupt Hongkong Land’s existing commercial layout but could also lead to internal management chaos.

Therefore, even sister companies had to keep things clear.

If the funds and assets of various companies were mixed up, it would create huge hidden dangers in many areas, such as financial accounting, tax filing, and strategic decision-making.

In the event of an economic dispute or market fluctuation, it could easily trigger a chain reaction, plunging a once stable corporate empire into an instant crisis.

Lin Haoran knew this well, which was why it was very important for his companies to maintain a relationship of relative independence yet synergistic development.

Just like with the preparations for Hang Seng Group, although there would be business exchanges and cooperation with Hongkong Land Group and others, the division of assets had to be crystal clear.

“That works too. Let’s set up the headquarters at Connaught Centre then. That way, I can coordinate the management of the three banks, and it’ll also be easier to liaise with you, Haoran. I know you prefer your office at Connaught Centre,” Ho Sin Hang said with a hearty laugh.

“Alright, I’ll speak with Mr. Ma Shimin about this later and have him clear a floor for you to use as offices,” Lin Haoran replied with a nod.

This wasn’t a difficult task.

Although Connaught Centre had a high occupancy rate, Hongkong Land Group itself had kept some office space vacant. Arranging for one floor wouldn’t be too hard.

“Haoran, in an hour, I’d like to go to the Hang Seng Bank headquarters with you to take over the management of the bank. What do you think? I’ve already arranged with Mr. Brown from Standard Chartered Bank to meet at the Hang Seng Bank headquarters in an hour. We’ll complete the final handover there,” Ho Sin Hang said, his voice tinged with excitement.

Hang Seng Bank. It was only a month ago that he had submitted his resignation and walked away. Who would have thought that he would so quickly regain the power to manage Hang Seng Bank?

The feeling was like a dramatic play.

When he resigned from Hang Seng Bank, he never imagined that he would one day regain control of it.

After all, Hang Seng Bank had been a controlling subsidiary of HSBC.

Who could have foreseen at that time that HSBC would fall into such a devastating crisis, even allowing Standard Chartered Bank to swoop in and successfully acquire it?

And Lin Haoran had seized the opportunity to secure Hang Seng Bank.

One could only say that it was all highly dramatic. Even Lin Haoran himself probably didn’t expect the situation to unfold this way.

“Alright, should I pick you up at the Bank of East Asia headquarters, or is there another arrangement?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Come and pick me up here. Thank you for the trouble,” Ho Sin Hang replied with a cheerful laugh.

“Sure thing. I’ll be there in half an hour. See you in a bit!” Lin Haoran said.

“See you in a bit!”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran didn’t linger in his office any longer. He went straight to Ma Shimin’s office.

He wanted to inform Ma Shimin about clearing a floor in Connaught Centre for the soon-to-be-established Hang Seng Group to use as their headquarters, so Ma Shimin could make the arrangements as soon as possible.

Since the boss had spoken, Ma Shimin naturally had no objections.

After all, the vacant offices were reserved and had been sitting idle. Assigning them to Hang Seng Group was no problem at all.

Furthermore, Hang Seng Group would pay rent to Connaught Centre based on market rates.

Although the two companies were sister companies, as the saying goes, even biological brothers must settle accounts clearly, right?

Half an hour later, Lin Haoran, accompanied by his bodyguards, left Connaught Centre. The car headed directly for the Bank of East Asia headquarters building.

On the ground floor of the Bank of East Asia headquarters, Lin Haoran met Ho Sin Hang, who was already waiting.

“Uncle He, aren’t you bringing anyone else with you?” Lin Haoran asked, puzzled.

This was, after all, the takeover of a renowned corporation in Hong Kong. Why was Ho Sin Hang going alone?

“Don’t you worry about that, Haoran. You know what my position was at Hang Seng Bank. I know every nook and cranny of that place like the back of my hand. Besides, there haven’t been any major changes in the mid- to high-level management since I left. I still have a lot of influence there. To take over Hang Seng Bank, all I need is to show up in person!” Ho Sin Hang said with a laugh.

On this point, Lin Haoran had to admit that Ho Sin Hang’s years at Hang Seng Bank had given him deep roots and an intimate knowledge of its internal affairs. Even though he had recently resigned, his influence was not to be underestimated.

“Alright, then let’s get going. We shouldn’t keep Mr. Brown waiting,” Lin Haoran said. He and Ho Sin Hang got into the car, and the convoy set off majestically towards the Hang Seng Bank headquarters.

Along the way, Lin Haoran looked out the car window at the bustling yet slightly restless streetscape, a myriad of thoughts in his mind.

This trip to Hang Seng Bank marked the true beginning of his control over it.

Chapter 678: Standard Chartered’s Sneaky Move, the Shamelessness of the British

The convoy soon arrived at the Hang Seng Bank headquarters building.

Hang Seng Building, a twenty-two-story structure, stood tall in the bustling commercial district of Des Voeux Road Central in Central.

The building’s glass curtain wall glinted coldly in the sunlight, as if narrating tales of past glory and present change.

Several cars slowly pulled up in front of the main entrance of the Hang Seng Building.

Lin Haoran glanced at the time; it was already around three in the afternoon.

Evidently, Ho Sin Hang had called ahead to Hang Seng Bank before their arrival.

As a result, a crowd had already gathered at the entrance.

Lin Haoran immediately spotted Brown from Standard Chartered Bank, John Bao from HSBC, and several senior executives from Hang Seng Bank whom he had met but whose names he couldn’t recall.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Ho, good afternoon.” The moment the car door opened, Taipan Brown smiled and stepped forward to shake hands with Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang.

Although Standard Chartered Bank was disappointed about losing Hang Seng Bank, enough time had passed for them to accept the reality.

For them, taking such a large market share from HSBC was already a satisfying outcome.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Brown.” Lin Haoran shook his hand and then turned his gaze to John Bao.

John Bao’s expression was rather grim.

After all, although he was currently the temporary Chairman of the Board of HSBC, everyone knew he wouldn’t hold the position for long.

And the person single-handedly responsible for HSBC’s current predicament was Lin Haoran.

Without Lin Haoran, HSBC would still be the hegemon of Hong Kong.

And he, John Bao, would still be the second-in-command of that hegemon.

But now, though he had become the person in charge, HSBC had been reduced to a subsidiary. Moreover, the company’s market share would be continuously drained by Standard Chartered Bank. His title as the nominal head was essentially meaningless.

John Bao forced a smile, extended his hand toward Lin Haoran, and said in a slightly hoarse voice, “Mr. Lin, congratulations on successfully acquiring Hang Seng Bank.”

The corners of Lin Haoran’s mouth curved up slightly. He politely shook John Bao’s hand, his gaze calm as he smiled. “Mr. Pao, I’m sure you’re well aware of HSBC’s current situation. The business world is like a battlefield, ever-changing. I hope you’ll be able to adjust your mindset.”

John Bao’s expression stiffened for a moment before he quickly returned to normal. He nodded and said, “You’re absolutely right, Mr. Lin. The business world is indeed this ruthless. I just hope that when you manage Hang Seng Bank in the future, you will consider the overall development of the industry.”

Lin Haoran laughed inwardly. John Bao’s words were barbed and full of insinuations, but his own expression remained calm and undisturbed.

He chuckled and said aloud, “But of course. You can rest assured, Mr. Pao. Old Mr. Ho will continue to manage Hang Seng Bank with great care. With Old Mr. Ho’s status as the founder, along with his experience and ability, I believe Hang Seng Bank will do even better than before. It will certainly contribute to the prosperity of Hong Kong’s financial industry.”

Barring any surprises, once HSBC was gradually brought under Standard Chartered’s control and its bad assets and other negative factors were cleared away, John Bao would, to put it nicely, be heading for a dignified retirement from HSBC.

To put it bluntly, he was about to be ruthlessly kicked out.

Therefore, Lin Haoran didn’t really care much for this Mr. John Bao.

He didn’t even pay Michael Sandberg much mind anymore, let alone John Bao.

At that moment, not far from the group, more than a dozen senior executives from Hang Seng Bank were staring intently at Ho Sin Hang.

Every single one of these executives had been carefully groomed by him.

Even though Ho Sin Hang had left Hang Seng Bank a month ago, his status in their hearts remained as solid as a rock. It was a deep affection and profound respect, like that for a teacher and a father.

Though Ho Sin Hang had briefly left Hang Seng Bank, his name was already deeply etched into its history. It could be said that Ho Sin Hang was the soul of the company.

A middle-aged executive with gold-rimmed glasses and a refined face was the first to step forward. His eyes were slightly red as he said with excitement in his voice, “Old Ho, you’re finally back! For the past month, we’ve been hoping every single day that you would return to Hang Seng. With you here, we can finally feel at ease.”

The other executives also gathered around, chattering excitedly and expressing how much they had missed Ho Sin Hang and how eagerly they had awaited his return.

“Old Ho, while you were gone, many decisions at the bank lacked a backbone. Everyone was so hesitant.”

“That’s right, Old Ho. It’s great that you’re back. We can follow your lead and go all out again.”

Looking at these familiar faces, Ho Sin Hang was deeply moved. He smiled and patted the middle-aged executive’s shoulder, saying, “Don’t say that, everyone. Although I was away for a while, I was always thinking about Hang Seng. Now, Mr. Lin and I have returned together, and we will lead Hang Seng to new heights of glory.”

At this, everyone’s eyes turned in unison to Lin Haoran, and they said in one voice, “Hello, Boss.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, a polite smile on his face as he acknowledged them.

Although he had now acquired Hang Seng Bank, he was a stranger to these people and didn’t even know their names.

So, he didn’t mind that, in their eyes, Ho Sin Hang’s status was higher than his.

After all, they were Ho Sin Hang’s old subordinates, groomed by him personally. As for himself, Lin Haoran was merely the acquirer who was about to take control of Hang Seng Bank through the power of capital.

Of course, that was only for now. In the future, with his golden finger of loyalty, he could identify those who were disloyal and slowly whip the senior executives into shape.

At the same time, the well-informed Hong Kong media had already dispatched many reporters to the Hang Seng Bank building.

Those who arrived early, or those who were already lurking nearby for news, even witnessed the moment Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang got out of their cars.

Thus, the scene of Lin Haoran, Ho Sin Hang, Brown, and John Bao talking outside the main entrance of Hang Seng Bank was captured by the cameras of several reporters.

The reporters were as thrilled as treasure hunters who had just discovered a hidden chest. The sound of camera shutters clicked incessantly, and flashes blinked frequently, as if to permanently freeze this historic moment.

While shooting wildly, they charged over with their interview equipment.

After all, everyone knew that some major, earth-shattering news was about to break.

Several days had passed since Standard Chartered’s takeover of HSBC, and the buzz was gradually fading.

Although there was still considerable public attention, the Hong Kong media outlets knew that the hype wouldn’t last much longer.

So now, they were desperate to find a new hot topic to fill the impending void in their news pages.

The sight of Lin Haoran, Brown, John Bao, and Ho Sin Hang all in the same frame was a clear signal to any discerning observer that there was a massive, exploitable story brewing—prime material that the media dreamed of.

Naturally, the group noticed the reporters rushing toward them with their equipment.

Seeing this, Mr. Brown smiled and said, “We’ve exchanged enough pleasantries. Let’s head inside the building and get the necessary procedures and discussions settled. I’m sure Mr. Lin and Mr. Ho are anxious to complete the handover as soon as possible.”

Clearly, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong had no desire to be swarmed and trapped in an endless vortex of interviews by this “out of control” group of enthusiastic reporters.

In his view, it was already certain that they couldn’t keep Hang Seng Bank. Since that was the case, it was better to complete the handover quickly so he could wash his hands of the matter.

After all, once HSBC received the 1.35 billion Hong Kong dollar payment, Hang Seng Bank would no longer belong to them.

Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang exchanged a glance and nodded in silent agreement.

Right now, the faster they could settle things, the better.

As long as Hang Seng Bank remained under the HSBC umbrella, all sorts of unforeseen complications could arise. It was better to finalize everything and let the dust settle.

With both sides aiming for a swift handover, they quickened their pace. The group stopped lingering at the entrance and walked straight into the Hang Seng Building.

When the group entered the building, security guards naturally stopped the reporters outside.

Along the way, many employees were surprised and delighted to see Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang.

This was especially true for Ho Sin Hang. As their former Boss, the older employees who had once worked with him had eyes full of excitement.

The news of Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Hang Seng Bank had not yet spread, and the mid- and low-level employees of the bank were unaware of it.

Therefore, although they found it strange to see Lin Haoran and the others, they didn’t immediately think of an acquisition.

Their reaction was more about their respect for Ho Sin Hang.

This showed just how high Ho Sin Hang’s standing was within Hang Seng Bank.

No wonder Ho Sin Hang had told Lin Haoran that taking over the bank wouldn’t be very difficult.

At Hang Seng Bank, Ho Sin Hang’s name was synonymous with legend.

He had co-founded Hang Seng Bank and then led it step-by-step to glory. Stories of his business acumen and charisma were passed down among the employees and were deeply ingrained in their hearts.

Mr. Brown noticed the employees’ reactions and sighed inwardly. Under Ho Sin Hang’s influence, the employee cohesion at Hang Seng Bank was incredibly strong. This was perhaps one of the key reasons the bank was able to stand its ground in the fiercely competitive financial world.

With this realization, Mr. Brown no longer felt so pained about Standard Chartered missing out on Hang Seng Bank.

After all, even if HSBC had retained control, and Standard Chartered tried to exert influence indirectly to take over, Mr. Brown knew perfectly well that Hang Seng Bank had a deep foundation and extremely strong employee cohesion. Truly integrating into and firmly controlling such a team would be no easy task.

It might have ended up consuming a vast amount of energy and resources, only for their efforts to be as fruitless as drawing water with a bamboo basket.

A month had passed since Ho Sin Hang had left and HSBC Executive Director William Purves had taken over Hang Seng Bank.

But in reality, that short month had seen the internal management of Hang Seng Bank descend into utter chaos.

Although Purves had accumulated some experience at HSBC and had the powerful backing of the bank, he still found himself overwhelmed when faced with Hang Seng Bank’s unique and deeply ingrained corporate culture, as well as its complex and intertwined business systems.

Now that Lin Haoran was taking over, it felt, in a way, as if he was relieving Standard Chartered of a potential burden that had been lurking in the shadows, ready to cause trouble at any moment.

Lin Haoran, of course, took all of this in.

He couldn’t help but think again of the companies from his previous life, business giants like JD.com and Alibaba. When the founders of these companies stepped down from the top position, the companies fell into internal friction, strategic confusion, and their performance plummeted.

Take JD.com for example. After some consortiums forced Boss Liu out, they thought they could implement their own drastic reforms and lead the company to new heights.

But what was the result? Factional struggles within JD.com intensified, and its strategic direction wavered.

The once-efficient operating model was disrupted, and many problems arose in the supply chain. Its market share was gradually eaten away by competitors, and its performance continued to slide. The former e-commerce tycoon found itself in an unprecedented crisis.

Suddenly, it was as if a soul had been re-injected into JD.com. Relying on the prestige and experience he had accumulated over the years, Boss Liu quickly stabilized the internal situation.

He decisively cleaned up the internal factions, re-calibrated the strategic direction, refocused on core businesses, and optimized supply chain management.

Under Boss Liu’s leadership, JD.com gradually emerged from its predicament. Its performance began to recover, and it re-established its firm footing in the e-commerce market.

Then there was Alibaba. After Boss Ma gradually moved behind the scenes, the new management team, despite their wealth of theoretical knowledge, became slow in their decision-making when facing the rapidly changing market environment.

Some innovative businesses encountered numerous obstacles in their implementation, and the once-vibrant corporate culture seemed to have lost some of its former passion. The company’s core competitiveness was weakened to a certain extent.

Therefore, letting Ho Sin Hang continue to manage Hang Seng Bank was undoubtedly the wisest and most appropriate choice at present.

As for the future, and how Hang Seng Bank and even the entire Hang Seng Group would develop after Old Mr. Ho retired behind the scenes—that was something to face more than a decade from now. Lin Haoran had no intention of worrying about such a distant future.

He believed that over such a long span of time, the talent-rich and high-potential Hang Seng Group would surely cultivate an outstanding successor capable of taking over from Ho Sin Hang and leading the group forward.

As for himself, the true boss, he had no interest in management rights.

His golden finger, the ability to see his subordinates’ loyalty, was enough.

He could analyze whether his subordinates were loyal or had ulterior motives through their loyalty level.

That being the case, why would he need to bother with the troubles of hands-on management for every single matter?

He just needed to sit back behind the scenes. With his unique “loyalty insight” ability, he could have a clear view of the entire situation within Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, Wanqing Group, Hang Seng Group, and all his other enterprises.

Lin Haoran’s thoughts raced, but his expression remained unchanged.

He knew that the most urgent task now was to stabilize the current situation, ensure a smooth transition of Hang Seng Bank into his hands, and use Ho Sin Hang’s influence and experience to straighten out the bank’s internal affairs.

“Mr. Ho, I will conduct a comprehensive and detailed handover of all of Hang Seng Bank’s specific work with you later. If you encounter any problems during or after the handover, you can ask me at any time.

For the time being, I will continue to hold my position at HSBC. You can rest assured about that,” William Purves said slowly, his tone laced with relief.

The Englishman, who had been Chairman of Hang Seng Bank for only a month, now looked as if a massive weight had been lifted from his shoulders, his expression visibly more relaxed.

After all, he knew better than anyone that being the Chairman of Hang Seng Bank was far less comfortable than being an Executive Director at HSBC.

Take the time when HSBC was facing a capital chain crisis. As Chairman of Hang Seng Bank, he had wanted to use his authority to mobilize funds to help HSBC through its difficulties.

Unexpectedly, this move met with tremendous resistance within Hang Seng Bank, with obstacles at every turn.

In the end, he had to go behind the backs of the senior executives, secretly bribe the relevant personnel, and personally stamp and approve the loan. Only then was he able to transfer a full five billion Hong Kong dollars from Hang Seng Bank to aid HSBC.

Although this money didn’t make a practical difference for HSBC, it did help the bank hold on until now.

The senior executives wouldn’t follow his orders, and Purves often found it difficult to push through many routine decisions.

Normally, HSBC would have fired all these executives and replaced them with their own people.

But during this period, HSBC was too busy trying to save itself to dare make such a drastic move at Hang Seng Bank.

Therefore, Purves’s month at Hang Seng Bank had not been a pleasant one.

“Yes, thank you for your trouble, Mr. Purves,” Ho Sin Hang said with a smile.

Next, Ho Sin Hang led Lin Haoran and a group of Hang Seng Bank’s senior executives on an inspection of the bank’s various departments, introducing them to Lin Haoran, their new boss.

In addition, the finance team Lin Haoran had brought with him entered the Hang Seng Bank Finance Department to conduct an audit.

This was the most crucial part.

An hour later, as Ho Sin Hang, Purves, Lin Haoran, and Brown were in the Chairman’s office, a finance manager hurried in. He looked at the people present and hesitated.

“If you have something to say, just say it!” Lin Haoran said directly.

The finance manager nodded and reported the situation.

Upon hearing the report, Lin Haoran’s brow furrowed. He looked at Brown and said, “Mr. Brown, Mr. Purves, don’t you plan to deal with this matter first?”

It turned out that when HSBC was in crisis, Purves had mobilized five billion Hong Kong dollars from Hang Seng Bank to aid HSBC. This sum had been provided as a zero-interest loan to HSBC, with a term of three years!

And they had never disclosed this matter before.

Purves’s face turned a little pale when he heard this.

In the end, he couldn’t hide it.

“Mr. Lin, the funds have all been spent by HSBC. There’s nothing I can do now. I am truly sorry,” Purves said with a look of utter helplessness.

“Mr. Lin, you also know that this happened before Standard Chartered acquired HSBC. In terms of the timeline and responsibility, you can’t pin it all on our current management structure.

So, in my opinion, we can only proceed according to the terms of this loan for now. However, we will spare no effort to assist Hang Seng Bank in monitoring the flow of funds to ensure the money is repaid to Hang Seng Bank when it’s due,” Mr. Brown said, biting the bullet.

“Mr. Purves, Mr. Brown, don’t you think you’re going too far? This contract was signed by Mr. Purves without the Hang Seng Bank Board of Directors’ knowledge. According to the relevant regulations for listed companies and the bank’s own strict governance principles, this is a complete violation of regulations.

This not only seriously harms the interests of Hang Seng Bank’s many shareholders, but it is also a blatant provocation against the fair and just order of the financial market. Are you planning to just let this go?” Ho Sin Hang slapped his hand on the desk.

With that slap, the atmosphere in the office instantly dropped to freezing point.

Fine beads of sweat broke out on Mr. Brown’s forehead. His eyes darted around, subconsciously looking at Purves, as if seeking a way to handle the situation.

Normally, Standard Chartered would naturally have to repay this money.

But recently, Standard Chartered had had too many expenditures.

Therefore, upon learning about this debt HSBC owed to Hang Seng Bank, Brown and the senior executives at Standard Chartered decided to play for time.

They figured that if Standard Chartered insisted the loan was legitimate, they could hold onto the funds for three years before repaying. For Standard Chartered, this was a fantastic piece of news.

Five billion Hong Kong dollars—such a massive sum of money was incredibly useful to Standard Chartered right now.

Lin Haoran’s gaze was sharp as a knife, coldly sweeping over Brown and Purves, seeing right through their little scheme.

A sarcastic curve appeared on his lips as he said slowly, “Mr. Brown, Mr. Purves, your self-serving plan is quite clever. However, the financial market is not a playground where you can do as you please.”

Mr. Brown forced himself to remain calm, squeezing out a smile. “Mr. Lin, we are only doing this because of our current cash flow difficulties, not to intentionally delay. Besides, we have a contract, and the three-year term is an established fact. We will act according to the contract.”

Ho Sin Hang snorted coldly and looked at Brown, his voice stern. “Contract? This illegally signed piece of trash has not had a shred of legitimacy from the moment it was created! To think you’d try to use this loophole to brazenly seize Hang Seng Bank’s interests—that’s just wishful thinking and pure fantasy!

Today, this matter must be completely resolved. You must give us a clear repayment timeline and a practical plan. Otherwise, I, Ho Sin Hang, will not let this slide. I will definitely use legal channels to make you pay a painful price for your actions and will do everything in my power to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Hang Seng Bank!”

“In that case, Mr. Ho, Mr. Lin, why don’t we ask the Government House to rule on this matter? What do you say?” The corner of Brown’s mouth lifted slightly, revealing a hint of subtle triumph as he spoke slowly.

As far as Standard Chartered was concerned, they had numerous complex relationships and back-channel dealings with the Government House. It was highly likely that the Government House would side with them on this matter.

Therefore, when he heard Ho Sin Hang mention pursuing legal channels, Brown was actually secretly pleased, as if he could already see things developing in his favor.

Chapter 679: Lin Haoran’s Hardline Stance! When the Tiger Doesn’t Roar, You Think I’m a Sick Cat?

When dealing with these British men, Lin Haoran knew they wouldn’t let him get the better of them easily.

He had long experienced the arrogance and calculation ingrained in their bones from past interactions.

After all, it wasn’t as if he had no prior dealings with British-owned companies.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had never considered Standard Chartered Bank a true ally.

Now that they had taken over HSBC, they were, as expected, starting to show their true colors.

Although it was somewhat unexpected, Lin Haoran wasn’t as angry as Ho Sin Hang.

These people from the British-funded conglomerates always brought up Government House, just as expected.

A corner of Lin Haoran’s mouth lifted in a scornful and mocking smirk as he spoke slowly, “Government House? Mr. Brown, surely you don’t believe that with Government House’s backing, you have nothing to worry about in this matter?”

“Mr. Lin, we are merely proposing a reasonable solution. The ruling from Government House will certainly be fair and objective. Why must you be so resistant?” Brown said, seemingly full of confidence.

In his view, under normal circumstances, Government House would definitely favor their side, the British-funded conglomerate.

What’s more, Hong Kong’s business world had gradually stabilized after Standard Chartered Bank took control of HSBC.

Brown believed that Standard Chartered Bank deserved the most credit for the swift stabilization of Hong Kong’s business community.

Ho Sin Hang, standing to the side, looked as if he wanted to speak but stopped, silenced by a look from Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran truly wasn’t intimidated by these roguish tactics from Standard Chartered Bank; he wasn’t the least bit afraid.

Back when he had driven HSBC, a company that once dominated Hong Kong’s financial sector, to the brink of bankruptcy, he had already come to clearly realize just how much power he now wielded in the city’s business world.

He wasn’t even afraid of HSBC, so why would he fear Standard Chartered Bank?

Besides, even though Standard Chartered Bank’s market share in Hong Kong had surged, it still lagged considerably behind the market share held by the banks under Lin Haoran.

“It seems, Mr. Brown, that you’re quite certain Sir Murray MacLehose will stand with you and support you. But I don’t think things will go as you wish,” Lin Haoran said leisurely, sitting in his chair with his legs crossed and a faint smile on his lips.

Hearing this, a bad premonition instantly surged in Brown’s heart.

Brown forced himself to remain calm, puffing out his chest to hide his inner panic. “Mr. Lin, are you questioning the impartiality of Government House? Sir Murray MacLehose is known for upholding business order and fairness in Hong Kong. He will naturally handle this matter according to the facts and rules.”

Even now, Brown was still emphasizing so-called “fairness,” which made Lin Haoran want to laugh.

He turned to Ho Sin Hang and asked, “Uncle He, that one point three five billion Hong Kong dollars, it hasn’t been transferred to HSBC yet, has it?”

Ho Sin Hang frowned slightly. Although he didn’t understand why Lin Haoran was asking, he quickly sorted through his thoughts and replied, “Not yet. I’ve already given the approval to the Finance Department at the Bank of East Asia. But they have to go through a series of procedures, including internal approvals, verification of fund allocation, and confirming account details with HSBC. With all that, the transfer was originally scheduled to be completed this evening.”

“Good. In that case, call the Finance Department at the Bank of East Asia right now and suspend the disbursement of these funds. The subsequent payment time is to be determined!” Lin Haoran said placidly, a smile playing on his lips.

Brown clearly understood Cantonese. Far from getting angry, a smile spread across his face. “Mr. Lin, surely you don’t intend to call off the acquisition of Hang Seng Bank, do you? If so, we at Standard Chartered Bank would support it wholeheartedly.”

One must understand that Hang Seng Bank’s influence in Hong Kong’s financial world was in no way inferior to Standard Chartered’s.

Standard Chartered had been extremely reluctant to hand over Hang Seng Bank to Lin Haoran back then, only doing so begrudgingly due to the circumstances.

Now, hearing Lin Haoran talk about halting the funds, Brown subconsciously assumed he was furious and flustered about the five billion Hong Kong dollars and intended to cancel the acquisition.

This was undoubtedly fantastic news for Standard Chartered Bank.

They had always coveted Hang Seng Bank, eyeing it like a tiger stalking its prey.

If Standard Chartered could absorb Hang Seng Bank’s market share, its power in Hong Kong would become even more powerful, reaching a new level.

After all, even though HSBC had signed the share transfer agreement for Hang Seng Bank with the Bank of East Asia, as long as the funds hadn’t been transferred, the deal couldn’t be considered settled!

Ho Sin Hang was also as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. If the Hang Seng Bank acquisition fell through, wouldn’t all the subsequent plans for the Hang Seng Group become a laughingstock?

“No, no, no, Mr. Brown. I never said I was calling off the plan to acquire Hang Seng Bank. If I recall correctly, there’s a clause in the acquisition contract we signed that explicitly states HSBC must resolve all potential debts and disputes involving Hang Seng Bank before transferring its management rights to the Bank of East Asia. And this five billion Hong Kong dollar irregular loan is clearly the most troublesome issue. Therefore, if HSBC and you at Standard Chartered Bank don’t resolve this matter, I do not intend to take over the management rights of Hang Seng Bank for the time being,” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

“In that case, how about you take over the management rights of Hang Seng Bank after we’ve completely resolved the current issue, Mr. Lin?”

Right now, Brown almost suspected there was something wrong with his ears. He had fully expected Lin Haoran to say something to embarrass Standard Chartered, but instead, he heard this proposal. Instantly, his eyes crinkled into smiling crescents.

In his eyes, this was nothing short of a godsend.

If they could deliberately drag out the problem, even if it took three years to resolve Hang Seng Bank’s debt issue, wouldn’t Standard Chartered logically be able to maintain control over the bank for a whole three years?

For Standard Chartered Bank, this was an unexpected but wonderful surprise, the best possible news!

“Mr. Brown, you’re really overthinking things. While I don’t intend to take over Hang Seng Bank for now, I do plan to make this matter public. Five billion Hong Kong dollars, zero interest, a three-year term, and on top of that, improperly transferred funds. Once this news spreads, the eyes of all of Hong Kong will be on it, and it might even reach Europe and America.

At that point, Mr. Brown, you should be well aware of the devastating impact it would have on HSBC, right? More importantly, when Hang Seng Bank’s customers find out, how worried will they become about the security of their own funds?

Perhaps a massive protest will erupt. I imagine the Governor certainly wouldn’t want to face such a thorny situation, would he?

As far as I know, Sir Murray MacLehose has less than a year left in his term. I doubt he’d want to leave behind such an indelible stain before stepping down, to be criticized by future generations for chaotic financial order and for condoning rampant regulatory violations during his tenure.

What on earth gave you the absurd delusion that Government House would definitely support Standard Chartered Bank?” Lin Haoran said with a calm, self-possessed smile.

Lin Haoran’s words instantly wiped the smile off Mr. Brown’s face.

And William Purves, sitting beside him, turned even paler.

Because he was the one who had signed off on it. In other words, no matter how things played out, he would bear the greatest responsibility.

At that point, a prison sentence would be unavoidable.

Seeing Brown’s silence, Lin Haoran’s lips curled upwards as he continued in an unhurried tone, “Mr. Brown, I’m very curious, what exactly gave Standard Chartered Bank such audacity? Our cooperation hasn’t even concluded, yet you’re already so eager to use tactics against me.

Has Standard Chartered Bank not seen the fates of Jardine Matheson & Co. and HSBC? Or are you so confident in your own strength that you think you’re even stronger than Jardine Matheson and HSBC were at their peak?

You must understand that your actions are tantamount to a formal declaration of war against me, Lin Haoran, and the many companies under my name! I, Lin Haoran, have always preferred to let harmony breed wealth, but Standard Chartered Bank’s actions make it difficult for me to continue doing so!

Mr. Brown, don’t misunderstand. I am not threatening you or Standard Chartered Bank. I am merely stating a fact. I hope you can appreciate that!”

Ho Sin Hang turned to look at Lin Haoran in surprise.

Lin Haoran had risen to prominence over three years. During that time, despite his rapid ascent, he had always presented himself as calm, reserved, humble, and polite. It was rare to see him so sharp-tongued and confrontational.

Words like these from him were indeed a rarity!

And Lin Haoran’s words did indeed make Brown’s lips twitch, but in the end, he didn’t know how to respond.

Faced with the five billion Hong Kong dollar debt, Brown knew that Standard Chartered’s senior executives had held a special meeting. During that meeting, an executive had raised the point that doing this would thoroughly offend Lin Haoran, and questioned whether Standard Chartered could withstand the retaliation.

But in the end, the immense profits offered by five billion Hong Kong dollars went to most of the senior executives’ heads.

They naively believed that with Standard Chartered Bank’s deep roots and extensive connections in Hong Kong’s financial world, even if Lin Haoran made a move, he wouldn’t be able to stir up any significant trouble.

Moreover, they thought Lin Haoran was just a fledgling youth who, despite some recent success, could hardly compete with a bank with such a profound foundation as Standard Chartered.

Thus, the final vote followed the principle of the minority being subordinate to the majority. They decided to risk angering Lin Haoran and forcibly attempt to legitimize this irregular loan.

Brown had actually opposed it, because as Standard Chartered Bank’s Taipan for the Hong Kong region, he was well aware of Lin Haoran’s power.

But the people at Standard Chartered headquarters couldn’t appreciate Lin Haoran’s strength.

The senior executives had made their decision, and as the regional head, Brown could only see it through to the end.

But now, hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Brown no longer had his previous confidence and began to worry about Standard Chartered’s future.

However, he still said stubbornly, “Mr. Lin, Standard Chartered Bank is not the same as HSBC or Jardine Matheson & Co. Hong Kong is just one of our markets!”

“Oh? Is that so? As far as I know, after acquiring HSBC, Standard Chartered not only needed to inject twenty to thirty billion Hong Kong dollars into HSBC to help stabilize its operations and pay off some debts, but also had to deal with various regulatory reviews and market fluctuations triggered by the acquisition.

After this series of moves, Standard Chartered’s capital chain in Hong Kong is actually under considerable strain.

Furthermore, aside from acquiring HSBC, Standard Chartered has plans for multiple other acquisitions internationally. On the investment front, HSBC itself also spent a significant amount of money. The acquisition of HSBC must have disrupted your plans for the year.

So, I imagine things aren’t easy for your Standard Chartered headquarters right now, are they? Otherwise, you wouldn’t be trying to absorb these five billion Hong Kong dollars for three years to ease your financial pressure.

However, if you plan to get through this difficult period by harming my interests, I think you’ve picked the wrong person to bully!

From what I know, Lloyds Bank in Britain is attempting to acquire Standard Chartered. You could say you’re facing a slew of crises right now. If I were to join forces with Lloyds Bank at this moment, I wonder how Standard Chartered would handle the upcoming ordeal?” Lin Haoran continued with a placid smile.

It was no secret that Lloyds Bank, a long-established British bank, wanted to acquire Standard Chartered.

Because Standard Chartered and Lloyds Bank were fierce competitors, their rivalry was particularly evident in the European market and in the business sectors of some Commonwealth countries.

Therefore, the more powerful Lloyds Bank came up with the idea of acquiring Standard Chartered. Once the acquisition was complete, the competition between them would naturally cease to exist.

However, although Lloyds Bank attempted the acquisition, it was met with strong resistance from the consortium behind Standard Chartered.

This was something the Hong Kong media had reported on extensively.

As soon as Lin Haoran finished speaking, Brown’s expression became even uglier.

Because he could imagine the kind of crisis Standard Chartered would be plunged into if Lin Haoran joined forces with Lloyds Bank to launch an all-out assault: one party attacking Standard Chartered’s market in Hong Kong, the other attacking its overseas markets.

Brown knew full well that Lin Haoran was not one to bluff. If he dared to propose such a scenario, he must have a plan and preparations to back it up.

Besides, with Lin Haoran’s current power and influence, joining forces with a financial giant like Lloyds Bank wouldn’t be difficult at all.

In fact, Lloyds Bank would probably be thrilled to have an ally like Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Lin, why must you do this? There’s no deep-seated hatred between us. Why must things come to this?” Brown finally dropped his hardline stance, his tone carrying a hint of pleading and helplessness.

Where was the arrogant demeanor he had just moments ago?

Even though the air conditioning was on in the office, beads of sweat had appeared on his face. Lin Haoran’s words had clearly made him nervous.

Lin Haoran raised an eyebrow slightly and said calmly, “Mr. Brown, I had no intention of taking things this far either. I had originally hoped to compete peacefully with Standard Chartered in the Hong Kong market and share it. But Standard Chartered’s actions this time are simply going too far.

In business partnerships, integrity and respect are the cornerstones. Yet for your own selfish gain, you not only attempted to harm my interests but also tried to go back on a signed contract to maintain control of Hang Seng Bank. This has crossed my bottom line.”

At his side, Ho Sin Hang was no longer worried about whether the Hang Seng Bank acquisition would succeed.

He couldn’t help but look at Lin Haoran with admiration. This young man’s courage and methods were far greater than he had imagined.

Truly worthy of being the person who became Hong Kong’s biggest capitalist at such a young age.

He was truly remarkable!

With Lin Haoran’s financial backing, the possibility of the soon-to-be-established Hang Seng Group becoming an international financial giant had grown much larger.

“Mr. Lin, I…” Brown was at a loss for words, completely unsure of what to say.

“Mr. Brown, since you haven’t sorted out the Hang Seng Bank affair, we will put the matter of taking over its management rights on hold. However, let me be blunt: I’ll give you half a day to discuss your options.

By 9 a.m. tomorrow, you must give me a clear answer, no matter what. If you remain obstinate and insist on having your own way, then don’t blame me for being ruthless.

When that time comes, we’ll have no choice but to battle it out for real in the business arena. We’ll see if Standard Chartered has the upper hand, or if I, Lin Haoran, can bring all forces to bear and topple you. We shall see!”

With that, Lin Haoran first instructed Ho Sin Hang, “Uncle He, notify the Bank of East Asia’s Finance Department immediately and have them suspend the bank transfer to HSBC.”

Then, he turned to the head of finance who had come to report and said, “Mr. Yang, tell our people in the Finance Department to get ready to leave.”

“Alright.”

“Yes.”

Brown’s face was grim as he opened his mouth to speak, but Lin Haoran gave him no time to reply and strode directly out of the office.

Now that the handover of Hang Seng Bank’s management rights was suspended, there was no need for him to stay there any longer.

Lin Haoran walked with quick strides out of Hang Seng Bank, with Ho Sin Hang and the head of finance, Mr. Yang, following closely behind.

Ho Sin Hang watched Lin Haoran’s upright back, his heart filled with emotion. This young man always displayed extraordinary decisiveness and courage at critical moments.

Before long, everyone they had brought with them gathered and left Hang Seng Bank in a large contingent with the bodyguards.

At that moment, over a hundred reporters had gathered outside the Hang Seng Building.

Hong Kong was only so big. News that Lin Haoran, Ho Sin Hang, Brown, and William Purves had all appeared at the Hang Seng Building had already spread throughout media circles.

Therefore, numerous media outlets had gathered outside the Hang Seng Building, hoping for an interview, but were blocked at the entrance by security guards.

Seeing Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang emerge, many reporters instantly grew excited. Like sharks that had scented blood, they surged forward in an instant, surrounding Lin Haoran’s group until it was impassable.

Countless microphones and cameras were aimed squarely at Lin Haoran, and the continuous flashing of camera lights was painfully bright.

However, Lin Haoran was in no mood for interviews at the moment.

“Mr. Lin, may I ask if your meeting today at Hang Seng Bank with representatives from Standard Chartered Bank involved any major business decisions?” a young female reporter asked first, her eyes filled with urgency and curiosity.

Lin Haoran smiled faintly and calmly scanned the surrounding reporters before speaking in a measured tone, “I came today mainly to communicate with Hang Seng Bank and Standard Chartered Bank regarding some partnership matters. As for the specific projects, I’m sorry, but that’s corporate business intelligence. Everyone, I have other things to attend to, so I won’t be staying. Please make way.”

As he spoke, the bodyguards quickly formed a human wall, separating Lin Haoran from the surging crowd of reporters.

They were burly, with grim expressions, like an insurmountable wall of steel.

Under the bodyguards’ protection, Lin Haoran walked swiftly toward his car without a trace of panic.

The reporters were unwilling to let such a prime interview opportunity slip away. They all pushed forward desperately, trying to break through the bodyguards’ defensive line.

They relentlessly threw out all sorts of sharp questions, their voices rising and falling, weaving into a cacophony of sound.

“Mr. Lin, what are your further thoughts on Standard Chartered Bank’s acquisition of HSBC?”

“Mr. Lin, after acquiring HSBC, Standard Chartered’s market share has greatly increased. Are you concerned that the Bank of East Asia’s market share will be surpassed by Standard Chartered in the future?”

“Mr. Lin…”

However, Lin Haoran merely frowned slightly, his pace never faltering, and offered no response to any of the questions.

Under the impregnable protection of the bodyguards, Lin Haoran smoothly got into his car.

Just as the reporters, with a hint of regret, were about to temper their enthusiasm and step back, the car window by which Lin Haoran was sitting slowly rolled down.

In an instant, this action drew the reporters’ attention back like a magnet.

Many reporters once again thrust their microphones as close to Lin Haoran as possible.

They understood that since Lin Haoran had lowered the window, he clearly had something to say.

“Everyone, it’s really not convenient for me to disclose details about our partnership today. However, by tomorrow morning at the latest, we will have a major announcement to make. At that time, I hope you will all pay close attention.

If all goes as planned, we will hold a press conference. The venue hasn’t been decided yet; it might be at the Connaught Centre, or it could be at the Hang Seng Building,” Lin Haoran said to the reporters with a calm smile.

Right now, he was quietly awaiting Standard Chartered Bank’s response.

If Standard Chartered remained obstinate and insisted on its own way, then it could wait to suffer his powerful counterattack. If Standard Chartered ultimately chose to compromise and back down, then tomorrow he could logically announce the news of the Hang Seng Bank acquisition.

So, regardless of the final outcome, his side would be holding a press conference.

Upon hearing this, the reporters erupted. Excited chatter rose and fell like a tide.

Their previously regretful expressions were instantly replaced by fervor and anticipation, and everyone’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

They knew this definitely meant another big story was breaking.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran smiled, said nothing more, and slowly raised the car window.

The motorcade then slowly drove away from the Hang Seng Building.

Chapter 680: Standard Chartered Backs Down

“Haoran, do you think Standard Chartered will really change their minds in the end?” Ho Sin Hang couldn’t help but ask on the car ride back.

“Well, I can’t be sure about that. But as I said before, I’m not at all worried about them sticking to their guns. If they’re really that foolish, then they’re just courting death.

“Admittedly, Government House, and even the British government, won’t just stand by and watch me swallow up all the British-owned companies’ business. The British government relies on these companies to exploit Hong Kong’s wealth for Britain’s benefit, so of course they want to maintain control. But since Standard Chartered doesn’t cherish this opportunity to cooperate, we can just let them swap it out for another bank.

“There are plenty of British-owned banks in Hong Kong. Besides HSBC and Standard Chartered, there are also the likes of the National Bank of Britain, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and so on. Although their market share in Hong Kong doesn’t compare to the first two, they still hold a certain portion.

“If an opportunity to increase their market share in Hong Kong were placed before them, I’m sure they’d be incredibly tempted, especially the Royal Bank of Scotland. They were almost acquired by HSBC before, which should be enough to make them understand just how important the Hong Kong market is.

“They might not be able to pull off an acquisition on their own, but what if they have my help? I don’t mind cultivating a British-owned bank to act as my puppet,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

As his power grew, so did Lin Haoran’s confidence.

Standard Chartered was originally weaker than HSBC. Since Lin Haoran had successfully defeated even HSBC, why would he fear Standard Chartered?

Although Standard Chartered had now swallowed up HSBC and significantly increased its market share, they still needed time to digest these newly acquired assets.

To put it bluntly, until they had fully digested this market share, Standard Chartered’s capital chain was actually fraught with hidden dangers. This was the very leverage Lin Haoran held over them.

As such, it wouldn’t be too difficult for Lin Haoran to make a move against Standard Chartered if he so wished.

Standard Chartered’s move was a classic case of a snake swallowing an elephant. Moreover, they had acted while HSBC was mired in a capital chain crisis, which meant they were essentially taking over a complete mess.

On the surface, their market share had soared, but daunting problems like difficult business integration and a heavy debt burden were like hidden reefs beneath a calm sea, capable of sinking this seemingly colossal ship at any moment.

So, was Lin Haoran worried that Standard Chartered would do something so foolish?

Not in the slightest.

While it would take some effort to bring down Standard Chartered, if they really chose that path, Lin Haoran wouldn’t mind pushing them completely into the abyss.

Then, upon the ruins of Standard Chartered, he would reshape the landscape of British-owned banking in Hong Kong according to his own will.

After hearing this, Ho Sin Hang nodded slightly, his eyes filled with admiration. “Now that you’ve put it that way, Haoran, I can rest easy.”

Although it was a bit of a shame they couldn’t successfully take over Hang Seng Bank today, Ho Sin Hang’s confidence in Lin Haoran was now greater than ever.

After Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang left the Hang Seng Building, an unusually oppressive silence fell over the Chairman’s office. Both Brown and William Purves were quiet.

“Mr. Brown, what should we do about this?” Purves finally broke the silence.

With Michael Sandberg becoming the scapegoat and being removed from his position as Chairman of the Board of the HSBC Group, Purves had lost his most powerful backer.

However, perhaps because Standard Chartered recognized the capabilities of Purves, John Bao, and others, they did not conduct a major purge of HSBC’s senior executives after taking control. They merely dismissed Sandberg.

They knew full well that Sandberg was exceptionally capable, even more so than Brown when it came to managing a corporation.

HSBC’s sudden and inexplicable decline was only because Lin Haoran had numerous industries and immense power in Hong Kong, and HSBC was overly reliant on the Hong Kong market. That was how it had ended up in such a state.

It wasn’t that there was a problem with Sandberg’s ability. The man who had defeated Jardine Matheson & Co. and elevated HSBC to the status of a commercial hegemon was undeniably competent.

However, Sandberg’s roots within HSBC ran extremely deep.

Even with his outstanding abilities, he had to be removed to ensure that Standard Chartered could smoothly extract and integrate HSBC’s resources.

Otherwise, Sandberg might have stood in the way, making it difficult for Standard Chartered to implement its “blood-sucking” plan.

As for the other personnel, Standard Chartered had always valued talent, so they kept Purves, John Bao, and a host of other experienced and capable senior executives from HSBC.

Standard Chartered planned to use their strength to more smoothly digest the enticing “big cake” that was HSBC.

Purves was starting to panic. He was afraid of becoming a sacrificial pawn discarded by Standard Chartered.

If that happened, he would surely face prison time.

And Purves did not want to go to jail.

Brown glanced at Purves and offered a reassuring smile. “Mr. Purves, we’ve both witnessed Lin Haoran’s ambition and ability. He was able to topple even your HSBC. Now that we at Standard Chartered have taken over the hot potato that is HSBC, our situation is truly difficult.

“This isn’t something a regional head like me can decide. I will report this matter to Standard Chartered’s headquarters exactly as it happened. The final decision will have to be made by the Standard Chartered Board of Directors. Of course, you don’t need to worry too much. I will do my best to persuade headquarters and ensure that nothing happens to you.”

Brown knew that this might be the perfect opportunity to bring Purves into his fold. As HSBC’s Executive Director and Sandberg’s personally groomed successor, Purves had deep connections and widespread influence within HSBC.

If he could win Purves’ sincere allegiance, it would be a tremendous help in digesting the “hard nut to crack” that was HSBC.

Hearing Brown’s words, Purves lifted his head slightly, a complex mix of emotions flashing in his eyes—gratitude, as well as confusion and anxiety about the future.

According to Lin Haoran, if Standard Chartered decided to fight him to the end, then Purves would be in danger. He would certainly be pushed out as a scapegoat.

A few months ago, he was the Executive Director of HSBC, the successor to the Chairman of the Board. At that time, he had been in high spirits.

But now, not only had HSBC been acquired by Standard Chartered, but he himself was in an unprecedented predicament, even facing the risk of imprisonment. It felt as if he had plummeted from the clouds straight into a ravine.

“Mr. Brown, I understand your difficulties, and I know you are doing your best to help me. Once this crisis is over, I will certainly repay your kindness,” Purves said solemnly.

This was exactly what Brown had been waiting for. He stood up, patted Purves on the shoulder, and said, “I’ll go report this to headquarters right now. I’ll inform you as soon as there are any developments!”

“Thank you for your trouble, Mr. Brown!” Purves bowed deeply to Brown.

Soon after, Brown reported the entire matter to his superiors without omission or alteration.

Due to the time difference, it was morning in Britain.

When Lord Derek Barber, Chairman of the Board of Standard Chartered Bank, learned of the situation, his expression immediately turned grave. He knew the matter was serious and dared not delay for a moment, immediately convening an emergency meeting.

The threat issued by Lin Haoran was a sure thing, a tangible reality that allowed for no complacency or disdain.

The slightest misstep or oversight could very well lead Standard Chartered to repeat HSBC’s fate and fall into irreparable ruin.

During the meeting, Brown, as the head of the Hong Kong region, participated via a conference call.

After all, the Hong Kong market was now extraordinarily significant to Standard Chartered; it had become their largest market.

Especially after successfully absorbing the market share previously held by HSBC, Hong Kong’s financial market share accounted for as much as half of Standard Chartered’s entire market landscape.

It was worth mentioning that the momentous decision to acquire HSBC had been proposed by Brown in the first place.

Because of this, Brown’s position among Standard Chartered’s senior executives had become increasingly crucial.

Moreover, if one were to ask who within Standard Chartered understood Lin Haoran the best, it would undoubtedly be Brown. Thus, his opinion was particularly critical in this meeting.

At the Standard Chartered headquarters, in a luxurious conference room, the senior executives seated around the table wore grim expressions.

To them, Hong Kong was merely a colony.

But now, they were being threatened by someone from that colony. For these senior executives of Standard Chartered, it was a humiliating slap in the face.

The atmosphere in the conference room was as oppressive as the low pressure before a storm. The executives’ faces were dark, their eyes a mixture of anger, unwillingness, and a hint of worry.

None of the people who had become senior executives at Standard Chartered were fools.

Although they were furious at Lin Haoran’s threat, they felt helpless because they knew that his threat targeted their greatest fears.

At the head of the table, Lord Derek Barber, the Chairman of the Board, looked at everyone present and said in a heavy tone, “Gentlemen, this threat from Lin Haoran is no joke. The cautionary tale of HSBC is right before our eyes. We must treat this with the utmost seriousness.

“Regarding the five billion Hong Kong dollar HSBC debt, it seems we must reconsider. Should we choose to make an enemy of Lin Haoran, or should we compromise for now and seek future development? Let’s hear everyone’s thoughts.”

As soon as Lord Derek Barber finished speaking, a lean executive with sharp eyes was the first to speak. “My Lord, I believe we absolutely cannot bow to Lin Haoran. Standard Chartered has been a major player in the financial world for years. When have we ever been subjected to such a threat?

“We went through great trouble to acquire HSBC, greatly increasing our strength. If we back down now because of one man, how will we maintain our standing in the financial market? Our competitors will surely pounce on us, seeing us as weak and easy to bully.”

Recently, due to the acquisition of HSBC, the senior executives had been feeling rather complacent. As a result, many of them had grown ambitious, their judgment clouded by success.

Another director, with graying hair and a wealth of experience, frowned slightly. He tapped gently on the table, his tone steady and grave. “Mr. Henry, I understand your refusal to back down, but we truly cannot act on impulse.

“The cautionary tale of HSBC is right before us. The fact that Lin Haoran could bring down HSBC in Hong Kong is proof enough of his formidable methods and strength. We’ve now taken over the mess that is HSBC, which is riddled with holes. Although our market share has skyrocketed, the internal integration work is far from complete, and our capital chain is under immense pressure.

“Lin Haoran has laid the potential dangers bare before us. Based on the power he has demonstrated, we are currently no match for him.

“What’s more, Lloyds Bank has been eyeing us like a tiger. As Lin Haoran said, if he really joins forces with Lloyds Bank, our Standard Chartered Bank will undoubtedly face an irresistible, catastrophic crisis.

“We finally managed to acquire HSBC. Now is the time we need to recuperate and solidify our foundation. Until Standard Chartered has fully digested HSBC’s market share, we simply don’t have enough strength to confront them head-on.

“If we thoroughly infuriate Lin Haoran this time, the gains will truly not make up for the losses. Besides, everyone here knows that the five billion Hong Kong dollar loan does indeed have compliance issues.

“If this gets out, we won’t have a legal leg to stand on. Moreover, will the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Murray MacLehose, really support us?”

“We simply can’t spare an extra five billion Hong Kong dollars right now! We’ve already urgently allocated twenty-five billion Hong Kong dollars to bail out HSBC, but from the current situation, that’s clearly not enough.

“And HSBC’s funds can’t be recouped in the short term; it’s like a bottomless pit. At the same time, we also invested a considerable amount of capital in South African banks and Australia at the beginning of the year, and the capital return from other markets has been less than ideal.

“Under these circumstances, where on earth can we mobilize more funds? To be honest, we bit the bullet and pushed ourselves to the limit to complete the acquisition of HSBC. We didn’t have sufficient strength to begin with.

“If the capital chain breaks, our entire banking system will collapse, and we’ll all be finished. But if we can avoid paying this five billion Hong Kong dollars now, it would greatly relieve our burden.

“Even if we have to repay this money in three years, by then we will have surely weathered the crisis, fully digested and absorbed HSBC, and our strength will have greatly increased,” a director stated bluntly.

This was also the reason why they had racked their brains to swindle Lin Haoran. The five billion Hong Kong dollars was simply too crucial, too important for Standard Chartered.

Saving five billion Hong Kong dollars would grant Standard Chartered a moment’s breathing room.

This five billion Hong Kong dollars was like a timely rain. Though it couldn’t solve all their problems, it was enough to temporarily ease the tight capital chain within the bank.

As soon as this director spoke, the room fell into a dead silence.

On one hand, they were torn about whether to compromise with Lin Haoran. On the other, they had to meticulously calculate what was best for Standard Chartered’s own interests.

The situation was truly difficult.

“Mr. Brown, as the Taipan of the Hong Kong region, you know Lin Haoran very well. In your opinion, what should we do?”

Lord Derek Barber directed the question to Brown, who was attending the meeting remotely by phone.

Brown was already prepared. Hearing the Lord’s question, he cleared his throat and spoke through the overseas telephone line in a calm and articulate manner. “My Lord, esteemed Directors, I do indeed know Lin Haoran well. His style is decisive, resolute, and highly strategic.

“His success in bringing down HSBC in Hong Kong was no stroke of luck. From all past indications, he has a profound insight into the rules and loopholes of the business world, and he is adept at using the conflicts between various forces to achieve his goals.

“From his past actions, it’s not hard to see that the consequences of underestimating Lin Haoran are tragic. First Jardine Matheson, then HSBC. If we now choose to become his enemy, I think everyone can guess what our ending will be.

“The situation we currently face is indeed very tricky. If we choose to confront Lin Haoran head-on, given his current strength and influence, coupled with a potential alliance with Lloyds Bank against us, our Standard Chartered Bank is highly likely to suffer a devastating blow.

“After all, our internal integration is not yet complete, and our capital chain is extremely tight. We simply cannot withstand a large-scale financial storm. However, if we choose to compromise, although we might lose some face, in the long-term interest, it will buy us precious breathing room.

“Therefore, my suggestion is to compromise with Lin Haoran and have HSBC repay the five billion Hong Kong dollars to Hang Seng Bank. Otherwise, we will face Lin Haoran’s torrential assault. It’s not that I look down on our bank, but the reality is that in our current situation, we have almost no strength to fight back.

“This is not alarmist talk; it’s a fact. Mr. Michael Sandberg is in Britain. He has dealt with Mr. Lin Haoran more often and knows him better personally. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Mr. Sandberg!”

Only by being in Hong Kong could one truly appreciate the power of Lin Haoran’s aura and strength.

Brown’s words were truly from his heart.

If the decision for Standard Chartered were his alone to make, he would be genuinely unwilling to make an enemy of Lin Haoran.

At least not until Standard Chartered had safely navigated its current difficulties should they provoke him.

Unfortunately, at this decision-making table, he did not have the final say.

So, he could only do his best to see if he could change the minds of the senior executives.

A director, with a furrowed brow and a worried expression, picked up the thread. “But that five billion Hong Kong dollars from HSBC, won’t we at Standard Chartered have to be the ones to pay it? How can we? It’s not that we can’t come up with it, but once we withdraw five billion Hong Kong dollars, the entire operation of Standard Chartered could be jeopardized!

“Currently, all the bank’s businesses are proceeding in full swing according to the plans made before the new year. Without that five billion, it’s like a machine missing a key part; many operations will have to be halted or slowed down.

“Take the several large corporate loan projects we’re currently advancing. The funding was all properly arranged. If five billion is suddenly withdrawn, these projects will likely be stranded due to insufficient funds.

“Those companies are eagerly waiting for our loans to expand production and business. If we break our promise, we will not only lose these high-quality clients but also severely damage our bank’s credibility in the market.

“Also, some of our overseas investment projects are at a critical stage and require continuous capital injection to ensure returns. If the investment plan is disrupted because of this five billion Hong Kong dollars, the initial investment might just go down the drain, and the losses would be incalculable.

“And don’t forget we have numerous depositors. If a problem arises with the bank’s capital chain, even a temporary one, it could trigger panic among depositors. If everyone rushes to withdraw their money, our banking system will truly collapse. This is no alarmist talk. Didn’t HSBC just experience a bank run?”

Round and round, the conversation returned to the same problem.

At this moment, the high spirits the senior executives had felt when acquiring HSBC seemed to have vanished completely.

It was hard. The choice was too hard.

It felt like either path led to ruin.

Lord Derek Barber felt a terrible headache coming on.

He did not want to end up like HSBC’s Taipan, Michael Sandberg.

But faced with such a choice, he had no idea what to do.

Just then, Brown’s voice came through the overseas line again, echoing from the speakers throughout the conference room: “My Lord, esteemed Directors, for five billion or even ten billion Hong Kong dollars, we may not be without a solution.

“For example, the financial consortiums backing us might not be unable to provide this sum. If we negotiate a loan with them and offer sufficient interest, they will likely be willing. As the true owners of HSBC, I believe they wouldn’t want to see anything happen to Standard Chartered either.

“Even if we can’t raise enough funds from our shareholder consortiums, we can also seek loans from other banks. With Standard Chartered’s credit and asset status, it’s not impossible to get approval.

“So, there is more than one channel to obtain funds. As long as we get through this difficult period, the future will surely be bright. Offending Lin Haoran, in my opinion, is the most unwise choice!”

As Brown’s voice faded, the room fell silent once more for a moment, before erupting into a heated discussion again.

Hong Kong, Severn Road villa.

As night fell, Lin Haoran walked out onto the terrace from his third-floor sitting room.

He hadn’t stayed here for several days, as he had been living with Yamada Keiko at the Mid-Levels villa area.

Now that Yamada Keiko had returned to Japan, he naturally came back here.

He was patiently awaiting the final outcome from Standard Chartered.

Although he wasn’t afraid of whatever path Standard Chartered chose, and he didn’t even take the greatly weakened bank seriously at the moment, actually taking action against it would still require considerable effort.

Having just finished an intense round of business warfare with HSBC, all he wanted now was to rest.

“I hope Standard Chartered doesn’t do anything stupid. Otherwise, they can’t blame me for being ruthless,” Lin Haoran muttered to himself as he sat on a lounge chair on the terrace. The gentle sea breeze from Victoria Harbour caressed his face, and the sounds of insects and cicadas chirping in the trees filled the air.

Just then, the crisp ring of a mobile phone shattered the surrounding tranquility and reached his ears.

His heart stirred. He immediately walked back into the sitting room, quickly picked up the mobile phone, and pressed the answer button.

Chapter 681: To Do Things the Hard Way

Lin Haoran was sitting on the sofa in his sitting room when he heard Brown’s words, and a smile couldn’t help but appear on his face.

Standard Chartered Bank had indeed backed down.

It wasn’t a surprise, so he wasn’t particularly shocked.

He knew that for Standard Chartered Bank to have thrived for over a century, it couldn’t possibly be that foolish.

“Very good, Mr. Brown. Your bank has made a very wise decision. Otherwise, in a few days, you would have received news of me visiting Lloyds Bank and signing a cooperation agreement!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

Since Standard Chartered Bank had acted as it did, there was no need for him to give them any face.

That was why yesterday, Lin Haoran had made his threat explicit.

He was threatening them openly.

Otherwise, Standard Chartered Bank might truly believe it was invincible after acquiring HSBC.

Some people were just like that. If you don’t show them who’s boss, they’ll never understand their own place. Did they really think everyone had to cater to them?

They should have weighed whether they were even worthy.

“Please rest assured, Mr. Lin. Standard Chartered Bank remains a partner to your company. I look forward to Standard Chartered Bank and the Bank of East Asia working together to share the Hong Kong financial market! Additionally, we will transfer the five billion dollars to HSBC tomorrow morning, which HSBC will then deliver in its entirety to Hang Seng Bank!”

Brown’s tone was ingratiating and cautious, as if he were afraid any dissatisfaction from Lin Haoran would cause another complication. All of yesterday’s arrogance had vanished.

A slight smile played on Lin Haoran’s lips. His threat had worked. These British truly had to do things the hard way.

If he hadn’t been firm, they would have thought him a pushover.

Lin Haoran said slowly, “Mr. Brown, it’s for the best that Standard Chartered Bank has come to this realization. The big cake of the Hong Kong financial market is too large for any single entity to monopolize. It truly requires everyone to cooperate to eat happily and for a long time.

However, I also hope Standard Chartered Bank understands that cooperation is premised on mutual respect and mutual benefit. If anyone tries to play tricks behind my back, don’t blame me for being impolite.”

Brown hastily replied, “Mr. Lin is absolutely right. Standard Chartered Bank will definitely uphold the principles of honest cooperation and work with the Bank of East Asia and other partners to promote the development of Hong Kong’s financial market.

This incident has also been a wake-up call for us. In the future, we will handle all matters with greater caution and ensure that a similar situation never occurs again.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, his tone softening a little. “Mr. Brown is a sensible man. I trust that Standard Chartered Bank will make the right choice. I hope our future cooperation will be smooth and pleasant, bringing new vitality and opportunities to Hong Kong’s financial market.”

Brown, as if relieved of a heavy burden, said hurriedly, “Of course, of course. Thank you for your magnanimity and trust, Mr. Lin. I will head to Hang Seng Bank as early as possible tomorrow morning to await your and Mr. Ho’s arrival. I won’t disturb your rest any longer. I will report any developments to you at the first opportunity.”

Lin Haoran grunted in acknowledgment and hung up the phone.

Afterward, Lin Haoran called Ho Sin Hang and recounted his entire conversation with Brown.

After listening on the other end of the line, Ho Sin Hang’s spirits soared, and his voice trembled with excitement.

After all, the management rights of Hang Seng Bank, after so many twists and turns, were finally returning to his control.

The feeling was like having a treasured child, whom he had raised with meticulous care, finally return home safe and sound after being lost for a long time. How could he not be overcome with emotion?

Placing the mobile phone back on the coffee table, Lin Haoran crossed his legs and began to ponder.

Standard Chartered Bank backing down was to be expected.

However, Lin Haoran was someone who held a grudge.

Let them off this easily?

He wasn’t that magnanimous.

If it weren’t for yesterday’s incident, Lin Haoran might not have specifically targeted Standard Chartered Bank. The market was large enough for everyone to do their own business peacefully.

But Standard Chartered Bank just had to court disaster!

No matter what, courting disaster came with a price.

Even though they had backed down now, it was only because they had been openly threatened by Lin Haoran and finally slapped awake.

A cold glint flashed in Lin Haoran’s eyes. He tapped his fingers lightly on the armrest of the sofa, a plan already forming in his mind.

He knew full well that in Hong Kong, where the business world is like a battlefield, mercy to an enemy was cruelty to oneself.

Although Standard Chartered Bank had backed down from its provocation, the thorn had been planted. If it wasn’t pulled out, it would remain a hidden danger.

He stood up, walked out onto the terrace, and let the sea breeze wash over him. Gazing at the brilliant yet turbulent night view of Victoria Harbour, he murmured to himself, “Since you were the first to have crooked ideas, don’t blame me for being ruthless.”

Lin Haoran knew that to really teach Standard Chartered Bank a lesson, he had to strike at its core interests.

However, there was no need to rush things now.

The immediate priority was to firmly secure Hang Seng Bank.

Furthermore, with the recent constant turmoil and frequent changes in the Hong Kong financial market, the Government House’s patience was likely reaching its limit.

What’s more, some of the conditions Standard Chartered Bank had previously promised Lin Haoran had yet to be fully delivered.

Take, for example, the promise to help him obtain banknote-issuing rights. Although Brown had stated with conviction that he was certain of success, it had yet to materialize.

Before these key promises were settled, launching a retaliatory strike against Standard Chartered Bank was clearly not a wise move.

After all, having a complete falling-out with Standard Chartered Bank at this moment could disrupt his current plans and affect the progress of many subsequent initiatives.

Therefore, it was better to bide his time for now, let Standard Chartered Bank relax and catch its breath. When conditions are right, success will naturally follow, and it wouldn’t be too late to settle the score then.

After all, they were all in the not-so-large pond of Hong Kong’s financial market. The days ahead were long, and there would be plenty of opportunities to make Standard Chartered Bank “learn its lesson” thoroughly.

Lin Haoran stretched and returned to the bedroom.

The night passed just like that.

The next morning, Lin Haoran once again woke up from a sweet dream.

When he opened his eyes, it was already eight o’clock in the morning.

After getting up, the maid quickly prepared his breakfast and the newspapers.

Lin Haoran leisurely sat on the sofa, slowly savoring a basket of fresh and springy shrimp dumplings while casually picking up a copy of the Wah Kiu Yat Po to read.

The headlines in the mainstream media today were still focused on the acquisition of HSBC by Standard Chartered Bank.

However, it was a far cry from the coverage of the past few days.

A few days ago, related content had dominated nearly half the newspaper, filled with all sorts of rumor about Standard Chartered’s acquisition of HSBC.

But today, less than a quarter of the page was devoted to the report.

This stark change undoubtedly indicated that the buzz around Standard Chartered acquiring HSBC was receding like the tide.

After all, newspapers were always profit-driven “traffic hunters.” Whichever story had high traffic and attention, they would swarm it like sharks that smelled blood, reporting on it extensively.

The reduced coverage meant they had realized the event’s peak popularity had passed. Continuing with large-scale reports would find it difficult to attract readers’ eyes or generate significant traffic.

Moreover, the Hong Kong financial market had always been volatile, and new hot topics could emerge at any moment to capture the public’s attention.

For instance, the matter of him being interviewed outside the Hang Seng Building yesterday afternoon was reported word for word, becoming the secondary headline in the Wah Kiu Yat Po.

Lin Haoran read through several more newspapers. Many of them even featured his words as their main headline.

At the same time, many reporters were speculating about the nature of the cooperation between Standard Chartered Bank and Lin Haoran.

Various rumors began to ferment again, with all sorts of outlandish guesses filling the air.

Some said Lin Haoran and Standard Chartered had long been in collusion and had reached a secret agreement, and that HSBC was brought down through their joint design.

Others claimed that Lin Haoran actually harbored even greater ambitions. He intended to use Standard Chartered’s power to gradually consolidate Hong Kong’s banking resources and ultimately build his own financial empire, with Standard Chartered being merely a pawn in his grand scheme.

Even more extravagant rumors suggested that Lin Haoran’s Bank of East Asia was acting in collusion with Standard Chartered this time, gradually swallowing up the remaining market share in Hong Kong, attempting to completely monopolize the city’s financial market and squeeze out other banks.

These stories grew more and more absurd, as if Lin Haoran were an omnipotent, legendary figure who could wield immense power in both Hong Kong’s financial and underworld circles.

Reading these ridiculous reports, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but laugh.

Some things were actually guessed correctly by certain media outlets, such as the fact that he and Standard Chartered had indeed worked together to bring down HSBC.

However, most of it was just exaggerated and false reporting.

Lin Haoran was long accustomed to such reports.

He was well aware that in a place like Hong Kong, with its information explosion and chaotic public opinion, rumors were like weeds—they could never be truly stamped out.

However, he had no intention of coming forward to clarify these rumors, because there was no need.

He had long experienced what the Hong Kong media’s so-called “freedom of speech” was all about. Many media outlets were even controlled by certain tycoons, all serving their own interests.

Back then, Jardine Matheson & Co. had used the media against Lin Haoran’s Fortress Electrical Company, only to be counterattacked by him in the end.

So, he only believed about thirty percent of these so-called reports. As for the other seventy percent, Lin Haoran treated them as short stories.

Of course, Lin Haoran was no different himself. He now controlled Hong Kong’s best-selling newspaper, the Oriental Daily News.

It could be said that he controlled the public narrative of the Oriental Daily News!

It wasn’t until ten o’clock in the morning that Lin Haoran finally left the house.

This was because Ho Sin Hang had called to tell him that he had arrived at Hang Seng Bank early in the morning, and HSBC had already returned the five billion Hong Kong dollar “three-year zero-interest” loan to Hang Seng Bank.

After confirming that Hang Seng Bank had received the funds, the Bank of East Asia straightforwardly transferred 1.35 billion Hong Kong dollars to HSBC.

This money was, of course, the payment from the Bank of East Asia for the acquisition of Hang Seng Bank’s shares.

Now, with this bank transfer completed, the transaction between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC was formally finalized.

Hang Seng Bank officially belonged to Lin Haoran.

Afterward, Ho Sin Hang smoothly led his team to take over the overall management of Hang Seng Bank.

What made it especially smooth was that with the active cooperation of Hang Seng Bank’s senior executives, the entire takeover process proceeded without any obstacles and was exceptionally efficient, completed in almost no time.

Once the takeover was complete, Ho Sin Hang immediately released a notice to the public: Hang Seng Bank would hold a press conference at the Hang Seng Building at eleven o’clock in the morning, and all reporter friends were cordially invited.

In fact, Lin Haoran had already informed the major media outlets yesterday that a press conference would be held this morning.

So, the moment the news came from Hang Seng Building, the media personnel, who were like hungry fish eagerly awaiting bait, immediately grabbed their interview equipment and rushed towards the building.

When Lin Haoran arrived at Hang Seng Bank, it was only about ten-twenty.

This time, he had learned his lesson. Instead of parking in the lot outside the building, he drove directly into the underground garage.

By now, the area outside the Hang Seng Building was already jammed solid, with reporters from all outlets armed with a flurry of cameras and lenses.

Lin Haoran’s Rolls-Royce was too conspicuous. The moment it arrived at the Hang Seng Building, it was noticed by many reporters.

Unfortunately for them, he didn’t get out of the car, and the underground garage was managed by security guards, who blocked the reporters from entering.

Lin Haoran turned his head slightly, glanced through the car window at the reporters being held back by security, their faces a mixture of helplessness and eagerness, and a faint, almost imperceptible smile touched his lips.

From this moment on, his financial empire had taken another step forward, its strength growing once again.

Although Hang Seng Bank’s current market share was far from that of the Bank of East Asia, a closer look revealed that most of the Bank of East Asia’s market share was either supported by Lin Haoran’s own enterprises or gained because others were giving him a favor.

In reality, the Bank of East Asia’s own strength was far inferior to Hang Seng Bank’s.

One could see this from the rankings of the two banks before Lin Haoran entered the banking industry.

At that time, even though Hang Seng Bank was controlled by HSBC and was constantly having its blood sucked, its market share was still firmly in second place.

The Bank of East Asia, on the other hand, was ranked only fourth.

Although there were only two places between them in the rankings, the difference in their capital was several times over.

For this reason, successfully acquiring Hang Seng Bank was of great and far-reaching significance to Lin Haoran.

Taking the elevator, Lin Haoran soon arrived at the Chairman’s office.

Inside the office were still Ho Sin Hang, Brown, and William Purves.

However, unlike yesterday, William Purves no longer wore a panicked and frightened expression.

After all, Standard Chartered Bank had helped him resolve the issue of the irregular fund transfer, and he no longer had to worry about whether he would go to jail.

“Haoran, you’re here!” Ho Sin Hang smiled and greeted Lin Haoran upon seeing him.

“Uncle He, good morning!” Lin Haoran replied with a smiling nod.

“Mr. Lin.”

“Good morning, Mr. Lin.”

Both Brown and William Purves greeted Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping across the three men’s faces before he sat down directly in an empty chair.

“Mr. Lin, Standard Chartered Bank has completed the handover of Hang Seng Bank. The shares have been transferred, and your people have smoothly taken over all aspects of the company.

From now on, Hang Seng Bank has no more connection with HSBC or Standard Chartered Bank. On that note, I congratulate you, Mr. Lin, on this great expansion of your financial power!” Brown forced a smile and offered his congratulations against his conscience.

Standard Chartered Bank’s heart was aching. If only they could have successfully taken over Hang Seng Bank, how wonderful that would have been.

But now, they could only watch helplessly as such a prize fell into someone else’s hands.

What a pity, but they never had the chance.

Circumstances were now beyond their control, and they even had to put on a smile and be gracious to Lin Haoran.

But what else could they do?

At this critical juncture, Standard Chartered Bank absolutely could not afford to offend Lin Haoran. Even if they were full of resentment, they could only bite the bullet and back down.

“Indeed, Standard Chartered Bank is truly a company that honors its word!” Lin Haoran chuckled.

At this moment, the two sides had returned to their insincere exchanges.

The tense, confrontational atmosphere of yesterday seemed to have vanished in an instant.

Brown stood up from his chair, a somewhat unnatural smile plastered on his face, and said, “Mr. Lin, Mr. Ho, since the handover is complete, we’ll take our leave. If there’s anything, feel free to contact us.”

With that, Brown prepared to leave with William Purves.

This place no longer had anything to do with them, so there was no need for them to stay.

Moreover, Hang Seng Bank had, in effect, become a place of shame for Standard Chartered and HSBC. To remain here was too stifling.

Just as Brown finished speaking, Lin Haoran suddenly raised his hand in a gesture to wait, a faint smile playing on his lips. “Mr. Brown, don’t be in such a hurry to leave.”

Brown and William Purves, who had just stood up to leave, had no choice but to stop and turn to look at Lin Haoran in confusion.

“Mr. Lin, is there something else?” Brown asked, puzzled.

In truth, he had wanted to leave this place as soon as the handover was complete.

After all, Hang Seng Bank now belonged to Lin, and it had no connection to them or HSBC anymore.

However, since he had been told that Lin Haoran, the new boss, would be coming, he had to suppress his impatience and wait.

Now that Lin Haoran had arrived and he had greeted him, he naturally did not want to stay any longer.

Lin Haoran stood up, walked to the window, and looked down.

He saw that the ground floor was already swarming with reporters, over three or four hundred of them.

Looking into the distance, cars with various media company logos were continuously speeding towards the Hang Seng Building.

If things continued, the number of reporters gathered would surely be staggering.

“Mr. Brown, look. Hundreds of reporters have already gathered downstairs. They’re all dying to know what kind of deal we’ve made. As partners, why don’t we just hold a joint press conference? What do you think?” Lin Haoran gestured downstairs, a smile on his face as he looked at Brown.

Hearing this, Brown’s mouth twitched. He wanted to refuse, but he knew that objecting would be a direct snub to Lin Haoran.

Brown weighed his options. He knew this was not the time to offend Lin Haoran. The refusal on the tip of his tongue eventually went unsaid.

He forced a smile more bitter than tears and said, “Since Mr. Lin has suggested it, then of course there’s no problem.”

He was forced by the circumstances. Standard Chartered Bank was in a position of clear weakness, and as the head of its Hong Kong operations, Brown could absolutely not cause any unnecessary trouble for the bank.

In his heart, he was extremely reluctant to attend this press conference.

But now, there was no escaping it.

As he expected, this press conference would undoubtedly tarnish Standard Chartered Bank’s image.

After all, the matter of Hang Seng Bank had been secretly negotiated between Lin Haoran and Standard Chartered, and had never been disclosed to the public.

Standard Chartered Bank had been in the limelight recently. After successfully annexing HSBC, it appeared to have grown significantly in strength, replacing HSBC as the largest British-owned bank.

Yet, at this critical juncture, it had to helplessly lose Hang Seng Bank.

This was undoubtedly a deeply embarrassing matter for Standard Chartered Bank.

After all, anyone with a bit of financial knowledge understood the importance of Hang Seng Bank.

Standard Chartered Bank transferring Hang Seng Bank to Lin Haoran was definitely not a willing act.

Since it wasn’t voluntary, it must have been forced.

Without even thinking, Brown could already imagine the sharp and biting questions the reporters would ask, questions that would be incredibly embarrassing for Standard Chartered Bank.

Those questions would be like sharp daggers, stabbing directly at the already fragile defenses of Standard Chartered’s reputation.

But things had come to this, and he could only brace himself and face it.

The men continued their conversation in the office. Unconsciously, the clock hands were nearing eleven.

Just then, there was a light knock on the office door, and Da Shan, the general manager of the Bank of East Asia, pushed the door open and entered.

The general manager had come over with Ho Sin Hang early in the morning to handle the takeover of Hang Seng Bank and had been busy all morning.

“Boss, Chairman Ho,” Da Shan said as soon as he entered, reporting crisply, “Everything for the press conference in the lobby on the first floor is ready. The reporters are all in place, and everyone we expected has arrived. We can start at any time.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly and said with a smile, “Since everything is ready, let’s not keep the reporters waiting too long. Let’s head down together now.”

The first-floor lobby was now a bustling sea of people. Nearly five hundred reporters were gathered there, and the atmosphere was lively and noisy. Such a large gathering of media was definitely a rare sight.

The reporters were all craning their necks, desperate to find out what kind of collaboration could be so mysterious.

In front of the eagerly waiting reporters, a temporary stage had been set up.

On the stage was a long table, with several chairs arranged neatly behind it.

Chapter 682: An Abundance of Talent Under His Command

Lin Haoran, Brown, William Purves, Ho Sin Hang, and Da Shan walked onto the dais one by one, taking their seats in their designated chairs.

The reporters’ cameras all focused on the group on stage. The sound of shutters clicking was incessant, and the entire venue buzzed with discussion.

Lin Haoran wore a faint smile. He gently raised his hand, a gesture that carried an aura of authority without him having to display anger.

In Hong Kong, he still held a position of crucial importance. The moment his hand went up, the entire noisy hall fell silent, as if by magic.

Once the venue had quieted down, Lin Haoran, the Boss, spoke first. “Good morning to all our friends from the media. I imagine you have all been very curious over the past two days about the nature of our cooperation with Standard Chartered Bank.

“Today, I won’t hide anything from you. I will now make a solemn announcement: HSBC has sold all 62.14% of its shares in Hang Seng Bank to me.

“In other words, from this day forward, Hang Seng Bank no longer belongs to HSBC. It has returned to the embrace of a Chinese-owned enterprise, and Mr. Ho Sin Hang will once again take the helm of Hang Seng Bank!”

The moment Lin Haoran finished speaking, the reporters in the hall erupted in an uproar, the commotion instantly filling every corner.

The news was completely unexpected, landing like a bombshell on a calm lake.

It was so sudden that it caught the reporters completely off guard. Before this, they hadn’t received even the slightest whisper of a rumor.

Standard Chartered Bank had kept this news under tight wraps, and Lin Haoran’s side had been just as tight-lipped, not revealing a single detail beforehand. As a result, everyone was completely in the dark.

Hang Seng Bank was a prestigious and influential name in Hong Kong’s financial industry.

Back when it was acquired by HSBC, the news had undoubtedly struck a blow to the hearts of countless citizens, becoming a source of unspoken pain.

Hang Seng Bank had grown and flourished, rising at an astonishing speed. With its steady management and considerate service, it quickly won the public’s trust, becoming the undisputed pillar of Chinese-owned finance in their eyes.

However, circumstances were unpredictable. A莫名其妙 an inexplicable rumor soon plunged Hang Seng Bank into a bank run, and it was ultimately forced to don the “hat” of a British-owned subsidiary.

The regret of watching a source of local pride fall under the control of a British-funded conglomerate was like a splinter lodged deep in the hearts of Hong Kong’s Chinese population.

Only the older generation of Hong Kong citizens could truly appreciate this bitterness and helplessness; the youth could hardly comprehend it.

“Mr. Brown, is this news true?” Many reporters, regaining their senses, eagerly sought confirmation from Brown, hoping he would verify the matter.

Although they believed Lin Haoran wouldn’t just make things up, the news was so sudden and jaw-dropping that it was simply too incredible to believe.

Hang Seng Bank had once been Hong Kong’s second-largest bank. Even after being forced to become a subsidiary of HSBC, it had remained a powerful force, developing smoothly.

In the hearts of many Hong Kong citizens, its status was second only to HSBC itself.

Although Hang Seng Bank had recently suffered heavy losses and been severely impacted due to its connection with HSBC, this did nothing to shake its esteemed position in the public’s eyes.

Even now, battered and bruised with enormous losses, its on-paper capital still amounted to over ten billion Hong Kong dollars, placing it firmly among the top ranks of Hong Kong’s banks.

Hang Seng Bank was already deeply ingrained in Hong Kong’s financial world, a truly iconic brand.

Yet, what was so incredible was that after acquiring HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank was actually willing to sell such a valuable subsidiary to Lin Haoran.

No matter how one looked at it, the whole affair reeked of an indescribable incredulity.

Faced with the reporters’ questions, Brown’s expression soured.

Lin Haoran was truly determined to embarrass him!

Did this not imply that they had collaborated with Lin Haoran, a Chinese-owned bank, to bring down HSBC, a fellow British-owned company?

Although this was the truth, and many big shots knew it, if the real story got out, it would definitely make many companies wary of Standard Chartered Bank.

Commercial competition was normal, but British-owned companies in Hong Kong had always presented a united front on the surface.

If word got out that Standard Chartered had teamed up with an outsider against “one of their own,” it would surely cause many to lose trust in the bank.

After all, when cooperating with Standard Chartered, people would inevitably worry: what if the bank set its sights on them one day? Wouldn’t they be devoured down to the last scrap?

Therefore, after successfully taking control of HSBC, Standard Chartered had consistently claimed that it had only stepped in to help when it saw HSBC facing a capital chain crisis.

This was just like when HSBC had come to Hang Seng Bank’s aid years ago, ultimately gaining a controlling stake in the company. It all seemed to be a matter of course.

However, now that Standard Chartered was turning around and selling Hang Seng Bank to Lin Haoran, it was hard not to let one’s imagination run wild.

Wasn’t this tantamount to announcing to the world that they and Lin Haoran had colluded on the HSBC matter, even hinting that Standard Chartered had secretly orchestrated HSBC’s decline?

Brown did his best to suppress his inner embarrassment and awkwardness. Facing the sea of reporters swarming him, he forced the corners of his mouth into a stiff, unnatural smile. “Everyone, Standard Chartered’s sale of Hang Seng Bank is purely a business decision based on our own strategic adjustments.

“As you may have heard, we invested a huge amount of capital to help HSBC resolve its financial difficulties, which has put Standard Chartered under considerable financial pressure.

“After repeated discussions and weighing the pros and cons, the senior executives at our head office decided to sell Hang Seng Bank. Through this measure, we can effectively alleviate our current capital strain.

“So, I can clearly state to you all that Hang Seng Bank has indeed been sold to Mr. Lin.”

Lin Haoran glanced at Brown in surprise. He hadn’t expected the old fellow to be so clever.

This answer perfectly placed Standard Chartered in a seemingly reasonable and helpless position, skillfully sidestepping all external speculation about them teaming up with Lin Haoran to crush HSBC or orchestrating things from behind the scenes.

However, the reporters were not so easily fooled.

An experienced female reporter with a sharp gaze immediately stood up, her microphone extended towards Brown as she asked in a piercing tone, “Mr. Brown, you say this is a business decision based on strategic adjustments, but Hang Seng Bank holds a decisive position in Hong Kong’s financial world. Even if Standard Chartered is under financial pressure, were there no other, better solutions?

“For example, seeking cooperation with other British-owned companies or bringing in new strategic investors, rather than selling it directly to the Chinese-owned Mr. Lin. This is truly difficult to understand.”

Tiny beads of sweat appeared on Brown’s forehead. He feigned composure and replied, “My friend, business decisions are often complex and ever-changing. In the current situation, after evaluation and analysis by our professional team, selling Hang Seng Bank was the most direct and effective way to alleviate our capital pressure.

“Other options were considered, but they all came with numerous uncertainties and risks that could have resulted in even greater losses for Standard Chartered Bank.”

Just then, another male reporter from the Sing Tao Daily immediately followed up, “Mr. Brown, after Standard Chartered successfully took control of HSBC, you always claimed it was to help resolve its capital chain crisis.

“But now you’re turning around and selling Hang Seng Bank. Does this mean that from the very beginning, Standard Chartered had deeper strategic intentions in taking over HSBC, and that helping resolve the crisis was just a pretext?”

Brown’s face instantly turned as dark as a stormy sky; it was an ugly sight.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm his ragged breathing and keep his tone steady. He forced himself to say, “That kind of talk is nothing more than baseless, malicious speculation. Standard Chartered’s initial intention in taking control of HSBC was, from start to finish, to genuinely help it solve its financial troubles and to do everything in our power to promote the stability and development of Hong Kong’s financial market.

“As for the subsequent decision to sell Hang Seng Bank, it was a reasonable adjustment made after careful consideration based on a keen understanding of market dynamics and our company’s actual situation. There is no necessary connection between the two.”

Lin Haoran had already solemnly promised him not to reveal any details of their cooperation, which was the source of Brown’s confidence in giving such an assertive answer.

Otherwise, all it would take was a few casual words from Lin Haoran to instantly expose his flimsy claims.

However, Brown had already cursed Lin Haoran a thousand times in his heart.

If Lin Haoran hadn’t insisted on him staying to attend this press conference, why would he have been put in such an embarrassing situation?

It was true that after the news of Hang Seng Bank’s acquisition by Lin Haoran got out, reporters would have sought him out for interviews anyway.

But as long as he refused to be interviewed and made no comment, the matter would naturally fizzle out over time.

But now, “propped up” by Lin Haoran at this press conference, he felt like a fish being roasted over a fire, with no way to advance or retreat.

The atmosphere in the room grew increasingly tense as reporters’ questions flew at Brown in rapid-fire succession.

A young reporter from Ta Kung Pao, his face full of suspicion, asked loudly, “Mr. Brown, even if selling Hang Seng Bank is a strategic adjustment, why now, at this critical juncture?

“HSBC just went through a crisis, and now Hang Seng Bank is changing hands. It’s hard not to think there are more complex interests at play behind the scenes.”

The corner of Brown’s mouth twitched slightly. He suppressed his anger and tried to keep his voice calm. “Young man, the market changes in an instant. The timing of every decision is something we consider carefully.

“Selling Hang Seng Bank at this point in time is what we deemed most appropriate after considering various factors. There are no so-called complex interests involved.”

Watching this scene unfold, Lin Haoran wanted to laugh out loud but managed to hold it in.

Ahem, after all, one had to maintain a serious and solemn demeanor on such an occasion.

He quickly lowered his head, suppressing the smile that was about to bloom on his face.

He had expected some excitement from having Brown at the press conference, but he hadn’t anticipated the situation would develop so far beyond his expectations.

The reporters were like sharks that had scented blood, relentlessly pursuing Brown, seemingly determined not to let up until they got the real story out of him.

…

The press conference lasted for a full hour.

After realizing they couldn’t get any more useful information out of Brown, the reporters finally turned their attention back to Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang.

Strictly speaking, Lin Haoran was the real protagonist of the day.

After all, he was the one who had acquired Hang Seng Bank.

As the press conference neared its end, a reporter asked, “After acquiring Hang Seng Bank, does this mean it will become a subsidiary of the Bank of East Asia in the future?”

For Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang, this was an entirely expected question.

After all, when the Bank of East Asia had previously acquired Dao Heng Bank, Dao Heng had become its direct subsidiary.

Moreover, the Bank of East Asia’s current capital scale far surpassed that of Hang Seng Bank, even showing signs of reaching a size comparable to HSBC in its heyday.

So, in everyone’s eyes, it seemed a matter of course that after the acquisition, Hang Seng Bank would be absorbed into the Bank of East Asia.

“On this point, I can state clearly that we have no intention of merging Hang Seng Bank into the Bank of East Asia system. In my view, Hang Seng Bank is an exceptional institution and should maintain a degree of independence.

“Therefore, after discussions with Mr. Ho Sin Hang, we have decided to form a banking group. This group will be established very soon. Once it is formed, the Bank of East Asia, Dao Heng Bank, and the newly acquired Hang Seng Bank will all become subsidiaries of this banking group.

“At that time, the three banks will not be subordinate to one another, but will work closely together as sister companies. As for the group’s name, we have already decided on it: the Hang Seng Group.

“Once the Hang Seng Group is established, I will appoint Mr. Ho Sin Hang as its Chairman. As for myself, I will act as the ultimate owner and will not interfere excessively in the group’s affairs.

“In the future, while consolidating its position in the Hong Kong financial market, our Hang Seng Group will also focus on developing in the international market. I hope everyone will continue to support the banks under our Hang Seng Group. Thank you!” Lin Haoran responded with a smile.

“Mr. Lin, why name the group Hang Seng Group instead of East Asia Group? Could you explain that to us?” a reporter pressed on, eager for more answers.

The press conference had already gone on for over an hour, but the reporters’ questions seemed endless, coming one after another.

At this rate, the press conference might never end.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran gave Da Shan a look. Da Shan understood the unspoken question and immediately stood up. “Everyone, given that we have just completed the acquisition of Hang Seng Bank, there are still many matters that need our immediate attention. Therefore, this press conference will now conclude.

“Please exit in an orderly fashion. Head of security, could you please assist in guiding our reporter friends out safely and in an orderly manner.”

After he spoke, the people on the dais ignored the reporters.

“Mr. Brown, thank you for participating in this press conference.” Before Brown left, Lin Haoran smiled and shook his hand.

Brown had been “besieged” by reporters for over an hour, and his face was still dark enough to drip water. But faced with Lin Haoran’s smile and handshake, he managed to squeeze out a stiff smile.

“Mr. Lin,” Brown said in a dry voice, “I hope our future cooperation will go smoothly, without any more of these headaches.”

Though he said that, he was cursing inwardly, wishing only to stay as far away from this troublesome business as possible in the future.

The corner of Lin Haoran’s mouth curved up slightly. “Of course,” he said with a smile. “Rest assured, Mr. Brown, our cooperation certainly has a bright future. Thank you for your hard work today. If there’s anything else we need to discuss, we’ll be in touch.”

Brown nodded slightly. After releasing Lin Haoran’s hand, he grabbed William Purves and hurried towards the exit with a dark expression, looking as if he were being chased by a pack of ferocious beasts.

Along the way, he thoroughly cursed Lin Haoran in his mind, fully convinced that today’s utterly embarrassing situation had been deliberately orchestrated and meticulously planned by him.

But even filled with resentment, he knew there was nothing he could do about it. He could only grit his teeth inwardly. “I can’t afford to provoke you, but I can at least avoid you!”

By the elevator, Lin Haoran looked back at the reporters who were leaving but still glancing back reluctantly. A meaningful smile touched his lips.

By tomorrow, the news of the Hang Seng Bank acquisition and the formation of the Hang Seng Group would be known to everyone in Hong Kong, spread by these media outlets.

This would greatly increase the Hang Seng Group’s influence and further solidify its position as the hegemon of the financial industry.

As for Standard Chartered Bank?

Based on the current situation, it would take them at least a year or two to fully digest the market share they had gained from HSBC.

He withdrew his gaze and entered the elevator with Ho Sin Hang and Da Shan. As the doors slowly closed, they ascended to the floor of the Hang Seng Bank Chairman’s office.

“Boss, Chairman Ho.” When they returned to the office, the senior executives of Hang Seng Bank were all there.

They looked at Ho Sin Hang with great enthusiasm.

They had been resentful when the Westerner William Purves was their leader.

But now that the position was being returned to Ho Sin Hang, they were one hundred percent on board.

“Haoran, come, let me introduce you. This is the general manager of Hang Seng Bank, Mr. Lee Kwok-wai. This is the head of the Hang Seng Index, Mr. Kwan Sai-kwong. This is the Deputy General Manager of Hang Seng Bank…” Ho Sin Hang began to introduce them to Lin Haoran one by one.

“Mr. Lee Kwok-wai? What is your relationship with Mr. Li Mingze?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

There weren’t many people with the surname Lee. Upon hearing the name, Lin Haoran immediately thought of the famous Lee Hysan family.

He had acquired TVB shares and China Light & Power shares from the Lee family, so he was quite familiar with them.

However, he did not recognize the man before him, Lee Kwok-wai.

“Boss, Li Mingze is my older cousin,” Lee Kwok-wai replied respectfully.

“Haoran, Kwok-wai is extremely talented in financial management. I’ve always been grooming him as my successor. Back when I was Chairman of Hang Seng Bank, I had planned for Kwok-wai to become the new Chairman after my retirement,” Ho Sin Hang explained with a smile.

It was a sudden realization for Lin Haoran.

The Lee Kwok-wai before him was actually in his early sixties, but compared to Ho Sin Hang, he was indeed still young.

So, if Lee Kwok-wai was outstanding, it was not surprising that Ho Sin Hang had groomed him as his successor.

“Keep up the good work!” Lin Haoran said with a broad smile as he shook Lee Kwok-wai’s hand.

These were his top lieutenants.

Now, he had an abundance of talent under his command.

His gaze then fell upon another industry tycoon—the head of the Hang Seng Index, Mr. Kwan Sai-kwong.

Although Lin Haoran didn’t know Kwan Sai-kwong personally, he had long heard of his great reputation.

While the Hang Seng Index was created under Ho Sin Hang’s leadership, the person who actually led the team in its compilation was the man standing before him now, Mr. Kwan Sai-kwong.

Kwan Sai-kwong was in his fifties, right in the prime of his career.

Excellent, excellent. All of them are talented.

“Mr. Kwan, hello. I have long admired your reputation!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, extending his hand to shake Kwan Sai-kwong’s warmly.

Kwan Sai-kwong nodded slightly, a look of humility and pride on his face.

He said, “You’re too kind, Boss. This was the result of our team’s collective effort. Moreover, the Hang Seng Index would not be where it is today without Chairman Ho’s initial guidance and planning. I merely did my best to execute and optimize his vision.”

Ho Sin Hang smiled and waved his hand dismissively. “Mr. Kwan, you’re being too modest. Without you on the front lines, leading the team through countless days and nights, constantly adjusting and improving the index in response to market changes, the Hang Seng Index would never have achieved its current success.

“The future development of our Hang Seng Group will depend heavily on Mr. Kwan continuing to play a key role.”

Lin Haoran nodded in agreement. “Chairman Ho is right. Mr. Kwan, now that the Hang Seng Group is about to be formed, we have ambitious goals. We must not only secure our footing in Hong Kong’s financial market but also expand internationally.

“In this process, the importance of the Hang Seng Index is self-evident. I hope you will continue to lead your team and make the Hang Seng Index a resounding name in the international financial market, becoming an important window for global investors to understand Hong Kong’s financial market.

“Once the Hang Seng Group is established, the Hang Seng Index Company will enjoy the same status as Hang Seng Bank, the Bank of East Asia, and Dao Heng Bank, reporting directly to the Hang Seng Group. Keep up the good work, Mr. Kwan!”

Upon hearing this, a glint of excitement flashed in Kwan Sai-kwong’s eyes. This was a direct elevation of the Hang Seng Index Company’s status!

He said solemnly, “Please rest assured, Boss. I will do my utmost. I will lead my team to conduct in-depth research into the dynamics and rules of the international financial market, and combining that with the characteristics of the Hong Kong market, we will further innovate and enhance the Hang Seng Index to make it more influential and competitive internationally.”

Chapter 683: 146.3 Billion Hong Kong Dollars, Over Sixty Percent Market Share!

In the office, after introducing all the senior executives to Lin Haoran one by one, everyone returned to their posts and threw themselves into their busy work.

In the blink of an eye, only Lin Haoran and Ho Sin Hang remained in the spacious office.

As the transfer of management authority had just been completed, there was now a large volume of work that needed to be synchronized and sorted out.

At this moment, Ho Sin Hang was sitting at his desk, completely focused on organizing a thick stack of documents.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran was lounging on the sofa in the office’s rest area, a financial data report from Hang Seng Bank held firmly in his hand as he read it line by line.

At its peak, Hang Seng Bank’s capital had reached just over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars, giving it a slight edge over Standard Chartered Bank.

But times had changed. Its capital had now shrunk drastically to just over eleven billion Hong Kong dollars. The disparity was truly lamentable.

It had to be said that Hang Seng Bank had been severely dragged down by HSBC.

The reason for this traced back to the two banks’ fundamentally different sources of capital.

HSBC’s capital channels relied mainly on large corporations. British-owned companies and Hong Kong’s local giants were its major sources of funding.

These large enterprises had substantial capital and stable partnerships with HSBC, providing it with a solid financial backbone.

In contrast, Hang Seng Bank’s capital sources had a more “grassroots” character, relying more on Hong Kong’s ordinary citizens and small and medium-sized enterprises.

The deposits from ordinary citizens were scattered, and the capital scale of SMEs was relatively limited. Moreover, their stability was far inferior to that of large corporations.

This capital structure made Hang Seng Bank relatively weaker and less resilient when facing market fluctuations.

This time, a fierce business war had erupted between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia, a “financial storm” that quickly swept through Hong Kong’s entire business world.

Due to its inextricable link with HSBC, Hang Seng Bank was unfortunately drawn into the conflict and became a “sacrificial lamb” in this business war.

In a short period, Hang Seng Bank’s capital base was slashed by nearly half. This was undoubtedly a heavy blow, making a bad situation worse for the already challenged bank.

Of course, of the nearly ten billion Hong Kong dollars in lost funds, most of it had flowed to the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank, both under Lin Haoran’s control.

Therefore, although Hang Seng Bank’s capital had been greatly reduced, the fact that the funds had moved to his own camp meant the overall impact was not too significant.

Meanwhile, after being openly threatened by Lin Haoran, Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC had no choice but to transfer the five billion Hong Kong dollars they had previously appropriated back to Hang Seng Bank.

This five billion Hong Kong dollars provided immense relief to Hang Seng Bank’s financially stretched situation, instantly making its capital position healthy and stable again.

“Uncle He, what’s the current total capital of our three banks—East Asia, Dao Heng, and now Hang Seng?” Lin Haoran asked, gently setting down the financial report and looking up at Ho Sin Hang.

“Haoran, just a moment, I’ll calculate it now,” Ho Sin Hang said, picking up a nearby calculator. His fingers flew across the keys with a practiced rhythm.

Before long, Ho Sin Hang finished his calculations.

“I’ve checked the numbers carefully. Currently, Hang Seng Bank has a capital of 11.38 billion Hong Kong dollars, the Bank of East Asia has reached 125.17 billion Hong Kong dollars, and Dao Heng Bank has 9.84 billion Hong Kong dollars. The total capital for all three banks is 146.39 billion Hong Kong dollars.

“Combined with the latest data released by Universal Research Company, our total capital now accounts for about 62.3% of the entire Hong Kong financial market.

“This market share is actually a bit higher than what HSBC had at its absolute peak!” Ho Sin Hang couldn’t hide the surprise in his voice.

This meant that the current Hang Seng Group was more powerful than the HSBC Group had been even at its zenith.

“What? It’s already exceeded sixty percent market share?” Lin Haoran was also a little surprised, a smile unconsciously spreading across his face.

At its peak, HSBC’s market share, even when combined with Hang Seng Bank and Mercantile Bank, had barely reached sixty percent. That was considered the pinnacle for HSBC.

Now, the Hang Seng Group he was about to formally establish was already set to surpass HSBC’s peak capital size right from the start. This naturally made Lin Haoran very happy.

Lin Haoran’s mind began to churn with calculations: with a massive capital pool of over one hundred billion Hong Kong dollars, what if he were to divert a few tens of billions to invest in the Japanese market?

With the investment opportunities presented by Japan’s impending economic bubble, how much profit could he make by quickly pulling out his capital a few years later before the bubble burst?

If he chose to invest using loans, the interest costs would be absurdly high—basically more than double the interest paid on deposits.

Such high interest payments would eat into investment returns, and large loans would also require collateral of equivalent value, such as stocks.

Instead of that, it was far better to control the banks himself. That way, he could fully utilize the funds deposited by outsiders for his investment activities.

All he would have to pay was the pitifully low interest on deposits. The spread was enormous, and no collateral was required.

Furthermore, controlling a bank had another major advantage: it allowed him to keep his own financial situation sufficiently private.

For instance, before he acquired the Bank of East Asia, the funds of his companies like Hongkong Electric Group and Hongkong Land Group were all held at HSBC. It was safe to say that HSBC knew his financial situation in Hong Kong like the back of its hand.

Under those circumstances, what secrets could he, Lin Haoran, possibly have from HSBC?

In complex business competition, the confidentiality of financial information often determined the success or failure of strategic plans. This was a crucial point.

These were the two core reasons why he had been so determined to acquire the Bank of East Asia in the first place.

However, life was unpredictable.

He had never imagined that just three months after taking control of the Bank of East Asia, events would spiral so completely beyond his expectations.

Not only had he incidentally acquired Dao Heng Bank and Hang Seng Bank, but he had also brought down HSBC, which had once been glorious in Hong Kong’s financial world.

All of this was a genuine accident, completely outside of his original plan.

But, of course, it was a good accident.

Because when HSBC’s commercial empire crumbled, many of the benefits were absorbed by his banks, indirectly enriching him.

“It’s mainly because in the half-month before HSBC’s capital chain broke, a massive amount of funds flowed out of HSBC and Hang Seng Bank and into the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank.

“On top of that, Kowloon Wharf transferred its 4.2 billion Hong Kong dollars in liquid capital out of HSBC, and some other major Chinese-owned enterprises did the same. Now, with Hang Seng Bank’s capital added to ours, it’s only natural that our market share exceeds sixty percent.

“If HSBC hadn’t run out of money and simply closed its branches, we definitely would have absorbed even more capital,” Ho Sin Hang said with a hearty laugh.

About half a month ago, Lin Haoran had specifically arranged for a detailed statistical analysis.

The results showed that at the time, the total capital of the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank was approximately 104.17 billion Hong Kong dollars, accounting for only about 44% of the Hong Kong financial market.

Who could have expected that in just two short weeks, the capital of his banks would skyrocket like a rocket, increasing by another forty billion Hong Kong dollars?

And the market share had jumped directly from 44% to 62.3%. The increase was indeed staggering.

Most of this extra forty billion had been “sucked” from Hong Kong’s various major banks, with HSBC being the biggest “contributor.”

Hang Seng Bank had originally suffered heavy losses from a massive outflow of capital due to its association with HSBC.

Fortunately, most of these departing funds had flowed into the Bank of East Asia.

Now that Hang Seng Bank had been acquired and brought under his banner, the overall impact on Lin Haoran’s financial empire was minimal. In the end, it was just a matter of moving money from his left hand to his right hand within his own banking system.

“It’s fine. I’m already quite satisfied with these results. I’m just a little curious, I wonder what Standard Chartered Bank’s capital size is right now,” Lin Haoran said, tilting his head slightly, his eyes filled with curiosity.

“Although I don’t know the exact figure, I can give a rough estimate without any problem. Standard Chartered’s own market share in Hong Kong corresponds to less than twenty billion Hong Kong dollars in capital. Now that HSBC has been greatly weakened, its remaining market share corresponds to a capital of around 47 billion Hong Kong dollars.

“By that calculation, the combined capital of Standard Chartered and HSBC definitely won’t exceed 67 billion Hong Kong dollars. I’d guess it’s somewhere around 65 billion,”

As a veteran tycoon of the banking world, Ho Sin Hang knew the ins and outs of Hong Kong’s banking industry like the back of his hand. Even his simple analysis wouldn’t be far from the truth.

“Sixty-five billion Hong Kong dollars, huh? In that case, the combined market capital of Standard Chartered and HSBC is less than half of Hang Seng Group’s,” Lin Haoran’s lips curved upward, his smile growing brighter.

This meant that even though Standard Chartered’s strength had grown significantly after acquiring HSBC, it could no longer threaten Hang Seng Group’s position.

Its status as the sole hegemon was secure!

“Indeed, this achievement is already hard to imagine. You’re an outsider, so you might not know, but Hong Kong’s financial market has been turbulent these past two years. First, it was hit by the oil crisis, which destabilized the economy.

“Then the property market suddenly slammed on the brakes, shaking market confidence. On top of that, British-owned companies have been continuously moving their capital out of the city. Under these multiple pressures, the total annual increase in new capital has been very limited.

“And now, even if we just count Standard Chartered and HSBC with their 65 billion Hong Kong dollars, and add our three banks—East Asia, Dao Heng, and Hang Seng—with 146.39 billion, the total capital of just these two forces already exceeds 210 billion Hong Kong dollars.

“The remaining twenty to thirty billion in market capital has to be divided among several hundred banks, which is actually quite a lot, as they never held much market share to begin with,” Ho Sin Hang said, shaking his head with a sigh.

While Hong Kong did indeed have several hundred banks, the reality was that not many of them had a capital of over one hundred million.

Now, Lin Haoran’s Hang Seng Group and the Standard Chartered Group had acquired several of Hong Kong’s largest banks.

Previously, HSBC had firmly held the top seat in Hong Kong’s banking industry, the undisputed number one bank.

Hang Seng Bank followed closely in second place.

Standard Chartered Bank ranked third.

The Bank of East Asia was fourth.

And Dao Heng Bank, which Lin Haoran had acquired some time ago, had also been in the top ten.

But times had changed. If one were to re-rank Hong Kong’s banking industry now, the situation would be completely different.

The Bank of East Asia had leaped to first place.

Standard Chartered had moved from third to second.

The greatly weakened HSBC could only rank third.

Hang Seng Bank had fallen to fourth.

And Dao Heng Bank was in fifth.

Although the rankings had been completely shuffled, a closer look revealed that the top ten was still occupied by the same few banks.

And because the Bank of East Asia’s capital size far exceeded that of the banks behind it, it had a commanding lead.

As for why Standard Chartered could reach second place, it was simple: many large British-owned companies that banked with HSBC had previously indicated they would move their corporate financial services to Standard Chartered. Therefore, Standard Chartered was bound to take HSBC’s place.

And although HSBC’s power had been drastically reduced, it still had clients like Hutchison Whampoa, Cheung Kong Holdings, and World-Wide Shipping Group, whose funds would not be moved. Its strength was still not to be underestimated, so it was only natural for it to temporarily rank third.

“Uncle He, the Bank of East Asia’s current capital base is too bloated, and its operational efficiency is extremely low. After Hang Seng Bank is privatized, I’ll appropriately have some of our groups transfer their funds from the Bank of East Asia over to Hang Seng Bank.

“For example, Hongkong Land Group and Wanqing Group. We can appropriately raise Hang Seng Bank’s capital to fifty or sixty billion Hong Kong dollars. What do you think?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

If nothing else, the Bank of East Asia would struggle to handle the sheer volume of salary transfers for all the corporate employees. The number of employees involved was simply too large.

But now, with Hang Seng Bank, whose operational strength was no less than the Bank of East Asia’s, they could share the burden, making the process of handling salary payments via bank transfers much smoother.

Besides, since the group was named Hang Seng Group, it would seem unfitting if Hang Seng Bank’s capital was so much lower than the Bank of East Asia’s.

Ho Sin Hang’s eyes lit up. He put down his documents and said with great interest, “Haoran, your idea and mine agree without prior consultation! The Bank of East Asia’s capital is indeed massive now, and its operations are complex, making it difficult to manage.

“Diverting some of the funds to Hang Seng Bank will not only relieve the pressure on the Bank of East Asia but also enhance Hang Seng Bank’s strength. It’s a way to kill two birds with one stone.”

“Alright. Since that’s the case, it’s settled. I’ll have a word with Mr. Ma Shimin and Mr. Burton. Once Hang Seng Bank’s privatization is complete, I’ll have those two groups arrange a time to handle the fund transfer with the Bank of East Asia.

“The Bank of East Asia will still have the business of many large corporations like Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, and Kowloon Wharf, plus the numerous citizen and SME deposits it absorbed recently. Its strength will remain formidable. As for Dao Heng Bank, we’ll let it develop freely. In the future, the three banks will engage in healthy competition!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Although the Bank of East Asia had a long history, it ultimately lacked the foundation to handle such a sudden expansion from a few billion Hong Kong dollars to over a hundred billion. It was actually a great strain on the organization.

If not for a tycoon like Ho Sin Hang at the helm, the Bank of East Asia might have already faced internal problems.

Therefore, transferring some of its capital to Hang Seng Bank to reduce the pressure while simultaneously boosting Hang Seng Bank’s strength was a solution that killed two birds with one stone.

Moreover, after shifting some of the market to Hang Seng Bank, Hang Seng Bank and the Bank of East Asia would occupy the top two spots.

In that case, Standard Chartered would have no choice but to go back to being the old number three.

Sometimes, rankings could have a huge impact on reputation.

…

Meanwhile, at Queen Mary Hospital on Pok Fu Lam Road, the atmosphere inside a quiet and well-equipped high-end recovery room was exceptionally peaceful.

At this moment, two renowned figures from Hong Kong’s business world were seated on the sofa in this room.

One, of course, was Pao Yue-kong. The other was Li Jiacheng.

“Brother Pao, you have a healthy glow about you. You’ve recovered quite well. Shouldn’t you be able to leave the hospital by now?” Li Jiacheng asked curiously as he placed a bouquet of fresh flowers into a vase.

Over the past month, under meticulous care and with a world-class medical team watching over him, Pao Yue-kong had already made a full recovery.

However, he had yet to be discharged, choosing instead to remain here peacefully. Anyone who wished to visit him had to first obtain his permission.

“It’s so peaceful here. I don’t have to go out and face all that trouble!” Pao Yue-kong said with a meaningful smile.

Li Jiacheng, being sharp-witted, instantly understood the deeper meaning.

He couldn’t help but cast a look of admiration at Pao Yue-kong, sighing inwardly: as expected, experience comes with age!

Some time ago, when HSBC and the Bank of East Asia were engaged in their business war, Pao Yue-kong’s position had been truly awkward.

On one hand, HSBC had always been a close partner of his. They had cooperated for many years and had a deep friendship.

On the other hand, it was common knowledge that Pao Yue-kong and Lin Haoran had a close relationship.

If either side had forced him to choose, he would have been caught in a difficult position.

However, using his surgery and recovery as an excuse, he had cleverly avoided these thorny and awkward issues, while still being able to secretly direct his son-in-law to handle certain affairs.

“It seems your decision back then was the right one!” Li Jiacheng said with some emotion.

Li Jiacheng was referring to Pao Yue-kong allowing Lin Haoran to become a shareholder in Kowloon Wharf, thereby creating a legitimate reason to transfer Kowloon Wharf’s financial business from HSBC to the Bank of East Asia. With that one move, even if HSBC wanted to blame Pao Yue-kong, it wouldn’t know how.

Lin Haoran was Kowloon Wharf’s second-largest shareholder. Wasn’t it perfectly natural for Kowloon Wharf’s financial business to be moved to a bank under his control?

“Three years ago, I could already see that Haoran was no ordinary person, destined for great things. That’s why I’ve always maintained a good relationship with him. But who could have imagined that the achievements he’s made today would far exceed what I imagined back then!” Pao Yue-kong said with great feeling, his eyes slightly narrowed.

He still remembered his first meeting with Lin Haoran on the private beach at Deep Water Bay.

At that time, Lin Haoran was still a nobody in the business world, yet to make his mark.

Later, he heard that Lin Haoran was secretly making a play for Kowloon Wharf and had even offered to sell him the Kowloon Wharf shares he held, on the condition that Pao would persuade Li Jiacheng to give up on Green Island Cement.

At the time, he was both amazed by Lin Haoran’s courage and strategy and curious about such a bold move.

Later still, on the eve of the oil crisis, Lin Haoran decisively hoarded crude oil.

Pao Yue-kong had witnessed this entire series of astonishing operations.

One could say he had personally watched Lin Haoran’s entire journey, from a fledgling just starting out to establishing a firm foothold in the business world and rising step by step.

And now, Lin Haoran had essentially saved his life.

Previously, Lin Haoran had warned him to be mindful of cancer risks, allowing him to intervene and get treatment in the early stages of the disease.

If that wasn’t a life-saving debt, what was?

Thus, Pao Yue-kong’s attitude toward Lin Haoran had long since transformed from that of a senior who simply saw promise in a junior to an affection akin to family.

If not for the fact that all four of his daughters had already found their partners, he really would have wanted Lin Haoran as his son-in-law. Alas, he was a few years too late.

“Brother Pao, I’ve come this time not only to visit you but also to ask for your advice on something!” Li Jiacheng hesitated for a moment before finally clenching his teeth and speaking.

“Brother Li, we’ve known each other for many years and have a deep friendship. If there’s something on your mind, feel free to speak,” Pao Yue-kong laughed heartily.

Li Jiacheng and Pao Yue-kong were not only neighbors but also renowned tycoons in Hong Kong’s business world.

Over the years, they had interacted on many occasions and had long ago forged a profound friendship.

“You know as well as I do that the conflict between me and Lin Haoran has become irreconcilable. What do you think I should do now to gain his forgiveness?” After much deliberation, Li Jiacheng finally let go of his pride and spoke frankly.

Ever since he had successfully taken control of Hutchison Whampoa, Li Jiacheng’s status in the Hong Kong business world had been at its zenith.

For a time, apart from a few powers like HSBC and Pao Yue-kong, he didn’t pay much mind to anyone else.

Even when Lin Haoran had won Hongkong Land Group and became the recognized richest man in Hong Kong, Li Jiacheng felt that with the two commercial giants Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings in his hands, and with HSBC as his patron, it wasn’t impossible to surpass his rival.

However, life was unpredictable.

Now, his patron, HSBC, had collapsed under Lin Haoran’s schemes, and Lin Haoran himself had become the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry and even the entire business world through a series of maneuvers.

This made Li Jiacheng feel a sense of crisis he had never experienced before.

His fate was closely tied to HSBC, as if they were bound by an invisible rope.

Therefore, after deep contemplation and weighing the pros and cons, he had been forced to make the move of fully supporting HSBC in undermining the interests of the Bank of East Asia.

But this action, as any discerning person could see, was a public act of taking sides.

And taking sides often meant paying a price. He knew in his heart that this would undoubtedly and directly offend Lin Haoran.

Now, HSBC had lost this fierce business game, while Lin Haoran was at the peak of his popularity, his power greatly increased.

Only then did he wake up as if from a dream, realizing the awkward position he was in. With no other choice, he had come to Pao Yue-kong to ask for a way out.

He simply couldn’t bring himself to personally seek peace with Lin Haoran. He could only hope there was some other good solution that could satisfy both sides.

“Ah, Brother Li, I specifically called to persuade you before you decided to do that. It’s a shame you didn’t listen at the time!” Pao Yue-kong sighed helplessly, his eyes filled with regret.

Although Pao Yue-kong had been recuperating in the hospital, his intelligence network was formidable.

As soon as he learned that Li Jiacheng intended to show his loyalty to HSBC, he had immediately called him and tried his best to dissuade him.

Unfortunately, at that time, Li Jiacheng, confident in the backing of his two commercial giants, Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, was in no mood to heed his advice.

Chapter 684: Li Jiacheng: Regret? No, I Have Never Regretted It!

“Sigh, Brother Pao, it’s not that I don’t understand these principles. But you and I are in different situations. The moment I successfully acquired the crucial 22.4% of Hutchison Whampoa shares from HSBC, my hands were tied!” Li Jiacheng’s voice was tinged with a hint of bitterness.

He knew all too well that being completely bound to HSBC was a move born of necessity. After all, it was the only way to satisfy his burgeoning ambition.

Before taking control of Hutchison Whampoa, he was already one of Hong Kong’s renowned “Five Tiger Generals” of real estate.

Li Jiacheng first acquired the American-owned Everhigh Company, then defeated the Hongkong Land Group, winning the bid for the property development rights above the Central and Admiralty MTR stations with a strategy of cash plus profit sharing. He had truly become a dazzling new star in Hong Kong’s real estate world.

But so what?

At that time, although he had established a firm foothold in the business world and achieved a certain status, there was still a significant gap between him and the top tier of tycoons.

The likes of Shipping Magnate Pao, Dong Hao-yun, the Jardine Matheson consortium, the Swire Group consortium, and the HSBC Group all possessed wealth that far outstripped Li Jiacheng’s.

When an opportunity to control Hutchison & Co.—one of the famous Four Big Hongs—presented itself, Li Jiacheng unhesitatingly embarked on that path, even though it meant sacrificing a large portion of his interests.

He understood in his heart that this was the perfect opportunity for him to overtake on a curve and join the ranks of Hong Kong’s top tycoons.

If he were to rely solely on his own Cheung Kong Holdings, Li Jiacheng couldn’t possibly estimate how much time it would take, or if he would even have a real chance to break into the circle of Hong Kong’s top families.

To be deeply tied to HSBC, the hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry?

Such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was something countless people could only dream of!

After binding his interests with HSBC, his life was as if it had been fitted with a powerful engine. He advanced triumphantly and rose rapidly, soon gaining firm control of Hutchison Whampoa and becoming its undisputed master.

With the two behemoth enterprises, Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa, under his command, he established a solid footing in Hong Kong’s business community in one fell swoop, successfully joining the ranks of the top financial groups.

However, life is unpredictable. He never dreamed that his greatest backer of the past, HSBC—a bank that had commanded the winds and clouds and dominated Hong Kong’s financial industry and even the entire business world—would be so thoroughly routed and forced into a steady retreat by a young Chinese entrepreneur.

Now, HSBC’s situation was even more tragic, having ended up being acquired by another British-owned bank.

And he, the “ally” deeply bound to HSBC, was suddenly in an incredibly awkward position.

After all, although the acquisition of HSBC by Standard Chartered Bank ultimately alleviated the financial pressure on his companies and eliminated the capital risk, the preceding events had already caused a complete breakdown in his relationship with Lin Haoran.

On the surface, there was no communication between the two parties, not even a hint of a declaration of war.

However, the moment he penned that influential letter to all his business partners and made it public, he had, in effect, placed himself in complete opposition to Lin Haoran.

That letter had indeed brought many tangible benefits to HSBC.

It not only prompted numerous affiliated partners of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings to choose to work with HSBC but also inspired other British-owned companies like Swire & Co. and China Light & Power to follow suit, publicly declaring their support for HSBC.

For a time, it was as if HSBC had been revived, almost possessing the ability to counterattack.

And when Li Jiacheng did all this, it was already destined that he and Lin Haoran were on a collision course.

Although Lin Haoran ultimately defeated HSBC with more sophisticated methods and strategies, it was undeniable that during the life-or-death business war between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC, Li Jiacheng’s decisive, all-in choice to take sides with HSBC had created considerable resistance for Lin Haoran’s Bank of East Asia.

Pao Yue-kong naturally knew that Li Jiacheng’s relationship with HSBC was unusual, but he was unaware of the specific agreement signed between them.

After all, these were secrets between HSBC and Li Jiacheng.

Although Pao Yue-kong was also a board member of HSBC, his directorship within the HSBC Group was more of a symbolic title. Many of the group’s important internal secrets were not disclosed to him.

So, after learning of the reason for Li Jiacheng’s visit, Pao Yue-kong thought for a moment and said, “Brother Li, in my opinion, your current situation is actually very easy to resolve. My relationship with Haoran is quite amicable. As long as you come with me to visit him, sincerely apologize, and state that you will transfer all of Hutchison Whampoa’s and Cheung Kong Holdings’ financial business to his companies, I’m sure he will forgive your past actions. I know you had no choice at the time, and I believe Haoran can understand that. This way, not only can you turn an enemy into a friend, but you might even have the chance to become partners!”

After speaking, Pao Yue-kong looked at Li Jiacheng with a puzzled expression. Logically, this solution wasn’t hard to think of. Why would Li Jiacheng make a special trip to ask him for advice?

Hearing Pao Yue-kong’s words, Li Jiacheng slowly shook his head.

He knew in his heart that doing so could indeed ease the tension with Lin Haoran, and perhaps even make him an important partner in the future.

The problem was, he simply couldn’t do it.

Although HSBC had now been acquired by Standard Chartered Bank, the contract he had signed with HSBC was still legally binding.

The only difference was that control of the contract had shifted from HSBC’s senior executives to those of Standard Chartered Bank.

As long as HSBC did not go into bankruptcy and liquidation, he could not escape the intricate and complex relationship he had with the bank for even a single day.

He knew very well how he had acquired HSBC’s shares in Hutchison Whampoa at such a low price.

“Brother Pao, if things were that simple, I wouldn’t have made a special trip to seek your advice today. To tell you the truth, Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, especially Hutchison Whampoa, cannot possibly sever their cooperation with HSBC, unless… unless Hutchison Whampoa is no longer under my control!” Li Jiacheng sighed deeply and said with a wry smile.

Hearing this, although Pao Yue-kong hadn’t received a clear explanation from Li Jiacheng, he could already faintly guess the hidden circumstances behind it.

Pao Yue-kong had been cooperating with HSBC since 1956, a full twenty-five years.

He had a rough idea of the methods HSBC was accustomed to using.

Without Li Jiacheng spelling it out, he could guess that the contract must be filled with numerous harsh and inescapable clauses.

These clauses were like invisible shackles, binding Li Jiacheng tightly. Even if he could clearly see the huge benefits of reconciling and cooperating with Lin Haoran, he was trapped in his complex relationship with HSBC, unable to move.

Two years ago, when Pao Yue-kong learned that Li Jiacheng had acquired 22.4% of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares from HSBC for just over six hundred million Hong Kong dollars—and that he only needed to pay 20% upfront, with the rest deferred for two years—he found it utterly incredible.

How could Hutchison Whampoa’s shares be so worthless?

One must know that at the time, Hutchison Whampoa had already been professionally appraised, and its net assets alone were valued at a staggering 5.8 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Normally, the acquisition price should have been higher than the net asset value.

But now, over six hundred million Hong Kong dollars could secure 22.4% of the shares, with deferred payment. This wasn’t just selling to Li Jiacheng at half price; it was practically a giveaway.

It was as if HSBC was worried Li Jiacheng lacked the funds, requiring him to pay an initial sum of only a little over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars before handing over the shares.

From any angle, the whole affair was indescribably strange.

Not to mention, under Willie’s restructuring, Hutchison Whampoa had already turned from a loss to a profit, and its operating conditions had improved significantly.

Even if such a blue-chip company had been put up for public sale at a higher price at the time, it would certainly have become a hot commodity coveted by all parties, easily achieving a premium sale.

However, HSBC had gone completely against the grain, transferring Hutchison Whampoa’s shares to Li Jiacheng in a manner that was almost a giveaway.

Looking back now, there must have been an undisclosed deal between HSBC and Li Jiacheng.

Those harsh contractual terms were perhaps the heavy price Li Jiacheng had to bear for what seemed like a “pie falling from the sky.”

No wonder even Li Jiacheng himself felt caught in a dilemma, at a loss for what to do.

Although he now controlled two major listed companies, Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, and was a figure of considerable importance in the business world, offending Lin Haoran would undoubtedly make his future difficult.

After all, Hong Kong wasn’t that big, and the top business circle was even smaller.

The Lin Haoran of today was far more than just the man who had acquired the Hongkong Land Group and become the richest man in Hong Kong.

Li Jiacheng wasn’t terribly worried about him being the richest man in Hong Kong; after all, many factors contribute to the accumulation of wealth.

However, when Lin Haoran became the hegemon of the financial industry, controlling the Bank of East Asia, Hang Seng Bank, and Dao Heng Bank, with his market share far ahead of everyone else, Li Jiacheng was genuinely afraid.

At this moment, Lin Haoran had grown into a business tycoon whom he could only look up to.

On the surface, Li Jiacheng was also a top business tycoon in Hong Kong, but the power gap between tycoons could be unimaginably vast.

Putting everything else aside, the combined strength of his two companies could hardly match the Hongkong Land Group alone, let alone the numerous other large enterprises under Lin Haoran’s control.

Given this disparity in strength, it was undoubtedly irrational for him to become Lin Haoran’s enemy.

If Lin Haoran intended to target his two companies, he probably wouldn’t even have the ability to put up much of a fight.

“Brother Li, do you have any regrets about making that deal with HSBC back then?” Pao Yue-kong didn’t offer any solutions but instead asked with keen interest.

“Regret? No, I have never regretted it!” Li Jiacheng shook his head without hesitation, his tone firm and decisive.

Without HSBC’s strong support back then, it would have been difficult for him to achieve his current prominent status.

Although Cheung Kong Holdings had developed well, the sheer size and value of Hutchison Whampoa alone were equivalent to several Cheung Kong Holdings.

Although Li Jiacheng had always coveted blue-chip British-owned companies, under normal circumstances, he would never have been able to acquire Hutchison Whampoa so smoothly.

For that reason, he never had a shred of regret about his previous cooperation with HSBC.

If destiny allowed him to choose again, he would still, without hesitation, choose to make that deal with HSBC.

Even now, trapped in this complex and troublesome situation, he knew with absolute clarity that the decision he made back then was the crucial step that allowed him to ascend to a higher echelon of the business world, a vital turning point that propelled his career forward.

However, he now had to face the multiple crises stemming from this harsh reality.

Looking at Li Jiacheng’s decisive and unwavering expression, Pao Yue-kong couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.

He’s utterly unrepentant!

He had always known that Li Jiacheng was an ambitious and decisive man, and there was nothing wrong with that.

When he first met Li Jiacheng, he had keenly sensed that this man was destined for greatness and had a limitless future, so he had made his acquaintance early on, and they later became close friends.

But who could have imagined that the very ambition that had once helped Li Jiacheng climb the ladder would now push him into such a difficult predicament where every step was a struggle?

“Brother Li, your current situation is indeed quite tricky. Haoran and I are on good terms, but that doesn’t mean I can force him to do something he’s unwilling to do. Your actions back then, even from my perspective, were a bit much. It’s like two places are at war, and you keep sending weapons and ammunition to one side. Now you want the other side to just let bygones be bygones. That’s really not right. And now you’re unwilling to take the initiative to smooth things over with him. Aren’t you just deliberately making things difficult for me?” Pao Yue-kong frowned and said with a long sigh.

Li Jiacheng smiled wryly, rubbing his tense temples with both hands. He slowly said, “Brother Pao, do you think I don’t want to take the initiative to mend my relationship with Lin Haoran? But the current situation is like being stuck in a giant swamp; every move could make me sink deeper. The constraints of that HSBC contract are far more complicated than you imagine. If I act rashly, I’m afraid all my years of hard work will go down the drain.”

Pao Yue-kong nodded slightly. Although he didn’t know the full details of the contract, he could sense the difficulty in Li Jiacheng’s tone.

His act of latching onto a powerful backer was one where, once he held on, he couldn’t let go.

He pondered for a moment and said, “Brother Li, have you tried to approach this from the contract itself? See if you can find any loopholes or room for negotiation. After all, HSBC has been acquired by Standard Chartered now. Perhaps the new management will have a different attitude towards this contract.”

Li Jiacheng shook his head helplessly. “Brother Pao, do you think I haven’t thought of that? The moment I heard about HSBC’s acquisition, I contacted Standard Chartered Bank immediately. But their attitude was firm. They clearly stated that they would inherit and strictly enforce all terms of the original contract, with no room for negotiation. Moreover, they seem to be using this contract to try to further control my influence in Hutchison Whampoa to serve their own business plans.”

In reality, no one would ever give that up.

After all, both Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa were now top-ten listed companies.

The business value and influence these two enterprises held were enough to make any capital power drool.

After acquiring HSBC, Standard Chartered would naturally not pass up the golden opportunity to control the financial business associated with these two major corporations.

They would certainly enforce the contract strictly, tying Li Jiacheng firmly to a track that served their interests, further expanding their own sphere of influence in Hong Kong’s business empire.

“Brother Li, to be honest, I really don’t know how to resolve the conflict between you and Haoran. You probably know what kind of person Haoran is. As long as you do right by him, he will never make an enemy of you for no reason. But if you actively oppose him, he can hold quite a grudge. The fate of Jardine Matheson & Co. and HSBC is a cautionary tale.”

There was no schadenfreude in Pao Yue-kong’s words. After all, he and Li Jiacheng had known each other for ten or twenty years and were old friends, but faced with the current situation, he truly did not know how to help.

Pao Yue-kong’s words made Li Jiacheng feel even worse.

“But don’t you worry too much. Your situation is too complicated. While it’s hard for me to mediate between you, Standard Chartered Bank’s strength is not to be underestimated. If Haoran really makes a move against you, Standard Chartered is unlikely to stand by and do nothing. You’ve just switched to an equally powerful backer. I think if Haoran wants to move against you, he’ll have to consider whether he’ll offend Standard Chartered in the process,” Pao Yue-kong said with a comforting smile, seeing Li Jiacheng’s silence.

“You have a point. It’s not like I, Li Jiacheng, need to rely on cooperating with Lin Haoran to get by. Although my companies have joint development projects with the Hongkong Land Group, our share isn’t large. Under normal circumstances, I really don’t need to worry too much.” Pao Yue-kong’s words made Li Jiacheng feel much better.

However, Li Jiacheng had no way of knowing that during the recent stock market crash, Lin Haoran had secretly instructed his subordinates to accumulate a large number of shares in his two companies. The stake he now held was already quite substantial.

If he knew about this, he probably would have lost his composure long ago.

“Brother Pao, I won’t disturb you any longer. After you’ve returned to Deep Water Bay, I’ll find some time to have a good long talk with you!” Seeing that he couldn’t get any practical advice from Pao Yue-kong, Li Jiacheng didn’t stay any longer and bid him farewell.

“Alright, take care, Brother Li.” Pao Yue-kong stood up to see him off.

Watching Li Jiacheng’s departing figure, Pao Yue-kong frowned slightly.

This Brother Li, although ten years his junior, was truly a force to be reckoned with.

However, to make such a choice to achieve his ambitions was rather unwise.

“In the end, the path of business must be walked one step at a time. But then again, this is his personal choice. What does it have to do with me?” After a moment, Pao Yue-kong couldn’t help but chuckle to himself.

Meanwhile, after Li Jiacheng returned to his head office in the China Building and had just sat down, a knock came from outside.

“Come in.”

“Mr. Li, there is a matter I’d like to seek your opinion on.” The person who entered was Richard Lee, a senior executive left over from the Willie era. This former deputy of Willie had now been appointed President by Li Jiacheng.

Li Jiacheng was well aware that he had not been in charge of Hutchison Whampoa for long. If his management team rushed to take full control, Hutchison Whampoa would sooner or later run into problems.

Therefore, Li Jiacheng still entrusted these old guards of Hutchison with important responsibilities.

“Oh? Tell me in detail.” Although he was feeling vexed, facing Richard Lee, Li Jiacheng suppressed his emotions and asked patiently.

“Our ParknShop Supermarket currently has several potential sites on the Kowloon Peninsula, but from our observations, our old rival, Wellcome, seems to be planning to open new stores in the same vicinity. If so, our ParknShop stores will face fierce competition before they even open, and it will likely be very difficult to be profitable in the future. So I’d like to know your thoughts, Mr. Li. Should we halt the opening of these new stores?” As he spoke, Richard Lee handed a report to Li Jiacheng.

Li Jiacheng was slightly taken aback upon hearing this.

ParknShop Supermarket was a key project under their Hutchison Whampoa.

Since the first ParknShop opened in Stanley in 1973, the supermarket chain had developed rapidly over the next seven or eight years. The number of stores had grown dramatically, making it a major force in Hong Kong’s supermarket industry, second only to Wellcome supermarket.

And Wellcome supermarket was a brand under Dairy Farm International, which was part of the Hongkong Land Group. It had a longer history than ParknShop and more stores.

Wellcome’s current move looked very much like it was targeting their ParknShop!

“What are your thoughts?” After reading the report, Li Jiacheng looked up at Richard Lee and asked.

“This is obviously a deliberate move by Wellcome. In fact, since the beginning of this year, our ParknShop has run several large-scale promotional campaigns to attract more customers. Shortly after, Wellcome’s branches responded by launching a price war. Now they’re targeting us at our newly selected sites. They are clearly retaliating against us for initiating the price war. I don’t think we should back down. If we yield this time, we might have to keep yielding in the future, which would be extremely detrimental to the long-term development of ParknShop Supermarket!” Richard Lee said quickly.

Richard Lee’s words made Li Jiacheng hesitate.

Originally, because of the HSBC affair, he had already grievously offended Lin Haoran.

Now, his business was facing such an aggressive, targeted attack from Wellcome supermarket. This undoubtedly made Li Jiacheng’s already troubled mind feel even more tangled.

He had no way of knowing if Lin Haoran was behind this.

If Lin Haoran was indeed pulling the strings, then things would be quite troublesome.

Li Jiacheng leaned back in his chair, his fingers tapping lightly on the desk. A look of contemplation and gravity filled his eyes.

He spoke slowly, “Wellcome’s move is indeed hostile. But if we back down now, it will be difficult for ParknShop to continue expanding its market in Hong Kong. Since we have to fight, then let’s fight!”

After learning from Pao Yue-kong that reconciliation with Lin Haoran was impossible, Li Jiacheng decided to give up on trying to salvage the relationship.

Chapter 685: A Major Life Event: Engagement Preparations

Because of his support for HSBC, Li Jiacheng’s relationship with Lin Haoran had turned adversarial.

Li Jiacheng was convinced he had offended Lin Haoran, and therefore, the vicious competition between Wellcome and ParknShop supermarkets was instigated by Lin Haoran behind the scenes.

But in truth, he had truly wronged Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran had always rarely interfered in matters of business operations. He much preferred being a hands-off manager because he trusted the capabilities of his top lieutenants.

To become a renowned professional manager, one’s business acumen was certainly not simple. There was no need for a layman like him to interfere too much with the management rights of the company.

Although he came from the future, it didn’t mean he possessed a natural talent for running a business. The money he earned wasn’t made through corporate operations, but rather from the stock market, the oil crisis, futures trading, and other such avenues.

As for managing a business? Come on, he was just an ordinary person in his previous life. Putting him in charge of a company would only cause trouble. Why bother?

It was far more comfortable to be a hands-off manager.

Generally, he would only offer his opinion on major issues; otherwise, he didn’t want to be involved at all.

Relying on his special ability to see the “Loyalty” of his subordinates, he could confidently entrust management authority to capable hands.

Therefore, the current competitive situation بين Wellcome and ParknShop was actually more a result of Ma Shimin’s direction.

As for Lin Haoran, for a minor business competition like this, the most that would happen was Ma Shiming giving him a brief report after the fact. He would seldom offer opinions or intervene directly.

His accomplishments in the business world inevitably led others to mistakenly believe he was a true business prodigy, which was why Li Jiacheng suspected that Wellcome’s actions were carried out under Lin Haoran’s orders.

Meanwhile, at Hongkong Land Group, its key subsidiary, Dairy Farm International, had been aggressively acquiring FMCG brands. Now, it had even established Langwei Group specifically to consolidate all the acquired brands.

In recent years, the supermarket landscape in Hong Kong had taken on a distinct pattern, with Wellcome and ParknShop leading the pack, leaving other brands far behind.

Such a situation destined Wellcome and ParknShop to become the fiercest, head-to-head competitors in the industry.

To give its supermarket brand a competitive edge, it was normal to use any means necessary.

As the largest supermarket brand in Hong Kong, Wellcome certainly did not want its position to be surpassed by ParknShop.

Therefore, while developing the FMCG sector, Ma Shimin also deliberately accelerated the development of sales channels.

For example, the 7-Eleven convenience store chain in Hong Kong and Wellcome supermarkets, especially the latter, saw their expansion speed up.

Looking at the supply chain alone, since Dairy Farm International had acquired numerous FMCG brands, Wellcome could procure products from suppliers at extremely low prices.

The quality of these goods was excellent, and the variety was incredibly diverse, covering everything from food and daily necessities to cosmetics.

With these low-priced, high-quality goods, if Wellcome wanted to start another price war, ParknShop would probably find it very difficult to withstand.

Thus, Wellcome’s development had begun to accelerate in recent months. New stores started popping up all over Hong Kong’s city center and new towns, putting immense pressure on its competitor, ParknShop, which was under Hutchison Whampoa.

…

Central, at a traffic light.

“Haoran, isn’t it about time to set a date for your engagement with Xiaohan? Xiaohan has been calling me a lot lately, and she brings it up every time. I can tell she’s eager to become my daughter-in-law.” Just after leaving the Hang Seng Building, Lin Haoran, who was sitting in the car ready to go home, received a call from his mother.

“Engagement?” Lin Haoran was taken aback when his mother mentioned it.

“That’s right. Didn’t you tell your dad and me that you’d get engaged to Xiaohan once you’ve sorted out the bank matters? I saw in the news that your business is all settled. You even defeated HSBC and acquired Hang Seng Bank. That should be the end of it, right? So, it’s time for both our families to sit down and discuss the engagement,” said Lin mother.

Lin mother was astounded that her son had not only defeated HSBC but also acquired Hang Seng Bank.

But over the past three years, whether it was the acquisition of Green Island Cement, Hongkong Electric Group, Hongkong Land Group, or Hong Kong and China Gas, which of these events hadn’t shocked her and Lin father?

Therefore, despite her shock, Lin mother was able to accept it. Deep down, she felt more pride than anything else.

How could she not be proud that her son was so capable!

However, his success in business couldn’t change the fact that Lin Haoran was still unmarried and childless.

Thus, Lin mother had long been eagerly hoping her son would marry soon so she could hold her grandchild.

On this matter, she was even more anxious than Lin Haoran.

“Mother, you can make the decision on this. I’ll listen to you!” Lin Haoran replied with a wry smile.

But on second thought, it was indeed time to give Guo Xiaohan a formal status.

Now that he had built such a massive family fortune, it was time to have heirs to inherit it.

For someone of his status, having many children was only fitting, yet he wasn’t even married yet. It was indeed a bit unreasonable.

“Good, since you’ve said so, there’s no time like the present! I heard from Xiaohan that her parents are in Hong Kong right now. Let’s meet tonight and finalize the engagement,” Lin mother said hurriedly, as if she had been waiting for him to say just that.

“Uh… isn’t this a bit too rushed? I haven’t prepared any gifts,” Lin Haoran said helplessly.

Xiaohan’s parents were in Hong Kong?

Lin Haoran really hadn’t paid much attention to this.

Lately, the business warfare between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC had been raging intensely.

Perhaps for this reason, Guo Xiaohan didn’t want to disturb him, so they hadn’t been in contact as frequently as before.

That was why Guo Xiaohan hadn’t even sought him out during the few days Yamada Keiko was in town.

However, Lin Haoran knew in his heart that although Guo Xiaohan hadn’t contacted him frequently, she often spoke with Lin mother on the phone and frequently visited the Lin family villa in Deep Water Bay.

From the looks of it, she had long considered herself the Lin family’s prospective daughter-in-law and was already integrating into the family.

“Haoran, don’t you worry about it. Your father and I have already prepared everything for you. How about this, if you’re free now, come home immediately. Later, we’ll go to Xiaohan’s place together. We’ll also invite Chairman Guo and his family. We’ll all sit down and settle the engagement!” Before Lin Haoran could even agree, his mother had decisively made the arrangements.

“Alright, I just left the office. I’ll head back to Deep Water Bay now!” Lin Haoran nodded. Although it was a bit rushed, he didn’t refuse.

“Okay, I won’t keep you. I’m going to put the gifts in the car now. Hurry back!” His mother couldn’t wait any longer and hung up right after speaking.

Lin Haoran shook his head with a wry smile and said to Li Weidong in the driver’s seat, “Turn around. Let’s go back to the Deep Water Bay villa.”

“Yes, Boss!” The light had just turned green, so Li Weidong made a turn at the intersection and headed towards Deep Water Bay.

Half an hour later, Lin Haoran arrived back at the villa in Deep Water Bay.

Since returning from Japan, Lin Haoran had only been back here once, right after he got back. He hadn’t been back since.

At this moment, several maids were busy moving gifts into Lin Wan’an’s Rolls-Royce, with Lin mother directing them from the side.

“Mother, where’s Dad?” Lin Haoran looked around but didn’t see his father and asked.

“Oh, him. He’s in the study on the phone,” Lin mother said, pointing inside the villa.

“I’ll go find Dad then,” Lin Haoran said and walked into the villa.

Lin Haoran walked quietly into the villa. The study door was ajar, and he could faintly hear his father’s voice coming from inside.

From the content of the conversation, Lin Haoran guessed that Lin Wan’an was likely on the phone with Guo Henian.

Just as Lin Haoran was about to wait outside the study for his father to finish the call, Lin father happened to hang up.

“Haoran, you’re back!” Lin Wan’an’s face was all smiles when he saw Lin Haoran at the door.

As the saying goes, a father’s status rises with his son’s success. Recently, Lin Haoran’s victory over HSBC and his acquisition of Hang Seng Bank were enough to elevate Lin Wan’an’s status in their circle by another notch.

Therefore, Lin father was naturally immensely proud.

Now in Hong Kong, no matter where he went, people would show him respect, treating him with utmost reverence on the surface.

In fact, the status of Lin Haoran’s close relatives, including his older brother Lin Haoning and his two sisters, had all been elevated.

This was the deterrent effect brought by the explosive growth of Lin Haoran’s wealth and status.

“Dad,” Lin Haoran greeted his father.

“I just spoke with Chairman Guo. We’ve arranged to meet at seven this evening at the Guo family villa in Deep Water Bay. Xiaohan’s parents, Chairman Guo and his wife, will all be there waiting for us,” Lin Wan’an said with a smile.

Guo Henian had invested in a number of villas over the past two years. Last year they lived at a villa on The Peak, but now they had moved to Deep Water Bay.

Now, the Guo and Lin families were practically neighbors. Although their houses were a few hundred meters apart, it wasn’t far.

This was why Lin Haoran had come straight back to the Deep Water Bay villa instead of waiting for his parents in Central.

Lin Haoran glanced at his watch. It was almost six in the evening.

It was a bit of a rush, but he didn’t have to worry about the arrangements. Besides, both families were satisfied with the matter between him and Guo Xiaohan, so there was no need to worry about any unexpected problems.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly and said, “Dad, I’ll go back to my room to change and freshen up. We can leave after that.”

“Good, be quick. Don’t keep Xiaohan and her family waiting,” Lin Wan’an said with a smile and a wave, then turned to go outside to check on the prepared gifts, making sure nothing was missed.

Lin Haoran returned to his room, selected a decent suit, paired it with an exquisite tie and leather shoes, and carefully checked his appearance in the mirror.

He looked at the mature and steady man in the mirror, an involuntary smile gracing his lips.

What a handsome and talented man!

After changing, Lin Haoran left his room and went to the living room.

His mother had already arranged everything and was sitting on the sofa, talking softly with his father, her face beaming with joy.

“Haoran, are you all ready?” Lin mother asked, standing up quickly when she saw Lin Haoran. She then walked around him, inspecting him closely.

“I’m ready, mother,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

Lin mother held Lin Haoran’s arms and looked at him, her eyes filled with a satisfied smile. “Not bad, not bad. My son is so handsome!”

“Let’s get going then. We shouldn’t keep our future in-laws waiting,” Lin father said, standing up and straightening his clothes before heading for the door.

The family got into the car and drove towards the Guo family villa.

The villas in Deep Water Bay were all situated on the Mid-Levels, with each household spaced far apart, ensuring independent and private spaces.

Along the way, Lin mother tirelessly reminded Lin Haoran about the etiquette and words to use when meeting Guo Xiaohan’s parents, and Lin Haoran agreed to everything.

Before long, the car arrived at the Guo family villa.

The courtyard of the villa was brightly lit.

Guo Henian and his wife were already standing at the door to welcome them. Upon seeing the Lin family’s arrival, their faces immediately broke into warm smiles.

Beside Guo Henian stood another couple, who looked slightly older than him. The man bore some resemblance to Guo Henian.

Next to this couple stood a nervous-looking Guo Xiaohan, who blushed upon seeing Lin Haoran.

Evidently, the man beside Guo Xiaohan was Guo Henian’s own brother, and they were Guo Xiaohan’s parents.

“Mr. Lin, Madam Lin, welcome, welcome!” Guo Henian strode forward to shake hands with Lin father and Lin mother and exchange pleasantries.

“Chairman Guo, Mrs. Guo, I apologize for making you wait,” Lin father replied with a smile.

“Come, come, let me introduce you. This is my older brother, Guo Hechuan, and this is my sister-in-law, Chen Meiling,” Guo Henian said with a smile, introducing the two people beside him to the Lin family.

Lin father and Lin mother quickly stepped forward enthusiastically to shake hands with Guo Hechuan and his wife. “A pleasure to finally meet you. We’ve heard so much about you from Chairman Guo. It’s truly an honor to meet you today.”

Guo Hechuan and his wife also beamed, replying, “Mr. Lin, Madam Lin, you’re too kind. We’ve also heard much about your son Haoran’s achievements at such a young age. It is our honor to be able to gather today.”

As Guo Henian’s older brother, he was naturally extremely satisfied that his daughter could enter into a marriage alliance with a young Chinese business tycoon like Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran stepped forward and politely greeted Guo Hechuan and his wife, “Uncle Guo, Auntie Guo, hello.”

He didn’t feel any aversion towards the Guo family.

Initially, he truly didn’t care about any marriage alliance, because with his status, he had no need for one.

However, as he spent more time with Guo Xiaohan, he had long accepted her in his heart.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had no objections to taking Guo Xiaohan as his wife.

Guo Hechuan looked at Lin Haoran, his eyes full of admiration. “Haoran, you’re truly a fine, talented young man. We feel at ease entrusting Xiaohan to you.”

Lin Haoran smiled and said, “Rest assured, Uncle Guo, I will take good care of Xiaohan.”

At this moment, Guo Xiaohan’s cheeks flushed red. She shyly walked to Lin Haoran’s side and said softly, “Haoran, welcome.”

Lin Haoran smiled faintly and replied softly, “Xiaohan, you look beautiful tonight.”

Guo Xiaohan’s face turned an even deeper shade of red. She lowered her head, but a happy smile played on her lips.

It was obvious that Guo Xiaohan had taken great care in dressing up today.

She wore a light pink evening gown, its skirt fanning out gracefully like a flower, perfectly accentuating her slender figure.

Her long, dark, glossy hair was exquisitely styled in an updo, with a few stray strands falling naturally by her cheeks, adding a touch of gentle elegance.

Her delicate makeup enhanced her already beautiful features—eyebrows like distant mountains, eyes like stars, and cherry-red lips. Under the lights, she radiated a captivating glow.

Lin mother looked at the perfect couple before her, her eyes filled with gratification and joy. She walked over, gently took Guo Xiaohan’s hand, and said with a smile, “Xiaohan, you look so beautiful today. Standing next to our Haoran, you two are truly a talented man and a beautiful woman, a match made in heaven.”

Guo Xiaohan shyly lowered her head and said softly, “Thank you for the compliment, Auntie.”

Guo Henian also nodded with a smile. “Mr. Lin, Madam Lin, let’s not stand at the door. Please, come in and have a seat. I’ve already had dinner prepared.”

Lin Haoran had his bodyguards take all the gifts from the car and bring them inside.

Everyone then entered the villa.

The engagement customs of wealthy Southeast Asian families were quite similar to those in Hong Kong.

The core of the engagement process was “family communication → comparing birth characters to select an auspicious date → the grand gift ceremony (betrothal gifts) → returning of gifts → engagement banquet → official announcement”. The main focus was on showcasing the grandeur of the betrothal gifts, family meetings, and small-scale banquets to complete the “private confirmation and semi-public announcement of the marriage contract.”

Before the engagement, the two families would communicate to confirm their intention for the marriage contract.

For the Lin and Guo families, the marriage contract was basically already settled, but the necessary procedures still had to be followed.

For example, a meeting led by the elders of both families to explicitly state the intention of marriage.

If it involved a business alliance, additional matters like cooperation on family resources might be discussed simultaneously.

Of course, although both the Lin and Guo families were wealthy, in Lin Haoran’s view, their union was not a business alliance. It was more about his affection for the young Guo Xiaohan, so there was no need to discuss resource cooperation.

Bringing such things to the table would make the marriage contract seem too transactional, which Lin Haoran disliked.

And Guo Henian understood Lin Haoran’s personality, so he naturally wouldn’t bring these things up.

In any case, there was already considerable business cooperation between them; there was no need to make it overly about interests.

The dinner at the Guo family’s was sumptuous. At the table, both families chatted happily, the topics gradually shifting from family matters to their hopes for the future.

Lin father was the first to raise his glass, a kind smile on his face. “It’s truly a joyous occasion for our two families to gather today to discuss Haoran and Xiaohan’s engagement.

“It is a blessing for both our families that these two children have found their way to each other. From now on, we are one family. If there’s anything you need, please don’t hesitate to ask. We will move forward together.”

Xiaohan’s father also stood up quickly, raising his glass in response. “Mr. Lin is absolutely right. Haoran is such a promising young man. It’s Xiaohan’s fortune to be able to marry him. Our two families must visit each other more often and support one another in the future.”

Everyone raised their glasses and drank, the atmosphere growing even more congenial.

Lin mother looked at Guo Xiaohan with loving eyes, holding her hand and saying, “Xiaohan, from now on, you are a part of our Lin family. If that boy Haoran dares to bully you, you just tell me, and I will stand up for you.”

Guo Xiaohan’s cheeks flushed red, and she said shyly, “Auntie, Haoran is very good to me. I’m sure he won’t bully me.”

Lin Haoran also smiled and said, “Mother, don’t worry. I will dote on Xiaohan and never let her suffer any grievance.”

After dinner, everyone moved to the living room and sat down.

“Mr. Lin, Madam Lin, and Haoran, since both sides are very satisfied with this marriage, let’s compare Haoran and Xiaohan’s birth characters and pick an auspicious date to settle this matter! As for the wedding date, we can choose another good day after they’re engaged,” Guo Henian said with a hearty laugh.

As Guo Xiaohan’s uncle, he naturally hoped with all his heart that his niece and Lin Haoran would have a happy ending.

Lin father and Lin mother exchanged a glance, both smiling.

Lin father was the first to speak, “Chairman Guo, you’ve been very thoughtful. We’ll do as you say. As for comparing the birth characters, our Lin family is prepared. We have kept Haoran’s birth characters safe, and we’ll give them to you later.”

Guo Henian nodded in satisfaction. “That’s for the best. I’ll arrange for a familiar feng shui master to be consulted. We must choose the most auspicious day to ensure the children’s engagement ceremony goes smoothly, and as a good omen for their future happy marriage.”

Lin mother smiled and said, “You’re very thoughtful, Chairman Guo. We in the Lin family also hope that Xiaohan can become our daughter-in-law soon. I’m very fond of this girl.”

Hearing everyone’s words, Guo Xiaohan blushed deeply. She secretly glanced at Lin Haoran, her eyes filled with sweetness and anticipation.

“Haoran, why don’t you take Xiaohan for a walk in the garden? The parents can discuss the remaining details,” Guo Henian said to Lin Haoran with a slight smile, seeing Guo Xiaohan’s shy face.

“Alright. Xiaohan, let’s go sit in the garden,” Lin Haoran stood up and extended his right hand to Guo Xiaohan.

Guo Xiaohan looked up slightly, her eyes filled with shyness and joy. She gently placed her hand in Lin Haoran’s palm. They smiled at each other and walked out of the living room into the garden.

In the garden, the moonlight was like water, bathing the two of them.

A gentle breeze brought waves of floral fragrance, making one feel relaxed and happy.

Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan strolled along the garden path.

The Guo family’s backyard was large, several hundred square meters in size.

Finally, the two sat down together on a stone bench in the backyard.

“Brother Haoran, I’m so happy. I never thought our engagement would be settled today,” Guo Xiaohan said softly, her voice trembling slightly with excitement and happiness.

She had waited for this moment for a very long time.

A long time had passed since she first met Lin Haoran.

In the beginning, she felt they were a good match in terms of social standing.

But as Lin Haoran’s power in the business world grew stronger and stronger, Guo Xiaohan even started to feel that she wasn’t good enough for him.

Although their Guo family was the family of Southeast Asia’s richest man, the head of the family was, after all, her uncle Guo Henian.

Lin Haoran gently held Guo Xiaohan’s hand, looking at her with a gentle gaze. “Xiaohan, I’ve been looking forward to this day too. However, there’s something I need to confess to you. I have other women, but I can promise you that I will only marry you. If you mind, it’s not too late to change your mind!”

He could have hidden this from Guo Xiaohan, but there was little point.

For instance, his relationship with Rosamund Kwan was hardly a secret in Hong Kong’s upper society.

If he didn’t confess this before marriage, it might create a huge rift and conflicts between them after they were married, and Lin Haoran didn’t want to see that happen.

If Guo Xiaohan minded, there was still time to back out.

Given his status and position, it was destined that he wouldn’t have only one woman in his life.

Since that was the case, Lin Haoran decided to be direct.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Guo Xiaohan was slightly stunned. A flicker of surprise crossed her eyes, but she quickly regained her composure.

She leaned gently on Lin Haoran’s shoulder and said softly, “Brother Haoran, I actually knew about this for a while. A man as outstanding as you would naturally not lack admirers. Besides, my uncle mentioned this to me before.

“I don’t mind that you have other women. As long as I have a place in your heart, and as long as you can give me the respect and status I deserve, I’ll be content.”

More than a year ago, Guo Henian had already told Guo Xiaohan about this.

After all, let alone Lin Haoran, even Guo Henian himself had two wives.

Therefore, Guo Xiaohan had long been mentally prepared.

Lin Haoran hadn’t expected Guo Xiaohan to be so understanding, and a wave of emotion washed over him.

He squeezed Guo Xiaohan’s hand tightly and said solemnly, “Xiaohan, rest assured, I will treat you well. From now on, you will be my lawfully wedded wife, and your place in my heart is irreplaceable.

“I will give you a grand and unforgettable wedding and make you the happiest woman in the world.”

Chapter 686: You Can Divorce, But You Can’t Divide the Money

The discussion about the engagement was clearly going very smoothly.

What surprised Lin Haoran even more was Guo Xiaohan’s reasonableness.

Revealing that he had other women, and at such an awkward time when their families were meeting, was a decision Lin Haoran had made after careful deliberation.

If he didn’t say it now, he wasn’t sure how Guo Xiaohan would react upon finding out later.

Therefore, it was better to be open and honest about it.

Because saying it now meant there was still time to change things.

But if he waited until after the engagement ceremony was settled, and Guo Xiaohan was unwilling to accept it, it would only put both families in an even more awkward position.

Hong Kong had abolished polygamy in 1971, so if Lin Haoran remained a Hong Kong citizen, he could officially only have one wife.

However, the phenomenon of wealthy men having several partners was actually very common in the circle of wealthy families in Hong Kong.

There wasn’t a single prominent family that didn’t wish for more children and grandchildren to bring them fortune.

Call Lin Haoran a scoundrel or a philanderer, but his situation was hardly unique in Hong Kong. In fact, many people considered it a matter of course.

This was a major reason why Guo Xiaohan accepted it so readily.

Now that Guo Xiaohan was being so understanding, the stone that had been weighing on Lin Haoran’s heart finally fell.

He had originally thought that after he said what he did, even if Guo Xiaohan didn’t storm out on the spot, she would at least hold a grudge against him, and the engagement might be called off.

But the calm and understanding look in her eyes now was both unexpected and touching.

What a wonderful girl.

The backyard was tranquil, planted with many osmanthus trees, and the entire garden was filled with their rich fragrance.

August was the peak season for osmanthus blossoms, and the tiny golden-yellow or silvery-white flowers bloomed in dense clusters, emitting a refreshing and heart-stirring aroma.

From the main hall, the faint sound of the elders’ conversation drifted out.

Lin Haoran knew perfectly well that Guo Henian had specifically asked him to take Guo Xiaohan outside because the elders had matters to discuss, matters that were not appropriate to bring up in front of Guo Xiaohan.

As for what they were discussing, it was obvious—the contents of the prenuptial agreement.

On the way here, Lin Wan’an had already mentioned it to Lin Haoran.

After all, the Lam family was now vast and wealthy. In terms of the assets he controlled, Lin Haoran’s fortune had actually surpassed that of the Guo family, headed by Southeast Asia’s richest man.

Therefore, a major event like a marriage alliance between the two families had to be handled with extreme caution.

As a father, Lin Wan’an was naturally unwilling to see his son enter a marriage blindly. If the woman’s motives were impure, it would be like planting a time bomb for the Lam family.

If she married into the family for the Lam family’s money, there was no telling how much trouble she might cause in the future.

When that time came, it would not only affect Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan’s marital happiness but could also bring unpredictable turmoil and losses to the entire Lam family.

This was, in fact, an essential procedure in any marriage alliance between wealthy families.

Although Lin Wan’an had only barely entered the ranks of the elite in the past, he had long since figured out all the intricate maneuverings within high society.

And Lin Haoran also understood the importance of this matter. As the saying goes, better to be safe than sorry. So, he had no objections to the elders discussing the prenuptial agreement behind his back.

He was also confident in leaving the matter to his father, Lin Wan’an. After all, in this regard, Lin Wan’an was clearly more experienced and strategic than he was.

Furthermore, he believed Guo Xiaohan would understand as well, as it concerned the long-term future and stability of both families.

Having grown up in a wealthy family, Guo Xiaohan was surely well aware of these rules and considerations.

“Brother Haoran, although I’ll allow you to have other women, I hope you can agree to one request of mine,” Guo Xiaohan said, lifting her head to look at Lin Haoran.

“Tell me,” Lin Haoran said with a light smile.

Guo Xiaohan took a deep breath, looked directly and affectionately at Lin Haoran, and said seriously, “I hope your other women will not become a stumbling block in our relationship, nor will they cause any interference in our little family in the future. They can exist in your life, but they absolutely cannot interfere with our way of life, and more importantly, they cannot harm our future children in any way.”

As she spoke, Guo Xiaohan’s thoughts drifted to her aunt back in Southeast Asia.

Her uncle, Guo Henian, as Southeast Asia’s richest man, had reached middle age and ultimately failed to resist worldly temptations.

In addition to his first wife, he fell in love with another woman—the very same aunt who was present here tonight.

At first, her uncle’s wife had tried to be an “enlightened” first lady, turning a blind eye to the whole affair.

But she later discovered that this twisted relationship was like a dull knife, carving away at her heart piece by piece, causing her unbearable pain.

Finally, she could tolerate it no longer and firmly demanded that her uncle and that woman disappear from her sight, though the marriage itself was preserved.

In recent years, as Guo Henian gradually shifted his investment focus from Southeast Asia to Hong Kong, he simply moved with his second wife and settled down in Hong Kong.

This was the reason why Guo Henian, despite being Southeast Asia’s richest man, now lived in Hong Kong year-round.

Guo Xiaohan was completely different from that aunt of hers in Southeast Asia.

Perhaps it was because she had seen too many wealthy men with multiple wives, or perhaps deep down she felt she wasn’t quite good enough for Lin Haoran. Moreover, her uncle Guo Henian had already briefed her on the complex emotional situations within wealthy families, telling her to think it through carefully and giving her a “preventative shot.”

So, while she could reluctantly accept Lin Haoran having other women, she was still terrified. She was afraid that those women would brazenly interfere in her and Lin Haoran’s life, or even harm the children she might have with him in the future.

Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback. He instantly understood the deep meaning behind her words. Her greatest fear was that his other women would brazenly appear in her life.

He turned, took both of Guo Xiaohan’s hands in his, and looked her straight in the eye. “Xiaohan, don’t worry. I swear to you, that will never happen. I, Lin Haoran, may not be emotionally exclusive, but when it comes to you and our future family, I am clearer than anyone.”

Hearing this, Guo Xiaohan nodded and rested her head on his shoulder again.

In truth, she knew that no matter how many promises Lin Haoran made now, the future was still full of uncertainty.

But at this moment, the warmth from his palms and his firm words were like a reassurance, making her willing to temporarily set aside her worries and choose to trust the man before her.

Besides, ever since falling in love with Lin Haoran, she knew she could never love another man.

After all, where in the world could she find another man as outstanding as Lin Haoran?

She gently closed her eyes, savoring this rare moment of peace, and silently prayed that their future would be as they wished.

“Brother Haoran, don’t worry. After we get married, I won’t interfere with your company’s affairs. I’ll stay at home to assist my husband and teach my children, to be a proper high-society wife,” Guo Xiaohan said softly, a hint of shyness in her voice.

Lin Haoran couldn’t help but smile.

As expected, people from wealthy families possessed a clarity and sense of propriety that was beyond ordinary.

In this respect, an average girl truly couldn’t compare.

He gently stroked Guo Xiaohan’s hair and said warmly, “Silly girl, who says a high-society wife must stay at home to assist her husband and teach her children? You’re a highly educated person from a prestigious university, and even your uncle says you have a great talent for business. Wouldn’t it be a shame to let that talent go to waste?”

Guo Xiaohan looked up, a flash of surprise in her eyes. “But… Uncle said…”

“That’s the thinking of the older generation,” Lin Haoran interrupted her with a smile. “When I, Lin Haoran, take a wife, I’m not looking for someone to serve me. I hope to walk hand in hand with the one I love. If you’re interested in business, I can arrange for you to manage a company after we’re married. If you want to develop your own career, I will fully support you.”

In reality, Lin Haoran was well aware that having a career woman for a wife wouldn’t benefit him much, especially since he openly had other women.

However, he said this because Guo Xiaohan was so understanding.

But even if Guo Xiaohan wanted to continue her career in business after marriage, Lin Haoran would still set limits and not allow her to interfere too much with his Commercial Empire.

He was the one who earned the money; he didn’t need a woman to make money for him.

The lessons of history were enough to tell him how disastrous it was for the harem to interfere in politics!

The wives of men like Guo Henian, Li Jiacheng, and Pao Yue-kong mostly chose to stay at home, diligently assisting their husbands and raising their children, rarely interfering in their husbands’ careers.

Even Lin Haoran’s own mother was the same. For years, she had devoted herself to managing household affairs, keeping the family in perfect order, and never meddled in Lin Wan’an’s work.

However, at this moment, facing Guo Xiaohan, Lin Haoran wanted to give her warm and beautiful promises.

What he just said was merely to go along with her feelings, hoping to see her smile.

He was certain that a well-bred and sensible girl from a wealthy family like Guo Xiaohan would understand the proper boundaries and wouldn’t be unreasonable about these things.

Sure enough, Guo Xiaohan was deeply moved.

Her eyes glistened with tears, and her voice trembled slightly. “Brother Haoran, thank you for respecting me so much. I actually do have a small dream of my own.”

Born into a wealthy family, Guo Xiaohan naturally knew what she should do after getting married.

So, even though Lin Haoran said that, she wouldn’t deliberately make things difficult for him.

Being from high society, she knew what was appropriate and what wasn’t for a married woman of her station.

Lin Haoran gazed at her gently. “Go on.”

Guo Xiaohan tilted her head up slightly, her eyes filled with longing, and said softly, “I’ve always had a wish to start a charitable foundation. Back in Southeast Asia, I saw so many heartbreaking scenes: many bright and lovely children forced to drop out of school just because their families were poor; many elderly people living lonely lives with no one to care for them; and many families whose homes were instantly destroyed by natural disasters like floods and mudslides, their happy lives shattered just like that. If I could help these people in need and change their difficult destinies, how meaningful would that be? So, I was thinking that after we get married, I could start managing a charitable foundation. And… I want to name it after you, Brother Haoran.”

A hint of appreciation flashed in Lin Haoran’s eyes.

Naming it after him would make it the Lin Haoran Charitable Foundation.

The suggestion was perfect. It would allow Guo Xiaohan to use her talents without interfering too much in his Commercial Empire.

More importantly, philanthropy would also build a good reputation for the Lam family.

“That’s an excellent idea,” Lin Haoran said, his gaze and tone gentle. “In the future, I can allocate a special fund each year to support your foundation. You can start with educational grants in Hong Kong, and once you’ve gained experience and figured things out, you can slowly expand to other areas.”

Seeing how sensible Guo Xiaohan was, Lin Haoran gazed at the girl before him, who thought only of him, his eyes filled with gratification and affection.

At the same time, a trace of guilt quietly surfaced in his heart.

In his opinion, such a wife was nearly perfect.

To be able to marry Guo Xiaohan felt like a wonderful arrangement made especially for him by heaven. The phrase “a match made in heaven” was a perfect description.

As for the charitable foundation, even if Guo Xiaohan hadn’t mentioned it, Lin Haoran had already had the idea.

As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility.

For the wealthy, engaging in philanthropy was a natural and expected duty.

Lin Haoran had already joined the ranks of the world’s top billionaires, so he naturally had a deep understanding of his social responsibilities.

He knew he couldn’t become a stingy penny-pincher who only knew how to accumulate wealth.

Now that his Commercial Empire was vast and powerful, it was time to establish a charitable foundation to give back to society in a more systematic and impactful way.

Most importantly, charity would bring him a good social reputation and influence.

Guo Xiaohan was so surprised she stood up from the stone bench, her eyes shining with excitement. “Really? I was worried that…”

She bit her lip slightly, her words trailing off.

“Of course,” Lin Haoran gently took her hand and pulled her into his arms. “After the foundation is established, I will arrange for a professional finance and management team to assist you. From project planning to fund allocation, every step will be strictly monitored to ensure every penny is used effectively.”

Guo Xiaohan nodded solemnly, her eyes full of determination. “Of course. I will study diligently with the team and make sure everything is done well.”

The moonlight, like water, spilled over them, outlining them in a faint silver glow.

They looked at each other and smiled, their smiles brimming with tacit understanding and hope for the future.

Lin Haoran secretly breathed a sigh of relief, marveling at how his fiancée was far more sensible than he had imagined.

She wouldn’t excessively interfere with his career and could use philanthropy to build a positive image for the Lam family, enhancing their reputation. She was simply the ideal wife for a man of his standing.

With such a wife, what more could a husband ask for?

“Brother Haoran, I’m so happy tonight. I want to become Madam Lin as soon as possible,” Guo Xiaohan murmured, leaning against Lin Haoran’s chest and watching the half-moon in the sky.

Lin Haoran gently placed a kiss on her forehead and said softly, “That day won’t be far off. After the engagement ceremony, we’ll start preparing for the wedding. I want all of Hong Kong to know that you are the woman I, Lin Haoran, have chosen for life.”

Guo Xiaohan’s cheeks flushed red, and she shyly lowered her head, her fingers unconsciously twisting the corner of her clothes. “Brother Haoran, the wedding must be grand, but I also want to have some special moments that belong just to the two of us.”

The corners of Lin Haoran’s mouth lifted, his eyes filled with doting affection. “It’s all up to you. Arrange it however you like. No matter what kind of wedding it is, as long as you’re by my side, it will be perfect.”

The two of them snuggled together, enjoying the quiet and beautiful moment.

Lin’s father and the Guo family spent over an hour in discussion in the main hall before they finished.

When Lin Wan’an, Guo Henian, and Guo Hechuan walked out of the hall with smiles on their faces and steady steps, Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan quickly stood up to greet them.

Lin Wan’an’s gaze slowly fell upon Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan, his eyes full of gratification and approval.

He gently patted Lin Haoran’s shoulder and said warmly, “Haoran, it’s getting late. Say goodbye to the elders, and let’s head back.”

Guo Henian smiled and nodded beside him, looking at Lin Haoran. “We feel very reassured leaving Xiaohan with you. From now on, you two must work together to build a good life.”

Lin Haoran quickly responded with respect, “Dad, Uncle Guo, Uncle, please rest assured. I will treat Xiaohan well and never let her suffer any grievance.”

Guo Xiaohan’s cheeks were crimson as she said softly, “Uncle, Dad, I will do my best to be a good wife to Brother Haoran and build our little family with all my heart.”

“Alright then, we’ll be going. In-laws, let’s keep in touch from now on. Don’t hesitate to call if anything comes up!” Lin Wan’an said to the two Guo family elders as he pulled Lin Haoran along.

“Of course, Mr. Lin. As soon as the date is set, I’ll call you immediately. I’ll ask the Feng Shui master, Mr. Chan Lang, to personally select an auspicious date for Haoran and Xiaohan’s engagement and wedding!” Guo Henian said with a hearty laugh.

Evidently, the discussion between the two families had been very pleasant and harmonious. Both sides were full of anticipation and approval for this marriage alliance.

Lin Wan’an responded with a smile, “That would be excellent. Mr. Chan Lang’s reputation precedes him. With him selecting the auspicious day and time, this new couple is sure to be blessed with deep fortune and a smooth and happy life.”

Guo Hechuan stepped forward, patted Lin Haoran’s shoulder, and said earnestly, “Haoran, Xiaohan is a sensitive child who values relationships and loyalty. From now on, I’m entrusting her to you. You must cherish her.”

Lin Haoran nodded solemnly, his gaze firm. “Uncle, rest assured, I will not fail your trust. I will walk hand in hand with Xiaohan and never let her be wronged.”

“Mm, with those words, I can be at ease,” Guo Hechuan said with a nod.

After some more conversation, and under Guo Xiaohan’s reluctant gaze, Lin Haoran and Lin Wan’an left the Guo family villa.

Upon returning to the Lin family villa, Lin father called Lin Haoran to the study.

In the study, Lin father explained the matters they had agreed upon with the Guo family to Lin Haoran in great detail, one by one.

As expected, the focus of the conversation was the prenuptial agreement for Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan, with every detail laid out clearly.

Moreover, it was explicitly stated that both Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan must sign the agreement before the engagement ceremony took place.

In Hong Kong, and even in Southeast Asia, marriage alliances between wealthy families often involved enormous assets, intricate family interests, and complex wealth structures.

Therefore, the agreement signed before marriage, commonly known as a “prenuptial contract” or “Marital Agreement,” was a crucial tool for protecting assets and clarifying the rights and responsibilities of each party.

The contents of such agreements were not the simple property division found in ordinary families but focused on core interests such as family trusts, corporate equity, and intergenerational wealth transfer.

At the same time, the agreement’s terms had to strictly comply with Hong Kong law regarding the validity of prenuptial agreements, which stipulated fairness, voluntariness, and the need for independent legal advice during signing.

The agreement included clauses for the “absolute separation” of premarital assets and provisions for the “limited common ownership” of assets acquired after marriage.

Not only that, but it also detailed presets for property division in the event of divorce, alimony standards, arrangements regarding children, and clauses for protecting family interests and ensuring confidentiality.

Essentially, a prenuptial agreement among Hong Kong’s elite was a “firewall for the family’s fortune.”

By clearly defining asset ownership, effectively isolating debt risks, and pre-establishing rules for divorce, it minimized the negative impact a marriage could have on the family business, trust structures, and intergenerational wealth transfer.

Its core logic was “marriage is an emotional union, but the assets always belong to the family,” ultimately achieving the bottom line: “the marriage can be dissolved, but the money cannot be divided.”

At first glance, this might seem unfair to the woman, but in reality, any woman from another wealthy family marrying into the Guo family would face the same arrangement.

Therefore, neither the Guo family nor the Lam family raised any objections.

After all, if the woman’s side were to object, it would inevitably lead to speculation about her true motives for marrying into the family.

This would not be good for either family.

One must understand that the interests involved in a marriage alliance between wealthy families were incredibly complex, like a vast and intricate web. The slightest misstep could cause a great disturbance within the family, attract outside speculation and gossip, damage the family’s reputation, and disrupt business plans.

Lin Wan’an looked at Lin Haoran with a gentle smile and said slowly, “Haoran, this prenuptial agreement may sound cold and impersonal at first, but it is an indispensable and solid safeguard in a marriage alliance between families like ours. You’ve worked so hard to build your career to its current scale. Every step has been filled with hardship and difficulty. We absolutely cannot allow any mistakes to happen with your assets because of a marriage. It’s the same for the Guo family. Their acceptance of these terms, and even their proactive cooperation, comes from considering their family’s long-term interests.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, his eyes thoughtful, and said slowly, “Dad, I understand what you mean. In fact, looking at it from another perspective, this agreement can help us more clearly define our mutual responsibilities and obligations in the marriage, which can prevent unnecessary disputes over property in the future. And I believe Xiaohan is reasonable and will surely understand the logic behind this.”

Chapter 687: The Crown Prince of the Hong Kong Entertainment Industry?

It was late, and Lin Haoran had no intention of returning to the Severn Road villa tonight. Instead, he decided to stay at the Deep Water Bay villa.

He had only been back to the Deep Water Bay villa for a few days right after returning to Hong Kong in May.

So, with the bank’s affairs settled, it was indeed time to spend some time with his parents.

In the study, besides discussing his engagement with his father, Lin Haoran also talked a bit about his own matters.

Of course, he had always been tight-lipped about anything too secretive, and he didn’t want to say much, even to his own father.

His main concern was that Lin Wan’an might let something slip accidentally when he was out.

After all, he knew he had become his father’s pride and joy, and he had heard that Lin Wan’an often bragged about him in his circle.

Therefore, when he spoke of his own affairs, he only picked out unimportant details.

As they talked, Lin Wan’an also began to speak about himself.

Ever since his health had improved, Lin Wan’an had become increasingly restless.

After all, he had operated in Hong Kong’s business world for decades.

Previously, due to his poor health, he had feared he wouldn’t last long and had no choice but to divide his family assets.

But miraculously, after dividing the assets, he stopped worrying about the company’s problems and spent over a year recuperating. His health took a turn for the better.

All his check-up indicators had returned to excellent levels.

Lin Wan’an had tried the retired life with Lin mother, but after a while, he couldn’t stand it anymore.

Life was too boring; he felt he needed something to do.

So, Lin Wan’an started investing in films with others.

After all, investing in movies was something Lin Wan’an had dabbled in before his retirement.

It was because Lin Wan’an had taken Lin Haoran to a celebratory banquet for a film all those years ago that he had met Rosamund Kwan at the event.

To Lin Wan’an, this industry was a small investment he could play around with.

So, after his health recovered, Lin Wan’an once again started investing in films with his friends.

Lin Haoran, however, truly looked down on the film industry.

Others might think the film industry was paved with gold, believing that if a movie became a box office hit, it was a low-investment, high-return business.

But in Lin Haoran’s eyes, this so-called “high return” was nothing special.

Take last year, for example. Golden Harvest was the talk of the town.

Its film, The Young Master, shattered Hong Kong’s box office records with an impressive HK$11.02 million, securing its place as the year’s top-grossing film.

However, if one did the math, after deducting production costs, entertainment taxes, cinema shares, and distribution and promotion fees, the net profit of the film was likely only around two or three million Hong Kong dollars.

Then there was another film, The Big Brawl, a massive co-production between Golden Harvest and a Hollywood director.

The film grossed HK$5.77 million in Hong Kong and a staggering US$8.5 million in North America. At first glance, the results were impressive.

But the revenue sharing percentage in the North American market had always been low, and Golden Harvest never disclosed its specific profit figures.

However, from a rough estimate of costs and revenues, it was easy to deduce that the film did not actually bring in a huge profit for Golden Harvest.

Golden Harvest, as the “bellwether” of the Hong Kong film market last year, had results that far surpassed its competitors. It released thirteen films throughout the year, meaning at least one film was released every month.

However, the box office performance of these thirteen works varied greatly; some made a huge profit, while others lost their entire investment.

In the final accounting, although the company was profitable overall, the profits were pitifully meager.

To put it bluntly, even as Hong Kong’s top-performing film company, Golden Harvest worked itself to the bone all year and, at best, earned a mere ten-odd million Hong Kong dollars.

Fortunately, it also held some cinema resources, and the stable income from the cinemas was what kept its financial reports from looking too grim.

But if this portion of income were excluded, relying solely on film production and distribution, making a few million in profit a year would be considered a great blessing.

In contrast, any one of Lin Haoran’s obscure little companies could easily crush Golden Harvest in terms of annual profit.

The comparison was truly thought-provoking.

Were the profits high?

In the eyes of the ordinary person, they were indeed astonishingly high.

After all, many films had ridiculously low production costs, and if they became a box office success, it wasn’t uncommon for profits to multiply several or even a dozen times. The return rate alone was enough to make people green with envy.

But in the eyes of top tycoons and industry big shots, the film industry was far from being highly profitable.

The industry had too many limitations: the market itself was too small, it was too heavily influenced by market fluctuations and changes in audience taste, and the risks and returns were extremely unstable. It simply couldn’t catch their “esteemed eyes.”

In the view of many business tycoons, finance and real estate were the truly high-profit industries!

It was for this reason that, from the very beginning, Lin Haoran had never been the least bit interested in the film industry.

Coincidentally, Shao Yifu was also gradually losing his passion for the film business, shifting his focus entirely to TVB.

In his view, with the popularization of television sets in every household, the film industry was bound to decline. Even the Shaw Brothers Film Company, which he had founded, could not escape the fate of decay!

Now, Shao Yifu was even considering shutting down the Shaw Brothers Film Company.

Lin Haoran had never objected to his father’s enthusiasm for investing in films, nor had he ever demanded that his father switch to those so-called “high-return” industries.

His thinking was simple: as long as his father liked it.

At a certain stage in life, being able to do what you love is more important than anything else.

So what if he lost money investing in movies?

After all, the industry came with both risks and rewards, and any losses wouldn’t significantly dent the family savings.

And if he made money, it was merely gilding the lily; Lin Haoran didn’t care about that small amount of money at all.

His father was getting older, and his happiness and peace of mind were what mattered most.

Since films could bring him joy and a sense of accomplishment, Lin Haoran naturally supported him fully.

Isn’t filial piety about ensuring one’s parents can enjoy their old age?

“Haoran, in the past two years, I’ve invested in three films as an investor. Overall, I’ve made a few hundred thousand. It’s not a lot of money, but I find it quite interesting.

“So, my hands are itching now. I don’t want to stick to small-scale operations as just an investor. I’m thinking of starting a film company with some other people. What do you think?” Lin Wan’an asked with a smile.

“Starting a company in a partnership, Dad, you know the disadvantages of that. What if you two have a disagreement? Wouldn’t you just be asking for trouble? Dad, if you want to open a film company, just do it yourself. There’s no need for a partner. It might just end up ruining a friendship. Why bother?” Lin Haoran said, a little confused.

“Haoran, your concern is not without reason. But at my age, I prefer to be cautious. Going it alone offers freedom, but I’d have to shoulder all the risk myself, which makes me a bit uneasy. With a partner, we can share the burden. Even if we run into trouble, I won’t be the only one in a terrible fix,” Lin Wan’an explained his thoughts patiently, frowning slightly.

Lin Haoran didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He quickly said, “Dad, why do you have to do this? If you’re short on money, I have plenty. There’s really no need to partner with someone else to open a company. In a business partnership, if you end up fighting over the distribution of profits, it’ll be ugly for everyone. Aren’t you just needlessly looking for trouble?

“How about this, Dad? I’ll have the finance department transfer one hundred million Hong Kong dollars to your personal card tomorrow. You can spend it however you like. If it’s not enough, just let me know.”

One had to understand that the Hong Kong film market was only so big; its scale was truly limited.

Let alone one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, even ten million was enough to start a sizable film company.

Many films with outstanding box office performances had production and promotion costs that totaled, at most, a few hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars.

Even for so-called big-budget productions, the costs were at most a few million Hong Kong dollars.

And as for connections in the film industry, Lin Haoran himself was now Lin Wan’an’s most solid “network”.

In every aspect, from promotion and distribution to release, who in the industry wouldn’t give Lin Haoran some face?

So, one hundred million Hong Kong dollars was more than enough for Lin Wan’an to freely play and “mess around” in the world of film investment.

Even if Lin Wan’an really lost the entire one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, it would be a trivial matter for Lin Haoran, who wouldn’t even bat an eye.

Honestly, Lin Haoran did not support his father finding a partner to open a film company.

In terms of network resources, Lin Haoran had a unique advantage.

Putting other things aside, Shao Yifu, a tycoon whose every move could shake the Hong Kong film and television industry, was his partner. Both were major shareholders of TVB.

In the Hong Kong film circle, who could compare with Shao Yifu in terms of foundation and heritage?

Even though Golden Harvest had been in the spotlight in recent years, its founders had simply left Shaw Brothers to start their own company.

As for capital, it was even less of a concern for Lin Haoran.

With his wealth, there was currently no one in Hong Kong who could match him.

“Haoran, Dad knows you’re not short of money, but I just want to play around on a small scale for fun. I have money of my own; I don’t need to take yours,” Lin Wan’an said, shaking his head.

After dividing the family assets between Lin Haoran and Lin Haoning, Lin Wan’an had only kept the title to the Deep Water Bay villa, the rental rights to a few commercial properties in the city center, and several million Hong Kong dollars in cash.

However, at the beginning of this year, at Lin Haoran’s suggestion, Lin Wan’an had sold off those commercial properties at a high price while the Hong Kong real estate industry was still booming.

So, he could easily come up with ten or twenty million Hong Kong dollars on his own now.

Hearing his father’s words, Lin Haoran smiled helplessly, took his father’s hand, and patted it gently. “Dad, it’s not that I’m afraid of you spending my money. I’m worried that partnerships are too much trouble. Since you want to have fun, then have a blast. Don’t be tied down by partnership issues. Take this hundred million for now, and just consider it my investment in your entertainment.”

Lin Wan’an looked at his son’s sincere eyes and felt a wave of emotion, but he stubbornly said, “Haoran, Dad knows you’re filial, but this really isn’t about the money for me.”

“Dad, if you want to achieve something in the film industry, I have a suggestion,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Oh? Haoran, what do you mean?” Lin Wan’an asked, looking puzzled.

“Dad, I was chatting with Mr. Shao Yifu a while ago, and he confided in me that he’s lost his initial passion for the film industry. If it weren’t for all the employees Shaw Brothers still has, he would’ve shut it down long ago to focus solely on TVB. Since you’re interested in getting into the film industry, why don’t I act as a go-between and you buy Shaw Brothers? From what I can tell, Sixth Uncle might actually be willing to sell. Shaw Brothers has a complete industry chain. Once the acquisition is successful, I’ll immediately hire a professional manager who knows the film industry to run things. That way, you won’t have to work so hard like before; you can just oversee things from the company’s headquarters. If you need any connections in the future, you can use any of mine. Who knows, before long, you could become a renowned mogul in the Hong Kong film industry!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

In the past, Lin Wan’an had a hands-on management style for everything, which gradually took a toll on his health.

Fortunately, after a period of rest, his body slowly recovered.

He also deeply realized how much harm his previous hands-on approach had caused him.

So, even if he were asked to manage a large enterprise now, Lin Haoran felt that his father would not be as hands-on as before.

Since his father was interested in testing the waters in the film industry, why not go all out!

In the 1970s, Shaw Brothers Film Company had long faced fierce competition from Golden Harvest. Coupled with its outdated business philosophy and lack of innovation, it had lost the will to continue developing in the film industry.

Especially after Shao Yifu became the Chairman of the Board of TVB, he was determined to devote all his energy to the development of TVB.

What’s more, even if Lin Haoran didn’t intervene, the Shaw Brothers Film Company would have ceased production in 1985 and gradually faded from the film production industry anyway.

But in reality, Hong Kong cinema didn’t truly enter its decline until the mid-1990s.

Throughout the 1980s and until the mid-1990s, the Hong Kong film industry did not decline. Instead, it experienced a period of vigorous development—the golden age of Hong Kong cinema.

Lin Haoran couldn’t help but feel a twinge of regret that Hong Kong cinema would eventually decline.

Although he didn’t think much of the film industry, he was, after all, from a generation that grew up watching Hong Kong movies in his previous life.

So, since his father was so enthusiastic about entering the film industry, why not let him buy the Shaw Brothers Film Company?

If he could run it successfully, it would also help Lin Haoran resolve a regret in his heart!

Hearing Lin Haoran’s bold and stunning proposal, Lin Wan’an was first taken aback. A flicker of excitement crossed his eyes, but he quickly regained his composure.

He frowned slightly and said, “Haoran, Shaw Brothers is a golden signboard in the Hong Kong film industry. Although Mr. Shao Yifu is focusing on TVB now, I’m afraid it won’t be that easy to negotiate a deal. And with such a huge operation, can I even handle it if I take over?”

Lin Haoran smiled and patted his father’s shoulder, saying confidently, “Dad, don’t worry. Although Shaw Brothers is in a bit of a decline, its foundation is still there, its industry chain is complete, and it has a considerable talent pool. As long as you carry out some reforms and innovations after taking over and inject new vitality into the company, you can surely rejuvenate it. As for negotiating the acquisition with Mr. Shao, with me acting as a go-between and us offering reasonable terms, I believe Sixth Uncle will seriously consider it. After all, he doesn’t have the heart to manage it much anyway. And you don’t have to worry about the management after the acquisition. I’ll help you find the most professional people to handle it. You can just be the big boss behind the scenes, offering opinions occasionally and enjoying the fun of making decisions.”

Lin Wan’an pondered for a moment, gradually moved by his son’s words.

He had spent his life navigating the business world. Although health problems had forced him to step back for a while, the spirit of hard work and adventure was still in his bones.

Now that his son had provided him with such an opportunity to show off his skills in the film industry, perhaps he could really carve out a new world for himself.

“Alright, Haoran, since you’re so confident, Dad will listen to you. I’ll try to buy Shaw Brothers!” Lin Wan’an slapped his thigh and said decisively.

“Great, it’s settled then. You can forget about starting a film company with other people; there’s no need. I haven’t been over to TVB in a while. I’ll find a time to talk to Sixth Uncle about this. He might be reluctant to sell to others, but if I’m the one making the approach, the chances are pretty high!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

Speaking of the 1980s, it was undoubtedly a golden era for the Hong Kong entertainment industry, star-studded and dazzling.

Irene Wan, Vivian Chow, Joey Wong, Chingmy Yau, Amy Yip, Li Lizhen, Nina Li Chi… these names were the goddesses in the hearts of countless people back then.

Most of them were born around 1966, which meant that most of them were still young now.

However, among these future female stars, he had already met Li Lizhen on Lamma Island years ago and had since arranged for her to work at the Hongkong Electric Group, which was like a sort of Pygmalion project.

If his father really made a name for himself in the film industry, he might be able to ride his coattails and enjoy some unique “benefits.”

Anyway, Guo Xiaohan had already tacitly accepted the fact that he had other women on the side. An occasional dalliance outside wouldn’t be a problem at all.

He was just about to get engaged and was already thinking about other women. It had to be said, the thought was indeed a bit scummy.

But Lin Haoran was a transmigrator, after all, and had always valued acting according to his heart.

Putting other things aside, he was also raising another future superstar in Japan—Akina Nakamori.

If his father became a movie mogul, wouldn’t that make him the Crown Prince of the Hong Kong entertainment industry?

Heh, thinking about it that way, it was a pretty good idea!

Lin Haoran chatted with his father until after ten o’clock at night before returning to his own room.

The room was clean and tidy, without a hint of dust, a clear sign that his mother often had the maids clean it.

Although it had been a long time since he had spent the night here, Lin Haoran slept exceptionally well.

It wasn’t until around eight o’clock the next morning that he slowly woke from his dreams.

He got up, feeling refreshed, and after washing up, he exercised for a while on the terrace.

Then, he went downstairs for breakfast.

At this time, his parents had obviously already eaten. His father was sitting on the sofa, leisurely reading the newspaper.

“Haoran, come and see! Today’s headlines are all about you!” Lin Wan’an’s face was wreathed in smiles, his eyes filled with pride.

His son was so successful, and he was proud of him from the bottom of his heart.

Even without Lin Wan’an saying anything, Lin Haoran knew what the reports were about.

At noon yesterday, he had officially announced the acquisition of Hang Seng Bank at the Hang Seng Building. Several hundred media reporters were present, covering almost all major mainstream media companies in Hong Kong, and many reporters from global mainstream media were there as well.

So, it was a matter of course that all the major newspapers would feature it as their headline this morning.

After sixteen years, Hang Seng Bank had once again returned to the control of a Chinese-funded conglomerate. How could such sensational news not attract widespread attention?

Moreover, under the current special circumstances, Standard Chartered Bank had willingly handed over Hang Seng Bank, which undoubtedly left a huge room for imagination and led everyone to speculate.

Even though Standard Chartered’s Taipan, Brown, had remained tight-lipped about his cooperation with Lin Haoran at the press conference, it did nothing to stop everyone’s curiosity and speculation.

Lin Haoran took a bite of a bun with one hand and walked over to his father to look at the newspaper in his hands.

The newspaper Lin Wan’an was holding was the Hong Kong Commercial Daily.

Lin Haoran leaned in, his gaze falling on the newspaper, where a large, exaggerated headline screamed: “Shocking! Standard Chartered Willingly Bows Down and Cedes Control of Hang Seng Bank, Lin Haoran Powerfully Takes Over!”

Next to it was a picture of him at the Hang Seng Building, captured in a moment of triumph as he announced the acquisition. In the photo, his eyes were firm, and a confident smile played on his lips, as if he were announcing the dawn of a new era to the entire Hong Kong financial world.

Lin Haoran couldn’t help but chuckle and teased, “Dad, this headline is too exaggerated. What do you mean, Standard Chartered ‘willingly bowed down’? It’s not that dramatic.”

Standard Chartered had indeed bowed down, but it wasn’t of their own volition. It was after Lin Haoran had threatened them.

Otherwise, Standard Chartered had been on the verge of using the HK$5 billion loan to make an issue of it and delay the Hang Seng Bank transaction!

Lin Wan’an smiled and shook his head, pointing at the newspaper as he continued, “Look at these sub-headlines: ‘A Sixteen-Year Cycle, Hang Seng Bank Returns to Chinese Hands, Lin Haoran Aims to Monopolize Hong Kong’s Financial Sector.’ ‘Standard Chartered’s Mysterious Concession, What Astonishing Gambit is Lin Haoran Hiding?’ These newspapers just love to sensationalize things.”

Chapter 688: Treating the Rich as Suckers

Lin Haoran stayed at home for lunch with his parents before leaving the Deep Water Bay villa area.

Upon returning to Central, Lin Haoran went straight to the Connaught Centre.

In Ma Shimin’s office, he was surprised to see Ho Sin Hang.

“Uncle He, Hang Seng Bank was just acquired. Don’t you have a mountain of work to deal with over there?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“Haoran, have you forgotten about Hang Seng Group? I came over today to oversee the setup of the Hang Seng Group office. I just finished lunch with Mr. Ma in the canteen and came over to chat with him. After all, there will be many opportunities for us to work together in the future,” Ho Sin Hang replied with a smile.

Lin Haoran had a sudden realization.

A few days ago, Ho Sin Hang had mentioned to him that establishing Hang Seng Group wouldn’t take long. It was just a matter of properly integrating the resources of Hang Seng Bank, the Bank of East Asia, and Dao Heng Bank, which could be set in motion at any time.

After that conversation, he had specifically instructed Ma Shimin to clear an entire floor of the Connaught Centre to serve as the headquarters for Hang Seng Group.

Now that Hang Seng Bank had successfully joined the “big family,” it was indeed time to form Hang Seng Group.

“You haven’t run into any problems, have you?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Not at all. The takeover of Hang Seng Bank went very smoothly. I’ve been managing the Bank of East Asia for over a month now, so I have a thorough grasp of the situation. As for Dao Heng Bank, that’s even less of a concern. By the way, Haoran, I’ve already submitted the application to privatize Hang Seng Bank to the Securities Commission in the name of Hang Seng Group. Once it’s approved, we can officially submit the delisting offer to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange,” Ho Sin Hang said.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly. They already controlled ninety percent of Hang Seng Bank’s shares, which meant they had met the threshold for a mandatory buyout of the remaining stock. Since the conditions were met, there was no need for Hang Seng Bank to remain a listed company.

Once Hang Seng Group was established, Lin Haoran planned to talk with Ho Sin Hang about investing in Japan.

“By the way, Standard Chartered Bank promised to help us secure banknote-issuing rights for Hong Kong. Has there been any new progress on their end?” Lin Haoran asked after a moment of thought.

“Mr. Brown spoke with me about this yesterday. The Standard Chartered Group headquarters has already convinced the British government, but according to Mr. Brown, they paid a hefty price to get the British government on board. Now, the matter needs to be reviewed and approved here in Hong Kong, so we can’t rush it. After all, banknote-issuing rights are extremely important. The agreement we signed with Standard Chartered Bank states they will get it done for us within three months, and we’re still far from the deadline, so there’s no need to worry,” Ho Sin Hang reported honestly.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly. Indeed, banknote-issuing rights weren’t something that could be approved so easily.

After chatting with Ho Sin Hang for a while, he went downstairs.

The soon-to-be-established Hang Seng Group headquarters wouldn’t need a full renovation. Ho Sin Hang’s idea was to simply clean the place, arrange the office spaces for each department, and then they could move in.

Naturally, Lin Haoran had no objections to this.

After Ho Sin Hang left, only Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin remained in the office.

“Boss, there’s something I need to report to you.” Ma Shimin picked up a document from his desk and handed it to Lin Haoran.

“Mobile Phone Commercial Launch Plan?” Lin Haoran read the document’s title, a look of surprise on his face.

Ma Shimin had previously mentioned that mobile phones would be launched for commercial use in August, but he had honestly forgotten about this important matter. Although he was already used to the convenience of mobile phones, his mind had been more focused on the Bank of East Asia recently.

“That’s right, Boss! The cellular network, a joint investment by the Hongkong Telephone Company and the Motorola Company, basically completed its coverage of the core areas of northern Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula by the end of July. This includes busy areas like Central, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, and North Point, as well as Hung Hom, Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok, and Sham Shui Po in the urban part of the Kowloon Peninsula. It even covers key areas, business districts, and wealthy villa areas like Kwun Tong and the Kowloon Tong villa area. We’ve been conducting intensive tests recently, and the results have far exceeded our expectations. Although the signal is weaker in densely built-up areas and basements, with frequent disconnections, this was within our predictions. The performance in other areas is excellent. After discussions with the Motorola Company, we have officially set the commercial launch date for Hong Kong mobile phones to August 15th. At that time, Mr. Robert Galvin, the President of the Motorola Company, will personally come to Hong Kong to witness this historic moment with us. Our Hong Kong will become the first city in the world to commercialize mobile phones, kicking off the first year of commercial mobile telephony globally!” Ma Shimin could hardly contain his excitement as he spoke.

As the President of the Hongkong Land Group, Ma Shimin had been using a mobile phone for a while, so he was keenly aware of the convenience it offered. Mobile phones were incredibly practical for business.

If this succeeded, the stock price of the Hongkong Telephone Company would undoubtedly skyrocket.

Although the Hongkong Land Group had completed its privatization, its subsidiary, the Hongkong Telephone Company, was a bona fide listed company.

Initially, Lin Haoran had intended to privatize the Hongkong Telephone Company as well, but the Securities Commission was firmly against it. After several rounds of negotiation, the Securities Commission eventually approved a maximum holding of seventy-five percent of the company’s shares, with the remaining twenty-five percent to be held by public shareholders. This meant that the Hongkong Telephone Company could not be privatized.

However, Lin Haoran knew he couldn’t be too greedy. Having an absolute controlling stake in a monopolistic enterprise was already more than satisfactory.

Looking at the proposal in his hands, Lin Haoran nodded slightly. He was one of the early testers of the mobile phone, and his experience over the past few months had been profound.

The convenience brought by mobile phones was incomparable to what had come before. He was no longer tied to a specific telephone set and could make and receive calls anytime, anywhere, which greatly increased his freedom. Moreover, the signal stability was quite good. Whether in his office, at home on Severn Road, or even in a moving car, he rarely experienced signal loss. Of course, this might have something to do with his office’s location, which was relatively open and on a high floor.

However, the first batch of mobile phone users would certainly be the wealthy and influential, and their office environments wouldn’t be poor either.

“Have you decided on the pricing for the network access fee, call charges, and handset purchase fee?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Not yet. Pricing is a huge challenge. We’ve invested hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars in building the cellular network, and recouping that investment will be incredibly difficult. Then there’s the contract manufacturing of the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X mobile phone. We originally planned to get the product technology license and manufacture it ourselves, but the Motorola Company absolutely refused to budge. After multiple rounds of negotiations, they also realized that manufacturing in the United States would be prohibitively expensive. Fortunately, Hong Kong has a complete supply chain of component factories for tech products. Even a technologically advanced semiconductor company like Intel has a packaging plant in Hong Kong, so setting up the production line here would significantly lower costs. So in the end, they decided to form a joint venture factory with us. We provide the site and initial investment, they provide the technology, and key components are airlifted from the United States. In terms of equity, we hold fifty-one percent, and they hold forty-nine percent. With all this factored in, we’ve invested far too much in the mobile phone business. But the Hong Kong market is currently small. If the price is too high, the number of users might be even lower than expected; if the price is too low, we won’t be able to recoup our massive initial investment in the short term, and profits will be a distant dream,” Ma Shimin said, his brow furrowed in frustration.

Lin Haoran nodded in understanding.

In fact, he had inadvertently read an article about this very topic in his previous life.

If the Hongkong Telephone Company hadn’t suddenly teamed up with Motorola, then according to the original timeline, the first company to launch mobile phone services in Hong Kong in 1983 would have been Hutchison Whampoa’s subsidiary, Hutchison Telecommunications. At the time, Hutchison Whampoa had noticed the difficulty in developing its landline business and saw a rare opportunity in mobile phones. They decisively seized the moment, established Hutchison Telecommunications, and successfully broke Hongkong Telephone’s monopoly in the communications sector by entering the mobile phone market.

Back then, the public price for the first batch of mobile phones was universally high, typically between twenty to thirty thousand Hong Kong dollars, with a network access fee of around six thousand Hong Kong dollars. Due to extremely high market demand, the product was in short supply, and on the black market, the price of these “brick phones” was driven up to around fifty thousand Hong Kong dollars per unit!

On top of that, there was a monthly basic service fee of one hundred and fifty Hong Kong dollars, and the per-minute call charge was as high as one Hong Kong dollar, with charges applying to both making and receiving calls.

It could be said that both landline and wireless telephone services were stable businesses that could generate long-term, massive profits. Therefore, even though the Hongkong Telephone Company had invested a large amount of capital upfront, recouping the costs was not actually a difficult task.

“Is the first batch a limited release?” Lin Haoran asked after a moment of thought.

“It has to be limited. Due to the limitations of the base station technology and capacity, the more people use our mobile network, the worse the signal will become. So we must impose a limit. According to the estimates of Motorola’s engineering team, the number of users should not exceed three thousand at present. Therefore, we’ve decided to cap the first batch of users at three thousand. However, three thousand isn’t a small number. We’re worried that if the price is set too high, we might not even be able to attract that many customers. Boss, do you have any suggestions on pricing?” Ma Shimin asked.

The commercial launch of mobile phones was a world-first, with no precedent to follow. For the Hongkong Telephone Company, pricing was a truly vexing problem.

“My idea is to set the price as high as possible. For example, price the handset at fifty thousand Hong Kong dollars, the network access fee at ten thousand Hong Kong dollars, the monthly basic service fee at five hundred Hong Kong dollars, and the per-minute call charge at two Hong Kong dollars. Of course, the price isn’t set in stone; we can make adjustments later, but overall, it shouldn’t be set too low!” Lin Haoran said with a smile after a brief pause.

“Oh? Boss, the price you’re suggesting is much higher than what we’ve been discussing. If we set it that high, wouldn’t we be shutting out a lot of potential customers?” Ma Shimin said, his brow furrowed slightly.

“Shutting them out is exactly the point. Having too many customers in the first batch wouldn’t be a good thing for us; our mobile network probably can’t support that many users anyway. Since we’re aiming to build a high-end, monopolistic communication service, we need to establish a high barrier to entry from the very beginning to attract the top-tier customers who truly have the means and the need.”

“But that price is just too high. Even with all the wealthy people in Hong Kong, not all of them might be willing to accept it,” Ma Shimin said, still worried, his frown deepening.

Fifty thousand Hong Kong dollars for a handset, plus a ten thousand Hong Kong dollar network access fee, and high subsequent fees—it was practically treating the rich as suckers!

“Mr. Ma, think about it from another perspective. We’ve made a huge upfront investment. If we want to quickly recoup our costs and achieve high profits, we have to start with high-net-worth individuals. Besides, a high price is in itself a symbol of quality and status. Those top-tier tycoons are always willing to pay for unique, scarce, and high-quality services. The mobile phone we’re launching is a commercial first in Hong Kong and even globally, which makes it a scarce resource that others can’t replicate in the short term. It’s basically a monopoly. Add to that the stable signal and premium service we provide, and it’s completely worth the price. For those bosses, the value of their phone calls is not insignificant. Besides, with Hong Kong’s current wealthy population, are you really telling me we can’t find three thousand customers for the first batch?” Lin Haoran analyzed patiently.

In Hong Kong today, there were hundreds of families with assets worth hundreds of millions, not to mention the even larger high-income groups with assets in the tens of millions or millions. Therefore, Lin Haoran estimated that three thousand slots might not even be enough. Since that was the case, why price it so low? They could always increase the customer base later when the base station technology matured and coverage expanded.

Ma Shimin had a sudden realization. They were effectively capitalizing on a monopoly.

“Boss, I just had an idea. Do you remember we discussed fully acquiring the joint venture company with Motorola when the time is right, to take complete control of the Hong Kong mobile phone business?” Ma Shimin said with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded.

He had indeed discussed this with Ma Shimin. After all, the mobile telecommunications industry was destined to be extremely profitable in the future. As the first to venture into this field, they had already taken a solid first step.

The subsequent full takeover plan was undoubtedly a challenge. The key question was how to convince the Motorola Company to give up its equity.

“Mr. Ma, could it be that you have a good idea?” Lin Haoran asked curiously.

“I do have an initial thought. If we set the prices as you suggested, Boss, I believe the Motorola Company will agree, since they also want to make more money. However, our signal tower coverage is still too small. Basically, once you leave the urban areas and head towards the suburbs or the new towns, the mobile phone becomes a useless brick. This will definitely be a major weakness for us in the short term. Therefore, it might take us several years to break even because all our earnings will have to be reinvested into building new signal towers and expanding coverage. But Motorola, as a company that balances short-term profits with long-term strategy, may not be willing to join us in such a prolonged investment war. After all, they have their own global business layout and profit targets,” Ma Shimin said.

Lin Haoran nodded. Indeed, as a pioneer in the mobile phone field, Motorola would certainly want to deploy globally, and Hong Kong was merely a testing ground for them.

“So, what you’re saying is, Mr. Ma…?” Lin Haoran narrowed his eyes slightly, waiting for Ma Shimin to continue.

Ma Shimin took a deep breath, organized his thoughts, and said, “Boss, I think we can make a play here. When we collaborate with the Motorola Company going forward, we can gradually reveal a piece of information to them: due to customer complaints, we intend to adopt a very aggressive strategy to expand our signal coverage. Specifically, we plan to reinvest all our earnings over the next three to five years. We want to not only extend signal coverage to the near suburbs of Hong Kong but also work with surrounding, less economically developed areas like Tuen Mun, Lantau Island, and the New Territories to create a seamless mobile communication network covering all of Hong Kong.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, gesturing for him to continue.

“If the Motorola Company sees this grand plan of ours, they will surely worry that such a large-scale investment will drag them into a war of attrition, with a return period much longer than they anticipated. Faced with a project that might not be profitable, they definitely won’t want to be tied down with us for too long. At that point, if we opportunely reveal our intention to acquire their shares, I believe they will be willing to sell,” Ma Shimin said with a smile.

When the Hongkong Telephone Company and the Motorola Company formed their joint venture, because Hong Kong was Hongkong Telephone’s “turf” and Motorola was an outsider, Hongkong Telephone held more sway in corporate decision-making. When Lin Haoran persuaded Motorola to join the venture, he emphasized Hong Kong’s large wealthy population and the potential for substantial profits, which was a key factor in attracting them.

Furthermore, as the number of users grew, it would indeed be hard to justify keeping the mobile signal confined to the city center. Customer complaints would be entirely reasonable. At that point, even if Motorola wanted to oppose such decisions, they would have to weigh their influence in the joint venture and potential public pressure.

Covering sparsely populated suburbs would, at first glance, seem unprofitable. So, if Motorola was unwilling to support this decision, selling their shares to the Hongkong Telephone Company at a reasonable price would be the best option.

This wasn’t a case of discarding an ally once their purpose is served, as Motorola would still make a handsome profit from selling their shares. However, for a local Hong Kong enterprise like the Hongkong Telephone Company, extending signal coverage to the suburbs and new towns was only a matter of time.

This decision by the Hongkong Telephone Company would allow them to push Motorola out, inherit the relevant technology, and lay the groundwork for future development—a triple win from any angle. The downside was that it might be difficult to recoup costs in the short term, making it a bit shortsighted.

But for Lin Haoran, that was no issue. After all, they could simply use profits for future investments without needing the Hongkong Telephone Company to inject additional funds. And spending a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars to secure monopolistic control over Hong Kong’s future wireless telephone market was a worthwhile deal no matter how you looked at it.

If other mobile companies wanted to enter the Hong Kong market, they would need to use Hongkong Telephone’s signal towers, which would undoubtedly give the Hongkong Telephone Company an absolutely dominant position in the future mobile communications market.

“Alright, let’s go with your idea!” Lin Haoran nodded, quite in agreement with Ma Shimin’s proposal.

Forcing Motorola out was his idea in the first place. The mobile telecommunications industry would be extremely lucrative for decades to come, and he was naturally unwilling to have Motorola’s interference in Hong Kong.

Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin chatted in the office until after three in the afternoon, when Lin Haoran received a call from Guo Henian.

“Haoran, I’ve had Mr. Chan Lang divine for you and Xiaohan. According to your birth charts, September 3rd, which is the sixth day of the eighth lunar month, is a very auspicious day, perfect for you two to get engaged. I’ve already called your father, and he said it’s fine. What do you think?” Guo Henian said with a laugh.

Early September?

It was a bit rushed.

But after a moment’s thought, Lin Haoran replied, “Alright, Uncle Guo. I’ll leave everything to your arrangements!”

“Then it’s settled. I know you’re very busy lately, so you don’t need to worry too much about this. The Guo family and your parents will handle everything,” Guo Henian said with a hearty laugh.

“Then I’ll have to trouble you, Uncle Guo.”

Not long after hanging up, Lin Haoran received another call.

Surprisingly, it was from Guo Xiaohan.

“Brother Haoran, can I come to your villa after work?” Guo Xiaohan’s voice was a little shy over the phone.

A slight smile touched Lin Haoran’s lips, and he replied gently, “You’re my fiancée. Do you even need to ask? I’ll head home a bit early and wait for you.”

He figured that after learning the specific engagement date, Guo Xiaohan’s longing for him had grown even stronger. He hadn’t expected this girl to be so forward.

A smile couldn’t help but spread across Lin Haoran’s face.

At the same time, a trace of guilt crept into his heart. After all, just last night, he and his father, Lin Wan’an, had been excitedly discussing the acquisition of Shaw Brothers Film Company, and he had been secretly scheming about enjoying the “special benefits” of future female stars.

Of course, it was just a fleeting sense of guilt. As for what he would do in the future, the most important thing was to follow his heart and let nature take its course, wasn’t it?

Lin Haoran put away his phone, a ripple spreading through his heart.

Since he had met Guo Xiaohan, she had mostly been the one taking the initiative, while he had been passively accepting this love. Now that the engagement date was set, he felt increasingly satisfied with Guo Xiaohan as his wife.

Perhaps this was the strange and wonderful arrangement of Destiny.

Chapter 689: The Birth of a New Financial Hegemon!

In the afternoon, after returning to the Severn Road villa, Lin Haoran asked the kitchen to prepare a special Southeast Asian meal for the evening.

Although there was a large Chinese population in Southeast Asia, there were also many other groups, such as Indians and Arabs, in addition to the native people.

One could say that the entirety of Southeast Asia was, in effect, a giant melting pot.

Influenced by these diverse cultures, Southeast Asian cuisine had a unique style of its own.

Just before seven in the evening, Lin Haoran heard the sound of a car horn from outside the villa.

He craned his neck to look out from the third-floor terrace and saw, as expected, Guo Xiaohan’s red private car.

Lin Haoran went downstairs personally to welcome her.

Today, Guo Xiaohan wore a long, pristine white dress. Its hem, gently teased by the breeze, billowed gracefully, making her resemble a lily standing apart from the world—pure and elegant, exuding an air of untainted grace.

Though her attire was quite conservative, it couldn’t conceal her stunning and near-perfect figure; instead, it added a touch of subtle allure.

“Brother Haoran, I’m sorry, I’m late,” Guo Xiaohan said apologetically as she got out of the car.

Lin Haoran glanced at Guo Xiaohan’s outfit, guessing that she must have gone home to dress up specially after work.

He waved his hand dismissively and smiled. “It’s fine, I haven’t been back long myself. Come on, let’s go inside. Dinner is ready; we were just waiting for you.”

They smiled at each other, and Lin Haoran naturally took Guo Xiaohan’s delicate hand as they walked into the villa.

On the dining table, a candlelit dinner was already set.

The soft candlelight flickered, illuminating the white tablecloth and exquisite tableware. In the center, vibrant red roses bloomed, their fragrance filling the air.

Lin Haoran had specifically asked the maid to arrange this.

Surrounding the candles were colorful and vibrant Southeast Asian dishes.

The rich, thick sauce of the curry crab coated the plump crabs; the satay skewers were crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, brushed with a special sauce; the coconut rice, fragrant with coconut milk, was paired harmoniously with fried chicken wings and fresh shrimp.

It was undoubtedly a purely authentic Southeast Asian meal.

In recent years, a tide of Southeast Asian conglomerates had poured into Hong Kong to invest, bringing with them the rich and mellow culture of the region.

This helped explain why, over the past decade or so, even as British-funded conglomerates continually withdrew from Hong Kong, the city’s economy had not only avoided decline but had flourished, a testament to the significant contributions of Southeast Asian investment.

From Guo Xiaohan, Lin Haoran learned that her parents had gone to Macau for the day.

By now, night had fallen. After the maid had served all the dishes, only Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan remained in the dining room.

Turning off the main lights, Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan sat facing each other.

“Brother Haoran, this is so romantic,” Guo Xiaohan said, her eyes twinkling with star-like surprise and emotion.

Lin Haoran smiled gently, his gaze fixed affectionately on Guo Xiaohan, as if the entire world had faded away, leaving only the picturesque woman before him.

“As long as you like it, I’ll create even more romance for you in the future,” he said softly.

He knew, of course, that all girls loved romance.

This was especially true for a daughter from a wealthy family like Guo Xiaohan, who yearned for a romantic love story.

Lin Haoran couldn’t be faithful, but he could certainly treat Guo Xiaohan to a romantic occasion from time to time.

Guo Xiaohan blushed slightly and lowered her head, her hands unconsciously twisting the hem of her dress. The white fabric trembled gently between her slender fingers, as if sharing in her sweet shyness.

“Brother Haoran, you’re so good to me,” she murmured, her voice tinged with bashfulness and dependence.

“Xiaohan, in my heart, you are the brightest star, illuminating every corner of my life. I want to give you the best of everything and make you the happiest woman in the world,” Lin Haoran said sweetly as he picked up the glass of red wine he had just poured.

At that moment, Guo Xiaohan seemed to be immersed in her happiest moment. She too raised her wine glass, and the two glasses clinked together, the crisp sound echoing in the serene dining room.

Guo Xiaohan’s cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were filled with sweetness and adoration. She took a delicate sip of red wine, the corners of her lips turning up in a captivating, gentle smile.

“Brother Haoran, this wine is lovely. I’ve dreamed of a scene like this for so long,” Guo Xiaohan said softly, her voice even choking up a little.

She had been fond of Lin Haoran for over two years, and she had been the one to take the initiative.

So, she had always been hoping for this day.

Now, her dream had come true, and they had even set a date for their engagement. This made Guo Xiaohan not just happy, but ecstatic.

Lin Haoran put down his glass and reached out to gently hold Guo Xiaohan’s hand. It was soft and delicate, sending a flutter through his heart.

They had known each other for some time, but he didn’t treat Guo Xiaohan as casually as he did other girls.

So, up to this point, they had only shared kisses, never crossing the final line.

“Silly girl!” Lin Haoran squeezed her hand gently, his eyes filled with a doting smile. “Why are you crying? On such a happy day, you should be smiling.”

Guo Xiaohan quickly wiped a tear from the corner of her eye with the back of her hand and smiled bashfully. “I’m just too happy. Ever since I accompanied Uncle to our families’ first business meeting, I…”

“You fell in love with me at first sight?” Lin Haoran teased, gently lifting her chin with his finger.

“Of course not!” Guo Xiaohan swatted his hand away, her face reddening. “I was just thinking, how can the famous richest man in Hong Kong be such a smooth talker.”

They looked at each other and smiled, the candlelight dancing in their eyes.

The candlelit dinner lasted for a full hour.

Afterward, Lin Haoran sat on a sofa on the third-floor terrace and naturally pulled Guo Xiaohan into his lap. They enjoyed the sea breeze from Victoria Harbour and gazed at the crescent moon in the sky.

Playing with Guo Xiaohan’s delicate hands and inhaling her unique, sweet scent, Lin Haoran felt a taste of real romance.

This was a feeling he rarely experienced with Rosamund Kwan or Yamada Keiko.

“Brother Haoran, tonight, I… I want to stay and be with you,” Guo Xiaohan said, mustering her courage as she lay in his arms.

Lin Haoran was surprised. He pulled his gaze from the moon and looked down at Guo Xiaohan, her cheeks flushed in his embrace.

Under the moonlight, her long eyelashes fluttered, and the night breeze lifted a corner of her white dress, revealing a slender ankle.

“Are you sure?” Lin Haoran didn’t refuse. She had taken the initiative; if he rejected her now, he would truly be a saint.

Guo Xiaohan tilted her head up, her eyes filled with unprecedented determination.

She stared at Lin Haoran with a burning gaze. “Brother Haoran, I’m sure. We’re getting engaged next month, so I’ve long considered myself your woman. This is all just a matter of time. I… I want to give myself to you completely tonight.”

At that moment, the night breeze suddenly seemed to grow warmer, carrying a hint of intimacy that permeated the air.

Lin Haoran felt his breath catch. He took a deep breath as desire surged through him like a raging tide. Even Guo Xiaohan keenly sensed the change in his body.

Her cheeks instantly turned crimson, like the brilliant clouds at dusk. Although she was inexperienced with men, she knew exactly what that change meant.

“I’ve never been more certain,” Guo Xiaohan said as she proactively wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her face close to his ear. Her voice was soft yet filled with endless affection. “For the past two years, I’ve turned down countless suitors. In the circles of the wealthy in Southeast Asia, so many sons of tycoons admired me, and even here in Hong Kong, many young masters from prominent families tried all sorts of ways to pursue me. But I knew in my heart that from the moment I first saw you, my heart was full, with room only for you.”

Lin Haoran knew that Guo Xiaohan was not exaggerating.

Not only was Guo Xiaohan from a privileged background, born into Southeast Asia’s richest man’s family, the Guo family, but she herself was also a rare and stunning beauty.

A girl who possessed such immense favor and exceptional qualities was undoubtedly the ideal candidate for a marriage alliance in the eyes of many wealthy families. It was only natural that her suitors were as numerous as fish in the sea.

Lin Haoran had always been well aware that he was not a faithful man when it came to relationships.

Moreover, as a transmigrator, he had always been averse to the idea of marriage alliances, believing that with his own capabilities, he had no need for such arrangements.

The concept of a good match in terms of social standing, in his view, would only restrict his freedom.

Therefore, even when Guo Xiaohan had repeatedly expressed her feelings for him in the past, he had never agreed.

He really couldn’t bear to let down a girl who was so deeply in love with him. Besides, he could always feel that her love for him was pure and sincere, not at all aimed at his wealth.

After all, when they first met, although Lin Haoran had achieved some success, compared to the Guo family’s status as the top financial power in Southeast Asia, his accomplishments were but a drop in the ocean, hardly worth mentioning.

But as he spent more time with Guo Xiaohan, especially during their time in Britain, their feelings for each other grew exponentially, and he gradually began to accept her into his heart.

Guo Xiaohan’s love for Lin Haoran was undoubtedly humble; she had even explicitly stated that she didn’t mind him having other women.

Such deep affection had finally moved Lin Haoran’s heart, which had been unwilling to be tied down.

Now, with the beautiful woman in his arms offering herself to him, Lin Haoran could no longer suppress the stirring in his heart.

A full belly stirs carnal desires.

He swept Guo Xiaohan into his arms and strode toward the bedroom.

“Brother Haoran!” Guo Xiaohan buried her face in his chest, her heart pounding like a drum, her slender fingers clutching tightly to his white shirt.

Although she had prepared herself for this, when the moment finally arrived, her heart was still filled with nervousness and shyness.

Her body trembled slightly, and her breathing grew ragged.

Sensing the beautiful woman’s unease, Lin Haoran lowered his head and whispered in her ear, “Don’t be afraid. I’ll be very gentle.”

His voice was deep and magnetic, carrying a reassuring strength.

Inside the master bedroom, moonlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting a silver glow on the large bed.

Lin Haoran gently laid her down and leaned over, gazing at her bashful face.

Guo Xiaohan’s long hair fanned out across the white sheets, making her skin look as white as snow. She was breathtakingly beautiful.

“You’re so beautiful,” Lin Haoran praised sincerely, his long fingers gently stroking her cheek.

Guo Xiaohan shyly closed her eyes, her eyelashes trembling. “Brother Haoran… I’m a little scared.”

“Look at me.” Lin Haoran cupped her face. “Trust me, okay?”

Guo Xiaohan slowly opened her eyes and met his tender gaze. The anxiety in her heart gradually dissipated.

She nodded softly, wrapped her arms around his neck, and offered him her red lips.

…

The next day, Lin Haoran didn’t go anywhere, staying home to accompany Guo Xiaohan.

Having just had her coming-of-age, Guo Xiaohan’s eyes held an even deeper love for Lin Haoran after the events of last night.

Guo Xiaohan, of course, didn’t dare to go out, as the unnaturalness of her walk could easily be noticed by others.

Lin Haoran sat on the sofa in the sitting room while Guo Xiaohan leaned against his shoulder, the two of them watching The Final Combat on the television.

The series had started airing on the Jade Channel in early August. Starring Chow Yun-fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, and others, the show, set against a backdrop of police and gangster struggles, was an instant hit with the Hong Kong public upon its release, boasting consistently high viewership ratings.

Lin Haoran chuckled softly and pinched her nose. “Does it still hurt?”

“Hey! Don’t talk about it!” Guo Xiaohan buried her face in his chest in embarrassment, lightly pounding his chest with her small fists.

“Haha~”

The two stayed together at the Severn Road villa for a full two days. It wasn’t until the morning of the third day that Guo Xiaohan reluctantly drove her red sedan away.

Although Guo Xiaohan was preparing for her engagement, she still held an important position at Kerry Group, so she had to go to work when necessary.

The day before, she had told her uncle, Guo Henian, a white lie, saying she wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be coming in.

Guo Henian was an experienced man and naturally guessed that young people in the throes of passion were prone to be a bit impulsive.

He even deliberately teased her over the phone, “Xiaohan, is Haoran with you? You young people need to learn some restraint.”

After hanging up, Guo Xiaohan’s face was as red as a ripe apple.

Outside the Lin family villa, Lin Haoran stood watching Guo Xiaohan’s car recede into the distance, his eyes fixed on it until it became a tiny speck and finally disappeared from view. Only then did he slowly avert his gaze.

The sweet embrace of a beautiful woman was like a glass of rich, alluring wine, sometimes making it hard for one to pull away.

However, there was more to life than romance.

He checked the time; it was just past nine in the morning.

“Wei Dong, Wei Guo, let’s go! To the Connaught Centre!” Lin Haoran said to the two brothers standing not far behind him.

“Yes, Boss!”

The Rolls-Royce slowly pulled away from the villa, followed by two private cars. The convoy sped toward the Connaught Centre.

The previous afternoon, Ho Sin Hang had called Lin Haoran to inform him that the Hang Seng Group would be officially launched at ten o’clock that morning.

Furthermore, Ho Sin Hang had specially invited many industry tycoons as guests to witness the establishment of the Hang Seng Group.

According to Ho Sin Hang, even Governor Sir Murray MacLehose had confirmed his attendance.

This was to be expected.

The Hang Seng Group now held a market share of over 62.3%. HSBC, once the uncontested hegemon of the industry, had now been completely replaced.

Therefore, the Hang Seng Group had become a formidable force that could not be ignored in Hong Kong.

Faced with such a grand event, even Sir Murray MacLehose, as Governor, had to take it seriously and naturally had to give them sufficient face.

In addition, Mr. Brown, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong, the general manager of Citibank Hong Kong, and a host of other industry heavyweights would also be present. According to Ho Sin Hang, dozens of tycoons from the financial industry would be there.

As the boss of the Hang Seng Group, Lin Haoran would certainly not miss such a momentous event.

The convoy sped along and soon arrived at the Connaught Centre.

Colorful flags fluttered in the wind in front of the building, which was bustling with a jostling crowd, the atmosphere so lively it seemed about to boil over.

A huge banner was hung high above, with the words “Warmly Celebrating the Grand Establishment of Hang Seng Group” in yellow on a red background, shining brightly and conspicuously in the sunlight.

Although the Hang Seng Group only occupied one floor in the Connaught Centre, today, it was the undisputed star of the show. Even the Hongkong Land Group would give it face!

Taking a familiar elevator route, he arrived at the 42nd floor, the new headquarters of the Hang Seng Group.

As the elevator doors opened, Lin Haoran saw that the office was already filled with people, including Da Shan, Ho Sin Hang, and many other senior executives from the Bank of East Asia, Hang Seng Bank, and Dao Heng Bank. Everyone was present.

“Good morning, Boss.”

“Good morning, Boss.”

A series of respectful greetings reached Lin Haoran’s ears.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over everyone present before finally landing on Ho Sin Hang. “Uncle Ho, how are the preparations?”

Ho Sin Hang hurried forward, his face alight with unconcealable excitement. “Everything is ready! His Excellency Governor MacLehose is on his way and is expected to arrive in ten minutes. The media reporters have also been assigned their positions.”

“Very good.” Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction and turned to Da Shan. “What about security?”

Da Shan immediately replied, “Rest assured, Boss. We’ve coordinated with Universe Security Company and have arranged for ten times the usual number of personnel today to ensure everything is foolproof.”

Just as Lin Haoran was about to give further instructions, the elevator chimed and opened again.

A blond, blue-eyed foreign man strode out, followed by several attendants in suits.

“Mr. Brown!” Ho Sin Hang greeted him enthusiastically. “I didn’t expect you to arrive so early.”

Brown, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong, forced a magnanimous and open-hearted expression, his mouth stretching into a wide grin as he boomed with laughter, “On such an important day as the establishment of the Hang Seng Group, how could I dare to delay or be even a minute late! Mr. Lin, Mr. Ho, on behalf of Standard Chartered Bank, I congratulate the Hang Seng Group on its grand opening! This is a small gift from us at Standard Chartered, a humble token. I hope you won’t mind.”

However, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, Brown’s smile was as fake as a mask painted with cheap pigments; it looked completely insincere.

After all, just a few days ago, this same Brown had harbored ill intentions and had very nearly succeeded in playing a dirty trick on Lin Haoran’s side.

If not for Lin Haoran’s decisive actions and tough methods, their scheme might very well have succeeded.

But on second thought, this was only natural.

From this day forward, the two sides were now overt competitors, and more than that, they were each other’s only truly formidable business rival worth taking seriously.

Seeing one’s opponent grow stronger would make anyone feel uneasy.

As Brown spoke, he gestured for an attendant beside him to step forward and present an exquisitely wrapped gift box.

Lin Haoran smiled and accepted the gift box. He could tell from its weight and feel that the materials were of high quality and the craftsmanship was superb; it was indeed a rare and exquisite item.

He leisurely opened the box on the spot. Inside lay a pair of pure gold Pixiu figurines, gleaming and lifelike, clearly of considerable value.

“Mr. Brown, you are far too kind,” Lin Haoran said sincerely, his eyes lingering on the Pixiu for a moment before his lips curved into a smile. “I like this gift very much.”

Although Lin Haoran knew that their relationship would inevitably become one of fierce competition, he couldn’t very well give Brown the cold shoulder when he was being so respectful and had presented such a valuable gift.

“I’m so glad you like it, Mr. Lin,” Brown said, laughing heartily, his voice echoing in the air.

Following him, a succession of tycoons from Hong Kong’s financial industry arrived, each presenting their own congratulatory gift. Soon, the Hang Seng Group’s office was piled high with gift boxes.

Once upon a time, HSBC was the Dragon Head Boss of Hong Kong’s financial industry, and everyone in the sector had to show them respect.

From this day forward, that throne had been completely passed to the Hang Seng Group.

On such an important day, no one in the industry dared to disrespect the Hang Seng Group.

This was the harsh but realistic law of business: the more powerful you were, the more respectful and deferential others would be to you.

Unless they didn’t want to survive in the industry.

While Lin Haoran, Ho Sin Hang, and other senior executives were greeting the arriving tycoons, the voice of the receptionist downstairs came through Da Shan’s walkie-talkie. “Mr. Da Shan, the Governor has arrived at the Connaught Centre. Our people are now escorting him to the elevator.”

The voice wasn’t loud, but it instantly silenced the room.

“Everyone, let’s go to the elevator landing to welcome the Governor together!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

His words were met with immediate agreement.

Everyone gathered in front of the elevators, waiting for the arrival of Governor MacLehose.

A few dozen seconds later, the elevator chimed and the doors slowly opened.

Standing inside was none other than the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Murray MacLehose.

“Mr. Governor, welcome! We are honored by your esteemed presence!” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he shook hands with MacLehose, who was stepping out of the elevator.

“Mr. Lin, congratulations. On behalf of the Hong Kong Government House, I wish you all the best and hope the Hang Seng Group prospers,” MacLehose said as they shook hands.

After speaking, he took a gift box from his attendant and handed it over.

Lin Haoran accepted the box with both hands and smiled politely. “Mr. Governor, your presence alone graces the Hang Seng Group’s humble establishment. This gift is an even greater honor.”

MacLehose smiled and waved his hand. “You’re too kind, Mr. Lin. The Hang Seng Group is now a shining star in Hong Kong’s financial world, injecting new vitality into our economy. This gift is just a small token of my appreciation.”

Lin Haoran gently opened the gift box. Inside was an exquisitely framed piece of calligraphy.

Chapter 690: The Unresigned Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank

“Excellent calligraphy!” Lin Haoran couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration. “Mr. Governor, this work has an extraordinary presence. It must be from the hand of a great master. I will be sure to treasure it and hang it in the most prominent place in our group’s headquarters to inspire all our employees to strive forward.”

Sir Murray MacLehose nodded in satisfaction. “I specially commissioned this from the highly respected calligraphy master of Hong Kong, Mr. He Shuhui. I hope that the Hang Seng Group, as this calligraphy implies, will realize its grand ambitions and achieve even greater glory in the financial sector.”

“You are too kind, Mr. Governor. On behalf of all my colleagues at Hang Seng Group, I extend to you our most sincere gratitude. Master He Shuhui’s precious work is not just a piece of calligraphy; it embodies a profound cultural heritage and wonderful expectations. This generous gift is of extraordinary significance to our Hang Seng Group,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Although a piece of calligraphy itself might not be worth a great deal of money, the fact that MacLehose had not only attended the ceremony in person but also carefully prepared a gift was enough to show the high importance the Government House placed on the Hang Seng Group.

As one of the world’s three major financial centers, Hong Kong’s economic foundation was deeply rooted in finance and trade. The importance of the financial industry to Hong Kong was self-evident.

Now, the Hang Seng Group had replaced the HSBC Group to firmly occupy the position of Hong Kong’s financial hegemon, a truly respected status.

However, even so, the development of the Hang Seng Group still depended on the strong support of the government.

Though Lin Haoran now possessed immense wealth and power, he never once entertained the thought of offending the Government House.

From ancient times, there has been a tradition that merchants don’t fight with officials, a point Lin Haoran was well aware of.

Unless he was willing to abandon the vast market, deep connections, and countless business opportunities he had painstakingly accumulated in Hong Kong.

One only had to look at the fate of the late Qing “merchant-official” Hu Xueyan to understand.

Even though he had once monopolized the grain transport and silk trade of Jiangsu and Zhejiang with the backing of Zuo Zongtang, his wealth rivaling that of a nation.

Yet once he was drawn into the factional struggle between Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang and offended Li Hongzhang, he was impeached by officials from Li’s faction on charges of “embezzling public funds” and “hoarding for speculation.”

In the end, his family property was confiscated, his businesses failed, and a great merchant of his generation met a gloomy end.

Because he understood this principle deeply, Lin Haoran would never let his own wealth and power go to his head.

With every action he took, he would repeatedly weigh the pros and cons and potential risks, always ensuring his red line of conduct remained within the boundaries of the Government House’s tolerance.

To others, his rise seemed meteoric, but little did they know that he was more aware than anyone that he was treading on the edge of risk with every step.

After all, this was still an era when the British called the shots.

However, Lin Haoran had also been constantly transferring and deploying his funds overseas. In a way, he was now doing the same thing as the British-funded conglomerates.

Dispersing his capital and investing heavily in Mainland China, the United States, Japan, Europe, Southeast Asia, and so on were all part of his sophisticated strategy to spread risk.

This allowed him to profit from his investments while reducing his dependence on Hong Kong—killing two birds with one stone.

Those British-funded conglomerates were withdrawing their capital from Hong Kong mainly out of concern for the future of the city as its ninety-nine-year lease neared its end.

Lin Haoran’s motive for moving his funds, however, was simpler and more direct: he was worried about the British authorities.

After all, he was not British, yet he possessed assets significant enough to make a country covet them.

For now, he was ultimately still a regional tycoon.

The way to not fear suppression from the British authorities was actually very simple: he had to become a global super-rich, or even a global financial magnate!

Only upon reaching that stage would he truly possess the confidence to engage in dialogue with various powers on an equal footing.

By then, if the British authorities wanted to move against him easily, they would have to carefully weigh the consequences.

But for now, he knew in his heart that he was still a little short of the level of invulnerability and skillful ease he truly wished to achieve.

However, Lin Haoran was not discouraged.

He was in the prime of his life, and the future stretched before him like a vast, boundless world. He had plenty of time to accumulate strength and prepare for a future burst of power.

The path to the peak is never achieved in a single step. Every step must be firmly planted, built up bit by bit, like water dripping through stone—not the work of a single day.

For this very reason, unless absolutely necessary, Lin Haoran was utterly unwilling to offend the Government House.

He understood that on this piece of land, Hong Kong, the power represented by the Government House was intricate, complex, and far-reaching. Making an enemy of it could bring unpredictable risks and losses to the business he had painstakingly built.

However, it seemed the situation was now quietly changing.

As Lin Haoran’s own strength continued to snowball and his influence in Hong Kong’s business community grew daily, even the Government House had to re-evaluate its relationship with him.

Just like this time, MacLehose’s personal attendance, his affable demeanor during the ceremony, and his thoughtful gift of Master He Shuhui’s calligraphy were moves that undoubtedly gave Lin Haoran a great deal of face. The profound meaning contained within was self-evident.

It meant that he had come into his own in Hong Kong, and even the Government House no longer dared to offend him lightly.

The establishment of the Hang Seng Group went very smoothly.

Witnessed by numerous media reporters, Governor MacLehose, and various industry titans from the financial world, the Hang Seng Group, a behemoth in Hong Kong’s financial industry, officially made its debut in the public eye!

“Mr. Governor, would you care to say a few words?” At the Hang Seng Group’s founding ceremony, Lin Haoran, as the Boss, smiled and addressed MacLehose, who was seated in the guest area below the stage.

MacLehose did not decline. He stood up, adjusted his smart suit, and walked onto the stage with a steady gait.

Standing at the center of the stage, his gaze slowly swept over the crowd below. With an approachable and confident smile, he began, “Distinguished guests, friends from the media, I am deeply honored to be invited to attend the founding ceremony of the Hang Seng Group today.”

“Hong Kong, as a globally recognized financial center, has always embraced the convergence and development of various commercial forces with an open and inclusive attitude. The birth of the Hang Seng Group has undoubtedly injected new vitality and life into Hong Kong’s financial world. Mr. Lin Haoran, with his outstanding business acumen and decisive decision-making, has carved out a world of his own in the financial sector. Now, he leads the Hang Seng Group in its powerful rise. This is not only a brilliant personal achievement for Mr. Lin but also a vivid portrayal of Hong Kong’s commercial prosperity. Whether they are British-owned banks or Chinese-owned banks, they are all part of Hong Kong’s financial community, and I have always treated them all equally. The establishment of the Hang Seng Group is a joyous occasion. Here, on behalf of the Government House, I would like to announce something to all the guests and media friends present: we at the Government House will support Mr. Lin Haoran in assuming the role of president of the Hong Kong Association of Banks!”

As soon as MacLehose’s words fell, the audience erupted in thunderous applause and whispers.

Everyone was shocked by this sudden announcement. They put their heads together, discussing the profound impact this decision would have on Hong Kong’s financial industry.

Lin Haoran even noticed that the expression on Brown’s face, down below the stage, changed instantly.

Ever since HSBC had used the Hong Kong Association of Banks against Lin Haoran and failed, the Government House had intervened in the association’s operations at Lin Haoran’s suggestion.

However, HSBC’s Michael Sandberg had retained the title of president of the Hong Kong Association of Banks.

Now that HSBC had become a subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank and Sandberg had been fired by HSBC, it was clearly no longer appropriate for HSBC to hold the presidency.

During this period, Standard Chartered Bank’s Brown had been under the impression that he would be the successor to the presidency of the Hong Kong Association of Banks.

He never expected that MacLehose would, on such an occasion, announce that the position would be given directly to Lin Haoran.

This left Taipan Brown feeling somewhat unresigned.

Although Hang Seng Group’s market share exceeded that of the Standard Chartered Group in Hong Kong, Brown still harbored a sliver of hope and bitterness.

He felt that Standard Chartered Bank, as a long-established British-owned bank, was deeply entrenched in Hong Kong’s financial world, with a profound historical foundation and extensive connections. Furthermore, it had acquired HSBC, and he himself had been actively involved in the association’s affairs. No matter what, the Government House should have favored Standard Chartered, and he should have been granted the presidency.

Brown’s face was grim. Amidst the noisy discussions of the crowd, he clenched his jaw, his hands unconsciously balling into fists.

The Hong Kong Association of Banks was an excellent place to form alliances.

If he became president, even if Standard Chartered’s market share was much smaller than Hang Seng Group’s, he could still use his position to ally with other banks to collectively counter the competition from Hang Seng Group.

Moreover, if he became president, he would be the spiritual leader of Hong Kong’s banking industry, which would also bring considerable influence to Standard Chartered Bank—its effect would not be small.

But now that MacLehose had directly stated his support for Lin Haoran’s appointment, he was filled with resentment but could do nothing about it.

He knew his dream of becoming the president of the Hong Kong Association of Banks was shattered.

Lin Haoran was equally surprised.

He didn’t actually care much about the so-called presidency of the Hong Kong Association of Banks.

After all, although he was the boss of the Hang Seng Group, he never participated in its management. Becoming this so-called president would only be another shackle on him.

When did this Governor MacLehose become so agreeable?

Could there be some conspiracy afoot?

Lin Haoran frowned.

Although the Government House had claimed to be mediating the dispute between him and HSBC on multiple occasions, in reality, they only stepped in when HSBC was at a disadvantage. When he was at a disadvantage, there was no mediation!

In other words, the Government House had always openly favored HSBC.

But MacLehose’s actions today were completely beyond Lin Haoran’s previous understanding, stirring waves of doubt in his heart.

Was this sudden support a genuine acknowledgment, or was there a more complex political calculation hidden behind it?

Lin Haoran’s gaze narrowed slightly, but his lips still held a proper smile. He looked at MacLehose on the stage, trying to catch a hint of a clue in the other’s eyes.

But MacLehose’s expression was calm, as if the announcement he had just made was nothing more than an ordinary decision, without a trace of anything unusual.

However, whether it was sincere or feigned, for now, it was a good thing.

“Thank you for your favor and trust, Mr. Governor,” Lin Haoran said sincerely as he took the microphone. “To serve as the president of the Hong Kong Association of Banks, I feel I am still too inexperienced. Although I have been in the banking industry for several months, I still have much to learn compared to the seniors present here. The presidency is a position of great responsibility and should be held by a person of noble character and high prestige.”

He paused for a moment.

A glimmer of anticipation flashed in the eyes of Brown, who was sitting in the audience. He unconsciously leaned forward slightly, as if he saw a glimmer of hope.

He thought Lin Haoran was going to offer the presidency to him.

After all, he felt that if Lin Haoran didn’t take the position, he was certainly the most suitable candidate.

“After careful consideration,” Lin Haoran continued, his gaze sweeping across the audience, “I believe Mr. Ho Sin Hang, the Chairman of Hang Seng Group, is the most suitable candidate. Mr. Ho has been deeply involved in Hong Kong’s financial industry for decades. Whether it’s his experience, prestige, or professional expertise, he is truly deserving. I am confident that under his leadership, the Hong Kong banking industry will surely welcome new development opportunities.”

Indeed, when it came to the most respected figure in Hong Kong’s banking industry, Ho Sin Hang could definitely be ranked number one. He was indeed the most suitable for the presidency!

Although Lin Haoran was the boss of Hang Seng Group, he wasn’t the one directly managing it. Ho Sin Hang was the one in charge of the Hang Seng Group.

As soon as Lin Haoran finished speaking, the hall erupted in warm applause.

Ho Sin Hang slowly rose to his feet under everyone’s gaze and nodded to the crowd.

Brown’s face, however, instantly darkened. The fountain pen in his hand tore a deep groove into his notebook.

…

Time passed leisurely, and soon it was August 10th.

For the past few days, Guo Xiaohan, who had gone from a girl to a woman, had been coming over to Lin Haoran’s house almost every night, acting as if she were the mistress of the Lin family villa on Severn Road.

Lin Haoran naturally had no objections to this; it was only a matter of time.

He had already accepted the fact that Guo Xiaohan would be his primary wife.

The establishment of the Hang Seng Group had caused quite a stir in Hong Kong.

In the streets and alleys, teahouses and restaurants, the founding of the Hang Seng Group was always a topic of casual conversation.

Newspapers and magazines were filled with wall-to-wall coverage of the Hang Seng Group.

From the past and present of Hang Seng Bank to how the Bank of East Asia was acquired by Lin Haoran, then the acquisition of Dao Heng Bank, and finally the merger of the three banks to form the new behemoth, Hang Seng Group—every detail was meticulously dissected and became a much-talked-about topic for the public.

Within the financial circle, the establishment of the Hang Seng Group caused an even greater shock.

Everyone had initially thought that the acquired Hang Seng Bank would simply become a subsidiary of the Bank of East Asia.

Unexpectedly, he had directly established a group to manage all three banks.

This innovative holding company model was a real eye-opener for many in the financial industry.

Previously, HSBC, for example, had HSBC as its core, with acquired banks like Hang Seng Bank and Mercantile Bank directly under it.

In contrast, the Hang Seng Group adopted a model where the group was the holding company, and the three banks operated independently. This not only preserved the original brand value and customer base of each bank but also allowed for the unified allocation of resources through the group to achieve a synergistic effect.

This structure was a first in Hong Kong’s financial industry at the time, leading many financial experts to write articles in newspapers analyzing its pros and cons.

What surprised the outside world even more was that after its establishment, the Hang Seng Group, instead of undertaking massive layoffs or business integrations as many had speculated, announced that it would increase its support for the original businesses of the three banks and planned to open more branches in the coming years, as well as expand into overseas markets.

This series of measures undoubtedly sent a clear signal to the market—Hang Seng Group intended not only to be big, but to be strong!

These moves gave their rival, Standard Chartered Bank, quite a scare.

During this period, although Standard Chartered had acquired HSBC and absorbed most of the market from the British-owned companies under it, the two banks had lost a considerable number of small and medium-sized enterprise customers and private customers.

And almost all of these lost customers had flowed to Hang Seng Bank, the Bank of East Asia, and Dao Heng Bank, all under the Hang Seng Group.

In other words, after digesting HSBC’s market share, the Standard Chartered Group’s market share not only failed to stabilize but even continued to decline. Although the decline wasn’t huge, if it kept falling like this, they would panic!

Naturally, they were unwilling to lose the market share they had worked so hard to obtain.

But these lost customers had almost all chosen to leave on their own accord, and there was nothing they could do.

It was a good thing that the British-owned companies were now supporting Standard Chartered Bank; otherwise, they worried they might follow in HSBC’s footsteps.

At eight in the morning, Lin Haoran slowly awoke from his dreams.

He felt his right arm, which Guo Xiaohan was using as a pillow, was numb, as if countless tiny ants were crawling over it.

Lin Haoran carefully and gently lifted Guo Xiaohan’s head, his movements soft, afraid of waking her.

However, despite his gentle actions, Guo Xiaohan still slowly woke up, her eyes gradually opening.

“Brother Haoran, good morning,” Guo Xiaohan rubbed her sleepy eyes, a sweet smile on her lips.

She stretched lazily, the silk pajamas outlining her graceful curves.

“Good morning.” Lin Haoran leaned over and kissed her forehead lightly, smiling as he said, “Sorry, I woke you up. Why don’t you sleep a little longer? It’s still early.”

Guo Xiaohan glanced at the alarm clock beside her, then shook her head and said, “No, Brother Haoran, I have some important work to handle at the company later, and this afternoon I have to go shopping in Central with my mother. Oh, by the way, Brother Haoran, I might not be able to come here to be with you for the next few days. My mother said I should spend more time with her. In the future, after I marry you, I won’t have as much time to spend with her.”

As Guo Xiaohan spoke, a hint of apology appeared on her face.

The Guo family was naturally aware that Guo Xiaohan often spent the night at Lin Haoran’s place.

However, now that their marriage was set, the Guo family naturally had no objections; they even supported it.

After all, what was done was done. If Lin Haoran were to abandon Guo Xiaohan now, it would be difficult to justify.

Still, they hadn’t held the wedding ceremony yet, so Guo’s mother had thought it best for her daughter to exercise some restraint.

Lin Haoran gently pinched her cheek. “Silly girl, that’s what you should do. Send my regards to your mother. I’ll pay her a formal visit another day.”

He got up and opened the curtains, and the August sunlight instantly filled the bedroom.

On the surface of Victoria Harbour, several cargo ships were slowly passing by, and in the distance, Victoria Peak looked exceptionally lush in the morning light.

After they had breakfast together, Guo Xiaohan hurriedly drove her red private car away from the Lin family villa on Severn Road.

Lin Haoran thought for a moment and realized he had nothing urgent to deal with that day, so he picked up his phone and dialed Lin Wan’an.

As soon as the call connected, Lin Haoran’s lips curved into a smile as he greeted, “Dad, good morning. Are you free today?”

Lin Wan’an’s voice came from the other end of the line: “Haoran, what’s up? I was just about to go out for a walk. After that, I was planning to go to my old friends’ chamber of commerce clubhouse to have some tea and chat with them.”

Lin Haoran replied with a laugh, “So you’re free then. How about this, you drive over to Connaught Centre and wait for me. I’ll go with you for a visit to the TVB Headquarters. How does that sound?”

Lin Wan’an’s eyes lit up instantly, his spirits soaring. He replied crisply, “Great, wait for me, I’m leaving now!”

Lin Wan’an naturally understood the deeper meaning behind his son’s suggestion.

A few days ago, he had excitedly told Lin Haoran about his idea of partnering with others to start a film company. To his surprise, Lin Haoran had thrown cold water on the idea, advising him against a joint venture and suggesting he just acquire Shaw Brothers Film Company directly.

Since then, the idea had taken root in his heart like a seed, and he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it for the past few days.

Shaw Brothers Film Company! The king of Hong Kong’s film industry in the sixties and seventies. Although it was now facing competition from Golden Harvest Film Company and had gradually fallen to second place, its status and influence in Hong Kong were still hard to shake.

Although he wanted to get this matter sorted out as soon as possible, he knew Lin Haoran had been incredibly busy lately and didn’t have the heart to rush his son.

Now that Lin Haoran had finally brought up going to the TVB Headquarters himself, the excitement in his heart was like unwrapping a long-awaited mysterious gift. How could he possibly contain it!

“Alright, you head over first. I’ll call Sixth Uncle to let him know we’re coming,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

These days, Shao Yifu spent almost every day in the TVB Chairman’s office on Broadcast Drive, while he rarely visited the Chairman’s office of his own business, Shaw Brothers Film Company.

This alone showed how much more he valued TVB now.

After hanging up with his father, Lin Haoran directly called Shao Yifu’s office.

As expected, he should indeed be in the office at this time.

Just as Lin Haoran dialed the number, the phone on the other end was quickly picked up.

“Haoran, what a rare guest! What can I do for you?” On the other end of the line, Shao Yifu recognized his number from the landline’s caller ID before Lin Haoran could even speak.

“Sixth Uncle, I was calling to ask if you were at the TVB building right now. It seems you are. I’ll be over in a bit. There’s something I’d like to talk to you about in person,” Lin Haoran said with a hearty laugh.

Upon hearing this, Shao Yifu replied decisively, “Alright, I’ll be waiting for you in my office!”

Chapter 691: An Acquisition for 300 Million Hong Kong Dollars?

At 10:20 in the morning, Lin Haoran and his father, Lin Wan’an, arrived together at the TVB Television Building on Broadcast Drive in Kowloon Tong.

As a major shareholder and Vice Chairman of the Board of TVB, Lin Haoran could be considered highly irresponsible.

His last visit to Kowloon Tong had been back in early January.

After the New Year, he had gone to Japan and stayed there for several months.

Nearly three months had passed since his return to Hong Kong.

So, when he arrived here again, seven or eight months had flown by.

However, Lin Haoran felt not the slightest bit of shame.

After all, he had told Shao Yifu long ago that he would not interfere too much in TVB’s affairs.

Never mind TVB; he couldn’t even be bothered with the companies he owned outright.

He had always trusted his subordinates, and being a hands-off manager was his style. In his own words, this was how you “make money while lying down.”

To Lin Haoran, TVB was primarily a tool for shaping public opinion.

As for making money?

Any one of his fledgling enterprises, taken alone, had more earning power than TVB.

Therefore, from start to finish, he had never been particularly concerned with the management rights of TVB.

As long as he remained a major shareholder, TVB would provide the assistance he needed, such as in the realm of public opinion, whenever he required it.

Besides, he knew that Sixth Uncle would rather he didn’t interfere.

After all, Sixth Uncle, like most Chinese bosses in Hong Kong, preferred to manage his companies with a hands-on approach. To put it bluntly, it was a desire for power, stemming from a lack of trust in others.

These Chinese bosses, unlike Lin Haoran, didn’t possess a special ability to discern loyalty. This made it impossible for them to completely entrust management rights to professional managers.

As the car drove into the building’s premises, the security guard at the gate instantly recognized the license plate of Lin Haoran’s Rolls-Royce and snapped to attention, saluting him.

Stepping out of the car, they could see that the entire TVB building was a hive of activity, with staff members hurrying about.

Ever since TVB’s viewership ratings had begun to consistently surpass those of Rediffusion Television, it was rare for the rival station to pull ahead.

In any given month, the days when Rediffusion Television’s ratings were higher could be counted on one’s fingers. Sometimes, for an entire month, Wireless Television’s ratings would remain far ahead.

It had become the norm for Wireless Television’s ratings to exceed seventy percent, while Rediffusion’s fell below thirty percent.

As a result, TVB’s advertising rates were several times higher than Rediffusion’s.

Moreover, TVB’s advertising slots were highly sought after, with advertisers constantly vying for them.

In contrast, Rediffusion Television had lowered its advertising fees again and again, yet it was still unable to reverse its decline.

Early this year, after an Australian consortium completed its acquisition of Hong Kong’s Rediffusion Television, it immediately tried to inject capital, intending to revive the station’s ratings and build a force capable of competing with TVB.

In the months that followed, they made a series of moves, first organizing the Asian Amateur Singing Contest, then spending a fortune to acquire the film and television rights to many of Hong Kong’s martial arts novels for adaptation.

Unfortunately, due to Rediffusion Television’s low viewership, the singing contest failed to attract many elite participants.

Aspiring singers in Hong Kong with musical dreams were clearly more inclined toward the singing competitions held by TVB. After all, that was where they had a better chance to achieve fame overnight and begin to make their mark.

By now, everyone knew that TVB was the largest television company in Hong Kong.

In the world of Lin Haoran’s previous life, the Asian Amateur Singing Contest held by Rediffusion Television after its acquisition by the Australian consortium had been a star-studded affair, successfully signing a host of future superstars like Leslie Cheung, Teresa Mo, Susan Shaw, and Shirley Yu.

However, when Rediffusion Television held the contest again last month, Lin Haoran read the final results in the newspaper and found that not a single one of the signed artists was familiar to him from his past life.

The reason was self-evident: Leslie Cheung, Teresa Mo, Susan Shaw, Shirley Yu, and the others had all been previously “secured” by TVB through its own singing competitions. Not a single one had been missed!

Flanked by Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, the two men entered the TVB office building with steady steps.

The other bodyguards remained outside, dutifully standing guard.

The building was bustling with people coming and going, a picture of frenetic activity.

When people caught sight of Lin Haoran, surprise flickered across their faces. They all stopped in their tracks and greeted him respectfully, their expressions filled with admiration and reverence.

For a moment, greetings like “Good morning, Mr. Lin,” “Morning, Mr. Lin,” and “Good morning, Chairman Lin,” filled the air, one after another.

Many exceptionally beautiful girls even cast coquettish glances his way, trying to attract his attention.

Lin Haoran, as one of TVB’s bosses, was Hong Kong’s foremost tycoon. Recently, his fame had soared, and he had become the most talked-about leading figure in Hong Kong, having directly “toppled” the renowned HSBC.

With such a legendary figure as their boss, the employees naturally felt incredibly proud and walked with a swagger.

What a pity, then, that although Lin Haoran was a boss at TVB, he rarely set foot in the place. It was harder than climbing to the heavens for them to catch a glimpse of him.

Faced with the employees’ enthusiastic greetings, Lin Haoran maintained a smile and responded to each one, appearing perfectly affable.

When the group reached the elevators, a young, beautiful woman in a sexy outfit immediately stepped forward and diligently pressed the button for them.

Here at TVB, there was no shortage of young, beautiful women. After all, the television station was a vital part of the entertainment industry; it was only natural for it to be teeming with beauties.

With Lin Haoran’s current status, a mere crook of his finger would likely send countless young, beautiful girls—each with her own ambitions—flocking to him like moths to a flame.

But he simply offered a faint smile, his gaze calm, completely unmoved by these overtures, whether subtle or direct.

Soon, the group arrived before the Chairman’s office.

Inside, Sixth Uncle Shao Yifu was sitting in his chair, reading glasses perched on his nose, completely engrossed in a document.

Hearing the commotion outside, he subconsciously glanced through the glass window. Upon seeing Lin Haoran and Lin Wan’an, he immediately rose and personally strode to the door to welcome them.

“Haoran, Brother Lin, you’re finally here! Please, come in, come in.” Shao Yifu’s face was wreathed in a warm, enthusiastic smile.

Although he was quite surprised to see Lin Wan’an accompanying him, he didn’t let it show.

After all, as Lin Haoran’s father, Lin Wan’an’s status had risen with his son’s success. Even the tycoons who commanded the winds and clouds in Hong Kong would treat him as an equal.

Once the door was closed, only the three of them remained in the office.

“Sixth Uncle, thank you for your hard work. You’ve managed Wireless Television so successfully that it’s now in a league of its own in the Hong Kong television industry, sitting firmly on the throne. It makes me ashamed to call myself a shareholder,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, his tone full of sincere admiration.

Shao Yifu waved his hand and replied with a laugh, “Haoran, you’re too kind. Wireless Television’s success today is the result of everyone’s collective effort. I’ve only done what I ought to do.

“Besides, although you don’t come to the company often, your vision and decisions have played a crucial role in our development. If it weren’t for the suggestions you provided, TVB would have had a hard time achieving what it has today.”

Shao Yifu meant every word. If not for the advice Lin Haoran had provided, based on television stations of the future, TVB would have been six of one, half a dozen of the other compared to Rediffusion Television, even with Shao Yifu as chairman.

“Alright, Sixth Uncle, let’s not flatter each other.” Lin Haoran smoothly pulled out a chair for Lin Wan’an. After his father was seated, he pulled out another for himself and sat down composedly, his expression turning serious. “I came today not only to check on the company but also to discuss an important matter with you.”

Lin Haoran had never been one to beat around the bush; his style was direct and to the point.

Ever since mentioning the idea of acquiring Shaw Brothers Film Company to his father, he had specifically arranged for Cui Zilong to conduct a detailed investigation into the company.

The investigation revealed that last year, Shaw Brothers had ambitiously planned to produce thirty films this year.

However, for some unknown reason, the plan was suddenly changed this year. The number of productions was drastically reduced from thirty to sixteen, and these films were mostly small-budget productions.

To date, seven or eight months of the year had already passed, yet Shaw Brothers Film Company had only produced eight films.

At this rate, it seemed unlikely that they would even complete the planned sixteen films for the year.

Among the films that had been released, the one with the best box office performance was Challenge of the Gamesters, which debuted in April and barely grossed five million Hong Kong dollars.

The other films were mostly flops, earning only a few hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars—forget making a profit, they could hardly break even.

Compared to Golden Harvest Film Company, the difference was like that between clouds and mud.

It was obvious that Shaw Brothers Film Company was in this state because the current Shao Yifu was focusing more on TVB’s development than the one in Lin Haoran’s memory.

After all, TVB’s current success was so brilliant and dazzling that Shao Yifu had little time to spare for the affairs of Shaw Brothers Film Company.

It was based on these detailed investigation reports that Lin Haoran grew more confident in his ability to persuade Shao Yifu to transfer Shaw Brothers Film Company to Lin Wan’an.

Seeing Lin Haoran’s serious expression, Shao Yifu also grew earnest.

He sat up a little straighter and looked at Lin Haoran. The kindly smile remained on his face, but it was now laced with gravity. “Haoran, if there’s something important, just say it. There’s nothing we can’t discuss openly.”

By now, Lin Haoran and Shao Yifu had become close partners.

Previously, during Lin Haoran’s business warfare with HSBC, Shao Yifu had provided significant support, decisively transferring all his company and personal funds from HSBC to the Bank of East Asia, a gesture that deeply moved Lin Haoran.

This partner was truly reliable.

Lin Haoran knew in his heart that Shao Yifu’s action was a gesture of goodwill toward him.

But regardless, he accepted this show of friendship.

“Sixth Uncle, what do you think the future holds for Shaw Brothers Film Company?” Lin Haoran asked.

“Shaw Brothers Film Company…” Shao Yifu frowned slightly, pondering for a moment before speaking. “I think with televisions becoming more and more common in Hong Kong, the film industry is bound to decline sooner or later. Coupled with the increasing number of competitors, I’m afraid the future for Shaw Brothers Film Company isn’t too optimistic.”

His words were not without basis.

In recent years, television sets had rapidly become widespread in Hong Kong. Although cinema business had not yet suffered a significant blow, the number of television viewers was growing like a tidal wave.

Especially with TVB’s powerful rise and rapid development, Shao Yifu had keenly sensed the enormous potential of the television industry.

In stark contrast, the film industry seemed to have hit a growth ceiling, struggling to make new breakthroughs.

Furthermore, competitors like Golden Harvest Film Company, in league with other film companies, had been cornering Shaw Brothers, causing a continuous brain drain over the years, especially among screenwriters. Any writer with a bit of fame would be poached by other companies, and the ever-frugal Sixth Uncle was unwilling to give his employees raises.

Because of this, the quality of films produced by Shaw Brothers had been declining, and their box office performance had naturally plummeted.

As such, Shao Yifu was now pouring almost all his energy into the wireless television business. His management of Shaw Brothers Film Company, which he had founded with his own hands, had not only weakened but was showing signs of being left to its own devices.

The TVB of this world was undoubtedly more successful than the one from Lin Haoran’s previous life, all because of his transmigration.

Therefore, Shao Yifu’s attitude toward Shaw Brothers Film Company had shifted even earlier.

“So, Haoran, why do you ask about Shaw Brothers Film Company?” Shao Yifu asked, puzzled.

He had assumed Lin Haoran was here to discuss TVB matters. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out why the topic had inexplicably shifted to Shaw Brothers.

In Lin Haoran’s view, while television certainly had good growth potential, the film industry would not decline. On the contrary, it would only get better and better.

As someone who had transmigrated from decades in the future, he had already seen this confirmed by the course of history.

However, Lin Haoran certainly wasn’t going to correct Shao Yifu’s thinking. After all, his current goal was to help his father acquire Shaw Brothers.

In fact, Lin Haoran believed that aside from its complete film production chain, the most valuable assets of Shaw Brothers were the copyrights to its classic films.

Handing over the entire Shaw Brothers Film Company for his father to manage would definitely save a lot of trouble.

“Sixth Uncle, my father is quite interested in investing in films. You’ve probably heard about this, haven’t you?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Shao Yifu nodded slightly. He was indeed aware of it.

After all, Lin Wan’an had invested in three films, and during their promotional campaigns, they always liked to use Lin Haoran as a gimmick, with taglines like “A Passionate Investment by Lin Haoran’s Father” and “Filmed with Funding from the Father of Hong Kong’s Top Tycoon” appearing endlessly.

Lin Haoran couldn’t really interfere with this kind of promotion that used his name for publicity.

“Sixth Uncle, ever since my father handed Wan’an Real Estate Company over to me, I’ve found that he just can’t sit idle. So, I was thinking of acquiring Shaw Brothers Film Company from you for my father to play around with and pass the time.

“Name your price. As long as it’s fair, we can discuss it,” Lin Haoran explained with a smile.

“That’s right, Brother Shao. I’ve toiled and struggled in the business world for decades. Suddenly handing over such a large family enterprise to my two sons and becoming idle… I really feel ill at ease. Now that my health has recovered, I’m even more restless, thinking about finding something to do all day!” Lin Wan’an chimed in with a sigh.

Hearing the purpose of their visit, Shao Yifu’s expression became complicated for a moment, his gaze shifting back and forth between Lin Haoran and Lin Wan’an.

He knew, of course, that although Shaw Brothers was no longer in its glory days, it was still an empire he had built with countless drops of his heart and soul. It would be a lie to say he had no emotional attachment to it.

Therefore, he had never thought of selling Shaw Brothers.

After a moment of silence, Shao Yifu slowly said, “Brother Lin, Haoran, Shaw Brothers holds a special meaning for me. It has witnessed my journey from a newcomer in the film industry to a leading figure today. Every film carries my dreams and memories.”

Lin Wan’an nodded slightly, his face showing understanding. “Brother Shao, I completely understand how you feel. However, I am truly interested in film investment and was hoping to have a complete platform to work on.

“Besides, I promise that after the acquisition, I will treat Shaw Brothers well and not let it decline.”

Lin Haoran added, “Sixth Uncle, my father has always been a man of action. If he takes over, he will definitely invest his energy into revitalizing Shaw Brothers. You also know that with your main focus on TVB now, it’s inevitable that you can’t give Shaw Brothers your full attention.

“If this continues, the decline of Shaw Brothers is only a matter of time. Rather than letting it slowly fade away, why not hand it over to my father? Perhaps he can create a new era of brilliance.

“Moreover, if you agree, I can promise that as long as you manage TVB, I will not compete with you for its management rights, nor will I increase my shares!”

Shao Yifu sighed softly, stood up, and began to pace around the office in thought.

He thought about the recent struggles of Shaw Brothers: the loss of talent, the dismal box office returns. Although he wanted to turn things around, he was simply stretched too thin.

Meanwhile, TVB was at its zenith and truly required his full commitment.

It was just that this acquisition proposal had come too suddenly. He had never even considered such a thing.

So, for a moment, he couldn’t make up his mind, unsure whether to agree or refuse.

“Let me think about this!” Shao Yifu rose from his chair and paced back and forth in the office, his expression grave and his brows tightly knitted.

Clearly, this matter put him in a very difficult position, and he didn’t know how to decide.

The office fell silent for a time, with only the sound of Shao Yifu’s footsteps as he paced.

After a long while, he finally returned to his chair.

“Brother Lin, Haoran, it’s not that I don’t want a good home for Shaw Brothers, but the price…” Shao Yifu paused, a hint of hesitation in his eyes.

Lin Haoran and Lin Wan’an’s words had indeed made him consider selling Shaw Brothers.

In particular, Lin Haoran’s promise not to challenge his control of TVB as long as he was in charge, and not to increase his shareholding, had deeply moved him.

Everyone in Hong Kong knew that Lin Haoran had a penchant for privatizing companies. Except for those that couldn’t be privatized, he would almost always take full ownership of any company he targeted. Because of this, Shao Yifu had actually been somewhat worried all along.

Now, Lin Haoran’s voluntary promise was undoubtedly a great reassurance.

Furthermore, his own energy was limited, making it difficult to manage both companies. Instead of watching the company he founded with his own hands decline, perhaps it was better to sell it and let it rise again.

He was well aware of the Lam family’s strength; reviving Shaw Brothers would not be difficult for them.

He was also a decisive person. Since he believed the film industry would decline in the future, taking this opportunity to sell off Shaw Brothers might be the best outcome.

Besides, it would also strengthen his friendship with Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran’s heart leaped with joy. He knew Shao Yifu was starting to relent and quickly said, “Sixth Uncle, please name your price. As long as it’s reasonable, we absolutely won’t bargain.

“My main reason for acquiring Shaw Brothers is to make my father happy and give a man who can’t sit idle something of his own to do. I also hope we can reach a deal that satisfies both parties.”

Lin Wan’an also said with a smile, “Brother Shao, we’re both straightforward men. Let’s not haggle over the price for too long. Give us a fair price, and we can settle this quickly.”

Shao Yifu returned to his seat and, after a long period of contemplation, said, “Haoran is truly a filial son. That’s something I deeply envy about you, Brother Lin. Let’s do this: Although Shaw Brothers is not in the best shape right now, it does have a complete production chain and a rich library of film rights. It’s not impossible for me to sell it to you.

“But I have one condition. The Shaw Studios, which belongs to Shaw Brothers, must be sold to TVB at a low price. Shaw Brothers Film Company can continue to use it, but the ownership must be transferred to Wireless Television!”

Lin Haoran and Lin Wan’an exchanged a glance, and the room fell silent once more.

The plot of land for Shaw Studios was in Clearwater Bay. It was something that could be bought with money, so Lin Haoran wasn’t too concerned about it.

Shaw Studios might be very valuable in the future, but it was ultimately too remote. When the upcoming property crisis hit, he could easily buy a better-located plot of land.

So, Lin Haoran didn’t mind this condition.

“As for the price, I currently hold sixty-one percent of Shaw Brothers’ shares. Based on its market capitalization, the company is currently valued at around 491 million Hong Kong dollars. I will sell my shares to you for 300 million Hong Kong dollars. What do you think?” Shao Yifu continued.

Shaw Brothers Film Company was a listed company; it had gone public back in 1971.

However, Shao Yifu had always maintained control over the majority of the shares.

This was why Lin Haoran, despite wanting to acquire Shaw Brothers, hadn’t made his first move on the stock market.

Chapter 692: Li Jiacheng’s Fury and Misunderstanding

“Three hundred million Hong Kong dollars…” Lin Haoran frowned slightly upon hearing this, pondering for a moment.

Acquiring 61% of Shaw Brothers Film Company’s equity for this price was not particularly expensive.

After all, the perpetual rights to those six or seven hundred Shaw Brothers films alone held immense value and were worth a considerable sum.

In fact, if Shao Yifu hadn’t reduced his investment in the company in recent years, causing a mass exodus of screenwriters, directors, and popular artists who switched jobs, the company wouldn’t have gradually declined. Based on Shaw Brothers’ former vigor, it would have had a market capitalization of at least over a billion Hong Kong dollars by now.

But it was precisely because Shao Yifu had no intention of managing it well, being unwilling to increase capital investment while the company’s financial reports were dismal, that Shaw Brothers’ market capitalization had never seen a significant rise, even during a bull market that had lasted for over two years.

“Sixth Uncle, you mentioned earlier that you want Shaw Brothers to sell the Clearwater Bay plot to TVB at a low price. May I ask what exactly you mean by a ‘low price’? Also, Shaw Studios is a listed company. Selling a plot of land at a low price so openly might not be appropriate, would it?” Lin Haoran inquired after some thought.

“Haoran, you can rest assured. The low price I’m talking about isn’t ridiculously low. I’m just planning to sell this plot at a discount in exchange for Shaw Brothers Film Company retaining long-term usage rights to Shaw Studios even after it’s sold. Currently, the price of land in the Clearwater Bay area is about thirty Hong Kong dollars per square foot. Shaw Studios covers an area of 650,000 square feet, which means the land itself is actually worth around twenty million Hong Kong dollars. However, with the current sluggish property market, it would definitely be difficult to sell it at that price. So, my idea is to have TVB acquire this plot of land for ten million Hong Kong dollars. At the same time, Shaw Brothers will continue to have free usage rights to Shaw Studios, just without the property rights. I don’t think this arrangement is unreasonable. What do you think?” Shao Yifu explained patiently.

Having made up his mind to sell the relevant assets, Shao Yifu certainly wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to secure benefits for himself.

His focus had now shifted to TVB, so naturally, he had to be meticulous about TVB’s interests.

Currently, TVB had an extremely high demand for filming period dramas. Whenever they needed to shoot one, they mostly had to rent Shaw Studios as a filming location by paying a fee.

Therefore, since he planned to sell Shaw Brothers Film Company, he might as well take the opportunity to let TVB acquire Shaw Studios.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly after hearing this.

In his opinion, Shao Yifu’s proposal was not excessive.

If he was going to acquire it, he didn’t really care about making a concession of ten million or so.

Besides, he himself was a major shareholder of TVB. No matter how the final deal was arranged, he wouldn’t suffer any loss.

“Dad, what are your thoughts on this matter?” Lin Haoran turned his head and asked Lin Wan’an, who was sitting beside him, with a smile.

“Haoran, you can make the decision for me. But isn’t the investment amount a bit too high?” Lin Wan’an frowned slightly, his voice tinged with worry.

“Dad, this bit of money is nothing, it’s a small matter,” Lin Haoran waved his hand casually, an unconcerned expression on his face.

He had made billions of Hong Kong dollars shorting HSBC; taking out a few hundred million to repay his father was truly nothing.

After speaking, he turned back to Shao Yifu and said, “Sixth Uncle, since we’ve agreed, let’s set the price as we just discussed. I plan to arrange for people to secretly acquire Shaw Brothers’ shares first, and then I’ll purchase the shares you hold. Do you think that’s feasible?”

“Haoran, from the sound of it, you’re planning to privatize Shaw Brothers Film Company?” Shao Yifu’s eyes flashed with curiosity as he asked.

“Yes, Sixth Uncle. Since my father is acquiring Shaw Brothers, he will naturally manage it well. We’ll increase investment in it after the acquisition. But I’ve seen Shaw Brothers’ financial report for the first half of the year, and the funds on its books aren’t plentiful, are they? That means developing Shaw Brothers will definitely require a lot of capital, and the company’s own finances are insufficient to make it thrive again. In that case, it’s better to just privatize it completely!” Lin Haoran explained with a smile.

Besides funding it himself, raising capital from the market was another option.

However, given the scale of cash flow Lin Haoran currently controlled, there was no need to go through the trouble of financing.

To put it a bit arrogantly, even if Shaw Brothers didn’t end up earning back the money he invested, he wouldn’t be particularly concerned.

Shao Yifu nodded slightly, thinking to himself: No wonder they call him the “privatization fiend.” He’s always trying to delist companies from the stock market.

Compared to other bosses in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran’s way of doing things was truly different.

“Alright, since you’ve made up your mind, I will certainly cooperate fully. As for the share transfer, I can work with you on the procedures anytime!” Shao Yifu immediately added.

“Good, then it’s settled. Sixth Uncle, a pleasure doing business with you!” Lin Haoran stood up, a smile on his face, and shook Shao Yifu’s hand warmly.

Since Shao Yifu had given his word, he wasn’t afraid he would go back on it.

Seeing this, Lin Wan’an also walked over and shook Shao Yifu’s hand.

The three of them chatted in the office for a while longer about TVB matters.

Before they knew it, more than an hour had passed.

Lin Haoran then conducted a detailed inspection of the TVB Television City building. During this time, in his capacity as Vice Chairman of TVB, he warmly interacted with numerous actors, screenwriters, directors, and hosts. He even had lunch with many employees in the cafeteria, making his presence felt.

Afterward, he left Broadcast Drive in Kowloon Tong with Lin Wan’an.

As things had gone very smoothly, Lin Haoran was in an exceptionally good mood.

After all, Shaw Brothers was renowned. In his previous life, he had watched countless Shaw Brothers films.

Now, he was about to secure Shaw Brothers, which was a rather nice idea.

Although he was ultimately buying it for his father, what belonged to his father was also his…

After returning to Connaught Centre, the two went to Lin Haoran’s private office.

“Haoran, I did a rough calculation. This investment will require at least five hundred million Hong Kong dollars. Isn’t that amount a bit too large?” Lin Wan’an said with a tight frown.

After all, acquiring the shares held by Shao Yifu would cost three hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Acquiring the remaining shares from the stock market and other shareholders would cost another one hundred million, or even close to two hundred million, Hong Kong dollars.

By that calculation, it would indeed take nearly five hundred million Hong Kong dollars to completely take over Shaw Brothers Film Company.

And this five hundred million didn’t even include the subsequent investment needed to promote the company’s development.

“Dad, it’s only five hundred million Hong Kong dollars. It’s nothing at all. You just get ready to be the boss of Shaw Brothers,” Lin Haoran said calmly, not a ripple of emotion stirring in his heart.

He could say that without his father Lin Wan’an’s support and help, it would have been absolutely impossible for him to achieve such brilliant success.

Back then, whether it was applying for loans from Bumiputra Finance and Hang Seng Bank or gaining Pao Yue-kong’s appreciation and esteem, he had first borrowed his father’s name and reputation to take those crucial first steps.

Later, he inherited more than half of his father’s substantial fortune.

These factors played a vital and indispensable role in his journey.

If he had to start from scratch, poor and with nothing to his name?

Goodness knows how long it would have taken for him to make a name for himself in the fiercely competitive business world.

Moreover, if he had started from a low position, he would have certainly missed countless opportunities.

Now that Lin Wan’an was unable to sit idle and wanted to return to the business world, and with his health mostly recovered, Lin Haoran didn’t mind giving him a hand and helping him rediscover his passion for his career.

“But…” Lin Wan’an was still a little hesitant.

Five hundred million Hong Kong dollars was, in Lin Wan’an’s view, still too much.

Initially, he had only planned to pool some money with a few friends, each investing ten million or so, to jointly establish a proper film company and run a small-scale operation.

But who would have thought that the situation would evolve to this point, where he was about to directly acquire the film company with the deepest foundation in Hong Kong?

It was like planning to play in the shallows but suddenly finding himself needing to battle tumultuous waves. What started as a small-scale operation had instantly transformed into a major acquisition of an industry tycoon. The leap was simply too great for him to adapt to in such a short time.

With such a large amount of capital invested, his heart was inevitably filled with apprehension.

When he used to run Wan’an Real Estate Company, it was precisely because he was too conservative that, despite starting earlier than others, he could only watch as his contemporaries like Cheung Kong Holdings, Hang Lung Properties, and Sun Hung Kai Properties flourished one by one, while his own Wan’an Real Estate fell far behind.

Being too cautious can be a good thing sometimes, but at other times, it can become a stumbling block to progress.

“Dad, don’t you worry,” Lin Haoran interrupted with a smile. “You know as well as I do that this sum of money is nothing to me. Besides, Shaw Brothers declined only because Sixth Uncle had no heart for managing it. As long as we run it well after the acquisition, the future returns will definitely be substantial.”

Seeing his son’s determination, Lin Wan’an finally nodded. “Alright, since you’re so confident, I’ll listen to you.”

Lin Haoran smiled with satisfaction. “That’s more like it! Don’t worry, I’ll arrange for a professional team to assist you to ensure a smooth acquisition process. You won’t have to worry too much about the management of Shaw Brothers afterward either. Hong Kong has no shortage of film talent. I’ll have a headhunting firm find a sufficiently talented professional manager for Shaw Brothers. You’ll just need to oversee the overall situation. If we really can’t find one, I’ll have someone from Hollywood find one for you. In short, it won’t be difficult to develop Shaw Brothers and even restore it to its former glory. You don’t need to have too many concerns.”

In the film industry, the most important elements were screenwriters and directors. As long as there were good scripts, good directors, and sufficient financial support, producing a high-grossing film was not difficult.

As for actors?

TVB had an abundance of them. By collaborating with TVB, there would be no shortage of skilled actors.

In this way, having Shaw Brothers surpass Golden Harvest Film Company once again to claim the leading position in Hong Kong cinema would be a simple matter.

Just as the Lin father and son duo settled the transfer of Shaw Brothers Film Company with Shao Yifu, on the other side, at the Hutchison Whampoa headquarters in Hutchison House, Central, Li Jiacheng was in the Chairman’s office, absolutely fuming.

After listening to Richard Lee’s report, Li Jiacheng was filled with extreme anger.

If Richard Lee weren’t here, he might have even started smashing things.

It turned out that recently, several of Hutchison Whampoa’s core businesses had suffered significant profit declines.

Take the crucial retail business, for example. Its subsidiaries, ParknShop supermarket and Watsons, had not been spared.

In addition, other business segments were not faring well either. The business of the Hilton Hotel in Central, the international freight business at the Kwai Chung terminals, and the insurance business had all seen a substantial drop in revenue.

After a thorough investigation, they discovered that many long-time customers had “switched jobs,” with most of them turning to Hongkong Land Group’s similar businesses.

For instance, the number of customers at ParknShop supermarkets was continuously decreasing, in stark contrast to the steady increase in customers at Hongkong Land’s Wellcome supermarkets.

Business at Watsons was becoming increasingly bleak, while business at Hongkong Land’s Mannings supermarkets was booming, with revenue rising sharply.

The number of high-end guests at the Hilton Hotel in Central had plummeted, yet the investigation revealed that high-end guests were flocking to Hongkong Land’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel, whose occupancy rate had soared.

…

The investigation report in Li Jiacheng’s hands made it difficult for him to calm down.

A few days ago, when Richard Lee reported to him about ParknShop facing “malicious competition” from Wellcome, he was already furious and had decided to fight back.

But as it turned out, before ParknShop could even begin to deal with the competition from Wellcome, his subordinates had discovered that more of his businesses were likely facing similar “malicious competition” from Hongkong Land’s counterparts.

This naturally made him feel extremely humiliated.

Li Jiacheng’s face was grim as his fingers tapped on the desk.

“You’ve got some nerve, Lin Haoran. Just because I announced my support for HSBC, you’re retaliating against me like this. How ruthless. But I’m not to be trifled with, either. If you want to play, I’ll play with you to the very end!” Li Jiacheng shot up from his seat, a vicious glint in his eyes.

He was convinced that Lin Haoran must be behind all of this.

Otherwise, why would Hutchison Whampoa’s businesses suddenly suffer such a large-scale loss of customers in the past month?

At this moment, Li Jiacheng thought Lin Haoran was being far too petty.

But in reality, Lin Haoran knew nothing about these matters.

Moreover, most of Hutchison Whampoa’s businesses actually overlapped with those of Hongkong Land Group.

From property, hotels, retail, warehousing, terminals, to import-export trade, it could be said that whatever businesses Hutchison Whampoa had, Hongkong Land also had.

Therefore, industry competition was inevitable.

And during this period, Lin Haoran, the boss of Hongkong Land, was in the limelight for defeating HSBC.

So, Ma Shimin, as the President of Hongkong Land, seized the opportunity to leverage Lin Haoran’s influence in Hong Kong, using his name to ramp up promotion and marketing for its businesses. This was what led to Hutchison Whampoa’s customers switching over to Hongkong Land.

For Ma Shimin, if he didn’t seize the opportunity while his boss’s popularity and influence were at their peak, when would he?

In reality, it wasn’t just Hutchison Whampoa’s businesses that were affected; other companies in the industry were also impacted to varying degrees.

But Li Jiacheng had completely misunderstood Lin Haoran, believing that this was all a deliberate move by Lin Haoran to target him.

Since the beginning of the year, Hong Kong’s property industry had shown signs of fatigue, with its growth gradually slowing down.

Those who were once keen on property speculation had pulled back, and property transaction volumes showed a clear downward trend.

As giants in Hong Kong’s real estate sector, Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa naturally couldn’t remain untouched and were hit hard.

Under these circumstances, Li Jiacheng had to adjust his strategic layout, shifting his operational focus to Hutchison Whampoa’s other industries.

However, he never expected that shortly after shifting his focus, it was as if he had been hit by a heavy punch.

Despite his anger, facing a competitor like Lin Haoran, Li Jiacheng had no choice but to gradually calm down and consider how to deal with this formidable rival.

He looked at Richard Lee and said, “President Li, what do you think we should do?”

Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa were indeed strong, but no matter how strong, it was difficult to go head-to-head with Lin Haoran in a real fight.

Lin Haoran was simply too powerful now.

The current business world of Hong Kong seemed to be shrouded in an invisible gloom.

And Lin Haoran’s figure was the source of this gloom, like a towering peak within it, casting a massive shadow that was impossible to ignore.

Green Island Cement, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong Telephone, Hongkong Land Group, Oriental Press Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Kowloon Motor Bus, Wanqing Group, Galaxy Securities, Hang Seng Group… each of these enterprises was a renowned and pivotal tycoon in its respective industry in Hong Kong.

What was shocking, however, was that the person controlling them from behind the scenes was one and the same—Lin Haoran.

Facing such a powerful and unstoppable competitor, Li Jiacheng was filled with despair, and for a moment, he couldn’t think of any effective countermeasure.

It wasn’t that Li Jiacheng didn’t want to ease tensions with Lin Haoran. After all, he had always believed in the philosophy of “harmony breeds wealth” in business, trying his best to avoid provoking figures he couldn’t afford to offend.

But now, he was already tightly bound to HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank. With so many entangled interests, it was simply impossible to ease the tense relationship with Lin Haoran.

A few days ago, he had even specially sought advice from Pao Yue-kong on how to deal with the situation, but in the end, he didn’t get any practical suggestions.

Since he couldn’t ease the relationship with Lin Haoran, he could only bite the bullet and face him head-on.

However, as for how to respond, Li Jiacheng was momentarily at a loss and could only pin his hopes on his subordinates.

In the current Hong Kong business world, Li Jiacheng was undoubtedly a tycoon-level figure.

His companies, Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa, could both steadily rank among the top fifteen of Hong Kong’s many listed companies.

Hutchison Whampoa, in particular, was now among the top five.

From this, it was clear that his strength was not to be underestimated.

Especially recently, with HSBC’s capital crisis resolved, these two giant enterprises no longer had to worry about their capital chains breaking, giving them much more confidence.

But even so, facing a powerful competitor like Lin Haoran, Li Jiacheng knew in his heart that victory would be anything but easy.

Just look at what happened to HSBC and Jardine Matheson & Co. at his hands.

He really wanted to coexist peacefully with Lin Haoran, with each minding their own business.

However, the detailed investigation report in his hand was like a bucket of cold water, ruthlessly extinguishing that sliver of wishful thinking in his heart.

Such a thought was probably difficult to realize.

Thinking of this, the gradually calming Li Jiacheng turned his gaze to Richard Lee, hoping to get useful advice from him.

As the former deputy to Willie, the previous Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa, Richard Lee was naturally competent.

Back then, when Hutchison Whampoa under Willie’s era turned a profit from a loss, Richard Lee had made a great contribution.

Now, that Hutchison Whampoa could remain orderly after Li Jiacheng took over was largely thanks to Richard Lee.

It was for this reason that after taking control of Hutchison Whampoa, Li Jiacheng did not rush to oust the old guard but instead kept Richard Lee and others on, allowing them to continue serving as key executives.

Seeing Li Jiacheng’s gaze turn to him, Richard Lee thought to himself that now was the crucial moment to prove his worth.

He pondered for a moment, organized his thoughts, and then slowly said, “Mr. Li, in my opinion, the situation we at Hutchison Whampoa are facing is indeed tricky, but not without countermeasures.”

Li Jiacheng leaned forward slightly, his eyes revealing eagerness and expectation. “Oh? What are your thoughts? Tell me.”

“Since it’s difficult for us to compete with Hongkong Land on our own, why don’t we unite with other forces to jointly cope with the competitive pressure from them?” Richard Lee pushed up his glasses, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.

Li Jiacheng frowned slightly. “What do you mean?”

“We can join forces with some of the British-owned tycoons, like China Light & Power, Standard Chartered Bank, and even Jardine Matheson. These companies are also in major competition with Lin Haoran and have all been significantly affected!

“Especially Jardine Matheson. As far as I know, although Jardine Matheson has withdrawn from the Hong Kong market, they hate Lin Haoran to the bone. I heard that a few months ago in Japan, Jardine Matheson had a small clash with Lin Haoran, though they ended up failing. This shows just how deep their hatred for him is,” Richard Lee said in a hushed voice.

Li Jiacheng nodded. He was well aware of this.

If it weren’t for Lin Haoran, Jardine Matheson would still be glorious in Hong Kong.

But because of Lin Haoran, Jardine Matheson ended up suffering heavy losses and had no choice but to exit the Hong Kong market.

Chapter 693: Below Victoria Peak, is the City Li Jiacheng’s City?

Inside the Chairman’s office at Hutchison Whampoa, Richard Lee continued speaking to Li Jiacheng, “Mr. Li, I’ve heard from my subordinates that the people of Hong Kong have a growing admiration for Lin Haoran. Most of the youth see him as an idol.

“After all, as a Chinese man, he defeated a British-owned tycoon and broke the monopoly of British-owned banks over Hong Kong’s financial industry. This has made the Chinese people here incredibly proud, which in turn has boosted business for all his companies.

“This is not a good thing in the long run. So, regardless of whether Lin Haoran was behind the Hongkong Land Group’s actions against you, we cannot just sit by and do nothing. Although Hutchison Whampoa is massive, it can easily fall into the red if managed poorly.

“It’s just like Hutchison & Co. a few years ago. It was suffering from severe losses at the time. Later, Mr. Willie led us through two years of hard-fought battles, cutting away the businesses that were losing the most money and only keeping those with high potential and profits. It was only then that Hutchison Whampoa managed to turn a profit.

“Now, if the revenue of these high-quality businesses declines sharply, Hutchison Whampoa will sooner or later fall back into the red. The Hong Kong market is only so big. If Lin Haoran’s companies snatch up the majority of the business, it will be difficult for us to maintain our footing in Hong Kong!”

As a veteran who had personally experienced the period of severe losses at Hutchison International, Richard Lee knew the development of Hutchison Whampoa over the past few years like the back of his hand. It was precisely because of this that he was truly worried about the company’s future.

Moreover, once Hutchison Whampoa fell into the red, the old guard left over from Willie’s era, including himself, would surely become the scapegoats and be unceremoniously swept out the door by Li Jiacheng.

He certainly did not want to leave Hutchison Whampoa; after all, it was an excellent platform for career development.

If he had really wanted to resign, he would have done so when the former Taipan, Mr. Willie, resigned.

Therefore, no matter what, Richard Lee did not want to see Hutchison Whampoa fall into the red again.

After listening to Richard Lee’s words, Li Jiacheng nodded slightly, deeply convinced.

Indeed, Lin Haoran’s business map in Hong Kong was constantly expanding, and his influence was growing ever larger. This was undoubtedly squeezing the room for survival for other companies.

Even if Lin Haoran might not be intentionally targeting him, he had to come up with a way to break the deadlock as soon as possible, not to mention he already felt that Lin Haoran was deliberately targeting him.

The overlap between Hutchison Whampoa’s and Lin Haoran’s businesses was too high. Basically, there wasn’t a single industry Hutchison Whampoa was involved in that Lin Haoran’s companies weren’t.

This had led to direct competition between the two enterprises in multiple fields.

Now that the business volume of Lin Haoran’s companies had surged, they, as competitors, were naturally affected to some extent.

He recalled the time when he had just acquired Hutchison Whampoa. He had been in high spirits, brimming with ambition, and determined to become the next richest Chinese man in Hong Kong.

At the time, he even felt that as long as HSBC fully supported him, he would have a chance to vie for the title of the richest man in Asia.

This goal sounded grand, but it wasn’t entirely impossible to achieve.

After all, in his heart, HSBC held an invincible status in Hong Kong.

Especially when he had taken control of Hutchison Whampoa, some media outlets had reported: “Below Victoria Peak, the city is Li Jiacheng’s city; the harbor is Pao Yue-kong’s harbor.”

This sentence was deeply engraved in his heart.

Although he claimed in media interviews that it was just media exaggeration, wasn’t this also the dream he had secretly cherished deep down inside?

That sentence had fully demonstrated his ambition.

However, the moment HSBC was crushed by Lin Haoran, his past ambitions shattered like a bubble.

What “the city is Li Jiacheng’s city”? That was just bragging now.

In today’s Hong Kong, Lin Haoran was the true hegemon of the business world, far ahead of other business conglomerates. Whether it was the British-funded conglomerates or the Chinese-funded conglomerates, none of them were his match.

It would be more fitting to say it was the Lam family’s city.

As Li Jiacheng thought of this, a trace of unwillingness flashed in his eyes, but he quickly regained his composure.

Lin Haoran. Li Jiacheng knew in his heart that he had always underestimated this young man.

Three years ago, Lin Haoran was just an unknown, ordinary investor, a speculator in the stock market, and was said to be the boss of only a small cement factory.

Although he knew Lin Wan’an, Lin Wan’an’s Wan’an Real Estate Company was of average strength. At that time, he had truly looked down on him.

Not to mention Lin Haoran was just Lin Wan’an’s younger son.

If Pao Yue-kong hadn’t acted as a go-between and persuaded him to give up on Green Island Cement, he would never have even known Lin Haoran.

But who could have imagined that in just three short years, this young man would rise as meteorically as a comet streaking across the night sky?

First, he used thunderous tactics to drive Jardine Matheson & Co. out of Hong Kong, and then he utterly defeated the powerful HSBC.

Now, Lin Haoran had become someone he had to look up to!

On the surface, he and Lin Haoran both belonged to the ranks of Hong Kong’s top tycoons.

But in reality, any discerning person knew that even among top tycoons, the gap between them was worlds apart.

It could even be said that Lin Haoran was in a league of his own, having opened up a clear distance from everyone else.

Li Jiacheng stood up and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, his gaze fixed on the streetscape of Victoria Harbour.

Central was as bustling and lively as ever, but at this moment, he was in no mood to appreciate it.

Looking down at the growing crowd at the intersection waiting for the traffic lights, he felt in a daze that it was like the constantly expanding map of Lin Haoran’s commercial empire, spreading with an unstoppable momentum.

And people like them seemed to be mere stumbling blocks for Lin Haoran, being kicked aside one by one.

“Mr. Richard Lee, you are right.” Li Jiacheng turned around and said to Richard Lee, “We can no longer sit and wait for death. Lin Haoran’s rise has indeed squeezed our room for survival. But in the business world, there are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests.

“Joining forces with other powers to compete with Lin Haoran is perhaps our best option right now. Also, since the Hong Kong market is limited, we must open up new battlefields. It’s time for Hutchison Whampoa to accelerate its overseas expansion.”

“Mr. Li, increasing investment overseas is indeed a good idea, but we must be clear that our foundation is in Hong Kong, and our core businesses are almost all concentrated here. Expanding overseas is not something that can be accomplished overnight; it will take a very long time.

“Look at Jardine Matheson & Co. It took them decades to gain a firm foothold in the overseas market. And HSBC, it also started its overseas expansion early on, but it has never been able to shake off its dependence on the Hong Kong market. And it was for this reason that it was ultimately defeated by Mr. Lin Haoran!”

At this point, Richard Lee couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of regret for HSBC.

As an Englishman, Richard Lee knew that HSBC becoming the hegemon of Hong Kong’s business world was definitely a source of pride for people like him.

For a long time, the HSBC brand was the representative of Hong Kong’s financial industry, with a certain level of global recognition.

But who would have thought that even with HSBC’s brilliance, this commercial empire would collapse in an instant at its peak!

Alas, it was truly something to wring one’s hands and sigh in frustration over!

Although Li Jiacheng didn’t say anything, he inwardly agreed with Richard Lee’s words.

His brow furrowed even tighter.

As Richard Lee had said, it was by no means easy to expand overseas to reduce dependence on the Hong Kong market.

Take HSBC for example. From its inception, it had been far-sighted, embarking on the path of overseas expansion. It successively established branches in major cities like London, Bangkok, Yokohama in Japan, and even San Francisco in North America. It had weathered over a hundred years of storms.

Since the late 1950s, HSBC had become even more active, successively acquiring The British Bank of the Middle East and Mercantile Bank.

In the past two years, it had relentlessly acquired Marine Midland Bank in the United States. The importance it placed on its overseas expansion was evident.

However, despite HSBC’s diligent efforts, it still couldn’t shake its heavy reliance on the Hong Kong market, with over 90% of its profits originating from it.

In contrast, many of its overseas businesses were consistently operating at a loss. HSBC could only continuously siphon funds from the Hong Kong market to fill the deficit holes in its overseas markets.

Thus, once the Hong Kong market suffered a setback, this seemingly enormous and solid banking empire would crumble in an instant, like a collapsing skyscraper.

In terms of the initial effectiveness of its overseas expansion, HSBC was actually inferior to Jardine Matheson & Co.

After all, Jardine Matheson & Co. had long achieved its goal of having its overseas assets exceed its Hong Kong assets. Even if its Hong Kong business was ultimately dealt a devastating blow by Lin Haoran, Jardine Matheson & Co. could still stand firm thanks to its overseas markets.

But whether it was Jardine Matheson or HSBC, they were far from possessing the foresight and competitive advantages of Lin Haoran.

The reason Lin Haoran’s overseas expansion went so smoothly was actually simple: he knew the general direction of the world’s future.

For instance, he knew that Japan would experience an economic bubble in the 1980s, and he had a rough idea of which high-quality stocks in the United States would see astounding gains in the future…

This was key information that others couldn’t possibly predict.

Therefore, for a company with Hong Kong as its core, reducing its dependence on the Hong Kong market was as difficult as reaching for the sky. Without a long period of strategic positioning, it would be hard to achieve.

But Lin Haoran was a unique exception!

After all, he was a Transmigrator.

Although he hadn’t lived through the seventies and eighties in his past life, the knowledge he had acquired through books, the internet, education, and other means was vast.

In that era of knowledge explosion, he already had a certain understanding of the trajectory of global economic development over the past few decades.

If a transmigrator didn’t have some extraordinary abilities, then this transmigration would have been for nothing.

“Yes, I understand that expanding into overseas markets is by no means an easy task. That’s why I strongly agree with your proposal to unite with other forces to jointly oppose Lin Haoran. Sitting back and waiting for doom is not my style.

“As for how to unite forces like China Light & Power, Standard Chartered Bank, and Jardine Matheson & Co. to counter Lin Haoran, what specific ideas do you have? Elaborate.” Li Jiacheng continued.

“Mr. Li, China Light & Power’s main business has no competitive relationship with Hongkong Land Group. It’s not even in direct competition with Hongkong Electric Group. The two power companies are separated by Victoria Harbour, one to the south and one to the north, each responsible for the power supply in their own region. They have always coexisted peacefully without interfering with each other.

“However, Mr. Li, you should also be aware that the Kadoorie family, which controls China Light & Power, has another important business—The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

“The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels and The Peninsula Hong Kong, which are under this company, are both luxurious hotels with extremely long histories in Hong Kong. The Peninsula, in particular, has held its position as the benchmark for top-tier hotels worldwide since its opening.

“However, my investigation revealed that in the past month, both The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels and The Peninsula Hong Kong have seen a significant decline in guest traffic.

“The beneficiaries of this are the various Mandarin and Oriental hotels under the Mandarin Oriental Hotel group. Therefore, Lawrence Kadoorie must be very troubled by this right now.

“If we propose a partnership to them and jointly devise a strategy to counter Lin Haoran, I believe they will respond positively. After all, the Kadoorie family has always placed great importance on The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.”

After hearing Richard Lee’s analysis, a glint flashed in Li Jiacheng’s eyes. He said, “You have a point. The Kadoorie family has deep roots in Hong Kong and a close relationship with Government House.

“If we can win their support, our chances of victory will be much greater.”

“Now, about Standard Chartered Bank, Mr. Li, I don’t need to elaborate much, do I? They are already the biggest competitor to Lin Haoran’s banks and naturally don’t want to see their market share in the financial sector being snatched away bit by bit by the Hang Seng Group.

“Moreover, your two major enterprises were HSBC’s most important clients. Now that HSBC has been acquired by Standard Chartered, you have indirectly become an important client of Standard Chartered as well. They will absolutely not sit back and watch your Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa have their market shares gradually taken over by Lin Haoran.

“They are maintaining a good relationship with Lin Haoran on the surface for now, but they are just waiting for the right moment to make a move,” Richard Lee said meaningfully.

Li Jiacheng nodded thoughtfully, his fingers tapping a rhythm on the desk. He said gravely, “Indeed, a fierce battle between Standard Chartered Bank and Lin Haoran is bound to break out sooner or later.”

He was also aware that the relationship between Standard Chartered Bank and Lin Haoran’s Hang Seng Group was currently delicate. While things seemed calm on the surface, undercurrents were already raging beneath, fraught with peril.

Just a few days ago, for instance, Government House publicly announced its support for Lin Haoran to become the president of the Hong Kong Association of Banks in front of numerous reporters.

Li Jiacheng had heard from reliable rumors that when Taipan Brown returned, he was so furious that he flew into a rage in his office, smashing many things to pieces.

“As for Jardine Matheson & Co….” The corner of Richard Lee’s mouth curved slightly into a meaningful smile. “Although they were forced into a corner by Lin Haoran, having to give up their core industries in Hong Kong and completely withdraw from the market, as the saying goes, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse.

“Jardine Matheson’s global presence is still quite considerable, and their strength is not to be underestimated. Moreover, they hate Lin Haoran to the bone.

“From what I understand, Lin Haoran’s Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, Wanqing Group, and others are also expanding into overseas markets, especially in Southeast Asia. Relying on the Guo family, the richest family in Southeast Asia, they have invested a massive amount of capital and are developing with incredible momentum.

“And Jardine Matheson also holds a significant market share in Southeast Asia and has its own allies there.

“Although Lin Haoran’s ally in Southeast Asia is the richest family, the Guo family, they are not invincible there either. They also face competitors.

“Therefore, we can completely leverage the strength of Jardine Matheson to constrain the development of Lin Haoran’s companies in Southeast Asia, thereby weakening his overall strength!”

Li Jiacheng’s fingers tapped rhythmically on the desk, his gaze growing as sharp as an eagle’s. “So, you’re saying that by uniting the Kadoorie family, Standard Chartered Bank, and Jardine Matheson, we can jointly stand against Lin Haoran?”

“That’s right, Mr. Li.” Richard Lee’s expression was solemn as he nodded heavily. “It’s much better than us fighting Lin Haoran alone. I believe you know as well, Mr. Li, that it’s nearly impossible for us to compete with him on our own.

“But if we can form such an alliance, at least in the Hong Kong market, we can create a situation of mutual checks and balances. Of course, if you, Mr. Li, can win over more allies, that would be even better.”

“More allies…” Li Jiacheng muttered to himself, seeming to be deep in thought.

If there was one person most suited to be his ally, it would be none other than Pao Yue-kong.

Pao Yue-kong was powerful, the former richest Chinese man in Hong Kong, and in no way inferior to him.

Moreover, the two shared a deep friendship of many years, and they had cooperated closely on numerous matters over that time.

Unfortunately, fate had played a cruel trick. Pao Yue-kong’s relationship with Lin Haoran was also excellent. The two had even worked together to privatize Kowloon Wharf.

Such a close relationship instantly made Li Jiacheng’s original idea of winning over Pao Yue-kong come to nothing.

After all, getting Pao Yue-kong to join him in dealing with Lin Haoran was simply impossible.

Besides Pao Yue-kong, who else could he unite with?

The business world in Hong Kong was neither big nor small.

However, among the truly powerful players, apart from a few, the rest had either been driven out of Hong Kong by Lin Haoran, defeated by him, or directly acquired by him.

Of those remaining, only Swire & Co. and Wheelock and Company were still considered top-tier giants.

But trying to persuade Swire & Co. to join his alliance would be difficult.

Although Swire & Co. was also a diversified behemoth with considerable strength in multiple fields, its core industries today were really just two: real estate and aviation!

In real estate, Hongkong Land Group was currently scaling back its investments, so it naturally posed no threat to Swire Properties.

As for aviation, Swire’s Cathay Pacific directly monopolized the Hong Kong aviation market, and Lin Haoran’s companies had not ventured into this field.

Therefore, there was no direct conflict of interest between Swire & Co. and Lin Haoran. Persuading them to join an alliance against Lin Haoran was probably unrealistic.

Mr. Schreyer of Swire & Co. was a very shrewd man. They would not easily offend a rising business tycoon like Lin Haoran.

Swire had come forward to support HSBC before, but that was out of necessity. Their capital chain ran through HSBC, and if HSBC faced a funding crisis, Swire would suffer as well, so they had no choice but to step in.

But now that the capital chain crisis was resolved, why would Swire & Co. do such a thankless thing again?

This was perhaps why Richard Lee hadn’t mentioned Swire & Co.

As for Wheelock and Company, that was even more out of the question.

In order to reduce its dependence on the Hong Kong market, Wheelock and Company was continuously taking the profits earned in Hong Kong to purchase large ships, grandly calling it building “mobile marine assets.”

Thinking of this, Li Jiacheng couldn’t help but shake his head helplessly, a bitter smile tugging at his lips.

The Marden family of Wheelock and Company had been single-mindedly focused on the shipping industry in recent years, pouring almost all their assets into building up their fleet.

In his eyes, such an aggressive strategy was undoubtedly an all-or-nothing gamble.

“It seems that the only ones we can unite with now are the Kadoorie family, Standard Chartered Bank, and Jardine Matheson & Co.,” Li Jiacheng said with a grave expression.

“Mr. Li, you might as well try contacting some of the Chinese-funded conglomerates. Perhaps they could become our allies,” Richard Lee suddenly leaned in and said in a low voice.

“Chinese-funded conglomerates?” Li Jiacheng shook his head decisively.

To be honest, the core business of most of these Chinese-owned giants was real estate.

People like the Guo brothers of Sun Hung Kai Properties, Lee Shau-kee of Henderson Land Development, the Cheng Yu-tung family which had a dual focus on jewelry and real estate, and the Fok family, among others.

As for Chan Song-ching of the Carrian Group?

Li Jiacheng had always known very well that this guy was a complete and utter fraud, stirring up trouble and making a mess in the stock market with fake financial statements and a Ponzi scheme.

That was why he had never been willing to touch the Carrian Group over the years.

In other words, these Chinese-owned giants were basically all focused on real estate.

And since the end of last year, Lin Haoran’s companies had started to scale back their real estate investments, posing no competition to other property companies in Hong Kong.

To ask them to inexplicably go up against Lin Haoran was preposterous, completely out of the question.

Then there was the He family, whose strength was also not to be underestimated.

But the head of the He family was now single-mindedly focused on the casino business in Macau, completely ignoring matters in Hong Kong.

And the people mentioned above covered almost all the major Chinese-owned tycoons in Hong Kong.

Li Jiacheng thought it over and over, but he couldn’t find a single person he could persuade to join hands with him against Lin Haoran.

Thinking of this, Li Jiacheng couldn’t help but curve his lips into a bitter smile.

Perhaps, if he wanted to contend with Lin Haoran, he was destined to partner only with British-owned companies.

===TRANSLation ENDS===

{“characters”: {“郭氏兄弟”: “Guo brothers”, “李兆基”: “Lee Shau-kee”, “郑裕彤家族”: “Cheng Yu-tung family”, “陈松青”: “Chan Song-ching”, “马登家族”: “Marden family”}, “locations”: {}, “organizations”: {“恒生集团”: “Hang Seng Group”, “青洲英坭”: “Green Island Cement”}, “terms_and_jargon”: {}}

Chapter 694: I Want to Have a Baby with You!

Lin Haoran was currently unaware that Li Jiacheng, faced with Hutchison Whampoa’s worsening business, was planning to unite with other forces against him.

After convincing Shao Yifu to sell the increasingly marginalized Shaw Brothers Film Company to his father, Lin Haoran returned to Connaught Centre and made the necessary arrangements for Lin Wan’an.

First, he had Dai Shi from Galaxy Securities form a trading team to discreetly accumulate shares of Shaw Brothers Film Company.

Shaw Brothers Film Company’s stock had always been lukewarm on the market, never considered a hot commodity.

On a typical day, there were plenty of pending orders, but the actual trading volume was negligible.

The primary reason was the company’s mediocre financial reports. Especially after being surpassed by Golden Harvest Film Company, Shao Yifu lost interest in running Shaw Brothers, and its performance declined year after year.

Coupled with the company’s policy of not paying dividends annually, these factors combined to leave the public with little interest in the stock, making it naturally unpopular.

However, in Lin Haoran’s eyes, this was a golden opportunity.

For a company to go private and initiate a mandatory takeover, it needed to hold ninety percent of the shares.

Furthermore, once a shareholding exceeded thirty-five percent, it had to be publicly disclosed.

But in Lin Haoran’s view, these regulations were “loopholes” he could cleverly exploit to advance his plan to privatize the Shaw Brothers Film Company.

He had already successfully convinced Shao Yifu today. Shao had agreed to transfer his sixty-one percent stake in the Shaw Brothers Film Company to him for three hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Not only that, but Shao Yifu also offered to help persuade the other shareholders of Shaw Brothers to sell their stock.

According to this plan, Lin Haoran intended to have Galaxy Securities act first, acquiring over twenty-nine percent of the shares through secondary market trading or purchasing them from other shareholders.

Once that portion was secured, he would then complete the sixty-one percent transaction with Shao Yifu.

By doing so, he could achieve his goal of privatizing the Shaw Brothers Film Company at the lowest possible cost.

He was well aware that with his current status and influence, if news of his intention to privatize Shaw Brothers were to leak, the stock price would skyrocket.

The market capitalization of Shaw Brothers Film Company could surge to over a billion Hong Kong dollars, or even higher.

Who in the stock market didn’t dream of making a huge profit?

With such a good opportunity at hand, these shareholders would definitely not let it go.

Although Lin Haoran had deep pockets, he wasn’t the kind of sucker who spent money recklessly.

Acquiring the Shaw Brothers Film Company for the lowest possible price was, of course, the best-case scenario.

His only reason for wanting to acquire the company was his father, Lin Wan’an’s particular fondness and interest in the film industry.

As for himself, the film industry didn’t hold that much of an attraction; he wasn’t particularly concerned with it.

“Haoran, for the acquisition of Shaw Brothers, just have all the shares registered under your name,” Lin Wan’an said, standing by the circular window in Lin Haoran’s private office, looking out at the bustling streets of Central.

Although Lin Haoran had acquired the Hongkong Land Group and become the owner of the entire Connaught Centre, this was actually Lin Wan’an’s first time here.

While he was proud of his son’s tremendous achievements, he didn’t want to cause him too much trouble.

Now, visiting Lin Haoran’s private office for the first time, his sense of pride swelled even more.

“It’s fine, Dad. We’ll put it under your name. That way, it’ll be perfectly justifiable and more convenient for you to manage,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, waving his hand dismissively.

He didn’t much care about a film company. Even if he was the one paying, all that mattered was his father’s happiness.

This could also be considered a way of repaying Lin Wan’an for his kindness over the years.

Without Lin Wan’an, he wouldn’t have achieved what he had today.

Besides, it was only a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars; he truly didn’t mind.

However, Lin Wan’an thought differently. After all, he had two sons, not just one.

At this moment, he was thinking that he was getting old and didn’t know how many years he had left.

If he were to pass away suddenly, wouldn’t this property raise inheritance issues?

Although a will could be prepared in advance, that too could lead to problems.

The money came from Lin Haoran, so the company should be his.

Registering the company shares under Lin Haoran’s name now would prevent any future disputes.

While he was gratified by Lin Haoran’s filial piety, he did not approve of this approach.

Lin Wan’an sighed softly and continued, “Besides, you’ve already given so much to our Lam family. Your older brother, second sister, and third sister have all made a lot of money because of you. Even though none of them have grand ambitions, I’m afraid that if the company is in my name, any future incidents might cause unnecessary conflict between you siblings.

It’s safer to have it in your name. You know your dad—I’m just unable to sit idle. I only want to return to the business world, I don’t really care about assets. I’m so old, I don’t have much to spend money on. Dad is just grateful that you’ve given me the chance to one day manage an industry leader like Shaw Brothers Film Company. That’s more than enough.”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran didn’t say anything more.

Since his father was unwilling to accept the shares, he didn’t insist.

He understood his father’s concerns and his good intentions.

That being the case, why add to his father’s worries?

To put it bluntly, the Shaw Brothers Film Company was just a pastime he bought for Lin Wan’an. His father simply enjoyed the pleasure that came from business success. It didn’t really matter whose name it was under.

Lin Haoran walked over to stand beside his father, looking through the glass window at a towering building under construction not far away.

That was the planned site for the world’s tallest building.

And this future tallest building in the world was also his.

Construction had been underway for several months, and the framework had already reached over twenty stories. The pace was not slow.

“Dad, I won’t be going back to Deep Water Bay tonight. Dai Shi will keep you updated on any progress with the Shaw Brothers acquisition. Also, I’ve already had the headhunting firm under Hongkong Land Group start looking for a talented professional manager to serve as the future general manager of Shaw Brothers and assist you in running the company,” Lin Haoran said, turning his gaze away from the window to Lin Wan’an beside him.

“Alright, Haoran. You can leave Shaw Brothers to me. I know you’re busy and should focus your energy on more important things,” Lin Wan’an said understandingly, patting Lin Haoran on the shoulder.

In the evening, Lin Wan’an returned to the Deep Water Bay villa by himself.

As for Lin Haoran, he first had dinner at the executive canteen in Connaught Centre before heading home.

However, Lin Haoran didn’t return to the Severn Road villa. Instead, he went to a villa in the Mid-Levels, the same one where Yamada Keiko had stayed temporarily when she came to Hong Kong.

When he arrived at the villa, he checked the time; it was already seven in the evening.

Lying on the sofa in the third-floor living room, Lin Haoran picked up his mobile phone and gave Rosamund Kwan a call.

“Come over to the villa on Old Peak Road tonight. I’ll wait for you here,” Lin Haoran said after the call connected.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s voice on the line, Rosamund Kwan was ecstatic.

“Brother Haoran, I’ll be right there.”

Lately, because of the matter with Guo Xiaohan, Rosamund Kwan had naturally been neglected by Lin Haoran. They hadn’t seen each other in over ten days.

Rosamund Kwan now owned several clothing chain stores and no longer needed to manage a single shop personally. Each store had its own manager, so she could leave whenever she wanted, unlike before when she had only one shop and had to handle everything herself until closing time.

This was one of the perks of being the boss.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran picked up the remote and turned on the television.

Though his engagement to Guo Xiaohan hadn’t been widely publicized yet, it was only a matter of time before it would be.

Therefore, he needed to give Rosamund Kwan a heads-up.

Even though Rosamund Kwan had essentially sold herself to Lin Haoran to pay off her father’s debts, promising to be his woman for life.

And even though her success in starting a clothing chain was thanks to his resources.

Still, if he didn’t say anything and she suddenly found out her man had a legitimate wife, she would surely be upset.

If she got angry and cheated on him, he couldn’t bear that.

Of course, in this era, it was all too common for wealthy men in Hong Kong to have multiple wives and mistresses, so people were generally more accepting.

Although polygamy had been abolished in Hong Kong a decade earlier, it was not uncommon for men to openly keep a second or third mistress, a practice the whole of Hong Kong society seemed to have grown accustomed to.

Therefore, as long as he gave Rosamund Kwan a warning in advance, there wouldn’t be any problem.

Rosamund Kwan arrived quickly. In less than half an hour, her little red Mercedes-Benz was parked at the villa’s entrance.

She must have specially dressed up at one of her clothing stores before coming over. She wore a pale purple dress that made her skin look as white as snow. Her long hair was slightly curled, and she looked radiant and captivating.

As she pushed open the door to the living room, she saw Lin Haoran leaning back on the sofa watching a TV drama. A sweet smile immediately blossomed on her face: “Brother Haoran!”

Lin Haoran looked up and beckoned to her, “You’re here? Have a seat.”

Rosamund Kwan cheerfully walked over and sat down beside him, affectionately linking her arm with his. “You’ve been so busy lately. I haven’t seen you in so long.”

Lin Haoran smiled slightly and reached out to pinch her cheek. “I have been busy, but I asked you here today because there’s something I want to tell you.”

Rosamund Kwan blinked, her curiosity piqued. “What is it?”

Lin Haoran didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he picked up the remote and turned off the TV.

The living room fell silent, with only the faint chirping of insects from outside the window.

“Rosamund, you should know that for someone like me, some things are unavoidable,” Lin Haoran said, his tone calm but his eyes fixed seriously on her.

Rosamund Kwan’s smile faltered slightly, as if she sensed something, but she still asked softly, “Brother Haoran, what are you trying to say?”

“I’ll be getting engaged soon,” Lin Haoran stated very directly.

Rosamund Kwan’s fingers tightened slightly but quickly relaxed. She lowered her head and remained silent for a few seconds before forcing a smile. “Is it… Miss Guo?”

Rosamund Kwan had long known about the ambiguous relationship between Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan.

But what kind of family background did Guo Xiaohan have?

And what about her own?

Thus, even knowing, she could only feel envy, not daring to harbor any jealousy.

After all, Rosamund Kwan knew very well that her status was no match for Lin Haoran’s. To have received his help and to be with him was already a great fortune.

Lin Haoran nodded. “Yes.”

Rosamund Kwan took a deep breath. When she looked up, her smile had returned. “Congratulations, Brother Haoran. Miss Guo has a good family background and is beautiful. She’s a perfect match for you. I understand. A man like you can’t possibly stay single forever.”

Lin Haoran looked at her and gently stroked her long hair. “You’re calmer and more sensible than I imagined.”

Rosamund Kwan gave a wry smile. “What else could I do? Should I throw a tantrum? I know my place, and I know… you’ve been very good to me. I’ve known this day would come. For a woman like me, just being able to stay by your side is enough.”

Lin Haoran pulled her into his arms and said softly, “You know that Hong Kong law doesn’t allow me to publicly marry more than one wife, otherwise there would definitely be a place for you.

Don’t worry. Even though I’m getting married, Rosamund, remember this: whether I’m married or not, your place in my heart will never change. Your business, your life—I will continue to support you.”

Rosamund Kwan’s eyes reddened slightly, but she quickly blinked, suppressing her emotions, and smiled. “I know you won’t treat me unfairly.”

Lin Haoran held Rosamund Kwan’s face in his hands and looked directly at her. “You’re a smart woman. That’s why I like you.”

Rosamund Kwan rested her head on his shoulder and hummed a soft “Mmm,” saying nothing more.

She knew that from the beginning, she had never deluded herself into thinking she could become Lin Haoran’s legal wife.

She was just his lover, a woman dependent on him.

But even so, she was luckier than most women.

At the very least, Lin Haoran was willing to give her a career and respect, not just treat her as a plaything.

That was enough.

Which of the second and third mistresses in Hong Kong weren’t just playthings for the rich?

Most of them could only be kept like decorative vases, with no chance of gaining the kind of autonomy and career support she had.

In this world, Rosamund Kwan, influenced by Lin Haoran, would never enter the entertainment industry. Having not lived in that chaotic environment, she was now quite pure.

“Starting tomorrow, move here from the Hang Fung Building. From now on, this little villa will be our secret love nest,” Lin Haoran said, gently stroking Rosamund Kwan’s hair. His tone was gentle but left no room for argument.

The sentence sounded like a command, giving Rosamund Kwan no opportunity to object.

Hearing this, a trace of pleasant surprise flashed in Rosamund Kwan’s eyes. “Is that really okay? This… this villa…”

“Of course,” Lin Haoran smiled faintly. “The environment here is quiet and much safer. Although the security at Hang Fung Building is strict, it’s ultimately a building with people coming and going. There are still some security flaws. You’re my woman. If anything happened to you over there, wouldn’t I be heartbroken?”

A blush crept onto Rosamund Kwan’s face, and she said coquettishly, “You’re terrible~ Who’s your woman~”

Lin Haoran laughed heartily and pulled her into his embrace. “What? Thinking of backing out now?”

Rosamund Kwan gently pounded his chest, feigning annoyance. “You know I won’t, yet you still ask me that on purpose.”

Perhaps it was a case of absence making the heart grow fonder, or perhaps she wanted to vie for favor and leave a deeper impression on him, but Rosamund Kwan was exceptionally passionate that night.

Her serpentine body coiled around Lin Haoran, every movement filled with endless seduction, her eyes brimming with deep affection and attachment.

Ignited by her passion, the two immersed themselves in their fervent love, as if the entire world had faded away, leaving only each other.

After their lovemaking, Rosamund Kwan lay languidly in Lin Haoran’s arms, her fingers gently tracing patterns on his firm chest.

“Brother Haoran, what do you think our future will be like?” she asked softly, a hint of confusion in her voice.

In the beginning, she had entertained thoughts of having her position made permanent with Lin Haoran.

However, after hearing the rumors about him and Guo Xiaohan, she gradually realized that this idea was no longer realistic.

And now, hearing him say he was getting engaged, it would be a lie to say she wasn’t upset.

So, suddenly, she felt a little lost about her future.

Lin Haoran pondered for a moment, then said, “Rosamund, in the future, I will make your life better and better. Your clothing chain will continue to expand and become a famous brand in Hong Kong. And you will always be the most special woman by my side, on the condition that you do nothing to betray me.”

Rosamund Kwan naturally understood what Lin Haoran meant.

She lifted her head and said, “Brother Haoran, your words are enough for me. Don’t worry, with your status, how would I dare to do anything to betray you? I don’t ask for any official title. As long as I can always be with you, I’m content.”

Lin Haoran was quite satisfied with Rosamund Kwan’s answer.

Of course, he never thought she would dare to betray him anyway, unless she no longer wanted to live.

“By the way, Brother Haoran, there’s something I hope to get your permission for,” Rosamund Kwan said suddenly.

“Oh? Go on,” Lin Haoran said, looking at her with a puzzled expression.

“I want a child,” Rosamund Kwan said after a moment of hesitation.

Rosamund Kwan had been Lin Haoran’s woman for over two years now.

However, throughout these two years, they had always used contraception whenever they were together. So even though they had been intimate countless times, Rosamund Kwan had never become pregnant.

Lin Haoran’s status was too unique; he had no intention of having a child with Rosamund Kwan casually.

After some thought, Lin Haoran replied, “I can grant you this wish, but let’s wait another two years. You’re only twenty now. In two years, I will allow you to have a baby with me!”

Lin Haoran’s plan was to let Guo Xiaohan get pregnant first.

Regardless, Guo Xiaohan was his legitimate wife. It would be improper for his mistress to get pregnant first.

Although Rosamund Kwan was a little disappointed, the thought of Lin Haoran’s promise quickly cheered her up.

The next morning, Lin Haoran transferred two highly loyal and trustworthy maids from the Severn Road villa.

As for Rosamund Kwan, she was busy moving her things from Hang Fung Building to the new villa.

The villa wasn’t particularly large, with a building footprint of about two hundred square meters. It was a three-story villa with front and back gardens totaling over two hundred square meters as well.

The villa was located on Old Peak Road, one of the main roads connecting Central on Hong Kong Island with the summit of Victoria Peak, first built in 1920.

The road consisted mostly of slopes with no steps, and was lined with dense vegetation in a quiet and serene environment, away from the crowded tourist areas.

For this reason, although the villa wasn’t large, it was situated in a prime location between the Mid-Levels and The Peak, and was naturally expensive.

Moreover, the view was quite good. Standing on the terrace, one could see the skyline of the entire Central district, and the night view was also excellent.

This was precisely why he had specifically set this house aside for his own use rather than letting Hongkong Land Group rent it out.

Lin Haoran already had a plan. Even after marrying Guo Xiaohan, he would come to accompany Rosamund Kwan from time to time, doing his best to distribute his favor evenly.

As for Yamada Keiko, Lin Haoran was not worried about her before the Japanese economic bubble burst.

After all, Yamada Keiko’s loyalty to him was at one hundred percent.

As his investments in Japan grew, he would also be visiting Japan more frequently.

Before the economic bubble burst, while gradually withdrawing his capital and harvesting Japanese funds, Lin Haoran would also have Yamada Keiko move to Hong Kong.

In the future, Yamada Keiko would be in the same position as Rosamund Kwan.

Three days passed quickly, and it was now August 14th.

At three in the afternoon, in the arrivals area of Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport.

Lin Haoran appeared, accompanied by Ma Shimin and Mr. David, the general manager of Hongkong Telephone.

About ten minutes after a plane landed and an announcement sounded in the airport terminal, Lin Haoran finally spotted a familiar figure in the arrivals area.

Mr. Robert Galvin, the renowned President of Motorola.

For Lin Haoran to personally come to greet him was a great show of respect to the Motorola President.

Tomorrow would be a very special day.

It was the day the mobile phone company, a joint venture between Hongkong Telephone Company and Motorola Company, would officially launch for commercial use.

In other words, starting tomorrow, Hong Kong would formally enter the age of mobile communications.

And Hong Kong would become the first city in the world to achieve mobile communications.

When Robert Galvin saw Lin Haoran personally waiting to greet him, a look of surprise appeared on his face. “Mr. Lin, I didn’t expect you to come in person!”

Lin Haoran smiled and stepped forward to shake his hand. “Mr. Galvin, you’ve come from so far away. How could I not welcome you personally? This collaboration is of great significance to the development of Hong Kong’s communications sector.”

After they exchanged pleasantries, Lin Haoran introduced Ma Shimin and David, the general manager of Hongkong Telephone Company, to Galvin.

In the field of mobile communications, Lin Haoran knew that making a huge profit in the short term was unlikely.

However, he firmly believed that mobile communications would eventually become a “gold mine” that would continuously generate enormous cash flow for him.

Therefore, no matter what, he was determined to maintain a firm grip on this industry.

Currently, although he was cooperating with Motorola Company, he and Ma Shimin had already covertly planned to kick Motorola out once the mobile communications business in Hong Kong stabilized.

While this approach might seem a bit underhanded, the business world is a battlefield where interests are paramount.

Lin Haoran had no intention of sharing a piece of the pie from such a prime business as mobile communications.

Chapter 695: Motorola Partner

In the early 1980s, Motorola was, without a doubt, an American technology tycoon, an enterprise that was “defining the era,” especially in the communications and semiconductor sectors.

From mobile communications to its semiconductor business, the Motorola Company was at the world’s leading edge.

Motorola even possessed formidable technology in the fields of national defense and aerospace.

They provided radio and satellite technology to the United States government and would later even participate in the massive “Iridium project.”

Although the “Iridium project” was highly advanced, it was ultimately a failure of business model, a misjudgment of the market, and prohibitively high costs that left Motorola greatly weakened. In the process, the company missed key opportunities in the mobile communications market, leading to its gradual decline.

However, all of that was yet to come.

For now, at least, the Motorola Company was an absolute giant in the tech world.

Although there was a considerable gap between its market capitalization and IBM’s, that didn’t mean it was an inferior company.

Previously, America’s most famous business newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, had named Motorola a benchmark for the global tech industry, a model of innovation and commercial success combined.

At the peak of its technological prowess, Motorola’s President, Robert Galvin, was most certainly one of the tycoons of the American business world. His status was no less than that of Mr. Walter Wriston, Chairman of Citibank; they were both standard-bearers in their respective fields.

“Is this your first time in Hong Kong, Mr. Galvin?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile in his reception room at the Connaught Centre.

Ma Shimin was also in the reception room, though he was mostly just accompanying them.

At that moment, Robert Galvin was standing before the reception room’s glass window, gazing down at the bustling scenery of downtown Hong Kong.

He had long known that Lin Haoran was a powerful force in business; even American business papers frequently reported news about him.

But from this reception room, Robert Galvin gained an even deeper appreciation for the vastness of Lin Haoran’s commercial empire.

The thriving sight of Victoria Harbour outside the window and the magnificent presence of the Connaught Centre complemented each other, drawing a sigh of admiration even from a tech tycoon like him who had seen it all.

All of this represented Lin Haoran’s commercial strength.

“No, this is my third time in Hong Kong.”

Robert Galvin turned around, a faint smile on his face. “But every time I come, I’m struck by the astonishing changes in this city. Especially now, seeing the business empire you’ve built here, Mr. Lin, reminds me of what it was like when Motorola was just starting out in Chicago.”

Of course, although Robert Galvin was internally surprised by the speed of Hong Kong’s development, Motorola’s headquarters, Chicago, was the birthplace of the modern skyscraper. The world’s tallest building at the time, the Sears Tower, was located in Chicago.

Therefore, when it came to skyscrapers, Hong Kong was merely a junior compared to Chicago.

So, Robert Galvin’s gaze soon shifted from the view outside the window, turning to focus on the furnishings within the reception room.

His eyes came to rest on a photo wall.

On it were photos of Lin Haoran with numerous political and business big shots. There was even one of Lin Haoran and Robert Galvin together.

The picture had been taken as a memento during Lin Haoran’s previous visit to Motorola’s headquarters to discuss their partnership.

Seeing his photo with Lin Haoran hanging among pictures with presidents, a Queen, and business tycoons—many of whom he recognized—Robert Galvin’s favorable impression of Lin Haoran instantly soared.

After the three men had taken their seats in individual armchairs, Lin Haoran had his assistant serve Robert Galvin and Ma Shimin cups of coffee. As for himself, he requested a cup of hot tea.

“Congratulations, Mr. Galvin.” Lin Haoran took a small sip of tea, placed the cup on the small table beside him, and spoke to Robert Galvin with a smile.

“Oh? And why do you say that, Mr. Lin?” Robert Galvin asked, a little puzzled.

“Tomorrow, we will jointly announce the official launch of Hong Kong’s commercial mobile communications service. This will mark Hong Kong’s formal entry into the mobile communications era. As the technology provider, Motorola is certain to be recorded in the annals of history. At the same time, the Motorola Company’s stock price will surely surge because of this. Isn’t that worth celebrating?” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

Upon hearing this, a shrewd glint flashed in Robert Galvin’s eyes.

He lifted his coffee cup for a light sip, a meaningful smile playing on his lips. “Mr. Lin, you truly have a profound understanding of the market. However…”

He set the cup down, crossed his legs, and continued, “I’m more interested in how this partnership can open the door to the entire Asian market for Motorola.”

Although Motorola had already entered the Asian market, its actual reach was rather limited.

In Japan, for example, Motorola had entered the market early on, but Japan’s tech sector had no shortage of its own giants. Motorola had never managed to achieve a dominant position there.

Local tycoons like Toshiba and NEC had built formidable technological barriers. Coupled with the strong patriotism of the Japanese people, who took pride in using domestic products, Motorola’s market share in Japan remained consistently low.

This was a point of regret for the Motorola Company.

Now, they had chosen to partner with Lin Haoran to build the world’s first commercial mobile communications network in Hong Kong, making it the world’s first city to commercialize mobile communications. Their goal was to leverage Hong Kong’s status in Asia to declare their technological prowess and thereby gain a larger market share on the continent.

This was why, after Lin Haoran’s visit, they had held an internal meeting and ultimately agreed to his proposal so readily.

The Motorola Company was hardly a fool. All its strategic moves were the result of carefully considered business decisions.

The reason Lin Haoran’s partnership proposal had impressed Motorola’s senior executives was precisely that it perfectly aligned with Motorola’s strategic need to break through in the Asian market. He hadn’t simply persuaded them with a few well-chosen words.

“No, no, no, Mr. Galvin. Market capitalization has always reflected a company’s standing in the public eye. In fact, I’ve always believed that the Motorola Company’s strength is in no way inferior to IBM’s. Yet, Motorola’s market capitalization is a full seven times less than IBM’s.

“This, I believe, is a severe undervaluation of the Motorola Company by the market. I imagine you feel the same way, Mr. Galvin?” Lin Haoran said with a smile, also crossing his legs.

Robert Galvin fell silent for a moment.

Evidently, Lin Haoran’s words had struck a chord with him.

IBM’s current market capitalization had already surpassed thirty billion US dollars, reaching thirty-three billion. It was the second-largest listed company in the United States, second only to AT&T.

Motorola’s market capitalization, however, was only approaching five billion US dollars; it had not even broken that threshold.

Both were leading companies in the tech industry, yet the difference in their market caps was enormous. It was impossible for Robert Galvin not to have thoughts on the matter.

As the helmsman of Motorola, Robert Galvin knew better than anyone the company’s technical strength and market potential.

He was convinced that the current strength of the Motorola Company was in no way inferior to IBM’s!

“It seems you’ve studied the American business market quite well, Mr. Lin. In your opinion, why is the disparity between Motorola’s market capitalization and IBM’s so vast?” Robert Galvin took a light sip of coffee and asked with a humble posture.

He wasn’t actually expecting any profound insight from Lin Haoran. He merely wanted to see if this young man, who had begun to make his mark in the business world at such a young age and achieved so much, truly possessed genuine talent.

Of course, if he could hear some beneficial viewpoints from Lin Haoran, that would be all the better for him!

Lin Haoran smiled slightly. Although the question was a bit sudden, it wasn’t difficult for him to answer.

Lin Haoran gently set down his teacup, his gaze growing deep. “That’s a very interesting question, Mr. Galvin. As I see it, the difference in market capitalization between Motorola and IBM stems mainly from three key factors.”

“I’m all ears,” Galvin said, leaning forward slightly, showing his keen interest.

“First, the degree of business focus.”

Lin Haoran held up one finger. “IBM focuses on the enterprise computer market, forming a complete closed business loop. Motorola’s business, on the other hand, spans multiple fields like communications, semiconductors, and defense. Although its technical strength is formidable, the capital market prefers focused enterprises.”

Robert Galvin nodded thoughtfully, gesturing for him to continue.

“Second, cash flow visibility.”

Lin Haoran held up a second finger and continued, “IBM’s mainframe business brings in stable, predictable cash flow. Motorola’s innovative ventures like mobile communications, while having vast prospects, have a longer investment return cycle. This makes it difficult for Wall Street analysts to value it accurately.”

“As for the third point…”

Lin Haoran paused. Seeing Robert Galvin listening with even greater focus, he smiled and continued, “It is also the most crucial point: the power of market narrative.

“IBM has told a perfect story of ‘computers changing business,’ while Motorola still lacks such a grand narrative to captivate the capital market.”

A flicker of surprise crossed Robert Galvin’s eyes. He hadn’t expected Lin Haoran’s insights to be so profound.

From Lin Haoran’s words, Robert Galvin could sense that he had conducted very deep research on both IBM and the Motorola Company.

This made Robert Galvin see Lin Haoran in an even better light.

Putting down his coffee cup, he pressed on, “In that case, Mr. Lin, how do you think the Motorola Company should change this situation?”

Lin Haoran smiled, confident of success. “That is precisely the strategic significance of the Hong Kong project. We are going to make Hong Kong a showcase for the mobile communications revolution, to tell a new story of ‘wireless connectivity changing human lifestyles.’

“When Wall Street sees the success story in Hong Kong, sees the explosive potential of mobile communications, and as long as we can create a red-hot scene of citizens scrambling to buy mobile phones, Motorola’s valuation logic will be completely transformed.”

“But I’ve heard you suggest setting the price of a single mobile phone at 50,000 Hong Kong dollars, which is almost 10,000 US dollars. And on top of that, there are activation fees, monthly plans, and other charges. This means the barrier to entry for customers is magnified immensely. Under these circumstances, can we really achieve the red-hot scene of people scrambling for mobile phones?” After hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Robert Galvin frowned.

At the beginning of the month, Robert Galvin, as the President of the Motorola Company, had been informed of the suggestions from the person in charge at the Hongkong Telephone Company. The recommendation was to price each mobile phone at fifty thousand Hong Kong dollars, with a network access fee of ten thousand Hong Kong dollars, a basic monthly service fee of 500 Hong Kong dollars, and a per-minute call rate of two Hong Kong dollars.

At the time, Robert Galvin hadn’t thought much of it. After all, the investment was huge, so it was only normal for the selling price to be high.

It was just like IBM, which sold large commercial computers for millions of dollars, such as the IBM System/370.

This large commercial computer, launched in the seventies, was still widely used. Its price ranged from two million to ten million US dollars. Higher-end systems, like the recently launched IBM 308X series, could even exceed ten million US dollars in price.

Due to their high cost, large computers were primarily used by banks, airlines, large corporations, and government agencies. The number sold was not large, but the profits were extremely high.

Basically, the profit margin on each of these large computers was over 80%!

This was why IBM was so popular in the capital market—its earning power was formidable!

Therefore, Robert Galvin hadn’t objected when Lin Haoran had proposed such a high price earlier; he had even supported it.

He felt that with the Motorola Company having spent so much on R&D costs, and with the Hongkong Telephone Company also investing a massive sum in building the cellular mobile communication signal network, they deserved a high return.

But now, hearing Lin Haoran talk about creating a “scrambling” scene, Galvin couldn’t help but have his doubts. How could such an exorbitant price trigger a buying frenzy?

Lin Haoran seemed to have anticipated this question. He smiled faintly and said, “We have already decided that the first batch will have only three thousand slots. Mr. Galvin should be aware of this.”

Robert Galvin nodded. He was indeed aware of this fact.

After all, the mobile communications company jointly established by the Hongkong Telephone Company and Motorola was the world’s first to commercialize mobile communications. He naturally paid attention to every detail.

“Then does Mr. Galvin know how many hundred-millionaires there are in Hong Kong? How many ten-millionaires? And how many millionaires?” Lin Haoran continued to ask with a smile.

Robert Galvin shook his head. He naturally wouldn’t know something like that.

If you asked him roughly how many hundred-millionaires there were in Chicago, he might be able to answer. But to him, Hong Kong was just an Asian city he wasn’t very familiar with.

“According to my knowledge, there are over 300 hundred-millionaires in Hong Kong! This includes not just local Hong Kong hundred-millionaires and British nationals residing in Hong Kong, but also a group of wealthy individuals from places like Southeast Asia. This group of tycoons is now investing heavily in Hong Kong and have settled here for the long term.

“As for tycoons with over ten million Hong Kong dollars, there are even more. Although I don’t have the exact figures, there are at least over a thousand. And I need not even mention the millionaires.

“An initial cost of over 60,000 Hong Kong dollars is something that not just hundred-millionaires and ten-millionaires, but even millionaires, can easily afford. For the time being, we have a monopoly in this mobile communications sector, with no fear of other competitors. So, Mr. Galvin, do you think a quota of three thousand units is enough?” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

In the world of Lin Haoran’s previous life, mobile phones—the so-called ‘big brother’ phones—came into use in Hong Kong in 1983. At the time, the price was immediately driven up to 50,000 Hong Kong dollars per unit, and supply still couldn’t meet demand.

It wasn’t just wealthy businessmen; even many actors and people from the underworld prided themselves on owning a ‘big brother’ phone.

Moreover, it would be quite normal for a hundred-millionaire’s family to get a few units.

Under these circumstances, with a mere three thousand slots, there would be no problem selling the mobile phones.

Robert Galvin was quite astonished to hear this. “I had no idea Hong Kong had so many wealthy people.”

If it was truly as Lin Haoran said, then three thousand slots really wouldn’t be enough to go around.

In that case, creating a red-hot scene would be effortless.

As for the second batch of slots, that wouldn’t be available so quickly. It would not only require overcoming relevant technical hurdles but also further expanding the base station coverage and increasing the signal network’s capacity. All of this would take at least half a year.

This way, the user experience of the first batch would become the best advertisement, laying the foundation for future market expansion.

Lin Haoran continued to explain, “Within these three thousand slots, I have already reserved three hundred units for my own companies. In addition, government agencies have also applied for three hundred slots from us.

“Also, I have something of a reputation in Hong Kong and have extensive connections in the business community. My father is the vice-president of the Hong Kong Chinese General Chamber of Commerce. Over the past few months, I’ve been receiving constant calls from members of the Chamber, all hoping to secure a slot for a mobile phone. I’ve had someone specially register their requests.

“So far, the number of registered requests has already exceeded five hundred. By this calculation, we have less than two thousand units left. I suggest we use a ‘hunger marketing’ strategy to handle these.”

A look of confusion appeared on Galvin’s face. “Hunger marketing?”

Although early forms of this marketing strategy could be traced back to the beginning of the century, it had not yet been formalized into a theoretical concept by this time.

Following the trend of development, it wasn’t until the 1990s, or even the early 21st century, that it began its early practical phase in the truest sense.

And it was the launch of the iPhone 4 in 2010 that systematized hunger marketing and pushed it into the mainstream. At the time, the iPhone 4’s technical innovations, such as the Retina display and glass body, triggered a buying frenzy. Scalpers marking up prices became a common phenomenon, and Apple created an illusion of short supply through purchase limits and releasing products in batches.

After that, when Xiaomi launched its first phone in 2011, it combined internet pre-sales with limited-time flash sales, tying hunger marketing to a high “value proposition” and creating a “futures marketing” model—attracting users with a low price first, then producing according to the number of orders.

As more and more success stories emerged, the hunger marketing method gradually spread to the automotive industry, the Chinese liquor industry, and so on. For instance, BMW and Audi applied hunger marketing through limited-edition models or price increases for immediate delivery. Maotai maintained its high price and scarcity by controlling its shipments, and was even suspected of artificially creating “shortages.”

It had to be said that ‘hunger marketing’ was indeed an extremely effective market strategy, especially in the high-end consumer goods sector.

Lin Haoran smiled faintly and explained, “The so-called ‘hunger marketing’ involves artificially controlling the supply to create a sense of scarcity, thereby stimulating the consumer’s desire to buy. We will only release three thousand mobile phones in the first batch, but market demand far exceeds this number.

“This way, not only can we increase the product’s premium pricing power, but we can also make the Motorola mobile phone a symbol of identity and status.”

Robert Galvin nodded thoughtfully. “This is similar to the limited releases in the luxury goods industry?”

Lin Haoran nodded and said with a smile, “Exactly, but our strategy is more aggressive. We don’t just want to limit the quantity; we want the market to ‘fight’ for it. We can adopt several methods:

“One is a reservation lottery system. Simply put, we have potential users register first, and then draw for the right to purchase. This way, those who are not selected will desire it even more, and might even be willing to pay extra to buy from scalpers.”

Robert Galvin’s eyes lit up when he heard this.

He felt he had learned another trick.

“Secondly, there’s the right of first refusal for VIPs. We’ll allocate a portion of the slots to government agencies, top tycoons, and business partners, letting them become the first users and creating a demonstration effect,” Lin Haoran continued.

Robert Galvin was now like a top student filled with a thirst for knowledge, listening intently to Lin Haoran’s words.

“The third is to build hype in the media. We’ll invite the media to cover the entire experience of the first batch of users, creating social buzz and making the mobile phone a standard accessory for ‘successful people.’” Lin Haoran stopped here.

A flash of shock crossed Robert Galvin’s eyes. He felt that this trip to Hong Kong was absolutely the right decision!

Lin Haoran’s forward-thinking business mind was so advanced that it astounded even a tech tycoon like himself.

He couldn’t help but praise, “Mr. Lin, this marketing strategy of yours is simply brilliant!”

Lin Haoran smiled humbly. “You’re too kind, Mr. Galvin.”

His reason for telling Robert Galvin about this method was partly to do him a favor.

After all, they were partners now, with shared interests.

“Mr. Lin, your strategy is indeed brilliant, but as a technology provider, equipment supplier, and even end-product manufacturer, Motorola is more concerned about long-term market expansion. If the initial price is too high, will it affect future popularization?”

Lin Haoran smiled. “Mr. Galvin, consumer psychology is very interesting—the scarcer and more expensive something is, the more it stimulates people’s desire for possession. The high-price strategy at the beginning not only ensures profits but also builds a high-end brand image.

“Once the technology matures and costs come down, we can then launch more affordable models and naturally capture the mid-range market quickly.”

Robert Galvin found himself admiring Lin Haoran more and more.

As the President of the Motorola Company, although he wasn’t personally responsible for marketing, he was well aware of all the methods used by the marketing department.

But what Lin Haoran had described today could be said to have overturned his understanding.

So, this was another way marketing could be done!

At that moment, he finally understood why Lin Haoran had been able to achieve such extraordinary success in his twenties.

Initially, he had thought Lin Haoran’s current wealth was merely a matter of luck, that he was just an upstart.

But now, that thought had completely vanished.

The extraordinary insight Lin Haoran displayed, as well as his creation of a marketing method that was unheard of yet instantly recognizable as effective, all made Robert Galvin see him in a new light.

A person like this had to be brought closer.

Lin Haoran had already achieved such great success; what about his future?

This young man before him was only in his twenties, with limitless possibilities ahead. In the world of business, such a high-potential individual absolutely could not be missed! Robert Galvin thought to himself.

Moreover, he had long heard that Lin Haoran had a close relationship with Mr. Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank.

A man as proud as Mr. Walter Wriston would not easily befriend an ordinary client. Even if the other party were a hundred-millionaire, it might not be enough for him to personally make a gesture of goodwill.

But he knew for a fact that not only was Mr. Walter Wriston extremely courteous to Lin Haoran, but their cooperation was also deep and close.

Back then, one of the reasons Robert Galvin had agreed to meet Lin Haoran at the Los Angeles headquarters was partly because of Citibank’s Chairman, Mr. Walter Wriston, who had personally given him a call.

Looking at it this way, Walter Wriston must have long ago perceived Mr. Lin Haoran’s extraordinary nature!

Chapter 696: An Appearance Before the Whole World

“A board member and partner?” Lin Haoran found it a bit sudden.

He had noticed that large corporations always seemed keen on bringing powerful individuals into their fold as partners.

For instance, after his own rise, HSBC had been eager to have him join their Board of Directors, even offering him a one percent stake in the bank at a low price. Their enthusiasm had been palpable.

It was only after he acquired the Bank of East Asia that HSBC’s attitude towards him changed dramatically, to the point where they even initiated business competition against him.

Later, even Mr. Walter Wriston, the Chairman of Citibank, had invited him to become a board member to deepen the cooperative relationship between them.

Now, to his surprise, Robert Galvin, the president of Motorola Company, was extending a similar invitation.

This was genuinely surprising to Lin Haoran.

Perhaps this is how large corporations like to secure promising business partners? Lin Haoran mused.

Seeing that Lin Haoran didn’t immediately accept, Robert Galvin said, “Could it be that Mr. Lin is not interested in this proposal? As long as you agree, even if you don’t hold any shares in Motorola Company, we will give you one percent of our annual profits as your consultant fee. Furthermore, in terms of international cooperation, we will give priority to our partners.”

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran laughed heartily. “My apologies, Mr. Galvin, you’ve misunderstood. It’s not that I’m uninterested, but the matter was so sudden that I was quite surprised and momentarily lost in thought.

“Actually, to be frank with you, I currently hold 5.23% of Motorola Company’s shares. According to your public shareholder list, I should be your company’s fifth-largest shareholder. So, your invitation is quite a coincidence.”

At these words, the coffee cup in Robert Galvin’s hand nearly slipped from his grasp, his face a mask of disbelief. “What? Mr. Lin, you are already our fifth-largest shareholder? This… this is truly astonishing!”

Ma Shimin, however, wasn’t surprised. He had long known that Lin Haoran had invested in numerous companies in the United States, though he didn’t know the specifics of which ones or the exact number of shares he held.

After all, Universal Investment Company was Lin Haoran’s private investment firm. Ma Shimin was only vaguely aware of its activities and didn’t know the details.

“Mr. Galvin, do you remember the first thing I said to you when we sat down?” Lin Haoran continued with a smile.

Robert Galvin thought for a moment and then recalled. Just after they had sat down, Lin Haoran had congratulated him and said that once mobile communications were officially commercialized in Hong Kong, Motorola’s stock would surely soar.

Could it be?

Before Galvin could speak, Lin Haoran went on with a smile, “That’s right. Ever since we reached a cooperation agreement, and especially after I personally experienced the convenience of mobile phones in Hong Kong, I have become very optimistic about this project. As the world’s first company to commercialize the mobile phone, Motorola Company’s stock is bound to surge. Naturally, I took the opportunity to accumulate some shares while the price was still relatively low.”

With that, Lin Haoran took a light sip of his tea.

In truth, Lin Haoran wasn’t deceiving Robert Galvin.

His Universal Investment Company had been strategically positioning itself in the United States for some time, secretly accumulating shares in publicly listed companies like Coca-Cola, Intel, Citibank, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and even Apple Inc., making him an invisible shareholder in these corporations.

However, Motorola Company was not on that list.

He had always known that Motorola’s stock price would not see significant growth over the next ten or twenty years, and would even decline later on.

Naturally, his money was better spent on companies with greater growth potential and investment value, such as Coca-Cola, Intel, Citibank, Chevron, and ExxonMobil—all of which were promising stocks.

But after finalizing the partnership with Motorola, Lin Haoran changed his mind and had Su Zhixue add Motorola to the acquisition list.

The reason was simple. If Lin Haoran hadn’t interfered with Motorola’s development, their stock price would have soared after they released the world’s first commercial mobile phone in 1983, and they would have quickly captured the global market.

But subsequently, due to strategic errors and internal management issues, Motorola gradually lost its leading edge.

However, that was something that would happen after the 1990s.

During the era of analog phones, the so-called “‘big brother’ mobile phone” period, Motorola maintained its global leadership. But they were slow to transition to digital communications (GSM/CDMA). When the digital communication network emerged in Europe, Motorola was still relying on analog technology, causing its market share to be surpassed by Nokia.

In addition, the failure of the ‘Iridium project’ consumed five billion dollars of capital, further weakening the company’s financial strength.

These were the root causes of Motorola’s downfall.

However, these events were still at least a decade away. For the next ten-plus years, Motorola Company would be the king of the mobile communications sector.

Now, because of Lin Haoran’s appearance, the commercialization of mobile communications had been moved up from 1983 to 1981, a full two years earlier.

For other R&D companies in the same industry, this was a devastating blow. It would be difficult for them to catch up in the short term, which gave Motorola a window of monopoly in the mobile communications field.

As a result, the surge in Motorola’s stock price, originally expected in 1983, would now happen in 1981.

And Lin Haoran, always sensitive to the market, would certainly not let such a golden opportunity slip by.

Thus, after reaching a cooperation agreement with Motorola, he secretly instructed Su Zhixue to have the US-based Universal Investment Company begin acquiring Motorola shares.

Just yesterday, he had called Su Zhixue, who reported that they now held 5.23% of Motorola Company’s stock.

This might not seem like much, but it was actually a substantial amount. After all, Motorola was a corporate giant with a market capitalization of nearly five billion US dollars.

A 5.23% stake meant Lin Haoran had already invested over 250 million US dollars.

Now that Robert Galvin, the president of Motorola, was inviting him to become a board member, he decided to openly reveal his shareholding.

Investing in the stock market was a perfectly normal thing to do.

However, Lin Haoran’s words surprised Robert Galvin. His surprise was not due to the 5.23% stake, but at Lin Haoran’s immense confidence that the stock price would inevitably rise after the commercial launch of mobile phones.

“Mr. Lin, aren’t you worried that the market reaction might not meet expectations after the commercial launch?” Robert Galvin couldn’t help but ask.

A 5.23% stake involved a considerable amount of money.

“Of course not. I am very optimistic about your company’s future. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have personally come to your headquarters to seek a partnership!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

He said as much, but for him, investing in Motorola was more about making a quick profit, unlike his other investments, which were focused on the long term.

After all, in the era he had transmigrated from, Motorola had fallen to the point of being acquired by Lenovo.

Of course, Lenovo had only acquired Motorola’s mobile division, which was the cell phone business.

As for the other important part of Motorola, Motorola Solutions, which included government and enterprise communication equipment, defense, and public safety solutions, its business was too sensitive to be sold and continued to operate independently.

All of this was proof of how惨 Motorola had fared in the 21st century.

It was indeed lamentable that a pioneering company that ushered in the era of mobile communication would ultimately meet the fate of being acquired.

However, these were all events of the future and had little bearing on Lin Haoran’s current investment in Motorola.

It was just stock; he could sell it off and cash out at an opportune moment.

Robert Galvin knew that Lin Haoran was a seasoned investor.

Putting everything else aside, Lin Haoran’s earlier investment in Apple Inc. in the United States—a mere ten million dollars—had grown to a stock value of over two hundred million dollars in less than a year. The Financial Times had named him the 1980 Investor of the Year for it.

The matter had caused quite a stir in the United States.

And that was without the public knowing that Lin Haoran had made over a billion dollars from gold futures with the help of Citibank. Had that been revealed, it would have caused an even bigger sensation.

In comparison, the achievements of Warren Buffett, the stock market guru so admired by Americans, paled in front of Lin Haoran’s results.

Robert Galvin took a deep breath, a calm smile returning to his face. “Mr. Lin, your investment acumen is truly admirable. Thank you for believing in the future of Motorola Company. It is our honor. Since you are already a major shareholder, this invitation to the Board of Directors is all the more perfectly justifiable.”

As a technology giant in the United States, adding a board member to Motorola was a rather complex process, requiring a vote at a board meeting before being publicly announced.

However, for Robert Galvin, these were minor issues.

After all, his voice carried significant weight within the company. Once he made a decision, it would almost certainly pass the board’s vote smoothly.

“Since Mr. Galvin has extended such a warm invitation, I won’t decline. However, you should know that my main business operations are here in Hong Kong. Even when I go to the United States, I won’t be staying for long. Therefore, my role as a director might be more of a nominal position. If you don’t mind that, then I have no problem,” Lin Haoran agreed decisively.

At that moment, an idea struck Lin Haoran.

Previously, he and Ma Shimin had discussed finding a way to oust Motorola from their joint venture once the mobile communications company was stable, allowing Hongkong Telephone Company to have sole ownership.

Now, with Robert Galvin’s invitation to join Motorola’s Board of Directors, he felt this was a golden opportunity.

As a board member and major shareholder of Motorola, it would be perfectly normal for him to want full control over the mobile communications business here in Hong Kong!

Moreover, Motorola’s primary goal was to sell communication equipment, namely the upcoming Motorola DynaTAC 8000X.

After all, selling equipment was obviously a faster way to make money.

When the time came, he could use his position as a director to persuade Motorola to grant the full rights for equipment supply in the Hong Kong market to Motorola, while the communication operation and equipment sales rights would be controlled by Hongkong Telephone Company.

This way, he could both guarantee Motorola’s interests and achieve his goal of controlling the Hong Kong mobile communications market.

After some time, once he acquired the manufacturing technology for mobile devices, he could gradually transfer the equipment supply rights to himself as well, eventually achieving complete control over the entire industry chain.

In any case, as communication equipment technology became more widespread in the future, although Motorola’s mobile phones would remain mainstream for a long time, other manufacturers would gradually rise.

At that point, it wouldn’t be difficult for him to enter the communication equipment manufacturing industry.

For instance, Motorola already had a production line for the DynaTAC 8000X established in Hong Kong. As a partner, his Hongkong Telephone Company could very well use this opportunity to secretly cultivate its own tech talent and master the core technology.

As he thought of this, a glint of shrewdness flashed in Lin Haoran’s eyes.

“Of course, Mr. Lin need not worry about that. At least half of the board members at Motorola hold nominal positions. They often come from major global financial conglomerates. We value your influence in the Asian market, your strategic vision, and your resource integration capabilities more,” Robert Galvin explained.

The two chatted for a while longer about the commercial launch of the mobile phone the next day, after which Robert Galvin suggested he should head back to rest.

After all, he had just arrived from the United States and was weary from the journey; he truly needed some rest.

Thus, Lin Haoran had Li Weidong drive Robert Galvin from Connaught Centre to the nearby Mandarin Oriental in Central.

Only Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin remained in the reception room.

Throughout the meeting between Lin Haoran and Robert Galvin, Ma Shimin had remained silent, mostly listening.

Now that Robert Galvin had left, Ma Shimin finally couldn’t hold back anymore.

“Boss, the ‘hunger marketing’ strategy you proposed is simply brilliant! Why have I never heard you mention it before? This marketing strategy can be applied to many industries and products!” Ma Shimin said, unable to hide his shock.

“Mr. Ma, to be honest with you, I only just thought of it on the spot,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Having lived through the internet explosion of his past life, Lin Haoran’s business acumen was far beyond that of this era.

However, it was like a search engine; no matter how much content it held, if a user didn’t specifically search for a particular topic, the platform wouldn’t display it.

The same was true for Lin Haoran in this instance. It was only because he was discussing marketing strategies for the commercial launch of mobile phones with Robert Galvin that he suddenly remembered the “hunger marketing” model that was so common in later generations.

“On the spot?”

Ma Shimin said in disbelief, “Boss, your ‘on-the-spot’ idea is probably enough to stun marketing experts all over the world!”

Lin Haoran smiled without offering much of an explanation.

He couldn’t very well tell Ma Shimin that this was a tactic that would be used to death by internet companies decades in the future, could he?

“Mr. Ma, tomorrow’s press conference must be foolproof,” Lin Haoran said seriously, his smile fading.

Ma Shimin nodded. “Rest assured, Boss. We have made thorough preparations. The media, the guests, and the live demonstration segment have all been arranged. Also, according to our information, there will be over one hundred foreign media outlets in attendance tomorrow, including mainstream media from Europe and America, Australia, Asia, and even South Africa, all of whom have sent dedicated reporting teams.”

Lin Haoran nodded. The official commercial launch of the mobile phone was a major global event, so it would naturally attract intense worldwide media attention.

The two continued to talk for another twenty minutes until Li Weidong returned.

Lin Haoran glanced at his wristwatch; it was already past six in the evening.

He decided not to stay at Connaught Centre any longer. However, he didn’t head to the Mid-Levels villa, nor did he return to the Severn Road villa. Instead, he had Li Weidong drive towards Guo Xiaohan’s home.

When he first met Guo Xiaohan, she was living with her uncle and aunt at their villa on Barker Road.

However, after Guo Henian and his wife moved to the Deep Water Bay villa, the Barker Road villa was temporarily left for Guo Xiaohan to live in.

Now, Guo Xiaohan’s parents had come to Hong Kong from Southeast Asia, so they were naturally staying with her at the Barker Road villa, which was not far from Lin Haoran’s own place on Severn Road.

He had promised Guo Xiaohan that he would find time to pay a personal visit to her parents. Since he had nothing else planned for the evening, Lin Haoran decided to fulfill that promise.

…

In the blink of an eye, a night had passed.

In the morning, Lin Haoran stretched and glanced at the alarm clock beside him. It was already eight o’clock.

As he sat up in bed, he woke up Rosamund Kwan, who was sleeping soundly beside him.

Last night, he had visited Guo Xiaohan’s parents—his future father-in-law and mother-in-law—at the Barker Road Villa Area. They had talked until well past ten in the evening before Lin Haoran returned to his villa on Old Peak Road.

Guo Xiaohan’s parents were naturally very pleased with him. After all, with Lin Haoran’s current status, it could even be said that they were punching above their weight. They couldn’t have hoped for a better prospective son-in-law.

As for why he came to this Mid-Levels villa on Old Peak Road instead of returning to the Severn Road villa, the reason was simple. Rosamund Kwan had just moved here from Hang Fung Building. Even if Lin Haoran only saw her as his mistress, he would still try to spend more time with her to help her get accustomed to the new environment.

Dressed in a lace slip nightgown, which perfectly complemented her flawless figure and youthful, beautiful face, Rosamund Kwan was breathtakingly beautiful.

She stretched lazily, her silky skin glowing enchantingly in the morning light.

On any other day, Lin Haoran would have definitely initiated a “vigorous morning exercise.”

However, he had important business to attend to today, so he could only temporarily suppress his inner impulse.

“Brother Haoran, are you getting up so early?” Rosamund Kwan rubbed her eyes, her voice sweet and drowsy from just waking up.

Lin Haoran smiled faintly. “I have an important press conference today, so I need to get there early to prepare. You can go back to sleep.”

Despite his words, as Lin Haoran stood before the mirror trying on his clothes, Rosamund Kwan still made a point to climb out of bed and walk over to help him choose a tie.

Her slender, fair fingers flew nimbly as she expertly tied a Windsor knot.

After she was done, she gently straightened the collar of his suit jacket, then looked up, her eyes filled with adoration and love, and praised him sincerely, “Brother Haoran, you look so handsome today!”

Amused by her adorable expression, Lin Haoran reached out and gently pinched her rosy cheek, teasing, “You and that sweet little mouth of yours, as if it’s been smeared with honey.”

After breakfast, Lin Haoran waved goodbye to her and left the Old Peak Road villa, heading straight for the Hongkong Telephone Company headquarters.

The joint venture between Hongkong Telephone Company and Motorola Company had been given a simple and direct name: Hong Kong Mobile Telephone Company.

And today, the launch ceremony for the world’s first commercial mobile communications network would officially begin here.

When Lin Haoran arrived at the scene, the small plaza outside the Hongkong Telephone Company building was already teeming with people.

It was an overcast day in Hong Kong, but the temperature was still around thirty degrees Celsius.

To accommodate the crowd, numerous sunshades had been set up, along with many high-powered fans. Free chilled beverages were also being provided.

He could see that, aside from some curious citizens, there were a great many teams of reporters and media personnel.

The two major local television companies, TVB and Lai Television, were even broadcasting live from the scene.

Almost every major and minor business and general media outlet in Hong Kong was present.

Reporters from world-renowned mainstream media outlets that everyone would recognize could be seen on site, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, CNN, BBC, ABC, NHK, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, the Associated Press, and Time magazine.

This demonstrated the immense global influence of this mobile communications commercialization ceremony.

From primitive letter-sending to the telegraph and telephone, and now to mobile communications, human communication was undergoing a revolutionary transformation.

The moment Lin Haoran stepped out of the car, he was surrounded by flashing cameras.

Under the tight protection of twelve bodyguards, he wore a smile, waving to the throng of reporters while calmly making his way through the bustling crowd.

Today, he was destined to once again make an appearance before the global public.

And history would surely remember this moment—he was present for the world’s first commercialization of mobile communications; moreover, he was one of its key figures.

History would forever record this monumentally significant scene.

Just as Lin Haoran stepped into the Hongkong Telephone Company headquarters, Ma Shimin hurried over to greet him.

“Boss, many of the guests have already arrived. Let me take you to the guest lounge,” Ma Shimin said with a smile.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly. He had thought he was arriving early enough, but he had underestimated everyone’s enthusiasm. They had arrived even earlier than he had.

He subconsciously glanced at his watch. It was just a little past nine o’clock.

The highly anticipated global press conference wasn’t scheduled to officially begin until ten in the morning.

Lin Haoran followed Ma Shimin to the VIP lounge. As soon as he pushed open the door, he saw Robert Galvin engaged in a lively conversation with a dozen foreign men in crisp suits. The atmosphere was warm and congenial.

On the other side of the lounge, many other Western or Chinese guests were gathered in small groups, conversing in low voices.

Chapter 697: Li Jiacheng’s Misunderstanding Grows Deeper

“Mr. Governor, it’s a great honor to have you attend this press conference in person!” Lin Haoran was the first to greet Governor Sir Murray MacLehose.

“Mr. Lin, you deserve the highest credit for helping Hong Kong become the world’s first city to commercialize mobile communications! This is a major event concerning the people’s livelihood. How could I not support it?” Sir Murray MacLehose laughed heartily, his words filled with admiration.

The honor of being the world’s first city to commercialize mobile communications was enough to make Hong Kong shine on the international stage, and Governor MacLehose naturally understood its profound significance.

Hong Kong would surely be recorded in the annals of communications history for today’s milestone.

And as the incumbent Governor of Hong Kong, he would also bask in the reflected glory. This would add a significant and brilliant achievement to his political record.

Although this achievement was the result of a project introduced through a partnership between Lin Haoran and Motorola, it was, after all, accomplished during his term.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries with Sir Murray MacLehose, Lin Haoran turned to greet the other business tycoons one by one.

The event had gathered many heavyweight figures. Besides Governor Sir Murray MacLehose and Motorola President Mr. Robert Galvin, many other magnates from Hong Kong’s political and business circles were present.

For instance, Guo Henian, Kwok Tak-seng, Cheng Yu-tung, Shao Yifu, Schreyer of Swire & Co., John Marden of Wheelock and Company, and diplomats from various countries stationed in Hong Kong, all made an appearance.

In addition, several of Lin Haoran’s top lieutenants, such as Burton, Chen Shoulin, and Cui Zilong, were also present as guests to support their boss.

Many of the Chinese tycoons, upon seeing Lin Haoran, put on faces full of flattery, their postures clearly a gesture of goodwill.

As Film Emperor Huang said, if you become powerful, you will be surrounded by good people, and everyone will smile at you.

The world is just that realistic.

Even the Ship King, Mr. Pao Yue-kong, who had not made a public appearance for a long time, was now present at the event.

This was Pao Yue-kong’s first appearance in the public eye since his surgery.

“Uncle Pao, congratulations on your full recovery!” Lin Haoran firmly shook Pao Yue-kong’s hands and then laughed heartily.

“It’s about time these old bones of mine got out for some fresh air and exercise. Haoran, congratulations to you. This mobile phone will definitely be a huge hit!” Pao Yue-kong responded with an equally hearty laugh.

At this moment, Pao Yue-kong’s complexion was ruddy and glowing. It was clear that after treatment and over a month of rest, his body had recovered quite well.

Pao Yue-kong had actually been using a mobile phone for some time. Not long after Lin Haoran returned from Japan, he had specially gifted him one.

Therefore, Pao Yue-kong could deeply appreciate the convenience brought by the mobile phone.

Even while recuperating in the sanatorium or going for occasional walks and exercise, he could have an assistant carry the mobile phone for him and handle his company’s business remotely anytime, anywhere. He was no longer confined to a room, communicating via a landline as before.

For the helmsman of a commercial empire, this was undoubtedly a revolutionary change.

After a brief chat with Pao Yue-kong, Lin Haoran turned his attention to others.

After all, he was the host of the event today and had to fulfill the hospitality of a host. He couldn’t keep talking to just one person.

Time ticked by, and soon it was nine-forty in the morning.

“Huh? Mr. Brown isn’t here? Or has he not arrived yet?” Lin Haoran scanned the crowd and asked Ma Shimin in a low voice.

He remembered Ma Shimin had shown him the guest invitation list, and Brown’s name was indeed on it.

After all, although Standard Chartered Bank was now inferior to Hang Seng Group, it was still clearly much stronger than it used to be.

He not only failed to see Li Jiacheng, but even Brown from Standard Chartered Bank was not here.

Li Jiacheng’s absence was understandable; his current relationship with Li Jiacheng was mediocre at best, not even qualifying as that of an ordinary friend.

“We sent an invitation to Mr. Brown, but he declined, citing a busy schedule,” Ma Shimin replied in a low voice.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran didn’t seem to care much.

Come if you want, don’t if you don’t.

Although the relationship between his Hang Seng Group and Standard Chartered Bank seemed amicable on the surface, everyone knew that as each other’s sole competitor, the two could never be true partners.

Not to mention, before their previous collaboration had even concluded, the other party had tried to swindle Hang Seng Bank out of five billion Hong Kong dollars!

Their current partnership status had effectively ended with Standard Chartered Bank’s acquisition of HSBC.

It was better to be without such a partner.

A cold smile touched the corner of Lin Haoran’s mouth as his gaze swept over the mingling crowd.

“In addition, Mr. Li Jiacheng and Mr. Lawrence Kadoorie are nowhere to be seen. I estimate they won’t be coming,” Ma Shimin continued in a low voice.

Lin Haoran nodded.

Li Jiacheng’s absence was to be expected.

As for Lawrence Kadoorie not coming, that was a bit surprising.

His Hongkong Electric Group and the Kadoorie family’s CLP Holdings each supplied power to different regions, one in the south and one in the north. Both were monopolistic businesses with no competitive pressure.

Although they had no dealings with each other usually, by rights, Lawrence Kadoorie should have given him this favor.

Unexpectedly, he didn’t show up either.

Could there be some conspiracy behind these few people not showing up together?

Lin Haoran thoughtfully sipped his champagne. His gaze inadvertently swept past the entrance of the guest room, where he saw Mr. David, the general manager of Hongkong Telephone Company, stride in and stand before him and Ma Shimin.

“Mr. David, what is it?” Ma Shimin asked.

“Boss, Director Ma, the press conference venue is all set up, and the media area has been arranged. It’s time for us and the guests to enter,” David said.

“Then have the ushers come in and lead the guests to the conference hall,” Ma Shimin said.

“Yes, Mr. Ma.” After saying that, David went out to arrange for the ushers.

As for Lin Haoran, he was deep in thought.

He called over Cui Zilong, who had just walked past.

“Boss, did you need me for something?” Cui Zilong asked.

Today, security for the event was handled by Universal Security Consulting Company, a subsidiary of Oriental Press Group. As the general manager, Cui Zilong was currently instructing the head of security on their duties.

Lin Haoran lowered his voice and said to Cui Zilong, “General Manager Cui, arrange for someone to find out where Mr. Brown, Mr. Li Jiacheng, and Mr. Lawrence Kadoorie are right now.”

For today’s world-renowned press conference, the company had not invited too many people, only the top tycoons from various industries in Hong Kong.

Under these circumstances, for these three to be absent collectively, Lin Haoran felt they might be plotting something, and he couldn’t afford to be careless.

Although it would be difficult for anyone to compete with his power in Hong Kong’s business world now, the business world is like a battlefield, and you can’t be too careful.

Cui Zilong immediately understood and said in a low voice, “Rest assured, Boss. I’ll send people to investigate right away. As long as they are at their respective companies, I’ll have an answer for you within half an hour.”

After making the arrangements, Lin Haoran paid the matter no more mind and proceeded to the press conference venue with Ma Shimin and the others.

The press conference was not held in the plaza or inside the Hongkong Telephone Company building, but in a large conference hall of over seven thousand square feet in an adjacent hotel. The hotel entrance was about twenty meters to the left after exiting the Hongkong Telephone Company building.

And this hotel was also a chain hotel under the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Soon, all the guests arrived and took their seats in the guest section.

Lin Haoran, Robert Galvin, Ma Shimin, David, and a representative from Motorola Company in Hong Kong sat on the dais.

Below the stage, besides the guest-of-honor seating, there was a media contingent of five to six hundred people further back.

Among them, the overseas media corps accounted for nearly a third.

This was with a certain limit on numbers; otherwise, the press corps could have exceeded a thousand.

The entire conference hall seemed a bit crowded with so many people, but everything was orderly.

Security personnel from Universal Security Consulting Company, dressed in uniform, maintained order throughout the venue.

Below the stage, TVB and Rediffusion Television had already set up their equipment and were broadcasting the dais live.

“Distinguished guests, ladies, and gentlemen,” Lin Haoran began, his voice booming through the sound system across the hall. “Thank you all for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend the launch ceremony for Hong Kong’s commercial mobile communications.”

“Sitting here at this moment, my heart is filled with excitement and pride, because today, we will witness a historic moment together—the official launch of the world’s first commercial mobile communications network right here in Hong Kong, a land of vitality and innovation!”

The hall instantly fell silent, all eyes focused on the stage.

The flashes from the reporters’ cameras went off one after another, capturing this moment in time.

Lin Haoran paused slightly, his gaze slowly sweeping over the audience, and continued, “Here, I want to express my utmost gratitude to the President of Motorola Company, Mr. Robert Galvin.”

“It was he who agreed to partner with Hongkong Telephone Company to jointly build the world’s first mobile communications city in Hong Kong, allowing Hong Kong the honor of becoming a pioneer in this historical process…”

Jade Channel and Home Channel broadcast the press conference live, delivering it to thousands of households.

Hong Kong Radio also conducted a live broadcast, allowing many radio listeners, and even drivers on the road, to listen to the press conference.

In front of television sets, countless Hong Kong citizens paused what they were doing, their eyes glued to the screen, to witness this epoch-making moment together.

Lin Haoran’s voice traveled across Hong Kong via the airwaves: “From today onwards, our citizens will be able to communicate anytime, anywhere via mobile phones, completely breaking free from the constraints of landlines. This is not just a technological innovation; it will completely change the lifestyle and business landscape of the people of Hong Kong!”

“Today, Hong Kong has set a new benchmark for the global communications industry, once again placing Hong Kong at the forefront of the world!”

The audience erupted in thunderous applause.

Meanwhile, a red taxi was driving along Nathan Road.

Lin Haoran’s passionate speech was playing on the radio.

“Tsk, tsk, this mobile phone is really something else,” said Driver Wang as he drove, sighing with admiration. “If this technology could be used in taxis, finding fares would be so much easier. We wouldn’t have to drive all over the place looking for a phone booth anymore.”

The middle-aged passenger in the back seat pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and joined in with a smile, “Isn’t that the truth? I run a small foreign trade business and often need to contact clients. With this mobile phone, doing business will be much more convenient in the future.”

“But the price must be steep, right?” Driver Wang glanced at the passenger in the rearview mirror. “For taxi drivers like us, who knows when we’ll be able to afford one.”

“Who knows? We’ll have to wait for them to announce the price. But I’m already eager to become a mobile phone customer. No matter the cost, I’m all for it,” he said with a laugh.

At this moment, people all over Hong Kong were discussing this revolutionary communication product that was about to change the world, filled with anticipation.

At the press conference, Lin Haoran continued, “Imagine, in the near future, whether it’s a business person on a trip, an ordinary citizen out shopping, or a family on an outing, everyone will be able to stay in close contact anytime, anywhere.”

“The transmission of information will no longer be limited by time and space. This will greatly improve our efficiency in life and enhance emotional connections between people.”

The reporters rapidly jotted down every word Lin Haoran said, afraid of missing any important detail.

“For the business sector, the commercialization of mobile communications will bring unprecedented opportunities. Companies can communicate with customers more promptly, understand market demands, and adjust their business strategies.”

“Remote work will also become more convenient, breaking the limitations of traditional office models and saving companies significant time and costs. The commercial vitality of Hong Kong will be further stimulated by mobile communications, and our economy will welcome new growth points.”

The guests in the audience nodded one after another, their faces showing agreement and anticipation.

These guests were all industry tycoons. They were not short on money, but they made frequent calls and often missed critical ones when they were out, which affected their business success rates.

“Next, I will hand the microphone over to the President of Motorola Company, Mr. Galvin, for him to say a few words,” Lin Haoran said, passing the microphone to Robert Galvin beside him.

At this time, Robert Galvin, sitting next to Lin Haoran, stood up, took the microphone, and said with a smile, “Mr. Lin is absolutely right. Motorola Company has always been committed to promoting the development of mobile communication technology. We are very honored to cooperate with Hongkong Telephone Company to achieve this great pioneering feat together.”

“Hong Kong has an open market environment, an innovative spirit, and excellent talent. These are the important reasons why we chose Hong Kong as the world’s first city for commercializing mobile communications.”

He paused for a moment and continued, “We believe that the successful experience in Hong Kong will provide valuable lessons for other regions around the world. In the future, Motorola Company will continue to increase its R&D investment in the mobile communications sector, constantly improving our technology to provide global users with better and more convenient communication services.”

“At the same time, we look forward to working hand in hand with our partners in Hong Kong to jointly explore a broader market.”

The audience responded with warm applause, showing their appreciation and agreement with Robert Galvin’s speech.

…

While the press conference was underway, in a conference room inside the Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong headquarters, less than a kilometer away, Brown, Li Jiacheng, and Lawrence Kadoorie were seated.

Not only that, even Henry Keswick of Jardine Matheson & Co. was here.

Since Newbiggin stepped down and Jardine Matheson withdrew from Hong Kong, Henry Keswick, the former Taipan of Jardine Matheson, had retaken the position of the new Taipan.

As for his younger brother, Simon Keswick, after all that had happened before, the shareholders felt he was not yet capable of holding such a position and had dispatched him to be the head of the South Africa subsidiary.

Returning to Hong Kong, Henry Keswick’s feelings were extremely complicated.

This was the place where Jardine Matheson had risen to power, but it was also the site of their shame.

The glory they once had in Hong Kong had completely vanished with their withdrawal.

When he received the invitation from Mr. Brown, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong, Henry Keswick accepted without a moment’s hesitation.

Not only that, he personally flew from Britain to Hong Kong, arriving at Kai Tak International Airport this morning.

Brown had also specially invited Li Jiacheng and Lawrence Kadoorie to join him at the airport to welcome Henry, after which they returned to the Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong headquarters to jointly discuss a grand plan to counter Lin Haoran.

This was the reason Brown, Li Jiacheng, and Lawrence Kadoorie were all absent from the press conference.

Normally, even if their relationship was not good, they would have maintained a basic level of courtesy.

But now, to them, Henry Keswick was naturally the most important.

After all, with Jardine Matheson agreeing to join them, it was equivalent to gaining a powerful ally who was also hostile to Lin Haoran.

Among those present, Henry Keswick definitely hated Lin Haoran the most; it could even be said that he hated him to the bone.

After all, Lin Haoran had caused Jardine Matheson to suffer heavy losses and a great decline in strength. As the largest shareholder, the Keswick family naturally suffered the most.

Now, upon his return to Hong Kong, Henry Keswick had only one thought in his mind—revenge.

He would make Lin Haoran pay the price and make Hang Seng Group regret what it had done!

In front of them was a television set, broadcasting the scene from the press conference.

Watching the triumphant Lin Haoran, all four of them had grim expressions.

This was especially true for Li Jiacheng and Henry Keswick.

In the past few days, another piece of news from the Kwai Chung Port had infuriated Li Jiacheng. A long-term international shipping partner of Hutchison Whampoa’s HIT Kwai Chung Terminal 4 had unexpectedly chosen not to renew their contract!

Instead, they turned to cooperate with Hongkong Land Group’s shipping company. In the future, containers shipped from overseas to Hong Kong would no longer use Hutchison Whampoa’s Kwai Chung Terminal 2, but Hongkong Land Group’s terminal.

It should be known that this long-term partner was one of the biggest clients of their shipping company, with their annual cargo volume accounting for at least over twenty percent of the Cheung Kong and Hutchison’s cargo terminal.

And the cargo terminal was definitely one of Hutchison Whampoa’s most important businesses, far more important than retail businesses like ParknShop.

Ever since acquiring Hutchison Whampoa, Li Jiacheng had been frequently making arrangements at the Kwai Chung Port, with the future goal of occupying more than half of its cargo throughput.

But now, his cargo business was being snatched away by Hongkong Land Group’s terminal company, and it was his most important partner at that. How could Li Jiacheng not be furious?

A reduction in their cargo volume meant a sharp drop in terminal revenue, and it also meant that Hutchison Whampoa’s market share at Kwai Chung Port was being further eroded by Hongkong Land Group.

This further convinced Li Jiacheng that Lin Haoran was deliberately targeting him, trying to wipe him out, as retaliation for his previous public support of HSBC!

From retail to hotels, and now to terminal operations, every single one was being pushed to the brink by Hongkong Land Group, with their market share continuously being taken over.

Li Jiacheng’s face was terrifyingly grim.

The misunderstanding grew deeper and deeper.

In reality, Lin Haoran had not paid too much attention to his many businesses. After all, his industrial empire was vast and his affairs were complex.

He didn’t need to be involved in every matter, nor did he want to worry about every little detail. As long as the professional managers of each company could handle things properly, he would give his full support. His main focus was on the monthly financial reports.

The partner who had originally worked with Hutchison Whampoa’s HIT company ultimately decided not to renew their contract with HIT, instead signing a cooperation agreement with Hongkong Land Group’s shipping company.

Behind this, apart from normal business competition, was a more crucial factor: as the business empire under Lin Haoran’s control continued to expand, this partner had developed many necessary business dealings with his other companies.

In order to secure more favorable cooperation terms, they simply handed over a series of businesses—including container loading and unloading, warehousing and yard leasing, as well as port-related services—to Hongkong Land Group’s terminal company to manage. In reality, it was nothing more than a perfectly normal business decision.

After all, who wouldn’t want to secure more benefits for themselves?

Hutchison Whampoa could not meet the other party’s expectations for profit, so it was only natural for them to choose another partner.

But Li Jiacheng obviously wouldn’t see it that way. He would only perceive it as an act of revenge by Lin Haoran.

After all, the performance of too many of his businesses was declining, and the cause was always Hongkong Land Group or other enterprises under Lin Haoran. Their business operations overlapped too much, and the Hong Kong market was only so big. When his market share was seized, it naturally had a severe impact on the performance of the Cheung Kong and Hutchison group.

Therefore, no matter what, Li Jiacheng felt that it was impossible for his relationship with Lin Haoran to ever be reconciled.

Since reconciliation was impossible, so what if he offended him?

Even now, his ambition remained immense. He could not be controlled by Lin Haoran.

This was why he wanted to join forces with other powers to deal with Lin Haoran.

Henry Keswick watched Lin Haoran’s triumphant appearance on TV, and the more he watched, the more annoyed he became.

Once upon a time, when he was in Hong Kong, wasn’t he also in high spirits, with many people fawning over him?

But now? Jardine Matheson had retreated from Hong Kong like a beaten dog, and the influence they had accumulated in Hong Kong for over a century was destroyed in one fell swoop.

And how could Henry Keswick, who had always regarded Jardine Matheson as his Keswick family’s enterprise, swallow this indignity?

Chapter X: Esteemed Readers, A Plea for More Monthly Passes

Chapter 698: The Anti-Lin Alliance

In the meeting room, the four men were silent, their eyes fixed on the screen.

On the screen, David, the general manager of Hongkong Telephone Company, stood at a podium, solemnly announcing information about the first batch of mobile phones, including the limited initial release, the price, and the reservation rules.

“The first batch of mobile phones to be released on the market will be limited to three thousand units. Each device will be priced at fifty thousand Hong Kong dollars, with a one-time network access fee of ten thousand Hong Kong dollars. The basic monthly service fee will be five hundred Hong Kong dollars, and the call rate will be two Hong Kong dollars per minute…”

“Wow, this is easier than robbing a bank!” Brown stared intently at the television screen, which was broadcasting David’s announcement live. Seeing the exorbitant prices, his jealousy was plain to see as he couldn’t help but mutter.

Once this first batch of three thousand mobile phones sold out, it would bring in a direct revenue of one hundred and eighty million Hong Kong dollars.

And that was just the income from selling the devices themselves, not including the stable monthly service fees and call charges.

Keep in mind, this was the revenue from just the first batch of users!

As Li Jiacheng gazed at the image on the television, he remained silent, but he had a vague, unsettling feeling, as if a crucial piece of his life’s puzzle was quietly slipping away.

In fact, Li Jiacheng was indeed missing out on an extremely important part of his life.

If Lin Haoran hadn’t preemptively entered the mobile communications industry and established the Hong Kong Mobile Telephone Company as a joint venture with Motorola, then after Motorola Company released its first commercial mobile phone in 1983, Hutchison Whampoa would have certainly acted swiftly to form a company called Hutchison Telecommunications.

They would have then immediately partnered with Motorola Company to provide mobile communication services to markets like Hong Kong and Australia. This would have been the perfect start for Hutchison Whampoa’s foray into the telecommunications industry.

A few years later, with its mobile communications business flourishing, Hutchison Whampoa would have shrewdly set its sights on the British telecommunications company Rabbit, repackaged its business, launched the Orange brand, and offered GSM mobile phone services.

This Orange company would have then grown and expanded, successfully becoming the third-largest mobile phone operator in Britain.

Fast forward to 1999, facing intense competition from the top two giants in the British telecommunications industry, Hutchison Whampoa would have made a major decision: to sell its entire 49.01% stake in Orange to the German company Mannesmann.

This was a massive deal, encompassing 26.4 billion Hong Kong dollars in cash, three-year floating-rate euro notes equivalent to 21.4 billion Hong Kong dollars, and a 10.2% stake in Mannesmann, for a total transaction value of approximately 168 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Hutchison Whampoa’s annual report for that year showed that this single transaction generated a net profit of 118 billion Hong Kong dollars for the company.

Not only did this deal allow Hutchison Whampoa to make a huge profit, but it also provided strong financial support for Hutchison Telecommunications, helping it expand its 3G business across nine major market regions in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

This was the legendary tale of Li Jiacheng’s business career, famously known as “selling Orange for a hundred billion.”

However, in this life, due to Lin Haoran’s appearance, the landscape of Hong Kong’s telecommunications industry had already changed drastically.

Not only had Hong Kong Telephone Company been acquired by Lin Haoran first, but he had also intercepted the promising mobile communications business ahead of time.

Li Jiacheng’s future “Hutchison Telecommunications Empire” was stillborn before the curtains could even be raised on its construction, leaving him with a faint sense that he had lost something important.

Henry Keswick keenly caught the flicker of abnormality in Li Jiacheng’s expression. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly in a playful smile. “What’s the matter, Mr. Lee? Don’t tell me you’re intimidated by Lin Haoran’s ridiculously high prices?”

Li Jiacheng jolted back to his senses. He shook his head lightly, forcing a smile onto his face as he said, “You’re overthinking it, Mr. Henry. It’s just that I feel this inexplicable sense of frustration, like a juicy piece of meat that was already at my lips, only to watch it fall to the ground and get snatched up by someone else.

“I keep wondering, why wasn’t it our Hutchison Whampoa that partnered with Motorola Company? Now I can only watch helplessly as Lin Haoran makes a fortune on another major project. It’s a real pity, I must say.”

None of the men present thought for a moment that the three thousand mobile phones would fail to sell.

Even though the price was staggeringly high, the four of them had a clear understanding of the wealth of Hong Kong’s tycoons.

Brown, in particular, as the head of Standard Chartered Bank’s Hong Kong market, had access to a massive and detailed amount of customer data after Standard Chartered had successfully acquired HSBC.

In its heyday, HSBC had commanded a staggering sixty percent market share of Hong Kong’s banking sector, practically commanding the winds and clouds and holding absolute power in the city’s financial industry.

Coupled with Standard Chartered Bank’s nearly ten percent market share, it meant Brown could access customer information from seventy percent of the Hong Kong market.

Because of this, Brown knew exactly how many tycoons and wealthy individuals with deep family savings there were in Hong Kong; it was as clear as a mirror.

In his eyes, never mind three thousand units—even if the first batch was five thousand units, they would be snapped up in an instant.

The reason was simple: he knew all too well that the number of rich people in Hong Kong was unimaginably large.

Tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars was a drop in the bucket for many high-income families in Hong Kong; it was hardly a large sum.

For the truly wealthy class, that amount of money was as commonplace as an ordinary person spending a few dollars.

Putting everything else aside, no matter how displeased they were with Lin Haoran, they would still arrange for someone to purchase a mobile phone for their office use.

After all, Hong Kong Mobile Telephone Company had already published numerous articles in major media outlets detailing the results of mobile phone testing.

Just as Lin Haoran had stated: For the business world, the commercialization of mobile communications will bring unprecedented opportunities. Companies can communicate with customers more promptly, understand market demands, and adjust their business strategies.

Remote work will also become more convenient, breaking the limitations of traditional office models and saving businesses significant time and costs. The commercial vitality of Hong Kong will be further stimulated by mobile communications, and our economy will usher in a new point of growth.

Everyone present wholeheartedly agreed with these words.

The advent of the mobile phone was simply too important for people like them.

Therefore, no matter what, even if they were to fall out with Lin Haoran, they would not refuse to use this revolutionary communication technology.

At this moment, Lawrence Kadoorie, the leader of China Light & Power who had been silent all along, spoke up. “Let’s discuss how to respond to the challenge from Lin Haoran’s companies and reclaim our market share. Otherwise, in the long run, our market share will only continue to shrink. I believe everyone here understands the principle of the strong getting stronger!”

Of the four men present, apart from Henry Keswick, the leader of Jardine Matheson & Co., Lawrence Kadoorie was the one least afraid of Lin Haoran.

The reason was, of course, that his China Light & Power was in a monopolistic industry. Although Lin Haoran’s Hongkong Electric Group was also a power supplier, the two could not encroach on each other’s markets. The electricity supply areas had long been clearly demarcated by the Hong Kong government, with each having its own fixed supply range.

In fact, in terms of electricity supply volume, China Light & Power was much stronger than Hongkong Electric Group.

Currently, CLP’s electricity sales accounted for about seventy percent of Hong Kong’s total power consumption. This was due to its population advantage and the concentration of numerous factories on the Kowloon Peninsula, all of which were power-intensive industries.

As for Lin Haoran’s Hongkong Electric Group, its electricity business only occupied about thirty percent of the market.

This was the disadvantage of Hong Kong Island; although it had more elites and wealthy people, its population was much smaller.

It was a good thing that Hongkong Electric Group’s diversified development was very successful, and its market capitalization far exceeded that of China Light & Power.

Otherwise, based on Hongkong Electric Group’s electricity sales business alone, it really couldn’t compare to China Light & Power.

The reason Lin Haoran had chosen to acquire Hongkong Electric Group instead of China Light & Power back then was also very simple.

At the time, Hongkong Electric Group did not have a strong controlling family; the entire group was managed by a professional management team. This allowed Lin Haoran to easily gain a controlling stake in the company.

As for China Light & Power, the Kadoorie family held over forty percent of the shares and had been managing the company for decades, giving them what was practically an absolute controlling stake. There was almost no hope for Lin Haoran to seize control of CLP from the Kadoorie family.

This was why Lin Haoran ultimately chose to acquire Hongkong Electric Group.

In fact, Lin Haoran currently held an 8.23% stake in China Light & Power, which he had purchased during the last market-wide stock price plunge of major Hong Kong companies.

Although CLP’s stock price hadn’t fallen as severely as other companies due to its unique position, it was still affected by HSBC and had dropped by nearly half.

Therefore, Galaxy Securities had accumulated a considerable number of shares at the time.

Now, CLP’s stock price had long since recovered to its peak.

This meant that the Kadoorie family received enormous wealth from China Light & Power every year.

They had a great deal of resources and confidence in this area and hardly needed to care about anyone’s opinion when doing business.

This was also why Lawrence Kadoorie had had very little interaction with Lin Haoran before.

So, when his family’s hotel business experienced a sharp decline in guest traffic, he felt that he had to take action.

And when Li Jiacheng contacted him, it was exactly what he wanted.

For the Kadoorie family, with China Light & Power as a steady treasure trove, they didn’t need to give anyone in the business world any favor, not even the currently ascendant Lin Haoran. If he didn’t want to show respect, he felt no psychological burden whatsoever.

While Lawrence Kadoorie was usually quite low-key in the business world, his strength was in no way inferior to other top conglomerates—though this, of course, did not include Lin Haoran.

China Light & Power provided a stable source of income for his family, allowing Lawrence Kadoorie to focus more of his energy on The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels company.

Lawrence Kadoorie was quite envious of how well Hongkong Electric Group had done with its diversification.

It wasn’t that they hadn’t pursued diversified development; besides their two core industries of electricity and hotels, they had also dabbled in real estate, textiles and carpets, and financial services.

It was just that their other businesses had not grown large.

On the other hand, both China Light & Power and The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels were among the top twenty listed companies in Hong Kong, with CLP, in particular, consistently ranked in the top ten.

Therefore, although they had attempted diversified development, it hadn’t been very successful.

As for the electricity business, it wasn’t something they could expand just because they wanted to; it was constrained by various factors such as population, industry, and area.

That being the case, he could only focus more of his energy on the other company controlled by the Kadoorie family—The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

Therefore, Lawrence Kadoorie’s current goal was to get The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels’ market capitalization into the top ten among Hong Kong’s listed companies.

By doing so, he would essentially control two top-ten publicly listed companies.

This was a critical step for him to further enhance his status in the Hong Kong business community.

Lawrence Kadoorie slowly put down his teacup, his gaze sweeping over the other three men as he said in a deep voice, “Gentlemen, let’s continue our discussion on what to do. Lin Haoran’s business expansion is too fast. If we don’t join forces to stop him, I’m afraid he’ll dominate the business landscape of every industry in Hong Kong in the future, and old-established companies like us will be marginalized.”

Upon hearing this, everyone shifted their attention away from the television.

Brown, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank, directly picked up the remote and turned the TV off.

From their perspective, there was nothing more worth watching.

All they would see was Lin Haoran looking triumphant, which would only make them feel worse.

After all, the stronger the enemy, the more passive their position became.

With a grim face, Brown voiced his agreement with Lawrence Kadoorie. “Gentlemen, we must take action. Lin Haoran is like a greedy shark right now, gradually taking over the entire business empire of Hong Kong. This covers almost every profitable industry. Let’s all share our thoughts on how to deal with this challenge from Lin Haoran.”

Henry Keswick remained unfazed, as their Jardine Matheson & Co. was currently unaffected.

After all, they no longer had any significant industries in Hong Kong, save for a few valuable commercial buildings in Central that they used to collect rent.

However, being unaffected was one thing; he and the entire senior executive team at Jardine Matheson & Co. hated Lin Haoran to the bone.

Therefore, even if there was no conflict of interest, Henry Keswick was happy to see Lin Haoran stumble and was even willing to undertake such a thankless task.

As long as he could see Lin Haoran suffer heavy losses in business, Henry Keswick would be satisfied.

“Gentlemen, the help I can offer you is to join forces with other companies in overseas markets to obstruct the expansion of Lin Haoran’s companies. As for the market here in Hong Kong, as you know, Jardine Matheson & Co. has completely withdrawn, so I’m afraid I can’t be of much help!” Henry Keswick said.

Lawrence Kadoorie pondered for a moment, then suddenly slammed his hand on the table. “Of course! Since Mr. Henry will handle the overseas markets, we will concentrate our firepower here in Hong Kong!”

Li Jiacheng also nodded with a smile. “Naturally. The reason we invited Mr. Henry is to leverage Jardine Matheson & Co.’s international influence to constrain Lin Haoran. As for the local market here in Hong Kong, you can leave it to the three of us.”

Jardine Matheson & Co. held considerable influence in Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, South Africa, and Australia—areas where Li Jiacheng and the Kadoorie family did not.

“We at Standard Chartered Bank can put pressure on Lin Haoran in both Hong Kong and overseas markets. However, our role will primarily be to provide financial assistance to Mr. Lee and Mr. Kadoorie. As for other areas, we may not be able to offer much help,” Brown continued.

Although the market situation between Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC had gradually stabilized, they were in fact still losing ground every day.

Many Hong Kong citizens now placed more trust in Lin Haoran’s Hang Seng Group.

After all, if even HSBC could experience a market crash, they worried that Standard Chartered Bank might also be vulnerable.

On the other hand, Lin Haoran, who owned industrial giants like Hongkong Electric Group, Hongkong Land Group, Kowloon Motor Bus, Hong Kong and China Gas, Hong Kong Telephone, and Wanqing Group, made his Hang Seng Group seem far more trustworthy.

So, Standard Chartered Bank was also very anxious. They didn’t want to see the market share they had worked so hard to capture continuously be siphoned away by Lin Haoran’s Hang Seng Group.

The feeling of watching the market share they had just acquired, still warm in their hands, slip away like that left Brown on pins and needles.

After all, he was the person in charge in Hong Kong. If he couldn’t hold onto the market share, he would naturally bear the greatest responsibility.

Thus, Brown was now in urgent need of a way to make Lin Haoran suffer a business setback to reverse Standard Chartered Bank’s decline.

But Standard Chartered Bank’s business was primarily in the financial industry, and in that sector, they were at a disadvantage.

Therefore, in this alliance against Lin Haoran, Standard Chartered Bank’s role for the time being could only be to provide sufficient financial support to its allies, thereby relieving them of any lingering concerns.

Thus, Henry Keswick and Brown both turned their gazes to Li Jiacheng and Lawrence Kadoorie.

In other words, the main business warfare on the home turf of Hong Kong would primarily be led by Li Jiacheng and Lawrence Kadoorie.

As for Henry Keswick and Brown, their roles were more assistive.

“Mr. Kadoorie, what are your thoughts?” Li Jiacheng asked, looking at Lawrence Kadoorie.

Lawrence Kadoorie fell silent, clearly deep in thought.

The other three men also stopped talking and began to ponder.

Dealing with Lin Haoran was an incredibly difficult task.

After a long while, Lawrence Kadoorie looked up at the three of them.

Instantly, their gazes were all fixed on him.

“Gentlemen, in my opinion, our chances of winning a full-scale business war against Lin Haoran are not high. He now has Hang Seng Group as a solid backer, providing him with a continuous stream of financial support.

“If we resort to conventional business warfare tactics like a price war, we may not be able to win. The likely outcome is that we would suffer crippling losses that we cannot afford, while he could easily withstand them.

“So, I’m thinking, perhaps we can first concentrate our firepower and tackle him in one specific industry, for example, the hotel industry.

“As far as I know, among our four factions, apart from Standard Chartered Bank, the hotel businesses of our Kadoorie family, Mr. Lee’s Hutchison Whampoa, and Jardine Matheson & Co. are all important segments of our respective groups.

“And while Standard Chartered Bank is not directly involved in the day-to-day operations of the hotel industry, I understand that your bank has business dealings with some international hotel chains. This is mainly through providing financing for hotel projects and offering hotel-related benefits to your clients.

“For instance, the international luxury hotel company IFA Hotels, founded in Kuwait, has a close cooperative relationship with your bank. Mr. Brown, am I correct in saying this?” Lawrence Kadoorie said, turning his gaze toward Mr. Brown.

“Mr. Kadoorie is indeed well-informed. That’s right, Standard Chartered Bank does have excellent partnerships with many hotel chains, even here in Hong Kong.

“However, our hotel partners here in Hong Kong are of average strength. Our partners in Australia, the Middle East, and South Africa, on the other hand, are very strong,” Brown said, looking at Lawrence Kadoorie with some surprise.

He hadn’t expected the other man to know even these details.

At this moment, Li Jiacheng also began to consider Lawrence Kadoorie’s idea.

First concentrate their firepower and tackle Lin Haoran in one industry?

This idea might actually work.

His Central Hilton Hotel had always been a luxury brand hotel in the Central district.

Ever since Cheung Kong Holdings acquired Everhigh Company, Li Jiacheng had indirectly controlled the Central Hilton Hotel.

As one of Hong Kong’s more famous luxury hotels, the Central Hilton Hotel had brought considerable profits to Cheung Kong Holdings over the past few years.

And the future famous Cheung Kong Center, the new headquarters of Cheung Kong Holdings, would be built on the current site of the Central Hilton Hotel.

It was precisely because he had tasted success with the Central Hilton Hotel that Li Jiacheng would go on to build several Harbour Plaza hotels in the future, making the hotel industry one of the key businesses under Cheung Kong.

Because the Central Hilton Hotel was a renowned luxury hotel in Central and was located in Hong Kong’s most bustling central business district, its occupancy rate had always been very high, consistently above ninety percent, yielding extremely high profits.

However, over the past three weeks or so, the occupancy rate of the Central Hilton Hotel had dropped drastically. If this continued, forget about making huge profits; he might not even be able to break even.

It was a good thing that he owned the building and the plot of land for the Central Hilton Hotel; otherwise, the operating costs would be even higher.

So, when Li Jiacheng had learned of the sharp drop in the Central Hilton Hotel’s occupancy rate, he had been furious, believing that it was all Lin Haoran targeting him.

Now, Lawrence Kadoorie’s proposal struck a chord with Li Jiacheng.

Chapter 699: A Taste of Their Own Medicine

Admittedly, the hotel industry did not account for a large share of Li Jiacheng’s business empire.

However, it was an industry that Li Jiacheng was very optimistic about, especially the high-end hotel sector.

For now, though, there were not many industries where the few of them could jointly cooperate.

Real estate was a possibility, but even a super-conglomerate like the Hongkong Land Group, with real estate at its core, was now reducing its investments in the property sector under Lin Haoran’s leadership. The same was true for the Hongkong Electric Group and the Wanqing Group.

Therefore, trying to band together to confront Lin Haoran in the real estate sector was meaningless.

As for other industries, such as supermarkets, neither the Kadoorie family nor the other two were involved.

This meant that ParknShop would have to rely on itself to deal with the Wellcome supermarket.

“If we are to concentrate our firepower to compete with them, I do have an idea,” Li Jiacheng said with a smile, having thought it through.

“Oh? Mr. Lee, if you have an idea, please share it.” The three men turned to Li Jiacheng, and Brown spoke up directly.

“Hong Kong’s hotel industry is well-developed with numerous hotel brands, but there aren’t actually that many high-end ones. Besides the Central Hilton under Cheung Kong Holdings, and the Peninsula Hotel, the newly opened Regent Hotel, the Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel, and the Miramar Hotel, which are all under The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels managed by the Kadoorie family, there are only a few hotels under Hongkong Land’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. Add to that the soon-to-open Shangri-La Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui, owned by the Kerry Group. The competition is neither overwhelmingly large nor insignificantly small.

“In the past year, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has added a new Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong, showing great ambition. They now have a total of four hotels in Central, Causeway Bay, and Tsim Sha Tsui—two in Central and one in each of the other districts—and their market share has inexplicably surged recently.

“Luxury hotels have a relatively small target clientele to begin with. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s seizure of the market has certainly squeezed the market space for other high-end hotels. In particular, our Central Hilton under Cheung Kong, a long-established luxury hotel, has recently seen a decline in both occupancy and revenue.

“I wonder how the Peninsula Hotel and The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels under Mr. Kadoorie are faring?” Li Jiacheng said slowly.

When Li Jiacheng mentioned the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Henry Keswick, the leader of Jardine Matheson & Co., unknowingly furrowed his brow, his expression instantly darkening.

Mandarin Oriental, an internationally acclaimed luxury hotel brand, was the culmination of three generations of the Keswick family’s heart and soul. One could say that the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group was Jardine Matheson’s own flesh and blood.

As the Taipan of Jardine Matheson in the 1970s, Henry Keswick had personally managed the acquisition of The Oriental Hotel in Thailand, perfectly merging the two luxury brands to create the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group of today.

In his eyes, this was not just a successful business investment but also a glorious symbol of the Keswick family’s successful management of Jardine Matheson.

However, one false step led to eternal regret.

Because of the cross-shareholding plan concocted by Newbiggin, Lin Haoran was able to secretly accumulate a large number of shares in the Hongkong Land Group, thereby gaining control of the company and ultimately executing a reverse takeover of Jardine Matheson.

Just like that, control of the entire Jardine Matheson system fell into the hands of a young Chinese man.

To regain control of Jardine Matheson, the consortium behind the company, including the Keswick family, had to concede many interests.

For example, they had to give up their shares in the Hongkong Land Group, transfer the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and the Kwai Chung No. 5 International Terminal to the Hongkong Land Group, and so on. The losses were devastating.

Therefore, Henry Keswick hated Lin Haoran with a passion.

Now, hearing Li Jiacheng mention the Mandarin Oriental Hotel again, Henry Keswick couldn’t help but be reminded of that humiliating history.

At this thought, Henry Keswick couldn’t stop himself from slamming a hand on the conference table, his expression turning utterly ferocious.

The air in the conference room instantly froze.

Li Jiacheng, Brown, and Lawrence Kadoorie all looked up at the same time, their gazes fixed on the失态 Henry.

After a brief moment of shock, they quickly understood the reason from Henry’s ashen face and the sensitive words “Mandarin Oriental.” It was the eternal pain of Jardine Matheson.

The three exchanged a look of tacit understanding, their eyes holding a subtle hint of pity.

After all, who among them hadn’t been utterly defeated in the business world?

But a lesson as painful as the Keswick family’s, where they nearly lost their ancestral foundation, was truly lamentable.

After all, when Henry Keswick served as the Chairman of the Board of Jardine Matheson in the early 1970s, it was arguably the company’s peak. At that time, not even HSBC was as powerful as Jardine Matheson.

Later, if it hadn’t been for HSBC’s tactics that caused Jardine Matheson to lose Kowloon Wharf, HSBC might not have been able to ascend to the position of Hong Kong’s business hegemon.

Of course, HSBC held this hegemon status for less than two years before being kicked off its throne by Lin Haoran, and now it had become a subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank.

Whether it was Jardine Matheson or HSBC, their fates had been incredibly tumultuous.

Henry Keswick also realized that he had lost his composure in front of the other three.

He stood up and said, “My apologies. I just recalled something and was momentarily in a foul mood.”

“I understand how you feel, Mr. Henry,” Brown said at the opportune moment.

At this point, Li Jiacheng tapped lightly on the tabletop to draw the attention of the other three, then began to speak. “Gentlemen, since we all intend to start with the hotel industry, why don’t we unite all the luxury hotels in Hong Kong and form a luxury hotel alliance?

“Since Mr. Kadoorie’s Peninsula Hotel has suffered a decline in performance over the past month, just like the Central Hilton, I’m bold enough to guess that other luxury brands in Hong Kong, such as the Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel under Marriott International, the Regent Hong Kong under the New World Group, and Mr. Yang Zhiyun’s Miramar Hotel, may be experiencing the same.

“Although I can’t understand for the moment why the Mandarin Oriental’s performance has surged this past month, since all of Hong Kong’s luxury hotels share a common problem of declining performance, I believe the others, like the Sheraton, Regent, and Miramar, are anxious to solve this problem.

“Therefore, if we propose to join forces with them to form an alliance and jointly counter Mandarin Oriental’s market expansion, they shouldn’t refuse.

“The hotel industry is just the beginning. If we fight this battle well, we can replicate the strategy in other industries.” A glint flashed in Li Jiacheng’s eyes as he spoke slowly, his fingers tapping gently on the conference table.

Henry Keswick had now regained his composure. He narrowed his eyes slightly. “Mr. Lee, you mean we should unite all the high-end hotels in Hong Kong to form an alliance and jointly counter Mandarin Oriental? Then, using the hotel industry as a breakthrough point, once we’ve established a foothold, we can gradually take over Lin Haoran’s other businesses?”

“Precisely. A few days ago, I had someone compile data on Hong Kong’s high-end hotel market. Currently, there are twelve luxury hotels in Hong Kong. Mandarin Oriental has four of them. Mr. Kadoorie and I, between the Peninsula, Hilton, and The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, also have four. The remaining four are operated by brands like Marriott, Regent, and Miramar.

“If we can bring the remaining four into our alliance, our market share in Hong Kong’s high-end hotel market will reach two-thirds, and all our hotels are located in Hong Kong’s most prime locations, such as Central, Tsim Sha Tsui, and Causeway Bay. We can completely form a siege against Mandarin Oriental.”

Lawrence Kadoorie was thoughtful. “But how do we convince these hotels to join? After all, they each have different financial powers behind them.”

The corners of Li Jiacheng’s mouth turned up in a confident smile. “That’s the key. Two words: interests. I don’t mind being frank with you, Mr. Kadoorie. The recent occupancy rate at my Central Hilton Hotel has generally dropped by twenty to thirty percent compared to the previous month.

“I sent people to investigate. The occupancy rates at the four hotels under the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group have soared by over thirty percent in the last month. It’s said that the nightly occupancy at these four hotels is over ninety-seven percent, and the Mandarin Hotel on Queen’s Road Central is even at one hundred percent capacity every day.

“You know, the customer base for high-end hotels is already limited. A sharp rise in Mandarin Oriental’s occupancy means a corresponding drop in ours.”

At this, Lawrence Kadoorie nodded in firm agreement.

Li Jiacheng continued, “Mr. Kadoorie, I’m not sure about the current occupancy rates at your Peninsula Hotel and The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, but I imagine the situation isn’t much different from our Hilton. Things aren’t looking good.

“We are all anxious, and I’m sure the Sheraton, Regent, and Miramar are just as restless. If we can present a viable plan for joint marketing, resource sharing, and customer referral…

“Like establishing a joint membership points system, where points earned at any hotel in the alliance can be freely shared and redeemed, and members can enjoy uniform discounts.

“We could even launch a cross-hotel high-end concierge service, so no matter which alliance hotel a guest stays at, they can enjoy meticulous service that exceeds their expectations, greatly increasing their loyalty to our alliance.

“With this, our occupancy rates will naturally and gradually increase. Why would they have any reason to refuse such a good deal?”

“Gentlemen, I know the reason for the surge in Mandarin Oriental’s occupancy rates,” Lawrence Kadoorie said suddenly.

Instantly, the gazes of the other three men focused on Lawrence Kadoorie, waiting for him to continue.

After all, even Li Jiacheng was unaware of this matter; he had previously even thought it was Lin Haoran’s retaliation against him.

“Our Peninsula Hotel, as Hong Kong’s most iconic luxury hotel, has accumulated a vast customer base over the years, but it has indeed been impacted by Mandarin Oriental recently,” Lawrence Kadoorie said with a grave expression. “Through follow-up interviews with high-end clients we’ve recently lost, we discovered a key issue: most of these clients are senior executives from the global partners of Lin Haoran’s companies.”

He paused for a moment before continuing, “Mandarin Oriental recently launched a ‘Strategic Cooperation Program’ that provides these corporate executives with exclusive discounts and customized services. More importantly, Mandarin Oriental has deeply integrated its hotel accommodation discounts with the business cooperation of its affiliated companies, forming a closed-loop ecosystem.”

Henry Keswick’s brows furrowed. “That’s typical business bundling! Lin Haoran is using group resources to give Mandarin Oriental a blood transfusion.”

Li Jiacheng was pensive. “No wonder their occupancy rates can stay above ninety-seven percent. This method of deeply binding hotel business with the group’s commercial network, coupled with Mandarin Oriental’s existing client base and walk-in guests, is indeed difficult to counter from a purely hotel industry perspective.”

Brown added thoughtfully, “It’s a brilliant move. Lin Haoran’s companies, like Hang Seng Group, Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and Wanqing Group, make up nearly a third of all corporate giants in Hong Kong.

“Therefore, their number of international partners and important clients is vast, with senior executives from overseas markets frequently visiting Hong Kong on business. One can only imagine how many partner companies these enterprises have globally.”

Brown suddenly continued, “These corporate executives, supplier bosses, and so on probably choose Mandarin Oriental not just for the discounts, but more for the business relationship with Lin Haoran’s companies.”

A sharp light glinted in Li Jiacheng’s eyes. “In that case, why don’t we give him a taste of his own medicine? The combined corporate resources of the four of us—no, the three of us—are not necessarily less than Lin Haoran’s.

Jardine Matheson had already withdrawn from the Hong Kong market, so it couldn’t be counted.

Brown immediately understood. “Mr. Lee, you’re suggesting we also establish a similar business alliance?”

“Precisely!” Li Jiacheng said decisively. “We can form a ‘Hong Kong Business Partners Alliance’ and bring in all the partners of our three companies. Any executive from a member company who comes to Hong Kong can enjoy exclusive discounts and services from our hotel alliance.”

Lawrence Kadoorie added, “And our discounts can be even better, say, thirty percent off, paired with a superior service experience.”

Brown mused, “That’s a good idea, but we need a trump card. For instance, providing business matchmaking services for these executives to help them expand their business in Hong Kong.”

Li Jiacheng slammed his hand on the table in approval. “Brilliant! This way, their choice of our hotels is driven not just by accommodation needs, but by business development needs. That is where the real value lies!”

“Besides our Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC, Mr. Lee’s Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, and Mr. Kadoorie’s CLP Holdings, I can make other arrangements.

“With Standard Chartered’s current influence among British-owned companies in Hong Kong, I can certainly act as a go-between to connect you and facilitate the entry of other British-owned companies like Swire & Co., Wheelock and Company, the Cross-Harbour Tunnel Company, Harbour Centre Development, Hobao Group, Pokfulam Development, and Harilela Development into this business alliance.

“These companies possess vast commercial networks and client resources, with countless international partners. Many of their clients choose to stay at Mandarin Oriental or other hotels out of convenience or habit when visiting Hong Kong.

“As long as we attract all these clients, your hotels’ occupancy rates will be guaranteed. In your Chinese culture, this is called ‘giving him a taste of his own medicine.’” Having said this, Brown burst into loud laughter.

Although on the surface Standard Chartered Bank had no direct connection to the hotel businesses of these companies, giants like Cheung Kong Holdings, Hutchison Whampoa, CLP Holdings, and Swire & Co. were all core clients of Standard Chartered.

These companies relied on the financial service systems of Standard Chartered and HSBC for their capital flows, loan services, and investment management.

Brown naturally understood that only by these companies maintaining their market competitiveness could Standard Chartered’s position in Hong Kong’s financial world remain secure.

If Lin Haoran continued to expand and gradually take over the market share of these traditional British-owned companies, it would ultimately threaten the very foundation of Standard Chartered’s business.

The four men looked at each other and smiled. a complete counter-attack plan was taking shape.

“By the way, I’ve learned something else that might also be useful to our plan,” Li Jiacheng said after the laughter died down.

“Oh? Please tell us, Mr. Lee.” The three men immediately turned their attention to Li Jiacheng.

“As far as I know, Mr. Ma Shimin, the President of the Hongkong Land Group, has been secretly meeting with Singapore’s Raffles Hotel Company multiple times over the past two months, preparing to acquire the Raffles brand. I only learned of this by chance through my intelligence sources,” Li Jiacheng said, pausing for a moment.

Lawrence Kadoorie frowned. “Raffles Hotel? That’s one of the top hotel brands in Southeast Asia.”

Li Jiacheng nodded slowly. “That’s right. The history of Raffles Hotel dates back to 1887. It’s hailed as ‘the last bastion of oriental nobility.’ If Mandarin Oriental successfully acquires this brand, their position in Asia’s high-end hotel market will become even more unshakeable.”

Henry Keswick nodded, his face grim. “We absolutely cannot let Lin Haoran succeed! The status of Raffles Hotel in Singapore is like that of Mr. Kadoorie’s Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong.”

Although Jardine Matheson had withdrawn from the Hong Kong market and lost the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, they still had other hotel brands in Southeast Asia.

In fact, after Jardine Matheson withdrew from Hong Kong and lost the Mandarin Oriental, they had coveted Singapore’s Raffles Hotel and had even inquired about a price. However, the other party had no intention of selling, so Jardine Matheson had given up on the acquisition.

Coupled with his hatred for Lin Haoran, his first instinct upon hearing this news was to stop the acquisition.

The reason the Mandarin Oriental Hotel wanted to acquire Singapore’s Raffles Hotel was that Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin had discussed the idea of developing the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group into an international hotel giant as early as last year. This idea became even firmer after Lin Haoran returned from the United States.

So now, Ma Shimin planned to rapidly expand Mandarin Oriental’s global footprint by acquiring internationally renowned hotel brands.

And Raffles Hotel had become Mandarin Oriental’s first target.

Chapter 700: Is Superman Li Forcing Me to Acquire Hutchison Whampoa?

Although the Hongkong Land Group wanted to acquire Raffles Hotel, the negotiations were not going smoothly.

Two months had passed since they first contacted the people in control of Raffles Hotel, and they still hadn’t reached an agreement.

However, the Singapore Raffles Hotel had finally started to relent.

Somehow, word of this matter reached the ears of Li Jiacheng.

The scene returned to the commercial launch event for mobile communications.

After more than an hour, the press conference finally concluded.

Simultaneously, the service centers of the Hongkong Telephone Company all over Hong Kong began offering reservation services.

On the surface, there were three thousand mobile phone slots in the first batch, but in reality, over a thousand had already been pre-allocated.

The remaining two thousand or so slots were to be distributed through a reservation lottery system.

Simply put, potential users would first register for a reservation, and then purchasing qualifications would be drawn from that pool. This way, those who weren’t selected would desire one even more, perhaps even willing to pay extra to buy from a scalper.

The higher the price was driven, the more popular the mobile phones would naturally appear to be.

This would maintain the mobile phone’s buzz even when the number of available units was insufficient.

At this moment, Motorola Company’s President, Mr. Robert Galvin, and Hongkong Land Group’s Ma Shimin were on the dais of the press conference, being interviewed by reporters.

Robert Galvin, in particular, was a true global tech tycoon. The opportunity to interview him in Hong Kong naturally sparked the enthusiasm of many reporters, who bombarded him with questions.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran stepped down from the dais.

He had already seen Cui Zilong signal to him with his eyes that he had something to discuss.

“General Manager Cui, have you investigated the matter I asked you about?” The two entered an empty office and closed the door before Lin Haoran asked.

“Boss, I have. According to our informant at Standard Chartered Bank, around nine this morning, Mr. Li Jiacheng and Mr. Lawrence Kadoorie were both at the Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong headquarters. Mr. Brown was there as well. Not only that, but even Mr. Henry Keswick of Jardine Matheson & Co. also appeared at the Standard Chartered Hong Kong headquarters at the same time,” Cui Zilong quickly reported his findings to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran frowned upon hearing this.

He didn’t need to think twice to know that these people gathering together was definitely not good news for him.

The fact that even Henry Keswick of Jardine Matheson had come to Hong Kong was particularly unexpected.

“It seems they don’t come with good intentions,” Lin Haoran murmured.

“Boss, I’ve already instructed our informant to investigate further. As soon as there’s any news, it will be sent to me immediately,” Cui Zilong continued.

Lin Haoran nodded but didn’t hold out much hope.

If these people were truly discussing how to deal with him, they would surely take measures to maintain secrecy. Leaks would not be easy.

Therefore, obtaining useful information through spies would be quite difficult.

However, he didn’t stop him. What if they did manage to uncover something useful?

“Intensify your efforts. Mobilize all relevant informants in the intelligence team, including high-level spies within these companies. Investigate what these people are up to. Report any clues to me immediately!” Lin Haoran said solemnly.

“Yes, Boss. I know what to do!” Cui Zilong nodded.

Over the past two years, Cui Zilong had secretly cultivated many new spies, some of whom were even senior executives in major corporations. People who had already reached a high level but had limited ability to advance further were particularly easy to buy off and turn into one of their spies.

Lin Haoran never scrimped on funding for intelligence operations.

Besides, it didn’t actually require Lin Haoran’s investment, as the Oriental Press Group was now a very profitable enterprise. Its own profits were more than enough to cover the expenses of the intelligence department.

Moreover, he wasn’t worried about whether Cui Zilong would use his special position to secretly pocket money.

Admittedly, the intelligence department’s expenditures were complex, and it was difficult to determine from financial reports whether funds were being skimmed.

But as long as Cui Zilong’s loyalty level didn’t change, it proved that there were no issues with him.

As for the senior executives in Lin Haoran’s own companies, it wasn’t as if none had been bought off by rival firms.

However, with his “golden finger” for detecting loyalty, Lin Haoran could easily identify any traitors among his mid-to-senior level staff.

Then, these bought-off employees would quickly be dealt with.

Over time, the management of all of Lin Haoran’s companies came to understand that trying to skim profits by taking advantage of their positions would lead to trouble sooner or later.

This, in turn, fostered a unique culture of integrity within his enterprises.

Therefore, it wasn’t so easy for other companies, like those British-owned tycoons, to plant spies in his businesses.

At noon, Lin Haoran had lunch with Ma Shimin, Motorola’s President Robert Galvin, and numerous visiting guests at the hotel’s restaurant.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s major telecommunications service centers were packed with people.

Many wanted to experience the convenience of a mobile phone for themselves.

Although many of them couldn’t afford one and were just there to watch the spectacle, that didn’t stop them from coming to see this epoch-making new product. In the future, they too were potential customers for mobile phones.

After the press conference, according to the reservation rules, customers who registered that day would be notified of the lottery results on the third day.

Those who won the draw could go to a service center to pay the remaining balance and sign up for mobile communications services.

Citizens who didn’t win could apply for a refund of their deposit at any time or choose to participate in the next round of the draw.

For a time, all of Hong Kong was abuzz with discussions about this revolutionary product.

Time quickly flew by to three in the afternoon.

Lin Haoran stood before the floor-to-ceiling window in an office on the 12th floor of the Hongkong Telephone Company building, looking down at the crowd queuing on the street below.

The mobile phone craze was even more intense than he had anticipated. Although he didn’t know how many of these people were willing to pay a deposit for the draw, with a mere three thousand units—no, after accounting for the more than one thousand pre-allocated units, it was actually less than two thousand—if they really wanted to sell them all, they could probably be gone in a day.

However, there was no rush. Wasn’t it simple to create the phenomenon of a blockbuster hit?

He knew Motorola was anxious to boost its stock price, so he naturally wouldn’t sell all these devices so quickly.

He was now a confirmed member of Motorola’s Board of Directors and an important shareholder of the company. Whether for his own benefit or as a favor to Motorola, it was worth doing this.

Maintaining the hype was the only way to ensure continuous exposure.

At this thought, a satisfied smile appeared on his lips.

“Boss, I’ve just received the latest news.” Cui Zilong walked over quickly and said in a low voice, “Our inside source confirms that the reason Li Jiacheng, Brown, Lawrence Kadoorie, Henry Keswick, and the others gathered together—while the specific content of their discussion is unclear—all signs indicate that it is indeed directed at you, Boss.”

“We learned from an informant at Hutchison Whampoa that the performance of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings across various sectors has declined to varying degrees over the past month. This has led Mr. Li Jiacheng to believe that you, Boss, are deliberately targeting him. For this reason, it’s said that Li Jiacheng has smashed things in his office several times. One can imagine how much he must hate you to the bone!”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran raised an eyebrow, a playful look flashing in his eyes. “Interesting. Is Li Jiacheng trying to pull a ‘preemptive strike’ on me?”

He had no intention of targeting Li Jiacheng, yet unexpectedly, the other party was the one to make the first move.

What Li Jiacheng had done last time had indeed angered him, but he had never deliberately gone after him.

But now, the other party’s petty actions against him had truly provoked him.

“Boss, our Hongkong Land Group has been expanding rapidly in various industries lately, thanks to your acquisition and restructuring of Hang Seng Bank. We’ve indeed captured a lot of market share from our competitors. Perhaps that’s why Mr. Li Jiacheng decided to unite with others against us,” Cui Zilong analyzed cautiously.

Lin Haoran sneered and turned toward his desk. “Can’t win in a fair competition, so he resorts to dirty tricks? If they want to play, I’ll play a good game with them. It seems Li Jiacheng is forcing me to acquire Hutchison Whampoa!”

Now that Li Jiacheng had taken the initiative to act against him, if he didn’t retaliate, wouldn’t people think he, Lin Haoran, was a pushover?

Previously, when HSBC had faced a capital chain crisis, the stock prices of many listed companies, especially the tycoons who had financial partnerships with HSBC, had plummeted.

At that time, Lin Haoran had Galaxy Securities aggressively accumulate stocks of these giants.

Although it hadn’t been made public, he had actually become the second-largest shareholder of many of Hong Kong’s listed giants. If this were to get out, it would certainly alarm all the tycoons in Hong Kong.

After all, having someone like Lin Haoran as their company’s second-largest shareholder… if he ever had the notion of seizing the controlling stake, wouldn’t that be dangerous?

Of course, Lin Haoran would not let this information leak.

He knew that secretly accumulating these stocks would not only allow him to make a huge profit when the prices eventually rose but might also serve a special purpose at a critical moment.

And wasn’t that special purpose presenting itself right now?

At this moment, a thought suddenly flashed through Lin Haoran’s mind: to snatch Hutchison Whampoa from Li Jiacheng.

He had always felt that he had transmigrated too late, causing him to miss out on Hutchison Whampoa.

This was indeed something he regretted.

After all, Hutchison Whampoa’s development potential was no less than that of the Hongkong Land Group.

However, out of consideration for their shared status as Chinese businessmen, Lin Haoran had refrained from making a move, even when he had the strength to seize Hutchison Whampoa.

But things were different now. Since Li Jiacheng was actually colluding with those British men to deal with him, he couldn’t be blamed for being ruthless.

“Regarding Hutchison Whampoa, Galaxy Securities currently holds 18.71% of its shares, making it the company’s second-largest shareholder.”

“As for Cheung Kong Holdings, Galaxy Securities currently holds a total of 16.25% of its shares, elevating it to Cheung Kong’s second-largest shareholder.”

This was the state of his holdings in Li Jiacheng’s two listed companies after his aggressive acquisition when their stock prices had plunged.

He wasn’t very interested in Cheung Kong Holdings, so he had little desire to acquire it.

Public information showed that Li Jiacheng personally held 40% of Cheung Kong Holdings’ shares.

And Li Jiacheng actually controlled Hutchison Whampoa through Cheung Kong Holdings, which currently held 40% of Hutchison’s shares.

The shareholding percentages were very high, but it wasn’t impossible to seize control.

This was because the amount of time Li Jiacheng had held a controlling stake in Hutchison Whampoa was still very, very short.

In order to acquire Hutchison Whampoa, Li Jiacheng had nearly exhausted his funds over the past few years and paid a heavy price.

After all, his acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa was described as a ‘snake swallowing an elephant.’

Therefore, Li Jiacheng’s control over Hutchison Whampoa was not yet on solid ground.

And unfortunately for him, the real estate market was no longer as hot as it had been a few years ago. In fact, transaction volumes were declining, which only served to make a bad situation worse for Li Jiacheng.

Although property prices didn’t seem to have dropped much, one could tell from government land auctions and transaction numbers that the Hong Kong real estate industry was already entering a downturn.

The persistently high property prices were only being propped up by developers who were forcibly preventing them from falling.

At this moment, a plan gradually formed in Lin Haoran’s mind.

He would have Galaxy Securities secretly acquire shares of these two companies through the secondary market.

Once discovered, he would openly target Cheung Kong Holdings, creating the false impression to the outside world that “Lin Haoran intends to launch a hostile takeover of Cheung Kong Holdings.”

This move seemed aggressive, but it concealed a deeper meaning.

He recalled the scene when Pao Yue-kong competed with Jardine Matheson for Kowloon Wharf back in the day.

As the two companies vied for the controlling stake, Kowloon Wharf’s stock price soared. At its peak, it even exceeded 100 Hong Kong dollars per share.

This could also provide some inspiration for Lin Haoran.

Cheung Kong Holdings was Li Jiacheng’s foundation. If he adopted an aggressive stance, it would inevitably force Li Jiacheng to focus his main energy and capital on defending Cheung Kong. After all, it was the core of the commercial empire he had built with his own hands; he would never hand it over.

At that point, Lin Haoran would drive up Cheung Kong’s stock price, publicly announce his intention to acquire the company, and openly buy up large quantities of its stock.

Faced with this, Li Jiacheng would be forced to fight back. Although he held 40% of Cheung Kong’s shares, increasing that stake from 40% to 50% would be no small feat.

When targeted by a super-rich individual like Lin Haoran, anything less than a 50% stake was not considered safe.

Therefore, Li Jiacheng would undoubtedly pour all his funds into Cheung Kong.

And although Li Jiacheng had successfully become one of Hong Kong’s top magnates after acquiring Hutchison Whampoa, he was also heavily in debt.

With all his energy focused on Cheung Kong, he would have no time to worry about Hutchison Whampoa.

As a result, his control over Hutchison Whampoa would be imperceptibly weakened.

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran would continue to secretly accumulate Hutchison Whampoa’s shares.

By then, Li Jiacheng might be forced to negotiate with Lin Haoran.

And when Li Jiacheng learned that he not only held a large number of Cheung Kong shares but also a large number of Hutchison Whampoa shares, he would surely realize that he had fallen into a trap from the very beginning.

But by then, it would be too late.

At that point, the leverage at the negotiating table would be entirely in Lin Haoran’s hands.

Either let Lin Haoran acquire both companies.

Or, give up only Hutchison Whampoa.

Li Jiacheng would naturally know how to choose.

At that time, in order to get back his Cheung Kong shares and prevent Lin Haoran from targeting it again in the future, Li Jiacheng would not only have to give up Hutchison Whampoa but might also have to buy back Lin Haoran’s shares at a high price.

This meant Superman Li would not only have to endure the pain of losing Hutchison Whampoa but also pay a hefty price to repurchase those stocks.

It seemed cruel.

But Lin Haoran knew that being merciful to the enemy was being cruel to oneself.

You started it on the first day, so I’ll finish it on the fifteenth!

So, Superman Li had only himself to blame.

Lin Haoran rapped his fingertip heavily on the desk, a cold light flashing in his eyes.

He had coveted a blue-chip company like Hutchison Whampoa before, but he lacked the strength at the time.

Now that Superman Li had angered him, he would naturally retaliate fiercely.

And the best retaliation was to snatch away the Hutchison Whampoa that the other party had fought so hard to obtain!

Only by teaching Superman Li a harsh lesson would he perhaps learn that he, Lin Haoran, was not to be provoked.

If he didn’t act now, while Li’s control over Hutchison Whampoa was still recent and his foundation unstable, it would be as difficult as climbing to heaven to make a move once Li recovered and fully consolidated his control.

Thinking of this, Lin Haoran waved his hand, signaling Cui Zilong to leave. He then made a call, asking Dai Shi, who was also here today, to come over.

“Boss, you want to acquire Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings?” Dai Shi took a deep breath, stunned by his boss’s order.

Lin Haoran had only instructed Dai Shi to arrange for the trading team to continue secretly accumulating shares of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings; he gave no other orders.

As long as his shareholding remained below 35%, he didn’t need to make any public disclosure.

This allowed him to remain hidden in the shadows.

However, Lin Haoran also knew that it would be impossible to keep accumulating stocks secretly forever. Li Jiacheng’s trading team was not to be underestimated; they would surely detect clues and guess that someone was targeting them.

But that was a matter for later.

The priority now was to keep increasing his shareholding to secure a better position for the future.

“Just execute my orders. Don’t overthink anything else, and don’t leak any information,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Yes, Boss. I’ll head back to Galaxy Securities to make the arrangements then,” Dai Shi said solemnly after composing himself.

Lin Haoran nodded, and Dai Shi quickly left the office.

He glanced at the time. It was already past three in the afternoon, so it was definitely too late to start accumulating stocks today.

It didn’t matter to him. After all, wresting Hutchison Whampoa from Li Jiacheng was not something that could be accomplished in a short time.

With Dai Shi heading back now, he would have time to organize a team.

Lin Haoran had always had extreme trust in Galaxy Securities’ trading team.

This was because any employees whose loyalty was questionable had long been thoroughly purged.

With his golden finger that could detect loyalty, no dissent could ever hide from him.

…

Chapter 701: Soros Wants to Short Motorola

As night fell over Hong Kong, dawn was just breaking on the other side of the world in New York.

On Seventh Avenue, the golden rays of the morning sun cascaded over a skyscraper of more than forty stories, illuminating a medium-sized conference room on the 38th floor.

Inside, a middle-aged man of about fifty was holding an important meeting with several of the company’s core executives.

This was the headquarters of the Quantum Fund, and the man chairing the meeting was the financial giant who would become world-famous in later years—George Soros.

However, unlike the Soros of future renown, the Soros of today was just beginning to make his mark in the financial world. He was well-known within the industry but had not yet earned the title of financial giant.

The Quantum Fund was founded in 1973, though it was originally called Soros Fund Management. It wasn’t until 1979, just two years prior, that Soros renamed the company Quantum Fund.

In the eight years since its inception, the Quantum Fund had seen a staggering growth of 3,365 percent, while the S&P Composite Index had only grown by 47 percent over the same period. This had gradually raised his profile within the industry.

At this moment, Soros sat at the head of the table, holding a report.

In front of each of the senior executives seated around the oval conference table was an identical copy.

If Lin Haoran had been present, he would have been astonished by the report’s contents.

It was news from distant Hong Kong in Asia: an announcement that Motorola Company, in a joint venture with a local Hong Kong enterprise, was officially launching the commercialization of mobile communications.

“The initial batch of mobile phones released to the market is three thousand units, with each device priced at fifty thousand Hong Kong dollars. A network access fee of ten thousand Hong Kong dollars is required, with a basic monthly service fee of 500 Hong Kong dollars and a per-minute call charge of 2 Hong Kong dollars…”

It was this news that had prompted him to call this emergency meeting with his core senior management.

The shrewd Soros never let a single opportunity to make money slip by.

Putting down the report, Soros looked at the Quantum Fund executives present and said, “Gentlemen, what are your thoughts? Will Motorola’s high pricing strategy for its mobile phones ultimately succeed?”

As soon as Soros posed the question, the room was immediately split into two camps.

The chief analyst was the first to speak. “George, I believe this pricing strategy will be successful. Hong Kong is one of the world’s financial centers, with a high concentration of high-net-worth individuals. A price of fifty thousand Hong Kong dollars is not unaffordable for them. Moreover, the mobile phone represents the future. It’s not just a communication tool, but a status symbol. I expect the first batch of three thousand units will sell out very quickly.”

The investment manager nodded in agreement. “That’s right. Motorola has an extremely high technological barrier to entry, so no competitors will be able to offer an equivalent product in the short term. Even if the price is steep, corporate executives, the wealthy, and political figures will still pay for it because what they need is efficiency and exclusivity.”

The risk management supervisor, however, held a dissenting opinion. “I disagree. Fifty thousand Hong Kong dollars is nearly ten thousand US dollars. This price is far beyond the means of the average person. Even if the first batch sells out, the subsequent market may quickly become saturated. Furthermore, the high network access and call fees will deter users. In addition to the ten thousand Hong Kong dollar access fee, there’s a charge of 2 Hong Kong dollars per minute. The long-term cost of use is too high, which severely limits the size of the customer base.”

Another fund manager, Richard, added, “Technology is iterating too quickly. Motorola may have a monopoly on the market now, but once the technology is released, similar alternatives will soon appear. The moment manufacturers in Japan or Europe launch cheaper alternatives, the high-price strategy will collapse.”

As Soros listened to his subordinates split into two factions and argue, a smile appeared on his face.

An opportunity to kill two birds with one stone had just occurred to him.

The corners of Soros’s mouth curved upward slightly, his fingers tapping a rhythmic beat on the tabletop.

As the debate in the conference room gradually died down, all eyes turned to him.

With a calm expression, he slowly began, “Ladies and gentlemen, the points you’ve all argued have merit, but you are each focusing on a single dimension.”

With that, he rose and walked to the window, looking down at New York’s brilliant skyline. He continued, “The fascinating thing about the market is that the truth is often far less important than perception.”

Hearing this, everyone held their breath and listened intently.

For those present, this was undoubtedly a rare learning opportunity.

Over the years, Soros’s unique vision had led the Quantum Fund to victory in one financial battle after another, earning him the heartfelt admiration of everyone in the room.

He turned back to face his team, a shrewd glint in his eyes. “Since you can be divided into two camps with differing views, it means the market will certainly have divergent opinions on this technology as well. We should exploit this cognitive dissonance. Over in Hong Kong, they’re using a reservation and lottery system for the first batch of mobile phones, and the results won’t be out until the third day. In this three-day window, I don’t see an either/or proposition, but a perfect opportunity for two-way arbitrage.”

The chief trading officer immediately understood. “You mean we can short first, then go long?”

“Precisely.” Soros walked back to the conference table and picked up the report. “Motorola Company has been building up to this launch for some time, and it’s caused quite a stir even here in the United States. Yet, Motorola’s stock price hasn’t seen a major surge or a sharp decline. The main reason is that the market is currently divided on the prospects of the mobile phone. This is our opportunity. Step one: today, we will make a major move to sell off Motorola stock and, at the same time, use the media to amplify the bearish factors, emphasizing the excessively high price and the risk of market saturation.”

The risk management supervisor frowned. “But what if the product’s actual sales are good?”

“Then we move to step two,” Soros interrupted. “When we’ve driven the stock price down to a low point, we’ll quietly accumulate shares. Once the pre-sale data confirms the product’s success, the stock price is bound to rebound with a vengeance, and we will complete our perfect harvest.”

Silence fell over the conference room, everyone stunned by the audacity of the plan.

Investment manager Sarah quickly did the math. “Based on Motorola’s current market capitalization of 4.83 billion US dollars, if we can create a fluctuation of 10 or even 20 percent…”

“That’s a profit margin of at least fifty million US dollars,” Soros finished, his eyes shining with the light of certain victory. “And that’s a conservative estimate. More importantly, we can use this to test the market’s reaction to emerging technologies, accumulating experience for future plays.”

At Soros’s words, the eyes of everyone present lit up.

They had followed Soros into countless financial battles and had won far more than they had lost.

Therefore, everyone in the room had immense faith in Soros.

Since Soros was so confident, then this plan was definitely feasible.

Soros surveyed the room, and seeing no objections, he began assigning tasks directly. “Act immediately. We don’t have much time. Factoring in the time difference between Hong Kong and New York, we only have three days to work with. David, contact the brokerage firms to borrow shares. Mark, get in touch with reporters from The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times. Also, have someone spread news about the poor outlook for Motorola’s mobile phones on the floors of the major stock exchanges. James, prepare a hedging plan. Remember, the goal of the first stage is to create a market atmosphere where ‘everyone is bearish’.”

This was a tactic they were all very familiar with.

As the senior executives hurried off to execute the plan, Soros stood alone before the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the ships coming and going on the distant Hudson River.

He murmured to himself, “I’ve heard that Motorola Company’s partner from Hong Kong, Lin Haoran, not only made a fortune investing in Apple Inc. but had also previously predicted the surge in gold prices, using high leverage on gold futures through Citibank to make a huge sum of money. Even Warren Buffett and I are a far cry from an investor like that. With his investment insight, he must have seen the immense potential of the mobile phone to have partnered with Motorola.”

Soros’s gaze deepened, his fingers tapping lightly on the window frame.

“If Lin Haoran can truly predict market trends with such accuracy, then… Motorola’s mobile phone project might be even more successful than we imagine.”

Last year, when Apple Inc. went public, Lin Haoran, as an investor, had turned a ten-million-dollar investment into a 21-fold return. His fame had skyrocketed, making him a legendary figure in the American investment community. Although Lin Haoran was not an American, it didn’t diminish his reputation in the US financial investment circles.

And while Lin Haoran’s play on gold futures in early 1980 was not widely publicized, Soros, as an industry insider, was aware of it. He just didn’t know exactly how much money Lin Haoran had made.

However, it was said that even the legendary Chairman of Citibank, Mr. Walter Wriston, was exceedingly polite to Lin Haoran and had even invited him to be a board member of Citibank.

Combined with Lin Haoran’s multiple corporate acquisitions in Hong Kong, all funded from mysterious sources, these facts led Soros to speculate that Lin Haoran must have earned an astonishing profit during the gold boom.

Furthermore, after learning about these matters, Soros had specifically tasked someone with investigating Lin Haoran’s rise in the business world.

The findings were shocking.

From orchestrating the Kowloon Wharf affair and using Hongkong Land Group for a reverse takeover of Jardine Matheson & Co., to getting ahead of the curve in Japan with Toyota Motor and making over two hundred billion Japanese yen, and then shorting HSBC to make billions of Hong Kong dollars.

One after another, these incredible business maneuvers filled Soros with admiration for the young tycoon from the East. There were no words to describe his feelings but respect.

Thus, Lin Haoran had no idea that George Soros, the ruthless financial giant who would become infamous in the future, now regarded him as a beacon in his own career and was closely following his every move.

It was precisely because Lin Haoran had chosen to partner with Motorola Company in the mobile communications sector that Soros believed mobile communications was bound to be a lucrative field. Otherwise, Lin Haoran would never have invested!

Soon, Soros’s orders were being carried out methodically.

When the opening bell rang at the New York Stock Exchange, a large crowd had already gathered.

However, a rumor was currently circulating in the market: Motorola Company’s mobile phones had gone on sale in Hong Kong at a price far higher than expected, and the market response was lukewarm.

The news spread like wildfire, quickly inciting panic among investors.

Less than an hour after the market opened, Motorola’s stock price began to show abnormal fluctuations.

A massive number of sell orders suddenly appeared, and the stock price began to plummet.

On the trading floor, brokers with tense expressions rushed back and forth, phones ringing incessantly.

“This isn’t right,” a veteran trader muttered, frowning at the electronic screen. “Motorola’s fundamentals have always been solid. Why is there suddenly so much selling pressure?”

Meanwhile, in the Quantum Fund’s trading room, Soros was closely monitoring the stock’s performance. He glanced at his watch, a slight smile on his lips. “Excellent. This is going even more smoothly than expected.”

“George, we’ve completed the first phase of our short positions,” the chief trading officer reported. “The stock is already down 10 percent.”

“Keep up the pressure,” Soros instructed calmly. “Contact our reporter at The Wall Street Journal and have them publish an analytical piece about the gloomy prospects for the mobile phone market.”

Today was not the most opportune moment to buy. Soros knew that tomorrow was. Because tomorrow, all the major newspapers would inevitably report on Motorola’s press conference, and market sentiment would be further amplified.

He needed to wait for the perfect moment, to quietly enter the market when the panic reached its peak.

…

In Hong Kong, at the Severn Road villa, Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan had just finished a lovely bath together.

Emerging from the bathroom, Guo Xiaohan’s face was flushed, a clear sign that Lin Haoran had “adored” her thoroughly while they were inside.

Wrapped in a bathrobe, she lounged lazily on the sofa, her eyes full of tenderness as she watched Lin Haoran towel-dry his hair.

Ever since she had experienced the intimacy between a man and a woman with Lin Haoran, Guo Xiaohan had become completely and utterly addicted to this sweetness.

Just the other day, her mother had called her home to spend some time, but after only two days, she couldn’t resist coming back to the Severn Road villa.

At this moment, her fair skin still had a faint pinkish glow, her long legs were crossed, and the curves faintly visible beneath her bathrobe exuded an alluring charm.

“Brother Haoran,” Guo Xiaohan called out softly, her voice tinged with a hint of coquettishness.

Lin Haoran casually draped the towel over the back of a chair and sat down beside her. He gently brushed his fingers through her damp hair and said with a wicked smile, “What? Still didn’t get enough in the bathroom?”

Guo Xiaohan playfully slapped his arm, though her face was beaming with happiness. “Stop it. I just wanted to spend more time with you.”

Just as the two were wrapped in their affectionate moment, the phone on the sofa’s side table suddenly rang.

The caller was Su Zhixue, all the way from New York in the United States.

“Boss!” Su Zhixue’s voice on the other end was unusually frantic. “After the official launch of Motorola’s new mobile phone, the stock price didn’t surge as you predicted. Instead, it plummeted 10 percent at the opening! Right now, a lot of negative news is suddenly appearing in the market, saying the pricing of Motorola’s new mobile phone is too high, the market response is cold, and that it’s bound to fail!”

Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback by Su Zhixue’s report.

In his previous life, Motorola Company’s stock price had soared after they released their first commercial mobile phone.

Could his intervention have changed its trajectory?

Though it was launched two years early, that shouldn’t have been the case.

He gently patted Guo Xiaohan’s hand, signaling her to wait a moment, then walked into the study and asked in a steady voice, “How much did it drop exactly? What’s the market’s reaction?”

“It dived 10 percent right at the opening, and it’s still falling!” Su Zhixue’s tone was urgent. “There are a lot of rumors circulating, questioning the mobile phone’s market prospects. They’re saying the high price dooms it to be nothing more than a toy for the rich and won’t generate much profit for Motorola Company.”

A cold smile tugged at the corner of Lin Haoran’s lips. “Interesting. It seems someone is playing a hedging game.”

He walked to the study window and gazed out at the night view of Victoria Harbour, his mind rapidly analyzing the situation.

Soon, he had a rough idea of what was happening.

The price was indeed high, but if the Hong Kong mobile communications company were to announce the reservation numbers, those questioning the mobile phone’s market prospects would naturally be silenced. When that happened, Motorola’s stock price would undoubtedly surge!

“Boss, should we sell our Motorola shares immediately?” Su Zhixue asked for instructions.

Universal Investment Company currently held 5.23% of Motorola’s stock, which it had accumulated after Lin Haoran partnered with Motorola. The reason, naturally, was Lin Haoran’s belief that Motorola’s stock price would soar after the mobile phone’s launch.

After all, he had read articles about it in his past life.

“No, quite the opposite.” A sharp glint flashed in Lin Haoran’s eyes. “Mobilize funds immediately. Start secretly building a position today and continue to increase our shareholding. Don’t accumulate too quickly today, but accelerate tomorrow.”

“But… the stock is still falling…”

“That’s exactly what we’re waiting for—for it to bottom out,” Lin Haoran said, confident of success. “This is clearly an institution shorting the stock. First, they create panic to drive down the price, and then they’ll buy at the bottom when it’s low. Zhixue, arrange for the traders to closely monitor market fluctuations and buy on the dips. Try not to stir the market.”

“Yes, Boss, I know what to do!” Su Zhixue replied immediately upon hearing the instructions.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran sat in his study, lost in thought.

The capital markets in the United States were far more complex than those in Hong Kong.

However, he was very confident.

After all, if a great innovation like the mobile phone couldn’t drive Motorola’s stock up, what else could fuel the rise of tech stocks?

Most importantly, as the boss of Hongkong Telephone Company, he already knew the reservation numbers from the various business halls for that day.

For the first round of reservations, the total number from over twenty Hong Kong Telephone business halls in Hong Kong had actually exceeded five thousand people!

It was worth noting that these applicants were required to pay a deposit of ten thousand Hong Kong dollars.

This meant that selling out the first batch of three thousand mobile phones would take less than a day.

He had simply introduced a lottery system.

And their plan was to draw only one hundred winners in each lottery round from now on.

That would ensure sustained interest.

In any case, after these three thousand units were sold, it would be more than half a year before the second batch arrived.

Expanding the base stations and upgrading the technology all required time.

Until then, Hong Kong’s mobile network couldn’t handle too many users.

Therefore, an initial batch of three thousand was already quite a lot.

This meant the odds of winning would be less than one in fifty!

When that time came, scalpers would inevitably drive up the price of the mobile phones. It would be hard for it not to become a sensation.

Therefore, Lin Haoran wasn’t worried at all that Motorola’s stock price would remain depressed.

What interested him was who exactly was orchestrating this play against Motorola.

However, the US capital market was too vast, and the number of financial big shots was immense. He really couldn’t guess whose handiwork this was.

Suddenly, an idea occurred to Lin Haoran.

Perhaps he could lend a helping hand to the big shot pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

“According to the reservation rules, customers who enter the lottery on a given day will learn the results on the third day. What if I delay the announcement of the first lottery’s results by a day or two? I can just find a suitable excuse later. A delay of a day or two won’t cause any major issues. And with that extra day or two, I’ll have enough time to make those Americans mistakenly believe that the reason for the delayed data is a low number of reservations. This way, shareholders’ confidence in Motorola will plummet even further, causing the company’s stock price to continue to fall. Universal Investment Company will also have more time to position itself and carve out a larger share of the profits!” As Lin Haoran thought of this, his eyes grew brighter.

He didn’t know who was behind the scheme against Motorola, but that didn’t stop him from seizing the opportunity to make a huge profit.

In any case, the losses would be borne by American shareholders. It would be foolish not to take this money!

If Lin Haoran knew that this was the masterpiece of the famous financial magnate from his previous life, George Soros, he would surely be astonished.

After some careful thought, Lin Haoran felt more and more that this plan was feasible.

As for how to explain it to Motorola Company’s President Robert Galvin, that was even simpler.

He could just say that due to the overwhelming number of reservations, more time was needed to tabulate the lottery results.

The reason was plausible and reasonable, and Robert Galvin would definitely not be suspicious.

Moreover, Robert Galvin’s flight back to the United States was scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

With layovers, by the time he got back to the US and learned of the matter, it would already be the day after tomorrow.

Since such a good opportunity to make money from the Americans had presented itself, Lin Haoran would naturally not let it pass.

In any case, he wasn’t the one who had started the situation in the US. Even if they investigated, it wouldn’t lead back to him.

With this in mind, Lin Haoran wasted no time and called David directly.

The entire lottery process was being handled by David, the general manager of Hongkong Telephone Company. Therefore, to delay the results, all he needed to do was call David.

As for Ma Shimin, David would explain that the order had come from Lin Haoran.

Ever since his senior executives had been equipped with mobile phones, contacting his key subordinates had become incredibly convenient for Lin Haoran. He no longer had to worry about whether they were at the office or at home.

Sure enough, not long after he dialed, David answered the phone.

“Mr. David, the plan was to announce the lottery results on the third day. Postpone it to the fifth day. As for the reason, you can come up with one yourself!” Lin Haoran ordered directly.

David was still at the office when he received the call on the other end.

Although he didn’t understand the boss’s intention, he quickly replied, “Yes, Boss. I’ll handle this matter properly!”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran’s mood became even more cheerful and relaxed.

Returning to the living room, he saw that Guo Xiaohan had just finished blow-drying her hair. He walked straight up to her and effortlessly scooped her up into his arms.

Guo Xiaohan couldn’t help but cry out in surprise as Lin Haoran walked with quick strides towards the bedroom, intending to celebrate a little early.

Chapter 702: Targeting The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Soros’s Excitement!

The official commercial launch of mobile communications in Hong Kong, making it the first city in the world to do so, certainly captured global attention.

The city of Hong Kong, along with Lin Haoran, made a huge splash in front of the world’s media.

Developed countries in Europe, America, and Japan were abuzz with discussion, and major mainstream media outlets featured the story in their most prominent sections, making it the undisputed top headline.

This was truly an epoch-making invention, signaling that human communication technology had entered a brand new era.

As one of the protagonists of the press conference, Lin Haoran naturally became a focal point of media coverage worldwide.

This Eastern tycoon, only in his twenties, had already made a name for himself in the American investment world with his sharp business acumen and forward-thinking investment vision.

Now, his successful collaboration with Motorola Company to commercialize mobile communication technology caused his international reputation to skyrocket.

Lin Haoran woke up early as usual.

After having breakfast with Guo Xiaohan, he began to read the newspaper.

Lin Haoran casually picked up a copy of The Asian Wall Street Journal and, sure enough, saw that the front-page headline was about the official commercial launch of the Motorola mobile phone in Hong Kong.

The article specifically mentioned how Lin Haoran had personally traveled to Motorola Company’s headquarters in Chicago to ultimately persuade them to partner with him in Hong Kong, as well as his past glorious achievements in the investment field.

This information must have been obtained when reporters interviewed Motorola’s senior executives, as Lin Haoran had never publicly disclosed these matters.

The Oriental Daily News also published a notice, which Lin Haoran had arranged through David, announcing an extension of the lottery period. The draw, originally scheduled for the third day, was now postponed to the fifth day.

The reason given by the Hong Kong Mobile Communications Company was simple enough: due to the lottery process being more complex than anticipated, the first draw had to be extended by two days to prevent errors. Future draws would revert to the three-day cycle.

It was a good reason, and Lin Haoran was quite satisfied.

At least it didn’t say that there were too many applicants.

An extra day or two, barring any surprises, shouldn’t cause any major issues.

Just as Lin Haoran was engrossed in the newspaper, the phone rang.

It was Su Zhixue. At this time, it was just past eight in the evening in New York, so he was clearly aware that his boss should be awake by now.

While a whole night had passed in Hong Kong, an entire day had just gone by in the United States.

“Boss, there’s a situation I need to report. After Motorola’s stock price plummeted at the New York market open this morning, it has continued to fall throughout the day despite some attempts to rally. Cumulatively, it has dropped by over 18%.”

Lin Haoran’s brow twitched slightly. “It seems the people shorting it are doubling down.”

“Yes, and according to our sources, several major Wall Street investment banks are downgrading Motorola’s rating, citing a cautious outlook on the market prospects for mobile phones,” Ma Shimin reported.

A knowing smile touched Lin Haoran’s lips. “Good, let them keep badmouthing it. By the way, how many shares did you accumulate today?”

“We’ve accumulated approximately 1.32% of Motorola’s issued shares, and the cost is not far from today’s lowest trading price,” Su Zhixue reported.

“Excellent. It’s almost certain that Motorola’s stock will continue to fall tomorrow. Seize the opportunity and continue to increase our shareholding!” Lin Haoran nodded with a smile.

The reason he didn’t have Su Zhixue wait for the absolute bottom to start buying was simple: it would be impossible to accumulate a significant amount that way, and it was hard to predict the exact lowest point. Buying now was already cheaper than before, so the more, the better.

To him, any shares bought now, regardless of the price, would be profitable in the future.

Even if he knew the lowest price, the stock wouldn’t stay there for long.

The lower the price dropped now, the higher it would soar when the good news reached the United States.

It was like a bow and arrow—the further back you pulled the string, the farther the arrow would fly!

“Understood, Boss,” Su Zhixue replied, nodding.

“Be careful. Although we still don’t know which capital forces are orchestrating this short-selling of Motorola, you must avoid tipping them off and making them suspicious. It should be getting late over there. Get some rest,” Lin Haoran said with a chuckle.

Having orchestrated numerous stock market strategies, Lin Haoran knew that to secure a big win in the financial markets, one needed sufficient patience and couldn’t be greedy for short-term gains.

“Goodbye, Boss.”

After hanging up, Lin Haoran sat on the sofa, lost in thought. He was quite curious about the capital behind this, wondering which entity was setting up the play.

What would they think, he wondered, if they found out he was secretly buying at the bottom while they were shorting the stock, carving up their potential profits?

Not long after he hung up, the phone rang again.

This time, it was Cui Zilong.

Cui Zilong was reporting on Li Jiacheng and the others.

Since Cui Zilong’s investigation the day before had uncovered that Li Jiacheng, Brown, Lawrence Kadoorie, Henry Keswick, and others were secretly plotting something against him, Lin Haoran had instructed him to intensify the surveillance.

According to Cui Zilong’s findings, these individuals had later split up to personally visit The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, the Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel, the Miramar Hotel, and The Regent Hotel, among others, for unknown reasons.

“This is getting interesting,” Lin Haoran murmured to himself after ending the call.

Without dwelling on it further, Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan left the Severn Road villa. His Rolls-Royce headed directly for the Connaught Centre.

Inside the Connaught Centre, in the President’s office of the Hongkong Land Group.

Lin Haoran relayed Cui Zilong’s report to Ma Shimin in full detail.

Ma Shimin listened thoughtfully.

Then, he slowly said, “Boss, recently our Mandarin Oriental Hotel launched a ‘Strategic Partner Program,’ specifically offering exclusive discounts and customized services to senior executives of companies that partner with your various enterprises.

For instance, high-level executives from these overseas partner companies often travel to Hong Kong on business. In the past, they would choose their own hotels, but now they all stay at the Mandarin Oriental. More importantly, we’ve deeply integrated the hotel accommodation benefits with the business cooperation of your other companies, creating a closed-loop ecosystem.

Because of this, the Mandarin Oriental’s occupancy rate has soared over the past month, and profits have naturally surged. Perhaps what they’re up to this time is related to this.”

“Oh? Is that so?” Lin Haoran was slightly surprised.

However, it was indeed an excellent strategy, directly boosting the hotel’s occupancy rate.

“Yes, I discussed this with Mr. Burton, Mr. Chen Shoulin, and the other heads of your groups back in June. They had no objections, so the implementation went very smoothly. It’s been in effect since the middle of last month,” Ma Shimin explained.

Lin Haoran nodded.

“In that case, it seems they want to start with the hotel industry, uniting the luxury hotel forces in Hong Kong to deal with the Mandarin Oriental?” Lin Haoran said contemplatively.

“If that’s the case, then the hotel industry is definitely just the beginning. They might be using it to test the waters, to see your reaction, Boss, or to see if they can succeed by joining forces with other industry giants. If it works, they’ll move on to defeat our other businesses one by one,” Ma Shimin said, his brow furrowed as he gently tapped his fingers on the desk. “After all, the hotel industry is relatively independent. Even if they fail, it won’t be a crippling blow.”

Lin Haoran walked to the window, overlooking the magnificent view of Victoria Harbour, a cold sneer forming on his lips. “Interesting. It seems our old friends can’t hold back any longer.”

“We just don’t know what method they will use,” Ma Shimin said with a nod.

“No matter. Whatever they’re planning, they won’t be able to hide it for long. However, if these luxury hotels want to team up against the Mandarin Oriental, it would be a shame not to do something to repay their ‘kind intentions’,” Lin Haoran said, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.

Hearing this, Ma Shimin asked with interest, “Do you have something in mind, Boss?”

“I heard you mention before that the Mandarin Oriental Hotel is attempting to acquire the Raffles Hotel in Singapore?” Lin Haoran asked in return.

“That’s right. I’ve personally contacted the owner of the Raffles Hotel several times. Initially, they had no intention of selling. However, after multiple phone calls, they’ve shown signs of budging and have even given us a price. The current asking price is a bit high, though, so we haven’t reached an agreement yet.”

“I hold 12.73% of the shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels company. What do you think? If the Mandarin Oriental Hotel were to acquire it, wouldn’t our strength increase dramatically?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

This 12.73% stake was also acquired by Galaxy Securities at Lin Haoran’s instruction during the previous market downturn when the market capitalizations of many companies plunged due to the troubles at HSBC.

In Hong Kong, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels ranked among the top twenty listed companies by market capitalization, valued at over three billion Hong Kong dollars, making it a well-known corporate giant.

The reason, of course, was that The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels was not just in the hotel business but a diversified enterprise. Its wholly-owned subsidiaries included the five-star Peninsula Hotel and the four-star Kowloon Hotel, as well as The Repulse Bay on Hong Kong Island, St. John’s Building in Central, The Peak Tower, and the Peak Tramways Company.

Furthermore, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels company already operated hotel businesses in New York in the United States, Manila in the Philippines, and Mainland China cities like Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing.

The Peninsula Hotel, in particular, was not only Hong Kong’s most prestigious luxury hotel but also one of the world’s top hotel brands, having been named one of the top ten hotels in the world for many consecutive years.

For the Kadoorie family, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels was a symbol of unparalleled wealth and achievement, the glory of their family.

Hearing this, Ma Shimin frowned and said, “Boss, I have considered acquiring The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. After all, if we get our hands on The Peninsula Hotel, our Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group would undoubtedly become number one among luxury hotels in Hong Kong.

However, the shareholder structure of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels is quite unique. The management rights of the hotel business are in the hands of the Kadoorie family, but the largest shareholder is actually Mr. Liang Zhonghao, not the Kadoories.

The Kadoorie family holds about 12% of the shares, while Mr. Liang Zhonghao holds as much as 34%, making him the undisputed largest shareholder.

However, Mr. Liang’s focus has always been on the company’s real estate assets, so the hotel management rights have remained with the Kadoorie family. The two have always coexisted peacefully on the Board of Directors.

The reason the Kadoorie family has been so confident in controlling The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels with only a minority stake is that they have always known the Liang Zhonghao family has no interest in controlling it.

Their combined equity exceeds 40%, so it would be very difficult for us to acquire the company.”

Lin Haoran was a little surprised to hear this.

He hadn’t expected the largest shareholder of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels not to be the Kadoorie family.

This was indeed very surprising.

After all, everyone knew that the Kadoorie family had always treated The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels as their own.

But to think they only held a mere 12% of the shares.

Didn’t that mean that the 12.73% stake now held by Galaxy Securities surpassed that of the Kadoorie family?

So, wasn’t he now the company’s second-largest shareholder?

This was getting interesting.

Liang Zhonghao?

Lin Haoran had some impression of him. He had met him before at the Hong Kong Chinese Chamber of Commerce. He seemed to be a director and shareholder of New World Development and was also from one of Hong Kong’s prominent families, far more powerful than the Lam family before Lin Haoran’s rise.

Of course, the Liang Zhonghao family was not a top-tier tycoon in Hong Kong, somewhere between first and second-rate.

Since Lin Haoran mostly associated with the top-tier tycoons, he hadn’t had much interaction with Liang Zhonghao.

“If that’s the case, there might be an opportunity,” Lin Haoran said with a sudden smile.

His relationship with Cheng Yu-tung, the Chairman of New World Development, was quite good. Although they didn’t interact often, Cheng always showed him a good deal of respect.

Moreover, New World’s financial business had always been with Hang Seng Bank.

Now that he had acquired Hang Seng Bank, it meant that New World was also considered his partner.

He remembered that Liang Zhonghao had later sold all his shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, and one of the buyers had been his protégé, Liu Luanxiong.

To regain control of the company, the Kadoories had been forced to pay a huge price, extorted by Liu Luanxiong, before they finally succeeded in keeping control.

If so, perhaps he could really persuade Liang to sell his shares.

In that case, wouldn’t the Kadoorie family’s plan to team up with Li Jiacheng and others in the hotel industry against his Mandarin Oriental become a joke?

At this thought, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but smile.

Although it was uncertain whether he could persuade him to sell, it was worth a try.

Even if it didn’t succeed, it was no big deal.

He was already the second-largest shareholder. It was perfectly reasonable for him to compete with the Kadoorie family for control of the hotel business, wasn’t it?

To be honest, Lin Haoran was also quite fond of The Peninsula Hotel. Its architectural style had a unique sense of luxury that was captivating.

Bringing it under his banner would be a qualitative leap for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.

Besides, he had never provoked Lawrence Kadoorie. Since he chose to collude with the likes of Li Jiacheng, Brown, and Henry Keswick, he shouldn’t blame him for taking The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels by force.

Lin Haoran truly hadn’t expected the Lawrence Kadoorie family to hold only 12% of the company’s shares.

This was a classic case of wanting control while spending the least amount of money.

Even though the Liang Zhonghao family wasn’t interested in control, had the Kadoorie family never considered that Liang could sell his shares?

Once sold to a more ambitious shareholder, how could the Kadoorie family maintain their control over The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels?

However, that had nothing to do with Lin Haoran. In fact, he felt this was a great opportunity.

If the Kadoorie family held over 40% of the shares, it might be difficult for him to acquire the company.

But now, the largest shareholder was a family with no desire for control, and he himself was the second-largest. This was a godsent opportunity.

Thinking of this, Lin Haoran smiled and said to Ma Shimin, “Mr. Ma Shimin, I’ll leave the Raffles Hotel in Singapore to you. As for The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels company, I will find a way to acquire it. Once we acquire both of these world-renowned luxury hotels, our hotel business will definitely be one of the giants in the global hotel industry.”

“Very well, Boss. I’ll be counting on you, then.” The thought of these two world-famous luxury hotels soon joining the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group made Ma Shimin visibly excited.

After a brief chat with Ma Shimin, Lin Haoran didn’t disturb him any further and went to the Galaxy Securities office.

The office was already a hive of activity. It was around nine in the morning, and the various stock exchanges in Hong Kong were about to open.

Walking into Dai Shi’s office, he saw him just about to stand up with a document in his hand.

“Oh, Boss, you’re here. I was just about to head to a meeting,” Dai Shi said.

“Yes, I won’t take up much of your time. Have the stock accumulation teams for Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa been assembled?” Lin Haoran asked.

“I had them ready yesterday afternoon. They are all our most trusted traders. As soon as the market opens today, they will secretly begin accumulating shares in these two groups. I was just on my way to hold a meeting with the two teams and assign them their tasks,” Dai Shi replied.

“Alright, let’s go together then. I’ll just watch from the side,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Let’s go, then!” Dai Shi said, leading the way. They soon arrived at a medium-sized conference room.

Inside, a dozen or so traders were seated.

Lin Haoran glanced over them, and his Golden Finger activated, displaying the loyalty levels of everyone present.

The lowest loyalty score was a high 88, with the highest reaching 94.

Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction. No wonder Dai Shi said these were his most trusted traders.

These dozen or so people had mostly been with him since early 1979; they were all long-time employees.

Lin Haoran recognized basically all of them.

Upon seeing Lin Haoran, everyone greeted him.

Lin Haoran nodded and said with a smile, “Go on with your meeting. Don’t mind me.”

…

In the blink of an eye, evening arrived.

And in the distant city of New York, it was now morning.

As a new day dawned on the streets, the newsstands at every corner entered their busiest time.

Popular newspapers like The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post were constantly being bought by customers.

And today, all of these newspapers featured news about the Hong Kong Mobile Communications Company.

In the United States, Motorola Company was a renowned tech giant, so its new product launch naturally caused a huge sensation.

Although many were disappointed that the first city to commercialize mobile communications was not an American city but the distant Asian city of Hong Kong, the level of attention was by no means low.

Yesterday, many had been pessimistic about Motorola, believing that its new product launch was doomed to fail because the price was too high.

And today, these media outlets were all reporting on the announcement from the Hong Kong Mobile Communications Company: the lottery results, originally to be announced on the third day, were being delayed until the fifth!

Although the Hong Kong Mobile Communications Company had provided a reason, the newspapers were now filled with their own analytical articles.

The general consensus was that the number of people who pre-ordered for the lottery on the first day must have been lower than expected; otherwise, they wouldn’t have extended the time.

Many economic experts even published their own opinions, suggesting that Motorola, having invested so much in developing the mobile phone, was destined to have a hard time recouping its costs.

Motorola’s stock price had already fallen a full 18% yesterday.

Now, after seeing these reports, many shareholders grew even more worried about Motorola’s prospects.

When the opening bell rang at the New York Stock Exchange, Motorola’s stock price plummeted, with the decline quickly widening to 5%.

After that, the stock continued its slow descent.

The pessimistic outlook from major media outlets and economic experts caused panic among many shareholders holding Motorola stock.

Some chose to cut their losses while the stock hadn’t fallen too much.

Others decided to take a gamble.

Regardless, nothing could stop the downward trend of Motorola’s stock price.

At the headquarters of the Quantum Fund, Soros stared intently at the real-time stock prices printed out by his subordinate, a very excited smile on his face.

He had been thrilled when he got the news early in the morning.

The news from Hong Kong was, for him, a gift from heaven!

He hadn’t expected the company in Hong Kong to do something so cooperative, changing three days to five.

This gave him more time for his play.

As one of Wall Street’s famous financial tycoons, Soros wasn’t top-tier, but having been in the industry for decades, he naturally possessed an extensive network of connections.

So, after deciding on this course of action, he had quickly borrowed enough Motorola shares and then sold them off at the market’s open, securing a large amount of capital.

The reason Motorola’s stock had plunged a full 18% yesterday, with a drop of around 10% right at the open, was not only due to the pessimistic rumors about Motorola in the market but also heavily influenced by the Quantum Fund’s massive sell-off.

Therefore, having sold those shares, the more Motorola’s stock price fell, the more profit Soros would make!

His chief trading officer walked over quickly. “George, the price has broken through our expected support level. Should we start adding to our position?”

“No, wait a little longer. I believe Motorola’s stock price will fall even further. Don’t rush, don’t be anxious!” Soros said, shaking his head.

Based on the news he received, Motorola’s stock was bound to fall even more today.

Meanwhile, in another skyscraper in New York, Su Zhixue was directing the Universe Group’s trading team: “Buy in batches, no more than one hundred thousand shares at a time. Don’t attract market attention.”

Chapter 703: Settled in a Few Words—This Is the Influence of a Super-Rich Tycoon

Over the course of the day, the Universal Investment Company, led by Su Zhixue, had once again increased its holdings in Motorola by 3.15%.

This was far more than the shares they had accumulated the previous day.

After all, they had only acquired 1.32% the day before.

The reason was simple. After two consecutive days of being badmouthed by the media and economic experts, coupled with the assist from Hong Kong extending the lottery period, far more shareholders were selling off their stock today than yesterday.

And Motorola Company’s stock price had fallen by nearly 15% compared to yesterday’s closing price.

From time to time, large blocks of shares would suddenly appear as pending orders, a clear sign that some investment institutions were also getting restless and wanted to sell early.

On top of that, the Quantum Fund had yet to increase its position, which presented a golden opportunity for the Universal Investment Company.

They took the chance to fish in troubled waters, accumulating a full 3.15% of the shares over the day without attracting any attention, not even from the Quantum Fund.

Adding this to the 1.32% from the day before and the 5.23% he already held, Lin Haoran had unknowingly amassed 9.7% of Motorola’s shares, nearing the 10% mark.

This stake was large enough to make him the second-largest shareholder in Motorola.

As for the Quantum Fund, they didn’t have pockets as deep as the Universal Investment Company. Their total capital was only a few hundred million US dollars, and that figure included the value of stock they held in many blue-chip companies.

As for cash flow, they could muster a few tens of millions of US dollars. With a few times leverage, raising one or two hundred million US dollars wouldn’t be a problem.

But one or two hundred million US dollars could barely make a ripple against Motorola, which still had a market capitalization near four billion US dollars.

Furthermore, the ever-cautious Soros didn’t dare to bet too big.

Therefore, with limited funds, Soros’s goal was to strike with full force only when the price was at its lowest, using his limited capital to achieve the greatest possible leverage.

However, Soros never imagined that while he was waiting for the opportune moment, Universal Investment had already quietly snapped up a massive amount of floating stock.

The stock market had closed, and Soros had already summoned his senior executives for a meeting.

But looking at the Motorola stock trading data in his hand, Soros frowned.

There were indeed many pending orders for Motorola today, and the drop in price was about what they had predicted. However, the trading volume was much higher than they had anticipated.

“Could it be that so many people are optimistic about Motorola’s prospects? Or are they betting that the new product’s pre-sales are going well? Or is some other capital also secretly buying at the bottom?” Soros stared at the data report, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the desk.

This wasn’t the technologically advanced future. Twenty or thirty years later, his team would have certainly detected that several offshore shell companies registered in the Cayman Islands had bought large quantities of stock in batches through different brokerage firms and secondary markets, totaling over one hundred million US dollars.

But now, in an era where even computers were not yet widespread, Soros’s team could only rely on manual statistics and limited electronic data, making it impossible to track these secret transactions scattered across the globe in real time.

In the meeting room, chief analyst Thomson also frowned and said, “Mr. George, we’ve carefully checked today’s transaction records. Every trade was very fragmented, with few large-volume buys. It looks like the behavior of retail investors.”

“Retail investors?” Soros scoffed, clearly disagreeing. “When everyone is pessimistic about Motorola Company, what retail investors could possibly buy up nearly 4% of the shares in circulation in a single trading day? Based on our estimates this morning, we would have been lucky to see buy orders hit 1%. This is clearly an organized, large-scale effort to build a position!”

The head of trading, Williams, hesitated. “Could it be Motorola Company buying back its own stock? After all, the price has fallen so much…”

“Impossible!” Soros refuted with certainty. “Motorola Company has poured almost all of its current cash flow into R&D. Where would they get the money for a buyback?”

“If it’s not a buyback from Motorola Company, could it really be that another institution is doing the same thing as us?” the chief analyst murmured.

However, no matter how much they discussed it, they were doomed to fail in discovering the reason for Motorola Company’s trading volume being several times higher than their projections.

After two days of decline, Motorola Company’s market capitalization had plummeted from around 4.9 billion to about 3.4 billion US dollars. The scale of this drop was undoubtedly the most pronounced among the many American tycoons.

Even the senior executives at Motorola Company hadn’t expected this. A product launch in collaboration with Hong Kong, the commercialization of a tech product that should have captured global attention, was supposed to send Motorola’s stock price soaring.

But now, not only had it not soared, it had plummeted.

All of this left Motorola Company’s senior executives completely at a loss.

Of course, they knew about the pre-order numbers from Hong Kong, but they couldn’t just bypass their partner and release the data unilaterally before the official announcement.

Besides, President Robert Galvin had to be the one to make the final call on this matter.

And at this very moment, Motorola’s President, Mr. Robert Galvin, was flying over the Pacific Ocean on his way back to Chicago, completely unaware of the situation.

In the blink of an eye, another day passed. It was now the third day since the product launch, August 17th.

Hong Kong, Connaught Centre.

Lin Haoran was listening to Cui Zilong’s report.

Li Jiacheng and the others had indeed made their move.

However, it was clear that their plan would not be a short-term affair.

After all, uniting all the luxury hotels in Hong Kong—with the exception of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group—was not something that could be accomplished in a day or two.

As for approaching The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels’ major shareholder, Liang Zhonghao, to discuss acquiring his shares, Lin Haoran was in no hurry.

Right now, these people were secretly plotting to join forces against him. Acquiring the shares too early would spoil the fun.

It would certainly be interesting if, after they formed their alliance, they suddenly discovered that its most important member, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, had been swallowed by their opponent.

A playful smile crept onto Lin Haoran’s lips at the thought.

He set down his teacup and instructed Cui Zilong, “Keep an eye on them, especially the movements of Li Jiacheng, Brown, and Lawrence Kadoorie.”

In his view, those two were definitely the ringleaders.

“Yes, Boss. Rest assured, we have already placed many of our informants in Cheung Kong Holdings, Hutchison Whampoa, Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, China Light & Power, and others. We can track the movements of both Li Jiacheng and Mr. Brown at any time.

“Furthermore, even if they move outside the range of our informants, we can use the numerous members of 13K scattered throughout Hong Kong to keep tabs on their movements,” Cui Zilong said with a smile.

The 13K triad society was one of the three major triad societies in Hong Kong that had submitted to Lin Haoran, and it had done quite a lot for him over the past two years.

And when it came to tracking Li Jiacheng, Brown, or Lawrence Kadoorie and finding out where they had been on any given day, it was incredibly simple. Just keeping an eye on their license plates was enough to know where they went.

“Alright. I’ll be counting on you for the next few days. This matter is very important to me, so you must watch them closely. Report to me immediately if anything unexpected happens!” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

Cui Zilong nodded in agreement and added, “Boss, there’s one more thing. Mr. Henry Keswick, the Taipan of Jardine Matheson & Co., secretly met with Mr. Feng Jianguo, the man behind Raffles Hotel, last night. The two talked privately at Raffles Hotel for nearly two hours before Henry Keswick left. This information came from the Guo family’s intelligence network in Southeast Asia.”

Hearing this, Lin Haoran murmured to himself, “It seems they know I’m trying to acquire Raffles Hotel. Does Jardine Matheson want a piece of the action?”

A sharp glint flashed in his eyes as his fingers tapped lightly on the mahogany desk. “Interesting. It seems our opponents are more astute than I thought.”

“Boss, as far as I know, Mr. Feng Jianguo isn’t the true owner of Raffles Hotel. Temasek Holdings is the real controlling party. Mr. Feng Jianguo is just a representative from Temasek Holdings’ board, specifically in charge of managing Raffles Hotel. This information might be useful to you if you want to acquire it,” Cui Zilong reminded him.

“So you’re saying Raffles Hotel is actually controlled by the Singaporean government?” Lin Haoran asked, looking up.

Ma Shimin had never mentioned this to Lin Haoran. He had only told him that the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group wanted to acquire Singapore’s Raffles Hotel. Based on Ma Shimin’s understanding, Lin Haoran usually wasn’t interested in such minute details.

“Yes, Raffles Hotel is 100% owned by Temasek Holdings, a Singaporean state-owned enterprise,” Cui Zilong confirmed with a nod.

“Alright, I understand. You can go back to your work now,” Lin Haoran said with a wave of his hand.

After Cui Zilong left, the frown that had creased Lin Haoran’s brow smoothed out.

If Raffles Hotel was owned by Temasek Holdings, then things were actually quite simple.

The Singapore Economic Development Board had invited him to visit Singapore on multiple occasions.

The reason was simple: over the past two years, Lin Haoran had become Singapore’s largest investor.

His investments in Southeast Asia were massive, and the Southeast Asian headquarters for most of his branch companies were located in Singapore.

Because of this, Lin Haoran held considerable influence in both the political and business circles of Singapore.

Although Singapore was developing rapidly, its economic strength still paled in comparison to Hong Kong’s.

This was why so many wealthy individuals from Southeast Asia flocked to Hong Kong to make significant investments.

In everyone’s eyes, Hong Kong had better development prospects.

To give an example, the Guo Henian family, who had been developing smoothly in Singapore and Malaysia, was now investing heavily in Hong Kong. The scale of this investment was about to exceed the total sum they had invested in Southeast Asia.

Any normal person would understand what this signified.

It signified that the Guo family was gradually shifting its focus to Hong Kong.

Besides Guo Henian, many other wealthy Singaporeans had also moved to Hong Kong, such as the famous Mr. Huang Yanfang, owner of Singapore’s largest private property developer, Far East Organization. His investments in Hong Kong were thriving, and the company he founded there, Sino Land, was already ranked among the top ten in Hong Kong’s real estate industry.

After a moment of thought, Lin Haoran picked up the landline phone on his desk and dialed a number.

It was a long-distance call to Singapore.

Before long, the call went through.

“Mr. Liu, hello. This is Lin Haoran from Hong Kong,” Lin Haoran said with a hearty laugh once the call connected.

“Ah, Mr. Lin, what a rare pleasure!” came the enthusiastic voice of Mr. Liu from the Economic Development Board. “What brings a busy man like you to call me?”

Lin Haoran smiled slightly. “Mr. Liu, I think we need to talk about Raffles Holdings. I heard Jardine Matheson has also been in contact with Temasek?”

Mr. Liu’s laughter came from the other end of the line. “Your information is impeccable as always, Mr. Lin. But rest assured, Singapore is much more inclined to work with an old friend like you.”

The other party had clearly understood the purpose of Lin Haoran’s call immediately.

After all, they hadn’t originally planned to sell Raffles Hotel, as it had become a calling card for Singapore.

It was only after considering Lin Haoran’s large-scale investments in Singapore that they had begun to soften their stance.

As for Jardine Matheson, they had also invested a fair amount in Singapore, but their efforts were dwarfed by comparison to Lin Haoran’s investment scale.

Therefore, even with Jardine Matheson’s Taipan, Henry Keswick, paying a personal visit, Singapore had never considered selling Raffles Hotel to them.

In Singapore’s view, Jardine Matheson simply wasn’t important enough for them to make such a concession.

Lin Haoran gently set down his teacup, holding the telephone receiver in his left hand. He continued, “Mr. Liu, I plan to double the scale of Hongkong Land Group’s investments in Singapore over the next three years. This will cover the real estate, retail, and trade sectors, with an additional investment of at least five hundred million US dollars.”

There was a noticeable pause on the other end of the line, followed by Mr. Liu’s voice, which had become distinctly more enthusiastic. “Mr. Lin, that is a very exciting proposal. However, regarding Raffles Holdings…”

“One hundred percent of the shares for a price of one hundred million US dollars to acquire Raffles Holdings,” Lin Haoran decisively laid out his terms. “Additionally, I will prioritize Singapore as the headquarters for all my future investments in Southeast Asia.”

“Well…” Mr. Liu seemed to be making some quick calculations. “Mr. Lin, as you know, Raffles Hotel is our landmark property…”

“I’ll add one more condition,” Lin Haoran said, a slight smile on his lips. “I plan to construct a skyscraper over three hundred meters tall in Singapore. Once completed, it will become the landmark building for all of Southeast Asia.”

Those words landed like a heavy hammer. The sound of papers shuffling could be heard over the phone.

Three seconds later, Mr. Liu’s hearty laughter rang out. “Mr. Lin, you really are straightforward! Alright, we’ll go with the price you mentioned, but with one condition—you must guarantee that these investments will be in place within three years.”

“Done!” Lin Haoran said decisively. “I’ll send Mr. Ma Shimin over to sign the agreement tomorrow.”

“A pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Lin!” Mr. Liu laughed as well, clearly in high spirits.

While Singapore’s economy was developing rapidly due to its geographical location, its limited land area and scarcity of tall buildings meant it had always longed for a landmark skyscraper to boost its international image.

Lin Haoran’s proposal hit the Singaporean government right where it mattered most.

Currently, the tallest building in Singapore was the OCBC Centre, which was only 198 meters tall—not even reaching 200 meters.

On top of that, the fact that so many Southeast Asian tycoons were investing in Hong Kong put the Singaporean government under considerable pressure.

Lin Haoran’s investment pledge was undoubtedly a shot in the arm for Singapore.

Even if Lin Haoran hadn’t proposed building Singapore’s tallest skyscraper, the other party would likely have agreed after a moment’s hesitation.

And for Lin Haoran, he would have invested heavily in Singapore even without the Raffles Hotel acquisition.

After all, as a transmigrator, he knew very well just how brilliant Singapore’s future economy would be.

Investing heavily in Singapore starting in the 1980s would yield absolutely staggering returns for him in the future.

By building Singapore’s tallest skyscraper, the surrounding area was bound to become the most prosperous core district in Singapore for decades to come. The benefits for him were simply too great.

Acquiring Raffles Holdings for one hundred million US dollars was neither too high nor too low; it could be considered the market price.

This price, equivalent to just over five hundred million Hong Kong dollars, was not particularly expensive for Lin Haoran and was well worth it.

After all, in the future, Temasek would sell Raffles Holdings (including Raffles Hotel and Swissôtel) to the American firm Colony Capital for one billion US dollars.

The current price of one hundred million US dollars, factoring in future inflation, was quite reasonable.

The acquisition that Ma Shimin had been painstakingly negotiating for over two months was settled by Lin Haoran in just a few words.

This was the power that came with being Singapore’s largest investor.

In his eyes, the investment plans Lin Haoran proposed weren’t even conditions. He had planned to do all of it anyway, even without this discussion.

Singapore desperately needed his investment, and he had his eyes on Raffles Holdings. With both parties getting what they wanted, the deal was naturally struck with ease.

As for Henry Keswick from Jardine Matheson, he probably never imagined that right after he went to meet with the person in charge of Raffles Holdings, Lin Haoran would convince Singapore’s top leader.

Outside the door, Ma Shimin’s secretary happened to be walking past the window of Lin Haoran’s office.

He called out to the secretary directly, “Go get Mr. Ma and bring him to my office.”

“Yes, Boss. I’ll get Director Ma right away.” The secretary quickly left.

Soon, Ma Shimin arrived in Lin Haoran’s office.

“Boss, you were looking for me?” Ma Shimin didn’t stand on ceremony, pulling up a chair and sitting down himself.

“Yes. You need to take a trip to Singapore tomorrow,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“To Singapore? Boss, do you mean you want to speed up the negotiations with Raffles Hotel?” Ma Shimin immediately thought of the matter.

“Sending you to Singapore is indeed related to Raffles Hotel, but you don’t need to negotiate. I’ve already settled it. One hundred million US dollars to acquire the entire Raffles Holdings company,” Lin Haoran laughed.

Then, Lin Haoran recounted his entire phone conversation with Mr. Liu from Singapore to Ma Shimin.

After listening, Ma Shimin couldn’t help but exclaim, “Boss, it really had to be you. You solved this in just a few words. You know, their last offer was 150 million US dollars. I can’t believe you got it for 100 million!”

Lin Haoran smiled faintly. “Sometimes, the key to negotiation isn’t the price, but what you can bring to the other party.”

Ma Shimin nodded thoughtfully. “You’re right, Boss. What Singapore needs most right now isn’t the extra fifty million US dollars, but a commitment to sustained investment.”

Although Singapore was blessed with a strategic location, its limited land area and lack of resources meant it craved long-term investment from visionary investors like Lin Haoran.

Besides, other investors didn’t have Lin Haoran’s immense financial strength.

Therefore, Singapore was extremely welcoming to a money-magnate like Lin Haoran.

“By the way,” Lin Haoran suddenly remembered something, “while you’re in Singapore, check out the land plots in Marina Bay. I’m planning to have Hongkong Land Group build a skyscraper over 350 meters tall there.”

Ma Shimin’s eyes lit up. “350 meters? That would be nearly twice as tall as the current OCBC Centre! Boss, once this project is completed, it will become the new landmark for all of Southeast Asia!”

Lin Haoran nodded. “Exactly. This project will not only enhance our influence in Singapore but also drive up the value of surrounding real estate. We should buy up all the surrounding plots of land in advance. With our resources, we could single-handedly create a central business district in Singapore.”

“Boss, I can only be gone for two days at most if I go to Singapore. Li Jiacheng, Brown, and the others are eyeing Hongkong Land Group covetously, and Langwei Group is at a crucial stage of development. I need to personally oversee the acquisition progress of many FMCG brands,” Ma Shimin said with a frown.

At this moment, it was indeed inadvisable for him to be away from Hong Kong for too long; he was needed there to oversee the overall situation.

Hongkong Land Group had become too massive, almost one and a half times larger than it was before Lin Haoran’s acquisition.

“Then take Hongkong Land Group’s best planning team to Singapore. Let them stay there for a while to handle the preliminary work. You can come back as soon as you’ve finalized the acquisition of Raffles Holdings,” Lin Haoran said after a moment of thought.

“Alright, Boss, I’ll arrange it right away!” Ma Shimin said, then eagerly left the office.

Once Raffles Holdings was acquired, the strength of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group would increase substantially. As Mandarin Oriental was one of Hongkong Land Group’s key wholly-owned subsidiaries, Ma Shimin, the President of Hongkong Land Group, naturally took the matter very seriously.

After Ma Shimin left, Lin Haoran stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows, overlooking the bustling scenery of Victoria Harbour.

As the sun set, all of Hong Kong was bathed in a golden afterglow.

He gently swirled the tea in his cup, but his thoughts had already drifted to distant matters.

These had truly been eventful times!

Brown and the others were still determined to come after him; in the United States, he was still maneuvering with Motorola Company; the Singapore acquisition had just been finalized; and Langwei Group’s expansion was at a critical juncture—an expansion that also touched upon the interests of Southland Corporation, the parent company of 7-Eleven.

Lin Haoran took a sip of his hot tea, his gaze gradually growing profound.

Chapter 704: Motorola’s Stock Continues to Plummet, Robert Galvin’s Questioning!

On the morning of August 18th, Lin Haoran personally went to the airport to see Ma Shimin off on his trip to Singapore.

He watched him board the group’s private jet before heading back to the Connaught Centre.

Upon his return, Lin Haoran didn’t rush back to his own office. Instead, he went to the Hang Seng Group’s offices.

It had been some time since the three banks had been combined to form the Hang Seng Group.

During this period, the operations of the group’s three subsidiary banks had gradually stabilized.

Lin Haoran had originally chosen to locate the Hang Seng Group headquarters in the Connaught Centre for convenience, and it had indeed proven to be very convenient, saving him from running all over the place.

Although several of his companies were headquartered in Central, the district was not small. As Hong Kong’s central business district, it was often congested with traffic. Unless it was something particularly urgent, Lin Haoran couldn’t be bothered to rush around.

Arriving at Ho Sin Hang’s office, he glanced through the window and saw him engrossed in a document.

He knocked on the door, and Ho Sin Hang said, “Come in,” without looking up.

He assumed it was a subordinate coming in to report on work.

Lin Haoran smiled and stepped into the office, his eyes scanning the room.

The office was furnished almost identically to the original Chairman’s office at Hang Seng Bank; clearly, Ho Sin Hang had grown accustomed to this style.

When the visitor remained silent for a long moment, Ho Sin Hang finally looked up.

Seeing it was Lin Haoran, he quickly stood up, came out from behind his desk, and said, “Haoran, it’s you! Why didn’t you let me know you were coming?”

Lin Haoran smiled faintly, pulled up a nearby chair, and sat down. “Uncle Ho, I just came by to see how things are going. Nothing special.”

“Perfect timing. I was just about to report to you on our recent work,” Ho Sin Hang said, also pulling up a chair and sitting down with a file in his hand.

“Go ahead, Uncle Ho. I’m listening,” Lin Haoran nodded. He hadn’t paid much attention to this side of the business since the Hang Seng Group was established.

“I’ve been following up on the banknote-issuing rights. Standard Chartered Bank hasn’t been dragging their feet. According to Mr. Brown, we are just waiting for the final qualification review and approval from the Banking Supervision Department under Hong Kong’s Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau. Once that’s done, we will officially obtain the rights to issue Hong Kong dollar notes. However, this matter might hold us up for a while.” Ho Sin Hang opened the file in his hand and pointed to several key figures.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, his fingers tapping gently on the armrest of his chair. After a moment of thought, he asked, “Standard Chartered is being that cooperative?”

Lately, Brown had been plotting against him with Li Jiacheng and the others. Brown’s involvement clearly indicated that he wanted to increase Standard Chartered’s market share.

“They have no choice but to cooperate. If they can’t make it happen, once the three-month deadline is up, they’ll have to compensate us with three billion Hong Kong dollars. That’s real money. Given Standard Chartered’s current difficulties, forget three billion—even three hundred million would be a painful loss for them,” Ho Sin Hang said with a hearty laugh.

Lin Haoran shared the sentiment, saying, “That’s true. It’s a good thing we set that compensation clause with Standard Chartered. Otherwise, knowing them, they would have definitely tried to delay or even back out.”

Ho Sin Hang nodded and continued, “However, the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau is delaying the approval. I suspect someone might be applying pressure behind the scenes.”

“That pressure isn’t on us. If Government House doesn’t approve it, the one who should be anxious isn’t us, but Standard Chartered. They have to pay the price for wanting to acquire HSBC. They will solve this for us; we don’t need to worry,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The three-billion-Hong-Kong-dollar compensation was enough to make the senior executives at Standard Chartered restless.

Lin Haoran naturally understood that in this game, his side already had the upper hand.

Ho Sin Hang nodded thoughtfully. “That’s true. I’ve already made preparations for us to receive the banknote-issuing rights. However, I hope the rights will be granted to Hang Seng Bank. After all, Hang Seng Bank’s reputation and influence in Hong Kong are greater than the Bank of East Asia’s. I just don’t know if Government House will allow it.”

The contract signed with Standard Chartered had designated the Bank of East Asia to receive the banknote-issuing rights. Changing it to Hang Seng Bank now would indeed be a challenge.

Ho Sin Hang was, after all, the founder of Hang Seng Bank. He naturally hoped to bestow this honor upon his own “flesh and blood.”

Lin Haoran understood his feelings. To him, it didn’t matter which bank got the rights. The Bank of East Asia had already been privatized, and Hang Seng Bank was nearing the completion of its privatization process. They were all his own assets.

However, he decided to fulfill Ho Sin Hang’s wish.

“Uncle Ho, I’ll handle this matter,” Lin Haoran said after a moment’s thought. “Once the banknote-issuing rights are confirmed, I will personally pay a visit to Government House. I don’t think this will be a major issue.”

A flicker of gratitude appeared in Ho Sin Hang’s eyes. “Then I’ll have to trouble you.”

“For me, whether it’s the Bank of East Asia or Hang Seng Bank, I am the beneficiary. Of course, Uncle Ho, I understand that as the founder of Hang Seng Bank, you’re bound to have a certain bias.

But when managing the three banks, I hope you will be as fair and impartial as possible, rather than channeling all the group’s resources to Hang Seng Bank. That’s not what I want to see,” Lin Haoran said in a gentle tone, but the weight of his words made Ho Sin Hang’s expression turn serious.

“Haoran, you’re right,” Ho Sin Hang said, putting down the file and adopting a solemn expression. “I was being inconsiderate. As the group’s helmsman, I should indeed hold the scales even.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly. “I’m glad you understand, Uncle Ho. After Hang Seng Bank obtains the banknote-issuing rights, it will naturally gain more opportunities for development. But the Bank of East Asia and Dao Heng Bank also need to remain competitive. Only then can the entire financial group develop in a healthy manner.”

“Yes, my goal isn’t just this small place of Hong Kong. I want to develop the Hang Seng Group into a top global banking institution, like Citibank.

Haoran, I’ve recently been looking at banks in Southeast Asia, considering an acquisition of Singapore’s Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation. If we succeed, our Hang Seng Group’s strength in Southeast Asia will be further enhanced. With your increasing investments in the region, we need to strengthen our banking presence there.

Although both the Bank of East Asia and Hang Seng Bank have branches in Southeast Asia, their market share isn’t large. The entire Southeast Asian market is huge and deserves our attention. It can also serve as a springboard for our Hang Seng Group. Only by developing well in Southeast Asia can we more easily expand into other markets,” Ho Sin Hang revealed his recent plans.

“Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation?” Lin Haoran murmured.

He knew of it; the bank also had branches here in Hong Kong.

“Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation was the top financial institution in Singapore in the 1970s. However, after entering the 1980s, another Singaporean bank, the United Overseas Bank, caught up and surpassed it, making Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation the second-largest local bank in Singapore.

I heard that because their market rank was overtaken, several important shareholders of the bank are interested in selling their shares. In my opinion, this is an excellent opportunity. If we can acquire the shares from these shareholders, we can take control of this nearly seventy-year-old Singaporean bank.

With our resources, it won’t be difficult for Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation to reclaim its position as Singapore’s number one bank!” Ho Sin Hang said as he handed a binder to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran flipped through a few pages, and with Ho Sin Hang’s explanation, he gained a certain understanding of the situation.

In his previous life, he was very familiar with Hong Kong, but not so much with Singapore. He only knew that Singapore’s future would surpass Hong Kong’s.

Lin Haoran closed the binder, a sharp glint in his eyes. “Uncle Ho, this plan is very forward-thinking. But acquiring Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation is no small matter. Are you fully prepared?”

He stood up and paced a few steps in the office. “First, we need to thoroughly investigate the backgrounds of those shareholders who intend to sell. Second, we must assess the attitude of the Monetary Authority of Singapore on this matter. Most importantly…”

Lin Haoran suddenly turned, looked at Ho Sin Hang, and continued, “We need to ensure that after the acquisition, we can truly control the bank’s operations, not just be a financial investor.”

Ho Sin Hang nodded in agreement. “I’ve already sent people to make initial contact. Two of the major shareholders are from the older generation of overseas Chinese and have long found managing the bank to be too demanding. Our goal is to control at least half of the shares to achieve an absolute controlling stake. As for the Monetary Authority of Singapore…”

He lowered his voice, “I heard they are hoping to bring in foreign investment to stimulate competition in the local banking industry.”

“That’s good news,” Lin Haoran said, sitting back down. “But we must act quickly. If word gets out, Standard Chartered will definitely interfere.”

Although Standard Chartered Bank, having acquired HSBC, seemed to be coexisting peacefully with the Hang Seng Group for the time being, they were surely unwilling to be suppressed by Hang Seng Group indefinitely.

Once they caught wind of Hang Seng Group’s intentions, they would certainly try to obstruct them.

Ho Sin Hang’s expression was grave as he nodded. “Indeed. However, from what I know, Standard Chartered is currently busy integrating HSBC’s business. They shouldn’t have the spare capacity to focus elsewhere for the time being.”

“Don’t underestimate your opponent. Even though they’re integrating HSBC’s business, they are far from idle. They’re like fleas right now, trying to stir up trouble in the dark!” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head.

He then told Ho Sin Hang what he had learned from his intelligence sources about Brown, Li Jiacheng, Lawrence Kadoorie, Henry Keswick, and others secretly plotting against him.

Although its market share had been crushed by Hang Seng Bank, Standard Chartered had deep roots and would not sit and wait for death.

The Hong Kong market was too small. While Hang Seng Group currently dominated, an ambitious company like Standard Chartered, after swallowing HSBC, had its ambitions grow. It certainly wouldn’t be content with the market staying as it is. This financial game had only just begun.

“In that case, it’s best we speed up the acquisition of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation. Indeed, I underestimated Standard Chartered. Your reminder was very timely, Haoran.

Although Standard Chartered is short on funds due to the HSBC acquisition, they don’t have to fight alone. They could easily join forces with other banks to interfere in the acquisition of Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation.

Even Jardine Matheson & Co. might become their ally. They won’t just stand by and watch our Hang Seng Group continue to grow stronger!” Ho Sin Hang exclaimed.

“Yes, just be mindful of this matter. If it weren’t for the intelligence I received, I wouldn’t have expected Brown to be so eager to team up with other powers against me before Standard Chartered has even finished integrating HSBC’s resources. It’s normal that you didn’t know,” Lin Haoran said with a nod.

Fortunately, he had long ago set up an inescapable trap across Hong Kong, giving him access to extremely reliable intelligence. Otherwise, he might have really been caught off guard by these people.

Next, Ho Sin Hang brought up the matter of banks collaborating with corporations for payroll distribution.

A few days ago had been payday at the Hongkong Land Group. As previously discussed, they had tested the waters with the mid-to-high-level management by directly depositing their salaries onto bank cards.

The test results were very positive. The mid-to-high-level management was very cooperative with this payment method, and there were no errors.

Of course, this was also related to the small scale of the test conducted by the Bank of East Asia.

Furthermore, the higher-ups had no objections because their salaries were relatively high to begin with.

However, the lower-level employees might not be as cooperative.

But reform was necessary. It couldn’t be halted just because some employees disagreed.

In any case, handling the payroll for over one hundred thousand employees would likely be quite troublesome.

Thankfully, there were now three banks to handle this. Even if they switched entirely to bank card transfers for payroll next month, it would greatly reduce the pressure on the Bank of East Asia.

After chatting with Ho Sin Hang for over an hour, Lin Haoran made a special trip to the Hongkong Telephone Company headquarters.

Tomorrow, the results of the pre-order lottery for the first batch of mobile phone users would be announced. He wanted to see how the preparations were going.

From David, Lin Haoran learned that since real-time pre-orders began on the 15th, there were 5,233 users on the first day, 2,536 on the second, and 1,320 on the third. Over three days, the total number of pre-orders had astonishingly reached 9,089.

In just three days, more than nine thousand people had paid a deposit to pre-order.

Once this data was released, it would absolutely shock the world.

After all, this was just a small city with a population of only five million, and the price was exorbitant, yet the number of pre-orders broke nine thousand in three days.

The purchasing power of Hong Kong was truly unexpected.

If it weren’t for the three-thousand-user limit for the first batch, the Hong Kong Mobile Communications Company would be making a fortune. And clearly, the one profiting the most would be Motorola Company.

And the first lottery was for only one hundred spots.

With over nine thousand people vying for one hundred spots, the odds of winning were incredibly low.

It was easy to imagine that scalpers would drive the price of the mobile phones sky-high.

Today was the fourth day, but all the service centers had already stopped accepting new pre-orders.

They needed a day to finalize the list of the one hundred lucky users for the first draw.

The day quickly passed, and night gradually fell over Hong Kong.

At the same time, it was morning in New York. Lin Haoran finally received a call from Robert Galvin, the President of Motorola.

Evidently, the Motorola President had only found out how miserably Motorola’s market capitalization had fallen after returning to the United States.

Because today, Motorola’s market cap had fallen another 8% on top of the losses from the previous two days.

Although the rate of decline had slowed compared to the first two days.

Motorola Company’s market capitalization had already plummeted from a peak of nearly five billion US dollars to its current level of around 3.1 billion US dollars.

Eighteen percent on the first day, fifteen percent on the second, and eight percent on the third.

For three full days, Motorola Company’s stock had not stopped falling.

This was undoubtedly a major blow to Motorola’s influence.

Therefore, as soon as Robert Galvin returned to the United States and learned from a newspaper at the airport that Motorola’s stock had continued its steep decline, he personally called Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Lin, what is the meaning of your company delaying the lottery draw?” Robert Galvin’s voice was accusatory.

It was hard for anyone to accept that after launching a new product, the stock price didn’t rise but instead plummeted.

He had returned from Hong Kong full of joy, believing that once the lottery results were out on the third day, Motorola’s stock would surely soar.

Instead, upon returning to the United States, he saw in a newspaper at the airport that Lin Haoran’s side had unilaterally changed the plan from announcing pre-order results in three days to five, causing Motorola’s stock to continue its nosedive under pressure.

This was definitely the most severe plunge in recent years. It was as if Motorola had entered a bear market, and many investors had already sent letters of inquiry to Motorola.

Lin Haoran was already prepared for Robert Galvin’s call.

Holding the phone, he said with a smile, “Mr. Galvin, we have already given feedback to Motorola Company. The reason for delaying the lottery results is that the number of pre-orders was far too high.

I’m sure Mr. Galvin is already aware that in just three days, our pre-orders have reached over nine thousand. We’ve collected over ninety million Hong Kong dollars in deposits alone. This shows that our partnership in Hong Kong is a resounding success!”

“Yes, I didn’t expect so many people to pre-order either. There are indeed more wealthy people in Hong Kong than I imagined,” Robert Galvin acknowledged this point.

He had previously worried whether they could even sell all three thousand units.

As it turned out, just for pre-orders, which required a ten-thousand-Hong-Kong-dollar deposit, the number exceeded nine thousand. In just three days!

On this point, Robert Galvin truly felt that choosing to partner with Lin Haoran had been the right decision.

However, when he thought of the grim state of Motorola’s stock price, he couldn’t help but say, “But, our Motorola Company’s stock price…”

Lin Haoran cut him off, saying with a smile, “Mr. Galvin, it’s like archery. The further you draw back the bow, the faster the arrow flies when released, and the farther it travels.

Although Motorola’s stock price seems to be in a major slump right now, this is only temporary. The investors’ lack of confidence is the best prelude to a future surge. Isn’t this also a way to filter out the investors who truly have faith in Motorola Company?”

Robert Galvin was silent for a moment on the other end of the line, then let out a light chuckle. “Mr. Lin, that’s a very interesting analogy. However, the Board of Directors will probably need a more concrete explanation.”

“Concrete data is the best explanation,” Lin Haoran responded calmly. “I’ve already arranged for Mr. David to prepare a detailed pre-order report, including user demographic analysis and market forecasts. After the lottery ceremony tomorrow, this report will be sent to New York immediately.”

“This…” Galvin was clearly surprised. “You’ve been very thoughtful.”

“Also,” Lin Haoran changed the subject, “I suggest Motorola initiate a stock buyback plan while the price is low. When the data on the explosive sales in the Hong Kong market is released, the returns from the stock rebound will be very substantial.”

At this moment, it was already morning in the United States, and in just over an hour, a new trading day would begin.

Lin Haoran didn’t mind Motorola entering the market to compete with them for its shares, because just yesterday, on the previous trading day, Universal Investment Company had once again acquired a full 4.65% of Motorola’s shares.

Adding the 4.47% from the first two days, and the 5.23% acquired previously, Universal Investment Company now indirectly held 14.35% of Motorola’s shares.

According to the shareholder list published by Motorola Company, this shareholding percentage meant Lin Haoran had even surpassed Motorola’s original largest shareholder, becoming the new top shareholder of Motorola.

Of course, Lin Haoran had no designs on Motorola.

Even if he did, he knew that the US government would never allow him to gain a controlling stake in such an important technology company.

Therefore, this time, he only planned to quietly buy at the bottom while a certain party was shorting Motorola, and then cash out and exit once the stock price recovered.

Of course, he would hold onto a portion for some time. Robert Galvin had already invited him to become a board member, and he had already disclosed his 5.23% stake. It wouldn’t look good if he sold it all off at once.

In any case, Motorola’s stock price wouldn’t fall much over the next decade or so; its growth rate just wouldn’t be as impressive as the other companies Lin Haoran favored.

At this point, Robert Galvin no longer had any complaints about Lin Haoran.

Yes, Motorola’s stock price fell due to the market’s lack of confidence in them, not his fault.

When they released the pre-order data, wouldn’t that be a slap in the face to all the investors who had doubted Motorola?

It was their own fault for not trusting Motorola.

The only ones to blame were themselves for being shortsighted.

As Robert Galvin thought of this, his tone softened considerably. “Mr. Lin, you’re right. We should let the facts speak for themselves. After the lottery ceremony tomorrow, I hope you will send us the complete data immediately.”

“But of course, Mr. Galvin. The Hong Kong Mobile Communications Company will send the data report over to you as soon as they’ve compiled it tonight. You can rest assured on that point. You probably haven’t returned to the office yet, have you? Perhaps the information has already arrived on your side!” Lin Haoran said with a laugh.

He could tell from the background noise on the call that Robert Galvin was in a relatively crowded place, and he could even hear occasional announcements.

Considering his flight time, he had likely just gotten off the plane and was still at the airport.

“In that case, Mr. Lin, I won’t keep you. I need to hurry back to the company to handle some work. Mr. Lin, our collaboration has been very smooth. I look forward to our next one.” After saying this, Robert Galvin hung up in a hurry.

Listening to the dial tone, Lin Haoran smiled. The man had called him full of anger but had hung up with a cheerful laugh.

Clearly, Lin Haoran’s response had satisfied him.

If Ma Shimin had been there, he would surely have been amazed by Lin Haoran’s negotiation skills. With just a few words, he not only defused the Motorola President’s anger but also made him feel grateful.

In reality, Lin Haoran had simply read his counterpart’s psychology perfectly.

Galvin cared most about two things: the stock price and Motorola’s prospects in the Asian market.

Chapter 705: Quantum Fund Gets Outplayed!

As the President of Motorola settled into the company car sent to pick him up and headed back to Motorola headquarters from Chicago O’Hare International Airport, a new day was also dawning over a thousand kilometers away in New York.

The early morning sun of New York streamed through the 38th-floor panoramic windows of the Quantum Fund, bathing the conference room in a dazzling golden light.

George Soros stood before the window, gazing down at the bustling streets of Seventh Avenue, his chest swelling with the confidence of certain victory.

After three consecutive days of precise public opinion suppression and market shorting, Motorola’s stock price had collapsed from a market capitalization of nearly five billion US dollars to around 3.1 billion, a cumulative drop of over 37%.

Soros knew the time was ripe.

Today was the day of the gargantuan feast he had long awaited.

He had expended considerable effort and capital over the past few days to make Motorola’s stock plummet. Paying financial experts to publish articles and getting the media to paint a bleak picture of Motorola’s future—all of it cost money.

That was how the world worked; who would do your bidding for free?

With enough money, you could command all sorts of shady characters. It was simply the reality of the situation, a reality that was even more pronounced in the capital-driven markets of the United States.

Soros pulled his gaze back from the window and turned to face his core team, who were already waiting. “Gentlemen,” he said in a deep voice, “the stage is set, the panic has reached its peak. Today is the day we reap our rewards. We have half an hour. Are you ready?”

Chief Trader David immediately understood. “Understood, George. We’ve prepared sufficient funds and are ready to enter the market and sweep up shares at any moment!”

They had not made any pre-market purchases, as there was no need. According to the thinking of Soros and his team, Motorola’s stock would continue to fall today, only at a slower rate.

If they had wanted to trade in the pre-market session, they wouldn’t have waited until today; they could have acted yesterday.

For Soros, limited capital had to be maximized.

And how was it to be maximized? The answer was simple: use the limited funds to buy Motorola stock at its absolute lowest price!

Meanwhile, a completely different scene was unfolding at Motorola’s headquarters in Chicago.

The triumphant return of President Robert Galvin from Hong Kong had turned somber.

Although Lin Haoran’s explanation and buyback suggestion over the phone had offered some comfort, seeing the brutal data of his company’s evaporated market capitalization with his own eyes left him焦灼 in agony.

His dedicated line had been practically blown up by calls from board members demanding answers.

Upon returning to the company, Robert Galvin immediately convened an emergency meeting of the senior executives.

“We can’t wait any longer! Immediately activate the stock repurchase plan, with a one-hundred-million-dollar ceiling. We enter the market today, at this damned low price range!” Robert Galvin declared to the dozen core executives seated at the conference table.

He had a responsibility to the shareholders and had to signal the management’s confidence to the market.

At the same time, in a high-rise building near New York’s Times Square, was the office of Universal Investment Company.

The office was not heavily staffed, but every employee was an elite of the financial industry, and all were fiercely loyal to Lin Haoran.

For over a year, under the management of Universal Investment Company, Lin Haoran’s holdings in publicly listed companies like Coca-Cola, Intel, Citibank, Chevron, and ExxonMobil had steadily grown.

They typically accumulated shares at a very slow pace. Besides being constrained by capital, the main reason was to avoid detection.

Just like their accumulation of Motorola shares. Over the past few months, they had been slowly and secretly buying, and in all that time, they had only acquired 5.23% of the shares. At such a slow speed, no institution or power would ever notice.

However, over the past few days, as Universal Investment Company had intensified its acquisition of Motorola, even an institution like Quantum Fund, which was running the scheme against Motorola, had detected that another power had its eyes on Motorola’s stock.

But even though they noticed, they had no idea who was behind it.

Su Zhixue listened to his staff at the exchange report on Motorola’s real-time stock price. Although they had been accumulating for three days, they had no intention of stopping. They would continue to buy while the price was low, but they had to be even more covert.

“Today is a critical window. Speed up the operation! Use small, scattered orders, and absolutely do not disturb the market!” Su Zhixue commanded the trading team for the Motorola project.

Universal Investment’s goal was clear: to use the final time gap to snatch the last piece of juicy meat before the good news broke.

After the past few days of frantic buying, Universal’s shareholding had reached a staggering 14.35%, making them the largest shareholder. If this news were to be made public, it would undoubtedly shock the entire United States.

It might even put many American capitalists on high alert.

Of course, Lin Haoran had never intended to disclose it from the start.

It was better to make money in secret.

Otherwise, it was easy to attract the jealousy of others.

Although they had already reached a terrifying shareholding percentage of 14.35%, according to their boss Lin Haoran’s instructions, it was still not enough. The more floating stock they had before cashing out, the better.

No one could have imagined that just when everyone was pessimistic about Motorola’s future, three forces had already set their sights on Motorola’s stock for the day—including Motorola itself.

At 9:30 AM, the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange rang.

Soros’s trading team started up like a well-oiled machine.

David anticipated some panic selling and bottom-fishing, but Quantum Fund’s massive capital was more than enough to dominate the situation and stabilize the price within their predetermined low range.

“Thirty-five thousand shares, place the orders in batches, push the price down to $42.10,” David issued the command.

However, the trader’s feedback came with a hint of confusion. “Sir, the buy orders at $42.10 have suddenly increased. Our pending orders… were filled instantly? It seems we’re not the only ones buying.”

Soros’s eyebrows twitched. He moved closer to the monitor screen. “Keep placing them lower. Try $42.00.”

“$42.00… filled instantly! And there’s a large volume of buy orders fighting for shares as well!”

On the screen, green buy orders lit up frequently, and the trading volume was much more active than anticipated.

Compared to Hong Kong, America’s technology was clearly far more advanced, especially in the stock market.

The United States had launched the Intermarket Trading System (ITS) back in 1978, an electronic network connecting the major American stock exchanges.

It allowed brokers and market makers to trade directly across different exchanges without going through intermediaries, linking multiple exchanges including the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange, and the Boston Stock Exchange.

Some powerful investment firms, like Quantum Fund, had long since implemented electronic trading, enabling them to monitor market dynamics in real-time and execute trading orders rapidly.

This was something Universal Investment Company couldn’t compare with.

To maintain a low profile, Universal Investment Company had not yet applied for an electronic trading interface with the stock exchange and still used traditional manual order placements.

But this did not mean Universal Investment’s reaction speed was slow, because the company had traders stationed at all the major stock exchanges in the United States.

They communicated directly with the exchanges via telephone and telegraph, ensuring their orders were executed at the earliest possible moment.

At that moment, Soros keenly sensed something was wrong. “Someone is competing with us for shares! Find out the source of these buy orders!”

The expected torrent of panic selling never materialized. Instead, medium-sized sell orders were being rapidly absorbed as soon as they were posted.

After a slight dip at the opening, Motorola’s stock price seemed to be propped up by an invisible force, tenaciously halting its downward spiral.

“What’s happening? Where are all these buyers coming from?!” The head of risk control stared at the abnormal transaction flow.

The panic should have been spreading. Soros’s script was “panic sell-off -> low-price accumulation.”

They had planned this for three or four full days, all to ensure they could strike today at the lowest possible point.

“We’ve detected large institutional orders secretly absorbing shares. This isn’t retail investor behavior! The transaction speed is too fast, a-almost like professional traders!” an analyst exclaimed, pointing at the data stream.

“Keep watching!” Soros’s voice was low, a bad feeling rising in his heart.

Time ticked by to 11:00 AM.

This was supposed to be the period when panic spread and the stock price plunged further, but Motorola’s market performance was abnormally “resilient.”

Although it lacked the strength to rise, its decline had narrowed significantly. A few minutes before mid-day, it even showed signs of slowly climbing upward!

“George, the price… it’s rebounding! It’s up nearly 2.5% from the intraday low!” David’s voice was filled with disbelief.

Soros’s brows were tightly furrowed. He couldn’t understand why the stock was behaving this way today.

The situation he dreaded most was happening—another powerful force was competing with him for the spoils!

He had known for the past three days that a certain power was accumulating Motorola stock, but their speed hadn’t been particularly fast. So, while surprised that someone shared their idea, he hadn’t been worried.

He had even thought the other party was buying too early at too high a cost and would surely regret it later.

That was why Soros had waited until today to make his move, aiming to lower his own cost basis to maximize his profit!

“Is it those damned hedge funds? Or long-term investors waiting to buy at the bottom? We haven’t heard any news from Wall Street about a major shift… Wait, an unconfirmed rumor is circulating that Motorola is buying back its own stock!” Quantum Fund’s chief analyst quickly scanned the intelligence reports coming in from the fax machine.

“A stock buyback?!” Soros’s expression changed.

If Motorola engaged in a large-scale buyback at this time, it would undoubtedly be the most powerful counterattack against short sellers.

But this completely disrupted Quantum Fund’s entire plan.

“Not only that, based on the trading rhythm, we can also feel that the same power that was accumulating Motorola shares yesterday and the day before is still buying today,” another trader added.

Suddenly, a name came to Soros’s mind.

“Lin Haoran?!”

The name sent a jolt through Soros’s heart.

Could the person behind this be Lin Haoran?

He had researched Lin Haoran’s investment history. It could be said that every one of his investments had been incredibly precise, buying at the low and selling at the high for immense profits.

If he was the one secretly orchestrating this, it would actually make perfect sense.

He immediately recalled the intelligence report on how Lin Haoran could so accurately predict the market.

Could it be… that his own meticulously planned scheme to suppress the stock price and create panic had instead played right into the other party’s hands, allowing Lin Haoran to increase his holdings at an even lower price?

And Motorola’s buyback—was that also prompted by Lin Haoran?

After all, Motorola and Lin Haoran were partners now!

If Lin Haoran had advised Motorola to repurchase its stock, it seemed both logical and reasonable!

The thought made Soros feel a surge of irritation, but if his guess was true, he would genuinely have to prostrate himself in admiration for Lin Haoran.

This was how the world worked: the strong always command respect.

Even if Lin Haoran was only in his twenties, while he himself was over fifty.

Soros quickly adjusted his mindset, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.

He gave a direct order, “Stop trying to pull the price down by selling shares. Any Motorola stock we sell will only benefit someone else. Trade freely. Today’s goal is to spend our entire 180 million US dollars!”

That was right. Quantum Fund planned to purchase a full 180 million US dollars’ worth of Motorola stock. Sixty million of that was their principal, and through three times leverage, they had mobilized 180 million dollars in capital.

Soros had originally planned to buy at the absolute bottom, but it now seemed that plan had been disrupted.

In the trading room, Quantum Fund’s analysts exchanged uneasy glances.

Chief Trader David hesitated, “George, isn’t changing our strategy now too risky? Our initial shorting setup…”

“It’s no longer a situation where we can push the price down just because we want to. There’s already an unknown force continuously accumulating shares, and now Motorola is buying back its own stock. If we wait any longer, our costs will only get higher!” Soros said, shaking his head.

He was a decisive man. Since he couldn’t get a lower price, he would buy as much as he could now while the price was still relatively low.

Moreover, the presence of the force he suspected was Lin Haoran’s, along with Motorola’s buyback, only strengthened his confidence in Motorola’s stock price for tomorrow.

If he wasn’t mistaken, things were just as he had thought: the initial pre-order lottery data for Motorola must be excellent!

In that case, Motorola’s stock would soon skyrocket.

So, no matter what, they wouldn’t lose money on this venture.

It was just that their goal was far from being met as expected.

On the market, the combined effect of the multiple forces began to show.

The panic selling was offset by the mysterious buy orders and the company’s repurchase program, while some astute outside capital, sensing the stock could fall no further, began to tentatively enter the market.

Although the rise was not significant, the “narrowing decline” and even “halted fall with a slight increase” after three consecutive days of sharp drops was enough to significantly raise the cost of Quantum Fund’s “bottom-fishing” efforts today.

“Fuck!” David cursed under his breath as he looked at the position report, which showed an average cost far higher than anticipated. “Where did they come from?! Our planned low-entry points are completely ruined!”

Soros stared at the slowly rising stock price curve on the simple screen, gradually calming down.

The first step of his carefully designed two-way harvest plan had been severely obstructed. The golden buying opportunity he had expected to easily exploit had been mostly filled in ahead of time.

Motorola’s uncanny resistance to falling and its eventual slight gain felt like a silent slap in the face to Quantum Fund, leaving many of its senior executives feeling incredibly stifled.

The amount of energy they had expended over the past few days to set up this play on Motorola was enormous.

On the surface, it seemed like institutions like theirs made money easily, but in reality, every cent of profit was backed by precise calculations and immense risk.

The workload, it could be said, was immense.

In contrast, Soros, the boss, gradually came to accept the situation.

Because he felt that if Lin Haoran was truly behind this, then everything that had happened was perfectly reasonable.

Time passed, and soon it was four o’clock in the afternoon in New York.

When the closing bell of the stock exchange rang, many people let out a deep sigh of relief.

The bustling trading floor seemed to hit a pause button, then erupted into a cacophony of discussion.

The electronic screen on the wall clearly displayed Motorola’s final closing data for the day.

After three consecutive days of a brutal plunge totaling 37%, the stock of the科技 giant was like a reef exposed after the tide recedes. Finally, buoyed by the combined forces of Soros’s team sweeping up shares, the subsequent mysterious buy orders, and the company’s own repurchase program, it had stubbornly halted its collapse.

Surprisingly, not only did the stock not continue its panic-driven fall, but it actually rose 5.1% against the trend compared to yesterday’s closing price.

This meant Motorola’s market capitalization had arduously climbed from a dire 3.1 billion US dollars at the open to about 3.25 billion.

This small yet pivotal gain landed like a resounding slap across the faces of those who had been convinced the crash would continue.

Many shareholders, especially those who had already sold their Motorola stock, now stared at the rising numbers with looks of utter confusion.

Just today, the news media and economic experts were still painting a bleak picture of Motorola’s future.

Some media outlets had even proclaimed that once Hong Kong Mobile Communications Company announced the pre-order a day tomorrow, Motorola’s stock would inevitably plummet!

Having watched Motorola’s stock fall for three straight days, many shareholders naturally believed these reports.

Thus, many had rushed to sell off their shares before the data release to mitigate their losses.

That was why, even with three major forces accumulating Motorola stock today, the price had only rebounded by 5.1%.

This closing result was a stark contrast to the market’s generally pessimistic expectations, especially after the brief bout of panic selling that occurred after the opening bell.

However, some institutions or market makers had already received news in advance.

Faced with a plummeting stock price, Motorola had conducted a buyback to stop the bleeding.

This was why many institutions and major players had stayed out of the market.

They felt that if Motorola’s buyback was merely a move to stop the decline, it wouldn’t be enough to prevent the stock from continuing to plummet tomorrow after the news was officially released!

All this intelligence seemed to come together, causing Motorola’s stock price to finally halt at this awkward and bewildering level.

In a commercial building on Seventh Avenue, in the conference room of Quantum Fund after the market close, Soros stared at the strange candlestick chart on a piece of A4 paper, his fingers tapping lightly on the tabletop.

His gaze swept over every member of his team in the trading room, and they all instinctively avoided his eyes.

However, at that moment, Soros actually broke into a smile.

Although Motorola’s stock price hadn’t continued to plummet today as he had expected, the company’s 180-million-dollar quota had been completely spent!

When they had borrowed the shares, Motorola’s market capitalization was as high as 4.9 billion US dollars.

Now, the average price of the shares they bought back had fallen by a full third!

Even if they returned the shares to the lending institutions right now, they would have already made a considerable profit.

Furthermore, while he had held some confidence that Motorola’s stock price would rise later, it had ultimately been just a guess.

Now, Motorola’s buyback and the actions of the force he suspected was the “Lin Haoran team” made him overwhelmingly confident that Motorola’s stock would soar tomorrow.

Seeing the gloomy faces of the senior executives around the conference table, he laughed heartily.

This laughter left all his subordinates bewildered.

They had expected their boss to unleash a furious tirade!

After all, their play on Motorola had indeed been somewhat of a failure. Their acquisition cost was too high, far from meeting their expectations. Even if Soros had started yelling to vent his frustration, it would have been normal.

But now, the boss’s reaction was clearly strange. Not only did he not scold them, but he was actually laughing.

“Gentlemen,” Soros spoke up suddenly, his voice carrying a rare lightness, “although today’s operation didn’t go entirely according to plan, our core objective has been achieved.”

He walked to the head of the conference table and looked around at his team members. “All 180 million dollars’ worth of shares are now in our hands, at an average cost of $42.30. Considering our prior short-selling profits, this is already a very substantial gain. So, there’s no need for any of you to be discouraged.”

The chief analyst pushed up his glasses. “George, do you really think tomorrow’s pre-order data will bring about a major stock price increase?”

Everyone present revered Soros, but it wasn’t as if Quantum Fund had never made a misstep.

Currently, they had indeed made money.

But their worry was that if there was more bad news from Motorola tomorrow, the stock price would surely plummet.

The number of shares they now held far exceeded what they had borrowed just a few days ago.

So, if Motorola’s stock continued to fall, even with their profits from shorting, they would be swallowed up by the losses from their newly acquired long position.

Soros stood up, walked to the window to look out at the New York dusk, a meaningful smile playing on his lips. “Do you all remember when we shorted silver in 1980?”

The veteran employees in the room nodded one after another.

That was one of Quantum Fund’s most classic victories, where they successfully predicted the bursting of the silver bubble.

“The market was in a frenzy back then too. Everyone thought silver would keep rising, but while the Hunt brothers were buying like mad, I saw the weakness behind them,” Soros continued.

He walked back to the conference table, his fingers tapping lightly on its surface. “The situation now is the exact opposite. The market is overwhelmingly pessimistic, yet three forces are accumulating shares in the dark—Motorola’s own buyback, a mysterious institutional buyer, and us, the Quantum Fund.”

“What does this tell you?” Soros looked around at everyone. “It tells you that the real smart money is entering the market.”

“Therefore, I am extremely confident. Just you wait and see. Tomorrow, Motorola will undoubtedly have major positive news to announce. In fact, we might even receive the news tonight, because a new day is about to begin over there in Hong Kong!”

Chapter 706: A Terrifying Surge in Stock Price, Motorola’s Market Capitalization Surpasses Ten Billion Dollars!

Lin Haoran never would have imagined that in his previous life, the renowned financial magnate George Soros would hold him in such high regard.

Even less could he have imagined that Soros had already deduced that the other party accumulating Motorola stock was none other than him, Lin Haoran!

Soros had even connected the dots and concluded that since Lin Haoran was secretly buying up Motorola shares, he must also be confident that Motorola’s stock was bound to rise.

Therefore, even though Lin Haoran had unintentionally turned the tables on him, making his plan less perfect than he had envisioned, Soros didn’t mind.

If Lin Haoran had known, he would have definitely been on his guard.

After all, Soros’s style was anything but that of a good man.

But in Soros’s eyes, weren’t he and Lin Haoran the same kind of person?

Both were hunters, skilled at planning strategy from behind the scenes in the capital markets.

They were indeed not the same as the stock market guru Warren Buffett.

If Lin Haoran had dutifully invested in blue-chip companies like Buffett, he would never have achieved his current success.

As night fell in New York, a new day was already dawning in Hong Kong.

On the morning of August 19th, the fifth day since mobile phones were officially launched for commercial use in Hong Kong, the service centers of the Hong Kong Mobile Communications Company were already teeming with people.

Ever since the Hong Kong Mobile Communications Company announced the “lottery system” for pre-orders, countless elites from all walks of life, businessmen, and even foreign investors had been eagerly waiting, hoping to become among the first users of the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X mobile phone.

At exactly nine in the morning, the staff at the service centers posted the list of lottery winners on the glass walls, causing an instant sensation.

“I won! I really won!” A senior executive from some corporation, dressed in a sharp suit, excitedly waved the certificate in his hand, his face beaming with excitement.

“How can there be so many people? Didn’t they say only one or two thousand people pre-ordered?” a citizen who hadn’t won mumbled to himself in disbelief, staring at the densely packed list of names.

At the same time, the Oriental Daily News front-page headline screamed:

“In Just Three Days, Pre-orders for Hong Kong Mobile Phones Surpass Nine Thousand! Far Exceeding Market Expectations!”

The Oriental Daily News was able to publish this news exclusively in today’s paper because it was a newspaper under Lin Haoran’s conglomerate, giving it a unique advantage.

Therefore, it was no surprise that today’s edition of the Oriental Daily News was also exceptionally popular.

This news exploded in Hong Kong like a bomb.

Admittedly, the exorbitant price had deterred many citizens from even thinking about entering the lottery. But just because they couldn’t afford it didn’t mean they weren’t paying attention to the matter, and besides, an issue of the Oriental Daily News was only one Hong Kong dollar.

They were reluctant to spend tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars, but hardly anyone cared about a single dollar.

Previously, many media outlets had predicted that due to the high price, getting two or three thousand pre-orders would be the absolute limit.

Although the Hongkong Telephone Company service centers had seemed packed with crowds every day, no one knew the actual pre-order numbers. This led many to believe that the crowds were either paid shills hired by the Hong Kong Mobile Communications Company or just onlookers.

However, the actual data stunned everyone—the total number of pre-orders was a staggering 9,089!

One must remember that it had been stated at the press conference that, due to various restrictions, the first batch of mobile phones would only be available to three thousand users!

The second batch was expected to be six months later.

And this number, from just three days of pre-orders, had far surpassed the three-thousand-person quota!

This was with only a short pre-order window. If it had been a month, or even six months, there would have been at least tens of thousands of customers!

At this moment, even local Hong Kong residents were astonished by the sheer number of wealthy people in the city.

In a tea house in Mong Kok, several middle-aged men sat around a table. One of them, looking at the Oriental Daily News in his hands, slammed the table and stood up abruptly. “This isn’t selling phones, it’s printing money!”

The middle-aged man next to him, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, quickly did the math. “The first batch is three thousand units, at sixty thousand each, that’s one hundred and eighty million. And that’s not even including the monthly subscription and call fees. If the second batch doubles in six months…” His voice began to tremble. “This business is more profitable than real estate speculation!”

Meanwhile, on a luxury yacht in Victoria Harbour, several senior executives from foreign banks were holding a breakfast meeting.

An English edition of the Oriental Daily News was being passed around. A Vice President from Société Générale put down his coffee cup and said meaningfully, “It seems we’ve underestimated the spending power of the Asian market.”

Hong Kong’s population of five million seemed substantial, but compared to other markets, it really wasn’t that large.

But when it came to purchasing power, everyone present was now deeply aware of Hong Kong’s capabilities.

“No wonder Mr. Robert Galvin of Motorola Company chose Hong Kong as the pilot for the commercialization of mobile phones. He truly had foresight,” another executive from a Swiss bank remarked with emotion. “The market potential here is more staggering than we imagined.”

“These British conglomerates have been withdrawing from the Hong Kong market for the last decade. What a foolish move. They’re abandoning a gold mine to go explore unknown markets,” a representative from an American-owned bank sneered, gently swirling the champagne in his glass. “It seems we at JPMorgan Chase need to accelerate our expansion in Hong Kong.”

The announcement of just the pre-order numbers had completely changed the perception of these foreign investors towards Hong Kong’s consumer market.

They had previously thought the market capacity of this small Eastern city was limited, but the data before them utterly overturned their understanding.

Over nine thousand pre-orders might not sound like a lot, but one had to remember that including the ten-thousand-dollar network access fee, each phone cost a staggering sixty thousand Hong Kong dollars.

This was equivalent to two years’ salary for an ordinary white-collar worker in Hong Kong at the time.

Moreover, once one became an actual mobile phone user, they would have to pay an additional monthly fee of over a thousand Hong Kong dollars for calls.

In other words, those who could afford it were at least millionaires.

Those with a net worth of a few hundred thousand could also afford it, but such cases were surely fewer.

From this, one could see that Hong Kong’s wealthy population was far larger than the outside world imagined.

“This data is staggering,” the Vice President from Société Générale said, putting down his calculator. “By this ratio, at least 3% of Hong Kong’s population has the spending power of a millionaire.”

With a population of five million, 3% meant over one hundred and fifty thousand people!

At least one hundred and fifty thousand people with the spending power of a millionaire—this was an absolutely terrifying figure.

If Brown from Standard Chartered Bank had been there, he would surely have been surprised and wary of their prediction.

After all, having acquired HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank held more detailed customer asset data for Hong Kong.

They knew very well that the concentration of wealth in Hong Kong was far greater than the outside world imagined.

With this group of foreign bankers now so optimistic about Hong Kong, wouldn’t it make the city’s banking industry even more fiercely competitive?

The main reason HSBC had been trying to shift its assets and truly internationalize these past few years wasn’t that they looked down on the Hong Kong market.

Rather, their development in Hong Kong had already hit a bottleneck. To break through it, they needed the international market. Furthermore, they couldn’t be certain about Hong Kong’s future.

These were the biggest reasons why HSBC wanted to go international.

As for why other British-owned companies were pulling out of Hong Kong, it was naturally because they couldn’t see the city’s future clearly and were making a choice to mitigate risks.

In the afternoon, at the Hongkong Telephone Company headquarters building.

Lin Haoran appeared in David’s office.

“Boss, our pre-order results have shocked all of Hong Kong. Everyone is talking about us. The winning customers have all completed the procedures to pay the balance and activate their service.

Also, we did a count, and of the nine thousand pre-order slots, we haven’t had a single person ask to get their ten-thousand-Hong-Kong-dollar deposit back. This means they will continue to participate in the next lottery. We’ve also opened up pre-orders for the next round.

I’ve heard that people on the market are offering one hundred thousand Hong Kong dollars just to buy a winning slot. I’ve already arranged for some media outlets we have good relationships with to start reporting heavily on this,” David reported excitedly upon seeing Lin Haoran.

The fact that almost everyone chose to continue participating in the next lottery was indeed far beyond their imagination.

After all, after the results of this lottery were announced, there were still nearly nine thousand pre-order customers who didn’t win.

For them to continue into the next round meant the number of participants would definitely explode, certainly surpassing ten thousand.

Furthermore, once the news of the one-hundred-thousand-Hong-Kong-dollar offer got out, it would definitely cause a stampede of people applying for pre-orders.

After all, if you won the lottery, you could sell your spot and double your money!

A slight smile played on Lin Haoran’s lips after hearing David’s report.

All of this was within his expectations.

From the moment he proposed the idea of “hunger marketing,” the mobile phone was destined to become a hot commodity in Hong Kong.

And he, naturally, had no intention of restricting such behavior.

In any case, the wealthy individuals he had good relationships with mostly had one already.

The senior executives of his various companies also mostly had one.

The three hundred units pre-ordered by the government had also been delivered.

From now on, let them speculate. It was all “market behavior”!

The initial pre-order of over nine thousand was already crazy.

If you added the frenzied “hunger marketing” hype on top of that, the subsequent numbers would be absolutely terrifying.

Let it get even more “crazy”!

At this moment, however, Lin Haoran’s mind was already in the United States.

By now, many media outlets in the United States must have learned about the situation in Hong Kong.

He grew even more expectant of how Motorola Company’s data would turn out.

After all, he had made some arrangements with Motorola’s stock.

“I hope the final returns will meet my expectations!” Lin Haoran murmured.

Su Zhixue had already reported to him that on August 17th, Universal Investment Company had increased its holdings by another 2.16%.

The reason for the smaller acquisition this time compared to the previous two days was that besides Motorola Company buying back its own shares, another party was also buying heavily, which greatly slowed down Universal Investment Company’s accumulation progress.

However, for Lin Haoran, this was all within his expectations.

He was already very satisfied with his current shareholding.

With this additional 2.16%, Universal Investment Company now held 16.51% of Motorola’s shares.

In addition to the 5.23% acquired earlier, the team had added another 11.28% in just four days.

The initial 5.23% was bought when the cost was relatively high, costing a full $251 million.

As for the 11.28% acquired over the past four days, since the stock price was lower each day, it only cost a total of $362 million. The average cost was much lower than the first 5.23%.

In other words, for this 16.51% stake, Universal Investment Company had spent a total of $613 million.

He just wondered, how high would Motorola Company’s stock eventually climb?

Lin Haoran’s anticipation grew.

After falling for so many days and being badmouthed by so many, it was obvious that Motorola’s rebound would exceed everyone’s imagination.

…

As evening settled over Hong Kong, on the other side of the globe, the sun was just rising in New York.

Before the morning mist in New York had completely dissipated, the hurricane of Motorola’s explosive pre-order results in Hong Kong had already swept through Wall Street.

When major American media outlets like The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and The New York Times all published the headline “Hong Kong Mobile Phone Pre-orders Far Exceed Estimates, Motorola’s New Product a Huge Hit” on their front pages, all the shareholders who had previously sold off their Motorola stock were filled with regret.

However, it was too late.

As for the shareholders who had chosen not to sell, they were now ecstatic.

Their gamble had paid off.

At Quantum Fund, the pre-market meeting was soon underway.

At this moment, the subordinates all looked at George Soros at the head of the table with adoration.

Soros had predicted all of this!

Many of them present had been worried that Motorola’s pre-order data would be dismal.

Therefore, they were more focused on the profits from shorting Motorola.

But unexpectedly, the result was just as the Boss had envisioned—Motorola’s pre-order data in Hong Kong had far exceeded expectations!

Soros sat at the head of the conference table, looking at his smiling subordinates with a victorious grin. “Gentlemen, ladies, do you now understand why I insisted on continuing to aggressively increase our position after buying back enough shares to cover our short?”

Although the stock market hadn’t opened yet, with their years of experience, they knew without a doubt that Motorola’s stock price would surge dramatically after the opening bell.

This meant their strategy of shorting first and then buying at the bottom was a resounding success, and they would reap double rewards.

Chief Trading Officer David shot up from his seat excitedly, his voice booming, “George, your judgment is simply brilliant! Not only did we make tens of millions of dollars from shorting, but after the market opens, the value of the shares we hold will definitely skyrocket! Our profits this time might even surpass the last ‘Silver Battle’!”

The Head of the Marketing Department chimed in, “Based on past experience, Motorola has been falling for several days. Today, it will definitely recover to its original price. And with this great news, the stock price will probably rise even more fiercely than we anticipated.

Just look at Hong Kong, an Asian city, with tens of thousands of potential customers. If they expand the mobile communications business to the United States, or even Europe, how massive would that market be? Even a fool can see that Motorola’s mobile phone project is a complete success!”

Though Soros also found it hard to conceal his excitement, he had gradually calmed down.

His gaze slowly swept over everyone present, and he said in a deep voice, “Everyone, now is not the time for celebratory toasts. After the market opens, we must keep a close eye on the trading dynamics and be sure to sell off our excess shares at the most opportune moment.

If we can win this battle smoothly, we will once again make a great name for ourselves in the financial world!”

“Yes!” everyone responded in unison.

“Meeting adjourned. Go and get ready. There are only ten minutes until the opening bell!” Soros said, glancing at his watch.

When the bell of the New York Stock Exchange rang, everyone knew that a new trading day had begun.

Sure enough, as soon as the market opened, Motorola’s stock price shot up like a rocket into the sky.

In just three minutes, the price had surged by 35%, and the trading floor instantly erupted.

“Buy! Buy it all!” yelled Tom, a trader at Morgan Stanley, his voice raw as trading slips flew from his hands like snowflakes.

Soros stood in Quantum Fund’s trading room, his eyes glued to the steep upward curve on the electronic screen.

He picked up the intercom and calmly issued an order: “Don’t rush to sell. Continue to monitor the rising data.”

A 35% surge in just three minutes was enough to show how frenzied the shareholders were.

Of course, Soros also knew that many major powers were definitely involved in this.

After all, the success of Motorola’s new product meant that its future profitability would be much greater than they had imagined.

More profit was naturally good news.

Just like IBM, whose profitability from mainframe computers was far ahead of others. Combined with its role in starting the personal computer revolution and its market leadership, these factors were enough to drive IBM’s performance and stock price sky-high, making it the second-largest listed company in the United States.

And today’s Motorola was so similar to IBM!

Why was it that Motorola, despite its high standing in the tech industry, had a stock price far lower than IBM’s in the past?

The reason was simply that Motorola had invested far too much capital over the years in R&D for technologies like mobile phones and the cellular mobile communications network. This led to its annual financial reports looking unimpressive; even with high revenues, its profits were very low.

But now, things were different. Motorola, as a pioneer of the mobile phone revolution, would surely experience a dual explosion in both performance and stock price, just like IBM!

Ordinary shareholders could see this, and so could investment-focused firms.

What’s more, many of today’s newspapers had provided detailed analyses on this, making even those shareholders who hadn’t thought of it deeply aware of this point.

Therefore, after the market opened, Motorola’s stock price surged wildly.

Just ten minutes after the opening, Motorola’s stock price had returned to its peak, even breaking a market capitalization of $5 billion.

However, at this moment, there were far more buy orders for Motorola stock than sell orders.

Many of the shares being traded belonged to poor souls who had placed pending sell orders the day before and hadn’t had time to cancel them.

One hour after the market opened, Motorola’s market capitalization had reached $78.2 billion.

Keep in mind, at the close of the previous day, Motorola’s total market cap was only $32.5 billion.

At this point, the stock price had more than just doubled.

Furthermore, judging by the trading volume, a market cap of $78.2 billion was definitely not today’s high point.

The trading volume continued to increase. At this moment, the shareholders at the New York Stock Exchange seemed to have gone mad.

Driven by certain interested parties, the stock price kept setting new records.

Originally, although Motorola was a famous American tech giant, in terms of total market capitalization, it only ranked in the thirties.

Even the market caps of companies like Procter & Gamble, 3M Company, Johnson & Johnson, and Kodak Company were much higher.

But driven by this wave of stock price surge, Motorola’s market cap continuously reached new highs, surpassing one listed company after another, soon entering the top twenty.

And its ranking was still climbing.

Pushed by ordinary shareholders, fund companies, investment firms, large conglomerates, and others, Motorola was surpassing one previously far-ahead listed company after another at a miraculous speed.

As four o’clock in the afternoon approached, Motorola’s market capitalization had already broken the ten billion dollar mark.

This figure was like a bombshell, sending tumultuous waves through Wall Street and even the global financial markets.

Inside the exchange, cheers and shouts intertwined. Traders were in a frenzy, the sound of keyboards clicking and phones ringing rising and falling, as if playing a frenetic symphony of wealth.

“This is just insane! Motorola is about to take off!” a young shareholder said, his eyes wide with disbelief as he stared at the constantly jumping numbers on the screen.

“Hmph, this is nothing! With the current momentum, it’s still rising fiercely. It’s far from the peak!” A seasoned old-timer next to him smirked, a greedy glint in his eyes.

He had snatched up quite a few shares as the price rose. Even though his purchase price was high, based on the current price, it had already increased by about 50%.

In other words, if he sold now, he would make a direct 50% profit on this investment.

Who would have thought that Motorola, which had been badmouthed by numerous media outlets for days, would stage such a massive comeback? This was undoubtedly a huge slap in the face for those who were pessimistic about it.

As for the shareholders who had panic-sold their Motorola stock earlier, “regret” was not enough to describe their feelings. They were convinced they had been outmaneuvered by a scheme set up by capital!

When the clock struck four in the afternoon, the bell of the Stock Exchange rang right on time.

This marked the official end of today’s stock market trading.

At this moment, Motorola’s market capitalization had reached a terrifying $101.6 billion.

According to market capitalization rankings, Motorola had now entered 13th place, replacing the DuPont Company, which was originally thirteenth.

Ahead of it, in 11th and 12th place, were Mobil Corporation and Mobil Oil Corporation, with market caps of $103 billion and $102 billion respectively.

In other words, when the stock market next opens, Motorola has a great chance of replacing these two companies.

It wasn’t even impossible for it to enter the top ten.

Chapter 707: A Massive 5.5 Billion Profit, Lin Haoran Feasts While Soros Gets the Scraps!

Inside a medium-sized conference room at Motorola headquarters, the air was filled with joyous laughter.

Just a few days ago, Motorola’s stock had been dropping day by day in one of its worst slumps in recent years.

If anyone was under pressure, it was undoubtedly these Motorola executives.

Who would have thought that Motorola’s market capitalization would now break through ten billion US dollars, making it the 13th-ranked publicly listed company in the United States?

Although whether they could maintain this market cap was another matter, it didn’t change the fact that Motorola had surpassed the ten-billion-dollar mark.

Inside the conference room, executives raised their glasses in celebration, their faces beaming with long-lost smiles.

President Robert Galvin, flushed with success, raised his champagne flute and scanned every executive present, his voice loud and confident, “Ladies and gentlemen, we did it!”

The room erupted in thunderous applause and cheers.

Just the day before, he had succumbed to pressure and authorized a one-hundred-million-dollar share buyback, a move that was met with considerable skepticism at the time.

After all, everyone in the United States knew that Motorola’s cash flow wasn’t particularly abundant. They had multiple laboratories and R&D labs to support, places that were burning through money every day.

One hundred million dollars was no small sum for Motorola.

But Robert Galvin overruled all objections and insisted on executing the buyback plan.

He had decided to follow Lin Haoran’s advice.

“This proves that our decision was correct!” Robert Galvin’s voice was full of passion. “The market has recognized our value once again, and investors have regained their confidence. This is not just an affirmation of our technology, but also a reward for our team’s belief!”

“Of course, most importantly, we must thank the new member of our Board of Directors, Mr. Lin Haoran!” Robert Galvin added pointedly at the end.

When they initiated the buyback yesterday, Motorola’s market cap had fallen into the range of 3 to 3.25 billion dollars.

With one hundred million dollars, their company managed to buy back a full 3.3% of Motorola’s shares.

If they were to sell these shares today at the peak market cap, they would be worth 335 million dollars, a direct net profit of 235 million dollars!

Two hundred and thirty-five million US dollars! This was an absolutely enormous figure. Even for a company like Motorola, this sum was far from insignificant.

It meant they could channel this unexpected windfall into more R&D investment and market expansion.

Although these shares were still on the company’s books and hadn’t been cashed out, they could be liquidated at any time as long as the company’s stock price remained stable.

Robert Galvin was beaming, his voice slightly raised with excitement. “Everyone, this 235-million-dollar profit can be invested directly into our new generation of analog mobile phone networks, making our signal more stable and our coverage wider!” He turned to the R&D Director, “David, wasn’t your team always complaining about insufficient R&D funds? Well, that problem is now solved!”

David stood up excitedly. “This funding couldn’t have come at a better time. Although we are a world leader in the mobile communications sector, our competitors are reverse-engineering our products and catching up fast now that we’ve launched. Therefore, our top priority is to continue developing the next generation of products to maintain our leading edge!”

The conference room once again erupted in enthusiastic applause.

“Mr. Galvin, your decision to partner with Mr. Lin Haoran in Hong Kong was simply brilliant. Now that he’s a member of our Board of Directors and a major shareholder, I believe it was the right move. A prodigy like Mr. Lin is someone Motorola should value greatly!” one of the senior executives remarked emotionally.

This statement received unanimous agreement from everyone present.

If Lin Haoran hadn’t appeared, their Motorola DynaTAC 8000X would not have been officially released until 1983.

And Motorola’s market capitalization would likely have remained lukewarm, a valuation that simply didn’t match Motorola’s status as a tech tycoon.

But now, the pre-order results had far exceeded their wildest imaginations.

After all, Motorola was the biggest beneficiary of the successful launch of the DynaTAC 8000X.

While the mobile communications business in Hong Kong was handled by the Hong Kong Mobile Communications Company, Motorola was the one making the most from the DynaTAC 8000X handsets themselves. The joint venture was merely earning a margin on the sales and the future monthly service fees.

“Yes, Mr. Lin is a true business genius. His ability to make money is just incredible. We should do everything we can to win him over. It’s a pity Mr. Lin is based in Hong Kong. Otherwise, I think bringing him into Motorola’s management would be a huge asset to our company!” another senior executive said with some regret.

A glint flashed in Robert Galvin’s eyes as an idea suddenly struck him. “Distance shouldn’t be an obstacle. Since Mr. Lin’s value is so significant, we can create a special position for him—Global Strategic Vice President, permanently based in the Hong Kong office, to manage Motorola’s operations in Asia.”

The room immediately broke into low murmurs.

Chief Financial Officer Mary quickly flipped through some documents. “According to the company charter, there is no rule stipulating that senior executives must work from the United States mainland…”

“Mr. Galvin, as far as I know, Mr. Lin owns several large enterprises, one of which, the Hongkong Land Group, is no less impressive than our Motorola Company. We may have this idea, but he might not necessarily agree,” a senior executive said with a wry smile.

This time, Lin Haoran’s advice had truly won over all the senior executives present.

A net profit of over two hundred million US dollars from the share buyback—that was worth more than a billion Hong Kong dollars.

“We’ll discuss this later. I will bring it up with Mr. Lin the next time we meet,” Robert Galvin said after some thought.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” Robert Galvin said as everyone fell silent.

At a time like this, no one would interrupt them unless it was something important.

The conference room door opened, and Robert Galvin’s assistant walked in.

“Mr. President, esteemed executives, we’ve just received news from New York: Quantum Fund has announced that they have made a total profit of 250 million US dollars from the recent surge in Motorola’s stock price.

“According to reports, when our stock price was still at a normal level, they borrowed our company’s shares from several brokerage firms and promptly sold them off. When the price hit its low, they bought them back in large quantities. Now, as the price soared to its peak, they sold everything again, transforming themselves into the biggest winner of this Motorola stock rally.

“Based on this information, we have reason to believe that the previous plunge in Motorola’s stock price was very likely orchestrated by Quantum Fund from behind the scenes!” the assistant announced quickly and clearly, facing all the senior executives present.

Hearing this, the executives in the room were instantly in an uproar.

They had long noticed that the recent media sentiment was off, and had even suspected Lin Haoran of being the manipulator behind it, especially since he was the one who delayed the lottery results by two days.

They never expected the truth to be that Quantum Fund was the one stirring up trouble.

With this revelation, everything made sense.

Quantum Fund was “infamous” in the financial industry. Their standard practice was to rake in exorbitant profits by manipulating stock prices, futures, and the like.

“These vampires of the financial world are the absolute scum of the scum!” one executive, his face pale with anger, cursed through gritted teeth.

He was particularly incensed that Quantum Fund had not only profited handsomely from the turmoil but had made even more than they did.

At the same time, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy at how quickly financial capital could be generated.

They, who worked in the real economy, toiled away developing new products with no guarantee of a return.

Yet, institutions like Quantum Fund, which could turn the financial markets upside down, were able to amass immense wealth in a short time through clever capital manipulation and a keen market sense. This stark contrast left many of the executives in the room with mixed feelings.

In reality, if Quantum Fund hadn’t needed to return some of the shares to the brokerage firms and hadn’t used leverage for some of its capital, their profits would have been even more astounding.

Over the past few days, they had been tormented by Motorola’s plummeting stock price, with shareholders calling almost daily to call someone to account.

Fortunately, Robert Galvin had been in Hong Kong a few days prior and then on a plane, so he had escaped the worst of the pressure.

Everyone understood why Quantum Fund would dare to publicize the matter. The reason was simple: to boost their own reputation.

Institutions like Quantum Fund, accustomed to stirring up trouble in the financial markets, were never afraid to expose their own shady dealings. In fact, they treated such “results” as bragging rights to attract more high-risk, high-reward investors, thereby accumulating more capital and support for their next “hunt.”

Moreover, Quantum Fund never explicitly claimed they were behind the manipulation. Without evidence, no one could do anything to them.

“How can Quantum Fund be so brazen? Are we just going to let them do whatever they want?” A fiery young executive slammed his hand on the table and shot up, his face flushed with indignation, his eyes practically spitting fire.

Robert Galvin raised a hand slightly, signaling for him to calm down.

Then, he spoke slowly, “Anger solves nothing. Although they profited handsomely this time, it has also served as a wake-up call for us. Motorola can no longer be as defenseless in the financial markets as before.

“We need to assemble a professional finance team to monitor our stock price in real-time, analyze market trends, and prepare in advance for all kinds of risks.

“But, to be honest, we should also thank Quantum Fund. If they hadn’t suppressed our stock price, Motorola wouldn’t have had the opportunity to buy back shares and make a hefty profit, right?”

The atmosphere in the room eased slightly at Robert Galvin’s words, which were both teasing and profound.

“Mr. President, our company’s market cap may have broken one hundred billion dollars, but can we really maintain it?” an executive asked doubtfully.

After all, their previous peak market capitalization had never surpassed fifty billion dollars; it had barely even approached that figure.

Now, the market cap was more than double its previous peak.

It was only natural for them to lack confidence.

“Rest assured, the success of the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X will only increase shareholders’ confidence in us. Our market cap will only get higher!” Robert Galvin said, full of confidence.

His confidence stemmed from the “hunger marketing” strategy Lin Haoran had mentioned to him.

He believed that with this marketing tactic, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was destined to become a phenomenal blockbuster product, continuously bringing massive profits and immense attention to Motorola, thereby stabilizing and even increasing its market capitalization.

“However,” Robert Galvin changed his tone, his expression turning serious, “we cannot rely solely on this one product. Although the current situation is excellent, the unpredictable nature of the financial markets and our competitors who eye covetously demand that we have more comprehensive plans and response strategies.”

While Motorola was holding its meeting, Quantum Fund in New York was holding one of their own.

At this moment, George Soros was in high spirits. The colossal 250-million-dollar profit had just shattered Quantum Fund’s all-time record for a single investment.

In the conference room, the faces of Quantum Fund’s core executives were beaming with excitement.

This time, they hadn’t been greedy. They started to gradually sell off their Motorola stock when the company’s market cap reached eighty to ninety billion dollars.

For Quantum Fund, they never bothered with long-term investments. They pursued maximum profit in the shortest possible time.

Whether Motorola’s stock price would continue to rise in the future was no longer any of their concern.

Because they never focused their attention on just one company.

Soros sat at the head of the table. With a slight turn of his head, he could take in the picturesque sunset over New York’s Seventh Avenue.

Just an hour ago, they had announced the full details of their profits to the public. The news hit like a bombshell, instantly sending tumultuous waves throughout Wall Street.

And he, George Soros, had once again become famous for this achievement, his name echoing in every corner of Wall Street.

Two hundred and fifty million US dollars! Looking back on his decades-long career in finance, he had never fought such a satisfying and richly rewarding “battle.”

It was not hard to predict that after this victory, the scale of their fund’s capital would snowball dramatically, reaching a terrifying, jaw-dropping level. After all, this resounding success would surely convince countless investors to trust Quantum Fund and confidently entrust their capital to their management.

And Quantum Fund, riding the tailwinds of this glorious “battle,” would catapult from being a well-known name to one of the undisputed tycoons of the fund industry!

At this moment, the image of that young Chinese man once again surfaced in his mind.

“When I have the time, I must personally visit Hong Kong to meet this Mr. Lin Haoran and see what kind of extraordinary person he is,” Soros murmured.

It might seem like Quantum Fund was the biggest winner this time, but only Soros knew that if the force that had been secretly accumulating Motorola’s stock a few days ago was Lin Haoran, then Lin Haoran was the true big winner.

It was just that he had no proof it was Lin Haoran’s doing.

It was all just speculation.

But despite being speculation, Soros was already quite certain.

“Boss, after this, our company’s reputation on Wall Street has become even more notorious,” a subordinate said with a frown.

They had indeed made a fortune this time and made a name for themselves throughout the financial industry, but their reputation had only worsened.

Soros roared with laughter and, crossing his legs, said, “Reputation? On Wall Street, profit is the best reputation.” He glanced around at the executives present. “Do you think those holier-than-thou investment banks are clean? They’re just better at hiding it than we are.”

Chief Analyst Mark Schwartz immediately chimed in, “The boss is right. After this operation, seven pension funds have already contacted us, hoping to entrust us with their asset management. The total amount is…” He glanced at the data. “Over 500 million US dollars.”

Head of Trading Jack Peterson let out a whistle. “Looks like even those holier-than-thou institutions are secretly craving high returns.”

“Hahaha.” Hearty laughter filled the conference room.

As expected, many shareholders now despised them, and they had become the biggest scapegoat.

But Soros couldn’t care less.

Even if everyone knew he was the one pulling the strings, there was no proof. They hadn’t used Quantum Fund’s name to fan the flames and badmouth Motorola.

They had merely conducted “reasonable” investment operations at the opportune moment.

Even the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, and others couldn’t touch him.

After all, in this world, everything required evidence.

After Quantum Fund announced its profits, even though everyone was well aware that Motorola’s stock crash was caused by Quantum Fund’s secret manipulation, they were powerless without concrete proof.

At this moment, the hearty laughter of his subordinates echoed through the conference room.

Soros stood up and slowly walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, his gaze fixed on the city of New York, which was gradually being illuminated by brilliant lights.

He crossed his arms, a meaningful smile playing on his lips, and murmured in a voice so low only he could hear, “The rules of the game on Wall Street have always been like this. Those who point fingers at us are just green with envy of our success.”

The thought of that incredible profit crossed Soros’s mind again. Two hundred and fifty million US dollars! He had never fought such a lucrative battle. Even though he had already made a name for himself on Wall Street, he couldn’t help the slight tremor in his hands from the excitement.

Thrilling, absolutely thrilling!

As soon as the thought passed, Soros could no longer contain his ecstasy and burst into a hearty laugh.

His cheerful laughter instantly mingled with the laughter of his other subordinates, echoing in every corner of the conference room.

Meanwhile, affected by the time difference, Lin Haoran was still fast asleep.

As for the situation in the United States, he knew that no matter how high Motorola’s market cap rose, it wouldn’t come crashing down like that again.

After all, with the popularization of mobile phones, Motorola would further solidify its position as a tycoon in the tech industry.

Therefore, he was in no hurry to sell his shares. He had already informed Su Zhixue to simply keep a close eye on the stock price without taking any other action.

And so, even as Motorola’s stock soared today, Universal Investment Company had bided its time, not selling a single share.

Unless it was an extraordinary situation, Su Zhixue would not deliberately call his boss in the middle of the night in Hong Kong.

The morning sun shone on a luxurious villa on Severn Road.

When Lin Haoran’s biological clock woke him up on time, the sunlight from outside had already cast a soft glow across the entire bedroom.

He stretched, got up, and pulled open the curtains. In the distance, the turquoise waters of Victoria Harbour sparkled with flecks of gold in the morning light.

Guo Xiaohan was not beside him; she hadn’t returned last night, having dutifully gone back to accompany her mother.

“Looks like another beautiful day,” Lin Haoran said with a slight smile, turning towards the bathroom.

After he had washed up, a servant had already brought up breakfast and the newspapers.

Lin Haoran picked up a fried dough stick and was about to open a copy of the Oriental Daily News when the landline on the side table began to ring.

“Huh?” Lin Haoran glanced at the phone. Who had timed this so perfectly? How did they know he was right next to the landline at this exact moment?

Though slightly surprised, he placed the fried dough stick and newspaper on the coffee table, walked over, and picked up the telephone receiver.

“Boss, it’s me, Su Zhixue,” came Su Zhixue’s voice from the other end.

A sudden realization dawned on Lin Haoran. No wonder.

“It’s about Motorola’s stock, isn’t it? Let me guess, its market cap has more than doubled?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

“Boss, you guessed right. Motorola’s market cap didn’t just soar, it broke through 100 billion dollars. At closing, the market cap reached 10.16 billion dollars, catapulting it to the 13th position among listed companies in the United States. Right now, the entire U.S. stock market is in an uproar!” Su Zhixue said with a laugh.

“One hundred and one-point-six billion dollars?” Although he knew Motorola’s stock would surge, hearing that it had reached such a figure in just one trading day was indeed a little surprising.

After all, the day before, Motorola’s market cap had only been 3.25 billion dollars.

“Also, there’s some news that’s causing a huge stir over here in New York, and I think you’ll definitely be interested. You’ve been wondering these past few days who was manipulating public opinion from behind the scenes, spreading all that pessimism about Motorola.

“Well, not long after the market closed today, Quantum Fund announced that they successfully made 250 million dollars during this fluctuation in Motorola’s stock price by first shorting it and then buying at the bottom.

“Now, Quantum Fund has caused a sensation throughout the entire US financial circle, becoming one of the hottest fund companies on Wall Street,” Su Zhixue continued to report.

“Quantum Fund? The one belonging to Soros?” Lin Haoran’s heart skipped a beat as he recalled the infamous financial magnate from his previous life.

“That’s right. The boss of Quantum Fund is none other than Mr. George Soros,” Su Zhixue stated directly.

“Alright, I understand,” Lin Haoran replied, lost in thought.

“Based on our current holdings in Motorola, this 16.51% stake has a market value of about 1.677 billion US dollars. If this news were to get out, it would definitely cause another huge uproar in the United States.

“Compared to this, the 250 million dollars Mr. Soros made is really nothing to write home about. Boss, you’re still the master!” Su Zhixue couldn’t help but exclaim.

Though amazed, Su Zhixue, who had followed Lin Haoran all this time, was already accustomed to his boss’s foresight regarding market trends.

Lin Haoran let out a soft chuckle but said nothing.

“By the way, Boss, after the market closed today, I noticed that the number of pending buy orders for Motorola is still quite substantial. So, based on these orders, if there are no unexpected developments, Motorola’s stock price will likely continue to rise slightly on the next trading day,” Su Zhixue reported.

“Alright, thanks for your hard work. You can get back to what you were doing!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Putting down the telephone receiver, Lin Haoran fell into deep thought.

He had been pondering who was pulling the strings behind the scenes all these days. He never imagined it would be the renowned Soros.

But on second thought, it made perfect sense.

After all, wasn’t this exactly Soros’s style?

“I can’t believe the mastermind was actually Soros! But then again, I really should ‘thank’ Mr. Soros. If he hadn’t stirred things up like that in the United States, how could Motorola’s stock have fallen so hard, and how would I have had the chance to make such a huge profit? Haha!” In the third-floor sitting room of the villa, Lin Haoran suddenly burst into loud laughter.

Previously, Su Zhixue had reported to Lin Haoran in detail that Universal Investment Company had sunk a total of 613 million US dollars to acquire the 16.51% stake in Motorola.

Now, although these shares had not yet been cashed out, if calculated at the current market value, just as Su Zhixue had said, their value had soared to 1.677 billion US dollars.

Subtracting the initial purchase cost, he had directly netted a profit of approximately 1.064 billion US dollars!

Heh, this feeling of making money was just too exhilarating, too awesome!

At the current exchange rate, one US dollar was roughly equivalent to 5.2 Hong Kong dollars.

By that calculation, if he could sell all these shares at the current market value, he would directly earn 5.5 billion Hong Kong dollars, a truly considerable fortune.

It was just a pity that Soros’s move had been too sudden, giving him no opportunity to plan ahead.

Otherwise, he could have shorted Motorola along with him and possibly earned even more than he did now.

But even so, he had no regrets and was quite satisfied with his current returns.

In this Motorola stock investment, he, Lin Haoran, was undoubtedly the biggest winner.

In contrast, although Soros had also made a huge profit, a full 250 million US dollars, he was clearly destined to be the biggest “scapegoat” in this episode of Motorola’s stock collapse.

With such a shield, no one would naturally follow the trail to his, Lin Haoran’s, doorstep.

Moreover, the gap between 250 million US dollars and the 1 billion Lin Haoran earned was more than just a little bit.

The situation was as if he, Lin Haoran, was feasting on meat, while Soros could only sip some of the broth on the side.

The best part was that Soros had handled all the trickiest and most troublesome parts of this “play,” and had even actively publicized it.

As for Lin Haoran himself, although he had deliberately postponed Motorola’s lottery by two days, which could be seen as coordinating with Soros’s actions.

But to outsiders, this was a completely normal operation that wouldn’t arouse anyone’s suspicion.

After all, there was no connection between him and Soros. In the end, this was purely a stroke of luck!

Chapter 708: The Next Step, a Full-Scale Siege?

Reports of Motorola’s stock surge were mentioned in Hong Kong newspapers, but only in passing, tucked away in obscure corners.

The reason was simple: this was Hong Kong, after all, and very few people traded US stocks.

Even those who did had their own sources of information.

In other words, whether Motorola’s stock rose or fell, not many people in Hong Kong paid attention to it. It was niche news.

Of course, if word got out that Lin Haoran had made a huge profit from it, it would undoubtedly cause a sensation throughout Hong Kong, and the newspapers would be eager to report on it extensively.

However, he would never publicize such a matter. It was better to make money quietly, especially when it came to fleecing American investors. It was not something to be broadcast.

He wasn’t Soros; he had no need for fame in the financial industry.

As the price of the stocks he held soared, Lin Haoran was in an exceptionally good mood.

After finishing breakfast, he went straight to the Wanqing Building.

Inside the President’s office at the Wanqing Group headquarters.

When Lin Haoran arrived, Burton was at his desk, writing something.

Seeing Lin Haoran, Burton couldn’t help but look surprised.

After all, ever since the acquisition of the Hongkong Land Group, the Boss rarely seemed to come here anymore.

Despite his surprise, Burton quickly stood up and hurried outside to greet Lin Haoran.

“Boss, what a rare sight! This must be your third time here this year, right?” Burton laughed heartily.

“Mr. Burton, it’s a sign of my trust in you. With you at Wanqing Group, I can rest easy!” Lin Haoran said with a smile, looking at the “95 Loyalty” displayed above Burton’s head.

A loyalty of 95 was indeed high enough for him to trust Burton completely. It was an extremely high number.

He remembered that when he saw him last year, the man’s loyalty was only at 92. He had thought it had stabilized, but unexpectedly, it had risen by three points over the past year.

If he couldn’t trust such a loyal subordinate, who could he trust?

“Just hearing you say that, Boss, makes all my hard work this year worth it!” Burton said, moved, as he quickly ushered Lin Haoran into the office.

In fact, Lin Haoran’s top lieutenants had long felt his trust in them, especially in how he delegated authority in corporate management.

Even though the Boss possessed a business acumen they couldn’t hope to match, he was still willing to entrust them with managing the companies. This naturally made them feel both touched and motivated.

Although Lin Haoran rarely visited the Wanqing Group headquarters, it didn’t mean he was uninformed about its affairs.

Burton would periodically either go to the Connaught Centre in person or call Lin Haoran directly to report on recent developments.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was well-aware of the situation at Wanqing Group’s subsidiaries, such as Wan’an Real Estate Company, Green Island Cement, and Kowloon Motor Bus.

The Wanqing Building itself was formerly the illustrious Federation Building in Central.

Back then, Lin Haoran had seized the opportune moment to acquire both the Federation Building and the International Building from Wheelock and Company in a “package deal” for one billion Hong Kong dollars.

Unexpectedly, in less than a year, he sold the International Building alone to the Carrian Group for a high price of 1.068 billion Hong Kong dollars. In Lin Haoran’s eyes, the Carrian Group was a total “sucker.”

By that calculation, the deal was an absolute steal!

Not only did Lin Haoran essentially get the Federation Building for free, but he also made an extra 68 million Hong Kong dollars. He had made a huge profit.

After acquiring the Federation Building, Lin Haoran felt that the building, which had held the title of Hong Kong’s tallest commercial building in the 1960s, was a perfect fit for the Wanqing Group’s image and made it the group’s headquarters.

From then on, the Federation Building was officially renamed the Wanqing Building.

Lin Haoran walked to the office window and looked east, where the silhouette of the Connaught Centre was particularly conspicuous.

The straight-line distance between the two buildings was only about three to five hundred meters. It would only take a few minutes to walk from here to the Connaught Centre.

“Boss, Green Island Cement’s expansion in Southeast Asia has basically hit a bottleneck, and it’s difficult to make any further breakthroughs. Therefore, I plan to expand into Japan. Hongkong Land Group also has a considerable presence in Japan, which would help Green Island Cement cover the Japanese market. What do you think, Boss?” Burton walked to Lin Haoran’s side, his gaze also fixed on the view outside the window.

Two years ago, Green Island Cement began its large-scale push into Southeast Asia. With the help of the Guo family, it had indeed been very smooth.

To date, Green Island Cement had become the second-best-selling cement brand in the Philippines and number one in Singapore.

In addition, it ranked between second and fifth in countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand.

However, due to various factors, including policy, it had become difficult for Green Island Cement to expand its market share any further in these countries.

Therefore, Burton, unwilling to let Green Island Cement’s expansion stall, set his sights on the Japanese market.

After all, if you were to rank countries by their infrastructure frenzy during this era, Japan would definitely be in the top three globally.

The reason Lin Haoran had promoted Burton to general manager of Green Island Cement and then step by step to President of the Wanqing Group was because he valued Burton’s ability to develop overseas markets when he was the Deputy General Manager of Green Island Cement.

And Burton did not disappoint Lin Haoran’s expectations. After taking full control of Green Island Cement, he quickly led the company to open up the Southeast Asian market.

Today, Green Island Cement had long become the most profitable enterprise under the Wanqing Group.

The financial report for the first half of this year showed that Green Island Cement’s profits from January to June amounted to a staggering 368 million Hong Kong dollars.

This meant that even if the profits for the second half of the year were similar, Green Island Cement could earn over 700 million Hong Kong dollars this year.

This was no small sum. It was, after all, the profit for just one year.

If these figures were made public and Green Island Cement were to be relisted in Hong Kong, its market capitalization would easily reach five billion Hong Kong dollars based on its current performance.

Of course, Lin Haoran had no intention of relisting it. He never did things that brought no benefit.

Going public was for financing and for better development. It was something many companies had to do to break through their current bottlenecks when they encountered them.

Clearly, Lin Haoran was not short on cash now, so he had no reason to have Green Island Cement go public again.

Lin Haoran turned around and looked at Burton with a smile. “Entering the Japanese market is indeed a good idea. However, the Japanese market is completely different from Southeast Asia. Have you formulated a strategy?”

Burton immediately took out the documents he had prepared. “Boss, I’ve already done detailed research. The Japanese construction industry has extremely high standards for cement quality, but their production capacity for high-end cement is limited. Our newly developed G80 high-strength cement can fill this gap perfectly.”

Lin Haoran flipped through the materials, nodding from time to time. “Not bad, this research is very comprehensive. However,” he closed the file, “the Japanese market is very exclusive. It won’t be easy to find a reliable partner.”

Although Hongkong Land Group was currently focusing on real estate development in Japan and had even acquired Chowa Real Estate Company there, which would provide a stable market for Green Island Cement, it wasn’t enough.

Relying solely on Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch would not allow Green Island Cement to grow big and strong in Japan. Staying within its sister company’s small domain wouldn’t be very meaningful.

Furthermore, as an economic powerhouse, Japan’s market for basic building materials like cement was fiercely competitive. Local giants like Onoda Cement and Mitsubishi Materials had a near-monopoly on the market.

In fact, these cement brands also had their eyes on the Southeast Asian market and would inevitably become competitors to Green Island Cement in the future.

Burton responded, confident of success, “Boss, last month I went to Japan for a two-day inspection trip. Leveraging the favor you have in Japan, I’ve already made initial contact with Sumitomo Realty & Development. They are very interested in our specialty cement.

“Especially our newly developed seawater corrosion-resistant cement, which is perfectly suited for Japan’s coastal construction needs. While we might not be able to compete with local Japanese brands in ordinary cement, we have a real opportunity to open up the market in the specialty cement sector.”

In the first half of this year, Lin Haoran had earned a massive profit of hundreds of billions of Japanese yen through his precise investment in Toyota stock, making a name for himself in the Japanese business world. Almost every Japanese conglomerate had heard of this new investment star from Hong Kong.

At the time, even the president of Sumitomo Realty & Development had personally visited, sincerely hoping to purchase Toyota shares from Lin Haoran.

Although the deal ultimately fell through, the investment vision and business acumen Lin Haoran displayed had left an extremely deep impression on the president of Sumitomo Realty & Development.

Therefore, it was not surprising that when Lin Haoran arranged for Burton to contact Sumitomo Realty & Development, they would give him this favor and proceed with smooth negotiations.

Lin Haoran’s eyes lit up. “Sumitomo Realty & Development? That’s a core enterprise of one of Japan’s five largest conglomerates. Their Sumitomo Realty & Development is also a top-three player in the Japanese real estate industry. They’ve been acquiring land on a large scale across Japan since the 1970s, involving core cities like Tokyo and Osaka. If we can partner with them, we’ll certainly get twice the result with half the effort.”

Although the market share for specialty cement might not be as large as imagined, as long as they could build their brand name in Japan through Sumitomo Realty & Development and Hongkong Land Group’s Japan company, the future prospects for Green Island Cement in Japan would be limitless.

Lin Haoran was very enthusiastic about making money from the Japanese.

“Yes, Boss,” Burton said excitedly. “They are sending a technical team to inspect our factory next month. Moreover, Hongkong Land Group’s land reclamation project in Tokyo Bay can serve as a perfect showcase for us.”

Lin Haoran was aware of this. Two months ago, Fok Kin-ning had reported to him that Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch had won a bid for a piece of land for reclamation by the sea in Tokyo Bay’s Minato Ward at a low price. As long as Hongkong Land Group reclaimed the land and paid a certain fee, the plot of land would belong to Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch.

Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction, tapping his fingers lightly on the desk. “This approach is excellent. Enter the market with high-end specialty cement, avoiding direct competition with local giants. Once we have a firm foothold, we can gradually expand our market share.”

Burton nodded and said, “I’ve already had the R&D team prepare three series of specialty cement product lines tailored to the specific needs of the Japanese market. In particular, our latest marine engineering cement has a chloride ion penetration resistance that is thirty percent higher than similar Japanese products. This is our advantage.”

“Alright, you can make the final decision. I trust your abilities. Mr. Fok Kin-ning will also cooperate with your work. If you have any issues in the Japanese market, you can discuss them with him,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He didn’t plan to get too involved. He trusted Burton’s capabilities.

There was an old Chinese saying: “Trust in those you use, and do not use those you distrust.”

Lin Haoran trusted their loyalty and their corporate management skills, so he could confidently delegate authority to them.

To others, Lin Haoran was an absolute business genius.

But only Lin Haoran himself knew that he had amassed his current fortune entirely through the foreknowledge of a transmigrator and the special ability to see loyalty.

As for his own business management talent?

Don’t be ridiculous. He could probably find any mid-level management at Wanqing Group, and their talent would far surpass his.

If you don’t have the ability, don’t give blindly give orders. This had always been Lin Haoran’s guiding principle.

“Rest assured, Boss. I will definitely not disappoint your expectations for me!” Burton said solemnly.

In his forties, Burton was at the peak of his career. He understood just how precious the trust Lin Haoran placed in him was.

Lin Haoran nodded.

“By the way, Boss, there’s one more thing I was going to call you about. Since you’re here, I’ll report it to you in person,” Burton continued.

“Oh? What is it? Just tell me,” Lin Haoran said, looking at Burton with curiosity.

“It’s like this. Doesn’t the Langwei Group need to build several FMCG brand manufacturing plants in Shenzhen? Mr. Ma Shimin already talked to me about this last month.

“Because our Wanqing Group entered Shenzhen to set up operations more than a year before Hongkong Land Group, the industrial parks being built by Hongkong Land Group aren’t finished yet. So, we’ve already completed several large industrial parks there.

“Therefore, the initial plan for Hongkong Land Group and Langwei Group is to rent our industrial parks first, so that these FMCG manufacturing plants can start production as soon as possible. And at the beginning of next month, our largest industrial park in Shekou will officially open.

“The local government hopes to invite you to the opening ceremony. They said this event is very important, and major media outlets like CCTV will be there to film it and report on it. So, they would like to request that you be present, Boss.”

Lin Haoran was aware of the plan for the FMCG brands acquired by Langwei Group to build factories in Shenzhen and, to speed things up, rent industrial parks from Wanqing Group.

Ma Shimin had mentioned it to him before, and Lin Haoran had agreed. After all, Wanqing Group didn’t have many manufacturing businesses, so the completed parks would be empty for the time being.

It was better to lease them to Langwei Group, a subsidiary of Hongkong Land Group. This would accelerate the layout of manufacturing in Mainland China, which would please the authorities there. Langwei Group’s costs would be reduced, and the industrial parks built by Wanqing Group wouldn’t sit empty in the short term. It was a win-win-win situation.

“Early September? What date?” Lin Haoran frowned and asked.

He hadn’t forgotten that his engagement to Guo Xiaohan was on September 3rd, which was the sixth day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar. If the time was too close, he would have to decline.

Right now, both his parents were busy arranging the engagement, so he didn’t have to worry about much.

The wealthy had their own procedures for engagements, and these matters were handled by the elders. He just needed to show up on time.

“Don’t worry, Boss. When we were finalizing the date, we took your engagement into consideration. Mr. Ma Shimin and I both know you’re getting engaged on September 3rd, so we specifically discussed it with the local government and set the date for September 6th. You see, the timing is quite suitable, isn’t it?” Burton replied with a smile.

As Lin Haoran’s trusted lieutenants, he had not hidden his engagement from them and would be inviting them to attend.

However, since it was just an engagement and not a wedding, it wouldn’t be a grand affair.

Lin Haoran had previously told his father, Guo Xiaohan’s father, and even Guo Xiaohan herself that the engagement ceremony should be low-key. They would hold a grand wedding when the time came.

Lin Haoran breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

The timing was indeed suitable.

He smiled and said, “Alright, I accept. Please reply to them for me.”

Since it had been a while since his last visit, Lin Haoran, accompanied by Burton, made a point of inspecting the various departments of the Wanqing Group.

At noon, he finally left the Wanqing Building.

However, after leaving, he didn’t rush to the Connaught Centre. Instead, he had Li Weidong drive towards Kai Tak International Airport.

Because Ma Shimin had already flown back from Singapore this morning.

According to the flight information provided, the plane was scheduled to arrive in Hong Kong around 12:30 PM.

So, if he went now, the timing would be perfect.

Since he had nothing else to do, Lin Haoran decided to go and pick up this great contributor.

After waiting in the arrival area for less than five minutes, he saw Ma Shimin.

When Ma Shimin and his assistant emerged from the passenger walkway and saw Lin Haoran personally there to greet them, they were clearly taken aback.

“Boss, why did you come in person?” Ma Shimin strode forward quickly, his face filled with surprise.

Lin Haoran smiled and patted his shoulder. “You’ve worked hard on your business trip to Southeast Asia. Isn’t it only right for me to pick you up?”

Ma Shimin nodded, deeply moved. “Thank you, Boss. But you’re so busy, you could have just sent a driver.”

“Let’s go. We’ll eat first, then we can talk back at the office,” Lin Haoran suggested.

The group got into the car and returned to Central. After having lunch at the Joyful Abundance Restaurant, they went back to the Connaught Centre.

Upon returning to Ma Shimin’s office, Ma Shimin eagerly took out some contracts and other documents from his suitcase.

“Boss, these are the agreements reached with the parties in Singapore. The luxurious Raffles Hotel in Singapore has been officially acquired by us. The strength of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has been taken to a new level.”

Lin Haoran took the documents and reviewed them carefully, a satisfied smile on his face. “Excellent. You’ve worked hard.”

“Boss, I can’t take the credit. This is all thanks to you. I just went there to handle the procedures,” Ma Shimin said, shaking his head.

Just then, a knock came from the door.

The visitor was Cui Zilong, whom Lin Haoran had called over earlier.

“Boss, Mr. Ma,” Cui Zilong greeted the two as he entered.

“Yes, have a seat and we’ll talk,” Lin Haoran nodded.

Ma Shimin got up and pulled out a chair for him.

After they were all seated, Cui Zilong began his report. “Boss, Mr. Ma, for the past few days, we’ve been secretly monitoring the movements of Mr. Li Jiacheng, Mr. Brown, and the others. They are indeed very cunning. In just a few days, all the major luxury hotel brands in Hong Kong have reached an agreement to form a luxury hotel alliance.

“Furthermore, they’ve started to imitate the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s strategy by establishing a ‘Strategic Partner Program’ with numerous British-owned companies in Hong Kong, and even some Chinese-owned enterprises, to provide exclusive discounts and customized services for their executives.

“What’s more, Mr. Brown has leveraged Standard Chartered Bank’s influence in Britain and its network within the global British chambers of commerce to launch targeted marketing campaigns at high-end consumer groups from British-funded conglomerates visiting Hong Kong. It’s safe to say their counterattack has been swift and fierce.

“Their actions have been so significant that it made investigating their movements easier than it would have been otherwise.”

After hearing the report, Lin Haoran tapped his fingers lightly on the desk, a playful smile on his lips. “It seems our actions have really hit a nerve.”

“The general manager of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group called me this morning and reported that the occupancy rates at several of their luxury hotels have started to decline over the past two days. It’s undeniable that we’re starting to feel the impact.

“And if they achieve great success in the hotel industry, they will undoubtedly turn their attention to besieging your other industries under Hongkong Land Group and Wanqing Group. The hotel industry is just the beginning,” Ma Shimin said with a frown.

The customer base for luxury hotels is limited. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel’s proactive moves had been effective initially.

But now, with all the luxury hotels in Hong Kong uniting to exclude the Mandarin Oriental, it was certainly putting significant pressure on them.

In reality, even if the Mandarin Oriental Hotel lost some of its clientele, it wasn’t a critical issue.

Relying on the partners from Lin Haoran’s many other businesses, the Mandarin Oriental could still remain profitable even if its occupancy rate dropped.

The problem was that the hotel industry was just a trigger. What worried Ma Shimin most was that after these people felt they had won a round, they would start a full-scale siege on Lin Haoran’s industries in other sectors like finance, retail, and shipping terminals.

“I estimate that their next step will be to take this opportunity to besiege your industries, Boss, and start snatching market share!” Cui Zilong said in agreement.

Lin Haoran nodded and began to think.

He had indeed become Hong Kong’s largest conglomerate, but that didn’t mean he could rest easy.

The British-funded conglomerates in Hong Kong were deeply rooted and intertwined, and the Chinese-funded conglomerates they had won over were also powerful and not to be underestimated.

If these two forces joined together, even someone as powerful as Lin Haoran would have to face considerable pressure.

Lin Haoran was fully confident he could defeat them in business warfare, but he truly detested this life of scheming and backstabbing.

Furthermore, his expansion in Hong Kong had already touched a warning line. If he expanded any further, he worried the British government might intervene. After all, Hong Kong was still a British colony at this time, and Britain would never stand by and watch a Chinese conglomerate completely control Hong Kong’s economic lifelines.

As things stood, the British-funded conglomerates still had a substantial foundation, which was the only way the British government could maintain its influence over Hong Kong’s economy.

Chapter 709: To Be Honest, I’ve Set My Sights on The Peninsula Hotel!

Inside a luxurious conference room at the Hong Kong headquarters of Standard Chartered Bank.

Brown, Li Jiacheng, Lawrence Kadoorie, Henry Keswick, and the others were once again gathered here.

At this moment, everyone present wore a self-satisfied smile.

Brown raised a glass of red wine, swirling it gently, the corners of his mouth turned up. “Gentlemen, our luxury hotel alliance is already showing initial results. The drop in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s occupancy rate is the best proof. I imagine the occupancy rates for the hotels under Mr. Lee and Mr. Kadoorie have risen considerably, haven’t they? Next, we must press our advantage and give Lin Haoran a show of force in other sectors as well.”

Li Jiacheng nodded slightly, a ruthless glint in his eyes. “That’s right. Although Lin Haoran is powerful, we can’t show any weakness. His business empire is vast, spanning property, trade, finance, retail, and terminals, but it has plenty of vulnerabilities. He’s been too aggressive, trying to swallow the entire market. If we don’t fight back, we’ll all be finished sooner or later. Our plans have surely gotten out by now, but there’s nothing the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group can do. Our successful counterattack in the hotel industry proves that when it comes to market competition, Lin Haoran isn’t invincible. We can exploit these vulnerabilities to gradually take over his market share. I believe no businessman in Hong Kong wants to see Lin Haoran achieve sole dominance in every industry. If we can unite with others in the hotel sector, we can do the same in other sectors!”

Lawrence Kadoorie said with a smile, “The Peninsula Hotel’s performance has rebounded in the last two days. The occupancy rate has increased from the previous 70% to around 85%. Although it still hasn’t reached its former stable rate of over 90%, it’s a very good start. However, we can’t get too optimistic. Lin Haoran is a man who likes to make unexpected moves.”

Henry Keswick frowned and said, “Jardine Matheson & Co. attempted to make another offer to Singapore to acquire Raffles Holdings, and we showed great sincerity, offering a price significantly higher than the market value. Although they rejected my previous forceful acquisition attempt, they did say they would consider it for 150 million US dollars. This time, I agreed to that price directly, but for some reason, they didn’t accept immediately. So… I suspect there might be a variable at play. I had someone look into it and heard that Ma Shimin of the Hongkong Land Group appeared in Singapore again yesterday. If Raffles Hotel is truly acquired by Mandarin Oriental, their strength will increase tremendously.”

The last thing they wanted to see was Lin Haoran’s power growing even further.

Although the Singapore market had little to do with Li Jiacheng and Lawrence Kadoorie for the time being—as they were more focused on the Hong Kong market—a company is a single entity. If the Mandarin Oriental Hotel successfully expanded into overseas markets, it would naturally represent an increase in its overall strength.

Therefore, upon hearing this, everyone present became a little restless.

Henry Keswick’s words instantly froze the self-satisfied atmosphere in the room.

The wine glass in Brown’s hand stopped in mid-air, his smile gradually stiffening.

The market share that Standard Chartered Bank was losing in Hong Kong had started to stabilize. However, due to the slowdown in various industries, companies like Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa had reduced their capital flow through the bank. This, to a certain extent, affected the business performance of both Standard Chartered and HSBC. This was also why Brown was now so keen on secretly uniting other financial groups against Lin Haoran.

“Raffles Holdings hasn’t announced a sale yet. Besides, didn’t Ma Shimin negotiate with them for two months without success? So a deal probably won’t be reached that quickly. However, it seems we need to speed things up. How about this, Mr. Henry? Why don’t Hutchison Whampoa and your Jardine Matheson & Co. launch a joint acquisition of Raffles Holdings? What do you think? With the two of us involved, Singapore might be more willing to relent, especially since they have invited me to inspect the Singapore market several times before,” Li Jiacheng said.

His personal available funds were indeed limited, but Hutchison Whampoa had money!

Moreover, he had indeed set his sights on Raffles Holdings.

Raffles Hotel was comparable to Hong Kong’s own Peninsula Hotel. If The Peninsula Hotel hadn’t been a non-negotiable asset for Lawrence Kadoorie, he might have tried to acquire it himself. Now that Raffles Hotel, a hot commodity, was right in front of him, he was naturally unwilling to let it go.

Brown’s eyes lit up, and he laughed. “Mr. Lee, that’s a brilliant suggestion! With Jardine Matheson and Hutchison Whampoa joining forces, our chances of success will surely soar. In that case, I, on behalf of Standard Chartered Bank, can also participate in the negotiations. We have a certain market presence in Singapore as well. With the three of us—or even four, if Mr. Kadoorie joins—they’ll have to give us some face. This way, we can intercept Raffles Holdings before the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group gets to it, causing Lin Haoran’s overseas expansion plan to fall through. That would be a huge blow to them in the hotel sector. With a success story like this, it will be much easier to persuade more Hong Kong businesses to join our alliance against him. Right now, Lin Haoran has too many allies in Hong Kong, making it difficult for us to truly deal with him. But once he becomes public enemy number one, won’t dealing with him be a piece of cake?”

This was their goal: to unite all of Hong Kong against Lin Haoran and give this new business star a taste of being besieged.

Lawrence Kadoorie, however, shook his head and said, “Count me out on Raffles Hotel. I’m not interested at the moment.”

He only wanted to guard his own little patch in Hong Kong and was not very interested in overseas markets. CLP Holdings was the foundation of the Kadoorie family. Although he hoped to diversify his family’s businesses, his lack of understanding of overseas markets made him cautious about spending too much capital to venture abroad.

Seeing this, Brown immediately changed the subject. “In that case, we’ll proceed as planned. Mr. Henry, Mr. Lee, I suggest we form a joint negotiation team immediately and fly to Singapore tomorrow.”

A sharp glint flashed in Li Jiacheng’s eyes. “That suits me perfectly. The Hong Kong property market has been lukewarm for the past six months, and the prospects in the Singapore market are no worse than Hong Kong’s. I was planning to go to Singapore to inspect the market anyway.”

“Good, it’s settled then. We’ll leave the other industries for now. Time is on our side. We will dismantle Lin Haoran’s commercial empire step by step,” Henry Keswick said, raising his glass, a cold light in his eyes.

He hated Lin Haoran to the bone. Any major loss for Lin Haoran would be good news for him. After losing the Hong Kong market, Jardine Matheson & Co. had lost at least forty percent of its wealth, and all of it was thanks to Lin Haoran.

At this moment, none of them knew that Singapore’s Raffles Holdings had already changed hands. The deal simply hadn’t been announced yet.

If they knew, they probably wouldn’t be smiling right now.

“In that case, I’ll have someone arrange the plane tickets. We’ll all head to Singapore in person tomorrow morning,” Brown said with a laugh.

They could hardly wait to snatch Raffles Hotel and deliver a slap in the face to Lin Haoran.

…

At Connaught Centre, Cui Zilong had returned to the Oriental Press Group, while Ma Shimin had gone to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group to handle the merger of Raffles Hotel and Swissôtel, both under Raffles Holdings.

Lin Haoran first went to the Galaxy Securities office to get the latest update from Dai Shi on the stock accumulation of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings.

To avoid alerting Li Jiacheng’s subordinates, Galaxy Securities was acquiring the shares very slowly.

Lin Haoran wasn’t in a hurry. He knew that achieving his ultimate goal would certainly not be easy. Therefore, patience was a must.

Regardless, he was determined to have the Hutchison Whampoa Group, and Li Jiacheng couldn’t stop him!

After getting his update, Lin Haoran returned to his own office.

Sitting in his office, he took out a phone book and began searching for a name.

Soon, a name came into view.

Liang Zhonghao, the major shareholder of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels!

As a member of the Hong Kong Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Lin Haoran had the contact information for all its members.

His finger traced lightly over the name in the phone book, a meaningful smile playing on his lips.

“Liang Zhonghao…” Lin Haoran murmured the name, a sharp light flashing in his eyes.

As the parent company of The Peninsula Hong Kong, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels had always held a significant position in Hong Kong’s high-end hotel market. It was precisely the piece the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group needed to complete its portfolio.

If the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group could acquire The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, its market share in Hong Kong’s luxury hotel sector would soar past 50% in a single stroke, completely changing the industry landscape.

In the future, Hong Kong’s economy would only grow stronger, and its tourism industry would flourish. The potential of the high-end hotel market was limitless.

Now was the perfect time to acquire The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

The call was quickly connected.

“Hello? Who is this?” a middle-aged man’s voice came from the other end.

“Mr. Liang, hello, this is Lin Haoran. I’m not disturbing you, am I?” Lin Haoran said with a hearty laugh.

He had only met Liang Zhonghao a few times, exchanging greetings at most. They weren’t even considered friends. His sudden call was indeed a bit presumptuous.

However, to achieve his goal, contacting the other party personally was clearly the most sincere approach. He was confident he could persuade him, as the Liang family had never shown much interest in the hotel industry.

“Mr. Lin from the Hongkong Land Group?” Liang Zhonghao on the other end was clearly taken aback, his tone then becoming cautious. “I’ve long admired your reputation. To what do I owe the pleasure of your sudden call, Mr. Lin?”

Although both were tycoons in the Hong Kong business world, they really didn’t have much interaction. It was no surprise that this call left Liang Zhonghao feeling baffled.

“I’d like to invite you for a get-together, Mr. Liang. Would you do me the honor?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The other party replied without any hesitation, “Since Mr. Lin is extending the invitation, the honor is all mine. The time and place are for you to decide, Mr. Lin.”

“In that case, how about you come to my villa on Severn Road this evening, Mr. Liang? We can have dinner at my place,” Lin Haoran said in a relaxed tone, as if chatting with a very good friend.

Inviting him to his home was not just a sign of sincerity; more importantly, he didn’t want this matter to be discovered by others.

Both Lin Haoran and Liang Zhonghao were well-known figures in Hong Kong. If they chose to meet at Connaught Centre or any other public place, they could easily be spotted, and the news would reach Lawrence Kadoorie’s ears.

But Severn Road was different. An exclusive villa area like Severn Road had few people around, and unlike Lin Haoran, Liang Zhonghao wasn’t constantly in the public eye. Therefore, meeting at the Severn Road villa was the most secure option.

“Alright, I’ll impose on you then, Mr. Lin,” Liang Zhonghao agreed readily, though his tone still carried a hint of confusion.

Although he was currently the largest shareholder of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, with significantly more shares than the Kadoorie family, he didn’t care much for the hotel industry, focusing most of his energy on real estate. Because of this, Lawrence Kadoorie rarely consulted him on decisions regarding the hotel business, at most mentioning them during a board meeting. And The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels hadn’t held a board meeting for over two months.

So, at this moment, Liang Zhonghao didn’t connect Lin Haoran’s call with The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels at all.

Though he didn’t understand why the famous richest man in Hong Kong was seeking him out, Liang Zhonghao saw it as a good thing. After all, Lin Haoran was not just a business tycoon but also a financial hegemon, and he wanted to build a good relationship with him. It was just that he previously felt he wasn’t quite on the same level, so he rarely had the chance for a deeper acquaintance with Lin Haoran.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran immediately dialed his butler at home. “We have an honored guest tonight. Prepare a few of your specialty dishes. Also, take out that bottle of 1945 Romanée-Conti I’ve been saving.”

Having made the appointment, Lin Haoran was no longer in the mood to stay at Connaught Centre. He headed back to his Severn Road villa with his bodyguards.

In the blink of an eye, it was six o’clock in the evening.

The sound of a car horn came from outside.

The guest had arrived: the major shareholder of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Mr. Liang Zhonghao.

Lin Haoran went out to welcome him personally, just as a black Rolls-Royce slowly drove through the villa gates.

The car door opened, and a man of about fifty, dressed in a dark grey suit, stepped out from the back seat. It was Liang Zhonghao himself.

“Mr. Liang, welcome to my humble home,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, stepping forward and extending his hand.

Liang Zhonghao quickly shook Lin Haoran’s hand, his smile carrying a hint of being overwhelmed by the favor. “Mr. Lin, you’re too kind. It’s my honor to be a guest at your residence.”

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Lin Haoran led Liang Zhonghao into the villa.

In the spacious living room, the butler had already prepared tea and snacks.

“Please have a seat, Mr. Liang,” Lin Haoran gestured. “Have some tea first, dinner will be ready soon.”

Liang Zhonghao looked around and couldn’t help but sigh in admiration. “This residence of yours is truly magnificent, Mr. Lin. The view is expansive, and the feng shui is excellent.”

Neither man was in a hurry to get to the main topic. Although Liang Zhonghao was curious about why Lin Haoran had sought him out, since Lin Haoran hadn’t brought it up, he naturally wouldn’t press the issue.

A dozen or so minutes later, at Lin Haoran’s invitation, they moved to the dining room for a sumptuous dinner.

During dinner, Liang Zhonghao lavished praise on Lin Haoran’s business achievements over the past three years, while Lin Haoran expressed his admiration for Liang Zhonghao’s accomplishments in the Hong Kong property sector.

As they raised their glasses to each other, the atmosphere gradually warmed up.

After a few rounds of drinks, Lin Haoran put down his glass, and the two moved to the study on the first floor.

Lin Haoran personally brewed tea. Liang Zhonghao glanced around a bit, but didn’t speak first. He knew that the reason for this meeting was about to be revealed.

Lin Haoran handed a cup of fragrant Longjing tea to Liang Zhonghao and smiled. “Mr. Liang, to be honest, I invited you here today to discuss a win-win business deal.”

Liang Zhonghao took the teacup, a sharp glint in his eyes. “Please speak, Mr. Lin.”

“I want to acquire the shares of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels that you hold,” Lin Haoran said, looking directly into Liang Zhonghao’s eyes, his tone firm.

Liang Zhonghao’s hand paused slightly, nearly spilling the tea. He slowly set the cup down and said in a deep voice, “That’s quite an ambitious proposal, Mr. Lin. However, I have no intention of selling my shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels at the moment.”

He was genuinely surprised. He had never expected this to be the reason for their meeting.

“Mr. Liang holds 34%, making you the largest shareholder,” Lin Haoran said unhurriedly. “And from what I know, your property project in Kowloon Tong is experiencing some tight cash flow issues.”

Liang Zhonghao’s expression changed slightly, and he then gave a wry smile. “Mr. Lin is certainly well-informed. But I truly have no intention of selling my shares right now. My cash flow might be a bit tight, but it’s not a problem.”

“I’m about to say something that I hope you won’t repeat to anyone, Mr. Liang. How about it?” Lin Haoran said with a faint smile.

“Rest assured, Mr. Lin. I’m not one to gossip. Since you’ve asked, I certainly won’t spread it around!” Liang Zhonghao said solemnly.

“In my opinion, a long winter for Hong Kong’s property market is about to arrive. If you trust me, Mr. Liang, you might want to start reducing your investment in the property sector!” Lin Haoran said with a slight smile.

Liang Zhonghao’s heart skipped a beat upon hearing this. He asked, “On what basis do you say that, Mr. Lin?”

He was aware that Lin Haoran’s companies had reduced their investment in the property sector over the past year. Hongkong Land Group, in particular, had sold off nearly half of its property projects. He himself had taken over a couple of those projects.

However, Lin Haoran’s public explanation had always been that due to the acquisition of Hongkong Land, he was short on funds and had too much debt, forcing him to sell off some property projects. At the time, everyone believed him. But later, Lin Haoran showed no signs of any capital shortage and had even acquired Hang Seng Bank. Therefore, Liang Zhonghao actually suspected that Lin Haoran had long been bearish about Hong Kong’s property sector.

Furthermore, the development of the property market had indeed slowed down in the last six months. Although housing prices had barely held steady, it was a market with prices but no transactions. As a veteran in the real estate world, Liang Zhonghao was also sensitive to this.

It was just that the property crisis had not yet erupted, so many people in the Hong Kong real estate circle, including himself, still believed that this situation was only temporary.

“As a boss in the real estate world, Mr. Liang should know that in the past two years, the year-on-year growth of new building construction area in Hong Kong has exceeded 50%, far surpassing the actual demand brought by population growth. At the same time, commercial properties like office buildings and shopping malls are also in surplus. This year, the vacancy rate for Grade A office buildings in Hong Kong has quietly risen to 8%, whereas two years ago, this figure was only 5%! Additionally, a very critical figure is that over the past year, Hong Kong’s unemployment rate has risen from 3.5% last year to 4.5%. These figures are not something I’m making up; they are published by the government, and I assume you are aware of them, Mr. Liang. The continuous rise in bank interest rates has caused a surge in mortgage pressure for homebuyers, increasing the risk of defaults. The declining debt servicing capacity of residents has further weakened housing demand. Another major factor is the negotiations over Hong Kong’s sovereignty, which is fraught with uncertainty. Many wealthy individuals are accelerating their property sell-offs to emigrate, leading to a gradual increase in the size of the pre-owned property market, yet the number of buyers is limited. With all these factors combined, the Hong Kong property market is already at a dangerous tipping point,” Lin Haoran said, taking a sip of his tea and smiling at Liang Zhonghao.

The reason he laid all this out was that Liang Zhonghao was currently in charge of the real estate business under The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. If he couldn’t convince him to see the crisis in the property market, it would be difficult to get Liang Zhonghao to make up his mind to sell his shares.

After hearing Lin Haoran’s analysis, beads of sweat had formed on Liang Zhonghao’s forehead. As a seasoned property developer, he knew better than anyone the gravity of these figures. It was just that he had been holding onto a sliver of hope, unwilling to face reality. Most importantly, a lot of capital was already invested in the industry. Even if he could see the recent slowdown, he couldn’t just pull out whenever he wanted.

Liang Zhonghao’s brow was tightly furrowed, his fingers drumming unconsciously on the table. “Your analysis is indeed incisive, Mr. Lin. No wonder you started making arrangements a year ago. I greatly admire your foresight. However, Hong Kong has little land and a large population. In the long run…”

“Of course it will recover in the long run,” Lin Haoran interrupted, “but the short-term winter will last at least three years. Mr. Liang, if you continue to invest in the few large projects you’re holding, I’m afraid you’ll face a capital chain crisis.”

The study fell silent for a moment.

“In that case, why would you want to acquire my shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Mr. Lin?” Liang Zhonghao asked, looking up at Lin Haoran directly.

“To be honest, what I have my eyes on is the hotel business of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, especially The Peninsula Hotel. You should know, Mr. Liang, that the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group under my Hongkong Land Group is a renowned luxury hotel group in Hong Kong, and it just so happens that I’ve taken a liking to The Peninsula’s status in the local luxury hotel industry. Although the property business under The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels is also facing difficulties, for me, this difficulty isn’t significant. I can bear it. Therefore, I suggest you cash out now in exchange for ample cash flow. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t be easy for you to sell off such a large number of shares, but I can take them all at once!” Lin Haoran said with a slight smile.

Even if Liang Zhonghao didn’t sell now, he would in a few years, and it would trigger a battle for control over The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. Lawrence Kadoorie would end up paying a hefty price to save it.

Chapter 710: A Contract Worth Over One Billion Hong Kong Dollars is Sealed!

The Liang family had become a major shareholder of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels not for the hotel business, but for its real estate assets.

Liang Zhonghao had another identity: he was a key shareholder and board member of New World Development.

As a giant in Hong Kong’s real estate industry, New World Development naturally made shareholder Liang Zhonghao an expert in the property sector.

However, New World Development was controlled by the Cheng Yu-tung family, and the Liang family didn’t have much say.

That was why the Liang family set its sights on The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

As one of Hong Kong’s major corporations, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, though named after its hotels, had diversified over the years.

Besides The Peninsula and Kowloon Hotels, its portfolio included The Repulse Bay on Hong Kong Island, St. John’s Building in Central, the Peak Tower, and the Peak Tramways Company. It also had hotel investments overseas.

And like most long-established hotel companies, it held a considerable land bank in Hong Kong.

These plots were all in prime locations, making them priceless.

Thus, the Liang family gradually acquired shares and became the major shareholder of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

Knowing that the Liang family had no interest in the hotel business, the Kadoorie family allowed them to become the major shareholder.

Ultimately, the two families reached an agreement: the Kadoories would manage the hotel and related businesses, while the Liangs would handle the property development.

The two families had coexisted peacefully for years, each managing their own domain.

So, Liang Zhonghao didn’t pay much attention to the hotel side of things; after all, they would report to each other during board meetings.

Unexpectedly, however, Hong Kong’s property market had declined rapidly in the past six months. Fewer people were buying homes, mortgage rates were rising, and even government land auction prices were failing to increase. Worse still, the company’s investment project in Kowloon Tong was in an awkward predicament due to cash flow problems.

Now, with Lin Haoran’s analysis of the Hong Kong property market, he was beginning to believe Lin’s words.

He understood that what Lin Haoran said was no exaggeration. He had noticed these figures and phenomena himself but had been unwilling to face the impending winter of the property industry. He’d kept telling himself it was only temporary, that since property prices hadn’t plummeted yet, the market would soon recover.

At this moment, Lin Haoran’s frank and detailed analysis forced him to re-evaluate his business strategy.

Internally, he was already convinced by Lin Haoran.

If he sold off his shares now, while the property industry had not yet plunged into crisis and the stock price of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels was at its peak, he wouldn’t lose money.

With such a large amount of liquid capital, the Liang family would have no trouble making a comeback in the future.

Therefore, he had already mentally agreed to sell his shares to Lin Haoran.

“If I were to sell my shares to Mr. Lin, what price could you offer?” Liang Zhonghao asked tentatively.

“Mr. Liang, let me be frank with you. I am not optimistic about Hong Kong’s property industry for the next few years. This means that, in my view, the property sector will continue to drag down related stock prices.

“The property business is one of the main sectors of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, so I predict that its market capitalization will most likely fall in the future.

“If you sell your shares to me, the funding problem for the Kowloon Tong project will naturally be solved. You know that with my wealth, I can easily help The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels navigate any crisis.

“However, I won’t haggle over it. It would be quite difficult for you to find a single buyer to take over such a large stake on the open market. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m straightforward and don’t like to dawdle over prices.

“I’ll be direct. I can acquire your shares at the current market price, and the funds will be transferred without delay. We sign the Share Transfer Agreement, and the transaction is settled. What do you think?” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

The current market capitalization of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels was not low, exceeding three billion Hong Kong dollars, fluctuating between 3 and 3.1 billion. It had long been ranked among the top twenty listed companies in Hong Kong.

Typically, the market price was calculated based on market capitalization.

This meant Lin Haoran’s offer was based on a total market cap of 3 to 3.1 billion Hong Kong dollars to acquire Liang Zhonghao’s stake, which granted him considerable influence in the company.

The Liang Zhonghao family held 34% of the shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

If Lin Haoran were to buy this stake, he would have to spend over one billion Hong Kong dollars!

Although Lin Haoran seemed to make money effortlessly, in all of Hong Kong, the number of families with a net worth of over one billion could be counted on one’s fingers.

This was undoubtedly an exceptionally large sum of money!

For Lin Haoran, after adding the 34% stake from the Liang family to the dozen or so percent he had already accumulated, spending over a billion Hong Kong dollars to gain control of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels was, in his opinion, very worthwhile.

Even forty years in the future, The Peninsula Hotel would still be one of Hong Kong’s most iconic and top-tier luxury hotels.

Furthermore, the land bank and real estate projects under The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels held enormous potential for appreciation.

Those reserved land plots were in excellent locations. As the city developed and surrounding infrastructure improved, their value was bound to grow exponentially.

As for the existing real estate projects, with a little optimization to improve quality and service, they could secure a more advantageous position in the market and generate substantial profits.

The property crisis in Hong Kong would only last for two or three years before the market began to recover, and prices would soar even higher in the future.

Lin Haoran knew that once he successfully controlled The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, his power in Hong Kong’s property industry would be further enhanced.

He could leverage his connections and resources to comprehensively integrate and optimize the hotel’s property businesses.

For instance, he could rationally develop some of the idle land plots into high-end residences, commercial complexes, or unique tourism projects.

For the existing real estate projects, he could upgrade and renovate them, introducing internationally advanced property management concepts to enhance their overall quality and competitiveness.

Moreover, controlling The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels would bring a series of chain reactions.

As a major corporation in Hong Kong, it possessed extensive influence and resources in the business world.

Through deep collaboration with the hotel’s other businesses, such as the Peak Tramways Company and its overseas hotel operations, he could achieve resource sharing and complementary advantages, further expanding his business empire and enhancing the company’s overall strength.

In short, buying The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels would not be a loss in the long run; on the contrary, it would be a huge profit.

Thinking of this, he became even more eager to acquire this highly renowned corporate giant.

He looked at Liang Zhonghao, waiting for his reply. Seeing the man’s furrowed brow, he knew he was deep in difficult consideration.

The Liang family’s decisions rested solely with Liang Zhonghao, so he didn’t have to wait for him to say he needed to go back and discuss it with his family.

As for Liang Zhonghao, a fierce struggle was raging within him.

On one hand, he had a deep emotional attachment to The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels; it was, after all, the fruit of his family’s years of hard work.

On the other hand, he understood the grim situation of the current property market, and Lin Haoran’s proposal was indeed very tempting.

If he sold his shares now and secured a huge sum of money, the Liang family could perhaps smoothly weather this highly probable property winter and even find new development opportunities in other fields.

In fact, even if no property crisis occurred, he wouldn’t be at a loss. It was a cash-out of over one billion Hong Kong dollars. Ordinarily, if Lin Haoran hadn’t made the offer, he might not have been able to sell it at all!

Liang Zhonghao’s brow was tightly furrowed, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the table as his thoughts tangled like a messy web.

He knew this was not just a simple business transaction; it was a decision that would determine the future rise or fall of the Liang family.

Lin Haoran watched him quietly, not rushing him, a faint smile always playing on his lips. This smile only added to Liang Zhonghao’s pressure.

The man before him was only in his twenties, while he himself was nearly fifty, yet he never expected this young man could exert such an intangible and strange pressure on him.

Truly, the new generation surpasses the old, and each is stronger than the last!

Liang Zhonghao’s management style was one of caution.

This was evident from his decision to sell this 34% stake a few years later in the original timeline.

Liang Zhonghao feared that even a small crisis could wipe out the foundation his family had built over many years.

At this moment, two completely different outcomes kept flashing through his mind.

If he refused Lin Haoran and held onto his shares, and the property winter turned out to be as severe and prolonged as Lin predicted, the stock price of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels would inevitably plummet.

Then, the value of the Liang family’s shares would shrink dramatically. The funding shortage for the Kowloon Tong project, along with the difficulty of cash flowing back from other property projects, would become a time bomb that could detonate at any moment, dragging the Liang family into a state of irreparable ruin.

The Liang family currently held a full 34% of the shares. If The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels were to collapse, his family’s losses would be the greatest.

In contrast, the Kadoorie family now held a minority stake and controlled the hotel business. Even if the company went bust, the Kadoories’ losses wouldn’t be substantial.

What’s more, the Kadoorie family had China Light & Power as a backstop.

And his Liang family? Although they were a major shareholder in New World Development, their stake wasn’t that large, and they didn’t have much say.

Therefore, if The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels were indeed dragged down by the property industry, the family’s reputation and status, built over many years in the business world, could also plummet and become a topic of casual conversation for others.

This was something Liang Zhonghao definitely did not want to happen.

But if he agreed to Lin Haoran’s offer and sold the shares, the Liang family would gain a huge sum of money, but it would also mean completely giving up their influence in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels and any potential future property dividends.

What if the property industry didn’t turn out as poorly as Lin Haoran predicted, or even recovered quickly? Then the Liang family’s move would be akin to crippling oneself, handing over a gold mine to someone else.

Moreover, the premium land plots and projects under The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels genuinely had boundless long-term potential.

Liang Zhonghao couldn’t help but recall his father’s words when he was alive: “The root of real estate is land. He who holds the land holds the future.”

Over the years, it was precisely by relying on their keen sense of land that the Liang family had managed to stand firm in the business world.

Although they hadn’t reached the level of a top-tier wealthy family, they still had a place of their own in Hong Kong.

These two outcomes plunged Liang Zhonghao into an extremely contradictory and tangled state.

At this thought, Liang Zhonghao suddenly looked up, his eyes burning as he stared at Lin Haoran. “Mr. Lin, your analysis is very reasonable. However, the shares of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels are of extraordinary significance to our Liang family. My father’s generation began planning for this. Even if I sell the shares, I don’t know what to invest in next. I can’t just sit around and eat away my fortune, can I?”

Upon hearing this, a glint flashed in Lin Haoran’s eyes.

He slowly lifted his teacup, took a sip, and said with a slight smile, “Mr. Liang, if you have any other conditions, please state them. If I can meet them, I certainly won’t refuse. After all, we are all seeking to prosper in the business world. If we can achieve a win-win situation, that would be for the best.”

Liang Zhonghao took a deep breath, as if having made some sort of resolution, and said slowly, “Mr. Lin, although my Liang family has ventured into many industries over the years, we haven’t delved deep into emerging sectors. The current economic situation in Hong Kong is too complicated and confusing. I’m worried that even with this capital, it will be difficult to find the right investment direction.

“Therefore, I hope that if this deal is successful, Mr. Lin can guide my Liang family at an opportune moment in the future and give us a chance to participate in some promising and high-potential projects.”

In the entire circle of wealthy families in Hong Kong, who didn’t know that Lin Haoran’s investment vision was the best?

In just three short years, he had fought so many business wars and acquired so many giant corporations without a single failure.

Everyone wanted to align themselves with such a figure.

Liang Zhonghao didn’t have too much ambition. He wasn’t like Li Jiacheng, who wanted to be the top tycoon in Hong Kong’s business world.

So, in Liang Zhonghao’s view, if he could receive Lin Haoran’s guidance in the future and participate in some promising projects, then even if the Liang family lost their shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, they could find greater development opportunities in other fields.

Hearing this, the smile on Lin Haoran’s lips deepened.

He had thought the other party would propose some difficult conditions.

He didn’t expect it to be something like this.

To him, this wasn’t really a condition at all.

It was just one more business partner, which was nothing significant.

Companies like the Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and Wanqing Group had countless partners.

In Hong Kong, many wealthy families had achieved further wealth growth and business empire expansion by cooperating with enterprises under Lin Haoran.

The sheer scale of his network of partners was evident from the time when, during his competition with HSBC, Lin Haoran had requested all his corporate partners to transfer their funds to the Bank of East Asia. As a result, the bank’s total capital surged by over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars.

In this world, it’s impossible for one person to monopolize all profitable interests. Just like every industry has its upstream and downstream chains, cooperation and mutual benefit are the path to long-term success.

Therefore, Lin Haoran didn’t care about Liang Zhonghao’s condition at all.

He put down his teacup and said earnestly, “Mr. Liang, you’re mistaken. This is not difficult at all. I, Lin Haoran, have always admired partners with foresight and a sense of loyalty. If this deal is successful, the Liang family will be an important ally of mine in the Hong Kong business community. When suitable projects arise in the future, I certainly won’t forget the Liang family.

“I have many projects under my belt that require partners. Since Mr. Liang trusts me so much, I can hand over some collaborative projects to the Liang family to guide you into the industry. In fact, if there’s a project I’m particularly optimistic about, I can give priority to in-depth cooperation with your family, sharing resources and information to help you quickly gain a firm foothold in new business areas.

“In addition, I am currently making large-scale investments in Japan. I am very optimistic about Japan’s development over the next few years. If you trust me, Mr. Liang, I suggest you go to Japan to look for investment opportunities!”

When Liang Zhonghao heard these words, his eyes instantly lit up.

He hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to not only readily agree to his condition but also proactively offer to bring the Liang family into the Japanese market.

It was no secret that Lin Haoran had a significant investment layout in Japan. His Hongkong Land Group was investing heavily in Japan’s real estate industry.

A few months ago, in particular, Lin Haoran’s early purchase of Toyota Motor stock earned him over two hundred billion Japanese yen. This event caused a sensation not just in Japan but also in Hong Kong, where many even took pride in it.

After all, Lin Haoran was a Hong Konger!

However, although Hong Kong’s financial magnates knew Lin Haoran had made a fortune in Japan, they lacked the confidence to follow him there.

They were unfamiliar with the Japanese market and preferred to play it safe in the familiar territory of Hong Kong.

But at this moment, Liang Zhonghao heard a different kind of opportunity in Lin Haoran’s words.

“Mr. Lin, you’re saying… we can invest in Japan alongside you?” Liang Zhonghao’s voice was a little tight, as if he couldn’t believe his own ears.

This had completely exceeded his expectations.

Right now, Liang Zhonghao felt nothing but excitement.

He knew it was impossible to earn tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars like Lin Haoran, but he would be satisfied with just a tenth of Lin’s success.

“Of course. If you trust me, Mr. Liang, I can give you some advice. As for whether you ultimately invest, that’s up to you,” Lin Haoran said with certainty.

The Japanese market was so large that he didn’t mind one more person investing there.

He couldn’t eat it all himself anyway.

Hong Kong was so small. Even if all of Hong Kong’s businessmen went to Japan to share in the upcoming economic bubble, Japan could absorb them all.

It was a country with a population of over one hundred million, and a developed one at that.

Of course, Lin Haoran wouldn’t advise other Hong Kong businessmen to invest in Japan. It was better to be low-key about making money.

One more Liang family didn’t matter.

“Mr. Lin, I agree. I trust your promise. I’ll sell you this stake at market price. We can close the deal anytime!” Taking a deep breath, Liang Zhonghao said directly.

“Excellent! Mr. Liang is indeed straightforward. In that case, there’s no time like the present. Let’s sign the contract today, shall we? If that’s agreeable, I’ll call Hongkong Land Group right now and have them fax over the Share Transfer Agreement,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, giving the other party no chance to back out.

It was just after seven in the evening.

Lately, with so much going on at the group, Ma Shimin often worked overtime until eight o’clock.

So, it was likely that many employees were still working late at Connaught Centre.

Liang Zhonghao was taken aback for a moment, surprised by Lin Haoran’s urgency.

But in the end, he nodded.

The reason Lin Haoran was in such a hurry was, of course, to have the matter settled before the Kadoorie family found out.

Previously, Galaxy Securities had already taken the opportunity to accumulate a full 12.73% of the shares. Over the last three days, they had acquired nearly another three percent.

Once he successfully signed the contract with Liang Zhonghao, his stake would increase by another 34%.

This would bring his total holdings in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels to nearly 50%.

The Kadoorie family, on the other hand, held only 10.23 million shares, which was only about 12%.

In this situation, what could the Kadoorie family possibly use to compete with him?

Originally, Lin Haoran had not had much interaction with Lawrence Kadoorie. Furthermore, since their respective power supply companies operated in the north and south, there wasn’t much competition between them. Thus, he had never proactively offended the Kadoorie family; they had always minded their own business.

But since they had taken the initiative to join forces with Li Jiacheng against him, they couldn’t blame him for making an example of them.

Lin Haoran was well aware of how important The Peninsula Hotel was to the Kadoorie family.

For them, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels was a symbol of unparalleled wealth and achievement, the glory of the Kadoorie family!

Lin Haoran’s move to secretly take control of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels was undoubtedly the heaviest blow he could deal them.

He immediately picked up the phone and dialed the number of Ma Shimin, the President of Hongkong Land Group.

As expected, he was still at the office.

Lin Haoran didn’t waste words. He said directly, “Have the company lawyers prepare a Share Transfer Agreement immediately. I’ve settled things with The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels!”

Upon hearing this, Ma Shimin was so surprised he shot up from his chair.

The news was too sudden.

He never thought his boss’s methods were so brilliant.

First, persuading Singapore to sell Raffles Hotel with just a few words had already stunned Ma Shimin.

Now, how much time had passed, and he had already settled the matter of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels?

Though shocked, Ma Shimin quickly composed himself and said, “Boss, give me twenty minutes. I’ll have someone draft the contract right away.”

After hanging up, Liang Zhonghao also used Lin Haoran’s phone to call his legal counsel, asking him to come to Severn Road.

After all, this was a major contract involving over one billion Hong Kong dollars; no one could afford to be careless.

An hour later, both men held a contract in their hands.

At this moment, the other business tycoons in Hong Kong were still unaware that a business deal significant enough to shake the entire city had just been concluded in this villa.

“Mr. Lin, a pleasure doing business with you!” Liang Zhonghao extended his right hand with a slight smile.

Now that it was a done deal, he was no longer conflicted.

“Mr. Liang, a pleasure. Regarding the funds, it’s quite late now. The finance department at Hongkong Land will transfer the money to your account by tomorrow morning at the latest. How does that sound? Of course, if you’re in a hurry, I can send someone with you to Hang Seng Bank to handle it overnight,” Lin Haoran replied with a smile.

“The contract is signed. I’m certainly not worried about Mr. Lin defaulting. Tomorrow is fine. I can wait. Also, I will personally deliver the share certificates to Hongkong Land tomorrow!” Liang Zhonghao said, shaking his head with a smile.

With the contract in black and white, he had nothing to worry about.

“By the way, Mr. Liang, there’s one more thing. Regarding my comments on the Hong Kong property market, please remember not to repeat them. Even if you do, I won’t admit to saying them!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

Liang Zhonghao was momentarily stunned before replying with a wry smile, “Please rest assured, Mr. Lin. I can swear I won’t say a word. After all, I’m hoping you’ll look out for the Liang family in the future!”

Chapter 711: An Incensed Li Jiacheng and Company

There was a reason Lin Haoran had twice reminded Liang Zhonghao not to spread his bearish views on Hong Kong’s property industry for the next two to three years.

Previously, when the Hongkong Land Group had sold off its real estate assets, it had nearly plunged Hong Kong into a premature property crisis.

Government House had paid a considerable price to halt the crisis, allowing Lin Haoran to swoop in and profit handsomely by auctioning five plots of land in excellent locations.

Among them was the site where the world’s tallest building was now under construction, which he had acquired during that very opportunity.

Moreover, these plots of land, which should have fetched a sky-high price of five to six billion Hong Kong dollars, were ultimately secured for a cost price of three billion, with the payment deferrable for a full three years.

The British Hong Kong government had, by all accounts, suffered a huge loss.

This had also shown Lin Haoran how much importance Government House placed on Hong Kong’s property sector and its desire to prevent a downturn.

The reason was simple: a slump in the property industry would lead to a significant drop in the British Hong Kong government’s fiscal revenue, which in turn would mean a substantial reduction in the profits sent back to Britain.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had no intention of letting his remarks get out, as it would undoubtedly offend Government House.

Besides, Liang Zhonghao had no evidence that Lin Haoran had said any of this; he wasn’t carrying a recording pen or anything of the sort.

So, even if Liang did spread the word, Lin Haoran could publicly refute the rumor and deny ever saying such a thing.

Of course, Lin Haoran was confident that Liang wouldn’t speak recklessly. Doing so would only bring trouble to the Liang family.

Lin Haoran wasn’t even afraid of Hong Kong’s most powerful British-funded conglomerate, so why would he fear a second-rate prominent family?

After seeing Liang Zhonghao out of the villa, Lin Haoran returned to the study. He first faxed a copy of the contract to Ma Shimin, then sat down on the sofa, looking at the document in his hands with a sense of感慨.

The Peninsula Hotel. Even forty years from now, in the 2020s, it would still be a symbol of luxury and history in Hong Kong, and one of the benchmarks of the global hotel industry.

Now, he basically had the hotel in the palm of his hand.

With a stake of nearly fifty percent, Lin Haoran couldn’t believe Lawrence Kadoorie had any room left to resist.

Lin Haoran gently closed the contract and walked to the study window.

The bright lights of the bustling Central district at night were reflected in his deep eyes.

He could even faintly make out the magnificent and luxurious Peninsula Hotel on the northern shore of Victoria Harbour.

As the epitome of Hong Kong’s luxury hotels, The Peninsula Hotel’s exterior resembled a classical temple of art standing by Victoria Harbour, blending the solemnity of neoclassicism with the exquisiteness of Art Deco. It had maintained its elegance and majesty through nearly sixty years of wind and rain.

Lin Haoran’s Severn Road villa was situated on high ground, with an open slope behind the study, so even from the ground floor, he could see the prosperous night view not far away.

He began to anticipate the look on Lawrence Kadoorie’s face when he discovered his home base had been raided while he was busy plotting with Li Jiacheng and the others on how to counter him.

This magnificent and luxurious hotel had been built with a huge investment by Lawrence Kadoorie’s elders; it was no exaggeration to call it the pride of the Kadoorie family.

A playful smile touched the corners of Lin Haoran’s mouth at the thought.

The moment the Kadoorie family chose to become his enemy, they had to bear the price of his retaliation.

He didn’t care if they were Hong Kong’s British-owned elite; if they offended him, they would pay the price. It was as simple as that.

In the blink of an eye, a night passed.

At Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport, three business tycoons influential enough to draw attention appeared.

Li Jiacheng, Henry Keswick, and Standard Chartered Bank’s Brown were there, keeping a low profile.

Soon, they boarded a flight to Singapore.

This time, their objective was clear: to acquire Raffles Hotel, the benchmark of luxury hotels in Singapore!

In their view, a joint visit from three major conglomerates was more than enough to give Singapore face. They believed that considering their investment power, Singapore would certainly be open to selling.

Thus, all three boarded the plane filled with confidence.

However, they would never have dreamed that just three days prior, Lin Haoran had made a single phone call and convinced the Singaporean side. He had then dispatched Ma Shimin, who had already successfully signed for one hundred percent of the equity in Raffles Holdings.

Now, this luxury hotel, whose status in Singapore was comparable to The Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, had quietly changed hands.

When the plane landed at Singapore Changi Airport, Li Jiacheng walked down the stairs in high spirits, as if he could already see Raffles Hotel in the bag.

Besides the recent sharp decline in business performance for several of Cheung Kong Holdings’ and Hutchison Whampoa’s ventures, there was another very important reason why Li Jiacheng wanted to take on Lin Haoran.

That reason was that Li Jiacheng had not given up on his ambition—an ambition to become the richest man in Hong Kong, and even Asia.

Standing before the glass curtain wall of Changi Airport, Li Jiacheng gazed at the bustling cityscape of Singapore, a glint of malice flashing in his eyes.

Changi Airport had only officially opened last month; the old Paya Lebar Airport had already ceased operations as a civilian airport.

However, Li Jiacheng felt no interest in this new airport.

At this moment, he was recalling his triumphant self when he first took control of Hutchison Whampoa.

Back then, he was the rising star of the Hong Kong business world, hailed by the media as “Superman.”

But Lin Haoran’s sudden appearance had dimmed his halo.

Every company Lin Haoran acquired was shocking enough to shake all of Hong Kong.

Hongkong Electric Group, Hongkong Land Group, Hong Kong Telephone… which one was inferior to Hutchison Whampoa?

With Lin Haoran around, how could he ever claim the throne of Hong Kong’s business world?

Li Jiacheng clenched his fists, his nails digging deep into his palms.

He remembered when Lin Haoran defeated Jardine Matheson & Co. and successfully took over the Hongkong Land Group. On the cover of Financial Weekly, next to a triumphant photo of Lin Haoran, were the bold words “Hong Kong’s New Overlord.”

Meanwhile, even though he controlled Hutchison Whampoa, one of the Four Big Hongs, he was gradually mentioned less and less by the media.

The contrast was simply too stark for him to accept.

Therefore, if he couldn’t suppress Lin Haoran’s power, he would never have his day in the sun.

He himself might not have the strength to fight Lin Haoran alone.

But what if he could rally most of Hong Kong’s business tycoons into an alliance?

Then, there might be a chance.

As long as Lin Haoran was isolated in the Hong Kong business community, his commercial empire would be constrained at every turn.

At that point, Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings could fish in troubled waters, and they might be able to get a piece of the pie, or even gradually take over some of Lin Haoran’s industries. Only then could they break through their current limitations.

This was the biggest reason why he had taken the lead in forming the Anti-Lin Alliance.

Ambition could make a person incredibly strong, but it could also drive them to madness.

“Mr. Li, the car is ready,” his assistant’s voice pulled him back to reality.

Beside him, Henry Keswick also smiled. “Mr. Li, what are you thinking about?”

Li Jiacheng shook his head, smiled faintly, and said, “Nothing. Let’s go, we’ll head straight to Raffles Hotel.”

The day before they arrived, Brown had already arranged a meeting with the relevant parties.

Therefore, they just needed to go directly to the hotel this time, and someone would be there to receive them.

Singapore wasn’t large. From the airport to Raffles Hotel was just over ten kilometers.

So, in less than half an hour, the group had arrived at the entrance of Raffles Hotel.

Since the equity transfer had only been signed recently, the handover between Singapore and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group had not yet taken place. This meant that Raffles Hotel was currently still under Singaporean management.

“Truly luxurious. It’s not a bit inferior to the Kadoorie family’s Peninsula Hotel!” Brown said, looking up at the magnificent hotel.

Raffles Hotel was first built in 1887, making it nearly a century old, with an even longer history than The Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong.

As a representative building from Singapore’s colonial era, it was renowned for its luxurious suites, fine dining restaurants, and historical heritage. It was as famous as the Merlion and was one of Singapore’s iconic landmarks.

Their arrival had already caught the hotel’s attention.

Before long, a middle-aged man walked out of the hotel to greet them personally.

“Mr. Henry, Mr. Li, Mr. Brown, hello. Welcome to Singapore!” The middle-aged man greeted them with a smile, shaking hands with each of them.

“Mr. Liu, sorry to intrude,” Henry Keswick said with a smile.

This man was the true person in control of Temasek Holdings.

“Gentlemen, please, let’s talk inside,” Mr. Liu said, gesturing for them to enter.

The group soon arrived at a luxurious conference room.

Mr. Liu was somewhat surprised by the purpose of their visit.

Especially Henry Keswick, who had contacted him two days in a row over the past week about acquiring Raffles Hotel.

This time, he had come with two other Hong Kong business tycoons, which Mr. Liu found a little strange.

However, these were all benefactors that Singapore hoped to attract, so they certainly couldn’t be slighted.

Mr. Liu personally poured tea for the three of them and said with a smile, “You’ve all come a long way. Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Mr. Liu, we’ve come to see you for the same reason as before. This time, we’ve decided to jointly acquire Raffles Holdings. As for the terms, please feel free to name your price, Mr. Liu. As long as it’s reasonable, we will do our best to meet it!” Henry Keswick didn’t beat around the bush and stated their intentions directly.

Although Mr. Liu had anticipated this, he still sighed softly upon hearing them being so direct.

He put down his teacup, a difficult expression on his face. “Gentlemen, I’m truly sorry, but the equity transfer for Raffles Hotel was actually completed two days ago. In other words, the shares of Raffles Hotel are no longer in the hands of our Temasek Holdings.”

As soon as he said this, the faces of all three men changed.

Li Jiacheng’s pupils contracted violently, his voice changing pitch. “Raffles Hotel has been acquired? That’s impossible!”

This was too unexpected. They had received no word of this before coming.

Henry Keswick also spoke up. “Mr. Liu, this is not a funny joke! The three of us have come together with the utmost sincerity. Are you telling us we don’t even have a chance to negotiate?”

Brown also frowned slightly but didn’t speak, simply waiting for an explanation.

An ominous premonition grew in their hearts.

After all, they already knew that Ma Shimin of the Hongkong Land Group had been in Singapore three days ago.

“To be honest with you, the acquirer of Raffles Hotel is the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, a subsidiary of the Hongkong Land Group. We have been in talks for over two months, and it was only a few days ago that both sides finally reached an agreement, and the deal was officially closed.

So, I apologize, gentlemen, but you are too late. In fact, by the time Mr. Henry called me, the deal was already done. We didn’t make it public because the equity transfer hasn’t been fully completed. But now that all three of you have come in person, I will be frank,” Mr. Liu said with a helpless shrug.

Li Jiacheng’s face instantly turned grim. He muttered, “It’s Lin Haoran, isn’t it?”

They were a step too late after all.

Raffles Holdings was a strong company. Now that Mandarin Oriental had successfully acquired it, its strength would undoubtedly soar, posing a huge threat to their own luxury hotel businesses.

Mr. Liu nodded. “That’s right. It is indeed Mr. Lin’s Hongkong Land Group.”

Henry Keswick slammed his fist on the conference table, making the teacups rattle. “Dammit! It’s Lin Haoran again!”

As the boss of Jardine Matheson & Co., Henry Keswick hated Lin Haoran to the bone.

Seeing his rival successfully acquire Raffles Hotel right under their noses naturally infuriated him.

Brown’s expression was also terrifyingly dark. “Mr. Liu, why was there no leak at all about such a major transaction?”

“It’s a corporate business intelligence, please forgive me,” Mr. Liu said apologetically. “But the terms Mr. Lin offered were indeed very generous, otherwise I wouldn’t have agreed. As for the specific terms, I’m sorry, but I cannot disclose them!”

Hearing Mr. Liu’s words, the three men realized the matter was a foregone conclusion. Pressing the issue further would only lead to self-humiliation.

They never expected that after traveling all the way from Hong Kong full of confidence, they would be met with such a result.

On their way over, the three of them had been full of optimism. In their eyes, with the three of them making a personal appearance, there was nothing they couldn’t handle.

After all, although Raffles Hotel had become an iconic symbol in Singapore, it was ultimately just a hotel business.

But now, they realized they had been slapped in the face by Lin Haoran yet again.

He had already quietly acquired Raffles Hotel while they were still completely in the dark, even thinking they had a solid chance of snatching it before he could.

What a bitter irony.

The three of them felt like clowns.

Li Jiacheng suppressed the displeasure in his heart, slowly stood up to straighten his suit, and forced a smile back onto his face. “Mr. Liu, in that case, we won’t disturb you any longer. We hope to have the chance to cooperate next time.”

The other two also rose to say their goodbyes.

Although they were unhappy, they knew it was not wise to throw a tantrum in front of Mr. Liu.

After all, they were also optimistic about the Singapore market.

While they felt that Singapore’s development prospects might not be as good as Hong Kong’s, its strategic importance as a major port on the Strait of Malacca could not be ignored.

Therefore, they naturally intended to establish a presence in Singapore.

So, no matter what, they couldn’t afford to offend Mr. Liu.

“Gentlemen, we have prepared a luncheon. You just got off the plane not long ago, let’s have lunch together before you go. Singapore has many investment opportunities. Although the Raffles Hotel deal is done, we have other investment projects we can cooperate on,” Mr. Liu said warmly, trying to persuade them to stay.

Upon hearing this, the three men had no choice but to stay.

They went through the motions during the entire luncheon, having no appetite for it.

After lunch, they once again bid farewell to Mr. Liu.

Li Jiacheng’s face was terrifyingly grim as he walked out of the hotel.

Standing on the stone steps in front of Raffles Hotel, he stared at the century-old building with a dark gaze.

The August sun in Southeast Asia was scorching and blinding, but it couldn’t dispel the chill in his heart.

“We still underestimated this young man!” Brown said with some emotion.

The man was always one step ahead.

Their carefully plotted scheme was thus shattered.

“Gentlemen, what are your suggestions now? Since it’s impossible to intercept Raffles Hotel, there’s no point in us staying in Singapore,” Brown said.

“Let’s go straight back to the airport. We’re going back to Hong Kong now!” Li Jiacheng had no desire to remain in Singapore either.

“Gentlemen, I won’t be joining you on the trip back to Hong Kong. I have other matters to attend to here in Southeast Asia. If you need any cooperation, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I will do my best!” Henry Keswick said.

For Henry Keswick, Jardine Matheson & Co. no longer had any significant business in Hong Kong. He had pretty much wrapped things up during his few days there, so he was unwilling to return.

On the other hand, Jardine Matheson & Co. still had many industries in Southeast Asia.

Southeast Asia remained an important market for Jardine Matheson.

“In that case, Mr. Henry, let’s say our goodbyes here. We’ll stay in touch!” Brown said with a nod.

Li Jiacheng, his face dark, shook hands with Henry Keswick and turned to stride towards the waiting car.

Brown quickly followed, and the two of them got into the car.

“Straight to the airport,” Li Jiacheng instructed the driver.

The car pulled away from Raffles Hotel, driving through the bustling streets of Singapore.

As Li Jiacheng watched the modern buildings flash past the window, he suddenly asked, “Mr. Brown, how do you think Lin Haoran did it? Why was it so sudden? Just when we planned to intercept him, he managed to complete the acquisition at such a critical moment.”

Sitting beside Li Jiacheng, Brown frowned deeply. “I suspect there might have been a leak from our side. Only a few of us knew about this operation, yet Lin Haoran was able to anticipate it so accurately.”

“I don’t think so. After all, they were in talks for over two months. Perhaps it was just a coincidence?” Li Jiacheng shook his head.

All three of them hated Lin Haoran to the bone. How could any of them leak the news and tip him off?

Brown nodded thoughtfully. “That makes sense. Maybe it was just a lucky break for him, and bad luck for us. But this completely disrupts our plan. With Mandarin Oriental acquiring Raffles, their presence in the Asia-Pacific region is now far ahead of The Peninsula Hotel, and we failed to disrupt their expansion.”

Their original plan was that if they could sabotage Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Raffles Hotel, their counterattack against the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group in the luxury hotel sector would be considered a major success.

But now, it was clear that the plan to snatch Raffles Hotel had utterly failed.

Although they had reclaimed a significant market share in the luxury hotel market in Hong Kong, would such an achievement really be enough to rally many other Hong Kong businessmen to their side against Lin Haoran?

The two of them were already exhausted from the morning’s travel, and this outcome left them even more weary and dejected.

Even so, they were unwilling to spend another moment in Singapore.

They just wanted to return to Hong Kong as soon as possible to figure out their next move.

…

While Li Jiacheng and Brown were buying the next available tickets from Singapore to Hong Kong, thousands of miles away at Connaught Centre in Hong Kong, the scene was one of jubilant celebration.

The senior executives of the Hongkong Land Group and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group were raising their glasses in a toast!

Champagne bubbles danced merrily in the crystal glasses, reflecting the undisguised joy on everyone’s faces.

First, acquiring one hundred percent of the shares of Raffles Hotel in Singapore, and now securing nearly fifty percent of the shares of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels—this was an absolutely massive leap forward for Mandarin Oriental.

If the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group was previously just a regional luxury hotel brand, it could now be considered a major international luxury hotel brand.

Its luxury hotel business now spanned several major international cities, including Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Singapore.

“Boss, it really takes you to get things done. Every move you make, you effortlessly secure what we need,” Ma Shimin said with emotion.

That morning, Liang Zhonghao had already delivered the certificates for the over thirty-one million shares of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. The transaction fund of just over one billion Hong Kong dollars had also been transferred from Hang Seng Bank to Liang Zhonghao by the Hongkong Land Group.

Moreover, Liang Zhonghao had also indicated that in the future, all of his family’s and his company’s cash flow would be handled by the banks under the Hang Seng Group!

This was naturally good news for the Hang Seng Group.

After all, the Liang family was a prominent family of considerable strength.

Originally, their funds were with HSBC. Later, because The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels was a British-owned company, he tried to work with British-owned banks for financial convenience.

Now, Lin Haoran had indirectly brought another major client to the Hang Seng Group.

“This is just the beginning, Mr. Ma. My goal is very ambitious. I want Mandarin Oriental to become the most well-known luxury hotel chain brand in the world. So, we still have a long way to go!” Lin Haoran said with a faint smile.

“Rest assured, Boss, I will work hard to achieve your goal. Also, I’ve already contacted the reporters. At five o’clock this afternoon, we will hold a press conference with Mr. Liang Zhonghao at Connaught Centre. As a listed company, Mr. Liang Zhonghao’s sale of shares to us must be publicly announced!” Ma Shimin continued.

Chapter 712: Publicly Humiliated, A Double Blow!

At 22 Salisbury Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, stood the renowned Peninsula Hong Kong.

At that moment, Lawrence Kadoorie sat in the lavish Chairman’s office, a satisfied smile on his face as he reviewed the previous day’s occupancy rates and revenue for The Peninsula Hotel.

Yesterday’s occupancy rate had reached an astonishing 89%, setting a new high for the past month.

In the past, such a figure would not have been particularly outstanding. After all, at its peak, it was common for The Peninsula to be at 100% occupancy, with rooms in high demand.

The Peninsula’s status, after all, was undisputed.

It was not just the benchmark for luxury hotels in Hong Kong but also a landmark of the city and a symbol of honor for his Kadoorie family.

The ‘Luxury Hotel Alliance’ he had formed with Li Jiacheng and others was clearly effective.

Of all The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels’ assets, this building was the only one he truly cared for.

For the Kadoorie family, China Light & Power was their core industry, while The Peninsula Hotel was a symbol of their prestige. The family did not rely on The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels for profit.

For this very reason, the Kadoorie family had only retained about 12% of the shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

As long as The Peninsula Hotel did not slip from the Kadoorie family’s grasp, they were not overly concerned with other matters.

This was also why the Liang family, as a Chinese family, had been able to increase their equity to 34%, becoming the largest shareholder of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

The reason they were so confident that the Liang family would not attempt to seize control was simple.

The Liang family’s overall strength was worlds apart from the Kadoorie family’s. The Liangs were, at best, a second-tier prominent family, whereas the Kadoories were one of the top tycoon families in Hong Kong.

Furthermore, before becoming the largest shareholder, the Liang family had already promised Lawrence Kadoorie that they would not seek control of the hotel business, only manage the company’s property industry.

Moreover, after the Liang family became the major shareholder, their combined shares amounted to a substantial 46%. The Board of Directors they formed held a controlling stake, making it theoretically difficult for a third party to intervene.

Lawrence Kadoorie gently closed the report, the smile still lingering on his lips.

He picked up the bone china teacup from his desk, took a sip of the rich Ceylon black tea, and his gaze once again swept over Victoria Harbour outside the window.

“An 89% occupancy rate… not bad, but it’s not enough,” he murmured to himself.

The splendor of The Peninsula was not just in its occupancy rate, but in its irreplaceable symbolic meaning.

It was the first choice for visiting dignitaries, wealthy magnates, and celebrities, a perfect fusion of Hong Kong’s luxury and history.

As long as The Peninsula remained in the hands of the Kadoorie family, any changes to The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels’ other assets were, to him, merely a game of capital.

Knock, knock, knock—

There was another knock on the office door.

“Come in,” Lawrence Kadoorie said without looking up.

The person who entered was the general manager of The Peninsula Hotel. His face was grim as he said, “Boss, something terrible has happened!”

“What’s got you in such a panic?” Lawrence Kadoorie frowned slightly, setting down his bone china teacup.

“Quick, turn on the TV. Jade Channel… Jade Channel is broadcasting Hongkong Land Group’s press conference. I saw Chairman Liang there!” the general manager blurted out.

“Chairman Liang? Liang Zhonghao?” Lawrence Kadoorie’s brow furrowed, and a sense of foreboding washed over him.

He immediately grabbed the remote control and turned on the color television in his office.

The screen switched to the live broadcast on Jade Channel. There, Ma Shimin, Chairman of Hongkong Land Group, sat on the dais, beaming. And next to him sat none other than Liang Zhonghao, the largest shareholder of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

On the backdrop, the enormous words “Hongkong Land Group & Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group Major Acquisition Joint Press Conference” were blindingly conspicuous.

The word “Acquisition” leaped into Lawrence Kadoorie’s vision, piercing his nerves like a sharp blade.

Although no one had started speaking yet, the word “Acquisition,” combined with Liang Zhonghao’s presence on the dais, was enough for even the dimmest person to figure out what had happened.

The remote control fell from his hand with a clatter, but he was too preoccupied to notice.

On the television, Ma Shimin was announcing in his signature British accent, “…We are delighted to announce that Hongkong Land Group has reached an agreement with Mr. Liang Zhonghao and his family to successfully acquire over thirty-one million shares of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited, which constitutes approximately 34% of the company’s issued share capital!

“Furthermore, Mandarin Oriental Hotel previously commissioned Galaxy Securities to acquire over fourteen and a half million shares of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels through the secondary market. After acquiring Mr. Liang Zhonghao’s shares, our holdings in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels have reached 49.9%.

“From this day forward, Hongkong Land Group will be the largest shareholder of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels…”

Lawrence Kadoorie’s face instantly turned ashen.

Lin Haoran did not appear on the screen, as he had not attended the press conference.

For this kind of corporate merger and acquisition, he felt his personal presence was unnecessary; Ma Shimin alone was more than enough to handle it.

Lawrence Kadoorie shot to his feet, his portly frame causing a button on his suit jacket to pop off.

The general manager had never seen his boss so flustered and was too frightened to even breathe.

“Upon completion of this acquisition, our Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group will officially take control of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels and conduct a strategic restructuring…” Ma Shimin’s voice continued from the television. “.Especially for a gem like The Peninsula Hotel, we plan to bring in a top-tier international management team.”

“Absurd! How could Liang Zhonghao do this!” Lawrence Kadoorie roared, grabbing the teacup on his desk and hurling it at the television screen.

The cup shattered against the screen, and scalding black tea trickled down the broken display.

49.9% of the shares. He knew what that meant.

The Kadoorie family held a mere 12%. This meant the other party could easily sideline his family, stripping them of any power within The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

Once sidelined, the Kadoorie family would be reduced to mere investors with no control over the hotel business of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels whatsoever.

In other words, the statement “The Peninsula Hotel is the Kadoorie family’s symbol of honor” would become a joke—a monumental joke.

Lawrence Kadoorie’s fingers dug deep into his palm, his knuckles turning white from the force.

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

At that moment, the sunlight over Victoria Harbour streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, yet it could not dispel the chill in his heart.

The general manager standing beside him had also turned pale.

Ma Shimin had mentioned bringing in a top-tier international management team for The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

The general manager knew exactly what that meant. It meant he was likely about to be fired.

As Lawrence Kadoorie gradually composed himself, he unhesitatingly picked up the mobile phone beside him and began to dial.

He already knew that Mr. Brown of Standard Chartered Bank and Li Jiacheng of Hutchison Whampoa had failed to intercept the Raffles Hotel deal in Singapore. They had already flown back to Hong Kong and should be landing around this time.

Things had come to this point; there was nothing he could do to change the outcome.

With the other side holding almost 50% of the equity, how could he possibly fight back?

Right now, he just wanted to contact Brown and Li Jiacheng to see if there was any solution.

At this moment, the great business tycoon seemed utterly helpless and alone.

Ten minutes earlier, at Kai Tak International Airport, Hong Kong.

The flight carrying Li Jiacheng and Brown landed smoothly at Kai Tak Airport.

Outside the plane window, the familiar skyline of Hong Kong was faintly visible in the twilight, but neither man felt the warmth of homecoming. There was only a heavy sense of defeat and an indescribable frustration.

The four-hour flight had not calmed the turmoil in their hearts; instead, it had sharpened the sting of Lin Haoran’s pre-emptive acquisition of the Raffles Hotel.

After all, for busy men like them, they had invested considerable time in their attempt to intercept the Raffles Hotel deal, only to come away with nothing, a completely wasted trip.

“We’re finally back,” Brown said, rubbing his throbbing temples, his voice hoarse from the long flight. “Next, we need to think of a counter-strategy. Lin Haoran’s move has completely disrupted our plans. That young man is far from simple.”

Li Jiacheng, his face grim, silently unbuckled his seatbelt.

In his mind, he kept replaying the image of Mr. Liu in Singapore shrugging helplessly, and the image of Lin Haoran’s young but unfathomable face.

He had a feeling that things were not so simple. Lin Haoran’s actions were too swift, too precise, as if he had seen through their intentions from the very beginning.

Was it a coincidence? Or…

He dared not think too deeply.

The two men silently followed the crowd down the stairs and set foot on Hong Kong soil.

Li Jiacheng and Brown dragged their weary bodies out of the arrivals hall, the sense of failure from their Singapore trip weighing on them like heavy lead.

The airport terminal was brightly lit and bustling with people. Announcements, the rolling of suitcase wheels, and chatter merged into a noisy clamor.

They just wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible, find a quiet spot to digest their failure, and then plan their next move.

However, as they stood waiting for their bodyguards to retrieve their luggage, a strange atmosphere began to spread.

As Li Jiacheng and Brown waited, an assistant hurried over and handed a mobile phone to Li Jiacheng.

Although Li Jiacheng had not personally asked Lin Haoran for a spot, with his status as a business tycoon, it was a simple matter for him to become one of the first mobile phone users.

Back on Hong Kong soil, especially at the airport, the mobile communication network was naturally available.

“Mr. Li, there’s a call for you.”

He glanced at the number; it was a call from his office.

Li Jiacheng frowned. He had just returned to Hong Kong, and his company was already calling him. Could something major have happened?

Nonetheless, he took the mobile phone, pressed the answer button, and asked, “What is it?”

“Mr. Li, something… something big has happened! Do you have a television nearby? If so, you should watch Jade Channel. There’s a major news broadcast live!” The voice on the other end, belonging to a senior executive at Hutchison Whampoa, trembled uncontrollably.

Almost as he finished speaking, the gazes of Li Jiacheng and Brown were involuntarily drawn to a television in the corner of the airport terminal broadcasting financial news.

On the screen was a live feed from the press conference hall at Hongkong Land Group’s headquarters in Connaught Centre.

The enormous words “Hongkong Land Group & Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group Major Acquisition Joint Press Conference” on the backdrop were blindingly conspicuous.

At the center of the screen, a beaming Ma Shimin was talking with ease and confidence into the microphone, his voice echoing clearly through the airport’s public address system over the din of the terminal:

“…This is not just an acquisition, but a milestone in Mandarin Oriental’s journey to becoming a global alliance of top luxury hotels! We are extremely honored to announce that the group has successfully completed the 100% equity acquisition of the holding company of Singapore’s legendary landmark—the Raffles Hotel!

“This ‘Grand Old Lady of the East,’ with its century-long history, will officially join the Mandarin Oriental big family from today onward!”

The words “Raffles Hotel” struck Li Jiacheng and Brown’s eardrums like a sledgehammer.

They had just returned in defeat from Singapore, the humiliation of being beaten to the punch still fresh and raw.

Ma Shimin’s announcement of a “successful acquisition” at this moment was tantamount to publicly rubbing salt in their wounds.

However, they already knew about this. Though it pained them, there was no surprise, only a deepening sense of resentment.

But Ma Shimin on the screen did not stop. The victor’s smile on his face grew wider as he turned slightly to gesture at a middle-aged man sitting beside him, who was also smiling calmly. “At the same time, our Hongkong Land Group also has major good news regarding the consolidation of our core assets in Hong Kong!

“We are delighted to announce that Hongkong Land Group has reached an agreement with Mr. Liang Zhonghao and his family to successfully acquire over thirty-one million shares of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited, which constitutes approximately 34% of the company’s issued share capital!

“Furthermore, Mandarin Oriental Hotel previously commissioned Galaxy Securities to acquire over fourteen and a half million shares of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels through the secondary market. After acquiring Mr. Liang Zhonghao’s shares, our holdings in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels have reached 49.9%.

“From this day forward, Hongkong Land Group will be the largest shareholder of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels…”

A roar suddenly went off in Li Jiacheng’s head. He felt a rush of hot blood surge to his head, and his vision momentarily went black.

It felt as if all sound had vanished from his world, leaving only Ma Shimin’s detestable smiling face and the glaring subtitles on the screen—“The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels 49.9% Hongkong Land Group Largest Shareholder”—spinning wildly before his eyes.

The Luxury Hotel Alliance they had initiated, and The Peninsula Hong Kong, which they considered a vital asset, even one of their base camps, had… had its control snatched away by Lin Haoran, right from under his nose, without him even knowing.

“Liang… Liang Zhonghao?!” Brown also cried out in shock. The normally composed man had completely lost his cool, his blue eyes wide with incredulous horror.

He stared intently at the image of Liang Zhonghao on the screen, who was giving a slight nod to the cameras. This was an ally they had never suspected would betray the “British-owned camp,” and he had just delivered such a fatal stab in the back.

After all, when they had discussed this matter with the Kadoorie family, Kadoorie had assured them that with the combined shares of his family and the Liang family, no one could break through their defenses and seize control of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

What did this mean?

It meant that their “Luxury Hotel Alliance” had been severely weakened.

“We’ve been played,” Li Jiacheng’s voice was frighteningly hoarse. “From the very beginning, Lin Haoran’s target wasn’t just Raffles.”

Ma Shimin’s voice continued: “The transaction with the Liang family was efficiently completed through Hang Seng Bank, with a total value exceeding one billion Hong Kong dollars. We thank Mr. Liang Zhonghao and his family for their trust.

“According to the latest regulations from the Hong Kong Securities Commission, holding over 35% of shares triggers the relevant takeover code, requiring the shareholder to apply to privatize the listed company.

“We have already submitted an application to the Securities Commission to privatize and delist The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. I would like to assure all shareholders of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels that we will acquire your shares at the highest price the stock has reached in the last six months!”

Ma Shimin paused, and the camera immediately zoomed in for a close-up on Liang Zhonghao.

Liang Zhonghao cleared his throat, his face showing a mix of relief after completing a major task and a subtle, respectful deference toward a future victor. “I am very honored and satisfied to have reached this agreement with Hongkong Land Group and Mr. Lin Haoran.

“The foresight demonstrated by Mr. Lin and the formidable strength of Hongkong Land Group gives me full confidence in entrusting The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels to them. At the same time, I am also pleased to announce that the financial operations of the Liang family and its affiliated enterprises will be primarily conducted in close cooperation with Hang Seng Bank in the future.”

“Mr. Lin Haoran,” “Hang Seng Bank,” “close cooperation”—each word was like a poison-tipped needle, stabbing viciously into the hearts of Li Jiacheng and Brown.

Their boasted network of connections in Hong Kong, their painstakingly built business alliance, had been torn wide open with a few casual remarks from the other side.

Not only had they failed to intercept the deal in Singapore, but their own backyard had been uprooted.

They had thought they were already winning the business war against Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. Who knew it had just begun? The opponent didn’t make a move, but when he did, it was a fatal strike to their weak point.

Immense fury, the humiliation of being completely fooled, and the despair of their plans utterly collapsing crashed over them like a monstrous wave, submerging them in an instant.

Li Jiacheng’s hand trembled uncontrollably, and he could barely hold the mobile phone.

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.

His years in the business world had taught him that the more critical the situation, the clearer his mind needed to be.

However, his rage completely overwhelmed his reason.

“Lin! Hao! Ran!” A low growl, suppressed to its absolute limit, as if torn from the depths of his soul, erupted from his throat. The volume wasn’t loud, but his fury was palpable.

This growl exhausted his last ounce of strength and shattered his hard-won composure.

He felt that all his previous schemes, in the face of Lin Haoran, were nothing more than child’s play.

Click! Click! Click!

Almost at the exact moment Li Jiacheng lost control, reporters who had been lying in wait swarmed out from all directions like vultures that had smelled blood.

As a place with a high probability of celebrity sightings, the airport was naturally a hotspot for the media.

After all, it was easier for reporters to run into stars, business tycoons, and the like at the airport.

In an instant, blinding camera flashes illuminated Li Jiacheng’s face, which was contorted with extreme anger and pain, turning it a deathly white.

Countless microphones were thrust before him and Brown like spears.

“Mr. Li, why are you and Mr. Brown at the airport at this time? Where have you just returned from? Can you comment?”

“Mr. Li! What are your thoughts on seeing Hongkong Land Group acquire both Raffles and The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels?”

“Your Hong Kong Luxury Hotel Alliance has suffered a major blow. Do you have anything to say?”

“Was Mr. Lin’s move a direct counter to your joint action? Does this mean you have completely lost?”

“Mr. Brown, were you aware of the Liang family’s betrayal regarding The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels? How do you view Mr. Liang Zhonghao’s actions?”

“Mr. Li, you look very unwell. Do you need a doctor? Is this double blow too much for you to handle?”

“Mr. Brown, what are your views on The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels being acquired by Mr. Lin?”

A dozen reporters quickly surrounded Li Jiacheng and Brown, shoving microphones in their faces.

The sharp questions and glaring flashes made Li Jiacheng completely snap.

The formation of the “Hong Kong Luxury Hotel Alliance” by many of Hong Kong’s luxury hotels had already been widely reported in the newspapers.

Therefore, these reporters were naturally well-informed about the situation.

Everyone believed that this so-called “Hong Kong Luxury Hotel Alliance” was aimed squarely at Lin Haoran’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.

And as the owner of the Hilton Hotel in Central, reporters had already learned from senior figures at other hotels that Li Jiacheng was the instigator of this matter.

He suddenly swung his arm, roaring hysterically, “Get lost! All of you, get lost!”

He crudely and gracelessly pushed away the reporters and cameras in front of him, a stark contrast to his usual refined demeanor.

The force of his shove sent several reporters stumbling to the ground, causing a wave of gasps and chaos.

Without another glance at the nightmarish television screen, and ignoring the ashen-faced Brown beside him, he lowered his head. Under the desperate protection of his entourage and amidst the frantic pursuit of the reporters, he stumbled away toward the VIP通道, almost fleeing in extreme humiliation.

Although the acquisition of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels’ shares by Lin Haoran seemed to have nothing to do with him, Li Jiacheng, only he knew what it truly meant.

It meant that his grand plan to use success in the luxury hotel industry to rally more Hong Kong business tycoons against Lin Haoran had failed.

After all, this event once again proved Lin Haoran’s power. As a result, even more people would be afraid to cross him.

At this moment, his expensive suit was wrinkled from the shoving, his meticulously styled hair was in disarray. The “Superman” image of the past was gone, leaving only the retreating figure of a dejected man, suffering a double humiliation in full public view, fleeing in disarray.

On the television, Ma Shimin was still triumphantly outlining Mandarin Oriental’s global blueprint, while Liang Zhonghao smiled and nodded at the cameras.

And in the airport terminal, only a dazed Brown remained, standing stock-still. He watched Li Jiacheng’s disappearing figure, then looked up at the screen broadcasting the press conference that announced their “double kill.” The last trace of color drained from his face.

For the first time, he felt with chilling clarity that the young man named Lin Haoran, with his ruthless methods and profound strategies, was playing them, these old-guard tycoons, right in the palm of his hand.

Chapter 713: One Mountain Cannot Accommodate Two Tigers!

Whenever Li Jiacheng had faced reporters in the past, he always exuded an air of confidence, as if victory was already in his grasp.

But today, he was like a cornered beast, having completely lost his usual composure and grace.

Thus, even though Li Jiacheng had already left the airport, the reporters on the scene had all captured the moment he lost his cool.

For them, this was invaluable news material.

They never expected to get such an explosive, exclusive story at the airport!

Brown didn’t wait for the reporters to react, quickly leaving the airport with his assistant.

However, the reporters no longer cared.

The footage they had just captured of Li Jiacheng’s outburst was more than enough for a major feature in tomorrow’s papers.

Paired with the news of the Hongkong Land Group’s acquisition of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, this series of events made everyone realize that tomorrow’s newspapers were destined to become a significant page in Hong Kong’s business history.

Meanwhile, at Connaught Centre.

After announcing these momentous events, Ma Shimin and Liang Zhonghao accepted interviews from reporters.

The press conference didn’t conclude until half-past six in the evening.

By then, however, the news had already spread throughout all of Hong Kong.

After all, television stations had broadcast it live.

In addition, Hong Kong Radio had also carried a live broadcast, meaning basically every driver and passenger on the road had heard the news.

As the sun set, Hong Kong was shrouded in the veil of night, but the commercial pulse of this city that never sleeps beat even more fiercely than it had during the day.

Brilliantly lit, Hong Kong was exceptionally beautiful.

In every street and alley, every teahouse and restaurant, even at the dinner tables of ordinary families, everyone was fervently discussing this sudden, major news.

“Did you hear? Superman Li threw a huge tantrum at the airport today. Looks like his plan to team up with other hotels against the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has failed!”

“It was all over the TV! Mr. Lin was really ruthless this time, directly raiding the Kadoorie family’s stronghold!”

“If you ask me, Hong Kong is going to be the Lins’ territory from now on!”

“Fortunes change over time! Back in the day, British-owned companies in Hong Kong were so glorious, but now…”

The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels company was no less famous than top-tier enterprises like the Hongkong Electric Group or the Hongkong Land Group.

For a long time, everyone had grown accustomed to the connection between The Peninsula Hotel and the Kadoorie family.

The mere thought of The Peninsula Hotel brought the Kadoorie family to mind.

Therefore, no one had ever imagined that The Peninsula Hotel’s parent company, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, would be acquired by a Chinese conglomerate, and in such a dramatic fashion!

Even in the lobby lounge of The Peninsula Hotel, several foreign guests who were frequent patrons gathered together, their faces etched with disbelief.

“Simply incredible,” a British businessman said, shaking his head. “I’ve been a customer of this hotel for twenty years, staying here for dozens of days each year at the very least. I never thought I’d see the day the Kadoorie family lost control.”

“Tell me about it. As a Briton, watching the decline of British-owned companies in Hong Kong step-by-step… it’s a complicated feeling. First Green Island Cement, then Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Hong Kong Telephone, the Hongkong Land Group, and so on. Now, it’s The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. One by one, these British-owned companies are being snapped up by this young Chinese tycoon,” another British Westerner wearing gold-rimmed glasses, who was clearly well-informed about the situation in Hong Kong, remarked with a sigh.

Although they were mostly here on business, Hong Kong was still a British colony at this time. To them, the change in ownership of these British companies was tantamount to witnessing the fading glory of the empire with their own eyes.

Their conversation piqued the interest of a nearby American international traveler. “What’s the story with this Mr. Lin? I’ve heard the name Lin Haoran on Wall Street, but I never imagined he could even take over a luxurious hotel like The Peninsula. I’ve stayed in many luxury hotels around the world, and in terms of location, spatial layout, landscape design, attention to detail, service, brand culture, and dining experience, The Peninsula Hong Kong is definitely in the global top five.”

“Mr. Lin is only in his twenties,” the British businessman lowered his voice, “but his methods are extremely sophisticated. During the acquisition of the Hongkong Land Group last year, he displayed astonishing financial power and boldness, even coming close to acquiring Jardine Matheson & Co. A couple of months ago, he competed with HSBC and plunged the bank into a major crisis. If it weren’t for Standard Chartered Bank’s intervention, HSBC might have faced bankruptcy. It seems now that he’s been playing a very big game all along.”

“He’s that young? That’s an astonishing age!” the American traveler said, surprised.

Just then, dozens of reporters suddenly burst in from outside.

It happened so suddenly that the security guards at the door had no time to stop them before they swarmed in.

The guests in the lobby were startled by the sudden commotion and turned to look.

However, The Peninsula Hotel’s security team reacted quickly. The moment the reporters stepped into the lobby, a dozen guards rushed out and formed a human wall, blocking them at the entrance.

The security captain shouted in fluent English, “Friends from the media, please maintain order! The Peninsula Hotel has always respected press freedom, but we must protect the privacy and safety of our guests. We ask that you all please exit The Peninsula Hotel!”

“We’re here to interview Mr. Lawrence Kadoorie! We hope Mr. Kadoorie can come out for an interview!” a reporter from the South China Morning Post shouted loudly.

Other reporters also clamored to see Lawrence Kadoorie.

Hong Kong wasn’t that big, and the media had the best sources. They already knew that Lawrence Kadoorie was at The Peninsula Hotel today.

For them, since the press conference at the Hongkong Land Group was over, they naturally wanted to interview the other protagonist in the sudden acquisition of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

They wanted to know if Lawrence Kadoorie had known about this in advance.

If he had, why did he willingly let this hotel, the pride of his family, be taken over by someone else?

If he hadn’t, the reporters also wanted to know what Lawrence Kadoorie thought about it.

However, their efforts were destined to be in vain. Just as the security captain was dealing with the reporters, a commotion suddenly erupted from the concierge at the side entrance.

“Mr. Kadoorie left through the employee exit!” a sharp-eyed reporter suddenly yelled.

The reporters instantly stirred. Some tried to break through the security line, while others turned and ran for the hotel exit.

But it was too late—through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, they could only see the back of a black Rolls-Royce slowly driving away from the hotel.

Of course, Lawrence Kadoorie wasn’t going to give an interview. He was extremely vexed right now. As the helmsman of the Kadoorie family, he knew what losing The Peninsula Hotel meant for his family.

So, he was completely unwilling to be interviewed. He just wanted to get back to his family as quickly as possible and discuss with the other family members how to deal with this sudden event.

Ten minutes ago, he had already called both Brown and Li Jiacheng.

However, he received no useful information.

He suddenly began to regret listening to Li Jiacheng and Brown’s bluffs and joining their so-called “Anti-Lin Haoran Alliance.”

In his view, Lin Haoran’s sudden move on The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels was definitely a deliberate act of retaliation for the Kadoorie family’s actions.

Now, his Kadoorie family had become the first target of Lin Haoran’s counterattack.

Lawrence Kadoorie’s temples throbbed. He recalled Li Jiacheng’s confident assurance a month ago: “As long as there are many of us, we’ll have strength in numbers. Lin Haoran will definitely be too preoccupied to handle us. Right now, his companies are overly ambitious in every sector, which makes this the perfect time for us to join forces and strike back.”

At the time, he had strongly agreed with Li Jiacheng’s sentiment.

After all, setting aside other industries, even a landmark luxury hotel in Hong Kong like The Peninsula had seen its occupancy rate plummet under the competition from Lin Haoran’s hotel business.

And that was just the luxury hotel sector. According to his investigations, many other industries were facing the same situation.

It was for this very reason that Lawrence Kadoorie was ultimately persuaded by Li Jiacheng and Brown to join them in dealing with Lin Haoran.

In Lawrence Kadoorie’s view, although Lin Haoran had never offended their family, society was all about interests.

To ensure the better development of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, suppressing Lin Haoran seemed like a good strategy.

The Kadoorie family owned a monopolistic enterprise like China Light & Power; they had no reason to fear anyone in Hong Kong’s business world.

Furthermore, he had never imagined that Lin Haoran would so suddenly acquire the shares held by Liang Zhonghao. Such a scenario had never even crossed his mind.

Therefore, this event was a bolt from the blue for Lawrence Kadoorie.

However, it was useless to have regrets now.

The other party held nearly 50% of the shares, while their Kadoorie family’s meager 12% stake was no match for them.

Originally, Lawrence Kadoorie had scoffed at the saying “Don’t provoke Lin Haoran.” Their Kadoorie family had never been afraid of anyone in Hong Kong!

Now, he had been given a rude awakening.

Even so, he was unwilling to let his family lose The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels and The Peninsula Hotel, that landmark building, just like that.

He had to find a way to win The Peninsula Hotel back from Lin Haoran!

…

While the news of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels being acquired by the Hongkong Land Group’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group spread throughout Hong Kong, Lin Haoran was at his Deep Water Bay villa.

Today was already August 25th. His engagement day, September 3rd, was only nine days away.

So, Lin Wan’an had specially called Lin Haoran home to go over some matters regarding the engagement.

Although Lin Haoran didn’t need to worry about the arrangements, he still had to be aware of the proceedings.

Otherwise, he would be like a puppet being manipulated, which would be quite embarrassing.

It wasn’t just Lin Haoran at the Lin family villa; Guo Xiaohan and her parents were there as well.

The two families were about to become in-laws, and since both sides were very pleased with the match, they got along harmoniously.

In the living room, Guo’s father was sipping fine Longjing tea with Lin Wan’an, discussing the details of the two children’s wedding.

“Old Lin,” Guo’s father said with a smile, “I think we should hold the engagement banquet at The Mandarin Hotel in Central. We’ll just invite a few close relatives and friends, a few tables will be enough. After the engagement, our two families can properly find an auspicious date to set the wedding day, and we can have a grand celebration then. What do you think?”

Lin Wan’an nodded. “That’s exactly what I was thinking. The Mandarin Hotel is Haoran’s property and a famous luxury hotel in Hong Kong. Holding it there wouldn’t be improper.”

At this moment, Lin Haoran, who was sitting nearby, chimed in with a smile, “Dad, Uncle Guo, let’s have the banquet at The Peninsula Hotel. It’s more suitable there. Dad, you can just coordinate with The Peninsula Hotel directly!”

Lin Haoran’s words immediately made everyone in the room turn to look at him, all with expressions of confusion.

After all, in their eyes, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group belonged to Lin Haoran. It would be more appropriate to hold a banquet at one of his own hotels. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel wasn’t that much inferior to The Peninsula Hotel, so why choose someone else’s hotel?

Since they had all gathered here in the afternoon and had been busy with Lin Haoran’s engagement matters, no one present, except for Lin Haoran himself, knew about the acquisition.

Lin Wan’an put down his teacup, his brow furrowed slightly. “Haoran, what do you mean? Isn’t The Peninsula Hotel the Kadoorie family’s property?”

A meaningful smile played on Lin Haoran’s lips. “Dad, Uncle Guo, I have some news for you. I now officially hold 50% of the shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. At five o’clock this afternoon, the Hongkong Land Group held a press conference at Connaught Centre to formally announce it. In other words, as of today, I have officially acquired The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. And if all goes according to plan, I will privatize the company and completely take this historic Hong Kong luxury hotel brand for myself! If I’m not mistaken, all the major newspapers in Hong Kong will be reporting on this tomorrow. Mr. Ma from the Hongkong Land Group told me that more than sixty media outlets were invited to this afternoon’s press conference!”

As soon as he said this, everyone present was stunned.

The teacup in Lin Wan’an’s hand fell to the floor with a clatter, splashing tea everywhere. But he was in no mood to deal with it now; he could have a maid clean it up later.

The news was too sudden.

The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels? Another British-owned tycoon enterprise had been acquired by his own son?

Thinking of the luxurious and noble air of The Peninsula Hotel, Lin Wan’an’s fingers trembled with excitement.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. “Haoran, why didn’t you tell me about something this big beforehand?”

Lin Haoran smiled and refilled his father’s cup. “Dad, the business world is like a battlefield. Opportunities are fleeting. This acquisition had to be a quick and decisive one, so I didn’t tell anyone.”

Guo’s father had recovered from his shock by now and slapped the table in approval. “Excellent! Absolutely excellent! The Peninsula Hotel is a Hong Kong landmark!”

He turned to his wife and said, “Remember when we first came to Hong Kong from Malaysia? We stayed at The Peninsula Hotel!”

Guo’s mother nodded repeatedly, her eyes shining with delight. “Holding the wedding at The Peninsula Hotel would indeed be much grander!”

Guo Xiaohan blushed slightly and gently tugged on Lin Haoran’s sleeve. “Such a big acquisition must have cost a lot of money, right? I remember the market capitalization of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels isn’t low.”

Lin Haoran smiled faintly, holding her hand. “The whole reason I bought The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels was for you, wasn’t it? Ever since we confirmed our engagement, I started planning to acquire The Peninsula Hotel, all to give you a perfect engagement banquet, and a future wedding reception. It’s worth it. In my eyes, in all of Hong Kong, only The Peninsula is worthy of hosting the grandest wedding ceremony for you and me!”

Of course, this was just to deceive Guo Xiaohan.

After all, women loved to hear such romantic and affectionate words, and Lin Haoran was well-versed in this art.

A sweet lie was more effective than a thousand useless explanations.

Under normal circumstances, he didn’t actually have much interest in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

He bought it purely because the Kadoorie family had been so unscrupulous as to conspire with others against him, so he retaliated without hesitation.

And plotting the acquisition of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels served as a harsh lesson for the Kadoorie family.

This was only the beginning.

Next, he would deal with the others.

How could those who offended him, Lin Haoran, get off so lightly?

He might be young, but that didn’t mean he would let others walk all over him.

A sharp glint flashed in Lin Haoran’s eyes, but it quickly softened back to tenderness.

He gently squeezed Guo Xiaohan’s hand. “Besides, the staff at The Peninsula are the most professional. They’ll definitely be able to give us a perfect, romantic banquet.”

Guo Xiaohan was indeed moved to the point of her eyes welling up. She leaned her head gently on Lin Haoran’s shoulder. “Brother Haoran, thank you!”

She had no idea about the turbulent business storms hidden behind this acquisition.

Lin Haoran gently stroked her hair, a hint of a smile in his eyes.

Women sure are easy to please, he thought. But this acquisition really did kill two birds with one stone. It taught the Kadoorie family a harsh lesson and allowed me to show my romantic side to my fiancée.

Guo’s father and mother also looked at their prospective son-in-law with satisfaction.

To think he would actually acquire Hong Kong’s most famous and top-tier luxury hotel just for their daughter’s wedding—it was completely unexpected.

Since Lin Haoran treated their daughter so well, they felt even more at ease.

Lin Wan’an looked at his son, feeling both proud and worried. “Haoran, the Kadoorie family won’t let this go, will they?”

The Kadoorie family was a long-standing, powerful family in Hong Kong. They had been established for many years and had long become one of the most formidable families in the city.

Everyone in Hong Kong knew that the Kadoorie family had always regarded The Peninsula Hotel as a symbol of their family’s honor.

But now, Haoran had acquired The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, causing the Kadoorie family to lose control of The Peninsula.

Lin Wan’an felt that the Kadoorie family would not swallow this insult easily.

“Don’t worry, Dad,” Lin Haoran said calmly, picking up his teacup. “They can’t stir up any trouble. I’ve already arranged for people to keep a close eye on them. Even if they try to counterattack, I’m not afraid. At the same time, I’ve already had the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group begin the privatization process for The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. My shareholding will only increase from here on out. The Kadoorie family has no way of regaining control. Dad, don’t forget, I’ve defeated even Jardine Matheson and HSBC. What is one Kadoorie family compared to them? Don’t worry, what do they have to fight me with?”

At that moment, Lin Haoran’s confident charm once again captivated Guo Xiaohan, making her grip his hand even tighter.

A man like him was hard to find anywhere in the world.

On the contrary, she felt more and more that she was not worthy of Lin Haoran.

Lin Wan’an looked at the perfect couple, feeling both gratified and emotional. “Haoran, of course I believe you. You’re becoming more and more measured in how you handle things.”

He turned to Guo’s father. “Old Guo, shouldn’t we start planning the details of the engagement banquet properly?”

“Right, right!” Guo’s father rubbed his hands excitedly. “Let’s continue our discussion. Time is getting short, we must do an even better job so we don’t bring shame to the Lin and Guo families!”

Guo’s father was naturally more than satisfied that his daughter could marry such a business magnate.

Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan looked at each other and smiled.

That night, Lin Haoran decided to stay over at the Deep Water Bay villa.

Guo Xiaohan, however, returned to her family’s villa on Barker Road with her parents.

As the night deepened, Lin Haoran lay in the small room in the attic, contemplating his next business strategy.

Outside the window, he could faintly hear the sound of the ocean waves, but his thoughts had already drifted to faraway places. Before long, he fell into a deep sleep…

In the blink of an eye, the night passed.

In the morning, influenced by his biological clock, Lin Haoran woke up a little after seven.

He yawned, washed up, and then went downstairs.

Downstairs, his father and mother were both sitting on the sofa. His mother was watching television while his father was reading the newspaper.

Clearly, they had been up for a while.

“Haoran, you’re up. I’ll go have the kitchen heat up your breakfast,” Lin mother said, getting up and heading towards the kitchen as soon as she saw him.

His father, however, adjusted his reading glasses and said with a smile, “Haoran, come quickly. Today’s papers are all reporting on your acquisition of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.”

Lin Haoran walked over to his father with great interest and sat down.

He also wanted to see how the newspapers had reported it.

His father handed him a copy of the Hong Kong Commercial Daily.

Hong Kong Commercial Daily Front Page: Lin Haoran Acquires The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels! A Blow-by-Blow Account of Superman Li’s Airport Rage! A Turning Point in the Business War of the Century!

[Reported by our journalist Zheng Wenhao, live from Kai Tak Airport]

At 5:15 PM on August 25th, Hutchison Whampoa Chairman Li Jiacheng and Standard Chartered Bank Taipan Brown returned to Hong Kong from Singapore, their faces grim and their steps hurried.

However, just as they exited the airport arrivals hall, the television screens in the airport suddenly began broadcasting a live joint press conference by the Hongkong Land Group and Mandarin Oriental. It was announced that Lin Haoran had successfully acquired a 49.9% stake in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels and was initiating the privatization process!

Li Jiacheng lost control on the spot! “Superman Li,” who had always been known for his composure, saw his face turn ashen at the news, his hands clenching into fists, veins bulging.

When confronted by reporters, he flew into a rare rage, shoving journalists and even roaring, “Get lost!”

—This entire scene was captured by dozens of reporters on site!

…

Lin Haoran read the news with great interest. Interesting, very interesting.

He had long known about the conspiracy between Superman Li and the others.

As a transmigrator, he was even more clear about Superman Li’s ambitions.

His ambition was so great that all of Hong Kong could barely contain it.

However, the current Hong Kong was dominated by Lin Haoran.

It was only a matter of time before the other party would try to change this situation and confront him head-on.

As the saying goes, one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers.

Now, it was clear that both Lin Haoran and Superman Li were undisputed juggernauts in the Hong Kong business world. A fierce battle between them was inevitable.

However, at present, Lin Haoran’s strength was clearly far greater than Superman Li’s.

Chapter 714: Kadoorie Takes the Initiative to Sue for Peace

Back then, Lin Haoran’s move to take reverse control of Jardine Matheson & Co. by secretly acquiring a controlling stake in Hongkong Land Group had been enough to shake all of Hong Kong. It had shown the city’s residents the terrifying extent of his power, forcing Jardine Matheson’s senior executives to sacrifice numerous interests and even give up the Hongkong Land Group.

Three months ago, HSBC had taken the initiative to provoke Lin Haoran, and the bank’s end was even more惨tacular. After that incident, the Hang Seng Group became the sole hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry.

However, not long after the HSBC affair, just one month later, Lin Haoran struck again with the force of a thunderbolt. With lightning speed, he seized control of nearly fifty percent of the shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, completely igniting the powder keg of Hong Kong’s business world.

The shock from this was no less than any of the previous incidents.

Yesterday afternoon, Jade Channel and Hong Kong Radio had broadcast the contents of Hongkong Land Group’s press conference across the entire city.

And today, reports from dozens of mainstream media outlets made it the top story in almost every major newspaper, causing the news to sweep through every corner of Hong Kong like a hurricane.

Morning and noon news segments on radio and television, along with urgent extras and front-page headlines in major papers like the Hong Kong Commercial Daily and Oriental Daily News, all screamed the same shocking words:

“Hongkong Land’s Blitz Acquisition! The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Changes Hands!”

“Mandarin Oriental Devours The Peninsula, Kadoorie Loses Family Glory!”

“Li Jiacheng ‘Loses Temper’ at Airport, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Changes Hands, the Painful Truth Behind it All Revealed?”

…

The name Lin Haoran, with an unprecedented and immense impact, was once again seared into the minds of every business tycoon in Hong Kong.

The Peninsula Hotel, “The Grand Dame of the Far East,” a symbol of Hong Kong’s high society and a century of British-owned glory, had seen its true scepter of power quietly pass into the hands of a young Chinese man overnight.

This was not just a commercial merger and acquisition; it was a dramatic shift in power, a blatant subversion of the established order in Hong Kong’s business community.

Another powerful, local British-funded conglomerate had been defeated by Lin Haoran!

Nearly fifty percent of the shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels—even those who knew nothing about finance understood that in this situation, the Kadoorie family, holding a mere twelve percent, had absolutely no power to fight back.

The Kadoorie family was one of Hong Kong’s old-money, British-owned powerhouses. Although they hadn’t been as high-profile as conglomerates like the HSBC or Jardine Matheson groups in recent years, no one in Hong Kong had ever dared to underestimate them.

As the “overlord” of electricity on the Kowloon Peninsula and the outlying islands, CLP Holdings, controlled by the Kadoorie family, had held a firm grip on the power supply lifeline for Kowloon, the New Territories, and the outlying islands for decades.

Thanks to the monopolistic nature of power supply, CLP Holdings, unlike other enterprises, was not susceptible to falling into financial trouble.

It could be said that CLP Holdings alone was enough for the Kadoorie family to make a fortune.

From the company’s founding in 1901 to the current 1980s, CLP Holdings had been in operation for eighty years.

No one knew how much wealth the Kadoorie family had accumulated over these eight decades.

It was known that the Kadoorie family’s assets were not just in HSBC; they also held vast and undisclosed funds in banks in Britain, Switzerland, and elsewhere.

In the past, when Jardine Matheson & Co. and HSBC still dominated the Hong Kong business world, even the leaders of these two giants were exceedingly polite when dealing with the Kadoorie family!

For this reason, the Kadoorie family could be called Hong Kong’s extremely low-profile, hidden super-tycoon family.

No one dared to look down on the Kadoorie family.

Moreover, they had deep-rooted interests in various sectors, including the hotel industry, real estate, and finance. Among these, The Peninsula Hotel was the “apple of the Kadoorie family’s eye.”

But now, that pearl had slipped from the Kadoorie family’s grasp and into Lin Haoran’s hands.

This made many of Hong Kong’s citizens sigh in amazement. This Lin Haoran was truly the nemesis of the British-funded conglomerates!

Meanwhile, in the top-floor offices of Central’s skyscrapers, the reactions of the various business tycoons were quite a spectacle!

In the head office of Sun Hung Kai Properties.

Kwok Tak-seng put down the urgent intelligence report in his hands and let out a long breath, his eyes filled with a complex mix of emotions. “A youth is to be regarded with respect, truly. Fast, precise, and ruthless! He gives people no time to react at all. From Green Island Cement, to Hongkong Electric Group, Hongkong Land Group… and now The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, this young man Lin Haoran’s appetite is truly unrestrained.”

Business magnates like him received information that was far more detailed than what was reported in the newspapers. Thus, Kwok Tak-seng understood even more clearly just how formidable Lin Haoran’s surprise attack had been.

Kwok Tak-seng set down the report and turned to his eldest son beside him, saying, “Send word down: for all important projects in the near future, if they involve any of Lin Haoran’s businesses, we must be exceedingly cautious. The evaluation reports need to be as detailed as possible. This man is too sharp-edged. We cannot afford to offend him. It’s best if we can cooperate. If it can’t be helped, we must not easily make an enemy of him. We cannot be like Mr. Li Jiacheng.”

He naturally understood that Lin Haoran’s reach had already extended deep into real estate, public utilities, finance, retail, energy, shipping terminals, and now the luxury hotel industry. One could say he had a hand in the majority of the 360 trades.

The commercial empire under his control was becoming impregnable. Any attempt to confront him head-on now seemed tantamount to a moth flying into a flame.

The fates of the Jardine Matheson group, the HSBC group, and the Kadoorie family served as bloody warnings.

At the Henderson Land Development headquarters, in a senior executive meeting room.

At this moment, more than a dozen people, all core senior executives of Henderson Land, were seated in the meeting room.

Li Zhaoji, however, was frowning deeply, repeatedly reading the details of Hongkong Land Group’s acquisition of the Raffles Hotel and The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

“Forty-nine point nine percent… one decisive step, triggering a mandatory takeover offer. This gives the Kadoorie family no chance of a comeback. What a massive move!” he muttered to himself.

Li Jiacheng’s disheveled state at the airport had been broadcast all over Hong Kong through reporters’ lenses, which only deepened the apprehension in Li Zhaoji’s heart.

Henderson Land’s current strength was only about on par with Cheung Kong Holdings.

But one had to remember that Li Jiacheng also had Hutchison Whampoa under his belt.

This meant that his, Li Zhaoji’s, current strength was significantly weaker than Li Jiacheng’s.

If Li Jiacheng couldn’t handle Lin Haoran even after rallying several British-owned giants, what chance did he have?

He looked up at his subordinates and said, “Everyone, Mr. Li Jiacheng has taken a huge fall this time. He formed the Luxury Hotel Alliance only to have the ground cut from under him. The alliance’s foundation has been destroyed. Lin Haoran is playing a game that has long since moved beyond the board. His momentum is unstoppable. We need to rethink Henderson Land’s development strategy. We must ride the momentum, but more importantly, we must avoid its sharp edge.”

Lin Haoran’s iron-fisted methods and unfathomably deep resource mobilization capabilities made Li Zhaoji understand that the old strategy of forming alliances to counter a giant was now useless against him.

As a Hong Kong real estate tycoon, Li Zhaoji naturally understood Li Jiacheng’s objective. Luxury hotels were only the beginning. Once they defeated the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group in that arena, they were bound to attack Lin Haoran in other sectors.

But now, it was clear that they had been knocked back to square one by a single heavy blow from Lin Haoran right at the outset.

New World Development, headquarters.

Cheng Yu-tung watched the television screen, where Liang Zhonghao was shaking hands amicably with Ma Shimin at the press conference, his brows furrowed.

The Liang family was an important shareholder in their New World Development. Now that the Liang family had cashed out of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, with a huge amount of capital flowing back to them, their position seemed to have subtly shifted.

He turned to a senior executive of New World Development beside him and said, “Old Liang’s timing in pulling out was perfect. He even managed to get on Lin Haoran’s good side. Kadoorie is in big trouble now. It seems our assessment of Lin Haoran’s strength was still too conservative. Notify all branch companies to strengthen cash flow management and guard against sudden market changes. Effective immediately, The Regent Hotel will withdraw from the Luxury Hotel Alliance. Also, release a statement to the media that New World Development’s involvement with the Luxury Hotel Alliance was purely a business cooperation that has now come to an end!

“Also, I will find a time to meet with Lin Haoran and apologize to him personally!”

Cheng Yu-tung felt an invisible pressure. Lin Haoran wasn’t just conquering territories; he was subtly changing the balance of power between allies and adversaries.

Previously, Li Jiacheng had personally visited him and persuaded him to have New World’s Regent Hotel join the Luxury Hotel Alliance they were forming to collectively boost their occupancy rates.

For the sake of profit, he had eventually agreed.

But now, Lin Haoran’s surprise acquisition of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels had been a wake-up call.

He was even more surprised that Liang Zhonghao had sold his shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels to Lin Haoran without telling him beforehand.

After all, he and the Liang family were very close partners.

He knew Liang Zhonghao very well. The fact that Liang Zhonghao would decisively choose to sell his shares to Lin Haoran was proof that the latter’s strength was even greater than he had imagined.

He had already spoken with Liang Zhonghao on the phone last night.

Liang Zhonghao hadn’t explained much, only emphasizing one sentence: “Old Cheng, if you trust me, you’d best choose not to make an enemy of Lin Haoran!”

Therefore, Cheng Yu-tung decided to immediately cut ties and protect himself!

Fortunately, New World Development wasn’t a key player in the Luxury Hotel Alliance. If he personally went to apologize, Lin Haoran probably wouldn’t hold it against him.

For Cheng Yu-tung, apologizing to a member of the younger generation in business like Lin Haoran was not a matter of losing face.

In the business world, strength is always what matters most, not taking the liberty of one’s age!

In the face of true power, being a person of noble character and high prestige meant nothing~

The senior executive looked at Cheng Yu-tung in surprise. He hadn’t expected the boss to decide to go and apologize to Lin Haoran in person.

Despite his surprise, he nodded immediately. “I’ll arrange it right away.”

Standard Chartered Bank.

Brown had locked himself in his office. He stared at the newspaper headline, at the photo of his ashen face next to a shot of Li Jiacheng waving his arms and roaring. He felt a suffocating pressure building in his chest.

Lin Haoran’s “double kill” against them had been precise and lethal. Swiftly taking down the Raffles Hotel and The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels had shattered the morale their alliance had just begun to build.

Worse still, with The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels changing hands, their “Luxury Hotel Alliance” targeting Mandarin Oriental had lost its most crucial leverage and its most powerful symbol.

“Which of Hong Kong’s business magnates would dare to join us now?” A bone-deep chill made Brown realize that their front against Lin Haoran was already facing disintegration before it had even fully formed.

At this moment, he began to regret ever forming this so-called “Anti-Lin Alliance” with Li Jiacheng.

Hong Kong’s businessmen were realists. It was their instinct to seek advantages and avoid harm. When Lin Haoran’s odds of winning and his intimidating power were displayed so vividly, more eyes would naturally turn towards him.

This spreading sense of apprehension, like invisible threads, was entangling everyone who tried to challenge or doubt Lin Haoran’s power.

Lin Haoran’s tactic of “killing the chicken to scare the monkey” had been remarkably effective.

The more prestigious and powerful the “chicken” that was killed, the more deeply the warning was seared into the “monkeys’” bones.

In Kowloon, on Argyle Street, inside the China Light & Power headquarters building, the atmosphere in Lawrence Kadoorie’s office was suffocatingly tense.

He hadn’t gone to The Peninsula Hotel today. Instead, he had come to the Chairman’s office at CLP Holdings early in the morning and had the public relations department send a visitation request to Hongkong Land Group.

On the expensive Persian rug lay the wreckage of a television smashed that morning. Shards were scattered everywhere, the uncleared aftermath of a silent storm.

The curtains were drawn tight, leaving only a single dim desk lamp to illuminate Lawrence Kadoorie’s face, which was contorted with pain, anger, and humiliation.

He had just ended a furious meeting with the family’s core members.

The meeting had been a chaotic mix of arguments, sighs, and accusations.

“Lawrence, why did you agree to Li Jiacheng’s proposal in the first place? You’ve brought disaster upon the family!”

“Losing The Peninsula Hotel? This is a devastating blow to the family’s reputation! A century of work, destroyed in an instant!”

“We can’t just let it go! We have to get it back!”

“How? He has forty-nine point nine percent! We only have twelve! If he announces to privatize, it means delisting the company, and we’ll be reduced to minor shareholders forever!”

“The law! Legal channels! Sue them for hostile takeover!”

“Hostile takeover? Where’s the evidence? Liang Zhonghao’s sale was legal, and his stock accumulation on the secondary market was also compliant! Everything they did was watertight!”

In the end, helplessness drowned out the anger.

The clamor from the hardliners seemed pale and feeble in the face of cold, hard numbers and legal reality.

Lawrence Kadoorie couldn’t vent his anger during the family meeting.

After all, it was his proposal and execution that had led the Kadoorie family to reduce their shareholding in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels company in the first place.

In Lawrence Kadoorie’s view, rather than holding so many shares in the company, it was better to sell off a portion while the share price was high to recover capital, as long as The Peninsula Hotel remained under the family’s control.

This was the biggest reason the core family members were blaming him.

But what was the use of regret now?

He had called the family meeting to find a way to win back The Peninsula Hotel, not to get scolded!

He knew better than anyone that, legally, the Kadoorie family had almost no chance of a comeback.

Lin Haoran’s methods in business operations were extremely sophisticated, having circumvented all known risks.

The legends circulating in the financial world about Lin Haoran being “prescient” and “having foreseen every possibility” seemed painfully real at this moment.

The family’s century-old reputation, his personal face, and the inseparable emotional attachment to The Peninsula Hotel—it wasn’t just property, but a symbol and a belief—weighed on his heart like a giant wheel.

A British-owned magnate, a helmsman who once looked down upon all competition, was now cornered. The only way out he could think of was so humiliating.

“Reconciliation… perhaps the only way is to try… to sue for peace,” he squeezed the words out from between his teeth with great difficulty.

Under the complex gazes of his family members, Lawrence made a decision he never thought he would make in his entire life: to swallow his pride, go to Connaught Centre in person, and bow his head in supplication to the young Chinese man he had once disdained.

Their Kadoorie family, as one of Hong Kong’s traditional, old-money super-tycoon families, had never bowed their heads to anyone before.

But now, to regain control of The Peninsula Hotel, he had to try this path.

For the Kadoorie family, this was an absolutely shameful decision.

However, The Peninsula Hotel was a landmark industry that had risen alongside the Kadoorie family, a symbol of their family’s glory.

If they truly lost The Peninsula Hotel, the Kadoorie family’s standing in Hong Kong’s business world would plummet, and they might even become a laughingstock.

So, comparing the family’s shame to his personal shame, he ultimately chose the former.

Under normal circumstances, even if he bowed his head before Lin Haoran, no one else would know.

Lin Haoran wouldn’t be the type to spread such things around.

At Connaught Centre, after leaving his villa in Deep Water Bay, Lin Haoran had Li Weidong drive him straight there.

He wasn’t surprised by the impact his acquisition of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels had caused in Hong Kong.

After all, he had been through this many times.

In the past, every acquisition, be it Green Island Cement, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Kowloon Motor Bus, or Hongkong Land Group, had caused a massive stir throughout Hong Kong.

Therefore, for him, it seemed he had grown accustomed to it.

Just as he returned to his office, Ma Shimin strode in.

“Boss, the public relations department from China Light & Power called. They said Mr. Lawrence Kadoorie wants to visit you in person. Should I turn him down?” Ma Shimin said with a smile.

“Oh? Lawrence Kadoorie wants to see me in person?” Lin Haoran was a little surprised.

Was the man planning to get back control of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, especially The Peninsula Hotel, from him?

He thought for a moment, then said, “Reply to them and say I’ll be waiting for him in my office!”

Meanwhile, inside the China Light & Power headquarters building, a pensive Lawrence Kadoorie was startled by a series of hurried knocks on the door.

“Come in!” he answered in a deep voice.

“Boss, we’ve received a reply from Hongkong Land Group. Mr. Lin is waiting for you in his office.” The assistant pushed the door open, his eyes immediately catching the debris scattered on the floor. He trembled in fear but managed to force the words out.

Lawrence Kadoorie gradually calmed himself, glanced at the messy floor, and instructed the shivering assistant beside him, “I know. Clean this up later. I’m going out.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he walked straight out of the China Light & Power headquarters building.

The clock hand was now pointing to ten in the morning.

Half an hour later, an extremely low-key black Mercedes-Benz sedan slowly pulled up at the entrance of Connaught Centre.

Lawrence Kadoorie hadn’t taken his usual Rolls-Royce, precisely to maintain a low profile and avoid attracting attention.

The car door opened, and he, along with a bodyguard, quickly entered Connaught Centre.

He deliberately avoided the main entrance, choosing to enter through a side door instead.

Lawrence Kadoorie was dressed in his most formal dark grey three-piece suit, his hair impeccably combed, but the bloodshot eyes betrayed his exhaustion.

Ten minutes later, Lin Haoran received him in his private office on the 51st floor.

His attitude was neither warm nor deliberately cold.

“Mr. Kadoorie, what a rare guest. I wonder what brings you here in person?” Lin Haoran feigned ignorance of his purpose.

In reality, it was easy to guess why he had come.

“Mr. Lin, there is indeed something I’d like to discuss with you,” Lawrence forced a smile, trying to ease the atmosphere.

“Oh? Mr. Kadoorie, you are a senior in the Hong Kong business world. When would you ever need to visit in person? As a junior in business, it should be me paying you a visit!” Lin Haoran chuckled.

However, to Lawrence Kadoorie’s eyes, that smile was incredibly piercing.

Lawrence Kadoorie took a deep breath, suppressing the anger in his heart and struggling to maintain a calm facade. “You’re too kind, Mr. Lin. The business world is like a battlefield, and accomplishment comes first. For Mr. Lin to be able to stir up such turmoil in the capital markets at such a young age is a skill I am ashamed to say I lack.”

Lin Haoran raised an eyebrow, leaned back into the leather sofa, crossed his legs, and looked at the man with a faint, unreadable smile. “You flatter me, Mr. Kadoorie, but I doubt you came here in person today just to praise me.”

“I think Mr. Lin can guess the purpose of my visit today, so I won’t beat around the bush. The Kadoorie family has worked hard for many years to build The Peninsula Hotel to its current reputation. It was not easy.” Lawrence Kadoorie paused here.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, his gaze fixed on him, saying nothing as he quietly waited for the man to continue.

Lawrence took a deep breath, pushing down the churning sense of humiliation in his heart. “Mr. Lin, in the world of business, things sometimes happen. We have different positions. Before, when Mr. Li Jiacheng and the others formed the alliance, I… I was perhaps too conservative at the time, worried that Mandarin Oriental’s expansion would impact the entire industry’s ecosystem. Coupled with some… misjudgments of the market’s prospects, I chose to join.”

He casually blamed his decision on “industry concerns” and “misjudgment,” doing his best to distance himself from the intention of confrontation.

“Mr. Lin is a perceptive man. I am here today for The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. You must also be aware that a large part of the company’s core value comes from The Peninsula Hotel’s unique historical legacy, as well as its irreplaceable service culture and reputation, forged by its long-serving management team.”

Keeping a close watch on the changes in Lin Haoran’s expression, Lawrence carefully laid out his core condition: “Mr. Lin surely knows that The Peninsula Hotel is of extraordinary significance to our Kadoorie family.

“I have come today hoping to buy back the controlling stake in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels from you, Mr. Lin. I hope you will be willing to sell a portion of the shares to us. As for the terms, everything is negotiable!

“If Mr. Lin is unwilling to sell the shares, then I hope Mr. Lin can leave the management rights of The Peninsula Hotel with our Kadoorie family. We are willing to manage The Peninsula Hotel for you on a long-term basis under the most favorable conditions, ensuring that its brand value and service standards are not affected in the slightest.”

This last sentence was practically a plea.

He was hoping that Lin Haoran would at least allow the Kadoorie family to retain nominal management rights over The Peninsula Hotel, which was crucial for preserving the last shred of the family’s dignity and actual influence.

The office fell into a dead silence.

Lawrence held his breath, feeling as if he could hear his own heart pounding violently.

Chapter 715: Reconciliation? Out of the Question!

While Lawrence Kadoorie was filled with anticipation, Lin Haoran was inwardly scornful.

When his opponents came at him, they gave it their all.

But when they failed, they put on this pitiful act to sue for peace.

If, in this world, making a mistake required no consequences—only an apology—then what would be the point of rules and costs?

The corners of his lips quirked upward. He looked up at the disgraced aristocrat before him, who was trying hard to maintain his composure, and spoke slowly with a hint of mockery, “Mandarin Oriental has countless top-tier hotel management talents from around the globe. CEOs of world-class hotel management groups often come to us for learning and exchanges.

“Our Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group’s strength in the hospitality industry is in no way inferior to that of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. Furthermore, with The Peninsula Hotel as one of Mandarin Oriental’s future flagship brands, I’m confident that the strength of the Mandarin Oriental Group will elevate it to even greater heights.

“As for its so-called unique history and culture, I agree with that point. However, this ‘culture’ has belonged to the Kadoorie family for the past sixty years. For the next century, and even longer, it will be branded with ‘Mandarin Oriental’—or more precisely, with the ‘Lin’ name.

“You need not trouble yourself with that, Mr. Kadoorie.”

Upon hearing this, Lawrence Kadoorie was so enraged he almost flipped the table on the spot, but he still tried his best to calm himself.

He took a few deep breaths, forcibly suppressing the fury that was about to erupt. He squeezed out a smile that was uglier than a grimace, his voice trembling with a hint of unwillingness. “Mr. Lin, you are being far too confident.

“The historical foundation of The Peninsula Hotel is not something you can easily erase or arbitrarily alter with just a few words. It was cultivated with the heart, soul, and sweat of several generations of my Kadoorie family. It holds an irreplaceable position in Hong Kong and the world.”

Lin Haoran raised an eyebrow slightly, his eyes filled with disdain. “Mr. Kadoorie, times are changing, and so is the market. Past glory is indeed brilliant, but it can only represent the past.

“Today, the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has more advanced concepts, more innovative models, and vaster resources. In our hands, The Peninsula Hotel will only be revitalized with new life and vigor, rather than gradually descending into senility in yours.”

Every sentence, every word, was like a heavy hammer slamming into Lawrence Kadoorie’s heart, shattering all his illusions.

Lin Haoran had not only rejected his management proposal but had also blatantly declared the fact that The Peninsula Hotel was undergoing a “change of dynasty,” severing the last tangible link between the Kadoorie family and their “family honor”!

Wrest back control of The Peninsula Hotel?

Don’t even think about it!

Lawrence Kadoorie’s face turned shades of green and white. “Mr. Lin, the Hong Kong business world isn’t a place where you alone call the shots. I, Lawrence Kadoorie, have been in Hong Kong for many years, and my connections and resources are beyond your imagination.

“By being so aggressive, aren’t you afraid of making too many enemies and ultimately suffering the consequences?”

Lin Haoran threw his head back and laughed, the sound echoing in the spacious office, filled with arrogance and confidence. “Enemies? Mr. Kadoorie, the business world is like a battlefield. Enemies are always of one’s own making.

“When you joined forces with others to besiege and corner me, did you ever consider that this day would come? I, Lin Haoran, have never been afraid of making enemies, because I believe that as long as I am strong enough, no enemy is to be feared.

“Don’t forget, you know better than I do what the final outcome was when HSBC led you all to besiege the Bank of East Asia.”

With a single sentence, he tore away all of Lawrence Kadoorie’s pretenses and wishful thinking!

He trampled underfoot the last shred of dignity Kadoorie was trying to maintain.

The meaning was plain: since you chose to go to war, don’t expect to retreat unscathed.

Lawrence Kadoorie trembled with rage, feeling a rush of hot blood surge to his head as his face turned deathly pale.

He hadn’t expected the other party to show him no courtesy whatsoever.

No matter what, they were both prominent figures. He had thought that by coming in person, he was already giving the other man a great deal of face, and that Lin Haoran would surely give him a way to back down gracefully, considering their shared status as tycoons in Hong Kong’s business circle.

However, Lin Haoran was unwilling to grant him even this small measure of decency. When had he ever suffered such humiliation?

Even Governor Sir Murray MacLehose treated him with considerable respect.

Yet, the young man sitting across from him seemed to hold him in complete disregard.

He took a deep breath, trying to suppress the surging anger, and barely maintained his final aristocratic bearing, saying in a low voice, “Mr. Lin, in business, there are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests. I am here today with sincerity to seek cooperation, not to listen to your insults.

“When doing business, it’s wise not to burn your bridges. Hong Kong is a small place, and we’re bound to run into each other. Why must you be so absolute, Mr. Lin? Don’t forget, our Kadoorie family still holds twelve percent of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels’ shares. If you want to privatize it, you’ll still need our consent. If we do not agree, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels will never be able to delist from the Stock Exchange!”

“Burn my bridges?” Lin Haoran chuckled, his eyes filled with scorn. “When you were conspiring in the Luxury Hotel Alliance meetings about how to squeeze Mandarin Oriental’s market share and how to trip me up, did you ever think about ‘not burning bridges’?

“When you were gleefully watching Mandarin Oriental’s occupancy rate decline, did you ever think about ‘not burning bridges’? Some lines, once crossed, cannot be uncrossed. Mr. Kadoorie, from the moment you joined Li Jiacheng’s alliance, certain outcomes were already sealed.

“Let me be frank with you, Mr. Kadoorie. It’s impossible for me to sell you the shares of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, and it’s even more impossible for me to give you control of The Peninsula Hotel.

“Instead, I suggest the Kadoorie family sell me the 10.23 million shares of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels you currently hold. I can acquire them at market price.

“Of course, if you’re unwilling to sell, that’s fine too. We had no choice but to apply for privatization because the trigger point is thirty-five percent equity. If you don’t want to sell, then The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels can just remain a listed company, and your Kadoorie family can be long-term shareholders.

“As for management rights, don’t even dream of interfering!”

The Kadoorie family held 12% of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels’ shares, and they could continue to increase their holdings, but Lin Haoran estimated they wouldn’t.

Today, Galaxy Securities had continued to increase its shareholding in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels and had already applied to the Securities Commission for delisting.

In other words, barring any surprises, his stake in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels now exceeded 50%.

Even if the Kadoorie family objected, it didn’t matter. They would just maintain The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels’ status as a publicly listed company. Lin Haoran really didn’t care.

He didn’t necessarily need all his companies to be 100% owned by him.

Companies like Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Hong Kong Telephone, and Kowloon Motor Bus all remained publicly listed companies to this day; Lin Haoran simply held an absolute controlling stake.

The Kadoorie family had become the target of his “kill the chicken to scare the monkey” strategy. How could he possibly let them off easily?

Under normal circumstances, Lin Haoran would indeed be unwilling to offend the Kadoorie family.

After all, he was not unaware of how powerful the Kadoorie family was.

But now, all of Hong Kong was watching him.

If he were to let the Kadoorie family off easily, sell them the shares of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, or let them continue to control The Peninsula Hotel, it would definitely be seen as a sign of weakness.

At that point, all his covetous rivals would pounce on him like ravenous wolves.

So, the Kadoorie family had no one to blame but themselves for walking right into the line of fire.

“Bang!” The immense anger and extreme humiliation finally shattered Lawrence Kadoorie’s aristocratic restraint.

He slammed the coffee cup heavily onto Lin Haoran’s large desk. Scalding coffee splashed out, spilling across the polished surface and leaving a mess.

“Lin Haoran!” He shot to his feet, his face contorted, and pointed a finger at Lin Haoran’s nose, his voice sharp and distorted with rage. “You will regret this! You are being utterly ruthless, trampling on my Kadoorie family’s century-old honor!

“Hong Kong isn’t a place where you alone call the shots! We won’t let this go!”

Lin Haoran leaned back against his large leather armchair, arms crossed, his expression unruffled. His eyes were so indifferent it was as if he were watching a farce that had nothing to do with him. Only the slight tilt of his chin betrayed his utter contempt.

“Be on your way. I won’t see you out.”

Was he afraid of the Kadoorie family’s retaliation?

It seemed he really wasn’t.

The Kadoorie family’s main business was China Light & Power, which covered Kowloon, the New Territories, and the outlying islands. These areas were designated by the government, and Lin Haoran’s Hongkong Electric Group couldn’t touch them.

But by the same token, the Kadoorie family couldn’t lay a finger on Hongkong Electric Group.

As for the Kadoorie family’s other industries? They were even less worthy of mention.

Besides China Light & Power, the Kadoorie family actually controlled two other listed companies: one was The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, and the other was Tai Ping Carpets.

Now that the controlling stake of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels was destined to be taken by Lin Haoran, besides China Light & Power, the Kadoorie family was only left with Tai Ping Carpets.

With just these assets, what was there for Lin Haoran to fear?

Lawrence Kadoorie hadn’t feared Lin Haoran before because he wasn’t worried about Lin Haoran snatching China Light & Power.

Now, wasn’t Lin Haoran in the exact same state of mind?

Lawrence Kadoorie trembled violently. He didn’t dare stay a second longer, afraid he would lose control and do something even more outrageous.

He spun around abruptly and, filled with a torrent of anger and inexpressible shame, bolted out of Lin Haoran’s top-floor office—a symbol of absolute power and victory—like an out-of-control bull.

However, he never expected that the media waiting downstairs at the Connaught Centre would have such an astonishingly keen sense of smell.

Perhaps someone inside had tipped them off, or maybe the reporters had been lying in wait all along.

When a disheveled Lawrence Kadoorie—his eyes bloodshot, a button on his suit jacket even popped open—burst through the building’s revolving doors, the reporters who had long been waiting swarmed forward like sharks that had scented blood!

“Mr. Kadoorie! Why did you appear at Connaught Centre? Were you here to sue for peace with Mr. Lin?”

“Judging by your furious expression, did Mr. Lin refuse to let the Kadoorie family continue managing The Peninsula Hotel?”

“How do you feel about losing control of The Peninsula?”

“Do you regret joining the Luxury Hotel Alliance?”

“What are your future plans for the Kadoorie family?”

“…”

Countless flashes went off in his face, the cacophony of camera shutters merging into a sea of irritating noise.

Innumerable microphones were nearly shoved into his face.

Lord Kadoorie, who was once treated with respect by reporters, now felt like a circus monkey, stripped naked and put on trial before everyone.

Lawrence Kadoorie completely broke down.

His face went from crimson to ashen, and then from ashen to deathly white.

All his self-restraint and dignity vanished in that instant.

Waving his arms as if fending off a plague, Lawrence Kadoorie tried to push away the cameras and microphones, roaring himself hoarse, “Get out! Move! All of you, get out!”

His voice was raspy and distorted, and he stumbled. With his bodyguards struggling to clear a path, he practically scrambled into the black Mercedes-Benz sedan waiting by the curb.

The black sedan sped away as if fleeing a disaster scene.

He never imagined that so many reporters would be waiting for him downstairs.

It was a miscalculation.

Although Lawrence Kadoorie successfully escaped the siege of reporters, those clear photographs and videos capturing his out-of-control rage and wretched figure were now considered priceless treasures by the journalists.

In less than half a day, news and photos with headlines like “Lord Kadoorie’s Plea for Peace Rejected, Mr. Lin Coldly Sees Him Out!” and “Humiliated! Lawrence Kadoorie Storms Out of Connaught Centre in a Rage!” spread rapidly.

In tea houses, shopping malls, and stock brokerage firms, people were chattering: “Tsk, the Kadoorie family used to be so glorious. Now, they’ve lost all face.”

“Sigh, that’s the business world for you. Mr. Lin is ruthless!”

“Telling the reporters to get out? Is that all the magnanimity he has?”

“Even an old aristocrat can’t handle a blow like this, haha…”

“The way he yelled at the reporters, tsk tsk, it’s exactly like Superman Li yesterday.”

“Wouldn’t you call this a plan that backfired spectacularly? The kind where you lose the family heirloom!”

“One mountain cannot contain two tigers. It seems that on the mountain of Hong Kong, this Tiger King named Lin has firmly planted his flag! Even an old king like Kadoorie has fallen. Who else would dare to pull the tiger’s whiskers?”

“It’s actually quite normal. Right now, even if the top ten listed companies joined forces, they probably couldn’t beat Mr. Lin, right?”

“What are you talking about? Among the top ten companies, Hongkong Electric Group and Hong Kong Telephone belong to Mr. Lin. Not to mention the delisted Hongkong Land Group and Wanqing Group. Add in Hong Kong and China Gas, Kowloon Motor Bus, Galaxy Securities, and now that he controls the magnate The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, what do the top ten companies have to fight Lin Haoran with? Their lives?”

…

Lawrence Kadoorie’s humiliating and failed journey for reconciliation not only failed to salvage any losses but instead nailed him and the Kadoorie family firmly to the pillar of shame for their defeat. It became the most tragic yet eye-catching footnote in the complete reshuffling of Hong Kong’s business power structure and the new king’s ascension.

That photograph of his enraged and wretched face, following Li Jiacheng’s gaffe at the airport, became ironclad proof of Lin Haoran’s unshakeable power, deeply imprinted in everyone’s mind.

Challenge Lin Haoran?

The price was one no one could afford to pay.

As night fell, Hong Kong’s neon lights shone as brilliantly as ever.

But in the Kadoorie family’s century-old mansion on Victoria Peak, the atmosphere was suffocatingly heavy.

Lawrence Kadoorie was slumped in a mahogany chair in his study. Spread out before him were a dozen evening papers, all of which featured photos of his sorry escape from earlier today.

The old butler stood to one side, trembling, breathing as lightly as possible.

“Old Master…” the old butler finally couldn’t help but speak, his voice so low as if he were afraid of disturbing something.

Lawrence Kadoorie abruptly looked up, his eyes filled with rage, and he roared, “Out! Everyone, get out!”

The voice seemed to have come from the depths of hell, carrying endless resentment and bitterness.

The old butler trembled in fear. When had he ever seen Lawrence Kadoorie in such a towering rage?

The old butler quickly bowed and retreated, gently closing the study door behind him.

The moment the door closed, it was as if all the strength had been drained from Lawrence Kadoorie. He slumped back into the chair, his eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

At eighty-two years of age, Lawrence Kadoorie had never imagined that he would one day be pushed into such a corner by a young man in his twenties.

At this moment, besides anger, what he felt most was regret.

He understood Lin Haoran’s meaning now. It was because the Kadoorie family had colluded with Hutchison Whampoa, Standard Chartered Bank, and others to target the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group that the other party was retaliating so mercilessly, seizing control of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels so suddenly.

If he hadn’t joined that Anti-Lin Alliance back then, perhaps none of this would have happened.

But now, regret was useless.

The other party’s stance was so unyielding that Lawrence Kadoorie saw not a glimmer of hope of reclaiming control of The Peninsula Hotel from Lin Haoran.

At this moment, his face was a canvas of remorse and bitterness.

…

Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran’s office.

At this moment, he too was looking at the newspaper in his hands.

The photograph of Lawrence Kadoorie’s wretched escape was sitting right in front of him.

He knew that paparazzi had been lurking around Connaught Centre recently.

He just hadn’t expected Lawrence Kadoorie to be so impatient as to completely lose his composure in front of the reporters.

It was a bit hard on the eighty-something-year-old statesman.

However, Lin Haoran felt not a shred of compassion.

Since he was his enemy, why should he show him any courtesy?

Lin Haoran put down the newspaper, his long fingers tapping lightly on the desk.

The lights of Victoria Harbour outside the window illuminated his cold profile, outlining a sharp silhouette.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in.”

The person who entered was Ma Shimin.

“Boss, the Securities Commission has approved the application to privatize and delist The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. Galaxy Securities accumulated another million-plus shares of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels today, but successfully privatizing it might be difficult. The Kadoorie family’s twelve percent stake might not be something they’re willing to give up!” Ma Shimin reported with a frown.

Privatization and delisting did not require a 100% acquisition; the conditions were lower.

However, the privatization proposal needed the approval of at least 75% of the voting rights of the independent shareholders at a court meeting.

Furthermore, there was a very critical requirement: the opposing votes could not exceed 10% of the voting rights.

And the voting rights held by the Kadoorie family in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels clearly exceeded 10%.

In other words, if the Kadoorie family obstructed them, Hongkong Land Group really couldn’t smoothly delist The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels from the exchange.

“If it can’t be delisted, so be it. You should have seen the news in the papers. I’ve already had a complete falling-out with Lawrence Kadoorie,” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he put down the newspaper.

It was as if this were a trivial matter.

Ma Shimin nodded. “Boss, what’s our next move? Should we continue to increase our shareholding in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels?”

“Increase it if we can. If it can’t be privatized, it can’t be privatized. Next, we’ll see if the Kadoories are willing to sell their shares. If they sell, privatization won’t be a problem. If they’re not willing, then let them continue to hold that twelve percent.

“In any case, the controlling stake of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels is already in our hands. They can’t make any big waves. Whether it’s privatized or not doesn’t really matter anymore,” Lin Haoran said with a laugh.

They weren’t short on money, and they were confident in the future of the companies they acquired, so they could privatize a controlled listed company at any time.

However, if it couldn’t be privatized, he wouldn’t force the issue.

He turned, a meaningful smile playing on his lips. “Sometimes, letting your opponents watch as the industry they were once so proud of is transformed before their eyes is more painful than taking it away directly.”

Ma Shimin smiled knowingly. “I understand. Once the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group takes over The Peninsula Hotel, we will immediately initiate a comprehensive renovation plan to breathe new life into this century-old establishment.”

“I have an idea. The current Peninsula Hotel is still too small. If we could add a skyscraper several dozen stories high to the north wing of The Peninsula, it would definitely bring new vitality to the hotel!” Lin Haoran said suddenly.

Thirteen years later, in 1994, The Peninsula Hong Kong underwent a large-scale renovation and expansion project, adding a 30-story new wing to the north.

This new wing not only increased the number of guest rooms but also featured a helipad on the roof, allowing important guests to travel directly by helicopter to and from Hong Kong International Airport or to tour the Hong Kong skyline.

This expansion was a major milestone in The Peninsula’s development, further solidifying its position in the luxury hotel market in Hong Kong and globally.

Now, Lin Haoran intended to make this happen ahead of schedule.

Ma Shimin’s eyes lit up. “Boss, that sounds like an excellent idea. I will discuss this with the general manager of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.”

“Mm,” Lin Haoran nodded, saying no more.

Just then, his mobile phone suddenly rang.

Chapter 716: When a Whale Falls, Ten Thousand Things Are Born!

That morning, he and Lawrence Kadoorie had a complete falling-out, with both sides exchanging harsh words.

Lin Haoran had thought that he would probably never have any dealings with the old-money aristocrat again in his life.

Unexpectedly, that evening, the man actually called him.

Although he wasn’t sure what the other party wanted, Lin Haoran answered the call.

“Mr. Kadoorie, is there anything else you’d like to say?” Lin Haoran pressed the answer button, his voice as calm as still water.

Lawrence Kadoorie’s hoarse voice came through the phone, a world away from his morning fury. “Mr. Lin, on behalf of the Kadoorie family, I am willing to sell the 10.23 million shares of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels we hold at market price.”

Lin Haoran raised an eyebrow slightly, exchanging a meaningful glance with Ma Shimin.

He paused for a few seconds deliberately before speaking slowly, “Oh? Why the sudden change of heart, Mr. Kadoorie?”

There was a moment of silence on the other end. The old man seemed to have made a momentous decision before he continued, “In this business competition between us, we, the Kadoorie family, admit defeat. I am willing to transfer the shares. However, I have one condition. I hope that in the future, Mr. Lin will no longer target any of the Kadoorie family’s businesses, and in return, our family will no longer be your enemy!”

Hearing this, a knowing smile touched the corners of Lin Haoran’s lips.

Interesting. Very interesting.

He had thought they would be arch-nemeses from now on and had given up hope of privatizing The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

But to his surprise, not even a day had passed before the other party was calling him to sue for peace, even offering to sell him the shares.

It seemed the old man had finally thought things through and decided to give up The Peninsula Hotel, the pride of the Kadoorie family.

Ma Shimin also looked at the mobile phone in his boss’s hand. Although he couldn’t hear what Lawrence Kadoorie was saying, he could guess the gist of it from his boss’s replies.

“Mr. Kadoorie, you seem to have misunderstood one thing. Right now, you are the one begging me. An acquisition at market price? I’m afraid I can’t accept that! To me, whether or not I privatize The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels is of little consequence. Even if I can’t, the control is still in my hands. By the way, let me tell you something. We now hold over 50% of the shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. Surely you don’t think your 10.23 million shares can still influence its future? Even if you continue to increase your holdings, you can’t change the facts. Furthermore, I’m also very interested in your Tai Ping Carpets, Mr. Kadoorie. As you probably know, I have quite a lot of capital on hand and I’m not sure what to do with it. So, if possible, I plan to acquire Tai Ping Carpets. As I understand it, the Kadoorie family only holds a 21% stake. Why don’t you just sell Tai Ping Carpets to me as well? It would save me the trouble of accumulating shares from other shareholders and the secondary market!” Lin Haoran said with a calm smile.

Tai Ping Carpets was another point of pride for the Kadoorie family.

Though it might seem like just a carpet company, it was actually very famous internationally.

In 1958, Tai Ping Carpets gained international renown for its design and craftsmanship after receiving a large order from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in the United States. Due to a tight deadline and insufficient workshop space, a temporary workshop was set up on an adjacent tennis court using a tent from a bankrupt circus. They successfully completed the carpet, stunning the entire industry and giving birth to the legend of the “Tai Ping Tent.”

In the 1960s, Tai Ping Carpets created a “master color tuft box” to showcase its rich color palette and also embellished a wedding gift for Princess Alexandra. In 1961, it was commissioned to produce a carpet for Windsor Castle in Britain.

In the 1970s, Tai Ping Carpets opened a showroom in Paris, introducing the brand to the international market.

It was fair to say that Tai Ping Carpets was the Rolls-Royce of the carpet world, another luxury brand the Kadoorie family took great pride in.

On the other end of the line, Lawrence Kadoorie’s breathing clearly became ragged. The sound of a teacup being knocked over came through the receiver.

Evidently, Lin Haoran’s words had struck the old man’s most sensitive nerve.

“Mr. Lin, are you trying to wipe us out?” Lawrence Kadoorie’s voice trembled violently.

Losing The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels was already difficult for the Kadoorie family to accept.

If they were to lose Tai Ping Carpets as well, it would be more than just a simple humiliation.

Suffering one blow after another, he, an 82-year-old man, might truly not be able to bear it.

Although the Kadoorie family held a 21% stake, it wouldn’t be difficult for them to increase it, and a hostile takeover by Lin Haoran would be quite challenging.

But Lawrence Kadoorie was clearly worried that Lin Haoran would unite with other shareholders to dilute the Kadoorie family’s equity, or even seize the controlling stake.

Even if the chance was small, Lawrence Kadoorie didn’t dare to gamble on it.

Lin Haoran walked to the round window, gazing down at the brilliant night view of Victoria Harbour. He smiled faintly and continued, “Mr. Kadoorie, you misunderstand. This isn’t about wiping anyone out; it’s just normal business. I’ve always focused on the matter, not the person. I appreciate your wisdom in offering to reconcile, but since you’ve admitted defeat, you should have to pay a price, shouldn’t you?”

In reality, Lin Haoran had no interest in the so-called Tai Ping Carpets.

After all, despite its fame, it was still just a carpet company with limited earning potential.

He was just using Tai Ping Carpets to threaten the Kadoorie family and make them pay a higher price.

Lin Haoran wasn’t going to be merciful just because the other party was an eighty-two-year-old man.

The business world is like a battlefield. Since the Kadoorie family had made the first move against his businesses, the feud was on, and Lin Haoran would naturally not be lenient.

Moreover, if he was going to “kill the chicken to scare the monkey,” he might as well do it as ruthlessly as possible. That way, other potential rivals would truly be intimidated.

To be honest, Lin Haoran’s sights were already set on the global stage, not this small pond of Hong Kong.

That was why he was currently investing heavily in Japan, the United States, Southeast Asia, and other regions.

On a global scale, Hong Kong was ultimately just a small pond.

He was unwilling to spend too much time and energy in this pond.

But looking back at the past, it was clear that whether it was Jardine Matheson & Co., HSBC, or the so-called “Luxury Hotel Alliance,” they had all been the ones to target him first.

He was actually already very content with the scale of his assets in Hong Kong, but some people just had to stir up trouble, forcing him to act.

As a result, his wealth in Hong Kong had grown and grown, to the point where he had accidentally driven Jardine Matheson & Co. out of Hong Kong and brought HSBC to its knees.

But these people just wouldn’t learn their lesson. The lesson of HSBC was still a recent, bloody memory, yet some people already couldn’t hold back.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had decided to teach these people a harsh lesson, one that would make them never dare to provoke him again.

Hong Kong was his home base, after all. He didn’t want a series of fires breaking out in his backyard while he was busy investing globally!

On the other end, Lawrence Kadoorie fell silent after hearing Lin Haoran’s words.

Clearly, although Lin Haoran hadn’t said it outright, he understood his meaning.

Since the Kadoorie family was admitting defeat, they had to give up more benefits.

Simply handing over the shares of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels was not enough to satisfy him.

The Kadoorie family hadn’t felt this kind of stifling frustration in many years.

Now, to be pushed into a corner again and again by a young man, Lawrence Kadoorie’s hand holding the phone was trembling.

But there was nothing he could do.

Perhaps after a full day of cooling down, he knew that losing his temper at Lin Haoran was pointless. So, after Lin Haoran finished speaking, he didn’t fly into a rage.

After about half a minute of silence, Lawrence Kadoorie finally spoke, “Mr. Lin, I can make a concession. I can represent the Kadoorie family and sell you the shares of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels at a ten percent discount!”

Lin Haoran chuckled lightly, sat back down in his chair, and said, “A ten percent discount? Mr. Kadoorie, if that’s the case, I don’t think there’s any need to continue this conversation. My bottom line is sixty percent of the market price. If you’re not willing, then let’s forget it. I never like to make difficult requests. Your Kadoorie family can continue to hold on to that 12% stake. I have complete control of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels now. I’m planning to have the company sell The Peninsula Hotel separately to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. I think you know this won’t be difficult, Mr. Kadoorie. I just wonder, how much will the stock price of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels be worth then?”

His tone seemed placid, but his words were filled with menace.

Lin Haoran could indeed do nothing about China Light & Power. Not only was the company firmly controlled by the Kadoorie family, but it was also a monopoly. It would be impossible for him to acquire it; Government House would not stand by and watch Hong Kong’s power supply be monopolized by a Chinese man.

However, with Lin Haoran’s capabilities, he could interfere with the Kadoorie family’s other industries.

For instance, he could ensure that all of the Kadoorie family’s businesses, aside from the power industry, were targeted.

This was likely the main reason Lawrence Kadoorie had suddenly conceded.

If Lin Haoran really made The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels sell off The Peninsula Hotel, and at a price of his choosing, it was a real question what the market capitalization of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels would be once The Peninsula was gone.

It was a threat, a very direct threat.

Lawrence Kadoorie had navigated the sea of commerce his entire life. When had he ever suffered such humiliation? But now, facing Lin Haoran’s aggressive posture, he had no choice but to suppress the anger and unwillingness in his heart.

“Mr. Lin, you’re going too far! Sixty percent of the price—that’s an exorbitant demand!” Finally, Lawrence Kadoorie could hold it in no longer, his voice trembling with a hint of fury.

Lin Haoran, however, remained calm, as if he had anticipated this reaction all along.

He leaned back gently in his chair and said unhurriedly, “Mr. Kadoorie, the business world is like a battlefield. Opportunities are fleeting. You should understand that the initiative is in my hands now. The price I’ve offered is already out of consideration for your offer to sue for peace. If you don’t think it’s appropriate, then we can continue this standoff. But I believe the longer this drags on, the more disadvantageous it will be for your Kadoorie family.”

He knew that what Lin Haoran said was true. Lin Haoran’s side already held over 50% of the shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels and was still increasing its stake. The control was entirely in their hands.

If the stalemate continued, they had plenty of ways to make the shares of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels less and less valuable.

“Mr. Lin, aren’t you afraid that by being so extreme, you’ll be scorned by the entire Hong Kong business community?” Lawrence Kadoorie tried to exert moral pressure on Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran let out a light laugh, full of disdain. “Mr. Kadoorie, business has never been a place for favors. When you ganged up with other forces to target me, did you ever imagine this day would come? I’m merely giving you a taste of your own medicine. Don’t you think it’s a bit too late to say all this now? Your words are rather amusing.”

Lawrence Kadoorie was rendered speechless by Lin Haoran’s retort. He was silent for a long time, weighing the pros and cons in his mind.

Currently, the market capitalization of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels was around 3.1 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Hongkong Land Group’s announcement to privatize The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels hadn’t raised the stock price.

After all, everyone knew that no one could snatch control of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels from Hongkong Land Group, not even the Kadoorie family.

Back then, the only reason Kowloon Wharf’s stock price could soar from over ten Hong Kong dollars to over one hundred Hong Kong dollars per share was that neither Jardine Matheson & Co. nor Pao Yue-kong had a controlling stake, and both sides were frantically snapping up shares, causing the price to skyrocket.

But The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels was different. Lin Haoran’s side already had firm control, and market expectations for this acquisition battle had long since cooled.

No one believed the Kadoorie family would continue to increase their shareholding when Hongkong Land Group already had effective control.

After all, no matter how much they bought, they could never seize control.

This meant that the Kadoorie family’s current holdings in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels were worth around 370 million Hong Kong dollars.

If they sold at 60% of the price, they would only get about 220 million Hong Kong dollars, meaning the Kadoorie family would suffer a huge loss of 150 million Hong Kong dollars.

While this amount was not much to Lin Haoran, it was by no means a small sum.

Even for super-rich families like the Kadoories, losing this much money would sting for a long time.

Lin Haoran’s goal was to teach the Kadoorie family a harsh lesson, to make them pay a painful price for their reckless actions earlier.

Saving some money was a secondary concern.

Finally, Lawrence Kadoorie let out a long sigh, as if he had come to terms with it. His voice grew even hoarser. “Alright, Mr. Lin, I agree. We will sell our shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels at sixty percent of the price. But you must promise that from now on, you will not target any of the Kadoorie family’s other businesses.”

He had now fully experienced the consequences of provoking Lin Haoran.

Before, he hadn’t thought much of it, believing that his family, unlike Jardine Matheson & Co. or HSBC, had China Light & Power as an unshakable foundation, giving them infinite resources and confidence.

But now, he no longer thought that way.

Unless the Kadoorie family decided to honestly stick to the power supply business and give up all other ventures, including Tai Ping Carpets, then he would indeed have the confidence to stand firm.

But were they willing to abandon their other industries?

Of course not.

The corners of Lin Haoran’s mouth curved upward into a smile. “Rest assured, Mr. Kadoorie. I, Lin Haoran, always keep my word. As long as the Kadoorie family does not provoke me again, I will naturally not make things difficult for you.”

“Very well. I hope our feud ends here. I will send someone to the Hongkong Land Group tomorrow to sign the contract,” Lawrence Kadoorie said, his voice laced with exhaustion and resignation.

“No problem. I wish us a pleasant cooperation,” Lin Haoran said before hanging up.

…

After ending the call, Ma Shimin couldn’t help but ask, “Boss, why did they suddenly…”

Ma Shimin couldn’t hear what Lawrence Kadoorie had said, only able to guess from Lin Haoran’s responses.

Evidently, his boss had won this negotiation, and it had been a complete rout.

“Because he finally saw the situation clearly,” Lin Haoran said, walking to the window to look down at the Hong Kong nightscape. “He knows that continued resistance will only lead to a more慘crushing defeat and greater losses for the Kadoorie family.”

“Once this news is announced, it’s absolutely great news for us. Not only are they selling us their shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, but they’re doing it at sixty percent of the price. Doesn’t this clearly show that the Kadoorie family has capitulated to us? In the future, if these guys want to move against us, they’ll have to think twice about their own capabilities!” Ma Shimin was also extremely happy.

“That’s easy to say, but in reality, some people never learn. We defeated Jardine Matheson & Co. and HSBC before. Our achievements were glorious enough, yet these people are still itching to make a move!” Lin Haoran said with a hint of emotion.

The bird that sticks its head out gets shot. By becoming the richest man in Hong Kong and the most powerful man in its business world, Lin Haoran was destined to be coveted by others, who would want to carve up his commercial empire.

When a whale falls, ten thousand things are born.

Clearly, in the eyes of others, Lin Haoran was now that whale, and everyone wanted to draw sustenance from him.

“So, Boss, does this mean we’ll be targeted forever?” Ma Shimin frowned.

Lin Haoran laughed heartily. “Therefore, my method is to beat them until they’re scared. If once isn’t enough, then twice. If twice isn’t enough, then three times. Every person who provokes us will become a stepping stone for us to establish our authority, making them understand that provoking me, Lin Haoran, means courting immense risk and a painful price. Sooner or later, no one will dare to challenge us again. Mr. Ma, you know that my focus now is more on overseas markets. The Hong Kong market is too small, so small that it’s difficult for me to find room for further growth. Moreover, the British won’t just stand by and watch me devour more tycoon enterprises in Hong Kong. I can’t just keep acquiring companies, taking over Swire Group, Wheelock and Company, China Light & Power, and so on. I have the ability, but I know I can’t do that. So, I hope this is the last time. I really don’t want to keep messing around in this small pond of Hong Kong. I just want to peacefully lay out my plans for the global market!”

After saying this, Lin Haoran’s gaze turned to Victoria Harbour outside the window, a trace of weariness flashing in his eyes.

He really just wanted to be a hands-off manager, not run into this kind of mess every so often.

He was truly satisfied with the scale of his assets in Hong Kong. Except for Superman Li’s Hutchison Whampoa, he really had no interest in acquiring any other companies.

As for why he was so determined to acquire Hutchison Whampoa, the reason was naturally that Superman Li had angered him in recent months.

Making an example of the Kadoorie family didn’t mean he would let the true instigator of this incident off the hook!

However, Li Jiacheng currently held a 40% stake in Hutchison Whampoa through Cheung Kong Holdings. His shareholding percentage was too high, so for now, he couldn’t openly declare his intention to acquire the company.

What he needed to do now was to secretly continue accumulating shares of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, and then look for an opportunity to crush Superman Li’s commercial empire in one fell swoop.

It’s always best to settle a score on the spot.

But Superman Li was an extremely cautious man with a very high shareholding percentage. If Li found out about his plans before the right moment, he would be on guard, and the acquisition battle for Hutchison Whampoa would become exceptionally difficult.

Superman Li had toiled and struggled through hardships in the business world for many years. In the world he had transmigrated from, Li had been the richest Chinese man for many years. His business acumen and adaptability were not to be underestimated.

The 40% stake he held in Hutchison Whampoa was like a solid line of defense. To break through, Lin Haoran had to plan meticulously and advance cautiously.

“Now, privatizing The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels is no longer a problem. Once this is over, Hongkong Land Group will go all out to suppress Hutchison Whampoa. I want to see Hutchison Whampoa’s financial report look as bad as Hutchison & Co.’s did four years ago. Mr. Ma, I’m counting on you for this!” Lin Haoran patted Ma Shimin’s shoulder and said solemnly.

In the mid-1970s, Hutchison International suffered heavy, prolonged losses due to failed investment strategies. The figures on its financial reports were abysmal.

Eventually, HSBC had no choice but to invite Mr. Willie, known as the ‘Company Doctor’, to serve as the Taipan of Hutchison & Co.

After taking office, Willie drastically restructured and reformed Hutchison International. He quickly staunched the losses, improved the group’s management system, and in late 1977, merged Hutchison & Co. with its most important subsidiary, Whampoa Dockyard, to form the present-day Hutchison Whampoa.

Lin Haoran knew that although Li Jiacheng now controlled Hutchison Whampoa, his grip was actually very tenuous.

For one thing, the funds used to purchase the shares from HSBC were borrowed from HSBC itself, a loan that took two years to repay.

Furthermore, Li Jiacheng had spent a great deal of money increasing his stake in Hutchison Whampoa over the past two years.

Accumulating shares from the secondary market was not like receiving them from HSBC, which had practically given them away. These were all bought at genuinely high prices.

And it just so happened that the property industry was now entering a downturn, which meant that the property businesses of both Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa were facing immense pressure to recover capital.

With a large number of property developments failing to sell, their capital chains were stretched taut like a string, ready to snap at any moment.

This situation undoubtedly provided Lin Haoran with a perfect opening.

Once the property industry downturn worsened, and Hutchison Whampoa’s other sectors also performed poorly, Li Jiacheng would surely be under tremendous debt pressure.

That would be the best time for Lin Haoran to make his move!

He couldn’t touch British-owned companies like Swire Group; Government House would very likely intervene directly to stop him.

Chapter 717: A Single Announcement Shakes Hong Kong, Standard Chartered Bank Caves Too!

The day after Lin Haoran and Lawrence Kadoorie reached their agreement, at noon on August 27th, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels once again issued a public announcement.

The content was simple, stating roughly: After friendly negotiations, Mr. Lin Haoran and Mr. Lawrence Kadoorie have reached a series of agreements.

In this transaction, the Kadoorie family demonstrated great sincerity and foresight. After careful consideration, they have decided to sell all their shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels to the Hongkong Land Group.

Furthermore, to promote the healthy development of Hong Kong’s commerce and facilitate a more rational allocation of resources, the Kadoorie family completed this share transfer at 60% of the market price.

On the surface, this announcement didn’t disparage any party and even praised the Kadoorie family for their magnanimity and focus on the bigger picture.

But anyone could read between the lines and see what a harrowing business battle was hidden behind those few simple sentences.

Selling shares at 60% of the price meant the Kadoorie family had suffered a disastrous loss in the transaction. This was undoubtedly a bombshell destined to cause an uproar throughout the entire Hong Kong business community.

After all, this was the Kadoorie family—a preeminent and powerful family that had been established in Hong Kong for nearly a hundred years.

From the end of the 19th century to the 1980s, the Kadoorie family had long become one of Hong Kong’s most influential business dynasties.

It was completely different from British-funded conglomerates like the Jardine Matheson and HSBC groups.

The Jardine Matheson and HSBC groups were vast commercial alliances formed by multiple families and corporations, with complex and intertwined internal interests. Decisions often required lengthy negotiations and balancing acts.

The Kadoorie family, on the other hand, was built around the family as its core. Through the wisdom and hard work of several generations, they had cultivated deep roots in multiple sectors, including energy, real estate, and hotels, building a vast and stable commercial empire.

Yet, such a powerful family that could wield great power and influence in Hong Kong’s business world had sold its shares in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels at such a low price. It wasn’t hard to imagine the hidden story behind it all!

A 40% discount! A quick calculation revealed that the Kadoorie family had lost at least 150 million Hong Kong dollars!

Given the Kadoorie family’s usual shrewdness and caution in business decisions, such a massive concession was certainly no accident.

The most likely possibility was that the Kadoorie family had caved to Lin Haoran!

If that was true, then selling at a 40% discount was not difficult to understand.

Thus, after the announcement from The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels spread, reporters flocked to the headquarters of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, the Hongkong Land Group, and China Light & Power, hoping to get more first-hand information.

However, both Lin Haoran and Lawrence Kadoorie maintained a tacit silence.

Reporters from the Hong Kong Commercial Daily waited outside the China Light & Power headquarters for an entire day, only to receive a single, cold response from the Kadoorie family’s spokesperson:

“This transaction was purely a business decision. The Kadoorie family and Mr. Lin have reached a consensus and will focus on their respective business developments in the future.”

On the other hand, the Hongkong Land Group appeared much more relaxed.

When pressed by reporters, Ma Shimin smiled faintly.

“The market has its rules. Mr. Kadoorie has demonstrated the wisdom and foresight of an entrepreneur, and we respect that.”

His words and demeanor unequivocally displayed the posture of a victor.

Although Lawrence Kadoorie knew The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels would announce the sale of his shares to Hongkong Land, he never expected them to be so shameless as to emphasize that the Kadoorie family had sold them at a 40% discount.

Wasn’t this a clear attempt to humiliate the Kadoorie family in front of all of Hong Kong?

Losing The Peninsula Hong Kong was already vexing enough for the Kadoorie family, and now this.

Did the Kadoorie family have no need for face?

But even in their anger, Lawrence Kadoorie and the core members of the Kadoorie family felt more helpless than anything else.

They were powerless against Lin Haoran.

Otherwise, there would have been no need to admit defeat.

Confront Lin Haoran?

Forget it.

Lawrence Kadoorie had already endured enough humiliation at Lin Haoran’s hands the day before. He knew that seeking out the other party again would only be bringing humiliation upon himself.

Although the Kadoorie family and Lin Haoran had agreed not to be enemies, it clearly didn’t mean Lin Haoran would treat him with courtesy.

So, in the end, Lawrence Kadoorie could only remain silent, feeling utterly wronged.

He just hoped the matter would blow over quickly. After all, with enough time, the heat surrounding any issue would eventually fade.

At Standard Chartered Bank, Brown stared at the intelligence report in his hands, his face dark.

“The Kadoorie family actually surrendered without even consulting us? Not only that, they did it in such a humiliating way. This is completely out of character for them!”

He, Li Jiacheng, Lawrence Kadoorie, and Henry Keswick had formed the Anti-Lin Alliance with the goal of suppressing Lin Haoran and tearing pieces of flesh from him.

But now, the alliance had barely begun to act, and the Kadoorie family was the first to surrender!

“Useless!” Brown slammed the file onto his desk, a vicious glint in his eyes.

He had overestimated Lawrence Kadoorie.

“Mr. Brown, what do we do now? With the Kadoorie family pulling out, our plan…” his assistant asked cautiously.

Brown said grimly, “The plan? Of course, the plan continues! The Kadoorie family is scared of Lin Haoran, but now that we’ve come this far, is there any turning back? Mr. Li Jiacheng and Mr. Henry Keswick have already spoken with me on the phone. They will absolutely not take a single step back. We will advance and retreat together!”

Ever since Brown had facilitated Standard Chartered Bank’s acquisition of HSBC, he had become a great contributor to the bank.

After all, although HSBC had suffered heavy losses in its business war with Hang Seng Bank, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse. After swallowing HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank’s strength had naturally soared.

Because of this, Brown’s status at Standard Chartered Bank was at its zenith. He had even become a strong contender for the next Chairman of the Board.

Previously, he needed approval from the British headquarters for any major decisions in Hong Kong.

Now, he could even decide on numerous major strategic layouts for the Hong Kong market. At the Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong Branch, his word was law, and his power had reached an unprecedented height.

To him, this was what being the true decision-maker felt like.

And with it, his ambition grew.

Brown was no longer content with merely being a regional head.

That was precisely why he had chosen to join forces with Li Jiacheng and the others to take a gamble.

If they succeeded, the position of the next Chairman of the Board of Standard Chartered Bank would be his for the taking!

“Mr. Brown, we must be prepared for Mr. Lin’s retaliation. Our actions this time have certainly angered him. For them to push the Kadoorie family to this point, they clearly won’t let us off easy,” a senior executive at Standard Chartered Bank said with concern.

Although Brown also felt a little worried, his face remained perfectly calm. “Retaliation? No matter how strong Lin Haoran is, he’s just a Chinese man. He’s not the one who makes the rules in Hong Kong!

“Besides, now that Standard Chartered has acquired HSBC, we’ve gradually digested its resources. The financial clients we’ve retained are very unlikely to leave. It’s basically impossible for Hang Seng Group to continue expanding its market. In fact, they should be worried about whether we’ll snatch market share from them!”

They were well aware that the Bank of East Asia had been gradually taking over HSBC’s market.

But in their view, Hang Seng Group could no longer continue this encroachment.

This was evident from the局面 of the Hong Kong financial industry, which was gradually stabilizing.

Just as Brown was caught up in his frenzied ambition, a high-level meeting was underway at the Standard Chartered Bank headquarters.

At the headquarters of Standard Chartered Bank, the atmosphere in the conference room was so heavy it was almost suffocating.

Ever since the successful merger and acquisition of HSBC, Brown was always included in important meetings.

Even though Brown was far away in Hong Kong, he was brought in via conference call.

However, Brown had not been notified of today’s meeting.

The Chairman of the Board of Standard Chartered Bank, Lord Derek Barber, crushed his cigar into an ashtray, raised his head, and looked at the senior executives before him with a grave expression.

“Gentlemen, you should all be aware of the news from Hong Kong. The ‘Anti-Lin Alliance’ that Mr. Brown, the Kadoorie family, and the others created has failed at its very first step.

“We have worked with Lin Haoran before. Everyone here knows how formidable his methods are. Therefore, the reason I’ve called you all to this meeting today is to discuss whether we should continue to be his enemy.

“It’s undeniable that Mr. Brown played a crucial role in our acquisition of HSBC. But now, the ‘Anti-Lin Alliance’ he and another well-known Hong Kong businessman spearheaded has fallen into such a predicament. This forces us to re-examine our relationship with Lin Haoran and our future strategy. Is it a mistake for Standard Chartered Bank to continue opposing him?”

The conference room was silent. Everyone lowered their heads, lost in thought.

After a moment, a more senior executive was the first to break the silence. “My Lord, from the current situation, Lin Haoran’s strength is not to be underestimated. The Kadoorie family has deep roots in the Hong Kong business world, yet they still suffered a loss at his hands.

“Coupled with the cautionary tales of Jardine Matheson & Co. and HSBC, if we continue to oppose him, I’m afraid we will face immense risks.

“In fact, I believe the market share Standard Chartered Bank currently holds in Hong Kong is already quite good. Although I too would like to go further, we must have the strength to match.

“The price we paid to acquire HSBC was too great. It will take two or three years of recuperation to recover. Therefore, I do not recommend that Standard Chartered Bank provokes an enemy like Lin Haoran in Hong Kong.”

Another senior executive chimed in, “That’s right. Mr. Brown’s actions were too impulsive. Although he has a certain amount of authority in the Hong Kong branch, the ‘Anti-Lin Alliance’ operation was pushed forward without a full assessment by headquarters. Now that the situation is out of control, we can no longer follow him blindly.”

However, some executives held different opinions.

A young, spirited executive stood up and said passionately, “My Lord, we cannot retreat because of a temporary setback. Mr. Brown’s efforts in Hong Kong led to our successful acquisition of HSBC, greatly increasing our strength.

“If we abandon the plan to suppress Lin Haoran now just because he is strong, if we fear him, are we not just watching a huge cake like Hong Kong and only being able to eat a small slice?

“Besides, no matter how strong Lin Haoran is, he is just a Chinese entrepreneur. In Hong Kong’s financial landscape, we at Standard Chartered Bank have a deep foundation and extensive connections, not to mention the support of the British government. We don’t necessarily have to fear him.”

As soon as he finished speaking, his words sparked some quiet discussion.

Those who supported him felt he had a point, while those who opposed him frowned, believing he was underestimating his opponent.

Soon, an elderly man spoke up. “I believe making an enemy of Lin Haoran is a path to ruin. Has our acquisition of HSBC made everyone forget the dilemma we are currently in?

“After acquiring HSBC, the funds we advanced amounted to tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars. These funds have put Standard Chartered Bank at constant risk of a capital chain rupture.

“Under normal circumstances, it naturally wouldn’t happen. But what if we completely offend Lin Haoran, and he cooperates with our competitors in Britain, pushing us into a capital crisis?

“At that point, we would be attacked from both the front and rear, cast into a state of irreparable ruin. Everyone has witnessed Lin Haoran’s methods in the business world. He has won victory after victory and has never been defeated. If we underestimate him, we are undoubtedly digging our own graves.”

Lord Derek Barber frowned slightly, sinking into thought.

He naturally knew the old man’s words were true. Standard Chartered Bank might seem glorious on the surface, but there was an undercurrent of turmoil.

Although acquiring HSBC had increased their strength, it also came with a heavy burden of debt.

If they were to engage in a head-on confrontation with a powerful enemy like Lin Haoran at this time, the slightest misstep could lead to them losing the entire game.

After acquiring HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank had reached an unprecedented peak. It was now solidly among the top five banks in Britain.

Such a brilliant achievement was unprecedented.

Therefore, Lord Derek Barber did not want Standard Chartered’s current success to be just a flash in the pan.

“Then, in your opinions, if we are unwilling to be Lin Haoran’s enemy, but Mr. Brown’s actions have clearly angered him, how should we handle the current situation?” Lord Derek Barber spoke slowly, his gaze sweeping over every executive present.

The senior executive spoke again. “My Lord, I believe we should immediately sever all ties with the ‘Anti-Lin Alliance’ and send a signal of goodwill to Lin Haoran.

“At the same time, we should send a senior executive from Britain to Hong Kong to communicate with him personally, expressing that we have no intention of being his enemy and that this was all Mr. Brown’s unauthorized action. I don’t think Mr. Lin will make things difficult for us.

“Furthermore, we had an agreement with Mr. Lin to assist him in developing overseas markets. As long as we actively propose such collaborations, this matter will naturally be resolved. After all, business is business. There are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests. Through cooperation, we might be able to resolve this crisis and even achieve a win-win situation.”

However, the executives who held opposing views were still unwilling to give up.

The young, spirited executive stood up again. “My Lord, I disagree with this kind of compromise. Standard Chartered Bank has a century of history and a deep foundation. How can we so easily bow our heads to a Chinese entrepreneur?

“Even if we are currently facing some difficulties, as long as we are united, with our strength and connections, we might not necessarily be unable to defeat Lin Haoran.”

“Defeat him? Easier said than done!” the old man sneered. “You only see our advantages but ignore Lin Haoran’s strength. His influence in the Hong Kong business world is expanding daily, and he has powerful financial backing.

“Look at what happened to HSBC. It was only because HSBC offended Lin Haoran that we at Standard Chartered could take advantage of their crisis and acquire them. Otherwise, do you think we would have had the chance to swallow HSBC?

“Moreover, he is adept at seizing opportunities and achieving victory through surprise. If we rashly confront him, we will only put ourselves in an even more passive position.”

“He only defeated HSBC because he had our help. Otherwise, on their own, they could never have brought HSBC down!” the young man retorted, unconvinced.

Hearing this, the old man shook his head slightly and said, “Do you even believe what you’re saying? By the time we intervened, HSBC was already in full retreat. If the Hong Kong Government House hadn’t stepped in and prevented Lin Haoran from annexing HSBC, do you think Standard Chartered would have been given this opportunity?”

At these words, the conference room once again fell silent. The young executive’s face flushed, but for a moment, he couldn’t find a single word in rebuttal.

Lord Derek Barber tapped lightly on the table, drawing everyone’s attention.

He then said slowly, “Everyone’s views have merit, but the current situation is complex, and we must act with caution. This so-called ‘Anti-Lin Alliance’ has already made Lin Haoran hostile towards us. If we continue to confront him blindly, the risks are too great.

“Standard Chartered Bank has reached its current position through the efforts of countless generations. We cannot let it be destroyed by a moment’s impulse. Mr. Brown has indeed made great contributions to Standard Chartered, but we cannot allow him to act recklessly in disregard of the bank’s overall interests just because of those contributions.

“Right now, the most urgent task is to resolve the conflict with Lin Haoran and prevent the situation from deteriorating further. We will proceed according to Mr. Tylen’s idea. Send a senior executive from Britain to Hong Kong to communicate with him personally. Express that we have no intention of being his enemy, that this was all Mr. Brown’s unauthorized action, and not a decision made by the Standard Chartered Board of Directors.”

He decided to temporarily use Brown as a shield.

As soon as Lord Derek Barber finished speaking, a low murmur of discussion filled the room.

The young, spirited executive wanted to argue further, but a colleague next to him tugged his sleeve, signaling him to cease his futile resistance.

“My Lord, what about Mr. Brown…” a senior executive asked with some concern.

“I will personally communicate with Brown and make him understand the gravity of the current situation. Although he has rendered great service to the bank, he cannot be allowed to act on his whims. He must be taught a lesson for this incident,” Lord Derek Barber said in a stern tone.

As the person in charge of Standard Chartered Bank, he naturally had to prioritize the bigger picture.

Once Standard Chartered had truly digested HSBC and overcome all crises, he could then approve of the bank engaging in a harrowing business battle with Hang Seng Group in Hong Kong.

But that time was definitely not now.

“My Lord, won’t this make us seem too…” a Director began, then trailed off.

“Too submissive?” Lord Barber gave a wry smile, took off his gold-rimmed glasses, and wiped them. “Compared to HSBC’s fate, this is the best choice. Let’s not forget, gentlemen, although we have acquired HSBC, our current situation is not as glamorous as it appears on the surface.

“There is an old Chinese story, ‘To endure hardship for a chance at revenge.’ When the kingdom of King Goujian of Yue was destroyed and his family was ruined, he was able to endure humiliation and bear a heavy burden. He slept on firewood and tasted bitter gall to remind himself not to forget his shame. In the end, he accumulated strength, restored his country in a single stroke, and achieved hegemony.

“Today, although Standard Chartered Bank is not on the verge of ruin, the difficulties we face are just as severe. Lin Haoran is like that potential, powerful opponent. If we insist on acting tough, we will only repeat HSBC’s mistakes.”

Few people in the room had heard the story of “enduring hardship for a chance at revenge,” but they understood Lord Derek Barber’s meaning.

The old executive agreed, “Acquiring HSBC has burdened us with heavy debt, and our capital chain is stretched taut like a string. If we go to all-out war with Lin Haoran now, it would be tantamount to self-destruction. I support the Chairman’s decision!”

Instantly, the conference room filled with voices of agreement, and the dissenting voices dwindled.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, Brown was completely unaware that the headquarters had held a meeting without notifying him.

He was still immersed in his own ambitions and plans, firmly believing that Li Jiacheng and Henry Keswick would advance and retreat with him to continue confronting Lin Haoran.

The fact that headquarters hadn’t stopped his actions made him feel that his decision had their full support.

Brown stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows at the top of the Standard Chartered Building, his gaze sweeping over the bustling, prosperous streets of Victoria Harbour.

As the power in his hands continued to swell, an unprecedented thrill coursed through him like an electric current, leaving him intoxicated.

He leisurely swirled the coffee cup in his hand, the corners of his mouth turning up in a self-satisfied arc.

Before, although he was also the Taipan for Standard Chartered Bank’s Hong Kong market, his power was actually subject to many restrictions.

After he made his great contribution to the group, it was as if those restrictions had vanished. The head office had empowered him.

Everything seemed so wonderful.

“Have the car ready. We’re heading over to the Cheung Kong Center in a bit!” He turned his head to his assistant, his tone carrying an unquestionable authority.

“Yes, Taipan!” The assistant replied with a respectful expression and carefully exited the office.

Just as he was about to grab his suit jacket from the coat rack and head out, the office telephone rang.

Brown had no choice but to hang his jacket back up, walk over to the telephone, and pick up the receiver.

Chapter 718: The “Anti-Lin Alliance” Crumbles

“Hello, this is Brown.” There was a hint of impatience in his voice.

Since his standing at Standard Chartered Bank had risen significantly, Brown had become increasingly imperious.

The serious voice of his immediate superior, Lord Derek Barber, came from the other end of the line: “Mr. Brown, it’s me.”

Brown’s expression froze instantly; he hadn’t expected a direct call from headquarters at a time like this.

Although he had been a great contributor to Standard Chartered Bank during the acquisition of HSBC, and now held a decisive position even on the Board of Directors, his status, no matter how elevated, could not compare to the head of the entire bank.

Lord Derek Barber’s position at Standard Chartered was like Michael Sandberg’s at HSBC during its heyday. While his word wasn’t quite law, the decisions he made were rarely rejected by the Board of Directors.

If Brown wanted to run for the position of the new Chairman of the Board of Standard Chartered Bank in the future, getting Lord Derek Barber’s support would certainly get him twice the result with half the effort.

Born in 1931, Brown was only fifty years old, in the prime of his professional career. Naturally, he was unwilling to let the peak of his career stop at being just a regional head.

So, he quickly adjusted his tone and said respectfully, “My Lord, good day. Do you have any instructions?”

Lord Derek Barber’s voice came through the receiver: “Mr. Brown, the Board of Directors has discussed the ‘Anti-Lin Alliance’ you formed with Li Jiacheng, Henry Keswick, and the others.”

Brown’s heart sank. He gripped the receiver tightly, trying to keep his voice steady. “My Lord, this operation is meant to expand our market share in Hong Kong. Lin Haoran’s rise has already threatened our interests. Since so many local businessmen in Hong Kong dislike Lin Haoran, we can absolutely use this opportunity to…”

“Enough!” Lord Derek Barber interrupted him, his usual affable tone gone. “The Board unanimously agrees that your actions were too risky, not fully assessed, and completely unauthorized. The Kadoorie family’s withdrawal and their voluntary concession of interests have already proven Lin Haoran’s strength and methods. We at Standard Chartered Bank are at a crucial juncture, and we cannot be dragged into unnecessary risks because of your personal ambition.”

Brown’s face turned pale in an instant, but he still tried to defend himself. “My Lord, please trust me. We are more than capable of handling Lin Haoran. Just give me a little more time, and I can definitely rally more allies to join us. Then, no matter how strong Lin Haoran is, two fists are no match for four hands. I refuse to believe that Lin Haoran would dare make an enemy of the whole world.”

“Brown!” Lord Derek Barber’s voice suddenly rose. “The Board has decided to suspend all your decision-making authority in Hong Kong and send Mr. Tylen to Hong Kong to take over related affairs. Your current task is to cooperate with Mr. Tylen to stabilize the situation. Do not take any more radical actions. After Mr. Tylen takes over, you will return to the UK headquarters to report on your duties. I have other arrangements for you after that.”

Brown’s fists clenched, and he felt the world spin around him.

An unprecedented wave of fury and humiliation washed over him. He had worked tirelessly for Standard Chartered Bank, and he had thought he could hold absolute power in Hong Kong, doing as he pleased, believing it was what he deserved. By leveraging his absolute authority in the Hong Kong region, if he could further increase the market share of Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong Branch, the position of Chairman of the Board would soon be his.

But now… He knew in his heart that truly angering Lord Derek Barber and earning his disdain would only make things worse if he resisted now.

He took a deep breath and managed to force out, “I understand, my Lord.”

After hanging up, Brown stood frozen in place for a long time.

The sun outside was still bright, and the ships in Victoria Harbour were still bustling, but his world seemed to have collapsed in an instant.

That phone call seemed to have turned all his efforts in Hong Kong to ash.

His assistant knocked gently on the door and peeked in. “Taipan, the car is ready. We can leave at any time.”

“Cancel the trip,” Brown’s voice was hoarse and cold.

The assistant was taken aback but, seeing Brown’s grim face, dared not ask further. He quickly nodded and backed out.

Brown slowly walked to the window, gazing at the nearby Connaught Centre, his eyes filled with unwillingness and rage.

He had wanted to score another major achievement for Standard Chartered Bank, paving the way for his future bid for the chairmanship. But now, all his plans had come to nothing with that one phone call. Not only had he lost his decision-making power in Hong Kong, but he also faced an unknown future arrangement. His career path at the bank seemed to be shrouded in a thick, heavy gloom.

It wasn’t as if he would lose everything upon returning to headquarters; he would surely be assigned another important position. After all, he had worked tirelessly for Standard Chartered Bank and was a great contributor. But from Lord Derek Barber’s tone, he already knew that his dream of becoming the Chairman of the Board had probably been shattered.

However, after the anger subsided, he had to face reality.

The headquarters’ decision was final. His power was stripped, his plans shelved. He had to reassess his situation.

At this moment, he didn’t even have the heart to speak with Li Jiacheng. From now on, matters here had nothing to do with him. His dream of the chairmanship was likely shattered, so why should he care about the “Anti-Lin Alliance”? He could barely fend for himself now.

Cheung Kong Center, Chairman’s office.

An hour ago, he had contacted Mr. Brown and Mr. Henry Keswick. After some discussion, they all agreed that even with the Kadoorie family’s withdrawal, they could not admit defeat. Since they had already offended Lin Haoran, they might as well go all in and fight it out; there might still be a chance to turn things around.

For Li Jiacheng, he had already forged a grudge that was difficult to resolve with Lin Haoran when he had openly taken HSBC’s side during the all-out business war between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia, and had even called on his companies’ partners to work with HSBC.

Afterward, he had specifically visited Pao Yue-kong, hoping to leverage Pao’s relationship with Lin Haoran to ease the tension between them. However, Pao Yue-kong had advised him to apologize in person and suggested that all of Li Jiacheng’s companies’ financial business be transferred to the Bank of East Asia. That way, the conflict would naturally be resolved.

But Li Jiacheng knew that the contract he had signed with HSBC made it impossible for him to choose another partner. Even with HSBC being acquired by Standard Chartered Bank, it was still impossible!

Later, when Hutchison Whampoa’s performance plummeted, he believed Lin Haoran was retaliating against him. So, he decided to double down. Since he had already offended him, he wasn’t afraid to take things further. This led to his subsequent alliance with Brown, Lawrence Kadoorie, and Henry Keswick.

The plan had been solid at first. They would start with the luxury hotel industry. If they succeeded in one sector, showing other powers that competing with Lin Haoran wasn’t a guaranteed loss, they could naturally attract more forces to join their “Anti-Lin Alliance.”

The plan had been going smoothly, but who knew that Lin Haoran’s methods were far more swift and ruthless than they had imagined. It was as if he had already known they were going to intercept the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Not only did he snatch it first, but he also forcefully acquired The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, which was originally controlled by the Kadoorie family.

Now, the Kadoorie family had conceded and withdrawn from their “Anti-Lin Alliance,” dealing a severe blow to their plan before it had even truly begun.

And now, he had been waiting in his office for Brown for nearly an hour. The man was late, and hadn’t even called.

This couldn’t help but make Li Jiacheng a little agitated.

He had known Brown for many years. The man was usually very punctual and reliable. Logically, if he had said they would meet in half an hour, they would meet in half an hour. But now, an hour had passed, and not only had he not arrived, but he hadn’t even offered an explanation.

Could something have happened?

Just then, his assistant knocked cautiously and entered. “Mr. Li, Mr. Brown’s office just replied, saying that Mr. Brown had an urgent matter come up and has canceled today’s meeting.”

Li Jiacheng frowned, an ominous premonition creeping into his heart.

“Did they say what the urgent matter was?”

The assistant shook his head. “No, they just said Mr. Brown is temporarily unavailable and won’t be coming.”

Li Jiacheng was silent for a moment, then waved his hand. “You can go.”

After the assistant left, he picked up the phone and dialed the number for Brown’s office. However, after a few rings, the line went dead. Clearly, the person on the other end had hung up.

Li Jiacheng’s face instantly darkened, and he slammed the telephone receiver back onto its cradle. He stood up and paced back and forth in his office, the hem of his suit jacket swaying with his hurried steps.

“Something’s not right,” he muttered to himself.

Brown’s abnormal behavior made him keenly sense that something was wrong.

Just then, the phone suddenly rang.

Li Jiacheng lunged for it and grabbed the receiver. “Hello?”

“Mr. Lee, it’s me.” Henry Keswick’s voice came from the other end. “I just received word from the Board of Directors at Standard Chartered. The headquarters has suspended all of Brown’s decision-making authority in Hong Kong.”

Li Jiacheng’s fingers instantly tightened. That ominous premonition had finally become reality.

He asked, unwilling to accept it, “When did this happen?”

“Just an hour ago,” Henry Keswick’s voice was grave. “Standard Chartered headquarters is sending Mr. Tylen to take over Hong Kong affairs. Brown has reportedly been recalled to London to report on his duties, and his future position has already been reassigned.”

Jardine Matheson & Co. had lost its business war with Lin Haoran last year and had begun to relocate its headquarters. Therefore, Jardine Matheson’s headquarters had long since moved to London. Standard Chartered’s headquarters was also in London. Furthermore, Standard Chartered had always been one of the most important banks in Hong Kong, and Jardine Matheson had risen in Hong Kong. The two even held a certain percentage of each other’s shares. Although it wasn’t high, it was enough for Jardine Matheson to have its own connections within Standard Chartered. Thus, it wasn’t surprising for Henry Keswick to suddenly receive such intelligence from Standard Chartered. The other party wouldn’t deceive him.

The air in the office seemed to freeze.

Li Jiacheng slowly sank back into his chair, fine beads of sweat forming on his forehead. He knew all too well what this meant. Without a doubt, Standard Chartered was going to withdraw from the “Anti-Lin Alliance.”

“Mr. Lee? Are you still there?” Henry Keswick asked when he received no response.

“I’m here,” Li Jiacheng’s voice was a bit hoarse. He forced himself to calm down. “It seems we’ll have to adjust our plan.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end before Henry Keswick suddenly said, “Mr. Lee, I don’t think there’s any need for this ‘Anti-Lin Alliance’ to continue. Let’s just disband it.”

Hearing this, Li Jiacheng’s pupils contracted sharply. He slammed his left palm on the desk. “Mr. Henry, what is the meaning of this?”

“Mr. Lee, I will not stop going against Lin Haoran, but I feel that allying with you is a bit of a waste of time and energy.” Henry Keswick’s voice was frighteningly calm. “Jardine Matheson will deal with Lin Haoran in its own way, but we will no longer participate in your alliance.”

Li Jiacheng’s chest heaved violently. He suppressed his anger. “Henry, you’re deserting on the eve of battle! Don’t forget what we agreed on.”

“Agreed on? Mr. Lee, how many days has it been since the alliance was formed? The Kadoorie family has already withdrawn, and now Standard Chartered is pulling out too. Do you think our cooperation is still necessary? It’s not like you don’t know that Jardine Matheson already withdrew from the Hong Kong market last year. Even if we continue to work with you, I can’t provide you with any help in Hong Kong,” Henry Keswick said with a wry smile.

“You…” Li Jiacheng was at a loss for words.

Henry Keswick continued, “Besides, I need to focus on conquering the South American market recently and don’t have the energy to deal with Lin Haoran. Mr. Lee, you’re on your own. Good luck.”

For Jardine Matheson, they had almost no assets left in Hong Kong, which meant they didn’t have to worry about being targeted by Lin Haoran.

But while they weren’t worried, Li Jiacheng was!

However, what did that have to do with Jardine Matheson?

Since this so-called “Anti-Lin Alliance” had served no purpose, it was better to just terminate it and avoid wasting Jardine Matheson’s energy and resources.

After Henry Keswick finished speaking, a “click” was heard from the other end as the call was disconnected.

Li Jiacheng held the receiver, frozen in place.

Outside the window, the sunset over Victoria Harbour painted half the sky red, but his world seemed to have plunged into darkness.

In a single day, the “Anti-Lin Alliance” had crumbled—the Kadoorie family had quit, Brown had been recalled, and now even Henry Keswick had announced his withdrawal. The once-formidable alliance now left him to fight alone.

In other words, everything he had done before had been for nothing.

Li Jiacheng walked over to the bookcase behind his desk and took out a file folder from a drawer. He opened it to find Hutchison Whampoa’s recent financial reports. Revenue and profits had been declining for two consecutive months. If this continued, they would be operating at a loss sooner or later.

This information had not been made public yet. Otherwise, Hutchison Whampoa’s market capitalization would surely be greatly affected. But as a listed company, Hutchison Whampoa would have to release these financial reports eventually.

Li Jiacheng just wanted to stabilize Hutchison Whampoa’s revenue and profit figures, or even raise them to a safe level, before the reports were published. Only then would Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price remain unaffected.

Both Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa were now heavily in debt, often relying on bank loans to get through difficult times. And bank loans were often based on a company’s market capitalization. A company’s market capitalization, in turn, was often closely related to its profitability.

It was just like when Lin Haoran acquired Green Island Cement. Because the original chairman had falsified its financial reports, the company’s public reports had always been mediocre. As a result, its market capitalization was far below its actual value, allowing Lin Haoran to swoop in and get a great deal.

If Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price continued to fall, the banks might tighten credit, which would be a total ruin for both Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa.

The acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa was a case of a snake swallowing an elephant. In reality, Li Jiacheng’s own capabilities were insufficient to acquire a behemoth like Hutchison Whampoa. Even with HSBC selling him their shares in Hutchison Whampoa at a semi-giveaway price, it was only a portion of the shares. The price Li Jiacheng later paid for Cheung Kong Holdings to increase its stake in Hutchison Whampoa to forty percent was enormous.

If the property industry had remained hot, Cheung Kong Holdings might not have been under too much pressure, and could have paid off its loans on time each year. But since the end of last year, Hong Kong’s property industry had stagnated. Transaction volumes, pre-owned property prices, and government land auction prices were all gradually declining. The once-fiery property speculation environment in Hong Kong had vanished without a trace.

This showed just how much pressure Li Jiacheng was under now.

Although he had successfully joined the ranks of Hong Kong’s top magnates by virtue of his position as Chairman of Hutchison Whampoa, only Li Jiacheng himself knew how immense the pressure was.

Although Standard Chartered Bank would fully support Hutchison Whampoa, Li Jiacheng was also very clear that the current Standard Chartered Bank could barely fend for itself. How could it possibly provide him with the same level of financial support that HSBC used to?

He stared at the numbers on the report, his fingers unconsciously tapping the desk, his expression growing uglier.

“They’re all gone… Every single one of them…” Li Jiacheng muttered, his voice hoarse and tinged with a faint tremble.

He couldn’t help but pace around the office, growing more and more agitated.

Without the alliance, he had to face Lin Haoran alone?

The thought sent a shiver down his spine.

He was ambitious, but he also understood the vast gap between himself and Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran’s methods against the Kadoorie family had been like a thunderbolt—precise and ruthless, striking right at their Achilles’ heel. The acquisition battle was clean and decisive, giving his opponent almost no time to breathe or counterattack. The financial strength, intelligence capability, and decisiveness he displayed were all terrifying.

And what about himself?

The weaknesses of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings were equally obvious: high debt, a shrinking core property business, and retail and port operations whose market share was constantly being squeezed by Lin Haoran’s companies.

The industries he was involved in, Lin Haoran was also involved in, and seemed to be doing it more ruthlessly, faster, and stronger. It was precisely because his own businesses were being suppressed on all fronts, leading to a sharp drop in revenue and profit, that he was forced to form cliques and alliances to deal with Lin Haoran, hoping to use the alliance’s power to create a balance, or better yet, to defeat him and carve up his market share.

But now, the alliance had crumbled in an instant, bringing him back to square one. No, it was even worse than square one! His act of proactively forming the alliance had undoubtedly angered Lin Haoran further. He would certainly face fiercer wrath and more precise attacks.

“I have to do something… I can’t just sit and wait for death…” Li Jiacheng stopped abruptly, his eyes fixed on the glaring financial report on his desk. The red numbers on it seemed to dance, morphing into Lin Haoran’s cold, mocking face.

Fighting head-on was a dead end. But surrendering was also impossible. He had a fatal contract that was now firmly in the hands of HSBC, and by extension, Standard Chartered Bank. It was like a shackle, preventing him from turning to the Bank of East Asia for a real reconciliation. The path Pao Yue-kong had suggested before was no longer viable.

Li Jiacheng had always valued harmony in business; he hadn’t wanted to offend Lin Haoran either. But if he had to take sides between the British-funded conglomerate and Lin Haoran, he could only side with the British-funded conglomerate.

Annoying, very annoying, super annoying!

Li Jiacheng realized that ever since he had publicly stated his position and sided with HSBC, nothing had been going right. Before taking sides, thanks to his connection with Pao Yue-kong, he could have been considered a casual friend of Lin Haoran. But now, that already fragile relationship had long ceased to exist, replaced only by cold hostility and suspicion.

He tugged at his tie in frustration, feeling as if the air in the office had solidified, so oppressive it was hard to breathe.

As things stood, he really had no countermeasures. All he could do now was perhaps prepare to face the targeted business warfare launched by Lin Haoran’s companies.

Fighting alone, could he really win against Lin Haoran?

How would his opponent retaliate?

Were there any other allies he could win over?

One question after another popped into Li Jiacheng’s mind, but there were no clear answers, only a chaotic mess and a heavy sense of powerlessness.

The sun completely sank below the sea level. Unlit, the office was swallowed by darkness, just like his current state of mind.

In the suffocating silence, the red internal phone on his desk suddenly rang shrilly.

This phone connected directly to his core management team and would not be used for anything other than urgent, major matters.

Chapter 719: Strike a Snake at Its Achilles’ Heel; Either Do Nothing, or Be Absolute!

The panicked voice of the general manager of Hutchison Whampoa’s ParknShop supermarket chain came through the phone: “Mr. Li! This is bad! Dairy Farm International, under the Hongkong Land Group, just announced that all their Wellcome supermarket stores will be holding a month-long, large-scale price reduction promotion on over two hundred daily necessities and fresh food items, starting the day after tomorrow!

“Promotional flyers have already been distributed in several areas of the city. The average price drop is thirty percent, and some products are even priced below our cost!”

Li Jiacheng’s lips moved, wanting to say something, but he didn’t know what.

After a moment, Li Jiacheng murmured, “A thirty percent discount, for a whole month… They’ve gone mad!”

ParknShop, a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa, was founded in 1973. In its eight years, backed by the behemoth Hutchison Whampoa, it had already become the second-largest supermarket chain in Hong Kong, second only to Wellcome, with stores opening one after another, spreading across the city centers of Hong Kong and Macau.

Previously, the company had noticed that Wellcome, the leading enterprise in Hong Kong’s supermarket industry, was targeting them. Wherever ParknShop opened a new store, Wellcome would also move in.

He never expected they would make such a huge move now.

A thirty percent discount. Their supermarket’s profit margins weren’t that high.

In other words, if ParknShop were to match them, they would be selling at a loss.

If they didn’t, the result was predictable—the vast majority of their customer traffic would be lured away by Hongkong Land’s Wellcome supermarkets.

If the promotion period was three to five days, or even a week, they could still hold on.

But this was for a whole month.

It was ruthless, utterly ruthless.

At this moment, ParknShop was in a very passive position.

If Hutchison Whampoa had ample funds, it wouldn’t be a problem to burn some money.

The problem was, Hutchison Whampoa’s situation was not good right now. Its hotel business, port business, retail, property, insurance, import-export trade, and so on had all seen varying degrees of decline over the past two months, and its cash flow was already stretched thin.

HSBC was on edge, repeatedly tightening credit lines. To divert a huge sum of money to fight a price war with no end in sight at this time was like adding frost to snow; it could even shake Hutchison Whampoa to its very foundations.

“Mr. Li, should we match them? If we don’t, we’ll have to prepare for a month of dismal business,” the general manager of ParknShop asked.

This matter had far exceeded his responsibilities as a general manager. It was better to let the boss make this kind of decision; otherwise, he, the general manager, would surely become the scapegoat.

To follow meant colossal losses.

Not to follow meant a collapse in market share, which could also lead to long-term losses.

After all, ParknShop had so many chain stores in Hong Kong, and none of them were small. Rent alone was a major expense.

Add to that the salaries for over a thousand employees each month and the payments to suppliers due soon—the pressure from all this was immense.

Li Jiacheng felt his temples throb as a sharp headache set in.

One difficult problem after another arose, leaving even this “Superman,” known for his calmness and shrewdness, feeling mentally and physically exhausted.

At this moment, he felt as if he were trapped in the center of a continuously tightening spider’s web, where every struggle only made the restraints tighter.

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. His mind raced, weighing the consequences of every choice.

I can’t lose my composure. The more critical the situation, the calmer I must be.

Speaking into the telephone receiver, his voice became surprisingly calm, even carrying a hint of the ferocity of someone burning his boats: “Match them! Why wouldn’t we?”

Li Jiacheng’s tone was decisive. “They want a price war? They want to crush us with money? Let’s see who can’t hold out first! I want you to do three things immediately. First, for our one hundred core products with the largest inventory, slash the price by thirty-five percent!

“Buy ad time on Rediffusion Television. Also, make our supermarket posters more eye-catching than Wellcome’s. Tell all of Hong Kong that ParknShop is the supermarket that truly saves citizens money!”

“Second, immediately meet with all major suppliers. Tell them this is a life-or-death battle! Either they immediately provide us with additional ‘market support funds’ and temporary special prices to help us get through this—and I, Li Jiacheng, will owe them a favor and repay them generously in the future—or…”

He paused, his voice turning icy, “Or they can wait to see ParknShop fall, and then face a monopolistic Wellcome alone. We’ll see how much bargaining power they have left then!”

“Third, immediately launch an internal ‘belt-tightening plan.’ Freeze all non-essential expenditures. Halve management bonuses for this month. Notify the logistics and procurement departments to renegotiate all service contracts and future orders. Squeeze where you can, delay what you can! Desperate times call for desperate measures!”

ParknShop was one of Hutchison Whampoa’s most important businesses. Li Jiacheng could not stand by and watch it be easily defeated by Wellcome.

This was not just about immediate profits and market share; it was about Hutchison Whampoa’s overall reputation and cash flow stability.

Over its nearly eight years of development, ParknShop’s chain of stores in Hong Kong and Macau had already become one of Hutchison Whampoa’s core industries, with store revenues accounting for nearly ten percent of Hutchison Whampoa’s total revenue.

Moreover, because ParknShop had always been very cautious with its store locations in Hong Kong and Macau, customer traffic was very high, and its gross margin was close to twenty percent, making it a very important profit center and a stable cash cow for Hutchison Whampoa.

If this business were to be crushed, not only would it lead to a direct loss of enormous profits, but it would also severely shake the capital market’s confidence in Hutchison Whampoa’s overall profitability and management capabilities. This could trigger a series of disastrous consequences, such as a stock price collapse, a credit rating downgrade, and soaring financing costs.

In other words, this was no longer just about ParknShop’s business; it would drag down the entire group!

This was the weight that Li Jiacheng truly could not bear.

Once ParknShop showed signs of defeat, the chain reaction would be unimaginable.

The general manager on the other end of the line was stunned by his boss’s sudden assertiveness and rapid-fire commands, but it also felt as if he had found his backbone. He quickly replied, “Yes! Mr. Li, I understand! I’ll get on it right away!”

After hanging up, Li Jiacheng knew this was merely a temporary stopgap, and it might even be accelerating the bleeding.

Suppliers weren’t fools; it was uncertain how effective empty promises and threats would be.

The money saved from internal belt-tightening was a drop in the bucket for a large-scale price war.

The real Achilles’ heel was still funding! The massive cash hole needed to be filled immediately.

Moreover, ParknShop’s competitor was Wellcome, and Wellcome’s boss was Lin Haoran—the richest man in Hong Kong.

Fighting a price war with him was truly like an egg against a rock; it was highly irrational.

But he had no way out!

He knew that the orders he had just given were nothing short of a huge gamble.

He was betting that the suppliers would be intimidated and offer support, betting that he could squeeze out enough cash internally to last for a while, and betting that Lin Haoran’s side would also be hesitant due to the massive expenditure…

But a voice deep inside told him that since the other party dared to launch this war, they must have made thorough preparations.

“Sigh!” Li Jiacheng sighed.

If this year’s property industry were as hot as it was before the beginning of last year, he wouldn’t be so troubled.

In recent years, Hong Kong’s property prices had basically doubled or even tripled annually. The money was so easy to make that it had gradually given him a sense of confidence.

Back then, as soon as the blueprints for Cheung Kong Holdings’ property developments were released, they would be snapped up, and a massive cash flow would pour in continuously, supporting him as he swallowed a behemoth like Hutchison Whampoa.

It was nothing like now, where presale properties were hard to sell and banks were reluctant to lend. The real estate business, which once had the Midas touch, had now become a bottomless pit that devoured cash.

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, as if he could still hear the clamor of the bustling sales offices from last year and see the frenzied buyers waving their chequebooks.

That feeling was like sitting atop a mountain of gold, looking down on the world.

But when he opened his eyes, the cold reality pulled him back to this pressure-filled office.

Outside the window, the city lights were just coming on, and the neon signs flickered, but this bustling prosperity seemed to be separated from him by an invisible barrier.

…

Meanwhile, in an office on the 51st floor of the Connaught Centre, just a few hundred meters from the Cheung Kong Center, laughter could be heard.

In the office were Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin.

After the Kadoorie family conceded, there were no longer any obstacles to the privatization of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

Now, they had handed the matter over to Galaxy Securities to handle entirely. Holding over 62 percent of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels’ shares, all they had to do was slowly increase their shareholding. Once it reached 90 percent, they could proceed with a compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares, completing the full privatization and delisting of the company.

The outcome was a foregone conclusion; it was just a matter of time.

Therefore, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels was no longer their focus, even though the major Hong Kong media outlets were still reporting on it.

In particular, they had deliberately let it be known that the Kadoorie family had sold them their shares at a forty percent discount, a move that sent shockwaves through Hong Kong’s business community. Everyone now clearly saw the heavy price and ultimate fate of opposing Lin Haoran.

This was not just a commercial victory, but also a powerful psychological deterrent.

Lin Haoran was curious to see who else would dare to provoke him after this.

As he had said, beat them until they’re scared!

If once isn’t enough, do it twice. If twice isn’t enough, then three times. Every person who provokes us will become a stepping stone for us to establish our dominance!

Let them understand that provoking me, Lin Haoran, means courting immense risk and a painful price. Sooner or later, no one will dare to challenge us again.

“Mr. Ma, do you think Hutchison Whampoa will follow suit with this big promotion we’ve suddenly launched for Wellcome?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

Today’s news about Wellcome was released by Ma Shimin’s people.

It was because his boss, Lin Haoran, had previously instructed him to increase the pressure on Hutchison Whampoa.

Thus, Ma Shimin decided to start with Wellcome.

The reason they dared to offer a 30 percent discount was simple: besides having deep pockets, they had another source of confidence—the newly established FMCG behemoth, Langwei Group.

Currently, Langwei Group owned over twenty brands like Red Bull, Heineken, L’Oréal Paris, Carlsberg, Kraft Heinz, and Snickers. These twenty-plus brands offered nearly two hundred products, gradually forming a sizable multinational FMCG group.

A large portion of these products were already internationally renowned brands and had become common household products for Hong Kong citizens.

So, he came up with a plan to suppress ParknShop: starting the day after tomorrow, all Wellcome stores would launch a month-long, large-scale promotional campaign with price reductions on over two hundred daily necessities and fresh food items.

During this period, products manufactured by Langwei Group would be supplied to the entire Wellcome supermarket chain at a 15 percent price reduction.

While this 15 percent price cut would reduce the profits of these FMCG brands under Langwei Group, the Hong Kong market was just a small part of their business.

Spread across the group’s global operations, this loss of profit was almost negligible. In fact, this promotion could even further expand their market share and brand influence, making it a net positive in the long run.

But for Wellcome, this 15 percent cost advantage, combined with the special promotional funds allocated by the group, allowed them to launch this fierce, month-long price war with discounts of up to 30 percent at a much lower cost than their competitors, especially ParknShop.

This wasn’t fair competition at all; it was a one-sided steamrolling.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s question, Ma Shimin chuckled, stood up from his chair, and walked to the round window to look down at the city center of Hong Kong as the lights came on.

“Boss, he will definitely follow,” Ma Shimin said with certainty, as if stating an established fact. “Li Jiacheng has no choice. ParknShop is an important piece in his retail empire and a key source of cash flow for Hutchison Whampoa.

“Once he backs down, his market share will collapse in an instant, supplier confidence will disintegrate, and neither HSBC nor Standard Chartered Bank will dare to continue lending him money. That would be a true catastrophe. He can only bite the bullet and follow, even if he knows he’s drinking poison to quench his thirst.”

Lin Haoran nodded. Although he had little management experience, as a renowned business tycoon in Hong Kong, he easily understood what Ma Shimin meant.

Ma Shimin continued, “I can even guess his reaction. He will certainly order deeper price cuts than ours in an attempt to overpower us in terms of publicity. At the same time, he will threaten and entice his suppliers, and he will cut costs internally, trying to squeeze out every penny to fight this war.”

Lin Haoran nodded in satisfaction. “So, what’s our next step?”

“The next step?” Ma Shimin smiled faintly. “When all his struggles prove futile, when he has exhausted his last bit of cash flow and credit, that will be our time to reap the harvest.

“We can have some mainstream media outlets opportunely report on the potential capital chain pressures at Hutchison Whampoa. That will surely arouse many people’s interest, even prompting them to dig deeper.

“In that case, Hutchison Whampoa’s capital chain problems will be impossible to hide. Suppliers will be breaking down the doors demanding early settlement, the capital market will vote with its feet, and the stock price will plunge drastically.

“Coupled with the current property industry slump, it will be much harder for them to liquidate property for cash. By then, even if Li Jiacheng had three heads and six arms, he wouldn’t be able to turn the tide.”

A look of satisfaction appeared in Lin Haoran’s eyes. He appreciated Ma Shimin’s style of relentless pressure, leaving no room for escape.

Although he knew that these few points alone were not enough to bring down Li Jiacheng—it was a fool’s dream to think a business tycoon could be so easily defeated.

Li Jiacheng had navigated the business world of Hong Kong for decades and weathered many storms. His resilience, connections, and adaptability were far beyond those of an ordinary person.

Relying solely on a retail price war and media pressure might inflict a crippling blow and put him in a very passive position, but to say he would be crushed beyond recovery, even allowing Lin Haoran to “harvest” his core assets, was indeed premature and underestimated the power of “Superman Li.”

However, Lin Haoran didn’t need the Hongkong Land Group to completely crush Hutchison Whampoa.

Merely increasing the strain on Li Jiacheng’s capital chain and driving down Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price was enough for Lin Haoran.

Because he was still secretly coveting Hutchison Whampoa.

A fall in the stock price would allow Galaxy Securities to accumulate more Hutchison Whampoa shares faster and at a lower cost.

And increasing the strain on Li Jiacheng’s capital chain would make him more likely to make decisions like “cutting off a limb to survive” or bringing in strategic investors when faced with immense cash flow pressure.

When Li Jiacheng found himself in a capital chain crisis, he would have only two choices: abandon Hutchison Whampoa or abandon Cheung Kong Holdings.

Cheung Kong Holdings was the foundation of Li Jiacheng’s business and the absolute core of his family’s enterprise, carrying all his reputation and roots.

In contrast, although Hutchison Whampoa was massive, it was a prize won later through a series of “snake swallowing an elephant” capital operations. His control over it was not as deeply entrenched as it was with Cheung Kong Holdings.

When a real crisis came and a sacrifice had to be made, Li Jiacheng would not hesitate to choose to save Cheung Kong Holdings.

That was his bottom line, and his lifeline.

This was precisely what Lin Haoran was targeting.

He didn’t need to destroy Li Jiacheng’s entire empire immediately. He just needed to apply enough continuous pressure to force Li Jiacheng to make a painful choice between his “firstborn son,” Cheung Kong Holdings, and his “second son,” Hutchison Whampoa.

At that point, Lin Haoran, sitting on a mountain of cash and having long coveted Hutchison Whampoa’s prime port, property, and retail assets, could transform from a passive aggressor into a potential “savior” offering timely assistance, or a “forceful acquirer.”

Originally, because Cheung Kong Holdings held a full 40 percent stake in Hutchison Whampoa, he had no thoughts of acquiring it.

But Li Jiacheng’s actions over the past few months had truly angered Lin Haoran.

Even if he was a senior among Chinese merchants in Hong Kong, repeatedly standing against him, and even colluding with British-owned firms to form an “Anti-Lin Alliance,” had crossed Lin Haoran’s bottom line.

The business world is like a battlefield, where strength and strategy, not seniority and sentiment, are what matter.

Since his opponent had drawn his sword first, he couldn’t be blamed for punching back too hard.

Although Lin Haoran was young, he deeply understood the principles of “strike a snake at its Achilles’ heel” and “either do nothing, or be absolute.”

Previous clashes may have left some leeway, but Li Jiacheng’s actions this time undoubtedly showed his stubborn, hostile stance.

Towards such an opponent, any mercy or hesitation would be irresponsible to himself and his vast commercial empire.

His thinking became crystal clear: apply continuous high pressure to force Li Jiacheng’s cash flow to dry up and his stock price to plummet. Then, at his most vulnerable moment, either force him to sell Hutchison Whampoa’s core assets for cash to save himself, or use the secondary market and behind-the-scenes negotiations to significantly increase his shareholding in Hutchison Whampoa, even seeking a controlling stake!

Once he controlled Hutchison Whampoa, it would mean controlling more of Hong Kong’s container terminals, a vast property reserve, a retail network (ParknShop, Watsons) spanning Hong Kong and Kowloon, and many other valuable businesses.

This would swell Lin Haoran’s commercial empire to an unprecedented scale, making him a truly unique behemoth in Hong Kong, his position unshakeable by anyone.

Although Hutchison Whampoa and the Hongkong Land Group had many overlapping areas, this was not an issue at all.

Sometimes, one plus one is not just two; it can be greater than two!

The synergistic effect and monopolistic advantages brought by integration would create astonishing value.

Once Hutchison Whampoa was brought under his banner, first, Hong Kong’s container terminal business would be fundamentally dominated by companies under Lin Haoran.

Hongkong Land’s Kwai Chung Container Terminal 5 and Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals, combined with Hutchison Whampoa’s Hong Kong International Terminals, would nearly monopolize Hong Kong’s sea and air logistics lifelines.

At that point, pricing power and route selection authority would be heavily skewed in their favor. Any company wanting to do import-export business would not be able to bypass companies under Lin Haoran.

This stable cash flow and strategic value would be immeasurable.

Second, in property.

Hongkong Land owned a large number of prime office buildings and shopping malls in the core districts of Hong Kong Island, while Hutchison Whampoa had a vast land bank and residential development projects in the New Territories, Kowloon, and even non-core areas of Hong Kong Island.

The combination of the two would form complete coverage from high-end commercial properties to mass-market housing, and their land reserves would be unmatched in all of Hong Kong.

Although the property industry was about to enter a crisis, Lin Haoran knew that compared to the future of Hong Kong’s property market, current housing prices were just at a low point.

They would have a greater say in the pace of development and market pricing. They could even coordinate, using rental income from commercial properties to support the longer cycle of residential development, smoothing out cash flow fluctuations.

Third, the retail network.

Wellcome supermarket plus ParknShop would give them an absolute advantage in the number of stores, completely monopolizing Hong Kong’s large-scale supermarket market. They could operate under a dual-brand strategy, targeting different business districts and customer groups with precision, and thereby completely control Hong Kong’s supermarket channels.

At that time, not only would Langwei Group’s products have unimpeded access, but any FMCG brand wanting to enter the Hong Kong market would have to bow to Lin Haoran’s retail enterprises. Channel fees and bargaining power would rise to unprecedented heights.

Watsons’ health and beauty network could also complement and link with the Mannings brand under the Hongkong Land Group.

Once this idea took root, it quickly became incredibly alluring and firm.

Chapter 720: Two Tigers Clash, Li Jiacheng’s Mixed Feelings

The operation targeting Hutchison Whampoa had already begun.

At this moment, although Li Jiacheng was aware that the Hongkong Land Group was targeting Hutchison Whampoa, he had no idea that Lin Haoran was audacious enough to attempt a takeover.

In his view, the other party was likely just trying to suppress Hutchison Whampoa, steal its business, and retaliate for its past actions.

After all, it was a public fact that Cheung Kong Holdings held a staggering forty percent of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares.

With such a high shareholding percentage, common sense dictated that it would be very difficult for anyone to have designs on Hutchison Whampoa.

While it wasn’t absolutely impossible, under normal circumstances, no one would covet a company with that level of ownership.

Therefore, no one, including Li Jiacheng, ever imagined that Lin Haoran would set his sights on Hutchison Whampoa.

However, Lin Haoran was the exception.

To him, Hutchison Whampoa was destined to be in the bag.

The last time, during the counterattack against HSBC that left the bank in shambles and even on the verge of a capital chain rupture, Li Jiacheng’s two companies, Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa, had both been significantly affected.

Lin Haoran had seized that opportunity, having Galaxy Securities accumulate shares in many of Hong Kong’s corporate giants, including Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa.

At that time, its holdings in Cheung Kong Holdings reached 16.25 percent, and its stake in Hutchison Whampoa was an even more substantial 18.71 percent.

And that was a month ago.

Ever since deciding to acquire Hutchison Whampoa, Lin Haoran had instructed Galaxy Securities to continue discreetly accumulating shares in both Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings. They were to do it slowly, to avoid detection by Li Jiacheng’s people. More than half a month had already passed.

Although the pace was slow, Galaxy Securities’ holdings in Hutchison Whampoa had now surpassed twenty-one percent, while its stake in Cheung Kong Holdings had exceeded nineteen percent.

It was still a long way from Cheung Kong Holdings’ forty percent stake in Hutchison Whampoa, and as the number of available shares on the secondary market dwindled, the difficulty of acquisition was increasing sharply.

But Lin Haoran was not impatient. He knew this game was a war of attrition, a contest of patience, capital, and timing.

Once the time was right, even with Cheung Kong Holdings holding a forty percent stake, he was confident he could crack this block of ice.

A forty percent stake was a formidable barrier, but not an unbreakable one.

Besides the secondary market, Cheung Kong Holdings and Galaxy Securities were not the only shareholders; there were many others who held significant stakes.

Lin Haoran had already had someone secretly investigate the holdings of these shareholders. Although no public information disclosed other specific major shareholders with significant influence, there were still some institutions and individual investors holding sizable portions of the shares.

The investigated stakes accounted for about thirteen percent.

If utilized properly, these shares would be the key pieces to overtake Li Jiacheng.

For now, however, he could not act rashly.

Li Jiacheng had toiled and struggled through the business world for years and was extremely vigilant.

If he were to make a move on that thirteen percent of shares prematurely, there was a risk of a leak, which would alert the enemy and allow Li Jiacheng to prepare his defenses in advance.

On the morning of August 30th, a Sunday.

Today, nearly forty Wellcome supermarkets across Hong Kong simultaneously put up eye-catching red promotional posters.

The slogan “Citywide Shock! Prices slashed to cost! Over 200 daily necessities in a 30-day frenzy of special offers!” was particularly glaring.

Flyers had already been distributed all over Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories, and commercials on the Jade Channel had been running in a loop since early morning.

At almost the same moment, all ParknShop stores swiftly replaced their displays with their own promotional posters, in an even brighter color and larger font: “ParknShop, sparing no expense! A grateful return to our customers! Core products at their lowest price all year—lower than low!” The pledge to slash prices by thirty-five percent was a direct response to Wellcome’s challenge.

The citizens of Hong Kong were in an uproar.

Housewives carrying grocery baskets, grandfathers and grandmothers pulling small carts, and even office workers on their day off all flocked to the nearest Wellcome and ParknShop.

Long queues formed at the checkout counters, and shelves were emptied at a visible rate. The areas for daily necessities like rice, oil, canned goods, and paper towels, as well as the specially priced fresh produce sections, were especially packed with people, requiring staff to constantly restock from the warehouse.

“The paper towels at Wellcome are so much cheaper!”

“Quick! Let’s check ParknShop, their fresh pork seems even cheaper!”

“Let’s buy a bit from both! We can save a lot of money this month!”

The market was filled with this kind of excited chatter.

For ordinary families, this was undoubtedly a golden opportunity to save on expenses.

But for Li Jiacheng and Lin Haoran, who were observing from behind the scenes, it was a silent war. Every single receipt meant the consumption of real money.

In his office, Li Jiacheng listened as his subordinates reported the sales figures and customer traffic comparisons from various stores every hour.

Initial data showed that ParknShop’s steeper discounts did indeed attract a lot of customers, with some stores temporarily surpassing Wellcome in foot traffic.

But this brought him no relief; instead, his brow furrowed deeply.

Sales revenue was up, but it was all achieved through prices far below cost. The more they sold, the more they lost.

He repeatedly urged the procurement department to negotiate with suppliers, but the result was only a very limited temporary discount, which was a mere drop in the bucket against the huge price difference.

Meanwhile, at Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin looked at the preliminary report and smiled at each other.

“Boss, it seems Mr. Li is determined to see this through. He’s bleeding much more money than we are,” Ma Shimin said with a laugh.

Controlling Langwei Group, an FMCG giant, meant they had a direct source of goods, cutting out the middlemen and their markups. Their procurement costs were already significantly lower than Hutchison Whampoa’s ParknShop.

Coupled with Hongkong Land Group’s ample funds, they could afford the losses!

It was normal for companies to burn money while fighting for market share.

For Wellcome supermarket, even if it didn’t turn a profit for several months, it could easily hold on with the support of Dairy Farm International and the Hongkong Land Group.

But it was a different story for ParknShop. Hutchison Whampoa’s various businesses were already seeing a general decline in performance, and its cash flow was tight. ParknShop’s money-burning campaign was like twisting a knife in the already riddled finances of Hutchison Whampoa.

Lin Haoran leisurely picked up his teacup, took a sip, a relaxed smile playing on his lips. “I’d like to see just how long they can hold out. By the way, the factory in Shenzhen, will it officially start production on September 3rd?”

Currently, due to transportation costs, the cost of most products remained high.

Products like Heineken, L’Oréal Paris, Carlsberg, and Kraft Heinz were all shipped from Southeast Asia, Japan, Europe, and North America.

However, after the acquisitions were completed, plans were made to establish a production base in Shenzhen, which would inevitably lower costs in the future.

On September 3rd, Lin Haoran needed to go to Shenzhen to attend the opening ceremony of the industrial park.

Ma Shimin quickly replied, “Yes, Boss. Although the industrial park hasn’t officially opened yet, Wanqing Group had already constructed the factory buildings. With the strong cooperation of the local government, our equipment has been moved in ahead of schedule.

As for employees, Mainland China has no shortage of labor, and the cost is five to six times lower than in Hong Kong. We’ve already completed recruitment. By then, everything from employee salaries to factory and raw material costs will be much lower than in other places, so the product costs will naturally come down.

The official opening on September 3rd means all factories can enter the production phase simultaneously!

So, after next month, the cost of many products under our Langwei Group will drop significantly. By then, the supply cost for Wellcome will be even lower, which means we might not even have to burn money anymore!”

Lin Haoran nodded upon hearing this.

Opening factories in Shenzhen and other cities in the Pearl River Delta could significantly reduce production costs, which was a key factor in the rapid rise of the entire Pearl River Delta region back in the day.

So, what was the goal for bosses opening factories?

The answer was obvious: to make money.

Producing in Hong Kong or other places was expensive.

But if the factory was located in Shenzhen, costs for materials, labor, factory rent, and taxes would all drop substantially.

Taking all factors into account, the production cost in Shenzhen was expected to be at least forty to fifty percent lower than importing products from overseas or producing locally in Hong Kong, and possibly even more.

Therefore, for Wellcome to offer a thirty percent promotion on two hundred products was really no difficult feat for them.

“Boss, many of the products at ParknShop are now owned by Langwei Group. Even if they know they’re a rival’s products, ParknShop can’t easily delist well-known items like Vitasoy, Lee Kum Kee, Heineken, L’Oréal Paris, and Carlsberg that Hong Kong citizens are familiar with.

Many citizens are accustomed to using these products. If ParknShop were to take them off the shelves, these customers, loyal to specific brands, would likely turn to Wellcome. This would be like crippling themselves, handing over market share to us.

And of course, Langwei Group won’t give them any discounts on these products. We’ll continue to supply them, but if they want to offer discounts to customers, they’ll have to subsidize the price difference themselves.

This is equivalent to them using their own money to promote our brands and solidify the market position of our products,” Ma Shimin added with a smile, a hint of mockery in his tone.

“This is precisely why I wanted to enter the FMCG sector in the first place. We must control not only the retail channels but also the source of the brands.”

Lin Haoran put down his teacup and continued with a smile, “Retail terminals are certainly important, but owning brands with high market share and deep consumer trust is the real moat.

Mr. Li’s ParknShop is now like they’re carrying our sedan chair. The more he subsidizes, the higher our product exposure and sales, and the deeper our brand recognition becomes. And he can only watch himself bleed dry.

If he chooses not to subsidize our products, that’s fine too. After customers compare the prices at our Wellcome and their ParknShop, they will see that Wellcome’s prices are more advantageous and will naturally vote with their feet, turning to our stores.

No matter what ParknShop chooses, the initiative is always in our hands.”

Fast-moving consumer goods were the category of products that citizens encountered most frequently in their daily lives, with the highest purchase frequency.

They were like the lifeblood of the city, permeating every corner. From the toothpaste and toothbrush used in the morning, to the three meals on the dining table, to a relaxing drink in the evening, FMCG products were everywhere, tightly bound to the lives of the citizens.

And Langwei Group now controlled many of the well-known brands among them, making it impossible for ParknShop to avoid them.

…

On this day, the streets and alleys of Hong Kong had never been in such a frenzy over daily necessities.

On this Sunday, the sun was scorching, but it was no match for the passion of the citizens pouring into Wellcome and ParknShop.

The price war between the two supermarket giants was like a huge stone thrown into a calm lake, instantly creating a thousand ripples.

Every store seemed to be the eye of a storm, with a continuous stream of people from the moment the doors opened.

In contrast, some smaller supermarkets had almost no business today; their owners or employees could only swat flies inside their empty stores.

“Excuse me, please make way! There’s still oil here!” a clerk shouted himself hoarse in a Wellcome supermarket in Mong Kok. A cart full of a specially priced cooking oil from one of Langwei Group’s brands was snatched up in just a few minutes.

Housewives were quick-eyed and nimble-handed, their shopping carts piled high with paper towels, canned goods, and cleaning supplies. They calculated meticulously, comparing every price on the flyers, their faces a mixture of excitement at getting a bargain and anxiety that the good deals would be gone.

Over at a ParknShop in Kwun Tong, the scene was even more intense.

Because the advertised discount figures were more staggering, it attracted more customers seeking the absolute lowest prices.

The personal care section was a disaster zone. The shelves for shampoo, body wash, and laundry detergent were jammed solid with people, and the staff couldn’t restock fast enough to keep up with the buying frenzy.

The long queue at the checkout snaked from inside the store all the way outside. Many people calculated how much money they were saving today while waiting in line, and the air was thick with a kind of collective consumer hysteria.

“Wow! The paper towels at ParknShop are really twenty cents cheaper per pack than at Wellcome!”

“Quick, go grab a few more tins of peanut oil! Wellcome’s special offer oil is almost sold out!”

“Check both places, buy wherever it’s cheaper!”

Such conversations were happening in every corner of Hong Kong.

On public transport, you could see citizens everywhere carrying the distinctive shopping bags of the two major supermarkets.

In tea restaurants, the topic of conversation was no longer the stock or property market, nor was it the Kadoorie family losing control of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels. Instead, it was about where to find the next bargain.

It had almost become a city-wide “shopping festival,” only the instigators were not aiming for profit, but for a deeper strategic market game.

In Li Jiacheng’s office at Cheung Kong Center, he stared at the hourly sales reports, his expression grave.

The initial reports showed that with its more aggressive price-cutting strategy, ParknShop had indeed surpassed Wellcome in customer traffic in the first few hours after opening. Sales at some core stores had even seen a staggering year-on-year increase of four hundred percent. The supermarkets were so crowded they were almost impassable.

The limited space of the supermarkets and the slow checkout speeds had, to some extent, capped the further increase in customer flow.

Otherwise, the revenue would have been even more terrifying.

The general manager of ParknShop said with a delighted expression, “Mr. Li, it seems our strategy is working. Wellcome clearly has less foot traffic than our ParknShop, and their revenue must be lower too.”

But Li Jiacheng slowly shook his head, his finger tapping heavily on the glaring “Gross Margin” column in the report. “Working? Look at this number! Revenue is up, but for every item we sell, we’re bleeding! This isn’t sales, it’s a subsidy! It’s burning money!”

He saw it with perfect clarity.

This was selling at a loss just to attract customers.

The reason ParknShop could offer slightly deeper discounts than Wellcome was entirely built on Hutchison Whampoa bearing greater losses.

For ParknShop to hang up its signboard of a thirty-five percent price reduction, every cent of that discount had to be squeezed out of Hutchison Whampoa’s already tight capital chain.

“How are the negotiations with the suppliers going?” Li Jiacheng asked in a low voice.

“Mr. Li, the concessions from suppliers are very limited, especially for brands under Langwei Group, like Heineken and L’Oréal. They’re holding firm on the price, not willing to budge a single cent. They say it’s a group policy, with a globally unified supply price.”

The general manager of ParknShop looked troubled. “We can only get some minor discounts from a few other local suppliers, but it’s not much help for the overall battle.”

Li Jiacheng’s heart sank.

His worst fears were coming true.

When he proposed the thirty-five percent discount for ParknShop, he had considered the Langwei Group issue, but the current situation forced him to press on regardless!

Lin Haoran’s control over the source of some FMCG brands was like having a stranglehold on the channel’s throat.

ParknShop couldn’t delist these popular brands, or it would lose a large number of customers.

But if they offered discounts on these best-selling brands, they would be using their own profits to sow for others to reap, and even have to subsidize them with their own money.

It was a veritable trap, with no good way out.

As time went on, another problem began to emerge: inventory.

Due to insufficient forecasting, or rather, underestimating the purchasing power of Hong Kong citizens in the face of extreme discounts, several of ParknShop’s popular special-offer items began to sell out one after another in the afternoon.

“Sorry, the special price rice is sold out.”

“Paper towels? Please wait, the warehouse is bringing more, but I’m not sure if there’s any left.”

“Special price laundry detergent? Please come back early tomorrow, or you can buy these non-promotional items.”

Similar notices or verbal announcements from staff appeared in many ParknShop stores.

The crowd of shoppers found that many of the low-priced items they wanted were already out of stock, their disappointment palpable.

In contrast, Wellcome, which was better prepared and had stronger supply chain support, might have had slightly less foot traffic than ParknShop at its peak, but its product supply was relatively stable, giving consumers the impression that “this place is more reliable.”

Some customers who couldn’t get what they wanted at ParknShop naturally turned to a nearby Wellcome, releasing their continued shopping enthusiasm and budget there.

The shopping frenzy, which had lasted all day, only began to subside around ten o’clock at night.

Two final sales reports were placed on the desks of Lin Haoran and Li Jiacheng respectively.

At the Severn Road villa, Lin Haoran sat on the sofa in the third-floor sitting room, looking at the report in his hand, feeling little turbulence in his heart.

Beside him, Guo Xiaohan was watching TV. The late-night news was on, showing the terrifying streams of people at the two major supermarkets.

Lin Haoran glanced at the TV screen, then his gaze returned to the documents in his hand.

This had been faxed to him by the general manager of Wellcome. As soon as the data was compiled, he received it.

Most of the promotional products listed by Wellcome were brands under the Langwei Group, such as beverages, personal care products, beer, home care products, and packaged foods.

Langwei Group had not stopped its acquisition activities over the past few months. In addition to some international brands on Lin Haoran’s list, it had also acquired, one by one, some famous local FMCG brands in Hong Kong.

For example, Vitasoy, Lee Kum Kee, Liao Ma Kee Fermented Tofu, Mo Feng Preserved Plums, Two Girls Florida Water, Kowloon Dairy, Green Spot Orange Soda, Red Swallow Beer, and Cheung Yuen Rice Wine.

These were all local Hong Kong FMCG products that citizens enjoyed purchasing in their daily lives, and acquiring them didn’t cost Langwei Group too much capital.

After all, these were just well-known local brands with little international influence; many hadn’t even expanded beyond the Hong Kong market.

This was also why ParknShop simply couldn’t get around Langwei Group.

If all the FMCG brands under Langwei Group were to be delisted from ParknShop, the first reaction of many customers upon entering the supermarket would be confusion, followed by disappointment.

After all, well-known local brands have considerable influence in their home market. Many citizens are accustomed to using a certain brand, and once this habit is formed, it’s like a deep-rooted tree, difficult to shake.

If ParknShop were to truly delist all of Langwei Group’s FMCG brands, it would be tantamount to cutting off its own arm, placing itself in an extremely disadvantageous position in a fiercely competitive market.

“Brother Haoran, I went to the Wellcome near Central today too. There were so many people, I couldn’t even squeeze in, so I just left,” Guo Xiaohan said to Lin Haoran with great interest as she watched the news.

Lin Haoran smiled slightly and pinched her cute cheek. “You shouldn’t squeeze in with them. If something happened, wouldn’t my heart break?”

“I just wanted to join in the fun. Besides, I knew Wellcome belongs to you, Brother Haoran, so I wanted to experience it even more. Who knew there would be so many people?”

Guo Xiaohan stuck out her tongue playfully and snuggled up to Lin Haoran, her eyes still fixed on the TV screen, which kept switching between the bustling scenes inside the supermarkets and reporters interviewing consumers on site about their views on the price war.

Lin Haoran gently put his arm around Guo Xiaohan’s shoulder, but his thoughts drifted far away.

It seemed that Wellcome had gained a relative advantage on the first day of this price war, but he knew this was only the first day. It remained to be seen how long ParknShop could last, and Li Jiacheng was not someone who would give up easily.

Moreover, the impact of this price war was far from over. The subsequent adjustments to the supply chain, changes in consumer psychology, and the reshaping of the market’s competitive landscape were all full of variables.

Meanwhile, at Cheung Kong Center, the lights in Li Jiacheng’s office were still on.

Even though it was past ten o’clock at night, he had not gone home.

In Li Jiacheng’s hand was a report.

The report showed that ParknShop had set an unprecedented single-day revenue record today, with a year-on-year surge of nearly 380 percent.

But immediately following that was an equally shocking loss figure.

The huge customer flow did not bring profit; instead, it accelerated the bleeding of capital.

The good news was that market share had been temporarily defended, and they had even managed a counterattack.

The bad news was that the financial situation was deteriorating rapidly, and this model was utterly unsustainable.

In particular, he had hoped that the promotional products would drive sales of some non-promotional items, but the reality was somewhat disappointing.

According to the report, although sales of other products had indeed increased slightly, the increase was a mere drop in the bucket compared to the losses incurred from the loss-leading promotional items.

He naturally knew that given Hutchison Whampoa’s current situation, it couldn’t withstand this kind of drain for long.

Li Jiacheng’s brow was tightly furrowed as he paced back and forth in his office.

At this moment, his feelings were mixed.

He was happy that he had temporarily stabilized the situation, preventing ParknShop from being utterly crushed at the start of this fierce price war and allowing it to retain a certain degree of competitiveness in the eyes of consumers.

He was worried because his financial situation was rapidly worsening, and the current model was completely unsustainable.

What he was pleased about was that he had stabilized the situation for the time being, preventing Parkn-Shop from being crushed at the outset of this fierce price war and maintaining a certain degree of competitiveness in the eyes of consumers.

Chapter 721: Standard Chartered Bank Comes to Apologize, Lin Haoran Heads to the Mainland Again!

In the blink of an eye, three days passed, and it was September 2nd.

In these three days, a major event shook the Hong Kong business world: Mr. Brown, the famous Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong Branch, was rumored to be suddenly recalled to the Britain headquarters.

His successor was to be Mr. Tylen, a Senior Vice President of Standard Chartered Bank.

Currently, Brown was still in Hong Kong, but the news was already making the rounds.

Many people were surprised by this. Could it be that Brown was being promoted to a higher position at the headquarters as a reward for the great merit of acquiring HSBC?

Only a few tycoons vaguely guessed that this was probably due to the failure of the “Anti-Lin Alliance.”

In the morning, while still at home, Lin Haoran received a call from Ma Shimin.

Ma Shimin said to Lin Haoran, “Boss, Standard Chartered’s new Hong Kong Taipan has sent you a letter requesting a visit. Would you like to meet him?”

“The new Hong Kong Taipan?” Lin Haoran was puzzled when he heard this.

He had already known about the new Taipan, but since it had little to do with him, he hadn’t paid much attention.

This new Taipan must have just arrived in Hong Kong, yet he was so eager to visit him.

Though surprised, Lin Haoran agreed.

At ten o’clock in the morning, Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin met the man in the reception room on the 51st floor of the Connaught Centre.

In the reception room, Mr. Tylen got straight to the point, stating that he was there to apologize to Lin Haoran on behalf of Standard Chartered Bank.

He specifically emphasized that Standard Chartered Bank had no intention of being Lin Haoran’s enemy. The previous “Luxury Hotel Alliance” created with Li Jiacheng, the Kadoorie family, and others, and the actions taken against the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, were all Mr. Brown’s unauthorized actions, decisions made without the approval of Standard Chartered Bank’s Board of Directors.

At the same time, he also stated that Standard Chartered Bank would give its full support to the international cooperation between Standard Chartered and the Hang Seng Group.

Furthermore, regarding the matter of banknote-issuing rights, Standard Chartered would also apply pressure on the Hong Kong Government House to get them to approve the matter as soon as possible.

In short, his attitude was extremely positive, and he shifted all responsibility cleanly away.

In response, Lin Haoran also showed a gentle and satisfied smile.

He nodded slightly and said with a light laugh, “Mr. Tylen is so sincere, I can certainly feel your bank’s goodwill. Mr. Brown’s previous actions did indeed stir up some unnecessary turmoil in Hong Kong’s business circles, which displeased me. Fortunately, your bank has been able to set things right in a timely manner.”

Mr. Tylen quickly interjected, adopting a very humble posture, “Mr. Lin, I am truly sorry. Mr. Brown’s actions seriously violated the business principles and cooperative philosophy that Standard Chartered Bank has always upheld.

Our Board of Directors was extremely furious upon learning of this, which is why we acted swiftly to make adjustments. They sent me here precisely in the hope of repairing our relationship with you, Mr. Lin, and the business forces behind you.”

The two did not talk for long, less than half an hour, before Lin Haoran excused himself, saying he had matters to attend to, and saw his guest out.

After Tylen left, Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin returned to the office.

“Mr. Ma, do you really think, as he said, that Standard Chartered’s headquarters was completely unaware of what happened?” Lin Haoran asked, a smile playing on his lips.

“Absolutely impossible! Even if Brown had tremendous influence here in Hong Kong, Standard Chartered’s headquarters definitely has informants here. It’s impossible for them not to know his every move.

The only reasonable explanation is that they decided to wait and see, hoping Brown could rally other business forces in Hong Kong to take you down, Boss.

If he had succeeded, Standard Chartered could have seized a larger market share. Even if he failed, they could do exactly what they’re doing now: push all the blame onto Brown and get away scot-free,” Ma Shimin said with conviction, his tone firm.

Lin Haoran nodded lightly and said with a smile, “It seems the headquarters of Standard Chartered is full of wily old foxes, playing their cards very well.

However, if they think they can retreat unscathed and still gain benefits from us, they are underestimating me.”

Ma Shimin frowned slightly and asked, “Boss, what should be our next move then? We can’t just let them manipulate us and follow their script.”

The corners of Lin Haoran’s mouth curved up into a confident smile, “Of course not. Since they want to put on a show, we’ll play along. On the surface, we can accept their apology and goodwill. We’ll move forward with the cooperation projects, allowing Hang Seng Group to leverage their channels and resources to accelerate its international expansion.”

A hint of confusion flashed in Ma Shimin’s eyes, “Boss, won’t that be letting them off too easy? What if they try some other tricks later? Wouldn’t we be put on the defensive?”

Lin Haoran stood up, walked to the window, and looked out at the bustling streets of Hong Kong. He said slowly, “Mr. Ma, this is called loosening the reins only to grasp them tighter. We’ll give them a little something sweet first to let them lower their guard.

So, for now, we don’t need to pay any attention to Standard Chartered. Let them think we’ve actually fallen for their nonsense and are at peace with them. Standard Chartered’s crisis hasn’t arrived yet. I have plenty of ways to teach them a lesson later!”

In fact, without Lin Haoran even having to lift a finger, someone would soon cause Standard Chartered to suffer heavy losses.

That person was Chen Songqing.

HSBC was currently hiding a great disaster. Back when the competition between HSBC and the Bank of East Asia was at its fiercest, Chen Songqing had publicly supported HSBC on behalf of the Carrian Group and, in the process, secured a massive loan from them.

This loan amounted to several billion Hong Kong dollars.

The fact that the Carrian Group was still standing today was largely due to these funds.

Once the Carrian Group’s capital chain experienced serious problems, this “time bomb” hidden within HSBC would detonate.

A debt of several billion Hong Kong dollars was about to become a bad debt. For Standard Chartered, with HSBC now as its subsidiary, this would be an absolutely unbearable blow.

In this, Lin Haoran could act as an invisible “igniter.”

Of course, these were all matters for the future and not urgent for now.

For the time being, maintaining a superficial friendliness between him and Standard Chartered was sufficient.

The next step was to wait for the right moment and let Standard Chartered thoroughly enjoy the “wonderful” taste of being plunged into a financial crisis once again.

Aside from Standard Chartered’s “change of command,” the price war between Wellcome supermarket and ParknShop was still ongoing.

Even though Hutchison Whampoa was not in a good position, it was still a Hong Kong tycoon. It wouldn’t buckle in just a few days.

As for Wellcome supermarket, there were no problems at all.

For the Hongkong Land Group, a price war of one month was nothing, let alone one year. It wouldn’t hurt their foundation; it was merely a question of whether it was necessary.

Therefore, for the past three days, the streets and alleys of Hong Kong were still filled with the fiery atmosphere of the price war.

Promotional posters for Wellcome and ParknShop were everywhere, like silent banners in this business war.

Citizens happily shuttled between the two supermarkets, enjoying the shopping feast. The price war between the two supermarket giants seemed to have lowered Hong Kong’s high cost of living.

However, behind this intense struggle between giants, the other supermarkets in Hong Kong were like small boats in a storm, teetering on the brink of collapse and facing an unprecedented crisis of survival.

Although Wellcome and ParknShop were the largest in Hong Kong, as a city with a population of over five million, the market clearly had ample room for others to survive.

Thus, besides Wellcome and ParknShop, supermarkets of all sizes were scattered throughout Hong Kong.

Normally, they survived in the cracks and did quite well for themselves.

But now, this sudden and aggressive price war was like a violent hurricane, instantly shattering their once peaceful lives and dragging them into a massive vortex.

Take Limin Supermarket in Sham Shui Po, for example. On a typical day, it had a stable flow of customers, and the surrounding residents purchased most of their daily necessities there.

The owner, Uncle Chen, was kind and treated his employees like family, creating a very harmonious atmosphere in the supermarket.

But ever since the price war between Wellcome and ParknShop began, Limin Supermarket’s business had plummeted.

Uncle Chen looked at the goods piled high on the shelves, his brows furrowed with worry.

The once-bustling checkout counters were now deserted, with only a few scattered customers.

He sighed helplessly and muttered to himself, “If this price war keeps going, my little supermarket really won’t last much longer.”

When two giants fight, the first to suffer are the small and medium-sized supermarkets like Limin, which are small in scale and have weak risk resistance.

Even those larger supermarkets without a powerful backer like Hutchison Whampoa or Hongkong Land Group were now caught in a difficult dilemma.

Although they offered the same wide variety of products as Wellcome and ParknShop, they lacked the ability to engage in a price war.

Faced with a price war lasting a full month, perhaps the only thing they could do was to give up and let things rot.

Join the price war?

That was a dead end.

Wellcome and ParknShop were backed by tycoons with deep pockets, allowing them to sell at cost or even at a slight loss with the aim of bankrupting their rivals and seizing market share.

They sold cheap to attract crowds, relying on huge sales volumes to maintain cash flow. Moreover, their massive purchasing volumes allowed them to get wholesale prices far below the market rate from suppliers.

Other supermarkets, despite their size, lacked strong capital support. To follow suit would be tantamount to drinking poison to quench thirst; such a suicidal move would likely lead to their demise even faster than doing nothing.

For a time, the supermarket owners of Hong Kong were shrouded in gloom and despair.

However, Wellcome and ParknShop couldn’t care less about the survival of these smaller businesses.

ParknShop, in particular, was already struggling to save itself. To persevere in this life-or-death war of attrition, it had begun to resort to extraordinary measures.

Price wars, especially the money-burning kind between giants, don’t yield results in a short time.

Only when one side can no longer hold on and stops the price war on its own, or when both sides shake hands and make peace, could this price war possibly die down.

However, judging from the current situation, neither Hongkong Land Group behind Wellcome nor Hutchison Whampoa, which owned ParknShop, showed any signs of stopping. Instead, they were getting deeper and deeper into this fierce competition.

To further compress costs, ParknShop began to target its suppliers.

They sent out shrewd procurement teams to search for new suppliers everywhere, attempting to get goods at lower prices.

At the same time, they pressured their existing suppliers, demanding they lower their prices or face reduced order volumes or even termination of cooperation.

This move caused immense suffering for many suppliers.

A price war might seem to benefit ordinary citizens, but it was actually a cruel game with a scope and impact far beyond what most people imagined.

Pressured by ParknShop, the suppliers had to grit their teeth and agree to lower their prices to keep these important orders.

But with their profit margins severely squeezed, their capital chains would also begin to tighten.

To stay afloat, some suppliers would inevitably have to cut employee wages or even lay people off.

In the factories, workers would become anxious, not knowing how long their jobs would last, and the originally harmonious work atmosphere would become oppressive and gloomy.

Of course, these were all future consequences. The price war had only been going on for a few days, so for now, the impact was not yet apparent.

But given enough time, these things were bound to happen.

“Boss, are you ready? We can set off now,” Ma Shimin said after knocking and entering Lin Haoran’s office at the Connaught Centre at three o’clock in the afternoon.

“Alright. In that case, let’s go. The journey will take two or three hours. By the time we get there, it will be evening,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, glancing at his watch and getting up.

Tomorrow at eight o’clock in the morning, the Shekou Industrial Park, owned by Wanqing Group, would officially open.

At that time, Langwei Group, a subsidiary of Hongkong Land Group, would begin producing many fast-moving consumer products in this industrial park.

Lin Haoran had previously promised Mainland China that he would attend the opening ceremony, but eight o’clock was too early. Therefore, Ma Shimin had already discussed with Lin Haoran that they would go a day in advance.

Because of this, he had even packed two sets of clothes when he left home today, having his bodyguard bring a suitcase for him.

“Boss, two or three hours won’t be necessary. About an hour will be enough!” Ma Shimin said with a smile.

“Oh?” Lin Haoran looked at Ma Shimin with curiosity.

He had been to Shenzhen before. The road north was mostly mountainous, and once in Shenzhen, the roads were poor—some were even gravel or dirt paths. On rainy days, it was difficult even for cars. Therefore, getting to Shekou would definitely take more than three hours.

“Boss, we’re not driving this time. We’re taking a hydrofoil. I’ve already applied with the Mainland in advance. Coincidentally, the Shekou Port built by the Mainland has been completed and in use for over three months. This time, we are VIPs, important investors, so we’ve been given a green channel for everything. The Mainland side will arrange for special personnel to receive us at the port.

The hydrofoil is fast, and by traveling over water, we avoid those rugged and difficult mountain roads. We can reach Shekou Port in about an hour,” Ma Shimin explained in detail.

On May 7, 1981, the first phase of the Shekou Port construction was completed and put into use.

So, it had been almost four months now.

Over two years ago, with the support and assistance of the Shenzhen government, Wanqing Group had acquired several plots of land in Luohu, Nanshan, Shekou, and other places.

In particular, next to the Shekou Industrial Park, it had acquired a plot of land of one million square meters.

This plot of land had been developed into a large industrial park, the very one that was scheduled to open tomorrow.

Not only that, because this industrial park was adjacent to Shenzhen Bay, it was even possible to build a large-scale port. In the future, products manufactured in this industrial park could be transported to all parts of the world via this port.

However, this port was not yet completed and was still under construction.

But, although its own port was not yet finished, the first phase of the Shekou Port built by the local government was already complete.

And this Shekou Port was less than a kilometer away from the industrial park acquired by Wanqing Group.

Therefore, in the short term, the industrial park could temporarily use Shekou Port.

Lin Haoran’s eyes lit up, and he smiled, “That’s a great idea. Going by boat is both time-saving and offers a different kind of experience.”

He had been to the Mainland twice, both times by car, and had never considered taking a boat.

As for taking a plane, he hadn’t even thought about it.

He knew about this hydrofoil and had even taken one before. It was a high-speed vessel; for example, the service between Hong Kong and Macau primarily used hydrofoils.

The hull of the hydrofoil had struts equipped with water wings. As the boat’s speed increased, the lift provided by the hydrofoils would raise the hull out of the water, greatly reducing water resistance and increasing speed. It was extremely fast, almost like flying over the water.

Its main advantage was its ability to navigate in relatively rough seas with less bumping of the hull.

“Yes, I’ve already had someone check today’s tides and sea conditions. They are perfect for sailing. I guarantee a smooth and steady journey all the way, so no one will get seasick,” Ma Shimin added.

After hearing this, Lin Haoran nodded with satisfaction, “Mr. Ma, you’ve certainly thought of everything. Taking a hydrofoil is indeed much more convenient and saves us the trouble of a bumpy land journey. Let’s proceed as you’ve arranged. We’ll depart immediately.”

Before long, the group arrived at the Central Ferry Piers.

At that moment, at a berth in the Central Ferry Piers, a hydrofoil capable of carrying over a hundred people was docked quietly by the pier.

Lin Haoran, Ma Shimin, Burton, and other tycoons who wielded great power and influence in Hong Kong’s business world had all arrived.

Besides them, there were also many senior executives and mid-level management from both Hongkong Land Group and Wanqing Group.

In addition to Lin Haoran and his twelve bodyguards, more than thirty people from the two groups had come, making for a considerable contingent.

Lin Haoran stood on the second deck of the hydrofoil, watching the sparkling blue waves of Victoria Harbour, with the silhouette of the Kowloon Peninsula clear on the opposite shore.

Today was an auspicious date, a fine, crisp autumn day.

A gentle sea breeze blew across Victoria Harbour, dispelling the stuffiness of the afternoon and bringing a touch of coolness.

Lin Haoran took a deep breath of the slightly salty sea air, his gaze crossing the shimmering surface of the sea as if he could see Shekou in Shenzhen, dozens of kilometers away.

He often came to the Central Ferry Piers, but in the past, it was mainly to go out to sea on a luxury yacht to relax.

“Wooo—”

The ship’s horn blew, long and resonant, signaling the start of the journey.

The hydrofoil slowly pulled away from the Central Ferry Piers and then rapidly accelerated.

Accompanied by the roar of the engines, the hull steadily rose on its hydrofoils, cutting through the azure sea like a graceful and swift seabird, speeding towards Shenzhen Bay to the northwest.

Inside the cabin, Lin Haoran, Ma Shimin, Burton, and the others sat in comfortable seats.

An assistant served tea and refreshments. Lin Haoran picked up his teacup and took a light sip, then said to Ma Shimin, “The opening of the Shekou Industrial Park this time is of great significance. Mr. Ma, what is the situation with the list of the first batch of companies moving in and their production capacity plans?”

Ma Shimin immediately took a document from his briefcase and reported, “Boss, the first batch of confirmed enterprises numbers eighteen, all of them are FMCG companies acquired by Langwei Group. They mainly focus on beverages, packaged foods, grains and oils, personal care products, and household goods, including Heineken beer, Red Bull, Vitasoy, Lee Kum Kee, Snickers, and so on.

Once they are fully operational, they are expected to provide over thirty thousand jobs, with an estimated annual export value of around 300 million US dollars. And this is just the first phase. There will be second and third phases, which will collectively provide over one hundred thousand jobs.”

Lin Haoran took the file and read it carefully.

The products listed on it included famous brands from his previous life, as well as some well-known Hong Kong brands of this era.

After a long while, he silently closed the file and handed it back to Ma Shimin.

In the future, under the operation of Langwei Group, these brands would go from the fertile ground of Shekou to the rest of the world.

Burton, who was beside them, also smiled and said, “Boss, in your opinion, which fields would be good for our Wanqing Group to develop in, in terms of the manufacturing industry?”

Wanqing Group’s manufacturing was dominated by Green Island Cement, which produced cement, and a number of building material companies it had subsequently acquired, such as stone factories, steel mills, glass factories, aluminum plants, paint factories, coating factories, and tile factories.

These were all developed later by Wanqing Group to create a building materials industry chain based on Green Island Cement, forming a synergistic effect.

However, currently, Green Island Cement Company still had the highest revenue and profit. It was extremely difficult for the other industries to catch up to Green Island Cement, which, after all, had become an extremely famous brand.

And on Lin Haoran’s advice, all of Wanqing Group’s subsequent acquisitions were operated and promoted under the Green Island Cement brand, leveraging its fame and reputation to quickly open up the market.

However, the building materials sector ultimately had its ceiling and was greatly affected by the macroeconomic and real estate cycles.

Moreover, seeing the industrial park they had built themselves with no good projects of their own to place there for production, only being able to lease it out to a subsidiary of Hongkong Land Group, made Burton feel it was a pity.

Chapter 722: Be the First to Eat the Crab; Gilding the Lily is Far Less Valued Than a Godsend!

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran couldn’t help but ponder.

Among the manufacturing businesses under his umbrella, besides the Langwei Group under Hongkong Land Group, which primarily focused on producing FMCG brands, there were also the construction materials of Wanqing Group and the home appliance brand Fortress Electrical Company under Hongkong Electric Group.

At present, that was basically all there was.

Hongkong Land’s Hongkong Telephone Company had managed to enter the mobile phone equipment manufacturing sector through its collaboration with Motorola.

However, the key technologies were currently in Motorola’s hands; Hongkong Telephone Company was mostly responsible for assembly and marketing.

There was no need for his own companies to compete with each other.

Therefore, the FMCG and home appliance sectors could be ruled out.

Lin Haoran crossed his legs, his gaze sweeping over the rapidly passing seascape outside the porthole. After a moment of contemplation, he spoke, “Wanqing does indeed need a new engine for growth, but it cannot be at the expense of internal friction between our sister companies.

“Langwei has FMCG, Fortress has home appliances, and Hong Kong Telephone has mobile communications. These are the core businesses of Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group. We, Wanqing Group, must carve out our own unique and more strategically significant track.

“I believe the future of Wanqing’s manufacturing should focus on two directions: first, high-end, green new building materials; second, precision manufacturing and industrial base components.”

“High-end, green new building materials?” Burton repeated thoughtfully.

“That’s right.” Lin Haoran nodded with certainty. “This is a natural extension of our existing advantages, but we need to go deeper and refine it. We can’t be content with producing ordinary cement and tiles. We need to develop and produce special building materials with high added value.”

He elaborated, “For example, high-performance marine engineering cement for major projects like ports and cross-sea bridges; energy-saving and environmentally friendly building insulation materials and thermal glass; and even new composite materials for future smart buildings.

“Infrastructure construction in Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, Japan, and other places is taking off, and the performance and environmental requirements for building materials will only get higher. We need to be the ‘technology benchmark’ and ‘solution provider’ in the building materials sector, not just a simple material supplier.

“This will not only increase profits but also solidify the high-end image and technological leadership of our ‘Green Island Cement’ brand.”

Ma Shimin, who was sitting nearby, nodded in agreement. “Boss, that’s an excellent line of thinking. It leverages Wanqing’s core strengths and focuses on upgrading, rather than starting fresh. Mr. Burton, this is a direction you could certainly devote more thought to.”

“Then what about the second direction, precision manufacturing and industrial base components?” Burton pressed, his curiosity piqued by this relatively unfamiliar field.

Lin Haoran smiled faintly and continued, “This second direction requires a much longer-term vision, a leap out of our current comfort zone. Precision manufacturing and industrial base components may not sound as glamorous as consumer goods, but they are the ‘skeleton’ and ‘nerves’ of the industrial system.

“Hong Kong, and indeed all of East Asia, is becoming the world’s manufacturing center. However, many critical core components—from something as small as a high-performance bearing or a precision mold, to something as large as the core parts of a CNC machine tool or precision transmission devices on an automated production line—are heavily dependent on imports from Japan and Germany. This is not only expensive, but it also leaves our supply chain vulnerable to being choked off.”

The Hong Kong of today was nothing like the Hong Kong of several decades later.

In this era, industry was a core component of Hong Kong’s economy. According to data released by the Hong Kong government last year, in 1980, manufacturing accounted for 23.8% of Hong Kong’s local GDP, ranking first among all sectors of its economy!

Take the electronics industry, for example. Last year, Hong Kong had as many as 1,316 electronics factories, with an export value of 13.417 billion Hong Kong dollars.

Furthermore, the output value of the garment industry surpassed even that of the electronics factories.

In Hong Kong’s manufacturing system last year, aside from the two core industries of electronics and garments, the four other pillars of manufacturing were plastics, watches and clocks, toys, and textiles (related to but distinct from the garment industry).

Together, they formed the core backbone of Hong Kong’s “export-oriented industry,” making significant contributions to the city’s economic growth, employment, and export trade.

But in reality, most of these manufacturing sectors were labor-intensive industries with little high-tech content, their core technologies and key components controlled by others.

“Most of our electronics factories are doing assembly; the chips come from Japan and the United States. Our watch movements rely on Switzerland or Japan. The precision molds for the toy and plastics industries also need to be imported.

“It’s like a person with well-developed muscles, but whose heart and brain—the core technologies—are supplied by others. Ultimately, they can never be truly strong, let alone control their own destiny.”

“You mean, we should enter this field and fill the void?” Burton’s eyes lit up. He smelled a massive business opportunity and strategic value.

“Exactly!” Lin Haoran declared decisively. “This will require enormous investment and long-term patience, but if we succeed, we will command an irreplaceable influence. We can start by collaborating with our sister companies, like Fortress Electrical Company and Langwei Group, and gradually expand outward.

“Hong Kong has ample talent resources. Even if we lack the specific core talent, we can poach them from Japan, the United States, and elsewhere. It is the perfect place for us to establish an R&D center.

“And the entire Pearl River Delta has abundant general labor and cheap land, making it the best place for us to set up factories. Our goal is not low-end assembly, but high-precision manufacturing where we truly master the core technology.”

He painted a blueprint: “Imagine, in the future, Wanqing Group will not only provide the top-grade cement to build skyscrapers but also the precision guide rails for the elevators inside, the high-efficiency compressor cores for the air conditioning systems, and even key components for automobiles. That is the true stature a manufacturing magnate should have.”

Ma Shimin couldn’t help but praise him, “Boss, your vision is always so ahead of its time. These two directions complement each other perfectly: one deepens our foundation, and the other blazes a path to the future. If we succeed, Wanqing Group will not just be a building materials tycoon in Hong Kong, but an important player in the industrial sector of Asia and even the world.”

Burton’s heart surged. The trace of regret he’d felt earlier was swept away, replaced by a clear strategic objective and a strong sense of mission.

He said excitedly, “I understand, Boss! When I get back, I’ll immediately organize a team to conduct detailed market research and feasibility analysis and formulate a comprehensive entry plan!”

“I can offer some help with that. You can look for small and medium-sized precision manufacturing companies or laboratories in Europe, America, or Japan that are technologically advanced but undervalued by their local governments or facing financial difficulties.

“When the time comes, I can have Universal Investment Company acquire them directly. We can use capital to buy time, quickly ‘grafting’ advanced technology, patents, and even mature technical teams onto our own.

“This is the fastest way to shore up our technological shortcomings and enter the track from a high starting point,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Starting from scratch was too slow and unnecessary.

However, for top-tier giants in precision instruments like Edmund Optics, Taylor Hobson, and Kuroda Seiko, or top chip companies like Texas Instruments and Intel, Lin Haoran could be a shareholder, but if he tried to acquire them, the local governments would never give him the chance.

This was a very real problem.

The group chatted all the way, completely engrossed in this grand and detailed strategic plan, paying little attention to the islands whizzing by the hydrofoil’s window or the gradually emerging silhouette of Shekou in the distance.

“Boss, your strategy is extremely precise,” Ma Shimin said thoughtfully. “Besides acquisitions, we could also consider forming joint ventures with these small and medium-sized Western enterprises that possess core technologies. We would hold a controlling stake and locate the main production and subsequent R&D bases in Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

“This would help us avoid some political sensitivities while substantively transferring technology, talent, and production lines. We can offer them the market channels and capital they urgently need, and they can provide the technology and know-how. It’s a win-win.”

“That’s a great idea; we can pursue it concurrently,” Lin Haoran said with approval. “Joint ventures, acquisitions, technology cooperation, talent recruitment—we should use a multi-pronged approach. Mr. Burton, your team needs to have an international perspective and, more importantly, be willing to humble yourselves, to actively reach out and negotiate.

“Don’t be afraid of difficulties. Any problem that can be solved with money and technology is not a fundamental problem.”

Right now, the one thing they didn’t lack was money!

Burton nodded gravely, firmly committing Ma Shimin’s suggestion to memory.

He felt as if a door to a new world had been opened for him. His thinking, previously confined to Hong Kong’s building materials market, real estate industry, and bus services, had been completely overturned. Before him now lay the magnificent stage of a global technological contest.

Just then, the hydrofoil’s speed decreased noticeably, and the roar of its engines subsided to a low hum.

Looking through the porthole, the outline of the Shekou Ferry Terminal was already clearly visible.

The brand-new terminal facilities, the fluttering flags, and the welcoming crowd faintly visible on the pier indicated that they had arrived at their destination.

Lin Haoran walked to the side of the vessel and looked toward the pier.

In his previous life, he had worked in Shenzhen for many years and was extremely familiar with the city.

The Shenzhen of that time was a top-tier global city, with skyscrapers filling the skyline and streets bustling with life.

But now, the Shenzhen of 1981 was just a newly awakened land.

As far as the eye could see, there were no skyscrapers, no endless streams of traffic. Instead, there were low-rise factory buildings, busy construction sites, and lush green fields in the distance.

The air was filled with the scent of earth, the salty tang of the sea breeze, and an indescribable, vibrant enthusiasm for construction.

This stark contrast in time and space evoked a peculiar sense of emotion in Lin Haoran.

He was witnessing the starting point of a great era of change, and he was standing right at that beginning, about to participate in and even influence its course to a certain extent.

The Shekou port was rather simple in its construction. There wasn’t even a single large ship, leaving it looking empty.

Lin Haoran composed himself, straightened his clothes, and with a calm, confident smile back on his face, was the first to step off the boat.

Ma Shimin, Burton, and the others followed closely behind.

On the pier, a welcoming delegation led by the secretary-general of the Shenzhen municipal government immediately rushed forward enthusiastically.

They shook hands and exchanged pleasantries in a warm and friendly atmosphere.

“Mr. Lin, it’s been a long journey! On behalf of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee and Government, I extend a warm welcome to you and all the entrepreneurs for your guidance!” The secretary-general grasped Lin Haoran’s hand and shook it firmly, his tone sincere and passionate.

He knew that the young Hong Kong tycoon before him was, without a doubt, the businessman who had invested the most and with the most substantial projects in Shenzhen in recent years!

He was a true “God of Wealth” and a “man of action.”

It was only 1981, and the Reform and Opening-up was still in its earliest stages.

Although Lin Haoran’s actions had prompted many Hong Kong business tycoons to invest in the Pearl River Delta earlier than in his previous life’s timeline, their investments were still cautious. They were afraid their capital would go down the drain.

So, it was no exaggeration to say that Lin Haoran was the largest foreign investor in Shenzhen, and indeed, in all of Mainland China.

Moreover, last year they had sought his help. The Pearl River Delta had just begun its reform and opening, and there was a great need for manufacturing industries.

To their surprise, Lin Haoran not only agreed straightforwardly but also pushed for the establishment of the “Wanqing-Shekou Manufacturing Industrial Park” with astonishing speed and boldness, bringing in eighteen well-known FMCG brands from Langwei Group. This directly created tens of thousands of jobs and was projected to generate hundreds of millions of US dollars in export value.

For the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in its initial stage, this was undoubtedly a godsend of extraordinary significance.

“You’re too kind, Secretary-General. We are the ones imposing. Seeing the daily changes in Shekou, especially this brand-new pier, we feel very excited and full of anticipation. The high efficiency and pragmatic style of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone have left a deep impression on us investors and filled us with confidence for our future cooperation,” Lin Haoran responded with a smile. His demeanor was proper, and his presence was remarkable.

Yang Mingyi, the head of Wanqing Group’s Mainland China operations, had also arrived with his company’s staff.

This former general manager of Wan’an Group had been dispatched to the Mainland by Lin Haoran after he merged Wan’an Group with Green Island Cement Company to form Wanqing Group. More than two years had passed since then.

In these two-plus years, Yang Mingyi had not let his boss down. Lin Haoran had watched Wanqing Group’s strategic deployment in the Mainland and was very satisfied.

Although it had been a long time since he had seen Yang Mingyi, seeing the loyalty value of a full 93.X above his head, what more could he worry about?

After the simple welcoming ceremony, the group boarded the waiting motorcade.

Instead of heading directly to the hotel, the motorcade, accompanied by the secretary-general, first took a tour of the Shekou Industrial Zone, which was under construction.

This was not the industrial park belonging to Wanqing Group but one established by the Shenzhen government itself.

The Wanqing Group’s own Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park was adjacent to this one.

Through the car windows, Burton and Ma Shimin got a more direct look at the true face of this fervent land:

The wide “avenues” were, in reality, just laid with a basic roadbed, but their scale was already apparent.

On vast tracts of leveled land, factory buildings were rising from the ground.

Everywhere, billboards displayed slogans characteristic of the era, such as “Time is money, efficiency is life.”

Workers on bicycles weaved through the area, their faces beaming with energy and motivation.

Everything was filled with a coarse yet vigorous vitality.

“Secretary-General, we will make our own arrangements for tonight. There’s no need for you to go to any further trouble to host us. Your arrangements have been very thoughtful, and we are very grateful. We’ll see you tomorrow at the opening ceremony.” After touring with the government’s reception team for about an hour, Lin Haoran saw that it was getting close to evening and suggested that they return.

Wanqing Group had been operating in Shenzhen for over two years. Matters like hotels, catering, transportation, and offices were already part of its self-contained system, so there was no need for the local government to arrange every little detail.

Seeing Lin Haoran’s firm attitude and the hint of fatigue on his face, the secretary-general did not insist.

His superiors had instructed him that this was their God of Wealth; he must be well looked after, and his needs met as much as possible, so as not to leave a bad impression.

So he quickly smiled and said, “Of course, of course. Mr. Lin and all the gentlemen have had a long journey and certainly need a good rest. We won’t disturb you any further. The hotel has been arranged. If you need anything at all, please feel free to contact the comrades at the reception desk. They are on duty 24 hours a day.

“We wish you all a good rest tonight, and we’ll see you at the ceremony tomorrow!”

After another friendly handshake, the reception personnel from Shenzhen departed.

Only then did Lin Haoran turn to Yang Mingyi and say, “General Manager Yang, take us to see the park.”

“Yes, Boss. Everyone, this way, please. The cars are ready,” Yang Mingyi immediately replied, gesturing for them to follow.

He had clearly anticipated that the Boss might want to see his own “turf” first.

The group boarded the vehicles prepared by Wanqing Group’s Mainland company and headed towards the nearby “Wanqing-Shekou Manufacturing Industrial Park.”

A few minutes later, the motorcade entered the park.

Compared to the “feverish activity” of the larger industrial zone outside, Wanqing’s own park appeared more orderly and quiet, but one could still feel a sense of power waiting to be unleashed.

The main structures of the first phase—standard factory buildings, warehouses, office buildings, and employee dormitories—were all complete. The park’s roads were paved, and landscaping was being done concurrently.

Lights shone from within some of the factory buildings, indicating that workers were making the final preparations for equipment installation and commissioning.

“Boss, this first phase occupies about one-third of the entire park and houses the factories for Langwei Group’s FMCG brands. The production lines for 18 companies, including Red Bull, Heineken beer, and Lee Kum Kee, are undergoing final commissioning. They can officially start production after tomorrow’s ceremony.

“The second and third phases are already under construction. The second phase is expected to be completed in November of this year, and the third phase in February of next year,” Yang Mingyi explained proficiently on the side, knowing the details like the back of his hand.

Lin Haoran walked and observed, nodding from time to time.

He was satisfied with the progress and quality of the construction.

The last time he came, this place was still an empty plot of land.

Now, in just two short years, a modern industrial park had risen from the ground. It was a miracle of time and efficiency.

“How are employee recruitment and training going?” Lin Haoran asked. This was a matter of great concern to him.

Even the best factories and equipment needed people to operate and manage them.

Especially since production was set to officially begin here tomorrow.

Successful production here would also significantly reduce Langwei Group’s costs, which in turn would create larger profit margins for his sales channels like 7-Eleven convenience stores and Wellcome supermarkets.

The person who answered Lin Haoran was a senior executive from Hongkong Land Group, who was now responsible for the establishment of its subsidiary, Langwei Group, in the Mainland.

“Local recruitment has been very smooth. The labor force is plentiful and highly motivated. With the government’s assistance, it took very little time. Most of the general positions have completed training. The management and key technical personnel were primarily dispatched from Hong Kong.

“At the same time, we have recruited a number of promising young people from relevant Mainland institutions and state-owned enterprises for training. This was a government requirement, and we have done our best to meet it.

“As for living facilities, the canteen, dormitories, infirmary, and a small shop are already in use and can basically meet the current needs.”

“Very good,” Lin Haoran said with praise. “We must ensure the basic welfare of our employees so they can work with peace of mind. Our investment is not just about building factories and buying equipment; it’s more importantly about the people.

“By the way, security must also be in place. In the future, this will be a large-scale industrial park with tens of thousands, or even more than a hundred thousand people. There can be no negligence whatsoever when it comes to security!”

“Rest assured, Boss. The security team is led by core personnel we brought over from Hong Kong. The system is strict, with 24-hour patrols to ensure everything is foolproof. In addition, the Shenzhen authorities will station a police post next to the park to fully guarantee the safety and order of the area,” Yang Mingyi added, clearly having made arrangements for this long ago.

Night gradually fell, and the streetlights in the park lit up one by one, outlining the silhouettes of the factories and roads.

In the distance, the sound of pile driving from the phase two construction site had ceased, but one could still feel the surging tide of construction beneath that land.

Lin Haoran stood in an open space in the center of the park, surveying the nascent modern industrial complex. He said to Burton, Ma Shimin, and Yang Mingyi, who were standing beside him, “This is the starting point of our Mainland strategy. Right now, many business tycoons in Hong Kong are still skeptical and on the sidelines about investing in the Pearl River Delta, afraid of policy changes and that their capital will go down the drain.”

His voice sounded particularly steady in the twilight as he continued, “But we will be the first to eat the crab. And we will do it beautifully, setting an example for others!”

Lin Haoran had never worried about his investments in the Mainland.

Investing at this time might seem very risky, but only Lin Haoran knew that it was incredibly safe.

Ma Shimin, Burton, Yang Mingyi, and the others nodded gravely.

In the past, when deciding to invest in the Mainland, Lin Haoran had discussed its prospects with them.

Therefore, they also deeply understood the more profound strategic intent behind their boss’s actions.

Once they succeeded, the position of companies under Lin Haoran, such as Wanqing Group, Hongkong Land Group, and Hongkong Electric Group, in the Mainland would be unparalleled. All subsequent plans would receive an unimaginable level of convenience and support.

After all, in many cases, gilding the lily is truly far less valued than a godsend!

Now was the best time to be that godsend.

The Mainland’s Reform and Opening-up had just begun. All industries were waiting to be developed. What was needed most were tangible investments like those from Hongkong Land, Wanqing Group, and Hongkong Electric Group—projects that could bring jobs and tax revenue, not empty promises and a wait-and-see attitude.

To invest huge sums at this time, to build an industrial park of this scale, and to solve the employment of tens of thousands of people, would bring not only economic benefits but also powerful support and a vote of confidence in the Mainland’s Reform and Opening-up policy.

Chapter 723: The Mainland’s High Regard!

Hong Kong tycoons like Pao Yue-kong had also invested in Mainland China, but their contributions were mostly in the form of donations.

Their actual industrial investments were mainly limited to hotels, restaurants, and the like.

What the Mainland truly needed wasn’t any of that. They needed industry to drive the country’s development.

However, foreign investments of a significant scale were exceedingly rare; you could count them on one hand.

For example, in 1978, Cao Guangbiao, the boss of the Yongxin Group and a magnate in Hong Kong’s textile industry, became the first Hong Kong businessman to invest in the Mainland after the Reform and Opening-up. He invested in Zhucheng, next to Macau, to establish the Mainland’s first “processing and compensation trade” enterprise—the Zhucheng Xiangzhou Woolen Mill, which primarily engaged in processing supplied materials, manufacturing according to supplied samples, assembling supplied parts, and compensation trade.

In 1978, the Tang family established their first Mainland textile factory in Huangbeiling, near Luohu in Shenzhen. In 1979, they chose Zhuzhou for their second factory, taking advantage of the local high-quality wool and cashmere resources.

By 1979, another Hong Kong businessman had invested five million Hong Kong dollars to set up Beijing Air Catering Co., Ltd. in Beijing, which became the first Sino-foreign joint venture in the Mainland after the Reform and Opening-up.

Aside from Lin Haoran’s extensive ventures across the Mainland in the past two years, these were pretty much the main investments made by Hong Kong businessmen.

This showed that even in 1981, Hong Kong’s business tycoons still maintained a very cautious attitude toward investing in the Mainland.

Their primary concern was that they would lose their entire investment.

Therefore, even when they did invest, it was only in small amounts. A few million, or perhaps ten million Hong Kong dollars, was already considered a staggering investment.

It was nothing like Lin Haoran, who directed his subsidiaries like Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and Wanqing Group to invest on scales of over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars, buying up land for development everywhere!

To many of Hong Kong’s business tycoons, this was absolutely incredible.

Night fell, and the streetlights within the industrial park mingled with the light shining from the factory windows, sketching out a vibrant industrial vista.

Security guards in the standard uniforms of the Universe Security Company patrolled at regular intervals, ensuring the safety of the industrial park.

Lin Haoran even noticed the presence of closed-circuit surveillance in the factory buildings.

He took a deep breath of the air, which carried the scent of the sea and the fragrance of the earth, feeling a bit emotional.

The Mainland in the 1980s was truly a golden age, full of infinite possibilities yet fraught with hidden challenges.

“Boss, the banquet has been arranged. It’s in the dining hall of the park’s own guesthouse. We’ve specially prepared authentic Cantonese cuisine and some local specialties. A few master chefs from Guangzhou are in the kitchen, and all the ingredients are the freshest from today,” Yang Mingyi reported the arrangements in a timely manner.

Lin Haoran nodded. “Good, let’s go have a taste. It will also give Mr. Burton and Mr. Ma Shimin a feel for the local life in the Mainland.”

The guesthouse dining hall had been carefully decorated. It wasn’t luxurious, but it was clean and spacious.

The dishes were served quickly: white-cut chicken, steamed sea fish, braised pork, seasonal vegetables, and a large pot of slow-boiled soup. The fragrant aroma filled the air, exuding a sense of homely warmth and substance.

Although it wasn’t a feast of exotic delicacies, Lin Haoran was very satisfied.

At the table, the atmosphere became much more relaxed.

While eating, Lin Haoran asked Yang Mingyi for more details about the Mainland operations.

“Mingyi, you’ve worked hard these past two years. The situation in the Mainland is unique, and many things have to be figured out as we go. What has been the biggest difficulty you’ve encountered?” Lin Haoran asked with concern.

Yang Mingyi put down his chopsticks and answered seriously, “Thank you for your concern, Boss. The biggest difficulty isn’t the hardware, but the software. On one hand, there are differences in the systems and ways of thinking between the two places, so communication and coordination require a great deal of effort.

On the other hand, it’s talent. Middle managers who understand both technology and management, and who can also grasp our operational model, are extremely scarce. We are currently using a mentoring system, bringing a team over from Hong Kong and then selecting promising local candidates for intensive training, but this takes time.”

“This is an inevitable process,” Lin Haoran said with understanding. “Talent cultivation is a long-term plan, and we must be willing to invest in it. You can consider establishing collaborations with some of the Mainland’s science and engineering universities, setting up scholarships to cultivate the technical talent and management trainees we need. We must take a long-term view. The future market and development potential of the Mainland are beyond imagination.”

Although Mainland university students might initially have a limited perspective due to their environment, the population base was enormous. There was certainly no shortage of talented individuals; they just hadn’t been discovered yet.

“You’re right, Boss,” Yang Mingyi agreed deeply. “We’ve already made initial contact with the technical secondary schools in Guangzhou, and the next step is to talk to some of the universities there. If nothing else, of the thirty thousand employees initially hired by Langwei Group, a subsidiary of Hongkong Land Group, at least a thousand are graduates from universities in Guangdong Province. Another third were sent from various technical secondary schools across Guangdong, and another third are junior high graduates from the Pearl River Delta area. The rest are, at the very least, previous junior high graduates.”

“Very good,” Lin Haoran said with approval. This indicated that the quality of Langwei Group’s grassroots employees was high; they were not illiterates who couldn’t recognize a single word.

In this era, students from technical secondary schools were actually considered highly educated in the Mainland.

Graduates from these schools could easily find stable jobs in many fields such as agriculture, forestry, water conservancy, commerce, finance, health, and education, and they even enjoyed the benefit of guaranteed job placement.

Such treatment earned them great respect and high status in society at the time.

After all, it had only been four years since the college entrance examination was reinstated.

During the ten years when the examination was suspended, university admissions were mainly based on a recommendation system, not a unified exam to select talent.

In that special period, the children of officials often had an easier time securing precious admission opportunities due to their family background and connections.

As a result, many talented individuals were overlooked by this unfair selection mechanism, missing the chance to receive higher education, improve themselves, and contribute to society.

But as a pioneer willing to be the first to test the waters, Lin Haoran’s companies were fortunate enough to absorb the first batch of undergraduate university graduates after the college entrance examination was reinstated, injecting powerful intellectual support into their development.

He then turned to Burton. “Mr. Burton, as you can see, this is a fertile land waiting to be cultivated, and the local government is very supportive of us. For Wanqing Group’s future plans to enter precision manufacturing and industrial base components, Shenzhen can absolutely become the core production and R&D base. Mr. Burton, your research team must fully consider factors like the Mainland’s industrial support, talent pool, and policy direction.”

“Understood, Boss. The completion of this industrial park alone shows that the vitality and efficiency here are astonishing. The quality and learning ability of the workforce are also higher than I imagined. I will assemble a team of technical, marketing, and financial experts as soon as possible to conduct in-depth research. I’ll pay special attention to the acquisition and joint venture targets you mentioned, prioritizing companies whose technology can complement the Mainland’s market demands and industrial chain.”

The night grew late, and Lin Haoran ultimately chose to stay at the hotel arranged by the local government.

Outside the hotel, a small troop of soldiers was even stationed.

This showed just how much importance the Mainland authorities attached to the arrival of Lin Haoran and his group.

The night passed quickly.

At seven o’clock, Lin Haoran was awakened on time by his alarm clock.

Since the opening ceremony for the industrial park was at eight in the morning, he couldn’t afford to sleep in.

If he accidentally overslept, it would be quite embarrassing.

After getting up and freshening up, Lin Haoran walked to the window, feeling refreshed.

The guest hotel was near the Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park, about two kilometers away. It was an eight-story building, which was considered a high-rise in the area.

Lin Haoran was staying on the fifth floor.

Shenzhen in this era was indeed full of vitality.

Outside the window, the first light of dawn was breaking, and the silhouette of the industrial park in the distance was faintly visible through the thin mist.

Lin Haoran took a deep breath of the cool morning air, feeling invigorated.

He noticed that on the main road below the hotel, many early risers were already hurrying on their way, either on bicycles or on foot. Most were dressed in work clothes and heading in the direction of the industrial park.

From their energetic faces, he could tell that most of them were young people, likely between sixteen and their early twenties.

“It’s great to be young!” Lin Haoran mused with a sigh.

Little did he know, he himself was only in his twenties.

After tidying up his attire, he opened the door and saw Yang Mingyi outside.

“Boss, you’re awake,” Yang Mingyi’s voice came from behind. He had been waiting in the hallway for some time. “Breakfast is ready, and the cars are on standby downstairs. The officials from Shenzhen might arrive at the park a little early, so it’s best we also head over soon to make final preparations.”

“Alright, I’ll be right down,” Lin Haoran said with a smiling nod.

After a simple breakfast, the convoy headed towards the industrial park.

The closer they got to the park, the more pedestrians and cyclists there were on the road. Many were workers heading to the early shift, their faces filled with anticipation and hope for their new jobs.

At the park’s main gate, colorful flags fluttered, and a red banner with the words “Warmly Celebrate the Official Commissioning of Wanqing-Shekou Manufacturing Industrial Park Phase One” was particularly eye-catching.

By around seven-thirty, the park was already bustling with people.

Invited guests, media reporters, and representatives from all sides were arriving one after another.

Lin Haoran immediately spotted vehicles with the CCTV logo, as well as the interview van from Guangdong Provincial Television.

The workers, dressed in brand-new uniforms, were lined up neatly under the direction of their factory managers and team leaders, their spirits high.

At seven-fifty, the motorcade carrying the main provincial and municipal leaders arrived. Lin Haoran, along with Yang Mingyi, Burton, Ma Shimin, and other senior executives, personally went to the entrance to greet them.

They shook hands warmly and exchanged pleasantries in a lively atmosphere.

At eight o’clock sharp, the opening ceremony officially began.

The stage was set up in the central plaza of the park, with a huge backdrop displaying the park’s master plan and the Wanqing Group logo. Also on display were the logos of the eighteen FMCG brands under the Langwei Group that were about to start production.

The ceremony was hosted by a Vice Mayor of Shenzhen City.

First, a high-ranking official from the province gave a speech.

He highly praised Mr. Lin Haoran’s foresight and patriotic sentiments, calling the industrial park “a milestone in the process of Reform and Opening-up” and “a model of cooperation and mutual benefit between Guangdong and Hong Kong.” He also stated that the government would continue to provide the best services and policy support, looking forward to Wanqing Group and Hongkong Land Group bringing more and better projects.

Next, Lin Haoran took the stage as the representative of the investor.

“Honorable leaders, distinguished guests, colleagues, and friends from the media: Good morning, everyone!”

“Today, we are gathered here to witness the official commissioning of the Wanqing-Shekou Manufacturing Industrial Park’s phase one project. At this moment, I am incredibly excited!”

“Although I am from Hong Kong, I constantly remind myself that I am, first and foremost, a Chinese person. My roots, my blood, all come from this great land. When I saw the Mainland implementing the Reform and Opening-up, I was immensely inspired, knowing that this is a major opportunity for national rejuvenation and a shared responsibility for all Descendants of Yan and Huang Emperors.”

Lin Haoran’s voice, clear and powerful, carried across the plaza through the microphone: “Many people ask me why I dare to invest such enormous sums of money in the Mainland. My answer is simple: because I believe in the future here, I believe in the people here, and I believe even more in the government’s firm resolve to carry out the Reform and Opening-up!

What we bring is not just capital and equipment, but also advanced technology, management experience, and channels to international markets. What we want to do is to help ‘Made in China’ go global, to help invigorate the Mainland’s economy, and to let the world see China’s quality and strength!”

The audience erupted in thunderous applause. The workers’ eyes shone with pride.

They already knew that this boss was the wealthiest boss in all of Hong Kong.

Following him would surely lead to a great future!

That was why everyone had rushed to sign up during the selection process; those who passed all had their own special skills.

“This industrial park is just the beginning,” Lin Haoran continued. “We have already planned phase two and phase three. In fact, more industrial parks are currently under construction in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Guangzhou, Zhucheng, and Chancheng. In the future, we will introduce more high-tech industries. At the same time, we will establish a special education fund to collaborate with Mainland universities to cultivate professional and technical talent, allowing our young people to learn world-class manufacturing technology without having to go abroad!”

Applause surged like a tide once more, lasting for a long time.

CCTV’s cameras keenly captured close-ups of the excited and proud expressions on the workers’ faces, as well as the approving nods of the leaders.

Through CCTV’s lens, Lin Haoran’s speech, filled with patriotic sentiment yet pragmatic and forward-looking, clearly delivered the image of this young Hong Kong tycoon to thousands of households for the first time.

“Here, I would also like to make a special announcement,” Lin Haoran paused slightly, waiting for the applause to subside before dropping a bombshell. “My company, Hongkong Land Group, will take the lead by donating one hundred million Hong Kong dollars to establish the ‘Hongkong Land Education Fund,’ specifically to sponsor outstanding students from underprivileged families in Mainland universities to pursue degrees in science and engineering, and to jointly cultivate them with enterprises, building a reserve of future engineers and scientists for the nation’s industrialization process!”

This proclamation shook the entire audience!

One hundred million Hong Kong dollars!

In an era when a “ten-thousand-yuan household” was considered extremely rare, this was undoubtedly an astronomical figure, a weighty and stunning commitment.

This not only demonstrated Lin Haoran’s immense financial power but also highlighted his profound vision of investing in the future and cultivating talent.

The provincial leader excitedly led a standing ovation, and everyone in the audience spontaneously rose to their feet. Applause and exclamations of admiration merged into one.

The CCTV reporter quickly got a close-up of this shocking announcement; it was definitely blockbuster material for tonight’s Xinwen Lianbo.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony proceeded in an extremely enthusiastic and grand atmosphere.

The moment Lin Haoran and the leaders jointly cut the red silk ribbon, cannons fired, colorful ribbons flew, and the entire park erupted in celebration.

After the ribbon-cutting, Lin Haoran and the various leaders sat on the prime viewing stand to witness the historic moment of the production lines officially starting up.

As Lin Haoran and the provincial leader jointly pressed the symbolic start button, the machinery in all eighteen factories in the park roared to life simultaneously!

The tremendous roar was like the bugle call of an era, heralding the beginning of a new age of manufacturing.

Assembly lines began to move, robotic arms operated with precision, and workers took their positions, fully focused on production.

The cameras of CCTV and Guangdong Provincial Television swiftly captured this thrilling scene, broadcasting the image of modern production to the entire nation.

At that moment, the leaders present were extremely moved.

Although the Reform and Opening-up had been announced for some time, its actual progress had been quite average.

The reason was simple: attracting investment was difficult!

They had invited many well-known Chinese businessmen, but the only one with the courage, determination, and decisiveness of Lin Haoran was him, and him alone!

Other Chinese business tycoons would come to the Mainland for inspection tours when invited, but most of them just took a cursory look, made a symbolic donation, or invested in low-risk, quick-return projects like hotels and restaurants.

Someone like Lin Haoran, who dared to pour real money into industry, into manufacturing, and on such a massive scale and with such firm resolve, was absolutely one of a kind!

“We must provide excellent service and build Mr. Lin’s enterprise into a benchmark, letting other foreign investors see that investing in our Mainland, in our Guangdong Province, in our Shenzhen, is the right choice—profitable and with a bright future!” the provincial leader said earnestly to the Shenzhen official.

“Rest assured, we will mobilize the entire city’s resources to provide Mr. Lin’s enterprise with the highest quality service, the most complete support, and the strongest guarantees!” the Shenzhen official immediately declared, his tone firm. “We will establish a ‘Project Service Task Force’ personally led by me to respond to the enterprise’s needs 24/7, ensuring the smooth operation of the park and the swift launch of the phase two and three projects!”

On the stage, a lion dance performance with strong Lingnan characteristics began. To the sound of deafening drums and gongs, agile “lions” leaped and tumbled on high poles, performing various difficult maneuvers. Finally, a pair of red banners with gold lettering unfurled from their mouths: “Guangdong and Hong Kong Join Hands to Create a Great Enterprise, Reform and Opening-up Writes a New Chapter,” drawing thunderous applause.

These performances were, in fact, arranged by the Shenzhen authorities.

After the lion dance team exited, a dancer in a traditional ethnic dance costume appeared at the center of the stage. Her movements were graceful and exquisite. It was Liu Xiaoli, famous for her dancing, the renowned “Celestial Fairy’s Mother.”

She led a performance of the dance “Cai Wei,” which perfectly blended the charm of classical dance with modern stage art. Her sleeves fluttered like a startled swan, instantly capturing the entire audience’s attention.

Lin Haoran raised an eyebrow slightly, somewhat surprised to see her here.

As he recalled, the future “Celestial Fairy’s Mother” should still be a dancer at the opera house in Jiangcheng at this time. He hadn’t expected the Shenzhen authorities to have specially invited a professional dance troupe from the Mainland to perform for this ceremony.

Liu Xiaoli’s dance foundation was indeed solid. Every smile, every gesture, was of exceptional professional quality and artistic appeal, quite different from the image she would later project to the public.

At just twenty-two years old, Liu Xiaoli was stunningly beautiful, no less so than the future Celestial Fairy. In Lin Haoran’s opinion, her beauty at this moment even surpassed that of the Celestial Fairy.

“As expected of the woman who could give birth to the Celestial Fairy. Her genes are indeed outstanding,” Lin Haoran praised silently.

The Liu Xiaoli on stage was in the prime of her youth. Her skin was fairer than snow, her features picturesque. Her expression while dancing was focused and lively, possessing both the innocence of a young girl and the budding charm of a mature woman. She was indeed breathtakingly beautiful.

At this moment, she was more like a pure artist, completely immersed in her performance.

When the dance “Cai Wei” ended, the applause was like thunder, even more enthusiastic than before.

Many of the officials and guests present were whispering among themselves, asking who the lead dancer was, clearly stunned by her beauty and skill.

As Liu Xiaoli and her fellow dancers took their bows, her gaze inadvertently swept over the main guest section again.

When she saw Lin Haoran also smiling and applauding, a blush crept onto her face. She quickly lowered her head and hurried off the stage with her troupe.

“I didn’t expect Shenzhen to have prepared such a wonderful program,” the provincial leader said to Lin Haoran with a smile. “This young lady dances very well, quite professional.”

Lin Haoran nodded in agreement. “She is indeed a very good dancer. It’s clear she’s professionally trained. The Shenzhen authorities were very thoughtful.”

This was just an interlude in the ceremony. Lin Haoran’s attention soon returned to the main business.

After the stunning performance of “Cai Wei,” the subsequent acts, though also excellent, were clearly no longer as captivating.

After the performances, the event moved on to the tour segment.

Lin Haoran personally led the leaders into the nearest beverage production workshop.

This was none other than the famous Red Bull production workshop.

Unlike in later years, Red Bull was not as famous in this era.

However, since its acquisition by Dairy Farm International, and especially after being integrated into the Langwei Group, Red Bull had rapidly penetrated the international market through the channels of 7-Eleven and Lawson convenience stores.

Moreover, because Red Bull could refresh the mind and replenish energy, it was particularly popular among workers who needed to work overtime, long-distance drivers, and students. Its sales were climbing steadily.

The original production capacity in Thailand was clearly far from sufficient.

Therefore, this new factory in Shenzhen was precisely the largest and most advanced Red Bull production base that Langwei Group was establishing. It shouldered the heavy responsibility of supplying all of Hong Kong, Macau, and even exporting to Japan, Korea, Europe and America.

In the future, production capacity would continue to rise, and more factory zones would be added. Eventually, the Red Bull production base might even occupy an entire industrial park, but all of this would take time.

Until the other industrial parks were completed, this Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park would temporarily serve as Langwei Group’s largest production base in the Mainland.

Chapter 724: The Other’s Fate Was in Lin Haoran’s Hands!

As Lin Haoran and the officials entered the workshop, the atmosphere of modern industry greeted them.

The temperature and humidity-controlled environment, the stainless steel pipes and tanks, the fully automated canning line, and the workers in clean, uniform work clothes all left the well-traveled officials feeling a sense of novelty and shock.

“The entire production line in the Red Bull workshop was imported from Germany. It’s highly automated and can produce eighty-four hundred cans of beverage per hour. Everything from raw material mixing, canning, and sealing to code-spraying, packaging, and palletizing is fully automated.”

The factory head introduced the facility in detail, his tone filled with pride. “We strictly control the quality of our raw materials and have established a full-process quality traceability system from the source to the finished product, ensuring that every can of Red Bull meets the highest standards.”

The provincial leader put on his reading glasses and closely observed the golden cans moving rapidly along the assembly line, praising them repeatedly. “Such a high degree of automation! The efficiency is astounding! This is what a modern enterprise should look like! I’ve had this Red Bull of yours during an inspection trip to Hong Kong. It’s truly effective at boosting one’s energy!”

Arriving at the quality inspection area, the Factory Manager personally operated a precision instrument to demonstrate to the officials how they tested key indicators like the beverage’s sugar content, caffeine level, and taurine concentration. “We have set up thirty-six critical quality control points to ensure consistent product quality.

Currently, our product is in short supply. We often run out of stock relying solely on our Boss’s sales channels. Many overseas distributors want to import this product from us, but unfortunately, our production capacity is temporarily insufficient, so we can only meet our own needs.

However, as our capacity increases in the future, this problem will be solved. Therefore, the Shenzhen production base has a great responsibility ahead!”

“Remarkable! Truly remarkable!” an official from the Economic Commission exclaimed with emotion. “I never thought we in Mainland China could produce such a high-standard product and even export it for foreign exchange! This is true high-quality development!”

Mainland China’s manufacturing industry was currently far too underdeveloped! It was in desperate need of modern factories like this!

With that, the official firmly grasped Lin Haoran’s hand and said earnestly, “Mr. Lin, you’ve brought us a ‘timely rain’! What you’ve brought isn’t just factories, but sets of modern standards, an international perspective, and a gateway to the world! This is far more significant than a simple investment!”

Lin Haoran smiled faintly and replied, neither servile nor overbearing, “You flatter me, leader. I have always believed that industry revitalizes the nation. Mainland China has a vast market, diligent people, and an unwavering policy of Reform and Opening-up. I see no reason for failure in investing in the manufacturing industry here.

The companies under my banner, such as Hongkong Land Group, Wanqing Group, and Hongkong Electric Group, are willing to be seeds, taking root in this fertile soil and growing together with Mainland China.”

He was quite satisfied with the Mainland government’s reaction.

Contributions would always be rewarded.

What he wanted was this trust and support from the Mainland.

This friendship, a godsend in the early days of Reform and Opening-up, was far more precious than any future gilding of the lily. It would also lay an incomparably solid foundation for the long-term development of his Commercial Empire in the Mainland.

After all, as an experienced person from the future, he knew just how rapidly Mainland China’s economy would develop.

And right now, it was on the ground, just about to take off—the perfect time to make his move.

Soon, it was noon.

Shenzhen hosted a grand reception luncheon in a twelve-story hotel in the city center.

This building was undoubtedly one of the tallest in Shenzhen at the time.

Not far away, the Electronics Building was under construction.

And the Electronics Building, had history progressed normally, would have become Shenzhen’s tallest building for the next few years.

However, in reality, this history had already been altered by the likes of Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and Wanqing Group.

For one, Hongkong Land Group was now planning a thirty-eight-story skyscraper in the Futian Commune area of Luohu, and construction had already begun. Upon completion, it would become the tallest building in Mainland China.

And Wanqing Group, the first to enter the Mainland market, was close to completing a twenty-three-story high-rise it was building in Luohu.

These were just a small part of their massive investment plans.

Hongkong Electric Group was also constructing several commercial buildings over ten stories high in the Shekou area, which were nearing completion.

Furthermore, many commercial buildings, industrial parks, and other projects were also under construction in places like Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Chancheng.

The luncheon was held in the revolving restaurant on the hotel’s top floor. This was the first restaurant in Shenzhen with a revolving function, offering a 360-degree panoramic view of the city’s construction.

Although Shenzhen at this time resembled a vast construction site, with plenty of farmland still visible, the vigorous upward momentum was already clear to see.

“Mr. Lin, please, take the seat of honor.” The provincial leader personally guided Lin Haoran to the main guest’s seat, a remarkably high honor that drew attention.

The luncheon was served individually, which not only showed respect for the guest of honor but also adhered to international business etiquette.

The dishes were exquisitely prepared Cantonese cuisine, featuring traditional delicacies like abalone, sea cucumber, shark fin, and fish maw, while also incorporating innovative elements.

“This dish, ‘Golden Dragon Welcomes the Guest,’ was specially prepared for today’s ceremony,” the Shenzhen official personally introduced. “It uses locally farmed green lobster with our secret Cantonese sauce, symbolizing the cooperation between Guangdong and Hong Kong, a carp leaping over the dragon gate!”

Lin Haoran was full of praise after tasting it. “Succulent and springy, cooked to perfection. I didn’t expect to eat such authentic Cantonese cuisine in the Mainland. It shows that Shenzhen’s food and beverage services are also aligning with international standards.”

During the meal, the officials and Lin Haoran discussed deeper levels of cooperation.

The provincial leader asked with concern, “Mr. Lin, besides your current manufacturing layout, I wonder if you have any interest in the infrastructure development of Shenzhen, or even the entire Guangdong Province? For example, ports, airports, highways, and the like?”

The Reform and Opening-up policy had been given from above, but funding was a major problem.

The country was waiting to be rebuilt, and funds were needed everywhere. The support from the central government was very limited!

Therefore, Guangdong Province had to rely on itself for many things.

“Infrastructure projects often require investments of tens of millions, hundreds of millions, or even more. Relying solely on our government’s fiscal appropriations is truly unsustainable,” the provincial leader said candidly, a hint of helplessness in his tone. “But if the infrastructure isn’t well-developed, attracting investment is just empty talk.

With inaccessible roads, unstable electricity, and unreliable water supplies, which enterprise would be willing to invest? Attracting investment is difficult, and with little money allocated from above, we can only figure things out ourselves. To be honest with you, we are currently ‘crossing the river by feeling the stones.’ Many projects have been shelved due to funding issues.”

Last year, Shenzhen’s Gross Regional Product was only 270 million RMB. This showed just how difficult Shenzhen’s financial situation truly was.

Lin Haoran nodded in deep agreement. He understood the officials’ difficulties.

And infrastructure was the most capital-intensive, which was why Shenzhen’s infrastructure progress was so slow.

An idea struck Lin Haoran. He put down his chopsticks and responded seriously, “To be frank, our Hongkong Land Group, as the largest real estate company in Hong Kong, has the most professional infrastructure team. We also hold shares in many of Hong Kong’s infrastructure companies. If you trust us, you can completely hand these projects over to us.

Moreover, companies under my banner like Hongkong Electric Group and Wanqing Group can also participate. They also possess various infrastructure qualifications. As for the terms of cooperation, our company’s professionals can negotiate with you. How does that sound?”

He had been wondering how to get involved in the construction of airports, ports, and highways in the Pearl River Delta. This was a godsent opportunity!

His words made the officials present light up.

Infrastructure investment required large sums of money and had long return periods, which had always been a weak point in Mainland China’s development.

Most importantly, as the provincial leader said, the Reform and Opening-up was entirely a process of ‘crossing the river by feeling the stones.’ They couldn’t guarantee whether it would ultimately succeed.

Therefore, everyone knew that participating in infrastructure construction carried significant risks.

If development failed, all that money could be said to have gone down the drain.

If a powerful and experienced Hong Kong businessman like Lin Haoran participated, it would undoubtedly greatly accelerate the pace of Shenzhen’s modernization.

They had only brought it up as a long shot, not holding out much hope. They never expected Lin Haoran to actually agree, which was a genuine surprise.

“Excellent!” The provincial leader stood up excitedly to propose a toast. “We are currently drafting the infrastructure development plan for the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, and we desperately need the participation of foreign investors with financial strength like you!”

The atmosphere at the banquet immediately became lively.

The officials present raised their glasses one after another, expressing their anticipation for the deep cooperation to come.

At this moment, Lin Haoran’s importance to Shenzhen, and even the entire Pearl River Delta, was growing ever greater.

With the support of someone like Lin Haoran, they also felt more confident about the future of Reform and Opening-up.

The luncheon continued in a warm and harmonious atmosphere.

The officials were full of praise for Lin Haoran’s boldness and foresight, all expressing that they would fully support his various investments in the Mainland.

After the luncheon concluded, the officials departed one by one.

Lin Haoran walked out of the private room. In the main hall outside, several tables had also been set for other guests.

To his surprise, at a table by the window, he saw a familiar figure—it was Liu Xiaoli, the lead dancer from the morning’s ceremony.

She had changed out of her performance costume and was wearing a simple, elegant dress, dining with some colleagues from the arts community.

When she saw Lin Haoran emerge, she subconsciously stood up, her face showing a hint of nervousness and shyness.

Lin Haoran smiled and nodded at her, preparing to leave.

Unexpectedly, she walked over quickly and said, “Mr. Lin, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about. Is that okay? I hope you can give me a chance.”

Lin Haoran was slightly surprised, but he quickly gave a gentle nod.

Although he was surprised to run into this beauty in Shenzhen, Lin Haoran didn’t really have many ideas.

After all, his engagement was imminent, and it would be a bit much to be chasing after other women.

Despite this, he still agreed to her request.

He was rather curious what this ‘Celestial Fairy’s Mother’ wanted to see him about.

Of course, the current Liu Xiaoli was only twenty-two years old, in the prime of her youth, and had not yet become the “Celestial Fairy’s Mother” people would later know her as.

At this moment, she was just an outstanding young dancer from the Jiangcheng Song and Dance Theater, selected to participate in this important foreign-related celebration in Shenzhen due to her exceptional appearance and skill.

Lin Haoran motioned for Li Weidong and Li Weiguo beside him to wait, then made a “please” gesture to Liu Xiaoli. The two walked towards a relatively quiet lounge area to the side of the restaurant.

Liu Xiaoli took a deep breath and followed, her hands clasped nervously in front of her.

Lin Haoran looked curiously at the beauty before him, even catching a faint, delicate fragrance from her.

He maintained a proper distance and asked gently, “Comrade Liu, please feel free to say whatever is on your mind.”

He was aware that in Mainland China at this time, addressing someone with “Comrade” was more appropriate, unlike in Hong Kong where people used “Mr.” and “Miss.”

A blush rose on Liu Xiaoli’s cheeks, and it seemed she had summoned all her courage to speak. “Mr. Lin, I know this is a very presumptuous request, but I’ve heard you are very influential in Hong Kong. I was wondering… I was wondering if you could do me a favor?”

Lin Haoran’s curiosity grew.

What favor could he possibly do for her?

He smiled and said, “Yes, go on.”

If it were an ordinary person, he naturally wouldn’t have paid them much mind.

But for a beautiful woman, there was no harm in listening.

Even Mencius said: “Food and desire are part of human nature.”

It’s natural for men to have a favorable impression of beautiful women, and the one before him was a rare, peerless beauty.

Moreover, the mix of youthful shyness and courage she currently displayed did indeed pique his interest.

Liu Xiaoli paused, her voice soft yet firm. “I’ve heard that the performing arts academies in Hong Kong have much better standards and opportunities than in Mainland China. I… I very much want to go there for further studies.

But under normal circumstances, I have absolutely no chance of going. Even if there were a chance, the procedures are very complicated. So, I… I would like to ask you to help me, to give me a chance to go to Hong Kong.”

After saying this, she seemed to have used up all her courage. Her slender fingers twisted together unconsciously, and she lowered her head, not daring to look Lin Haoran in the eye, awaiting the verdict of her fate.

Lin Haoran raised an eyebrow slightly.

He hadn’t expected that this “Star Mom,” who would later become famous for raising her daughter, would have such courage and foresight at such a young age.

In an era when most people were content with the status quo, she already knew to proactively seek opportunities, even to the point of asking a near-stranger for help.

Seeing Lin Haoran didn’t respond immediately, Liu Xiaoli hurriedly added, her tone tinged with urgency and pleading, “I know this request is very abrupt, but I truly love dancing and am willing to give everything for it.

The artistic environment in the Mainland is still quite restrictive right now. If you could take me to Hong Kong and give me a chance to study, I will definitely work hard and never let down your help.

I can do anything. I can work for you to pay you back…”

As she spoke, her voice trailed off, and her cheeks flushed crimson. She seemed to realize the ambiguity in her words and quickly explained, “I mean, I can do clerical work, reception, or other jobs. I’m a very fast learner…”

Looking at her embarrassed and desperate expression, Lin Haoran understood.

For artists of this era, especially dancers, their artistic careers were relatively short. Their desire for a broader stage was understandable.

As Asia’s cultural window, Hong Kong held a huge appeal for artistic talent from the Mainland.

In order to seize this opportunity, she was indeed giving it her all.

After all, if she failed and word of this got back to the Jiangcheng Song and Dance Theater, it was possible she could be blacklisted.

He pondered for a moment, not directly answering whether he could help, but instead asked, “Comrade Liu, I admire your pursuit of art, and your performance today was stunning. You have a great talent for dancing. But you should know that studying in Hong Kong is not as simple as just dancing in a different place.

The pace of life, the language environment, the teaching methods—they are all very different from the Mainland. Can you adapt? And leaving your home behind, with no family or friends, is not an easy thing to do.”

In reality, just taking Liu Xiaoli to Hong Kong was a trivial matter for him.

He only needed to say the word, and the government would absolutely help him handle everything.

After all, his status in the Mainland was incredibly special right now.

Helping a dancer go to Hong Kong was a small affair.

Helping her wasn’t impossible, but wouldn’t that change Liu Xiaoli’s life trajectory? Then wouldn’t the future “Celestial Fairy Liu” cease to exist?

This interesting question suddenly occurred to Lin Haoran.

Liu Xiaoli raised her head, determination shining in her eyes. “I can! As long as I have the chance to learn more professional dance techniques, I can overcome any difficulty. I can learn the language, and I’m not afraid of a harder life.

I’ve already taught myself some Cantonese, although I don’t speak it very well…”

She tried to say a few simple Cantonese greetings. Though her pronunciation was a bit stiff, it was clear she had put in the effort.

After speaking, she looked at Lin Haoran with expectant eyes.

At this moment, the other’s fate was in Lin Haoran’s hands.

Lin Haoran looked at the beautiful, young, and eager face before him, her bright eyes shimmering with a mix of longing and anxiety for the future.

He suddenly felt that changing someone’s destiny might be an interesting thing to do.

In the great river of history, everyone’s choices lead to different outcomes, and he just happened to have the ability to give a chance to someone who was prepared.

If nothing else, he himself had changed the entire business landscape of Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong business world was now developing in an unknown direction.

He thought for a moment and said, “Your dedication to dance is moving. How about this, I can help you with this.”

A look of delighted surprise burst forth in Liu Xiaoli’s eyes, and she was on the verge of crying with joy.

This was beyond Liu Xiaoli’s expectations.

She had approached him on a whim, never imagining that Lin Haoran would actually be willing to help.

“Thank you so much, Mr. Lin!” Her voice trembled with excitement. “I will definitely not disappoint you.”

“However,” Lin Haoran changed his tone, “I have a few conditions.”

“Please say them. I’ll agree to any condition!” Liu Xiaoli nodded eagerly.

“First, I can pay for your tuition while you study in Hong Kong, but after you graduate, you will need to serve one of my companies for five years. After five years, you can decide whether to stay or leave.

“Second, during your time in Hong Kong, you must focus on your studies and not participate in any social activities unrelated to your education. You can work part-time at my company on your days off to earn money. I can offer you a part-time position.

“Third, this matter must be kept confidential. You are not to publicly declare that it was I who helped you.”

For Lin Haoran, this was a simple favor.

But there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Since he was helping, she had to pay a corresponding price.

These conditions were nothing to Liu Xiaoli. She nodded without hesitation. “I agree to all of them! Mr. Lin, thank you for giving me this opportunity. I will definitely abide by all the conditions and will absolutely repay your great kindness in the future.”

Her eyes reddened with emotion. She never thought her dream would be realized in this way.

To study dance in Hong Kong—this was an opportunity that many artists in the Mainland dared not even dream of.

Lin Haoran took a custom business card case from his suit’s inner pocket and handed her a simple business card. “Contact this number next week. I will give instructions, and they will help you with the relevant procedures.”

“Thank you, thank you so much.” Liu Xiaoli took the business card with both hands and carefully put it away as if it were a priceless treasure.

At this moment, she was even trembling slightly from overwhelming excitement.

She never imagined that simply mustering the courage to try would actually win her the opportunity she had dreamed of.

She had been fully prepared for rejection; after all, he was such a high and mighty figure, while she was just an ordinary dancer.

Lin Haoran gave a slight nod, said no more, and turned to walk towards his bodyguards waiting nearby.

To him, this was just an insignificant little episode.

But for Liu Xiaoli, it was a pivotal moment that would change her destiny.

Gazing at Lin Haoran’s departing, upright figure, Liu Xiaoli tightly clutched the business card in her pocket, her heart filled with a whirlwind of emotions.

In this spring of Reform and Opening-up, a brand new chapter of her life was about to begin.

She made a silent vow to seize this opportunity, to make a name for herself in Hong Kong, and to never disappoint Mr. Lin’s appreciation.

As he walked towards the elevator, Lin Haoran gave a quiet order to Li Weidong at his side. “Tell Yang Mingyi to handle the procedures for this young lady to go to Hong Kong. Follow the normal process; no special treatment is necessary.”

Yang Mingyi had been in Mainland China for over two years and had already built up a certain network of connections. This matter could be left to him.

“Understood, Boss,” Li Weidong nodded in acknowledgment, thinking to himself that this young woman was quite lucky to have the Boss personally see to her matter.

Speaking of which, the brothers Li Weidong and Li Weiguo had also come from the Mainland.

They had once held the same idea as Liu Xiaoli—to cross over to the other side and change their lives.

They had been lucky back then. Though they almost lost their lives, they were unexpectedly saved by the Boss.

Now, they had even brought their families to Hong Kong to live a good life.

And as Lin Haoran’s Personal bodyguards, the two brothers enjoyed a handsome salary each month. They were no longer the poor kids struggling to survive in the Mainland.

Li Weidong stood silently behind Lin Haoran, feeling a wave of emotion.

He remembered the scene a few years ago when he and Li Weiguo risked their lives swimming across Shenzhen Bay. Back then, they were in rags and starving, just looking for a glimmer of hope to survive.

If they hadn’t been lucky enough to meet Lin Haoran, the two brothers would have likely perished at sea long ago.

Now, seeing a young person like Liu Xiaoli with a dream, Li Weidong felt a sense of empathy.

He knew that with the Boss personally involved, this young woman’s destiny would undergo a dramatic transformation.

Just like them back then, a single opportunity was enough to change a lifetime.

The elevator doors slowly closed, and Lin Haoran’s thoughts had already moved on to his next arrangements.

The recent little interlude was like a small pebble tossed into a lake. Though it created a ripple, it quickly merged into the larger waves.

Chapter 725: An Appearance on CCTV, Making a Name in Mainland China!

The elevator reached the first floor, and the doors slid open slowly.

Lin Haoran stepped out, with Li Weidong and Li Weiguo immediately flanking him.

Ten bodyguards followed closely behind.

Outside the hotel, a convoy of three black, bulletproof Mercedes-Benz cars had been waiting for some time.

These vehicles had all been shipped over from Hong Kong.

Under normal circumstances, there wouldn’t be any problems in Mainland China; besides his own bodyguards, the mainland authorities had even assigned a small unit to protect him.

But for Lin Haoran, caution was always best. He’d rather hold his safety in his own hands than entrust it to others.

Although the mainland had arranged for security personnel, Lin Haoran always held firm to the principle of “safety first.”

He remembered from his past life how many business tycoons had met with misfortune due to security lapses, a lesson he was determined not to repeat.

Moreover, as his business empire expanded, it was inevitable that he would encroach on the interests of certain people.

These bulletproof Mercedes-Benzes and elite bodyguards were both a guarantee for his own safety and a demonstration of strength to his business partners.

“To the Municipal Government,” Lin Haoran ordered succinctly before getting into the car.

A police car led the convoy, followed by several military vehicles providing an escort.

Such treatment was a clear indicator of the importance the mainland government placed on him.

The convoy slowly pulled away from the hotel. Lin Haoran leaned back against the comfortable leather seat and closed his eyes to rest.

In the afternoon, he was scheduled to discuss the expansion of manufacturing investments and specific collaborations on infrastructure projects with provincial leaders and the Shenzhen municipal government. This would affect his strategic layout in the mainland for the next several years.

Additionally, the provincial leaders hoped Lin Haoran could offer some advice and suggestions for the Reform and Opening-up.

After all, although Shenzhen was the focus of the Reform and Opening-up, Guangdong Province, as its frontline, also bore the heavy responsibility of exploration and demonstration.

The provincial leaders knew that as a successful Hong Kong businessman, Lin Haoran possessed both an international perspective and an understanding of the mainland’s situation. His suggestions would undoubtedly be of great reference value.

No one would underestimate Lin Haoran because of his youth.

After all, while Mainland China might seem like a closed environment, the international vision of its leaders was anything but.

The mainland leaders had long since investigated how Lin Haoran had risen to prominence.

First, he had used the battle for Kowloon Wharf to increase his shareholding and earn his first pot of gold.

After that, through one business battle and forward-thinking investment after another, he had ultimately amassed a fortune that could rival a nation.

In short, in his brief few years in the business world, Lin Haoran had experienced numerous investments and business conflicts, large and small, without a single failure.

For such a business prodigy, every decision he made was worth careful study and emulation.

The mainland leaders understood that what the Reform and Opening-up needed was precisely this spirit of daring to venture and experiment while accurately grasping the pulse of the market.

And Lin Haoran, naturally, didn’t mind sharing some of his ideas with the mainland government.

After all, the better the mainland developed, the greater his investment returns would be. It was a win-win situation.

As a “person from the future” who had traveled back from the 2020s, even if he wasn’t some economic guru in his past life, his decades of insight beyond this era meant his mind was filled with the successful experiences and lessons of Mainland China’s decades-long Reform and Opening-up.

These precious “future memories” were his greatest advantage.

Of course, the essence of reform was “crossing the river by feeling the stones.” As the first time in human history that socialism and a market economy were combined in practice, there was no existing experience to draw upon. Encountering temporary problems was an inevitable part of the exploration process.

But if he could help the Reform and Opening-up take fewer detours, make fewer mistakes, and allow the mainland to develop more smoothly, it would bring enormous benefits to the nation, its people, and his personal business strategy.

Leaning against the back of his seat, Lin Haoran was already sketching out an optimized roadmap for the Reform and Opening-up in his mind.

He clearly remembered from his past life which policies were most effective, which detours could be avoided, and which opportunities could best drive economic development.

For example, he knew which infrastructure should be prioritized, which industries had the most potential, and which regions were most suitable for key development.

He also knew how to better attract foreign investment, how to cultivate local talent, and how to steer clear of certain erroneous development ideas—all of which were successful experiences proven by time.

The car drove along Shenzhen’s main road. Although the road was still uneven, new factory buildings and construction sites could already be seen on both sides.

Many of these were properties belonging to the various groups under Lin Haoran.

Gazing at the scene outside the window, Lin Haoran already had a complete set of recommendations in mind.

He planned to propose several key suggestions: first, to build an efficient, service-oriented government and establish a “one-stop” service center for foreign investors.

Second, to focus on advantageous industries such as electronic information and light industry manufacturing.

He would also suggest vigorously developing vocational education to train professional and technical talent for the manufacturing industry.

The production of fast-moving consumer products by the brands under the Langwei Group, for instance, was part of light industry manufacturing.

Furthermore, he was prepared to put forward a groundbreaking proposal: to experiment with the paid transfer and assignment of land use rights.

This idea was quite advanced for the current time, but it was key to attracting foreign investment for infrastructure development.

He remembered that in his previous life, it wasn’t until 1987 that Shenzhen struck the “first gavel” for a land auction, after which the city’s development speed accelerated significantly.

In this life, perhaps this reform could be pushed forward sooner.

Meanwhile, in the hotel restaurant, Liu Xiaoli was still standing in the same spot, her fingers gently stroking the business card in her pocket as if she could still feel the warmth Lin Haoran had left behind.

Her companions gathered around curiously, chattering as they asked about her earlier conversation.

These backup dancers, who had come with her from the Jiangcheng Song and Dance Theater, all had eyes gleaming with curiosity and envy.

They had all witnessed Liu Xiaoli speaking alone with that legendary young Hong Kong tycoon.

A man like him was someone they could never hope to reach, someone far above their station.

“Xiaoli, what did Mr. Lin say to you? Was he very serious?” a girl with a ponytail asked eagerly.

“Yeah, yeah, I heard he’s worth tens of billions! Does he have a really powerful presence?” another girl with short hair chimed in.

Liu Xiaoli simply smiled faintly and said nonchalantly, “I just worked up the courage to ask Mr. Lin for some advice on artistic matters.”

She remembered Lin Haoran’s instruction to keep the matter confidential.

But in her heart, she knew that from this day forward, her life would head down a completely different path.

Perhaps in five years, or maybe ten, she would be shining brightly on the stage in Hong Kong. And it would all stem from this brief encounter with that man on an autumn afternoon.

Outside the window, the roar of construction in Shenzhen was incessant, like the unceasing footsteps of this era’s progress.

And in this torrent of the times, everyone’s destiny was quietly changing.

In the blink of an eye, evening arrived.

The sunset’s glow painted the Shenzhen sky. At this moment, in millions of households, tens or even hundreds of millions of mainland citizens were gathered in front of their black-and-white or color television sets, tuning in on time for the seven o’clock Xinwen Lianbo.

In this era, a television set was still a luxury item that not many could afford, but there were about ten million television sets in use across the mainland. And one TV would often attract many people to watch together.

Therefore, a viewership of over one hundred million was no exaggeration.

Shortly after the program began, the anchor announced in a solemn yet friendly voice, “Next, a special report from this station: A Factual Account of Patriotic Hong Kong Businessman Mr. Lin Haoran’s Contributions to Mainland China’s Reform and Opening-up.”

The television screen switched to the scene of the grand opening ceremony of the Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park.

Colorful flags fluttered, and gongs and drums sounded. A giant inflatable red arch bore large golden characters that read, “Warmly Celebrate the Grand Opening of the Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park.”

The camera panned across rows of neat, modern factory buildings, towering chimneys, and fully automated production lines.

Workers in uniform work clothes stood in high spirits in front of the brand-new factories.

“This is the Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park, an investment by the patriotic Hong Kong businessman, Mr. Lin Haoran. The project’s total investment exceeds five hundred million Hong Kong dollars, making it one of the largest foreign investment projects in the mainland to date. The park integrates R&D, production, and logistics, and is expected to create nearly one hundred thousand jobs in the future,” the anchor’s voice was filled with passion.

The screen showed Lin Haoran cutting the ribbon at the opening ceremony. He was smiling, holding a pair of golden scissors, and standing shoulder-to-shoulder with provincial and municipal leaders.

This was Lin Haoran’s first appearance on CCTV.

Although he had been to the mainland before, he had never accepted an interview from a mainland television station.

The shot then switched to a clip of his speech: “The Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park will introduce the world’s most advanced production technology and management experience to build a globally competitive manufacturing base. We will not only create economic benefits but also cultivate local talent, drive the development of the industrial chain, and contribute to the mainland’s Reform and Opening-up.”

The report detailed the park’s plan: a total area of one million square meters, primarily focused on light industry, especially as a production base for fast-moving consumer products.

It particularly emphasized the “front shop, back factory” model adopted by the park, meaning the factory was established in Shekou to leverage its geographical proximity to Hong Kong, allowing products to be exported directly overseas.

The news also highlighted the park’s supporting facilities, such as staff dormitories, canteens, and medical clinics, praising it as “a model of a modern, people-oriented industrial park.”

In millions of homes, viewers watched, completely captivated.

Soon, the screen showed footage of Lin Haoran accompanying leaders on an inspection tour of the Red Bull factory, followed by scenes of his meetings with provincial and municipal officials.

On camera, Lin Haoran was impeccably dressed in a suit, his manners elegant, and his words conveyed a maturity and wisdom that belied his age.

It was a completely different temperament and style from the young people in the mainland.

His fluent Mandarin, occasionally tinged with a Hong Kong accent, and his every gesture exuded the demeanor of an international business elite.

“As a patriotic Hong Kong businessman, Mr. Lin Haoran has actively responded to the national policy of Reform and Opening-up, taking the lead in investing and building factories in the mainland, bringing with him advanced production technology and management experience. The Red Bull beverage production base he invested in has imported a fully automatic production line from Germany, capable of producing 8,400 cans of beverage per hour. It has created a large number of jobs, and its products will be exported overseas, earning foreign exchange for the country. And a massive factory like the Red Bull production base is just one of his many investment projects; today, eighteen projects like Red Bull began production simultaneously,” the anchor recounted in detail.

The footage cut to a clip of Lin Haoran speaking at a symposium, where he was talking with ease and confidence: “I believe that the Reform and Opening-up should not only import capital and technology but, more importantly, advanced concepts and standards. What we aim to build are modern enterprises with international competitiveness…”

The older generation was deeply moved: “Such a huge investment, such advanced factories. Our country is finally going to have its own modern factories!”

The news made special mention of Lin Haoran’s suggestions for infrastructure development and his commitment to participate in the investment.

The report also highlighted his proposals for “one-stop service” and the development of vocational education, praising these suggestions as “highly forward-thinking and practical.”

What shocked everyone the most was Lin Haoran’s on-the-spot announcement that his Hongkong Land Group would donate one hundred million Hong Kong dollars to establish the ‘Hongkong Land Education Fund.’ This fund would be dedicated to sponsoring outstanding students from poor families in mainland universities to pursue degrees in science and engineering, and would collaborate with businesses to cultivate them, thus creating a reserve of future engineers and scientists for the country’s industrialization process!

One hundred million Hong Kong dollars! In an era where a monthly salary was only a few dozen RMB, the audience found it hard to even imagine what an enormous sum one hundred million Hong Kong dollars was.

Viewers in front of their televisions gasped in unison. Many even subconsciously started counting on their fingers, trying to calculate the value of this money.

“My goodness, one hundred million Hong Kong dollars! How much money is that?” an old worker muttered, his eyes wide.

“One hundred million Hong Kong dollars? Our factory’s annual output is only a few hundred thousand RMB, and we’re the biggest factory in the county. How many years would it take our factory to earn that much!”

In university dormitories, the students were even more thrilled.

“This fund specifically supports science and engineering students. Doesn’t that mean we have a chance?”

“This is great! I was just worrying about next semester’s tuition fees. It would be amazing if I could apply for this fund.”

“Mr. Lin is truly a visionary. He knows what kind of talent the country needs most for its development.”

The news continued: “It is reported that the ‘Hongkong Land Education Fund’ will be open to universities nationwide. Although the specific scholarship criteria have not yet been announced, our station’s reporter has learned that the fund will also establish special scholarships to sponsor outstanding students for overseas studies.”

The screen switched to a detailed introduction of the fund’s management: it would be jointly managed by the Ministry of Education and the Hongkong Land Group to ensure the transparency and efficiency of fund usage. Upon graduation, scholarship recipients would also be given priority for employment opportunities in Mr. Lin’s companies, achieving a seamless “cultivation-to-employment” transition.

This news triggered a massive reaction across the country.

It wasn’t just ordinary people who were stunned by the huge donation; the education sector was invigorated.

Many university officials began studying how to secure a share of the fund that very night, while students from poor families saw a glimmer of hope for continuing their education.

Some young people who had already graduated, however, had different ideas.

Although many of them had jobs in public institutions, their monthly salaries of a few dozen yuan left them feeling stretched thin financially.

Seeing the modern factories and generous benefits of Lin Haoran’s companies on the news, many began to entertain new thoughts.

“I have a relative who’s already an employee there. I heard that at the Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park, a regular worker can earn over a hundred yuan a month. If you work more overtime, you can get even more!” a young worker told his companion.

“Really? Isn’t that much better than our state-owned enterprise?” his companion asked in surprise.

“You bet! And I heard they provide dormitories and canteens, and the conditions are excellent.”

The monthly salary of over one hundred yuan might not seem high at first glance, and could easily be misinterpreted as Lin Haoran deliberately exploiting mainland employees.

But that was far from the truth.

In this specific era, the overall wage level in the mainland was quite low.

If Lin Haoran’s companies, as newcomers, were to drastically raise wages, it might seem beneficial to the employees, but it could actually disrupt the market balance and create obstacles for other foreign enterprises looking to invest in the mainland.

After all, excessively high wage standards would make other foreign companies hesitate, which would not be conducive to creating an open and diverse investment environment.

Moreover, from a policy perspective, the mainland government would not advocate setting wages too high. Instead, they hoped to gradually promote stable economic development and a healthy market cycle while ensuring employees’ basic living standards.

Wages could be increased, but not too much at once. It had to be a gradual process, with steady increases based on a comprehensive consideration of market laws, corporate performance, and the overall economic situation in the mainland.

For example, raises could be given at regular intervals based on an employee’s performance, skill improvement, and the company’s profitability.

Long-term employees could have their base salaries increased every six months or a year.

This stable approach not only made employees feel that their efforts were being rewarded, boosting their morale, but also avoided the impact of excessive wage fluctuations on the company’s operations and the market environment.

These factories had also set their wages by referencing nearby factories.

For instance, the Shangwu Electric Coil Factory, Shenzhen’s first “processing and compensation trade” enterprise, was founded three years ago.

According to the memories of Jiang Huiqun, who worked as a quality inspector there, one could earn seven or eight jiao a day, and twenty to thirty yuan a month. This was already a substantial increase compared to the income from farming based on work points.

Another employee from the same factory, Zhao Dairong, stated that in the early years, she could earn four hundred to five hundred yuan annually, with an average monthly salary of about thirty to forty yuan.

Another well-known factory was the Kai Da Toys Factory, which, under normal circumstances, would have been established the following year. In Lin Haoran’s previous life, it was one of the earliest wholly Hong Kong-owned enterprises.

Lin Haoran had read related reports where an employee recalled that in the first month at Kai Da Toys Factory, one could earn 80 RMB plus 200 Hong Kong dollars in overtime and overproduction bonuses.

Additionally, records showed that a team leader’s initial daily base wage was 3.5 yuan, a supervisor’s was 5.6 yuan, and overtime pay was issued in Hong Kong dollars at 1.5 times the rate for nights and 2 times for weekends.

In this era, 100 Hong Kong dollars was equivalent to about 30 RMB.

This meant that the female workers at Kai Da Toys Factory, through overtime, could earn over one hundred RMB a month, an astronomical figure for the time.

The salary packages offered at Lin Haoran’s Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park were also carefully considered.

The monthly salary for an ordinary worker was over 80 yuan, for a skilled worker over 100 yuan, and for a mid-level manager over 200 yuan. These were all base salaries and did not include overtime pay.

Including overtime pay, performance bonuses, and attendance awards, an ordinary worker had the chance to earn over 200 yuan a month.

This salary level was higher than that of mainland enterprises without excessively inflating labor costs, which was conducive to attracting continued foreign investment.

“By that calculation, the money you can save in a year working in the special economic zone is more than what you’d make in several years back home!” a young man calculated excitedly.

“Exactly! I heard there are also bonuses and overtime pay. If you work hard, you might make over two hundred yuan a month. That’s what I make in half a year at my current factory!”

“Why don’t we go to Shenzhen and check it out? We’re young anyway, what’s the harm in trying?”

This trend of “going south to seek one’s fortune” was quietly starting to spread across the country.

Many young people, restless with their current situations, were attracted by the modern factories and generous benefits on television and began to entertain the idea of developing their careers in the special economic zone.

In some state-owned enterprise factories, veteran craftsmen were also discussing it: “I heard they’re hiring skilled workers over there, requiring knowledge of machinery operation. I’ve done maintenance work in the factory, so I should qualify.”

“If we could really go there, with our skills, we’d definitely earn a high salary.”

Some of the more daring young people had already taken action: “I have a cousin in Shenzhen who says there will be more and more factories there, with plenty of opportunities and a shortage of workers. I have to ask him to see if he can help me try my luck!”

“Let’s go together then, so we can look out for each other.”

…

This ten-minute special report made the names Lin Haoran, Hongkong Land Group, Wanqing Group, and Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park household names overnight.

More importantly, it showed the people of the nation the results and prospects of the Reform and Opening-up, strengthening their confidence in the future.

And Lin Haoran, with his outstanding business achievements and his patriotic love for his country and hometown, had become a shining idol in the hearts of millions of young people in the mainland, inspiring them to bravely chase their dreams and throw themselves into the tide of the era.

In his hotel room, Lin Haoran watched the report on television, a satisfied smile on his face.

Clearly, the mainland authorities intended to portray him as a benchmark and a role model for the Reform and Opening-up.

This ten-minute special report was not only an affirmation of his investment contributions but also a clear signal to the outside world: the country welcomed and supported patriotic Chinese merchants to participate in the mainland’s development.

One had to know that at this time, Xinwen Lianbo was only twenty minutes long, not half an hour.

To dedicate a full ten minutes of it to reporting on him was enough to show the high degree of importance the mainland government placed on Lin Haoran and his investments.

This was equivalent to using half of the prime time slot to publicize his deeds and contributions. Such an honor was extremely rare in the early days of the Reform and Opening-up.

He knew that this news piece was not just propaganda for the Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park, but also the nation’s affirmation and support for him as a patriotic Hong Kong businessman.

This would open more doors for his development in the mainland and create even more opportunities.

Two kilometers from his window, the Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park was brightly lit under the night sky, the roar of machinery echoing ceaselessly, as if telling the most exciting story of the era.

This industrial park, which had only officially started operations today, was already running on a two-shift system.

7-Eleven and Lawson convenience stores were opening new outlets almost daily, meaning there was no concern about selling the fast-moving consumer goods from the brands under the Langwei Group. In fact, they couldn’t produce them fast enough!

Therefore, from its very first day, the Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park had been running at full throttle.

Chapter 726: This Era Is Truly Difficult!

September 4th, morning.

This was Lin Haoran’s third day in Shenzhen.

Before the sky had fully brightened, Lin Haoran heard the incessant ringing of bicycle bells from downstairs.

He yawned, sat up, and checked the time. It was only about six in the morning.

He got up and opened the window. The main road outside was already bustling with activity.

The destination for all these people was the Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park, two kilometers away.

On the wide concrete road, the stream of bicycles surged like a tide.

Hundreds, even thousands of workers rode their classic heavy-duty roadsters, aluminum lunch boxes hanging from their handlebars. From time to time, someone would ring their bell, the cheerful clanging merging into a spectacular torrent of sound.

Many were wearing brand-new work uniforms, their faces beaming with anticipation and hope, though traces of sleepiness still lingered on many of their faces.

Although the factory provided accommodation, a good number of people chose to live off-site.

These were mostly people with families or those in serious relationships. While living at the factory might be more convenient, being able to return home to their families or significant others after a hard day’s work was their greatest comfort.

Life for those who have started a family is often very different from those who haven’t.

Lin Haoran stood by the window as the cool morning breeze brushed against his face, instantly sweeping away his drowsiness.

Gazing at this vibrant scene, he couldn’t help but be moved.

This was Mainland China in the early days of the Reform and Opening-up; these were the Chinese people, full of drive and hope.

They might not be wealthy yet, but they possessed a burning desire to change their destiny and were willing to pour their sweat and effort into building a better life.

At this moment, all his sleepiness vanished, and he felt no annoyance at being woken up by these workers.

After all, this was the reality of Shenzhen right now, and he wouldn’t be staying here for long on this trip.

Barring any surprises, he would be taking a boat from Shenzhen back to Hong Kong this afternoon.

After all, the day after tomorrow, September 6th, was his engagement day with Guo Xiaohan.

He couldn’t possibly delay his return until the very day of such an important event.

Though it wasn’t the official wedding, it was still a significant moment in his life, and he needed to go back early to prepare.

He stood by the window for a long time. The sky in the east grew brighter and brighter as the sun rose.

The golden-red rays of dawn gradually dyed the eastern horizon, casting a warm glow over this emerging city.

Lin Haoran took a deep breath of the fresh morning air, turned from the window, and began to wash up and get dressed.

After having breakfast at the hotel, Li Weidong and the others were already prepared and ready to head out with him at any moment.

“Let’s go. To the Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park,” Lin Haoran said.

“Yes, Boss!” Three Mercedes-Benz cars, a police escort vehicle in the lead, followed by several military vehicles, left the government-arranged hotel one after another.

As the convoy entered the Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park, the morning sun had fully risen, coating the new factory buildings in a layer of gold.

At the main gate, the massive banner emblazoned with “Time is money, efficiency is life” shimmered brightly in the sunlight.

Under Yang Mingyi’s guidance, Lin Haoran conducted an inspection. The employees of the various factories had already finished breakfast and were in the middle of an orderly shift change.

He went to inspect the southernmost part of the industrial park, where their private pier was located. Next to the pier were the warehouses.

Finished products would first be stored in the warehouses until a full batch was ready, then they would be shipped out by cargo vessels.

However, the pier was not yet complete. Based on their accelerated schedule, it would take at least another three months.

This meant that for the next three months, they would have to use the Shenzhen government’s Shekou Port.

But although the first phase of Shekou Port was officially open to the public, its facilities were relatively simple. It only had four berths, each designed to accommodate 3,000-ton class ships.

Therefore, the current cargo transport process involved two extra steps.

The manufactured goods were first stacked in the warehouse, then transported to Shekou Port by transfer vehicles. From there, 3,000-ton freighters would carry the goods to Kwai Chung Pier in Hong Kong, where they would be transferred onto tens-of-thousands-of-tons cargo ships.

It was a bit troublesome, but the cumbersome process didn’t bother Lin Haoran too much.

He was well aware that during the initial phase of the Reform and Opening-up, everything was a process of exploration and construction. A few temporary inconveniences were to be expected, and the future was still full of limitless possibilities.

As for the pier being built with Wanqing’s own investment, the goal for the first phase was two 10,000-ton berths and two 5,000-ton berths.

This capacity would be sufficient for the next few years. Although the industrial park was developing rapidly, its business scale and cargo throughput had not yet reached a level that required a larger pier.

After the port’s functions were expanded, the second phase would see the construction of the first deep-water pier terminal, which would add one 50,000-ton berth and two 10,000-ton berths. Once these subsequent projects were completed, the port’s handling capacity would be significantly enhanced.

Of course, this project was estimated to be completed in three years. After all, it was a 50,000-ton berth; even with the technology and no issue with funding, it couldn’t be finished in a short time.

Fortunately, Hong Kong had ample experience in constructing deep-water ports, so technology was not an issue at all.

There were also long-term plans for a third phase of pier construction, which would include a 100,000-ton berth and require even more capital for subsequent works like pier construction and channel dredging. These were long-term plans, at least five to ten years down the line.

For now, the 10,000-ton berths were actually sufficient.

After all, even in international shipping, not all vessels were massive freighters of tens of thousands of tons. The majority were small and medium-sized cargo ships, ranging from a few thousand to around ten thousand tons, that nimbly shuttled between various ports.

Even piers capable of handling tens of thousands of tons were not common worldwide at this time.

Just because you had a large ship didn’t mean there would be a place for you to dock.

For the current Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park, the existing plan and the phased construction pace were a prudent strategy that matched its development, so there was no need to rush.

Besides, he also controlled his own pier at the Kwai Chung Container Terminals in Hong Kong. Even if it meant transshipping through Hong Kong, it wasn’t as difficult as one might imagine.

Lin Haoran stood before the pier’s planning map, his eyes slowly tracing the blueprints as he envisioned the bustling port of the future.

This entire park, over a million square meters, or about one square kilometer, was now completely his.

He couldn’t believe how much this one-square-kilometer plot of land would be worth in twenty or thirty years.

Although his land was mainly in Shekou, it actually extended to the future Yuehai Street.

And in the area of the future Yuehai Street, both Hongkong Land Group and Hongkong Electric Group had also acquired a considerable amount of land.

At this time, with their investment, Shenzhen was eager to offer even more land to Lin Haoran’s companies.

After all, whether it was Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, or Wanqing Group, they all began development as soon as they acquired the land, rather than hoarding it.

And what Shenzhen, and indeed all of Mainland China, needed most were investors like Lin Haoran.

He was a genuine investor, not one of those speculators who only made empty promises and sought to hoard land at low prices to hold out for a better price.

How could the mainland government not adore an investor like him!

After a while, Lin Haoran left the pier construction site and took the industrial park’s shuttle bus back to the office building.

This office building stood in the center of the park’s first phase. It wasn’t tall, only eight floors, but it housed Wanqing Group’s mainland office, as well as the offices for the mainland management of Hongkong Land Group, Langwei Group, and others.

“Boss, you’ve come at the perfect time. I was just about to go inspect Hongkong Land Group’s other investment projects in Shenzhen. A Vice Mayor of Shenzhen will be accompanying us. Would you like to join?” Just as he got out of the car, Ma Shimin happened to be walking out of the Vitasoy production facility with several senior executives from Hongkong Land Group. Seeing Lin Haoran, he asked with a smile.

The Vitasoy factory was right next to the office building.

He didn’t have much time on this trip to the mainland, so Ma Shimin hadn’t planned on inspecting projects in places like Guangzhou.

However, he did have time to inspect the investment projects in Shenzhen.

For instance, the project for the future tallest building in Mainland China, which had already broken ground, was located in Futian Commune, Luohu, nearly twenty kilometers away from Shekou.

Lin Haoran raised an eyebrow, a flicker of interest in his eyes. After a moment’s thought, he said, “Alright, let’s go together. I’m also quite curious about Hongkong Land Group’s other ventures in Shenzhen.”

Yang Mingyi, who had been following Lin Haoran, saw this and said with a smile, “Boss, I have some matters to arrange, so I won’t accompany you.”

Lin Haoran nodded, and under his gaze, Yang Mingyi quickly departed.

He then got into the Mercedes-Benz with Ma Shimin and the others.

The convoy slowly drove out of the industrial park, heading toward the city.

As Lin Haoran watched the scenery flash by the window, a complex mix of emotions welled up inside him.

On both sides of the road, low farmhouses and newly built factories appeared in succession, with rice paddies and construction sites separated by a single street.

Occasionally, he could see bulldozers leveling land, and bare-chested workers toiling under the hot sun, their sweat pouring like rain.

In the distance, a few high-rises under construction were taking shape, the workers on the scaffolding as busy as ants.

Lin Haoran had lived in the future Shenzhen for several years. Back then, he was just a common wage slave, burning the midnight oil in an office building for a meager salary, squeezing onto crowded subways, and worrying about life in a tiny rented apartment.

The Shenzhen of that time was already an international metropolis full of infinite possibilities, with skyscrapers packed together, endless traffic, and a large, vibrant population.

Its Gross Regional Product had even surpassed that of neighboring Hong Kong.

But that was forty years in the future.

Now, he had returned to this land as a Hong Kong investor, wielding the capital and resources to change the entire city’s landscape.

This transformation of identity made him marvel at the wonders of fate, but also filled him with a heavy sense of responsibility.

“I was here just four months ago to inspect the project’s progress. At that time, this area was still a stretch of rice paddies. I didn’t expect it to be leveled into a construction site already. Things change so fast,” Ma Shimin said with emotion, pointing to a construction site outside the window.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly.

This particular site didn’t belong to any of his companies; it was likely a government project or one from another Hong Kong investor.

Spurred by Lin Haoran’s example, the number of Hong Kong businessmen investing in Shenzhen during this period had indeed increased, and although they didn’t dare to invest on a large scale, it was still progress.

The speed of Shenzhen’s transformation was beyond many people’s imagination.

Just two or three years ago, this place was little more than a small fishing village, but now, signs of large-scale construction were everywhere.

Hongkong Land Group had numerous investment projects in Shenzhen. As one of the largest investors, the Shenzhen government had approved many prime plots of land for the group.

For example, in central Shenzhen areas like Futian Commune in Luohu, Renmin Road, and Heping Road, Hongkong Land Group had been granted several well-located plots of land.

Of course, it was only 1981, and the so-called city center still had an urban landscape that was a thick mixture of rural and nascent development.

The area around Futian Commune in Luohu, though designated a key development zone, was mostly filled with low, dilapidated tiled houses and simple, newly erected scaffolding.

The roads were narrow, rugged, and uneven. Every time a vehicle passed, it would kick up a cloud of dust. The drains on the roadside emitted a faint odor, and one could occasionally see a few rats scurrying through piles of debris.

Around Renmin Road and Heping Road, although there were a few newly completed buildings, the overall style was still very simple. The exterior walls were just coated with a simple layer of whitewash, without much ornate decoration.

There were few shops on the streets, and most of their signboards were handwritten, swaying gently in the breeze and making creaking sounds.

Nevertheless, the place was brimming with vibrant life. The faces of pedestrians were filled with aspirations for the future, and the cries of street vendors could be heard from time to time, adding a touch of worldly life to this emerging city.

Ma Shimin had clearly been here several times and was quite familiar with the area.

Led by him and a manager from Hongkong Land Group’s Shenzhen office, Lin Haoran and the Vice Mayor spent the morning inspecting several of the group’s projects.

These projects included commercial buildings, industrial parks, hotels, and more.

At noon, led by the Shenzhen Vice Mayor, the group had a meal at a relatively famous local restaurant in Luohu.

The food was indeed delicious and a good value, which explained its fame in the area.

In the afternoon, the inspection tour continued.

According to the schedule, they would return to Shekou Port around four in the afternoon to take the hydrofoil back to the Central Ferry Piers in Hong Kong.

So, there were still a few more places to visit in the afternoon.

Hongkong Land Group currently had over a dozen projects underway in Shenzhen, so trying to inspect them all in one day was indeed a bit rushed.

In the afternoon, the weather in Shenzhen suddenly changed. The entire sky turned gloomy, and the air grew increasingly muggy.

They were at an industrial park project at the foot of Bijia Mountain in Luohu. In the future, it would also undertake production tasks for some of Langwei Group’s fast-moving consumer products. The entire park was under construction, covering an area of nearly five hundred thousand square meters, about half the size of the Wanqing-Shekou Industrial Park.

It was not far from the municipal government building, which was why the land Shenzhen approved for Hongkong Land Group here wasn’t too large. There were surely many other plans for the surrounding area, and some plots needed to be reserved.

As the convoy slowly drove into the area around the project, Lin Haoran incidentally glanced through the car window and saw a dilapidated village primary school next to the site.

The school’s gate was mottled and peeling, and many bricks on the surrounding wall had fallen off, making it look precarious. The faint sound of students reading aloud could be heard from within.

In front of the gate stood several tall, old trees.

Lin Haoran withdrew his gaze. Led by the head of Hongkong Land Group’s Shenzhen office, the group walked into the industrial park under construction.

Inside, the wide concrete roads had already been paved. More than twenty three-story factory buildings were under construction, a scene of bustling activity.

This construction site alone created a significant number of jobs for Shenzhen.

And Hongkong Land Group had many such construction sites in Shenzhen, not to mention numerous others in places like Guangzhou, Dongguan, Chancheng, and even Zhucheng.

The same was true for Hongkong Electric Group and Wanqing Group.

Lin Haoran followed Ma Shimin, the Hongkong Land executives, and even the Vice Mayor through the various project sites, listening carefully to the project managers’ reports on planning, construction progress, and estimated completion dates.

The Vice Mayor was accompanying them on this inspection to see if they were facing any difficulties that the government could help resolve. It was clear that Shenzhen was showing its utmost sincerity toward Lin Haoran’s companies.

After inspecting the final project, the industrial park at the foot of Bijia Mountain in Luohu, the group walked out of the construction site.

The moment they stepped out of the gate, large raindrops began to fall, splattering against the ground and instantly kicking up a mist.

The rain came suddenly and fiercely. Before anyone could react, it was too late to run back to the construction site. They could only hastily look for a place to take shelter.

Lin Haoran looked around and saw that the closest place was the dilapidated village primary school he had noticed earlier.

He said without hesitation, “Let’s take cover from the rain in that school.”

And so, the group hurried through the rain toward the school.

By the time they rushed through the school gate, their clothes were already soaked through.

Lin Haoran stood in the school’s corridor, shaking the rainwater from his hair, finally getting a chance to properly observe the primary school.

The school’s facilities were extremely rudimentary. Many of the classroom windowpanes were broken, crudely patched up with plastic sheets and wooden boards. When the wind blew, they made creaking sounds.

The classroom roofs also had several leaks. Rainwater was dripping onto the floor, forming small puddles.

It was currently recess, and the children were laughing and playing in the cramped classrooms.

They wore simple, even somewhat tattered clothes, but their faces were filled with innocent smiles.

Seeing a group of strangers burst into their school, the children first gathered around curiously, sizing them up with shy yet inquisitive eyes.

Lin Haoran squatted down and began to chat with a few of the children with a smile.

“Little friends, are you happy studying here?”

A little girl with pigtails answered crisply, “Yes, I am! The teachers are really nice and teach us lots of things.”

Another little boy pointed at the classroom ceiling and said, “It’s just that when it rains, the classroom leaks, which is a bit of a hassle.”

Lin Haoran followed the boy’s finger and saw several iron buckets placed in the corner of the classroom to catch the water. The rain was rhythmically tapping against the bottom of the buckets, creating a clear echo.

His gaze slowly swept over the mottled classroom walls, the broken window frames, and finally settled back on the children’s pure, bright eyes.

The Vice Mayor sighed, his tone heavy. “Mr. Lin, to be honest with you, there are at least a hundred more primary schools like this in Shenzhen. The Reform and Opening-up has just begun, and our limited funds have all been invested in infrastructure. We truly lack the resources for education.”

Lin Haoran nodded, stood up, and looked at the dilapidated classroom and the innocent, lovely children facing such difficult learning conditions. A wave of emotion touched his heart.

He thought of his previous life. Although he had lived an ordinary life, he had received a complete education. Yet the children before him couldn’t even be guaranteed a proper learning environment.

This era was truly difficult.

Just then, the old school principal hurried over.

After all, Lin Haoran’s group clearly looked distinguished, and there were government officials among them.

The principal was an old man with white hair and a kind face. Wiping the rain from his face, he said apologetically, “I am the principal of this school. I’m so sorry to have our distinguished guests taking shelter in such conditions. Our school’s facilities are limited, I truly apologize for the inconvenience.”

Lin Haoran quickly said, “Principal, please don’t say that. We are the ones who barged in and disturbed you. But I’d like to ask, how did the school get into such a state of disrepair?”

The principal sighed and said slowly, “This school was built many years ago and has always lacked funds for repairs. Although the government wishes to improve it, their funds are limited, and they have to prioritize more urgent needs.”

The Vice Mayor beside them looked a little embarrassed.

Shenzhen had only been established as a city for two years, and it had embarked on the path of Reform and Opening-up right after its establishment. Everything was waiting to be rebuilt.

Therefore, every cent of funding was weighed as if on a precision scale, with limited resources allocated to the most critical areas that could drive the city’s rapid development.

Education, though a long-term plan, had to be temporarily put on the back burner during this urgent phase of construction.

Lin Haoran asked again, “How many students does the school have? And how is the teaching staff?”

The principal replied, “Currently, the school has six grades with a total of over two hundred students. Including myself, there are only six teachers. We are all locals, and our education level isn’t very high, but we all do our best to teach the children.”

Lin Haoran nodded. This village was only a few kilometers from the municipal government, but because all of Shenzhen was still in its initial stages of development, even though the village’s location was quite good and would surely become part of the city center in the future, it was currently just a very ordinary rural village.

Chapter 727: The Shock of Shenzhen’s Leaders, a Return to Hong Kong!

Lin Haoran surveyed the dilapidated elementary school as rain dripped incessantly from leaks in the roof.

Not every leak had an iron bucket placed under it. On the corridor, for instance, rainwater dripped directly onto the earthen ground in several places, forming small puddles.

There wasn’t a single patch of concrete ground in the entire school; it was all yellow mud, even inside the classrooms.

As the rain fell, it quickly turned the ground into a muddy mess.

Several older students were tiptoeing, carefully trying to avoid the puddles, but they still couldn’t help but splash their trouser legs with mud.

Lin Haoran’s leather shoes left clear prints on the wet, slippery earth.

He watched it all in silence, his gaze shifting from the leaking roof to the mottled walls, and finally to the children’s mud-stained trouser legs and their obviously ill-fitting, even worn-out, cloth shoes.

“Clang, clang, clang~”

The bell for class rang, and the children who had been playing and taking shelter from the rain in the corridor immediately ran towards their respective classrooms.

Despite the muddy and difficult ground, they moved as quickly as they could, afraid of being late for class.

Lin Haoran and his group subconsciously made way for them.

He watched the small figures deftly navigate around the puddles and disappear through the crude classroom doors. A moment later, the sound of spirited reading drifted out from the classrooms, overpowering the patter of the rain.

Clearly, they were already used to this kind of life.

The sound of reading intertwined with the drumming of raindrops hitting the iron buckets, creating a poignant harmony.

The old principal smiled, a mixture of gratification and apology on his face. “The children cherish their opportunity to study. They can overcome even the worst conditions. This school serves several surrounding villages, and many children have to walk a long way to get here every day.

“Actually, things are much better now. Ever since Shenzhen became a Special Economic Zone, roads have been built everywhere. The main roads outside have all been paved with concrete, making it much more convenient for the children to come to school.

“But just two years ago, on a rainy day like this, the road would be a muddy mess. They’d often arrive at school soaked to the bone and covered in mud. The teachers would have to find ways to help them dry their clothes.”

Lin Haoran nodded. If this was the situation in a Special Economic Zone, the conditions in schools in more remote areas of Mainland China were likely far more arduous.

He recalled images he had seen in news reports in his previous life: the children of the “cliff village” who climbed rattan ladders to get to school every day, the students in high-altitude regions who walked for hours in sub-zero temperatures, and those who didn’t even have proper classrooms and had to attend class outdoors or in hazardous buildings…

The vice mayor added softly, “Mr. Lin, what you’re seeing is already one of the relatively better village schools in Shenzhen. At least we have brick-and-tile classrooms. In some remote areas, they still use adobe houses or even converted ancestral halls and temples as classrooms. Whenever there’s heavy rain or snow, they have to suspend classes.

“We want to change this situation, but even we are somewhat powerless. That’s why we’re so focused on developing the economy. Once the economy improves, all of this will get better.”

Inside the classroom, the teacher’s voice leading the children in recitation grew louder. Their young, neat voices seemed to carry a power that could pierce through the wind and rain.

The scene before him was but a microcosm of the state of education in Mainland China during this era.

Lin Haoran’s gaze followed the last scrawny figure running into a classroom. The child’s trouser legs were almost completely soaked with muddy water, leaving a small muddy print on the floor with every step.

He was standing right next to the window of a third-grade classroom.

Through the somewhat broken glass, he saw the scene inside: more than forty children were crammed behind simple desks, intently following the teacher as they read the text aloud.

Rain still dripped from the roof from time to time, but the children seemed accustomed to it, subconsciously avoiding the spots where the water fell, their eyes fixed on the teacher at the front of the room.

The teacher’s voice, hoarse yet powerful, led the children: “If the youth are wise, the nation will be wise. If the youth are rich, the nation will be rich. If the youth are strong, the nation will be strong…”

The children’s voices followed, crisp and firm, sounding exceptionally clear amid the rain.

On their innocent faces, their eyes were focused and bright, as if the difficulties before them were nothing at all.

The rain began to subside, but Lin Haoran’s heart grew heavier with emotion.

In his previous life, he too had been born into a poor family and could deeply empathize with the hardships and difficulties these children faced on their educational path.

The muddy roads, the dilapidated classrooms, the crude desks, and the determined eyes that overcame countless obstacles for the sake of learning—they were like heavy hammers striking the softest part of his heart, stirring up countless long-buried memories.

When he was a child, his home had also been in a remote mountain village.

The village school was just as dilapidated. The classroom windows had no glass, and the biting winter wind would howl in, freezing his small hands red and stiff, yet he had to tightly grip a pencil stub that couldn’t be any shorter to write in his notebook.

In summer, rain would leak through the cracks in the roof, soaking their textbooks and clothes. Everyone would huddle together, using their bodies to shield their books from the water.

The school had no cafeteria, so for lunch, they could only eat cold rice and dishes brought from home. Sometimes, the food in their lunchboxes would even be stolen by rats.

To get to school, he had to wake up before dawn every day and walk several kilometers over mountains and ridges. On rainy days, the mountain paths were muddy and slippery, and he couldn’t count how many times he had fallen. But even so, he never thought of giving up.

He knew that only through education could he change his own and his family’s destiny, and only then could he leave that barren land.

Those days of persevering in his studies amidst hardship, though filled with bitterness, had also endowed him with tenacity and perseverance, becoming the most precious asset of his life.

Now, seeing these children before him, he felt as if he were seeing his former self.

Lin Haoran turned around, looked at the old principal and the vice mayor, and said, “I would like to contribute, in a personal capacity, to the cause of basic education in Mainland China. I want to do my part for this elementary school, for these children. I will provide the funds to improve the school’s teaching environment, build a new school building, replace the desks and chairs, and ensure that the children can learn in a warm, dry, and bright classroom.”

Everyone present was stunned.

When the old principal and the vice mayor heard this, their eyes filled with surprise and gratitude.

The old principal gripped Lin Haoran’s hand tightly, his voice trembling slightly. “Mr. Lin, you are truly a great benefactor to these children! On behalf of all the teachers and students of the school, and the surrounding villagers, I express our most sincere gratitude!”

“I’m not finished. I plan to donate one hundred Hope Schools to Mainland China every year from now on, primarily focusing on schools in rural areas and townships. These schools must have sturdy academic buildings, bright classrooms, standard sports fields, and also libraries!”

The vice mayor excitedly grasped Lin Haoran’s hand. “Mr. Lin, this… this is truly a godsend!”

One hundred schools a year was an astonishing number, and an even weightier promise!

It meant a thousand schools in ten years, benefiting countless students from poor families!

This foresight and boldness commanded the respect of everyone present.

“Vice Mayor Wang, please rest assured. Since I’ve said it, I will certainly do it. After returning to Hong Kong this time, I will quickly establish a charitable foundation in my personal name. The foundation will be specifically responsible for the promotion and supervision of the Hope School project.

“I will hire a professional team to strictly oversee every stage, from site selection and design to construction, to ensure that every school meets high-quality standards,” Lin Haoran replied solemnly.

He had actually mentioned this to Guo Xiaohan recently when they were discussing their life after marriage. He had told her that once they were married, he would establish a Lin Haoran Charitable Foundation for her to manage.

This way, Guo Xiaohan could put her talents to use without interfering too much with his Commercial Empire.

And building Hope Schools in Mainland China was the perfect project for this soon-to-be-established ‘Lin Haoran Charitable Foundation’.

At this very moment, in this environment, Lin Haoran made a decision that would benefit countless people.

With his current wealth, donating one hundred Hope Schools a year was no great matter, but it could change the destiny of countless children in impoverished regions!

The value created by this investment in education was far beyond what money could measure.

Lin Haoran looked at the old principal, who was too emotional to speak, at the tears shimmering in the vice mayor’s eyes, and then at the children in the classrooms who, despite their difficult circumstances, were still diligently pursuing knowledge. His heart was filled with an unprecedented sense of fulfillment.

“Mr. Lin, I have another audacious request!” The vice mayor hesitated for a moment but finally gritted his teeth and spoke up.

“Oh? Vice Mayor Wang, please go on.” Lin Haoran looked at the Shenzhen official with a smile.

“Actually, ever since Shenzhen was established as a city and became a Special Economic Zone, we have been preparing to establish Shenzhen University. It’s just that the funding gap is truly too large.

“The investment required for higher education is no small matter. Just building the campus, purchasing equipment, and hiring faculty is an astronomical sum. We have applied to the higher authorities many times, but the country is also in a state of waiting to be rebuilt, and funds are needed everywhere…” A difficult expression appeared on the vice mayor’s face.

He paused, his tone becoming more sincere. “Mr. Lin, I know you’ve already made a huge commitment to basic education, and I shouldn’t be asking for more. But for Shenzhen to develop, factories and workers are not enough. We need to cultivate our own high-level talent!”

For the sake of Shenzhen’s education, the vice mayor decided to throw caution to the wind.

Lin Haoran heard this and nodded.

Shenzhen University. He knew of it. In the future, it would be a very impressive school. Although it wasn’t a Project 985 or even a Project 211 institution, it carved out a unique niche in the world of higher education with its distinctive spirit of innovation and pragmatic style, cultivating a large number of practical talents for Shenzhen and the entire country.

Among them, many became leaders in innovative fields, the most famous being that Mr. Ma who founded Tencent.

In this life, since he had the opportunity to participate in its creation, why not let it shine earlier?

Lin Haoran pondered for a moment, his gaze sweeping over the dilapidated classroom and the children’s eyes, which longed for knowledge. He slowly began to speak, “Vice Mayor Wang is right. The sustainable development of a city requires both solid basic education and high-level higher education. The two are like the two wheels of a chariot or the two wings of a bird; one cannot be without the other.”

He paused, and under the expectant gazes of the crowd, he continued, “How about this. In addition to the Hope School project, I will personally donate one hundred million Hong Kong dollars to Shenzhen University as start-up capital for its establishment.

“But this money must be used exclusively for its intended purpose, mainly for the construction of teaching facilities, talent acquisition, and the establishment of scholarships.”

“One… one hundred million Hong Kong dollars? Mr. Lin, this… thank you so, so much! This fund is truly timely rain for us!” The vice mayor was so shocked he could barely speak, his hands trembling slightly.

The other government officials and school teachers present also showed expressions of disbelief.

One hundred million Hong Kong dollars was undoubtedly a huge sum in 1981, enough to completely change the course of Shenzhen University’s establishment.

Yesterday, at the opening ceremony of the Wanching-Shekou Industrial Park, Lin Haoran had announced on the spot that his Hongkong Land Group would donate one hundred million Hong Kong dollars to establish the ‘Hongkong Land Education Fund’, specifically to support outstanding students from poor families in Mainland China’s universities to pursue majors in science and engineering, and to jointly train them with enterprises, building a reserve of future engineers and scientists for the country’s industrialization process!

That night, when the news spread across the country via CCTV, it had already shocked countless people.

Unexpectedly, today Lin Haoran not only once again stated that he would donate one hundred Hope Schools annually in the future but also would donate one hundred million Hong Kong dollars to Shenzhen University.

At this moment, besides shock, the vice mayor’s heart was filled more with gratitude and admiration.

He had braced himself to bring this up, originally thinking that Lin Haoran, considering his status, would at most make a token donation. He never expected this, which completely exceeded his expectations.

He gripped Lin Haoran’s hand tightly, his voice choked with emotion, “Mr. Lin, we will never forget this profound kindness you’ve shown to Shenzhen’s education! This one hundred million Hong Kong dollars is not just funding; it’s the seed of Shenzhen University, the hope for the future of the Special Economic Zone!”

The surrounding government officials and teachers also had red-rimmed eyes. They knew better than anyone what this massive donation meant.

It meant that Shenzhen University could start from a high bar, that the blueprint for talent development in the Special Economic Zone could be realized ahead of schedule, and that the fates of countless children would be changed because of it.

Lin Haoran smiled gently and continued, “Vice Mayor Wang, I hope that Shenzhen University can be based in the Special Economic Zone and face the world. It should not only have first-class hardware facilities but also an innovative educational philosophy and an open academic atmosphere.”

“However,” Lin Haoran changed his tone, which became serious, “Vice Mayor Wang, I have a few requirements.”

The vice mayor quickly said, “Please, speak! As long as they are reasonable requests, we will certainly do our best to meet them!”

Lin Haoran held up three fingers. “First, Shenzhen University must be based in the Special Economic Zone and oriented towards the world. Its educational philosophy must be forward-thinking. It cannot simply copy the models of older universities in Mainland China. It must be bold in innovation and offer majors that meet the development needs of the Special Economic Zone.”

“Second, the faculty must be top-notch. You must not hesitate to spend heavily to hire outstanding scholars from home and abroad, while also establishing cooperative relationships with renowned universities in Hong Kong and overseas to share teaching resources.”

“Third, and most importantly, the university must have an independent academic atmosphere that is inclusive and encourages innovative thinking. This point requires the commitment and support of the municipal government.”

The vice mayor nodded solemnly. “Mr. Lin, please rest assured, these requests are completely reasonable and are precisely the goals we are pursuing. The municipal government will definitely grant Shenzhen University the greatest autonomy, allowing it to become the educational testing ground for the Special Economic Zone’s Reform and Opening-up!

“Even if you hadn’t brought these up, Mr. Lin, we would still be working in this direction. However, to be honest, without your funding, these wonderful visions would likely have been delayed for many years,” the vice mayor said with a wry smile.

Ma Shimin added at the opportune moment, “Boss, we can also facilitate cooperation agreements between Shenzhen University and Hong Kong University and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, for projects like faculty exchanges, student exchanges, and joint research. This would accelerate Shenzhen University’s growth.”

“That’s an excellent suggestion!” Lin Haoran said with approval. “Vice Mayor Wang, this will also require coordination from the municipal government.”

“Certainly! Certainly!” the vice mayor repeatedly assured. “We have already allocated the land, over by Nantou Commune. The environment is beautiful and it’s easily accessible. With Mr. Lin’s financial support, Shenzhen University will definitely get off to a high-standard start!”

Nantou Commune, in what would become Nanshan, was the future location of the Nanshan district government.

At this moment, in this dilapidated elementary school, several major charitable acts that would benefit countless people were thus decided.

In reality, although it seemed like a lot was being donated, yesterday’s one hundred million Hong Kong dollars plus today’s one hundred million Hong Kong dollars totaled two hundred million Hong Kong dollars, which, when converted to RMB, was only a little over sixty million RMB.

As for the Hope Schools, building materials and labor were extremely cheap in this era. Constructing an elementary or middle school wouldn’t cost much at all.

To others, these might be huge sums.

But to Lin Haoran, it truly wasn’t much and wouldn’t cause him any financial pressure.

He didn’t lack money now; what he lacked was a cause that could truly bring him long-lasting satisfaction and peace of mind.

And education had undoubtedly become the bright light that illuminated the dark corners of his soul.

He had always heard the saying: with great power comes great responsibility.

And in this life, his power had already surpassed most people’s.

A small act of kindness could not only help a great many people but also strengthen his motivation to make money in the future.

“Vice Mayor Wang, please rest assured, I will arrange for this one hundred million Hong Kong dollars to be sent as soon as I return. It will be donated to Shenzhen in the name of my foundation!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

After his engagement, it would be time to establish his personal charitable foundation.

And after the engagement, he couldn’t let Guo Xiaohan continue to work for the Guo family.

It wouldn’t do for a woman who was about to marry out to still be managing her parents’ family business.

“Mr. Lin, I can assure you that Shenzhen University’s main academic building will be named after you, so that every student who walks onto this campus will remember your generous act of kindness and selfless dedication. In addition, I will invite CCTV to report on the donation ceremony, so your goodwill will not go unnoticed!” the vice mayor said solemnly.

“You can handle it as you see fit. The rain has stopped, we should get going,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, looking at the drizzle that was gradually ceasing outside.

He did not refuse the vice mayor’s proposal; it was what he deserved.

His clothes were a bit damp, so there was no need to continue the inspection.

The convoy drove directly back to the guest hotel near Shekou.

After a hot shower and a change into a set of dry clothes, Lin Haoran did not go out again. He sat in a chair in his hotel room, staring out the window at Shenzhen in a daze.

As four o’clock approached, Ma Shimin knocked on the door and came in, saying it was time to prepare for the return trip to Hong Kong.

Thus, Lin Haoran and the others once again took the Mercedes-Benz to Shekou Port.

At the port’s pier, the hydrofoil they had taken three days ago was moored quietly.

Just as when they arrived, Lin Haoran led Ma Shimin, Burton, and the others aboard one by one.

However, there was one extra person on the return trip: Liu Xiaoli, from the Jiangcheng Song and Dance Theater.

With Yang Mingyi’s intervention, the Jiangcheng Song and Dance Theater had released her without any issue.

As the ship’s horn sounded, Lin Haoran bid farewell to the Shenzhen city leaders who had come to see him off.

The hydrofoil cut through the calm sea, speeding towards Hong Kong on the opposite shore.

Inside the cabin, Lin Haoran gazed at the gradually receding skyline of Shenzhen, his mind filled with a myriad of thoughts.

On that land, there were the promises he had just made, as well as countless destinies awaiting change.

Sitting opposite him, Liu Xiaoli appeared somewhat reserved and uneasy.

The young woman was wearing a floral long dress today, and the dress swayed gently with the slight rocking of the boat.

Liu Xiaoli had her hands clasped in her lap, her fingers unconsciously fidgeting with a corner of her skirt.

Although her attire was simple, it couldn’t hide her natural beauty.

Under the soft light of the cabin, her fair skin had a faint luster, as warm and delicate as fine white jade.

Beneath her gracefully arched brows, a pair of eyes, clear and bright like a spring, revealed an innocence and liveliness untouched by the world.

Below a small, straight nose were ruby-red lips, currently pressed together slightly, showing a trace of nervousness and shyness.

She clutched a simple luggage bag containing her few personal belongings.

Leaving a familiar workplace and environment for a completely unknown, bustling, and foreign international metropolis, with an uncertain future, naturally made the young woman feel apprehensive.

Her gaze occasionally swept over Lin Haoran’s calm profile. This “Mr. Lin,” so young yet so powerful, had changed the trajectory of her life with a single sentence. She didn’t know what kind of future awaited her.

Lin Haoran seemed to sense her unease. He turned his head, smiled faintly, and spoke in a calm tone, “Miss Liu, don’t be nervous. When we get to Hong Kong, we’ll first arrange for you to stay in a hotel.

“I will have an assistant take care of your subsequent arrangements. She will discuss your dance career and future development with you in detail.”

His voice seemed to carry a reassuring power.

“Mr. Lin, thank you. You are my great benefactor. I will work hard. You can just call me Xiaoli from now on,” Liu Xiaoli said, mustering her courage.

“The environment in Hong Kong is different from Mainland China. There are more opportunities and bigger stages, but the challenges are also greater. I hope you can adapt quickly,” Lin Haoran added, then said no more, turning to look out the window again.

Liu Xiaoli silently mulled over his words. The apprehension in her heart seemed to lessen somewhat, replaced by a flicker of anticipation and eagerness for the future.

The journey did not last long before the bustling Victoria Harbour came into view.

The skyscrapers stood shoulder to shoulder, a stark contrast to the Shenzhen they had just left, as if they were two different worlds.

Chapter 728: The Auspicious Day of the Engagement; She Had Waited Too Long for This Day!

“It’s so prosperous!” Standing on the hydrofoil, Liu Xiaoli murmured as she gazed at the towering buildings lining both shores of Victoria Harbour.

At that moment, the awe and longing in Liu Xiaoli’s eyes were almost overflowing.

Jiangcheng, where she had lived, was considered a famous major city in Mainland China, and she had even been to Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

In the early 1980s, even in these major cities, urban development was very ordinary. Skyscrapers were few and far between, the streets were mostly narrow and crowded, and the commercial atmosphere was nowhere near as rich and diverse as this.

But before her eyes was Victoria Harbour, where one skyscraper after another pierced the clouds, their glass curtain walls reflecting a kaleidoscope of light, creating a dreamlike scene.

On the sea, cruise ships and ferries shuttled back and forth, their whistles and the sound of the waves weaving into a stirring symphony.

She had seen pictures of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour in magazines before, but only by being here in person, seeing it with her own eyes, could she truly feel the staggering impact, as if she had stepped into a completely different world.

At this moment, she personally experienced what it meant to be in two different worlds.

At the same time, she became even more certain that her decision had been the right one.

If she hadn’t summoned the courage to make this decision and plead with Lin Haoran to bring her from Shenzhen to Hong Kong, she might have never been able to witness such a prosperous scene with her own eyes for a long time, let alone pursue her dream of dancing here.

Lin Haoran, sitting on a bench on the hydrofoil, heard Liu Xiaoli’s whisper and smiled faintly. He knew that this young lady was so shaken by the sight that she could hardly compose herself.

This was quite normal. The prosperity of Hong Kong at this time was among the best, even on an international scale.

As for the major cities in Mainland China, their pace of development had been relatively slow due to years of economic isolation. Although they were beginning to catch up with the times, the gap with Hong Kong was immense.

Therefore, it could be said that the Hong Kong of this era and the top-tier cities in Mainland China were like two different worlds.

The hydrofoil docked smoothly, and the modern aura of Hong Kong washed over them with even greater intensity.

The pier was teeming with people, a bustling crowd of faces of all colors hurrying past. Fashionably dressed men and women and business professionals in sharp suits formed a vibrant urban tapestry.

Liu Xiaoli carefully followed Lin Haoran off the boat, her eyes constantly scanning her surroundings, afraid of missing any new sight.

The clacking of high heels on the ground, the overlapping conversations in Cantonese and English, the distant honking of cars—all these sounds merged into a unique urban symphony.

“Boss, I’ll take a couple of men to get the cars. Please have a seat here for a moment,” Li Weidong said with a slight bow.

Their cars were parked in the car park of the Central Ferry Piers, which was owned by the Hongkong Land Group. Even there, the vehicles were under 24-hour surveillance.

Furthermore, when they went to get the cars, they would also inspect the vehicles for any issues.

After all, the incident with the time bomb planted under the car was enough to make the security team far more cautious about the safety of the boss’s vehicles.

Lin Haoran nodded.

Liu Xiaoli stood beside Lin Haoran, a little uneasy.

Having arrived in this bustling and unfamiliar city where she didn’t speak the language, she now completely relied on Lin Haoran as her anchor.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran smiled and said, “I’ve already made arrangements for you. Someone will be here soon to take you to your hotel to settle in. If you need anything, just tell her. I won’t leave you on your own before you’ve adjusted to the environment in Hong Kong, so don’t worry.”

Since he had brought Liu Xiaoli to Hong Kong, Lin Haoran had no intention of simply abandoning her.

After all, Hong Kong in this era was crawling with triad societies. A young woman, especially one as beautiful as Liu Xiaoli, could easily attract the attention of some thugs. A single misstep could lead to trouble.

Besides, since he had chosen to bring her here, it was clear he coveted her beauty to some extent. Naturally, Lin Haoran was unwilling to let such a delicate flower fall into another’s hands.

“Thank you, Mr. Lin,” Liu Xiaoli said softly, the anxiety in her heart easing slightly.

She secretly sized up the young but powerfully composed man beside her. The calm and unhurried tone he used when speaking gave her an inexplicable sense of security.

Before Li Weidong and the others returned with the cars, a woman in her thirties, dressed in professional attire, came rushing over.

“Boss, I’m very sorry, the traffic was quite heavy. Thankfully, I’m not late.” The woman was slightly out of breath, with fine beads of sweat on her forehead, clearly having hurried.

She was an assistant from the Hongkong Land Group whom Lin Haoran had temporarily assigned to handle Liu Xiaoli’s affairs in Hong Kong.

Lin Haoran nodded at Zhou Meiqi. “Assistant Zhou, I’m leaving Miss Liu in your care. First, take her to the Mandarin Hotel in Central to settle in. You can handle the application for her Hong Kong identity card and other related procedures tomorrow.”

“Understood, Mr. Lin,” Zhou Meiqi responded respectfully, then turned to Liu Xiaoli. “Miss Liu, please come with me. The car is already waiting.”

Just then, Li Weidong pulled up in a Rolls-Royce beside Lin Haoran, followed by two ordinary bulletproof sedans.

Before getting into the car, Lin Haoran said gently to Liu Xiaoli, “You go with Assistant Zhou to the hotel and rest first. If you need anything, just tell her.”

“Mr. Lin, I… if I want to see you, how can I find you?” Liu Xiaoli seemed to struggle with the words for a long time before she finally mustered the courage to ask softly.

“I’ll come find you when I have time. For now, just focus on getting used to Hong Kong,” Lin Haoran said with a wave, then smiled and ducked into the car.

The Rolls-Royce slowly pulled away, with the two cars behind it following closely, and soon disappeared into the traffic of the Central Ferry Piers.

Liu Xiaoli watched the departing motorcade, a hint of disappointment rising in her heart, but she quickly pulled herself together.

“Miss Liu, you’re so fortunate to have earned the Boss’s appreciation!” the assistant said, looking at Liu Xiaoli with an envious gaze.

Their boss was the most powerful man in Hong Kong’s business world; countless girls dreamed of getting close to him.

Hearing this, a faint blush appeared on Liu Xiaoli’s cheeks, but she didn’t explain her relationship with Lin Haoran.

She asked softly, “Assistant Zhou, is Mr. Lin… very popular in Hong Kong?”

While opening the car door for Liu Xiaoli, Zhou Meiqi smiled and said, “More than just popular. Mr. Lin is the most powerful figure in Hong Kong’s business community. He’s not only successful in his career but also handsome and suave. I can’t even tell you how many socialites and daughters of wealthy families want to win his favor.”

After they got in the car, Zhou Meiqi started the engine from the driver’s seat and explained, “But Mr. Lin has always been low-key and rarely attends social events. The fact that he specifically arranged for me to take care of you shows that he values you greatly.”

The car drove smoothly towards the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

Along the way, Zhou Meiqi thoughtfully introduced the landmark buildings they passed. “That tallest building over there is the Connaught Centre, this one here is the Wanqing Building, that building is the Hang Seng Building, and ahead is The Landmark. That skyscraper we just passed that’s still under construction will one day be the tallest building in the world. These are all properties of companies under Mr. Lin…”

Meanwhile, Lin Haoran’s motorcade quickly left the bustling downtown of Central and headed straight for the Deep Water Bay villa area.

By now, it was already past five in the afternoon.

The day after tomorrow was the auspicious day of his engagement. His parents had been working tirelessly these past few days for his sake, yet he was still busy with his own work. He did feel a bit guilty.

Therefore, after returning from Shenzhen, Lin Haoran chose to go directly back to the Deep Water Bay villa.

On the way, he used his mobile phone to call home in Deep Water Bay to let them know he was on his way back.

When his mother learned that her son was coming home, her joyful voice was unmistakable.

Half an hour later, Lin Haoran’s motorcade had stopped in front of the Lin family villa in Deep Water Bay.

Hearing the sound of the engines, several people came out from the villa.

Besides his father, Lin Wan’an, Lin Haoran was surprised to see his older brother, Lin Haoning, as well as his sister-in-law, Cao Shaoling, and his nephew, Lin Jianbin.

It had been a while, and his nephew Lin Jianbin had grown quite a bit, and put on some weight too.

“Hello, Second Uncle,” Lin Jianbin greeted Lin Haoran in a small voice, clearly a little intimidated by this famous business tycoon of Hong Kong.

Lin Haoran picked Lin Jianbin up and said with a smile to Lin Haoning, “Older Brother, if you don’t control Jianbin’s weight, I won’t be able to lift him soon!”

Lin Haoning replied with a wry smile, “This kid has been eating a lot lately, and your sister-in-law always spoils him.”

Cao Shaoling chided from the side, “What kind of father are you? The child is still growing. What’s wrong with eating a bit more?”

Lin Wan’an watched this scene with a measure of gratification and said, “Let’s not all stand outside. Come in and talk. Your mother knew you were coming back and specifically told the kitchen to prepare your favorite dishes.”

Lin Haoran nodded, and the group walked into the house together.

Li Weidong and Li Weiguo were carrying many gift boxes. These were local specialty products from Shenzhen, such as Shajing canned oysters, Gongming cured sausage, and nut crisps. Although not expensive, they were rare in Hong Kong and difficult to buy.

“These past few days, your Second Sister and Third Sister have been coming back every day to help. They just left after four in the afternoon. If they had known you were coming back tonight, they wouldn’t have left so early. Your older brother has also been staying here to help. The Peninsula Hotel has already prepared everything for the engagement banquet,” Lin Wan’an said as they walked.

“Dad, Older Brother, sister-in-law, thank you for your hard work,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

He was the one getting engaged, yet he was gallivanting around while his family was busy running errands for him.

His older brother, Lin Haoning, said, “My business hasn’t been busy recently, so I came back to help. We’ve been married, so we know how tedious wedding preparations are. You’re finally settling down, and as your older brother, I’m very happy for you. When a man reaches a certain age, he should get married!”

The two had once been rivals, clashing over the inheritance, and their relationship had reached a freezing point.

It wasn’t until Lin Haoran rose to prominence in the business world with his astounding talent, creating a commercial empire far exceeding the Lin family’s in just a few short years, that the ice between the brothers began to silently thaw.

What made Lin Haoning accept defeat wholeheartedly was that Lin Haoran had given him several tips, leading to several successful investments.

The investment advice Lin Haoran had given him had now turned into astonishing figures on his balance sheet.

So now, for Lin Haoning, besides familial affection, he also felt a sense of gratitude toward his younger brother, Lin Haoran.

Without Lin Haoran, there would be no Lin Haoning with a net worth of over one billion today.

Lin Haoning sincerely patted Lin Haoran’s shoulder. “Honestly, seeing you so successful now and about to start a family, I’m very happy for you. About the past… it was my fault.”

Lin Haoran smiled faintly. “Let the past be the past. We are family; blood is thicker than water.”

For the rest of the evening, the family enjoyed a harmonious and cheerful time together.

With the engagement banquet approaching, Guo Xiaohan was also staying with the Guo family.

According to his father, many core members of the Guo family had come from Southeast Asia and would be attending the engagement banquet.

Although an engagement is merely a social contract with no legal effect, it was clear that both families took it very seriously.

After all, the status of both families was extraordinary.

One was the family of Southeast Asia’s richest man, and the other was the family of the richest man in Hong Kong.

The two families were indeed a good match in terms of social standing.

Although in terms of wealth, Lin Haoran’s net worth was definitely far greater than the Guo family’s, the Guo family had operated in Southeast Asia for several generations. Their deep roots and extensive network were intangible assets. In the past two years, as Lin Haoran expanded into Southeast Asia, the Guo family had provided significant help.

More importantly, Guo Xiaohan herself was intelligent, capable, and beautiful, and she and Lin Haoran were a perfect match. That was the rarest thing of all.

That night, Lin Haoran chatted for a long time in the study with his father, Lin Wan’an, and his older brother, Lin Haoning.

As for his father, although he had been busy with Lin Haoran’s engagement recently, he hadn’t forgotten his own career.

From Lin Wan’an, Lin Haoran learned that they had now accumulated a full 87% of Shaw Brothers Film Company’s shares. In a little while, they would be able to compulsorily privatize the stock.

When Shao Yifu decided to sell the Shaw Brothers Film Company to the Lin family, the fate of this former hegemon of Hong Kong’s film industry was sealed—it was destined to be privatized.

However, as he had been busy preparing for his younger son’s engagement, Lin Wan’an, despite having already taken control of Shaw Brothers Film Company and become its new leader, had not put much energy into it.

After all, for Lin Wan’an, his son Lin Haoran’s major life event was the most important thing right now.

As for the Shaw Brothers Film Company, professional managers were handling it, so there wouldn’t be any major problems for the time being.

After coming out of the study, Lin Haoran gave Guo Xiaohan a call.

On the phone, Guo Xiaohan poured out her feelings of missing him.

Lin Haoran’s fiancée was now eagerly looking forward to becoming Madam Lin.

In the blink of an eye, a night passed.

The preparations for the engagement banquet were pretty much complete.

As the groom-to-be, all Lin Haoran needed to do was show up at the venue.

As for the gifts, such as the betrothal gift money, jewelry, betrothal cakes, coconuts (symbolizing “having a grandfather and a son”), and tea leaves (symbolizing that the marriage contract cannot be broken), his father had already arranged everything for him.

Even the Severn Road villa had been decorated by Lin Wan’an over the past few days. This included setting up the newlyweds’ bed, placing auspicious items, and even arranging for a little boy to sit on the bed, a ritual to wish for the “early birth of a precious son.”

Although these rituals might seem feudal and superstitious, for the wealthy families of Hong Kong, not a single step could be missed.

An engagement banquet is not like a wedding banquet, so not too many people were invited this time. It was mostly close friends and relatives from both families.

For instance, on the Lin family’s side, besides all the family members and some close relatives, the guest list was not long. A few of Lin Haoran’s top lieutenants from his companies, such as Burton, Ma Shimin, Cui Zilong, Chen Shoulin, and Ho Sin Hang, were invited to attend.

Other than them, he had quietly invited a few business friends with whom he had a good relationship, like Pao Yue-kong, Shao Yifu, and Liu Luanxiong. Apart from them, that was basically it.

As for the Guo family, more than twenty people had come from Southeast Asia.

Therefore, this engagement banquet would be very low-key, and there were no plans to even make it public.

Today, Lin Haoran didn’t go out but stayed at the Deep Water Bay villa.

In the morning, his Second Sister and Third Sister came over again with their children.

However, their husbands did not come with them.

These two brothers-in-law now had considerable businesses of their own. Although they were a far cry from Lin Haoran’s assets, they were still hundred-millionaires.

Therefore, they were indeed quite busy and couldn’t come over every day.

Lin Haoran felt a natural closeness to his two older sisters.

Back when he was competing with Lin Haoning, both his sisters had secretly given him money to support him.

Although the few million Hong Kong dollars at the time didn’t play a crucial role for Lin Haoran, he appreciated the sentiment.

This was why he had helped his two brothers-in-law to set up their own businesses, independent of their respective families, and helped them grow.

With the arrival of his two sisters and their children, the Lin family villa once again became lively.

Compared to other prominent families, the Lin family was indeed considered a clan with a smaller population.

Therefore, their parents had always hoped for Lin Haoning to have a second child.

However, despite their hopes for so many years, Lin Haoning still only had one son.

So, their parents had now placed their hopes on Lin Haoran, wishing for him to get married and have children soon to strengthen the Lin family.

No matter what, the Lin family was now the number one prominent family in Hong Kong.

Although this was entirely propped up by Lin Haoran.

But Lin Haoran was, after all, a part of the Lin family, and his achievements were the glory of the Lin family.

He didn’t go to the Connaught Centre today, but Ma Shimin called him to report on some important matters.

For example, Wellcome supermarket, under the Hongkong Land Group, was still engaged in a price war with ParknShop supermarket, under Hutchison Whampoa.

With these two giants fighting, many of Hong Kong’s smaller supermarkets were suffering.

None of them had the resources to compete in a price war with these two tycoons.

If they couldn’t offer competitive prices, they naturally lost business.

So, many supermarkets had simply chosen to close temporarily, waiting for the two giants to stop their price war.

As for the losses, they could only bear them in silence.

The business world is like this: natural selection, survival of the fittest!

In addition, Dai Shi from Galaxy Securities also called Lin Haoran to report on the situation over the past few days.

For example, they had accumulated a few more shares of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, but the increase was not significant.

Furthermore, they had already consulted with Cui Zilong and were planning to choose a time to leak some reports about Hutchison Whampoa’s internal capital chain shortages.

This would surely cause Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price to fall, prompting more shareholders to sell off. Then, Galaxy Securities would be able to accumulate more shares at a lower price and with greater ease.

…

In the blink of an eye, another night passed.

The date was now September 6, 1981, the ninth day of the eighth lunar month.

The calendar on the wall was turned to this day, and it read: Today is auspicious for travel, moving, marriage and engagement, making pledges, raising beams, erecting pillars…

Today was also the day of the engagement banquet for both families.

In the morning, both parties set off in grand motorcades for The Peninsula Hotel.

This icon of luxury hotels in Hong Kong was now entirely under the Lin surname.

The ballroom of The Peninsula Hotel was not open to the public today. The entire hall was decorated with exceptional elegance and luxury.

Inside the ballroom, clusters of fresh flowers bloomed, and crystal chandeliers sparkled, every detail showcasing the distinguished status of the two families.

Lin Haoran, dressed in a custom-made traditional Chinese suit, stood tall and distinguished at the entrance of the ballroom, greeting guests.

Beside him, Guo Xiaohan wore an exquisite traditional Chinese dress, looking dignified and elegant. Standing next to Lin Haoran, they looked like a match made in heaven.

“Are you nervous?” Lin Haoran asked his fiancée softly.

Guo Xiaohan smiled slightly, her eyes full of happiness. “With you here, I’m not nervous.”

She had waited too long for this day.

Although the engagement didn’t officially make her Madam Lin, it was as good as having one foot through the door.

The first to arrive were Lin Haoran’s top lieutenants.

Chen Shoulin, Ma Shimin, Burton, Cui Zilong, and the others arrived one by one, offering their blessings to their boss.

Afterward, his friends from the business world also arrived one after another.

Pao Yue-kong arrived with his wife, congratulating them with a smile, “Haoran, congratulations, congratulations!”

Shao Yifu also joked, “From now on, you’ll have to settle down a bit and not be so busy with work all the time.”

Liu Luanxiong presented a generous gift. “A small token of my appreciation. I wish you eternal love.”

Lin Haoran thanked them all one by one, his demeanor proper and generous. At this time, the Guo family’s relatives and friends also began to arrive.

The Guo family elders, who had traveled from Southeast Asia, all carried themselves with an extraordinary air, showcasing the deep foundation of this prominent Southeast Asian clan.

Guo Xiaohan’s father walked over with several clan elders, and Lin Haoran immediately stepped forward and bowed respectfully. “Uncle, esteemed elders, welcome to Hong Kong.”

Her father looked at his prospective son-in-law with satisfaction and said to the clan elders beside him, “Haoran is young and promising. I am very relieved that Xiaohan has found such a good man.”

The engagement ceremony officially began.

Following traditional etiquette, the two exchanged tokens of their betrothal.

Lin Haoran placed an exquisite diamond ring on Guo Xiaohan’s finger, and Guo Xiaohan, in turn, presented him with a precious pocket watch, symbolizing that they would be by each other’s side at every moment.

During the banquet, Lin Haoran raised his glass to toast the Guo family elders. His proper demeanor and elegant conversation left a deep impression on the Guo family’s relatives and friends.

After the ceremony, Lin Haoran took Guo Xiaohan to toast each table.

When they came to their own family and friends, Lin Jianbin ran over excitedly, “Second Uncle, Second Aunt, I wish you an early birth of a precious son!”

The innocent words of a child made everyone laugh. Guo Xiaohan’s cheeks reddened slightly, while Lin Haoran smiled and patted his nephew’s head, “I’ll take your auspicious words.”

Lin Haoning raised his glass and said, “Haoran, Xiaohan, I wish you eternal love and a long, happy life together.”

His sister-in-law, Cao Shaoling, also said with a smile, “Give Mom and Dad a grandson soon. Mom has been waiting for a long time.”

As the banquet drew to a close, Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan went up on stage.

Amidst the blessings of their friends and relatives, the two looked at each other and smiled.

At this moment, all the prosperity and achievements could not compare to the smile of the person before him.

Chapter 729: Superman Li Can’t Hold On Much Longer!

After the engagement party, tradition dictated that the couple should live separately until they were officially married.

However, neither the Lam family nor the Guo family was bound by such traditional customs.

After all, the Guo family had made their fortune in Southeast Asia, a cultural melting pot.

And Lin Haoran, having traveled back in time from several decades in the future, was even less concerned with these rules and regulations.

Living together before marriage was a common and normal occurrence in Hong Kong, even during this era.

It was more a matter of the couple’s personal wishes.

Naturally, neither the Guo family nor the Lam family would interfere in the lives of the young couple.

The day after the engagement party, Lin Haoran personally drove to the villa on Barker Road, where Guo Xiaohan’s father and mother were temporarily staying, to pick up Guo Xiaohan.

This had already been discussed and agreed upon by both families, and Guo Xiaohan’s parents were happy with the arrangement.

In the eyes of both sets of elders, the younger generation had their own way of life.

Before she left, Guo Xiaohan’s mother advised her caringly, “We’ve spoiled Xiaohan since she was a child. If there’s anything she doesn’t do well, Haoran, you must be patient with her.”

Her father also spoke up, “We’ve been in Hong Kong for some time now and will be returning to Southeast Asia in a couple of days. The next time we see each other will likely be at your wedding. I was actually a little worried about Xiaohan living here by herself. Now that you’re taking her to live with you, I can be more at ease!”

Lin Haoran made a solemn promise, “Uncle, Auntie, please rest assured. I will take good care of Xiaohan!”

An auspicious date for the wedding had already been carefully selected by a Feng Shui master based on the couple’s birth charts. It was set for the twenty-third day of the first lunar month of the coming year, which was February 16, 1982, on the Gregorian calendar—a perfect day for them to hold their grand wedding banquet and tie the knot.

Compared to the low-key engagement party, the wedding banquet would be much grander.

Not only would all their relatives and friends be invited, but dignitaries and socialites from both Hong Kong and Southeast Asia would also be in attendance.

As for the marriage license, they planned to get it two days before the wedding, which happened to be Valentine’s Day in the West. Such an arrangement would undoubtedly add a wonderful touch of romance for Guo Xiaohan.

Hearing her father’s words, a hint of reluctance flashed in Guo Xiaohan’s eyes, but it was quickly replaced by happiness.

She said softly to her parents, “Dad, mother, don’t worry. I’ll take care of myself. And with Haoran here, you have nothing to worry about.”

Lin Haoran thoughtfully took Guo Xiaohan’s luggage and assured her parents, “Once things settle down, I’ll bring Xiaohan back to Southeast Asia to visit you both.”

And so, Guo Xiaohan, with several suitcases in tow, officially moved into the Severn Road villa.

She had visited and even stayed overnight before.

But this time was completely different. Her arrival signified that the Severn Road villa now had a mistress.

The villa was filled with the joyous atmosphere of a new home.

The servants were lined up neatly, respectfully welcoming the arrival of their new mistress.

“Welcome home, Madam,” the butler said, leading the staff in a bow.

Guo Xiaohan was a little embarrassed by the display. “It really doesn’t have to be so formal,” she whispered to Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran smiled and squeezed her hand. “This is the respect you deserve. From today on, you are the mistress of this house.”

…

A week passed in the blink of an eye, bringing them to September 14th.

During this week, Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan’s engagement had been kept rather quiet and had not been leaked to the public.

Lin Haoran had no intention of announcing it before the official wedding; otherwise, it would surely cause a huge stir.

Aside from the ongoing price war between the two supermarket giants, nothing of great significance occurred during that week.

The price war, which had begun on the 30th of last month, had now been raging for a full half-month.

The happiest of all were the ordinary citizens of Hong Kong.

Due to its small urban area, Hong Kong had to import most of its goods, resulting in inherently high prices.

But over the past half-month, prices had been driven down by nearly thirty percent by the two supermarket giants.

Many citizens took this opportunity to stock up on daily necessities, and the nearly seventy chain stores of the two giants allowed them to enjoy a shopping spree.

At the Hongkong Land Group headquarters, Connaught Centre, 51st floor, President’s office.

Looking at the report submitted by Wellcome supermarket, a knowing smile appeared on Ma Shimin’s face.

In just half a month, Wellcome’s revenue had grown by a staggering 382% compared to the first half of the previous month. Half a month!

Wellcome currently had a total of thirty-nine chain stores in Hong Kong.

From the start of the promotion on August 30th to September 13th, a period of exactly fifteen days, the total revenue of these thirty-nine stores reached a terrifying 361.4 million Hong Kong dollars!

This meant that, on average, each chain store had generated about 9.2667 million Hong Kong dollars in revenue in half a month—nearly ten million Hong Kong dollars each.

And this was in just half a month!

This figure was quite frightening, especially considering that over two hundred products were being sold at a thirty percent discount.

A month ago, selling this much volume at the same cost would have resulted in losses of tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars for Wellcome!

In a price war, the more you sell, the more you lose!

Although sales of other non-promotional products also increased, consumers were shrewd, and the best-sellers were undoubtedly the heavily discounted items.

However, since most of the two hundred promotional products were fast-moving consumer goods produced by Hongkong Land’s own Langwei Group, and since both Wellcome and Langwei were subsidiaries of Hongkong Land, they already enjoyed significant internal discounts.

Furthermore, with many products beginning production in Shenzhen at the start of the month, costs for raw materials, labor, and transportation had been further reduced.

Even with prices for over two hundred consumer staples cut by thirty percent, after deducting estimated costs, Wellcome not only avoided losses but actually turned a profit!

The promotional campaign generated 361.4 million Hong Kong dollars in sales. After deducting all costs, the net profit margin was estimated to be around 6%. In just half a month, the profit was close to 22 million Hong Kong dollars!

These figures were all based on past expenditures, calculated after subtracting approximate costs.

Twenty-two million Hong Kong dollars might not seem like much, but viewed from another perspective, once Wellcome’s promotional period ended and prices returned to normal, its profitability would increase substantially.

The more Ma Shimin looked, the more satisfied he became.

“The Boss’s move to have Dairy Farm International acquire FMCG brands was truly a masterstroke!” Ma Shimin murmured to himself.

If they hadn’t ventured into the FMCG sector back then, this price war with ParknShop would have undoubtedly burned through a lot of money.

Although the Hongkong Land Group was now wealthy and powerful with ample funds, who would choose to lose money if they could avoid it?

“I wonder what the situation is over at ParknShop. I wonder how much they’ve lost in the past half-month? And how much longer can they last?” Ma Shimin mused with great interest.

While Ma Shimin was thinking about ParknShop, a high-level meeting was underway just a few hundred meters away at the Cheung Kong Center.

In the conference room, Li Jiacheng sat at the head of the table. The atmosphere in the room was somewhat strange.

At this moment, not a single person had a pleasant expression.

After all, ParknShop being forced into a price war was hurting all of Hutchison Whampoa.

“Mr. Richard Lee, please report on ParknShop’s current situation,” Li Jiacheng said in a deep voice, looking at the CEO of Hutchison Whampoa sitting next to him.

“Alright, Mr. Li. Since the 30th of last month, ParknShop’s revenue has seen a sequential increase of over 450%. However, according to our Finance Department’s calculations, over the past half-month, ParknShop has suffered a staggering loss of 68 million Hong Kong dollars.

Although payments to our suppliers aren’t due yet, we will have to pay them sooner or later. So, this 68 million Hong Kong dollar loss is a very real loss!” Richard Lee reported with a grave expression.

They had tried to get their suppliers to share the burden by lowering procurement costs, but the suppliers themselves operated on thin margins. Where could they find room to lower prices?

Moreover, this price war with ParknShop could potentially last for more than a month.

Even a massive company like Hutchison Whampoa might not be able to afford burning through that much money, let alone the FMCG companies, which already had low profit margins.

The end result was that Hutchison Whampoa itself had to bear more than ninety percent of the losses from this price war!

A wave of sharp intakes of breath swept through the conference room.

One Director couldn’t help but exclaim, “Sixty-eight million? And that’s only in half a month! If this continues, won’t we lose 150 million in a month?”

Richard Lee nodded grimly. “Yes, and according to projections, if the price war continues, the loss next month could exceed 150 million Hong Kong dollars. Even more seriously, our cash flow has already begun to tighten.”

Li Jiacheng’s expression turned extremely foul. “What’s the situation with Wellcome?”

Everyone present, as senior executives of Hutchison Whampoa, knew exactly why the losses were so severe.

But the result was very difficult for them to accept.

“Mr. Li, we have investigated Wellcome. Their daily customer traffic is no less than ours at ParknShop, and they have more stores than we do. Logically, they should be losing more money.

But in reality, they might not be losing much. The reason, as I’m sure everyone knows, is their Langwei Group. This FMCG group has not only acquired many internationally renowned FMCG companies but has also taken over well-known local Hong Kong brands one by one.

Many products on our ParknShop shelves are from Langwei Group. What’s worse is that since last month, Langwei Group has demanded cash on delivery for all products we purchase from them, giving us no opportunity to delay payment.

We don’t want to continue working with them either, but they control too many famous brands. We can’t avoid them. If we were to refuse their products, it would have a significant impact on our supermarkets.

Our investigation revealed that many of Langwei Group’s products imported into Hong Kong are no longer coming from overseas but from Shenzhen in Guangdong Province. They’ve set up an industrial park there. Since the beginning of this month, nearly seventy types of products imported into Hong Kong have been coming from Shenzhen.

As you all know, labor, material, and land costs in Mainland China are relatively low. Therefore, I suspect their import costs have dropped significantly. Although we don’t know if they are losing money, even if they are, the losses are probably not substantial,” Richard Lee stated methodically, addressing Li Jiacheng and all the senior executives present with the facts he knew.

Richard Lee’s words made everyone in the room uneasy.

Both were engaged in low-price promotions, yet their own losses were unacceptable, while their rival was possibly suffering minimal losses, or even making a small profit.

This asymmetrical war of attrition had put Hutchison Whampoa in an extremely passive position.

At this moment, Executive Director Peter Wei rose from his seat.

Instantly, everyone in the room, including Li Jiacheng, turned to look at him.

“Mr. Li, and everyone present, I must inform you of something. We have a debt of 358 million Hong Kong dollars that is due in less than a month.

You all know how our business has been performing these last few months. Our port operations, hotel business, retail sector, and so on… have mostly seen more losses than profits. If this continues, Hutchison Whampoa will revert to the state it was in a few years ago—struggling with cash flow and on the brink of bankruptcy.

Therefore, I suggest we find a way to stop ParknShop’s price war as soon as possible. We can’t hold on for much longer!” Peter Wei said gravely.

Peter Wei’s words were like a bombshell, exploding in the already tense conference room.

“A debt of 358 million? Due within a month? Why haven’t we heard about this from the Finance Department?” one Director cried out in alarm.

The chief financial officer immediately stood up, explaining with an embarrassed look, “This debt was a short-term bridge loan taken out at the beginning of the year to consolidate some of our property business. Mr. Li is aware of this. The original plan was to repay it with a portion of the sales proceeds from the North Point commercial and residential project.

But the property industry has been sluggish since the beginning of this year, and the rate of payment collection has been far below expectations. As you all know, we are actively negotiating a loan extension with HSBC, hoping they can give us more time. But HSBC, and Standard Chartered Bank behind it, aren’t having an easy time either. Even if they wanted to help us, they are sometimes powerless to do so.”

Everyone knew that Standard Chartered Bank had paid a high price to acquire HSBC.

Especially in the past few months, Standard Chartered had bailed out HSBC with tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars. It would take at least two years for Standard Chartered to recover, by which time HSBC’s funds would have gradually returned.

But the sensational financial battle was still a recent memory, so it was clear that both HSBC and Standard Chartered were also facing some difficulties.

They could function normally, but it was difficult for them to allow clients to delay repayments, as a single loan could potentially drag down the entire operation.

“An extension?”

Peter Wei’s voice held a barely perceptible tremor. He scanned the room, his gaze finally settling on Li Jiacheng as he said, “Mr. Li, Michael Sandberg’s HSBC can barely save itself right now!

To swallow HSBC, Standard Chartered has practically exhausted its liquidity. They now need stable cash flow and on-time loan repayments more than ever. For us to request an extension at this time is tantamount to asking a tiger for its skin!”

He took a deep breath, his tone becoming more forceful. “Once the news of Hutchison Whampoa’s huge losses and tight cash flow is confirmed and reaches the ears of HSBC and Standard Chartered, not only will they not grant an extension, but they will likely demand early repayment! They might even freeze some of our accounts to mitigate risk!

Bankers have always found it easy to add flowers to a brocade, but difficult to offer a godsend in a time of need! Especially when they are short of cash themselves!”

His words were like a bucket of ice water, extinguishing the last flicker of hope in everyone’s hearts.

Li Jiacheng remained silent. He knew Hutchison Whampoa’s current situation better than anyone.

It wasn’t just Hutchison Whampoa; even Cheung Kong Holdings was now in financial difficulty.

To acquire a forty percent stake in Hutchison Whampoa, he had not only drained all of Cheung Kong Holdings’ funds but had also used the company to issue bonds to the public. Only then did he successfully gain complete control of Hutchison Whampoa.

But as fate would have it, since the beginning of this year, the property industry had stagnated. Sales figures for various property developments had plummeted, causing Cheung Kong Holdings’ payment collection to fall far short of expectations, and its debt ratio to climb ever higher.

Meanwhile, at Hutchison Whampoa, the once-promising port, property, hotel, and retail businesses had all faced headwinds one after another. This sudden price war involving ParknShop, in particular, had become the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

Li Jiacheng’s fingers tapped unconsciously on the tabletop, making a dull thump-thump sound. In the room, so quiet you could hear a pin drop, the sound was particularly clear, striking a chord in everyone’s heart.

At this moment, his expression was actually gloomier than that of any of the senior executives present.

After all, the people in this room were just professional managers.

But he was the actual controlling shareholder.

If the group lost money, the professional managers would, at most, receive a smaller bonus; they would still get their salaries.

But for him, he had invested real money. What he was losing was his own personal fortune!

Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings were like his left and right hands. Now, the cash flow lifelines of both hands were being choked simultaneously, and the pain was excruciating!

He recalled the soaring spirits he felt when he took control of Hutchison Whampoa at the beginning of the year. Now, only nine months later, he was already stuck in a quagmire, struggling to move forward.

This feeling of falling from the clouds made his chest tighten.

If HSBC hadn’t supported him from behind back then, he truly wouldn’t have had the strength to take over Hutchison Whampoa.

This was why he had latched onto HSBC in the first place.

But who would have thought that the powerful backer he had tried so hard to secure would be defeated by a younger Chinese junior and become a subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank?

And he, in order to completely control Hutchison Whampoa, had not hesitated to deeply entangle Cheung Kong Holdings, even issuing high-interest bonds to the public, practically betting his entire fortune.

He had thought that with his business acumen, he could quickly revitalize the behemoth that was Hutchison and build another commercial empire.

For example, he had already planned to level the Whampoa Dockyard in two or three years and build a massive commercial and residential complex on that plot of land, which would surely be a huge moneymaker.

But he never expected the market environment to take such a sharp downturn, and for Lin Haoran to appear out of nowhere, launching such a ruthless price war that struck precisely at his Achilles’ heel—his weakest capital chain!

A year ago, at the height of the real estate boom, he could have easily mobilized one or two hundred million Hong Kong dollars, or even over a billion.

But now, the property industry was in a deep freeze, property developments weren’t selling, and the return of funds was nowhere in sight.

HSBC and Standard Chartered could barely fend for themselves and were tightening credit. Large loans that were once easy to obtain were now as difficult as reaching for the sky.

His vast assets seemed to have been frozen in an instant, turning into a heavy, illiquid burden.

This was no longer business competition. This was a clear attempt to drive him, Li Jiacheng, into a corner! To completely destroy what he had painstakingly built over many years!

But who could he blame?

He could only blame himself. He could have used his connection with Pao Yue-kong to ease tensions with Lin Haoran. They might not have become great partners, but at least Lin Haoran wouldn’t have targeted him.

But due to a prior agreement, he couldn’t do that.

Originally, relying on Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, he felt that even if he wasn’t Lin Haoran’s equal, he had nothing to fear.

But he discovered that he had overestimated himself.

It turned out that without the blood transfusions from the banks and the exorbitant profits from real estate, his commercial empire was surprisingly fragile. A price war targeting his retail terminals was enough to trigger a chain reaction and push him to the brink of a cliff!

A mixture of extreme regret, unwillingness, and a profound sense of defeat gnawed at his heart like a venomous snake.

Never before had he realized so clearly that the gap between him and his young rival was perhaps not just in capital and methods, but more in the foresight of their industrial layout and the construction of risk-resistant capabilities.

Lin Haoran had long ago established his presence in upstream production and branding, even delving into Mainland China to lower costs, while he was still immersed in the quick-money games of real estate and capital operations!

This heavy realization stung him more than the financial losses.

Everyone fell silent, their eyes fixed on Li Jiacheng, waiting for him to make a decisive move to turn the tide.

Li Jiacheng slowly looked up. There was no longer anger or unwillingness on his face, only a near-numb exhaustion and a deep sense of powerlessness.

It was the desolation of a tycoon at the end of his rope.

The reason he insisted that ParknShop continue the price war with Wellcome was that he didn’t want ParknShop’s situation to expose the internal fragility of Hutchison Whampoa.

Even more, he didn’t want the outside world to think that he, Li Jiacheng, had just taken control of Hutchison, only to immediately be utterly defeated by Hongkong Land Group’s offensive, unable to defend even a core position!

This was about his reputation, about the market’s confidence in his leadership, and even about Cheung Kong Holdings’ stock price! Once he showed any sign of defeat, it would trigger a chain reaction—a crisis of confidence with unimaginable consequences.

Therefore, he had to hold on, even if he knew it was like drinking poison to quench thirst, even if he was bleeding money every single day!

“Even if we can’t hold on, we must! The price war at ParknShop cannot stop! At least not now!” Li Jiacheng’s voice was hoarse but carried an unquestionable resolve.

His words stunned all the executives, their faces filled with confusion and anxiety.

“Mr. Li! But…” the chief financial officer couldn’t help but start.

Li Jiacheng raised a hand to cut him off. “I know we’re losing money every day! I know our cash flow is tight! But have you thought about what would happen if we admit defeat now and hand ParknShop over? What will the market think?”

Chapter 730: A Grand Conspiracy Against Hutchison Whampoa!

Soon, everyone had left the conference room, leaving Li Jiacheng alone, sitting dazedly at the head of the table.

Looking at the empty room, his heart was a tangle of complicated emotions.

If only, if only he had three more years—no, even just two—he could have completely digested Hutchison Whampoa, reduced its debt, and made a full recovery.

Even with HSBC’s help, the price he paid to acquire Hutchison Whampoa was not something he could recoup in a short time.

Behind the magnificent feat of a snake swallowing an elephant was a painful digestion period that would last for years.

It was the same for Pao Yue-kong.

Back then, the Bao family had paid a heavy price to gain a controlling stake in Kowloon Wharf.

Two years had passed since, and Pao Yue-kong still hadn’t recovered his strength. He was still cautiously consolidating resources and repaying debts.

One had to remember, Pao Yue-kong was the long-standing richest Chinese man in Hong Kong. If not for Lin Haoran’s appearance, that title would still belong to him.

If even Pao Yue-kong was in such a state, there was no need to mention Li Jiacheng.

And it had been less than a year since Li Jiacheng took control of Hutchison Whampoa. It would take at least several years for him to recover.

His original plan had been to use Cheung Kong Holdings’ cash flow and Hutchison Whampoa’s land reserves to quickly generate capital by developing real estate projects, gradually paying off his debts and revitalizing Hutchison Whampoa’s other businesses.

In another world, this was exactly what he had done.

After annexing Hutchison Whampoa, he had simultaneously strengthened his control over it and recovered his strength.

By 1984, a gradually recovering Li Jiacheng began to develop the Whampoa Dockyard site, planning to build ninety-four residential towers and a large shopping mall.

And by 1989, just a few years of development on the Whampoa Garden project at the old dockyard site had yielded a total revenue of 9.2 billion Hong Kong dollars, with a net profit of 5.2 billion Hong Kong dollars.

In addition, he still held a 1.69 million square foot shopping mall in Whampoa Garden for collecting rent, providing a stable monthly income.

It could be said that Li Jiacheng had made a huge profit from that single plot of land at Whampoa Dockyard.

However, in this world, due to Lin Haoran’s appearance, this situation had completely changed.

Man proposes, God disposes.

Who could have predicted that due to Lin Haoran, the decline of the Hong Kong property market would come early?

And who could have predicted that an opponent like Lin Haoran, who played by no rules, would suddenly appear, giving him no chance to catch his breath and striking for the jugular with his first move?

“Two years… even just one year…” Li Jiacheng muttered to himself, his voice filled with endless regret and bitterness.

If he just had enough time to successfully develop one or two large property developments, his capital chain would be revived, and he would have the resources and confidence to face any challenge.

But the business world is like a battlefield. How could an enemy give you time to rest and recuperate?

From the moment he offended Lin Haoran, it was destined that he could not lie low and build his strength quietly like Pao Yue-kong.

Lin Haoran’s timing for this attack was too vicious, too precise!

It struck him at the most critical juncture, just as his old strength was spent and before his new strength could arise.

He now faced an unsolvable, dead-end situation:

Continue the price war: suffer huge daily losses, rapidly deplete his cash flow, and possibly collapse even before his debts come due.

Stop the price war: immediately expose the weakness of Hutchison Whampoa and himself to the market, causing confidence to collapse, banks to call in their loans, and the stock price to plummet. He might die even faster.

Sell assets to save himself: with the other party knowing he was desperate for cash, he would never get a good price. It would be like cutting off his own flesh to feed a tiger, and in any case, it was like trying to put out a fire with distant water.

No matter which path he took, it seemed to lead into an abyss.

Li Jiacheng leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and felt an unprecedented fatigue and loneliness.

This predicament, where every step was a struggle and he was caught between a rock and a hard place, was a hundred times more difficult than when he started his business from scratch.

At least back then, he was traveling light and had nothing to fear.

Now, he carried the weight of enormous assets and the expectations of countless people. Every step was like treading on thin ice.

For the first time, Li Jiacheng began to regret why he had made a mortal enemy of Lin Haoran.

Unfortunately, there’s no turning back the clock in this world.

However, Li Jiacheng was not the type to sit around and wait for death.

After all, he controlled two super-enterprises with market capitalizations in the top ten, their combined value exceeding ten billion Hong Kong dollars. Even with his current financial difficulties, mobilizing over three hundred million Hong Kong dollars was not an issue.

However, while the short-term funding problem was easy to solve, it was the subsequent chain reactions that worried him the most.

Mobilizing funds to pay off debts was only treating the symptoms. If he couldn’t immediately stop the massive bleeding from the ParknShop supermarket, if he couldn’t restore market confidence, then robbing Peter to pay Paul would only result in the holes getting bigger until a complete collapse.

But right now, he had no other choice but to take things as they come.

…

While Li Jiacheng was worrying about his company’s capital chain, Lin Haoran was having a very pleasant time.

Guo Xiaohan had already resigned from her family’s business and would no longer hold any position there.

After all, after marrying Lin Haoran, she would be a member of the Lam family, and it would be inappropriate for her to remain at the Guo family’s company.

The Lin Haoran Charitable Foundation had also been officially registered and had quickly assembled a professional team that was beginning to advance its various projects in an orderly manner.

And Guo Xiaohan was serving directly as the Chairman of the Lin Haoran Charitable Foundation.

Of course, for the first year or two, she would be learning more than anything else. The position was more of a nominal one, though it came with supervisory rights.

On the day the foundation was established, Lin Haoran had the finance department inject two hundred million Hong Kong dollars into its account—a solid two hundred million in cash!

One hundred million of that was the donation previously promised to Shenzhen University.

The remaining one hundred million would be used to build Hope Schools in Mainland China in the future, as well as for donations to the education sector here in Hong Kong.

No matter what, his headquarters was in Hong Kong. If he neglected even Hong Kong, he would inevitably face criticism.

The foundation’s headquarters was located directly on the 37th floor of the Connaught Centre, serving as its temporary office.

In the future, once the world’s tallest building nearby was completed, the foundation’s headquarters would be moved there.

At this moment, Lin Haoran was sitting in his spacious and bright personal office on the 51st floor. Beside him, Guo Xiaohan was talking about some of her plans for the charitable foundation.

Of course, these plans had actually been discussed with the company’s team.

Although Guo Xiaohan had been studying business management under her uncle, Guo Henian, for a long time and was fully capable of managing a medium-sized enterprise independently, she was still a complete novice when it came to philanthropy.

The sunlight streamed through the window, falling on her focused profile, making her look exceptionally captivating.

“Our preliminary plan is that the ‘Firefly Project’ will mainly target students from impoverished families in Hong Kong, providing scholarships, extracurricular tutoring, and nutritious lunches; the ‘Dawn Project’ will focus on poor mountainous regions in Mainland China, helping to build Hope Schools and improve teaching facilities…” Dressed in professional attire, Guo Xiaohan spoke with confidence and competence.

She continued, “In addition, besides education, areas like the New Territories, Tuen Mun, and the outlying islands in Hong Kong are hit by typhoons every year, causing severe damage to the villagers’ homes and property. These will also be an important direction for our donations.”

Lin Haoran looked at her with admiration and nodded in approval. “The plan is very thorough. Remember our principle: provide timely assistance, not just gild the lily. We must help those who truly need it, and every penny must be spent where it’s most needed.”

“Brother Haoran, you put that so well! A godsend, not gilding the lily!” Guo Xiaohan looked at Lin Haoran with worship in her eyes.

Since the engagement party, Guo Xiaohan had completely slipped into the role of Mrs. Lin.

Although they hadn’t officially registered their marriage, their relationship was common knowledge throughout Hong Kong’s high society.

They hadn’t actively publicized it, but since the engagement party was held at The Peninsula Hotel, it wasn’t difficult for people in the upper-class circle to find out.

The Lam family was already powerful, and now with the marriage alliance with the Guo family, Southeast Asia’s richest family, they were stronger than ever.

As a result, no one in the upper-class circle dared to provoke Lin Haoran.

“Since we promised the Shenzhen government, let’s donate this one hundred million Hong Kong dollars soon. Let’s find a time, and I’ll go to Shenzhen with you again to deliver the money!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

With the hydrofoil, traveling to and from Shenzhen was indeed convenient, taking only an hour.

If he had to take a car along the mountain roads every time, a two- or three-hour trip, he really wouldn’t be very interested.

“Okay, okay! Brother Haoran, I’ve never been to Mainland China. I’d love to see the scenery there. My grandpa’s generation moved from the Mainland to Southeast Asia!” Guo Xiaohan’s excitement was palpable.

“Alright, since that’s the case, it’s settled. Today is September 14th. Let’s go to Shenzhen in a couple of days. As the Chairman of the charitable foundation, you’ll definitely need to visit the Mainland often in the future!” Lin Haoran said after some thought.

Just then, a knock came from the office door.

“Come in.”

The person who entered was Ma Shimin.

He looked at Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan in the office and smiled. “Boss, Boss’s wife, I hope I’m not interrupting?”

Hearing the address “Boss’s wife,” Guo Xiaohan was clearly delighted, a smile spreading across her face.

“Not at all, Mr. Ma. Please, have a seat. Report whatever you need to; there’s no need for any reservations,” Lin Haoran said, shaking his head, knowing Ma Shimin was joking.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Guo Xiaohan became even happier. This meant Lin Haoran truly saw her as one of his own, not even hiding important company matters from her.

Despite this, Guo Xiaohan proactively stood up and said, “You two talk. I happen to have some work I haven’t finished, so I’ll head down to my office.”

Having grown up in a wealthy family, Guo Xiaohan knew very well that after getting married, it was not appropriate to interfere too much in her husband’s family business. It was better to assist one’s husband and teach one’s children at home.

The fact that Lin Haoran was letting her manage the family’s charitable foundation in the future already made her very happy. She had originally been prepared to not participate in any commercial operations after marriage.

Watching Guo Xiaohan’s elegant departing figure, Ma Shimin couldn’t help but praise, “Boss, you are truly blessed. Miss Guo not only has an illustrious family background but is also so sensible and mindful of the bigger picture.”

Lin Haoran smiled faintly, a hint of satisfaction in his eyes. “Xiaohan is indeed a rare find. Alright, let’s get down to business. Any new developments?”

As a transmigrator, Lin Haoran had originally been very averse to so-called marriage alliances.

But Guo Xiaohan had truly satisfied him.

They had an emotional foundation, which was different from other marriage alliances.

Many such alliances lacked any emotion at all and were purely for the benefit of the two families involved.

Such unions were often accompanied by much helplessness and compromise.

But the union between Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan was built on mutual admiration and an emotional foundation, which was truly rare among the marriages of wealthy families.

Seeing that Lin Haoran was in a good mood, Ma Shimin cut straight to the chase. “I just received news that Li Jiacheng is contacting several international financial consortiums, trying to obtain short-term financing through asset collateral. Here is a list of the institutions he has recently contacted, but we do not know the specific amount of financing.”

He handed over a document as he spoke.

Lin Haoran took the document and glanced at it, a smile touching the corner of his mouth. “Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Swiss Bank… he certainly knows who to ask. But these international investment banks are all ruthless wolves that devour people whole. The terms they offer probably won’t be much better than Standard Chartered Bank’s.”

“Boss, Li Jiacheng has no choice. If his capital chain is really in trouble, given Standard Chartered’s current situation, they would never lend him too much. His only option is to seek opportunities externally. From his actions, we can deduce that Hutchison Whampoa is on the verge of collapse. It seems they are just putting up a brave front in this supermarket price war!”

“They can’t hold on after just half a month? It seems their internal situation is much more dire than we imagined,” Lin Haoran said with great interest.

“Mr. Li Jiacheng’s move to increase his shareholding in Hutchison Whampoa through Cheung Kong Holdings must have come at a significant cost, incurring huge debts. Furthermore, the performance of all its businesses has declined sharply in the last two months, so less and less money has been coming in. Add to that the current losses of several million Hong Kong dollars per day from ParknShop, and you can imagine the financial pressure. According to our Universal Research Company’s estimates, Hutchison Whampoa’s current cash flow can only last for two months at most, perhaps even less!” Ma Shimin continued.

Lin Haoran walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the bustling scene of Victoria Harbour, a meaningful smile playing on his lips. “Within two months… that’s even shorter than I thought. It seems Li Jiacheng isn’t as tough an opponent as I imagined.”

“Boss, you defeated even the two British-owned tycoons, Jardine Matheson & Co. and HSBC. Mr. Li Jiacheng is just a Chinese entrepreneur. Isn’t it only natural that you would defeat him?” Ma Shimin said dismissively.

As one of Lin Haoran’s most vital top lieutenants, Ma Shimin was well aware of how terrifyingly vast Lin Haoran’s wealth was.

“Don’t underestimate Li Jiacheng. Although he is a Chinese entrepreneur, the fact that he was able to acquire those shares of Hutchison Whampoa from HSBC at such a low cost is enough to show that he is not simple. We merely gave him a fatal blow while he was still weak,” Lin Haoran said, turning around with a serious expression.

If not for his appearance, Li Jiacheng would have been the richest Chinese man for many consecutive years in the future.

One could say that his appearance had directly disrupted the other’s destined path to commercial supremacy, adding countless variables and spectacles to this business game.

Lin Haoran naturally knew that Li Jiacheng would not admit defeat easily.

That was why he was contacting overseas investment banks one after another.

Even though Hutchison Whampoa’s cash flow was tight and its capital chain was on the verge of collapse, this business titan certainly had more tricks up his sleeve.

He turned back to his desk, sat down, and said to Ma Shimin, “Continue to keep a close eye on Li Jiacheng’s every move, especially the details of his negotiations with those international financial consortiums. Also, arrange for Universal Research Company to conduct a more in-depth analysis of all of Hutchison Whampoa’s businesses. I want to know the true condition of every single one of their operations. Not even the slightest financial loophole can be overlooked.”

Ma Shimin smiled mysteriously. “Rest assured, Boss. I’ve already arranged for that. Tomorrow, Universal Research Company will hold a press conference. We’ve already invited dozens of major Hong Kong media outlets. At that time, Universal Research Company will announce some of the data from their investigation, and this data will undoubtedly deal a fatal blow to Hutchison Whampoa.”

Ma Shimin had been planning this for a long time.

Coincidentally, he had just secretly learned that Li Jiacheng was contacting several international financial consortiums to obtain short-term financing through asset collateral.

How could Ma Shimin miss such a perfect opportunity?

Right now, in the public eye, Hutchison Whampoa was still a super-enterprise with healthy financial data and substantial assets.

But if Universal Research Company could present conclusive data revealing its true financial situation, market confidence would surely be crushed.

Last time, it was precisely because of Universal Research Company’s press conference that HSBC suffered a fatal blow, letting everyone know that the bank was mired in a capital chain crisis and that the Bank of East Asia had become the largest bank in Hong Kong.

After that event, Universal Research Company became famous overnight, establishing itself as the most renowned research firm in Hong Kong.

The fact that Universal Research Company was holding another press conference would, without a doubt, pique the curiosity of the entire Hong Kong business and news communities.

A glint of approval flashed in Lin Haoran’s eyes. “The timing is perfect. Universal Research Company now has a certain degree of credibility. It couldn’t be more appropriate for them to release this data.”

He was very satisfied with this research company, which he had acquired for a mere three million Hong Kong dollars.

The price was cheap, but its usefulness was immense.

Ordinarily, it could assist his own companies with market research and data analysis.

At critical moments, it could become a sharp weapon in business warfare.

This deal was truly worth more than he paid for it.

He also wanted to acquire Hutchison Whampoa as soon as possible. Once that was done, his great rival in Hong Kong, Li Jiacheng, would find it difficult to develop to his previous world’s scale and influence relying solely on Cheung Kong Holdings.

And Lin Haoran could use this to further consolidate his position in the business world of Hong Kong and even Asia, heralding a new commercial era. From then on, no one in the Hong Kong business community would dare to make a move against him!

He was already very satisfied with his market share in Hong Kong and had no desire to keep fighting with anyone.

As the headquarters of his commercial empire, Lin Haoran only hoped that his base camp would remain stable and free of any trouble while he focused on investing in overseas markets.

“Will Jade Channel be broadcasting this press conference live?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Yes, I have already contacted Mr. Shao Yifu, and he has agreed,” Ma Shimin replied.

“Good. In that case, I won’t attend tomorrow. I’ll watch the press conference on TV. It’s not suitable for me to appear. It’s best if you and General Manager Cui don’t appear either. Just let Universal Research Company’s general manager, Mr. Yu Zhize, take charge of the whole thing. I believe in his abilities,” Lin Haoran said after some thought.

To outsiders, although Oriental Press Group had acquired Universal Research Company, the firm still operated as an independent entity.

“Rest assured, Boss!” Ma Shimin nodded.

Next, the two discussed many other things, such as the hotel industry, ports, and retail.

These were all core industries under the Hongkong Land Group now, and they were also core industries under Hutchison Whampoa.

The two companies competed in far too many sectors.

If they could annex Hutchison Whampoa, it was not hard to imagine that Lin Haoran would achieve a monopolistic level of presence in these industries.

“Boss, if we can successfully acquire Hutchison Whampoa, our market share in ports will exceed 70%, our retail business will occupy half the market, and our hotel industry will be second to none,” Ma Shimin said, growing excited at the prospect of taking over Hutchison Whampoa.

This would be an unprecedented commercial empire!

Lin Haoran, however, remained calm. “Don’t be overly optimistic. Acquisition is just the first step. The key is how to integrate. Hutchison Whampoa’s businesses are complex, and many overlap with ours. If we can’t integrate them properly, they’ll become a burden instead.”

He walked to the window and looked at the distant Hutchison Whampoa Building. “More importantly, we must avoid attracting antitrust attention. Although Hong Kong doesn’t have strict antitrust laws right now, excessive market dominance will put all parties on alert.”

Ma Shimin became thoughtful. “So what you mean is?”

Lin Haoran said with a smile, “We can appropriately divest some non-core assets. For example, in the retail business, we can keep the high-end brand Watsons and transfer businesses like ParknShop supermarket to a suitable buyer. This will both avoid suspicion of monopoly and allow us to recoup capital. What we need most are Hutchison Whampoa’s docks, warehouses, fixed commercial assets, and land!”

Many of ParknShop’s locations actually overlapped with Wellcome’s. For instance, the ParknShop and Wellcome supermarkets in Mong Kok were less than two hundred meters apart. Geographically speaking, there was no need for both to exist simultaneously.

Therefore, after acquiring Hutchison Whampoa, ParknShop would not be a particularly quality asset.

Selling ParknShop at that time could, on the contrary, bring in a considerable sum of capital.

With control over Langwei Group, a major FMCG conglomerate, Lin Haoran’s retail empire needn’t fear any competition.

A price war?

This time had made it clear. They could actually make a profit while waging a price war, while their rival was losing money every day.

The advantage had been set in stone from the moment he started building his portfolio of FMCG brands.

Ma Shimin had a sudden realization. “Boss, your foresight is profound! This way, we can acquire Hutchison’s core high-quality assets without causing too much backlash, and we can also recoup funds for other investments.”

At this very moment, Li Jiacheng was contacting these international financial consortiums, attempting to secure short-term financing by collateralizing assets.

However, he did not know that a grand conspiracy against Hutchison Whampoa was already silently unfolding.

As a tycoon in the Hong Kong business world, Li Jiacheng also had powerful sources of intelligence and knew that Universal Research Company was about to hold a press conference.

Chapter 731: An Overt Scheme, Explosive News That Rocks All of Hong Kong

On September 15th, just past nine in the morning.

The ground floor lobby of a certain building in Causeway Bay was packed with representatives from over eighty media outlets.

Among them, more than fifty had been invited, while nearly thirty had come of their own accord, despite not being on the guest list.

This was the building where the Universal Research Company had its offices.

Although the Oriental Press Group had acquired the research firm a few months ago at Lin Haoran’s direction, its office had not been relocated.

While technically in Causeway Bay, the building was situated on the border with Wan Chai, a mere two hundred meters in a straight line from the Oriental Press Group’s headquarters. This made it extremely convenient for Cui Zilong, the head of the parent company, to drop by.

It was here that Mr. Yu Zhize, the general manager of Universal Research Company, had previously announced that the Bank of East Asia and HSBC had entered “The Era of Two Hegemons,” a statement that sent shockwaves through Hong Kong and made his research company a household name.

Though not large in scale, its reputation was now on par with that of major listed companies.

So, at this moment, all the reporters present were intensely curious. What kind of bombshell was this research firm, with all this fanfare, about to drop this time?

Camera flashes flickered as reporters whispered amongst themselves, the air thick with anticipation and speculation.

Jade Channel was already set up for a live broadcast, their cameras aimed at the stage, waiting for the press conference to begin.

At exactly ten o’clock, Yu Zhize, dressed in a sharp suit and wearing a solemn expression, walked onto the makeshift stage.

Instantly, every eye in the hall was fixed on him.

Meanwhile, back at the Severn Road villa, Lin Haoran had also switched on his television.

He hadn’t gone out this morning precisely to watch this live broadcast.

Guo Xiaohan had left early. As the Lin Haoran Charitable Foundation was still in its infancy, her strong professional ambition drove her to manage the foundation meticulously and cultivate her Brother Haoran’s public image as a perfect philanthropist.

Lin Haoran sat on the sofa, his legs crossed, waiting for the press conference to start.

He wanted to see if Yu Zhize would disappoint him.

Hopefully, what he has to release is substantial!

On stage, Yu Zhize appeared quite composed. After all, he had experienced grander spectacles than this and was now a well-known figure in Hong Kong.

After selling his company, he had remained as the general manager. Free from his previous financial pressures and with Lin Haoran backing him, he found developing the company to be much more manageable.

Without much small talk, Yu Zhize cut straight to the chase.

“Friends from the media, thank you all for coming. Universal Research Company has always been committed to revealing the true state of the market through objective and impartial data analysis. Today, we are releasing an in-depth research report on the recent financial status and operational risks of several large Hong Kong enterprises. Our aim is to highlight potential market risks and promote a healthier, more transparent business environment!” Yu Zhize’s voice boomed through the hall via the microphone.

Naturally, Universal Research Company couldn’t release a report solely on Hutchison Whampoa; that would seem too targeted.

Therefore, the company had specifically investigated a number of well-known listed companies in Hong Kong, such as CLP Holdings, New World Development, the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, Hutchison Whampoa, Hongkong Electric Group, Cheung Kong Holdings, Sun Hung Kai Properties, and Swire Properties. In total, Universal Research Company had compiled reports on ten enterprises.

These companies were all ranked among the top twenty listed enterprises in Hong Kong, with most of them even in the top ten.

The reporters below the stage immediately held their breath, the sound of camera shutters clicking incessantly.

They knew that some of these companies must be special cases; otherwise, Yu Zhize wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of holding a press conference.

“First, let’s look at CLP Holdings.” Following a predetermined order, Yu Zhize began his analysis. “As a public utility stock, CLP’s profits are stable, its debt ratio is at a healthy level, and its cash flow is abundant. In our assessment, it is an enterprise with extremely strong risk resistance…”

He provided a detailed analysis of CLP’s business structure, future capital expenditure plans, and the stability brought by its electricity price adjustment mechanism, giving it a rating of “Stable, recommended for attention.”

Next came New World Development, the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, and other companies.

Yu Zhize’s analysis was objective and professional. He pointed out the potential financial pressure some companies might face due to rapid expansion, but also affirmed their quality asset reserves and long-term development potential.

The report was balanced, with both praise and criticism, making it appear very fair. Gradually, the atmosphere in the hall shifted from one of pure sensationalism to professional attentiveness.

These were all publicly listed companies, and under normal circumstances, they would release their financial reports.

In reality, however, most companies only published annual reports. Monthly, quarterly, or semi-annual reports were rarely, if ever, released.

Thus, Universal Research Company’s dynamic assessment, based on shorter cycles and in-depth, frontline market research, was particularly valuable and forward-looking.

Moreover, as the most renowned research firm in Hong Kong, Universal Research Company now held a position of considerable authority.

Reporters scribbled furiously, inwardly admiring the meticulousness of Universal Research Company’s work and the depth of its data mining.

For investors, this kind of real-time, dynamic financial “health check” was worth its weight in gold.

However, everyone was well aware that the analyses of the first few companies, whether positive or negative, were merely a prelude to the main event—a facade to maintain the report’s “objective and impartial” appearance.

If all the companies featured were in such good health, there would have been no need to call this press conference.

The true eye of the storm was bound to be the handful of companies currently at the center of public debate.

Sure enough, after calmly analyzing six or seven companies, Yu Zhize mentioned a name that piqued everyone’s interest: Hutchison Whampoa.

Hutchison Whampoa was currently at the center of a media frenzy due to the ongoing price war waged by its subsidiary, ParknShop supermarket.

“Next, we will turn our attention to Hutchison Whampoa, a company that has recently drawn considerable market focus.”

At the Severn Road villa, Lin Haoran also grew serious. It was finally time for the part he was most interested in.

He approved of Universal Research’s decision to present reports on other companies first. Yu Zhize had not disappointed him; he was a talent worth cultivating.

In addition, many people across Hong Kong were also watching the live broadcast.

Although it was just past ten in the morning on a weekday when most people were at work, this was a metropolis with a population of five million. Given the numbers, there were always people who would turn on their televisions at this time.

Shareholders, in particular, were keenly interested in such matters. They were well-informed, so many of the viewers were investors.

They hoped to use Universal Research Company’s report to help them plan their next stock investments.

“According to our continuous tracking, investigation, and modeling analysis, since the downturn in the Hong Kong property industry, Hutchison Whampoa’s revenue has begun to fall sharply. In the last two months especially, issues such as a significant drop in its port terminal market share, increased vacancy rates in its port warehouses, and a severe decline in hotel occupancy rates have seriously impacted Hutchison’s cash flow. Furthermore, over the last half month, Hutchison’s ParknShop supermarket has been engaged in a fierce price war with Dairy Farm International’s Wellcome supermarket. Based on on-site interviews with randomly selected customers, combined with analysis of store traffic, cost-price comparisons, gross margins, and previous years’ financial data, we estimate that ParknShop supermarket is losing between four and six million Hong Kong dollars per day. This means that in just half a month, ParknShop’s estimated losses will exceed sixty million Hong Kong dollars—a very severe loss.”

“Wow!”

Gasps of astonishment erupted, both in front of the television and in the press hall.

The average citizen might not grasp the scale of hundreds of millions, but the direct comparison of “losing several million a day” was incredibly impactful. How many products would they have to sell to earn that back?

“According to our conservative market research model, this price war is doing ParknShop more harm than good. A loss of over sixty million Hong Kong dollars in half a month means that if it continues for a full month, Hutchison Whampoa Group’s cash reserves will be eroded by more than 120 million Hong Kong dollars. This is a wound that is continuously bleeding and difficult to stitch up in the short term. What is even more severe is its debt structure. According to public information and our calculations, after its acquisition by Cheung Kong Holdings, Hutchison Whampoa’s total debt ratio had already climbed to over 65% by September. Of that, the proportion of short-term debt is staggering, with an estimated 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars in debt set to mature within the next one to six months!”

Yu Zhize’s voice carried clearly through the television speakers into Lin Haoran’s ears, and into the homes of all Hong Kong citizens watching the live broadcast.

Lin Haoran picked up his teacup and took a light sip, a faint, almost imperceptible smile playing on his lips.

The data was solid, and the angle of attack was sharp.

In a booming property market, a 65% debt ratio would be nothing to worry about. Fixed assets could be easily liquidated, and their value was constantly rising.

But now, with the market cooling and liquidity tightening, a high debt ratio had become a Sword of Damocles hanging over the company’s head.

Given the current state of Hong Kong’s property market, it wasn’t impossible for Hutchison to sell off some of its property projects or fixed assets, but it was much more difficult. Most importantly, they would have no bargaining power, and the prices would surely be driven very low.

At the four stock exchanges and various securities firms, many shareholders holding Hutchison stock were beginning to worry.

“Furthermore, the key projects that Hutchison Whampoa Group had pinned its hopes on for rapid capital recovery through property development have seen their pre-sales and cash collection rates fall far below market expectations due to the recent unexpected cooling of the Hong Kong property market. This has introduced significant uncertainty, and may even derail, the core plan of generating cash flow through project sales to improve their financial situation,” Yu Zhize continued.

“Synthesizing these core factors, our risk assessment model indicates that if the current business strategy remains unchanged, the core loss-making businesses cannot be staunched, and no significant new external financing can be secured, Hutchison Whampoa’s cash flow situation will likely only be able to support its normal operations and mandatory debt repayments for approximately 40 to 55 days. If any unexpected loan recalls or further underperformance in sales occur during this period, the group will face an extremely high risk of short-term debt default. The possibility that Hutchison Whampoa Group will need to resort to an emergency sale of core assets or a major debt restructuring to survive cannot be ruled out.”

“Forty to fifty-five days?”

“A problem with their capital chain?”

“A company as big as Hutchison Whampoa can only last for a little over a month?!”

At that moment, whether at the press conference or in front of television screens in thousands of homes, countless people were left dumbfounded by this conclusion.

“In addition, just yesterday, we received some unexpected information. To my knowledge, the leader of Hutchison Whampoa has been secretly contacting several international investment banks. As you all should know, Hutchison has always worked exclusively with HSBC, so contacting international investment banks is thought-provoking. We speculate that the reason Hutchison is reaching out to international investment banks is that they likely have a large, imminent debt to repay to HSBC. Compounded by the recent senior management changes at Standard Chartered Bank, with Mr. Brown having returned to Britain, Hutchison has been forced to look elsewhere for these maturing funds.”

Yu Zhize dropped another piece of inside information.

Instantly, the venue was in an uproar.

The announcement of this “inside information” completely ignited the scene!

This was no longer analysis and speculation, but a “revelation” that struck right at the heart of the matter!

It indirectly confirmed the core argument of Universal’s report: Hutchison Whampoa’s cash flow was already so precarious that they were resorting to desperate measures.

Had Hutchison Whampoa really fallen this far?

If so, how did it dare to let ParknShop wage such a fierce price war with Wellcome supermarket?

At that moment, the press conference erupted. A tsunami of questions from reporters crashed towards the stage.

The television cameras expertly captured the shocked, excited, and incredulous expressions of the reporters in the audience.

Lin Haoran muted the television, and the room fell silent.

He didn’t need to listen anymore. Yu Zhize’s performance had been perfect.

The report was rich in data, logically sound, and frightening in its conclusions, yet it was cloaked in the guise of an “objective risk assessment,” making it difficult to directly accuse it of ulterior motives.

Most importantly, the timing of its release was perfect, striking at the very moment when Li Jiacheng was at his weakest and most in need of time.

And, as expected, Yu Zhize would surely release the investigative forecast for Cheung Kong Holdings next.

Cheung Kong Holdings’ situation was hardly any better.

If Cheung Kong Holdings hadn’t acquired Hutchison Whampoa, it would have been able to weather even a severe property crisis in Hong Kong unscathed, thanks to its stable finances and high-quality land reserves.

However, the acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa, a classic “snake swallowing an elephant” deal, had undoubtedly saddled Cheung Kong Holdings with a heavy burden.

If Hong Kong’s property market this year had been like last year’s, Cheung Kong Holdings would naturally not have worried about these debts.

But starting this year, it had become increasingly difficult for them to recoup capital through property projects.

This had put immense pressure on Cheung Kong Holdings’ cash flow as well.

Lin Haoran could even imagine the mess Li Jiacheng was facing at this moment: a stock market crash, banks calling in debts, partners raising doubts…

All of this would accelerate and erupt because of this report.

“Mr. Li, I hope you are satisfied with this ‘welcoming gift’,” Lin Haoran murmured to himself, his eyes calm and devoid of emotion, filled only with the cool composure of a master strategist who could win a battle from a thousand miles away.

The wildfire ignited by the Universal Research Company was now spreading to the very foundations of Li Jiacheng’s commercial empire.

Although Lin Haoran was no longer paying attention, the press conference continued.

Just as he had thought, Yu Zhize did not keep everyone waiting.

After causing an uproar about Hutchison Whampoa, he paused briefly before continuing.

“Next, we must turn our attention to the controlling shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa, the Cheung Kong Holdings Group.” Yu Zhize’s voice remained steady, but to everyone listening, it was undoubtedly the continuation of the storm.

“Cheung Kong Holdings is an excellent company in its own right. Its property business has a solid foundation and high-quality land reserves. However, our analysis shows that to complete the acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa and the subsequent increase in shareholding, Cheung Kong Holdings utilized a significant amount of leverage, which has led to a notable increase in its own debt ratio.”

“According to our calculations, Cheung Kong’s debt ratio has now climbed to around 60%. While slightly better than Hutchison Whampoa’s, it is much higher than its historical average, placing it in a cautionary zone. More importantly, Cheung Kong Holdings has provided joint liability guarantees for some of Hutchison Whampoa’s debts. The two are highly interconnected financially, creating a high degree of risk contagion between them.”

Everyone understood what this meant.

Because of the controlling stake, one could say that they were bound to prosper or decline together; if Hutchison was struggling, Cheung Kong wouldn’t get off easy either!

Universal Research Company’s press conference was still ongoing, but the storm had already swept through Hong Kong’s entire financial market!

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

As Yu Zhize’s analysis was broadcast live, the trading floor descended into utter chaos.

Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price plummeted like a kite with its string cut, spiraling downwards without resistance. A massive wave of sell orders piled up like an avalanche, while buy orders were few and far between, having seemingly vanished into thin air.

The decline rapidly widened to 15%, then 20%…

Cheung Kong Holdings followed suit, hit by the same panic selling.

The market realized that the two companies were a single entity in terms of fate, and selling Cheung Kong shares became the inevitable choice to mitigate risk.

Within half an hour, its stock had plunged by over 20%!

Dragged down by these two heavyweight stocks, the Hang Seng Index plummeted by more than 300 points, leaving a sea of red in its wake.

The exchange floor was a cacophony of ringing phones, shouts, gasps, and curses. Brokers were swamped, constantly receiving calls from clients demanding they sell at any cost.

The frantically blinking red numbers reflected countless faces contorted with panic.

But amidst the panic, the trading team at Galaxy Securities was secretly accelerating its rate of stock accumulation.

If they missed such a golden opportunity, it would be difficult to find another.

After all, considering the shares held by Li Jiacheng and other major shareholders, along with those held by Galaxy Securities, it was clear that the number of shares of these two giants available to the public was dwindling.

Of course, they could accelerate their acquisition, but they couldn’t be too aggressive, or they would surely be noticed by Li Jiacheng’s trading team.

However, with so many shares being sold off at the moment, Galaxy Securities’ increased activity was not particularly conspicuous.

While the outside world was in an uproar and the stock market was in a state of chaos, Li Jiacheng was completely oblivious to it all.

At that moment, he was in a high-rise office in a commercial building in Central.

This was the Hong Kong branch office of Wells Fargo.

Yesterday, he had met with Morgan Stanley, Swiss Bank, and Goldman Sachs respectively.

Getting a loan wasn’t difficult for him, especially a secured one.

However, the amount involved was quite large, so he naturally had to compare the three to find the international investment bank with the most favorable terms.

The first three had all offered extremely harsh conditions that he found unacceptable: either the interest rates were too high, the term was too short, or they demanded additional stock warrants.

Right now, he was in the final stages of negotiations with John Anderson, the Vice President of Wells Fargo’s Asia division.

From nine o’clock until now, past ten, Li Jiacheng and Anderson had been talking for over an hour.

Wells Fargo’s terms were slightly better than the others. Although the interest rate was also significantly higher, it was still within an acceptable range. The loan term was two years, and most importantly, there were no additional equity clauses.

“Mr. Li, we are very optimistic about the long-term asset value of Hutchison Whampoa, especially its high-quality port and land reserves.”

Anderson, a well-mannered American in his forties, said with a smile, “Therefore, we are willing to provide this transitional loan of 600 million Hong Kong dollars, using these assets as collateral, to help your group overcome its current liquidity difficulties.”

Li Jiacheng breathed a small sigh of relief. This was the best news he had heard all day.

Although the cost was still considerable, at least he saw a glimmer of hope.

As long as this money arrived in time, he could repay the urgent 358 million loan to HSBC. The remaining 242 million could slightly alleviate the bleeding at ParknShop and cover some emergency payments, buying him precious breathing room.

Two years would be enough time.

With his years of experience in the Hong Kong property industry, he knew that it wouldn’t stay in a slump for too long; it would soon resume its high-speed growth.

By then, Cheung Kong Holdings would have more or less digested Hutchison Whampoa.

At that point, a fully revived Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, even if they couldn’t defeat Lin Haoran’s enterprises, would at least be invincible.

If he couldn’t win in the Hong Kong market, he would invest in the international market!

At this moment, Li Jiacheng’s heart was filled with excitement, and his mind raced with possibilities.

“Thank you very much, Mr. Anderson and Wells Fargo, for your trust. Please rest assured, once market sentiment stabilizes and our property projects proceed smoothly, this loan will certainly be repaid on time,” Li Jiacheng said, trying to make his voice sound calm and confident.

“We have faith in your abilities, Mr. Li,” Anderson nodded, about to signal the lawyer beside him to present the preliminary agreement framework.

Just then, there was a soft knock on the conference room door. Anderson’s Chinese assistant walked in briskly, a nervous look on his face. He leaned in and whispered urgently in Anderson’s ear, simultaneously handing him an A4 sheet of paper that had just come through the fax machine.

The smile on Anderson’s face instantly froze.

Chapter 732: Superman Li: Am I Really Going to Fall at the Hands of Lin Haoran?

John Anderson, the Vice President of Wells Fargo’s Asia division, quickly scanned the contents of the A4 paper, his expression turning grim and serious at a visible rate.

Li Jiacheng’s heart sank. An extremely ominous premonition instantly enveloped him.

Although he was sitting opposite Anderson and couldn’t see what was written on the sheet of paper, he was almost certain that something had gone wrong—something major!

Anderson looked up, his gaze now incredibly complex. The initial enthusiasm for cooperation had vanished completely, replaced by a business-like distance and caution.

“Mr. Li, I’m terribly sorry. We’ve just received urgent news from the market.” He changed his form of address, and his tone grew cold.

He waved the A4 paper in his hand, perhaps intentionally letting Li Jiacheng see its contents. “Universal Research Company is holding a press conference. They’ve released a, well, very negative financial risk assessment report on Hutchison Whampoa.

The report mentions that your group’s cash flow is extremely tight and may only last for another forty-odd days. Furthermore, news of your company’s successive, urgent requests for financial assistance from multiple external investment banks has all been leaked.”

Anderson paused, looking gravely at Li Jiacheng, whose face had already begun to turn pale. “Is this information true? At this juncture, your group’s credit risk seems to have undergone a significant change.

I think we need to suspend our current negotiations immediately and reassess the risk of this financing deal and the value of the collateral. I’m sorry, but we cannot proceed until the situation becomes clear.”

Those words were like a dousing of ice water, chilling Li Jiacheng from head to toe.

His worst fear had come to pass!

And it had happened at the very moment he was about to secure the most crucial piece of financing!

He had known before coming that Universal Research Company would be holding a press conference, but he never expected them to target Hutchison Whampoa!

After all, everyone in Hong Kong knew that Universal Research Company had been acquired by Lin Haoran.

Lin Haoran!

You’re really trying to wipe me out! You won’t even give me that last bit of time!

Li Jiacheng opened his mouth, attempting to explain, “Mr. Anderson, this is just the one-sided story of a research company. They don’t understand the group’s full situation. We…”

“Mr. Li!” Anderson interrupted him bluntly, his tone firm. “We are a bank. We only care about risk and facts. The market has already reacted!”

He pointed out the window in the direction of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. “I believe your company’s stock price is plummeting as we speak. This in itself is a direct reflection of market risk. Under these circumstances, we must be responsible for the funds of our shareholders and depositors. Let’s end today’s meeting here.”

With that, Anderson gave Li Jiacheng no further opportunity. He stood up, straightened his suit, and led his team out of the conference room without a backward glance.

In the now-empty room, only Li Jiacheng and the two senior executives he had brought with him remained.

A deathly silence fell.

Li Jiacheng stood frozen, his face as pale as a sheet. His body swayed slightly; he could barely stand.

A subordinate quickly stepped forward to support him.

“Mr. Li, are you alright?”

Just then, his bodyguard rushed in. Seeing the conference room door open, he hurried inside and handed a mobile phone to Li Jiacheng. “Mr. Li, you have a call.”

It was undoubtedly a call from Hutchison Whampoa headquarters.

The moment he answered, he practically roared into the phone, “What’s the situation now? What the hell is going on with Universal Research Company?”

This was one of the countless times Li Jiacheng had lost his composure when facing his business rival, Lin Haoran.

Normally, he always maintained a refined image in public, but at this moment, an immense sense of crisis and the fury of being outmaneuvered made him lose his cool completely.

As a listed company, Hutchison Whampoa was required to regularly disclose its operational status to the public.

To maintain a stable stock price and facilitate bank loans, many heads of publicly listed companies preferred to report the good news and hide the bad.

Some even went as far as falsifying financial data when it was time to release their annual reports to conceal the company’s true condition.

Therefore, Li Jiacheng had long planned to conceal the group’s operational and financial situations until the funding crisis was over.

These measures were all for the bigger picture of the group’s development.

Once they weathered the storm, everything would move in a positive direction.

But now, they hadn’t announced anything, and someone had done it for them.

The extent of Li Jiacheng’s fury was palpable.

His secretary’s anxious voice came from the other end of the line. “Mr. Li, just now, Hutchison Whampoa’s stock fell by over thirty percent, and it’s still dropping! HSBC also just called to inquire about our situation and even asked if the loan of three hundred and fifty-eight million could be repaid on time!

We don’t know how Universal Research Company found out about our group’s situation, but their investigation is almost entirely accurate. Our situation has been completely exposed by them!”

Clatter!

The mobile phone slipped from Li Jiacheng’s hand and crashed to the floor, the battery and back cover flying off.

As if struck by lightning, he lost all his strength. He staggered back two steps and fell heavily into a chair.

His eyes were vacant as he muttered to himself, “It’s over… It’s completely over…”

Without a doubt, after this incident, the financial problems at Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings would have a massive impact on him.

Because the operational status of both groups could not withstand scrutiny.

If he denied Universal Research Company’s report, they would likely release even more detailed information, or even get the Securities and Futures Commission involved in an investigation, completely shattering his denial. That would be a devastating second blow. Hutchison Whampoa’s credibility would be ruined, with no chance of recovery.

But if he didn’t deny it, that would be tantamount to admitting the report’s authenticity!

Market panic would surge like a flood from a broken dam. Banks would recall loans, suppliers would cut off supplies, the stock price would crash…

Everything he feared most would become reality with terrifying speed!

To admit or to deny—both were paths to ruin!

Lin Haoran’s strike was precise and vicious, cutting off all his escape routes!

Hutchison Whampoa was a massive enterprise. Given his current situation, it wasn’t that there were no ways to overcome this crisis.

But the solutions available were ones he could not bear.

For example, he could sell off some of Hutchison Whampoa’s assets.

But he was unwilling.

After Willie’s drastic overhaul, all of Hutchison Whampoa’s non-performing assets had been cleared out, leaving behind only high-quality industries like terminals, retail, property, and warehouse land.

If he were to sell assets to get through this, he would have to sell off a lot.

But he was unwilling to part with any of them.

As a visionary businessman, Li Jiacheng knew full well that these industries would create immense wealth for him in the future.

Moreover, if he sold them in this economic climate, many would surely take advantage of the crisis to drive down the price.

Besides selling assets, there was another option: sell a portion of his shares.

Cheung Kong Holdings currently held forty percent of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares. If he had Cheung Kong Holdings reduce its stake, it would be enough to overcome this crisis.

But with the stock price clearly plummeting, selling shares now would be a huge loss.

Moreover, as a cautious businessman, Li Jiacheng knew that equity was the lifeline of control.

If he sold off too much, even just a few percentage points, it could attract vulture-like financial predators and might even shake his absolute control over Hutchison Whampoa.

This was a bottom line he could never accept!

He had paid a steep price to gain control of Hutchison Whampoa and join the ranks of Hong Kong’s top conglomerates. How could he give it up so easily because of the current difficulties?

Besides, Lin Haoran was eyeing him covetously. The moment he showed the slightest weakness, his rival would pounce like a shark that had scented blood, frantically accumulating shares and perhaps even seizing control of Hutchison Whampoa!

Wouldn’t that mean his life’s work would have been for someone else’s benefit?

That outcome was even more unacceptable than bankruptcy!

Although he didn’t think Lin Haoran would target Hutchison Whampoa, which was forty percent owned by Cheung Kong Holdings, he had to be on guard.

By holding onto the forty percent stake, he felt secure.

With so many shares, he could be on the offensive or defensive, fending off any enemy who coveted Hutchison Whampoa.

But if he didn’t sell shares and didn’t sell assets, how was he to get through this crisis?

Frankly, the banks and financial institutions in Hong Kong that could help him were very limited.

Besides the Standard Chartered banking group, there was only the Hang Seng Group.

But the Hang Seng Group was controlled by his rival, Lin Haoran.

As for the Standard Chartered group, he already owed HSBC a considerable amount, much of which was due in the coming months.

If HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank were in good financial shape, they would surely offer to postpone the repayment date.

But right now, Standard Chartered Bank was not faring well; they also needed to recoup their funds.

Moreover, his good friend, Mr. Brown, the former Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank, had already returned to Britain. The new successor was extremely cautious and dared not take any risks.

Under these circumstances, not only would they not lend him money, they might even press for repayment.

This was why Li Jiacheng had been forced to turn his attention to international investment banks.

If he couldn’t borrow from Hong Kong banks, he would find a way with the major international firms.

As one of the world’s financial centers, many international investment banks had branches or offices in Hong Kong.

The original plan was good, but now, that path was clearly becoming impassable.

These international investment banks were incredibly shrewd. If he still wanted to obtain funds from them, the price he would have to pay would certainly be even higher!

Higher interest rates, stricter collateral requirements, and perhaps even the addition of extremely harsh gambling clauses!

This was no different from drinking poison to quench thirst!

Li Jiacheng felt a deep sense of powerlessness, as if he were trapped in the center of a spiderweb—the more he struggled, the tighter the bindings became.

The timing of Lin Haoran’s strike was perfect, hitting him right when he was most vulnerable and dependent on external financing, completely cutting off all his funding channels.

He had been cautious his entire life, yet he had suffered repeated setbacks at Lin Haoran’s hands.

It made him start to doubt himself. Was he really so easily defeated?

The media called him Superman Li, the pride of the Chinese people.

Was he really going to fall at the hands of this rising star, Lin Haoran?

No!

Absolutely not!

Li Jiacheng’s fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

After decades of navigating the treacherous seas of business, what kind of major upheavals hadn’t he seen?

How many times had he been on the brink of disaster, only to turn the situation around in the end?

That he, Li Jiacheng, could climb from a young refugee to his current position was not just due to luck, but also to a resilience and ruthlessness far beyond that of ordinary people!

Lin Haoran was formidable, his moves ruthless, his strategies precise.

But Li Jiacheng was no pushover!

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. His mind began to work at an unprecedented speed, analyzing this hopeless situation, searching for even the faintest glimmer of a way out.

The paths through international investment banks and local banks were almost completely blocked. Selling off core assets and equity was his bottom line and could not be touched.

So, what should he do?

At this moment, even though he forced himself to calm down, his mind was still a chaotic mess.

“Let’s go. Back to Cheung Kong Center first!” Li Jiacheng said, leading the way towards the elevators.

This was not his territory, after all.

Besides, he was disgusted by Wells Fargo’s attitude.

As he passed a nearby office, John Anderson, the Vice President of Wells Fargo’s Asia division, offered a perfunctory farewell, “Take care, Mr. Li!”

Li Jiacheng said nothing, only quickened his pace, wanting to leave this place as soon as possible and return to Cheung Kong Center.

With the group in crisis, he had to be at the helm to steady the morale of his troops.

The elevator doors slowly closed, shutting out the suffocatingly cold atmosphere of Wells Fargo.

In the small space, only Li Jiacheng’s heavy breathing and the anxious heartbeats of his three subordinates and bodyguard could be heard.

“Mr. Li, we…” one of the senior executives began to speak but was silenced by a raised hand from Li Jiacheng.

He closed his eyes, his fingers kneading his throbbing temples.

I can’t lose my head. I absolutely cannot lose my head! He was the soul of Hutchison Whampoa. If he crumbled first, the group would truly be finished.

At present, Li Jiacheng lacked a top lieutenant like Ma Shimin, and a future general like Fok Kin-ning had been poached by Lin Haoran ahead of time.

It could be said that while he had many people he could use, he had few top-tier talents.

This was why he had no choice but to continue employing Willie’s old guard, such as Richard Lee, Simon Hall, and Peter Wei.

Part of the reason was to stabilize Hutchison Whampoa’s management, as he was not yet capable of taking over the entire company himself.

But from another perspective, wasn’t it also because he had no one else to use?

This was a very real problem.

A brilliant business leader was a rare opportunity that was hard to come by.

Surveying his many senior executives now, he could find almost no one who could truly hold their own and share his burden in such a desperate situation!

While Richard Lee and the others were capable, they were ultimately “outsiders.” At a time of life and death for the group, whether they could be fully trusted, whether they would stand with him in heart and mind, was a massive question mark.

He even suspected that the leak of internal information might be related to these former subordinates of Willie.

He refused to believe that Universal Research Company was so omniscient that they could forecast such precise figures.

An unprecedented sense of desolate isolation washed over Li Jiacheng.

The predicament of having no one to rely on made this moment feel exceptionally difficult.

Every decision, every command, required him to be hands-on, to deliberate repeatedly. There was no one who could share this mountain-like burden with him.

The slight feeling of weightlessness as the elevator descended made his already churning stomach even more uneasy.

Ding—

The elevator arrived at the B1 parking garage.

He quickly ducked into the back seat of his Rolls-Royce, not wanting to stay here a second longer.

At this very moment, all of Hong Kong was in an uproar over Universal Research Company’s press conference.

Especially within the Four Stock Exchanges, Hutchison Whampoa’s stock ticker seemed cursed. Sell orders piled up like a landslide while buy orders were sparse. Every feeble rebound was instantly drowned by a more ferocious wave of sell-offs.

After buying a portion of the shares, Galaxy Securities saw the price continue to fall and temporarily halted their accumulation, switching to closely monitoring Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price.

With that, even fewer people were buying.

Therefore, after Galaxy Securities stopped buying, Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price plummeted like a kite with a snapped string. The glaring red numbers constantly set new records for the decline, tugging at the hearts of countless shareholders and institutions.

In European and American countries, red indicates a drop as a warning sign, because the West feels green symbolizes vitality and hope. Therefore, in Hong Kong, green also represents a rise, while red represents a fall.

“It’s down another five percent!” someone shouted, and the trading floor immediately erupted in an uproar. Panic spread like a plague.

Investors holding Hutchison Whampoa shares looked ashen-faced. Some beat their chests and stamped their feet in frustration, while others were simply stunned into silence.

Originally, with Hongkong Land Group going private, Kowloon Wharf’s stock price returning to a rational level, Jardine Matheson & Co. withdrawing from Hong Kong, HSBC being defeated by the Bank of East Asia, and Hang Seng Bank being delisted, many of the listed giants that were so dominant two or three years ago had now vanished from the stock market.

Because of this, Hutchison Whampoa’s market capitalization had become the second-largest among listed companies in Hong Kong before today.

Since HSBC’s crisis was resolved, Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price had climbed rapidly, with its market capitalization once exceeding ten billion Hong Kong dollars, second only to Lin Haoran’s Hongkong Electric Group.

As for Hongkong Electric Group, its market capitalization had already reached over twenty billion Hong Kong dollars, reigning supreme over all listed companies in Hong Kong, exuding an air of standing above all others.

But now, Hutchison Whampoa, this commercial behemoth with a market cap of ten billion, was capsizing at a visible rate.

Every percentage point drop meant hundreds of millions in market value evaporating, meant Li Jiacheng’s personal fortune was shrinking drastically, and more importantly, meant a complete collapse of market confidence.

Among the listed companies, because of Hutchison Whampoa’s massive drop, Swire & Co., Hong Kong Telephone, China Light & Power, Hong Kong and China Gas, and others all moved up one rank.

Soon, among Lin Haoran’s enterprises, excluding those that had already been delisted like Hongkong Land Group and Wanqing Group, three of the top five listed companies in Hong Kong were actually controlled by Lin Haoran.

Among them, the number one, Hongkong Electric Group, was far ahead of the pack.

Ever since Lin Haoran took control of Hongkong Electric Group, its business had flourished and its financial reports had become increasingly impressive after a series of his investments.

Coupled with the fact that Lin Haoran was a Hong Kong super-rich magnate whose money-making ability was known to all, if not for the fact that Hongkong Electric Group couldn’t be privatized, Lin Haoran would probably have already delisted it. Thus, in the eyes of many shareholders, buying Hongkong Electric Group stock was a sure win.

As a result, its market capitalization naturally skyrocketed.

As for Swire & Co., its market cap had yet to break ten billion Hong Kong dollars.

And China Light & Power, despite having a larger share of the electricity supply market than Hongkong Electric Group, had a market cap that was several times smaller.

Sometimes, the stock market doesn’t fully reflect a company’s actual asset value; it’s more about the interplay of market confidence and future expectations.

Lin Haoran’s enterprises happened to master this “expectation” magic, and were seen by investors as synonymous with high growth and high returns.

As one waned, the other waxed. In this context, Li Jiacheng’s Hutchison Whampoa seemed more like an abandoned symbol of a bygone era, teetering on the verge of collapse under the assault of the new age.

And his other giant enterprise, Cheung Kong Holdings, was also in a major slide.

Panic, like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, sent ripples spreading rapidly throughout the entire Hong Kong stock market. The Hang Seng Index was also dragged down and began to turn downwards.

Some stocks that were originally performing well were also affected, showing varying degrees of decline.

By the time Li Jiacheng returned to Cheung Kong Center, Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price had plummeted by more than forty percent.

In other words, Hutchison Whampoa, which originally had a market cap of over ten billion Hong Kong dollars, was now worth less than six billion Hong Kong dollars.

And the stock price was still falling.

As for Cheung Kong Holdings, its original market cap of nearly seven point three billion Hong Kong dollars had also fallen by over thirty-five percent, and was now less than four point seven billion Hong Kong dollars.

“It’s over. This time, it’s really over.” A middle-aged investor slumped in a chair on the trading floor, his eyes lifelessly staring at the glaring stretch of red on the simple LED screen, muttering to himself.

He had bet almost his entire net worth on Hutchison Whampoa, hoping to get a piece of the action by following “Superman Li.”

Originally, he hadn’t invested so much.

But as Hutchison Whampoa’s stock rose higher and higher, he naturally invested more and more.

He even took out a loan last month and put it all into Hutchison Whampoa stock.

He never expected that what awaited him was total ruin.

Similar scenes of despair were playing out in various brokerage houses.

Chasing highs has always been the most common behavior in the stock market.

But when a major downturn occurs, shareholders’ psychological defenses can easily crumble.

This is why many ordinary investors end up buying high and selling at a loss.

After Li Jiacheng’s Rolls-Royce stopped in the Cheung Kong Center parking lot, he took the elevator straight back to his Chairman of the Board office.

When the elevator doors opened, he could clearly feel a heavy atmosphere throughout the office.

No one looked happy.

This floor housed the offices of Hutchison Whampoa’s mid-to-high-level management.

The company’s success or failure was directly tied to their interests.

“Boss, our stock price is still falling. We have to find a way to stop the slide, or the consequences will be unimaginable!” Richard Lee was already waiting at the elevator entrance. The moment he saw Li Jiacheng, he rushed over, his face pale, his voice urgent.

Li Jiacheng’s expression was grim as he strode toward his office, issuing rapid commands as he walked, “Immediately summon all Executive Directors for a meeting in the main conference room in ten minutes!

Also, have the heads of the Public Relations and Finance Departments come to my office right away. And bring me a copy of the materials released by Universal Research Company!”

“Yes!” His secretary immediately ran off to make the arrangements.

Right now, stopping the stock’s freefall and restoring shareholder confidence was Li Jiacheng’s most urgent task.

Otherwise, it would trigger a series of thorny problems and could even set off a more severe chain reaction crisis.

Chapter 733: A Mole, There Must Be a Mole!

Just as Li Jiacheng was methodically arranging his work, the press conference at the headquarters of Universal Research Company—the one causing a sensation across Hong Kong—had already concluded.

None of the reporters present were in a hurry to return to their offices. Instead, they all drove with a tacit understanding toward the same destination—Cheung Kong Center.

At this very moment, they were all eager to know how Hutchison Whampoa would respond to the matter.

In the field of research, Universal Research Company was the most authoritative in all of Hong Kong, at least by current public consensus.

Therefore, no one at the press conference believed Universal Research Company was making baseless claims.

The precision of the data and the wealth of detail in the report had already solidified in everyone’s mind the judgment that Hutchison Whampoa was in deep crisis.

So, they all wanted to see if Hutchison Whampoa would deny it.

If they didn’t deny it, it would be a tacit admission, and Hutchison Whampoa might truly be facing a financial crisis.

If they did deny it, then there would be a good show to watch.

Everyone knew that, given Universal Research Company’s history of extreme rigor and authority, they would only dare to release such a report so publicly if they had irrefutable evidence.

What more, Universal Research Company was backed by Lin Haoran, the newly crowned hegemon of Hong Kong’s business world. Lin Haoran would not risk his own reputation.

Using underhanded tactics like falsifying data to bring down an enemy would invite an investigation from the relevant authorities.

But if Hutchison Whampoa denied the claims, it would likely provoke a more ferocious second or third wave of evidence from Universal Research, perhaps even leading to a mandatory investigation by regulatory bodies, which would be an even more terrifying disaster.

Thus, all the reporters headed excitedly toward Cheung Kong Center.

The more dramatic these events were, the better, as it would attract more public attention.

They, the media, relied on such explosive news to capture eyeballs and boost their sales and influence!

In addition to them, many more reporters who had not attended the press conference had already arrived at Cheung Kong Center even earlier.

A growing number of reporters began to enter Cheung Kong Center.

Seeing this, the security team had no choice but to report the situation to their superiors.

In Li Jiacheng’s office, having just given instructions to the public relations and finance departments, he picked up a document to read.

This document contained the full details of what Universal Research Company had released.

The content was extremely detailed; basically, every word Yu Zhize had said was recorded verbatim.

On the surface, Universal Research Company seemed to have released an in-depth research report on the recent financial status and operational risks of several major listed companies in Hong Kong, aiming to highlight potential market risks and promote a healthy and transparent business environment.

But how could Li Jiacheng not know that this was clearly an overt scheme aimed directly at him!

A perfectly open and audacious scheme!

It was designed to expose the true predicament hidden beneath the glamorous facade of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, thereby suppressing him.

The data in the report was terrifyingly precise, far beyond what could be obtained through ordinary market research.

The extent of the cash flow shortage, the maturity distribution of short-term debts, and even details of his secret contacts with several international investment banks…

The other party had a crystal-clear grasp of these core secrets!

“A mole. There must be a mole!” Li Jiacheng’s hand clenched the report tightly, his eyes filled with rage.

An anger born of betrayal and a cold fear intertwined, sending a chill through his entire body.

And this mole was definitely in a high-level position!

He simply refused to believe that Universal Research Company possessed such powerful research capabilities.

In reality, what Li Jiacheng didn’t know was that much of the data was indeed deduced by Universal Research Company using limited data and powerful analytical models.

After acquiring Universal Research Company, Lin Haoran had invested significant funds to bring in more top-tier data teams and financial engineering experts.

Through deep dives into public financial statements, cross-validation of supply chain data, and quantitative analysis of market rumors, they had built an extremely precise risk assessment model.

Therefore, the current capabilities of Universal Research Company were far greater than they had been just two or three months ago.

Especially after the addition of top experts poached from developed regions like Europe, America, and Japan, Universal Research Company’s strength had already reached the world’s leading level!

At such a high level, it was not preposterous to calculate Hutchison Whampoa’s near-actual financial situation using a wide range of known data.

Li Jiacheng’s anger and his suspicion of a “mole” were, to some extent, a misjudgment of Universal Research Company’s now formidable strength.

Lin Haoran’s investment and the addition of those top international experts had transformed the research firm into an incredibly precise analytical machine.

They could meticulously unravel the threads from public land auction prices, commercial property transaction volumes, construction cost indices, major transactions of Hutchison Whampoa’s subsidiaries, subtle changes in port container throughput, and even monitoring data of foot traffic in retail stores to construct a financial model infinitely close to the truth.

That report was the product of algorithms, data, and industry insight, and its accuracy was enough to pass for the real thing, convincing anyone that there had to be inside information.

However, Li Jiacheng had no time to delve into the technological marvels behind it.

A knock on the door once again broke the silence of the office.

“Mr. Li, many reporters have arrived downstairs. Our people have also learned that the reporters from Universal Research Company’s press conference are on their way here. They want us to give a direct response to the report,” the secretary reported quickly after entering.

A cold glint flashed in Li Jiacheng’s eyes before he regained his composure.

He knew Lin Haoran was putting his feet to the fire, forcing him into a hasty response.

At times like this, it was crucial not to lose one’s composure.

“Have the public relations department handle it. Tell the reporters that Hutchison Whampoa respects all voices in the market, but we will not comment on a one-sided report that has not been verified by us and carries obvious bias. Company operations are all normal, and all financial information will be disclosed through official announcements at the appropriate time.”

After a pause, Li Jiacheng continued his instructions in a steady voice, “Have security maintain order, but do not clash with the reporters. Also, have the investor relations department immediately prepare a briefing for a conference call with major institutional investors and analysts. Schedule it for after the market closes this afternoon.”

His meaning was simple: he would not be responding personally.

“Yes, Mr. Li!” The secretary took her leave.

Li Jiacheng sat back in his large office chair, his fingers tapping unconsciously on the desktop.

Lin Haoran’s move was indeed vicious, using Universal’s authority to launch a media offensive and directly attack market confidence.

By being forced to react passively, he was already at a disadvantage.

However, none of this was his primary concern.

His biggest worry right now was how to raise the funds for the loan that was about to mature.

After this incident, it would be even more difficult to borrow money from those international investment banks.

It wasn’t that it was impossible, but the price would be much higher.

To think that he, a top tycoon in Hong Kong with two corporate giants under his command with a combined market capitalization of over ten billion, was now agonizing over a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars—it was, without a doubt, ironic.

But the business world is like a battlefield, and cash flow is its lifeblood; it cannot be cut off for even a moment.

Over the past two years, to increase Cheung Kong Holdings’ stake in Hutchison Whampoa to forty percent, Cheung Kong Holdings had already sold off all its other stock investments.

Otherwise, he could have raised funds by selling off other stocks.

As for his shares in Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa, he couldn’t possibly sell them now.

The stock prices had already fallen so much.

If he were to sell now, he, Li Jiacheng, would become the biggest joke in town. Not only would he suffer a massive paper loss, but it would also send an extreme panic signal to the market, completely confirming the accusations in Universal’s report and triggering a downward spiral in the stock price.

It would be tantamount to digging his own grave.

Besides, even if he wanted to sell now, he’d have to find a buyer.

Borrow money from his friends in the business world?

Most of his business friends were tycoons in the property industry.

And now, with the property industry transitioning from a boom to a bust, property bosses everywhere were struggling to fend for themselves. Who could he borrow from?

This was no small sum.

His relationship with Pao Yue-kong was quite good, but Pao Yue-kong still hadn’t recovered his strength since taking control of Kowloon Wharf. Relying on him was out of the question.

He was short too much capital. Just as Universal Research Company’s report indicated, Hutchison Whampoa’s proportion of short-term debt was staggering, with an estimated one point two billion Hong Kong dollars in debt maturing within the next one to six months.

In reality, Hutchison Whampoa’s short-term debt was slightly higher than Universal’s estimate, closer to one point three billion Hong Kong dollars!

Of course, the margin of error in Universal Research Company’s estimate was already impressively precise.

After all, some of Hutchison’s expenditures were not public, and without public access, Universal Research Company couldn’t obtain the relevant data.

Within half a year, this one point three billion Hong Kong dollars had to be repaid.

And one point three billion Hong Kong dollars was far from Hutchison Whampoa’s total debt; it was only the portion maturing within six months.

What Hutchison Whampoa had to repay within six months was several billion Hong Kong dollars in debt!

Of course, debts maturing in one or two years didn’t need as much immediate consideration.

But he had to find a solution for the debt due within six months.

Even the six hundred million loan he had originally negotiated with Wells Fargo would have only bought him some time.

Now, even that six hundred million Hong Kong dollars was gone.

In fact, both Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings still had a lot of liquid capital, such as payments for goods from retail businesses like ParknShop supermarket and Watsons, as well as the revenue from various companies.

All of this was currently in HSBC.

But these funds couldn’t be touched, as they were the operating capital for Hutchison Whampoa’s various subsidiaries.

With a significant drop in revenue across all businesses, these enterprises were not even profitable at the moment; they were lucky to maintain normal operations.

If he were to actually draw funds from the subsidiaries, this seemingly vast network of retail and business operations could instantly collapse due to a broken capital chain.

ParknShop supermarket would have no money to pay its suppliers, Watsons would be unable to procure new stock, and the port business would be unable to pay for fuel and equipment maintenance…

The resulting chain reaction of collapse would be far more terrifying than a simple debt default. It would completely destroy the business reputation and operational system Hutchison Whampoa had built over decades.

Therefore, that money could only sit on the books for the subsidiaries to use. He didn’t dare to touch a single cent of it!

Li Jiacheng felt a suffocating pressure.

He felt as though he were standing on the edge of a cliff. Beneath his feet was a seemingly solid empire, but in reality, it had been hollowed out from within, and any slight external force could cause a total collapse.

“Mr. Li, all the senior executives are waiting in the conference room,” the secretary reported, returning to the office once more.

Li Jiacheng took a deep breath, his gaze becoming sharp and calm again.

The more desperate the situation, the more crucial it was to find the one and only path to survival.

“I know,” Li Jiacheng said, then rose and walked out of his office toward the conference room.

Although he was skeptical that the senior executive meeting could produce an effective solution, as the helmsman, he had to project absolute composure and control to steady the morale of his troops.

…

Half an hour later, Li Jiacheng emerged from the conference room with a grim expression.

Just as he had expected, the dozen or so senior executives couldn’t come up with a single useful solution.

Even his outburst of anger in the conference room was futile.

Worse yet, during the meeting, business Director Simon Hall had even suggested inviting Mr. Willie back to take charge of Hutchison Whampoa, insisting that he could surely navigate them through this crisis.

This infuriated Li Jiacheng so much that he smashed the coffee cup in front of him.

The rapacious ambition of these British old guards had never truly died out!

Simon Hall, one of the troika from Willie’s era, was suggesting bringing back the former “Company Doctor” and Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa, Willie, at such a critical moment?

Li Jiacheng could figure out the motive behind this with his eyes closed.

These remnants of British-owned influence had never truly submitted; they had been waiting for a chance to strike back.

Universal’s report had undoubtedly given them the pretext to cause trouble.

He certainly believed Willie had the ability, but would he dare?

He wouldn’t dare!

Willie’s ambition was too great. When he was in charge of Hutchison, he held the management rights in an iron grip, giving the shareholders no room to interfere.

How could Li Jiacheng tolerate that?

To have no final say in a group he had taken control of—what did it matter how capable the other person was?

He had gone to great lengths to oust Willie from the chairmanship of Hutchison Whampoa. How could he possibly welcome him back?

There was an old Chinese proverb: it’s easier to invite a god than to send one away!

So, he had erupted in a fury right then and there, scaring all the executives into silence.

Li Jiacheng walked out of the conference room with an ashen face, his chest heaving slightly with anger.

Troubles from within and without—at this moment, he felt it with acute clarity.

Lin Haoran was relentlessly pursuing him from the outside, while internally, there were people thinking of letting the wolf into the sheepfold and taking advantage of the crisis for personal gain!

But for now, he couldn’t afford to have a major falling out with these professional managers.

Because Hutchison Whampoa still needed these people to hold the line. For at least the next two years, he had to maintain a civil relationship with them.

If Richard Lee, Simon Hall, and Peter Wei were to leave Hutchison Whampoa now, the company’s daily operations would likely be thrown into a state of semi-paralysis.

Although this “troika” each had their own thoughts, their abilities were undeniable. They were the key gears that kept this vast business machine running.

Until he could find suitable replacements and ensure a smooth transition, Li Jiacheng had no choice but to endure for the time being.

In another world, he eventually found Ma Shimin to take over Hutchison Whampoa.

However, in this world, that was no longer possible, as Ma Shimin had already been poached by Lin Haoran for the Hongkong Land Group long ago.

And events had proven that Li Jiacheng’s eye for talent was indeed sharp. Ma Shimin was a man of astonishing business genius, and under his leadership, the Hongkong Land Group was flourishing.

If the Hongkong Land Group hadn’t been privatized by Lin Haoran so early on, given its current scale and quality, its market capitalization might have been thirty to forty billion Hong Kong dollars, or even over fifty billion Hong Kong dollars.

“Mr. Richard Lee, please stabilize all affairs within the group. I’m going to pay a visit to Mr. Tylen, the new Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank, and try to extend the maturity of the upcoming loan for a while longer,” Li Jiacheng said.

At this point, Li Jiacheng believed that Standard Chartered Bank had to extend the loan, whether they wanted to or not.

After all, Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings were both tied to HSBC, and Standard Chartered Bank was now HSBC’s parent company. They couldn’t just stand by and watch Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings fall into a capital chain crisis.

However, a price would certainly have to be paid.

It all depended on what conditions they would propose.

He had met this Mr. Tylen several times. Although he appeared friendly in their interactions, he was in fact a very tough person in charge.

Such a person was difficult to deal with.

He was a far cry from the Mr. Brown of the past.

“Rest assured, Mr. Li. You go ahead. I wish you success!” Richard Lee nodded.

After his boss left, Richard Lee called both Simon Hall and Peter Wei into his office. What they discussed, no one knew~

Meanwhile, Li Jiacheng, accompanied by his bodyguard, quickly left in a car from the underground garage.

However, the moment he emerged from the garage, he was immediately spotted by reporters.

His private car was too conspicuous to them.

“Here he comes! It’s Mr. Li’s car!”

“Quick! Surround it!”

Someone shouted, and the crowd instantly surged forward like a burst dam, completely blocking the car’s path.

The human wall formed by the bodyguards and company security guards looked precarious under the frenzied assault.

“Mr. Li! Please respond to Universal Research Company’s report!”

“Is Hutchison Whampoa on the verge of bankruptcy?”

“Is HSBC pressuring you for debt repayment?”

“Do you believe this is a malicious attack by Mr. Lin Haoran?”

“Is Cheung Kong Holdings’ debt ratio really that high?”

A flurry of cameras and lenses were practically being shoved through the car window. The incessant flashes of cameras lit up the car’s interior with a stark white light.

The reporters’ desperate questions penetrated the car’s less-than-perfect soundproofing, reaching Li Jiacheng’s ears clearly. Each question was like a sharp knife, precisely stabbing at his most sensitive nerves.

The driver and the bodyguard in the front seat had tense expressions, as if facing a formidable enemy.

The driver subconsciously slammed on the brakes, terrified of hitting the frantic crowd.

Sitting in the back seat, Li Jiacheng’s face was so dark it looked like it could drip water.

He hadn’t expected the reporters to be so crazed as to block the exit of the underground garage.

This feeling of being publicly cornered, like a caged animal, infuriated him.

But he knew he absolutely could not lose his temper now.

Any loss of composure would be magnified infinitely by the cameras and become tomorrow’s headlines, further damaging market confidence.

Previously, his failed attempt to acquire Raffles Hotel in Singapore had forced him to return to Hong Kong in a hurry.

Upon returning from Singapore, at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport, he had flown into a rage out of frustration, and the scene was captured by reporters.

That incident had nearly made him the laughingstock of all of Hong Kong.

The memory was all too vivid.

So, facing these reporters, he knew he had to endure. He must endure!

He took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the rage in his heart, and gave a low command to the bodyguard in the front seat: “Notify the building’s security department to immediately send more personnel to direct traffic! Tell them to be careful how they do it and to absolutely avoid any conflict!”

“Yes, Mr. Li!” The bodyguard immediately picked up the intercom.

Then, Li Jiacheng did something unexpected by the reporters outside.

He slowly lowered the car window.

In an instant, every microphone and recording device was nearly thrust into the car, and the cacophony of questions grew even more thunderous.

A faint, weary, yet still composed smile appeared on Li Jiacheng’s face. He raised his hand and gently pressed it down, signaling for everyone to be quiet.

Perhaps surprised that he would face them directly, the reporters miraculously quieted down for a moment. All cameras were focused on him.

“Friends from the media,” Li Jiacheng’s voice, still maintaining its usual steadiness, came through the car window. “Thank you for your hard work. Regarding some of the market rumors today, I understand everyone’s concern, but I have already had my colleagues at the company issue a response.”

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the eager faces before him. “I would like to re-emphasize here that Hutchison Whampoa is a financially sound company with a high degree of social responsibility. Our current operations are all normal, our financial situation is good, and we are fully capable of fulfilling all our debt obligations. The one-sided report issued by a certain institution does not represent the whole truth.”

“Mr. Li, then how do you explain the precise data in the report?” a reporter immediately asked loudly.

“There are all sorts of analyses and reports in the market. As a company, we respect freedom of speech, but we place more importance on speaking with facts and performance,” Li Jiacheng said evasively, his tone gentle yet firm. “I believe that the eyes of investors and the market are sharp. They will make their judgments based on the company’s long-term value and actual performance, not be swayed by short-term, unverified news.”

“But as far as I know, Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price has already dropped by nearly fifty percent compared to its opening price. This clearly shows that investors lack sufficient confidence in Hutchison Whampoa. What are your thoughts on this?” another question followed immediately.

The corner of Li Jiacheng’s eye twitched almost imperceptibly.

This reporter was truly getting on his nerves.

Of course, he knew about Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price.

“Short-term market fluctuations often stem from emotional overreactions rather than a true reflection of value. Hutchison Whampoa’s asset quality and long-term profitability have not fundamentally changed. I believe that when the market calms down and re-examines the fundamentals, value will be restored.”

Li Jiacheng’s voice remained steady, but his pace quickened slightly, betraying his desire to end the conversation.

He skillfully avoided directly confirming or denying the specific stock price drop, instead shifting the topic to “emotions” and “long-term value.”

However, the reporters clearly had no intention of letting him off the hook so easily. Another question was immediately thrown at him: “There are reports that international investment banks like Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs Group are reassessing their credit lines to Hutchison. Is the purpose of your trip today to hold emergency consultations with the banks?”

Chapter 734: Hutchison Whampoa Plummets 56%, Superman Li’s Glimmer of Hope

“There are reports that international investment banks like Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs Group are reassessing their credit lines for Hutchison Whampoa. Was your trip out of the city for emergency consultations with the banks? Does this mean that Hutchison’s capital chain has indeed run into problems?”

The reporter’s question was exceptionally sharp, practically pointing directly to the purpose of Li Jiacheng’s trip and hitting a sore spot once again.

Li Jiacheng was furious, but the weary smile on his face miraculously held, even taking on a hint of helplessness. “My friends from the press are truly well-informed. However, maintaining regular communication with a company’s main partner banks is part of the daily work of any corporate management. This isn’t just true for Hutchison Whampoa; I believe it’s the case for most companies in Hong Kong. Therefore, my trip was not for any ‘emergency consultation.’ A healthy bank-enterprise relationship is a crucial guarantee for a company’s stable development.”

He had once again downplayed the “emergency consultation” as “regular communication.”

Just then, the reinforcement security guards finally made their presence felt. They formed a more solid human wall, pushing the crowd of reporters back by a few steps and completely clearing a path for the vehicle.

“My apologies, everyone. I truly have an important business appointment and time is tight, so I must be leaving. Thank you all for your concern. Please be sure to refer to our official announcements. Thank you!”

Li Jiacheng gave them no further opportunity to ask questions, swiftly rolling up the car window and shutting out all the noise and flashing lights from outside.

“Drive!” he said to the driver in a low voice, a hint of barely perceptible relief in his tone.

The vehicle was finally able to pull away slowly, leaving the reporters, still shouting questions, behind.

Inside the car, Li Jiacheng leaned back against his seat and let out a long, slow breath.

Those few short minutes had been as mentally taxing as a high-stakes negotiation. He raised a hand to loosen his tie, feeling his back soaked in a thin layer of sweat.

“No matter what, this meeting with the new Taipan at Standard Chartered Bank must result in an extension for the maturing loan!” Li Jiacheng swore through clenched teeth. This was the absolute bottom line for stabilizing the situation. He was willing to pay a price.

Otherwise, once the chain reaction of a broken capital chain was triggered, the consequences would be unimaginable.

He took a few deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down from the tension of the confrontation with the reporters and the fury over the stock’s collapse. This was no time to be emotional. He needed to focus all his energy on the upcoming tough battle with Standard Chartered Bank’s Taipan, Tylen.

If he had been able to secure funds from Wells Fargo earlier, he wouldn’t have to worry about this.

He was well aware that Standard Chartered was having a hard time. After all, the price they paid to acquire HSBC was too high, not to mention they had just replaced their head in Hong Kong.

But now, they were the only ones who could help him.

Li Jiacheng took a bottle of cold water from the car’s mini-fridge and took a large gulp. The icy liquid helped to clear his chaotic thoughts. He began to run calculations in his mind at lightning speed, and a plan soon formed.

Negotiating with Mr. Tylen would require a few things. He needed to be clear on his bottom line, his bargaining chips, and the price he was willing to pay.

He had to secure a loan extension of at least three months—that was the minimum requirement. Six months would be ideal, as it would give him enough time to sell off assets or find other financing. Although the stock price had plummeted, Hutchison Whampoa’s core assets—the ports, real estate, retail networks, and other fundamentals—were still intact. These were the foundation of his negotiation. HSBC’s deep ties with Hutchison meant that they would surely not want to see Hutchison fail, which was a factor they had to consider.

Moreover, although the temporary stock collapse was painful, Li Jiacheng believed that once the cash flow problem was solved, the share price would eventually rise again.

As for the price, the other party would certainly take the opportunity to impose conditions. A higher interest rate was inevitable, and they might also demand additional collateral, such as his personal shares in Cheung Kong Holdings or equity in some of Hutchison’s quality assets. They might even propose harsh terms like dispatching financial supervisors. He had to draw a clear line in his mind about what was acceptable.

Furthermore, on this visit to Standard Chartered Bank, he could show weakness, but not fear. He had to admit that the market was experiencing “unnecessary panic,” emphasize that Hutchison’s fundamentals remained solid, and express absolute confidence in the future, while realistically facing the current “liquidity challenge.” The key was to convince the other party that supporting him through this difficult period was in Standard Chartered Bank’s long-term interests. Otherwise, if Hutchison were to fall, HSBC, a subsidiary of Standard Chartered, would also suffer tremendous losses.

The vehicle drove smoothly toward the Standard Chartered Bank Building.

Li Jiacheng straightened his suit and tie, deeply hiding the exhaustion and anger on his face and replacing it with his usual calm and confident expression.

…

Clang, clang, clang.

As four o’clock in the afternoon arrived, the closing bell of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange rang, and the last trader in a red jacket completed his final transaction.

A massive, simple LED electronic display screen hung in the trading hall. This type of screen used light-emitting diodes, unlike the liquid crystal displays of later years.

At this moment, the echo of the closing bell still lingered in the trading hall, but on that huge, simple LED screen composed of countless diodes, the final closing price of Hutchison Whampoa was frozen like a cold scar etched into the heart of every witness.

-56.32%.

It was a shocking figure, a staggering drop that was nearly equivalent to being cut in half, and then in half again.

In just one day.

A day ago, Hutchison Whampoa was the second-largest listed company in Hong Kong.

Now, it had slid to ninth place, with a market capitalization of only 4.669 billion Hong Kong dollars!

If not for the significant trading volume in the last ten minutes, Hutchison Whampoa’s market cap might have even fallen below four billion Hong Kong dollars.

In a single trading day, more than half of the giant’s market value had turned to ash. It was an outcome that many had not expected.

The hall did not immediately return to its usual boisterousness. After the nearly frantic sell-off and stampede of the final half-hour, an almost debilitating silence enveloped the scene. The traders in their red jackets either slumped in their chairs or sorted through their slips with expressionless faces. The air was thick with the smell of sweat, paper, and an indescribable sense of defeat.

Occasionally, people spoke in low voices, their gazes involuntarily drifting to the screen before quickly looking away, as if another glance would burn their eyes.

“Crazy… everyone’s gone crazy…” a middle-aged shareholder muttered to himself, still clutching a stack of share certificates he hadn’t managed to sell off completely.

Beside him, an older shareholder took off his reading glasses and rubbed his temples forcefully. “I don’t know if it will keep falling tomorrow. My stock assets have already depreciated by half. Hutchison Whampoa… this is a blue-chip flagship…”

“So what if it’s a flagship? So what if he’s Superman Li? It can’t withstand the possibility of banks calling in loans, and it can’t withstand a lack of market confidence!” a younger investor next to them lamented.

“Yeah, thankfully I got out quick. I sold within the first half hour of the market open. I lost a lot, but it’s better than losing my entire investment,” another person interjected, his tone carrying the relief of someone who had survived a great ordeal.

Over the past two years, due to Lin Haoran, the Hong Kong stock market was indeed different from the Hong Kong stock market of another world. Although it had been a bull market with an overall upward trend, from time to time, a corporate giant’s stock would crash because of Lin Haoran’s competition with them.

For example, when Jardine Matheson was driven out of Hong Kong by Lin Haoran, it suffered heavy losses, and the shareholders who held Jardine Matheson stock at the time naturally lost a great deal. Another example was when HSBC’s capital chain was broken not long ago, which dragged down many of Hong Kong’s corporate giants. At that time, which of those companies didn’t see their stock prices fall by a factor of two or three?

So now, Hong Kong’s shareholders had built up quite a bit of immunity in this regard. At the very least, they wouldn’t rush to the rooftops to end their lives as they might have in the past. After all, many had earned a fair amount during the bull market of the past two or three years. Losing some now was just giving a portion of it back.

Meanwhile, at the Connaught Centre, in the offices of Galaxy Securities.

At this moment, Lin Haoran was sitting in Dai Shi’s office, looking at the documents in his hand with growing satisfaction.

After watching the Universal Research Company’s press conference at home that morning, he hadn’t left, only coming over to the Connaught Centre in the afternoon.

Right now, the documents in his hand showed that Galaxy Securities already held 24.62% of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares!

Additionally, Cheung Kong Holdings Group also held 21.23%.

The massive increase in Hutchison Whampoa’s trading volume in the final ten minutes, which halted its decline, was actually the work of Galaxy Securities’ traders.

In the end, Galaxy Securities had accumulated about 2.12% of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares for the group, spending less than one hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

The reason for such a bold and sudden acquisition in ten minutes was simple.

With the stock having fallen this far, it was expected that some daring market makers or investors would start buying at the bottom. This was a normal phenomenon and wouldn’t attract any attention from Hutchison Whampoa. The senior executives at Hutchison Whampoa might even feel a sense of gratitude towards these “investors.” After all, without the support of the large number of buy orders in the last ten minutes, the decline could have exceeded 60%, possibly even triggering a more terrifying chain reaction crash.

As long as they didn’t accumulate such a large volume every day, even if Li Jiacheng had a strong trading team at his disposal, it would be difficult for them to discover that someone was coveting Hutchison Whampoa.

“Boss, rest assured. We’ve been in this business for years, and we understand the psychology of our peers better than anyone. Our acquisitions this time will absolutely not attract Mr. Li Jiacheng’s attention,” Dai Shi explained.

“They’re probably still celebrating that some ‘out-of-touch’ reckless fools or ‘long-term investors with unique vision’ have finally stepped in to prop up the market. They would never imagine that this ‘market-rescuing’ capital comes from the person they least want to see,” Lin Haoran said with a light laugh, a hint of mockery in his tone.

Dai Shi added, “And our acquisition cost is extremely low. Even if the stock price continues to fall tomorrow, our unrealized losses are completely within an acceptable range. More importantly, our shareholding percentage has reached a very delicate and dangerous position.”

It was indeed delicate.

It was common knowledge in Hong Kong’s business circles that Cheung Kong Holdings held 40% of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares. As the controlling shareholder, Cheung Kong Holdings had to disclose its actual holdings. Li Jiacheng had also stated to reporters at a press conference that he would not increase his stake after reaching 40%. After all, with a 40% stake, it was generally believed that there was virtually no chance of a hostile takeover.

However, Lin Haoran had his people investigate. Aside from the 40% held by Cheung Kong Holdings, several other shareholders and investment institutions controlled a total of about 13% of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares. And as long as the price was right, it wouldn’t be difficult for Lin Haoran to acquire all of that 13%.

What did this mean?

It meant that with the 24.62% he now held, plus the 13% he could acquire at any time, he was already close to 38%.

He was just a stone’s throw away from catching up to Cheung Kong Holdings’ 40% stake in Hutchison Whampoa!

And yet, Li Jiacheng’s team had still not discovered it.

The reason was actually quite simple. Although it seemed like only about twenty-odd percent of the shares were left on the market, Hutchison Whampoa had been a listed company for many years and had issued a relatively large number of shares. Furthermore, its market capitalization was quite high. Therefore, even with only twenty-something percent of the shares in the hands of the public, the absolute number and the extent of their dispersion were enough to make any large-scale secret accumulation difficult to detect quickly in its early stages.

What’s more, the core energy of Li Jiacheng’s team was currently entirely focused on how to survive the capital chain crisis and how to stabilize the market panic caused by the stock’s collapse. Their sensitivity to minute changes in the equity structure was naturally greatly diminished.

More importantly, it was likely that Li Jiacheng and his trading team were still convinced that his 40% stake was an iron wall that no one could breach. Superman Li was used to being the hunter, used to being in control of the situation. He was not accustomed to being the prey, and he would never have imagined that someone would dare—and have the ability—to aim directly for his fatal flaw when he was at his most vulnerable.

The games of capital are often decided in these slivers of information asymmetry and divided attention.

Besides, Galaxy Securities’ actions had been perfectly timed for when his attention was most scattered. Moreover, they operated through hundreds of offshore accounts and related parties. Even if Hutchison Whampoa were to investigate afterward, it would take a great deal of time. By the time they sorted things out, the dye would likely already be cast.

Lin Haoran walked over to a giant map of Hong Kong, his eyes calmly sweeping over the locations that marked Hutchison Whampoa’s core assets: the terminals at Kwai Chung, the prime properties in Central, the Whampoa Dockyard in Hung Hom, and the ParknShop supermarkets and Watsons stores spread throughout Hong Kong…

It was a vast commercial empire, yet now, due to a problem with its core capital chain, it was showing fragile cracks. And he was going to take advantage of this weakness to bring this vast commercial empire under his control.

Originally, as a fellow Chinese entrepreneur, Lin Haoran had not intended to take over Hutchison Whampoa. If anyone was to blame, it was Superman Li for opposing him time and time again. In that case, he couldn’t be blamed for what was to come.

Just then, Lin Haoran’s mobile phone rang.

“Hello?” he answered, pressing the call button.

“Boss, it’s me. Is there a television near you? Mr. Li Jiacheng will be holding a press conference at the Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong headquarters in ten minutes. Home Channel is broadcasting it live,” Cui Zilong said quickly on the other end.

“Alright, I know. Thanks for the trouble!” Lin Haoran said before hanging up.

“Li Jiacheng’s press conference, and it’s being held at the Standard Chartered Bank headquarters. This is interesting,” Lin Haoran murmured to himself.

He knew that Li Jiacheng wouldn’t be so easily defeated, so he hadn’t held out too much hope for the impact of Universal Research Company’s press conference. Now it seemed he was right. If nothing unexpected happened, Li Jiacheng must have reached some new agreement with Standard Chartered.

The most likely scenario was that Standard Chartered would publicly support Li Jiacheng, stating that they would fully back him financially. In that case, his crisis would be temporarily averted.

However, even so, Universal Research Company’s press conference was not without its uses. At the very least, everyone now knew that both Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings were facing issues with their capital chains. Furthermore, Galaxy Securities had taken this opportunity to acquire a significant number of shares at a low price, bringing them one step closer to catching up with Cheung Kong Holdings’ stake in Hutchison Whampoa.

He quickly left the Galaxy Securities office and returned to the 51st floor.

Passing by Ma Shimin’s office, Lin Haoran called him out, and they went to Lin Haoran’s own office together. He had a color television there.

In the office, after Lin Haoran turned on the television and tuned it to the Home Channel, he relayed Cui Zilong’s message to Ma Shimin.

At that moment, the screen was indeed showing the press conference at Standard Chartered Bank. However, neither Li Jiacheng nor Standard Chartered’s new Taipan, Mr. Tylen, had appeared on screen yet. Clearly, it wasn’t time for the press conference to begin.

“Boss, it looks like Mr. Li has found a way to tide himself over. Choosing to hold a press conference at Standard Chartered is a strong signal in itself. It seems Standard Chartered is willing to give him a hand during his most difficult time, even though Standard Chartered itself is in some trouble.” Ma Shimin analyzed calmly as he watched the television screen.

“Give him a hand? Mr. Ma Shimin, do you believe bankers are in the business of offering timely assistance? Especially a bank like Standard Chartered, which has just undergone a major change, is short on cash itself, and is in urgent need of stabilizing its performance?” Lin Haoran chuckled softly.

Hearing this, Ma Shimin pondered for a moment. “You mean, the price will be very high?”

“Inevitably.” Lin Haoran gazed at the restless crowd of reporters on the screen. “I’m guessing Li Jiacheng didn’t get unconditional support. Higher interest rates, collateral of core assets, maybe even accepting bank-appointed personnel to monitor his finances… These are all highly probable. He’s trading future freedom and partial control for a moment’s respite. At this point, he doesn’t have many options left.”

“Even so, as long as he can stabilize the situation, it’s a victory for him. As long as he can buy time, with his abilities and the quality of Hutchison’s assets, he might just be able to stage a comeback,” Ma Shimin said objectively.

“That’s right, time is what he needs most right now.” Lin Haoran nodded, a cold smile touching his lips. “But it’s also the one thing we can’t give him.”

Today, Universal Research Company held this press conference for the very purpose of compressing Li Jiacheng’s time, giving him no room to breathe.

As soon as Lin Haoran finished speaking, the commotion on the television screen intensified, and the reporters’ cameras all swiveled towards the entrance.

Li Jiacheng’s figure finally appeared. Accompanied by Standard Chartered Bank’s Taipan, Mr. Tylen, and several other senior executives, he walked towards the podium. He tried to make his steps appear steady, and his face once again wore its usual confident expression, but upon closer inspection, one could still detect a hint of tension that he couldn’t completely conceal, as well as a weariness deep in his eyes that he couldn’t shake.

As for the new Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong, Mr. Tylen, he wore a faint, calm smile. It seemed he had gained quite a few benefits from his negotiations with Li Jiacheng.

Having secured these benefits, Standard Chartered would naturally support him wholeheartedly. After all, no matter how bad Standard Chartered’s situation was, it hadn’t reached the point of imminent collapse. Plus, its subsidiary, HSBC, had loans maturing every month that could help them recoup funds. So, if they really wanted to help Li Jiacheng, they truly could.

Lin Haoran watched Mr. Tylen on the screen, who wore a faint smile as if everything was under control, and felt no surprise.

Ma Shimin said gravely, “Judging by their expressions, to gain Standard Chartered’s support, Mr. Lin has likely mortgaged not just some assets, but possibly a significant portion of Hutchison Whampoa’s future decision-making power. Standard Chartered is taking advantage of his crisis for personal gain, but they have indeed given Li Jiacheng a glimmer of hope.”

“A glimmer of hope? We’ll see if he can seize it. And if we’ll give him the chance to,” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

Increasing his shareholding to 24.62%, in addition to the Cheung Kong Holdings shares he held secretly, gave him great confidence. Moreover, he was currently in the shadows while his opponent was in the light; his chances of success were very high.

On the television, Li Jiacheng began to speak. As expected, his speech emphasized the “solid cooperation” and “shared confidence” with Standard Chartered. He stated that Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings had the full support of HSBC and Standard Chartered, that there were absolutely no funding issues, and that the shareholders could rest assured.

But he was vague about the specific terms.

Mr. Tylen nodded occasionally, the formulaic smile never leaving his face. He looked more like he was supervising a high-risk deal that had just been concluded rather than supporting a long-term partner.

“Boss, he’s playing with fire. The capital he’s obtained by trading away core assets and future flexibility is like giving a stimulant to a patient who has lost too much blood. It provides a temporary boost, but once the effect wears off, the situation could be even worse than before. Besides, does he really think he can control the time he’s bought?” Ma Shimin commented.

This situation was so similar to two years ago when Li Jiacheng signed numerous unequal agreements with HSBC to acquire Hutchison Whampoa.

Chapter 735: Turning the Tables, an Opportunity to Seize Hutchison Whampoa!

“At this point, he has no choice but to play with fire. The debts of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings were all financed by HSBC. The combined debt of the two companies is estimated to exceed five billion Hong Kong dollars.

“Wasn’t he also taking a gamble? A gamble that extending the repayment period would allow Hutchison Whampoa to survive! Just like two years ago, when he agreed to many unacceptable terms to take control of Hutchison Whampoa, eventually succeeding.

“Now, just like two years ago, he can only take another gamble, because Li Jiacheng has no other way out!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

The two continued watching the live broadcast on television.

After Li Jiacheng finished speaking, Standard Chartered Bank’s new Taipan, Tyron, also stepped up to emphasize that Standard Chartered Bank had the strongest of alliances with Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings. He stated that Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC would fully support Mr. Li through any difficulties.

Tyron’s words lent more credibility to Li Jiacheng’s speech.

After all, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank had come forward to vouch for him.

This meant that people no longer needed to worry about the capital chains of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings breaking.

At this very moment, many citizens in Hong Kong were watching the press conference.

This was especially true for the shareholders who had sold off their Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings shares at a low price today. Right now, their hearts were filled with nothing but deep regret.

Originally, everyone was worried that Li Jiacheng’s two companies would face a broken capital chain, so they wanted to sell off their shares as quickly as possible, fearing that if they were too slow, they would lose their entire investment.

But now, Standard Chartered Bank had come forward to support Li Jiacheng. So even if the data released by Universal Research Company was true, there was no need to worry about Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings having a market crash.

However, it was too late for regrets.

People have a herd mentality. The wave of panic this afternoon had made them too afraid to hold onto their shares.

Moreover, they couldn’t even blame Universal Research Company for this. Although Li Jiacheng hadn’t addressed the matter concerning Universal Research Company, his speech and Standard Chartered Bank’s endorsement indirectly confirmed that the results published by the research company could withstand scrutiny and were not without basis.

This, in turn, reflected just how strong Universal Research Company’s research capabilities were.

However, this dramatic turn of events caused a subtle shift in the nature of the entire incident.

The source of the panic was confirmed not to be a rumor, but the consequences of the panic were now underwritten by the unlimited support of two major banks.

The shareholders’ feelings were incredibly complex at this moment. The fundamental problems of the companies whose shares they had sold might be real, but these very companies enjoyed the privilege of being “too big to fail.”

In front of his television, Uncle Chen, who had sold his shares, slumped onto his sofa. Gazing at Tyron’s confident expression on the screen, he slapped his thigh and lamented, “Aiya! Why couldn’t I just hold on!

“He has a financial backer, plenty of banks to support him, how could he fall so easily? I’m such an idiot!”

His regret was a reflection of thousands upon thousands of retail investors.

What they had lost was not a bet against a company’s fundamentals, but an information war over “who has the ultimate credit endorsement.”

Only now did they truly understand that in the ever-shifting landscape of Hong Kong, true strength never lay in perfect balance sheets, but in the deep-rooted and unfathomable alliances between financial magnates and banks.

Meanwhile, on the stage, Li Jiacheng turned slightly to nod at Tyron, and the two exchanged a brief, meaningful glance.

This detail was keenly captured by the cameras, conveying a sense of calm and control.

The crisis was not over, but through this carefully orchestrated “ally show,” the initiative in this war had been firmly returned to his hands.

Next was the question-and-answer session with the reporters.

The reporters’ questions were sharper than the last, cutting straight to the heart of the matter.

However, having come to an agreement with Standard Chartered Bank, Li Jiacheng was filled with confidence. Every one of his answers was flawless, revealing not a hint of the turmoil within him.

When pressed by a reporter for details about the capital chain, he didn’t evade the question but skillfully defused it with a grand narrative: “In the ocean of business, there is never a journey of smooth sailing. What’s important is whether your ship is sturdy, and whether the partners who sail with you are strong enough.

“Today, my partners and I have proven this point to all of you.”

He elevated the topic from specific financial difficulties to the high ground of corporate resilience and strategic alliances.

When asked about the specific terms of cooperation with the banks, he displayed an effortless composure: “Cooperating with top financial institutions like Standard Chartered and HSBC is a strategic consideration based on decades of mutual trust.

“The specific details are corporate business intelligence, but you can understand it as a joint investment in the future development prospects of Hong Kong and even the global economy.”

He packaged what were likely harsh bailout conditions into a forward-looking, confidence-filled joint investment, easily deflecting the reporters’ attempts to dig into the “price” he had to pay.

Li Jiacheng’s composure earned him silent praise from the reporters present. As expected of Superman Li, the man who took control of Hutchison Whampoa. He wouldn’t be defeated so easily.

As for the thousands of shareholders, their faces were a tangled mess of regret and anxiety, a knot that could neither be cut nor untangled.

At this moment, in his office on the 51st floor of the Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran showed no signs of panic in the face of what seemed to be Superman Li’s perfect “counter-attack show.”

On the surface, Li Jiacheng had gained the full support of Standard Chartered Bank and had, for the short term, safely weathered the storm.

But in the long run, as long as the performance of Hutchison Whampoa’s terminals, retail, and other businesses did not recover, and as long as the property industry didn’t rebound, Li Jiacheng’s commercial empire was like a castle built on sand, liable to be washed away by the waves at any moment.

The financial support from Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC was not endless.

Moreover, based on his understanding of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, the agreement Li Jiacheng had reached with the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank this time was, at most, an extension on the repayment period for their maturing debts.

As for providing more funds? Given his knowledge of Standard Chartered Bank, he didn’t believe they would continue to invest without reservation.

The corner of Lin Haoran’s mouth curved slightly upward into a subtle, cold smile.

“Boss, even if Li Jiacheng paid a hefty price this time, from the looks of this press conference, he’s at least weathered the storm for the short term!” Ma Shimin said with a frown.

“Weathered the storm? No, this might be a great opportunity for us to advance even further!” Lin Haoran shook his head and laughed heartily.

“Oh? I’d like to hear more!” Ma Shimin looked at his boss in surprise.

“No rush. It just came to me after watching this press conference. I’ll call Dai Shi up first, and I’ll explain it all at once. I can also give him his instructions for tomorrow’s operations,” Lin Haoran said with a mysterious smile.

Hearing this, Ma Shimin grew even more curious.

As he saw it, after this press conference, it was almost certain that the stock prices of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings would surge again tomorrow.

Even if they didn’t return to their previous market capitalization, it would undoubtedly inject a shot of adrenaline into the market, reigniting the hopes of the shareholders who had panic-sold and even attracting new capital.

With the stock price rebounding and the short-term financial pressure temporarily relieved, Ma Shimin believed Li Jiacheng’s position was now stable. He really couldn’t see any opportunity to exploit for a further attack.

But Lin Haoran was confident of success, clearly having a plan in mind.

A short while later, Dai Shi hurried in. As soon as he entered, he greeted Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin, “Boss, Director Ma.”

Lin Haoran nodded and smiled. “Have a seat first.”

Dai Shi pulled up a chair from the side and sat down.

“You know about the press conference Li Jiacheng just held, right?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

“Boss, I didn’t watch the whole thing, but I know the general situation. It’s almost certain that the stock prices for Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings will rise again tomorrow, and it’ll be a sharp rise. But I doubt they can get back to their peak.

“Thanks to Standard Chartered Bank’s public support, they’ve temporarily averted the crisis of a broken capital chain, but the fact that Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings are short on funds is a reality.

“Previously, Hutchison and Cheung Kong had never disclosed these related financial reports. Now that Universal Research Company has exposed them, it has definitely dealt them a blow!” Dai Shi analyzed.

Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin both nodded.

That was indeed the case.

In the past, Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings were seen as titans in Hong Kong’s business world, as steady as a rock, and a stabilizing pillar in the hearts of countless shareholders.

Their every move, every decision, affected the market’s nerves, as if they would never face problems like capital shortages or poor management.

But now, this heavy blow from Universal Research Company had shattered that seemingly indestructible shell, allowing the public to see the hidden crisis behind these two major enterprises.

No one had expected that Hutchison Whampoa had actually reached such a state.

Even with the support of Standard Chartered Bank, it couldn’t change the fact that its business foundations were shaken and market confidence was teetering.

Therefore, even if Li Jiacheng’s two companies saw a major stock price increase tomorrow, it would be difficult for them to return to their previous peak.

“What I want to say is, none of this is the main point!” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Instantly, Dai Shi and Ma Shimin both looked at Lin Haoran, waiting to hear what he had to say.

“We now hold 24.62% of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares. Accumulating more shares is becoming increasingly difficult. As the number of shares in the hands of retail investors dwindles, our actions become easier to detect. That’s right, isn’t it?” Lin Haoran continued.

“Yes, Boss. Thankfully, there were so many sell orders pending today that our accumulation of two percentage points wasn’t too conspicuous. On a normal day, we’d have to be extremely cautious just to accumulate 0.1%,” Dai Shi said with some emotion.

The shares held by Galaxy Securities, combined with those held by Cheung Kong Holdings, plus the shares held by several other major shareholders and institutions, already exceeded 77%.

In other words, only a little over twenty percent of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares remained in the hands of shareholders.

“So, this show put on by Li Jiacheng and Tyron has given us a golden opportunity. An opportunity to openly, even ‘invitingly,’ advance our plan to seize Hutchison Whampoa!” Lin Haoran said with a slight smile.

Dai Shi and Ma Shimin were both stunned, their faces etched with confusion.

With market confidence restored and the stock price expected to soar, this should be the time with the most resistance to increasing one’s shareholding. Where was this “golden opportunity”?

Seeing their confused expressions, Lin Haoran chuckled and began to explain, “Think about it carefully. After today’s panic sell-off, and with the expected surge in stock prices tomorrow, what will the market sentiment evolve into?

“Those retail investors who sold at a loss are probably sick with regret right now. When the market opens tomorrow and they see the stock price shooting up like a rocket, how will they react?”

“They’ll definitely rush to buy back in!” Dai Shi answered without a second thought.

“Exactly! We now hold 24.62% of the shares. The other major shareholders and institutions hold about 13% combined. As long as we offer a tempting enough price, how could they not be moved?

“Especially since they know about the Hutchison Whampoa Group’s financial problems. They’d love nothing more than to cash out quickly. Now that we’re giving them a chance to sell high, do you think they’ll hold on tightly?

“So, we can easily acquire that 13% of shares. After all, we’re not short on cash! Combined with our existing shares, we’ll have almost 38%.

“Next, we’ll accumulate a bit more from the secondary market. Surpassing the 40% stake that Cheung Kong Holdings has in Hutchison Whampoa will just be a matter of time.

“Tell me, isn’t tomorrow the perfect time for us to increase our shareholding?” Lin Haoran couldn’t help but roar with laughter as he finished.

“Brilliant! Boss, you mean tomorrow we’re going to do the opposite of what’s expected? Not only will we not be afraid of the high price, but we’ll actually use the market’s frenzy of chasing highs to sweep up the goods?” Dai Shi slapped his thigh, a sharp glint in his eyes as he instantly understood Lin Haoran’s entire plan.

“Precisely! Li Jiacheng and Standard Chartered Bank have set the perfect stage for us. They’re responsible for inflating the bubble, attracting the entire market’s attention and capital to drive up Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price. And we will be the most voracious predators inside that bubble!”

Lin Haoran stood up and walked over to the giant map of Hong Kong, his finger pressing heavily on the location of Hung Hom, which represented the Whampoa Dockyard.

This was one of the key assets of Hutchison Whampoa that Lin Haoran coveted.

Besides the Whampoa Dockyard, Hutchison Whampoa’s terminals in Kwai Chung were also something Lin Haoran wanted.

He turned around, his speech quickening as he said directly, “When the market opens tomorrow, it will inevitably be in a frenzy to buy up Hutchison Whampoa stock, and the price will skyrocket. We might as well turn their own trick against them.

“What we need to do is to blend in with the countless buy orders from retail investors and institutions, and use the funds we have prepared to buy, at any cost, in the most efficient and covert way possible!

“The target is all the floating stock that could possibly be traded on the secondary market! And that even includes the 13% held by major shareholders and institutions!”

Ma Shimin now understood completely. He took a deep breath and added, “I get it! Li Jiacheng thinks he’s won some breathing room, that the rising stock price will stabilize shareholder confidence and even make them reluctant to sell.

“But he’s wrong! After today’s panic, those major shareholders who know the inside story are even more afraid than the retail investors! They’re like startled birds. Now that they have a seemingly ‘perfect’ opportunity to sell off shares at a high point, they will absolutely cash out without hesitation to secure their profits! And we will be the ones to take over their shares!”

“Exactly!” The smile on Lin Haoran’s face widened. “The more successful Li Jiacheng and Standard Chartered Bank’s performance is, the bigger the stock price bubble tomorrow, the more determined those shareholders will be to sell, and the greater our ‘loss’ from buying at a high price will seem. But in reality?”

Dai Shi excitedly cut in, “In reality, we’re using a short-term premium to buy a shortcut to a controlling stake! Once our shareholding exceeds 40%, we’ll have the power to stand toe-to-toe with Li Jiacheng on the Board of Directors, and even launch a tender offer!

“At that point, it won’t be so clear whose Hutchison Whampoa is! This small premium is insignificant compared to the value of the entire Hutchison Whampoa!”

“Not only that, when we engage in a massive sweep of the market, the frenzied atmosphere tomorrow will lead people to interpret our actions as just another part of the wide-spread chasing of highs. This will, in turn, push the stock price even higher and accelerate the formation of the bubble.

“Mr. Li Jiacheng will never imagine that his rival, even with him holding a 40% stake, is still coveting Hutchison Whampoa!

“As for the shares held by those other shareholders and institutions, as long as we come forward with a more attractive price, they will naturally be very willing to sell,” Lin Haoran added.

Ma Shimin and Dai Shi couldn’t help but nod.

It was true.

The atmosphere in the office relaxed.

This was an extremely bold, almost insane plan.

It was built on a deep understanding of human nature and precise manipulation of market sentiment.

If successful, it was highly likely they could snatch food from the tiger’s mouth, right under Li Jiacheng’s nose, even when he controlled 40% of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares!

Right now, Li Jiacheng was in desperate need of funds. This was the easiest time to seize control.

Otherwise, once he was back on his feet, trying to make a move against him would be as difficult as climbing to the heavens!

“Dai Shi! Tomorrow is your battlefield. Use every resource, every account, and buy at any cost. I want you to buy fiercely, buy aggressively, buy in a way that makes everyone think we are the most crazed bulls on the market!

“But at the same time, be covert. We absolutely cannot let Li Jiacheng’s side detect our true intentions and final share percentage ahead of time!” Lin Haoran commanded.

“Understood, Boss! I will definitely put on a good ‘bullish show’ and buy up every last bit of the floating stock!” Dai Shi shot to his feet, his face flushed with excitement.

“Mr. Ma, once Galaxy Securities has accumulated enough shares, you’ll be responsible for contacting those institutions and major shareholders. Approach them privately, give them an offer slightly above the market price that they can’t refuse. But it must be fast and confidential. The transactions must be completed before Li Jiacheng has a chance to react!” Lin Haoran then looked at Ma Shimin and gave his order.

“Leave it to me. I’ll arrange to meet with the heads of these shareholder groups and investment institutions at the Connaught Centre at the same time and persuade them all together. That way, no information will leak prematurely. By the time Li Jiacheng wants to prepare, it will already be too late!” Ma Shimin nodded firmly, his eyes filled with fighting spirit.

At the same time, his admiration for Lin Haoran deepened once again.

Truly a business magnate who had built such a vast enterprise at such a young age!

Ma Shimin looked at the young boss before him, planning strategy from behind the scenes with ruthless decisiveness, and was overcome with emotion.

He had seen many leading figures in the business world, but someone like Lin Haoran, who could instantly find a fatal flaw in an opponent’s seemingly perfect defense and dare to launch a counter-attack in such an aggressive and bold manner, was a rare sight.

This required not only immense capital but also extraordinary courage, cold calculation, and a precise grasp of human weakness.

“The Boss’s foresight is profound. I am truly impressed! Li Jiacheng would never dream that the turnaround he so painstakingly engineered would become the perfect cover for our final assault,” Ma Shimin said with heartfelt sincerity.

Although the Boss didn’t usually manage day-to-day affairs, at every critical moment, he could always come up with a stroke of genius to turn things around!

Ma Shimin sighed inwardly, recalling Lin Haoran’s decisions at several crucial moments in the past. Each had seemed perilous, but in fact, had precisely seized a fleeting opportunity, ultimately securing victory.

This time, facing a formidable enemy like Li Jiacheng and a seemingly unbreachable banking alliance, the Boss had once again been able to spot a weakness in a desperate situation, even turning the tables and transforming the opponent’s “shield” into his own “spear.” Such insight and boldness were truly admirable.

Lin Haoran merely offered a faint smile at Ma Shimin’s praise, as if it were a trivial matter.

He sat back down on the sofa, his tone returning to its usual calmness. “Man proposes, God disposes. The plan is good, but execution is key. Tomorrow, it will be up to the two of you.

“We will make Li Jiacheng understand that the stage of Hong Kong is no longer his to dance on alone.”

“Rest assured, Boss. We will not fail to meet your expectations!” the two said in unison.

He raised his hand to look at his watch. It was already five in the afternoon. He said, “It’s getting late. Go and draw up the detailed operational plan and price authorization ranges.

“Remember, the key to tomorrow’s operation is ‘speed’ and ‘ferocity.’ We must create a fait accompli before anyone, especially Li Jiacheng, has time to realize what’s happening.”

“Yes, Boss!” Dai Shi and Ma Shimin answered in unison, their expressions solemn.

They knew well that tomorrow’s operation had to be as precise as a scalpel and as swift as lightning.

“Go on,” Lin Haoran waved his hand. “Let me have some quiet.”

He had great confidence in these two men. Not only was their loyalty high, but their abilities were also outstanding.

Dai Shi would lead his team to handle the stock accumulation on the secondary market, while Ma Shimin would be responsible for negotiating with the major shareholders and institutional heads to acquire the 13% of shares in their hands.

With this plan, catching up to or even surpassing the 40% stake held by Cheung Kong Holdings would not be difficult at all.

Chapter 736: Return to Shenzhen!

Lin Haoran stayed alone in his office for over an hour, until the sun had set and the sky had gradually darkened.

Getting up from his chair, his gaze once again fell upon the view outside the window. The city lights of Hong Kong were just coming on, and the neon signs began to flicker, as if countless streams of capital were surging in undercurrents.

A cold arc formed at the corner of Lin Haoran’s mouth.

Hutchison Whampoa, the most important enterprise under Li Jiacheng, the man who was famously the richest Chinese person in his previous life, was about to be his.

The feeling was even more satisfying than acquiring Hongkong Electric Group or Hong Kong Telephone.

And this was despite the fact that he was already the sole hegemon of Hong Kong’s business world.

“Forty percent? That’s a very high shareholding ratio indeed, enough to make the vast majority of covetous onlookers shrink back in defeat. Unfortunately for you, you ran into me. Superman Li, oh, Superman Li, I’m truly sorry,” he murmured to himself, as if in a long-distance conversation with Li Jiacheng.

Li Jiacheng had tripped him up in secret time and time again. Did he really think Lin Haoran was a pushover?

This time, he would reclaim it all, with interest!

A glint of cold light flashed in Lin Haoran’s eyes.

Previously, though they couldn’t be called partners, he and Li Jiacheng had been on friendly terms because of Pao Yue-kong.

As fellow Chinese businessmen, he had no desire to engage in internal conflict. All along, he had been more focused on targeting the British-funded conglomerates.

This was evident from his acquisitions of Green Island Cement, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong Telephone, Hongkong Land Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, and others.

Therefore, he had never once set his sights on Hutchison Whampoa, even though he knew it was a high-quality enterprise, no less so than Hongkong Land Group.

However, starting with the business competition between the Bank of East Asia and HSBC, and later, with Li Jiacheng using his close ties to the British-funded conglomerates, he had caused no small amount of trouble for Lin Haoran.

Although Lin Haoran had resolved every issue and even used them to strengthen himself, he had never forgotten the slight.

He was unwilling to provoke his fellow Chinese entrepreneurs, but that didn’t mean he would let his business rivals off the hook.

The business world is like a battlefield, and timing is everything.

Now, Li Jiacheng himself had revealed a weakness and had even set the stage so perfectly to appease the market. If he, Lin Haoran, didn’t seize the opportunity to ride the momentum and take the biggest bite, wouldn’t he be letting down his opponent’s “kindness”?

“Your biggest mistake was not considering whether I might covet Hutchison Whampoa. To deal with a short-term crisis, you over-relied on the banks, ignoring those ‘allies’ who also held significant stakes but might switch sides out of panic and greed. You never imagined I would target Hutchison Whampoa’s other major shareholders,” Lin Haoran muttered.

In his view, Li Jiacheng was too confident—confident in his absolute control over Hutchison Whampoa, confident that no one would dare make a move on it, confident that the banks’ support could solve everything, and confident that those shareholders would, like him, focus on the long-term future and weather the storm together.

But faced with a real crisis and the promise of immense immediate profit, such confidence was fragile and could shatter at a touch.

He could already imagine Li Jiacheng, still reveling in the victory of repelling Universal Research Company and securing the banks’ support, suddenly being informed that the Board of Directors was holding an emergency meeting to discuss a proposal from a new major shareholder. The shock and rage would be immense.

That feeling of weightlessness from suddenly plummeting from the clouds would surely be enough to repay him for all his past “attentions.”

The office was exceptionally quiet, with only the faint hum of the air conditioner.

Lin Haoran savored this moment of tranquility and sense of control before the great battle.

All the pieces were in place; all the strategies had been deployed.

Now, all he had to do was wait for the opening bell tomorrow, and this meticulously planned capital raid would officially begin.

However, the plan for this business war was already set.

His top lieutenants were about to head to the battlefield.

And he, the helmsman of this commercial empire behind the scenes, had no need to personally enter the fray on the front lines.

Planning strategy from behind the scenes and securing victory a thousand miles away.

That was his rightful place.

Tomorrow, Lin Haoran himself planned to go to Mainland China with Guo Xiaohan. He had already arranged a meeting two days prior with people in Shenzhen and would personally donate one hundred million Hong Kong dollars to the Shenzhen University that was currently in preparation.

Although leaving Hong Kong at such a critical moment wasn’t a great idea, Lin Haoran didn’t mind. He was confident that his subordinates could handle things well.

Even if an issue arose, he still had a trump card up his sleeve.

In reality, his presence in Hong Kong wouldn’t have made much of a difference anyway.

What he had laid out was largely theory; its perfect execution depended on his subordinates.

When it came to leading a company or a team, he felt his abilities were inferior to those of an ordinary senior executive, let alone someone like Ma Shimin.

Besides, he was only going to Shenzhen, a place just an hour away by hydrofoil. The round trip was extremely convenient.

Furthermore, he could be reached by phone in Mainland China, so leaving Hong Kong was not an issue at all.

Tomorrow, a storm would brew here, while he, on another landmass where earth-shattering changes were fermenting, would place another important chess piece in a completely different manner.

Donating to Shenzhen University was by no means an impulsive or purely charitable act.

It was a farsighted strategic move.

Mainland China’s Reform and Opening-up was gaining momentum at a rapid pace, and the thirst for talent and technology was unprecedented.

Investing a huge sum in education at this time was a godsend; it would not only win him a tremendous reputation and deep friendships but also allow him to lay the groundwork for the future, building a profound foundation of connections and influence in the vaster world of the Mainland.

This complemented his sharp offensive in Hong Kong’s capital market—one overt and one covert, one gentle and one firm.

On one side was naked capital conquest; on the other, a strategic investment with an eye on the long-term future.

“The board in Hong Kong is set, and my piece has been placed on the board in the Mainland as well,” Lin Haoran whispered, the smile on his lips taking on a deeper meaning.

By now, night had completely enveloped Hong Kong.

It was time to go home.

Accompanied by his bodyguards, Lin Haoran soon left Connaught Centre in his Rolls-Royce.

A dozen minutes later, the car pulled smoothly into the dedicated parking spot at the Lin family villa on Severn Road.

“Brother Haoran, you’re finally back! Dinner is ready, we were just waiting for you. I’ll have the kitchen serve it now,” Lin Haoran heard Guo Xiaohan’s voice just as he stepped out of the car.

Guo Xiaohan ran out of the villa excitedly and was by his side in an instant.

“Silly girl, if I get back late, you don’t have to wait for me. You can eat first,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, stroking her hair.

It was already past seven in the evening, which was indeed a bit late.

“It’s not late. Eating alone is no fun. Food tastes better with Brother Haoran,” Guo Xiaohan said, slipping her arm through his, her eyes crinkling with a smile.

They walked into the villa hand in hand.

Although they weren’t officially married yet, there was no difference between them and an ordinary married couple.

“Ta-da! Brother Haoran, look~”

Guo Xiaohan mysteriously led Lin Haoran into the dining room. The electric lights were off; instead, a few candles were lit.

“Hehe, Brother Haoran, I prepared a sumptuous Western-style dinner today. I hope you like it,” Guo Xiaohan said, looking at Lin Haoran with anticipation.

The candle flames suddenly flickered in unison to the right, and an antique gramophone in the corner began to turn on its own, playing the third movement of “The Blue Danube.”

“Western food is good too. Is today a special anniversary?” he asked with a smile as he pulled out a chair and sat down.

“No, I just wanted to be a little romantic with Brother Haoran,” Guo Xiaohan said, sitting down across from him.

“You silly girl!” Haoran looked at her with a doting fondness.

Guo Xiaohan was practically his “perfect wife” candidate.

In terms of family background, she was his equal, a good match in terms of social standing, and her family could even provide him with strong support in his career.

In terms of looks, she was in no way inferior to Rosamund Kwan.

As for their relationship, her love for him far surpassed his for her. Even more astonishingly, she could tolerate him seeing other women.

That he could meet a woman like this… he had truly hit the jackpot.

The servants brought in the dinner course by course.

In the romantic atmosphere, Lin Haoran took a light sip of the 1970 Petrus. The rich, mellow taste spread across his tongue, carrying the flavor of aged time, as if the ambitions and aspirations in his heart had merged with the wine’s aroma.

The candlelight dinner lasted for over an hour.

Perhaps it was because of the wine, but Guo Xiaohan was extremely proactive that night, passionate as fire.

In the bedroom, which was tens of square meters in size, Lin Haoran carried Guo Xiaohan in his arms and gently placed her on the bed.

The air was filled with the faint intoxication of red wine and the light fragrance from Guo Xiaohan’s body.

Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes glistened. Her usual gentle and lovely appearance was now tinged with a hint of boldness and allure.

She took the initiative to wrap her arms around Lin Haoran’s neck, lifted her head, and offered him a kiss that smelled of wine—inexperienced yet fervent.

Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback, then became infected by her passion, taking the lead and deepening the kiss.

“Brother Haoran…” Guo Xiaohan’s voice was tinged with seduction, but even more with unreserved love and dependence.

Perhaps because of the wine, she fumbled with the buttons of his shirt. Her fingertips trembled slightly with anticipation, yet she was unusually persistent.

Lin Haoran looked down at her.

This woman, who had tied her entire heart to him, was now opening herself up to him without reservation.

To the outside world, he was a cold and decisive business titan who struck fear into his opponents, but at this moment, in this private space enveloped by love, the softest corner of his heart was gently touched.

He took her busy but inept little hands, his voice slightly hoarse with emotion. “Don’t rush. Let me.”

He leaned down, and his lips met hers again, but this time the kiss was longer and more meticulous, carrying an unquestionable tenderness and possessiveness, as he delicately traced her lips as if savoring the world’s most precious vintage.

Guo Xiaohan squinted her eyes, a look of surrender, his for the taking.

Their clothes gradually fell away, and the light coated their delicate skin with a warm luster.

…

At seven the next morning, Lin Haoran’s biological clock woke him from a deep sleep.

Withdrawing his somewhat numb right arm from under Guo Xiaohan’s head, Lin Haoran looked at her still-sleeping form and couldn’t help but smile tenderly.

This silly girl, he was so fond of her.

He lifted the covers, and Guo Xiaohan’s perfect figure was instantly exposed to the air.

Perhaps the movement startled her awake. She groggily half-opened her eyes and instinctively hugged Lin Haoran.

Half-asleep, she unconsciously snuggled closer, her cheek pressing against his warm skin as she let out a sigh of contentment.

Morning light streamed through a crack in the heavy curtains, casting a long, thin beam on the carpet.

At nine o’clock, he and Guo Xiaohan needed to take a hydrofoil from the Central Ferry Piers to Shenzhen. The Shenzhen officials would definitely be at Shekou Port to welcome him, and it wouldn’t be appropriate to arrive too late.

Lin Haoran, still wanting more, patted Guo Xiaohan’s smooth back, his voice lazy with post-satiation contentment. “Alright, if we don’t get up soon, we’re really going to be late.”

Guo Xiaohan lay limp in his arms, almost without the strength to lift a finger. Her cheeks were rosy as she muttered in a low voice, “It’s all your fault, even though we didn’t have enough time…”

Her tone was half-reproachful, half-coquettish.

Lin Haoran chuckled, rising from the bed in an excellent mood. “Hurry and get washed up. I’ll wait for you downstairs for breakfast.”

He dressed briskly, glanced back at the little woman still lazing in bed, and then went into the bathroom to freshen up.

At ten minutes to nine, Lin Haoran, along with Guo Xiaohan and twelve bodyguards, appeared at the Central Ferry Piers and boarded the hydrofoil owned by the Hongkong Land Group.

Also present were several managers from the “Lin Haoran Charitable Foundation.”

Although the foundation had only been established recently, the team it had recruited was considered world-class.

For instance, the foundation’s current general manager, Mr. Harvey, had previously been the Vice President of a large international charitable foundation and was exceptionally capable and experienced.

Mr. Harvey was an American man of about fifty, dressed in a well-fitted suit and gold-rimmed glasses, exuding a calm and professional air.

In the field of charitable foundations, Chinese people were not yet particularly adept; most of their efforts were small-scale operations.

Someone like Lin Haoran, who donated hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars at a time, was a rarity in all of Hong Kong.

Moreover, since philanthropy required deep cultivation in the future, it was imperative to recruit sufficiently capable talent.

Thus, Lin Haoran had no choice but to set his sights on top international talent.

And so, he found Harvey.

Harvey was already waiting in the cabin. Upon seeing Lin Haoran’s party board the vessel, he immediately took a step forward and bowed slightly. “Boss, Chairman Guo, good morning. Everything is ready. All details of the donation agreement have been verified, and the reception procedures on the Shenzhen side have been finalized. Furthermore, our foundation’s Mainland-based team has been confirmed. They will be stationed in the Mainland long-term on this trip to provide continuous professional support for our foundation’s various affairs there.”

Lin Haoran nodded, satisfied with Harvey’s efficiency. “Well done, Mr. Harvey. A localized team is crucial to ensuring our goodwill and funds are used effectively and efficiently. The foundation is the main player in this donation, so please attend to the process.”

“You can rest assured, Boss. The team members we’ve selected all have extensive experience in multinational projects and excellent local communication skills. They have a deep understanding of the Mainland’s policies, culture, and social environment.”

Harvey responded confidently, handing over a thin folder. “Here are the resumes and background summaries of the core members for your review.”

Lin Haoran took the folder but didn’t open it immediately. Instead, he casually placed it aside, his tone gentle yet carrying an unquestionable trust. “Professional matters should be left to the professionals. Since I chose you and the team you recommended, I will give you my full trust. You handle the details.”

These words brought a flicker of barely concealed emotion to Harvey’s eyes.

He had met too many bosses who meddled in every single detail. Someone like Lin Haoran, who both set a clear strategic direction and dared to delegate authority, was truly rare.

This further convinced him that his decision to join this new foundation was the right one.

“I will not betray your trust,” Harvey said, bowing slightly again, his attitude even more respectful.

Soon, the hydrofoil slowly pulled away from the pier, accelerating towards Shekou Port on the opposite shore.

The scenery of Victoria Harbour rapidly receded outside the window.

He had just returned from Shenzhen ten days ago. On this return trip, he felt very calm.

This couldn’t help but remind him of the beauty he had brought back to Hong Kong from the Mainland ten days ago, Liu Xiaoli.

Although he hadn’t seen her in person during this time, he knew everything about her like the back of his hand.

After Liu Xiaoli arrived in Hong Kong, the assistant he assigned helped her adapt to life in the city first.

Subsequent arrangements had also been finalized.

It could be said that this famous “Celestial Fairy’s Mother” from his previous life was now securely on the track he had laid out for her. Basically, she was completely under his control.

Her looks surpassed even Rosamund Kwan’s. To say Lin Haoran had no designs on her would be deceiving himself.

A playful smile touched Lin Haoran’s lips.

Beauty, like wealth and power, was one of the most tempting resources in this world. He never hid his admiration for and desire to possess beautiful things.

Just like with Rosamund Kwan, he was unwilling to marry her, but he didn’t want to let her go either.

He was just that domineering.

Since this uncarved jade, Liu Xiaoli, had fallen into his hands by a fortunate coincidence, he naturally had no reason to let her go.

However, now was not the time. He needed to wait patiently for the most opportune moment for her to bloom willingly.

On the second deck of the hydrofoil, Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan sat on a comfortable sofa with snacks and drinks on the small table before them.

Around them, Li Weidong and other bodyguards stood at various points, on guard against any potential danger.

Guo Xiaohan seemed a little excited, frequently looking out the window at the approaching coastline of Mainland China. She was full of anticipation for this trip.

This was her first time visiting the Mainland, so her mood was naturally different.

Moreover, she was traveling in her capacity as the Chairman of the “Lin Haoran Charitable Foundation.”

This was also the first time Lin Haoran was bringing her out for a public appearance. Although it was in the Mainland, Guo Xiaohan was still incredibly thrilled.

“Brother Haoran, I’m a little nervous and a little excited right now!” Guo Xiaohan’s happy voice pulled him back from his brief reverie.

Lin Haoran could feel her excitement. He gently squeezed her hand and said with a low laugh, “Relax. Just think of it as a meaningful trip. When you meet the leaders from Shenzhen later, just be natural.”

“Mm, Brother Haoran, I definitely won’t embarrass you!” Guo Xiaohan nodded forcefully and took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart, but she couldn’t hide the joy in her eyes.

For her, this was not just a charity event but also an important step for her, as Lin Haoran’s future partner, to formally enter his social sphere.

Lin Haoran, on the other hand, appeared much calmer.

His gaze was fixed out the window, seemingly admiring the sea view, but his mind was racing.

Back in Hong Kong, the stock exchange should be opening around now.

He wondered how Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price was faring.

Was Dai Shi’s operation to sweep up goods going smoothly?

However, out at sea, he had no way of contacting Hong Kong.

Of course, he wasn’t in a hurry either.

“Brother Haoran, look! We’re almost there!” Guo Xiaohan pointed ahead excitedly.

Lin Haoran composed himself, put on a perfectly appropriate smile, and took Guo Xiaohan’s arm.

The hydrofoil docked smoothly.

The cabin door opened, and Lin Haoran stepped onto the soil of Shenzhen with a steady gait.

On the pier, the welcoming party eagerly approached, and camera flashes went off in a blinding wave.

“Mr. Lin, Miss Guo, welcome, welcome!” A Shenzhen leader stepped forward enthusiastically to shake their hands.

After all, the purpose of Lin Haoran’s visit was to donate one hundred million Hong Kong dollars to the Shenzhen University that was in preparation!

For Shenzhen, which was in the early stages of Reform and Opening-up with all industries waiting to flourish, this huge sum was undoubtedly a timely rain, especially for the education sector.

It would not only greatly alleviate the financial pressure during the early stages of the university’s establishment but also represented a high degree of recognition and confidence in Shenzhen’s future development potential from the outside world, especially from the capital-rich Hong Kong.

Therefore, the Shenzhen side gave them a reception of the highest order.

On the pier, aside from the main city leaders, there were also several officials in charge of education and culture, as well as the core members of the Shenzhen University preparatory team. The lineup was grand.

“The officials are too kind. It’s an honor to have you all welcome us personally. We are truly humbled. It is my wife’s and my privilege to be able to contribute our modest effort to Shenzhen’s education, and it is also a reflection of our confidence in Shenzhen’s future development,” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he shook the leader’s hand firmly, his tone humble.

His choice of words was perfect; it expressed goodwill while also elevating the other party, causing the smiles on the faces of the Shenzhen officials to become even more sincere.

Hearing Lin Haoran mention “my wife and I,” Guo Xiaohan, who was standing beside him, instantly beamed with joy.

She tried hard to maintain a dignified posture, but she couldn’t hide the smile that bloomed at the corners of her eyes.

For Lin Haoran to utter that title on such a formal and grand occasion was undoubtedly the clearest affirmation of her identity and the most solemn introduction.

She straightened her back slightly, feeling the nervousness in her heart fade away, washed away by this sweetness.

Guo Xiaohan also spoke, “Hello, respected officials. I am Lin Haoran’s wife, Guo Xiaohan, and also the head of the Lin Haoran Charitable Foundation.”

Her bearing was graceful and poised, perfectly befitting her status as both the foundation’s Chairman and Lin Haoran’s partner.

After a brief welcoming ceremony, the group boarded a motorcade and headed for the Shenzhen University preparatory office.

Chapter 737: This Turn of Events is a Bit Too Dramatic!

As Lin Haoran and his group arrived in Shenzhen, a completely different scene was unfolding in Hong Kong, several dozen kilometers away.

Just as Lin Haoran, Ma Shimin, and Dai Shi had planned the day before, the stock prices of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings soared as soon as the Hong Kong stock market opened.

Within half an hour of opening, the share prices had surged by over 25%, sending the market into a frenzy!

Of course, this 25% increase was based on the opening price of the day, not yesterday’s peak price; there was still a considerable gap between the two.

The Stock Exchange was in an uproar. On the electronic screens, the ticker symbols for Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings were flooded with countless buy orders.

The retail investors who had panic-sold the day before were now beating their chests and stamping their feet in regret. They scrambled to buy back their shares, terrified of missing out on this “retaliatory rebound.”

The phones at major brokerages rang incessantly, nearly all of them inquiries and buy orders for Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings.

Dai Shi was stationed in the trading room of Galaxy Securities, the telephone receiver never leaving his hand as he received constant real-time updates from the Stock Exchange.

As expected, both Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings—the two enterprises controlled by Li Jiacheng—were being eagerly sought after by shareholders today.

What no one knew was that among this frenzy of buy orders, many originated from the trading team at Galaxy Securities.

Their buy orders, mixed in with the multitudes, seemed inconspicuous, yet they were as precise and relentless as a parasite.

As a top professional securities investment company, Galaxy Securities’ trading was naturally far more professional and efficient than that of ordinary retail investors.

Consequently, their transaction volume was also higher!

Compared to the major securities firms in New York, which had already begun connecting to stock exchange data via computers, Hong Kong’s securities industry was not nearly as advanced.

Therefore, Galaxy Securities could only communicate in real-time with the “red jackets”—the floor traders inside the exchange—by phone to get the fastest transaction information and market dynamics.

But this did not significantly impact the efficiency of Dai Shi and his team.

His traders were well-trained, operating like a machine with precisely interlocking gears.

Through multiple phone lines, they maintained high-intensity contact with Galaxy Securities’ own trading seats at the exchange, as well as those of closely associated brokerage firms.

“Ah Ming at seat A, what’s the pending order volume on the third buy tier for Hutchison? … Okay, got it. We’ll post a buy order on the fifth tier and catch the fill-back from their cancelled orders!”

“Mr. Chen at brokerage B, keep an eye on Cheung Kong Holdings for me. Let me know the second a large order appears!”

“Channel C, who bought that five-thousand-lot sell order just now? Was it one of our people? Good, well done!”

The trading room was a symphony of ringing phones, status reports, and shouted commands, all interweaving into a tense yet efficient symphony of capital.

Although there was no real-time electronic data stream, this traditional yet direct method allowed Dai Shi to clearly grasp the market’s pulse and the flow of capital.

Seated at the central command desk, he constantly synthesized information from all channels, his mind racing as he made one decision after another.

“Mr. Dai, the market’s follow-up buying is too aggressive, and the stock price is a bit inflated. Should we continue to chase?” a senior trader asked, covering the mouthpiece of his phone.

Dai Shi glanced at the clock on the trading room wall. It was now ten-thirty in the morning, meaning an hour had passed since the market opened.

At this moment, Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price had already risen a full 35% compared to yesterday’s closing price.

Meanwhile, Cheung Kong Holdings’ stock had also climbed by about 32%.

The surge was faster than they had anticipated.

Of course, the reason for this was Galaxy Securities’ clandestine participation.

Taking advantage of the swarm of retail investors, they had also been sweeping up shares, greatly fueling the stock’s meteoric rise.

“Buy. Continue buying according to the plan. Remember, don’t let the orders be too concentrated. Spread them out and mix them in with the retail investors’ buy orders!”

Dai Shi commanded decisively, then added, “However, notify all seats to lower our buy order prices by one tier. Post them two to three ticks below the current market price! This price is too hot right now. We’ll only pick up bargains, not act as suckers pushing the price higher!”

“Understood!” The order was quickly relayed.

Dai Shi’s goal was to blend in with the sea of buy orders and conceal his identity, not to continuously drive up the price, which would not serve their interests.

For them, the longer they remained hidden, the better it would be for the subsequent phases of their plan.

However, even Dai Shi wasn’t sure how long they could keep it a secret.

Although they were being extremely cautious, the massive volume of buying would eventually arouse suspicion. Once someone scrutinized the transaction details, they would inevitably find clues. It was only a matter of time before Li Jiacheng’s subordinates discovered that some major capital was targeting Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings.

The team led by Dai Shi was comprised of top elites in Hong Kong, and Li Jiacheng’s trading team was no different.

Now was not the time to be discovered by Li Jiacheng. Any misstep could cause all their previous efforts to be in vain.

After all, Ma Shimin had likely not yet contacted those important shareholders and heads of investment institutions. If Li Jiacheng discovered any clues, Ma Shimin’s side of the plan could fail.

That block of roughly 13% of shares was simply too important to Lin Haoran.

Without that 13%, it would be impossible for them to accumulate over 40% of the shares through the secondary market!

Of course, only Lin Haoran, Dai Shi, and Ma Shimin knew about these matters. Even the members of the trading team at Galaxy Securities were kept in the dark.

These people were merely tools for executing orders. They only knew that today’s objective was to buy large quantities of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings stock, but they had no idea that it was part of a monumental merger and acquisition battle for a controlling stake.

Therefore, while the traders operated with professional efficiency, they were under far less psychological pressure than Dai Shi.

They simply executed Dai Shi’s every command rigorously, breaking down large orders, placing them dispersedly, and patiently posting bids at relatively low prices, waiting for market sell-offs.

Dai Shi’s eyes and ears constantly scanned every source of information.

He had to ensure both the efficiency and secrecy of their stock accumulation while simultaneously being vigilant for any abnormal large buy or sell orders, which could be a sign that Li Jiacheng’s side or another institution had noticed something and was taking action.

Time trickled by slowly in the highly tense atmosphere, with every minute feeling exceptionally long.

Meanwhile, in a meeting room on the fiftieth floor of the Connaught Centre, Ma Shimin was waiting.

The people seated in the room were not the senior executives of the Hongkong Land Group.

They were the shareholders and institutional heads who collectively held nearly 13% of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares.

Before the market opened, Ma Shimin had secretly contacted each of them one by one, without explaining the reason or telling them that he had also invited others.

An invitation from the President of the Hongkong Land Group was not something they could easily refuse.

It was only upon their arrival at the Connaught Centre that they realized they were not the only guest.

The atmosphere in the meeting room was initially filled with a degree of confusion and slight agitation.

These were influential figures and institutional representatives who commanded the winds and clouds in the business world. They had been summoned by Ma Shimin under various pretexts and in a semi-secretive manner. When they arrived at the familiar meeting room only to find each other present, the expressions on their faces became rather peculiar.

They were all major shareholders of Hutchison Whampoa, with holdings ranging from over one percent to three or four percent. Together, their shares amounted to that crucial stake of nearly 13%!

They were partners as well as competitors. Now, looking at each other, none of them could figure out what game Ma Shimin was playing.

“Mr. Ma, what is this all about? You summoned me here in such a hurry, saying it concerned important business for Hongkong Land, so why are Director Liu and President Li here as well? Is Hongkong Land planning to negotiate a package deal with all of us?”

An older man, Director Wang, who held over 3% of Hutchison’s shares, was the first to speak, his tone tinged with annoyance at being disturbed.

“Indeed, Mr. Ma Shimin. The market just opened, and Hutchison’s stock is extremely volatile. We’re all very busy over on our end,” said President Liu from a fund company, pushing up his glasses, his tone cautious.

His fund held a large number of Hutchison shares. He was both pleased by today’s unusual surge and instinctively uneasy about it.

He had even planned to sell off their holdings once Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price reached a certain level.

The fact that Hutchison Whampoa’s capital chain was in trouble had been confirmed.

Although it had the backing of Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC, he still had a nagging feeling of unease.

Therefore, the best course of action was to sell the shares as soon as possible to avoid major risks.

“Everyone, please, calm down. First of all, thank you all very much for taking the time to come here during this busy market opening. I give you my personal guarantee that the matter we are here to discuss today is far more important than any transaction you are currently handling, and it will be well worth your time,” Ma Shimin’s voice was calm but carried a convincing force.

He paused, his gaze sweeping slowly over every shareholder in the room, taking in their expressions of confusion, curiosity, and impatience.

Then, he continued unhurriedly, “I know you are all very concerned about the performance of Hutchison and Cheung Kong’s stock today. In just over an hour since the market opened, the prices have surged by more than 35%. I imagine all of your net worths have risen with the tide. Congratulations.”

His words slightly eased the expressions on the faces of those present. Who doesn’t like to see their assets appreciate?

Just yesterday, Hutchison Whampoa’s stock had plummeted by more than sixty points, making them feel like jumping off a building.

Today’s strong rebound had finally allowed them to recover some of their losses.

But no one here was a fool. They knew Ma Shimin hadn’t summoned them just to offer congratulations.

“However,” Ma Shimin changed his tone, continuing, “doesn’t anyone find this surge a bit strange? The memory of yesterday’s panic selling is still fresh, yet today we’re seeing such a powerful rally. Aren’t you curious about the force driving this? You all hold a significant amount of Hutchison Whampoa shares and should understand its internal financial situation better than I do. Do you really believe that so many retail investors could push the stock price up so quickly? By extending the debt maturity, can Mr. Li Jiacheng truly help Hutchison Whampoa turn a profit in the short term?”

The meeting room fell silent.

Everyone present was intelligent and had long since sensed that something was amiss. They just hadn’t had time to think deeply about it before being summoned here by Ma Shimin.

Director Wang frowned. “Mr. Ma Shimin, what are you implying?”

“I’m implying that the market’s confidence didn’t materialize out of thin air, but it’s also not as it appears on the surface, based solely on the endorsements from Standard Chartered and HSBC and Mr. Li’s press conference yesterday.”

Ma Shimin lowered his voice as if sharing a vital secret.

He paused, his eyes scanning each thoughtful face, before saying with a smile, “One of the greatest forces pushing up the stock price today is, in fact, someone you all know. And he has entrusted me to formally present to you a proposal that concerns your own vital interests.”

Everyone’s gaze instantly focused on Ma Shimin, their breathing subconsciously softening. They realized the main event was about to begin.

“Which investor?” President Liu asked eagerly, a mixture of unease and curiosity in his heart.

Ma Shimin smiled faintly and uttered a name that sent a shockwave through everyone in the room: “Lin Haoran. Mr. Lin.”

“Lin Haoran?”

A few disbelieving gasps echoed through the meeting room.

The same Lin Haoran whose research company had just released a devastatingly bearish report that nearly sent Hutchison into the abyss?

This turn of events was too dramatic, almost bordering on absurd!

“No need to be surprised,” Ma Shimin said calmly, as if he had anticipated their reaction. “In the world of business, there are no permanent enemies, only permanent interests. Mr. Lin’s intention is not to destroy Hutchison. On the contrary, this is merely a small move in his business war with Mr. Li Jiacheng. As you all know, Mr. Li offended Mr. Lin, so it is perfectly reasonable for Mr. Lin to retaliate. The Universal Research Company’s previous report merely popped an overinflated bubble, allowing value to return to its true level.”

His gaze swept over the crowd as he continued, “Mr. Lin believes that while Mr. Li Jiacheng’s capabilities are beyond doubt, the current debt pressure is immense, and the banks’ support comes with harsh conditions that have tied Hutchison’s hands. It might even force Mr. Li to sell core assets in the future to survive. Without Mr. Lin’s intervention, I believe you all know that Hutchison might not last long and could even fall into a prolonged period of losses, just like a few years ago.”

“Through me, Mr. Lin is extending a cash acquisition offer to all of you.”

Ma Shimin stopped beating around the bush and laid his trump card on the table. He knew that for these investors, who had just experienced a sharp decline and were deeply worried about Hutchison’s debt, nothing was more persuasive than hard cash and certainty. “He is willing to acquire all of your shares in Hutchison Whampoa for cash, at a price that is a 65% premium over yesterday’s closing price!”

“Yesterday’s closing price? A 65% premium? A cash acquisition!”

A collective gasp swept through the meeting room! Someone even stood up instinctively!

The offer was utterly insane!

Yesterday’s closing price was already the result of a panic-driven crash. A 65% premium on top of that!

Even with today’s 35% surge, they all knew the price was unlikely to recover to its previous level.

Therefore, a 65% premium over yesterday’s closing price was an incredibly tempting offer for them.

It was an offer that was simply impossible to refuse!

Especially after knowing Hutchison’s internal financial predicament and harboring significant doubts about whether Li Jiacheng could truly turn things around, this offer was just too attractive.

After learning that a large part of today’s stock price surge was driven by Lin Haoran, with the sole purpose of competing with Li Jiacheng, they no longer held any hope for Hutchison Whampoa.

And Ma Shimin was very confident. He believed he could absolutely persuade these people.

Central, in a luxurious office on the top floor of the Hutchison Whampoa Building.

Outside the window lay the bustling cityscape of Central, dense with skyscrapers.

However, at this moment, Li Jiacheng paid no attention to the view.

His entire focus was on the man sitting across from his desk, Tyron, the newly appointed Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank.

At this moment, Li Jiacheng’s face bore a hint of relief, the feeling of having survived a great ordeal, along with an unconcealable confidence.

“Mr. Tylen, look! The market’s reaction is the best proof! It’s been just over an hour since the market opened, and Hutchison Whampoa’s stock is up over 35%! What does that tell you? It shows that the market trusts me, Li Jiacheng, trusts Hutchison Whampoa, and trusts your endorsements from HSBC and Standard Chartered even more! Yesterday’s press conference was a resounding success!”

He personally poured a cup of coffee for Tyron, his tone quite pleased. “It seems the storm caused by that report from Universal Research Company has been weathered without any real danger. Next, as long as we proceed steadily according to the plan we agreed upon with the banks, this great ship, Hutchison Whampoa, will be back on course.”

Tyron accepted the coffee with a smile, clearly also satisfied with the market’s enthusiastic response. “Mr. Li is right. The market’s confidence has indeed returned. The support from Standard Chartered and HSBC has given investors sufficient resources and confidence. It seems our joint statement yesterday had an immediate effect.”

He took a sip of coffee and added in a relaxed tone, “However, Mr. Li, such a huge surge and trading volume also truly demonstrate the market’s renewed recognition and pursuit of Hutchison Whampoa’s future value. This is a good thing; it shows that even after the turmoil, Hutchison’s core value is still widely recognized.”

As the new Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank in Hong Kong, Tyron shouldered great responsibility.

After all, the Hong Kong region had now become the largest market under Standard Chartered Bank.

However, both Standard Chartered and the recently acquired HSBC were going through a difficult period. Extending the maturity of Hutchison Whampoa’s and Cheung Kong Holdings’ debts put them under considerable pressure.

If Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings were to truly suffer a break in their capital chain, the risk for the banks that endorsed Li Jiacheng would increase.

Therefore, Tyron had previously been unwilling for HSBC to continue extending the loan repayment period for Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa.

But today’s frantic market performance had undoubtedly served as a reassurance.

It proved that Standard Chartered’s and HSBC’s decision to support Li Jiacheng was correct. Since the market was buying into it, the risk naturally decreased.

He had even begun to mentally calculate how to leverage this successful crisis management to further consolidate Standard Chartered Bank’s position and influence in the financial circles of Hong Kong and even Asia.

Moreover, they had gained significant benefits from Li Jiacheng this time, such as increasing the interest rate on subsequent loans and securing priority collateral rights over some of Hutchison Whampoa’s quality assets. If Hutchison defaulted again, HSBC would even have the right to directly seize collateralized quality assets, such as a portion of the equity in the Kwai Chung container terminals or some prime land plots, to offset the debt.

These harsh terms were the insurance the bank had taken out for itself when it perceived a higher risk.

Now that the market response was so enthusiastic, Tyron believed these insurance clauses would likely not be needed. But it was undoubtedly an extremely successful venture capital investment, showcasing his negotiation skills and decisive courage.

Banks were in the business of making money, too.

As the new Taipan, Tyron was now extremely cautious.

After all, Mr. Brown, the great contributor behind the acquisition of HSBC, had now been recalled to the head office because of matters here in Hong Kong. His position as a powerful regional governor was gone, and his future prospects of competing for the top Taipan position at headquarters were likely nonexistent.

As Mr. Brown’s successor, Tyron was naturally like treading on thin ice, afraid of taking a wrong step and repeating the same mistakes.

That was why he had proposed such harsh conditions during negotiations with Li Jiacheng—both to protect the bank’s interests and to prove his prudence and shrewdness to the London headquarters.

At this moment, seeing such a fervent market reaction, the great weight in Tyron’s heart finally lifted, and a surge of pride welled up within him.

He felt he had made an exceptionally correct business decision, not only defusing a potential risk but also securing an excess return for the bank. This would undoubtedly be a great start to his new tenure and earn him major points with the head office.

“Mr. Li,” Tyron put down his coffee cup, his smile warmer and tinged with a post-relief ease, “seeing such a market reaction has put my mind completely at ease. This fully demonstrates that our previous judgment and decisions were correct. Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC will unswervingly support you and Hutchison Whampoa through these difficult times. The debt extension is only the first step. In the future, we will always be the closest partners of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings.”

Upon hearing this, although Li Jiacheng’s heart still ached at the thought of those harsh terms, his face blossomed with a smile of gratitude and confidence.

Surviving the current crisis was more important than anything else. He could plan for the future slowly.

He had been in business for decades; he had the confidence to stage a comeback.

“With your words, Mr. Tylen, I have even more confidence! Please rest assured, I, Li Jiacheng, will never betray your trust…”

Just then, a knock came from the door.

Richard Lee, the chief executive, entered.

“Mr. Li, Mr. Tylen.” Upon entering, Richard Lee nodded to them both, but his expression was not as radiant as the soaring stock prices downstairs. Instead, it carried a subtle, grave weight.

“Mr. Richard Lee, you’ve come at just the right time.” Li Jiacheng was in high spirits and greeted him with a smile. “Come, share with Mr. Tylen how much the stock prices of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings have risen.”

Tyron also smiled and nodded at Richard Lee.

“Mr. Li, Mr. Tylen, just a moment ago, Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price officially broke through a 40% increase compared to its opening price. Additionally, Cheung Kong Holdings’ stock has surged by over 37%!”

Chapter 738: Li Jiacheng’s Confidence!

The smile on Li Jiacheng’s face froze for a moment. “Something’s not right? The stock price is soaring, and market confidence has returned. This is a tremendous piece of good news. What could be wrong?”

Even as he said it, a sense of foreboding brewed within him.

Tyron also wiped the smile from his face, his attention now fixed on Richard Lee.

Richard Lee took a deep breath, stepped forward, and lowered his voice. “I just received several calls from the heads of brokerage firms and clearing houses we’re close with. They were all asking about the same thing: was the mysterious force that pushed the stock price up today our own market support funds?”

Li Jiacheng’s brow furrowed immediately. “Market support funds? Where would we get the extra cash to support the market? Didn’t we already…”

He stopped mid-sentence, his expression changing slightly.

Although Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings still had plenty of liquid capital, that money was for normal business operations. There was simply no spare cash to pump up the stock price in the secondary market.

“That’s precisely the problem! If it wasn’t us, then who was it? Their feedback is that the buying was extremely professional and uniform. Though spread across countless small accounts, the behavior was highly coordinated, completely unlike the spontaneous actions of retail investors or ordinary institutions. There aren’t many trading teams like that in all of Hong Kong,” Richard Lee said, his tone laced with clear suspicion.

He paused, his gaze sweeping over Li Jiacheng and Tyron before his voice dropped even lower. “What’s more worrying is that the managers of two funds that have worked with us for years and hold a significant number of shares have been completely unreachable all morning. Furthermore, after I suspected something was amiss, I immediately tried to contact several other major shareholders of Hutchison Whampoa, but I still haven’t been able to reach any of them. The people around them all say they don’t know where they’ve gone.”

The previously relaxed atmosphere in the office instantly solidified.

Li Jiacheng’s hand, holding his coffee cup, froze mid-air. The confident smile on his face vanished completely, replaced by a creeping sense of shock and unease.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t weathered storms before, but these signs, taken together, pointed to a possibility he was extremely unwilling to believe.

Tyron’s expression also became incredibly grave, the banker’s risk-detecting radar blaring wildly.

Highly coordinated buying?

Key shareholders temporarily out of contact?

This was by no means a sign of the market’s spontaneous recovery of confidence. It looked far more like the prelude to a meticulously planned hostile takeover!

“Are you saying someone is secretly accumulating Hutchison shares? And has even started approaching those major shareholders?” Li Jiacheng’s voice was hoarse, carrying a tremor he himself didn’t notice.

“I suspect so, Mr. Lin Haoran.” Richard Lee nodded grimly. “And the other party is moving very quickly and covertly. We’ve only just now caught a whiff of it.”

“Could Lin Haoran have set his sights on Hutchison Whampoa? That shouldn’t be. I hold 40% of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares through Cheung Kong Holdings. No matter how much money he has, trying to accumulate enough shares from the secondary market to threaten me is almost preposterous. Even with the shares from those other shareholders, it would be far from enough,” Li Jiacheng murmured.

As he spoke, he picked up the phone on his desk and dialed a private number.

This line was exclusively for his intelligence gathering.

When the call connected, Li Jiacheng asked directly, “Do you know Lin Haoran’s whereabouts today? Did he go to the Connaught Centre?”

“Please wait a moment. Give me a few minutes.”

The line on the other end quickly went dead.

A few minutes later, Li Jiacheng’s phone rang again.

“Lin Haoran appeared at the Central Ferry Piers around nine this morning. He then boarded a hydrofoil belonging to the Hongkong Land Group. His current location is unknown. He might have gone to Macau or Mainland China. It’s highly likely he is not in Hong Kong,” the person on the other end reported swiftly.

After hanging up, Li Jiacheng breathed a small sigh of relief.

Lin Haoran wasn’t in Hong Kong. Logically, he shouldn’t be behind this.

But if not Lin Haoran, then who could it be?

“Is it possible someone bought in at a low price yesterday and is deliberately pushing the price up today to sell off their shares?” Tyron interjected from the side.

“No, that’s impossible. If that were the case, there’d be no need for them to target those shareholders and fund managers,” Richard Lee stated, shaking his head.

“Moreover, if it were a pump-and-dump scheme, the trading style would be more focused on creating a false sense of prosperity followed by a concentrated sell-off, rather than the dispersed, continuous, and patient accumulation of shares through pending orders at relatively low prices like we’re seeing now. This looks more like someone quietly building up a position without alarming the market,” Richard Lee added, his tone growing heavier.

As a professional manager at Hutchison Whampoa, Richard Lee wasn’t fond of Li Jiacheng taking control of the company either.

However, after Li Jiacheng took over, not only was he not driven out, but he was even promoted to President of Hutchison Whampoa.

But if Hutchison Whampoa were to change hands again, his position as President would likely be in jeopardy.

The new owner would certainly install their own confidants to control the core power.

For both professional and personal reasons, he had to stand with Li Jiacheng and stabilize the situation.

What he didn’t know was that Li Jiacheng was merely using him to stabilize Hutchison Whampoa. Once Li Jiacheng solidified his control, Richard Lee would also inevitably face a purge.

After all, he was one of the old guard from the British-owned era, not part of Li Jiacheng’s inner circle.

Secretly, Richard Lee had a faint inkling of this, but the immediate crisis temporarily overshadowed that concern.

Listening to Richard Lee’s analysis, the heart that Li Jiacheng had just managed to calm leaped back into his throat, now beating with even greater anxiety.

Richard Lee was right. This covert and continuous method of stock accumulation was definitely not the work of a short-term speculator. Their ambition had to be much greater!

This technique reminded him of a certain team: the former Universal Investment Company!

Three years ago, he had attempted a secret takeover of Green Island Cement.

To that end, he had quietly accumulated shares through the secondary market.

But it wasn’t long before Pao Yue-kong persuaded him to give up on the acquisition.

At that time, the trading style of Universal Investment Company’s team was remarkably similar to what Richard Lee had just described.

Although Lin Haoran’s investment company was said to have moved to the United States, they had left behind a group of elites in Hong Kong.

And Lin Haoran, building upon this elite foundation, had poached talent from Jardine Securities to restructure and form the current Galaxy Securities!

The thought exploded in Li Jiacheng’s mind like a clap of thunder!

That’s it!

It’s them!

The core members of Galaxy Securities, led by Dai Shi, were the very same elites from Universal Investment Company who had once stirred up storms in the Hong Kong market!

Their trading style, their stealthy methods, their understanding of the Hong Kong market—it all matched perfectly!

But why would Lin Haoran leave Hong Kong at this time for such an important operation?

While worried, Li Jiacheng also grew more perplexed.

If it really was Lin Haoran targeting Hutchison Whampoa, he should, by all rights, be in Hong Kong, personally commanding this crucial acquisition battle.

To leave at this critical juncture was simply too abnormal.

He couldn’t figure it out. At this moment, Li Jiacheng simply couldn’t make sense of it.

“Mr. Li, since you have matters to attend to, I’ll take my leave. I also have some work to handle back at the bank. Please contact me immediately if anything comes up,” Tyron said, deciding it was time to go.

In reality, he was returning to the bank to mobilize HSBC’s and Standard Chartered Bank’s intelligence networks to investigate this matter.

If Lin Haoran was truly behind this, he couldn’t say for sure whether Hutchison Whampoa would remain under Li Jiacheng’s control.

After all, Tyron had already gained a deep understanding of how terrifying Lin Haoran could be.

If not for Lin Haoran, their Standard Chartered Bank would never have been able to acquire HSBC.

In that respect, they were truly grateful to him, even though they had sacrificed considerable benefits.

But now, Standard Chartered Bank and Li Jiacheng were grasshoppers on the same rope—they would share in the glory and suffer together.

Most importantly, if Lin Haoran did take control of Hutchison Whampoa, HSBC would completely lose this business partner.

After all, it was Li Jiacheng himself who had signed those agreements with HSBC, not Hutchison Whampoa.

Lin Haoran himself owned Hong Kong’s largest banking group—the Hang Seng Group.

If Lin Haoran was indeed making a move on Hutchison Whampoa, then after he took control, he would certainly replace HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank with banks from his Hang Seng Group, making them Hutchison Whampoa’s new primary correspondent banks and financing channels!

That was the most fatal point!

At this thought, a cold sweat broke out on Tyron’s back!

He had originally been worried only about debt risk. Now he realized that this involved the bank’s most core client resources and immense future business interests!

Losing a magnate client like Hutchison Whampoa would not just be a bad debt risk for HSBC and Standard Chartered; it would be a colossal loss of market share and influence!

“Mr. Li!” Tyron abruptly pulled back the foot he was about to step out with, his face more serious than ever before. “This matter is of the utmost importance! I will return to the bank immediately, not just to investigate, but to do everything in my power to persuade our headquarters. We must support you with all our strength! This isn’t just for your Hutchison Whampoa, it’s for the interests of our own banks!”

Li Jiacheng, who was still grappling with the mystery of why Lin Haoran had left Hong Kong, was momentarily stunned by Tyron’s 180-degree turn in attitude. Then, he instantly understood the deeper meaning behind Tyron’s words—the threat of the Hang Seng Group!

That’s right!

How could he have forgotten!

Lin Haoran held the trump card of the Hang Seng Group!

If he succeeded, HSBC’s and Standard Chartered’s business with Hutchison Whampoa would be uprooted and completely taken over by Hang Seng Bank.

For Standard Chartered Bank, which had just completed its acquisition of HSBC and was poised to give full play to its talents, this would be a stunning blow!

For HSBC, it would also be a heavy blow!

This enormous, shared threat instantly bound the interests of Li Jiacheng and the two major banks even more tightly together!

Li Jiacheng’s mood lightened considerably. With Standard Chartered Bank’s proactive support, his confidence in dealing with this acquisition battle grew immensely.

Besides that, he actually had another source of confidence.

Among the key shareholders, there was a Director Wang who held 3% of the shares. He and Li Jiacheng had a life-and-death bond, an old friend he had met in his early entrepreneurial days, and they had weathered many storms together.

This was also the reason why this director held shares in Hutchison Whampoa.

Li Jiacheng was more than ninety percent certain that Director Wang would not easily sell his shares to Lin Haoran.

At a critical moment, these 3% of shares could act as a stabilizing pillar.

Three percent! If you added that to the 40% held by Cheung Kong Holdings, he would have the support of 43% of the shares.

At this thought, Li Jiacheng felt a little more at ease.

He refused to believe that Lin Haoran could buy over 43% of the shares from the secondary market and other shareholders!

It was a virtually impossible task.

Confidence flooded back into Li Jiacheng.

He immediately picked up the phone and directly dialed Director Wang’s private mobile phone number.

This time, his state of mind was much calmer, even carrying a hint of composure that suggested he had victory in his grasp.

However, after several attempts, no one answered.

Li Jiacheng frowned and put down the telephone receiver.

But he wasn’t worried that his old friend would betray him.

Li Jiacheng had played a significant role in helping him get to where he was today.

…

The scene shifts to the Connaught Centre.

At this very moment, in the conference room where Ma Shimin was, those few shareholders were still present.

These men, being major shareholders of Hutchison Whampoa, were all figures of Hong Kong’s high society, each one a hundred-millionaire.

Therefore, since mobile phones had become available for commercial use, they all had their own.

However, Ma Shimin had naturally made preparations in advance.

Mobile phone services in Hong Kong were operated by the Hongkong Telephone Company, which was a subsidiary controlled by the Hongkong Land Group. Blocking the mobile signal in the vicinity of the conference room was as easy as turning over one’s hand.

This was why the outside world could not contact these men.

Even if they had brought their mobile phones, with no signal, no one could call in.

The atmosphere in the conference room had fallen into a long silence after Ma Shimin dropped his stunning premium acquisition offer.

The looks of initial confusion and impatience on the faces of the several hundred-millionaire tycoons had long been replaced by deep shock, calculation, and struggle.

Cash, a 65% premium based on yesterday’s closing price!

For men who had just experienced a sharp decline and were still shaken, this offer was fatally tempting.

It was tantamount to a perfect, high-yield safe haven.

However, what if they could use this opportunity to raise the price? Wouldn’t they be able to gain even more?

Just like when Pao Yue-kong and Jardine Matheson & Co. fought for control of Kowloon Wharf, the price per share of Kowloon Wharf once rose from over ten Hong Kong dollars to nearly one hundred ten Hong Kong dollars.

At this moment, some shareholders were already starting to get ideas.

One of them, a shareholder surnamed He, gently tapped his fingers on the table, breaking the silence. “Mr. Ma Shimin, Mr. Lin’s offer is indeed very sincere. However, as you know, the market is just beginning to recover. Hutchison Whampoa’s potential is far greater than this. A 65% premium… if we wait a little longer, perhaps…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, but his meaning was clear: he wanted to raise the price on the spot.

The other shareholders had by now thought of this as well.

Ma Shimin seemed to have anticipated this reaction. He maintained a calm smile and said, “Gentlemen, I know what you are thinking. But I must say, you may be overthinking it. Everyone in Hong Kong knows that Cheung Kong Holdings holds a full 40% of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares. No matter how much money Mr. Lin has, do you think he can acquire more than 40%?

“I believe you all have the answer in your hearts. Cheung Kong Holdings alone already owns 40%. Adding the roughly 13% you hold in this room brings the total to 53%. That means only about forty-something percent of the shares are left on the secondary market. For Mr. Lin to quietly acquire over twenty percent, plus the 13% in your hands, to even have a chance of threatening Cheung Kong’s controlling stake in Hutchison Whampoa… do you think the probability of that is high?

“To be frank, even Mr. Lin Haoran himself knows this is an impossible feat. His reason for increasing his shareholding in Hutchison Whampoa is simply to secure a certain number of seats on the Board of Directors, creating an opportunity to advance further in the future. As for the timing, it is definitely not now. But if you raise the price, then Mr. Lin can only temporarily abandon this idea. If the market finds out that Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price rose today because of Mr. Lin, and now he has decided to give up on acquiring its shares, what do you think will happen to Hutchison’s stock price?”

As soon as he said this, the faces of the shareholders changed slightly. The budding thought of hiking the price was doused with a bucket of ice water, instantly cooling by more than half.

Ma Shimin’s words had accurately struck their weak spot—risk.

They had only seen the temptation of the soaring stock price during the Kowloon Wharf battle, but they had selectively ignored that battle’s unique circumstances and extremely high risks.

More importantly, Ma Shimin pointed out a harsh reality: Li Jiacheng’s 40% controlling stake was an almost insurmountable barrier, making it extremely difficult for Hutchison Whampoa to stage another Kowloon Wharf-style battle for control.

Lin Haoran’s goal was more likely to gain influence on the board, not to fight for control at any cost.

If, because of their greed, they demanded a higher price and caused Lin Haoran to abandon this acquisition plan due to the high costs…

Then, once the market learned that the mysterious force driving up the price today had retreated, what would happen?

The newly restored confidence would collapse in an instant. The retail investors and institutions that had followed the trend would sell in a panic. The share price would likely not just fall back to its original point but fall even harder due to the dashed expectations and panic!

The stocks in their hands would once again become “too hot to handle.”

At that point, forget a 65% premium; it would be a question of whether they could even offload their shares at yesterday’s post-crash price.

The shareholder surnamed He opened his mouth, wanting to say something more, but in the end, it turned into a helpless sigh, and his fingers stopped tapping the table.

The other shareholders exchanged glances, the greed and hesitation in their eyes gradually replaced by sobriety and pragmatism.

Among them was a Director Wang who, apart from saying a single sentence at the very beginning, had remained silent and expressionless ever since learning Ma Shimin’s purpose.

If he weren’t in the headquarters of the Hongkong Land Group right now, he might have even considered calling Li Jiacheng directly.

However, he restrained himself, planning to make the call after he left.

Therefore, he had no idea that Li Jiacheng had tried to call him several times during this period.

Ma Shimin took in everyone’s reactions and knew the time was right.

He no longer applied pressure, instead adopting a more sincere tone. “Gentlemen, Mr. Lin entrusted me to discuss this deal with you with the utmost sincerity. This offer is one you absolutely will not find again once you walk out that door. This is a win-win situation: Mr. Lin obtains the equity and potential for future cooperation he desires, while you, gentlemen, can quickly sell off your Hutchison Whampoa shares at a very good price, giving you ample funds to capture other, more certain investment opportunities.”

These words both gave them a way to back down gracefully and painted a bright vision for the future, completely shattering their final psychological defenses.

Finally, another shareholder, surnamed Huang, who had been silent all along, was the first to speak, his voice a little hoarse. “Mr. Ma Shimin, say no more. I accept Mr. Lin’s sincere offer and conditions.”

“I accept as well.”

“I also accept.”

…

One after another, five of them stated their decision.

This brought Ma Shimin immense joy.

His gaze fell on the last shareholder.

This shareholder, surnamed Wang, held 3% of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares and was one of its most important shareholders.

However, at this moment, he did not agree immediately like the others.

This Director Wang had a calm expression, as if he were weighing something.

Unlike the other shareholders who were clearly persuaded, a trace of prudence and hesitation remained deep in his eyes.

Ma Shimin’s heart skipped a beat, but the smile on his face remained unchanged as he asked gently, “Mr. Wang, what are your thoughts? You must have felt Mr. Lin’s sincerity. This is a rare opportunity.”

Director Wang looked up, meeting Ma Shimin’s gaze directly, and spoke slowly, “Mr. Ma Shimin, Mr. Lin’s terms are indeed generous. A 65% premium is something no one could easily refuse.”

He paused, then his tone shifted slightly. “However, I’m sorry, but Mr. Li Jiacheng and I are old friends of many years, and we are close business partners. You may not know this, but Mr. Li Jiacheng and I go way back. Both sentimentally and logically, at a time like this, I should at least inform him first and hear his thoughts. This is basic business ethics.”

His words were clear and logical. He acknowledged the attractiveness of the offer but also pointed out the bond between him and Li Jiacheng that transcended a normal shareholder relationship.

This wasn’t an attempt to raise the price on the spot, but a consideration born of friendship and long-term partnership interests.

Signing the agreement directly behind Li Jiacheng’s back would undoubtedly destroy the years of trust and cooperation between them.

Hearing this, Ma Shimin’s brow furrowed tightly.

It would have been fine if it were any of the other shareholders, but this Director Wang held a full 3%, a very significant stake.

This could be considered a miscalculation.

The main reason was that this Director Wang was usually too low-key, so Lin Haoran’s side had not investigated and discovered that his relationship with Li Jiacheng was so iron-clad.

Chapter 739: Unscrupulous, Increasing Shareholding at Any Cost!

Shareholder Wang’s three percent stake was of paramount importance at this moment. It wasn’t just a number; it could become the fulcrum for Li Jiacheng’s counterattack and a source of confidence.

Although Ma Shimin had told these people on the surface that his boss, Lin Haoran, couldn’t possibly hold more shares in Hutchison Whampoa than Cheung Kong Holdings, he actually knew the truth. He knew that his boss’s holdings were already close to what Cheung Kong held. Once he acquired the shares from the people before him, his boss’s stake would surpass Cheung Kong’s.

He only said that to prevent them from making an exorbitant demand.

The effect was decent, but now, he had miscalculated.

He never expected Li Jiacheng to have such a trump card up his sleeve. It was truly surprising.

In that case, everything depended on how many shares Galaxy Securities could acquire today.

Now that things had come to this, after learning of the other party’s relationship with Li Jiacheng, Ma Shimin knew he couldn’t force him to sell his shares.

However, he was determined to secure the other ten percent or so.

As long as Galaxy Securities delivered, losing this three percent wouldn’t be a dealbreaker.

He glanced at the time. It was already past eleven in the morning.

Ma Shimin instantly weighed the pros and cons, making a decision in a flash.

Forcing the issue would be fruitless, especially when facing a shareholder who was resolute and had a close relationship with Li Jiacheng. Applying pressure or even threats would not only be ineffective but could also intensify the conflict, possibly even jeopardizing the ten percent of shares he had already secured.

Fortunately, he had prepared for this. He had already considered these possibilities.

Right now, people were already waiting outside the conference room.

An expression of mingled understanding and regret quickly appeared on his face. He sighed softly, his tone becoming exceptionally sincere. “Mr. Wang, your loyalty and commitment to your promises are admirable. I, Ma Shimin, am impressed. In business, integrity and willingness are paramount. Since you have these concerns and insist on discussing it with Mr. Li, I completely understand and respect your decision.”

Director Wang simply nodded. “Thank you for your understanding, Mr. Ma Shimin. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving.”

At this moment, he naturally wanted to inform Li Jiacheng of this news as quickly as possible.

Having watched Li Jiacheng build his empire step by step, he had great confidence in him. Coupled with their years of friendship, he was still inclined to help Li Jiacheng stabilize the situation.

This three percent stake was the most direct support he could offer.

Ma Shimin naturally saw through his thoughts, but he maintained a warm smile. “Of course, Mr. Wang, please. I hope we’ll have another opportunity to cooperate in the future.”

He stepped aside and made a welcoming gesture, his posture generous and proper, showing no intention of stopping him.

Director Wang said no more, nodded, and walked briskly toward the conference room door.

He didn’t even look at the few Hutchison shareholders who had already agreed to transfer their shares to Lin Haoran. Right now, he just wanted to see Li Jiacheng as soon as possible.

However, when he opened the conference room door, he found two expressionless security guards from the Hongkong Land Group standing on either side, along with a middle-aged man in a suit who was clearly a senior executive from the group, waiting quietly.

“Hello, Mr. Wang. Mr. Ma has instructed me to escort you out through a private通道 to ensure your privacy and avoid any unnecessary disturbances. A car has been prepared for you, and we can take you to your company’s building. Before we arrive, I hope you will refrain from using your mobile phone to avoid any misunderstandings.” The middle-aged executive bowed slightly, his tone respectful yet carrying an unassailable, procedural quality.

Director Wang’s heart sank.

A private channel?

An escort?

Temporarily unable to use his mobile phone?

It sounded like a polite and thoughtful service, but it was, in fact, a gentle form of “isolation” and “delay.”

Ma Shimin had verbally respected his decision, but his actions clearly showed he didn’t want him to contact Li Jiacheng immediately!

This was to buy time for Galaxy Securities’ operations in the secondary market and for the five shareholders who had already signed their contracts to complete the procedures!

His expression hardened, and he prepared to refuse firmly. “That won’t be necessary. I know the way myself.”

The smile on the middle-aged executive’s face didn’t change, but his body subtly blocked the direct path to the main elevators. His voice remained respectful. “Mr. Wang, please understand. This is company policy, and it’s for your own safety. This way, please.”

Though his tone was polite, his eyes held a steely insistence, and the gazes of the two security guards beside him seemed to focus on him.

Director Wang understood instantly.

This was Hongkong Land Group’s territory, after all, and the Connaught Centre was one of the cores of Lin Haoran’s commercial empire.

While they wouldn’t dare use force against him, delaying him for ten or twenty minutes with these “soft tactics” was as easy as turning over one’s hand.

He took a deep breath, knowing that forceful resistance was pointless and would likely only lead to him bringing humiliation upon himself.

He shot the executive a cold glance and snorted. “Lead the way.”

“Very well, Mr. Wang. Please follow me.” The middle-aged executive smiled and gestured, leading him towards the private channel, away from the main elevators.

Director Wang was frantic with anxiety but helpless. He could only follow the man.

His only hope was that Li Jiacheng had already noticed and taken action.

He never imagined that they would resort to such unscrupulous means to prevent him from contacting Li Jiacheng.

But faced with this situation, he had no choice but to comply.

…

Meanwhile, after instructing his assistant to handle the contract signing with the five shareholders, Ma Shimin quickly left the conference room, returned to his office, and locked the door from the inside.

The composure on his face vanished instantly, replaced by extreme calm.

He quickly picked up the dedicated phone line in the room and dialed a number.

The call was answered almost immediately.

“Dai Shi, I’ve secured five of them over here, for a total of 10.2 percent of the shares. The agreements are being signed now, so it’s a done deal. But the most crucial one, Mr. Wang, we couldn’t get his three percent. We didn’t expect his relationship with Li Jiacheng to be so close; it’s practically impossible to persuade him. I have him temporarily delayed, but it won’t be for long!” Ma Shimin’s voice was low and his speech was rapid.

Previously, Galaxy Securities had accumulated 24.62 percent of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares. Adding the 10.2 percent they were about to secure would only bring their total to 34.64 percent, still 5.46 percent short of the 40 percent Li Jiacheng controlled.

But now, Mr. Wang’s three percent would almost certainly support Li Jiacheng’s side.

This meant Lin Haoran was not just up against 40 percent of the shares, but a full 43 percent!

In the Galaxy Securities office, Dai Shi heard this and said in a low voice, “Director Ma, in the two-plus hours since the market opened, up until five minutes ago, we’ve taken the opportunity to accumulate a full 4.32 percent of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares. Currently, the stake Galaxy Securities officially holds has reached 28.94 percent. Additionally, we’ve also had good results with Cheung Kong Holdings. We seized the chance to acquire another 4.15 percent of their shares. Added to the 21.23 percent we already held, our stake in Cheung Kong Holdings is as high as 25.38 percent.”

Accumulating 4.32 percent of Hutchison Whampoa in two hours was an impressive feat and showed just how capable Galaxy Securities was this time.

They had taken advantage of the widespread panic after yesterday’s market crash, the brief period of confusion caused by Li Jiacheng’s press conference where Standard Chartered Bank pledged its full support, and the mysterious buy orders at this morning’s opening. With the speed of a thunderbolt, they had accurately and efficiently absorbed a large amount of floating stock.

Their timing was simply perfect.

Ma Shimin did a quick mental calculation: Galaxy Securities held 28.94 percent, plus the 10.2 percent from the five shareholders he just secured, for a total of 39.14 percent!

This number filled him with mixed feelings.

On one hand, Dai Shi’s team had performed perfectly. Achieving these results in such a short time was astonishing.

On the other hand, 39.14 percent was only 0.86 percent shy of Li Jiacheng’s 40 percent, which wasn’t much and could easily be surpassed.

But Li Jiacheng still had Director Wang’s iron-clad three percent support, which, combined with his own 40 percent, totaled 43 percent. Their side was still at a clear disadvantage.

“Also, during our accumulation over the past two hours, we haven’t detected any other major players entering the market, but I believe anyone who analyzes the situation carefully will notice something is off. Therefore, I suspect Li Jiacheng’s team might have realized something is wrong,” Dai Shi continued.

“Hmm, don’t worry about that for now. Even if you haven’t been discovered, Director Wang will inform Li Jiacheng soon enough. Fortunately, Li Jiacheng is facing a severe shortage of funds right now. What we’re worried about is whether Standard Chartered Bank will step in. If Standard Chartered really gets involved, it will be bad news for us. So, we must snatch up more floating stock before he can make a large-scale entry to drive up the price!” Ma Shimin said directly.

“Director Ma, what should we do next?” Dai Shi asked.

Dai Shi was the Deputy General Manager of Galaxy Securities, and since Galaxy Securities was a subsidiary of the Hongkong Land Group, he was effectively Ma Shimin’s subordinate. With the boss away at such a critical moment, it was natural to follow Ma Shimin’s lead.

Ma Shimin glanced at the time. It was a little past eleven-thirty in the morning, meaning there was only half an hour left before the market’s lunch break.

By then, Li Jiacheng’s side would certainly react. They might even use the lunch break to urgently raise more funds. The afternoon session was bound to be a bloody battle.

Ma Shimin made a prompt decision, speaking rapidly, “Dai Shi, listen up. The next half hour is crucial! I don’t care what methods you use, take advantage of this brief window while Li Jiacheng is likely still verifying the situation and mobilizing funds, and continue to accumulate shares with all your might! Don’t be afraid of pushing up the stock price. Every single share is vital right now! We need to expand our lead as much as possible, even if it’s only by 0.1 percent!”

The boss, Lin Haoran, was currently in Shenzhen and not always reachable.

The day before, Lin Haoran had already instructed Ma Shimin to take charge in case of any unexpected situations.

There was only one goal: to seize this opportunity and surpass Li Jiacheng in one fell swoop to become the largest shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa.

Now, the surprise with the three percent stake was an unexpected event.

Unexpected events required special measures.

At this moment, he had to make the most decisive choice.

“Understood! We will squeeze every last second out of this final half hour!” Dai Shi immediately accepted the order.

“Excellent!” Ma Shimin said with approval, then added in an incredibly serious tone, “At the same time, monitor all large buy orders! If you spot large-scale entries from brokerage seats suspected to be affiliated with Standard Chartered or HSBC, report to me immediately! Also, don’t stop accumulating shares of Cheung Kong Holdings! That’s our trump card. Right now, unless something unexpected happens, even if Li Jiacheng knows we’re targeting Hutchison Whampoa, he probably has no idea we’re after Cheung Kong Holdings as well!”

“Yes, Director Ma. I’ll get back to it now!” Dai Shi said, then hurriedly hung up the phone.

After hanging up, Ma Shimin took a deep breath.

He knew this half hour would be decisive.

He had to ensure that the agreements signed by the five shareholders were foolproof and that the legal transfer procedures were completed as quickly as possible to lock down that 10.2 percent completely.

This was too important. He couldn’t disappoint his boss; he had to get it right.

After some thought, he first called the head of Hongkong Land Group’s Mainland China operations and told him to find Boss Lin Haoran as soon as possible. Once found, he was to have the boss call him back immediately, as he had important news to report.

After arranging all this, Ma Shimin returned to the conference room.

He could delay Director Wang for a while, but not forever.

The moment Director Wang left the Connaught Centre, he would contact Li Jiacheng.

When Li Jiacheng learned that five shareholders had defected, he would surely be furious and would react even more frantically.

After all, anyone could imagine how important Hutchison Whampoa was to Li Jiacheng.

The attitudes of the two giants, Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC, would be crucial.

Fortunately, Li Jiacheng was currently in a severe financial crunch, which was perhaps the only factor that could restrain his all-out counterattack.

But Ma Shimin knew well that with Li Jiacheng’s reputation and past relationships, the chances of him securing emergency funds from HSBC and Standard Chartered were extremely high.

Even if he couldn’t get funds, it wasn’t impossible for Standard Chartered to step in and acquire Hutchison shares themselves.

Just like HSBC in the past, which often entered the market directly to acquire shares in listed companies, such as with Hutchison Whampoa previously.

In the conference room, the five shareholders were reviewing the agreements. As long as there were no surprises, this 10.2 percent stake was in the bag.

The mobile signal was blocked, so these five shareholders had no idea that in a short while, their phones would be ringing off the hook.

But they were destined to remain ignorant until they left the Connaught Centre.

Over at Galaxy Securities, the trading room was a hive of frantic activity.

After receiving Ma Shimin’s order, Dai Shi knew time was of the essence. There was no time to hesitate.

His job was to lead his team in a frenzied acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa shares in the final half hour before the lunch break.

The goal was for their controlled stake to exceed forty-three percent.

Including the 10.2 percent, they currently had 39.14 percent, just 0.86 percent short of Li Jiacheng’s 40 percent. But if you included the other three percent, they were short by a full 3.86 percent.

Acquiring 3.86 percent in the remaining half hour was indeed a bit difficult.

But if they went all out, it wasn’t impossible.

After all, there were still plenty of pending orders on the market, just at slightly higher prices.

Now, they were only short this 3.86 percent. Even if the share price was a bit higher, it wouldn’t have a major impact on the overall cost.

Thus, he quickly gathered all team members to lay out a new plan.

The atmosphere in the Galaxy Securities trading room was as tense as a drawn bowstring.

Dai Shi stood in the center, his eyes sweeping over every screen and every trader’s face.

He took a deep breath, his voice carrying clearly to every corner, “Listen up, everyone! Before the midday close, buy up everything, regardless of the cost! Primary target, Hutchison Whampoa! Secondary target, Cheung Kong Holdings! Move out!”

With the order given, the trading room instantly erupted with a storm of commands.

“Hutchison Whampoa, at 18.5 yuan, a pending order for 150,000 shares. Take it!”

“At 19 yuan, there’s a sell order for 200,000 shares. Buy it all!”

“Quick! New sell orders are appearing over there. Don’t hesitate!”

The traders’ fingers flew across their keyboards, their eyes glued to the constantly changing numbers.

Capital poured into the market like floodwaters from an opened dam.

Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price began to climb at a visible rate, and its trading volume expanded dramatically.

The market immediately noticed this frantic force. The numerous shareholders and institutions at the major stock exchanges and securities firms were especially dumbfounded by this sudden surge.

“What’s happening? Hutchison Whampoa’s volume and price are suddenly surging!”

“There’s a massive buy order sweeping up stock regardless of the cost!”

“Who’s so crazy? Have they lost their minds? Although Hutchison Whampoa has Standard Chartered’s backing now, everyone knows it’s facing a capital chain crisis. Its market cap can’t possibly be this high. But now, the stock price is nearing its previous peak. Who could be so irrational?”

Many shareholders were completely bewildered.

Even the investment banks and major players couldn’t understand this sudden rally.

When something is out of the ordinary, there must be a reason.

At this moment, no one in the market knew that it was Lin Haoran’s people pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

And his target was Li Jiacheng’s Hutchison Whampoa—a power grab!

At this point, Galaxy Securities’ frantic accumulation didn’t reduce the number of sell orders; instead, more and more appeared.

The reason was simple: everyone felt that Hutchison Whampoa’s current market cap was unlikely to return to its previous peak.

Furthermore, no one thought it was possible to snatch control of Hutchison Whampoa from Li Jiacheng when Cheung Kong Holdings already held a forty percent stake.

Therefore, many shareholders holding Hutchison stock believed they had to seize this opportunity. If they didn’t sell now, it would be too late.

No one wanted to miss such a golden opportunity to sell at a high price.

And so, under these circumstances, Galaxy Securities’ accumulation rate grew faster and faster.

This buying pace was much quicker than in the first two hours.

Watching the shares his side was acquiring pile up, Dai Shi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

It seemed that completing the task Director Ma had assigned would not be difficult.

The accumulation was extremely fast. 31 percent, 31.5 percent, 32 percent, 32.5 percent…

The number of Hutchison Whampoa shares held by Galaxy Securities was growing.

Combined with the 10.2 percent of shares that Ma Shimin was currently securing through contracts with the five shareholders, they were getting closer and closer to 43 percent.

This was the advantage of not caring about cost or being discovered—the speed of accumulation was incomparable to the pace of the first two hours of the morning.

As the clock ticked closer to twelve noon, the atmosphere in the trading room nearly solidified, with only the traders’ suppressed count-offs breaking the silence.

Dai Shi’s clenched fists were slightly sweaty as he continuously tallied the newly acquired shares and their holding percentage.

The strategy of a frenzied sweep of the stock was proving effective with astonishing speed. Capital was being converted into equity at a breathtaking rate.

Including the 10.2 percent locked down by Ma Shimin, their total controllable equity was rapidly approaching the 43 percent life-or-death line.

Hope was in sight!

On the other side, as Hutchison Whampoa’s trading volume exploded and its market cap continued to rise, Li Jiacheng was stunned.

It wasn’t just Li Jiacheng; Standard Chartered Bank was also stunned.

Originally, it would have been simple for Standard Chartered to help Li Jiacheng. They could either acquire Hutchison Whampoa shares in Standard Chartered’s name or lend money to Cheung Kong Holdings to continue increasing its stake.

At this moment, Tyron was holding an emergency meeting with his senior executives.

After returning from his meeting with Li Jiacheng, he had first ordered an investigation. When the investigation yielded no results, he could only call a meeting to discuss how to help Li Jiacheng overcome this highly probable crisis.

But before the meeting had even concluded, an assistant burst in to report that Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price was continuing to skyrocket, and the surge was even more frantic. Mr. Li Jiacheng was desperately trying to contact them for help.

The current Tyron was not yet in a position where he could call all the shots at Standard Chartered Bank Hong Kong Branch.

Therefore, he couldn’t act on his own authority.

But right now, they had no time for careful analysis and deliberation!

The market was giving them no such time!

Most importantly, Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price was already on the high side.

If they entered the market under these circumstances, they would definitely lose money. Should Standard Chartered Bank really go in and acquire shares?

“Mr. Tyron! We must make a decision immediately! The stock price is out of control! If this really is a hostile takeover, by the time we finish this meeting, it might be too late! We must enter the market immediately to stabilize the price, or at least show our stance!” said an executive in charge of market operations, his tone urgent.

“But the scale of capital? The risk assessment? We haven’t…” another executive from the risk control department tried to remain rational.

“There’s no time for an assessment!” Tyron slammed his hand on the table, cutting the other man off. Fine beads of sweat had formed on his forehead.

Li Jiacheng’s plea for help, the shareholders who were suddenly unreachable, and the completely irrational, frantic surge in the market…

All clues pointed to one conclusion: Lin Haoran had made his move! And he was doing it in an extremely ferocious and cost-indifferent manner!

Any further hesitation, and once Lin Haoran succeeded in accumulating enough floating stock—he didn’t even need an absolute controlling stake, just becoming the largest shareholder would be enough—with his immense financial power and management rights, he could easily marginalize Li Jiacheng. At that point, all of Standard Chartered Bank’s support for Li Jiacheng might go down the drain!

“Immediately!” Tyron made a snap decision, demonstrating the魄力 of a Taipan at a critical moment. “Activate the emergency authorization limit! Notify our affiliated trading desks to enter the market at once! Buy Hutchison Whampoa! The goal is to drive the price up, reduce the volume our opponent can acquire, and intercept as much of the market’s floating stock as possible. We absolutely cannot let Lin Haoran succeed so easily!”

He had chosen the most direct and most expensive method—Standard Chartered Bank would enter the fray itself!

“And the scale…”

“The limit! Use it up to my authorization limit! At the same time, immediately prepare an emergency loan agreement for Cheung Kong Holdings. The interest rate and terms can be relaxed! Quickly!” Tyron practically roared.

Everyone in the conference room was stunned by Tyron’s decisiveness, but they also knew it was the only option they had.

Chapter 740: A Feint to the East, an Attack to the West; Hutchison Whampoa’s Largest Shareholder Changes Hands

All the senior executives had gathered in Standard Chartered Bank’s trading room.

As a leader in the financial industry, Standard Chartered was naturally involved in the securities business. Moreover, after acquiring HSBC, their scale in the sector had grown even larger.

In the trading room, the trading team was ready.

However, just as Standard Chartered Bank’s trading orders were issued, in the blink of an eye before hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars could flood the market…

“Mr. Tylen! Cheung Kong Holdings! The stock price and trading volume for Cheung Kong Holdings are also showing unusual activity! The volume has suddenly skyrocketed!” an analyst who had been monitoring other related stocks suddenly reported in a loud voice. In his hand was a real-time printout of the stock price chart.

Everyone’s attention was instantly drawn to it.

On the chart, the originally stable stock price of Cheung Kong Holdings had shot up in a straight line, as if injected with a powerful stimulant, and its trading volume had surged several times over in an instant!

And on the other end of the phone, a trader was reporting that countless sell orders for Cheung Kong Holdings were being rapidly devoured by astronomical buy orders. The ferocity and decisiveness of the approach were identical to that of Galaxy Securities, which was frantically sweeping up Hutchison Whampoa’s stock!

But how was this possible?

Everyone’s attention was supposed to be on Hutchison Whampoa right now!

All of Li Jiacheng’s and Standard Chartered Bank’s resources were tied up there!

Who was it? At this very moment, in this manner, who had suddenly launched an attack on Li Jiacheng’s foundation—Cheung Kong Holdings?

A chill shot up Tyron’s spine, instantly making his hands and feet turn cold.

A bone-chilling thought flashed through his mind.

He’d fallen into a trap?!

Was Lin Haoran’s fierce assault on Hutchison Whampoa a feint, with Cheung Kong Holdings being the true target?

No! The force of the attack on Hutchison was real!

That couldn’t be faked.

Moreover, the fact that Hutchison’s shareholders couldn’t be contacted was proof enough that the other party was truly targeting Hutchison Whampoa.

Then what was this?

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind?

Could there be a third party? A deeply hidden and immensely powerful force that was taking advantage of the perfect opportunity—while Lin Haoran was attacking Hutchison with all his might, drawing all of Li Jiacheng’s and Standard Chartered Bank’s firepower—to launch a precise and fatal surprise attack on Cheung Kong Holdings!

“Stop! Pause the market entry!” Tyron roared almost instinctively at the subordinate who was about to execute the order.

The command that had just been issued was abruptly halted.

Everyone in the trading room froze, looking at Tyron in bewilderment.

Tyron’s expression turned exceedingly grim as his mind raced.

If Standard Chartered were to pour a massive sum into Hutchison Whampoa now, they would inevitably be locked in a grueling battle with Galaxy Securities and the momentum traders, driving the cost up to an unimaginable level.

Meanwhile, that mysterious third party could frantically accumulate shares of Cheung Kong Holdings without any interference and at a relatively much lower cost!

Cheung Kong Holdings was the core of Li Jiacheng’s empire!

Once the controlling stake in Cheung Kong Holdings changed hands, it would be a devastating blow to Li Jiacheng, even if they managed to save Hutchison Whampoa!

After all, Li Jiacheng controlled Hutchison Whampoa through Cheung Kong Holdings. That forty percent of shares was entirely in the hands of Cheung Kong Holdings, not Li Jiacheng himself!

Could it be that the opponent’s goal was to control Hutchison Whampoa through Cheung Kong Holdings?

If that was the case, then Standard Chartered’s support would become meaningless!

Furthermore, their entry into the market this time was destined to be a loss.

Under these circumstances, if he really committed Standard Chartered to investing hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars for absolutely no effect, he, Tyron, would undoubtedly become the scapegoat for this loss and would be forced to step down sooner or later.

What should he do?

Should he stick to the original plan and support Li Jiacheng in defending Hutchison, or should he immediately divide his forces or even pivot to protect the more critical Cheung Kong Holdings?!

This sudden turn of events had completely thrown all of Standard Chartered Bank’s plans into disarray, forcing Tyron into an extremely difficult dilemma!

He suddenly recalled the scene from a year ago, during Lin Haoran’s business competition with Jardine Matheson & Co.

Back then, Lin Haoran had taken advantage of the cross-shareholding loophole between Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hongkong Land Group. By secretly gaining control of Hongkong Land, he had indirectly seized control of Jardine Matheson, completing a classic “snake swallowing an elephant” maneuver!

Although the British-funded conglomerate eventually regained control of Jardine Matheson, it came at a great cost. Now, they had even withdrawn completely from the Hong Kong market. The once-mighty “King of the Foreign Firms” had made such a disgraceful exit.

This case had been studied repeatedly by Hong Kong’s top financial experts, and Standard Chartered was no exception. As a senior executive at the bank, Tyron could even clearly recall the harrowing market fluctuations and the British-funded conglomerate’s subsequent fury and helplessness.

At this moment, the staggering similarity to history made his blood run cold!

Lin Haoran was fiercely attacking Hutchison Whampoa, drawing all the firepower.

And another mysterious force was launching a surprise attack on Cheung Kong Holdings?

Cheung Kong Holdings held a controlling stake in Hutchison Whampoa.

If this mysterious force succeeded in taking over Cheung Kong Holdings, they would not only control Cheung Kong Holdings but also indirectly control that forty percent of Hutchison Whampoa shares through it!

By then, no matter how much floating stock Lin Haoran snatched up on Hutchison’s secondary market, no matter how many shareholders he swayed, it would all be meaningless in the face of the mysterious force that had absolute control over Cheung Kong Holdings!

Because that party would be the true owner of that forty percent stake!

Even more terrifying, what if this mysterious force and Lin Haoran were working together?

One creating a diversion while the other advanced in secret?

Or perhaps, was Lin Haoran a part of this acquisition of Cheung Kong shares?

Was Lin Haoran using the same method he used against Jardine Matheson to deal with Li Jiacheng?

This thought made Tyron feel as if he’d been plunged into an icy abyss, a chill running through his entire body.

If that were true, then Lin Haoran’s cunning, planning, and audacity were simply terrifying!

This was a fatal checkmate aimed at Li Jiacheng’s empire, one even more ingenious and vicious than the one used against Jardine Matheson!

Jardine Matheson had only lost control because the British-funded conglomerate could still use political influence to threaten Lin Haoran.

But what did Li Jiacheng have, besides Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings?

If this was really the case, Li Jiacheng might have his very foundations ripped out from under him!

But if they weren’t working together, then who was this third force?

Who could possess such boldness, strength, and precise timing?

Jardine Matheson making a comeback?

Swire Group making a move in the shadows?

Or a powerful outsider from North America or London?

Countless questions and possibilities collided wildly in Tyron’s mind. All of this was far too complicated and confusing.

Just then, an assistant walked in quickly and handed a mobile phone to Tyron. “Taipan, it’s a call from Mr. Li Jiacheng.”

Tyron nodded, took the mobile phone, and walked to a quieter area before pressing the answer button.

“Mr. Tylen, please, Standard Chartered has to save me!” As soon as the call connected, Li Jiacheng’s urgent and slightly panicked voice came through, completely devoid of his usual calm.

“The situation is critical! My trading team reports that Cheung Kong Holdings is under a ferocious attack from unknown funds! It’s happening very fast! The other party is coming on menacingly!

“Also, I can now confirm that it’s Lin Haoran’s people behind the Hutchison Whampoa operation. Just a moment ago, a shareholder of Hutchison, a good friend of mine, told me it was Ma Shimin, the President of the Hongkong Land Group, who invited him over this morning.

“And besides him, five other shareholders went as well. By now, the shares of those five should have all been acquired by Lin Haoran.” Li Jiacheng continued without waiting for Tyron to reply.

It was clear that Li Jiacheng had completely lost his composure.

He had run out of options. His only recourse was to turn to his powerful backer, Standard Chartered Bank, the parent company behind HSBC.

Originally, he had thought the other party was only targeting Standard Chartered.

Tyron’s heart sank. Li Jiacheng’s confirmation shattered his last sliver of hope.

He took a deep breath, trying to keep his voice steady. “Mr. Li, I’ve seen it. We just detected the abnormal fluctuations in Cheung Kong Holdings over here as well.

“The situation is worse than we imagined. The funds attacking Cheung Kong Holdings are using the same methods and showing the same determination as Galaxy Securities when they were sweeping up Hutchison’s shares, perhaps even more ferociously!

“I suspect this is all part of Lin Haoran’s plan! His real target might have been Cheung Kong Holdings from the very beginning! The attack on Hutchison was just a way to distract all of us!”

This conjecture might have seemed unbelievable if it were about anyone else.

After all, both Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings were among Hong Kong’s corporate giants.

Trying to acquire both companies simultaneously, especially when Li Jiacheng held a forty percent stake, was incredibly difficult.

But Lin Haoran was different. Who in Hong Kong didn’t know he had the most cash flow?

Putting everything else aside, he could control the funds of the three banks under the Hang Seng Group alone.

Under these circumstances, he was not short of funds, whether he was acquiring Hutchison Whampoa or Cheung Kong Holdings.

Right now, Li Jiacheng’s advantage was that he held a full forty percent of Cheung Kong Holdings’ shares, and Cheung Kong Holdings, in turn, held forty percent of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares. Even if the other party had money, it would be very difficult for them to acquire a stake larger than that.

This was Li Jiacheng’s huge advantage.

But no one thought this advantage could be maintained for long.

On the other end of the line, Li Jiacheng’s breath caught in his throat. He was clearly stunned by this even more terrifying speculation, his voice trembling. “Mr. Tylen, you must stop them immediately! Please accumulate Cheung Kong Holdings’ shares on the secondary market. I will contact the other shareholders of Cheung Kong Holdings right away. Otherwise, if we fail, HSBC will lose its most important client!”

At this moment, Li Jiacheng couldn’t afford to hold back. He directly tied the interests of Standard Chartered Bank—the new owner of HSBC—to his own, attempting to exert maximum pressure.

Hearing the phrase “HSBC’s most important client,” Tyron’s brow furrowed, and he grew even more agitated.

He knew Li Jiacheng’s importance, but the current situation had far surpassed simple client relationship management.

Li Jiacheng’s tone was almost pleading, yet it carried an undeniable urgency. “Cheung Kong Holdings is my foundation! If it falls, everything is over! We can let Hutchison Whampoa go for now. We must stabilize Cheung Kong Holdings first! Please have Standard Chartered enter the market to support us immediately!”

Just then, a senior executive walked over to Tyron and whispered a few words in his ear.

Tyron’s eyes lit up. This wasn’t a bad idea. Not only would it temporarily spare Standard Chartered from significant losses, but it could also momentarily stop Lin Haoran’s people from accumulating shares of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings on the secondary market.

This time, Galaxy Securities’ actions had been too sudden, catching them completely off guard with no time to react.

“Mr. Li, calm down. It’s already 11:48 AM. Even if Standard Chartered enters the market now, we might not be able to acquire too many shares. I suggest that you take advantage of the upcoming lunch break for the stock market and immediately apply to the Stock Exchange for a voluntary trading halt in your company’s name. We have no idea how many shares of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings Lin Haoran or the person behind the scenes controls. A trading halt can at least temporarily stop them from increasing their holdings through the secondary market and give you more time to deal with this matter!” Tyron said directly.

In Hong Kong, a publicly listed company could apply for a short-term trading halt when encountering sudden events.

For example, when a company’s stock price or trading volume experienced abnormal fluctuations without a reasonable explanation, the company could voluntarily halt trading to maintain market order.

And the trading volume fluctuations of Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa today perfectly met the conditions for a halt.

Tyron’s words were like striking a match for Li Jiacheng in the dark.

Li Jiacheng was momentarily stunned, then he latched onto the idea as if it were a last straw to clutch at. He gasped, his voice even hoarse with excitement. “Yes! Yes! A trading halt! Apply for a trading halt! Why didn’t I think of that!

“Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Tylen! I’ll have my secretary’s office prepare the documents immediately and apply to the Stock Exchange for an emergency trading halt for both Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa!”

This incident had happened far too suddenly. If not for his team noticing something was wrong, if not for Director Wang’s report, he would have been kept in the dark the entire time.

From discovering the unusual market activity to Director Wang calling to report it, and then to him seeking help from Standard Chartered, everything had transpired within just half an hour.

Galaxy Securities’ actions had simply been too secretive during this period. If they hadn’t accelerated their stock accumulation today, even Li Jiacheng’s trading team would have had difficulty detecting it.

And what could be done in half an hour?

It left him with almost no time to think.

It was all because it had happened so abruptly.

And Tyron’s idea was indeed an excellent delaying tactic!

Once trading was halted, transactions on the secondary market would be forcibly suspended. Neither Lin Haoran nor that mysterious third party would be able to continue accumulating shares through the public market.

He still believed, at this moment, that Lin Haoran’s stake in the company had definitely not reached forty percent yet.

In other words, from Li Jiacheng’s perspective, the advantage was still on his side.

This would buy Li Jiacheng precious breathing room to stabilize his shareholders, raise funds, investigate his opponent’s background, and even seek intervention at the political level.

“There’s no time to lose, Mr. Li. Please act immediately! On my end, I will also explain the severity of the abnormal market fluctuations to the Stock Exchange, in my capacity as your principal bank, to support your application for a trading halt!” Tyron quickly added, trying to extricate Standard Chartered from a potential quagmire of losses and instead cast it in the “righteous” role of a market stabilizer.

To Tyron, both Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings were merely partners of HSBC.

He was unwilling to let Standard Chartered get dragged into this.

Because, right now, Standard Chartered truly couldn’t afford to lose that much money.

“Good! Good! Thank you! I’ll get on it right away!” Li Jiacheng, as if re-energized, responded rapidly before hanging up the phone.

Tyron put down the phone and let out a long sigh of relief, feeling the immense pressure on his chest ease slightly.

A trading halt was, by all appearances, the best way to control the situation for now.

He immediately turned to his subordinates, who were still on standby in the trading room, and rapidly issued new commands, “Listen up! Change of plans!”

“Suspend all active buy operations! Switch to a defensive posture!”

“Immediately prepare the materials. On the grounds of severe abnormal market volatility, Standard Chartered will support the emergency trading halt applications for Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa! Be quick!”

“Continue to closely monitor Cheung Kong Holdings’ market activity and record the final movements of that mysterious fund!”

With the orders given, the tense atmosphere in the trading room eased somewhat as they shifted from an offensive stance to one of observation and support.

If there was another way that didn’t require Standard Chartered to put up its own money, that would be for the best.

Everyone hoped the trading halt application would be approved as soon as possible, freezing this bizarre battle in its tracks.

At this very moment, hundreds of meters away from the Standard Chartered Building, in the Connaught Centre, neither Ma Shimin nor Dai Shi had any idea about these developments.

It was Ma Shimin who had instructed Dai Shi to ramp up the accumulation of Cheung Kong Holdings’ stock, for the precise reason of creating a feint to the east to attack the west.

The goal was to throw the entire battlefield into chaos.

Evidently, the effect was remarkable. It had even made Standard Chartered hesitant to get involved for fear of suffering heavy losses.

In the Connaught Centre, at Galaxy Securities, Dai Shi looked at the data report in his hands and smiled with satisfaction.

There were only ten minutes left before the stock market’s lunch break.

By now, their holdings in Hutchison Whampoa had reached 35.8%. Combined with the 10.2% of shares Ma Shimin had secured from those five shareholders, the Boss now controlled a staggering 46% of the company.

In other words, the true largest shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa was now the Boss.

As for Cheung Kong Holdings, even with its forty percent stake in Hutchison Whampoa, it could no longer compare to the Boss.

This could also be felt from the secondary market.

Although the price of shares on the secondary market was rising ever more wildly, Dai Shi knew for a fact that there were not many shares left in the hands of retail shareholders.

Adding Li Jiacheng’s and that Director Wang’s stake of forty-three percent, the total was nearly ninety percent, which meant that only a little over ten percent of the shares remained in the hands of the public.

However, because of this, Hutchison Whampoa’s market capitalization had been pushed to a terrifying 12.83 billion Hong Kong dollars.

This could be considered a new peak record for Hutchison Whampoa.

The higher the stock price rose, the higher their acquisition cost.

But in reality, the price Galaxy Securities had paid was very, very low.

The reason was simple: the cost of their initial accumulation was too low.

When averaged out over the last few shares, it brought the overall cost down significantly.

As for the other stock, Cheung Kong Holdings, they now controlled a full 29.2% of its shares, fast approaching thirty percent.

Although this was less than their holdings in Hutchison Whampoa, it was enough for the Boss to play a significant role.

As a core figure, Dai Shi was crystal clear about the Boss’s objective.

His goal was Hutchison Whampoa; Cheung Kong Holdings was just a side benefit.

“Chief, should we continue accumulating? There’s another 300,000 shares at the 22.3 Hong Kong dollars per share mark. It’s likely a mid-sized investment firm taking the opportunity to sell off,” a core trader asked.

Dai Shi glanced at the time. It was 11:53 AM, meaning there were seven minutes left at best.

“Buy. Keep buying!” Dai Shi said decisively.

Before the Boss left for Shenzhen, he had said that there was no upper limit to the number of Hutchison Whampoa shares they should accumulate—the more, the better!

So far, no major players had entered the market, which meant Li Jiacheng’s side had yet to make a move.

But it was unclear what the situation would be in the afternoon.

Therefore, Dai Shi felt that the more shares they held, the more resources and confidence they would have.

Time ticked by, and soon, seven minutes had passed.

When the bell at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange rang, Galaxy Securities’ holdings in Hutchison Whampoa had reached a high of 36.7%.

In addition, their shares in Cheung Kong Holdings had smoothly surpassed thirty percent, reaching 30.3%!

“Everyone, you’ve done well. Let’s take a break. At two in the afternoon, we go again!” After compiling the data, Dai Shi stood up with a satisfied expression and addressed his team members.

Instantly, a wave of relief washed over the entire trading room.

Everyone’s nerves had been stretched taut during the morning’s trading. Now, they could finally relax for a while.

The traders stood up one by one to stretch their limbs, their faces tired but filled with content smiles.

The feeling of victory being within reach overshadowed the fatigue brought on by the high-intensity operations.

Without a doubt, the morning’s trading session had been incredibly smooth and successful.

After giving his instructions, Dai Shi hurriedly left the trading room with the documents in hand and headed for the elevator.

With the Boss away, his direct superior was Ma Shimin.

Therefore, he was now on his way to Ma Shimin’s office to report the morning’s achievements.

During the morning, Ma Shimin had called him several times to get updates on the battle.

He had also come down once in the middle of it.

Connaught Centre, 51st floor, President’s office of the Hongkong Land Group.

At this moment, Ma Shimin was somewhat worried. The Boss had not yet returned his call, so he couldn’t report the progress to Lin Haoran.

Just then, there was a knock on his office door.

The person who entered was Dai Shi.

“Director Ma, I have lived up to your expectations!” Dai Shi’s face was alight with irrepressible excitement. He strode quickly to Ma Shimin’s desk and handed over the data report. “This morning’s battle was a total victory!”

Ma Shimin immediately took the report, his eyes eagerly scanning the key figures on it:

Galaxy Securities Holdings: Hutchison Whampoa: 36.7%; Cheung Kong Holdings: 30.3%.

Adding the 10.2% he had personally secured, it meant their side’s total holdings in Hutchison Whampoa had reached a staggering 46.9%.

Although Director Wang’s three percent was a bit of a shame.

But looking at these astonishing numbers, especially the 46.9% that clearly indicated Lin Haoran was now the undisputed largest shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa, the tense expression on Ma Shimin’s face finally gave way to a smile of immense relief and excitement!

Chapter 741: I’m Not Just Going to Steal Your Golden Egg, I’m Coming for Your Hen Too!

Just as the Hong Kong stock market was descending into madness, several dozen kilometers away in Shenzhen, Lin Haoran was with Guo Xiaohan, accompanying Shenzhen officials on a bus from Buji Town back to Luohu.

His purpose in coming to Shenzhen this time was not only to donate one hundred million Hong Kong dollars to the soon-to-be-established Shenzhen University for its preparatory work, but also to let Guo Xiaohan, the Chairman of the charitable foundation, understand the situation in Mainland China.

The donation ceremony for Shenzhen University was set for four o’clock in the afternoon. Therefore, after some discussion, the Shenzhen government decided to take Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan to visit several primary schools in the surrounding areas.

After all, Lin Haoran had already promised on CCTV to donate one hundred schools every year to the mainland in the future.

Guo Xiaohan couldn’t possibly manage this charitable foundation without understanding anything.

Therefore, it was essential for her to gain a deeper understanding of the conditions in rural schools in the mainland.

After arriving at Shekou Port at ten in the morning, they first went to the preparatory office of Shenzhen University in the Nantou Management District to learn about the university’s establishment progress.

Afterward, they went to the nearby Longhua Town, and then to Buji Town. In just over two hours, they had inspected three primary schools.

Thankfully, they didn’t have to take any detours, as the schools were all along their route. Otherwise, visiting three schools in two hours would have been far too rushed.

This was also why the head of Hongkong Land Group’s mainland division, whom Ma Shimin had wanted to contact Lin Haoran, had been unable to reach him.

In the mainland at this time, making contact was not as convenient as it was in Hong Kong.

Ever since the mobile communications company, a joint venture between Hongkong Telephone Company and Motorola, had begun commercial operations, people like them with mobile phones could be reached anytime, anywhere, as long as they were in Hong Kong’s city center.

But Shenzhen was different. Forget mobile phones; even landlines were scarce. Only some government agencies, large state-owned enterprises, or high-end hotels were equipped with them.

No matter how anxious Ma Shimin was in Hong Kong, he could not promptly convey the earth-shattering changes in the Hong Kong stock market to Lin Haoran.

The information lag was like an invisible chasm drawn between two different worlds.

Of course, there was another reason: Lin Haoran himself was full of confidence about the situation in Hong Kong.

In his view, not only did he possess a massive personal cash flow, but he also had the authority to mobilize funds from three banks.

Meanwhile, Li Jiacheng was currently facing a shortage of funds. With his own side operating in the shadows and his opponent in the open, what could Li Jiacheng possibly use to compete with him?

So, throughout the morning, Lin Haoran did not try to call Hong Kong. He had complete faith in his subordinates.

He had already made all the necessary arrangements and there was no need to worry too much.

Besides, with Ma Shimin there, he felt at ease.

Therefore, after arriving in Shenzhen that morning, he had calmly followed the Shenzhen officials to inspect the schools.

The condition of these three schools was actually quite similar to the rural primary school Lin Haoran had seen next to the industrial park at the foot of Bijia Mountain in Luohu.

When they arrived at the first school, Guo Xiaohan was utterly shocked.

The crumbling brick and tile buildings looked as if they might collapse at any moment. The walls were covered in alarming cracks, like a crumpled piece of old paper that had been smoothed out again, threatening to split open at any time.

In some places, the bricks were loose or had fallen out, revealing decaying wooden beams and loose soil, a frightening sight to behold.

The dilapidated windows were haphazardly nailed shut with wooden planks, and the desks were like scrap wood, accompanied by rickety long benches.

In later years, an environment like this would have been classified as a condemned building.

But in this era, it was still in use.

There was no other choice. Economic conditions were truly difficult in this era, and educational resources were extremely scarce.

Just having a place to hold classes was already a considerable feat.

Guo Xiaohan looked at everything before her, her delicate brows furrowed. Shock and pity filled her clear eyes.

She had grown up in Southeast Asia and was born into a wealthy family, so she had naturally never seen such a learning environment.

It was far more miserable than she had imagined.

Although she knew conditions in the mainland were tough, the impact of seeing it with her own eyes was far greater than just hearing about it.

She held Lin Haoran’s hand tightly, her fingertips a little cold.

Lin Haoran sensed her emotions and gently patted the back of her hand, whispering, “That’s why we’re here. Change has to start with someone.”

The accompanying Shenzhen official looked both somber and embarrassed. He explained, “Mr. Lin, Miss Guo, I’m truly sorry you have to see this. The city’s finances are very tight, and education funding is stretched thin. Many rural schools can only barely manage to stay open. We are already trying our best to improve things, but it takes time…”

“I understand. You don’t need to explain too much,” Lin Haoran said with a slight smile, signaling for the official to stop.

There was no need for it.

The other two schools they visited later, while slightly better, were not much different.

Seeing the state of these schools, Guo Xiaohan fully understood why Lin Haoran wanted to do charity work in the mainland.

At this moment, she was no longer just an executor, but someone who truly, from the bottom of her heart, recognized the significance of this cause.

And this was precisely why Lin Haoran had specifically brought her to inspect these schools.

Otherwise, even as the Chairman of the Lin Haoran Charitable Foundation, she might have lacked the most fundamental empathy and understanding for charitable work.

By the time they returned to Luohu’s city center, it was already twelve-thirty.

They went to the same restaurant as before.

However, just as they arrived, the head of Hongkong Land Group’s Shenzhen office rushed over.

“Boss, Director Ma asked me to contact you urgently. He said to have you call him back as soon as possible. He has something to report,” the head of the Shenzhen office said anxiously.

Ma Shimin had called him early in the morning, telling him to find the Boss as soon as possible.

But the Boss had gone to the mountainous areas of Shenzhen to inspect schools. How was he supposed to find him?

Now that he finally saw the Boss, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Hearing this, Lin Haoran’s eyebrows twitched almost imperceptibly.

For Ma Shimin to be searching for him so desperately, even using the head of the mainland office, this was no ordinary matter.

Could an unexpected change have occurred in the stock market this morning?

But his expression remained calm. He nodded at the person in charge and said in a steady voice, “Alright, I understand. Thank you for your trouble.”

He then turned to the accompanying Shenzhen officials and said apologetically, “Director Wang, I’m sorry, but some urgent business has come up at the company that I need to handle immediately. I’m afraid I won’t be able to join you for lunch. Please go ahead and eat, don’t wait for us.”

The officials, though a little surprised, were understanding. “Mr. Lin is a busy man, we understand completely. Please take care of your business. We’ll see you at the ceremony this afternoon.”

“Alright. Thank you for your trouble,” Lin Haoran said with a smile and a nod.

After making the arrangements, Lin Haoran said to the mainland representative, “Take me to the nearest place where I can make an international call.” He knew the hotel phones might not be secure or direct enough.

“Boss, please follow me. The branch office has a dedicated line to Hong Kong,” the man said, quickly leading the way.

Lin Haoran nodded. He knew that the Hongkong Land Group branch office was just a few hundred meters away, making it very convenient.

A few minutes later, Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan arrived at Hongkong Land Group’s temporary branch office in Luohu.

It was a seven-story building. Upon reaching an office on the third floor, they saw that while the decor was simple, there was a black, dedicated telephone.

The representative discreetly withdrew and closed the door behind him, while Guo Xiaohan tactfully sat on a chair outside, not following him in.

Without further delay, Lin Haoran quickly dialed the encrypted line that connected directly to Ma Shimin’s office.

The call was answered almost instantly, as if Ma Shimin had been waiting right by the phone.

“Boss, good news! We have become the largest shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa. We currently hold a total of 46.9% of Hutchison Whampoa, and 30.3% of Cheung Kong Holdings…” On the phone, Ma Shimin reported the morning’s results in detail.

“A feint to the east, an attack to the west. Well done!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily.

Ma Shimin and Dai Shi had not disappointed him.

Although they had unexpectedly failed to acquire the 3% stake from a certain Director Wang, they now held a substantial 46.9% of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares. Even if Li Jiacheng combined his shares with Director Wang’s, it would only amount to 43%.

46.9% versus 43%. While not a complete landslide, it was a lead.

For two shareholders to each hold over 40% of a publicly listed company was a rare sight in all of Hong Kong.

Let alone for a giant like Hutchison Whampoa.

“Also, we are preparing to send a notice to the Securities Commission this afternoon. By three o’clock at the latest, the market will know that we have become Hutchison Whampoa’s largest shareholder,” Ma Shimin continued his report, his tone tinged with the excitement of a victorious battle.

However, at that moment, the sound of footsteps came from Ma Shimin’s end.

Then, Lin Haoran heard someone reporting something to Ma Shimin.

He could faintly make out the words “trading halt.”

Soon, Ma Shimin’s voice came through again: “Boss, latest news. Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings have separately submitted applications to the stock exchange for a trading halt until Friday. The reason given is that the stock prices and trading volumes of both companies have shown abnormal fluctuations without a reasonable explanation, so they are voluntarily halting trading to maintain market order. It seems our opponent probably can’t guess how many shares we currently hold. This all happened too suddenly; they only found out around eleven this morning that we were targeting Hutchison Whampoa. Therefore, I boldly speculate that because time was too tight, they had to use this trading halt tactic to prevent us from increasing our shareholding in the two companies further. This will give them enough time to respond.”

Today was September 17th, a Thursday.

Their application for a trading halt until Friday, though only for a day and a half, would give them three and a half days to think about how to respond to Lin Haoran’s challenge when counting the weekend.

“Hmm, that’s a very reasonable analysis. Unfortunately for them, we’ve already secured enough shares this morning. Haha!” Lin Haoran was in a good mood.

Hutchison Whampoa. The reputation of this company was in no way inferior to that of the Hongkong Land Group.

He had never considered targeting this company before. If anyone was to blame, it was Superman Li for provoking him.

“Indeed. I wonder what Li Jiacheng’s reaction will be when he finds out. The trading halt can’t stop us anymore,” Ma Shimin remarked with a sigh.

Lin Haoran’s plan for Hutchison Whampoa had been laid out with truly profound foresight.

From the initial business war with HSBC, he had taken advantage of the fact that Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings’ stock prices were being dragged down by HSBC, and had used the opportunity to accumulate a large number of shares.

Later, when the two sides became enemies, every move, though seemingly aimed at different targets, was in fact paving the way with resources and momentum for the final gambit.

And Li Jiacheng’s own provocation had given Mr. Lin the perfect reason to strike, acting with the flow of the situation to land a single, decisive blow.

On the other end of the line, Ma Shimin’s voice was filled with admiration.

As the one carrying out the plan, the more deeply he was involved, the more he could appreciate the subtlety and shrewdness of Lin Haoran’s strategy.

Lin Haoran just smiled faintly and said, “The business world is like a battlefield. Opportunities are always reserved for those who are prepared. We prepared enough ‘ammunition’ and waited for the most suitable ‘timing.’ Mr. Li was indeed a bit careless this time.”

He paused, then continued with his instructions, “Since they have already applied for a trading halt, we will play by the rules. Go ahead with the announcement and let everyone know that the largest shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa has changed. Also, keep a close eye on Mr. Li’s movements. During the halt, he will certainly not sit and wait for death. He will definitely try to find a way to counterattack or negotiate.”

“Boss, although we hold more shares in Hutchison Whampoa than they do, a full 46.9%, they still hold a high 40%, with another 3% on their side. So, even if we can get onto the Board of Directors of Hutchison Whampoa, we’ll only have a few more seats than them. With the current share ratio, we might not be able to oust him from the Chairman of the Board position. Moreover, once trading resumes, the shareholders will learn about the battle for control between us and Li Jiacheng, which will surely drive the stock prices of both companies to an absurd height. This will be very disadvantageous for our subsequent share increases. Furthermore, if he continues to hold so many shares, we won’t be able to completely control Hutchison Whampoa,” Ma Shimin said worriedly.

“Your concerns are very valid, Director Ma. Mr. Li is indeed a tough nut to crack. He will never easily give up control of Hutchison Whampoa. His application for a trading halt to buy time is certainly part of a plan to counterattack,” Lin Haoran’s voice remained steady, without a hint of panic.

“But don’t forget, his own situation is not good right now. The downturn in the Hong Kong property industry is causing his debts to mount. Therefore, he can’t free up much more capital from either Hutchison Whampoa or Cheung Kong Holdings. It’s also nearly impossible for him to borrow money from other international investment banks now. He can only rely on Standard Chartered Bank, but Standard Chartered’s own situation isn’t great either. Once they learn that our stake in Hutchison Whampoa surpasses Li Jiacheng’s, they will definitely push him to strategically abandon Hutchison Whampoa to fully protect Cheung Kong Holdings. Standard Chartered Bank is not a charity. Their top priority is to ensure their own financial security. Li Jiacheng is carrying the immense pressure of both Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa. Now that we have the upper hand with Hutchison, Standard Chartered’s risk assessment department will never stand by and watch him pour more precious capital into a battle for control with little chance of winning. They will only pressure him to cut off the tail to survive.” Lin Haoran’s voice was remarkably calm, as if stating a foregone conclusion.

Ma Shimin, on the other end of the line, had a sudden realization, and his tone became excited. “Boss, are you saying that Standard Chartered Bank will actually become our ‘helping hand’?”

“You could put it that way,” Lin Haoran smiled slightly. “Li Jiacheng is now besieged from within and without. Internally, he’s facing huge debts and cash flow pressure. Externally, we are aggressively pressuring him out of power, on top of the financial institutions breathing down his neck. It may seem like he has three and a half days, but in reality, his options are few, and every path is fraught with thorns.”

He paused, then continued, “Therefore, we need to adjust our strategy slightly. Not only must we issue the announcement, but we must do so with more finesse. In addition to announcing that we’ve become the largest shareholder, we must also emphasize our long-term optimism about Hutchison Whampoa’s quality assets and growth potential. We should also solemnly state that we have no intention of participating in the potentially overly-aggressive debt restructuring plan currently led by Mr. Li Jiacheng, and express concern about the short-term measures the current management might take to deal with the HSBC crisis. In addition, release the news that we hold over 30% of Cheung Kong Holdings’ shares. Don’t state it directly, but let them feel that our target isn’t just Hutchison Whampoa; we won’t let Cheung Kong Holdings go either. For instance, you could try to contact other shareholders of Cheung Kong Holdings and express a desire to buy their stock. Of course, my aim isn’t to actually buy, but just to make Li Jiacheng think we really want to. Under this dual pressure, I believe Li Jiacheng will think it through. At that point, whether he wants to resist us to the bitter end or give up one to save the other, I believe he will know how to choose!”

This was why Lin Haoran, despite having no real interest in Cheung Kong Holdings, had still instructed Galaxy Securities to secretly accumulate its shares all along.

To Li Jiacheng, Cheung Kong Holdings was his foundation.

“Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!” Ma Shimin couldn’t help but exclaim in praise over the phone, his voice slightly raised with excitement. “Boss, this two-pronged approach of yours has hit Li Jiacheng right on his Achilles’ heel! He must be in a terrible fix by now, attacked from both front and rear!”

He completely understood Lin Haoran’s grand strategy.

Acquiring shares in Cheung Kong Holdings was not a genuine attempt to take it over, but to create an immense pressure, like Mount Tai pressing down, to make Li Jiacheng fear for his very foundations.

On one side, control of Hutchison Whampoa was in jeopardy; on the other, his foundational company, Cheung Kong Holdings, was also being eyed covetously, not to mention the pressure from Standard Chartered Bank…

This kind of all-encompassing pressure was enough to throw any opponent into disarray.

“At this rate, I’m afraid Li Jiacheng won’t even last three days!” Ma Shimin judged excitedly. “He will have to make a choice, and may even take the initiative to come and negotiate. Otherwise, with you invading his very foundation, he definitely won’t be able to bear it.”

The significance of Cheung Kong Holdings to Li Jiacheng was self-evident.

It was the flagship and symbol he had built from scratch, carrying all his reputation and his roots.

Hutchison Whampoa was good, but it was ultimately a “golden egg” acquired later. Cheung Kong Holdings was the “hen” that laid the golden eggs, and more importantly, it was his lifeline.

Lin Haoran’s move was tantamount to telling Li Jiacheng directly: I’m not just going to steal your golden egg, I’m coming for your hen too!

Will you defend it?

How will you defend it?

How much capital and energy do you have left to defend it?

This psychological intimidation combined with real financial pressure, a two-pronged approach, was enough to crush any lingering hope.

“Yes. So, what we need to do now is to be in an unassailable position. Issue the announcement on time, apply enough pressure, and then wait for him to come to us,” Lin Haoran said, acknowledging Ma Shimin’s judgment, his tone still composed.

He could almost foresee the uproar that the precisely worded and subtly pointed announcement would cause in Hong Kong’s business and financial circles once it was released.

Panic, speculation, astonishment…

All sorts of emotions would quickly ferment, eventually transforming into immense pressure that would be accurately delivered to Li Jiacheng and his think tank.

“I understand, Boss. I’ll get on it right away and ensure this announcement has the maximum effect!” Ma Shimin’s voice was full of energy.

He was confident that before long, another top foreign firm in Hong Kong would be taken down by the Boss.

Hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran let out a long breath.

The office returned to silence, with only the faint noise from the Shenzhen streets drifting in from outside the window.

Guo Xiaohan had been sitting quietly outside the office. Seeing that he had finished his call, she stood up, walked over, and handed him a glass of warm water, saying softly, “You’ve been talking for a long time. Have some water. Are things all arranged?”

“Yes, basically arranged.” Lin Haoran took the glass, drank it all in one go, and gave her a reassuring smile. “It’s just a small game in the business world. We already have the upper hand. Let’s go, let’s get something to eat. You’re the main star this afternoon.”

His casual demeanor successfully put Guo Xiaohan at ease.

She smiled radiantly and took his arm. “Alright.”

In Shenzhen, they could walk together at ease, without any fear of the paparazzi.

Because there were no paparazzi here.

But in Hong Kong, it was a different story. Their every move could be infinitely magnified and become fodder for the tabloids.

Although Guo Xiaohan was gradually getting used to it, deep down, she still preferred the untroubled freedom of Shenzhen.

It wasn’t as bustling here, but when they walked together, they weren’t easily surrounded by crowds as they were in Hong Kong.

The two of them, along with their bodyguards and members of the Lin Haoran Charitable Foundation, found a clean restaurant near the branch office and had a simple lunch.

During the meal, Lin Haoran’s thoughts would occasionally drift to Hong Kong, speculating on the chain reactions that Ma Shimin’s announcement might trigger. But on the surface, he continued to chat and laugh with Guo Xiaohan, talking about the afternoon ceremony and the schools they had seen that morning, not bringing any of the tension from the business world to her.

After lunch and a short rest, they attended the donation ceremony held in the auditorium of the Shenzhen City Government right on time.

The atmosphere at the event was warm and solemn.

Red banners, vibrant bouquets of flowers, and the expectant gazes of the various representatives set the main tone for the ceremony.

Lin Haoran was composed on stage. His speech not only affirmed the development potential of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone but also profoundly elaborated on the foundational role of education for the future of the country and its people. His words were sincere and inspiring.

When the oversized model of the one-hundred-million-Hong-Kong-dollar cheque was jointly held up, the entire hall erupted in thunderous applause, and the flashes from cameras nearly engulfed the stage.

Guo Xiaohan also perfectly fulfilled her duties as the Chairman of the charitable foundation. Her demeanor was elegant, her words well-chosen. Especially when she mentioned her visit to the rural schools that morning, the genuine care and determination in her eyes moved many people.

All of this proceeded in a bright, positive, and hopeful atmosphere.

However, beneath this peaceful ambiance, a capital storm personally orchestrated by Lin Haoran had already been precisely delivered via radio waves to the international financial center of Hong Kong.

Chapter 742: One Wrong Step, and Every Step is Wrong!

The time was twelve thirty in the afternoon.

Hutchison Whampoa Building, Central, Hong Kong, Chairman of the Board’s office.

Li Jiacheng sat in his executive chair, a pair of black-framed reading glasses perched on his nose. He stared out the window at the tall buildings, silent.

He was waiting—waiting for news from the Stock Exchange.

The events of this morning had completely thrown off his rhythm.

At this moment, his mind was filled with regret. How could he have any thoughts of having Hutchison Whampoa compete with the Hongkong Land Group?

He never expected Lin Haoran to be so ruthless.

He hadn’t made a move, but when he did, it was fatal.

If—if he hadn’t taken the initiative to offend Lin Haoran, perhaps today’s events would never have happened?

He didn’t know how many times he had felt this regret.

At this very moment, he couldn’t help but recall the time he had visited Pao Yue-kong, and the advice Pao Yue-kong had given him.

He should have listened to Pao Yue-kong’s advice back then. With Pao Yue-kong mediating, he could have reconciled with Lin Haoran. How could he have fallen to this point?

He would have done it, even if it meant offending HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank.

Unfortunately, it seemed pointless to think about these things now.

He had been in business for decades and had made countless choices, many of which were significant decisions, like giving up on Kowloon Wharf to do Pao Yue-kong and HSBC a favor.

In his eyes, all those choices had been perfectly correct.

But now, it seemed that choosing to be Lin Haoran’s enemy was his biggest mistake.

The sky outside the window was overcast, and dark clouds hung low, as if about to crush the bustling city at any moment.

Li Jiacheng’s fingertips tapped unconsciously on the mahogany desk, making a rhythmic, soft sound.

His inner agitation made it difficult for him to calm down.

His career had reached a life-or-death moment. At this moment, he seemed to have aged several years in an instant.

The telephone suddenly rang, its sharp ring piercing the silence of the office.

“Mr. Li, the application for a trading halt for Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings has been approved. Trading for both companies’ stocks will be suspended this afternoon and will only resume next Monday,” a long-awaited piece of news came from the other end of the line.

Li Jiacheng’s fingers tightened slightly around the receiver. The voice on the other end continued to speak, but he could no longer make out the specifics.

Outside, the first drop of rain hit the glass, streaking a thin, long watermark.

“Understood,” he finally managed to say these three words, slowly placing the receiver back on its cradle.

He let out a deep sigh of relief. This was good news.

A trading halt was good. With a trading halt, Lin Haoran would be temporarily unable to acquire new shares.

Although it was only treating the symptoms and not the root cause, it at least gave him enough time to prepare himself mentally. With enough time, he might be able to think of an effective countermeasure.

He still had no idea how many shares of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings Lin Haoran actually held.

But in his mind, no matter how much Lin Haoran increased his holdings, it shouldn’t have exceeded forty percent.

But if he allowed Lin Haoran’s people to continue buying on the secondary market this afternoon, it was only a matter of time before that threshold was crossed.

He didn’t have the financial firepower to compete with Lin Haoran. Even Standard Chartered Bank wouldn’t dare.

A year ago, when he was making a huge profit in the property industry, he might have had the resources and confidence.

But now, he simply did not.

So, for the next three days, he had to think about how to deal with Lin Haoran’s hostile challenge.

Li Jiacheng leaned back in his chair, took off his glasses, and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

The raindrops beat against the glass window in a dense rhythm, as if urging him to make a decision.

A knock came from outside the office, followed by his secretary bringing in a packaged lunch.

However, Li Jiacheng had no appetite.

This was the biggest crisis he had ever faced in his business career.

“Sigh!”

Not long after, Richard Lee also walked in.

“Mr. Li,” Richard Lee greeted him.

“Yes, have a seat,” Li Jiacheng said, his voice laced with fatigue.

After Richard Lee sat down, Li Jiacheng continued, “The trading halt has been approved. We have three and a half days of breathing room. In these three and a half days, we must come up with a countermeasure. Otherwise, Hutchison Whampoa will welcome a new master, and you, the President, may lose the position you’ve worked so hard for over many years.”

He deliberately emphasized this point to make Richard Lee understand the severity of the crisis.

Richard Lee was a talented man; otherwise, he wouldn’t be qualified for the position of President of Hutchison Whampoa. In past years, he had made outstanding contributions to Hutchison Whampoa’s development with his keen business acumen and decisive leadership.

Therefore, Li Jiacheng now urgently needed Richard Lee’s help.

Only by working together could they respond to the challenge from Lin Haoran.

What he feared most was that at a time like this, these British professional managers would lose their composure due to pressure and fear, or even develop ulterior motives.

After all, Lin Haoran was coming on menacingly. Once Hutchison Whampoa changed hands, their career prospects would inevitably be full of uncertainty.

“Rest assured, Mr. Li. Even if Lin Haoran’s shareholdings catch up to yours, I will still support you in continuing as the Chairman of the Board of Hutchison Whampoa!” Richard Lee declared his stance.

Li Jiacheng nodded with satisfaction. He truly needed Richard Lee’s support now. If Richard Lee, Simon Hall, Peter Wei, and the rest of the management team turned to support Lin Haoran instead, he would be truly isolated and plunged into a state of irreparable ruin.

At this thought, his expression grew even more solemn. He looked at Richard Lee and said, “Given the current situation, we need to devise a counter-strategy as soon as possible. Since Lin Haoran dares to acquire shares so brazenly, he must have something to back him up. What do you think his next move will be?”

Richard Lee frowned slightly and pondered for a moment before saying, “Mr. Li, Lin Haoran has always been decisive and clear in his objectives. His sudden large-scale acquisition this time must mean he had already secretly accumulated a significant number of shares beforehand, though likely not more than you.

Also, I’ve noticed that they might be targeting Cheung Kong Holdings as well. So, I suspect his next move might be to secretly contact some of the smaller shareholders of Cheung Kong Holdings to try and win their support, thereby increasing his own equity ratio.

After all, Mr. Li, you use Cheung Kong Holdings to hold a controlling stake in Hutchison Whampoa. If Cheung Kong Holdings also falls under Lin Haoran’s control, it would be very dangerous.”

Hearing this, Li Jiacheng said in a deep voice, “You can rest assured on that point. Most of the major shareholders of Cheung Kong Holdings have a close relationship with me and won’t betray me so easily. I just didn’t expect him to start with Hutchison Whampoa, since I’ve only been in control of Hutchison for less than a year, and my relationship with those shareholders is still average.”

This was also the main reason why Lin Haoran had not targeted Cheung Kong Holdings first.

As the company founded by Li Jiacheng, Cheung Kong Holdings was very firmly under his control. The difficulty of acquiring Cheung Kong Holdings was countless times greater than directly acquiring Hutchison Whampoa.

And he had also investigated; it was indeed not easy to turn those shareholders of Cheung Kong Holdings.

On the other hand, the shareholders of Hutchison Whampoa were easier to poach because Li Jiacheng had only recently taken control.

But even Lin Haoran hadn’t expected that among these shareholders, there would be an ally of Li Jiacheng like Director Wang, which almost caused all his efforts to be in vain.

Fortunately, Dai Shi had performed admirably on the secondary market, allowing him to seize the opportunity in the last ten-odd minutes of the morning to push his stake past Li Jiacheng’s in one fell swoop.

However, neither Li Jiacheng nor Richard Lee knew any of this yet; they were still in the dark.

Just as the two were discussing how to handle the challenges ahead, the telephone rang again, its sound like a death knell.

Li Jiacheng picked up the telephone receiver impatiently.

“Mr. Li, something terrible has happened!” On the other end of the line was his head of intelligence.

Li Jiacheng’s heart skipped a beat, and a bad feeling washed over him. He forced himself to remain calm and said, “Don’t panic. Tell me slowly, what happened?”

The head of intelligence said directly, “Just now, we received the latest news. Galaxy Securities has formally announced that they already hold up to 46.9% of the shares, officially becoming the major shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa. At the same time, they will enter the Board of Directors of Hutchison at a later date and propose to hold a special shareholders’ meeting to re-elect the board members!”

Li Jiacheng felt his vision go black. His body swayed, and he nearly fell out of his chair.

46.9%? Wasn’t that a full 6.9% more than his stake?

Even with Director Wang’s three percent supporting him, it still couldn’t compare.

Richard Lee was quick-witted, rushing forward to support him. “Mr. Li, are you alright? What happened?” he asked anxiously.

However, on the other end of the line, the head of intelligence wasn’t finished.

“In addition, Galaxy Securities also announced that they hold over thirty percent of Cheung Kong Holdings’ shares, officially becoming the second-largest shareholder. At the same time, they are also preparing to request that the Board of Directors of Cheung Kong Holdings convene a special shareholders’ meeting and re-elect its members!” The head of intelligence’s voice continued to reach Li Jiacheng’s ears.

Li Jiacheng felt a “buzz” in his head, as if he had been struck by a heavy hammer. He stood frozen on the spot, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief.

Richard Lee’s eyes widened, his mouth slightly agape, and for a moment, he was speechless.

After a long while, Li Jiacheng slowly came to his senses and said to the person on the phone, his voice trembling, “Are you… are you sure the information is accurate?”

The head of intelligence said urgently, “Mr. Li, it’s absolutely true! Galaxy Securities has already filed with the Stock Exchange. It’s not a fabrication. I’ve had it verified. I’ll fax you the specific details right now!”

Li Jiacheng waved his hand weakly, signaling for the intelligence chief to hang up. Then, he slumped into his chair as if all his strength had been drained.

He had never imagined that Lin Haoran would act so quickly and so ruthlessly. Not only had he unexpectedly gained an absolute advantage in Hutchison Whampoa, but he had even confirmed that the situation with Cheung Kong Holdings was also their doing.

Ruthless, truly ruthless.

This was an attempt to uproot my, Li Jiacheng’s, entire foundation!

Li Jiacheng gritted his teeth, his hands gripping the armrests of his chair so tightly that his knuckles turned white from the force.

At that moment, the fax machine’s telephone rang. Richard Lee picked up the receiver and simultaneously received the specific information sent by the head of intelligence.

After reading the document in his hand, Richard Lee was also stunned.

46.9% shareholding?

How is that possible?

Richard Lee’s hands trembled slightly. He looked at the fax again in disbelief.

“Impossible, this is absolutely impossible. How could they acquire so many shares in one morning? Unless…” Richard Lee muttered to himself.

Li Jiacheng abruptly looked up, a glimmer of understanding flashing in his eyes. “Unless they started planning this long ago. Lin Haoran’s low-key profile these past few months was simply to lull us into a false sense of security!”

Wasn’t this his usual style?

Li Jiacheng was best at biding his time, lying in wait for the right moment to strike. Now, Lin Haoran had used this very tactic against him, which made him both furious and feel a sense of helplessness at having met his match.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. His gaze returned to Richard Lee as he said, “Mr. Richard Lee, now is not the time to panic. We must calmly analyze the situation and find a countermeasure.”

Richard Lee nodded slightly. Although his mind was still in turmoil, his years of professionalism allowed him to quickly adjust his state and start thinking about a solution.

However, at this very moment, he had already begun to have second thoughts.

At the beginning of this year, Li Jiacheng had ousted Willie but kept the troika, them.

He knew the reason. It was merely to stabilize Hutchison Whampoa.

After all, Li Jiacheng’s main business was in the property industry.

Hutchison Whampoa, on the other hand, was a large, diversified conglomerate. If Li Jiacheng had gotten rid of all of them, he would have been unable to find suitable people to take over such complex operations in a short period. Hutchison Whampoa would have certainly descended into chaos, giving competitors an opportunity.

Therefore, he actually had no loyalty to Li Jiacheng.

Now, faced with Lin Haoran’s menacing offensive, Richard Lee maintained a calm exterior, but his mind was already racing with calculations.

Although he was the President and seemingly enjoyed a glorious position, he was, in fact, always constrained by Li Jiacheng’s decisions.

With Hutchison Whampoa’s power now falling into other hands, it was uncertain whether he could keep his position once Lin Haoran took full control.

Even if he did, in the new power structure, he might not be able to exercise his talents as he did now.

So, could I switch my allegiance to Lin Haoran first?

He believed that even if Lin Haoran took control of Hutchison Whampoa, he probably wouldn’t get rid of him easily in the short term. After all, he was still the President of Hutchison Whampoa, with deep roots, extensive connections, and a thorough knowledge of all business operations like the back of his hand.

If Lin Haoran wanted a smooth transition and continuous development for Hutchison Whampoa, he was undoubtedly a crucial piece on the board.

If he defected now, perhaps he would still be the one in charge of Hutchison Whampoa later on.

As far as he knew, Lin Haoran was a man who disliked interfering in the daily management of his companies, giving his professional managers maximum authority.

To put it simply, he delegated authority!

Wasn’t this exactly what he had been hoping for?

If he defected to Lin Haoran and received such treatment, then Lin Haoran would undoubtedly be a more suitable boss for Hutchison. What he hoped for most was a boss who was merely a figurehead.

Richard Lee thought to himself that if Lin Haoran truly had this management style, then defecting early would无疑 be securing his future.

He even noticed that Li Jiacheng’s fingers were trembling slightly. This business tycoon, who had always been so composed, had clearly lost his nerve.

“Mr. Li,” Richard Lee began cautiously, “Perhaps… perhaps we should consider negotiating with Mr. Lin. After all, the business world is not a battlefield. Cooperation is often more profitable than confrontation.”

Li Jiacheng looked up abruptly, his gaze as sharp as a knife. “Are you suggesting I surrender to that young man?”

“Not surrender, but strategic cooperation. Since Lin Haoran has already gained an absolute advantage, a head-on collision will only result in a mutually destructive outcome. It would be better to take this opportunity to turn an enemy into a friend. Perhaps we can open up new avenues for cooperation,” Richard Lee quickly explained.

Just then, the telephone rang again.

“Hello, this is Li Jiacheng,” Li Jiacheng said directly as he swiftly picked up the receiver.

“Brother Li, it’s me. I’m calling to tell you something. Just now, Ma Shimin from the Hongkong Land Group called me, inviting me for a visit. I’m guessing he wants to buy my shares in Cheung Kong Holdings, so I thought I’d let you know.”

The caller was one of Li Jiacheng’s long-time partners, who was also a board member of Cheung Kong Holdings and held a certain number of shares.

By now, the news from Galaxy Securities must have spread, so this partner naturally understood the other party’s purpose and made a special call to inform Li Jiacheng.

Li Jiacheng’s grip on the receiver tightened instantly, his brow furrowing deeper. He said in a low voice, “Thank you for letting me know, old friend. I’m aware of the general situation. For now, just hold tight and don’t make any decisions rashly. I’ll talk to you in detail once I have a plan.”

“Brother Li, don’t worry. You know our relationship. I will never betray you!” the other party solemnly declared.

After hanging up, Li Jiacheng’s expression was so dark it looked like it could drip water. He looked at Richard Lee, his voice somewhat suppressed. “Lin Haoran intends to launch an all-out attack, not even sparing my Cheung Kong Holdings shareholders.

It seems he is dead set on forcing me into a corner.”

However, before he could calm down, the phone rang again.

This time, it was another shareholder of Cheung Kong Holdings, and the purpose of his call was similar to the previous one.

In the following moments, he took several more calls. Unsurprisingly, they were all from Cheung Kong Holdings shareholders.

Without exception, they were all informing Li Jiacheng that they had been contacted by Ma Shimin, and the purpose was self-evident.

Every time the phone rang, it felt like a heavy blow, hammering on Li Jiacheng’s already taut nerves, making his face grow uglier with each call.

Richard Lee took all of this in, becoming even more certain of his own idea.

He had to defect to Lin Haoran as soon as possible. That way, it would be a godsend, not just gilding the lily after Lin Haoran had already taken control of Hutchison Whampoa.

Moreover, he believed that Lin Haoran needed his support right now.

After all, Lin Haoran’s shareholding was only slightly ahead of Li Jiacheng’s.

“Mr. Li, the situation seems even more severe than we imagined. Ma Shimin personally lobbying shareholders makes Lin Haoran’s intentions clear. He’s not just after Hutchison Whampoa; he won’t let Cheung Kong Holdings go either,” Richard Lee said at the opportune moment.

Li Jiacheng wearily rubbed his temples. “What do you suggest?”

Richard Lee pretended to be deep in thought, then said cautiously, “Perhaps I can try to make contact with Lin Haoran’s side to probe their true intentions. After all, we currently know nothing about their plans.”

Li Jiacheng looked up abruptly, a hint of suspicion in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by the reality of his predicament.

He sighed heavily. “Fine. But you must be careful. Don’t let them think we are showing weakness.”

“I understand,” Richard Lee nodded, inwardly delighted that the opportunity had come so quickly.

After Richard Lee left the office, Li Jiacheng sat alone in his chair. The room was so quiet that the only sound was the rain drumming against the windowpane. The rhythmic noise now felt like a heavy hammer, striking his heart again and again.

He stared at the curtain of rain outside the window, his eyes filled with bewilderment and exhaustion. He had weathered countless storms in his decades in business, but this time, he truly felt an unprecedented sense of powerlessness.

The lunch on his desk was getting cold, but he had no appetite at all.

Lin Haoran’s move had completely disrupted all his plans.

He had thought the trading halt would buy him some breathing room, but he never expected the other party had been planning this for a long time, amassing such a large stake in such a short period, pushing him into an almost inescapable corner.

The constant calls from the shareholders of Cheung Kong Holdings made him realize that Lin Haoran’s ambitions went far beyond Hutchison Whampoa. This was an attempt to completely destroy his commercial empire.

He picked up the documents on his desk, trying to find a glimmer of hope, but as he flipped through them, the figures and clauses felt like cold shackles, binding him tightly.

He knew very well that Cheung Kong Holdings was his foundation. Once Cheung Kong Holdings also fell into Lin Haoran’s hands, he would truly lose everything.

But now, how could he stop this from happening?

Li Jiacheng stood up and paced back and forth in his office, trying to clear his thoughts.

He thought of the network he had built up over the years, the friends who had fought alongside him in the business world. Perhaps they could lend a hand at this critical moment.

Pao Yue-kong, Cheng Yu-tung, Huo…

But when he picked up the phone, his finger hesitated over the keypad for a long time before he finally put it down.

The business world is like a battlefield. There are no eternal friends, only eternal interests.

Now that he was in trouble, would those people be willing to make an enemy of Lin Haoran for his sake?

He knew the answer in his heart.

Calling these business tycoons would be nothing but a futile effort.

Even Standard Chartered Bank couldn’t help him. How much help could those ‘friends’ in the business world offer?

At the same time, the Hong Kong business community was completely shaken.

As Galaxy Securities’ announcement spread, telephones in the offices of major tycoons rang off the hook.

Prince’s Building, Pao Yue-kong’s private office.

Pao Yue-kong was reviewing a report from World-Wide Shipping when his secretary hurried in with the latest news.

He took off his reading glasses and let out a long sigh. “Haoran is indeed not a creature to be confined to a pond. I wasn’t wrong about him. I’m afraid Brother Li is going to be badly hurt this time.”

To become the major shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa without anyone knowing, and furthermore, to hold over thirty percent of Cheung Kong Holdings’ shares, was truly shocking.

One had to know, Li Jiacheng held forty percent of Cheung Kong Holdings, which in turn held forty percent of Hutchison Whampoa. Under normal circumstances, while this wasn’t an absolute controlling stake, it was close enough.

As most people would understand it, how could anyone possibly seize control from Li Jiacheng in such a situation?

But now, it seemed Lin Haoran was about to do just that.

He had advised Li Jiacheng before, but alas, the man wouldn’t listen.

He had a good relationship with both sides, so it was impossible for him to help either one.

Chapter 743: The Betrayal of Li Jiacheng’s Ally

Even before the media had a chance to report it, the news of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings’ sudden trading halt, along with the announcement from Galaxy Securities, spread throughout Hong Kong at lightning speed.

This was especially true at the major stock exchanges. Many shareholders, buoyed by the sudden surge in Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings’ stock prices that morning, had been planning to make their mark in the afternoon session.

However, before the market even opened in the afternoon, they heard this news instead.

This caused many shareholders to beat their chests and stamp their feet, regretting not having followed the trend in the morning.

After all, no one had expected that Lin Haoran would actually set his sights on Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings.

One only had to look at the listed companies currently under Lin Haoran’s control—Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Telephone Company, Hong Kong and China Gas, and others. After he took control, their stock prices had all multiplied many times over.

In everyone’s eyes, Lin Haoran’s name had become a calling card for the road to wealth. With his involvement in a company, what was there to fear about a broken capital chain?

At the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the market had yet to open, but the trading floor was already packed.

The hall was in an uproar, with discussions erupting one after another.

“If I had known, I would have gone all-in this morning. Once Hutchison Whampoa is acquired by Lin Haoran, even with a market capitalization of over ten billion Hong Kong dollars, it will be nothing. The price will definitely continue to rise.”

“Lin Haoran is incredible. This move was just too brilliant.”

“I’m afraid Li Jiacheng is going to take a fall this time.”

“Seeing the price war between Hutchison Whampoa’s ParknShop and Hongkong Land’s Wellcome get so intense, I thought Li Jiacheng had ample funds. I never expected it was all just for show. Lin Haoran’s move is ruthless; it’s completely disrupted all of Li Jiacheng’s plans. I bet Li Jiacheng is in a terrible fix right now, with no idea how to handle this sudden turn of events!”

“Well, who told him to offend Mr. Lin? If you ask me, if Mr. Li hadn’t opposed Mr. Lin, given Mr. Lin’s character, he would never have taken the initiative to target Mr. Li. He has only himself to blame.”

“I guess Li Jiacheng is full of regret now. He finally managed to take over Hutchison Whampoa, and now he’s about to lose his controlling stake. Even Cheung Kong Holdings, a company he founded himself, is being targeted by Lin Haoran. This is going to be a good show.”

…

Galaxy Securities held 46.9% of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares and 30.3% of Cheung Kong Holdings’. These figures left the shareholders utterly stunned.

After all, there was a key premise here: both Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings already had a major shareholder holding 40% of their respective shares.

Under such circumstances, Lin Haoran had managed to do this without any prior news leaking out.

This was truly a case of making a stunning move out of nowhere!

This maneuver reminded everyone of the tactics Lin Haoran had used against Jardine Matheson & Co.

How very similar it was.

He was directly replicating a previous strategy.

However, only Lin Haoran could pull off such a move. It was impossible for anyone else to even try.

Because it required a massive amount of capital as a foundation.

And right now, Lin Haoran was probably the only person in all of Hong Kong who could casually produce so much money!

At this moment, Lin Haoran’s capabilities once again left everyone in awe, as if he were shrouded in a mysterious and powerful aura that sent tremors through the entire Hong Kong business world.

Aside from the shareholders, talk of the matter began to spread through the streets and alleys of Hong Kong.

Although the Superman Li of this world had earned a ticket to the top tier of Hong Kong conglomerates after taking over Hutchison Whampoa, his influence in Hong Kong was indeed no match for Lin Haoran’s.

Although Lin Haoran had only risen to prominence in the short span of three years, his name was already deeply etched into the hearts of ordinary Hong Kong citizens.

In the tea restaurants and corner stores that dotted the streets, people who had been chatting about daily trifles were now all discussing this matter after hearing the news.

“That young man, Lin Haoran, is truly amazing. He’s turned Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings upside down just like that,” an old man with graying hair remarked emotionally, holding his teacup.

“Indeed. But he has the strength to back it up. Of all the big companies he’s acquired, which one isn’t flourishing now? Besides, even British-owned behemoths like Jardine Matheson and HSBC have fallen to him one by one. What does Li Jiacheng amount to in comparison?” a middle-aged uncle next to him chimed in.

“Although they are both Chinese businessmen, I’m definitely rooting for Lin Haoran. After all, Li Jiacheng has a close relationship with the British-funded conglomerates. Lin Haoran, on the other hand, has become a hero in Hong Kong for resisting them. He’s the pride of us Chinese!” another man in his sixties with reading glasses said with a smile.

“I agree with that. Many of my friends look up to Lin Haoran as an idol. But to be fair, he really is worthy of our admiration. Who else could build such a massive enterprise at such a young age?” laughed a young man at a nearby table enjoying his morning tea.

In the Chairman’s office at Sun Hung Kai Properties.

Upon receiving the news, Kwok Tak-seng immediately called his sons for a meeting, his purpose to admonish them: “Do you see? This is the business world. A friend today could be an enemy tomorrow. We must learn a lesson from this and re-examine our relationships with our other allies!”

Standard Chartered Bank, Hong Kong headquarters, in the Taipan’s office.

The moment Tyron received the news, he immediately made an international call to inform the head office in London, Britain.

At this very moment, he felt extremely fortunate.

Thank goodness the funds he had been authorized to use had not yet entered the stock market. Otherwise, if they had lost billions of Hong Kong dollars, he would have surely been the one to bear the responsibility.

After all, Lin Haoran now held 46.9% of the shares. What was the point of Standard Chartered supporting Li Jiacheng in a fight for control over Hutchison Whampoa?

If Lin Haoran had held less than 40%, it might have been worth a contest. But now, it was completely meaningless.

What could Standard Chartered possibly use to compete with Lin Haoran?

Take Lin Haoran’s Hengsheng Group alone—Standard Chartered was no match for it.

Hengsheng Group’s financials were exceedingly healthy. And what about them, Standard Chartered Bank? To acquire HSBC, they were already heavily in debt. One misstep could plunge them into a crisis of a broken capital chain.

And none of this responsibility could be pinned on Tyron.

After all, this was Li Jiacheng’s failure, and it had nothing to do with him.

On the contrary, he had rendered meritorious service. In such an urgent situation, his judgment had saved Standard Chartered from a loss of several hundred million Hong Kong dollars. This was an achievement!

Therefore, Allen knew that his position as the Taipan of Hong Kong was basically secure.

After consulting with several senior executives, Lord Derek Barber, Chairman of the Board of Standard Chartered Bank, responded: “Hutchison Whampoa cannot be saved. Focus all efforts on saving Cheung Kong Holdings! Once Lin Haoran takes control of Hutchison Whampoa, HSBC’s debts with the company will be of no concern. And it’s unlikely that company will cooperate with HSBC in the future. Therefore, having lost such an important partner in Hutchison Whampoa, we cannot afford to lose Cheung Kong Holdings as well. Find a way to have Mr. Li Jiacheng gather his funds and focus everything on protecting Cheung Kong Holdings. It would be best to have Mr. Li Jiacheng visit Lin Haoran in person to negotiate. A peaceful resolution to this matter would be for the best!”

Standard Chartered’s decision soon reached Li Jiacheng’s ears.

When he learned that even Standard Chartered was telling him to give up on Hutchison Whampoa completely, his hand holding the receiver trembled slightly.

The last glimmer of hope was completely gone.

What could he possibly use to fight Lin Haoran?

He didn’t have as much money, and his shareholding had been surpassed.

It seemed now that choosing to save Cheung Kong Holdings was indeed the only way out.

If he went head-to-head, he might even lose his controlling stake in Cheung Kong Holdings!

Despair. At this moment, Li Jiacheng was utterly desperate.

He had paid far, far too much to obtain Hutchison Whampoa, planning for it for years.

And now, all of it was about to come to nothing.

Worse, he had become a joke in the Hong Kong business world, a failure.

Ridiculous, how truly ridiculous!

The sound of rain pattered against the window, seeming to provide a soundtrack for his current mood.

“I understand,” Li Jiacheng finally managed to utter these three words before slowly hanging up the phone.

It was basically impossible to get any useful help from Standard Chartered now.

The office was deathly silent.

Li Jiacheng stood alone before the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing out at Victoria Harbour shrouded in rain.

After decades of navigating the tides of the business world, he had never felt so powerless. Even his greatest ally, Standard Chartered Bank, was advising him to give up on Hutchison Whampoa. This meant he was completely out of the game for Hutchison.

The man who was once in such high spirits was now, at this very moment, so defeated.

He stood there for what felt like an eternity before gradually calming down from his despondent mood.

Right now, Cheung Kong Holdings was still in crisis. This was not the time for him, Li Jiacheng, to wallow in despair and self-pity.

He took a deep breath, turned around, and a spark of fighting spirit reignited in his eyes.

This was Superman Li, the Superman Li who was unwilling to admit defeat.

Even though he was about to lose, and lose completely.

So what? He was still the largest shareholder of Cheung Kong Holdings.

Knowing that Lin Haoran controlled 30.3% of Cheung Kong’s shares, he still had enough resources and confidence.

Even if he lost Hutchison Whampoa, he still had Cheung Kong Holdings.

Apart from the roughly 40% of Cheung Kong shares he held himself, several of his confidant partners held nearly 10%.

In other words, he and his partners held a total of around 50% of the shares.

These shares were enough to form an unbreakable alliance.

Although Ma Shimin had called all of them to try and negotiate, they had already phoned Li Jiacheng to tell him they would absolutely not betray him.

So, with their support, what did it matter how rich Lin Haoran was?

However, with Lin Haoran holding so many shares in Cheung Kong Holdings, it remained a hidden danger. He had to find a way to get them back, or else he would not be at ease.

Since he had already decided to give up Hutchison Whampoa, Li Jiacheng now began to think about how he could extract the most benefit from this failed campaign.

Presumably, Lin Haoran also wanted the Hutchison Whampoa shares in his hands, right?

At this thought, Li Jiacheng strode back to his desk and pressed the intercom button. “Contact all important shareholders of Cheung Kong Holdings immediately. Invite them to dinner tonight in my name.”

The rain had stopped at some point, and sunlight pierced through the clouds, casting mottled patterns of light and shadow on the office floor.

Li Jiacheng sat at the intersection of light and shadow, his face a mixture of brightness and darkness, just like his mood at this moment—a blend of the bitterness of defeat and the determination for a desperate counterattack.

Soon, it was five thirty in the afternoon.

Shenzhen, Shekou Port.

Lin Haoran, along with Guo Xiaohan and twelve bodyguards, once again boarded the hydrofoil.

Several important leaders of Shenzhen City were standing on the pier.

Originally, he had planned to spend the night here to let Guo Xiaohan experience more of Shenzhen life.

However, the situation in Hong Kong had taken a turn he hadn’t fully expected, so it was more appropriate for him to return and oversee things.

Moreover, at three in the afternoon, Ma Shimin had contacted him again about an important matter that required his decision back in Hong Kong.

Shenzhen wasn’t far from Hong Kong, so there would be plenty of opportunities to come back in the future. There was no need to rush.

The hydrofoil cut through the calm sea, speeding towards Hong Kong.

Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan stood by the railing, watching the gradually receding outline of Shenzhen and the waving figures of the leaders bidding them farewell, a thousand thoughts running through their minds.

The team members from the Lin Haoran Charitable Foundation who had come with them would stay in Shenzhen to form a Mainland China team. After all, Mainland China would be an important area of activity for the foundation in the future.

This time, one hundred million Hong Kong dollars had been donated for the establishment of Shenzhen University. The Lin Haoran Charitable Foundation would exercise supervisory rights over the use of every single fund in the future.

In addition, the plan to donate to elementary schools was also about to begin.

It was already mid-September, and 1981 didn’t have much time left. Therefore, donating to one hundred schools in 1981 was obviously unrealistic.

Moreover, the charitable foundation had just been established, and many things needed to be gradually perfected. Thus, the school donations would begin in 1982.

For this year, the foundation’s management team would first get a clear picture of the situation in Mainland China, such as how many schools in Shenzhen needed rebuilding, which areas needed new schools, and what the learning conditions were like for children in impoverished mountainous regions, so as to truly help the children who needed it.

And Shenzhen was just the beginning. In the future, it would serve as a fulcrum, radiating out to cover all of China.

This trip had been a deeply moving experience for Guo Xiaohan.

At this moment, she had a much deeper appreciation for the weight of her future responsibilities.

This was a duty she had to shoulder as Mrs. Lin, and she knew she had to do it well enough!

An hour later, the hydrofoil docked smoothly at a private pier in Central.

It was now six thirty in the evening. The setting sun cast a shimmering glow upon the waters of Victoria Harbour, as if a layer of fine gold dust had been scattered across its surface.

Holding Guo Xiaohan’s hand, Lin Haoran, surrounded by his bodyguards, slowly disembarked from the hydrofoil and got into the waiting Rolls-Royce.

“To the Joyful Abundance Restaurant in Central first!” Lin Haoran said just as Li Weidong was about to start the engine.

Ma Shimin was already waiting for him there, where an important matter required his attention.

“Yes, Boss!” The car started slowly and soon began weaving through the bustling streets of Hong Kong.

Outside the car window, neon lights gradually flickered to life, adorning the city in a dreamlike tapestry.

Guo Xiaohan leaned on Lin Haoran’s shoulder, her heart filled with both anticipation for her future charitable work and a sense of awe at the rapidly changing situation in the Hong Kong business world.

She wasn’t worried that Lin Haoran would encounter any trouble in business; she had too much faith in her fiancé’s abilities, complete and utter confidence.

In the car, Lin Haoran first used his mobile phone to call Ma Shimin, telling him that he had returned to Hong Kong and was on his way.

This was rush hour, so the short journey of less than a kilometer took a full twenty minutes to reach the Joyful Abundance Restaurant.

After parking the car in a designated spot, Lin Haoran and Guo Xiaohan were led by a security guard to a luxurious private room.

Inside, Ma Shimin was seated. Besides him, there was a middle-aged man wearing black-framed glasses.

Seeing Lin Haoran enter, both men quickly stood up to greet him.

“Boss.”

“Mr. Lin.”

Lin Haoran nodded and smiled. “Please, sit.”

After he and Guo Xiaohan sat down, Lin Haoran looked at the middle-aged man.

“And this is?” he asked with a smile, feigning ignorance.

In truth, he already knew the man’s identity; Ma Shimin had given him a brief introduction in the afternoon.

“Mr. Lin, hello! Let me introduce myself. My name is Xu Yuhui. I am a shareholder of Cheung Kong Holdings, currently holding 2.8% of the company’s shares. Seven years ago, my company was acquired by Cheung Kong Holdings, and after it was merged, I remained with the company by swapping my shares. For all these years, I have followed Mr. Li, and I am now one of the key directors at Cheung Kong Holdings. Since Mr. Lin wishes to acquire the shares I hold, I hope you can offer a suitable price,” the middle-aged man said, pushing up his black-framed glasses. His expression was slightly nervous, but he did not lack sincerity.

In fact, his real purpose in coming here was to take the opportunity to sell his shares, hoping to get a good price.

Back when his real estate company was acquired by Cheung Kong Holdings, he had been impressed by Li Jiacheng’s outstanding abilities and forward-thinking strategic vision in the real estate industry. That was why he had not opted for a cash buyout but insisted on holding shares.

Facts had proven his choice correct.

Over the years, Cheung Kong Holdings had become more prosperous every day. Not only that, but it had also successfully acquired Hutchison Whampoa, becoming its largest shareholder.

As a major shareholder of Cheung Kong Holdings, Xu Yuhui had indeed profited handsomely over the years and had become a senior executive, wielding considerable influence within the group.

This undoubtedly proved that his initial decision to opt for a share swap instead of cash compensation had been absolutely correct.

However, the recent intense competition between Li Jiacheng and Lin Haoran had made him keenly aware of Li Jiacheng’s shortcomings.

Lin Haoran was a hegemon of crucial importance in Hong Kong’s business world. Now that Li Jiacheng had offended him, his future business path in Hong Kong would likely be fraught with difficulties.

That being the case, Xu Yuhui felt he might as well take this opportunity to plot his own unscathed retreat from Cheung Kong Holdings.

Originally, he and Li Jiacheng had a very close personal relationship. Logically, he shouldn’t abandon this friendship when Li Jiacheng was in trouble.

Under normal circumstances, selling his Cheung Kong shares to Li Jiacheng would undoubtedly be the most appropriate solution.

But he knew in his heart that Li Jiacheng was short on funds right now. Even if he intended to sell his shares, the other party could not possibly offer an ideal high price.

At noon, after receiving Ma Shimin’s call, he had personally called Li Jiacheng to inform him of the matter.

As a result, Li Jiacheng had merely told him to continue holding his Cheung Kong shares, showing no intention of buying them.

But it was different with Lin Haoran. Since Ma Shimin had personally called him, hoping to buy his Cheung Kong shares, he would surely be able to offer a satisfactory price.

As the saying goes, “every man for himself when disaster strikes.”

In Xu Yuhui’s view, fighting for his own maximum benefit at this moment was a wise move to be responsible for himself and his assets.

His 2.8% stake was not a small percentage.

If he succeeded in selling it, he would definitely receive a substantial amount of cash. Then he could take the cash and leave Hong Kong, go to Singapore, or Britain, or the United States—where couldn’t he go?

As for betraying Cheung Kong Holdings and Li Jiacheng, while he felt some guilt, the business world was fickle, and interests always came first.

In the face of enormous temptation, that bit of friendship seemed to become insignificant.

“Mr. Xu, what kind of price are you looking for? Let’s hear it,” Lin Haoran said with a faint smile, taking a sip of tea.

He wasn’t interested in Cheung Kong Holdings and knew it would be difficult for him to control it.

But Cheung Kong currently held a full 40% of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares. Therefore, if he wanted to completely kick Li Jiacheng out of Hutchison, he needed to control enough of Cheung Kong’s shares to use as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Li Jiacheng, or to gain an absolute advantage in the fight for Hutchison’s equity.

But now, Li Jiacheng had applied for a trading halt for both Hutchison and Cheung Kong. Thus, even with money, it was difficult for him to continue increasing his shareholding in the two companies during the halt.

As for the shareholders, he had already secured all the ones he could from Hutchison Whampoa.

As for Cheung Kong Holdings, he had investigated before. All the shareholders were Li Jiacheng’s iron-clad allies, and it would be nearly impossible to persuade them.

His purpose in having Ma Shimin contact these shareholders was merely to deliberately leak the information to Li Jiacheng, letting him know that he was not just targeting Hutchison, but also Cheung Kong, forcing the other party to give up Hutchison and choose to protect Cheung Kong.

So, for Xu Yuhui, one of Li Jiacheng’s iron-clad allies and an Executive Director of Cheung Kong, to choose to sell his shares was indeed unexpected.

This was tantamount to betraying Li Jiacheng.

But that was fine too.

Tearing open a breach in Cheung Kong’s line of defense would bring him unexpected benefits.

Then, he would be able to gain a greater advantage in his negotiations with Li Jiacheng.

Therefore, he had to buy this Cheung Kong shareholder’s shares.

“Mr. Lin, I want to sell at a price 25% higher than the closing price before the trading halt. I know this is a bit much, as the pre-halt price was driven up by your people. But, Mr. Lin, please don’t be so quick to refuse. I can also bring Mr. Li some help that will absolutely make you feel this price is worth it,” Xu Yuhui said, a trace of greed and anticipation in his eyes.

Chapter 744: Since You’ve Decided to Be a Traitor, You Might as Well Go All the Way!

Xu Yuhui glanced around cautiously and lowered his voice. “Mr. Lin, I have sensitive information on three key shareholders of Cheung Kong Holdings, including violations of regulations committed by three directors in the course of their business operations, and even evidence of them hiring thugs to injure people.”

He took a sealed manila envelope from his briefcase and gently pushed it across the table to Lin Haoran. “This information is enough to get them indicted on criminal charges. If you need it, Mr. Lin, I can help you persuade them to switch sides.”

Lin Haoran took the envelope, pulled out a few documents, and gave them a quick look before handing them to Ma Shimin.

According to the documents, the three shareholders controlled a total of 5.3% of Cheung Kong Holdings’ shares. Combined with the 2.8% in Xu Yuhui’s hands, that was a total of 8.1%.

If Lin Haoran could secure this 8.1%, he would be creeping very close to the 40% stake held by Li Jiacheng’s family.

At that rate, it wouldn’t be impossible for him to become the largest shareholder of Cheung Kong Holdings, unless the company halted trading forever—which was simply impossible.

Of course, he had no intention of taking over Cheung Kong Holdings. Even if he became the largest shareholder, the company would be difficult to control. Li Jiacheng was the soul of Cheung Kong Holdings.

It was just a pure property company, something he didn’t need.

He already owned Hongkong Land Group and other property businesses, giving him more than enough real estate in Hong Kong. If he were to take over Cheung Kong Holdings as well, he might truly cross the bottom line of the Government House by controlling too much land.

Ma Shimin took the file and began reading it more carefully.

After a long while, Ma Shimin finally placed the documents back on the table.

Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin exchanged a knowing look.

Ma Shimin nodded slightly, signaling that the intelligence was priceless.

They had already become the largest shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa.

But that wasn’t enough!

Li Jiacheng was still the Chairman of the Board of Hutchison Whampoa, and ousting him would not be easy.

The best method was to make him give up his shares in Hutchison Whampoa.

Only then could Lin Haoran truly take control of the company.

And the more shares of Cheung Kong Holdings he controlled, the greater his advantage would be.

However, trading for Cheung Kong Holdings had been temporarily halted. Therefore, the best approach was to acquire shares from its other shareholders.

Initially, after investigating those shareholders and learning about their relationship with Li Jiacheng, Lin Haoran hadn’t held out much hope.

He never expected someone like Xu Yuhui to show up.

What he expected even less was that Xu Yuhui would be willing to sell out his former allies for greater personal gain.

Such an act was truly excessive.

They had all been the best of partners. Who could have imagined that Xu Yuhui would embark on this treacherous path for his own selfish interests?

This man was certainly a ruthless character. The most unbelievable part was that Li Jiacheng had worked with him for so many years without ever realizing what kind of person he was.

Lin Haoran narrowed his eyes, a complex expression flashing across his face.

Although he was eager to expand his influence in the business world, he couldn’t help but feel a certain disdain for Xu Yuhui’s utterly unscrupulous behavior.

With this move, Xu Yuhui had completely torn through Li Jiacheng’s defenses, shattering his alliance of old friends.

Ruthless. He was simply too ruthless.

Indeed, it was hard to find a kind soul in the world of business.

However, disdain was one thing; this was ultimately a good thing for him. It was perhaps a rare opportunity, one that could give him a greater advantage in his commercial battle with Li Jiacheng.

He had no need to show mercy to someone like this. If he could squeeze out every last bit of usefulness from the man, all the better.

Lin Haoran quickly suppressed his contempt, a faint smile returning to his lips. He said, “Mr. Xu, the help you’re offering is certainly impressive. However, the stock price of Cheung Kong Holdings was already inflated by my side. A 25% premium on top of that would far exceed the company’s actual value. So, you’ll have to show me some more sincerity to truly move me.”

Xu Yuhui’s heart tightened. He hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to be so difficult to deal with. He had thought that presenting this information would secure a straightforward agreement. But since things had come to this, he could only bite the bullet and press on.

“Mr. Lin, this is the only evidence I have. There’s really nothing else. If you have any other requirements, please just say so. I will do my best to cooperate,” Xu Yuhui said with a wry smile.

For his own benefit, he had thrown all caution to the wind.

But he also knew that after this, he could no longer remain in Hong Kong. He would have to go overseas to continue his career.

Lin Haoran leaned back slightly in his chair, his fingers tapping gently on the dining table as he watched Xu Yuhui with a calm gaze. This was the sentence he had been waiting for.

He leaned closer to Xu Yuhui and said in a low voice, “Mr. Xu, since you are so sincere, I have a suggestion. After we’ve settled the matter of these shares, you will hold a press conference in your capacity as a Director of Cheung Kong Holdings. At the conference, you will reveal the full details of Li Jiacheng’s financial crisis, especially his use of excessive leverage to acquire Hutchison Whampoa. Once these 8.1% of shares are dealt with, I can first pay you based on the stock price before the trading halt. As for the 25% premium, I will transfer it immediately after you hold the press conference. I can give you time to arrange for your family to leave Hong Kong first. What do you think?”

Lin Haoran’s suggestion was, one could say, even more ruthless.

It was ruthless not only to Li Jiacheng but also to the man sitting before him, Xu Yuhui.

Xu Yuhui’s face instantly turned pale. “Mr. Lin, this… isn’t this a bit too…”

“Too heartless?” Lin Haoran finished his sentence, a cold sneer on his lips. “Mr. Xu, since you’ve already chosen this path, you have to see it through to the end. You must state clearly at the press conference that, out of a sense of responsibility for the future of Cheung Kong Holdings, you have decided to sell your shares to me, because only I can bring stable development to the company.”

Since you’ve decided to be a traitor, you might as well go all the way!

Xu Yuhui’s hands began to tremble slightly. “But if I do this, I will have completely and utterly offended Li Jiacheng…”

“And what you’re doing now won’t completely offend him? Mr. Xu, the moment you chose to come and meet with me, you sealed off any path of retreat. Either you do as I say and walk away with a handsome reward, or I publicize our meeting today. When that happens, you won’t get a single cent, and you’ll face the frenzied retaliation of Li Jiacheng and your partners. Think about it carefully!” Lin Haoran sneered.

When dealing with such a scoundrel, one could not afford to be soft-hearted.

Fine beads of sweat broke out on Xu Yuhui’s forehead. He knew Lin Haoran was telling the truth. For the sake of profit, he had betrayed Li Jiacheng and was already standing on the edge of a cliff.

Although the condition Lin Haoran now proposed would make him a despicable figure in Hong Kong’s business circles, it was just as he said—he could only follow this path to the very end.

After a long silence, he gritted his teeth and nodded with difficulty. “Alright, Mr. Lin, I agree. But you have to guarantee that you’ll honor your promise afterward.”

“Of course. You can rest assured. We’ll sign an agreement in black and white. After this is done, I won’t short you a single cent. Oh, right, as for the shares of the other three directors, I have no intention of paying a 25% premium. I’ll acquire them at the pre-halt stock price. That’s already very generous of me. I assume you can handle that, right?” A smile appeared on Lin Haoran’s face after hearing his agreement.

Xu Yuhui’s expression instantly became extremely troubled. He hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to press him at every step, even pushing down the acquisition price of the other three directors’ shares.

But at this point, he had no way out. He could only bite the bullet and reply, “Mr. Lin, I will do my best to persuade them, but I can’t guarantee they will agree.”

Lin Haoran’s gaze sharpened, his tone carrying an unquestionable authority. “Mr. Xu, this isn’t a matter of trying. It’s a matter of you must. Since you’ve chosen to cooperate with me, you need to show sufficient sincerity and means. You hold the evidence of those three directors’ violations. You can use that to negotiate with them. If you can’t even handle something this simple, then there’s no need for our cooperation to continue.”

Xu Yuhui cried out in silent misery, but for the sake of that handsome reward and his own fallback plan, he could only nod. “Mr. Lin, I understand. I will give it my all.”

“Just leave this file here. I’m sure you have a backup, so there’s no need to take it with you,” Lin Haoran said, looking at the file in front of Ma Shimin, leaving no room for negotiation.

Xu Yuhui nodded with a wry smile. He didn’t know if his decision was the right one, but he had come this far, and there was no turning back.

He had originally thought Lin Haoran would be an easy person to negotiate with.

It seemed now that he had been thinking too much.

“I’ll give you the weekend. In these two days, I believe you should be able to persuade these three shareholders one by one. I want those 8.1% of shares by Sunday night at the latest. As for the press conference, I hope it can be held on Monday. I’ll help contact the media reporters!” Lin Haoran was in a great mood at that moment.

Two days over the weekend would be enough time for him to arrange for his family to leave Hong Kong.

He had never been merciful to his enemies.

Therefore, now that Li Jiacheng had become his enemy, he certainly wouldn’t be soft.

Just then, however, a crazy idea suddenly popped into Xu Yuhui’s mind. He said to Lin Haoran, “Mr. Lin, what if I bring all three of those shareholders to the press conference and have them expose Li Jiacheng’s financial crisis in detail alongside me? In that case, would you be willing to give them a 25% premium on their shares as well? That way, not only could I better persuade them to sell their shares to you, but your goal of dealing with Li Jiacheng would also proceed more smoothly. I imagine that’s something you’d like to see, right?”

That’s right, Xu Yuhui wanted to drag those three shareholders down with him completely.

He couldn’t be the only one to take the fall.

Once those three shareholders were embroiled in this exposé, they would all become Li Jiacheng’s arch-nemeses. No one could escape, and he would have allies, no longer isolated and helpless.

Moreover, if he could use this to get Lin Haoran to offer a premium on their shares, the three of them would surely be more cooperative, and his task of persuading them would become much easier.

The business world was, and always had been, a world where profit came first. He refused to believe that these people had a grudge against money!

Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback, and then a playful glimmer appeared in his eyes. This business war was getting more and more interesting.

He hadn’t expected Xu Yuhui to come up with such an idea in this desperate situation. It was a sign of some quick thinking.

He gently stroked his chin, pondering for a moment before a meaningful smile curved his lips. “Mr. Xu, that’s a clever calculation you’ve made. However, this proposal isn’t entirely out of the question.”

Xu Yuhui’s heart leaped with joy, and he quickly said, “Mr. Lin, this is beneficial for both of us! If those three shareholders make a public exposé at the press conference, the impact will be much greater than me acting alone. The blow to Li Jiacheng will be far more devastating. Then, your affairs with Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa will surely proceed more smoothly.”

Lin Haoran nodded and stood up, pacing around the room in thought.

He knew Xu Yuhui had a point. If he could get those three shareholders to speak out at the press conference, it would indeed create a bigger storm and put much greater pressure on Li Jiacheng.

But at the same time, he was weighing the risks involved.

If this matter blew up too much, would it attract stricter scrutiny from the Government House?

Would it touch upon some bottom lines that shouldn’t be touched?

Although Li Jiacheng was not part of a British-funded conglomerate, he couldn’t be sure if Li had connections in British political circles.

Of course, even if he did have backing, it wouldn’t be a huge problem, because Lin Haoran had never considered taking over Cheung Kong Holdings, even with this opportunity to become its largest shareholder.

In the end, Li Jiacheng still held 40% of Cheung Kong’s shares and was the soul of the company. Without him, Cheung Kong Holdings was just an ordinary property company.

Even if Lin Haoran took a 40% stake, he would have to rack his brains to fight for power on the Board of Directors, which was too much trouble.

It was better not to have such a property company.

He would rather use the Cheung Kong Holdings shares to threaten Li Jiacheng into transferring his shares in Hutchison Whampoa to him.

That way, he could easily take over Hutchison Whampoa.

Hutchison Whampoa was what he truly coveted.

Seeing Lin Haoran lost in thought, Ma Shimin said softly, “Boss, this matter certainly has its pros and cons. On the one hand, it can definitely form a powerful offensive against Li Jiacheng. As for the downside, from a risk perspective, we must act cautiously. If this isn’t handled well, I’m afraid it might displease the Government House and even draw fire upon ourselves.”

Lin Haoran gave Ma Shimin an appreciative look. He hadn’t expected Ma Shimin to have thought of the same point.

Lin Haoran stopped pacing, returned to his chair, and looked at Xu Yuhui. “Mr. Xu, I can agree to your proposal. If those three shareholders are willing to expose Li Jiacheng at the press conference as we require, I can offer a 10% premium on their shares. That is my bottom line. And you must ensure their complete cooperation, without any mistakes!”

For Lin Haoran, a 10% premium would save him tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars.

Although he didn’t care much about that amount of money, he felt that having the other three shareholders attend the press conference wasn’t worth those tens of millions.

Xu Yuhui was somewhat disappointed. He had hoped for a 25% premium, but managing to secure 10% was still quite good. He knew he was in no position to bargain.

Besides, his price was higher than the other three’s, which gave him a secret thrill.

Thus, he quickly said, “Rest assured, Mr. Lin. I will do my utmost to persuade them. I have leverage on them now, and given the current capital chain problems at Cheung Kong Holdings, they know they have no other choice. We are all just business partners; they are not Li Jiacheng’s vassals. I believe they will make the right choice!”

“Good, it’s settled then. I look forward to you completing these tasks soon. Let’s get ready to eat. Director Ma, please ask the waiter to bring in the dishes!” Lin Haoran said cheerfully.

Although Li Jiacheng had caught him off guard by halting trading for Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, Xu Yuhui had, in turn, given him a pleasant surprise!

“No, Mr. Lin. To be honest, Mr. Li Jiacheng has already invited me to dinner at seven o’clock tonight, right here at the nearby Hilton Hotel. I’m already late, so I can’t delay any longer. My apologies,” Xu Yuhui said, looking at the time on his watch.

That afternoon, Li Jiacheng had invited several major shareholders of Cheung Kong Holdings to dinner. The purpose was easy to guess.

And Xu Yuhui was, naturally, one of them.

“Alright, in that case, I won’t keep you. Take care, Mr. Xu!” Lin Haoran waved his hand and nodded.

Since Xu Yuhui was playing the role of a mole, he certainly couldn’t stop him.

Otherwise, Li Jiacheng might easily find out.

After Xu Yuhui left in a hurry, Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin looked at each other and smiled.

“Boss, this Xu Yuhui has been a great help to us,” Ma Shimin said softly. “However, a man like this can be used once, but never again.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, a profound look in his eyes. “That goes without saying. A person like Xu Yuhui can betray his former allies without a bottom line for the sake of profit. If he can betray Li Jiacheng today, he could very well betray us tomorrow. However, for now, he is an extremely useful pawn in our hands. If used properly, he can give us the upper hand in this business war with Li Jiacheng. Besides, after this is over, he definitely won’t be able to return to Hong Kong. What happens to him then will be none of our business.”

Although no agreement had been signed yet, he wasn’t worried that Xu Yuhui would go back on his word after leaving.

After all, he now held leverage over Xu Yuhui. It was too late for him to back out.

At this point, Xu Yuhui had only one path: to see it through to the end.

Otherwise, even if he reneged, as long as Lin Haoran leaked what happened today, along with the documents on the table, Xu Yuhui would have thoroughly offended Li Jiacheng and the other three shareholders.

After watching Xu Yuhui leave, Lin Haoran said to Ma Shimin, “Have someone keep an eye on him. Make sure he doesn’t have a last-minute change of heart.”

Ma Shimin nodded. “Understood. But Boss, if Xu Yuhui really does persuade those three shareholders, our stake in Cheung Kong Holdings will approach 40%. Won’t that raise alarms at the Government House? Boss, you’ve really built up quite a stake in the Hong Kong business world. You’ve acquired giants like Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, and Hong Kong Telephone, and now you’re going after Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings. This is equivalent to you holding absolute power in Hong Kong’s business community. The Government House is bound to have an opinion.”

Lin Haoran pondered for a moment. “That’s why we must handle this with care. The purpose of acquiring these shares isn’t to control Cheung Kong Holdings, but to pressure Li Jiacheng into giving up Hutchison Whampoa.”

He stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the night view of Victoria Harbour. “Remember, our target is Hutchison Whampoa, not Cheung Kong Holdings. Overexpansion will attract unnecessary attention.”

After taking Hutchison Whampoa this time, his strategic layout in Hong Kong would be essentially complete. There was no need for further expansion.

Otherwise, it would indeed become excessive, as if all of Hong Kong had become the Lam family’s city.

Guo Xiaohan, who had been silent all this time, was now looking at Lin Haoran with a hint of admiration.

The brilliance of these business maneuvers was a real eye-opener for her.

Even at her Uncle Guo Henian’s side, it was rare to see such top-tier strategic games.

Lin Haoran hadn’t deliberately asked Guo Xiaohan to leave for this matter, as there was no need.

Not letting her interfere in his business didn’t mean he didn’t trust her.

Moreover, even if this matter were leaked, it would only cause some minor trouble in his business war; the overall momentum would not change.

And if a husband and wife were not of one mind, and Guo Xiaohan were to leak information so casually, then he would have to reconsider whether this wedding should take place at all.

Wasn’t this also a test for Guo Xiaohan?

Lin Haoran noticed Guo Xiaohan’s gaze and smiled gently. “The business world is like a battlefield. Sometimes, you have to resort to extraordinary measures.”

Guo Xiaohan nodded lightly. “I understand. It’s just that people like Xu Yuhui are truly disappointing.”

“This is the business world. In the face of profit, friendship is often fragile. That’s why we must always remember, no matter how far we go, never to forget our original intentions,” Lin Haoran said with a calm expression.

Although Lin Haoran had only been in the business world for a little over three years, that didn’t mean he lacked experience.

The numerous business wars he had fought in these three years were enough to give him a deeper understanding of the cruelty and complexity of the business world.

Xu Yuhui’s betrayal was just a minor episode in this business war, but it made him even more wary of the unpredictable nature of people’s hearts in business.

Just as Ma Shimin was asking the waiter to serve the food, a few hundred meters away, in a 26-story building, Xu Yuhui arrived in a hurry.

This was the Central Hilton Hotel building, a luxury hotel under the Everhigh Hotel brand that Li Jiacheng had acquired.

In a luxurious restaurant on the 21st floor of the building, Xu Yuhui walked in briskly.

Inside, five or six people were already seated.

The one sitting in the host’s seat was none other than the famous boss of Cheung Kong Holdings, Li Jiacheng.

And around him were the shareholders of Cheung Kong Holdings, all of whom were his partners.

Chapter 745: Truly a Very Qualified Turncoat!

Saturday morning, September 19th.

The morning sun cast its first rays, gently draping the entirety of Hong Kong in a soft, golden light.

Although it was the weekend and the stock market was closed, the city was far from idle. The long lines of congested traffic at every intersection were a clear sign that many citizens still had to hustle and bustle for their livelihoods.

Lin Haoran slept in, not waking until eight o’clock.

He sat up contentedly in bed and gave a long, comfortable stretch.

Just then, Guo Xiaohan stirred beside him. She slowly opened her beautiful, star-like eyes and simply gazed at her lover, her eyes filled with tenderness and affection.

“Why don’t you sleep in a little longer? I have some things to take care of later, so I won’t be home for lunch,” Lin Haoran said with a smile as he got out of bed and slipped on his slippers. He had no interest in any “morning exercise” today.

“Mm, I’m not sleepy anymore. I was planning to visit my aunt anyway, so I’ll just have lunch with her,” Guo Xiaohan replied, turning on her side to watch him.

After washing up, Lin Haoran had a simple breakfast, glanced at the news, and then headed out.

The news today was nothing more than various rumors about the shareholding battle between him and Li Jiacheng, along with the holding information that Galaxy Securities had made public.

Not a single piece of the real inside story was true.

After all, it wasn’t that reporters hadn’t tried to interview Li Jiacheng and Lin Haoran yesterday; it was that they couldn’t get to them.

As for the senior executives, it was even more unlikely that they would speak carelessly.

“To Connaught Centre,” Lin Haoran said to Li Weidong after getting in the car.

“Yes, Boss.” Li Weidong started the engine, and the Rolls-Royce slowly pulled out of the Lin family villa on Severn Road.

Meanwhile, outside Government House, Li Jiacheng stepped out of his own Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit.

He had purchased this Rolls-Royce after successfully taking control of Hutchison Whampoa, naturally to display his wealth and status.

Looking at the building before him, a symbol of power, Li Jiacheng felt a mix of complicated emotions.

Last night, he had hosted a dinner for those few shareholders, speaking with them cordially for a full two hours.

These men had shown him great respect, affirming that they would stand with him in a united front to help Cheung Kong Holdings navigate this crisis and not allow Lin Haoran any opportunities.

This had reassured him considerably.

These were the brothers who had fought alongside him. The newest among them had been with him for six or seven years, and two had been with him for nearly twenty.

All these years, they had followed his lead, working together to make Cheung Kong Holdings ever more successful.

Therefore, Li Jiacheng still trusted them very much.

Last night, under the influence of alcohol, he had spoken many heartfelt words, all to make these shareholders feel the brotherly bond he felt for them.

As long as they all continued to support him, combined with his own shares, he wouldn’t have to worry about Lin Haoran turning the tables on him at Cheung Kong Holdings.

After all, he had no spare funds on hand right now.

If it came down to a battle of increasing shareholdings on the secondary market, he truly couldn’t win against Lin Haoran.

Cheung Kong Holdings was the foundation of his business empire. If he had to choose between Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, he would choose Cheung Kong Holdings without hesitation.

When Galaxy Securities announced its holdings in Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, Li Jiacheng knew that he would have to negotiate with Lin Haoran.

However, before negotiating, he wanted to build up more resources and confidence for himself.

Only then could he protect more of his interests during the talks.

Otherwise, he, Li Jiacheng, would be at a disadvantage at the negotiating table, forced to let Lin Haoran make exorbitant demands and carve him up at will.

This equity battle was not just a contest of capital, but a game of psychology and strategy.

He was already at a disadvantage in this struggle and could only rely on rallying support and securing more allies.

And Government House was an important target.

Li Jiacheng took a deep breath, straightened his suit, and strode into Government House.

He knew that today’s meeting was of crucial importance.

“Mr. Li, hello. Mr. Governor is already waiting for you in his office. I’ll take you in now.” Sir Murray MacLehose’s secretary had been waiting at the entrance for some time.

Led by the secretary, he arrived at Governor MacLehose’s office.

At that moment, Sir Murray MacLehose was reviewing documents. Seeing him enter, he put down his pen and offered a professional smile.

“Mr. Li, please have a seat.” Sir Murray MacLehose rose and walked to the guest area. “I hear you’ve run into some trouble recently!”

Li Jiacheng sat down on the sofa and said with a wry smile, “You’re well-informed, Mr. Governor. Indeed, this shareholding dispute with Mr. Lin Haoran has been quite a headache for me.”

Sir Murray MacLehose nodded, had his secretary bring them each a cup of coffee, and then asked with a smile, “Then may I ask what Mr. Li’s purpose is in coming here today?”

“Mr. Governor, Lin Haoran is trying to completely monopolize the entire Hong Kong business world! I request that Government House intervene to stop this kind of domineering behavior!” Li Jiacheng said gravely.

Sir Murray MacLehose raised an eyebrow slightly, his gaze somewhat scrutinizing. He lifted his coffee cup, took a small sip, and said slowly, “Mr. Li, those are serious words. Hong Kong’s business environment is free and open. Talk of a monopoly is likely an exaggeration. I’ve been watching the business competition between you two. Lin Haoran’s actions in the market are just normal competitive tactics. Government House has no reason to intervene!”

Li Jiacheng’s heart tightened. He hadn’t expected Sir Murray MacLehose to respond this way. He quickly explained, “Mr. Governor, I’m not making baseless accusations. Over the past few years, Lin Haoran has been on a frantic acquisition spree in Hong Kong. First, he acquired Green Island Cement, followed by Hongkong Electric Group, Oriental Press Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Hongkong Land Group, Hong Kong Telephone, Kowloon Motor Bus, Bank of East Asia, Hang Seng Bank, and many other famous Hong Kong enterprises, one by one falling into his hands. If Hongkong Land Group, Green Island Cement, Bank of East Asia, and Hang Seng Bank were still publicly listed companies, Lin Haoran would control sixty percent of Hong Kong’s top ten listed companies. If this continues, he’ll acquire all the major corporations in Hong Kong. At that point, the entire business landscape will be monopolized by him alone!”

His purpose in coming here today was simple: to use Governor MacLehose to pressure Lin Haoran.

Being at a disadvantage, there were few powers he could rely on. If Government House could lean in his favor, his confidence would be greatly bolstered.

Hearing Li Jiacheng’s list, Sir Murray MacLehose’s expression remained calm. He set down his coffee cup and said unhurriedly, “Mr. Li, even if Lin Haoran has made so many acquisitions, it doesn’t directly equate to him monopolizing Hong Kong’s commerce. Hong Kong’s business structure is diverse and complex, and the market has its own regulatory mechanisms. Every acquisition and merger, to some extent, is a way for market resources to be reallocated and for companies to seek greater development. As a government body, Government House has no pretext to interfere with him as long as he hasn’t violated any laws or regulations. I hope you can understand, Mr. Li.”

Sir Murray MacLehose had, of course, been observing Lin Haoran’s actions all along.

In his heart, he actually agreed with Li Jiacheng. Lin Haoran’s acquisition activities in Hong Kong were indeed a bit excessive.

If this continued, all of Hong Kong’s top ten listed companies could fall into Lin Haoran’s hands.

That would be equivalent to the entire Hong Kong business world being manipulated by one man, which was not in the British government’s interest.

However, as Governor, he had to follow rules and procedures as long as Lin Haoran had not harmed British interests. He couldn’t act rashly based on subjective judgment.

He didn’t even help HSBC, so what did Li Jiacheng count for?

To him, no matter what, Li Jiacheng was part of the Chinese-owned enterprise sector.

The struggle between Lin Haoran and Li Jiacheng was nothing more than internal strife between Chinese-funded conglomerates.

But since the target this time was Li Jiacheng, from the perspective of the British government’s layout and interests in Hong Kong, intervening rashly at this moment might not only trigger more intense conflicts within the Chinese-funded camp but could also embroil Government House in an unnecessary vortex of controversy in the Hong Kong business community.

Of course, most importantly, Sir Murray MacLehose felt that the time to intervene had not yet come!

Sir Murray MacLehose frowned slightly. His tone remained very even, yet it carried an air of finality. “Mr. Li, I understand your concerns, but the decisions of Government House must be based on the overall stability and long-term development of Hong Kong. While Lin Haoran’s actions have attracted attention, they have not yet crossed any legal lines. I really have no suitable reason to intervene directly.”

A wave of disappointment washed over Li Jiacheng. He hadn’t expected Sir Murray MacLehose’s attitude to be so firm.

He understood that if he couldn’t convince Sir Murray MacLehose, his position in this equity battle with Lin Haoran would become even more precarious.

He pondered for a moment before speaking again, “Mr. Governor, while Lin Haoran’s large-scale acquisitions may not be illegal, they have severely disrupted market order. Many large enterprises are in a state of widespread panic because of his actions, worried they will become the next target. This is not conducive to the healthy development of Hong Kong’s commerce. Moreover, Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa both hold important positions in Hong Kong’s economy. If they are controlled by Lin Haoran, it could trigger a series of chain reactions and impact the economic stability of Hong Kong.”

Sir Murray MacLehose nodded slightly. Li Jiacheng’s words were not without reason.

Both Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa were industry leaders in Hong Kong and indeed held a decisive position in the economy. Any changes to them could affect numerous related industries.

But he still couldn’t easily state his position. He needed to weigh all the pros and cons.

“Mr. Li, I will seriously consider your concerns, but for now, I still hope that you two can resolve this dispute through commercial means. The government will closely monitor market dynamics. If any major situation arises that affects the economic stability of Hong Kong, we will naturally take corresponding measures.”

Sir Murray MacLehose said slowly, trying to offer Li Jiacheng some comfort while also making his own stance clear.

Li Jiacheng sighed helplessly. He knew that pressing the matter further would not yield a better result.

He stood up and bowed slightly to Sir Murray MacLehose. “Thank you for your patient hearing, Mr. Governor. I will go back and seriously consider your advice. I also hope that Government House will continue to pay attention to this matter and not allow Lin Haoran to do as he pleases in Hong Kong’s business world.”

Sir Murray MacLehose stood up and shook Li Jiacheng’s hand. “Mr. Li, I hope you can handle this matter properly and maintain the stability of Hong Kong’s commerce.”

Li Jiacheng forced a smile, shook hands with Sir Murray MacLehose, and then left the Governor’s office.

Stepping out of the main gate of Government House, the sunlight was still brilliant, but his heart was incredibly heavy.

Although he had been mentally prepared to return empty-handed from his trip to Government House, the disappointment that washed over him when he truly received no help was like a tidal wave.

Li Jiacheng walked slowly toward his Rolls-Royce, each step feeling exceptionally heavy.

The chauffeur was already standing respectfully by the car. Seeing him approach, he quickly opened the door.

Li Jiacheng settled into the car, leaned back against the soft seat, and closed his eyes, trying to calm himself. But scenes from his conversation with Sir Murray MacLehose and Lin Haoran’s outrageous behavior replayed endlessly in his mind.

Back inside Government House, after Li Jiacheng had left, Sir Murray MacLehose sat on the sofa and took out a cigar. His secretary lit it for him.

“Mr. Governor, are we really not going to stop Lin Haoran’s expansion in the Hong Kong business world? This time, he has indeed gone a bit too far. If both Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa fall into his hands, it would be enough for Government House to completely lose control over him, which is not in our best interests,” the secretary said with a frown after lighting the cigar.

Sir Murray MacLehose took a deep drag of his cigar, exhaled a faint cloud of smoke, and said slowly, “Lin Haoran’s actions have indeed gone beyond the scope of normal business competition. We do need to interfere. Otherwise, it won’t be Government House calling the shots in Hong Kong, but him, Lin Haoran.”

“Then why did you refuse Mr. Li Jiacheng just now?” the secretary asked, puzzled.

Sir Murray MacLehose narrowed his eyes slightly, the corners of his mouth curving into a barely perceptible arc as he said with a smile, “I enjoy watching the internal struggles among the Chinese-funded conglomerates. Directly expressing support for Li Jiacheng is not what I want; otherwise, he would surely use our name for his own benefit. Li Jiacheng wants to use our power to suppress Lin Haoran, but am I a pawn he can use at will? It’s better to let him and Lin Haoran fight until they inflict mutual damage. Only by stepping in at the right time can I seize the greatest initiative. It’s time for Lin Haoran’s commercial empire in Hong Kong to stop expanding. This is also why I’ve been holding back on granting the Bank of East Asia its banknote-issuing rights. At the right moment, I’ll meet with Lin Haoran, have a chat, and rap him on the knuckles to let him know he can’t go too far!”

…

At Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran was sitting in his office, with Ma Shimin seated opposite him.

“Boss, I just received news. ParknShop supermarket has announced an end to the price war,” Ma Shimin said with a faint smile.

The price war had been going on for a full half-month.

“Ending the price war is perfectly normal. I’m already the largest shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa. It’s only a matter of time before I take control of the company. It makes no sense for ParknShop to continue the price war with Wellcome supermarket at the cost of daily losses. Starting tomorrow, have Wellcome supermarket return to normal as well. Just say that after careful consideration, we have decided to end this meaningless price war for the sake of the stable development of Hong Kong’s retail industry,” Lin Haoran said, leaning back in his comfortable office chair, a hint of nonchalance in his eyes.

Ma Shimin nodded slightly.

At this point, there was indeed no need to continue the price war.

Although they were still profitable even while fighting a price war with ParknShop, since many of the products were from Langwei Group, there was no point in continuing.

Seeing as ParknShop was about to become the Boss’s own asset, what was the point of carrying on?

Moreover, stopping the price war would cause profits to rise sharply, which was only beneficial for the company.

“Boss, after taking control of Hutchison Whampoa, do you really plan to sell off ParknShop supermarket?” Ma Shimin suddenly asked.

He remembered the Boss mentioning this before.

“As I understand it, there are at least twenty locations where ParknShop and Wellcome stores overlap, right?” Lin Haoran asked.

“That’s right. These stores are basically within three hundred meters of each other, so their customer flows definitely overlap,” Ma Shimin confirmed with a nod.

“So, there’s not much use in us holding on to ParknShop. We might as well package it up and sell it. With Langwei Group as an FMCG tycoon, we’re not afraid of any competitor in the retail industry!” Lin Haoran laughed.

“That’s true, Boss. But I would also suggest selling all the non-overlapping stores to Wellcome. That way, we can shed the excess baggage, quickly recoup our capital, and further consolidate Wellcome’s position in the retail market. It would kill several birds with one stone,” Ma Shimin added with interest.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly and smiled. “Director Ma, your idea happens to agree with mine.”

“Then after Hutchison Whampoa is successfully acquired, do you plan to let it operate independently, or will it be merged into the Hongkong Land Group system?” Ma Shimin suddenly inquired.

“I’ll decide on these things after we have Hutchison Whampoa completely under our belt,” Lin Haoran replied, shaking his head without giving a direct answer.

He naturally knew what Ma Shimin was thinking.

However, Ma Shimin was the president of Hongkong Land Group, after all. It was normal for him to have such thoughts.

Just then, Lin Haoran’s mobile phone suddenly rang.

He picked it up and saw it was an unfamiliar number.

Despite that, he answered the call.

“Mr. Lin, this is Xu Yuhui. I have good news for you. Just now, I convinced a shareholder of Cheung Kong Holdings. He has agreed to the terms you proposed, Mr. Lin. Since it’s still early, I’ll press on and meet with the second one secretly. If things go smoothly, I hope to convince all three shareholders today!” Xu Yuhui’s voice came through as soon as the call connected.

On the other end of the line, Xu Yuhui’s voice was clearly excited.

Lin Haoran could understand. The man was finally not a lone turncoat anymore; he finally had a team. It was normal for him to be happy.

“Good, Mr. Xu has done an excellent job! I’ll be waiting. If you can get it done today, I’ll handle everything for you all by tonight!” Lin Haoran was very satisfied with how quickly he had acted.

He looked at the time. It was just past ten in the morning.

The earliest Xu Yuhui could have contacted that shareholder was probably eight o’clock. To have convinced him in just over two hours was indeed a bit surprising.

However, since Xu Yuhui held damaging information on the man, it was also quite understandable.

“Rest assured, Mr. Lin, I will not disappoint you!” Xu Yuhui vowed from the other end of the line.

Last night, after returning to his Severn Road villa, he had received a call from Xu Yuhui at around ten o’clock.

The reason for Xu Yuhui’s call was simple: to report, word for word, everything Li Jiacheng had said during the dinner he had called them to.

A turncoat should act like a turncoat.

And Xu Yuhui was indeed a very qualified turncoat.

He had no choice. At this point, he could only follow this wrong path to the end. There was no turning back.

Lin Haoran hung up the phone, a meaningful smile playing on his lips.

Seeing this, Ma Shimin asked curiously, “Boss, is that good news from Xu Yuhui?”

Although he couldn’t hear the voice on the phone clearly, he could guess from his boss Lin Haoran’s reply and his smile.

“That’s right. One has been convinced, and he’s now approaching the second. It seems these shareholders are more easily swayed than we thought!” Lin Haoran confirmed with a smile.

“That’s how the business world is, Boss. Although I’m just a professional manager, my years of experience and insight are enough to see that the business world is a place where profit is king. As long as the benefit is great enough, nothing is unshakable. Cheung Kong Holdings is currently being dragged down by Hutchison Whampoa and has a very high debt ratio. Furthermore, they have leverage against them in Xu Yuhui’s hands, plus they can sell their shares at such a high price. The only downside is betraying Li Jiacheng. It’s perfectly normal for them to do such a thing. Li Jiacheng has been operating in the business world for decades, I didn’t expect him to end up in such a situation.”

Ma Shimin shook his head slightly, a flicker of emotion in his eyes at the fickleness of human relationships in the business world.

Lin Haoran nodded gently. “That’s right. In this seemingly prosperous business world, everyone is running after their own interests. Li Jiacheng thought he could stabilize the situation at Cheung Kong Holdings by relying on so-called brotherly bonds, but he doesn’t realize that in the face of huge profits, the human heart is the most changeable. Li Jiacheng has rarely suffered a defeat over the years, which has allowed him to build up sufficient self-confidence in the business world. Perhaps that’s also his weakness!”

There was one thing he didn’t say out loud: most importantly, he had a special ability that allowed him to see loyalty, while Li Jiacheng did not.

The two chatted for a while longer, and then Lin Haoran went to inspect other departments. It wasn’t until two in the afternoon that he left Connaught Centre.

Lin Haoran slipped out through a side door.

The area downstairs from Connaught Centre was swarming with reporters, all hoping to interview either him or Ma Shimin.

This shareholding battle had come too suddenly—so suddenly that not only Li Jiacheng and Standard Chartered Bank were caught off guard, but so were all the major media outlets in Hong Kong.

It was indeed too sudden, enough to be called a blitzkrieg, giving the opponent absolutely no hope.

If Galaxy Securities hadn’t suddenly accelerated its stock accumulation, and if Galaxy Securities hadn’t publicly announced its holdings at noon, everyone would still be completely in the dark.

Chapter 746: Lin Haoran, You’ve Gone Too Far!

In the afternoon, Lin Haoran showed up at the Oriental Press Group.

Cui Zilong reported a piece of news to him: Li Jiacheng had gone to Government House to meet with Governor Sir Murray MacLehose.

As the center of power in Hong Kong, it was natural for Lin Haoran’s intelligence personnel to have a presence in Government House, so it was no surprise that he knew of Li Jiacheng’s appearance there.

Upon learning of this, Lin Haoran quickly guessed Li Jiacheng’s objective.

He had, after all, been on guard against potential interference from Government House all along.

Lin Haoran sat in Cui Zilong’s office, with Cui Zilong beside him, his expression slightly grim.

“Boss, Li Jiacheng went to see the Governor. I’m afraid he wants to use official power to apply pressure,” Cui Zilong analyzed. “Should we also pay the Governor a visit?”

Lin Haoran shook his head. “There’s no need. Sir Murray MacLehose is a smart man; he won’t get involved in a commercial dispute so easily. Doesn’t he always emphasize freedom in economic development? If he were to interfere arbitrarily, the public image he has worked so hard to cultivate would be difficult to maintain.

“There’s less than a year left before his term as Governor of Hong Kong ends. Before he returns to Britain to report on his duties, he’ll likely prefer to see out the rest of his tenure peacefully, without adding any blemishes to his political career.

“Besides, the more Li Jiacheng does this, the more it shows he’s run out of options. If Sir Murray wants to pressure me, he’ll come to me sooner or later,” he said, a cold smile touching his lips.

He stood up and walked to the window, gazing at the distant Government House. “Let the public opinion continue to ferment. The Oriental Daily News can publish some analysis articles, emphasizing the commercial nature of this acquisition battle to avoid it being politicized.”

Just half an hour ago, he had received another call from Xu Yuhui. Unsurprisingly, Xu Yuhui had persuaded another shareholder.

There was only one shareholder left to convince.

Basically, once Xu Yuhui convinced that last person, he would have complete control of the situation.

He already controlled 30.3% of Cheung Kong Holdings’ shares. Once he secured this additional 8.1%, his stake would be as high as 38.4%.

Previously, Lin Haoran had always felt that Li Jiacheng held an unshakable grip on the position of Cheung Kong Holdings’ largest shareholder, and that he had no chance of surpassing him.

But now, it seemed there might be a chance after all.

It was common knowledge that Li Jiacheng’s family held 40% of Cheung Kong Holdings’ shares.

In addition, there was one shareholder whom Xu Yuhui couldn’t get any leverage on, a confidant of Li Jiacheng who held about 1.7% of the shares.

This meant the other side controlled a combined 41.7%.

He, on the other hand, would have 38.4%, a gap of only 3.3%.

Once the trading halt on Cheung Kong Holdings was lifted, he could seize the opportunity to surpass him in one fell swoop and become the largest shareholder.

Of course, whether that was necessary remained to be seen.

If Li Jiacheng could meet his conditions, there was no need for him to spend so much to continue increasing his shareholding. After all, engaging in a price war with Li Jiacheng in the secondary market would be very costly.

Although he was wealthy, it wouldn’t be very meaningful.

As expected, Standard Chartered Bank would also fully support Li Jiacheng in securing his shares in Cheung Kong Holdings.

This could lead to a stalemate, trapping both sides in a protracted and brutal war of attrition over equity.

Most importantly, even if he became the largest shareholder of Cheung Kong Holdings, he might not be able to control the company.

As the founder, when Li Jiacheng took Cheung Kong Holdings public, he had meticulously laid out a series of complex equity structures and voting rights mechanisms.

Through multiple layers of holding companies, the 40% stake he seemingly held gave him an absolute say in key decisions.

Even if Lin Haoran’s shareholding truly surpassed his, it would be difficult to form an effective check on him in major matters.

This was the prerogative of a founder.

Just as the founders of many companies could firmly control their companies while holding only ten or twenty percent of the shares, Lin Haoran understood the genius behind Li Jiacheng’s equity structure.

But what did that have to do with him? He didn’t want a controlling stake in Cheung Kong Holdings anyway.

All he wanted was to extract more benefits from Li Jiacheng.

Since they were already business enemies, the harder he squeezed his opponent, the more benefits he could reap for himself.

And the harder it would be for his opponent to return to his peak.

Just then, his mobile phone rang again.

Cui Zilong, who had been about to say something, closed his mouth.

“Hello?” Without looking at the number, Lin Haoran answered the call.

“Mr. Lin, I’d like to meet and talk with you.” To Lin Haoran’s surprise, the call was from Li Jiacheng.

Lin Haoran raised an eyebrow slightly and said to Li Jiacheng on the other end, “Where would Mr. Li like to meet?”

“The Peninsula Hotel. I’ve booked a private room. Four in the afternoon, how about that?” Li Jiacheng’s voice sounded a little tired.

“Fine, I’ll be there on time,” Lin Haoran agreed crisply.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran smiled at Cui Zilong and said, “It seems Li Jiacheng has realized the situation is against him and is ready to negotiate.”

This was a bit earlier than he had expected.

Cui Zilong looked slightly worried. “Boss, should we bring more people?”

“No need.” Lin Haoran waved his hand. “Li Jiacheng is a smart man. He knows when to compromise. Besides, at The Peninsula Hotel, he wouldn’t dare pull any tricks.”

A smile played on his lips.

The Peninsula Hotel was his territory!

Ever since he had forcefully seized the controlling stake of The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels from the Kadoorie family, The Peninsula Hotel had naturally become one of Lin Haoran’s properties.

The hotel’s security system was now completely managed by Universe Security Company.

Although Xu Yuhui hadn’t secured the last shareholder for him yet, it was basically a done deal, barring any accidents.

Therefore, Lin Haoran had every confidence in meeting Li Jiacheng.

He was curious to see what kind of bargaining chips and conditions Li Jiacheng could offer to try and turn around this all-but-decided situation.

Or rather, Lin Haoran wanted to see what resources and confidence Li Jiacheng had left—for instance, whether he had truly managed to persuade Government House.

It was just past three-thirty in the afternoon. Inside an elegant private room with a window view in The Peninsula Hotel’s lounge, a stagnant air, thick with the feeling of an impending storm, had already settled.

It had been a long time since he had been to The Peninsula Hotel, the last time being for his engagement banquet with Guo Xiaohan, so Lin Haoran had made a point to arrive early.

After being acquired by Lin Haoran, The Peninsula Hotel continued its operations as usual. Following the resource integration with the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, the hotel’s business had returned to its peak.

Furthermore, at Lin Haoran’s suggestion, a skyscraper was being planned for the northern wing of The Peninsula Hotel, intended to serve as a landmark to complement the hotel while also significantly increasing the number of guest rooms.

However, the North Wing Tower of The Peninsula Hotel, which was still only on the drawing board, would take at least several years to become a reality.

A waiter had just poured Lin Haoran a cup of warm Earl Grey tea when the private room door was gently pushed open.

Li Jiacheng walked in alone, without his usual bodyguards or assistants.

He wore a well-tailored but slightly worn-looking grey suit and a pair of black-framed glasses. His bloodshot eyes revealed a fatigue he couldn’t hide.

The muscles in his cheeks were slightly tensed. Although his steps were still steady, he lacked the calm and composed demeanor of the past.

Seeing that Lin Haoran had already arrived, Li Jiacheng was taken aback for a moment, but he quickly composed himself.

It was this young man before him who had made him taste the bitterness of commercial defeat.

At this moment, Li Jiacheng’s feelings were incredibly complex.

“Mr. Li, please have a seat.” Lin Haoran looked up, a perfectly measured and devoid of warmth smile on his face—not impolite, but certainly not friendly.

He gestured to the empty seat across from him.

At this point, they had already had a complete falling-out, so there was no need to maintain a facade of civility.

Li Jiacheng nodded slightly without a word and silently sat down opposite Lin Haoran.

The confrontation between two of Hong Kong’s top Chinese merchants began silently in this small space.

When a waiter came forward to ask for his order, Li Jiacheng simply waved his hand. “Just water.”

His voice was tinged with an almost unnoticeable hoarseness.

The private room fell silent, the only sounds being the occasional long whistle of a ferry from Victoria Harbour outside and the faint classical music drifting up from the lobby below.

Sunlight streamed through the massive glass curtain walls, casting long, slanting shadows on the carpet. It was bright, yet it couldn’t dispel the invisible chill between the two men.

It was Li Jiacheng who finally broke the silence. He cleared his throat and looked directly into Lin Haoran’s deep, unfathomable eyes, trying his best to maintain the poise of a business senior. “Mr. Lin, it was not my intention for things to get to this point.

“Conflicts in the business world are unavoidable, but I believe there is still room for discussion between us.”

Lin Haoran picked up the bone china teacup and took a light sip of tea, letting the gentle aroma melt on his tongue.

The Peninsula Hotel truly was the benchmark for the hotel industry in Hong Kong and even globally; even the tea had a top-tier quality to it.

No wonder the Kadoorie family had been so heartbroken to lose The Peninsula; every brick and tile, every cup of tea, carried a deep heritage and supreme glory.

He put down the cup and smiled faintly. “Room, of course there’s room. The key is how Mr. Li intends to define this ‘room.’ The board is set, and further talk is pointless. Since you’ve come, Mr. Li, you must have a plan in mind. Why not be direct?”

Li Jiacheng frowned slightly. Lin Haoran’s tone, one of absolute confidence, was something he was unaccustomed to, yet he was powerless to change it.

After all, in this contest with Lin Haoran, he had indeed fallen behind, and in a way that left him with almost no ability to fight back. He had been completely dominated.

He took a deep breath and said in a low voice, “Let’s not mince words. I admit that in the matter of Hutchison Whampoa, you outplayed me. 46.9% of the shares is indeed more than what I have.

“But I think you also know that if I don’t step down from the Chairman’s position voluntarily, it will be difficult for you to gain complete control over Hutchison Whampoa. In fact, even if I do step down, I will still have a significant say and can interfere in Hutchison’s operations.”

“So?” Lin Haoran smiled faintly.

“Mr. Lin should also know that I, Li Jiacheng, have been in the business world for decades and am not without a foundation. Cheung Kong Holdings is my foundation. I will fight tooth and nail to protect that empire. If you stir up trouble at Cheung Kong as well, we will both be caught in a stalemate, and the gains will not make up for the losses.”

Pausing for a moment, he looked directly at the junior member of Hong Kong’s business community, trying to add weight to his words.

“My hope is that we can each take a step back. You stop increasing your shareholding in Cheung Kong Holdings. In exchange, I can resign from my position as Chairman of the Board at Hutchison Whampoa and give the position to you.

“I can even transfer all of Hutchison Whampoa’s shares held by Cheung Kong Holdings to you at a price slightly below the market rate! The prerequisite is that Cheung Kong Holdings remains mine, you sell your shares in Cheung Kong, and all business competition between us comes to an end!”

This was a major concession for Li Jiacheng.

To give up control of Hutchison Whampoa, to relinquish the esteemed position of Chairman of the Board, to hand over the giant he had worked so hard to swallow—all to protect his own creation, Cheung Kong Holdings, and eliminate future threats.

The price he offered was not low, tinged with the tragic heroism of cutting off one’s own arm to save one’s life.

After he finished speaking, an even deeper silence descended upon the room.

Li Jiacheng stared intently at Lin Haoran’s face, trying to catch a flicker of interest or hesitation on that young, yet overly composed, face.

Lin Haoran picked up his cup, took a sip, and then looked directly at Li Jiacheng.

He saw the mix of fatigue, tension, unwillingness, and a final sliver of hope in Li Jiacheng’s eyes, and a distinct smile finally curved his lips.

But this smile held no comfort, only cold calculation, and even a hint of cruel mockery.

Lin Haoran’s voice was as calm as if he were stating an unrelated fact. “Mr. Li, your sincerity certainly sounds substantial.”

Li Jiacheng’s heart leaped slightly.

However, Lin Haoran’s next words were unacceptable to Li Jiacheng. “But, Mr. Li, you seem to have overlooked one reality. The initiative is now in my hands, not yours. You want me to pull out of Cheung Kong Holdings? End all business competition? That sounds like the terms of my surrender to you.

“As for resigning as Chairman of the Board? Given your current situation at Hutchison Whampoa, that position is already unstable for you. Transferring Hutchison Whampoa shares at a low price? Mr. Li, your calculations are quite shrewd!

“You should know, that 40% stake in Hutchison Whampoa isn’t in your hands; it’s in the hands of Cheung Kong Holdings. Although you are the Chairman of Cheung Kong and Hutchison, tell me, if I become the largest shareholder of Cheung Kong Holdings, can I interfere with the voting rights of that 40% stake held by Cheung Kong?”

“Moreover, I’m afraid you’ve forgotten, Mr. Li, that you can barely protect yourself right now! The pressure from Standard Chartered Bank, the massive debts, plus the Cheung Kong shares in my hands—how much bargaining power do you think you have left?”

Every word was like a sledgehammer pounding on Li Jiacheng’s heart.

“Unstable,” “barely protect yourself,” “bargaining power”…

These phrases were filled with naked humiliation, brutally tearing away his last veil of secrecy.

Li Jiacheng’s face instantly turned ashen!

He abruptly straightened his back, his chest heaving violently, the fatigue in his eyes replaced by a blazing fury.

“Lin! Hao! Ran!” He practically spat out Lin Haoran’s name through clenched teeth, the veins on his forehead bulging.

“You’ve gone too far!” His hand on the table trembled, his knuckles white from the force of his grip.

“Gone too far?” The cold smile on Lin Haoran’s face deepened. “The business world is like a battlefield; the winner takes all. Mr. Li, you’ve been in business for decades; you should have understood this long ago.

“Since you chose to be HSBC’s blade, since you chose to oppose me time and again, you should have expected a day when the blade would break and the wielder would fall. Only now do you feel ‘bullied’?”

He looked at Li Jiacheng with cold eyes, staring into his reddened gaze, and mercilessly threw out his final conditions in an icy tone:

“Listen carefully. I have three conditions, and there is no room for negotiation:

“First: Before tomorrow morning, you, as the Chairman of the Board of Hutchison Whampoa, will personally submit your resignation to the Securities Commission and publicly declare your support for me as the new Chairman.

“Second: The 40% stake in Hutchison Whampoa held by Cheung Kong Holdings must be transferred to Galaxy Securities within three trading days after I become Chairman, at the price before the stock surge! Not one share less, not one cent less! This is the price for your unprovoked provocations!

“Third: I will maintain a high level of scrutiny over Cheung Kong Holdings’ operations. I will join the Board of Directors as the second-largest shareholder and will have veto power over any high-risk, high-leverage investment decisions made by Cheung Kong!

“This is to ensure the interests of my position as Cheung Kong’s second-largest shareholder and to guarantee the value of Cheung Kong Holdings as collateral for the remaining debt to HSBC. Standard Chartered Bank should thank me for helping you secure your foundation.”

Forcefully buying at the pre-hike price!

Demanding he resign and hand over his position!

And on top of that, demanding veto power over Cheung Kong as the “second-largest shareholder”!

This wasn’t just ceding Hutchison Whampoa; this was skinning him alive and pulling out his tendons!

This was stepping on Li Jiacheng’s face to announce his utter defeat and attempting to nail his foundation, Cheung Kong Holdings, firmly to the chopping block!

Pfft—

Li Jiacheng instantly felt a surge of rage shoot up from the pit of his stomach straight to his head, making him feel like his skull would explode. He was absolutely livid.

He shot to his feet, the immense force knocking the heavy, solid wood chair to the ground with a dull, grating crash!

“Lin Haoran, you’re dreaming!”

He pointed at Lin Haoran, his finger trembling violently with extreme anger, his lips quivering, barely able to form a complete sentence, the veins on his temples prominent.

“Lin Haoran! You—you’re trying to wipe me out completely!”

His voice was hoarse and torn, filled with grief, indignation, and an unyielding refusal.

Lin Haoran remained seated, as solid as a rock. Faced with Li Jiacheng’s fury, he didn’t even raise an eyelid, merely reminding him coolly, “Mr. Li, please mind your image. I am merely proposing a few reasonable demands.”

“Good, good, good. What a Lin Haoran, what ‘reasonable demands’!” Li Jiacheng squeezed the words through his teeth, his eyes bloodshot.

He glared daggers at Lin Haoran, a gaze filled with venom, fury, and a brewing, self-destructive madness.

Without another word, without a moment’s hesitation!

He spun around and wrenched open the heavy door of the private room.

In the corridor outside, two passing guests who seemed to have heard the commotion were craning their necks.

When they saw the Superman of Hong Kong, Li Jiacheng, storming out looking so devastated, his face contorted with rage and his eyes looking like they would burst, both guests’ jaws dropped in astonishment.

Li Jiacheng paid no mind to the other guests, ignoring their two pairs of shocked and curious eyes.

He staggered for a moment, steadying himself against the wall, then strode with almost tragic speed towards the hotel lobby elevators.

His steps were unsteady, and his back, under the brilliant lights of the corridor, cast a long, thin shadow filled with anger, humiliation, and endless desolation.

Inside, Lin Haoran did not get up, nor did he close the door.

He simply picked up the now-cool cup of Earl Grey tea and brought it to his lips.

Outside the window, the last ray of the setting sun sank below the horizon of Victoria Harbour.

The lights of The Peninsula’s lounge seemed all the more brilliant, casting the sharp silhouette of Lin Haoran’s profile onto the clean windowpane.

Across the harbor, Li Jiacheng’s China Building was gradually receding into the shadows of the rising dusk.

There was a price to pay for offending him, Lin Haoran.

Before, he had held a degree of respect for the man, knowing he was the famously richest Chinese man in his previous life.

But now, they were business rivals, and naturally, each was acting in his own interest.

Perhaps, before coming here, Li Jiacheng had never imagined his opponent would be so aggressive.

Li Jiacheng’s furious figure disappeared at the end of the corridor. The private room returned to silence, with only the overturned chair silently testifying to the fierce clash that had just occurred.

Lin Haoran slowly put down his teacup. The cold, mocking look on his face had long since vanished, replaced by a deep calm.

What had just happened was merely psychological warfare.

He had anticipated Li Jiacheng’s reaction. This “Superman” had dominated Hong Kong for decades, accustomed to planning strategy from behind the scenes and being looked up to. It was nearly impossible for him to accept such a humiliating treaty of surrender.

This first showdown was meant to be an act of extreme pressure, aimed at completely shattering any lingering hopes Li Jiacheng might have had.

From Li Jiacheng’s words, Lin Haoran had also learned one thing: his morning visit to Governor Sir Murray MacLehose had yielded no help.

Otherwise, he would have just brought it up.

However, the fact that Li Jiacheng had approached Sir Murray might hint at other hidden complexities.

Lin Haoran narrowed his eyes slightly, pondering the intricacies of the situation.

“Boss.” Ma Shimin had appeared silently at the door of the private room. Seeing the overturned chair, he frowned slightly.

Without his boss needing to explain, he could guess that the negotiations had not gone well.

Lin Haoran waved his hand and said with a smile, “It’s fine. It’s what I expected. I would have found it strange if he had agreed immediately. The conditions I proposed were far too humiliating.”

Just then, Lin Haoran’s mobile phone rang again.

He picked it up and answered.

“Mr. Lin, I have lived up to my mission. I’ve convinced the third shareholder. That means all three have agreed to sell their shares to you on your proposed terms. We can proceed with the transaction at any time!” Xu Yuhui’s voice came from the other end.

“So quickly? Mr. Xu, you are truly capable. Thank you for your hard work!” Lin Haoran laughed heartily upon hearing the news.

He was, in fact, somewhat surprised.

Originally, he had given Xu Yuhui two days, worried that he might not be able to persuade the three shareholders to become turncoats in such a short time.

But now, it was just past four in the afternoon, and the mission was already complete. This was indeed beyond his expectations.

Chapter 747: Nowhere to Turn

“Boss, since it’s settled, we shouldn’t delay. Let’s sign the share transfer agreement with them as soon as possible. Delays may bring trouble!” Ma Shimin, who was standing to the side, had already guessed from Lin Haoran’s reply that things with Xu Yuhui were settled, so he offered a reminder.

Lin Haoran nodded. He naturally understood this principle.

Before the shares were in his hands, anything could happen at any moment.

Especially if Li Jiacheng were to find out. He would surely do everything in his power to stop this transaction.

Given the many years of friendship between Li Jiacheng and these shareholders, Li Jiacheng would definitely have ways to make them abandon this deal.

Holding a 30% stake was completely different from holding a stake nearly the size of Li Jiacheng’s.

“Mr. Xu, since everything is settled, we shouldn’t delay. Let’s prepare to make the deal directly. I have a vacant villa in the Mid-Levels that can guarantee absolute secrecy. I imagine you don’t want Li Jiacheng’s intelligence to discover our transaction so soon, do you?” Lin Haoran said with a smile into the phone to Xu Yuhui.

The Peninsula Hotel had luxurious conference rooms, which would have been an ideal place for them to sign the contract.

However, The Peninsula Hotel was too conspicuous. If he really had Xu Yuhui and the other important Cheung Kong Holdings shareholders come over, it was quite possible they would be spotted by Li Jiacheng’s spies at any moment.

Even if they were spotted by others and word accidentally got back to Li Jiacheng, the deal could be jeopardized.

In contrast, places like the Mid-Levels and The Peak were lined with mansions and sparsely populated. Signing the contract in a villa was undoubtedly the safest option.

As for letting Xu Yuhui and the others decide on the location?

That was out of the question. Lin Haoran understood the principle that a wise man avoids unnecessary risks.

If Li Jiacheng hadn’t chosen The Peninsula Hotel, his own territory, as the meeting place, Lin Haoran might not have agreed to it either.

Xu Yuhui was silent for a moment on the other end of the line, seemingly weighing the pros and cons.

Lin Haoran could feel the faint static from the phone line, a clear sign that he was likely discussing the matter with the other shareholders.

Finally, Xu Yuhui spoke, his voice somewhat low, “Mr. Lin, we’ll do as you say. However, we must ensure the entire process is foolproof, with no room for error.”

Just as Lin Haoran didn’t want Li Jiacheng to find out about this prematurely, Xu Yuhui and the others felt the same way.

The corners of Lin Haoran’s mouth turned up slightly in a confident smile. “Rest assured, Mr. Xu, I will arrange everything. I’ll have the villa cleared out and security personnel deployed immediately to ensure our transaction is not disturbed by the outside world.”

Then, Lin Haoran gave Xu Yuhui an address.

“Alright, Mr. Lin. We’ll see you there in half an hour,” Xu Yuhui replied.

After hanging up, Lin Haoran looked at Ma Shimin and smiled. “Let’s go. Let’s get this settled as soon as possible.”

“Yes, Boss. I’ll notify the lawyers first.”

After speaking with Lin Haoran, Ma Shimin took out his mobile phone and began to make a call.

Half an hour later, Lin Haoran arrived at a villa in the Mid-Levels.

It was located near the Hongkong Electric Group Headquarters. The road snaked up the mountain, flanked by lush trees that cast a mysterious and tranquil glow under the setting sun.

Lin Haoran owned quite a few villa properties, most of which were rented out or used by his subsidiary groups for other purposes.

However, Lin Haoran had kept several villas for his personal use.

These included Lin Haoran’s own Severn Road villa, the Old Peak Road villa where Rosamund Kwan now lived, and the luxurious villa in the Mid-Levels before him.

Lin Haoran rarely visited this particular villa; he had only been here once. It was regularly cleaned and maintained by staff.

As soon as Lin Haoran got out of the car, the villa’s gate slowly opened. Several security guards in black suits and earpieces quickly approached, their eyes scanning the surroundings vigilantly.

“Mr. Lin, everything has been prepared according to your instructions,” the head of security said in a low voice.

These men were elite security guards from Universe Security Company. They were also trusted individuals who often handled matters for Lin Haoran.

He could see from their loyalty that they were his own men, completely trustworthy.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly and stepped into the villa.

Ma Shimin and the legal counsel followed close behind.

A few minutes later, several more cars arrived one after another.

These were the shareholders from Cheung Kong Holdings.

Leading the group was Xu Yuhui.

Behind him were three men with varying expressions.

One, with a balding crown and wearing a tight-fitting suit, was Director Wu.

Another, wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses and having large knuckles, was Director Qian.

The last one, with a darting gaze and constantly adjusting his tie in small movements, was Director Zhao.

“Mr. Lin, I have lived up to my mission.” Xu Yuhui’s smile was brilliant and unabashedly sycophantic. As he stepped aside to introduce them, the smiles on the other three shareholders’ faces were somewhat stiff and forced.

After all, these three had essentially been forced into this.

If Xu Yuhui hadn’t used their secrets to threaten them, why would they have betrayed Li Jiacheng?

In reality, many wealthy people in Hong Kong had some dirt on them, more or less. If one were to investigate seriously, few tycoons could withstand the scrutiny.

These three just never expected to be sold out by one of their own.

“Mr. Xu, Mr. Wu, Mr. Qian, Mr. Zhao, the share transfer agreements have been drafted. Please take a look and see if there are any issues. If not, you can sign. I will have the premium portion of the payment transferred immediately after your press conference concludes. You should be able to trust our boss’s reputation!” Ma Shimin handed each of them a copy of the contract.

After receiving his contract, Xu Yuhui deliberately stood a little farther away from the other three.

After all, his premium was a hefty 25%, while the other three were only getting 10%.

Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin both saw Xu Yuhui’s subtle move but tacitly said nothing.

Lin Haoran knew that Xu Yuhui was afraid the other three would find out about his higher premium, which could cause unnecessary trouble.

After all, at such a sensitive time, even the smallest ripple could create a huge wave.

“Good. Mr. Xu’s efficiency is to be commended,” Lin Haoran’s voice sounded particularly clear in the quiet room.

After quickly reading through the contracts several times to ensure there were no problems, the men all nodded to each other.

This time, to avoid tipping off Li Jiacheng, they hadn’t even brought their lawyers, fearing a leak.

However, they were all old-timers in the business world, so reviewing these contracts was a simple matter for them.

The soft scratching of pen tips on paper, mixed with the slightly hurried breathing of the shareholders, became the only rhythm in the room.

Director Zhao’s fingers even trembled slightly as he signed his name.

After all, this was a complete betrayal of Li Jiacheng.

They had never thought of being forced to betray Li Jiacheng. But under Xu Yuhui’s threats, coupled with the premium on their shares and their interwoven pessimism about the future of Cheung Kong Holdings, they had finally been pushed to this point.

At this moment, every stroke of the pen seemed like a sharp blade severing their close ties to the past. Though filled with helplessness, it also carried a sense of finality.

Lin Haoran stood to the side, watching everyone calmly, taking in all their subtle reactions.

Seeing that everyone had signed, Ma Shimin also signed his name on behalf of the Hongkong Land Group. All contracts were in duplicate.

This transaction involved the shareholders selling their Cheung Kong Holdings shares to Galaxy Securities, a subsidiary of the Hongkong Land Group. Therefore, it was perfectly appropriate for Ma Shimin to act as the representative.

Seeing the signed contracts, a smile appeared on Lin Haoran’s face. The matter was truly settled. Even if Li Jiacheng found out now, he couldn’t reverse it.

He wondered what kind of expression Li Jiacheng would have when he discovered that nearly all of his partners had betrayed him.

Lin Haoran felt a sense of anticipation.

“Gentlemen, the contracts are signed. Your first payment will be wired to your accounts within two hours. Also, since you’ve all been so cooperative, I think the press conference about Mr. Li’s financial crisis doesn’t necessarily have to wait until Monday.”

He paused briefly before adding casually, “Let’s have it tomorrow afternoon. On Sunday, the public is more relaxed, and the media has more space.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the air in the private room froze.

“Tomorrow? Mr. Lin, didn’t you say we would hold it on Monday?” Director Zhao cried out, his face drained of color, the relief he felt just moments ago completely gone.

Moving the plan forward so suddenly, with no buffer, would undoubtedly expose them to Li Jiacheng prematurely.

After all, having chosen to betray Li Jiacheng, they truly had no face to remain in Hong Kong.

So, since they had cashed out their shares, the best course of action was to leave Hong Kong.

But leaving Hong Kong required some time, for things like selling off their fixed assets and arranging a fallback plan.

The sycophantic smile on Xu Yuhui’s face also froze. His brow furrowed. Moving the press conference forward clearly disrupted his plans.

But then he thought of the massive premium payment that was about to hit his account and the fact that there was no turning back. He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing with difficulty, and forced a smile. “A brilliant suggestion, Mr. Lin! Tomorrow is good. A quick and decisive battle!”

That smile was three parts uglier than a grimace.

Seeing this, the other three men frowned at him.

They had agreed to hold the press conference the day after tomorrow, on Monday. At the conference, they were to detail Li Jiacheng’s financial crisis, especially his overleveraged move to acquire Hutchison Whampoa. After the exposé, they were to announce that, for the sake of Cheung Kong Holdings’ future, they had decided to sell their shares to Lin Haoran—all for the future of the company.

This move would undoubtedly have a huge impact on Li Jiacheng.

If they sold their shares to Lin Haoran in secret, they could still claim they were threatened and had no other choice.

But holding a press conference to spite Li Jiacheng was purely for the benefit of that premium.

It was tantamount to a complete betrayal of Li Jiacheng from the bottom of their hearts.

Lin Haoran looked at their varied expressions and said with a smile, “Gentlemen, the business world is like a battlefield, and opportunities are fleeting. Holding the press conference a day earlier only benefits us.

Li Jiacheng has deep roots in the Hong Kong business community. If we give him one more day to prepare, who knows what countermeasures he might come up with.

Since you have chosen this path, it means you have thoroughly offended Li Jiacheng. You don’t want to wait for him to stabilize his position and then turn around to deal with you, do you? So, the sooner you leave Hong Kong, the better for you, isn’t it?”

Director Wu frowned and said after a moment’s hesitation, “Mr. Lin, that may be true, but this is so sudden. We haven’t had time to arrange many things.”

“Is leaving so complicated? All you need is a plane ticket. If that’s too difficult, you can even take a boat. If you can’t manage it on your own, I can certainly assist you in leaving Hong Kong. Are you staying because you hope to receive Li Jiacheng’s forgiveness?

You’re just going to places like Britain, Singapore, the United States, or Canada. I’m sure you already have your immigration destinations in mind.

As for your fixed assets here in Hong Kong, don’t forget what the Hongkong Land Group does. You can entrust us to handle your assets. You all know Hongkong Land’s reputation, and the price will be absolutely fair,” Lin Haoran said with a smile.

Originally, he hadn’t been in such a rush. However, after Li Jiacheng’s harsh words upon leaving today and Xu Yuhui’s swift handling of the other shareholders, Lin Haoran decided to move things forward.

Since you, Li Jiacheng, are so confident, then I’ll just keep making my moves. Let’s see how you handle this!

By going public a day earlier, the panic and collapse within Li Jiacheng’s camp would multiply, giving him more overwhelming leverage to finally take down Hutchison Whampoa.

What he wanted was complete control of Hutchison Whampoa, not another shareholder with a final say bossing him around from the sidelines.

Hearing this, the men looked at each other, their faces filled with conflict and struggle.

Xu Yuhui was the first to break the silence. He took a deep breath and said, “Gentlemen, Mr. Lin has a point. Since we’ve come this far, there’s no turning back. Let’s do as Mr. Lin says and hold the press conference tomorrow afternoon.”

Directors Wu, Qian, and Zhao exchanged glances, helplessness in their eyes.

Director Wu sighed and said slowly, “So be it. It’s come to this, and this is the only way. I just hope, Mr. Lin, that you can arrange for our departure from Hong Kong as soon as possible and handle our assets properly, as you said.”

Lin Haoran smiled faintly, a trace of satisfaction in his eyes. “Rest assured, gentlemen. I, Lin Haoran, always keep my word. Director Ma, you will immediately begin arranging the relevant matters for tomorrow’s press conference and ensure everything is foolproof.

At the same time, have the immigration agency and asset management teams under the Hongkong Land Group provide the best possible service to these shareholders.”

Ma Shimin quickly nodded. “Don’t worry, Boss. I’ll make sure everything is handled perfectly!”

…

Meanwhile, after leaving The Peninsula Hotel, Li Jiacheng first visited several business friends, attempting to get help from them.

Although he hadn’t held out much hope, when they all politely refused and even subtly hinted at their close relationship with Lin Haoran, Li Jiacheng’s expression grew darker, and the anger in his heart churned like a volcano about to erupt.

Although these people were considered top or second-tier players in Hong Kong, and even though they had money, they didn’t dare to offend Lin Haoran for Li Jiacheng’s sake. So, naturally, they wouldn’t help him.

They weren’t related, so why should they offend someone more powerful for his sake?

After leaving the office of his last business friend, Li Jiacheng sat in the back seat.

The atmosphere in the car was so oppressive it was hard to breathe. The driver, sensing his boss’s explosive mood, dared not say a word.

Images of Lin Haoran’s terrifyingly calm face in the private room at The Peninsula flashed through Li Jiacheng’s mind, along with the three ice picks hanging over his heart:

Get out of Hutchison Whampoa!

Sell 40% of Hutchison shares at a cheap price as an atonement ticket!

Let that scoundrel Lin sit on Cheung Kong Holdings with veto power and shit on my head!

“Arrogant! Shameless! Wiping us out completely!” He slammed his fist into the seat in front of him with a dull thud.

His body trembled slightly with extreme anger, and the veins on his temples throbbed menacingly.

He had weathered countless storms in his business career, facing numerous snipes and betrayals, but never before had he been cornered like this by a young man, like a fish on a chopping block waiting to be slaughtered!

The bottomless sense of humiliation and the immense fear of impending doom coiled around his heart like poisonous vines, tightening their grip.

Only after Li Jiacheng gradually calmed down did his driver-cum-bodyguard ask, “Boss, where are we going now?”

“To Standard Chartered Bank!” Li Jiacheng came to his senses and said with a grim look in his eyes.

At this point, it seemed the only one he could rely on was Standard Chartered Bank.

Twenty minutes later, in the office of Tyron, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank.

“Lin Haoran! He’s gone too far! The height of shamelessness! The conditions he gave me are meant to skin me alive, to chew me up until not even dregs are left. Mr. Tylen, you have to help me! Otherwise, if my two major companies are lost, your Standard Chartered Bank will also suffer a huge loss!” Li Jiacheng said furiously to Tyron.

Tyron’s brow was tightly furrowed, but he didn’t immediately try to comfort his nearly out-of-control ally.

However, he could understand him.

After all, Lin Haoran had indeed gone too far.

Putting himself in Li Jiacheng’s shoes, he would have found it difficult to remain calm as well.

He walked around his large desk, picked up the glass of whiskey he had already prepared, poured a small amount, and handed it over. “Mr. Li, compose yourself! Anger only gives your opponent a bigger opening to exploit.

The root of Lin Haoran’s arrogance today is the ample cash he has on hand.”

“Calm down? How can you ask me to calm down? I had a chance to negotiate a truce with Lin Haoran. I wanted Standard Chartered to terminate the contract between me and HSBC. I was willing to pay, but you refused. In the end, you are also responsible for Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa ending up in this situation today!”

The anger and liquor stung Li Jiacheng’s throat, sending him into a violent coughing fit, his entire face turning beet red.

Now that things had come to this, he was truly at a dead end, with nowhere to turn.

Tyron watched the violently coughing, red-faced Li Jiacheng with a cold gaze. A fleeting look of annoyance flashed in his eyes, but he quickly regained his calm and steady demeanor.

He raised a hand and gently patted Li Jiacheng’s trembling shoulder. After Li Jiacheng’s coughing subsided and his emotions calmed slightly, Tyron spoke in a slow, measured tone, “Mr. Li, the decision to refuse to terminate the contract was made by the bank based entirely on its own risk assessment and overall strategic planning.

The bank has its own position, and it cannot easily give up the profits it is entitled to. There’s no practical point in dwelling on the past now. We should focus our energy on resolving the current crisis.”

Li Jiacheng was breathing heavily, his eyes still full of resentment, but his reason was gradually returning.

He took the tissue Tyron handed him, wiped the corner of his mouth, and asked, “Then, Mr. Tylen, do you have any good ideas? That rascal Lin Haoran is pressing us at every step. If we don’t fight back soon, I’m afraid he’ll really push us into a corner, into a desperate situation.”

“Mr. Li, you are well aware that Standard Chartered paid a heavy price in our bid to take over HSBC. Our current financial situation is not as optimistic as it appears on the surface.”

Tyron sighed softly, walked to the window, and gazed out at the bustling city, its prosperity hiding a turbulent undercurrent. He continued, “Lin Haoran’s actions this time have been so swift and targeted. It’s clear he has been planning this for a long time.

Not only is he ruthless and decisive in his business tactics, but he also has a deep understanding of human nature and the current situation. He is remarkably patient. Not only did you not notice that he was targeting Hutchison and Cheung Kong early on, but even we at Standard Chartered completely missed it.

Standard Chartered will naturally do its best to protect your controlling stake in Cheung Kong Holdings. But even with our best efforts, given the amount of Cheung Kong shares Lin Haoran now holds, we cannot stop him from getting onto the Board of Directors and bossing people around in the company!”

Hearing Tyron’s words, Li Jiacheng felt a sense of despair.

After a long pause, his eyes bloodshot, Li Jiacheng said in a somewhat hoarse voice, “Mr. Tylen, you must help me! On behalf of Standard Chartered, go to the Governor!

Lin Haoran’s rate of expansion is already a monopoly! It’s going to shake the very foundations of Hong Kong’s economy! Sir Murray MacLehose cannot just stand by and watch!

If Sir Murray MacLehose intervenes, the situation can definitely be turned around, just like with Jardine Matheson & Co. last year!”

In Li Jiacheng’s view, his personal appeal to Governor MacLehose was useless because he was merely a Chinese entrepreneur.

But Tyron was different. He had the backing of a massive British-funded conglomerate and strong connections even in Britain.

If Tyron went to speak with Governor MacLehose on behalf of Standard Chartered, the outcome would surely be different than if he went himself.

Although Li Jiacheng was one hundred percent confident that Lin Haoran could not seize his controlling stake in Cheung Kong Holdings, if Lin Haoran continued to hold a large number of Cheung Kong shares, it would be like having a time bomb strapped to him, ready to detonate at any moment.

Therefore, what he needed most right now was to force Lin Haoran to exit Cheung Kong Holdings completely.

But when he had humbled himself that afternoon and promised Lin Haoran a series of benefits, not only was the man unmoved, he even went too far and proposed a set of insulting conditions.

It was clearly impossible for him to drive Lin Haoran out of Cheung Kong Holdings by himself.

And even with its money, Standard Chartered obviously couldn’t do it either.

In other words, it seemed the only one who could help him was the Government House.

He still remembered how Lin Haoran had already taken control of Jardine Matheson & Co.

But in the end, due to the intervention of the Government House, Lin Haoran was forced to spit Jardine Matheson back out.

Tyron held his glass, lost in thought for a long time.

“Mr. Li, using the power of the Government House is a double-edged sword, and the timing is very delicate. The Jardine case you mentioned had its own unique circumstances. Jardine is the flag-bearer of British interests in Hong Kong. Its instability directly touched a nerve in London. When the Government House acted, it had pressure from Downing Street and a clear political motive to protect British interests.

You, however, have none of these advantages. But regardless, please rest assured. I will go and have a word with Sir Murray MacLehose on behalf of Standard Chartered. Whether I can secure his help, I cannot say for certain!”

Hearing this, Li Jiacheng finally felt a surge of joy in his heart.

Chapter 748: Shocking All of Hong Kong!

In the blink of an eye, a night passed, and it was September 20th.

Today was Sunday, an exceptionally ordinary weekend for most people in Hong Kong.

The newspapers were still filled with all sorts of news about the ongoing battle for shares between Lin Haoran and Li Jiacheng.

Yesterday, many reporters had sought interviews with either Lin Haoran or Li Jiacheng, but unfortunately, neither had any intention of being interviewed.

Trying to get information out of senior executives was also fruitless.

As a result, most of the news in the papers was a mix of truth and falsehood, mostly just speculation from so-called “experts” and “scholars.”

Early in the morning, many paparazzi, as usual, started their day by searching for new scoops, with their focus naturally on the two business tycoons, Li Jiacheng and Lin Haoran.

Although their interview attempts yesterday had hit a wall, it did nothing to dampen their enthusiasm.

The media industry in Hong Kong was just too fiercely competitive; those who didn’t work hard wouldn’t last long.

However, just then, the Hongkong Land Group suddenly sent out invitation cards to dozens of mainstream media outlets in Hong Kong, stating that a press conference would be held at the Connaught Centre at two in the afternoon to announce something important.

Instantly, the reporters were like a school of sharks that had smelled blood, and they erupted in a frenzy.

“For Hongkong Land Group to hold a press conference at this time, it must have something to do with this battle for shares!”

This was the consensus among everyone in the media.

So, what important matter could it be?

At this moment, no one knew. It was safe to say that this invitation to the press had thoroughly whetted everyone’s appetite.

At the same time, Jade Channel also broadcast an interstitial message, announcing that it would be providing a live broadcast of Hongkong Land Group’s press conference at two in the afternoon.

This was one of the benefits of having a good relationship with Lin Haoran; after all, Lin Haoran was a major shareholder and the Vice Chairman of the Board of TVB.

A live broadcast that could attract so much viewership was naturally given to one of their own.

As for Rediffusion Television, it did not have the rights to broadcast it.

The news quickly reached Li Jiacheng’s ears as well.

He had breathed a sigh of relief after returning from Standard Chartered Bank yesterday.

He refused to believe that with Tyron stepping in, the Government House wouldn’t show some deference.

After a series of blows, he had gradually come to accept the idea of giving up Hutchison Whampoa.

Now, he had only one goal: to get back ownership of Cheung Kong.

Cheung Kong was the foundation of his business empire, a fortress he had built through years of overcoming all obstacles and toiling through hardships in the business world.

He had poured countless amounts of his heart and soul into it. From the initial struggle to raise funds for the first project to gradually expanding his business and building his network, Cheung Kong was like a child he had raised with his own hands, witnessing his journey from a novice to a seasoned veteran, from obscurity to fame.

This current battle for shares had forced him to watch helplessly as Hutchison Whampoa slipped from his grasp, and the sense of powerlessness washed over him like a tide.

But Cheung Kong was something he had to protect no matter what. It was his final bottom line, his hope for staging a comeback.

Upon learning that Hongkong Land Group was holding a press conference, Li Jiacheng’s brow furrowed, and a strange sense of unease welled up inside him.

Like the reporters, he guessed that a press conference held by Hongkong Land Group at this critical juncture was inextricably linked to the ongoing battle for shares and might even have a major impact on his Cheung Kong.

After all, Hongkong Land Group was now wholly owned by Lin Haoran. Lin Haoran was using Galaxy Securities to acquire shares of Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings, and Galaxy Securities was a subsidiary of the Hongkong Land Group.

However, with the stock market under a trading halt, no matter how hard he thought, he couldn’t figure out what the other party’s objective was.

He immediately summoned his think tank to his office for a meeting.

The members of the think tank hurried in, and as soon as they sat down, they began speculating about Hongkong Land Group’s intentions.

A slightly balding member of the think tank was the first to break the silence, a cunning glint in his eyes. “Mr. Li, in my opinion, Hongkong Land’s move might be an attempt to further pressure us in the court of public opinion.

They might announce some so-called ‘inside information’ at the conference that is unfavorable to us, such as hinting at violations of regulations in our management of Cheung Kong, to shake the confidence of our shareholders and partners.”

Another member, who wore gold-rimmed glasses and appeared rather composed, shook his head and said slowly, “I think that’s a possibility, but not a strong one. Without concrete evidence, if Hongkong Land rashly releases such news, we could easily find grounds to countersue. However, there’s no doubt this is related to our Cheung Kong.”

“There’s another possibility. Hongkong Land might have reached a secret agreement with some major consortiums and plans to announce a joint acquisition of a portion of Cheung Kong’s shares at the press conference, further diluting our equity and causing us to completely lose control of Cheung Kong,” a young, spirited new member of the think tank declared, abruptly standing up.

“With Lin Haoran’s wealth, does he need to team up with other consortiums? Your theory is completely baseless. At the end of the day, you’re still too young!” a middle-aged man sitting opposite him retorted directly.

The young member’s face flushed red from the rebuttal, and he was about to argue when Li Jiacheng raised a hand to signal for silence.

To be honest, Li Jiacheng was a little disappointed.

He had hoped to get some constructive ideas from his think tank, but for now, most of their speculations were based on conventional business competition tactics. Lin Haoran, however, had always been one to play by his own rules, and this press conference might be hiding a much deeper scheme.

This feeling of not having his destiny in his own hands was simply unbearable.

It seemed now that he could only wait until two in the afternoon to see what tricks Hongkong Land Group had up its sleeve.

At this thought, he lost all interest in continuing the discussion with his think tank. He waved his hand and said, “Alright, meeting adjourned for now. You can all get back to your own work.”

The members of the think tank exchanged glances, then rose one by one and left the office, each carrying their own worries.

Li Jiacheng sat alone behind his large desk, his fingers tapping lightly on the surface, his eyes filled with deep thought.

Time ticked by slowly in the tense atmosphere, and two in the afternoon soon arrived.

Inside a conference hall at the Hongkong Land Group, all of Hong Kong’s mainstream media had gathered.

The sweltering heat of Hong Kong in September was kept at bay by the air conditioning outside the hall, but the air inside was thick with the anxiety of a hundred reporters.

A flurry of cameras and lenses was aimed at the dais, the reflections from the lenses crisscrossing like blades.

Jade Channel began its live broadcast at the same time, its cameras focused on the dais, waiting for the press conference to begin.

In Li Jiacheng’s office, he had also turned on the television. He sat in his executive chair, silently staring at the screen.

On the other side, on the 51st floor of the Connaught Centre, in Lin Haoran’s office, he too was tuning into Jade Channel to watch the live broadcast.

Although he was in the same building, he had no intention of going downstairs to make an appearance.

He could leave these matters to his subordinates to handle; he had no interest in dealing with these reporters.

On the television screen, Ma Shimin, the president of Hongkong Land Group, walked onto the dais with a steady gait. He was dressed in a sharp suit, a smile on his face, but his eyes held a profound depth that was hard to fathom.

The audience below instantly fell silent, and all eyes were locked on him.

If there were a ranking of the leading figures among Hong Kong’s professional managers, Ma Shimin would undoubtedly be number one.

After all, the Hongkong Land Group was now widely acknowledged as one of the top two enterprises in all of Hong Kong. Although it was no longer a publicly listed company, making its market capitalization impossible to determine.

Only Hengsheng Group, another major conglomerate under Lin Haoran, could compare with the Hongkong Land Group.

However, Mr. Ho Sin Hang, the Chairman of Hengsheng Group, was relatively low-key, and since Hengsheng Group had only been established for a short time, its influence did not quite match Ma Shimin’s.

Ma Shimin cleared his throat lightly, picked up the microphone, and his voice came out steady and powerful. “Friends from the media, thank you all for taking the time out of your busy schedules to attend today’s press conference. Today, Hongkong Land Group is holding this press conference to announce something of great importance.”

As soon as he said this, the nerves of the reporters in the audience tensed up. They all sat up straighter, their pens and recording devices at the ready, their eyes fixated on Ma Shimin, afraid to miss a single detail.

In front of his television, Li Jiacheng also instinctively sat up straight, his hands unconsciously tightening on the armrests.

Seeing that everyone was filled with curiosity, Ma Shimin nodded in satisfaction.

Then, he said with a smile, “However, I am not the main star today. Now, please welcome Mr. Xu Yuhui, an important shareholder and director of Cheung Kong Holdings!”

His words sent a shockwave through the entire room.

A figure like Xu Yuhui might not be a big deal in the eyes of someone of Lin Haoran’s stature.

But Xu Yuhui was still a business tycoon worth over a hundred million, as well as an important shareholder and director of Cheung Kong. As such, he certainly had a degree of fame.

And given his sensitive identity, why would he appear at a press conference for the Hongkong Land Group?

In the Chairman’s office of Cheung Kong, Li Jiacheng’s pupils contracted abruptly. His knuckles, resting on the armrest, turned white from the force of his grip.

Xu Yuhui?

Why was he at Hongkong Land’s press conference?

An icy premonition shot up his spine, almost freezing the blood in his veins.

The office was air-conditioned, yet beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

At this moment, a terrible feeling surfaced in his mind.

This is bad!

On the television screen, amid the frantic flashing of countless cameras and the reporters’ suppressed gasps of astonishment, Xu Yuhui calmly walked out from the side of the stage.

He was dressed in a well-tailored, dark grey suit, a somewhat awkward smile on his face. He walked with a steady pace toward Ma Shimin in the center of the dais. The two even nodded politely to each other and shook hands.

This scene was like a sharp knife stabbing brutally into Li Jiacheng’s eyes.

“Mr. Xu! Look over here!”

“Mr. Xu, why are you here?”

“Does this signal something?!”

The reporters below were on the verge of boiling over, firing questions like a string of firecrackers at the stage. But Xu Yuhui merely maintained his awkward smile, turning a deaf ear to the inquiries as he calmly took his seat.

His actions this time were not honorable in the slightest.

However, things had already come to this point, and there was little else for him to think about.

But it wasn’t over yet!

Ma Shimin gestured with his hand, signaling for silence.

His voice, amplified by the microphone, spread clearly throughout the venue and reached the ears of everyone watching the live broadcast.

“Additionally, please welcome Cheung Kong’s directors, Director Wu, Director Qian, and Director Zhao!” Ma Shimin’s voice boomed like thunder, once again exploding in the venue.

Director Wu, Director Qian, and Director Zhao!

These three names were like three heavy hammers, smashing fiercely into Li Jiacheng’s heart.

He shot up from his executive chair, staring at the television screen in disbelief.

From the side of the stage, three familiar figures emerged in single file—they were the other three important shareholders and directors of his Cheung Kong Holdings!

Director Wu’s bald spot was particularly conspicuous under the lights; he kept his lips tightly pressed, his eyes darting away, not daring to look directly at the cameras below.

Director Qian pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, trying to maintain his composure, but his slightly trembling fingers betrayed his inner turmoil.

Director Zhao all but scurried, his head bowed as if trying to hide himself, oblivious to his crooked tie.

They shook hands with Ma Shimin one by one, then rigidly sat down in the seats next to Xu Yuhui.

The four of them, in a row, were once Li Jiacheng’s most solid allies on the Cheung Kong Board of Directors. Now, they were all seated on the dais of their opponent’s press conference.

The entire press conference venue fell into a deathly silence, which was then shattered by a commotion even more frenzied than before!

The flashes from the cameras nearly drowned the entire dais, and the clamor of reporters’ exclamations and questions threatened to tear the roof off.

“My God! Is this a collective betrayal by Cheung Kong’s shareholders?”

“Treason! This is blatant treason!”

“Li Jiacheng is finished! Cheung Kong Holdings is undergoing a major shake-up!”

In front of his television, Li Jiacheng felt the world spin. He gripped the edge of his desk so tightly that his knuckles turned white, his body trembling uncontrollably.

Betrayal! Utter and complete betrayal!

He had thought only Xu Yuhui had been bought off, but he never expected the entire core team had been wiped out in one go!

Ma Shimin looked down at the seething media below, a victor’s calm smile on his face.

He picked up the microphone again, his voice carrying clearly to every corner: “Following friendly negotiations between Galaxy Securities, a subsidiary of the Hongkong Land Group, and the four shareholders and directors of Cheung Kong Holdings—Mr. Xu, Director Wu, Director Qian, and Director Zhao—an agreement has been reached.”

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the four men beside him, each with a different expression, and he enunciated each name with deliberate clarity.

“The four gentlemen have transferred all of their shares in Cheung Kong Holdings Group, collectively accounting for eight point one percent of Cheung Kong’s total share capital, to Galaxy Securities.”

Eight point one percent!

That number fell like a final judgment!

Just before, Galaxy Securities had already publicly announced that they held over thirty percent of Cheung Kong’s shares.

Now, with this additional eight point one percent, didn’t that mean Galaxy Securities’ stake in Cheung Kong was approaching Li Jiacheng’s?

After all, it was public knowledge that the Li Jiacheng family held forty percent of the shares; basically everyone knew that.

“Based on this successful acquisition, and the shares previously held by Galaxy Securities,” Ma Shimin’s voice carried clearly through the microphone to every corner of the venue and, via the television signal, into thousands of homes, “the Hongkong Land Group now holds thirty-eight point four percent of the shares of Cheung Kong Holdings Group!”

38.4%!

At that number, Li Jiacheng’s vision went dark, and he nearly stumbled and fell back to the ground. He had never imagined the situation would deteriorate to this extent.

Just two days ago, he had personally hosted a banquet for these shareholders, specifically to ensure they would continue to stand by his side and support him.

And all of them had sworn that they would definitely stand with Li Jiacheng and would not do anything treacherous.

Li Jiacheng had been quite gratified at the time, raising his glass to toast with them, thinking his Cheung Kong was still steady as a rock.

But now, this cruel reality was like a resounding slap across his face.

He couldn’t fathom why these partners, who had once fought alongside him through thick and thin, would so easily switch sides and attack him.

“Lin Haoran, what on earth did Lin Haoran give you?” Li Jiacheng muttered to himself.

Anger was no longer sufficient to describe his feelings.

At this point, the atmosphere at the press conference had reached a boiling point.

Reporters swarmed toward the dais, trying to pry more inside information from Xu Yuhui and the others.

Xu Yuhui and the rest were hemmed in, a look of growing awkwardness on their faces. They just kept their heads down and remained silent.

Before coming, they had promised to reveal the details of Li Jiacheng’s financial crisis on the spot, especially his over-leveraging to acquire Hutchison Whampoa.

Furthermore, they were supposed to explicitly state at the press conference that, out of a sense of responsibility for Cheung Kong’s future, they had decided to sell their shares to Lin Haoran, because only Lin Haoran could bring stable development to Cheung Kong.

But now that they were here, facing so many reporters, they found it hard to speak.

After all, their position was problematic in itself. Many reporters in the room were already calling them traitors to Cheung Kong.

Ma Shimin seemed to have anticipated this. He calmly took over, signaling for the staff to restore some order. He didn’t force Xu Yuhui and the others to speak immediately. Instead, he faced the cameras, his tone steady and powerful:

“Everyone, the decision made by the four directors—Mr. Xu, Director Wu, Director Qian, and Director Zhao—is based on deep consideration for the future development of Cheung Kong Holdings.

As we all know, in recent years, due to its major shareholder Mr. Li Jiacheng’s aggressive expansion strategy, particularly the acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa, Cheung Kong Holdings has taken on an extremely heavy debt burden. Its financial situation is worrying and has already endangered the stable operations of Cheung Kong itself.”

He paused briefly to let the information sink in, then continued, “The four directors believe that Mr. Li Jiacheng’s current strategic focus and financial situation can no longer adequately protect the interests of Cheung Kong’s many small and medium shareholders and employees.

And as we all know, my boss, Mr. Lin Haoran, is the most well-capitalized entrepreneur in all of Hong Kong. After acquiring these shares, and perhaps even if he can secure a controlling stake in Cheung Kong in the future, he will have the ability to provide a solid backing for Cheung Kong Holdings, ensuring the stability of its operations and its healthy future development.

We respect the choice made by the four directors out of responsibility and foresight, and have chosen to acquire the Cheung Kong shares they hold at a reasonable price.”

Although these words did not come directly from Xu Yuhui and the others, Ma Shimin’s statement had already clearly conveyed the core messages—“Li Jiacheng’s financial crisis,” “mismanagement,” “Hongkong Land Group as the savior,” and “controlling stake in Cheung Kong”—to all the media and the public.

This was far more effective than forcing Xu Yuhui and the others to say it themselves, achieving the objective while avoiding a potentially out-of-control and awkward scene.

After Ma Shimin finished speaking, all eyes turned to Xu Yuhui and the others.

They did not deny it, which meant they tacitly agreed that Ma Shimin’s words were true.

They were just too ashamed to say it themselves.

After all, anyone who knew them knew that they had always been of one mind with Li Jiacheng.

But now, they had committed such an act of betrayal.

At this moment, Lin Haoran’s ambition for Cheung Kong was completely exposed.

He was truly after the controlling stake in Cheung Kong.

The cameras tightly framed Ma Shimin’s calm and confident face, as well as close-ups of the four Cheung Kong directors sitting beside him, looking on pins and needles with complex expressions.

This image was instantly transmitted across all of Hong Kong through the live television broadcast.

Today was Sunday, and many people were off from work, lounging on their living room sofas, either sitting with their families or enjoying a leisurely moment alone.

The live broadcast on Jade Channel was like a giant stone thrown into a calm lake, instantly creating a thousand waves in households all across Hong Kong.

In the various high-end residential areas of Hong Kong, the wealthy who usually followed the business world were now glued to their television screens.

Their faces showed surprise, contemplation, or the look of someone enjoying a good show.

A tycoon who owned a luxury villa in the Mid-Levels was having afternoon tea with his family. When he saw the news, the knife and fork in his hand froze in mid-air.

“This Lin Haoran is truly impressive. He managed to get his hands on so many of Cheung Kong’s shares so quietly. Li Jiacheng is in deep trouble this time,” he said to his family, his eyes revealing his admiration for Lin Haoran’s methods.

His family members also gathered around, chattering and discussing animatedly, filling the living room with a lively buzz.

And in the ordinary residential districts of Hong Kong, the common citizens who were usually busy with their livelihoods were also captivated by the news.

A shop owner, taking advantage of a lull in customers, ran to the corner store next door and watched the live broadcast on the TV there with many other shoppers.

“Cheung Kong is a huge company. With such a big shake-up, will it affect our lives?” he said with concern.

The corner store owner clapped him on the shoulder and chuckled, “Who cares? It’s no use for us common folk to worry about these things. But this fight between Lin Haoran and Li Jiacheng is quite a show.”

Analysts at major financial institutions all cut their Sunday short to hold emergency meetings, conducting in-depth analyses of this major event.

They sat around conference tables, brows furrowed, intensely discussing the news on the television.

After all, this news would affect the entire Hong Kong stock market.

If their analysis was good, they might be able to profit handsomely from it.

Trading for Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa had been halted since Thursday afternoon, but the trading halt was set to end tomorrow.

“Lin Haoran’s move was brilliant. He acquired so many Cheung Kong shares without anyone noticing. He’s now just a step away from catching up to Li Jiacheng’s holdings. I’m afraid Li Jiacheng will have a hard time coming up with an effective counter-strategy.”

A young analyst spoke first, his eyes showing admiration for Lin Haoran’s tactics.

“That may be so, but Li Jiacheng has been toiling and struggling through hardships in the business world for so many years, he definitely won’t give up easily. He might still have a trick up his sleeve that we just haven’t seen yet.”

An experienced older analyst stroked his beard and spoke slowly, a hint of caution in his tone.

At this moment, the battle for shares between the two major Chinese tycoons had become the talk of all of Hong Kong.

In particular, the collective desertion and selling of shares by the Cheung Kong shareholders was something no one had expected.

Chapter 749: Superman Li Seeks a Truce Everywhere

“Mr. Li, what should we do?” In Li Jiacheng’s office, the last remaining important shareholder burst in. This shareholder, Chen Qizong, was one of Cheung Kong’s veterans and one of Li Jiacheng’s few core partners who had not been confirmed to have switched sides.

Xu Yuhui had no evidence against him, so he hadn’t approached him.

At this moment, Chen Qizong’s face was deathly pale, his forehead beaded with cold sweat. He had clearly rushed here.

Evidently, he too had seen the suffocating scene on television.

“Mr. Li! What… what on earth is going on? Xu Yuhui and the others, how could they…” Chen Qizong’s voice trembled with shock and anger. He looked at Li Jiacheng, who was slumped in his chair with an ashen face, and the rest of his sentence caught in his throat.

The call seemed to pull Li Jiacheng back from the immense shock, restoring a sliver of his senses.

His vacant eyes slowly focused. Seeing it was Chen Qizong, an extremely bitter smile spread across his lips, looking particularly desolate.

“What’s going on? Zong, you still don’t see it? We’ve been sold out, sold out completely.” Li Jiacheng’s voice was hoarse.

He sat up straight, and Chen Qizong quickly stepped forward to support him.

“How, how dare they?! Just two days ago, at the dinner table, they swore that we would always stand…”

Chen Qizong still found it hard to believe. All the cheerful drinking and solemn vows of that night were nothing but a performance?

“In the face of sufficient benefits or threats, what are promises worth?” A hint of the sharp-witted tycoon returned to Li Jiacheng’s eyes, but it was overshadowed by exhaustion and coldness.

“Lin Haoran has some brilliant tactics, truly brilliant! Without a sound, he dealt me a fatal blow.”

“Zong,” he suddenly grabbed Chen Qizong’s arm with a force that made him wince. “How many shares do you still have? You didn’t, you didn’t also…”

Chen Qizong immediately shook his head, his tone firm. “Mr. Li, I, Chen Qizong, am not that kind of person! My shares are still here, I haven’t moved a single one!”

Then, his expression turned troubled as he continued, “But even with my shares, it’s hard for us to fend off Lin Haoran. 38.4%—he’s only a fraction behind us!

“And after this whole mess, when the stock market reopens tomorrow, Lin Haoran is bound to frantically accumulate shares. He has the capital to easily surpass our holdings.

“By then, Lin Haoran will be the largest shareholder of Cheung Kong Holdings. Although you’ll still have control, Mr. Li, as long as he remains the largest shareholder, he might even acquire over half the shares in the future.

“At that point, even with your privileges as the founder, he’ll be able to seize the controlling stake!”

This was the most fatal part.

Lin Haoran possessed vast cash flow and controlled several large conglomerates, including Hengsheng Group, Hong Kong’s largest financial group. Money was the last thing he lacked. He could continue to wage a price war, snapping up Cheung Kong’s stock.

But what about them? Li Jiacheng had spent too much of his fortune and incurred massive debts in his “snake swallowing an elephant” bid to acquire the behemoth Hutchison Whampoa.

In this situation, even with Standard Chartered Bank as his backer, could he really fight a price war against his opponent?

It was like an egg against a stone.

Li Jiacheng listened to Chen Qizong in silence.

How could he not know all this!

“Moreover,” Chen Qizong’s voice grew heavier, tinged with despair, “Ma Shimin’s words at the press conference were daggers to the heart! ‘Financial crisis,’ ‘excessive leverage,’ ‘unable to protect interests’—the moment the market opens tomorrow, panic selling is almost inevitable!

“Those small shareholders and institutions, to protect themselves, will know we can’t keep up. They’ll likely scramble to sell their shares to Lin Haoran while the price is still high!

“We… we won’t even have time to organize an effective defense!”

Hearing this, Li Jiacheng’s face grew even more ashen, but the defiant flame in his eyes burned even more fiercely.

He released his grip on Chen Qizong’s arm and stumbled to the massive floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the still-bustling Victoria Harbour.

This was his domain, the core of the commercial empire he had built from scratch.

Was he really going to hand it over?

No! Absolutely not!

He strode back to his desk, snatched up the phone, and called Mr. Tylen, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank.

“Mr. Li, I’m already aware of the situation. What do you intend to do?” Mr. Tylen spoke first as soon as the call connected.

“Immediately, right now, I implore you, Mr. Tylen, to see Mr. Governor as soon as possible. Ask him to intervene on the grounds of maintaining the stability of Hong Kong’s business community, to urgently halt Lin Haoran’s takeover of Cheung Kong Holdings, or… or at least, restrict any further acquisitions from Lin Haoran’s side!”

At this point, Li Jiacheng pinned all his hopes on Standard Chartered Bank and Governor Sir Murray MacLehose.

On his own, he was out of options.

He dreaded to think what kind of doomsday scenario would unfold tomorrow when Cheung Kong’s stock resumed trading.

Lin Haoran’s stake in Cheung Kong was now drawing ever closer to his own.

Without sufficient funds, he simply couldn’t compete with Lin Haoran on the secondary market!

But the unwillingness to admit defeat in Li Jiacheng’s bones meant he would never just sit and wait for death.

Therefore, he hoped Tylen would see MacLehose today and lobby him to intervene.

On the other end of the line, Tylen, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank, was silent for a moment.

“Mr. Tylen, if you don’t act today, you will completely lose your financial partnership with Cheung Kong Holdings. Hong Kong’s property industry won’t stay in a slump forever; it’s bound to take off again one day,” Li Jiacheng said again.

After Li Jiacheng finished, Tylen finally spoke.

“I will go see Mr. Governor right now. However, Mr. Li, you should still be prepared to pay a certain price. Even if Government House intervenes, it can’t be too excessive. If you want them to give up on acquiring Cheung Kong Holdings, they will surely make an exorbitant demand.” Tylen’s voice, transmitted through the phone, carried an undeniable gravity.

Li Jiacheng gripped the phone tighter. Though he didn’t want to admit it, he knew it was certain.

He replied, “Mr. Tylen, as long as I can protect Cheung Kong Holdings, I am willing to bear any cost. I must ask you to do your utmost to persuade Mr. Governor.”

After hanging up, Li Jiacheng turned to Chen Qizong and continued, “Zong, we can’t pin all our hopes on Tylen and Mr. Governor. We must immediately devise a self-rescue plan—a two-pronged approach.”

Chen Qizong nodded forcefully. “Mr. Li, just tell me what to do. I’ll follow your orders!”

Li Jiacheng pondered for a moment, then said, “First, we must stabilize the company internally. You will immediately convene an emergency meeting with all loyal senior executives and core employees. Explain the current grim situation to them, and emphasize that Cheung Kong Holdings is our collective heart and soul, and we cannot let it fall into others’ hands easily.

“Let everyone unite and stand firm at their posts. At the same time, encourage them to actively brainstorm and face this crisis together.

“I will personally go see Mr. Pao Yue-kong and hope he can act as a peacemaker!”

At this moment, all he could do was find as many people as possible to negotiate a truce with Lin Haoran.

Previously, after the business warfare between HSBC and Lin Haoran had concluded, Li Jiacheng had specifically sought out Pao Yue-kong, hoping he could mediate his relationship with Lin Haoran.

And Pao Yue-kong, out of consideration for their years of friendship, did offer some suggestions. Unfortunately, Li Jiacheng had not agreed to any of them at the time.

If he had accepted Pao Yue-kong’s mediation back then, he would not have fallen into this predicament today. Not only would Cheung Kong Holdings be safe, but even Hutchison Whampoa would still be under his control.

To say he had no regrets would be a lie.

But there’s no medicine for regret in this world, and dwelling on it now would be futile.

Nevertheless, things having come to this, he planned to visit Pao Yue-kong again, hoping he would step in once more and that Lin Haoran, out of respect for Pao Yue-kong, would not be too ruthless.

Chen Qizong took his leave to carry out the orders.

Li Jiacheng took a deep breath, as if to inhale all the despair and defeat in the room before exhaling it forcefully.

He straightened his slightly disheveled suit, trying to restore his usual composed expression.

Though his heart was in turmoil, he knew he had to hold on, even if it was just for show.

He picked up his mobile phone and directly dialed Sir Pao Yue-kong’s private number.

The phone rang for a moment before it was answered by Pao Yue-kong’s secretary.

“Hello, this is Li Jiacheng of Cheung Kong Holdings. I have something extremely urgent and would like to speak with Brother Pao,” Li Jiacheng said, keeping his voice as steady as possible.

After a moment, Pao Yue-kong’s calm and slightly world-weary voice came through the receiver. “Brother Li, I already know about the press conference.”

That one sentence made Li Jiacheng’s heart sink a little further.

Pao Yue-kong’s information was always so up-to-date.

Of course, the news had probably spread throughout Hong Kong, as it was broadcast live on television.

“Brother Pao,” Li Jiacheng’s voice carried an undisguised earnestness, even a hint of pleading, which was extremely rare for the usually proud man. “I… I am truly on the edge of a cliff this time.

“Lin Haoran’s tactics are too ruthless. Cheung Kong Holdings is my lifeblood; I can’t just watch it get taken away.”

He paused, then continued with difficulty, “I know I didn’t fully appreciate your kind intentions last time. It was I, Li Jiacheng, who was arrogant and failed to see the situation for what it was. I apologize, and I implore you, could you help me one more time?

“Please, come forward and arrange a meeting with Mr. Lin. As long as he’s willing to spare Cheung Kong Holdings, any terms can be discussed.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end, broken only by the sound of Pao Yue-kong’s faint breathing.

To Li Jiacheng, this brief silence felt as long as a century.

“Alas…” Pao Yue-kong let out a long sigh, his voice filled with complex emotions. “Brother Li, you and I have known each other for many years. I’ve watched you build this foundation in Hong Kong step by step.

“Seeing you in such a predicament now, I too find it unbearable.”

He paused, seemingly weighing his options. In the end, their old friendship won out.

“Alright, I’ll make a trip to the Connaught Centre myself to see Haoran. But Brother Li, I must be frank with you. I can only do my best to mediate and sound him out.

“Haoran is a man of great ambition and unfathomable methods. Since he has laid out such a grand scheme, he won’t give up easily. You must prepare for the worst.”

For Pao Yue-kong, he had good relationships with both Lin Haoran and Li Jiacheng.

He and Li Jiacheng had a friendship spanning over twenty years.

As for Lin Haoran, though young, he was not just a business partner but also someone to whom he owed a life-saving debt.

If Lin Haoran hadn’t warned him, he would never have known he had cancer.

Thankfully, the warning came early. After a check-up, it was found to be in the early stages, and with active treatment, he had now mostly recovered.

Pao Yue-kong always remembered this life-saving grace.

Therefore, in this matter, he could at most act as a peacemaker; he would not take either side.

Hearing that Pao Yue-kong had finally agreed, the massive weight on Li Jiacheng’s heart seemed to lighten slightly. Although Pao Yue-kong’s words were far from optimistic, this was the last straw he could grasp.

With Mr. Governor and Pao Yue-kong stepping in, at least Lin Haoran hopefully wouldn’t go too far.

“I understand, I understand! Brother Pao, words cannot express my gratitude! Regardless of the outcome, I, Li Jiacheng, will never forget this friendship!” Li Jiacheng’s voice choked with emotion.

“Wait for my news,” Pao Yue-kong said before hanging up.

Listening to the dial tone, Li Jiacheng slowly lowered the receiver. His body felt drained, and he slumped back into his chair.

He covered his face with his hands and rubbed it forcefully, trying to dispel the exhaustion and despair that threatened to consume him.

The hope was slim, but at least there was a glimmer of light.

Meanwhile, in the Chairman’s office of the World-Wide Shipping Group in the Prince’s Building, Pao Yue-kong put down the phone, his brow furrowed with gravity.

He instructed his secretary to prepare the car.

Then, he personally made a call to Lin Haoran.

“Haoran, where are you? I’d like to pay you a visit,” Pao Yue-kong said directly once the call connected.

“Oh, it’s Uncle Pao. I’m in my office on the 51st floor of the Connaught Centre. Please come over whenever you like,” Lin Haoran’s voice came from the other end.

“Good. Give me ten minutes or so, I’m on my way now,” Pao Yue-kong said and hung up.

A short while later, Pao Yue-kong’s Rolls-Royce slowly pulled into the underground parking lot of the Connaught Centre.

Although the press conference at the Connaught Centre had ended, many reporters had yet to leave.

Pao Yue-kong’s appearance instantly drew their attention. They swarmed forward, hoping for an interview.

After all, his appearance at the Connaught Centre at such a sensitive time was enough to spark endless speculation.

Pao Yue-kong smiled and waved at the reporters, indicating he was not taking interviews at the moment. Then, escorted by his bodyguards, he quickly entered the elevator and went straight to the 51st floor of the Connaught Centre.

Having been notified, Lin Haoran personally came to the 51st-floor elevator lobby to welcome him.

For this Ship King and senior of Hong Kong, especially an elder who had shown him kindness, Lin Haoran showed ample respect on the surface.

Pao Yue-kong had indeed provided him with considerable help when he was first rising to prominence.

One must not forget their roots!

“Uncle Pao, I’ve already had tea prepared,” Lin Haoran said with a warm smile, personally guiding Pao Yue-kong into his lavish office, which boasted an exceptional view.

“Haoran, you’re too kind. I’m the one intruding,” Pao Yue-kong said with a wave of his hand, not standing on ceremony as he found a single armchair and sat down.

The two sat in the reception area as the secretary served top-grade Longjing tea.

Pao Yue-kong didn’t rush to the main topic, instead chatting about Kowloon Wharf.

After all, one was Kowloon Wharf’s largest shareholder, and the other was its second-largest shareholder—they were proper business partners.

Currently, Kowloon Wharf’s most important project was the ongoing construction of Harbour City.

According to the plan, next year, in 1982, Harbour City would join the already completed Ocean Terminal, along with the later additions of the Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel, Ocean Centre, and Gateway Arcade, to form the massive commercial complex of Harbour City.

By then, it would become one of Hong Kong’s most famous shopping, dining, and entertainment centers.

Although Lin Haoran was the second-largest shareholder and the Vice Chairman of Kowloon Wharf, he rarely involved himself in its affairs, leaving Pao Yue-kong with full authority. He didn’t interfere in anything.

Of course, when it came to finances, he had sent his own people to supervise and even participate.

Even biological brothers keep clear accounts, let alone partners like him and Pao Yue-kong. The man was not his subordinate, so he couldn’t use Loyalty to judge whether he might try to cheat him.

The two chatted for a long time. Finally, after asking about Pao Yue-kong’s health, Pao Yue-kong set down his teacup, his expression turning slightly more solemn. “Haoran, I’ve come today about the matter with Li Jiacheng and Cheung Kong Holdings.”

Lin Haoran seemed to have expected this. His smile unchanged, he refilled Pao Yue-kong’s cup. “Is Uncle Pao here to be an intermediary for Mr. Li?”

“Not an intermediary,” Pao Yue-kong shook his head, his tone sincere. “I’ve known Li Jiacheng for over twenty years. Seeing him fall into such a predicament pains my heart.

“Of course, I know even better that in the game of business, everyone has their methods, and success and failure both have their reasons. I saw everything Brother Li did before; he brought this upon himself.

“I didn’t come here to ask you to give up the acquisition. That would be neither realistic nor proper.”

He paused, looked into Lin Haoran’s calm, unwavering eyes, and continued, “I just hope that, for the sake of old times and for my sake, if the matter is settled, you could grant him a measure of dignity in the terms?

“Don’t wipe him out completely. After all, Cheung Kong Holdings contains half a lifetime of his heart and soul.”

Lin Haoran listened quietly, his fingers gently stroking the warm teacup.

After a moment, he spoke slowly, his tone respectful yet with a clear sense of boundaries. “Uncle Pao, I owe you the gratitude of being recognized for my worth. If not for your support back then, the Lin Haoran of today would not exist. I will certainly give you this favor.”

Pao Yue-kong felt a little relieved.

But Lin Haoran changed the subject, his eyes turning sharp. “However, business competition is like a battle between two armies. Once the daggers are drawn, there’s no room for mercy.

“Mr. Li’s present outcome is the fruit of his past actions. When he attempted the ‘snake swallowing an elephant’ move on Hutchison Whampoa, he should have considered the risk of choking. When he colluded with the British-owned companies to suppress me, did he ever show any mercy?”

Pao Yue-kong listened quietly, not rushing to speak.

Lin Haoran continued, “I have invested a great deal of effort into Cheung Kong Holdings, from secretly acquiring shares at the beginning to reaching this point step by step. Every move was made with caution, and I’ve paid a great price. It’s impossible for me to give up just like that.

“Unless, he pays the price he should. I can give him a plan. As for the terms, it’s better if he comes to discuss them directly. I offered him terms yesterday, but unfortunately, he wouldn’t listen. I think he should have calmed down by now!”

He wasn’t interested in a controlling stake in Cheung Kong Holdings, but he was determined to make Cheung Kong completely withdraw from Hutchison Whampoa.

The 40% stake in Hutchison Whampoa held by Cheung Kong would naturally be taken over by him, and he needed to acquire it at a low price.

This alone would make Cheung Kong pay a hefty price.

Other than that, he didn’t plan to completely divest his shares in Cheung Kong Holdings.

He could reduce his holdings, but he must retain a portion.

After all, he knew Li Jiacheng was genuinely capable. Holding Cheung Kong shares and letting Li Jiacheng make money for him was a no-lose proposition.

Most importantly, holding a certain number of shares and a seat on Cheung Kong’s Board of Directors would serve as a constraint and check on Li Jiacheng!

This time, the two sides had completely dropped all pretenses.

To prevent Li Jiacheng from rising again in the future and coming after him, he could use his shares in Cheung Kong and Hutchison and his board seat to effectively suppress him.

It would also let his rival know that he couldn’t rest easy, that a Sword of Damocles was always hanging over his head.

Pao Yue-kong nodded slightly. He understood Lin Haoran’s meaning and was well aware of the stakes involved.

Although Lin Haoran was mindful of old feelings, he would not concede easily in a contest of business interests.

He pondered for a moment before speaking slowly, “Haoran, I understand what you mean. I will relay your words to Li Jiacheng exactly as you said them. As for his decision, that will be up to him.”

Lin Haoran stood up and said with a smile, “Uncle Pao, thank you for your understanding. I hope you can help coordinate and mediate so this matter can be resolved properly.

“I don’t want to see Hong Kong’s business community fall into chaos either. I never thought I would have a business dispute with Mr. Li, but you’re well aware of the recent situation. I wasn’t the one who started this.

“I’ve always been this way: I don’t bother those who don’t bother me; but if someone attacks me, I will make them pay the price.”

Pao Yue-kong gave Lin Haoran a deep look. The young man before him spoke in a calm tone, even with a smile, but the decisiveness and power in his words were undeniable.

He felt as though he could already see the landscape of Hong Kong’s business world for the next few decades being quietly established on this ordinary day.

In the past, Pao Yue-kong had held high hopes for Li Jiacheng. After all, he could see that the man’s business foresight was in no way inferior to his own.

But when facing Lin Haoran, Pao Yue-kong felt that Li Jiacheng’s actions had been somewhat muddled.

A moment of confusion had cost Brother Li more than half of the foundation he had painstakingly built. Whether he could ever return to the pinnacle of Hong Kong’s business world remained an unknown.

“I understand. I will convey your meaning word for word, and I hope Brother Li can see the situation clearly and make the wisest choice,” Pao Yue-kong said, standing up and shaking hands with Lin Haoran.

After seeing Pao Yue-kong off, Lin Haoran stood alone before the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing down at the forest of skyscrapers on both sides of Victoria Harbour.

His expression was calm and unwavering, but deep in his eyes glinted the confident light of someone in complete control.

===TRANSLation ENDS===

{“characters”:{“陈启宗”:“Chen Qizong”,“阿宗”:“Zong”},“locations”:{},“organizations”:{},“terms_and_jargon”:{“元老”:“veteran / founding member”,“句句诛心”:“every word strikes at the heart”,“拱手让人”:“to hand over meekly”,“和事佬”:“peacemaker / mediator”,“图穷匕见”:“the dagger is revealed when the map is unrolled; the real intention is revealed”,“薄面”:“for my sake”,“亲兄弟都明算账”:“even brothers keep clear accounts”,“人不犯我, 我不犯人; 人若犯我, 我定要让他付出应有的代价”:“I don’t bother those who don’t bother me; but if someone attacks me, I will make them pay the price”,“田地”:“plight / predicament”}}

Chapter 750: The Governor, Completely Outmaneuvered by Lin Haoran!

Government House, in the office.

After seeing off Mr. Tyron, the new Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank, Sir Murray MacLehose sat back down on the sofa.

He crossed his legs and took a long drag from his cigar.

Evidently, he was currently contemplating how to handle the situation.

MacLehose had originally thought that with Standard Chartered Bank as a backer, combined with Li Jiacheng’s own capital, he would still possess considerable strength, even if he was destined to lose against Lin Haoran.

Once Li Jiacheng and Lin Haoran had fought to a mutually destructive outcome, he could then intervene at the opportune moment to seize the greatest initiative.

But what was the result?

After just one press conference, Li Jiacheng was defeated so quickly, so completely!

He was utterly powerless to fight back!

MacLehose exhaled a thick ring of smoke, his brow tightly furrowed.

His original plan was to use the clash of two tigers to balance the situation, reap benefits from the conflict, and even take the opportunity to discipline Lin Haoran, who had been gaining too much momentum in recent years and was showing signs of slipping from his control.

But now, Lin Haoran had acted like a thunderbolt, shattering Li Jiacheng’s defenses almost overnight. Four of his directors had switched sides at a critical moment, public opinion was completely one-sided, and even Standard Chartered Bank was starting to back down.

This had completely disrupted his rhythm.

“This Lin Haoran,” MacLehose murmured to himself, a hint of unspoken apprehension in his voice, “his methods are too ruthless, too swift.”

He realized he might have underestimated the young man’s power and determination.

What Lin Haoran had displayed was not just immense capital, but also a precise grasp of human psychology and a near-ruthless execution.

The power he had wielded behind the scenes to make Li Jiacheng’s core partners turn against him and to cause Standard Chartered Bank’s ambiguous stance was likely far greater than he had previously estimated.

MacLehose took a deep draw from his cigar, lost in profound deliberation.

Should he continue to intervene forcefully?

To confront the ascendant Lin Haoran head-on for Li Jiacheng, who had clearly lost his momentum and was even saddled with enormous debt?

Was it worth it?

Both Li Jiacheng and Lin Haoran were Chinese.

To the British, these Hong Kong Chinese were not their own people.

While the stability of Hong Kong was important, what mattered more was maintaining the efficiency of their rule and their relationship with the truly powerful.

Li Jiacheng was a useful pawn, but now that he was clearly a sacrificial pawn…

Helping Li Jiacheng was indeed not worth it.

Moreover, although Lin Haoran’s methods were sharp, his acquisition of Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa had no major flaws from a business rules perspective. To some extent, he was even “cleaning up” the financial risks brought on by Li Jiacheng’s overexpansion.

To forcibly intervene with administrative means would be unjustified and would give others leverage, damaging the Hong Kong government’s image as a “free market.”

But just as Mr. Tyron from Standard Chartered Bank had said, Government House really should rein in Lin Haoran’s development in Hong Kong.

Otherwise, he could truly reach a point where he held absolute power in Hong Kong.

This was not in the British government’s interests in Hong Kong.

After long deliberation, MacLehose stubbed out his cigar, his mind made up.

He picked up the phone on his desk and dialed a number—it was Lin Haoran’s private line.

“Mr. Governor, good afternoon!” Lin Haoran’s cheerful laughter came through the phone. It was clear he had recognized the call was from the Governor’s office.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Lin. I trust you are free now? I’d like to invite you to Government House for a meeting. There is something I wish to discuss with you,” MacLehose said in a heavy tone.

“Mr. Governor’s kind invitation is my honor. Give me half an hour. I’ll arrange my work and be right over,” Lin Haoran’s voice remained cheerful.

“Very well. Thank you for your trouble, Mr. Lin,” MacLehose responded.

Connaught Centre, 51st floor.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Haoran frowned.

For Governor MacLehose to call him at such a sensitive time, it was undoubtedly related to Li Jiacheng.

He had anticipated this.

The brief silence in the office was broken by Ma Shimin’s remark.

“It’s happening! Quicker than expected. It seems our press conference has completely forced Government House’s hand. MacLehose has to talk to you now,” Ma Shimin said, sitting opposite Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Ma, do you think the Governor will side with Li Jiacheng this time?” Lin Haoran asked with a smile.

An Englishman would understand an Englishman best.

“No. If Sir Murray truly wanted to help Li Jiacheng, he would have made a move yesterday, or he simply wouldn’t have let us hold that press conference so easily. When Mr. Li Jiacheng went to see him yesterday, he didn’t summon you to Government House. But today, not long after our press conference ended, he calls you immediately. This in itself reveals his wait-and-see attitude. What he’s worried about now isn’t whether Li Jiacheng falls, but who our blade will point to next, how forceful it will be, and whether we’ll truly form a monopoly as Li Jiacheng accused, disrupting order, touching certain red lines, and harming the interests of the British authorities. Unsurprisingly, his original plan was likely to watch the two of us, two major Chinese powers, clash, and wait until we were both battered and bruised before stepping in. But now, due to our overwhelming advantage, Mr. Li is almost powerless to resist, so he has no choice but to show his face!”

Ma Shimin’s analysis was precise and calm, exposing MacLehose’s true intentions and his current awkward position.

Hearing this, a knowing smile touched Lin Haoran’s lips. “So, you’re saying he’s not here to save Li Jiacheng, but to put me in my place? Or perhaps to test my bottom line and see if he can get a piece of the pie while maintaining his balancing act?”

“Precisely, Boss,” Ma Shimin nodded. “Government House needs to confirm the boundaries of your ambition and whether you’re willing to play within the ‘rules of the game’—especially the rules they’ve established. What they fear more is the emergence of a commercial tycoon who is completely out of control and might even challenge the authority of Government House.”

Lin Haoran nodded. He understood this point.

Of course, he wasn’t foolish enough to confront MacLehose head-on. After all, the old Chinese saying that merchants don’t fight with officials had its reasons.

However, Lin Haoran didn’t need to be overly subservient when facing MacLehose either. His commercial empire wasn’t just in Hong Kong; he also had vast assets overseas.

A normal response would suffice.

“So, this trip is about reassuring him while also making him understand that cooperation is the only option,” Lin Haoran stood up, straightened his suit, and continued with a smile, “I’ll let him know that a stable, prosperous Hong Kong that maintains good communication with him is what best serves my interests. My goal has never been to challenge anyone, but to build a more efficient commercial empire. And an efficient empire often requires a stable and supportive environment.”

Ma Shimin nodded in agreement. “Exactly. A proper display of strength and determination, while also expressing respect and a willingness to cooperate, is the best strategy for dealing with a political figure like MacLehose.”

Half an hour later, Lin Haoran’s Rolls-Royce drove into Government House.

He stepped out of the car with composure and, guided by a secretary, once again walked into MacLehose’s office.

“Mr. Lin, please have a seat.” MacLehose gestured to the sofa and sat down opposite him, getting straight to the point. “Let’s not beat around the bush. Regarding Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa, you’ve already seized the absolute initiative. I invited you here today because I hope you won’t take things too far. Hong Kong is a highly international city, and Government House does not wish to see its business world monopolized by you, Mr. Lin.”

Lin Haoran sat down calmly, a humble yet unflinching smile on his face. “Mr. Governor, you exaggerate. I wouldn’t dare claim the word ‘monopoly.’ The Hong Kong market is free and open; the capable take the lead. All my business activities strictly adhere to laws and regulations and can withstand any investigation. Besides, a healthy competitive environment is equally beneficial to all my companies. I have no motive to destroy it.”

He paused slightly, his gaze frank as he looked at MacLehose. “I understand the Governor’s concerns. Please rest assured, my goal is not to dominate the market but to create a more efficient and internationally competitive corporate group through optimization and integration, eliminating previously accumulated financial risks. This will not only secure employment for current staff but, in the long run, will also enhance the resilience and vitality of Hong Kong’s overall economy. A healthier, stronger business entity is all benefits and no harm to Hong Kong’s tax revenue, employment, and international reputation.”

Listening, MacLehose instinctively picked up the coffee beside him and took a sip.

Lin Haoran’s response was, once again, impeccable, positioning himself on the high ground of “rules,” “efficiency,” and “common interest.”

“Efficiency and international competitiveness are certainly important,” MacLehose crossed his legs, his tone hardening as he tried to get to the core of the matter, “but excessive concentration in itself weakens competition. Government House has a responsibility to maintain the market’s diversity and balance. Mr. Lin, how can you guarantee that you won’t use your market dominance to harm the interests of other small and medium-sized enterprises and consumers? Take the recent commercial competition between your Wellcome supermarket and ParknShop supermarket. Although I did not intervene, your price war has indeed disrupted other small and medium-sized enterprises in the same industry. Your business empire is already vast enough. Continuing to expand will bring no benefit to the entire Hong Kong business community.”

When Lin Haoran heard MacLehose mention the price war between Wellcome and ParknShop, his face showed no trace of panic. Instead, a helpless yet sincere smile appeared.

“Mr. Governor, your mention of Wellcome and ParknShop is a perfect example that illustrates the nature of market competition and the benefits of healthy competition,” Lin Haoran responded in a calm tone.

“Oh? Benefits? As far as I know, many small and medium-sized retailers are already complaining incessantly about their inability to survive. Many small supermarkets have simply closed their doors and suspended operations this past month to mitigate losses,” MacLehose raised an eyebrow, trying to seize this opening.

“In the short term, price competition will indeed put pressure on some less efficient operators. This is the unavoidable growing pain of market metabolism.”

Lin Haoran admitted it frankly but then changed the subject. “But please look at the other side. This competition has forced all participants, including ourselves, to do everything possible to improve operational efficiency, optimize the supply chain, and reduce costs. Who benefits in the end? The general public of Hong Kong! They can buy better quality goods at lower prices.”

He said with a sincere look, “Furthermore, Mr. Governor, true market competition has never been, and should never be, about protecting the weak and inefficient. It is about encouraging all enterprises to constantly innovate and improve through survival of the fittest, thereby raising the standards of the entire industry and its ability to serve the public. The competition between Wellcome and ParknShop is doing precisely that. We are investing heavily in modern logistics centers and introducing advanced inventory management systems. These investments will ultimately translate into a baseline improvement in efficiency for the entire retail industry.”

“As for the small and medium-sized enterprises you’re concerned about,” Lin Haoran continued, “I believe the key to solving the problem is not to restrict the development of efficient enterprises, but to help SMEs find their own niche for survival or enhance their own competitiveness. For example, specialized operations, improving service experience, utilizing new technologies—these are fundamental solutions, not simply restricting market competition.”

He had once again skillfully shifted the focus of the problem from “restricting large enterprises” to “helping SMEs transform and upgrade.”

MacLehose found himself being led by the other man’s logic yet again.

He couldn’t refute the argument of “improving efficiency and benefiting the public,” much less object to the proposal of “helping SMEs improve themselves.”

Seeing this, Lin Haoran decided to strike while the iron is hot, offering more concrete commitments. “Mr. Governor, to completely allay your concerns, I can make a commitment here: First, the competition between Wellcome and ParknShop will strictly follow the principle of fairness. There will be absolutely no malicious dumping below cost. Second, I will instruct my team to proactively communicate with industry associations to discuss establishing healthier industry competition guidelines. Third, I am willing to support Government House or an independent third-party organization in establishing a market health monitoring mechanism to ensure competition remains on a benign track.”

This series of concrete commitments not only showed his sincerity in cooperation but also made his regulatory proposals specific and actionable, completely shutting MacLehose’s mouth.

MacLehose leaned back on the sofa, silent.

He discovered that in front of this young man, all his concerns were defused in a more high-level, more constructive manner.

The other party wasn’t defending; he was proactively planning and leading the solutions.

How was he supposed to discipline him?

This young man was truly not easy to deal with!

He took a deep breath, finally abandoning the idea of disciplining and restricting him. Recalling the request of Standard Chartered Bank’s Taipan, Mr. Tyron, he switched to a direct and straightforward proposal. “Mr. Lin, let me be blunt. Regarding the shareholder battle between you and Mr. Li Jiacheng, I hope you can both take a step back. I trust you’ve gained considerable benefits from this commercial competition. To quit while you’re ahead is the path to longevity. Leaving Mr. Li Jiacheng a way out is also leaving yourself some leeway. Burying the hatchet will be more beneficial to the harmony and stability of Hong Kong’s business community.”

He was trying to use the greater good of “harmony and stability” to pressure him. This was his last resort.

Hearing this, the smile on Lin Haoran’s face faded slightly, but he remained composed.

He began to speak, “Mr. Governor should know that from the very beginning, I never provoked them. Just like with Jardine Matheson & Co. and HSBC, I never initiated anything. They were the ones who thought I was an easy target, forcing me to retaliate. As for Mr. Li Jiacheng, I have always held a respectful attitude towards this business senior. But he targeted me again and again, leaving me no choice but to fight back.”

MacLehose fell silent.

He was naturally aware of what Lin Haoran said.

As the Governor of Hong Kong, with the most powerful intelligence sources, very few things he wanted to know could escape his notice.

Lin Haoran continued, “Now, I am in a position of absolute advantage. If you were to ask me to make a unilateral concession at this point, not only would it be impossible to justify to the shareholders and partners who trust and support me, but it would also send the wrong signal to the market: that as long as one’s methods are tough enough and one’s background is deep enough, one can force an opponent to compromise even after unprovoked provocation. That, I’m afraid, is what would truly damage Hong Kong’s business environment and the spirit of the rule of law.”

MacLehose’s brows knitted tightly. He had expressed his objective so directly, yet Lin Haoran was refusing to give him face?

Lin Haoran acutely caught the flash of displeasure on MacLehose’s face.

He naturally understood that at this point, he had to give the other man a way out. Even if he was in the right, completely offending the supreme ruler of Hong Kong was by no means a wise move.

He changed his tone, which became extremely sincere, even carrying a hint of reluctance. “However, Mr. Governor, for you to personally step in to mediate, for you to go to such lengths for the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong… if I, Lin Haoran, were to remain stubborn, I would be far too oblivious to the bigger picture.”

MacLehose’s knitted brows relaxed slightly. He looked up at Lin Haoran, awaiting his next words.

Lin Haoran looked at MacLehose with sincere eyes. “I can make a concession, but not because I believe I’ve done anything wrong. It is out of respect for you and for the stability of Hong Kong’s overall situation. I hope that my concession can be exchanged for true reconciliation and lasting peace, not just a temporary truce.”

He paused for a moment before stating his conditions. “I can give up seeking a controlling stake in Cheung Kong Holdings, but I need Cheung Kong Holdings to sell me its Hutchison Whampoa shares at a reasonable price, not at the secondary market stock price. This is something I need to discuss with Mr. Li Jiacheng. If he does not concede, then I’m sorry, I can only continue to seek a controlling stake in Cheung Kong Holdings. This is not out of disrespect to you, Mr. Governor, but because I need to be accountable to myself. The business world is like a battlefield. I have invested enormous resources in this commercial competition; I must have something to show for it. I understand and respect your desire to quell this matter, Mr. Governor, but please understand my position. If Mr. Li is willing to transfer the Hutchison Whampoa shares at a reasonable price, allowing me to successfully complete the strategic integration of Hutchison Whampoa, then I can consider not increasing my shareholding in Cheung Kong Holdings, maintaining only my current shares, and supporting Mr. Li’s continued leadership of Cheung Kong. So, for your sake, Mr. Governor, I can give Mr. Li an opportunity to talk. But the final result will depend on whether Mr. Li is willing to seize this genuine opportunity to achieve ‘harmony and stability.’”

Lin Haoran’s words both gave MacLehose face and pursued his own interests.

For him, he had already promised Pao Yue-kong that he could give the other party a chance to concede.

In general, whether he would continue to seek a controlling stake in Cheung Kong Holdings depended entirely on Li Jiacheng.

He had no interest in a controlling stake in Cheung Kong Holdings himself, but if the other party didn’t concede, he wouldn’t mind taking control of Cheung Kong Holdings first and then, as the controller of Cheung Kong, selling its Hutchison Whampoa shares to Galaxy Securities!

Of course, he would never say this to MacLehose.

Right now, to outsiders, his goal was still to seek dual control over both Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa.

For him to give up control of Cheung Kong Holdings already seemed like a huge concession.

His goal was actually simple now, and his demands were not excessive.

First, Cheung Kong Holdings must voluntarily give up its forty percent stake, and at a low price, allowing him to gain complete control over Hutchison Whampoa.

Second, he would continue to hold a certain amount of shares in Cheung Kong Holdings to prevent Li Jiacheng from striking back in the future, and also to have Li Jiacheng make money for him!

However, this was undoubtedly difficult for Li Jiacheng to accept, especially having Cheung Kong Holdings sell its Hutchison Whampoa shares at a low price.

Furthermore, he certainly wouldn’t want Lin Haoran to continue holding shares in Cheung Kong Holdings. To Li Jiacheng, that was like a time bomb ready to explode at any moment.

But now, he had no other choice.

“This is the greatest concession I can make, based on my utmost respect for you, Mr. Governor, and for the stability of Hong Kong.”

Lin Haoran’s tone was heavy, filled with a sincerity that suggested he was parting with something cherished reluctantly. “Giving up the controlling stake in Cheung Kong means that the return on the huge capital and strategic planning I invested in acquiring its shares will be greatly diminished. But I believe it is worth it for the sake of long-term peace and stability.”

He skillfully cast himself in the image of someone sacrificing short-term interests for the greater good.

MacLehose listened, his expression complicated.

He certainly knew Lin Haoran wasn’t lying. Giving up control of Cheung Kong was indeed a huge concession—at least on the surface.

This dissipated much of the displeasure he had felt from being refused earlier, and he even developed a sense of favorable impression towards Lin Haoran for being “aware of the bigger picture.”

MacLehose’s tone softened considerably, even taking on a hint of appreciation. “Mr. Lin, it was not easy for you to make such a decision. I understand your sacrifice. Rest assured, I will speak with Li Jiacheng personally and make him understand that this is his last and best chance. He must accept this reality and use Hutchison Whampoa to secure Cheung Kong’s survival. As the losing party, he needs to pay the price he deserves. This is very reasonable.”

“Thank you, Mr. Governor, for your understanding and support. I look forward to reaching an agreement with Mr. Li so that this storm can subside soon, and everyone can focus their energy on business development and work together for the prosperity of Hong Kong,” Lin Haoran said solemnly.

The meeting concluded in a relatively harmonious atmosphere.

MacLehose felt he had successfully fulfilled his duty as a mediator, securing a chance of survival for Li Jiacheng while also maintaining a veneer of “harmony and stability.”

As for Lin Haoran, he had used a seemingly huge concession to perfectly conceal his true strategic objective—Hutchison Whampoa—and had successfully shifted the final pressure and moral responsibility onto Li Jiacheng.

Leaving Government House and settling into his car, an imperceptible curve appeared at the corners of Lin Haoran’s mouth.

In this conversation, Governor MacLehose had been played right into his hands, moving along at the rhythm and in the direction he had preset.

MacLehose’s initial intention to discipline and counterbalance him had completely failed in the face of Lin Haoran’s well-reasoned, carrot-and-stick approach. Instead, he had become a messenger, helping Lin Haoran deliver the final ultimatum to Li Jiacheng.

Chapter 751: Mr. Li, You Have No Choice!

Lin Haoran guessed that after this “mediation” by Government House, Li Jiacheng’s last shred of wishful thinking would be completely shattered.

Even the Governor had approved Lin Haoran’s demands. Li Jiacheng had no choice but to accept.

“Back to Connaught Centre,” Lin Haoran instructed Li Weidong, his voice calm.

The car pulled away smoothly from Government House.

Lin Haoran leaned back in the comfortable rear seat and closed his eyes to rest.

Now, all he had to do was wait for Sir Murray MacLehose to speak with Li Jiacheng, and then for news from Li’s side.

The business war that had shaken Hong Kong was finally drawing to a close.

Lin Haoran didn’t know when Li Jiacheng would contact him, but it was the other party who was in a hurry now, not him.

Therefore, after successfully navigating the meeting with the Governor without any trouble, he felt quite serene.

It was as if everything was in his grasp.

Back at Connaught Centre, Ma Shimin was still waiting for him.

Seeing his boss return, he quickly asked about the meeting.

“Everything went smoothly!” Lin Haoran laughed.

He then briefly recounted his conversation with the Governor.

After hearing Lin Haoran’s account, a look of sincere admiration appeared on Ma Shimin’s face.

“Boss, your handling of the situation was simply masterful. You not only completely neutralized the Governor’s attempt to discipline you but also turned him into our intermediary, cleverly shifting the final decision and pressure onto Li Jiacheng.

This ‘to retreat in order to advance’ strategy, while seemingly giving up the controlling stake in Cheung Kong, has actually secured our core objective—Hutchison Whampoa.

As for Cheung Kong Holdings, we don’t have to give it up entirely, just stop increasing our shareholding. And on top of that, you made the Governor feel we made a huge sacrifice, earning his favor. Brilliant, truly brilliant!” Ma Shimin praised.

Lin Haoran smiled faintly, walked to the large circular window, and looked down at the view of Victoria Harbour.

“When dealing with these politicians, especially the rulers of a colony, what they value most isn’t absolute fairness and justice, but ‘stability’ and ‘control.’

They want everything within their grasp and in balance. Li Jiacheng lost control, he challenged the rules and failed, so he went from being a useful pawn to a problem.

As for me, although I’ve been advancing aggressively and could become uncontrollable, I’ve always acted within the rules and demonstrated greater strength and a more ‘cooperative’ stance.

Comparing the two, Sir Murray MacLehose knew which choice to make. His so-called ‘mediation’ was essentially a display of power and a way to maintain order.

I satisfied his psychological need, gave him a way out and the credit for resolving the issue, so naturally, he’d lean towards us. As for Li Jiacheng’s feelings? That was never Sir Murray MacLehose’s primary concern.”

Ma Shimin nodded in deep agreement. “Indeed. So, all we have to do now is wait for Mr. Li Jiacheng’s response. I imagine Governor MacLehose’s call has already reached Mr. Li’s office by now.”

Meanwhile, in the Chinese Building, at the headquarters of Cheung Kong Holdings.

The atmosphere in Li Jiacheng’s office was so heavy it was almost suffocating.

He hadn’t gone to the Hutchison Whampoa Building today.

He had already given up all hope of retaining his controlling stake in Hutchison Whampoa.

Li Jiacheng sat alone on the sofa, flipping through some pending documents for Cheung Kong, but his mind was not on them at all.

The betrayal of the four major shareholders was incredibly ironic, confirming that everyone had turned against him.

Now, his only hope lay with the Governor.

Pao Yue-kong had already called to tell him that as long as he was willing to make a significant concession, Lin Haoran wasn’t dead set on taking control of Cheung Kong Holdings.

However, the nature of that “significant concession” was rather thought-provoking.

In the end, he would still have to negotiate with Lin Haoran.

Just as he was feeling incredibly agitated, the phone on his desk rang.

He glanced at the number on the display; he remembered it was the number for the Governor’s office.

As if clutching at a last straw, Li Jiacheng immediately snatched up the receiver.

“Hello? Mr. Governor!”

Sir Murray MacLehose’s calm voice came from the other end of the line. “Mr. Li, I’ve just spoken with Mr. Lin Haoran.”

Li Jiacheng’s heart leaped into his throat as he waited nervously for what came next.

“He has agreed to make a concession. He will no longer seek a controlling stake in Cheung Kong Holdings.”

Hearing this, Li Jiacheng felt a wave of relief wash over him, so much so that he almost wanted to weep with joy. It seemed the Governor’s influence had worked after all!

However, Sir Murray MacLehose’s next words were like a bucket of ice water, completely extinguishing the flicker of hope he had just felt.

“However, he requires Cheung Kong Holdings to transfer all of its shares in Hutchison Whampoa to him at a ‘reasonable price’. This is his precondition for a truce.

Furthermore, although Lin Haoran will not pursue increasing his shares in Cheung Kong Holdings, he demands to keep the shares he currently holds. Mr. Li, this is the best outcome you can hope for right now.

Accept it, and Cheung Kong can be saved. You can remain Chairman of Cheung Kong. When you have the funds in the future, you can still increase your shareholding to a level you feel secure with.

Otherwise…”

Sir Murray MacLehose didn’t finish his sentence, but the warning was self-evident.

Li Jiacheng’s hand trembled as he held the receiver, his face turning deathly pale.

“‘A reasonable price’?” he repeated, his voice dry. “Mr. Governor, this… this is taking advantage of a crisis! Those Hutchison Whampoa shares are one of Cheung Kong’s finest assets. At the current market price…”

Li Jiacheng naturally understood the implications. This “reasonable price” would be whatever Lin Haoran said it was. How could he accept that?

Moreover, and most importantly, allowing Lin Haoran to continue holding shares in Cheung Kong Holdings was tantamount to a time bomb.

With his current equity in Cheung Kong, Lin Haoran would have significant voting rights on the Board of Directors.

If the other party decided to oppose him, then even as Chairman of the Board, he would find it difficult to maintain full control of the company.

This was no different from planting a landmine right next to his heart!

What he had originally hoped for was to give up Hutchison Whampoa, but sell the shares at the normal market price, so that Cheung Kong’s losses would at least not be so severe.

In addition, he wanted Lin Haoran to return the Cheung Kong shares he held, which would ensure his absolute control over the company.

He simply could not feel at ease with Lin Haoran holding shares in Cheung Kong!

But now, what was this?

“Mr. Li!” Sir Murray MacLehose interrupted, his tone becoming stern and cold. “You need to be clear about your current situation. Without Lin Haoran’s concession, you stand to lose not just your Hutchison Whampoa shares, but the entirety of Cheung Kong Holdings!

This isn’t a negotiation. This is me telling you the price that must be paid to maintain business stability in Hong Kong. You started this fight, you lost, and now you must bear the consequences.

This is my final opinion.”

The silence on the other end was filled with an undeniable authority.

Li Jiacheng felt a bone-chilling cold creep from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.

He understood now. Although Government House had intervened to speak with Lin Haoran, it was only as a favor to Standard Chartered Bank, not to him.

Sir Murray MacLehose was not mediating; he was issuing a final directive.

The so-called “way out” he offered was to trade Cheung Kong’s most valuable asset for a chance to live on borrowed time.

“I… I understand, Mr. Governor,” Li Jiacheng said, his voice filled with weariness and despair. “Thank you. I will consider it carefully.”

After hanging up, Li Jiacheng slumped back onto the sofa as if all his strength had been drained.

The setting sun shone into the office, but all he felt was darkness.

He had lost. Utterly lost.

He had lost not only to Lin Haoran’s sharp business tactics but also to this cold, calculating reality.

The office was deathly silent, save for the ticking of the antique wall clock, each tick striking his shattered pride and ambition.

After a long while, he sighed and instructed his secretary waiting outside in a voice so hoarse it was barely audible, “Get me Mr. Lin Haoran on the phone.”

At that moment, he seemed to have aged ten years in an instant. All his shrewdness, sharpness, and unyielding spirit had vanished, leaving only the dejection of someone completely broken by reality.

He knew that the time had come for him to personally put a humiliating end to the war he had started. He couldn’t wait any longer. Waiting would bring him no benefits; in fact, his losses might even grow.

The “beep… beep…” of the dial tone was piercing to his ears.

He knew Lin Haoran would make an exorbitant demand, but he could only hope it wouldn’t be too outrageous.

…

At six-thirty in the evening, the Hong Kong sky was stained a somber golden-red by the setting sun, but the lights were still bright in the 51st-floor office of Connaught Centre.

Lin Haoran stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the nascent neon glow of Central, his heart as calm as still water.

He was waiting for someone, a business magnate he had only ever seen in the news in his past life—Li Jiacheng.

Just half an hour ago, as expected, he had received a call from Li Jiacheng.

On the phone, Li Jiacheng’s tone was no longer angry. Instead, it had returned to its previous humility and calmness, though tinged with an undeniable weariness and hoarseness.

He had proposed coming to Connaught Centre in person to discuss the terms of their truce.

Lin Haoran had agreed straightforwardly, without a moment’s hesitation.

He understood this was Li Jiacheng’s last attempt to preserve a sliver of dignity—coming to him proactively was better than being summoned or receiving an ultimatum over the phone.

It also meant that Li Jiacheng had completely given up resistance and was ready to accept reality.

“Boss, the security captain just said that Mr. Li’s car has parked in the basement garage of Connaught Centre. He’s on his way up,” Ma Shimin reported, coming over from the adjacent office.

“Good.” Lin Haoran nodded slightly, his expression still calm. “Mr. Ma, please go and greet him at the elevator. Remember, be courteous.”

“Understood, Boss.” Ma Shimin understood and quickly walked towards the private elevator lobby.

Even though he was an opponent, and a defeated one at that, they had to show him respect on the surface. This was the magnanimity of a victor, and a basic rule within the circle of Hong Kong’s Chinese merchants.

A few minutes later, there was a gentle knock on the office door.

Ma Shimin led Li Jiacheng in.

After just over a day, the once triumphant “Superman Li” looked as if his very spirit had been drained.

His suit was still perfectly pressed and his hair impeccably combed, but a gloom that was hard to dispel clouded his features. His eyes were dim, and his steps, no longer steady, carried a heavy weariness.

He tried hard to maintain his usual composure, but his slightly stooped back and stiff smile betrayed the immense pressure and humiliation he felt inside.

“Mr. Lin.” Li Jiacheng’s voice was a little dry as he greeted him first.

“Mr. Li, welcome, welcome! Please, have a seat!” Lin Haoran greeted him warmly, his smile sincere yet measured—not so overly enthusiastic as to seem false, nor so cold as to appear arrogant.

He led Li Jiacheng to the sofa in the reception area.

“You’re too kind, Mr. Lin.” Li Jiacheng forced a smile and sat down, his hands resting awkwardly on his knees.

He glanced at Ma Shimin standing half a step behind Lin Haoran, and his feelings grew even more mixed.

This former executive of Jardine Matheson & Co. was now one of Lin Haoran’s most capable generals. The sight was particularly jarring.

Li Jiacheng and Ma Shimin had actually known each other for a long time. Back when Ma Shimin was the Sales Supervisor at Jardine Matheson’s air conditioning subsidiary, he was responsible for promoting products to Hong Kong’s property developers.

After speaking with Li Jiacheng, Li Jiacheng had recognized Ma Shimin’s business insight and international perspective, gradually coming to see him as a partner.

Later, when Ma Shimin left Jardine Matheson & Co. to co-found a consulting firm in Singapore with a descendant of the Rothschild family, Li Jiacheng had wanted to seize the opportunity to persuade him to join Cheung Kong Holdings as a professional manager.

Unfortunately, Lin Haoran had gotten to him first, and he had missed out on this talented individual.

Ma Shimin’s assistant silently served three cups of hot tea and then excused himself.

Ma Shimin sat quietly on a single armchair to the side. He didn’t leave; Lin Haoran had asked him to stay.

A brief, suffocating silence filled the room.

The fragrant steam from the tea did little to dispel the heavy atmosphere.

In the end, it was Li Jiacheng who took a deep breath and broke the silence. He knew he was the one suing for peace; the initiative was long out of his hands.

“Mr. Lin,” he began, his voice dry and deliberately calm, though it couldn’t hide his underlying fatigue. “I’ve come today regarding the matter of Cheung Kong’s and Hutchison Whampoa’s shares. Mr. Governor has likely relayed your intentions.”

Lin Haoran picked up his teacup, blew gently on the surface, and said calmly, “Sir Murray MacLehose did indeed have a constructive conversation with me, and I expressed my willingness to consider the bigger picture and seek a truce.”

He put a slight emphasis on the words “consider the bigger picture,” as if he were the one making a huge concession.

Li Jiacheng’s mouth twitched almost imperceptibly. He suppressed his humiliation and forced himself to speak. “Yes, thank you, Mr. Lin, for this opportunity. Cheung Kong is willing to accept a truce. We agree to transfer our shares in Hutchison Whampoa and to accept you onto Cheung Kong’s Board of Directors.”

He spoke extremely slowly, each word as heavy as a mountain.

“However,” he changed the subject, looking at Lin Haoran with a final glimmer of hope, “regarding the transfer price… Mr. Lin, Hutchison Whampoa’s assets, especially the plots of land and the port, are quality assets. Their value is plain for all to see. Although the market price has fluctuated because of the acquisition battle, the net asset value is still a relatively fair benchmark. Could we perhaps use the pre-conflict per-share net asset value as the basis for the transaction? This is the absolute limit of what Cheung Kong can bear. Any lower…”

He paused, unable to say the rest, but the meaning was clear: any lower would be a crippling blow, an act of wiping them out completely.

This was the most important objective of his visit—to negotiate the price.

Even if he could only gain a single penny, it would salvage a sliver of face for him and preserve a bit more strength for Cheung Kong.

Lin Haoran listened quietly, showing no impatience.

When Li Jiacheng finished, he set down his cup, leaned forward slightly, and looked at him sincerely. “Mr. Li, I understand your difficulties.”

Li Jiacheng’s heart tightened. Usually, an opening like that was not followed by good news.

As expected, Lin Haoran continued, “But, Mr. Li, you must also understand my position. I did not start this conflict. I was forced to respond, and I have invested enormous resources and credibility. The market is volatile right now, and Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price is inflated. If we trade at the current market price, or even the net asset value, I would be paying too high a price. I couldn’t justify it to myself; it would make me look like a sucker in Hong Kong.”

Li Jiacheng’s heart sank.

“Besides,” Lin Haoran’s tone remained calm but carried an irrefutable logic, “Cheung Kong’s current financial pressure is largely due to its previous aggressive expansion and the costs of this acquisition battle. I cannot be expected to bear that risk entirely. That would be unfair and contrary to business principles.”

“Then what you mean is…” Li Jiacheng’s voice now held a faint tremor.

“My proposal is,” Lin Haoran said clearly, “to take Hutchison’s market capitalization before this conflict and apply a certain discount to reflect Hutchison’s current special circumstances and the actual risk inherent in these shares. I believe a fifty percent discount is a relatively fair price.”

Fifty percent!

Li Jiacheng felt his vision go dark as blood rushed to his head.

Although it was worse than the worst-case scenario he had anticipated from the Governor’s words, he had thought at most it would be an eighty percent valuation.

But fifty percent… this was blatant robbery!

Before this conflict, Hutchison Whampoa’s market capitalization was around ten billion Hong Kong dollars. Cheung Kong Holdings held a forty percent stake, worth at least four billion Hong Kong dollars.

But at a fifty percent discount, that forty percent stake would only be worth two billion Hong Kong dollars.

This meant Cheung Kong Holdings would lose over two billion Hong Kong dollars in asset value out of thin air!

“Fifty percent?” Li Jiacheng almost lost his voice. He could no longer remain calm, the color draining from his face. “Mr. Lin! With all due respect, that price… that’s practically sucking the lifeblood out of Cheung Kong! How am I supposed to explain this to Cheung Kong’s other shareholders? How do I explain it to the banks? Cheung Kong will be greatly weakened by this, it might never recover! Is this the ‘truce’ you want, Mr. Lin?”

He had become agitated, his voice rising considerably. From his perspective, the reaction was completely understandable.

Ma Shimin frowned slightly but said nothing, seeing that Lin Haoran’s expression remained unchanged.

Lin Haoran waited for Li Jiacheng to compose himself a little before speaking slowly, his tone still calm. “Mr. Li, please calm down. I understand your agitation, but please try to see it from another perspective.”

“First, with these funds, Cheung Kong can immediately pay off most of its pressing debts, stabilize its position, and avoid the more dangerous situation of liquidation. This is life-saving money. As far as I know, the price Cheung Kong Holdings paid for Hutchison Whampoa wasn’t that high to begin with, especially the 22.4% stake acquired from HSBC, which cost next to nothing. Although the unit price for subsequent stock accumulation was much higher, the average acquisition price wasn’t high. Therefore, Cheung Kong is not taking a loss!”

“Second, if I hadn’t agreed to give up control of Cheung Kong, what you’d be considering right now isn’t a loss of a few billion, but whether you’d lose Cheung Kong entirely. You, of all people, should understand the principle of choosing the lesser of two evils, Mr. Li.”

“Third,” he softened his tone, “regarding the future, I promise that once the transaction is complete, I will be a ‘quiet’ financial investor in Cheung Kong. As long as Cheung Kong’s business strategy does not harm my basic rights as a shareholder, I will not interfere with your management decisions. In fact, at certain critical moments, I could even be a source of support for you. You can weigh the value of that stability for Cheung Kong yourself, Mr. Li. Don’t say I haven’t made any concessions; this is an important one.”

Back then, although Cheung Kong wasn’t a bad company, it was still a far cry from Hutchison Whampoa.

One could say that Cheung Kong’s ‘snake swallowing an elephant’ maneuver was only possible because of HSBC’s support, allowing it to acquire HSBC’s stake in Hutchison Whampoa at a very low cost.

This was why Willie, the Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa at the time, had vehemently criticized the deal, saying HSBC sold the shares for far too little.

Some media outlets even said HSBC had “gifted” Hutchison to Li Jiacheng!

Therefore, even at a fifty percent discount, while Cheung Kong might lose some money, it certainly wouldn’t be a significant loss on its initial investment.

After the threat came a promise of “future stability”—one that sounded nice but was, in reality, ethereal.

Li Jiacheng clenched his fists so tightly his nails dug into his palms.

He knew, of course, that part of what Lin Haoran said was true, but the massive fifty percent discount felt like a red-hot branding iron searing his heart.

This wasn’t just selling at a loss; this was being stripped to the bone!

And he was well aware of how unreliable that promise of “non-interference” was.

As long as Lin Haoran held a large number of shares, he would be a Sword of Damocles hanging over Cheung Kong’s head.

“Mr. Lin! Fifty percent… that’s absolutely impossible!” Li Jiacheng’s voice trembled with agitation and despair. “This isn’t a business negotiation, it’s daylight robbery! Cheung Kong’s Board of Directors will never approve it! The public outcry would be deafening! You can’t do this…”

“Mr. Li! You have no choice! I hope you understand that I am not negotiating the price with you. I am informing you of my decision. What you need to be considering right now isn’t whether the board will approve it, but whether Cheung Kong will still bear the Li name!”

Lin Haoran cut him off, his voice still calm.

Chapter 752: To Be Kind to Your Enemy is to Be Cruel to Yourself

Each of Lin Haoran’s questions was like a sledgehammer, smashing down hard on Li Jiacheng’s already fragile psychological defenses.

“The fifty percent discount I’m offering is based on an assessment of Cheung Kong’s liquidation value, considering its current risk of insolvency! It’s not some inflated net asset value! If you insist on refusing, fine. I will immediately withdraw all concessions, and we can continue to play by the market’s rules. Let’s see if Cheung Kong’s capital chain snaps first, or if my Galaxy Securities can’t hold out!”

The dagger was revealed now that the map was unrolled! It was a naked, undisguised threat!

Lin Haoran completely shed his temperate facade of “considering the bigger picture,” revealing cold, cruel fangs.

He was absolutely certain that Li Jiacheng had no cards left to play, not even the option of a mutually destructive struggle.

After all, his opponent truly had no trump cards left.

As if struck by lightning, Li Jiacheng’s face instantly turned ashen white, and his body began to tremble uncontrollably.

He opened his mouth, but it felt as if something was lodged in his throat, and he couldn’t utter a single word.

All his hopes, all his struggles, were completely crushed in that moment.

“Besides, your claim that the Board of Directors won’t approve is a fundamental paradox. Mr. Li, you know full well that your family holds forty percent of the shares, my Galaxy Securities holds thirty-eight-point-four percent, and with Director Chen’s one-point-seven percent, the total comes to eighty-point-one percent. With such a high concentration of shares, isn’t the entire board under our control? Mr. Li, as long as you nod your head, the board will naturally do as we say,” Lin Haoran continued.

That Director Chen was none other than Li Jiacheng’s confidant, Chen Qizong.

Beside them, Ma Shimin’s heart went cold.

Although he had expected his boss to drive a hard bargain, he never imagined he would push it down to an astonishing fifty percent discount!

This was no longer a business negotiation; it was practically an execution.

Two billion Hong Kong dollars. In all of Hong Kong, there were few companies with a market capitalization exceeding two billion, let alone this amount in cold, hard cash.

And now, his boss was demanding that Cheung Kong Holdings bleed two billion Hong Kong dollars.

Ma Shimin marveled at his boss’s audacity. If it had been him, he never could have brought himself to make such an offer.

The office fell into a deathly silence, punctuated only by the sound of Li Jiacheng’s heavy, suppressed breathing.

Lin Haoran said no more, simply watching him in silence, waiting for his final submission.

He knew he had applied just the right amount of pressure; there was no need to say anything more.

Now, all he had to do was wait for Li Jiacheng to make his decision.

For Lin Haoran, if the other party agreed, then there was no problem.

But if he refused, then he would just have to wait for the Cheung Kong stock to resume trading tomorrow and continue to increase his shareholding.

The one who should be afraid was his opponent, not him!

Time ticked by, second by agonizing second for Li Jiacheng.

Finally, all his strength, all his pride, all his hope, was completely drained from him.

With a voice like a delirious mumble, so faint it was almost inaudible, he hoarsely spat out a few words:

“…Alright… Fifty percent… Fifty percent it is…”

It was an excruciatingly difficult decision.

In all his decades of navigating the business world, Li Jiacheng had never suffered such a disastrous defeat and humiliation.

The iciness on Lin Haoran’s face instantly vanished, replaced by a peaceful, even slightly regretful expression, as if the aggressive man from moments ago had been someone else entirely.

“Mr. Li, this was a difficult decision, but it’s the only way for Cheung Kong to survive. Rest assured, once the agreement is reached, the funds will be transferred immediately. Cheung Kong’s crisis will soon be over.” His tone even carried a hint of “comfort.”

He extended his hand again.

This time, Li Jiacheng didn’t look at the hand, nor did he react in any way. He just sat there numbly, as if he had lost all sensation.

Lin Haoran didn’t mind. He retracted his hand naturally and said to Ma Shimin, “Mr. Ma, I’ll have to trouble you to lead your team to liaise with Mr. Li’s people tomorrow morning for the follow-up matters. Please ensure all legal procedures are completed as quickly as possible. I want to see this contract before the stock market opens.”

“Understood, Boss,” Ma Shimin immediately replied, rising to his feet.

Lin Haoran nodded. Without another glance at the devastated Li Jiacheng, he turned and walked toward the floor-to-ceiling windows, his gaze once again falling on the brilliant night view of Victoria Harbour outside.

Ma Shimin walked over to Li Jiacheng and said softly, “Mr. Li, let me see you out.”

Li Jiacheng didn’t react. After a long moment, he rose stiffly and unsteadily, like a marionette. Without looking at Lin Haoran’s back, he shuffled out of the office, one step at a time.

The door closed gently.

With his hands behind his back, Lin Haoran stood tall, his eyes as deep as the night.

This time, he had indeed been too hard on Li Jiacheng.

But he knew he couldn’t afford to be soft-hearted.

“Boss, fifty percent… Isn’t that a bit…” Ma Shimin asked in a low voice after returning from seeing Li Jiacheng out. The price was so low that even he found it startling.

Without turning around, Lin Haoran said faintly, “Mr. Ma, you must remember this: to be kind to your enemy is to be cruel to yourself. Leaving him with Cheung Kong’s foundation and the position of Chairman of the Board is already the greatest ‘kindness’ I can show him. After this battle, how many years will it take him to recover? And those years will be enough for us to do too many things.”

His voice was calm, yet it carried a chilling ruthlessness and resolve.

“This battle must not only be won, but won so completely that for decades to come, any potential rival who even thinks of opposing me will feel fear to their very bones.”

A shiver went down Ma Shimin’s spine as he fully grasped his boss’s deeper meaning.

This was not a simple business victory; it was a show of force, a complete crushing blow that would set the pattern for Hong Kong’s business world for the next several decades.

His boss’s goal wasn’t just aimed at Mr. Li; it was to make the entire Hong Kong business community think twice about the consequences if they ever dared to provoke him again!

Suppressing Jardine Matheson & Co. and HSBC one after another wasn’t enough, was it?

Then he’d just have to continue.

What his boss wanted was to beat the entire Hong Kong business world into fearing him.

He looked at Lin Haoran’s tall and confident back and felt as if he could already see an emperor of a new era, rising slowly over the bones of fallen titans.

The negotiations, full of twists and turns, had finally ended with Li Jiacheng’s almost complete and humiliating surrender.

Night fell.

Lin Haoran left Connaught Centre in his Rolls-Royce.

The car radio was tuned to Hong Kong Radio’s finance program, where the host was rapidly reporting the latest analysis: “Based on the current information, Galaxy Securities’ thirty-eight-point-four percent stake in Cheung Kong Holdings is just a stone’s throw away from the Li family’s forty percent, held by the largest shareholder. Although the stock market was closed today, market sentiment is already at a fever pitch! All eyes are on tomorrow’s reopening! It’s expected that once trading begins, whether it’s panic selling or bulls scrambling for shares, there will be massive waves. Will Galaxy Securities continue to increase its stake and surpass the Li family? Can Li Jiacheng stage a comeback and defend his controlling stake? This is the Sword of Damocles hanging over every investor’s head!”

As expected, Hong Kong’s business world would be even livelier tomorrow.

…

In the blink of an eye, a night passed.

At eight in the morning, Lin Haoran got up and, as usual, read the newspaper while eating breakfast.

“Shocking Turn at Cheung Kong! Four Directors Defect En Masse, Hongkong Land’s Stake Nears Forty Percent!”

“Li Jiacheng Deserted by All? Cheung Kong Holdings on the Verge of a Takeover?”

“The ‘Responsibility’ Ma Shimin Spoke Of: A Meticulously Planned Coup!”

“Lin Haoran’s Capital Blade Strikes Again, Li Jiacheng’s Commercial Empire Teeters on the Brink!”

Every newspaper was focused on the battle for shares between him and Li Jiacheng.

Lin Haoran read the descriptions in the papers with a faint smile, feeling little ripple in his heart.

The reports provided a detailed analysis of the immense threat posed by the 38.4% stake, meaning Lin Haoran’s side only needed to acquire a very small percentage of shares from the market to stand toe-to-toe with the Li Jiacheng family, or even launch a mandatory takeover offer.

Public opinion in Hong Kong was in an uproar. Everyone realized that the scales of this battle for control had tipped decisively.

The true suspense over the ownership of Cheung Kong Holdings, the enterprise that represented half a lifetime of Li Jiacheng’s heart and soul, seemed to be rapidly fading.

Lin Haoran’s lightning-fast methods once again showed all of Hong Kong his unfathomable capital strength and his cold, decisive style.

At this moment, the results of the negotiations between Lin Haoran and Li Jiacheng had not yet been made public.

Therefore, in everyone’s eyes, as soon as the stock market opened today, Galaxy Securities would definitely continue its frenzied buying of Cheung Kong shares, surpassing the Li Jiacheng family in one fell swoop to become the largest shareholder of Cheung Kong.

The early morning mist had not yet completely dissipated, but the city was already buzzing with activity.

Newsstands were swamped by surging crowds, with papers like Sing Tao Daily, Oriental Daily News, and Wah Kiu Yat Po becoming hot commodities.

The crisp, urgent cries of newsboys pierced the dawn’s tranquility:

“Extra! Extra! Cheung Kong in crisis! Lin Haoran’s stake nears forty percent! Superman Li attacked from both front and rear!”

“Big news! Mysterious buyer sweeps up Cheung Kong stock! Mr. Lin just one step away from control!”

The bright red front-page headlines were like bleeding wounds, a testament to the lingering shock from yesterday’s press conference at Connaught Centre.

“Wow! Thirty-eight-point-four percent! Only one-point-six percent behind the Li family! Looks like Cheung Kong Holdings might really be changing its name to Lin!” a regular at a streetside breakfast shop, wearing thick glasses, exclaimed in shock as he slapped the newspaper.

“To think Xu Yuhui and those other shareholders would betray Li Jiacheng! Biting the hand that feeds them! They’ll get what’s coming to them sooner or later!” a middle-aged man at the same table grumbled. His eldest son currently worked for a subsidiary of Cheung Kong.

“Maybe Li Jiacheng really did run Cheung Kong into the ground with debt? What Xu Yuhui and the others said might not be baseless. Mr. Lin has such deep pockets. If he really takes control of Cheung Kong, maybe the stock price will soar even higher?” interjected a young man in a white shirt who looked like an office worker, drawing a few gazes that were a mixture of disdain and contemplation.

Li Jiacheng’s reputation in Hong Kong was still quite good, having been in business for decades.

“Lin Haoran has really used every trick in the book in this blitzkrieg. He’s got guts and money. From sniping at Hutchison Whampoa, buying up shares, poaching their people, to holding a press conference to force an abdication, he pushed Li Jiacheng to halt trading for both companies. One step followed another, not even giving anyone a chance to breathe. The planning by Lin Haoran and his Galaxy Securities is terrifyingly meticulous. With Standard Chartered Bank backing down, it looks like Li Jiacheng is truly in deep trouble,” an impeccably dressed analyst working in the financial district remarked to a friend while reading a professional analysis in the Hong Kong Economic Journal.

Citizens gathered in tea houses, parks, and bus stations. On every street and in every alley, the conversation revolved around this business war between Chinese tycoons that had shaken all of Hong Kong.

But while they were all busy discussing it, they had no idea that Li Jiacheng and Lin Haoran had already decided the matter.

China Building, Cheung Kong Holdings Group Headquarters, Chairman’s office on the top floor. Li Jiacheng had an early start to his day.

However, it was easy to see from his expression that he was in a terrible mood.

This was the most disastrous battle he had ever experienced in his business career.

The thought of not only having to surrender Hutchison Whampoa but also selling it at a discount, and on top of that, having his foundational business of Cheung Kong be pierced by the other party, sent a sharp pain through Li Jiacheng’s chest, as if he had been struck hard with a blunt weapon.

He subconsciously clutched his chest, clearly in great distress.

Outside the window was the familiar view of Victoria Harbour, but in his eyes today, it was a scene of bleak decay.

This empire, which he had once thought impregnable, now had the enemy at its gates; even its core had fallen into other hands.

He hadn’t slept a wink last night; sleep was impossible.

Chen Qizong was sitting to one side. Li Jiacheng had already told him everything about the decision he made after meeting with Lin Haoran yesterday.

As Li Jiacheng’s core partner, he would fully support whatever decision Li Jiacheng made.

Besides, he knew his one-point-seven percent stake gave him no power to object anyway.

His secretary quietly brought him a cup of ginseng tea. Seeing his pale face, she asked with concern, “Mr. Li, would you like to rest for a bit?”

Li Jiacheng waved his hand weakly, as if even the energy to speak had been drained from him.

He closed his eyes. Lin Haoran’s icy face from last night, his soul-piercing words, and that final, seemingly gentle but actually cruel “comfort,” replayed in his mind like a nightmare.

“Fifty percent… Fifty percent it is…” His own humiliating, barely audible words of compromise still echoed in his ears.

He knew that right now, everyone in Hong Kong thought the great war was just beginning, that they were all waiting for the bloodbath in the stock market today.

They had no idea that the war had already ended last night with his complete surrender.

This feeling of being the only sober person in a crowd of drunks, mixed with immense humiliation and a sense of defeat, was about to consume him.

Just then, the internal line on his desk rang shrilly.

Li Jiacheng’s heart leaped. He took a deep breath and answered.

“Mr. Li, Mr. Ma Shimin from Hongkong Land Group is here with several colleagues. He’s downstairs and says he’s here on behalf of Mr. Lin Haoran regarding a matter of great importance to Cheung Kong Holdings, and he needs to meet with you, the Chairman, and the board immediately,” the receptionist’s voice carried a hint of panic.

What was coming had finally come.

Li Jiacheng gripped the receiver tightly.

Everyone’s eyes in the office instantly focused on him.

He was silent for a few seconds, then sighed and said, “Please have Mr. Ma and his people come directly to the top-floor conference room. Notify all board members to assemble in the conference room in fifteen minutes—no, ten minutes! Immediately!”

He hung up the phone abruptly.

Li Jiacheng rose from his chair. His gaze swept over the people in the room, filled with both resentful anger and a trace of resignation, as if the dust had finally settled.

It had come to this. There was nothing he could do to change it; he could only accept reality.

He strode out of the office first, his back slightly stooped against the light.

Chen Qizong and the others didn’t dare to dally and immediately followed, each feeling as if a heavy stone was weighing on their hearts.

Ten minutes later, Cheung Kong Holdings Boardroom.

The atmosphere in the vast boardroom was so oppressive it was hard to breathe.

Li Jiacheng sat in the chairman’s seat, devoid of his usual high spirits.

A few senior executives of Cheung Kong, summoned by the urgent notice, were scattered around the table. They were the Li family’s staunchest supporters, but every one of them wore a look of uncertainty and poorly concealed worry.

Absent were Xu Yuhui, Director Wu, Director Qian, and Director Zhao—the very ones who had turned against him at Connaught Centre yesterday.

Their empty seats were like four silent jeers, a reminder of how thorough and devastating yesterday’s betrayal had been.

These men would surely not be able to make a living in Hong Kong anymore, and they had no idea how to face Li Jiacheng, their former comrade-in-arms.

Therefore, after the press conference yesterday, they had packed up their families and left Hong Kong entirely.

As for their fixed assets in Hong Kong, they had all been entrusted to Hongkong Land Group for disposal.

The boardroom doors were pushed open.

Ma Shimin walked in first, a professional smile on his face. He was dressed in a well-tailored grey suit, his hair impeccably combed.

Behind him were two elite assistants carrying heavy briefcases, and a middle-aged man with gold-rimmed glasses and a stern expression who was clearly a legal professional.

This team of four silently exuded a powerful aura of complete control, a stark contrast to the apprehensive atmosphere in the room.

Ma Shimin’s sharp gaze swept across the room, finally landing on the gloomy-faced Li Jiacheng in the main seat. He gave a slight nod. “Mr. Li, Directors, good morning. Time is precious. On behalf of Galaxy Securities and my boss, Mr. Lin Haoran, I am here to handle two important matters concerning the future development of Cheung Kong Holdings.”

The matter had been settled yesterday, so there was really no need for further discussion.

Therefore, the entire meeting was just a formality.

The meeting resolved that Cheung Kong Holdings would sell its entire forty percent stake in Hutchison Whampoa to Galaxy Securities for a price of 2.02 billion Hong Kong dollars, with the funds to be settled within three days.

At the same time, although Lin Haoran was not present, with his thirty-eight-point-four percent equity, he would become the new Vice Chairman of the Board of Cheung Kong Holdings.

Of course, he had promised Li Jiacheng that he would not interfere too much in the management of Cheung Kong, so this position of Vice Chairman was more of a figurehead role.

The main reason for settling the payment so quickly within three days was that Lin Haoran was now also a major shareholder of Cheung Kong. He wasn’t short on funds, so there was no need to delay the payment.

With a stake of nearly forty percent, when Cheung Kong made money, Lin Haoran would indirectly make money too.

You could hear a pin drop in the boardroom; only Ma Shimin’s clear and steady voice echoed.

The lawyer he brought with him quickly took out a thick stack of pre-prepared agreement documents from a briefcase and distributed them to every director and senior executive present.

Li Jiacheng looked at the agreement pushed in front of him. The large black characters for “Equity Transfer and Cooperation Agreement” on the cover stung his eyes.

He reached out a trembling hand and turned to the first page.

The terms were cold and detailed, solidifying his humiliating promises from last night in black and white. Every word seemed to remind him of yesterday’s crushing defeat.

“Gentlemen, the terms of the agreement are based on principles of commercial fairness and have fully taken into account Cheung Kong’s current financial situation and future development. Please review it carefully. If there are no objections, we will complete the signing as soon as possible so that the funds can be secured to stabilize Cheung Kong’s situation,” Ma Shimin said with a smile.

This time, representing his boss, he was on the winning side.

Several directors loyal to Li Jiacheng exchanged glances, their eyes eventually settling on Li Jiacheng in the chairman’s seat.

What they saw was Li Jiacheng’s ashen face and tightly pressed lips.

One of the more senior executives couldn’t help but speak up, “Mr. Ma, this price… Cheung Kong’s core assets are worth far more than this. Isn’t this…”

“Gentlemen, I understand how you feel, but this has already been decided by Mr. Li and my boss, Mr. Lin. There is no need for further discussion. Besides, I am only here to help my boss, Mr. Lin, with the proceedings. Telling me is of no use. You can either sign it quickly so I can report back, or if you still have issues, you’ll need to speak to my boss. I have no authority to make any changes. However, I would like to remind you that delaying or refusing will only lead to more uncontrollable consequences. As you should all know, the stock market is about to open. If my boss does not see this contract before the opening bell, Galaxy Securities will continue to increase its stake in Cheung Kong Holdings,” Ma Shimin said grimly.

His words contained a threat, but more than that, they were a statement of fact.

The matter had already been settled. To object now would make last night’s talk meaningless, wouldn’t it?

The senior executive opened his mouth, wanting to say more, but was silenced by a slight gesture from Li Jiacheng.

Li Jiacheng closed the agreement, as if it had taken all his strength.

He looked up at Ma Shimin, his voice hoarse and weary. “The agreement… we’ll sign.”

Those few simple words brought this lightning-fast business war to a close.

The boardroom fell into a dead silence. The faces of the few directors were filled with shock and resentment, which finally turned into helpless silence.

They knew that when Li Jiacheng uttered those words, it meant there was no other choice.

The signing process was swift and oppressive. When Li Jiacheng signed his name in the designated space, the nib of his pen nearly tore through the paper several times.

When he pushed the signed agreement toward Ma Shimin, it was as if he had aged several years in an instant.

Ma Shimin carefully inspected the signature, a faint, almost imperceptible smile touching his lips.

He collected the agreement and stood up. “Mr. Li, gentlemen, it’s been a pleasure. The funds from Galaxy Securities will arrive on time. I hope Cheung Kong gets back on track soon.”

At this moment, these grand-sounding words were particularly jarring.

Li Jiacheng didn’t respond, merely closing his eyes wearily.

Ma Shimin said no more and left the boardroom with his subordinates in a crisp, efficient manner.

The moment the door closed, the oppressive atmosphere in the room almost solidified.

Chapter 753: Another Subordinate with 100 Loyalty!

While Ma Shimin returned to the Connaught Centre with the signed contract, Hong Kong’s four stock exchanges were as bustling as a marketplace, filled with a cacophony of human voices.

The clock’s hands clicked to nine-thirty in the morning, and the opening bell of the exchange clanged loudly.

After a trading halt of three and a half days, the two blue-chip stocks, Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa, finally resumed trading.

Many shareholders had been waiting in anticipation.

“Cheung Kong Holdings, buy! Placing an order at 18.15!” a trader in a red jacket shouted at the top of his lungs.

Before the words had even left his mouth, the number of buy orders on the electronic screen surged up like a tide with a whoosh.

The moment the market opened, Cheung Kong’s stock price shot up like a rocket. From its pre-halt price of 16.15 Hong Kong dollars, it instantly soared past 18 Hong Kong dollars, an increase of over 10%.

As for Hutchison Whampoa, the outcome was already certain. Although trading was active, it paled in comparison to Cheung Kong.

Thus, Cheung Kong was destined to be the star of the stock exchange that morning.

The very air in the exchange seemed to ignite. In the retail investors’ hall, hands clutching trading slips grew slick with sweat as countless pairs of eyes stared intently at the flickering numbers on the quotation screen.

“Mr. Lin’s Galaxy Securities will definitely keep sweeping up shares. I don’t believe for a second they’ll stop increasing their stake!” an old shareholder in a floral shirt, Uncle Chen, who had bet his entire retirement savings on Cheung Kong, said, his fingers trembling with excitement. “Galaxy Securities already holds 38.4%. If they buy up another 2%, they can overthrow Superman Li!”

“That’s right, and Li Jiacheng won’t possibly let Lin Haoran surpass him. HSBC will definitely back Li Jiacheng with all their financial might!” Next to Uncle Chen, a middle-aged shareholder with black-framed glasses held up his freshly executed transaction slip, his voice filled with exhilaration.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! With two tycoons scrambling for shares, the stock price is bound to skyrocket!”

This was the consensus among many retail investors.

Many believed that Lin Haoran, with his stake in Cheung Kong about to surpass Li Jiacheng’s, would not let this opportunity slip by.

These sentiments were heavily influenced by analyses in many financial newspapers.

The Hong Kong Commercial Daily, for instance, had used the “battle for Kowloon Wharf” as a prime example, presenting a very convincing analysis.

After all, they had no idea that the two tycoons, Lin and Li, had not only come to an agreement but had even signed a contract.

Influenced by certain media outlets, these retail investors now saw Lin Haoran as the Pao Yue-kong of two years ago.

Back then, in his bid to seize a controlling stake in Kowloon Wharf, Pao Yue-kong had once pushed its stock price to around 110 Hong Kong dollars per share, a massive jump from its initial price of just over ten Hong Kong dollars.

Now, in everyone’s eyes, the conflict between Lin Haoran and Li Jiacheng was a mirror of the one between Pao Yue-kong and Jardine Matheson & Co.

Forget a tenfold increase; even a several-fold rise would be enough to make these shareholders ecstatic.

However, in the VIP rooms on the second floor, the foreign brokers sensed that something was amiss.

The trader from Schroders stared at the unusual structure of buy orders for Cheung Kong. Over sixty percent were concentrated below the 18 Hong Kong dollar mark, clear evidence of retail investors following the trend.

“Someone’s engineering a bull trap,” he commanded directly. “Post a sell order for fifty thousand lots of Cheung Kong at 17.95.”

The moment he finished speaking, the market turned on a dime!

A massive sell order of two hundred thousand lots suddenly appeared at the 17.95 price level.

In an instant, the stock price plunged from its high of 18.15, plummeting straight to the 17.7 mark!

Cries of alarm erupted from the crowd. “Is Li Jiacheng launching a counterattack?”

“Impossible! Mr. Lin just exposed him at the press conference…”

At that moment, in the top-floor office of the Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran was looking out the floor-to-ceiling window in the direction of the exchange, the distant clamor of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange faintly audible.

He was, of course, aware of the excitement over there, but now, he was little more than a spectator.

A knock came at the door, and soon after, Ma Shimin walked in briskly, holding the freshly signed share transfer agreement. “Boss, the transfer is complete, but the market is still betting that we will continue to increase our stake in Cheung Kong.”

Lin Haoran didn’t turn around. Instead, he said with a smile, “Let them. It doesn’t have much to do with us anymore.”

His stake in Cheung Kong was fixed at 38.4%; he would not be increasing it.

At least, that was the case for now. As long as Li Jiacheng posed no threat, he had no interest in acquiring more shares.

He had already obtained his true target, Hutchison Whampoa. What was the point of continuing to buy up Cheung Kong shares?

Was he really supposed to increase his stake until he surpassed Li Jiacheng?

Li Jiacheng was the soul of the company. Kicking him out of his leadership position would only bring disadvantages, not benefits.

“Boss, there’s one more matter that requires your personal attention. I’ve already spoken with Mr. Li Jiacheng. He will resign from his position as Chairman of the Board of Hutchison Whampoa. It would be most appropriate for you to take on this role, Boss. Also, you need to decide on the future arrangements for Hutchison as soon as possible. Cheung Kong no longer holds any Hutchison shares, so Mr. Li Jiacheng has no reason to remain in charge,” Ma Shimin reminded him.

“Hutchison Whampoa,” Lin Haoran repeated softly, his gaze shifting from the window.

Before he acquired Hutchison Whampoa, his mind was consumed with how to wrest control of Hutchison & Co., one of the Four Big Hongs, from Li Jiacheng.

But now that he had succeeded, he felt a sense of calm.

Perhaps it was because he already owned too many powerful enterprises.

Hutchison Whampoa was outstanding, but it couldn’t compare to his Hongkong Land Group, or even the Hongkong Electric Group.

Still, with the acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa, the company now ranked third among his groups, slightly stronger than Wanqing Group and just behind Hongkong Electric Group.

Lin Haoran walked back from the window to the sofa and sat down, crossing his legs as he fell into thought.

He knew what Ma Shimin was thinking: merge Hutchison Whampoa into the Hongkong Land Group to make it even stronger.

This was the main reason Ma Shimin had been so proactive in handling the acquisition of Hutchison Whampoa.

After all, this task had gone beyond the scope of his usual duties.

Moreover, since both were diversified conglomerates with many overlapping businesses, integration would face less resistance and could quickly generate synergistic effects.

But Lin Haoran had deeper considerations.

He shook his head gently, rejecting Ma Shimin’s unspoken suggestion. “Mr. Ma, Hutchison Whampoa will not be merged into Hongkong Land.”

Ma Shimin looked slightly surprised but didn’t interrupt, waiting for his boss to continue.

Lin Haoran picked up his teacup, took a sip, and said slowly, “Hongkong Land is already the undisputed king of Hong Kong’s property market. Its scale is massive enough. Forcibly swallowing Hutchison might increase its size, but it could also lead to indigestion and a bloated organization, which would be far from ideal. More importantly…”

He paused for a moment before continuing, “I need Hutchison Whampoa to maintain its independence and flexibility. Although it’s far inferior to Hongkong Land right now, Hutchison Whampoa has always been an independent entity. Forcing a merger with Hongkong Land is not the best solution.”

“While Hutchison Whampoa’s port operations, retail businesses, and so on are all currently outmatched by Hongkong Land’s, Hutchison still controls more terminals, even if much of their business has been snatched away by Hongkong Land.”

Now that Hutchison Whampoa had been acquired by Lin Haoran, its port business would naturally recover to its peak in the future.

“Ultimately, the Hong Kong market is limited. The real battlefield is overseas. Hutchison Whampoa will be the vanguard and a crucial platform for my enterprises to go global.”

Ma Shimin was somewhat disappointed.

This meant that the Hongkong Land Group would miss an opportunity to rapidly expand into a world-class behemoth.

Although Hongkong Land’s current assets were certainly world-class, enough to rank in the top ten even in the United States, its influence was still lacking. Merging with Hutchison Whampoa would have created a one-plus-one effect far greater than two.

However, he understood that his boss’s decisions were often based on a much grander strategic game. Pushing aside his regret, he asked respectfully, “Boss, your foresight is profound. In that case, do you have a candidate in mind for the future helmsman of Hutchison Whampoa?”

“A helmsman? Let’s not consider that for now, Mr. Ma. I have an idea. The number of large groups under my command is growing, and they all manage their own affairs independently. As you know, I rarely interfere with your management.”

“But a problem has arisen. Although there is some resource coordination among you, the utilization rate is insufficient to maximize benefits. So…”

Lin Haoran’s gaze grew distant. He set down his teacup and continued, “So, I’ve decided to establish a higher-level coordinating body—the ‘Galaxy Strategic Development Committee.’ It’s time to end the era of independent management.”

He had given careful thought to the name “Galaxy.”

It symbolized his companies revolving around a central core like stars and also revealed his grand ambition to build a global presence across the cosmos.

Ma Shimin’s eyes lit up. He immediately grasped the immense significance behind this concept.

It meant his boss was about to systematically integrate his vast commercial empire, ending the current, relatively loose management model.

Lin Haoran elaborated on his vision: “I will personally serve as the chairman of this committee. You will be the interim committee head. Mr. Burton from Wanqing Group, Mr. Chen Shoulin from Hongkong Electric Group, Mr. Cui Zilong from the Oriental Press Group, and Mr. Ho Sin Hang from Hengsheng Group will all be committee members.”

“We will hold regular meetings to coordinate the strategic direction, resource allocation, and major project decisions for all core assets under our umbrella, as well as to prevent unnecessary internal competition and resource waste.”

“I am very optimistic about Mr. Fok Kin-ning. He’s currently gaining experience at Hongkong Land Group’s Japan Branch. I plan to transfer him back to the Hong Kong headquarters in a year or two. At that time, he will take over from you as the head of the entire Hongkong Land Group.”

“And you, at that time, will need to focus all your energy on the ‘Galaxy Strategic Development Committee.’ Mr. Ma Shimin, I have great faith in you. I believe you have the ability. What do you think of my idea?”

He made sure to emphasize the last point, letting Ma Shimin know how important he was in his boss’s eyes.

Previously, there had been some overlap and potential competition—fierce competition, at that—between Hongkong Land and Hutchison Whampoa in their overseas port businesses.

Although both were now owned by Lin Haoran, competition between them would persist in the long run, and it would essentially be his own people fighting each other.

“For example,” Lin Haoran illustrated, “Hutchison Whampoa’s port network in South Asia and Hongkong Land’s logistics layout in Japan can be coordinated through the committee to achieve complementary shipping routes, information sharing, and even joint investment in developing new hub ports, forming a true global network effect instead of each fighting its own battles.”

“Another example: Dairy Farm International’s retail channels and Hengsheng Group’s massive cash flow can be used more efficiently within the committee’s framework to support the development of other sister companies or to jointly seize new investment opportunities.”

As Ma Shimin listened to Lin Haoran’s grand blueprint, his heart surged with emotion.

His boss had not only identified the problem but had also proposed a highly forward-thinking solution.

The concept of the “Galaxy Strategic Development Committee” was far more ambitious and systematic than he had imagined.

Appointing him as the interim committee head with a clear path to leading the entire committee, while entrusting Hongkong Land to the up-and-coming Fok Kin-ning, fully demonstrated his boss’s absolute trust and higher expectations for him.

This meant he would be elevated from managing a single giant corporation (Hongkong Land) to the strategic height of coordinating all of Galaxy’s core assets—a monumental leap in his professional career.

What an incredible amount of trust!

“Boss,” Ma Shimin took a deep breath, his tone solemn and filled with gratitude. “Thank you for your trust and recognition! This is a magnificent vision, incredibly strategic. It will allow us to coordinate all our resources, avoid internal friction, and create synergy. It’s an absolutely crucial step for Galaxy’s future development. I am in complete agreement and am willing to give my all to shoulder this responsibility!”

He paused slightly before adding, “Mr. Fok Kin-ning is outstandingly capable and a quick learner. His performance in Japan speaks for itself. I am very confident in him taking charge of Hongkong Land in the future. I will prepare for the handover and do my best to mentor Mr. Fok Kin-ning. As for the committee’s work, I will begin preparations immediately, drafting detailed charters, member responsibilities, and operational procedures to ensure it can function efficiently and truly become the brain and nerve center of Galaxy.”

Originally, Ma Shimin had thought that being the President of the Hongkong Land Group was the pinnacle of his career. After all, Hongkong Land was already a massive commercial empire, second to none in Hong Kong and even Asia.

He had never dared to dream of advancing further into the core decision-making circle.

However, the responsibility his boss was now entrusting to him was far more than managing a single group; it was to oversee the entire future strategy of “Galaxy”!

This was not just trust; it was the profound gratitude of being recognized for one’s true worth by a superior. A heroic sentiment of a knight willing to die for the lord who recognizes his worth swelled within him.

At this moment, the look in his eyes as he gazed at his boss, Lin Haoran, was filled not just with excitement, but with overwhelming gratitude!

At that very moment, Lin Haoran noticed that the loyalty rating above Ma Shimin’s head, which had been at 92, suddenly shot up to 100.

Another subordinate with 100 loyalty!

By now, gaining subordinates with 90 loyalty wasn’t difficult for him. While not numerous, there were a fair few.

But there had only been four people whose loyalty had truly reached 100!

One was Su Zhixue, another was the two brothers Li Weidong and Li Weiguo, and the last was his personal secretary in Japan, Yamada Keiko.

Now, that number had increased by one more: Ma Shimin!

Lin Haoran took in Ma Shimin’s reaction, immensely satisfied with his loyalty and drive.

For Lin Haoran, today had brought an unexpected delight!

He had considered that offering the position of committee head to Ma Shimin would surely increase his loyalty.

But he never expected it to jump directly to 100%. That was truly a surprise.

However, with 100 loyalty, he felt even more confident entrusting the coordinating authority to Ma Shimin.

He stood up, walked over to Ma Shimin, and patted his shoulder, his voice deep.

“Shimin, our enterprise has long since outgrown the confines of Hong Kong. The future battlefield is global. We need a stronger, more efficient central nervous system to command this ever-growing body. You are the arm I rely on most. This great responsibility can only fall to you.”

He had many top lieutenants, but in terms of ability, Ma Shimin was indeed the most suitable for this role.

Not only did he have extensive experience as a senior executive at Jardine Matheson & Co., but he had also managed the vast Hongkong Land Group with increasing success.

Lin Haoran had seen all of this.

While Burton, Chen Shoulin, and Cui Zilong were also excellent, the scale of the enterprises they managed was ultimately far smaller than Hongkong Land, and their talents were slightly inferior to Ma Shimin’s.

As for Ho Sin Hang, he had focused on the finance industry his entire life, rarely venturing into other fields. Moreover, at over eighty years old, it wouldn’t be right to place such immense pressure on him.

Ma Shimin, on the other hand, was not only exceptionally capable but, more importantly, was in the prime of his life. In his forties, he could serve him for at least another twenty years!

This was the perfect age to hold one’s own and expand the empire.

“I understand, Boss! I will not fail you!” Ma Shimin nodded emphatically, his excited expression filled with determination.

He felt the weight of the responsibility on his shoulders, but it was overshadowed by a sense of mission and honor at being entrusted with such an important task.

The “Galaxy Strategic Development Committee” was not a spur-of-the-moment idea from Lin Haoran, but a long-held plan.

Over the past three years, starting with Green Island Cement, he had acquired more and more large enterprises: Hongkong Land Group, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong Telephone, Hong Kong and China Gas, and so on. Since they were all quite large, merging them all would have been impractical and created a bloated structure.

Therefore, he had always allowed his trusted professional managers to run their respective companies.

And for the most part, it had worked out well.

But he had always known that the coordination of corporate resources among these companies was lacking.

After all, everyone was primarily focused on the interests of their own company.

As for himself, although he was the boss of all these enterprises, he knew his own limitations in management.

If he interfered too much in the management of these companies, problems would arise sooner or later.

However, his rise had been too rapid.

So, while he had a rough idea in mind, he had never had the chance to implement it.

And now, he had just acquired another Hong Kong behemoth—Hutchison Whampoa.

This made him realize that the urgency of integrating his resources and establishing a higher-level coordination mechanism could no longer be ignored.

If he continued this “fiefdom” model, the waste of internal resources and potential competition would become a huge bottleneck hindering the development of the entire “Galaxy” ecosystem.

“Very good.”

Lin Haoran walked back to his desk and took out a simply bound document from the drawer. The cover page read, “Draft Proposal for the Galaxy Strategic Development Committee.”

“The core of coordinated management is ‘strategic focus, resource synergy, controllable risks, and unified culture,’ while maintaining the flexibility and autonomy of each group.”

“These are some preliminary thoughts I’ve put together recently, including the committee’s organizational structure, functional positioning, rules of procedure, and key issues that need immediate coordination. Take it back, study it carefully, and combining it with your experience, come up with a detailed establishment plan and operational rules as soon as possible.”

Of course, he hadn’t come up with these himself. He had drawn on his knowledge of the management models of corporate giants from his previous life, combining it with the current situation of his own industries to sketch a preliminary framework.

Though rough, it pointed in the right direction.

Ma Shimin accepted the document with both hands, feeling the depth of his boss’s deliberation behind the draft.

He eagerly flipped through it. Although it was only an outline, the content was clear and well-structured, each key point illuminating.

It was evident that his boss was no armchair strategist talking in abstract terms; he already had a practical, comprehensive, and meticulous plan.

When he turned to the last page, he was particularly struck by the four principles of simplified management mentioned:

First, the parent company manages the “critical few”—such as direction, resources, and risk—and does not interfere in daily operations.

Second, subsidiary groups have “operational freedom”—as long as they don’t break the rules, they decide how to make money.

Third, use “sharing” instead of “merging” to reduce costs and increase efficiency without adding management complexity.

Fourth, use “rules” instead of “rule by man”—such as checklists, bottom lines, and values—to reduce communication costs.

Reading this, Ma Shimin fell into a thoughtful silence.

Then, his eyes lit up.

As a man with extraordinary talent in business management, Ma Shimin could already see how this model could maintain the scale advantages of a large group while avoiding the trap of becoming “too big to fail, too chaotic to function,” thereby achieving efficient, coordinated management.

This was a stroke of genius!

At this very moment, Lin Haoran’s stature in Ma Shimin’s mind ascended to an unprecedented height!

This wasn’t just about sharp business acumen and masterful capital maneuvers; it was a profound insight into the essence of corporate governance and a forward-thinking strategic layout!

Although Lin Haoran usually didn’t meddle in company affairs, at this moment, his boss seemed all the more mysterious and brilliant in Ma Shimin’s mind.

“Boss, these… these four principles are an absolute stroke of genius!”

Ma Shimin couldn’t help but exclaim, his tone filled with admiration. “This completely solves the worldwide problem that plagues large, diversified groups: ‘micromanage and it suffocates, let go and it descends into chaos’!”

“It ensures strategic unity and resource synergy while fully stimulating the vitality and creativity of each subsidiary group! This is infinitely more brilliant than simply merging Hutchison Whampoa into Hongkong Land!”

Chapter 754: Treating Lin Haoran as a Sucker?

At this moment, Ma Shimin understood that his Boss wasn’t building a bloated behemoth, but a business ecosystem that was unified yet flexible, powerful yet agile!

Lin Haoran simply smiled faintly as he saw Ma Shimin’s heartfelt admiration.

He was merely standing on the shoulders of giants, having chanced upon related information on the internet in his past life.

Now, he was just borrowing the management wisdom of successful multinational corporations from the future.

But in Ma Shimin’s eyes, this was undoubtedly a groundbreaking, genius concept.

“It’s good that you understand the essence of it. The specific details and implementation will require you and the future committee members to refine and push forward. Whether this model can succeed hinges on its execution,” Lin Haoran said with a nod and a smile.

“Rest assured, Boss! I fully comprehend your strategic intent! With these four principles as our guide, the committee’s specific charters and operating rules will have a soul and a direction! I will definitely produce a viable plan that aligns with your vision and fits the actual situation of our various groups!” Ma Shimin’s confidence surged.

At this moment, he was filled with unprecedented confidence and motivation to complete the important task his Boss had entrusted to him.

He could almost see how, under the guidance of this advanced management model, the “Galaxy” business aircraft carrier would cut through the waves with both flexibility and power.

However, the matter of establishing the “Galaxy Strategic Development Committee” was not yet urgent, as there were many other things waiting for them to handle.

Ma Shimin placed the draft of the strategic development committee given to him by his Boss, Lin Haoran, into his briefcase, then said, “Boss, since things have come to this, it’s time to put an end to the share-control battle between you and Mr. Li Jiacheng. Therefore, it would be best for you and Mr. Li Jiacheng to jointly hold a press conference to announce this matter to the public. Before I came back, Li Jiacheng’s side had already said that we could arrange everything and he would cooperate.”

In this battle for shares, Li Jiacheng was clearly the loser, so it was perfectly normal that he did not want to host this press conference.

Lin Haoran nodded. Both Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa were major Hong Kong enterprises and publicly listed companies, so the matter indeed needed to be made public.

Thus, he spoke, “Alright, in that case, you go and arrange it. Send invitation cards to Hong Kong’s mainstream media companies. Let’s set the time for eleven o’clock. Mr. Li Jiacheng shouldn’t have any problem with that, right?”

It was not yet ten o’clock, so giving the media over an hour to arrive was more than enough time.

After all, Hong Kong was only so big, and the mainstream media outlets were mostly concentrated in the city center, an even smaller area. Basically, most of those notified could arrive within half an hour.

As for those who couldn’t make it, Lin Haoran wouldn’t wait for them. Their absence would be their loss.

“There shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll call Mr. Li Jiacheng first. If he’s fine with it, I’ll have the public relations department send out invitations to all mainstream media outlets immediately!” Ma Shimin said with a nod.

“Alright, you can go get busy then!” Lin Haoran waved his hand.

“Yes, Boss!” Soon to be promoted to the committee head of the “Galaxy Strategic Development Committee,” Ma Shimin was now full of drive.

Watching Ma Shimin’s departing figure, Lin Haoran smiled, stood up from his chair again, and walked to the round window, his gaze once more turning towards the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

From that direction, the faint clamor of shareholders could still be heard.

The trading floor had descended into madness.

At 10:07 AM, a mysterious buy order for five hundred thousand lots of Cheung Kong Holdings shares suddenly appeared, violently pushing the stock price up by 30%, approaching 21 Hong Kong dollars per share!

“It’s Galaxy Securities! It must be Galaxy Securities, Lin Haoran has made his move!” some shareholders frantically chased the high.

“I think it’s Li Jiacheng’s buy order. He can’t possibly just sit and wait for death. This is the beginning of his counterattack!” Another group of shareholders firmly believed this was Superman Li’s last stand and followed suit, buying in.

The trading floor was in an uproar as bulls and bears clashed fiercely. On the massive, simple electronic screen, Cheung Kong Holdings’ stock price curve fluctuated wildly like a roller coaster. The trading volume exploded, and every large order tugged at the nerves of countless people.

The air was thick with the unique smell of money, sweat, and tension.

Whether they firmly believed Lin Haoran would win or thought Li Jiacheng had a deeper foundation, everyone was unsettled by the sudden massive buy order, yet they couldn’t resist throwing themselves into this harrowing game of wealth.

However, none of them knew that this seemingly white-hot battle had, in fact, been decided the night before.

The harrowing struggle in the market at this moment was nothing more than these shareholders and some slow-to-react capital indulging in a self-congratulatory carnival of gambling.

The real chess players had already left the board and were preparing for the next phase of their strategy.

People crowded the trading counters, and buy orders piled up like snowflakes on the brokers’ desks.

All the shareholders hoped to treat Lin Haoran as a sucker, aiming to make a killing off of him.

It was just like years ago when Pao Yue-kong spent about 2.1 billion Hong Kong dollars in a few hours to increase his controlling stake in Kowloon Wharf from 30% to 49%.

Now, every shareholder harbored this thought. They fantasized about becoming the ultimate winners in this seemingly intense war of attrition over the stock price, achieving a massive surge in their wealth.

Anyway, in the eyes of these shareholders, Lin Haoran had plenty of money, so it was only right and proper for them to earn a little from him!

They wanted to make a sucker out of Lin Haoran.

In a relatively quiet VIP room in the trading hall, A Feng, the senior trading head of Baoyuan Securities, frowned deeply, rapidly analyzing the trading volume and the number of pending buy and sell orders.

“Something’s not right. The volume is increasing too quickly, too suddenly!” he said in a low voice to his colleague beside him. “Look, although the buying is furious, the large orders lack sustainability. Many are from retail investors following the trend. And it’s very strange.”

“What is it, Brother Feng?” his colleague leaned in.

“That move at 10:07,” A Feng pointed to a crude, hand-drawn stock chart showing an abrupt vertical line. “An instant fifty-thousand-lot buy order that violently pushed the price up 30%! This move is too aggressive. It doesn’t seem like Lin Haoran’s steady style. It’s more like… luring bulls!”

He had a faint feeling not long after the market opened, so he had deliberately instructed his subordinates to place a pending order for five thousand lots just to confirm his suspicion.

And now, he was even more certain.

Luring bulls?

His colleague’s expression changed.

If this was a deliberate move to attract more retail investors to take over at a high price…

Then wouldn’t it be very dangerous if they continued to chase the high?

“Look at the support,” A Feng continued. “Although the buy orders below are thick, they’re all small orders piled up. The truly large buy orders were quickly withdrawn after their show of force. This is a classic fishing tactic!”

He no longer hesitated and decisively gave an order: “Notify our clients with positions to start placing sell orders in batches! Set the price a little higher. While the sentiment is high, sell as much as we can! We’re not wading into these muddy waters!”

Soon, the accounts of Baoyuan Securities began to move.

A series of sizable sell orders quietly appeared in the high-price sell queue, like shadows lurking among the celebrating crowd.

However, clear-headed people like him were a minority.

Most people thought there was a profit to be made.

The frenzy in the stock market continued.

It was a bloodbath, an absolute bloodbath in the market. The stock price was still soaring wildly!

“Charge! Mr. Lin is definitely going to snatch up shares! Superman Li won’t give up easily, there’s definitely a bigger fight coming!” A retail investor in a flamboyant shirt waved his trading slips, shouting himself hoarse, his face flushed red.

“That’s right! It’s only 38.4% versus 40%. With such a small gap, how could someone as aggressive as Mr. Lin not push past the line? Superman Li will surely defend it to the death! Buy now! This is the time to follow the big players and get a piece of the action! Mr. Lin is destined to be the ‘sucker’! The more he buys, the more we earn!” A bald, middle-aged man next to him deliberately shouted loudly.

However, the bald middle-aged man was merely a shill from Baoyuan Investment.

The word “sucker” had, at this moment, become a tacit understanding among many retail investors in the trading hall.

It even became a common phrase on many shareholders’ lips.

This information was quickly relayed to the headquarters of Galaxy Securities by its employees stationed at the Stock Exchange.

In the eyes of many retail investors and some less powerful investment teams, Lin Haoran, this young “stock market sniper,” would inevitably continue to sweep up shares in the secondary market at any cost to seize control of Cheung Kong Holdings.

And to protect his empire, Li Jiacheng would certainly put up a desperate resistance, driving the stock price even higher.

This grand drama of “two dragons fighting over a pearl” was a godsent opportunity for them, the small retail investors, to reap the rewards!

Lin Haoran’s vast capital was the “fat sheep” in their eyes, the target for them to “reap the leeks.”

“Buy! Buy as much as you can! Follow Mr. Lin, and the money will roll in every day!” The slogans rose and fell.

People crowded in front of the trading terminals, the sounds of transactions merging into a rapid cacophony.

Buy orders flew out like snowflakes, pushing Cheung Kong Holdings’ stock price upward like an untamed horse.

The faces of the retail investors were flushed with excitement, their eyes gleaming with greed for huge profits.

They calculated that as soon as the news of Lin Haoran’s continued share increase was announced, the stock price would climb to another level. That would be the time for them to make a safe retreat, leaving Lin Haoran holding the bag at the peak.

40%.

50%.

60%.

An hour after the market opened, the stock price of Cheung Kong Holdings had risen by a full 64% compared to its opening price.

At this rate, if things developed normally, it would be no problem for Cheung Kong’s stock price to double by noon.

And Cheung Kong’s market capitalization might even surge into the top three.

They were insane. The shareholders had all gone insane.

They were all waiting for Lin Haoran to come and buy their shares with wads of cash.

Around 10:30 AM, just as the fervent retail investors had pushed Cheung Kong’s stock to another peak and the entire trading hall had nearly descended into a state of collective madness, a sudden piece of news landed like a bucket of ice water.

“Hey, hey! Did you hear? Hongkong Land Group! The parent company of Galaxy Securities just issued an urgent notice! They’re holding a press conference at eleven o’clock sharp at Connaught Centre! Jade Channel is broadcasting it live across all of Hong Kong!” a broker holding the latest pager message shouted loudly.

“What?!” The fervent atmosphere froze for a second, then erupted into an even greater uproar.

“A press conference? Now? Are you kidding me? The stock market battle is heating up! Mr. Lin has time for a press conference?”

“What the hell is going on? A press conference at a time like this? Is he going to announce his plan to increase his holdings? Telling everyone to keep following?”

“That’s not right! If it were good news, he should have announced it before the market opened! Why now? What does this mean?”

“Could it be that Superman Li can’t hold on anymore and some major negative news is about to break?”

All sorts of speculation flew about.

The retail investors who had been so sure of “a battle between Lin and Li” felt a thick cloud of doubt settling over their hearts for the first time.

The sweet dream of making Lin Haoran their “sucker” seemed to have been punctured, and a wisp of an emotion called “unease” quietly seeped in.

“Connaught Centre, isn’t that Mr. Lin’s headquarters? For him to hold a press conference at this time…” A shareholder who had previously been in a frenzy stared at the electronic screen where the stock price remained firm but the trading volume was showing subtle changes, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead.

“Something’s not right… very not right…”

Meanwhile, in a conference hall at Connaught Centre, more than a hundred reporters had already gathered.

This was the same place where those few Cheung Kong shareholders had held their press conference earlier.

It was still ten minutes before eleven in the morning, but all the invited media reporters had already arrived!

On the 51st floor, in Lin Haoran’s office.

“Boss, the reporters have all arrived. Also, Mr. Li Jiacheng has already reached Connaught Centre and is heading to the conference hall accompanied by Mr. Ma Shimin,” Ma Shimin’s assistant came in to report.

“Alright, I know!” Lin Haoran nodded and stood up, preparing to leave.

“Also, Mr. Dai from Galaxy Securities asked me to pass on a message. Cheung Kong Holdings’ stock price has risen wildly. The people at the exchange sent word that many shareholders want to treat you as a sucker, waiting for you to splash cash to acquire Kowloon Wharf shares like Mr. Pao Yue-kong did,” the assistant continued.

Hearing this, a meaningful arc formed on Lin Haoran’s lips. How interesting.

“A sucker?” He chuckled, his tone tinged with amusement.

“A nice thought, but unfortunately, they’ve picked the wrong target.”

He adjusted his suit and tie and walked calmly towards the door, heading for the press conference downstairs.

In the corridor outside the conference hall, Lin Haoran met Li Jiacheng.

At this moment, although Li Jiacheng’s face was somewhat haggard, he was no longer as obviously crestfallen as yesterday. Instead, there was a calmness that came from accepting reality. Deep in his eyes, there was even a hard-to-detect, complex scrutiny of the young man before him.

“Mr. Li, thank you for your trouble. I appreciate you making the trip yourself,” Lin Haoran proactively extended his hand. His tone was calm, showing basic respect for a senior, but there was no hint of weakness.

Li Jiacheng shook his hand with a moderate grip, forcing a business-like smile onto his face. “You’re too kind, Mr. Lin. This is a major event, and it’s only right that I attend. In the future, I will have much to learn from you, Mr. Lin.”

His words were flawless, acknowledging the current situation while preserving his own dignity.

The two made eye contact, a tacit understanding between them.

The smoke of the past battle seemed to have dissipated, and future cooperation and competition would unfold under a new framework.

Of course, Lin Haoran couldn’t care less about what Li Jiacheng was truly thinking.

At eleven o’clock sharp, the press conference began on time.

The flashbulbs lit up the dais brightly.

Jade Channel had long since set up its live broadcast equipment, aimed it at the dais, and started the live feed.

Ma Shimin walked quickly to the dais. Below, the reporters held their breath, waiting for the news that would decide the fate of the market.

Ma Shimin skipped the pleasantries and cut straight to the chase, his voice carrying clearly through the microphones across the hall: “Thank you, friends from the media, for being here. This press conference is to issue a final announcement regarding the share matters of Galaxy Securities, Cheung Kong Holdings Group, and Hutchison Whampoa Group, and to provide an explanation for the recent abnormal market fluctuations. Now, may I invite our Boss, Mr. Lin Haoran, and the Chairman of the Board of Cheung Kong Holdings, Mr. Li Jiacheng, to take their seats!”

As soon as Ma Shimin’s words fell, the scene erupted in an uproar.

The audience watching on television was also stunned.

Especially in the Stock Exchange, as the television in the corner broadcasted this live event, all the shareholders were dumbfounded.

A joint press conference with Li Jiacheng and Lin Haoran?

What was going on? Weren’t they supposed to be fighting tooth and nail over Cheung Kong Holdings’ shares right now?

Why would the two of them appear here at the same time?

Why would they hold a press conference together?

A series of questions exploded in the minds of all the shareholders watching the live broadcast.

The deafening clamor in the trading hall was suddenly cut off as if by an invisible hand, plunging it into an eerie silence.

Countless pairs of eyes stared fixedly at the television screens, their faces filled with disbelief.

Under the focus of countless gazes, Lin Haoran and Li Jiacheng walked onto the dais with calm composure and took their respective seats.

Both men appeared exceptionally calm. Lin Haoran was self-assured and composed, while Li Jiacheng was placid after weathering many storms. But the very image of them sitting side-by-side was enough to leave everyone who had been speculating about the “two dragons fighting over a pearl” speechless.

Ma Shimin didn’t give the audience or those beyond the screen much time to digest their shock. He picked up a prepared document and read it in a clear, forceful voice:

“It has been formally confirmed by Mr. Lin Haoran and the Board of Directors of Cheung Kong Holdings Group, and all relevant legal procedures have been completed. Yesterday, Mr. Lin Haoran successfully concluded negotiations for the acquisition of the 40% equity in Hutchison Whampoa held by Cheung Kong Holdings Group, thereby obtaining absolute controlling stake in Hutchison Whampoa. At the same time, with its 38.4% stake in Cheung Kong Holdings, Galaxy Securities has officially become the second-largest shareholder of Cheung Kong Holdings. Following the conclusion of the re-election of the Board of Directors of Cheung Kong Holdings Group, the actual controller of Hongkong Land Group, Mr. Lin Haoran, has been honored with the appointment of the new Vice Chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings. Later, Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa will issue their respective announcements.”

After speaking, Ma Shimin led the applause.

However, the reporters below did not immediately join in. Instead, after a brief silence, an explosive tide of questions erupted, with microphones thrust towards the two men on the dais like a forest of cannons.

Shocking. This news was too shocking.

If Li Jiacheng hadn’t been present, they would never have believed these words were true.

At that moment, Li Jiacheng took the microphone.

Instantly, the entire venue fell silent.

Everyone waited in anticipation to hear what Li Jiacheng would say.

Li Jiacheng sighed inwardly, then began to speak, “Everyone, as Mr. Ma Shimin has said, the business competition between myself and Mr. Lin Haoran has officially ended. As Cheung Kong Holdings no longer holds any shares in Hutchison Whampoa, I have submitted my letter of resignation to the Hutchison Whampoa Board of Directors. From this day forward, I, Li Jiacheng, will no longer hold any position at Hutchison Whampoa. At the same time, I warmly welcome Mr. Lin Haoran to the big family of Cheung Kong Holdings. I hope that together, we can make the future of Cheung Kong Holdings even more brilliant!”

His words were somewhat insincere.

But they confirmed that everything Ma Shimin had said was true.

The reporters at the scene were left reeling by this sudden bombshell. After a brief silence, a torrent of questions surged forward.

“Mr. Li, what were your considerations for choosing to sell your Hutchison Whampoa shares?” a young female reporter asked first, her voice filled with unconcealed excitement.

Li Jiacheng adjusted his posture slightly, his gaze calm but profound. “Business competition is like this, with its ups and downs. Mr. Lin has demonstrated extraordinary strength and vision. Perhaps Hutchison Whampoa can start a new chapter in his hands. My withdrawal is also to give the younger generation more opportunities, and I also want to refocus my energy on Cheung Kong Holdings to seek new development.”

Another reporter immediately followed up, “Mr. Lin, now that you have successfully acquired the equity of Hutchison Whampoa and become the Vice Chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings, what are your future plans for these two major groups?”

A confident smile appeared on Lin Haoran’s face. “Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings are both jewels of Hong Kong’s business community, with deep foundations and excellent teams. Next, as the absolute controlling shareholder, I naturally hope Hutchison Whampoa develops even better. As for Cheung Kong Holdings, I believe that with Mr. Li Jiacheng as the helmsman, I don’t need to worry too much.”

The reporters below scribbled furiously while continuing to throw out sharp questions.

This press conference had undoubtedly become the focus of all of Hong Kong, and every answer could trigger a chain reaction in the market.

And at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the trading floor was still dead silent.

The shareholders, who had been immersed in a frenzied trading atmosphere just moments ago, now stood frozen on the spot, as if hit by a petrification spell.

The news of the sudden press conference had struck like a heavy hammer, completely shattering their dream of “treating Lin Haoran as a sucker.”

“This… how is this possible? How could it be like this?” The retail investor in the flamboyant shirt, who had been screaming for others to charge in, was now pale. He clutched his recent transaction slips tightly, his eyes filled with despair and disbelief.

The bald, middle-aged man had quietly vanished.

Watching the surrounding shareholders who were still lost in shock, he felt a complex mix of emotions—pity for those who had blindly followed the trend, and pride in his own wise decision.

“It’s over, it’s all over! The stock price is definitely going to plummet!” Someone shouted, and the cry acted like a fuse, instantly igniting panic on the trading floor.

The once-firm stock price curve began to fall sharply under the market’s panicked sell-off.

The numbers on the simple electronic screen jumped continuously, each change wrenching the hearts of the shareholders.

Those who had been fantasizing about a surge in their wealth just moments before were now only thinking about how to sell their stocks as quickly as possible to minimize their losses.

“Mine, mine, trade mine! Sell, quickly!” People crowded wildly at the trading counters, fighting to offload the stocks in their hands.

Chapter 755: They’re Scared, Standard Chartered Bank is Genuinely Scared!

The commotion at the press conference had yet to fully die down. The only figures left in the main hall were staff members busily cleaning up.

The image of Lin Haoran and Li Jiacheng’s handshake—outwardly restrained but with roiling undercurrents—had already been broadcast live by Jade Channel, becoming the most stunning scene in Hong Kong’s business world this Monday.

Who would have thought this business rivalry would end so quickly?

Last Thursday, Galaxy Securities had suddenly begun acquiring large quantities of shares in Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa. By noon, it had directly announced that it controlled over thirty percent of Cheung Kong Holdings and had become Hutchison Whampoa’s largest shareholder.

At the time, everyone believed that this battle for control was just beginning and that the two sides were bound for a spectacular, hard-fought struggle.

However, just two days later, news broke that a shareholder of Cheung Kong Holdings had “switched sides,” betraying Li Jiacheng.

And today, Monday, a mere four days after the event began, the two key figures appeared in public together, and the struggle was already decided!

Lin Haoran had won so cleanly, decisively, and swiftly that everyone was taken by complete surprise.

From beginning to end, no one saw Li Jiacheng make a single countermove.

Had Li Jiacheng been defeated that easily?

Although no one could believe what they were seeing was real, the iron-clad truth was laid bare before them, leaving no room for disbelief.

No one would have considered Li Jiacheng a weakling.

After all, he had accomplished the astonishing feat of a “snake swallowing an elephant,” successfully acquiring Hutchison Whampoa from HSBC at an extremely low cost. His audacity and methods were unparalleled!

Thus, the only logical explanation was that Lin Haoran was simply too powerful—so powerful that even a titan like Li Jiacheng, who commanded the winds and clouds of the business world, was easily defeated by him.

Previously, Jardine Matheson & Co. and HSBC had also fallen at Lin Haoran’s hands, but their defeats were nowhere near as swift.

At this moment, Lin Haoran had sent a chill through the entire upper echelon of Hong Kong’s business community, leaving the tycoons scared into silence.

Now, which of Hong Kong’s business magnates would dare to provoke Lin Haoran? To be precise, they were more worried about Lin Haoran setting his sights on them.

If Lin Haoran targeted them, the business empires they had painstakingly built would likely be in grave danger!

At this moment, Lin Haoran’s deterrent effect on the Hong Kong business world reached its apex.

Even Standard Chartered Bank had already convened a high-level meeting at its headquarters. The decision was made: Standard Chartered Bank would no longer seek to be Lin Haoran’s enemy, nor would it attempt to seize market share from the Hang Seng Group.

This was not a simple admission of defeat; they were genuinely terrified.

They did not want to lose the Hong Kong market, which they had acquired with great difficulty, to Lin Haoran.

But they knew that if they continued to oppose him, it was only a matter of time before he took the Hong Kong market from them.

Even if the Hang Seng Group couldn’t seize the market share of a British-owned company, it would be severely wounded, leaving it vulnerable for other forces to exploit—just as Standard Chartered Bank had taken advantage of HSBC’s weakness.

They were scared. Standard Chartered Bank was genuinely scared.

There were too many examples before them: those who stood against Lin Haoran never ended up well.

Although Standard Chartered Bank was a multinational financial group and would normally have the confidence to stand up to Lin Haoran, after acquiring HSBC, their Hong Kong presence had become their single largest market. They did not want to lose this primary market, and the best choice was to coexist peacefully with Lin Haoran.

As for expanding their market share in Hong Kong?

They couldn’t even think about it. The moment they entertained the thought, they would likely be met with a frenzied assault.

At this moment, Standard Chartered Bank had yielded.

After the press conference ended, Li Jiacheng hastily left the Connaught Centre and returned to the China Building.

Facing Lin Haoran, he was a failure, constantly reminded of his crushing defeat at the other man’s hands.

Therefore, he was unwilling to stay there a moment longer.

In the conference hall, reporters packed up their equipment and left, thoroughly satisfied.

They had gathered more than enough material for their interviews today.

The most important thing now was to get back to their offices as quickly as possible, find their best writers, and craft the most brilliant articles!

Ma Shimin walked out of the conference hall alongside Lin Haoran and took the elevator back to the office.

“Boss, we should head over to the Hutchison Whampoa Building now!” Ma Shimin suddenly said after they sat down.

Lin Haoran nodded. After Cheung Kong Holdings transferred its forty percent stake to Galaxy Securities, his actual shareholding had reached a staggering 86.9 percent.

This was a terrifyingly high shareholding percentage, meaning that with one more step, he could initiate a compulsory privatization of Hutchison Whampoa.

However, he had not instructed Galaxy Securities to continue increasing its stake in Hutchison Whampoa today.

Besides the fact that Hutchison’s stock price was currently high, making further acquisitions unsuitable, there was a more important reason: he was contemplating whether to fully privatize Hutchison.

Hutchison was different from the Hongkong Land Group. Before Lin Haoran acquired Hongkong Land, its greatest assets were its various expensive commercial properties in Hong Kong’s core districts.

These properties were mostly located in the most central business districts of Hong Kong, such as Central, Sheung Wan, Causeway Bay, Wan Chai, and Tsim Sha Tsui.

The annual rental income alone was enough to provide Hongkong Land with a stable cash flow and considerable profits.

Therefore, privatizing Hongkong Land would shield its quality assets from public view, making it easier for Lin Haoran to carry out longer-term and perhaps more discreet asset integration and operations.

But Hutchison Whampoa was vastly different.

Hutchison’s businesses were deeply rooted and intertwined, spanning numerous sectors such as ports, retail, real estate, and import-export trade. It was a typical comprehensive multinational enterprise.

Its value lay not only in its existing assets but also in its vast network, brand reputation, and market position in multiple industries.

Maintaining its status as a listed company, utilizing the capital markets for financing and expansion, while leveraging its transparency as a public company to enhance the overall credibility and influence of the “Galaxy Strategic Development Committee,” might be more strategically significant than complete privatization.

Most importantly, to completely privatize every company he acquired seemed a bit excessive.

“Is the Boss considering Hutchison’s future positioning?” Ma Shimin keenly sensed Lin Haoran’s contemplation and asked softly.

“Yes. What do you think? Should I privatize Hutchison Whampoa? Or should it remain a listed company?” Lin Haoran asked in return.

He was currently so wealthy that privatizing Hutchison Whampoa would be exceptionally simple.

Moreover, his subsidiary, Galaxy Securities, already held a full 86.9 percent of the shares. If he truly wanted to privatize it, he was only one step away.

“Boss, as a professional manager, I recommend that keeping Hutchison Whampoa as a listed company is the best choice,” Ma Shimin answered directly without a moment’s hesitation.

“Oh? And why is that?” Lin Haoran looked at Ma Shimin, his eyes holding a hint of a test.

He already had an opinion, but he was keen to hear the specific views of the future committee head of the “Galaxy Strategic Development Committee.”

Ma Shimin gathered his thoughts and began to explain in a clear, organized manner, his tone filled with professional prudence and foresight:

“Boss, I believe there are three reasons.”

“First, it serves as a financing platform and a mark of credibility.

Hutchison Whampoa’s businesses are highly diversified. Ports, retail, and real estate are all capital-intensive industries. Future expansion or acquisitions will require huge financial support.

Maintaining its listed status is equivalent to having a powerful and sustainable financing platform. We can raise the necessary capital for development at a low cost through various means like issuing new shares or bonds.

At the same time, as a strictly regulated and financially transparent listed company, it is a golden signboard in itself. This is crucial for conducting business in the international market, obtaining bank credit, and gaining the trust of partners.

If we privatize it, although we gain absolute control, it also means we will have to bear all capital expenditures alone, losing the opportunity to leverage public capital. The gains simply do not make up for the losses.

Although you are not short on funds, Boss, investing all the capital yourself does not maximize benefits and might even limit the company’s speed and scale of development.

After all, the power of the capital markets is infinite. With a listed company as a platform, we can leverage resources far exceeding our own strength to achieve more rapid expansion,” Ma Shimin analyzed methodically.

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, signaling him to continue.

Encouraged, Ma Shimin went on, “Second, there’s market influence and strategic positioning.

As a well-known enterprise listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Hutchison Whampoa’s stock performance and market dynamics are constantly watched by global investors.

This attention is itself an intangible asset that can bring us numerous strategic opportunities.

For instance, through interaction with various investors, we can better understand market trends and industry dynamics, allowing us to adjust the company’s strategic direction in a timely manner.

Moreover, its status as a listed company helps enhance our reputation and prestige in the international market, attracting more top talent and partners.

When expanding overseas, local governments and regulatory agencies are often more inclined to cooperate with listed companies that have a good reputation and transparency. This will undoubtedly clear many obstacles for our global expansion.

If we choose to privatize, Hutchison Whampoa will gradually fade from the public eye, and its market influence will decline accordingly.

In today’s fiercely competitive business world, losing market attention means losing many potential opportunities, which is extremely detrimental to our long-term goal of building a global commercial empire.”

Lin Haoran fell into thought, his fingers gently tapping on the desk as he weighed the pros and cons in his mind.

Seeing this, Ma Shimin paused for a moment before continuing with his third reason: “Third, risk diversification and stability.

Listed companies must adhere to strict financial reporting and information disclosure systems. This makes the company’s operations more transparent and makes it easier to gain investor trust.

For a company with diverse businesses like Hutchison Whampoa, this transparency helps to diversify risk.

The performance of different business segments may vary in different market environments. Through the platform of a listed company, investors can value and invest in different businesses based on their own judgment, thereby diversifying the company’s overall risk to some extent.

Once privatized, the company’s internal decision-making and operations will become more closed off. Although this can improve decision-making efficiency, it can also breed internal management and financial risks.

Without external supervision and a system of checks and balances, a poor decision or a management loophole could cause huge losses for the company.

Boss, we are pursuing long-term, steady development. We cannot let a momentary desire for control cause us to overlook potential risks.”

After hearing Ma Shimin’s analysis, Lin Haoran leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath.

He had to admit that Ma Shimin’s views were exceptionally insightful and comprehensive, taking into account all the key aspects of the company’s development.

As a highly ambitious business leader, he craved control over everything, and completely privatizing Hutchison Whampoa would certainly satisfy his pursuit of absolute control.

But from the strategic high ground of the company’s long-term development, retaining its status as a listed company seemed much wiser.

Furthermore, out of all that Ma Shimin said, there was one point he deeply agreed with, one that made him reflect profoundly.

As a Transmigrator, he possessed a prescient knowledge of the future, allowing him to foresee many major events, such as the rapidly changing situation in the battle for Kowloon Wharf, the onslaught of the oil crisis, and the dramatic surge in gold prices.

Relying on this advance knowledge, every move he made was flawlessly precise, allowing him to make a huge profit time and again.

As a result, the wealth he had accumulated was almost beyond imagination.

He had so much money that he felt he didn’t need to rely on external financing to expand his business. He figured he might as well privatize his companies since money was no object.

However, as Ma Shimin said, while privatization had its benefits, it had more disadvantages than advantages in the long run.

Listed companies have their own unique strengths, which is why business tycoons often choose to take their companies public.

Did those tycoons lack money?

Of course not!

They did so because they believed that having a listed company under their command offered greater advantages and broader prospects in terms of resource integration, brand influence, and long-term development.

On careful thought, he had already privatized quite a few companies.

In Hong Kong alone, there were Green Island Cement, Wan’an Real Estate Company, Hongkong Land Group, The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Hang Seng Bank, and the Bank of East Asia, among others.

It could be said that he had indeed privatized too many companies, perhaps excessively so.

Of course, he also had many companies that remained listed.

For example, Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Kowloon Motor Bus, Hong Kong Telephone, and so on.

These were mostly public utility companies. Their involvement in public welfare and their significant societal impact meant that forcibly privatizing them could attract unnecessary regulatory scrutiny and public pressure. That was why Lin Haoran had allowed them to remain listed.

But a pure commercial empire like Hutchison Whampoa had a strategic value far beyond that of a public utility company.

Seeing Lin Haoran deep in thought, Ma Shimin added in a timely manner, “Boss, there is one more crucial point. The ‘Galaxy Strategic Development Committee’ we are about to establish needs heavyweight listed companies to support its authority and influence.

As a benchmark comprehensive enterprise in Hong Kong and even Asia, Hutchison’s listed status is in itself the best endorsement of the committee’s governance capabilities and strategic vision.

If even Hutchison is privatized, outsiders might question whether our ecosystem truly has the ability to empower public companies, or if it’s merely a closed tool for capital operations.”

This statement truly struck a chord with Lin Haoran.

His ambition in building the “Galaxy” system was not merely to accumulate wealth, but to create a business ecosystem with global influence.

Simply put, he wanted to build a global behemoth of a conglomerate!

If everything was privatized, how could he bring in other powerful conglomerates to cooperate?

To fight alone might work on his own turf, but in places like the United States or Europe, if he offended the local conglomerates, they could use political tools or other means to deal with him in an instant.

So, it was indeed necessary to maintain some listed benchmark companies.

The listed companies he currently controlled—be it Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong and China Gas, Kowloon Motor Bus, or Hong Kong Telephone—were essentially regional enterprises. They had already reached a developmental bottleneck and would find it difficult to achieve another leap in global expansion.

Their value lay in providing stable cash flow and local influence, but they could not shoulder the responsibility of being the “Galaxy’s” global flagship.

After all, public utility companies in most countries and regions are tied to public welfare and local interests, and are mostly controlled by local governments or business tycoons. It is very difficult for outside companies to break in.

Hutchison Whampoa, on the other hand, was completely different.

It was inherently international, with multiple ports, retail networks, and trade channels.

Keeping it listed was not just for financing and credibility, but also for building an open platform for cooperation.

In the future, for “Galaxy” to expand its territory globally, it would inevitably need to form alliances with local capital, enterprises, and even governments.

A transparent Hutchison with a fair market value would be the best “stepping stone” and “credit collateral.”

Potential partners could clearly assess its strength through the capital market, which was more direct and credible than privately showing a pile of financial reports from private companies.

As for the Hongkong Land Group, although it was much stronger than Hutchison Whampoa now, it had already been privatized by him and was destined to be his private property.

Privatization certainly brought a sense of one hundred percent control, but it could also label an enterprise as “closed,” “mysterious,” or even “exclusive,” which ran counter to his long-term goals.

Having thought this through, Lin Haoran felt a sense of clarity.

He looked at Ma Shimin and said with satisfaction, “Mr. Ma, you’re right. Hutchison Whampoa must retain its listed status. It is not only our platform for financing and expansion but also the flagship of ‘Galaxy’ facing the capital markets and the global business world.

What we need to do is not to pocket it for ourselves, but to make this flag fly higher and farther under our leadership!”

Changing the subject, Lin Haoran posed a question: “However, we now hold a full 86.9 percent of the shares. According to Hong Kong’s current regulations for listed companies, can it continue to maintain its listed status?”

This was a technical question that touched on the core of listing rules.

An excessively high shareholding percentage would lead to an insufficient public float, which could indeed trigger delisting conditions.

Ma Shimin was clearly well-versed in these matters. He answered calmly, “Boss, you are very thorough. According to the Stock Exchange’s listing rules, to ensure sufficient market liquidity, a listed company must maintain a minimum public shareholding percentage, which is typically twenty-five percent.”

He paused for a moment, then continued, “However, rules are rigid, but situations are fluid. Our current 86.9 percent shareholding is indeed far over the red line.

But solving this problem doesn’t mean privatization is the only way. We have at least two compliant and common operational solutions.”

“Oh? What are the two solutions?” Lin Haoran’s interest was piqued.

He was well aware of Ma Shimin’s extensive experience in capital market operations.

And he could guess one of the two solutions Ma Shimin was about to mention: reducing his stake.

As expected, Ma Shimin quickly laid it out.

“The first solution, and the most direct method, is to reduce our shareholding,” Ma Shimin said, holding up his index finger. “We can place a portion of our Hutchison shares on the market to lower our shareholding percentage to seventy-five percent or slightly below, meeting the public float requirement.

This has several benefits: first, we can immediately recover a large sum of cash, which can be used for other investments within ‘Galaxy’;

Second, it sends a clear signal to the market that we have no intention of privatizing and are willing to share benefits with public investors, which will greatly boost market confidence in Hutchison;

Finally, a successful placement can reactivate the liquidity of Hutchison’s stock and attract more institutional investors.”

Lin Haoran nodded. This solution was simple and direct, a standard procedure. “And the second solution?”

“The second solution is more flexible. It’s called a ‘whitewash waiver’ with subsequent arrangements,” Ma Shimin explained. “Since our shareholding percentage passively exceeded seventy-five percent through a series of acquisitions, it wasn’t our initial intention to circumvent the rules.

We can apply to the Securities and Futures Commission and the Stock Exchange for a ‘whitewash waiver,’ which exempts us from the delisting obligation that would be triggered by a mandatory general offer.

While obtaining the waiver, we would need to submit a clear plan to the regulatory authorities to restore the public float to a compliant level within a specific period, say, twelve months.

This plan could include a share placement like the first solution, or it could involve issuing new shares at an opportune moment in the future, for instance, to finance a specific acquisition project, thereby diluting our own shareholding and indirectly increasing the public float.

This approach gives us a larger time window and greater operational flexibility.”

Ma Shimin further analyzed, “Boss, I personally lean toward the first solution: a proactive share placement to reduce our holdings.

It’s transparent and swift, and it would be the quickest way to dispel market doubts and establish our image as a compliant, open, and cooperative entity.

Moreover, by taking advantage of the current high market attention on Hutchison and its relatively high stock price, we can achieve a very ideal price for the placement.

This is like converting some of our ‘paper wealth’ into cash while bringing in more strategic investors to solidify Hutchison’s shareholder base for the future.”

Chapter 756: The Hutchison Old Guard Wants to Sideline Lin Haoran?

After listening, a smile of approval appeared on Lin Haoran’s face.

“Very good! Let’s go with the first option. You’ll have full authority over this matter. Prepare a share placement plan as soon as possible. The goal is to reduce our stake to around 75%. Remember, the price of the shares we sell off cannot be low!

“We must both meet regulatory requirements and reserve enough of a controlling stake for ourselves,” Lin Haoran decided with a final tap on the table.

Holding 75% of the shares was more than enough.

It was the same with Hong Kong Telephone, where he also held a 75% stake.

He stood up and continued, “Let’s go. To the Hutchison Whampoa Building.”

In the underground parking garage of the Connaught Centre, a black Rolls-Royce was parked quietly in an exclusive spot, flanked by two bodyguards who had been waiting there the entire time.

Ever since the incident with the “time bomb” planted under his Rolls-Royce, he had become extraordinarily cautious about his car.

Before every trip, his security team would conduct a strict and thorough inspection of the vehicle to ensure it was foolproof.

When he was out, he would even leave two bodyguards to watch the car after it was parked. After all, safety was paramount!

Having miraculously traveled through time, lived a second life, and built such a vast commercial empire, he had no intention of dying young again!

Seeing Lin Haoran, Ma Shimin, Li Weidong, Li Weiguo, and the others approaching, the bodyguards waiting by the car immediately stepped forward and respectfully opened the door.

Lin Haoran gave a slight nod and bent down to get inside.

Ma Shimin followed closely behind, sitting next to him.

The car door closed softly, shutting out the outside world.

A convoy of several cars slowly drove out of the Connaught Centre’s underground garage, merging into the slightly busy midday traffic of Central.

Lin Haoran leaned back against the comfortable leather seat, his thoughtful gaze directed out the window.

The skyscrapers of Central flew past as he and Ma Shimin chatted casually about the upcoming takeover of Hutchison Whampoa.

It had been less than a year since Li Jiacheng took control of Hutchison Whampoa. Furthermore, before his takeover, his company, Cheung Kong Holdings, was purely a property developer.

Therefore, after acquiring Hutchison Whampoa, Li Jiacheng understood that controlling this massive conglomerate would not be easy, especially with its diverse portfolio of container terminals, dockyards, pharmaceuticals, retail operations, and more. It was a highly diversified giant.

For Li Jiacheng, the Chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings, much of this was unfamiliar territory.

Moreover, the talent under him consisted mostly of property industry professionals, and he did not have enough trustworthy people to draw upon.

Consequently, Li Jiacheng did his utmost to appease Hutchison’s Western senior management and entrust them with significant responsibilities.

Although deep down he wished he could sweep out this entire old guard from the Willie era and install his own trusted people, Li Jiacheng was smart enough to know that the time was not yet right.

Thus, after the former Taipan Willie was forced to resign, Li Jiacheng immediately appointed Willie’s deputy, Richard Lee, as the new President. Business Director Simon Hall and Administration Director Peter Wei were also kept on, forming the triumvirate of Hutchison’s new management.

Because of this, the current change of ownership at Hutchison Whampoa, with Lin Haoran taking control, would not cause drastic personnel turmoil just because of Li Jiacheng’s departure.

The people truly maintaining Hutchison’s daily operations were the three Western executives—Richard Lee, Simon Hall, and Peter Wei—and their professional teams, not Li Jiacheng.

Li Jiacheng acted more as a strategic investor and final decision-maker; he had not yet managed to deeply embed his mark into Hutchison’s management fabric.

Although he had recently appointed two senior executives from Cheung Kong Holdings as Executive Directors at Hutchison, the time had been too short. Coupled with the resistance from the Western executives, the two from Cheung Kong had not truly integrated into Hutchison’s core.

“Boss, what are your plans for Hutchison Whampoa? Will you continue to let Richard Lee’s team manage it, or do you have other arrangements?” Ma Shimin asked, looking at the vehicles speeding by outside the window.

He was still in charge of the behemoth that was the Hongkong Land Group and was also preparing to establish the “Galaxy Strategic Development Committee.” Therefore, it would certainly be inappropriate for Ma Shimin to also serve as the helmsman of Hutchison.

No matter how talented Ma Shimin was, he was still just one man with limited energy.

“Richard Lee’s team seems stable for now. They are very familiar with Hutchison’s operations. In the short term, maintaining the status quo is the safest choice. However, it may not be suitable for the long term.

“I’ve looked into it. Richard Lee is capable, but not enough to lead a giant like Hutchison Whampoa for the long haul. He can’t push Hutchison to greater heights, so he’s better suited as a deputy!” Lin Haoran said, recalling the intelligence report Cui Zilong had given him.

“Actually, I have a suggestion. Boss, why don’t you invite Mr. Willie back to manage Hutchison Whampoa again? What do you think?” Ma Shimin said with a smile.

“Mr. Willie?” Lin Haoran looked at Ma Shimin with some surprise.

Lin Haoran had never dealt with Willie, the former Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa, but he knew the man was an exceptionally brilliant professional manager who had made outstanding contributions to the company.

It could be said that without Willie, it was questionable whether Hutchison Whampoa would have survived to this day. It might have gone bankrupt years ago, its assets carved up and swallowed by others.

So, Mr. Willie’s contribution to Hutchison Whampoa was indeed immense.

In the mid-1970s, Hutchison Whampoa’s predecessor, Hutchison International, fell into a severe financial crisis.

At the time, due to over-expansion, Hutchison International suffered losses totaling nearly several hundred million Hong Kong dollars over two consecutive years under the impact of the 1973 oil crisis, setting a record for the largest corporate loss since the founding of Hong Kong. It was once on the brink of bankruptcy.

“I remember it clearly,” Ma Shimin said, a touch of nostalgia in his voice. “HSBC had to step in with a massive capital injection to take over Hutchison, and Willie was brought in as the ‘troubleshooter’ at that time.”

Lin Haoran nodded in understanding.

Most people in Hong Kong’s business circles knew this piece of history. After taking over the mess in 1975, Willie displayed astonishing ability.

He first merged Hutchison International with Whampoa Dockyard to form the current Hutchison Whampoa Limited, then carried out a series of drastic reforms: shutting down loss-making divisions, selling non-core assets, and restructuring debt.

“Willie is indeed a capable man. Under his leadership, Hutchison Whampoa not only escaped the crisis of bankruptcy but also returned to profitability by 1977. His business talent ranks among the top five professional managers in all of Hong Kong,” Lin Haoran commented.

In Lin Haoran’s view, Willie’s talent was on the same level as Ma Shimin’s. In fact, Willie’s experience in managing large corporations was even more extensive.

“Never mind top five, I think top three is no problem at all,” Ma Shimin added. “But Willie has a strong personality and clashed with HSBC over development strategy. That’s why when Li Jiacheng made his acquisition offer, HSBC chose to support Li Jiacheng instead of Willie.”

Lin Haoran nodded.

In reality, Willie’s departure from Hutchison Whampoa, although triggered by Li Jiacheng’s desire for complete control, was because he knew his staying there no longer held much meaning.

However, when he was leaving, Li Jiacheng had actually hoped he would stay on, as he too recognized Willie’s rare talent. If Willie were willing to stay, he would have been a great asset to Hutchison Whampoa.

Yet, as Li Jiacheng gradually consolidated his power, Willie realized he would have little room to flex his abilities and proactively submitted his resignation.

This decision was not a compromise but a rational judgment of his career prospects; he needed a new platform to pursue his ambitions.

He already knew that even if he stayed at Hutchison Whampoa, his future authority would be greatly diminished. Rather than struggle in a position where he was being increasingly marginalized, it was better to make a clean break and seek a wider world to realize his ambitions.

Lin Haoran leaned back in his seat, mulling over Ma Shimin’s suggestion.

“Boss, the reason I suggest inviting Willie back to Hutchison Whampoa is that I know you are different from Mr. Li Jiacheng.

“You are willing to delegate authority and give professional managers the space to utilize their talents. Mr. Li Jiacheng is more controlling, and Willie would have found it difficult to operate freely under him.

“But you are different. You have a broad mind and a long-term vision. If Willie can return to Hutchison Whampoa, with your support, he can surely lead the company to new heights,” Ma Shimin said sincerely.

“Inviting Willie back… that’s a bold and rather appealing idea,” Lin Haoran said slowly. “However, there are many variables involved.

“We don’t fully know Willie’s current mindset and thoughts since he left Hutchison Whampoa. Moreover, whether he’s willing to return to a place he once left is also an unknown.”

As far as Lin Haoran knew, after leaving Hutchison Whampoa, Willie had taken a short break before being invited by Mr. Lo Yuk-sui, the Chairman of Paliburg Group, to join their company.

And Paliburg Group’s objective was clear: they wanted Willie to help them acquire the renowned China Motor Bus.

However, Lin Haoran was aware that they were unlikely to succeed in acquiring China Motor Bus.

After all, Paliburg Group’s strength was ultimately a bit lacking. Their competitor was none other than the famous top-tier powerhouse of Hong Kong, the Guo Desheng family behind Sun Hung Kai Properties, whose influence was on par with Li Jiacheng’s!

This was no longer a question of Willie’s ability; Paliburg simply lacked the necessary strength.

Ma Shimin nodded and said, “Boss, your considerations are reasonable. But Willie’s understanding of Hutchison Whampoa is second to none. If we can use his experience and abilities, it will be a huge boost to Hutchison’s future development and our overall business strategy.

“Furthermore, considering Mr. Willie’s talent, I believe no one in Hong Kong is more suited to be the helmsman of Hutchison Whampoa. We can at least try to contact him and sound him out.”

“Let’s put this matter aside for now. I need to think it over carefully!” Lin Haoran did not agree immediately.

He was not one to choose a corporate leader casually.

While Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin were on their way to Hutchison Whampoa, seven or eight men were sitting in a conference room in the Hutchison Whampoa Building.

Every single one of them was a Westerner.

Anyone familiar with Hutchison Whampoa would recognize them as the company’s old guard.

At their head was Richard Lee.

After Willie left Hutchison Whampoa, they had stayed behind.

However, as a team handpicked by Willie, they had more or less inherited his philosophy: when it came to corporate management, they preferred the boss not to interfere too much, lest their hands be tied and they lose their authority.

At this moment, Richard Lee looked at his subordinate executives. These were once Mr. Willie’s confidants, but with Willie’s departure, they had become his.

Thus, Richard Lee’s ambitions had gradually inflated.

He had joined Hutchison back in 1927, living through the Kidorrie era, the Willie era, and Cheung Kong’s takeover. He had been with Hutchison Whampoa for a full fifty-four years. He was, in the truest sense, a veteran figure among its senior management.

In the nearly one year since Li Jiacheng took control, Richard Lee had led his team in a battle of wits and courage against the directors Li Jiacheng had inserted into Hutchison, fighting for power.

They dared to do so because they understood that Hutchison, under its new owner, could not function without them.

If they all resigned en masse, Hutchison Whampoa would descend into chaos. It would be an absolute disaster.

Therefore, they had the resources and confidence to stand up to Li Jiacheng, and indeed, Li Jiacheng had always treated them politely, not daring to show them the slightest displeasure.

But who would have thought that less than a year after successfully taking control of Hutchison Whampoa, Li Jiacheng himself would be driven out.

And the new boss, Lin Haoran, was someone they found very difficult to handle.

After all, before Willie left Hutchison Whampoa, he had once told them: “Lin Haoran is not someone to be trifled with. Unless absolutely necessary, never make an enemy of him!”

Richard Lee naturally did not dare to be careless with a man even Mr. Willie was so wary of.

But the lure of power and the desire for autonomy pushed them to take a risk.

“Gentlemen,” Richard Lee scanned his confidants and lowered his voice, “Lin Haoran may be powerful, but he has just taken over Hutchison and his foundation here is not yet stable.

“The daily operations, key client relationships, and major project advancements of Hutchison are all in our hands.

“If we stand united and present him with some ‘reasonable’ requests, he will have to consider them for the sake of overall stability. When that time comes, won’t Hutchison Whampoa be ours to command?”

Compared to Li Jiacheng, Richard Lee feared Lin Haoran’s takeover even more.

The reason was simple. Li Jiacheng had primarily operated in the property industry, so he had almost no subordinates capable of managing Hutchison Whampoa’s diverse businesses.

Richard Lee and the others had capitalized on this vulnerable transition point after Cheung Kong gained control—the fact that its businesses in trade, retail, and container terminals still relied on their management expertise—to actively expand their own power base.

The most obvious example was scheming to push out high-level Chinese executives at Hutchison, preventing them from gaining influence and aligning with Cheung Kong.

In the nearly one year since Li Jiacheng’s takeover, several high-ranking Chinese employees at Hutchison Whampoa had already been forced to resign.

And Li Jiacheng had seemingly turned a blind eye, offering no response to their actions.

This had indeed made Richard Lee believe that Li Jiacheng’s takeover had presented him with an opportunity.

But Lin Haoran was different. For every industry Hutchison was in, Lin Haoran’s existing companies were also involved.

This made him very worried about one thing: once Lin Haoran announced his takeover, would he transfer too many senior executives from his other companies like Hongkong Land Group, Wanqing Group, or Hongkong Electric Group to Hutchison Whampoa?

If that happened, they would inevitably be sidelined. They might even end up like their former boss, Mr. Willie, seeing no future at Hutchison Whampoa and having no choice but to resign.

This was Richard Lee’s greatest fear.

He had finally become the most powerful professional manager at Hutchison Whampoa, and he was truly unwilling to give up this position.

Business Director Simon Hall hesitated. “Mr. Lin is not Mr. Li Jiacheng. His methods are ruthless. Even Jardine Matheson and HSBC lost to him, and Li Jiacheng didn’t last more than a few days. Isn’t what we’re doing too risky?”

“It is precisely because his methods are ruthless that we must make a preemptive strike!” Richard Lee interjected, a dark glint in his eyes. “We need to make him understand that Hutchison cannot function without our team.

“As long as he agrees to grant us sufficient autonomy and not interfere excessively in daily management, we will guarantee a smooth transition for Hutchison and even better performance. This is a win-win.”

Initially, they had planned to support Li Jiacheng in his share battle against Lin Haoran, but they were never even given the chance before Li Jiacheng was defeated.

Now, they had no choice but to accept the reality of Lin Haoran taking control.

Another executive chimed in, “Exactly! We can draft a ‘Management Proposal.’ On the surface, it will be about offering suggestions for the company’s future development, but in reality, it will clearly state our bottom line.

“Strategic direction can be discussed jointly, but specific operations must be handled by our professional team. If he doesn’t agree…”

Richard Lee picked up where he left off. “If he doesn’t agree, or if he tries to install too many of his confidants to sideline us, then we won’t rule out adopting a ‘non-violent non-cooperation’ stance.

“For example, the progress of certain key projects might ‘accidentally’ slow down. The maintenance of relationships with some important clients might experience ‘lapses.’ And if they really want us to hand over our duties, we can just drag our feet.

“When that happens, the one facing performance pressure and market scrutiny will be Lin Haoran!”

A brief silence fell over the conference room. The plan was undoubtedly bold, even a bit crazy.

But once one has tasted power, who is willing to let it go easily?

In the Willie era, they were among the de facto helmsmen of the company, accustomed to having a significant say.

Although they were somewhat constrained during Li Jiacheng’s time, he wasn’t an expert in diversified businesses, which still gave them room to maneuver.

Now, facing a younger, more capable new boss, their sense of crisis was stronger than ever.

“Alright! Let’s do it!” Richard Lee finally made the decision. “Let’s hurry up and draft a carefully worded proposal.

“When Lin Haoran arrives, we will first show a cooperative attitude. Then, at the right moment, we will present him with our ‘sincerity.’

“Remember, our goal is to win ourselves space, not to have a complete falling-out. We must handle this delicately!”

Just as Richard Lee and his team were plotting, Lin Haoran’s convoy had already entered the underground parking garage of the Hutchison Whampoa Building.

The car came to a stop, and Li Weidong spoke up, “Boss, Mr. Ma, we’ve arrived at the Hutchison Whampoa Building.”

Only then did Lin Haoran notice they were in the building’s underground garage.

A bodyguard came to open the car door for him.

“Let’s go. It’s time to go up and declare our sovereignty over Hutchison Whampoa.” Lin Haoran collected his thoughts and stepped out of the car.

He straightened his suit and said to Ma Shimin, “We’ll discuss the matter of Mr. Willie later. Right now, stabilizing Richard Lee’s team and smoothly taking over Hutchison is the top priority.”

Ma Shimin nodded in agreement.

The group entered a private elevator and went straight to the boardroom on the top floor of the Hutchison Whampoa Building.

When the elevator doors opened, Hutchison’s senior executive team, led by Richard Lee, was already waiting neatly outside the boardroom entrance.

As soon as Lin Haoran’s party had appeared in the building, security had informed the leaders upstairs via intercom.

As for the senior executives Li Jiacheng had brought over from Cheung Kong, they naturally wouldn’t be staying. They had all returned to Cheung Kong Holdings.

At the elevator entrance, Richard Lee maintained a professional smile, but a hint of nervousness was visible in his eyes.

After all, just moments ago, they were plotting how to sideline their new boss and seize power.

Behind him, Simon Hall and Peter Wei also wore serious expressions, clearly harboring doubts about the new boss’s intentions.

“Mr. Lin, Mr. Ma, welcome to Hutchison Whampoa,” Richard Lee stepped forward and said in fluent English.

Lin Haoran shook his hand, his gaze sweeping over the executives present. He replied in clear Cantonese, “Mr. Richard Lee, gentlemen, no need for formalities. From today onwards, we are partners working toward a common goal.”

They stepped into the spacious and bright boardroom, where Hutchison’s core management was already seated on both sides of a long conference table.

Lin Haoran walked directly to the head of the table, and Ma Shimin sat down on his right.

Without much small talk, Lin Haoran got straight to the point: “Gentlemen, I’m sure you are all aware of the change in equity from this morning’s press conference. My company, Galaxy Securities, now holds up to 86.9% of the shares. There is no longer any doubt about our absolute controlling stake in Hutchison Whampoa. So, you should all know why I am here at the Hutchison Whampoa Building today!”

As soon as he said this, the initially harmonious atmosphere in the room instantly became somewhat delicate.

Lin Haoran paused, his eyes slowly scanning the faces of everyone present, then continued, “I am not here to disrupt the existing order of Hutchison Whampoa. Rather, I hope that under my leadership, Hutchison Whampoa can reach new heights.

“I am well aware that everyone here is the backbone of Hutchison, with rich experience and a deep understanding of the company’s operations.”

Chapter 757: The Man in Charge? So What? Fired on the Spot!

After listening to Lin Haoran’s speech, the taut nerves of Richard Lee and the others relaxed slightly, and they let out a small sigh of relief.

Richard Lee exchanged a look with Simon Hall and Peter Wei. In each other’s eyes, they all saw a glimmer of hope.

Lin Haoran continued, “The company’s growth depends on new ideas and vitality. While ensuring that you all have autonomy in your respective professional fields, I also hope that we can reach a consensus on certain strategic directions and work together to drive Hutchison forward.”

At this, Director of Business Simon Hall hesitated for a moment before speaking up. “Mr. Lin, we have always been committed to the stable operation of Hutchison. We hope you can give us sufficient trust and space to continue leveraging our expertise in our respective business areas.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly. “But of course. I have always respected the opinions of professionals. At the same time, however, I want you all to understand that the group is a single entity, and we must all work together towards a common goal.

“I heard that during Mr. Li Jiacheng’s tenure after he took control of Hutchison Whampoa, a number of senior Chinese executives were forced to resign. Mr. Li had little control over Hutchison, and his authority was severely sidelined. This is not a good sign.

“I hope that from today onward, Hutchison can foster a more fair and inclusive working environment.”

Lin Haoran had brought this up specifically to put these people in their place.

As soon as his words fell, the air in the conference room seemed to freeze instantly.

His calm gaze swept across the face of every executive present, finally resting, almost imperceptibly, on Richard Lee’s face for half a second.

This seemingly light “warning” was like a giant boulder tossed into a placid lake, stirring up tumultuous waves in the hearts of Richard Lee and his confidants.

Simon Hall’s earlier remark about hoping for “trust and space” had been their planned first exploratory step, intended to create an atmosphere of a unified management team hoping for autonomy.

However, not only did Lin Haoran refuse to take the bait and offer reassurances, but he directly threw out the sensitive topics of “Chinese executives being forced to resign” and “Li Jiacheng’s authority being sidelined,” completely disrupting their rhythm.

Richard Lee’s heart sank.

He realized that this new owner was far more difficult to deal with than Li Jiacheng.

For the sake of stability, Li Jiacheng had adopted an attitude of forbearance, even acquiescence, toward such matters. As long as the performance figures looked good, he was unwilling to dig deep into internal personnel struggles.

It was fair to say that for the better part of the past year, Richard Lee had been the one calling the shots at Hutchison Whampoa.

Although Li Jiacheng had officially taken control of Hutchison Whampoa and become its Chairman, in front of Richard Lee, his final say was extremely limited!

So, Lin Haoran’s statement about Li Jiacheng’s power being sidelined was, in fact, true.

But they had never expected that Lin Haoran, on his very first day, would tear away this facade. His intention to establish his authority was crystal clear.

After a brief, dead silence, Richard Lee knew he had to step forward.

To back down now would mean their meticulously planned attempt to pressure him out of power would be aborted before it even officially began. It would also mean they would completely lose any bargaining power with Lin Haoran in the future.

He cleared his throat, trying his best to maintain a calm and sincere expression, and said in English, “Mr. Lin, we in the management also deeply regret the issue you mentioned.

“The business world is like a battlefield, and personnel changes are sometimes inevitable. The departure of some colleagues was based on a comprehensive consideration of their personal career development or performance evaluations. We have always upheld the principles of professionalism and fairness.

“Of course, the fair and inclusive work environment you advocate for is precisely the goal Hutchison has always pursued. We in the management will certainly do our utmost to implement it.”

His words both tried to downplay past events and smoothly took up Lin Haoran’s “banner,” making him appear very cooperative.

As for the matter of sidelining Li Jiacheng’s management rights over Hutchison, he simply pretended not to have heard it.

However, Lin Haoran only nodded slightly, noncommittally. His gaze remained profound, making it impossible to fathom his true thoughts.

The pressure of this silence was more unsettling than a direct question.

Richard Lee decided to stop beating around the bush. He had to reveal his trump card.

He glanced at Simon Hall and Peter Wei beside him, and they both gave him an almost imperceptible nod of support.

Richard Lee adjusted his posture, his tone becoming more solemn. “Mr. Lin, you mentioned just now that we need a consensus on strategic direction, and we completely agree.

“To ensure the continued stable development of Hutchison and to maximize the effectiveness of the management team, a few of us in the core management have, after careful discussion, drafted a ‘Proposal on Optimizing the Future Governance Structure of Hutchison Whampoa’.”

As he spoke, he gestured for his secretary to hand a prepared document to Lin Haoran.

Ma Shimin, sitting to the side, furrowed his brow slightly but said nothing.

He realized this was the anticipated “attack.”

He looked at Lin Haoran and saw him calmly pick up the document and flip through it slowly, his face betraying no emotion.

The proposal was worded rigorously, filled with professional jargon and management theory, but its core meaning was very clear:

It hoped that Lin Haoran, as the major shareholder, would primarily play the role of a financial investor and strategic approver, much like HSBC had in the later period of its time as Hutchison Whampoa’s major shareholder. It asked him to completely delegate powers such as daily operations, personnel appointments and dismissals, and project decisions to the professional management team led by Richard Lee.

It was all done under the fine-sounding names of “establishing a modern corporate system” and “achieving an effective separation of ownership and management rights” to ensure the company’s “professionalism and continuity.”

The proposal even vaguely suggested that excessive interference from the major shareholder could affect the management team’s morale, leading to a loss of key talent, which would in turn harm the company’s long-term interests.

This was practically a naked threat.

Lin Haoran read very slowly. The only sound in the conference room was the soft rustle of paper turning.

Everyone held their breath, waiting for the new owner’s reaction.

Richard Lee and his group held onto a sliver of hope that Lin Haoran, like Li Jiacheng, would choose “stability” after weighing it against “power.”

Finally, Lin Haoran closed the document and placed it gently on the table.

He looked up, a faint, almost imperceptible smile on his face, but his eyes were as cold as frost.

He actually wasn’t keen on interfering in company management, as he knew his own limitations in that area.

However, there was a crucial premise: the fact that he didn’t want to interfere didn’t mean he didn’t have the power to.

Those were two different concepts!

Take, for example, the companies under his banner like Hongkong Electric Group, Hongkong Land Group, and Wanqing Group. He had the right to intervene in their internal affairs at any time.

And the helmsmen of those companies, like Ma Shimin, Chen Shoulin, and Burton, would listen to his opinions seriously.

So, Lin Haoran simply preferred not to manage too much, but that was by no means equivalent to him losing the power to intervene!

After all, he was the Boss, and these were his enterprises. It would be perfectly normal for him to get involved in the company’s operations and management, wouldn’t it?

But Richard Lee and his faction were trying to use a single proposal to completely sideline his actual authority, reducing him to a figurehead major shareholder with a title but no real power. This was undoubtedly a blatant challenge to his bottom line.

According to Richard Lee’s vision, he, the Boss, shouldn’t be able to interfere in any of the company’s affairs at all.

It was as if the company had nothing to do with him.

What audacity, the height of arrogance.

They acted so wantonly, as if they had no regard for him, their Boss. It was as if Lin Haoran had bought a dog to guard his house, only for the dog to try and become the master.

Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!

Did they really think Hutchison Whampoa couldn’t function without them?

At this thought, a cold smile appeared on Lin Haoran’s face.

“Mr. Richard Lee,” Lin Haoran’s voice was not loud, but it carried clearly to everyone’s ears, “this proposal is very well-written. The separation of ownership and management rights is indeed the direction of modern enterprise development.”

Upon hearing this, a hint of joy appeared on the faces of Richard Lee and his cohorts, but Lin Haoran’s next words plunged them into an icy abyss.

“However,” Lin Haoran’s tone suddenly turned cold, “that does not mean the major shareholder should relinquish their right to supervise and guide the company. Nor does it mean the management team can place itself above me, the major shareholder with an absolute controlling stake, and form an independent kingdom.

“So-called ‘full delegation’ is not ‘complete abdication’.”

He looked directly at Richard Lee. “I acquired Hutchison not to be a financial investor waiting for year-end dividends, nor to be a puppet for you to command. I am here to lead Hutchison to greater heights.

“What I need is a team that can understand and execute my strategic intent, one that is highly aligned with the company’s overall direction, not an ‘independent kingdom’ that only wants to close its doors and call its own shots.”

These words were extremely direct, ruthlessly tearing apart the ambition Richard Lee and the others had tried to cloak in professional terminology.

Richard Lee’s face turned ugly in an instant. He hadn’t expected Lin Haoran to be so unyielding, leaving no room for retreat.

He knew the moment had come where the dagger is revealed when the map is unrolled.

The thought that Lin Haoran still relied on him for now, that he couldn’t just get rid of them all, ignited a spark of confidence within him.

No matter what, he, Richard Lee, was now the man in charge of Hutchison Whampoa, its President, in charge of all matters big and small.

If he couldn’t subdue Lin Haoran now, he would never have a peaceful day again, and his power would be completely reclaimed by Lin Haoran.

He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the panic in his heart, and his tone grew firm. “Mr. Lin, we greatly respect your position as the major shareholder.

“However, managing and operating a vast commercial empire like Hutchison requires immense professional knowledge and experience.

“Our team has served Hutchison for many years. We know every aspect of the business like the back of our hands and have established deep relationships of trust with clients and partners worldwide.

“If—if our professionalism and autonomy are not given the respect they deserve, I’m afraid it will be difficult to guarantee that the company’s operations will not experience fluctuations.

“After all, the stability of an enterprise ultimately depends on the stability of its people.”

This was an open threat.

He was implying that if Lin Haoran didn’t agree to their terms, they might resort to passive cooperation or even mass resignation, plunging Hutchison into chaos.

Simon Hall, Peter Wei, and the others chimed in, stating that the unity and confidence of the management team were crucial. Their words had already positioned their interest group in opposition to the shareholders’ interests.

The atmosphere in the conference room instantly became tense, with swords drawn.

Ma Shimin shook his head inwardly. Richard Lee and his group had, in the end, underestimated Lin Haoran’s resolve and methods.

Using the same tactics on Lin Haoran that they had used on Li Jiacheng was simply courting death.

Lin Haoran listened quietly to their “arguments.” The faint smile on his face finally vanished completely, replaced by an unquestionable authority.

He waited until everyone had finished before speaking slowly. His voice was not loud, but it carried a weight that seemed to decide fates.

“Mr. Richard Lee, and everyone else present, I think you may have misunderstood something.”

He paused, then said, word by word, “I took control of Hutchison to lead you, not to negotiate with you. Don’t forget, I am the Boss of Hutchison Whampoa.

“I will set the company’s direction. The team’s execution must align with my direction. This is a fundamental rule of business, and there is no room for bargaining.”

His gaze swept over the crowd again, finally settling on Richard Lee’s pale face. “You mentioned the ‘stability of its people’ just now. Very well, then let’s talk about the people.”

“Mr. Richard Lee, you joined Hutchison in 1927 and have served for over fifty years. You are indeed a company veteran. During Willie’s time, you also made many contributions, but…” Lin Haoran’s voice was frigid.

That “but” made Richard Lee’s heart nearly stop.

“But, after Mr. Li Jiacheng took over, as the President, you not only failed to assist the new owner and integrate company resources, but instead condoned, and even led, internal factional struggles, ostracized Chinese executives, and attempted to sideline the major shareholder’s influence to protect the private interests of a small clique.

“This is a serious violation of the basic ethics and duty of loyalty of a professional manager!”

Lin Haoran’s tone grew sterner, each word like a heavy hammer striking Richard Lee’s heart.

“And your a statement just now was a blatant attempt to coerce the major shareholder by holding the company’s stability hostage. Such behavior is absolutely intolerable in any legitimate company!

“A manager who cannot align with the shareholders, and who even attempts to hijack the company to satisfy his personal desire for power, is no longer fit for a leadership position, no matter how professionally capable he may be.”

Richard Lee trembled all over, wanting to defend himself, but found he couldn’t utter a single word.

Simon Hall, Peter Wei, and the others were ashen-faced. They never imagined Lin Haoran would be so ruthless and decisive, flipping the table over completely.

Lin Haoran no longer looked at Richard Lee, instead turning to all the executives in the room.

Seeing that all eyes were on him, he announced in a clear voice, “Given that Mr. Richard Lee’s actions have made him severely unfit to continue serving as President of Hutchison Whampoa, I, in my capacity as the absolute controlling shareholder of the company, declare that effective immediately, Mr. Richard Lee is relieved of his positions as President, Executive Director, and all other duties at Hutchison Whampoa!

“The heads of the Human Resources Department and the Security Department are to report here immediately to supervise Mr. Richard Lee’s handover procedures. All procedures are to be completed today, and he is to leave the company building!”

“Fired!”

These words exploded in the conference room like a clap of thunder!

Direct, decisive, without a hint of hesitation!

He didn’t even give them a chance to regroup!

So what if he was the man in charge at Hutchison?

For insubordination, Lin Haoran had every reason to fire him.

Richard Lee was dumbfounded, as if he had aged ten years in an instant. He looked at Lin Haoran in disbelief, his lips trembling, before collapsing into his chair.

All his schemes, all his ambitions, crumbled to dust in an instant before Lin Haoran’s absolute power and resolve.

No one had expected Lin Haoran to be so swift, leaving absolutely no room for negotiation.

The conference room was silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

All the executives were stunned by Lin Haoran’s thunderbolt-like methods.

They had expected a lengthy game of chess and negotiation, but the new owner didn’t play by the rules at all. He chose the most drastic and also the most effective method—to kill the chicken to scare the monkey!

And this “chicken” was the highest-ranking and most defiant among them, Richard Lee!

Lin Haoran’s gaze slowly swept over Simon Hall, Peter Wei, and the other terrified executives. His tone softened slightly but still carried an unquestionable authority:

“As for the rest of you, I’ll give you a choice.

“Those who are willing to stay, to sincerely assist me in leading Hutchison to new heights, I, Lin Haoran, will certainly not treat you unfairly. Your salaries and bonuses will be re-evaluated, and they will only be better than they are now.

“But the prerequisite is that you must completely abandon the factionalism of the past. Everything must be centered on the company’s interests, with my strategic direction as your guide.”

“If anyone still wants your dictatorial power, I’m sorry, but I don’t offer that here. You can tender your resignation right now. I will approve it and provide reasonable compensation according to your employment contract. We can part on good terms.”

“However,” Lin Haoran’s voice turned cold again, “if you choose to stay but are outwardly compliant and inwardly defiant, or even engage in petty schemes behind my back, then Richard Lee’s fate today will serve as your example.

“If I, Lin Haoran, could build the foundation I have today, I will not fear any internal challenges. I have never lacked the determination or the means to clean house.”

This naked warning, accompanied by the “bloody” example that had just unfolded, was deeply etched into the heart of every executive.

Cold sweat trickled down the backs of Simon Hall, Peter Wei, and the others. They had no doubt about the truth of Lin Haoran’s words.

If he could fire a veteran as powerful and senior as Richard Lee on a whim, what chance did they have?

After a brief silence, Simon Hall was the first to react. He immediately stood up and said respectfully, “Mr. Lin, I, Simon Hall, am willing to fully support your work and do my utmost for Hutchison’s development!”

He knew very well that if he didn’t declare his loyalty at this crucial moment, he would likely be the next one “cleaned out.”

As Hutchison’s Director of Business, Simon Hall’s position in the current professional management team was second only to the President; it was no exaggeration to call him the second-in-command.

Moreover, the platform provided by a business titan like Hutchison was undoubtedly a vast world where he could fully display his talents.

He couldn’t imagine finding a comparable job if he were to leave Hutchison Whampoa.

Peter Wei and the other executives quickly followed suit, scrambling to express their support for Lin Haoran’s leadership, vowing their undivided loyalty.

Watching these colleagues, who had just been part of his united front, betray him so directly, Richard Lee trembled with rage. He pointed a finger at them, his lips moving but unable to form a single word.

He looked as if all his strength had been drained away, leaving only deep despair and anger.

“You… you spineless turncoats!” Richard Lee’s face was flushed red as he finally squeezed these words through his gritted teeth.

His voice was hoarse and dry, as if it had been scraped with sandpaper, and it was laced with endless resentment and indignation.

At that moment, he truly tasted the bitterness of betrayal, and it was a foul taste indeed.

He had foolishly believed that after replacing Willie, he had naturally become the leader of this old guard, that they would follow his command loyally and fight alongside him in the same trench.

However, Richard Lee had overlooked a crucial point: he was not Willie, after all.

He possessed neither Willie’s outstanding talent nor his deep-rooted influence over the others.

Over the past year, as his power grew, he had gradually lost himself, thinking he was the same as Willie.

Richard Lee slumped in his chair, scared witless, staring blankly ahead. The man who once wielded great power and influence at Hutchison was now in such a pathetic state.

The only response he received was the slightly embarrassed, hastily averted gazes of the other executives, who seemed afraid to make eye contact with him.

And then there was Lin Haoran’s gaze, still as calm as water, yet exuding an unquestionable authority that pressed down on him like an unshakeable mountain, suffocating him.

Richard Lee looked at his “turncoat” colleagues and felt a chill run from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

The camp he had thought was solid had disintegrated in an instant under Lin Haoran’s thunderous methods.

Looking at the group of instantly submissive executives, Lin Haoran knew that his goal of killing the chicken to scare the monkey had been achieved.

This was the effect he needed: to establish his unchallengeable authority in the shortest possible time, completely shatter the old power structure, and clear the way for subsequent reorganization and integration.

Of course, when he announced he was firing Richard Lee, he had considered whether Simon Hall, Peter Wei, and the others would stand united with Richard Lee and use that to threaten him.

Indeed, if the entire team left Hutchison Whampoa, it would undoubtedly be a significant blow to the company.

After all, these individuals had been deeply rooted in Hutchison for years and controlled a vast amount of business resources and personal connections.

Without them, Hutchison Whampoa would certainly descend into operational chaos and resource disruptions in the short term.

Hutchison’s vast business empire—from the scheduling of international shipping and the development of real estate projects to the processing of trade orders—every part relied heavily on the experience and network accumulated over many years by these executives and their teams.

If they all left at once, many key operations would likely grind to a halt, the trust of partners would be shaken, and the company’s reputation would be at risk.

But even facing such a possibility, he still insisted on firing Richard Lee.

The reason was simple: Lin Haoran would never allow anyone to challenge his authority!

He was the Boss, the undisputed master of this enterprise.

And a master must have a master’s bearing. What kind of leader would he be if he was just obsequious?

Chapter 758: Turbulent Times Call for Stern Measures, Chronic Ailments Need Strong Medicine!

The business world is like a battlefield, where loyalty and allegiance have always been of the utmost importance.

Richard Lee thought he could hold the company hostage, but he had no idea that Lin Haoran was the least tolerant of such tactics.

Lin Haoran watched the executives declare their stances one after another and nodded slightly, a flicker of satisfaction barely visible on his face.

Things hadn’t developed into the worst-case scenario, which was for the best.

Although he had prepared for the worst!

His gaze fell upon Richard Lee again as he said coldly, “Mr. Richard Lee, is there anything else you wish to say? I’m giving you a chance now to say everything you need to say.”

Richard Lee took a deep breath and forced himself to stand. Though his body trembled slightly with rage, his eyes still held a trace of defiance.

“Mr. Lin, you’re being so ruthless today. Aren’t you afraid that Hutchison will fall into dire straits after I leave? I’ve been with Hutchison for many years. My connections, my resources—which of these aren’t deeply ingrained in the company? Your decision, as decisive as it seems, is in fact reckless!”

Upon hearing this, Lin Haoran’s lips curved into a derisive smile.

“Mr. Richard Lee, you overestimate yourself. Hutchison’s success today is built on the efforts of countless people, not the credit of one or two individuals. Since I, Lin Haoran, dared to take over Hutchison, I am confident I can lead it to continued glory. As for your so-called resources and connections, how much influence can they exert without the platform of Hutchison?”

Richard Lee was rendered speechless. His face flushed red, and he wanted to retort but couldn’t find the right words.

He nodded slightly, acknowledging the declarations from Simon Hall and the others. Then he said, “Very well. Since everyone has made their positions clear, I hope to see your concrete actions for Hutchison from this day forward. The company is at a critical stage of development and cannot tolerate any form of slacking or self-interest.”

Simon Hall and the others quickly nodded in agreement, their foreheads already beaded with fine sweat.

They knew clearly that from this moment on, their fates were tightly bound to Lin Haoran. If they wanted to protect their current status and interests, their only choice was to fully support their new Boss. Otherwise, they would be swept out the door at a moment’s notice, just like Richard Lee.

“Good.” Lin Haoran nodded. “I can let bygones be bygones. But from today, I want to see a new beginning. I, Lin Haoran, as the absolute controlling shareholder of Hutchison Whampoa, will be the new Chairman of the Board of Directors. Mr. Ma Shimin will temporarily serve as President of Hutchison Whampoa, responsible for ensuring stability and strategic continuity during the transition period. As for the rest of you, your positions will remain unchanged for now, but don’t celebrate too soon. I will be watching your every move. If I discover anyone harboring ill intentions or being outwardly compliant while inwardly defiant, I, Lin Haoran, will show no mercy. You will end up just like Mr. Richard Lee! As for the company’s new President, I will find a suitable candidate to take over. Specific business adjustments and personnel arrangements will be announced in due course.”

Lin Haoran’s gaze swept over every executive present, his eyes seeming to pierce through their very souls, sending a shiver down their spines.

Listening to Lin Haoran’s harsh words, especially how he was being used as a threat to the others, Richard Lee’s heart filled with indignation and resentment.

He had thought that with his years of experience and connections at Hutchison, he would have some room to maneuver even in a direct confrontation with Lin Haoran. But now, it seemed he was beyond saving.

He gritted his teeth, suppressed the humiliation in his heart, and said in a low voice, “Mr. Lin, I will remember what happened today. You will regret this. Without me, it is Hutchison Whampoa’s loss!”

Lin Haoran scoffed at this, not even bothering to continue the conversation.

He would regret it?

Richard Lee truly saw himself as the pillar of Hutchison Whampoa. He thought too highly of himself.

Just then, the Director of Human Resources and the head of the Security Department arrived at the door of the conference room, trembling.

Lin Haoran gestured for them to enter, then turned to the crestfallen Richard Lee and said, “Mr. Richard Lee, if you please. I hope you will cooperate with the handover process.”

He wasn’t afraid that Richard Lee wouldn’t cooperate. Not unless he was willing to throw away his reputation and future foothold in the industry. After all, in the business world, once word spread that someone had violated professional ethics and maliciously obstructed a company’s normal operations, no other company would dare to hire him.

Richard Lee’s face was ashen. Under the watchful eyes of everyone present, he was “escorted” out of the board meeting room by security.

With his duties officially terminated, he began the handover procedures under the “company” of the security guards.

Every step he took felt like he was walking on cotton—soft, yet incredibly heavy. The days when he commanded the winds and clouds and wielded great power at Hutchison were gone forever. Now, reduced to such a miserable state, his heart was filled with resentment and indignation.

But what could resentment change?

He had exhausted all his schemes, but he never expected Simon Hall, Peter Wei, and the others to switch sides at a critical moment and betray him.

In Richard Lee’s calculations, if they had all stood their ground with him, Lin Haoran might have even invited them back.

But now, he and Lin Haoran had dropped all pretenses. There was no medicine for regret.

This scene was deeply seared into the minds of all the Hutchison Whampoa executives present.

Simon Hall and the others watched Richard Lee’s departing figure, followed by security, with mixed feelings.

Once upon a time, Richard Lee had been a prominent figure in the company, holding considerable resources and power. Some even thought he was the most suitable successor to Willie.

However, times have changed, and now he had met such a miserable end.

This made everyone present realize more profoundly than ever that trying any clever tricks in front of Lin Haoran was very likely to lead to severe consequences.

Lin Haoran’s gaze swept over the crowd, his expression solemn and serious as he spoke, “Everyone, the matter with Richard Lee ends here. I will not pursue the matter of your secret collusion with him for the time being, but this absolutely does not mean I will continue to condone it. I hope you all take this as a lesson. Hutchison is at a critical stage of development. What we urgently need now are people who can unite and strive wholeheartedly for the company.”

Everyone nodded, expressing that they would remember Lin Haoran’s lesson.

Lin Haoran continued, “From now on, your most important job is to maintain the normal operations of Hutchison Whampoa. Mr. Ma Shimin, I’m counting on you to ensure stability during this transition period. You must pay close attention to the company’s internal dynamics and ensure that all work proceeds in an orderly fashion.”

For him, with the true helmsman of Hutchison Whampoa yet to arrive, it was enough for the group to operate normally without any major issues.

Ma Shimin smiled and nodded, saying, “Rest assured, Mr. Lin, I will do my utmost to ensure a smooth transition.”

After the meeting, Lin Haoran and Ma Shimin returned to the temporarily prepared Chairman’s office.

This had once been Li Jiacheng’s exclusive office at Hutchison Whampoa, but now, it belonged to Lin Haoran.

The furnishings inside remained exactly as they were, untouched.

Since learning two days ago that Galaxy Securities had acquired a staggering 46.9% of the shares, Li Jiacheng had not set foot in this place again.

For Li Jiacheng, this office was nothing short of a place of heartbreak.

For years, he had painstakingly planned and invested immeasurable heart and soul and effort to finally become the master of this place. Yet, in less than a year, Lin Haoran had snatched it all away.

Such a bitter taste would be hard for anyone to bear.

Ma Shimin remarked with a sigh, “Boss, that was a truly clean and decisive move. Richard Lee and the others probably never dreamed you would be so resolute.”

Lin Haoran stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the view of Victoria Harbour. Although the Hutchison Whampoa Building was only twenty-something stories high, far shorter than the Connaught Centre, its location in the prestigious business circle of Central, where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold, still made the building incredibly valuable.

He smiled faintly and said nonchalantly, “Turbulent times call for stern measures, chronic ailments need strong medicine. Hutchison is a massive enterprise with a deeply rooted and intertwined internal network. If I don’t establish absolute authority from the very beginning, there will be endless trouble in the future. Li Jiacheng is a cautionary tale. His initial policy of conciliation and compromise only emboldened these people. Now that I’m here, I’m going to completely change this culture.”

Though he said that, Lin Haoran actually knew that Li Jiacheng had been forced into that position. His foundation was too shallow, and he needed time to cultivate his own confidants. He wasn’t like Lin Haoran, who controlled a diversified enterprise like the Hongkong Land Group, which had an abundance of talented people.

According to the original historical timeline, if Lin Haoran hadn’t acquired Hutchison Whampoa, Li Jiacheng wouldn’t have openly ousted Richard Lee and the others to install his own people until 1984.

One could say he had endured for a full three years.

But Lin Haoran certainly didn’t need to endure humiliation and bear a heavy burden as Li Jiacheng had, because he had his own resources and confidence!

Ma Shimin nodded in deep agreement. “After this, the management team shouldn’t dare to have any more improper ideas. The next step is to comprehensively review and integrate Hutchison’s business. Regarding the choice for the new President…”

Lin Haoran turned around, smiled slightly, and said, “Shimin, about Willie, whom you mentioned before, I think we can approach him now. After what happened today, I believe he’ll have a much clearer understanding of my determination and style. A professional manager who needs full authorization to display his talents might find a better platform with me than at Pui O Group.”

Ma Shimin smiled. “Understood. I’ll find a time to personally contact Mr. Willie. I’m confident that after he hears the story of what happened in the conference room today, he’ll be very interested in cooperating with you.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly.

Today, he had truly taken control of Hutchison Whampoa. The number of enterprises under his command had grown by one more, which was certainly cause for celebration.

Moreover, this was the famous Hutchison Whampoa, formerly Hutchison & Co.

After Ma Shimin left the office, Lin Haoran stood alone by the window, watching the endless stream of ships in Victoria Harbour.

The afterglow of the sunset shimmered on the sea’s surface, casting a golden light.

At this moment, an indescribable sense of accomplishment washed over him.

“Hutchison Whampoa…” Lin Haoran murmured softly, a faint smile unconsciously playing on his lips.

This commercial empire, which once seemed as unreachable as the high heavens, was now firmly in his grasp.

What made it even better was that he had snatched it directly from the hands of Li Jiacheng.

After all, Li Jiacheng was the one who had offended him first, so he felt not a shred of guilt.

Time passed, and evening soon arrived.

The sun set, and the streetlights along the road flickered on in an instant.

From the top floor of the Hutchison Whampoa Building, the brilliant lights of Victoria Harbour spread out beneath Lin Haoran’s feet, much like the vast business empire he now controlled.

Taking control of Hutchison Whampoa, dealing with Richard Lee with lightning speed, and establishing absolute authority—in just a few short days since last week, the landscape of Hong Kong’s business world had been completely rewritten.

However, there was little intoxication in Lin Haoran’s eyes, only a calm and profound depth.

The stern measures to establish his authority in these turbulent times were complete, and the first dose of strong medicine for the chronic ailment had been administered. Next, it was time for the giant ship that was Hutchison to truly change course and set sail.

…

Wan Chai, in the conference room of Yalon Company, a subsidiary of Pui O Group.

Outside the window, Victoria Harbour glittered, the bustling port scene a stark contrast to the oppressive silence within the conference room.

The lingering smell of cigar smoke and a hint of frustration hung in the air.

Willie put down the report in his hands and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

The Pui O Group’s acquisition of China Motor Bus had ultimately fallen short of success, snatched away by a consortium with a stronger background. His chances of success now were almost negligible.

His meticulously crafted plan seemed so pale and feeble in the face of superior capital and connections.

“Mr. Willie, the terms they offered were indeed… We did our best,” said the assistant sitting opposite him, his voice cautious.

Willie waved his hand, signaling him to say no more.

In the ebb and flow of the business world, victory and defeat are common occurrences. It was just that this failure had come at an inopportune time. Pui O and Yalon needed a victory to boost morale, and he, it seemed, also craved a stage where he could once again prove his worth.

Evidently, Pui O was not that stage.

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he subconsciously cast his gaze out the window toward a familiar landmark in the distance—the Hutchison Whampoa Building.

Just a few days ago, a young man who had only risen to prominence over the past three years had, with breathtaking speed and methods, forced Li Jiacheng into a corner, ultimately not only seizing control of Hutchison Whampoa but also becoming the second-largest shareholder and Vice Chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings.

This news had sent shockwaves through the highest echelons of Hong Kong’s business community, like a giant boulder dropped into a calm pond.

Willie’s feelings were extremely complex.

Hutchison Whampoa was the “child” he had poured his heart and soul into, single-handedly pulling it back from the brink of bankruptcy. He had orchestrated the merger of Hutchison International and Whampoa Dockyard and implemented a series of iron-fisted reforms to turn a loss into a profit, laying the foundation for what it was today.

However, strategic disagreements with HSBC, especially Li Jiacheng’s suffocating desire for control and distrust, had ultimately forced him to leave with regret and resentment.

His feelings for Hutchison were far more than that of a simple professional manager; it was the crystallization of his heart and soul.

When he learned that Li Jiacheng had been defeated so decisively by Lin Haoran and had ultimately ceded Hutchison, he was shocked, but also felt a faint sense of satisfaction. The man who had pushed him out had finally tasted the bitterness of defeat.

But what followed was a deeper anxiety: how would this Lin Haoran, who had appeared out of nowhere, treat his Hutchison? What destiny awaited this “child” that he had single-handedly reshaped?

Ring, ring, ring… The phone on his desk rang sharply, interrupting his thoughts.

It was an outside line, a number from the Hutchison Whampoa Building, with the name of a very familiar former subordinate—Simon Hall.

Willie’s eyes narrowed as he quickly picked up the receiver. “Simon?”

Simon was Simon Hall’s English name.

The voice on the other end was deliberately lowered, tinged with a residual tremor of shock. “It’s me, Mr. Willie. Something’s happened, something big! Mr. Richard Lee has been fired! Fired on the spot by Mr. Lin Haoran, just now at the board meeting!”

Even Willie, who had weathered countless storms, felt his heart leap at this news. His fingers tightened around the receiver. “What? Mr. Richard Lee was fired on the spot? What happened? Tell me slowly, from the beginning. Make it clear!”

His voice was filled with disbelief.

Richard Lee was one of the core team members he had carefully selected and left behind upon his departure. He was competent and one of the executors of his philosophy.

Simon Hall took a deep breath, as if to calm his racing heart, and began to describe the harrowing scene that had just unfolded in the Hutchison Whampoa board meeting room:

“Mr. Lin officially came to take over with Mr. Ma Shimin this afternoon. At first, things were fairly normal. Mr. Lin is very young, but his aura is terrifyingly strong. He has an air of authority without having to display anger. He first announced that he had become the absolute controlling shareholder and Chairman of the Board of Hutchison, and that Mr. Ma Shimin would temporarily serve as President to handle the transition…”

“Mm,” Willie grunted. This arrangement wasn’t unexpected; he had heard about Ma Shimin’s capabilities and his relationship with Lin Haoran within the industry.

“Mr. Lin acknowledged our professional abilities in managing the company, and the atmosphere eased up for a moment. Mr. Richard Lee thought it was an opportunity, so he… he wanted to test Mr. Lin’s bottom line.” Simon Hall’s voice took on a tone of regret and lingering fear.

“He implied that he hoped Mr. Lin would give the management enough trust and operational space, something like a financial investor. But Mr. Lin immediately brought up the old matter from Li Jiacheng’s era, about how Chinese executives were sidelined and squeezed out of the core of power! Even a fool could hear the warning in his words!”

Willie’s brow furrowed.

Lin Haoran was delivering a warning shot, using the “misdeeds” of Li Jiacheng’s era to warn Richard Lee and the others not to repeat the same mistakes. This young man had a very clear understanding of Hutchison’s past grievances, and his move was extremely precise.

Although he had left his post, he was still aware of the situation after Richard Lee became President. Besides, he had many old subordinates at Hutchison Whampoa whom he had personally trained, so it was easy for him to find out what was happening over there.

For instance, Simon Hall was a senior executive at Hutchison Whampoa whom he had personally nurtured and promoted.

“Mr. Richard Lee was probably lulled into a false sense of security by how ‘smoothly’ things had gone, or… or he thought Mr. Lin wouldn’t dare to touch him since he had just arrived. He brought out that ‘Proposal on Optimizing the Future Governance Structure of Hutchison Whampoa’ we had prepared beforehand. The core idea of this proposal was to ask Mr. Lin to act only as a financial investor and strategic approver, delegating all operational authority, personnel authority, and investment decision-making power to the management team! Mr. Richard Lee even stressed that this was a ‘reasonable’ request based on professionalism and maintaining the company’s operational stability, otherwise there could be ‘adverse effects.’” Simon Hall relayed this information verbatim to his former boss, Willie.

Although Lin Haoran’s warning shot had frightened them all for a short while, they were not yet loyal to Lin Haoran. Therefore, he could tell Willie, the former boss who had personally groomed him, about this without hesitation, hoping to get some guidance.

“Foolish!” Willie couldn’t help but curse under his breath.

He knew Richard Lee all too well. He was capable, but his vision and methods were far inferior to those of a true tycoon. This trick of using “stability” to pressure someone out of power during a handover might work on an ordinary person, but against a formidable figure who had just cleanly defeated Li Jiacheng and was clearly establishing his authority with thunderous methods, it was tantamount to suicide!

“Who does he think he is? Does he think Lin Haoran is a real estate magnate like Li Jiacheng, with no experience in other industries, and thus would be helplessly constrained by him?” Willie’s words were filled with mockery and pity for Richard Lee’s overestimation of his own abilities.

Although he had worked with Richard Lee for several years, Richard Lee was not someone he had personally cultivated, but rather an “old-timer” at Hutchison Whampoa. Therefore, he wasn’t particularly concerned about him. If he was fired, he was fired; it wasn’t a big deal.

“Mr. Willie, the main thing is that none of us expected Mr. Lin Haoran to be so decisive. There was no chance for him to be persuaded. He terminated Mr. Richard Lee’s position and even had security escort him out directly. He fires someone the moment he says it. It’s a good thing he didn’t fire the entire team, or I’d be leaving Hutchison Whampoa now!” A wave of fear washed over Simon Hall as he said this.

“Terminated on the spot? Escorted out by security?” Willie gasped. Even though he had anticipated something, hearing that Lin Haoran had dealt with a top executive in such a direct, merciless, and almost humiliating way was still a profound shock.

These methods were even more iron-fisted than his own when he had restructured Hutchison’s internals during its crisis!

What kind of immense confidence and decisiveness did that require?

This was no longer just killing the chicken to scare the monkey; this was blowing up the entire monkey mountain to rebuild order!

After all, Richard Lee was the President, the highest-ranking executive at Hutchison Whampoa after the Chairman of the Board.

“Yes! On the spot! Mr. Richard Lee’s face turned completely white. He was totally stunned! The conference room was dead silent; you couldn’t even hear anyone breathing.”

Recalling the scene, Simon Hall’s voice still trembled slightly. “It was too sudden! Too… too unforgiving! Everyone was completely intimidated! When Mr. Lin’s gaze swept over us, no one dared to meet his eyes.”

“And then?” Willie pressed, eager to know what happened next and how the others reacted.

“Then, Mr. Lin gave us a choice,” Simon Hall’s voice became complicated.

“He said: ‘For those who sincerely assist me in pushing Hutchison to new heights, I, Lin Haoran, will never treat you unfairly. Salary, benefits, status—everything can be re-evaluated, and it will only be better! But if anyone is outwardly compliant while inwardly defiant, harboring delusions, Richard Lee is your example!’”

“And you chose to declare your stance?” Willie instantly understood the subtext of Simon Hall’s call and the inevitable chain reaction that must have occurred in the conference room.

“I… I was the first to stand up.” Simon Hall’s voice carried a hint of embarrassment, but more of relief and the feeling of having survived a great ordeal. “Mr. Willie, in that situation, I really had no choice! Mr. Lin’s presence was too powerful. And when you think about it, he was right. Mr. Richard Lee was playing with fire! Mr. Lin Haoran holds a full 86.9% of the shares, more than double the 40% Cheung Kong Holdings held before. It makes no sense for us to follow him in resisting Mr. Lin Haoran! I could only declare my position: ‘I, Simon Hall, fully support Mr. Lin’s leadership and will do my utmost to serve the company!’ Peter Wei and the others quickly stood up and pledged their support as well. No one dared to defy him! Mr. Lin is too dominant!”

Chapter 759: The Unresigned Former Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa, Mr. Willie

At this moment, Willie fell silent.

The description from the other end of the line painted a clear picture in his mind:

The young new master of Hutchison Whampoa sat at the head of the table, his word law, effortlessly kicking out an executive who had overestimated his own abilities and dared to challenge his authority;

His former colleagues, facing the threat of career suicide, had instantly switched sides, scrambling over each other to pledge their loyalty;

And the abandoned man could only be “escorted” away by security, leaving the heart of power he once controlled in a state of utter disgrace…

Drastic times call for drastic measures.

He hadn’t expected someone as young as Lin Haoran to be so well-versed in this principle!

At this very moment, Willie was deeply shocked.

Who would have thought that he was just a young man in his twenties.

No wonder he had managed to bui l d such a massive foundation in just three short years.

This single move not only shattered Richard Lee’s fantasy of establishing “management autonomy” but also instantly disintegrated any potential for a united front of resistance. He had established his absolute authority in the most direct and brutal way possible.

The cost might be high?

There would certainly be short-term chaos.

But in the long run, this decisive action would prevent endless future squabbling and internal friction.

The ruthlessness of this young man’s methods and the sheer efficiency of his actions far exceeded his imagination!

It was countless times more satisfying than Li Jiacheng’s hypocritical style of wanting control while maintaining a facade of harmony!

“Wasn’t he afraid you’d all quit en masse and paralyze Hutchison?” Willie asked the crucial question.

“Mr. Lin spoke after,” he said. “He said: ‘Hutchison Whampoa is what it is today thanks to the efforts of everyone present, but it relies even more on this platform! Without Hutchison, how much value do you think your resources and connections would still have?’

Those words… they were harsh, but in that situation, they were truly irrefutable.

And right after that, he had Mr. Ma Shimin take over to ensure stability during the transition. Even if we left, they could transfer executives in the relevant fields from the Hongkong Land Group at any time.

We… even if we had thoughts of resisting, we wouldn’t dare gamble our careers on it.

Mr. Lin said he would let bygones be bygones, but he would absolutely not tolerate any collusion with Richard Lee. He asked everyone to unite and work hard for Hutchison from now on.”

Willie lapsed into a long silence again.

Lin Haoran’s words were cruel, but they hit the nail on the head, exposing the codependent relationship between a professional manager and their platform.

When facing a boss with absolute equity and a backer with even greater capital, threatening a “mass resignation” was an extremely weak bargaining chip to begin with.

Lin Haoran saw through this, which was why he dared to act so decisively.

He had enough capital to bear the risk of short-term chaos, and more than enough confidence and means to quickly stabilize the situation.

This insight into human weakness and the courage to take risks gave Willie a long-lost thrill.

He couldn’t help but compare Lin Haoran to his former boss, Li Jiacheng.

Li Jiacheng was also a strong leader, but he was more accustomed to manipulating from behind the scenes, slowly boiling the frog, gradually infiltrating and squeezing people out. He was full of calculation and caution.

But Lin Haoran was sharp and undisguised, like a tempestuous fire. His style was to overwhelm skill with sheer force, aiming for a single, fatal blow!

They both aimed to control the company, but Lin Haoran’s path was shorter, more direct, and more to the taste of a “troubleshooter” like Willie, who preferred swift action and hated being held back.

An indescribable emotion surged within Willie.

Was it disdain for Richard Lee’s foolish actions?

Was it shock and a hint of admiration for Lin Haoran’s thunderous methods?

Was it concern for Hutchison’s future?

Or was it a long-suppressed impulse, a yearning to get back in the game and show his skills once more?

When he left Hutchison years ago, it wasn’t because of failure, but because of conflicting philosophies and his boss’s suspicion.

He yearned for a boss and a platform that would grant him full authority, allow him to display his talents, and truly push the company to new heights.

Li Jiacheng couldn’t give him that, so he could only depart in disappointment, knowing that staying at Hutchison would just be a waste of his time.

Now, this young man named Lin Haoran had taken control of Hutchison with an unprecedentedly forceful stance.

He dared to fire the CEO on the spot, dared to face any challenge, and demonstrated a grand strategic vision. Considering the situation with the other professional managers under him, could a boss like this, a stage like this, be the answer Willie had been desperately searching for?

At this moment, this thought inexplicably surfaced in Willie’s mind.

Although he had never dealt with Lin Haoran, he was actually aware of his approach to the companies under his banner.

It might seem that what he did today was a power grab, but in reality, Willie knew that Lin Haoran rarely interfered too much with a company’s management rights.

Lin Haoran had already risen to prominence back when he was the Chairman of the Board of Hutchison Whampoa.

At that time, he had used Hutchison Whampoa’s intelligence department to investigate Lin Haoran’s personality, background, and more.

“Mr. Willie? Mr. Willie?” Simon Hall’s voice from the other end of the phone pulled Willie back from his scattered thoughts.

“Yes, I’m listening.” Willie’s voice was calm again, but the storm in his heart had far from subsided.

“Mr. Lin also said at the end that he would find a new, capable President to take charge of Hutchison as soon as possible. The reason I’m calling you is to express our hope that you, Mr. Willie, might return to Hutchison Whampoa and lead us to greater glory.

Mr. Willie, Mr. Peter Wei and the others and I all hope you can come back.” Simon Hall added cautiously, his voice filled with expectation.

They were all long-time employees of Hutchison Whampoa, but more than that, they were executives that Willie had either brought in or promoted.

One could say that in their eyes, Willie was like a mentor.

If Willie could return to Hutchison Whampoa, their situation wouldn’t be so awkward.

Moreover, they trusted Willie’s abilities far more than Richard Lee’s.

With Willie around, Hutchison Whampoa would surely develop better, and as executives, if the company did better, their bonuses would naturally be larger!

So, this was the true purpose of Simon Hall’s call.

Since Lin Haoran was looking for a new President, if one were to ask who in all of Hong Kong was most suited for the role, the answer would undoubtedly be Willie.

Hearing this, Willie frowned and said, “On what grounds would I go back? When I decided to leave Hutchison Whampoa, I never planned on returning. Besides, I’m not familiar with this Mr. Lin Haoran. Even if I were interested, it doesn’t mean he would be!”

“Mr. Willie, after the meeting, during a private conversation between Mr. Lin Haoran and Mr. Ma Shimin, I happened to overhear your name mentioned. It seems they’ve put you on the potential list for the new President of Hutchison.”

Willie’s pupils contracted sharply.

Lin Haoran had actually thought of him?

Or did Ma Shimin recommend him?

An uncontrollable warmth surged from the bottom of his heart.

That’s right, Ma Shimin knew his capabilities, and he knew his history with Hutchison.

In fact, Willie and Ma Shimin had dealt with each other quite a bit.

After all, he was once the Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa, while Ma Shimin was an Executive Director at Jardine Matheson & Co. There were many collaborative projects between the two giant corporations.

Furthermore, both were top-tier professional managers in Hong Kong, so Ma Shimin and Willie’s relationship was actually quite good.

Therefore, Ma Shimin knew him very well.

After dealing with the troublemaker in his ranks, Lin Haoran would certainly need to find a powerful helmsman who could truly command the great ship of Hutchison and realize his strategic intentions.

It seemed Ma Shimin had put his name forward.

“I understand, Simon.” Willie’s voice remained steady. “Thank you for telling me this. Just focus on your work. This Mr. Lin is not a simple man. Work hard for Hutchison Whampoa and don’t get any funny ideas. There’s a bright future ahead. As for whether I’ll return to Hutchison, that’s a matter for another time.”

“Understood, Mr. Willie. I look forward to the day we can work together again.”

After hanging up, Willie stood before the enormous floor-to-ceiling window for a long time.

Outside, the Hutchison Whampoa Building looked particularly magnificent in the afterglow of a setting sun.

Once upon a time, that was his battlefield, his kingdom.

Willie had poured his heart and soul into building up Hutchison Whampoa from the brink of a broken capital chain and bankruptcy, returning it to glory.

That was why he left with regret and unwillingness.

Now, a new, younger, more powerful, and more enigmatic master had taken control.

Richard Lee’s fate clearly conveyed Lin Haoran’s style of governance: absolute authority, unquestionable control, and zero tolerance for betrayal and challenges.

This was dangerous, but it was also full of immense possibilities.

A boss who dared to act like this often also had greater courage to support truly capable people in breaking new ground.

Would he be suspicious and obstructive like Li Jiacheng?

Or would he, because of his own ability and determination, grant genuine trust and space?

However, based on the current situation, he had granted immense corporate management power to professional managers under him like Ma Shimin, Chen Shoulin, Cui Zilong, and Burton. Such magnanimity and vision truly far surpassed Li Jiacheng’s somewhat narrow style of doing things.

He had dealt with many Chinese entrepreneurs, and most of them were actually just like Li Jiacheng.

A Chinese boss as willing to delegate authority as Lin Haoran was a rare sight indeed.

If he could take charge of Hutchison and pursue his ambitions within this framework…

Willie’s heart couldn’t help but beat faster.

A long-lost warrior’s craving stirred in his blood.

He yearned for a powerful opponent, but even more, he yearned for a stage where he could go all in.

His current position as chairman of a subsidiary under the Pui O Group certainly couldn’t satisfy his ambition.

He wouldn’t even be satisfied running Great Eagle Holdings. While Great Eagle had a place in Hong Kong’s real estate world, compared to giants like Cheung Kong Holdings, Sun Hung Kai Properties, and New World Development, it was ultimately a tier below.

And Hutchison Whampoa’s status in Hong Kong’s business community was even ahead of Cheung Kong Holdings and Sun Hung Kai Properties.

Having been the Taipan of Hutchison, there were very few companies in all of Hong Kong that he could take seriously.

So this place was merely a transitional phase in his career.

Lin Haoran had defeated Li Jiacheng and then eliminated Richard Lee with such decisiveness, demonstrating precisely this kind of power and spirit.

This young man was like a bolt of lightning that had torn through the dull sky of Hong Kong’s business world, shocking people and making them uncontrollably want to get closer and find out more.

In that instant, a thousand thoughts raced through Willie’s mind.

The fall from the position of Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa to the chairman of a third-rate company was a stark contrast that indeed left him feeling somewhat lost and dejected.

Back at Hutchison Whampoa, he had controlled a vast commercial empire, and his decisions had affected the destinies of countless people. He had been in such high spirits then.

Now, in this small company, although he had decision-making power, he always felt that he lacked that heroic spirit of commanding the winds and clouds.

He recalled the days of grappling with various forces at Hutchison Whampoa—the intense business competition, the complex workplace relationships. Though arduous, it was also full of challenge and passion.

Hutchison was like a giant stage that allowed him to display his talents to the fullest.

Now, that stage seemed to hold new possibilities. Lin Haoran’s arrival showed him a chance to return to Hutchison.

Although, the position of Chairman of the Board of Hutchison Whampoa was definitely out of reach.

However, even just becoming the CEO of Hutchison was still a good choice.

Willie slowly turned, walked back to his desk, and sat down.

He opened a drawer and took out a somewhat old photo album. It was filled with pictures from his time at Hutchison Whampoa.

There were group photos celebrating successful projects with colleagues, snapshots of him speaking at important meetings, and even a triumphant picture of him on a newspaper headline. Each photo carried the weight of his past glory and memories.

“Am I really going to miss this opportunity?” Willie murmured to himself.

He knew very well that returning to Hutchison Whampoa meant facing a brand-new leadership style and unknown challenges.

Although Lin Haoran had shown great boldness and vision, his management style was so aggressive, and whether he could adapt was still an unknown.

Moreover, Richard Lee’s fate was like a warning bell, a constant reminder that under Lin Haoran, one mistake could lead to irreparable ruin.

However, another voice rang in his heart: “This is a chance to prove yourself again. Lin Haoran values capable people so much. If I can win his trust, maybe I can lead Hutchison Whampoa to new heights.”

Working at the Pui O Group had made him realize even more keenly how important a group’s strength was.

Regarding the acquisition of China Motor Bus, if he were still the one in charge at Hutchison Whampoa, he was not 100%, but at least 99% confident he could have beaten the other competitors and successfully won it.

The reason Pui O Group had such difficulty succeeding was, in the final analysis, that its own strength was too far behind that of the giants with their deep foundations.

On the brutal battlefield of business, without the support of substantial capital and extensive connections, it was like sailing a dilapidated little boat in a stormy sea, in constant danger of being swallowed by the waves.

He believed his talent in business was among the top, not just in Hong Kong but in all of Asia.

But even with such talent, he couldn’t make Pui O Group succeed.

It was like an adult with a wooden stick fighting a child with a pistol. Although the adult was stronger, the child’s weapon was far more lethal.

In the world of business competition, capital and connections are that crucial “pistol”.

Willie gently rubbed the edge of the photo album, his thoughts drifting further.

He remembered some of the major projects he had participated in at Hutchison Whampoa, the scenes of battles of wits and courage against various forces still vivid in his mind.

Every successful negotiation, every smooth project progression, gave him a sense of self-worth.

But now at Pui O Group, although he could use some of his abilities, he was too constrained, like a mighty eagle with its wings bound, unable to soar through the sky.

“Perhaps I really should go back and give it a try,” Willie muttered.

He knew that returning to Hutchison Whampoa meant standing once again in the eye of the storm in Hong Kong’s business world, where there was fiercer competition and a much wider world.

Although Lin Haoran was aggressive, his vision and boldness might provide him with an unprecedented platform for development.

He closed the photo album, stood up, and walked to the window, gazing at the city’s nightscape.

On the brilliantly lit streets, traffic flowed endlessly, and people bustled about. This was a city full of opportunities and challenges.

This was why he had traveled thousands of miles to come to Hong Kong.

He, Willie, had once commanded the winds and clouds in this city’s business world. How could he now be content to languish on a small stage?

Just as his thoughts surged like the tides in Victoria Harbour, the phone on his desk rang again.

This time, the number displayed on the screen was very familiar. It was the landline number of the office he used to have when he was the Taipan of Hutchison.

Willie’s eyes lit up, and he took a deep breath.

He didn’t pick it up immediately, instead letting the phone ring a few times.

His gaze returned to the building outside his window, and a complex yet excited arc slowly formed on his lips.

The ringing of the telephone seemed particularly abrupt in the somewhat empty Chairman’s office of the Yalon Company.

Willie’s gaze never left the bustling lights of Victoria Harbour, especially the Hutchison Whampoa Building, which he knew all too well.

He took a deep breath, as if trying to suppress some churning, complex emotion, then slowly turned and paced towards the large mahogany desk.

Willie’s heart couldn’t help but beat a little faster as a long-lost palpitation, mixed with anticipation and caution, welled up inside him.

His heart was now filled with a certain amount of hope. He finally picked up the telephone receiver.

“Hello?” Willie’s voice was so calm it betrayed no emotion, carrying a hint of British reserve—a testament to his years of professional discipline.

“Mr. Willie, good evening. I apologize for the intrusion. I hope I’m not disturbing your rest.” The voice on the other end was one he was quite familiar with—Ma Shimin.

His English carried a standard Oxford accent, and his tone was polite and direct, without any unnecessary pleasantries.

“Mr. Ma Shimin?” Willie’s eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly as his suspicion was instantly confirmed.

“Not at all. At this hour, for a businessman in Hong Kong, the night has only just begun. What can I do for you?”

“I wouldn’t dare presume to instruct you,” Ma Shimin chuckled lightly on the other end. “I trust you’ve heard about the little ‘incident’ that took place at the Cheung Kong Center this afternoon?”

The matter he and Lin Haoran had discussed could be overheard by Simon Hall and the others because they had intentionally let them hear it. They wanted them to pass the news to Willie.

Otherwise, if they truly hadn’t wanted Simon Hall and the others to know, they would have had no chance.

“I’ve heard a little.” Willie’s reply was brief and restrained, neither showing excessive interest nor feigning ignorance. “The business world is like a battlefield. Personnel changes are inevitable. Mr. Richard Lee… it’s a pity.” He changed the subject, his tone carrying a trace of regret, but he stopped there, leaving room for the other party to make a judgment.

“It is indeed a pity. But as the Boss said, a manager who cannot be of one mind with the shareholders, and who even attempts to hold the company hostage to satisfy their own selfish desires, is no longer fit to be at the helm, regardless of their ability.”

Ma Shimin’s voice turned serious, directly quoting Lin Haoran’s words from the afternoon, clearly conveying the new boss’s attitude and bottom line.

Willie’s fingers tightened slightly around the receiver.

Ma Shimin was borrowing Lin Haoran’s words to once again emphasize that unquestionable authority, and also to imply: any act that challenges this authority will be mercilessly eliminated.

Richard Lee was the bloody example laid out for all to see.

“Mr. Lin’s methods are indeed impressive,” Willie commented faintly.

“So, Mr. Ma, I assume you didn’t call me tonight just to recount the resolutions of your Hutchison Board of Directors? After all, it has nothing to do with me. I’m no longer the leader of Hutchison Whampoa.”

“Mr. Willie is indeed a straightforward man,” Ma Shimin smiled, getting straight to the point. “The Boss and I both believe that Hutchison Whampoa is currently at a critical turning point. Richard Lee’s departure has left an important position vacant, and we need a helmsman who is truly capable, decisive, and aligned with the Boss’s strategic direction to steer this great ship into broader waters.”

Willie’s heart skipped a beat; his premonition was about to come true.

He didn’t reply immediately. A brief silence fell over the office, punctuated only by the faint electrical hum from the receiver.

The neon lights from outside shone through the glass, casting a play of light and shadow on his sharp, chiseled features.

Ma Shimin’s voice continued, carrying a sincere invitation: “We’ve given it a lot of thought. Looking at all of Hong Kong, or even Asia, the only person whose professional capabilities, understanding of Hutchison, and international vision perfectly fit this position is you, Mr. Willie.”

Despite having mentally prepared himself, hearing the invitation with his own ears still made Willie’s breath catch for a moment.

Countless images flashed through his mind: being appointed in a time of crisis to clean up the mess of Hutchison International from a pile of ruins;
pushing for the merger with Whampoa Dockyard against all opposition to create Hutchison Whampoa;
working day and night to sort out assets, divest losing businesses, and restructure debt, finally making a desperate effort to turn the tide and bring Hutchison back to profitability;
and then, after Li Jiacheng took control, the invisible constraints and the growing rift, culminating in the inexpressible unwillingness and loss he felt when he handed in his resignation…

Hutchison Whampoa was the most significant and brilliant achievement of his career. It was the fruit of his heart and soul, the land of his unfulfilled dreams!

A powerful sense of longing welled up in his heart.

Return to Hutchison!

Chapter 760: Li Jiacheng: My Boldness Is No Match for Lin Haoran’s!

For an ambitious man, the opportunity to work under a new boss with vast capital and a clear strategy, to wield real, unhindered power, was nothing short of a dream come true.

At his core, he, Willie, was a business prodigy who craved challenges and a chance to prove himself—a true corporate strategist.

How could a small pond like Pui O Group’s Yalon Company ever contain his ambition?

The tumultuous waves of Hong Kong’s top business circles—that was the battlefield he yearned for.

However, the image of Lin Haoran—forceful, decisive, and one might even say ruthless—was crystal clear in his mind.

The incident with Richard Lee was enough to show that this terrifyingly young boss was a hundred times more decisive and authoritative than Li Jiacheng.

Though he, Willie, was equally forceful and swift in his actions, was he not in the same boat as Richard Lee?

What they both sought was full operational autonomy within a strategic framework.

He needed trust and space, not a “foreman” who meddled in every little detail.

Could he coexist peacefully with a boss like Lin Haoran?

Lin Haoran had spoken of “executing his strategic intent” and “maintaining alignment.” Where was the bottom line?

Did it mean only controlling the general direction, or would he interfere with specific operational details as well?

If their philosophies clashed again, would Lin Haoran cast him aside as mercilessly as he had Richard Lee?

Could his pride and professional reputation withstand such a risk?

Conflicting emotions tore at him fiercely.

The immense temptation of returning to Hutchison, clashing with a deep apprehension about the unknown power dynamics, plunged him into an unprecedented struggle.

On the other end of the line, Ma Shimin seemed to sense Willie’s internal conflict. He didn’t press, but waited quietly.

The only sounds in the office were the tap-tap-tap of Willie’s fingers unconsciously drumming on the mahogany desk and the distinct, audible thumping of his own heart.

Time seemed to stretch on.

He once again gazed out the window at the brightly lit Cheung Kong Center not far away, the place where he had once fought his battles.

In the end, the desire to prove his worth, the sense of responsibility to personally push Hutchison to greater heights, and that sliver of anticipation for the grand vision and potential Lin Haoran had displayed, all overwhelmed his inner doubts.

He took a deep breath, and his voice carried through the receiver, “Mr. Ma Shimin, thank you and Mr. Lin for your high regard. To have another opportunity to serve Hutchison Whampoa, especially as it faces new opportunities for development, is personally very meaningful to me.”

He paused, then stated his condition. “However, before I formally accept this invitation, I have one request. I hope to have the opportunity to speak with Mr. Lin Haoran himself, in person, face-to-face.

“Not about details like salary or position, but about the future strategic direction of Hutchison Whampoa, about our respective business philosophies, and about the boundaries of trust and the extent of delegated authority.”

He had used the word “request,” not “demand,” but the insistence in his tone was unmistakable.

He needed to see the young man who was stirring up a storm with his own eyes. He needed to personally gauge the vision and magnanimity that lay behind those sharp eyes.

He needed to confirm whether this powerful new boss could truly provide him—an equally powerful “troubleshooter”—with the stage he craved to display his talents.

The workplace had always been a two-way street.

This was a crucial interview, and the positions of interviewer and candidate had become subtly blurred.

He, Willie, needed to personally verify if this stage was worth staking his career, reputation, and pride on once more.

Ma Shimin, on the other end of the line, seemed unsurprised by this request. His voice even carried a hint of an appreciative smile.

“Completely understandable, Mr. Willie. Our boss has also been hoping for an opportunity to have an in-depth discussion with a legend of Hutchison’s past like yourself.

“How about tomorrow at three in the afternoon, at my boss’s office in the Connaught Centre? Would that be convenient?”

“Would a few days from now be possible? As you know, Yalon Company is at a critical juncture. Mr. Lo Yuk-sui invited me here at great expense for the acquisition of China Motor Bus, and I must give him a proper resolution.

“This is not only a matter of professional ethics, but also of my, Willie’s, reputation in the Hong Kong business community. Please inform Mr. Lin that I will be at his disposal any time after one week,” Willie replied cautiously after some thought.

Although the Pui O Group’s bid to acquire China Motor Bus had all but failed, it was not yet a complete loss.

Only when failure was officially declared could he leave the Pui O Group with a clear conscience.

In any case, he had done his best.

From the current situation, there were three competitors for China Motor Bus: the original owners, the Yan family; the Guo family of Sun Hung Kai Properties; and the Lo family.

Now, after several months of this chaotic battle, the situation was becoming clearer.

The Yan family, with their deep roots in China Motor Bus’s operations and years of connections, had always maintained a huge advantage and still held the largest number of shares.

The Guo family of Sun Hung Kai Properties, with their deep pockets, were leveraging their vast financial strength to wage a constant price war in the market, continuously increasing their shareholding in China Motor Bus.

The Lo family was not to be outdone. Lo Yuk-sui’s high-priced invitation for Willie to join them was precisely in the hope of using Willie’s business acumen and strategic vision to emerge victorious from this free-for-all.

However, during his time at Yalon Company, although the acquisition of China Motor Bus had not yet been declared a complete failure, Willie knew in his heart that continuing to drag it out would be futile.

Although the Lo family’s financial resources were not poor, it simply wasn’t worth it to compete against the other two families at all costs.

With all parties at a stalemate and the resources in the secondary market being over-consumed, breaking through was as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Therefore, in Willie’s view, it was time for the Yan family to exit this battle.

How the Guo and Lo families competed after that had nothing to do with the Lo family.

He planned to have a good talk with Lo Yuk-sui and his father, Lo Ying-shek, and persuade them to give up their designs on China Motor Bus.

They still had one advantage now: while the Yan family and the Guo family were locked in a back-and-forth struggle, the China Motor Bus shares held by the Lo family had become a hot commodity coveted by both sides.

Therefore, Pui O’s Yalon Company would not only avoid a loss, but could even seize the opportunity to make a huge profit.

In this way, Willie’s tenure at Yalon Company would not be considered a complete failure. On the contrary, he would have helped Yalon Company turn a profit, which would serve as a good account to Lo Yuk-sui.

Ma Shimin paused for a moment on the other end of the line, then responded, “No problem, Mr. Willie. Your considerations are very thorough. Professional ethics and business reputation are indeed of the utmost importance.

“I will relay your words to Mr. Lin exactly as you said them. One week from now, the boss’s office will welcome you at any time.”

…

At the Severn Road villa, Lin Haoran received Ma Shimin’s call shortly after finishing dinner.

Ma Shimin recounted his entire conversation with Willie to Lin Haoran.

“Boss, Mr. Willie is deeply impressed by your boldness and vision. He wishes to meet with you in person to discuss Hutchison’s future strategic blueprint and the boundaries of his power and responsibilities. However, he needs a week to handle matters at his current company.”

The faintest trace of a smile appeared on Lin Haoran’s lips.

“Boundaries of power and responsibilities?” he repeated softly.

“He knows how to read the situation and how to fight for what he wants. Very good. Tell Willie that I look forward to a conversation with a commander who has true strategic vision, knows his place, and dares to go all in on the right track.

“Hutchison’s new era needs a new mind to lead it. I can give him the stage he wants to showcase his talents, but on one condition: he must understand whose Hutchison Whampoa it is!”

Lin Haoran knew a fair amount about this Mr. Willie. The fact that he wanted to talk meant he was very eager to return to Hutchison Whampoa.

“This shows he is serious about this opportunity, Boss,” Ma Shimin said from the other end of the line. “A man like Willie will not submit easily. He needs to be certain that the stage is big enough and the spotlight is bright enough.

“His request for this meeting is proof of his sincerity and his weight.”

“I understand.” Lin Haoran stood before the French windows of his study, gazing at the hazy night view of Victoria Peak, his tone calm. “Talented people naturally have temperaments.

“I will give him this time, and I look forward to our meeting. You can use this week to sort out some of the core matters left behind by Richard Lee to ensure a smooth transition.”

“Understood, Boss.”

After hanging up, a playful arc formed on Lin Haoran’s lips.

Willie’s caution and insistence did not displease him; instead, it made him appreciate the man even more.

He didn’t want an obsequious subordinate, but a commander who could hold his own, with courage and strategy.

Willie’s performance was exactly in line with his expectations for the position.

As for Richard Lee, the reason Lin Haoran had dealt with him so differently was actually simple.

Richard Lee was highly capable; Lin Haoran was well aware of this and had never denied it.

However, he had made a mistake that Lin Haoran could never tolerate: he had publicly tried to seize power in front of everyone. Wasn’t that a blatant move to embarrass Lin Haoran?

Moreover, compared to Willie, Richard Lee’s abilities were still slightly inferior, not enough to lead the entire Hutchison group.

If Lin Haoran didn’t fire someone like that to make an example of him, what was the point of keeping him around?

He could delegate authority, but that was a choice he made voluntarily, a sign of magnanimity and trust by not intervening too much in the company’s normal operations.

It was not for the management to exclude him directly. For a boss to not have control over the direction of power in his own company was a flagrant provocation of his authority.

Lin Haoran naturally understood that if he did not handle this seriously, more people would surely follow suit.

He couldn’t endure humiliation and bear a heavy burden for three years like Li Jiacheng, nor was there any need to.

Willie’s choice to negotiate with him at least showed a posture of respect and cooperation, which provided a basis for dialogue.

Lin Haoran understood that managing great talents was like taming a wild stallion. One needed both the boldness to ride it for a thousand miles and the means to prevent it from breaking free and turning on its rider.

Willie was a thoroughbred worth his patience and skill.

A night passed in the blink of an eye.

The date was now September 22nd, a Tuesday.

The morning sun pierced the thin mist over Victoria Harbour, but it could not dispel the chill hanging over Hong Kong’s business community.

The scene that had unfolded in the top-floor conference room of the Hutchison Whampoa Building yesterday began to spark debate that swept across the city.

“Extra! Extra! Cheung Kong withdraws from Hutchison Whampoa, Hutchison welcomes a new master!”

“Less than a year in charge, Li Jiacheng routed from Cheung Kong and Hutchison!”

“A thunderous move! On his first day in charge of Hutchison, Lin Haoran fires President Richard Lee on the spot!”

“A bloodbath! New master establishes his authority, Hutchison’s old guard is utterly defeated!”

The hoarse cries of newsboys echoed down Queen’s Road Central. The front pages of the newspapers in their hands, the ink barely dry, were all emblazoned with sensational headlines accompanied by a blurry photo of a distraught Richard Lee being “escorted” out of Hutchison House by security guards.

Yesterday afternoon, not long after firing Richard Lee, Hutchison Whampoa had made the news public.

That was why all the major media outlets were running it as their top story today.

The financial commentators on every radio and television station spoke with impassioned tones, their words laden with disbelief and deep apprehension.

“Listeners, this is by no means an ordinary personnel change! This is a bloody purge by Lin Haoran of Hong Kong’s entire management culture! Who is Richard Lee? He was in charge of Hutchison’s core businesses for years, a Western President heavily relied upon in the Li Jiacheng era!

“The ‘proposal’ he and his team of confidants meticulously prepared, an attempt to carve out a power map before the new master had found his footing, was crushed by Lin Haoran in the most direct, most violent way possible!

“Negotiation? A power play? In Mr. Lin’s eyes, perhaps such things don’t even exist! What he wants is absolute submission!” The voice of a senior commentator from Commercial Radio trembled as it traveled over the airwaves.

“Richard Lee… was fired just like that? Without even a single night’s buffer period?”

“This isn’t Mr. Lin taking control; this is a ‘conquest’! He’s using Richard Lee’s head to declare to all of Hutchison, and indeed all of Hong Kong: those who submit will prosper, those who resist shall perish!

“What deeply rooted interest groups? What meritorious company veterans? In the face of his absolute controlling stake and thunderous methods, they are utterly fragile!”

Lin Haoran’s takeover and the firing of Richard Lee had indeed sent massive shockwaves through Hong Kong.

It was too decisive, too ruthless.

And indeed, too much had happened in one day.

First, yesterday morning, Lin Haoran and Li Jiacheng held a joint press conference to announce Li Jiacheng’s withdrawal from Hutchison Whampoa and Lin Haoran’s acquisition of Cheung Kong Holdings’ shares in the company, officially marking Lin Haoran’s takeover.

Second, this was Li Jiacheng formally admitting his own defeat. Moreover, he ultimately had to shake hands and make peace with Lin Haoran, an extremely rare event in his business history.

Finally, on the very day he took control, Lin Haoran made an example of Hutchison’s senior management by kicking out the person in charge. Such a decisive move was truly unbelievable.

The events of a single day had been more dramatic than a typical year.

In the city’s tea houses, food stalls, and outside the stock exchange, discussions among ordinary citizens were filled with shock, awe, and even a hint of fanaticism.

“Wow! Mr. Lin is seriously cool and daring! Firing a president just like that, without even blinking an eye! It’s just like in the movies!” a young man in a Yau Ma Tei tea restaurant exclaimed, looking at the newspaper description, drawing murmurs of agreement from the surrounding patrons.

“What do you know! This is what they call ‘a new official’s three fires’! The first fire is burning so brightly, it’s clearly to kill the chicken to scare the monkey! And it looks like Hutchison’s senior executives are all scared. No wonder Lin Haoran could become the richest man in Hong Kong. He really has guts!” analyzed a middle-aged man next to him, wearing gold-rimmed glasses and reading the financial section, his tone filled with reverence.

“Good riddance!” an old man with white hair said slowly, taking a sip of strong tea. “I read in the paper that Richard Lee fellow wanted to negotiate terms with Mr. Lin, wanted Mr. Lin to be an ‘Emperor Emeritus’ with no right to interfere?

“Is he crazy? The company was bought with his own hard-earned money. An employee needs to have the self-awareness of an employee. What Mr. Lin did is the style of a real big boss! Tough! I support Mr. Lin!”

“He certainly has backbone, but do you think Richard Lee’s underlings will rebel? How can such a huge company operate without those competent senior executives?” someone else expressed concern.

“Rebel? You should read the news more carefully! After Mr. Lin fired Richard Lee, that director of business, Simon something-or-other, was the first to raise his hand and express support! Everyone else immediately followed suit!

“Mr. Lin said on the spot to ‘let bygones be bygones,’ but if anyone dares to be outwardly compliant and inwardly defiant, Richard Lee’s fate will be theirs. Now that’s what you call ‘using the carrot and the stick’! Brilliant! Truly brilliant!” The man with the gold-rimmed glasses exclaimed repeatedly, drawing a chorus of agreement.

Outside the stock exchange, the retail investors were even more emotional.

Although trading for Hutchison had been halted for another day due to the change of power, they saw the news of Lin Haoran’s “iron-fisted rule” as a major positive, fueling their boundless imagination about future stock prices.

Moreover, Lin Haoran had already announced that he would not seek to privatize Hutchison Whampoa, which made many people optimistic about its future.

Many people were already planning to buy Hutchison Whampoa shares once the market reopened.

Lin Haoran had already become a reliable name in the Hong Kong stock market.

Publicly listed companies controlled by Lin Haoran, such as Hongkong Electric Group, Hong Kong Telephone, and Hong Kong and China Gas, all had excellent stock prices.

Therefore, if nothing unexpected happened, Hutchison Whampoa’s stock still had significant room to rise.

As for Hutchison Whampoa’s current debt, in the eyes of the public, with Lin Haoran taking over, it was no longer a problem.

“Mr. Lin is so ruthless right off the bat, he’s definitely going to reform Hutchison drastically! The performance will surely soar!”

“Exactly! In the Li Jiacheng era, Hutchison was old and sluggish. Now Mr. Lin is here, getting rid of factions. The efficiency will be countless times faster! I’m definitely buying once trading resumes!”

“Is there any doubt? Just look at how the stock price of Hongkong Electric Group has soared. It’s now the top stock in Hong Kong! The market loves a powerful and decisive leader!”

In the minds of the general public, Lin Haoran’s image was instantly transformed from that of a mysterious financial tycoon into a decisive, all-controlling “business titan.”

His very name carried a magic that was both intimidating and alluring.

Yet, in the top-floor office of the Connaught Centre, at the eye of the storm, there was an unusual tranquility.

Lin Haoran stood before the massive floor-to-ceiling windows, looking down at the bustling city below.

The morning light cast a golden edge on his straight back, yet it inexplicably exuded a chill.

Ma Shimin walked in with steady steps, holding a few freshly printed newspapers. Without exception, the headlines were all “Lin Haoran’s Thunderous Move, Richard Lee’s Gloomy Exit.” His face showed sincere admiration.

“Boss, the whole city is shaken. The effect is far better than expected. Right now, to describe the atmosphere inside Hutchison as being on edge and orders being strictly followed would be no exaggeration. Simon Hall called personally to report that the entire team is in place, and core operations are running as usual, and even more efficiently.”

Lin Haoran did not turn around, his voice was flat and calm. “As expected. A chronic illness cannot be cured without harsh medicine. Richard Lee overestimated his abilities, which gave me the perfect opportunity to reshape the rules and establish absolute authority.

“His end was a message for everyone to see. Fear is the most efficient adhesive. Loyalty must be cultivated in the soil of reverence.”

“This move of yours has completely subdued the old guard at Hutchison and shaken all of Hong Kong.”

Ma Shimin nodded, then handed over another document. “According to our investigation, shareholders are optimistic about you taking control of Hutchison Whampoa. If nothing goes wrong, Hutchison’s stock will rise sharply. This way, we can smoothly sell off our excess shares at a good price.”

Lin Haoran took the document but didn’t look at it closely, placing it casually on the large mahogany desk.

“Proceed with the sell-off as planned. I have other uses for the cash we recover,” Lin Haoran stated directly.

Reducing his stake to seventy-five percent was the established goal.

Right now, he held 86.9% of Hutchison’s shares, so he could indeed cash out a significant amount.

Once Hutchison’s shares returned to their peak, or even surpassed their previous high, the extra 11.9% stake could bring in at least over one billion Hong Kong dollars.

This was no small sum of money.

And a few hundred meters away from the Connaught Centre, in the China Building, was the headquarters of Cheung Kong Holdings.

Li Jiacheng sat in the Chairman’s office, his expression shifting between light and dark as he read the newspaper.

Yesterday, he had become a loser, and he had completed that highly watched handover with Lin Haoran in front of all of Hong Kong.

Now, the bold headlines in the newspapers were like a series of loud slaps across the face of his past glory.

“Cheung Kong withdraws from Hutchison Whampoa, Hutchison welcomes a new master!”

“Less than a year in charge, Li Jiacheng routed from Cheung Kong and Hutchison!”

These words stung his eyes, and they stung his ever-proud heart.

He, Li Jiacheng, had navigated the business world for many years. When had he ever been so humiliated?

But now, the facts were before him, and he had to accept this somewhat bitter result.

He slowly put down the newspaper, his fingers tapping lightly on the desk as he fell into deep thought.

Now that things had come to this, he was gradually accepting the reality.

Lin Haoran, this terrifyingly young opponent, had displayed such thunderous methods the moment he took control of Hutchison—firing Richard Lee, reshaping the rules, establishing authority. This series of actions was as smooth as flowing water, without any hesitation.

He had to admit that Lin Haoran possessed extraordinary boldness and decisiveness.

“My boldness is far from a match for Lin Haoran’s!” he murmured to himself.

During his nearly one year as Chairman of the Board of Hutchison Whampoa, he had always been tolerant of Richard Lee. It wasn’t that he hadn’t considered taking a hard line, but he had been weighed down by numerous concerns.

The deeply rooted and intertwined web of interests within Hutchison had made him feel like he was treading on thin ice with every step, afraid that one wrong move would trigger internal turmoil and affect the company’s stable development.

But Lin Haoran, a newcomer, had shattered the old structure with the force of a thunderbolt. That courage and decisiveness truly made him feel outmatched.

At this moment, he suddenly felt that he had lost fair and square.

When he first took charge of Hutchison Whampoa, he believed his future achievements would be no less than Lin Haoran’s.

However, now that he had been defeated head-on by Lin Haoran, he had to re-examine his own business philosophy and style of conduct, and he had learned a great deal from it.

But the “tuition fee” was far too expensive!

Right now, Li Ka-shing had another matter to deal with: how to interact with Lin Haoran in the future.

This time, he had almost become a mortal enemy of Lin Haoran’s in the business world.

Yet, fate would have it that the other man had become the Vice Chairman of Cheung Kong.

The situation was truly awkward.

Li Ka-shing put down the newspaper he was reading and slowly stood up, pacing back and forth in his office.

His brow was tightly furrowed, and deep lines would occasionally crease his forehead.

“No, I have to go talk to Brother Pao,” Li Ka-shing suddenly stopped and muttered to himself.

Chapter 761: Li Jiacheng Admits Defeat, Shakes Hands and Makes Peace with Lin Haoran!

Central, the 21st floor of the Prince’s Building. This was Pao Yue-kong’s private reception room.

It was worth noting that this an entire building was a property under the Hongkong Land Group.

Pao Yue-kong’s World-Wide Shipping Group merely rented several floors of this building for its headquarters.

He had specifically created a spacious and luxurious private reception room on the 21st floor for meeting important figures.

Three years ago, Pao Yue-kong and Jardine Matheson & Co. had engaged in a fierce battle over Kowloon Wharf.

At that time, Jardine Matheson & Co. had twice attempted to exchange properties held by the Hongkong Land Group on Hong Kong Island for the Kowloon Wharf shares in Pao Yue-kong’s hands.

Back then, Pao Yue-kong had explicitly demanded that the Hongkong Land Group use the Golden Gate Tower, Swire House, and the Prince’s Building for the exchange.

One had to understand that among these three buildings, Swire House and the Prince’s Building were both “hot commodities” among the properties in the Central District. This was especially true for the Prince’s Building, which was also the headquarters of the World-Wide Shipping Group.

However, Jardine Matheson & Co. was unwilling to hand over the Prince’s Building and Swire House to Pao Yue-kong. As the two sides had major disagreements over the terms of the exchange, they ultimately parted on bad terms.

Unexpectedly, all these properties had now fallen into Lin Haoran’s hands.

If Jardine Matheson & Co. had agreed to let the Hongkong Land Group exchange Swire House and the Prince’s Building back then, these priceless properties would not have ended up in Lin Haoran’s possession today.

And last year, after the Hongkong Land Group was privatized, the World-Wide Shipping Group had, in turn, become a tenant under Lin Haoran.

Inside the reception room, Li Jiacheng was currently sitting alone on the sofa.

He had rushed over on short notice. When he arrived, Pao Yue-kong was still busy handling some important business matters, so he had his assistant guide him to this reception room to wait for a while.

The sea breeze from Victoria Harbour was blocked by the thick glass curtain walls of the Prince’s Building, yet it seemed to blow the chill in Li Jiacheng’s heart ever stronger, causing an icy cold to rise from the depths of his being.

He sat upright on the expensive Italian leather sofa in Pao Yue-kong’s private reception room, feeling as if he had been plunged into an ice cellar, so stiff he could hardly move.

Outside the window was the bustling commercial district of Central, but in his eyes, the scenery had long become a blur.

Only the distinct outlines of several massive office buildings under Lin Haoran’s banner remained clear: Hongkong Land Group’s Connaught Centre, Wanqing Group’s Wanqing Building, and the recently acquired Hutchison Whampoa Building…

These buildings, like towering mountains, weighed heavily on his heart, leaving him almost breathless.

The door was pushed open silently, and Pao Yue-kong walked in.

The “World Shipping Magnate,” who had dominated the global shipping industry for decades, walked in with a relaxed gait and a rosy complexion. Although he had undergone major surgery not long ago, he had clearly recovered very well.

“Brother Li, what a rare visit. It seems you’re still holding a grudge about your defeat at Haoran’s hands, aren’t you?” Pao Yue-kong’s words were very direct.

Li Jiacheng forced a twitch at the corners of his mouth, a trace of bitterness almost spilling out. “Brother Pao, to tell you the truth, I’m on pins and needles right now.”

He took a deep breath, as if to dispel the sense of humiliation, and his voice deepened. “I lost Hutchison Whampoa, I admit defeat. Mr. Lin’s methods were swift and decisive; I, Li Jiacheng, have nothing to say.

But now, not only has he snatched away Hutchison Whampoa, he has also become the second-largest shareholder of Cheung Kong, holding the title of Vice Chairman of the Board!

This means we’re bound to see each other often. In every future board meeting, every policy discussion, I will have to face this… this ‘partner’ who has just dug away a corner of my very foundation!

Brother Pao, I truly can’t swallow this, and I really don’t know how to face this person!”

He picked up the slightly cool teacup in front of him, the rim of the cup trembling faintly.

The words “unable to accept” were seared into his heart like a brand.

The storm in the negotiation room on the top floor of the Connaught Centre, Governor Sir Murray MacLehose’s almost commanding phone call, Lin Haoran’s condescending demand for a fifty percent discount, the complicated expressions of the board members who were angry but dared not speak out when the agreement was signed, and the frantic sell-off by shareholders whose illusions were shattered after trading resumed…

Every scene echoed sharply, repeatedly cutting at his nerves.

Having navigated the business world for so many years, when had he, Li Jiacheng, ever suffered such complete suppression and humiliation?

Pao Yue-kong listened quietly without interrupting, merely picking up his own cup of tea and gently blowing on the foam, his movements unhurried.

It was only after Li Jiacheng’s cathartic outburst ended, leaving only the slow, spiraling trails of cigar smoke in the room, that he finally spoke slowly.

“Unable to accept? Brother Li, let me ask you, what’s more important: your face, or Cheung Kong Holdings, which you built with your own hands, and the livelihoods of the thousands of shareholders and employees who depend on you?” Pao Yue-kong’s voice was not loud, but it was like a stone tossed into stagnant water, creating ripples.

Li Jiacheng’s head snapped up, a flash of astonishment and struggle in his eyes.

Pao Yue-kong gave him no time to think, directly throwing out his own example.

“Then look at me. Kowloon Wharf! That was a piece of meat I tore right out of the mouth of Jardine Matheson & Co., a century-old establishment! That battle was harrowing—who in Hong Kong doesn’t know about it? But what did I do after the dust settled?”

He paused, his tone growing heavier as he spoke word by word, “I personally invited Lin Haoran to become the second-largest shareholder of Kowloon Wharf!”

Li Jiacheng’s pupils contracted abruptly.

The battle for Kowloon Wharf was one of the most glorious campaigns of Pao Yue-kong’s life. He was, of course, aware that Pao had brought in Lin Haoran as “outside support,” but to hear Pao Yue-kong state it so calmly at this moment, especially in this context, was a tremendous shock.

“You want to ask why?”

Pao Yue-kong saw through his thoughts, a meaningful smile touching his lips. “Because I see things clearly! The times have changed! Jardine Matheson & Co., HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank… these British-funded conglomerates that once lorded over us Chinese, which one of them hasn’t taken a fall at Lin Haoran’s hands?”

He held up his fingers, counting them off one by one, his tone filled with unquestionable certainty. “HSBC was forced to bow its head to him, and Standard Chartered doesn’t even dare to breathe too loudly now! Bringing him into Kowloon Wharf was like bringing in a backer, a torrent of power sufficient to deter any malicious attempts!

His presence on the Kowloon Wharf Board of Directors isn’t to fight me for power; it’s to add a ten-thousand-ton insurance lock to Kowloon Wharf! Let’s see any riff-raff out there dare to try and make a move on Kowloon Wharf.

With Lin Haoran’s golden signboard, Kowloon Wharf’s future is boundless. These are tangible, real benefits!”

Pao Yue-kong took a large gulp of tea, his eyes shining as he stared at Li Jiacheng. “Now look at your Cheung Kong Holdings! Lin Haoran is now the second-largest shareholder and the Vice Chairman you personally announced at the press conference.

What does this mean? It means Cheung Kong is backed by Lin Haoran, the biggest tycoon in Hong Kong’s business world!”

He swept his arm in a grand circle, as if encompassing all the vast properties belonging to Lin Haoran outside the window.

“Hengsheng Group! A behemoth in Hong Kong’s financial sector! Credit resources, financing channels, international networks… how many companies long for these but can’t get them? Just a little bit that slips through Lin Haoran’s fingers would be enough to fully satisfy Cheung Kong!

In comparison, what are today’s Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC good for?

Moreover, with Lin Haoran becoming the second-largest shareholder, it means countless shareholders will be optimistic about Cheung Kong Holdings’ future. The stock price will stabilize, your personal net worth will stabilize, and the assets you’ve mortgaged to the banks will be safe!

Hengsheng Group, Hongkong Land Group, Hutchison Whampoa, Hongkong Electric Group, Wanqing Group… these are all enterprises that are on par with or even surpass Cheung Kong Holdings. If, through your relationship with Lin Haoran, their businesses can find synergy with Cheung Kong’s in the future, how many business opportunities would that be?”

Pao Yue-kong’s voice carried a clarity born of experience. “Brother Li, why are you still clinging to that bit of pride? Lin Haoran’s rise is a change unseen in the century since Hong Kong’s opening!

This great dragon has already soared into the sky, overlooking all of Hong Kong! Oppose him?”

He shook his head, his tone resolute. “There’s no future in opposing him! Lin Haoran taking a stake in Cheung Kong is just like him entering my Kowloon Wharf. For the company as a whole, it adds the strongest possible moat! How is this him sticking his foot in? This is clearly him giving you, Li Jiacheng, a golden protective talisman for the next several decades!”

Li Jiacheng was stunned, sitting rigidly on the sofa.

Pao Yue-kong’s words were like a sharp scalpel, precisely cutting through the fog of “humiliation” before his eyes.

The example of Kowloon Wharf was so vivid and powerful, and the energy of Lin Haoran’s vast financial and industrial empire was so terrifyingly clear.

Hengsheng Bank’s cash flow, Galaxy Securities’ market control, and Hongkong Land Group’s terrifying assets…

If these forces became allies instead of adversaries, what would that mean for Cheung Kong?

Countless scenarios flashed through his mind: the pressure of banks calling in loans, sleepless nights over a tight project capital chain, the inherent disadvantage when bidding against rivals with British backgrounds, and so on.

If Lin Haoran nodded in agreement at a Cheung Kong board meeting, if Hengsheng Bank could offer Cheung Kong more favorable credit terms, if…

An unprecedented warmth, mixed with a strong sense of reality, suddenly flushed away the cold, hard lump that had collected in his chest.

Unable to accept?

In the face of absolute power and immense practical benefits, personal “pride” seemed so pale and ridiculous.

Besides, the business world is like a battlefield. Defeat comes with a price. That was only natural.

He had lost to Lin Haoran and paid a huge price—the price for backing the wrong side.

Since things had come to this, to remain fixated on the current situation would be irresponsible to his own future!

He had already offended Lin Haoran and suffered a thorough defeat. Should he really continue to be his enemy?

After annexing Hutchison Whampoa, Lin Haoran’s strength had surged once again.

In contrast, not only had he lost Hutchison Whampoa, but Cheung Kong Holdings, the group he founded, had also been penetrated by the other party.

In such a situation, choosing to hold a grudge and remain Lin Haoran’s enemy was indeed far too irrational.

Li Jiacheng let out a long, deep breath.

The pent-up frustration that had been stifling his chest seemed to be expelled along with the heavy sense of humiliation.

His tense shoulders slowly relaxed. The turbulent emotions in his eyes gradually settled, replaced by a clarity that follows exhaustion, and a hint of resigned relief.

Pao Yue-kong keenly noticed the subtle change in his friend’s expression. It was the calm that comes after an intense internal struggle finally ends in compromise.

His lips curved upward in a gratified smile. He said no more, simply picking up the phone and dialing a number.

Li Jiacheng saw Pao Yue-kong’s action and guessed his intention, but he did not stop him.

Deep down, wasn’t this what he hoped for when he specifically came to find Pao Yue-kong?

As one of Hong Kong’s top entrepreneurs, Pao Yue-kong knew well that the higher one stood, the fewer friends one could truly confide in.

In Hong Kong’s business world, his close friends could be counted on one’s fingers. Li Jiacheng was one of them, and so was Lin Haoran.

Therefore, Pao Yue-kong felt that if Lin Haoran and Li Jiacheng could shake hands and make peace, and the three of them could cooperate in Hong Kong’s business world, it would only be beneficial for all parties, with no drawbacks.

The call was quickly answered.

“Hello, Haoran? It’s me, Pao Yue-kong. Yes, over at the Prince’s Building. Hmm, if you have a moment, would it be possible for you to come over now?” His tone was relaxed and natural, as if inviting a regular old friend.

“It’s nothing serious, just that Brother Li is also here having tea and a chat with me. As it happens, I have some ideas about future cooperation, and I thought it might be more thorough if the three of us talked face-to-face. Good, good! I’ll be waiting for you.”

The call ended.

Pao Yue-kong nodded at Li Jiacheng. “He’ll be here shortly.”

The reception room fell into a brief silence again, but the atmosphere was already different.

Li Jiacheng silently picked up his teacup and took a sip, not even caring that the tea had grown cold.

In less than thirty minutes, a knock was heard, and the heavy wooden door of the reception room was pushed open silently.

Behind Pao Yue-kong’s assistant, Lin Haoran’s figure appeared at the doorway.

He wore an impeccably tailored, dark grey custom shirt and well-pressed dark trousers. He seemed less sharp and more casually at ease, but the inherent composure and sense of control in his bones had not diminished in the slightest.

Lin Haoran’s calm gaze swept across the room, landing first on Pao Yue-kong, to whom he gave a slight nod. “Uncle Pao.”

Then, his gaze shifted to Li Jiacheng.

There was no victor’s deliberate provocation in that look, nor was there any hypocritical pity. There was only the tranquility of a deep pool, as if it penetrated all of Li Jiacheng’s complex pretenses at that moment, reaching deep into the recently and arduously calmed depths of his heart.

Li Jiacheng felt an invisible pressure. Under that calm gaze, the psychological defenses he had just erected seemed to waver slightly.

He subconsciously wanted to look away but forced himself to meet the other man’s eyes.

“Mr. Lin.” Li Jiacheng’s voice was slightly hoarse, but he still managed to articulate the two words clearly.

He stood up, his movements tinged with an almost imperceptible stiffness.

Pao Yue-kong rose with a smile to welcome him, his warmth perfectly balanced. “Haoran, please, have a seat! Try the Longjing tea I just brewed. It’s this year’s first harvest.”

Pao Yue-kong was from Zhejiang Province, and Longjing tea was a specialty of Zhejiang, so his personal favorite tea was Longjing from his home province. He usually served it to his guests.

Lin Haoran walked in calmly and sat down where Pao Yue-kong indicated, directly opposite Li Jiacheng.

“Good tea.” He took the small teacup Pao Yue-kong handed him, smelled the aroma, and took a small sip, his posture elegant and natural.

During the brief tea session, Pao Yue-kong mostly steered the conversation, chatting about some innocuous recent events in Hong Kong and some amusing anecdotes from the business world.

Li Jiacheng sat silently to the side, like a statue weighed down by heavy thoughts, mechanically lifting and lowering his teacup.

The rich aroma of top-grade green tea filled the air, but it could not dispel the formless gravity of the situation.

Pao Yue-kong set down his teacup, looked at Lin Haoran, then at Li Jiacheng. The smile left his face, replaced by a more solemn, almost stern expression.

“Haoran,” Pao Yue-kong’s voice broke the superficial calm, “I asked you to come over mainly for one thing, which is also a knot in Brother Jiacheng’s heart.

The business world is like a battlefield; winning and losing are common. But since you’re bound to see each other often, you need a plan for how to look forward and how to coexist.”

He paused slightly, turning to Li Jiacheng with an encouraging look that also carried a hint of invisible pressure. “Brother Li, some things are better said frankly. Haoran is not a petty man.”

All eyes instantly focused on Li Jiacheng.

Li Jiacheng felt as if something was caught in his throat, making it tighten.

He had struggled through the business world for most of his life and had seen all kinds of major upheavals and social intricacies. But at this moment, an unprecedented pressure washed over him like a tide.

He slowly raised his head, his gaze once again meeting Lin Haoran’s unfathomable eyes.

There was no mockery in them, no impatience, only a quiet waiting, as if scrutinizing the final choice he, Li Jiacheng, would make.

Taking a deep breath as if it took all his strength, Li Jiacheng finally spoke, his voice low and clear, carrying a fatigue and decisiveness that came after the dust settles.

“Mr. Lin, this whole time, I have been overestimating my own abilities.”

This sentence instantly surprised both Lin Haoran and Pao Yue-kong.

A complex emotion flickered in Pao Yue-kong’s eyes—relief mixed with an imperceptible sigh.

The fingers of the hand Lin Haoran used to hold his teacup paused slightly. A faint trace of surprise crossed the depths of his eyes before they returned to their usual placid calm.

He had anticipated Li Jiacheng’s compromise, but he had not expected him to take such a low stance, directly admitting his own “overestimation of abilities.”

This resolute self-negation, paradoxically, carried the gravity of a formidable figure at the end of his road.

Li Jiacheng did not pause. He straightened his back as if to suppress the last bit of resentment, and his voice became a little steadier. “In the ebb and flow of business, winner takes all. I have no complaints.

Now that Mr. Lin is an important member of Cheung Kong and the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, everything in the past was started by me. Today, in front of Brother Pao, I, Li Jiacheng, am willing to let go of all past grievances.”

He looked at Lin Haoran with a burning intensity, his eyes now devoid of much emotion, leaving only a crystal-clear, realistic choice. “Cheung Kong Holdings is my life’s work. From now on, I only wish to cooperate in good faith with Mr. Lin.”

He enunciated the words “cooperate in good faith” with exceptional clarity.

This was no longer a superficial courtesy but the most pragmatic and only promise he could make after recognizing reality, with Pao Yue-kong as his witness.

He was no longer the high-spirited Li Jiacheng who had intended to wrestle with Lin Haoran for Hutchison, but a guardian of his business who had to learn to coexist with this “powerful outsider” in a small pond, and even seek its protection.

Lin Haoran watched him quietly for several long seconds.

The air in the reception room seemed to freeze.

Pao Yue-kong held his breath, his eyes darting between the two men.

Finally, Lin Haoran set down his teacup.

The delicate porcelain made a soft, crisp sound as it met the mahogany tabletop, breaking the silence.

He stood up, his tall figure casting a clear outline in the light. Then, he extended his right hand toward Li Jiacheng.

It was a hand that controlled the financial lifeline of Hong Kong, defeated numerous British-funded conglomerates, and had forcefully snatched Hutchison Whampoa from Li Jiacheng’s own grasp.

Li Jiacheng’s gaze fell on that hand. For a moment, countless images flooded his mind again—the phone call from Government House, the lights of the Connaught Centre, the name signed on the fifty-percent-discount agreement, the market’s frantic crash after the press conference…

Humiliation, resentment, anger, helplessness—all sorts of emotions surged like a tide, only to be brutally forced back into the depths of his heart by a stronger, colder power the moment they touched that hand, a symbol of absolute power and reality.

He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, only a settled calm remained, a clarity that came with accepting his fate.

He also stood up, his movements no longer stiff.

He reached out, meeting Lin Haoran’s hand.

The two hands that had once clashed fiercely, deciding the flow of enormous wealth in Hong Kong, finally clasped together in the luxurious, tea-scented reception room on the upper floor of the Prince’s Building, under the quiet watch of Pao Yue-kong.

Lin Haoran’s palm was dry and warm, containing a heart-stopping sense of power.

Li Jiacheng’s hand was slightly cool, but his grip was equally firm, without a trace of hesitation.

“Chairman Li, you’re exaggerating. Everything that has passed was simply the rules of business. I am grateful to Uncle Pao for inviting me to join Kowloon Wharf, and I also know that only by working together can we achieve greater things. Cheung Kong Holdings has a solid foundation, and Chairman Li is a titan of the business world. In the future, I am willing to jointly seek development with Cheung Kong,” Lin Haoran said with a calm smile.

Since Li Jiacheng had bowed his head, there was no need for him to be aggressive.

He had that much magnanimity.

Jointly seek development.

This was both a promise and a demarcation of boundaries.

Lin Haoran was Lin Haoran, and Cheung Kong was Cheung Kong.

He was Cheung Kong’s second-largest shareholder and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, but the “Chairman” of Cheung Kong was still Li Jiacheng.

This clear positioning and distinct boundary became a strange source of comfort to Li Jiacheng at this moment.

“Good! Good! Good!” Pao Yue-kong’s hearty laughter rang out at the perfect time, filled with sincere relief, instantly dissipating the last trace of solemnity in the air.

“This is the perspective and courage our Hong Kong Chinese merchants should have! Let’s turn the page on the past! In the future, let’s work together to make the cake bigger! Haoran, Brother Li, to this ‘joint development,’ let us toast with tea instead of wine! Let’s drink to this!”

He first personally poured a cup of hot tea for the other two, then raised his own teacup first.

The corner of Lin Haoran’s mouth curved into a very faint arc as he also raised his cup.

Li Jiacheng looked at the steaming tea before him. In the amber liquid, it seemed to reflect the eternal lights of Victoria Harbour, as well as the four shining golden characters for “Cheung Kong Holdings.”

He raised his cup and gently clinked it against Lin Haoran’s and Pao Yue-kong’s.

The crisp sound of porcelain clashing was exceptionally pleasant in the quiet reception room.

This sound announced the definitive end of a brutal business war that had once shaken all of Hong Kong, and also raised the curtain on a new alliance, forged under the pressure of a powerful external force and stitched together by pragmatic interests.

Chapter 762: A Pledge of Allegiance, the Greatest Bargaining Chip to Break the Old Shackles!

Li Jiacheng set down his cup, his gaze sweeping past the floor-to-ceiling windows.

Lin Haoran’s Connaught Centre, and even his own China Building, were all within view.

Perhaps this was the best possible outcome.

He turned to meet Lin Haoran’s eyes.

That gaze was still as calm as still water, but at this moment, Li Jiacheng’s heart was equally tranquil.

What the future held was yet unknown.

But at least today, on the 21st floor of the Prince’s Building, with Pao Yue-kong as a witness, he and Lin Haoran had placed a “peace” stone on the chessboard of Hong Kong’s future.

Just then, Lin Haoran’s mobile phone rang. He glanced at it; it was a call from Dai Shi.

He stepped aside to answer the phone.

Dai Shi was calling to inform him that Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price had been soaring since the market opened today. He wanted to ask his Boss at what price point it would be appropriate to sell the shares.

After all, Galaxy Securities planned to reduce its holdings in Hutchison to 75%, which meant selling off 11.9% of the shares—a transaction involving at least one billion Hong Kong dollars.

If the selling price was too low, they would lose tens of millions, or even over a hundred million Hong Kong dollars.

Therefore, Dai Shi dared not make the decision on his own.

At this point, the business in the Prince’s Building was mostly concluded, so Lin Haoran decided not to stay any longer.

After hanging up on Dai Shi, he smiled at Pao Yue-kong and Li Jiacheng. “Uncle Pao, Mr. Li, I’m very happy to have been able to shake hands and make peace with Mr. Li this time. I have an urgent matter to attend to, so I won’t stay any longer. Let’s have tea together when we have time!”

“Alright, Haoran, I know you’re busy, so you go on ahead. Come and chat with Uncle Pao when you have a moment, and pay more attention to Kowloon Wharf. After all, you’re the Vice Chairman of Kowloon Wharf!” Pao Yue-kong said with a hearty laugh.

Li Jiacheng also smiled. “Please, Mr. Lin. When we have the time, let’s have a long talk into the night about the future of Cheung Kong Holdings.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, a hint of sincere amusement in his eyes. “Don’t worry, Uncle Pao, I will definitely keep the matter of Kowloon Wharf in mind. Mr. Li, the suggestion of a long talk into the night is excellent. I look forward to an in-depth discussion with you about the future direction of Cheung Kong Holdings.”

With that, Lin Haoran waved to them, left the reception room, and departed the Prince’s Building with his bodyguards.

Watching Lin Haoran’s figure disappear from the 21st-floor reception room of the Prince’s Building, both Li Jiacheng and Pao Yue-kong withdrew their gazes.

Sunlight streamed through the massive floor-to-ceiling windows, casting bright spots on the carpet, yet it couldn’t dispel the deep weariness and lingering bitterness in Li Jiacheng’s brow.

He picked up the cup of premium West Lake Dragon Well tea, which had long since gone lukewarm, but it tasted as bland as wax. His gaze, somewhat unfocused, landed on the rock-steady Pao Yue-kong across from him.

“Brother Pao…” Li Jiacheng’s voice, tinged with an almost imperceptible hoarseness, broke the silence. He set down the teacup, took a deep breath, and tried to force a smile, which ultimately dissolved into a long sigh. “Thank you for today. If you hadn’t mediated, I truly don’t know how I would have handled myself right now.”

He was referring to how Pao Yue-kong had pulled him back from the brink of a complete rupture with Lin Haoran, facilitating this superficial “handshake and peace.”

His gratitude was heartfelt, yet it was mixed with an unspeakable sense of humiliation and lingering fear.

He knew he truly had Pao Yue-kong to thank for this.

Otherwise, the undercurrents and rifts between him and Lin Haoran, born from business competition, might have continued to churn in the commercial seas of Hong Kong, possibly even escalating into more violent clashes.

Pao Yue-kong’s eyes rested on Li Jiacheng’s face for a moment, as if seeing through to the tumultuous waves in his heart.

He slowly took a sip of tea, his face wearing its usual calm and gentle expression.

“Brother Li, we’ve known each other for many years, there’s no need for such formalities. In the business world of Hong Kong, the ebb and flow of tides is normal. It may seem like you’ve taken a step back today, but who’s to say this isn’t laying the groundwork for a greater leap forward in the future? Haoran is a man who is undisguisedly sharp and employs fierce tactics, but looking at his strategies, his ambitions are global, not confined to the small pond of Hong Kong. His takeover of Cheung Kong as the second-largest shareholder may seem like a loss of face for you, but in the long run, it might just be an indestructible moat for Cheung Kong. His energy and his vision are indispensable assets for Cheung Kong’s future development.”

Pao Yue-kong had mentioned these points in his earlier analysis, and he reiterated them now mainly to soothe Li Jiacheng’s still-bleeding pride.

Li Jiacheng nodded silently. He understood the logic, but the pain and sense of loss in his heart could not be so easily assuaged by a few words of comfort.

He said bitterly, “What you say is right, Brother Pao. It’s just that I’m unwilling to accept such a thorough defeat, yet I accept it wholeheartedly. Mr. Lin’s methods and courage are indeed beyond my reach.”

He once again recalled the shocking scenes reported in the newspapers of Lin Haoran taking control of Hutchison and firing Richard Lee with thunderous resolve, and his own indecisiveness regarding Richard Lee back then. The feeling of inadequacy, of being less courageous, grew stronger in his heart.

Pao Yue-kong nodded slightly in understanding.

He changed the subject, his tone becoming more solemn. “Brother Li, now that you’ve reached an understanding with Mr. Lin today and the public gestures are done, the next step is to consider how to make this ‘sincerity’ a reality, to truly win Mr. Lin’s trust, and to clear some unnecessary obstacles for Cheung Kong’s future development.”

Hearing this, Li Jiacheng’s spirits lifted, and he looked at Pao Yue-kong. “Do you have any brilliant ideas, Brother Pao?”

Pao Yue-kong looked at Li Jiacheng and said gravely, “Brother Li, it is time for you to completely sever the ‘involuntary’ ties with HSBC.”

Although HSBC had been acquired by Standard Chartered Bank, Pao Yue-kong had been a Non-executive Director at HSBC for a long time due to their previous deep cooperation.

Therefore, while he didn’t know the specifics of the agreements between HSBC and Li Jiacheng, he had a general idea of their content.

Li Jiacheng’s heart skipped a beat!

HSBC!

The name he had deliberately avoided, yet which followed him like a shadow.

Although HSBC was now owned by Standard Chartered, his agreements with them had simply been transferred over to Standard Chartered.

“Brother Li, do you remember last time when I suggested you gradually shift Cheung Kong’s core financial business from HSBC to Hang Seng Bank?” Pao Yue-kong said bluntly. “You had many reservations at the time and had to politely decline due to the several agreements you signed with HSBC. Those agreements, called ‘strategic cooperation,’ are in reality invisible shackles around your and Cheung Kong’s necks, forcing you to be dependent on others’ whims in many decisions, obstructing you at every turn.”

Previously, when Li Ka-shing had come to Pao Yue-kong for help, hoping he would mediate a reconciliation with Lin Haoran, he had been unwilling to pay any price.

So at that time, faced with Pao Yue-kong’s suggestion, Li Ka-shing had politely refused, but in truth, he was in a helpless situation.

If he had acted on Pao Yue-kong’s suggestion, it would have been tantamount to breaking his agreements with HSBC.

At that point, HSBC would even have the right to freeze his assets.

That was the most severe consequence.

Therefore, Li Ka-shing would absolutely not dare to take that risk and could only choose to fully support HSBC to the end.

It could be said that his situation at the time was truly against his will.

Who would have thought that HSBC would be so vulnerable? Not only did it suffer successive defeats in its confrontation with Lin Haoran’s Bank of East Asia, but it was also acquired by Standard Chartered Bank, completely losing its independence.

And as a Chinese merchant deeply tied to HSBC, Li Ka-shing was naturally implicated and dragged down.

Later, when Hutchison Whampoa’s performance plummeted, he even thought Lin Haoran was deliberately targeting him and, in a fit of rage, initiated a business war.

The result? He was utterly defeated.

In a matter of days, Hutchison Whampoa changed hands, ceasing to exist as his.

It could be said that all his previous actions were completely self-destructive.

And he paid an extremely painful price for it.

At this moment, Li Jiacheng’s expression became exceptionally complex, shifting between light and shadow.

Every word from Pao Yue-kong was like a sharp blade, precisely striking the most fragile and painful parts of his heart.

When HSBC, with its immense capital and special industry status, sold its Hutchison Whampoa shares to Li Ka-shing at an ultra-low price, it had attached numerous harsh conditions, even having an invisible veto power over some of Hutchison Whampoa’s major strategic decisions.

This state of being “controlled by others” was like being bound by invisible shackles, with no power to break free.

During HSBC’s peak, being deeply tied to them was undoubtedly a fast track to rising.

Indeed, the Li Jiacheng family had used the opportunity of taking control of Hutchison Whampoa to become one of Hong Kong’s top tycoon families in one fell swoop.

But who would have thought that only half a year after he truly took control of Hutchison Whampoa, HSBC would decline so rapidly and even be acquired by Standard Chartered Bank?

And what chilled him to the core was that during the recent fierce business war with Lin Haoran, HSBC and its parent company, Standard Chartered Bank—his nominal “important partners”—not only failed to honor their commitments in the agreement to provide him with strong support, but also chose to watch from the sidelines at the critical moment. They might have even been secretly weighing the pros and cons, watching as he was pushed into a corner by Lin Haoran, ending up in a sorry state.

When Lin Haoran demonstrated his overwhelming advantage in public opinion and the capital markets, HSBC fell completely silent, afraid of drawing fire upon itself.

This betrayal and act of self-preservation angered and disappointed Li Jiacheng more than Lin Haoran’s direct attacks.

It could be said that in his competition with Lin Haoran, neither HSBC nor Standard Chartered Bank had played any role at all.

The backer he had relied on turned out to be so useless.

This was indeed a massive disappointment for Li Jiacheng.

“Brother Li, you must have a deep memory of HSBC’s and Standard Chartered’s performance during this turmoil. The agreements? They have long since unilaterally slackened, even violated, the original intent and spirit of the agreements. Now, the situation is completely different.” Pao Yue-kong, seeming to read his thoughts, began to offer advice.

“First, Lin Haoran has officially become the Vice Chairman and second-largest shareholder of Cheung Kong Holdings. This status alone is enough to shake the entire Hong Kong financial industry. What does Standard Chartered fear most right now? They fear Haoran settling scores with them later! After all, they have offended Haoran before. Haoran’s entry into Cheung Kong is like driving a powerful wedge into the ‘special relationship’ between HSBC and Cheung Kong, a wedge strong enough to shift the entire situation. If Standard Chartered and HSBC want to manipulate Cheung Kong as they did in the past, they will have to consider Haoran’s attitude. This is your greatest bargaining chip to break the old shackles!”

Li Jiacheng’s breathing quickened slightly. Pao Yue-kong’s words were like a beam of light, illuminating a path he had never considered.

That’s right, Lin Haoran’s very existence was the biggest deterrent to HSBC!

With this new, ruthless Vice Chairman in place, would Standard Chartered and HSBC dare to interfere with Cheung Kong as unscrupulously as before?

They were probably more worried about Lin Haoran using this as an opportunity to cause trouble!

Pao Yue-kong continued, “Second, you are now actively making a gesture of goodwill to Haoran. If you choose this moment to shift your core financial business to Hang Seng Bank, where Mr. Lin has greater influence, this itself is a pledge of allegiance of significant weight. It expresses your sincere intention to cooperate more clearly than any concession at the negotiating table or any handshake at a press conference. Haoran is a smart man; he will understand what this implies. It means that you, Li Jiacheng, are proactively eliminating factors from the old structure that could pose a potential threat to him or Cheung Kong’s future strategy. It means you are willing to place Cheung Kong’s most important financial lifeline into a system that better aligns with the interests of Lin Haoran’s companies. This would be immense support for his integration of resources and construction of a global business ecosystem.”

Li Jiacheng’s fingers tapped unconsciously on the mahogany armrest as his mind raced, weighing the pros and cons.

Pao Yue-kong’s analysis was incisive.

Separating the core financial business from HSBC would undoubtedly touch upon HSBC’s huge vested interests and would surely meet with unprecedented resistance.

But now, Lin Haoran’s entry and HSBC’s own blameworthy performance in this turmoil gave him the perfect reason and confidence to counterattack.

More importantly, this was indeed an excellent opportunity to show his sincerity to Lin Haoran!

Rather than passively waiting for Lin Haoran’s potential future reckoning with HSBC to affect Cheung Kong, it was better to take the initiative, turn a passive situation into an active one, and pledge loyalty to Lin Haoran at the same time.

This was an excellent pledge of allegiance!

“But…” Li Jiacheng still had concerns. “The agreements with HSBC are deeply rooted and intertwined. If I terminate them forcefully, the contractual penalties and subsequent chain reactions…”

“That’s precisely the key!” Pao Yue-kong interrupted him and continued, “HSBC and Standard Chartered are in the wrong first! They chose silence and retreat when you needed their support the most, severely violating the core clauses of your strategic cooperation agreement regarding ‘mutual support’ and ‘shared risk.’ This is your strong legal basis for demanding the termination of the agreement and the exemption or significant reduction of liability for breach of contract! Besides, don’t forget, Haoran is now the Vice Chairman of Cheung Kong. He has the responsibility, and more importantly, the ability, to protect Cheung Kong’s core interests from being harmed. You can fully, in the name of the Board of Directors, request Haoran or his legal team to intervene and jointly pressure HSBC. Facing a united front from you and Haoran, coupled with their own guilty conscience, what are their chances of winning? They would probably prefer to handle it in a low-key manner to avoid completely infuriating Haoran.”

Li Jiacheng fell silent. Pao Yue-kong’s plan was meticulously interlinked, cleverly transforming the “formidable enemy” Lin Haoran into his “strongest weapon” for breaking the shackles.

This move, which seemed like a compromise, was in fact subtly sharp, killing multiple birds with one stone.

It would allow him to escape HSBC’s long-term control, convey immense sincerity to Lin Haoran, and use Lin Haoran’s power to suppress HSBC and reduce his own losses.

He once again felt admiration for Pao Yue-kong’s shrewd and calculating nature.

After long consideration, the last trace of hesitation in Li Jiacheng’s eyes finally faded, replaced by the resolve of one who has burned his bridges.

“Brother Pao, you are right! A man may have no intention of harming a tiger, but the tiger is always intent on devouring a man. Standard Chartered and HSBC were ruthless first. If I continue to cling to old sentiments, I would only be tying my own hands, failing Cheung Kong’s shareholders, and be unable to prove my sincerity to Haoran. Besides, Standard Chartered can no longer provide the help I need. Continuing this deep bond with them is meaningless and will only hinder my development.”

He stood up, walked to the window, and looked down at the bustling traffic of Central. His voice was laced with determination, “It’s time to completely break these ‘involuntary’ shackles! Cheung Kong’s financial lifeline must be in our own hands, and it must be integrated into a more reliable ecosystem.”

He turned back to face Pao Yue-kong. “I will start preparing immediately! The first thing to do is to immediately suspend all non-essential cooperation with Standard Chartered and HSBC, especially those agreements with exclusivity or special restriction clauses. As for Mr. Tylen, I will speak with him personally.”

He wanted to use this opportunity to disentangle himself from Standard Chartered and HSBC, both to show Lin Haoran his determination to cut ties with the old financial system and to send a further signal that he, Li Jiacheng, was now fully aligning himself with Lin Haoran, Hong Kong’s new overlord.

“Good!” Pao Yue-kong’s eyes showed approval. “He who fails to act decisively will suffer from the ensuing chaos. Brother Jiacheng, your decisiveness is a blessing for Cheung Kong. In your meeting with Tyron, you must act decisively. Your attitude must be firm, and your reasons must be sufficient. Just state directly that HSBC and Standard Chartered were the first to break the contract. Judging from Standard Chartered’s recent behavior, they have already yielded to Haoran. Tyron is a smart man; he won’t dare to resist at this moment. He will only take advantage of the favorable situation to achieve his goal.”

Li Jiacheng nodded heavily, his long-lost fighting spirit rekindled.

In this business war, he had lost all of Hutchison and partial control over Cheung Kong, but with Pao Yue-kong’s guidance, he saw an opportunity to break free from deeper constraints, reposition himself in the new landscape, and regain the initiative.

Sometimes, one must concede a battle to win the war.

He looked at Pao Yue-kong and said emotionally, “Brother Pao, your guidance this time is invaluable. I’ll go arrange a meeting with Tyron now.”

He picked up the mobile phone beside him, his earlier dejection gone. He dialed Standard Chartered Bank’s number. “This is Li Jiacheng. Please connect me to the office of Taipan Tyron of Standard Chartered Bank. Tell them that Li Jiacheng, Chairman of the Board of Cheung Kong Holdings, has urgent business to discuss regarding the future direction of our two companies’ cooperation and hopes to arrange a private meeting as soon as possible.”

Outside the window, the Hong Kong sky was a brilliant, clear blue.

With that phone call, an operation to reshape Cheung Kong’s financial landscape and completely sever the bonds of the past quietly began.

Li Jiacheng knew that the meeting with Tyron and the showdown with HSBC would be his first step in proving his “sincerity” and “value” to Lin Haoran on this new chessboard.

And Pao Yue-kong’s advice, like a beacon in the dark night, had illuminated this path that appeared to be one of retreat, but was in fact an advance.

He knew that this time, he had come to the right person in Pao Yue-kong.

…

In the top-floor office of the Standard Chartered Bank headquarters, the new Taipan, Tyron, held the visitor list handed to him by his secretary and frowned.

“Li Jiacheng,” he murmured, his Adam’s apple bobbing.

Outside the floor-to-ceiling window, a cruise ship in Victoria Harbour sounded its horn, making him flinch.

His assistant cautiously reminded him, “According to your schedule, you have a creditor’s meeting to preside over in ten minutes…”

“Postpone it,” Tyron interrupted suddenly. “Please escort Mr. Li to Reception Room One. No.”

He stood up abruptly and said, “I’ll go down to receive him myself.”

The landscape of Hong Kong’s business world had been undergoing a major shift these past few days, yet he had remained silent.

The reason was simple: he had a guilty conscience.

The main reason was that Standard Chartered had backed down when Li Jiacheng was fighting Lin Haoran, with the aim of cutting its losses.

Tyron was well aware of the agreements HSBC had signed with Li Jiacheng. That series of agreements, a legacy from the HSBC era, had now become a hot potato.

The clauses in those agreements, which had once allowed HSBC to deeply influence the decisions of Cheung Kong and Hutchison, had become extremely sensitive and dangerous now that Lin Haoran had forcefully entered Cheung Kong as the second-largest shareholder and Vice Chairman.

As for Hutchison Whampoa, with Lin Haoran’s takeover, those agreements were already void.

The reason was simple: HSBC had signed them with Li Jiacheng personally, not with the company.

Now that the company had a new boss, HSBC could no longer control Hutchison Whampoa.

But since Cheung Kong Holdings still belonged to Li Jiacheng, Cheung Kong remained HSBC’s partner.

Tyron hurried downstairs and found Li Jiacheng waiting in the bank lobby.

A warm smile spread across his face as he strode forward to greet him, extending his hand. “Mr. Li, what a rare guest! Please, follow me to the reception room so we can talk in detail.”

Li Jiacheng nodded slightly and, after a brief handshake with Tyron, they proceeded to the reception room together.

Along the way, a thousand thoughts raced through Tyron’s mind.

He knew Li Jiacheng’s visit was certainly related to the performance of HSBC and Standard Chartered in the Hutchison Whampoa affair.

In this incident, Standard Chartered had indeed acted without honor. Now that Li Jiacheng had come to him, he had no idea what kind of storm was about to break.

Once in the reception room, the two men sat opposite each other.

Tyron was the first to break the silence, smiling as he said, “Mr. Li, you must have come today to discuss an important matter with me. What might it be?”

Li Jiacheng’s gaze was calm as he spoke slowly, “Mr. Tylen, I have come today to have a serious talk with your bank about our cooperation agreements.”

Tyron’s heart tightened, but his face remained composed. “Oh? And what are Mr. Li’s thoughts on our existing cooperation agreements?”

“My purpose in coming here today is simple: to terminate all cooperation agreements signed between us and HSBC!” Perhaps feeling confident, Li Jiacheng stated his purpose very directly.

Chapter 763: Pushing HSBC to its Doom!

Li Jiacheng sat on the large leather sofa, calmly looking directly at the livid Mr. Tyron, the Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank.

“Impossible! Mr. Li, this is absolutely impossible!” Tyron shot up from his seat, his voice trembling with agitation.

It was clear that Tyron had lost some of his composure.

He strode to the large mahogany desk, yanked open a heavy drawer with a clatter, and took out a finely bound document. He slammed it onto the coffee table between them with a dull thud.

“HSBC’s deep binding agreement with you, Mr. Li! It’s here in black and white, signed by you!”

Tyron jabbed his finger at the document’s cover. “HSBC and Cheung Kong Holdings aren’t just partners; we’re strategic allies! We’re connected by blood! And now you want to terminate it? This is a blatant breach of contract!”

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, and tried to apply pressure in a more “professional,” yet colder tone. “According to Article 8.3 of this agreement, any unilateral termination of core cooperation without just cause will be considered a serious breach. HSBC has the right to immediately freeze all of Cheung Kong Holdings’ funds within the HSBC system until legal proceedings clarify liability. At the same time, the contractual penalty alone would be enough to inflict a crippling blow on Cheung Kong, even affecting the cash flow of your meticulously planned projects. You know this very well!

“Mr. Li, in the business world, reputation and the spirit of the contract are the foundation. Please, think twice before acting! HSBC is not a burden you can just cast aside whenever you please!”

Tyron knew that Li Jiacheng’s visit was no whim.

Just an hour earlier, Standard Chartered Bank had received an official letter from Hutchison Whampoa: effective immediately, the Hutchison Whampoa Group would begin the systematic transfer of all its account funds to Hang Seng Bank. As for Hutchison Whampoa’s debts to HSBC, they would be repaid on schedule.

This was tantamount to cutting the ground from under them!

Hutchison Whampoa, the behemoth that HSBC had once single-handedly supported and with whom it had deeply rooted and intertwined ties, had been seized by Lin Haoran with the force of a thunderbolt. Its massive cash flow and settlement services, spanning Hong Kong and even Southeast Asia, had long been a vital lifeline for HSBC.

The moment Lin Haoran took over, he severed this lifeline. Tyron couldn’t stop it, nor did he have any standing or power to do so. Lin Haoran’s current influence in the Hong Kong business community was such that even Standard Chartered’s headquarters was wary of him. What could a mere Hong Kong Taipan like himself do to oppose Lin Haoran’s will?

That feeling of powerlessness was now transforming into even more intense pressure on Li Jiacheng.

Because, after being acquired by Standard Chartered, HSBC’s situation had already been declining day by day, leaving it in a precarious position.

When Standard Chartered had acquired HSBC while it was greatly weakened by Lin Haoran’s sniping and its plummeting stock price, it was because they coveted HSBC’s vast client network and market influence, accumulated over decades in Hong Kong. The intention was to use HSBC as a shell to rapidly expand Standard Chartered’s local market share.

Indeed, after swallowing HSBC, Standard Chartered quickly secured partnerships with major British-owned companies in Hong Kong, having them transfer their financial services from HSBC to Standard Chartered, effectively sucking HSBC dry.

However, ever since the news of the acquisition broke—and especially after Standard Chartered’s internal assessment made them wary of Lin Haoran, leading them to abandon a direct confrontation—HSBC’s prominent clients began to leave in droves, causing its status in the Hong Kong business world to plummet.

Those large corporations and conglomerates with a keen sense of the situation, particularly those cooperating with Lin Haoran or unwilling to offend this newly crowned “King of Hong Kong,” began to cut ties with the “Lin Haoran-offending and Standard Chartered-controlled” HSBC. Their financial services either moved directly to Lin Haoran’s ascendant Hang Seng Bank or Bank of East Asia, or they shifted to Standard Chartered’s head office or other international banks.

During this period, HSBC’s major, deeply-tied clients in Hong Kong had vanished like a receding tide.

Thus, the HSBC of today was a far cry from its former glory. On the surface, it still bore its century-old golden signboard, but in reality, it had lost seven or eight out of ten of its core clients.

Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings were the two titans propping up what was left of HSBC’s Hong Kong operations!

With the loss of Hutchison, a huge chunk of flesh had been brutally carved out of HSBC’s business map in Hong Kong, leaving it in a state of severe hemorrhage.

If, at this very moment, they also lost Cheung Kong Holdings—a top-three property tycoon in Hong Kong that, despite a temporary setback from the property slump, still had deep roots, vast assets, and an astonishing land bank—it would be a total catastrophe for HSBC!

The deep binding agreement Li Jiacheng had signed with HSBC meant that as long as Cheung Kong was under his control, its core financing, settlement, cash management, and even some investment activities would remain highly dependent on HSBC. This was the last remaining “cornerstone” of great strategic value in HSBC’s portfolio.

But once Cheung Kong was gone, HSBC would be completely hollowed out in Hong Kong, becoming a “zombie bank”—a name with a century of history but no substantial core commercial clients to support it. Its market share would fall off a cliff. For its parent company, Standard Chartered, the acquisition of HSBC would become worthless, even turning into a massive financial and reputational burden.

This was Tyron’s deepest fear and the root cause of his cornered-beast-like, fierce reaction. Li Jiacheng’s “defection” was not as simple as losing a major client; it would directly proclaim the utter meaninglessness of HSBC’s century-old brand in Hong Kong!

HSBC’s stock price was already languishing from previous blows. If the fatal strike of losing both Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings was added to the mix, it would inevitably trigger a new round of panicked selling. The evaporation of its market capitalization would be unimaginable.

This was happening shortly after he had replaced Mr. Brown as the Taipan of Standard Chartered in Hong Kong.

This would not only severely damage Standard Chartered’s interests as a major shareholder but also become an indelible stain of shame and failure on his, Tyron’s, career!

“Mr. Li!” Tyron’s voice carried a hint of an almost imperceptible plea, but it was quickly masked by a stronger show of force. He pointed at the agreement, attempting a final struggle. “The legal validity of this contract is beyond question! HSBC is backed by Standard Chartered’s global legal resources! Once we initiate legal proceedings, freezing your funds and pursuing a sky-high contractual penalty, the lawsuit could drag on for three to five years. Can Cheung Kong Holdings’ reputation and cash flow withstand that? During a property slump, every penny of cash is precious! You’re gambling with the very foundation of Cheung Kong!”

Tyron intended to use the agreement to threaten Li Jiacheng. He stared intently into Li Jiacheng’s eyes, trying to find a flicker of hesitation or doubt. “Think about the consequences, Mr. Li! HSBC and Cheung Kong have supported each other for many years. Market fluctuations are normal. HSBC is still your most supportive banking partner! Why would you, for the sake of a… a…” Tyron almost blurted out “Lin Haoran” but managed to stop himself. He had come to Hong Kong having learned from Brown’s mistake and was unwilling to offend Lin Haoran.

“Why destroy your own foundations and tear up the iron-clad trust and contract between us just to follow external trends? As long as you take back what you just said, we can pretend this never happened. HSBC, and by extension Standard Chartered, will always be your most solid backing!”

His words were grandiose, but they betrayed a weakness, a hollow bluff.

Faced with Tyron’s storm of threats and veiled inducements, Li Jiacheng’s expression remained perfectly calm. He slowly lifted the lukewarm teacup from the table and took a light sip, his movements unhurried, as if Tyron’s impassioned speech was mere background noise.

This extraordinary composure only intensified the ominous premonition in Tyron’s heart.

Li Jiacheng set down the cup and looked at Tyron. “Mr. Tyron, you are right. The spirit of the contract is important, and HSBC has indeed given Cheung Kong a great deal of support in the past.”

Then, his tone shifted sharply. “However, Mr. Tyron, you are well aware of the context in which this deep binding agreement was signed. It was back when HSBC was at its zenith, when it controlled the financial lifeline of Hong Kong! It was signed on the premise that HSBC would leverage its powerful network and resources to provide unique and irreplaceable deep support for Cheung Kong’s property business! Back then, HSBC represented stability, strength, and the future.”

Tyron opened his mouth as if to say something, but ultimately chose to let Li Jiacheng continue.

Li Jiacheng went on, “But what about now? Is HSBC still the HSBC of old? It has become a subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank. Its strategic direction and resource allocation are no longer centered on Hong Kong, but are instead subject to the global strategy of Standard Chartered’s headquarters. More importantly, where is its strength now? Its stability? And where is its future?”

“Just look at the data from the past few months, Mr. Tyron.” Li Jiacheng’s tone was flat, but every word was like a knife. “The attrition rate of HSBC’s large corporate clients in Hong Kong has long surpassed your bottom line, hasn’t it? Swire Group, Wheelock, Kowloon Wharf, China Light & Power, the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, HAECO, Hang Lung, Sun Hung Kai Properties, New World Development… Of these former honored guests of HSBC, how many still have their core financial business within the HSBC system? To my knowledge, the Board of Directors at Hutchison Whampoa just announced their departure from HSBC, transferring all financial operations to Hang Seng Bank. Today’s HSBC, apart from a forcefully bound Cheung Kong and some small and medium-sized clients who can’t get out yet, what does it have left to maintain its ‘major bank’ dignity?”

“A bank that has lost most of its core clients, whose market influence has plummeted, whose parent company has an ambiguous position for it, and whose situation in the Hong Kong business world has become precarious for having offended Mr. Lin…”

“Mr. Tyron, you tell me, can such a bank still provide a company like Cheung Kong Holdings with the ‘unique’ and ‘irreplaceable’ support it promised? The very foundation of this agreement began to shake, and has even collapsed, from the moment Standard Chartered completed the acquisition and HSBC began its continuous hemorrhage!”

“You’re threatening me with legal clauses?” A smirk, almost a sneer, touched the corner of Li Jiacheng’s mouth, a startling sight on his usually composed face. “Freeze our funds? Sue for a sky-high penalty? Fight a protracted lawsuit? Mr. Tyron, do you really think HSBC, or rather, Standard Chartered, is in a position to withstand that today? According to our agreement, if one party faces hardship, the other must provide its full support. However, when I was in a business competition with Lin Haoran, what did HSBC and Standard Chartered do? You stood by and watched Hutchison Whampoa, which was originally under my control, fall into Lin Haoran’s hands without lifting a finger. Is that what you call your ‘full support’? It’s clear that you were the first to breach the contract, not I, Li Jiacheng. What right do you have to speak of breach of contract?

“Moreover, Mr. Lin Haoran now holds a full 38.4% of Cheung Kong Holdings’ shares and is also the Vice Chairman. I am no longer the only one who calls the shots at Cheung Kong! And, to be honest with you, I just had a conversation with Mr. Lin Haoran half an hour ago.”

Tyron’s brow furrowed, his expression growing darker.

Li Jiacheng no longer concealed his intentions. “I did not come here today to ask for your permission. I came to inform you that Cheung Kong Holdings, in accordance with business principles and current realities, will terminate this ‘binding’ agreement that exists in name only and now poses a potential risk to Cheung Kong. I am here to give you and Standard Chartered a chance to handle this matter gracefully.”

This time, Li Jiacheng was really going all in, even at the risk of offending Standard Chartered. For him, at this point, how much worse could the consequences get? Besides, he believed Lin Haoran would fully support him this time, which gave him all the confidence he needed.

This was a completely different Li Jiacheng from the one who used to fully embrace the British-funded conglomerates. Perhaps it was losing Hutchison Whampoa, coupled with Pao Yue-kong’s advice, that made him realize the era of the British conglomerates was over. If he continued to cling to them, he would be completely sidelined in the new era.

Tyron’s face turned from livid to deathly pale. He understood the finality in Li Jiacheng’s words, and he heard the undisguised subtext even more clearly: behind Li Jiacheng stood Lin Haoran. That was the source of his fearless confidence.

Li Jiacheng said no more, simply gazing at Tyron meaningfully.

In that instant, Tyron’s face became as white as a sheet.

Then, Li Jiacheng softly uttered his final sentence. “Mr. Tyron, the once-glorious, century-old brand of HSBC is now just an empty shell. In Hong Kong, it will lose its last pillar of support, and its market value will instantly hit rock bottom. Are you sure you want to drag the entire Standard Chartered Bank into a deeper quagmire, to suffer the market’s cruel punishment, and to forever tarnish your own career with an indelible stain of failure, all for the sake of an empty ‘HSBC’ shell that has been mercilessly abandoned by the times, and for an agreement that holds no weight in the face of reality? Can you, and Standard Chartered Bank, really afford that price?”

The moment he finished speaking, Tyron froze as if struck by lightning. The “legal weapons” and “asset freezes” he had used to threaten Li Jiacheng seemed so pale and ridiculous in the face of Li Jiacheng’s naked exposé of HSBC’s weakness, which pointed directly at Standard Chartered’s core interests and its stock price’s fatal flaw. The backing of Standard Chartered, which he had relied on for his tough stance, had now become his greatest vulnerability and burden.

A deathly silence filled the reception room, broken only by Tyron’s heavy, ragged breathing and the faint sounds of the city’s hustle and bustle outside, which seemed to be tolling a death knell for him.

He could almost see the apocalyptic vision: when the news of Cheung Kong terminating its partnership broke, HSBC’s stock would collapse completely, Standard Chartered’s would plummet in its wake, shareholders would be enraged, headquarters would demand accountability…

A cornered beast will still fight, but in the face of absolute, crushing power and clearly laid-out, devastating consequences, this “cornered beast’s” will to fight had been utterly shattered.

Tyron’s portly frame sank into the expensive leather sofa. Li Jiacheng’s words—“I came to inform you, not to ask for permission”—left him with no way out. No matter what, he was the head of Standard Chartered in Hong Kong, and even among the bank’s senior executives, he was one of the top five most powerful figures. Li Jiacheng’s words were a deep humiliation.

Yet he didn’t know how to respond.

“Mr. Li, you… you’re trying to drive HSBC to its grave!” Tyron wanted to say many things, but in the end, that was all that came out.

He wasn’t wrong. HSBC, once the largest bank in Hong Kong, had seen its market share fall to fifth place among the city’s banks. And that was with Cheung Kong and Hutchison’s business still on its books. The drastic fall was mainly due to being sucked dry by Standard Chartered, on top of the major clients poached by the Bank of East Asia earlier. If not for the agreements HSBC had signed with Li Jiacheng, he might have moved his companies’ financial services long ago.

And now, with both Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings withdrawing, the only clients HSBC had left were truly just a few nobodies.

More crucially, once this news got out, it would likely trigger a chain reaction among its remaining clients, who would rush to transfer their funds to other banks. If this continued, HSBC would probably be nothing more than an empty name on Hong Kong’s financial map. At that point, it wouldn’t just be about holding onto its position as the fifth-largest bank in Hong Kong; it would struggle to even stay in the top ten.

It was truly lamentable that the former financial hegemon of Hong Kong, who once commanded the winds and clouds, had fallen to such a state.

Seeing Tyron’s devastated expression, Li Jiacheng felt little joy. Instead, a sense of shared sorrow for one’s own kind washed over him. Once upon a time, HSBC had been so mighty. Its Taipan, Michael Sandberg, had wielded immense power in Hong Kong’s business circles, and even he, Li Jiacheng, had to live at his beck and call, eager to cling to that powerful support.

Now, that former behemoth had been brought so low, and all of it was inextricably linked to that young man who had appeared out of nowhere—Lin Haoran.

This further solidified Li Jiacheng’s resolve. Abandoning his alliance with the British-funded conglomerates and choosing to align with Lin Haoran was the right move. He no longer dreamed of becoming the richest man in Hong Kong. With the great mountain of Lin Haoran standing before him, he knew it was better to go with the flow and use the momentum to his advantage rather than resist in vain. Perhaps then, he could still carve out a broader future for Cheung Kong.

Tyron, holding the agreement, finally let it fall from his limp hands. The scenario Li Jiacheng described—HSBC becoming an empty shell, Standard Chartered’s stock crashing, market confidence being wiped out—crashed over him like a cold tide, leaving him breathless.

The consequences of HSBC losing Cheung Kong, its final pillar client, were unthinkable. It wasn’t just about HSBC’s survival; it would spread like a plague, severely weakening the Standard Chartered Group’s reputation and foundation in Asia and even globally.

And yet, the name Lin Haoran hung over Standard Chartered like the Sword of Damocles. The fact that he had taken control of Cheung Kong and become its Vice Chairman rendered any threat pale and ridiculous. Lin Haoran’s style, vividly demonstrated in his victories over Jardine Matheson, HSBC, and Li Jiacheng, showed that he would never tolerate any forceful interference in Cheung Kong’s decisions, especially from a “defeated opponent” like Standard Chartered. It wasn’t as if Standard Chartered hadn’t tried to resist by allying with Jardine Matheson and others. The outcome was clear: they had lost.

Tyron felt a wave of dizziness. He knew Li Jiacheng had come here today with his mind made up, and it could not be changed.

Continue to fight? HSBC’s failure to fully support Li Jiacheng against Lin Haoran was already a breach of contract. If it went to court, Standard Chartered had no guarantee of winning. Instead, they might expose the scandal to the public, accelerating their own collapse. By then, Standard Chartered’s credibility would be gone. Who would dare to do business with them?

More importantly, he, Tyron, could not afford the price of provoking Lin Haoran. The entire Standard Chartered Bank could not afford it. He had already seen what happened to Brown after their multiple confrontations.

He put down the agreement. It was a while before he spoke again. “This matter… this matter is too big! Mr. Li, this is far beyond my authority, beyond the authority of the Hong Kong branch or even the Asia-Pacific region! I must report this to the London headquarters immediately! The final decision must be made by the Group’s Board of Directors!”

He gave a slight nod, his face still maintaining that calm and unruffled expression. “Taipan Tyron, please do. However, time is of the essence.”

He said no more. That poise and composure made Tyron feel even more ashamed.

Li Jiacheng knew full well that Tyron’s talk of “reporting to headquarters” was just a way to pass the buck and give himself a face-saving exit. The final outcome had been sealed the moment he played his Lin Haoran trump card and thoroughly dissected HSBC’s weakness.

Tyron, meanwhile, almost frantically pressed the intercom on his desk and barked at his secretary, his voice strained. “Immediately! Get me London headquarters, highest priority! Notify all directors on duty to convene an emergency meeting in one hour! Tell them it’s a matter of life and death for HSBC in Asia!”

Seeing Tyron’s distraught and desperate attempt to shift responsibility, Li Jiacheng couldn’t help but sigh in relief. In truth, he had been just as afraid that Standard Chartered would be unyielding and refuse to let Cheung Kong go. After all, all he had left now was Cheung Kong Holdings. If Standard Chartered truly decided to hold them back, he would be powerless. Perhaps his only hope really would have been to rely on Lin Haoran.

However, judging by Tyron’s reaction, this bluffing paper tiger had been completely exposed.

Chapter 764: Hong Kong’s Business World Has Entered the ‘Lin Haoran Era’!

At the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, after it was confirmed that Lin Haoran would take control of Hutchison Whampoa and had clearly stated he would not privatize it, the company’s stock surged dramatically after the market opened.

Galaxy Securities itself held a staggering 86.9% of the shares, meaning that other investors held only 13.1%.

Furthermore, a portion of those shares was locked up by long-term holders, leaving even fewer circulating Hutchison Whampoa shares on the secondary market.

Now that Lin Haoran had become the big boss of Hutchison Whampoa, investors were naturally full of confidence in the company’s future and no longer had any worries.

In the stock market, aside from short-term traders who buy low and sell high, there are many who prefer long-term investments, optimistic about a stock’s future prospects.

Under these circumstances, it was natural for Hutchison Whampoa’s stock to see a situation with many buy orders and few sell orders.

Therefore, just as Dai Shi had reported to Lin Haoran, Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price skyrocketed like a rocket the moment the market opened.

By the time Lin Haoran returned to the Connaught Centre, Hutchison’s market capitalization had once again surpassed ten billion Hong Kong dollars.

Although the rate of increase had slowed, it still maintained a steady upward trend.

He walked straight into his office, where Dai Shi was already waiting, an irrepressible excitement on his face.

“Boss, look at this trend.” Dai Shi pointed to a hand-drawn chart. “It’s up more than 60% since the market opened, and market sentiment is still very high.”

Lin Haoran took off his suit jacket and sat down at his desk, looking at the data chart in his hand.

“What’s the share price now?” he asked.

“It’s reached 23.8 Hong Kong dollars per share, with a total market capitalization of about 10.63 billion Hong Kong dollars,” Dai Shi replied promptly. “The 11.9% of shares we plan to sell off are worth over 1.26 billion Hong Kong dollars at the current price, which is higher than the cost of our previous acquisitions from the market.”

Lin Haoran tapped lightly on the desk, lost in thought for a moment.

“Sell off in batches,” he said decisively. “Start this afternoon, complete the sell-off over five days. Whenever a large buy order appears in the market, we’ll release some shares appropriately.”

Dai Shi quickly jotted down the instructions. “What about the target price?”

“Don’t get bogged down by a specific price,” Lin Haoran said, looking up. “What we want is a stable sell-off, without causing market panic. Remember, even after selling, we’ll still be Hutchison’s absolute controlling shareholder. Long-term stock price stability is more beneficial to us.”

As for this sell-off, Lin Haoran hadn’t really thought about how much money he wanted to make; as long as he didn’t lose money, it was fine.

However, based on the current situation, even if he hadn’t planned on it, he would definitely make a considerable profit, which was a pleasant surprise.

“Understood, Boss. I’ll manage the pace well, ensuring we don’t miss the current high price, nor will we suppress the stock price with a massive sell-off.”

Previously, after agreeing with Ma Shimin not to seek privatization of Hutchison Whampoa, Hutchison had submitted the relevant official applications to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Securities Commission.

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange was also unwilling to see a listed company like Hutchison Whampoa delist. After all, if Hutchison were to delist, it would be a major loss for the Hong Kong stock market.

They were well aware of Lin Haoran’s wealth. If they refused, he could privatize Hutchison in a heartbeat.

Therefore, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange even took the initiative to negotiate with the Securities Commission, hoping to approve the application as quickly as possible to stabilize market expectations.

So, the Securities Commission sped up the approval process and approved Hutchison’s application on the same day, allowing Lin Haoran to hold 75% of the shares, leaving 25% to circulate in the market.

Normally, selling this extra 11.9% of shares to a major conglomerate would undoubtedly be an ideal choice. After all, powerful alliances often bring broader development opportunities and synergistic effects.

However, Lin Haoran had a more meticulous and long-term consideration in mind.

If he sold this portion of shares to a powerful conglomerate, it might indeed bring many potential cooperation opportunities in the short term, such as assistance in resource sharing and business expansion.

But at the same time, it would very likely trigger a series of complex power struggles and conflicts of interest.

Different powerful entities often have their own deeply rooted and intertwined interests and strategic demands. Once they got involved with Hutchison Whampoa, they would likely disrupt the company’s existing stable structure and strategic pace, interfering with Lin Haoran’s carefully laid out future plans.

In Lin Haoran’s eyes, Hutchison Whampoa was no longer just an ordinary company, but an important piece in his plan for the future and for realizing his grand business vision. Its importance was no less than that of the Hongkong Land Group.

He had a clear and long-term strategic plan, hoping to build Hutchison Whampoa into a business titan with global influence according to his own pace and philosophy.

Therefore, Lin Haoran was unwilling to let the company get caught up in unnecessary power struggles and conflicts of interest for the sake of temporary gains, which would ruin his overall strategic layout.

More critically, in the current Hong Kong stock market environment, finding a conglomerate willing to invest over a billion Hong Kong dollars in Hutchison Whampoa without seeking influence or even a controlling stake was an almost impossible task.

Given the current structure of the Hong Kong stock market and the investment logic of conglomerates, if a power player could produce such a huge sum of money, they would most likely have the opportunity to acquire a controlling stake when investing in other companies, and thus gain a voice and decision-making power.

So, from a practical standpoint, the path of selling these 11.9% of shares to a major conglomerate was fraught with uncertainties and potential risks, making it not the best option.

It would be better to let the ordinary shareholders of Hong Kong share in the dividends of Hutchison’s future development. This would not only increase market liquidity but also build a better corporate image among the broad base of investors.

Several hours passed quickly.

He glanced at the time; it was already past three in the afternoon.

Sitting comfortably in his executive chair, Lin Haoran crossed his legs, feeling quite content.

As he was pondering, a knock came from the door.

“Come in.”

It was Ma Shimin’s assistant who entered.

As for Ma Shimin, he was extremely busy. He had to take over Hutchison Whampoa, plan the establishment of the Galaxy Strategic Development Committee, and also handle important approvals for the Hongkong Land Group. It could be said that he already wished he could split himself into three.

He was probably still busy over at the Cheung Kong Center.

“Boss, a message came from the front desk. Mr. Li Jiacheng is here without an appointment, but he’s already arrived. He said he’d like to see you,” the assistant said respectfully, bowing slightly.

They had just met a few hours ago, and they had already reached a truce. What was the purpose of Li Jiacheng’s sudden visit?

Lin Haoran was slightly taken aback. He didn’t even call ahead?

Despite his surprise, Lin Haoran quickly said, “Have the front desk send Mr. Li up.”

In any case, he and Li Jiacheng had reconciled and were no longer enemies. They should meet if they had to.

And he also wanted to know what Li Jiacheng’s purpose was for seeking him out again.

The assistant acknowledged and hurried away.

Lin Haoran casually straightened his suit, his mind racing to figure out the purpose of Li Jiacheng’s visit.

A few minutes later, the office door was gently pushed open, and Li Jiacheng walked in steadily with a gentle smile on his face.

Watching Li Jiacheng walk in with a smile, a flicker of imperceptible depth crossed Lin Haoran’s eyes.

This leader of Cheung Kong, who had just been defeated by him in the capital market and forced to make peace, though his face showed apology, his eyes lacked the dejection and unwillingness of the past few days. Instead, they revealed a hint of certainty after a great weight had been lifted, along with an imperceptible touch of respect.

The Li Jiacheng of this world was, after all, still far from the one in his previous life who had already reached the pinnacle as the richest Chinese man.

Although he had previously taken control of Hutchison Whampoa, allowing him to quickly join the ranks of Hong Kong’s top magnates, the time he’d had was too short.

Moreover, even after successfully taking control of Hutchison Whampoa, he had never managed to bring it completely under his thumb.

The high spirits and immense pride from when he took over Hutchison Whampoa had long since been worn away, bit by bit, in one failed business battle after another against Lin Haoran.

“Mr. Lin, I’m so sorry for the intrusion!” Li Jiacheng proactively extended his hand, his posture very humble. The politeness in his words far exceeded the “sincere cooperation” back in Pao Yue-kong’s reception room.

Lin Haoran stood up and shook his hand, a formulaic but still polite smile on his face. “You’re too kind, Mr. Li. Please, sit. You must have urgent business to visit at this hour?”

He quickly calculated in his mind. He had just met Li Jiacheng at the Prince’s Building this morning. Only a few hours had passed, and the man had come to his door without even waiting for an appointment. What could possibly be so urgent?

Ma Shimin’s assistant served hot tea.

Li Jiacheng didn’t waste time on pleasantries, nor did he mention anything about Cheung Kong’s stock price or the market’s reaction. All that seemed pale and insignificant in the face of Lin Haoran’s absolute power.

He took a deep breath and got straight to the point, his tone carrying the frankness of someone who had just shed a heavy burden. “Mr. Lin, I just returned from Standard Chartered Bank’s headquarters. They’ve finally decided to abandon the deep strategic cooperation agreement that HSBC signed with my company and have accepted the request to terminate the ties.”

“Oh?” Lin Haoran’s eyebrows arched slightly. Although this outcome was within his expectations, the speed at which Standard Chartered had so “decisively” bowed its head in defeat still surprised him a little.

At this moment, he finally understood the purpose of Li’s visit.

He said with great interest, “Standard Chartered has abandoned the agreement you signed with HSBC? Does this mean you plan to move Cheung Kong Holdings’ financial business to my bank?”

It wasn’t hard to figure out.

Otherwise, what did HSBC terminating its agreement with Li Jiacheng have to do with him?

It must have something to do with him for Li Jiacheng to come in person.

“Yes!” Li Jiacheng nodded affirmatively, his tone confirming Lin Haoran’s power with a hint of subtle flattery. “Taipan Tyron consulted the London headquarters, and they ultimately chose to accept reality.

Mr. Lin, they are truly wary. Standard Chartered Bank, in Hong Kong and even in the Far East, is no longer willing to be your enemy.

The termination of this agreement, Standard Chartered’s submission, is the best proof of your current might in the business world, Mr. Lin!” He skillfully attributed his and Cheung Kong’s deliverance to Lin Haoran’s deterrent effect.

But it also revealed his purpose for going to Standard Chartered Bank.

Lin Haoran leaned back in his chair, his fingers tapping lightly on the smooth armrest, the surprise in his eyes gradually turning into deep contemplation.

Standard Chartered’s swift surrender meant not only that HSBC’s painstakingly built foundation in Hong Kong had been utterly uprooted, but also that Li Jiacheng had decisively severed all ties with the old financial system, HSBC, and Standard Chartered.

The sincerity shown by this “pledge of allegiance” had been tangibly delivered.

This was truly a situation he had never anticipated.

He had originally thought that even if he and Li Jiacheng shook hands and made peace, the situation within Cheung Kong Holdings Group wouldn’t change much.

But he never would have imagined that the man would deliver this “pledge of allegiance” so decisively!

“Good, very good. Standard Chartered knows how to adapt to the times. That’s smart of them. The termination of this agreement is like removing shackles for Cheung Kong Holdings, and it’s a good start for our cooperation.”

His form of address for Li Jiacheng quietly shifted from the polite but distant “Mr. Li” to referring to “Cheung Kong Holdings” as a whole, implying more of an alliance.

The look he gave Li Jiacheng had less of the previous scrutiny and more genuine approval.

“Mr. Li, I’ve received your sincerity.”

“You flatter me, Mr. Lin!” A great weight was lifted from Li Jiacheng’s heart; he knew his “pledge of allegiance” had been accepted by Lin Haoran.

He immediately added, his tone decisive, “To show my sincerity and ensure the stability and synergy of Cheung Kong’s financial lifeline, I’ve decided to release the news to the major Hong Kong media later.

Cheung Kong Holdings Group will formally announce to the public that effective immediately, all financial business of the group and all its affiliated companies—including but not limited to core accounts, settlements, credit, financing, foreign exchange, and so on—will be comprehensively transferred from HSBC to Hang Seng Bank!”

He emphasized his words and continued, “At the same time, I will instruct our finance and legal departments to cooperate fully with Hang Seng Bank to ensure a smooth, efficient, and seamless transition!

The center of gravity for Cheung Kong’s financial business will be firmly anchored within the Hang Seng Bank system.”

“Excellent!” A sharp gleam flashed in Lin Haoran’s eyes, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

Li Jiacheng’s actions were even more decisive than he had expected.

This was not just a declaration, but a tangible transfer of Cheung Kong’s financial lifeline into the hands of Hang Seng Bank, which Lin Haoran controlled.

This meant that overnight, the Hengsheng Group had swallowed HSBC’s largest remaining client resource whole. Its power swelled dramatically once again, widening the gap with the Standard Chartered Group and solidifying its position as a behemoth among Hong Kong’s local banks.

“Mr. Li is indeed decisive. Hang Seng Bank will certainly provide Cheung Kong with the highest quality, most efficient financial services that best suit our common interests. With Hang Seng, Cheung Kong’s financial business will surely reach new heights!”

The two briefly exchanged opinions on the handover details, the atmosphere far more amicable and practical than it had been that morning in Pao Yue-kong’s reception room.

Because after this, the two were, in a true sense, partners.

Li Jiacheng had achieved the core purpose of his visit—to solidify their alliance, express his sincerity, and gain Lin Haoran’s approval.

He didn’t linger, knowing Lin Haoran’s time was precious, and left after thanking him again.

After seeing Li Jiacheng off, Lin Haoran stood before the massive floor-to-ceiling window, looking down at the still-bustling Victoria Harbour late at night.

Standard Chartered’s swift capitulation and Li Jiacheng’s decisive transfer of financial business—these two successive thunderclaps had an effect that far exceeded his initial expectations.

Not long after Li Jiacheng left, Ma Shimin returned to the Connaught Centre from the Cheung Kong Center.

Seeing him, Lin Haoran told Ma Shimin everything about what had happened that morning and about Li Jiacheng’s visit in great detail.

Ma Shimin was also astonished to hear the news.

“Shimin, it seems our dear Mr. Li has truly ‘surrendered’ this time. This pledge of allegiance carries enough weight.” He was referring to Pao Yue-kong’s suggestion, but even more so to Li Jiacheng’s determination to completely cut off his own fallback plan and tie Cheung Kong’s financial foundation to the ‘Hengsheng system’ war chariot.

Ma Shimin, sitting to the side, was also deeply shocked. “Boss, your power has completely intimidated Standard Chartered. Mr. Li’s move is equivalent to severing HSBC’s last ‘major blood-supply artery.’ Hang Seng Bank taking over all of Cheung Kong’s business will be the final straw that breaks HSBC.”

“HSBC?” A cold smile played on Lin Haoran’s lips, his gaze like he was looking at a piece of rotten wood. “It’s nothing but rotten wood now. Notify Hang Seng Bank to fully coordinate with Cheung Kong and Hutchison. We must swallow and digest this juicy piece of meat properly!

I want to see a seamless transition; no mistakes are allowed at any stage. Also, have the PR department keep an eye on the public sentiment tomorrow.”

“As for HSBC, it’s a bit of a shame for a century-old Hong Kong brand.”

In the memory of his past life, HSBC was a top-ten international bank globally. Even in this world, a year ago, while it hadn’t yet reached that world-class status, it was the undisputed hegemon of Hong Kong’s financial industry.

Now, it had been brought down by him in less than a year. The thought was rather poignant.

However, the business world is like a battlefield. Since they were his business rival, he naturally couldn’t show any mercy.

The next morning!

As the city’s residents welcomed a new day, two explosive news items, like a pair of bombshells, instantly awakened the entire city!

Announcement one, from Hutchison Whampoa Group.

“To optimize the group’s financial resource allocation, enhance operational efficiency, and based on deep consideration of future strategic synergy, the Board of Directors of Cheung Kong Holdings Group has resolved:

Effective immediately, all financial business of this group and all its subsidiary companies will be formally, completely, and permanently transferred from HSBC to Hang Seng Bank.

The relevant transition work has already begun in an orderly manner and will ensure that the interests of clients and partners are not affected. Cheung Kong Holdings looks forward to establishing a long-term, stable, and mutually beneficial strategic partnership with Hang Seng Bank.”

Announcement two, from Cheung Kong Holdings Group. The content was similar to Hutchison Whampoa’s.

Many mainstream media outlets provided in-depth coverage, as they had received the news the day before.

Hong Kong Commercial Daily headline: “Lin Haoran’s Power on Display Again! Li Jiacheng Brings Cheung Kong’s Financial Empire Over to Hang Seng!”

Sing Tao Daily headline: “HSBC Suffers a Fatal Double Kill! Cheung Kong’s Defection Adds Insult to Injury, the Century-Old Institution Collapses!”

The media reports instantly set the entire Hong Kong financial circle ablaze!

The tea restaurants, high-end restaurants, breakfast shops, and offices in the commercial buildings of Central…

Every corner erupted in an uproar:

“My God! Even Cheung Kong has moved to Hang Seng Bank. HSBC probably doesn’t have any major clients left, does it?”

“Li Jiacheng is something else! Truly adaptable! One moment he makes peace with Mr. Lin, the next he decisively cuts ties with HSBC and transfers Cheung Kong’s entire financial business to Hang Seng Bank, controlled by Mr. Lin! That’s one ruthless and thorough pledge of allegiance!”

“Standard Chartered agreeing to Cheung Kong moving its business to Hang Seng Bank must be a sign of submission to Lin Haoran!”

“It’s over! HSBC is completely finished! Cheung Kong and Hutchison were its last elephant-sized clients in Hong Kong! What’s left of HSBC now besides an empty shell and a pile of bad debt? Standard Chartered’s acquisition of it was the biggest joke of the year, and now it’s their biggest burden!”

“Hang Seng Bank is about to soar! After swallowing the financial business of these two behemoths, Hutchison and Cheung Kong, who can compete?! It’s now the new uncrowned king of Hong Kong’s local banks! Mr. Lin played this game on a grand scale!”

“HSBC’s stock price is in jeopardy! It already lost most of its important business because it was being bled dry by Standard Chartered. I heard its overseas subsidiaries aren’t performing well either.”

Inside the stock exchange, the opening bell sounded like a final death knell for HSBC.

HSBC’s stock price plummeted in a straight line, without any resistance, as if its entire skeleton had been ripped out!

Panic selling surged, sell orders piled up like mountains, while buy orders were few and far between.

The decline quickly surpassed 15%, 20%, 30%… heading straight down, on its way to being axed in half!

Originally, after being acquired by Standard Chartered, HSBC’s stock price had slightly recovered, reaching a market capitalization of over three billion Hong Kong dollars.

Although far below its peak, it was still considered one of Hong Kong’s financial titans.

But in everyone’s eyes, an HSBC that had lost two major clients, Cheung Kong and Hutchison, seemed to have no future.

The market cast its vote with the coldest of currencies—money—declaring the substantive death of this once-illustrious century-old establishment on Hong Kong’s financial stage.

HSBC, a name that once represented the glory of British-owned capital, had completely fallen from its position as a financial giant.

Luckily, Standard Chartered Bank was listed in London and not Hong Kong; otherwise, its stock would have surely plummeted in response with a significant drop.

However, it was only a matter of time. Information flowed almost instantly between London and Hong Kong. It wouldn’t be long before major events in Hong Kong were known in London.

One could imagine that when the London stock market opened for a new day, the market would be extremely disappointed with its strategic blunder in acquiring HSBC and its weak performance against Lin Haoran in Hong Kong, and be full of doubt about its future ability to hold onto its core business in Hong Kong and remain competitive in the Far East market.

Meanwhile, Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price continued to rise today, and even Cheung Kong Holdings’ stock began to climb.

After all, in the eyes of the shareholders, with Lin Haoran as Cheung Kong’s second-largest shareholder and the company backed by the financial giant Hengsheng Group, Cheung Kong’s future wouldn’t be bad, and a rise in its stock price seemed only natural.

As for Hang Seng Bank, having swallowed the financial business of the two flagships, Hutchison and Cheung Kong, and with the backing of Lin Haoran—a towering tree with deep roots and lush foliage—it had become the most dazzling and powerful new star in the reshaping of Hong Kong’s financial landscape.

The rise of the new star was unstoppable.

Cheung Kong Holdings’ stock price stabilized and recovered after a slight fluctuation.

The market interpreted Li Jiacheng’s move as “submitting” to Lin Haoran, but he had successfully broken free from the heavy shackles of HSBC and latched onto a thicker, more promising “thigh” to hug. In the long run, this might open up new development opportunities for Cheung Kong and was not entirely negative.

Hutchison Whampoa’s stock price continued its steady climb after yesterday’s surge.

Lin Haoran’s successful integration, his swift and decisive moves to clean out the old management, coupled with the fact that its core business was unaffected by the transfer of financial services, had sent market confidence soaring. Investors were optimistic that Hutchison, under Lin Haoran’s leadership, would usher in a new era of brilliance.

Financial commentators analyzed excitedly on television and radio, their voices almost drowning out the din of the stock exchange:

“Standard Chartered’s submission and Lin Haoran’s tacit approval mark the complete end of the old financial powers in Hong Kong, represented by HSBC! A new financial order, the ‘Hengsheng system’ led by Lin Haoran, is being established with the force of a thunderbolt!

The rise of Hang Seng Bank is its most prominent banner!”

“Li Jiacheng has traded control over Cheung Kong’s entire financial business for Lin Haoran’s trust and protection. This move seems humiliating, but in reality, it’s a sacrifice to ensure survival. He has secured a space for himself and Cheung Kong to survive and develop in the torrent of a new era.

What he lost was partial independent control over his financial channels, but he has shed heavier shackles and gained a more powerful backer and broader possibilities for cooperation.”

“The collapse of HSBC is another heavyweight sacrifice on the path of Lin Haoran’s commercial empire’s expansion! His will has become an unbreakable iron law in Hong Kong’s business world!

From Jardine Matheson to HSBC, from Li Jiacheng to Standard Chartered, who will be next? Hong Kong’s business world has entered the ‘Lin Haoran Era’!”

Chapter 765: The ‘Company Doctor’ Officially Returns to Hutchison!

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was September 28th. The north was already entering late autumn; the forests were stained with a myriad of colors, and the first hints of a chill were in the air.

In Hong Kong, however, it felt as though summer still lingered.

The scorching sun beat down relentlessly, with daytime temperatures soaring as high as 34 degrees Celsius. Pedestrians on the streets were still dressed in light summer attire; short sleeves and skirts were everywhere, and a lazy yet fervent atmosphere filled the air.

A week had passed since Lin Haoran’s swift and decisive purge of Hutchison Whampoa’s management, an action that had shaken the Hong Kong business community.

Throughout that week, Lin Haoran and Li Jiacheng had dominated nearly every headline in Hong Kong. One major event after another was enough to stun the city’s residents.

The balance of power in Hong Kong’s business world was steadily shifting.

The Chinese merchants, who had originally been at a disadvantage, had already thoroughly surpassed the British-funded conglomerates thanks to Lin Haoran’s powerful rise.

Atop the Connaught Centre, Lin Haoran’s luxurious personal office was bathed in the bright morning sunlight. Through the round, floor-to-ceiling windows, the bustling panorama of Victoria Harbour was in full view.

After several days of soaring, Hutchison’s stock price had stabilized, with its market capitalization firmly above fifteen billion Hong Kong dollars.

This was a peak Hutchison had never reached before, and it was a clear testament to the extreme trust and fervent admiration Hong Kong’s shareholders had for Lin Haoran.

During this period, Galaxy Securities also successfully sold off its 11.9% stake in Hutchison on the secondary market, recovering 1.62 billion Hong Kong dollars—a figure far higher than expected.

At that moment, as Lin Haoran was listening to Ma Shimin’s briefing on Hutchison’s operations during the transition period, a knock came at the door.

Ma Shimin’s assistant entered lightly, his voice respectful as he said to Lin Haoran, “Boss, Mr. Willie has arrived.”

Upon hearing this, a slight smile touched Lin Haoran’s lips. He turned to Ma Shimin and said, “He’s finally here. Shimin, you can go handle your work for now. We’ll talk in detail later.”

Ma Shimin understood and nodded, quickly gathering his documents and leaving. As he passed the tall, British man at the door—a man with a calm demeanor and sharp, piercing eyes—their paths crossed.

Their gazes met, and they nodded to each other in acknowledgment. It was a silent exchange of mutual assessment and recognition between two powerhouse managers.

Willie stepped into the office.

He wore a well-tailored, dark-grey suit, his hair was impeccably combed, and his expression was calm. However, the hand gripping his briefcase and the intense gaze fixed on Lin Haoran’s figure betrayed his inner turmoil.

Just a week ago, he had been struggling in the quagmire of the Pui O Group’s acquisition of China Motor Bus. Now, he stood before the key figure who would determine whether he could reclaim the pinnacle of his career.

“Mr. Lin, I have long heard of your great name. I hope I’m not intruding with this unannounced visit.” Willie extended his hand, speaking fluent Cantonese with a slight British accent, a display of both his integration into the Hong Kong environment and the importance he placed on this meeting.

Having arrived in Hong Kong back in 1964, Willie had lived in the city for a full seventeen years and was long since fluent in Cantonese.

Lin Haoran rose to greet him, smiling as he shook his hand. “Mr. Willie, you’re too kind. Please, have a seat. To finally meet the legendary figure of Hong Kong’s business world in person is an honor.”

He gestured toward the sofa in the reception area and personally walked over to the tea cabinet. “Coffee? Or tea?”

“Black tea, thank you.” Willie sat down as invited, his eyes quickly scanning the office that symbolized the pinnacle of power in Hong Kong. It was minimalist, modern, and exuded a sense of strength, much like its owner.

Once upon a time, he too had an office much like this one, back in the Hutchison Whampoa Building.

Lin Haoran personally brewed two cups of black tea, placed them on the coffee table, and sat down on the sofa opposite Willie.

“One week. You’re very punctual, Mr. Willie. It seems matters on the China Motor Bus front have been resolved successfully?”

Willie picked up his teacup, feeling the warmth of the porcelain against his fingertips. He spoke candidly, “Fortunately, I was able to fulfill my duty and give the Luo family a satisfactory conclusion. You’re very well-informed, Mr. Lin. As the public knows, the China Motor Bus acquisition was essentially a dead end. The Yan and Guo families were locked in a stalemate, and the price had long since become irrational. I advised the Luo family to pull out at the right time. While the snipe and the clam were locked in battle, we sold our nearly 15% stake in China Motor Bus to the Yan family, who were desperate to consolidate their advantage, at a price nearly 40% higher than our initial acquisition offer. The Luo family profited handsomely. Although the acquisition target wasn’t met, the outcome was a happy one for all.”

He paused, a hint of relief in his tone. “As for Yalon Company, where I serve as Chairman, it was merely a ‘shell’ created for the acquisition of China Motor Bus. With the acquisition battle’s dust settled, my mission naturally came to an end. So, I am now a free agent.”

His words served as both an explanation and a statement of his position—he had no lingering concerns and was available to take on a new role at any time.

Lin Haoran nodded and took a sip of his tea. “You act decisively, Mr. Willie. You know when to advance and when to retreat, and you are adept at seizing opportunities. It’s no wonder you were able to rescue Hutchison International from the brink of disaster back then. So, your visit today surely isn’t just to inform me that you’ve regained your freedom?”

The core issue was laid bare.

The air in the office seemed to freeze for a moment.

Sunlight cast their sharp silhouettes onto the polished floor.

Willie set down his teacup, his gaze direct and sharp as he looked at Lin Haoran. “That’s right, Mr. Lin. I came today to find out if the door to Hutchison Whampoa is still open for a man named Willie. And how do you, Mr. Lin Haoran, as the new absolute master of Hutchison, intend to work with your future President?”

He didn’t beat around the bush, instead going straight to the most critical questions: the distribution of power and management philosophy.

This was a display of his boldness and his confidence in his own value.

He was all too aware of how Li Jiacheng’s “appeasement” policy had led to a management team that was too powerful to control. He was even more aware of the tragic end of Richard Lee, who had been “fired” on the spot by Lin Haoran for attempting a power grab.

He yearned to return to Hutchison, the grand stage where he could realize his lifelong ambitions, but he had no desire to become a sidelined figurehead, a “high-level employee” obstructed at every turn. Nor did he wish to repeat Richard Lee’s mistakes.

This visit was less of a job application and more of a deep negotiation concerning their future partnership and his own professional dignity.

He needed to confirm whether the space Lin Haoran was offering was worth betting his future career on.

Lin Haoran met Willie’s gaze and didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he said slowly, “Mr. Willie, you speak frankly and directly. In that case, I’d first like to hear your thoughts on the current state of Hutchison Whampoa. You wish to be in charge of it, but where do you intend to lead it?”

He skillfully returned the ball to Willie’s court, a move intended to test his vision and strategic insight, while also applying a subtle pressure.

Willie’s spirits lifted. He had come fully prepared.

He opened the briefcase he carried, taking out a thin document that nonetheless contained the fruits of his heart and soul: “A Strategic Outline for the Future Development of Hutchison Whampoa.” He didn’t hand it to Lin Haoran but placed it on the coffee table in front of him, patting it symbolically.

“Mr. Lin, forgive my bluntness, but the Hutchison of today is like a giant recovering from a serious illness. It appears stable on the surface, but it is rife with hidden dangers.”

Willie’s voice grew steady, carrying the authority of a seasoned commander. “Li Jiacheng’s tenure was too short. He is familiar with real estate, but he had a deep lack of familiarity with Hutchison’s complex businesses in terminals, retail, telecommunications, and energy. Although I left a management team in place, people like Richard Lee were good at maintaining the status quo but lacked initiative. More seriously, their mentality was unstable, and factionalism was rampant. Your swift and decisive actions last week eliminated the most direct threat and established your authority, but they also caused short-term business disruptions and unsettled the staff. Stability is the top priority, but it is by no means a long-term solution.”

He paused, his eyes gleaming. “Hutchison’s strength lies in its vast and diverse network of assets and its deep local foundation. But its weaknesses are equally apparent: its business lines are too fragmented, efficiency is low in some areas, its international expansion has been slow and uncoordinated, and its brand value has not been fully realized. For the past few years, it has been coasting on the legacy of ‘The Four Big Hongs,’ but its development has already fallen behind that of the Swire Group. It needs a clear and forward-looking core strategy. It needs an internal and external campaign to ‘streamline and focus on breakthroughs.’”

Willie took a sip of his black tea and continued, “My vision is this: Reshape the Core and Focus on Three Pillars; Adopt a Global Vision while Deepening our Roots in Asia; and Empower with Technology for Ultimate Efficiency.”

“Oh?” Lin Haoran leaned forward slightly, showing great interest. “Tell me more.”

“Reshape the Core, Focus on Three Pillars,” Willie said with perfect clarity. “The first pillar is ports and global logistics. This is Hutchison’s bread and butter, with a strong foundation. In the future, we must further integrate global port resources, especially in the emerging markets of Southeast Asia and at key nodes in Europe, to build an intelligent and highly efficient global logistics and supply chain network, becoming a true core hub operator on the ‘Maritime Silk Road.’ The second pillar is retail and branded consumer goods. ParknShop supermarket and Watsons are quality assets. We should accelerate their expansion in Southeast Asia and East Asia, while also enriching our mid-to-high-end brand portfolio through acquisitions or incubation to become a regional retail giant. The third pillar is technology, the engine for future growth. A wave of technology is sweeping the globe, and Hutchison absolutely cannot stand on the sidelines. We can venture into fields like semiconductors and computers. Although these areas are currently fiercely competitive with high technical barriers, that also signifies immense growth potential. With its strong financial resources and extensive business network, Hutchison is fully capable of getting a piece of the pie. At the same time, we must divest or optimize non-core, low-return businesses to concentrate our resources on these three pillars. This is what I mean by ‘streamline.’”

Lin Haoran nodded. As an “experienced person” from the future, what Willie was saying was indeed very interesting and forward-thinking.

In fact, Willie had also considered mobile communications, but since Hongkong Land Group’s Hongkong Telephone Company had already entered this sector, Willie had removed it from his proposal and didn’t mention it.

Willie paused for a moment before continuing, “Global Vision, Deepen Asian Roots: Hutchison has international DNA, but its past deployments have lacked focus. In the future, in the fields of port logistics and retail, we must strengthen our control over key nodes in Europe and America. In technology, however, we must concentrate our firepower, deeply cultivating the markets with the most potential and with which we are most familiar—Hong Kong and Southeast Asia—to build an ‘Eastern fortress,’ avoiding the resource dispersion and loss of management control that can result from blind globalization.”

“Empower with Technology, Efficiency-First,” Willie said, his tone carrying a certain insight into the future. “Whether in port management, logistics tracking, retail inventory and supply chain management, or technology, efficiency is the lifeline. We must boldly introduce the latest computer systems, automation equipment, and data analysis technologies to enhance the operational efficiency and management refinement of all business segments. Just like some companies in the United States, which have already achieved highly efficient, end-to-end operations using computers—from order reception and transaction matching to clearing and settlement, every step is precise and astonishingly fast. This not only reduces costs but is also the core of building long-term competitiveness. At the same time, we need to establish a forward-looking R&D department to closely track areas that could disrupt industries, such as medical R&D, digital technology, and even biotechnology, to maintain strategic sensitivity.”

In the 1980s in Hong Kong, these ideas were undoubtedly extremely progressive, even vaguely touching upon the prototypes of what would later be known as “digital transformation” and the “industrial internet.”

As Lin Haoran listened to Willie’s explanation, his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Willie’s thinking was clear, his strategy was grand yet highly practical. His division of the “three pillars” and his emphasis on “empowering with technology” were highly consistent with his own deep-seated blueprint for Hutchison’s future. In some respects, Willie even provided a more professional framework.

This was no proposal that a conservative like Richard Lee could have devised; it was the vision of a truly ambitious and far-sighted commander.

“Excellent!” Lin Haoran praised sincerely. “Focus, efficiency, technology, the future. Mr. Willie, your strategic vision truly lives up to your reputation. This coincides perfectly with my own positioning of Hutchison as ‘Asia’s top comprehensive commercial juggernaut.’ Now, back to your original question. You asked how I would work with the future President. My answer is: I don’t use people I suspect, and I don’t suspect people I use. I am goal-oriented and believe in unifying authority with responsibility. My bottom lines are clear, and supervision will be constant.”

These words, delivered with force and resonance, clearly outlined Lin Haoran’s management philosophy and his boundaries of control.

Willie was highly focused. He knew the most critical part was coming.

“I don’t use people I suspect, and I don’t suspect people I use. My choosing you, Willie, as Hutchison’s President means I recognize your ability, experience, and strategic vision. I will fully delegate authority to you for daily operational decisions, specific business operations, and even the selection and appointment of the senior executive team. I will not be like certain people, who insist on meddling in every minor detail and interfering with the execution of specific projects.”

His tone was calm, but it was self-evident who “certain people” referred to.

This was undoubtedly a great reassurance for Willie.

“Goal-oriented, with unified authority and responsibility. I will give you space, but I also demand results. What is our goal? It is what you just outlined in your strategy: reshape the core businesses, increase profitability, expand market share, and achieve significant breakthroughs in the three core areas you emphasized—port logistics, retail, and technology. You and I will jointly establish clear, quantifiable three-year and five-year strategic goals, as well as annual financial and business targets. If you achieve these goals, you, Willie, will be the greatest contributor to Hutchison’s revival. I will not be stingy with your compensation, prestige, or support from the Board of Directors. But if you deviate from the strategic direction or consecutively fail to meet core targets,” he paused, his gaze as sharp as lightning, “then it means there is a problem with our collaboration that needs to be re-evaluated. With great power comes great responsibility. If you are at the helm, you are ultimately responsible for the course and the outcome.”

“Clear bottom lines, with constant supervision. The authority I delegate to you does not mean I will let things drift. There are several bottom lines that cannot be crossed. First, asset security and financial compliance. Major asset disposals, such as the sale of core ports or large properties, major investment M&A, and significant financing activities must be reported to the Board of Directors, meaning I need to be informed and to approve them. Financial reports must be truthful, accurate, and timely. Any action that harms the interests of the shareholders is strictly forbidden. Second, the core strategic direction. The ‘Focus on Three Pillars’ strategy you proposed is your vision, and it has my endorsement. It will be the fundamental law of Hutchison for the next five to ten years. You can make minor tactical Adjustments based on market changes, but you cannot unilaterally overturn or significantly deviate from this core direction. Third, company culture and values. Hutchison needs a team that is battle-hardened, efficient, and incorruptible. I will absolutely not tolerate the growth of internal factionalism, corruption, or the kind of ‘non-violent non-cooperation’ that is outwardly compliant but inwardly defiant. Richard Lee’s fate is the red line.”

Lin Haoran leaned back slightly, his tone softening. “As for supervision, it’s not that I’ll have people watching you every day. The Board of Directors has standard governance mechanisms like the audit committee and the compensation committee. Ma Shimin will serve as the interim Vice Chairman of the Board to assist you with post-transition integration work and provide support and advice when necessary. I will also stay informed of the company’s operations through regular presidential reports, board meetings, and key business data reports. Under normal circumstances, I will not interfere excessively. My focus is on the overall strategic layout and capital operations of all my subsidiary companies. But if a bottom line is crossed, or if the ‘hidden dangers’ you mentioned in your strategy become reality under your leadership, leading to a sustained and significant decline in performance, a notable drop in market position, or systemic internal risks…”

He didn’t finish, but the sharp edge beneath his calm gaze left Willie with no doubt about the determination and force with which he would intervene. These were not empty threats.

After speaking, Lin Haoran added, “This model of ‘delegation + goals + bottom lines + supervision’ is not just for you and Hutchison. As long as a professional manager is outstanding enough, achieves the goals, and respects the bottom lines, I am more than happy to be a ‘hands-off manager.’”

Willie listened quietly, his mind racing, weighing every word Lin Haoran said.

Lin Haoran’s framework was exceptionally clear: he would give him the power and space befitting a President, set clear goals and inviolable bottom lines, and supplement it with institutionalized supervision rather than micromanagement.

This was even better than the best-case scenario he had imagined!

Especially when compared to Li Jiacheng’s constant restraint of Richard Lee, which ultimately led to a loss of control, Lin Haoran demonstrated a more mature, confident, and efficient art of governance—one based on trust in rules and contracts, rather than a balance of compromise and suspicion.

“Mr. Lin,” Willie took a deep breath. The doubt and probing in his eyes had completely vanished, replaced by a fighting spirit and solemnity ignited by being understood and trusted. “Your framework is clear, professional, and extremely constructive. Space, goals, bottom lines, and rules—this is precisely the foundation for cooperation that I, a professional manager who yearns to make a difference on a truly grand stage, have dreamed of! I fully understand and accept the goals and bottom lines you have set. Please rest assured, asset security, financial compliance, strategic direction, and an incorruptible, efficient team—this is not just my responsibility to you, but also to my personal reputation and my professional career! Reporting major matters for approval is a basic rule, and I will abide by it. My only request is that, within the strategic framework, you grant me full decision-making power in the execution of specific tactics and the use of talent.”

He didn’t hesitate for a moment, directly stating his willingness to accept this “contract.”

This was not just agreement, but a confident promise. He believed he had the ability to lead Hutchison to a revival within this framework.

Seeing the renewed fighting spirit and confidence blazing in Willie’s eyes, Lin Haoran finally broke into a satisfied smile.

He extended his hand. “Very good! Mr. Willie, welcome to Hutchison as the Group’s Vice Chairman of the Board and President. Ma Shimin will discuss the details of your employment contract with you. I believe that with you at the helm, the great vessel of Hutchison Whampoa will surely reclaim its former glory and sail toward even broader horizons!”

Two hands—one representing Hong Kong’s newly minted uncrowned king and capital tycoon, the other representing an experienced “former Taipan” yearning for a revival—clasped tightly at that moment, bridging the gap of past misunderstandings and suspicions.

This was not just the beginning of a personal partnership; it signified the official raising of the curtain on a new era for Hutchison Whampoa.

“Mr. Lin, it’s a pleasure to work with you!” Willie’s voice held a trace of barely concealed excitement.

“A pleasure to work with you, President Willie,” Lin Haoran said with a confident smile.

For the remainder of their time, the two engaged in efficient communication on more specific details. Willie put forward some preliminary ideas for key executive appointments, including reinstating some mid-level key personnel who knew Hutchison well but had been previously underutilized, as well as bringing in external experts from relevant fields. Lin Haoran gave his support within principle. Willie also reported on his initial assessment of the current state of Hutchison’s various business segments and a few pressing pain points, such as efficiency issues at certain ports and the need to optimize the retail supply chain, to which Lin Haoran expressed his agreement.

The meeting lasted for nearly two hours, and the atmosphere remained pragmatic and harmonious throughout.

When Willie rose to leave, he felt the heavy burden that had been weighing on his heart for the past week had been lifted, replaced by a long-lost sense of excitement filled with challenge.

Lin Haoran personally escorted Willie to the office door. “President Willie, I look forward to seeing your first report card at Hutchison. As for the press conference, I will have Mr. Ma Shimin arrange it as soon as possible.”

“I will not fail to live up to your trust, Boss!” Willie nodded solemnly.

In that moment, Willie’s form of address for Lin Haoran had already shifted from “Mr. Lin” to “Boss.”

Three days later, on September 30th, a highly anticipated press conference was held inside the Hutchison Whampoa Building.

On the dais, Lin Haoran sat in the center, with Ma Shimin to his left. The seat to his right belonged to the man returning to Hutchison as Vice Chairman of the Board and President: Willie.

Camera flashes flickered wildly, and the sound of shutters was incessant.

When Lin Haoran personally announced the news of Willie’s appointment, the entire hall erupted in an uproar, followed by a burst of fervent discussion!

“Willie? It’s really him! He’s back!”

“The former Taipan is back at the helm! What a brilliant move by Mr. Lin!”

“Richard Lee is out, Willie is in! Hutchison is in for a major shake-up!”

“Quick! File the story! This is huge news!”

Lin Haoran briefly introduced Willie’s brilliant track record and expressed his confidence in Hutchison’s future, then handed the microphone to Willie.

Facing the countless cameras and the reporters’ rapid-fire questions, Willie appeared calm and confident.

He didn’t dwell on the past, but focused on the future:

“I am extremely honored to return to Hutchison Whampoa at this pivotal moment. Under the leadership of Chairman Lin Haoran, Hutchison possesses unparalleled capital strength and strategic vision. My mission is to lead the management team to integrate resources, improve efficiency, focus on our core, and innovate boldly, so that the great name of Hutchison will be revitalized and become a leading force shaping business trends in Asia and even globally! We will reshape our advantages in port logistics, build a matrix of world-class retail brands, and fully commit to the blue ocean of future technology… The specific strategic plan will be disclosed to you in detail after the upcoming board meeting. I believe that a new chapter for Hutchison Whampoa officially begins today!”

Willie’s steady speech, combined with his status as he returned to the center of power, sent a powerful signal.

The venue erupted once more.

The news swept through all of Hong Kong like a hurricane!

“The King has Returned! Willie Retakes the Helm of Hutchison, Appointed by Lin Haoran as the Revival’s Helmsman!”

“After an Iron-Fisted Purge, Lin Haoran Brings Back ‘Company Doctor’ Willie. Is Hutchison Entering a ‘Lin-Willie Co-governance’ Era?”

“The Li Jiacheng Era Comes to a Complete End! Willie’s Return Marks Hutchison’s Full Alignment with Lin Haoran’s Strategic Orbit!”

“Capital Tycoon plus Veteran Strongman: Can Hutchison Whampoa Return to its Peak? The Hong Kong Business Landscape is Stirred Up Once More!”

Influenced by Willie’s return to Hutchison Whampoa, Hutchison’s stock price surged again that day.

After all, in his six years at Hutchison, Willie had long since proven to the citizens of Hong Kong that he was a legendary figure with extraordinary leadership talent and deep industry heritage.

Chapter 766: A Collective Surge in Subordinates’ Loyalty!

In October, the summer heat still lingered over Hong Kong. The air conditioning in the top-floor meeting room of the Connaught Centre was on full blast.

Beyond the massive floor-to-ceiling windows, Victoria Harbour shimmered with countless shades of blue, its waters bustling with ships. Sunlight danced off the dense glass curtain walls, casting a brilliant glow over the financial forest of Central.

Inside, the long, dark brown redwood table was polished to a mirror shine. The air was filled with the fragrance of tea and the rich aroma of freshly ground coffee.

Burton, Cui Zilong, Chen Shoulin, Ho Sin Hang, and Willie—the “Company Doctor” who had just officially taken the helm of Hutchison Whampoa two days prior amidst a media storm—took their seats one by one.

They exchanged glances, their confusion and speculation spreading silently through the quiet air.

On the very first day of October, they had been suddenly summoned here by their Boss, Lin Haoran. It had to be for something significant.

Before this, it was rare for all the heads of the various groups to gather in one place.

After all, though the enterprises they each managed belonged to the same boss, there was no direct chain of command between them.

It was safe to say that a meeting this complete was a rare occasion.

What they didn’t know, however, was that this would soon become the norm.

At this moment, only Ma Shimin, the President of the Hongkong Land Group seated to Lin Haoran’s left, remained calm and composed. He was flipping through a thick draft document, a knowing smile playing on his lips.

With a soft click, the heavy, solid wood door of the meeting room was closed from the outside by Ma Shimin’s assistant, sealing off all external noise.

Only seven people remained in the room.

Lin Haoran, dressed in a impeccably tailored dark suit, sat calmly at the head of the table. His serene gaze swept over the faces of each of his top lieutenants.

He skipped the pleasantries and got straight to the point. “I’ve called you all here today for one reason: to officially establish the ‘Galaxy Strategic Development Committee’.”

He paused, then continued, “I will serve as the committee’s Chairman. Mr. Ma Shimin will serve as the interim committee head, responsible for the full scope of building the committee, its daily operations, and resource coordination. His probationary period will be one year, after which I will decide whether to make his position permanent.”

He pushed a formal letter of appointment, stamped with his personal bright red seal, across the table to Ma Shimin.

Ma Shimin’s expression grew solemn. He accepted it with both hands and said in a deep voice, “Thank you for your trust, Boss. I will do my utmost to live up to it.”

His loyalty rating was already at one hundred percent, as high as it could go. Otherwise, it might have risen again at this moment.

Lin Haoran’s gaze once again swept over the other five, taking in the surprise that had frozen on their faces.

He continued his announcement, “And Burton, Cui Zilong, Chen Shoulin, Willie, and Ho Sin Hang—the five of you will serve as the first committee members of the Galaxy Strategic Development Committee.”

As soon as the words were spoken, the meeting room fell into a brief silence so profound you could almost hear heartbeats.

“A committee?” Chen Shoulin was the first to break the silence. His brow furrowed, his eyes filled with doubt, as Lin Haoran had never mentioned this to them before.

“Boss, our groups operate in different business sectors with varied operational models. How will this committee function? What is its purpose?”

Chen Shoulin was in charge of the Hongkong Electric Group, which now ranked number one among all listed companies in Hong Kong. He was undoubtedly one of the most powerful professional managers in the city.

“The purpose is very clear,” Lin Haoran said, leaning slightly forward and looking at all his top lieutenants. His tone was resolute. “To end independent operations! To break down resource barriers! To form a united force for development!”

Each short phrase struck their hearts like a heavy hammer.

“We own Hongkong Land, Hutchison, Hongkong Electric Group, Wanqing Group, Hang Seng Bank, Oriental Press Group, and more. Each one is a renowned tycoon in Hong Kong.

“But all this time, our strength has been scattered, information has been fragmented, and strategic coordination has been lacking. There might even be unnecessary internal competition and friction. The Galaxy Strategic Development Committee is the key that will unlock these shackles!

“It will stand at the height of the overall strategy for all groups, carrying out top-level design, resource allocation, coordination of major projects, and risk monitoring!

“The core is two points: resource sharing and common development. We will twist all the resources of the entire Galaxy empire into an single, indestructible force!”

“Resource sharing, common development…” Burton of the Wanqing Group muttered the words, chewing them over. His rugged face, hardened by years of battling tumultuous waves, lit up as his sharp eyes suddenly brightened.

He could already envision the soaring efficiency if his group’s vast export cargo could get preferential, low-cost access to Hutchison Whampoa’s high-quality port berths throughout Hong Kong and even Southeast Asia.

Willie was even more shaken. Port logistics was one of the core “three pillars” he had planned for Hutchison. If he could achieve seamless integration with the export goods from Lin Haoran’s other companies, like Hongkong Electric Group and Wanqing Group, his trump card—the global logistics network—would take shape years ahead of schedule!

He subconsciously glanced at Chen Shoulin. Their eyes met briefly, and both saw the flames ignite in the other’s gaze.

“Brilliant!” Ho Sin Hang, the Chairman of Hang Seng Bank, couldn’t help but clap his hands in admiration. As a banker, he was most sensitive to the integration of capital flow. “This way, the efficiency of pooling and directing capital will multiply!

“The financing costs for high-quality projects within the group’s companies can be significantly reduced, and the utilization rate of idle funds will soar! This will be a mutually beneficial financial hub!”

He could already see highly efficient financial pipelines flowing unimpeded between the various groups under their umbrella.

Burton from Wanqing Group also grew excited. This meant that the large-scale projects developed by his subsidiary, Wan’an Real Estate Company, could potentially receive closer support from the group’s internal retail, banking, and even port logistics sectors, forming a unique competitive ecosystem.

Willie took a deep breath, calming the storm in his heart.

Lin Haoran’s vision had once again expanded his understanding.

This committee structure was no simple joint meeting. Its core lay in “coordination” and “compulsory synergy,” possessing strategic authority that surpassed any single group’s Board of Directors!

This required absolute control and the courage to delegate authority and place full trust in one’s subordinates.

His respect for Lin Haoran deepened.

“This is an absolutely pioneering model! Unprecedented in Asia!” The doubt on Willie’s face was replaced by an excitement akin to discovering a new continent. He saw infinite possibilities in combining retail networks with real estate projects and port logistics.

“Each group will remain an independently operated entity. The committee will not interfere in specific operations,” Lin Haoran added at the right moment, assuaging potential concerns about power. “The committee will only handle top-level design, resource coordination, and guidance on major strategic directions.

“It’s like the brain directing the limbs. Each has its function, but the blood flows through them all, and their strength comes from the same source.”

He raised his hand slightly, signaling for everyone to calm down, a meaningful curve playing on his lips. “And to ensure that you, the committee members, are truly bound to the fate of the Galaxy Strategic Development Committee and can work together for our common development without distraction, I will be implementing a brand-new incentive mechanism to go along with it.”

All eyes instantly focused on him. The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Lin Haoran’s voice echoed in the room: “The plan consists of two parts: Virtual Restricted Stock and a Time Unit Plan.”

“Virtual Restricted Stock,” he explained clearly, “is not real equity and does not carry voting rights. The amount granted will be determined by your position, contributions, and years of service. Its value will be strongly correlated with the performance of the group you serve or the achievement of the committee’s strategic goals!

“The better the performance, the higher the stock price, and the more cash dividends you will receive from your virtual restricted stock. We’re talking about solid gold and silver!

“These virtual shares cannot be traded or transferred, and they will automatically become void if you leave the company.”

The concepts of virtual stock and even the Time Unit Plan were, in fact, something Lin Haoran had learned from the employee benefit model of a famous company from his past life, Huawei. Implementing such benefits was a way to make them work even harder to create more value for him.

He had planned this for a long time, but such concepts didn’t exist in this era, so he had been waiting for the right moment to announce it.

Although he could see their loyalty ratings and sense their allegiance to him, relying solely on that invisible thread was ultimately not stable enough.

People’s hearts could change. Faced with immense temptation and a complex business environment, loyalty could be put to many tests.

The Virtual Restricted Stock and Time Unit Plan were designed to deeply bind loyalty with tangible benefits, adding a strong layer of insurance to the relationship.

It might seem like he was giving up a portion of his profits, but in reality, it would motivate his subordinates to work harder, creating even greater profits for him!

After a brief pause, Lin Haoran continued, “The Time Unit Plan, which I will abbreviate as TUP, is our medium-term incentive. It will set clear goals, such as a three-year compound profit growth rate for the group or the completion of specific strategic projects.

“Achieve the goals, and you will receive a substantial one-time cash or equivalent reward! It is an extra reward for hard work, for time invested, and for results achieved!”

Lin Haoran’s gaze swept over each face, all holding their breath, and he continued with a smile, “The core principle is simple: your personal interests will be deeply tied to the entire Galaxy Strategic Development Committee and the development of the groups you manage! Share in the glory, suffer together!”

“Whoosh~”

His words were like a boulder dropped into a calm lake!

Everyone present was a top-tier professional manager, well-versed in the art of motivation.

They instantly understood the immense power of this combination of Virtual Restricted Stock and the Time Unit Plan!

“This… this is innovating on the essence of DuPont’s partnership model with modern financial tools!” A sharp glint flashed in Burton’s eyes. With his background in a long-standing British-owned firm, he was very familiar with DuPont’s century-long model of success.

This kind of incentive, which deeply bound the long-term interests of professional managers to the company’s development, was precisely what countless top talents dreamed of!

In Asia in the early 1980s, this was simply a groundbreaking creation!

Ho Sin Hang’s fingers trembled slightly with excitement.

The Hang Seng Bank he managed was in a period of rapid expansion. If he could use this plan to motivate his key personnel, the combat strength they would unleash would be immeasurable!

Remember, back before Lin Haoran acquired Hang Seng Bank, the reason he had agreed to switch jobs from Hang Seng Bank to the Bank of East Asia was not for money, but for fame!

Lin Haoran could give him the opportunity to become one of the world’s top bankers.

And the two models Lin Haoran proposed today would clearly allow the Hengsheng Group to develop more smoothly and rapidly, bringing him one step closer to his dream!

Cui Zilong and Chen Shoulin were even more stirred. For them, who were in charge of rapidly growing business sectors, this performance-linked model undoubtedly opened a door to the pinnacle of wealth and achievement!

But the one with the strongest reaction was none other than Willie, who had just become the President of Hutchison two days ago!

He had just taken the helm of the massive ship that was Hutchison Whampoa, a company waiting to be rebuilt, and he needed to unite its people to give full play to his talents.

This incentive package from Lin Haoran was the “imperial sword” he had been dreaming of!

With it, why worry about not being able to recruit top talent?

Why worry about not being able to retain key personnel?

Why worry that his team wouldn’t give their all to realize the grand “three pillars” strategy?

A wave of immense surprise and a strong sense of belonging shot through him like an electric current!

This was not only beneficial to him but also to the senior executives under him.

Originally, because Willie had joined Lin Haoran’s camp so recently, his loyalty was only in the low 80s, even though Lin Haoran had convinced him to join.

It was sufficient, but he couldn’t truly be considered one of Lin Haoran’s own.

But at this moment, Lin Haoran was surprised to find that Willie’s loyalty had leaped from 80 to 95!

And at that moment, Willie felt that his initial assessment of Lin Haoran’s capabilities upon joining had been far too conservative!

This young boss’s boldness, foresight, and skill were unlike anything he had seen in his thirty years in the business world!

He looked at Lin Haoran with an unprecedented level of admiration and conviction.

Sitting next to him, Ma Shimin keenly observed the change in Willie’s eyes, a knowing smile on his face as if he’d expected this all along.

Simultaneously, the invisible loyalty values in the meeting room shot up like ignited rockets!

Burton (Loyalty): 92 → 97!

Cui Zilong (Loyalty): 95 → 99!

Chen Shoulin (Loyalty): 91 → 97!

Ho Sin Hang (Loyalty): 90 → 98!

Every face was etched with shock and excitement.

This incentive plan not only meant immense potential wealth but was also Lin Haoran’s highest form of recognition and entrustment of their abilities, status, and future value!

It was a qualitative change that truly elevated them from “high-level employees” to “co-creators of a business community”!

Ma Shimin looked at the almost blazing eyes of his colleagues and felt immensely gratified.

The Boss’s move had completely captured the hearts of these top talents.

His own one hundred percent loyalty remained unchanged, but his sense of mission to serve the Boss’s grand vision swelled even more powerfully.

“The Boss is truly farsighted! With this policy, all the brilliant minds in the world will be drawn to us! The cohesion of the Galaxy Strategic Development Committee will be indestructible!” Ho Sin Hang praised from the heart, his voice trembling slightly with post-excitement tremors.

Lin Haoran took in everyone’s reactions and nodded in satisfaction.

He was especially delighted by the surge in their loyalty ratings.

This was a massive collective boost in loyalty!

Now, he could feel even more at ease with his subordinates.

Indeed, tangible rewards and a practical incentive mechanism were the key to winning over subordinates.

He tapped the table lightly, bringing the surging emotions back to order. “The framework of the committee and the skeleton of the incentive plan are in place. But how do we flesh it out? How do we formulate the details? How do we avoid bureaucracy and ensure it operates with true efficiency?

“This requires the wisdom and experience of all you committee members. Now, speak freely.”

With a common and inspiring goal, coupled with an unprecedentedly deep binding of interests, the atmosphere of the meeting instantly shifted from shock to fervor. Everyone quickly dived into a practical and constructive discussion.

Although they were secretly jealous of Ma Shimin’s appointment as committee head—a position clearly a level above theirs—no one voiced this sentiment. After all, Ma Shimin’s business management skills were there for all to see. He managed a business titan like the Hongkong Land Group with impeccable order. It was doubtful whether they could do as well.

Besides, if they performed exceptionally in the future, it wasn’t impossible for them to become the committee head.

Before, their careers seemed to have hit a ceiling, and they had lost the desire to advance.

But now, they once again saw the motivation to move forward.

Willie was the first to speak. “Boss, Committee Head Ma, colleagues, the committee must avoid becoming a talking shop or just another layer of bureaucracy in the decision-making process. I suggest the committee establish several standing or temporary specialized working groups.

“For example, a ‘Global Ports and Logistics Synergy Group’,” he said, looking at Ma Shimin, “co-led by myself and Committee Head Ma, with members from the core operations of Hutchison’s and Hongkong Land’s port divisions.

“We can directly address the pain points. How can we optimize the matching of shipping routes and berths? How can we seamlessly connect the transshipment of bulk cargo? How can we integrate our information systems?

“The goals should be clear: reduce overall logistics costs by at least fifteen percent and increase turnover efficiency by twenty percent! Set hard targets and report back to the committee regularly!”

His thinking was clear, and he directly proposed a feasible concept.

Originally, both Hutchison and Hongkong Land controlled the most important terminals in Hong Kong, with their own facilities in places like Kwai Chung.

Now that Hutchison had been acquired by their Boss, Lin Haoran, their combined market share of the terminals was even greater.

Ma Shimin responded immediately, saying with admiration, “Mr. Willie has spoken my mind! The biggest headache in shipping is port congestion! If we can use Hutchison’s world-class hub ports with priority and assurance, combined with IT support, the benefits will be immediate!

“This group must be launched immediately! My people are on call anytime!”

“Resource sharing is key, but resource allocation must also follow rules to avoid conflict.”

Ho Sin Hang, Chairman of Hang Seng Bank, pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, displaying a banker’s meticulousness. “I propose that the committee quickly establishes a ‘Guideline for Internal Group Resource Synergy and Settlement’.

“Whether it’s inter-company loans, property leasing, logistics services, or joint procurement, there must be a clear, transparent, and market-based internal pricing mechanism and settlement process.

“For instance, if Hang Seng provides financing to other group companies, the interest rate can be preferential, but there must be a benchmark, a process. It can’t become a messy account or a disguised blood transfusion.

“This requires the committee to authorize the establishment of a finance and risk control group to formulate the details and supervise implementation.”

He knew very well that only with clear rules could resource sharing be sustainable and internal conflicts avoided.

“Mr. He is absolutely right! No rules, no order!” Chen Shoulin of the Hongkong Electric Group expressed his strong agreement.

“Take my new town development project, for example. I need to bring in anchor stores like Wellcome and ParknShop from Hongkong Land and Hutchison to drive traffic. I also need convenient community financial services from the Hengsheng Group, and even support from Hutchison’s and Hongkong Land’s port freight capacity and Kowloon Motor Bus’s transportation network.

“If there were a clear synergy mechanism and settlement standard, our negotiation efficiency would be ten times higher, and the project would advance much faster!”

He saw the huge dividends of synergy.

Willie also found another point to contribute. “Exactly! The procurement side is a goldmine for synergy! Consider the daily consumables and logistics distribution for the dozens of supermarket stores under my management.

“If, under the committee’s coordination, we can engage in large-scale joint procurement or shared warehousing and distribution with other companies within the committee that have relevant resource advantages—like Green Island Cement’s warehousing, or potential synergies with Dairy Farm International’s retail in the future—the cost advantages will be enormous!

“I suggest we set up a ‘Supply Chain Optimization Group’ to specifically dig into this potential!” He was already rapidly calculating the possibilities of shared cold chains for fresh produce and regional warehousing.

Ma Shimin, as the interim committee head, quickly jotted down key points while skillfully guiding and summarizing the discussion. “Excellent! Committee member Willie’s suggestion for specialized groups directly addresses business pain points and is clearly goal-oriented.

“Committee member Ho Sin Hang’s proposal for rules first and financial transparency is the cornerstone of synergy. And the ideas for procurement and project synergy are concrete ways to achieve resource integration.

“These are all top priorities for the committee’s initial work.”

He looked to Lin Haoran for instructions. “Boss, I propose the committee’s first official meeting be held within a week. The primary agenda items would be: First, to review and approve the committee’s charter.

“Second, to establish the first three specialized working groups, such as the Port and Logistics Synergy Group, the Finance, Risk Control, and Settlement Rules Group, and the Supply Chain Optimization Group, along with their lead committee members, core members, initial goals, and timelines.

“Third, to begin drafting the framework for the ‘Virtual Restricted Stock Granting and Management Regulations’ and the ‘TUP Plan Implementation Details’. We will strive to produce preliminary results for the group’s work and rule-making within three months.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly, a look of approval on his face. “Your thinking is very clear, Shimin. Proceed in this direction. You will be fully responsible for organizing the drafting of the charter and matters related to the groups for deliberation at the next meeting.

“As for the details of the incentive plan…” His eyes swept over the others. “The principles are: the rewards must be substantial, the standards must be high, the rules must be transparent, and the assessments must be strict.

“Ma Shimin will coordinate the drafting of the plan. Ho Sin Hang’s financial team, along with the group’s core finance and legal departments, will be deeply involved. It must be fair, just, scientific, reasonable, and able to withstand the test of time and the market.

“During the drafting process, fully listen to the opinions of all committee members. I will make the final decision.”

“Understood!” Ma Shimin and Ho Sin Hang replied in unison, feeling the weight of the responsibility.

“Additionally, the committee’s operations must be efficient and confidential! All discussions and draft resolutions are to be known only to the committee members here and authorized staff.

“To the public, the existence and goals of the Galaxy Strategic Development Committee can be disclosed appropriately to showcase the group’s strength and advanced governance. But the specific operational details, discussion content, and undisclosed strategic initiatives must be kept strictly confidential!

“Anyone who leaks information, regardless of their position, will be considered to have betrayed the collective interests of Galaxy and will be punished severely!”

An invisible pressure instantly filled the meeting room.

“Yes!” the six responded solemnly. Even Willie, the president of Hutchison Whampoa who had only recently joined, felt the gravity of the trust placed in them and the thunderous power of Lin Haoran’s authority.

The meeting lasted a full three hours.

The initial shock had long since transformed into a surging energy of constructive ideas.

The members continued to enthusiastically discuss potential points of synergy, potential risks, the establishment of an information-sharing platform, the frequency of committee meetings… Ideas clashed intensely, sending sparks flying.

A super-brain, unprecedented in the Asian corporate world and designed to unify the power of a vast commercial empire, gradually took on a clear outline and a complete structure through the heated discussion.

The golden glow of the setting sun shone through the massive windows, bathing the meeting room in a warm, golden hue.

Lin Haoran looked at his top lieutenants on both sides of the long table, still deep in discussion, their eyes filled with excitement and a sense of mission.

He lifted the bone china teacup in his hand, which held perfectly warm Longjing tea. He took a light sip, the crisp fragrance of the tea filling his mouth.

A sense of relaxed control, of handling everything with ease, mingled with a warm current of accomplishment and anticipation, slowly flowed through his heart.

The great ship of the Galaxy Strategic development Committee had weighed anchor.

The golden threads of virtual equity had bound the core team tightly.

The blueprint for the top-level design was laid out.

Six brilliant, incredibly loyal, top-tier minds, under Ma Shimin’s coordination, would now drive his vast commercial empire to operate efficiently toward a common goal.

The realm of the hands-off manager was not about truly letting go, but about precisely fitting the sharpest blades into a sheath of his own design, ready to cut through any obstacle on the path ahead with a single command.

Lin Haoran set down his teacup. His gaze fell upon the Victoria Harbour outside the window, a landscape that was about to be reshaped by the power of “Galaxy.” A profound, masterful curve formed on his lips.

The board was set, the pieces were in place. The hand of the player only needed to make a gentle move from the clouds.

Chapter 767: Finding a Reason to Acquire Land

The establishment of the Galaxy Strategic Development Committee put Lin Haoran more at ease about the development of his companies.

In truth, he had another wholly-owned enterprise that could be included: the Southland Corporation in the United States, which he had acquired earlier.

Southland Corporation now owned 7-Eleven and Lawson, the world’s top two convenience store giants.

In fact, the number of stores for these two brands had already surpassed ten thousand back in July, and their global influence was growing by the day.

However, the headquarters for both convenience store chains were temporarily located in Tokyo. With Southland Corporation’s president, Suzuki Toshifumi, also based in Tokyo, the move was simply to allow the two brands to expand their store presence in Japan more quickly and generate more profit.

After all, in this era, Japan was the most suitable place in all of Asia for convenience store expansion.

Globally, both 7-Eleven and Lawson had the highest concentration of stores in Japan. Moving their headquarters at this time would be detrimental to their continued expansion there.

As for future plans, he intended to move the Southland Corporation headquarters to Hong Kong.

If Southland’s president, Suzuki Toshifumi, could join the Galaxy Strategic Development Committee, Lin Haoran’s companies would be able to share resources and coordinate their efforts more efficiently.

However, letting Southland Corporation develop independently wouldn’t have a significant impact either. At most, it would just mean that committee head Ma Shimin would have to communicate more with Suzuki Toshifumi.

If there were any issues they couldn’t handle, Lin Haoran would simply deal with them himself.

In any case, Southland Corporation was now his wholly-owned company, so he had the final say.

After a series of events, Lin Haoran was finally able to relax again.

On October 3rd, a powerful category 15 typhoon grazed past Hong Kong.

Even so, it brought immense damage to some of the more remote areas of Hong Kong.

Guangdong Province also suffered considerable losses.

As the chairman of the Lin Haoran Charitable Foundation, Guo Xiaohan became busy, traveling everywhere to build her fiancé’s reputation.

For example, in a certain fishing village on Lantau Island, dozens of houses were blown down by the typhoon. As the victims stared helplessly at the ruins, Guo Xiaohan appeared at the muddy village entrance with the foundation’s staff and vehicles laden with supplies.

She didn’t just make a symbolic appearance; she personally rolled up her sleeves and commanded with composure.

The foundation’s staff skillfully set up temporary relief stations, distributing clean drinking water, food, medicine, and warm blankets.

For the villagers whose homes had collapsed, the foundation provided emergency aid funds on the spot to help them through the difficult time and promised to participate in the post-disaster reconstruction efforts.

She did not mention Lin Haoran’s name excessively, but everyone knew that this beautiful and capable Mrs. Lin represented the goodwill of that young tycoon who had risen to prominence in recent years, with a business empire spanning the globe.

“Mr. and Mrs. Lin are so kind-hearted,” said an elderly woman who had been rescued, holding Guo Xiaohan’s hand with moist eyes.

This sentiment quickly spread throughout the disaster-stricken areas. Coupled with the foundation’s tangible assistance, Lin Haoran’s reputation among the populace quietly soared.

The Hong Kong media naturally wouldn’t miss such news.

The next day, several major newspapers published photos of Guo Xiaohan busy in the disaster zone, with headlines like “Business Magnate Shows Concern for Disaster Area, Lin Haoran Foundation Provides Typhoon Relief.”

The reports detailed the supplies and funds donated by the foundation, giving high praise to its efficient, practical, and compassionate relief efforts.

Lin Haoran also saw these reports at his home on Severn Road.

He put down the newspaper, a faint, almost imperceptible smile playing on his lips.

Guo Xiaohan’s actions had indeed earned him an excellent social reputation, something more effective at winning people’s hearts than any advertisement.

Entrusting the charitable foundation to Guo Xiaohan was a move Lin Haoran was extremely pleased with. Not only did it keep Guo Xiaohan from interfering with his business, but it also ensured her business talents were not wasted.

She not only managed the foundation’s daily operations in an orderly fashion but also knew how to convert this goodwill into the most powerful endorsement for the corporate image and Lin Haoran’s personal reputation.

Her performance during this typhoon was perfect proof.

In the future, if Guo Xiaohan wanted to go into business, the charitable foundation could serve as an excellent starting point and platform.

This platform could not only accumulate valuable social prestige and connections but also hone her efficient organizational management and resource allocation skills through repeated philanthropic activities.

In a commercial society like Hong Kong, pure charity was certainly valuable, but the ability to continuously empower charity through business means, creating a virtuous cycle, was the key to long-term success.

In addition to the local disaster areas in Hong Kong, some regions in Guangdong Province were also severely affected. Lin Haoran had urgently allocated ten million Hong Kong dollars for relief.

Although ten million Hong Kong dollars might not seem like a lot, given the purchasing power of the era, it was a huge sum.

After handling the situation in Hong Kong’s disaster zones, Guo Xiaohan would find time to visit the affected areas in Guangdong Province.

This time, Lin Haoran would not accompany her. A professional team would be with her once she arrived anyway.

Additionally, he had specially dispatched two elite female bodyguards from Universe Security Company to be responsible for all of Guo Xiaohan’s security matters.

These two bodyguards were agile, quick-witted, and meticulous. They could provide comprehensive protection without excessively interfering with Guo Xiaohan’s daily work and social activities.

With Guo Xiaohan once again heading to Mainland China, Lin Haoran found some peace and quiet.

So much had happened recently.

First, Li Jiacheng had colluded with the Kadoorie family, Jardine Matheson & Co., and Standard Chartered Bank to launch a sudden attack on his companies.

Then he counterattacked, easily defeating the alliance and causing the Kadoorie family to lose their controlling stake in The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels.

After that, Li Jiacheng initiated a supermarket price war. In response, Lin Haoran made a move, not only becoming the largest shareholder of Hutchison but also causing Li Jiacheng’s shareholder allies to betray Cheung Kong and sell their shares to him, bringing his stake in Cheung Kong close to Li Jiacheng’s.

Finally, he forced Li Jiacheng to not only give up Hutchison but also to proactively concede, leading to the two sides shaking hands and making peace.

Lin Haoran was not one to offend others lightly, but if someone offended him, he would retaliate with swift and decisive measures until the opponent paid a heavy price and completely surrendered.

Li Jiacheng’s case was the best proof.

This series of thunderous actions not only solidified his business empire but also established his unchallengeable authority in the Hong Kong business community.

As for Standard Chartered Bank, it too paid a heavy price.

Its subsidiary, HSBC, having now lost two major clients in Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa, was left with only small and medium-sized clients. Its business volume plummeted, and its reputation took a considerable hit.

Although it could still operate on its century-old foundation, it had fallen out of the top tier of Hong Kong’s banking industry, its glory days now behind it.

As the parent company, Standard Chartered Bank was naturally affected by HSBC’s troubles, suffering惨重 losses.

These were the consequences of offending Lin Haoran.

He never showed mercy to any business enemy!

As for Jardine Matheson & Co., they had fled quickly and now had little business in Hong Kong, so Lin Haoran couldn’t do much to them for the time being.

However, Lin Haoran would not let Jardine Matheson off the hook in the future.

He had already driven them out of Hong Kong, yet they still returned to stir up trouble. The feud between them was now set in stone.

Lin Haoran had always believed in an eye for an eye. Since Jardine Matheson remained unrepentant, he wouldn’t be polite. It was just that the time was not yet ripe, so he would keep a record of this debt for now.

He still remembered when he was in Japan last time, using 7-Eleven to expand. Jardine Matheson had tried to get involved, wanting to invest capital in Lawson to compete against 7-Eleven.

Although they ultimately failed, and Lawson was instead acquired by Lin Haoran, he had also remembered this grudge.

As a global enterprise, although Jardine Matheson had withdrawn from the Hong Kong market, it still had extensive business operations in Southeast Asia, Britain, and across the globe.

Sooner or later, Lin Haoran’s companies would cross paths with Jardine Matheson again. When that time came, he would make them pay back in full.

In any case, he had already driven them out of Hong Kong. All in all, their losses were greater, while Lin Haoran had suffered no losses at all.

For now, he had more important things to deal with. As for Jardine Matheson, he would let them be arrogant for a while longer.

They shouldn’t think that just because they had relocated from Hong Kong, Lin Haoran couldn’t touch them.

Now that the dust had settled and his powerful enemies had submitted, the rare moment of peace actually made Lin Haoran feel a bit unaccustomed.

He stood in the study of his Severn Road mansion, looking down at the gradually revitalizing Victoria Harbour, his mind already planning the next phase of his game.

The reconciliation with Li Jiacheng was not simply about burying the hatchet; it signified that the preliminary integration of Hong Kong’s local business landscape was complete.

His businesses in real estate, ports, retail, energy, and telecommunications had already formed a powerful synergistic effect, with a deep and unshakeable foundation.

So, where would the next growth point be?

The answer was obvious—advancing his layout in Mainland China and pursuing globalization.

However, these plans were already in motion. He, Lin Haoran, already had industries in Europe and America, Southeast Asia, Japan, and even Mainland China.

At nine in the morning on October 5th, Lin Haoran made a special trip to the Central Ferry Piers to see Guo Xiaohan off.

Watching the hydrofoil’s silhouette depart from the pier, Lin Haoran did not head to the Connaught Centre.

There was nothing that required his personal attention for the time being.

Back in the car, Lin Haoran thought for a moment and said to Li Weidong in the driver’s seat, “Let’s go. Take a trip to Shaw Studios.”

Two days ago, his father, Lin Wan’an, had called to tell him that the Shaw Brothers Film Company had been completely privatized and asked him to visit the company when he had time.

Although he had bought this company for his father, Lin Wan’an, to play with, the actual controlling stake was still in his name, Lin Haoran’s.

This was because, for Lin Wan’an, having it under his name was meaningless.

He had been in business his whole life, and now that his health had improved, he was simply unable to sit idle in retirement, so he was just looking for something to do.

So, overall, the Shaw Brothers Film Company he had acquired was actually Lin Haoran’s personal asset.

After the typhoon, it had rained in Hong Kong for another two days. Even today, the sky was still overcast.

The motorcade headed towards Clearwater Bay Tai Po Tsai, the wheels rolling over the wet road, splashing up tiny droplets of water.

Although Shaw Studios in Clearwater Bay Tai Po Tsai was remote, it had concrete roads, so the journey wasn’t muddy.

Previously, Shao Yifu had sold the land of the Clearwater Bay studio to TVB for a symbolic low price, while the Shaw Brothers Film Company, acquired by the Lam family, was granted nearly permanent, free usage rights.

To Lin Haoran, this seemed more like Shao Yifu finding a reliable home for this base that had carried countless cinematic dreams, a way to ensure its life could continue.

Nowadays, Shao Yifu’s focus had long since shifted to TVB, and the market share of Shaw Brothers Film Company in Hong Kong and even Southeast Asia was dwindling.

Moreover, Shao Yifu was not optimistic about the future of the film market, which had already made him consider exiting the industry.

This was the main reason Lin Haoran was able to persuade Shao Yifu to sell the Shaw Brothers Film Company to the Lam family.

At the studio gate, the security guards, who had already been notified, respectfully let them pass. These guards were dispatched from Universe Security Company; they were his own people.

After the car stopped, Lin Haoran got out. The scene before him was slightly dated but grand in scale. Nestled between the mountains and the sea of Clearwater Bay were scattered streetscapes from different dynasties, Republican-era Western-style buildings, and even Southeast Asian-style courtyards.

But at this moment, without the clamor of people and bustling film crews, it seemed somewhat empty and desolate.

This was Lin Haoran’s first time here.

“Haoran, over here!” Lin Wan’an’s voice came from the set of a replica ancient palace.

Dressed in casual clothes and looking hale and hearty, he was standing with a middle-aged man in a suit and gold-rimmed glasses, pointing at some blueprints.

Seeing his son, a smile appeared on Lin Wan’an’s face, and he walked over to greet him.

“Dad.” Lin Haoran nodded, his gaze sweeping over the middle-aged man. “And this is?”

Lin Wan’an introduced him enthusiastically, “This is Mr. Zou Zhenbang, whom I’ve mentioned to you. He worked at Shaw’s for several years, then spent a few years in Hollywood. He just came back in July. He’s very experienced and an expert in studio management and production processes. Sir Run Run Shaw also recommended him.”

“Mr. Lin, a pleasure to meet you!” Zou Zhenbang quickly took a step forward and bowed slightly, his attitude respectful yet capable. “I have long heard of your great name. It is an honor to finally meet you today.”

Lin Haoran shook his hand and smiled, “You’re too kind, Mr. Zou. My father’s involvement in the film industry is driven by interest, and his experience is still limited. The future restructuring and development of Shaw’s will rely heavily on the efforts of professionals like yourself.”

The group walked into a nearby office.

Previously, Lin Haoran had actually considered poaching a senior professional manager from Hollywood to assist his father, Lin Wan’an. However, considering the vast differences between the Hong Kong and Hollywood film markets, he ultimately decided to find suitable local talent.

This Zou Zhenbang, having earned both Shao Yifu’s recommendation and his father’s approval, coupled with his familiarity with the Hong Kong market and experience in Hollywood, must have his own extraordinary merits.

“You’re too kind, Mr. Lin. It is truly my honor to be able to work for you and Mr. Lin Senior,” Zou Zhenbang said with a humble posture and respectful words.

Although he had only recently returned from the United States, he was very well-informed about Lin Haoran’s general situation. In Hong Kong, Lin Haoran had long since become a well-known public figure.

The young man before him was a super-rich magnate in Hong Kong’s business world, with extensive connections and immense power. Even the likes of Jardine Matheson, HSBC, and Standard Chartered were merely his defeated opponents.

To be able to associate with such a business titan was, for him, an incredibly rare blessing.

Lin Haoran didn’t waste time with pleasantries. His eyes fell on the blueprints in Lin Wan’an’s hands. “Is this the renovation plan for the studio?”

“A preliminary concept,” Lin Wan’an said, spreading the blueprints on a nearby workbench, his eyes filled with excitement. “Haoran, look. Although this plot of land will belong to TVB in the future, we have long-term free usage rights, which is our biggest advantage. Shaw’s permanent copyrights to those six or seven hundred films are a gold mine. Mr. Zou suggests that the first step is to completely renovate the studio’s hardware.”

The blueprints were clearly marked: repair the dilapidated soundstages, bring in the most advanced lighting and sound recording equipment; renovate some of the old sets to make them more versatile for different scenes; clean up and organize the vast prop warehouse and establish a modern rental system; and upgrade the employee dormitories and canteen to attract and retain talent.

Lin Haoran didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he recalled the overall view of the studio he had seen on his way in.

Indeed, the current Shaw Studios looked somewhat rundown.

Having been put into use in 1961, the Clearwater Bay Shaw Studios had now been in operation for a full twenty years.

“It must cost a lot of money to completely renovate it, right?” Lin Haoran commented casually.

“Indeed. Besides renovations, some sets are outdated and need expansion. The final estimate is around ten to twenty million Hong Kong dollars. Hardware investment is fundamental; this money can’t be scrimped on,” Zou Zhenbang said.

Lin Haoran nodded, thought for a moment, and then said, “In my opinion, this studio is completely outdated. Except for the basic building structures, everything else needs to be replaced. Even the buildings themselves need repairs. Why don’t we choose another location and build a larger, more technologically advanced studio? Clearwater Bay Tai Po Tsai is too far out and inconvenient. I suggest building the new studio in Tseung Kwan O. They’re already developing a new town there, so its future prospects will be great.”

In fact, even if Lin Haoran hadn’t brought it up, Shao Yifu would have eventually chosen a new site in the future, and that new studio was indeed located in Tseung Kwan O.

Hearing Lin Haoran’s words, Lin Wan’an and Zou Zhenbang were slightly taken aback, then fell into deep thought.

Lin Wan’an was the first to speak. “Haoran, that’s a novel idea, but building a new studio at a different location involves significant costs and risks.”

Zou Zhenbang nodded in agreement. “Mr. Lin, although Tseung Kwan O is currently under development, its surrounding infrastructure and industry atmosphere are far from matching Clearwater Bay. Moreover, building a new studio, from planning to operation, will take a long time. During this period, Shaw Brothers’ film business could be affected. Most importantly, even without considering the cost of the land, the construction costs alone could reach over one hundred million Hong Kong dollars. Building from scratch on a mountainside would be extremely expensive.”

“No, we can still use the Shaw Studios here. Before the new studio is completed, our operations will remain here. This was part of my agreement with Sixth Uncle. We have permanent usage rights to this studio, and it’s more than enough for our film company’s needs until the new one is built,” Lin Haoran said with a wave of his hand and a smile.

A hundred million Hong Kong dollars?

To him, that really wasn’t a large sum of money.

Moreover, this was a great opportunity for hoarding land.

Without a suitable reason, it would be quite difficult to hoard a plot of land as large as a film studio.

For instance, this studio in Clearwater Bay Tai Po Tsai occupied an area of 650,000 square feet.

So, if my new studio occupies one or two million square feet, that wouldn’t be excessive, would it?

Hong Kong was, after all, a place where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold. Even in suburban areas like Tai Po, Clearwater Bay, or Tseung Kwan O, future land prices would be ridiculously high. It was difficult to acquire million-square-meter plots of land as one could in Mainland China.

Although his companies like Hongkong Land Group, Wanqing Group, Hongkong Electric Group, and Hutchison Whampoa had already hoarded a lot of land—for example, the plot at Whampoa Dockyard was priceless—Lin Haoran would never think he had too much land.

While land prices were still low, it was naturally for the best to hoard as much as possible.

Lin Haoran’s proposal to “build a new studio in Tseung Kwan O” left both Lin Wan’an and Zou Zhenbang utterly shocked.

Zou Zhenbang was the first to recover from the shock. He frowned slightly, calculating the feasibility.

“Mr. Lin, I’ve been to Tseung Kwan O. The area is large enough, it’s coastal, and the long-term prospects are indeed good. But as you said, the costs will be high and the timeframe long. It can’t be accomplished overnight. A conservative estimate, from land acquisition, planning, and construction to equipment installation and commissioning, would take at least three to five years. If you factor in the value of the land, the investment could run into the hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars.”

Lin Wan’an’s face was also filled with solemnity and hesitation.

He had taken over Shaw’s to fulfill a youthful dream about movies and to find something to do to channel his energy. He had envisioned making some improvements within the existing framework and producing a few good films. He had never imagined engaging in such “large-scale construction.”

“Haoran, is this… a burden too heavy to bear?” He looked at his son, his tone seeking confirmation. “Shaw’s is waiting to be rebuilt. The top priority is to stabilize morale and restore production capacity. Renovating the Clearwater Bay studio would save time and effort and solve the immediate crisis. Why take the longer, riskier path of building a brand new one? Besides, is the film industry really worth such a heavy investment? You yourself have said it’s not a high-profit industry.”

Lin Haoran leaned back on the sofa, perfectly composed.

He gently waved his hand, interrupting his father’s concerns. “Dad, Mr. Zou, I understand your worries. But you have to look at the long term, and more importantly, the overall trend.”

He stood up, walked to the window, and pointed at the somewhat dated soundstages and sets within the studio. “Renovating Clearwater Bay is just patching things up. At best, it maintains the status quo, or perhaps just delays the decline. But in Tseung Kwan O, what we’re going to build is not another Shaw Studios, but an ‘Eastern Hollywood’—a base that will lead the Chinese language film industry for the next thirty years!”

“The film industry itself may not be the most profitable, but its influence, its reach, and especially its potential to integrate with television, music, and even technology in the future, are immeasurable. As Hong Kong’s economy takes off, the public’s demand for cultural consumption will inevitably surge. The film market will only get bigger. More importantly, what will be the future value of that barren coastal land in Tseung Kwan O? Acquiring it now is an excellent land reserve! While the new studio is being built, Clearwater Bay can continue to be used without any interruption. This is both a strategic layout in the cultural industry and a prime real estate investment. Take a long-term view, and this deal is definitely worth it.”

Lin Wan’an and Zou Zhenbang were gradually lost in thought as Lin Haoran spoke.

Seeing this, Lin Haoran smiled and continued, “As for a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars? You both know that’s not a problem for me. I have a lot of surplus capital that needs to be invested. Rather than letting it sit idle in the bank, it’s better to invest it in a project like this that can create long-term value and has strategic significance.”

The certainty in Lin Haoran’s tone and his abundant financial resources and confidence made the last traces of doubt in Lin Wan’an and Zou Zhenbang’s minds vanish completely.

That’s right. The man before them was someone who could deploy billions of dollars to create tumultuous waves in the business world. An investment of a few hundred million Hong Kong dollars truly wouldn’t be a crippling blow to him.

Zou Zhenbang’s eyes instantly blazed with passion.

He had originally thought he was just here to help a rich man’s son manage a declining old film company, maintain operations, and produce a few blockbusters at most.

He never expected Lin Haoran’s ambition and methods to be so grand. This wasn’t minor repairs; this was about creating a behemoth of the film industry!

For an ambitious professional manager like him, this was undoubtedly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Zou Zhenbang stood up excitedly, his voice filled with irrepressible excitement. “Mr. Lin, you are truly far-sighted! It was I who was short-sighted! If we can really build a modern, state-of-the-art studio in Tseung Kwan O, one that leads all of Asia, it will play a decisive role in attracting top talent, producing big-budget, high-quality films, and even competing with Hollywood in the future. I fully support this plan!”

Seeing his son’s confidence and hearing such high praise from a professional, Lin Wan’an’s hesitation turned into support.

Chapter 768: An Invitation from the Mainland, Preparing for Beijing!

The sea breeze blew through the half-open window, churning the aroma of tea in the meeting room.

Lin Haoran had just used his “Eastern Hollywood” blueprint to persuade Lin Wan’an and Zou Zhenbang to support the new Tseung Kwan O studio plan. As the three of them stood up, the sound of collapsing bamboo scaffolding and a director’s furious shouts suddenly came from outside.

Lin Haoran’s gaze shifted towards the source of the noise. He smiled and said, “Mr. Zou, since we have time today, why don’t you show me around the studio? Before we fill the old bottle with new wine, we should at least taste what’s left of the old.”

“Haoran, you go ahead and take a look. I have some work to handle,” Lin Wan’an said with a nod.

“A wise decision, Mr. Lin!” Zou Zhenbang quickly bowed and led the way, his tone tinged with reverence for his new master. “They’re shooting a film set in the Republican era over there. It’s normal for the bamboo scaffolding to collapse; it’s all built temporarily for the shoot!”

Lin Haoran nodded but didn’t reply, walking straight out of the office.

In Studio 3 of Shaw Studios’ Area B, the climactic scene of TVB’s annual epic, Love in the Flames of War, was being filmed.

The set was a war-torn street in the Republican era. The female lead, Wang Mingquan, dressed in a simple qipao with her hair disheveled, lay amidst the rubble, sobbing, “Ah Jie, you promised you would take me away…”

The camera pushed in for a close-up, the despair in her eyes almost tangible.

Clearly, the actress was now completely in character.

“Cut! Ah-je, your emotion was spot on. Get ready to keep…” The director hadn’t finished his sentence when the studio door creaked open.

Zou Zhenbang stood aside respectfully as Lin Haoran stepped inside.

At the sound, everyone’s gaze turned to Lin Haoran, and the studio fell into a dead silence.

Wang Mingquan’s sobs caught in her throat, a tear hanging on her cheek, refusing to fall.

She forgot her lines, forgot the director, and simply stared at the entrance. Who in Hong Kong didn’t recognize this business hegemon who had swept over Jardine Matheson and trampled HSBC?

The lighting technician’s reflector clattered to the ground, and the stuntmen froze like clay statues.

Director Chen Qingwen’s mind buzzed. He instinctively shot up from his chair and practically jogged over, wiping his hands on his trousers again and again before extending them. “Mr… Mr. Lin! Your esteemed presence truly graces our humble home! This… this is an honor for us!”

Lin Haoran’s gaze swept over Wang Mingquan. He smiled and said, “Sorry to interrupt. You’re Wang Mingquan, right? Your acting is excellent.”

This was the first time Lin Haoran had watched a film crew at work. Seeing the actors’ dedication and the realistic set, he felt a flicker of unique interest.

These were real actors. Compared to them, the pretty boys of later generations were all looks and no substance, their acting skills as fragile as paper lanterns, easily pierced.

Lin Haoran lamented inwardly, his gaze lingering on Wang Mingquan for a moment longer.

Though tear-streaked, the sorrow and resilience emanating from her very bones seemed to perfectly portray the helplessness and deep affection of a woman in the chaotic Republican era.

The tear tracks on Wang Mingquan’s cheeks were still wet, but a blush had already risen. Her fingertips unconsciously clutched the hem of her qipao. A single word of praise from him was worth more than ten years of toiling on set!

Lin Haoran was a major shareholder and the Vice Chairman of TVB. It wasn’t that Wang Mingquan had never seen him at the TVB building, but she could only watch the Hong Kong business tycoon from a distance, never daring to approach and greet him. She knew they were not from the same world.

Wang Mingquan was the first to react. She hastily wiped the tears from her face, stood up, and tried to maintain her elegance despite her flustered state.

She gave a slight bow. “Mr. Lin, I’m so sorry. I was too engrossed in my role just now and didn’t notice you come in.”

Her voice carried a tremor of nervousness. After all, the man before her was a figure who could wield great power and influence in the business world, someone she typically only saw in financial news, who had now suddenly appeared in this small film studio.

Lin Haoran waved his hand, his smile gentle. “It’s no matter. It’s a good thing for an actor to be engrossed in their role. That’s how you get a realistic and moving performance.”

His words eased the tense atmosphere on set, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

A few young actresses playing bit parts as dance hall girls stood on their tiptoes, craning their necks like swans, hoping his gaze would linger on them for just another second.

Seeing this, Chen Qingwen hurried over, his face wreathed in smiles. “Director Lin, it’s rare for you to visit. How about I give you a detailed introduction to our production? This is TVB’s flagship drama of the year. Everything from the script to the cast has been meticulously crafted.”

Lin Haoran nodded and walked aside with Chen Qingwen.

Chen Qingwen began to speak animatedly, describing the dramatic plot twists, the actors’ brilliant performances, and the various interesting anecdotes from the filming process.

Lin Haoran listened quietly, occasionally asking a question, which Chen Qingwen answered in detail, not daring to show the slightest neglect.

Not far away, Wang Mingquan and the other actors began whispering among themselves.

Lin Haoran! He had just recently wrested the famous Hutchison Whampoa from Li Jiacheng and had also become the Vice Chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings. The drama in the business world was far more exciting than the shows they were filming.

“Alright, you can all continue with your work. My presence here is holding up your progress,” Lin Haoran said after inspecting the set. He waved his hand and left the film crew.

Zou Zhenbang had been on the job for some time, and with his many years of prior experience at Shaw Brothers Film Company, he knew the studio like the back of his hand.

After leaving the Love in the Flames of War set, Zou Zhenbang talked animatedly as they walked.

They moved to the wuxia set in Area A, and a wave of heat washed over them the moment the door opened.

Shaw’s blockbuster production, Chu Liuxiang, was being filmed. Zheng Shaoqiu, dressed in white and holding a folding fan, descended gracefully on a wire, pointing his sword at the villain. “You petty villains, are you worthy of crossing swords with me?”

Before he could finish, his peripheral vision caught sight of Lin Haoran, and he actually stumbled.

“Chau-goon!” the martial arts director, Cheng Xiaodong, exclaimed as he rushed to support him.

But Zheng Shaoqiu paid no mind to his discomposure. He straightened his sleeve and hurried forward to bow. “Mr. Lin!” His eyes were filled with reverence, as if he were seeing a god.

Cheng Xiaodong followed close behind, his Adam’s apple bobbing nervously. This was the boss who had dared to fire Richard Lee on the spot—a formidable character!

Lin Haoran’s gaze swept across the set and suddenly settled on a corner.

A young woman in a coarse martial artist’s uniform was secretly watching him.

She was about sixteen or seventeen, her ponytail damp with sweat and stuck to the side of her neck. Her face still had some baby fat, but her almond-shaped eyes were astonishingly bright. It was Yang Ziqiong, the future martial arts superstar of Hong Kong!

When she saw Lin Haoran looking over, her breathing quickened, and she “accidentally” pulled open her collar, revealing a patch of honey-colored shoulder as she leaned forward like a young leopardess waiting to hunt.

That naked ambition was more scorching than the dry ice fog hanging from the studio ceiling!

This was quite normal, after all. This was the famous Hong Kong tycoon Lin Haoran. If she really caught his eye, she wouldn’t have to worry about the rest of her life.

Just as Zou Zhenbang was about to reprimand her, Lin Haoran raised a hand to stop him. “Good potential.”

These two words were like sweet rain. Yang Ziqiong trembled, her eyes bursting with ecstatic light!

Lin Haoran knew that this young woman would become a superstar in the Chinese-speaking world; she certainly had acting talent.

Unfortunately, Yang Ziqiong was not his type.

Therefore, even though her eyes were filled with expectation, Lin Haoran simply shifted his gaze away indifferently.

Cheng Xiaodong took the opportunity to show off his newly designed “bamboo building explosion scene.” The protagonist, pursued to the second floor, had to leap to a vendor stall across the way just as the explosive charge detonated.

“The explosive is a mix of potassium nitrate and sawdust. It’s completely safe.”

After hearing Cheng Xiaodong’s explanation of the explosion scene, Lin Haoran’s eyes fell on the carefully constructed bamboo building. He smiled and said, “Safety is paramount, but the effect can’t be compromised either. The placement of the charges is reasonable, but it seems to lack a bit of visual impact.”

Cheng Xiaodong was taken aback. He hadn’t expected Lin Haoran, an outsider to the industry, to understand these things.

He immediately asked for advice humbly, “Mr. Lin, how do you think it could be improved?”

Lin Haoran walked over to the bamboo building, inspected it carefully, and said, based on his knowledge from a future era, “You could add some colored confetti and smoke bombs to the charges. That way, when it explodes, it will not only create a more realistic chaotic scene but also add visual depth.”

Cheng Xiaodong’s eyes lit up, and he nodded repeatedly. “Now that you mention it, Mr. Lin, I have a new idea. You have a unique vision, getting straight to the heart of the matter.”

…

The entire Shaw Studios wasn’t particularly large. Including the inspection of several film crews, Lin Haoran and Zou Zhenbang had only been walking for just over an hour.

Before lunch, Lin Haoran returned to the studio’s administrative building.

As he passed an open-air rest area, he suddenly saw an elegant figure in a cream-colored trench coat standing before him. A young actress Lin Haoran didn’t recognize, who had evidently just removed her makeup, stood there, the tips of her hair still dripping with water.

She had clearly been waiting for him. Seeing Lin Haoran approach, she gave a graceful curtsey as the belt of her trench coat loosened, revealing a sliver of pale skin below her collarbone. “Mr. Lin, my name is Kally. It’s my good fortune to meet you today. I was wondering if…”

The look in her eyes made her intention to offer herself perfectly clear.

Lin Haoran didn’t break his stride, his gaze sweeping past her as if looking at an exquisite ornament.

She was indeed beautiful, a top-tier beauty.

However, he wasn’t the type of man who wanted every woman he saw.

Lin Haoran’s gaze rested on her face for a moment before he indifferently looked away and walked straight past her.

The actress named Kally froze on the spot, her fingers trembling beneath her trench coat.

She had meticulously planned this encounter for so long, yet she couldn’t even make him pause for a moment.

Zou Zhenbang hurried to catch up and whispered, “Mr. Lin, she’s a trainee from the newly signed artist training program. She’s quite a promising talent, would you like to…”

It was all too common for bosses to engage in the “unspoken rules” with actors, so Zou Zhenbang wasn’t surprised.

“No need,” Lin Haoran cut him off. “Focus on proper business. Starting tomorrow, overhaul the artist training program. I want to see genuinely talented people get opportunities, not those who take shortcuts.”

His voice wasn’t loud, but it made everyone in the rest area who had been eavesdropping hold their breath.

This single sentence crushed all foolish fantasies.

The young actress remained frozen, her nails digging into her palms, her face turning from flushed red to deathly pale in an instant.

Although Lin Haoran wasn’t in charge of Shaw Brothers’ affairs, he could still casually raise some issues.

Back in the Chairman’s office, Lin Wan’an was hunched over his desk, writing furiously, with stacks of documents piled high.

Behind him, the famous “SB” shield-shaped logo was very conspicuous.

This was the logo Shaw Brothers had used for many years and was a part of the childhood memories for many people from Mainland China born in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

Lin Haoran’s gaze lingered on the logo for a moment, and he couldn’t help but recall his own youth, renting Shaw Brothers wuxia films from video stores in his past life.

Seeing Lin Haoran enter, his father put down his pen, looked up, and smiled. “Haoran, how was the tour?”

“Dad, it was pretty good. Quite an eye-opener,” Lin Haoran said with a smile, pulling over a chair and sitting down.

Zou Zhenbang stood with his head bowed respectfully. “Mr. Lin has a discerning eye, even pointing out the flaws in the explosion scene…”

“Dad, about the name ‘Shaw’s,’ don’t you think we should change it?” Lin Haoran suddenly said with a smile.

No matter what, the Lam family had now acquired Shaw’s, so continuing to use the “Shaw’s” name was indeed inappropriate.

Lin Wan’an was slightly taken aback, then a thoughtful expression crossed his face. “Haoran has a point. But the ‘Shaw’s’ signboard has been established in the Hong Kong film industry for twenty-three years. A sudden name change might…”

Lin Haoran stood up, walked to the window, and looked out at the distant film sets. “It’s precisely because it has been in business for decades that it needs innovation. The name ‘Shaw’s’ carries too many marks of a bygone era. What we want to build is the ‘Eastern Hollywood’ of the future, so we need a fresh start.”

In this era, the ‘SB’ shield logo might just be an acronym for Shaw Brothers, but in another ten or twenty years, in the internet age, the combination of those two letters would take on a rather vulgar double meaning.

Lin Haoran thought of the jokes about the Shaw logo on the internet in his later life and couldn’t help but shake his head slightly.

Moreover, Shaw Brothers films were already in a state of terminal decline. There was no need to keep the old signboard.

Zou Zhenbang tentatively interjected, “Mr. Lin, changing the name is a major decision. Should we ask a Feng Shui master to pick an auspicious date?”

Lin Haoran turned and smiled. “My father can make the arrangements for this.”

He had helped his father acquire this film company, but he had no intention of managing it himself.

“Haoran, do you have any good suggestions?” Lin Wan’an asked.

Lin Haoran frowned in thought. After a moment, he said, “The new name should reflect our ambitions. How about ‘Media Asia Pictures’? Within the universe, the pinnacle of Asia.”

A film company called Media Asia would, in fact, be established in 1994, more than a decade later, and it would quickly become a leader in Chinese language film production and distribution in Hong Kong.

Now, it was quite fitting for Lin Haoran to use this name ahead of time.

“Media Asia Pictures.” Lin Wan’an repeated the name softly, a light of approval gradually appearing in his eyes. “Good! It’s grand and also aligns with our ambition to be based in Asia while looking to the world.”

Zou Zhenbang also nodded repeatedly. “A brilliant idea, Mr. Lin! The name is both grand and modern. It suits our future development better than ‘Shaw’s’.”

“Then it’s settled,” Lin Wan’an said decisively. “Mr. Zou, immediately begin the procedures for the name change. Also, inform the design department that I want to see a proposal for the new logo within three days.”

“Yes, sir!” Zou Zhenbang bowed and accepted the order.

After having lunch with his father, Lin Wan’an, in the company cafeteria at Shaw Studios, Lin Haoran left.

Lin Haoran never expected Shaw Brothers Film Company, soon to be renamed Media Asia Pictures, to make a huge profit. He just wanted to give his father, now in his sixties, a business to focus on, and incidentally, fulfill his own dream of making movies.

Of course, if Media Asia Pictures developed well in the future, even managing to expand beyond Asia and onto the world stage, his father, Lin Wan’an, would surely feel a greater sense of accomplishment.

Sitting in the car on the way back, Lin Haoran gazed out the window at the rapidly passing mountain scenery, a faint smile unconsciously playing on his lips.

The satisfaction of helping his father find a new purpose in his later years surpassed even the joy of acquiring Hutchison in his heart.

After all, the support and help his father had given him during the crucial start-up phase of his business empire had been indispensable.

Of course, if he had to start from scratch, he might have been able to build a successful career with his identity as a Transmigrator.

But to accumulate wealth on the current scale in just over three years would have been a fool’s dream, utterly impossible.

After a journey of nearly an hour, the car finally arrived at Connaught Centre from Shaw Studios in Clearwater Bay Tai Po Tsai.

The Eastern Harbour Crossing, connecting Quarry Bay in the Eastern District to Cha Kwo Ling in Kwun Tong, had not yet been built. Therefore, to get from Clearwater Bay in Sai Kung to Central, one had to take a detour through the Lion Rock Tunnel, which was indeed a long way.

Lin Haoran rubbed his slightly sore neck and took the elevator directly to the 51st floor.

Just as he walked into his office and sat down, Ma Shimin knocked and entered.

“Boss, your timing is perfect. I was just about to look for you!” Ma Shimin casually pulled up a chair and sat down, then said with a smile.

“What is it? How are the preparations for the Galaxy Strategic Development Committee coming along?” Lin Haoran asked.

“The Galaxy Strategic Development Committee is progressing well, nothing for you to worry about there for now. I came to see you because I have something important to tell you,” Ma Shimin said, placing an invitation card on the desk.

“This is an invitation card personally delivered by the Mainland’s representative in Hong Kong. He said it came from the north, inviting you to an economic symposium in Beijing this month. And from the representative’s tone, I could tell they place great importance on you. They hope you will definitely attend, Boss, as they have other important matters to discuss with you,” Ma Shimin said with a solemn expression.

Lin Haoran picked up the gold-stamped invitation. The red cover was printed with the national emblem. He opened it, and the signatory section was stamped with the seals of several major ministries.

His eyes narrowed slightly. This was a significant signal.

He had been to Mainland China several times, but always to Guangdong Province, since it was close by.

He had never been to Beijing.

Lin Haoran gently rubbed the raised national emblem on the invitation, a ripple stirring in his heart.

This trip to Beijing, he feared, wouldn’t be as simple as just attending a symposium.

Lin Haoran carefully put the invitation away and said, “Reply for me and say that I will attend on time. Also, prepare a proposal on economic cooperation between Hong Kong and the Mainland, focusing on our ideas for infrastructure construction and manufacturing upgrades.”

Ma Shimin understood. “I understand. The key is to show our sincerity towards the Mainland’s development.”

Lin Haoran nodded.

He wasn’t surprised by the invitation from Beijing.

In his heart, he had long known this was bound to happen.

If nothing else, nearly all the major Chinese business tycoons in Hong Kong had been invited to Beijing at some point.

Pao Yue-kong, for instance, had made multiple trips.

Now, he was an even more formidable presence in the business world than Pao Yue-kong, and he was investing heavily in Guangdong Province, supporting the Mainland’s economic Reform and Opening-up. Receiving such an invitation was to be expected.

“Boss, I heard this symposium will be a high-level one,” Ma Shimin lowered his voice. “Besides economic topics, they might also discuss the future of Hong Kong. In addition to you, Mr. Pao, Mr. Fok, Mr. Li, Mr. Kwok, and others are also on the invitation list.”

Lin Haoran nodded slightly.

He was, of course, aware of the special nature of this moment. The Sino-British negotiations were underway, and Hong Kong’s future was a sensitive topic for all parties involved.

However, Lin Haoran had no intention of getting too involved in politics.

He was just a businessman focused on economics; it was best to stay out of politics.

Lin Haoran pondered for a moment. “Prepare two sets of materials. One is the economic cooperation proposal, focusing on infrastructure and technology transfer. The other should just briefly touch on our views regarding Hong Kong’s stability. No need to delve too much into politics.”

“Understood,” Ma Shimin said, getting the message. “I’ll prepare it right away. I’ll make sure to show our sincerity while maintaining an appropriate distance.”

After Ma Shimin left, Lin Haoran stood alone before the floor-to-ceiling window.

Going to Beijing.

Come to think of it, he had never been to Beijing in his previous life.

He never imagined that in this life, he would be traveling to this ancient capital of a thousand years in the early 1980s.

It was the capital, after all. It would be a lie to say he didn’t yearn to see it.

Even if he wouldn’t settle there, it would be good to visit.

He returned to his seat and picked up the invitation again, carefully reading every word.

The gold-stamped national emblem gleamed under the light, and the names of the ministries on the signatory line underscored the weight of this invitation.

It turned out that, without realizing it, he had reached such a height.

Lin Haoran gently stroked the raised national emblem on the invitation, a curious feeling welling up in his heart.

Just over three years ago, he had just transmigrated, becoming the scion of an entry-level wealthy family in Hong Kong, fighting a battle of wits and courage with his older brother for the inheritance.

He never thought that in just over three years, he would receive a formal invitation from the Mainland to sit at the same table as those renowned business titans, and that his status and the treatment he received would subtly surpass those of his peers attending with him.

His mind couldn’t help but drift back to the predicament he was in when he was first reborn. At that time, he was filled with confusion about the unknown future, taking every step with extreme caution.

He also recalled the nervousness he felt when he first met Pao Yue-kong. Facing that legendary business figure, he could still clearly remember the cold sweat on his palms.

Then there were the harrowing scenes of the Hongkong Land Group acquisition, where every negotiation and every decision felt as perilous as walking a tightrope, where one misstep could have meant losing the entire game.

And he would never forget the cathartic thrill of wresting Hutchison Whampoa from the jaws of Li Jiacheng, a fierce contest against the business titan he was most familiar with from his previous life.

Along this journey, although he had gained many advantages by being prescient, the underlying hardship and pressure weighed on him like an invisible mountain. Only he could truly understand the hardships involved.

UNTITLED

Chapter 1: My Trusted Aides Are All Turncoats!

Chapter 2: To Follow Until Death, with Unwavering Loyalty

Chapter 3: Young Master, You Mustn’t!

Chapter 4: An Opportunity to Make Money Presents Itself

Chapter 5: Taking on Seven or Eight at Once is Nothing

Chapter 6: Brilliant, Truly Brilliant

Chapter 7: Just Ten Million? What Can That Do?

Chapter 8: I’d Like a Loan of Fifty Million

Chapter 9: You’re Afraid I Won’t Be Able to Repay It, Aren’t You?

Chapter 10: I Call the Shots Here in Hong Kong

Chapter 11: Employ with Trust, Not Suspicion

Chapter 12: The First Subordinate with Full Loyalty

Chapter 13: A Heartwarming Scene

Chapter 14: Lin Haoran’s Acquisition Target

Chapter 15: The Investigation’s Unexpected Results

Chapter 16: Making a Move
Chapter 17: The First Day’s Results
Chapter 18: Smoother Than Imagined

Chapter 19: Are You Really Not Going to Handle Things Over There?

Chapter 20: You’re Not Getting Any Younger, It’s Time You Got Married

Chapter 21: Uncle Pao, How About a Little Test?

Chapter 22: Became a Major Shareholder
Chapter 23: Devising a New Plan
Chapter 24: Hang Seng Bank
Chapter 25: A Pleasure Doing Business

Chapter 26: Dad, You Actually Invested in a Movie?

Chapter 27: Your Sunflower Seed Shell Fell on My Shoe

Chapter 28: Appearance is Righteousness

Chapter 29: Facing the Sea, with Spring Blossoms

Chapter 30: A Three-Million-Hong-Kong-Dollar Check

Chapter 31: Lin Haoning’s Worries
Chapter 32: A Great Gift for You
Chapter 33: An Unsatisfactory Harvest
Chapter 34: Assembling a Trading Team
Chapter 35: Four More Subordinates

Chapter 36: It’s Time to Formally Incorporate the Team

Chapter 37: A Competitor Appears
Chapter 38: This Game Has Become Interesting
Chapter 39: Mobilizing All Available Capital

Chapter 40: One Hundred Million in Debt, The Pressure is Immense

Chapter 41: A Collective Rise in Loyalty
Chapter 42: Fishing in Troubled Waters
Chapter 43: Reactions from All Sides

Chapter 44: Something’s Not Right with This Stock Market

Chapter 45: Let the Storm Rage Even Fiercer

Chapter 46: The Official Declaration of War Between Shipping Magnate Pao and Jardine Matheson

Chapter 47: Business is a Game of Chess

Chapter 48: The Market Value of Kowloon Wharf Shares Exceeds One Hundred Million

Chapter 49: The Shipping Magnate’s New Strategic Deployment

Chapter 50: She Came Willingly, How Could I Possibly Refuse?

Chapter 51: Starlight and City Lights Intertwine

Chapter 52: World-Wide Shipping Group Comes Knocking

Chapter 53: Tell Them to Have Mr. Pao Come and Negotiate in Person!

Chapter 54: What a Coincidence, We Meet Again
Chapter 55: Name Your Price
Chapter 56: Who Exactly Is That Competitor?
Chapter 57: One More Debt of Favor Won’t Hurt
Chapter 58: Superman Li’s Worries
Chapter 59: A Note on Going Premium
Chapter 60: What’s the Harm in Meeting?
Chapter 61: A Huge Profit of Seventy Million!

Chapter 62: Alerting HSBC’s Tai-pan, Michael Sandberg

Chapter 63: This Young Man is No Simple Character!

Chapter 64: Michael Sandberg’s Approval

Chapter 65: It’s Time to Take Control of Green Island Cement

Chapter 66: He Has Abundant Financial Strength?

Chapter 67: Plausible Nonsense

Chapter 68: Eyeing the Shares in Li Jiacheng’s Hands

Chapter 69: Horizons Broadened
Chapter 70: Not Just Anyone Can See Him
Chapter 71: The Unseen Contest
Chapter 72: Youth is the Best Disguise

Chapter 73: The Next Two Big Money-Making Plans

Chapter 74: Officially Appointed as Vice Chairman of Green Island Cement

Chapter 75: Identity Revealed
Chapter 76: Rebuttal
Chapter 77: Evergo Corporation?

Chapter 78: Recruiting a Future Tycoon as a Subordinate

Chapter 79: It’s Hard Not to Get Rich
Chapter 80: Small Investment, Big Return
Chapter 81: Clearing Obstacles
Chapter 82: The Entry Point
Chapter 83: Inside Information
Chapter 84: The Goal is Finally Reached
Chapter 85: Making History

Chapter 86: Setting Fire to the Finance Office

Chapter 87: This is Insane!

Chapter 88: Impossible, I’ll Lose Too Much!

Chapter 89: Forceful Takeover of Green Island Cement

Chapter 90: Press Conference

Chapter 91: How… How… How Can This Be?

Chapter 92: I Want to Be the God of Buying at the Bottom

Chapter 93: Creating a Trading Opportunity
Chapter 94: An Opportunity
Chapter 95: Visiting Shipping Magnate Pao
Chapter 96: Objective Achieved, It’s Settled
Chapter 97: Raising More Funds
Chapter 98: Time to Buy a Villa for Myself
Chapter 99: The New Factory in Kwun Tong
Chapter 100: Arrival in Saudi Arabia
Chapter 101: A Pleasure Doing Business
Chapter 102: Diversified Development
Chapter 103: The Sole Heir!
Chapter 104: Dividing the Family Property
Chapter 105: Signs of the Oil Crisis
Chapter 106: So Many?
Chapter 107: Visiting an Important Person

Chapter 108: A Collaborative Project with the Richest Man in Southeast Asia

Chapter 109: Budding Affection
Chapter 110: A Super Order
Chapter 111: Going for Broke

Chapter 112: The Ancients Judged a Horse by its Bones, Not its Hide

Chapter 113: Targeted by the British Shareholders

Chapter 114: Blow This Thing Wide Open!
Chapter 115: Wardley
Chapter 116: Cooling Down the Market

Chapter 117: What Happened to the Privatization? You Made Us the Bag Holders?

Chapter 118: Fellow Countrymen are Meant to be Sold Out

Chapter 119: A Prime Opportunity to Fleece the Flock

Chapter 120: The Terms of the Deal
Chapter 121: The Controversy Comes to an End
Chapter 122: Cooperation with HSBC

Chapter 123: Coming Into His Own, Taking Full Control

Chapter 124: The Opportunity to Rise Before the Real Estate Crisis

Chapter 125: Another 130 Million Loan!

Chapter 126: The Value of the Oil Has Doubled

Chapter 127: Hoarding Land, Will He Succeed as He Wishes?

Chapter 128: Harvest Season, Japanese Buyers!

Chapter 129: 742 Million Hong Kong Dollars in Hand

Chapter 130: Evergo Company’s Frantic Expansion

Chapter 131: The Futures Brokerage Firm

Chapter 132: Leveraged Gold Futures Trading

Chapter 133: The 500 Million US Dollar Futures Contract

Chapter 134: Coveting Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land

Chapter 135: This is a Golden Goose that Lays Golden Eggs

Chapter 136: Lin Haoning’s Straightforwardness

Chapter 137: Hoping the Takeover Battle Doesn’t End Too Soon

Chapter 138: Buying a Villa
Chapter 139: The Grand Villa on Severn Road
Chapter 140: A Sharp Drop in Loyalty

Chapter 141: Evergo Earns Nearly One Hundred Million Hong Kong Dollars

Chapter 142: Conclusive Evidence

Chapter 143: Poaching Top-Tier Talent

Chapter 144: Joining Green Island Cement Company

Chapter 145: A Rumor about the Hongkong Electric Group

Chapter 146: Percy’s Condition

Chapter 147: Gaining Another Identity Again

Chapter 148: Returning to Huafeng Cement Factory

Chapter 149: Merging the Two Cement Factories, A Plan for Diversified Development

Chapter 150: Spending Money Like Water, Broke Again

Chapter 151: Preparing for Winter in Advance

Chapter 152: International Gold Prices Soar Continuously

Chapter 153: Return to New York, a Meeting with the Chairman of Citibank

Chapter 154: A Massive Windfall, Raking in 5.7 Billion!

Chapter 155: Investing in Apple Inc.

Chapter 156: A Competitor for the Acquisition of Hongkong Electric Group Appears

Chapter 157: Taking the Initiative, A Personal Visit

Chapter 158: A Close Call: The Deal Was Barely Done When Hongkong Land Came Knocking

Chapter 159: Preparing for a Showdown

Chapter 160: The Persistent Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land

Chapter 161: Li Jiacheng Already Has His Eyes on This Plot of Land?

Chapter 162: Taking Control of Hongkong Electric Group, Shareholders Scramble to Sell Their Shares

Chapter 163: The News Spreads, The Tycoons’ Reactions

Chapter 164: An Idea for Intelligence, Coveting the Oriental Daily News

Chapter 165: The Goal is to Spend Five Billion, Market Caps of the British-Owned Giants

Chapter 166: Acquisition Target, Buying a Building

Chapter 167: One Billion for Two Buildings, an Offer for Lane Crawford

Chapter 168: Inspecting Lamma Island, a Young Girl Asks for a Ride

Chapter 169: This Deal Was So Worth It!

Chapter 170: Hongkong Land’s General Manager Comes Calling

Chapter 171: Bao Fuda’s Purpose

Chapter 172: Conditions for an Equity Stake in Hongkong Land Group

Chapter 173: Riddled with Doubts, A Spokesperson for Citibank?

Chapter 174: Tell Them Yes!

Chapter 175: Becoming a Director of Hongkong Land Group

Chapter 176: Li Jiacheng Sets His Sights on Hongkong Land Group

Chapter 177: Name Your Price

Chapter 178: The Ma Brothers’ Decision

Chapter 179: Building an Intelligence Department

Chapter 180: Progress on the Four Stocks

Chapter 181: Jardine Matheson Becomes Hongkong Electric’s Rival Once More

Chapter 182: To Each Their Own!

Chapter 183: The Head of the Lee Family

Chapter 184: So This Is the Foundation of a Great Family?

Chapter 185: Developing the Green Island Cement Plot

Chapter 186: A Call from Government House

Chapter 187: Can You Beat Them?

Chapter 188: Break a Bone in Each of Their Hands

Chapter 189: Demanding an Explanation
Chapter 190: Don’t Worry, I Paid in Full!
Chapter 191: The True Top Circle of Hong Kong
Chapter 192: Firearm License
Chapter 193: Jardine Matheson’s Dawn Raid
Chapter 194: Take as Much as You Can

Chapter 195: Jardine Matheson Announces Its Takeover of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company

Chapter 196: Boss, Your Foresight Is Truly Godlike!

Chapter 197: Just a Farce After All

Chapter 198: The Citizens’ Reaction

Chapter 199: The Victor is King, the Loser is Outlaw!

Chapter 200: When Hard Tactics Fail, Try Soft Ones!

Chapter 201: An Unexpected Joy, Over Seventy Million Hong Kong Dollars in Available Capital

Chapter 202: A Big Blunder?
Chapter 203: The Sincerity of an Apology
Chapter 204: Seeing Han Yili Again

Chapter 205: Intelligence from Jardine Matheson & Co.

Chapter 206: This Rate of Spending is Frighteningly Fast!

Chapter 207: Sharpshooter

Chapter 208: An Unexpected Incident, Chen Shoulin’s Suggestion

Chapter 209: When Fellow Countrymen Meet, They Shoot You in the Back

Chapter 210: Two Tycoons Pay a Visit

Chapter 211: The Goal of Southeast Asia’s Richest Man

Chapter 212: Revenge, the Sooner the Better!

Chapter 213: You Need to Be Mentally Prepared

Chapter 214: Don’t Worry, They’ll Give Me Face!

Chapter 215: I Want to Acquire This Land and Build a Large Industrial Park!

Chapter 216: Two Hundred Veterans
Chapter 217: A Smooth Return to Hong Kong
Chapter 218: Private Reception Room

Chapter 219: The Beginning of the Mainland Strategy

Chapter 220: Do You Want to Destroy the Brotherhood?

Chapter 221: Two Hundred Veterans Set Out
Chapter 222: A Probing Spar
Chapter 223: A Turtle in a Jar
Chapter 224: Kowloon Motor Bus’s Competitor

Chapter 225: Their Covetous Designs Must Be Stopped

Chapter 226: Taking Action Tonight

Chapter 227: Lin Haoran’s Solution

Chapter 228: Collector of Publicly Listed Utility Companies

Chapter 229: Our Boss Wants to Take Control of Kowloon Motor Bus

Chapter 230: Great Eagle Holdings’ Sincerity

Chapter 231: Kowloon Motor Bus Trading Halts!

Chapter 232: Kowloon Motor Bus’s New Chairman, the Mysterious Source of Funds

Chapter 233: Lin Haoran’s Powerful Backer?
Chapter 234: Pushing for Marriage
Chapter 235: A Call from Li Mingze

Chapter 236: The Large and Prosperous Lee Family

Chapter 237: A Call from Jobs, Apple’s IPO Plan

Chapter 238: Being Targeted

Chapter 239: We Must Counterattack!

Chapter 240: Sir Murray MacLehose’s Misunderstanding

Chapter 241: This is Just Ordinary Business Competition

Chapter 242: The Four Newspapers’ Alliance

Chapter 243: A Black Sheep in the Press

Chapter 244: Getting Rid of Jardine Matheson’s Lackeys

Chapter 245: Jardine Matheson’s Ruthless Move, Death with No Corroborating Evidence!

Chapter 246: Boss, Something Terrible Has Happened

Chapter 247: General Manager Cui, Isn’t This Too Much of a Coincidence?

Chapter 248: Mr. Lin, You Truly Have Some Impressive Methods!

Chapter 249: Our Holdings in Hongkong Land Group Have Exceeded 25%!

Chapter 250: So What If He’s a Business Tycoon?

Chapter 251: A Public Apology, Unprecedented!

Chapter 252: Buy a House, Get Free Appliances; Make the Brand Bigger and Stronger!

Chapter 253: A Sudden Event, An Opportunity to Acquire TVB Shares

Chapter 254: I Have My Own Plans!

Chapter 255: 5.8 Billion Hong Kong Dollars, All Spent!

Chapter 256: Investing in HSBC

Chapter 257: Does Anyone Intend to Take Over the Reins of TVB?

Chapter 258: The Result of the Lee Family’s Discussion

Chapter 259: Officially Becoming TVB’s Major Shareholder

Chapter 260: The Two Billion Arrives, Re-electing the Chairman of the Board

Chapter 261: Brother Yifu, You’re Too Late!

Chapter 262: You’re Afraid I’ll Fight You for Control of TVB, Aren’t You?

Chapter 263: The Next Target

Chapter 264: Vice Chairman of the Board of TVB

Chapter 265: Li Jiacheng’s Ambition

Chapter 266: HSBC Director

Chapter 267: It Can’t Be Jardine Matheson & Co.

Chapter 268: Let’s Double Your Assets!

Chapter 269: Coaxing Big Liu to Take Evergo Company Public!

Chapter 270: I Didn’t Expect You to Be Hiding an Ace Like This!

Chapter 271: Amigo Company Makes a Name for Itself in Hong Kong

Chapter 272: Governor MacLehose Summons Once More

Chapter 273: The “Stingiest” Boss

Chapter 274: Lin Haoran’s Idea

Chapter 275: Guo Henian and His Family Pay a Visit

Chapter 276: Guo Henian’s Request

Chapter 277: Departing for Britain

Chapter 278: Guo Xiaohan’s Embarrassment, A Young Woman’s Thoughts

Chapter 279: Tang Lou, the Tycoon of London’s Chinese Merchants

Chapter 280: Haoran, You’re Not Bragging, Are You?

Chapter 281: When a Woman Pursues a Man, There’s but a Layer of Gauze

Chapter 282: Your prestige here is truly impressive!

Chapter 283: Identity Revealed, Attitudes Shift

Chapter 284: Vicious Competition

Chapter 285: Forget About Being Vice-President

Chapter 286: The Iron Lady of Downing Street

Chapter 287: Honorary President, President Liu’s Invitation

Chapter 288: Ten Million British Pounds for 20% of the Shares

Chapter 289: I Want a Direct Acquisition

Chapter 290: Letting the Wolf into the Sheepfold, Becoming the Largest Shareholder

Chapter 291: Taking 49.9% of the Equity in One Week!

Chapter 292: I Hope You Will Voluntarily Give Up the Chairman’s Position

Chapter 293: Now That It’s Come to This, What Choice Do I Have?

Chapter 294: Taking Control of Shipley, Declaring War on the DHL Group!

Chapter 295: Perhaps We Can Try to Acquire Our Competitor

Chapter 296: Squid Capital Comes Knocking

Chapter 297: A Share Swap, Warren Buffett’s Company

Chapter 298: An Investment with Returns Exceeding Forty Billion US Dollars

Chapter 299: Standing in a Window of Opportunity, Even a Pig Can Fly

Chapter 300: Amigo Company’s IPO Date Confirmed

Chapter 301: The Hongkong Land Group Can’t Escape Now

Chapter 302: Inviting Michael Sandberg and Pao Yue-kong

Chapter 303: First Day of Listing, Market Cap Breaks 1.8 Billion!

Chapter 304: A Mole Within, The Ambition to Take Over Hongkong Land is Exposed

Chapter 305: Jardine Matheson & Co.’s Jardine-Land Mutual Control Plan!

Chapter 306: Finding the Mole, Lin Haoran’s Plan

Chapter 307: A Feint to the East, an Attack to the West—Michael Sandberg’s Shock!

Chapter 308: HSBC’s Countermeasure

Chapter 309: Lin Haoran Announces Acquisition of Jardine Matheson & Co., Hongkong Land Group’s Stock Price Plummets

Chapter 310: Li Jiacheng’s Ambition

Chapter 311: Spreading the News: Selling Amigo Company Shares!

Chapter 312: The Confrontation with Newbiggin

Chapter 313: Carrian Group Sets Its Sights on Amigo Company

Chapter 314: Persuading Liu Luanxiong

Chapter 315: 1.1 Billion Hong Kong Dollars, Sold!

Chapter 316: A Cat in a Tiger’s Skin

Chapter 317: Li Jiacheng Seeks a Partnership

Chapter 318: Rejecting Li Jiacheng, Li Jiacheng’s Ominous Premonition!

Chapter 319: I’m Willing to Acquire Your Shares!

Chapter 320: Newbiggin’s Resentment

Chapter 321: Newbiggin Tips Him Off

Chapter 322: The Progress of the Jardine and Hongkong Land Cross-Shareholding Plan

Chapter 323: Jardine Matheson’s Second-in-Command

Chapter 324: Giving Pointers to a Protégé

Chapter 325: Jardine Matheson & Co. Meeting, a Vote!

Chapter 326: Vice Chairman of the Board

Chapter 327: Once the Wings Harden, They Stop Listening!

Chapter 328: The Jardine-Land Cross-Shareholding, Li Jiacheng Sells Hongkong Land Shares!

Chapter 329: Kick Lin Haoran Out of Jardine Matheson & Co.!

Chapter 330: The British Conglomerate Makes Its Move!

Chapter 331: Bao Fuda Switches Sides

Chapter 332: I Ask the Government House for Justice!

Chapter 333: A Call from Pao Yue-kong

Chapter 334: The Boulder in His Heart Finally Lifts

Chapter 335: To the Connaught Centre, I Have an Important Announcement to Make!

Chapter 336: Newbiggin Pledges Allegiance to Lin Haoran

Chapter 337: Hongkong Land Group Becomes Jardine Matheson & Co.’s Parent Company!

Chapter 338: Announcing the Takeover, Henry Keswick’s Resentment

Chapter 339: A Forceful Declaration—And You Have No Choice But to Agree!

Chapter 340: A Shock to the Entire Audience

Chapter 341: Unprecedented

Chapter 342: Seeking Help from Government House

Chapter 343: Stop Hongkong Land from Becoming the King of Debt!

Chapter 344: Finding a Successor for Hongkong Land Group

Chapter 345: The Richest Man in Hong Kong, Lin Haoran

Chapter 346: A Scourge Comes Knocking

Chapter 347: The Persistent Chen Songqing

Chapter 348: Wariness, Arranging a Meeting with Ma Shiming

Chapter 349: Intercepting the Future Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa

Chapter 350: A Moment of Silence for Superman Li

Chapter 351: A Bombshell Announcement

Chapter 352: Newbiggin’s Frustration

Chapter 353: The British-funded Conglomerate Has Not Given Up on Jardine Matheson & Co.

Chapter 354: A Time Bomb Was Planted Under the Car

Chapter 355: Forming the Shadow Guard Team
Chapter 356: Guo Henian Visits Again
Chapter 357: Haoran, Do You Know Mr. Buffett?

Chapter 358: I Don’t Want Him to Live Past This Month

Chapter 359: Mr. Buffett, We’re Already Partners

Chapter 360: Invitation to Join the Board of Directors

Chapter 361: An Important Mission
Chapter 362: The Sai Kung Training Base
Chapter 363: The Pass List
Chapter 364: Newbiggin’s Change in Attitude

Chapter 365: The British-Funded Conglomerate’s Plan

Chapter 366: A Contract of Servitude, A Tyrannical Demand!

Chapter 367: Why Are the Rothschilds Here?

Chapter 368: A Hongmen Banquet, the British-Funded Conglomerates Join Forces to Pressure Him!

Chapter 369: No Easy Compromise

Chapter 370: Privatize the Hongkong Land Group!

Chapter 371: Everyone Has Their Specialty

Chapter 372: Getting Hongkong Land Group’s Shares for Free

Chapter 373: Appointing Fok Kin-ning as His Negotiation Assistant

Chapter 374: The Prerequisite for Relinquishing Jardine Matheson & Co.

Chapter 375: We Cannot Possibly Accept This Proposal!

Chapter 376: A Hardline Stance

Chapter 377: The Shadow Guards Report for Duty

Chapter 378: Rapid Progress

Chapter 379: Plucking Jardine Matheson & Co. Clean, a Done Deal!

Chapter 380: Unequal Treaty, the Ultimate Art of Getting Something for Free!

Chapter 381: Unfazed by Debt, Another 3 Billion Loan!

Chapter 382: Saved Ninety Million

Chapter 383: This Young Man’s Methods for Raising Money Are Too Formidable

Chapter 384: They Offered So Much, I’d Have Been a Fool to Refuse!

Chapter 385: Taking Down Hongkong Land Group for Under Five Billion!

Chapter 386: A New Titan of Global Business: Lin Haoran and His Commercial Empire

Chapter 387: If This Place Doesn’t Want Me, Another Place Will

Chapter 388: 1.28 Billion Hong Kong Dollars in Funds

Chapter 389: An Immense Humiliation!

Chapter 390: Acquire a Bank?

Chapter 391: Spreading Rumors

Chapter 392: Would You Like to Change Office Buildings?

Chapter 393: “Deep in Financial Crisis” Spreads Throughout Hong Kong

Chapter 394: Hongkong Land Group’s 10.7 Billion Hong Kong Dollars in Cash

Chapter 395: The Target, Bank of East Asia!

Chapter 396: Liquidating Real Estate on a Massive Scale to Recoup Funds

Chapter 397: The Carrian Group Again?

Chapter 398: Every Man for Himself

Chapter 399: A Sudden Kiss, Off to New York!

Chapter 400: Wouldn’t Mind Becoming a Hotel Magnate

Chapter 401: Wishing You All Become Billionaires Tomorrow

Chapter 402: Over 1.3 Billion Dollars

Chapter 403: Apple Inc. Goes Public, Making a Splash in America

Chapter 404: Regretful Citibank

Chapter 405: A 21-Fold Return. Should I Sell the Apple Shares?

Chapter 406: Investor of the Year

Chapter 407: The Invitation that Shocked Hong Kong’s Entire Investment Community!

Chapter 408: Liquid Capital is Plentiful Once More

Chapter 409: Targeting Walmart, an Exorbitant Demand!

Chapter 410: Jardine Matheson Wants to Buy Apple Inc. Shares, To the Highest Bidder!

Chapter 411: 5.3 Billion in Available Funds, Stunned by His Own Wealth!

Chapter 412: Large-Scale Investments, Important Connections!

Chapter 413: The Chinese Tycoon and the Young Man Who Burst In!

Chapter 414: A Determined Bill Gates

Chapter 415: Making Full Use of a Top-Tier Social Platform

Chapter 416: Unbelievable! 30% of Microsoft’s Founder’s Shares for 300,000 US Dollars?

Chapter 417: Microsoft’s Ambition
Chapter 418: A Fantastic Bargain!
Chapter 419: A Pleasant Surprise
Chapter 420: Walmart Founder Sam Walton
Chapter 421: Becoming Walmart’s Vice Chairman
Chapter 422: Motorola Headquarters

Chapter 423: Lin Haoran’s Intent to Enter the Telecommunications Industry

Chapter 424: Motorola’s Predicament

Chapter 425: The Deal Is Done!

Chapter 426: Target: Hongkong Telephone Company

Chapter 427: They Can’t Escape Our Grasp

Chapter 428: A Lightning Strike, Who is Behind It All?

Chapter 429: The Stock Price Plummets

Chapter 430: A Controlling Stake? Why Not Just Launch a Full Takeover!

Chapter 431: A Decisive Move, Holding 41.6% of the Shares!

Chapter 432: Shareholders Reaped Like Leeks Again

Chapter 433: The Tycoons’ Confusion: Who is the Person Behind the Scenes?

Chapter 434: Forced to Confess to the Securities Commission Early

Chapter 435: Li Jiacheng’s Resentment and Despair

Chapter 436: Compensation from the Securities Commission

Chapter 437: Sister-in-law’s Flattery

Chapter 438: Older Brother Lin Haoning Humbly Asks for Advice

Chapter 439: Taking Over the Hongkong Telephone Company

Chapter 440: Conqueror of Hong Kong’s Giant Corporations

Chapter 441: A Huge Sensation

Chapter 442: This Is a True Hong Kong Tycoon

Chapter 443: The Expansion of Green Island Cement

Chapter 444: Can I Come Here Often in the Future?

Chapter 445: The Impact of the Press Conference, Will Property Prices Fall?

Chapter 446: Could the Mastermind Be Jardine Matheson & Co.?

Chapter 447: A Major Impact, the Worries of the Real Estate Tycoons

Chapter 448: A Golden Opportunity

Chapter 449: A Call from the Governor, Not Taking the Blame!

Chapter 450: The Governor Bows His Head for Help, Offering Generous Terms

Chapter 451: Almost Got Trapped by the Governor

Chapter 452: Unexpected Evidence, A Live Public Address

Chapter 453: The Auction Ends

Chapter 454: Hong Kong’s Number One Television Station

Chapter 455: The New Generation Surpasses the Old

Chapter 456: A Grudge Must Be Repaid, To Hell With Them!

Chapter 457: A Flustered Simon Keswick

Chapter 458: Killing with a Borrowed Knife!

Chapter 459: The Harshest Punishment, Shutting Down Three Media Outlets!

Chapter 460: This ‘Killing with a Borrowed Knife’ Worked Too Well!

Chapter 461: Chen Songqing’s Envy

Chapter 462: Astonishing Viewership Ratings

Chapter 463: The Largest Fine in Hong Kong’s History

Chapter 464: Selling Off Jardine Securities!

Chapter 465: Simon Comes Calling

Chapter 466: Simon, So Angry He Wanted to Slam the Door

Chapter 467: Cutting the Ground from Under Them

Chapter 468: Specializing in Poaching Talent

Chapter 469: The President of Nintendo

Chapter 470: An Opportunity to Enter the Japanese Market

Chapter 471: Second-largest shareholder of the Bank of East Asia

Chapter 472: Over Seven Hundred People Resign en Masse!

Chapter 473: Traitors, All of Them Traitors!

Chapter 474: Li Jiacheng: Provoke Anyone But Lin Haoran!

Chapter 475: This is What Happens When You Offend Lin Haoran!

Chapter 476: Galaxy Securities, Aiming for the Top Spot in Hong Kong!

Chapter 477: Too Late for Regrets

Chapter 478: Misfortunes Never Come Singly, the Collapse of Jardine Securities

Chapter 479: Good News: A Hugely Profitable Year; Bad News: Not Much Available Cash!

Chapter 480: The Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs

Chapter 481: Different Words for Different People

Chapter 482: Take All the Money, Leave All the Debt to Japan!

Chapter 483: Building the World’s Tallest Skyscraper in Central!

Chapter 484: Taking 4 Billion Hong Kong Dollars to Japan

Chapter 485: Better to Provoke King Yama’s Wrath Than to Vex Haoran!

Chapter 486: The Japanese Market, We Are Determined to Win!

Chapter 487: You Can’t Force Love

Chapter 488: The Long-Unseen Liu Luanxiong

Chapter 489: Liu Luanxiong’s Investment Invitation

Chapter 490: The Strong Backing for His Sisters

Chapter 491: An Unexpected Reception at the Airport

Chapter 492: A Long-Term, Ten-Billion-Dollar Investment

Chapter 493: Securing the First Skyscraper in Tokyo!

Chapter 494: Preparing the Branch Company, an Invitation from the President of Nintendo

Chapter 495: Unprovoked Criticism, the Owner of 7-Eleven?

Chapter 496: So Perverted, Such Intense Tastes!

Chapter 497: Preventing 7-Eleven from Becoming a Japanese Brand!

Chapter 498: Hiring a Personal Female Secretary

Chapter 499: Akina Nakamori, A Plan to Cultivate a Young Star

Chapter 500: Seventy Million US Dollars to Acquire the Parent Company of 7-Eleven!

Chapter 501: A Successful 52 Billion Bid

Chapter 502: You Must Seize This Opportunity!

Chapter 503: The Reason Ito Targeted Wellcome Supermarket

Chapter 504: Any Normal Person Would Make This Choice!

Chapter 505: An Unqualified CEO

Chapter 506: A United Front Against Hongkong Land Group’s Expansion in the Retail Sector

Chapter 507: A Plea for Help from the Mainland, a Need for Mass Manufacturing

Chapter 508: The Man Who Would Lead 7-Eleven to Become the World’s Number One Convenience Store Titan

Chapter 509: Suzuki Toshifumi’s Wariness, Even Good Wine Fears a Deep Alley!

Chapter 510: Coercion, the Life and Death of Ito-Yokado!

Chapter 511: A Stick and a Carrot

Chapter 512: Red Bull, Budweiser, Heineken, Carlsberg, Nestlé—Acquire Them All!

Chapter 513: Peacefully Being a Hands-Off Manager

Chapter 514: Ito-Yokado’s Years of Hard Work, Ruined in an Instant

Chapter 515: A Double Loss, The Personal Secretary Interviews!

Chapter 516: The Dust Settles

Chapter 517: Keiko, oh Keiko, you’re truly shameless

Chapter 518: Nurturing a Tiger to Cause Future Trouble?

Chapter 519: I Want the Number of 7-Eleven Stores to Exceed Ten Thousand Within This Year!

Chapter 520: Hasty for Quick Success? Not a Chance!

Chapter 521: An Opportunity to Make Money from the Japanese

Chapter 522: A Plan for Toyota and Sony
Chapter 523: Borrowing a Hen to Lay an Egg
Chapter 524: Citibank’s Solution
Chapter 525: Chowa Real Estate Company

Chapter 526: Yakult, Shu Uemura, Kao, and Kosé

Chapter 527: Seductive Temptation

Chapter 528: The Fourth Person with 100 Loyalty is Born!

Chapter 529: Earning 10.6 Billion Japanese Yen in 10 Days

Chapter 530: An Apology from Kawai Yasuya

Chapter 531: The Triumphant Advance of 7-Eleven Convenience Stores

Chapter 532: The Secret in the Safe

Chapter 533: Toyota Motor’s Largest Shareholder

Chapter 534: The News Leaks, Let Citibank Take the Heat!

Chapter 535: Authorized by the US Government?

Chapter 536: The Negotiation Results Are Out, the Stock Price Soars!

Chapter 537: Toyota’s Market Capitalization Surpasses Two Trillion

Chapter 538: The Market’s Cheers

Chapter 539: The Major Financial Groups Have Smelled Blood

Chapter 540: The Japanese Government Intervenes

Chapter 541: Lin Haoran Wants to Acquire Toyota Motor?

Chapter 542: An Unknown Faction Comes Calling

Chapter 543: As Expected of Japan’s Largest Financial Group, Truly Magnanimous!

Chapter 544: Numerous Factions Converge, Holding Out for a Better Price!

Chapter 545: Fame in Japan, Stock Price Continues to Soar

Chapter 546: Lin Haoran’s Proposal

Chapter 547: A Move Devised on the Spur of the Moment

Chapter 548: Mimura Yohei Visits Again

Chapter 549: The Initiative is in His Hands

Chapter 550: Six Hundred Billion, It’s a Deal!

Chapter 551: The Unresigned President of Mitsui

Chapter 552: The Biggest Investment Return Since Transmigration, A Profit of 6.81 Billion Hong Kong Dollars

Chapter 553: Lawson Has Come to Seize the Market

Chapter 554: The Relentless Jardine Matheson & Co.

Chapter 555: What I Want Is Control of Lawson’s Supply Chain!

Chapter 556: Boss, We Need You to Return to Hong Kong

Chapter 557: Away for Several Months, Hong Kong Remains as Prosperous as Ever

Chapter 558: Just Because He’s Lin Haoran?

Chapter 559: If You Can’t Beat Them, Join Them!

Chapter 560: Progress on the World’s Tallest Building

Chapter 561: Older Brother, What Are You Thanking Me For?

Chapter 562: Ma Shimin’s Mysterious Gift

Chapter 563: After All, High-Tech Is More Profitable!

Chapter 564: Is There Really No Room for Negotiation?

Chapter 565: I Want the Controlling Stake, You Can Have the Management Rights

Chapter 566: Practically Unrivaled

Chapter 567: So What If We Become Lin Haoran’s Vassal?

Chapter 568: The Li Family’s Pledge of Loyalty and Submission

Chapter 569: A Good Match, a Marriage Alliance?

Chapter 570: Successfully Acquiring 34.9%, Officially the Largest Shareholder

Chapter 571: The Shareholders’ Shock
Chapter 572: A Calming Balm
Chapter 573: The Cheapest and Fastest Method
Chapter 574: A Visit to Pao Yue-kong
Chapter 575: Hard Times for Ship King Pao

Chapter 576: Targeting Wheelock and Company? A Share Swap with Kowloon Wharf?

Chapter 577: You’ll Hold 51% of the Shares, I’ll Hold 49%

Chapter 578: A Warning for the Shipping Magnate

Chapter 579: I’ll Buy All the Bonds You Issue!

Chapter 580: Michael Sandberg Panics

Chapter 581: Facing a Formidable Enemy, Restless and Uneasy

Chapter 582: Shipping Magnate Pao’s Bad News and Good News

Chapter 583: A Life-Saving Debt, Michael Sandberg Seeks Cooperation

Chapter 584: An Incensed Michael Sandberg, HSBC Declares War!

Chapter 585: Rosamund Kwan’s Ambition

Chapter 586: Officially Taking Control of the Bank of East Asia, Market Capitalization Doubles!

Chapter 587: HSBC’s Stock Price Plummets

Chapter 588: The Battle with HSBC Begins!

Chapter 589: William Purves’s Vicious Scheme!

Chapter 590: Sowing Discord and Shattering the Alliance Between Li Peicai’s Family and Lin Haoran!

Chapter 591: The Plan was Too Perfect!

Chapter 592: The Li Family’s Betrayal? An Opportunity to Privatize the Bank of East Asia

Chapter 593: Haoran, I’ve Let You Down!

Chapter 594: The Li Family’s Massive Stock Sell-Off

Chapter 595: Crashing the Market, the Stock Price Returns to a Low Point

Chapter 596: Lin Haoran’s Confidence

Chapter 597: This Richest Man Lin Seems to Be in a Lot of Trouble!

Chapter 598: Michael Sandberg, Oh Michael Sandberg, Don’t You Blame Me for My Betrayal!

Chapter 599: The Guo family will back you to the very end.

Chapter 600: Citibank’s Refusal

Chapter 601: Michael Sandberg Openly Declares War

Chapter 602: A Bank Run, A Plummeting Stock Price, and the Perfect Opportunity to Privatize!

Chapter 603: I Gave You a Chance, But You Proved Useless!

Chapter 604: Outrageous, the Stock Price Plummets to 5 Hong Kong Dollars per Share!

Chapter 605: HSBC’s Malicious Tactic

Chapter 606: Acting with Impunity, Above the Law!

Chapter 607: Just a Bunch of Unruly Commoners, What Explanation Do They Need?

Chapter 608: The Li Family Rejects HSBC’s Poaching Partnership

Chapter 609: An Account Manager Sells a Tip

Chapter 610: Turning the Tables

Chapter 611: What’s the Harm in Taking a Gamble?

Chapter 612: It’s Chaos, Total Chaos!

Chapter 613: A Massive Protest, Governor MacLehose Intervenes!

Chapter 614: Announcing the Privatization of the Bank of East Asia!

Chapter 615: The Counterattack, a Bombshell Revelation, HSBC is the Mastermind!

Chapter 616: This is an Overt Scheme!

Chapter 617: Poaching the Founder of the Hang Seng Index?

Chapter 618: The Shameless HSBC, a Wager

Chapter 619: The Successful Privatization of Bank of East Asia, and the Second Wave of Counterattacks!

Chapter 620: HSBC Panics
Chapter 621: Shorting HSBC!
Chapter 622: Pressure from Government House

Chapter 623: HSBC Defends Its Stock and Drives Up the Price!

Chapter 624: The Enemy Does a Huge Favor, All the Stocks are Sold!

Chapter 625: The News Has Leaked

Chapter 626: A Furious Michael Sandberg, Doubling the Number of Branches!

Chapter 627: An Engagement? And a Disloyal Scoundrel

Chapter 628: Making an Example of Them

Chapter 629: The Bank of East Asia Is Worth Half an HSBC

Chapter 630: Plundering Small and Medium-Sized Banks

Chapter 631: A Great Gift, Willingly Delivered

Chapter 632: He’s Mad, Lin Haoran is Absolutely Mad!

Chapter 633: I Just Love to Kick a Man While He’s Down!

Chapter 634: Harvesting 1.1 Billion Hong Kong Dollars on the First Day

Chapter 635: Acquiring Dao Heng Bank

Chapter 636: Racing Against Time, 4.47 Billion Hong Kong Dollars in Three Days!

Chapter 637: We Hope the Government House Will Uphold Justice!

Chapter 638: Why Should I Continue to Be Tolerant and Yield?

Chapter 639: A Five-Day Deadline, A Letter of Resignation!

Chapter 640: A One-Year Term? Only a Fool Would Choose That!

Chapter 641: Walter Wriston Arrives in Hong Kong, Bank of East Asia’s Deposits Skyrocket Again!

Chapter 642: An Unexpected Surprise, Becoming Citibank’s Major Shareholder?

Chapter 643: Nearly Twenty-Five Billion Hong Kong Dollars in Deposits

Chapter 644: Misfortunes Never Come Singly, One Problem After Another

Chapter 645: A Shock to All of Hong Kong!

Chapter 646: Financial Market Share Has Reached 32 Percent

Chapter 647: The Era of Two Hegemons

Chapter 648: This company is pretty good. Let’s buy it!

Chapter 649: Unfazed by Life or Death, Ready for a Fight!

Chapter 650: HSBC Has Been a Great Help Again

Chapter 651: Li Jiacheng Has Entered the Fray!

Chapter 652: Counterattack, Support from Older Brother Lin Haoning

Chapter 653: HSBC’s Executives Go From Joy to Sorrow, and an Assist from Liu Luanxiong!

Chapter 654: 27.3 Billion in Funds to Be Transferred, HSBC’s Sky is Falling!

Chapter 655: Billions of Hong Kong Dollars, Small Change to Lin Haoran?

Chapter 656: Standard Chartered’s Ambition, Bank of East Asia Wants Banknote-Issuing Rights

Chapter 657: An Exorbitant Demand

Chapter 658: A Capital Scale of 100 Billion Hong Kong Dollars, 44% Market Share!

Chapter 659: Standard Chartered Bank’s Bottom Line

Chapter 660: A New Hegemon Ascends the Throne, the Bank of East Asia is Officially Crowned Hong Kong’s Number One Bank!

Chapter 661: News from Japan

Chapter 662: A Joint Venture to Carve Up HSBC

Chapter 663: Counter Every Move, Block Every Blow!

Chapter 664: HSBC’s Market Cap Plummets to Under Three Billion

Chapter 665: Li Jiacheng Descends into Panic

Chapter 666: Can’t Wait a Moment Longer!

Chapter 667: Good News from the Government House

Chapter 668: The Return on Shorting HSBC: 5.3 Billion Hong Kong Dollars!

Chapter 669: Langwei Group, the Future Hegemon of the FMCG Sector!

Chapter 670: HSBC’s Last Straw Has Snapped

Chapter 671: This Uncle Pao, He’s Doing Me a Favor!

Chapter 672: Shocking: Becoming the Second-Largest Shareholder of Numerous Listed Giants!

Chapter 673: Just Like That, He Made 26 Billion Hong Kong Dollars?

Chapter 674: Exploiting Standard Chartered Bank’s Weakness

Chapter 675: Boss, This… This is Too Incredible

Chapter 676: The Dust Settles, Michael Sandberg’s Tragic End!

Chapter 677: Taking Control of Hang Seng Bank, Hang Seng Group to Be Established!

Chapter 678: Standard Chartered’s Sneaky Move, the Shamelessness of the British

Chapter 679: Lin Haoran’s Hardline Stance! When the Tiger Doesn’t Roar, You Think I’m a Sick Cat?

Chapter 680: Standard Chartered Backs Down

Chapter 681: To Do Things the Hard Way

Chapter 682: An Abundance of Talent Under His Command

Chapter 683: 146.3 Billion Hong Kong Dollars, Over Sixty Percent Market Share!

Chapter 684: Li Jiacheng: Regret? No, I Have Never Regretted It!

Chapter 685: A Major Life Event: Engagement Preparations

Chapter 686: You Can Divorce, But You Can’t Divide the Money

Chapter 687: The Crown Prince of the Hong Kong Entertainment Industry?

Chapter 688: Treating the Rich as Suckers

Chapter 689: The Birth of a New Financial Hegemon!

Chapter 690: The Unresigned Taipan of Standard Chartered Bank

Chapter 691: An Acquisition for 300 Million Hong Kong Dollars?

Chapter 692: Li Jiacheng’s Fury and Misunderstanding

Chapter 693: Below Victoria Peak, is the City Li Jiacheng’s City?

Chapter 694: I Want to Have a Baby with You!

Chapter 695: Motorola Partner

Chapter 696: An Appearance Before the Whole World

Chapter 697: Li Jiacheng’s Misunderstanding Grows Deeper

Chapter X: Esteemed Readers, A Plea for More Monthly Passes

Chapter 698: The Anti-Lin Alliance

Chapter 699: A Taste of Their Own Medicine

Chapter 700: Is Superman Li Forcing Me to Acquire Hutchison Whampoa?

Chapter 701: Soros Wants to Short Motorola

Chapter 702: Targeting The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels, Soros’s Excitement!

Chapter 703: Settled in a Few Words—This Is the Influence of a Super-Rich Tycoon

Chapter 704: Motorola’s Stock Continues to Plummet, Robert Galvin’s Questioning!

Chapter 705: Quantum Fund Gets Outplayed!

Chapter 706: A Terrifying Surge in Stock Price, Motorola’s Market Capitalization Surpasses Ten Billion Dollars!

Chapter 707: A Massive 5.5 Billion Profit, Lin Haoran Feasts While Soros Gets the Scraps!

Chapter 708: The Next Step, a Full-Scale Siege?

Chapter 709: To Be Honest, I’ve Set My Sights on The Peninsula Hotel!

Chapter 710: A Contract Worth Over One Billion Hong Kong Dollars is Sealed!

Chapter 711: An Incensed Li Jiacheng and Company

Chapter 712: Publicly Humiliated, A Double Blow!

Chapter 713: One Mountain Cannot Accommodate Two Tigers!

Chapter 714: Kadoorie Takes the Initiative to Sue for Peace

Chapter 715: Reconciliation? Out of the Question!

Chapter 716: When a Whale Falls, Ten Thousand Things Are Born!

Chapter 717: A Single Announcement Shakes Hong Kong, Standard Chartered Bank Caves Too!

Chapter 718: The “Anti-Lin Alliance” Crumbles

Chapter 719: Strike a Snake at Its Achilles’ Heel; Either Do Nothing, or Be Absolute!

Chapter 720: Two Tigers Clash, Li Jiacheng’s Mixed Feelings

Chapter 721: Standard Chartered Bank Comes to Apologize, Lin Haoran Heads to the Mainland Again!

Chapter 722: Be the First to Eat the Crab; Gilding the Lily is Far Less Valued Than a Godsend!

Chapter 723: The Mainland’s High Regard!

Chapter 724: The Other’s Fate Was in Lin Haoran’s Hands!

Chapter 725: An Appearance on CCTV, Making a Name in Mainland China!

Chapter 726: This Era Is Truly Difficult!

Chapter 727: The Shock of Shenzhen’s Leaders, a Return to Hong Kong!

Chapter 728: The Auspicious Day of the Engagement; She Had Waited Too Long for This Day!

Chapter 729: Superman Li Can’t Hold On Much Longer!

Chapter 730: A Grand Conspiracy Against Hutchison Whampoa!

Chapter 731: An Overt Scheme, Explosive News That Rocks All of Hong Kong

Chapter 732: Superman Li: Am I Really Going to Fall at the Hands of Lin Haoran?

Chapter 733: A Mole, There Must Be a Mole!

Chapter 734: Hutchison Whampoa Plummets 56%, Superman Li’s Glimmer of Hope

Chapter 735: Turning the Tables, an Opportunity to Seize Hutchison Whampoa!

Chapter 736: Return to Shenzhen!

Chapter 737: This Turn of Events is a Bit Too Dramatic!

Chapter 738: Li Jiacheng’s Confidence!

Chapter 739: Unscrupulous, Increasing Shareholding at Any Cost!

Chapter 740: A Feint to the East, an Attack to the West; Hutchison Whampoa’s Largest Shareholder Changes Hands

Chapter 741: I’m Not Just Going to Steal Your Golden Egg, I’m Coming for Your Hen Too!

Chapter 742: One Wrong Step, and Every Step is Wrong!

Chapter 743: The Betrayal of Li Jiacheng’s Ally

Chapter 744: Since You’ve Decided to Be a Traitor, You Might as Well Go All the Way!

Chapter 745: Truly a Very Qualified Turncoat!

Chapter 746: Lin Haoran, You’ve Gone Too Far!

Chapter 747: Nowhere to Turn

Chapter 748: Shocking All of Hong Kong!

Chapter 749: Superman Li Seeks a Truce Everywhere

Chapter 750: The Governor, Completely Outmaneuvered by Lin Haoran!

Chapter 751: Mr. Li, You Have No Choice!

Chapter 752: To Be Kind to Your Enemy is to Be Cruel to Yourself

Chapter 753: Another Subordinate with 100 Loyalty!

Chapter 754: Treating Lin Haoran as a Sucker?

Chapter 755: They’re Scared, Standard Chartered Bank is Genuinely Scared!

Chapter 756: The Hutchison Old Guard Wants to Sideline Lin Haoran?

Chapter 757: The Man in Charge? So What? Fired on the Spot!

Chapter 758: Turbulent Times Call for Stern Measures, Chronic Ailments Need Strong Medicine!

Chapter 759: The Unresigned Former Taipan of Hutchison Whampoa, Mr. Willie

Chapter 760: Li Jiacheng: My Boldness Is No Match for Lin Haoran’s!

Chapter 761: Li Jiacheng Admits Defeat, Shakes Hands and Makes Peace with Lin Haoran!

Chapter 762: A Pledge of Allegiance, the Greatest Bargaining Chip to Break the Old Shackles!

Chapter 763: Pushing HSBC to its Doom!

Chapter 764: Hong Kong’s Business World Has Entered the ‘Lin Haoran Era’!

Chapter 765: The ‘Company Doctor’ Officially Returns to Hutchison!

Chapter 766: A Collective Surge in Subordinates’ Loyalty!

Chapter 767: Finding a Reason to Acquire Land

Chapter 768: An Invitation from the Mainland, Preparing for Beijing!